 This is the SF Productions podcast network. Today, playing the computer memory in the comnet, people used to tape shows. Let me see. There's a tape on the end here. Let me hook this up here and let me see what we got. With us to the 60s and 70s, the dwelling place of the lost generation. An era whose heroes, role models, and very lives were molded and formed by weekly installments of favorite television programs. Welcome to the place your parents didn't understand. Welcome to the vast wasteland. Welcome home. Hello and welcome to another exciting episode of Vast Wasteland. This is not only another exciting episode, but it's the first of our series episodes, so we couldn't be more happy and proud. I'm Mark Schmidbauer, along with Marty Wiley and Wilbur Neal, and we're here to talk about 60s and 70s television. First couple notes before we jump right into the festivities. First thing, like I said, it's our first series episode and we're going to be on Tuesdays at 6pm, Wednesdays at 10pm, and Thursdays at 3pm. So no more excuses that you were drunk and you didn't know what the hell we were talking about. That's right, so we want to see you just making Vast Wasteland a lovely habit in your household. So we have the other thing, we realized that for some strange reason you may want to actually write into Vast Wasteland. So if you want to write in, write to Vast Wasteland box 151526 Columbus, Ohio 43215. No letter bombs, please. And now, for tonight's topic, there's been a lot of things going on in the 80s and going into the 90s, certainly resonant of 60s and 70s television, and that is, of course, all the reunion shows. And we realized that there are a lot of shows that should have reunion shows. And so tonight, it's kind of a Siskel and Ebert kind of deal. We're going to pick our picks for shows that we wish they'd make reunion shows for. And so I'm going to turn the festivities over to Wilbert. And, well, let's hear your picks for shows you wish there were reunions you chose for. Okay, now on these, let's see, some of them may have actually, they might have touched upon a reunion, but they've actually done the reunion show per se. So what I'm going to do here is I'll just run down my list. Oh, we didn't tell them the rules. We had rules. You couldn't pick a show like where people were dead. Where major cast members were dead. And the other one where major cast members are enormous stars now. So you won't see a Hogan Sears reunion show or an I Spy reunion show for those two reasons. You probably wouldn't see Morgan Mindy either. Right. Because we wanted to be, you know, to put ourselves in the position. We're a big time Hollywood writers and we're pitching to the networks. And we're not going to pitch to the networks some ideas which obviously isn't going to work. So anyways, sorry to interrupt. Go ahead, Wilbert. Once again, here are my picks for reunion shows. Number one, first and foremost, Batman. They've touched upon it. They've looked at it. They've got on talk shows about it, but they've never actually done the reunion show. I want to see a Batman reunion show. Next, my favorite Martian. Now that one would be an interesting one to see also because, you know, Ray Walston, Bill Bixby, they're still around. They're still kicking around. It could actually be my favorite Martian reunion show. Now, the outer limits. There's just a plethora of things that could be done. There were actually no stars per se that were always on there. All you had was the beginning and it was just an anthology series. Correct. You could do that. They could do that. Well, let's see. UFO, which was probably one of my favorite science fiction shows from the 70s, which was a Gary and Sylvia Anderson show. So it's actually possible that there could be like a Gary and Sylvia Anderson hour or something where they could just do all of their different shows. We've got UFO, we've got Space 1999. We've got all the ones that they did with their Super Marionettes. Are we talking Supercar here? Supercar with their Supercar, their Stingray, their Fireball XL5, the ones that never made it to the United States. What exactly is going on with the Soviet and Gary right now? Absolutely nothing. If they're doing absolutely nothing, there's no like shows in Britain that they're doing? If there are anything, they're like little Saturday morning things like their last one. Gosh, what was... Well, I can't remember the name of that one now, but it's kind of a space show and it was just on for one season and that was it and we haven't heard anything from them since. So I'd like to see something from them. Sylvia Anderson hour. Yeah, exactly. Okay, the night gallery. Although now we're running to a problem here. Rod Serling's dead. The host is dead, but they have done a twilight zone where they do not have him. So it's not like he has to be there, but there's still so much that could be done. Plug in one of those terrible impersonators, you know. Well, I hope not. There's so many bad impersonators out there. For the new zones, they had some generic announcer. And then for the zone movie, they had Burgess Meredith do it, who of course was big time zone veteran. He's the voice of everything now. He's the voice of TV. He tells you to drink your milk, eat your butter, eat your cheese and everything. He does everything. Okay, then, well, I've got two here that I could run into problems with. So I'll go back to those. I've got three here that I could run into problems with. So I'll come back to all of them. Just spit them out. Oh, well, Colchak the Night Stalker. Darren McGaffin's still around. I don't see him doing anything on TV these days. He might do a guest spot here or there or something. But hey, there's still a lot that could be done with that Colchak character. They might have thought they exhausted it, but come on. There's always something supernatural coming up. Always something new. Always something they haven't tried. Let's see a Colchak reunion thing. Also, Dark Shadows. Now here, we... They're talking about that one there. They are actually doing a Dark Shadows. So that's when I picked them up. And Barnabas must be about, what, 7,000 years old in real life? Well, they're doing it with new people. They've got a whole new cast, but it will be Dark Shadows. The same character is just a new cast. I mean, Tarzan Frid's pretty old now, isn't he? Well, he's not going to do it. They all looked old anyway. Well, Tarzan Frid's going to be playing Barnabas now. So that's the only character they've really let anybody know about. Now, the ones I run into problems with, the Addams family, I guess they can't really do a good one of those because Carolyn Jones is dead. Jackie Coogan's dead, isn't he? I'm pretty sure he's dead. Yes, he's dead. It's like the Addams family. One of our cameramen says, yes, he's dead. Kind of a mess there. Well, I have lost his face down here, but Guy Williams is dead. But then I was thinking along with that, it could be like a whole Irwin Owl and kind of power thing. Have a whole evening of destruction. You just take all the Irwin Owl and shows and run them together. They run to one. Have somebody going into space. They shrink down this destructo time. They shrink down to miniature size. They go to a submarine. No, the submarines go into space. Yeah, shoot right out of the water. Maybe we could get the Andersons to work on it with them. And then the whole thing just blows up. And then the Green Hornet. Now, once again, we run into a problem because of course Bruce Lee is dead, but his son Brandon did a very good character on the Kung Fu reunion show. So it's possible that he could play Kato because Van Williams is still out there and he's still interested in the thing. He always goes to the conventions and he's talking about, oh yeah. And actually he is writing a comic book that will probably be out by the time that this is showing because they've redone a Green Hornet comic book. So, well anyway, he's still out there. And so that's, those are basically my picks. Batman, my favorite Martian. Outer Limits, UFO, Night Gallery, The Addams Family, Lost in Space, Cold Shack the Night Stalker, Green Hornet, and Dark Shadows. Okay, I'll turn it over to you. Captain Schmittio. Okay, Marty, do you want to go through your list? Okay, well I'll go ahead. Go for it. I want to see Love American Style again. You can practically do that with anybody anyway. Yeah, pretty much. Practically everybody was on it. And then I want to see the spin-off of Love American Style, which was Happy Days. And I think we could get Ron Howard to do it one more time. He did return to Mayberry. Yeah, why not? I mean, you know, he was... He was not so big that he can't go back. Well, he directs. Now he's not a movie star, but you know, you got those lulls between movies. Yeah, right. Come back and do Richie again. The Gong Show, which is another show which, leave off J.P. Morgan this time, but you can get anybody... Bring back people who actually won. Yeah. I loved the Gong Show. It was tacky and it was great, and I loved it. Gene, Gene, and dancing. And I really miss Chuckie Baby. Okay. I think the clapping drove him crazy. I think that's why the