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Tulsa TV Memories Guestbook 163 TTM main | What's new on TTM? | GB Archive
I don't really recall Pufnstuf running regularly in Tulsa, and when I saw it, I'm pretty sure it was in reruns. I recall Lidsville was on on Saturdays...sometimes (on 8?). Seems like every other week they'd pre-empt it for some talk show, forcing us kids away from the TV and out into the fresh air (this was before Atari. ;-) )
Pufnstuf, Lidsville, and The Krofft Supershow are currently playing on TV Land, Fri 11 pm to Sat 1 am, Tulsa time. I had never seen them until recently. The weirdest thing about the shows is how canned laughs are liberally added to scenes that don't seem funny...at least, not funny in a laugh-track kind of way.
While writing that last bit I got an email from Billie Hayes, aka Witchiepoo on H.R. PUFNSTUF and aka Weenie the Geenie on LIDSVILLE (and aka Mammy Yokum from 1959's "Li'l Abner"...webmaster). A few months ago I bought the PUFNSTUF box set (my favorite childhood memories) and looked her up on the web. I first saw Pufnstuf at Six Flags over Georgia, a year or two before the show aired (he didn't have arms back them) so I always felt like I was more in on the joke than the other kids.
Billie is a great talent and a great person; she is the President of Pet
Hope, an organization dedicated to the care and placement of abandoned animals.
I recommend you check out her website:
BillieHayes.com.
I just wanted to clear up a nit-picky bit of trivia; THE SEVEN FACES OF DOCTOR LAO was usually shown on the CBS LATE MOVIE (pre-cable's answer to HBO). I don't know how film rights worked back in those days, but it seemed to be locked into the package for a decade, along with the Hammer Horror films and some of the later Jerry Lewis comedies (before CBS gave up and just started showing the NBC MYSTERY MOVIES; McMillan & Wife, McCloud, Columbo, etc.) The only reason I know this is because it's one of my all-time favorite movies (great philosophical point of view, great effects, and Barbara Eden at her most orgasmic) and I never missed it when it came on. THE LATE SHOW was what KOTV played on Friday and Saturday nights at 10:30 (the Friday CBS LATE MOVIE was recorded and played back on Sunday nights) and they had some cool movies (THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, THE ILLUSTRATED MAN, DR. STRANGELOVE, etc.) but I don't know about LAO. I think it was later broadcast on KOKI/Channel 23 when they had an all-movie format, before the formation of the FOX Network.
(The "Movie Star" was one of KOKI's first movie programs around 1980. The opening was an elevated night-time slow zoom down Boston Avenue toward the Williams Center, with the Atlas Life Building prominent in the foreground. The title "Movie Star" was superimposed on this scene...webmaster)
I hope this site succeeds in showing some of Tulsa's lesser-seen faces, "Lao" as well as "high" culture.
The good news is KOKI assures me the air time will be credited (it's that or they give me a refund) and the 5 bands scheduled to appear on May 29th will be seen on the show in the near future. Less understandable is the fact that our Friday night June 4th premiere did not get listed in the TV World. FOX 23 is contractually obligated to see that TULSA MUSIC EXPOSED is listed as TULSA MUSIC EXPOSED and not "Paid Program." What to do...? TULSA MUSIC EXPOSED will air at 12:30 am on KOKI FOX 23 and will still feature a former Beatle in Tulsa. For verificatiion with FOX 23, call Sales Manager David Brace at 491-0023. Thanks to TULSA TV MEMORIES for providing the forum and thanks to all the bands and fans for their support.
Additional info can be got at
TulsaMusicExposed.com.
It only missed us by a mile or so. We were ready to do a "duck and cover".
I guess things are better today but it wasn't so bad way back when the weather
took care of itself.
In the case of potential severe weather, it is a ready-made mini-series reality show. Of course when it's overdone, you run the risk of alienating viewers, but your only recourse is to have cable or dish...so you can tune out; because all the locals are going to be devoting all of their resources to "rotation." The movie of course is pure fantasy. The possibility of a twister though, while very rare, is fuel for hours of endless descriptions, field reports from amateurs, computer-generated animation, and a color palette overlaid on lines and then tilted for further effect...until the viewer is filled with the sense that it is indeed, the "Diluvian!"
