Trailer for Swedish “battle of the bands” zaniness from 1967. Looks like a wacky low budget hybrid of A Hard Day’s Night and It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
My favorite Saturday morning show when I was four was Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp
Lancelot Link and his wife Marta Hairi (“How do you want your eggs, Lancelot?” and “Oh Lancie!” were her famous lines) are secret agents of APE, the Agency to Prevent Evil. Link’s arch nemesis, Baron von Butcher (Bernie Kopell, who played “Doc” on The Love Boat did his voice) is the evil kingpin of CHUMP, the Criminal Headquarters for Underworld Master Plan. In every episode the Baron would come up with a new plan to rule the world and Lancelot Link would outsmart him. Other villains included Wang Fu, the Duchess, Ali AssaSeen, Dr. Strangemind and von Butcher’s chauffeur, Creto. The dialogue was a lot like Get Smart! which should come as no surprise since two of the three producers were writers on that series. For a kid’s show, it had sharp writing,
There was also a musical number in each episode where Ed Simian (an Ed Sullivan parody, of course) introduced Lance’s psychedelic rock group, The Evolution Revolution. The backing musicians for these tracks were the same musicians recording in the same studio and often working with the same songwriters as the Grassroots. They sound almost exactly alike, which is to say, great!
Torchwood
I have to say this getup is rather in better taste than the dreadfully gauche Ed Hardy t-shirt I saw him wearing at the San Diego Comic Con while charging $20 for autographs.
Torchwood star John Barrowman releases his inner diva as he takes to the West End stage as a drag queen.
The actor is barely recogniseable as he dons several revealing dresses to play Zara in comedy La Cage Aux Folles.
Following in the footsteps of Jason Donovan and Brian Conley who took on similar roles in Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Hairspray, Barrowman is said to have slipped into the part with ease, delighting audiences.
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I was listening to NPR the other day, and heard this story about an ultra-orthodox 99-year-old rabbi living in Israel who had, no shit, an estimated 1,500 living descendants! Not everyone in his family knew each other of course, but the rabbi shrugged off the difficulty of raising that large a horde, “It’s much easier having ten children than having two. Because once you have five or six children, they can help each other and take care of each other.” Well, Rabbi, if you’re reading Dangerous Minds, have I got a gift for you! The same goes for you, Pam Anderson!
Just in time for the holiday! Ever dream of seeing on the same stage KISS, Margaret Hamilton and Witchiepoo? Well, The Paul Lynde Holiday Special is here to make that dream come true! Broadcast just once in ‘76, The Paul Lynde Variety Show was reissued a few years back on DVD, but is now available on YouTube. Part I follows below, with links at the bottom to all the rest (KISS appear in Part V, right before the emergence of the forever-sexy, Roz “Pinky Tuscadero” Kelly).
Is Bigfoot a scary, cryptozoological enigma or a crime fighting action hero? Seldom seen Krofft Supershow oddity, Bigfoot and Wild Boy.
Orphaned at a young age, Wildboy was raised in the Pacific Northwest by Bigfoot, a large, hairy man-thing. Together, Bigfoot and Wildboy combated the various forces of evil in their part of the country. Besides being extremely strong, Bigfoot could also use super powered jumps to get to high places or to cover far distances. Helping (and occasionally hindering) Bigfoot and Wildboy were Suzie (first season only), the 12 year old daughter of the Ranger Lucas, and Cindy (second season only), an archeology student.
Thank you Robert Christian Stevens!
I’m not so sure I would have clipped my cable line if American TV carried the German television show, Wetten, Dass..? (Wanna Bet..?), a show that attracts up to 50% (!) of Europe’s German-speaking viewers whenever it airs. I mean, could you see these amazing dinosaur puppets (an animatronic extravaganza spun off from from the BBC’s Walking With Dinosaurs) popping up on Jay Leno? The below clip features a dinosaur trio stomping their way into the studio, shocking and delighting the Wetten, Dass..? audience. Is some of it due to the blue jeans on that ‘raptor? I think so!
Bonus video: T-Rex Fight!
(via Coilhouse)
Dangerous Minds pal Chris Campion writes: “Popular entertainment in Australia is clearly a little behind the rest of the world. The speech at the end is priceless too.”
