Sweet Cream Summer

Began the morning with breakfast and the third season opener of Little Bear. "Owl's Dilemma" is he can't find a quiet place to sleep. Birds chirp at his treehouse. Frogs croak at the pond. Mother Bear and Little Bear make too much noise moving dishes around. Owl finally settles things with two cupcakes. Emily and Little Bear open their own "School For Otters." The goofy otters don't seem to show much interest in learning, but they reveal just how much they were listening when they show them what they love to learn. Little Bear and Father Bear goof off a little too much while "Spring Cleaning," so they make Mother Bear a picnic.

Finished my grocery list, then headed out to run errands. Made a brief stop at the Oaklyn Post Office to send a bill before dodging noon traffic on Cuthbert and riding down to Haddon Ave. I wanted to find a record I saw listed at Phidelity, but...they were closed for the day. I was really disappointed, but then I looked across the street. Groups of people were gathered around the entrance to what had been McMillan's Bakery before they closed last year. I finally decided to cross Haddon Avenue and check it out.

I crossed even as official-looking men cut a wide scarlet red ribbon. Turns out DiBartolo's Bakery, another recently-closed family bakery, and Mt. Ephraim bakery Del Bueno's bought and heavily remodeled the building. Talk about the best of all possible worlds. I parked my bike and joined the crowds checking out the new digs. It was twice the size of the old McMillan's, taking over the entire first floor of the building. Everything was white and chrome and shiny and clean. Even the floor had a unique satiny silver-gray finish. One door led to bins and bins of rolls and shelves of Del Bueno's Italian butter cookies. I think the famous Del Bueno's machines spitting out fresh rolls may have been in the other I didn't explore. 

I couldn't decide, so I went with a plump cream donut. Oh yuuuuumm! Turns out one of the grandsons of the original McMillan's is working at the bakery. He must have shared his family's recipe for the best darn cream donuts in South Jersey. It was so full of thick, buttery cream, it came out the sides. Totally amazing, and it more than made up for Phidelity's day off. I stopped at WaWa for a Cherry Cream Float Coke Zero to wash it all down.

Doubled back to the Westmont Plaza for lunch. I hadn't eaten at the Westmont Bagel Shop in a while. Kept things simple with my favorite spinach and feta omelette, a toasted everything whole wheat bagel, and home fries. Oh, this was yum, too. I finished everything but half of the home fries. Bought two bagels for lunch this weekend on the way out.

Did my grocery shopping next. I didn't really need a whole lot at either store. Picked up oat milk and dried mango slices. Cookies and soda were buy one, get one 50 percent off. I'm so glad their ginger molasses cookies are out again! I had to get two. One of the Nixie diet sodas came with a coupon, so I got two of those. 

Dodged more traffic and road repair on Cuthbert going down to the Westmont Acme. They were only slightly less busy than Sprouts. Grapes and large containers of blueberries are on really good sales. Restocked yogurt, prebiotic soda, granola, and granola bars. Had good online coupons for the Acme's generic organic blue corn chips and an online rewards coupon. I also got my $60 for the week here, instead of waiting for Sunday.

The road work on Cuthbert was such a pain, I cut across Collingswood to the park instead of going straight there. Newton Lake Park is largely in better shape. I think they're just adding railings to the new fishing piers now. It was a hot, sunny, incredibly humid day. There were only a few people out walking dogs as I made my way past children playing at the playground on my way back to East Clinton.

When I got in, I put everything away while watching Paw Patrol. "Pups Save a MerPup" when Cap'n Turbot insists he saw one during the Mystical Merpup Moon. Chase the cop thinks they're just stories. The others, especially Skye and Zuma, believe the stories. Zuma and Skye stay awake to see a merpup...and get their wish when one not only comes to them for help, but turns them into merpups so they can go under the sea. The Merpup's baby is trapped in a shipwreck that may collapse any minute! They have to call the others to help out, then to help Zuma when he's trapped. 

Got my schedule at this point. It's thankfully back to weekends and early Wednesday. There's enough hours on the weekend that my paycheck shouldn't take too much of a hit, but not so many that I'll be overwhelmed. School starts next Thursday, too. I put in for my late September-early October vacation time with Healthy Kids, too. (I'll put in for the Acme vacation time next week.)

Went down for a nice, long nap at 3:30. I was so tired, I didn't get up until 5:30. Spent an hour finishing Reel Murder by Mary Kennedy, then watched Match Game '76 during dinner. Most of the night finished out the week with Bennye Gattleys and Bill Daily. Fannie Flagg stuck around for the next week, joined by two cute, funny, and diminutive actors, Sarah Kennedy and Gary Burghoff. 

Finished the night with Remember WENN. Hilary is "Courting Disaster" when Jeff's supercilious lawyer Drake Stanley (Andrew Seear) claims his client is suing her for $100,000 in damages. Maple and Betty know something isn't right and get Stanley to appear on their court show Tell It to the Judge. While Scott defends Hilary, Gertie helps the ladies get through to Jeff and find out what's really going on.

The cast says "And How" when they're chosen to broadcast the last episode of the network western The Strange Loner featuring it's original stars. Unfortunately, when the Loner himself turns up drunk and unable to perform, the others have to figure out how to replace him. Betty's more worried about helping Joseph Greyhawk, the kindly Native American man (real Native American activist Russell Means) who plays the Loner's Native sidekick, keep his role. Meanwhile, everyone's thrilled with Eugenia's new discovery, an Italian pie called pizza. 

Listened to the soundtrack from Casablanca after the episodes ended. I pretty much had to after "Pen of Gertrude Reece" yesterday. This Rhino CD includes all of the music and a lot of the dialogue, along with an alternate version of "Knock on Wood," a Dooley Wilson number that was cut from the film ("Dat's What Noah's Done") and the full, gorgeous rendition of "As Time Goes By." 

Spring Foolin'

Began the morning with breakfast and The Pirates of Dark Water. "Andorus" is the first episode of the series proper, picking up where the original four-episode miniseries left off. The group's attempt to gather supplies is interrupted by Bloth, who chases them to the titular land. It's here that Tula discovers she's an ecromancer - she can heal and control nature. She and Teron use their magic to help Ren get to the treasure here before Bloth and his men do.

Called Uber after the cartoon ended. It's just easier to take three Uber rides on my double-shift day than it is to try riding my bike. No trouble with any of the drivers here. The one going to work came in 6 minutes. I had a harder time getting one to Thomas Sharp, but they finally came in 9 minutes. The one going home took 11 minutes, not bad at the height of rush hour.

The Acme wasn't busy when I arrived. It picked up slightly later, but it was never overwhelming. I did have to put away a cart filled with cold items someone didn't want. Otherwise, I was mostly outside, and I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else. It was hot, sunny, and breezy, in the lower 80's by noon. Most people are probably waiting for Easter weekend to do their shopping. 

After I changed, I grabbed two more Easter cards and a container of coconut macaroons on the Clearance rack before heading to the post office. I wanted to get the cards out quick as possible, so I set them up there and sent them out. I figured the post office would be busy during the lunch hour, but it was just me and the ladies behind the counter.

Had lunch at Tu Se Bella's next. I wasn't that hungry, so I just had a simple slice of cheese, slice of mushroom, and a Diet Pepsi. They surprisingly weren't busy either. I ate my lunch while listening to a show about excellent food trucks going in the background.

Since I had some time, I strolled across the street to explore the other stores. I dug through the Squishmallow bin at Five Below, but didn't get anything there this time. I did dig out a CD and four records at Goodwill:

The soundtrack from the 1976 pirate movie Swashbuckler

Tale Spinners for Children: Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (The United Artists version of this British children's album series)

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle (Disney children's retelling of the segment from The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, plus another Washington Irving story.)

Sammy Kaye and His Orchestra - Dreamy Serenades 

Bette Midler - Bette of Roses was the one CD.

After Uber got me to the school, I went straight inside. Good thing I got there only slightly late. We had 24 kids, 10 of them at my table. It was the same deal as the day before. The ones at my table were just fine. We went to the bathroom second, so they had a little more time to play with magnetic tiles. A few of them were a little rowdy at the bathroom, but it could have been worse, especially after I explained that they couldn't block the hallway. The custodians have their offices in that hall, and the boiler room is there. They needed to get through.

Once again, the trouble was in the cafeteria after snack time. They were all running around, screaming, yelling, hitting each other, calling each other names and then tattling about it. The head teacher kept ten of them inside to talk to them. Once everyone was out, things generally went much smoother. We still had to argue a couple of them back into their shoes and put the kibosh on another "no shoes" party, but they mostly had a wonderful time chasing each other and dancing to "Try Everything" from Zootopia, the themes from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Bluey, and PJ Masks, and songs from The Little Mermaid, Moana, and KPop Demon Hunters. 

By 5 PM, we were down to 4 kids, most of whom were complaining about being hot. It was still sunny and 80 degrees, breezy but also a tad humid. They were just taking the kids inside when I decided it was too hot to walk and I was too tired and called Uber.

When I got home, I went straight into Match Game '90. Most of tonight was devoted to the week with Jimmie Walker, Jo Anne Worley, and hilarious comedian Bob Sarlatte. Jimmie happily flirted with a female contestant, while Bob tossed out some darn funny quips.

Finished the night at YouTube with a lot of childhood memories. From the early 80's through the mid-90's, toy companies would debut half-hour specials devoted either to a new toy line or around additions to an existing line in the spring or summer. They generally turned up in syndication or as specials on Saturday morning, though a few rated prime-time slots. Most of these are all but forgotten today, like the Victorian-themed Rose Petal Place or the nature mythology of The Magic of Herself the Elf. Fairies is a unique rarity - it's based on a book rather than a toyline and looks more like the Lord of the Rings animated films. 

One has a special place in my heart despite being unknown today. Dad bought our first VCR in the winter of 1985. The first moves we took out (from a long-gone store in Rio Grande) were The Charmkins and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. We'd tape Willy Wonka off The Disney Channel in the late 80's, but I wouldn't see Charmkins again after that video store closed until it turned up on YouTube.

By the early 90's, tighter regulations regarding advertising and children's programming and a change in viewing habits had largely brought an end to the whimsical toy-based specials. One of the last was Peppermint Rose from 1993. I vaguely remember the dolls these were based on, but I never heard of the special until I was an adult. Too bad, because this is one of the better ones. I like how sassy Rose is, and that she genuinely changes throughout the special and learns to be independent and care about others. (Like most of these specials, it's also extremely of its time - check out the random rap battle mid-way through.) 

