Category Archives: TeeVee

Watergate ► The End of the End

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Dateline August 8, 1974 – President Richard Milhous Nixon tenders his resignation, effective noon the following day, and becomes the first — and so far only — President of the United States to resign in disgrace. This was the culmination of events that began on June 17, 1972 when police arrested 5 men for Breaking & Entering into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel. At the time White House Press Secretary Ron Zeigler dismissed it as a “third rate burglary.” While it might have been “third rate,” it was the third rate burglary that brought down a president. The story didn’t get much traction until August 1st, when Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein wrote their first story for the Washington Post. From that moment on the drip, drip, drip of stories in the Post and other newspapers isolated President Nixon. Once it was proven that Nixon participated in the Watergate cover-up, it was all over for his presidency.

There are so many ironies in this story, but here are just three:

President Nixon posing with the
“expletive deleted” transcripts.

► The “Smoking Gun” tape of March 21, 1973 that proved Nixon was up to his ears in the cover-up, was made by a secret automatic recording system that Nixon had installed to preserve his historical legacy. Once the existence of the recordings were made known, Nixon could have had them destroyed; they had yet to be subpoenaed and therefore were not yet evidence. Once they were subpoenaed Nixon tried to tough it out, first claiming Executive Privilege, and then trying to get away with just releasing poorly edited transcripts of the Oval Office conversations. That’s when the words “expletive deleted” became a national punchline.

► Nixon’s resignation letter (above left) was addressed “Dear Mr. Secretary,” which was Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. However, it was Kissinger’s apoplectic reaction to earlier leaks, such as the New York Times printing the Pentagon Papers, that led to the creation of the infamous “Plumbers Unit” created to stop the “leaks.”

► Nixon’s presidency was brought down by Frank Wills, a minimum wage Security Guard at the Watergate Hotel Complex. Wills discovered duct tape on a door in the building while making his rounds, so he removed it. One of the “third rate” burglars saw the tape had been removed and, instead of it alerting them to the fact that the jig was up, replaced the tape. On his next round Wills noticed the tape was back and called police, who arrested the “third rate” burglars in the middle of their “third rate” act. Harry Nilsson dedicated “A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night” to Frank Wills and included a small picture of Mr. Wills on his lapel in the cover photograph. [The other picture is Harry’s son Zak, who I am proud to call a friend.] Frank Wills was also memorialized in the song “The Ballad of Frank Wills” by folk artist Ron Turner.

Further Reading on The Aunty Em Ericann Blog:

Watergate ► The Beginning of the End
Aunty Em Ericann’s Bun Fight With James Rosen of Fox “News”

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I’ll Take Game Shows Hosts For 200

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Who began his career on a televised sock hop in Canada in 1963?

Need another clue?

It was called Music Hop.

Another clue? Are you brain dead? Okay. he hosted the following exciting CBC competition show:

What about if we give him a mustache?

Happy 72nd Birthday, Alex Trebek. You’re a Canadian institution, on tee vee since 1963, longer than most.



And, a prank played on Alex Trebek:


Perry Mason and Me ► The Case of the Growing Child

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Erle Stanley Gardiner (L) with Luther S. Cressman,
“father of Oregon archaeology” in 1966

Perry Mason transformed me from a child into a young adult. Let me explain. A Perry Mason novel was the first adult book I ever read. I was about 10 years old and found it while rummaging around the basement among Pops’ books. I was attracted to the pulp paperback by its lurid cover, but I already knew the name Perry Mason. I read it quickly — all the Mason books are quick reads — and loved it!!! I could identify with it in a way I could not other books because Perry Mason was a character on my tee vee!!! I soon found another Mason. Then another one. After 3 books I was hooked. I became a lifelong fan of author Erle Stanley Gardner, who would have celebrated his 123rd birthday today, had he not had the misfortune of dying in 1970.

