Category Archives: YouTube

Sha Na Na S4 E19, E20, E21, E22, E23, E24

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…All greased up and ready to sing their brains out….

I finished off the final season of Sha Na Na this afternoon with the six remaining episodes I had to see in season 4. I have to say that it was a really fun last few months as I worked my way through the playlist from Pattyoc01 on YouTube. While they were not always the best of quality, they were always fun and gave me flashes of nostalgia from when I was a young boy watching these in syndication. Sha Na Na was technically the first concert I ever attended (with my Dad at the Five Flags Center in Dubuque, Iowa) so I am very happy to have had a chance to watch these again.

Again, as I mentioned in the last post, some of the songs were songs that I had not heard before (or at least did not recognize). They did repeat a couple of songs in these episodes, including Runaway, Hand Jive, and Under the Boardwalk. We got to hear Chico sing again. He has not been a featured singer in the final season. Sure he was one of the lesser used voices overall in the show, but he got more than he has this year. I wonder if that was because of the absence of Dirty Dan.

We got quite a few Screamin’ Scott performances in this last handful of episodes. It was funny, but he wore that green suit in three episodes consecutively, and they were all on the street songs. I wonder if they recorded those all on the same day.

It is also interesting how many different outfits Screamin’ Scott wore. I mean, most of the group had one or two basic outfit that they wore, but Scott is always all over the place with jump suits and bright colors. And not just in the comedy skits either.

Of the guests, the one I liked the best of this group was Scatman Cruthers. I did not know what he was going to do, but he ended up singing and he was great. He played a ukulele and sang the blues. I know he sang the theme song to Hong Kong Phooey, but I did not expect him to do it here, but he was tremendous.

Other guests in these episodes included Mary Wells, The Spinners, Billie Davis Jr & Marilyn Macoo, Peaches and Herb, and Kim Carnes.

Another surprise was Pamela Meyers singing “It’s My Party and I’ll Cry If I Want To”. While Meyers had sung songs before, she was out on the street all by her self. We could hear the background vocals of Sha Na Na, but there was no sign of any of them. I wonder if that was the first time someone sang a song without any sight of any of the group?

Sha Na Na was inducted into the EYG Hall of Fame this year in the April 1 Legends class. I had a lot of fun with the boys over these four seasons.

Grease for peace….

Goodnight Sweetheart, well it’s time to go….

Sha Na Na S4 E14, E15, E16, E17, E18

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The series of Sha Na Na is coming close to an end as I am in the middle of season 4. Season 4 has not been my most favorite season of this show. I think a big part of that is that they have been doing a bunch of songs that I have never heard before. Part of the fun of Sha Na Na is that they were singing songs that I recognized form the 1950s and 1960s. While I appreciate that they do not repeat songs very often, a lot of these songs did not appeal to that nostalgia. They did them fine, but I just was not engaged as I should have been.

Some of these guests were scrapping the bottom of the barrel too. See if you can figure out which one of these is not like the others: Lacy J. Dalton, Joey Travolta, The Currie Sisters, Jackie DeShannon and James Brown. Yep, I said James Brown. It was a strange performance though. He did not seem to get much reaction from the Sha Na Na crowd and it seemed to bother him. I think he probably fed off the energy of the crowd a lot, and there was not much energy in the crowd.

One of the comedy bits was with the song Istanbul (Not Constantinople) and I remember learning about that country name change from this song.

They played the song “Rock ‘N Roll Music” but it was sung by Chico. While I enjoy Chico’s songs usually, it just felt like the wrong Sha Na Na singer for this song. It was originally recorded by Chuck Barry and I think it would have been better with Donny singing it. Or maybe Screamin’ Scott. Chico’s version was fine, but it just did not feel right.

There were actually several songs that felt a little off during these episodes. I wonder if they were realizing that the end was near and that the overall energy was starting to lack a bit.

Sha Na Na S4 E10, E11, E12, E13

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We are moving along through the final season of Sha Na Na with episodes 10-14. There are some interesting things happening in these episodes.

Strangest of the episodes was when Frankie Avalon wanted to join Sha Na Na… and they did not want him. It was a fun switch up from what their normal story with guest stars were. They were playing off the Sha Na Na-Frankie Avalon in Grease bit. Avalon performed the Beauty School Drop-Out song from Grease with the Sha Na Na guys in pink dresses.

