Tag Archives: music

Sha Na Na S4 E1, E2, E3

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We kicked off the final season of Sha Na Na with the first three episodes and a surprise. Dirty Dan was gone. He was no longer on the show, off the theme at the beginning and out of the “Goodnight Sweetheart” line at the end. I took a deep dive trying to discover the reason why he left the group and I did not find much of anything outside of wanting to pursue other opportunities. It did leave a gap in these episodes because the lack of guitar limited the type of songs they were singing.

Fourth season guests included Stephanie Mills from The Wiz, impressionist Fred Travalena, and, my personal favorite, The Unknown Comic (aka Murray Langston) who I saw regularly on the Gong Show, which was another show of the time that I enjoyed. Just a few years ago, I dressed up as the Unknown Comic for Halloween which was a ton of fun.

The group redid a song called “Remember Then” on stage as an opener. They had done this on the rooftop set a few seasons before (may have even been season one). It is a great song and was well worth the redo.

In episode two, they did a whole comedy bit called Mastergrease Theater, without the musical song between the jokes. They had three of the boys dressed up like detectives (Jocko was Columbia- a parody of Columbo, Bowzer was dressed like Sherlock Holmes and Santini was dressed like Sam Spade/noir detective). They were there to investigate the murder of Lennie, who was supposed to be a rich, high class businessman. It was a weird bit, but I liked that it was different than what they had ever done before.

Chico and Donny continued the trend of blending voices extremely well as Chico sang “Teenage Idol” with Donny providing the backing vocals. Chico and Donny had a couple of songs in these episodes and both seemed a touch soft. I thought they were living singing these and both were quite tender. Screamin’ Scott had a song like that too called “Things We Used to Do.”

The group was using more props in the opening songs during these episodes too, including long white beards for “Rip Van Winkel” and a giant broken heart for “Remember Then”

Sha Na Na S3 E17, E18, E19, E20, E21, E22, E23, E24

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I finished watching season three of Sha Na Na over the last couple of days from episode 17 to episode 24. There were some interesting things that went through these episodes.

After the first three or four episodes, I noticed that Dirty Dan and Screamin’ Scott had been doing a bunch of the songs, more than they usually would do. Then, I wondered why we were not getting the amount of Denny songs. As soon as I thought that, Denny did a bunch of songs over the next several episodes. I have to admire how well the group did of giving everybody the spotlight without shorting anybody. Chico was probably the least used singer in the group of episodes I saw, but he was there with Rubber Ball, where he was back on roller skates.

The final two episodes were very different than any other ones prior. They both carried a storyline throughout the entire show. In episode 23, Jocko fell for an uppity British woman named April (played by Lorrie Gia, who was announced with the opening credits). April wanted Jocko to change for her and he went on an episode-long journey to try and de-grease himself. Troy Donohue guest starred and tried to help in a My Fair Lady type story.

Meanwhile, in episode 24, Bowzer was hired away from Sha Na Na by Charo to play the piano for her Charo’s Cuchi Cuchi Club. The whole episode focused on Bowzer’s work for Charo and his eventual return to Sha Na Na.

I am curious to see if these storyline-based episodes will continue into Sha Na Na’s final season.

It was also interesting that Jay Johnson from Soap appeared on the show with his ventriloquist dummy, Squeaky… whose name was Bob on the show. Did that mean that Squeaky was the real name and Bob was the character he played? That seems weird.

Other guests in this run included The Kingston Trio, James Darren, Steve Allen, The Crystals and the 5th Dimension.

These episodes featured some of the comedy bits that stood out in my memory, such as 16 Tons, Romeo & Juliet, Book of Love and one that I did not remember, but it had the cast dressed up as bunnies doing At the Hop.

Screamin’ Scott was always my favorite Sha Na Na member and I remembered clearly him doing “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?” So to see it again in episode 18 was a treat.

Lennie and Bowzer did a version of “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” and their voices mixed so well together. I think Lennie could sing with anyone.

It was sad that episode 17, specifically, was such poor video quality. I know that the person who put these episodes up on YouTube did the best they could to make it as watchable as possible, but it was an old VCR recording from 40 plus years ago. Clearly, the rights to the songs make it nearly impossible to put these out on anything more up to date, despite the fact that I do believe that there would be an audience for them.

I have just one more season of Sha Na Na to go.

The Pitt S2 E6

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“12:00 PM”

I have been dreading this episode since the beginning of the season. All the hints and foreshadowing was there, but I tried my best to ignore them.

Then, last week, the show ended with Louie nonresponsive and Robby and Langdon trying to revive him.

Of course, that is where the show picked up this week and we watched as this secondary character died of a pulmonary hemorrhage due t liver failure. Louie had been a drinker, we knew. We just never knew what had led to the drinking.

During the debrief and the chance to say goodbye, Robby told the whole group assembled that Louie had been married and that his wife and unborn child had died in a car wreck and that Louie had never been the same after.

Ernest Harden Jr. played the role of Louie and you can tell how great of an actor he was when he was a side character that only had a bit of screen time and yet his character’s death impacted me dramatically.

