A Quote to Start Things Off

""I'd love to go to Santa Fe at some point, Emmett said, but for the time being, I need to go to New York. The panhandler stopped laughing and adopted a more serious expression. Well. that's life in a nutshell, aint it. Lovin' to go to one place and havin' to go to another. Amor Towles in the Lincoln Highway.

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Pictures of Memories I

Pictures of Memories I
Snow kidding! These "kids" now range from 17 to 23
Showing posts with label Television. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Television. Show all posts

Thursday, June 22, 2023

Avengers: Infinity War Cast Sings "The Marvel Bunch"

Have not posted for awhile. More on that later. Now that I'm back, let's get righ to it with this Brady Bunch Avengers parody which is just a little bittersweet as it includes the late Chadwich Boseman.  Just a little in the box thinking from the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.



 




Thursday, February 23, 2023

23 23 Aziz Ansari

Today is the 23rd of February. It is also the year 2023. Starting on January 23 (Actually, I started today read more about that by clicking here.)    I began making posts about people born on the 23rd of the current month.

Today I am featuring Aziz Ansari who played Tom Haverford on the NBC comedy Parks & Rec.


                  A Typical Tom Haverford Pose

Ansari was Born on February 23rd, 1983 in Columbia, South Carolina.  I was born on the23rd of September in 1964.  I graduuated from High School in 1983, and I lived in Columbia for 2 years from 1996 to 1998.  If you are not familiar with Park & Rec, the  scene below  is a really good intro to the Tom Haverford character,







The # 1 song in the United Kingdom on February 23rd, 1983 was Too Shy by Kajagoogoo. 








Monday, January 23, 2023

23 23 Mariska Hargitay

As you know this is the year 2023.  My father and I were each born on the 23rd day of our birth month.  I decided that this year on the blog each month on the 23rdI would feature someone famous or otherwise who was born that day.  I am writing this on February 23rd and postdating it on January 23rd as I clean forgot about doing this for January.  



Mariska Hargitay was born on January 23rd, 1964.  I was born on September 23rd, 1964.  She and I have the 23rd and 1964 in common.  She is now 59 and I have 8 months (or so) to have that in common with her as well.  

 

                                                        This is the go-to pose of her SVU character

Hargitay's mother was actress Jayne Mansfield who died when Hargitay was 3 years old.  Hargitay is best known for her role as Olivia Benson on the Law & Order spinoff series, Law & Order SVU.  

On January 23rd, 1964 the # 1 single in the United Kingdom was Glad All Over by The Dave Clark 5.

Friday, October 21, 2022

Keith Green and Rich Mullins celebrate another posthumous birthday.

In the world of Contemporary Music their are few bigger names than Keith Green and Rich Mullins. Admittedly, there are literally  bigger names as the aforementioned take up only 5 combined syllables and fit comfortably  on the 1/3 of the first line of this text.  Their actual names may be small but their impact on the lives of believers has been great indeed,

Keith Green share many of the same attributes including the same birthday, today, October 21st (Keith in 1953, and Rich in 1955). They were both gifted musicians and lyricists.  They both were outspoken in their faith and counter cultural in their approach to ministry.  They also died very young in vehicular accidents.  

Due to a plane crash in 1982, Keith Green did not live to see his 30th birthday and Mullins who covered a Green song on the 1992 tribute album No Compromise died in a car crash in 1997, just over a month before his 42nd birthday.  


  

Green before his conversion to Christianity was headed to a career as a rock and roll teen sensation.  The below footage is from a guest appearance on the panel show I've got a Secret when he was 11 years old.  After revealing his secret The youngster performs one of the songs he composed.  


     

It is no secret that the music, the vulnerability, and the passion of both Green and Mullins has informed my own journey.  It is fitting that they shared the same birthday , the same passion for Christ and the same method of expressing that passion.  They also share a place in my heart for how their music and ministry still inspires me to this day.

Monday, January 17, 2022

Wednesday, November 3, 2021

Captain Kirk actor "Shatners" oldest person in space record

 

For Captain James Tiberius Kirk space was the final frontier.


For William Shatner, the actor who portrayed him on network television, Saturday Morning cartoons and multiple motion pictures space was just another step in a long and illustrious career.  The 90 year became the oldest person in space on October 13th ,making the trek from science fiction to science fact.  


Friday, April 30, 2021

Z is for Zero,

#AtoZChallenge 2021 April Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter Z


                                                                                
                                                                                Zero Mostel
 
                                                                                Years lived before 1921: Six
                                                                                Years lived after 1921: Fifty Six

When I think of Zero Mostel, I think of Tevye from Fiddler On The Roof. I never saw him on Broadway and he was not in the motion picture version.  However I listened to the Broadway album many times as a kid and now own it on c.d.  He put his stamp on that role more than any other actor ever had.  

