Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Joan Rivers in That Show (1968)

My friend Michael turned me on to this show, which has just been added to Hulu. It's Joan River's 1968 syndicated talk show. Each half hour episode featured a different subject ranging from men's shirts to boating safety and included a monologue on the subject, an expert and a celebrity guest. Guests included June Havoc, Shecky Green, Joel Gray, Donald Pleasence and in the episode below, Lily Tomlin.
This episode covers the subject of stand-up comedy and how new talent is nurtured in the business. Lily Tomlin was then playing in night clubs in the village and had yet to break out on Laugh In. There are lots of episodes to choose from over at Hulu, I recommend the show for it's curious, sixties TV quality and the opportunity to see Joan Rivers and her celebrity guests back then.

Obscurity factor: 9 (largely forgotten, not on DVD, available on Hulu)

7 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for posting this and letting us know there are episodes on Hulu! I can't wait to watch this episode on here later as well as the ones on Hulu.

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  2. It's fun! The episode on wallpaper is especially wacky...

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  3. My first memories of Joan are when I was about four or five years old. This series would have been on when I was in kindergarten or first grade (or both). Joan was always coiffed and dressed at the height of fashion. Photos of her could be a timeline for how styles changed for women of her generation from then until now. I look at her in clips from the late-'60s and can envision my teachers and my mom's friends and fellow B'nai Brith and Hadassah members and my friends' moms and my aunts and neighbor ladies, etc. It really brings back a flood of childhood memories. The amazing thing about fashion and design and architecture is how everything at one time really did look different. People left their homes and everywhere they went encountered people who were styled like all the people who are seen in this episode. It's like how we watch "Mad Men" and realize that the world looked like that at one time! A couple years ago I watched the movie "A Thousand Clowns," and the opening credits were shown over clips of people in NYC at rush hour. It was "Mad Men" for real! What is especially amazing is how people dressed up more to go shopping back then than a lot of them do to go to a wedding today!

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  4. Yes, it's fun to peer back into a lost era, and this show really gives you the opportunity to do that with Joan's fashions as well as her guests and audience members. I'm so glad Hulu features content like this. It's exciting to see the depth and breadth of television available for viewing again.

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  5. Very interesting. I can't imagine such a show being successful today, unfortunately. It was very laid back...calm... That being said, a little bit of Tomlin goes a long way - a plus on "Laugh-In"...

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  6. Yes, it's not a format that would be readily accepted now-a-days. For a less laid back episode, check out the one on wallpaper...

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  7. I was very impressed at what a good interviewer Joan was. She really let her guests talk, and her questions were pointed and she definitely seemed to be listening to what they had to say.

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