Sleepytime Angels

Began the morning with breakfast and Charlie & Lola. Lola says "I Just Love My Shiny Red Shoes," but she's grown out of them. She wants shoes that look exactly the same as her old ones and won't consider any other types. Her dad finally chooses brown shoes with buckles. Lola doesn't like them...until her friends at school insist that the jingling buckles sound like ponies when she walks.

It was still raining at quarter after 9 and getting late, so I took Uber. Thankfully, no trouble with them this time. The morning driver came in five minutes; the afternoon driver arrived in nine. No traffic either way, and I arrived at work just in time.

No trouble with work, either. It's the middle of the week and the middle of the month, and we're between holidays. Not to mention, while it didn't rain again, it was still chilly, cloudy, and very windy. I helped an older gentleman chase after his empty bags that blew away. I pushed carts and swept the store with no problems whatsoever.

I was so worn out, I went straight into bed for a nap when I got home. I've been up later recently than I really should have been. I just get so caught up reading online! It's hard to focus when you're looking at one thing, and then you see another interesting topic, and then another. 

When I got up, I did online job hunting while watching Vega$. "Everything I Touch" seems to die when Dan's current girlfriend and her best friend who tried to help him solve the case are both strangled after being with him. His secretary Angie (Judy Landers) may be the next victim of a bearded man who seems to be determined to eliminate every woman in Dan's life.

Switched to Match Game '77 during dinner. Fannie Flagg sat in Brett's seat during the week of New Year's 1977 while she went to visit her son at college. Mary Wickes claimed Brett left her the key to the infamous Encino hotel room in the first episode. In the second, Gene hung up a needlepointed fly swatter someone sent him on the back desks.

Finished the night after a shower with the two-part fifth season opener from Charlie's Angels. Kelly and Kris pose as models after a young lady who worked for a supposedly reputable agency turns up dead in an alley. They're "Angels In Hiding" when Kris acts like a klutz to get into the lower "B" group that gets the lesser jobs. While Kris tries to find out what a creepy older man photographer (Jack Albertson) has to do with everything, Kelly discovers that the dead model's tough former roommate Julie (Tanya Roberts) has been doing a little investigating of her own. 

(Oh, and I put in for vacation time. Lauren will be coming down here for the first two weeks of June. I always look forward to it, and this time is no exception. We'll have time to spread out trips we'd normally bunch together, like the one to the Barrington Antique Center and the Deptford Mall.) 

Jazz On a Spring Afternoon

Slept in again, this time starting the late morning with breakfast and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. "Goofy the Homemaker" wants to make a birdhouse for Baby Red Bird and his mommy. Trouble is, Pete is tired, and the noise with the building keeps interrupting his cat nap. His attempts to cool off or get back to sleep end up blowing down the house! Goofy and the others try their best to find a more stable building material for Baby Red Bird's new home.

Came in for the second half of Press Your Luck. In the first episode, the one guy finally beat the lady from yesterday, landing himself a pool table. The one lady in the next episode screamed so loudly when she got a trip to Paris, Peter Tomarken joked she broke all the lights at CBS. Alas, she hit a Whammy and lost her trip. (And screamed again.) A young man eventually won a speedboat, a trip to Tahiti, and a ton of money.

With the five-time winner having retired yesterday, the field at Split Second was wide open. The first episode came down to the ladies. The one man didn't get anywhere near them. The lady who won opted to continue into the next show to get the car. Alas, she lost to the one guy, who came from behind in the Countdown Round. He said he'd never been to the Bahamas and took the trip instead.

Watched part of Let's Make a Deal before I realized I'd already seen it and headed out for a walk after taking out the trash. I didn't get more than a block and a half before I saw some really nice furniture piled on the curb. I didn't need the pretty blue dresser, but the long, heavy shelves might work for books, or if I could turn it upwards, records. The gentleman was nice enough to help me get it home.

I left it on the porch as I went for my walk. By quarter of 3, it was cloudy, humid, and windy, though not cool like last week. I just strolled around the neighborhood and briefly in Newton Lake Park. It's gorgeous out there now. The roses have debuted, in brilliant shades of pink, red, and orange, and the azaleas are even prettier. Likely thanks to the rain we've had, everything is fresh and green. The leaves get bigger every day. I saw a few people out walking dogs and a mother playing with her tiny toddler daughter in their backyard.

I had a far harder time trying to get that shelf upstairs. It was just too darn big and heavy for me to deal with. After twenty minutes of pushing and pulling that left me with nothing but sore shoulders, I gave up and left it downstairs. I told a friend she could have it, sell it or use it in her own home. 

Spent the next few hours having lunch and watching La La Land. I go further into this hit love letter to jazz and classic musicals of the 50's and 60's at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

La La Land

Worked on writing for a while after the movie ended. The kindly old woman is Mother Nature. She knew Kathleen was going to come. She knows everything about the happenings on Earth. She also knows Kathleen is the only person who knows what Lady Jacqueline is up to, and thus, the only one who can stop her...

Broke for dinner at Match Game '77 at 7:30. Tom Poston, later of Newhart, and Mary Anne Mobley turned up in this episode. Betty ribs Richard in the opening for his crush on then-newscaster Connie Chung. Richard reminds Gene that while Gene is happily married, Richard himself was then single.

Finished the night with recently acquired jazz albums in honor of La La Land while I worked on writing that review. I'm so fond of Ray Conniff's bouncy version of "Younger Than Springtime" on my two Columbia spring records, I thought I'd try a full album with his orchestra. S'Marvelous is a collection of standards from not only the Gershwins, but also Jerome Kern, Rogers and Hart, and Cole Porter. We also get a nice version of the big band standard "Moonlight Serenade" and the then-film hit "Be My Love."

Stan Kenton is probably closer to what most people think of when they hear "traditional jazz." Back to Balboa has some lovely bluesy or rollicking songs that work with the island in southern California that give this album its name. "Rendezvous at Sunset" and "Out of This World" are especially lovely.

The Modern Jazz Quartet was known for their elegant, restrained sound, and we get that in The Modern Jazz Quartet Plays for Lovers. Their version of the classic ballad "All the Things You Are" in the opening is a delight. I also liked "All of You" and a medley of Gershwin songs on side 2.

(Oh, and it did finally start raining around 6 PM. It's been showering off and on since.)

Springtime Games

I slept so late, it was noon before I finally finished with my journal and got going. Started off with breakfast and Paw Patrol. The pups are excited about a major rock star doing a show at Adventure Bay, and Mayor Goodway is ecstatic! They're more than happy to help when a hurricane destroys the stage and strands the singer beyond the bridge. "The Pups Save the Woolf and Roll Show" when Rubble and Marshall go onstage to stall for time. Mayor Goodway is horrified when her chicken Chicaletta is accidentally knocked into a ravine, and it looks like a mother eagle wants her for a snack. "The Pups Save an Eagle" when they rescue Chicaletta and find out why the eagle can't get food for her baby.

Switched to Press Your Luck next while I made my bed. The guys couldn't catch a break here. They kept getting hit with Whammys, including one who lost a car. He hit a Whammy on his last turn, allowing the one woman to pick up trips to Hawaii and Acapulco. 

Let it run into Split Second while I took the laundry downstairs and went through clothes I was thinking about getting rid of. The lady champion just kept winning here. She barely got the first one, then turned down the vacation to make one last try at that car. She was second to the other woman going into the Countdown Round, but she came from behind to win the car outright.

Put the laundry in the dryer while Mickey Mouse Clubhouse was on. Coco the Monkey asks Goofy, Mickey, and Pluto to help pick up coconuts for "Coco's Coconutty Party." They follow a trail of tiny footprints through the jungle, helped along the way by their friends whom they end up inviting to the party, too.

Brought the laundry upstairs and put it away while watching Let's Make a Deal. This one began well, with everyone getting something from the opening deal. Two clowns and a lady went up for the Big Deal of the Day. No one got the deal, but the clowns got a high-end stereo, and the lady got money.

(Oh, and I saw the ads for Buzzr's next marathon during Deal. They've been hinting around online about doing something Price Is Right-related for their annual National Game Show Day marathons in June for at least two weeks. Not only are they celebrating with previously-unseen episodes all month, but the much-requested Bob Barker Price is finally making its way to Buzzr. No wonder we've barely gotten anything new from them since mid-April. I'm guessing the Barker Price will pick up from where the 24 hour Pluto/Roku channel leaves off, likely in the mid-80's right before Johnny Olsen's death.)

Caught most of Super Password while getting organized and having lunch. Richard Moll played with Florence Halop in 1986 to plug the new season of Night Court. Alas, it would prove to be one of Halop's final appearances on television outside of the series. She died just a few months after these episodes aired. At least they played really well, with the contestants and off each other.

Headed out after that to run some brief errands. Dropped a bag of clothes I didn't want, mainly shirts, in the bin behind Dollar General. I ran into one of my old neighbors from Hillcrest inside. At least, from what she says, the people who bought Dad's house are really nice. They apparently take care of the house and have kids who enjoy the pool. I can't bring myself to go back over there, though. It wouldn't be the same.

