Proclivities wrote:
 

I have never heard of that series of serieses. I have never seen Burl Ives in a non-animated snowman role. Well maybe a couple of jolly singing neighbor roles.
 
I had to google Farantino. Joe was cool.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
Apparently different actors dubbed the "voice" parts (it was some sort of sped-up and reversed gibberish), but it was always the same actor in the costume - with the derby and sunglasses usually.

 Proclivities wrote: 
Did It even make noise/show his face? All I remember is hair. Like R2D2, it doesn't seem like there needed to be a specific actor associated with the part. 

Felix Silla as "Cousin Itt" on The Addams Family, 1965.

 Proclivities wrote: 


William Demarest was brilliant, the crabby essence of "Hey, what's the big idea?!?!"  He was far better than "My Three Sons."

Yeah, that "Gonna Getcha" song is pretty bad and Jaye P. Morgan wasn't much better. Apparently she plays a singer at the end of her career in that episode. She's a lot better doing this song—got to #3 on Billboard in 1954 with it.

Lowell George's early band The Factory on "F-Troop"

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
Jaye P. Morgan had some good some songs (more in the "torch singer" genre), but that song is pretty lousy - really weird tempo change early in.  Even Fred MacMurray and William Demarest seem a little bemused, and those guys rocked.  Odd similarity with the Blondie tune though; I wonder if Chris Stein knew that episode of My Three Sons.

 Proclivities wrote: 
I always wondered if she'd ever actually been on anything. That was not good, tho.
 
Similarity to this (or this to that) is striking tho.
 

Jaye P. Morgan of later Gong Show fame.

Clint Eastwood and Connie Hines dancing on the set of "Mr. Ed" while "Ed" chaperones.

Mary Tyler Moore had a variety show in 1978 which had David Letterman, Swoosie Kurtz, and Michael Keaton in the cast - it only lasted 3 episodes.  I don't remember this at all - for good reason:

A clip of Letterman and Keaton discussing the show years later, here.

1979?

Woot is selling a 48" TV today. I thought the "description" was pretty funny/cool.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 

There are people alive today who consider this a small TV. For real.

If you were born in 1950, you grew up with a TV the size of your laptop screen. If you were born in 1970, you probably had a TV the size of a monitor. If you were born in 1990, you probably saw a TV this size at the local pizza joint. But If you were born in 2000 or later, you probably think this TV is basically of average size.

We say this not to make people feel old, but to point out how time and technology change everything. That cool, old, four foot tall radio is now replaced by an app that downloads podcasts into your phone. That giant oven with room for a turkey is replaced by a teeny box that cooks food from the inside out. And where does that room go? Why, it transfers over to the television, of course!

So quit stalling. One day the 48" HDTV is going to be the "I used to watch PBS on an old black and white TV using a coat hanger as an antenna." Enjoy it now, while it's still cutting edge.

 

 Steve wrote: 
Cool, I spent 29 years of my life working for Motheroller....

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
Well let's assume 1950:

$199 1950 dollars = $1,970.50 today. 
$359 1950 dollars = $3,554.82 today. 

Considering you can get a nice low end set for $100 and the high end 'realistic' consumer models are nearing $10K, it looks like the range is just broader. Cheap is cheaper and expensive really is much more so (you can spend over $100K for the big 4K curved screen whackjob models if you want to   don't have family or common sense). 

The average family income in 1950 was $3200. Wow.  

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
They were actually promoting the test patterns.
 
 

 Steve wrote: 
"They go on the air soon!"
 
And look at those prices... what's that even translate to in today's dollars? You could get the latest and greatest big screen TV and not pay that much. 

1980?