Wild West Wednesdays: Zorro's Secret Passage (1957)

 It is known that part of the inspiration for Batman came from Johnston McCulley's Zorro, and one example comes in this 1st season episode, "Zorro's Secret Passage". Don Diego (Guy Williams) discovered a secret cave beneath his home, and asserts his grandfather had built it years earlier. Of course, you know that Batman would have a Batcave.......

CBS Fall preview 1975-6

 Back in the day, the networks would start rolling out commercials promoting new series for the following fall around the middle of July. As it's the end of June, we're turning back the clock to 1975 for CBS' fall preview that year. We've previously reviewed the following:

Phyllis. 2nd spinoff from The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Bronk. Jack Palance stars in his first series since 1963's Greatest Show on Earth. Carroll O'Connor (All in The Family) and Terry Becker (ex-Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea) produced the series for MGM.

Three For The Road. Family drama with Alex Rocco & Leif Garrett.

Big Eddie: Sheldon Leonard's return to acting.

Bicentennial Minutes. Short features leading up to the bicentennial.

Switch. Glen Larson's pairing of Robert Wagner (ex-It Takes a Thief) and Eddie Albert (ex-Green Acres) lasted three seasons. Co-starring Sharon Gless and Charlie Callas.

Doc. Broadway favorite Barnard Hughes as a doctor (of course).

We will be on the lookout for Beacon Hill. William Conrad (Cannon) is our tour guide.

Of this group of frosh, only Phyllis & Switch returned the next season.

Notes from around town

 Another school has bitten the dust in the 518.

Doane Stuart School just completed its 51st season earlier this month, but, due to a shrinking enrollment that saw just 40 students on campus this season, the Rensselaer based school is closing its doors.

Photo courtesy Albany Times-Union.

Things had gotten so bad that the school's athletic program had merged with Rensselaer the last couple of years. Enrollment has gone downhill since Doane Stuart moved from Albany to Rensselaer a few years ago. The students still enrolled, absent any graduating seniors, will be transferred elsewhere.

If you're walking around Watervliet, you've probably noticed by now some stenciled signage on the sidewalks marking the city's 200th birthday. Commissioned by Meneely Bell, the signs promote the fact that the city, originally West Troy, was founded in 1826, 50 years after American independence.

This will make this year's 4th of July parade that much more of a landmark occasion.

Unfortunately, the pending rain this week might wash away the signage......

Very quietly, there was a carnival at Powers Park in Lansingburgh over the weekend. Outside of maybe a mention in the pages of El Cheapo Media, or on social media, few probably knew about it.

Powers Park will also host a rummage sale for residents on July 25, a far cry from the days of monthly flea markets sponsored by a local church. There hasn't been a rummage sale or flea market at Powers Park in years, but that will soon change. If this works out, there will be more.

Today's technology allows for radio stations to very sneakily let their on-air talent pre-record their bumpers & cues.

One such case was last night, during Ben Patten's evening show on WROW. What listeners didn't know, and didn't find out until this morning, was that Patten had recorded promos, bumpers, & cues in advance so he & his wife could attend the Barry Manilow concert at MVP Arena. While the pre-recording was not acknowledged on the air, listeners could figure it out on their own. I've often suspected this has been done in the past, especially on holidays. Now, it's almost certain.

The Supreme Court tells Donald Trump to pay what he owes to E. Jean Carroll. He still denies doing anything or even knowing her

 The Supreme Court, in one of several cases regarding president Trump heard today, ruled that President Cheapo needs to pay E. Jean Carroll what he owes her, per a civil liability ruling 2 years ago.

From the Associated Press YouTube channel:

Now, you know that there are no more appeals on this case. However, the biggest skinflint this side of Jack Benny will still be doing this.

"WAAAH!! I don't really owe her anything! WAAAAHHH!"

Now, you could chalk up Trump's denials as a product of advanced age, just as much, if not more so, as his reluctance to pony up. He's also been told he can't fire Federal Reserve commissioner Lisa Cook without proper cause.

