Here's the real lowdown on Watson, the computer that bested two champion players on Jeopardy! They left out the clip of Watson's father getting bested by Arlene Francis on the old What's My Line? and failing to balance a golf ball on its nose (largely because it didn't have a nose) on Beat the Clock…
This is a rerun of a video clip I linked to a while back…but this is a much better copy that's pretty much in sync and it has the lead-in. Here from the 1944 movie Broadway Rhythm, we give you one of the rare film appearances of the unforgettable Ross Sisters…
Back in 1997, a musical debuted on Broadway called The Life, all about hookers and pimps. It ran a little over a year and won a few awards but I don't think audiences liked it a lot, largely because of the subject matter and the characters. It was one of those "I don't know who to root for in this" stories. I found myself not caring about those people on stage or what happened to them. I'm going to guess that's why there apparently haven't been a lot of productions of it since.
I didn't like the story but I enjoyed a number of the songs. Ira Gasman, who also did the book, wrote the lyrics. Cy Coleman wrote the music and it was the last real musical he did that for. Here in some TV performance (looks like the Today show to me) we have Sam Harris and some supporting players performing "Mr. Greed," which is a tune I rather liked…
This has poor video and it's out of sync…but it's too good not to share here. Steve March-Tormé was doing a club date one evening years ago and he brought his old man up to share the stage with him…
Here's a guy making incredible football tosses. When I see things like this, I wonder how many "takes" were involved. I mean, I could make some of these shots if I threw the ball 4000 times. But some I couldn't…and there are enough of those that I assume he didn't make 4000 attempts to achieve the others. So it's pretty impressive, I guess…
Art Nichols, a fine artist in his own right, sent me to this. It's an old TV commercial using the artistry of illustrator Burne Hogarth…
if you (like me) didn't watch the Super Bowl, you might be interested in this highlight reel…no, not of the game. Of the commercials.
This is in Chinese but if you aren't fluent in that tongue, the language won't get in your way. It's a series of pretty decent magic tricks…but what's interesting to me is that if you know magic and know how these feats are accomplished, you'll probably think the first few are the more difficult and therefore more impressive. If you don't know, you'll probably think the grand finale is the most impressive. Thanks to Gordon Kent for telling me about this…and you may want to go full-screen for this one…
Following up to a video clip from a few days ago, here's more of Gene Kelly dancing while sitting down, this time with Donald O'Connor…
And if the dance looks familiar, it's possible you saw the video used in this Volkswagen commercial. Thanks to Bruce Reznick for the umpteenth time…
Phil Silvers once said the bravest thing he ever did in his life was dancing in a scene with Gene Kelly. Here we see Julie Andrews being equally brave. Thanks to the very brave Bruce Reznick for telling me about this…
I'm not 100% sure what this is. I think it's the West End company of Spamalot performing a medley of songs from their show at some sort of theatrical event or TV special. Anyway, it's 13.5 minutes from the show, not necessarily in sequence…
From 1975, celebrity panelists try to pick out the real Bill Hanna (of Hanna-Barbera) on the TV game show, To Tell the Truth. You will not hear a lot of correct answers from any of the possibe Bill Hannas but you will hear Daws Butler dubbing new dialogue into old clips…
This is, for me, the most important moment in baseball in years…
Here we have eight minutes from Shenanigans, a game show for kids that ran on ABC on Saturday mornings in 1964 and 1965. The host was Stubby Kaye, the announcer was Kenny Williams and the whole show was an indirect commercial for Milton-Bradley games, interrupted occasionally by direct commercials for Milton-Bradley games.
The series had a long genesis that started on local TV in New York with a much-less-elaborate kids' game show called Shenanigans, hosted and produced by a man named Bob Quigley. Mr. Quigley later moved from in front of the camera to behind, partnering with a gent named Merrill Heatter to produce game shows. One of their first successes was with a show for CBS called Video Village which had contestants running around on a giant game board. Kenny Williams was its announcer, as well. It aired from 1960 to 1962. For part of that time, there was a Saturday morning version called either Video Village Jr. or Kideo Village. As I recall, TV Guide consistently started with one name and changed to the other.
Two years later, Heatter-Quigley retooled the kids' version into the show you see before you which used Quigley's old title. I liked Mr. Kaye a lot and the way he sang the title song. This was one of the last game shows ever produced with live music on stage. (I wonder why, in the age of synthesizers, no one has tried that again.) I thought the game itself was kinda silly and at times, condescending to children. Still, it's sad to hear that most of the episodes of this program are forever lost. There are two fuzzy copies that make the rounds of the collectors' market and that may be all that survives. Here's a little sampler edited from one of them…
Marlene Dietrich singing a song from Dreamgirls. That's the premise. Here, at the suggestion of Tim Dunleavy, is the video which stars Christianne Tisdale…