Looking at the TV we loved as kids through an adult lens
When Smitty Comes Marching Home… from Vietnam, his nemesis ends up dead and old buddy Linc ends up being conflicted between trying to help his childhood best friend and being fuzz, man.
Great appearance by the awesome Lou Gossett Jr., we get a rare glimpse of Linc’s classy pad, Pete speaks Spanish and Greer laments, once again and not for the last time, “When oh when are kids gonna learn to trust cops?”
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:25:46 — 49.9MB)
In Season 1, Episode 3 of The Mod Squad, Julie, Linc and Pete get pulled into a mysterious caper — yes, we said caper — by an affable but dangerous criminal Pete met while going undercover in prison.
A couple groovy buses, some really bad trips, some far-out hippies, and a lot of costumes for Captain Greer, the Squad prevails. That’s not a spoiler, you knew they would.
Julie is now three for three with bad, dangerous criminals showing up at her groovy pad. Time to get a security system. Or at least a peephole.
Looking for a cool Groovy Tube T-shirt? Or another cool shirt designed by GT cohost Rebecca Milliken? Check out her Bonfire shirt site, by clicking here.
If you’re interested in checking out cohost Maureen’s mystery novels, click here. [You can also ask your local book store or library to order them, if that’s your preference].
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:39:48 — 58.4MB)
In “Bad Man on Campus,” Linc, Julie and Pete go undercover at a high school to find out why a popular teacher ended up dead under a pier. No, they’re not going to fink on kids! Come on! They want to find out who the adults who are using the kids for their own criminal purposes are.
One groovy highlight: Linc, undercover as a history teacher, gets some very racist blowback from the kids in class, particularly the trouble-making ringleader. He finally blows his cool, saying to the kid with steely anger: “Hey, now that’s a big mouth, friend. How would you like me to come down and put my foot in it?”
Solid, Linc!
Looking for a cool Groovy Tube T-shirt? Or another cool shirt designed by GT cohost Rebecca Milliken? Check out her Bonfire shirt site, by clicking here.
If you’re interested in checking out cohost Maureen’s mystery novels, click here. [You can also ask your local book store or library to order them, if that’s your preference].
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:15:02 — 42.1MB)
Welcome to Season 2 of Groovy Tube! In our first episode we take you through, almost line-by-line, the September 1968 pilot of The Mod Squad, “In the Teeth of the Barracuda.” Don’t ask us what it means, we don’t know either.
Over this season we’ll take you episode-by-episode through the ground-breaking show, which had a major impact on our lives. We’ll discuss the actors, plots and stories behind the series, which ran from 1968 to 1973.
It’s definitely very solid, man.
Looking for a cool Groovy Tube T-shirt? Or another cool shirt designed by GT cohost Rebecca Milliken? Check out her Bonfire shirt site, by clicking here.
If you’re interested in checking out cohost Maureen’s mystery novels, click here. [You can also ask your local book store or library to order them, if that’s your preference].
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:34:26 — 54.6MB)
In our last Season 1 episode, we discuss two of our favorite Brady Bunch episodes and some other stuff as we wrap up the series. It’s not good bye, though, just see you later. Season two begins July 15! And it’ll be solid, man.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (36.7MB)
We can’t leave The Brady Bunch behind without talking about its main character — the house! And what better way to do that than to discuss the HGTV miniseries “A Very Brady Renovation.”
Everyone knows, famously, how the exterior shots of the Brady home didn’t match the interior — either of the set or the real house used for the exterior shots. HGTV bought the mid-century modern Studio City house in 2018 and, with the help of the Brady kid actors and a stable of HGTV stars, managed to recreated the interior down to… well, almost everything.
How does it stack up? We discuss.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:55 — 23.0MB)
And it all comes to a close for the Man Named Brady and his bunch. In the final episode of the original series, The Hair-Brained Scheme, Bobby’s get-rich-quick-scheme hair tonic turns Greg’s hair orange the day before his high school graduation. On top of it, Cindy tries to jump on the get rich bandwagon with a really disturbing subplot about breeding rabbits. And where’s Mike to dispense fatherly wisdom? Nowhere to be found, as his creative battle with the Schwartz family comes to an ugly little end. Season 5, Episode 22 of The Brady Bunch.
We go deep into the issues between the Schwartz guys and Robert Reed in our next-to-the-last episode of our own Season 1. Because, after all, there’s a little Bob Reed in all of us, isn’t there? Or at least in the two of us.
After our final episode on the Brady Bunch in two weeks, stay tuned for Season 2, covering The Mod Squad, dropping June 3. The original TV show, NOT any silly movie or anything that came after.
Looking for a cool Groovy Tube T-shirt? Or another cool shirt designed by GT cohost Rebecca Milliken? Check out her Bonfire shirt site, by clicking here.
If you’re interested in checking out Maureen’s mystery novels, click here. [You can also ask your local book store or library to order them if that’s your preference – they’re available through Ingram as well].
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:01:45 — 35.5MB)
Mike’s boss Mr. Matthews (Yes! we know it used to be Mr. Phillips! Don’t worry, we cover that) sends him a pool table for doing such a great job on the Whitley project. Bobby becomes a pool shark. What could possibly go wrong? We discuss The Hustler, Season 5, Episode 21, of The Brady Bunch. Jim Backus – Thurston Howell III — makes a special guest appearance.
Also, looking for a cool Groovy Tube T-shirt, or another cool shirt designed by GT cohost Rebecca Milliken? Check out her Bonfire shirt site, by clicking here.
If you’re interested in checking out Maureen’s mystery novels, click here. [You can also ask your local book store or library to order them if that’s your preference – they’re available through Ingram as well].
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:54 — 33.1MB)
Good old-fashioned Brady trickery is back with a vengeance in Season 5, Episode 20, “Snooperstar.” Marcia decides to teach Cindy a lesson for snooping, in what’s probably the most humiliating episode of misused and underused Susan Olsen’s career. The only upside? A guess visit from Natalie Schaefer, aka Lovey, Mrs. Thurston Howell III, as yet another one of Mike’s rich, entitled and crazy female clients. As you can imagine, we have a lot to say.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:02:44 — 36.5MB)
Top Secret! Bobby and Oliver are somehow under the impression Mike is working for the FBI and Sam the butcher is a double agent! Oh no! Season 5, Episode 19 of The Brady Bunch.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:50 — 18.9MB)