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| All men bowed to Lola Albright ... |
Inside Television 523
Publication Date: 10-22-10
By: Hubert O’Hearn
At long last, if an existence of two years can even be termed long last, I am starting to understand Twitter. I ignored it until around August, as I could not get my head wrapped around why anyone would want to spend time sending teeny tiny messages to the world. And if it was going to be like Facebook, where people breathlessly inform me every time they brush their hair or teeth, why on earth should I waste even more time.
But in the personal style which has made my card opponents quite happy over the years, I had guessed wrong. Twitter is more a gigantic cocktail party where you can join in the conversation with the Cool Crowd. It is a phenomenally efficient marketing tool, much more effective than Facebook in attracting Web traffic, and now it is supplying grist for the column mill.
So I follow Keith Olbermann, the MSNBC Anchor as well as the finest sports news anchor in history. You really haven’t lived as a baseball fan until you watch a game with your Twitter open (my that sounds rude) and follow along with Keith’s commentary. Keith made a reference to the Fox Sports music, as follows:
“15 years of this Fox music at the end of innings, in NFL broadcasts, and every time I think: "Why are they playing 'Sleigh Ride'?"
And later as explanation: “used to hear it in the studio when I did MLB on Fox and we'd all start humming Christmas music. In July. In L.A.”
Well, needless to say I laughed a Man’s Laugh at that one. For it’s true, that blaring trumpet anthem just seems made to be followed by jingling little bells and maybe some high-stepping reindeer can-canning their way across the bottom of the screen.
All of this made me think about TV theme songs and about how they don’t play ‘em like they used to. That said, those who follow those column on-line are going to have way more fun that newspaper readers, as on-line you can right click the links and YouTube your way to a hap-hap-happy day. Then again, newspaper readers might have one of those Apple thingies that you paid $1200 for new, which you can re-sell for $300 next year. Anyway, let’s tune up the Nostalgia Band.
Back in the day, TV didn’t mind wandering off into genres that weren’t all mock-funk synth pop. (And by the way if you can say ‘mock-funk synth pop’ five times in a row ... you will sound extremely silly and people will avoid you in the future.) And not just dramas, sports and comedy shows either. For fourteen years NBC’s Huntley-Brinkley Report closed their newscast five times a week with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony 2nd Movement. And by the way, if you look up the clip, notice the level of erudition and intelligence that Chet Huntley and David Brinkley possessed. Were one or both to appear on Fox News today (or heck, throw in CNN) they would sound like Aristotle dropping in on Mrs. Whimsy’s pre-kindergarten play period.
Jazz used to be quite well-represented, I think most memorably by Henry Mancini’s theme for the hard-boiled noir detective series Peter Gunn. That repeating bass line and hot brass certainly told you there was excitement ahead - plus the show’s principal set was a jazz blues bar - Mother’s - whose singer was Lola Albright. Lola Albright’s curvaceous figure and sultry sultriness taught many a young boy important lessons; the meaning of curvaceous for one.
I don’t want to go too far with this, because we could spend all day going, ‘Remember when?’ But just a few more to illustrate the point. I do miss the campfire quality TV theme, your Beverly Hillbillies or Gilligan’s Island. And who among us has not bravely taken the Eva Gabor part in a beer hall version of Green Acres? (No, me neither. ahem.)
For curiousity’s sake, send me your favourites in the comment box below. Or if there is any other topic you would like me to look at, let me know. As Dean Martin used to say, ‘Jeannie and I looove getting letters.’ Until of course the letters were from divorce attorneys, but that’s a story for another day. Be seeing you.
Publication Date: 10-22-10
By: Hubert O’Hearn
At long last, if an existence of two years can even be termed long last, I am starting to understand Twitter. I ignored it until around August, as I could not get my head wrapped around why anyone would want to spend time sending teeny tiny messages to the world. And if it was going to be like Facebook, where people breathlessly inform me every time they brush their hair or teeth, why on earth should I waste even more time.
But in the personal style which has made my card opponents quite happy over the years, I had guessed wrong. Twitter is more a gigantic cocktail party where you can join in the conversation with the Cool Crowd. It is a phenomenally efficient marketing tool, much more effective than Facebook in attracting Web traffic, and now it is supplying grist for the column mill.
So I follow Keith Olbermann, the MSNBC Anchor as well as the finest sports news anchor in history. You really haven’t lived as a baseball fan until you watch a game with your Twitter open (my that sounds rude) and follow along with Keith’s commentary. Keith made a reference to the Fox Sports music, as follows:
“15 years of this Fox music at the end of innings, in NFL broadcasts, and every time I think: "Why are they playing 'Sleigh Ride'?"
And later as explanation: “used to hear it in the studio when I did MLB on Fox and we'd all start humming Christmas music. In July. In L.A.”
Well, needless to say I laughed a Man’s Laugh at that one. For it’s true, that blaring trumpet anthem just seems made to be followed by jingling little bells and maybe some high-stepping reindeer can-canning their way across the bottom of the screen.
All of this made me think about TV theme songs and about how they don’t play ‘em like they used to. That said, those who follow those column on-line are going to have way more fun that newspaper readers, as on-line you can right click the links and YouTube your way to a hap-hap-happy day. Then again, newspaper readers might have one of those Apple thingies that you paid $1200 for new, which you can re-sell for $300 next year. Anyway, let’s tune up the Nostalgia Band.
Back in the day, TV didn’t mind wandering off into genres that weren’t all mock-funk synth pop. (And by the way if you can say ‘mock-funk synth pop’ five times in a row ... you will sound extremely silly and people will avoid you in the future.) And not just dramas, sports and comedy shows either. For fourteen years NBC’s Huntley-Brinkley Report closed their newscast five times a week with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony 2nd Movement. And by the way, if you look up the clip, notice the level of erudition and intelligence that Chet Huntley and David Brinkley possessed. Were one or both to appear on Fox News today (or heck, throw in CNN) they would sound like Aristotle dropping in on Mrs. Whimsy’s pre-kindergarten play period.
Jazz used to be quite well-represented, I think most memorably by Henry Mancini’s theme for the hard-boiled noir detective series Peter Gunn. That repeating bass line and hot brass certainly told you there was excitement ahead - plus the show’s principal set was a jazz blues bar - Mother’s - whose singer was Lola Albright. Lola Albright’s curvaceous figure and sultry sultriness taught many a young boy important lessons; the meaning of curvaceous for one.
I don’t want to go too far with this, because we could spend all day going, ‘Remember when?’ But just a few more to illustrate the point. I do miss the campfire quality TV theme, your Beverly Hillbillies or Gilligan’s Island. And who among us has not bravely taken the Eva Gabor part in a beer hall version of Green Acres? (No, me neither. ahem.)
For curiousity’s sake, send me your favourites in the comment box below. Or if there is any other topic you would like me to look at, let me know. As Dean Martin used to say, ‘Jeannie and I looove getting letters.’ Until of course the letters were from divorce attorneys, but that’s a story for another day. Be seeing you.
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