Friday, February 24, 2012
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
BEST OF DESDINOVA: THE MOD SQUAD WAS COOLER THAN 21 JUMP STREET (Sorry Johnny Depp)
In TV history, there were two cops shows that featured young people going undercover to investigate crimes involving other youth. These shows were the Mod Squad, which ran from 1968 to 1973. The other was 21 Jump Street, which ran from 1987 to 1991.
I remember watching an episode of 21 Jump Street when it first air on the then-new Fox Network and thinking, "This show sucks. I hope they come up with a better show than this or this network with go the way of Dumont and Overmyer Networks." The show not only ran longer than I expected, but Fox has survived, thanks to several great shows like the Simpsons, Family Guy and In Living Color.
It was about this time that a purchased a book called The Best of Crime and Detective TV: The Critics Choice by John Javna and Max Allan Collins. In this book, they list the TV show, Mod Squad, as one of the worst cop shows ever. They practically trash the show (They also slam Charlie's Angels, which makes me wonder about these guys).
I had only seen the Mod Squad reunion movie from the late 70's, but I still thought it probably had to be better than 21 Jump Street for the simple reason it was made in the late 60s/early 70s. As many of you readers know I have always had a special place for the psychedelic era.
I bought a VHS tape a few years ago that featured two episodes of the Mod Squad. I liked it quite a bit and wanted to buy another, but they were taken off the market for some reason. A year ago, I bought a DVD of the first season of the Mod Squad. It featured a longer version of the pilot episode which was on the VHS tape I had earlier. I have enjoyed it very much and plan to buy another DVD set of the show.
A few nights ago, I found the entire first season of 21 Jump Street on DVD at Wal-Mart for $5. I wondered if my opinion of 21 Jump Street would have changed after seeing more than one episode of the Mod Squad. Maybe I would be blown away by the show which gave us Johnny Depp. It turns out, I was right the first time I saw the show. It still sucks.
While people often malign the Mod Squad for being dated, 21 Jump Street is a product of it's time too. It comes with the things of the 80s that I hated. Bad part is some of those attitudes are still with us, thanks to the Fox News Network. As a matter of fact, I suspect that Bill O'Reilly wrote a few of these scripts under an alias. I bet Sarah Palin was a Jump Street fan.
The Mod Squad was from the age of peace, love and "Do Your Own Thing," while 21 Jump Street was from the age of "Just Say No," "Positive Peer Pressure," "overachieving" and "Vigilante Justice." Also, the characters on 21 Jump Street wear the clothes of that era that my mom forced me to wear. When I moved out and went to SMSU, I started dressing more like the Mod Squad.
First off, let's discuss the theme song and opening credits. The theme song of the Mod Squad was composed by Earl Hagen. Hagen created a tough and fast pasted cops show theme, augmented by a psychedelic/garage band organ. The visual was the main characters running through a dark warehouse.
The 21 Jump Street open featured a theme song sung by the cast that sounded like a bad Debbie Gibson song ("You're gonna learn something when we meet you after school" GAG!). The visuals were goofy clips of the cast from episodes. This gives you the impression you are watching a bad sitcom.
The overall plot of the shows are different in that Peter, Linc and Julie ("One White, One Black and One Blonde") were juvenile delinquents paying their debt to society by becoming undercover detectives. They did carry guns or badges. They often questioned the ethics of what they were doing. Yes, they do use quite a bit of the slang of that era. Pete seems to use the word "heavy" a lot, Julie says "groovy" quite a bit and Linc made the phrase, "Solid, Brother" a part of TV history.
On 21 Jump Street, Hanson, Penhall, Hoffs and Loki are cops who look young enough to infiltrate high schools. They carry guns and badges. When the Jump Street cops aren't whining about lawyers and judges "letting off" the people they bust, they insult each other.
The villains on Mod Squad are never the kids, but old, white guys trying to make a money by selling drugs or killing young people. One villain, played by Dabney Colman (Who else?) tells his sister, "Your hippie friends are driving down the value of my real estate." One villain is a Bill O'Reilly-ish talk show who tries to rape Julie. Yes, the message of the Mod Squad could be "No such thing as a bad kid" and "Don't trust anyone over 30."
