DESDINOVA'S PODCAST 2

Here is the second podcast mix of retro mayhem. Featuring the music of Marshall Hain, Teegarden & Van Winkle, Diesel and Lighthouse. Enjoy!

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE QUICK CUT MONTAGE EDITS ON TV?

The problem with doing a retro blog is finding out that something you think is a thing of the past is still very much with us in another form or making a comeback among young hipsters.

Not long back, I began thinking about quick cut or jump cut montage editing. It was everywhere in from the mid-60s to the early 80s. Commercials, children's shows, sitcoms, action shows, news documentaries, even the opening to local news cast would feature, at some point, a jumble of images thrown at you at high speed. Many of these quick cut montages featured juxtaposed images, i.e: field of flowers, puppies in a basket, a chubby baby, beautiful girl in a bikini, Superman, Mickey Mouse, American flag, a car wreck, atomic test, skull and a cemetery.

I'm guessing the first major use of this in TV was the opening credits of Mission: Impossible. Here is a link to a compilation on YouTube of the opening credits of season three. Another show that used this editing method was the opening credits to The Monkees second season (This is the version that appeared in reruns). The Monkees show used this effect frequently during the musical segments.

I'm not sure the whole story behind how The Smothers Brothers found Chuck Braverman, but Braverman created two films show using quick cut montage editing that they presented on their variety show. The first one was "American Time Capsule (American History in Under 3 Minutes)."




There was a positive response so it was shown again and Braverman created a review of 1968, set to the drum solo from "In a Gadda Da Vida." Braverman went on to use the same editing style for the opening to the movie Soylent Green.

Another film maker name Dan McLaughlin made a film featuring classical art pieces set to Beethoven's 5th Symphony. The Smothers Brothers ask McLaughlin into allowing them to replace the Beethoven with a musical composition by a writer on the show, Mason Williams. The instrumental was "Classical Gas."

   


Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In used quick jump cut edits so much that the editor of the show, Arthur Schnieder, won an Emmy in 1968. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any stand alone clips of how it was used on the show, but you can find full episodes of Laugh-In on YouTube.


Sesame Street used quick jump cut edits as well, which is no surprise when you find out that Jim Henson made several experimental films before Sesame Street. Most of these featured scores by Big-Band-leader-turned-electronic-music-pioneer Raymond Scott. One was "Limbo," which features a face, made of string, talking about organizing his thoughts and he takes us on a tour of his mind. Henson was the voice of the character and later used the string face on Sesame Street. He later used the concept in a commercial for Bufferin.

   


Henson and Scott also made a promotional film for IBM called "Paperwork Explosion," which features fast paced jump cut edits layered over actors dialog.



And finally, when it comes great montage edits, one has to look at the work of Jack Cole, who was resposible for many of the great opening credits of shows produced by Universal Television in the late 60s and early 70s. I've already mentioned on this blog my love for the opening to the show The Name of the Game. That was one of Jack Cole's masterpieces.  However, his crowning achievement is the opening to The Six Million Dollar Man, which Cole says contains five layers of images, including EKG machines, computers, clocks, radar screens and footage of a NASA test pilot's crash.



Another great opening sequence that features this type of editing is Hawaii 5-O. I had to mention this because it sort of proves what I said in the first paragraph. The current version of Hawaii 5-O mixes some of the same images from the original series in what is know as hip-hop montage, which instead of juxtaposition of different images, uses slightly different versions of the same image to produces an altered version of time. This was used extensively in the film Requiem for a Dream.

In doing research on YouTube for this post, I found that I had forgotten what might be the last hurrah of this style of editing on TV: CSI. Here is a compilation of the various opening credits through out the years.

So why is this type of editing not as prevalent on TV now as it was in the 60s and 70s. After all, we have the technology to do this on a lap top or smart phone. You can find examples of student projects doing this on YouTube, why not on TV.

More than likely part of this has to do with the disappearance of opening credit sequences on TV shows. This type of editing is also considered a product of its time and out of date. Too flashy and too exciting for our post-911 "Chicken Fired" nation.    

Some claim that this type of editing causes seizures and strokes in some people. I personally feel this is some of that tinfoil-hat mentality. As a person who knows the joys of video and film editing, all I can say is I do care if it does cause seizures and strokes in some people, I just want to edit together something that looks cool.

