Category: Television

Saturday Night Retro

The year was 1973, and you were there (unless of course you weren’t born yet). I was a 6-year-old kid living with my Mom and Dad in the Washington D.C. suburb of Bowie Maryland on Peach Walker Drive. In September I began attending Catholic school 5 days a week as a first-grader at Saint Matthias The Apostle in Lanham Maryland near my grandparents’ house.

I had two dogs at the time – Brandy – a German Shepherd – and Girlie – a miniature sheepdog. Brandy barked a lot and dug holes out in the backyard. I didn’t really like him very much. In fact I was scared of him. We wouldn’t have him for very long. Girlie lasted a few years longer. She was lovable and squeezeable with an adorable personality. She had a tiny bony tail.

On Saturday nights America stayed home and watched this amazing lineup of TV shows on CBS – “All in the Family” (8 PM), “M*A*S*H” (8:30 PM), “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” (9 PM), “The Bob Newhart Show” (9:30 PM), and “The Carol Burnett Show” (10 PM). It may just be the greatest primetime lineup on a single night – on a single network – in television history.

A few hours before that three-hour block of Emmy-award-winning laughs on Saturday nights this hot music and dance show was breaking new ground on the tube, and I was paying attention to it – even as a 6-year-old. It was seen locally at the time on WTTG Channel 5 out of Washington D.C. It lasted for an incredible 35 years in first-run syndication nationwide, but this was clearly its hey day.

Ladies and Gentlemen – I present to you for your ‘Saturday Night Retro’ review – some LOVE, PEACE, and SOUL ! GET DOWN & BOOGIE !

Did anyone spot their young parents (or even grandparents) in that vintage clip ?

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Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date September 30, 2008
2 Comments on Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

Now approaching its 1ST anniversary – it’s the flagship weekly blog series that needs no introduction:

1. Once Hurricane Ike blew by well to our south earlier in September the Atlantic and Caribbean tropical storm season began to wind down to nearly nothing. It’s pretty much done and over with now, but we still have to deal with the Gulf Of Mexico tropical storm season for another month or so. Instead of looking southeast for future storms that could possibly affect us look southwest. Remember Hurricane Wilma during the final week of October 2005 ?

2. Americans are generally gullible. Most of them will believe just about anything that the overwhelmingly left-wing media presents to them. All of the broadcast and cable television networks are rooting hard for the Obama / Biden ticket to win it all on Election Day. That’s why you see little to no negative coverage on either Democratic candidate even though they both have plenty of ‘junk in the trunk’.

3. If the McCain / Palin ticket loses on Election Day it’s because they couldn’t or wouldn’t stoop as low as the Democrats have done throughout the past decade to get their candidates into the White House. I have seen virtually no television commercials for John McCain. Barack Obama’s heavily-funded campaign has been saturating television advertising with their misleading and outright false commercials since before their convention this past Summer.

4. I’m looking forward to the return of ‘The Major’s Walk-A-Thon’ later this Fall. It’s where I walk around my neighbourhood bright and early on Saturday mornings. If you don’t know what I’m talking about then check this out for a recap.

5. Me and a friend saw “Lakeview Terrace” at the box office last Saturday night. I had high expectations for it, and it was even better than I expected it to be. I was rivetted to the flick from start to finish. It was by far the best movie that I’ve seen at the theatre in nearly 15 months ! It was so good that I plan to see it all over again via Netflix when it comes out on DVD.

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Saturday Night Retro

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date September 27, 2008

The year was 1995 and I was 28-years-old. I moved from a house in Naranja to my current home in Homestead. I’ve been here ever since then. Homestead was still a sleepy small town back then with mostly narrow two-lane roads. It was struggling to recover from the overwhelming destruction of Hurricane Andrew just 3 years earlier. U.S. gas prices remained rather steady (between $1.10 and $1.20 per gallon). The entire nation stayed home on Thursday nights to watch Friends, Seinfeld, and ER on NBC-TV. I enjoyed listening to ‘Bobby & Footy’ in the morning on Y-100. I only saw two movies at the box office during the entire year – “The Brady Bunch Movie” and “Tommy Boy”.

This song and video was all of the rage on television, on the radio, and at the clubs. It would go on to become a runaway International sensation – and one of the most successful singles in the entire history of the modern rock era. It spent a record-shattering 14 months on the Billboard HOT 100. It’s what I was doing every few months up in Orlando’s nightclub scene:

Tags 1995, Macarena

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Bedtime Stories

OK it’s time for the first edition of ‘Bedtime Stories’ in nearly 3 weeks. Ela keeps pleading for me to return it as a nightly feature, but I just don’t have that much material to support a nightly nightcap.

I’m writing this blog entry during the 8 PM EDT hour on this Friday night. Just before 9 PM I plan to put my computer to sleep so that I may jump on my living room couch and watch intently the first Presidential Debate between my guy and this guy.

After the debate I’ll be calling it a night, and hopefully I can sleep-in tomorrow morning. Saturday morning is the only morning of the week in which I can sleep-in, so I always try to do so but it rarely works out that way. I’d be happy just to be able to sleep-in past 7 AM !

Later tomorrow me and a friend will be meeting up at Southland Mall to see “Lakeview Terrace“. It sounds like the name of my neighbourhood. I have a running gag relating to the movies that I love to see. I adore screwball comedies – and horrifying bonechilling thrillers. (Nice wide spectrum there.) My brother says that I love to laugh hysterically at the movies, and I also love the teen-slasher flicks (think “Final Destination”, “I Know What You Did Last Summer”, “Jeepers Creepers”, etc.).

TOMORROW on the big blog I’ve got your ‘Saturday Night Retro’ where I’ll be taking you back to 1995. You’re not gonna wanna miss it my friends.

On Sunday morning I hope to be back at Life Pointe Church bright and early and germ-free. My 6TH cold in nearly 11 months peaked yesterday, and I am now on the road to recovery. All traces of this current cold should be out of my system by the time I go to work on Monday morning.

And so there’s your ‘Bedtime Stories’ for tonight. May you have a safe, peaceful, and relaxing night tonight. I’ll catch you back on here tomorrow for some more fun in the blogging sun. Until then – yep – you guessed it – REMEMBER THIS !