The Wayback Machine

Professor Peabody and Sherman's Wayback Machine

I know I should be working on MathMojo and writing more books, getting podcasts of Eating Math for Breakfast out, writing the Math Mojo Monthly (“Comes out Quarterly, Mostly”) and making some videos about how to make your own abax, but I got a great distraction a few minutes ago.

My cousin, Jayne, who is about my age (only younger) (I am fifty) sent me an e-mail with a link to a website that was like a time machine. If you are a boomer like us, you may want to check out When Life was in Black and White.

Go ahead and check it out now. I’ll wait. (You kiddies can go back to your X-boxes while Mommy and Daddy go back in time for awhile.)

Wasn’t that amazing?

It’s weird how my memory goes beyond my birth, because I remember every single one of those shows and jingles except for about 3. And some of them were before my time.

Remember

Love that Bob

The Peeple’s Choice (my mom and I watched that).

Donna Reed (my mom and I watched that one too, she still feels guilty that we didn’t think she was Donna Reed.)

Topper

The first Smothers Brothers Show (it was a sitcom in which Tommy played an angel)

The Farmer’s Daughter (My mom watched that).

The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis

Anyone remember Spin and Marty from The Mickey Mouse Club?

Gidget

Soupy Sales (we just rented that one from Netflix, it was a hoot!)

The Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney Show

Mr. Wizard

Those are the earliest ones I can remember.

I am a fan of some of the locally generated shows from NYC, too.

Wonderama with Sonny Fox or Sandy Becker

The Sandy Becker Show (he’s actually a hero of mine – long story)

Creature Features

The Zackerly Show

Officer Joe Boulton

Captain Jack McCarthy (“Six bells, and all’s well!”

The Merry Mailman

Claude Kirshner the Ringmaster with Clowny. My dad, brother and I watched him a lot. I think my dad liked him better than we did, though.

Oh, jeez, I just thought of one I hadn’t thought about since the olden days, when Ronald Reagan was an actor, Madonna was the Mother of God, David Copperfield was a Dickens novel, and that cute little Michael Jackson didn’t have a solo career, and was still black. The Chuck McCann Show! Remember that one? He’d read from the comics each Sunday? Dondi, Dick Tracy, etc? Whew, my memory banks are straining.

And what would nostalgia be without The Joe Franklin Show?

I guess with all that TV watching, it’s no wonder I never learned any math when I was a kid.

Don’t get me started on cartoons! If you do I’ll never get any work done!

For me, the best thing about the web is that it is like a Wayback Machine.

Hotcha!

Brian

Update: I’m having a nostalgia moment a few years after I posted this. Once again procrastinating from work. Here are the fruits of recent procrastinating:

Parody poster of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E"

Anybody remember “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”?

The original cover of one of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." books

May 30, 2007 at 10:21 am

My friend Steve just e-mailed to let me know I’d forgotten “The Modern Farmer” (which was the first show on every morning in NYC, at around 6am, before TV went 24/7) and “The Bowery Boys” (sometimes called “East Side Comedy” with Slip Mahoney or Mugs, depending.) The Bowery Boys were sort of an east-coast phenomenon. It was wildly popular out here, but not quite as much in the rest of the country. Sort of like Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Too bad, some of you guys missed out on some great stuff!

JW Foley

May 31, 2007 at 8:58 am

B:
Those memories, for me, are the building blocks of a lifetime. I wonder if the” Sopranos” and “Boston Legal” will also
become the memories of today’s lifetime. (Deep,huh?)
JW