THE GEORGE BURNS & GRACIE ALLEN SHOW - "Thanksgiving" (1951)

 

The Festive but Wild Wednesday offering this week is Season 02, Episode 05 of the 1951 hilarious TV show "The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show."

 This episode was appropriately named "Thanksgiving."

This episode starts with George and Gracie coming home from the grocery store, and George questioning why they had to go to the store on Thanksgiving, and Gracie explains that their neighbor Blanche went to the store for her the day before, so she's repaying the favor. Out of the two bags, Gracie only bought butter for herself, and that's how this show rolls. It's just one running gag to the next, tied together loosely as a story!

Before George could get into the house, Blanche's husband Harry shows up and tries to convince George to bet on a horse with 60 to1 odds named Linda Lee. Harry just knows it's going to win because his business partner has a girlfriend named Linda Lee. George tells Harry that he only bets on long shots, and an episode long gag ensues. Harry Morton was played by Fred (Zotz!, Visit To A Small Planet) Clark. Fred was also in "The Twilight Zone" episode "A Most Unusual Camera," and was Dr. Roy Clyburn on five episodes of "The Beverly Hillbillies."

The set for the show was unique with George being able to step right out of the room to talk to the audience! George Burns' delivery is always classic!

Gracie Allen is funnier than Hell, and is so ditzy, she makes Lucille Ball look like a Rocket Surgeon! A master of one-liners, you never have a clue what she's going to say. Here she's talking to her Mom. Her Mother and her put their turkeys in the oven at the same time, and then the Mother calls Gracie and lets her know when the bird is ready!

Charles Lane as Joe Crawford comes to deliver George a box of cigars, and while he's waiting for the cup of coffee Gracie offers him, she puts him to work peeling potatoes.

Charles Lane had 374 credits to his name, and acted from 1930 to 1995. Just a couple of roles he had were Mr. Bevis in "The Twilight Zone" episode called "Mr. Peckinpaugh," and he was also the Doctor in one of my favourite films, "Kiss Me Deadly." 

Charles lived to be 102 years old! What a guy!

Blanche Morton was played by Bea Benaderet. After Gracie gets involved, there's a big mix-up between Linda Lee the horse and Linda Lee the person, and Blanche is led to believe that Harry is having an affair, but it all gets straightened out! Bea was originally asked to play Ethel Mertz but had to decline because she was already doing this show. Bea started in radio, and ended up doing a lot of voice over work for Warner Brothers cartoons. She did female voices that Mel Blanc couldn't do like Granny and Witch Hazel. She was also the voice of Betty Rumble on "The Flinstones." If that wasn't enough, Bea also played Kate Bradley on 174 episodes of "Petticoat Junction."

 Also invited to Thanksgiving dinner are James (Port Sinister) Warren as Casey, and Gerry Cameron as the racy Linda Lee in her only appearance ever.

The announcer on the show was also a friend of the family named Harry von Zell. As a radio announcer, Harry made one of the greatest bloopers of all time calling President Herbert Hoover, "Hoobert Heever."

The sponsor of the show was Carnation evaporated milk, and instead of breaking to commercial, they brilliantly work it into the story of the show in between jokes!

 

So give thanks that we have access to such great entertainment since a lot of people can't celebrate Thanksgiving properly this year, but you can still watch this and some other Thanksgiving specials for free like "Edgar Bergen with Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd," and the great Tex Avery cartoon "Jerky Turkey" right  HERE!

ME FICKLE GOYL, OLIVE OYL: The World's Least Likely Sex Symbol

Here's how it goes around here sometimes... So, last night I decided to do the last Dracula movie we have yet to do from the Universal Legacy collection, SON OF DRACULA. Notorious for this type of thing in the 5 or 6 Legacy sets, the movie froze up 5 minutes into the story! Well, at least it didn't freeze up like an hour into it!! I decided to do an Ultraman episode this morning so started getting the stills, over half way through that, something looked very familiar and I checked our master list and sure enough, I already did it!!! WTF! (part of dealing with over 3000 posts) I then decided on a cartoon, Popeye looked good. As I was choosing a title, I noticed this thing as an added feature, and here we are!.. It was put together with a few current animators commenting on the scenes.

Oh, howdy boys, just gimme a minute here while I powder my nose!

So, do you like what you see?!..

Olive's like a delicate feminine tooth pick! And of course, she belly flops after displaying a ballet like grace as she approaches the dive!

She was also rubbery as Hell. Remember all the times she was stretched to her limits, she gave Plastic Man a run for his money!

And how can you forget those size 12 feet of hers, she even uses them while sewing!

Here she is as an Indian princess, both Popeye and Bluto gots the hots for her!

At the beach, a body builder eyeballs Olive standing there. He visualizes her body to be that of shapely gal but her actual body says otherwise! And, the girl's a sucker for muscle men.

My favorite part is when they showed this Popeye comic strip (or comic book) where he meets Olive for the first time. She has stowed away on the ship Popeye just started working on, and Olive doesn't like him at all. I just looked up 'scupper' and it's a hole in the ship's side for draining water from the deck!

And, she tells him exactly what's on her mind!

But, by the end of the story, Popeye has captured her heart and the relationship begins.

Big muscles were frequently the cause of a lot of strife between Popeye and Olive throughout the years.

But, there were times when Olive was on the receiving end of jealousy, like when they were at the gym and the shapely female instructor flirts with Popeye.

Olive gets a head of steam and knocks out the instructor and then lays out Popeye for his part in the deal.

Olive gives us one last song where she shrieks out a high note for our pleasure.

And, goodbye from one of our favorite gals in cartoons! We'll be back Wednesday for more cool junk for you to chew on, here at The Dungeon!!..