If you also can't remember a spring without caring bears, nature-guarding elves, singing flowers, and sassy Peppermint Roses, you'll want check out these specials for a blast of warm-weather nostalgia, too.

Fairies (1981)

Care Bears In the Land Without Feelings (1983)

The Magic of Herself the Elf (1983) 

The Charmkins (1983)

Strawberry Shortcake's Housewarming Surprise (1984)

Rose Petal Place: Real Friends (1985)

Peppermint Rose (1993)

Springtime Fairy Tales

Began the morning with breakfast and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. The Clubhouse residents are excited when they see "Minnie's Rainbow" and follow it to see where it goes. Donald just wants the pot of gold at the end. Leprechaun Pete would do anything to save his pot of treasure, including take down arrows pointing the right way and hiding the gold in a certain shamrock-shaped bush.

I was tired of hanging out inside and decided to go for a short walk. It was cloudy, windy, and chilly, but not abnormally cold for mid-March, probably in the lower 50's. Dropped off a book I didn't want at the kiosk down the block and a copy of the letter terminating my case with the DVR now that I have a second job at the post office. Picked up toilet paper and a card for Mom's birthday at Dollar General and two regular pretzels and a cheese steak stuffed pretzel for lunch at A&A Pretzels. 

When I got home, I had lunch while watching Lighthouse Island, a Jim Henson special from 1989. Young Zeb (Chris Makepeace) has come to Lighthouse Island to find the perfect wedding gift for the fiancee he's never met. He sees silver slippers in the antique store belonging to Clara Buford (Helen Burns) and decides he must have them. She says she'll give them to him...if he helps her retrieve a pearl belonging to her old rival Fred (Jerry Nelson). The pearl allows its owner to turn into anything. Fred turns up as a sea monster, a flying creature, and a tentacle. Zeb has his own reasons for wanting those slippers so badly he fights off Fred and his many forms...and they're not what Clara thinks. 

Switched to Murder She Wrote after that ended. There's "No Accounting for Murder" when Jessica's nephew Grady gets a new job with a major accounting firm, only to be accused of killing his boss. Jessica is actually encouraged to help solve the mystery for once by an Irish cop who is overwhelmed with the long list of suspects who all seem to have had more than one bone to pick with the man. A security guard was more interested in finding the "phantom" who lived in the building's air ducts, and may be the key witness who actually saw the murder.

Oh, and I got my schedule at this point. To my shock...I have no Acme schedule. They gave me Sunday and next Saturday off, too. I asked for the weekdays off to focus on the kids' half-days. The college kids must be on spring break. Good thing I did use one of my float days to make up for the money I lost on Wednesday. That's the only money I'll make from the Acme this week. 

It was later than it should have been when I called Uber. They took 16 minutes to arrive, which made me 10 minutes late. At least there was no traffic whatsoever. 

Not a good thing, as we had 25 younger kids today, 10 alone at my table. The ones at my table were very good. One girl messed around a bit in the bathrooms, but other than that, they cleaned up when asked and were only a little noisy in the halls. They were even complimented by the head teacher when they all walked back from the bathrooms instead of running. 

Of course they were all good. They wanted to go outside again! By 4 PM, the sun had come out. It was warmer, but not to the ridiculous extent of earlier in the week. Many of the kids still wouldn't wear jackets, or even sweaters in some cases. (At least they kept their shoes on this time.) I had to take a couple to the bathroom, but at least no one wanted drinks. It was too nice for much fussing, anyway. They chased bubbles, ran around the slides, and danced to "Pup Pup Boogie," several children's dance movement songs, the theme from PJ Masks, and "Happy Birthday" for one tiny miss whose big day was Sunday. 

No one was happy when the clouds came back and it got too cold to stay out. Not that any of us were really in the cafeteria for long anyway. Of the ten children we brought back, six (plus three older kids) left as I was getting ready to go. 

It was such a beautiful day, I walked home. Stopped at the Speedy Mart for bagels, then decided to cut across Newton Lake Park. Though green grass is showing in spots now and flowers are just popping up, most of the park is still dry and brown. Surprisingly quiet, too. I guess everyone was home for dinner. I saw two friends out for a stroll, someone walking their dog, and two Canadian geese poking around for their own evening meal.

Put on Match Game Syndicated when I got in. Most of the episodes tonight had an extra-sarcastic Patty Duke sitting in Brett's seat while she was out doing a play. Bubbly Betty Kennedy was the goofy ingenue. Charles tried to step up his acting to impress Oscar-winner Patty, including when the makeup people got stuck in the elevators. The next week features Jimmie Walker and hasn't turned up on GSN yet, so Buzzr skipped to the week after, with Bill Anderson, Bill Daily, and Jonnelle Allen. 

Switched to the last season of Laugh-In after I finished Murder She Wrote. By the sixth season, Patti Deusch, Richard Dawson, and Lily Tomlin had joined the cast, and Sarah Kennedy was the new resident giggly blonde. Henny Youngman and his very annoyed wife were kidnapped by a robber and a comedy fan, Michael Landon did Titanic spoofs with the ladies, Richard Dawson did his WC Fields impression and gave another robber a glass with his money, lawyer Sarah covered financial news and played a very unlikely geisha with an extremely picky husband, Dick and Dan traded bad Irish jokes, and Dick decided he wanted to replace Dan with Lyle Waggoner. 

Finished the night at YouTube with more Shirley Temple Storybook Theater. "Mother Goose" (Elsa Lanchester) would rather be writing comic poetry that makes all of the children laugh instead of gathering her geese. She records everything that goes on at the fair, including Tom the Piper's son (Carleton Carpenter) pursuing Polly (Temple), the daughter of the sneezing baker mayor (Billy Gilbert). When local rowdies cause trouble and accidentally burn down a tent, the Mayor calls for an end to the fair. Polly, Tom, their friends Jack and Jill, and the children know why the fair must go on, and they encourage Mother Goose to write a letter to the prince from all of them about the fair's importance. Turns out the Prince knows too, and he's a lot more open to children's rhymes than the Mayor is. 

Winds of Christmas

Began the morning with breakfast and A Christmas Carol on Tubi. This is the half-hour version animated by Richard Williams in 1971. No wonder it won an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film a year later. Williams' work on this is haunting, from Marley and the ghosts outside Scrooge's window to Want and Ignorance under the Ghost of Christmas Present's robe. 

Hurried out even before the cartoon ended. I was ten minutes late to my appointment with Bryanna. She really just wanted to touch up with me anyway and see how the after-school program is going. That is mostly going fine. I love working with the kids, and I like the Thomas Sharp School. I don't like the constant turnover in the program. No wonder I got a job so easily despite my lack of experience working with kids. Since I don't have kids, it's also hard for me to keep up with the school schedule and remember when they have half-days and holidays. I'm going to stick with the after-school program until at least the end of the school year and see how I feel. The kids don't need to lose anyone else.

I do still want out of the Acme, however. I also still need to find a decent place to live that isn't an attic. Bryanna suggested calling my counselors at DVRS after the holidays to ask about low-income housing. Isn't all of that in Camden, and don't you have to sign a long, long waiting list to get it? I'm probably better off just trying to see what I can afford in Deptford and Cherry Hill.

Made a quick stop at Target on my way home. I was mainly there to get something for my nephew Collyn's birthday tomorrow. I also grabbed a few things to make cookies next week, including nifty hot chocolate and marshmallow-flavored chocolate chips and cake mix for the peanut butter cookies. 

Rushed home, loaded Collyn's birthday gift into his family's Christmas package, sealed the package, and rushed to the Oaklyn Post Office a couple of blocks down. I wanted to send my Christmas packages before work today. To my delight, there was no line when I arrived. I was expecting the line to be out the door. Sent a card for Linda Young and packages for Anny and her kids, Lauren and her parents, and Mom, Keefe, and his family. 

Since I took so little time at the Post Office, I was able to stop at Dollar General around the corner. I picked up red velvet cake mix and maraschino cherries for cookies next week and more bags for cookies. The line wasn't bad, and I was in and out.

Good thing I got to the school on time. The kids were really crazy today. It was sunny, but too windy and cold for them to go outside. They were so noisy in the bathrooms, the custodial staff complained. They just would not sit down in the cafeteria, no matter how many toys we pulled out for them or how many pages they colored. We put music on a speaker belonging to one of the teachers and let them dance, and it still wasn't enough for them to shake their sillies out. I did manage to get off early when there were only 3 pre-schoolers and kindergartners left by quarter of 4.

Hurried home and into baking. Normally, I'd bring cookies to the Acme's Christmas employee buffet, but for some reason, it's being held a week early this year. I don't make my cookies until the week before Christmas. That's why I needed buttermilk yesterday. I made the delicious gingerbread bars recipe from Samantha's Cooking Studio instead. Yum! It came out perfectly and smelled amazing in the oven.

I was so tired, after the gingerbread came out of the oven, I just grabbed my coat and strolled two blocks down to Crown Chicken and Gyro to get a tilapia sandwich and fries for dinner. At least it was a nice night for a walk. It remained cold, but the wind had died down considerably since I'd gotten back from school.

Had dinner while watching Hollywood Hotel. I go further into this Busby Berkeley-directed musical with Dick Powell that introduced "Hooray for Hollywood" at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Hollywood Hotel

Finished the night with two beloved animated holiday soundtracks. A Charlie Brown Christmas is one of the great jazz soundtracks of all time, and in fact, was one of the first records I bought after Dad gave me my first record player in 2006. "Linus and Lucy" and "Christmastime Is Here" were the big hits. I also like the lovely, flowing song played while the kids skate and "O Tannenbaum."

Decca re-released the soundtrack for the Rankin-Bass Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer on LP in honor of its 60th anniversary last year. My favorite song from this one is its lively hit "Holly Jolly Christmas," performed by Burl Ives. There's also the Misfit Toys' "The Most Wonderful Day of the Year" and Clarice the Reindeer's sweet ballad "There's Always Tomorrow."

When the Clouds Roll In

Got a quick start today with breakfast and "Santa's Workshop" at Disney Plus. This Silly Symphony short is the first of two Disney made revolving around Santa Claus and what he does. In this case, we get to see the elves making toys and caring for the reindeer, and Santa inspecting and loading the toys. I love the parade of marching toys near the end of the short, especially the tumbling teddy and adorable wind-up piggies.

Called Uber right after the short ended. It was still sunny at 9 AM, but it was supposed to rain later. Not to mention, I figured Uber would get me to the Thomas Sharp School faster after work. I just wish they hadn't taken 13 minutes to come! There was no traffic when they did arrive, but that meant I was late.

Fortunately, that was the worst thing that happened all day. Work went just fine, other than I had a lot of cold items to return. It did pick up around 11:30-noon as the clouds pulled in and the lunch rush hour started. Other than that, it wasn't terribly busy, and there were no major problems. I even picked up buttermilk for a baking project and a card for my nephew Collyn's birthday this week.

Called Uber when I came out. Thankfully, this time they only took 7 minutes to arrive. Once again, there was no traffic going to West Collingwood. The gentleman pulled up at the Thomas Sharp School less than 5 minutes later. 

The classes were bedlam when I knocked on the door. I wasn't the only teacher who was late or couldn't come. One teacher called out sick. Another couldn't get out of her other job at all. At least we only had 17 preschool and kindergarten kids when I came in, more than yesterday but still not the big group we had on Monday. I spent most of the time coloring or building with magnetic tiles with them or taking a few kids at a time to the bathroom. One of the boys even gave me the piles of artwork he did today.

Since it wasn't raining when I got out, I walked home. I had to make one last stop anyway. The post office was still open at that point. Normally, I use leftover Amazon boxes to send my Christmas packages in the mail, but I didn't buy any Christmas gifts from Amazon this year. I just grabbed free boxes from the post office instead.

Packed up the boxes for the post office when I got home. Watched Santa Claus Is Coming to Town while I worked. I went further into this classic 1970 Rankin-Bass special on the origins of Santa at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog way back in December 2018.

Santa Claus Is Coming to Town

(Oh, and it started raining again not long after I got home. It's rained lightly off and on ever since.)

Switched to Match Game '75 during dinner. We skipped ahead to one of Bob's best weeks. He and fellow vintage game show host Arlene Francis got to see Carol Bartos become the biggest winner the show ever had up to that point with over $20,000. When Fannie gave her the winning answer to "__ Tie" in the Head-to-Head, she even excitedly tossed out her black bow tie.

Worked on The WENN Nutcracker Suite after dinner. After hearing Mr. Eldridge's story of how he was cursed and Pirlipat rejected him, the Nutcracker separates from the others and sits near a window. He finally speaks, telling Betty he has no idea who he is or what his name is. He only remembers falling over the Mouse Queen and loses his sword. Betty tells him how much he reminds her of her friend Scott Sherwood and that she thinks he's very brave. She passes out on his shoulder, and he gently carries her to Gertie's bed to sleep. 

Took a shower, then finished the night with two vintage Perry Como holiday specials at YouTube. We first head to Williamsburg, Virginia in 1978 for An Early American Christmas. Como explains Colonial holiday customs, receives a rare pineapple as a gift, sings and dances with Diana Canova, and shares a cup of grog with John Wayne at a local tavern. (Sadly, Wayne died less than six months after this special's release.)

Angie Dickenson and fashion designer Pierre Cardin joins Como for Christmas In Paris in 1982. Dickenson is thrilled to get a Paris gown, but Como likes his French holiday trips simpler. They encounter two frog puppets who want to dance for Dickenson, sing in a Parisian music hall with the beautiful French singer Line Renaud, and listen to the Boys' Choir of Notre Dame.

Luck of the Irish

Began my St. Patrick's Day with Murder at an Irish Wedding and the one piece on St. Patrick's Day from Colliers Harvest of Holidays. I didn't know much about St. Patrick himself until I read this biographical essay on his life, other than he supposedly drove the snakes out of Ireland. Apparently, he rose from his roots as a slave who fell in love with Ireland and its culture to drive the Druids and paganism out, too. 

Watched cartoons with St. Patrick's Day or Irish-themed episodes while I had breakfast and got organized. It's a "St. Patrick's Day Dilemma" on Doc McStuffins when Donny accidentally scribbles on her new paper doll Fiona's green Irish dance dress. Fiona won't wear anything but that, until Doc and the others convince her that it's better for you to change your clothes when they're dirty. Doc's new giant doll Gillian is upset that she's too big to play tea party or castle with the other toys...but she's the one who makes "A Giant Save" when Professor Hootenburgh gets stuck in a tree.

Scooby Doo's All-Star Laugh-a-Lympics starts out in "The Grand Canyon" with a burro race that gets pretty sticky when Yogi uses gum to jump ahead and Mumbly gets to the finish by rocket jets. Huckleberry Hound gets luckier when the Rottens' cheating backfires and propels him into first instead of knocking him off the high wire between canyons. Grape Ape and the Blue Falcon work together to save the leprechaun and his gold from the scheming Daltons in "Ireland." Captain Caveman overshoots the ball on the hole-in-one tournament, and Dinky Dawson hits himself in instead of the ball. Cindy Bear has her own unique way of getting that ball in and making sure it stays.

Put together the birthday cards for Mom and Kelly, then headed out to run errands. I realized when I signed their cards that I'm almost out of stamps, so I sent the cards at the post office and picked up more there. I was originally going to make Irish soda bread today, but I forgot the buttermilk at the Acme, and none of the small stores on the White Horse Pike had any. Picked up cream cheese and coconut at Dollar General and butter at Family Dollar. Dropped a book in the kiosk on the White Horse Pike. Grabbed a ham and cheddar hoagie for lunch at WaWa and tried a Mint Smoothie. Not bad. Very smooth and minty, anyway.

The weather was actually rather nice when I came out, sunny and warm. By the time I was on the White Horse Pike, the cold wind had picked up and the clouds rolled in. It was now too chilly to linger. I went straight home, admiring gardens filled with daffodils and green banners waving in the breeze. 

Watched Happy Days while eating lunch. "Joanie's Weird Boyfriend" is a member of the Red Devils, whom she met at the St. Patrick's Day party at Arnold's. Joanie's intrigued at first. She's tired of her parents and brother treating her like a child. She realizes these boys are more than she can handle when they tell her their initiation rights. Good thing her brother and Fonzie follow her and bring along Carmine "The Big Ragu" Ragusa from sister show Laverne & Shirley. 

Spent the next few hours making peanut butter cookies and Irish potatoes. I've been craving peanut butter cookies lately, but the Acme doesn't make them, and the ones at Sprouts were too expensive. Tried the one-bowl recipe in that cookie cookbook Lauren sent me a few years ago. Irish potatoes are easy to make. You just mix cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and coconut and roll them in cinnamon to look like mini sweet potatoes. I think I should have used a bit more peanut butter on the cookies, but they otherwise came out very well. The Irish potatoes were definitely better than the truffles I tried to make at Christmas. At least they didn't involve melting chocolate.

Put on The Quiet Man when I got upstairs and as I ate dinner. Sean Thornton (John Wayne) returns home to 1929 Innesfree, Ireland to buy the home that belonged to his mother when she was a girl. He falls for spirited local lass Mary Kate Danaher (Maureen O'Hara), but her brother Will (Victor McLaughlin) wanted the house himself and won't consent to the match. Matchmaker Micheleen Flynn (Barry Fitzgerald) eventually tricks Will into letting them wed, but when Will figures out what's going on, he won't give Mary Kate her dowry or furniture. He does eventually give up the furniture, but still won't turn the money over to her. She won't consider herself to be Sean's wife until he fights for her money. Sean has his own reasons for not fighting and refuses to at first, until Mary Kate tries to leave. His confrontation with Will finally turns into such a huge knock-down, drag-out donnybrook, almost the entirety of Ireland comes out to watch!

John Ford's love letter to the old country is one of the best things he ever did. Ireland glows with a radiance that makes even Oz look pale. Some of the best Irish character actors in Hollywood, including Fitzgerald, Mildred Natwick as the original owner of the cottage whom Will is sweet on, and Ward Bond as the town's fishing-obsessed priest have a grand time with the charming story. McLaughlin made such a wonderful bullying brother, he got one of the film's seven Oscar nominations. Ford won, along with that stunning cinematography. It would be B-studio Republic's only Oscar nomination for Best Picture. A must-see on St. Patrick's Day or if you're a fan of anyone involved or just want to see a really beautiful movie.

Finished the night after a shower with something different. In 1980, the Jim Perry Card Sharks did a three-week tournament featuring some of the most popular game show hosts of the time. I did week one tonight. Allen Ludden killed the competition, winning more than $6,000 for the Los Angeles Zoo. Gene Rayburn and Bill Cullen also did fairly well. Poor Wink Martindale just couldn't get anything going with the cards, but they gave him money for his charity anyway. 

The entire tournament was hilarious, but some of the best moments were in the first week. Gene spent the week flirting with the hostesses who turned the cards. At one point, he actually took Jim's microphone and flat-out hit on the girl. Allen Ludden dazedly claimed he was "between 97 of the biggest teeth I ever saw" when he found himself caught in the middle of Jim Perry and Wink Martindale's dazzling white smiles. 

Here's hoping you enjoy the first week for yourself! I'll be watching the remaining tournament episodes later this week. 

Card Sharks Host Tournament Day 1

Card Sharks Host Tournament Day 2

Card Sharks Host Tournament Day 3

Card Sharks Host Tournament Day 4

Card Sharks Host Tournament Day 5

Regional Girls and Circle Skies

Began the morning with breakfast and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. Daniel and his friends are excited about "The Neighborhood Snowstorm," until it gets so bad that school closes early. Dan's even more upset when a pipe bursts and soaks his room and his beloved Tigey the Adventure Tiger books. He and his little sister Margaret spend time with Jodi and her family while his parents fix the pipe.

Watched Family Feud while making my grocery list, then headed out to run errands. Dropped by the post office very briefly to send Lilah's birthday card off, then rode down to the Westmont Plaza. At least it was a much nicer day for a ride. It's still sunny and much windier, but also warmer, probably in the lower 30's. It's now a lot closer to what it usually is here in late January.

My next stop was Target. I was hoping to find Valentine's Day decorations, but they didn't have anything interesting. I got a warm, earthy Matcha Latte from Starbucks instead. I'd return there later after I finished at Sprouts to see if they had chunky yarn for a project, but all they had was painting and drawing supplies.

I had far more luck at Sprouts. Picked up apples, coconut milk, Zevia diet soda, and coconut macaroons that were on a good sale. Decided to try buying light brown sugar in bulk for the next time I wanted to make cookies. I also got coconut macaroon almonds, and I haven't had oat bran for a nice, hot breakfast in ages. 

