Sunday Showcase Review December 10, 1978 along with a bonus June 17, 1979 Sunday Showcase Review

 This week's Sunday Showcase review is the December 10, 1978 edition with the 3rd Annual Circus of the Stars garnering the cover. Tony Lo Bianco had been in The French Connection and The Honeymoon Killers among many other roles, but he'd tame big cats on this special. It's odd to me that the 3rd Annual Circus of the Stars would air on December 10, 1978, but IMDB shows it as airing on June 20, 1979. A quick check of the Nashville television schedule does show it listed on that night. 

Buddy Ebsen disco dancing as Barnaby Jones. I wish I could find just this scene on YouTube, but I probably saw this in real time as my mother never missed an episode. The "Dance With Death" episode, which is currently up in its entirety on YouTube, wouldn't air until January 25, 1979. 

Intro and outro 1973

NBC was doing a special on drug use called Reading, Writing, and Reefer which I've mentioned before on the April 15, 1979 Sunday Showcase review. I just couldn't resist sharing this clipping of newscaster Edwin Newman sitting on 3/4 tons of grass. That's a lot of dope! Just like with the Circus of the Stars airing this episode is listed on a different date than December 10, 1978. It is shown as airing on April 17, 1979. Perhaps December 10, 1978 never really happened. 

The always smooth Johnny Mathis was coming to the Grand Ole Opry House on February 6, 1979.

Too Much Too Little Too Late 1978

Which car would you want to win? I'm sure I would have preferred the Elm Hill mini-car back then, but I'd be happy with a 57 Chevy today. 

George Morgan - Elm Hill Bill

This is what I want for Christmas. All of it. Thanks in advance. 

Once you get me the stereo equipment you can go visit Port O' Call and buy me everything in their mega Christmas ad in this week's Showcase. It's all go good. Their "music turns me on!" dude still creeps me out after all of these years. 

Rhoda  starring the awesome Valerie Harper went from being one of the most watched television series to cancelled in its fifth season as the ratings went into free fall. I didn't get all of the humor as a child, but it was an amusing show and I had a big crush on Julie Kavner who played Rhoda's sister Brenda.

Rhoda intro seasons 4 & 5

I have never set foot in Opry Mills. I know I point that out often. 

The Sunday Showcase had you covered if you wanted to plan out your sports viewing for the week.

December 10, 1978 NFL Today halftime show SPOILER: Atlanta wins 20-17

Sound Seventy had some good concerts coming to town. Ted Nugent would be playing Municipal Auditorium on December 15th with Golden Earring opening. Ted was out on the road promoting his Weekend Warriors album. The Grateful Dead would be playing the very next night. The entire Dead show is available at the moment at the Internet Archive site. The Grateful Dead only played Nashville 3 times. They played Alumni Lawn at Vanderbilt on October 21, 1972, Municipal Auditorium April 22, 1978, and this December 16, 1978 show. The Charlie Daniels Band would be putting on Volunteer Jam V on Saturday January 13, 1979. Tickets were only $6 but I bet they were going fast. 

New Minglewood Blues from the April 22, 1978 Grateful Dead concert

The Top 10 Records of the past week has some disco, some country, and some pop. Chic's "Le Freak" reaches number 1 where it would stay for some time. My music teacher in 6th grade at the time polled here classes over what our favorite artists were and then once a week she would cover the most popular answers. Billy Joel made the list, but I'm pretty sure The Bee Gees were the overall favorites. I still vividly remember her going over their long history which reached all the way back to the late 50's which may well be the thing that ignited my interest in musical history. Thanks Miss Kidd wherever you are! 

it flows through you and it flows through me

everything we are will never die

big fun to be had by everyone

BONUS Sunday Showcase Review June 17, 1979 

Since IMDB kept telling me that television shows which aired on December 10, 1978 actually were shown in 1979 I began to explore so I could confirm this to be true. The Reading, Writing, and Reefer NBC news special had definitely run in April and was noted in my blog post on that time. So, next I wanted to check out the the 3rd Annual Circus of the Stars to see if it was shown on June 20, 1979 per IMDB. As noted in the opening of this post, it was. So what are we doing still hanging around? Well, because there's so much greatness in the June 17, 1979 Sunday Showcase I figured I'd share it with you readers now since I'm hanging up these reviews shortly after the beginning of 2021. I'll still be blogging, but I'm running out of fresh takes on the Showcases. That's all. 

