COVID part 2

 There once was a time called COVID

It came long after the poet Ovid

This limerick is so dumb

I should have kept mum

And should have instead gotten loaded.

Yeah, that was as dumb as the 3 years we had to deal with that "pandemic"...more on pan later.

During the uncertain summer of 2020, I did a ton of walking. It was truly an obsession at that point. Not exactly unhealthy, but I was working the hell out of my feet and legs. I would walk early in the morning before the high heat came. I would generally be back home by 8am. The rest of the day was sleeping, posting brags of my steps, and just a lot of utter time wasting. But that weight got down to the mid 180s by July and I was proud of myself. 

To this day, I am of the opinion that if I had not gone walking psycho and eating low carb, I would have died before I hit 50. 

One day I brought a colleague friend Candice's son's artwork home that had been left at school. In turn, she invited me and the fam to come swimming at her house sometime, so we took her up on it. Apart from that, we hung out with our friend Kimberly and her fam for a few game nights here and there. Not a lot of things to do since many places were closed in Vegas and elsewhere.

School was a bit delayed due to Nevada educational "experts" trying to figure out how to teach kids from home...or rather for some of us, teaching kids on the computer via Google Meet sitting alone in our classrooms. 

The first day was a big hiccup as Cox WiFi had no idea how the first day would be but it got straightened out. 

The next couple of months were really just an adjustment of figuring out synchronous time and asynchronous time. Lots of assignments graded on Google classroom. Math tests were an absolute joy,not! 

As we had begun a Friday coffee rotation when things were normal, Candice and I kept that up, only I would drive up to her house to either receive coffee or give it, and have a small how are ya chat. It was the one thing that helped to maintain a sense of normalcy.

It all went pretty much that way until mid November. Our 14th wedding anniversary in fact. COVID cases had risen so much that EVERYONE had to teach from home. So I rigged up a workstation at home. Coffee with Candice was put on hold for a few months.

My beloved stepdad Don passed away on January 1, 2021.

Before the workplace displacement, the 2020 election had taken place. Ok, time to get on some people's bad sides. Trump pretty much told us he would contest the results if he lost, the true meaning of foreshadowing. He lost. He raised hell as did his enablers.

Then came January 6, 2021. Hell rained upon Washington D.C. that day in a display I am still sickened by. People broke into the Capitol and wreaked havoc and damage. People werere injured and killed. 4 years later, many perpetrators were pardoned. They were not heroes.

Nobody ever found any solid evidence that the election was rigged, even Trump's hand-picked Supreme Court ruled against him. Yet, some members of Congress were ready to vote to overturn the results before that dreadful day, just because they were used to appeasing him.

All right all right, rant over. I think, looking back on it all was that we were in a strange time trying to cope with it as best as we could. If COVID had not weighed us down, I have no doubt that Trump would have won by a landslide. 

Oh one other thing...I did not want Joe Biden, either. His 4 years were no picnic for anyone as far as I could tell.

The COVID shots were becoming a requirement if you did not want to constantly tested. So I took the 2 parter in March.

In April, everyone was back full time to finish the year. It was great to meet my class in person. And the coffee exchange was back in action.

And through all of this, I walked...and also began some bike riding.

COVID part 1

I've been wanting to write about a very dark period in history, and I have been hesitating because, well, I have never been quite sure if it ever truly ended.

No, I am not talking about the dark era of Pauly Shore movies...and unless you look for them on a streaming platform, the era is dead.

Sadly, I refer to the COVID pandemic, and it seems that the pandemic ended officially in May of 2023. It had its roots in late 2019, but the real "fun" began in 2020. 

The effects linger. If you look around, there are still people who refuse to remove their masks in public. Health providers and pharmacies still try to push the latest COVID vaccine. Truthfully, I got the vaccine pair in early 2021 because my job security kind of relied on it. I know people are still getting the vaccine yearly just like they do the flu vaccine.

A question: are the vaccines a form of brainwashing the public into thinking the vaccine will save their lives? There is so much debate on this, actually there is debate on pretty much every vaccine that is out there. Here are some things I know.

I had the MMR shots when I was a baby. I never got measles, mumps, or rubella. Measles disappeard for a long while until recently when poeple stopped getting or giving their kids the measles vaccine, and now measles are on the rise again. The causality here seems clear, but there is also the question of, were there everlasting effects from those vaccines?

