Sinatra: 80 Years My Way with guest Don Rickles (1995)

The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson with guest Don Rickles (1992)

I've posted so many episodes of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson with Don Rickles as a guest I really can't remember which of these I've posted before (if any). Well, if this has appeared before, it's just like when Johnny was still on the air - a plethora of reruns (actually, i'm pretty sure I haven't posted this one before - surely I'd remember Don slapping Ed in the face!).

The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson with guest Gil Fates (1978)

Gidget with special guest star Irwin Charone (1965)

I was saying yesterday how I love the way popular culture bastardized and utilized beat culture and the hippies that followed in their barefootsteps to contemporize their output. Comic books, cartoon shows, beach party movies and sitcoms also capitalized on mods and the British invasion with all manner of dumb take-offs on The Beatles and their like. This episode of Gidget revolves around a fictional rock band called The Dingbats. It also features a very funny turn from character actor Irwin Charone as a florist.

Here's Lucy (1974) - Footage Offline - 03/10/09

This is a bizarre episode of Lucille Ball's third television series, Here's Lucy. The series often featured celebrity guest stars (usually used to make up for tired, old fashioned scripts), but in this episode the celebrity guest star is Lucy herself. Lucy's character Lucy Carter meets Lucile Ball. A bizarre, almost existentialist concept.

Get Smart with guest star Larry Storch (1968)

This episode of Get Smart features night club comedian and F-Troop star Larry Storch as The Groovy Guru and has Don Adams going undercover as a hippie. I'm a big fan of all the ridiculous depictions of beatniks and hippies in old sitcoms, cop shows, and in all facets of pop culture, really.

The Today Show with host John Charles Daly and guest Harpo Marx (1961) - Footage Offline - 06/06/10

Democratic National Convention on NBC sponsored by Gulf Oil (1968)

The Dick Cavett Show with guests George Harrison and Ravi Shankar (1971)

The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson with guests Tom Hulce and myth debunker James Randi (1987)

The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson with guests Siskel & Ebert - Footage Offline - 12/20/09 (1987)

There's a moment early on in this one where Johnny gives the camera a priceless look while the critics bicker.

ABC Wide World of Entertainment: What's My Line at 25 (1975)

The Wide World of Entertainment was a weekly series on ABC that featured a different format each week, often showcasing things that no longer had a regular position on the network. Dick Cavett's nightly talk show had been cancelled earlier due to political and corporate pressure. Cavett was demoted to a monthly edition of his show that aired as part of The Wide World of Entertainment and their Wide World Specials. Here is a particularly impressive special, celebrating a quarter century of our favorite panel show here on Classic Television Showbiz, What's My Line, in nine YouTube parts.

Merv Griffin: Banned in Boston (1961)

Ozark Jubilee with host Red Foley and featuring Thumbs Carlisle and Curly Chalker (1955)

Born For Hard Luck with Peg Leg Sam (1976)

Another fine dancer-musician with a wooden leg, here is a 1976 black and white documentary from Tom Davenport about Peg Leg Sam. 

The Ed Sullivan Show with guest Peg Leg Bates (1960)

Peg Leg Bates in Unknown Film

This is footage from one of those low-budget all-Black cast road house pictures that played exclusively for Black audiences in the nineteen forties. Not sure what film it's from, however. May have been a short or may have been feature length (and feature length for these type of films was usually somewhere around fifty minutes).

The Merv Griffin Show in Las Vegas (1981)

Stringbean

Not sure which of the never ending list of old country music programs this one is from, but footage of the hillbilly that invented hip hop fashion is always worth posting. Read the crazy story of Stringbean here.

I've Got a Secret with guest Liberace (1962)