by Pastor Rodriguez | Feb 25, 2020
“We’ve got a fire here!”
40 years ago Irwin Allen’s classic “The Towering Inferno” came to NBC for the first time on television.
The Titanic of a great big multi-storied building is given its inaugural opening, only for a fire to break out, and people be trapped in high rise floors without a means of escape.
It has an all-star cast:
Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Jennifer Jones, Richard Chamberlin, Robert Wagner, Susan Blakely, OJ Simpson, and Robert Vaughn. As in “The Poseidon Adventure”: Who will survive?
The 1974 disaster epic was expanded from its theatrical running time of 165 minutes by adding about 20 minutes worth of footage not seen in the original release. It was presented over two nights in two 2-hour blocks on Sunday 2/17/80 (following the premiere of Walt Disney Productions’ “Escape To Witch Mountain”), and the conclusion on Monday 2/18/80. In a move that was VERY rare at the time the film was repeated only 3 months later in May of 1980, again in two parts.
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by Pastor Rodriguez | Feb 21, 2020
“Well that’s one thing about luck: it always changes, and I’ve got a feeling that mine is just around the corner.”
40 years ago today, on 2/24/80, Walt Disney Productions’ comedy classic “The Apple Dumpling Gang” returned to television.
A gambler (Bill Bixby) with little luck thinks he’s struck gold when he believes he’s double crossed someone (Don Knight) who’s double crossed him before, supposedly temporarily picking up some “valuables” on the morning stage. That stage has three little orphans (Clay O’Brien, Brad Savage and Stacy Manning), the “valuables”, and the driver (Susan Clark) and her father (David Wayne) agree with the Sheriff (Harry Morgan) that he has to find a home for them, or he’ll go to jail. Along the way the kids find a huge piece of gold in a mine, and now everyone wants the kids, including some bumbling crooks (Don Knotts and Tim Conway), and some dangerous ones (Slim Pickens, Dennis Fimple, Bing Russell and Pepe Callahan).
The film was produced by Ron Miller and directed by Disney veteran Norman Tokar. The music score was written by Buddy Baker, adding immeasurably to the joys of the film.
The 1975 delight first came to television on 11/14/76, and this was its second network showing, also in a two-hour format. It would be repeated again later that same year on 11/2/80, again in two-hours, the last time on the original anthology show.
“The Apple Dumpling Gang” may be the most important movie in my life, it making me want to see more movies, having only wanted to see a few before. The impact this one made on me made me want to see more films, especially Disney, the title song alone being something that I heard endlessly, having taken a tape recorder to the theater, and hearing the opening and ending repeatedly for years before I finally recorded it on video on 2/24/80. That song, written by Shane Tatem and sung by Randy Sparks with The Back Porch Majority, is what made me love movies most of all, the music and song it could include to enliven the story. The impact is unforgettable.
The great cast, the wonderful script, and the great music with song make “The Apple Dumpling Gang” an all-time classic.
“Mr. Donovan: I gotta go”
“And they called them The Apple Dumpling Gang.”
by Pastor Rodriguez | Jan 20, 2020
“If you plant these beans in the light of a full moon, you know what will happen?”
“YES! WE GET MOON BEAMS!”
40 years ago today on 1/20/80 “Mickey’s Greatest Adventures” aired on “Disney’s Wonderful World”. A retitling of “The Adventures Of Mickey Mouse” from 1955, it hadn’t been shown in 25 years when the show was still in black and white on ABC.
The show begins with Gary Owens as our audible host, telling us about the vast career of the world’s most famous mouse, starting off with the cartoon “Squatter’s Rights” with Chip And Dale being the original tenants of a cabin that Mickey and Pluto go to stay at, and then on to “Mickey’s Trailer”, with Mickey, Donald and Goofy driving a trailer into the mountains, with the gang making the mistake of having Goofy be the driver (“Well, I got you down safe and sound!”). Then the almost 20 minute “Mickey And The Beanstalk” segment of “Fun And Fancy Free” is presented, telling the story with Mickey, Donald and Goofy as our heroes, and Willie the Giant as the villain (voiced by the wonderful Billy Gilbert). Finally “Alpine Climbers” has Mickey, Donald, and Pluto climbing the Alps, along with a St. Bernard that helps Pluto a little too much.
