It's not Karen Black

Funny Face Friday presents:

Marie Osmond


Donny and Marie were appearing in a skit on the Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.

I think back to all those variety shows from the 70's and wish they could be revisited more. It seems that only certain episodes will be released while others will never be seen again because of legalities. What a shame somebody is sitting out there holding out on the rest of us, because of a five minute segment they did over 30 years ago and want to be paid again for it.

Thankfully, we still get to see Marie do her cross-eyed scream again and again on DVD.

After Dark October 1976 cont'd

I left off at the end of the last post on this issue right before "The French Feel". After Dark wanted to indulge in the irresistible attraction for French savoir-faire. Cover boy Brian Petersen was the premier star of Pouff, described by writer Brant Mewborn as a hot, slick, gaudy, fast, freaky, funky and fun cabaret show that was playing at La Vie en Rose in New York.

Brian Petersen would stir up action with his athletic solo dances and sensual partnerings with the show's leading ladies.

Here he is pictured with showgirl Sally Speas.

Chrysis, the star of Pouff, was a beauty who would reveal during the show that she was not a she, but a he.

Another show was the revival of the Folies Bergere emceed by Buddy Vest.

French actress Leslie Caron was filming Ken Russell's Valentino.

Ann-Margret was featured in The Twist directed by Claude Chabrol and also starred Jean-Pierre Cassel and Stephane Audran.

Another French actress was Jeanne Moreau who directed Lumiere.

Here she's directing Keith Carradine.

Speaking of Keith Carradine, Viola Swisher wrote about him and his performances in Nashville and Welcome to L.A.












The ads for clothes in After Dark are always amazing to me. I would love some of these clothes, especially the lounge pajamas.



Disco fever hit After Dark, too, it seems.

That's it for this issue...til next time....

Spot the Monkey

What's On? Wednesday presents: VIP

In my last What’s On Wednesday post, I talked about my love for the Pamela Anderson sitcom, Stacked. This week, I want to highlight her action show, VIP, but not for the reasons you would expect.

This syndicated show was on for four years and whenever I happened to come across it, I would sit enthralled. I never watched Baywatch or Home Improvement, so this was the first time I had watched her in anything other than Barb Wire. Despite the tabloids, I actually liked Pamela Anderson. She was funny and played to her strengths and made fun of herself like she did in Stacked.

Only season one has been released on DVD and I quickly bought it so I could see all the episodes I had missed the first time. After watching the pilot movie, where her character Vallery Irons becomes the figure head of a bodyguard agency, I found that I really liked her supporting cast as well, especially Molly Culver.

Now on to the point of this post…starting in episode two of that first season, I noticed this little stuffed monkey in one of the scenes, but didn’t pay too much attention to it. In episode three, I noticed it again. Episode four, episode five and so on and so on. Each episode it became a Where’s Waldo game for me: Spot the Monkey.

For each episode, I have the scene where the monkey appears…can you find it? He’s not always easy to see, it may be just his head sticking out or he’s hidden among other things on the table.






























I don’t know the genesis of putting the monkey somewhere in a scene during the show (including the image at the beginning of this post that was a logo bumper that wiped the scene transition on the final show of the season), but it appeared in every episode except the pilot. I hope they put out the remaining three seasons, so I can see if they continued with the monkey. Congratulations to the clever person who insisted on the monkey (Pamela maybe?), because they have given me hours of fun beyond just the plot and characters.

Mystery Solving Musicians

YouTube Tuesday presents:

My favorite childhood cartoons that mixed pop music and crime solving.

First up is my favorite, of course. Josie and the Pussycats were a trio of girls, their manager, his sister and their roadie (along with Sebastian the cat) traveling around the world to play gigs, but somehow got involved with criminal masterminds. I have the soundtrack album and listen to the songs all the time. Cheryl Ladd (pre-Charlie's Angels) was the singing voice of ditzy Melody. I always loved the big chase scene that used their songs as the chase music.


The Pussycats eventually shot off into space to solve intergalactic mysteries.


Next is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids. Even as a youngster, I knew that Butch was the hottest animated character around. This was before Gatchaman hit the states as Battle of the Planets with Mark and Jason. The musicians had a supercomputer that contacted Butch through his ring and they were off to solve the crime.


Jabberjaw had to be the cartoon with the most bizarre concept. In the not too distant future, a rock group travels to underwater cities (not outer space) for their gigs and a giant great white shark that talks like Curly from the Three Stooges is the drummer. Somehow they get involved with dastardly villains who want to take over the world. My favorite character besides Jabberjaw was the bubbleheaded Bubbles who talked like Gracie Allen.


Lastly must be the most offensive cartoon of the bunch. Asian stereotypes are abundant in The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan. Asian sleuth Charlie Chan is on hand to solve mysteries and with him are his 10 kids and a dog to help. The music is fun and the stories are cute. I remember really liking it as a kid, but watching an episode recently I was amazed at how un-PC it is. I know that TV at the time tried to make stereotypes somehow funny, but watching them now makes me cringe. I will say this, the theme song is still great and sticks in your head for days.

I wonder how many kids gave up wanting to be in a rock band, because they thought it might be too dangerous?

The Calla Lilies are in BLOOM again

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