Even More Tunes
We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming — which is to say, the steady parade of reviews of obscure movies, to resume shortly — for another music post. Like last time, I’ve included a few tunes from the first album, plus a relatively new one from the second. Yep, I’m still slugging away at GarageBand in my spare moments, writing theme songs for TV shows that don’t exist. For example (as if it’s not obvious) “Junkyard Cats” is an imaginary animated 1970s comedy featuring the vocal stylings of Casey Kasem and Flip Wilson. Can you synopsize the other series?
Lisa Moore on 31 Jan 2010 at 11:15 am #
Pawn Shop–twilight zone, but a little seedier and hipper. Pawn shop is own by a Timothy Leery type, but british–Alan Bates? Show opens with someone pawning an object. After they leave, Alan holds the object up and we see its ’story’.
Lisa Moore on 31 Jan 2010 at 11:18 am #
Quitting time: Young housewife walks out of her bad marriage, steals her mean husband’s harley, and hits the road for adventure and crime solving.
Chris on 31 Jan 2010 at 11:19 am #
Nice, an anthology show! Hell, let’s make it Rod Serling, but in the mid-seventies…picture him with long hair and bellbottoms…
Chris on 31 Jan 2010 at 11:20 am #
Oops, lol — Rod Serling is not the young housewife…although that might be interesting!
Lisa Moore on 31 Jan 2010 at 11:31 am #
Haha! Yeah, Rod Serling with the side burns and a turtle neck shirt.
Michael Canfield on 31 Jan 2010 at 11:44 am #
Who could ever forget short-lived 1975-76 action drama “The Fixer” starring James Franciscus as professional problem-solver Chaz Kolterchack?
Franciscus, with his matinee idol looks, was somewhat miscast as the tough Chicago native transplanted to Los Angeles. George Peppard was offered and turned down the part, feeling it too similar to his earlier role in “Banachek.” Franciscus was then cast based on his success in the film “Beneath the Planet of the Apes.”
The series co-starred Teri Garr as girl-friday Cindy Darling.
Ulysses Jones, the street-wise teen the Kolterchak takes under his wing, was played by a young Mario Van Peebles, though he was twenty-two at the time.
Trivia:
During planning stages Francis Ford Coppola wrote two scripts, which he was slated to direct. He had to bow out of the project early-on the make “The Godfather,” and his scripts were substantially rewritten by Larry Cohen, (who also directed) and credited as by “Frank Cone.”
Larry Hagman directed the episode “Pick-me-up.” The name is ironic, since — though it aired second-to-last — this was the final episode of “The Fixer” ever shot. ABC decided not the pick the show up for a second season.
Jenn Reese on 31 Jan 2010 at 11:46 am #
You guys are brilliant!!! LOL!
Chris on 31 Jan 2010 at 12:11 pm #
Dude, that was inspired — I would totally watch that show.
(Chaz Kolterchack…LOL!)
Michael Canfield on 31 Jan 2010 at 12:11 pm #
I just found more trivia:
Controversy erupted during the production of the Harlan Ellison-penned episode: “The Howling of Coyotes in the Hills Above Brentwood is Like The Splintering of Opaque Bodkins Into the Chambers of Bagatino’s Crying Heart,” when Franciscus objected to the plot point that had his character fall into a coma in the episode’s teaser, and remain there until the tag. The body of the script focuses on Garr and Van Pebbles attempts to broker a peace between rival Hispanic gangs, “The Aztec Knights” and the “Hermanos del Sol.”
After a private meeting with Ellison, in which Ellison sat on Franciscus’ chest, bent the actor’s arm and forced him to slap his own face, all while repeatedly asking him, “why are you hitting yourself, why are you hitting yourself?” Franciscus agreed to Ellison’s vision of the episode.
A subplot involving Carr’s romantic involvement with one of the gang leaders, was cut by censors, Ellison then forced the producers to credit the resulting bowdlerized script to his pen-name “Cordwainer Bird.”
Chris on 31 Jan 2010 at 12:15 pm #
I tried to read that out loud to Jenn but I lost it…!