Time Warp TV

Own a piece of the 1976 Krofft Theme Park

2011-08-07T22:48:00.000-05:00

You can own a piece of the World of Sid & Marty Krofft theme park from 1976. I'm selling off one of the rare and unusual Fidelipac cartridges on Ebay. The auction ends August 15th, 2011 at 07:00 PM Pacific (10PM Eastern). This cartridge features the audio from the famed Pinball Ride (labeled "Tunnel #1"). The winner not only gets the tape, but the converted MP3 audio file.

You can read an earlier blog entry about these unusual tapes and how they were rescued from the trash heap 30 years ago here. It even contains a video / audio clips from a few of these tapes..

Empire at 30

2010-06-29T11:13:00.005-05:00

STARWARS.COM has recently unearthed an interesting pop culture relic as part of their 30th anniversary tribute to The Empire Strikes Back... recordings from a telephone advertising campaign from 1980. They were apparently discovered on a very old cassette tape recording (most likely the only copy left) from someone involved in the campaign. In what seems a bit silly by today's standards, in 1980 anxious fans had very few options to get news about the latest installment of Star Wars. The 800 number was an innovative solution. I remember hearing about this at the time, but I have no recollection of ever calling... unlike my many fruitless calls to get my voice on the Dr. Demento Show...

World of Sid & Marty Krofft speaks again

2010-02-15T21:00:00.017-06:00

I'm a Krofft fan... have been since I was a kid. For those of you who don't know what I mean, "Krofft" refers to the brothers Sid and Marty Krofft, television and movie producers who had a string of hits through the 1970s. Sid was the visionary... the dreamer... the idea man. Marty was the business end of the family... for him it was all about the bottom line. Together they complimented each other... a "ying" to the other's "yang".

The 70s were a time when Sid & Marty Krofft dominated children's programming. They brought us such classics as Land of the Lost, H.R. Pufnstuf, Sigmund & the Sea Monsters and Lidsville. To say they dominated is not an understatement... at one point they actually had their shows on two different networks, at the same time... competing with each other. Somewhere between creating those classic programs (and some utterly forgettable ones as well), Sid and Marty concocted the idea to build The World of Sid & Marty Krofft, in indoor renaissance theme park, with mimes, story tellers, artists and rides.

Okay, hindsight is 20/20, an indoor theme park in a rundown section of Atlanta? But in 1975 nobody was willing to bet against them... They owned children's television and they were about to embark on a bold cross-marketing move to tie the new park with their latest Krofft TV venture... The Krofft Super Show.

Unfortunately Sid's vision could not sustain itself and the park folded after 6 months of poor attendance. The closing left a lot of bad blood between the Kroffts, their employees and the investors. Lawsuits caused the park to sit empty for years, home to only the rats and homeless who were able to sneak in. Eventually the courts allowed the investors to sell the salvage rights to recoup some of their loss. Most of the park was trashed and what was salvageable was sold off to collectors... Crystal Carousel pieces, costumes, games, props, etc. Little of anything is left except vague memories and the occasional souvenir that pops up on Ebay from time to time.

As I said earlier, I'm a Krofft fan and I have been fascinated with the park for many years. In 2006, almost 30 years to the day the World of Sid & Marty Krofft theme park closed, I received a package from an acquaintance in Georgia that contained long lost audio cartridges from the fabled Pinball Ride... rescued from a trash heap way back in 1980. The tapes, old Fidelipak cartridges (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidelipac), were labeled with plain stickers but enticing names like "fuses", "Mirror Room", and "Pinball Waiting Room". Unfortunately the Fidelipak system is mostly a dead technology, so finding a working player turned out to be more of a chore than I expected. With persistence I finally managed to get them converted and for the first time in more than 30 years, here are a couple excerpts from those nearly lost tapes (along with some rare images from the park)... sounds from the World of Sid & Marty Krofft…

The first two audio clips are from the Pinball ride waiting room, the third and fourth clips are from two different tunnels on the Pinball ride, and the last one is from the mirror room.

