Record #604 - The Bob Crane/Pat Buttram Record

Today we've got a promotional compilation album of classic radio personalities Bob Crane and Pat Buttram entitled "Laffter Sweet and Profane". Alrighty then. As you most assuredly know, both of these guys went on to bigger careers, and I shall fill you in with all the Trivial Pursuit-ish information that you will never find any use for. After all, that's what this blog is all about. Duh.

Side one of this record is entitled "Extricated from a 5-Year Shambles Caused by Bob Crane". Now, this side is actually pretty entertaining. It's basically (well, exactly) a compilation of the best of Bob Crane's morning radio show. You get cigarette commercials, banter with the crazy co-hosts and producers, and the best part of the whole thing -- an improv scene with Jonathan Winters.

Bob Crane was, as you'll hear, a really superly duperly awesome radio show host. The format they used for the show was insanely ahead of its time, and that's probably why he was so popular. In fact, it was the number one rated morning show in Los Angeles and he was known as "The King of the Los Angeles Airwaves". Take THAT, whoever-the-heck-is-number-one-on-the-radio-now!

He was also an accomplished drummer, and sat in with many great jazz musicians on his show, as well as playing with them as the special guest drummer in club shows. Check out this video of him drumming along to "These Boots are Made for Walking" while some crazy dancers attempt to dance!!

Eventually he moved on from radio and into TV with spots on The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and the Dick Van Dyke Show. This led to him starring as Col. Hogan on Hogan's Heroes, which was extremely popular and ran for 6 years.

Unfortunately, after Hogan's Heroes, he couldn't find too many jobs. He did become the star of a TV series called The Bob Crane Show (how the heck they came up with that brilliant title, I'll never know), but that only lasted one season. He did get some parts in a couple of the most obscure Disney movies, starring in "Superdad" and a cameo in "Gus" - a Don Knotts movie about a football-kicking mule. Yep, you read that right. The 70s weren't really a high point for Disney (minus the awesome Kurt Russell/Cesar Romero movie, "Now You See Him, Now You Don't"). Other than guest-starring bits on TV, he wasn't really able to find too much work, so he resorted to traveling around the country performing in dinner theaters.

On one of his dinner theater stints in Scottsdale, Arizona, he was murdered as he was sleeping in his hotel room - apparently being face-crushed by a camera tripod. The murder, which occurred wayyyyy back in 1978, is still unsolved. He supposedly led an (how do I say this politely…) interesting lifestyle in his later years. Yeah. Uh… just look it up... I won't go any further. This is a family blog, after all! His life is documented in the book and movie "Auto-Focus", and both are really awesome, if I do say so myself (and I do).

Now, away from the creepy, murdery, death stuff, and on to Pat Buttram!!

Side two of this record is entitled "Excerpted from the Triumphant Toastmaster of Pat Buttram". Of course everybody needs a toastmaster. One of the main ingredients of any good party is a toastmaster, and when your party is the Democratic or the Republican party or the Friars Club, you apparently hire puberty-voice himself, the triumphant toastmaster, Pat Buttram.

Now, as we said before, the title of this album is "Laffter Sweet and Profane". Unfortunately for Pat Buttram, there really isn't too much "laffter". It's definitely not sweet. Technically speaking, it's not very profane, either. This is just… odd, and maybe a little politically incorrect. His toasts (if you can even call them that) are sufficiently abundant of really, really, really corny jokes. Some almost as bad as those dreadful "Take my wife, please" jokes. By far the best part of this side of the record is towards the end when Jack Benny shows up for like 30 seconds. Oh wait, um… SPOILER AL… meh, who cares.

Pat Buttram (a man saddled with one of the most unfortunate last names of all time) was originally known as the sidekick to Roy Rogers, then later, Gene Autry. He moved into TV along with Gene Autry, and kept moving forward from there onto Green Acres as Mr. Haney. He was known for his voice that he described as "never quite made it through puberty".

Because of that crackly voice, he was often used in animated films, and especially a lot of Disney movies. He was the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood, Chief in The Fox and the Hound, one of the bullets in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and my favorite (and his last role), the old Possum Park animatronic show presenter in A Goofy Movie.

Finally, we come to the end of a plentiferous plethora of useless information, and to the part where you can download the record. Have a grand old time!

Download it HERE.

And just because I love you, here's an educational short entitled "Patriotism" featuring America's greatest patriot, Bob Crane. Woo!!

The Kenner Give-a-Show Slide Collection (part 3 of 16)

It's been a while since I've posted about these, but then again, it's been a while since I posted at all. But hey, who's counting?

Welcome, one and all, to part 3 of my astounding collection of the bewitchingly compelling Give-a-Show Slide comics.

Today's installment features the adventures of that pleasant pup we all know and love - Scooby Doo, starring in an enchanting tale entitled "Fogbound Hound".

In this adventure, Scooby and his dangerously sunburnt pals from Mystery Inc. are out on a groovy night on the lake when they accidentally turn into a spooky fogbank! (GASP*)

Then, to much surprise, their motor quits on them! (SPUT SPUTTER)

Unable to be seen under the heavy fog, the fabulous fivesome are being approached on by a ship! With no warning, Scooby belts out a loud "OOOOOOOOOOOOOO" as Shaggy looks on with wonder.

Oh, thank the Lord! It worked! The sailors on the ship were able to see them, and not run them over! Phew! It sure was lucky they had a "built-in foghorn"! Aaaaaannnd cue the canned laughter.

CLICK on the photo(s) to enable the ENLARGE-O-MATIC PHOTO EMBIGGENER®!!

