Silver Bells

This week we're featuring some YouTube clips of various Christmas songs from various sources. Join us all week for festive holiday fun, won't ya!? First up is the odd pairing of Bob Hope and Olivia Newton-John lip synching SILVER BELLS.

Silver Bells is one of those Christmas standards that you assume has just been around forever, but it's origins are actually directly connected to Bob Hope. The song was written for the 1951 comedy musical THE LEMON DROP KID staring Hope along with Marilyn Maxwell and William "Fred Mertz" Frawley. The movie debuted in March of '51, but in Christmas 1950 a recording of Silver Bells was released sung by Bing Crosby. When the record became such a huge hit, the movie studio quickly brought the stars back in to film a more elaborate musical number to do the song justice.

The song, of course, became a classic and Bob Hope used it as his signature Christmas song and performed it almost every year on his annual Christmas special. He asked Olivia Newton-John to join him in a performance in his 1977 descriptively titled special THE BOB HOPE ALL STAR CHRISTMAS COMEDY SPECIAL. Along for the ride in the special was Christmas staple Perry Como, Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker and The Muppets!

Sadly, nobody has uploaded the entire special (at least I couldn't find it) but here's Bob and a much younger Olivia (uncomfortably) flirting through a snow covered Burbank soundstage singing the holiday classic:

The Ultimate Netflix Christmas Episode List

Saved By The Bell "Home For Christmas"

Christmas television programing continues to gain popularity with each passing year. What used to be a few prime time specials every December has turned into 24 hour Christmas movie channels, marathons of Christmas Specials and Christmas episodes and more and more new original Christmas content making it to our screens each year. It's a great time to be a Christmas TV fanatic. Christmas themed episodes of beloved television series have become just as much a part of some people's holiday viewing traditions as Rudolph and Charlie Brown. There are several DVD compilations of vintage Christmas episodes and of course the closer we get to Christmas, the more you see jolly episodes of reruns airing. A great place to find loads of Christmas from television's past is Netflix - which features not only the latest "binge-worthy" trending series but plenty of goodies from the last several decades.

We've scoured the merriest corners of Netflix to compile a fairly comprehensive list of Christmas Time Episodes from a variety of series. The Netflix interface varies from platform to platform, so we've included the Season and Episode Number for each episode for the easiest searching. Happy Viewing!


About A Boy S2E8 "About A Christmas Card"

Ally McBeal S1E11 "Silver Bells"; S2E10 "Making Spirits Bright"; S3E7 "Saving Santa"; S3E8 "Blue Christmas"; S4E8 "The Man With the Bag"

The Andy Griffith Show S1E11 "A Christmas Story"

The Bernie Mac Show S1E7 "A Christmas Story"

Bob's Burgers S3E9 "God Rest Ye Merry Gentle-Mannequins"; S4E8 "Christmas In The Car"

Bojack Horseman "Bojack Horseman Christmas Special" (individually listed)

The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That "The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About Christmas"

Cheers S6E12 "Christmas Cheers"

The Cleveland Show S1E9 "A Cleveland Brown Christmas"; S2E8 "Murray Christmas"; S3E7 "Die Semi-Hard"; S4E6 "`Tis the Cleveland To Be Sorry"

Crossing Jordan S1E10 "Blue Christmas"

The Dick Van Dyke Show S3E13 "The Alan Brady Show Presents"

Doctor Who S2E1 "The Christmas Invasion"; S4E1 "Voyage of the Damned"

Everybody Loves Raymond S2E12 "All I Want For Christmas"; S3E12 "The Toaster"; S4E11 "The Christmas Picture"; S5E11 "Christmas Present"; S6E12 "Season's Greetings"; S7E11 "The Thought That Counts"; S8E10 "Jazz Records"

Frasier S1E12 "Miracle of Third or Fourth Street"; S3E9 "Frasier Grinch"; S5E9 "Perspectives on Christmas"; S6E10 "Merry Christmas, Mrs. Moskowitz"; S7E11 "The Fight Before Christmas"; S8E8 "Mary Christmas"; S10E10 "We Two Kings"; S11E11 "High Holidays"

Friends S7E10 "The One With the Holiday Armadillo"; S9E10 "The One With Christmas in Tulsa"

