Showing posts with label FRANCIS DIBACCO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FRANCIS DIBACCO. Show all posts

Sunday, March 3, 2024

THE TIME FUNNEL

THE TIME TUNNEL
ABC 1966-1967

THE TIME FUNNEL
Sick #53, June 1967
w: Francis DiBacco
a: Angelo Torres

This only lasted a year with thirty shows, which would be three seasons by today's cable standards. It was about he government's Project Tic-Toc. Controlling it were Dr. Anthony Swain (John Zaremba) and Ann McGregor (Lee Meriweather). Douglas Phillips (Robert Colbert), Anthony Newman (James Darren), and Gen. Heywood Kirk (Whit Bissell) were its astronauts.
Lee Meriweather was Miss America in 1955.

Dancers on American Bandstand would give a song a rating.
O. K. Crackerby was a sitcom on the network the previous year that had an even shorter air span than this.

Thursday, February 17, 2022

THE GRUNTLY-BLINKY REPORT

THE HUNTLEY/BRINKLEY REPORT
NBC 1956-1970 NBC

HUNTLEY-BRINKLEY REHEARSAL
Sick #28, May 1964
w: Dee Caruso & Bill Levine
a: Angelo Torres

Basically the NBC Nightly News from before there were all-news networks, when the three networks were the only source of national news. The program was anchored by Chet Huntley and David Brinkley. This first parody is based on the premise of what goes on behind the scenes and implies the two of them are not as friendly with each other as it would seem.
Michele Morgan was a French actress at the time. There are other Michele Morgans but they weren't born yet. The picture parodies a still from Cleopatra.
GRUNTLY & BLINKY IN HISTORY
Sick #43, March 1966
w: Francis DiMenno
a: Angelo Torres

This second parody is about what the program would be like if it covered events of the Roman Empire. In the background of the last panel is Steve Reeves of the Hercules movies.
Panel 5: In the foreground is another Cleopatra reference.
Sponsors were Wilkinson razor blades and Timex watches, the latter had John Cameron Swayze as their spokesperson.
Ringo Stella is a parody of Ringo Starr. They went with the angle of how all rock stars were men who looked like women and did drugs.
Publius Ruth in the Yankee uniform I thought was a caricature of Jonathan Winters since he was a big celebrity then, but now I get that it's Babe Ruth. Duh. The fourth panel is supposed to be Charlton Heston as Michaelangelo in The Agony and the Ecstasy. Hertz Rent-a-Car's campaign had someone coming out of the sky and landing in a car with the slogan "Let Hertz put you in the Driver's seat".

From Channel Femi-Nine in Cracked #38, August 1964. Art by John Severin.
From Teens All Over the TV Dial in Cracked #52, June 1966. Art also by Severin.
There was a comedy record parodying the program from a group called the Hardly Worthit Players.