John Wayne had passed away on June 11, 1979 so gets a tribute in this Sunday Showcase. I enjoyed seeing True Grit when I was a youngster and The Searchers is one of the greatest movies ever made. 

This additional Sunday Showcase review is brought to you in part by Castner Knott Co.'s Hairstyling Salon which seems to be living in the past and future. The neon font style is exciting Eighties while the guy's perm is straight up 1972 era Brady Bunch. 

The late great Eddie Rabbit is rocking some smooth late Seventies yacht rock style. The ad is promoting his latest album Loveline and the ad is a direct homage/ripoff of the profiles included in rock magazine Creem. I think it's pretty cool. 

Suspicions is an awesome tune!

Time to pause for a couple of ads. Cheap Records sounds like my kind of record store. I still love digging through bargain bins for records. Europa Mini Park has lots of entertainment for you if you can go back to 1979 somehow. Perhaps a go cart time machine will get you there.

John and Yoko let us know that their "silence is a silence of love and not of indifference." 

Here's the Top 10 Records 6 months after the one from 1978 above. Disco is still going strong in June 1979 with 5 disco tracks making the charts: "Ring My Bell", "Hot Stuff", "We Are Family", "Makin' It", and Blondie's "Heart of Glass." One could make an argument that "Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy" was disco too. 

I was a huge Blondie fan and I also really dug Rickie Lee Jones. Randy Vanwarmer is at number 1.

Rickie Lee Jones

Blondie

Randy Vanwarmer

It seems appropriate that Tennessee Williams's Cat On A Hot Tin Roof is playing the Tennessee Theatre. If you didn't want to see the play that taught me what mendacity meant, you can check out the Exit/In which has a great lineup this week in 1979. 

Soul Man 

This last portion of today's post is brought to us by Disco Concepts who can teach you all the latest disco dances. You take the first step...we'll show you the rest. 

Planetarium....hmmm we need something that rhymes with that for our laser show. I've got it! Laserium!

I may have been one of the few goofy 12 year olds in America that liked to keep up with the Nielsen ratings, but I was always happy to see the Showcase listing the Top 10 shows. Sometime they would also show the bottom 0, but this week they were listing the Top 20. ABC and CBS were annihilating NBC which only has 1 show in the Top 20. The regular TV season would have ended and we were in rerun land by now. I was a massive fan of ABC so I was happy to see them on top. The most intriguing show in the Top 10 for me was Stockard Channing in Just Friends which was a show I watched since I had a crush on Stockard. I think the show had already been cancelled, but here it sits in the Top 10.

Stockard Channing in Just Friends

The Skyway Drive In has 4 big shows for you if you feel like heading out Dickerson Road. 

The Sunday Showcase sometimes featured ads for out of town shows like this one for James Taylor promoted by Mid-South Concerts. I like their logo and lament that I never went to see a show at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis. 

Bad Company were coming to Nashville on July 12, 1979 to play Municipal Auditorium. 15WLAC was still playing music and ROCK 106 was still the premier hard rock FM station. 1979 was cool.

Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy

Sound Seventy has a full slate of concerts coming to various venues. George Benson along with a 23 piece string section would be bringing his pop jazz guitar to the Grand Ole Opry House the very night of June 17, 1979. June 25th would see Molly Hatchet opening for Atlanta Rhythm Section at Municipal. Kansas with Leroux would be coming to Murfreesboro to play Murphy Center on 7-6-79. A guy that worked with my mother at Greer-Nut in Smyrna bought me a t-shirt from the Molly Hatchet show. 

