We welcome your feedback.ED TUCKER SPEAKS! Nolan,
I thought it was about time to drop you a line so you would know I had not blown away with the hurricanes! The piece on Ray Dennis Steckler is still in the works as well as one on Disney Salvage.I loved Andy's Oddservations last week. A friend of mine and I had just been discussing the age old practice of underage kids sneaking in to R rated movies before this appeared so it brought back a flood of memories. Back in the morally void days of the 80's, no theater I ever went to bothered to check your tickets after you bought them and even if the person in the ticket booth or ticket tearer could see what theater you went in, they could have cared less. After a couple of years of bribing my mother to take me to see films like Friday the 13th 3-D (I had to pay for my ticket and hers too), I wised up and just started buying tickets for whatever PG rated film was playing in another theater and then going to see whatever I wanted. I was the idol of everyone in school for having seen Porky's the weekend it opened and telling them all about it Monday morning!
A few years later, probably around the time I was fifteen, I just started buying tickets for R rated movies myself and NEVER got carded. The first time I was carded for a film was for the unrated film Burial Ground. The funny thing was it was two weeks before my nineteenth birthday and the lady taking tickets knew me! I thought it was hilarious and my equally of age companion just whipped out his ID prior to purchase and said I know if your carding him you're going to want to see mine! The sweet older lady taking tickets at the Litchfield Theater that always got the crappy movies we loved even became apologetic after that! Those truly were the golden years when a kid of thirteen could go see Halloween II by himself and get scared stupid, see some quality nudity, and eat some butter laden corn products on a Saturday afternoon - all for about $5.00!
I am glad to finally see something come from the “Professor Paul Bearer” project but it is a shame they saddled the show with such a crappy bunch of films. WTOG would do well to remember that bottom of the barrel film selections were part of what was steadily deteriorating the original Creature Feature program before Dick Bennick’s death put an end to it. The only film out of that whole batch that could be worth a darn is Humanoids from the Deep, if it is the original and not the remake. Unfortunately, even if it is the original, it will only run about an hour after they cut out all the nudity and violence! I will be very interested to see what the initial reactions are to the new show and eagerly awaiting copies.
- ED Tucker
NEW READER REMEMBERS IT'S ABOUT TIME Nolan,
HI! I just happened upon your site looking for Leslie Ann Warren's Cinderella. When I read your references to Lost in Space (loved it!) and other Irwin shows, especially Time Tunnel (loved it too!), I thought "maybe you know about this other show that I remember but everyone else in the world doesn't".... I was born in 1960, I think I watched the show in the mid 60s????, I'm pretty sure it aired on Sundays where I grew up in Manhattan Beach, CA, It was a comedy (half hour show?) about cavemen; the theme song went something like "It's about time, it's about space..." or ?? I can even see in my mind's eye the face of the main character, but can't place a name to it; a guy who may have also been on F-Troop? (also loved that show) but he became well known at any rate.... do you know what show I'm talking about?I would sure appreciate it if you wrote back and gave me your thoughts about it.
Thanks so much! Great website.
Cheers,
Kat GrantKat, Thanks so much for writing and I'm glad you like my website. I hope you'll be a return visitor!
Yes, I definitely remember the show you asked about; in fact, the title of it is in the song lyrics you remembered: IT'S ABOUT TIME. Yep! A Sherwood Schwartz comedy production from 1966 about two astronauts who broke the time barrier and wound up in caveman times. You might remember Sherwood Schwartz as the creator and main driving force behind "Gilligan's Island". "It's About Time" used many of the props (the space capsule, the jungle sets) from Gilligan episodes.
"It's about Time" only lasted 26 episodes changing storylines midway to improve ratings. In early 1967 the cavemen traveled with the two astronauts aboard the space capsule ahead to 1966-era NY City. After the last episode of the season, the show vanished from the air and was never heard from again.
No one from F-Troop was featured, but one actor from "Car 54 Where Are You?"--Joe E. Brown---played the lead caveman, "Gronk". His wife Shadd was played by '50s comic legend Imogene Coca. The had a teenage son named Breer played by Pat Cardi. I remember character actor Mike Mazurki played the bodyguard of "Boss" the caveman leader, but couldn't remember anything else and drew a blank on the two astronauts. So I did a little research on the IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059997). The following is the complete cast list, including the shake-up after mid-season:
Full Cast and Crew for "It's About Time" (1966)Sherwood Schwartz creator
Sherwood Schwartz writerCast (in alphabetical order)
Frank Aletter .... Mac (1966-67)
Pat Cardi .... Breer
Imogene Coca .... Shadd
Alan DeWitt .... Manager of Apartment Block (1966-67)
Kathleen Freeman .... Mrs. Boss (1966-67)
Mary Grace .... Mlor (1966-1967)
Mike Mazurki .... Clon (1966-67)
Jack Mullaney .... Hector (1966-67)
Cliff Norton .... Boss
Joe E. Ross .... Gronk
Frank Wilcox .... Gen. Morley (1967)Hope this helps! I was born in 1955 and my memories of this show are still pretty fresh, like yours...and like your situation, almost no one else I know remembers this show! (Hey, how many of us admit to watching the whole season run of "My Mother, The Car"?)
Glad to help and thanks again for writing!
Sincerely yours in fandom,
Nolan B. Canova
To send an email to Letters to the Editor write to: Crazedfanboy1@aol.com. Any emails sent to this address will be assumed intended for publication unless you specifically instruct me not to. I can and do respond privately, if that is your preference. Frequently, it's both ways.---Nolan