Dodged traffic on Cuthbert, finally making my way back to Johnson and down to the pretzel shop for lunch. Got two regular pretzels and a pepperoni-stuffed pretzel. They weren't any busier than Sprouts or Target had been. There were no lines anywhere, not even at Starbucks.

Ate lunch while watching Head. I went further into the Monkees' supremely strange magnum opus at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog back in March 2019.

Cult Flops - Head

After I finished eating, I worked on the Children's inventory for a while. Entered everything from the Disney Babes In Toyland book and record through The Official Album of Disneyland/Walt Disney World. The latter is one of my older finds. I got it off eBay in the summer of 2011. Mousercise, Mickey Mouse Disco, and my Disney book and record of Hansel and Gretel came from yard sales around the same time. My oldest find here is my vintage book and record of Bambi, which came from the Collingswood Library in 2008 when they still included records with their book sales.

I also got my schedule at this point. It's almost exactly the same as my schedule for this week, with slightly fewer hours on Sunday and slightly more hours next Saturday. Jessa's already put out requests to do more together next week, and with the weather warming up, it might not be a bad time to get out of the house for a long walk or bike ride. 

Switched to Match Game Syndicated while finishing up the inventory and eating dinner. The biggest panelist ever on the show appeared the next week. At over 7 feet, gentle giant Richard Kiel towered over even Gene. He took one look at the big man and said he could write whatever he wanted! And to add to the wackiness, super-short singer and songwriter Paul Williams was in the fifth "smart guy" seat. (And I do wish Kiel had returned. He was actually a lot of fun and played pretty well.)

Finished the night after a shower with the Monkees' two TV specials. 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee debuted in 1969, well after their show ended. It was originally supposed to be part of a series of specials...but once the networks saw the results, they canceled the others. I can certainly understand why. The guys are controlled by a devil-like pair (Brian Auger and singer Julie Driscoll) who want to use them to take over everyone's minds. They unleash their fantasies, then turn them into wind-up dolls. Then, for some reason, Darwin (Auger) turns up and regresses them to apes. Auger takes control again to make them into plastic 50's superstars.

Uh, yeah. You can see the problems here.  I think there's the kernel of a good idea in the first half with the guys beating someone trying to manipulate their minds, almost like an even stranger variation on "The Frodis Caper." Mike and Davy have the best solo performances, with Mike singing with himself to his own "Naked Persimmon (The Only Thing I Believe Is True)" and Davy dancing with dolls to "Goldilocks Sometimes." Auger, Fats Domino, and Jerry Lee Lewis turning up on stacked pianos briefly mid-way through is genuinely cool, and some of the 50's performances are a lot of fun, but for the most part, this is even more bitter and makes less sense than Head did.  

Hey Hey, We're the Monkees from 1997 is an all together happier affair. The Monkees may be in their 50's, but they're still living in a beach house and trying to make it as a band. They're trying to rehearse for a big gig at a lavish country club...if random girls, lawyers, and kids will stop interrupting them and trying to create plot lines. There's also Mike having turned the Monkeemobile into a low rider and a dimensional machine, to Micky's annoyance, and Micky trying to find them a gimmick, to everyone's annoyance. They're not even safe from plots at the country club when the owner (Chuck Woolery) and his silly daughter Princess insist they'll lose the club if the guys aren't a success.

This is more like it. While it's not perfect (some of the dialogue is a tad too goofy even for the guys, the throw-up gag in the opening goes on for too long), it's infinitely more fun than the bitter Head and 33 1/3 Revolutions. As a review online suggested, it was a far more enjoyable and appropriate finale to the series and their TV careers. 

Alas, I don't think the 90's special can be found anywhere at the moment but YouTube. 33 1/3 Revolutions is included on the Monkees TV series DVD and Blu-Ray sets. I will say that I don't really recommend either special to anyone but their most ardent fans...and seeing at least a few episodes of the original show before the 90's special is a must to get a lot of the jokes about archaic sitcom plots. 

The Music of Christmas

Began a sunny, chilly morning with breakfast and The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas. Ted E. Bear (Tom Smothers) is a curious fellow who desperately wants to know what this thing called Christmas is. Trouble is, most bears hibernate through December. Though the other bears think he's crazy, he pushes himself to stay awake long enough to see Christmas. He eventually stumbles into the big city, where he learns that Christmas isn't a place. It's more of a feeling, and one that's best shared with someone you love.

Messed around for a bit online, then headed out. I had a lot to do today, starting with a stop at the post office to deliver the Christmas packages going out of town. I picked the right day and time to send them off. There was no line when I arrived around noon. I handed them to the lady and gentleman behind the counter, and they got them labeled and on their way.

Rode to Collingswood next for a quick peek at Collingswood Music. The teen daughter of a friend is taking guitar and piano lessons, and I wanted to buy sheet music books that would be appropriate for an older beginner. I got one for each instrument and found a unique Christmas album for myself:

Art Garfunkel and Amy Grant - The Animals' Christmas

(Oh, and that completes my Christmas shopping. I'll be focusing on Christmas baking next week before the Acme's employee party on the 21st.) 

Headed down Haddon Avenue to have a small lunch at Koupa Espresso Bar. Unlike GrooveGround down the street, this does have a pretty decent Greek-themed lunch menu along with the usual coffee and tea drinks. I tried the Gingerbread Cold Foam Chai Latte and a slice of their Spanakopita pie. Oh yum. The tea had hints of cherry and spice along with the ginger, while the pie was thick and crusty, with lots of spinach and cheese. No wonder they were so busy when I arrived.

Phidelity Records is a few doors down on the other side of the block. I was there long enough to look over four bins of Christmas album - two for newer albums, two dollar bins for random collections from the 60's and 70's. Ended up with one brand-new album, one used but fairly unique, and one dollar collection:

Ella Fitzgerald - Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas (This is the brand-new one, but $15 isn't bad for a new album.)

Two collections from the 70's, the soul and R&B Soulful Christmas and the more general The Wonderful World of Christmas

Headed down Cuthbert to Westmont Plaza next. Target didn't have toothpaste on sale, but I really liked that almond-smelling soy-based shaving gel I got last time, and it wasn't a bad price. Bought a box of acne facial patches as well. I ducked in and out quickly to beat the kids coming out of school.

Wanted to try something different at Sprouts. Rose mentioned at Thanksgiving how useful their bulk bins are when you need just enough of an ingredient for a recipe. I filled small bags with oatmeal and chocolate chips and a larger one with granulated sugar for Christmas baking next week. Got more of those yummy bulk dried mango slices, too. Found Cortland apples on a good sale and vegan oatmeal raisin cookies with a bakery clearance tag. Picked up a bag of organic shredded coconut that was only slightly more expensive than the regular sweetened stuff at the Acme. Wanted to try Poppi's seasonal Cranberry Fizz soda, but it only came in a four-pack. Four sodas aren't that much to carry home, so I bought the four-pack.

At least it was a nice day for all the running around. It was windy and much colder, in the mid-30's, but also sunny and brighter. Not much traffic around, either, except for on Cuthbert Road as I was going home, thanks to the high schools just letting out for the day.

Went straight upstairs soon as I got home. Put everything away while watching She Loves Me on YouTube. I go further into this charming 1979 BBC adaptation of the sweet 1963 stage operetta at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog. 

Musicals On TV - She Loves Me

Stayed at YouTube for two classic Muppet specials. A Muppet Family Christmas has Kermit, Fozzie, and all of the Muppet Show cast members descending on Ma Bear's farm for the holidays. Ma's not thrilled - she was going on vacation for Christmas. Doc and Sprocket from Fraggle Rock, who were renting her house, are even less pleased. Kermit is more worried about Ms. Piggy being waylaid in a snowstorm. Meanwhile, the Sesame Street Muppets turn up to put on a Christmas pageant, the Swedish Chef chases a talking turkey, and Kermit takes his nephew Robin down to meet the Fraggles and enjoy their winter holiday with them.

The earlier special John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together is more of a variety show. Piggy schemes to get a big part in one of Denver's massive production numbers and ends up doing a really wild "Christmas Is Coming" with the others. Denver's best moment is the lovely "A Baby Just Like You" and the finale "Silent Night" with the Muppets. Piggy finally gets her wish when Denver leads a group of toy soldiers to war while doll Piggy claims "I Will Wait for You."

Worked on the Seasonal inventory while I watched. Added the remaining Goodyear Great Songs of Christmas albums today, along with the oldest Happy Holidays collections I own. I've had most of the Great Songs of Christmas albums for so long, I have no clue where they came from. I know I got album five from a yard sale in 2007, but that's the only one I can remember. I found Happy Holidays Vol. 16 at the Audubon Goodwill two years ago, but I think Volume 13 came from eBay.

Watched Match Game '78 during dinner and as I started to work on the She Loves Me review. Bob Barker was very offended when the Audience Match was "Come On __" and the young woman contestant didn't call on him first for an answer! The audience was more upset when Brett answered "Dodgers" to "Brooklyn __" a bit later.

Finished the night listening to my new Christmas albums and one of the Goodyear ones. No idea what The Animals' Christmas is, other than a collection of animal-themed Christmas carols and hymns. I suspect this is an attempt to retell the legend about farm animals being able to speak on Christmas Eve. In addition to "The Friendly Beasts," we get some lesser-known holiday animal carols like "Song of the Camels" and "The Creatures of the Field." (I won't ask about "Incredible Phat.")

Soulful Christmas and The Wonderful World of Christmas are collections from probably around the mid-70's, which is about where the resemblance ends. Soulful Christmas, as you can guess from the title, features soul and R&B artists doing holiday tunes, like Brook Benton's "This Time of the Year" and "You're All I Want for Christmas" and Patti LaBelle singing "Winter Wonderland" and "Blue Christmas." Wonderful World is a more general mix. Dinah Shore does a charming "We Need a Little Christmas." I also liked Nat King Cole's "A Cradle In Bethlehem," and one that was a bit of a surprise, Anne Murray's version of the rock hit "Put Your Hand In the Hand."

Ella Fitzgerald is at her sassy best for Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas. I have her version of "Jingle Bells" elsewhere, but the others are all new to me. The surprises here are "Good Morning Blues" and "The Secret of Christmas," one of the only good things about the so-so 1959 movie Say One for Me. 

Henry Mancini Selects Great Songs of Christmas is another mid-70's attempt to bring up-to-date sounds to the traditional collection. The Carpenters' version of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" joins the usual orchestras and choirs. Ella Fitzgerald is here too, singing "Sleigh Ride." 

