And so here we are, falling back into the abyss of my gigantronomic Darkwing Duck collection, with the first part of my accumulation of DW related buttons/pins/what-have-you.
First off, we've got your generic "time-to-promote-the-show-oh-crap-what-do-we-do-okay-here's-an-idea-let's-make-buttons" button. Cool.
Next, we've got a button from the Disneyland Hotel, which has these Character Dinners where you go eat dinner at the hotel and then Disney characters periodically interrupt your dinner and attack you and force you to take pictures with them while you are trying to take a bite out of your club sandwich.
I always liked this model/version of Darkwing Duck. They used it a lot in the old 90s Marvel Comic Books. For some unknown reason though, in this button version, Darkwing is wearing a Pilgrim hat. Alrighty then.
And last, but not least, the Launchpad McQuack button. Because hey, why not?
Stay tuned for even more, rarer, cooler, awesomer, and radicaler Darkwing Duck button/pin thingamajigs!!
Today's record is the Vic Mizzy/The Byrds soundtrack to the Alexander MacKendrick film Don't Make Waves, starring Tony Curtis!
It's kind of a weird (well, to me anyways) that the director and star of Sweet Smell of Success would decide to make a Beach Party-esque film.
To be perfectly honest, this is a strange movie. In fact, I'm not really sure how to describe this film. Because I'm insanely lazy, let's let the trailer do the explaining!
Does that help? No? Yeah, that's what I thought.
The movie's actually pretty fun all around, but my favorite thing about this film is the performance from the awesome character actor Robert Webber. He's just always super entertaining. Go watch his Rockford Files guest appearances -- especially the one where he's a Criswell-esque psychic. Oh yeah. It's just as groovy as it sounds.
The film also includes one of the few leading roles from Sharon Tate, who was murdered in the infamous Manson murders! Creeeeepyyyyyyyyyy.
The soundtrack is awesome, and hey, why shouldn't it be? It's by Vic Mizzy, who did some of the best soundtracks of the 60s, including the William Castle films The Night Walker, The Spirit is Willing, The Busy Body, and my second favorite movie of all time, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken!!
Also cool, is the theme song which is written by Roger McGuinn (under his real name, Jim) and performed by his band The Byrds. Super groovy.
Well, boy howdy. Today's item it something that is unimaginably ridiculous and extremely rare. It is the script from the nonexistent third episode of the unclassic 1969 sketch comedy show Turn-On, featuring guest star Sebastian Cabot!
For some reason, George Schlatter, the guy who produced Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (which was actually funny and smart) decided to make a new show where the premise is that a computer chooses what weird ass political comedy is going to be thrust into your face on your television.
Cool, huh?
Well, not really. It didn't really go as planned. Depending on who you believe, the show was either cancelled after the first episode, or as Tim Conway says, halfway through the airing of the first episode. I choose to believe Tim Conway. He is Dorf, after all.
Interestingly enough, Albert Brooks was on the writing staff of this show. Now, look, I LOVE Albert Brooks. I think Real Life and Modern Romance are two of the funniest movies ever, but this show is just BLECH. Sorry, Al.
RANDOM TRIVIA: Apparently, since the show got cancelled, the second episode's airing (which guest starred Robert Culp) was preempted with an airing of the film The Oscar, which is one of my favorite campy 1960s movies. Groovy.
Supposedly the comedy was too provocative for its time. Or it just sucked. Here, judge for yourself from some clips from the unaired second episode.
Yeah. Weird.
The thing that I can't understand about this show is why it has to be a semi-clone of the infinitely better Laugh-In. The show moves from one sketch to the other at the speed of light, and the "jokes" in this show are either weird sight gags or nonsensical one-liners that required a set up not short enough to fit on a popsicle stick.
Take for example, this one --
HA! OH MY GOD! THAT IS SO SUBVERSIVE!
(Not really.)
Maybe I'm just too young or stupid or something, but I just don't find that funny at all. Maybe it's just really not funny. I don't know. I'm no comedy expert... although I pretend to be.
I also can't help but hear this sound whenever I read the punchline of all these jokes. That may be throwing me off.
The best thing about this script is the inclusion of some storyboard and concept art doodles for the episode, even though they aren't all that funny either... with the exception of this one --
Boob jokes are always hilarious, even if they make no sense with absolutely no context whatsoever.
If you wanna know more about this strange show, you should check out this interview with George Schlatter about Turn-On, or if you live in Los Angeles, go to the Paley Center for Media where you can watch the first episode in their library... which I've yet to do. You can also check out the Wikipedia page for a description of some skits from the first episode.
So, check out this rare oddity that you probably can't find anywhere else, and pray that maybe one day the two filmed episodes will be released on DVD for posterity... or for some other reason.
Download the Turn-On script for episode #1003 HERE.
Today is part TWO of the Hollywood Walk of Fame Trading Cards that I totally forgot I started blogging about 3 months ago.
Today's card is for the late, great Ernest Borgnine!
Well, last week Ernest Borgnine died. I was in Florida. I got really sad. I like Ernest Borgnine a lot. A whole heck of a bunch of liking the Borg.
So, because I was away from my massive DVD collection, I went onto Netflix and watched Bunny O'Hare, which is a fun American International Pictures obscurity that stars him and Bette Davis. In the film, the two of them dress up like hippies and rob banks to send money to Bette Davis' deadbeat kids (one of whom is played by John Astin), all the while being chased by an incompetent police lieutenant played by the awesome Jack Cassidy. Everyone with Netflix should definitely check it out.
Ernest Borgnine was a fun actor. Some of my favorite films from the 50s-70s include great performances by him, including Marty (which he won an Oscar for), The Legend of Lylah Clare, The Dirty Dozen, The Oscar, From Here to Eternity, The Poseidon Adventure, Johnny Guitar, Willard, and The Devil's Rain.
He was also in a not-too-great (but stupidly fun) movie Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders, which was later riffed on a insanely great episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
As for the photo on the card, it's him in character from his hilarious TV show McHale's Navy, which he starred in with Tim Conway and Joe Flynn. Other than McHale, probably his most famous character he played was as Mermaid Man on Spongebob Squarepants, where his sidekick Barnacle Boy was played by his McHale's Navy co-star Tim Conway.
Something you should check out, if you're a fan of the Borg (as I like to call him), is a cool road trip documentary made with his son Cris, called Ernest Borgnine on the Bus. It's super fun!
