Sports this 'n' that

 As the College World Series winds to a close tonight in Omaha, with the series between SEC rivals Vanderbilt and Mississippi State even at 1 game apiece, some GOPers in North Carolina are butt-hurt over the fact that the NCAA effectively removed the North Carolina State Wolfpack from the semi-finals due to COVID-19 issues that erupted last weekend.

The Wolfpack were left with 13 available players last Friday, and ended up losing to Vanderbilt, and, in the wee small ones on Saturday morning, players & coaches were told their run was over because the NCAA didn't want to take a chance on the situation worsening.

But, unfortunately, the GOPers of Tar Heel country aren't having it, and are demanding an apology from the NCAA. Good luck with that. You've got a better chance of Deputy Dawg getting write-in votes for governor in the next election than getting an apology just because your last chance for a national title went kaputski.

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It was news on Tuesday when Serena Williams was forced to retire in her first round match at Wimbledon due to an ankle injury.

The tournament traditionally runs into weather problems on a seemingly annual basis, and this is the first tournament since 2019. Other players have experienced issues on the grass courts, and one wonders why they don't think of putting tarpaulin on the courts, like they do in baseball & softball when it rains.

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The Yankees did something nice the other day. 

Seems there was a woman who'd yearned to be a bat girl for the team as a youth 60 years ago, and was denied. So, according to Yahoo!, the Bombers let her suit up to make up for the slight. This might've been the brightest moment in an otherwise dreadful weekend after getting swept again by the Boston Red Sox.

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By now, you've heard about Seattle pitcher Hector Santiago, a 10 year journeyman, being the first one ejected for using banned substances, although he claims all he had was resin & sweat. Santiago is appealing a 10 game suspension, but what's the point of the appeal? Apparently, Santiago didn't get the memo that was issued a couple of weeks back. Everyone else is behaving like solid citizens so far, other than Washington's Max Scherzer and Santiago.

Seems to me certain media sharks are waiting for some big fish, like the Dodgers' Trevor Bauer or the Yankees' Gerrit Cole, to get nailed. Yeah, sure, like that'll happen.

Tabloid Carlson lies on the air, and a man-baby swears by it. Just another day in the land of the brainless

 Monday night, Tabloid Carlson claimed that the National Security Agency (NSA) was spying on him.

Tuesday, the NSA issued a statement denying this happened:

Tabloid is trying to play the victim here, but he has no case. The NSA, as stated above, is only in business to cut down foreign spies, not domestic cases. For Tabloid, it was a slow news day. Later Tuesday, Tabloid doubled down on his lying, and, of course, America's Oldest Baby supported him.

So why is Tabloid lying on the air? Because it's an easy way to get the attention of his low information viewer base, aka the Legion of The Brainwashed. Besides, it's not the NSA's place to knock Carlson off the air, as he's claiming. That would be the role of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) if they felt that Carlson abused his position to intentionally misinform his audience, and there's certainly a case for that. This time, Carlson can't hide behind the schtick that he's "just asking questions" or stating opinions. He is openly lying to the public, that's all there is to it. Fox Shmooze can't save him from litigation this time, and they shouldn't. Instead, they're complicit for allowing him to present lies as facts.

One of these days, the FCC will be the one to shut down Tabloid and the rest of the Fox Shmooze Liars' Club. It's inevitable.

A little of this and a little of that

 Let's give the NY GOP some credit.

A recent straw poll of the party shows that Lee Zelkin would be the GOP candidate for Governor in the next election, opposite incumbent Andrew Cuomo, who has already said he'd run for a 4th term, which, if memory serves me correctly, would surpass his late father, Mario, who followed fellow Democrat Hugh Carey into the governor's mansion in the 80's.

Photo courtesy NY Daily News, via Yahoo!

I know what you're thinking. Who is this Lee Zelkin? All we know is that he garnered a whopping 85% in the straw poll. However, he doesn't have widespread name recognition. Rob Astorino, whom Cuomo beat in 2014, thinks he should be the nominee, but apparently, getting his butt kicked at the polls convinced the party that he's damaged goods.

Speaking of damaged goods, Andrew Giuliani finished dead last with absolutely 0%. I've heard of votes of no confidence before, but this is the grand prize. You can't say I didn't warn you that Rudy's legal problems would kill his son's political ambitions. Thanks for coming, Andrew. How 'bout checking your pops into Bellevue, then finding another line of work?

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While Citizen Pampers won't be polluting the air in Alabama on July 4 with another pathetic plea for sympathy under the guise of a political rally, he let loose with another tantrum on Sunday after it got out that Senator Pruneface (Mitch McConnell) had advised then-Attorney General William Barr to speak out against the then-president's whining and lying about the election. Of course, America's Oldest Baby didn't take too kindly to this.

"WAAAAHHHHHHHH! WAAAAHHHHH!!"

Barr, you'll recall, resigned right before the holidays, but it appears he'd had enough of coddling a man-child with no morals or scruples. According to ABC's Jonathan Karl, who has a book coming out in November, McConnell couldn't come right out and slam then-President Pampers "for political reasons" (read: prolonging the inevitable), so he felt Barr was the only one who could.

In Alabama, they don't want a partisan rally on the 4th, preferring instead a non-partisan, patriotic celebration. Can you blame them? Knowing Citizen Pampers, he'll find an excuse to pollute the air in any way he can to satisfy his obsessive-compulsive need for attention, ignorant of the fact that in New York, his organization is in serious legal trouble, and his lawyers think Diaper Don won't be charged. Oh? Really? Maybe they know he's bound for Bellevue.

Weasel of The Week: Dion Cimi

 Dion Cimi has no shame.

You'll recall that Mr. Cimi has been ejected from Yankee Stadium, Citi Field, Citizens Bank Park, & Fenway Park, but not banished by the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, or Phillies, for unfurling a banner claiming that Donald Trump won the 2020 election.

However, he's since received a letter from Major League Baseball that says he's been banned from all 30 MLB stadiums. He posted the letter in a selfie on social media thus:

Like I said, no shame.

But instead of taking the hint, Cimi decided to encourage fellow Trumpian sheep to follow in his footsteps. Some idiots decided to take him up on it at a Miami Marlins game earlier this month.

I get MLB's position. With the All-Star game 2 weeks away in Denver, the last thing they need is this attention seeking jabroni crashing the party, hence the blanket ban. Keep in mind, this Weasel threatened litigation against the Red Sox for throwing him out of Fenway.

Get a clue. Free speech is one thing, but perpetuating a false notion that Trump won the election when in reality he got his butt whooped seven ways to Sunday nearly 7 months ago is getting you a one way ticket to a deprogramming center. The closest in your case, Mr. Cimi, is Bellevue. Wake up and smell the reality, pal. You and the rest of the sheep need to open your eyes to the fact that Trump got smacked down at the polls, regardless of what that con man says to the contrary. If you're lucky, he'll be joining you at Bellevue one day, so you can both model how fashionable Weasel ears look with straitjackets.

This desk cut you slack the first time, but now, you're just another loser.

A half-blind, brain dead GOPer butts in where he doesn't belong. Again.

 Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw might want to start thinking about his post-political career.

Photo courtesy of Yahoo!