 Born Samuel Joel Mostel, he received the moniker Zero when performing  in the New York night club, cafe society because "he was a guy starting with nothing.  

Besides being a night club comic, he worked on the stage, in movies, and on television.  This career was derailed somewhat in the 40's and 50's as he was blacklisted in Hollywood before there even was a blacklist.  In 1952 he was officially blacklisted by the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and called to testify in front of HUAC in 1955.  His testimony is very reminiscent of Jim Carey's character's testimony in The Majestic.  One highlight is when he refers to his former employer 20th Century Fox as 19th Century Fox because of (in his opinion) their antiquated views.

By reading this it is pretty easy to infer that Zero Mostel was a little odd.  So it didn't surprise me that his 3 Tony awards were in odd years.  In 1961 He won best actor in a play for Rhinoceros.  In 1963 he won his first Best Actor in a Musical Tony for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Forum, and In 1965 he won his secon Best Actor in a Musical Tony for his career defining role in Fiddle on the Roof.  

Speaking of Broadway, Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder starred together in Mel Brook's movie The Producers which years later became a Broadway smash.  Mostel and Wilder reunited in the famous Electric Company segment Letter Man with Wilder voicing the title hero and Mostel in the role of the evil Spellbinder.  

Mostel also appeared on Sesame Street and the Muppet Show.  He is the only guest star on The Muppet Show who passed away before their episode could be aired.  Mostel is one of at least 3 of my a to z profiles who hosted The Muppet Show, the other two are Peter Ustinov and Ethel Merman.  Now that the A to Z challenge is over, I may watch all 3 of those episodes on the Disney Plus App with the extra time coming my way. 

So that's it 1921 A to Z has come to an end.  I wonder what anybody might say about it 100 years from now.

A To  Z Extra

Some of my Faavorite Electric Company Segments  at Dave Out Loud. This of course includes Mostel as the Spellbinder. 



   After you've looked at the additional content on my other blogs head back to The A to Z challenge and  continue exploring.  








Some of my favorite Electric Company segments

Letter Man

Speedy Reader

 
 Fargo North, Decoder


   Spiderman

Thursday, April 29, 2021

Doctor Knows Best

#AtoZChallenge 2021 April Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter Y
                                                            Robert Young
                                                            Years lived before 1921:Fourteen 
                                                            Years lived after 1921: Seventy-Seven




When I first encountered Robert Young he was playing  The titular role of Marcus Welby on primetime and Jim Anderson on Father Knows Best in reruns.  Back then there was very little I knew about him.

I did not know he had originated the Father Know's Best Role on radio in the 1940's before reprising it on T.V.  I did not know he had played opposite John Gielgud and Peter Lorre in Alfred Hitchcock's Secret Agent.  I did not know he was in one of my wife's favorite movies, The Enchanted Cottage. (To be fair at this point, I was a kid and did not have a wife.)

Discovering these facets of Young has been a delight.  He has quite a filmography and I hope to continue to make future discoveries of his stage,  film, radio and television career  that spanned nearly sixty years.

For more a to z challenge click here.  

 

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

W is for Waltons

#AtoZChallenge 2021 April Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter W'

The Walton's is a 1970's CBS program about a family  of 7 children their parents and paternal grandparents living in rural Virginia during the depression. Earl Hamner who wrote and narrated the show  and was the person that the character Johm Boy Walton was based on was born in 1923 so would not qualify for this list.  However the actors who portrayed the grandparents Will Geer, and Ellen Corby were alive in 1921 .  


Ellen Corby

Years lived before 1921: Ten 
Years lived after 1921: Seventy-eight


Will Geer
Years lived before 1921: Nineteen
Years lived after 1921: Fifty-seven

Fun fact: Both Geer and Corby were involved in two iconic Christmas programs.  Geer was in the season 2 Christmas episode of 8 is enough where he plays a man who steals all the Bradford's Christmas gifts and tries to pass himself off as Santa Claus co Nicolas.  In It's a Wonderful Life Corby character  is kissed by Jimmy Stewart after only asking for $7.50 during the run on the Building & Loan.  They both were veteran character actors but their portrayal of Zeke and Esther Walton stands out as the role of their lifetimes.  

For more a to z challenge click here.  

