hiway29

Howard Morris will forever be remembered for Ernest T. Bass. That's only part of his resume tho. He played character parts of all kinds on almost any 60's show you can think of. He directed many sitcoms, including episodes of Dick Van Dyke, Andy Griffith, Get Smart, Bewitched, and many others. In short, if you were watching TV in the 60's, Howard Morris was providing alot of the entertainment. He also was a regular on the Sid Ceaser show in the 50's, and did many cartoon voices.

OK-here's the answer. Esquire Magazine has a dirty old man character named Esky. Well, he's not really dirty. He looks alot like the old man in the monopoly game, kind of.Back in the 30's , he was on almost every cover, but has since disappeared.

oh-I found that website by doing a google search on the name of the magazine-It came up in the top 5 sites.

"The manof a thousand screen names" is correct. There is a website that features every cover, going back to 1933-if you start back then, you will find the character cover featured often-tho he didn't always wear the top hat and monocle. It's an interesting study on how a character can go from a cover featured icon to total obscurity. At least it's interesting to me. Kind of like if they took Alfred E Neuman off of Mad magazine.

nope-not the New Yorker-but another good guess, since they do have that foppish character with the monocle and top hat.Geez-monocles and top hats were all the rage back then, as a symbol of wealth and status. The New Yorker still is relevant as a magazine too. This character always reminded me of the guy on the Monopoly game-like i said, he may be TOO obscure by now.

A man and a bear-This show went right by me-must've been either when I was in college, or in the way.

Mr Peanut is the expected first guess, but is wrong. The thought of Edgar Bergan with a giant peanut on his lap is disturbing. Maybe this character has faded into obscurity. He was the symbol of a popular men's magazine of the day. The magazine is still around and they still trot out the icon now and then, tho I know of noone who buys it anymore. He was so well known at the time tho, that Bergen wanted to oust Charlie, and make a dummy out of it. When he couldn't get the rights, he figured that they didn't own the rights to a top hat or monocle, so he just stuck them on Charlie.

Oh was the show Gentle Ben?

Good guess Bluzeman, but no cigar. That's the kind of thinking required for this tho. A hint. The product the icon represented is still around today, though I haven't bought it in years. if you think about Playboy and the woman in the black stockings icon they used to use(do they still?) you're on the right track, tho this product doesn't contain nude photos.

The Charlie McCarthy question requires a process of elimination, where you need to think about iconic figures that sported a top hat and monocle. That there are a few to choose some is what fascinates me. Maybe we're due for a top hat and monocle revival. I got this information from a book I'm reading on ventriloquists and their dummies. I'm currently reading about paul Winchell, who turns out to be a most amazing man. Besides being the 'father' of Jerry Mahoney, and Knucklehead Smiff, he invented the first patented artificial human heart!! I still can't get Sudo's theme song.

I was being somewhat tongue in cheek, when I blamed Deputy Dawg for the board slowing down. Welll-I don't think I've ever heard that theme song. I'm pretty darn curious to know where it's from now. Here's a quiz question, concerning the old ventriliquist Edgar Bergen and his dummy, Charlie McCarthy. I just found this tidbit and thought I'd pass it on. Charlie did not originally wear a monocle and top hat, but was given them after Edgar failed to get permission to make a dummy out of another american icon. Who am I talking about?

So Deputy Dawg has ground the board to a halt. He never did get any respect.

Happy Birthday, Sharon!!!! -->

Deputy Dawg little known??I thought Muskie Muskrat and Vincent van Gopher were household names ! Stay out of the persimmon patch!! Ralph Bakshi-who went on to make Fritz the Cat, animated Lord of the Rings, Wizards, and lots of other stuff, like the Might heroes, got his first break directing deputy dawg cartoons in the early 60's.

Not that being the head geek is anything to be proud of, but unfortunately I might be in the running- Books- I read Lord of the Rings almost as many times as I sat though PFAL-which is over 40 I used to read every Star Trek novel as they came out, and have My favorite fantasy writer is Mervyn peake, who wrote the Gormenghast series-by far the most oddly compelling books I've ever seen Aasimov, Heinlein,Bradbury, Robert E Howard-only begins the list of sci fi , fantasy writers. Born and raised on comic books-know just about every artist, company, and minutiea from the mid 30's to the mid 90's- disillusioned with them now, but still make weekly treks to the comic book shop just to see what's there studied with John Buscema of Marvel comics for a year in hopes to be a comic book artist-drew for smaller companies for years before taking a career turn to animation Movies- way too knowledgable about too many cartoons-as those who read the nostalgia board will attest to as they've suffered through endless musings belong to the 'Sons of the Desert'-the laurel and hardy appreciation society started by Stan before he died huge fan of silent films-Buster keaton, Harold Lloyd, Chaplin. Love Our Gand comedies, King Kong , Frankenstein watch Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World annually-not the best movie, but its like an old friend attend 'nostalgia ' shows sometimes where old has been actors sign photos and chat with old geeks like me Work- Draw animated cartoons. have worked for most of the major studios-mostly Disney. Often wear a t shirt and shorts to work, and go to lunch with fellow geeks that argue endlessly about geek culture geez-Im just getting started and Im geeking myself out-maybe Ill continue later

that's quite a 'cliff hanger' Allan-what happened when the 'karate kid' showed up?