Crenshaw went on Fox & Friends earlier today and whined about Olympic hopeful Gwen Berry turning her back when the National Anthem was played after she finished 3rd in the hammer throw. Berry, an African American, was taking a stand against systemic racism, among other things.

And, so, here we go again. A white GOPer taking on an African-American athlete, demanding that Berry not be on the Olympic track & field team heading to Tokyo next month.

While Berry might not be able to pass muster with the International Olympic Committee, which frowns upon political protests, that isn't enough for Crenshaw, who, like the rest of the Repugnants, doesn't care. 

As far as Crenshaw and other whiny Repugnants with nothing better to do than complain about small, insignificant molehill items to inflame their base, they remind us of a certain Saturday Night Live skit from the 80's.

Fittingly, Joe Piscopo (Doug Whiner) is a GOPer himself these days. I'll bet he's had Crenshaw or some other GOPer jackanapes on his morning show. I wonder if they're offering cheese croissants with the whine......

A Classic Reborn: You Bet Your Life (1980)

 Game show icon and radio personality Bob Eubanks decided to give producing a try in the 80's. His first effort was reviving Groucho Marx's seminal quiz, You Bet Your Life, which ended up lasting just one season.

Part of the problem might've been comedian Buddy Hackett, a recurring panelist on Hollywood Squares, headlining his own series for the first time since the sitcom, Stanley, back in the 50's. Hackett did an opening monologue before the games began, something Richard Dawson would do in a failed 1988 revival pilot.

Unlike other iterations of the series, contestants went solo, instead of in random pairings. Apparently, Eubanks thought that might help speed the games along. That's not always true, as this sample episode shows:

Beginning with the Dawson pilot, the team of Marcy Carsey & Tom Werner (The Cosby Show, Roseanne, etc.) gained the rights to the series, and got one season out of having Bill Cosby as host. 

The reason we bring this up is because Bet is returning this fall, with Jay Leno and his former bandleader from The Tonight Show, Kevin Eubanks (no relation to Bob) as host and sidekick. This one could end up failing, too.

Rating: B.

Count the clues to learn a secret: Password on I've Got a Secret (1972)

 When Goodson-Todman revived I've Got a Secret in syndication in 1972, they were hoping it'd have the staying power it had when it was on CBS in the 50's & 60's. Steve Allen, who'd succeeded Garry Moore a few years into the CBS run, had returned, now with a rotating (mostly) panel that included Henry Morgan, a holdover from the previous series (Bill Cullen was on Bob Stewart's speed dial, if they had those things back then), and Richard Dawson, who'd move over to Match Game after this iteration of Secret bit the dust.

Anita Gillette and Pat Carroll join the guys and special guest Allen Ludden for this episode, in which Ludden has the panel play a bizarre round of Password......

Now, that, as the kids say today, was cray-cray.

Rating: A.

Mike Whinedell now says Citizen Pampers won the election. Would someone wake him up from his delusions already?

 In a sketch on The Carol Burnett Show, which pre-dated the spinoff, Mama's Family, Thelma Harper (Vicki Lawrence) berates daughter Eunice (Burnett) by telling her she has "splinters in the windmills of your mind". You've seen that excerpt in infomercials for video collections of the Burnett show.

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell definitely has splinters in the windmills of his mind, and they're probably broken pieces of said windmills. How else to explain his latest outrageous claim, this one in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, that Donald Trump actually won the 2020 election, but Whinedell won't disclose his findings until he goes before the Supreme Court.

Farron Cousins breaks it all down.

I've said this all along. If you've got the evidence, bring it forward now so we all can see it. Don't withhold it for something that isn't going to happen. In other words, Whinedell is not going to be before the Supreme Court any time soon, unless he's handcuffed and in a straitjacket.

This is definitely not Christian behavior, and Whinedell, like a lot of Christians, was deceived by Citizen Pampers. We took a few moments to locate one of Whindell's advisors....

"Duuhhh, no comment!"

Predictable.

A Classic Reborn: Celebrity Dating Game (2021)

 During The Dating Game's original run (1965-74, ABC), there were the occasional celebrity guests. This carried over into the initial syndicated version, which included a minor crossover with The Gong Show, with Jaye P. Morgan as the featured guest, and executive producer (and Gong host) Chuck Barris making an appearance, pretending to be a janitor. The ABC run had plenty of star power, with the likes of Don Rickles, Sally Field, Michael Jackson, Richard Dawson, Bill Bixby, Casey Kasem, Andy Kaufman, Adam West (Batman), and the Brady Bunch's Barry Williams & Maureen McCormick appearing as either bachelors/bachelorettes or contestants. Paul Lynde appeared twice, and after H. R. Pufnstuf moved from NBC to ABC, the Krofft dragon was a guest.

22 years after the last syndicated series ended, the Dating Game is back, and this time, common folks need not apply.

Celebrity Dating Game anchors ABC's Monday lineup, and as with the revival of College Bowl over on NBC on Tuesdays, this series airs at a much later time than previous iterations.

Singer-actress Zooey Deschanel (ex-New Girl) and crooner Michael Bolton are the hosts, and, in this video, they explain the new version:

While I'm not entirely sure about this, history was made on the June 21 episode with the first same-sex pairing, as Carson Kressley (RuPaul's Drag Race, ex-Queer Eye For The Straight Guy) played the first game of the night. Maybe that explains the 10 pm (ET) berth, to keep the media nannies from complaining, even though they will, anyway.

Bolton sings some clues a cappella, and while his voice is still as strong as ever, physically, the years have not been kind to him, and this is after his collaboration with the Lonely Island a few years back. Zooey is the gate attraction, but it's clear she's reading from cue cards. Not a good look.

This is the first revival of a Barris property on ABC since Gong spent two summers on the network a ways back with Mike Myers posing as a fictional British comic. The format for Celebrity Dating Game, however, needs work.

Rating: C-.

The first domino falls: Rudy Giuliani disbarred pro tempore (for now)

 Nearly 20 years after he was christened, "America's Mayor", in the wake of 9/11/01, Rudy Giuliani is in some deep, very hot, legal waters.

This morning, a state appeals court slapped Giuliani with a temporary suspension of his license to practice law due to his perpetuating and supporting Donald Trump's "big lie" that the 2020 election was stolen.

Photo courtesy of the New York Times.

It's not like we didn't see this coming. This was, after all, all but inevitable. A fictional barrister like the late Andy Griffith's Matlock would be more credible than Giuliani at this point. Giuliani is also wilting under the pressure of twin defamation suits brought against him by Dominion Voting Systems and its professional rival, Smartmatic.

Note, too, that the suspension is temporary, and Giuliani has 20 days to file a request for a hearing for reinstatement. The deadline, then, would be July 14.

The long term ramifications are these. A permanent loss of license would not only hurt Giuliani, but all but kill his son Andrew's chances of becoming governor of NY next year. Giuliani recently endorsed GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, and a prominent radio personality in the city, for Mayor of NYC. That endorsement could very well be the kiss of death if Giuliani gets into further legal trouble between now and November 2, Election Day.

It won't be long before Trump issues some sort of whiny statement on the matter. We think.

Update, 7:12 pm (ET): And here it is:

"WAAAAAAH!! It's a witch hunt! WAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

Update, 7:24 pm (ET): Finally, the cherry on top of the pie, Andrew's reaction, with commentary by Brian Tyler Cohen:

Giuliani's downfall is indeed sad & tragic, and of his own making. And Andrew is already making the case of why he won't win the governor's mansion next year.

