T-shirt #366, pt-1 - More on Y&R

T-shirt #366, pt-1 - More on Y&R

Reprinting from Sense of Doubt blog.

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #418 - Y&R - 11,000 Episodes

Hi Mom,

So, The Young and the Restless or better known as Y&R is celebrating 11,000 episodes as of September First (this coming Thursday).

Every time I watch Y&R, I think of you, Mom. And I am pleased to tell you that I am caught up. Often I have a huge back log of Y&R to watch. Though I have not watched Friday's (1608.26) episode yet, I am otherwise current with the show.

I often get mocked (criticized) for my Y&R fandom by people close to me, but I no longer care. I am open and leaving myself vulnerable to discuss this nearly daily pursuit of episodic fiction that is near and dear to my heart.

Starting in 1973, we watched so many episodes of Y&R together. Even when I was away at college, The Young and the Restless  is something I watched as often as I could and that we would discuss together when you took me out to lunch.

It was our lunch time thing. For years, I would break for lunch just before 12:30, and we would eat together and watch our soaps (eventually we added The Bold and the Beautiful for a 90 minute lunch time).

When you had your bout with meningitis and were in a coma, I started playing Y&R for you in your Intensive Care room. I hoped that the familiar sounds would be soothing to you, comforting, like they are to me. We continued this practice even after you woke up. For a long time during that hospital stay, you could not talk. But we communicated as best we could, and we talked about Y&R.

Back in 2012, when Y&R celebrated 10,000 episodes (see link at end of this blog entry), we watched much of the celebration together. Checking back in my calendar, I know I spent the day with you on September 8th and again on October 2nd, which was right around the time of the 10,000th episode. We would have Y&R marathons together. I miss those.

At the rate of just about 260 episodes a year (five each week times 52 weeks is 260, but 365 - 104 is 261; 104 is the number of weekend days in a year), it's easy to see how Y&R is gearing up to celebrate its next anniversary with 1000 more episodes to reach the new landmark of 11,000. Since the 10,000th episode both you, Mom, and the grand dame of the Y&R cast, Jeanne Cooper, have passed away.

Before each episode for the past week, Y&R has been showing these interview chats with the cast as they reminisce about past stories and episodes and thank the viewership warmly for its dedication and loyalty. I was tempted to save these episodes on my DVR, but then I found that they are easily available online and so I embedded them here. I also posted the fun promo here as well.

You would have loved all this, Mom. I feel I share it all with you spiritually, but I wish I was sharing it with you physically, in person.

There are big plans for the 11,000th episode. Star Trek vet Nichelle Nichols will play Neil's mother, from whom he has been estranged for his entire run on the show. And Lee Phillip Bell, who co-created the show with her late husband Bill Bell will appear in a scene with her real-life daughter Lauralee Bell, who plays Christine Blair Williams, formerly known as "Cricket."

This is all explained here at SOAP SHE KNOWS - 11000 MILESTONE.

Y&R CELEBRATES 11,000 EPISODES - PEOPLE MAGAZINE - CAST PHOTO BELOW

1st Row (left to Right): Hunter King, Miles Gaston Villanueva, Melissa Ordway, Sean Carrigan, Mishael Morgan, Bryton James, Amelia Heinle, Jason Thompson, Eileen Davidson, Gina Tognoni, Peter Bergman, Eric Braeden, Melody Thomas Scott, Steve Burton, Sharon Case, Joshua Morrow, Justin Hartley, Melissa Claire Egan, Jess Walton, Tristan Rogers, Christel Khalil and Daniel Goddard
2nd Row (left to Right): Robert Adamson, Sofia Pernas, Michael E. Knight, Beth Maitland, Tracey Bregman, Christian Le Blanc, Doug Davidson, Lauralee Bell, Kristoff St. John, Camryn Grimes, Greg Rikaart, Mara McCaffray, Catherine Bach and Kate Linder

Not pictured: Chrishell Stause (current girlfriend of Justin Hartley) as Bethany Bryant.