Monday, April 26, 2021

V is for Venn

#AtoZChallenge 2021 April Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter V




                                                            John Venn
                                                            Years lived before 1921: Eighty-seven
                                                            Years lived after 1921:two

John Venn was a mathematician, logician and philosopher who is best remembered for his Venn diagram. V can be a difficult letter to fill some years but this year was an exception.  I did not want to leave out  former White Sox owner, Bill Veeck nor  actor Abe Vigoda from the challenge, so I created this Venn diagram that shows what they have in common and what is different about them.


 


                                                        Bill Veeck

                                                        Years lived before 1921: Seven
                                                        Years lived after 1921: Sixty-five


                                                    Abe Vigoda
                                                    Years lived before 1921:Zero
                                                    Years lived after 1921:Ninety Five

Well, It's Venn fun bit it's time to run.  For more a to z challenge click here.

Saturday, April 24, 2021

Peter Ustinov on Disney Plus

#AtoZChallenge 2021 April Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter U

Peter Ustinov
Years lived before 1921:Zero.
Years lived after 1921:Eighty-three

Peter Ustinov's acting career extend over 60 years between his first and final movie appearance.  He received two Oscars for best supporting actor in the 1960's.  Today I'd like to focus instead on what we can see of Mr. Ustinov's career on the Disney Plus app.  He stars in the 1968 film Blackbeard's Ghost as Blackbeard the pirate.  He costars in the 1976 Disney film The Treasure of Matecumbe as Dr. Ewing T. Snodgrass. He also appears in one of my favorite Disney cartoons and twice with the Muppets.







                                                                        
Ustinov provided the voice for Prince John
Robin Hood 1973





Ustinov and Fozzie The Bear tell a joke
S1 E 12 The Muppet Show









Peter and Miss Piggy
Great Muppet Caper 1981

The episode of the Muppet Show that features Ustinov is definitely worth watching.  Ustinov plays a number of diverse characters and does very many different accents even doing a pretty good Kermit impression at the end of the show.  Kermit also sings "It's not easy being green" in this episode which was his signature song before the Rainbow Connection from The Muppet movie.

For more A to Z challenge click here.


Saturday, March 6, 2021

Roller Time

 This week I finished a 6 week subbing assignment relieving a 1:1 aide who was on maternity leaveem.  I worked with the same student for 6 weeks which was new and very rewarding for me. Each morning I would pick the student up at the bus and bring them to the class room.  Each afternoon I would take the student back to the bus.  Usually by the end of the day, my student would start to get very excited about going home and would start repeating momma time over and over again.  Sometimes if the student was having a particularly difficult day they might start saying momma time before it was near to the time school ended.  I Kind of  saw it as a suggestion/protest. One day Momma Time was being chanted at about 8:30 a.m.  

One morning  3 or 4 weeks into the assignment as I was picking my student up from the bus, the bus driver asked me what my name was.  I said it was Mr. Roller. She said that explains it, your student has been repeating Roller time, Roller time for the last 15 minutes.  I hope that means that I made as much of an impression on my student as  they did to me.  

💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓

Yesterday I almost went to a movie.  That's right I almost went to the movie theatre with my wife and watched a movie.  It's been almost a year since I've even thought of doing that.  The reason we didn't go was not because of any co-vid concerns, we e looked the movie up in my favorite ratings website, Plugged In, and realized that it might not be for us.  Our daughters went to the Disney dragon movie and both enjoyed it. 

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍


Speaking of Disney, my younger daughter and I have been watching Wandavision on the Disney App.  We have been watching it the Friday it drops and watched the 9th and final installment yesterday.  If I were reviewing the show, my review would be uneven.  I'm not reviewing, it though.  I will say this, it's been super fun having a little vestige of appointment television and the experience was well worth the effort.

📺📺📺📺📺📺📺📺📺

My Other Blogs

Besides this blog, I have 3 other active blogs.  Here are links to my most recent posts in each of them.

Crazy Uncle Dave's Sports Blog

Hall of Fame Voting Results 2021 - 2/13/21

Dave Out Loud

Quick Random Takes: A to Z Challenge 3/6/21 (currently now quickly becoming then)

Random Acts of Roller

Born on March 2nd 3/2/21

Sunday, February 28, 2021

The Tonight Show: A History of Hosts

 


  Steve Allen 1954- 1957



  
  

Jack Paar 1857-1962

 


  Johnny Carson 1962 - 1992


 


  Jay Leno 1992 - 2009 and 2010 - 2014




Conan O'Brien 2009-2010




Jimmy Fallon 2014 - Present


Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Judy Garland Christmas Special (1963)

While researching a post at HSD I came across this Judy Garland Christmas special from December 1963, the year before I was born.   