In the Cool of the Afternoon

I overslept, so I got a really quick start this morning. Watched an episode of Bluey while having a fast breakfast. Bluey, Bingo, and their cousin Muffin are thrilled when their daddies give them a "Horsey Ride" in the backyard. Bluey's a lot less happy about her younger cousin Socks biting into her favorite toy. They hold a horsey wedding (to the annoyance of their fathers) to distract her.

Rushed out to this week's appointment with Dawn and arrived ten minutes late. Ironically, it turned out Dawn got stuck in traffic and was twenty minutes late. She came after me. No matter. I did manage to apply for a receptionist job at Inkling Storm Design in Cherry Hill. Trouble is...while I know I don't want to work in healthcare or in schools unless the job is year-round, I don't know what I do want to do. All I know is I want to write or organize or edit, and do it in something that isn't health care or retail. 

We were checking the online job search sites for so long, it was almost noon before I went across the street to the Westmont Plaza to run errands. I was hoping to find more cookie boxes and cards. No dice anywhere. I'm disappointed that neither Dollar Tree nor Target has boxes of cards or boxes for cookies. I did pick up a container for the cookies I'll bring to the Acme next month, a really pretty Thanksgiving cards for friends who are having a rough time right now, and gift card boxes at Dollar Tree and gift cards for Anny and Keefe's birthdays, evaporated milk, dark brown sugar, and pie crust at Target, but not what I was originally looking for.

Went home after I got out for lunch and The Monkees. "Monkee Chow Mein" is one of the more problematic episodes today. This parody of Fu Manchu "Yellow Peril" stories has Peter accidentally taking a fortune cookie with a piece of a doomsday formula when the guys are at a Chinese restaurant. Not only is the CIS after the formula, but so is Dragonman, a very stereotypical Chinese agent (played by white man Joey Foreman in Asian makeup, though he does have goons who are actually Chinese). His men accidentally kidnap Micky, then Peter when he goes after him. It's up to Mike and Davy to rescue their friends and make sure the formula ends up in the right hands.

The reason I bought the milk, pie crusts, and brown sugar at Target was for a recipe I found online that I wanted to try. I love apple butter and thought apple butter pie sounded simple and tasty. I skipped a step with the store bought crust...but didn't have any weights to keep it down and didn't want to use up the uncooked rice. The crust did puff up in the middle. At least the filling came out much better, maybe a little too sweet. I think I might use less brown sugar next time. Once I got it into the pan, it looked much better, and tasted fine when I got it out.

Since it was a one-crust pie, I decided to try something simple. I spread apple butter on the other crust, cut them into triangles, and rolled up the triangles to form crescents, then baked them with the pie. Not bad. Should have added more apple butter, or maybe sprinkled the tops with cinnamon or sugar.

Listened to two of my jazz records I've picked up recently while I worked. Country Preacher is really more blues and R&B as Cannonball Adderly performs some of his own songs and a few African-American standards at a concert for "Operation Breadbasket" in 1969. Although the title song was good, I liked the truly unique "Afro-Spanish Omelet," a mix of African sounds like "Umbakwen" and the more Hispanic "Soli Tomba." 

Charlie Parker's Greatest Hits go further back. No clue when this actually came out, but most of the songs sound 40's-50's. Parker went in for a much cooler sound in be-bop and rhythm numbers like "Move," "Cool Blues," "Round Midnight," and "Star Eyes." 

Went back out around 3:30 while the pie cooled to run two more errands. Dropped the last Thanksgiving card for my friends at the post office, then went further down to Dollar General. There were only three eggs left after I made my pie. Grabbed a carton of eggs, then waited in line while a cashier tried (and failed) to reload a man's phone card. He ended up sending him down the road to CVS.

And actually, the other reason I went out was to enjoy a blustery, chilly day a bit more. It really feels like fall now. The wind blew something fierce, making any leaves that hadn't already fallen come down faster. This time, the sun wasn't enough to overcome that biting wind. I needed my heavy coat for the first time since at least early April.

Put on The Monkees again after I got home. The guys end up with a "Monkee Mother" after their landlord Mr. Babbitt (Henry Cordon) insists on them taking in a border who will actually pay. Millie Resnick (Rose Marie) is a good-hearted, loud-mouthed widow who feeds them and willingly listens to their rehearsals, but also smothers them. Hoping to get their home back, they nudge her towards a relationship with the moving man who helped carry her furniture.

Switched to Bloodhounds of Broadway next. I go further into this Damon Runyon story in honor of the late Mitzi Gaynor at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

A Salute to Mitzi Gaynor - Bloodhounds of Broadway

Worked on the inventory briefly after the movie ended. Added the original cast of Once On This Island, the 2006 Harry Connick Jr. revival of The Pajama Game, and the 1950 studio cast recording of Pal Joey with Vivienne Segal and Harold Lang. I found Pal Joey at the Collingswood Book Festival in 2019 and Island at the FYE in Philly around 2015, but Pajama Game was originally part of a Connick Jr. box set with another show. I have no idea where that came from anymore.

Switched to Match Game Syndicated during dinner and afterwards. Robert Donner and Betty Kennedy made their first appearances during this week. Brett and Charles spent most of the week making fun of her jewelry and his hats and silly accents.

Finished the night working on my review and listening to two of the rare cast albums I found last week. Tenderloin is the story of a crusading preacher who sets his sights on cleaning up "The Tenderloin," the New York slums in the late 1800's. Shakespearean actor Maurice Evans is an odd choice for this melodramatic and relatively dark show. Ron Husmann does better by the show's only hit song, "Artificial Flowers." 

High Spirits also flopped in the early 60's, but is otherwise a very different show. Beatrice Lillie plays a daffy medium who accidentally brings up the ghost of the first wife (Tammy Grimes) of a man (Edward Woodward) whose second wife (Louise Troy) is already tired of hearing about her. Oddly, despite this being based on a Noel Coward play and directed by him, he didn't do the music. That would explain why songs like "You'd Better Love Me" when the first wife returns and the patter number "The Bicycle Song" for Lillie are only ok. 

A Fair Day for Games

Began the morning with Charlie and Lola. Lola laments that "Everything Is Different and Not the Same" as fall begins. She has a new teacher she's not used to, new tights that sag, her favorite tree is losing its leaves, and even the school smells different. She and Lotta want to hibernate until next fall when they ruin the leaf picture they were making for class, but Charlie convinces them to come out and see that change isn't such a bad thing after all.

Dawn picked me up around 8:15. This time, she had two more people with her as we headed in the opposite direction towards the Burlington County Social Services building. It also took a little bit longer, including her stopping at Costco for gas. Fortunately, there was no traffic on the road whatsoever. We pulled into Westampton around 9 AM.

I got quite a surprise when I realized how much harder it was to get into this job fair. There was a lot more security than at Rowan, with security guards checking bags and a metal detector you have to walk through like at an airport. And as it turned out...it wasn't worth the fuss. The small, sunny room was mainly filled with either companies like Abilities Solutions that help the disabled find jobs or government booths for Burlington County and New Jersey. I did see Goodwill, Cooper Hospital, and Virtua Health, but that was it. It was also packed elbow-to-elbow and stuffy as heck. I kept walking out to get some air, hoping to find a soda vending machine like at Rowan (and having no luck). They didn't even have any refreshments. 

I got a phone call just as we were ready to leave. It was a local Chevrolet dealership that Dawn and I applied for. They wanted an interview! Frankly, I was kind of iffy. They were offering health insurance but not much in the way of money, and I know nothing about cars. It's still an interview, though.

It took even longer to get home. Dawn dropped off the other two in Cherry Hill and Pennsauken first. The young man lived near a series of industrial buildings and factories in Pennsauken, including several local food companies and the Pepsi bottling facility. I read that they existed here, but had never seen them before. That's why South Jersey is frequently used as a test market for new Pepsi products or ones that often don't reach the wider public (like that coffee-flavored Kona Pepsi my mother fell in love with during the late 90's). 

Took the laundry downstairs after I got in, then had lunch while watching The Monkees. Davy's been telling his grandfather (Ben Wright) in England that he's a "Success Story" and is famous. Grandfather's visit prompts his friends to try to cobble together a dinner and uniforms in order to make Davy appear wealthy. After their subterfuge fails, they try to make sure that Grandfather and Davy don't board that plane for England!

"Monkees In a Ghost Town" strands the four in the desert in their first of many encounters with gangsters. In this case, they accidentally run across two mobsters (Len Lesser and Lon Chaney Jr.) after the Monkeemobile breaks down in an abandoned village. They're captured and are about to be killed when their boss The Big Man (Rose Marie) turns up and happens to be an old vaudevillian who has no trouble doing numbers with the guys...which gives them the chance to call the police.

Put the laundry in the dryer after the episode ended, then went out to run errands. Stopped at the post office for stamps, then at Dollar General for the Child's Play Tootsie Roll candy that I use in the Mystery Bags. I got the boxes of Moon Pies (including one of blueberry Moon Pies!) at Family Dollar. Went across the street to WaWa and treated myself to a pumpkin cookies and cream smoothie. Yum. Sweet, but it did taste like pumpkin spice and crushed Oreos.

At least the weather remains beautiful. On one hand, we desperately need rain. Lawns and gardens are looking more than a little dry. On the other hand, the sunny, breezy weather and 80 degree temperatures did make for a lovely stroll down the White Horse Pike. No traffic here, either. None of the stores were busy, not even the Post Office or Dollar General.

Brought the laundry upstairs after I got home, then put on Airplaine II: The Sequel while I put the Mystery Bags together. Sometime in the future, people have now set up colonies on the moon. The Mayflower One is being rushed as the inaugural flight, but it's far from ready and hasn't met safety regulations. Elaine Dickenson (Julie Hagarty) is now the ship's computer officer. 

Her ex Ted Striker (Robert Hays) was committed to a mental institution after he crashed a shuttle during a test flight, but breaks out when he realized he was silenced to not reveal the flaws in the shuttle. Elaine doesn't believe him, until the computer keeps overriding her orders and the crew ends up dead. Now Ted has to figure out how to fly a space ship and defuse a bomber (Sonny Bono), before they all become either fried to a crisp in the sun or a little too up-close-and-personal with the surface of the moon. 

