By Sylvia Gurinsky
As YesterTube takes a two-week hiatus for the holidays, here are some happy holiday memories:
For this week, the irresistible performance of "The Nutcracker" that made its television debut on PBS in 1977. The ballet, and this clip, star the great Mikhail Barishnikov and Gelsey Kirkland:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb4Ps7vqgU0
For next week, it's not just another New Year's Eve when Barry Manilow sings his holiday classic, "It's Just Another New Year's Eve." Can't find a performance from one of Dick Clark's NYE specials (Though he has sung it), so this will have to do:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P66Bjh0IcRo
Have a festive holiday season and a happy, healthy and classic-TV-filled 2011.
Oh, yes - Happy Viewing!!!! See you next year!
Friday, December 24, 2010
Friday, December 17, 2010
Week of 12/17: Larry King's Miami Roots
By Sylvia Gurinsky
With the end of Larry King's interview show on CNN, it's a good time to look back at his television roots in Miami.
From 1957 to 1978, King's home base and audience were in South Florida. Whether it was a newspaper, a radio station or a television station, King's words could be read or heard. And while his home bases included television stations WLBW (now WPLG) -Channel 10 and what was then WTVJ-Channel 4, they could also include the old Pumpernick's restaurant across the street from the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach. King might interview anyone who stopped by.
Here's a 1974 interview that King did for WTVJ (in the studio, not in Pumpernick's). The suspenders may be out of view, but the style is the same:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCH0BQ2nSMo&feature=related
The Miami years weren't easy ones for King; serious financial problems got him into repeated trouble.
But the Magic City can rightly claim a share of King's success during the last two decades. Larry Zeiger may have been born in Brooklyn, but the interviewer CNN viewers came to know during the last quarter-century was born in Miami.
See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!
With the end of Larry King's interview show on CNN, it's a good time to look back at his television roots in Miami.
From 1957 to 1978, King's home base and audience were in South Florida. Whether it was a newspaper, a radio station or a television station, King's words could be read or heard. And while his home bases included television stations WLBW (now WPLG) -Channel 10 and what was then WTVJ-Channel 4, they could also include the old Pumpernick's restaurant across the street from the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach. King might interview anyone who stopped by.
Here's a 1974 interview that King did for WTVJ (in the studio, not in Pumpernick's). The suspenders may be out of view, but the style is the same:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCH0BQ2nSMo&feature=related
The Miami years weren't easy ones for King; serious financial problems got him into repeated trouble.
But the Magic City can rightly claim a share of King's success during the last two decades. Larry Zeiger may have been born in Brooklyn, but the interviewer CNN viewers came to know during the last quarter-century was born in Miami.
See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Week of 12/10: Remembering Monday Night Mayhem
By Sylvia Gurinsky
The death of former football player and announcer "Dandy" Don Meredith this week triggered memories of the legendary ABC Monday Night Football. During the years Meredith, Howard Cosell and Frank Gifford were in the booth, nothing topped the trio for entertainment value - often including the game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOkgcFj6MJQ
No need to turn out the lights on this.
See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!
The death of former football player and announcer "Dandy" Don Meredith this week triggered memories of the legendary ABC Monday Night Football. During the years Meredith, Howard Cosell and Frank Gifford were in the booth, nothing topped the trio for entertainment value - often including the game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOkgcFj6MJQ
No need to turn out the lights on this.
See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!
Friday, December 3, 2010
Week of Dec. 3: Surely, Nielsen Was Tops (And Don't Call Him Shirley)
By Sylvia Gurinsky
The story about Leslie Nielsen is that he was generally a serious actor until 1980, when his comic talent was discovered by everyone in "Airplane!" and the series of "Naked Gun" movies later on.
As usual, it's less simple than that. Nielsen broke in as a young actor in secondary roles in various MGM films, then turned to television.
He set up a solid career in various television series; he was featured in "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color" in "The Swamp Fox":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc7tbE7VPh0
He had the distinction of guest-starring in the pilot episode of "Hawaii Five-O" (the real one) as intelligence chief Brent, and in a later episode of the long-running series as well.
