 This is the SF Productions podcast network Welcome to the place your parents didn't understand welcome to the vast wasteland welcome home I'm your host Mark Schmidt Bauer along with Wilbur Neil and Marty Wiley We're here to talk about 60s and 70s television and tonight. It's a very exciting episode. It's Jeannie versus Samantha who would win in a fight But first when I tell you our our dress here at vast wasteland is of course box 15 15 26 Columbus, Ohio 4 3 2 1 5 and believe it or not. Yes, we went into our Voluminous mailbag and we actually got a letter. We're stunned We dipped it in water first, and here it is. Yes a Mr. J. Cavender of Bryce, Ohio writes dear vast wastelanders I am writing to tell you how much I enjoy watching your show I like your choice of topics and remembering the good shows of the past along with you Some of my favorite topics you recently discussed were Christmas shows of the 60s and 70s and the detective shows I Have a passion somewhat similar to yours. I'm a B movie fan I loved low-budget films primarily from the 70s and 80s currently available in the TV VHS and drive-in markets I would estimate that I've seen at least 250 or so bees within the last few years Like TV shows of the past and present B movies have also stood the test of time after all the blob the thing and Even the little shop of horrors were originally be movies before their big budget remakes in the 80s It's interesting to watch a lot of the TV shows today and appreciate today's production budgets Take the original Star Trek for example to Star Trek the next generation. They really stretch the dollar far back in those days If you're looking to explore some new topics on vast wasteland How about the life and times of Ronnie Howard a child actor to box office movie director? TV commercials that made me what I am today and Superheroes from the comic book to the TV a historical perspective keep up the good work I hope to see vast wasteland on a CTV for many seasons to come Even the reruns and certainly mr. J. Kavender. That's M. M. J. I'm sorry MJ Kavender. Thank you MJ and and for Sending in such a wonderful letter. We're gonna send you absolutely nothing. So But because this is a nonprofit deal We don't we don't send out fabulous five prize packages But you get the honor to know that you were actually your name was mentioned on a CTV, but Anyways, we do we do appreciate it by the way We've already done a commercial show and a superhero show We may have to start rerunning some of these find some of the classic But the Ronnie Howard idea is really good Ronnie how we may we may well do one that idea. So thank you very much MJ Kavender. Well Anyways, I also wanted to tell you for those who if you send in your letter and you want to see the show when it's Actually, we read your letter on the air. It's Tuesdays at 6 Wednesdays at 10 and Thursdays at 3 p.m On a CTV cable 21 Send in those letters and cross your fingers fingers the next person the next one. We read might be yours You've got a right first. That's right. Right for us to read it. We're not mine readers here. Well, anyways And it takes a little to make us happy. Oh, yeah, we're forced on personally well So on to other mystic things like Samantha versus Jeannie Let's see what we got here Well, what do you got here? Will we're done there? Well, I don't believe That'd be which thing we got started here in 64 with the black and white episode the one showed on Nick and night right now Mm-hmm, and personally I feel that up. I like I like dick George better. Oh, oh, yeah Oh, there's no question better. I'm concerned sergeant because Dick certain always looked Lost I mean dick york not that he didn't look lost but he looked lost with a purpose right He looked confused. He looked like confused and constipated lost Why am I here I Just don't think they had the chemistry that uh that uh dick york and then in Barbary, um Dick jorgin Elizabeth thank you so much. Elizabeth Montgomery had it just didn't work as well and then um When you finally got into the color ones it's like boom. Oh color And it was of course, it was about the same time. I guess we got a color tv. So it was like, hey, this is great We get a color tv and it's like we wondered if the show was always in color, you know It's just one of those And all it's pretty as glory All the crags and lines like and that lovely green eyeshadow And her diaphanous, uh robe things. Yeah with the high color. I always liked the colors The color was like the big point for me. There was a nurse like at the doctor's office that looked like her The top like her too She only called him deer and once and that was when Tabitha was being born Well, let's see. So, uh, certainly, uh, the witch had it's uh, just a score of uh, ants and uncles and cousins Yep, Clara Uncle Arthur Which was like, let's see Agnes morehead played andora, right Who played dr. Bombay Bernard fox Bernard fox the famous bernard fox also of course colonel crittenden from the hogan's heroes Okay Who was the lady that played at clara and clara? Well, we have it right here Marion Lorne. Okay, who to paul in play? No, we'd never guess who played serita. Oh no, never ever who in my opinion was probably the most Real i mean if If a person had powers like that They would probably be more like serita than like Samantha. Oh, yeah, there's no question. I mean don't say me I think the whole the whole point the whole concept of the show is that That someone with incredible powers like that would give them