This episode featured the nurses of the Pitt more than we had gotten prior, which was a long overdue look. There were other arcs to the episode, my absolutely most hated one was the hot dog competitor. I hate vomit scenes and this had two of them. I really hated that and I am glad he seemed to be a one and done arc.

However, the episode belonged to Louie and the grief that the staff showed. It was poignant when we discovered that the ER was Louie’s emergency contact.

Then, there was Ogilvie, whom I have not liked much this new season, but now I hate him for his callousness tied to Louie’s death. The way he broke the news to Whitaker so carelessly and his comment about “an alcohol abuser” was heartless. I am cheering for this guy to flame out in the program.

Emotional episode and we are still only six episodes in.

Sha Na Na S3 E9, E10, E11, E12, E13

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I watched another block of episodes from the variety show featuring the group Sha Na Na. I remember as a young kid watching Sha Na Na, I was always mad when the guest stars or other actors made fun of Sha Na Na and/or treated them like they were no talented. It is funny because I can remember liking Sha Na Na was something that I did not like people to know about me. I wonder if the constant jokes against them affected how I saw them.

Fact is that Sha Na Na is filled with amazing musicians and some of the best voices you’ll hear. It has been fun catching up on this show, even with the limits of YouTube involved.

These shows continues the trend of Sha Na Na having country musicians on as they had Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers, Freddy Fender and Barbara Mandrel as guests. They also had Henny Youngman, who actually performed like a stand up comic would. That was definitely the right choice instead of trying to have him make smart remarks like they did with Milton Berle.

It was weird because once again they had a repeat song on one of the episodes. In episode 10, they ended the show with the Unchained Melody version that Sha Na Na performed. I know I had seen that one in a previous episode. However, it is one of the best performances the group did on this show, so it was good to see it again.

This block of episodes also seemed to feature Lennie singing quite a bit. Lennie had one of the best voices on the show, right up there with Johnny and Donny. Of course, Lennie was the sax master, but he could hit some solid high notes vocally too.

Lennie dressed up as Paul McCartney in episode 10 as well, along with Jocko as Ringo, Santini as George and Chico as John. It was an attempt to attract the Gatlin Brothers to their show, which begs the question, are the Gatlin Brothers huge Beatles fans and wouldn’t a Beatles reunion attract even bigger celebrities?

Episode 11 featured one of my favorite performances, “Hit the Road, Jack” performed by Jocko. I love this version of the song and the background dancers are great. I have to say, I always enjoy watching poor Donny try to keep up with the others.

When I saw Screamin’ Scott playing the stand up bass, I went to Google to see what instruments he could actually play. I have wondered whether when covering for Jocko, Scott or one of the guitarists, could they actually play that instrument or are they just pretending. Google told me that Scott could play the piano, the guitar, the banjo and the harmonica. My guess is that he could do the bass as well. He is clearly very skilled in the musical aspects.

Jerry Fox showed up a couple of times again (which is a character played by Donny sometimes during the comedy skits). He’s announced as from Cleveland, and I wonder what the origin is behind this alter ego. I have seen Donny play him probably around 6-8 times so far (including twice in this block of episodes).

Sha Na Na S3 E5, E6, E7, E8

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This was an interesting stretch of episodes with Sha Na Na. They had four guest stars that did not fit into the typical type of performers that were on the show prior. Charlie Pride is a country singer, Disco Queen Gloria Gaynor, Isaac Hayes and Lola Falana both do not sing typical Sha Na Na music. It is an expansion that could open up more doors for other musicians.

The diner made a surprise return in episode eight. It was part of a running joke, which was also one of the first times this was done on Sha Na Na. Lennie wanted to play Annie because of the pretty dress, but the people in charge of Annie said Lennie was too fat to play the role. So Lennie went on a diet during the episode and they returned to the joke several times.

There were a couple of good comedy bits during these episodes. I especially enjoyed the “Rock and Roll is Here to Stay” bit where Sha Na Na dressed up like old folks. They were very funny with their outfits. The other one I liked the best was “Black Leather Denim Trousers” where they were on the street set.

We also had a comedy bit where Pamela Myers joined in to sing “How Much is that Doggie in the Window” with Sha Na Na dressed in dog outfits. It was nice to have her female voice once again in the show.

In episode 5, we got the performance by Screamin’ Scott of the song he wrote for the movie Grease, Sandy. Simon wrote the song with Louis St. Louis. The Lady in the Window said that Scott wrote the words, so perhaps he was the lyricists of the song. The song was written for the movie and was performed by John Travolta. Scott did a nice job performing it.

There were also a few songs that I did not know, specifically the ones at the beginning and end of the show. There was a cool one done by Lennie in the fifth episode and one by Jocko in episode 8.

The cuts on YouTube are still irritating, but haven’t been as bad as a few other times.

Sha Na Na S3 E1, E2, E3, E4

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I arrived at the third season of Sha Na Na with the first four episodes on YouTube and it kicked off with an odd thing. Episode one started with the group singing “Summertime” and then they had a backstage version of Up on the Roof, and I swear I had seen both of these performances on previous episodes. I did not want to take the time to go back and see if I could find them, but it was so odd that I wondered if they had to plug in some older versions of these songs for some reason. Jocko did not have his mustache, which is a key clue.