Here's a great article by Candace Young, of whom I beginning to become a fan. She writes for SOAPS SHE KNOWS.

http://soaps.sheknows.com/the-young-and-the-restless/soapbox/381/deconstructing-yr-writers-seem-unable-to-move-on-from-staid-couples-stale-secrets-and-recycled-scenarios


Generally, I stay away from fan sites, mainly because of spoilers as I am often far behind on both Y&R but especially B&B. I think my record is 120-some unwatched B&B episodes on my DVR. I did not watch them. I would read recaps and watch every 12th episode or so.

So, two days after your death, Mom, I posted the first T-shirt blog post that I have posted in two years:

T-SHIRT #366.

I have been saving up content and ideas to do this HUGE Y&R post for the T-shirt blog, but maybe that's the wrong way to do it. Maybe I need to spread out the content over multiple parts. #366, pt.1; #366, pt.2; and so on. I will cross post this content to T-shirts as #366,pt.2.

I have made other Y&R posts on this blog as part of Hey Mom, but not many.

Hey, Mom! Talking to my Mom #4 - Last Y&R watched together aired Tuesday 1506.30.


Hey, Mom! Talking to my Mother #12 - I miss you

and then, because you would hate it and I would love to taunt you:

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #281 - Y&R - Victor goes to prison.

I have probably mentioned Y&R at other times that I did not save to the Y&R category. I am sure I have mentioned it as part of my Talking Again series. It's a constant theme in my life as I "watch" Y&R while working, just like we did together for all those years. Y&R is part of the soundtrack of my life. Its cadences and rhythms are a soothing music for me. And I do love it, as I love you, Mom.

But in all of this content and photos and things, there's something escaping me. There's an ineffable significance to this TV program and its place in my life, in our lives, Mom.

Maybe in the next Y&R post I make, I will figure out what it is and find a way to articulate it.

ENJOY these videos.




In case the following videos are ever broken, here's the page from SOAP SHE KNOWS that shares the interview videos.


Lauralee Bell (Christine Williams), Doug Davidson (Paul Williams), Tracey Bregman (Lauren Baldwin) and Christian LeBlanc (Michael Baldwin) are the latest stars to share their favorite memories from "Young and the Restless." Picking a favorite moment out of 38 years is "almost impossible" as Davidson notes. However Bregman jokes, "My hair alone, that could be a storyline just there!"

In the latest "Young and the Restless" video celebrating 11,000 episodes, Jess Walton (Jill Abbott), Kate Linder (Esther Valentine) and Jason Thompson (Billy Abbott) reflect on their favorite moments. Walton looks back on the "most wonderful relationship" she had with the late Jeanne Cooper (Katherine Chancellor) and the hilarious scenes they shared.

In this first video, Melody Thomas Scott (Nikki Newman) and Eric Braeden (Victor Newman) reflect back on the beginning of their characters and their favorite moments. Braeden remarks on a pivotal turning point for his and Scott's characters, "Once I had done that scene, I walked off the stage, I knew that it would open up a Pandora's Box for all kinds of emotional scenes."

Some of the videos were removed, so I had to re-do this on Sunday, June 18 2017.
















From 2012, the celebration for 10,000 episodes. I tried to embed the link to the video on that page, but it failed. So if interested, go to the page and watch the video there.

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Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

I miss you so very much, Mom.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 420 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1608.28 - 10:10

NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.

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COUNTDOWN TO THE END OF THE BLOG YEAR - ## shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1608.28 - 10:10

Coming soon: T-shirt #366 - Y&R, for my mom

Coming soon: T-shirt #366 - Y&R, for my mom

Readers (and random people who stumbled on this by accident),

When I ceased daily transmission of this blog on Friday, March 21 2014, my plan was to resume after a hiatus with new material on an intermittent schedule as I had more t-shirts to feature.

The hiatus was meant to be short, like a month, maybe. It's been a year and a little over three months.

I was planning for my next post to be the one for this t-shirt, dedicated to my mother about the soap opera The Young and the Restless, which I have watched with her, often daily, since its debut in 1973, which is most of my life.

I last worked on this future blog post on 1309.17.

I will now deliver content on this t-shirt in a series of posts, though it may take me a while to generate it all.









My mother died July 4th, 2015 at 10:10 a.m.


Yeah, yeah, I know we're blurry. Blame my Dad.


Or think of me looking at the photo through my tears.


COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - ?? shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1507.06 - 12:04

T-shirt #349 - Josie and the Pussycats

TODAY'S COUNT: 16 blog posts remaining in the T-shirt year!!

