What was the last TV show you watched?

[EngProf]

Continuing to sift thru a variety of early kinescopes from the 1948-50 era, I keep coming back to "Howdy Doody," which, the more I watch, the more it comes across as one of the most disturbing kiddie shows ever aired. Those who remember the show's later era will think of Doodyville as a center of innocent, whimsical fun, but the early shows over and over again come across as unsettling on just about every possible level. But the one thing that comes across in just about every show I've seen so far is the palpable, mutual loathing exhibited between Bob Smith and Bob "Clarabell the Clown" Keeshan. I knew the two men didn't much care for each other, and it only got worse the longer they worked together, but I wasn't prepared to see it acted out on screen so obviously and explicitly.

The gentle Kangarooish Bob Keeshan is nowhere to be seen here. His Clarabell is a hulking, thuggish presence around the Peanut Gallery -- which perhaps reflects his off-camera role as Bob's enforcer, keeping the kids in their place and under control. But there is no jolliness or whimsy in this Clarabell -- he storms around the set, throwing violent tantrums like a splenetic two year old when he doesn't get his way, and Bob goes out of his way to goad him. Some of this goes beyond mere teasing -- when the good ol' Buffalo bellows "YOU STUPID CLOWN!" when Clarabell botches some trick or other, it really sounds like he's yelling at Keeshan himself, not the character he's playing. And Keeshan looks, thru the makeup, like he's genuinely seething. When the time comes to let Buffalo Bob have it right in the face with the seltzer bottle, you can see Keeshan glaring at Smith, just before pressing the lever, with a look that can only be described as slit-eyed, murderous hate.

Something must also be said about the absolutely relentless vending on these shows. Bob not only does the interminable commercials, he compels the kids to join him in singing the commercial jingles -- and no matter what you think abou the Boys, there's something honestly distressing about a bleacher full of six year olds being made to sing "Halo, everybody, halo! Halo is the shampoo that glorifies your hair!" When a kid tries to interrupt Bob as he's giving his pitch, he blows the little scamp right off, and keeps on selling. No doubt the wee tyke settled right down, lest Clarabell fix him in that terrifying slit-eyed glare.

(And NBC really needs to adjust its vertical linearity. The test pattern looks like poop.)

I (and my pals) started watching "Howdy Doody" in 1952, so we missed the worst of the Buffalo Bob and Clarabelle hatred and combat. We also missed the creepy, monstrous version of Howdy (fortunately).
As for the kids singing the commercials, we still can do it. At one lunch-time recently there were half a dozen university professors having lunch together. Somehow the topic of our childhood TV-viewing habits came up, including "Howdy Doody".
One bold person started singing the Halo commercial and all of us joined in, correct word-for-word. We also sang, "Brush your teeth with Colgate, Colgate Dental Cream..." Once imprinted, never forgotten...

I will say that even as kids we had some impression of the lack of real entertainment quality of "Howdy Doody". We had a parody song back then that started out: "It's Howdy Doody time, and it ain't worth a dime!" Unfortunately I can't remember the rest of it.
One personally perplexing aspect of "Howdy Doody" was that I had an aunt named Clarabelle. I could not reconcile the idea that either my aunt had a clown's name or a clown had my aunt's name.

 

[Edward]

Ha, I totally understand the imprinting thing. To this day, I can't hear All Over Now by the Stones without thinking of Insignia, an old brand of men's groom products where the schtick was that your deodorant, talk, aftershave, et al has the same scent, so you didn't have anything that clashed and smelled bad or ott. I'm not sure if it's still around now as a brand, but I last saw that ad in 1992 and I reckon I could still sing you the full jingle...

 

[Fading Fast]

Ha, I totally understand the imprinting thing. To this day, I can't hear All Over Now by the Stones without thinking of Insignia, an old brand of men's groom products where the schtick was that your deodorant, talk, aftershave, et al has the same scent, so you didn't have anything that clashed and smelled bad or ott. I'm not sure if it's still around now as a brand, but I last saw that ad in 1992 and I reckon I could still sing you the full jingle...

There might be a thread idea here as there have been so many songs ruined for me by their later-in-life use in advertisements. Sometime the song's use is fun and works and doesn't bother me at all; other times, the use is grating and coopting in a way that destroys one's future enjoyment of the song. Fortunately, as a fan of "All Over Now" I am not familiar with its use in the ad you reference. Oddly, back in the the '90s when Microsoft used "The Stones" "Start Me Up" to launch an updated version of Windows, I thought it worked okay and didn't hurt the song for me.