show went off the air, I think. Okay, now this one you guys might have problems with Mr. Ed, because basically if you could get a talented Palomino... Now, I know the man who does the voice I think has passed away, but that's another thing. You never saw him. Right, that's true. And I think, like, Wilbur's still out there. Oh, yeah. He was doing the show like two years ago. He did a show, some show on CBS, some sitcom. He was like the second banana, like the next door neighbor. Crushing the next door neighbor guy. Yeah, something like that. Now, here's what I'm not sure about, the old Dick Van Dyke show. I've even got an idea. I think Buddy, Sally, and Rob should all be together on public access television trying to make a comeback. I think that would be real interesting and it would be good for us too. Yeah, I don't ever really do anything right now. Okay, this show ran only a couple years. It was called Please Don't Eat the Daisies. Hey. I remember this. I like the dog on the show, but I like the mom too, and I know she's still around. She's on Generations. That's the last time I saw her. I happened to flip one of these. Well, darn it, we've got this book here, so let's find out. In fact, over here. I want to say her last name is Kern. That's sped off of a movie, didn't it? Yeah, a book and a movie, and it's kind of about off-beat suburban housewives. I think Doris Day was in the movie. I want to say Joanne Kern or something like that played the mom. Well, I always liked the show and they had sons. It's like the only family... Patricia Crowley. Patricia Crowley. Well, I was real close on that anyway, wouldn't I? Okay. But they had kids. They would be grown up. All the other family shows got to do it. This one I just liked a lot. Barney Miller. I like to see Barney Miller come back in some kind of reunion. I think they've only lost Jack Sue. They kind of have to handle... But he died during the show. Right. So his character was covered. That's already been handled. But they all went off to different things. Didn't they? They all went off to different precincts at the end. Well, that's quite possible. But they could be reassigned. Yeah, they could be brought back for something. Right. There's always a reunion movie reason to bring everybody back together. Yeah, I mean, you know, I don't want to think that up. Yeah, they have to go still around. Despite... There's a major rumor going around he was dead for a while, but actually he wasn't. He just looks that way. Yeah. He just looks that way all the time. He always looks that way. Okay, I'm not sure about Room 222. No. Have people passed away at his... Lloyd Nolan. Lloyd Nolan is dead, yeah. Well, he was an old guy anyway. No. Well, not Lloyd. Room 222 is the next generation. No, I'm not Lloyd. No, I'm actually a guy from Julie. Right. The guy that was the main teacher. The main teacher has died. He's dead, yeah. Oh, that's too bad because Room 222 is the show I'd like to bring back somewhere. Yeah, he was on a bus his name. I'm not saying Lloyd Nolan. They could have a class reunion for Room 222. There you go. I mean, that's an easy one to get a reunion reason. Okay, Dennis the Menace. Hey. Jay North still looks like Dennis. I saw him on an HBO special or something playing a disgruntled character. But he had an overalls and striped shirt. He still looks like Dennis. And I believe his parents are still alive. The people who played his parents. So here's another family show where everyone's grown up. Now let's see what happens. No, hold on. It's Lloyd Haynes. Lloyd Haynes. Okay, that's Room 222. He's dead. Okay, and another one that was like a big favorite of mine and I could still watch it when I could find it is here come the brides. I'd like to see everybody married this time. Everybody. And just see how happy they are in Seattle in the 1860s or whatever. One stipulation. Let's not have Bobby Sherman sing this time, please. He can stutter all day. He can stutter all day. Oh, I'd kind of like to see him over and stutter too. Let's not have him sing. I'd like to see him and Candy married and settled down. I figured that was always a problem. He needed a steady girlfriend that would cure the stuttering. I figured. Maybe he needs something else to cure that stutter. Well, that kind of comes along with it. We hope. Okay, go ahead, Mark. All right. Well, here's my top 10. Actually, a couple of them have already been mentioned. First off, my number one would be the old Dick Van Dyke show. I certainly think that, I mean, Mary Tyler Moore is kind of quirky enough, even though she's a big star, to come