On the other hand, 21 Jump Street embedded with the 80's idea of "young-people-are-evil." The criminal is always young. Everything from gun toting gang members taking a school hostage to a group of cocaine pushing, preppy-boys who gang-rape/murder a girl to sexually-repressed, pyromaniac Catholic school girls (No, I didn't make this last one up).
Jump Street episodes usually end with a PSA/lecture from the cast about under-age drinking, drug abuse or abstenence. Mod Squad ended with a crane shot of the characters and somber jazz music as the characters contemplate what just happened. Truth is the Mod Squad has a more expensive look to it than Jump Street.
Yes, this has probably been a useless rant, but I had to get this out of my system. I'm sorry Johnny Depp couldn't have been like Clint Eastwood, John Travolta or Bruce Lee and gotten his start on a good show. As a matter of fact, he has said he hated the show.
Just remember, the Maharishi says never drink campaign from a paper cup. Solid, Brother!
Monday, February 20, 2012
Producer Al DeLory Passes Away At The Age Of 82 - AllAccess.com
NOTE: Not mentioned in this article is that Al DeLory had the hit single version of the theme from M*A*S*H.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
DESDINOVA'S VALENTINE'S DAY IPOD PLAYLIST
Never My Love - The Association
If Tomorrow Never Comes - Joose
The Air That I Breath - the Hollies
You Made Me Believe In Magic - Bay City Rollers
You Can Do Magic - America
One Fine Day - The Chiffons
Biggest Part of Me - Ambrosia
All My Loving - The Beatles
For Love - Pousette-Dart Band
Miracles - Jefferson Starship
More Than Yesterday - Spiral Staircase
Come Softly To Me - Jane Olivor
Heaven - Bryan Adams
Heatbeat Its a Love Beat - DeFranco Family
I'll Be There - Jackson 5
(Your Love Keeps Lifting me) Higher & Higher - Jackie Wilson
Words - F.R. David
Love Will Keep Us Together - Captain & Tennielle
Total Eclipse of the Heart - Bonnie Tyler
This Magic Moment - Jay & the Americans
Together - The Intruders
Best of My Love - The Eagles
Just Like Heaven - The Cure
Shining Star - The Manhattans
You Are Everything - The Stylistics
True Love Ways - Buddy Holly
All I Really Want To Do - The Byrds
Take My Breath Away - Berlin
I Love You - Climax Blues Band
So Much In Love - The Tymes
I Would Die 4 U - Prince
Something - The Beatles
Kiss On My List - Hall & Oats
Cupid/I've Loved You For a Long Time - The Spinners
I'd Really Love to See You Tonight - England Dan & John Ford Coley
Soul Coaxing - Raymond LeFevre
There Is - The Dells
Do You Believe In Magic? - Lovin Spoonful
(If Paradise Is) Half As Nice - Amen Corner
Strange Magic - Electric Light Orchestra
Touch Me - The Doors
I'm Believer - The Monkees
I Can Dream About You - Dan Hartman
Your Song - Elton John
I'm Your Puppet - James & Bobby Purify
Love Is Blue - Paul Mauriat
Cool Night - Paul Davis
Can't Fight This Feeling - REO Speedwagon
Like to Get to Know You - Spanky & Our Gang
Oh How Happy - Shades of Blue
Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper
You're My Latest, My Greatest Inspiration - Teddy Pendergrass
Happy Together - The Turtles
If I Had Words - Scott Fitzgerald & Yvonne Keely
La La Means I Love You - The Delfonics
Always on My Mind - Pet Shop Boys
Love So Fine - Roger Nichols & Small Circle of Friends
We've Got Tonight - Kenny Rogers & Sheena Easton
Because - Dave Clark 5
You Are the Sunshine of My Life - Stevie Wonder
Mind, Body & Soul - Flaming Ember
Lost in Love - Air Supply
Nights in White Satin - Moody Blues
The Look of Love - Dusty Springfield
Just You n Me - Chicago
When Doves Cry - Prince
Fallin In Love - Hamilton Joe Frank & Reynolds
Best Thing That Ever Happened - Gladys Knight and the Pips
Can't Help Falling In Love - Elvis
I Will Always Think About - New Colony Six
I Think I love You - Partridge Family
Just Between You & Me - April Wine
Still - The Commodores
The Best of Times - Styx
Nice to Be With You - Gallery
If You Leave - Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark
Tonight's the Night - Rod Stewart
Love's Theme - Love Unlimited Orchestra
You've Made Me So Very Happy - Blood Sweat & Tears
When Will I See You Again - Three Degrees
An Old Fashion Love Song - Three Dog Night
I Saw The Light - Todd Rundgren
Love Is All Around - The Troggs
You Showed Me - The Turtles
You're the One - The Vogues
Magnet & Steel - Walter Egan
The Promise - When In Rome
