MY TWO SHITS WORTH: EPISODE EIGHT

     Here's a good one.  Kelly Monteith.  A stand up comedian by trade, he came to prominence (perhaps too strong a word) in 1970s, making several appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and was part of the initial wave of observational comedians.  He also played all of the big Nevada casinos of the day.  He got 'noticed' by CBS who offered him a four-week summer replacement variety show in 1976.  His guests were Freddie Prinze, Vicki Lawrence, George Gobel and Gavin MacLeod.  He started making appearances on British talk shows too which led to him getting signed by the BBC to do his own series.
     He says that he pitched this type of show to American networks who flatly rejected him.  "The Kelly Monteith Show" was partially inspired by the old "The George Burns Show" where the main character would talk directly to the camera at certain points during the program.  Garry Shandling would also use this in his 1980s Showtime series.  The Brits ate it up and the show ran for six series (British for seasons) from 1979 to 1984.  During that time he also returned to CBS in 1980 for another four-week show called "No Holds Barred."  Described by many as a comic version of "60 Minutes", no one knew what to make of it (especially those tuning in expecting to watch "Kojak" reruns) and the show disappeared very quickly.
     After his BBC show ended Monteith returned to the states and continued his stand up career and made a few mostly forgettable TV and movie appearances.  His BBC show ran on the fledgling A&E Network in the early 80s (where I watched it as a child) but has also been mostly forgotten.  That's a shame because it was a very funny show and now his very funny Carson guests stints are now showing up on You Tube.  I highly recommend them and also recommend that the BBC get off their arses and put his old show on DVD.

THE $100,000 PYRAMID (2017)-MY REVIEW

     Well, with his 56 different jobs, ABC somehow got Michael Strahan back to host another batch of episodes of The Pyramid this past summer and fall.   And I think he must have decided to bring all of his athlete besties with him and not so surprisingly the show suffered because of it.  Yeah, it's funny to see one football player totally shit the bed because he's obviously never played the game before but after seeing football player after football player do this I wanted Dick Cavett back in the worst way.  At least they had a few trained players like Kathy Najimy (who was also a contestant in the 1980s) to class up the joint a bit.  And, yes, they didn't fool around with the basic game structure but the producers would be wise to try and have the novices play some practice rounds first.  My rating for this season is a B-.  Try harder!!!

The Smithereens-A Girl Like You

RESPECT

     The Smithereens were always one of my favorites.  Pat DiNizio (1955-2017).

BANG ZOOM.....WE'RE ALL GOING TO THE MOON!

     "The Honeymooners" is still considered one of the all time classic sitcoms despite the fact that it's now over 60 years old and only aired a total of 39 episodes (anything else you ever seen is just sketches cut out of one of many incarnations of Jackie Gleason's variety show).
     However, if millennials watched it today (if at all), they would pick it apart like a frog in junior high biology class.  Above all other major and minor offenses, the times Glesaon's character Ralph Kramden would tell his wife Alice something to the effect of 'one of these days, Alice, POW!, straight to the moon!' after she insulted the poor slob one time too many would seem like some sort of code for spousal abuse.  The truth is the abuse was just pathetically and therefore comically verbal.  Always.  Alice really wore the pants in that family.
     Today, what is passing itself off as the truth is a bit frightening.  And the actual truth is something we now wouldn't be able to recognize if it was staring us in the face.  What stops us from just walking away from it all?  A belief in something bigger than ourselves?  God?  The universe?  Free HBO for a year?
     A recent story I read talked about how when man last walked on the moon, no one cared because we had already done it; no matter how much of a risk and achievement it was every time it happened.
Will that become the case for the latest wave of sexual harassment charges being hung on people in positions of any type of power?  Does Willie the Wino run the risk of losing his newspaper blanket the next time he ogles Barbara Businesswoman as she walks to work one bright autumn morning?
Will this soon become a case of the non-binary unit who cried wolf?
    I fear all charges of wrongdoing soon will all be judged by the same yardstick; regardless of the severity of the sin with everyone being banished forever to someplace far away like the moon.   And when the last one of us is a placed in the rocket with the fuse already being self-lit, who on earth will be left?

POINT OF REFERENCE

     I feel a bit saddened when I see and hear what is going on in our supposed new and improved world with technology at the forefront.  Alexa, can you explain the cost of becoming enslaved to this technology in human terms?
     Today's social media boom may well be on the way of going bust.   This current culture makes the 'ME' decade of the 1980s seem like a trip to Chernobyl with Mother Theresa to help victims of radiation posioning.
     The current society has become so indoctrinated with looking inward that babies are surely born with this 'gift' as a built-in feature.  There are exceptions, of course, but how many people are helping victims of natural disasters partly because they think there is a good chance of getting a 'sick' selfie?
     Academics use 'point of reference' as a way of discussing and evaluating theories that are different than the ones that we normally use.  It is supposed to make people understand that there is more to life than what is currently seen in our limited range of visibility.  The very concept of this theory may be foreign and perhaps useless to people of modern life who reject everything that has come before them as a false way of feeling 'liberated' from the mistakes of the past.
     Is reasoning and using methods of deduction to uncover the severity of any given situation somehow invalid in this world where public opinion takes the place of actual justice?  Has the kangaroo court finally replaced the one we used to consider 'Supreme'?
    All facets of modern society certainly seem easier.  But does that really make them more credible?

"When the truth offends we lie and lie until we can no longer remember it is even there, but it is still there. Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt is paid."

COLOR ME IMPRESSED.

       I was looking through some old college yearbooks a few days ago and I uncovered some very interesting achievements.  No, I'm not referring to grades or degrees or any of that paltry stuff.  I'm talking about 'goings on' in and around the Magic City. We have two colleges here but are most definitely not thought of as a college town.  Back in the day (1970-71 , to be exact),  I guess some things could actually considered BETTER.  Things that would actually excite ME if I had actually been alive to witness it.
     The first achievement was to somehow convince a group of talented musicians from Britain called Badfinger to play at one of the colleges' theaters; Petro Hall which holds upwards of 500 people.  These dudes were tight with Beatles, man!  They also wrote what I consider to be just about the best power pop song in the world called 'No Matter What.'  For you younger folks they also wrote the song "Baby Blue" that was featured in the last episode of "Breaking Bad."  They also had some of the worst luck of any band and two members would later commit suicide after many failed comeback attempts.
     The second achievement was getting Mort Sahl to come here for one of his 'commentaries.'  He was one of the most famous political comedians in the country.  But unlike Lenny Bruce, he didn't have a drug habit or try to shock the audience to get a point across. Sitting in on one of these mostly freeform discussions where the audience was allowed to ask questions and express their views must have been amazing.  And to think, it was all done in a civilized manner.  How DID they do it?  Again, for you younger folks, Mort Sahl would most likely be the precursor to someone like Jon Stewart or John Oliver.
    The third and final achievement was to get the one of the leaders of the burgeoning Women's Movement, Gloria Steinem to speak here.  I'm not going to try to even imagine how this all went down but it must have been something special.  As a male, I would probably be afraid of going to an event like this one out of fear of being tarred and feathered or some such thing even though I consider myself to be whatever the exact opposite of whatever a male chauvinist pig would be called.
     I went to college at the same place in the early 1990s.  By then, there was very little campus entertainment beyond a few plays or dances.  And this was BEFORE the internet!  The city had changed.  I believe it had become much more conservative.  I even had a boss at one of my first jobs tell me "this town cares little about culture....unless it's agriculture."  Today the town is changing again.  Will it be for the better?  Will I even be around to experience it?  And will anyone ever be impressed again?