NICK AT NITE TITLE CARDS

I’ve been going through a bunch of my old VHS tapes and finding shows taped off of Nick at Nite back in the 90’s. The channel was a lot of fun when they featured classic TV shows from the 1950‘s to the 70’s. One of my favorite things about the channel were all the clever bumpers and TV spots during the commercial breaks. Go to YouTube and type Nick at Nite in the search. You’ll find tons of ‘em to watch. For fun, I screen grabbed a handful of title cards used in some of these spots. I love the artwork on these!










The titles in the next group were used for specific shows. My favorite might be the cone of silence one from Get Smart!















I uploaded two Nick at Nite marathon events to YouTube the other day. Click Puf-A-Palooza and The Lost Brady to view.

BARRY WILLIAMS GETS GROOVY IN BRANSON

Here’s the story,

Of a groovy guy,

Who was bringing up some very funky tunes.

All of them were hits of gold,

Like their singer,

Who sometimes softly croons.

Here’s the story,

Of a man named Yakov,

Who was busy with a theater of his own.

In Branson, MO,

A Russian comedian, but was all alone-.

Till the one day when the guy met this Smirnoff,

and they knew their show was much more than a lunch.

That these two,

Must somehow form a morning show.

That’s the way it all became the Brady Brunch,

The Brady Brunch- the Brady Brunch

That’s the way- it became the Brady Brunch.

Honestly I tried to resist posting my feeble parody attempt of the Brady Bunch lyrics, but I just couldn’t help myself. Hey, when you’re in a good mood sometimes you do goofy silly things. How’d I get in this good mood? Well...the "first lady" of Neato Coolville and myself took in a live show this past Saturday. We visited the theater of 80's icon Yakov Smirnoff in Branson, Missouri to see the 70's icon Barry Williams perform his new show, Brady Brunch.


For the past two weeks, Barry has been performing at Yakov’s Branson theater with a show that he’s been working on for a few years. It’s a simple and fun show that celebrates Barry’s career from his days as playing Greg Brady in the Brady Bunch to his many adventures in the entertainment business. He gets the crowd in the groove from the beginning when he comes out as his alter ego, no not Greg, but Johnny Bravo.


After greeting the audience he shares some Brady clips followed by some fun behind the scenes stories. Barry keeps on truckin’ with some 70's tunes and sings some of the biggest hits of the decade. Halfway thru the show, brunch is served. It was a big breakfast type of meal that made us skip lunch. I guess that’s why they call it a brunch! Yakov made us laugh as he helped pass the brunches down the rows. As the audience munched on the brunches, Barry took questions.


This was probably our favorite moment of the show as Barry is at his best when interacting with the audience. I feel sorry for the lady in front of me who I spit pieces of egg on when I laughed too hard. (Just joking! I think I missed her.)

The show took on a more quiet tone after brunch.


Veterans were honored (a Branson show tradition) and Barry shared some meaningful moments about his family along with a nice tribute to his dad. He was a WWII veteran.

He ended the fun with the famous Brady Kids bubblegum hit, It’s a Sunshine Day!


Later, Barry took time to meet and greet anyone who wanted a photo taken with him and an autograph. The "first lady" had her vintage trading card ready for him to sign. (Yep, she’s a Brady collector!)


We were thrilled to hear the announcement that Barry will be back in the fall of 2012 for a more longer and maybe permanent show in Branson. Click here for the scoop.


Heck, he even hinted about a possible Christmas show. Hopefully this will happen and if it does...it really will be a sunshine day!

Ok...how 'bout a photo of a giant Yakov head? Here you go, as found in front of the Yakov Theater.



---Update---
It's official! Barry is back with shows later this year, including a Christmas show and a full schedule for 2012! 

HAPPY 100 TO THE LUCY WE ALL LOVE

In honor of Lucille Ball’s 100th birthday, I’ve scanned this 1953 ad where Lucy and Desi give out some flooring tips.

CONCEPT ART FROM THE WESTERN RIVER EXPEDITION GETS ANIMATED

Check out this amazing teaser that will bring to life one of the best theme park attractions that never was. My pal David, the curator of Quasi-Interesting Paraphernalia Inc., has taken it upon himself to create a short series of animations based after the unproduced Disney World attraction, The Western River Expedition.

Western River Expedition: Coming Soon

Now that you’ve watched the teaser, be sure to haunt Quasi-Interesting Paraphernalia Inc. all this month to catch the WRE animations.

If you’re not familiar with David’s work, here’s a couple of my favorites. Also, you can click here to view more video goodies!

Haunted Mansion Hunter

Mr. and Mrs. J. Evil Scientist

STUFF FROM THE STORAGE ROOM

Last week I was on an archaeological dig down in the basement of my parent’s house - the house my brother and I grew up in. In the storage room, I was looking for a lost sketchbook from my Junior High days. The plan was to share some of my kid drawings from the sketchbook, but the bad news is that it still remains hidden or lost. The good news is that I found some random childhood artifacts. Let’s take a look.

The best item is this felt flag my grandma made during the bicentennial.


I was six in ’76 and have so many red, white and blue memories from that year, so this is a special find!

I removed an old tackle box off a bookshelf and lo and behold I found these two stickers stuck on our old shelf. Back in the 70's, this shelf would have been chocked full of comics and various kid books.


The two stickers are part of the 1975 Topps Hysterical History sticker and card set. We loved collecting these stickers and it sure is neat to see 'em still in the same spot after 35+ years.

