August 27 - September 2:

The Jeffersons Labor Day Neighbor Day Marathon (1975-85)
Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford
I love The Jeffersons and am so happy TVLand is starting to show it on weeknights. Another show I can actually watch without wanting to hurl!

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1967) (Episode: "The Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum Affair")
Robert Vaughn, David McCallum
Kuryakin stows away on a freighter to stop THRUSH baddies from using their tidal wave machine to flood costal cities in their unending quest to create worldwide mayhem. Solo, as usual, gets the (relatively) easy assignment of wooing the female THRUSH agent, but it gets harder after his true identity is discovered. Speaking of David McCallum, Paul has been playing David McCallum's "Music--A Part of Me" album in our Tiki Room this week and it's chock full of go go fabulousness!

August 20 - August 26:

Vanishing Point (1971)
Barry Newman, Cleavon Little
Since I'm obsessed with our upcoming road trip and wanted to watch a road trip film Paul suggested this one. Uh, okay. It's about a guy who bets his drug dealer that he can make it from Denver to San Francisco in fifteen hours in a Dodge Charger he's supposed to be delivering. Since he's driving like a maniac the entire way he has the entire highway patrol of the states of Colorado, Utah, Nevada and California after him until the unsatisfying and inexplicable end. Along the way he meets up with a nude blonde on a motorcycle, Jehovah's Witnesses having a revival meeting and an old guy who collects and sells snakes for a living.

Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii (1973)
Elvis Presley
Viewed at the Museum of Television and Radio, NYC. The first program ever to be beamed around the world by satellite, which seems fitting. From the white suit to the cheesy early-'70s video effects to the hairstyles on the audience members, plus a great Elvis performance, this is pure viewing perfection! As a bonus, the version I saw had the commercials intact (sponsors were Chicken of the Sea and Toyota).

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1967) (Episode: "The Deadly Smorgasbord Affair")
Robert Vaughn, Leo G. Carroll
Solo is in Stockholm at the request of an absent-minded professor who invented a suspended-animation device. Lots of go go dancing and Solo narrowly escapes death several times and saves the day even without Kuryakin to help.

August 13 - August 19:

Blue Hawaii (1961)
Elvis Presley, Joan Blackman, Angela Lansbury
Watched August 16, the 29th anniversary of the day Elvis left the building for good. In this one reluctant rich kid Elvis returns from a stint in the Army and decides to make his own way in life, rather than take a cushy job at his family's pineapple company. He finds plenty of time to sing and surf while squiring a group of teenage girls and their attractive teacher around as their tour guide. Sounds like a great life to me!

Legally Blonde (2001)
Reese Witherspoon, Luke Wilson
I love this goofy film and get a craving to watch it once a year or so. This time it made me think, not for the first time, that it must be nice to be filthy rich. Not that it would make life perfect, but it really couldn't hurt!

August 6 - August 12:

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1965) (Episode: "The Secret Sceptre Affair")
Robert Vaughn, David McCallum
Solo and Kuryakin go outside U.N.C.L.E.'s jurisdiction to help an old Korean war superior of Solo's to save a Middle Eastern country. Let's just say I wouldn't be surprised if that experience made them both a little more leery of helping old friends.

July 30 - August 5:

Lover Come Back (1961)
Rock Hudson, Doris Day
Hudson's extra-slimy in this tale about the cutthroat world of advertising. He gets the best of Doris at every turn, but she gets revenge when she strands him butt naked on the beach. She hates him, but they end up together in the end. After all, this IS Doris Day! Oh, yeah, her wardrobe and bachelorette pad bar are amazing!

UHF (1989)
"Weird Al" Yankovic, Kevin McCarthy
Okay, so I've seen this movie about 50 times. Zach was here and he'd never seen it so, being a big Kevin McCarthy fan, we decided he should. I never get tired of it. This time I particularly enjoyed the "Wheel of Fish" segment and the part where Al tosses the dog into the punch bowl.

He and She (1967) (Episode: "The Background Man")
Paula Prentiss, Richard Benjamin, Jack Cassidy
Viewed at the Museum of Television and Radio, NYC. Mom recommended I check this one out at MT&R and I loved it! It felt like sort of a cross between The Odd Couple and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Dick (Benjamin) is a cartoonist in NYC and Paula (Prentiss) is his wife and the show revolves around their lives and goofy friends, including Ted Baxter-esque actor Oscar North (Cassidy) and Kenneth Mars as the firefighter neighbor who always enters through the window. Paula is disturbed in this episode because Dick hired a pretty new assistant to draw the backgrounds for his cartoons--his new "background man." Zany mayhem ensues.

