THE AVENGERS - Season 4, Episode 23 - "The House That Jack Built" (1966)

Tonight's Saturday Night Special is Episode 23 of season 4 of the killer 1960's British TV show, "The Avengers!" I had something else actually planned, but I was rooting around in the garage trying to organize a bunch of crap when I found this VHS tape I had forgotten about!

Being as "The Avengers" was one of my favorite TV shows in 1966, It's hard for me to believe this will be the first episode we've ever discussed in these pages, and it's a good one!

The male star of "The Avengers" was the always splendid hat trick Patrick Macnee as John Steed!

Patrick's co-star on the show was Diana Rigg as Mrs. Emma Peel!

In my humble opinion, two of the most beautiful, intelligent, and funny women of the 1960's were Elizabeth Montgomery of "Bewitched" fame, and Diana Rigg, who was Mrs. Emma Peel in 51 episodes of "The Avengers!"

This episode titled "The House That Jack Built" aired May 16, 1966 and is genuinely creepy!

 

"The House That Jack Built" is practically a solo vehicle for Emma Peel. She has apparently inherited an old house from an unknown Uncle Jack, and is off to see what it's all about!

Once she is inside the house, it turns into some kind of dark ride roomful of mirrors from the mind of some insane carnival barker!

There is no Uncle Jack, and this is a crazy house where one door just leads her back to where she came from over and over again!

I swear there is almost no dialogue for 15 or 20 minutes while Mrs. Peel wanders helplessly around and around in circles! Occasionally she'll say something like "Who's there?"

Diana Rigg looks amazing throughout the whole insane ordeal, and quite the ordeal it surely is!

Somehow, amongst all the madness, she finds an opportunity to drink a glass of wine!

Finally, she finds this part of the house!
"The "Late" part is kind of unsettling!

Whoever is trying to drive her mad, has drenched up all these photos and objects from her past!
It gets kinda weird and creepier when she starts carrying her old doll around!

Some people can carry a grudge for way too long of a time!

The guy got fired so he spends the rest of his life and Lord knows how much money to create a house that will drive Emma Peel insane! I think he just might have a problem!

Another problem is that this mentally deranged fellow with a shotgun has also been confined in the house, and he keeps reciting the British nursery rhyme "The House That Jack Built" over and over! More than anything he's  just really annoying!

The "Automation Man" himself is dead, but the house is pre-programmed to drive Emma Peel screaming yellow bonkers, and that's it's sole reason for existing.

In this pre-recorded video, the revengeful madman tells Mrs. Peel that his self-contained krazy house runs on solar power and has frictionless bearings, so she needs to get ready for a long and arduous journey!

Everything has a weak spot, and eventually Emma Peel finds it!

In the end John Steed finally shows up just in time to escort Mrs. Peel home!

The moral of the story...Be careful as you go through life because you just never know who you might piss off!
It doesn't matter if it's on the job, or waiting in the buffet line for the crab legs at the local Chinese restaurant! They're out there waiting for you, and eventually, they're going to find you!

LOONEY TUNES / The Road Runner In "Guided Muscle" - 1955

Here's a terrific little WB cartoon we used to watch back in the day... The story was written by the tricky Michael Maltese and was directed by the master Chuck Jones, a collaboration that produced the funniest cartoons in the history of cartoons!..

Here are our characters, the lonely Coyote and the sonic speed demon, the Road Runner!

Things always start with a simple chase, but soon escalate into a comedy of errors.

The Coyote tries to match the speed of the Road Runner with the use of a big old bow... He does match his meal's speed though, but, his aim's a little off!

The Coyote just can't win, something weird is always happening to him!

And, it's never a good weird!..

Bring in some Acme grease, that'll slow the damn bird down, for sure! Of course, he gets himself stuck in the grease and has to try and get away before a big red truck runs him over, which it does with surgical accuracy!!

If nothing else works, well, buy a book, like, How To Tar And Feather A Road Runner, 10th printing even!

But again, the Coyote becomes the victim of his own devices!

Maybe a stick of TNT in the middle of the road will solve his problem... Uhh... NOT!!

So, after 7 minutes of losing every round against his foe, the Coyote gives up and turns the place over to another maroon stupid enough to think it can catch that slippery speed demon!

He even helps end this failed attempt to get a decent meal! That's All Folks!.. Tune in tomorrow when we'll have something special for you, and them, and those guys over there too!

TOP OF THE POPS - "Season 5, Episode 7" (Feb. 15, 1968)

It's a "Top Of The Pops" Wednesday in The Dungeon tonight!

I'm no authority, but to me "Top Of The Pops" was the British equivalent to "American Bandstand!"
I never have felt like people in America understood how the music scene in Britain was pretty much entirely different than in the U.S. and I think this TV show will kind of show what I mean!

"Top Of The Pops" chose a handful of the top charters of the time in a dance party format!
Distinguished marathon runner and MENSA member, Jimmy Savile was the host of "Top Of The Pops" for 255 episodes from 1964 to 2006!

This episode of "Top Of The Pops" started off with "Back On My Feet Again" by The Foundations, which peaked on the British charts at number 18, and was basically unheard of in the United States. The following year they would hit it big with a number 5 song on the Billboard charts in the U.S. called "Build Me Up Buttercup!

 Alan Price had a lot more success with American audiences when he was in The Animals, who he left to form the Alan Price Set. This song, "Don't Stop The Carnival" reached number 13 in the UK, and never saw the light of day in the U.S.

 After this, The Move's song "Fire Brigade" moved all the way up to number 3 on the UK charts.
Personally, I like The Move, but they had very limited popularity in the U.S, and I don't think this song was ever played on American radio. I think The Move were just too English for America, and people here didn't even know what a fire brigade was!

"Pictures Of Matchstick Men" was the only hit single that the Status Quo had in America when it reached number 12. After this show, in the British charts it made it all the way to number 7.

I don't remember this song at all, but it supposedly made it to number 22 in the U.S. but Herman and the boys sure had a lot of other big hits!
They've got it here as being number 9, but everything else I've read, says it only made it to number 11 in the UK.

Louisiana born Brenton Wood's "Gimme A Little Sign" hit number 8 in the UK, and number 9 on the U.S. Billboard Charts!
Like American Bandstand, It looks like most of these performers are miming their tunes!
In the truth is stranger than fiction department, the 78 year old Brenton Wood will be performing here in my town as part of an R&B revue show in a couple of weeks!

The Amen Corner's version of  "Bend Me, Shape Me," reached number 3 in the UK. I don't think it ever got any airplay, or very little, in the U.S.
"Bend Me, Shape Me" by The American Breed was a big hit in the U.S. where it made it to number 5, but that version only made it to number 24 in the UK.
The original recording of "Bend Me, Shape Me," was recorded by The Outsiders which never charted.

The number one tune for the week was Manfred Mann's "The Mighty Quinn." The album this song came from, also had another hit on it called "Ha! Ha! Said The Clown," but the album itself, which was called "Might Garvey" in the UK, never charted!
"The Might Quinn" only got as far as number 10 in the American Billboard Charts, but it probably played on the radio much longer!

I'll leave you with this shot of Jimmy Savile doing his impression of Yertle the Turtle while Pirate and BBC radio DJ, Dave Cash prattles on!
In 1969, recording as Microbe, Dave Cash had a minor novelty hit himself that reached number 29 on the British charts called
"Groovy Baby!"
Be afraid, be very afraid!