Love to Love You Bradys: The Bizarre Story of The BBVH

2009, first edition, from ECW Press
Written by Ted Nichelson
Commentary and Special Features by Susan Olsen
Art Direction and Design by Lisa Sutton
Love to Love You Bradys: The Bizarre Story of The Brady Bunch Variety Hour
Bought new for $22.95
Paperback in good condition
B

I still remember my excitement as I taped the pilot episode of BBH ("Variety" was later dropped) off of Nickelodeon at midnight.  I of course watched at least some of these episodes when they originally aired.  Number one, it was the Bradys; and number two, it was a variety show on ABC, and I already faithfully watched Donny & Marie.  But I hadn't seen the show since, it having lapsed into what then seemed permanent obscurity.  By the time I was in my early 20s and watching Nick at Nite, I could appreciate BBH on a so-bad-it's-good level.  I later got the DVD with two episodes, and I've watched a bit of different episodes on Youtube, particularly because of reading this book a second time.  And, well, it is painful at times, but it's never boring.

As for the book, it captures much of the craziness onscreen and behind the scenes.  Too much time is spent on the swimming/dancing Kroftettes, who, yes, were hard-working but aren't really what's most memorable about the show.  I'd actually have liked to have heard even more about the costume- and set-designers.  I do love that there are many photos, all in color I think, showing the look of the show in all its tacky glory.  I like that Sutton uses a different color/object theme for each chapter, although I wish that less of the black text had been printed on gray.  I'm not color-blind, but it would've made the book literally more readable if it had been white text, or a different background.

As for the writing, Olsen's contributions are snarky but insightful, showing the perspective of someone who was a fifteen-year-old who hated disco and the Krofft look, but nonetheless appreciated all the effort put into the show.  And, yes, she reluctantly discusses Maureen's cocaine use and resultant unreliability.  She even talks about how she was regarded as fat compared to Maureen (who was also bulimic then) and "fake Jan" Geri Reischl.  (At nine years old and now I thought Cindy was then the prettiest sister.)  Geri, by the way, is proud of her role on the show, which is more than most of the cast would say of theirs.

Because there were only nine episodes, you're going to find more information per episode than you would in your average book on one program.  But if you're reading this book, then too much of a good/bad thing isn't a problem for you.

(And, yes, I'm using the Schwartiana tag, even though Sherwood was proud to have nothing to do with this spin-off.  They're still loosely based on his characters after all.)

Street Gang: The Complete History of "Sesame Street"

2009ish*, from Viking
Michael Davis
Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street
Original price $27.95, purchase price $7.99
Good condition hardcover
C+

This is a case where the subtitle is just as misleading as the title, in that this is not by any means a complete history of the show that my generation and later grew up learning basic concepts from.  There's much more in here about Captain Kangaroo than there is about the then two most recent decades.  In fact, there's more in here on Barry Goldwater and Julia Child than there is about some of the latter-day cast and crew!  Davis doesn't even get to the first episode's premiere until the midpoint of the book, and that's counting the index and such in the back.  He acknowledges feminist criticism, of the sort that's in And Jill Came Tumbling After (1974), but he really doesn't spend much time on either the content of the show or its impact.**

This is quite a contrast to Stephen Davis's (no relation I assume) 1987 book on The Howdy Doody Show, which I really enjoyed despite my lack of Doody knowledge.  I do believe there's a good book here, buried under M. Davis's meandering chronology and sometimes overwrought style.  ("If Joan Ganz Cooney was queen of CTW's domain, Chris Cerf was its minister of mirth and high priest of the practical joke."  Jeez, just call him the court jester!)  Enough interesting stories and information come through that I can marginally recommend the book, although I'm curious about Sesame Street Unpaved (1999) by David Borgenicht, which sounds like more of what I was looking for.



*It's copyrighted 2008, but towards the end it says, "In 2009, it's hard to imagine a world without Elmo...."  So I'm going with that date.

**He does seem horrified by the idea of a pink Muppet (having forgotten the Snowths of "Mahna Mahna" fame), Abby Cadabby.  But it's not as if the less stereotypically girly female Muppets ever became integral to the show.

Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of SMCH

2009, 2010 Touchstone edition
David Bianculli
Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
Original price $24.99, purchase price $9.60
Hardcover in good condition
B

A fascinating account of a pivotal television program, the narrative marred by Bianculli's tendency towards redundancy.  (Some information and anecdotes are given not just twice but thrice or more!)  Unlike Saturday Night Live, this isn't a show I watched often, even in the years after it originally aired (1967 to '69, so I was a baby when it got cancelled).  I am going to get the DVDs from the library sometime though, because I am curious about the program, and watching bits and pieces on YouTube isn't enough.  (I think I also watched the 2002 documentary Smothered, but it's been a long while.)