There was another song that I think they had done: Three Cool Cats. It featured one of the actresses who was the waitress at the diner, who we did not see in any other season three episode.

The season added a new set. One set was Greasers’ Hall, which apparently replaced the diner set. We also got much more Soupy Sales than in previous seasons. The new season episodes kicked off with a comedy bit before the introduction and episode one and two had a bit called “The Sha Na Na Joke Hall of Fame” which seemed like it was going to be a regular bit, only to not have it in episode 3 or 4.

Connie Stevens and Danny and the Juniors did a typical routine, with Stevens singing “Tan Shoes and Pink Shoelaces” and Danny and the Juniors doing “At the Hop.” The other two guests were Conway Twitty and Ben E. King, who both did medleys of their songs. I liked that and hope more musical guests will follow suit.

Sha Na Na did the theme song for Grease as one of their opening songs on the stage and poor Donny was so lost on the choreography of the dance routine. I felt so bad for him. He was giving it his all, but he was just behind the others so much. Donny is not the best of the backup dancers and this was pretty complicated. He kept just trying to do the grease your hair move.

Of course, Sha Na Na appeared in the movie Grease, playing the band at the dance where John Travolta and Olivia Newton John would win.

Maybe that was why they sold Donny to science in a future episode.

Man, they sure stick Lennie into a lot of dresses.

Lookin ahead, there are a lot of country musicians coming up. I wonder if they had burned through guests from the 1950s and had to move into different genres.

Sha Na Na S2 E22, E23, E24

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With these three episodes, season two of Sha Na Na ended. I will say that season two was considerably better than season one. The first two-thirds of season one was so cringeworthy with the comedy and the laugh tracks that it really took away from the music. However, near the end of season one, they clearly started to find their path and season two saw them hit their stride.

They had another tribute medley, this time for Paul Anka, who was also their guest star. They have done tributes for Elvis, Buddy Holly in the past and I am not sure why they did not do this more often. This was great and took the place of the comedy bit for the episode. Paul Anka sang a song then that I had never heard before.

This Paul Anka episode has to be considered one of the best episodes so far in the rewatch. It was up their with the Billy Crystal episode.

Speaking of Elvis, Sha Na Na has been doing more music from the King recently. Elvis was very much absent from season one, which makes me wonder if there were rights issues when they first started.

Joe Namath came in and sang with the group… well, singing is a bit of a stretch. He said “Get a Job” in the song Get a Job while the rest of them did the background vocals and all the main lyrics. Joe looked like he was having fun though, which makes it fun for the audience.

I had never heard of Lloyd Price, guest star #3, but he did a Stagger Lee and Personality mash-up, which I have heard.

Sha Na Na has always done a great job of pairing up their singers into voices that complement each other well. In episode 23, Donny and Lennie sang What’s Your Name, and they sounded fantastic together. Lennie and Bowzer did a song similar to Mr. Bassman, but different.

Sha Na Na S2 E14, E15, E16, E17, E18, E20, E21

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I came back for Sha Na Na on YouTube and we got some issues with the recordings. Now, the recordings were loaded up from old VHS tapes, so the quality has always been iffy, but this was the first time when whole songs were cut out, specifically in episode 15. In the comments, the channel’s owner, pattyoc01, stated that it was because of YouTube needing to cut some out for copyright reasons.

Another issue came in this group of episodes with number 19. On the playlist, #19 is listed as starring Jimmie Rodgers. However, on the YouTube list, it was just a repeat of S2 E18 with the Ronnettes. Not sure what happened with that.

Another funny thing was at the end of episode 18, there was a brand new “Goodnight Sweetheart” closing. You can tell because the camera was closer to each member and Jocko had his mustache shaved off as he has had for most of the two seasons of the show. However, oddly enough, episodes 20-21 both had the old closing version, making me wonder if this playlist was in actual release order.

Interesting guest stars on these episodes. Dick Clark appeared as the only non-singing guest, but he certainly has big ties to music. They played some Rate the Music, like they did on American Bandstand in the old days. This was a fun use of Dick Clark. There was an appearance by Jan and Dean, who performed on the actual stage. They had a performance by someone named Johnny Tillotson, who I had never heard of before. He did Poetry in Motion, which I knew well, but I always thought it was by Buddy Holly, or someone like that. Del Shannon was on and he sang Runaway, of course. Trini Lopez sang La Bamba as The Angels did My Boyfriend’s Back.

There was a fun duet between Johnny and Pamela Myers, who plays Ginger. She sings every once in awhile and their version of Hey Paula was well done.

I really enjoyed the comedy bit with Bowzer playing “Sven Bowzer” in an opera with Dirty Dan as the reporter. I actually laughed several times during this section.