You know what I am getting at, right? The whole autism thing. Well, I have figured out over the past few years that I have some Asperger's upstairs that has been a major factor in terms of my thinking and social experiences in my life. I think my dad has a little as well, so I don't think the vaccines made me a lovable social outcast.

Until some solid research is done and causal data is found, there won't be an answer...and I do not think many people really want a factual answer because they want to stick to their beliefs...sometimes it is all they have to hold on to.

Vaccines were not the only celebrity panelists on The COVID Squares. There was also the disruption to education. That's the part that hit me and many teachers and students the hardest, because students stayed home for pretty much a whole year. I remember how it all began...lots of rumors and less than solid news reports about the COVID disease for two months.

Then one weekend in mid March 2020, Vickie and I were treated by a friend to floor tickets for the Billy Idol concert and it was a blast! I was belting iut the lyrics with everyone else and having the time of my life. The next day, Natalie informed me that school was canceled for the next 3 weeks, right up to Spring Break.It was the start to one of the weirdest times I can remember.

The first week was a lot of nothing, just a pause while the school district figured out what to do. I just sat at home with the family watching TV or doing jigsaw and crossword puzzles. The stores were populated with long lines of panicked folks buying bottled water and toilet paper. I assume they are down to their last 7 TP packs by now.

And then the district had us doing well checks on the kids while we tried to assign them things. I kept it light but a lot of kids weren't engaged in much anyway. Before long it was Spring Break and the district kept everyone home on the same program throughout mid-late May.

Mind you, before this whole debacle began, I had lost 20 pounds doing a low carb, high protein and fat regimen. Some of this home time brought it up a bit but not badly. When one is stuck at home waiting for whatever, the eating can become quite shitty, especially when we were grateful to have food on the grocery shelves.

As all the hotels and casinos had closed, we took a drive on the Las Vegas Strip one night in April. What used to be up to an hour of stop and go no matter what time of night took us a mere 16 minutes from Fremont Street to Russell Road.

One casino hotel that was a favorite of ours, Texas Station, would never oppen its doors again, and was demolished a few years ago for alternate development. Buffets and salad bar places like Sweet Tomatoes also shut down for good.

The casualties of war I guess.

In later May, it was decided that since the fifth grade could not have an official graduation, we (the school staff) would do a car parade with all the graduates driving by as we held up signs of congratulations. It was the first time many of us had seen each other in person in 2 months.

And then...nothing for a bit. At least as far as work went. I proceeded to begin my famous walking regimen that month, trying out different routes. Walking up into the Aliante area was my regular bit, going anywhere between 5 and 8 miles a few times a week while staying low carb and cooking healthy. By the time mid July hit, I had lost about 40 pounds. 

Meanwhile, everyone was mask obsessed. 

One day some of us gathered at school to gather items for the popcorn sales we had done prior to the shutdown. It was also an opportunity to get some belongings and papers some students had left behind. That would be about it until August...when the real fun would begin...

Star Blazers

We all remember as kids there was likely a cartoon or other kid show that drew us in regualrly.

Some loved The Flintstones or Jetsons. 

Many moved toward Scooby Doo.

Then there was the Warner world of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies with Bugs, Daffy, Elmer, Porky, and the rest of the crew.

There was also He Man, G.I. Joe, and later Ren & Stimpy, Rugrats, The Tick, Johnny Bravo, and of course Beavis and Butthead.

I wasn't much on the G.I. Joe or Rugrats, but the rest were fun to watch.

But there was one more. It was not widely run in America so many never heard of it. Luckily, Channel 29 in Philadelphia carried it for a few years. I think 1983 was its last hurrah. 

I discovered Star Blazers when over at my friend Jeremy's house one day in 1981. It was quite different in tone...of course later on I figured out it was Japanese in origin. The characters looked like a few of those on Speed Racer and Marine Boy, in fact, and of course Pokemon!

So what was different about Star Blazers from the other shows?

The biggest difference was serialized storytelling, with a sense of urgency. They made you want to tune in for the next episode tomorrow.