This wasn't bad, but it screams "rehash" at the top of its lungs. There's some fun gags and cameos (look for Pat Sajak as a weatherman and the ET joke in the opening), but by and large, this is more of the same. If you're a fan of the first one, you'll at least want to check this one out once. If the first one isn't your cup of black coffee, stay very far away from this one.

Worked on the inventory next. Did the off-Broadway cast of Hadestown and the original casts of Hair and Hairspray, then had dinner while watching Match Game '77. A smart and pretty contestant named Marcy turned a lot of heads on a week that included Patty Duke, Betty White, and Nipsey Russell on the panel...but it's an older lady who gets the best joke with her reaction to Gene asking her if she cubes or grinds her beef for chili.

Finished the night at YouTube looking at the career of announcer Gene Wood, whose birthday was Sunday. Wood began in 1966 as a substitute on the original Supermarket Sweep, but he's better known for being an announcing fixture on Goodson-Todman shows. If you didn't hear Johnny Olson's voice on their shows, you probably heard his. 

Bert Convy praised the good work he did on Tattletales in 1974 and Super Password a decade later. He announced the first two versions of Family Feud and was good friends with Richard Dawson. Richard got him a wheelchair when he had to do his job on a badly cut foot after an accident with a chainsaw and proudly announced when he returned on crutches. I don't know how he talked him into letting him slice an apple on top of a copy of the Feud home game on his stomach, though! He had even more fun announcing the first two versions of Card Sharks, including taking part in a gag with Jim Perry to celebrate his 3,000 episode hosting. 

Wood did get a shot at hosting. He took over the Canadian-produced early 70's version of Beat the Clock when Jack Narz couldn't handle the commute, and honestly didn't do bad at it. It's pretty much the same stunts as the 50's version, with celebrities helping out on some of the more elaborate ones. Giselle McKenzie and Arlene Dahl appear in the episodes I have here. The flop Anything You Can Do is very similar, only here, it's men competing against women to see who can do stunts that are supposed to revolve around the opposite sex (pulling panty hose on for women; tying ties for guys). 

That wouldn't be Wood's last time playing on a game show. He had a great time on one of the better weeks of Match Game '74, appearing with Amanda Blake and Joyce Bulifant. The whole week was funny, but we do get some jokes here about Richard Dawson's scraggly beard (which he apparently grew for a movie role that never materialized). 

Beat the clock and have wild Feuds with one of the most beloved announcers in the Goodson-Todman stable! (Anything You Can Do is in bad shape and two parts, but it seems to be the only episode of that show currently available online.) 

Anything You Can Do (1971)

Beat the Clock (1972)

Beat the Clock (1973)

Match Game (1974)

Tattletales (1976)

Card Sharks (1980)

Family Feud Syndicated (1981)

Family Feud Syndicated (1983)

Super Password (1985) 

Night of the Hi-De-Ho Man

Got a quick start today with breakfast and Bluey on Disney Plus. Bluey is supposed to be playing "Hide and Seek" with her family, but she's easily distracted by her other toys. It takes a few minutes, but she finally learns to focus and remember what she was actually doing.

The Uber to work only took 2 minutes to arrive. I was almost late getting out! I don't know why Uber keeps sending the drivers to the house next to the one I'm in. At least I caught him shaking out his car rugs. It took me 7 minutes to get a ride home. At least there was no trouble either way, and I arrived at work just in time.

And that was the worst thing that happened all day. The Acme was slightly busier due to Tuesday being when seniors get a 5 percent discount, but it still wasn't anywhere near crazy. I did have to return cold items and duck around people organizing frozen food in new freezers, but other than that, I once again spent the morning and early afternoon sweeping and pushing carts on a gorgeous, sunny day.

Changed when I got home and got my sister Jessa's birthday card and gift card together, then went back out again. Not only was it too nice to sit inside all day, I needed to run a few errands. Dropped Jessa's birthday card at the post office. I was going to buy stamps, but the line in the tiny building was nearly out the door! I still have a few stamps left. I'll buy them another time, when it's a lot less crazy.

Had more luck at Dollar General. I was there for cheaper pads than they had at the Acme. Grabbed a Dr. Pepper Zero, too. Went in, got what I needed, and went out.

I had originally planned on reviewing Boarding House Blues, a black musical from the 1940's on Tubi, until I remembered I already reviewed it in February 2021. Quickly switched to a similar movie from the same time period that's also currently on Tubi, Hi-De-Ho. I go further into this vehicle for jazz orchestra leader Cab Calloway at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog. 

Hi-De-Ho (1947)

Did some job hunting after that, then worked on writing. Patti finally transforms into her bubble as she explains about Mombi. She's the most evil witch of all of them, and she'll do anything to rule Oz with her fellow wicked warlocks. 

Broke for dinner at 7 PM. Watched Match Game Syndicated while I ate. The name "Edna" is officially retired from use in "ugly" questions during the first episode, due to too many complaints from real Ednas. Bart gets rather violently booed by the crowd after his answer to "Fats ___" on the Head-to-Head is close to the contestant's but doesn't quite match. The second show is the one that inspired my Nutcracker Blank story. Bart spends the episode picking on Debralee Scott under him. She goes to beat him up after he tosses one too many cards at her head, but she grabs him for a kiss instead!

Finished the night at Amazon Prime with The Wild Wild West, which is currently free with a subscription there. It's the "Night of the Vicious Valentine" when older industrialists start dying shortly after marrying younger brides. Agents James West and Artemis Gordon learn they all found their brides with matchmaker Emma Valentine (Agnes Moorehead). Turns out she has an ambitious plot to take over the US...at least before her latest girl falls for the older man intended to be her victim. 

Under the Clouds

Slept in this morning, then watched A Pup Named Scooby Doo on Tubi while eating breakfast. There's "Snow Place Like Home" when the younger Mystery Inc heads to a mountain resort to do some skiing. Turns out the creepy couple who own the lodge where they're staying may lose it if they can't come up with the money to pay their debts. It hasn't snowed in ages, their snow machine is missing, and an ice monster is scaring off their customers. The kids get to literally to the bottom of this frigid mystery when they discover the nearby mine might not be empty after all.

Switched to Split Second after the cartoon ended. I came in mid-way during the first episode. Unlike the episodes from Tuesday, the kid who won had been winning pretty much the whole time, on the first episode and the second. He never did find the car and opted to return both times.

Put up the Valentine's Day decorations while the show was on. I don't really have that much, and I don't have the room for some of it to go out. Two candy boxes that were too pretty to throw away went on the entertainment center and on top of the DVD shelf. The shorter red tinsel garland went on the window; the longer white tinsel garland with red hearts filled in the area in front of the TV. My Valentine Webkinz Amoura the Love Frog and Valentina the Love Penguin went on book shelves in the front room. Hung three thick cardboard hearts on a satin ribbon on a door. Had room to hang a large red cardboard and mylar heart and two vintage cardboard decorations, a young pioneer miss getting a kitten from an adorable puppy and a bear holding a heart. The tin in the shape of a bear in pink holding flowers went on a book shelf in my bedroom.

Went for a short walk after the show ended. I originally planned on being inside all day, but it wasn't raining by 2 PM. It was much warmer, humid, and foggy in places, but not raining. The snow has almost entirely vanished from all but the most heavily-clogged spots, but it also made everything slightly greener than usual for this time of year. I dropped a box at the kiosk on the other end of the block, slid my late birthday card for my nine-year-old niece Lilah into the mail box, and bought pretzels for lunch at the pretzel shop on the White Horse Pike.

Had lunch (including a delicious cinnamon tea latte I made myself) while watching Wild Wild Winter on YouTube. I go further into the wackiest of the winter-based Beach Party musicals at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Wild Wild Winter

Did job hunting, including dropping an application for a data entry job at a toy and hobby distributor in Magnolia, while watching more second season WKRP In Cincinnati. It becomes "A Family Affair" when Venus takes Andy's sister out for the day, then doesn't bring her back until late. Andy's angry, but reconsiders his stance when Venus claims that he's angry because of the color of his skin.

Andy's not the only one having family trouble. "Herb's Dad" (Bert Parks) turns up at WKRP after escaping the Shady Rest Retirement Home. His son is furious, and isn't much happier when his salesman father tries to get him in on some big deal in California.

Jennifer finally decides to "Put Up or Shut Up" when Herb's wife goes on vacation and he asks her for a date. Herb's more interested than she is when they actually go through with it. Jennifer tries to convince him that there's really no feelings between them.

Worked on the Wild Wild Winter review for a while, then broke for dinner at 7 PM. Watched Match Game '79 while I ate. The first episode begins with Paul Williams showing off his t-shirt that says "Support Your Local Cathouse." The second brings in Daryl Anderson and Donna Pescow, who see Gene try to get the marker off producer and cue card boy Roger Dobowitz.

Finished the night at The Roku Channel with the two episodes of Jim Henson's The Storyteller I hadn't watched yet. A young prince is so upset when he releases "The Heartless Giant," he vows never to trust anyone again. He goes after the giant when his brothers vanish and becomes his caretaker in order to find where he keeps his heart. The giant keeps it in a very obscure place, but the boy has help from three animals he aided on his journey. Though he does find the heart, he also learns a lesson in keeping promises when his brothers would rather eliminate their tormenter than make friends. (This is also the only episode of the series directed by Jim Henson himself.) 

"A Story Short" is the only time the Storyteller himself is a character in one of his own tales. He starts off as a beggar who tricks the king's cook into using a stone to make the day's soup. Instead of boiling him like the cook wants, the king will give the Storyteller a crown if he tells him a fairy tale a day. This works well for the Storyteller, until he realizes on the very last day of the deal that he can't come up with a single story. Another beggar, however, uses a little magic to give the Storyteller an adventure that allows him to come up with the most compelling tale of all. 

I really wish Muppet Workshop had been able to continue this series, even after Jim Henson died. Apparently, NBC found it too violent and wouldn't run the four episodes based around Greek myths. Too bad. Dark though they may be, they're also fascinating and beautifully filmed adaptations of lesser-known European tales that don't often turn up in North America. If you love the darker side of fairy tales or appreciate some of Henson's more fantasy-oriented ventures like Labyrinth, you'll have an equally fine time with the Storyteller and his sometimes magical, sometimes macabre world. 

(Oh, and it did finally start raining...around 10:30-11 PM, when I was long online. I think it's just supposed to be warm and foggy again tomorrow.)