What's good about today's technology? Computers. A person can come on the air and say; "Here's a very strong cell, it's located at this point and in so many minutes will likely travel on this line to such and such a place. I suggest...if you're in that path, turn your TV off and find a safe place...keep your ears open and hope for the best!" But if you like all that hype, then you should sit there and watch it and flip channels to see who you think is producing the "best thrills" and then read a synopsis the next morning or two in Jay Cronley's column in the morning newspaper. He loves that stuff! In the end though, it reminds of the old weather joke about the little old lady who ran to her basement every time the weather people foretold a tornado. She had done this twelve times over a period of three years. Then, one day she emerged from such a warning, to find her house completely blown away. She looked around and then smiled; saying, "Now that's more like it!" Like Gary Shore's lucky strike..."Once right...you can do no wrong!"
Okay! "Get the Hook." (echo)
I hope you, Lionel, Granny and family have a fun and safe Memorial Day weekend!
Daddy A Go Go (aka John Boydston, formerly of Channel 8 and CNN) has a take on TV weather, "Don't Blame the Weatherman", from the new CD, "Mojo A Go Go". You can hear a musical sample at the link.
The real deal on Gary Shore's great prediction and good luck concerned his using his own prediction of some snow one evening. The official NWS forecast made no such prediction. It snowed! This created great word of mouth and newspaper coverage of Gary and elevated his bonifides a quantum. This was also the straw that would soon run off all non-meteorologists from the air waves, including yours truly. Dear reader can ponder whether this was a good thing or not. If you look like Christine Abernathy, it was a good thing; if you were as witty and charming as most certified meteorologists...it was not! Fair and balanced? You decide. Anyway, that's the straight poop on Gary's star rising into the troposphere where a small pileus cloud formed over his head as he ascended into the heavens.
By the way; the fellows at the local NWS office were NOT amused.
I stand corrected. I'm glad to hear Linda Soundtrack is alive and well, and worshipping at The Shrine of The Golden Transmitter, Alabama Synod.
Like Mark Twain said, the news of my death is greatly exaggerated.
He was quoted in the Tulsa World series last week concerning the 100-year flood we had back in the eighties. I would vote for him if he would promise to do only a few minutes when a summer storm came up...unless it really got cooking; then I would give him one minute every fifteen! Shore Nuff! is enough.
I saw this KOTV glass on eBay (but didn't buy). Lee says he has a very similar set.
Great to hear that! Please ask her to drop in sometime.
Flint Reeves is gone, of the Reeves Boys fame, he died last year, I believe. Doc Rock left us about 5 years or so ago, and I think Linda Soundtrack has passed on as well. Ernest Moody - "Your Jeweler" - passed away about 10 years or so ago, but his sons are still running the operation, and it is alive and well. John Mount, of Mount's Appliances, I think is still with us, but living in retirement. Bill Brewster, of Brewster's Toys, and his wife, passed away last year, and while that is not really the particular era mentioned, they were known to an entire generation of kids. Every time I think of the subject of pitchmen, I remember Chick Norton's campaign for his auto dealership from the early and mid 50's, "Chick Don't Care!!!". "We'll make the prices lower than anyone else in town, and to prove it, we'll bust the front windshield with a ball bat." Sure got my attention.
I thought Linda (Verin) Soundtrak was alive and well in Atlanta. I have a report that Flint Reeves is also in the pink. Never have been able to find out anything about Doc Rock up until now.
Thank you and help start a Bring Back Gary Shore Campaign!!
That promo was a Carl Bartholomew production...here it is on the 8's The Place page. The music sounds like library music to me, not a specific piece.
Yes, the TTM staff of me, myself and I will be there at some point.
Sad to hear of his passing. He always seemed much younger than his age. A
great talent.
I made the usual intros and before I could start, he spotted my woven Italian Johnston & Murphy loafers (mentioned here previously) and exclaimed: "Your shoes sir...'Are a thing of beauty and a joy forever'." Leon did a quick lens rack for a close-up. The only other thing I remember was a story he told - of when John Barrymore was staying just up the street (3rd & Detroit?) at the "Tulsa Hotel." Supposedly there was a fire alarm and Barrymore rushed to the lobby...quite upset, even more so by the fact that he was "off the sauce" at the time and had no recourse but to shout in his stentorian way: "Somebody get me a chocolate!" I suspect this was one of those partially true stories one hears in the "Show Bidniz."
