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Dan Schneider Video Interview #135:
The Death Of Saturday Morning Television
Interview with Billy Ingram and Timothy Burke was recorded on Saturday, 9/24/16, via Skype, using Litecam.

Why Did They Fire TV's Captain Marvel?

"It was a precedent setting case at the Screen Actor's Guild, and Filmation had to pay me for all the shows they didn't use me on, plus residuals. Still, these clowns' actions doomed a marvelous show. It wasn't John Davies' fault that he was suddenly thrown into the part of Captain Marvel. It was a rush job. I was fired at 1:00 PM that day, and he was out on the set at 3:00 PM. That's pretty darn fast, I'd say. One of the Execs' reasoning was "The kids'll never know the difference." Riiight. John's a fine actor, but he's no more Captain Marvel than I am Wonder Woman."
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Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson didn't just rule late night television he was a dominant force on the Las Vegas Strip as well. He played Vegas often and the crowds, especially the folks from the midwest, adored Johnny. The affable comic began playing Las Vegas in ernest in the 1960s at the Sahara hotel and continued to headline the big room there for 13 years. He liked the area so much he bought a TV station in Vegas.
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The First Live Action Interactive Video Game
This is the previously untold story behind the very first interactive video game. It was created 30 years ago this year, in 1983, by Busustow Entertainment for Disney. The format? A Laser Disc.
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The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
If you ask me (and I know you didn't but you're here) the ruination of this country stems from the fact that we don't make tangible products anymore, we've become a service economy gone mad with a rapidly shrinking customer base.
The Last Truck exposes this problem in human terms as the last vehicle rolls off an assembly line at the Moraine, Ohio GM plant and hundreds of proud workers are sidelined - not because of their lack of productivity but due to the arrogance and incompetence of management and unbridled corporate greed.
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Irwin Allen's Lost Sci-Fi Pilot
After Time Tunnel was cancelled in 1967, there was another remaining season for Lost in Space and Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea before they were hustled off the air in 1968. Allen was hopeful that he could launch his 'new' idea for 1969-70 - The Man from the 25th Century.
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1960's Soap Opera Themes
The Edge of Night came on CBS in the afternoons so this is the Soap Opera theme I remember best as a young kid, just getting home from school. It reminds me of laundry being done and dinner on the stove (the kids ate early at our house). There's something eerie about this theme, the show had a dark undertow and a generally seedy nature. And then there was Dark Shadows.
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television classic commercials + cigarette ads of the 1960s & 1950s

Have a Smoke and Be Somebody!
Talk about Government mandated health care, our nation's leaders decided almost forty years ago that Tobacco and TV don't mix. Before that, stars like John Wayne appeared on TV selling cigarettes, speaking highly of the product: "Mild and good tasting pack after pack. And I know, I've been smokin' em for twenty years." Coincidentally, some of the last commercials the Duke filmed were to ask people to stop smoking. Watch some of TV's wildest commercials like the dancing cigarette pack!
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Winky Dink and You
"I used to watch Winky Dink... I had the kit, but I would intentionally draw the wrong things. When Winky needed a ladder to get out of a hole, I would draw a cover on the hole. When he needed a parachute, I would draw an anvil to pull him down, etc. I would tease my younger sister and tell her that I was making Winky die! Whenever she left the room crying, I would laugh and laugh. Winky was cool!"
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Sandy Becker / Classic TV Host / kid shows on TV

Sandy Becker!
"Anyone who grew up in New York in the 50's and 60's had to know Sandy Becker. He shaped a lot of our personalities. Along with Hambone, Norton Nork, and The Old Professor, I remember his lovable puppets, Geeba Geeba and Marvin Mouse. Sandy Becker was one of a kind. He really seemed to care about his audience and about the welfare of the younger generation. We could sure use a Sandy Becker today."
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My TV Dads
I realized how important fathers truly were. And I didn’t have one. In television terms, my father had been written out of my life when I was three years old, like James had been written out of "Good Times," although my father hadn’t been killed off. One day, he simply went away and didn’t return. Too bad life isn’t more like television, or else there would’ve been a sassy maid in my home to help guide us children, but in real life most families can’t afford a live-in maid.
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Classic TV Shows on DVD?
An extensive catalogue of every classic program available on DVD! See what's available today - with big discounts for you!

1980's TV Wrestling - Greats and Near Greats!
NOW WITH ADDED RARE VIDEO!
John Hitchcock's look back at the heart of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling - with grapplers known and unknown. Wahoo McDaniel! Ric Flair! Dusty Rhodes! Jim Cornette! Magnum TA! Buddy "Killer" Austin! Johnny Weaver! Johnny Valentine! Harley Race! Dick Murdock! Jimmy Garvin! Nikita Koloff! Have you ever heard of these guys?!?
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1980's PUNK ROCK
In the early-eighties, young people in Los Angeles were flocking to makeshift clubs in droves to see new, up and coming bands. Live new music, not DJs, was what they craved. These writings provide a sketchy look at the underground club scene in Los Angeles during the time that groups like X, Missing Persons, The Go-Go's, The Minutemen and Wall of Voodoo entered the public consciousness.
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