There are some of my favorite Sha Na Na songs on these episodes. Johnny singing Roy Orbison’s Cryin’, Tell Laura I Love Her ( also by Johnny), Screamin’ Scott leading the Sha Na Na sing along with the song Don’t You Just Know It, So In Love, and Peggy Sue.

Speaking of Peggy Sue, they did an homage to Buddy Holly on episode 18 with them doing four separate songs. They did this instead of the comedy bit and I think they should have done something like this more often. I know they had done an Elvis one previously.

Three more episodes in season two to go. Even with the quality and the copyright issues, I am pleased that I am able to revisit these shows.

Sha Na Na S2 E4, E5, E6, E7, E8, E9, E10

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I took a deep dive into season to of the Sha Na Na show and watched seven episodes. I watched this many cause I wanted to get to episode 10, where the run of musical guests came to an end. However, this was how you take a non-musical guest and use him effectively. Of course, it was Billy Crystal.

It was interesting when Johnny introduced Billy Crystal, telling a story about Billy working with Sha Na Na in the past, before Billy hit it big with Soap. He must have been a warm-up act for the group. Awesome that he was willing to come back to the group after he had become a star. It was shocking to see what a resemblance Billy Crystal had to Johnny. They could have easily been brothers.

Billy did an act on the stage and participated in the comedy song skit by doing his impression of Howard Cosell.

Earlier that episode, Sha Na Na did a musical tribute to Little Richard, which was very cool too. This might have been the best episode of the series so far.

Not that the other ones were bad. Actually, I have found season two to be very solid. The group has really spread out the songs among each other, even though there were several songs that I did not recognize.

The show has done an effective way of bringing on their guest stars in this stretch of episodes. With Brenda Lee, she came into the diner, looking for a hiding place because she didn’t want to sing. She wanted to hide in the powder room or behind the counter, but the waitress said they would find her in both places. She then mentioned how the Shirells hid behind the counter but was caught (in a previous episode). I appreciate the continuity.

Then, in episode 5, Sha Na Na did their opening number on the stage, Santini took the microphone, and introduced the Coasters, who came up and sang “Charlie Brown.” I thought that was a cool way to introduce the guest star in a way they had never done before.

Chubby Checker came back to the show to perform again. I wonder if he had filmed this at the same time when he was on the show before in season one. He became the first headliner to return as guest star, though Milton Berle was on the show twice too.

Donny really showed off his voice in this group of shows. He had a beautiful rendition of Mr. Blue, another ballad in Oh, Donna, sang with Johnny on Let the Good Times Roll, and a street set version of Singing the Blues.

Jocko also had a bunch of songs in this stretch, including Do You Love Me, Tossin’ and Turnin’, and, a personal favorite, Ya Ya. Jocko wound up in several background dance moments when one of the other background dancers had to sing.

Speaking of that, I have a question that I wonder any time I see Jocko up front and Dirty Dan on the drums. I know a lot of the times, they sing live but to a backing track and they do not do the instruments or background vocals live. I just wonder, does Dirty Dan know how to play the drums or is it just for show? It does the same thing when Screamin’ Scott is somewhere else. In these episodes, I saw Johnny and Lenny on the piano. Are they just sitting there?

Screamin’ Scott is another interesting one because he covers guitar at times when Dirty Dan is on drums and he has been shown to play the banjo. I do believe he knows how to play the banjo because during the comedy skit based on the song “Battle of New Orleans,” which Scott sang and played banjo. However, in between the song, where they did some comedy, Scott played a bit to help someone do a song. It sure sounded as if he really did play that banjo in that moment.

We rarely see Donny on any instruments (although I saw him on a guitar once) and Denny never plays anything either. I wonder if that is because they can’t play these instruments and when someone steps in for an instrument, they know how to play it, even with the backing track. It is an interesting thought and it makes me think about it any time someone is not in their spot.

They also made the first reference to Sha Na Na’s appearance in Grease. They also played “Those Magic Changes” which was one of their big songs from the film. I wonder what the timeline of that movie compared to the show was.

Sha Na Na S2 E1, E2, E3

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I wondered what differences there might be to the show now that we have reached season two. There are a couple small things, but most of the show was fairly consistent with season one.

The changes included after the opening number on the stage, a member of Sha Na Na would come up to the microphone and do three or four jokes. These three episodes saw Jocko, Bowser and Chico take the mike. Most of the jokes turned out to be self-derogatory and not that funny.

The other thing I noticed was the show started putting the name of certain members on the screen with a jokey comment beneath their name such as “Jocko: Has a season ticket to the Ballet.” These were cute and could pop up at any time.

Otherwise, they had the same structure. It felt like Avery Schreiber was gone as the cabbie since they did not have him bringing the guest stars in like last season. Interestingly enough, two of the three episodes had Johnny pretend to do an imitation of the celebs, The Shirells and Little Anthony.

Episode two had Screamin’ Scott singing When the Saints Go Marching In during the comedy routine song. They actually had him sing the entire song before they paused for the joke. There were some other “heaven/angel” songs to go with the Saints one.

Episode three had Soupy Sales show up as a cop and a stage director. He was the “director” of the stage show, which was the comedy bit in episode three where Sha Na Na all dressed up as women to sing “I Enjoy Being a Girl.” It was slightly disturbing.

