12/13/1972: Three Movies and the Paris Peace Talks

December 13, 1972  (Wednesday)

If one were to trace my passion for film back to its roots, they would find that it all started with my father.  A movie fan himself, he had a particular fondness for action films, Westerns, and war movies. Even before my family got our first VCR, my father watched a lot of movies on television -- back when regular network channels still aired theatrical films on a frequent basis -- and, once I was old enough, I would often join him.  As I got older, my love of movies would eventually surpass my dad's as I grew up to be a full-blown film geek.  But it was through him that I first discovered the James Bond series, as well as his favorite movie stars, like John Wayne, Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson, and Steve McQueen.

Back when I was still only five days old -- my movie-watching days still years away -- one of those favorites had a new film released in theaters.

The Getaway was the latest film from Sam Peckinpah, best known for his violent Western epic The Wild Bunch (1969).  Based on the novel by Jim Thompson, the film starred Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw (who would become a real-life couple during production) as husband-and-wife criminals who are involved in a bank robbery and, after being double-crossed by their partners, end up on the run with the loot, fleeing for the Mexican border, with both the law and their ex-partners in pursuit.

The cast also features Ben Johnson, Al Lettieri, Sally Struthers, Jack Dodson, and Slim Pickens. The screenplay was written by Walter Hill (one of his earliest produced screenplays, before he became a successful writer/director just a few years later), and the music score was provided by Quincy Jones.

Like most films from the '60s and '70s, I first saw this one on TV as a pre-teen, when I started staying up late during summer vacation to watch the late-night movie on Ottawa's CJOH-TV (now CTV Ottawa) or Montreal's CFCF-12 every night.  I loved it then and, after recently re-watching it,  I enjoyed it just as much now.  It's dark and gritty, tense and exciting, with one memorable vignette after another.  My personal favorites are the chase through a railway station and on board a train, and, most of all, the garbage truck scene and the moments leading up to it.

Critics' opinions were less favorable upon its release, however.  Both Roger Ebert and Vincent Canby of The New York Times gave the film negative reviews.  Peckinpah himself was unhappy with the film, stating that final cut was not his but McQueen's, as per the actor's contract with First Artists.  Nevertheless, the film grossed $36,734,619 by the end of the year, making it the eighth highest-grossing picture of 1972.

The second film to open in theaters that day -- and the biggest release of the entire week -- was The Poseidon Adventure.

Produced by the legendary Irwin Allen and directed by Ronald Neame, The Poseidon Adventure featured an all-star cast that included four Academy Award winners:  Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters, and Red Buttons.  The cast also includes Carol Lynley, Stella Stevens, Roddy McDowall, Jack Albertson, Leslie Nielsen, and Pamela Sue Martin.  The story centers on the SS Poseidon, an aged luxury liner on her final voyage from New York City to Athens before being sent to the scrapyard.  On New Year's Eve, the ship is overturned by a tsunami caused by an underwater earthquake.  Passengers and crew are trapped inside and a maverick preacher (Hackman) attempts to lead a small group of survivors to the top (bottom) of the ship and, hopefully, to safety.

The film opened at #1 at the box office, and by the end of the year, its total gross was $93,300,000, making it the #2 highest-grossing film of 1972, second only to The Godfather (which had opened in March).  The film also paved the way for numerous copycat films that followed the same formula, all of them featuring all-star casts.  Although Airport (1970) had come first, it was the success of The Poseidon Adventure that ushered in the disaster film genre that was so prevalent throughout the '70s.  And although many of those copycats were of varying quality, ranging from watchable (The Towering Inferno) to flat-out awful (Earthquake), The Poseidon Adventure has always stood head and shoulders above them all.  It's not great cinema by any means, but it is pure escapist entertainment of the highest order.

Meanwhile, across the ocean, an animated film was released in France, one that starred a certain well-known intrepid boy reporter...

Tintin and the Lake of Sharks (Tintin et le Lac aux Requins) is based on Hergé's The Adventures of Tintin comic strip series, originally published in Belgium, but the film is not written by Hergé (though he did supervise) nor is it based on any of the pre-existing Tintin stories.  Instead it featured an original story written by Belgian comics creator Michel Regnier (a.k.a. Greg), who was a friend of Hergé's, and directed by Hergé's publisher, Raymond Leblanc.

Although not as well-known in the U.S., The Adventures of Tintin is one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century and had a tremendous following in Canada as well.  As of 2015, Tintin has been published in more than 70 languages with sales of more than 200 million copies.

I first discovered Tintin in second grade, during a trip to the school library.  While searching for something new to read, I came across a copy of Flight 714 (original French title:  Vol 714 Pour Sydney).  It piqued by interest so I borrowed it.  I was immediately hooked, and once I found out there were more (via the rear of the book, which featured a cover gallery of every volume), I set out to read every single book in the series.  Fortunately, the school library carried a copy of every one.  By the time I reached third grade, I had read and re-read them all.  And to this day, I am still a fan.

