Watching Antenna TV, Johnny Carson. Funny guy but he was a so bad as a stand up comic he was hilarious.
The thing that was brilliant was Johnny was when a joke would flop, and he would draw attention to the point. I remember one time, he grabbed the mic boom and checked to make sure it was working (and then did an impression of one of the PA announcers at a store, "Today's blue light special: on aisle 3..." or whatever. And if the audience didn't applaud immediately, but say a few seconds would go by and then they'd start applauding, Johnny would tell them to stop because "I don't need sympathy applause" or whatever.
One of my favorite jokes was when they were talking about the resemblance Reagan's attorney general Ed Meese bore to Ed McMahon. "In fact, they've started sending out letters in envelopes that read 'You may have already been indicted by the United States Government!".
Another one hinged on TV's and VCR's being installed in coffins. "Yeah, that's exactly what we need: a cemetery full of clocks flashing 12:00! 12:00! 12:00!".
One more: when Jaws came out, he joked that there was a scene in the movie where a lawyer goes swimming, the shark circles then leaves. "Professional courtesy" (I think that was around the time of one of his divorces or when he was renegotiating his contract with NBC).
I also remember his cameo on Night Court, where he tries to pick up Christine. Bull asks him, "I know it's none of my business, but aren't married again, now?". Johnny thinks, gets that confused look on his face, finally after about 15 seconds says, "I don't know".
Unbelievable volume of great quotes from all his glorious work on television:
Some sad news from Australia... the inventor of the boomerang grenade died today.
I know a man who gave up smoking, drinking, sex, and rich food. He was healthy right up to the day he killed himself.
May you have the income of a Republican and the sex life of a Democrat!
Happiness is seeing the muscular lifeguard all the girls were admiring leave the beach hand in hand with another muscular lifeguard.
I remember another good Johnny line about those razors that have two blades in them (now of course, they've got like 4 or 5 in them). His comment was something that they don't actually shave twice as close, but rather just double your chances of slitting your throat.
When my(older) brother and i were kids we shared a bedroom and had a 19inch black and white tv on a rolling cart.11:30 pm was way past our school night bedtime but we tried to sneak a view to Carson's monologue.We had to be quiet or our parents in the next bedroom would storm in and make us turn it off.
When my brother was being an ass he'd turn the tv cart so i couldn't see it.
Damn you, Fred!!!!
"please do not understand me too quickly"-andre gide
For me, the absolute funniest Carson routine was during the '88 primary campaign. Some news sources accused him of being biased toward Republicans, other sources toward Democrats. To clear up any confusion, he had a "Wheel of Candidates." He would spin the wheel, and whatever of the many candidates it landed on, he'd tell a joke about that candidate. When it landed on a boring candidate, the joke bombed. He said, "Now you know why we don't tell any jokes about him." When the wheel spun just past Pat Robertson, he moved the wheel back to Robertson and told another joke about him.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
Watching a classic short.....
.....calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard......
I remember a gag he did during that timeframe. He was talking about how, at the political conventions, you'd have these delegates or whatever you call them, and they get up and say things like "Michigan, the home of Ford, Chrysler, Oldsmobile and Motown" or whatever. So he had a few of his of that sort. One that I remember was "Indiana, not one square acre of which was taken by the Viet Cong while Dan Quayle was in the National Guard!".
I talked about this in the Allman Brothers Band thread, but I remember back in 1990, when they put out Seven Turns, they went on Johnny and did two songs. They did Good Clean Fun, and then Doc Severinsen and the Tonight Show brass came on and joined them for a truncated arrangement of True Gravity. They did the same thing the following year, with Doc and the brass sitting in on Kind Of Bird, which I never saw until the Youtube era, because I was in boot camp at the time.
Watching The Munsters. Fred Gwynne is a comic genious. Hilarious. Al Lewis (Grandpa) was insane too.
Fred Gwynne was a legit thespian, working on the stage during much of the 70's, after he found himself typecast by the role of Herman Munster. He was also a painter and an author and illustrator of children's books.
I loved him as the judge in My Cousin Vinny. "What's a yout?"
Vinny Gambini:
Your Honor, may I have permission to treat Ms. Vito as a hostile witness?
Mona Lisa Vito:
You think I'm hostile now, wait 'til you see me tonight.
Judge Chamberlain Haller:
Do you two know each other?
Vinny Gambini:
Yeah, she's my fiancée.
Judge Chamberlain Haller:
Well, that would certainly explain the hostility.
Watching ....The Blob, with Steve McQueen.
Great movie. Prog relevance: the film was shot in the same town that ROSfest was held in, the first few years. In fact, I gather they the movie theater that appears in the picture, that's the very same theater that ROSfest was in! Unfortunately, I never got around to going.
Steve McQueen was apparently annoyed that the movie had such a long shelf life, as it were. I guess he did it at the time because he was a struggling actor who "couldn't afford to be picky" about the roles he took. But once he became famous, The Blob kept rearing it's ugly head every so often.
I watched some of it, too. Some absolutely TERRIBLE acting in that one. It definitely does not deserved to be remembered for anything other than being McQueen's first major role.
I understand movies being low-budget, but how can any director allow such terrible performances to actually make it on screen?
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
It was a 50s, B film. What could one expect? Was that strawberry pie filling they used for the Blob as it squished its way into buildings? ...
I've always liked this movie. Mindless fun.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
It still drives me crazy that certain movies, Psycho being one of them, have been spoiled for generations of movie buffs. It's the same with the big reveal in The Empire Strikes Back, everyone who pays attention to such things already knows, going in, who the killer in Psycho is, or what Darth Vader says to Luke Skywalker.
I never saw the Blob '80s remake, but I have the Michael Hoenig soundtrack CD.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
I don't know about that. When the guy prods baby blob with the stick , it races up and engulfs his hand with an unnerving suddeness. I was definitly a fan. Remember The Blob comes from an era of inocuous films about giant tarrantulas , grasshoppers and squids. There was even one called IIRC tHe Monoliths about an attack of giant crystals. So in that company The Blob wasn't terrible. The sequal kinda sucks.
What I'm saying is it was much easier to impress audiences back in the day, becoming less and less so as time progresses. That was the case with the original Frankenstein, then years later, Abbot and Costello making a Frankenstein spoof. With today's tech and societal standards, our expectations are ginormous.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
I presume you're talking about The Monolith Monsters (1957), starring nobody you've ever heard of. "Mammoth skyscrapers of stone thundering across the earth!", says the poster. 6.4/10, says IMDB. 40% audience score, says Rotten Tomatoes, where they have no tomatometer for it.
While studying meteor showers in the American Southwest, geologist Dave Miller (Grant Williams) finds some rather queer crystals. The crystals grow huge after a rainstorm, and begin absorbing silicone from humans, turning them into monsters. Miller tries to save the small town, whose residents include a schoolteacher (Lola Albright) and her children.
Absorbing silicone from human beings? ? ? Except for certain plastic surgeries which I'm pretty sure didn't exist in 1957, human beings contain no noticeable amount of silicone...
I'll have to see this one
Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.
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