Sports this 'n' that

 The NHL's NY Islanders are planning on leaving Nassau County Veterans Memorial Coliseum again, this time for a shiny new arena near Belmont Park in Elmont.

However, the team's fans, unsure if the Isles can get past Tampa Bay to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals, pelted the ice with empty beer cans after the Islanders forced a game 7 in their semi-final series Wednesday night, 3-2.

The Islanders briefly had relocated to Brooklyn a few years back, sharing the Barclays Center with the Nets while the Coliseum underwent renovations and/or the team raised money for the new arena. It's been 40 years since their golden era as one of the premier franchises in the NHL, and their comeback story has flown under the radar while the Nets & Knicks made playoff runs of their own in the NBA. But, with the basketball season over in New York, the Islanders can contend for the back pages with the Mets & Yankees just a wee bit longer.

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Ms. Moldy Peaches has struck again.

We're referring, of course, to Georgia airhead Marjorie Taylor Greene, who came out in support via Twitter of NFL players, including Buffalo's Cole Beasley and Carolina's Sam Darnold, the latter of whom came over from the Jests in the off-season, who are refusing to be vaccinated for COVID-19, even though the NFL has regulations in place.

Unsurprisingly, MTG got roasted yet again on Twitter for her ignorance. You've heard the expression, "children should be seen and not heard"? In Ms. Peaches' case, she shouldn't be seen or heard. And you know what she gets for this.....

This was too easy. We'll send a peach-colored Dunce Cap to Washington.

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On Monday, Major League Baseball began cracking down on pitchers using foreign substances in order to get a better grip on the baseball. Mets ace Jacob deGrom had no problem with it, and handled it with a smile. On Wednesday, however, the same fans booed the umpiring team for giving rookie Tylor Megill one last inspection as he left the game in the 5th inning of a 7-3 win over Atlanta. Megill handled it like a pro, same as deGrom, but the fans weren't having it. They have to get used to it, though.

While deGrom and Angels superstar Shohei Ohtani treated the umps with respect, Oakland's Sergio Romo and Washington's Max Scherzer, the latter of whom is on a Players Association committee on the subject, turned it into a theatre of the absurd. Romo dropped trou, and Scherzer threatened to do the same after being asked for a 3rd inspection by Philadelphia manager Joe Girardi.

Girardi was subsequently ejected when it looked like he was ready to throw down with Scherzer, which would've only made things worse for both the Nationals & Phillies, as if MLB hadn't already been embarassed.

Another MLBPA committee member, the Yankees' Zach Britton, has suggested that the starters should be inspected before the game, out of the fans' view, and he's right, especially after the unplanned theatrics on Tuesday. Either the umps, or an inspector from MLB assigned to the game, can meet with the pitchers on each team before the game, say, about 5-10 minutes before game time, in a neutral area in the ballpark. If a player has to be ejected for having a foreign substance on his person, it gives his manager time to make a change before the game. Simple as that.

Speaking of Girardi, who was a fan favorite as a player and manager with the Yankees, expect the Citi Field faithful to boo him out of the building this weekend when the Phillies come to Queens, especially if he tries to play his gamesmanship card, as he did with Scherzer and the Nationals on Tuesday.

Musical Interlude: Walk The Dinosaur (1987-9)

 Was (Not Was) spent four years recording their breakthrough album, "What Up, Dog?", and the most successful single, the bouncy "Walk The Dinosaur", peaked at #7 on the Hot 100 in 1989. Sweet Pea Atkinson & Sir Henry Bowens share vocal duties on the track, and the video features excerpts from "Daffy Duck & The Dinosaur".

The cassette single released here in the US by Chrysalis had "Wedding Vows in Vegas", with guest vocalist Frank Sinatra, Jr., as the flip side.

A Classic Reborn (NOT!): Capital One College Bowl (2021)

 Television has given us its share of great comedy teams over the years, including..

Abbott & Costello, who'd already conquered movies & radio.

Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis (ditto).

Ralph Kramden & Ed Norton (Jackie Gleason & Art Carney, The Honeymooners).

Fred & Lamont Sanford (Redd Foxx & Demond Wilson, Sanford & Son).

Fred Flintstone & Barney Rubble (Alan Reed & Mel Blanc, The Flintstones).

Ben Stein & Jimmy Kimmel (Win Ben Stein's Money).

Unfortunately, NBC picked now to give us one of the worst.

More than 50 years since it ended its first run on NBC, the College Bowl returned Tuesday night for a 10 week summer run. However, there's a couple of things wrong with it. To wit:

1. It's on at the wrong time (10 pm ET makes no sense, since the original Bowl aired on Sunday afternoons or early evenings on CBS & NBC between 1959-70).

2. Entrusting hosting duties to telegenically challenged Peyton Manning, with brother Cooper as his sidekick, is even worse. The brothers are also given executive producer credit (along with brother Eli), but it's clear after week 1 that Peyton never took a course in Game Show MC 101. 

Now, I get what they're trying to do with the Mannings here. They're ripping off ABC's revival of To Tell The Truth, which has host Anthony Anderson trading quips with his mom during the game. I'd say they were also trying for the Stein-Kimmel vibe, but, nope. Instead, they come across as NBC's answer to the Pyle cousins, Goober & Gomer (George Lindsey & Jim Nabors, The Andy Griffith Show), despite Cooper being the more telegenic of the two.

NBC's YouTube channel offers a trailer:

Peyton's problem, as demonstrated in the first episode, is that he leaves the Q & A cards on the desk, instead of picking one up and reading it in such a way that allows him to have some eye contact with the contestants. His ESPN+ series, Peyton's Places, is reality show fluff that he's more comfortable with.

But, then, you have to ask, what are the chances NBC & Capital One, along with Universal & Village Roadshow, brings this back next year?

Maybe this helps:

Maybe Peyton should see about doing a remake of "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town". That's more his speed.

Rating: C-.

Just how paranoid was Donald Trump? He wanted to sue Saturday Night Live!

 To illustrate just how thin-skinned Donald Trump is and always has been, the former President considered filing a lawsuit against NBC's Saturday Night Live as far back as 2019.

"WAAAAHHH!!! They're not funny! They hate me! WAAAAHHHH!!"

But, America's Oldest Baby couldn't get his way. You see, satire is protected under the 1st Amendment protections for free speech. We all know Trump absolutely hated frequent guest Alec Baldwin's portrayal of him, but critics loved Baldwin.

Nearly six months after leaving office, we're learning more and more about what went on in the White House during the Trump administration, as there are books coming out that would expose more of Trump's paranoia, including the fact that, in the case of SNL or ABC host Jimmy Kimmel, Trump thought the equal time rules should be used. He even praised MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell after a recent appearance on Kimmel's show, and likely will send more plaudits after Lindell appeared on The Daily Show last week.

Trump's warped worldview is what influences the GOPers, because he believes everything has to be about and revolve around him. The GOPers don't dare offend him, otherwise there will be this:

"WAAAHHHH! WAAAAHHHHH! WAAAAHHHH!"