While I'm no longer angry with Rose over what happened in 2021 and early 2022, I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive my stepmother Jodie for her ridiculous and immature behavior. All she did was talk behind my back and Rose's and whine about how no one was respecting her feelings. What about me? The one who had no convenient aunt or husband to run to. The one who had no home of her own and nowhere to go. The one who actually got hurt. What about my feelings? If Jodie calls, I'll talk to her, but I won't be visiting her or initiating contact myself again. 

At least it was a nice day for a quick outing. The sun was out, the sky was blue, and it felt more like a normal day in mid-May, breezy and in the lower 70's without a hint of humidity. I took a longer way across the neighborhood and past the book kiosk down the block going home, passing several dog walkers and kids on their way home from school.

Put on Vega$ after I got in. Dan and Phyllis are horrified when they almost literally run into a teenage girl who appears to have been battered. Her high school counselor (John Fielder) won't give out information, and the girl isn't talking, either. Dan is furious when he discovers someone blackmailing young girls at the school into working as prostitutes for him. A huge convention in Vegas has made a "Demand and Supply" for comely young ladies. He literally puts himself in the line of fire to make sure no other girls get hurt, or worse, after one of their clients end up dead.

Worked on job searching next. Checked The Sun Newspapers and Comcast. I can't find the job section at Sun, and Comcast doesn't really seem to have anything along the lines of what I'm looking for in Philadelphia at the moment.

Worked on writing next. Kathleen is surprised when the rabbit leads her to a kindly older woman. It's Mother Nature herself. She knows all, sees all. She knows why Kathleen is there, and what she wants. She also knows who the rabbit is...

Broke for dinner and Match Game '77 at 7 PM. David "Bosley" Doye made his first appearance in these episodes. He was an old drinking buddy of Brett's, and while he wasn't the best player, he always seemed to enjoy himself. He certainly had fun this week, including watching Gene joke that Richard's military-style shirt made him a member of the Nerdocrumbesian Army.

Finished the night on YouTube after a shower with popular panel game shows. Shows with celebrity panelists trying to guess something about a contestant or help them figure out a question go back a long way on television. Actually, they started on radio with the informal talk/panel show Information Please. That talk-heavy show didn't translate well to the visual TV medium, but other panel shows became the biggest hits of TV's formative years. What's My Line was one of the earliest panel shows to be a hit. An elegant four-person panel tries to guess a contestant's unusual occupation. It ran for 17 years and would prove to be so popular, it would be revived in syndication as a slightly less-formal affair in 1968.

What's My Line was such a hit, it spawned many imitations, including from its creators Goodson-Todman. The Name's the Same had the panel trying to figure out how two people with a famous name were connected, or what famous name the person had. Despite running for five years, this was a little too complicated. Robert Q. Lewis had early fame as the host here; this would also be some of the earliest TV exposure for Gene Rayburn.

Hollywood Squares and Match Game are two more long-runner panel show champs. They both began in the 60's, but while Match Game was a more staid affair for the first two years or so of its existence, Squares was raunchy from the start. The more familiar 70's revival of Match Game has two contestants trying to match slightly liquor-fueled answers to goofy questions from a six-person celebrity panel. The contestants in Hollywood Squares try to figure out whether the folks on a 9-person panel are bluffing or telling the truth. 

I fell in love with the late 90's-early 2000's version of Squares during college. I used to flip back and forth between that and Jeopardy, then stick around ABC for Wheel of Fortune. I vaguely remember the 80's syndicated Match Game, but thankfully (unlike Squares), the vast majority of it survives and is easily found on Buzzr, GSN, and YouTube. I have one of the Tom Bergeron-hosted Squares episodes with Whoopi Goldberg here, along with two Match Game shows from its CBS 70's and nighttime syndicated runs.

Panel games largely vanished in the 1980's and early 90's. They were often too slow-moving, and the celebrities were out of the budget of many shows. One of the few new attempts at a panel show in the 80's was Battlestars. Heatter-Quigley tried this Squares imitation twice in 1982 and 1983, with the wisecracking celebrities in connected triangles instead of squares. Alex Trebek is the host. I have the debut of the revived Battlestars here, with Vicki Lawrence, Jm J. Bullock, and Debbie Reynolds among the panelists.

Wordplay was another good panel show from the 80's. Three panelists help two contestants try to figure out which description of a word is the accurate one. This show was a blast to watch, and Tom Kennedy seemed to really have fun hosting it. It only lasted a year, and I don't think NBC gave it a fair shake. 

There was a minor panel game revival in the late 90's as game shows in general began to make a comeback. Along with the Berganon Squares, Nickelodeon got into panel shows with Figure It Out. Basically, this is Junior I've Got a Secret with slime. Four Nickelodeon celebrities try to figure out what a kid's unusual talent is. Summer Sanders is an adorable host, and both contestants and panelists seem to be very much enjoying themselves. It was so well-remembered, Nick briefly revived it in 2012.

See if you can guess these questions before the celebrity panel does in these hilarious and thoughtful episodes!

The Name's the Same (1954)

What's My Line Syndicated (1970)

Match Game (1976)

Match Game PM (1980)

The New Battlestars Premiere (1983)

Wordplay (1987)

Figure It Out (1997) 

Hollywood Squares (2000)

Of Mothers and Matches

Began the morning with a quick breakfast and one of the many CDs I've picked up recently. Live at the World Cafe has long been a nonprofit venue for local indie bands in the Philly and South Jersey area to get exposure, and it's one of the long-running shows on NPR radio station WXPN. Research reveals that they started releasing CDs based on the series in 1997 and continued to through at least 2019. The only name I recognized is Suzanne Vega, but considering I picked up the CD for free, I was willing to try something different. Along with Vega's "Frank & Eva," other decent numbers include Iron & Wine's "Boy With a Coin," "She Tried to Hold Me" by the Waterboys, and "On Peak Hill" by Stars.

Headed off to work as the CD ended. Though the streets were wet and it was cold and windy, it wasn't raining. I figured I'd be fine taking my bike to work, and I was. It remained cloudy and cold all day, but other than some very mild spitting around noon, it hasn't rained again. 

It wasn't bad at the Acme when I arrived or when I left. People started coming out of church around 11:30-12 to pick up flowers and a nice dinner for Mom. Fortunately, we had plenty of help. There were two people in the floral department and two baggers all day. I did returns, pushed carts, wiped up water dripped and spilled from all those bouquets being bought in the floral department, and helped consolidate buckets of flowers as they emptied. Texted Mom to wish her a Happy Mother's Day during lunch. 

I was so thirsty after work, I thought I'd pick up a treat. Stopped at Common Grounds Coffee for an iced tea. Thought I'd try "Very Berry Matcha," a matcha tea drink with strawberry syrup topped with freeze-dried strawberries. Oooh, yum! Sweet and earthy and just enough berry flavor. The small Very Berry Matcha donut wasn't bad, either.

Changed when I got home and listened to more of my recent CD finds. Since I have a ton of Frank Sinatra, I thought I'd branch out and pick up music from some of the other Rat Pack members. Dean Martin's specialties were laid-back ballads and Italian-flavored dance tunes. I heard a lot of him in college after his lounge-y style made him popular during the neo-swing revival of the late 90's - early 2000's. "Ain't That a Kick In the Head" has always been my favorite from him, though I think the songs most associated with him today are "That's Amore" and "You're Nobody 'Till Somebody Loves You." Other familiar songs here include "Everybody Loves Somebody," "Just In Time," and "Mambo Italiano." 

The Flamingos were one of the earliest popular R&B groups. "Golden Teardrops" was their first major hit. Today, they're probably best-remembered for their heartfelt covers of "Goodnight Sweetheart" and "I Only Have Eyes for You." Other good songs from the early era of rock include "That's My Desire," "Lovers Never Say Goodbye," and another decent cover, "Love Walked In." 

Worked on writing for a while. The rabbit leads Kathleen to a little cottage built into the side of a tree. It turns out to belong to an older woman who was out gathering fruit and vegetables. The lady recognizes Kathleen's bunny friend...and Kathleen herself...

Finished the night with dinner and the Match Game Mother's Day marathon. Mothers abounded on this show, from women like Bonnie Franklin of One Day at a Time and Esther Rolle of Good Times who played them on TV to the real mothers among the panelists and contestants. Jo Ann Pflug and Patti Deustch appeared on the show while pregnant. Patti's son Max and Gary Burghoff's daughter Gina appeared in Gene's arms to open a 1978 episode. This one also featured another TV mom, Hope Lange of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. Elaine Joyce's darling daughter Taylor Van came onstage to show off her Polish dance costume during a syndicated episode. Brett proudly boasted about her pretty twentysomething daughter Leslie in the audience (who looked exactly like a redheaded version of her mother). 

Possibly the most memorable episode featuring a mother was the 1978 episode from the week with Joe Garagiola. The male contestant's pregnant wife was in the audience...despite having gone into labor. The contestant and his wife were pretty much the only people in the studio who weren't nervous about this! Gene and the panelists tried to rush the game along in order to get that mom-to-be to the hospital faster, which led to some pretty strange answers, even for this show. A few weeks later, the couple sent an announcement of their beautiful new baby boy to the show. Richard read the details on the air. 

Match the stars with your mom and some of the funniest mothers ever on television!

