To Good Times, To Happy Days, To Little House on the Prairie: 50 Years of TV’s Finest
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Was one of Gerald Ford's favorite shows, and once Gerald Ford rescheduled to a press conference so he could watch policewoman, hello world singing, come on, get happy. Whole lot of
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love. And is what we'll
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be bringing
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we'll make you happy.
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Welcome to the pop culture Preservation Society, the podcast for people born in the big wheel generation who knew never to eat Pop Rocks while drinking a coke. We believe our Gen X childhoods gave us unforgettable songs, stories, characters and images, and if we don't talk about them, they'll disappear like Marshall will and Holly on a routine expedition, and today, we'll be celebrating the 50th anniversary of some of the most iconic TV shows of our generation. I'm Carolyn, I'm Kristen, and I'm Michelle, and we are your pop culture preservationists. What you see on ABC this fall you'll be talking about tomorrow.
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Okay, you guys, I've got a big question for you. I want you to tell me what do Skittles post it notes and Rubik's Cube all have in common. They're yummy,
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colorful. You write on them. This is not what in common means. I guess.
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Did you eat? How does the Rubik's Cube taste? I misunderstood the question
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I'm going with colorful finally, that's good. Oh, my God, you're so much quicker than I am. That's very good. Well,
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wait, yeah, I hope your Rubik's Cube is not unless you were eating, oh, you're eating Skittles first, and then you played with your Rubik's Cube. Then it got or you tried to pay the stickers off because you wanted to act like you got it done really fast, and then it did that
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yeah, I am offended. Oh, my God.
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Well, those were all excellent guesses, ladies, but the truth is that they are all turning 50 years old this year. Can you believe there we go. We There we go. We're gifted these amazing inventions in 1974
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which you guys, if you think about it, was a half a century ago. Don't, don't stop it right now. But
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I never stopped to think about that. There was a year Skittles were invented. Skittles, you would have asked me if this was trivia night, like at the bar, and they were like, here's three choices. What year were Skittles invented? And it's like 1974 1948 and 1960
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I literally would just be dumbfounded, like, I have no idea. So this was great. I already learned that there was a year without Skittles, like in 1973 you couldn't get Skittles. Gosh, that's so sad, doesn't it seem like crazy that that was 50 years ago, because I think about, you know, in 19 8050, years before that was 1930
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Oh, no, no, no, that's, that's ancient. We're like Andorra. We are we are guys, but beyond the Rubik's Cube and beyond post it notes and Michelle's beloved Skittles. I do 1974 was a huge year in pop culture. We're gonna talk today about the fact that it was a defining year for television. I might even argue the defining year for Gen X kids. That is so true, because so many of the shows that were born in 1974 went on to be huge in reruns and after school programming. Yeah, right. And also in 1974 comedy was king, and one night in particular offered a classic lineup that would seriously make history. It's something that will never happen again, because we don't have lineups anymore. There's no such thing as a lineup, and it was something that lineup kept us glued to the TV in the family room, mostly together with our families, from after dinner until bedtime. And that lineup was Saturday night, which remind magazine points out, is now a network wasteland. What was happening in our houses when we grew up on Saturday night, which was a huge party, turned into a big nothing burger. But in 1974
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sorry, nothing burger Saturday, in 1974 Saturday night was a total party for TV's most popular, most sophisticated and timeliest comedies, and all of them were on CBS. This was the lineup all in the family, mash Mary Tyler Moore, The Bob Newhart Show and The Carol Burnett Show. Wow, yeah, that's comedy, and it was more than a lineup. And kind of to your point, Kristen, my whole family was home. It was an it was an experience.
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I could tell you what we were having for dinner those nights, because my dad was grilling steaks,
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we all know. And longtime listeners, I bet you guys, all shouted out or two in my head, I wanted to go steak, yeah, and then, like the big wedge salad with the ketchup and yeah, the ketchup and mayonnaise mixed together for 1000 island dressing well. And in my house, it was like a race to get jammies on before Mary Tyler Moore started, and my mom would make popcorn and we could have Coke, praise be on Saturday nights with Mary Tyler Moore get a bottle. Or did you have to? Like no ice was important, and we had them in the grown up glasses, which were these sort of smoky, tall tumblers that my mom got out of. Does detergent? Did you guys have any glasses from the divergent of that detergent? Yeah, it's called does D, U, Z. I don't have memories of watching TV in 1974 let's not forget when 1974 started, I was four. So I don't have memories of watching television in 1974 being four and five, but I have so many memories of all of these wonderful shows that began and premiered in 1974 because of what you just said. They went on to be in reruns. Somehow I saw the reruns. So, yes, so it doesn't even though I don't have a memory, or for all of you listening who weren't even born until like 75 or maybe were born in 1974
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happy 50th birthday this year. By the way.
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You guys can relate to this whole episode, because these are shows that have that are so important to all of us, Gen Xers and have lived on right? They've stood the test of time. Really, these shows are so much more than just the show, don't you think? And I agree, 1974 it really saw the debut of some of these most iconic TV shows that are really good become some of our all time favorites. And I'm curious, do you guys have any thoughts on why this one particular year might have made it a perfect breeding ground for greatness? I think the world was really changing. In 1974 there were lots of forces coming up against each other. We were Vietnam was happening. The Civil Rights Movement was in full swing. Second wave feminism was in full swing. There was so much that was changing, and there were so many attitudes that were bumping up against each other that I think that is a breeding ground for creativity.
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I mean, I think that the lineups in 1974 seemed to have everything, kind of that was representative of what was happening in our world. And this is kind of despite, though, what the networks were trying to do, because they wanted to make some changes. And I think this is so interesting, according to a New York Times article from April 20 of 1974 they say fall programming. So fall of 74 the television networks wanted to cut back on programs that were dealing with violence and stress, series concerned more with family life and personal relationships. So they were discarding and cutting canceling shows both for rating and inadequacy and in response to the hearings on television violence by the Senate Communications Subcommittee. So there was a whole thing going on with these violent TV shows, and they say in this article that many of the new one hour dramatic shows will askew law enforcement storylines and gunplay. This cracks me up. You guys for situations involving truck drivers, school teachers, horse rangers and Game Wardens.
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Okay, how, how much of that do you think is response is in response to Vietnam, because think about what was being shown on the news every night, right? I mean, it has to be right well, and that's where one of the shows that we're going to talk about later, that's where it came from. We needed a reprieve, right from. We needed that escapism. We really did right? I do think the Vietnam, the post Vietnam, yeah, oh, has been at it for a long time. At that point, it had been a long time, and still think of the footage. I don't remember this at all, which is a good thing. I think the footage that they were showing on the news is probably pretty disturbing. I can't I can. I have very, very like, vague memories of seeing some of that stuff on the TV. And sadly, my memories are almost not like, Oh my gosh. This is horrible. It was like, Oh, this is the news. Like, this is just another night of the news, which just, you know, and that was when news, I mean, it was Walter Cronkite. It was some of those iconic TV anchors, and I can kind of hear His voice, but I do have this feeling of like, Huh? Like, that's whatever. It wasn't like than usual to me. Because when you think about it, my whole memory of TV watching when I really start remembering it, that would have been when it would have been when the war was going on and, you know, the news was always on on our TV. It's not like my mom ran and turned it off when that kind of stuff was on. So that really makes me sad. That's really I was going to say that I don't have.
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Memories of that. But now that you say that, if you had asked me to conjure a picture of the news in my mind when I was six years old, that's what I would have conjured. And so I guess I do have memories of it. This is the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.
