Category Archives: Video Links

Just in case no one's sent you a link to this already…

Eric Idle…being more factual (probably) than Orson Welles was in yesterday's clip…

Here's another one of those Orson Welles TV shows for the BBC…and can you imagine someone today doing a program that consisted of nothing more than one person telling stories from his life for fifteen minutes? As usual, Welles is a gripping storyteller and he almost manages to make you believe that all these things actually happened.The part about the "Negro" Macbeth is probably true to some extent even if its punchline isn't.

Here's another promo for MeTV with Carl Reiner.

Some of you may have been wondering what the heck MeTV is. I was too until recently. MeTV is a channel that can be seen on cable in a handful of markets — Chicago, Racine, South Bend…one or two others. It features naught but reruns of classic TV, primarily sitcoms — The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Honeymooners, Mork & Mindy, Get Smart, McHale's Navy, Maude, etc. The same parent company also operates Me Too, which is a channel featuring drama — The Twilight Zone, Kojak, M Squad, Rat Patrol, etc. I'm guessing these channels (and the competing Retro Television Network) don't turn up on my DirecTV satellite feed because the rights to broadcast those shows are for limited areas so as not to conflict with something like Nickelodeon airing them. So all we get to see out here are things like this commercial with Mr. Reiner…

Whatever happened to Batman? He used to fight crime and uphold morality. Now, he's a cheap panhandler who you can see, in the video below, carted off by the police in handcuffs. Me, I blame the folks who write the comics. But at least the cops had the decency not to remove his mask when they arrested him…

Hey, what was on NBC's daytime schedule in 1967?

And while we're at it, what did they have on in the evenings, commencing in Fall of that year?

This is one of those audience-shot cell phone jobbies that will probably be taken off YouTube before long but you might as well grab a peek while it's there. It's a few minutes from Conan O'Brien's show at Radio City Music Hall when he was joined on stage by Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart for a dance-off.

I always really liked Conan when he was talking to guests or Andy and generally playing straight man the way Mr. Carson used to do for others. I was never as fond of O'Brien when he was singing or dancing or trying to be the wacky guy on stage. His 12:35 show, I thought, suffered a lot from that in its last year or two (which may be why Craig Ferguson started beating him) and his Tonight Show did, as well. Nevertheless, this is kinda funny…

In 1955, Orson Welles did a series of 15-minute programs for the BBC — little monologues about acting and life and the intersection of those two activities. Someone has posted a few to YouTube, each in two parts. If I've configured the player below correctly, it should play the two parts of the first installment, one after the other. You'll want to watch this to see Mr. Welles' vast ability to take anecdotes that are either mundane or probably spurious and make them sound interesting and probable…

In 1965, Mary Martin took a very courageous troupe of actors on a tour of Vietnam with a production of Hello, Dolly! My friend Shelly Goldstein thought it would make a perfect video link here for Memorial Day and she's right. Give a listen to the special lyrics she sings at the curtain call…

This is a music video excerpted, I believe, from the 1980 underground cult film, Forbidden Zone.The tune is "Pico and Sepulveda," as originally recorded in 1947 by "Felix Figueroa," which was reportedly a bogus name for some secret configuration of Freddy Martin's band.The record gained fame in the seventies when Dr. Demento featured it often on his popular radio program.

I've heard the song oodles of times but I was somehow unaware of the writer credits on it.The lyrics were penned by Eddie Maxwell, who was a writer and occasional performer with Spike Jones.The music, I was surprised to learn, was by Jule Styne.That's right: Jule Styne.The man who wrote the score for Gypsy, Funny Girl, Bells Are Ringing and so many more. He even wrote the music for Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. How did I not know 'til now that he also wrote "Pico and Sepulveda?" (I don't know when he wrote it but Styne was a very prominent songwriter by 1947.The year before, he had a huge hit when Sinatra recorded, "Five Minutes More." In 1947, Doris Day introduced "It's Magic" in a movie, Sinatra introduced "Time After Time" and Styne and his main lyricist, Sammy Cahn, had their first Broadway hit with High Button Shoes, which introduced "Papa, Won't You Dance With Me?"

And to think: 1947 was also the year he had "Pico and Sepulveda" not climbing the charts…or at least, not climbing very far. Here's the tune itself…

Alan Brady comes out of retirement to do a promo for Dick Van Dyke Show reruns…

And speaking of being remembered after you go: Dennis Hopper, as you've probably heard, has died at the age of 74. Given the legendary ways in which he was known to abuse his body, a lot of folks are probably amazed that he made it to that age. When Hopper was interviewed in the last decade or so, he seemed to be surprised, too.

This is video of what I guess was his last public appearance. March 26, he was there for the unveiling of his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His speech is excerpted in two chunks in this clip and the second part seems particularly poignant today. Glad he stuck around long enough to see his name in the sidewalk…

I linked to a slightly different version of this three years ago. It's the trailer for a documentary about Irv Benson, the last surviving burlesque comic. In the eighties and early nineties, Irv played in Vegas and Reno and I was known to drag friends to shows of varying shabbiness to watch the old pro perform, usually in tandem with the last surviving burlesque straight man, Dexter Maitland. Dexter is no longer with us but Irv's still around and we're still waiting for this film about him and his life…

It's always nice when someone performs a great song the way it was meant to be heard…

Here's a commercial that may run in your area when the touring company of Young Frankenstein is in town. We love Mel Brooks and we kinda liked the show…at least, the production we saw on Broadway. But we think this is the worst commercial we've ever seen for anything…