Troy goes el-scrimpo for summer concerts

 Looking at the free concert schedules in and around the home district, it feels like Troy has decided to go el-scrimpo this year. That is to say, not as much entertainment as usual, as the budget is being redistributed elsewhere.

The annual Rockin' on The River series at Riverfront Park has been "paused" for this year. Seems to me the money is being diverted for one of Mayor Carmella Mantello's fever dream projects. Not good. They're still doing the Wake Up Wednesday series at Ryan's Wake on River Street, though.

But, the biggest hit is the Powers Park series, reduced to just 2 shows this year, both with a 1 pm start, and running until 8:30 pm.

July 11:

1 pm: Psycho Mutton Chops.

3 pm: Brian Kane & The Beginning.

6 pm: Skeeter Creek.

August 15:

1 pm: Ishikawa (Allman Brothers tribute).

3 pm: Stones Alive (Rolling Stones tribute, of course).

6 pm: Legacy (Styx tribute).

Wake Up Wednesdays began its 2026 season on May 20, and continues through July 1. Next Step Federal Credit Union is the event sponsor. The remaining lineup:

Tomorrow: The Revival, featuring Alyssa Crosby (ex-The Voice).

June 17: Yacht Club.

June 24: Highway Boys (Zach Bryan tribute).

July 1: Legend (Journey tribute).

The city will still have its annual Pig Out and Chowderfest events at Riverfront Park, but this just doesn't hit the same.

Looking at the schedules for places like Cohoes, Watervliet, & Amsterdam makes Troy look like chump change. Do better next year, y'all.

The kiss of death strikes both coasts

 "Dumb Donald is really dumb!"---Gene Rayburn, Match Game, 1973-84.

Not every candidate that is endorsed by Dozin' Donald Trump actually succeeds.

A week ago, former reality star Spencer Pratt (ex-The Hills) was in line for a runoff election in November against incumbent Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. But, in the words of college football icon Lee Corso, not so fast, my friend, not so fast.

On Monday, LA councilperson Nithya Raman surged into 2nd place, setting up the runoff with Bass in November.

He saw nothing but Raman's tail lights.

The elimination of Spencer from the race came less than 48 hours after Trump threw a temper tantrum on Meet The Press, falsely claiming, as usual, that the election was rigged.

"WAAAAHHHHH! They're screwing Spencer! WAAAHHHH!"

No, they're not, Dumb Donald. You screwed him by endorsing him. If you didn't insist sticking your nose into every GOP race, things might be different.

In New York, the Knicks saw their 13 game postseason winning streak snapped in a 115-111 loss to San Antonio. As had been widely reported, and panned, Trump showed up. If the 2025 Super Bowl was any indication, he probably didn't stay for the whole game. WWE's Danhausen was also in attendance, but his kayfabe "powers" were negated by the presence of Dozin' Donald. Rumors circulated that Trump would be seated at Celebrity Row at courtside, but, common sense prevailed in that regard, as Trump was given a luxury suite by his friend and fellow man-child, James Dolan. The View moderator Whoopi Goldberg, ESPN's Stephen A. Smith, and others had suggested that Trump not show up, but, of course, and of course, he was booed by the city he betrayed to move to Florida during his first term. The Knicks were forced to cancel a watch party outside Madison Square Garden (it was moved to Bryant Park). Filmmaker & Knicks superfan Spike Lee wore a jersey autographed by Pope Leo to troll Trump.

No, Trump won't be back for game 4, which takes place tomorrow. He's already done enough damage.

What Might've Been: The Mighty O (1962)

 When it got out that ABC had decided to turn an Alcoa Theatre drama into McHale's Navy, the other networks were looking for service comedies set in peacetime.

NBC got just 1 season out of Dean Jones' Ensign O'Toole. CBS, on the other hand, never got out of the starting gate with The Mighty O.

The ensemble starts with a reunion of Peter Gunn co-stars Craig Stevens & Lola Albright. Mix in Alan Hale, Richard Jaeckel, and Jamie Farr (billed under his real name, Jameel Farah), and you'd think they'd have a winner. Nope.

Let's check out why.

No rating. Just a public service. Wartime Mondays returns next week with The Gallant Men.

The worm turns in Arizona: Donald Trump's lawyers to be prosecuted for fraud

 More than 5 1/2 years after he lost his bid for re-election, Donald Trump just won't let go of the fact that he lost, and insists to this day the election was rigged against him, when it clearly was not.

In Arizona, Attorney General Kris Mayes is turning the tables on Trump's band of ambulance chasing legal weasels, including Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, and John Eastman.

Brian Tyler Cohen & Glenn Kirschner break it down.