Here's the premise. In the year 2199, Earth was being ravaged by radioactive bombs sent from the distant planet of Gamilon. Earth had a strong defense space fleet, but the Gamilon fleet was too powerful and advanced. One day while on patrol, cadets Derek Wildstar and Mark Venture happen upon a crashed ship. Nearby lies the beautiful dead body of a woman with a message capsule form her sister Starsha of Iscandar. Starsha has the antidote called Cosmo DNA that will kill the radiation and restore Earth to its former life-sustaining self. She also includes plans for a special wave motion engine that will get a crew in a ship to Iscandar to get this Cosmo DNA and back to Earth in a year (when Earth is going to be completely void of life).

An old World War 2 Japanese vessel called the Yamato is discovered buried in a dried up ocean. Yamato is refurbished with all the bells and whistles, including the aforementioned engine. It also has a wave motion gun to be used when the other weapons are not effective enough. It can also do space warps. Dubbed The Argo, this ship becomes the symbol for heroism and develops a spirit of its own at times.

Earth Defense Fleet Captain Avatar (looking almost like a disgruntled mall Santa Claus if it weren't for his uniform) recruits Derek and Mark and a whole crew of characters called the Star Force to undergo the year's journey. 

Now, here is a little resemblance to Star Trek: we don't meet all the crew, much like we never meet a lot of the red shirts who die in the Federation world. However, there are notable characters aboard.

Nova-a pretty and able nurse who becomes Derek's sweetheart

Sandor- a cyborg who is a scientific genius and always a level head when needed (their Spock)

Eager- a Southern-accented radar man

Homer-communications (their Uhura)

IQ-9- a wisecracking robot who proves useful at times of crisis

Dr. Sane- a bald doctor who loves his "spring water" (in the Japanese version, he loves his sake) but also is sage and cheerful. (their Bones)

Conroy-pilot and leader of the Black Tiger fighter squadron

Orion- chief engineer (their Scotty)

Derek himself is bitter at the captain at first over the death of his brother Alex, but as the series goes, it seems Alex is not so dead. Derek matures and is chosen to be Avatar's deputy captain when Avatar himself is crippled by radiation sickness. Mark Venture is cool and level-headed and seems to be in doubt of his abilities at times but he, too, matures.

What also sets this series apart is a great instrumental soundtrack with definitive Japanese themes.

There are 2 "seasons" of the show. The first is the Iscandar mission. The original series was produced in 1974 and was quite more extreme in terms of violence and death. American producers diluted it quite a bit to be palatable for American kids.

The Japanese creators dediced to make a Yamato movie (never the Argo in Japan). In this story, a superior alien force led by Emperor Zwordar in the mega ship/fortress White Comet head toward Earth for conquest. The Yamato and its crew try to defeat it but Zwordar and his forces and technology are too much. Even when the White Comet is miraculously destroyed, another ship emerges from it and kills most of whatever life was left on Yamato except for Kodai (Derek Wildstar) who rams the new ship with help from a galactic spirit named Teresa, leaving everyone dead.

Not good for an American audience you say? Well, the producers agreed and they adapted the new 26 episode show that was adapted from the movie into a cleaner version. What was funny was that they pretended none of the Argo crew died with throwaway lines like, "Knox made it out behind you!" even though we don't see him in the final episode.

Personal favorite episode? When Desslok intercepts the Argo before they reach Earth to fighter Zordar (Zworder) and almost finishes them off, Derek warps the ship into Desslok's and he and the crew board it, making for a climactic showdown between him and Desslok. 

I recently found much of the original music and made a few tracks for my playlist. My family already knows I'm a nerd and accept it, jsut as long as I'm alone in the car when playing it.

There was a 3rd season that saw very little American airtime. I saw maybe one or two episodes but never had the time to delve into it. Also, the original American dub voice actors were not in that third series.

All that said, I can watch the original 52 episodes of the first 2 seasons over again. It is just great storytelling and character development.

The TV Syndicate: you want your shows sliced or diced?

A word or 2 on syndication.

Yes, I am a classic TV geek (as some have no doubt noticed about me), and one thing I have noticed is how old TV shows stay popular.

Face it, if shows ended their runs on the networks, they'd likely have been long forgotten. Syndication created a market for those old shows, but there was a catch: the main TV channels (of which most markets had maybe 3 on the old days) had their own show lineups. Sometimes a network would keep cashing in on shows they had already run with a new concept called reruns, airing late afternoon or even in the evenings.

