Larry's Country Diner: Quarantine Version...

If you watch much of RFD-TV then you're familiar with the series, Larry's Country Diner. It's been on the air/in production for quite a long time. It's hosted by Larry Black and it features a regular cast of characters in a diner setting. Some of their episodes, prior to COVID-19, were taped inside the Ray Stevens CabaRay whereas most of their episodes are taped on a sound stage in Nashville in a diner setting. There's a small audience that the host and regular cast entertain with one liners and conversational jokes. The audience is served food and beverages. The show prides itself on it's realistic, live feel and each episode closes with the on-screen announcer, Keith Bilbrey, asking viewers to tune in next week "where the camera's keep rolling..." and then the cast, in unison, shouts out "...and we don't care!!". It's their way of saying that you'll see anything and everything, bloopers and all.

On an episode that aired not too long ago one of the guests happened to be Buddy Kalb. The episode was billed as the quarantine version due to Tennessee law prohibiting mass gatherings. The show featured all the cast members on tape from remote locations (most of them from their own house) and the guest, Buddy Kalb, was seated with a guitar inside the recording studio located inside the CabaRay. You can watch the episode HERE. The link takes you to the Facebook Watch-Live page. The show aired on-line and viewers left commentary throughout the episode by way of Country Road TV. I caught the episode when it aired on RFD-TV. Anyway, Buddy Kalb spoke about his career and sang several songs. He is part of the Ray Stevens Music group and has assisted Ray in many endeavors over the decades. He is first and foremost a writer...he either writes or co-writes with other collaborators...or writes songs himself and most of them are recorded by Ray Stevens. In music videos Buddy is often seen as the straight man or the comic foil depending on Ray's performance. Buddy plays the role of "The Blue Cyclone" in the music video of that song. In "Surfin' U.S.S.R." Buddy is seen as the cigar smoking woman from Moscow U.

In the "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" music video, a song Buddy and his wife, Carlene, wrote, Buddy can be seen as Harv Newland. I'd read where his wife, Carlene, is playing the role of Sister Bertha but I thought it was the late Janice Copeland who appeared as Sister Bertha. Buddy appears in the music video for "It's Me Again, Margaret". He's playing the policeman with the binoculars. Buddy's sidekick in that scene is Ray's late brother, John. The woman playing Margaret looks like Sister Bertha...some sources say it's Carlene Kalb but I could swear it's Janice Copeland playing those two roles. Buddy's name on songwriter credits is C.W. Kalb, Jr. One of the recent Ray Stevens music videos featuring Buddy is "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore"...he plays the TSA agent.

Harold Reid: 1939 - 2020

Harold Reid: 1939-2020

A founding member of the superstar group, The Statler Brothers, has recently passed away. Harold Reid, the bass singer of the retired group who also doubled as the group's resident comic, passed away on Friday (April 24th) at the age of 80 from kidney failure. He was born August 21, 1939. If you're not too familiar with the group's history it all started in 1955. The group originally consisted of Harold Reid (bass), Phil Balsley (baritone), Lew DeWitt (tenor), and Joe McDorman (lead vocals). The four members of the group were all natives of Virginia and they called their high school group The Four Star Quartet. They were all born in the late '30s and so by the mid '50s when they formed their gospel group each of them were still teenagers. In 1960 lead vocalist, Joe McDorman, exited the group and in to take his place was Harold's younger brother, Don (born June 5, 1945). The group had by this time changed it's name to The Kingsmen which proved to be short-lived, too. In addition to several other gospel acts with similar names there happened to be a rock music group that emerged called The Kingsmen. Seeking a new name to avoid confusion with other similarly titled gospel acts and from confusion with the mainstream rock music group a third group name was formed: The Statler Brothers. The name was inspired by a brand of tissue paper, Statler. The group made it's initial commercial impact with the line-up consisting of Harold, Phil, Lew, and Don. The group became part of the Johnny Cash touring ensemble for 8 years (1964-1972) and in that time period they established themselves as a country music group. The songs that the group recorded were largely written by Harold and Don as co-writers or were songs that Harold or Don wrote on their own. The group was signed to Columbia Records in 1964 upon the suggestion/recommendation of Johnny Cash.

