Ray Heatherton

The other day I spoke briefly of JOEY AND DAD, the short-run seventies series that featured pouty Joey Heatherton and her dad, TV's former "Merry Mailman" of the 1950's. Well, I just noticed that the amazing Scott Shaw! has a MERRY MAILMAN comic up as this week's Oddball Comic over at (naturally) Oddball Comics. Talk about going postal! Ray was actually before my time but his hit children's record was still being recycled in the sixties when I was a child and was one of those "sticksinyourheadforever" songs.

David McCallum

I was watching TV one night a couple weeks back when I found myself interested in the latest CSI clone, NAVY NCIS after catching David McCallum playing a character called Donald "Ducky" Mallard. At one time, the Scottish born actor was the flavor of the month, appearing as mysterious spy Illya Kuryakin opposite Robert Vaughn’s Napoleon Solo weekly in the (sort of) Ian Fleming-created TV series, THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.
Inspired by the success of the earliest James Bond films, the series started out with semi-serious spy stories but, after BATMAN, veered toward the camp and tongue-in-cheek. Almost from the beginning, McCallum, in the small role of Illya, became a fan favorite. Soon enough, in the manner later followed by Mister Spock and Fonzie, he became THE favorite star of the show! The actor, originally known for several guest shots on THE OUTER LIMITS, did personal appearances and even appeared in character on the sitcom PLEASE DON’T EAT THE DAISIES. In 1966, he even had the book seen here all to himself. Ultimately, the U.N.C.L.E. franchise included novelizations, comic books, toys, games and even the spin-off series, THE GIRL FROM U.N.C.L.E., all of which wore out Illya’s welcome by 1968.

McCallum returned for several less than memorable TV series tries in the US before re-emerging in the late 1970’s in the UK with SAPPHIRE AND STEEL. Like DOCTOR WHO, this was a serial. Unlike DOCTOR WHO, it was dreadfully dull and slow in spite of an interesting premise and a post NEW AVENGERS/pre-ABFAB Joanna Lumley. My wife loves the series and it has become a cult favorite in its own right although it never really appeared in the US (Just this year, David Warner essayed the McCallum role in new audio adventures).

David McCallum continued to be a familiar, welcome face on various series between leading roles, even returning to Illya in an U.N.C.L.E. TV reunion movie. In 1989, a well-done behind the scenes book on the original series came out. He may not be a teen idol anymore but, with the rise of the Internet, McCallum’s fan base has a place to gather once again. "Open channel ‘D.’" Here are a couple links to David McCallum sites:David McCallum Updates, David McCallum Fans Online entrance

Mass Market Paperbacks

Maybe it’s just the fact that I managed bookstores for literally half my life but this book, UNDERCOVER-AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF MASS MARKET PAPERBACKS, has long been a favorite of mine. Published in 1982, I didn’t find it until about ten years later. Ironically, it was published by Penguin, most of whose small paperback output continued to be considered trades rather than mass markets long past the point where that distinction made sense to anyone. The author, Thomas Bonn, starts out with a nice, reasonably succinct history of paperback publishing. Then, knowing full well that you can't judge a book by its cover and yet how else can you judge it until you've read it, he goes on to detail the always entertaining ways of marketing the books via their garish covers and other hype. There are lots of examples of classic, collectible and just plain weird covers (such as those seen here), many in black and white but with three separate color sections. If you’re a collector, a reader or especially a longtime bookstore employee, you need to find this long out of print book, one of only two I’ve ever even seen on this particular subject (the other of which I passed on, even at a quarter used at a library book sale so that should give you an idea how unimpressed I was!).

Friends Again!

Not that anyone probably cares but my friend Kim and I are on speaking terms again having made up a week after her birthday. This gives me the excuse to run this smiley photomanipulated shot I did of her a couple years ago. I think it's one of the best photos I ever took.

Bob Hope Meets Stanley and His Monster (and Scooter)

This ad appeared in a few DC comics dated December, 1967 and served as almost a last ditch effort to get fans to read the books being advertised. SWING WITH SCOOTER, although an acceptable ARCHIE variation, was too tied to its mid-sixties origins to avoid seeming dated almost immediately. THE ADVENTURES OF BOB HOPE had been around for years but, in spite of Neal Adams artwork and far-out hero Super-Hip, seemed out of place in the sixties (Hope, himself, is said to have had a whole collection, though). STANLEY AND HIS MONSTER, which we wrote about earlier here, was a personal favorite but even I'll admit that it had gotten kind of crowded pretty quickly what with gnomes and leprechauns and ghosts and Bob Oksner babysitters (hotcha!) and such. They were just about to boot FOX AND CROW out of their own mag at thepoint this ad ran but that wasn't exactly a good thing. Apparently, a lot of folks stopped buying it when Fauntleroy Fox and Crawford Crow finally gave up (pardon the expression) the ghost. Soon enough, Bob, Scooter and Stanley and friends were gone, too.