A Password crossover on I've Got a Secret (1961)

 Sometime in the fall of 1961, CBS felt they needed to maximize interest in the newly launched Password with a demonstration game included in an episode of I've Got a Secret. However, likely due to his other series, GE College Bowl, which was also on CBS at the time, host Allen Ludden was unavailable. Actress Vivian Vance (a year away from The Lucy Show) steps in to assist Secret host Garry Moore.

What results is a hilarious comedy of errors with Secret panelists Bill Cullen (The Price is Right), Betsy Palmer, Henry Morgan, & Bess Myerson. Eleven years later, Ludden would do another Password demonstration on the syndicated Secret with Steve Allen. At that time, Password had moved to ABC. We'll have that one up another time.

Also on this episode:

A man with a literally $3,000 suit.

Moore & Cullen demonstrate the then-new Polaroid instant camera in an in-show ad.

A contestant fills the stage with soap bubbles.

It'll air again on Buzzr sometime soon.

Rating: B.

Sports this 'n' that

 Screamin' A. Cosell (Stephen A. Smith) may've upset the NBA's plans for the Eastern Conference finals in the eyes of a few people.

It wasn't so long ago that America's Sports Idiot declared that if the Philadelphia 76ers and Brooklyn Nets met in the conference finals, Philadelphia would fall.

As it happens, Captain Clueless jinxed both teams. The Nets were eliminated on Saturday by the Milwaukee Bucks, and the Sixers were upset by the Atlanta Hawks last night, setting up an improbable conference final.

Stick to selling beef jerky, Stephen. It identifies what you are better than anything you've said.

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Most fans in the home district, when it comes to baseball, identify as Yankee fans.

However, when you have one of your own pitching in the bigs, it becomes must-see TV.

To that end, Shenendehowa grad Ian Anderson returns to Citi Field for the 2nd time this season today to face the Mets and their ace, 2-time Cy Young winner, and, as of now, a heavy favorite to win it again, Jacob deGrom, he of the microscopic 0.54 ERA headed into today's game.

You can bet that sports bars all over Saratoga County, including Anderson's hometown of Rexford, will be tuning in to SNY (Spectrum Cable channel 320).

Between Anderson and the Hawks' Kevin Huerter, Shen Nation has plenty to cheer about these days.

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For years, we've seen morons run onto the field in baseball & football, and there've been incidents of alcohol-fueled stupidity during the NBA playoffs.

And, then, there's this anonymous simpleton who ran onto the course during the US Open at Torrey Pines, just outside of San Diego, on Sunday.

What this idiot did was run out onto the course, club in hand, pull a ball out of his pocket while on the fairway, and take a couple of swings before security finally bum-rushed the clown off the course and to the nearest precinct. For what it's worth, I'm hoping they sedated this geek with nothing but Andy Williams records.

For those of you of a certain age, Williams had hosted the PGA tour stop at Torrey Pines for many years, one of a fair number of celebrities who were attached to the PGA and their network partners, like, for example, Bing Crosby at Pebble Beach (now sponsored by AT&T), Glen Campbell in Los Angeles, Danny Thomas hosted the St. Jude event in Memphis, and, of course, Bob Hope teamed with Chrysler for the 5-day Desert Classic. As Don Henley sang, nearly 40 years ago, those days are gone forever.

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Watched a little bit of the Vegas-Montreal NHL playoff game last night. What we can't figure is how Montreal, for many years an Eastern Conference team, was in the Western half of the Stanley Cup bracket, or did the league decide to just pick 16 teams based on records?

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Peacock experimented with carrying the Giants-Phillies series over the weekend, and, well, it was fun. Apparently, someone introduced Giants (and ex-ESPN) play-by-play announcer Jon Miller to NutriSystem, as it looks like he's dropped some weight since leaving ESPN. While both San Francisco and Philadelphia are linked with NBC's regional cable outlets, we're thinking that NBC-Universal-Comcast wants back in on the Game of The Week, and will use Peacock as an outlet. We're all for it.

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After a failed acting career, WWE wrestler Eva Marie decided to return to the promotion, and picked up where she left off.

Eva's gimmick, it seems, is to avoid physical contact at all costs. This was her gig on Smackdown in late 2016, but it got short-circuited because of a wellness violation, and then, she decided to leave. Nearly 5 years later, she's back, and has a new sidekick, Doudrop (aka Piper Niven from NXT UK), doing her fighting for her so she can maximize the heat from the audience. Unfortunately, she's taking credit for Niven pinning Naomi (Trinity Fatu) last week on Raw, as part of the revamped storyline. This will not end well.

Just as unfortunate are the internet trolls who decided it'd be cool to fat-shame Niven for no other reason than, well, because they think they can get away with it.

As you can probably guess, I'm not digging the name change for Niven to Doudrop. Seems Chairman Vince McMahon probably thinks people here in the US might think she's related to the late actor David Niven, and applied for a trademark for Doudrop.

Do us all a favor, Vince. Stop insulting the intelligence of your audience, which, as you're getting older, might actually supercede yours.

Old Time Radio: Father Knows Best (1949)

 In honor of Father's Day, we're serving up a nice dose of the radio version of Father Knows Best, starring Robert Young. In fact, this offering, from March 1954, is the series finale.

But, before we do that, a little information.

Father Knows Best ran for five years on NBC Radio (1949-54), before transitioning to television. The only constant was Young, who originated the role of Jim Anderson on radio, and, in all played the role for 11 years between radio & television. Young would eventually launch a new series, the previously discussed Window on Main Street, in 1961, before taking on another iconic role as Marcus Welby, MD.

Now, it's on to the final radio episode. By this point, future cartoon icon Jean VanderPyl had taken over the role of Margaret Anderson.

Rating: A.

YouTube Theatre: Nightmare in Chicago (1964)

 Originally presented as an episode of Kraft Suspense Theatre under the title, "Once Upon a Savage Night", Universal reissued it as a feature film under the title, "Nightmare in Chicago", which is how I first came across it in the 70's as a youth. If you listen close, some portions of John Williams' series theme from that first season are incorporated into the film's soundtrack.

A serial killer (Philip Abbott, later of The F. B. I.) is tracked by detectives as he leaves a trail from Indiana to Chicago. Ted Knight, Charles McGraw, & Robert Ridgely co-star.

Universal added about an extra half hour of footage originally edited out for release to theatres. Producer/director Robert Altman would become a respected filmmaker with hits like "M*A*S*H" and "Nashville" after beginning his career in television, paving the way for other cinematic icons like Steven Spielberg.

Rating: A.

How gullible were insurrectionists for Trump? Some didn't vote at all!

 Slowly, we are finding out about the kind of people Citizen Pampers recruited to storm the Capitol in January. As Farron Cousins reveals, not all of them were registered voters, like the bunch from North Carolina!

How stupid can these people be to buy into the Big Lie without having had a stake in it either way in the first place. Welp, we were able to locate someone who might've been an inspiration to them.

Howard Morris' legendary character, Ernest T. Bass, from The Andy Griffith Show, certainly looks like the type of low information rural type that would listen to any sort of tall tale from Citizen Pampers. 60 years later, that's certainly proving true.

The 5th Dimension sing for Jell-O (1969)

 The 5th Dimension were one of the hottest R & B/pop groups of the late 60's. Their popularity was such that they landed a guest gig on It Takes a Thief, for example, and for another, they landed an endorsement deal with General Foods to sing for their Jell-O gelatin.

