I've got plenty of Weasel of the Week awards to hand out today, so bear with me.
We'll start with high school tennis. In New Hampshire, Bow High School's Sunday Swett won a state championship-----via forfeit----over Briana Leonard, representing Bishop Guerin High in Nashua. Swett won the first set, but when officials decided to move the match to another court, Leonard and her parents bailed, claiming the crowd was too partisan against Leonard.
SAY WHAT?
This is because Leonard, even though she's enrolled at Bishop Guerin, actually lives in Massachusetts. How they allow this to happen in the New England states, I don't know, but I think it has to do with open enrollment. The problem the Leonards had was that they felt the crowd simply hated their daughter just because she's not a New Hampshire native. What about the support from Bishop Guerin? Yahoo! doesn't report anything on this matter.
The bottom line is this. The audience is supposed to remain silent, offering polite applause when necessary, during a tennis match. It's not the fault of Briana Leonard that she had gotten as far as she did, but she did let Bishop Guerin down when they needed her the most. She took the coward's way out by forfeiting. She left the match and just gave up, unable to channel out the heckling from the partisan crowd.
The fans in attendance will also get Weasel ears, along with Ms. Leonard, because of violating tennis protocols. If you've got a problem with a kid who is essentially "carpetbagging" by coming across state lines to attend one of your schools, bugging her during an important match isn't a proper way of expressing your anger. If parents knew before this that Briana was not a New Hampshire resident, then that should've been brought to the attention of the school board in the city of Nashua, or state authorities.
Let me stress this. In New York, there are open enrollment schools in Section II that admit kids from outside the school's home district. I cannot be certain if that open enrollment includes admitting students from Vermont, New Hampshire, et al, as if this was a college. I cannot be certain, either, if that same policy is expanded at Bishop Guerin.
Now, on to baseball.
The Biogenesis scandal just won't end. ESPN's Outside The Lines had a report on Tuesday which claimed Major League Baseball would suspend at least 20 players, including Ryan Braun (Milwaukee) and Alex Rodriguez (currently on the DL with the Yankees) for 100 games. This wouldn't be about positive drug tests, but rather that the players somehow perjured themselves in earlier cases. Toronto's Melky Cabrera, whose season with San Francisco ended last year with a 50 game ban, has been mentioned as well.
What brought this about? How about Anthony Bosch, the head of Biogenesis, cutting a deal with MLB to essentially turn state's evidence against the players who'd been at his clinic. Braun, you'll remember, fought off a 50 game ban last year, but has been struggling this season. Rodriguez, of course, has yet to take the field for the Yanks as he recovers from hip surgery, and wouldn't be back until next month at the earliest. The NY tabloids made it clear on Wednesday where they stood. The Daily News splashed A-Rod on their front page, and the talk started again about whether or not the Yankees can void his contract. Good luck with that. It's understood that the Players Association would appeal the suspensions because of excessive length and whether or not MLB is overstepping its bounds by dropping the hammer without sufficient evidence.
Three months ago, MLB filed suit against Bosch for interfering with their internal investigation. Now, Bud Selig's office is working with Bosch, basically betraying the players if only to make an example of certain ones who've defied the rules on performance enhancing drugs (PED's), with Rodriguez the most high profile of the lot. The suit has apparently been dropped, but that gets Selig a set of Weasel ears for essentially getting in bed with Bosch. Rodriguez, according to today's Daily News, supposedly refused to pay Bosch, who was supposedly in financial distress himself. Bosch, of course, gets a pair of ears, and so does Rodriguez for deceiving the public when he claimed he was off the garbage. And it could go on and on..........
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Classic TV: I've Got a Secret (1952)
Back in television's Golden Age, producers Mark Goodson & Bill Todman dominated the landscape with a seemingly endless line of game shows. Today, only two of their series continue---The Price Is Right, which is anchoring CBS' daytime lineup, and Family Feud, which has found new life in syndication, though their hosts tend to change every few years, and passed its 35th anniversary 2 years ago.
But, back in the day, game shows were plentiful at night before venturing into daylight. One of the more successful G-T series was I've Got a Secret, which bowed in 1952, and continued for 15 seasons with just 2 regular hosts----Garry Moore (1952-64) & Steve Allen (1964-7).
Alpha Video acquired some early episodes of Secret and coupled them with G-T stablemate Beat The Clock on a DVD release that I recently acquired. Moviesmoviesmoviesla uploaded one of the two Secret episodes from the set, with special guest stars Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz (I Love Lucy, natch). Lucy is subbing for regular panelist Faye Emerson, joining Bill Cullen, Henry Morgan, & Jayne Meadows (Mrs. Steve Allen).
