Wally Buono: The end is the beginning in the 1980s

Wally Buono as a player with the Montreal Alouettes.
Source: https://www.cflapedia.com/
Players/b/buono_wally.htm
(May be subject to copyright)

He started the decade winding down a playing career that included two Grey Cup championships. By the end of the decade he was poised to embark on a career that would make him the winningest coach in Canadian Football League history.

So, in many ways the end was the beginning in the 1980s for Wally Buono.

The end
As the 1980s opened, Wally Buono was finishing up his playing career, which spanned from 1972 to 1981, including two Grey Cup victories in 1974 and 1977. He had first come to my attention the first full year I watched football when his Montreal Alouettes played the Calgary Stampeders. He was playing linebacker, but what caught my attention was that he punted too.

Further research revealed he played double duty for awhile, and never missed a game in his 10 seasons in the CFL. By the time he retired in 1981, he had recorded 11 career interceptions with a career high of four in 1978, and eight career fumble recoveries. His career punting totals were 525 punts for 21,070 yards and a 40.1-yard average. His longest punt was 90 yards and he recorded 16 singles.

The beginning
After retiring in 1981, Buono was hired in 1983 as an assistant coach with the Montreal Concordes, who were essentially another incarnation of the Alouettes.

He joined the Calgary Stampeders in 1987 under new head coach Lary Kuharich. He would remain an assistant through 1989, then things changed dramatically.

Kuharich moved to B.C. to become head coach of the Lions. Eerily, it would be something Buono himself would do in 2002.

In his place stepped Wally Buono as the new head coach of the Calgary Stampeders. The league would never be the same.

Immediate impact
As the 1990s started, Wally Buono served notice things would be different in Calgary. In his first year prowling the sidelines for the Stampeders, Buono compiled a record of 11 wins, six losses and one tie, to finish first in the West Division for the first time since 1971. They would lose the Western Final, but the next year, after finishing second in the West, they advanced to their first Grey Cup in 20 years. The year after that they would win their first Grey Cup in 20 years.

And the Stampeders were off.

Coaching excellence
Wally Buono would go on to win three Grey Cups with Calgary in 1992, 1998 and 2001, and be named coach of the year in 1992 and 1993. He moved on to the B.C. Lions where he won two more Grey Cups in 2006 and 2011, and was named coach of the year in 2006 and 2011. In 2009, he passed Don Matthews as the winningest coach in CFL history. He would finish with a total of 282 career wins, 165 losses and three ties.

Parting thoughts
The 1980s were very much a decade of transition for Wally Buono. At the outset, he was finishing up a playing career that took him to five Grey Cups in 10 years, and be exposed to a lot of experienced and knowledgable football people. Perhaps the most notable was Marv Levy, his coach in Montreal, who would go on to coach the NFL Buffalo Bills to four straight Super Bowl appearances.

He would also utilize the strengths and experience of former players, most notably his longtome Montreal teammate Chuck McMann who followed him to Calgary and B.C.

Buono would serve an apprenticeship first with the Montreal Concordes then the Calgary Stampeders, before closing out the decade ready to embark on what became a prolific and profound coaching career.

It was the 1980s that prepared him for the success ahead.

Believe it or Not: Remembering the Theme from The Greatest American Hero

It was such a good song, I not only recorded it directly off TV, but it was one of the first singles I ever bought on a .45 record.

It was just like John Sebastien’s “Welcome Back” from “Welcome Back, Kotter” before it, and B.J. Thomas and Dusty Springfield’s “As Long as We’ve Got Each Other” from “Growing Pains” after it.

“Believe it or Not” by Joey Scarbury from “The Greatest American Hero” was much more than just a theme song from a TV show. It was a bonified chart success.

The song
The creators of “Believe it or Not” were a blend of experience and youth. The song was composed by Mike Post who was legendary in TV anthem circles for shows such as “The Rockford Files”, “The A-Team”, “Hill Street Blues”, “Magnum P.I.”, “L.A. Law”, “Quantum Leap”, and “NYPD Blue”.

It was sung by Joey Scarbury (although I heard it mis-pronounced often as Joey Scarborough), after he began working for Mike Post.

Together, they created an unforgettable song.

Chart success
“Believe it or Not” was recorded both as a full length single, which I bought on .45, and cut down to about a minute for television.

The song benefitted from the exposure the show gave it. “Believe it or Not” entered the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 countdown on June 13, 1981 and went all the way to number two for two weeks in August. It could just not displace from the number one spot that powerful ballad “Endless Love” by Lionel Richie and Diana Ross. It spent 18 weeks in the Top 40 and ended 1981 as the number 11 song of the year. It also hit number 1 on the US Cash Box Top 100 and number three on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart.

The time after
“Believe it or Not” would also be part of 1981's “America’s Greatest Hero”, Scarbury’s first and only studio released album. That album had some heavy hitters with songs written by Bruce Hornsby and Dan Seals.

Scarbury would team up with Mike Post again in 1984 to perform the song “Back to Back”. It was the theme song for part of the second season of the drama “Hardcastle and McCormack”, another Stephen J. Cannell Production. "Back to Back" had replaced “Drive”, which was the initial theme song for the first season. “Back to Back” was the theme song for the first 12 episodes of the second season but, because of fan backlash, “Drive” returned for the 13th episode, and remained through the second and all of the third and final season.

