Showing posts with label ABC-TV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ABC-TV. Show all posts

Friday, July 8, 2022

Personal observations on the passing of American film and TV actor James Caan, the face and strong irrepressible personality featured in some of the most popular and beloved films of all time.


Personal observations on the passing of American film and TV actor James Caan, the face and strong irrepressible personality featured in some of the most popular and beloved films of all time.


https://twitter.com/James_Caan/status/1545090774517174272





James Caan, ‘The Godfather’ and ‘Misery’ Star, Dies at 82






James Caan, actor who played Sonny Corleone in 'The Godfather,' dies at 82

https://t.co/DEqc1NF2zM


Before James Caan appeared as suave and irrepressible Sonny Corleone in the iconic Francis Ford Coppola film "The Godfather," with his famous slow-motion demise at the Jones Beach Causeway toll booth in Long Island, New York, murdered by assassins of the Barzini family, there was his winning and powerful portrayal in Brian's Song of the late Chicago Bears running back Brian Piccolo, #41, who had gone to high school in Fort Lauderdale at what is now St. Thomas Aquinas HS, and his very close and enduring friendship with star teammate and future pro Football Hall of Famer Gale Sayers, #40.

The Sunday before the film premiered on a Tuesday night as part of ABC-TV's powerful early 1970's ratings juggernaut "Movie of the Week," the film was the focus of a lot of favorable critical attention, not just in TV Guide, but also in every single major newspaper in the country.

That fact rang true when I saw glowing stories about the film in both the Miami Herald and the NY Post and NY Times, all of which I always bought on Sundays as a kid. No, I really did.

Every Sunday morning I'd set out from our home in North Miami Beach a few blocks south of the then- 163rd Street Shopping Center, and head east to the Newstand out-of-town newspapers and magazine store located on 163rd Street and 17th Avenue, pick up a Herald, a Post and a NY Times, then keep walking down 163rd Steet to just just past the nice Burger King and the Sub Center on NE 19th Avenue to the Bagel Fare, right next to then-Congressman William Lehman's district office. Where I'd get a bakers dozen of hot, fresh bagels for my family and start eating them out of the big brown paper bag on my way home, with a can of Dr. Pepper or Coca-Cola to cool them off in my mouth. It was heaven!

Having a well-regarded bagel and deli restaurant right next door was a tremendous benefit for a Congressman in a congressional district, the then FL-13, that was so heavily Jewish, back in the days before Turnberry Island and Williams Island and Aventura or Dr. Krop High School existed, and the focus of the district was NMB between the Cloverleaf Expressway and Haulover Beach.

In 1971, at age 10, while I went to every single Miami Dolphins home game at the Orange Bowl, I didn't have season tickets yet -that started in the Perfect 17-0 season in 1972- so I sometimes went to games by myself via the Orange Bowl Expresss buses that transported Dolphins fans from large shopping centers and sites all over Dade and Broward County down 1-95 or 836 to the stadium on Calle Ocho. In my case, from the gigantic Moderage Furniture parking lot west of the Cloverleaf Expressway, via my parents. 

The next day, having read all the stories about the film that I could and having discussed them thoroughly with my friends at Fulford Elementary, who, like me had already declared to everyone in the their family in advance that they WOULD be watching the film.

After school I started preparing for that night's Dolphins Monday Night Football home game against the Chicago Bears team that Brian Piccolo had been a part of just two years before. There was a tremendous effort by ABC to promote the film that weekend and of course during the ballgame, as the film premiered the following night.

Well, it's an understatement to say that that film instantly made James Caan an icon to millions of kids across America, people who would remain fans of his for life as they grew older. A fact that he was always remarking on, because it was one of the never-ending realities of his personal and professional life.

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Above, Brian's Song 1971 film trailer for ABC-TV's 'Movie of the Week" starring James Caan, Billy Dee Williams, Jack Warden, and Bernie Casey. Original airdate: October 30, 1971

This film still packs a wallop!


<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CCO7LxuH-cA" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>


But you turned down a chance to star in “Apocalypse Now.” Why?