back and do it if the script goes good. What she's not doing is Mary just bombs. Yeah, that other show. They come bombed out. Yeah. And so it is. Yeah, they could get together. Yeah, sure, you know. So I thought that was a fine idea. Let's see. The second one was Courtship of Eddie's Father. Now, I heard like two years ago on some new show that they were saying, because Brandon Cruz was on some show and he was saying, oh yeah, they're going to make. They were writing it at the time. And I haven't heard anything about it since. And it was going to be like this, this almost kind of dramatic thing because it's like the kid and the dad have kind of, they've grown apart and it's kind of a thing where they get back together and all this and it's all wonderful. And darn it, I want to see this thing and they haven't made it yet. Anyways, let's see. The odd couple. Now, we keep hearing that they're going to do something. Another thing that we keep hearing, they're both around. What's the deal here? I'd want to kill them both if I saw them on TV again together. They're doing commercials together now. I got real fed up with the odd couple. I mean, it started out that was when I watched. Oh, I was a big favorite of mine. It was a big favorite, but I would probably want to kill them. Well, you couldn't live with them. It would be a shoot. It would be half an hour a week, though. If they could get Penny Marshall back on there, it's her original. Myrna. Myrna, yes, the real confidence secretary there. Well, they've done like two different new odd couples. They tried the black odd couple. Daman Wilson. Well, we just saw that the other night. Daman Wilson. Ron Glass. Ron Glass, yeah. They had like a female odd couple, too, somewhere. Well, I know they've tried them with every conceivable demographic type for Broadway. You know, it's like the Chinese odd couple, the blind odd couple. You know, every conceivable thing. But I still want to see it come back, darn it. My Three Sons. Now, this show, the thing with, there was a show, and I only have a vague recollection of this. It was around the late, like mid to late 70s. It was a combined, partridge family, My Three Sons reunion movie. Oh my God. And it is, I read about it in this book. It did exist. It did exist. That was not the way to do it. I want to see just My Three Sons. Wait a minute. If you do My Three Sons, can little Dodie be dead? Yeah, we could do that. Okay. It was killed in a tragic accident. So, it's off the theater. Just off the face of the theater. She's a missionary now, and we never see her now. Center of the Peace Corps. Yeah. The Bob Newhart Show. The old, not the new Bob Newhart Show, the old Bob Newhart Show. Okay, you saw how they ended the new one. Yes. They actually went back to the old one. I want to see a reunion, I want to see some sort of movie where, just to see Howard again, to me. And so everyone can sit around and play a lovely two hour rousing game of High Bob. So, we just fill me with joy for that. Hawaii Five-O. Now, this to me is a natural for a thing. You know, kind of a, I mean, Jack Lord's still around, right? Yeah, easily. He just doesn't do anything anymore, as far as I can tell. Good old book, him, Dano. Yeah. They're all still around. Everybody's still around. They think it would be a wonderful thing, you know. You can even tie it in, have like a cameo by Magnum. They're both on the same, you know. Why not? They're both there in the same thing. Hawaii Doctor. What's his name? Jump into and say hello. Island Sun. Island Sun. Richard Chan has a big Hawaii show. Hawaii, on any one of the islands, just happens to be right there. Any show based on that. And even people from Hawaii and I. California could fly over. Surf over, man. Make it cool. Let's see. I also picked my favorite Martian. Certainly, certainly not the most wonderfully written show in the world, but... What was back then, huh? Right, exactly. Now, I considered my favorite Martian, but I thought it was a 50's show. No, no, that was 60's. Is actually a 60's show. It looks like the 50's, but it was a 60's show. And we'd really like to see that. Oh, by the way, I might mention in turn that later this season, we're going to devote an entire show to Bill Bixby. And we're all very excited about the look. Red Perspective. Bill Bixby. So, stay tuned for that. Anyways, I just wanted to mention that in turn. Anyways, now I'm convinced this is going to happen. And I'm convinced before 1995, a major world reunion tour will occur for the Partridge family. Now, Susan Day will leave LA a lot for like one season and go and do