He and She (1968) (Episode: "45 Midgets from Broadway")
Paula Prentiss, Richard Benjamin, Jack Cassidy
Viewed at MT&R. "Jetman," Dick's comic book, becomes a Broadway musical and he makes the mistake of allowing Oscar to have the lead role. The talented TV star is a disaster in front of a live audience. The show, which seems doomed, is saved with much zany mayhem.

July 23 - July 29:

Send Me No Flowers (1964)
Rock Hudson, Doris Day
I love this film about a hypochondriac (Hudson) who misunderstands an overheard conversation and believes he's dying and his wife who thinks he's lying to cover up an affair. No, he's not cheating. He's too busy dramatically preparing for his final exit to even think of another woman. If only he could convince his wife of that!

The Ann-Margret Show: From Hollywood with Love (1969)
Ann-Margret, with guests Dean Martin, Lucille Ball and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band
Viewed at the Museum of Television and Radio, NYC. TV was just so much better back in the old days. In this variety special we were treated to A-M bopping down the San Diego Freeway in between cars in an op-art jumpsuit, reclining atop the backs of a bunch of mimes, singing and doing skits with Dean Martin and Lucille Ball and performing "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" aboard the USS Hornet for the USO. More and more she's becoming one of my two or three favorite actresses.

Gidget (1965) (Episode: "The Great Kahuna")
Sally Field, Don Porter
Viewed MT&R. Martin Milner guest stars as the Big Kahuna (Cliff Robertson played him in the movie), whom all the kids on the beach worship because of his wandering the world, follow-the-surf ways. Gidget develops a major crush on him, but loses interest when he decides to settle down, get a job and go straight. I don't blame her--his tiki hut on the beach was too fabulous!

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1965) (Episode: "The Mad, Mad Tea Party Affair")
Robert Vaughn, David McCallum
Security has been breached several different ways at U.N.C.L.E. headquarters in this episode and they need to get their acts together quickly, because they're hosting a big meeting of world leaders that night. Fortunately they do, and they manage to prevent their conference table, which has been topped with a volatile substance, from blowing up, no thanks to the THRUSH hack that infiltrated their operation. Guest star Lee Meriwether makes a deliciously evil THRUSH baddie.

July 16 - July 22:

The Nutty Professor (1963)
Jerry Lewis, Stella Stevens
I hate to admit it, since you could definitely put me in the category of those who, if not hateJerry Lewis, at least think he's irritating, but I really liked this movie! His professor character was so well-meaning and his lounge lizard character so oily that I had to like them. Plus, I loved the smoky bar the characters hung out in (the Purple Pit) and Stella Stevens is just too fabulous. She looked just like Sandra Dee as Gidget in this one.

Beyond the Sea (2004)
Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth
And speaking of Sandra Dee, I enjoyed this musical tale of the life of Bobby Darin (keep reading below and you'll see why I was interested to watch this one). I always get irritated in biopics when they play fast and loose with facts and I have to admit it annoyed me that they left out the fact that Darin and Dee divorced. That seems like a big thing to leave out. Otherwise I enjoyed it. Well, I enjoyed it as much as I could, knowing he was going to die way too young.

Horror of Party Beach (1964)
John Scott, Alice Lyon
Not surprisingly, neither of the two top-billed stars ever made another film. However, this one is truly a winner, combining two of my favorite genres, B-horror and beach party films! Dead sailors are reanimated as monsters that resemble martial arts practicing zombies with chicken heads and scaly sea monster bodies after radioactive waste is (deliberately) dumped into the Long Island Sound. Dr. Gavin, the scientist in town (Stamford, CT), discovers sodium will destroy them, but not until after they kill many teenage girls and a couple of drunken guys. The Del-Aires perform several songs on the beach, including the fabulous "Zombie Stomp." If only we could have seen this one at a drive-in in our Ford Fairlane...

Bobby Darin Show (1973)
Bobby Darin, with guests Redd Foxx, Nancy Sinatra and Seals & Crofts
Viewed at the Museum of Television and Radio, NYC. A fabulous variety show, filled with gems, such as Bobby and Nancy duetting on a sexed up version of "Light My Fire," Redd Foxx's stand-up comedy, which I didn't expect to be all that funny, but was a scream, Nancy's rendition of "Find Out What's Going On" in a sparkly, hot pink, fringed, midriff-baring jumpsuit and tons of songs by Darin, who still had it, even though he didn't look well and would pass away later that year at age 37. I hope MT&R has more episodes of this one.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1966) (Episode: "The Take Me to Your Leader Affair")
Robert Vaughn, David McCallum, guest star Nancy Sinatra!
It was Nancy Sinatra Day at the Lounge, first at MT&R, then at home! In this episode she guest starred as the kidnapped daughter of an astronomer who is the unwilling front for THRUSH baddie Simon Sparrow's evil plot to take over the world. Ilya was also kidnapped while trying to save her, so they spend a lot of time in seclusion together, while Coco (Nancy) hits on him repeatedly and tries to get him to go into the music business with her. Sublime!

