The Vine: December 31, 2009
Ask The Readers comes a little early this week, in case anyone’s in the office (and so I can take the day off tomorrow). A happy and safe New Year to you all!
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I don’t have a prayer of getting the name of this movie/documentary, but I thought, where else if not here? I’ve tried Google, IMDB, PBS and everywhere else I can think of.
It was back in the ’80s and I was watching PBS — probably WNET out of NYC. There was a documentary on about a guy who studied bears in Yellowstone. He’d go miles from the established tourist areas, and study grizzlies and photograph them or film them. He was a Viet Nam vet.
It was all very educational and in keeping with National Geographic or Nature-type programming. And then a helicopter flies over — probably Heli-Tours of the park for rich park visitors. And he has this vivid war flashback where the film actually cuts to Viet Nam footage, and he’s cowering behind rocks trying to not be seen by this helicopter. It was very freaky.
The documentary editor must have thought it would be not just a film about grizzlies in Yellowstone, but a bit of a psychodrama as well. I never would have expected those edits, but it clearly had an impact on me and I’d sort of like to see it again and find out WTF whoever made it was thinking (and how it got onto PBS).
TIA for any help on this one,
Chris
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Dear Sars:
I’ve been watching The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-1977), and I have a question about one of the locations.
Right after the opening credits, we usually get a shot of the building where Mary’s TV station, WJM, has its offices. On the left edge of the screen, we see some sort of scaffolding (?) with plants growing on it/out of it.
Is this a park? Some sort of sculpture that incorporates vegetation? I don’t think it’s an actual scaffolding, because, construction-wise, no progress is ever made (though I’m only up to the end of season four, so: reason to stay tuned!).
I was hoping you or maybe some of the readers who are familiar with the Minneapolis/St. Paul area (or MTM lore) could provide an answer or, conversely, some wild and completely unfounded theories as to the nature of this artifact.
Too Many Foxholes, Not Enough Love
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Hi Sars,
I’m hoping for help identifying a TV show from the early ’80s.There was a room-sized computer (maybe a robot?) as either the star of or a character in a TV show — its name was R.E.A.D., and when one of the kids on the show fed a paper with a word on it into its mouth, it would read the word aloud.
This was probably on PBS because we didn’t have cable (I grew up in metro Atlanta, if that matters).Do you or any of your readers remember what this show, or am I imagining things?
Zoobilee Zoo was creepy
Tags: Ask The Readers Mary Tyler Moore popcult Zoobilee Zoo
Any chance the weird robot show was “Read All About It!”? The robot/computer names don’t match up, but it aired in the early 80s… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read_All_About_It!
Chris,
It sounds like what you’re looking for may have been an episode of the show Nature, called “Peacock’s War.” You can buy a copy of the documentary here: http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/pwar.html
I think the kids’ show was called “Read All About It.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read_All_About_It!
The last question is mine. Erica, “Read All About It” sounds vaguely familiar, but I’m pretty certain about the R.E.A.D. part. Hmm! :)
I think that robot reader may have been a recurring Electric Company sketch. It definitely rings a bell, and Electric Company, Sesame Street, and Mr. Rogers were about all I was allowed to watch (in my revisionist memories of a television-deprived childhood which I’m sure are wildly inaccurate).
Happy New Year, Tomato Nationals!
Could the show with the computer have been Today’s Special? I remember a computer on that show that was a fairly major character– if I recall correctly, you could do things like type in the word “cake” and it would give you a piece of cake. (Boy, did I want that computer.) But I don’t think its name was READ.
First thing to know about Minneapolis – the city loves tearing down buildings, and Nicollet Mall has undergone quite a lot of changes since I got here in 1987, so it’s amazing that there’s anything left of the Nicollet Mall of that title sequence.
I admit I’m cribbing from Wikipedia, since I don’t have memory of or access to the show to see what exactly you’re seeing, but the IDS Center across the street (the big blue glass building, not the stripy white one) was under construction when the title sequence was first filmed, so that may explain the scaffolding.
Also from Wikipedia, http://tinyurl.com/yekwxgn
This picture is from 2005 and shows some scaffolding on the right-hand side of a neighboring building, which might be some sort of antenna structure.
The plants – there are a lot of trees on Nicollet Mall and some rooftop gardens in the area as well.
Why don’t I just walk the four blocks at lunch and look at it today? Well, I’m lazy and it’s cold. Sorry. Maybe there’s someone goofing off at work in the Midwest Building or the IDS Tower who isn’t so lazy… :-)
I’m with Allison and Erica, I’m pretty positive it was Read All About It. I grew up here in the metro ATL area and I watched it too. :) I was a “mystery” kid and I loved those elements of the show and the newspaper was my childhood dream!
After I saw Gerogia’s reply, I described the documentary to my partner, who immediately said “Doug Peacock!” They were roommates at a geology field camp in the early 60s, both went on to serve in Vietnam, and he had described to me having seen the documentary and finally figuring out who this guy was who looked so familiar when Doug’s wife calls out his name.
I think if you research it a little further you will see that Doug Peacock may have been a model for Edward Abbey’s character Hayduke.
In an MTM episode on hulu, the left side of the screen is just part of a tree when they show the MIdwest Building (where Mary supposedly worked) exterior. It seemed like one of the later episodes, though. Maybe not the same version you’re referring to. Do you have a video you can refer us to?
Zoobilee Zoo *WAS* creepy!