Monster Squad on DVD

2009-09-29T17:21:00.008-05:00

I've been meaning to post this for awhile, but never got around to it. On June 23 one of my favorite, seldom seen, children television show was finally released to DVD. The Monster Squad is a live-action, Saturday morning program that featured Fred Grandy (aka Gopher on the Love Boat) and a cast of superhuman wax monsters that come to life at night to fight crime. Originally aired on NBC in 1976 it hasn't been seen much since then, at least in the US.

I don't know the source material used, but I doubt they pulled these from the original film negatives. The sound is a bit muffled in some episodes and the picture grainy, and no real extras to speak of. Too bad... I have a bunch B&W film negatives and color slides I would have been happy to share. With that said, I'm still ecstatic that these were finally released, considering the fact that fan copies circulating over the years are completely unwatchable. I'm looking forward to other D'Angelo releases (Big John, Little John - Oct 2009) hopefully coming soon.

I do take some small satisfaction in helping to get it finally released, although some would say I had no bearing in the matter. A friend of mine who has made finding Monster Squad episodes a life-long obsession had tracked down producer Bill D'Angelo many years ago to see what the ownership status was... Reportedly, Bill claimed to have the original film negatives stored in his basement, along with most of his other early Saturday Morning shows. My friend made many calls to both Bill and his lawyer over several years to urge them to do something with the shows. D'Angelo and his lawyer eventually stopped taking his calls and then in 2002 (June 22) Bill died at age 70, along with hope of ever seeing Monster Squad.

As many of you know, BCI had obtained the distribution rights to the Filmation library in the US and did a great job with the sets it released. I contacted someone affiliated with BCI and suggested they investigate getting the DVD rights to the D'Angelo library. Surprisingly they were looking for new libraries to tap and asked for any contact information I could provide. I gave them everything I had and told them to contact my obsessed Monster Squad friend for more info.
There you have it. Okay, it's not like I did anything above and beyond what any self-respecting fan boy would have done, but let me have my victory, please.

Rumor has it that BCI approached D'Angelo's son and expressed an interest in the programs. Apparently not happy with the offer (or the terms), Bill Jr. began shopping around for other distribution deals... eventually going with Virgil Entertainment.

BCI went out of business at the beginning of this year after a great run of Filmation DVD sets, which was too bad... I'm convinced they could have produced awesome sets of D'Angelo material.

Brady Fanaticism

2009-09-29T10:34:00.010-05:00

Fans of ephemeral 70s pop culture should know that there’s a new book out that takes Brady Bunch fanaticism to a new level… a 340 page book about the 9 episode flop known as The Brady Bunch Variety Hour. Amazingly this book contains hundreds of never before seen photos and artwork (which remarkably escaped the furnace) and interviews with what seems to be nearly every living person who ever worked on the program. Love to Love You Bradys: The Bizarre Story of the Brady Bunch Variety Hour is veritable encyclopedia of lost Brady knowledge. It catalogs, in all it’s glittery, sequin-laced, gory detail the fiasco that what would one day be called by many the worst show in television history (TV Guide was extremely kind by awarding it a noble “4th worst show ever” award).

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the BBVH, think of the Brady’s… uh, think of Donny & Marie… uh, think of disco… aw, forget it, there really isn’t a fair comparison. The premise is Mike and Carol pack up the kids and Alice and move to California to start their own variety television show, which will not only feature their inability to sing and dance, but highlight their total lack of basic sketch comedy. Sounds like a ratings winner to me. Quick, get me Sid and Marty Krofft!

Guest stars are paraded across the program with reckless abandon… pop star Tina Turner, aging Milton Berle, Kaptain Kool and the Kongs, Donny & Marie, Farah Fawcett, Lee Majors, the Kids from What’s Happening, Tony Randall and HR Pufnstuf just to name a few. Love to Love You Bradys coincides with (and perhaps even undermines) the 40th anniversary of the debut of the original Brady Bunch show, by highlighting the seldom seen, dirty little secret hiding in their collective closet. The authors of LOVE TO LOVE YOU BRADYS are Susan Olsen (Cindy Brady) the youngest cast member, and pop culture historians Ted Nichelson and Lisa Sutton. While there is no shortage of content for even the most avid fan, I was struck by the eye-popping background artwork that really brings each page alive. Kudos for producing a book that caters to both the casual as well as the die-hard fan.