After
exhausting all of Pops’ Perry Mason books (he had 5 or 6) I found
another detective paperback called “Fish Or Cut Bait,” by A. A Fair that
I also loved. It concerned the Cool and Lam Detective Agency,
Donald Lam and Bertha Cool. It wasn’t until years later that I
discovered A. A. Fair was just one of Erle Stanley Gardner’s nom de
plumes, not unlike Aunty Em Ericann. Some of the other names used by
Gardiner over the years include Kyle Corning, Charles M. Green, Carleton
Kendrake, Charles J. Kenny, Les Tillray and Robert Parr.
As
I grew older I started collecting Perry Mason books in both hardcover
and paperback. The original idea was to collect every title. However,
that changed when I started seeing other printings of the same novels
with different lurid pulp cover graphics. That’s when I started collecting
every different edition of every Erle Stanley Gardner novel I could
find. While there are only 82 Perry Mason novels, I have HUNDREDS of
Perry Mason books, packed away in boxes because I have no place to
display them in the condo.

However, as acquisitive as I
was about Perry Mason books, I knew nothing about the author. That all
changed one day in a thrift shop when I discovered “Erle
Stanley Gardner: The Case of the Real Perry Mason,” a biography by
Dorothy B. Hughes. It was then I discovered the man behind the books; I learned that Gardiner really was a lawyer, as well as an avid rock hound, inveterate traveler and, most importantly, the impetus behind The Court of Last Resort, a place where the wrongly convicted might find justice.

Gardner’s rudimentary recreational vehicle

While Gardiner will always be known for his Perry Mason books, I also highly recommend his travel writings. Early in his writing career Gardiner set a goal of putting down 66,000 words a day. However, he didn’t want to stop traveling. He created what he called a writing factory and had built a rudimentary RV, which he drove all over the western United States and, especially, Baja, Califoria. Whenever he would find an interesting place, he’d pull over and make it the latest location of his writing factory. He maintained his voluminous output on his trusty typewriter and, over the years, he became an expert in the history and geology of the peninsula.

Over the years, I’ve seen fewer and fewer Erle Stanley Gardner novels in bookstores, often just a title or two. Yesterday at my local Barnes and Noble I could find NOT A SINGLE PERRY MASON BOOK. That made me incredibly sad.

More:

The Erle Stanley Gardiner collection can be found at the Harry Ranson Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

Full episodes of Perry Mason can be found on the CBS web site.

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Another Magical Tee Vee Moment ► I’ve Got A Secret

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Dateline June 19, 1952 – I’ve Got A Secret begins a 15 year run on tee vee. 

If it’s not obvious already, the pressure to post almost every day has me looking at the calendar for inspiration. There are many times I am surprised, like now when I realize I am just as old as I’ve Got A Secret. Certainly, I would have guessed before today, it is ancient. No, it’s just me that’s ancient because I remember watching this show for years and years. Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be.

Here are some magic moments from I’ve Got A Secret, some new to me, some not:

First and foremost:
We owe it all to this man, without whom none of this would have been possible:

An amazing eyewitness to history:

Groucho Marx takes over the show:

Harpo Marx with Johnny Carson on the panel

Soupy Sales, before he was well known. He had just
taken his local Detroit show to a national network.

The unluckiest drummer in the world:

There really was a Col Sanders and here he was before he was world famous:

Here’s a very young Johnny Carson, with his own secret [begins at 3:09 and follows with Part Two:


This is a special find:
I have always loved the comedian George Kirby.

Another comedian I always loved. Jack E. Leonard was,
in my mind, a much funnier insult comic than Don Rickles.

Many magical tee vee moments were brought to us on I’ve Got A Secret.

Last Tonight Show with Johnny Carson ► A Day In History

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Dateline May 22, 1992 – Johnny Carson made his final appearance as host of the Tonight Show after nearly 5,000 shows. Here’s how that show opened:


Johnny Carson gave so many comedians their start.  A case in point: Ellen Degeneres:


Carson started in magic and particularly loved magicians. Here is The Great Flydini:


Few people realize that Michael Caine got his start doing stand up for Johnny Carson:


In 1982 Eddie Murphy jokes about the first Black president:


You’d never know who or what you would see on the Carson show:


And that included Tiny Tim:


Johnny Carson’s last television’s appearance was a cameo:

It hardly seems like 20 years since he’s been gone from the air. There has never been another one like him and there never will be.

