and only 3 channels on a Zenith black and white. Remote control was telling the kid in the room to change the channel.

How about The Scarecrow with Patrick Mcgoohan?

I just want to tell Leslie good luck, we’re all counting on you.

Channels? Looxury!

We used to dream of havin channels!

Had to watch reruns from the 13th century, with so many commercials that the program was over two hours before it started…..

Our big thrill was going to my grandparent’s house for Sunday dinner and watching The Wonderful World of Disney in living color. Seeing the Magic Castle with technicolorTinkerbelle was a big deal back then.

And RIP, Mr Nielsen. You were the master of deadpan delivery.

Sure, you just had to sit on your duff enjoying your commercials. We had a steam-powered TV–the kids had to shovel in coal to make it work. And you people with the luxurious black and white television–in my day, we just had black. You’re hoity-toity “two-tone” TV were for the swells and the knobs who had walls and roofs.

I thought of the scarecrow with McGoohan, too. One of my all-time favorites.

We had to go up on the roof to turn the antenna and have a relay messenger to someone inside in order to know when the picture improved.

Spousal unit’s father had a TV for the liquor store/bar that still had Channel 1.

And don’t forget Nielson started out as a heartthrob. He played the romantic lead opposite Anne Francis in Forbidden Planet/i.

Forbidden Planet’s captain as well. A sad start to the week, but also another slice gone from our lives as the world we grew up in gets smaller.
I remember that shortly after we moved when I was four we got a new color console tv. First thing I remember on it was The green Hornet. So began my earliest addiction.

Leslie Nielson & Paul Gross, Men with Brooms. G_d bless.

1) They killed Leslie Nielsen?!?
2) He was 84 years old?!?

Airplane was one of my favorite movies when I was a mere tadpole of ten or so (heck, it was basically one long fart joke — how could it not rule?). From a fellow Canadian: thx, Leslie, you gave us a lot of great laughs. Happy trails.

“Swamp Fox, Swamp Fox, tail in his hat;
Nobody knows where the Swamp Fox at…”

Ahh, fond memories of ole Uncle Walt sharing his wholesome entertainment with us. My father was a long-time holdout to switch to color, so I never really appreciated the second half of The Wizard of Oz. R.I.P. Frank Drebbin…he was a good man, and willing to laugh at himself. That’s a rare talent.

Wait. What happens in the second half of the Wizard of Oz?

Starts in BW, goes to color when Dorothy opens the door after landing in Munchkin Land.

I’m struck by how many of us first experienced color television at our Grandparents’ home watching Disney on Sunday nights (in my case, on a big-ass Zenith console they had with a “Space Command” two-button remote that made our ears ring and the dogs bark.

For Leslie Nielsen, here’s a suggested epitaph (in the same spirit that led me to suggest “He’s Dead, Jim” for DeForrest Kelley):

“Surely You Can’t Be Serious.”

Dorothy kills the Wicked Witch and flees to Italy for a year. The Scarecrow isolates himself in his room and covers the walls with complex paranoid diagrams. The Tin Woodman invents a rocket pack, escapes from Oz, and returns to Kansas to fight crime. The Cowardly Lion is seemingly killed by Glinda, but comes back to life and leads the Munchkins to defend Zion from the Machines. And the Wizard discovers that his entire life in Oz has been a tv show.

In other words, the usual.

And the monkeys fly out of Jonah Goldberg’s ass.

He’s dead serious, and don’t call him Shirley.

When I went to the Harvard of the Midwest, my piano teacher one day talked about his teacher who once gave a concert at THOTM and was invited to a reception at the house of one of the schools’ supporters and donors.
This was in the early ’60s, around the time frame Tbogg is talking about.

The pianists’ wife took him aside and said: “These people are very well-off.”

He asked her, “What makes you say that?”

“They have color TVs and white servants.”

Tbogg, did your folks ever pull the tubes out of the TV when it stopped working to take them to a Thrifty’s drug store and use a tube tester to see if any of them were burned out?

These days, that seems as quaint as using a cats-whisker detector to pick up radio broadcasts.

Wait. What happens in the second half of the Wizard of Oz?

I’m getting the strong feeling that somebody still has a black and white TV.

Also: Did you know that you can actually just WikiGoogle up the TV schedule in the US from any year?

Ah, Sundays circa early 60s: Disney’s Wonderful World of Color, Ed Sullivan, and Bonanza. And roast beef.

Mine did, but it was a McCrory’s, complete with a soda fountain with cherry (and chocolate) Cokes.

Dorothy drops 200 mics of LSD. Believes she is transported to place called “Oz” by a tornado.

From any year? How cool – now I can see which CBS shows I missed up through ’75 or so. (Happily, we had PBS Spanish lessons and Yoga for Health to fill the days.)

