TV Questions, Non Sequitors and Junk

Fred Sanford and Donna Harris- Why? I may lose a lot of fans with this but I have to speak my mind. I'm so glad these two never got married. Really I can't think of a more ill-suited couple in all of my days of watching TV. Let's face it, both of them have their cons--not many pros. Together, they are lethal. Fred couldn't be Fred around Donna. And Donna was just, well, weird.

The Breakup Show: Sadly we never did get the Breakup Show we deserved. As the last Sanford and Son aired on NBC in 1977, they were still together. Dammit!


Why Did They Turn Schneider Into a Neutered Imbecile?: That's actually a question that keeps me awake. Fans of One Day at a Time who might have thought Schneider and Miss Romano would get together gave up the ghost by the early '80s. They took divergent paths. While Ann was still dating a lot of dudes, Schneider curiously slowed down. He became silly, avuncular--a sexless, unlikeable dolt. Did he get any action that last season? I don't think so, I don't he even looked at Valerie Bertinelli inappropriately anymore either. Oh Schneider...

Webster: The Fire Starter- To be honest, I loved Webster during its early days. I stopped liking Webster when he torched his parents with that foolish science project. What lesson did that serve? How to ruin a show with a "special episode?" And really, Mam' and George must have been saints. If Webster had torched my crib, I'd have to choke the life right out of him.


Jack and Janet Should Have Ended Up Together. That's right, I said it and I don't care what the kids say. I've always felt that the show's run was ruined by its idiotic conclusion. Janet marries the world's most boring man ever. Jack inexplicably falls in love with the one love interest he had zero chemistry with. It's so clear that Jack and Janet were perfectly for one another.



Oh yeah, Chrissy got real dumb too...

Battle of the Stereo Consoles

You know, I get more mail about stereo consoles then anything else. That's no shocker. Really there's nothing like lifting a 25 pound slab of a wood to get to that hollowed-out sound. In short, I'm ready to rock n' roll--with my console!



Yow, light my fire! This is a classic brought to us by the good folks at Zenith/Allegro. Despite the compact looks, this is a big room filler like the rest of the inadvertent furniture/stereos of the time. Out of all of them, this is my favorite. The Zenith/Allegro stereo products aren't all that bad. In fact, I had a pair of gigantic speakers that still had enough power to take away what's left of my hearing. Huh? What did you say?





A little battered though better than a late '80s CD player... This is another lovely one. In fact, this is pretty much folk art, pure Americana if you will. With its wear and tear this is the quintessential setup that's regrettably left behind in a move. I remember seeing these in all of those abandoned houses I used to prowl for albums, knick knacks and dirty magazines. I can safely say that if I had a van or truck, I'd go steal one tonight!





Straight from Montgomery Wards... Man, this one's clean. This seems to be from the late period. Look at that artistic picture, and the design, it's almost teasing and tempting the customer. I'm sold, I don't know about anyone else. And look at those controls, bass, treble. The saddest part? It's newer than the majority of my stereo equipment.




This pic was clearly taken near some Grecian ruins. Since it does look like it's an outside shot, that just lets us know, this console is ready for your next B-B-Q. Get two to five people and take it outdoors, I can't wait! Don't let the staid and stodgy style fool you. I bet this is packed with power and will throw out a spark or maybe smoke. Enjoy...





One last look

And who's that on the record machine? Elvis Presley, Perry Como? That's going to keep me up all night...

The "Horrors" of My Record Collection

You can tell a lot about a person from their album collection. The efforts below should tell you that I'm insane, I'm a pack rat and I love vinyl. Here's a few of the highlights from some recent adventures. And by adventures I mean buying records that are potentially embarrassing.


Nat King Cole, a lot of Nat King Cole. Years ago I had a nice Longines Symphonette set of albums from Cole. It's gone now, I probably sold it for some Munchos or something. After looking through a lot of albums I bought I found out I actually acquired 8 King Cole albums. I'm oddly OK with that.

Part 2: From the looks of it, Nat recorded about 100 albums for Capitol in a relatively short time. By the mid point, the album notes became scattered with hyperbole and nauseating PR speak. Ah come on. At this point I'm either going to clean them up or find a truck and back over them.


