Get Ya Motor Runnin'...

Most car ‘aficionados’ don’t really consider the Disco Years to have been a very notable period for automobile design/innovation, but here are some of the hottest, most lusted after cars of the time . . .

1978 Chevrolet Camaro. This version of the Camaro was seen as significantly sleeker than its predecessors. The previous metal bumpers were removed and the rear taillights were redesigned to include 3-color lenses with the fuel door in the middle. T-tops were available on all models.

1977 Pontiac Trans Am. Remember this second generation Trans Am from the ‘Smokey and the Bandit’ movie? Yee-hah!

1976 Chevelle Laguna. Though still pretty funky in 1976, over the years the Chevelle Laguna had grown away from its muscle car roots. Production ended in 1977.

1979 Ford Mustang. This newly designed, lighter version of the Mustang eventually became very popular. It was the first Mustang built on the Fox platform and included a new link and coil spring rear suspension that continued to be used on Mustangs through the 2003 model year.

1979 Ferrari 308. This design defined ‘sports car’ during the Disco Years and, with its 3 liter V8 engine, helped cement the world’s view of Ferrari as one of the top high-end car manufacturers.

High Drama . . .

Recently finished watching the season 1 and 2 DVD set of ‘Dallas’, which was a guilty pleasure primetime soap during the Disco Years...and well beyond. The show started with a mini-series in April of 1978 and subsequently ran for 12 seasons. I remember this was one of the few shows that my entire family enjoyed…even Daddy liked ole love-to-hate-him J.R. Ewing, the villain of the show. Watching the show brought back fun memories of Friday nights in front of the TV. The start of the weekend! My sister and I could stay up late! Woo-hoo!

'Dallas' was popular before the glitzier and more glamorous nighttime soaps like ‘Dynasty’ and ‘Falcon Crest’ came along. I liked that it focused on the family (as dysfunctional as they were). Also, the good guys were good and the bad guys were bad. Not much character shading going on back then, like there is now…where every character is ‘conflicted’. Dealing with 'shades of gray' is something most of us have to face all too often in real life!

Though J.R. was the most fun character to watch, Sue Ellen, his long-suffering wife, was the most fascinating character. We all understood the motivations behind J.R., Bobby (J.R.'s good guy brother), Pam (Bobby's hot wife) and Cliff (Pam's brother, main nemesis to J.R.), but Sue Ellen was more intriguing. Why does she stay in such a horrible, abusive marriage? It seems to go beyond money and prestige, though it probably started that way based on the episodes featuring Sue Ellen’s social climbing mom. By the end of the second season, it's pretty clear that while she professes to love Cliff, she really loves, wants...is addicted to J.R. Which pretty much drives her insane...good, twisted stuff!!

Disco Years fans will love the outfits...and the discotheque scenes. Lots of boogie-ing and 'bow-chicka-bow-wow' music!

It seemed to me that the show didn’t find its best footing until several episodes in…but once it got rolling, it rocked!

Trivia:

- The show was originally intended to focus completely on life within the Ewing family from Pam's perspective. Sue Ellen's role in particular was supposed to be very minor. However, after the big audience response to J.R. and Sue Ellen, the show became more balanced, focusing on several characters . . . though in later seasons it pretty much became the J.R. show.

- Most fans of the show know Ted Shackelford as Gary Ewing (J.R.'s black sheep brother, who went on to star in a spin-off called 'Knots Landing') and Mary Crosby as Kristen Shephard (Sue Ellen's evil sister, who later made television history on the show...but I won't give that away), but I was surprised to see that both roles were originally played by different actors in these first seasons. Colleen Camp, of all people (pictured below), was Kristen! They obviously wanted to re-cast with a sexier actress...thus, Mary Crosby. It’s irritating that the DVD packaging prominently displays Mary Crosby, even though she isn’t in the first two seasons. The producers really wanted David Ackroyd (pictured below) to stay on as Gary, but he had scheduling conflicts. That’s a good thing in my book, because Ted Shackelford better fit the wimpy-guy-trying-to-be-tough role.

