Chewing on the Red White and Blue

October 26, 2007 11:53 AM

Love American StyleSeason One Volume One is coming to DVD on November 20th. The series ran on ABC-TV from 1969-1974, was nominated for an emmy for best comedy series (won for music) and often featured pilots that had been turned down by the networks. Some would later be picked up after airing on Love American Style; two such shows were Happy Days and Wait til Your Father Gets Home. The original theme song was performed by the Cowsills, here is their live version years later. As a kid, I actually hoped my dating life might be fun and humorous like the show, no such luck.
posted by CameraObscura (49 comments total)

Imagine being 10 years old, with three channels to choose from and no internet, and this is your Friday night lineup:

8 Brady Bunch
830 Partridge Family
9 Room 222
930 Odd Couple
10 Love American Style

And you never have to get up and change the channel. Golden age.

(and awesome title tag. Except I always thought it was "Do it under red, white and blue.")
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 12:10 PM on October 26, 2007 [2 favorites]

I used to watch reruns of Love American Style as a little kid. The only thing I can remember clearly about it (other than the theme song) was in one episode, a guy gets a doorknob stuck in his mouth.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 12:16 PM on October 26, 2007

This show, and this tv movie, warped my view of relationships for a very, very long time.
posted by maudlin at 12:21 PM on October 26, 2007

Barbara Eden, Farrah Fawcett, Julie Newmar in ONE movie together? OMG! Sweet!
posted by CameraObscura at 12:25 PM on October 26, 2007

This show confused me as a child.
posted by originalname37 at 12:29 PM on October 26, 2007

Except I always thought it was "Do it under red, white and blue.

Oops, it looks like we're both wrong, it's:

Truer than the Red, White and Blue.

That was a great Friday night lineup, sigh. That's when life was good.
posted by CameraObscura at 12:30 PM on October 26, 2007

Imagine being 10 years old, with three channels to choose from and no internet, and this is your Friday night lineup:

8 Brady Bunch
830 Partridge Family
9 Room 222
930 Odd Couple
10 Love American Style

And you never have to get up and change the channel. Golden age.

Erm.... that was my 10 year old Friday night. I never, however, look back on it as a golden age. Oh well.

I thought it was "Do it in the red white and blue".

Now I'm having flashbacks to That Girl and The Newlywed Game. It's amazing how vivid TV shows are one's memory, but other things, that you think would be more important, are so fuzzy.
posted by jokeefe at 12:37 PM on October 26, 2007

Wasn't this resurrected as a daytime show in the mid-'80s? I seem to remember that version being singularly awful.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 12:50 PM on October 26, 2007

Bert Convy. And. Karen Valentine.

More perfect than Brad and Angelina could ever hope to be.
posted by tkchrist at 12:57 PM on October 26, 2007

Little known fact... Happy Days started out as a love American Style episode.
posted by miss lynnster at 1:05 PM on October 26, 2007

Oh. Whoops. Already mentioned. I should return to lurking. And put on my glasses.
posted by miss lynnster at 1:05 PM on October 26, 2007

I always wondered what was behind this Jellyfish t-shirt.
posted by jeffamaphone at 1:08 PM on October 26, 2007

8 Brady Bunch
830 Partridge Family
9 Room 222
930 Odd Couple
10 Love American Style

Early on, I believe that Friday lineup included Here Come the Brides, with Bobby Sherman. That was family time in my household. And then on Saturday night we'd switch over to CBS for:

800 All in the Family
830 Mash
900 Mary Tyler Moore
930 Bob Newhart
1000 Carol Burnett

Talk about Must-See TV
posted by stargell at 1:21 PM on October 26, 2007

CameraObscura: I'm sure other people find your dating life plenty humorous.
posted by absalom at 1:22 PM on October 26, 2007

And then on Saturday night we'd switch over to CBS for:

I was going to point out the same thing. Good times, goooood times.... (except, that was on Tuesday nights, IIRC)
posted by briank at 1:30 PM on October 26, 2007