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1974 really began to reflect this changing world around us. So it's offering both escapism, social commentary and these opportunities for some family drama. And if you guys remember on our I'm not sure what episode it would have been, but we talked about the TV pilots, which were often TV movies of the week, and that's how these networks gage whether or not shows would be successful. So some of the shows we're going to talk about today had pilots that maybe aired the end of 1973
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and they had a huge they had huge ratings, and they're like, yes, bingo. And we'll talk about some of those shows. And this is kind of also on that note, this is also a year of spin offs. So if it ain't great, I knew what was working. Yeah, that's right, yeah. So you guys right now, it is time to celebrate the golden anniversary of some of our favorite shows. I feel like a grandma right now, the golden anniversary of shows that I watch and then they started. Let's start with the shows that have endured. They have a lasting legacy, whether it was their timeless themes like friendship and family or maybe it was that groundbreaking storytelling that pushed the boundaries of television, or those characters that wove their way into our hearts, these shows often reflected and shaped the culture Zeitgeist at the time, making them significant cultural touchstones even to us today, and so let's discuss some of those, what I would Call legacy TV shows from Television City in Hollywood.
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You Good Times was developed by Norman Lear as a spin off of Maude, which itself was a spin off of all in the family and forgotten about that. Yes, by the way, this is a spin spin off. And good times was television's first African American two parent family sitcom. It has a place in our history. Wow. So It premiered in February of 1974 it was a mid season show, and during its first full season on the air, the show is the seventh highest rated in the Nielsen ratings. In its first full season, the 7576 season, it was one of three shows that focused on the lives of African Americans, which, remember, we didn't have siloing the way that we do today. So these weren't, quote, unquote black shows. These were just shows, right? That we all watched. Everybody watched them. This was entertainment. This was family programming. So the characters originated on Maude were Florida and Henry Evans, not James with Florida employed as maude's Housekeeper. But do you remember where Maude lived? Did she live in New York somewhere like she did? She lived in Tuckahoe. Well, let's just say it's not Chicago, right? It's not in Chicago and Henry, not James, was a New York City firefighter, so when they decided to feature the Florida character in her own show, they changed the characters to fit a new series that was already in development, rather than start from scratch, even though that meant changing their black middle class family into a poverty stricken lower class family. Henry becomes James, and he wasn't a firefighter. Instead, he worked various odd jobs, and they lived in Chicago, and there was no mention of Maude ever. So I guess all they kept was the name Florida. Just change your name. Yeah, it doesn't have to be Florida. If we just like her. Let's just have a show starring her. Yeah. So this new story, this new show, focuses on Florida and James Evans and their family in a public housing project in poor in a poor black neighborhood in inner city, Chicago. We all know this, right? The project is never named on the show, but the opening and closing credits show actual footage of Cabrini Green, so we can make some assumptions, right? And when the series begins, JJ, we all know. JJ, right? JJ is 17, and he's portrayed by 26 year old Jimmy Walker, who was eight years younger than John Amos, who played James, oh, my God, he's eight years younger than his
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dad. Oh, wow. Then there's Thelma, the smart one, she's 16, and Michael, the socially conscious one is 11. Then there's Florida's best friend, willona. We all love willona, and she was a recent divorcee who worked at a boutique, and this FYI is where I learned the word the.
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Boutique. Oh, I also learned the word Wino from good times. Do you remember that there were two winos? There were two winos on Good Times. There was Ned the Wino, who models for JJs painting of black Jesus. And I can't remember the other Wino. There was another. So Good Times was intended to be a very timely show focusing on the social problems of the day, much like all in the family, and this was the reason that both Esther roll and John Amos signed onto the project. They were excited to be a part of this. Both expected the show to deal with very serious topics in a comedic way, like all in the family, while providing and this is very important, while providing positive characters for viewers to identify with. But then JJ happened, yeah, he was the breakout character. He was an immediate success with viewers, mostly due to his enthusiastic delivery of
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dynamite became his catchphrase, and it got such big laughs that the director required it to be in every single episode.
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Oh, yeah. Like, this is a perfect story, yes. So because of dynamite, the writers focused more on JJs antics instead of the serious issues that Esther Rolle and John Amos wanted to and they got more and more annoyed. It was also not the kind of depiction of black people that Esther Rolle had wanted to provide for viewers. And she was very vocal about it. And she actually said in a 1975 interview with Ebony Magazine, this is her quote, he's 18 and he doesn't work, he can't read or write. He doesn't think the show didn't start out to be that. Little by little, they have made JJ more stupid and enlarged the role negative images have been slipped in on us through the character of the oldest child.
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Yeah, John Amos was actually fired after season three because of these disagreements, and I'm just assuming this here, because I don't actually know, but I'm assuming that there were no black people on the producing or writing staff to actually who could really understand what John Amos was fighting for, right? And the producers decided not to recast him, but they killed him. They just, they killed him off. Seriously. That's not, that's not something you do on a sitcom. Sitcom come is comedy sitcom, yeah, you killed a dad. That's not, yeah, that's a downer. And then by season four, by the end of season four, Esther Rolle was out too, by her own choice, and they made up some cockamamie story about Florida dating some dude who has lung cancer and they have to move to Arizona for his health. I swear to God. So now there were no parents on the show. Lelona was the only parent, and she would like check in on the kids. That's how the show ended, also debuting in 1974 Sunday, Monday, happy days, Wednesday, happy days, Friday.
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Happy
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days. My you guys, I love how the shows so far that we're starting with our good times, happy days, you can see, but you can also kind of see, like what I was talking about earlier. ABC is really banking on America's craving for wholesome family broadcasting, right? And they found it in 1974 again, with happy days, which was born out of a vignette on one of our other favorite shows. For
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me,
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yes, what was the word you learned from love? American style, Kristen. Oh, a nightcap. Nightcap. Did you want to come in for a nightcap? Here? Put it on your show that I swear I have zero idea how I was allowed to watch it at a young age, but I loved it, and I felt so naughty, I didn't understand half of what was happening, but I knew that it was like adult
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so Happy Days aired for 11 seasons and 255
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episodes, and as we all know, firmly staked a claim in television history, as well as the hearts of All of us, us, Gen X, who were lucky enough to be there for all of it, regardless of if I was watching it in 1974 or not, I know all the episodes from season one still too. Listeners, if you loved Happy Days and you want to hear us chat a lot more about its evolution, we have a great episode devoted to it. It's episode 82 and it's called these Happy days are yours and mine. And I don't know about you guys, but it's one of my favorite conversations we've had, because Happy Days was not simply a favorite show of mine, but it was really a very impactful one in my coming of age, which I talk a lot about in that episode. You guys are not in you remember that i.
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And we all have really special and I would say meaningful stories associated with happy days that we all share in that episode. So listeners go back to Episode 82 Yeah, I would say there's two or three shows that I'm the most grateful for. 1974
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spawning and Happy Days is definitely one of those three, absolutely, and it went for so long that it was a part of so many people's childhoods, right? I think you guys remember that I shared in that episode that I felt the death of my childhood in quotation marks, was the night that I watched the series finale. Yeah, that's what I was talking about that was your story that was super so it really defined my childhood, I would say, in terms of television, the whole thing, yeah, whole childhood, exactly. It was all encompassing. Yeah, it was so important to us, because all of those characters were growing up alongside us a show that's on that long. You got to watch these characters truly go from young, either children or young teens, tweens to adults. Yeah, yeah. Another show that was definitely a reflection of the culture and the times, but I'm gonna go on the record are saying is not really enduring, as far as could it work today? And that's Chico and the Man. Things will be made
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up. Oh yes.
