TV Time: How To Kill Time On Weekend Mornings

A typical weekends when I was younger would have found me up at around the crack of dawn, heading to the television set, waiting for the farm reports to end so I could get to the serious business of watching those all-important kids' shows.  Bear in mind a lot of this took place when I wasn't bust with catechism classes or other activities.  This would last until around noontime, and after a nice lunch I would head outside for the bulk of the day.

There were a few programs I got to thinking about recently, and how they pretty much disappeared from view, for better or worse.  We'll explore a few of these programs in this entry, and as more present themselves, they will be featured in future articles.

NOTE: Video links will be included, but there will be no embedded videos in this or any entry.  I do this so as to: a) not break your reader window; and b) give you the chance to "opt-out" of viewing any of the content I am showcasing.


Let's start with Make A Wish, which ran until 1976 on Sunday mornings.  Yes, ABC was, at the time, showing children's programming on Sundays as well.  This practice was eliminated in the early 1980s when ABC joined the other big networks in presenting news shows.  Strangely enough, Make A Wish was produced by ABC News.  Hosted by Tom Chapin (brother to Harry, who also wrote some of the music for the show), each episode would focus on a particular theme, encouraging the viewer to "imagine all the possibilities."  I can still remember the words to the part that was sung right before a commercial break:

"Dream a dream, sing a song, wish you could, right or wrong.
Take a chance, sing and dance, wish you could, you'll find it good.
So dream your dreams, dreams come true.
They can even work for you..."

*ahem* Sorry, my singing voice is a bit rusty.

In 1976 this show was replaced by Animals, Animals, Animals -- a show about, yup, animals.  Hosted by Hal Linden (known to me at the time as Barney Miller), the show presented a different species of animal each week and told you a little bit more about them.  This was another Sunday morning timekiller, since it was on late enough that church would be over and I could be home to watch it.

Moving along to a couple of forgotten gems from Saturday mornings, we begin with The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show.  Now, I had never heard of the Hudson Brothers outside of this show, which only lasted one season but seemed to me to go on much longer.  It was typical goofball stuff with musical numbers thrown in, and while much of the show doesn't stick in my brain, I can still remember the opening and closing, along with good ol' Avery Schreiber.  An attempt to cash in on the Hudson Brothers' fame, perhaps? Maybe, I can't say for sure.

Another show in the same vein was The Harlem Globetrotters Popcorn Machine.  The famous comedy basketball team had their own entry in Saturday mornings, appearing here in person rather than animated form.  This was also where I had first heard of Rodney Allen Rippy.  This was another one-season wonder and again it seemed to me to have been on much longer.

But things weren't all fun and games.  CBS, in an attempt to educate and inform produced In The News, highlighting and explaining a current news topic.  Each segment was maybe five minutes long, and aired in the space between programs.

There's more to cover, but we'll save that for another entry.  So, until next time, take care.

Lazy days

Today is my lazy day, of a type I very rarely get to experience anymore.  It's not often that I get a day to do hardly anything, what with getting caught up on things I couldn't do during the week and general household things that need doing, so I'm making the most of this.  I have stew in the crock pot for dinner, later on I'll make a batch of biscuits, maybe watch a video or two, and get myself all relaxed for back to work tomorrow.

When I was younger, we lived in a fairly rural area and on weekends I would take the opportunity to just head off into the woods, or explore a field nearby the house, or just plunk down under a tree and watch the sky for a while.  Being isolated from everyone and everything, for however brief a time as it was, helped me recharge a bit and get in touch with me, which made it a lot easier to deal with things throughout the rest of the week.

I know that, realistically, I'm not able to do that anymore.  It is nice to just be free from responsibility for a bit, let things go and relax, and not have to be doing things that others are demanding I do.  I can set my own pace, my own schedule, and do what I want.  And, if what I want to do is nothing, even better.

I've been going through some things here that will factor in when I do future posts.  I'm hoping these will serve as a bit of a snapshot as to what I was exposed to when I was growing up and maybe provide a glimpse into the not-so-distant past.  I may work on that a little bit later, or perhaps I'll set it aside for another time.

After all, today's a lazy day.

Wander with me (and my thoughts)

If it seems like I've been lost in let's remember
If you think I'm feeling older and missing my younger days
Oh, then you should have known me much better
Cause my past is something that never got in my way

 - Billy Joel, "Keeping The Faith"

One thing I probably will be doing a lot in this blog is reminiscing -- thinking of days gone by and things that I or those close to me used to do.  For some reason, I find myself doing this quite a bit lately.  I'm not sure if it's because I'm bored or if it's an attempt to figure out what from my past has influenced my future.

When I was a kid, I didn't have a lot of exposure to "pop culture," or at least it wasn't as in-your-face as it is today.  I think, as a result of this, I missed out on a lot of things that I didn't discover until I got older.  I was also a lot more trusting, always willing to believe the best about someone or taking what I was told at face value without question.  It wasn't until adulthood that I actually started to really question things, mainly because of one excellent piece of advice I received in my twenties, that still carries with me today:

"Believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see."

I also remember a lot of attempts by my parents to try to better their standard of living by hooking into the latest make-extra-money scheme.  I recall Amway, and Miracle Maid, rather vividly.  I think that my mother still has some of the Miracle Maid cookware, even after thirty-five years or so.  I'm also thinking that most of this was instigated by my father, for better or worse, and I also know it never lasted all that long.  

There will be more as we progress, little snippets of things that come to mind or a jog of the memory about a favorite toy, or television show, or just something that stuck with me through all of these years that, if I let it, comes to the front of my mind seemingly out of nowhere, compelling me to write it down before it disappears again.

This is no longer a placeholder, and welcome

It's funny how things can come full circle, you know?

This marks my third serious attempt to create a blog, and I find myself back on Blogger again.  I had left and went to TopCities, but since they decided to shut down my account for not paying the bill they sent to me a month late, I figured now would be a good time to return to the Blogger fold and create anew.

Some of you may know me, and I say welcome back.  I promise not to let this bog devolve into a morass of angst and woe.  To any new readers, welcome and I hope you will stick around.  I may not write often, but I will write when I can.

Things are still in that awkward stage, sort of like moving into a new house and slowly unpacking things and getting everything set up just how you like it to make it truly feel like home.  It will get better soon.