My wife was pregnant with my dream child Scott. Francis called me and said he wanted my to play Willard. He said he’d get me a house in Manila with a maid and fly me to location in the jungle every day on a helicopter. I said, “Francis there’s two things I hate — heights and tsetse flies, so let’s not do this.” I couldn’t be away six months while my wife was pregnant. But I helped write a scene. The letter that Martin Sheen’s character writes to his wife, I helped with that. You didn’t care if the character lived or died without that. You had to make the audience care about Willard. https://variety.com/2022/film/news/godfather-robert-duvall-james-caan-talia-shire-making-of-1235211379/



Billy Dee Williams: Team Mates and friends till the end. RIP Jimmy 💔 #jamescaan



Tuesday, September 5, 2017

"Tuesday September 5th. The Day the Running Stopped." Sublime! And just like that, so ended the plight of Dr. Richard Kimble, The Fugitive. My first favorite TV show ever


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDb7pligfRA

August 29, 1967 Final 5 minutes The Fugitive, ABC-TV


August 29, 1967 The Fugitive, ABC-TV
Final episode - Epilogue, 151 seconds

"Tuesday September 5th. The Day the Running Stopped." 

Sublime.
THAT is how you write for television and pack a punch!

"Tuesday September 5th. The Day the Running Stopped." 
With these final words, spoken in a voice-over by the inestimable William Conrad in the final seconds of the series finale of The Fugitive in 1967, fifty years ago, America got the satisfaction they needed, including where I lived, where it was watched religiously in the new-ish apartment complex when I was growing up in Memphis.
And became my very first favorite TV show.

(Some of you longtime readers of the blog may recall that was the same upscale complex my family lived at that was also home to then-Cardinals catcher and Memphis native Tim McCarver during the off-season with his wife and kids, one of whom I played with regularly.)

The final episode of The Fugitive gained an astounding 45.9/72 Nielsen rating - roughly 72% of all U.S. TV households were tuned in the episode, a TV ratings record that lasted for 13 years until the mystery of who shot J.R. was resolved on "Dallas" in 1980.




http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-et-st-fugitive-fiftieth-anniversary-20170828-story.html


Leonard Goldberg on "The Fugitive" series finale - EMMYTVLEGENDS.ORG

The day Bristol Myers saved the day.


Alan A. Armer on producing "The Fugitive" and its finale - EMMYTVLEGENDS.ORG


Friday, August 2, 2013

Flashback Friday returns to the Summer of 1980 - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers sing "American Girl" (LIVE) on ABC-TV's "Fridays" on June 6, 1980; remembering summer nights at Rum Runner Bay in North Miami Beach in the 1980's, soon to be the Marina Palms Yacht Club & Residences


shoutfactory YouTube Channel video: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers sing "American Girl" (LIVE) on ABC-TV's "Fridays" on June 6, 1980Uploaded August 1, 2013. http://youtu.be/b2nbHpF7-qk
Personally, I always thought that the camera-work done on this ABC-TV show when musical acts performed was better than over at NBC's Saturday Night Live.

I was just recently back from my freshman year at Indiana University in Bloomington when this particular program first aired, three years after the song had come out on Tom Petty's first album.
The night it aired I'd gone out earlier to the old Rum Runner Bay Bar & Restaurant that I used to visit with friends who were also going to college out-of-state when I was back from IU for Christmas Break or the summer in the early 1980's.

It was located on the water off of Biscayne Blvd. and N.E. 172nd Street in North Miami Beach -back before Aventura existed, and far too far south to be called "Turnberry"- to meet with some friends I hadn't seen since my visit home at Christmas, since they had a different week for spring break, when I'd driven down to Fort Lauderdale from Bloomington with some friends and would spend all day and most of the night at the excellent Yankee Trader Hotel or at the beach across the street, but would then go home to NMB most nights to crash.

(Loved, loved, loved the Yankee Trader Hotel pool scene!!!
That was like the "W" Hotel concept before there was a "W" concept, or the pool scene on the NBC-TV series "Vegas," but for college kids, and NOT a compete rip-off price-wise.

Every friendly and good-looking coed from a school my friends and I had never heard of, except perhaps from a couple of sentences from Street & Smith's College Football Preview issue, made a beeline from where ever they were for that pool up top with the great view of the beach: Eastern Kentucky University, Central Connecticut State University...
We couldn't believe our luck at being in a place that seemed like we'd literally dreamed it up on the drive down.

As one friend who was a Journalism major at IU remarked about the army of friendly and good-looking college girls in that pre-Internet era, before we could make the hotel Social Media Gold by tweeting about it, "What they lack in fanfare, they make up for in Quality and Friendliness." Yes.)