Lew DeWitt composed the group's first big hit, 1965's "Flowers on the Wall", which went on to win a Grammy. The song is also their only single to land within the Top-40 of the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart where it peaked at number four. In the world of pop music The Statler Brothers are routinely cited as a 'one hit wonder' because they only had one single make it into the pop Top-40.

Harold and Don wrote the group's second Grammy winner, "Class of '57", but that came later into their career.

When Johnny Cash hosted his own television show for two seasons, 1969-1971, regular cast members included not only June Carter Cash but The Statler Brothers. Ironically, the year that Johnny's television series debuted, in 1969, the Statler Brothers left Columbia Records for Mercury Records.

Harold, Don, Phil, and Lew

"Bed of Rose's", one of the group's many hits, came from the pen of Harold Reid. This deep and complex story is something you probably wouldn't associate with Harold given his image of being a comic and quick with one-liners but it shows the talent hidden behind his comical reputation. It was the group's first release on Mercury Records. In those earlier Mercury albums the group issued some comical material under the alias of Lester 'Roadhog' Moran and His Cadillac Cowboys. Harold played the lead role of Roadhog in those comedy routines.

They began a lengthy producer-artist relationship with Jerry Kennedy while at Mercury. Harold and Don wrote "Class of '57", which hit the Top-10 on the country chart in 1972. As previously mentioned this song won a Grammy in early 1973 in the category of Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group. Harold and Don wrote so many of the songs...the group's first number one hit was written by the Reid brothers, "Do You Know You Are My Sunshine", in 1978. One of their greatest recordings came from the pen of Harold and Don, "Whatever Happened to Randolph Scott?". In that recording Harold sings the lead vocals...and later on he sang the main lead vocals on 1984's "Atlanta Blue", from the pen of Don Reid...but let's back up a couple of years...

The group went through a major change in 1982 when long-time tenor and founding member, Lew DeWitt, retired due to health issues. His replacement, Jimmy Fortune, almost immediately added to the on-going success of the group and within the next several years had written some of the group's most sentimental songs. The group had become known for their close harmonies, comedy, and their nostalgic-themed albums and single releases and while they wrote and recorded a lot of love songs it was not their main avenue...but most of Jimmy's material was rooted in emotional complexities and feelings. The final album to feature Lew DeWitt was 1982's The Legend Goes On. The two hit singles from that album, "Whatever", was written by Harold and Don while "A Child of the Fifties" was written by Don. The first album to feature Jimmy Fortune was 1983's Today...and it is on that album which introduced country music audiences to "Elizabeth", a song from the pen of Jimmy Fortune, who titled it after seeing Elizabeth Taylor on a classic movie...and although the song is not about the movie actress countless country music media publications often say it's a tribute to her. The song was the group's second number one hit. The album also contains the hit recording "Guilty" from the pen of Harold and Don as well as their wonderful version of "Oh Baby Mine". 

The group continued to rack up hit songs and receive numerous awards...the fan voted Music City News Country Awards named The Statler Brothers their Favorite Group well over a dozen times throughout the 1970s and 1980s...dominating that category in other country music awards programs, too. The group began their famous television series in 1991...both Harold and Don were the head writers and it was the highest rated television show on The Nashville Network for it's entire seven year run (1991-1998). The group retired from the road in 2002 and were content to remain out of the spotlight. In 2008 The Statler Brothers were elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame along with Tom T. Hall and Emmylou Harris.

Statler Brothers; Emmylou Harris; Tom T. Hall; 2008

The Hall of Fame plaque for The Statler Brothers also includes Lew DeWitt. It was a classy move to include him due to the fact that he was not only a founding member but he was the writer of the song that put the group on the mainstream map, "Flowers on the Wall", and his high tenor was distinct and memorable on all of the Statler recordings through 1982...as was the bass of Harold Reid and the vocalizations of Don Reid and Phil Balsley. Jimmy's addition to the group after Lew retired added to their legacy. The group retained their small town roots throughout their career and from 1970 until 1995 they hosted an annual birthday for America in Staunton, Virginia (their base of operations). The event was officially titled Happy Birthday U.S.A. and in the same year that they hosted what turned out to be their final Independence Day celebration Mercury Records issued a box set career retrospective to celebrate the group's 30th Anniversary as country music artists. The son of Harold Reid as well as the son of Don Reid have been recording and performing show dates for a number of years. The duo's original name was Grandstaff but they have since changed it to Wilson Fairchild.

