Mastodawn

The Brady Bunch (1969): Then & Now — 57 Years Later… What Happened?
Here’s the story of a lovely lady and her growing brood. Nearly six decades since they moved into that famous split-level house, we explore the careers, personal triumphs, and lasting legacies of the six Brady kids.
#TheBradyBunch #70sTV #ClassicSitcom #BradyKids #TVHistory #ThenAndNow
https://www.timewarptv.org/the-brady-bunch-1969-then-now-57-years-later-what-happened/

The Brady Bunch (1969): Then & Now — 57 Years Later… What Happened? – Time Warp TV

Cognissart Feb 23

Spent a pleasant day chopping up coffee sacks kindly donated to me by Buxton Coffee Roasters. I had an abstract urge and used a bag from our regular coffee order for a little study which I hope to frame tomorrow. Does anyone remember Issy Noho? #ChildOfTheSeventies 🤣
@textileart
@fiberarts

#Art #FineArtInStitch #TextileArt #embroidery #fineart #ContemporaryArt #MastoArt #ArtistsOnMastodon #FediArt #artist #coffee #abstract #the70s #70sTV

November Grau Feb 22

So I’ve come to the last episode of #TheOmegaFactor, “Illusions”. It’s a disappointment. That’s somewhat inevitable given that it’s a cliffhanger, made in the hope of a second series. A hope that was, of course, to be dashed by the agitations of Mary Whitehouse and co, who were unhappy about the amount of violence and disturbing paranormal content featured in the show, which came on before the watershed. So obviously there are no tying-ups of loose ends and the whole thing has an unresolved feel to it.

But what if you treat “Illusions” as if it were a mid-series episode? Well, it certainly has it strengths. The writers have brought in a whole new bunch of characters. This didn’t work well in “Powers of Darkness”, but the new faces in that episode were a gaggle of mimsy students. In this case, most of them are high-level spooks, plus a couple of Eastern Bloc scientist defectors everyone is attempting to seize, so things are a lot more grown-up.

This is also a great Martindale episode: he is finally called to account for his actions and we get to find out what makes him tick. John Carlisle’s performance doesn’t let us down. James Hazledine is a little bit overshadowed by it, as he doesn’t have much new to do: like his near-namesake Hazel Dean, he spends the whole time Searching, though the man he’s got to find himself is a missing boffin rather than a bed-warmer. Meanwhile, he’s messing things up big-style with his woman, as his suspicions about Anne drive a wedge between them. Some reviewers online don’t like the way Anne’s character is treated in these final episodes, since her immediate focus drifts from her research to her fraught love affair, but I disagree. Although you might not see her doing a lot of psychic-wrangling, her commitment to her career is stressed again and again in a way that was unusual for the time, and I think the denouement can be seen as very feminist.

And viewers who disapprove of the lady scientist getting her emotions all messed up can console themselves by contemplating the fate of anyone who tries to fuck with a lady spy. Spook supremo Mrs Arden (played by Shakespeare veteran Edith McArthur), is a beautiful, arch and sinister older woman with just a touch of ice; it’s not hard to imagine her as a bridge-playing aunt to Sapphire from Sapphire & Steel, though she’s less alien. You can just about picture her dominating a Britain in Bloom committee on a quiet night off. Which, of course, only makes her ruthless behaviour more distressing. And some of the stuff they get up to with their experimental subjects is very upsetting here, worse even than in the episode Child’s Play.

This introduction of a great new character only makes the termination of the series more annoying, of course. And overall, my sense of disappointment with this episode stems mainly from the lack of supernatural content or thrills in general. Call me old-fashioned, but even a cliff-hanger should have a bit more “oomph” in that department, and that cringeworthy Bacall and Bogart bit (which must surely have felt stale even in the 70s) is no substitute! Put YOUR lips together and blow, Hazeldine. Or better yet, secrete some ectoplasm. Come along now, I’m waiting.

#ScFi #Horror #Occult #70stv #CultTV

November Grau Feb 14

So we have now reached the penultimate ep of #TheOmegaFactor, ‘Double Vision”, and the screws are being turned on Tom Crane good and hard. He’s begun to see his dead wife on the streets of Edinburgh, and nobody takes him seriously. Not his compromised boss Martindale, not his conflicted girlfriend and colleague Anne, and certainly not creepy visiting academic Vashrevsky, who just happens to be at the department sharing details of his work on hallucinogen-augmented trance states and possession.