Sometime in the 1960s, a new wave of channels came down the pike.

Anyone remember VHF and UHF?

VHF was the signal frequency band running from channels 2-13, while UHF held channels 14 through...get this...83! Trouble was, a lot of older TV sets (weighing about as much as a cement truck), had only a VHF dial in the old days...I think we had one of those sets until I was about 10...and they were grayscale.

Somewhere in the mid-60s, I'd say around 1965, a lot of these new UHF stations came along. Their purpose, it seemed, was to air old movies, old shows, locally produced programs, and some form of religious programming if they so desired.

Some of these channels existed earlier, but it was not until 1964 when the Feds mandated that all new TV sets had a UHF converter did they begin their rise.

The concept did not erupt right away in terms of popularity, at least not until those TV sets with the UHF band became more affordable. These newer serts were also color and not grayscale, although many of the older shows were still in that grayscale.

Sorry, I can't say black and white anymore...not a racial thing...just that those older shows had quite the spectrum from white to black with a ton of gray shades in between. Can you imagine a program reminding you it was time to feed the panda?

I do know that several stations I grew up with began broadcasting in 1965 AFTER that UHF converter law went into effect.

Now, where these stations hit it big was in the syndication market.

Take Star Trek, for example, probably the BEST example. It fared ok when it was on NBC from 1966-69 and built a small cult following, but not enough to maintain a tough production budget.

Almost immediately, it was sold to a fairly good-sized group of independent stations, many of them in that UHF band. The show had only 79 episodes, which meant that the cycle of repeats would restart after four months, maybe a bit less.

What made the difference was that the show was often rerun in late afternoon or early evenings after the kids were home from school and the adults were home from work...and it was 5 days a week, not once a week.

Do you see the magic and genius yet?

This show made Star Trek a household name. Not only that, it led to merchandising, a decent Saturday morning cartoon in the mid 70s, a highly successful movie franchise, and spinoff shows set in the same Federation/Klingon/Vulcan/Roumulan/Kardashian (oops, Cardassian) universe, STILL GOING TO THIS DAY, 60 YEARS LATER!

The magic of syndication did not stop with Shatner.

If you take the 1950s to 1960s alone, viewers were treated to Ozzie and Harriet, Lucy and Ricky, or just Lucy, Andy Griffith, My Three Sons, Gilligan's Island, Dobie Gillis, Patty Duke, Batman, Lost in Space, Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, Petticoat Junction, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The Wild Wild West, Superman...and that is just a small sampling!

Remember Lorraine's brother in Back to the Future in 1955 asking what a rerun is? By the early 1970s, reruns were all over the place!

The 1970s gave us a lot more, particularly The Brady Bunch. Some of these shows went into syndication with months or a year, others took a bit longer.

Oh wait, did I mention cartoons?

The kids market exploded with cartoons that had been merely old Saturday morning fare OR cartoons that had played in movie theatres before the main feature, like Tom and Jerry, and the Warner cartoon library, which was HUGE, Woody Woodpecker, the Hanna-Barbera world, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Underdog, and so on.

Japan you say? Congratulations, you are in luck! Japanese imports like Ultraman, Speed Racer, Johnny Sokko, and Space Giants got imported right into the syndicated world!

Now, here's an odd one: soap operas. Soaps were generally not rerun, particularly DAYTIME soaps, but there was an exception: Dark Shadows. This Gothic-themed serial filled with vampires, werewolves, time travel, and cheesy production values had gained a following, so it was released in 130-episode packages starting in 1975, with more added as it got more popular, ALTHOUGH the first 200 or so episodes (called the pre-Barnabas era) did not get airtime until The Sci Fi Channel introduced them.

As game shows gained popularity, their syndicated value grew where they languised on the datime circuit. The many Pyramid versions, Joker's Wild, Tic Tac Dough, and Hollywood Squares gained syndicated momentum.

Some programs were popular for decades while others were seminally (meaning not very) popular and were relegated to mornings or early afternoons.

And then there were some programs that last a season or two on networks. Solution? Air them on the summer blocks. Shows like Bosom Buddies, which I am sure Tom Hanks wants us to forget, had a 3 summer run on one of the local Philly stations.

On the other hand, some programs had such a long run that they were broken into different syndication packages.

Separate packages? Whatever do you mean, Bryan?