See Me, Feel Me - The Who
For Your Love - The Yardbirds
Working on a Groovy Thing - 5th Dimension
Afterglow - Small Faces
Make Me You Baby - Barbara Lewis
You’re the First, My Last, My Everything - Barry White
Wouldn’t It Be Nice - The Beach Boys
God Only Knows - The Beach Boys
Softly Whispering I Love You - The Congregation
No Matter What - Badfinger
Every Time I Think of You - The Babys
Love Minus Zero/No Limit - Bob Dylan
Masterpiece - Atlantic Star
I Second That Emotion - Smokey Robinson & the miracles
Going Out of My Head - Little Anthony & the Imperials
Thinking of You - Loggins & Messinia
More Than I Can Say - Leo Sayer
Precious and Few - Climax
Sunday, February 12, 2012
MY OBLIGATORY "WHITNEY HOUSTON DIED" POST
I'm going to some thing that will really upset people. I never liked Whitney Houston's music. It was bland, boring and lifeless. To make matters worse for me, it cluttered up the radio. However, I am NOT going to say disrespectful things about Whitney Houston.
I'm going to instead slam the people, who made me hate Whitney Houston's music - adults. Whitney Houston made her debut during the era of the heavy metal hair bands, new wave/punk, the emerging rap/hip hop sounds and the rest was Prince or Madonna. You also had several anti-rock-music-advocacy groups cropping up (at least two were based here in Missouri). This was also the "Just Say No" and "Positive Role Model" years. Ugh.
Of course, I liked most of the popular music of the day along with the music of the 60s and 70s, however what I really liked was the heavy metal. Naturally, I was the object of hatred from the oh-so self-righteous adults in Lebanon. They would say things like "You should like Whitney Houston instead of that satanic, drug music you like." Apparently, this was a general thought at the time. As I was getting ready to start writing this I noticed this post from "Go Retro!." Whitney Houston was really bland easy listening/adult contemporary music that was getting played on Top-40/rock stations and the adults were going to ram it down the throats us kids even though some of us didn't like it. It is part of the reason I have never liked the adult contemporary format. It had that smug, self-righteous "We-are-proud-to-be-square" attitude (although it is changing from what it was in the 70s, 80s and 90s) that I despise. Whitney Houston's music was much like The Waltons, people told me that it was better for me than what I liked and America would be a better place if every kid listened to Whitney Houston instead of heavy metal or something good. I should also point out that I was also told I should listen to country music instead what I liked. (Adults are just stupid).
This attitude and harassment by adults caused me to hate just about anything Whitney Houston did. I hated The Bodyguard, even though many people thought was the greatest movie ever made. I really made them mad when I said I liked Roseanne Barr's version of The Star Spangle Banner better than Whitney Houston's version. I also liked Jimi Hendrix's better too, that makes people mad too. I've always kind of considered Whitney Houston part of a Republican plot to brainwash people.
I'm also finding it interesting that people who complained when people mourned Michael Jackson and Kurt Cobain are grieving all over the place over Whitney Houston. They are asking on Facebook, "What is you favorite Whitney Houston song?" I DON'T HAVE ONE!
Even though I didn't like Whitney Houston's music, may she rest in peace and not be judged by her life but her music. I leave that to the talk radio scumbags and those scumbags on Fox News. They enjoy being disrespectful to dead entertainers (and live ones as well). It was her fans and cranky adults of the 80s that deserve the scorn.
BTW, when Merle Haggard kicks the bucket, I'm not going to be so nice. Same for Hank Williams Junior.
Opinions, like this, are why I'm considered the Super-Villain of the Ozarks!!! Mwu-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Saturday, February 11, 2012
'Big Valley' star Peter Breck dead at age 82 - KansasCity.com
MST3K fans will remember Peter Breck for The Beatniks and the Crawling Hand.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Ben Gazzara Dead at 81
Here is the obit from E!Online. I thought I would show you the opening to the 60s TV series Ben Gazzara stared in Run For Your Life.
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