They say that Trump truly believes he was screwed. No, he wasn't, but you can't make him understand that. What really cost him in 2020 was his bumbling the government's response to COVID. Given Trump's temper tantrum on national television today on Meet The Press, it's likely he'll take his denials with him when he leaves Washington in 2029. If only he wouldn't.

What Might've Been: Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories (1985)

 While CBS was preparing a remake of The Twilight Zone, Steven Spielberg & Amblin Entertainment decided to do their own version.

Amazing Stories ran for 2 seasons total, airing on Sundays, coupled with another reboot, this one of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Spielberg actually obtained a license for the title, since it's also a long running magazine that launched 100 years ago.

Like Twilight, Amazing Stories had a mix of thrillers and lighter fare, the latter of which is represented in an excerpt from season 1. In "Remote Control Man", a henpecked husband (Sidney Lassick, "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest") acquires a new TV with a bizarre remote control that brings anything on the screen into the "real world". With guest appearances by Barbara Billingsley (Muppet Babies, ex-Leave it To Beaver), Dirk Benedict (The A-Team), Lou Ferrigno (using archived Incredible Hulk footage), Lyle Alzado, Jim Lange, Professor Toru Tanaka, Richard Simmons, LaWanda Page (ex-Sanford & Son), Sid Haig, and Ed McMahon (Star Search, The Tonight Show):

That Tanaka is given dialogue is rare, but it also sounds like they had Keye Luke dub over the dialogue.

Silly. NBC gave it up too soon.

Rating: B.

Videos of Summer: Suddenly Last Summer (1983)

 "Suddenly Last Summer" was the first single from the Motels' 1983 album, "Little Robbers". Singer Martha Davis, falling asleep after reading a Harlequin romance novel, imagines herself on the beach, and....

YouTube Theatre: Tammy & The Millionaire (1965-7)

 It was a common practice in the 60's & 70's for studios to repackage episodes of series that were either hits or flops into feature films to gain some extra mileage.

Universal did just that with "Tammy & The Millionaire", a compilation of 3 episodes of the 1965 series, Tammy, hoping to save face after the series had ended. Debbie Watson (Tammy) had transitioned into taking over the role of Marilyn Munster in "Munster Go Home", which came out around the same time, within a few months.

On The Air: 60 Minutes (1968)

 When 60 Minutes bowed in 1968, it was at the back end of CBS' Tuesday lineup, before moving into its current spot at the front of the network's Sunday block. Today, it is on the verge of being repackaged into tabloid television if CBS' current owners so desired, the better to placate a frequent guest who has self esteem issues. If you don't know what I mean, you haven't been paying attention.

60 Minutes represented investigative journalism, getting to the heart of stories not getting enough time on the evening news. Revealing to America the names behind the headlines. Mike Wallace (ex-Biography) was lead anchor at the beginning, with a rotating cast of co-anchors & reporters including Morley Safer, Lesley Stahl, Diane Sawyer, Ed Bradley, Harry Reasoner, and pundit Andy Rooney, an Albany native. When it came to major headlines like Watergate and the Iran hostage crisis in the 70's & 80's, 60 Minutes was must-see TV, long before NBC coined the term.

From 1974, a profile on Watergate figure Donald Segretti.

I shan't be surprised if, within a year, the series is reduced to being a network cousin to, say, Inside Edition, dragged down into the dirt because of a thin-skinned loose screw in Washington.

Rating: A.

Yo, Alabama! Do you really want a carpetbagging ex-football coach as your next governor?

 Before becoming Senator, Tommy Tuberville was known in Alabama as the head football coach at Auburn. He eventually ended his coaching career in Cincinnati, at the university there, before turning to politics.

Instead of running for re-election for his Senate seat, Tommy Tubes decided to go for higher stakes, and run for governor of Alabama. Ah, but therein lies the rub. Emphasis on lies, folks.

Remember when former Georgia football icon Herschel Walker decided to return to the Peach State to run for Senate, at the request of Donald Trump? You know how that worked out, right? Walker was sacked, losing the election to Rev. Raphael Warnock. Walker had been living in Texas at the time, ignorant of the rules regarding residency to run for office in either state. Trump subsequently made Walker an ambassador to the Bahamas last year.

Tommy Tubes is making Walker out to look like a deer-in-the-headlights rube, as Farron Cousins explains.

George "Pinocchio" Santos, the 2nd most prolific liar in the GOP, after, of course, Trump, didn't finish his lone term in Congress. Madison "Foghorn" Cawthorn, was defeated in a primary, serving just 1 term, and at last check, left North Carolina for parts unknown. Tommy Tubes is facing an uphill battle, and his own tax returns may have cost him his career.