Molly Hatchet live 1979 

Those concerts weren't all that Sound Seventy had for music fans. There was 2 more great ones coming July 8th and 9th to Municipal in 1979. Natalie Cole was one of the top soul/pop singers of the day and The Cars were a New Wave hit machine. I think the debut album by The Cars is one of the best records ever made so I would have loved to have been at that concert, but I was too young. That's all for this week.

Natalie Cole and her opening act Peabo Bryson = awesome

Bye Bye Love - Benjamin Orr = rock star

The Cars Musikladen full show

Extra bonus content: A Creem Profile on The Cars (not in Showcase)

Sunday Showcase June 22, 1980

Our time travel journey this week is the June 22 - 28, 1980 Tennessean Sunday Showcase. I was so hoping I could find the Debby Boone special on YouTube, but I came up empty. 

Check out who is opening for Ted Nugent on July 2, 1980 at Municipal: The Scorpions who are great, but even better is Def Leppard who were on their first tour of America that year. The Nuge was still riding high with Scream Dream being released this very month in 1980. It featured the instant classic cut "Wango Tango."

Def Leppard from earlier in 1980 when they opened for Pat Travers

Scorpions live in Paris April 1980

"Wango Tango" live on The Midnight Special 1980

The Tennessee Theater was bringing Johnny Winter to town on July 8th with the then basically unknown Billy Squier opening. So, if you saw both of these rock concerts you were ahead of the pack when it came to Def Leppard (who would be opening for Billy in a few years) and Billy Squier. Johnny Winter is one of those rare rock and roll artists who didn't receive much radio airplay, but always was out playing blistering music live to an appreciative audience. I regret not getting to see him in person.

Billy Squier - You Should Be High

I couldn't find a 1980 video so how about this 1974 appearance

Time to pause this review for an ad for Judy Judy Judy's which I believe was once just plain old Judy's which was a blatant copy of Wendy's. There was one located in Murfreesboro and the kids in my neighborhood liked to run bicycles over the drive-in cord repeatedly. The teenagers working there must have hated us. 

The ever funky and smooth Isley Brothers would be playing Municipal with The Gap Band and S.O.S. (which stood for Sounds of Success) on July 3rd. That would have been an awesome night of music. 

S.O.S. Band Take Your Time (Do It Right)

Oops Upside Your Head

Here We Go Again live at Bearsville Studio 1980

John Denver was coming to Municipal Auditorium on July 12th. I think by this time in his career he was beginning to be thought of more as an actor and television personality than a singer/songwriter, but he was still a huge music star. I couldn't find a good 1980 solo performance so I'm posting a tune from his 1979 appearance on The Muppet Show. 

talking plants!

I bet a good portion of the John Denver concert was probably taking these macramé classes at the 100 Oaks and Rivergate Mall's JC Penney stores. Didn't they notice the Eighties had arrived? 

Earth shoes always come back - the natural heel boomerang of a shoe. I post these Earth shoe ads for one reason only: I always wanted a pair when I was a child and my parents sensibly never bought me any. 

I don't know if Earth shoes would have been too cool at Phrank and Stein club where the nascent Nashville punk rock alternative music scene was coalescing. 

Placid Fury

Cloverbottom

The Ratz

Capitol Records was giving "The Gambler" songwriter Don Schlitz a huge push. We're talking a full page advertisement. You can't tell it with the black and white, but the lion's eyes are the same blue color of the background. 

I can't find out anything about The Tenderrifics, but they look smooth. I wonder if they played yacht rock. 

I had a really great joke written about this movie, but I think I'll keep it to myself. The movie probably doesn't need any more abuse.

This movie launched the 80's?

The Top 10 Records this week is a great mixed bag with many of these tunes being staples at the roller skating rink. "Funky Town" and "Cars" always filled the floor. My other favorites from this list would be "Coming Up", "Call Me", and the super awesome "Brass In Pocket" by the Pretenders. 

You want a love to last forever...

Gotta move to a town that's right for me

Here in my car I feel safest of all

Been driving Detroit leaning no reason