They had some of my favorite songs from Sha Na Na on these three episodes including “Baby, That is Rock ‘N Roll,” “Pretty Little Angel Eyes,” and “Teenager in Love.” In that last one, one of my favorite parts of that song is when Chico almost cracks himself up when he says “ax” instead of “ask” during the song. You can hear him giggle slightly.

They continue to get the musical acts, which really helps the show. These musical acts are acts from the 50/60s era that were probably happy to get a call to be on Sha Na Na. Bobby Rydell couldn’t have been too busy in the late 70s/early 80s.

Sha Na Na S1 E22, E23, E24

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I finished up Sha Na Na’s first season on YouTube this morning with three pretty good episodes. I do believe that some of the errors that the show did in the first half of their first season were addressed midway through and it did seem better.

Episode 22 kicked off with Blue Moon, which was strange because I am almost certain that that song has already been done on the show. I don’t think that it was just the pilot episode either. I didn’t go back through my reviews to see, but it felt very familiar. The last song of the season was sung by Dirty Dan, and it was Dream Lover, which, again, I thought I had already heard this season. I’m not sure it was a good sign if they were repeating songs just during their first season.

They continued with the musical acts as guest stars instead of comedians or actors. Dion, Marth Reeves and the Vandellas and Bobby Vee all were able to perform and added so much to each episode. The poor comedy was kept to a minimum and the show became more of a musical variety show.

Martha Reeves stuck around after her song and did some jokes with Bowzer and Lennie, both of which were funny. You can do that if it is written well.

Sha Na Na does a fantastic job of finding the right voices to blend together. They had the song Charlie Brown sung by Screamin’ Scott and Jocko, and they sounded great together. Then, they had their best singers< Johnny, Bowzer, Donny, Santini and Denny doing Remember Then, which is sensational.

In episode 23, they did one of the comedy bits where they all dress up and they called it Swine Lake. At first, I thought to myself, “What am I watching?” but as it went on, I started picturing it as an act on the Muppet Show. Had this been the pigs from the Muppets doing this “ballet” I wouldn’t have blinked at it. So, by making Sha Na Na human Muppets, I found much more enjoyment in the skit than I would have before.

Avery Schreiber, who has been a cabbie all season long, came into the diner and did a skit/song where he danced like a robot. It was a bizarre moment. It was another that kind of grew on me and I liked the effort of him doing something different than just drive his cab onto the set and bring the guest star. Apparently, the song was called Mechanical Man and it was a song Avery Schreiber wrote the song as a way to express his unhappiness over how he was being seen as an actor.

Dirty Dan had several songs in this block of three including Dream Lover, Da Do Run Run, and part of the Mexican skit in episode 22.

The comedy bit song in the 24th episode was Ahab the Arab, which was a song b Ray Stevens. I was surprised, since I thought this was too recent for Sha Na Na to do it. However, I did a quick Google search and it said that the song was released in 1962, meaning it fell right into Sha Na Na’s wheelhouse.

This brings to a close season one of the variety show. I am curious to see if there are any changes from season one to two or if the changes they made in the middle of season one will just continue.

Sha Na Na S1 E19, E20, E21

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Sha Na Na was one of my favorite shows as a kid so I am enjoying the trip down memory lane with the boys. I have to say that I still believe that the show is so much better when you have guest stars on the show with musical abilities.

These three episodes featured: Chuck Berry, Bobby Rydell and Leslie Gore. If I were them, I would have had Chuck Berry do a second song on the actual stage set. They had him do “Roll Over Beethoven” in the road set, which was great, but he could have done another one on the actual stage with the live audience.

They did brink Leslie Gore out to the stage to the audience when she was on episode 21. It just felt more special than the others, even though Chuck Berry knocked the performance out of the park.

In episode 20, Sha Na Na performed “Unchained Melody, which may be their best performance ever on the stage. The song was at a quicker pace and the background choreography was spot on. A lot of times, Sha Na Na look a touch out of step with the background dancing. I mean, they are singers and not necessarily dancers. However, this performance was fire. Unchained Melody, which was more well known as by the Righteous Brothers, was originally performed as a doo wop song by Vito and the Salutations in 1963. This is the version Sha Na Na was doing.

We also got some great vocalization with Bowzer and Johnny in Lovers Never Say Goodbye, in episode 21. This group have some great singers that compliment each other really well. Bowzer and Johnny work perfectly together in this song.

Alley Oop was one of the most distinct memories I have of the comedy skit songs the group would do. They would break in the song to do some silly joke. Most of the jokes were cringy, but I did love the song performed by Dirty Dan and Screamin’ Scott.

They still overuse the crowd noise/laugh track, but it is not as distracting as it was in the first half of season one.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #48

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Spoilers

This week for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk, we start a two episode documentary on HBO Max about Billy Joel called Billy Joel: And So It Goes. This is truly a first for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk because the first episode is almost 2 and a half hours long. Next week’s is about the same. We have never had an episode for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk as long as this was.