One of Statler Brothers final hit songs came from the pen of Harold and Don Reid, "Let's Get Started If We're Gonna Break My Heart". It hit in the fall of 1988 and peaked early in 1989 in the Top-20. The group's final Top-10 hit arrived in the summer of 1989 from the pen of Jimmy Fortune, "More Than a Name on a Wall". As their music career began to fade on radio they unexpectedly became television stars as mentioned above. Their television show ran for 7 years and many feel it could have ran even longer but my guess is the group, in the latter stages of their television show, was already thinking about retirement and so they perhaps decided to end the show after it completed the 1997-1998 season for those reasons. The old saying 'always go out on top'. The group, as mentioned, officially retired from the road in 2002. Their Farewell Concert was released in audio format in 2003. In 2010 the Gaither Music Group issued two volumes of gospel recordings from the Statler Brothers and each release reached the Top-20 on the Country Album chart. In 2013 the Gaither company issued a compilation featuring highlights from the Statler's final concert in 2002 and that 2013 release reached the Top-30 on the Country Album chart. It was the group's final charting album.

Here they are collecting one of their many Music City News Country Awards as Vocal Group of the Year. Harold Reid left an incredible mark on gospel and country music and his comedy was infectious and a main attraction in the Statler Brothers performances...on and off the record.

Phil Balsley, Don Reid, Jimmy Fortune, and Harold Reid

The New Scooby Doo Movies: The Almost Complete Collection...

Me and the Scooby Doo Movies; 2020

This DVD consists of 23 episodes of the Saturday morning animated series, The New Scooby Doo Movies, which originally aired in first-run production on CBS from September 9, 1972 until October 27, 1973. The series officially consists of 24 episodes (16 produced in 1972 and 8 produced in 1973) but there wasn't an agreement met with the copyright holders of The Addams Family and so the Scooby Doo episode featuring the characters from The Addams Family aren't included here...which is why the DVD is titled The New Scooby Doo Movies: The (Almost) Complete Collection. I had previously purchased a 2005 DVD release titled The Best of the New Scooby Doo Movies. In that collection there are 15 episodes...at that point in time the rights to the remaining episodes hadn't been cleared. Now fast-forward from 2005 to 2019. On June 4, 2019 this DVD was released. The collection contained the 15 episodes from the 2005 release plus 8 additional episodes that had become cleared by their copyright holders. However, in between the time that the 2005 collection was issued and the spring of 2019, the only hold out was the rights to the episode guest starring The Addams Family. This is only my opinion but I assume the executives in charge of releasing/manufacturing this DVD (Warner Brothers) didn't want to keep the episodes on hold any longer while they awaited a potential change of mind from The Addams Family legal team and so they issued 23 of the 24 episodes in a June 2019 release, The New Scooby Doo Movies: The (Almost) Complete Collection. In case the fans didn't want to re-purchase the 15 episodes already released back in 2005 there was a companion DVD with the newly acquired 8 episodes called The Best of the New Scooby Doo Movies: The Lost Collection. I have the 2005 DVD release and I purchased the 23 episode DVD release last year. I did that because I decided to have nearly all of the episodes from this series housed in one collection...instead of having the 2005 DVD of 15 episodes and a 2019 DVD of 8 episodes.

The purists are furious because it doesn't feature The Addams Family and as a result, infuriating them anymore, the opening title sequence is an alternate version...not the one that originally aired. The audio/vocal track heard in the alternate opening sequence is the same and some of the animated sequences featuring the main characters from the series remain intact from the original 1972-1974 broadcasts but notably missing are the images of the guest stars. As the years went on and copyright ownership constantly changed hanged due to business acquisitions it meant that television reruns of The New Scooby Doo Movies as the 1980s and early 1990s came and went were limited to showing only the episodes that were approved by a legal team representing the celebrities who lent their voice and likeness to the series. Episodes of the series reran in 2 parts rather than air in an hour long format as they did when they originally aired on Saturday mornings in the early '70s. Anyway, by the latter half of 2018 the rights were secured to 8 remaining episodes of the series and so in the summer of 2019 along came this DVD of 23 of the 24 episodes.

