I was watching an episode of “Bizarre” with my family and I forced my mother to explain a joke about the “San Francisco 69ers”. I guess a kid’s got to learn some time…
How soon we forget:
Yes, his “most dangerous stunts” included “Jumping a Canyon on a Rocket-Powered Vehicle,” “Jumping from the CN Tower in Toronto,” and (my favorite) “Insulting Mr T.”
Bob Einstein also appeared occasionally on The Smothers Brothers as “Police Officer Judy,” and on Steve Allen’s syndicated show in the late '60s. He had me in stitches when he came on the latter claiming to have been raised by wolves. On another occasion, he was president of an anti-Polish Joke movement and went through a whole slew of them to demonstrate how offensive they were. Steve found it impossible to keep a straight face.
I loved Amos ‘n’ Andy as a kid, and I still do. It featured both great writing and performances by brilliant comic actors. Not once did their being black influence my feelings for the show. The characters and antics were no more outlandish than the ones on Gilligan’s Island.
As for “racial stereotypes,” I found the Norman Lear sitcoms of the '70s to be far more offensive than Amos ‘n’ Andy ever could be.
Pete and Gladys was a spinoff of December Bride, about a woman getting married (maybe remarried) late in life. Pete and Gladys lived next door. One or maybe both showed up in December Bride and then got their own series.
Much, much inferior to the later A&E series. Especially because it was clearly shot in LA. Archie always finds a parking space. Archie goes to a marina. Really? In NY? It was also set in the present, another problem.
Thanks for that. I haven’t had a chance to look all the way, but it appears to be on Netflix streaming. (It looks too sophisticated for the old one.)
I know what I’m doing tonight.
And I laughed at the new villain also.
I remember back in the 80s, a local TV station considered showing Amos & Andy reruns, and brought in an all-black test audience to consult. They all thought the show was funny, but none wanted to see it aired.
I not only remember Supercar, I have several episodes on VHS. I keep meaning to transfer them to DVD.
I also watched Fireball XL-5 when it was on, but lost interest in the Anderson shows after that.*
*Fireball XL4 and a version of Robert show up as characters in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier, which shows you how Fireball got its name. (although not how that information got back to HQ)
Does anybody else remember The Hathaways?
I remember that bit about the ABC network doing most of the sponsoring of the show. Even as a little kid, I thought it was weird that they announced “brought to you by ABC”, when no other show on TV seemed to be sponsored by the networks.
You can watch Supercar episodes through IMDB TV on Amazon Prime.
Back in my youth, I used to watch:
- Rescue 8, a police rescue unit.
- The Whirlybirds about helicopter pilots
- The Buccaneers. Pirates. Starring Robert Shaw.
- The Aquanauts Basically, Sea Hunt – name changed halfway to Malibu Run after one actor quit after all the underwater stuff caused health problems.
- The Americans, a Civil War drama about two brothers who fought on different sides. They’d focus on one or the other in each episode, with one or two showing both. Starred Darryl Hickman, brother of Duane.
- Profiles in Courage. Based on JFK’s history book, dramatizing the stories there, plus others.
- The Space Explorers. A science-based cartoon about a boy searching for his father throughout the Solar System. Excellent effects, since the footage was confiscated from both Nazi and Soviet SF films.
- The Funny Company. Cartoon that was an excuse to show educational films.
- Glynis. Starring Glynis Johns (the mother in Mary Poppins) as a mystery writer who solved murders, twenty years before Murder She Wrote.
- Pete and Gladys. One of the earlier spinoffs, from the very successful December Bride. Harry Morgan would talk about his never-seen wife Gladys there, so they cast Cara Williams in the part in the series.
I doubt anyone remembers Cartoon Alley, a local kid’s show in Milwaukee (well, maybe pkbites recalls it). It began in 1961 on WITI TV 6 (famous for their Tower of Light, an illuminated antenna with a huge 6 on it) and had typical characters in it a la the Romper Room and Captain Kangaroo style formats.
But most memorable to me were two characters, firstly Albert the Alley Cat, a hand puppet. He was notable in that when Cartoon Alley was cancelled in 1968, Albert continued his career as the network’s weather forecasting puppet (he’d started this sideline in 1965, discussing the day’s “humidery” and other weather “sadistics”) until 1981 when Corporate felt it was just too silly. Albert continued to host a kid’s show called “Albert and Friends” until 1984. Ask any Milwaukeean born between 1930 and 1980 and they probably have some recollection of Albert.
Second memorable character was Mr. Dinkfuzz, a rather short guy who showed the cartoons on Cartoon Alley. The show’s hostess, Barbara Becker (she sang at Eisenhower’s inaugural ball), would yell “Roll 'em, Dinkfuzz!” and the cartoon would start. I thought that was weird even as a kid. Mr. Dinkfuzz got phased out early in the show’s run.
I spent the Christmas holidays of 1962 visiting one of my uncles and his kids with my dad. The one thing I remember watching on TV was Comedy Capers in the afternoon. It was a collection of bits that were really old even then; IIRC, they were all silent with wisecracking voice-over narration.
However did WITI get away with a name like “Dinkfuzz”?!? 
Gyrate - In hindsight, I may have overstated the right-wing punching down part a tad. It’s just when I saw “diversity hire” on the boss’ notepad, I immediately thought, “‘Affirmative action means that companies have to keep minority employees no matter how grossly incompetent they are?’ REALLY?? THAT’S WHAT THIS SHOW IS ABOUT??” 
Looking back on what I remember about the snippets of the later episodes I was able to catch, however, I still think it took way too long to become watchable. When your main man starts as a clueless do-nothing motormouth abusive cowardly waste of oxygen, you can’t spend three-fourths of the season getting to “barely tolerable”. A stellar supporting cast might have been able to carry the load, but what I saw wasn’t anything close to stellar.
Looking back, it strikes me how, if I dig really hard, I might be able to come up with someone who says “Well, I liked it!”, but there’s never been a big outcry over it being cancelled or any kind of push to bring it back. (Contrast that to, say, the movement to bring back Family Guy.) There’s no clearer indication to me that it was never anything special. And on the other end, networks have learned that if you want a show about a useless jerkhole cartoon character, it makes much more sense to make it a straight-up cartoon rather than some overpriced “high concept” hybrid.
DKW, what show are you taking about?
I thought it must be a reference to a recent post by Gyrate, but I’ve looked back through the thread, and I must just be missing it.
The Pruits of Southhamption.
Terrible show, fabu theme song.
We’re talking about Son of Zorn.
I hitched a ride on your wavelength. I was remembering an episode this morning where the teenage daughter and her friend took an auto mechanics class just to meet boys. They acted like the engine was an operating table and played doctor and nurse. One of them worked on it and called for “Whatchamacallit” and “Thingamajig” as the other one would repeat the word and pass a random tool. That would so not fly today.
It was a different time. Both Dink and Fuzz/Fuzzy were common nicknames in the early to mid 20th century. think Fuzzy Thurston, a beloved Green Bay Packer, and Dink Templeton, the Olympic gold medalist.
But Mr. Dinkfuzz only lasted a few seasons, and was replaced by someone named Lester. “Roll 'em, Lester” became the new pre-cartoon command. Lester was also an old Milwaukee icon.
(Or perhaps my recall is less than perfect and I conflate the two of them, when perhaps I watched Lester on WISN)