It Got By The Censor/In Jokes

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

Ivan,
If they threw in Floyd, then his manicurist Barbara Eden would be in as well, hot dog!
The blue and white convertible Don Knots drives puts one in mind of the blue and white one he drove on TAGS, plus Don channels his Barney Fife
character to such an extent I am utterly convinced - as many others are - the audience is supposed to think it's Fife in the movie.

308Guy, Spencer Tracy's hat flies out of the police station window, lands in the street. A wiseguy in a car purposely swerves to run it  over, as Pahonu noted the driver was Jerry Lewis.

Pahonu,
With the 112 actors you cited that were in the cast, perhaps the detractors do have a point that maybe the movie is over stuffed.
Alright so it ain't perfect, but it is unique and full of great bits. Magnum PI guest star Dick Shawn gives some of the best known legends
of comedy a run for their money, his scenes with Terry Thomas and Milton Berle are very funny.

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"I know positively that our good friend Dr. Stall has treated this boy...for Malta fever, Beriberi and that dreaded of all diseases, Mo Go on the Ga Go Go."
Egbert Souse(WC Fields) in The Bank Dick (1940)

[308GUY]

Thanks guys....I'll watch it again, (at least that scene), and see if I can spot him.

"308Guy, Spencer Tracy's hat flies out of the police station window, lands in the street. A wiseguy in a car purposely swerves to run it over, as Pahonu noted the driver was Jerry Lewis."

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

In many classic Warner Brothers cartoons when a character is briefly shown reading a newspaper headline, if you "pause it" you can read the sidebar stories,
which of course the theater goer in 1939 wasn't able to do.
A point of information for the following, Tex Avery was the genius behind the great cartoons of the first half and more of the 20th century.


At the start of the 1939 Bugs Bunny cartoon "Hare-um Scare-um", a seemingly early version of Elmer Fudd is reading the paper -

DAILY NEWS

MEAT PRICES SOAR CONSUMERS ALSO SORE!

WEATHER - YES AND NO!

Hundreds Hurt in Rioting
- Hollywood, Cal. -
Rioting broke out today at the Looney Tune Cartoon Studio when Tex Avery was caught dealing from the bottom of the deck.
All able policemen were called out to quell the savage animators. Many were reputed to be in a bad way.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

Mayberry RFD "Sensitivity Training" Season 3 Episode 2

Emmet Clark(Paul Hartman) - "I hear they're ripping up the street car lines over in Mt. Airy"

Mt. Airy, NC is actually Andy Griffith's hometown and the basis for Mayberry.
Griffith was executive producer of Mayberry RFD, he would use the names
of childhood friends for the monickers of minor characters or one offs.
I believe this is the only time Mt.Airy was ever mentioned in the Mayberry
universe of The Andy Griffith Show, Mayberry RFD, Gomer Pyle,
plus The Danny Thomas Show(which had the original TAGS pilot episode).
Sharp eyed viewers will have noticed on TAGS when the Mt.Airy phone
book was on Sheriff Taylor's desk.

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Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops 1955

05:30 mark -
Lou Costello is buying a movie ticket from the young woman cashier -

Cashier: "How many?"
Lou: "One. You're cute."
Cashier: "You're silly."
Lou: "So's your old man."

The cashier is actually Lou's 17 year old daughter Carol, who bursts into delighted laughter after their exchange. She later married Dean Martin's son.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

The Story of G.I. Joe (1945)
This is one of the great WW 2 movies, based on the writings of the Pulitzer Prize winning war correspondent Ernie Pyle.
As with the heralded classic Battleground(1949) which is even better, all the roles other than the main starring ones are filled by actual veterans of the campaign depicted, in this case the Italian.
If anyone new to the history of WW 2 wants to get some idea about the US fighting man in the war, suffering from the elements as well as from enemy action, a double feature of these two flicks
would be an excellent start.

The studio censor must not have had a whiff of street smarts to allow the following 3 items to get by him in The Story of G.I. Joe.

Around the 14 minute mark -
Private Dondaro(Wally Cassell) exclaims "What did I tell you guys about the Air Corp" and then crooks his arm, the other slapping the crook of it in the universal 'Up yours' gesture.
He then puts his thumb under his front top teeth, flicking the thumb forward, meaning F.U.

Around the 92 minute mark -
Dondaro again with the arm gesture at passing planes, as he figures they have it easier than the infantry.

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Historian and author Edward Bonekemper, debunker of the legends of the Lost Cause and that Lee was a better general than U.S. Grant:

"Grant commanded 5 different armies in 3 theaters, was the winner everywhere he went.
He captured 3 enemy armies, at a cost of 154,000 casualties, while imposing 181,000 casualties on the enemy.
Lee commanded one army, in one theater, which he lost, at a cost of 209,000 casualties, 55,000 casualties more than Grant."