FIRST WE FEAST - "Hot Ones" (2015-2020)

I'm going outside the take-out box for this Saturday Night Special, and into a realm I don't usually go these days, but I watched this show called "Hot Ones" the other night, and it sure as Hell made me laugh. It's been on for twelve seasons, but I just found out about it, so just in case any of you don't know, and are looking for something hot and cool to watch at the same time, this just might be the show for you!

I've been a wrasslin' fan ever since I was a kid, and the days of Pepper Gomez and Freddie Blassie, but it got old and tired over the years, but somehow I got on some mailing list and have been getting email from WWE for a few months now, so I've started watching clips now and then. It's something I can watch and no thinking is required!

So here's the deal, The Undertaker is retiring after thirty long years in this business, so they're making a big deal about it, which it is, so one video lead to another and I ended up here, in The Undertaker's home, and he's getting virtually interviewed, and going to taste test an array of nuclear/zombie powered hot sauces, and the next thing I know, I've watched the whole thing.

The host and writer of "Hot Ones" is this guy named Sean Evans, who does a great job of asking unique questions, and eating wings with hot sauces on them at the same time. To be supportive, he always eats the wings along with the person he's interviewing!

Mark William Calaway, aka The Undertaker is a Helluva good sport, and since he's retiring, he's free to talk about wrasslin in a free and open way, and tells some interesting stories and gives some inside information, something you rarely hear these guys do.

Here's one of the challenges he's faced with!

The Undertaker is one tough son of a gun from Texas, and he doesn't submit to any of the hot sauces, and they have milk and water there for the guests, but his extra challenge to himself was to not drink the milk, and he does it easily. If you don't know, milk is supposed to soothe the palate if you've eaten too many peppers, and it works to a degree, but when hot sauce is this hot, almost nothing helps!

They're only 30 minute episodes, and they get over in a hurry, so it didn't take me long to find another one to watch. This episode was older when they could still be in the same room together, and featured another bad hombre from Texas, Stone Cold Steve Austin.

I wanted to see this one because The Undertaker had taken issue with the way Stone Cold ate his wings, like it wasn't manly enough!

Since this is not on TV, the guests can say anything they want, and the word 'shit' and the F bomb go flying all over the place, especially as the wings get hotter. And there's just something about people when they cuss, you know they're not acting!

It's always fun to see big tough guys laugh and smile. These guests are asked to do something above and beyond, and some of them handle it well, but most lose it about the 7th or 8th bottle of sauce.

Steve Austin also had some great inside stories to tell, and gives out his own personal Margarita recipe, and it's a good one!

Then I read that the episode with Chef Gordon Ramsey was laced with obscenities, so I watched that one, and this guy is really something else, and throws F bombs all over the place! Gordon is known from his many cooking shows that he can have a very caustic personality, and hot sauces really lit the fuse. I wouldn't suggest you watch this program with any little children, that's for sure, but it's hilarious for adults!

At one point the sauces got so hot, all Gordon could say over and over was "Shit.......Shit........SHIT!" It often gets to a point where some of the guests can't even answer the questions any more! Apparently hot sauce can really break down walls! I enjoyed this episode a lot!

"Hot Ones" has been on since 2015, and has featured an array of celebrities from musicians to wrasslers, to actors and actresses, and rappers! I've only seen those three so far, but here's the kind of talent you can expect to see get tortured!

Just a super small sample of some of the amazing talent that has appeared and been tormented on this show are beautiful actresses like Charlize Theron!

 

Comedians like Kevin Hart who doesn't seem to be having a good time at all!

And more gorgeous actresses like Scarlett Johansson, who had to walk it off when it got too hot! Even harder to believe is that they were shooting these shows at nine o'clock in the morning, or at least one I was watching was. That's a Helluva way to start a day!

And for those of you who don't think chicken wings are sexy..............

Just some of the other notable people who have been on the show over the years are actors Matthew McConaughey, Will Ferrell, and Shia LaBeouf, musicians Coolio, Henry Rollins, T-Pain, and Billie Eilish, wrasselers Chris Jericho and Sasha Banks, sports stars like Shaquille O'Neal, comedians Wanda Sykes and Bob Saget, and cooks and chefs like Alton Brown and Guy Fieri! 

There are over 200 shows, so one of them is bound to have somebody you'd love to see lose it, I guarantee. It's really fun!

And you can watch any or all of it, right HERE!

SURPRISE! / Frank Dietz: Monster Kid Home Movies - 1975

It's another Friday around here and that means, time for another Monster Kid Home Movie... This time, a couple are walking in the hills and get a big surprise! And compared to other MKHM contributors, this one stands out, even at 2 minutes and 19 seconds.

We start with an arty shot of two teens descending a slope, I guess just out for a walk.

They slip and slide down the hill while she leads the way.

Then we get a nice long shot as they reach the bottom.

Could you guys hurry it up! This thing's just a little over two minutes long!!

Phew!.. Okay so, like, whoa! What the Hell's that?! I'm getting an EQUINOX vibe here, and the huge thing don't seem exactly, friendly!! Looks like it has a giant bath towel draped over its shoulder, pretty funny.

A close up shows a very cool cyclops monster, not bad, and, the animation is very well done to boot. They get an A...

Oh God!.. It's looking right at us!!

I guess to show rage, they use an orange filter on this shot. Unlike most of the shorts in MKHM, this one has been edited.

The next thing you know is, it has grabbed the squirming boy and smashes him into a boulder! It looks like Mr. Bill getting squished with everything rolling together.

Then you think it's going after the girl, but...

She just calmly walks away and back to wherever.

And she walks through a snow patch as the feature quickly cuts - Das Ende - Join us again tomorrow when we'll bring you even more crazy stuff, here at The Dungeon!!..