A kinder, gentler version of the old blog. This will take a fun look at pop culture, because nothing upsets Ozarkers more than fun and pop culture. Mwu-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Hopefully this post will not sound like one of those stupid "What-has-happened-to-our-wonderful-nation" memes on Facebook that conservative people post, but I want to bring up something that has disappeared from the modern day Christmas season that today's children will unfortunately not get to experience. Most of you probably never noticed it was gone, so it more than likely has not been a detriment to the country. I'm talking about the Christmas Wish Book or Christmas catalog.
Major retail giants such as Sears, J.C. Pennys, Montgomery Ward, Aldens, Spiegel and others published a special catalog in the fall called the Christmas Wish Book, which featured special values on the same stuff that was in the regular Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter catalogs.
The main difference was this catalog featured TOYS!
When I was a kid, I would make out my list for Santa Claus by going through the Sears Christmas Wish Book and writing down everything I wanted. Usually, I had a minimum of six pages of thing I hoped Santa Claus would bring me. Sadly, I never got 95% of the stuff I asked for, but it was always a fun activity. This may explain why (As some of my critics and fans have both mentioned) my writing contain long list.
My mother always received the Sears catalog because she frequently ordered from Sears. My grandmother and my aunts got Montgomery Wards catalogs, which I felt was superior. They had great large color layouts for the action figures and toys I wanted. Sears usual had small black and white photos of the action figures and most of the toys. Sears then bombarded us with big color layouts of Winnie the Pooh crap. Examine the photos below of Star Trek action figures. One is from the Montgomery Ward's Wish Book and the one below is from Sears Wish book. See what I mean.
MONTGOMERY WARDS STAR TREK
SEARS STAR TREK
So why do nitwits like Glen Beck, Bill O'Rielly and Sarah Palin not whine and gripe about the loss of the Christmas Wish Book? Because the demise of the Christmas Wish Book was a business decision. It had to do with cutting cost. It is cheaper to display tiny photos online rather than print out several hundred copies of a catalog. Apparently stockholders and profits are more important than the simple enjoyment of children.
I searched the Internet for scans of pages of Christmas catalogs. I found quite a few here and there. I borrowed a few from Mego Museum. You can find scans of whole Christmas Wish Books at Sherry Lou Toys website. Also this month Plaid Stallions is featuring some retro catalog pages.
SEARS did okay on the GI Joe layout. Click to enlarge
Sears also did okay on this Captain Action page. Click to enlarge.
THE NEXT TWO PAGES DEMONSTRATE WHY I BELIEVE MONTGOMERY WARD'S WISH BOOK WAS THE COOLEST CHRISTMAS WISH BOOK OF ALL TIME!
My favorite Batman movie is the 1966 one, featuring the cast of the TV show. I've taken quite a bit of flak from "Dark Knight" worshipers. I discovered this poster on another retro website for the 1966 Batman movie. I'm guessing by the strange coloration that this poster is from a foreign country or Batman washed his tights in the same load of clothes with Robin's red vest.
NOTE: When I uploaded this an enlarged it, I did notice some of the words are in a foreign language.
If you have read this and the old blog, you know I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. There are things about Facebook that are great and then there are things that are bad. One of those are memes that are so prominent on Facebook. Some are okay because they are uplifting or actually funny. Many seem to be some sort of right-wing propaganda or made by some mean spirited person with an axe to grind (I hate anything featuring the word "FAIL" in big red letters). After seeing these so-called "funny" memes slam deceased entertainers and welfare recipients, I found one above today that is slamming sorority girls. What was funny is the fact that the sorority girls in the photo are smarter than the person who made this poster.
You see, I was alive in the 80s. I was also your typical horny heterosexual teenager chasing anything female (Okay, okay, I'll admit, I set my standards higher than most guy, which explains why I'm still single). I looked at every girl that came into my sight and I remember the way they dressed. GIRLS IN THE 80s DID DRESS LIKE THE SORORITY GIRLS IN THIS PHOTO!
Now, my guess is this may have been made by a guy, because us guys did wear clothing like the characters in The Breakfast Club photo. Sadly, I dressed like Anthony Michael Hall's character, although I thought I was more like Judd Nelson's character. I am guessing the guy who made this poster was EXACTLY like Emilio Estevez's character. There were guys that dressed like that in the 80s. They beat me up every time they caught me talking to a girl that was dressed like the sorority girls in the bottom photo.
As much as I hate it, this poster needs a big red "FAIL" on it. Of course, my opinions are why I'm considered the Super-Villain of the Ozarks!!! Mwu-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
BTW: I updated this post on March 14, 2020, because I now know the correct term for this item is a "meme." We also are aware this meme was, more than likely, created by someone working for Vladimir Putin or a disgruntled neo-Nazi, who got turned down by a sorority girl.
KYTV's Facebook site announced that the black and white episodes of The Andy Griffith Show will return next week. Personally, I don't see what the big deal is, but Ozarkers freak out about the color episodes of The Andy Griffith Show like it is a gang of skunks running through the neighborhood or a flesh-eating pandemic.
I have noticed many people on various lamenting the disappearance of theme songs and opening sequences on TV series. The truth is I don't get to see very many current TV shows due to work and I don't count some of the comments on these websites vallied. There are so many Freepers, rednecks and paid right-wing hacks commenting of the web these days that it is disgusting.
For some reason, maybe related to my recent viewing of The Untouchables, I thought about another Robert Stack series The Name of the Game. This was followed The Virginian as one of Universal Studios attempts at a 90 minute long program and like Four-In-One and NBC Mystery Movie, it was a "wheel" concept. However, unlike Four-In-One and NBC Mystery Movie, The Name of the Game centered on two journalist (Stack and Tony Franciosa) working for the same publisher (Gene Barry). Each week concentraited on one of the characters. Journalist as heroes? That was the good old days.
Like The Virginian, McCloud, and Colombo, The Name of the Game is rarely seen in syndication because of its 90 minute length. If it does turn up, it is on Saturday or Sunday afternoons or late nights. I remember seeing this show as a kid locally on KOLR-TV, Channel 10 in Springfield, MO. It usually aired on Saturday after cartoons.
I don't remember any of the stories, but the thing that always stuck with me was the opening credits and the jazzy theme song. Looking at the credits on You Tube, I find they are an amazing and very complex design. The use of color and the names of the actors forming their faces is very elaborate and must have been very complicated to create in 1969.
Sadly, The Name of the Game isn't on commercially produced DVDs yet. One episode I want to see is an episode where Gene Barry's character is in a car accident on the way to a symposium on environmental concerns. He wakes up in a dytopian future where the hippies are all old and facist psychiatrist control the government. It was directed by a young guy at Universal Studios named Steven Spielberg.
Also you cannot find a good commercial full length version of The Name of the Game theme song by Dave Grusin. He apparently released one version of it as the B-side of a 45 version of the theme from It Takes a Thief back in the early 70s. The only version I can track down for download is by (I'm not kiding) Dickie Goodman, the guy behind the cut-in novelty records "Mr. Jaws" and "Flying Saucer." Luckily, I have a copy of the original that was on Televisions Greatest Hits 3.
BTW: If you like full length versions of TV themes of the 70s, check out this Retrospace post of Charlie's Angels themes.
