The puppy love story continues......

Yesterday, I made mention of a Yahoo! article that told the story of six year old Hunter Yelton, who'd been suspended for kissing a female classmate on the hand, then branded a sex offender by his school district.

Well, as you might've figured, the district in Colorado backpedaled yesterday, and reinstated Hunter, reducing his offense to that of simple misconduct. Unfortunately, a woman who says her daughter is the object of Hunter's affection went on social media and claimed that it is sexual harassment after all.

Now, it becomes a case of he said, she said. The worst case scenario I can see out of all this is a dramatization of the events airing inside of a year or two from now on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, assuming the series will stick around that long.

Back to the story. The mother claims Hunter's been sneaking up on her daughter repeatedly, and has been reported by other students. As noted before, he'd served a previous suspension for an unrelated offense. But what's a boy to do when he feels the first pangs of puppy love at such a young age? I get that this mom is trying to protect her daughter, but what if her little girl really does like Hunter, like he says she does? Then mommy is going a wee bit too far.

Actually, this calls for Linda Ellerbee to revive Nick News on Nickelodeon to address this matter. There are lessons to be learned after all.

What Might've Been: Cimarron Strip (1967)

CBS was looking for another Western to complement Gunsmoke, if not also Wild, Wild West, and they thought they had it with Cimarron Strip. Unfortunately, not enough viewers seemed to agree.

Cimarron Strip, at 90 minutes, matched the length of NBC's The Virginian, which had a 5 year head start, but not the fan base. Stuart Whitman starred as Marshal Jim Crown, who had a lot more ground to cover, shall we say, than Matt Dillon (James Arness) did on Gunsmoke. Four years after the series' original premiere, CBS brought the show back to fill time during the season, and that's where I first ran across Cimarron Strip, a show that may actually have been before its time.

Here's the open:



Rating: A.

Now they want to outlaw puppy love

Children under the age of, say, 10, wouldn't understand the first thing about sex.

Which begs to ask why Hunter Yelton, 6, was suspended by his school district in Colorado, just for kissing a female classmate on the hand. Worse, the child has been listed by the district as a sex offender.

SAY WHAT??

It's one thing to have school administrators across the country over-react to kids using toy weapons or creating guns with their fingers or, in the case of a Pennsylvania boy, also suspended, gesturing as if to shoot a bow & arrow, likely inspired by the current CW series, Arrow. It's another thing altogether to emotionally traumatize a first grader who's barely able to make friends to begin with.

According to reports compiled by Yahoo!, the girl involved in this scenario was ok with Hunter giving her a loving peck on the hand---he'd previously kissed her on the cheek---which would suggest that there is mutual interest between the two. Back in the day, no one would've thought twice. Then again, no one would've thought twice back then about finger-guns when kids were playing "Cops & Robbers", either. Sadly, the small-minded administrators in young Mr. Yelton's school are refusing to budge from their position, however wrong though it is, which would almost certainly mean litigation is in order from the Yeltons, assuming they can afford to hire a lawyer.

I know the air is thin in Colorado, but this is beyond ridiculous.

Countdown to Christmas: Christmas is For Children (1968, 2013)

The other day, I happened to spot a Glen Campbell Christmas compilation CD, released by Capitol as part of the Icon series. So, I decided to buy it, since I wanted to hear his interpretations of classics like "Pretty Paper" and "The Christmas Song". In addition, there was a lesser known song that was the title cut to this 2013 reissue package, "Christmas is For Children", which was originally released in 1968.

Verycoolsound uploaded the song, and provided a sort-of universal greeting card, to boot. There hasn't been any actual footage from back in the 60's that I've been able to find of this track, so we'll take what we can get.

What Might've Been: Working Stiffs (1979)

Before he became a box office superstar in the 80's ("Mr. Mom", "Beetlejuice", "Batman", etc.), Michael Keaton had tried three different times to score in primetime. First, it was as part of Mary Tyler Moore's repertory company on her short-lived variety show. Then, it was this 1979 entry from Paramount & CBS, Working Stiffs, which paired him with Jim Belushi.

Now, I never saw the show, but I do remember ads for it airing in the summer of '79. Belushi & Keaton played a pair of knuckleheads whose apartment in Chicago wasn't exactly perfect for a bachelor pad. Allan Arbus (M*A*S*H), Val Bisoglio (ex-Roll Out), & Lorna Patterson (later of Private Benjamin) co-star. Producers Nick Abdo, Bob Brunner, & Arthur Silver had worked on Garry Marshall's family of sitcoms over on ABC (i.e. Happy Days), so the pedigree was there, but it was on the wrong night.

Here's the open:



No rating.

Classic TV: The Bob Cummings Show (aka Love That Bob)(1955)

"Hold it! I think you're going to like this picture!"

I don't know if that was actually a catchphrase professional photographers used back in the 50's, but it was Bob Cummings' catchphrase to open his self-titled 1955-9 sitcom, which bounced back & forth between NBC & CBS after debuting as a mid-season replacement in January 1955.

Bob Collins (Cummings) was a playboy shutterbug based out of L.A., living with his sister and nephew. Over the course of the series' five season run, there were the usual, predictable misadventures. Cummings also would periodically double up and play Grandpa Collins, such as in this Christmas offering from season 2. There are the subtle clues that give this away in the course of the episode.

Series creator Paul Henning had been a writer for Burns & Allen, and of course would go on to greater success with the trilogy of sitcoms he produced in the 60's (Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, & Green Acres). Dwayne Hickman (Chuck) followed up with The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. Rosemary DeCamp would later surface in the late 60's series, That Girl. Finally, Ann B. Davis (Charmaine "Schultzy" Schultz) gained iconic status with The Brady Bunch and reprised as Schultzy in, of all things, the first "Brady Bunch Movie" with Shelley Long in the 90's.

"Grandpa's Christmas Visit", like some of the other entries this week, and leading up to Christmas, appears in better condition on a "Holiday Classics" DVD compilation released by Mill Creek 2 years ago. I note this because of an apparent jump cut early in this print.



Rating: C.

Countdown to Christmas: Frosty the Snowman (1990)

21 years after Jimmy Durante spun the tale of Frosty the Snowman on TV for the first time, there was a brand new recording of the song that inspired the cartoon. This one's a duet between erstwhile detergent salesman Leon Redbone (who was better known at my house for shilling for All detergent in the 80's) and Dr. John. Dig it!

The clip is taken from the former TBS series, Night Tracks. Appropriately, there is a YouTube channel named after the show.