There is always a chance that this could come back to the point we would be sick of it, but thin again I doubt we got sick of it the first time. 

 

QUICKIES ABOUT MICKEY

"If you stomped on Mickey Rooney, he'd probably turnaround and smile" The Kinks "Celluloid Heroes"

If you are wondering why I didn't post a link to an obit for Mickey Rooney, it is because everyone website and network newscast had a very good article or tribute to the career of Mickey Rooney. Instead some quick and interesting trivia about Mickey Rooney's career.

Mickey Rooney was the voice of Santa Claus in the Christmas specials Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, The Year Without Santa, Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July, and A Miser Brother's Christmas.

He turned down the role of The Penguin on Batman and Archie Bunker on All In the Family.

Sir Laurence Olivier and Marlon Brando both said he called him a great actor.

Mickey Rooney was the surviving Hollywood star featured in the Merry Melodies cartoon "Hollywood Steps Out" (above) and the Kinks song "Celluloid Heroes."

Mickey Rooney appeared in both The Twilight Zone ("The Last Night of a Jockey") and The Night Gallery ("Rare Objects"). He also stared in a Playhouse 90 production called The Comedian. All three were written by Rod Serling.

He played Nelson "Stubby" Stool in the Western comedy Evil Roy Slade.

He was a guest on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour the same night as The Who. Roger Daltrey claimed that after the famous explosion at the end of "My Generation," Mickey Rooney jumped up and down yelling "MORE! MORE! DO IT AGAIN, BOYS!"

Mickey Rooney was born Joe Yule Jr. He was cast as Mickey McGuire in a series a movies based on Fontaine Fox's comic strip Toonerville Trolley (above). He chose to use the name Mickey McGuire as a stage name. He was billed in the credits as Mickey (Himself) McGuire. At one point, TBS ran these as part of Tom and Jerry and Friends. These were probably not shown on TV as much as the Our Gang comedies because most are silent and Mickey is usually seen smoking a cigar.

Here is a portion of one entitled "Mickey's Tent Show."
  

PETE SEEGER DIES

Here is the story from the New York Times.

Ravi Shankar passes away

The Hindu : Arts / Music : Pandit Ravi Shankar passes away
Here is Ravi Shankar on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1967.

COULD PAT PAULSEN & LORD SUTCH BE ELECTED IN 2012?

Since we are knee-deep in the 2012 Presidential election, I thought I would look at two political figures of the past, who made political elections fun. They were on different sides of the Atlantic Ocean and had different personalities, yet they were sort of doing the same thing. One was a proto-Gothic-shock rocker, the other a skinny, sad-faced fellow with a slow, monotone deadpan delivery. Screaming Lord (David) Sutch and Patrick Layton Paulsen ran for office for office from the 60s until their deaths in the 90s and, truth be told, could probably still get votes a whole decade after passing away.

Screaming Lord Sutch

David Sutch was an early British rock and roll performer. The "Lord" part of his name came from his habit of wearing a crown on stage in the early days. With the help of eccentric record producer Joe Meek, he created a stage persona of a ghoulish character with long green hair (this was in 1961), red lipstick, white face paint and blackened eyes. He recorded songs like "Til The Following Night (Big Black Coffin)," "Jack The Ripper," "Dracula's Daughter" and "She Has Fallen in Love With a Monster Man." None of these records were hits, but became quite influential and collectible due to his use of musicians like Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Ritchie Blackmore, Mathew Fisher, Noel Redding, Mitch Mitchell and (fellow partying buddy) Keith Moon.

In 1963, Lord Sutch entered into a Parliamentary special election for the seat vacated by Conservative John Profumo, who resigned after a sex scandal (which was the subject of the movie Scandal). At that time, he said he represented the National Teenage Party and said if elected he would lower the voting age from 21 to 18. He didn't win, but the idea picked up popularity and voting age was lowered in Great Britain. The Untied States followed suit in the early 70s. When Lord Sutch ran for Parliament, he usually included several serious issues in his platform, such as the rights and treatment of the disabled. Of course, the rest his platform included things like "Clothing-free Tuesday" and drivers license for dogs. In the 80s, Lord Sutch promised to win an election to be prime minister by changing his name to Margaret Thatcher. It apparently scared the Conservatives so bad that they raised the entry fee for candidates. This didn't stop Lord Sutch and his Monster Loony Party, which is still in existence and has a following with the younger generation. Sadly, Lord Sutch suffered from severe depression and took his life shortly after the death of his mother in 1999.