Futurama S2E8 "Xmas Story"; S4E2 "A Tale of Two Santas"

Girl Meets World S1E16 "Girl Meets Home For The Holidays"

Glee S2E10 "A Very Glee Christmas"; S3E9 "An Extraordinary Merry Christmas"; S4E10 "Glee, Actually"; S5E8 "Previously Unaired Christmas"

Handy Manny E19 "Flicker Saves Christmas"; E20 "The Ayala"s Christmas Extravaganza"

House, M.D. S3E10 "Merry Little Christmas"; S5E11 "Joy To The World"

House of Mouse "Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse" (stand alone)

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia S6E13 "A Very Sunny Christmas"

Jessie S1E10 "A Christmas Story"

Last Man Standing S1E10 "Last Christmas Standing"; S2E7 "Putting A Hit on Christmas"

MacGyver S5E11 "The Madonna"

Malcom In The Middle S3E7 "Christmas"; S5E7 "Christmas Trees"; S6E6 "Hal's Christmas Gift"

30 Rock offered up several holiday episodes during its seven season run.

M*A*S*H S5E15 "Dear Sis"

Melissa & Joey S3E16 "A New Kind of Family Christmas"; S4E2 "A Melanie & Josiah Christmas"

Murder, She Wrote S9E9 "A Christmas Secret"

NCIS S6E11 "Silent Night"; S7E10 "Faith"; S9E11 "The Newborn King"; S10E10 "You Better Watch Out"; S11E11 "Home Sick"

New Girl S1E9 "The 23rd"; S2E11 "Santa"

The Office (U.S.) S2E10 "Christmas Party"; S3E10 "A Benihana Christmas"; S5E10 "Moroccan Christmas"; S6E13 "Secret Santa"; S7E11 "Classy Christmas"; S8E10 "Christmas Wishes"; S9E9 "Dwight Christmas"

The Office (U.K.) S2E7&8 "Christmas Special"

Orange Is The New Black S1E13 "Can't Fix Crazy"

Parks and Recreation S2E12 "Christmas Scandal"

Pee-Wee's Playhouse "Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special" (individually listed)

Psych S5E14 "The Polarizing Express"

Quantum Leap S3E10 "A Little Miracle - December 24, 1962"; S5E11 "Promised Land - December 22, 1971"

Rules of Engagement S5E12 "Little Bummer Boy"

Rosewell S2E10 "A Rosewell Christmas Carol"

Saved By The Bell S3E24&25 "Home For Christmas"

30 Rock S2E9 "Ludachristmas";  S3E6 "Christmas Special"; S4E8 "Secret Santa"; S5E10 "Christmas Attack Zone"

The Twilight Zone S2E11 "Night of the Meek"

The Vicar of Dibley S2E2 "The Christmas Lunch Incident"; S3E2 "Winter" (There is also a whole section of Vicar of Dibley Christmas Specials which lists four more episodes)

The Wonder Years S2E3 "Christmas"; S4E9 "A Very Cutlip Christmas"; S5E9 "Christmas Party"; S6E10 "Let Nothing You Dismay"

The X-Files S5E6 "Christmas Carol"; S6E6 "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas"


Missed any good ones? Drop us a line or leave a comment!
Netflix availability as of 11/12/15

My Week In Movies - Scusi!

Super 8 (2011) This is supposed to be an affectionate love letter to the Steven Spielberg films of the late 70's - early 80's, but there's just way too much CG shenanigns to really put me into the the whole atmosphere they were trying to recreate. I could totally relate to the kids spending their whole summer trying to make a movie (been there, done that - except I was in my 20's) and some of the action is pretty intense. But the ending, which kind comes out of left field, is supposed to be a tribute to E.T. but it's more like a half baked ending to an otherwise action packed film.

That's Entertainment, Part 2 (1976) I really enjoyed the first clip-filled documentary in this series, but this second instalment is basically just a bunch of random old film clips slapped together with some fairly not-to-entertaining new footage of Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. It's not a complete waste of time, but it's also not the history lesson in Hollywood lore that the first film was.