In 1972, to mark the series' 20th anniversary, Secret returned as a syndicated series, hosted once more by Steve Allen, as Garry Moore was busy with To Tell The Truth. Excuseyou77 presented the series opener, which returns panelist Henry Morgan, and features special guest Paul Lynde (Bewitched, Hollywood Squares):
The 70's version didn't last very long. In 2000, the cable network, Oxygen, decided to revive the series in a more intimate setting with hostess Stephanie Miller. Once again, this comes from excuseyou77:
The last incarnation came in 2006, airing on GSN (Game Show Network), and hosted by former ESPN personality-turned-actor/game show host Bil Dwyer. The leanings, it seems, were working toward the other
side of the street, if you get my drift.
I never saw that last series, and barely remember the Oxygen version.
The overall rating is B+.
But, back in the day, game shows were plentiful at night before venturing into daylight. One of the more successful G-T series was I've Got a Secret, which bowed in 1952, and continued for 15 seasons with just 2 regular hosts----Garry Moore (1952-64) & Steve Allen (1964-7).
Alpha Video acquired some early episodes of Secret and coupled them with G-T stablemate Beat The Clock on a DVD release that I recently acquired. Moviesmoviesmoviesla uploaded one of the two Secret episodes from the set, with special guest stars Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz (I Love Lucy, natch). Lucy is subbing for regular panelist Faye Emerson, joining Bill Cullen, Henry Morgan, & Jayne Meadows (Mrs. Steve Allen).
In 1972, to mark the series' 20th anniversary, Secret returned as a syndicated series, hosted once more by Steve Allen, as Garry Moore was busy with To Tell The Truth. Excuseyou77 presented the series opener, which returns panelist Henry Morgan, and features special guest Paul Lynde (Bewitched, Hollywood Squares):
The 70's version didn't last very long. In 2000, the cable network, Oxygen, decided to revive the series in a more intimate setting with hostess Stephanie Miller. Once again, this comes from excuseyou77:
The last incarnation came in 2006, airing on GSN (Game Show Network), and hosted by former ESPN personality-turned-actor/game show host Bil Dwyer. The leanings, it seems, were working toward the other
side of the street, if you get my drift.
I never saw that last series, and barely remember the Oxygen version.
The overall rating is B+.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Classic TV: Emergency! (1972)
Jack Webb wanted to branch out and create another kind of drama series as a companion to Adam-12. What he did became one of the more popular shows of the 70's.
Emergency! was the 2nd 1 hour series Webb had developed during the 1971-2 season. The first, O'Hara: US Treasury, was a comeback vehicle for David Janssen (ex-The Fugitive), and bowed in the fall on CBS. However, it couldn't find an audience opposite ABC's Partridge Family & Room 222, and thus would be the only series Webb sold to CBS after it was cancelled. Emergency! bowed in January 1972 with a 2 hour movie, "The Wedsworth-Townsend Act", then went right into a weekly 1 hour format the very next week.
Emergency! was a spin-off from Adam-12, whose stars, Martin Milner & Kent McCord, appeared in the opener, with cast members from Emergency! subsequently returning the favor. Oddly, one storyline had paramedic John Gage agonizing over missing the end to an episode of----wait for it---Adam-12. Go figure. William Boyett, a regular on Adam-12 as Sgt. McDonald, made periodic appearances as a fire battalion captain on Emergency!. Tim Donnelly was known from having previously appeared on Dragnet, but the real shock was real-life fireman Mike Stoker appearing as himself as a series regular. Talk about lending authenticity!
The action often bounced back and forth between the paramedics on scene and Rampart General Hospital and its staff, populated by the likes of cast members Robert Fuller and the husband & wife team of Julie London & Bobby Troup, whose daughter, Ronnie, was a regular on My Three Sons at the end of its run.
Emergency! spawned a spin-off of its own, namely, a Saturday morning series, Emergency! Plus 4, which lasted exactly two seasons (1973-5), also on NBC, and co-produced by Universal, Mark VII Limited (Webb's production company), and independent producer Fred Calvert. During season 2, series regular Ron Pinkard moonlighted as a voice actor, as he was heard on Sealab 2020, which Plus 4 ultimately replaced.
