Name that Movie Star Round #5

What actor (or actress) played a role in all of these films?

Six Degrees or Less Round 28

What is the shortest route from Amanda Peet to Evan Rachel Wood?

Hey You Guys!!!!

Sometimes I romanticize things from my childhood. I realize this is true. Yet, it doesn't really change the way I feel about certain songs, certain books and recently a TV program I'd quite forgotten. I have fond memories of Sesame Street and The Muppet Show and believe Jim Henson to be one of the geniuses of this world. Another program that aired on PBS during that same era was The Electric Company. Last spring I stumbled upon a reference to the show when I was doing a google search on Spiderman (don't ask) and I was immediately sucked back to the 70's and to the little bit of the show I did remember. Pretty much just the opening... Hey, You Guys! and the silent live action Spiderman segment and something to do with a giant gorilla???


Yesterday I watched The Best of The Electric Company (I think I watched disc one... which contained five epiodes) ranging from 1971 when the first show aired to the 6th season which was more like I remember it since it was in 1977. The show was aimed at reading... at the primary grade school age and it was a lot like Sesame Street in a vaudeville format. In fact, this show was meant to pick up where the other left off as far as looking at punctuation, letter combinations, and especially tricky ones like "gh" or how "c" can sound like cat AND cent.

"punctuation-- they are little marks that use their influence to help a sentence make more sense."



Watching the show brought me a few surprises.
1. Bill Cosby and Morgan Freeman were both on the show as regulars.
2. It had a lot more informality to it... street slang or casual language.
3. It was very 70s.
4. It had an animated segment that I remembered called Adventures of Letterman but I didn't realize it was voiced by Gene Wilder (and sometimes Zero Mostel and Joan Rivers)

The show, like Sesame Street was laden with puns. Fargo North, Decoder—A detective tries to decode scrambled word messages and phrases. His name is a pun based on Fargo, North Dakota. Big Bird from "Sesame Street" appears in one show, asking him to help decode a message.

Another allusion was to Mission Impossible. "The word you see here will self-destruct in five seconds. Can you read it before it does?"

I guess when I was a kid I was less aware of all of that. I think the highlight for me was seeing this time capsule of language...

"top to bottom, left to right, reading stuff is out of sight" sings Morgan Freeman as Easy Reader."Easy Reader, that's my name, umm, umm-umm!"—Segments featuring the title character, a smooth hipster who loves to read at every opportunity and every printed thing he sees. His name is a pun based on the film Easy Rider. You can listen to him sing here.


Some animated bees were greeting each other...
Hi, Babe.
Beat it, Bub.

I was surprised by the subject matter of some of their sketches and wonder if children's programing would be so quick to use them today.

Car dealer who sold a ramshackle car to an upset customer.. "Honest John" (played by Bill Cosby)
Domestic problems between husband and wife focused around the word "was"
A man falling from a mountain and Morgan Freeman saying... "Clarence was a clumsy clod."
Rita Moreno selling "ea" sounds on the street corner as if they were illegal contraband.

The show was filled with songs and some of them quite amusing. Above, Mel Mounds (Freeman) works as a DJ and introduces segments with the Short Circus, a band comprised of kids who perform songs. He was known for the phrase "Sounds righteous, delightious, and out-of-sighteous! Heavy, heavy, (finger snap) heavy! Ha-ah!" I really liked the song "Unbutton Your Heart" that had Rita Moreno singing her heart out and a rather young Irene Cara on backups.

Here's their official site.

(They even have tee shirt designs on their official site that you can download and iron on if you have iron-on paper.)

--Kate

"This Goes Out To The One I Love"

This is The Wolfman, coming to you live from KQIS radio in Walla Walla, Washington. We are broadcasting with 50,000 watts of power, from our gigantic, reinforced steel tower, perched high atop the Columbia Crest at the summit of Mount Rainier! And I have a "special request," this afternoon, which goes out for Kate Rugburn from Spencer Tasty. So, let's do it... "Here's to all of our 'Guilty Pleasures.' We all have them, whether we admit it or not. Enjoy!"

Birthdays Observed For July 26th

Oh Mick-ie, You're So Fine....

.... you blow my mind!

Happy Birthday Mick Jagger

Illeana Douglas, of "Ghost World" and "Factory Girl" Fame, Was Born Today

A Very Special B-Day Today... That of Lynda Carter -- Wonder Woman!

Goodbye To Jack Warden

These are just SOME of the good, and/or great, films Jack Warden acted in, and helped to make as memorable as they are!

Bulworth (1998)
Mighty Aphrodite (1995)
Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995)
While You Were Sleeping (1995)
Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
The Presidio (1988)
September (1987)
The Verdict (1982)
The Great Muppet Caper (1981)
Being There (1979)
...And Justice for All (1979)
Death on the Nile (1978)
Heaven Can Wait (1978)
All the President's Men (1976)
Shampoo (1975)
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974)
The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973)
Brian's Song (1971) (TV)
Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (1971)
Bye Bye Braverman (1968)
The Thin Red Line (1964)
Donovan's Reef (1963)
Wake Me When It's Over (1960)
The Sound and the Fury (1959)
Run Silent Run Deep (1958)
Darby's Rangers (1958)
12 Angry Men (1957)
The Bachelor Party (1957)
Edge of the City (1957)
From Here to Eternity (1953)

AMPLIFY: Alfred Hitchcock

We are looking for a film that contains one of his many cameo "acting" parts.

Phillip, Woody, and Stephanie All Arrived on The 23rd. What A Day!

AMPLIFY: Kate Bosworth

Invisibles.3 -- Two Heads Are Better Than One