Charley Weaver

Cliff Arquette is recalled today, if at all, as some distant show business relative of all of those other youngish Arquettes running around on TV and in the movies. There was a time, though, boys and girls, when Cliff Arquette--or rather his alter ego, Charley Weaver--was a star! Arquette had actually already retired from a mildly successful showbiz career when his creation of the easy going country comic, Charley Weaver, turned up on Jack Paar's TONIGHT show in the late fifties. Charley would appear fairly regularly, always offering an amusing letter ostensibly from his "Mamma" back home in the fictitious Mount Idy. These pun-filled missives were loaded with old jokes, new jokes, clever wordplay and even visual gags and proved to be so popular that there were at least two multi-printing collections of them published! As Paar gave way to Carson, Arquette parlayed his character's popularity into appearances on dozens of TV shows before ending up as a regular on the long-running game show, HOLLYWOOD SQUARES. If host Peter Marshall's book is to be believed, Cliff Arquette was (in one sense) even more successful behind the scenes, filling his days and nights with wine, women and song as he grew older...particularly the women and the wine! The very idea! What would Mamma say?

Nina David's TV Seasons

Around 1988, I found the four volumes seen here at a Library used book sale at the Mall in which I worked. They were 50 cents each and turned out to be one of the best buys I ever made. Produced by Nina David for Oryx Press, neither of whom I had ever heard of before, these meticulously indexed alphabetical compilations of every series and special airing in the mid- to late seventies have proven to be invaluable reference works. On a completely different note, they serve as reminders of strange TV series, specials and one-shots that are now nearly totally forgotten thirty years on.
Here are some choice examples-
JOEY AND DAD- a 4 part 1975 summer series featuring sexy (and later much maligned) singer/dancer Joey Heatherton and her father Ray, known on fifties TV as "the Merry Mailman." The show featured SMOTHERS BROTHERS alumnae Pat Paulsen and Bob (Super Dave Osborne) Einstein and had some good music and sketches.

THE MAGICAL TRIP THROUGH LITTLE RED’S HEAD-an hour long animated after school special produced by Depatie-Freleng and featuring former LAUGH-IN regular Sarah Kennedy as Little Red.

MITZI AND A HUNDRED GUYS- Inexplicably, Mitzi Gaynor used to regularly turn up with less than spectacular TV specials that often won or were nominated for awards. This one from 1975 featured brief appearances by "The Million Dollar Chorus" who included William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Andy Griffith, Steve Allen, Bob Hope, Monty Hall and dozens of other unlikely candidates.

THE ZOO GANG- A short-run British series featuring Brian Keith, John Mills, Barry Morse and Lilli Palmer and based on a book by the guy who wrote THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE. Music was by Paul McCartney!

THE MAC DAVIS SPECIAL from 1975, produced by Jack Haley, Jr and bizarrely featuring his then-wife Liza Minnelli along with the Sid and Marty Krofft puppets and Neil (wasn’t he one of the Sid and Marty Krofft Puppets, too?)Sedaka.

THE GOODIES AND THE BEANSTALK- A 1976 PBS airing of a British satire by the hilarious Python-like comedy troupe that never really caught on in America, hosted by Jeremy Brett (later Sherlock Holmes) and featuring John Cleese.

PBS MOVIE THEATER- a 76-77 series that aired rarely seen film classics that were just eaten up by us budding film buffs! Titles included Cocteau’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, IVAN THE TERRIBLE and KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS.

SECRET SERVICE, a GREAT PERFORMANCES play spotlighting early appearances by Meryl Streep and John Lithgow.

GOOBER AND THE TRUCKER’S PARADISE was a 1978 unsold pilot returning George Lindsey to his familiar Mayberry character, now set in a truck stop café. The delightful Leigh French appeared along with cult actor Brion James. Music was by Ray Stevens.
WHAT’S UP DOC? was another unsold pilot, this time featuring Barry Van Dyke in the Ryan O’Neal role from the movie of the same name opposite Caroline McWilliams, later of BENSON.

In spite of the professional quality of the interiors, the decidedly amateurish covers tell me that this series was not commercially distributed. Were these the only volumes or had it been published for years? When did it stop? Who was/is Nina David and why isn’t she as well-known as other TV historians such as Vincent Terrace? All of which would be interesting to know but none of which would change the enjoyment and practical use I’ve gotten out of this two dollar purchase!