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.

12/9/1972: Remember Saturday mornings?

December 9, 1972  (Saturday)

As a child, there was always something special about Saturday mornings.

These days -- thanks to the proliferation of specialty channels like The Cartoon Network, Teletoon, Teletoon Retro, NickToon, and many others, as well as the the Internet -- cartoons are easily accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  And while there's something to be said about the convenience of being able to watch cartoons any time of the day, any day of the week, this same convenience contributed to the demise of a tradition that dated back to the mid-1960s:  the Saturday Morning Cartoons.

There were many contributing factors to the eventual decline of the timeslot, and I'll write about them in a later blog.  But during the 1970s and '80s, Saturday Morning Cartoons were at their peak.

Back then, Saturdays were a special time.  Part of the reason, of course, was because it was the weekend, a brief respite from the drudgery of school.  But what made Saturday so special was that it always offered four splendid hours of animated bliss.  Sure, we had our weekday and lunchtime cartoons -- mostly re-runs of Spider-Man, The Flintstones, and classic Warner Bros. cartoons -- but what made Saturday Morning Cartoons so special was that they only came once a week.  Therefore, they were a real treat -- something to look forward to all week long.  I enjoyed them all, the good and the bad (and let's face it: there were some really bad ones).  To this day, I look back fondly on those mornings, when I would wake up before my parents, sit on the floor in front of the television with my bowl of Lucky Charms or Cocoa Puffs and my big, yellow plastic cup of chocolate milk, and let myself get swept away. From childhood to mid-adolescence, before sleeping in late began to take priority, my Saturday mornings were always spent in front of the TV, engrossed and entertained by the latest animated antics and adventures of my favorite cartoon characters.

On December 9, 1972, I was only a day old, and those mornings were still a few years away. However, if I had been old enough to watch cartoons, this is the Saturday morning lineup I would have had to choose from:

CBS

8:00:  Bugs Bunny

8:30:  Sabrina the Teenage Witch  (3rd season)

9:00:  The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan  (NEW)

9:30:  The New Scooby-Doo Movies  (NEW)

10:30:  Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space  (NEW)

11:00:  The Flintstones Comedy Hour  (2nd season)

12:00:  Archie's TV Funnies  (2nd season)

12:30:  Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids  (NEW)

ABC

8:00:  H.R. Pufnstuf  (re-runs)

8:30:  The Jackson 5ive  (re-runs)

9:00:  The Osmonds  (NEW)

9:30:  The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie  (NEW)

10:30:  The Brady Kids  (NEW)

11:00:  Bewitched  (re-runs)

11:30:  Kid Power  (NEW)

12:00:  The Funky Phantom  (2nd season)

12:30:  Lidsville  (2nd season)

NBC

8:00:  Underdog  (re-runs)

8:30:  The Jetsons  (re-runs)

9:00:  The Pink Panther

9:30:  Houndcats  (NEW)

10:00:  Roman Holidays  (NEW)

10:30:  The Barkleys  (NEW)

11:00:  Sealab 2020  (NEW)

11:30:  Roundabout  (NEW)

12:00:  Around the World in 80 Days  (NEW)

12:30:  Talking with a Giant  (NEW)

As you can see, the 1972-73 season brought a slew of new shows, as well as new formats for returning series.  Michael Eisner (later the head of Disney) was in charge of Saturday morning programming for ABC in 1972, and he basically brought a prime-time feel to Saturday mornings with cartoon versions of popular recording artists and nighttime shows.  Over at NBC, The Pink Panther was the only thing keeping the network afloat on Saturday mornings.

At CBS, that network's two biggest new shows were The New Scooby-Doo Movies and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids.

The New Scooby-Doo Movies was the second series (following Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, 1969-1970) to star Scooby-Doo and the Mystery, Inc. gang.  Produced by Hanna-Barbera, the show ran for two seasons (24 episodes) and was the only hour-long Scooby-Doo series to date.  What also made this series different from its predecessor was the addition of a rotating special guest star; each episode featured real-life celebrities or well-known fictional characters joining the gang in solving that week's mystery.  As with the previous series, the voice of Shaggy was provided by radio personality and American Bandstand host Casey Kasem (one of the many animated roles for which he provided voice work during the '70s).

This week's episode (#14), entitled "The Phantom of the Country Music Hall," guest-starred country music singer/actor Jerry Reed.  

The story involved Reed being kidnapped as an attempt to prevent him from staging an important concert and the Mystery, Inc. gang's attempts to rescue him and discern the identity of the mysterious "Phantom."

Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids was created, produced, and hosted (in live-action segments) by Bill Cosby, and was based on Cosby's remembrances of his childhood gang.  Beginning a run that would last an amazing 12 years (the longest run in the history of Saturday morning cartoons), the show centered on the title character and his friends who often hung out in a North Philadelphia junkyard.  

Each episode, "The Junkyard Gang" dealt with an issue or problem commonly faced by young urban children.  Every episode would also feature an educational lesson, for which the show was honored and for which Cosby earned a Doctorate in Education.  Cosby himself provided the voices of Fat Albert, Mushmouth, and Bill (the latter character being based on Cosby himself).

