Switched to Match Game '77 while getting organized. Interestingly, Anita Bryant and orange juice came up again, and this time it wasn't skipped. It was an answer to whose blood gave Dracula lots of Vitamin C. (I love how Brett proudly said "I love all the people Anita Bryant hates!" Especially considering one of them was her best friend.)
Headed out to run some quick errands after the episode ended. Picked up coconut milk and Kind bars at Sprouts; the latter were buy one, get one 50 percent off. Target had Planters cinnamon cashews for 2 for $5. Grabbed those, my favorite glazed donut almonds, and yogurt. Bought glow stick bracelets and mini Moon Pies for the Mystery Bags at Dollar Tree. I needed new underwear; got that at Family Dollar, along with chocolate Moon Pies and a diet Dr. Pepper.
At least it was a gorgeous day to run quick errands. Sunny, without a cloud in the sky. The wind that had plagued our area all weekend had faded with the cloud cover. It was warm, but not ridiculously so for the time of year, in the lower 60's.
Put on the Cat In the Hat Knows a Lot About That Halloween special as I had lunch, took the laundry downstairs, and got everything organized. This time, the Cat takes the kids to the Ooky Makooky Closet to find the perfect costumes for them. They have to explore spooky woods, a noisy thunder storm, and a scary haunted house to find it. The kids are frightened, until the Cat tells them that the thunder is just the sky making noise, the house can be fixed, and the woods are full of animals that might give you a legitimate reason to be scared. The Cat won't admit what he's afraid of, not for anything...but he seems mighty desperate to avoid the pumpkin patch they fly over...
Switched to Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit while I put together the Mystery Bags. Everyone's favorite stop-motion British inventors are currently in the pest control business. They use suction to remove rabbits from the gardens of everyone in town. Wallace (Peter Sallis) is especially worn out after they capture the many rabbits living at Tottingham Hall, but he does think Lady Campunela (Helena Bonham Carter) is sweet for not wanting to kill them.
His dog Gromit wishes Wallace would stop eating so much cheese and uses his new "Brain Wash-O-Matic" to try to make him love vegetables. Unfortunately, he ends up switching his mind with that of a rabbit. It does stop the cheese cravings, but it also turns Wallace into a gigantic vegetable-ravishing rabbit. Their entire village is up at arms when some massive critter attacks their gardens right before the big Vegetable Festival. Wallace thinks it's the brainwashed rabbit, but Gromit knows better. He has to save his owner from dastardly hunter Lord Victor Quartermaine (Ralph Fiennes), before he takes down that giant bunny once and for all.
Hilarious and touching full-length adventure with England's two favorite eccentric cheese-lovers. You could spend a viewing just enjoying all the references to classic horror cliches, including the giant creature run amok and the (not-so) heroic hunter who comes to the rescue. This won an Oscar in 2006 for a reason. Highly recommended, especially for fans of the Wallace and Gromit shorts. (Oh, and I read online that Aardman is preparing a sequel for release next year.)
Moved to another semi-horror animated film, The Black Cauldron, after I cleaned up the mess from the Mystery Bags and put the laundry in the dryer. Taran (Grant Bardsley) lives in the Welsh kingdom of Prydain as an assistant pig keeper to Dauben (Freddie Jones). After he discovers his pig Hen-Wen can tell the future, Dauben sends boy and pig into hiding. Hen-Wen falls into the dastardly claws of the Horned King (John Hurt), who wants to find the Black Cauldron and create an army of the undead. Taran does manage to save Hen-Wen, but is caught himself. He finally escapes with spirited Princess Ellonwy (Susan Sheridan) and minstrel Fflewfdor Fflam (Nigel Hawthorne). Along with always-hungry critter Gurgi (John Byner), the quartet search the underground Fairy Realms and the land of the ever-bargaining witches for the infamous Cauldron. Even when they do find it, it'll take an act of true sacrifice to end its evil powers and the Horned King's reign for good.
I don't think anyone - including Disney - knew what to make of this when it came out in 1985. Disney has always been hard on it, ever since it flopped and almost destroyed their animation department. (Apparently, it did better overseas, especially in Europe.) Hopefully, it being readily available on Disney Plus means they've finally gotten over that initial failure. While yes, this one has a lot of problems, including a disjointed plot and dull characters, it also has sensational animation, an appropriately eerie Elmer Bernstein score, and a spooky performance by John Hurt as the Horned King. And there's that sequence with the Army of the Undead that's so terrifying, Cauldron was the first Disney movie to be rated PG.
Not for fans of the Chronicles of Prydain books (it made a lot of changes) and too scary for little ones, but if you have older kids and pre-teens who are fantasy or horror fans and think they've seen every Disney movie, try this one on them.
Worked on writing for a while as the movie ended and I retrieved the laundry. Joyce is worried about what they'll find down the path. It's still pretty dark, and she keeps hearing noises. Richard assures them that he could deflect anything the Warlock of the West sends their way. Charles isn't sure, especially once he hears a lion's roar...
Broke for dinner at 7. Ate leftovers while watching Match Game '79. Gene started off the episode by comparing the height a tall, handsome young man from Maine with the almost-as-towering Barbara Rhodes. Maine native Brett is just happy to hug a hot guy from her home state.
Finished the night on YouTube after a shower honoring game show and TV pioneer Arlene Francis, whose birthday would have been Friday. Arlene had been acting in movies since the early 30's, but she's best known today for her radio and TV work. She became one of the first women to host a game show with the radio and TV versions of Blind Date. In this early Dating Game from 1951, Francis directs dads in skits as they try to decide which good-looking guy is right for their daughters. The skits can be a little awkward, but Francis is clearly enjoying helping them find their right match.
That wouldn't be the last time Francis hosted a game show. She took over for Bill Cullen during a week of Price Is Right episodes in 1961, and did very well, too. She sounded enthusiastic and elegant, even when she was encouraging people to bid on something as outlandish as a submarine or a home in Florida.
Nowadays, Francis is mainly known for her 25 year stint on What's My Line? She was so associated with the show, she would be the only regular panelist to appear on the black-and-white CBS and syndicated color version. She first joined the panel during its second week in 1950 with another eventual regular panelist, Dorothy Kilgallen. The episodes I have here are an especially funny 1954 show with glamorous Mystery Guest Elizabeth Taylor showing another side to her talents as she manages to perfectly disguise her voice and one of the earliest syndicated shows from 1968 with Arlene getting to show off her talent on the trombone.
Francis occasionally turned up as a panelist on other game shows, too. She did Match Game from the 60's through 1978. She was on the very first pilot of the 1973 series, sitting in the third seat. She occupied the fourth "ingenue" seat in her later appearances. She was better at guessing occupations than matching contestants, but her dry wit and delight in flirting with Gene Rayburn made her a lot of fun to watch. In the 1975 episode we have here, she gets to help contestant Carol Bartos become the all-time money winner on the show at that point.
She tended to do better on Password. In this 1961 episode, she plays alongside then-host and future game show creator and executive Merv Griffith. Things get really wild when the duo try to get their contestants to guess the word "haystack"...and then "needle" comes right after it...
One of her last game show appearances was on The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour in 1984. She joined fellow game show host Chuck Woolery, along with Arsenio Hall, McLean Stevenson, Paula Kelly from the first season of Night Court, and Jamie Farr, to match contestants, then try to guess true or false questions on the Hollywood Squares board. I know a lot of people don't think much of this show, but I find it to be very underrated. Arlene clearly had a grand time that week, especially during the Match Game first half.
Celebrate the life of a true TV pioneer and a very funny lady with these forays into media past!
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