Currently, reruns air 6 days a week on Me-TV, but apparently, the network doesn't have all the episodes, and that would include the 6 TV-movies produced between 1977-9, after the series had ended.
Here's the intro that we all know, with the kickin' theme by the inestimable Nelson Riddle:
Rating: A.
Emergency! was the 2nd 1 hour series Webb had developed during the 1971-2 season. The first, O'Hara: US Treasury, was a comeback vehicle for David Janssen (ex-The Fugitive), and bowed in the fall on CBS. However, it couldn't find an audience opposite ABC's Partridge Family & Room 222, and thus would be the only series Webb sold to CBS after it was cancelled. Emergency! bowed in January 1972 with a 2 hour movie, "The Wedsworth-Townsend Act", then went right into a weekly 1 hour format the very next week.
Emergency! was a spin-off from Adam-12, whose stars, Martin Milner & Kent McCord, appeared in the opener, with cast members from Emergency! subsequently returning the favor. Oddly, one storyline had paramedic John Gage agonizing over missing the end to an episode of----wait for it---Adam-12. Go figure. William Boyett, a regular on Adam-12 as Sgt. McDonald, made periodic appearances as a fire battalion captain on Emergency!. Tim Donnelly was known from having previously appeared on Dragnet, but the real shock was real-life fireman Mike Stoker appearing as himself as a series regular. Talk about lending authenticity!
The action often bounced back and forth between the paramedics on scene and Rampart General Hospital and its staff, populated by the likes of cast members Robert Fuller and the husband & wife team of Julie London & Bobby Troup, whose daughter, Ronnie, was a regular on My Three Sons at the end of its run.
Emergency! spawned a spin-off of its own, namely, a Saturday morning series, Emergency! Plus 4, which lasted exactly two seasons (1973-5), also on NBC, and co-produced by Universal, Mark VII Limited (Webb's production company), and independent producer Fred Calvert. During season 2, series regular Ron Pinkard moonlighted as a voice actor, as he was heard on Sealab 2020, which Plus 4 ultimately replaced.
Currently, reruns air 6 days a week on Me-TV, but apparently, the network doesn't have all the episodes, and that would include the 6 TV-movies produced between 1977-9, after the series had ended.
Here's the intro that we all know, with the kickin' theme by the inestimable Nelson Riddle:
Rating: A.
Dunce Cap Award: Vince McMahon
Monday Night Raw's ratings have been falling in recent weeks. Of course, the NBA & NHL playoffs, coupled with college baseball/softball tournaments, might have something to do with it, but try explaining that to WWE's senile chairman, Vince McMahon, the recipient of this week's Dunce Cap.
As we wrote here a while back, current WWE World champion Dolph Ziggler (real name: Nick Nemeth) was sidelined after suffering a concussion thanks to rival and former tag partner Jack Swagger on Raw. A couple of weeks later, Triple H (Paul Levesque) was given a worked concussion after an accumulation of blows to the head at Extreme Rules and on Raw. Swagger (Jake Hager) has been off the last two Mondays now due to a combination of real-life legal troubles, which prevented him from traveling with the troupe to Canada last week, and likely punishment from management for reckless, careless behavior in the ring.
However, because he doesn't know any other way----in his own warped mind, anyway----to try to boost ratings, McMahon, who will be 68 in August, decided to interject himself and daughter Stephanie (HHH's wife) into Triple H's storyline. With Raw in the shadows of WWE HQ last night, McMahon decided to turn himself and Stephanie heel in front of the home state fans, but that was the wrong move to make.
Stephanie is caught in the middle. On one hand, she knows Triple H wants to exact revenge on Curtis Axel (Joseph Hennig, son of the late Curt "Mr. Perfect" Hennig) for putting him on the shelf, since Brock Lesnar is on sabbatical for a couple of months, and with a slice of vengeance saved for Axel & Lesnar's manager, Paul Heyman. At the same time, Stephanie also realizes that, at 43, Triple H cannot afford any more major injuries and it may be time for him to hang up the tights and boots and spend more time with their three daughters.
The problem is that the storyline portrays Stephanie and Vince as being almost as bad, if not worse, than the villains in the ring. In this writer's opinion, at this juncture, that is wrong.
Lost in all of this is Ziggler, who was activated from the DL last weekend, but held off TV last night, when his real-life situation could dove-tail with the pretend injury of his boss (HHH is also a junior executive in the company), which, while it might gradually turn Ziggler into a babyface, it would serve well to educate viewers about the impact of concussions in sports (and sports entertainment), which has been magnified in recent years. If anyone on the roster could empathize with the latest McMahon family soap opera, it'd be Ziggler, who's much younger and is being counted on as one of the keys to the company's future. However, it's McMahon's ego that is getting in the way.
