This comes from the early 50s, the embryonic days of television, and a network (Dumont) that long since has disappeared. OKAY MOTHER starring Dennis James. He later went on to host a gazillion national game shows. But here he's on speed with a Red Bull chaser. If you can make it until the middle, Dennis shows off his sketch comedy skills. Holy shit! And then a discussion over whether to spank your kid for getting wet in the sprinklers. It's just jaw dropping. Thanks to friend of the blog, Mike McCann for finding this hilarious and appalling chestnut.
Dennis's real name is Demi Sposa and this was directed by Lou Sposa. I suspect it was his brother.
ReplyDeleteAlmost as good as the version on the WB: OK Muthas
ReplyDeleteWait a minute! Phillips' Milk of Magnesia TOOTHPASTE????
ReplyDeleteWAIT A MINUTE!!!
Wow. Seven minutes in and I gave up.
ReplyDeleteFast forward to the middle. Trust me. It WILL be worth it.
ReplyDeleteFast forward to the middle. Trust me. It WILL be worth it.
ReplyDeleteDennis was host of the Price is Right for a few years in syndication. It's funny, because if you listen to clips of that, he varies between just right and WAYY too hyper.
ReplyDeleteWeird.
ReplyDeleteHe sure got irritated when that woman used the line that had been used the day before. I thought he was going to strangle her.
I thought product placement was bad now. It's nothing compared to all the ads on that show.
Wonderful stuff. I was riveted. My main memories of Dennis James were as the host of the annual Cerebral Palsy telethon in NY. "Look at us, we're walking..." However, I don't think it qualifies as the most insane game show ever. That honor must go to THE CHAMBER, on which contestants were tortured while asked inane trivia questions. Real torture. Electrical shocks, spun upside down, extreme temperature blasts, and "Who is actress Melanie Griffith's mother?" It aired on FOX in 2002. If you don't believe me:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chamber_%28game_show%29
In case anyone didn't know, the title "Okay, Mother" refers to Dennis James' catchphrase when he worked as a wrestling announcer.
ReplyDeleteGot a kick out of the "No Smoking" sign seen on the studio wall ... as James later went on to be the on-air spokesman for Old Gold cigarettes ... remember the dancing cigarette package and accompanying match book? "For a treat instead of a treatment!"
ReplyDeleteIs there any truth to the rumor that a little boy who used to watch Okay Mother went on to discover Ritalin?
Ken & Mike Mc Cann:
ReplyDeleteThank you -- I think !?!? Truly bizarre.
The stuff of cold war nightmares. He was being his own warmup man I suppose. But Dennis keeps looking at Julia's decolletage - maybe because it is very strange, like some sort of Photoshop disaster. On the whole I think I'd rather be doing dishes. Double Danderine was the benzedrine-based shampoo that Dennis used.
ReplyDeleteTalk about obnoxious. The routine with him playing the little boy is embarassingly bad. T.V. has come a long way. I found it interesting that he reminds me a lot of a guy who is on KTLA in L.A. His name is Mark Kriski. James looks a lot like him (and acts like him too)
ReplyDeleteOof. I take that preemption to be a cry for a Friday question. Here's one about coffee. In countless movies and TV episodes, it's obvious that the styrofoam container or coffee cup an actor handles is empty. It isn't just that the cup is always clean. You can see it in the way actors quickly pick up what is supposed to be a fresh cup, gesture wildly while holding it, or sip without swallowing. Does anyone in the production care, or is the point to avoid accidents on the set?
ReplyDeleteAnd we wonder why the DuMont network never really caught on. The lineup included The Morey Amsterdam Show, The Paul Dickson Show (anyone from Cincinnati knows it did well on the ill-fated Avco Network), Happy's Party, Captain Video and His Video Rangers, and so many other classics. Perhaps only PaxTV was in DuMont's league.
ReplyDeleteI can't stop puking...