Match Game Sunday Classics - Mother's Day Marathon

Oh, and Mom called during the first hour of the marathon. She had a nice, quiet Mother's Day. Keefe, Julia, and Aurora went out to brunch with Julia's family. Mom decided she wanted some peace and opted to stay home. Even as she called, Keefe was making his three favorite ladies burgers on the grill. 

Here's hoping you had an equally fun Mother's Day matching with the mothers in your life!

Harvests and Yard Sales

Got a quick start this morning with breakfast and Charlie and Lola. Lola insists "I Like My Hair Completely the Way It Is" and refuses to get it cut. Charlie keeps reminding her that she can have many different styles and it'll keep it from getting in her eyes, but she still won't do it. It isn't until he finds out what she's really afraid of that he manages to convince her it won't be so bad.

Stopped to pump my tires really fast, then headed out to enjoy the Haddon Township Town-Wide Yard Sale. Though we're technically in Oaklyn, the first sale I found was less than a block from where I am. The man had boxes of records in the back of his driveway, many of them new or nearly-new. I ended up buying five for $10 before moving on.

Found nothing else in my immediate area, so I moved on to the Collingswood Farm Market. It opened last weekend, but I worked early and couldn't get there. They were mobbed with people looking for produce for their Mother's Day dinners and food gifts for Mom. I was surprised to encounter apples at the apple orchard seller. I don't usually see apples until late summer. Otherwise, it was mainly strawberries, green beans, radishes, and asparagus. I bought a pint of early strawberries and a soft whole wheat pretzel ring for a treat and moved on.

Spent the next two hours roaming around Westmont and the Bluebird neighborhood between Collingswood and Cuthbert Road looking for yard sales. And oh boy, did I find yard sales! There were yard sales on every street, sometimes three or four on a block. I had an easier time getting around in Westmont than in the Bluebird neighborhood, which was crawling with cars and kids on bikes looking for bargains. And no wonder everyone was out and about. It was a gorgeous day for riding around, sunny, blustery, and blue, probably in the mid-60's. 

The only place I had no luck was a booth in the Bluebird neighborhood. A grandmother was selling off her CD collection, but someone told her CDs were making a comeback. She wanted way too much money for used copies of Fosse and The Book of Mormon. For the price she asked, I could buy them new, or at least get them in better shape at one of the used record stores. I passed. 

Otherwise, I really hit the jackpot. This was the best I've done with a yard sale run in at least five or six years, maybe longer. Now I'm glad I asked for today off so I could enjoy at least one town-wide-yard-sale day. I came up with nine records, four CDs, and three books. The records are:

Benny Goodman and His Orchestra - All Time Greatest Hits (2-disc set)

Frank Sinatra - A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra

Stan Kenton - Back to Balboa

Ray Conniff and His Orchestra - S'Marvelous

 The soundtrack from the wacky 1983 rock spoof Get Crazy

Blues, a collection of songs from blues artists of the 1950's and 60's

Modern New Orleans Masters, a more recent blues collection from 1988.

Count Basie and His Orchestra - The Best of Basie Vol. 2

The Modern Jazz Quartet - The Modern Jazz Quartet Plays for Lovers

(Incidentally, those last five are the ones that came from the house on the next block over from me.) 

The CDs are: 

Live at the World Cafe - Volume 25: Quarter Notes (Found this one still sealed in a pile of free items on a sheet in front of a house!) 

Dean Martin - Dino: The Essential Dean Martin

Two Time-Life classic rock collections from the same estate sale as the Dean Martin CD, both sealed: 

AM Gold -  The 60's Generation

AM Gold - 1968

The books are: 

Stuart Little, by E.B White

Robin Hood, by Howard Pyle

Treasure Island, by Robert Lewis Stevenson

Had lunch at Reunion Hall, a recently-opened bar in Westmont. It calls itself a "multi-concept restaurant/bar," but it looks like your average upscale bar to me, with a lot of heavy wooden tables and skinny metal chairs. I don't know how long they're going to last in bar-laden Westmont. I ended up at the bar with a Diet Coke and water. Their skin-on fries weren't bad, but the cheeseburger was terrible. It was plainly a puck with basic American cheese added. They didn't even have any lettuce or tomatoes. I guess those are extra. It definitely should have at least come with the fries for the price I paid. 

Primo's Water Ice further down Haddon Avenue was much better. This local ice cream chain carries unique ice cream and water ice flavors and is wildly popular with Westmont kids on their way home from school or sports. In fact, I passed a girl in a Little League softball uniform and her mother enjoying their treats as I went in to get mine. I ended up with a kids' sized cup of Churro water ice. Yum. Sweet and creamy, with just a hint of cinnamon.

I didn't have much cash left after I had my water ice, so I headed for home. Cuthbert Road was busy even for them on a Saturday. I couldn't figure out why as I dodged traffic until I passed the Haddon Township High School. From what I could see, they were having a huge track meet with the Cherry Hill High Schools. The high school grounds were packed. I actually took Haddon Avenue and the back roads home, since I figured the kids would be practicing and running in the park.

After I got home, I changed and went straight into the 1993 Bette Midler Gypsy on Amazon Prime for Mother's Day. I go further into this TV retelling of the beloved Broadway show at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Happy Mother's Day! - Gypsy (1993)

Took an early shower, then worked on writing for a while. Kathleen is surprised to to see how green and beautiful everything is in the tree. She's even more surprised to encounter a lovely older woman who calls herself Mother Nature and seems to know the rabbit intimately...

Finished the night with dinner and tonight's Match Game Classics marathon. Oscar-winner Patty Duke was possibly the most famous star to appear on Match Game during its 70's-early 80's heyday. She began in early 1975 and would continue as a semi-regular through the end of the syndicated run in 1982. Though she could sometimes seem a little lethargic, due to her ongoing battle with bipolar disorder, she generally seemed to have a lot of fun and was one of the more enjoyable ladies to sit in the fourth seat. 

She really loved the time Gene let her read a question in 1977. She got so into it, I'm surprised Gene never let her do something like that again. She saw Charles be the only one to get the Audience Match "Kris __" right in 1976 and was around for the PM episode where Richard gave the winner a huge kiss, only for Gene to try to yank her back. Rich pulled at her arm, and it ended up in a tug of war until she pulled away, claiming that her arms were now longer than they were when she came! 

Patty was one of the few women to sit in all three seats. Though she was usually in the fourth "ingenue" seat in the 70's, by 1979, she'd graduated to the sixth "comedienne" seat. She was on that goofy week in '79 with Bert Convy, Robert Walden, and Audrey Landers. She encouraged Charlene Tilton to show off her barely-there dress in 1980 and protested short jokes when she, Bill Daily, and Charlene weren't exactly tall. She got a brief chance to sit in Brett's seat when she was out doing a play in 1981. A man struck out with "The Royal ___" in the Audience Match later that year by taking his own answer that made a lot less sense than the panelists'.

It's double your pleasure, double your comedy with both sides of this much-loved award winner!

Match Game Saturday Classics - Patty Duke Astin Top Episodes

Flowers On a Rainy Day

Began a gloomy morning with breakfast and the last of the new Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood episodes to debut this week. It's "Pizza Day at School." Dan is delighted when Prince Wednesday is his pizza buddy, but not when he wants peppers on his pie and Wednesday wants broccoli. Teacher Harriet reminds him that it's not only ok to want different things, but you should ask your friends what they like, too. "Daniel and Jodi Like Different Things" when they're at the beach. Daniel doesn't like Jodi squeezing water on him, and Jodi's little brother Leo doesn't want sand in his toes.

Switched to The Busy World of Richard Scarry while I got ready for work. Officer Flo is "Sergeant Murphy's Deputy," who is assigned to help him when he's overworked. Flo reminds me a lot of a fox Judy Hopps. She's just as overzealous about solving cases and handing out tickets, including when she's supposed to be directing traffic. Sergeant Murphy reminds her that her real job is to help the community. "Couscous In the Sahara" finds himself chasing Pepe and his Dirty Rats again. He finally finds a way to corner them while searching for treasure in a pyramid. Mrs. Cat wants Huckle to bring cookies to "The New Kid On the Block," but he drops them on the way there. He's happier to play with Cassie, whom he saw across the street...but she does seem awfully new...

Even as Busy World ended, the rain continued to fall. It was a light shower, cold and windy. This was no day for riding the bike. I called Uber. The driver originally said he would arrive in 5 minutes. I waited for six minutes, then seven. Nothing. When I checked Uber, it turns out the guy canceled a minute before he was supposed to pick me up. Great. Not only did the next driver I got take longer to get there, but I barely got to work on time. Getting home was no picnic, either. He took 12 minutes and was late. Of course, by that point, it was also rush hour, and still showering (though lighter than earlier).

Helping out in the floral department wasn't much fun, either. One of the floral department managers called out, and the other was frantic. She said she wanted me to learn how to do everything right and quickly, but whether it was putting mini-bouquets in a wooden rolling shelf or carrying vases of arrangements out to the displays, I just couldn't seem to do it the way she wanted it done. And all throughout the day, people kept poking their heads in, asking for bouquets in fancy wrapping or huge arrangements. Even the arrangements I did make didn't have enough filler in them. The head manager had to help load rose bouquets into buckets! It was a mess. We weren't even all that busy.

At least I was able to get some grocery shopping done after work. Had online coupons for Made Good granola bars and buy one, get one BodyArmor drinks. Restocked oranges, coconut milk, and yogurt. Found a tray of mini-cookies on the clearance rack I thought I'd try. Needed money for the Haddon Township Town-Wide Yard Sale and the Collingswood Farm Market tomorrow, too.

Got my schedule, too. In good news, three days off. They're all early days again, though, and no floral department work. The head bagger wanted next Friday and Saturday off, so no Farm Market or yard sales next week.  

Finished Flash Gordon when I got home, then worked on writing. Kathleen walks through the old hollow tree, and into a warm and sunny glen. She's surprised when the rabbit leads her right to a charming little cottage owned by a kindly older woman...

Broke for dinner and Match Game '77 at 7 PM. The champ was very pretty, but she didn't show much sense in the Audience Match. She chose the least likely answer to "__ Brains," possibly because Richard said it. Marcia Wallace, Lee Merriweather, and comedian David Lansburg were among those with better answers. She did better in the next episode watching Marcia tell Gene he's "semi-irresistible" and with her answer as to what's the only exercise a heavy drinker gets.

Finished the night at Shout! TV with Mystery Science Theater 3000. Outlaw of Gor is one of the last of the sword and sorcery barbarian movies that were popular throughout the 80's. At least the premise is genuinely interesting. Ordinary guy Professor Tarl Cabot (Urbano Barberini) and his dorky buddy Watney (Russel Savadier) are thrown back to a barbarian-like kingdom in another dimension. Cabot has already had adventures here, including falling in love with Princess Talena (Rebecca Ferrati). Her father, King Marlenus (Larry Taylor), married the scheming Lara (Donna Denton), who has partnered with his bishop Xenos (Jack Palance) to take over the throne. She kills Marlenus and frames Cabot. Cabot and his diminutive friend Hup (Nigel Chipps) flee into the desert, rescuing a girl (Michelle Clarke) from slavery. Meanwhile, Xenos and Lara aren't exactly getting along, as they plot to take each other out and Lara hires a "hunter" (Tulio Moneta) to find Cabot.

I love the idea of dropping a normal guy and his geek buddy in Conan the Barbarian...but unfortunately, this is a Cannon Group production. Watney barely figures into the first half and the last ten minutes and turns on his buddy pretty quickly. The production values range from cheesy to absurd; some of the rock formations in the desert are obviously paper mache, for instance. Palance looks like he's sleepwalking through his role, too. It's a shame, because there's some interesting ideas and things that do work, including the incident with the slave group and Denton as the ambitious and evil Lara, along with an unusually lush and epic score for a Cannon movie. Worth checking out once if you're a fan of 80's sword and sorcery fantasy, with or without robot wisecracks.

The Long and Winding Road

Began the morning with breakfast and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. "Mickey's Show and Tell" will have each member of the crew showing off their favorite shapes. Martian Mickey arrives with his moving shape pets. After Donald accidentally scares the pets into running away, the rest of the gang has to chase after them while showing off their favorite shapes.

Karen picked me up promptly at 10 AM. I got a text from Bear Paddle Swim School late yesterday. They want to interview me for their job as Front Desk Receptionist! Now I just need to get my schedule tomorrow, so I can tell them when I can take that interview. We also applied for secretarial jobs at Seahawk Services, a marine supply store in Paulsboro, and the Deptford Center health offices.

She was kind enough to drop me off at Sprouts, so I could get some grocery shopping done before the weather got ugly. Honeycrisp apples were $1.77 a pound. Grabbed more Annie's Organic Granola Bars, too, and an orange. (I thought I was out of oranges, but I do have one left for tomorrow.) Found peanut butter cookies on the bakery clearance rack.

Headed to Target next before the high schoolers got off for lunch. Mainly needed to restock my fish oil vitamins here. Picked up thin pads too; had online coupons for disinfectant wipes and Made Good granola bars. 

Had lunch at the Westmont Bagel Shop after I got out of Target. I was greeted by a long line. Thankfully, they were either large groups, or were picking up orders. I was quickly able to get my egg white and vegetable omelet with provolone cheese and Blueberry French Toast bagel. Enjoyed them while listening to 70's and 80's hits on their intercom. 

I originally planned on taking Uber home. It was cloudy, humid, and a bit cooler when I got up this morning. Since it wasn't raining, or even windy, I walked back to Oaklyn. There were a couple of people also out for strolls that I had to dodge on Cuthbert Road. Even the kids at Jennings Elementary a block from Cuthbert were running around their school garden and playground, enjoying the unexpected weather.

Soon as I got back, I put everything upstairs, then went back out again. I mainly wanted to drop my Mother's Day card and gift card for Mom at the post office. Dollar General is a block from there, so I went that way next. Picked up pads for a better price than Target had them and a Coke Zero.

Took out the recycling, then went upstairs to watch Split Second. A young man who had gotten into a car accident less than an hour after getting his license really wanted a vehicle of his own. He won the first episode with no trouble, but missed the car. He was beaten in the second episode by a woman who managed to hold off her attacker in New York before he really hurt her. She just barely beat the kid in the regular and Countdown rounds, but also didn't get the car and opted to return.

I tried to take a nap after that, but despite it not being that hot, it was still really humid. Everything stuck to me. I finally gave up and watched Let It Be on Disney Plus instead. I go further into this documentary on the Beatles' last album and performance as a group at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Musical Documentaries - Let It Be

Since I just finished Let It Be, I listened to the second disc from The Beatles 1967-1970 (aka The Blue Album) for even more songs from this era. Frankly, I prefer the later, more mature Beatles from Revolver onwards to the earlier, less polished work, and these songs are a good example of why. Along with cuts from The White Album, Abbey Road, and Let It Be, we have singles that weren't collected on any other album at the time. John's catchy and frustrated "Ballad of John and Yoko" is my favorite of these. I also like "Get Back," "Don't Let Me Down," and the title song from Let It Be. 

Had a small dinner while watching Match Game '77. Polly Holiday of Alice and Fannie Flagg joined in for this southern-fried week. Charles is nervous when the contestant wants him to do "__ Tubes" for the Head-to-Head, but he's a lot better at that than he gives himself credit for.

Finished the night with the last of my recent record acquisitions. Orson Welles played The Shadow for the first two years of its 17 year run on radio. Ironically, considering he didn't have much to do with the actual show, I tend to find his episodes the most. "The Message from the Hill" and "Murders In Wax" are from the second season of his run, when Margot Stevenson briefly took over as his Margo Lane. 

Superman seems to be a kids' recording of Superman stories from the mid-late 70's, just prior to the 1978 film changing a lot of people's idea of the Man of Steel. The stories feature very little violence, and are mostly Superman scolding or directing some wayward character out of trouble (though The Mole is the villain in the slightly-more violent "P.O Box 65"). "The Mystery of the Mad Minnows" in particular gets a little too heavily into its environmental message as Superman finds out how giant sea creatures turned up at polluted Crystal Beach. These stories are as disco-era as you can get. Clark, Jimmy, and Lois even work at something called "Galaxy Broadcasting," rather than the Daily Planet. 

Oh, and it did finally rain, and rain hard...around midnight-1 AM, when I was long at home and chatting with Lauren. 

Hot for Adventure

Began my morning with breakfast and more new Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. Daniel doesn't think a walk in the neighborhood sounds like much fun. "Daniel's Surprising Day" shows our neighborhoods have a lot more surprises around than we think. "Daniel Makes a Surprise" when he and his father decorate rocks for their other neighbors to find and he gives a sick Jodi Platypus a heart-shaped rock he found and decorated.

Headed off to work after that. We were far less busy this morning than we have been. We're past the beginning of the month now, and the weather wound up once again being hot and sunny. I was late doing the 11 AM sweeping because I had to put away cold items someone didn't want. Otherwise, I spent the morning sweeping and pushing carts on a warm and very humid day.

Went straight home after work and into snacks and Let's Make a Deal. Monty started off with letting a cowgirl choose which wallet had a dollar bill. If she could find a dollar, she would go to Paris. She didn't find a dollar, but she did pick up some pretty big money. A construction worker threw in his thousand dollars for the Door 4 Wheel...but alas, it didn't work out well for him. A college student dressed as a sultan did better, also winning money. He and the cowgirl traded in their cash for the Big Deal of the Day. The cowgirl and her cute cowboy boyfriend ended up with some really nice living room furniture that cost twice what she gave up, while the sheik ended up with a fancy blue car.

Rested while watching the original Flash Gordon serial from 1936. Polo player Flash (Buster Crabbe) and his girlfriend Dale Arden (Jean Rogers) join scientist Dr. Alexis Zarkov (Frank Shannon) to figure out why the planet Mongo is on a collision course with the Earth. They run headlong into the evil dictator Ming the Merciless (Charles B. Middleton), who wants to marry Dale and force Flash to fight in his arena. Ming's daughter Aura (Priscilla Lawson) falls for Flash and manages to get him out of several tight situations. Flash does rescue Dale, but even when they flee into Mongo, they discover most of its residents aren't exactly friendly. There's also Aura, who loves Flash, and Prince Barin (Richard Alexander), who is leading a rebellion against Ming. 

Cheesy good fun, this is the ancestor of everything from Star Wars to sci-fi TV shows like Babylon 5. Middleton steals the show as the scenery-chewing galactic villain. Yeah, the special effects definitely show their age, and neither Dale nor Flash are really all that interesting. That doesn't stop this from being enjoyably campy. Your mileage may vary, depending on how goofy you want your space opera to be. 

Applied to a secretarial job for a marine supply store in Paulsboro, then had dinner while watching Match Game '77. Gene got Ira to change his views on one of Brett's answers early on. Later on, there's some debate about which Pole penguins can be found at. (They never seemed to get the hint that they're at the South Pole, not the North.)

Finished the night online watching Danger: Diobolik at Kanopy. Diobolik (John Philip Law) is a master thief pursued by Inspector Ginko (Michel Piccoli). He steals ten million from a bank right under the Inspector's nose, then literally sleeps in it with his lover Eva (Marisa Mell). Ginko enlists gangster Valmont (Adolfo Celi) to help bring Diobolik down, then captures Eva. No matter what he does, Diobolik finds a way out, even faking his own death. The Minister of Finance (Terry-Thomas) desperately sends gold out to mint into money for the country. Diobolik finds a way to get that too, but it literally blows up in his face in the end...or does it?

This Italian-American co-production is about as psychedelic as you can get. From the bold costumes to the increasingly weird action sequences to Law's performances as the eternally cool and collected master thief, this one screams 1968 at the top of its lungs. I think it's supposed to be a spoof of the James Bond movies and Batman, but it's a little darker than either of those, with its weird anti-villain fighting against bland cops. Even with his short screen time, Celi does come off slightly better than he did earlier in Thunderball, while Mell does just fine as Diobolik's lover. Worth checking out if you want to see a truly unique action film from the 60's or are into the mid-late 60's Bond imitations. 

Here Comes the Sun

Began the morning with breakfast and one of the three new Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood episodes that debuted this week. "Daniel and Miss Elaina Put Their Things Away" when Elaina can't find her mitten to go outside and Daniel loses his toy trolley. Lady Elaine and Mrs. Tiger remind the kids that when they put their things away, they can find them again. Likewise, "Daniel and Prince Wednesday Put Their Things Away" after Prince Wednesday leaves the comic book his brother Tuesday made him outside and it gets wet.

Switched to Help! after Daniel ended in honor of Disney Plus putting out Let It Be tomorrow for the first time since the 1980's. I went further into their second movie, a wacky comedy about Ringo being chased by an Indian cult that wants to sacrifice him, at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Help!

Did a little writing while the movie was on. Kathleen tells the rabbit that they're going to need shelter, and fast. The snow is getting worse. The rabbit leads her to a gnarled old tree in the middle of the woods. She protests that she can't fit in the roots...until the rabbit presses a knot in the bark and leads her through a door into a very different world...

Broke for lunch at 1 PM. Split Second was a very close game! The young man tied with yesterday's champ when I got upstairs. It came down to the Countdown Round, where she managed to get all the answers for one question at once. She didn't get the car and once again opted to return.

Headed off to work after that. Once again, I wish I hadn't. Although work wasn't as busy today, probably due to the sunny and hot weather, there was a lot going on. Displays were lined up in the frozen aisles on unused registers, due the floor having just been polished. The head bagger got called to work the self-checkout lines, so I had no help. I was told to clean the men's bathrooms because there was a problem. There was no problem. Someone forgot to flush. I got into trouble for accidentally signing the sweep in twice. I couldn't remember if I did it the first time or not. They're very strict about how the sweeps are signed in and when. 

Needless to say, I rushed home fast as I could after that. Took out the trash, then went straight in the shower. Had leftovers for dinner while watching Match Game '77. One of the men in the audience claimed he'd give them $100 to be able to kiss Eva Gabor. He got his kiss...then admitted he only had 10! Gene called him one of the great con artists. 

Finished the night working on my review for Help! and listening to more of the records I've acquired lately. The Robber Bridegroom was a country musical based on a novela by Eudora Welty. It was on Broadway twice in 1975 and 1976; the recording is based on the '76 version. Jamie Lockhart, the Robin-Hood like title character, is a bandit in 17th century Mississippi who poses as a landowner after he rescues the wealthiest man in the county from far more incompetent thieves. Clement Musgrove hopes he'll marry his pretty daughter Rosamund. Rosamund, however, is enamored by the bandit after he steals her dress. Jamie would love to have her for a sweetheart, but he's not that interested in marriage. Meanwhile, Rosamund's scheming stepmother Salome just wants her out of her hair for good.

I love fairy tales, and while I'm not the biggest fan of country music, I did enjoy this. Jamie has two enjoyable numbers, "Steal With Style" that explains his way of taking riches from unsuspecting rich folk, and the ballad "Love Stolen." Rosamund's best number is "Nothin' Up" as she complains of the work she has to do when Salome sends her to gather herbs. Salome has fun with her "The Pricklethorn Pear." 

Though neither of the Broadway versions ran for more than two months, I have heard this tends to do better in regional stagings. If you're a country fan or love fairy tales like I do, the cast album is worth hearing once for some decent songs and robust performances. 

Bernadette Peters' self-titled album is from 1980...and boy, is it obviously from the tail-end of the disco era. Songs like "Heartquake" and "Chico's Girl" definitely have a disco beat to them, with lots of synthesizers and dance beats. Some of the songs on side two have dated a little better, including a rather nice version of "You'll Never Know." 

Mothers and Games

Slept in this morning, then started Game of Cones. Didn't get moving and having breakfast until 11:30. I was delighted to find Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics on Tubi. This is an old favorite of mine from when it ran on the USA Cartoon Express in the late 80's-early 90's. Various Hanna Barbara characters compete in sports real and invented in locations around the world. The Scooby Doobies team is made up of characters from the mystery solving kids shows (and for some reason, Hong Kong Phooey). The Yogi Yahooeys is made up of all of the Hanna Barbara funny animals created to that point. You can probably guess that the Really Rottens are villains, either from shows, based after characters from shows, or created for Laff-a-Lympics. 

The very first episode kicks off in the Swiss Alps. Scooby is the big winner in skiing, though Huckleberry Hound has his own unique way down the slopes. The Really Rottens try to burrow their way through the bobsledding course, but going under the finish line ends up backfiring on them. Yogi has one of the most creative ice skating routines I've ever seen in the first half finale. The second half moves to Japan for sumo wrestling. Grape Ape naturally has an advantage against Shaggy Rogers, but Quick Draw McGraw's old nemesis the Dalton Brothers have their own way of dealing with the ape. And no one is going to argue with Captain Caveman, whose club can get past any cheating by the Baron on the baseball batting contest!

(Incidentally, I always rooted for the Yogis as a kid. Rose usually rooted for the Scoobys, which left the Rottens for Anny.)

I was about to go outside when I first realized it was a lot warmer than it has been for the past few days, and there was a package on the porch for me. Yay, Ariel's new School Outfit arrived! Considering how many people complain about the cost of American Girl items and how cheap the accessories are, the outfit was actually quite well-made. The light purple clogs have real rubber soles. The vest looks like it was really crocheted (though it does velcro in the back). If the turtleneck and skirt are polyester, that actually goes with the time period. Even the lavender tights are a good weight. It's too warm for Ariel to wear it now, but she'll try it on in September or October for back to school. 

Really did make it out around noon. Headed to Family Dollar first. I wanted to get my Mother's Day card and gift card for Mom early. I'm sending it to Virginia, and I want it to get there well before Sunday. Chose my card, found just the right gift card, bought them, and was on my way.

Kept going down the White Horse Pike to WaWa. After all the trouble yesterday, I deserved a treat. Ended up trying a tropical smoothie made from pineapple, dragon fruit, banana, and mango. Oh, yum. Fruity, tangy, and unlike some of the cream smoothies, only slightly too sweet. I sipped my smoothie all the way home. I forgot the book I was going to drop in one of the kiosks, so once I got home, I put my drink upstairs, grabbed the book, and managed to fit it on the top with a big pile of hardback thrillers.

At least the weather attempted to cooperate. It was much warmer and more humid today. If it ever rained, it didn't do it while I was outside. It was sort-of sunny and breezy for pretty much the entire day.

Took the laundry downstairs, then spent the next few hours working on a schedule for my vacation with Lauren next month. We're taking two weeks this time, which means we can spread things out more than we normally would. We can take a whole day for antiquing in Barrington and Haddon Heights, instead of squeezing that in with the Deptford Mall trip, and a whole day in Woodbury. I want to show her the Berlin Farmers Market and Flea Market. There's a new small-scale Macy's that replaced the Bed Bath and Beyond in Cherry Hill I'm dying to check out, too.

Listened to CDs while I worked to whittle down that huge pile I've acquired lately. Jump n' Jive (made for Bed Bath and Beyond, of all places) is a collection of swing and big band music from 1998, likely released for the neo-swing fad. Of the songs I didn't already have, I really loved "Jump, Jive, n' Wail" by Louis Prima, "Caldonia" by Woody Herman and His Orchestra, and "Swingin' the Blues" by the Count Basie Orchestra. 

Judy Garland & Liza Minnelli Together is apparently the first concert mother and daughter did as a pair in 1964...and boy, are those two electrifying! They open with a terrific "Together Wherever We Go" and end with "He's Got the Whole World In His Hands." In addition to "Over the Rainbow" and "The Man That Got Away," Judy is heard singing "What Now My Love," while Eliza gets "Gypsy In My Soul." 

Jazz chanteuse Diana Krall also benefited from the neo-swing fad of the late 90's. Love Scenes, featuring romantic standards and her own compositions, is one of her earliest albums. Her career took off in that era, her smoky voice perfect for throaty jazz ballads like "All or Nothing at All," "They Can't Take That Away From Me," and "I Don't Stand the Ghost of a Chance With You." 

Worked on writing for a while after I finished the vacation schedule and put the laundry in the dryer. Kathleen manages to convince the rabbit to come closer to her. She wishes she could find shelter from the increasing storm. The rabbit hops away after eating her flowers, seemingly leading her somewhere...

Broke for dinner and Match Game '77 at 7 PM. The first episode turned up at YouTube recently for the Meg Bennett Tribute. Richard Dawson threw a fit when his answer of "plastic baggie" wasn't accepted for "bag." He kept his answer up for the rest of the episode, but he didn't get as much support for his riot this time around. 

For some reason, they skipped the next episode and went straight into the next week...but with Nipsey Russell, Patty Duke, and Betty White around, I wasn't complaining. The previous contestant was beaten by a really cute and funny lady who did not like being called old! Charles reads Variety and makes chili and cubed beef jokes, while the others try to figure out "Candlestick __" in the Audience Match.

Brought my laundry upstairs, then on The Love Boat. The crew is excited for their "Chinese Cruise" in the two-part episode that kicks off the seventh season. Doc falls for a pretty young woman (Susan Anton), despite her stance on Western medicine being bunk. A buddy of Gopher's (Lee Horsley) is shocked when the two women he's dating (Erin Moran and Patricia Klous) join him on the cruise. He tries to date both of them...and they plot revenge when they figure it out. A man (Lee Majors) who writes a love column as "Dear Roberta" has a crush on a lovely lady (Linda Evans), but she believes his advice broke up her marriage. In a modern take on the classic movie One Way Passage, an exotic beauty with a heart condition (Ursula Andress) falls for a handsome older man (John Forsythe) who turns out to be a convicted killer on his way to prison. He tries to escape, but can't bring himself to do it and leave her.

Finished the night at YouTube with game shows featuring moms for Mother's Day this weekend. Moms go back a long way on game shows. Unusual moms were frequent subjects for panel shows in the 50's and 60's, as in the episode of To Tell the Truth I have here from its final season in 1967. We see a mother who adopted nine "hard to place" children, many of them refugees from Asian countries. We also get to meet the Hungarian-born Miss USA and a champion high-jumper.

Family Double Dare showed that moms could get as messy as anyone with its wild stunts. The two families are joined in this episode by Jaleel White of Family Matters and Candace Cameron of Full House, who help them answer questions. Jaleel was so enthusiastic, he even got to help out in the Obstacle Course. 

Moms and daughters work together to answer slightly racy questions in an episode of Tattletales from 1984. I especially loved Nedra Volz and her daughter Linda (who looks just like her mother). Florence Henderson mentioned she grew up on a farm as the youngest of 10 kids. No wonder she knew how to handle the Brady Bunch!

Password Plus showcased famous TV mothers several times. Patty Duke hilariously played her then-husband John Astin at least twice on the show, with them getting very competitive over their running score. A few weeks later, we had an all-celebrity week, with Vicki Lawrence and Carol Burnett playing as their characters from Mama's Family, and McLean Stevenson and Joanna Gleason as theirs from the sitcom Hello Larry. 

Moms could get pretty goofy on TV, too. June Lockhart was among the panel answering goofy questions, while the contestants try to figure out how they'll answer in the original late 60's version of Funny You Should Ask. Little Dawn Lyn of My Three Sons tries to find a date for her mom on The Dating Game. Later on, a young man asks the mothers of three attractive young ladies which of their daughters they think should go out with him. 

Celebrate Mother's Day with some of the brightest, bravest, and most outrageous mothers to ever play game shows!

To Tell the Truth (1967)

Funny You Should Ask (1969)

The Dating Game (1972)

Password Plus (1980)

Password Plus (1980)

Tattletales (1984)

Family Double Dare (1990) 

Bad Day Matches

Slept in and finished Steeped In Malice, then had breakfast while doing some writing. Kathleen encourages the rabbitt's trust by giving it the now-wilted flowers she had collected. It stops long enough for her to pet it...and realize that its fur is wavy like a human's, and its eyes are rather human, too...

Listened to In the Heights while I worked. Lin-Manuel Miranda is Usinavi in the original cast of the Broadway show about a hot summer in the largely Dominican neighborhood of Washington Heights in New York. It's more of a slice-of-life tale than a straightforward musical. I think that baffled me when I first heard this back in the late 2000's, but after seeing the excellent 2021 film version, I understand it a little better now. By far my favorite song that didn't make it into the film is "Everything I Know." Nina admits that their Abuelita had been the driving force in many of their lives after she finds boxes with their things at her home in this touching number. 

Hurried off to work just as the second disc ended. Work was a mess from start to finish. I didn't mind helping the floral manager water plants and rush bouquets of roses and spring flowers out to the floor. There was almost nothing left in the floral department when I came in. The only flowers remaining on the shelves and tables were either potted plants or dying. They must have stripped all the bouquets for the area high school proms last night. 

After the Sunday morning bagger left at 3:30, I took over. I wish I hadn't. The carts kept vanishing, no matter how fast I put them out. We were just that busy. It rained lightly when I went to work, but the rain was long gone by 4 PM, and it was just humid and gloomy. I spotted a stack of Coke 24 packs with soda leaking out by the meat department. I think a Dr. Pepper box got knocked off the pile, and the cans broke. Even as I cleaned up, the manager called me three times to do the carts. I hadn't even finished sweeping! In fact, I never did finish sweeping. The second I cleaned up the soda mess, I had to dash back outside, because the carts had disappeared again. 

Rushed straight home fast as I could after that. Took a shower, then finished the night with today's Match Game marathon. Given how wild Match Game can get, it'll probably come as no surprise that many of its episodes now only exist on YouTube and are banned from the actual airwaves. In some cases, it's because of a bad tape, like a 1978 Christmas week episode with Carolyn Jones and Joe Santos. (The Monday episode for the week with Santa Charles and Bretzy La Bratt, in fact.) 

Most episodes, however, aren't shown due to questions and answers that would absolutely never fly today. There were several flat-out gay slurs in a few early shows. Even after Charles Nelson Reilly became a regular later on, a gay stereotype joke or two occasionally slipped in. A Confucius question about whether a man who talks to __ needs help got two episodes banned, one in 1977 and a nighttime show from 1981. Fred Travelena's attempt to give himself slanted eyes in the latter didn't help. Gene's idea of a Native accent on a Tonto/Lone Ranger question in 1976 doesn't sound so hot today, either. 

And sometimes, Gene meant well but couldn't watch his mouth. He made several comments about black panelists like Nipsey Russell and Greg Morris going to the "back of the bus." They handle it well, but it certainly wouldn't be amusing now. Fannie Flagg gave an answer during the Steve Allen week that was so offensive, it was actually censored when the episode came out. Another show from '77 managed to reference the KKK and midgets in one question. (Buzzr is extra-sensitive about midget questions, though they have been better about not skipping or censoring those in the last year or so.) 

See the rarest Match Game episodes of all in this controversial marathon!

Match Game Sunday Classics - Buzzr Banned & Skipped Episodes (Edition 1) 

Matches In the Rain

Started off the morning with a quick breakfast and The Busy World of Richard Scarry. "Ambulance Cake" is the huge strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla cake Mrs. Cat made for the bake sale to earn a new ambulance for Busytown. When the wind blows it over, Huckle, Hilda, Lowly do their best to replace it. Sam and Dudley find themselves embroiled in "The Supermarket Mystery" when the owner asks them to find out who is stealing food from his store. Dudley keeps questioning the wrong suspects dressed as a female pig...but Sam's costume is a little too good and ends with him getting stolen! Bananas is charged with cleaning up Mr. Gronkle's car, but it's "Big Trouble for Bananas Gorilla" when he makes more of a mess than cleaning anything.

Dashed off to work after that. It wasn't busy when I arrived, but by the time I went on my break at 11:30, we had long lines and no carts. I kept getting pulled to do everything else but the carts. I had to sweep and put away unwanted cold items and take the trash in the back and clean the bathrooms. They originally wanted me to shelve other loose items too, but I plain ran out of time. It showered lightly somewhere around noon too, and has continued to rain in one way or another for the rest of the day. 

Went straight home after that. I saw a fair in Oaklyn's municipal parking lot on my way down West Clinton. I suspect it was Tonewood Brewery's annual beer-selling festival, which they usually hold around this time of year.

Went straight upstairs and into job research and The Sword In the Stone when I got home. I go further into this Disney animated retelling of the early years of King Arthur at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog. 

Animation Celebration Saturday - The Sword In the Stone

Listened to classic jazz while I worked on the review. Kind of Blue by Miles Davis is one of the great jazz albums of the mid-20th century and is considered to be a jazz landmark today. I just thought bluesy numbers like "So What" and "All Blues" made for great background music on a gloomy day.

Finished the night at YouTube with the Match Game Saturday Classics marathon. Character actor Robert Walden is best known today as cocky reporter Joe Grissi on the newspaper drama Lou Grant in the late 70's-early 80's and as one of the title characters in the early Showtime sitcom Brothers. I suspect a big part of the reason he was on the show was Charles Nelson Reilly was his friend and mentor; he'd been a student in his acting classes. He also played very well, and was certainly easy on the eyes.

Robert got caught up in some of the most memorable episodes of the later CBS run and the first year of syndication. He was on that wild week with the contestant named Ginger, who gave some of the craziest answers ever on the show. In fact, he was the one who had the dubious honor of trying to match her insane answer to "Cuckoo ___" in the Head-to-Head. According to Match Game 101, everyone laughed so hard, they had to briefly stop taping. Bill Daily remembered that incident well even 40 years later. There was also the series of weird wigs Joyce Bulifant wore that week to distinguish her from the other goofy blonde on the show with a similar name, Elaine Joyce.

He also got to see Patty Duke's name as part of the Audience Match (though misspelled, to her amusement), and he showed off the numbers on a sweater he'd apparently found laying around. A handsome Naval officer went up against a pretty Israeli woman in a PM episode and won on a tie. Marcia Wallace was thrilled to match a not-so-obvious answer for "He's So __" in another memorable Head-to-Head.

Get the full scoop on this disco-era hunk in this "cuckoo" marathon!

Match Game Saturday Classics - Featuring Robert Walden On the Panel

Ain't That a Kick In the Head

I slept in and got so caught up with Steeped In Malice, I had brunch while watching Press Your Luck. The kid from Parsippany just barely got through the first one after the other guy Whammied out. He didn't get so lucky in the second episode. Everyone got hit with Whammies in the first round, but he was the one who Whammied out in the second. The guy who beat him was the only one who didn't get hit with Whammies, and he ended up with cash.

Went online briefly during the second episode to get my schedule. Not as many hours, but they made up for that with only one early day and a floral department day on Friday. In addition to it being prom season, we're getting very close to Mother's Day, too, and then college and high school graduations. I asked for next Saturday off. I wanted to enjoy at least one town-wide yard sale this month. Chose Haddon Township's, which is the closest to me and covers the most ground. 

Hurried out after the episode ended...and then went  back inside briefly to get my jean jacket. It dropped 20 degrees overnight, from the mid-80's to barely the upper 60's, and was cloudy and windy. Maybe it was just as well. It was nice not to sweat to death as I headed down to Cuthbert Road to run errands.

I got a late start, so the local high and middle schoolers were just heading back from lunch as I got there. Fortunately, they're not all that interested in Sprouts. The golden nugget and mandarin oranges were on sale 2 for a dollar this week. I got two of each. Made Good was on sale; got the Cookies n' Cream box and another box of Annie's Organic Oatmeal Cookie. Grabbed coconut milk, too, and sugar cookies that were on clearance. 

Dodged traffic and people out for walks as I rode down Cuthbert to the Westmont Acme. I had a free online coupon for tissues and five dollars off three Secret deodorants, along with a coupon for Kind bars. McIntosh apples were on a good sale, and I only needed four of them. Restocked yogurt and bagels for breakfast and lunch this week, too.

Went down Lakeside Drive, trying not to ride in the park took much and aggravate my allergies again. Rode down to the White Horse Pike first to get lunch from the Pretzel Shop. They were busy almost an hour from closing, but I did get two pretzels, the last stuffed cheesesteak pretzel, and a can of Diet Pepsi. 

One of my three recent orders was waiting for me when I got home. I was looking up more James Bond soundtracks on eBay when I ran across something called The Persuaders! I didn't buy the record, but the show it represented intrigued me. Research reveals that it's a British action spoof from 1971. Tony Curtis is a self-made guy from New York and Roger Moore is a playboy nobleman from London who are brought together by a judge (Lawrence Naismith) to solve cases where the criminal was let off on a technicality. I love Bond-type stuff, so this was right up my alley. (And no wonder there was a soundtrack album. Not only is the music really good, but it was done by frequent Bond collaborator John Barry.) 

Watched the first episode while having lunch. "Overture" brings Danny Wilde (Curtis) and Brett Sinclair (Moore) together after they got into a fight at a restaurant. Judge Fulton (Naismith) will give them three months in jail if they don't help him figure out how a supposedly dead crime boss has seemingly returned to life. They follow his daughter Maria, but then are told she's off-limits. Not that Danny or Brett will listen when there's a pretty girl involved, but this mob may be hard for even them to handle.

Danny finds himself in the thick of their next case when he and his latest lady friend, an artist in the French Riviera, are shot at. He and Brett think he's the target, until they realize that the girl's uncle is the maker of "The Gold Napoleon." The old man is supposed to make copper coin replicas, but he's being forced to mint new ones by criminals. The duo have to expose them and make sure the girl doesn't end up in more trouble.

Went online to do some job hunting next. I finally came up with something. Put in an application for a copywriter and editor at a furniture showroom in Philly...and learned I was turned down for the typist job at Rowan University. Not that I really thought I'd get it to begin with. I need to either figure out jobs I can do that don't involve so many computer skills, or figure out how to upgrade my computer skills as quickly as possible.

Listened to The Age of Television while I worked. This unique LP isn't a collection of music from TV shows. Clips and interviews from people involved with the first twenty years or so of television's history document how the medium evolved into a dominate form of entertainment in a relatively short time. In fact, we kick off with a bit of Neil Armstrong's first words when he landed on the moon. With Arlene Francis as one of the three narrators, it's inevitable that there will be a clip from What's My Line. There's speeches from Johnson, Kennedy, and Eisenhower, kids' shows Ding Dong School, Captain Kangaroo, and Sesame Street, sitcoms I Love Lucy and The Dick Van Dyke Show, Superman, soaps Guiding Light and The Secret Storm, and even a bit of Let's Make a Deal. It's all fascinating stuff if you're into TV history like I am.

Worked on writing next. Kathleen spies one of the rabbits who ate the flowers in her boss' garden earlier, the only one who had stopped and looked back at her. She tries to coax him with the few wilted flowers she has. After a few minutes, it finally works, and the rabbit hops over her. He has large, liquid brown eyes that seem almost human and soft, unusually curly fur for a rabbit...

Broke for dinner and Match Game '77 at 7 PM. The curly-haired guy who owns a ferret just keeps right on winning in this episode. Marcia Wallace is totally flummoxed when he chooses her to do his Head-to-Head, "__ Stomach." The others have more trouble with a question about what the weird guy uses to paint with instead of oil.

Finished the night after a shower with the second Matt Helm film, Murderer's Row, at Tubi. Helm (Dean Martin) fakes his death after several ICE agents are killed around the world. He poses as a gangster to find out who assassinated the agents and kidnapped Dr. Solaris (Richard Eastham) and his heliobeam weapon. He heads to the French Rivera to find out more about him from his wild daughter Suzie (Ann-Margaret), only to be arrested, then taken to the island hide out of Julian Wall. Wall has an incredible plan to destroy Washington D.C and secure world domination, but Solaris is the only hold-out. There's two people standing in his way, dance-crazy Suzie...and Matt Helm.

These Matt Helm movies are darn strange. First of all, Ann-Margaret has no chemistry with Martin and is totally miscast as what amounts to the Bond girl. Malden does somewhat better as the power-crazed villain. I give Martin credit for just rolling with some of the weird things that happen here, from Helm driving a hovercraft in the middle of Nice to Ironhead (Tom Reese), the henchman with the shiny metal plate on top of his head. Obviously, those who like their crime stories darker or more realistic should go elsewhere, but if you're into the campier side of the James Bond spy caper fad of the mid-late 60's, they don't come much weirder or campier than this. 

All Time High

Began the morning with breakfast and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. "Mickey's Fishy Story" has him and his friends heading to the jungle to find a friend for Daisy's goldfish Goldie. Not only are Goofy and Donald distracted by Coco the Coconutty Monkey's jungle party, but then they have to get help from mischievous Jungle Pete, too. 

I actually spent most of the time looking at all the new goodies on American Girl website. Their groovy 70's miss Julie got the lion's share of the attention this time. I knew there was a reason they recently retired the vast majority of her merchandise. They gave her two brand-new outfits and re-released one from about 14 years ago. 

Julie never had an actual school outfit. Her "school outfit" has always been her basketball uniform, since basketball is important to her story. American Girl finally corrected this by giving her a really cute "School Outfit" with a purple, blue, and white crocheted granny square vest over a purple turtleneck and a blue miniskirt. She has a second roller skating outfit, bright blue shiny shorts with a pastel heart print shirt and matching striped socks and skates. The last outfit I expected them to re-release was her Floral Jumpsuit, a white zippered turtleneck under a floral pants jumper. This version comes with sandals (the original release didn't come with shoes). It disappeared in 2015 and has been pricey on eBay ever since. 