I was waiting for Nielsen to say in clip:

Yes I am the dressed leather and don’t call me Marion

Aw, TBogg, you should read our convo re the late great Mr. Nielsen/SwampFox in Late Night.
I knew – I was ten, the SF was one of my first crushes.

And let’s not forget Tammy and the Bachelor, as a leading man role.

Thanks for the clip. I noodled around last night and found the lyrics to the theme song (SF, SF, tail on the hat.etc) and was tempted by a couple of DVD’s – they include another of my Disney faves, “Elfego Baca.” Robert Loggia as a southwestern Mexican sheriff.
Leslie, we will miss you, indeed.

Ohmigawd! I gr
ew up in a Marion County! Had completely forgotten that!

And yes, I, too didn’t know about the big deal of Wiz of Oz until I was an adult – my parents didn’t get color until I was long gone, and then only for sports. l )
Neither set of grandparents had tv at all.

Now that I think of it, we got our color set after we visited friends of my mother’s. They had a color set and The Incredible Mr Limpet was on. I’m now convinced that after seeing the three of us magically stop making noise and sit down while she visited she was inspired to get her own electronic babysitter. Huh. We’re not required to pay Monsieur Bogg for therapy sessions, are we?

I recall being called “sprout”.

Very Leave it to Beaver.

Wow, the commercials were much longer back then, too.

And for all of us here, a look back at Lt. Frank Drebbin’s finest hour, at which Leslie Nielsen was not actually present. I’d like to think, though, that someone pointed out this genius piece by our absent friend Billmon to Mr. Nielsen.

(Strange things happening in preview. Maybe this will do it:)
http://web.archive.org/web/20030617024849/http://billmon.org/archives/000236.html

A brief taste:

Drebbin (voice over): It was hotter than Hollywood on Gay Pride Day, and as smelly as Shaq’s armpits in double overtime. But this wasn’t LA. It was Baghdad — a sweltering slum of a city filled with brutal thugs, corrupt bureaucrats and sleazy quick-buck artists. And the Iraqis were a nasty bunch, too. Like an POW in a British prison camp, I was gonna have to stay on my guard.

Drebbin walks down the street — oblivious to everything around him. He passes an armored personnel carrier, just as a terrorist runs up and throws a grenade in it. The APC explodes a split second after Drebbin walks by. He passes a sentry post, just as a terrorist grabs an MP from behind and slits his throat. Drebbin doesn’t notice. He walks between two groups of Iraqi bandits shooting it out with pistols, and doesn’t notice, even as several of the bandits fall dead at his feet.

Drebbin: (voice over) It was a Saturday, and I should’ve been sitting in Dodger Stadium, watching the game and enjoying a tall one — maybe drinking a beer, too. But I was on special assignment. My mission: To find Saddam’s missing weapons of mass destruction, before they found America. Another story from the files of (pause): WMD Squad!

i recall running punch cards using JCL….now that’s computing.

I still have my slide rule.

Punch cards came later — RPG, Cobol, Fortran, PL/I . . . ah, memories.

I recall the ladies keying in all those punch cards… Man those ladies could type!!

very nice Peterr – it’s been a while. was born in 67 and came after the golden age of slide rulz, which is ok by me…but something about those old raised floor computer rooms running big Vax’s or ES 9000′s , that’s livin’.

Our family finally bought a color TV in 1967 because… my father was a Star Trek fan and he wanted to see the show in color.

Anyway — I remember the original Bullwinkle cartoons.

i haz been livin in the past…not that there’s anything wrong with that…

and used to watch George of the Jungle religously…

… my father was a Star Trek fan and he wanted to see the show in color.

Your father was a fine man.

I got up on Saturday mornings to watch cartoons and the test pattern was still on, And they played “When you brush your teeth with Pepsodent!” commercial.

oooh used to love Wonderful World of Color at grandma’s – especially groovy if it was an animated feature

Mighty Mouse was the bomb. Heckle and Jeckle too.

used to think broughttoyouby was one word

Fred and Barney not only smoked Winstons, but they also drank Busch Bavarian Beer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6TI2dkk2MA&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFKlOWUklaE&feature=player_embedded

Our family bought a color TV in the fall of 1967. The first program I remember seeing was a USC-Oregon State football game, won by the Trojans on a touchdown by O.J. Simpson.

Hey

Hey you two! Do you remember Soupy Sales on Saturday mornings?

No one believed me when I’d say Buffalo Bob was doing Howdy’s voice.

That was when ‘commercials’ were called ‘a message from our sponsor’.

I have quoted Soupy repeatedly in these pages!
“Buy thermometers in the wintertime. They’re much lower then.”

I recall watching my then 5 or 6 year old niece watch Pee Wee Herman and thinking, “This is upgrade Soupy.”

