Classic Clips Online

Here’s what you can expect weekly at www.theboomermagazine.com

September 07: Current Week - click cameras above or links below to view videos

1986

• LIFE WITH LUCY
  Lucille Ball hadn’t had a series in 12 years when two of her writers, Madelyn Davis and Bob Carroll Jr., suggested she portray an energetic grandmother. Lucy was game, but her final sitcom bombed. Less than three years later, “The Queen of TV Comedy” was dead.
• ALF
  ALF — an “Alien Life Form” — was a furry little creature from space who
  crash-landed into the Tanner family’s garage. Here are a few typical
  moments
• DESIGNING WOMEN
  This sitcom about four outspoken interior decorators featured Delta Burke,
  Dixie Carter, Jean Smart and Annie Potts. This clip is from the “Miss
  Trial” episode.

August 31: Click links below to view videos

1985

• THE GOLDEN GIRLS
  Thank You for Being a Friend was a 1978 hit for Andrew Gold and the theme
  song of this series, which featured four women over 50. Here’s the start of
  the “Fiddler on the Ropes” episode.
• ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS
  Legendary film director Alfred Hitchcock brought his spooky tales of
  suspense to TV (1955-65) and to theaters. The 1985 revival of his series
  recycled Hitch’s vintage episode intros, freshly colorized.
• THE TWILIGHT ZONE
  Sadly, the creator of The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling, died a decade before
  his classic 1959-64 science fiction series concept was revived in 1985.
  Here’s how the later edition opened.

August 24: Current Week - click cameras above or links below to view videos

1983

• MAMA’S FAMILY
  Vicki Lawrence joined The Carol Burnett Show because she looked like
  Burnett. Lawrence played Burnett’s elderly “Mama” so well Mama’s Family
  became a separate series in 1983 — the year Lawrence turned 34.
• THE A-TEAM
  The A-Team was a weekly high-octane demolition derby — one that made a
  star out of the man with the Mohawk haircut, Mr. T (Laurence Tureaud).
• WEBSTER
  Forty-inch-tall Emmanuel Lewis played the title role in this sitcom, in
  which a young black child is adopted by his white godparents.

1984

• MIAMI VICE
  Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas starred and Jan Hammer had the hit
  theme song. And yes, the girl in the yellow bikini in this clip is wearing
  a top.
• HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN
  Former Bonanza star Michael Landon played a probationary angel who helped
  people living on Earth. Here’s how the “Song of the Wild West” episode
  opened.

August 17: Click links below to view videos

1982

• RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT
  Jack Palance had the time of his life hosting the best TV version of Ripley’s Believe It or Not. Here’s how ABC promoted the show.
• CAGNEY & LACEY
  All three networks originally rejected this show before it became a hit TV movie —which green-lighted the series in 1982. Mary Beth Lacey (Tyne Daly) is taken hostage in this episode.
• NEWHART
  Bob Newhart portrayed Dick Loudon, owner of a New England inn, in this sitcom that ended in 1990 with a truly surprising finale. Here it is — to the delight of fans of his previous series, in which Newhart played psychologist Bob Hartley.

August 10: Click links below to view videos

1980

• MAGNUM, P.I.
  The theme song from Magnum, P.I., became a hit for Mike Post in 1982.
• TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT
  This sitcom ran until Ted Knight’s death in 1986 (although it continued a short while in syndication). Here’s the opening of the pilot.
  

1981

• HILL STREET BLUES
  Aside from Magnum, P.I., Mike Post also had hits with themes from The Rockford Files and this series. Here’s a Hill Street Blues opening scene.
• THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO
  A teacher became a superhero, and Joey Scarbury’s theme became a million-seller.
• DYNASTY
  Onetime Bachelor Father star John Forsythe headed the cast of Dynasty.

July 20: Click links below to view videos

1979

• Wayne Rogers’ sitcom House Calls was based on the 1978 movie starring Walter Matthau.
• The theme song of Angie, Different Worlds, became a Top 20 hit for Maureen McGovern.
  