Nielsen guest-starred in many popular series of the 1960s and 70s, from "Ironside" and "Cannon" to "M*A*S*H."
The "Naked Gun" movies were so successful that it's easy to forget the character of Frank Drebin actually originated in a brief ABC series called "Police Squad!" Only six episodes long (the epitome of "Brilliant But Cancelled"), the series spoofed "Five-O" and other beloved police shows and spawned the legend of the films:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLXyC1cuN3M
Besides the first episode of "Hawaii Five-O," Nielsen also had the distinction of being in the final episodes of NBC's "The Golden Girls" as the groom of Dorothy (Bea Arthur).
Here's an appropriate goodbye. Goodbye, as a Nielsen comic character would probably say, is a way of leaving. Fortunately, we'll always have the clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_3rJqHWYjs
*********************************************************************
Al Masini, who created "Entertainment Tonight" and "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," has also died. Here's a look at the show's 1982 opening with its original hosts, Ron Hendren and Dixie Whatley, back when there were actually stars to cover:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIwBE6Tq3J0
*****************************************************************************
Finally, a little geographic fun.
Looking through vintage postcards yesterday, I came on one of "Surfside Six," the little houseboat and the title of the popular early 1960s ABC series that starred Troy Donahue. A few miles down the road from the real Surfside, Florida, the setting is actually mid-Miami Beach, in front of the classic Fontainebleau and Eden Roc hotels.
But the series was filmed at the Warner Brothers backlot in California. It would take more than two decades and visionaries named Mann, Yerkovich and Tartikoff to bring "Miami Vice" to Miami.
Here's a link to the postcard with "Surfside":
http://cgi.ebay.com/Television-Show-Surfside-Six-Miami-FL-1960-62-Postcard-/180595169256
See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!
The story about Leslie Nielsen is that he was generally a serious actor until 1980, when his comic talent was discovered by everyone in "Airplane!" and the series of "Naked Gun" movies later on.
As usual, it's less simple than that. Nielsen broke in as a young actor in secondary roles in various MGM films, then turned to television.
He set up a solid career in various television series; he was featured in "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color" in "The Swamp Fox":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc7tbE7VPh0
He had the distinction of guest-starring in the pilot episode of "Hawaii Five-O" (the real one) as intelligence chief Brent, and in a later episode of the long-running series as well.
Nielsen guest-starred in many popular series of the 1960s and 70s, from "Ironside" and "Cannon" to "M*A*S*H."
The "Naked Gun" movies were so successful that it's easy to forget the character of Frank Drebin actually originated in a brief ABC series called "Police Squad!" Only six episodes long (the epitome of "Brilliant But Cancelled"), the series spoofed "Five-O" and other beloved police shows and spawned the legend of the films:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLXyC1cuN3M
Besides the first episode of "Hawaii Five-O," Nielsen also had the distinction of being in the final episodes of NBC's "The Golden Girls" as the groom of Dorothy (Bea Arthur).
Here's an appropriate goodbye. Goodbye, as a Nielsen comic character would probably say, is a way of leaving. Fortunately, we'll always have the clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_3rJqHWYjs
*********************************************************************
Al Masini, who created "Entertainment Tonight" and "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," has also died. Here's a look at the show's 1982 opening with its original hosts, Ron Hendren and Dixie Whatley, back when there were actually stars to cover:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIwBE6Tq3J0
*****************************************************************************
Finally, a little geographic fun.
Looking through vintage postcards yesterday, I came on one of "Surfside Six," the little houseboat and the title of the popular early 1960s ABC series that starred Troy Donahue. A few miles down the road from the real Surfside, Florida, the setting is actually mid-Miami Beach, in front of the classic Fontainebleau and Eden Roc hotels.
But the series was filmed at the Warner Brothers backlot in California. It would take more than two decades and visionaries named Mann, Yerkovich and Tartikoff to bring "Miami Vice" to Miami.
Here's a link to the postcard with "Surfside":
http://cgi.ebay.com/Television-Show-Surfside-Six-Miami-FL-1960-62-Postcard-/180595169256
See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)