This week's episode (#14) was the first season finale and was entitled "Stagefright."  The story dealt with the gang taking an interest in a local drama club and attempting to stage a production of Moby Dick in the hopes of winning a cash prize.   The lesson offered that week was on the importance of self-esteem.

*     *     *

Meanwhile, in the real world, pilot Martin Hartwell was rescued in the Canadian Arctic more than a month after he and three other people had crashed near Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories.  The plane's disappearance had led to the largest aviation search in Canadian history.

Green Day drummer Tré Cool was born in Frankfurt, West Germany, and American gossip columnist Louella Parsons died at the age of 91.

*     *     *

Another staple of Saturdays, one that is still ongoing to this day, is the Billboard Hot 100.

Running in its current incarnation since August 1958, the Hot 100 is the music industry standard singles popularity chart, issued weekly by Billboard magazine.  The statistics of the chart are compiled according to national retail sales and and radio airplay.  (In recent years, the chart has acknowledged factors such as digital downloads and online streaming.)

The week of Dec. 9 saw 11 new songs debuting on the chart, the highest ranking being Elton John's "Crocodile Rock," debuting at #73.  The biggest jump was Carly Simon's "You're So Vain," which debuted at #99 the previous week before leaping up to #60 this week.

The Top 10 singles were as follows (just click the title to hear the song):

          10.  I'm Stone in Love with You -- The Stylistics

            9.  Clair -- Gilbert O'Sullivan

            8.  Ventura Highway -- America

            7.  It Never Rains in Southern California -- Albert Hammond

            6.  Me and Mrs. Jones -- Billy Paul

            5.  You Ought to Be with Me -- Al Green

            4.  I Can See Clearly Now -- Johnny Nash

            3.  If You Don't Know Me By Now -- Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes

            2.  Papa Was a Rolling Stone -- The Temptations

And the #1 song that week....

Yes, that's right.  The #1 song when I was born was "I Am Woman."  I'm not sure whether that falls into the category of irony, but regardless, feel free to laugh all you want.

*     *     *

On prime-time television, the Big Three networks offered new episodes of all of their Saturday night programming.  NBC aired a new episode of Emergency!.  ABC's line-up consisted of Alias Smith and Jones, The Sixth Sense, and the latest episode of their brand new show The Streets of San Francisco.  CBS continued to dominate Saturday nights with the one-two punch of their hits All in the Family and The Mary Tyler Moore Show, as well as Bridget Loves Bernie, their newest sitcom The Bob Newhart Show, and Mission: Impossible, which was in the midst of its seventh season.

The Streets of San Francisco, which had debuted that September, was a police drama starring Karl Malden and Michael Douglas as Mike Stone and Steve Keller, two San Francisco homicide detectives.  At the time the show debuted, Douglas was still primarily known as the son of Kirk Douglas.  Although he had begun his acting career in the late '60s, appearing mostly in little-known films and various television roles, he had yet to land a significant role.  The Streets of San Francisco was that role.

This was a show I had never seen until I started this retrospective, although I did learn about it as a pre-teen, when I first became familiar with Michael Douglas through Romancing the Stone.  So this week's episode (#10), entitled "The Year of the Locusts," was my first.  The plot involved a band of modern-day gypsies descending on San Francisco, with its aging patriarch unaware that the younger family members have moved on from simple con jobs to million-dollar heists and murder.  

Surprisingly (to me, at least), unlike many other cop shows of its era, The Streets of San Francisco did not seem the least bit dated.  The material could just as easily be transported to a modern show and be just as effective.  And, most importantly, the show works because of the excellent chemistry between the two leads.  That kind of rapport is vital for a show or movie of this type to succeed, and thankfully, Malden and Douglas pull it off admirably.

The other new Saturday night show was the CBS sitcom The Bob Newhart Show.  The show stars Bob Newhart (obviously) as Chicago psychologist Robert Hartley and Suzanne Pleshette as his wife, Emily.  The supporting cast consists of Bill Daily as Howard Borden, their friendly but inept neighbor; Peter Bonerz as Jerry Robinson, the orthodontist who practices in the same medical building as Bob; and Marcia Wallace as Carol Kester, Bob's receptionist.  The show divides its attention between Bob's work and home life.

Most of the situations involve Bob playing straight man to his wife, colleagues, friends, and patients. This was an extension of Newhart's stand-up comedy routines, where he would routinely play one side of a telephone conversation, the other side of which is never heard.

Episode 12 aired on this date.  Entitled "Bob and Emily and Howard and Carol and Jerry," the story involves Emily setting up Howard and Carol on a blind date, which turns out to be a disaster.  And that's only the first act.  Readers familiar with the show and the history of the characters will know how it ends, and what the ending leads to in subsequent episodes, but the less a newcomer to the show knows beforehand the better.

Like Sanford and Son, this was a show I never got to see until the '90s, when I would catch syndicated reruns on various cable channels.  By then, I was already quite familiar with Bob Newhart from his '80s sitcom, Newhart, and his numerous appearances on The Tonight Show. The show was a hit from the start, ranking in the Top 20 in the ratings, and even 20 years later, I could understand why.  Smart, funny, and wry, it's the kind of sitcom that has a timeless feel to it, one that can still be enjoyed just as much today as it was in 1992 or 1972.

*     *     *

And to paraphrase Lloyd Robertson, that's the kind of day it was on December 9, 1972.

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