This was back before the State of Florida changed the drinking age from 18 to 21 -which meant that I could legally drink in my last semester of high school if I was so inclined- we'd meet there and a handful of other places in North Dade and South Broward where we'd all exaggerate how great everything was going for us back at school, especially relationship-wise.


The very big advantage that Rum Runner Bay had was its great central location -and on the water- very attractive wait staff and even better-looking customers, AND, beers from around the world. 
Plus the likelihood that at least one or two people we knew from North Miami Beach High School would show up. 
It was a very, very sociable place!

Now THAT was a relaxing place!
Wish we had something close to that on the water now in Hallandale Beach.

At some point, according to what Curbed Miami wrote a few months ago, that site of so much fun for me and my friends is going to be a condominium complex called Marina Palms Yacht Club & Residences, and as these things go, it actually looks attractive to me, or at least not hideous or unattractive like so many condos down here that I could name that screw-up or ruin perfectly good locations.
  
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On August 6th Shout Factory is releasing their best of Fridays DVD 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Girl_(song)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Fridays_episodes

Friday, May 24, 2013

Trending at Hallandale Beach Blog and other places with a great sense of humor - Jimmy Kimmel LIVE's "The Baby Bachelor," a very funny idea that's brilliantly produced -and hilarious!


JimmyKimmelLive YouTube Channel video: The Baby Bachelor - Episode 1. Uploaded May 17, 2013. http://youtu.be/Oavg_YqE7w8


JimmyKimmelLive YouTube Channel video: The Baby Bachelor - Episode 2. Uploaded May 23, 2013. http://youtu.be/f5TfbY50uSM

Trending at Hallandale Beach Blog and other places with a great sense of humor - Jimmy Kimmel LIVE's "The Baby Bachelor," a very funny idea that's brilliantly produced -and hilarious!
Nothing you can say can do it justice.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

2013 NFL Draft: Another Draft day with Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland squandering opportunities left and right; Give me more playmakers! The best defense is a big lead!; @nfl, @SI_PeterKing, @BuckyBrooks


pmanis09 YouTube Channel: ABC's Monday Night Football, opening (1973), with Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford and Don Meredith. Uploaded on October 16, 2008. http://youtu.be/m8fkMkE2Yjg
and over at NBC, largely featuring Dolphins guard Bob Kuechenberg, and with other Dolphins appearing, including Larry Little, Vern Den Herder, Larry Csonka, Bob Griese and at 0:57, the late Jim Mandich, who sadly died almost-two years ago tomorrow...


beaverstuffers YouTube Channel: NFL on NBC, opening (1973). 
Uploaded August 20, 2009. http://youtu.be/nv-datkQYUU

Yes, 1973, the last year the Dolphins really WERE the best team.
2013 NFL Draft: Another Draft day with Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland squandering opportunities left and right; Give me more playmakers! The best defense is a big lead!; @nfl, @SI_PeterKing, @BuckyBrooks
Another Draft day that Dolphin fans hope will be decisive in changing around the fortunes of a once-proud football franchise that has been plagued for too many years with bad management, uninspiring coaching and mediocre personnel that lacks playmakers and a killer instinct. But look who's in charge?
Since we're all friends here on the blog for the most part, I'm going to fill you in on something
you won't be reading elsewhere today on one of the most-magical albeit-unofficial American holidays of the year -the first day of the NFL Draft.

Last night after the watching the Miami-area 11 O'clock news, I had to run some errands and hop into the blog's Time Machine, a.k.a. the South Beach Hoosier Time Machine, to finish something I had actually started a few weeks ago, though technically, is actually still in the future many months from now.

You know how it is with time travel, some words only cause more confusion, which is why star dates are so useful.

So anyway, one of the errands involved finally seeing the new upcoming Star Trek Into Darkness that opens in May, which I'll be seeing in-person next month when it opens, on DVD this December, when the Dolphins 2013 season has pretty much played itself out.


Star Trek Into Darkness - Official Trailer #3 (HD) Benedict Cumberbatch

I bought it to watch it again and then send it to my mother, who is a longtime Star Trek fan, but not so crazy about going to theaters anymore, unless she comes down here to see my sister and I, in which case we'll watch it at my sister's at some point on her visit.