ReplyDeleteDon't you just love product placement. At least they didn't plug Kao Pectate. Here's a little trivia for you. Until about 1989, Kao Pectate was radioactive.
ReplyDeleteRay
All those women look like Edith Bunker.
ReplyDeleteActually, Cracked did an article on exactly this topic: http://www.cracked.com/article_15804_6-most-insane-game-shows-from-around-world.html , and its #1 awardee from Russia, "The Intercept" (see http://www.cracked.com/article_15804_p2.html ) is genuinely criminal in its level of insanity. Ever since then, I have to gauge any nomination against this.
ReplyDeleteI tried, I really tried but I could only make it halfway through. I think I need to lie down now. Yikes!
ReplyDeleteAnd we wonder why the DuMont network never really caught on. The lineup included The Morey Amsterdam Show, The Paul Dickson Show (anyone from
ReplyDeleteDidn't Gleason start out on the DuMont Network, too? I seem to remember Captain Video was Norton's favorite show--was that a little pre-Simpsons mocking the hand that signs your paychecks?. I would love to see the Morey Amsterdam Show. I still love the DVD Show, and he's one of the main reasons
I loved Julia's hovering, ghostly disembodied head chatting up the toothpaste at the end of that commercial - the image was like something out of a dadaist art film of the 20's (say Un chien andalou).
ReplyDeleteBet Julia would have liked to return to her ghostly state in order to escape being groped by Dannis at the end of that skit.
Those mothers were the definition of a 'tough crowd' when it came to passing down judgement on little children walking into sprinklers.
That was certainly something, and I have so much to say about it. First it's impressive anything from the DuMont Network survives--supposedly all of the network's kinescopes (films of a live broadcast taken from a TV screen, like this one) were dumped into the Hudson River.
ReplyDeleteI do think the game portion--identifying people from rhymes--was somewhat clever, and some of the prizes were pretty good (the original Polaroid Land Camera would be valued at over $500 in today's money).
Julia Meade continued to both tout items and do acting parts, but on a higher plane (hawking Lincoln autos with Ed Sullivan on his show, and portraying one of Rock Hudson's romantic conquests in PILLOW TALK).
Burly-Hurly--i watched James' version of THE PRICE IS RIGHT, as well. In fact, I have in my video collection the original sales film for the show, with James alongside Mark Goodson (it was after this was made that CBS decided to air it as well). What's fascinating is that to illustrate Dennis' hosting style, they used a clip of James filling in for Monty Hall on LET'S MAKE A DEAL.
Rick W.--years ago I watched a documentary about the history of cigarette advertising on TV,, and James told a fascinating story about his stint as Old Gold's advertising spokesman. He and the product were very successful in using the slogan "For a TREAT..Instead of a TREATMENT"-countering the real and spurious health claims made by other brand. Then in the early 50's came what was known as "the cancer scare" when cigarette sales slumped in the wake of the first studies showing a link between smoking and health problems. To deal with that, Lorillard (the company that made Old Gold) wanted to change its ad campaign, and have James tout the healthfulness of the brand. Dennis didn't want to do that, as he felt he could not be
credible saying the opposite of what he did before.
So he told the company he wanted to step away from the job as their spokesman, and he would not hold them to the terms of his contract ($350,000 a year--$2 million today). Actually, what they agreed upon was that the contract would be held in suspension until definitive word was declared that smoking was not harmful. Then Dennis would return to work for them. That abeyance was still in effect four decades later, when James appeared on the documentary.
Finally, the fate of DuMont--after the network ceased operations in 1956, the stations the company owned were acquired by a man named John Kluge, who used them to build his Metromedia company (not a network, but he produced programs for his stations that were also syndicated, like THE MERV GRIFFIN SHOW and WONDERAMA).
Thirty years later, Rupert Murdoch bought Metromedia to use as the foundation for the Fox Network.
It looks like they are all high on some kind of drugs
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