Tintin and the Lake of Sharks was not the first time Hergé's beloved creation was brought to the screen.  There had been four previous adaptations:  a stop-motion puppet production in 1947; two live-action films in 1961 and 1964, and an animated feature in 1969.  There had also been an animated TV series in France than ran for seven seasons, from 1959 to 1964.  But Lake of Sharks would be the last time Tintin would reach the big screen for almost 40 years.

The film takes Tintin, Snowy (Milou), and Captain Haddock (as well as the Thompson and Thomson/Dupont & Dupond) to Syldavia, where Professor Calculus (Tournesol) has his newest invention stolen by Tintin's old foe Rastapopoulos.  Together, the group must find and recover the invention, rescue a pair of captured local children they'd befriended, and bring Rastapopoulos to justice once again.

The film offers some fun moments but is an overall disappointment.  The film's failure can be attributed to two major problems.  The first is the uneven narrative structure.  So much time is spent setting up the story that the second half of the film feels rushed.  It's as though the filmmakers suddenly realized halfway through that they had to get the rest of the story told, with only 30 minutes to do so.  The second problem is a particularly big one to Tintin purists.  Although all of the characters have their individual traits and personalities intact, and the slapstick humor is in the same vein as Hergé's strips, the story lacks the underlying political commentary often found in the source material. This might make the film more kid-friendly, but it, and the apparent disregard for Hergé's pacing and attention to detail, makes the production feel more like a hollow imitation of a Tintin story than the genuine article.

*     *     *

On television that night, the Big Three networks' primetime schedule consisted of their usual Wednesday night shows.  NBC aired new episodes of the police drama Adam-12, and McMillan & Wife, starring Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James.  CBS aired new episodes of the drama Medical Center, and Cannon, starring William Conrad.

ABC aired another "ABC Movie of the Week," an original made-for-TV movie entitled Every Man Needs One.  Starring Connie Stevens and Ken Berry, the romantic comedy told the story of a male chauvinist architect who is pressured into hiring a feminist as his assistant, only to find himself falling for her.

Also on ABC were new episodes of their two new Wednesday night shows:  the musical variety show The Julie Andrews Hour, and the sitcom The Paul Lynde Show.

The Paul Lynde Show starred comedian Paul Lynde (obviously) as Paul Simms, a husband and father.  His family consisted of his wife Martha (Elizabeth Allen), and two daughters, Barbara (Jane Actman) and Sally (Pamelyn Ferdin).  The show also starred John Calvin as Barbara's husband, Howie, and real-life couple Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara as Howie's parents.

The show was designed to be ABC's counterpart to CBS's All in the Family, which, at the time, was the most popular series on primetime television.  However, the show lacked the controversial and topical issues brought up by the other series, due to ABC's continued restriction on social issues at the time.  Therefore, critics dismissed the show as derivative and the series garnered low ratings for its entire single season.

This week's episode (#13) was entitled "Martha's Last Hurrah."  To this day, the series has never been released to DVD.

Finally, on The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson's guests were voice artist and comedic actress Patti Deutsch, actor George Maharis, and musical guest Della Reese.

*     *     *

Meanwhile, in the real world, the Paris Peace Talks -- intended to establish peace in Vietnam and put an end to the Vietnam War -- were still in session.  But on this day, after a six-hour meeting between North Vietnamese negotiator Le Duc Tho and U.S. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, peace negotiations were deadlocked.

The main point of contention was who would have political power in South Vietnam if a cease-fire were announced.  The North Vietnamese negotiators demanded the dissolution of the government of the South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu, the disbanding of the South Vietnamese army, and the installation of a coalition government.  The U.S. refused to consider the North Vietnamese demands and steadfastly supported Thieu and his government.

The South Vietnamese were making their own demands.  Over 100,000 North Vietnamese troops had occupied territory in South Vietnam during the 1972 Easter Offensive.  Nguyen Van Thieu demanded that the North Vietnamese recognize Saigon's sovereignty over South Vietnam, which would make the continued presence of the North Vietnamese troops in the South illegal.  The North Vietnamese refused Thieu's demands, saying they would not recognize Thieu's government and would not remove their troops.  They walked out of the negotiations.

After the meeting, Kissinger flew back to the U.S. to confer with President Richard Nixon. Nixon in turn issued an ultimatum to Hanoi to send its representatives back to the conference table within 72 hours or face severe measures.

Five days later, the North Vietnamese would reject Nixon's demand.

12/12/1972: Disco-Vision and Doctors on TV

December 12, 1972  (Tuesday)

Even as early as 1972, the home video format was still in development.  Earlier in the year, the first home videocassette format, "Cartrivision," was introduced to the American public.  And the early pre-cursor to the DVD -- the videodisc -- had already been developed.  Unlike the more compact DVD, however, the videodisc was the size of an LP record.

Back in September, RCA had introduced their SelectaVision video disc system, and on December 12, MCA publicly unveiled Disco-Vision, which was intended to rival RCA's system. It was the first system to use a laser and reflective optical techniques to play back videodiscs. The public demonstration consisted of 7 minutes of material from 22 movies.  However, the picture quality was poor, and because of this, the system was not yet ready to hit the market. 