Now then...here are the episodes that appear on this 2019 collection:

Disc One:
1. The Ghastly Ghost Town (with The Three Stooges)
2. The Dynamic Scooby Doo Affair (with Batman and Robin)
3. The Frickert Fracas (with Jonathan Winters)
4. Guess Who's Knott Coming To Dinner (with Don Knotts)

Disc Two:
1. A Good Medium is Rare (with Phyllis Diller)
2. Sandy Duncan's Jekyll and Hyde (with Sandy Duncan)
3. The Secret of Shark Island (with Sonny and Cher)
4. The Spooky Fog (with Don Knotts)

Disc Three:
1. The Ghost of Bigfoot (with Laurel and Hardy)
2. The Ghost of the Red Baron (with The Three Stooges)
3. The Ghostly Creep from the Deep (with The Harlem Globetrotters)
4. The Haunted Horseman of Hagglethorn Hall (with Davy Jones)

Disc Four:
1. The Phantom of the Country Music Hall (with Jerry Reed)
2. The Caped Crusader Caper (with Batman and Robin)
3. The Loch Ness Mess (with The Harlem Globetrotters)
4. The Mystery of Haunted Island (with The Harlem Globetrotters)

Disc Five:
1. The Haunted Showboat (with the cast from Josie and the Pussycats)
2. Mystery in Persia (with the cast from Jeannie)
3. The Spirited Spooked Sports Show (with Tim Conway)
4. The Exterminator (with Don Adams)

Disc Six:
1. The Weird Winds of Winona (with the cast of Speed Buggy)
2. The Haunted Candy Factory (with Cass Elliot)
3. The Haunted Carnival (with Dick Van Dyke)

When you look at those hour long episodes and the wide variety of special guest stars you'll see that some celebrities made multiple vocal appearances. You'll also notice that in some cases Scooby Doo and the gang meet celebrities mostly representative of a by-gone era. The Three Stooges, by 1972, were still hugely popular on television through repeated play of their classic live action short subject films. There were comic book adaptations and animated cartoons depicting The Three Stooges along side the television airings of their Columbia Studios films during the 1960s (they made 190 short subject comedy films for the studio). The Stooges themselves, however, professionally retired in 1970. By this time the third stooge was Joe DeRita, who went by the stage name Curly Joe. The vocalization for Moe Howard was supplied by Pat Harrington, Jr. while Daws Butler supplied the vocals for Larry Fine and Curly Joe. The irony is Daws incorporated a few 'nyuk, nyuk' catchphrases associated with the original Curly (played by Moe's brother) which weren't part of the 'Curly Joe' character. Larry Fine and Moe Howard died in 1975.

Laurel and Hardy are an iconic comical duo and it's safe to assume that in 1972 their likeness and name were still synonymous with classic film comedy, as were The Three Stooges. However, by the time The New Scooby Doo Movies came along in 1972 both of those comic icons had passed away. Stan Laurel, born in 1890, died in 1965 (74 years old) while Oliver Hardy, born in 1892, died in 1957 (65 years old). Nevertheless the iconic comedy duo were still popular and so they, too, made an appearance on this 1972 animated series. The voice of Oliver Hardy was performed by Jim MacGeorge while Stan Laurel's voice was performed by Larry Harmon. The two voice actors had previously provided the vocals for Laurel and Hardy in a syndicated cartoon series which aired during the 1966-1967 season. There were 156 five minute adventures produced. In the 1980s Jim MacGeorge, who visually looks like Stan Laurel, appeared in live action commercials as Laurel along side Chuck McCann as Hardy.