- Patrick Duffy (Bobby) had finished working on the recently cancelled 'The Man From Atlantis' when he got the 'Dallas' job. I'm totally bummed that 'The Man From Atlantis' isn't on DVD yet. Victoria Principal (Pam) was intimidated when she had to audition with Patrick. She had actually saved the TV Guide with him on the cover for 'The Man from Atlantis'.

- Victoria Principal was the only cast member who marked through a clause in her contract stipulating that the actors could not endorse/promote products during the run of the show. Smart move on her part, as later her exercise books/videos were hugely successful.

- You'd probably recognize J.R.'s secretary in these first seasons. She's Tina Louise...Ginger from 'Gilligan's Island'!

Excellent website dedicated to the show: http://www.ultimatedallas.com/

An early version of the opening credits on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR2USYyzoac

Creature Features....Grrrr....

I recently watched…okay, I’ll admit it…I recently bought the DVD of two ‘creature features’ made in the prime of the Disco Years. Usually those two movies/one DVD deals are a bargain for a very good reason…as was certainly the case here. This DVD included ‘Empire of the Ants’, a movie so bad it’s actually really good, and ‘Tentacles’, a movie that’s just…bad.

‘Empire of the Ants’ (1977) stars none other than Joan Collins, in all her bitchy glory. She plays a shady real estate agent trying to swindle investors into buying shares of a new beach-side development (basically, Florida swampland). What evil Joan doesn’t know when she arrives at the remote ‘development site’ with a bunch of potential investors (most of whom you’ll recognize from reruns of ‘The Love Boat’ and ‘Fantasy Island’) is that an equally evil corporation has been dumping their toxic waste nearby. Ants have been wallowing in the waste and…you guessed it…they’ve turned into huge and really pissed off Monster Ants! Awesome! Joan and the gang get chased around the development, with investors being methodically picked off one by one. Later, Joan and the few survivors make their way to a nearby town and apparent safety only to realize…but I won’t spoil the ending. Safe to say, as long as you don’t get all bogged down trying to make the story logical, you can appreciate this movie as good cheesy fun.

Trivia:
- I’ve read that, as a promotion gimmick, some theaters displayed ant farms in the lobby when they ran this movie.
- Supposedly, some of the ants used in the film (instead of using stop motion, they magnified real ants to achieve the monster effect) were of a deadly Panamanian variety. I’m skeptical.

Highlights:
- Joan and the rest of the cast totally rock their polyester pantsuits and bell-bottom jeans.
- Robert Pine (one of the ‘CHIPS’ cops) totally molests Pamela Shoop (you’d know her if you saw her…so I included her pic below) and it’s blown off as a ‘boys will be boys’ thing. Man, the 70s were a very different time!

- The queen ant’s ‘zombie spray’. Excellent.

‘Tentacles’ (1976) had a phenomenal cast: John Huston, Shelley Winters, Bo Hopkins, Claude Akins…even Henry Fonda! I just don’t get it. There totally has to be some secret scoop as to why these actors would be in this movie and I’d love to know what it is. Blackmail, maybe? Evidently the movie was filmed in some developing Central or South American country, because the above mentioned actors are about the only ones whose dialogue wasn’t dubbed. It’s always painful for me to watch movies where the lip movements don’t match the voice…it’s one of the reasons I can’t stand those old Chinese kung-fu movies. Anyway, the whole thing, about a giant octopus (or squid…whatever) terrorizing a beach community a la ‘Jaws’ and ultimately being killed by Bo Hopkins’ pet killer whales, makes ‘Empire of the Ants’ look Oscar worthy.

Stylin'

Now I can’t really say most of us dressed like this in south Alabama during the Disco Years, but it’s fun to look back at what the ‘fashionable’ folks were wearing . . .

Sparklie jeans! I think that’s Jerry Hall . . . Remember her? Mick’s chick.


These are some big ole man sweaters. Hmmm.

Is that a jumpsuit he's wearing? An even bigger HMMM.

If this picture doesn’t scream Disco Years, I’ll eat my bellbottoms...with a Pop Rocks and Coke chaser!


Check out them short-shorts...and platforms!