T-shirt #349 - Josie and the Pussycats

I confess. I have not seen the movie. I know, I know. If I am such a fan of the 1970s cartoons, why have I not seen the movie. I don't know. I intend to watch it at some point.

My bets memory of Josie and the Pussycats comes to me via Kellogg's cereal.

BOX TOPS.

Did you save them? I know I did.





As a result of saving my box tops and redeeming them with Kellogg's, I managed to receive 45 RPM records in mail of Josie and the Pussycats songs, which were among my favorite tunes as a young boy in the early 1970s.

Okay, late me back up. Josie and the Pussycats is a creation of the Archie Comics line. Originally, Archie Comics published a comic called She's Josie and Josie, starting in 1963.

With the hit success of the Archies' single "Sugar, Sugar" in 1969, which claimed the number one spot on the Billboard 100 Pop Singles as fueled by the CBS Saturday morning cartoon The Archie Show, the Chicago-based Archie Comics wanted to further capitalize on its success.

In December of 1969, the Josie comic was renamed Josie and the Pussycats as Josie and Melody decide to form a band, and after a failed attempt to have Alexandra in the band, they select Valerie Smith (though in some descriptions she is called Valerie Brown) to be the third member of the band.

Riding the wave of the success of the Archie TV show, CBS produced a show called Josie and the Pussycats that ran from 1970-1971 for sixteen episodes. The show was re-imagined as Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space for the 1972-73 season for another sixteen episodes. The original series appeared in reruns on all three networks (CBS, ABC, and NBC) from 1974-1976. This is important as the total time that Josie and the Pussycats was part of my weekly TV viewing was six years.

Hanna-Barbera created a "real life" band to sing the songs and even produce an album. Cheryl Ladd was one of the members of this trio, who released the Josie and the Pussycats album in 1970. On the Wiki page for the band, there's a list of the Kellogg's mail order singled from 1970. I know for certain that I own "Inside, Outside, Upside Down." But I am fairly certain I had at least one of the others as there are four in all. I included videos for two of the four Kellogg's singles among the six songs I feature below, including the theme song from the TV show. The videos to the TV show are hilarious because Hanna-Barbera only created one animation clip for the band playing a song. It may have fit one song, but it does not fit any of the other sings, and yet the clip is repeated as the song plays. There are some obvious editing attempts to try to match the song's rhythm, beat, or get the mouth movements in some synced to the lyrics, but these attempts fail in every video I watched.

Still, "Inside, Outside, Upside Down" is one of my favorite songs from the 1970s. I also included another favorite, "Sugar, Sugar" by the Archies.

Also, I was lucky enough to find a full episode of Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space in case you want to check that out.

 The Josie and the Pussycats comic continued monthly publication until 1982, at which point Archie Comics published occasional one shots with no schedule. But lately, Archie Comics has been doing interesting things as I noted in my reviews of Afterlife With Archie as found elsewhere on my blog (search reviews or comic books categories if interested). In both 2010 and 2012, Archie Comics further shook up the comics world with some innovative story lines.
 
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WIKI-LINKS

JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS - COMIC

JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS - MUSIC GROUP

JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS - TV SHOW
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ARCHIE AND VALERIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about comic books. But I either missed this entirely or simply forgot about it. In 2010, Archie Comics launched a story in which Archie develops a romance with Valerie Smith of Josie and the Pussycats.

This is a pretty big deal, and Archie Comics made a big deal of it with a huge marketing push and mock up covers, like the Rolling Stone one I included in today's COVER GALLERY.

From its roots in 1941, Archie was strictly a white bread cast. It was radical enough when the comics line introduced Valerie Smith for Josie and the Pussycats in 1969. In fact, there was a fight with Hanna Barbera to include her in TV show. In the end, she was included and became the first black cartoon character.

Now, forty years later (2010), Valerie is shown KISSING Archie in the comic book series. Two years later, in 2012, longtime writer of Archie Dan Parent constructs an imaginary tale of the couple's future as they get married and have a child.

Check out the links if you want to read more.

Three last things.

One, Archie Comics also has a comic featuring Kevin Keller, Riverdale's openly gay student. The character was immediately popular enough to warrant his own series.

