From the Couch Hole: You Never Let Me Down Before

Previously on FTCH, during life on the Mississippi there was lightning that was a killer for five nights of such brave girls eating Mike’s Hot Honey almonds. This week we are into the NHL and NBA playoffs season, and I’m coming around on my Rangers. I’m hoping that as April comes to an end that we’ll all see me relocating soon. This week during the night of the owl we saw that the dark side of genius is just the way you are. Batman begins the family plot of hiding the confetti Cheerios. Remember, FTCH, they didn’t make history, they stole it.

Pop Culture Ephemera

• Donald Spoto – The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) (Published by Ballantine Books): “I was a loner—can’t even remember having had a playmate. I played by myself, inventing my own games.” – Hitchcock. This is my third biography of Alfred Hitchcock, and at least the fifth book that breaks down key elements of his films. At over 500 pages, this isn’t for the faint of heart. I like that this book balances biography and film commentary. It goes in true chronological order, which is unique, but gives perspective of w,hen Hitch had finished a film, started the next film, and then later would have to do press for the finished film. The “dark side” of the title was more “new info” in 1983. The main criticism of this book has always been that details of Hitch’s obsessions of blonde actresses, food and gallows humor are sensational but Spoto make some leaps into Hitch’s psychology that just aren’t proven. It’s a professional presentation, and I found plenty of new behind-the-scenes information. Every time I pick up one of these, it makes me want to deep dive some of the movies again.

Buy The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock

• Alfred Hitchcock Presents – “Night of the Owl” (S.8 E.3) (CBS) (1962): “Stash the cash in the trash.” – Parker. My long and winding journey through the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episodes has reached the hour-long episodes. I watched the repeats of the 30-minute version so many times on cable that they all felt familiar. The hour-long ones much less so. Brian Keith is well cast as a forest ranger who is confronted by a blackmailer who will give away Keith’s secret that he is raising his niece who has a secret past where her parents were killed in an accident. The themes of protecting family secrets at all costs is a classic Hitchcock theme. The blackmail keeps increasing in tension as the episode plays out. This is a pretty solid episode, with a little stretch in the middle to make the 60-minute length. After reading his biography, I can see the work that Joan Harrison was doing as producer to find scripts that fit the director’s reputation, even when he wasn’t directing them.

Buy Billy Joel – The Stranger

• Billy Joel – “Just the Way You Are” (from The Stranger) (1977): “I need to know that you will always be / The same old someone that I knew.” I’m not sure of the difference but this ballad won Song of the Year and Record of the Year at the Grammys. It’s become the slow-dance standard at every wedding reception I’ve attended since 1982. It should be too sugary sweet that we’d all be sick of it by now. Yet there’s some timelessness about it like George Harrison’s “Something.” It’s a deceptively complex song. It feels like there is just a piano and then the sax solo, but there’s a beautiful wall of sound including the electric piano played by Joel and ethereal backing vocals.

• Family Plot (1976) (Directed by Alfred Hitchcock): “Isn’t it touching how a perfect murder has kept our friendship alive all these years?” – Arthur Adamson. In many ways, I wish Frenzy (1972) had been Hitch’s last film. That film was cruel but summed up many of the themes of his filmography. This was his 53rd and final film. He shows that at 76 he still had a good visual eye. The shots in the graveyard and the car crash show his mastery of the craft. The film goes awry with a complicated plot that even Raymond Chandler couldn’t follow. There’s just too much talking, as if Hitch grew tired and just let the characters explain plot points. All of the leads feel like they were secondary choices, and the stories that they didn’t get much direction is obvious. I feel like Bruce Dern is the most wasted. He’s a solid actor, and yet here he’s given a pipe to do most of his characterization. He delivers his lines like he is just doing something to pass time between puffs on the pipe. I want to love all of Hitchcock’s films, but here he’s released a film that younger Hitch would have pulled off with more careful scene construction. Bonus points for a nice John Williams score the year after he scored Jaws (1975).

Buy The Alfred Hitchcock Classics Collection

• Batman Begins (2005) (Directed by Christopher Nolan): “And one day, you catch yourself wishing the person you loved had never existed, so you would be spared your pain.” – Henri Ducard. It’s hard to place myself back in 2005 with how long we had been since a Batman film, and then to think how many times he has graced the screen since then. This was a make or break film for the DC Universe and you would have to declare it an impressive “make.”
  
