Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Home-Bound Valentine

Began a sunny Valentine's Day with the Colliers Harvest of Holidays anthology. They only have one story for the holiday, but it's the lovely The Valentine Box by Maud Hart Lovelace. Janice is new in town and thinks she won't get any valentines at her class party. She learns that the best way to make a friend is to be a friend when she helps popular girl Margaret retrieve her valentines after they've blown away, and Margaret helps her find hers when she accidentally leaves them outside. 

After writing in my journal, I finally had breakfast while watching Match Game '75. They're down to the end of the year as the panel celebrated Christmas Eve with attempting to figure out "G.I ___" in the Audience Match, Brett insulting Charles for supposedly sleeping through the proceedings, and everyone singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" in the finale. (Also in the finale, for some reason, Brett is hugging Gene so hard, she nearly knocked him over!) The second episode introduces Richard's then-girlfriend Jody Donovan, has Gene admiring the contestant's rainbow bolo tie, and Richard not too happy with Gene's attempt to kiss the "new kid on the block" he happens to be dating!

Called Mom during the show. She was preparing to take Keefe and Julia's two frisky dogs for a walk. She was delighted I sent her a separate Valentine's card. She's been bored, stuck in the house with few places to go. She's apparently waiting to get her library card, so she can take out all the books she pleases. They're going to make a nice dinner for Valentine's Day. Oh, and she says little Aurora is growing like a weed and is so smart! She takes in everything, and is almost ready to start solid foods. 

Honored the holiday by letting Tattletales run. Never knew Rue McClanahan did this show, here with one of her five husbands, Gus. They were joined by two more familiar couples, Ron Glass and future TV villianess Joan Collins and goofy Dick Gautier and his sarcastic then-wife Barbara Stuart. The second episode brought back songwriter Sammy Cahn and his smart and funny wife Tita, Hal "Barnaby Miller" Linen and his sweet wife Fran, and Scoey Mitchilll and his sensible wife Claire.

Switched to Sepia Cinderella while I ate lunch and rested my foot. I go further into this charming "race musical" romance from 1947 at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog. 


Read The Bear and the Nightingale in bed for a while, since I didn't get to it this morning, then went online for a while to do some writing. Lee is not impressed with Richard's flirting or his name-dropping. She's even less thrilled when Gene tries to make a pass at her after she introduces Richard to him. Richard can sense that there's something unusual about Gene through the ham, though...

Broke for dinner at quarter of 7. Ate while watching Valentine's Day specials. Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown is an earlier and slightly darker take on the Peanuts romances. Linus is smitten with his teacher Miss Othmar and buys her a huge box of candy that Sally thinks is for her. Lucy destroys Schroder's piano when he's not listening to her ranting about him not getting her a valentine and dodges Snoopy's messy "pawpet" show. Violet wonders what one gives to a male teacher, while Charlie Brown is waiting (and waiting) for someone to give him a valentine, any valentine.

The Pink Panther has an even messier holiday in Pink at First Sight. He wants to buy candy to attract a female panther, but has no money. When a singing delivery boy accidentally leaves a Valentine's gift at his house, returning it inspires him to become a singing delivery boy too. After he's chased by a jealous husband, an angry father, and a group of gangsters to whom he inadvertently delivered a bomb, he's about ready to give up on love...but he finally gets a nice surprise in the end.

Oh, and I got a valentine gift, too. A friend of mine gave me a heart-shaped box of Mars miniatures, and a friend of hers gave me three soft pretzels. Yum! I'd rather have soft pretzels and Snickers than chocolates with too-sweet centers anyway. 

Finished the night on YouTube with more vintage Valentine's Day specials. The Popeye Valentine's Day Special: Sweethearts at Sea has Olive furious that Popeye forgot her on the holiday. She takes a "swingin' single cruise" to forget him. Bluto tags along, hoping to finally curry her favor. Popeye follows...but so does the Sea Hag from the comics, who has her eye on Popeye. When Bluto shakes out all of Popeye's spinach, he'll have to figure out how to impress Olive and duck away from the Sea Hag's advances without it.

Disney did two Valentine's Day specials with the DTV moniker, of which Disney's DTV Valentine is the first and longer. DTV was The Disney Channel's attempt to cash in on the music video craze of the 1980's. They created videos based around segments from various Disney media. The music they used was pretty varied, too, from jazz standards to rock to Disney songs. Here, we get the original "The Shoop-Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)" by Betty Everett, "Hello" by Lionel Richie, "I Just Called to Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder, "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News, "You Give Good Love" by Whitney Houston, and "There Must Be an Angel" by the Eurythmics, along with "Once Upon a Dream" from Sleeping Beauty and "Someday My Prince Will Come" from Snow White. My favorite segment was Elvis Presley's "Teddy Bear," set to snippets from cartoons featuring Disney bears like Humphrey, Baloo, and Bongo. 

And here's hoping you had a wonderful Valentine's Day with your favorite teddy bear!

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