A local advertising legend takes the last huge ride: Billy Fuccillo (1957-2021)

 His presence in advertising over the last several years was inescapable.

Auto dealer and philanthropist Billy Fuccillo has passed away at the age of 64. Fuccillo, a Long Island native, had a chain of auto dealerships associated with Kia and other brands in New York & Florida for the last several years.

His signature tag line was "It's gonna be huge!". Fuccillo was often aided by Tom Park and actress Caroline Munro. Of late, with Fuccillo in fading health, WWE superstar Titus O'Neil (Thad Bullard, Jr.) was recruited to join Munro in a new series of ads that are currently running. It gives O'Neil something to do since he's not wrestling a whole lot these days. Like Fuccillo, O'Neil is also involved in civic causes in his native Florida.

This video compilation puts the emphasis on Fuccillo's pet catchphrase:

Rest in peace.

Videos of Summer: Circle in The Sand (1988)

 "Circle in The Sand" was the 3rd single from Belinda Carlisle's 1987 solo CD, "Heaven on Earth", and was released to radio & MTV/VH1 in May 1988.

I must caution that the copy marked "official" is actually just a shade off-sync, so I didn't bother with that, and got one that was in perfect sync.

Since all we see in the video is Belinda, we should note that another 80's icon, Thomas Dolby, contributed keyboards to the track.

Worst. Game. Show. Ever: You're in The Picture (1961)

 Even Jackie Gleason made career mistakes.

The original "Great One", well before Dwayne Johnson, as The Rock, began calling himself that nearly 40 years later, presided over a one-&-done novelty game show, You're in The Picture, which aired in January 1961 on CBS.

The idea was simple in concept. Four celebrities would insert their faces into pictures, and, without looking down at the drawings, had to figure out what the pictures were. Unfortunately, the execution was lacking. The reviews were SO bad (How bad were they?), that the show was cancelled in short order, although, as you'll see, Gleason was allowed to return the following week to explain the debacle as best as able.

Liggett & Myers (L & M Cigarettes) & Kellogg's, with Dennis James doing the shilling, were the sponsors. Gleason did the in-show shill for L & M himself.

Both episodes were restored by the Paley Center in New York, and uploaded by Musicom Productions.

This, I think, might've begun the association between Gleason and announcer Johnny Olson, unless he was already working on Gleason's variety show. We know Johnny was the announcer when The Jackie Gleason Show moved to Miami for its final years. We have a black & white, pre-Miami episode we just located, that we hope to bring in soon.

Rating: C.

Musical Interlude: Jesus He Knows Me (1992)

 Televangelists such as Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggert were targeted for parody by late night comics, including Saturday Night Live, when it was big business in the 80's and early 90's.

And, then, Genesis got in on the act.

With a stage set that mocks Oral Roberts' TV show, the trio had MTV & VH1 viewers rolling during the summer of 1992 with "Jesus He Knows Me". The dark toupee Phil Collins wears for most of the video, though, makes him look more like talk show host and crooner Mike Douglas than Bakker. Collins' opening speech, though, is based on another preacher, Ernest Angley, who passed away earlier this year. Seems Angley liked the video, not knowing it was a spoof.

The sign reading, "Genesis 3:25", refers to the band reaching 25 years, but they had been a trio since first Steve Hackett, then Peter Gabriel, left the group.

Can we get Repugnants tested for drugs? Just asking

 Business Insider and the Daily Beast have their articles frequently posted on Yahoo!, and today, both are serving up more Repugnant insanity.

We'll start with MyPillow CEO Mike Whinedell, who now claims that former president Donald Trump wasn't in office for the ego.

SAY WHAT?

Whinedell claims to be a born-again Christian after recovering from alcohol addiction. Hate to say it, but the dude backslid toward another addiction by associating with Pecos Pampers.

And, then, it gets out that Trump's Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, was trying to push a conspiracy theory that---get this---Italian satellites had something to do with Trump losing the election.

"WAAAHHH! The Italians screwed me! I'm never going to Italy again! WAAAAHH!"

As usual, there's no evidence to support this tall tale. All that shows is that the Trump administration knew they were going to be gone in January, and tried to find as many excuses to avoid giving up the White House.

Finally, there's Fox Shmooze garbage salesman Tabloid Carlson, who, on Tuesday, claimed that the Capitol riot on January 6, and an attempt to kidnap MIchigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer before that, were FBI plots.

Can we strap this idiot to a lie detector?

Only the gullible would believe that trash. All that tells us is that Fox Shmooze is trying to out-phony Comedy Central's popular Daily Show, because all Carlson does is create fake news.

To that end, we dedicate the following to Tabloid, Whinedell, Pecos Pampers, and the rest.....

It must be a slow news day. Fox Shmooze is misinterpreting someone else's comments so they can make news

It seems fitting that one of Tom Hanks' most recent movie roles had him playing children's television legend Fred Rogers. Fitting because an essay he wrote for the New York Times became a touchstone for Fox Shmooze's "land of make-believe".

You see, National Public Radio commentator Eric Deggans, who is African-American, suggested in a recent piece that Hanks, instead of being "non-racist", should take the next step and be "anti-racist". In other words, Deggans is pushing for Hanks, a 2-time Academy Award winner, to be more pro-active. Hanks had written about the centennial anniversary of the infamous massacre of over 300 African-Americans in Tulsa, acknowledging that he didn't know about it, nor was he taught by his teachers.

The dude ain't alone. I graduated from high school 40 years ago, and I wasn't taught about the massacre, either. Didn't really know anything about it until last year, when then-President Donald Trump wanted to hold a campaign rally in Tulsa right around the anniversary date of the incident.

Deggans means well. Unfortunately, the ignorant idiots at Fox Shmooze decided to twist his words, falsely implying that Deggans meant to say that he thought Hanks was racist. That's not what we're taking away from the comments of either Hanks or Deggans.

Eric Deggans

What Fox Shmooze decided was to call for "cancel culture" to claim Hanks as its next trophy. Sorry, but that ain't happening. Fox Shmooze will likely have Tabloid Carlson spin this tall tale on tonight's show, but the game plan's already been exposed early for a change. Fox Shmooze is hoping its gullible viewer base will eat this lie up like candy. What they're trying to do is paint NPR and/or Deggans as something they're not, the villain, in order to push their GOPer-endorsed agenda.

If the GOPers had their way, Mount Rushmore would consist of Trump and his "holy trinity". Pinocchio, Pecos Bill, and Joe Isuzu. To paraphrase an old saying, liars never prosper in the long term.

Musical Interlude: What Becomes of The Broken Hearted (2002)

 From "Standing in The Shadows of Motown":

Joan Osborne had been off the charts for a few years before appearing in the above movie, a tribute to the Funk Brothers, veteran Motown studio musicians. Here, Joan covers Jimmy Ruffin's 1965 hit, "What Becomes of The Broken Hearted", which had been covered twice before in the previous decade by British stars Paul Young (1991) and Robson & Jerome (1996).

The President is repairing the damage of his predecessor. Repugnants whine in response

 While President Biden is overseas, currently attending a NATO conference in Brussels, Repugnants here in the US are raising a stink, thinking he's ignoring the influx of migrants attempting to enter the country illegally at the southern border.