up to to marry and an advertising executive. I don't think so I don't think so I don't think so Larry you son of a gun takes Cotton top No, I don't think so that's just not That's just not real just not there. Well, it's the idea that you have these powers, but you've got to you the um What am I trying to say is is the the better part of having things is knowing When not to use them or something like that. Well, there's a big thing in one of the books I have about the fact that Trying to move again its name the producer William Asher who was of course Elizabeth Montgomery's husband At the time of the show was saying that it was He was saying how you know It was showing conservative values that a woman would give up anything just to Just to have to get her man and all this Which I'm like, I think I think you're pushing it, but Well, this wasn't 60. Yeah, this was the 60s Times have changed. Yeah, but even even then that was a pretty silly attitude. Uh, but um So, let's see who else do we have? Uh, of course, uh, who can forget Gladys Kravitz Yeah, we're two like you're two Darren's and the in Sandra Gould, although I think I haven't seen a Sandra Gould Kravitz for a while because of course, Nick had night shown all the ones with Alice Pierce All the early one and I just liked her a lot better. I thought she was a much better Gladys Kravitz And it's like her husband never noticed that she changed Like Samantha never noticed the Darren change right well weird thing. Yeah, just go on And do I just like threw a spell like between one of the seasons that changed the appearance of uh, Darren and and then threw a spell so no one would notice Right but something like that either that or actually, uh A fiction out of the show knows that Dick York actually was having like various back problems at the time and he finally had to quit the show because of all the Pratt falls and stuff he had to do during the show. It was hurting him and uh, In fact, I don't know if he's still alive. Yeah. Yeah, but I mean obviously he was making one for real. Yeah That's that's too bad. Yeah, so, um, let's see we had uh Your father was um, uh, what's his name she experienced actor? Um Oh Oh, what's his real name? Uh, actually it's Maurice Maurice Evans Maurice Evans. Yeah, he went on to play an ape on the plane of the age You know, he was there doctor's ass Well, there's a lot of oh Tabitha Well, a lot of doddering ants. There's uh, well you had Clara and you also had um Oh, who was the other the one Esmeralda Esmeralda the uh, the shy which played by of course the the popular alice ghost lake Well, there was an ant haggis that too was like a big older woman. I remember a thing very pushy. She was pushy Yeah, but Esmeralda was like she and Clara would show up sometimes together right and uh Esmeralda was just very shy and and her powers were really starting to fade and every time you spoke harshly to her She'd disappear or she'd fade but she'd leave something there like your Handbag right something like that or something right? But she wasn't always always gone we had uh See uh, of course, uh Well, one of my favorite characters I love how they how they reference it in here the drunk darren meets at the bar dick dick wilson okay The drunk Never had a name just kind of every time he'd come in and say he'd get drunk and tell the guy You know, you know, my wife's a witch and he's like, oh, they all are after a while You know that's that standard bit We'll earn over I'm not a piggy man So well, so you had really uh You can really look at the uh the dick york versus the uh dick sergeant years at the Really the decline of the show. Yeah, I mean the show was really starting to wear thin They brought tabba thin really to kind of jump start the show and then they brought an atom to jump start the show You know and by and by the end they were just like whatever Big fad like like every other show they had an episode where they had a rock group. I'm sure they did at some point Well, they serena one time did a um A song while she was doing the doing the thing there And that was but they have they always had some they all I mean every sitcom that was on the air when Around the time the monkeys were on the air say it was Was just almost every other sitcom would have an episode where it was like Hey, look, you know, it's jan and dean or it's uh, you know The little rascal or whatever the I'm not a little rascal the um the young rascals. Mm-hmm the young rascals. Thank you Okay So, uh, let's see we had uh, who else here? Uh, well dr. Bombay we mentioned him and uh So so certainly, uh, there's a if if you consider the concept of Samantha versus genie who would win a fight certainly Samantha's got a lot of got a lot of power on her side just a lot of But you know what? genie Had a mean streak a naughty streak an empty streak. Let's say And she could also call like from back to pass with her father The great big genie guy Mm-hmm. I think she had like a far more ancient And mystical Sources. Well, that's true. I mean Samantha can only trace her stuff back to properly Salem or somewhere. Genie could go back thousands of years Genie was thousands of thousands of years old. She was uh, what is it? I think she was born I think I read in here somewhere born like april 1st 64 bc or something like they had that calendar right So But uh, didn't have nearly as many as many relatives. Uh, that's true. You basically had basically had in The the serena Genie to according to this her sister a genie