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Author Topic: Classic TV  (Read 446976 times)

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: Classic TV
« Reply #2100 on: August 29, 2019, 02:10:06 PM »
I'm surprised the orange cretin wasn't a guest star on it. Did anyone say "there's good people on both sides?"

We're talking about a 30-year-old cop show here. There were only good people and bad people.

Offline CellarDweller115

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Re: Classic TV
« Reply #2101 on: September 03, 2019, 09:47:45 PM »
I'm surprised this wasn't posted here.


Valerie Kathryn Harper (August 22, 1939 – August 30, 2019) was an American actress. She began her career as a dancer on Broadway, making her debut in the musical Take Me Along in 1959. Harper is best remembered for her role as Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–1977) and its spin-off Rhoda (1974–1978). For her work on Mary Tyler Moore, she thrice received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, and later received the award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on Rhoda.

From 1986 to 1987, Harper appeared as Valerie Hogan on the sitcom Valerie. Her film appearances include roles in Freebie and the Bean (1974) and Chapter Two (1979), both of which garnered her Golden Globe Award nominations. Harper returned to stage work in her later career, appearing in several Broadway productions. In 2010, she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance as Tallulah Bankhead in the play Looped.

In 2009, Harper was diagnosed with lung cancer.  She announced on March 6, 2013, that tests from a January hospital stay revealed she had leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, a rare condition in which cancer cells spread into the meninges, the membranes surrounding the brain. She said her doctors had given her as little as three months life expectancy.  Although the disease was reported to be incurable, her doctors said they were treating her with chemotherapy in an effort to slow its progress.   In April 2014, Harper said she was responding well to the treatment.  On July 30, 2015, Harper was hospitalized in Maine after falling unconscious, and taken via medevac to a larger hospital for further treatment.    She was later discharged.

In 2016, Harper continued battling cancer with treatment at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center but was well enough to appear in a short film, My Mom and the Girl, based on the experiences of director/writer Susie Singer Carter, whose mother has Alzheimer's disease. In September 2017, she made this comment: "People are saying, 'She's on her way to death and quickly'. Now it's five years instead of three months ... I'm going to fight this. I'm going to see a way."  At the time, Harper was developing a television series with Carter.  By July 2019, Harper was on a regimen of "a multitude of medications and chemotherapy drugs" and was experiencing "extreme physical and painful challenges" that require "around the clock, 24/7 care."

Harper died on the morning of August 30, 2019, in Los Angeles, at the age of 80

Offline fritzkep

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Re: Classic TV
« Reply #2102 on: January 10, 2020, 08:16:03 PM »
Werd ich zum Augenblicke sagen, "Verweile doch! Du bist so schön..."

Offline CellarDweller115

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Re: Classic TV
« Reply #2103 on: January 10, 2020, 08:21:01 PM »
I heard about this on the radio today.

The 'oldies' station played "Cookie, Lend Me Your Comb".  The DJ said he first heard it at age 12, and thought it was stupid back then.  LOL

Offline killersmom

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Re: Classic TV
« Reply #2104 on: January 10, 2020, 09:46:33 PM »
Of course I remember him. I used to watch 77 Sunset Strip, but not for him, for Efrem Zimbalist Jr..
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Offline Lyle (Mooska)

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Re: Classic TV
« Reply #2105 on: January 11, 2020, 01:36:09 PM »
Edd Byrnes character on 77 Sunset Strip can be comparably compared to the Fonzie character in the 70's in popularity. Girls thought he was cute and guys thought he was cool. As someone wrote: "Edd Brynes as Gerald Lloyd “Kookie” Kookson III on 77 Sunset Strip just personified cool. He had a lingo all of his own and because his character was so popular, we hung on his every word. And imitated him. We dressed like him, bought his official 'comb' and imagined him parking our cars at Dino's next to the detective agency. He was the ginchiest!"

The song Chuck referenced above got him a gold record. He also had a Christmas song one year titled "Yulesville"! He also played Vince Fontaine, a Dick Clark type music host, in Grease.

77 Sunset Strip's popularity spun off several other detective shows in different cities, like Hawaiian Eye, Surfside-6 and Bourbon Street Beat. Because the series featured a lot of music, the rights for any home media release have been problematic. Strip has shown up on the retro channel Me-TV and Warner Archive used to have selected episodes of some of the others on their Warner Archive streaming service not too long ago, but it's now defunct. These shows deserve a better fate!

I used to frequently walk down Sunset Blvd. where the fictional detective agency and Dino's restaurant were used for the series and there was an embedded homage to the show at the exact location in the sidewalk. I'd always step on it and snap my fingers twice.


Offline Lyle (Mooska)

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Re: Classic TV
« Reply #2106 on: January 11, 2020, 01:37:31 PM »

In Kookie's lingo:

The beam came to me! Don't tune me out. It's the weekend! Are you deep down blue? After a dark seven any of you mushroom people want to go out tonight to the Cloud Nine Dance Hall and do the twist? Listen to the little men!