  The Star Wars influence is hidden in plain sight. Liam Neeson’s version of Henri Ducard seems like a replay of Qui-Gon to Christian Bale’s Obi-Wan for the First Act. The amount of time devoted to setting up their relationship to pay off the transformation to Ra’s al Ghul is more than other superhero films have given (I’d be interested to have that broken down into minutes percentage of a film to be proven). Christopher Nolan set about to make a psychological thriller within the parameters of the superhero genre. He succeeds partially because he picked Christian Bale who is believable as a dark, brooding character. He succeeds because every other casting choice plays their part with complete commitment. Cillian Murphy as Crane/Scarecrow is more impressive than I remembered. I have watched this the least of the rest of the trilogy, and I applaud Nolan for bringing character to the genre.

Buy Batman Begins

Best of the Rest

• It’s funny how little Barry White changed the basic structure of “Just the Way You Are” and yet what a different song it sounds like with Barry’s voice and soul influence. I really love this cover, and that sax solo should have this song on every Yacht Rock mix but it’s criminally ignored. Released in 1978, a year after Joel’s version, I think it’s just lost in the mix. But those who know know.

• In 1997, Daft Punk took sampling and cutting up songs to a new level. On “High Fidelity,” they micro-sample Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are” and “The Stranger” to create something completely unique. This style would become popular into the early 2000s, but I’m not sufficiently knowledgeable about the house-music evolution to know if others were doing that at this point.

• Grouch Groupies! This is what we are missing in today’s world. In 1988, Billy Joel and Marlee Matlin are donating a used piano to a grouch. Billy sings him “Just th,e Way You Are” with Grouch-worthy lyrics. Everything about it makes me smile, with Oscar’s commentary, Billy’s singing and Marlee doing the lyrics in ASL to support the inclusion aspects of the show. “It’s the mushiest thing I’ve heard.”

Sunday Morning Tuneage Flashback

• Sunday Morning Tuneage from 5/9/2010, the Mother’s Day weekend had been full of basketball, baseball and Dee’s Dance Recital (where she was the best!). The Amazing Race (CBS) had a finale, Ashes to Ashes (BBC) was debuting, and Fringe (Fox) started its finale, back when finales started being multiple-episode deals. The Top Ten list wasn’t so controversial in 2010 as it is today. I can detest what the man has done, denounce his actions, but objectively Bill Cosby was a huge influence on my humor and on the stand-up genre. I’m going to rejudge the routines as routines.
  
  My #64 Top TV Show of All-Time was Friday Night Lights (NBC / The 101 Network) (2006-2011): I ranked a couple of shows that were still in progress at the time. That’s acceptable for shows like The Simpsons (FOX), but I was probably a little quick on the trigger to make this so highly ranked. I am not going to deny that I really loved this show. It was never a popular show in the ratings. In fact, it ended up airing on a DirecTV “The 101 Network” before later airing repeats of those episodes on NBC. My interest in the show benefits from airing at a time when my oldest son was playing Texas High School football. Kyle Chandler was perfectly cast as Coach Taylor, and the show gave us as many great young actors as Freaks and Geeks (FOX) — Jessie Plemons, Michael B. Jordan, Taylor Kitsch, and Minka Kelly just to name a few. I would totally rewatch this show again, but I’m not sure I would call it a Top 100-type of show today.
  
• BEST BILL COSBY RECORD ALBUM ROUTINES OF ALL-TIME (2010)
  • 10. “Niagara Falls” (from Wonderfulness) (1966)
  • 9. “The Lone Ranger” (from I Started Out As A Child) (1964)
  • 8. “Tonsils” (from Why Is There Air?) (1965)
  • 7. “To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With” (from To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With) (1968)
  • 6. “Hofstra” (from I Started Out As A Child) (1964)
  • 5. “Buck-Buck / The Monster” (from Revenge) (1967)
  • 4. “Natural Childbirth” (from Himself) (1982)
  • 3. “Noah” (from Bill Cosby Is A Very Funny Fellow . . . Right!) (1963)
  • 2. “Revenge” (from Revenge) (1967)
  • 1. “Chocolate Cake for Breakfast” (from Himself) (1982)
    