Bianculli had the full support and cooperation of not only the Smothers Brothers but much of their staff and admirers, as well as some of the censors that they (mostly Tommy) battled with.  This enables Bianculli to go into detail on several of the episodes, including ones that didn't air in part or in full.  He puts the show in the context of its time, both what else was on television and what was happening in the U.S.  He also looks at the show's legacy, including on The Daily Show.  Yes, although this book is almost five years old by now, it feels a lot more contemporary than anything I've reviewed so far.  (There's also what I think is the first reference to Obama in my book collection.)  Bianculli goes rather quickly through the brothers' post-show career, but it was interesting to get another take on John Lennon heckling Tommy.  (Apparently Lorne Michaels and Lily Tomlin were there that night as well.)

Jasper Dash and the Flame-Pits of Delaware

2009, 2010 Beach Lane edition
M. T. Anderson
Illustrated by Kurt Cyrus
A Pals in Peril Tale: Jasper Dash and the Flame-Pits of Delaware
Bought newish for $6.99
Slightly worn paperback
B-

While the idea of treating the state of Delaware as an exotic, forbidding land is amusing, I found this to be the least funny of the series so far.  (The letter from the real Governor of Delaware, reprinted in the back, is as witty as Anderson at his best here.)  However, the Cyrus illustrations are his best yet, especially the two-page spreads of the wondrous sights of Dover.  Of the writing, I most enjoyed the logic puzzle, which Anderson has the characters solve, deconstruct, and then reconstruct.  There's an excerpt from the next book, Agent Q, or the Smell of Danger!, but I'm not interested enough in the series (now, as you'll notice, renamed from M. T. Anderson's Thrilling Tales) to continue anytime soon.

HPHBP: Magical Scenes from the Sixth Film in the Harry Potter Series

2008, Penguin first edition
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Magical Scenes from the Sixth Film in the Harry Potter Series
Copyright by Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.
Original price £9.99, bought newish for $7.95
Hardcover in good condition
B

Ironically, I find this more entertaining than the book or the movie, for what it is.  Not that it isn't odd to see a book with "pull-tabs, pop-ups and flaps" that involves romance and violence, but such is the oddness of a fandom that spans many ages and interests.  Each two-page spread has a different theme, not necessarily in order.  In fact, there are even spoilers for Deathly Hallows!  

• Hogwarts Express, with a ticket and four house badges
• Quidditch theme, with a flying Ron and a small poster
• "Severus Snape (TM) is the Half-Blood Prince (TM)."  You didn't know he trademarked it, did you?
• Quibbler salute, with awesome Spectrespecs
• Love and Friendship, with Harry/Ginny pop-up, although he's not even looking at her.  (Couldn't they have done the kiss, or at least hand-holding?)
• Death Eaters theme, with a big flap that reveals some of the D.E.s.
• Tom Riddle, with one flap revealing 1930s Dumbledore and another Voldemort's face hidden behind young Tom's.  Eek!
• Horcruxes, with a dial to see what they are, very spoilery.
• Room of Requirement, with pull-tab to see explanation, and a tab hiding Bellatrix in the Vanishing Cabinet.  Eek!
• Dumbledore, with pop-up Fawkes and a portrait flap I can't pull loose.

The design of the book is generally impressive, although it could've been better.

Here's the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady...

2008, first edition, from HarperCollins
Maureen McCormick
Here's the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice
Original price $25.95, bought used for $20.76
Hardcover in good condition
B-

Although this book is partly about McCormick dealing with the mixed legacy of her role as Marcia, there's not terribly much about the show or her life during that time.  Mostly, it's about the years afterwards, as she struggled with drug addiction and other serious problems.  Her family seems to have been very dysfunctional, from the beginning to the end.  (The last few chapters discuss her brother's elder abuse of their father.)  

It's an interesting read but, like other books of its time, it could've used a better editor.  Not only does she make mistakes about The Brady Bunch, things any fan could've fact-checked for her, but she thinks her hair is "chestnut," which is not a synonym for blonde.  There are typos as well.  And it felt like she rushed through the last twenty years or so.

Although Susan Olsen (little sister Cindy) hasn't yet written an autobiography, she will have her say on the Brady legacy in the book she cowrote, Love to Love You Bradys: The Bizarre Story of The Brady Bunch Variety Hour, coming up in '09....

Typecasting: On the Arts and Sciences of Human Inequality

2008 edition updating from '06, from Seven Stories Press
Stuart Ewen & Elizabeth Ewen
Typecasting: On the Arts and Sciences of Human Inequality
Original price unknown, purchase price $14.00
Slightly worn paperback
B-

The Ewens take a look at the ways that people (mostly white male Europeans and Americans of the last two or three centuries) have tried to label others, using dubious science (some of which threw out data that contradicted the thesis), as well as various forms of art and entertainment.  I found the book to be a bit unfocused, and there were some distracting typos, most oddly enough involving the word "the." However, there is some interesting information, from a 1910ish intelligence test to the Russian attitude towards "Caucasians."  Some of it's funny, but some of it's tragic, like the fate of Saartjie Baartmann, the Khosian woman who was exploited during her life and mutilated after her death, all in the cause of "scientific inquiry."

Yes, the Ewens discuss The Birth of a Nation, as well as other early movies.  Although there are times that they make connections to the present, such as wondering what "your face is destiny" theorists would've done in the modern world of make-up, contact lenses, and plastic surgery, the book would've been strengthened by more on the post-World-War-II era.