My plan, then, is to watch it after the NBC Sunday Night Football game if that game is a good one, or, instead of the game if the game is not so interesting. 
(Like usual, I'm taping Once Upon a Time, The Good Wife and The Mentalist on the other TV's DVR.)
So, I'm watching the pre-game highlights package and listening to Dan Patrick, Tony Dungy and Bob Costas talk and talk about the various games that took place earlier in the day and sort of wondering what led the Time Machine to this scene of me watching myself lying on the couch, with some newspapers and a can of Coke on the table nearby. 
And how is this trip in any way connected to tonight's NFL Draft?

Well, the Dolphins will have the chance tonight to draft and add polish to a dynamic game-breaking player, but because Dolphins well-meaning but misfiring General Manager Jeff Ireland is who he is -there's no changing those spots- he goes the safe route yet again and the player who could be and should be one of the Dolphins biggest stars of the future, will instead drop some more and ply his trade for another team drafting after the Dolphins.

Ah, Jeff Ireland and the Safe Choice!
It almost sounds like the name of a neighborhood band from North Miami Beach circa 1974, a band where the lead singer is the older brother of one of my friends, but his last name really isn't Ireland, but he just likes the way it sounds.
Lots of class!

In the future highlight I see, Dan Patrick prefaces his pithy comment by saying, "Oh, no. Jeff Ireland may want to close his eyes again because Miami passed on this guy."

And there on the TV screen, on TVs of various sizes and shapes all across the country and all across South Florida, the video is showing someone scoring against the Dolphins late in a heretofore close ballgame, and making the big difference in another Dolphin loss.

Because, as always, there are nice dependable players and then there are difference-makers, and the Dolphins have been plagued for the past 15 years by NOT having enough of them on the field on either offense or defense.

It makes me think after watching videos on YouTube of the NFL in the 1970's, the seasons with the games and scores I still remember because I was there in-person at the Orange Bowl for almost every one, that IF Jeff Ireland had been the Steelers GM in 1974, he'd have passed on drafting John Stallworth in the fourth round because, well, after all, they already had drafted a very good one out of USC in the first round named Lynn Swann.
So let's draft another offensive lineman!

But given who's making the choice, that offensive lineman is NOT named future Hall of Famer Mike Webster.
Four of the Steeler's first five draft choices eventually are enshrined in the NFL Hall of Fame.

Such is the difference between GMs who are in-the-know and on draft day, literally, in-the-zone, seeing things that others don't see, and then there are nice guys who still have their jobs after doing a consistently mediocre job because the boss doesn't really like to fire people.

What will be written on Ireland's personnel file after his exit interview?
"Dolphins lack of playmakers!"

Here's a hint: offensive linemen aren't playmakers:

Look up the phrase "Dolphins lack of playmakers" on Google Images and tell me whose photo shows up first.
Really,.just try it.
See, it's not just my opinion, it's an algorithm's learned opinion.

I hope that I'm wrong about this prediction about the Dolphins draft today, and that Ireland, like George Costanza once did, does the exact opposite of what he usually does, but if you know anything about me from reading this blog fairly regularly over the years, and my predictions while at IU and in Chicago and in D.C., you know that I have a ridiculous degree of accuracy when I've had some time to analyze the empirical data, accent the positive, eliminate the negative and throw in some intangibles and just noodle everything through.  

Three teams on December's Dolphins schedule draft after the Dolphins: the Steelers at 17, the Patriots at 29 and the Jets immediately after the Dolphins draft at 12.
Just saying... the best defense is a big lead!


2013 NFL Draft: The perfect strategy for each team to follow
By Bucky Brooks, Analyst, NFL.com and NFL Network
 Published: April 22, 2013 at 03:57 p.m. 
Updated: April 23, 2013 at 05:38 p.m.