July 13: Click links below to view videos

1978

• Mork & Mindy (1978-82) took space aliens to ridiculous new heights – and
  made Robin Williams a star.
• Howard Hesseman and Loni Anderson were regulars on WKRP in Cincinnati.
• A classic Taxi clip with Christopher Lloyd.

July 6: Click links below to view videos

1977

• Allan Jones had a Top 10 hit with The Donkey Serenade in 1938. He
  reprised it almost 40 years later with his son Jack on The Love Boat.
• Only once in TV history did a comic character spin off a sitcom into a
  hard-hitting drama. That was Lou Grant, as played by Ed Asner

June 29: Click links below to view videos

1976

• On The Muppet Show, Steve Martin reprised a balloon animal act he performed at Disneyland before he was famous.
• Laverne and Shirley, whose show was spun off from Happy Days, were 1950s bottle cappers in a Milwaukee brewery.

June 22: Click links below to view videos

1975

• Gabriel Kaplan’s Brooklyn classroom of “Sweathogs” on Welcome Back, Kotter included John Travolta.
• David Soul, a plainclothes cop on Starsky & Hutch, scored a No. 1 hit in
  1977 with Don’t Give Up on Us.
• One Day at a Time featured Bonnie Franklin, Valerie Bertinelli (future
  wife of Eddie Van Halen) and Mackenzie Phillips (daughter of Mamas & Papas
  founder John Phillips).

June 15:Click links below to view videos

1974

• Fonzie was introduced in the first episode of Happy Days and became the
  most popular character.
• Rhoda starred Valerie Harper and Julie Kavner. Kavner today is the voice
  of Marge on The Simpsons.
• From the first Christmas episode of Little House on the Prairie,
  starring Michael Landon.

June 9: Click links below to view videos

1972

• The opening of The Waltons.
• Just as Maude was spun off from All in the Family, Good Times was spun
  off from the character shown in this clip of Maude.
• The opening of Sanford and Son.

1973

• The opening of Barnaby Jones.
• The “Birthday Party” episode of Kojak.
• The Six Million Dollar Man was a badly injured astronaut rebuilt into
  the first bionic man.
  

June 2:Click links below to view videos

1970

• The Partridge Family reached No.1 with "I Think I Love You"
• Flip Wilson as the ever-outrageous Geraldine Jones.
• Sonny Curtis, former member of Buddy Holly's band The Crickets, wrote ad sang the Mary Tyler Moore Show theme song.

1971

• Opening of the first All in the Family
• Peter Falk as Columbo.
• Future President Ronald Reagan was a guest on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour.

May 26: - Click links below to view videos

1969

• The Brady Bunch not only lasted five seasons but also spawned five sequels — including a TV movie, a variety series and a Saturday morning cartoon.
• The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour opened with Glen singing his theme song, Gentle on My Mind. Here he sings with the song’s composer, John Hartford.
• An installment of the comedy anthology series Love American Style.

May 19: Click links below to view videos

1968

• A few typical closing jokes on Laugh-In, a fast-moving mix of sight gags, one-liners, loopy dialogue and unusual guest appearances (including President Nixon).
• Hawaii Five-O, TV’s longest-running crime series, was shot entirely on location. Does the last shot in this clip remind you of the Naked Gun movies?
• The Mod Squad was composed of three young criminals who chose to become undercover agents for the L.A. police department over spending time in prison.
• The Christmas ’68 episode of Here Come the Brides
• After the 1968 death of her husband, Doris Day discovered that he had left her deeply in debt. To recover, Doris agreed to undertake a TV series. After it ended in 1973, she retired.

May 12: Click links below to view videos

1967

• Tom and Dick Smothers were harmless comic folk singers when their Comedy Hour debuted. Soon after, though, they turned political, upsetting their sponsors, viewers and CBS.
• Dragnet began on radio in 1949, became a TV icon from 1951 to 1959 and then successfully returned to TV in 1967. Here’s Jack Webb’s famous “One Fatal Second” speech.
• Emmy and Oscar winner Sally Field starred in four TV series in the ’60s and ’70s: Gidget (1965-66), The Flying Nun (1967-70), Alias Smith and Jones (1971-72) and The Girl With Something Extra (1973-74).
• Mike Connors, who’d played a private eye before (on Tightrope in 1959 and 1960), returned as another (Joe Mannix) on one of the most violent crime shows of its time.
• Rugged, intense Roy Thinnes starred as David Vincent, the man who knew there were space aliens among us, on The Invaders (1967-68). Here’s how a typical episode opened.