I have another odd memory. There was this comedy called “Jennifer Slept Here”, starring Ann Jillian as the ghost of an actress. I noticed Scarbury sang the theme song for that show as well, but that was the last I ever saw of him.

Personal memories
I loved “Believe it or Not” so much, I recorded the song off the TV, using this old tape recorder my brother left me, with the microphone it came with and a blank tape I bought at Radio Shack. I listened to it over and over to try and learn the words. The recording was not the best, so I actually taped it again off TV. It was better, but not the best. So, one Saturday when I went to Lethbridge with my parents, my Mom and I paid a visit to Anglo Stereo and Photo. It was the premiere music store in Lethbridge, with a massive selection in the basement. It was there I bought “Believe it or Not” on .45.

I took it home and used my Mom’s old record player to play that song over and over until I could sing along when “The Greatest American Hero” started.

Everyone at school knew I loved the song. We had a little dance in our classroom in Grade 7 or 8, when Mrs. Ober was our home room teacher for both years. Some of my classmates pushed aside all the desks and I heard my friend Tony Curtis call my name.

I looked up just as Tony started dancing, with his partner Michelle, to the sounds of – “Believe it or Not”.

Resurgence
What prompted my memories of “Believe it or Not” was hearing it in a commercial for State Farm insurance on TV. Earlier this year “Believe it or Not” was also in a Tide detergent commercial, which ran during the 2021 Super Bowl.

Parting thoughts
The other night I decided to watch one of my favourite episodes of “The Greatest American Hero” on demand. The minute I saw the space ship approaching Earth and “Believe it or Not” starting to play, I was taken back all those years ago. I could still sing along, because the words are still in my head.

Then an interesting thing happened. I couldn’t get the song out of my head the whole next day.

That just shows the power of that song.

It still remains one of my favourite all-time songs – believe it or not.

Taking off with The Greatest American Hero

Connie Sellecca, as Pam Davidson; William Katt as Ralph Hinkley, the Greatest American Hero; and Robert Culp as FBI Agent Bill Maxwell in "The Greatest American Hero".
Source: https://tvline.com/2017/09/08/the-greatest-american-hero-reboot-abc-female-pilot/
(May be subject to copyright)

Imagine you’re alone in the desert and your car stops working. Helpless, suddenly it sounds like your radio starts talking to you. Then, you see this blinding light that compels you to leave your car only to disover a space ship hovering over head.

Obviously aliens are making contact with you. However, these ones present you with a gift – a suit that gives you special powers.

What do you do? Try it on? Sure. Look for an instruction book to tell you what the suit does? Definitely.

How about losing the instruction book? Not a good idea.

That is exactly what high school teacher Ralph Hinkley did in the pilot of “The Greatest American Hero”.

It would go on to be my favourite show – when I could find it on the peasant vision dial.

Love at first sight
I saw the pilot of “The Greatest American Hero” on Channel 7 on the peasant vision dial, and it caught my attention immediately. It was the perfect combination of comic book super hero story with a touch of espionage. It was funny too. William Katt, who was relatively unknown at the time, played Ralph Hinkley who was summoned by aliens and given that suit. However, he was not alone. At the same time Ralph was in the desert, FBI agent Bill Maxwell, played by Robert Culp, had also been summoned, so he was there too when Ralph got the suit. They were compelled to work together, which often meant Ralph would help Bill with one of his cases. Some times something in Ralph’s life would command attention. Helping them along the way was Pam Davidson, a lawyer and Ralph’s eventual girlfriend then wife, who was played by Connie Sellecca. While they solved crimes, Ralph learned about his powers through trial and error. One he never mastered was flying. He was always out of control and the only way he landed was by crashing into something. It was always funny and it never got old.

“The Greatest American Hero” was a mid-season replacement in 1981, so the first season was only a handful of episodes – nine in total, but I loved it immediately.

Student body
Another part of the show that provided a lot of drama was Ralph’s students. There were two in particular who drew Ralph’s attention, Tony Villicana, who was kind of a hood, and Rhonda, who was kind of his girlfriend and the smartest student in class.

Tony was played by Michael Paré, who used “The Greatest American Hero” as a spring board for a number of roles. He would go on to feature in three theatrical movies – ; “Eddie and the Cruisers” in 1983; and “The Philadelphia Experiment” and “Streets of Fire” in 1984. He was back in 1986 in the police drama “Houston Knights”, playing a Chicago cop who has to re-locate to Houston.

Rhonda was played by Faye Grant who also used “The Greatest American Hero” as a springboard. In her case, she had one of the main roles on the chilling science fiction mini-series “V” where she played a scientist suspicious the visiting aliens are not as innocent as they appear. She reprised that role in the successful sequel “V: The Final Battle”, and the subsequent show “V: The Series”.

What’s in a name?
It was one of the strangest things. I was visiting my sister in Lethbridge when an episode of “The Greatest American Hero” was on. From the word go, something was off. One of the students referred to Ralph as “Mr. Hanley”. That was not right, I said, it was Hinkley. My sister was not sure, because she was not into the show as much as I was. Then, as if to accentuate the point, Ralph gets a new office and they show his name, “Ralph Hanley”, stencilled on the door.