Put a Little Love In Your Heart

Began the morning with breakfast and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. Dan and Prince Wednesday go on "Daniel's Winter Adventure" when Dan Sr. takes them sledding. They're nervous about how high the hill is, but they slide down it a little at a time, and they eventually love it. Likewise, his mother helps him learn to skate a little at a time. Dan and O the Owl are looking forward to the "Neighborhood Nutcracker." O's nervous about being in crowds, but his uncle helps ease him into the Enchanted Garden. Daniel is nervous when he has to take over dancing in the show after Prince Wednesday gets a cold. Henrietta and Katerina teach him a little at a time, and soon he's dancing as well as them.

No trouble with Uber today. The one taking me to work arrived in 4 minutes; the one going home arrived in 3. No traffic, no problems anywhere. 

No problems at work, either. We were dead the entire morning. I spent it sweeping, pushing carts, and enjoying the brisk, sunny, lower 40's weather. Not only was it too nice for shopping, but we're still two weeks from Christmas. Most people (including me) likely won't start stocking up for Christmas baking and dinner until this weekend.

Soon as I got home, I grabbed the cards and went right back out. I wanted to make sure they got out in the post office. It's only three blocks away, and I trust actually sending them in the post office more than a box or with the mailman. This time, they had no line. I ducked in, dropped them in the out of town slot, and walked home.

When I got home, I did the rest of the cards. These are the ones for Rose and her family, Jessa and Joe, and neighbors and friends who live in this area. They'll be given out with cookies or gift bags. 

Watched A Flintstones Christmas Carol while I worked. Fred's playing Scrooge in a community theater production, but he's getting a little too into the role. He gets so into rehearsing his lines, he forgets to buy presents and pick up Pebbles at day care. Wilma has enough on her plate as it is. She's the stage manager and costume designer, thanks to "The Bedrock Bug" that has felled several members of the troupe, and she's not happy with Fred's behavior. It takes a scare at a department store and really listening to the story beyond memorizing lines to make Fred understand what's really important - the love of his wife and daughter.

Switched to Tom & Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale at Tubi after I went online. Jerry and Tuffy watch a performance of The Nutcracker at a theater and immediately fall in love with the story. Their wish to dance is granted by Christmas magic, turning Jerry into a king, the toys under the tree into Jerry's court, and a  ballerina on a music box into his dance partner. Tom and his fellow cats invade the show, capturing all of the toys but Nellie the ride-on horse and Pixie the elf ornament. Jerry and his three friends search for the Toy Maker (Richard Newman), who created the toys and may know how to boot out the cats.

Despite the title, this is more of a cross between The Nutcracker and the other major holiday fantasy Babes In Toyland. The Toy Maker and rescue story comes out of the latter, but the ballet theme and Jerry being a king is really more from the original show. There's some pretty decent pantomimed gags here, and the side story with Nellie only being able to talk when you pull out her string ends up being touching. Not bad if you're a big Tom & Jerry fan.

Did a job search again, then worked on writing. Florrie and the weary Stephen explain how the curse on  him worked. If she could see through the monstrous body he was trapped in and kiss him, he'd be restored to his human form and his people would have their memories restored. Stephen admitted he'd fallen for Cora when her parents had talked about how intelligent and sweet she was and hoped she would be the one who could end the curse. Harron locked him in the kitchen closet when she arrived, but a maid took pity on him and released him.

Broke for dinner and Match Game Syndicated at 7 PM. Poor Brett was upset in the first episode that Charles was leaving to star in a Broadway show. The others try to figure out "The Civil __" in the Audience Match and what's under Lassie's beautiful fur coat when she takes it off. Dick Martin took Charles' place in the second show, joined by Bill Daily, Debralee Scott, Gary Collins, and Betty White. Betty's nervous when she has to deal with a double on "__ As Well" in the Head-to-Head. 

Finished the night at Paramount Plus with Scrooged. IBC head executive Frank Cross (Bill Murray) is heavily investing in his network's big live Christmas Eve production of A Christmas Carol. He's no saint himself. He refuses to attend his brother's (John Murray) Christmas party, fires one of his employees (Bobcat Goldthwait) for disagreeing about the dark promo he puts out for the special, and forces everyone else to work overtime on Christmas Eve, including his harried single-mom secretary Grace (Alfre Woodward). There's also the assistant (John Glover) his current boss (Robert Mitchum) hired who is after his job. 

When the ghost of his former boss Lew Hayward (John Forsythe) shows up and tells him he's going to be visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve, he's skeptical, to say the least. It takes visions of his past, present, and future and rekindling his romance with social worker Claire (Karen Allen) to remind him that Christmas is a wonderful time for charity...and for forgiveness.

My stepfather used to love this movie when it ran on cable in the late 80's-early 90's, but most critics at the time agreed with Mom and found it too mean-spirited. Considering I've seen Christmas movies that were five times worse nowadays, this might have been ahead of its time. In fact, the ending is rather sweet. Murray is at his manic best as the cynical executive who thinks his career is everything, until he's reminded of what really matters. The Oscar-winning makeup, especially on the ghosts, remains incredible and rather horrific to this day, especially Hayward in zombie form and the Ghost of Christmas Future with the TVs for a body! If you like your Christmas comedies on the darker side, this is one that's worth checking out. 

Sending Christmas Cheer

Started off the morning with breakfast and The Super Mario Bros Super Show. Bowser is "Koopa Claus" when he kidnaps Santa and freezes his toy factory in order to ruin Christmas. Toad is horrified Bowser ruins his new snowboard, leading Princess Toadstool to scold him for being greedy. In the live-action segment, Mario and Luigi recall to a runaway boy how "Little Marios" also ran away once.

Switched to Buzzr for Match Game '77 while taking my laundry downstairs and putting the boxes for Lauren and my family in the Villas and Virginia together. Buzzr's still doing their Bob Barker marathon, as his birthday would have been tomorrow. Bob appeared on the last week before the show moved to mornings, as Gene complains about early in the episode. The others are more interested in contemplating why a woman is carrying what she calls a rape whistle around her neck while Gene points out that producer Roger's been misspelling answers again. 

Bob and his wife Dorothy Jo also appeared on the Tattletales episode with William Shatner and his wife Marcy and comedian Pat Cooper and his wife Patti. I never heard of Cooper until today, but apparently, he was big on celebrity roasts. No wonder. He and Patti were funny as heck. Although Bob and Dorothy Jo did well, they ended up being the big winners.

Headed out to run errands after I put the laundry in the dryer. I really wanted to get my Christmas boxes in the mail. One's going to Lauren and her parents in Pittsfield, one's going down to Mom and Keefe and his family in Yorktown, Virginia, and the third will be going to Anny and Lilah in the Villas. Fortunately, the Oaklyn Post Office is three blocks from where I live. There was only a short line when I arrived at the blocky one-room building. Other than a slight bobble with the zip code on Lauren's package, I was in and out...and it's a good thing. By the time I left, the line was out the door.

Dollar General is a block from the post office, so I went there next. I mainly wanted to buy a birthday card for my friend Linda Young. I also bought a Dr. Pepper Zero (I've never seen them anywhere else) and an original metal Slinky to put in the toy donation box in the front of the store.

When I got home, I brought my laundry upstairs and put it away while watching the first Christmas episode of Paw Patrol. The "Pups Save Christmas" when Santa has an accident with the sleigh and loses his presents, his reindeer, and the magic Christmas star that allows the reindeer to fly. Rubble and Rocky fix the sleigh. Chase herds the reindeer and helps find the star. Skye, Marshall, and Zuma deliver the gifts all around Adventure Bay.

Put on the 1951 British A Christmas Carol with Alistair Sim while I got Linda's birthday card and the Christmas cards going in the mail together. This is probably my favorite traditional, fully live-action Christmas Carol. Sim is a wonderful Scrooge, especially in the second half, when he's thawing out and beginning to to understand what his stinginess and bitterness has done to those around him. There's some nifty touches, too, including an expanded past sequence that fully shows how Scrooge went from idealistic clerk to nasty businessman and the hilarious reaction of his washer woman when she comes in on Christmas morning and sees her miserly boss suddenly dancing around and giving out money. This is in the public domain, so it's pretty easy to find. 

Let the other program  on the DVD run while cleaning up the cards. Max Fleischer released the first animated "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" as a short in 1948. This one follows the original book pretty closely. Rudolph is an adorable little fellow, especially when he's hoping Santa will fill his stocking and in the very end, where he blushes bright as his nose. This was apparently created as an ad for the story's original publisher Montgomery Ward, which is likely why it's now in the public domain. 

Did job research next. When I didn't see anything, I moved on to writing. Actually, I re-wrote the entire scene in the tower. The fire that burns the tower and Harron is now choking, clinging vines that scar Harron's  handsome face and crush the tower. When he uses his power to make the vines attack Cora, she uses her knife to knock one back at him. She pushes so hard, the thorns end up blinding him.

Broke for dinner at 7 PM. Watched Match Game Syndicated while I ate. Stephanie Powers finally made her first appearance since 1973, while Gene announced that Charles would be going on hiatus after this week to do a (short-lived, as it turned out) Broadway show. Fannie Flagg is more worried about dealing with "__ Decker" in the Head-to-Head. In the second show, Gene jokes about Stephanie's hair getting mussed, but Bill would rather muss Stephanie. 

Finished the night on YouTube with episodes of Tic Tac Dough in honor of the 45th anniversary of the 1978 revival and host Wink Martindale's birthday last week. Tic Tac Dough actually goes back to 1956 as one of the many big-money quiz shows dreamed up by Barry and Enright. Originally a daytime show, a nighttime version debuted in 1957. The Barry-hosted daytime show was apparently clean, but the night show hosted by Jay Jackson was said to be rigged more than 75 percent of the time. Both shows changed hosts after the Quiz Show Scandals broke. The nighttime version ended late in 1958; the day show didn't make it out of 1959.

The episode I have here is a daytime show from 1958, one of the very few known to exist today. In the original version, people would guess answers from subjects on a tic-tac-toe board that was mechanically shuffled. The money they won would be added to a pot. Whomever got three Xs or Os in a row won the pot. I find the mechanical board to be charming and the questions to be interesting, which makes me wonder why someone thought they needed to cheat on this to begin with.

After Barry and Enright made a comeback in 1973 with their Joker's Wild, they decided it was time to bring one of their first hits back to the small screen. What most people probably don't remember is that there were actually two Tic Tac Dough revivals that debuted in 1978. The first turned up on CBS that summer. It apparently couldn't drum up ratings opposite Card Sharks and was gone by the fall. 