In addition to the episodes guest starring The Three Stooges (2 episodes) and Laurel and Hardy (1 episode) there are guest appearances by characters who had appeared on animated series of their own. The cast of Josie and the Pussycats guest star in an episode. The cast of Speed Buggy guest stars and then there's an episode featuring the cast of Jeannie (Jeannie, Cory, Henry, and Babu). Animated versions of The Harlem Globetrotters had been depicted on television prior to this 1972 Scooby Doo series but the exhibition basketball team known for their tricks and skills hold the record for most appearances on this series...three episodes. The real-life Globetrotters didn't provide their voices for the animated appearances. Scatman Crothers, most notably, provided the voice of Meadowlark Lemon and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson voiced Bobby Joe Mason. Batman and Robin appear as guests in two episodes. Their animated history dates back to 1967 when the Filmation Studio released The Superman/Batman Hour of Adventure. The voice of Batman was supplied by legendary radio and television character actor, Olan Soule. Robin was voiced by disc jockey Casey Kasem...several years before taking on the role of Shaggy in the Scooby Doo cartoons in 1969 and eventually becoming nationally and internationally famous as the host of American Top-40 beginning in 1970. In the two Scooby Doo episodes guest starring Batman and Robin both Olan and Casey reunited as the Caped Crusaders. Ted Knight returned as the voice of Penguin and Joker. Olan and Casey would continue to voice the Dynamic Duo on ABC Television's Super Friends series (produced by Hanna-Barbera) throughout the rest of the 1970s and into the mid 1980s.

The rest of the episodes in the 1972 Scooby series feature the actual celebrities voicing their animated versions. The main vocal performers are Don Messick (Scooby Doo; Sebastian; additional voices); Casey Kasem (Shaggy; Robin; Alexander Cabot II; additional voices); Frank Welker (Fred; additional voices); Nicole Jaffe (Velma); and Heather North (Daphne). This series would mark the final time Nicole Jaffe voiced Velma on a regular basis. She reprised the role several decades later in a direct-to-video animated Scooby film but as far as the television episodes are concerned this 1972 series was her last as Velma. John Stephenson, a vocal legend for Hanna-Barbera, was on hand for this Scooby series providing vocals for an assortment of villains and an occasional good guy.

A modern-day version of this series is the most recent incarnation of the Scooby Doo franchise. That series is called Scooby Doo and Guess Who?. I'm not into modern-day celebrities or contemporary television productions (beyond news and sports programs) and so I've never watched too many episodes of that current Scooby series but my guess is it captures the essence of the 1972 series but places it squarely into modern times.

Let's Slowly Re-Open the Economy...

I've been participating more than usual in on-line forums. I'm in-between jobs at the moment and so it's given me a lot of time to actively participate in those on-line news articles. If you're not familiar with what I'm referring to I'll explain: If you happen to have Yahoo as your home page then you'll see articles show up about COVID-19 and if you have the news/politics section open then you're going to see a lot of articles posted on Yahoo that originated, mostly, from left-wing blog sites. There's always a comment section where liberals dominate the conversation...and a lot of this liberal domination stems from the fact that the articles themselves have a liberal slant and therefore it welcomes liberal commentary to reinforce whatever narrative the article is pushing. Since Yahoo is my home page I'm only familiar with the news/political articles that are posted there. I'm sure other internet companies are heavily into the practice of promoting liberal viewpoints, too. Anyway, since I've had the free time, I've been actively commenting about the content/quality of the articles I'm reading and replying to other people's comments...way more than I usually would. The news articles that are shared on Yahoo come from a wide variety of liberal and often socialist blog sites. Once in a great while there will be an article posted on Yahoo originating from a conservative blog page but that's definitely a rarity and not the norm. One of the articles posted on Yahoo that I recently read and commented on comes from the liberal organization, The Guardian. The name of the article is: 'Operation reopen America: Are We About to Witness a second Historic Failure of leadership from Trump?'. If you call those organizations out on their liberal bias they deny any political bias yet with the title of an article being so one-sided you can easily see why the organization is accused of promoting liberal viewpoints. The Daily Beast, The New York Times, and The Huff Post - all heavily liberal in their coverage - are a couple of other outlets from which Yahoo routinely gathers their news articles from. The article I made mention of by The Guardian is where my most recent remark can be found. I was making the argument that liberals don't really want to see a slow re-open of the economy, and have it show any glimmer of success, for fear of how positive it could reflect on Trump. Liberals, more than likely, prefer to remain under house arrest and have limited movement in society...not because they're entirely concerned with the nation's health but because it's a negative they can attach to the President...here's my comment in it's entirety:

"It's dissolved into pure politics with the liberals...not that it wasn't about politics from the start...but they're nervous about a slow re-opening of the economy. It isn't because they're completely and totally concerned about the nation's health...it's because if there's even a glimmer of an economical rebound and a broad showing across the country of COVID-19 hot spots diminishing it'll be a winner for the President in the eyes of a general public who are not entirely fixated on politics 24/7. If liberals can't control the conversation it's a lost cause for them. To back up my remark about liberals shifting into politics above everything else: when it comes to the virus, mark my words, for every economical re-bound that makes the news you're going to see liberal organizations and news outlets counter those positive images and show people that contracted the COVID-19 virus. In other words liberals will progress into the exploitation of COVID-19 patients for political benefit.".

In another tab/window I refreshed the Yahoo news article and seen that, as of this writing, my comment over there received 76 thumbs up ratings and 66 thumbs down ratings and there's 16 replies. I don't engage in on-line flame wars, though. I say how I feel, post the comment, and move on. I don't allow myself to get baited into arguments.

I'd never share links to those liberally slanted news articles for a number of reasons. The main reason is I don't want to provide a link to articles whose presentation and view go against my own viewpoints but I also don't want to provide a link containing flame wars of which I'm no fan of. However, you can read about the Federal plan, Opening Up America Again, when you click this LINK. The target date is set for May 1st. The image below is just an image. It isn't a link to a news story.

Trump Daily Briefing; April 2020

Earlier in the day I wrote a remark in an article posted on Yahoo called 'Trump is an epic troll whose Twitter use is dangerous amid Coronavirus, Kara Swisher says'. The article was written by a guy named Max Zahn. The article features the author's interview with a liberal businesswoman and it's filled with so many predictable comments. She was making the argument that it's unfair that Trump has nearly 80 million Twitter followers. Her reasoning that it's "dangerous" is based on his ability to successfully reach millions upon millions of people on social media...when a lot of the liberal news outlets have resorted to not airing his daily COVID-19 briefings. The liberal news outlets, more or less, stopped airing the briefings entirely or they only air bits and pieces of them, because they see the briefings as campaign speeches. Imagine if news outlets that are seen as conservative would have done that when it came to Obama's speeches. You'd have Obama supporters crying 'racism' and all kinds of other things if a news network dared to skip anything Obama was holding a press conference about. 

Anyway, here's my remark/comment about the Max Zahn article...my reaction is directed not at the author of the article but the subject of his interview, Swisher:

"Spare us your liberal whining and complaining. You're furious and enraged because Trump isn't afraid to speak his mind and the overall attitude if someone happens to be offended, so what. The author spends an entire article propping up liberal propaganda, griping about how Trump chooses to use social media, and because his Twitter account has nearly 80 million followers he's able to put his messages directly to the people without the blatant liberal editorializing that goes on whenever an on-line liberal organization or liberal cable TV channel airs something he's said. The liberal news outlets just can't stand it because his commentary and messages are reaching the people...those liberal television channels thought they were being clever when they stopped airing his press briefings in their entirety. The media conglomerates hadn't had the ability to control and shape a person's viewpoint since social media came along...Trump is more or less the only President that's actively used the tools of social media to his advantage and so his critics want to cry 'no fair'. Once you read further into the article, if you have the stomach for it, you'll see a rehashing of the story about those who mistakenly took fish aquarium cleaner due to it's name being similar to the anti-malaria drug. Also, you'll see Swisher's lavish praise of the far left radical nut Ocasio-Cortez. In Swisher's own words: "She's fantastic.". That statement is sickening enough but Swisher goes on to say: "She's a more call and response kind of person; she speaks internet — you know, she speaks Twitter."."

I could provide more of my comments but I only chose to share a couple of them. This is the kind of thing that goes on day to day in the age of the internet. A news article pops up on someone's news feed and from there, if so inclined, a person reads the story and posts their comment...and most begin a flame-war of personal insults that go back and fourth.