Television Archives - Hey Dullblog, the Beatles fan blog

Beatles on Ed Sullivan, 57 years ago

By Nancy Carr|2022-06-02T04:25:10-07:00February 10, 2021|1964, 1965, Ed Sullivan, Television|

It's been almost six decades since The Beatles made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964. As a Gen X-era fan, I found watching the four Ed Sullivan Beatles shows in their entirety (on a DVD) a revelation. [The other shows were on February 16 and 23, and September 12, 1965.] I highly, highly recommend watching the episodes in full; clips of the Beatles' performances don't give a sense of what was really happening on stage during these shows. The commercials add yet another dimension, underlining how much the Ed Sullivan show was family-friendly but pitched toward [...]

14

Mob Psycho 100 and the Beatles’ Mop Tops

By Nancy Carr|2020-09-12T08:41:14-07:00September 12, 2020|21st century references, Beatle-inspired, Beatles on the Web, cartoon, fans, Fashion, Television, Uncategorized|

A few days ago Eric Trump inadvertently sent the anime series Mob Psycho 100 to the toppermost of the Twitterverse when he Googled "mob." He signally failed to grasp why the popularity/relevance algorithm Google uses put images of the show early in the search results. Fans of the show reacted with predictable glee, and the Mob Psycho 100 Twitter account posted this, featuring an image of Shigeo Kageyama, the character familiarly known as "Mob": Doesn't that image remind you of someone? Or four someones? Doesn't it seem as though that look might be a merchandising opportunity for, I don't know, maybe a [...]

4

Global Beatles Day 2020

By Nancy Carr|2020-06-24T07:30:04-07:00June 24, 2020|1967, Beatle History, Beatles on the Web, Psychedelia, Television|

Tomorrow–June 25–is Global Beatles Day. Begun in 2009, this is a day "honoring and celebrating the phenomenon and ideals of the Beatles, collectively and individually, for their gifts to the world including their promotion of peace and love, of truth and youth, and of the expansion of human consciousness." This specific day was chosen because it's the anniversary of the Beatles' performing "All You Need Is Love" live on the BBC program Our World, in 1967, using the first live satellite TV link. If we ever needed a time to promote peace, love, truth, youth, and the expansion of human consciousness, I'd [...]

6

McCartney Talks Carpool Karaoke

By Nancy Carr|2019-06-21T11:14:32-07:00June 21, 2019|Interviews, Live, Liverpool, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Television, Uncategorized|

The Paul McCartney episode of Carpool Karaoke has been so wildly popular (about 130 million people have watched it on YouTube or Facebook, and it spawned an extended version as well) that it's hard to imagine that the show almost didn't happen. But it's true. McCartney and Corden in the car. I saw McCartney play at Globe Life Park in Arlington, TX on June 14 (another three-hour marathon, featuring 38 songs), and the tour program includes a lengthy interview with the following exchange: You made even more headlines when your appearance on Carpool Karaoke went globally viral, generating millions of views. And [...]

6

Why Those Screaming Beatlemania Girls Matter

By Nancy Carr|2015-11-30T12:09:11-08:00November 30, 2015|Beatlemania, Beatles Criticism, books, pre-Beatles, Television|

Those videos of Beatlemania girls screaming have have always made me squirm. All that howling, weeping, and writhing bug me for multiple reasons. As a woman, they make me cringe because rock criticism defined itself against them: screeching gals over there, analytical guys over here. As a Beatles fan they make me wince because they (superficially) reinforce the argument made by many non-fans that the Beatles “were just a boy band.” At a time when Why-Can’t-The-Boomers-Just-Get-Over-The-Beatles-Already is a definite thing (see this Washington Post piece), it's worth asking: Really, why all that screaming? And why should any of us post-Boomers care? Measured [...]

15

These happy days are yours and—?!

By Devin McKinney|2014-07-23T11:56:35-07:00July 12, 2013|1970s, 1974, John Lennon, Ron Howard, Television|

DEVIN McKINNEY • This comes by way of Tom Sutpen's If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats, which I've more than once called "the best blogsite there's ever been, ever." It appears under the heading "When Legends Gather." (For the irredeemably trivia-minded, I'm pretty sure that's Jerry Paris with half of his face cut off at the right side. He was Rob and Laura's neighbor on The Dick Van Dyke Show, plus he directed 200 eps of Happy Days.)

3

The Beatles and Mad Men

By Michael Gerber|2015-11-02T10:13:30-08:00June 13, 2012|1967, Beatle-inspired, Sgt. Pepper, Television|

The original Mad Men. Look at that hat, for example; that's MAD. Did Matthew Weiner follow the structure of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in the recently-completed fifth season of “Mad Men”? Yi! News site contributor Emily Viviani thinks so, and has developed this thesis over three posts, the first of which you can read here. Thanks go to commenter Craig for drawing the attention of Hey Dullblog to her pieces. -- Nancy Carr Viviani's case Some of the parallels Viviani draws are interesting (“At the Codfish Ball” as a take on “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!”, [...]

10

The News in Welsh

By Mollie W. O'Reilly|2015-09-18T23:36:20-07:00March 31, 2008|Television|

MOLLIE WILSON REILLY • I've been thinking about Patti LuPone over at Restricted View, and I never think of Patti without thinking of Life Goes On, the TV series she starred in when I was growing up. Though the role was not officially a musical one, Patti did lead the cast in singing the theme song: "Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da." It was bouncy and fun, and it was my introduction to the song. You won't hear it on the DVDs -- high licensing costs -- but you can hear a really bad recording of it here. Recalling it got me thinking about other Beatles songs [...]

13