Texas Governor Greg "Let me shake you down" Abbott is vowing to build the border wall that Citizen Pampers never finished. Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan whined on Fox Shmooze over the weekend about how, supposedly, Democrats control everything (they don't), another layer of the elaborate con aimed at their "low information" voter base.

"Now, don't anyone call me Mr. McGee."

Well, "T'aint funny, Jordan" doesn't sound as funny.

For the record, Mr. Jordan, Democratic interests don't have a stake in "big sports" (i.e. NFL, NBA), big tech, big this or that. All you GOPers like to do is scare your brainwashed base instead of doing the right thing, which would be to tell them the truth and give them teaching tools.

You reap what you sow.

And, then, there's Kaylame (Kayleigh McEnany), now using her Fox Shmooze berth to try to create some revisionist history for herself, specifically, her nine month stint as press flack for Pecos Pampers (Donald Trump). She claims she's never lied, claiming her faith in God.

Sorry, that ain't gonna fly. It's all on video, Kaylame. You lied, and the whole world knows it. As it's written in the Bible, God is not mocked. When was the last time you were in confession?

What Might've Been: Szysnzyk (1977)

Szysnzyk was originally a summer replacement series when it bowed in 1977 on CBS. Ned Beatty had the title role as a retired Marine now running a community center down on its luck.

The initial ratings success against reruns convinced CBS suits to bring the show back in December, but, up against first-run (mostly) programming, the show faltered, and was subsequently cancelled. Beatty moved on to a supporting role in "Superman: The Movie", and would make a number of guest appearances, including a recurring role on Homicide: Life on The Street.

Following is a network promo for the winter premiere with World Series hero Reggie Jackson:

In memory of Beatty, 83, who passed away this weekend.

Musical Interlude: Wasn't That a Party (1980-1)

 From season 1 of Solid Gold:

The (Irish) Rovers tried to go country with 1980's "Wasn't That a Party", but barely cracked the top 40 on the country chart. Still, it was enough to land them on Solid Gold as an opening act, interrupted briefly by then-host Dionne Warwick.

This song comes to mind after I had reconnected with some old high school mates last night for a little wing-ding. There's still hope for a full-on 40th anniversary class reunion, as our organizer targeted Thanksgiving weekend, just like the first two reunions in 1991 & 2001. Unfortunately, there isn't an official video of "Party" to be had, but if this doesn't get ye up dancing 'til sundown, I don't know what will. Begorrah!

Forgotten TV: Snavely (1978)

 In the mid-70's, John Cleese had moved on from Monty Python's Flying Circus to his own creation, Fawlty Towers, which, like Python, aired on PBS stations here in the US.

American producers had tried to duplicate the Fawlty formula three times over a 21 year period, all without success. The first one, 1978's Snavely, never got out of the starting gate, despite the talent of its leads.

Harvey Korman (ex-The Carol Burnett Show) had the title role as Henry Snavely, owner of a modest hotel that seemed to have all sorts of issues. Emmy winner Betty White, whose self-titled sitcom had flopped, played his wife. Writer-producers Roland Kibbee and Dean Hargrove aren't really known for comedy. Kibbee, after all, created It Takes a Thief a decade earlier, and Hargrove would later find his niche in crime drama (i.e. Matlock and the revival of Perry Mason) for the same studio that produced Snavely, Viacom.

Five years later, Viacom tried again, but Amanda's, with Beatrice Arthur, didn't finish its only season. Sixteen years after that, Studios USA (Universal) tried out Payne, another attempt at remaking Fawlty, this time with John Larroquette (ex-Night Court). Eight episodes aired on CBS.

Right now, let's take a look at Snavely:

One wonders if White & Arthur compared notes about their failures to adapt Fawlty while working on The Golden Girls.

No rating.

Silly Sidney Powell sabotages her own defense

 "I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant is faithful, 100%."--Horton the Elephant, Horton Hatches The Egg, 1940.

Unfortunately for Horton and other elephants, real and fictional, digraced ambulance chaser Silly Sidney Powell took that famous Dr. Seuss quote out of context, after a fashion, when she told a Texas audience recently that she meant what she said when she said she had evidence to support her phony claims of election fraud, which, of course, prompted lawsuits from Dominion Voting Systems & Smartmatic, to the tune of what is now $4.3 billion across three states.

Farron Cousins breaks it down:

Powell's lawyers tried the Fox News defense that Silly Sidney was stating opinions and can't be sued for that. Unfortunately, their client might as well have been half a world away when she vaporized their defense argument.

Powell, Mike Whinedell, and the rest of the sycophantic peabrains who sold their souls to a false prophet in Pecos Pampers (Donald Trump to the rest of y'all), keep claiming they have non-existent evidence to keep the marks' attention. It's all part of a protracted shell game, an elaborate con that will end Powell's legal career (she's likely to end up in a psych ward instead of prison), among other things.

If she somehow retains her law license, her next clients should be right down her alley. Grifters passing themselves off as homeless.

Weasel of The Week: Dion Cini

 Mr. Cini is the brainwashed Trump supporter who hung his banner at Yankee Stadium two weeks ago, only to be ejected from the ballpark. Stadium security let him keep the banner, out of respect to his right to free speech. Same thing later that same week at Citi Field. Security there saved him from a fan who had a problem with the banner being there in the first place. Remember, Cini was booed out of Yankee Stadium.

The real problem Cini had was draping his banner in New York's two baseball stadiums. Big mistake. At the time, we assumed he wanted his 15 minutes, and, as noted, the security details at Citi and Yankee Stadium reasoned out a solution. 

Unfortunately, Cini's luck ran out at Fenway Park on Monday, when he brought his banner for the Red Sox-Marlins game. Not only did Cini get ejected again, but Fenway security confiscated the banner for a violation of team policy regarding banners of any kind.

Cini didn't get the message, and wants to file larceny charges against the Red Sox security staff for "stealing" the banner. Confiscation and theft are two different things, dumbass.

Courtesy of Twitter.

Cini has inspired copycats elsewhere with similar messages. No surprise there, but these morons don't get it, seven months later. Donald Trump was soundly defeated at the polls on November 3 because he downplayed the severity of the coronavirus, in the faint hope that he could avoid public panic. Regrettably, that decision was futile, as the horse had already left the barn. America had tired of this 70-something man-child's relentless whining and crying about the election being rigged before it even took place, which it wasn't.

Your abuse of free speech in the name of a shameless con man who wouldn't know you from Adam gets you something Trump has a lot of, Mr. Cini. A pair of Weasel ears. Enjoy what's left of your 15 minutes. You'll be a footnote by the end of the year.

A little of this and a little of that

 A Washington-based group calling themselves the Job Creators Network filed a lawsuit against Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association the other day, demanding that this year's All-Star Game be moved back to Truist Park, outside of Atlanta, claiming MLB had no right to move the game, and whining that this would cost Atlanta-area businesses untold revenues.

No, jackasses, MLB did the right thing by moving the game because Georgia Governor Lyin' Brian Kemp signed a bill into law that restricts voting access to minorities and seniors. Sure, a similar law exists in Colorado, but it's not as restrictive as the one in Georgia.

What the problem is, actually, is Kemp and other Georgia Repugnants being butt-hurt about losing two Senate seats in January, on top of Citizen Pampers losing his re-election bid in November, and embracing the lies of the former president to retain favor with the Archduke of Affluenza.