You wouldn't know it by looking at Pat Paulsen, but he served in the Marine Corp in World War 2. His foray into politics started as a series of monologues on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. The joke began as a parody of editorials on local newscast, usually given by the TV station's general manager. Paulsen modeled his persona off of a general manager of a California TV station, who was ill-suited for speaking on camera (Paulsen said in an interview with E! Network that this GM must have worked his way up from accounting to general manager). One of the traits Paulsen picked up from this GM was his clumsiness. The GM might spill a cup of water or knock over the microphone. The first editorial Paulsen performed was mainly double-talk, followed by announcer Roger Carol giving an CBS address for a transcript of the editorial. CBS was bombarded with letters saying, "That guy is funny. We want more of that." So the Pat Paulsen editorials became a weekly feature on the show during the first two seasons. It caught on so fast during the first season that Pat Paulsen was asked to appear as a government expert on UFO's in an episode of The Monkees.

The second season of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour fell during the turbulent election year of 1968. Early in the year, politicians such as Robert Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Eugene McCarthy, and others would give a speech then deny they were running for the office of President. At the end of one of the editorial segments, Paulsen told Tommy Smothers that there was a "rumor going around" that he would be running for President. Paulsen said, "I will not run if nominated, and if elected I will not serve." Eventually, Paulsen announced on the show his "candidacy."  He told the audience, "I'm honest enough to admit that I have some draw backs and disadvantages as a candidate. Although I am a professional comedian, some of my critics maintain that this alone is not enough."

In the editorials and the campaign, Paulsen used to dismiss criticisms by saying "Picky, picky, picky." This became his catchphrase on the show. He said that he belonged to the Straight Talking American Government Party or the STAG Party. His campaign slogan was "I upped my standards, now up yours!" He frequently referred to himself as "Just a common, ordinary, simple savior of America's destiny."

He not only ran in 1968, but in 1972, 1980, 1988, 1992 and finally in 1996. He was actually more successful in the 90s. In 1992, he came in second to George H. Bush in the North Dakota Republican Primary and garnered 10, 984 votes in the Republican primary that same year. He received 921 votes to come in second to Bill Clinton in the New Hampshire Democratic Primary in 1996. Tommy Smothers has said if Pat Paulsen probably could have one an election, if he had ran a serious campaign. Pat Paulsen died the next year of pneumonia, while being treated for colon and brain cancer.

There are elements of Lord Sutch and Pat Paulsen still with us in various forms. Lord Sutch's music and stage act influenced later acts such as Alice Cooper, David Bowie, Kiss, Ozzy Osbourne, the Damned, the Cramps, Marilyn Manson and Slipknott. Paulsen's editorials were sort of the forerunner of The Colbert Report, The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update. However, the type of campaigns that made Lord Sutch and Pat Paulsen famous may be a thing of the past. A case in point is Stephen Colbert's attempt to run for President in 2008 ended as soon as it began. South Carolina Republicans raised the entry fee (Much like British Conservatives tried to do to Lord Sutch) and the Democrats said he wasn't a serious candidate (Remember Paulsen's joke about being a "professional comedian" -as he would say "Picky, picky, picky"). Of course, it should be noted that Pat Paulsen was always a write-in candidate rather than being on an official ballot.    

Much of the blame for this could be a response to the confusing outcome of  the 2000 Presidential Election. There were some who blamed candidates from other parties (i.e: Reform, Green, Constitution, Libertarians)  for throwing the count off for Al Gore Jr and George W. Bush (BTW - Dubya shares a birthday with Pat Paulsen - July 6). Some people also take politics way too serious after 9-11. These people seem to think we should have banned humor after 9-11. I remember when Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert held the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, one local blogger had a melt down on Twitter that they were "making light of our nations problems." No, they were poking fun at Glen Beck's rally a few weeks earlier, which the blogger gushed about for weeks afterward.

Think about this, both Sutch and Paulsen received more votes after there stardom was over. Was this because there was an underlying vision that appealed to people for years after the 60s or did the political scene get so goofy and stupid that Lord Sutch and Pat Paulsen seemed sane compared to the other people in politics? After all, Honey Boo Boo beat Paul Ryan in the TV ratings last week.  Maybe I should run for office and Honey Boo boo can be my running mate