What Might've Been: Soul (1968)

 From Laugh-In producers George Schlatter & Ed Friendly comes Soul, one of the first specials to feature an all-African-American cast. Headlined by Lou Rawls, Joe Tex, Martha & The Vandellas, and featuring Slappy White, Redd Foxx, George Kirby, and Nipsey Russell, who doubles as announcer.

For what it's worth, Chelsea Brown would later join the cast of Laugh-In. The bit with Nipsey as a DJ is priceless.

"Show Me", the first song performed by Joe Tex, was later covered by country singer Barbara Mandrell. Whodathunk?

Rating: B.

On The Air: Flip Side (2024)

 More than a decade ago, Jaleel White got his feet wet as a game show host with SyFy's Total BlackOut, which lasted two seasons.

White is now hoping Flip Side lasts longer than that.

Flip Side bowed in syndication and on Game Show Network in September (GSN's production arm co-produces the show with Paramount), and it's a trip. Two teams of two compete for a $10,000 grand prize by answering survey questions, a la Family Feud, but with a twist, and that's where the show's title kicks in.

Following is a trailer from GSN.

A few years ago, White and his family appeared on Celebrity Family Feud, and White obliterated the Fast Money round. If Flip Side flops, and Fremantle decides to move on from Steve Harvey, Family Feud may be White's next gig.

I'd say he's putting Urkel in his rear view mirror for good, don't you?

Rating: A-.

Names making news

 NY Misrepresentative Elise Stefanik may not be serving another term in Congress after all.

While Stefanik was quietly re-elected last week, she ended the week accepting an appointment from President-Elect Donald Trump to be an ambassador to the United Nations, the same post that Nikki Haley had. Haley's sin, of course, in the eyes of the deranged Trump, was challenging him in the primaries, because he felt entitled to the nomination this year in the first place. I've read reports that the narcissist in Trump passed up the debates during primary season because he didn't want them to happen to start with.

Please. Stefanik, 40, sabotaged her reputation in New York by hitching her wagon to Trump to advance her career. I think she'd be well served to cram some learning of languages in the next two months.

A special election is likely to fill the suddenly vacant seat in Congress.

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Meanwhile, in Georgia, a certain misrepresentative who also was re-elected last week is trolling.

Empty-G, aka Marjorie Taylor Greene, is whining because there are peaceful protests over Trump's re-election victory six days ago. As Farron Cousins explains, the protesters are exercising their constitutional rights, something that Empty-G thinks is wrong.

Personally, I think Empty-G is ticked because she might've been angling for the gig that went to Stefanik.

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As Joyce Bassett reports in the Albany Times-Union today, actress-comedian-talk show host Whoopi Goldberg (The View) is talking up the prospect of an all women's sports network. ESPN tried that a few years ago (remember ESPNW?), and, apparently, it didn't pan out. Pretty cheeky how Bassett's column included a picture from 2002's "A League of Their Own", which is being parodied by Capital One pitchdoll Jennifer Garner in a commercial that got some good rotation over the summer.

Like, as long as the network gets off the ground, and replaces something like Newsnacks on cable systems, we're all for it.

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Rudy Goofiani is stalling on paying off his debt to Georgia's Ruby Freeman & Shay Moss.

Goofiani showed up at a polling place in Florida last week, as he apparently now has a residence there, in a vintage Mercedes that once belonged to film legend Lauren Bacall. That raised some red flags. Goofiani and his lawyer are trying to save some of the items, like a watch that is a personal heirloom. Freeman & Moss are ok with letting Goofiani keep the watch, but they're impatiently waiting for him to turn over everything else. He vacated & emptied his Manhattan apartment in an effort to hide some of the assets.

Please pick up the white courtesy phone, Rudy. Your career is over.

Musical Interlude: Don't Tell Me You Love Me (1982)

 Night Ranger had a relatively brief run on the charts in the early to mid 80's, and it started with 1982's "Don't Tell Me You Love Me".

In 1987, Jack Blades joined forces with Tommy Shaw & Ted Nugent to form Damn Yankees, which lasted two albums before that so-called supergroup called it a day.

Forgotten TV: The Going Thing (1969)

 Ford, in order to better promote its 1969 model line to a wider audience, assembled a pop group, which headlined a namesake special, The Going Thing, in the winter of 1969. What isn't actually sure is what network this aired on. Ford sponsored The F. B. I. on ABC, and Arte Johnson brought one of his Laugh-In alter-egos, Tyrone, for a rare solo gig. The Going Thing singers were largely unknown, except for Janis Hansen, who was also with Sergio Mendes' group at the time. Tom & John Bahler were the musical directors.

Producer-director Bob Henry would serve in that same capacity for Flip Wilson's NBC variety hour the next year.

No rating. Just a public service.