101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure (2002) I've always been a big supporter of the Disney Direct-To-DVD movies. Sure, none of them are near as good as the originals - but as films on their own some of them are pretty darn good. I'd honestly have to put this sequel to 1960's 101 Dalmatians near the top of the list of Mickey's hack job cartoon pics. The story is pretty solid, there are plenty of references and allusions to the first film (without being too obvious) and the animation is top notch. The very 60's style of the classic movie is recreated faithfully and the brisk running time wraps things up before there's a chance to yawn. I was really impressed with this production and rather enjoyed it too.

Eurotrip (2004) Saw this when it first came out and didn't think much of it, but rewatched it and laughed my head off. A bare bones plot about a high school graduate going to Germany to meet his pen pal/girl of his dreams is just an excuse to move the guy and his buddies through various adventures through Europe. There's a nude beach, an over the top sex club in Amsterdam, and a probably offensive visit to the Vatican - but it's all in fun. Good solid silly sex comedy that still holds up. It's airing on HBO this month.

January Movie Count: 22
Best New Movie: The Help
Best Rewatch: Beauty & The Beast
Worst Movie: Monte Carlo

Trailer Tuesday - The Missouri Breaks (1976)

Trailer Tuesday - The Van (1977)

Classic Commercial Sunday - #74

More Vintage Kings Dominion

Oh, Ed! Will you ever stop scouring YouTube looking for old videos of your beloved Virginia amusement park Kings Dominion? The answer, my friends, is no! Feast your eyes on this spiffy 8mm film I dug up on the YouTube featuring tons of great old 70's style amusement park fun.

First off you'll see the Rebel Yell with some great shots of Lake Charles and the King Cobra roller coaster by it's side. The lake has since been filled in to make way for the water park and the King Cobra...it was at Jolly Roger in Ocean City, MD for a while. I'm not sure where it is now, I bet I could find out. (And will!) There's also some neat footage of the sky ride and the view of the park from said sky ride. You just don't see bucket-style sky rides like that anymore! And there are some gorgeous shots of the Lost Mountain as well as some footage of KD's Giant Slide. And it's a really big Giant Slide. Enjoy!

Netflix Find: It's Showtime (1976)

When I was younger, I used to spend hours in my local video store (Video Systems, Holler!) discovering tons of movies that I was curious to see. The Watch Instantly feature of Netflix has become my new Great American Video Store. There are quite literally thousands of titles just sitting there waiting to be discovered. A good number of recent additions are movies not available on DVD or even VHS.

This morning while searching for artwork for another post, I stumbled across the poster for a movie called "It's Showtime." Let's look at the number of reasons this movie was quickly elevated to Must-See Status. First, look at this awesome poster! I love movie posters that are cartoony illustrations of the cast. Second, I love clip movies - compilations of scenes from other movies. They don't really make these anymore, but I discovered them a few years ago and they are great fun. In the 60's and 70's, there were several documentaries on classic cinema released. They are fun, bouncy, and very silly. Last, I love animal movies - especially when an animal is talking and/or wearing clothes. I like the sentimental more realistic animal movies too, but if you put an animal in clothes and then get him to talk...that's movie magic in my book! All these things aside, I would also plop down money sight unseen to view a movie with the title It's Showtime.

So, anywho...after seeing this mind-blowing poster I headed over to Netflix on the off chance they had a copy of this fine film to borrow. Turns out they don't have a DVD of it, but you can watch it streaming to your computer or TV...which is exactly what I did later that evening!

It's Showtime is kind of a jumbled mess. It's mostly JUST clips of various animal scenes from movies from the silent era up through the 1960's. There are a few segments devoted to types of animals: horses, dogs, cats and monkeys. Then there are also segments of the film spotlighting specific animal movie stars. Rin Tin Tin, Lassie, and Flipper are all featured as well as some lesser known animal stars. My kids were laughing hysterically throughout the clips featuring Daisy from the old Columbia Pictures Blondie films. Which got me to thinking, there really aren't a whole lot of Blondie movies out on DVD. And that's a shame.