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They will. Patrico, did
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you I did you love it? Kristen, I do have memories of watching this show again, like I always say, probably at my dad's house, Chico and the Man, aired on NBC for four seasons, from september of 1974 to July of 1979 and it starred Jack Albertson as Ed Brown, or the man who was a cantankerous, I mean cantankerous and quite racist, widower, and he was the owner of a rundown garage in East Los Angeles. And then the beautiful Freddy Prince was Chico, so beautiful, so beautiful. And you guys, I went back and watched a couple episodes last week. The costume person on that show just hit it out of the park with him. With the jean is the tight jeans, the tight jeans. And, I mean, I'm talking in front and back, yep, and the silky shirts, and maybe with a silky scarf tied around his neck
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and
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the mustache. Yes, I think I didn't know what sexy was, but I was responding to the sexiness. Of course, you were you were 40. You were 35 I was in 1970
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anyway, so Freddie Prince, obviously, he's Chico who is an optimistic young Mexican American who comes in originally looking for a job.
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Did you guys know of Cheech and chongs connection to this show? No, okay, this is so interesting. I just I learned this last week as well. So they say that the series creator followed Cheech and Chong on tour for three months, and he based this whole show on a couple of their skits. And I guess he actually asked them, Cheech and Chong to be part of the show, but they declined, saying they wanted to stick to movies. So this is, apparently, probably a lot of listeners are going, Yeah, we knew that, so we didn't know this. Yeah, I think that's I but I can see the influence,
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yeah, definitely, yeah. So I want to go back to the the thing I just said earlier, is this a show that could work today? I think we all can agree, no, because of the man's because of, you know, Ed's constant use, constant use of ethnic slurs. It's a very racist show I was watching, like I said, I watched a couple episodes, and I know we talk about this a lot listeners in some of our other episodes, but like movies that don't work today because they stay firmly in what life and our culture was like and what was acceptable in the 70s. And I will say, I found myself laughing at a couple, and then felt terrible not laughing. Like, Baha. It was a funny line that was written, but then I was like, oh, like, no, yeah, no. Or 180 degrees from that, like, as the words were coming out of his mouth, I just kind of wanted to turn it off. I was like, Oh no, this is very making me very uncomfortable, yeah, just shaming lots of different types of people, much like Archie Bunker. I think the racism was the point in that they were trying to shine a light on it, and yet we were laughing. But now we live in an era in which it's not acceptable to say things out loud, but they were exposing it, but we're but then did it also normalize it? I mean, it's all confused. It's very confused, I will say, though it made me realize and grateful for how far we've come since then, because I got to thinking these people were sitting in the writer's room, or, I don't know how many.
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Writers there were, but they were intentionally writing these things for him to say, to get laughs. And it's a live studio audience, because it's another one of the shows that when he walks in at the beginning, they it's very awkward now to watch it, because we don't have shows like this anymore. He walks in, he makes his entrance, be it ed or Chico. They walk in and they have to hold their pose and kind of do this kind of awkward staring at each other while the studio audience stops screaming and clapping and everything. Like one episode in particular, Chico walks in. He's coming back from vacation, and he's got his tennis racket, and the crowd goes so nuts that he stands there for like a full, like 20 seconds, and he's just kind of swinging his tennis racket. And I feel like that had to have been so awkward for him as an actor, to have to hold those moments. Tragically, we all know that Freddie Prinze shot himself in January of 1977
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which was during the third season. The last episode to star him was called ED Talks to God, isn't that weird, and was taped just several hours.
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Oh, God, I just got goose.
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There were only three episodes left in season three, so they just had other characters comment that Chico had gone to Mexico to visit his father to finish out season three, and then in season four, they do replace like I said, they do replace him, but with a 12 year old Mexican orphan named Raul. And in season four, they do mention Chico a handful of times. And in a two part episode, I read this because I didn't watch it at the time,
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there's a two part episode where Raul found finds Chico's things in a closet, and Ed finally breaks down and tells him that Chico is dead.
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Oh, heartbreaking, right? And they tried some other things in season four, they brought in Charo
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as an aunt. You know? They tried to do some things, but obviously it's not working. And also, the whole series is now shrouded in just so much sadness and so much I mean, he's the title character. It's in the title it's shocking to me that they would even consider keep going, keep going. That's shocking to me. Go back and watch, if you haven't in a long time. Gosh. Freddie Prinze, so he leaps off the screen at you. He's so full of life. He's so enigmatic, in a way, like he's he had that it factor, yeah, and so I feel like if he left the show, it'd be one thing if they tried to keep going, but because of the circumstances surrounding it, you have to just, almost out of respect. You have to just even if he had died in another manner, you could maybe consider going on in in doing that sort of goodbye type of show, but the way in which he died, it just illuminates how we treated suicide in the 70s, which was more like a crime and an embarrassment, as opposed to the tragedy that it is. And, you know, you can think about how people would say things like, oh my god, I'm gonna kill myself, or, you know, holding the pretend gun to your head. I What if I see people do that today? It feels so out of place. It feels so anachronistic. It's not something to take lightly at all. And I think people did take it lightly because it was something that somebody did to themselves, which we know is not true. Exactly. It's not true. And so I'm just so disgusted that they kept going, that they kept in, that would never happen nowadays, especially Christian with only three episodes left, it would have been so easy to just say wow, out of respect for him, for his family, for the situation. Yes, the season's over, right? The season's over. It's been another example of, you know, these it's about the profit and the money for a lot of these networks. And it's not, yeah, it's not about feelings and the right thing to do. It's Oh yeah, the successful show in the top whatever, and the Nielsen ratings. We need to keep going. And that makes me sad, and makes me sad today, that sometimes that's a choice that companies will make over the right thing to do, necessary and like it's so interesting now that I'm thinking about when I got that news. So much of the explanations that I got for things like that came from one person, and it was my cool aunt, the cool aunt who would talk to me about things, the coolant. Who did tell me that sunny and Cher were getting divorced, Buffy didn't get hit by a car, didn't get hit by a car. She also told me about Freddie Prince and she was serious. It's not that she wasn't serious, but she told me as if I was an adult, as opposed to trying to protect me from the truth. My parents never would have shared that with me, and they would have, you know, where's Chico? Oh, I don't know. He's in the bathroom, right? They would have made something up. And you know what's weird? Let's think of it. So 1977 I was seven when this happened. I do have memories of learning that Freddie Prinze had died. If you asked me, before I did some research for this episode, I.
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I would have said it was a drug overdose. So I knew that there was something
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like, you know, self inflicted about it. And I remember feeling like, really, like, scared, you know, and like, now that I'm thinking back on it like I I can't, I don't have great memories about it, but I'm feeling right now like I can remember feeling, having a really bad feeling around it, yeah, and so I must have somehow gotten that, gotten that news, yeah, I think it was maybe one of the first times I'd, I don't want to say I heard the word, but that I could, like, put the word with some person, character that I knew in my head it was real. It was real. It was just all these really mixed emotions, yeah, complicated and scary feelings, yeah, child to have to someone they watched about, and then the show keeps going. Like, how confusing must that have been for children turning on Chico and the Man, right? Oh, and that, the writers didn't think about that. The producers didn't. They didn't consider that when they were saying, Well, what should we do? Right? And so that's just, this is just another example of how we consider things today versus back in 1974 1977 actually, you guys, I'm just now thinking also, how awful of them to just say he's in Mexico visiting his father and brushing this very real thing in this very tragic, you know, event, under the rug, and then, as if that's not bad enough, you go through the whole summer. So kids that loved this show, especially young, you know, Mexican American kids loving this show. And this is a Chico Freddy Prince is a, you know, someone they looked up to. That's right, then, let's start again in September. And, oh, we're still saying he's in Mexico, because that two part episode doesn't come till later. We're still just ignoring the fact that Chico's not here. And here's this 12 year old Mexican orphan who's gonna bring, you know, let's bring in a cute little, you know, haha, you know, cousin Oliver in, yeah. Basically it is. It's a cousin Oliver. So they're ignoring this. They're telling kids, we don't talk about this, basically, and that's very 1974 if you think about it, we don't talk about this. We're gonna cross this over. No big deal. No big deal. Carolyn. Is our next show gonna lift us out of this? I think so. This is Jim Rockford at the tone. Leave your name and message. I'll get back to you The Rockford Files. Hey hotshot. Who are you? Emmy Award winner, James Garner stars as Jim Rockford back on the case. My regular rates, ex con graduate of San Quentin seven years ago, turned private investigator. I don't do anything dangerous with the habit of attracting the toughest cases. There's a killer walking around and the biggest trouble.