Our TeeVee went dead during Howdy Doody when I was 4. No more TeeVee. I had to call my mom from friends to ask if I could watch certain programs. And I did. Weird. I so wanted to marry the Lone Ranger for his horse and dog!!!!

:-(

Ha ha! I loved him. White Fang and Black Tooth.

Was there ever a better man’s voice than Clayton Moore’s?

AND my first cigs were Winston. A slut is born. :]

Actually, I just loved his animals. He seemed kind of creepy. They were awesome.

you make me laugh!

Or, marionettes at Christmas playing two 15 minute segments: The Night Before Christmas, and the Birth in Bethlehem. For about four weeks in December…

And I’ve never felt so heartsick since, as I used to feel every week when the credits rolled and the Overture reached that pause before rushing to its crescendo and its End. A week lasted for decades when I was four — and I didn’t even know what a year meant yet!

the first show i remember is crusader rabbit on a black and white tv.

first color show was disney. at the time, 65 or 66, not all shows were in color and i remember the disapointment when my dad turned the tv on for the first time and all 3 shows on the 3 channels were in black and white.

big ole magnavox color tv/stereo console with phonograph player in the left side of the cabinet and am/fm stereo in the right side. small screen tho, 19″ i think

Barney is a significant downgrade, let me tell ya dood…! ;-)

I have been fortunate NOT to have witnessed it, but I have heard tell.

Hey, and I thought Tareyton cigs were the best. Total whore for cigarettes then.

Lucky you…! ;-)

The Lone Ranger had ‘animals’? Other than Silver? You’re not thinking of the King of the Cowboys, are you? His German Shepherd, Bullet?

and of course rin tin tin

And Lassie…

CTuttle is upstairs!
Late, Late Night FDL: Hesitation Blues

Rumack: Captain, how soon can you land?
Captain Oveur: I can’t tell.
Rumack: You can tell me. I’m a doctor.
Captain Oveur: No. I mean I’m just not sure.
Rumack: Well, can’t you take a guess?
Captain Oveur: Well, not for another two hours.
Rumack: You can’t take a guess for another two hours?

R.I.P. Leslie Nielsen … Heaven will be filled with laughter tonight !

First TeeVee show ah ever did see was The Adventures of Superman

We were poor = middle class, couldn’t afford color. My dad brought home a plastic TV-size (16″) screen cover that was tinted blue at the top and bottom and beige-orange in the middle. I thought of that and him when Kathleen Turner goes “Oh, Dad, you didn’t!” in Peggy Sue Got Married when she’s in the past and her dad buys an Edsel.

A horse, a German Shepherd, and an authoritarian attitude. I was little, but I could sniff out an asshole and make a plan to rescue his animals. Maybe being “counter culture” is something you’re born with?

Did you ever see the movie “Ride With the Devil”? With actor Toby McGuire and Jewel.

@spurious also –

They had their own shows. Unbelievable. Has a cat had its own show? I don’t know, I quit watching in ’72. Midnight The Cat on the Buster Brown Show doesn’t count. (“Plunk your magic wand, Froggy!” “Nice.”)

Love.That.Film!

he was a texas marshall. but dog? btw the earliest episodes of TLR in their entirety are/were on youtubel

Yeah, some of us got into a discussion about it here one night.
It didn’t feel strange rooting for the South, or at least not as strange as I would have thought.

loved lassie and rin tin tin. also knew the names of everybody’s horse in all the westerns. (also all the theme songs!)

Are we talking about the same show, the same character? The Lone Ranger was the cowboy who always hitched up his gloves when he spoke. Wore his sidearms backwards in their holsters. Never shot to kill.

Cool. Going on the Netflix. I’m starving for good movies.
Though we just saw the Girl With A Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire. So good. In a dark way.

Oh Lurk, So. Do.We! It never made theaters because of many things, mostly war and political. We love it.

used silver bullets

We interrupt this Late Night with a non-TV item: Ever see Lonely Are The Brave (with Kirk Douglas — his horse was Whiskey)?

I think it was the treating Tonto like an underling even though both their asses were grass. I had a social justice thing going on even as a child. My son has the same gene. Screaming tantrums when he was learning to talk [late] and I wouldn’t let him say “Damn”. “Why?!!!…I LIKE damn”……
I may be confusing the dog.

*cough* … now might be a good time for this joke …

The Lone Ranger and Tonto went camping in the desert. After they got their tent all set up, both men fell sound asleep.

Some hours later, Tonto wakes the Lone Ranger and says, “Kemo Sabe, look towards sky, what you see?”

The Lone Ranger replies, “I see millions of stars.”

“What that tell you?” asked Tonto.

