Had breakfast while watching Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. The kids are all excited for "The Neighborhood Fall Festival," especially Miss Elaina, whose father Music Man Stan put up the decorations. When the wind blows his decorations down, the kids try to figure out how to put them up again. They're upset that they can't do it exactly the way he did it, but Mrs. Tiger assures them that it's ok to do it their way. Daniel and his friends aren't perfect at every game during "Field Day at School," but they're happy that they've tried their best.
In Sheriff Callie's Wild West, Sheriff Callie, her deputy Peck, and his friend Toby go after a trio of bandits who swiped their Halloween treats in "The Great Halloween Mystery." The thieves buried the pumpkin full of goodies in a corn field, but someone planted a corn maze, and now they can't remember which corn stalk they hid it under! Callie and the guys follow their trail as they search for their stolen loot. "The Ghost of the Scary Prairie" is a story Peck comes up with to scare Toby. It's not real, but Toby runs off spooked before Peck can tell him. Thanks to flour that lands on Callie and parts of their costume that get attached to her horse Sparky, her deputy and his buddy become convinced that there really is a ghost roaming the plains!
Switched to Match Game '77 while cleaning up from breakfast. The first episode had everyone teasing Charles about his blue sailor-style cap, while Brett comes in for a ribbing in a question about Edgar Bergen claiming Charlie McCarthy wasn't the first dummy he worked with. In the second, the crew finds something close to Brett's glasses, and she jokes about Charles' shoes (and what he didn't wear with them.)
Thought I'd try something different after the shows ended. Found a recipe in a Pillsbury cookie cookbook for Halloween Chocolate Pretzels. The "pretzels" were actually chocolate butter cookies rolled in the shape of a pretzel. You were supposed to melt chocolate in the microwave to dunk the cookies in and cover in Halloween sprinkles. I don't own a microwave, thought the chocolate was too fussy, and frankly, the cookies are rich enough without it. Settled for brushing them with an egg wash and sprinkling them with orange and yellow colored sugar instead. Yum! They came out delicious, very chocolately, and not that hard to make. I may do them again when Halloween gets closer.
Watched Elvira: Mistress of the Dark on Tubi while I worked. Elvira (Cassandra Peterson) is frustrated with her job hosting bad movies on Los Angeles TV. She wants to take Las Vegas by storm, but lacks the money. When she learns her Aunt Morgana died and left something in her will, she heads cross-country to Fallwell, Massachusetts. The tiny town never let go of its Puritan sentiments and shuns anything that is remotely different, scary, or sexual. Elvira, being a lot of all three, is a fish out of water from the get-go. She's not popular with the townspeople, especially after she inherits her aunt's decaying mansion, pet poodle, and "recipe" book. Her Great-Uncle Vincent Talbot (W. Morgan Shepard) wants the recipe book - actually a spell book - and tries to buy it from her, but the dog hides it.
Meanwhile, Elvira tries her hardest to get a job and earn the money to take her to Vegas. She encourages the teens in the town to help her fix up her house, but their parents throw fits and won't let them near her after that. She befriends the head of the town movie theater Bob Redding (Daniel Greene) and hold a midnight horror film festival there, only to be sabotaged by jealous bowling alley owner Patty (Susan Kellerman). Bob tries to encourage her by coming over to her house for dinner. She wants to make a big meal from her aunt's "cookbook," but ends up conjuring a monster. Turns out her aunt was a witch, she's descended from a long line of witches, and her uncle is an evil warlock who wants to take over the world. Now Elvira has to figure out how to get her revenge on the townspeople who shunned her and keep her nutty uncle from getting his hands on their family's magic.
You probably wouldn't think I'd be into something as weird as this, but I loved this movie in the late 80's-early 90's. It used to run a lot of cable and independent TV stations. Nowadays, while I don't love it the way I did then, I still like it a lot. Peterson is likable and funny as the goth queen who confronts the obnoxiously puritanical townspeople, and Shepard isn't bad as her villainous uncle who thinks the book is his ticket to taking over the world. Love the spoofing of the clichés of bad horror films and other 80's B films, including at least one Rambo reference. If you love horror comedies or Elvira, are familiar with the movies she's making fun of, or want to see a nifty variation on the "slobs vs snobs" theme of the time, you'll want to give this one a look.
Finally found my Amazon packages on the porch around quarter of 3. Brought them in, then had a quick smoothie lunch while watching Super Password. Betty White killed at this one, helping her contestant win the Super Password bonus round in record time and getting more answers than Jon "Bowser" Bauman and his contestants.
Along with more Christmas presents and Call Me Madam to review for Election Day next month, I picked up more CD binder pages. From now on, all disc media in this apartment will be in binders, including the Christmas and old-time radio CDs. Did the Christmas titles while Tattletales ran. Nutty Orson Bean and his sassy then-wife Carolyn Jones were the big winners, getting almost every question right.
Had moved on to the old-time radio discs by the time Press Your Luck was on. This was an exciting one. Everything went back and forth, with none of the contestants pulling ahead until the one guy picked up a car during the second round. Even with two Whammies, he was still the big winner, picking up the car and a sport boat, among other things.
Worked on writing after the show ended. Ethel (Merman) and her daughters storm over, claiming Fannie is their servant. Her daughters, however, really aren't interested in being mollycoddled anymore. Meredith fell for Sir (Bert) Convy and Victoria wans to join a comic acting troupe. Allen offers Fannie a job and to repair her decaying manor house. The wizards join together to turn Donald's legs into a fish's tail, so he can join his beloved Patti at her family's home under Anderson Bay.
Broke for dinner at 6:30. Made turkey burgers, spinach salad, and mashed honeynut squash (so sweet, it didn't need sweetener, just milk and spices) for dinner while jumping back to Match Game '74. This time, blonde bombshell Elaine Joyce is the one who comes in for ribbing in a question joking about what she gets tired of people staring at. (One look at the "Bugle Boy" shirt on her chest gave anyone near her the answer.) Late 70's TV hunks Robert Walden and Bart Braverman joined Betty White, Gene, and the regulars in Match Game PM for jokes about what autographed photo Bernie the Super Salesman could sell to Brett.
The woman card sharp completely dominated Sale of the Century tonight. Though the man won one of the Fame Games and the other woman gave her some competition early-on, she took the reins shortly after and killed in the Speed Round. She picked up a well-deserved 10,000 dollars on the Match the Prize Board. Made pumpkin pudding from the failed "Pumpkin Whirl" in the freezer while I watched.
Finished the night with Hansel & Gretel. I'll be going further into the Cannon Movie Tales version of this famous story tomorrow. There's a lot on tomorrow that I want to watch, including at least two marathons, so I figured I'd watch the movie for review tonight.
No comments:
Post a Comment