Around the same time, Philips was also developing an optical disc system very similar to Disco-Vision in Europe, and after MCA's demonstration, the two companies decided to merge their efforts. When Philips reps saw the MCA demo, they were sufficiently impressed and called up MCA.  Disco-Vision would eventually reach the market in late 1978.

MCA Disco-Vision -- now available in an antique store near you
... right next to the 8-track players

In the meantime, people continued to watch films the same way they had for decades -- on the big screen.  And there was no shortage of new and recent releases in theaters, including the movie that opened today:  Child's Play.

No relation to the 1988 horror film that first introduced the world to Chucky, Child's Play is a drama-mystery starring James Mason, Robert Preston, and Beau Bridges, and directed by Sidney Lumet.  The film centers on the rivalry between two faculty members (Mason and Preston) at an exclusive boarding school, the new gym teacher (Bridges) who gets caught in the midst of their escalating war, and the seemingly senseless acts of violence perpetrated by some of their students.

The film received mixed reviews upon its release.  Vincent Canby of The New York Times called the film "silly" and stated that everything in the film seemed to be "rather cheaply tricky," whereas Variety praised the performances by the two leads, Mason and Preston. Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide (my personal bible) gives the film two-and-a-half stars out of 4, calling the film "well-acted but somber and confusing."

My opinion of the film echoes Maltin's.  The lead performances were fantastic, but too much of the film is left murky and unexplained.  Generally I dislike movies that spell everything out for the audience in detail.  It shows little faith in the viewer's intelligence.  But it's also frustrating when too much is left unexplained.  In this case, the true nature of one of the principle characters is left vague. That ambiguity affects the entire movie; throughout most of the film, there are supernatural overtones, but the payoff is a rather conventional, Freudian ending.  As a result, we're left uncertain as to exactly what was going on in that school or even what kind of movie we've just watched.  

*     *     *

On TV were new episodes of the usual Tuesday night primetime line-up, most of which seemed to feature a whole lot of doctors.  

On NBC was The New Doctors (this week's episode featuring a very young Don Johnson), and, on ABC, was Marcus Welby, M.D., starring Robert Young and James Brolin (and guest-starring William Shatner).  

ABC also aired the latest episode of its new sitcom Temperatures Rising.  Debuting on September 12, 1972, the show was set at Washington, D.C.'s Capitol General Hospital and starred James Whitmore, Cleavon Little, Joan Van Ark, Reva Rose, and Nancy Fox.  This week's episode (#13) was entitled "The New Head Nurse."

Top row:  Joan Van Ark, James Whitmore, Cleavon Little;
bottom row:  Nancy Fox, Reva Rose

According to numerous TV databases, the show was low-rated but was well-liked by those who did watch it, and ABC had a good deal of faith in the series and did everything they could to avoid its cancellation.  Like The Rookies (see previous blog), this was a show I had never heard of until I began researching this blog.  I've never seen it in syndicated reruns and, as of 2015, Temperatures Rising has never been released to DVD.

Also of note on ABC was an original made-for-TV movie entitled Pursuit, which was based on Michael Critchton's novel Binary and directed by Crichton himself.  Starring Ben Gazzara, E.G. Marshall, William Windom, Joseph Wiseman, Jim McMullan, and Martin Sheen, the plot involves government agents in pursuit of a political extremist planning to unleash stolen nerve gas in a city where a political convention is being held.  The film was Crichton's directorial debut.

And, on late night TV, Johnny Carson's guests on The Tonight Show were film actor Charlton Heston, comedian George Carlin (whose latest album, Class Clown, was rapidly rising the Billboard album charts), and musical guest Kenny Rankin.

*     *     *

Meanwhile, in the real world, a boat carrying 65 mostly-black Haitian refugees landed on the coast of Florida, the first of the so-called "boat people" to flee from Haiti to the United States. There would continue to be more, sporadic landings over the next few years until 1978, when thousands of Haitians fleeing the Duvalier regime would begin seeking sanctuary in the U.S.

On December 12, I was four days old.

12/11/1972: Man of La Mancha and a Moon Landing

December 11, 1972  (Monday)

While my mother continued to spend the next few days in hospital recovering from my birth, a noteworthy moment in the history of space travel took place.

Mankind landed on the moon for the sixth and final time, as the Apollo 17 lunar module, which had launched on December 7, touched down at the Taurus-Litrow crater at 1:54 p.m. Houston time.  The three-member crew consisted of Commander Eugene Cernan, Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans, and Lunar Module pilot Harrison Schmidt.  The first moonwalk of the mission began approximately four hours after landing, at about 6:55 p.m.

Back on Earth, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers union declared "Don't Buy Farah Day," which asked Americans nationwide to boycott the non-union Farah Manufacturing, one of the largest clothing makers in the United States, in protest over low wages and benefits.  During the course of a strike that lasted from May 1972 to March 1974, Farah's sales dropped by twenty million dollars.

NHL player Daniel Alfredsson was born in Gothenburg, Sweden.  He would grow up to play for the Ottawa Senators and, later, the Detroit Red Wings.