In the original broadcast Walt Disney was the host, so accordingly all those sequences wouldn’t be shown in 1980, the idea of having a host on the show having been abandoned after his passing. In that original showing the first cartoon shown was “The Band Concert”, then “Alpine Climbers”, “Squatter’s Rights”, and finally “Mickey And The Beanstalk”. At the end Walt is closing the show and Willie the giant lifts the roof of the room to look for Mickey, just as he had at the end of “Fun And Fancy Free” with Edgar Bergen, and afterward walks over the buildings of Los Angeles, finding the Brown Derby, and putting it on his head. Humorous lumbering music is used for his nocturnal walk (editing out the initial part of the walk where Jiminy Cricket is seen), while in the original film the reprise of the gorgeous, jaunty title song “Fun And Fancy Free” was used, not having quite the same joyous spirit of the original film.
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by Pastor Rodriguez | Dec 25, 2019
45 years ago in 1974 the classic animated special from Lutheran Television “The City That Forgot About Christmas” first aired in syndication. This quiet little film, animated on a lower budget, is one of the most beautiful animated specials in capturing the true meaning of Christmas.
With a wonderful cast it tells the story of a boy who’s grandfather (Sebastian Cabot) is able to let him know how important it is to remember the significance of the Christ child, and not the other things that detract from it just being a holiday. Charles Nelson Reilly, Louis Nye, Casey Kasem, Robie Lester, and Joan Gardner also lend their voices to this beautifully made film that stays with one for life. Most of all it has a gorgeous song which is sung by Sebastian Cabot with a chorus titled “You Can’t Stop Christmas” which captures everything the special is trying to tell.
Maybe one day the film will be remastered. Even though it won’t ever look incredible, it would be nice that a modern transfer would bring more attention to this little known, but timeless film.
“You can’t stop Christmas you’ll find there is no way.
You can’t stop Christmas that’s what the children say.
God became like one of us, a baby soft and warm.
You can’t stop Christmas, the day that Christ was born.”
by Pastor Rodriguez | Dec 18, 2018
“That wacky professor Fred MacMurray has a new secret weapon! “Son Of Flubber”.
‘You bombard the clouds with people! That is original thinking.’
“Ned, why do you always have to do something so world shattering?!’
‘Do you realize what a wonderful age we are living in today? Anything can happen! Anything!'”
“George! George! Did you see that?!”
55 years ago Walt Disney’s classic “Son Of Flubber” was released to theaters. This, the first movie sequel to a previous Disney film (“The Three Caballeros” being more a follow-up to “Saludos Amigos”), is a joyous, inspired return of many wonderful people to their roles of the 1961 classic “The Absent-Minded Professor”.
Professor Ned Brainard (Fred MacMurray) has gone to Washington DC to get money from his anti-gravity formula Flubber with Biff Hawk (Tommy Kirk), son of crooked financier Alonzo P. Hawk (Keenan Wynn), to help the debt of Medfield College, still struggling financially. The Washington Defense Secretary (Edward Andrews) tells him his invention (from the first film) is under wraps as Washington tries to get everybody together as to what they are going to be doing with it, and its finances (should be getting a hearing in Washington any day now). Accordingly college President Daggett (Leon Ames) has to continue to pander to Alonzo Hawk.
Ned is having problems of his own, with people trying to take money from him that he has yet to collect. Mr. Hurley (Ken Murray) and his assistant (Jack Albertson) want to sell him on making different products through Flubber for home consumption, like “Flubberoleum” floors, while Mr. Harker (Bob Sweeney) is a tax collector that wants dough that the Brainards can’t pay since they have yet to receive anything. This is all having a strain on Ned and Betsy’s (Nancy Olson) marriage, since their debt is also climbing. Ned has a new invention he works on, Flubbergas, which can make it rain at will, but has inadvertently broken all the glass within the radius of the ray-gun that Ned projected it from. Biff and Humphrey Hacker (Leon Tyler) are trying to work on a Flubbergassed suit, while Humph wants a Flubberized football.
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by Pastor Rodriguez | Jan 10, 2018
60 years ago one of the greatest horror films of all time was released, Hammer Films production of “The Abominable Snowman”, known in the US as “The Abominable Snowman Of The Himalayas”. This was the third, and last for 10 years, of the productions by the studio based on an original TV serial or TV production written by Nigel Kneale. Those three Quatermass films are among the best science fiction/horror films ever made. “Abominable” is the best horror film that Hammer Films ever made.
The basic story of “The Abominable Snowman” is one of many horror films, finding a creature or place that is forbidden, and possibly haunted. The approach is much more mystical and psychological than the typical horror film. Actually it is one of the most haunting and mystical films ever made. The adventure is mysterious and exciting, but the implications on the people involved take on much greater meaning than usual.
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