Ralph’s name did return to Hinkley for the season two premiere, about Ralph playing professional baseball, which I also watched at my sister’s. Yet the whole thing always puzzled me until just a few years ago.

I learned that, while the show was in production, John Hinkley Junior tried to assassinate U.S. President Ronald Reagan. The producers thought it best to not draw attention to the would-be assassin, so they changed their main character’s name from Hinkley to Hanley.

I wasn’t seeing things or mis-remembering after all.

Memorable moments
There were several episodes that really stuck out for me. The most memorable centred on J.J. Beck, a wealthy man who is dying. He has Ralph and Bill kidnapped to help him recover his will. Beck plans to leave everything to charity. The will was stolen so it could be destroyed and his estate taken. Beck seems to know a fair bit about the suit too. Along with him, Ralph and Bill meet Marshall Dunn, another man who knows way too much about the suit. It turns out, the aliens had been to Earth before and gave a suit to Beck, while Dunn became his partner. Essentially, they were the original Ralph and Bill. However, instead of using the suit for good, Beck used it to become rich and famous. The aliens eventually came back and took the suit away. In the end of this episode, the aliens return and take the two old men away with them.

There was also an episode where Ralph goes undercover as a pitcher for the fictitious California Stars baseball team, to do battle with the equally fictitious Oakland Mets. There's another episode where Ralph goes undercover to play pro quarterback. He is there to help his boyhood friend Price Cobb (who Ralph called “Pridey”). Cobb was played by Stephen Shortridge, who was best known at that time for his role as Beau in "Welcome Back Kotter". Cobb is being pressured to shave points and throw an important game, but Ralph intervenes.

There was another one that I started to watch, but we had a power outage and I never did see it. In this episode, the aliens returned to give Ralph and Bill another instruction book. I was curious to see what happened, namely if he would lose the instructions again. The next morning on the school bus, one of my buddies tried to explain what happened in the rest of the episode, but it sounded too weird, I didn't believe him. I have the entire season available on-demand, so maybe I will eventually get to see it.

In production
Another aspect of “The Greatest American Hero” was the end credits. It was a “Stephen J. Cannell Production”. It was the first show that used that credit.

Cannell was one of my heroes, a television writer I tried and aspired to be like, and it all started with “The Greatest American Hero”. I just liked the way he wrote, and I connected with the premises for his TV shows. Some of his more popular shows were “The A-Team”; “Hardcastle and McCormack”; “Riptide”; and “Hunter”. I dreamed of having a company like his that put out the shows I wanted to write.

Where is it?
Peasant vision could be so frustrating. Shows would not air when they said they were in “TV Guide”, or would be moved around. They also changed channels. “The Greatest American Hero” was on Channel 7 in its first year, but moved to Channel 13 in its second year and beyond. Then it was gone.

Fate of the show
I was not sure if it had been cancelled, or Channel 13 just stopped airing it.

One afternoon, when I was home from school, William Katt appeared on daytime TV, “The Alan Hamel Show” I think. They mentioned that his show was on hold. It had not been cancelled, but it hadn’t been renewed either. Back then, there weren’t as many entertainment shows and magazines talking about cancellations and renewals either.

I finally found out the fate of "The Greatest American Hero" in an odd way. I was reading the fall preview issue of “TV Guide”. There I saw Connie Sellecca co-starring in a new show called “Hotel”. Well, obviously she wasn’t going to be on two shows.

That meant disaster had struck.

“The Greatest American Hero” had been cancelled.

The years after

Mother and son

William Katt will be best known as Ralph Hinkley, but he had a special role after "The Greatest American Hero". He was the son of Barbara Hale, an actor who would actually play Ralph's mom in "The Greatest American Hero". However, she was best known for her role as Della Street, Perry Mason's secretary in the television legal drama of the same name. In 1985, NBC began airing Perry Mason television movies. The other regular on the original show was a private investigator Perry used named Paul Drake. The actor had died before the remakes, so William Katt played Paul Drake Junior in nine TV movies. Son was reunited with mother.

Not a suit but a shirt

The first time I saw it, I wasn't sure I believed what I was seeing. It was an episode of "The Big Bang Theory" and uber-science fiction nerd Sheldon Cooper regularly wore t-shirts with comic graphics on them. On this day, it was the symbol from Ralph's suit on "The Greatest American Hero". Wikipedia confirmed for me that in fact was the case. It was a nice touch.

Parting thoughts
I was surprised to learn that only 43 episodes of “The Greatest American Hero” were made over three seasons, from 1981 to 1983. That makes sense with the first season being a mid-season replacement and the last season put on hold after nine episodes.

In that short a time, it had quite an effect on me. It just had something that connected with me. Maybe it was Ralph’s idealism and the desire to use the suit for good, or Bill’s cynicism but still doing the right thing.

I do believe it was the combination of super hero story, espionage, and comedy. The show didn’t take itself too seriously at times, but at other times it really did. People were killed and in danger. The stakes were high, and Ralph and Bill did have to save the world.

My only wish is that it could have been given more time to explore more stories. But maybe that would have just made it run out of steam.

We’ll never know.



