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The Beverly Hillbillies: Elly Needs a Maw (1963)
Poor Milburn Drysdale!
The "Widder", Mrs. Radnor Fenwick, wants to get financial backing for a housing development she is interested in. She approaches the Commerce Bank, and after pronouncing Milburn's name wrong several times is connected with Jed Clampett. Very rich Widow Fenwick wants to get backing so she doesn't spend her own money. She goes to Jed to get the ball rolling while Jed is looking to get a mother for Elly May who is still too rambunctious to handle. Mrs. Fenwick is all business, but Jed is all "courtin'". She arrives at the house in her limousine and immediately gathers up her little puppy and goes into the House. Granny thinking the puppy is a dowry, escort Mrs. Fenwick into the parlor. Jed is looking to try to court's Mrs. Fenwick to be able to get a mother for Elly May while all Mrs. Fenwick (the delightfully stuck-up Doris Packer) is doing is trying to do business. It's the typical merry mixup which the show is famous for. Granny, remembering Mrs. Fenwick from earlier is still convinced that Mrs. Fenwick is "dead busted broke". Mrs. Fenwick takes exception to this, of course. After Elly May crashes through the wall with her motorcycle, Jed asked Mrs. Fenwick if "she was game". Mrs. Fenwick, after saying no in no uncertain terms, leaves the room in a huff, sees Drysdale outside, puts him in his place and leaves. Jed meanwhile is holding the puppy in his arms, and Mrs. Fenwick reaches out for the puppy. Jed thinks she's reaching for him. He tells the chauffeur "Beasley" who he thinks is the real owner of "Fenwick House" where the Widow Fenwick lives that she's all his. He sends them away with his best wishes meanwhile, the one I really feel bad for (Drysdale) is left crying after losing a major moneymaking scheme. Typical Hillbillies fun.
The Beverly Hillbillies: The Clampetts Meet Mrs. Drysdale (1962)
Carry Nation Has Nothing On Mrs. Drysdale
The Clampetts are still trying to get settled in their new home. They still don't know how to use the faucet in the sink, they still don't realize the whole house is theirs and they haven't met Mrs. Drysdale yet. Somehow, they're under the impression that Mrs. Drysdale is a drunk because they hear tell of bottles. In reality Mrs. Drysdale is a full blown hypochondriac. The bottles are actually pharmacy pill bottles. In reality, Mrs. Drysdale Is a temperance person who makes Carry Nation look like a bootlegger. Mrs. Drysdale can't convince anyone that she's sick although everyone knows that she's not. And of course, no one explains anything to the Clampett, which makes for most of the humor which is mostly overblown. This makes for a whole lot of ridiculous scenarios. However, all of the cast members pull it off well.
Scrooge (1951)
The Gold Standard IMHO
I honestly believe this is the finest screen version of the famous Scrooge story. I consider it the gold standard. Alistair Sim's Scrooge stands out as the finest performance of the character. A wonderful script, written by the man (Noel Langley) who helped write the script for The Wizard of Oz, and wonderful music score, and wonderful acting roles by Sir Michael Hordern as Marley, Mervyn Johns as Bob Cratchit, Hermione Baddeley (American TV watchers may remember her from the TV series Maude as Mrs. Naugatuck) as Mrs. Cratchit, Kathleen Harrison as Mrs. Dilber, Jack Warner as the evil Jorkin (who doesn't appear in the Dickens novel) and a young Patrick Macnee (Mr. Steed from The Avengers) as the young Marley. We get a full story of his youth, and idea of what the Cratchits go through, and the future with the scene when the Scrooge effects are sold. Finally, we see where Scrooge finally repents and wakes up, raises, Mrs. Dilber's salary, visits his nephew, Fred for dinner, and finally we see Scrooge make up with Cratchit and become a pillar of the community. As I say, I consider it the gold standard. If you haven't seen it, find it and see it. If you have it, watch it often as I do especially on Christmas Eve.
The Beverly Hillbillies: Hedda Hopper's Hollywood (1964)
Only Hedda Makes It Hilarious
There's a so-called problem at Mammoth Studios as a decision has to be made to tear down the once-famous, now dilapidated studio. Jed and all his kin have moved into the empty Western set thinking it is real. They can't figure out why nobody's moving in, especially after Granny hears the news that 1000 people a day are supposed to be moving into the area. Columnist Hedda Hopper tracks Jed down and after Granny mistakes her for a husband hunter (her famous oversized hat is called a "courtin' hat" by Granny) she convinces him to go into Hollywood to sightsee. Arriving at Grauman's Chinese Theater, he checks out the famous footprint laden forecourt and mistakes the footprints as vandalism (having never been there before) and proceeds to cover the footprints with cement. After the police successfully stop him and save the legendary landmark he is convinced by Miss Hopper to make movies at Mammoth. The silent short film (with regular cast lampooning Mary Pickford, William S Hart and Rudolph Valentino among others) is so awful it convinced Miss Hopper to begin tearing the Western set herself with a hearty "CHARGE!" and Drysdale's bulldozer! If not for the good sport Hedda Hopper, the episode would have been mundane. She made it hilarious! Sadly, she passed away shortly thereafter, in 1966.
Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse (1960)
GREAT FUN!!
Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse was, of course, a parody of Bob Kane's other creation Batman and Robin. Only two men provided the myriad of voices, Dallas (Dal) McKennon and Johnny Holiday. Lots of gadgetry and derring do, the Cat Cave, the Catmobile (which doubled as a plane, and recurring characters like The Frog and his Jimmy Cagney-like voice. If the name Dal McKennon sounds familiar he had a successful series-long run as the bartender Cincinnatus on Daniel Boone. He also voiced another parody character Cool McCool some years later. When I was a boy I watched these on WPIX-TV, Channel 11, New York.
The Beverly Hillbillies: The Great Crawdad Hunt (1964)
Script Should've Won An Emmy
The Great Crawdad Hunt...chock full of the kind of misunderstandings that gave the show its charm. The two friends of Milburn Drysdale want to find out if that "Wizard of Wall Street", our poor mountaineer Jed Clampett, is a friend. Simply by accident one of the two men makes a bundle by buying wheat when Jed tells them "they can make a whole lot of bread" (to Jed it's the kind you make sandwiches with, natch). They want to find out about Crawdad Stock, which of course doesn't exist. The only Crawdads (or crayfish, which look like little lobsters or crabs) the Clampetts know about are the ones they got as part of a huge package from Aunt Pearl. The two big shots (one played by Addison Richards who sadly passed away before the episode aired) get to thinking about the Clampett Combine's fantastic inventions. They include Elly's baby Jaguar and Albino Possum (mistaken for genetic research, natch), Jethro's futile attempt to make the Crawdads last a month, and Granny's effort to send Rheumatiz medicine to Pearl after the revenuers try to stop still activity. This script should've won an Emmy. Just goes to show you...listen closely to what folks actually say.
The Beverly Hillbillies: Jed and the Countess (1965)
What Not Shops?
Just because Granny can't get the so-called ingredients to her so-called tonic at mainstream drug stores she insists on calling them What Not Shops, much to Jethro's chagrin. I always thought Jethro should've taken Granny to the Cement Pond and thrown her in more often. However, the end result is pure joy when Humphrey returns, has some tonic, turns into Tony The Tiger (complete with the voice of Tony provided by Thurlow Ravenscroft) and carries The Countess (the delightful Jean Willes) out of the house and off into the sunset!! It's the second part of the story started in the second season.....
Dellaventura (1997)
Loved it; like a great menu good shows it died too young!
Dellaventura was a short-lived, very innovative and very entertaining detective yarn. Danny Aiello gave fourteen bravura performances as the title character. He helped the little guy and had a loyal group of people with which to work. Like too many good people, it died too young. I loved how he closed out every episode: "If you need me, I'll be around." I just wish he'd been around longer.
Highway Patrol (1955)
Aired on MeTV
This classic show is run weekdays at 5:00AM EST on the MeTV network, just before Dragnet (1967-70). The only downside is the ending "public service" lines like "Leave your blood at the Red Cross, not on the way" are excised.
The House Without a Christmas Tree (1972)
A FORGOTTEN CLASSIC
I was a 15-year old HS Freshman when this first aired in December 1972. It aired for about five or six years then disappeared. I was fortunate to catch a Christmas Day showing on CBS in 1988 which I recorded on VHS then had transferred to DVD. Fine acting, excellent and poignant story line and an Emmy winning script. Jason Robards would go on to win an Oscar as Ben Bradlee in All The President's Men (1976). There are two facts about co-stars, one fun and one tragic. Kathryn Walker (the teacher) played the owner of the Chiefs in "Slap Shot", while Alexa Kenin (Carla Mae) died tragically of an unknown illness in 1985 at just 23.
Inside the NFL (1977)
THE BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA
When this show began in 1977, it effectively ended the weekly syndicated "This Week in Pro Football" show which ran from 1969-1975 and its one season successor "Pro Football Playback" half-hour show. NFL Films ran half-hour weekly syndicated shows for a couple of years until HBO became more readily available. Their "NFL Game of the Week" continued in syndication through the late 1980's, hosted mostly by legendary Philadelphia sportscaster Harry Kalas, who also was the lead voice of baseball's Philadelphia Phillies until his death in 2009.
This Is the NFL (1967)
MUST SEE TV BACK IN THE DAY
Before ESPN this syndicated show was the definitive way to see the best action of the previous week's games. Produced from its Philadelphia studios by NFL Films. Beginning in 1970, Pat Summerall and Tom Brookshier hosted the weekly show with occasional fill ins by Harry Kalas and Al Meltzer who were sportscasters based in Philadelphia.