This suit won't even last five minutes in court, with the All Star Game a little more than a month away.

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Monday night, former President Barack Obama sat down with CNN's Anderson Cooper, and shredded the Repugnants.

Tuesday, Tabloid Carlson fired back on behalf of the GOPers, calling Obama a hater, and claiming that he divided the country in his 8 years in office. No, he didn't, dumbass.

After all this time, Repugnants are still jealous of Obama.

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I find it amusing that wrestling fans are making something out of nothing as it relates to Tuesday's episode of NXT.

You see, women's tag team co-champion Candice LeRae, speaking of being jealous, complained about the attention that pop singer Poppy was getting, and that this week's show was promoted partially around her appearance to promote her new EP, which dropped online during the show. LeRae, showing that too much peroxide bleach had embedded into her brain cells, challenged Poppy, but that was just a cover for the return of former women's champion Io Shirai after nearly 2 months vacation in her native Japan.

What some fans are thinking is that they'll duplicate what rapper Bad Bunny did during the winter and spring, leading up to Wrestlemania. It could happen, but I honestly don't see it right now.

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When you hit a home run, you're supposed to touch all the bases. We have two examples of how missing a base can prove costly.

Tuesday, Pittsburgh's Ke'Bryan Hayes, son of former major leaguer Charlie Hayes, missed first base, and, on appeal, was called out. Kansas City prospect Bobby Witt, Jr., son of the former Rangers hurler, did the same thing, except that he skipped over home plate, though he swears he actually touched the plate. Like Hayes, he was called out on appeal, and, keep in mind, Witt is in Class AA minor league ball.

In other words:

Whatever happened to discipline?

Musical Interlude: Do You Want Crying? (1985)

 Katrina & The Waves followed up "Walking on Sunshine" with the retro-bubblegum pop hit, "Do You Want Crying?". This has such an early 70's feel to it. Ya don't believe me? Scope.

There is dumb, and then, there's these guys

 Sunday night, boxer Floyd Mayweather had an 8 round exhibition with YouTuber Logan Paul. There were no judges, so this was an exhibition in the purest sense of the word.

Unfortunately, no one bothered to explain that to Paul's brother, Jake, who tweeted that he felt Logan won the fight, when he clearly didn't, as several fans tweeted in response, reminding him that this was not a prize fight.

The late Andy Warhol postulated years ago that in the future, everyone would be famous for 15 minutes. For the Paul brothers, that 15 minutes is rapidly running out.

And, for paying little attention to the context of the fight, Jake gets a nice little trophy....

Yeah, he certainly deserves it.

The previous night, former president Donald Trump spoke to the Legion of The Brainwashed in North Carolina, and, once again, tried to pin the blame for coronavirus on a lab in China, when there is no proof that this is actually the case.

Worse, Citizen Pampers demanded that the Chinese government pay $10 trillion (!) as a sort of restitution. As if that'll even happen.

Let us remind the Annoying Orange that he's not in charge of anything anymore, so he's in no position to demand squat. The Chinese would be laughing at him anyway.

The funny part is that the speech was shown live on C-Span, Newsmax, & One America News, but not on CNN and Fox Shmooze. With Trump teasing the idea that he'll run again, which is not as likely as he thinks it is if the legal issues he has in Georgia & New York shut him down, C-Span took the bait.

On the other hand, Trump is the embodiment of the National Safety Council's slogan, because you can learn a lot from a dummy.

And, yeah, he's got another one of these coming.......

Can we open an attention anonymous clinic for this idiot?

What Might've Been: Mr. Terrific (1967)

 We originally did a piece on this next item a few years ago, but it wound up deleted when the video was taken down by YouTube. Well, let's try this again.

In the spring of 1966, CBS, seeing the success ABC had with Batman, wanted their piece of the action. The first pilot for Mr. Terrific had a different cast, and its protagonist, Stanley Beamish, was a shoe salesman instead of a gas station owner. Alan Young, fresh from Mister Ed, had signed on to the project.

However, it didn't test well, and a 2nd pilot was ordered. Young was replaced by Stephen Strimpell, a relative newcomer, with John McGiver (ex-Many Happy Returns) as Stanley's government contact. Dick Gautier was Stanley's business partner.

The animated open had a poem recited by Paul Frees (ex-The Millionaire):

The fact that Mr. Terrific and NBC's Captain Nice both bombed out should've been a sign that the camp hero craze was already suffering from fatigue.

No rating.

Memo to a madman: Reality's calling

 As former president Donald Trump prepares to go back on the road for a series of rallies, fellow GOPers are hoping he doesn't bring up the false reality that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

Good luck making Citizen Pampers understand that.

The truth is, Trump lost the election because of his bumbling and mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, not because it was stolen, as he and his brainwashed allies insist. Now, Georgia, Wisconsin, & Michigan are joining Arizona in calling for audits, which makes no sense since everything is certified, but the GOPers in those states are so afraid America's Oldest Baby will turn on them, as if he hadn't already done that a few times before. These audits are filed under exercises in futility, and, as Farron Cousins reported earlier today, at least in Wisconsin, they're asking retired police detectives to handle the audits, as opposed to a Florida firm with zero experience in audits.

I guess cheese does make you smart after all.

Yahoo! is reporting that a new conspiracy theory has popped up in New Hampshire involving----are you sitting down?----crickets. And this is before the current heat wave hit the northeast.

For the GOPers in these states, I recommend a timeshare with four rubber walls.

And, then, there is Facebook, which has set an expiration date on their banning Trump. January 2023, after the 2022 mid-term elections.

Yahoo! is also reporting that Trump is once again dropping hints about running again in 2024. It's going to be kind of hard to do that if the investigations in New York & Georgia into criminal activity involving Trump and his kids bear any significant fruit. I hear they're ordering a custom straitjacket for Trump if he has to be sent to Bellevue.

Meanwhile, while MyPillow frontman Mike Lindell is claiming that Trump could be reinstated to the White House in August (not happening), Trump, of course, bought into that delusion, but Lara Trump, Eric's wife, doesn't believe it's actually happening. Imagine that. A Trump that actually gets it for a change.

Of course, Whinedell is spewing BS knowing he's facing a lawsuit over the election lies, one that could bankrupt him and MyPillow. When you sleep with dogs, Mike, you're bound to catch fleas. Unfortunately for you, brother, Trump's fleas are actually parasites.

Now, if only the media would stop giving the attention-addicted Trump and his BS oxygen on a daily basis......!

Videos of Summer: On My Own (1986)

 Michael McDonald and Patti LaBelle were both coming off soundtrack hits when they recorded "On My Own" in 1986.

LaBelle hit the top 20 with "New Attitude" a year earlier, off the "Beverly Hills Cop" soundtrack. A few months later, McDonald charted with "Sweet Freedom", from "Running Scared". Having that film's stars, Gregory Hines & Billy Crystal, appear in the video, certainly helped.

When it came time to record "On My Own", though, LaBelle was on tour, and recorded her part while in Philadelphia. Her half of the video was shot in New York. McDonald did his parts in California, which explains the split screen in the video. 

"Own" still gets airplay on oldies & adult contemporary channels 35 years later. Sweet.

