don't parade in my rain: May 2012

Newsday TV Book, May 28-June 3, 1972.

Yeah, it's late. What can I say--I got my Memorial Day on! On this week's cover, we've got Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson (that's pronounced Dee-MAHN, according to the article, though he's probably not that picky about it these days).

Was Michael Landon ever a werewolf? Was Jill St. John a Ginger? How does one build a Brady Booth? Could there be a worse picture of Alice Cooper? All are answered in the TV Line.

Sorry this coupon is two days (and forty years) late. $1.07 in savings, not bad--that's like fifty bucks now!

Spaniture. Spaniture? Spaniture? Spaniture! Wait... Spaniture? Absurd! I do dig the "Cortez bust" (although I thought that was what brought down the Medellin Cartel).

How many Long Island mooks do you suppose hung around the Dover House cocktail lounge hoping for a shot at Pepper Anderson?

So wait, is this gal a Barbizon discovery or does she just look like one?

You're in denial, Charlie Brown.

Opryland USA kicks off with a special spotlighting those perennial country entertainers Danny Thomas, Carol Lawrence and Leslie Uggams. I just put it up here for the Gary Viskupic drawing of Johnny Cash.

And another Viskupic piece, this one on the topic of busing. It's definitely more typical of his use of ordinary images to evoke an unsettling eeriness.

And finally, Korrect Health Foods offers us a back cover that may be the worst ad layout I've ever seen. It does, however, give us the fantastic album title "The Escape from the Chemical Feast."

Newsday TV Book, May 21-27, 1972.

This week, Paul Newman's special women Nell Newman and Joanne Woodward appear on the cover to promote a nature show, "The Eagle and the Hawk."

A much better pic of Joanne from the article.

A somewhat timely TV Line, as a reader asks what became of "Dark Shadows." Answer: It wasn't popular so they canceled it. Also, a brief history of Sonny and Cher up to that point, and we learn that Marge Bergman of "Search for Tomorrow" was written out due to her death. Sounds like discrimination against the non-living to me.

News Flash! Nixon's in Moscow, and Mr. Blackwell's on "Mantrap!"

This ad for contact lenses is accentuated by a photo of a woman not wearing glasses.

Given dad's penchant for building ship models, this catalog had to be floating around my house somewhere... (Get it? Floating? Just a little nautical humor there.)

Commander Oil (you know, with the German Shepherd on top of the trucks) commanded that I not turn off that TV. I have ever since complied.

Add Louise Sorel of the "Don Rickles Show" to the legions of out-of-his-league TV wives. (Incidentally, septophiles, she was married to both the White Shadow and the big half of "Big John, Little John.")

Let's take a look at Wednesday night. "Night Gallery" gives us Marty Allen as Edgar Allan Poe. Quoth the raven: "Hello dere!"

Holiday Spa, ringing in girl-watching season!

Slimsville 1972, as personified by Miss Duval, who may or may not be the young Edie Falco.

Newsday TV Book, May 14-20, 1972.

Johnny Carson (remember that guy?) heads up this week's TV book.

What's up with Samantha's Dicks? How does Superman, uh, not get killed and stuff? Was the Enterprise chopped for parts? The answers to these and other stupid questions in this week's TV Line.

(

You expect me to write something snarky about Mister Rogers? Think again, pal. (That creep Mr. McFeely, on the other hand...)

Oh yeah, here's the Emmy noms. Match tastes with Marvin Kitman--if you dare!

Camp, huh? Let's see, I had a yard, a pool, a park at the end of the block, and didn't have to share a bedroom with twelve other filthy eight-year-old boys. Big pass on that one.

Suburban Dream: Steak!

Sure, I know what a geek is. It's someone who would stay in Friday night to watch "Nightmare Alley" at 1:15 AM based on a John Cashman review. In other words, me, if I had been born a decade or so earlier.

Discover it? I forged it, Slackajawea!

And on the back cover, the first of many fine Colonial Shoppe furniture sets we'll marvel at over the coming months...

Newsday TV Book, May 7-13, 1972.

A Tom Jones special lands him (and Jennifer O'Neill) on the cover of the TV Book this week, and the show, according to the accompanying article, gives the "Sultan of Squirm" the chance to "rub leather with Kirk Douglas." I hope that has something to do with riding horses.

The TV Line questions range from the sublime (Vince Guaraldi) to the not-so-sublime (the palpability of Hooterville, the availability of membership to WOR's Fritos Sportsclub, Chad Everett). Click for the bigger picture.

Here's the close-up on the Tom Jones London Bridge special, with a star-studded guest cast AND the Yankee Doodle Dandies. It sounds falling-down fantastic!