What I do know was that for a 12-year-old kid in 1982 it was must-see viewing – when I could find it.

The Thorn Birds: Remembering the miniseries

Rachel Ward and Richard Chamberlain in "The Thorn Birds".
Source: http://bookorbigscreen.blogspot.com/2011/10/one-superlative-song-existence-price.html
(May be subject to copyright)

It was one of the most watched television events of the 1980s, and a symbol of one of those things we have lost – the epic television miniseries.

For four nights, record numbers of viewers faithfully tuned in to see if a priest played by Richard Chamberlain, would bow to carnal desire and finally get together with Meggie Cleary, played by newcomer Rachel Ward.

“The Thorn Birds” was one of the most memorable miniseries of the 1980s.

The story
Chamberlain plays Father Ralph de Bricassart, an ambitious young Catholic priest, who is posted to a small community in Australia. He gets the attention of Mary Carson, a local matriarch, who tries desperately to tempt him to break his vows, but never succeeds. Ralph curries her favour in the hopes she will make a sizeable contribution to the Catholic Church and further his own ambition. Meanwhile, over time, he grows closer to young Meggie Cleary who grows into an attractive woman.

When Mary Carson dies, it is discovered she has left the bulk of her estate to the church and made Ralph the executor. That forces him to choose between ambition and staying close to Meggie. It was a master manipulation from the grave by a jealous Mary Carson. Ralph chose to pursue his ambition.

The remainder of the miniseries focuses on what becomes of Ralph and Meggie. He goes off to Rome and progresses all the way to the position of cardinal. Meggie will marry Luke O”Neill, a farm worker who does not fulfill Meggie, and eventually she will leave him. Inevitably, Ralph and Meggie will cross paths from time to time resulting in no end of drama.

It was a riveting story.

The mini-series
One of the hallmarks of television in the 1980s was the mini-series.

It all really started in the 1970s with “Roots”, which became the most watched mini-series of all time. “The Thorn Birds” would be number two.

It was so successful that I did not watch it when it first aired in March of 1983. Instead, my mom told me all about it. “The Thorn Birds” was so popular, I watched it when it was rerun in January of 1985. Because it was so dense with detail, my mom’s explanation was not a spoiler at all. It just whet my appetite.

Richard Chamberlain, who played Ralph de Bricassart, became a mini-series legend. He started in a miniseries called “Centennial” in 1978 then really hit it big with “Shogun” in 1980. That mini-series, set in feudal Japan and based on the James Clavell novel, was a real television event.

There would be many more – “Rich Man, Poor Man”; “The Blue and the Gray”; “North and South”; “Masada”; “Winds of War”; “War and Remembrance”; “Marco Polo”; “Space”; “Master of the Game”; and so many more.

It was such a big part of television viewing back then. The mini-series allowed producers to tell longer stories than could fit in a two-hour made-for-TV movie, yet were not meant to be series television.

It was the epitome of appointment viewing, because everybody tuned into whatever minis-series it was, and it was all the talk at school the next day.

Parting thoughts
This was another idea that sat at the bottom of my blog’s closet for a long time. I initially wrote it down when I heard Colleen McCullough, who wrote the book “The Thorn Birds”, passed away in 2015.

It brought back some interesting memories. “The Thorn Birds” cemented Richard Chamberlain’s place as a mini-series star, while it launched the careers of Rachel Ward, who played Meggie, and Bryan Brown, who played Luke. Interestingly, Ward and Brown met on the set of “The Thorn Birds”, fell in love and got married. They are together to this day.

“The Thorn Birds” would go on to be nominated for 11 Primetime Emmy awards, winning for outstanding achievement in makeup; outstanding art direction for a mini-series or movie; outstanding film editing for a mini-series or movie; outstanding lead actress in a mini-series or movie for Barbara Stanwyck who played Mary Carson; outstanding supporting actor in a mini-series or movie for Richard Kiley; and outstanding supporting actress in a mini-series or movie for Jean Simmons. Chamberlain was nominated for outstanding lead actor; Brown and Christopher Plummer were nominated for outstanding supporting actor; Piper Laurie was nominated for outstanding supporting actress; and “The Thorn Birds” was nominated for outstanding mini-series or movie.

What I will always remember was how much my Mom loved “The Thorn Birds” the first time she saw it, and told me all about it. I really don’t know why I didn’t watch it that first time in 1983.

I did not make that mistake twice when it re-aired in 1985.

Sitting there beside me all four nights to watch it again, was my Mom, and she loved it just as much the second time around.

I could see why.

Richard Kiel: Much more than a giant

Richard Kiel as Samson in "The Longest Yard".
Source: https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/215258057167832167/
(May be subject to copyright)

He could have just been another giant on screen – a one dimensional oaf, a goon, a barbarian.

Instead, Richard Kiel represented his size well, playing multi-dimensional giants. Sometimes he was terrifying, sometimes he played his part for laughs, and sometimes he was just plain endearing.

In the two parts I remember best, he was a hulking inmate who was part killer and part softie in “The Longest Yard”, and a villain who turned good and loving in two James Bond movies.

Along the way he also dabbled in some television in the 1980s.

I was sad to hear Richard Kiel passed away a few years ago, and I had been meaning to explore his career a little closer.