In a box of old marbles and craft supplies, I found this green rubber Chewbacca that probably came from a gumball machine. He looks like he’s hailing a cab.


I was a gumball machine junkie, but I don’t have any memories of this Chewie. I like how it was molded from the original action figure.

Next up is this wood dog plaque. There should be another one of these somewhere as my brother and I both had one.


In the photo below - I’m not sure who the armless man is nor do I know the origin of the little toy rifle. That red speaker box came from my C.B. McHaul trucker toy by Mego. 10-4 Rubber Duck! I played like I had my very own C.B. back during my truck driver phase. Back then, I either wanted to be a truck driver or an astronaut when I grew up. Neither career choice panned out and sadly, this red box is the only thing left of C.B. McHaul set.


E is for Boba! My brother was also down visiting and cleaned out his old trunk full of books in the storage room. (I’ll be presenting a few of these during the Halloween countdown in October.)


Inside the trunk he discovered this Boba Fett sticker had been guarding his books for the past 30 years. Job well done, Mr. Fett!


A book we found in the trunk was this 1964 Science Puzzlers by Scholastic. Here’s a few illustrations from inside.






Let's end this random “look what I found” post with this fun illustration. I scanned it from a package of Dennison stencils that was buried beneath a pile of books.


In the near future I plan to do some more digging in our storage room and maybe I'll have some more random things to show. Hopefully one of those things will be my sketchbook!

A SALUTE TO CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER

After this past weekend, I hope everyone has caught Cap fever!

Yes, I watched the new Cap movie, Captain America: The First Avenger over the weekend and it’s now my favorite Marvel movie! This is the movie I’ve been waiting to see ever since me and my nerdy college pals used to waste hours discussing how a Cap movie should be made. All of us agreed it should take place in World War II and Joe Johnston should direct. Yep, we predicted Johnston would direct Cap almost twenty years before he really did. All of us were razzmatazzed by his movie The Rocketeer and so he was the obvious pick. Of course we missed on the actor who would wear the red, white and blue. Hey, Chris Evans was only ten years old back then. I voted for John Wesley Shipp from the 1990 TV show The Flash. I remember one friend lobbied for football player Howie Long to play Cap.

Captain America: The First Avenger wasn’t exactly the movie I dreamed of, but it came very close. The movie does a good job capturing the schmaltzy spirit of the movie serial adventures from the 1930s and 40‘s. What it lacks in emotion, it makes up for with plenty of action and style. It’s simply a popcorn movie, with extra butter! I did wish for more character development with the secondary characters. We didn’t get to know Bucky and the Howlers as well as we should have. (Ok Marvel, you now need to make the spin-off movie The Howling Commandos!) My favorite scenes were the USO stuff and my new favorite song is Star Spangled Man.


The USO montage was brilliant and I hope and pray we see a few chapters of their version of the Captain America movie serial on the DVD. Finally, it’s good to have a super hero on the screen that’s not filled with angst and rage, but instead is filled with courage and loyalty.

I saw the movie with family and friends including one of my college buddies who was in on the Cap movie discussion twenty years ago. The big thrill of the night was that my seven year old nephew surprised me with this awesome replica of Cap’s shield using a paper plate.


He made it especially for me after we saw the movie. I own and have owned many great collectibles, but this shield is now one of my favorite possessions.

For fun, I’ve included two Cap sketches I got from two excellent artists. The first is from the great George Tuska with his unique ruffled feathers on Cap’s cowl.


The second one is a fantastic Cap sketch from John Beatty!


Let’s finish this post with a fake photobooth photo of Cap.


I made this a few months ago in anticipation of the new film using the flag background from a photobooth photo that can be seen here. After seeing the film I would like to redo it using the more appropriate USO costume instead. Maybe when I find a better scan I’ll take a stab at it.

Now go see Cap and have fun rooting for the good guys! Be sure to watch all the credits for the swell propaganda poster art and something special at the end.

KICKIN' AROUND ON KICKSTARTER

For the first time I finally snooped around on Kickstarter. Wow, this site is truly a machine that turns dreams into reality. I know I’ve only scratched the surface, but here’s a few projects that caught my eye. Most of them have already met their pledge goal, but a few still need pledges. Click on the links to view some neato cool projects.

The White Elephant Card Game - A clever card game that looks like a lot of fun!

Muffler Men: One Hand Up, One Hand Down Documentary - Someday Muffler Men will rule the world, but before they do, this doc looks to teach you all about the roadside giants.

OMFG! - Outlandish Mini Figure Guys! - I was a fan of M.U.S.C.L.E. back in the 80's. OMFG! looks to bring back the spirit of that classic line with five outlandish mini figures.

Growing Up On Skywalker Ranch by Eric Walker - Go behind the scenes of the Ewok Adventure and Battle for Endor as told by the star of these Lucasfilm TV films.

Steampunk: History Beyond Imagination Museum Exhibit - A steampunk museum is a brilliant idea. I say, a brilliant idea! BRILLIANT!!

Adventures of the League of S.T.E.A.M. Season Two - Yes, the world needs a season two of the League of S.T.E.A.M.!

The Cicada Princess - As a fan of stop-motion films like Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach, I can't wait to see the finished film.

Viva Amiga - The Documentary - I love this title and I loved the Amiga.

There you have it, my short list of awesomeness that I found on Kickstarter.