Take My Three Sons, for example. It lasted 12 years in prime time first-run airings (on 2 networks no less). One package was 1965-71, the other was 1960-65;1971-72. The 1965-71 run was the most popular package, I remember the grayscale/final season set was seldom aired until Nick at Nite aired it in the late 1980s for a healthy set of cycles. Hey, I didn't know Fred Mertz was on the show before I saw those.

Another multi-packaged show was Gunsmoke. No surprise as it was a 20-year program! The package most people saw was 1966-75, pretty much just the color hour longs. Rarely were the half hours with Dennis Weaver shown or the black and white hour longs from 1961-66. Cable outlets like Encore Westerns later showed those rarities fully.

If that weren't enough, there's also the Warner cartoon library. One package from 1948-69, the other was often referred to as "war era" (really the 1930s to 1947). The earlier package was generally a less politically correct set of shorts, often parodying contemporary pop culture and also stereotyping ethnic and racial groups. Many of those non-PC short films saw fewer if not zero airings as the 21st century dawned, maybe even early 1990s. The 1948-69 package was a generally kid friendly set. Whenever I see the 1967-69 set air on MeTV Toons, I groan because they're not all that funny and many famous cartoon voices had been replaced.

So, we still have syndication going now, right? Right? RIGHT?

No, mon frere, we have come a long way from that original syndication golden era. Technological progress killed it over time. As cable channels grew in number and popularity, many of those older shows moved to the cable world (though often cut for more ad time sadly), leaving room on the UHF "dial" for newer shows entering the syndication market. Only most TV's had no dials anymore, it was all remote control channel switching by the late 1980s.

And now in the 2020s, it is pretty much all streaming, even the local channels. Streaming outlets like Antenna TV, MeTV, Heroes&Icons, Decades, and other channels schedule those oldies and if you subscribe (often for free) to Pluto, Tubi, the Roku Channel, and others, you can watch these shows ON DEMAND!

As in, I DEMAND to see the Beav climb into that billboard soup cup in 1961 right now!

Believe it or not, it is often that simple. Not always free, though. As we have seen, there are media mergers and takeovers happening which could create a monopoly (send me to Reading Railroad) and charge whatever the hell they want.

And yet, TV is always evolving. My favorite old shows are on DVD in 2 bins in our house so I don't have to deal with shortened shows or pesky ads.

I feel fortunate to have grown up when I did, when I got 1 episode of Batman or Lost in Space per day. No binge-watching in the 1970s or 80s UNLESS you taped one show each day then watched on the weekend.

Oh, sorry, I must go...the FOSTER KITTEN "syndicate" is summoning me for an offer I can't refuse.

Super Canadian TV

 

All right, I know there's been absolute flack over Canada the last year or so and we all learned to hate Canadians, right? Right?!

No?

Oh, it was a Trump gag? Well then never mind.

Well, while I got you here, I might as well drone on about a favorite Canadian program that will last forever in our memories...HINTERLAND WHO'S WHO!

No, sorry, I was thinking of a series of short nature documentaries that lasted a bathroom break...though the show I am talking about did parody Hinterland Who's Who.

No, the show I refer to is SCTV, or rather Second City Television. 

It grew out of a group of improv performers who did acts at Second City theatres in Toronto and Chicago. They had quite a list of members who would go on to great movie fame and Saturday Night Live. Some members included Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, John Candy, Catherine O'Hara, and Martin Short, among others.

At some point in 1976, the group's Toronto leader Andrew Alexander was getting tired of his cast members departing for Saturday Night Live (even though SNL was still in its freshman year) and wanted to do something on TV, and yet not copy SNL. One perosn at the meeting suggested a show about the day in the life of a cheap struggling TV station.

It went from there, producing two scattered seasons in Toronto, going dark for a bit, then reigniting in Edmonton in 1980. SOmetime in 1981, SCTV moved to NBC to make 2 wildly successful years of 90-minute shows. It came up again on Cinemax after being canceled by NBC, but by then the remaining cast were burnt out.

I actually caught on to SCTV when it was put into a syndicated package of 30 minute shows. The first two seasons were already a half hour, but the two years of 90 minute shows were split into quite a few half hours. This series package was on our local PBS station at 11p.m. weeknights during the summer of 1985.