Another Magical Tee Vee Moment ► David Frost Interviews Paul McCartney

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Dateline: May 18, 1964 – Paul McCartney is interviewed by David Frost in the full flush of Beatlemania.

It’s so funny they were talking about a possible retirement in 2010. who knew that 5 decades later Paul would still be making music and still making fans scream?

Thanks for all the music, Paul.

Stephen Colbert at the Time 100’s Most Influential Dinner

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Time Magazine held its annual 100 Most Influential chicken dinner. As usual Stephen Colbert was the most influential, delivering some hard truthinesswith his bon mots.

“Of course, all of us should be honored to be listed on the TIME 100
alongside the two men who will be slugging it out in the fall: 
President Obama, and the man who would defeat him, David Koch.

Give it up everybody.  David Koch.

Little known fact — David, nice to see you again, sir.

Little known fact, David’s brother Charles Koch is actually even more
influential.  Charles pledged $40 million to defeat President Obama,
David only $20 million.  That’s kind of cheap, Dave.

Sure, he’s all for buying the elections, but when the bill for
democracy comes up, Dave’s always in the men’s room.  I’m sorry, I must
have left Wisconsin in my other coat.

I was particularly excited to meet David Koch earlier tonight because
I have a Super PAC, Colbert Super PAC, and I am — thank you, thank you
— and I am happy to announce Mr. Koch has pledged $5 million to my
Super PAC.  And the great thing is, thanks to federal election law,
there’s no way for you to ever know whether that’s a joke.

By the way, if David Koch likes his waiter tonight, he will be your next congressman.”

Jon Stewart Does It Again – The Rupert Murdoch Edition

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The writers at the Daily Show have a way of taking rather a complex story and boiling it down to its essence and humorous possibilities. This week I watched the hearings live on CSPAN2. I could have saved myself all those hours by just watching this:

“Don’t shit on my chest and say it’s Vegemite.”

UPDATE: I’m having trouble getting the video to load.

Andy Kaufman ► Another Magical Tee Vee Moment

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It’s no exaggeration to say that Andy Kaufman changed the face of Stand Up comedy.  Apparently Andy didn’t consider himself a comedian and called himself a “song and dance man.” And dance he did. Using the audience as his partner, he waltzed us into one bizarre sitch-eee-ay-shun after another with one of the most inventive comedic acts ever.  During his lifetime he perpetrated so many media hoaxes that there are still people who believe he faked his 1984 death.  The best part of this, Andy’s first appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, is listening to Carson cackle in the background.


I once visited the Paley Center for Media in Los Angeles, part of which is a museum where one can order up any of tens of thousands of hours of radio and tee vee from all the years of broadcasting. I had a limited amount of time and would only be able to make one choice, while my kids explored another part of the center.  What did I chose?  The Andy Kaufman- Jerry Lawler bitch slap heard ’round the world, which I had missed.  Ten years later, after Andy’s death, the Lawler feud was revealed as just another one of Andy’s elaborate hoaxes.  However, even the version at the museum was censored, so I never heard it like this before. [NSFW]



One of the great thrills of Twitter, is that I can be ‘friends’ with Elayne Boosler, one degree from Andy [and a lot of my other comedy heroes].  Elayne is a comedy genius all on her own and it’s always a great thrill when Elayne Boosler Re-Tweets one of my quips. I would be remiss if I did not mention Elayne’s Tails of Joy, her rescue mission for mutts:

Tails of Joy is a not-for-profit (501c3) organization founded by comedian/writer/animal activist Elayne Boosler. Our goal, with your help, is to make the world better for animals and their people.

We raise funds for the smallest, neediest rescues all across the country.

We work for the passing and enforcing of anti-cruelty, and animal welfare laws.

W00F!!!