Don't hate, congratulate. If you can't do that? Congratuhate...It was a veritable steal when I picked this up. The Mills Brothers were on a highly-successful roll during their Dot Records era. This is a hot one too, collecting all of those influential hits like, "The Jones Boy," "I Love You So Much It Hurts" and "Smoking Crack is Good For You."





Dave Clark Five-Glad All Over- Fake stereo rocks! Oddly enough, I do like "Bits and Pieces" and "Glad All Over." The weird thing here is it's all presented to us in a freakish and probably diabolical tactic called "Duophonic"(fake ass stereo.) It's so irritating to ears and perhaps toxic to the brain. I'm disgusted with the practice.

The Truth: I love it, fake stereo rocks!


Peggy Lee- Raindrops- Lee seemed to be an odd bird. This 1971 compilation captures her late '60s and early '70s work. Raindrops was a Capitol release yet it was made for Abbott Laboratories, the drug company. Lee herself offers her testimony on the insanely addictive drug. The recommended dosage?

My Biggest Dream: To Find Some Placidyl


Petula Clark- Greatest Hits Vol 1- I'm not even going to pretend to be embarrassed about this. The graphics here are great and the vinyl itself is gorgeous. The only downside here is that "Don't Sleep in the Subway" was relatively new during this release and wasn't included. I'm so pissed about this, it would elevated this to classic status.

Part 2: Ahh who am I kidding this is a classic.


Bobby "Blue" Bland- Member's Only- It's with great sorrow that I can't review my copy of this fine album. It's missing. I'm scared--this time it's personal!

TV Woes

Oh hi. Funny story, I got locked out of my blog for nearly two weeks. In any event
this whole TV season has been throughly disappointing as my Match Game DVD. There's nothing but bad news all around. Yay that makes me happy!


Isaiah Washington-So Long, Farewell, To You and You and You- I've got to say seeing Isaiah Washington get canned as Preston Burke isn't exactly guffaw worthy to me. I don't know, they dragged it out like a soap opera, kept him on board and then wham! He had to go-go. The most nagging thing is that he's such a good actor and Preston Burke is a great character, I'm afraid the show accelerated it's continuing decline.


Part 1: I wonder what really sent him packing. Was it choking "McDreamy" or the comment he made to Patrick Dempsey about TR Knight. Was it a combination of the two or both, why am I still typing...

Exclusive: Reportedly Washington is mad as hell. I don't think it's possible, he looks so happy there...







Real World: Reunion- Reunited and it feels so bad. I don't know who's idea it was to bring this packs of malcontents back but, here they are. The Las Vegas season is when I deemed myself too old to watch. Since it's been so long (5 years) MTV wants us to "catch up" and have these seven strangers check back into their old sin den, the Palms. Same apartment too. Same crap.

Verdict: These people are still as uninteresting as they ever were.



Look, it's Mr. Nice Guy. ABC's American Inventor always was an odd show. There's always some dude wanting validation for lunatic fringe idea. Apparently to add some facial recognition to the judges panel and soften the blows, George Foreman was added to the cast. I have to say, where would we be without his inventions like that '90s contraption that takes all of the taste away from, well, everything...

Part 1- I saw a clip of this where phoney baloney Foreman wasn't putting on his non-scary face for some goofy kid some crappy gadget. That's exciting...

Creepy George Is Back!- Perhaps in an attempt to lure viewers, George went on record and stated that he thought he was drugged during the 1974's Rumble in the Jungle. Me? I thought Ali just gave him an ass whuppin'.


It's an outrage! Man, I was just liking Milena Govich on Law and Order when I received the news that she won't be back next season. Well, that sucks. Really I don't know why not. She's really cute and I was enjoying watching her strut around fighting crime with Marvin Gaye. Oh well...







In some good news, Fred Thompson has left. Degrading the Law and Order franchise isn't enough, he's going to do his part in destroying the planet by running for president. Good luck, smiley...






Bob Barker Won't Go Home- CBS gave Barker not one but two "going away" specials. He's been the host of PIR for hundreds of years. Now it's being reported that he's put himself on the short list as one of the potential new hosts because they can't find anyone.

Part 15: Now we're getting a taste of that selfish, selfish man that gave Holly Hallstrom so much worry. I've got one word for Bob Barker: Goodbye!