No wonder Trump is so reluctant to let his returns be made public. He's got more skeletons in his closet, don't ya think?

At CBS, it's not about real news anymore. It's about placating a hypersensitive man-baby

 60 Minutes has been on the air nearly 60 years. Right now, the anchor of CBS' Sunday lineup is looking like it may be headed for the endangered species list.

Reporter Scott Pelley, a former CBS Evening News anchor, was fired earlier this week for standing up to the network's right-wing-aligned head of the news department, Bari Weiss, and her new head man at 60 Minutes, Nick Bilton. Weiss, then, lied about the firing in a statement released to the press.

With CBS' corporate parent, Paramount-Skydance, still looking to close a deal on a merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, the network has gutted its news department in an effort to placate president Donald Trump, the most thin-skinned, hypersensitive man in modern history. Even with Trump-friendly management, President Pampers is still rage-watching, looking for excuses to whine & complain about the longest running primetime news program the network has ever had. Former anchor Dan Rather has railed against his former bosses. Founding co-anchors Mike Wallace & Morley Safer are turning over in their graves.

The merger would give Skydance owners Larry & David Ellison control of CNN, as well, another outlet that fuels Trump's rage. Trump doesn't understand that not all criticism is negative. He watches TV so he can have something to complain about and rile up his base of marks.

If the merger isn't finalized by, say, November, and the midterm elections go in favor of the Democrats, as has been forecast for months, it probably won't be final at all.

For Scott Pelley, I'd not be surprised if someone suggests the prospect of a wrongful termination suit. That would have more merit behind it than any frivolous attempt at litigation from Trump and his crew.

When Icons Meet: Betty White visits The Price is Right (1988)

 I just couldn't pass this up.

Betty White (The Golden Girls) paid a visit to good friend Bob Barker's The Price is Right in the fall of 1988 to help a contestant play the Hole in One golf game......

Betty would make two more appearances on Price, including, I think, one during the current Drew Carey era.

Musical Interlude: By The Time This Night is Over (1992)

 Kenny G teamed with Peabo Bryson on 1992's "By The Time This Night is Over", first released on Kenny's CD, "Breathless", then reissued on a Bryson CD 2 years later. Bryson had become known for his Disney duets from "Beauty & The Beast" and "Aladdin", the latter released around the same time as "Night".

In memory of Bryson, 75, who passed away earlier today after a stroke. Rest in peace.

What Might've Been: Show Me! (1990)

 Here's an unsold pilot recently uncovered.

NBC had commissioned Show Me! from an independent producer in 1990. Three pilots were produced before the network decided not to pick up the show.

Ex-MTV VJ Mark Goodman, having seen how his pal, Alan Hunter, had managed to do a fill-in gig on Triple Threat a couple of years earlier, was tapped to host this pilot. Our celebrity panel includes impressionist-actor Fred Travalena, no stranger to being an MC himself.

What were they going for? Sounds like You Don't Say for stand-ups. Goodman looked perfect in his first go as a game show host, but was never given another audition. Mark would later return to the MTV Networks family, this time at VH1, for a time.

Rating: B.

Trump steals awards that he didn't earn. Jimmy Kimmel earned his. Expect a meltdown in Washington.........

 This is going to hit president Donald Trump right where he lives. In his overfed ego.

ABC should start promoting Jimmy Kimmel Live! by highlighting the fact that the comedian has earned a Peabody Award. Check it.

Trump swindled his way to the Nobel Peace Prize medal, and stole some soccer trophies that don't belong to him. Kimmel earned the Peabody. Trump will be wetting his Depends any time now.....!

Jimmy Kimmel has been part of the pop culture fabric for nearly 30 years, dating back to Win Ben Stein's Money. Just watch. Next year, it'll be Stephen Colbert's turn......

Celebrity Rock: Under The Bridge (2024)

From The Masked Singer:

We found out that Dr. Ken Jeong is a huge Red Hot Chili Peppers fan. Contestant Sherlock Hound got a rise out of Jeong with a compact cover of the Chilis' 1991 smash, "Under The Bridge".

Some folks initially thought it was Hootie & The Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker under the mask. Nope. Turned out it was former baseball pitcher Bronson Arroyo, who played for a number of teams, including Cincinnati, Boston, & Arizona, during his career. Jeong got in on the fun calling out, "One time!" prior to the chorus. 

Y'notice how judge Robin Thicke is sounding like his late father, actor-singer-songwriter Alan Thicke? Maybe his next album will cover all the theme songs dad wrote.....