*GASP added by me, not actually in comic. Void in Texas, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and wherever fine books are sold.*

Record #66 - Wild, Wild Winter - Soundtrack

If you really know me (which you don't, but that's okay), then you most certainly know that I LOVE Beach Party movies. All the ones with Frankie and Annette, It's a Bikini World, The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini, and even the non-Beach Party, but Beach Party-esque films, Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs, Sergeant Deadhead, and Village of the Giants.

Interestingly enough, those folks in the mid 60s decided for some reason they needed to move away from the hustle and bustle and sunshine of the beach, and move into the cold, snowy winter. It started with Ski Party, with Frankie Avalon (with only a cameo from Annette! Blasphemy! Although, there is Yvonne Craig... Hmmm... I forgive them, I guess.). Apparently that went well, so Universal decided to rip off American International Pictures (as is the custom in Hollywood), and film the masterpiece Wild, Wild Winter, the second of the three Beach Party-esque (and only) films directed by Lennie Weinrib, the original voice of Scrappy-Doo and H.R. Pufnstuf. Um... yeah.

It's not filmdom's finest hour and a half, but it gets the job done. The premise of the movie is as follows (if you can follow along at all, you win a gold cookie) - Two frat brothers go to the mountains, bringing their surfer friend, Ronnie Duke (a surfer name if I've ever heard one (and I have)) along to seduce the head of a sorority, who also happens to be the dean's secretary. Apparently the head of the sorority, Susan, has brainwashed the other female students to avoid dating all the boys in school for some reason. Of course, Ronnie finds a way to become the captain of the ski team and wins over Susan from her evil fiancee, John Harris (such an evil name). Hilarity ensues.

Oh, and did I mention he joined the ski team to help save the school from its financial troubles? I didn't? Oh well.

As with all Beach Party movies, this one has a soundtrack (that's not available on CD, mind you) featuring a few 60s pop groups, and this is the part of the blog where I tell you about it. This soundtrack is chock (well, actually half) full of some great pop songs by some of the "exciting hit groups" of their day. They are - Jay and the Americans, The Astronauts, The Beau Brummels (who are also featured in Village of the Giants), Dick and Dee Dee, and last, but not least, Jackie and Gayle. Jackie and Gayle also perform "Our Love's Gonna Snowball" (GET IT?!? BECAUSE OF WINTER!! HAHAHA), the unofficial theme song to the movie.

In case you were wondering what you're getting into here, here's Jay and the Americans performing their song "Two of a Kind" in the film!

The flip side of this disc includes some of the score/incidental music from the film, which is actually pretty cool. You don't usually get that kind of stuff from these 60s B-movie type thingamajigs. The main title song is by Chester Pipkin, and the rest are by Jerry Long, whose score is, as the back cover states, "the tastiest treat you've had in a long, long time". Wonderful.

This was another super groovy record store find, and while I may be two dollars poorer, I am forever rich with the ultimate happiness bestowed upon me by this record.

Wild, Wild Winter (1966)

1. Jay and the Americans - Two of a Kind

2. The Astronauts - A Change of Heart

3. The Beau Brummels - Just Wait and See

4. Dick and Dee Dee - Heartbeats

5. Jackie and Gayle - Our Love's Gonna Snowball

6. Chester Pipkin - Main Title

7. Jerry Long - Latin Source

8. Jerry Long - Wild Watuse

9. Jerry Long - Hawaii to Military

10. Jerry Long - The Chase

11. Jerry Long - End Title

Download it HERE.

Enjoy!

Article #32124 - The Darkwing Duck Scripts (Part 2 of 4)

Today is the 20th anniversary of the premiere of Darkwing Duck. I remember coming home from school every day, running straight to the TV and turning on the Disney Afternoon to watch my favorite show. I credit Darkwing Duck with being the biggest influence on my sense of humor, and even as I still watch it today, I laugh just like I did when I was 6 years old. I still love it, and I still miss it. Also, I feel really, really old.

Today, I bring you the second of the four Darkwing Duck scripts. This one's from the episode "Disguise the Limit". In this episode, Darkwing gets ZAPPED by another one of Dr. Sara Bellum's (puns!) ray guns, which makes Darkwing transform over and over into duplicates of other people, including this week's villain, NEGADUCK!! Hilarity ensues!

Download the "Disguise the Limit" script HERE!

This episode is available on the second volume of Darkwing Duck DVDs, buuut if you don't have it, check it out below!

Article #32123 - The Darkwing Duck Scripts (Part 1 of 4)

Today, we've got the first of my collection of four Darkwing Duck scripts. I purchased these teleplays about a year ago, from eBay, just thinking they were another awesome thing to add to my always growing Darkwing Duck collection. Little did I know, these scripts belonged to Ron Feinberg, the voice of S.H.U.S.H. (the secret spy organization Darkwing sometimes worked for) agent Grizzlikof!

Ron Feinberg was a character actor who, before moving to voice acting primarily, guest starred on many classic shows, such as Mission: Impossible, Hawaii Five-O, and the classically forgotten caveman sitcom, It's About Time!

All four of these scripts are obviously Grizzlikof-featuring episodes, and in fact are some of my favorites. Today's script is for "Bad Tidings", a Batman meets I Love Lucy style episode where Grizzlikof and Darkwing have to put their differences aside to stop Steelbeak (my favorite Darkwing Duck villain) and his evil organization F.O.W.L. (the Fiendish Organization for World Larceny) from conquering the world with their tidal wave machine. Yep. A TIDAL WAVE MACHINE. God, I love cartoons.

DOWNLOAD THE PDF OF THE "BAD TIDINGS" SCRIPT HERE

Sadly, this episode isn't available on DVD (YET!!), but here's the YouTube links to watch as you read along!

Enjoy!