It was here that I watched the comic genius of John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis, Harold Ramis, Martin Short, and Dave Thomas. They put out a variety of skits spoofing TV shows, movies, and commercials.

Most people are familiar with the NBC run, but the station also aired the original Toronto-produced run as well as the first seaosn produced in Edmonton. The Toronto episodes have a bit of a starker feel with a definite lower-than-average set of production values. Yet, the performances are first rate.

My favorite from those early episodes is the Fantasy Island spoof. Eugene Levy's Ricardo Montalban is hilarious and Dave Thomas's Bob Hope impression nails him perfectly. The Harold Ramis episodes were not all that notable in themselves, though he played some funny characters like Officer Friendly and Mr. Green Fatigues and Moe Green the station manager.

The actor who always stood out no matter which episodes were aired was John Candy. He just made every scene come alive whether he was the focus of the scene or a suporting player. His Johnny LaRue evolved from a substance abusing (alcohol, smoking) reality show star to spoiled channel personality always going over budget.

The first season in Edmonton was without John Candy and when I was a kid I generally ignored most of those episodes, though later I came to appreciate them more, mostly for one performer: Rick Moranis. Even though he had not made his bones in the Second City theater, he was quite prolific with his characters and took them with him to NBC. 

A lot of people remember him mostly for his skits with Dave Thomas as the McKenzie brothers called The Great White North. This skit was transformed into a cult classic called Strange Brew in 1983 (one of my favorite DVDs). 

Incidentally, the Great White North came out of a rule that SCTV needed to have 2 minutes of purely Canadian content. Moranis and Thomas just created several 2 minute sketches just riffing about whatever they could think of, and the least worst were aired. They also made a comedy record that held some winners (I love their 12 Days of Christmas rendition!).

Back to Moranis, though, he could do anything! My personal favorite of his material was as manic director Larry Siegel in the spoof "Diff'Rent Folks". The little kid is trying to copy Gary Coleman's cuteness, but Siegel pulls him aside, yelling, "What the hell's wrong with you? You're not Coleman, you're not getting Coleman's salary!"

Dave Thomas was another gem. Besides his Bob Hope, he also did a great impression of Bones McCoy in a few episodes, and also of Richard Harris.

Joe Flaherty and Eugene Levy had their own portfolios of characters, particulary together as serious news casters Floyd Robertson (Flaherty) and incompetent Earl Camembert (Levy).

Andrea Martin was hilarious as the second station manager, leopard print-wearing Edith Prickley. She also did a mean cross-eyed Barbra Streisand.

Catherine O'Hara's tortured falling star Lola Heatherton was genius, and she also had her set of wild characters. I do beleive she was the youngest of the show's performers.

In the middle of NBC's run, O'Hara left as did Moranis and Thomas. Coming in just before their departure was Martin Short, very much a genius like Moranis with a warehouse of characters, most notably Ed Grimley. His Jerry Lewis was quite accurate.

Favorite episdoes:

Fantasy Island (1978)- a whole cast spoof

Zontar (1981)- SCTV is invaded by evil cabbages that when touched, hypnotize all the station workers into talking like zombies. The human liaison is Hank Bain, Conrad Bain's brother (played by Bonar Bain, Conrad's real borther). Even guest Natalie Cole is not spared from hypnotism. DeForest Kelley (Dave Thomas) works with station owner Guy Caballero (Joe Flaherty) to defeat Zontar's leader (John Candy).

CBC/Janitor Strike (1982)- an SCTV janitor strike for some reason disrupts regular show production, so they borrow programs from the CBC(Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), including the aforementioned Hinterland Who's Who. This episode was pretty special because Canadian performers were themselves making fun of  real 
Canadian programming. 

Sweeps Week (1983)- a strange TV presence called the Energy Ball takes human form to kidnap security guard Guy Gustaffson (Eugene Levy), Ed Grimley, and just itself to kidnap Gavin MacLeod (Flaherty) and a TV executive. The Energy Ball is apparently a frustrated response to all the crap aired during sweeps week on all networks to get high ratings.

In conclusion, I am a proud owner of all of the NBC episodes in season sets and a "best of early years" set. It was a genius show mostly because they focused on concepts and did not get topical. Ever watch an old Saturday Night Live from the 1970s? A lot of the jokes fall flat now because they aged badly. SCTV just stayed in its bubble and blew it up as big as they could before it burst.