Monday, April 8, 2013

Pitch-perfect 'Nashville' is only getting better: ABC-TV's 'Nashville' continues to enchant me with its great music, terrific cast and compelling storylines with moments large and small that ring true in every episode -reaching right inside your heart and your head; Lennon & Maisy Stella (as Daphne & Maddie Conrad ) cover The Lumineers' song "Ho Hey"; Rascal Flatts "Changed" video featuring "Nashville's" Charles "Chip" Esten; @lennonandmaisy



ABCNetwork YouTube Channel video: "Rayna's Daughters Perform Sound Check" - Lennon & Maisy Stella (as Daphne & Maddie Conrad ) get to perform a cover of The Lumineers' song "Ho Hey" for sound check at their mom Rayna's concert in New York City. Uploaded April 4, 2013. http://youtu.be/PTNGVCqsZCA
Pitch-perfect 'Nashville' is only getting better: ABC-TV's 'Nashville' continues to enchant me with its great music, terrific cast and compelling storylines with moments large and small that ring true in every episode, reaching right inside your heart and your head; Lennon & Maisy Stella (as Daphne & Maddie Conrad ) cover The Lumineers' song "Ho Hey"; Rascal Flatts "Changed" video featuring "Nashville's" Charles "Chip" Esten


ABCNetwork YouTube Channel video: Rascal Flatts "Changed" - ABC Music Lounge. Rascal Flatts video for "Changed" featuring 'Nashville's' Charles "Chip" Esten.
Uploaded April 3, 2013. http://youtu.be/6d2iDPm5Foc



ABCNetwork YouTube Channel video: Rascal Flatts "Changed" - Making of video- ABC Music Lounge. Rascal Flatts and 'Nashville's' Charles "Chip" Esten. Uploaded April 3, 2013. http://youtu.be/tUA3Al28b2c

See also:
The New Republic
Connie Britton: The Blue States’ Red State Dream Girl
By Noreen Malone
October 12, 2012
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/books-and-arts/108426/connie-britton-the-blue-states%E2%80%99-red-state-dream-girl

Ivy League Small-World-Afterall Trivia: At the same time that Connie Britton was an Asian Studies major at Dartmouth, next door in Massachusetts, Mira Sorvino was an East Asian Studies major at Harvard. 
Seven years after graduating, Connie acted with Mira's father, veteran actor Paul Sorvino.


My last blog post on 'Nashville' was on February 25, 2013, titled, Sweet, sweet music to our ears: the 'Nashville' soundtrack album; 'Nashville' star Hayden Panettiere (Juliette Barnes) sings "Fame" and "Consider Me"; Clare Bowen (Scarlett O'Connor) and Sam Palladio (Gunnar Scott) sing "If I Didn't Know Better," and cause a ripple to turn into a wave; #ABCNashville, @haydenpanettier
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/sweet-sweet-music-to-our-ears-nashville.html

My last blog post on Rascal Flatts was December 19, 2012, titled, Two great new songs from Jill Johnson - "A Woman Can Change Her Mind," and her duet with Rascal Flatts, "Come Wake Me Up"
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/12/two-great-new-songs-from-jill-johnson.html


More at: http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/nashville
http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/nashville/photos/themed/nashville-on-stage

@lennonandmaisy  https://twitter.com/lennonandmaisy
http://www.lennonandmaisy.com/

M.L. Rose Craft Beer & Burgers  http://ml-rose.com/

Monday, February 25, 2013

Sweet, sweet music to our ears: the 'Nashville' soundtrack album; 'Nashville' star Hayden Panettiere (Juliette Barnes) sings "Fame" and "Consider Me"; Clare Bowen (Scarlett O'Connor) and Sam Palladio (Gunnar Scott) sing "If I Didn't Know Better," and cause a ripple to turn into a wave; #ABCNashville, @haydenpanettier


ABCNetwork YouTube Channel video: 'Nashville' star Hayden Panettiere (Juliette Barnes) sings "Fame" at the Ryman Auditorium. Uploaded February 24, 2013. http://youtu.be/X2hnCfrIxyA

Listened all day Saturday to the amazing 'Nashville' soundtrack album.

That is, before and after watching Melodifestivalen's Fourth Heat in Malmö on SVT Play Saturday around 2 p.m., 8 in Stockholm, by far the worst group of songs performed so far in this year's contest. I even had to mute the sound for some!:-(
http://www.svtplay.se/video/1033650/deltavling-4

'Nashville' stars Clare Bowen (Scarlett O'Connor) and Sam Palladio (Gunnar Scott) sing "If I Didn't Know Better" (entire song) Uploaded October 2, 2012. http://youtu.be/gAI_1FsJ8rE


Hayden Panettiere (as Juliette Barnes) performs "Consider Me" LIVE and Connie Britton (as Rayna James) comes to realize that maybe she sold Juliete short after all.