Vashrevsky annoyingly believes that no modern African is fully emancipated from such beliefs, but as the episode wears on it becomes clear that whitey, in the form of Tom Crane, is considered equally prone to the call of the occult. At one point Tom bursts into a lab room where a TV is blaring out footage of a tribal ritual soundtracked by the words “To appease the God, sacrifices must be given”. It’s clear who the sacrifice is here, but just who’s the God? Is it just gaslighting of colossal proportions? This is, after all, one of the most paranoid of all the shows of a paranoid decade of television.

I won’t spoil it for you, but this was another episode that’s all about relationships, with no special effects or ghostly stuff at all. There is, however, plenty of atmosphere, as we sense the noose narrowing around poor Tom’s neck, and possibly the most quietly eerie disco scene I’ve ever watched. Tom is shot from above, bumbling around on a sunken dancefloor in an otherwise dark nightclub, chasing after a glimpse of his wife. He’s making progress until ELO’s “Don’t Bring Me Down” segues into Blondie’s “Heart of Glass”, an extremely well-chosen track, both for its lyrics and its quavery, swirly oddness (that singing-bowl vocal must have been so strange to the song’s early listeners). Needless to say, he doesn’t find her, and his patched sports coat certainly prevents him from pulling any other women.

When Anne mentions he’s been talking a lot in his sleep, we’re not surprised that she can’t tell him exactly what he’s been saying. Things have got seriously nebulous, and everyone around him is a suspect. Even the cupboards in Tom’s life have become dubious. His drawer in Anne’s room contains hypnotic medication he has no recollection of taking (yeah we’ve all been there), while her wardrobe features an unexplained wig (suddenly erupting wigs always ramp up the uncanny by a factor of a 1000), while his own late wife’s clothes are all missing from her old room. By the midpoint of the episode he’s floundering, and the viewer is shocked by the callous cruelty of Wardrobe, who dress him in a royal-blue towelling robe of appalling shortness just at the point when he most needs the reassurance of some dignified clothing (Anne, meanwhile, is swanning around in an elegant full-length dressing-gown. I suppose it’s a reversal of the usual gender stereotype, at least.)

But Tom is not going down without a fight! He’s soon back in his sports coat and dingy flares, pounding the mean streets to find his errant wife, dismaying day-for-night photography be damned. “I AM NOT HALLUCINATING!” he asserts, and as someone who’s said that a few times in exactly that tone and with exactly that level of success, I salute him.

#70stv #CultTV #ScFi #Horror #Occult #Ghosts

November Grau Feb 8

Well pressure of work and generalized Insania has made me fall behind on my reviewing schedule, but here are my thoughts on episode 8 of #TheOmegaFactor, “Out of Body, Out of Mind”.

I actually had to watch this one twice because I just kind of spaced out the first time around and couldn’t remember any of it from earlier viewings of the series. If this suggests to you that it isn’t the most gripping episode of the bunch, you’d be right, but it’s not without interest, just very talky. If you can keep up with the chat there’s a fair bit going on, with a lot of things coming together and the pressure ramping up. The focus this week is on the use of psychic sleeper agents who can be brainwashed and then activated to do Terrible Things on the international political stage, and though it’s not handled too badly (with only two different pronunciations of Hamish Mboto’s name! Cosmopolitan!) it’s the ongoing intrigues that make this episode compelling.

For most of the series Tom’s brother Mike has been recovering from a mental collapse of shadowy origins, and the realistic, unsensational depiction of severe mental illness and psychiatric care has been one of the strong points of the series. Well, in this episode Tom finally discovers more about the part his immediate boss Martindale (John Carlisle) has played in Mike’s breakdown. Martindale, who has maintained a pleasant, urbane surface throughout most of the series, now begins to really crack the whip, both in his sizzling confrontations with Tom and with his superiors. It suits him, I very much enjoyed his office full of beetle pictures (there always seems to be one just over Tom’s shoulder) and in future I will be aiming to respond to 90% of all questions put to me with the words “Sorry, Classified” in the polite, clipped, fuck-you-very-much tone Martindale deploys here.