My friend Jay used to claim there was nudity on Love American Style. I didn't know any better. I was in first grade and my parents didn't let me watch it.
posted by schmedeman at 1:52 PM on October 26, 2007

I miss Space 1999. That is all.
posted by everichon at 1:59 PM on October 26, 2007 [1 favorite]

ererichon, if it helps UK ITV3 is showing UFO again!
posted by quarsan at 2:05 PM on October 26, 2007

8 Brady Bunch
830 Partridge Family
9 Room 222
930 Odd Couple
10 Love American Style

I'd actually get excited as the Friday school day came to a close, because I was looking forward to camping out in front of the TV for three hours of nirvana. A few years later, the Bradys went off the air, the Partridges were moved up half an hour, and Adam's Rib (starring Ken Howard and Blythe Danner) was inserted into the lineup.

Love, American Style was the Love Boat of that era - a fallout shelter for stars of recently cancelled shows (like Laugh-In) to keep their SAG dues up to date.
posted by Oriole Adams at 2:07 PM on October 26, 2007 [1 favorite]

More perfect than Brad and Angelina could ever hope to be.

Why do so many buy into the Access Hollywood/TMZ/Tabloid demonization of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie?

You would be shocked if you actually met these two fine people.
posted by wfc123 at 2:09 PM on October 26, 2007

If you live long enough you'll find someone nostalgic for everything.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 2:12 PM on October 26, 2007

I always wondered what was behind this Jellyfish t-shirt.

Can we hijack this and turn it into a Jellyfish thread?

I feel I could really throw down in a Jellyfish thread.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 2:13 PM on October 26, 2007

it always seemed so grown-up and "naughty"--i can't imagine watching it now as an adult.

8 Brady Bunch
830 Partridge Family
9 Room 222
930 Odd Couple
10 Love American Style

Exactly! : >
posted by amberglow at 2:16 PM on October 26, 2007

and wasn't it always done by formula--one thing about young singles, one old couple, and one random extra-silly thing?
posted by amberglow at 2:18 PM on October 26, 2007

I've no idea what Love American Style is, but every time I see Family Guy, I think I'm watching Wait till Your Father Gets Home.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 2:24 PM on October 26, 2007 [1 favorite]

sorry, space 1999 is on UK ITV4!
posted by quarsan at 2:29 PM on October 26, 2007

To dispel any doubts:

Love, Love, Love

Love, American Style,
Truer than the Red, White and Blue.
Love, American Style,
That's me and you.

And on a star spangled night my love
(My love come to me).
You can rest you head on my shoulder.
Out by the dawn's early light, my love
I will defend your right to try.

Love, American Style,
That's me and you.

The oddly ambiguous lyrics were written by Charles Fox and Arnold Margolin. Arnold's brother, Stuart, well known character actor, appeared in no less than five LAS episodes. (And Charles' and Stuart's sister, the late Janet Margolin, was herself well known for playing leads in David and Lisa and Take the Money and Run, among others.)
posted by rob511 at 3:01 PM on October 26, 2007

it always seemed so grown-up and "naughty"

SO TRUE! They actually put Annette Funicello in a sexy teddy, that was smokin'!
posted by CameraObscura at 3:07 PM on October 26, 2007

Man -- I thought it was "defend your right to cry." Which in retrospect is pretty silly.

Now, if there's ever a thread about Night Gallery....
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 3:10 PM on October 26, 2007

Ya know, when I was a kid I thought that the verse in the Three's Company theme that goes...

"take a step that is new"

was

"take a step at his nude"

Which doesnt make alot of sense now, but at the time, being 3 years old, seemed to fit perfectly with the show's "Constant Threesomes" racy aspirations.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 3:11 PM on October 26, 2007

Oh, and could someone more able than myself please start a thread about the CBS Late Night Movie?

Twas a staple of 70s TV and featured a staggering number of disturbing made-for-TV films.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 3:12 PM on October 26, 2007

Ya know, when I was a kid I thought that the verse in the Three's Company theme that goes...

"take a step that is new"

was

"take a step at his nude"

Which doesnt make alot of sense now, but at the time, being 3 years old, seemed to fit perfectly with the show's "Constant Threesomes" racy aspirations.