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http://www.tennessean.com/section/projects49

http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/nashville

http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/nashville/episode-guide


Hayden Panettiere, Wladimir Klitschko Rekindle in SoFla
Posted by Jose Lambiet
February 20, 2013
http://gossipextra.com/2013/02/20/hayden-panettiere-wladimir-klitschko-florida-romance-2310/

@haydenpanettier https://twitter.com/haydenpanettier

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Once again, Jimmy Kimmel Live Show adroitly skewers puffery, smugness and pomposity, this time, average people talking about having watched the Ravens-49ers Super Bowl Game that's still days from being played; #nfl, #superbowl47, @nfl, @superbowl47


The Jimmy Kimmel Show, Lie Witness News - Did You Watch the Super Bowl, JimmyKimmelLive. Uploaded January 30, 2013. http://youtu.be/zR9NV7D4FVY
Once again, Jimmy Kimmel Live Show adroitly skewers puffery, smugness and pomposity, this time, average people talking about having watched the Ravens-49ers Super Bowl Game that's still days from being played; #nfl, #superbowl47
This humorous effort of Jimmy and his writers to really skewer average people's pomposity, with humorous results, actually reminds me most of the uninformed comments I've heard stated the past nine years on Miami-area TV newscasts as elected officials pontificated about things after-the-fact that they were clearly only dimly familiar with after having actually voted.
Or, just like attending and carefully watching a Hallandale Beach City Commission.

Everyone's afraid to say that they didn't know, don't know or are unfamiliar with a topic, so they try to "wing it."

Hallandale Beach looks the way that it does and is run as poorly as it is because too many highly-paid people in responsible positions have been "winging it" for years.
But Hallandale Beach is not alone on that score in South Florida, just where I happen to live and a place that I'm most highly observant of.

In the new year, you will hear more on this blog about other cities and agencies that have been run similarly, with little concern for actually delivering a dollar's worth of service for a dollar's worth of taxes, and a refusal to face reality when presented with the true facts by citizens and activists.

Friday, January 4, 2013

TV's most-magical shows -and HBB faves- are back to delight us! :) - Fifth and final season of SyFy's "Merlin" premieres tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern, while "Once Upon A Time" returns to ABC-TV on Sunday at 8 p.m. Eastern


"I feel the weight of my destiny crushing me." 
Yes, I know what you mean. I've been feeling the same way, too. 
It's a terrible thing to know that you have a great destiny, yet find yourself, more often than not,  toiling amongst the mundane and banal instead of the world of true significance and import you know that you were meant for. 
TV's most-magical shows -and HBB faves- are back to delight! :) - Fifth and final season of SyFy's "Merlin" premieres tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern, while "Once Upon A Time" returns to ABC-TV on Sunday at 8 p.m. Eastern
"All magic comes with a price" - Rumpelstiltskin 


ABCNetwork YouTube Channel video: Once Upon a Time: Emma Becomes a Believer - Once Upon a Time. Uh-oh! "Emma Swan discovers that maybe magic really is real." Uploaded January 3, 2013. http://youtu.be/-JmuDVE1qe4

ABCNetwork YouTube Channel video: Once Upon a Time: Archie Sneak Peek - Once Upon a Time. Preview of Sunday's episode. Uploaded January 3, 2013. http://youtu.be/Nb-haEBhNb4


Hmm-m... I hereby propose a contest, Katie McGrath (Morgana) vs. Lana Parrilla (Regina Mills/Evil Queen) for the title of Sexiest & Most-moxie-filled fairy tale character on TV.
The winner faces Jennifer Morrison (Emma Swan).
Hello must-see TV! 



And seriously, where has Miranda Raison been all my life? 
I mean besides in England, of course? 

I'd watched her in MI5 (Spooks) as Jo Portman, of course, but hadn't seen the Merlin episode she was in until today, "The Sword in the Stone." http://merlin.wikia.com/wiki/Miranda_Raison
Wow, she really looks good out of the espionage bureaucratic office and in leather -and with a sword!

You know, he said somewhat mischievously, not everyone can carry that off with such panache!