The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1966) (Episode: "The Montori Device Affair")
Stefanie Powers, Noel Harrison
Alas, no Nancy in this one, but that's okay, because there was plenty of outrageous mid-'60s fashion, since U.N.C.L.E. was infiltrating a (THRUSH associated) designer's fashion show to find out where a meeting was going to take place where a lot of world leaders would be killed. It was a reunion for two Addams Family cast members--Ted Cassidy, who played one of the THRUSH henchmen and Lisa Loring, as the temperamental little girl who had the device both THRUSH and U.N.C.L.E. were looking for all along.

July 9 - July 15:

Matinee (1993)
John Goodman, Cathy Moriarty
I really enjoyed this film, set in 1963, about a shlock film director who visits Key West to open his latest masterpiece Mant ("Half Man! Half Ant! All Terror!"). The kids the plot is based around are fun and Mant, the film within the film, is absolutely hysterical.

One Step Beyond (1959) (Episode: "The Stone Cutter")
Joe Mantell, Arthur Shields, John Newland (host)
Viewed at the Museum of Television and Radio, NYC. I'd never seen this show, but was told I'd like it because of the shlock sci-fi, and I did! In this episode an old man is convinced he's going to die that day because the local gravestone maker carved that as his death date on his headstone. He'd done that before and the people had all died on the day the stone cutter predicted and our guy does, too. His son becomes so angry that he strangles the stone cutter to death. You guessed it: he looks over afterwards and sees his own headstone, with a death date about a year in the future on it--the day he's executed for killing the stone cutter.

One Step Beyond (1961) (Episode: "Eyewitness")
John Meillon, John Newland (host)
Viewed MT&R. A newspaper reporter in 1883, who would have no way of getting this information in a timely manner, experiences four severe blows, which knock him to the ground, and he reports that the Krakatoa volcano erupted, resulting in massive destruction. When no one else reports it and he can't explain how he got the information he gets fired in a very nasty fashion--until they learn he was right.

Love, American Style (1972) (Episode: "Love and the Happy Days/Love and the Newscasters")
John Astin, Kenneth Mars, Marion Ross, Ron Howard
Viewed MT&R. The episode that turned into the pilot for Happy Days, wherein the Cunninghams become the first family on the block to get a TV and suddenly have a lot of friends. The other segment involves two dorky local newscasters competing for the attention of a network representative, whom they hope will propel them to fame and fortune. Alas, both of their hopes are dashed when she chooses to promote Chicken Little, a guy in a chicken suit.

July 2 - July 8:

Paul's Creepy Theater
Paul was able to do one of the things he most enjoys, which is project Super 8 movies, at the Monsters for Charity Returns auction this past weekend. Some of the titles I got a chance to watch included Doom of Dracula, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Revenge of the Creature, The Mummy's Curse and Son of Frankenstein.

77 Sunset Strip (1960) (Episode: "The Fix")
Roger Smith, Louis Quinn
Guest star Mary Tyler Moore is in love with a boxer who might be a murderer. Spencer tries to help him, but it isn't easy, being that he's a thoroughly antisocial and unpleasant character. However, it's Mary Tyler Moore! She could never love a brute and all ends happily for the lovebirds.

Surfside 6 (1961) (Episode: "Race Against Time")
Lee Patterson, Van Williams, Troy Donahue
Someone poisons Thorne on a flight from NYC to Miami in the plane's lounge (Planes used to have lounges for flights that short?) and Ken and Sandy, working with the police, only have a few hours to find the antidote. Believe me, it's not easy when everyone's conspiring against you.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1965) (Episode: "The Fiddlesticks Affair")
Robert Vaughn, David McCallum
One of those episodes where the guys recruit a civilian, in this case a young and innocent woman on her first solo trek through Europe, to help carry out their THRUSH-destroying orders. Yes, she comes through!

Click here to see what we watched in June...

Click here to see what we watched in May...

Click here to see what we watched in April and early May...

Click here to see what we watched in March and early April...

Click here to see what we watched in February and early March...

Click here to see what we watched in January and early February...