What Might've Been: Like Hep (1969)

 The success of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In prompted NBC to commission some additional entries from producers George Schlatter & Ed Friendly.

Like Hep, billed as a special, could, for all intents & purposes, have been a pilot for a potential series. Headlined by Dinah Shore, Like Hep was paced similarly to Laugh-In, with quick skits interspersed with musical numbers. Lucille Ball (Here's Lucy) and Diana Ross are the featured guests, with Dan Rowan, Dick Martin, and announcer Gary Owens crossing over from Laugh-In. Look quick for a cameo by Lorne Greene (Bonanza).

1969 was not really a good year for Schlatter. Not only did Like Hep not get picked up as a series, but there was also the infamous bomb, Turn On over on ABC, and a game show spun off from Laugh-In, Letters to Laugh-In, hosted by Owens, ran for a few months, and no further.

There was another pilot, Soul, not to be confused with the PBS series of the same name, and featuring Redd Foxx, Nipsey Russell, and musical guests Joe Tex and Martha & The Vandellas. We'll look at that another time.

Like Hep gets a B.

A Classic Reborn: Scrabble (2024)

 40 years ago, Australian producer Reg Grundy adapted Scrabble for television, specifically for NBC. That same year, young Raven-Symone was cast in The Cosby Show as the youngest daughter of Dr. Cliff Huxtable (Cosby). Scrabble lasted five years. Cosby ran nearly twice as long.

You don't see The Cosby Show in a lot of places anymore because of the scandal surrounding Cosby. Raven-Symone, meanwhile, has become a regular presence on television in her adult years. That's So Raven and its sequel, Raven's Home. A stint on The View. Now, she's hosting Scrabble.

Hasbro, following the lead of other game show revivals, is packing two half hour games in a one hour format (think ABC's revivals of Match Game and The S100,000 Pyramid), sold the new Scrabble to the CW as part of a two hour Thursday block with the similarly reformatted Trivial Pursuit, which we'll look at another day.

The game is basically the same as before, and it marks Hasbro's first inroad into broadcast television, as their previous series were produced for cable, including a previous iteration of Scrabble.

A Raven-Symone fan channel uploaded this excerpt.

Here's to hoping Raven fares better as a game show host than Cosby did (You Bet Your Life in the 90's).

Rating: A.

Musical Interlude: Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)(1967)

 Louisiana native John Fred Gourrier, the leader of John Fred & His Playboy Band, had just 1 Top 40 hit. "Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)" hit the top of the charts in January 1968, bumping the Beatles out of the top slot. Ironically, "Judy in Disguise" was a play on words after a sort of "Lucy in The Sky With Diamonds", another Beatles single.

In the end, America is not ready for a woman as president

 We have seen women become heads of state in England, India, Israel, Germany, and, most recently, Mexico.

Unfortunately, here in the US, a vast majority of voters decided to overlook the bigotry, misogyny, and, most importantly, 34 felony convictions, and decided to send Donald Trump back to the White House. They fell for the relentless attack ads manipulated to make Vice President Kamala Harris look bad that were in heavy rotation the last month of the campaign.

Trump ran to avoid full accountability for his crimes, and those convictions, handed down in May, will almost certainly be vacated, and his remaining criminal and civil trials will be cancelled. The voters bought into the lies about Harris being a "border czar", which wasn't true. To Harris' credit, she crammed 12-18 months worth of campaigning into 3 1/2 months, and we thought she had momentum on her side, including an appearance on Saturday Night Live alongside Maya Rudolph last weekend. NBC gave Trump a 90 second spot that aired Sunday, filled with the usual rhetoric.

In the end, America decided to again go with a familiar name, despite a younger, energetic opponent. Voters were willing to put aside the clown show 10 days ago at Madison Square Garden, filled with racist "jokes" and speeches. They gave in to fear. Some, we can argue, offered sympathy after a bullet grazed Trump's ear in a rally in Pennsylvania 4 months ago.

Eight years ago, Trump supporters chanted, "Lock her up!", in reference to Hillary Clinton, who never saw a second in jail after all. The fear the media has now is that Trump will surround himself with sycophants willing to do what he wants without question. It's been rumored that Trump's pet judge in Florida, Aileen Cannon, could be Attorney General, replacing Merrick Garland, as a reward for her bias in one of his cases. Cannon isn't even qualified to be a law clerk.

More than a century ago, Grover Cleveland was re-elected after losing his first bid for a second term. Today, he has some rather dubious company in Trump.

To the voters who finally gave Trump the popular vote, which he lost in 2016 & 2020, on his 3rd & final try, pray that the worst doesn't come to pass after all. But, due to your collective ignorance of facts & common sense, plus the fact that Trump was the worst president ever the first time around, you deserve this:

Quincy Jones (1933-2024)

 You know his iconic themes from Ironside and Sanford & Son. You know the hits he produced for George Benson ("Give Me The Night"), Michael Jackson ("Thriller"), USA For Africa ("We Are The World"), as well as Lesley Gore, Frank Sinatra, Count Basie, and much, much more. To his friends and fans, he was simply "Q".