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Can't you just picture that shows opening right, that iconic theme songs.
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Remember, if you guys remember, in our TV theme song episode, we talked about that song, Mike Post, our TV theme song patron saint. You
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it reached the top 10 of billboards 100 and actually won a Grammy for Best Instrumental arrangement, so that just that opening is so memorable, and every high school band through the 80s at halftime during the football game, and every high school cheerleader in the 80s has done a little. I've done so many little, you know, eight count routines to that it's or you hear it in the basketball, you know, in the basketball game's going on, yeah, yeah. And let's also say that we've talked about all of these shows have such memorable theme songs again, you know, we talk about today and just the demise of the theme song, and how that in and of itself, not even the characters, not even the plots of the shows, anything, those theme songs can be such cultural touchstones for us. So hats off to Mike Post and that iconic theme song that lives on in our mind. And also you guys who could not love Jim Rockford, okay,
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he was not this bulky, serious, you know, Private Eye. He was witty. He could be both tough and vulnerable and often at the same time, like kind of wanted to be my uncle or something. That's how I felt about Jim Rockford. He was just really, really likable. And beyond that, I want it so we love Jim Rockford. What else from that show stands out in your memory as iconic? The car? Okay, we got the car. Good job. I always thought he was handsome. Oh, for sure, handsome, even as a child. This was definitely not a show that we watch. I only know of Rockford Files, just from it being an iconic show and everything. I don't know that I can truly say I've watched more than, you know, maybe two or three in my whole life, but it's so iconic that, yeah, you know it. But as far as, like, what else I remember, besides the car and again, I too, was not a watcher of the show, which makes it a little confusing for me, because what I'm my answer to your next question is, Mariette Hartley, was she?
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Actually on the show, are they just in the camera commercials together? I have a whole rabbit hole, as you can imagine, on Mariette Hartley, but that would be a great one for an ADS episode. Yes, that's true, so save it. Yeah, do any of you remember kind of where you lived? Where's the office trailer
Unknown Speaker 35:20
iconic? Well, in my mind, it's iconic, and it was built on a soundstage, so it wasn't an actual like trailer they were filming in. And after the show ended, they actually used that trailer and other TV productions. And it got me wondering. You guys not might not remember this, but and champions a love story one of the coaches, he lives in a trailer. For those who don't remember champion love story was a movie of the week starring my celebrity crush and now friend James Vincent Nicole,
Unknown Speaker 35:55
and I remember so much about that show. But yes, I also remember the trailer, and I'm wondering now, do we that remember the trailer? Yeah, be the same trailer as Rockford. I'm gonna have to go back and maybe compare this inside of this trailer was used on many TV productions because it was built on a soundstage. It's not a real trailer, but you're right, the interior might be the same. Don't you remember? It was so groovy. Also, some fun facts about the Rockford Files. The show's writing is often credited with its success, and oftentimes the writers would maybe run out of ideas. They would ask the crew, so they were like cameramen, and maybe, you know people that, what are they called the craft people? Who are the people that do that? Yes, craft services. They might have added some plot lines, but it's interesting to know that David Chase, who is the creator of The Sopranos, his first writing gig was on The Rockford Files, really, yes. Okay, that's interesting that. So that's what? 35 years prior? Yeah, or 3030, years prior. So he worked hard to get up to that. Sopranos, it takes 30 years. Yeah, everybody remember that. But also, sadly, the show ended abruptly, actually, in the middle of its sixth season, because James Garner did a lot of his own stunts. He was known for enjoying doing his stunts. Have fun doing them, but obviously they're going to take a toll on you physically. So midway through the sixth season, he asks to take a leave of absence for some health reasons. And again, these corporate whatevers, Universal Studios, gets a little bit annoyed and is like, I don't you know that's not gonna happen. And they have this like legal battle, and then they say, forget it, and they just cancel the show. They don't even give it like any kind of an ending. It just ends. It just stops. Yeah, we don't get another fake Jim Rockford. We don't get some other actor cast in the in there anything and yeah, and that was sadly, the end of that wonderful show.
Unknown Speaker 38:14
You know what else came to us in 1974 Rhoda came to us starting in 1974
Unknown Speaker 38:20
Rhoda leaves Minneapolis and her beautiful apartment, the house that she shared with Phyllis and Mary Tyler Lamar, and she leaves her job as a window dresser at hempels apartment store, and she moves back to New York City, where she gets re enmeshed with her traditional Jewish family, including her mother, Ida Morgenstern, played by Nancy Walker and her sister, Brenda, played by Julie Cavender, whose voice will forever be recognized as that of Marge Simpson. There will never be another voice more recognizable, I think, than Marge Simpson, Brenda, aka Brenda, right? Brenda Morgenstern, the other standout character, at least in my six year old mind,
Unknown Speaker 39:01
Carolyn. So hard right now is Carlton, a doorman
Unknown Speaker 39:07
who you never saw but you only heard on the intercom, always preceded by Hello. This is Carlton your doorman,
Unknown Speaker 39:16
which we clearly thought was hilarious. I loved it. I played Carlton the doorman sometimes, because we had an intercom.
Unknown Speaker 39:24
It was so 70s. We had one of those new tone, you know,
Unknown Speaker 39:29
I wanted one of those in my house. Oh, badly. My friend Kristen had one, and it was the the joke for all the six year olds was when Rhoda would ring the buzzer and say Carlton, and he'd say, Hello, this is Carlton your doorman. We're like she knows. She knows. She just said your name.
Unknown Speaker 39:48
Yes, this is Carlton your doorman. Yes. Carlton won well. And there we have another catchphrase, right? Yes, we do another 1974 catchphrase. So Carlton was voiced by.
Unknown Speaker 40:00
Lorenzo music, who was not an actor, but just a writer for The Mary Tyler Moore Show. But more importantly, that Carlton, your doorman voice got him the gig as the voice of Garfield
Unknown Speaker 40:12
that went on forever.
Unknown Speaker 40:16
One of the most random facts we've ever he is Garfield. Carlton, your doorman is Garfield. Oh my gosh. So Rhoda was the first spin off of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and made history in its first year when they broke ratings records with episode number eight, the one where sad single Rhoda finally gets married to Joe Gerard. Rhoda was getting married. So excited, I didn't know that was must see TV for my family. That was like we all gathered around, probably, popcorn, yes, yes, and she was getting married before Mary. I mean, who to thunk? Right? 52 million people tuned in to see this event. Which was the highest TV high the highest rated TV episode of the 70s. It was second overall out of all TV episodes, second only to the I Love Lucy episode where little Ricky is born. Wow. Can you believe that? And we all remember what happens? Phyllis forgets to pick up Rhoda for her wedding, and she ends up running through the city in her wedding dress, riding the subway in her wedding dress. Carolyn is like, I just watched that one, like, a year ago when we were doing research for something else. It's such it's so classic. I mean, you can hear the theme song and watch her like you said, the crosswalk. She's running through the crosswalk, going,
Unknown Speaker 41:39
we all know it, right? So did you know that CBS Studios was inundated with wedding gifts for Rhoda and Joe sent in by viewers?