His name lurked near the bottom of a list of ideas in a dusty old folder on my computer’s desktop, but now it is seeing the light day.

Early roles
Richard Kiel was seven feet two inches tall, the result of too much growth hormone growing up. He would break into acting in the 1960s and often play the bad guy in everything from “The Wild, Wild West” and “The Man from U*N*C*L*E” to “Gilligan’s Island” and “The Monkees”.

Richard Kiel as a Kanamit in "To Serve Man",
one of my favourite episodes of "The Twilight Zone".
Source: http://martingrams.blogspot.com/
2013/03/the-twilight-zone-to-serve-man.html
(May be subject to copyright)

“To Serve Man”
He also had a role in perhaps my favourite episode of the original “Twilight Zone", which I did see in the 1980s.

Kiel played a Kanamit, a member of a towering alien species who have come to Earth in friendship. They eradicate the world’s problems and appear to be a dream come true. One day, the Kanamit leaves a book at a press conference, and American linguists work to decipher it. They start with the title, “To Serve Man”. That puts everyone at ease, because that means they are there to help – to serve. Meanwhile, the story really revolves around one man, played by Canadian actor Lloyd Bochner. As the episode progresses, he becomes more comfortable with the Kanamits and decides to take them up on their offer of a trip to their home world. As he starts to board the departing ship, his friend comes running up, yelling the rest of the book has been deciphered.

“It’s a cook book!” she yelled, but it was too late for him to escape.

It was awesome.

I saw that episode as part of one of the “Twilight Zone” marathons Channel 7 played one weekend when I was in junior high. I was hanging out at my sister’s place in Lethbridge on a Saturday afternoon when I saw it.

Interestingly, in the 2019 re-boot, the Kanamits make another appearance and hint at still dining on humans when they decide to order out and get some “extra crispy”. It is unfortunate Richard Kiel died before that and could not complete that circle.

Life on the gridiron
Perhaps the first role I saw Richard Kiel in was as “Samson” in “The Longest Yard” where he played this towering inmate. When Paul Crewe, played by Burt Reynolds, goes to see him about playing on his football team, Samson is lifting 400-pound barbells with ease and says he was Mr. Florida 1964. He does not seem too eager to play football. Then Crewe tells him they are playing the guards. Samson smiles, says he would like that, and is looking forward to it. Then he returns to lifting 400 pounds like it was nothing.

We see his softer side in practice one day when he is slugged by Shockner, the meanest of the prisoners. Samson laments he broke his nose and Shockner did it in purpose. Crewe soothes him, saying he didn’t. Not only does he reset Samson’s nose, but he gets Shockner to apologize. Samson is just ecstatic like a little kid, telling everyone Shockner said he was sorry.

Then, during the big game, Samson is playing defence and gets a dirty hit from a guard. He vows to clothesline that son of a b—ch if he comes through the middle again. Sure enough he does, and Samson clotheslines him. Samson stands over him and exclaims joyously, “Hey, I think I broke his f—king neck!”. The medic comes over and says, “I think he broke his f—king neck!”

“I told you I broke his f—king neck!” Samson responds, and the whole defence mobs him with delight.

Even the public address announcer gets into the action.

“I think he broke his f—king neck!” he says over the loud speakers.

It was awesome.

Richard Kiel as Jaws in two James Bond films.
Source: https://variety.com/2014/film/news/
james-bond-villain-richard-kiel-dies-at-74-1201303251/
(May be subject to copyright)

Man with the steel teeth
Richard Kiel would turn his heads in the James Bond espionage thriller “The Spy Who Loved Me” in 1977, as a gigantic assasin with steel teeth named Jaws. He easily kills his victims with a combination of strength and those teeth, yet Bond eludes him. The time I remember best, is when Jaws has Bond in a death grip and the only way the spy can escape is by breaking a lamp and shocking Jaws in the teeth to release his grip. Jaws also survives everything and just keeps coming, and is seen to survive at the end of the movie.

He returns in 1979 in “Moonraker”, once again employed by a villain Bond has to battle. This time around, Jaws finds a girlfriend that softens his temperament. He turns against his employer, and helps Bond. The last time we see him is in space, being left behind with the love of his life. We discover they did make it back to Earth safely.

He had become a good guy, and it was awesome.

Hulking out – almost
Something I just recently discovered was that Richard Kiel was one of the actors tapped to try out for the role of the Hulk in the television series “The Incredible Hulk”. It was 1977, and Arnold Schwarzenegger was also considered for the part. Kiel made it to the pilot stage, but the producers realized they wanted someone more muscular, and not so tall, and Kiel so replaced by body-building champion Lou Ferrigno.

The 1980s and beyond
Richard Kiel didn’t have a lot of parts in the 1980s, but he did make guest appearances on TV in both “The Fall Guy” and “Simon and Simon”, as well as roles in movies such as “Cannonball Run II” and “Pale Rider”.

Richard Kiel kept working on television, films, most notably “Happy Gilmore” and “Inspector Gadget”, and in video games as Jaws, until 2012. He died in 2014 at the age of 74.

Parting thoughts
Richard Kiel had a productive and fruitful acting career, playing a wide variety of roles.