Usually, when I watch this type of movie-movie, I keep a pen and paper handy to jot down the names of movies mentioned that I'd like to hunt down. Alas, the narration in It's Showtime is kept to a minimum, so you really have no idea what movies you are seeing clips from. Still, if you like animals, old movies or bizarre packages of old movie clips you should check out this wacky little relic of Hollywood history. You'll go APE for it...or...it's DOG gone good. Oh wait, It's purrrrfectly awesome. Nevermind.

Classic Commercial Sunday - #47 Brady Edition

Here's a nifty little video someone threw together featuring three different commercials staring child actors who later went on to become known as members of The Brady Bunch.

Weebles Wobble But They Don't Hip-Hop

I took a video of this push-button store display at Wal-Mart for Weebles. It's nice to see the Weebles return to a style similar to their 1971 debut, but seeing them dance to their 2010 theme song remix is quite disturbing...


You, of course, remember their original slogan and jingle...


Weebles were awesome!

McGood Times

The cast of McDonaldland characters is one of the great things that we all loved about the fast food chain when we were younger. The Burger King Kids Club crew, the Arby's oven mit or even Bob Evan's Bisquit n' Gravy - none come even close to the awesomeness of Ronald McDonald and his buddies. These toys are reproductions from a line of McDonaldland toys that came out in the 70's. What kid today wouldn't want to recreate the adventures of Capt. Crook trying to get his hands on a Filet o'Fish sandwhich?! I had the whole set of these when I was younger including the giant playset with a mat that took up the entire floor of our playroom. It's probably worth hundreds of dollars now and I bet we sold it at a garage sale for a dollar.

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Blast Off on the Astro Liner

Forget Star Tours or the Back to the Future Ride, or even the old Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas...the granddaddy of all those motion simulator rides is the Astro-Liner. This is one of my all-time favorite rides! I was in love with this ride when I was kid, and rode it several times at the beach and whenever we would find it at a carnival or fair. You don't see this classic ride around too often anymore, but luckily it's still alive and kicking at Dutch Wonderland.

I'll explain the ride in geeky detail by taking a quote from The Art of Stop Motion Animation: Wisdom Manufacturing, Inc. in Sterling, Colorado, first introduced the 40 passenger Astro-Liner in 1977. There are two designs, one a NASA two-stage rocket and the other a vessel that would be right at home in the pages of a Jules Verne novel.

The Astro-Liner is a hydraulically controlled ride whose moves are synchronized to a film that the passengers view from inside the rocket. The film is projected from behind a rear projection screen, which serves as the cockpit window. The film, combined with the hydraulic movements of the vessel create the feeling of truly travelling through space.


Filmed in 35mm, the film was then printed down to Super-8, which used to be the projection system for the Astro-Liner until video came along. Now the ride uses a video projection system.

To put it simply, riders enter the spaceship shaped tubular theatre , grab a seat, and watch a movie as the ship raises up at an angle and then tilts from side to side. There's no seatbelts or safety bar, so you really do have to hold on as the spaceship rocks slowly but to about a 60 degree angle. The screen used to look like a cockpit and the front window of the spaceship. Over the years, Dutch Wonderland has kept up maintenance on the ride and recently installed a large screen High Def monitor to show the same old 8mm film, but now stored digitally. The screen is a bit smaller than the original version, and a wee bit of the effect is lost because of it...but you take what you can get.

Here's a shot of the interior of the ship...
The movie is very similar to Disney's Star Tours rides. Your ship breaks free from a loading dock and then proceeds on a crazy out of control voyage through several different parts of the galaxy.

They used to have one of these rides at Ocean City, MD. I remember the film on that version ended with the ship making a free-fall decent into an amusement park. Supposedly, the park you were riding the ride in...but It didn't really match up with the layout of the rides at the boardwalk.

At Dutch Wonderland, across from the Astro-Liner they added a newer ride VR VOYAGER. The ride is a souped-up 2000's version of the Astro-Liner. Honestly, I don't think it's near as fun as the original 1970's classic but it's very cool of DW to house both rides across from each other. They even have a sign that explains the significance of the two rides...

Dutch Wonderland has several spots where they pay homage to the parks heritage and that's a swell touch!