Unknown Speaker 41:52
I'm trying to think is that, just like, cute? Are there people like, oh, that's kind of weird though, that, I mean, they're living in
Unknown Speaker 42:00
they went shopping. Think about that. They went shopping to pick out a gift. Do they think that they were really getting married? I mean, you gotta Oh,
Unknown Speaker 42:11
stuff, yes. They had to mail a package to CBS Studios. They went shot. They went to Macy's or imagin place setting Donaldson's. Yeah, they got a place setting, and they've packaged it, and they spent money to send it to CBS Studios. If everybody ask your mothers, if your mothers did this, we want to hear from you and want to hear it, because we knew these were fiction characters, right? Yeah, yeah, it could have been grandmas. So unfortunately, the marriage was a quick one. It only lasted a couple of seasons, and then we watched Rhoda go through a divorce, and the show became about Rhoda being a single gal once again, right back where we started. And the creators did that on purpose, because they were like, Uh oh, we've just given the audience exactly what they wanted, and now there's no comedy left. Rhoda has lost the thing that made her funny, but audiences did not agree. And post divorce, the show started losing viewers, and they canceled it midway through its fifth season in 1978
Unknown Speaker 43:11
it turns out that we were really happy for Rhoda and we really wanted it to work out. And I remember being very tense during those divorce episodes. I mean, I have to give them credit for shining a light on on what was happening in our culture at that moment. It was a very real thing that was happening
Unknown Speaker 43:28
and showing the reality of it. That was a service. But I remember being very tense. I had just recently learned about divorce via the sunny and Cher show, and I remember those scripted arguments between Rhoda and Joe, and Joe. And I remember the moment in the middle of an argument when they decided that it was over, that they should get a divorce. It was very serious. Yeah, it was, it was sad. I like, I love David, bro, yeah, with his curly hair,
Unknown Speaker 43:56
has to be, of course, like Mary and Rhoda. These were these strong women characters that we kind of grew up knowing, kind of not necessarily knowing another way, kind of that second wave feminism that you referred to Kristen, and that flows into our next show that's celebrating its 50th anniversary. And actually, I really loved this show. We are talking about police woman. I it.
Unknown Speaker 44:29
This is Angie Dickinson as Sergeant Pepper Anderson.
Unknown Speaker 44:37
I did too pepper. I feel like I named my Barbies when I would play,
Unknown Speaker 44:42
she was big on going undercover. You know? She was always like, she might be a prostitute or something like that. She could take on a lot of different characters that obviously a male couldn't take on. But this is one of the first police drama shows that had a female lead character. Okay. Oh, wow. I know that is kind of.
Unknown Speaker 45:00
Shocking. So Angie Dickinson, she got that role you guys when she was in her 40s. Okay, oh, I know that she's defying age and beauty standards at the time, not to mention her character, which is defying standards that we have come to know in television. Okay, so the show tackles some really serious issues of the time. It tackles sexism, discrimination. There's domestic violence, drug abuse, all of those social issues that are affecting us at the time. Angie Dickinson, pepper Anderson is taking care of if you remember her superior was a male, and
Unknown Speaker 45:35
he has great roller skating skills. That would be Earl Holloman. And if you are wondering why we know that he takes a few spins around the disco roller rink in the chips disco episode, yes, I just say we're gonna do an episode on someday. Girl Holloman,
Unknown Speaker 45:54
remember, there's like the announcer on the episode announcing. Here it is Melissa Sue Anderson
Unknown Speaker 46:06
Brenda Vaccaro, and
Unknown Speaker 46:09
I don't think has roller skates on. Somebody does not, I hope not. Victor just tries to look buzzy,
Unknown Speaker 46:15
just like in her socks, and then she's like, a foot shorter than everybody,
Unknown Speaker 46:21
guys, I'm sorry that was true, like they pair people up where it's like Ruth buzzy and Todd Bridget.
Unknown Speaker 46:31
We're gonna do this episode someday, and this is what happens. It's gonna be you making announcements and us laughing.
Unknown Speaker 46:38
Oh my goodness. But for us, Gen Xers, you guys, this show really helped shape our views on gender equality and women's roles in society, and the show is actually credited with the increase in women pursuing careers in law enforcement. Oh, yes. And when some sociologists have done research and they've interviewed women that are in the field currently, a majority of those women cite this show as being a factor as to why they went into the field of law enforcement. Okay, I just got contop, yeah, talk about having a lasting impact, right? Kidding, exactly. And we've talked about, I think we talked about this before in our Charlie's Angels episode, but police woman kind of laid the groundwork that females could have these lead roles and be in, you know, detective work, police work. They could have these police dramas that focused on females. And so, yeah, we have Sergeant Pepper Anderson to thank for the a lot of the females that are in for Cagney and lace, yes, or Rizzoli and aisles, which is, you can add that to one of my dad's favorite shows. It's the view and the Waltons and rosolian isles, yeah, find it, and he appreciates strong women does well, yeah, too, if he has Kristen as a daughter, right?
Unknown Speaker 47:52
And last fun fact was one of Gerald Ford's favorite shows. And once, Gerald Ford rescheduled to a press conference so he could watch policewoman, because it was the old time he caught.
Unknown Speaker 48:07
Stream it, record it. I can't do this press conference right now. Sorry, everyone. Sorry.
Unknown Speaker 48:19
Could be one of the best Fun Facts you've ever had.
Unknown Speaker 48:25
These shows left a lasting legacy in many ways, but sadly, there were some shows that didn't make it past one season, although you might have left some lasting legacies as well, and we're going to talk about some of those right now. These shows did not leave a lasting legacy, because only Carolyn and I remember them, but they did leave a lasting impression on us. I'm going to represent all of you listeners who have never heard of these shows. This show lasting impact for me from the kind of house I wanted to live in when I grew up, we are talking Apple's way. I loved it so much. And there's reasons that Kristen and I love this so much, and I would say we bonded over this because one of our favorite TV writers, producers of all time, wrote this show, Earl Hamner. Yes.
Unknown Speaker 49:14
The guy did not know this was an Earl Hamner show.
Unknown Speaker 49:19
Yes, no one. Oh, you guessed that. Well, I was thinking of who bonded you guys. Yes, we bonded over Earl hammer. I mean, she had me at earlhamder and Apple's way. I mean, those were the two things that Kristen and I knew that we were going to be together forever because get married. Fondness for Earl and Apple's way. So you guys, Apple's way. For those of you who might not remember this wonderful show, it starred our dear friend, and I can say that honestly now, because she is our dear friend, Christy McNichol, this is one of her first drum dramatic roles, and she was little. She was a little girl. I love little. Christy McNichol, this is pretty family, right?