*     *     *

1972 was a notable year for The Rolling Stones.  Not only was it the band's 10th anniversary, but they had also, earlier in the year, released Exile on Main St., the album widely considered to be their greatest.  On this date, they also released a new compilation album - the follow-up to their hugely successful 1971 compilation Hot Rocks 1964-1971.

More Hot Rocks (big hits and fazed cookies) featured the hits that could not be shoehorned onto its predecessor, as well as many tracks that until now had only been available in the UK. The record eventually reached #9 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart and sold over 500,000 copies in the U.S. alone.

On a personal note, this album is one I have in my collection, making More Hot Rocks the first album that was released in my lifetime that I own.

*     *     *

As I wrote in the previous blog entry, Hollywood's standard practice of releasing new movies into theaters on Fridays didn't exist prior to the mid-'70s, and, as such, new films could open any day of the week.  Therefore, it wasn't uncommon in the early '70s for one to find, on any given week, a different new release opening in theaters every day, several days in a row.  Such was the case during the first week I was born, with new films released every day from December 10-13.   The second of those films, released when I was but three days old, was Man of La Mancha.

Man of La Mancha was based on the stage musical by Dale Wasserman, with music and lyrics by Mitch Leigh and Joe Darion, which in turn was inspired by Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote.  The play had won numerous Tony Awards during its original Broadway production and has played in many other countries around the world.  The show's success made it inevitable that a Hollywood film adaptation would eventually follow.

The film version starred Peter O'Toole as both Miguel de Cervantes and Don Quixote, Sophia Loren as the scullery maid and prostitute Aldonza, whom the delusional Don Quixote idolizes as "Dulcinea," and James Coco as both Cervantes' manservant and Don Quixote's "squire," Sancho Panza. The only member of the original Broadway cast to reprise his role was Gino Conforti, who played The Barber.

The movie had a troubled production history, with numerous casting changes, disputes between the play's creators and United Artists executives, and a revolving door of screenwriters and directors.  (Arthur Hiller was the final, credited director.)  As such, it's hardly surprising that the final product, like most films that go through several creative hands, was perceived as a colossal mess and a failure, and it received overwhelmingly negative reviews from most film critics.  Even Dale Wasserman, the play's creator, strongly disliked the film, calling it "exaggerated" and "phony."

As for my own opinion of the film, although I liked Peter O'Toole and Sophia Loren's performances, I thought the entire production reeked of artifice and cheap sentiment, the pacing was poor and plodding, the production design was sub-par, and the staging of the musical numbers lacked any real energy.  I've never seen the original stage production, but I'm sure the material was much better served on the stage than it was on the screen.  

I'd never seen the film version of Man of La Mancha before now.  It was just one of those movies I'd never gotten around to seeing nor had any inclination to check out, even though Peter O'Toole is an actor I've always admired.  When was the last time you were at a video store and either said or overheard someone saying, "Hey, let's rent Man of La Mancha!"?  Now that I have seen it for the purposes of the Retrospective, I can now be thankful that I will never have any other reason to slog through it again.

*     *     *

Monday.  The end of the weekend and the start of a new week.  On TV, that meant the networks resumed their regular weekday programming.

Daytime television at this time consisted of children's shows like Sesame Street and The Electric Company; game shows like The New Price is Right (with its new host, Bob Barker), The Newlywed Game, and The Hollywood Squares, among many others; daytime talk shows like Dinah's Place and The Mike Douglas Show; and soap operas such as All My Children, General Hospital, One Life to Live (on ABC) Search for Tomorrow, As the World Turns, Guiding Light (on CBS), and Days of Our Lives, The Doctors, and Another World (on NBC).

In the evening, CBS's primetime line-up consisted of new episodes of Gunsmoke (still on the air for an impressive 18th season!), Here's Lucy, and The Doris Day Show.  NBC aired new episodes of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.  And on ABC -- before NFL Monday Night Football, which broadcast a game between the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders (Oakland won, 24-16, for any interested parties) -- was the latest episode of their newest police drama, The Rookies.

Having begun as an ABC Movie of the Week back in March, The Rookies debuted as a weekly series on September 11.  The show centered around three rookie police officers, Mike Danko (Sam Melville), Terry Webster (Georg Stanford Brown), and Willie Gillis (Michael Ontkean), and their superior officer/mentor, Lieutenant Ryker (Gerald S. O'Loughlin).  Produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg, each episode of the show would showcase highly dramatized versions of police cases and activities, often intertwined with the off-duty lives of the officers and their significant others, though Danko was the only rookie who was married, to Jill Danko (Kate Jackson), a registered nurse.

Back row:  Michael Ontkean, Sam Melville, Georg Stanford Brown
Front:  a pre-Charlie's Angels Kate Jackson

This week's episode (#12), entitled "A Bloody Shade of Blue," was written by William Binn and directed by TV veteran E.W. Swackhamer.  (Always loved that name.)  The plot involved a pair of snipers who are shooting indiscriminately at anyone dressed in a police uniform.  Webster becomes their most recent target and, although he survives the attempt on his life, he temporarily loses his eyesight.

