Thursday, June 26, 2014

TV CHARACTERS THAT WERE REAL PEOPLE

When I was a kid, adults frequently told me that the characters on TV "are not real people." WHATEVER!?!? As I look back I've come to the conclusion that if I wanted to believe that Steve Austin and the Fonz are real people, I was entitled to that believe. Adults in Lebanon, Missouri were jerks.

The truth is there have been many shows that were about real life characters. The stories may not have been accurate, but these characters were real people. Here are what these people looked like. I've listed the names of the actors and actresses that played them but skipped posting a photo. Photos of the TV version are pretty easy to find thanks to Google or Pinterest.


Major Robert Roberts (1731-1795) was played by Keith Larsen on Northwest Passage.


Daniel Boone (1734-1820) played by Fess Parker.


Davy Crockett (1786-1836) also played by Fess Parker on Disneyland/The Wonderful World of Disney.


Jim Bowie (1796-1836) played by Scott Forbes on The Adventures of Jim Bowie.


Wyatt Earp (1848-1929) played by Hugh O'Brian on The Life & Times of Wyatt Earp.


Annie Oakley (1860-1926) played by Gail Davis (Gail was really kinda cute).


Bat Masterson (1853-1921) played by Gene Barry.


Laura Ingles Wilder (1867-1957) played Melissa Gilbert on Little House on the Prairie.


Eliot Ness (1903-1957) played by Robert Stack on The Untouchables.


Barney Ruditsky (1898-1962) played by James Gregory on The Lawless Years. I made an earlier post about both The Untouchables and The Lawless Years.


Greg "Pappy" Boyington (1912-1988) played by Robert Conrad on Baa Baa Black Sheep/Black Sheep Squadron.


Frank Buck (1884-1950) played by Bruce Boxleitner on Bring 'Em Back Alive. Buck wrote an autobiography called Bring 'Em Back Alive, but the TV show was more of a Raiders of The Lost Ark clone.


Dave Barry was played by Harry Anderson on the TV series Dave's World (1993-1997).


Wednesday, June 25, 2014

I HAD AN ODD CONVERSATION ABOUT ELI WALLACH ONCE

Eli Wallach as Tuco in The Good The Bad and The Ugly

Actor Eli Wallach died at age 98. He was in two of my favorite Westerns, The Magnificent Seven and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, as well as an appearance on Batman as Mr. Freeze.

His death reminded me of a somewhat odd conversation about Wallach with legendary Springfield journalist/blogger Ron Davis at a going away party for Tony Messenger, when he was leaving The Springfield News Leader to go to The St. Louis Post Dispatch. Ron mentioned that Wallach had once shared a slow dance with Marilyn Monroe and how we, as journalist, would like to ask him what it was like to dance with Marilyn.

How did we get off on that subject? Ron brought up Wallach because of a strange incident that involved Tony Messenger from about a week or so earlier. It happened at what was supposed to be a panel discussion on immigration.  One of the participants on the panel besides Tony was a local talk radio show host with a huge cult following, even though this host had the mental stability of the proverbial outhouse rat. This guy is the reason I started the old blog. This guy had gotten into some battles with me on Ron's Chatter blog and Missouri Radio Message Board. I decided to start my own blog, so I could fully poke fun at this guy and make satirical comments on other news topics of the day. A person, who worked in the news department at the radio station that carried his show, told me that when he would read my blog he would fly into a mad fit cussing and throwing things. That makes me proud to find out i had that effect on him.
 
Franco Nero in Django

Back to the story. This host had showed up at this panel discussion dressed like Franco Nero in the movie Django. He ranted, raved and accused a local group that helps Mexican immigrants in the area of sneaking Al Qaeda terrorist into the country and changing their names to "Juan and Jose." Then he hurled a brown paper bag with two tennis balls at Tony, telling him it would be "the only sack of balls he would ever have."  As Dave Barry would say, I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP.

We began discussing why did this talk radio host dress in this Spaghetti Western outfit, when Ron Davis put forth an intriguing idea. "Maybe he thought he would be allowed to hang Eli Wallach like in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly."

And that is how we got off on the subject of Eli Wallach. 

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

CASEY KASEM - THE VOICE OF OUR GENERATION

In the world of radio and voice-over work, there are few instances where one voice dominated the pop culture of a generation like Casey Kasem. From the late 60s through the 90s, his voice was everywhere.

Besides American Top 40 & American Top 10, Casey was the voice on NBC's promos in the 70s and 80s. His voice was in many of Generation X's favorite cartoons. Among those characters he voiced was Robin the Boy Wonder on The Superfriends, Alexander on Josie and the Pussycats, Dexter and Tank on Hot Wheels, Groovy on Cattanooga Cats, nephew Waldo on What's New, Mr. Magoo?, Mark on Battle of the Planets, Cliffjumper, and Teletraan 1 on The Transformers and, of course, Shaggy on Scooby Doo.

The thing that made Casey Kasem popular was his voice was friendly and his attitude was positive. So was his show. It was all inclusive. Instead of calling the show Billboards Top 40, Casey named the show American Top 40 to signify that these were the songs everyone in the nation was listening to and buying.  Yet Casey was talking to YOU and telling YOU that there were kids in other towns in America that liked the same songs that YOU did. If you felt alone in the world, Casey reassured you that you were not alone.

Casey spoke of the artist in an upbeat, positive tone. His story's about their lives made them sound like friends and relatives not "enemy combatants," as one former co-worker of mine referred to one popular musical act (He later got in trouble for making fun of a popular singer's death). In the "The AT-40 Archives," Casey gave us a history lesson and peak our interest in the music of the past. Of course, the "Long Distance Dedications" proved that you could connect to anyone in the world by simply writing to Casey and he would tell everyone with the same importance as the stories he told about the musical artist.

Sadly, the radio industry decided in the late 80s to destroy the all inclusive world Casey inhabited. Radio stations edited heavy metal and rap songs out of the countdown because they "weren't on out playlist." The major radio syndicators began trying to attract disgruntled old white men with shows preaching an "us-against-them" mentality filled with hate and intolerance.

You might say Casey Kasem's era ended long before his death this week. Radio killed his style of Top 40 and Saturday morning cartoons are gone. Luckily, we have Scooby Doo and Superfriends on DVD, as well as AT-40 repeats on some retro radio stations and through ITunes. Maybe someone will say, "We need a radio personality like Casey Kasem. He was great."

Until then, remember Casey's advice, "Keep you feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars."       




Friday, June 13, 2014

THE FATHERS OF FAMOUS JUNIORS

I've considered doing this post for quite some time. There are some well-known public figures with a "junior" on the end of their name. Granted, some juniors are obvious as to who the senior was and what they did because junior followed in their footsteps (Frank Sinatra, Hank Williams, Douglas Fairbanks, John F. Kennedy, Al Gore, Ed Begley, Alan Hale, Freddie Prinze).

These are some famous juniors, who were either in another line of work or eclipsed their father's notority.


Norman Swartzkopf Sr. - Head of New Jersey State Police and narrator of the radio show Gangbusters.


Efrem Zimbalist Sr. - Violinist, composer and symphony conductor.


Harry Connick Sr.- District Attorney for New Orleans.


Robert Downey Sr. - Director of the movies Putney Swope and Greaser's Palace.


Cuba Gooding Sr. - Lead singer of the 70's R & B group The Main Ingredient (guy in middle)


Sammy Davis Sr. - Vaudeville dancer



Martin Luther King Sr. -Minister


Morton Downey Sr. -Irish crooner and radio show host

Kurt Vonnegut Sr. - Influential architect who designed many of the art deco buildings in Indianapolis. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a photo of him.
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