May 5: Click links below to view videos

1966

• Diana Rigg gave The Avengers a cool sexual tension, which vanished after Linda Thorson replaced her in 1968. Here are title sequences featuring both with dapper Patrick Macnee.
• The Monkees sold eight million albums in less than three months. Neil Diamond wrote the biggest of their 21 hits, I’m a Believer, the largest-selling single of 1967.
• Adam West was wonderfully wooden as TV’s campy Batman. Neal Hefti’s title theme became a hit single for him in 1966, while Jan & Dean scored with a parody.
• Lalo Schifrin had a hit in 1968 with his theme from Mission: Impossible. Here, clips from six episode title sequences have been edited together over that music.

Apr. 24: Click cameras above or links below to view videos

1965

• Don Adams developed what became Maxwell Smart while playing a house detective on The Bill Dana Show. Barbara Feldon (Agent 99) was a former winner on The $64,000 Question.
• Bing Crosby’s company produced Hogan’s Heroes, which made a star of former DJ Bob Crane and featured Robert Clary, who had been a child prisoner in a real Nazi concentration camp.
• Dick Van Dyke’s brother, Jerry, starred in My Mother the Car. Paul Hampton’s theme song was so catchy that Sammy Davis Jr. sang a live version on one of his albums.
• Green Acres was conceived as the reverse of The Beverly Hillbillies — in this case, city folks coping with country life. The show shared its setting and cast with Petticoat Junction.
• Barbara Eden’s bellybutton was considered too sexy to show during the network run of I Dream of Jeannie. Fans didn’t get to see it until the cast reunited for a 1985 TV movie.

Apr. 21: Click cameras above or links below to view videos

1964

• A little background on Gilligan’s Island resident Mary Ann, played by a former Miss Nevada, Dawn Wells. She drew far more fan mail than the series’ “movie star,” Tina Louise.
• Charles Addams’ creepy cartoons in The New Yorker inspired The Addams Family, which featured John Astin, Carolyn Jones and former silent screen child actor Jackie Coogan.
• The Honeycombs turned up on Shindig to sing their 1964 British Invasion hit Have I The Right. Check out Honey Lantree on drums.
• After more than 250 appearances on live TV, Elizabeth Montgomery (the daughter of movie star Robert Montgomery) made the most of her only TV series, Bewitched.

Apr. 14: Click links below to view videos

1962

• I’m Dickens, He’s Fenster was a Leonard Stern creation before he teamed with Mel Brooks to develop Get Smart.
• How the story of The Beverly Hillbillies actually began.
• Busby Berkeley could have choreographed the openings of Jackie Gleason’s American Scene Magazine. Instead, it was June Taylor, who won an Emmy for her efforts.

1963

• Although best known as the host of Let’s Make a Deal for 28 years, Monty Hall also emceed quiz shows (such as Keep Talking) and introduced westerns on Cowboy Theatre.

Apr. 07: Click links below to view videos

1960

• You’ll never guess what the first sponsor of The Flintstones was.
  
• There was life after I Love Lucy for William Frawley. One-third of the way through My Three Sons’ network run, though, he died. He was replaced by William Demarest.
  
• Video Village featured Monty Hall (later of Let’s Make a Deal) and TV’s first life-size game board.
  
• After Andy Griffith left his show in 1968, the series continued for three more years as Mayberry R.F.D.

1961

• Remember the opening of each Ben Casey episode?
• The second comic masterwork of Nat Hiken, the creator-writer of Bilko, was Car 54, Where Are You? Series star Fred Gwynne went on to play Herman Munster.
• A brief clip from The Bullwinkle Show features the pun ending of one segment and Rocky, Bullwinkle and Boris Badenov in another.