Mmmmm

I’m all about the sugar. Always have been. Never understood when people pucker their lips at a dessert and spout ‘ew, that’s too sweet!’ Does not compute. The Disco Years saw some sugary introductions that have been close to my heart…and mouth…and waistline ever since.

Bubblicious was introduced in 1977. It was one of the new soft gums that weren’t as sticky as other kinds. My grandmother was big on not allowing her grandkids to be seen chewing gum in public, but she’d buy it for us and we’d smack away in the car on the way to our ‘Sunday adventures’.


Pop Rocks were a huge novelty during the Disco Years. I can remember the first time I tried them and how cool I thought they were, bursting in my mouth. I also remember the dumb urban legend that they’d make your stomach explode if you ate a whole pack then drank a whole Coke. I thought it was dumb…but I never tried it myself…'cause I wanted to live!!!


Reese’s Pieces were introduced by Hershey’s in 1978, way before E.T. came along. Yum.


Whatchamacallit also came along in 1978. Still one of my favorite candy bars. Chocolatey, gooey goodness!


I still drink Sunkist (well, the diet version – which is the least diety tasting soda…trust me).


Mello Yello came along in 1979. Mostly I just liked the name.


My sister and cousins for some reason were obsessed with Fruit Roll-Ups. They’d nibble and play with those sticky sheets of goo all the time. Me? Not so much.

Let's play!

Remember these Disco Years toys?

I dug the gooey, icky feel and even the chemical smell of Slime, but it’s one of those toys that you say ‘hey, cool!’, then 3 minutes later you put it aside and never think about it again. I guess if you were into pranks involving…oh, I don’t know…snot...then maybe you’d get a little more charge out of it.


Rock’em-Sock’em Robots! Got’em for Christmas one year. Remember the commercials? ‘You knocked my block off!’

Simon is a toy that my parents liked as much as I did…actually, we got the cheaper knock-off called Einstein…but it was still the same memory/copy-cat game. Pretty addictive...and frustrating!


Only a little more engaging than Slime…the ever popular Slinky was a biggie in the Disco Years…

Okay, I bet most folks don’t remember this one, but it was an awesome toy…Spirograph! Who needs talent? Just stick your colored pen (conveniently included) into the little whirly-gig. wiggle it around, and you can make perfect curly-cue design thingies. Excellent...unless you do it on the dining room table and the pen cuts into the wood... (My dad did it...not me...I swear!)

When in the course of human events...

I can remember what a big deal the bicentennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence was in 1976. There were big celebrations in New York, Washington and Philadelphia, which we watched on TV.


My grandmother gave the grandkids commemorative sets of the special bicentennial quarter (designed by Jack L. Ahr), half dollar and dollar coins. I even have a 1976 2 dollar bill! Not sure how much they’re worth now, but they’re cool things to have.


I remember hearing about the American Freedom Train, which carried over 20 cars containing pieces of Americana like Dorothy’s ruby slippers from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and a lunar rover from one of the moon missions.

As part of the celebration on July 4th it would have been amazing to see the fleet of revolutionary era-styled ships that sailed in New York Harbor and then later in Boston.

CBS aired a series of Emmy winning ‘Bicentennial Moments’ that highlighted historical events surrounding America’s fight for independence. Check out this link to see some of them on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bicentennial+minute&search_type=&aq=5&oq=bicentennial+m


It was an exciting, patriotic Disco Year...

Good morning, angels!

One of my favorite shows during the Disco Years was ‘Charlie’s Angels’. It came on past my bedtime, so I didn’t get to see it often. Luckily in this age of DVDs, I’ve recently been able to watch all of season 1…and had a great time doing it.

The show, which ran from 1976 – 1981, featured three beautiful women who were private investigators working for an unseen mystery man….Charlie, of course. What’s not to love about that premise?

Jaclyn Smith was my favorite angel as a kid, but in watching the show now it’s hard to deny how magnetic Farrah is on film. You can’t take your eyes off of her. She’s beautiful, sure, but she also had some sort of magic sparkle about her. She’ll certainly be missed.