If you saw the 2019 film Judy starring Renee Zellweger, it may be difficult to watch the Christmas special without remembering Zellweger's Oscar winning tour de force performance of the troubled icon.  

If you haven't seen it, This trailer may whet your appetite for the amazing yet tumultuous biopic.



Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Wordless Wednesday Washington and the Waltons

Cleaning up a blog is in many ways like cleaning up a room or a house.  In order to get this blog presentable again, I  found many drafts of posts I had started but never completed.  I also reviewed many old posts and was reminded of memes , pictures, stories and other various components of blogdom  which I had almost forgotten.  Today's post combines many of those components.  A blog, like a house, is meant to be lived in and experienced.  I hope you enjoy today's experience.


In April I participated from another one of my blogs in the a to z challenge where I had participated multiple times form HSD.  One of the best things about the challenge is discovering, reading and commenting on other peoples blogs.  Unfortunately, I did very little of that this year, but I discovered  a blog called Comedy Plus and found that it was hosting one of my favorite memes of all time, Wordless Wednesday. I participated in it on many occasions years ago.  I was glad to see it still exists.

I decided I would participate with a pic from our family trip to Washington DC 10 years ago.

Before I show the pic, I wanted to say that on the way to DC we stopped by Schuyler, VA where Earl Hamner, the writer and creator of The Waltons grew up and stopped by the Waltons Mountain  Museum.  After my picture and before a link to Wordless Wednesday is a 20 minute you tube video that I had saved as a draft here from the 45th reunion of the Waltons which took place at said museum.







For more Wordless Wednesday click here.


Friday, July 20, 2012

Friday Fragments: Quotes and Isms Edition

Mommy's Idea


Fragment 1: Puppyism

Puppy likes Ramen soup. So much so, she sometimes asks for it for breakfast. Puppy pronounces ramen, robin. She pronounces thanks, hanks. So I didn't really think that she thought they put robin in the soup.  This week Amy described this conversation she had with Puppy.

Puppy: Mommy can I have Robin soup for breakfast?

Amy: Sure. It's ramen soup not robin soup.

Puppy: Ohhhh. (After some thought ) I guess if they put robin in it, it would be more like a stew.

Fragment 2:  Dad or Grandpaism

In The past few weeks two of our families favorite actors have passed away.  First Andy Griffith and then Ernest Borgnine. We generally turn our t.v. off for the summer, but when we heard of Andy Griffith's death we turned the t.v back on and watched a couple episodes from the Andy Griffith show as a tribute.  The next  week when we heard of Ernest Borgnines death, we turned on the television once again to watch him in  the film Marty.

The next day I was at my folk's  house explaining the above to my Mom.  My Dad walked in the room and said "don't watch anything with me in it this week."

Fragment 3:  Quote

"If Christians would run more programs like Safe Families,  DCFS would be put out of business. " -the director of the Illinois Department of Family and Child Services to Dr. David Anderson Executive director of Lydia Homes and creator of the Safe families program.

For More info about the Safe Families program click here.

That's all the fragments for today.  For more Friday Fragments head back to Half Past Kissin' Time.

Monday, April 30, 2012

That Went Quick

Z as in Zoom.

Not the t.v. show but my first month of blogging A to Z zoomed right by. 26 posts in 30 days and a very eventful month in the books. I had a lot of fun with this alphabet soup stuff. Peace and blessings and I'll be back sometime next month. Oh yeah, that's tomorrow.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

West Wing

W as in West wing.

Amy and I are big Aaron Sorkin fans.

My favorite thing he has ever done is by far the West Wing. We recently borrowed my parents copy of the complete set on cd.

I was watching it tonight when I should have been working on my blogging and then it hit me West Wing starts with a W.

Here are a few more W's from the show.

Walking - The show seems to always feature scenes of walking often accompanied by talking. After watching a few episodes, I usually have to change shoes.

Will Bailey - When Rob Lowe left the show in the 4th season he was replaced by Joshua Malina, an Aaron Sorkin go to guy (Sports Night, A Few Good Men, and The American President.) Malina portrayed Bailey through the end of the series.

Walken. The name of the President played by John Goodman at the end of the 4th season and beginning of the 5 th.

Watchable - The show may be intense and sometimes it the fast paced nature of the show made it hard to comprehend in one viewing.  However, it was quality entertainment, with comic timing better than all but a few of the best television comedies ever.  Which is high praise indeed for a political drama. 


A to Z 2023 Road Trip

#AtoZChallenge 2023 RoadTrip