Speaking of the Fed, it's current chairman, Guilderland native Kevin Warsh, has gotten on Trump's bad side by following his instincts, and not the dictums of President Cheapo. It sure sounds as though the honeymoon's already over for Warsh as it relates to Trump. Stay tuned.

When icons meet: Adam West & Mary Tyler Moore on 77 Sunset Strip (1959)

 You know the story of how Mary Tyler Moore lost her first series gig on Richard Diamond when it got out she was the mysterious switchboard operator, Sam.

Welp, Mary, billed as Mary Moore here, began making appearances on 77 Sunset Strip a few months after getting sacked from Diamond. In "Thanks For Tomorrow", she's the love interest of one Lonnie Drew (Adam West), who is being set up as a fall guy by some gamblers.....

Seven years later, West would work with producer Howie Horwitz again, this time on Batman.

Cinema Saturday: Dragnet (1966-9)

 We're launching a new feature today with Cinema Saturday. First up, we're bringing back the 1966 pilot for the 2nd Dragnet series, which didn't air until 3 years later. Unfortunately, the last copy we had was removed from YouTube.

This time, we'll start with the opening sequence, which has, for unknown reasons, been edited off subsequent prints.

Today, the bondage sequence at the start probably would've been moved to later in the movie.

Now, in the words of the late Paul Harvey, the rest of the story.

I honestly wish the movie was left intact as we had it before, but things are different today.

In 2 weeks, the return of Peter Gunn.

Carlos Mendoza fired by the Mets. Which direction does the team take, post-firing?

 You could see it coming a mile away. Six errors in the nightcap of a Wednesday doubleheader seemed to be the last straw, but the Mets allowed 3rd year manager Carlos Mendoza one more game, the front office equivalent of having a reliever in the bullpen after the starter gets a mound visit, and it's assumed he has one more batter to face.

The Mets were swept by the Chicago Cubs, extending their current losing streak to six games, or half the size of their longest dry spell of the season. Today, the cut the cord on Mendoza, a move many fans saw as long overdue.

Green, a former manager with San Diego, has been in the player development department with the Mets, so he knows some of the current players, and GM David Stearns, himself on the hot seat in the eyes of fans, and owner Steve Cohen, felt a change was needed. In all honesty, maybe that change should've been made after the Mets dropped two of three to the hated Phillies, who roll into Citi Field tonight off a rough series vs. Washington.

After falling out of playoff contention at the end of last season, the Mets were expected to turn things around, but slugger Pete Alonso (Baltimore), closer Edwin Diaz (Dodgers, currently on the IL), and utility ace Jeff McNeil (Sacramento) all chased the money, and Brandon Nimmo was shipped off to Texas for an underachieving Marcus Semien, who's started to turn it around on offense before going to the IL earlier this week with a hip injury. Fans on reddit rebelled, believing the team had reverted to the pre-Cohen era method of rebuilding on the cheap, choosing to stupidly convert Jorge Polanco to a first baseman (currently on the IL). Mark Vientos has been hot & cold, as has Jared Young. The experiment of making Brett Baty into another McNeil (that is, a utilityman who can play anywhere) has been met with indifference.

It's almost as if someone was really, really unhappy after the popular Alonso was allowed to walk, and hexed the team, but there's no proof that ever happened, of course. It isn't helping that the Mets' current malaise has dampened the momentum generated by the Knicks' NBA title victory earlier this month.

Fans on reddit already have given up on 2026, but is it premature? Philadelphia offers a case that it might be. They were the last team to change managers, swapping out Rob Thomson for Don Mattingly several weeks back, and they're back in the thick of the pennant race. Boston dumped Alex Cora, but Chad Tracy has not been the answer so far, leaving the Red Sox in the same position as the Mets, and it's not pretty. At the same time, the fans are not paying much attention to the usual spate of injuries, preventing the 2026 team from actually coming together as a unit, and looking for someone to blame. If you want to do that, whine on talk radio, kids.

Time will tell if Green, a veteran manager like Mattingly, can turn the ship around before it does hit a season ending iceberg. And the clock starts ticking tonight.