At a time when he could have so easily been typecast as a villainous giant, or a lovable oaf, he gave a humanity and sense of humour to roles that could have been one dimensional.

That made him much more than a giant.

Remembering AM 106: An indelible impression

The familiar logo of popular
Calgary radio station AM 106 in the 1980s.
Source: https://forum.calgarypuck.com/
showthread.php?t=143255
(May be subject to copyright)

It was kind of a strange thing.

With two really good pop and rock music radio stations in Lethbridge, often my ghetto blaster or car radio found itself tuned to a station broadcast from Calgary, and often the reception wasn’t very good.

But it had some compelling features that made me and some of my friends want to keep tuning in.

It was called AM 106, sounding more like an FM station, although it was 1060 on the AM dial.

Tuning in
To be honest, I am not sure why I tuned in to AM 106 for the first time. I knew I had heard about it from somewhere, likely someone at school or maybe one of my music-savvy cousins, because I did not find it by accident I don’t think. However, it was so close to 1090 CHEC on the dial, maybe I did find it by accident.

Whatever the origin, once I found it, there was a lot to keep me coming back.

Playing the hits
AM 106 had a couple features I just loved – the Top 6 at 6 and its sibling the Top 10 at 10. They were both countdowns based on the number of votes each song received through the station’s “hitlines”. That meant people had to phone in to register votes, which is really impressive because back in the ‘80s, the only phones were land lines. People did not have phones with them 24/7 like now, they had to seek them out to make a call.

What I and a couple of my friends really liked was, if you wanted to know the name of a song or you wanted to tape it off the radio, the Top 6 at 6 and the Top 10 at 10 were guaranteed spots to hear those songs.

A good example was back in 1986 when I was working with my buddy Mat and some other friends cleaning out some chicken coops. There was a ghetto blaster playing, and I heard a song that sounded like new Chicago. It couldn’t be that sound tough, because their lead singer, Peter Cetera, had left. After the song ended, I waited for the deejay to say who sang it but, as was often the case, he didn’t.

So that night, I tuned in the Top 10 at 10 and heard the song again – plus an explanation. The song was “The Glory of Love”, the first solo release for – Peter Cetera.

Thank you AM 106.

Showdown
Another feature was “Showdown” where two songs went head to head. One was the “Champion” because it had earned the most votes on the day’s “Hitlines” the day before. The other was the “Challenger”, which was a new song trying to de-throne the “Champion”. To do that, all it needed to do was get more votes than the champion. If the champion kept winning night after night, it was retired after a certain number of nights, I want to say five for a complete week.

It was a good way to hear brand new releases.

“Showdown” was much like what TSN does with its “One-V-one” highlight of the night.

Win a prize
AM 106 also had the “Designated hit”. The station would announce a particular song as the “Designated hit”. When it played, the first person who heard it and called it in won a prize. It engaged listeners and was another reason to tune in.

Voices of radio
Through the magic of the Internet, I re-discovered another vital part of AM 106’s appeal – the deejays. There were two in particular who came to mind – Rick Sadler and Glen Slingerland. Sadler is still in Calgary while Slingerland has been in BC this century.

However, I was able to find some recordings of both Sadler and Slingerland, and others, and it took me right back to the 1980s.

Here are some links:

Rick Sadler: 1988 – https://soundcloud.com/westernbroadcasters/rick-sadler-am-106-april-14-1988

Glen Slingerland: 1988 – https://www.radiowest.ca/sound/cfcnslingerland880414.mp3

Don Stevens: 1987 – https://www.pugetsoundradio.com/2014/07/04/106-calgary-aircheck-1987/

Parting thoughts
I keep thinking AM 106 had to have something different if me and so many others were willing to brave static and poor reception to listen to it.

Getting a chance to listen to some snippets of it online reminded me that AM 106 just had something different. It had this unique sound. Maybe it was the deejays and the Top 10 at 10, or just the music.

Whatever it was, AM 106 left an indelible impression on my musical memories of the 1980s.

Rich Little’s “A Christmas Carol”: Comic genius

The characters Rich Little played in his rendition a "A Christmas Carol".
Source: https://www.christianskitscripts.com/scrooge/2018/09/10/rich-littles-christmas-carol/
(May be subject to copyright)

He was the master of impressions, a man who could imitate anyone and everyone. He could not only do the voice, but the mannerisms, and even a celebrity’s little ticks and quirks.

By the 1980s, Rich Little had been entertaining crowds for decades with live shows in Las Vegas and California, and on television, most notably Dean Martin Roasts among other shows.

Rich Little was Canadian, a national treasure who came to produce a one-man television special that showcased all his talents.

That show was “Rich Little’s Christmas Carol” and I saw it almost as much as I saw “Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas”.

Like the dickens
I always admired Rich Little’s creativity. Although he made his living being the opposite of creative by imitating famous people, I was amazed by the way he told a story using impersonations of famous people as characters. He did it with “Robin Hood” in 1982, but it started with Charles Dickens' story “A Christmas Carol” on CBC in 1978. I would go on to see it in reruns around Christmas time through much of the 1980s.

In this one-man show, Rich Little interprets the story of Ebenezer Scrooge in his own way. The story unfolds as Scrooge, a miserly old bachelor who hates Christmas, is taken through a journey of his own life by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. Ultimately, he sees the error of his ways and catches the Christmas Spirit.