Unknown Speaker 50:00
Yeah, oh yeah, really little, because the first season of family, she's just a little nugget, yes? Well, this is pre nugget. I mean, she is super little, and it follows the Apple family as they leave fast paced Los Angeles and their lives there for a quieter existence in the small town of Appleton, Iowa. Now, hold on, I'm just, I'm just learning that their name was apple. Oh, that's right, because the town, I think, was named after their family, like, this is the family, like, had this, yes, yeah, they had this lasting legacy in Iowa already. Just the things you've said, This is a show I would have loved. This is a show I have to find. So this is going to be Carolyn. I'm going to give this mission to you find out where I can watch it. Thank you. I will do that. I remember asking my mom, because I was so fascinated with the fact that their last name was Apple, that was very endearing, right? And then the wife would call the husband Apple, I'm like, but his last name is apple. And my mom would say, sometimes we call each other by our last names, and so she would call him Apple,
Unknown Speaker 51:03
her husband. Well, I don't remember that as much Kristen, but what I do remember is where they lived. Oh, I keep going. Oh, I'm so sorry. I apologize. I gotta stop. That's okay, because who didn't want to live in a converted gristmill? I don't know who didn't, because I had
Unknown Speaker 51:21
a water wheel. Yes, it was I wanted a list thing, yes. And if I'm not mistaken, Kristen, wasn't he an architect? Yes, he was an architect, yes. And he designed their house. So this is Ronnie Cox. If you guys all remember Ronnie Cox, he designed the grist mill. Well, he designed how to convert it into a house,
Unknown Speaker 51:41
to a beautiful house that I that I wanted very bad. It's kind of like it felt like a tree house to me, because Didn't you have to go up stairs to get there and and they were kind of on a farm outside a lot, kind of like they got on parenthood. Yeah, I don't think either one of you mentioned that house and our TV homes episode, we did look at their faces
Unknown Speaker 52:02
like so faces. I'm gonna have to go back. And that was a big one. That was maybe the first time I was like, I want a house with a water wheel I gotta have. I guess they expected it to last for more than one season, because Kristen owns a lunchbox. They had merch. Apple's way had merch. I think they had high hopes for it. I know Earl Hamner did. He was very sad that it ended. He did say that it was a wonderful, warm show. It was a show that dealt with real problems and real people, but it was a victim of its time, and I think part of that was the shows it went up against, and it got switched around a lot. I think it maybe had some different time slots. But I found out that it was, it had to compete with The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Sometimes Manny and the professor, which we know Kristen, enjoyed that show and Sanford and Son. So it was probably hard for it to find a audience that stuck with it. But we, we stuck with it. They had family values. We had a small town America being portrayed. It was almost nostalgic in some ways. We talk about a throwback to some of our, you know, happy days, some of those shows. But the good news is, I do believe we can find it, and I will put where you can find it in our show notes, because it has developed a cult following. It has, Oh, good. I'm so happy to hear that everybody needs to try it. Everybody needs to try it. And then everybody weigh in and tell us what you think of Apple's way, please. And I think you'll recognize a lot of the people that not only star in it, but that are also guest stars. So enjoy Apple's way. The next show that lasted for only a season that nobody has heard of except for me and my brother. I think so. The show was called Dirty Sally, which that alone makes me I just, I love when I just say dirty Sally. I'm trying to, is it a Western or is she a motorbike writer?
Unknown Speaker 53:49
Right now, everybody paused your listening devices, and I want everybody to come up with three different possible scenarios. Yeah, this show is about and that matters, and I'll tell you why in a bit. So this was a show that only aired for 14 episodes in 1974 but somehow made a huge splash at my house. My brother, seriously, he would have been three years old and I was six, but we were huge fans, so clearly we had no limits on our screen time. So dirty Sally was exactly that she was a bedraggled old crone with a dirty mouth, who dressed in rags and had a mule named worthless who wore a hat.
Unknown Speaker 54:30
I'm sad, right? A mule with a hat? Yes, she had a mule, and that mule wore a hat. And I am all in if you have a pet mule with a hat, I mean, what I'm gonna be there. So someone described her as a crusty old junk collector, which is, I think that's accurate. She had a rat's nest of wiry gray hair, a face all wrinkled up like a prune, and she sounded a little bit like granny from the Beverly Hillbillies.
Unknown Speaker 55:00
Me, tell me the actress who played her, because I'm gonna post a picture of dirty Sally and it will who screwed you people like crazy, because I saw it, and I had not thought of dirty Sally since 1974
Unknown Speaker 55:12
I, like my brain came out my ear. We my brother and I would play dirty Sally all the time. Yes, we. Did
Unknown Speaker 55:20
you make your brother be the mule? Did you put a hat on his phone and write him? I don't actually remember. That's a really good question. I'll have to ask him. So what I didn't know until two days ago is that dirty Sally was a spin off of Gunsmoke. I had no idea. NO IDEA dirty Sally had guest starred on a handful of episodes of Gunsmoke, and they got truckloads of mail from viewers after every episode of dirty Sally, people loved her and her mule with a hat, so they gave her her own Sally. Or do they call her dirty Sally? Call her dirty Sally? Oh, that's so 74 dirty Sally. Yeah. The ad for dirty Sally in the TV Guide describes it like this new show. Take a scrappy old dame, Team her with a young ex gunfighter. I don't, I don't remember the gunfighter, but he was played by Dak Rambo, who you might remember from Dallas, and all my children, yeah, other things, right? Oh, totally. Turn them loose, helping troubled folks in the turbulent West. And you've got a delightful, light hearted new series from the creators of Gunsmoke. Dirty Sally is good clean fun.
Unknown Speaker 56:27
Get it? Oh gosh, but despite all of the fan mail that dirty Sally got on Gunsmoke and my brothers and my undying love for her and the Emmy nomination for Jeanette Nolan who played dirty Sally, no joke, the show only lasted one half of one season. It is so weird that something could be so fleeting and so memorable at the same time. They even had a dirty Sally character in the Ice Capades show that I went to that, no, yes, they did.
Unknown Speaker 56:57
It was like the demolition derby version of the ice cabinets. That's what it was. And when we saw dirty Sally, we lost our minds. But you know what? Even as much as we loved her, I guess other people didn't love dirty Sally as much as they loved San Ferguson, which is the show that it was up against. So another show that that was a victim of San Ferguson, but also pop culture historian Dave Sundstrom, who has a YouTube channel. You guys have maybe come across him. He has another theory. He thinks the name dirty Sally made people think this was some kind of adult entertainment. And I think you might be right. When did Dirty Harry come out? Oh, yeah, when did dirty that's a good question. I'm guessing Dirty Harry was like 73
Unknown Speaker 57:42
okay, copyright, I don't know that in 74 I would have thought, is this a motorcycle movie? But yeah, those were my two thoughts, that there was a lot of dust, and so it was a Western, or she's riding a motorcycle, and she looked like a prune. So I could not watch dirty Sally this week for research, because there is no video evidence of his existence on anywhere on the internet, which is rare you guys, you can find everything. But there is someone who recorded the show with a little Panasonic tape recorder, you know, like you did when you were a kid, when you just recorded it, yes, like you recorded the Fitzpatricks. So somebody did that, like we all did, and he put that audio on YouTube, which is like a testament to his childhood for all of us to enjoy. It's mostly like me, but your dad going friend,
Unknown Speaker 58:33
I mean, but that's all there is of dirty Sally, oh, I need to mention one other shows that falls into the crime fighting whodunit private investigator detective show that started in 1974 I'm gonna blow your mind right now. This was really one of the most important additions to the new fall lineup in 1974 and that was Hong Kong Fu,
Unknown Speaker 58:59
another show that came to us thanks to the year 1974 it is the much beloved and casually racist Hong Kong phooey. Hong Kong foie was. It was a Hanna Barbera cartoon. It was voiced by Scatman Crothers. Do you remember? Okay, by the way. Do you remember when Scatman Crothers was on The Love Boat and he taught Julian McCoy how to play the spoons? Do you remember that? I think so. Yeah. I think so. Staring at me, yeah, I know the name Scout man Crothers. I wouldn't have known he was a spoon playing. Oh no, wait, maybe it wasn't the spoons. It was like the Hambone. Oh yes, he taught her to do the ham bone. Okay, I'm evolving. Yep. And she thought she was so cool, but she wasn't okay. Anywho Hong Kong. Phooey was a dog who masqueraded as a janitor until his superhero skills were called upon, at which point he would jump in the bottom drawer of a file cabinet and pop out the top drawer of the file cabinet dressed as a kung fu fighter Hong Kong, Fu. So it also only lasted one season. No, not even, not even one season it aired. You guys, this is crazy. It aired from September to December. It's.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:00
1974
Unknown Speaker 1:00:01
that's it 16 episodes. But in children's programming, that doesn't matter, because it gets rerun ad nauseam and through all through the 80s.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:12
Listen, yeah, yes. And because anytime we post on social media, Saturday morning cartoons, and I need to find images, and I'm googling, you know, cartoons of the 70s, Hong Kong phooey is right up there with all with the Scooby doos and the Looney Tunes. And so that's really interesting to me. Yes, well, remember Hong Kong Fu he drives a fui mobile, which can turn into a plane or a boat, whatever you need, and he often has to consult his correspondence course manual on kung fu to know how exactly he should fight the current crime of the moment. Yeah, he had a correspondence course on Kung Fu, and then he becomes a superhero, like a quasi racist superhero. There are a lot of like sort of things that are that we thought were acceptable back in the 70s that are not.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:59
Was one of those, oh yeah, I mean, Tyler taking Asian stereotypes and putting him on a dog.