And finally, on late-night TV, Johnny Carson continued to dominate the airwaves as host of The Tonight Show, the only late-night talk-show on television.  Johnny's guests that night were legendary comedian Steve Allen (who also happened to guest star on tonight's episode of Laugh-In) and Dr. Irwin Maxwell Stillman, creator of the Stillman Diet.

12/10/1972: Mecha, M*A*S*H, and Michael Caine

December 10, 1972  (Sunday)

During my initial research for this retrospective, one of the first things I was interested in finding out was the first film to be released after I was born.  I was surprised when I didn't find anything on the day I was born, which was a Friday.  Then the first film I found had a listed release date of December 10, which was a Sunday.  I was sure this had to be a mistake, because, as everyone knows, new films in North America are always released into theaters on Friday (and, occasionally, on Wednesday).

So I spoke with a local theater owner (and former employer of mine) who has been in the business since the 1960s.  He informed me that Hollywood's current practice of releasing new films on Fridays only began in the mid-'70s.  Prior to then, movies could be released any day of the week -- basically whenever the studios felt like releasing one.  So it was not uncommon at that time for three or four movies to be released in one week, all on different days.

And so the first movie released in my lifetime came on this date, when I was but two days old.

The movie in question was Sleuth.

And what a film it is!  Based on the Tony Award-winning play by British playwright Anthony Shaffer, Sleuth stars Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine and was the final film by director Joseph L. Mankiewicz.  The plot involves a wealthy mystery writer obsessed with games who leads his wife's lover into a diabolical trap.  As the movie progresses, however, it becomes uncertain as to who is actually playing whom, as a series of deceptions and counter-deceptions are launched as an elaborate game of comeuppance between the two men.

This film is ranked in IMDb's Top 250, Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide rates it 4 stars (out of 4), and it currently has a 96% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.  Watching the film, it's easy to understand why.  A thriller for the thinking person, this is the kind of movie where the payoff isn't about getting to the end but in savoring every moment on the trip that takes us there. Shaffer himself wrote the screen adaptation of his play and the result is a production that is delicious from start to finish, brimming with splendid dialogue and serpentine twists.  

It's also a veritable acting tour-de-force for the film's two stars.  At the time of Sleuth's release, Laurence Olivier was (rightly) regarded as one of the greatest actors to grace the screen (and that consensus hasn't changed in the 40 years since), and Caine, whose film career had really taken flight during the '60s, was already a well-regarded actor and was currently in the midst of a busy period, working on one film after another.  Both actors are so good here that they elevate what would normally be a good story into a masterpiece.

*     *     *

In the real world, Amnesty International launched its first worldwide campaign for the Abolition of Torture, which would run for several years.

In Japan's parliamentary election, the Liberal Democratic Party won again, losing 24 seats but retaining 271 of the 491 in the lower house of the Diet.

Richard Fliehr made his professional wrestling debut in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, under the name Ric Flair, battling George "Scrap Iron" Gadaski to a ten-minute draw.  Then weighing nearly 300 pounds with short brown hair, Flair scarcely resembled his future "Nature Boy" image, but he drew attention with his charismatic personality and ring endurance.

Brian Molko, lead singer of Placebo, was born in Brussels, Belgium.

*     *     *

On primetime television that night, the Big Three networks aired new episodes of most of their Sunday night shows.  ABC had The FBI, NBC had Night Gallery, and although CBS aired several programs (Anna and the King, The Sandy Duncan Show, The New Dick Van Dyke Show, and Mannix), the most noteworthy of their Sunday night line-up was one of their new series:  M*A*S*H.

M*A*S*H was adapted by Larry Gelbart from the 1970 feature film directed by Robert Altman and written by Gelbart.  The series follows a team of doctors and support staff stationed at the "4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital" in Uijeongbu, South Korea during the Korean War. The show premiered on September 17, 1972 and ended on February 28, 1983.  Like the movie, the series was as much an allegory about the Vietnam War (which was still in progress when the show began) as it was about the Korean War.

Check any list of the greatest television programs of all time and you will find M*A*S*H ranked high on all of them.  In 2002, it was ranked #25 on TV Guide's "50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time."  In 2013, the Writers Guild of America ranked it as the fifth best-written TV series ever. During its eleven-year run, the show won a total of 14 Emmy Awards, 7 Golden Globes, and 7 Directors Guild of America Awards for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Comedy Series.  In 1976, the show was honored with a Peabody Award "for the depth of its humor and the manner in which comedy is used to lift the spirit and, as well, to offer a profound statement on the nature of war."  Writers for the show received several Humanitas Prize nominations, winning six times.  The series received 28 Writers Guild of America award nominations -  26 for Episodic Comedy (for which it won seven throughout its run) and two for Episodic Drama.