 

[LizzieMaine]

In the 1920s there were people who couldn't hear "Brighten The Corner Where You Are" without cursing the makers of Gold Dust washing powder.

 

[MisterCairo]

Two more episodes of season one of Into the Badlands, this is a really fun ride!

Kung fu meets steampunk meets Gone With the Wind meets The Hunger Games...

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

Two must recent episodes of Home Fires

 

[Edward]

There might be a thread idea here as there have been so many songs ruined for me by their later-in-life use in advertisements. Sometime the song's use is fun and works and doesn't bother me at all; other times, the use is grating and coopting in a way that destroys one's future enjoyment of the song. Fortunately, as a fan of "All Over Now" I am not familiar with its use in the ad you reference. Oddly, back in the the '90s when Microsoft used "The Stones" "Start Me Up" to launch an updated version of Windows, I thought it worked okay and didn't hurt the song for me.

I remember that Microsoft ad.... or, more to the point, I remember the coverage in all the press about how much they'd paid the Stones for the right to use the song. (Of course, they couldn't have bought all that coverage at any price, so....)

The ad that made me most angry about the use of a song was that Mercedes ad which didn't understand the Janis Joplin song.... I do find myself wondering what barbarian inherited or bought her rights and didn't care about the art...

Friends of mine had two key songs they used in their wedding. In the month that followed, one (the one she has the sheet music of incorporated into a tattoo on her back, no less) was used to advertise a distasteful popular tabloid "newspaper", the other a brand of incontinence pads for ladies....

 

[Stearmen]

The season premier of The Good Witch. If you told me a decade ago, that I would be hooked on this series, well, I won't say what I would have told you since this is a family forum!

 

[Touchofevil]

The last episode of season two of Better Call Saul as well as the first episode of season three of Better Call Saul. Nicely done across the board.

 

[MisterCairo]

Friends of mine had two key songs they used in their wedding. In the month that followed, one (the one she has the sheet music of incorporated into a tattoo on her back, no less) was used to advertise a distasteful popular tabloid "newspaper", the other a brand of incontinence pads for ladies....

I have got to ask - what were the two songs. Supplementary question - which song went with each ad?!

 

[MisterCairo]

Last episode of season one of Into the Badlands, followed by episode seven of season two of The Last Kingdom.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Two more episodes of season one of Into the Badlands, this is a really fun ride!

Kung fu meets steampunk meets Gone With the Wind meets The Hunger Games...

It's a lot of Mad Mad: Fury Road. I'm looking forward to them getting back to The Badlands. I'm not real crazy about the characters and situations outside the wall.

 

[Stearmen]

The Victorian Slum. I know it's just a dumb reality type show, but sure makes you realize how soft most of us have it!

 

[Edward]

I have got to ask - what were the two songs. Supplementary question - which song went with each ad?!

The songs were Imelda May's "Inside Out" (Tena Lady incontince pads), and a number called "I'll never find another you" (the tattoo), for The Sun. The indignity!

 

[Edward]

The Victorian Slum. I know it's just a dumb reality type show, but sure makes you realize how soft most of us have it!

Au contraire, I would say it was far from the usual dumb reality fare. Excellent show.... and very timely as well, given we live in the age of the zero hours contract.

 

[MisterCairo]

Last night's Supernatural (an AWESOME episode!) and this week's Fargo (a really wild ride into the 70s era sleeze of Hollywood).

 

[MisterCairo]

The final episode of season two of The Last Kingdom (will have to wait a year!) and another episode of Paranoid, a Netflix UK crime drama. Very good.

 

[Touchofevil]

Another episode of Better Call Saul.

 

[Touchofevil]

Two more episodes of Better Call Saul. Now we are all caught up and must wait. Such great writing and interesting characters this show gives us each week.

 

[Worf]

The Victorian Slum. I know it's just a dumb reality type show, but sure makes you realize how soft most of us have it!

I got this lesson the first time I went South to my Mother's Mothers place in rural North Carolina as a kid. When you have to empty slop jowals in the outhouse, pump water by hand and do a hundred other things you never did before just to survive... you gain a little appreciation as to how hard things can be. They didn't get electricity until the late 50's. Rugged. I mean dirt road rugged.

Worf