also also played of course by barbara eden and um Other than that, you really had like her mother who wasn't really all that powerful if I remember correctly And uh, maybe haji I mean you could call it haji or hape but one of those And uh the blue gin Yeah, what did gin? How do you pronounce that? It's gin. Gin. Well, the d is silent. Oh, okay. The I don't know. Okay, so But uh, but you got to save stupid idea that here is a female with all these Wonderful powers. He's gonna make an absolute fool and ass of herself for some worthless man But in in this case, she didn't have nearly as much of a choice when you really think about it because Well, it was going back to the man. He was he was in charge because he found well Yeah, because he found anybody who finds the bottle and opened and let me out of I'll be gone The first episode they make it clear that he wants her to just go off and live her own life But she voluntarily jumps back in the in the bottle and goes back with him But she stayed with him. Yeah That's not no What happened? Well, he finally got she finally got uh sick of the idea her Breaking up his little romances and things so he finally decides to marry her right gave her that rock remember the Diamond that gave her the huge diamond. I mean it was even close up on tv. What is supposed to look one of the biggest Diamonds another tv character ever gave another tv character Certainly the two two of my my favorite all-time tv characters We have roger haley captain roger haley bill daley and dr. Alfred bellows aiden roark Of course toady was jr. Who is larry haggler hangman? Yeah So son of a aren't they on dallas together now? Um, they were for a while there. They had barbara eating on dallas. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's right that's I remember the the ads for it was like, um They said it was like haggman versus eden this time. No one's dreaming or something like that And well the um, you got to look at the witch head like a a year long jump head start on Oh, sure Since it started the witch started in 64 and it went on to 72 When started in 65 65 and 70 so right had like a year long head starting in a two year Aftermath or whatever. I mean they they got smart with genie and said well, we've done all we can do But no, this is even more actually yeah, that's true. Both of them were pretty much done Genie had the at least the courage to say that's enough. We're done. We've we've beaten this project to death crank it out another We went like no when they decided to have adam. They was in that last two years and they cranking out some more And also the big thing there was the fact that uh, the witch was on abc That had precious few hits at the time, you know, which was like, you know, we're not going to let you go and let You know, we're going to pay you as much as possible Okay, well genie was on abc Be which went on into a cartoon form, didn't it? Um, well, I do remember the Samantha character showing up on the flint stone Yeah, yeah, but didn't it go into a Saturday morning? Was that just Tabitha? it well Tabitha they had a Let me see 76 they had a Let me say I've got it right here. Let me see Tabitha. That was the spinoff in 1977. Yeah, uh, which was uh Lisa Hartman in one of her first roles playing playing the same Playing Tabitha basically and other than I mean the only character characters that went on were adam And uh, well a few appearances by dr. Bombay other than that Nobody from the others according to this nobody from the original the original series Okay, didn't he didn't one of them go on to be a cartoon? Well, they there was a genie. Yeah, go on to be a cartoon Yes, I got that here. Let's see Oh if I can find it And she had a big dumb genie with her. It's like she was young. She was a teenager Right and she had a big dumb genie with her baboo Taboo Taboo played by the immortal joe beser So, uh, yeah, this and uh says unlike barbara eden's portrayal of a genie whose powers are evoked by crossing her hands over her chest And blinking her eyes the animated genie's powers are contained in her hair Which she wears as a ponytail and they kind of go Well that'd be handy When she would always ride around on her carpet or something with her arms folded and just let her hair go Boom and hit her with the big with baboo. Yeah Just like a big baby Huey kind of genie. That's that's how I remember emmy had a little little little fez, you know See so um balloony pants balloony pants I Think that's where you got the idea for this style So thrilled by a dream of genie that he had to wear the pants Watch it as a kid I must have those pants. Some dad would be famous to wear pants just like her Well, let's see here. We're just watching shows we don't have to worry about it. Right. Yeah Well, let's see we uh, one more thing that was uh, of course the We haven't seen well, I probably will never see uh, because elizabeth montgomery is now a big time TV actress, you know, I only do drama now But uh, but we did see that I dream of genie 15 years later thing Yeah, that was like a waste almost when it's basically because larry hagman said i'm doing dallas. Sorry. He can't do it He didn't he didn't rogers. He did the mic nesbeth. I'm too busy Involved in this darn thing. Go find somebody else. You think you can do it without me? Go ahead They basically they wasted the talents of um, of uh Hayden roark Uh, yeah, because he's only in like two scenes if I remember correctly You know, it's like because he's now retired major