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W.B.lbl●

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3795 Points / Moderator / Joined 14 Feb 2012 /

USA / New York, NY

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Collection 4342

Wishlist 1

Dedicated record collector since 1981; partial towards label variants either from or typeset by Columbia Records' pressing plants in Bridgeport, CT (pre-1964) and Pitman, NJ (1964-86). Also prefer East Coast pressings in general, from RCA Custom in Rockaway, NJ (1954-73), Decca/MCA in Gloversville, NY, Capitol in Scranton, PA, etc.

Comments (TV)

Member	Item		Review/Comment
W.B.lbl ● 18th Apr 2021		TV Second City Television (1976 - 1984)	Why do I get the impression that "Maudlin's Eleven" was a vast improvement over the numerous Ocean's ____ remakes and sequels with George Clooney, etc.? But there were also multiple layers to their other recurring routines. "SCTV News" was a commentary on the state of local and network TV news in the 1970's, with vast conflicts between the traditionalist side and the razzle-dazzle, showbizzy "Happy Talk" presentation that were boiling to the surface in that decade. (Some actual local and network news incidences were satirized/parodied in such sketches.) The names were plays on those of actual Canadian news anchors and commentators - Floyd Robertson (Joe Flaherty) on CBC and CTV anchor Lloyd Robertson, Earl Camembert (Eugene Levy) on former CBC commentator Earl Cameron. But the actors drew from their own backyards for the anchors' respective personae - Floyd seemed based on Bill Burns who was a legendary Pittsburgh TV anchor as Flaherty was growing up there, Earl was definitely patterned after Buffalo, TV anchor Irv Weinstein (of "pistol packing punks" fame). For Floyd, it was all about the news of the day and the public's need to know; for Earl, it was all about him (as evidenced by his hairstyle, loud suits and bow ties) and catering to what news consultants said the public wanted.
W.B.lbl ● 15th Oct 2019		TV The Benny Hill Show (1955 - 1989)	If you were to ask me, the show irrevocably jumped the shark in 1979 after Dennis Kirkland took over as producer/director. It is most likely *not* a coincidence that under his reign, the T&A quotient took a hard turn, done in such a way as to pander to the crowd that read the likes of Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler and Mayfair. And had little or nothing to do with comedy or making people laugh. But what Ben Elton and the others did to him was a forerunner of what in America would be characterized as "the politics of personal destruction" that became SOP starting in the 1990's. Too, as to the repetition factor, in the '80's Hill, besides becoming "old" and "tired" (and also bloated - not unlike his show), began approaching said repetition in an increasingly lifeless, rote, formulaic, perfunctory, been-there-done-that, going-through-the-motions, phoning/mailing it in, running-on-fumes, operating on autopilot and bordering on robotic form that is positively deadly in terms of attracting audiences. It was similar to the last years of The Jackie Gleason Show after The Great One moved to Miami Beach in 1964 and several of his shows were so bad that even he admitted they looked like "they had been made on the way to the men's room" - which pretty much describes much of Hill's output especially post-1982. In terms of the "bawdiness," the one American variety show that came closest (as could be permitted under the strictures to which American network TV was subjected in those days) was Dean Martin's, after he divorced his second wife Jeannie in 1970; it was not long after that, that The Dean Martin Show came increasingly under the radar of NOW, even so far as to that group bestowing a "Put Her In Her Place" "award" to the show a few years later. (One Martin bio cited one edition where he, Art Carney and Liberace did a routine about "hot pants.")

Recently Rated (TV)

TV: The Benny Hill Show (1955 - 1989)

Rated 9 by W.B.lbl ●