Tony was also a devoted opera fan and appeared many times on "Opera Quiz"
during intermissions of the Texaco Radio Network Met Opera broadcasts. He
was just as amusing in that venue as any other. He was a very funny man and
had a lot of funny stories to tell regardless of where he found himself.
Speaking of Beef Baloney, they are selling all of their cool stuff Saturday and Sunday at this address:
2524 East 12th Street
They are heading to L.A. soon, so check it out. Wish we could keep 'em
in T-town.
It's well worth renting. I saw it when it first came out, and thought it was outstanding, and perhaps his best work on film. You can read a review of it here.
That movie was written by Charles Beaumont, one of the principal "Twilight Zone" writers.
To take a walk down memory lane, go to Sam's
Toybox.
After having been gone from Tulsa now for 42 years this month, I'll bet I would cry too if my home was destroyed. There is just...something about Tulsa...I can't describe it but whatever it is has made me think about Tulsa almost every day of my life since then...it just keeps pulling me back...pulling me back. Now that I am retired I am going to do an Ahhnold....
I'll be back....
Mr. Randall was awarded an honorary doctorate when he was here in 1975 for the dedication of Kendall Hall at TU, according to Thomas Conner's article in today's Tulsa World. The article touches on his reaction to the razing of his childhood home at 14th and Norfolk. But he had good things to say about Tulsa and its cultural opportunities during his youth by the time of a 1997 interview.
Someone mentioned a time when Tony was in Tulsa and swore he'd never come
back. What was the deal with that? Did something happen? Or was he just upset
that his childhood home was no longer around?
Tony Randall is mentioned in many guestbooks here. And there's also a photo of him in his early Tulsa days.
He was a superb actor, humanitarian and is one actor I would always wish
I could have met in person.
I was very surprised when I first learned that Tony Randall was from Tulsa. He seemed the quintessential New Yorker in movies like "Pillow Talk" and "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" He was one of those talk show guests who could be depended upon to be spontaneous and funny. I'll miss him.
The thing I will miss most about Beef Baloney is their occasional parody of the Tulsa cable auction show...much too funny. Thanks to the guys for the great laughs. We will see them again, although it will probably be on MTV or some other national cable outlet.
BB emphasized the garish colors and the "kawaii" (cute) aspect of Japanese TV.
Email from G. L. Sartain: "yepydoodle." He further advised that the spots are current.
As for LUther, I think it was Troy Gordon who pointed out the irony that
it was the prefix for a few downtown Catholic churches.
The Last Beef Baloney Brief
Sandy's Hamburgers Shoppers Fair The Par 3 course at 51st and Lewis - and Revere Elementary across the street Conner's Corner - best burgers in town, just off 31st and Harvard The Anthony's store in Ranch Acres that still had an overhead pneumatic tube change/receipt system in the mid 60's Mazeppa's classic Xmas commercials for Coney Islander ("Coneys sizzlin' on an open grill, Jack Frost nippin' at your buns...")
There was discussion of Sandy's in Guestbook 44. You can see the Shopper's Fair logo near the top of the Oom-A-Gog page. The photo of Shopper's Fair on Discount Stores of the '60s looks very much like the one formerly in the 21st & Sheridan shopping center that still hosts Casa Bonita.
There are several of these lists on the internet, but probably the largest is at YourOklahoma.com.
There was a new photo from KOTV in the early 50s, with an unknown host. We need more help identifying the host, and the Girl Scouts and Brownies in the picture.
Mayfest reminder: the great conguero, Poncho Sanchez, will be at Mayfest
tonight with his Latin jazz band. If you're a jazz fan, this is one to see!
(Later: kudos to whoever booked Poncho. The show was world-class entertainment.
Also, thanks to MidFirst Bank for sponsoring Mayfest this year.)
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Why do you think the Weather Channel now
runs a series called "Storm Stories?" It's the ratings, folks.