In the 13th episode, there was a nice shout out to the Lady in the Window, who has been gone this season. Played by Jane Dulo, the guys said that they had missed the insults that she would give to them since she had “moved away.” Johnny then put on a wig and gave some insults to make them feel better. I could not find a reason for the character to be gone, but clearly, this was a way to honor her.

Johnny Paycheck, Andy Gibb, and Mary Macgregor were the other three guest stars among this group of episodes. Paycheck did his famous “Take this Job and Shove It” song on the stage.

Episode 10 had a strange dual song at the end on the stage. First, it was Jocko and Ginger singing Ol’ Black Magic and it was immediately followed up by Lenny singing Daddy’s Home. I have never seen them do two songs in a row.

Sha Na Na S4 E7, E8, E9

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Three more episodes of Sha Na Na in its final season, and there were some weird things going on.

First of all, the guests were all over the place. Two country music performers, Mickey Gilly and Dottie West, which feels strange since Sha Na Na is not country. But even odder was The Ramones. Their acting in the short sketch was not good at all.

In the Dottie West episode, some of the group dressed up like country music stars including Bowzer as Loretta Lynn, Jocko as Johnny Cash and Santini as Dolly Parton. You could tell that Dottie West was having a good time as she laughed after each one.

Sha Na Na also did that strange thing where they pulled kids out of the audience and brought them up to the stage to sing love songs to them. It was a different world, I guess. Donny sang “Puppy Love” which has a sweet connotation to it. Honestly, the first girl of three they brought up sure did not look like she wanted to be there.

In the Mickey Gilly episode, they had a running joke that they were going to have Robert Redford come to the show to sing and dance for the first time or they were going to do an opera. The Redford joke did run through the show, but they did wind up doing the Bowzer of Seville. The opera was actually not too bad, and it kept the joke bit to a minimum.

Several of these songs were ones that I did not recognize outside of Chantilly Lace (done by Jocko), Come and Go with Me and Puppy Love (by Donny).

Movie Fights 2026

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Movie Fights was one of my favorite YouTube Show that the Screen Junkies had done. It was a regular debate show where three pundits would argue over questions posed by a host. It was always fun because they had a Movie Fights Champion, with a Championship title (like wrestling would have) as well.

I was introduced to Dan Murrell through Movie Fights, who is one of my favorite online critics, as well as introducing me to John Rocha, Scott Mantz, the Schmoes, Hal Rudnick, Spencer Gilbert, Greg Elba, Roxie Striar (actually met her from TV Fights), Ken Napzok, Coy Jandreau and Andy Signore.

Movie Fights ended around February of 2020.

Then, last night, I saw a brand new Movie Fights on YouTube and I was so excited. When I pulled it up, Hal Rudnick was hosting the show with the three movie fighters, Dan Murrell, Spencer Gilbert and Mike Carlson. Murrell, the former Movie Fights champ, Spencer, one of the key writers at Screen Junkies, and Mike Carlson, who is as eccentric as possible, and they have great chemistry.

Dan Murrell continues to be the best debater that you will ever see. He is constantly providing strong arguments and intelligent takes on movies. Spencer does a solid job arguing as well.

The format of the show did not change. It was exactly like I remembered. Hal is a bit chaotic as a host, but he is funny and quick. Emma Fyffe was the fact-checker for the episode and she did a great job.

I don’t know if this is a regular return or not, but I enjoyed the show and would love to see more.

Sha Na Na S4 E4, E5, E6

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Lennie was in a dress in two of these three episodes…and Santini was in one in the other.

Lennie was in a Snow White dress for much of episode 4. It was a weird stretch of the show.

I’m going to be honest, but these were not my favorite episodes of the show. I did enjoy John Sebastian’s “Welcome Back” performance (the theme song from Welcome Back, Kotter). However, Jayne Kennedy sang a song (“Then He Kissed Me”) and she was not a singer. Her performance was not the best I have heard.

Then, there was Marty Allen, the comedian, and his comedy was not very enjoyable.

The comedy song/bits seemed to be extra long on these episodes. The best of the three was Screamin’ Scott singing “Act Naturally,” with it being skits about acting. Bowzer De Mill was the director and he was veyr lud. Jocko mispronouncing the word “sword” as S-Word was funny.

Best song from the three episodes was easily Johnny’s version of “Wonderful, Wonderful” at the end of the episode 6. Most of the other songs were ones that I had not heard before. Santini did a “Don’t Be Cruel” version too.