This ep also offers Anne (Louise Jameson) a chance to shine. In the early episodes she’s a fairly bland figure, a Lady Scientist with a line in faintly smug flirting that feels right out of central casting for that era. But her character has become tougher and I enjoy the way she pushes back at Tom when he tries to get between her and her research (even though he’s not exactly doing it for misogynistic reasons). At the same time, their romance is still bubbling away, and I liked the hints you get from the camera and editing about the complicated nature of it all – after Tom suggests they run off together, the camera pans out to show them on the steps of a church, but it’s a great, hulking dark building in which you can imagine wedding bells sounding like the clanging chimes of doom. At one point the pair walk over a heart-shaped pattern of pavement slabs, but seconds later they’ve become separated by traffic and can hardly hear each other through the noise.

So yeah, this episode has an in-between feel to it, and I wasn’t bowled over by the main plot (or the dodgy astral travel special effect, or that one Omega agent moaning about the intolerable burden of having to sleep with Loftus Burton, like by all means allow me to relieve you of your duties Madam) but there was still a fair bit to enjoy, at least on second sight!

#SciFi #CultTV #70sTV #Horror #Supernatural

November Grau Jan 20

Well after the events of the past two days I'm still in a terrible state of mind, so I'm going to take advantage of this to post my thoughts on what is, in my opinion, the most dire episode of #TheOmegaFactor by some margin. Step forward "St. Anthony's Fire", and yes, I hope Saint Anthony is suing for use of his name.

Things are getting herbal in this episode, and I don't just mean that it watches like everyone involved was trying to roll a joint with their other hand while they were making it. Tom is shocked to discover that a botanist and commune leader he used to pal around with in the Scottish countryside has been murdered by his apparently sane wife, though I do question the sanity of whoever signed off on the EXECRABLY poor opening scene in which this happens - bad acting, bad dialogue, bad editing, bad music, and terrible day-for-night shooting in a series until now famed for its great night scenes.

Anyway, Tom moseys on down to the Findhorn-in-thin-disguise wonderfarm (which of course his boss stresses is nothing like those giant-vegetable cranks at Findhorn) to begin a discreet investigation. He's not discreet enough, even in that neutral beige, off-white and dun clothing, and soon falls under the spell of a pair of evil botanists who are taking Dead Friend's work in a sinister new direction.

This is where things get truly chilling, because the woman botanist is the series' best effort at a traditional femme fatale, a blonde, flicky-haired entity who slinks around in relatively tolerable seventies fabrics and can't say ANYTHING without making it sound like a double entendre, especially when giving Tom a tour of the greenhouses.

Anyway, this all culminates in a very distressing scene in which Tom ends up topless to receive a massage, and although I stand by my opinion of James Hazedene as a Hot Guy, on this showing he's clearly one of those Hot Guys who need to remain fully dressed at all times. Because we are in a brave new world where body-shaming is frowned upon, I won't dwell in detail on the evils lurking under his shirt, and in any case the lighting and grooming are definitely to blame for some of those evils, but I'm afraid I cannot remain silent on the topic of his tanning ("tanning") pattern, which has the unmistakeable form of a hideous 70s gentleman's vest. Yes, this hard-hitting occult-savvy supersleuth has his own torso haunted by a GHOST VEST, and isn't doing a thing about it. What a disgrace. (And needless to say, his female counterpart is perfectly tanned and groomed, working that good old double standard as usual. Though you don't see her topless, don't get your hopes up.)

Anyway, after a lot of bumbling around the site, falling through holes and propping up the local bar, Tom is joined by his colleague Anne. Things actually pick up a bit here because Anne is uncharacteristically bitchy in this episode (none of the main characters are really acting like themselves in this ep, but in her case it's an improvement.) She also gets the episode's one exciting peril scene. Though the wardrobe department have really done her dirty. There's one scene where she's in the most revolting pleated blue dress imaginable, and when she complains to Tom about a local weirdo "undressing me with his eyes", all I could think was "well, SOMEONE's got to step up to the plate and undress you before you end up at the Hague for crimes against fashion."

Things stumble on for a while after that - there's mind-altering drugs involved, but this is the least psychedelic episode of the series, possibly of the entire history of television. Robert Trotter adds some class as the local doctor crumbling under the weight of secrecy, but by the time the episode drags itself to its end, the feeling is one of relief.

