CBS Archives - Retro Reminiscing Video and Pictures

My Favorite Martian

When I think of My Favorite Martian, I really don’t remember watching it as a first-run show — I remember the repeats. After looking into it, I have a feeling I’m far from alone.

The show originally aired Sunday nights at 7:30 on CBS from 1963 through 1966, right after Lassie and immediately before The Ed Sullivan Show. And here’s something I never really thought about: at the same time over on NBC, it was going head-to-head with Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color. That’s quite a Sunday night television lineup!

The opening I’m showing here is from 1965, when My Favorite Martian finally made the jump to color for its third and final season. The first 75 episodes were black-and-white, while only the last 32 were produced in color. Production also moved from Desilu to MGM that final year.

But here’s why so many of us may remember the show from later. Almost immediately after the CBS run ended, My Favorite Martian went into syndication. I found a 1967 television-industry advertisement promoting all 107 episodes to stations as “The Martian Strip,” with the show already running or being sold in major markets around the country.

So while Uncle Martin originally belonged to Sunday nights, reruns probably created a whole second generation of viewers who never really thought about when the show originally aired. I think I’m one of them.

And once that George Greeley theme starts, I’m right back there again!

Do you remember watching My Favorite Martian on Sunday nights, or like me, do you mostly remember it from the reruns?

Liberace Feelin’ Groovy

This may be one of the strangest—and most wonderfully 1968—things I’ve come across in a while. That’s Liberace getting “groovy” with The Youngfolk on The Red Skelton Hour on March 5, 1968.

And The Youngfolk weren’t just a bunch of dancers thrown together for the show. They were an actual seven-member Los Angeles folk group who recorded for United Artists and had already made several appearances with Red Skelton.

The song, of course, was Paul Simon’s “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy).” Simon & Garfunkel recorded it on August 16, 1966—which, amazingly, was 60 years ago this week. Their version wasn’t originally the big single, though. Harpers Bizarre turned it into a #13 hit in 1967 with an arrangement by Leon Russell.

What I love about this clip is watching television try to interpret the whole flower-power generation for a mainstream audience. Giant flowers, bright colors, “groovy” slang—and right in the middle of it all is Liberace, completely committing to the bit.

Even better, Paul Simon eventually admitted he really didn’t care for this song and once jokingly used it as his own punishment after making a mistake onstage!

Do you remember seeing variety shows trying to get “hip” like this back in the late ’60s?

Star Wars Holiday Special

In 1977, George Lucas broke box office sales records with Star Wars. While working on the sequel CBS suggested the idea of a holiday special. Lucas passed the project on to others. It’s Star Wars, how could it lose? We will find out after this.

In 1978, CBS approached George Lucas for a full length Star Wars Holiday Special. Lucas was busy with The Empire Strikes Back. CBS insisted that it be like a variety show, so the show was put in the hands of veteran variety show writers and producers.

George Lucas insisted that the show center around Chewbacca’s family but insisted on no subtitles to the unintelligible family.

So, we have guest hosts like Art Carney in a futuristic Ed Norton as an appliance salesman carrying the dialogue.

Before there was even a Food Network, Chewbacca’s wife watches a cooking show with an eight armed Harvey Korman doing his best impression of an alien Julia Childs.

Korman also plays a malfunctioning instructional video of what appears to be a Radio Shack 50 in 1 project kit.

The show was stretched for time with scenes like this futuristic Cirque du Soleil hologram to entertain the little Wookiee.

Grandpa then had his fantasies fulfilled, no, I’m not kidding, with sequinned dressed Diahann Carroll. I can’t believe this made it past the censors at the CBS Practices and Standards. Cher was actually offered the part but wisely turned it down.

The Wookiees Facetime with Mark Hamill and R2D2, as well as a scene from Carrie Fisher, aka Princess Leia, with C3P0 in order to have a cameo for all the Star Wars stars.

In keeping with the variety show angle, Jefferson Starship of all groups appear to entertain and soften the spirits of the Imperial Patrol. In an interview with Vanity Fair, former lead singer for Starship said, “It was such a strange iteration of the original big-screen-movie concept and your regular variety-show, Carol Burnett vibe,” he says. “I was like tripping on it myself, man.”

Bea Arthur who was famous for the TV character Maude at the time wanted the public to be aware of her previous Broadway talents as a singer. After pouring drinks down Harvey Korman’s volcano head, she bursts into song with this number.

At the time, there were only three networks and the Star Wars Holiday Show came in second, being beat by Love Boat.

In the end, all character unite with globes, donned in red snuggies and walk into the sun while Carrie Fisher sings.

In the same Vanity Fair article George Lucas was quoted as saying that if he had the time and a hammer, he would personally “smash” every bootlegged copy of the special; otherwise he has yet to come clean on the matter.

Which just proves the old saying, if you want a job done right, do it yourself!

Flo: A Sitcom Spinoff Disaster

The popular CBS sitcom Alice, which ran from 1976 to 1985, was loosely based on the successful 1974 film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. The plot had recently widowed Alice Hyatt (played by Linda Lavin) taking a waitress job in Mel’s Diner, a Phoenix eatery, to make ends meet. One of her waitress colleagues was feisty Florence (Flo) Castleberry played by Polly Holliday. The character became so popular that CBS launched a sitcom focusing on Flo. The premise of the spinoff was that Flo had moved back home to Cowtown, Texas to assume the management of a rundown roadhouse which she re-christened Flo’s Yellow Rose. As a mid-season replacement, Flo aired on Monday nights in March and April 1980 and got as high as number seven in the Neilsen ratings. However, when Flo returned in the fall of 1980 its time slot was moved several times. Ratings tanked and it was gone after a total of 29 episodes. The Flo character never returned to Alice (with the exception of old clips in the series finale). Here is the opening montage of Flo.

Search For Tomorrow

How many of you remember soap operas with organ music played throughout the episode to set the mood? The organ was used in soap operas all the way to the 70’s and it took a musician strike for them to actually stop using the organ!

Search for Tomorrow was a soap opera that ran on CBS from 1951 through 1968 as a fifteen-minute show sponsored by Proctor and Gamble. In 1968 the show went to thirty minutes. It was then picked up NBC in 1982 until it’s final episode in 1986. The show was actually performed live from the start until 1967 in favor of recorded telecasts. If you look at this clip from 1962 you can see it looks like theatrical stage acting as opposed to TV acting. Its fun watching the old dial-up telephone in use

The show was set in a town called Henderson but they never revealed the state. The main characters Mary Stuart and Larry Haines. At the time it was the longest-running soap opera at 35 years and was canceled due to low ratings.

At one point you were able to watch reruns during the late 80’s on USA Network and then on America Online video service in 2006. Who knew AOL had a video service?

I remember watching this with my grandmother in the 80’s. I use to watch General Hospital but preferred to share time with grandmother. We would get our lunch after I cleaned her house and sit and watch her soaps. Such sweet memories and a way to connect with her!

Oh, and what about the commercial for Dash? I was able to find it available for purchase only from an Italian website: https://piccolosgastronomia.com/products/dash-polvere-actilift-powder-1-625kg-box?variant=31401458925671&currency=USD

Organ music was still used in this 1962 soap opera.

Carol Burnette and Charo

Unisex Salon was the name of this skit in Season 7 Episode 2 of the Carol Burnett Show. Tim Conway attempts to get a home life interview with Chiquita who was played by Charo. The fun begins when he has trouble with her mother played by Carol Burnett.

This clip was originally uploaded to YouRememberThat.com by member Naomi on December, 19 2007.

https://www.theretrosite.com/uploads/videos/1bc2ba41e5.mp4