Some favorite episodes from season 1:
- The Pilot – We first meet the angels in a cool whodunit murder mystery.
- The Séance – The angels go undercover to catch a jewel thief who’s a fake medium. Kelly blows her cover while under hypnosis and even tries to kill Jill!
- Angels on a String – The angels rescue an international political leader at a fancy resort. There’s a whole ‘identical imposter’ thing going on. Fun.

Some cool guest stars over the run of the show: Kim Basinger (before she was famous), Tom Selleck, Jamie Lee Curtis (before she was famous), Jim Backus (of Mr. Howell fame), Dean Martin, Robert Englund (aka Freddy Krueger!) and Barbara Stanwyck.

'Charlie's Angels' has one of the best fan websites I've seen. It's at http://www.charliesangels.com/.

Here are some great pics . . .

The original cast: Jaclyn Smith as Kelly, Kate Jackson as Sabrina and Farrah Fawcett-Majors as Jill.

In the second season, Cheryl Ladd replaced Farrah. She played Kris.

A more recent pic of the original angels, at the 2006 Emmy Award ceremony. They still looked awesome!

Spooooky

October seems like a good time to share some of my favorite Disco Years horror films. I consider myself quite the horror flick aficionado . . .

- The Omen (1976) and Damien: Omen II (1978) – These movies did such an excellent job of creating an uneasy, tense vibe that I found myself scared even during the non-scary parts. Two of the best movies ever, horror or not.


- Halloween (1978) – Jamie Lee Curtis’ first movie. I felt like I was running from bad old Michael Myers right there with her!


- Jaws 2 (1978) – I’m probably one of the only people who liked this sequel as much as the classic original, maybe because I was a kid when I first saw it and this one had more teenagers in it. The scene with Ann Dusenberry and her boyfriend on that little boat when you-know-who attacks really got me!


Carrie (1977) – A truly twisted, scary movie. It’s a little disturbing that I was actually glad when Carrie started racking up the corpse count in the third act…except when it looked like she was getting poor Amy Irving!


Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) – Excellent re-make. I promise you’ll lose your breath during the last 5 seconds of this movie.

Playing with dolls...I mean 'action figures'...

Some cool action figures/dolls from the Disco Years . . .

- Stretch Armstrong was one of those fad toys I got for Christmas one year. Kind of creepy when you look at it now. Actually, they should re-release it for grown-ups as a stress reliever…you could twist and pummel him to your heart’s content!

- Barbie and Ken go to the prom, circa 1977. Every girl seemed to have those crocheted shawls . . . yep, I think so too…


- I’m the proud owner of all the original Star Wars action figures! I even have the carrying case pictured below. Yeah, pretty awesome!


- My sister and cousins were all about ‘Charlie’s Angels’ (okay, I dug’em too). Their Charlie’s Angels dolls logged lots of play hours, for sure.


- The Six Million Dollar Man doll was fun because you could look through his magnified eye. He also had these fancy ‘bionics’ embedded into his arm and leg.

NYC Flashin'

Had a few ‘disco years’ flashbacks recently when Dean and I spent a long weekend in New York City.

The first flashback was really the main reason for the trip. Dean’s a huge fan of Dolly Parton and wanted to see the Broadway version of ‘9 to 5’, for which Dolly wrote the music. You’ll remember the 1980 movie starring Dolly, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. I thought the movie was silly, simple fun. The musical was fun too…but not quite as much so. Dolly’s music was certainly excellent and Megan Hilty, who played Dolly’s role of Doralee, was dead-on. It’s just that the whole thing felt a little…flat. The plot of the musical is exactly the plot of the movie. Even most of the dialogue was verbatim, which in a way was kind of cute since you knew what was coming but…that was also kind of the problem. You knew what was coming. Exactly what was coming. Maybe if I hadn’t seen the movie I’d have enjoyed the musical a little more. All-in-all, though, I’d recommend it as an enjoyable night out. It’s closing this month on Broadway, but a national tour is planned. In the meantime, you should totally check out the soundtrack on cd or download.