I've seen Julie show up in Batman 'reunion' shows over the years. She still looks like she could slip into the Catwoman suit , which is more than I can say for Burt (Robin ) Ward. I saw Burt at a 'nostalgia' show last year, and he looks like he swallowed Batman. Those Hollywood Collectible shows are really interesting, in that they feature lots of 'has been' celebrities from long ago, signing pictures, and meeting old fans. I guess there is a morbid curiosity element to it, but I enjoy seeing actors I grew up with up close. Sometimes they still look great, and in other cases the less said the better, but maybe that's another topic.

I miss Julie Newmar too, George-but that's Lee Meriweather as Catwoman in the pic. Julie was somehow unavailable(Lord knows why )for the Batman movie made to cash in on the hot TV series, so Lee Meriweather played her. Lee was pretty hot also, but there was no replacing Julie- especially when Eartha Kitt took on the role in the 3rd season. Frank Gorshin was the 'real deal', and it is interesting that he kept working right up till the end, even tho he knew he was dying. That's a different secnario than poor Dick Shawn , who died in the middle of his act of a heart attack, and probably never saw it coming.

Here's a Frank Gorshin story I read about a couple of years ago, and I hope I recall it accurately. Frank was on Ed Sullivan, the night the beatles first appeared. The executives at CBS had no clue what they were in for with the mania surrounding the audience that night. As an executive pulled up to the Ed Sullivan Theater, and saw the screaming kids waiting to get in, he remarked in all seriousness that he didn't know Frank Gorshin was that popular! I watched the full hour of that Ed Sullivan show recently, and I have to say that while it wasn't Frank's best performance, he was a trooper gamely doing his impersonations as an audience full of teenagers squirmed in their seats waiting for the beatles to come on. Frank made an otherwise awful episode of Star Trek memorable by playing an alien who's face is literally half black and half white. Of course the Riddler was his character-forget Jim Carrey and John Astin. I'm sure plenty of people under 45 have seen the Batman TV show though, and know who he was.

The links between the Stephanie Powers spinoff, and this show were the organization, and Leo G Carroll, who appeared on both programs. Leo seemed astonishingly old to me then. I was still watching him in grainy old 'Topper' reruns from the fifties. He seemed to be in his 60's even then, with alot of black dye in his hair and mustache. By the time of this show, his face seemed to have stretched and elongated somehow. This has made me curious about what the young Leo G Carroll looked like, and acted in. Think I'll do some research. Oh-and Stephanie Powers made even a bad show watchable. Her version really was a weak version of the original, but I watched it every week anyway-while it lasted.

The blond fellow is another instance where a minor character out 'populars' the star of the show. In the earliest episodes, he was just a secondary backdrop character, comparable to the early Fonzie appearances in Happy Days. Prior to this show, he also turned in fine performances in 'The Great Escape', and the "Outer Limits', but this show landed him on teen magazines around the same time as Davy Jones. In my book-the Russian had it all over the Brit in this case. His rise in popularity made the title of the show a tad confusing, since it refers to one person, while there are 2 stars.

ok-I'm going back to the hinge and the song, and of course it is 'Iron Butterfly'-the song of course being In a Gadda da vita. Finally it all makes sense. I liked the tv theme better than the show itself (I can say that about alot of tv themes). I always managed to tune in to the opening, liking the song, and the animated frames, then being so so about the show. I never quite understood why, because the show was cool on paper, and should of grabbed me. I liked it a t times, but just felt it was missing something. Not that I was any better with my alternative choices. Friday nights in the 60's meant Time Tunnel, Green Hornet,bad 3rd season Star Trek,and I think-Burke's law.

hokey smokes Bullwinkle! I wouldn't have figured that hinge to represent angel wings in a gazillion years! I figured those screws HAD to have something to do with it. I enjoyed the second song snippet there, Sudo. Brought me back to the first time I heard it. A friend had converting a room in his basement into a 'head' experience, with aluminum foil covering the walls and ceiling, some black light posters and a strobe light. It was also one of the first times I got 'turned on', and sat like a zombie while that song played and the strobe light turned my brain to mush. Yeah, that was healthy for a 15 year old kid. Gotta admit I get sentimental about those days though.

oh noooo-I missed Donner's birthday!! Happy Birthday anyway-I'll do better next year!

at least he's finally doing some honest work.