Mungo Jerry - Winner, 'Best Sideburns' Award, 1970
Happy Monday, Bionic people. Alright, so it’s spring, not summer, but I couldn’t resist dropping this tap-a-long tune on you. Summer will be along soon enough.
Here’s Mungo Jerry performing “In The Summertime” from 1970. The song was released in May ’70 and became the top selling UK single for that year. The song was a chart-topper (or nearly number one) in many countries around the globe. Here in the states it hit #3.
On this lazy Sunday afternoon let us allow our frazzled minds to wander back and reminisce about a 1970s childhood hero, Evel Knievel. Motorcycle daredevil and showman, Knievel made many death-defying jumps in the 1960s and 70s and became such a celebrity that, eventually, his image (with white jumpsuit and star-spangled accents) could be found on toys, puzzles, comics and a wealth of other merchandise. At the plateau of his career, Evel even starred as himself in the 1977 movie Viva Knievel!.
Take a look at some Evel images and a video from his official site. While the Knievel Web Site is light on information there are plenty of outstanding photos on show in the archives and you’ll want to leap over a canyon and explore them.
Evel by Al Satterwhite, 1976
Evel leaps 13 Mack Trucks at The Canadian National Exposition, August 20, 1974
Quote: 'Saturday, December 12, 1970 Los Angeles, CA - Lions Drag Strip. Evel successfully jumps 13 cars on his Harley XR-750.'
Evel trains his son, Kelly, early 1970s
Death Defiers TV special January, 1977. Evel makes the jump but crashes on the landing ramp. Sadly, a cameraman loses an eye and Evel is devastated.
'Can't get enough Super Sugar Crisp!'
Time for a cavity-inducing commercial break. Treat yourself to a circa 1973 Super Sugar Crisp cereal commercial. Watch as laid back mascot, Sugar Bear, takes us along for the ride on a “Fly Hi” balloon and a child voice actor (who sounds like he probably portrayed Charlie Brown) tells us to look for the toy in “specially-marked boxes”.
The Post cereal company removed the word “Sugar” from the title of the product in the mid-1980s, renaming it Super Golden Crisp. Today, the cereal is called, a short and not-as-sweet, “Golden Crisp”.
More about Super Sugar Crisp at MrBreakfast.com.
Super Sugar Crisp with Dynamite Magazine offer, 1970s. Photo by 'jeffrey' at Mr Breakfast.com.
Dynomutt, 1976. 'He's a go go dog person!'
The strong, but not-so-bright, mechanical super hound, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, first appeared on ABC as half of The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour in September of 1976. Later, in the 1977-78 season, new episodes aired under the title The Blue Falcon & Dynomutt.
In order to beat the baddies, the clumsy robot dog could stretch his appendages to great lengths and produce limitless devices from within his interior such as parachutes, vacuums, claws and radar scanners. Dim, but lovable. Enjoy the intro and exit from this Hanna-Barbera series below and have a happy Funshine Friday!
*Original YouTube video was removed. A replacement has been added (06/27/2014)
Future Cop, 1977. 'Looks human. Talks and acts human...but he's not.'
Today, we shine a spotlight on a mostly-forgotten, short-lived TV series from 1976-77 known as Future Cop.
Future Cop first aired in May of 1976 for a single episode and returned in March, 1977 for a brief, six-week run. The show starred Ernest Borgnine and John Amos as the veteran (human) cops and Michael Shannon as Haven the android. Joan Collins was a guest star in “The Kansas City Kid” episode of April, 1977.
Sci Fi writers Ben Bova and Harlan Ellison sued Paramount for taking their idea and eventually won a $337,000 payment. Future Cop was re-configured slightly and returned in March, 1978 for a single TV movie appearance, this time entitled Cops and Robin, before fading away forever.
Not only did Future Cop predate Robocop by almost a decade it also seems quite similar to my childhood favorite, Holmes & YoYo, from the same, 76-77 timeframe.
Taxi, 1978. Latka & Louie BFF!
Got a hankerin’ to visit with your old friends at the Sunshine Cab Company in NYC? If so, you may be interested to learn that you can watch a good number of Taxi episodes for free over at CBS.com.
I just spent a pleasant half hour watching episode #3, “Blind Date”, which originally aired in September, 1978. Drive on over and indulge. (And, no, I’m not getting any kickbacks from CBS for letting you know this. Consider it my good Bionic deed for the day.)
Watch full Taxi episodes at CBS.com.