I'm gonna take off, eh!

I'm Having the AI Time of My Life

 

I want to talk about AI for a moment or 2.

A lot of people are scared of it...hell, we're all scared of technological change a little bit. The problem is, we can't stay in the past for long, especially when the old tech breaks down and there are no replacements (VCRs for example).

Before my foreseen by the mall palm reader existence, my mom worked at Michigan Bell for a while during the time my dad was in the army and my sister was a toddler. Her job was a key punch, meaning she translated paper information into machine readable data by punching holes in cards. Sounds archaic, right? Well, that job was gone before the dawn of the 1980s.

A lot of people were scared of the Internet before they discovered it could provide useful and trivial information as well as free porn (a fact, people).

Music went from records to tape reels to cassettes to CDs to a variety of digital formats, the most popular being MP3s.

Movies went from theatre reels and eventually TV showings to videotape to laserdisc to DVD to Blu Ray and now 4k.

What I have found from taking some low cost AI overview courses is a couple of things.

One, if you ask a question based on current data and straight information, you will most likely get a good and factual answer.

Two, if you ask a question that involves readily available along with hard to find archival data, AI tends to make some things up.

That second one could actually be a safeguard to know it was AI generated. If too many people add too many facts, AI could develop into a dangerous world brain.

No....if anyone is going to be the dangerous world brain, it will be ME!

Sorry, delusions of grandeur....but it's down to just 30 times a day.

Anyway, I also discovered AI is good for creating things. All you need to do is give it the right parameters and adjust if something doesn't look or sound right. For example, the image at the top of this piece was created form me telling the AI system exactly what I wanted to see. I did that for my Batman posts as well.

As you can see, it is good for amusement.

I also ask for recipes uising certain ingredients that I will try making.

The key is checking to make sure the recipes are logistically correct.

What I am really looking for is a way to tap into AI to make my teaching just a little more creative and entertaining, as well as informative and engaging...rhyme intended.

Of course, I would NEVER EVER use AI to create lesson plans...or at least never be stupid enough to make the AI sourcing so obvious, my bosses are no dummies.

Seriously, I do have a work ethic, I just want to continue developing, and a little tech boost is never a bad thing if used responsibly.

In closing, don't be afraid of tech, be afraid of natural flavorings on a food ingredient label, nobody knows what that shit really is (it might be literal shit).

And knowing is half the battle!

Batcomputer in My Belfry Part 4

Sometimes things should end. Gracefully. With dignity. Just float away without ceremony.

Like the McLean Burger.

Disco

The Virtual Boy

Bell bottoms

The New Coke

Pauly Shore

Not so with Batman.

It started out so well, starting a national phenomenon with the spirit of the mid 1960s that could not be matched by anyone with maybe the exception of the Beatles.

You could only hear the Riddler's giggle, Joker's laugh, Penguin's cackle, and Catwoman's purr so many times! Add to that Robin's litany of "Holy---, Batman!, ad hoc Bat inventions, and so on. Add to that the 2-night commitment to watch both parts of the week's story.

And yet the show was not ready to die just yet. Well, maybe the show was, but the producers weren't.

In the spirit of, "Let's try this, Beavis", they huddled over what I can only assume was a buffet of cocktails to prop up the show more.

First move: cut the show to just Thursday.

Add in Batgirl.

Wait, we can afford her? Sure we can because Madge Blake is getting too ill to play Aunt Harriet.

And now Alfred will have yet another secret to hold, making his therapist richer.

The Batgirl concept was actully alluded to in the final week of season 2, where Commissioner Gordon mentions his daughter Barbara is coming home.

Yes, Barbara Gordon apparently was infatuated with Batman enough to want to be like him. In the episodes, Batgirl and Robin had some cute moments, as did Barbars Gordon and Bruce Wayne. There seemed to be a romantic air between them when they were alone.

They came up with a Batgirl theme, even played with lyrics a couple of times.

However, the formula now seemed even more broken because if there was a 2-part story, the viewer had to wait a week. However, most stories were a 1 episode package.

Julie Newmar was off doing other projects, so Catwoman was recast with singer Eartha Kitt. Whatever flirtatious sexual byplay was going on between Catwoman and Batman was completely gone. Hey, Batgirl was there, so who needs Catwoman?