In Rich Little’s telling, he played the story’s characters impersonating the following celebrities, courtesy of Wikipedia:

• Ebenezer Scrooge – W.C Fields;

• Bob Cratchit – Paul Lynde;

• Fred – Johnny Carson;

• The two soldiers – Laurel and Hardy;

• Jacob Marley – Richard Nixon;

• Ghost of Christmas Past – Humphrey Bogart;

• Fezziwig – Groucho Marx;

• Dick Wilkins – Jimmy Stewart;

• Ghost of Christmas Present – Peter Falk as Columbo;

• Mrs. Cratchit – Jean Stapleton as Edith Bunker;

• Tiny Tim – Truman Capote;

• Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come – Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau;

• The three businessmen – James Mason, George Burns, and John Wayne;

• A boy – Jack Benny.

Parting thoughts
“Rich Little’s Christmas Carol” was another part of the annual Christmas fare on TV in the 1980s in the three-channel universe.

When I first saw it, I was just intrigued with one man doing all these impressions. It was also my first exposure to the story of “A Christmas Carol”.

To this day, when I see some version of “A Christmas Carol”, I imagine Richard Nixon as Jacob Marley and Truman Capote as Tiny Tim.

It was only when I got older, and began to understand who some of these people were that I really appreciated something.

Rich Little’s comic genius.

“Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas” – A gift

Emmet Otter's Jug Band, with Emmet second from the left,
and his mother Alice right in the middle. It is an amazing Christmas classic.
Source: https://lithub.com/is-emmet-otters-jug-band-christmas-a-work-of-genius/
(May be subject to copyright)

Of all the Christmas shows that come on TV every season, there was one that stands out for me even now, more than 40 years later. It is not Charlie Brown, the Grinch, or Frosty the Snowman, although all three hold a special place in my heart too.

Yet none of them can top my all-time favourite Christmas show. A product of Jim Henson’s Muppet studio, there is nothing like “Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas.”

In the beginning
It was way back in the 1970s when I was in elementary school that I first saw “Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas”, and it left a lasting impression.

It opens with an old favourite – Kermit the Frog – narrating. He tells the story of Emmet Otter who lives with his mother Alice on “The River”. They both do odd jobs to make ends meet, with Emmet more of a fix-it man while his mom does laundry. Emmet’s dad had been a snake-oil salesman – literally – who died although we never found out how. We do know that both Emmet and Alice love him and miss him dearly.

They both want to provide a great Christmas for each other, but have no money to do it. Then they get their chance. There is going to be a talent show with a $50 grand prize. Emmet joins a jug band to enter while Alice decides to enter as a solo act. However, both have to make big sacrifices. In order to make a washtub bass for the band, Emmet has to put a hole in his ma’s wash tub, which is her sole source of income. At the same time, Alice needs a dress to perform. The only way to get the money to buy one, is to hock Emmet’s tool box, his sole source of income. Both struggle with their decisions but go ahead, unbeknownst to the other.

The night of the talent show arrives and all is revealed. Tragedy strikes too, as someone performs “Barbecue”, the song Emmet’s band intended to perform before they do. Now, they don’t want to look like copy cats, so they hastily rehearse a new song outside. Meanwhile, Alice performs and kills it. Then Emmet’s band performs and does well too.

However, before the judges deliberate, a late entry performs. They are “The Nightmare”, a bad-boy band from a neighbouring town, who electrify the crowd and win the prize.

Emmet, his band and his ma all walk home together where they reveal what they have done. All is forgiven as they sing together, combining their two songs from the talent show. They are overheard by Doc Bullfrog, who owns a nearby restaurant. He offers them a job, enough money for everyone to live on. The show ends with them doing their first show.

The special concludes with more words from Kermit the Frog.

That story has always tugged at my heart strings.

The show goes on
Over the years I watched it on CBC every year. One time, “Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas” was on at the same time as our annual Christmas concert at St. Joseph’s School. We actually got to watch it in our classroom, because we had already done our part of the concert. Another time, we hurried home after our Christmas concert in order to catch it on TV.

I kept watching it through junior high and high school on CBC, then lost track when I left home for university in 1987.

However, about 10 years later I returned to Southern Alberta, and that first Christmas back I saw “Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas” once more. It was no longer aired by CBC because there were likely too many other choices. Instead, it was on the specialty channel Showcase, and still as good as ever.

Kindred spirits
When I started dating my spouse, she told me she had this Christmas tradition she always did. I am pretty open to things, but I was shocked by what she described.

“I watch ‘Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas’ every year,” she said.

My jaw dropped open.

That was one of the first of many times I knew we were kindred spirits and she was the one for me.

A couple years later, after she got to know my family better, she said Emmet and his mom reminded her of me and my mom. I smiled because my mother’s name is also Alice.

The best part of it all? She has “Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas” on DVD so we can watch it whenever we like. We do not have to rely on CBC, Showcase, or any other broadcaster.

Parting thoughts
“Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas” will always have a special place in my heart. Not only is it a charming story about the love between a mother and son, but also about friendship, sacrifice, and loyalty.

It was the kind of story Jim Henson did best.