The cast of the first season consisted of Alan Alda as Capt. Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce, the chief surgeon; Loretta Swit as Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan; Jamie Farr as the cross-dressing Cpl. Maxwell Q. Klinger; William Christopher as Chaplin John Patrick Francis Mulcahy; Wayne Rogers as Capt. "Trapper John" McIntyre; McLean Stevenson as the commanding officer Lt. Col. Henry Blake; Larry Linville as Major Frank Burns; and Gary Burghoff as the company clerk Walter "Radar" O'Reilly.

From left:  Larry Linville (Burns); Loretta Swit (Hot Lips); Alan Alda (Hawkeye); McLean Stevenson (Blake); Wayne Rogers (Trapper John); William Christopher (Father Mulcahy); Gary Burghoff (Radar); Jamie Farr (Klinger)

In this week's episode (#11), entitled "Germ Warfare," Hawkeye and Trapper move a North Korean P.O.W. patient into "the Swamp," rather than have him shipped out early, and discover that he has a rare blood type.  Since Frank Burns has the same blood type, they furtively steal some of his blood while he is asleep.  However, when the patient develops hepatitis, they suspect Frank is the carrier and have to keep him away from Margaret and the patients.

Meanwhile, here in Canada, the CBC aired the latest episode of its newest series - one that has since become a Canadian classic -- The Beachcombers.

Premiering on October 1, 1972 and running until December 12, 1990, The Beachcombers was the longest-running dramatic series ever made for English-language Canadian television.  The series followed the life of Nick Adonidas (Bruno Gerussi), a Greek-Canadian log salvager in Gibsons, British Columbia, who earned a living travelling the coastline northwest of Vancouver with his business partner, Jesse Jim (Pat John) aboard their logging tug, the Persephone, tracking down logs that had broken away from barges and logging booms.  The series also focused on the supporting cast of characters in Nick's hometown.  The show was also an active window into Canada's multicultural heritage.

This week's episode (#10), entitled "Investigators," Nick and Jesse Jim attempt to investigate the mystery behind a rash of stolen pleasure boats that have literally disappeared in the middle of open water.  Among this episode's guest stars was future MuchMusic personality Terry David Mulligan.

Unfortunately, to this day, The Beachcombers has not been released to DVD, making it difficult to watch (or re-watch) for the purpose of this retrospective, but the series does continue to air in re-runs on various Canadian networks, such as APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network).

Meanwhile, on British television, the fan-favorite horror anthology Dead of Night aired a new episode.

On Japanese TV, the latest episodes of two of my favorite new anime series of that era were aired:  Science Ninja Team Gatchaman and Mazinger Z.

Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (also known simply as Gatchaman) was produced by Tatsunoko Productions and aired Sunday nights on Fuji TV.  Created in the wake of the hugely successful Henshin boom started by Shotaro Ishinomori's Kamen Rider in 1971, the show was conceived as a blending of ninja adventure with science fiction elements.

The series was about a five-member team of bird-themed ninja superheroes who battled the menace of Galactor, a technologically-advanced international terrorist organization determined to conquer the world.  Recurring themes of the show involved the conservation of nature, environmentalism, and the responsible use of technology for progress and advancement.  The Gatchaman team were in the employ of Dr. Nambu of the International Science Organization.  The leader of Galactor was an androgynous masked villain named Berg Kattse, who acts on the orders of an alien superior known simply as "Leader X."

The Science Ninja Team itself consisted of Ken the Eagle, the team's leader and tactical expert; Jo the Condor, second-in-command marksman and weapons expert; Jun the Swan, the team's electronics and demolitions expert; Jinpei the Swallow, the youngest member of the team, reconnaissance expert, and Jun's adopted younger brother; and Ryu the Owl, the ship's pilot.

From left:  Ken the Eagle, Ryu the Owl, Jinpei the Swallow, Jun the Swan, and Jo the Condor

The series became well-known to the English-speaking world a few years later as the adaptation entitled Battle of the Planets.  This version was heavily edited in order to avoid controversy from parents and removed elements of violence, profanity, and transgenderism and added kid-friendly elements such as campy robots for comic relief.  This was the version I was familiar with and enjoyed as a kid.  Once I discovered the original Gatchaman as an adult, I realized how horribly butchered the American version truly was.  As any purist will tell you, there is no substitute for the real thing, and I agree wholeheartedly.  Once you've had Gatchaman, there's no going back to BotP.  Ever.

Mazinger Z, which also aired on Fuji TV, was a Japanese "super robot" anime adaptation of the manga series by Go Nagai.  It debuted the previous week, on December 3, 1972, and helped create the 1970s boom in mecha anime, leading to various spin-offs, sequels, and imitations.  The series follows Koji Kabuto in his battle against the evil Dr. Hell with his grandfather's greatest creation, the Mazinger Z.

In 1985, an American company called Three B Productions, Ltd. produced an English-dubbed version of the show, renamed TranZor Z.  Like Gatchaman, this version was edited heavily for American audiences and, therefore, was inferior to the original.