Mar. 26: Sorry, Videos not available

• The very first episode of "Dobie Gillis" featured "Dennis the Menace"'s father (Herb Anderson) as the teacher and 16-year-old Tuesday Weld as Thalia Menninger. Off camera, Dwayne Hickman tried to date Tuesday without luck. He later wrote that she was perfectly cast "as Tuesday personified Thalia in real life."
• Jack Benny went Christmas shopping in the same store with most of his regular cast. This is actually from 1960, but you get the idea.

Mar. 19: Sorry, Videos not available

• Here's Edd "Kookie" Byrnes (the prototype of "Happy Days'" Fonzie) with Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. on "77 Sunset Strip."

Mar. 12: Click link below to view videos

• Three-time Oscar winner Walter Brennan not only starred in "The Real McCoys" but scored a hit record in 1962 with "Old Rivers."

Mar. 5: Click link below to view videos

• How about Nat "King" Cole with the 11 year old Billy Preston - 16 years before Billy topped the charts with "Will It Go Round In Circles?"

Feb. 26: Click link below to view videos

• Watch lovable con man Bilko on "The Phil Silvers Show" with future "Car 54" stars Joe E. Ross and Beatrice Pons.

Feb 19: Click link below to view videos

• And here's the opening titles of "Lassie," featuring June Lockhart before SHE became "Lost In Space."

Feb. 12:Click link below to view videos

• Here's Make Room For Daddy's Rusty Hamer and Angela Cartwright (long before she wound up "Lost In Space").

Feb. 5: Click link below to view videos

• Abbott & Costello built their career on classic vaudeville routines which they polished often with the help of Sid Fields (who played their landlord and many other parts on their TV series). Here's Sid in jail.

JAN. 22: Click links below to view videos

• Perry Como and The Fontane Sisters had a hit (and a bit of TV fun) in 1949 with “I Wanna Go Home With You.” 
• Lights Out was pretty scary for 12 years on radio and three on TV. Frank Gallop was the creepy host.

JAN. 15: Click links below to view videos

• The first episode of Crusader Rabbit from 1949. Creator Jay Ward later reshaped Crusader and his sidekick, Ragland T. Tiger, into Rocky and Bullwinkle.  
• Vaudevillian Ed Wynn helped honey-voiced Dinah Shore make her TV debut. 

JAN. 8: Click links below to view videos

• Hi-yo, Silver! Here’s episode 1 of The Lone Ranger starring Clayton Moore.
• Remember when Ed Norton dressed up as Captain Video on The Honeymooners? Here’s the real Captain Video — a sort of Star Trek on a shoestring budget. 

JAN. 1: Click links below to view videos

• Comic Kenny Delmar, who’d played blustery Senator Claghorn on The Jack Benny Show, starred in The School House with Arnold Stang. 
• The 1949 version of The Life of Riley with Jackie Gleason. Despite winning an Emmy, it lasted only one season with Gleason.
  

DEC. 25: Click links below to view videos

• The classic thriller Suspense stirred controversy when a character in one episode appeared to be drinking blood. This one, though, features Boris Karloff. 
• Mike Stokey’s Pantomime Quiz won the first Emmy given out for Most Popular Television Program in 1948.
  

DEC. 18:Click links below to view videos

• Milton Berle with Arnold Stang and Berle’s singer-dancers.
• Arthur Godfrey moved from radio to TV in 1948 to host Talent Scouts, the series that introduced Pat Boone, The McGuire Sisters and other budding stars.
• Morey Amsterdam, “The Human Joke Machine,” hosted his own series set in the Golden Goose Café.

DEC. 11: Click links below to view videos

• Juvenile Jury featured Jack Barry, who’d go on to create game shows such as Tic Tac Dough, Twenty-One and The Joker’s Wild.  
• How a typical episode of Howdy Doody (originally known as Puppet Playhouse) began.
• The Chicago-based Kukla, Fran and Ollie featured Fran Allison and puppeteer Burr Tillstrom. (“Kukla” is Russian for “doll.”)

DEC. 4: Click links below to view videos

• The advent of kineoscopes. - 1949
• How RCA explained television in 1939.
• In 1941, a short film called Magic in the Air showcased advances.
  
• Jon Gnagy started teaching people to draw in 1946 on You Are an Artist.