The version that everyone remembers is that the show moved to syndication two weeks after it left CBS...and was an instant sensation. Along with Family Feud, it was probably the most popular game show of the late 70's and early 80's. Now the questions are asked on monitors, and there's occasional "red squares" as money bonuses. They also added an actual bonus round. In the CBS show, people would try to get three Xs or Os in a row and avoid the noisy roaring dragon that would seemingly lunge at the screen. The syndicated version had them choosing numbers to find money under them. If they found $1,000 or over, or got the words "Tic" and "Tac," they'd win a big prize package. Contestants who won five games in a row got a car.

There were a lot of big winners on this show, but the biggest debuted in 1980. Naval pilot Thom McKee started off in September 1980 and would continue winning money for 46 episodes. He eventually amassed more than $312,000 and eight cars. It was a game show winnings record that would stand until Ken Jennings' big run on Jeopardy! 20 years later. (And apparently the guy who finally defeated him went on to do really well, too.) 

Martindale left to do his own Headline Chasers in 1985. Jim Caldwell replaced him, and while he apparently got better as the final season went on, he was really no Martindale. On the other hand, the set did get a rather attractive make over at this point, trading in the late 70's wood-and-gold look for softer pastels. Nothing helped. Dough couldn't stand out in a syndicated landscape now dominated by Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune and finally ended in 1986. 

Dough was one of the many games that saw a revival in 1990. Alas, this version is rather notorious among game show fans for not being terribly good. On the plus side was a nifty early CGI board and a simple but fairly elegant set. However, the bonus round was unnecessarily complicated by a new knight "dragon slayer" character and the contestant choosing to play Xs or Os, instead of just choosing money. Host Patrick Wayne was an actor who had little prior experience  hosting. He tended to be either totally bored or screaming at the top of his lungs. 

(It's too bad most people think this moves too slow and the tic-tac-toe board is too cumbersome to work nowadays. There apparently was a pilot for a third revival shot in 2021 with Tom Berganon, but they didn't go ahead with it. I wish they'd change their minds. I enjoy watching the older episodes, and I did as a kid when I'd see them on USA. I wonder if there might be life for this show yet in the right hands.)

At any rate, see if you can solve trivia and avoid that infamous dragon with some of the most winningest contestants ever on television! (Look for commercials from the show's run on Game Show Network and USA on most episodes and bad tapes on the CBS premiere and the show from 1986.)

Tic Tac Dough (1958)

The New Tic Tac Dough CBS Premiere (1978)

The New Tic Tac Dough Syndicated Premiere (1978)

Tic Tac Dough - Thom McKee Debuts (1980)

Tic Tac Dough - Thom McKee Wins $200,000 (1980)

Tic Tac Dough - Thom McKee Departs (1980)

Tic Tac Dough - 1,000th Episode (1983)

Tic Tac Dough Series Finale (1986)

Tic Tac Dough (1990)

Autumn Blue and Gold

Began the morning with breakfast and The Busy World of Richard Scarry. Miss Honey reads her students a tale from Busytown's history in "Captain Willy and the Pirates." Captain Willy is the lighthouse keeper who takes his ship out for a fishing cruise, only to lose it to pirates. He dresses as a character from local sea mythology to scare them away. Cucumber the photographer is now in Japan, dodging "Flying Noodles" from a broken noodle-making machine and searching for the missing noodle chef Sato. Mr. Fix-It takes the Scouts camping. They'd rather be "Roughing It," but when it starts pouring, they learn that Mr. Fix-It's huge camper has its virtues, too.

American Girl's "Girl of the Year" doll for 2024 made her debut this morning. These are dolls that are only out for a year and usually have stories of a girl juggling changes in her life with her favorite sport or hobby. Lila Monetti is a gymnast from Minnesota who is persuaded to try horseback riding camp and learns that you can be into more than one hobby at the same time. The doll is lovely and her corgi pup Mighty Mae is darling, but both the gymnastics and the horse themes have been done to death in the Girl of the Year series.

(The one interesting thing about Lila is her journal references to an earlier American Girl of the Year gymnast, McKenna Brooks, who is apparently now her coach.)  

Went for a walk after I got off the laptop to run a few errands. First stop was the Oaklyn post office two blocks away. Needed to send birthday cards to my good friend Amanda and my baby niece Aurora, and I was almost out of stamps. I dropped the cards in the slot, bought the stamps from a very sweet and pleasant young woman, and headed out.

Headed a block down to Dollar General next. Doing the summer sheets and quilt used up the last of my laundry detergent. I picked up the smaller yellow Tide bottle. Needed new hair bands, too. I hadn't replaced them since May. Used up the parchment paper making roasted Brussels sprouts, so I bought more of that, along with an Ultimate Coke Zero.

The main reason I wanted to run errands was it was just too nice to sit inside the entire morning. It was warm and sunny, with a sky clear as a pale blue glass. It was probably a bit too warm for October, and maybe a tad humid, but we're also not going to get too many more days like this. It's supposed to drop into the 60's by next week.

Had lunch, then worked on writing for a while. Joyce and Charles oil up the rusted woodsman. He explains he'd been chopping wood several months ago when he was caught in a storm without his oil can and rusted. 

Broke to head off to work. It started well. I spent the first hour or so sweeping and pushing carts. The trouble began when I had to put back a pile of cold items someone didn't want and couldn't afford. That made me late with sweeping, which made me late for break. And of course, they threw me into a register for the last hour. I don't know why. They're still pulling my till to check it, even months after I got into trouble. Good thing it slowed down by the time I left. I hurried out in frustration. 

Went straight into Match Game '79 when I got home. Robert Walden, Audrey Landers, and Bert Convy made the second week of 1979 extremely pleasant to look at. Gene tried to calm a nervous young Air Force officer by holding his hands, then brought the young woman contestant next to them in on it, too.

Finished the night on YouTube with game shows from the 2000's. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire exploded in a big way as the decade began. Almost every show on the four major networks and many cable channels imitated its dark neon set, lifelines, gradual advancement from big jackpot to bigger jackpot, and tense game play. Many of these shows came from England like Millionaire or other European countries, or even Japan.  Not only did the networks become saturated with them, but ABC burned out its golden goose by expanding it to five nights a week. The original Millionaire was gone by 2002. 

(The show would later prove more viable as a syndicated series, which ran off and on from 2002 to 2021. Meredith Viera was the first host, but she'd be replaced by many others as the series went on, including Cedric the Entertainer around 2014.) 

NBC didn't have much better luck with its Millionaire imitation. The Weakest Link also came from England, complete with unsmiling and tough host Anne Robinson. Eight audience members work together to answer a chain of questions. Correct answers continue the chain. Incorrect answers or banking the money breaks it. At the end of each round, the members of the team vote for whom they want eliminated. The person with the most votes is off the team. The last two members go back and forth for the final round. The winner either answered all the questions correctly or got the bigger lead. 

Despite the popularity of Robinson's catchphrase "You are the weakest link, good bye!" the original show got mired in silly celebrity episodes and barely lasted a year. The 2002 syndicated run also bottomed out after a year. It would do much better back on NBC starting in 2020 with the equally tough Jane Lynch hosting. 

NBC finally got its Millionaire hit in 2005 with the Dutch-born Deal or No Deal.  They choose six boxes to eliminate right away. The unseen "Banker" tells Mandel to make a deal for a big prize or other cash amount. They can take the deal, or eliminate one fewer box in the next round.  Howie Mandel may have seemed like a strange choice for the host, but he got so into dealing with the contestants, he's still associated with the show in the US to this day. I can see why this was a four-year hit for NBC and has been briefly revived twice. It's heart-stopping but very addictive to count down those boxes being picked!

Even Password got hit with the Millionaire bug when CBS debuted Million Dollar Password in 2008. Basically, it was retooled as Millionaire with people guessing words instead of trivia questions. Password probably does better when the contestants and celebrities are less tense, but this one certainly had its moments. Neil Patrick Harris proved to be as good at describing words as he is at sitcoms and Broadway musicals in the first episode. Regis Philbin hosting brought it even closer to Millionaire. Too bad it was pulled after a year when, despite good ratings, CBS decided it wasn't bringing in the demographics it wanted. 

Family Feud was revived in syndication in 2000. Though they had their fans, neither Louie Anderson nor Richard Karn were that well-received as hosts. Although the show continued in 2006 with a rather ugly neon set, older and more formal John O'Hurley was a slight improvement over his predecessors. The show returned to its original format, with three strikes, four rounds, and the Fast Money game. 

Feud wasn't the only older format to see a hit revival in the 2000's. The original Lingo only lasted a year in 1987, but Game Show Network thought it had potential and brought it back in 2002. This time, it was a smash hit that ran for five years with Chuck Woolery hosting. Two teams guess words on a bingo board with letters covered. They're giving the letter and have to attempt to spell out the mystery word. If they correctly guess a word, they can draw two Lingo balls. If they don't, control passes to the other team. 

This is a fun and addicting game with a fairly colorful set that's a breath of fresh air among the many Millionaire clones of the time. It's popular enough to have been revived twice, briefly in 2011 on Game Show Network, and currently on CBS with RuPaul in a version that began earlier this year.

Hollywood Squares was revived in syndication in 1998 with Whoopi Goldberg as the center square and Tom Bergenon as the host. The game play largely remained the same as the original NBC run. Goldberg left in 2002 and was replaced by a revolving door of celebrities. Dame Edna Everage (Barry Humphies) is in the center square in this episode, joined by Donnie Osmond, Coolio, Naomi Judd, Gilbert Godfried, and Phyllis Diller, among others. I used to flip back and forth between this and fellow syndicated hit Jeopardy! when I was in college. 

Game shows flourished in syndication, on cable, and on prime time throughout the decade. Daytime was a different matter. With the exception of The Price Is Right, by 2000, they'd been chased off the air by talk shows. CBS finally gave Price a morning companion when they revived Let's Make a Deal in 2009. Wayne Brady is the supremely goofy host for the shopping show that has people in wacky costumes trading up or down to see if they can win prizes and avoid those infamous Zonks. It went over so well, it's been running before Price in most markets ever since. 

See how Millionaire and other neon delights changed how game shows are played and presented in the first decade of the 21st century...and that's my final answer. 

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (2000)

The Weakest Link (2001)

Hollywood Squares (2003)

Deal or No Deal (2005)

Family Feud (2006)

Lingo (2007)

Million Dollar Password (2008)

Let's Make a Deal (2009)