Frank Gorshin made one appearance as the Riddler, an ok episode, and the scene of him and Batman in the boxing ring was pretty funny.

Cesar Romero and Burgess Meredith stayed faithful and each made four episodes. The Joker and Batman on a surfboard episode was probably that season's best, and yes it was pretty funny. The Penguin started the season by kidnapping Barbara Gordon and trying to force her to marry him...and then we find out she's Batgirl. Penguin's pairing with Lola Lasagne (Ethel Merman) was fairly dumb and did not need to be a 2 parter.

Cliff Robertson as Shame came back for a two parter that was not too bad, actually better than his season two story.

Vincent Price as Egghead came back but was always paired with Anne Baxter who was now playing Olga, Queen of the Cossacks, completely a campy character and she looked like she had a lot more fun here than as Zelda. They gave a one parter and a two parter.

Victor Buono came back for two 1 parters as King Tut. He was fun but definitely played for the silliness now. It fit the season so well anyway with its faster pacing.

Of course, we were introduced to a few new villains along the way.

Milton Berle made two 1 parters as Louie the Lilac, a flower-obsessed gangster type. Silly, made for kids. As an adult I find these two episodes pretty dumb. Then again, I never found Uncle Miltie that funny but it might be a Gen X thing.

Joan Collins, long before Dynasty, made an appearance as the Siren, whose high-pitched tone made men obey her...though females like Batgirl were immune. A 1 episode story, very silly, and forgettable.

There was a 3-parter in this season as well, and for the life of me I cannot piece together why aside from a lack of good ideas. The villains were singer Rudy Vallee as Lord Marmaduke Ffogg and Glynis Johns as Lady Penelope Peasoup. The concept was that the Euopean city of Londinium had a string of robberies that their incompetent police commissioner could not solve, so EVERYONE TAKES A CRUISE TO LONDINIUM, AND I MEAN EVERYONE INCLUDING GORDON AND O'HARA! Ludicrous right? Add to that a special Batcave being built for Batman when he arrived. And this travesty went for 3 weeks!

Next we have a curveball on women's liberation. Feminist icon Nora Clavicle (played by Barbara Rush) effectively gets rid of  (fires) Commissioner Gordon and installs women in key postions and herself as police commissioner. Of course, this plot is entirely criminal: takes out a ten million dollar insrance policy on the city and plans to destroy the city with mechanical mouse bombs. The Dynamic Trio play Pied Pipers and flute the mice to the waterfront to explode in the river.

Now, this next one is actually up there with Joker's surfing gag. Ida Lupino and her husband Howard Duff star as Dr. Cassandra Spellcraft and Cabala, respectively. Cassandra is an alchemist who has a pill to make anyone including herself and Cabala, invisible. When they do a count down, they do it rhythmically and Cabala snaps to the rhythm, making them fairly endearing. They also flatten the Dynamic Trio into 2 dimensional carbooard cutouts and then break, get this, Riddler, Joker, Penguin, Catwoman, Egghead, and King Tut (stunt doubles, not their usual players) out of jail. In the final fight, the trio are pummeled by the invisible villains but then turn out the lights to make the odds a bit more even.

Finally we have a weak story, very much like the Siren episode. Zsa Zsa Gabor as Minerva, a spa owner who has a machine (disguised as a special massage) that gets rich men's rich secrets out of their heads, making Minerva rich. Guest starring as a henchman here is William Smith as Adonis...before he became a high profile performer in TV and movies, usually as a tough villain.

And that wraps this strange season up. Now, it was not all bad as I've indicated. The fight scene onomatopoeia was brighter and flashier this season, and each story end revealed who the villain would be in the next story. After this season, ABC canceled the series, but NBC expressed interest in taking over. However, the Batcave set had already ben demolished, so NBC said, screw it!

I do own the entire series on DVD, for the entirety has its sense of fun and nostalgia, even season 3. When it aired on the local indie in Philadelphia every summer, it would play two sequential stories Monday through Thursday and a 1-episode Batgirl story on Friday. 

When the series began airing on cable (The Family Channel for a couple of years and then FX), there were notable episode cuts to make for ad time. MeTV restored full episodes later on. 

Whether it's one of my favorite stories or not so favorite, I will always enjoy a Batman episode, just part of my life!