-----

http://www.syfy.com/merlin/

official Once Upon A Time YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/show/onceuponatime

Full episodes of Once Upon a Time at
http://abc.go.com/watch?cid=ytv_abcchannel_fep

When in doubt, check it out: http://merlin.wikia.com/wiki/Merlin
http://onceuponatime.wikia.com/wiki/Once_Upon_a_Time_Wiki

Friday, September 28, 2012

R.I.P. Chris Economaki, the "Voice of American Motorsports" -and so many great weekends of my youth; #chriseconomaki

cjs3872 video: 1973 Indianapolis 500, Part 4 (The Start). Updated November 13, 2011. http://youtu.be/CysanZ78eBo

R.I.P. Chris Economaki, the TV Voice of American Motorsports -and so many great weekends of my youth.

Yes, back in those pre-cable TV days of only a handful of TV channels, when the day my Sports Illustrated magazine arrived in my mailbox, usually a Friday, was one of the highlights of the week. (In fact, the first issue I ever received as part of my subscription, in 1971, when I was ten years-old,  was of driving legend and ABC Sports analyst Jackie Stewart on the cover.)

Between ABC Sports' always excellent coverage of racing, including Wide World of Sports,  and SI's excellent news analysis and penetrating photography of motor sports -back when they had Indy-style racing on the cover more frequently than they have the past 20 years- I always knew what was really going on and who really disliked whom, when feuds were real and not always so contrived or orchestrated for marketing purposes.

By the time the Memorial Day weekend finally rolled around and Race Day arrived, I knew who all the drivers were, what their recent history had been, and which drivers or teams desperately needed to win or do well to keep going because of lack of sponsorship money.


USA Today
Chris Economaki changed motor sports coverage
by Nate Ryan, USA TODAY Sports
September 28, 2012
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/nascar/story/2012/09/28/chris-economaki-changed-motor-sports-coverage/57851350/1


The multi-day 1973 Indy race featured in this video, eventually won by Gordon Johncock, back when ABC's coverage was Taped, Same-Day coverage, and NOT LIVE, which made the waiting all the worse, was one of the most deadly and tragic in Indy 500 history, with the death of two drivers, a pit crew member and several fans being seriously injured during a horrific crash. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Indianapolis_500



georgendy video: Uploaded February 16, 2008. http://youtu.be/X-IsOuo5be8

 
http://youtu.be/9yb9drI1XHk

Salt Walther's accident comes at 2:43, Swede Savage's deadly crash at 6:41 

Even now when watching thsi video, when the late-great Jim McKay goes thru the eleven rows of the starting drivers, I can almost recall what I was thinking, excited to see another race day come to Indy. When I think of those drivers now, this is exactly the way that I picture them.

And Chris Economaki as much if not more than anyone else, was the person most- responsible for filling my youthful head with all sorts of useful racing facts, telling historical anecdotes and amusing raceway trivia nuggets, to make me as fully prepared as possible to follow the race with some degree of understanding and intelligence -more than a thousand miles away in hot and humid North Miami Beach.
Little did I know then when listening to his informed words, that in just a few short years, Indiana would become a very important part of my life, as it remains to this day.


New York Times
Chris Economaki, Rumbling Voice of Auto Racing, Dies at 91
By Douglas Martin
Published: September 28, 2012
Chris Economaki, whose gravelly broadcast voice and prolific pen — specifically, his manual Royal typewriter — narrated the rise of auto racing from county-fair dirt tracks to a global multibillion-dollar business, died on Friday in a nursing home in Wyckoff, N.J. He was 91.
Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/29/sports/chris-economaki-rumbling-voice-of-auto-racing-dies-at-91.html

Monday, June 25, 2012

Even more on the dueling Marco Rubio biographies: this time, multiple videos of Rubio discussing his autobiography, "An American Son"; #MarcoRubio


MarcoRubio video: Senator Marco Rubio of Florida on NBC News' "Meet the Press"  speaks with host David Gregory regarding his new autobiography, "An American Son," and his current stance on immigration, one day before the Supreme Court's ruling on Arizona's laws re illegal immigration. June 24, 2012. 

MarcoRubio video: Senator Marco Rubio of Florida on CBS' "This Morning" speaks with hosts Charlie Rose and Erica Hill regarding his new autobiography, "An American Son," his being considered as Mitt Romney's VP choice, and his current stance on immigration. June 21, 2012.

MarcoRubio video: Senator Marco Rubio of Florida on ABC-TV's The View, regarding his new autobiography, "An American Son."June 25, 2012 

Marco Rubio's YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/MarcoRubio