Two, I love this twist with Archie and Val and the busting of the Betty-Veronica-Archie triangle. As a young boy, I think Veronica Lodge was part of the foundation for why I prefer dark-haired women, as I always preferred Veronica over Betty, even though she was kind of the bitchier of the two (maybe I prefer that, too). But Valerie Smith surely beats out Veronica in the sex appeal department, especially with the new long haired look seen in this frame from the recent comics. It's great to see a company that butters its bread with endless output of the same old same old has abandoned that model for some innovative, fresh stories aimed at 21st century audiences.

Three, I last included my TOP TEN HANNA BARBERA cartoons list in T-shirt #303. Josie and the Pussycats was not in the top ten and only received an honorable mention. I may need to re-think this position.

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LINKS TO ARTICLES ON ARCHIE AND VAL

FABRICATED NEWS

COMICS ALLIANCE

TIMEOUT CHICAGO

ARCHIE BLOG

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Just cheating by copying the list of links from WIKIPEDIA. It's easier this way. Trust me. I'm a doctor.

External links[edit]

• http://www.dandecarlo.com Creator Dan Decarlos Website
• Josie and the Pussycats at the Internet Movie Database
• Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space at the Internet Movie Database
• Archie Comics' Josie and the Pussycats homepage
• Josie and the Pussycats at TV.com
• Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space at TV.com
• Josie and the Pussycats at Toonopedia
• JOZINE: unofficial Josie/DeCarlo fan site
• Big Cartoon DataBase (BCDb): Josie and the Pussycats
• Big Cartoon DataBase (BCDb): Josie and the Pussycats In Outer Space

ALSO
JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS ON TV TROPES

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This blog has some great stuff, and many of the following videos come from this blog, but sadly it has not been updated in almost four years.

OFF RAMP TO NOWHERE

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VIDEO GALLERY

Josie and the Pussycats (1970) - Intro (Opening)

Josie And The Pussycats - Inside, Outside, Upside Down 1970

Josie And The Pussycats- Voodoo 1970

Josie And The Pussycats - Stop, Look, And Listen 1970

Josie And The Pussycats - Lie, Lie, Lie 1970

Josie And The Pussycats - You've Come A Long Way Baby (Single Version) 1970

Josie and the Pussycats in OUTER SPACE

Episode 01 - "Where's Josie?" - Full

I know this next one is not Josie and the Pussycats, but I don't own an Archie shirt and this song is too classic to not post.

The Archies - Sugar, Sugar (Original 1969 Music Video)

OFFICIAL BOILERPLATE TEXT OF THE LAST TWENTY POSTS COUTNDOWN: Hi. Thanks for reading. I am posting this "boilerplate" text everyday for the last TWENTY posts in the T-SHIRT blog year, which started on March 22, 2013.

I will close out daily transmission on March 21st, day 365 of my T-shirt blog-tastic extravaganza spectacular. I will give myself a short hiatus of total non-transmission or  publication for an as yet undetermined period of time, though I am estimating about two weeks.

After my blog vacation hiatus, I will resume T-shirt posts on a regular basis, also as yet to be determined (weekly? Twice monthly?) to finish blogging about all the T-shirts that were not featured in the blog year.

At some point, once I feel I am rolling along nicely, I will begin regular posting through my main blog: SENSE OF DOUBT. T-shirt posts will direct to the T-shirt blog from SENSE OF DOUBT.

I will continue to post THE WEEKLY COMIC LIST, the features of occasional T-SHIRTS I AM WEARING THIS WEEK, book reviews, comic book reviews, and other popular culture nonsense as I have been for a year now but all will go up at SENSE OF DOUBT and some will direct back here to 365 T-SHIRTS.

Ultimately, I will begin Internet publication of my fiction, primarily the comic book satire episodic story called POP! among other projects. So, in summary, 365 T-SHIRTS will continue though intermittently.

SENSE OF DOUBT will host my main blog presence and fiction writing as well as links to any T-shirt posts shared here.

I hope you will continue to follow me in my journey as a writer and a content provider.

Thank you for your kind attention and time you have spent with me on this and/or any other day this year.
I am humbled and blessed by your readership.
- chris tower, blogger, originated 1403.02

COVER GALLERY

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 16 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1403.05 - 10:15

T-shirt #325 - 10 years of The Walking Dead

T-shirt #325 - 10 years of The Walking Dead

Tonight the second part of season four of The Walking Dead premieres.