Honestly, I love Billy Joel, but, when the show first came out on HBO Max, the runtime of the documentary was something that put me off. However, the timing of this worked out perfectly as The Haunting of Hill House ended last week, and the next series would start over Christmas break from school. I have two weeks off from teaching and so anything that I did not get to watch on a Sunday because of the length of the documentary could easily be watched during the week. It was perfect.

I watched Part 1 today, and the doc was fascinating. It reveled a ton of details that I was unaware of pertaining to Billy Joel. The early career depression that led him to attempt suicide a couple of times was truly unexpected.

Many rock documentaries do not feature some of the worst times of the performer. They may gloss over things that they do not want to explore. I did not get that feeling about Billy Joel: And So It Goes. The cliché phrase “warts and all” seems to fit as the first episode talked about Billy’s drinking, his depression and suicide attempts, his attitude toward the record companies, just to mention a few. All of this came together to show us a cool portrait of this musician.

There were plenty of talking heads in the film including comments form Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, John Mellencamp, as well as people closer to Billy. His wife/manager Elizabeth Weber was an essential character in the narrative of Billy Joel’s early successes, and she appeared through the entire episode. Of course, we also heard directly from Billy Joel in multiple settings and time periods.

The first episode ended just after the motorcycle accident that Billy survived and the split of his marriage with Elizabeth.

We will finish episode 2 next Sunday.

Blood in the Sand

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It all began on a dark and stormy night, where a dark person waits with a dark purpose.                         

“Nooo! Stay back! Help!”

 “Susan! We’re coming!” said Hanes. 

“Oh my god,” said Tara. 

“What’s all the noise? Can`t you see people are trying to… oh,” said Joyce.

5 hours earlier. “Hello all you wicked wacks listening to all my songs and raps, I got 

another song for you so don’t touch that dial.” said the DJ on the radio in Dave’s car. “The weather is going to be bad tonight with a sandstorm through the night.”

 “Wrong station,” said Dave as he swapped stations to find the right one. “LOUWWWWWW” 

“Take me home” 

“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire” 

“That’s it. That’s what I’m looking for,” said Dave. 

  “Ahhh, I finally arrived, Brd Manor. It took three airplanes, two buses, and a car with a tree, but I made it,”said Dave as he masked the beauty of the mansion. 

“Dave!” said a familiar voice. All of the sudden a girl comes blasting through the door and ran at Dave. 

“Joyce!” said Dave to Joyce as they did their secret handshake. 

“I’m so glad you could come!” Said Joyce “I have your room all set. So set your stuff in the guest room, and I will introduce you to the family.”

 As he walked down the hall to his room. He heard someone’s muffled voice down at the other end of the hall. When he got to the door he peeked inside and saw a woman yelling at the phone. 

“If you think you can get my fortune you are dead wrong! No! You listen! I am not going to my entire estate to the likes of you, ” said the woman who looked vaguely familiar 

“I see you’ve met my mom, Ms. Susan Brd,” said Joyce. 

“ You scared me, wait, that’s Susan Brd one of the wealthiest people in the continent,” said Dave. “Yes, my crude, rich, never-spending-time-to-see-her-family, mother,” said Joyce.  “You do not want to get on her bad side, trust me. Oh and there are my brothers from other fathers. Jack Brown and Hanes Motov.” 

“Hey Joyce, who’s your friend?” said Jack. 

“I was just showing my old college buddy, Dave here, around the house,” said Joyce. “Can I show him? Only I can give him the best tour around the old place,” said Hanes. “Sure, just make sure you are back by dinner. Today it’s spaghetti and meatballs,” said Joyce. 

“Thanks, you won’t regret it. Come on Dave,” said Hanes.

1 hour and 46 minutes later. Hanes and Dave enter the corridor.  

“I think that’s everything.” Said Hanes. “Oh look at the time, we’re going to be late for dinner, let’s go this way…No…maybe…no.” 5 minutes of tedious searching later. “ Oh, hi Tara. Dave This is Tara Oster, our maid/butler/cook/housekeeper, and most of all, Joyce’s all out friend since her dad was the one who spent time with us. But, he died when she was four and mom sent us off to boarding school but didn’t send Joyce. It was just her and Tara.” 

“And underpaid. Hello master Dave,” said Tara. 

“Hello Tara,” said Dave. 

“I think we better go,” said Hanes. 

They finally arrived at the dining room and sat down to eat. 

“So you finally decided to come and sit down to eat,” said Susan. “You probably got lost in the house again like Thanksgiving, didn’t you?” “No…Yes.” Hanes said as he looked away. “He almost always lies,” said Joyce. 

Many minutes of silence passed by until Dave said. “Great cooking.” And everyone looked at him. After dinner Dave said, “ Let’s play a game.” 

“That’s a good idea,” said Jack. 

“Okay what will we play?” asked Dave. 

“Why don’t we play Guess Who,” said Jack. 

“That is a great idea,” said Hanes. 12 rounds of Guess Who later. “Let’s be done and get some sleep,” said Jack. 

“Okay,” said Hanes. 