• BEST BILL COSBY RECORD ALBUM ROUTINES OF ALL-TIME (2026)
  • 10. “Niagara Falls” (from Wonderfulness) (1966): I like this because it is just a little different. He does the voice of Sheldon Leonard. I love the phrasing “So I said to myself, ‘Self . . . ‘”
  • 9. “The Lone Ranger” (from I Started Out As a Child) (1964): I love the Tonto voice in this story. There are lots of good lines, but the best have to be Tonto teasing the Lone Ranger about his mask to hide his identity when he can still see his eyes and nose.
  • 8. “Street Football” (from I Started Out As a Child) (1964): This is probably more funny to those of us who played such chaotic games. The lines like “cut left behind the black Chevy” and “go to 3rd street, catch the J bus, wait for the doors to open at 19th street, and I’ll fake it to you.”
  • 7. “Tonsils” (from Why Is There Air?) (1965): It’s one of his longest stories, but it never seems like it drags. The view of a hospital and operation through the eyes of a child is what he did best on these early albums. The “tonsil monster” is funny, and the lie of all the ice cream you can eat without telling you that you can’t swallow is a clever twist.
  • 6. “Kindergarten” (from Why Is There Air?) (1965): Another great example of putting himself in the head space of a five-year-old going to Kindergarten. The bit about it being a confusing place where big people have confusing rules and instructions is very clever.
  • 5. “Dentist” (from Himself) (1982): This is a great routine, but it translates better visually to the Himself (1982) concert film. The one-sided conversation while he is in the chair feels like it’s taken from a Bob Newhart album.
  • 4. “Buck-Buck / The Monster” (from Revenge) (1967): A routine so popular that it launched the Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids television show. I listened to this so many times and still giggled every time that he introduced Fat Albert and did that voice.
  • 3. “Revenge” (from Revenge) (1967): The name “Junior Barnes” takes up space in my brain because of this routine The story is a meandering tale that feels just like being a young child. The payoff is a single joke that shouldn’t have as much entertaining repeatability as it does.
  • 2. “To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With” (from To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With) (1968): This track is the whole second side of the album. I really enjoy the sibling rivalry aspects of the story. The characterization of the father as more of a faceless sound in the other room (his pockets of change and his snoring) are lessons that other comedians have learned from over the years, including my favorite, Richard Pryor.
  • 1. “Chocolate Cake for Breakfast” (from Himself) (1982): “And they sang songs to me . . . ” So many of his routines of the ’60s related the stories from the child’s point of view. In the early ’80s, now he could relate to the parental point of view. This is best paired with “Brain Damage.” The routine is symbolic of the best stories of this period in his live shows as he becomes the man who is henpecked by his wife and wants to be the hero to his children. This routine got funnier once I was left alone with my own young children.

1976 in Review

• April – Inhumans #4 (Marvel Comics): “After all, is Earth really our home? Have we ever been treated as anything but aliens here?” – Medusa. Cover by Rich Buckler. Written by Doug Moench. Art by George Perez. The origin of Kree super-soldier, Shatterstar is revealed. Not an Inhumans fan back in my childhood, I’ve become a big supporter of this book. You have solid writing and incredible art, and that’s a great combination.
• April 17 – Philadelphia Phillies’ third baseman Mike Schmidt hit four home runs in four consecutive at-bats during a game. He was the second National League player to do it. The previous one was in 1894. It was done twice in the American League by Lou Gehrig (1932) and Rocky Colavito (1956).
• April 8 – Rolling Stone. It’s an interesting illustration of where the culture was at in April 1976. The issue before was a tribute to the Grateful Dead and the issue after this would be a Peter Frampton (a famous topless Frampton cover) heavy issue. This cover doesn’t even hint that it’s a music magazine at heart. Redford and Hoffman are promoting All The President’s Men (1976), but the article is more about the Watergate scandal. This is an issue that nine-year-old Shawn would have skipped in the magazine aisle at Meijer’s.

What the Hell Did I Put in My Mouth?

“I would not leave you in times of trouble
We never could have come this far, mmm
I took the good times, I’ll take the bad times” – Billy Joel