The Lone Ranger ponders for a minute then says, “Astronomically speaking, it tells me there are millions of galaxies. Time wise, it appears to be approximately a quarter past three in the morning. Theologically, the Lord is all powerful and we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, it seems we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. What’s it tell YOU, Tonto?”

“You dumber than buffalo. Someone stole tent.”

You may have reached into Openhope’s primal subconscious: Silver was the horse, Bullet was Roy Rogers’ German Shepherd.

don’t think so, but i never can remember movie titles. by the time i got around to the movies, it was the biblical ones–must have seen ben-hur 5 times! oh well.

LOL!!

!!!!!!!!11111111!!!!!!!!!!

love those old lone ranger and tonto jokes!

lone ranger: tonto, look! indians in front of us, indians behind us–we’re surrounded!
tonto: what you mean ‘we’, kemo sabe?

jay silverheels. (i don’t think that was his real name, but he was a good dancer.)

A li’l Johnny one to follow …

A teacher cautiously approaches the subject of sex education with her fourth grade class because she realizes Little Johnny’s propensity for sexual innuendo. But Johnny remains attentive throughout the entire lecture.
Finally, towards the end of the lesson, the teacher asks for examples of sex education from the class.
One little boy raises his hand, “I saw a bird in her nest with some eggs.”
“Very good, William,” said the teacher.
“My mommy had a baby,” said little Esther.
“Oh, that’s nice,” replied the teacher. Finally, little Johnny raises his hand. With much fear and trepidation, the teacher calls on him.
“I was watchin’ TV yesterday, and I saw the Lone Ranger. He was surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of Indians. And they all attacked at one time. And he killed every one of them with his two guns.”
The teacher was relieved but puzzled, “And what does that have to do with sex education, Johnny?”
” It’ll teach those Indians not to fuck with the Lone Ranger.”

i remember silver, bullet, trigger, and buttermilk. for some reason i can’t remember tonto’s horse’s name…

Oh. Me, I always viewed Tonto as a tad superior or ‘better’ than the Lone Ranger, probably b/c I had seen Jay Silverheels as Geronimo in the 1950 movie Broken Arrow — I saw it eight times in one week at the theater!

“Get-um up _______!”

I have a Childhood joke.
The Lone Ranger and Tonto have been chasing a rebel Indian band all day and suddenly find themselves lured into a box canyon. The Lone Ranger says, ” We’ll have to charge them with all guns blazing and make our way to the rock outcropping. We’re surrounded by Red Men. It’s the only chance we have.”.
Tonto says,” Who’s We, white man?”.

Thank you for saying it properly!!

We had an automated antenna turner. You’d turn it to North to pick up the L.A. stations. Any other “fringies” remember horror movies hosted by Seymour? He was a sort of primitive forerunner of MST3K.

http://latvlegends.com/Seymour/Seymour.html

And Champion (but I don’t think Gene’s guitar had a name). And the Songbird wasn’t a horse, though Sky and Penny treated it like one.

”Who’s We, white man?”

LOL … that was the first Lone Ranger joke I ever heard.

We friends made that our running gag line for decades …

ah, tonto’s horse was scout. (but critters aside, the lone ranger did use only silver bullets.)

champion and gene autry. and sky king?

us too

For some (?) reason (?) I think that joke originated in Mad Magazine. Maybe in its Scenes We’d Like To See feature.

I learned it back packing in the high Rockies of Colo. in the mid 60′s. I doubt my academic, socialist parents picked it up from Mad mag. Those we had to sneak. Or wanted to sneak, it’s a fine line.

Those were his calling card, doubtless the precursor to Paladin’s literal ‘Wire Paladin’ calling card.

And before Mr. Ed, there was Francis (in the movies, but a mule).

Do you know that Alfred E. Newman was originally Melvin Cowznosky?

And potrzebie bounces?

have gun, will travel! ah, fun nostalgifying. off to bed, niters.

Found it! It was in Mad originally.

How cool ! I’m going to check out the links over coffee tomorrow. I need a laugh.
Thanks!

TBogg, after the Palinapocalypse, you can tend to the Thunderdome children and teach them the Old Ways.

Hey pups, I remember when there was NO teevee. Life with radio, Fibber McGee & Molly! Life sure was simpler.

Hah! If Leslie could have heard that, he’d laugh his ass off.

…and later that day, during spelling, the teacher didn’t want to call on Johnny, fearing another cussword. She avoided calling on him as she went through the alphabet, but got to ‘r’ and couldn’t think of a bad word Johnny might choose. So when he raised his hand she called on him:

“Johnny, can you spell a word that starts with ‘r’?”

“Rat: r-a-t. Big fucking rat.”

The Thrifty’s used to have ice cream, 5 cents a scoop when I was a youngin. The ice cream brand is all that is left of the chain brand after it was taken over by Rite Aid, and a cone costs close to a dollar(sigh).