On Sunday, Quincy Jones passed away at 91. The Chicago native was one of a select group to win entertainment's Grand Slam (Emmy, Oscar, Grammy, Tony) in the course of his career. Jones also composed the music for the Roots miniseries, and his 1962 composition, "Soul Bossa Nova", became the theme of Mike Myers' "Austin Powers" movies (1997-2002).

"Soul Bossa Nova" was released on Mercury. Jones then released "The Streetbeater" (the Sanford theme) on A & M in 1973. His final run on the charts came in 1989 when his album, "Back on The Block", produced the hit single, "I'll Be Good To You", sung by Ray Charles & Chaka Khan.

I thought about using a more recent rendition of "Soul Bossa Nova" from The Late Show With David Letterman, but opted for the 1962 recording.....

Jones was one of several celebrity guests who appeared in Jamie Foxx's video for "Blame It" in 2009.

Rest in peace.

On The Air: News, Views, & Interviews (1950's-present)

 News, Views, & Interviews is the longest running public affairs program on local commercial radio, launching sometime in the 50's, and hosted by Art Mitchell. Today, Aaron Mair is the solo host, working without a moderator, and, as we've documented in this space previously, the half hour show is reduced to 20 minutes or so when it airs Sunday mornings on WROW, which edits out the commercials.

Mair records the show in mid-week, and although he's been flying solo as host for 2 years now, Mair is still a wee bit nervous in the studio, even though he's the one conducting the interviews, not the interviewee.

Local activist Nell Stokes has not only been a guest in recent years, but, during the 90's, she hosted the show. Veteran DJ Joe Condon was the moderator until his retirement in 2022, but Albany/Pamal Broadcasting is too cheap to find a new moderator to help Mair along. Conversely, weekend DJ Bill Williams has taken over Albany Street after Brian Cady was bounced in February, and is rolling along nicely.

Ms. Stokes has her own YouTube channel, from which we get this 1995 episode, clocking in at 46 minutes, and, based on Condon's intro, aired at night. The guest is then-WNYT anchor Elaine Houston, who retired in December 2023.

I think Interviews also airs on other Albany Broadcasting channels with commercials in place (i.e.JAMZ 96.3). Today's episode with state assemblyman John McDonald, the former mayor of Cohoes, was set for 2 commercial breaks, but WROW bounced out at 6:20 am (ET) for Albany Street.

Rating: B.

Sports this 'n' that

 Hot stove league season has begun, with three prominent pitchers entering free agency.

The Mets' Sean Manaea opted out of his contract. So did Blake Snell in San Francisco, and Gerrit Cole with the Yankees.

World Series Dunce Gerrit Cole.

However, the Yankees, per Yahoo!, could retain Cole by adding another year to his deal, which had four more years to run.

The common thread, of course, is that all three pitchers are represented by reprehensible con man Scott Boras Badenov, who wants his myriad of clients to chase the money in free agency. He's the one to blame for the opt out clause in a lot of contracts. All this grifter is interested in is fattening his wallet even more than it already is.

The Mets, quite honestly, need Manaea back, but Boras instructed him to opt out after the season he had in Flushing. Snell wasn't exactly a Cy Young winner in San Francisco, so what make him & Boras think he'll make more money elsewhere? Cole, if he decides not to return to the Bronx, didn't endear himself to Yankee fans in the World Series with his "traffic cop" gaffe Wednesday night, but it was a sign that his best days are behind him, too.

The Yanks also declined the option on first baseman Anthony Rizzo, perhaps a sign they'd want to lure Pete Alonso away from the Mets. Hmmmmmmm.

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Karma came a'callin' in Happy Valley Saturday morning.

Prior to the Penn State-Ohio State game, which aired on Fox, ESPN's College GameDay was in State College as well, and Jason Kelce, in his first season with ESPN, was confronted by a pea-brained Penn State student.

To make a long story short, this jabroni, with a cell phone in hand, recording the incident for his own amusement, claimed, falsely, of course, that Kelce's brother, Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce, was gay for being in a relationship with singer Taylor Swift.

I honestly think this kid either left his brains in his dorm this morning, or had already finished a six pack from the previous night, because he clearly was asking for trouble. Jason Kelce turned, snatched the phone, and spiked it to the ground. What was the student thinking?

As for the karma? Penn State got spanked by Ohio State.

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It's clear Michigan will not repeat as National Champion this year.

The Wolverines were routed at home, 38-17, by the current #1 team in the country, Oregon, this afternoon.

Then again, former coach Jim Harbaugh isn't exactly doing much better in the NFL with the Los Angeles Chargers.......