The second flashback was by total happenstance. Dean had heard that a lot of the Broadway actors have dinner after the show at a restaurant called Joe Allen’s, so of course we had to go do some star gazing. Over delicious burgers and fries we saw, of all people…Marcia Wallace! Remember her from ‘The Bob Newhart Show’ (1972-78)? The show wasn’t really my thing, but my folks liked it. I do remember Marcia as one of the funniest things about the show. She looked just like herself…flaming red hair and all. She’d been sitting in the back (I guess the celebs who ‘want to be left alone’ always sit in the back), but we saw her as she was leaving. Good thing I watch ‘The Young and The Restless’, on which she’d recently done some guest star work, or I might not have made the connection.

The last flashback was on a guided tour of New York City movie locations, which I highly recommend. We saw all sorts of locations from ‘Friends’, ‘Enchanted’, ‘Men In Black’, ‘I Am Legend’, ‘The Cosby Show’ and on and on. The flashback came when we saw Lois Lane’s apartment building from the 1978 ‘Superman’ movie starring Christopher Reeve. I tell ya, the building didn’t look like much to me. but now Renee Zellweger has an apartment in it! The guide assured us that it’s very posh on the inside. It’s near Central Park, so it’s prime real estate. The guide mentioned that even in the 70s there is no freakin’ way a person could live there on a reporter’s salary…guess Lois was doing some serious moonlighting!

Anyway, good times…

Oh yeah, I remember that one...

Everyone can probably rattle off at least a few of the tv shows that were big in the disco years. ‘Happy Days’, ‘Charlie’s Angels’, ‘Three’s Company’, ‘Laverne & Shirley’, MASH…we all know’em and love’em, but here are a few shows that ended up rated in the top 25 (some even in the top 10), that you may have forgotten about.

1976-77 Season
‘The Tony Randall Show’. Remember him from ‘The Odd Couple’? In this comedy he played a judge in Philadelphia. I'm drawin' a blank on this one…

‘What’s Happening’. This one I know from reruns. Sassy black women crack me up, so Shirley the waitress and Dee the sister were favorites. Of course, everybody liked Rerun.
‘Baretta’ (top 10 show). This one may be fresher in your memory because of the big scandal with Robert Blake a few years back. He plays a tough guy cop in this show. My bedtime was 9:00, so I could watch this, but not ‘Charlie’s Angels’, which followed it. I’m still bitter.

1977-78
‘Project UFO’. I don’t remember this one even though I’m a big Sci-Fi fan. It was about a couple of Air Force investigators who investigated UFO sightings, which sounds pretty awesome! Of course, I was mainly subject to whatever shows Mother and Daddy wanted to watch…like ‘Baretta’…argh…

‘Barnaby Jones’. Good ‘ole Jed Clampett’s follow up. The whole family liked this detective show. The lady in the pic look familiar? That's Lee Meriwether, who was (one of) the actresses to play Catwoman in the 'Batman' tv series.

‘Family’. This was one of those serious family dramas that tried to make you cry every week. Not a favorite, but I thought Kristy McNichol was the deal.

1978-79
‘Angie’. If you remember Donna Pescow, consider yourself a scholar of disco years tv! (Trivia: Her first movie role was in ‘Saturday Night Fever’.) I think sassy white women are almost as fun as black ones.

‘The Ropers’. I thought ‘Three’s Company’ was great, but was never really a big fan of the Ropers on that show so I wasn’t very interested in this spin-off. Sadsack Stanley kinda grates on the nerves.

‘Vega$’. A detective show set in…somewhere I can’t remember. Saw it a few times (again, past my bedtime). I remember he parked his sports car in his living room, which may not have been practical...but was totally cool!

1979-80
‘That’s Incredible’ (top 10…actually #3 for the year). This was a fun show that featured people doing crazy/dangerous/stupid stunts. Guess this would be considered one of the precursors to today’s reality tv. We’ve come a long way…nah!

Flo (top 10). I really liked ‘Alice’ and, like everyone else, Flo was my favorite on the show. My little sister and I yelled ‘kiss my grits’ at each other with some regularity for awhile there…we were edgy like that. I don’t remember watching this spin-off, but ‘Alice’ was never quite as good without Flo.

'House Calls'. We watched this hospital-based comedy off and on. Not my thing.