LOVE TO LOVE YOU BRADYS is a fascinating study in how a television show goes from vision to production and onto the air. Right down to its glittery-textured cover, it’s also a lesson in how to avoid a disaster, as Susan Olsen laments in the forward, “The memory should be kept alive to assure that this will never happen again.”

The 70s Are Still Alive

2009-08-09T12:24:00.006-05:00

Happened across an interesting shop in Universal Studios CityWalk that sell some pretty wicked 70s style candles, dripping (pun intended) with nostalgia. When lit, the inside of the candle glows. I finally decided on the gem above. You can check them out on-line at http://globalcandlegallery.com/ or visit them at the Endangered Species Store at Universal Studios CityWalk, Orlando to get your own piece of the 70s, dig?

Hahn's Shoe Stores

2009-02-26T15:31:00.006-06:00

Hahn's Shoes had been a fixture in Washington DC since the late 1800s. The shot above is from their store at 7th and K Street in the early 1920s. Not quite sure what ever happened to it... seems it merged a few times and then sometime in the mid-1990s went out of business... Seems this building is no more as well... If anyone has the history, let me know.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2008-12-31T17:37:00.005-06:00

Here's a couple Christmas themed spots from 1970. The first is a TV station animation package that local affiliates used to put their logos on. Not sure if these were just time-fillers. The second is a Goodyear record promotion for the Great Songs of Christmas... and you thought they only made tires and blimps.

I don't want to grow up...

2008-12-14T23:38:00.003-06:00

With Christmas fast approaching I’ve decided to post some rare toy commercials from my favorite decade, the 70s. To kick things off, how about one of the earliest examples of a Toys R Us commercial. This ad aired in 71-72 timeframe when Toys R Us was owned by Interstate Stores. Interstate, which already owned several other chains (White Front and Topps Department Stores and Children's Bargain Town USA) purchased Toys R Us from founder Charles Lazarus in 1967. During this timeframe, Interstate was expanding its operations aggressively with stores in Washington DC and Baltimore markets. Lazarus remained to run the stores, eventually becoming CEO in the mid-70s, outlasting Interstate’s bankruptcy and re-emergence as Toys R Us, Inc. You can read an excellent summary of the history of Toys R Us over at the Pleasant Family Shopping Center’s blog.

Google - Life

2008-11-23T23:29:00.003-06:00

Google never ceases to amaze me. This past week they announced a deal to put Life’s image archive on the web… 10 million photographs… of which 97% have never been seen before now. Photos include now famous photographers like Gordon Parks, Margaret Bourke-White and Dorothea Lange. You can check out the stunning collection here.

The Dark Side of Star Wars...

2008-11-20T16:17:00.010-06:00

An important milestone in Star Wars history managed to slip past me this year... It was 30 years ago this past Monday that the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special aired on CBS (Nov 17, 1978). Think of a Star Wars variety hour... with a troupe of 70s stars filling in where the script ended... Bea Arthur, Harvey Korman, Art Carney, Diahann Carroll and Jefferson Airplane mixing it up with Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher... in an uncomfortable affair that would give new meaning to Newton Minow’s “vast wasteland” speech.

"...when television is bad, nothing is worse.”

It was the first and last time it ever aired on US television, although fans have been able to satiate their appetite by buying, trading and downloading copies for the last 20 years.

Even though I missed the official date, I was able to unknowingly take part in the festivities by NOT watching it again.

For those of you who can't get enough of the special, check out the unofficial headquarters for all things Star Wars Holiday Special related, including some brand new interviews and pictures.

More NASA...

2008-11-20T14:18:00.004-06:00

While the recovery and restoration of the Lunar Explorer tapes has been a great success, we must not forget about the missing Moon landing footage. In 1969 NASA had live images of the Moon landing broadcast around the world. To accomplish this, they had the image transmitted, processed, re-transmitted, re-processed and broadcast. The results were poor quality, ghostly images of what was mankinds greatest achievement. However, NASA did record the raw lunar footage at their tracking stations, which is much crisper and sharper than anything you or I have ever seen. Unfortunately, NASA boxed up the tapes, shipped them back to their headquarters and then proceeded to lose track of them. They’re now in their 2nd year of the search. You can read a pretty good summary of what happened, and an appeal for help here.