Whenever I see “Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas”, I miss Jim Henson not only for the stories he told in my childhood and the influence he had on my life, but I am sad the next generation won’t be able to share that same gift.

And at the end of the day, that is what “Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas” is – a gift.

Bryan Adams’ “Christmas Time”: A holiday favourite

I was 15 the first time I heard it, but it immediately became my favourite pop music Christmas song.

In an era of everything from Cory Hart singing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Rein Deer” to Bruce Springsteen singing, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”, for me nothing beats Bryan Adams’ “Christmas Time”.

More than 25 years later it is still my favourite.

The history of the song
Adams wrote “Christmas Time” with longtime partner Jim Vallance. They released it late in 1985, coming off the heels of a very successful year for Adams whose album “Reckless” had produced hit after hit after from “Run to You” and “Somebody” to the number one hit “Heaven” and the anthemic “Summer of ‘69”.

Wikipedia reveals it was released on clear, green vinyl with a picture sleeve. I never did see the single in the record store though.

It reached number 31 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Chart and number 39 in Canada, although it peaked at number four on the Billboard 100 Christmas chart. It earned a gold record in Canada too for selling 100,000 copies.

“Christmas Time” remains a song that receives regular airplay every year at, well, Christmas time.

No music video for "Christmas Time" was released in the 1980s. However in December of 2019, Adams released the above video on YouTube.

Christmas on the farm
I still remember the first time I heard it. I was in Grade 11, lying in my water bed on the farm. I used to have this ghetto blaster that I listened to music on. By then, it was mostly 1090 CHEC radio, because they played singles more than albums. My Dad usually went to bed around 9 p.m. Our farm house had paper thin walls, so after 9 p.m. we always turned the volume down on the TV and the radio. After I got that ghetto blaster, I also got a pair of head phones. I used those when listening to the radio after everyone went to bed. I recall hearing “Christmas Time” over my head phones. The next time I heard it, I just pinned the volume and made my head phones vibrate.

That was not the last time I turned the volume right up when “Christmas Time” came on. In fact, this past Christmas season I pinned it again when the song came over CJOC 94.1 FM.

Parting thoughts
Every year, when “Christmas Time” comes up on the radio, I am taken back to Christmas time on the farm. It was such a good song.

I think I love it most because it is not a cover like so many other pop classic Christmas songs. It is an original song written and performed by Bryan Adams himself. There are no expectations, nothing to compare it to, unlike a song that may have been recorded a dozen times by a dozen different performers.

It also has a positive message about the joy the Christmas season brings in a world of joy and freedom.

What more could you ask for in a Christmas song?

Here’s to a new year

Initially this was intended to be posted on January 1, but things just got in the way.

I wanted it to be a New Year’s Resolution of sorts, pledging to write more this year. I wanted to build on the success I had in the latter part of 2020 when I reeled off 65 straight posts. When I recorded my second highest total, 72, and my best output since 2014 when I had 71 posts.

But I never got there.

It is best, looking back, to do it now. I have posted for the entire month of April, 30 straight days, and am embarking on a new month and continuing this latest streak.

So this is not so much a resolution to start of a calendar year, but a resolution for a 12-month period.

The writing habit
That resolution is a simple one – to develop the writing habit. There is no point in setting goals of this many posts in a month or that many posts in a year. Instead, it is much more valuable to create that habit of writing regularly. It takes something like six weeks, or maybe a couple months, to develop a new habit. That is what I am going to try to do.

To that end, I keep what I like to call my word count log, where I write down how many words I write every day. It seems to help because it sure is gratifying to look back and see what has been accomplished, and how the writing habit has a cumulative effect. Even a few words a day turns into a lot more when they're all added together after a week or a month.

It has also done some other things for me.

Blog ideas
My writing back log has been cleared up. I had exactly 30 post ideas sitting in the “Draft” folder of the blogging software I use. Those are all gone – all posted and there for the world to read now.

Some of them were topics that I just started because I wanted to keep a streak going. I did not give them much thought. But, I just could not delete them because they caught my attention for some reason, so I wrote about them. This has taught me two things – one is to not pick topics whimsically or haphazardly but give them some thought. The other is creating an actual post makes it real, so it becomes something I had to finish. And sometimes, it meant I started out by just free writing about a topic, such as David Cassidy or Morgan Woodward, and found a theme, some connection to the 1980s, that turned into a pretty serviceable post.

I shouldn’t say the back log is gone, because there are still a few things. I will deal with those, then I will get on with another aspect of this whole process for me – my bulging idea file. Sitting in two file folders in my work office are newspaper clippings, printouts from the Internet, and notes I have scribbled to myself on scraps of paper and the backs of envelopes. Now is the time to dig deep in there. I know, there are a lot of topics I have already used, but I know there are many more I have not done yet. That is the beauty of scribbling a note right away – striking while the iron is hot – because often I forget about it soon after I wrote it down. Re-discovering these ideas is energizing.

Parting thoughts
Always at the back of my mind I have thought if it would be possible to post 1,000 entries. Right now I am at 390. This will make number 391. I am not sure if I will get there because I am just under 40 per cent there and it has taken 8.5 years.

Maybe developing a writing habit will get me there.

So here's to a new year of writing and forming the writing habit.