"The Twist" also became a craze while this show was on and Kookie had to do it! I love this clip from the series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKMX-6tl6Pc

One reason I like a lot of these Warner Bros. detective series is they always found time for some wonderful musical interludes. (Also a rights problem for video releases, though.) Imagine any show nowadays stopping to show a 2 1/2 minute dance sequence for the sheer joy of it! Movies used to do that, too.

"Wait! I'm still sending..."

For some added enjoyment, pull up another tab and find a video of Chubby Checker singing "The Twist" and use that for the sound instead of the original episode music. It works, too.

 "You're getting the beat!"

Offline Lyle (Mooska)

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Re: Classic TV
« Reply #2107 on: January 11, 2020, 01:40:46 PM »

I repeat, we need to do more things "for the sheer joy of it."

Offline fritzkep

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Re: Classic TV
« Reply #2108 on: January 11, 2020, 02:03:37 PM »
Edd Byrnes character on 77 Sunset Strip can be comparably compared to the Fonzie character in the 70's in popularity. Girls thought he was cute and guys thought he was cool. As someone wrote: "Edd Brynes as Gerald Lloyd “Kookie” Kookson III on 77 Sunset Strip just personified cool. He had a lingo all of his own and because his character was so popular, we hung on his every word. And imitated him. We dressed like him, bought his official 'comb' and imagined him parking our cars at Dino's next to the detective agency. He was the ginchiest!"

The song Chuck referenced above got him a gold record. He also had a Christmas song one year titled "Yulesville"! He also played Vince Fontaine, a Dick Clark type music host, in Grease.

77 Sunset Strip's popularity spun off several other detective shows in different cities, like Hawaiian Eye, Surfside-6 and Bourbon Street Beat. Because the series featured a lot of music, the rights for any home media release have been problematic. Strip has shown up on the retro channel Me-TV and Warner Archive used to have selected episodes of some of the others on their Warner Archive streaming service not too long ago, but it's now defunct. These shows deserve a better fate!

I used to frequently walk down Sunset Blvd. where the fictional detective agency and Dino's restaurant were used for the series and there was an embedded homage to the show at the exact location in the sidewalk. I'd always step on it and snap my fingers twice.

 :laugh:  :laugh:  :laugh:

I wish I had known that when a number of Brokies and I walked around the area back in 2010!

Werd ich zum Augenblicke sagen, "Verweile doch! Du bist so schön..."

Offline Lyle (Mooska)

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Re: Classic TV
« Reply #2109 on: January 11, 2020, 04:07:43 PM »


The sign says...

WB
The Warner Brother's Television Series
"77 SUNSET STRIP"
Filmed on This Site
From October 19, 1958 to February 7, 1964

Offline Lyle (Mooska)

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Re: Classic TV
« Reply #2110 on: January 11, 2020, 04:16:24 PM »
^^^
That area has undergone so many changes it's now unrecognizable to the series. The last straw for any resemblance is a huge construction project that wiped out the signature parking lot view. The City of West Hollywood approved the construction plans with the proviso of removing the 77 Sunset Strip sidewalk commemoration and it was to be replaced somewhere there after the construction was completed a year or more ago. I've not had occasion to walk by there since then, so I don't know if that's happened. I have looked out car and bus windows to try and see, but that doesn't really work. I should make a sojourn up there at some point and try to find out.

Offline fritzkep

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Re: Classic TV
« Reply #2111 on: January 11, 2020, 06:02:07 PM »
I hope it's still there, thanks for letting me know no matter what!

Werd ich zum Augenblicke sagen, "Verweile doch! Du bist so schön..."

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: Classic TV
« Reply #2112 on: January 12, 2020, 01:48:06 PM »
The younger crowd probably wouldn't recognize the name, but the guy who played Kookie in 77 Sunset Strip has died.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/edd-byrnes-once-famous-as-the-hair-combing-kookie-of-77-sunset-strip-dies-at-87/2020/01/10/0427e960-33c0-11ea-a053-dc6d944ba776_story.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT9QZBGyXjU

I might try to find a copy of his autobiography. Might make interesting reading.  ::)

Offline Lyle (Mooska)

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Re: Classic TV
« Reply #2113 on: January 12, 2020, 01:48:12 PM »
^^^

Fritz, I found a couple postings online from last year where they said they saw it. I tried using google street view to look, but there's a truck obstructing the view, wouldn't you know? There's a newish restaurant that opened there called Tesse and I saw two exterior photos, one day, one night, that seem to indicate it was replaced and located in between the two new buildings where the Dino's port cochere would've been, where Kookie parked the cars. From those photos, though, I can't really get my exact bearings direction-wise, but the important thing is that it is there!



See the lower right corner? That looks to be it!  :D

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Offline richchan

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Re: Classic TV
« Reply #2114 on: January 12, 2020, 02:57:32 PM »
Buck Henry Dies at 89

Another link on the Edd Byrnes story at the bottom of the obit was this one on another giant of the era: Buck Henry. I was not aware of how much he influenced popular music and comedy during the 60's and 70's.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/09/movies/buck-henry-dead.html

Credits include The Graduate, Get Smart, the samurai sketches with John Belushi on SNL, Catch-22, Candy, and Heaven Can Wait.
I sang in my chains like the sea