Friday, May 6, 2016

What was on TV May 1st through 7th, 1971

It's time once again for "What was on TV" and we pick up where we left off on our last issue.  This week's cover features Mary Tyler Moore and child actress Lisa Gerritsen.

Along with Pamelyn Ferdin and Kim Richards, Lisa Gerritsen completed the triumvirate of 1970's television child actresses you recognized, but never really associated with a particular character.  You just knew them.  


 Kodak cameras started going downhill around this time.  While they were popular with the public, the quality was poor.  I have memories of those plastic flash cubes scattered all over the ground at various landmarks we visited on vacation.




Set the Dial to "Groovy".




Lisa, whose hound dog eyes could express a multitude of emotions, won the hearts of many a boy of a certain age who saw her as an accessible and potentially obtainable (if only in their dreams) girlfriend as is evidenced by this Chicago Tribune article.


I recall this episode of "The Odd Couple" which had the unlikely premise that Lisa's character had fallen in love with Tony "Felix" Randall.

Lisa dropped out of the acting business by the late '70's and for all appearances (or lack thereof) lead an ordinary life out of the limelight and prefers it that way.




 By 1971, even the local news outlets were jumping on drug references and the "never trust anyone over 30" mantra.










Seeing that advertising council ad line, reminds me of this famous commercial.  By the way, the actor, "Iron Eyes Cody" wasn't a Native American at all.  His real name was Espera Oscar de Corti and he was the son of Sicilian immigrants.



I spent a week in the hospital last September.  I wish the cost was $65-a-day.



Suzanne Somers makes an appearance on a discussion panel tv show called "Man Trap" above.  I didn't know she was in anything prior to "American Graffitti".  There isn't much information on the show and just this lone picture on the internet.














This ad looks like it was drawn on an Etch-a-Sketch.




The above ad looks like some sort of nightmare montage.

Of course the advent of the cell phone made these every-half-mile emergency telephones obsolete. There were still some on a highway near me not that long ago.









And that concludes this episode of "What's on TV".  Stay tuned.
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5 comments:

  1. Bob JohnsMay 6, 2016 at 8:51 AM

    Wow, my grandmother smoked Eve cigarettes so seeing that add was crazy. Who could forget the crying Indian so powerful when growing up I remember the message got across for me. America sure has cleaned up hasn't?

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    1. TomMay 6, 2016 at 9:06 AM

      >I remember the message got across for me
      Me too. I remember being so angry that someone would throw a bag of fast food at his feet.
      >America sure has cleaned up hasn't?
      It sure has. I always tell my kids how you would just see trash strewn all around at scenic overlooks on vacation like Polaroid film backers and those plastic magic cubes I mentioned above.

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  2. FrankOMay 6, 2016 at 11:07 AM

    i have absolutely zero memory of that child actress. i was focused elsewhere, i guess.

    i thought that Iron Eyes Cody maintained that he had some native american blood, and that's why he felt it was ok to portray one in that commercial. it's still considered one of the best, most iconic, and most successful ad campaigns ever created, and for good reason. we're still talking about it, after all!

    Dial soap doesn't make me feel groovy -- it makes me feel dry and itchy.

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  3. R.A.M.'67August 13, 2016 at 7:59 PM

    An interesting look back at this old TV GUIDE.

    One item in the Sunday listings, the NBC White Paper documentary "This Child is Rated X", is on YouTube. Here's the link to the first part:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8WlcSv2NOc

    A great blog!

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