Lassie's Rescue Rangers, 1973. Lassie says "Bark!" as well as "bark" and "Bark..."
Happy Funshine Friday! Cartoon King here, bringing you another animated “classic” from the 1970s.
15 episodes of Filmation’s Lassie’s Rescue Rangers were produced and originally ran from September through December of 1973. Take in the opening below.
Interesting facts: Ted Knight, of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, provided the lead voice of Ben Turner for the series.
Stevie Wonder is 'Living for the City' in Jan.,1974
Since there are simply too many fantastic 70s songs to confine things to a single day (‘Music for Monday’,) let me lay this tune on you for a Thursday morning. Check out Stevie Wonder performing “Living for the City” in January of 1974 on German TV’s Musikladen.
“Living for the City“, from the Innervisions L.P., was released as a single in November of 1973 and rose to #8 on the US Billboard pop charts. Rolling Stone places the song at #104 on their ‘500 Greatest Songs of All Time’ list. You pretty much can’t go wrong with anything Wonder created during his golden period in the 70s. Enjoy.
'Continental Airlines. We really move our tails for you!'
On Friday, March 2nd, 2012 the last Continental Airlines flight occurred. The airline has been phased out and taken over by United Airlines. Continental began its service in 1934 and, of course, flew throughout the 1970s.
In order to keep the company flying high in our memories (sorry for the awful pun) let’s grab a look at these nifty photos from the 1970s (courtesy of HuffPost) and take a gander at a 70s-era commercial.
Continental flight attendants,1977
Continental Polynesian Pub, 1972
Continental male flight attendant, circa 1970s
See the entire Continental gallery at The Huffington Post.
Scorsese's Mean Streets, 1973. 'These are honorable men...'
Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets made its theatrical debut in October of 1973. The film stars Harvey Keitel as Mafia debt collector, Charlie and Robert De Niro as his troublesome buddy, Johnny Boy.
Scorsese went on to make Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore in ’74, Taxi Driver in ’76 and New York, New York in ’77.
The Sweet, 'Fox on the Run', 1975
Happy Monday, lil’ boppers. You’re going to want to get into character for this one. Strap on your glam boots, frazzle your hair and start stomping along with The Sweet as they play their 1975 worldwide top ten hit, “Fox on the Run“.
Whaddya mean you don’t know how to “frazzle” your hair?! Just make it all foxy and stuff.
The Sweet Wiki.
McQuarrie's C-3PO and R2-D2 concept work, circa '75
Sad news alert: Star Wars concept artist Ralph McQuarrie, the man behind the designs for Darth Vader, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C-3PO, died March 3rd at the age of 82.
McQuarrie was a true talent and created many iconic sci fi images of the 1970s and 80s. The original Star Wars trilogy would not have been as wondrous or imaginative-looking without him. In fact, it may not have been made at all if George Lucas hadn’t taken a pile of McQuarrie’s inspiring drawings along with him when he successfully pitched his Star Wars idea at 20th Century Fox. When he had pitched his movie concept at Universal – without bringing any drawings – they passed.
In addition to working on the three films in the original Star Wars trilogy, McQuarrie provided designs for Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., the original Battlestar Galactica TV series and won an Oscar for his work on Cocoon.
Read more about the artist at RalphMcQuarrie.com and Wikipedia.
BBC Quote:
“Born in Gary, Indiana, McQuarrie began his career as a technical illustrator for aeroplane manufacturer Boeing and designing film posters.
He also animated US TV network CBS’s coverage of Nasa’s Apollo space programme.
In 1975, he was hired by Lucas to design some of the characters and scenes for his ‘space opera’ Star Wars.
As well as designing some of the sets including the desert planet Tatooine, McQuarrie also did the conceptual drawings for many characters.
His rewards included an uncredited role in the sequel The Empire Strikes Back, as General Pharl McQuarrie, and his own action figure.
In a statement, Lucas said: ‘His genial contribution, in the form of unequalled production paintings, propelled and inspired all of the cast and crew of the original Star Wars trilogy.
‘When words could not convey my ideas, I could always point to one of Ralph’s fabulous illustrations and say, ‘do it like this’.'”
Ralph McQuarrie (Photo: ralphmcquarrie.com)