My boys and I after a voyage on the Astro-Liner. June, 2010

Yogi Yahooeys Fan For Life

An exciting treasure from the Hanna-Barbera vaults finally made it's way to DVD this week. Scooby's All Star Laff-A-Lympics Volume 1 features four episodes from the fondly remembered 1977 - 1979 Saturday morning series. This has always been one of my favorites from the guys at H-B and I was pretty excited to see the show get a DVD release. Judging from the cover art, Warner Bros. is hoping to ride off the immense popularity of Scooby-Doo. He's featured prominently in the show's opening segment and in most of the episodes but for most H-B fans Laff-A-Lympics stands out due to it's cast of dozens of cartoon superstars.

The Laff-A-Lympics is an Olympics style event, actually a parody of ABC's Battle of the Network Stars. In each episode, three teams compete in an assortment of athletic events at venues all over the world. The teams are: the Scooby Doobies - made up of Hanna-Barbera characters from half hour mystery shows like Scooby Doo, Dinomutt, Speed Buggy and Captain Caveman; the Yogi Yahooeys - featuring the gang from H-B's classic animated shorts like Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Wally Gator and Quick Draw McGraw; and there's the Really Rottens - who look similar to other Hanna-Barbera bad guys but are mostly all original creations for this show. The teams compete in different events and are awarded points throughout the competition. Of course, the Really Rottens always try to cheat and it always backfires on them!

One of the coolest aspects of the show was the guest cameos that pop up from time to time. In the four episodes on this collection there are brief appearances from Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble and Jabber Jaw. The other fun thing about this show is how much my kids got into it! They both really got behind the Scooby Doobies and were cheering them on and hooting and yelling like they were watching something on ESPN. Myself, I'm a life long Yogi Yahooeys fan so the line was drawn down the middle of our house and the kids took great delight in seeing their team squash mine. I really like when my children appreciate the simpler cartoons from the past.

I also have to add that "Laff-A-Lympics" is a totally great title! I'm a big fan of 70's programing that incorporates the words "Laugh", "Comedy", or "Smile" into their title.

Here's a rundown of who's who on the Laff-A-Lympics teams:

He Sure Plays A Mean Pinball

I've always wanted to go to a Coin-op Show, where people buy and sell coin-operated amusement machines. I would love to own a coin-op kiddie ride and I think it would be cool to get one while I've got little kids who could enjoy riding on it. Well, today I made it to The White Rose Game Room Show which was kind of what I was looking for but it was mostly pinball machines. It was still cool, because I've always enjoyed pinball not only as a game but some of the machines are real works of pop art. The main attraction at this show was the main room which was made up of hundreds of pinball machines that you could play without quarters. Your admission to the show included unlimited play on tons of pinballs, a few video games, and other electronic wonders. It was a real blast playing some of the older machines from the 60's and 70's with their mechanical sounds and bells and low-tech game play. Of course, I brought alone the ol' WWOB camera and took a few photos for ya'll...

Great machine from the 60's with some nice bikini girl artwork.

This Power Play machine has a great red, white and blue color scheme that screams mid-70's!

I started to play this machine but then the game went on for too long and it didn't make any sense and...oh yeah, the movie Waterworld sucked!

Sadly, the machine did not feature the voice of Mr. Bill Shatner

Before she owned an amusement park, Dolly Parton was a pinball table.

Take a look at some more of my pictures at the WWoB Photo Album.

Old Burger King Logo

Here's how lame I am...yesterday while at a Burger King in Mt. Airy, Md I was delighted to find the umbrellas near the kids play area branded with the old Burger King font. The sign on top of the building is also still sporting the older round font. I then spent the next 20 minutes ignoring my kids on the playground and noting the subtle differences between the font in the new BK logo vs. the old way of writing it. Kinda sad...ain't I!?!



original logo... (older than the one above)
current logo...

Take Another Look

If you have any last minute shopping to do this weekend, may we suggest our favorite store...?

Good Ol' Charlie Brown Specials

Here's two old school TV Guide ads for "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving." The special first aired in 1973 and was a yearly tradition until the 90's. The special disappeared for a long time only to resurface not too long ago when ABC took over the Peanuts collection from CBS. Before 2001 the Peanuts specials had aired on CBS for 35 years! This classic program will be rebroadcast yet again tomorrow night at 8:00pm on ABC. (That's Channel 2 in Baltimore and Channel 27 for Southern PA.) Following "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" will be a repeat of "He's a Bully, Charlie Brown" at 8:30pm. We mentioned this show last year on WWoB when it made it's debut.