this world tour. And be Lori Partridge. Yeah, why not? Nah. I think it'd be nice. Because what Danny Bonducci is now like a... He's like busted. Well, between DJ and Gilbert. He's in between there. Do a little DJ, run a little coke. Do a little DJ, run a little coke. We could get some steady work now. It would be nice to get them away from jail, you know? I considered that one too, but I didn't think Susan Day would go to that. The Rockford Files. I'd really like to see a Rockford Files kind of movie. They've done the Colombo thing. They've done some of the clouds. Almost all the 70's ones are back, I'd say. They've not done Hec Ramsey. That's the one I like. I don't know. And finally, that girl. Oh, Donald. Where is Ted Bessel when we need him? He's directing Tracey Donald. Yeah, I'm directing. Well, Tracey is almost Donald. She's not returning. You really want to hear Marlo Thomas wine again, huh? Wow. Well, yeah, just a little... Donald Hollinger. Cameo by Danny Thomas would be wonderful. Anyways, we wanted, before we got out of here, to get into our picks for the best and the worst of the ones that have already been done. So if you could quickly just jump right into that, sucker. Well, I didn't go for the worst because, my gosh, I just went for my favorites. I enjoyed the Wild Wild West reunion shows. There have been two of them. I enjoyed those. Those were great. Yes. The Man From Uncle. They did one reunion show for that, and they tied in other spy things with it. I enjoyed that one. That one was fun. The Green Acres. I enjoyed the Green Acres. I am so mad that I missed that. I love that one. They could even go on with a series from there. They have that much. They had that strong of a cast. That was a great show. They could do it. Yeah, it was scary. And then, sorely unappreciated by it. Now, the last one there, I'll sure I'll get some dissension from this one. Okay. The bionic thing. They did that reunion thing there. It was for the concept. I mean, what they did with the concept, I thought it was pretty good. You know, they introduced some new characters if they could spend silly with it. Exactly, that's the thing. They did not try to get too silly with it, but they tried to stick with it in continuity and create some new characters. And they did a good job with that. Okay. And then, let me see, that's favorite. Well, I got, my big favorite was Return to Mayberry because literally every single conceivable cast member with, I think, the exception of Aunt B was involved. And basically, other than dead people, other than the dead cast members, everyone who was possibly available, they managed to find and get them all together. And it was just, in fact, they were talking very much at the time that NBC wanted to start the series again. The Annie Griffith Show again. And Annie Griffith said he didn't think it would work as a continuity series, which I think was right. And he wanted another series, so they created Matlock. And that's why Matlock's on the air because of that Return to Mayberry thing. Anyways, my close second was Get Smart Again. Now, this was not the early 80s nude bomb movie. This is not that. This is the far, far superior Get Smart Again it was on, I think, last year first time. And it featured everybody. I mean, they got Striker, they got Siegfried, and Jaime, and Agent 13, and just a darn fine thing. And just to quick go through my personal worst and why they didn't work was Beverly Hillbilly's reunion was about 1981 with almost none of the original cast. I think only like three people, like Pa and... Isn't that the one where they put the little car of Granny on the mantle because Granny got over it? Yes, it was whittling that thing, the whole darn show. It was horrible because there was nobody there. Anyways, did you have anything? Best and worst, Green Acres. Best because they had so much of the cast there. And worst because some of it was so hokey. I actually fell asleep. I didn't see the very end of it. And the Wild Wild West, I always liked those because I like the show anyway. Well, anyways, let's see. Well, that's about wraps it up. We're being told we're just about ready to wrap up here. Next episode, what the heck are we doing next episode? We're actually beyond two weeks from now. Pretty darn amazing. Well, we'll have something. We'll have an idea. We've got lots of ideas. We just don't know what to pick from our guys with repository of ideas. 20 years worth of ideas. We'll be on forever until OECTV kicks us out or whatever. So for all of us here at Vast Wasteland, we'll see you in two weeks. Good night, everybody.