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Change of plans...
Mar. 6th, 2011 06:27 pmDrew called earlier and we agreed I'd go over around 5 pm for dinner, but between the weather—it's begun to snow—and the fact that Mathew has apparently taken sick, we called the visit off. Maybe next week. Dinner consisted of rutabaga salad, sausage, and steamed spinach.
Reminiscences continue to fly.
I do not recall the circumstances, but somewhere around the 9th grade, I received a reel-to-reel tape recorder that I proceeded to use to record all sorts of stuff from radio and television. Somewhere in a box—or in a landfill—there is a tape I made of quite a few of the "top-100" songs of—was it 1967?—as broadcast by a disk jockey known as "Cousin Brucie" on WABC-NY in the closing days of that year. Also a number of recordings of the Jean Shepherd radio program.
And then there is a recording of the first minutes of an episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. that I made in the hopes of catching a nice track of the show's theme music.
As it turned out, it took quite a while to get through the opening scene to the music and the show's opening credits the day I decided to make that recording. I recall I was Friday, and I was spending the weekend at my grandmother's apartment. Unlike my my stepfather, who had flatly forbidden the show to be played at our place (for reasons that may warrant a post of their own), my grandmother never restricted what I could watch.
The episode began with a long car chase, with Ilya Kuryakin in the pursuing vehicle. Eventually, the lead vehicle passes by a barrier that is raised as it approaches. A few moments later, Kuryakin crashes through the now-lowered barrier, skids through what looks to be a courtyard, and slams into a statue. The statue—that of St. George, the very same who slew "the well-known dragon"—falls on top of the car and pins Ilya to his seat.
After almost 45 years, the only thing I can remember of the dialog is Ilya crying "Stop that man!" and bits of the ensuing conversation with someone the audience suspects is more than just a passerby. During that exchange, Ilya's interlocutor—who we learn later is one Artie King, of Teaneck, New Jersey—informs the U.N.C.L.E. agent that the warrant for the man he was pursuing was no longer valid.
With a few moments on my hands, I managed to scan the appropriate Wikipedia article and determine that the episode ("The Round Table Affair") had aired on March 25, 1966. After that, it was child's play to find a video of the actual episode.
My flight back into time had some curious stops along the way. First, although the show was being broadcast in color that year (1966), I watched it (when I could) on my grandmother's black-and-white set, so I was quite surprised to see a bright yellow-and-blue map displayed behind the U.N.C.L.E. device of the armed man standing next to a globe. Second, after Kuryakin is dragged away to jail, I have absolutely no recollection of the plot. Third, after having viewed the episode (and one or two others of the U.N.C.L.E. series), I am appalled at my adolescent taste in televised drama.
Then again, tastes change, I suppose. ;^)
Cheers...
Reminiscences continue to fly.
I do not recall the circumstances, but somewhere around the 9th grade, I received a reel-to-reel tape recorder that I proceeded to use to record all sorts of stuff from radio and television. Somewhere in a box—or in a landfill—there is a tape I made of quite a few of the "top-100" songs of—was it 1967?—as broadcast by a disk jockey known as "Cousin Brucie" on WABC-NY in the closing days of that year. Also a number of recordings of the Jean Shepherd radio program.
And then there is a recording of the first minutes of an episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. that I made in the hopes of catching a nice track of the show's theme music.
As it turned out, it took quite a while to get through the opening scene to the music and the show's opening credits the day I decided to make that recording. I recall I was Friday, and I was spending the weekend at my grandmother's apartment. Unlike my my stepfather, who had flatly forbidden the show to be played at our place (for reasons that may warrant a post of their own), my grandmother never restricted what I could watch.
The episode began with a long car chase, with Ilya Kuryakin in the pursuing vehicle. Eventually, the lead vehicle passes by a barrier that is raised as it approaches. A few moments later, Kuryakin crashes through the now-lowered barrier, skids through what looks to be a courtyard, and slams into a statue. The statue—that of St. George, the very same who slew "the well-known dragon"—falls on top of the car and pins Ilya to his seat.
After almost 45 years, the only thing I can remember of the dialog is Ilya crying "Stop that man!" and bits of the ensuing conversation with someone the audience suspects is more than just a passerby. During that exchange, Ilya's interlocutor—who we learn later is one Artie King, of Teaneck, New Jersey—informs the U.N.C.L.E. agent that the warrant for the man he was pursuing was no longer valid.
Ingolstein, as it turns out, has no extradition treaties in place with the world community, and so the man Kuryakin was chasing, one Lucho Nostra (played by the late Bruce Gordon, who also played the role of Frank Nitty in the The Untouchables television series), was safe from pursuit and arrest.ARTIE KING Don't you realize you've crossed the border?ILYA KURYAKIN Border?ARTIE KING Yes, this is the sovereign state of Ingolstein—small, but mighty!ILYA KURYAKIN You mean, that sentry box...?ARTIE KING The immigration office.ILYA KURYAKIN And those men in uniform...?ARTIE KING The national guard.ILYA KURYAKIN Oh.ARTIE KING I'm afraid, my friend, the shoe is on the other foot. You are the fugitive. Brandishing firearms, and destroying national monuments. Speeding. Violating the frontier! Tsk-tsk-tsk-tsk-tsk. A very disturbing list of offenses, indeed!
With a few moments on my hands, I managed to scan the appropriate Wikipedia article and determine that the episode ("The Round Table Affair") had aired on March 25, 1966. After that, it was child's play to find a video of the actual episode.
My flight back into time had some curious stops along the way. First, although the show was being broadcast in color that year (1966), I watched it (when I could) on my grandmother's black-and-white set, so I was quite surprised to see a bright yellow-and-blue map displayed behind the U.N.C.L.E. device of the armed man standing next to a globe. Second, after Kuryakin is dragged away to jail, I have absolutely no recollection of the plot. Third, after having viewed the episode (and one or two others of the U.N.C.L.E. series), I am appalled at my adolescent taste in televised drama.
Then again, tastes change, I suppose. ;^)
Cheers...