#sci-fi #horror
#occult
#CultTV
#70sTV

November Grau Jan 16

OMG it's Friday night and I still haven't posted my thoughts on last week's ep of #TheOmegaFactor (yes I know nobody asked me to but I feel internally impelled.) Anyway, 'Child''s Play' was an episode that for some reason didn't mark me much the first time I saw it, and I kind of expected it to be the usual dull retread of psychic-kiddie stuff a la Firestarter or Stranger Things.

In fact it was very good. Although the basic story arc of psychic child vs. government is familiar, they really do a lot with it, and the level of intrigue and intensely cynical environment depicted has absolutely nothing to envy more modern series. At the same time, it does have heart. There are a lot of very conflicted people in this episode, and though no-one comes out of it looking good you feel for Tom and co. as they try to fumble their way through the moral labyrinth. Max Harris, who plays the small boy, gives a quietly heartbreaking performance too.

There's also a lot of sexual and emotional politics going on, with a triangle forming between the three main characters, and most importantly, there are plot twists I didn't see coming, which is quite an achievement for a series that's pushing on 50 years old. My only reservation concerns the special effects, a couple of which are weak compared to the earlier episodes, but it's still very satisfying and the sadness in it will stay with me for a long time.

#scifi
#70sTv #CultTV
#occult #paranormal

Adrian Jan 10

#Music #1970s #70sMusic #CillaBlack #Retro #Nostalgia #UKCharts #BabyWeCantGoWrong #CillaTV #LiverpoolMusic #70sTV #MusicHistory #ChartHistory #BrianEpstein

https://thearchiveofmylife.com/no-37-on-the-top-50-official-u-k-singles-chart-on-my-2nd-birthday/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

No.37 on The Top 50 Official U.K. Singles Chart on my 2nd Birthday - The Archive of My Life

One of the UK's most beloved singers and entertainers graces this week's singles chart with a new sound, which had also become her new theme song for her successful TV series, which was now embarking into it's 7th season. #Music #1970s #70sMusic #CillaBlack #Retro #Nostalgia #UKCharts #BabyWeCantGoWrong #CillaTV #LiverpoolMusic #70sTV #MusicHistory #ChartHistory #BrianEpstein

The Archive of My Life

Front Page Jan 6

In an iconic 1975 clip, a teenage Michael Jackson stuns Cher during hypnotic robot dance duet

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.upworthy.com/michael-jackson-cher-hypnotic-robot-dance-duet

November Grau Jan 3

So last night's episode of #TheOmegaFactor was "Powers of Darkness", i.e. The One That Pissed Off Mary Whitehouse and, it is said, resulted in the series not getting a second season (I'm no expert on the details but you can read what seems like a serviceable account of it here: https://angriest.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-omega-factor-powers-of-darkness.html)

The episode certainly tackles some tough content, dealing with the effects of occult investigation on the minds of a bunch of student dabblers who, inevitably, take it all too far. (it's all good fun until someone gets possessed, and then it's even better!) It actually does a good, unflinching job of portraying the awful reality of psychiatric disintegration and the institutions where the afflicted can end up. There are no straitjackets and sadistic asylum wardens here, just bleak clinical environments staffed by professionals who appear as concerned and humane, but ultimately unable to fully undo the harm the world has wrought on their patients. It's very sad in parts, and the grim living quarters of the students don't do anything to dispel that.

As regards supernatural terror, there's a famously low-key, moody, well-shot scene in a darkened chapel, but I didn't really get the same kind of terror buzz episodes like "Visitations" deliver. I think the main problem is the introduction of a bunch of new characters, the students, who don't have the same intensity as the show's stars. The one who gets possessed is quite drippy for a large part of the runtime, and though obviously this provides a good contrast with what happens to her later on, it's still a bit of a trial watching all those kids discussing stuff which may have seemed new then, but really isn't now!

Still, everyone else is on top form and it was still an interesting and, I think, fairly level-headed look at the appeal the occult holds for seekers of all ages. With one scene that's still startling today, though I won't spoil it for you!

#70sTV #CultTV #SciFi #Horror #Occult

The Omega Factor: "Powers of Darkness"

It's 11 July 1979 and time for more of The Omega Factor . Four university students have been toying with the occult with disastrous effe...