A Link Dressed Up As A Nine

Oh boy did we have a fun show last week and we have the links to prove it. So let’s not blither blather, but get right to it!

First up, during the show – apropos of nothing – Ian brought up the Berenstain Bears and insisted that they are Jewish. They are not. Everyone knows that Jewish bears are one of the Lost Tribes of Israel. Well, everyone except Ian! Here’s a little proof of their goyishness:

And frankly it’s hard to get more goyish than overalls. My daughters loved The Berenstain Bears as children and they were great books to read at bedtime, but the series took a later turn into an uncomfortable preachiness with an unsubtle Christianity that can be off-putting.

Yes, God loves us. We get it! We get it! Yeesh.

Next up, Ian pays tribute to my one-word karaoke version of this song!

“FREEEEEEEEE…….” is how my version went. It’s also proof of why I never went very far in improv (or impro).

During our discussion of candy bars, I brought up this personal favourite, which is the “too much candy bar”:

(Wow, my first exposure to Chocolate Porn) Basically, the Cherry Blossom is the tar baby of chocolate bars, but I love it.

Ian spent some time talking about CBC kids’ shows from the early to mid-70s. Despite the fact that Ian is a year younger than I am, these shows seemed fresher in his mind than mine. Actually, I barely remember any of these shows. I think I played outside more than Ian did. The first one we talked about was Hi Diddle Day, which ran from 1968 to 1975. It was hosted by puppeteer Noreen Young and, Ian insists, featured puppets of contemporary political figures amongst its regular cast of animal-based puppets. The show I remember using Noreen Young’s caricature puppets was called What’s New. During the conversation, I asked Ian if the show featured mice who travelled in a balloon. Actually that show was called Nic ‘n Pic. I only saw a couple of those because it ran at the same time as Cub Scouts. We also talked about Pencil Box, which was an interesting show because it used a variety of different ways to tell stories written by children. Another show that used stories written by children was Homemade TV. And here’s an interesting fact: Phil Savath was a performer on Homemade TV and he later produced the show Switchback that Ian worked on as a teen! You see, it all comes around.

We also talked quite a bit about game shows. They were sometimes fun to watch when we were younger and we often turn back to them in times of stress. Shows like this:

Boy, that show seems like it would have been fun to do. It’s fun to watch too. (And Gene Raeburn had the greatest mic ever!)

I do remember Match Game, of course, but Ian mentioned a whole bunch of game shows I’d never heard of before. Here they are:

First up, the Canadian game show Super Pay Cards:

Tricky! I don’t think I would have fared better than the contestant on that show.

Canadian game shows are infamous for their rather lame prizes and their “celebrity” guests, but really who wouldn’t want some Pepperidge Farm products and some mysterious product with the attractive name Algemarin?

Here’s another Canadian game show, Definition:

Holy crap, is that girl on the left good looking. Good God! Anyway, what a fun show. It almost makes me sorry I had a life and never had the chance to see it. By the way, a car as a prize? That puts the lie to the whole lame Canadian game show prize cliché. Also, let’s hear it for Eighties fashions! Eighties fashions, everyone! Ugh.

Meanwhile, American game shows had a gigantic pinball machine!!!

I never saw this show either, but holy cow! (I still think it should have been called Tilt.)

For the longest time, I thought this show was fixed. Ian explained to me how it actually worked.

After watching this, I can say that my misunderstanding was based on the fact that I’d never watched it before – just parodies, I guess.

How come I know absolutely nothing about game shows? Because I preferred to watch talk shows! As a child I loved to watch Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas or Dinah Shore. I thought those shows were great. One of my favourite memories was seeing David Bowie and Iggy Pop on The Dinah Shore Show:

When I saw it, everything was in colour. (Sorry, only some of this is available in video, the rest is audio.)

Another interesting guest for me at the time was John Lennon on The Mike Douglas Show:

Oh man, LLennon was such a great interview! For no other reason than because I feel like it, here`s a great interview with Lennon in December of 1969 on the verge of the next decade:

I also enjoyed watching The Merv Griffin Show. Ian thought Mike Douglas sang “I’ve Got A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts”, but it turns out it was actually Merv.