An apt way to describe Mazinger Z would be "cheesy but fun."  The animation is far below the standards we've come to expect from modern anime, but keeping in mind that it was made for '70s television, it's certainly a cut above many American cartoons of the era.  At first glance, the show might also appear incredibly clichéd, with all the stock features of the super robot anime genre present and accounted for.  However, at the time, these clichés didn't even exist - most of these stock features were introduced with this series and only became clichés via overuse by other series that followed.  Keeping that in mind and watching the show in its proper context makes it seem more fresh and original... and a whole lot of fun.

12/8/1972: And So It Begins

The year was 1972.

Richard Nixon had recently been re-elected for his second term in the White House.  Here in Canada, Pierre Trudeau had become Prime Minister again.  The war in Vietnam was still raging, although peace negotiations were in progress.  Germany was still divided and the Soviet Union still existed.  The Beatles had broken up two years before, but all four members were still alive.  And Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift were still decades away from being unleashed upon an unsuspecting populace.

1972 was a Leap Year that began on a Saturday.  And within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), it was the longest year in history, as two leap-seconds were added -- one on January 1, the other on December 31 -- an event which has not since been repeated.  (Anyone who is curious about Coordinated Universal Time and what it all means, you read about it here.)

December 8, 1972 (Friday)

Dr. Mahmoud Hamshari, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) representative in France, was fatally wounded by a bomb, planted near his telephone by agents of Israel's Mossad, in retaliation for his suspected role in the 1972 massacre at the Munich Winter Olympics.  After the explosive had been placed while Hamshari was absent, a Mossad agent posing as a journalist telephoned him and asked enough questions to confirm his identity.  The bomb was then detonated by remote control, possibly by a signal through the telephone line, making Hamshari the second target in the Mossad's "Operation Wrath of God."

United Airlines Flight 553 Boeing 737 from Washington to Chicago crashed at 2:29 p.m. while attempting to land at Chicago's Midway Airport during an ice storm.  43 of the 61 people aboard were killed, as were two people in a house at 3722 W. 70th Place.  The dead included Dorothy Hunt (a CIA employee and the wife of Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt), CBS News reporter Michelle Clark, and Illinois Congressman George W. Collins.  Hunt was revealed to have been carrying $10,000 in her purse when the plane crashed, leading some to allege that she was supplying the Watergate defendants with money for legal expenses.

Meanwhile, in the fabled northern land known as Canada, in the southeastern Ontario town of Cornwall, I slid headfirst out of a vagina with no clothes on into the freshly-shaven crotch of a screaming woman.

This monumental event occurred at approximately 8:30 a.m. at the Cornwall General Hospital.  I weighed 9 lbs., 2-1/2 oz., hence the aforementioned screaming.  I was the firstborn child to my parents, who had been married nearly 16 months when I came along.  At the time, my father was a truck driver, and my mother, until she went on maternity leave, worked in the packing department at MCA Records.  Mom couldn't recall what the weather was like that day, but she does remember that there was already snow on the ground.

In record stores, Marvin Gaye's twelfth studio album, Trouble Man, was released.

Following the success of his previous album, What's Going On, Gaye won creative control of his music, as well as a renewed $1 million contract, making him the most profitable R&B artist of all time.  After the success of Isaac Hayes' soundtrack to Shaft and Curtis Mayfield's for Superfly, Gaye was offered the chance to compose a film soundtrack of his own, one for the blaxploitation crime thriller, Trouble Man.  Gaye not only composed and produced the film's soundtrack but its musical score as well.

The title track was released as a single, and its success bolstered the album into the Billboard Top 200 albums, where it peaked at #12.  The album would be Gaye's first and only soundtrack and film score.

On TV, ABC's Friday night line-up that season consisted of returning shows like The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, Room 222, and The Odd Couple.  NBC aired new episodes of The Brian Keith Show, the anthology series Ghost Story, Banyon (starring Robert Forster), and, of course... Sanford and Son.

For any readers too young to be familiar with the show, Sanford and Son was a half-hour sitcom that starred comedian Redd Foxx as Fred Sanford, a bigoted and cantankerous old junk dealer who ran a junk and antique dealership with his son, Lamont (Demond Wilson), who was usually a peacemaker and more conscientious.  At times, both characters would involve themselves in schemes.  Based on the BBC sitcom Steptoe & Son, the show was adapted by Norman Lear and was considered NBC's answer to All in the Family.

The series debuted in January 1972 as a mid-season replacement for the cancelled The D.A., and as such, the first season only ran for 14 episodes.  But the show returned for a second, full season in September.

I never saw the show as a kid, although I had heard of it in later years when I became familiar with Redd Foxx.  It wasn't until 1992 or so, when Atlanta's TBS (later Peachtree TV) became available through our local cable provider, that I had the opportunity to finally see the show.  It aired in syndicated re-runs from Monday to Friday at 7:30 p.m., and my best friend and I would watch it every day.

Episode 26 (or #2.12), which originally aired on December 8, 1972, was titled "A Guest in the Yard," directed by Jack Shea and written by Ilunga Adell.  Fred and Lamont discover a homeless man named Gus (Liam Dunn) sleeping in a bathtub in their yard.  When they try to kick him out, he continuously manipulates them into letting him stay.  Once they realize they're being played for suckers, Fred tries to forcibly eject him from the premises.  But Gus pretends to injure himself then threatens to sue the Sanfords unless they tend to his every need.