Videos of Summer: Songbird (1986-7)

 "Songbird" is Kenny G's signature hit, peaking at #4 on the Hot 100, the first instrumental to crack the top 5 since Jan Hammer's theme from Miami Vice topped the chart in 1985.

Good way to start this year's "Videos of Summer", don't ya think, with summer 2 1/2 weeks away?

Forgotten TV: Young Guy Christian (1979)

 In the 70's, the idea of parodying spy movies was best left to Saturday morning television, not primetime. 

But, nearly a decade after Get Smart had ended its initial run, someone thought it might be a good idea to try a new take on the spy genre. However, Young Guy Christian leaned more toward the camp of Batman than the dramedy of Smart (Yeah, I know, "dramedy" didn't become a buzzword until Hooperman a few years later).

Barry Bostwick had the title role as a playboy spy, with a pre-Cheers Shelley Long as his partner and prospective girlfriend, and Pat Morita (ex-Mr. T & Tina, Happy Days) as her father and Guy's boss.

Stuart Margolin, on a break from The Rockford Files, directed. I don't know if he'd done anything for ABC since leaving Love, American Style prior to this.

The video includes commercials and the last part of the closing credits of Mork & Mindy, but the closing credits of Christian are cut off in mid-stream.

Additional information is scarce, which tells you something about how badly ABC wanted to bury this show.

No rating. As this aired during baseball season in 1979, well, what d'ya think the parents and I were watching back then?

Another dead league is reborn

 "Those who fail to remember history are condemned to repeat it."--George Santayana.

After a short-lived revival of Vince McMahon's XFL, now owned by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and his group, the United States Football League (USFL) is poised to make a comeback of their own in 2022.

The first incarnation of the USFL lasted three seasons, culminating in an ill-advised attempt to compete with, and ultimately merge with, the NFL. Well, the more established league did pick the bones, bringing in a number of name players off USFL rosters, including Steve Young, who'd win a Super Bowl in San Francisco, and Herschel Walker. One of the owners involved in the failed fall season experiment was a young, ambitious Donald Trump. It can be argued that Trump, then a rising real estate mogul, gained his first national exposure as the owner of the New York-New Jersey Generals, for whom Walker played.

And, yes, it goes on Trump's rap sheet that the USFL folded. If only he'd left well enough alone. Well, you know......!

On Wednesday, the Fox network announced they had a stake in the revival of the USFL, and would be the home network for the league when it returns in the spring of '22. Teams haven't been announced as yet, so maybe, you think, Fox is putting the cart before the horse. We'll see.

Anyway, ABC was home to the USFL in its first iteration. The first broadcast, a game between Chicago & Washington, marked the return of George Allen to DC, and the debut of current ESPN college analyst Lee Corso, paired with Jim Lampley. Scope:

While it's doubtful Citizen Pampers (Trump) will be involved this time around, since he has enough problems of his own today, we'll see how the league stacks up as it returns a year shy of its 40th anniversary.

WWE makes some cuts that will come back to haunt them

 The word going around WWE is that "budget cuts" are the reason six "superstars" were cut on Wednesday. There are rumors, however, that it's more than that.

Photos courtesy WWE/New York Post.

Braun Strowman (photo left; real name Adam Scherr) had just been in a WWE title match, a three way against champion Bobby Lashley and former champ Drew McIntyre, just days earlier. His is the release that has a lot of fans shaking their heads.'

Aleister Black (photo right; real name Tom Budgen) was about to begin a program with Big E, but that was abruptly dropped after a month's worth of intriguing promos in which he was reading from a storybook. Wife Thea (formerly Zelina Vega) was rumored to be returning. Budgen went on his wife's Twitch stream and revealed he was told this was due to budget cuts.

Lana (Catherine Perry-Barnyashev) had, with partner Naomi (Trinity Fatu), challenged for the women's tag titles on Monday. Being with WWE raised her profile to the point where she landed some movie roles, including the "Pitch Perfect" series. Everyone assumes she'll join her husband, Miro, in AEW.

Ruby Riott (Dori Prange), like Lana, was in a tag title match just days earlier, this time on Smackdown. Her departure may be because current Raw women's champion Rhea Ripley, a younger wrestler, has a similar look, that of a retro-punk rocker, more than budget reasons.

Buddy Murphy, a former cruiserweight & tag team champion, had disappeared after a brief resumption of his program with Seth Rollins. 

Santana Garrett, a journeywoman who'd previously been on the short lived revival of Ring Warriors, was used mostly as enhancement talent on NXT, Raw, & Smackdown, but hadn't been used in weeks.

There are a number of other factors involved, including the rapid rise of Nick Khan, was was named to the board of directors earlier this week after less than a year with the company. His growing influence seems to be pointing WWE further into the entertainment side of things. This has also led to rumors of Vince McMahon, who will be 76 in August, selling the company, something long considered impossible, but, while unwilling to admit that the decline in television ratings has been largely his fault, he may be getting to the point where the drive to succeed just isn't there anymore, and, rather than hold on to the company to pass it down to his grandchildren, might be listening to offers from NBC-Universal-Comcast, Disney, et al, to settle into the retirement that he had publicly said he wouldn't entertain all the way back in 2009.

Oh, what a tangled web........

A little of this and a little of that

 Tabloid Carlson got himself in hot water yet again Tuesday.

Fox Shmooze's biggest offender came up with a whopper worthy not of Burger King, but of the National Enquirer when he tried to compare COVID-19 vaccinations with old school segregation.

In discussing the fact that certain venues have specific areas set up for vaccinated customers, Tabloid referred to this practice as-----prepare to cringe-----medical "Jim Crow".

And Fox Shmooze dares to say his show is an opinion program, just so to avoid lawsuits?

Not even Mr. T would pity these fools.

Here's an idea. How about having Tabloid, Moldy Peaches (Marjorie Taylor Greene), and Doormatt Gaetz do a skit based on Game Show Network's Idiotest? Between the three of them, the old SCTV quiz parody, Half-Wits, looks like stimulating entertainment.....!

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Less than a month after getting into blogging so he can vent about his usual nonsense, Donald Trump has shut down his namesake blog. 

"WAAAHHHHHH!! Everyone hates my blog! WAAAAHHHH!!"

It's not the blog, dummy, it's you, and your constant whining about getting your sorry ass whooped nearly seven months ago, your persistent addiction to the spotlight, and the fact that people know you're going to be spending the next year and a half trying to avoid jail----or a nursing home, whichever comes first----for your various offenses, including repeated abuse of power while in office. Try showing up at a PGA pro-am, and watch the ratings hit the toilet faster than a 2 year old with stomach flu.

In other words, Citizen Pampers, do us all a big favor, and go away.

=======================================

Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski is planning on retiring after the 2021-2 season.

When you consider that he's had nearly 50 years of coaching under his belt (5 at Army, next season will be 42 at Duke), 5 NCAA titles, and enough accolades to last a lifetime, he's earned it.

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Conservative "authors" hoping for hit pieces on prominent Democrats other than Joe Biden can't seem to find the right target, and some of these yo-yo's are whining that NY Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doesn't have any drab pictures they can find. Well, too bad for you jabronies. There's a better chance of AOC adorning the cover of Vogue or Rolling Stone than any of these scandal sheet wanna-be's doing a hit piece on her or VP Kamala Harris. We can see Moldy Peaches landing a cover, too. The back cover of Mad Magazine.