I have written about The Walking Dead many times on the blog as each month (and lately twice a month) it always tops my weekly comic book list. I have reviewed the comic a few times, such as in T-shirt #206. Also, recently, I thanked Darrough West for turning me on to this comic.

Yeah, yeah, I was NOT a fan of The Walking Dead from the start. I did not catch on until issue #43 and then I bought all the trades and read the entire thing. I can't buy every comic, and I cannot keep my finger on the pulse of what is hot, was hot, or may become hot according to some people.

Check out the cool write up at THE WALKING DEAD on COMIC VINE.

I am not calling this one a "hiatus" post. This is not what I consider a "hiatus" shirt. Actually, this is a brand new shirt, which just arrived at Fanfare as described back on Friday in my Weekly Comics List entry.

LATE POSTING

Once again, I posted an incomplete entry. It's now Monday, and I am back in time yet again finishing up another blog post. But this does give me the privilege of hindsight in a sense. I have already watched the premiere of the second half of season four of The Walking Dead. No review from me. I will leave that for better minds. But I enjoyed it.

I LIKE SURVIVAL STORIES

I like survival stories. As a young boy, Swiss Family Robinson was a particular favorite. It's no surprise, then, that my favorite Stephen King novel is the Stand. The greatest element that attracts me to The Walking Dead is that survival story element. I especially like apocalyptic survival stories, so much so that I am writing one. I was working on my survival novel the morning of September 11th, 2001. In my novel, planes fall out of the sky. I gave up working on that novel back then, which, is now over 12 years ago. I have been plugging away at the novel, which is meant for YA readers, ever since, but I have not yet finished it. The Walking Dead inspires me to work on it. What's the first priority during an apocalypse? What are the second through fifth priorities? Surely, the situation impacts the priorities. Safety from zombies is an issue in The Walking Dead but not in my novel.


But gathering supplies, safety, and coping with the aftermath of a devastating apocalypse fascinates me. I like thinking about what people would do, how they would behave. Who emerges as a leader in the new world? How does the aftermath of an apocalypse change people? I am still working on the answers to these questions. I find the way The Walking Dead is answering these questions to be riveting: a good story well told.

WHY IS THE WALKING DEAD ALWAYS ON TOP OF MY COMIC STACK EACH WEEK?

Mainly, it's an easy read. I know that reading the comic will not take very long at all. So, sometimes, a comic will fall in the stack based on the time it takes to read it. With The Walking Dead and its most recent issues, I am not fully entranced by the All Out War story line. I think it's inevitable, and it's interesting. But I do not agree with all the story choices. Mainly, the comic hits the top of my stack because it's an easy read. I like it very much, but I might not put it among my top five favorite current titles.

And, so, I am going to have to do more exploration of how I rank titles and what it means.

While I am on this subject, I moved up some titles in the most recent comics stack. I had integrated the stack from 1402.05 with some from the previous week, and I bumped up Uber, God Is Dead, and Codename: Action in my reading last night.

I am still intending to dole out some reviews. I have a huge stack of comics in my office waiting, begging, to be reviewed.

Ultimately, to wrap up this blog entry, as I have no more shirts for this TV show/comic book, I am on board for the long haul. I like that Kirkman is dedicated to The Walking Dead comic as a long term project, interested in what the post-apocalypse world looks like five years out, ten years out, and more.

The TV show deviates significantly from the comic book, but many plot elements sync. From a story telling point of view, I am very interested in how these stories align and the ways in which they do not.

Also, just as a quick final aside, the CASTING for the TV show is brilliant, and in some cases superior to the comic book versions (such as in the case of Herschel, Maggie, and the Governor). I am sure that I will continue to write about The Walking Dead in this blog and in the transition blog after my t-shirt year ends even without a shirt to focus my efforts. For now, enjoy some of what I feel are the best covers from the comic book series.

The Walking Dead COVER GALLERY

Favorite The Walking Dead covers. The only criteria is that I like them.

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 40 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1402.09 - 19:38 (82 minutes until The Walking Dead part two season four premiere!!)
final publication - 1402.10 - 20:00