Did some reading and writing in my journal, then went into breakfast. Since I just finished the 1980 novel Annie that was based on the Broadway show, I did the original cast for that first. I'm honestly fonder of the 1982 movie - I can't see anyone but Carol Burnett as Miss Hannigan - but there's some indelible performances on the original cast, too. Dorothy Loudon is a good Miss Hannigan, while Reid Shelton may be the definitive Daddy Warbucks. Andrea McArdle launched her stage career as the original title character. There's at least one duet for Warbucks and Grace Farrell, "You Won't Be an Orphan for Long," that doesn't seem to have made it into any of the filmed versions. The chorus numbers "It's a Hard Knock Life," "NYC," and "You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile" are fun here.
Switched to another mildly Christmas-themed musical after Annie. I picked up my Decca Broadway CD of Babes In Toyland and The Red Mill at least 20 years ago. The Babes songs are mainly sung by Karen Kemple and Kenny Baker and include charming versions of "Toyland," "Floretta," "I Can't Do the Sum," and one that I've never heard elsewhere, the tongue-twisting "Song of the Poet." Wilbur Evans scores with the two big hits from Mill, "Every Day Is Ladies' Day With Me" and "The Sidewalks of New York."
That Christmas Jazz CD I picked up yesterday was a great find. It was worth it alone for Louis Armstrong's "Christmas Time In Harlem" and Babs Gonzalez' hipster version of The Night Before Christmas, "Be Bop Santa Claus." I also liked Fats Waller's "Swinging Them Jingle Bells" and Duke Ellington's version of "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas."
Moved to records in the living room during lunch. Disney's Babes In Toyland book-and-record has Little Boy Blue narrating the story. (It sounds like the same kid who narrated The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band book-and-record.) Most of the songs are clearly not from the original film...although this sometimes works to the record's advantage. Thurl Ravenscroft sounds a heck of a lot more menacing singing "And We Won't Be Happy 'Til We Get It" than Ray Bolger! The Tom and Mary also do a lovely "Just a Whisper Away."
Say One For Me is a 1959 movie about a priest (Bing Crosby) in New York's theater district who gets involved in the lives of several of his parishioners. It basically sounds like Going My Way crossed with Singin' In the Rain, and the soundtrack bears this out. Crosby and Ray Walston get nice versions of "The Secret of Christmas," but most of the other songs are generic dance numbers performed by Robert Wagner, Debbie Reynolds, and the chorus.
Here's Love is the Broadway musical version of Miracle On 34th Street from 1963. It largely follows the original movie, although Fred Gaily is stated to be an ex-Marine and we have a dream sequence where Susan imagines her mother among toys trying to choose a father. Janis Paige is Doris; Fred Gwynne is fellow Macy's executive Mr. Shellhammer. Not some of Meredith Wilson's best work, although I do like Doris' "Look, Little Girl," her "Arm In Arm" with Susan, and Susan and Fred's sweet duet "My Wish."
Thanks to Paramount Plus, I was able to watch the Eagles-Bills game today. It didn't look too good for the Eagles throughout most of the game. Despite the Bills being hit constantly with penalties, they just couldn't get anything started. The fact that it poured almost the entire day didn't help. The Eagles finally woke up in the second half and caught up in a big way by the fourth quarter. They finally won the game in overtime, 37-34.
Worked on writing for a while during and after the game. Stephen tries to hypnotize Cora again, but she's not falling for that anymore. She knows the truth about him - he's a shallow, insensitive bully with no interest in anyone but himself. He finally admits that no, he doesn't love her. He loves the fertile land in her parents' kingdom. She's a means to an end.
He's about to attack her when the hunchback, whom Stephen claims can't do anything but follow orders, breaks free and runs right into him. They go sprawling while Cora pulls away. Stephen's furious, yanking the hunchback around. Cora separates them, telling Stephen basically to cut it out and lay off the guy. Stephen calls the hunchback a freak and a monster, but Cora knows who the real monster is - Stephen.
Broke to have dinner at 7:30, then took a quick shower. Finished the night with episodes of Supermarket Sweep in honor of Cyber Monday tomorrow. This is another one that goes further back than most people likely realize. The original show debuted on ABC in 1965. Three teams begin with a base time of 1 minute and 30 seconds and play pricing games in order to add more to their time. The bonus round lets them run around the store, gathering the most expensive food, along with various bonus items and prizes. The team that gathers the highest total wins and plays two more contestants. Bill Malone hosted.
It's interesting to see what was different in the initial version. First of all, they drove around and filmed at different Food Fair markets in the New York area. Everyone was allowed to keep their groceries along with the bonuses. Everything you saw was real, including the market. No big bonus rounds, either. The Big Sweep is the bonus round. If nothing else, it's interesting to see how real grocery stores looked in the mid-late 60's.
The women-oriented cable network Lifetime revived Supermarket Sweep in 1990. This time, it was filmed at a studio set up to look like a real supermarket. The pricing games used to earn time are more diverse, including games that let contestants guess tabloid magazine trivia or unscramble brand names. The Big Sweep is now followed by a Bonus Sweep, where the winners of the Big Sweep guess three clues that lead them around the store, ending in an item holding five thousand dollars. Energetic David Ruprecht of the bold sweaters hosted.
I don't think any show evolved more during their runs than Supermarket Sweep. It never seemed to be the same show twice. The graphics became increasingly brighter and blockier. A Mini-Sweep opened the first round starting in 1991 where people would guess an item from Dave's clues, then try to find it in the store for 10 extra minutes. More and more bonuses were added to the Big Sweep, including finding a list of items David announces, guessing an item from clues on a monitor, grinding a bag of coffee, filling a bag with candy, and figuring out which three bread items David wants or which three frozen yogurt flavors he asked for. Even the episodes I have here from 1990, 1993, and 1995 show different bonuses and pricing games. David dropped the sweaters in favor of weird ties by 1993.
The show returned on PAX-TV in 2000. I love the graphics that originally opened this one, with their adorable CGI animation depicting carts racing around a store. The second Mini-Sweep is replaced by two longer games. One has a member describing words to their partner that would eventually form a food word; the partner has to guess the word. It's sort of "Supermarket Pyramid." The other was the "Snack Attack Movie Game." That started with three questions about movies. The winner would taste test a food that was related to the film and try to guess what it was for fifty dollars towards the Sweep.
Supermarket Sweep remained wildly popular in re-runs, first on Lifetime and PAX, then on Buzzr after they debuted there in 2019. That led to the creation of a round-the-clock channel that mostly showed early 90's episodes and a fourth revival on ABC in 2020. Noisy Leslie Banks hosted an expanded hour-long version. Now all the contestants participate in the Mini-Sweep instead of just someone buzzing in, and the Bonus Sweep is expanded to allow contestants to keep going to increase their total winnings, or stop with the money they have. In the show's third episode from 2020, one pair keeps going, only to get stuck, while two mothers wisely figure they have enough money for their needs.
This has a lot of virtues. Banks is such a ball of energy, I got tired just watching her scoot around! The announcers from the early version are replaced by Banks and a goofy security guard who plays a few skits with Banks between rounds. The contestants are allowed to personalize their matching sweatshirts, too, leading to some rather creative designs. They also have cute names based around their favorite food, like "Team Honey" for honey fans or "Team Marinara" for two women who admitted they bonded over emotionally eating mozzarella sticks. It's kind of too bad ABC dropped this one early last year. I hope they bring it back eventually - it's a lot of fun.
Attention shoppers! Go wild through the aisles with some of the craziest cart-fillers to ever dash through a grocery store!
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