Wesley Britton's Blog - Posts Tagged "60s-television"

Irwin Allen's Lost in Space, The Authorized Biography of a Classic Sci-Fi Series (Volume 3)
Marc Cushman
Paperback: 542 pages
Publisher: Jacob Brown Media Group; 1 edition (February 1, 2017)
ISBN-10: 0692814264
ISBN-13: 978-0692814260
https://www.amazon.com/Irwin-Allens-L...

Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton

Whew, I made it! I finally finished all three volumes of Marc Cushman’s exhaustive history of Irwin Allen’s Lost in Space TV series. I now realize much of what I have to say about volume three is much the same as what I said about volumes one and two.

This time around, the preliminary material is much shorter than before with little to talk about other than the unhappiness of stars Guy Williams and June Lockhart about their diminished roles in season two of LIS. We get two forwards by former cast members, Mark Goddard (Don West) and Marta Kristen (Judy Robinson). We’re told season three was designed to be less comic and feature more action and, allegedly, more of the cast beyond Jonathan Harris, Bill Mumy and the robot than before. Well, not so much, as it turned out.

Then, as usual, Cushman pushes TMI to its utter extreme. For example, he still lists all the script rewrites including noting what color paper they were written on— blue, red, green, yellow. We see how each broadcast’s ratings fared against its competition, which was still The Virginian on NBC and ABC’s replacement for the Batman, Patty Duke pairing, the short-lived Custer. Then in January 1967, Custer was replaced by the first color season of The Avengers.

Cushman still provides many of the strange memos from the network brass, such as the inexplicable request Angela Cartwright’s long hair be hidden in a short hair wig. He still adds his commentary on each episode, including praising “Space Beauty” for its parodying of beauty pageants and his defense of “The great Vegetable Rebellion,” apparently considered by many to be the series’ lowest point. It could have been even lower had plans to add a purple lama as a permanent cast member been fulfilled.

Without question, it takes a strong reader to plow through the blow-by-blow accounts of all the episode analyses and synopses. It’s really the after-LIS section where we get a really good discussion of what happened after CBS didn’t so much cancel the show as much as let it die. The network wanted a lower budget for a fourth season; Allen wasn’t willing to accept any cuts. He had other irons in the fire.

So, after the obligatory mini-biographies of what happened to the major participants after LIS went off the air, we get a very revealing narrative about Allen’s attempts to bring the franchise to the big screen and see how LIS was kept alive in cast reunions, at cons, in syndication and on cable, on video and DVD, and in comic books. And ultimately, of course, the disappointing New Line 1998 big screen incarnation produced after Allen’s death.

Added content includes an odd recap of the relationship between actor Jonathan Harris and his secretive, reclusive wife Gertrude and an overview of the aborted WB TV remake that would have been targeted to adolescents and focused on a romance between a new Judy Robinson and Major Don West. Finally, Cushman offers a few notes on the 2017 Netflix reboot.

As I said in my reviews of Volumes 1 and 2 of these Authorized Biographies, you gotta be a diehard, serious fan of Lost in Space to want these no-stones-unturned tomes. As these are mainly research books, no library with a decent media section should miss them. TV sci fi fans might also like to have access to these books, especially for the color photo fests each volume includes.

This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Fri. Aug. 11 at:
http://dpli.ir/lbTXfP

Long Title: Looking for the Good Times; Examining the Monkees' Songs, One by One
Mark Arnold and Michael A. Ventrella
Paperback: 286 pagesPublisher: BearManor Media (November 10, 2017)
ISBN-10: 1629331759
ISBN-13: 978-1629331751
https://www.amazon.com/Long-Title-Loo...


Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton

Some rock ‘n roll histories are designed to tell the stories of significant performers, genres, composers, producers, or record companies that shed light on the backgrounds, influences on, and legacies of their respective subjects. Some rely on considerable research, interviews, or their own experiences to go behind the scenes to show how popular music was made. Some of these histories go beyond the music and reveal much about the culture of the times and and are more than an exploration of a particular band or performer.

Other books have a more specific focus with a much more targeted audience. Such titles are often written by devoted fans and are usually meant to interest fellow aficionados of a particular group or personality. Such is the case for Looking for the Good Times—it’s obviously meant for Monkees fans who don’t mind reads based on personal opinions and not so much critical analysis.

Following a concise history of the group, The book looks at the complete Monkees song canon arranged in chronological order based on recording dates. The authors believe this order also helps show the evolution, or devolution depending on your point of view, of the band as it changed more than some listeners might think. The authors include pretty much every song issued during the 1960s run, many tunes issued on various compilations in the subsequent decades, some tracks the authors never heard but apparently found listed somewhere, alternate takes, rehearsal jams, and some rehearsal bits released on one post-break-up collection or another. A sample “analysis” should illustrate what the book is all about:

VALLERI (Tommy Boyce/Bobby Hart)
Monkee involvement: Vocals by Davy Jones
Recording dates: August 6,1966; August 27,1966; December 26,1967; December 28,1967
Highest chart position: #3 single
Original release date: March 2,1968 from 7" single and THE BIRDS, THE BEES
AND THE MONKEES

Mark: I love, love, love this song and its brass. I also love the flamenco guitar even if Nesmith really isn't playing it. The version I love best is the fade-out version from this album rather than the abrupt cold ending.
A first recorded version appears on the 2006 MORE OF THE MONKEES DELUXE EDITION CD. This is one is basically the version heard on the TV show, which originally appeared on MISSING LINKS, VOLUME 2 (1990). It's a little more lax than the punched-up single version.

Michael: I don't share in the love for this simple little song. In fact, Michael Nesmith is reported to have said that this was the worst song ever. I don't think I'd go that far. The performance is pretty good, and the horns improve the song tremendously from the earlier version done for the TV show, but the words are simple and the tune basically consists of the hook and then two lines, repeated in various ways.
This song fits much better in 1966 when it was first recorded, before the show even debuted. They redid it here and added horns, and it is a better version but it still sounds dated, since music had changed so much in that short period of time.
This was their last hit single, released at the tail end of the TV show before the summer repeats kicked in.

While promo for the book touts interviews with folks like Gene Cornish (The Rascals), Ron Dante (The Archies), Tommy James (The Shondells), Peter Noone (Herman’s Hermits), and actor Butch Patrick, these aren’t interviews but are instead short anecdotes and remembrances by fellow travelers of ‘60s popular culture. Not essential reading, but little bits of fun. Just like the introduction written by Howard Kaylan of The Turtles.

Clearly, interest in the music of The Monkees will be what draws readers to this volume, or not. Unless you’ve devoted the same amount of time to listening to all those hours of Monkees records, out-takes, deep cuts, and alternate versions, readers will likely learn all sorts of trivia they didn’t know before. Me, I decided there’s a large body of Monkee music, especially the Missing Links collections, that I have missed and should try out. Others might like to compare their own knowledge with the authors. For example, the writers don’t seem to know Buffy Ford Stewart, the widow of ex-Kinston Trio member John Stewart, inspired "Daydream Believer," and recorded her own version of the song with Davy Jones in what many believe was his last recording session. Oh, and she really was a homecoming queen.

I don’t think I’ll ever understand the title to this book—“Long Title?” Well, a not-so-important observation. If you’re a Monkees diehard, here’s a little nugget for you.


This review, in a slightly different form, first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Nov. 29, 2017:
https://is.gd/Hhu4zX

Just for fun, here’s a link to a Youtube video with Buffy Ford Stewart dueting with Davy Jones on “Daydream Believer”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEfvh...