Archive for August, 2007

Fury - The black stallion owned by Joey Clark of the Broken Wheel Ranch on the TV series "Fury" This was a favorite show with us kids on Saturday mornings a million years ago, sandwiched between Sky King and right after Captain Midnight, remember Ovalteen?

But did you know? Fury, a contemporary western ran from 1955 -1960 with a 114 episodes. It was the story of Joey, an orphan boy befriended by Jim Newton (Peter Graves) a recently widowed horse rancher, who's wife and son were killed in an auto accident by a drunk driver. Joey was brought to court for breaking a window. Jim had seen the whole incident and went to court with Joey, he told the Judge that Joey was innocent, and convinced the Judge to let Joey come stay at the Broken Wheel. Jim had captured Fury a wild stallion after three years of trying, and Pete his foreman named him during a conversation where Pete said the horse was full of "Fire and Fury." Joey soon made friends with Fury, and was the only person who was able to ride him after saving his life. Later Fury was known to let others ride him, but only with Fury's permission. Each episode took Joey and Fury to new adventures, along with his two pals Pee Wee and Packy. The show ran in syndication from 1960 until 1966 under the name "Brave Stallion."

Bobby Diamond played Joey on the TV series "Fury", The story of a horse and a boy who loves him. Bobby later went on to do guest appearances on other TV shows while still a young boy and had a couple of other roles in TV series. He attended U.S. Grant High School, in Van Nuys, CA. 1964.

Courtesy: http://www.brokenwheelranch.com  

Judy Carne - the cute little red-head who made body paint sexy. Covered in graffiti and appearing in a bikini on the comedy sketch series, Laugh-In, she cheerfully invited her tormentors to "sock it to me!" Which they happily did with buckets of cold water, paint, beer and other substances, much to the delight of the studio audience and viewers at home.

The show ran on NBC for 140 episodes from 1968 to 1973 and was the creation of  comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin. Originating as a one-time special on September 9, 1967, it was such a hit that it was made into a series, replacing the once-popular spy spoof Man from U.N.C.L.E. on Mondays at 8pm on NBC.

Baby Boomer Bytes

Did you know? In 1969 Judy Carne decided not to renew her contract with Laugh-In. She wanted to do other things before she became so stereotyped as the "sock it to me" girl that she would not be able to do other roles. The regular Laugh In cast members wished her well and threw her a going away party but, alas, George Schlatter (the Laugh-In producer) blamed her for breaking up the family. In the days following "Laugh-In" she would hear people yell "Sock it to me!" and she would instinctively duck, having had popcorn, peanuts, water and beer all thrown at her.

Her first post-Laugh-In-job was in "Cabaret" playing Sally Bowles. The production was off Broadway in a theater in Westbury, Long Island. While in this production she was offered a part as a lead in a revival of "The Boyfriend" on Broadway. She portrayed Polly. In September of 1971 Judy was back on T.V. again. She was in a reunion of "Laugh-In." In October she appeared on "the Tonight Show" which was being hosted by Burt Reynolds. He had specially requested her. When she asked him why he told her that she was the first person that popped into his head.  

One of Judy's last T.V. appearances was on "Hollywood Squares." The show was taped 5 times in one day. One time when they took a dinner break, she had one too many cocktails. Once back on the set she went through a lull where no questions came her way and she began to doze off. When she became the secret square that night she jumped awake. The producer became upset and that was her last "Hollywood Squares" appearance.  

Courtesy: http://judycarne.com

Named "Our Gang" after MGM bought the rights from Hal Roach in 1938.

But did you know? The series, one of the best-known and most successful in cinema history, is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively natural way. While child actors are often groomed to imitate adult acting styles, steal scenes, or deliver "cute" performances, Hal Roach and original director Robert F. McGowan worked to film the unaffected, raw nuances apparent in regular kids. Our Gang also notably put boys, girls, whites, and blacks together in a group as equals, something that "broke new ground," according to film historian Leonard Maltin. Such a thing had never been done before in cinema, but was commonplace after the success of Our Gang.