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

The following doesn't fit the title of this thread.
It's just that it is so mind boggling awful, so staggeringly stupid, it leaves one gazing open mouthed at possibly the worst episode of a major network series ever produced.
I couldn't sleep, turned on the TV at 3:00 AM and there it was, irresistibly drawing me into yet another viewing since I first saw it as an unsuspecting lad in 1968.

Lost in Space "The Great Vegetable Rebellion" Season 3 Episode 23.

Stanley Adams plays Tybo, a 6 foot tall carrot and ruler of a planet run by sentient vegetables.
He has changed Dr. Smith(Jonathon Harris) into a big celery stalk, his assistant offhandedly snacking on various bits of Smith.

Cackling manically, Tybo threatens the rest of the crew of the Jupiter Two -
"We vegetables can be violent too if we have to be."

John Robinson(Guy Williams) -
"Whatever it is that carrot may have in store for us, we are getting out of here now."

Talk about jumping the shark, crossing the carrot is miles worse. Hmm, I got carrot-ed away, that line doesn't quite a-peel. Vaulting the veggie? Yes, much better.

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"What an embezzle! What an ultramaroon!"...Bugs Bunny, 20th century philosopher

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

There’s a Wild,Wild West episode with Alan Hale where he tells West he wants to go on vacation to deserted island. Jim Backus was also in the episode.

Hi Pahonu,
Right you are, the episode was "Night of the Sabatini Death"(1969). Hale played a federal agent who dreams of a desert isle while in the background the Gilligan's Island
theme song is played. I actually remember when the episode first ran as my family roared with laughter at this bit. By the way Hale belonged to and later ran a
gym and won many strong man competitions, so he got many parts as a tough guy early in his career.
In a Jack Benny Show episode he plays a gym owner getting Jack in shape.
Hale himself was still in shape then and he had just about the biggest pair of shoulders you have ever seen outside of a bull.
Even on Gilligan when he was sporting an extra 40 pounds, he was so incredibly strong that he and Bob Denver would sucker in guest stars to bet money arm wrestling
with Hale. When a syndicate of Hale's victims conspired to get their money back by getting the gigantic Clint Walker to challenge Hale, it is rumored Hale and his
'manager' Bob Denver raked in over $30,000 in 1960's dollars. You could buy a middle class house for 30 grand in 1965 so you do the math on what that amount of money
is equal to in today's money.
Hale was the look alike son of Alan Hale Senior, who appeared as Errol Flynn's sidekick in almost all his movies. He was the best Little John ever in Robin Hood(1939).

When I was about 10 years old or so in the early 80’s my family ate at his seafood restaurant on La Cienega and he was there looking like the skipper. I was so excited. He was the first celebrity I ever met.
He came right over to the table and was talking to my mom and dad. I was in awe that the skipper was in front of me. It was so cool.

It's been five years since Pahonu first shared he met Alan Hale and I am still sooo jealous! Beats hell out of me meeting Buffalo Bob Smith, though he did swear me in as a member of the Peanut Gallery.
Anyway -
Here's a good bar bet that I devised that will score you a free beer.

In what 1960's CBS comedy did Bob Denver wind up on an island in the Pacific after his ship goes off course?

1) Dobie Gillis
2) Dusty's Trail
3) The Good Guys     
4) Gilligan's Island

Gilligan's Island you say? That is soooo wrong, S.S. Minnow breath!
Beer me bartender, it's on my wayward friend here. The answer of course is Dobie Gillis.
In the season two episode "Spaceville", Maynard G. Krebs(the "G" stands for Walter) who is played by Bob Denver, winds up on a early space mission with a chimp named Kilroy bound for the moon.
Instead his rocket ship crash lands on a Pacific island, deserted except for a couple of castaways.
No, not the Howells, the Skipper, the Professor, Ginger and Mary Ann, but 4 beautiful Polynesian ladies. And unlike the 7 castaways of the Minnow, no Gilligan to muck things up.

(8208) The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis: S2 E27 - Spaceville - YouTube

In the above mentioned Bob Denver sitcom "The Good Guys", Alan Hale played truck driver Big Tom, who sometimes visits Bert's Place, the diner owned by
Rufus Butterworth's (Denver) pal Bert (Herb Edelman). 

The Gilligan's Island lagoon was also used on fellow CBS series, The Wild Wild West.
The episode "The Night of the Murderous Spring" also featured star Robert Conrad's real life father, Leonard Falk, playing a guard who is a deaf mute.

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Pat Coopers personal motto -
"Remember to pick up the tab once in awhile. Because someone has picked up the tab for you."