Unknown Speaker 1:01:06
Number one, super guy, Hong
Unknown Speaker 1:01:11
Kong.
Unknown Speaker 1:01:13
He's got style of groovy style and A pod that just won't stop when they're going disrupt these stupid dogs with a Hong Kong jump. Oh, okay, so there's another show in this sort of the same vein as Hong Kong fui that lasted a lot more than just 16 episodes. It was so long lasting that it actually got turned into a movie, and that is Shazam. Oh, I loved Shazam. He was so, you guys, I am so confused, because the show is called Shazam, and I, until yesterday, thought that was the superhero's name. I thought he was named Shazam, but no, Shazam is just the word that the kid says to turn into Captain Marvel. Am I the only one who is surprised by this? I knew his name wasn't Shazam, but I don't remember what I knew he turned into a superhero, but I would have not remembered what his name was. This is what Wikipedia says the program was about Billy Batson, a teenage boy who can transform into the superhero Captain Marvel by speaking the magic word Shazam with his guardian named mentor, which is kind of creepy. Billy travels the country in a 1973 dodge open road motor home looking for injustices to resolve.
Unknown Speaker 1:02:27
I, till yesterday, thought his name was Shazam. I did too, till you're just telling me that. Thank you. Well, because another thing Don't you remember, wasn't it this Shazam ISIS hour? Yes, in 1975
Unknown Speaker 1:02:40
it turned into the shazam ISIS hour, and that included the secrets of ISIS, which was about an ancient Egyptian superheroine resurrected in the body of a school teacher, right? And wasn't her name? ISIS, yeah, her name is ISIS. So that's probably why I thought his name was Shazam and ISIS, yeah, yes, but I have to read you some of the episode synopses that were on Wikipedia, because you will just die. This is something I've never seen before. It lists the premise of the episode followed by the moral like, moral colon. Literally, moral colon. Okay, so for instance, in episode one called The Joy writers, a young man must figure out what to do when his friends insist on stealing cars and going on joyrides moral colon, it is important to do what you know is right and not get conned into doing something dumb just because somebody calls you names. Here's episode two, which I totally remember, and you'll know why it's called the brothers. Chad is a blind boy who is being overly protected by his older brother, Danny. Chad feels so useless that he decides to run away, and when his brother goes after him, Danny gets bitten by a rattlesnake. No, yes, I think I remembered that too. Chad gains self confidence after he is able to make it back to Billy, aka Shazam, okay, but you got moral colon. Moral colon. Everyone needs a helping hand. People with problems or handicaps can get along almost as well as any of us. All they need is a chance to gain self confidence. I think the moral should be always wear hiking boots.
Unknown Speaker 1:04:16
Episode Three is called Thou shalt not kill. Oh, yeah, a children's show, okay, Thou shalt not kill. When a woman dies, okay, there should be no dying in children's programming, leaving instructions in her will to destroy her horse.
Unknown Speaker 1:04:32
Yes, to kill her horse. Her niece tries to stop it. Captain Marvel and mentor must help her save the horse while working within the law. Moral or colon, today you saw how someone tried to solve their problem by breaking the law instead of working within the law. It isn't important for us to remember that laws are made to help us, and that when they stop helping us, they can be changed legally.
Unknown Speaker 1:04:59
Wow. Siri.
Unknown Speaker 1:05:00
It's but who in the writing room was like, Okay, what if we have this woman die and then she wants someone to kill her horse? Yes? And like, No, you can't kill the horse. I mean, what was happening.
Unknown Speaker 1:05:12
It obviously left a lasting impact. Because, like you said, Kristen, they made a movie, right? They made a movie. Did either of you see Shazam in 2019 No, but I do now remember in 2019 when the movie came out, I was very excited to see it, because my sister and I were big Shazam fans, chosen from among all others by the immortal elders, Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus Achilles, mercury, Billy Batson and his mentor travel the highways and byways of the land on a never ending mission to right wrongs, to develop understanding and to seek justice for all in time of dire need, young Billy has been granted the power by the immortals to summon awesome forces at the utterance of a single word.
Unknown Speaker 1:05:57
Well in 2009
Unknown Speaker 1:05:59
another one of our favorite Gen X Saturday morning shows that started, what premiered in 1984
Unknown Speaker 1:06:07
became a movie, I will tell you, though I don't think the movie was as iconic as the television show was, because this television show's lasting impact is huge, And I would argue that has almost become more popular and has more of a cult following now than it did in 1974 and that is Land of the Lost Marshall, the
Unknown Speaker 1:06:36
three of us, we're big Land of The Lost watchers slash fans. And man talk about being stuck somewhere. The Marshalls might have been stuck in the Land of the Lost, but this show is stuck firmly in the 70s.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:54
But but in the best way, right, like the sets, the storylines, the dialog, the animatronic dinosaurs, the sleaze stacks. It's so primitive and perfectly Croft brothers, 70s, so Land of the Lost. To refresh your memories, aired for three seasons. That's 43 episodes. And start our friends, and truly our friends, Wesley yer and Kathy Coleman as brother and sister, will and Holly Marshall Spencer Milligan as their Papa, as as Wesley stole calls him Phillip Paley Chaka and Ron Harper as uncle, Jack Marshall came on in season three, and we all know the crazy fun premise of the Marshall family, who was on just a little routine expedition, and their Yellow raft plunged down a waterfall into a whirlpool and found themselves trapped in a land full of dinosaurs, primate, primate people called the pakuni. That's what Jackal is. Yeah, an alien like insect people called what sleaze DAX.
Unknown Speaker 1:07:56
They were so scary. Oh, my God.
Unknown Speaker 1:07:59
Like honestly, I think if you ask children of the 70s who were already watching it, to name, you know, five things that you know on television that terrified you sleaze snacks comes up for everybody. Oh yeah, number one. And if you watch it now, it's hilarious that that's what scared us. But like I said, this show, it both mesmerized and scared the crap out of us 70s kids. And it's such a pop culture, culture treasure that, like I said, in 2009 there was a feature film remake starring Will Ferrell. We know that Will Ferrell made the movie Land of the Lost because he loved Land of the Lost. He has used Land of the Lost references in other movies that he's done, and there's one movie where he is, Dr will and Holly, like Martha
Unknown Speaker 1:08:45
will and Holly, Dr will and Holly. So brilliant. I never knew that. Oh my gosh, that. Now I'm gonna have to go watch all the Will Ferrell movies and see if I can pick up on that. Let's keep talking about some children's programming. The good news is this, this came out on DVD, so if you can't find it anywhere else, you can find the Partridge Family 2200 ad on DVD. Oh, thank God.