bellows retired by that point And uh, and roger is also in like three or four scenes. It's like these are the best people on the show I'm gonna learn. Yes Well, yeah, and of course we have to mention that was the first time that she that as that character We got to see her navel Yes This is of course a big thing on the old show that you never saw her navel because the censor said, oh, this is too horrible for You know, too horrible for prime time TV No, either covered by a veil or they said in some at some cases they actually use like this flesh colored plug that they put in So you couldn't tell I was there Yeah, that ring that he gave her in there Why not Oh, I don't know. So we've got uh, so we've got that we've got uh What else I'm bewitched I don't like I had the personal experience of like actually kind of being close to barbara eden When they taped her or when they filmed harper valley pta at my high school So it was like she was like a real unapproachable person Why is this not surprising me? I did get to meet Annette Fabre and ronnie cox and ron maysack all people from TV they were very nice people Barbara eden you could not find her she talked to her We had to sneak a photographer in to get a picture of her on the set You know what I have anything to do with those high school children Amazing, so she probably needed the work to do the iDreamer genie return thing well, um, one other thing about iDreamer genie was the was the fact that Considering how the whole thing the whole navel thing Was the fact that this was produced by sydney scheldon who later went on to do all these all these really lush and uh lascivious mini series You know, uh, plenty of tna and books and stuff navels and everything. Yeah Anything else you want to show or you can show even today, but um Really amazing that that uh Something that was so oh, this is horrible went on to do something like that. Well, you mentioned there that of um, barbara eden. Well, I mean excuse Uh Yes, don't roll off the tunnel like barbara eden. Yeah, that's what's on comery. There's too many She was married to uh, we're masher. Yeah, okay Have here that barbara eden was married to michael and sarah who was also an actor michael and sarah one man three names michael and sarah He was he was yeah Barber eden was married to michael and sarah. Yeah Who later was actually on the show if I remember correctly. Well, he might have been a genie or something on there He was the blue gin or whatever that that was okay. Okay. I think I believe that Well, what good is it if you have a tv show if you can't employ your family? That's right. That's what it was michael and sarah and sarah as the blue gin Okay, the most powerful and most feared of genie Wow See she just called him up Samantha be wiped out Oh, I don't know Yeah, he's looks like she Samantha probably had more more backup I guess right as far as character I agree if it was a straight Samantha versus genie genie would take her. Yeah, but if it was The Samantha's family which team versus the idea of a genie team Then oh, I don't know. Yeah, that's true the genie team. They've got Ted Cassidy. Yeah, they got Ted Cassidy Habib as genie's sister's master And he went on let me see he did a genie thing in uh that um Whatever that huck fin show huck huckleberry Oh The fantastic world of hannah barbera or whatever. Yeah, kind of like that. Yeah And let me see your heart animation part. Yeah live action He was like a genie in that because he did the uh the indian joe the engine joe thing He went on to be like a genie. It was it was wild. It was wild. It was wild But uh, it's gonna Read up on all the Ted Cassidy stuff and yet there's I can't because there's just so many references to maybe Maybe he's our best bet for our next Big Ted Cassidy show a big Ted Cassidy Richard keel The big show Well, let's see what else do we have on the shows? Um You anything else there? I think Samantha was too nice Too nice two minutes. Oh we're being told two minutes I thought he'd splash me the piece Always like that Always like genie's genie's bottle. I thought that was like a neat idea I used to have a little tiny one A little tiny bottle that looked like genie's bottle What do genie have though? Something but air Sometimes water of course. There was there was a big thing, you know, all you had to and it seemed like it was easy to do Like we were talking about Samantha versus genie All you have to do is trick genie to get into her bottle We seem to be darn easy to do because it happened all the time. It's like, uh genie. Can you go in your bottle and get something? There we go. Okay, you're not going anywhere But unless somebody else let her out having it out and out fight, right? It'll be it out out. Yeah, well I mean genie probably And if they have a thing in be which we're like, um only, um The witch that cast the spell could break it Yeah, oh, yeah Whipped back on that sometimes In the early shows they they went back on it again, but then later on they went a big thing about even dora threw a spell Nobody else could break it if uh, uncle Arthur like threw a I don't know like a wacky prank, you know Only he could powder spell or something We don't know. Well, anyways, uh, actually it looks like we're just about out of here for vast wasteland next time We're gonna do we think our next big retrospective. We've yet to pick somebody but Um, we've got ideas. It'll be better than Burgess Meredith. So So for all of us here at vast wasteland, we'll see you next time