Sniff Swig Puff
June 14, 2007 8:44 AM   Subscribe

Sniff, Swig, Puff and your cares are temporarily gone. [youtube]
posted by mr_crash_davis (20 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
manamana
posted by Mblue at 8:52 AM on June 14, 2007


Wow. Some things in the past are better left there.
posted by a3matrix at 9:03 AM on June 14, 2007


Meh. I'm always skeptical of claims (even when sung by Bea Arthur) of how gloriously simple and innocent the recent past was. Every generation has this view of history:

Ancient times: Not so great
Medieval times: Pretty bad
Age of Enlightenment: Wouldn't want to live there
My grandparents and parents: Had it easy
Nowadays: Worse and worse!

This is not mathematically possible.
posted by DU at 9:03 AM on June 14, 2007 [2 favorites]


(Or was the point of this post to laugh at Bea Arthur? If so, I deplore the state of FPP today. Our parents and grandparents had better submissions than this.)
posted by DU at 9:06 AM on June 14, 2007


Great. Now I'm jonesing. Thanks a lot, mr_crash_davis.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 9:09 AM on June 14, 2007


Not laugh at, laught with. Bea Arthur is awesome.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 9:10 AM on June 14, 2007


I love this. Let's pretend we still had variety shows on TV today. Now let's pretend they aired such a bit. Outraged moms would be writing letters to the FCC before they got to the second chorus. Sure, it would be okay for Rock Hudson to talk about his May-December romance with Ryan Seacrest, but show him holding a drink and singing about poppers and look out!

Also, the guy on the left is much better-looking than the guy on the right.

I kid, I kid. I love Bea Arthur; she is clearly the best Golden Girl. "Used to Be" Arthur.
posted by uncleozzy at 9:11 AM on June 14, 2007


Oh, our father did well, but they're not a patch on the forvm pater proclamati of Cato, Pliny and Cicero.
posted by boo_radley at 9:12 AM on June 14, 2007


Let's pretend we still had variety shows on TV today.

Impossible. Such variety shows would require that the big names who come on the show as guest stars actually be able to sing, dance, and act to some reasonable degree.
posted by googly at 9:22 AM on June 14, 2007


Rock Hudson singing about Amyl Nitrate? "Used to be some guy's name?" Now that's far OUT.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 9:26 AM on June 14, 2007


The song in the clip is "Everybody Today Is Turning On" from the Cy Coleman and Michael Stewart musical I Love My Wife. It's taken from 1979's The Beatrice Arthur Special.

I'm often asked, when did you know? When did you know you were "that way"? While certainly years earlier Randolph Mantooth had aroused feelings in me while watching Emergency!, hands down I figured out I liked boys and showtunes definitively in 1979, when I had a serious crush on school chum Billy and I sat glued in from of the TV watching The Beatrice Arthur Special.

Bea was, of course, just coming off the six-season success of Maude and was also married to director Gene Saks, whose production of I Love My Wife was just ending its run on Broadway, which explains how both "...Turning On" and "Hey There, Good Times" wound up in Bea's TV special. In addition to Hudson, other guests on the show included Melba Moore and Wayland Flowers and Madame.

Uh-huh.

It was everything you'd expect the show to be, by which I mean campy fabulous. Bea did solo songs (including a delicious "How Long Has This Been Going On?" and another Cy Coleman treasure, "The Way I See It" from the 1979 flop Home Again), sketches (including one with Rock Hudson where they play a long-married couple discussing that something has gone wrong in their relationship—gee, y'think?) and duets with Hudson, Madame and Moore (plus a "surprise" cameo by Maude co-star Conrad Bain.

It was, in short, the gayest thing on television in 1979. Unsurprisingly, the handsome Bea Arthur superfan Kevin Buckstiegel has a few other clips from the show on his Bea fansite.
posted by bradlands at 9:27 AM on June 14, 2007


Every generation has this view of history:

Ancient times: 1 + 1
Medieval times: 1+ 2
Age of Enlightenment: 1 + 0

Nowadays: Do we hate math? Only if it's DU's
posted by Mblue at 9:28 AM on June 14, 2007


Outraged moms would be writing letters to the FCC before they got to the second chorus.

Just last weekend I had a conversation about the episode of Bea Arthur's Maude in which her character decides to have an abortion. I couldn't think of anything from the entertainment industry lately that even gets close to touching that subject, other than Everlast's What It's Like (ugh). So I really respect Ms. Arthur's acting abilities, I enjoyed the clip, and I think it's amazing what used to be on television that we just can't talk about anymore.
posted by peeedro at 9:44 AM on June 14, 2007


I cannot believe I never posted this.

And DU, how on Earth could anyone laugh at Bea Arthur? Bea rocks. Plus, she can kick all of our asses. And I'm pretty sure we all know it. (Although seeing her dressed up like Sarah Jessica Parker is quite possibly one of the scariest things I've ever seen. Don't tell her though. I don't want my ass kicked.)
posted by miss lynnster at 9:46 AM on June 14, 2007


I definitely wasn't laughing at them. I wish everyone was still turning on. Those innocent days before crystal meth..
posted by imperium at 9:53 AM on June 14, 2007


This is a much more effective video if you have your monitor inverted and set to treat all brights as deep purple, and all darks as mauve.
posted by AmberV at 10:11 AM on June 14, 2007


Isn't that pretty much what LSD is for?
posted by ninjew at 10:34 AM on June 14, 2007


I'm dropping acid right now. No I'm not I'm filthy liar.
posted by nola at 11:18 AM on June 14, 2007


Here's to alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems.
posted by anthill at 12:12 PM on June 14, 2007


Where was "pole smokin" in Rock's litany of ways to get high?
posted by telstar at 11:17 PM on June 14, 2007


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