It turned out to be a really good show and in my opinion the best Peanuts TV outing since 1986's "Happy New Year, Charlie Brown." Although Charles Schulz did not get to write the script for "Bully" he was working on the idea for the show before he passed away in 2000. The script is based on comic strips published in April of 1995.

So pop yourself some of that microwave popcorn and grab a diet Vault and settle back for a solid hour of entertainment!

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Ya Gotta See It To Believe It

Last week I told you about my latest acquisition to my holiday television special collection, The Paul Lynde Halloween Special. In case you didn't believe me about the sheer greatness of this program, today WWoB gives the internet screen captures of this 1976 Halloween/Disco extravaganza!

You know it's a Halloween Special because there are jack o'lanterns in the background!

Witchiepoo, The Wicked Witch of the West, Betty White, and Paul Lynde - that's star power my friends!

Here's Lynde as The Rhinestone Trucker. This picture is also in the dictionary next to the word homosexual.

Here's a trucking/CB radio themed musical number. It has nothing to do with Halloween, but doesn't mean it ain't entertaining as all get out!

Witness Paul Lynde playing Monopoly with The Wicked Witch and Witchiepoo!

Mrs. Brady belts out a disco tune. And to think, she used to sing in the church choir with Cindy!

Seriously, you're not even allowed to wear a jacket like that on television anymore before 10:00.

Even Tim Conway can't believe what he's gotten himself into, and he was in a movie called The Billion Dollar Hobo.

It's The Muppet Show Season Two DVD

A season of a TV show on DVD is like a good book. It takes a while to get through it all but you savor every moment of it while it lasts and and when it's over you want more. Such is the case with last week's release of the second season of THE MUPPET SHOW on DVD. Easily one of my favorite shows of all time, The Muppet Show has not been aired in reruns all that much in the last two decades so it's fun to see all these great shows again. Season two, which aired in the 1977-78 television season, has some big guest stars on it's roster. Singers, actors and comedians all lined up to share billing with the popular Muppets. Seeing some of the greats in entertainment is really a treat with this set. Disc one alone features Don Knotts, Zero Mostel, Milton Berle and Rich Little. I loved Rich Little when I was a kid, even though I had no idea who half the people he was imitating were. Other comedy stars on this set include the legendary Edgar Bergen, Steve Martin, Madeline Kahn, George Burns, Dom DeLuise, Peter Sellers, John Cleese, and Bob Hope. From the world of song ya got Judy Collins, Elton John, Lou Rawls, and Petula Clark.

It wouldn't be a 70's variety show without a handful of guests that have no relevance in today's world, and they would be Teresa Brewer (who?), Cleo Laine (who?), and Nancy Walker (the Pamolive gal.)

In my book, this stuff is better than 99.8% of the television they are making today!

Victoria Gardens/Victoria Pizza

On my recent picture filled trip to Kings Dominion I wanted to grab a few photos of this pizza place. It's a big building that I know has been there for a long time, possibly since the beginning. In the older days it was known as Victoria Gardens, now it's simply referred to as Victoria Pizza. It's one of the few dining spots at the theme park that has stayed almost the same all these years. There's a spot in the Old Virginia section of the park known as Country Kitchen that's still the same, and Victoria's neighbor The Sweet Tooth has been called that since the opening days of the park...except now The Sweet Tooth is also a Subway sandwich shop as well!? Anywho...I really like the untouched 1970's theme park feel of this building and glad to see it still around!

Just to illustrate how things have changed in the last 30 years, here's the description of Victoria Gardens from the 1981 KD Park Guide: "Tantalizing cheese and pepperoni pizzas, lasagna, meatball subs, tossed salad, various desserts, soft drinks and beer. Relax in air-conditioned seating." Here's the 2007 Park Guide's two cents on the same place: "Pizza, lasagna, salads, beer, drinks". Not quite as inviting, eh!?

On our visit to the park a couple of weeks ago we stopped here for dinner: 2 pizzas and 6 large sodas. Cost of our meal: $67!!