Earthrise Revisited

2008-11-16T12:36:00.010-06:00

In 1966 and 1967, NASA flew five Lunar Orbital missions around the Moon to find potential Apollo landing sites and to map the Moon's polar regions. These missions were incredibly successful and managed to record 99% of the surface. The analog data streams, which contained audio, photo and telemetry information were recorded to magnetic tape back on Earth and largely forgotten. Forty-three years later, the retired caretaker of those tapes is working hard to get the data transferred from a antiquated media and discovering some pretty amazing stuff in the process. NASA just posted a press release on the effort on Thursday. You can read about the recovery effort, and see pictures as they're recovered, on their website, www.moonviews.com. Appropriately, the first recovered photo they released a newly found copy (twice the resolution of the one released in the 60s) of the iconic Earthrise photo. I can't wait to see what else they find on these tapes.

Jim Haislop

2008-11-13T09:53:00.004-06:00

Do you recall those cheesy wrestling and body-building magazines in the 60s and 70s? As a kid I remember flipping through issues trying figure out how I was going to sculpt my 75 pound skeleton into a man of steel. Dreaming was about as close as I ever got. Well, what’s one more unrealized childhood dream? I guess we can toss it on the stack alongside power of invisibility and the ability to freeze time.

I recently uncovered a neat commercial for Lestoil (less toil… for those who have pun detection turned off) which featured the 1969 Mr. America Jim Haislop. From what I understand, Jim now resides in Florida, has retired from body-building and occasionally judges competition.

4 out of 5 Dentists...

2008-10-30T13:03:00.003-05:00

I always found it funny how Trident managed to twist the "4 of 5 dentist" survey into the appearance of a product endorsement by dentists. Kinda like saying "4 out of 5 pulmonologist surveyed recommend filtered, low tar, low nicotine cigarettes for their idiot patients who continue to put their health at risk by engaging in the dangerous behavior that is smoking." Sounds like quite the endorsement, huh?

Here's a Trident ad that aired in January of 1971.

Sammy does Bogie

2008-10-13T21:47:00.003-05:00

Sammy Davis Jr., in addition to being a versatile singer, dancer and comedian was also a skilled impressionist. It was Mickey Rooney who encouraged Sammy to perfect this talent and persuaded him to work it into his act, which at the time was mainly song and dance. Among his best impressions were Louie Armstrong, Jerry Lewis, Peter Lawford and Nat King Cole. He was also quite good at Humphrey Bogart. In this 1972 commercial for GE portable tape recorders, Sammy Davis Jr. does one of his patented impressions of Bogie.

Sometimes you feel like a nut... sometimes you feel old

2008-10-02T16:11:00.003-05:00

This ad is over 30 years old, yet I remember it like yesterday. This particular one aired in the spring of 1977 although the jingle itself was used well into the 80s.

One thing that caught my eye was the actor who looks remarkably like Topher Grace (aka Eric Foreman from That '70s Show).

Mustard... for all that ails you

2008-09-28T09:04:00.000-05:00

For centuries people used to seek relief from colds and coughs by using mustard plaster home remedies. For those who don’t know, mustard plasters was basically a paste created by mixing mustard, flour and warm water. The paste would then be quickly spread across a piece of cloth and then laid over the face of the sick individual. Mustard paste would be on par with using that yellow mustard sauce from Chinese restaurants… I can see how it would clear the sinuses. As with most remedies, it became a ridiculous catch-all for other ailments. After Lincoln was mortally wounded by an assassin’s bullet, one of the first things doctors did was to apply mustard plasters.

Musterole was originally developed in 1905 by Cleveland pharmacist A. L. McLaren to relieve chest congestion, coughs and muscle aches. It became extremely popular following World War I as an alternative to the messy mustard plaster remedy.

Through a series of purchases and mergers, the Musterole Co. eventually ended up as an asset of Schering-Plough. It doesn’t appear that Musterole is produced any longer.

Here's a 1971 commercial for Musterole that I just uncovered. Love the hypnotic chanting...

Another 7-Up Commercial

2008-09-25T23:44:00.000-05:00

1971 7-UP Commercial starring Trinidadian character actor Geoffrey Holder who has also worked as choreographer, dancer, painter, costume designer, singer and voice-over artist. So popular were these ads, 7-UP created a new batch with Geoffrey in the 1980s.