Unknown Speaker 1:09:08
It was kind of short lived as well, but it lives on and DVD. Do you guys remember watching the Partridge Family 20 280 Yes, probably in reruns, and it was like a mash up of the Jetsons and the Partridge Family 100%
Unknown Speaker 1:09:23
are you kidding? I have to I actually was joking about Christmas list starts now, actually getting my pen on, I would be all over something like that. Originally, the idea for this animated futuristic series was going to be the Jetsons kind of grown up and Jane was going to be like a reporter for the whatever, you know, stellar news or something.
Unknown Speaker 1:09:45
But they thought, Huh, why don't we look at following this popularity of this TV show called The Partridge Family and just supplant them here into 2200
Unknown Speaker 1:09:58
ad there's still going to be this music.
Unknown Speaker 1:10:00
Group, and they're still gonna have a manager, but they're also gonna have like a funky alien, like pets and things like that. So the original actors, Danny Bonaduce, Suzanne Croft and Brian Foster, they voiced their original characters of Danny, Tracy and Chris. Susan day did two episodes where she was Lori, but then she was replaced, Isn't that sad, by a voice actor who was actually an original Musketeer and went on to voice characters in Josie. And yes, that's right, she did a lot of stuff. We did not have any David Cassidy or Shirley Jones or anything like that.
Unknown Speaker 1:10:38
Again, short lived, but lucky friends, you can watch it on DVD, and I will get that info to you. All right, you guys, drumroll please. Yes. Without a doubt, the most important show to debut in 1974
Unknown Speaker 1:10:54
and maybe the most important show to debut at all While we were children, is
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Little House on the Prairie.
Unknown Speaker 1:11:30
It's so important to us personally that we have devoted several episodes to Little House on the Prairie. We have our traumas on the prairie, where we talk to our friend Raven stone, we've got our interview with Pamela Bob about her series, living on a prairie. Pamela Bob is now kind of the host yes of the little house podcast. Little House 50th year podcast, we have just a Little House on the Prairie episode that was one of our in our first season, that the three of us just talk about our love, yes, oh, in our interview with Karen greener, please, with Melissa Gilbert, yeah, Carolyn, you said that this probably is the most important show to debut in 1974 and you said it was, you know, maybe the most important for all of us, Gen Xers that debuted when we were children, even if you like, I said earlier, even if you were born in 1973 or you weren't born in 1970 born in 1976 you know this show you love this show. Little House on the Prairie was such a warm and cozy place to fall, no matter what our childhoods were like, despite all the fires and the wolves and the blizzards and the creepy townsfolk, despite all that it was, it was the solid family that we all wanted to be a part of. We've heard from so many of you saying that they played Little House on the Prairie all the time with their siblings, that they had their parents. You know, my sister and I, my mom made us for Christmas one year, we had long nightgowns with the little nightcaps, like she made us the nightcap that, yeah, that had the little plastic and the kind of the ruffle around it. We wanted to live with them. We wanted all of it. And I think that it was it was that, but also it was a show that had this really cool historical
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timeline and setting that we'd only read about if we'd read the books. And so it was also an imaginative escape for us. It wasn't like we could pretend. And we were all at ages where we still love to play pretend. So we could pretend to be pioneer girls and everything. It was like a make believe land in the best way. And I think that,
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you know, despite all the scary stuff, the core of that show was the love and the security of that family. And I think no matter what kind of family experience we were all having at the time. That was what we wanted. Everybody wanted that. Yeah, everybody wanted that, right? And we talked about, earlier in this episode, about a lot of the shows in 1974 kind of making some social commentary. And this was a perfect example, while it was set back in these pioneer days. And we could relate to that, like you just said, Michelle, wanting to dress up and those kind of things and play Little House on the Prairie. They were also able to weave in some very topical, current social issues of the day. And we can remember the episodes. There's about racism, there's some about drug abuse, sexual abortion, abortion, yes, yeah. I mean, some of this is done extremely awkwardly. Well, right? Michael Landon figured out how to make this happen on the prairie, right? We all bought it, and we knew that they were going to do the right thing because they had this moral compass. We have our fun, cute cards. What would ma do? What would pa do? Truly that, I think when we were growing up, what would Laura do? Like that was kind of what guided us. They helped show us at a time where there were a lot of things going on the right path to take, which I really appreciated, they always took the right path, right you can't have been a child in the 70s and not aspired to be part of that family or to just.
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Hold that family dear, right? And if you didn't, you're a monster.
Unknown Speaker 1:15:05
And speaking of family, I think so many of us watched it with our families. It had that intergenerational aspect to it, where we've had listeners share that they watched it with their grandmothers. So people have these really special memories of this show with who they watched it with as well.
Unknown Speaker 1:15:24
One cool fact I discovered when I was researching for this episode today, and another reason I love Michael Landon was that, did you know Little House on the Prairie was the only show that continued in production during the 1980 actor strike and writer strike? Well, how, how did that? Well, I wanted to know that too little house managed to continue filming because Michael Landon, acting as a representative for NBC, negotiated separate contracts with both the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild of America, and these agreements allowed the show to keep rolling while many other productions were shut down, and it's a remarkable achievement when it shows how dedicated he really was to keep the show going. Wow.
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And that also shows what kind of power he had. He was an incredibly powerful person. He did everything in that show. He was the writer, director, creator, producer, actor, a negotiator, union representative. I mean, he did the whole thing. He did and he did it well. This has been a wonderful anniversary party for 1974 there is so much to celebrate here, and so many of you listening were born in this momentous year of network TV. And if this is you, if you are a product of 1974 along with Little House on the Prairie and Hong Kong fui, congratulations to you. Welcome to your 50s. We three are proof that it can be one of the best decades of your whole life. If you're nervous about turning 50, or if you're not sure how you feel about it, please listen to us. This is big. You are entering the most autonomous decade of your life. There is heartbreak, for sure, where am I going with this Holy shit? Children grow up, they leave the nest. Parents get older and they need extra care, but you are at the peak of your creativity and your freedom. It's your turn. When that clock ticks over to the Big Five zero, grab it by the horns and say, it's my turn, bitches, let's do this. Thank you so much for listening today. Happy birthday to everyone turning 50, and we will see you next time. And if you've enjoyed this episode or any of our pop culture Preservation Society episodes, we would love for you to leave a rating or review on Apple podcasts or Spotify wherever you listen to podcasts, because those reviews and testimonials really help us rise in the algorithms and get our show exposed to more people. So we would really appreciate you taking the couple of minutes to do that,
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and today's episode was brought to you by a few of our newest wonderful supporters on Patreon. Did you know that our patrons not only get lots of exclusive bonus videos and goodies every month, but also get a shout out at the end of our episodes. They do because we cannot thank them enough for taking their support of our podcast to the next level and literally keeping the lights on, the mics on the lights on all of it around here. Yeah, so today's humongous thank yous are going out too.
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Linda Diane Richard, Laura Shannon, Jen Teresa Dawn, Pamela, Melissa, Rosa, Jenny, Susan and Christy. In the meantime, let's raise our glasses for a toast courtesy of the cast of Threes Company. And I don't think it's a coincidence that all of these shows in our toast came from 1974
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to good times two Happy Days to Little House on the Prairie. The
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information, opinions and comments expressed on the pop culture Preservation Society podcast belong solely to Carolyn the crushologist and hello Newman, and are in no way representative of our employers or affiliates. And though we truly believe we are always right, there is always a first time the PCPs is written, produced and recorded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, home of the fictional wjm studios and our beloved Mary Richards, Nanu. Nanu, keep on truckin and May the Force Be With You. You.