Wild West Wednesday: The Gun Runners (Pistols & Petticoats, 1966)

 After appearing on Iron Horse, Gerald Mohr guest starred on Pistols & Petticoats as a card sharp. Moving to cartoons the next year, though saved him from typecasting.

Here's "The Gun Runners":

In 2 weeks, "The Daughters of Joshua Cabe Return".

Musical Interlude: The Candy Man (1972)

 Roughly a year after "Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory", Sammy Davis, Jr. recorded his version of "The Candy Man", which went all the way to #1 for 3 weeks in the summer of 1972.

Unfortunately, all the performance videos are of Sammy on his own, without the Mike Curb Congregation, acting as his backup singers. So, we'll go with the audio, and a shot of an album cover.....

I don't think Davis charted with the theme from Baretta, though.

Musical Interlude: We Don't Talk Anymore (1979)

 Cliff Richard hit #1 on the UK pop charts, and peaked at #7 on the Hot 100 with 1979's "We Don't Talk Anymore", which, in reality, was a reintroduction to American audiences, as he had last charted over here with "Devil Woman" three years earlier.

Today in GOP stupidity

 Two weeks ago, President Pampers (Donald Trump) was making demands regarding the Gordie Howe Bridge, which is one of the links between the US & Canada, and falsely (of course) claimed that China would "terminate" hockey in Canada.

As usual, the Joe Isuzu of politics didn't know what he was talking about. 

On Sunday, Trump cancelled plans to attend the men's hockey final at the Olympics between the US & Canada, and instead sent FBI Misdirector "Counterfeit" Kash Patel as a proxy. Mirroring the women's gold medal victory three days earlier, the Americans won their first men's gold medal since the "Miracle on Ice" team coached by Herb Brooks won it all in Lake Placid 46 years ago. Patel partied with the men's team after the game, which, of course, led to much resentment back at home, since he was traveling on taxpayer dollars.

Here's what real winners look like, Dumb Donald!

Rangers coach Mike Sullivan guided the men's team to the gold, and, as previously noted, Rangers announcer Kenny Albert called the game for NBC. Coincidentally, Brooks would coach the Rangers at the end of his career.

Unfortunately, not everyone in the misadministration was happy with the result.

White House Propaganda Minister Steven Cheung whined when Canada's Connor McDavid was named men's tournament MVP. Apparently, Cheung didn't pay much attention to the actual games, or doesn't understand hockey at all. Cheung made the accusation that the MVP vote was, well, fixed. No, it wasn't. McDavid, a star player for the NHL's Edmonton Oilers, earned the honor. They do give such awards to players on losing teams every now and then. 

Meanwhile, Dumb Donald is calling on Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos to remove Susan Rice, a former adviser to former President Barack Obama, from the streamer's board of directors. Loopy Laura Loomer got Trump bent out of shape with lies about Rice. If Loomer would stop sticking her nose where it doesn't belong (and this applies to anyone in Trump's orbit, including Trump himself), she wouldn't feed the Archduke of Affluenza's need for attention. Sarandos addressed the issue while at the BAFTA Awards in England, stating that the planned merger between Netflix & Warner Bros. Discovery is a business deal, not political, though Donnie Diapers is pushing his friends, the Ellisons, the dorks in charge of Paramount-Skydance, to acquire WBD away from Netflix.

Do us all a favor, President Pampers. Do the job you're supposed to, and leave everything else alone, left for more responsible people to address. We do need mature adults in Washington, after all...........

YouTube Theatre: The Trackers (1971)

 A rancher (Ernest Borgnine, ex-McHale's Navy) needs help locating his daughter, supposedly abducted by Apaches. A deputy marshal (Sammy Davis, Jr.) joins him as "The Trackers" in an ABC Movie of The Week, which Davis co-produced with Aaron Spelling. Julie Adams, Jim Davis (ex-Stories of The Century) and Norman Alden (ex-Rango) co-star.

Predictable fare.

Rating: B.

Sports this 'n' that

 Later this morning, the US & Canada will play for the gold medal in men's hockey, three days after the US women went to overtime to defeat Canada to claim gold. The American men have not won gold at the Olympics since the "Miracle on Ice" team 46 years ago in Lake Placid.

And as for how the women completed an undefeated tournament......

NBC is confining their Olympic videos to their YouTube channel. We thank Team USA for making theirs available.

Kenny Albert, who otherwise works for TNT & the Rangers, will be on the call. Finland blew away Slovakia, 6-1, to claim the bronze on Saturday.

MLB Network quietly hired Eduardo Perez away from ESPN to be one of the anchors for their new morning show, Leadoff Spot. With Karl Ravech busy with college basketball on ESPN, it appears that David Cone could wind up exclusive to the Yankees this season.

Former Houston manager/coach Bo Porter made his broadcasting debut calling the Andre Dawson Classic on MLB Network Saturday. Did a decent job. We'll see if he turns up on MLB Tonight this season.

Earlier this week, the Pittsburgh Pirates announced the passings of two members of their 1960 World Series team, one of whom had ties to the 518.

Relief pitcher Elroy Face, 97, was a native of Stephentown, one of those rare players from our district that made it to the big time. On Saturday, Bill Mazeroski, who won the Series with a homer in game 7, passed away at 89.

And, then, we learned this morning that Rondale Moore, a 2021 draft pick of the Arizona Cardinals as a wide receiver, has passed away at 25. Moore spent three seasons with Arizona before being traded to Atlanta, but missed the last two seasons with knee injuries. He would've played with Minnesota last season.

Rest in peace, gentlemen.

Forgotten TV: The McGonicle (1958-61)

 MGM originally produced this service comedy pilot, The McGonigle, for NBC in 1958, but the network sat on it for 3 years before it finally hit the air on Westinghouse Preview Theatre in 1961. Mickey Shaughnessy has the title role as a scheming sailor with a merry band, a la Phil Silvers' Sgt. Bilko. Paul Picerni came over from The Untouchables to play Bottleneck, another sailor.

We'll look at Westinghouse Preview Theatre another time, but now, it's time to sail off with The McGonigle.

I think you can see why, despite the creative pedigree involved, including Bilko writers Ray Singer & Dick Chevillat, this ended up aground. Chevillat would resurface at Filmways (i.e. Green Acres) to greater success. The plot was recycled from Bilko, whose producer, Edward Montagne, would use a similar plot on McHale's Navy when it launched a year later.

Rating: B-.