So, how would one go about rewriting this angle to make it seem more sensible and realistic? Well........
I'd put Stephanie in the tweener role here, trying to empathize with her husband's plight, while at the same time, weighing the pros and cons of sending him back into battle too soon after the concussion. I'd move Ziggler and storyline love AJ Lee into the tweener category as well, to test the waters of Ziggler turning babyface, which he's way overdue to do anyway, considering he's been a heel in every role he's played since being called up (as Nick Nemeth) in 2005, and I'd leave the mad chairman out of it. Period.
Eventually, Triple H will get his revenge on Curtis Axel and the rest of Heyman's mob. Now isn't the time, and it would be prudent to wait until November's Survivor Series PPV to extract that revenge. However, McMahon being McMahon, he doesn't have the patience to let the story play out correctly.
For letting his ego get in the way of common sense again, McMahon picks up the Dunce Cap. This one has a chin strap attached to it, so that Vince has to wear it in public to embarass himself for being so insensitive and blind to reality, especially when it's right in front of him.
As we wrote here a while back, current WWE World champion Dolph Ziggler (real name: Nick Nemeth) was sidelined after suffering a concussion thanks to rival and former tag partner Jack Swagger on Raw. A couple of weeks later, Triple H (Paul Levesque) was given a worked concussion after an accumulation of blows to the head at Extreme Rules and on Raw. Swagger (Jake Hager) has been off the last two Mondays now due to a combination of real-life legal troubles, which prevented him from traveling with the troupe to Canada last week, and likely punishment from management for reckless, careless behavior in the ring.
However, because he doesn't know any other way----in his own warped mind, anyway----to try to boost ratings, McMahon, who will be 68 in August, decided to interject himself and daughter Stephanie (HHH's wife) into Triple H's storyline. With Raw in the shadows of WWE HQ last night, McMahon decided to turn himself and Stephanie heel in front of the home state fans, but that was the wrong move to make.
Stephanie is caught in the middle. On one hand, she knows Triple H wants to exact revenge on Curtis Axel (Joseph Hennig, son of the late Curt "Mr. Perfect" Hennig) for putting him on the shelf, since Brock Lesnar is on sabbatical for a couple of months, and with a slice of vengeance saved for Axel & Lesnar's manager, Paul Heyman. At the same time, Stephanie also realizes that, at 43, Triple H cannot afford any more major injuries and it may be time for him to hang up the tights and boots and spend more time with their three daughters.
The problem is that the storyline portrays Stephanie and Vince as being almost as bad, if not worse, than the villains in the ring. In this writer's opinion, at this juncture, that is wrong.
Lost in all of this is Ziggler, who was activated from the DL last weekend, but held off TV last night, when his real-life situation could dove-tail with the pretend injury of his boss (HHH is also a junior executive in the company), which, while it might gradually turn Ziggler into a babyface, it would serve well to educate viewers about the impact of concussions in sports (and sports entertainment), which has been magnified in recent years. If anyone on the roster could empathize with the latest McMahon family soap opera, it'd be Ziggler, who's much younger and is being counted on as one of the keys to the company's future. However, it's McMahon's ego that is getting in the way.
So, how would one go about rewriting this angle to make it seem more sensible and realistic? Well........
I'd put Stephanie in the tweener role here, trying to empathize with her husband's plight, while at the same time, weighing the pros and cons of sending him back into battle too soon after the concussion. I'd move Ziggler and storyline love AJ Lee into the tweener category as well, to test the waters of Ziggler turning babyface, which he's way overdue to do anyway, considering he's been a heel in every role he's played since being called up (as Nick Nemeth) in 2005, and I'd leave the mad chairman out of it. Period.
Eventually, Triple H will get his revenge on Curtis Axel and the rest of Heyman's mob. Now isn't the time, and it would be prudent to wait until November's Survivor Series PPV to extract that revenge. However, McMahon being McMahon, he doesn't have the patience to let the story play out correctly.
For letting his ego get in the way of common sense again, McMahon picks up the Dunce Cap. This one has a chin strap attached to it, so that Vince has to wear it in public to embarass himself for being so insensitive and blind to reality, especially when it's right in front of him.