“Time to turn in,” said Dave with a yawn. 

“Goodnight,” said Jack. 

There was a knock at the door. As Dave opened the door he saw an ebony silhouette of a man against the dark Saudi Arabian sky. 

“Hello I am John Hathers, my car broke down and I was wondering if I could stay here for the night. Till the car shop opens tomorrow morning.” 

“Well sure John. You can stay for as long as you like. Please, come in,” said Dave. “Thanks,” said John. 

“I’m Dave.” 

“Hi Dave,” said John. 

“Shhh. Don’t want to wake the whole house,” said Dave. “There is your room, please call me if you need anything.” John was very grateful of Dave.

    “Nooo! Stay back! Help!” 

“Susan! We’re coming!” said Hanes. 

“Oh my god,” said Tara. 

“What’s all the noise? Can`t you see people are trying to… oh,” said Joyce. Susan was 

lying on the floor motionless. Everyone stood in amazement. Jack’s eyes filled with tears, and he began to cry. Tara just stood there motionless, looking at her late boss. 

“Is she, dd…dead?” Stuttered Joyce. 

“Everyone get in their rooms and lock their doors. Tara, call 911.”  

“But” 

“No but’s!” Dave said before Jack could say anything. 

“I will call you one at a time to interrogate you.” 

15 minutes later. “Nothing, not a bit of motive and plenty of opportunity for all of them. I might as well get some rest,” Dave thought. “No use staying up all night not finding out anything.” 

As he walked into his room, he found it a mess. His luggage was on the ground, the bookcase was knocked over, and everything else was wrecked. He heard someone running down the stairs so he ran after them. He caught the person and found out it was Jack. 

“Jack what are you doing trying to sneak your luggage out of the house in a sandstorm?” said Dave. 

“I don’t want to be a part of this,” said Jack. “I just wished we had one good holiday before she passed away. The family being away and all we didn’t have many holidays together. Was that too much to ask of God?” Dave locked eyes with Jack and locked the door. 

“You need to leave,” said Dave in a woman’s voice. He walked back to his room and Dave could hear Jack scream into his pillow from Timbuktu.

“AHHHH!” 

“Here we go again,” said Dave. 

“That was Joyce!” said Jack. 

“What’s wrong?” said Dave. 

“Someone went past my window with a gun,” said Joyce. 

“Come on Jack, we can catch them if we hurry,” said Dave. “It’s time for a chase scene montage.” 

5 grueling minutes of chase scene montage with music later. “We lost them whoever they were,” said Dave as he ran out of breath. 

“We can’t stay out here, it’s too…” Jack’s voice could barely be made out in the storm. Once they got inside they couldn’t see. 

“Jack, Hanes, anyone.” Dave called but no one answered. 

“Dave!” called Jack. “Where are we?” 

“I think we are in the kitchen,” answered Dave. “See if you can find something to wipe our eyes off with.” 

“Find something, see, we can’t even find each other and our eyes are filled with sand,” said Jack sarcastically. 

“Ahh, found a towel,” said Dave. 

“Here you go Jack. Now, you head to bed and I will see you later.” 

As he went to the living room he saw someone walking crouched toward the parlor room. 

He followed and  found out it was Hanes. 

“Hanes,” said Dave “ What are you doing up this late?” 

“Nothing.” said Hanes as he looked away suspiciously. 

“Tell me the truth Hanes,” said Dave. 

“Okay we all hated her, we all hated Susan. We held a secret meeting before this event to talk about how we all hated her. We all wanted her to kick the bucket, I never thought someone would actually do this but here we are. In a house full of people and with a dead body.” He said as his voice got more serious and became louder. 

“Cool your jets Hanes. Everyone in this house is safe with Detective Dave Maceade on the job,” said Dave. 

“Someone is dead.” Hanes said sarcastically. 

“I was off the job then.” Said Dave. “Now, you go to bed and get some rest and I will see you and everyone else in the morning.” 

Dong. Dong. Dong. 

“Three’o’clock, hmm. So far so good, might as well get some coffee,” said Dave as he talked to himself. He whipped off the sand on the window and looked through it. “Looks like the storm is over.” 

He grinded the coffee beans and poured them into the coffee machine. 

“Man, last night was crazy,” said Joyce as she walked into the kitchen. 

“Well good morning to you too,” said Dave. 

“Ohh, are you making coffee, in that case. I want an espresso with two pumps of hazelnut, four pumps of vanilla, three marshmallows, extra whip, small bits of chocolate, and a partridge in a pear tree,” said Joyce. 

“Very funny, coming right up,” said Dave. 6 minutes later. “Finished with your espresso with two pumps of hazelnut et cetera et cetera,” said Dave. “Exactlly how you like it, extra toasty.” 

“Wow,” said Joyce. “You have a real gift. You could go places with a talent like that.” “Thanks, but I like it when I am a detective,” said Dave. “I just get so much thrill out of it, solving mysteries, crimes, and murders. It’s just so exciting.” Jack and Hanes came walking down the stairs. 

