Today we celebrate the birthday of actor Jonathan Harris, better known to fans of cheesy 1960's sci-fi as Dr Zachary Smith of Lost in Space. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of the Irwin Allen television classic and use the term "cheesy" in the best possible way. I mean, how can you not love a show that once featured a giant, sentient carrot bent on the destruction of mankind? When you think about it, the 1960's were a high point in TV sci-fi. In addition to LIS, Irwin Allen produced Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Time Tunnel and Land of the Giants. Then we have the classics such as The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits and Star Trek. The UK gave us The Avengers and Dr. Who, and finally, there were even sci-fi sitcoms such as My Favorite Martian and It's About Time. Speaking of Giant Carrots, here's a brief clip of Dr. Smith's encounter with Tybo the Carrot Man:
You gotts love that clip - - I don't remember that episode at all and it was terrific! Since you are so good at hunting these things down I have a challenge for you. Somewhere out there in cyber space are old episodes of the Ed Sullivan Show. On one or two of them you can see the young Jackson Five including special guest star Barack Obama. Back then Barack was tagging along ala cousin Oliver and for that brief shining moment in history it was really the Jackson 5 plus cousin Obama. Young Barack's skillful tambourine playing stole the show and took the spotlight from jealous " cousin" Michael so he was quickly removed from the lineup. His singing career fizzled until he was in Grad School and stumbled onstage in a drunken frenzy with the Pointer sisters in the late 1970's and grabbed the mic during a song and started mumbling " I KNOW we can make it I know we can, we can work it out , if we want to yes we can can yes we can can yew we can can "
ReplyDeleteIn one brief moment a political ideology was born.
And you can even dance to it.
It is CLEARLY up to you to find this lost footage ...
Bic, Bic, Bic....
ReplyDeleteYou're a sick man. Funny, but sick.
Ok - I'll play along. I haven't been able to find the clip you mentioned, but I did come across a clip of a summer replacement show from the mid 70's titled "The Hillary Rodham Groovy Good Times Sunshine Show". I'm not sure whatever happened to her but that little white girl could dance!