The other big news with the historicals is yes, they finally re-released the much-requested 1850's pioneer  Kirsten Larson, along with her birthday dress. They also put Addy and Josefina out in their original meet outfits and re-released their birthday dresses. I am happy that all outfits now come with shoes or boots. Out of the four re-released outfits, the only one that originally came with shoes is Josefina's birthday outfit. Supposedly, the re-released dolls are limited editions, but we'll see how long that lasts. (And I wouldn't be surprised if Felicity reappeared in a year or two for America's 250th birthday bash.) 

Kirsten is a lovely doll, but I never did get into the pioneer era. I'm mildly interested in Addy. I'm not that into the Civil War, either, but she does have local connections. The bulk of her story takes place in Philadelphia, and she has a short story that's set in Cape May. You can still find a lot of Addy merchandise in both places. However, I did just pick up Kit last year, and I'm not really in the market for another doll at the moment. I found Josefina's Feast Day outfit on eBay over a decade ago. 

So, yeah, I just ended up with Julie's School Outfit and Floral Jumpsuit for Ariel. The roller skating outfit is cute, but I found the original red and blue version at the Cottage Shoppe in Marlton last year. I also finally dug up Kit's Bathing Suit for a half-way decent price on eBay. It was retired ages ago and is hard to find without the umbrella and other little accessories that came with it. Kit can go barefoot or borrow someone's sandals. Ari will have a new late fall-winter outfit and something for back to school, and Kit can cool off in August with my other 20th century dolls who have bathing outfits. 

Switched to Press Your Luck as I got organized. I only caught the second half of the noon episode. A young man from Parsippany in North Jersey won the first episode hands down, picking up money there. He had a harder time with a guy who definitely had a New York accent in the second, but managed to win with more cash and a "Heritage Tour" of American history sites on the east coast.

Headed out after the second episode ended. My first stop was the Shamrock Deli down the street on Cuthbert. They were busy with older women coming out from their walks for deli meat or sandwiches, but I did get a bottle of Coke Zero, a roast beef and provolone hoagie, and two chocolate chip cookies fairly quickly.

Cut across Audubon, heading down Market and around winding streets to Haddon Lake Park. I thought the spot by the Audubon Recreation Center where they held Audubon Day last week was lovely, and I wanted to check it out without thousands of people milling around. Found a unique spot at two teardrop-shaped yellow vinyl and metal tables. The grassy area was surrounded by four different forms of xylophone. There was one that looked like a larger silver metal version of a toy xylophone a kid might play, a wooden one that made a softer sound, a tower line of huge silver tubes, and one tube one that was larger than the xylophone, but smaller than the tall ones. I ate lunch, then got to play a few tunes. 

My back got stiff reading fairy tales at the table, so I moved to a low bench near the playground. At that point, it was still pretty quiet. One little girl played on the spring animals with her mom. Otherwise, it was mostly me, the birds chirping, and the breeze rustling through the new pale green leaves. It was really a gorgeous day today, all sunshine, fresh wind, and insanely warm temperatures for early May, in the mid-80's. When more teenagers started showing up from the high school across the street on their way home, I knew it was time for me to go as well.

(I really enjoyed my picnic and will absolutely do it again...later this summer, after pollen season ends. I spent the rest of the afternoon sneezing.) 

Went straight into job hunting and Rio Rita when I got in. I go further into this MGM remake of the 1929 hit with Abbott and Costello as pet-store workers who get caught up with Nazis south of the border at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Rio Rita (1942)

Worked on writing for a while after the movie ended. I've been trying to figure out exactly what to do with Sir Michael. I considered taking out Lord Jerrick, but I ultimately restored him. Kathleen tries to run off in the woods, but the snow is getting thicker. She needs shelter. Then she sees one of the rabbits who raised the flower garden earlier. It almost seems to be beckoning to her...

Switched to Buzzr and Match Game '77 during dinner. We met Buzz in these two episodes, an older gentleman in a yellow coat who claimed he got his neat coat and tie from his job as the proprietor of a junk yard. This led to many junk jokes, including Charles bringing out a trash can and his sock-less loafers to make Buzz "feel more at home." There were so many tiebreakers in the first episode, they barely got the Audience Match in at the last minute.

Finished the night working on my review for Rio Rita and listening to my newly-acquired James Bond soundtracks. The Spy Who Loved Me was a massive hit that is generally regarded as the best of Roger Moore's Bond vehicles. It's Oscar-nominated theme song "Nobody Does It Better" by Carly Simon was a huge hit in its own right. Moonraker takes an odd left turn into sci-fi territory, but its lovely title ballad is one of the most underrated Bond songs in the entire series. Most critics don't give high marks to Octopussy, likely because of it's fairly absurd plot. It was probably the first Bond movie I saw as a kid, and for that reason alone it has a special place in my heart. It's theme song "All Time High" is one of the better Bond ballads of the 80's as well. 

Hot Day In Spring

Began the morning with breakfast and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. "Daniel Gets Mad" and Prince Wednesday too when it rains and they can't go to the beach. Dan's mom says to take a deep breath and count to four...and then has to test her own rules when the boys haul sand from the beach into the living room. "Katerina Gets Mad" when the kids visit Music Man Stan's shop and Miss Elaina takes the triangle she wanted to play. She and Elaina need to figure out how to compromise. 

Headed out to work right as the cartoon ended. We were pretty busy for a Wednesday, likely due to this being the beginning of the month. It sure wasn't because of the weather. It was gorgeous today, hot, sunny, and breezy. I rather enjoyed pushing carts, when I wasn't sweating up a storm. I also cleaned the bathrooms and the employee room and quickly wiped up a sticky red juice in the bakery department. (I later found what I believe to be the culprit in one of the carts - an empty PopIce tube. Someone must have given it to their kid to cool them off, and the kid made a mess without anyone noticing.)

Went straight home after work. Changed and watched Let's Make a Deal while settling down. This time, Monty opened with a nurse, a leprechaun, and a cat handing the leprechaun money or taking something on the display floor. The cat ended up with a "night mare" zonk (a horse in pajamas, accompanied by a sleepy model), the nurse got a little money, and the leprechaun got a lot. A "wolf" in Granny's nightgown got himself a VCR and camera that was very high-end for the era, while a penguin held onto a box. The penguin finally gave up the box for the Big Deal of the Day...which proved to be a smart thing, as it had garlic inside! While neither the penguin nor the nurse got the Big Deal, the nurse did get money that was more than what she began with, and the penguin got a fur coat.

Relaxed while watching more Vega$. Dan's Native friend Harlon Twoleaf (Will Sampson) figures heavily into both of these episodes. Someone wants to "Kill Dan Tanna!" when he sets a bomb in Dan's home that hurts him and leaves Phyllis' beloved little girl in a coma. Dan and Harlon pound the streets of Vegas to find out who had it in for Dan. Turns out that Dan disobeying Captain North's (Kyle Richards) orders in Vietnam saved their men, but ended with North crippled for life, and now North wants revenge.

Harlon is the one in trouble on "Death Mountain." He, Dan, his friend Chief Gray Bear, and Gray Bear's grandson are fishing on the lake in the Native reservation when Gray Bear is run over by a trio of motorcyclists. They were hired by a Japanese businessman (Keye Luke) to keep Gray Bear from stalling over a construction project on the reservation. Dan and Harlon turn to a friend (Ken Curtis) who knows the reservation to help figure out what's going on.

Did a little bit of job searching after "Death Mountain" ended. When I came up empty, I tried some writing. Lady Jacqueline was holding a dog when Kathleen saw her, and one that wasn't happy to be there. I think I might change it to another animal. I do want a magical animal companion for Kathleen. I just can't decide which would be right for the story.

Broke for dinner and Match Game '77 at 7 PM. Lee Merriweather and George Kennedy joined in to see Gene fight his way through the door in the opening. They have far less luck with "Boots ___" in the Audience Match, including Gene claiming a certain Nancy Sinatra song wasn't that big of a hit. For some reason, they skipped an episode, moving to the one after the tall guy lost. Everyone's a bit nervous when the lights on the champ's seat stop working and no one knows her score. They have a bit more luck with "__ & M" on the Audience Match here.

Finished the night at the Shout! TV website with Mystery Science Theater 3000. I'm a sucker for not only James Bond movies, but the spy caper films and TV shows made in the 60's and 70's that imitated them. Danger! Death Ray, an Italian spy flick from 1967, was definitely up my alley. Enemy agents disguised as NATO operatives kidnap a scientist and steal his ray gun. Super spy Bart Fago (Gordon Scott) is called upon to rescue  him. He ends up having to rescue Lucile (Delfi Maruo) as well when he ducks into her apartment and gets her involved.

For all the campy elements, like a helicopter landing on a submarine and then being abandoned, this moves waaaayy too slow for an action-packed spy film. There's way too much of Bart flirting and everyone standing around talking and not enough actually doing stuff. Even Mike and the robots complained about how slow it moved. It takes almost a half-hour for the actual plot to kick in. Not the best movie ever, but if you're a fan of campy spy tales like me, it's worth checking out once, with or without robot wisecracks.