“Morning you two,” said Dave. “We were wondering when you would come down.” 

“Have a seat,” said Joyce 

“Thanks,” said Hanes. 

“Can we get some coffee?” asked Jack. 

“Write your orders down,” said Dave. 

“I slept like a log,” said John. 

“Oh yes, Everyone this is John Hathers. His car broke down and I let him stay for the night before the whole multi billionaire dying and all that other stuff,” said Dave. 

“So, John, what do you do for work?” asked Joyce. “I am a DJ; I was on the way back from the radio station when my car drove into a sand dune. I tried to back out but I was too stuck, I tried to push it out but I was in too deep,” said John. “So I walked for what felt like forever until I got to this house. When I walked up to the front door and Dave answered, he let me in and let me stay in the guest room for the night. And I’m so happy he did if he hadn’t. Then I would not have met all of you.” 

“Do you think you have met everyone?” said Jack. 

“Because there is one person you haven’t met.” 

“Good morning everyone,” said Tara. 

“That’s Tara,” said Dave. “The butler of her late employer Susan Brd, aka the woman who died last night.” 

“Sorry, for everyone’s loss,” said John. “I know I didn’t know her very well being a celebrity and all but, she must have meant so much to you all.” 

“Actually,” said Dave. “They all hated her.” 

“What?” said John. 

“They hated her, each and everyone of them. They all had a reason for wanting her dead. From her not spending time with her kids to staff not being paid enough,” said Dave when a thought appeared in his mind. “And I think I know who is behind this.”

“Who?” asked Joyce. 

“The only person who isn’t here. You can come out now.” Dave called around the corner and out came Susan Brd. 

“Susan!” Joyce gasped as she began to faint. 

“She’s going to faint.,” said John. 

“Catch her,” said Hanes. 

“I got her,” said Dave. “Fall into my arms.” Joyce fell through his arms and onto the floor. “Opps,” said Dave. “Yes, it was Susan pulling the strings this entire time. Ever since she knew about the secret meeting Hanes told me about last night she was furious with all of you so much that she figured out a plan to pay you all back. She was going to pretend to be dead like one of you knocked her off. But, John and I showed up and really confused things. But she had taken some pills to make her fall asleep for hours, making us think she was dead. And we would have known she wasn’t dead if we had checked her pulse, which is a rookie mistake that no one should miss with a straight train of thought. Which, let’s face it, none of us had that last night. You all were so worried about her and you all cared about her for one of the first times ever.” 

“You all cared,” said Susan as her eyes began to fill with tears and a second later she started to cry. As everyone tried to comfort her Dave remembered something. 

“So I just remembered I called the police so Susan is going to jail, sorry Susan,” said Dave. 

4 minutes later. As the police arrived, put Susan in the cruiser, and left, Dave felt a sense of fulfillment. 
4 short months later. Susan will spend 50 years in prison for faking her death and her evil scheming. Jack and Hanes became the biggest acts in show business to hit New York since Hamlet. Tara started her own fashion line for staff like butlers, maids, cooks, and housekeepers. Joyce went on to start her own tech company called The Most Expensive Electronics and Tech for the Wealthist People. I know a very long name right, like her coffee order. And Dave, well I went on to be the next Benoit Blanc. I went on to start a family and I started this book series which started with the mystery I call “Blood on the Sand.”

Sha Na Na S1 E17, E18

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I noticed some differences in these two episodes than I did int he previous ones. First, it seemed as if they got control of the laugh track. It was still there, but it was much more in control. It was not as loud as it was in the previous 16 episodes and I actually did not notice it for awhile. That was a HUGE item for the show.

Then, the comedy, which was always real bad in most of the first 16 episodes, wasn’t that bad here. It was still not the greatest comedy I ever heard, but it was considerably better. I did not cringe as much as I did in the first part of the season.

They had a new set, a diner where they could go for some of the backstage bits. It was much improved. We had way few of the ridiculous bits by some of the other members of the cast. I wonder if they let some of the others go.

These two episodes had the benefit of having guests that could sing. The first one was Johnny Ray, who I am not sure I knew, but who I was incredibly impressed with. He sang a song on the street set that was great. He was also singing it live. I was fascinated with the way he moved his mouth as he sang. No one would move their mouth like that if they were lip synching.

The second episode of the night had Chubby Checker, who sang Let’s Twist Again (Like We Did Last Summer). He was also clearly singing the song. Truthfully, there were some times he was screaming it. It brought a lot of energy to the show. There is no doubt that when the show has singers as guests, things just seem stronger.

They had a couple of comedy songs- first Rip Van Winkel and then My Baby Loves A Western Movie, and I have to say, I thought both were decent and had some funny moments. I really prefer the group on the stage or in the street set, but these comedy bits were fun too.

These episodes had some solid songs including All Shook Up, Poetry in Motion, Yakety Yak, and Earth Angel.

Things are looking up. Some of my biggest complaints from the first part of this season seems to have been addressed, and just turning that damn laugh track down is a major step in the right direction. Next episode looks to have Chuck Berry as a guest star so that means more music from the guest. That is the way to go.