Crikey, it’s almost November! G’day out there–Byron the Quokka, with another weekend’s TV viewing that’ll make you wish you could start your life all over again just so you could see these shows for the first time again… Oh, never mind! Here’s a sample.
6:30 P.M. Ch. 12 NEWS WITH RUDE NOISES–News & commentary
Actually it’s mostly commentary, as the boisterous studio audience constantly interrupts anchorman Dan Rather with an assortment of disrespectful noises that we will not attempt to describe here. Inexplicably, the show became a mega-hit and was only canceled when Rather refused to allow hard objects to be thrown at him.
Ch. 42 MOVIE–Mostly stock footage
In The Bowery Boys Meet the June Taylor Dancers at Jimmy Fraud’s Lousy Barbecue (Swedish, 1996), a safari in unexplored Africa winds up in Muesli Township, NJ, just in time for a free-for-all! (This is the film that soured the relationship between the Bowery Boys and the June Taylor Dancers and prevented a merger). Captain Queasy: Rip Torn. Mrs. Picasso: Nina Khrushchev. Song: “I Got Chiggers”
6:45 P.M. Ch. 08 HOLD THAT U.T.I.!–Medical game show
Which celebrity guest has the most awkward medical condition? Which member of the studio audience will be sacrificed to cure it? This week’s guests: Howard Da Silva, Chiang Kai-shek, Billie Jean King, Theda Bara. With Billy Martin and his orchestra. Host: (Refuses to divulge identity).
7 P.M. Ch. 14 ADVENTURES OF WU WEI-SHU–Western
Gunslinger Chad Votingmachine (Cy Young) searches the Wild West for the baby-sitter who stuck him with the nickname Wu Wei-Shu, “the Tail-less Rat.” If only he could remember her name, what she looked like, etc.! Sidekick: Russ Tamblyn. Moping Minnie: Some stupid idiot in a toreador’s suit. Tonight’s episode: “Heee-yahhh!”
7:07 P.M. Ch. 63 SEMINAR: SHAKESPEARE’S SUPER-HEROES–Academic twaddle
Everybody knows those dumb comic book movies would be a thousand times better if they had Shakespearean dialogue, according to our host, Prof. Edgar Gunnysack. “Then again,” he said, “Shakespeare would be better if he’d put some super-heroes in it! I mean, have you ever sat through Two Gentlemen of Verona, or wherever it was?” This week, “Batman” gets a complete dialogue makeover (“Forsooth, young Robin, I cly thee right well–but soft! What light through yonder window breaks?” “Beshrew me, Batman! Methinks they butt together well!”) You get the idea…
All right, all right! Maybe that Shakespeare thing is a bit too much to bear! But I’m telling you, the rest is solid gold!
Byron the Quokka, signing off!
Great lineup this week, Byron, except maybe ADVENTURES OF WU WEI-SHU (it sounds dumb compared to the intelligent other ones). I can hear pooper cushions going off full blast on Dan Rather’s show.
Sounds dumb? Ya think?
It took me a minute to catch on to Chad Votingmachine. Then I snickered. As for Russ Tamblyn, maybe he could join up with the June Taylor Dancers after their merger with the Bowery Boys fell through.
One of the things I love about this series is the casting. What a hoot!