Monday, June 3, 2013
Celebnty Rock: Fool, Fool, Fool (1964)
Our next clip can also be seen over at my other blog, Saturday Morning Archives.
Roosevelt "Rosey" Grier was a feared defensive lineman for the then-Los Angeles Rams of the NFL before embarking on an acting career that saw him join the cast of Daniel Boone near the end of that series' run. It was well known in the 70's, too, that Grier was into needlepoint, seeking to prove that this pastime wasn't limited to women. But, did you know the man could sing, too?
The only time I knew of this other talent was when Grier appeared on the Marlo Thomas special, Free To Be..You & Me, little knowing about his foray onto the R & B charts in 1964, which brought him to American Bandstand to perform "Fool, Fool, Fool". Now, I don't know how far this song got on the charts, but suffice to say, if you asked for it on an oldies radio channel now, chances are, depending on the DJ, you're likely to get the response of "Never heard of it."
Uploaded by NRRA Archives2:
Roosevelt "Rosey" Grier was a feared defensive lineman for the then-Los Angeles Rams of the NFL before embarking on an acting career that saw him join the cast of Daniel Boone near the end of that series' run. It was well known in the 70's, too, that Grier was into needlepoint, seeking to prove that this pastime wasn't limited to women. But, did you know the man could sing, too?
The only time I knew of this other talent was when Grier appeared on the Marlo Thomas special, Free To Be..You & Me, little knowing about his foray onto the R & B charts in 1964, which brought him to American Bandstand to perform "Fool, Fool, Fool". Now, I don't know how far this song got on the charts, but suffice to say, if you asked for it on an oldies radio channel now, chances are, depending on the DJ, you're likely to get the response of "Never heard of it."
Uploaded by NRRA Archives2:
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Musical Interlude: Bad To The Bone (1982)
In the early 80's, you just couldn't go a day without hearing George Thorogood's classic "Bad To The Bone". A delicious mix of blues and hard rock that is still popular enough to warrant airplay 31 years later.
What I don't get is the concept portion of the following video. Concert footage aside, George is playing a marathon game of pool with no less than Bo Diddley, a music legend in his own right. I'm guessing the pool scenes are Thorogood's way of saluting the 1960 film, "The Hustler", with Paul Newman & Jackie Gleason, which begat a sequel, "The Color of Money" (Newman & Tom Cruise) that came out four years after "Bone" was released as a single. Neighborhood kids are gathered outside the pool room, quietly cheering on George. I guess these kids didn't know Bo.
A few years later, the producers of the "Problem Child" movies used "Bone" as the theme for Junior (Michael Oliver) in a number of scenes. Sorry, but being "Bad to the Bone" doesn't fit a juvenile.
Uploaded by EMI's VEVO channel:
What I don't get is the concept portion of the following video. Concert footage aside, George is playing a marathon game of pool with no less than Bo Diddley, a music legend in his own right. I'm guessing the pool scenes are Thorogood's way of saluting the 1960 film, "The Hustler", with Paul Newman & Jackie Gleason, which begat a sequel, "The Color of Money" (Newman & Tom Cruise) that came out four years after "Bone" was released as a single. Neighborhood kids are gathered outside the pool room, quietly cheering on George. I guess these kids didn't know Bo.
A few years later, the producers of the "Problem Child" movies used "Bone" as the theme for Junior (Michael Oliver) in a number of scenes. Sorry, but being "Bad to the Bone" doesn't fit a juvenile.
Uploaded by EMI's VEVO channel:
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Jean Stapleton (1923-2013)
News has come over the wires of the passing of Jean Stapleton, best remembered as Edith Bunker on All In The Family, at 90, due to natural causes.
It would be too easy to just put up a Family clip, so I sought something different. That something is this number from The Muppet Show, during season 3. Here, Jean teams with Fozzie Bear (Frank Oz) to perform "A Simple Melody".
Jean had acted in commercials and other shows long before being cast as Edith, the loyal but often naive wife of Archie Bunker. Now, she joins Carroll O'Connor in sitcom heaven. Rest in peace, Jean. You have earned it.
It would be too easy to just put up a Family clip, so I sought something different. That something is this number from The Muppet Show, during season 3. Here, Jean teams with Fozzie Bear (Frank Oz) to perform "A Simple Melody".
Jean had acted in commercials and other shows long before being cast as Edith, the loyal but often naive wife of Archie Bunker. Now, she joins Carroll O'Connor in sitcom heaven. Rest in peace, Jean. You have earned it.
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