01/24/06: Does anyone remember
Rubens Baby Factory? More to the point, does anyone remember the documentary that
Channel 11 showed years ago where they traced the history of the Baby Factory and showed how the babies produced there contributed to society. Yes, it was a spoof, since they (probably) didn't actually
make babies at the factory, but I remember it as being pretty funny, and I'd love to get my hands on a copy. I seem to remember it being shown on Image Union.
Actually, there's a number of things I saw on good ol' WTTW that I'd love to see again. First and foremost is a 1978 Soundstage show featuring
Martin Mull and
Flo and Eddie. I know I saw it several times when it was on TV, but that was way before even VCRs were affordable. I have an old audio cassette with the show, taped off of
WXRT as they stereo-simulcast the show back when TV was mono-only, but I'd pay RETAIL for a good copy of the show.
I also would like to see some of the British comedies that they carried. Sure, Stephie bought me the complete
Monty Python set, after it was shown on A&E, but where are the reruns of
The Goodies,
No, Honestly,
Ripping Yarns, and a favorite in our household,
The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin? I wouldn't mind the odd episode of
Dave Allen or
The Two Ronnies, either. I should probably check the 'net for import DVDs.
01/03/06: Happy New Year to all of you. We spent New Year's Eve safely tucked in the corner of the couch, watching movies. After two features, Stephie was dozing off, so she said that I could watch whatever I wanted, since she would probably sleep through it..
Being that it was New Year's Eve, I popped in
"The Cocoanuts", the very first Marx Brothers movie and the first disc in the Marx Brothers box set I picked up last year. Channel 7 used to show the Marx Brothers on New Year's eve, so I thought it would be appropriate..
I was a little disappointed at the quality of the print they used. It goes from razor-sharp image to "do I need to clean the screen?" fuzzy (sometimes in the same scene) but the movie itself, while not one of their classics, was still pretty funny. I was amazed at how much I remembered of the verbal gymnastics between Groucho and the other characters, and how little I remembered of the supposed "plot", which I think was really just thrown in to bridge the scenes between the Marx mayhem..
There was one thing, though. There are a few things that I remember vividly from my childhood without knowing their origin. Snippets of music or lines of dialog are so deeply embedded in my personal zeitgeist that I can rattle them off practically verbatim, but many of them I have little recollection of the source. Sure, I can tell you where I heard about
the Montgolfier brothers, or why I can still recite
the preamble to the Constitution, but some things, like the phrase "I remember when tea dancing was the rage", just escape me. (Jon says it's from a commercial for a record collection.).
So it's 11:30, 12/31/2005, Margaret Dumont is throwing an engagement party for her daughter to marry some grifter, and everyone shows up dressed like they're in a Zorro movie. The house detective drops by and is promptly relieved of his shirt. He starts yelling how "He wants his shirt!" and I almost fell off the couch as the Toreador song from Carmen is sung about a missing shirt. This goes through my head any time I hear the song, but I couldn't remember where I heard it. You can hear for yourself by
clicking here. I love it when this happens..
The only problem now is I watched the scene, then ran it back and watched it again, then played it for Stephie, then played it again to record the attached clip, and now it's stuck firmly in my head and I can't get rid of it. "I found my shirt. Thank God I found my shirt..."
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