This was one of several episodes of Sanford and Son written by Ilunga Adell, then a 20 year-old alumnus of Joseph Papp's Public Theater.  While the plot itself is a good one, offering a humorous variation on the old "Man Who Came to Dinner" premise, the dialogue is hit-and miss.  Some lines offer solid laughs, while others warrant a mild chuckle at best.  One of my favorites is the following exchange between Fred and Lamont:

LAMONT:  Wait a minute, Pop.  You think this dude [Gus] is serious about killing himself?

FRED:  I don't know, Lamont.  It's not my affair.

LAMONT:  How would you like to pick up the paper tomorrow and read about how this guy killed himself because we kicked him out of our junkyard?

FRED:  Well, I won't read the paper tomorrow.

LAMONT:  What's it going to cost to extend ourselves a little, Pop?  Haven't you ever heard of the Good Samaritan?

FRED:  You know I don't like them Japanese movies.

Little gems like these, along with expert delivery by the cast, make up for some of the weaker dialogue and the one-liners that don't quite work.  "A Guest in the Yard" remains an enjoyable episode, with a solid plot, enough laughs to keep it afloat, and a satisfying resolution to the entire situation.

And that's the day I was born.

Introductory Stuff

So what exactly is The 40-Year Retrospective?

Shortly after my 40th birthday, I embarked on what was to be my most ambitious movie marathon to date: a retrospective of the 1980's, spanning the calendar decade of 1981-1990, in chronological order of release date. As 1981 progressed, I began to add TV shows and music as well. It was fun and more than a little nostalgia-inducing, as I felt like I was revisiting my childhood through the media and pop culture of the era.

One day, while talking about this marathon, a friend said to me, "Why only do the '80s? Why not start with the year you were born? Then you'll be able to revisit your childhood in its entirety." This was a tad more ambitious than I felt I was ready for, but the idea never strayed far from my mind. I began asking several friends for their input: should I start with the year of my birth or just stick with the '80s? Some suggested the latter while others liked the former.

Then my friend and co-worker, Ian, had a particularly intriguing suggestion: "Start with the year you were born, but don't do the entire year. Start with the day you were born, then work your way up from there. Don't watch anything that came out before you were born." I liked this idea immensely. When I ran it past my friend Vincent, he suggested blogging the whole thing, and The 40-Year Retrospective was born.

This Retrospective will span the period between the day I was born (December 8, 1972) and the day I turned 40 (December 8, 2012). Why 40 years? Why not 30 or 20? I don't know, 40 just seems like a seminal year to me. Turning 30 didn't feel like as big a deal to me as turning 40, and so 40 seems like an appropriate ending point for this retrospective.

What will The 40-Year Retrospective cover?

It will cover the following:

MOVIES -- As a lifelong film buff, I will primarily be focusing on movies. I won't be watching everything, of course, but I will be covering a great deal of movies. I will be re-visiting old favorites, re-watching films I haven't seen in years, and, of course, see movies I haven't yet gotten around to seeing. This also gives me the opportunity to purchase whatever movies I do not yet own, as well as finally upgrading some old VHS tapes to a less, shall we say, prehistoric format.

TV -- Since the medium of TV dates back farther than I do, I need to be a little selective with this one. Therefore, I will not be watching any TV series that debuted before 1972. (Unfortunately, this means no All in the Family, which debuted the year before.) The only exception to this rule is Doctor Who, simply because I have been a fan for most of my life, and the Doctor was a big part of my childhood, so it wouldn't seem right to exclude him. I'll also be checking out various made-for-TV movies and miniseries.

MUSIC -- Every Saturday, Billboard Magazine has always released their weekly Hot 100. I'll be checking out the songs that debuted on the chart each week, and listening to each week's Top 20. I'll also be noting what albums were released and, as with the movies, will use this as an opportunity to fill in the gaps in my music collection -- upgrading old cassettes to CD and so forth.

VIDEO GAMES -- These days I'm not the gamer I used to be, but like most of my generation, I grew up with an Atari, played Nintendo and Sega throughout my adolescence and early 20s, and indulged in the occasional PC game. And there's no denying that video games are a huge part of our culture today. Therefore, I'll be following the evolution of the medium from its fledgling days of Pong and Gotcha to the pop culture juggernaut it has become today.

WORLD EVENTS -- No work of art exists in a vacuum. Every film, TV show, song, video game, etc. is very much a product of its time. I plan on reviewing world events, both major and minor, throughout this retrospective in order to put everything, including my own life, into a proper historical context.

And that's what The 40 Year-Retrospective is: quite possibly the most ambitious and comprehensive movie-and-TV marathon ever attempted. I have to admit I'm enthusiastic and excited about this - it promises to be entertaining, historically interesting, and even nostalgic once I get to the years I can actually remember. And I hope those who follow this blog enjoy reading about it as much as I will enjoy embarking upon this massive undertaking.

Of course, the real challenge will be completing this retrospective without taking another 40 years to do so. :P