When I was little, I thought the lyrics were nonsense "Ba-da-ba-do-be-do-bo" kinda thing. Like scat, I guess. Didn't learn about the actual lyrics until years later.
posted by Snyder at 5:45 PM on October 26, 2007

I will defend your right to try.

I always thought it was "defend your right to cry", as well. Dammit, that warped my view forever of what a supportive relationship was supposed to look like.

PSHO, Night Gallery was such a letdown after Twilight Zone.

Just don't get me started on Dark Shadows. Now there was a TV show.
posted by jokeefe at 5:46 PM on October 26, 2007

Oh man. Dark Shadows. (Switches over to youtube...)
posted by nax at 5:50 PM on October 26, 2007

NIGHT GALLERY WAS TOTALLY CREEPY AND HAD FUCKING SCARY PAINTINGS!!!!

(sorry -- lost my head there.) Even the theme gives me gooseflesh. Naaaaaaaaa....nanana! The opening with the weird faces... :shudder: The version of the opening I found on YouTube has a different version of the theme (not as scary).

I mean - c'mon! Leonard Nimoy rinsing a spider down the drain... again... and again... and the spider gets bigger... and bigger?

Jokeefe, I think Rod Sterling was annoyed by Night Gallery as well, especially toward the end of the run.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 6:43 PM on October 26, 2007

Okay -- another vote for missing Space:1999.

that was what I watched on Friday nights ...
posted by wittgenstein at 6:58 PM on October 26, 2007

One sad note about the Cowsills is that Barry Cowsill died in Hurricane Katrina. His bodied wasn't found until it washed ashore four months later.
posted by jonp72 at 8:49 PM on October 26, 2007

One happy note about the Cowsills is Susan Cowsill's career, both solo (Rolling Stone calls her debut album "masterful music from a major talent") and her work in the fucking awesome Continental Drifters with Peter Holsapple and former Bangle (and John Cowsill spouse) Vick Peterson. Also check out her contributions on the criminally underappreciated Jules Shear duets disk "Between Us."
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 9:10 PM on October 26, 2007

This might be as good a place as any to ask.

Any "My World and Welcome To It" fans out there?
posted by telstar at 9:21 PM on October 26, 2007

8 Brady Bunch
830 Partridge Family
9 Room 222
930 Odd Couple
10 Love American Style

You forgot Nanny and the Professor. Okay, that one didn't last long, but damn, that Yellow Submarine-inspired title sequence.
posted by George_Spiggott at 9:56 PM on October 26, 2007

Even now...decades later...the music for Love American Style will drift, unbidden, into my brain, and repeat itself for what seems like hours. Great tune.

Too bad Nick @ Nite or TVLand doesn't air it regularly.
posted by davidmsc at 12:37 AM on October 27, 2007

Why god, why!? Now I have that horrid theme song stuck in my head again. I'm afraid you've left me with no choice but to retaliate in kind:

• Midnight at the Oasis
• Afternoon Delight
• Party All The Time (Eddie Murphy)

(though I still think the theme from LAS beats them all)

LAS has to be on anyone's short list for the epitome of bad, brain-retarding television for the 1970s (a.k.a. "the decade of shame"). That and Hee-Haw.
posted by Davenhill at 1:24 AM on October 27, 2007

Those sweet bikini interludes between skits had me coming and going.
posted by doctorschlock at 7:17 AM on October 27, 2007

In 1991 I was stuck in a motel room in Minneapolis. The TV only seemed to get a few cable channels, one of which was HA!, which was the precursor in some way to Comedy Central. This channel was showing nothing but Love, American Style. Show after show after show. For at least three days in a row. There was no explanation, no promos, no nothing, just Love, American Style. It was fascinating and hellish at the same time. You listen to that theme song often enough and eventually you'll go off the rails a bit.

I always liked Hee Haw, though.
posted by JanetLand at 11:45 AM on October 27, 2007

My World and Welcome To It? with William Windom? Lordy, that take me back! Wikipedia says Lisa Gerritsen (who played the daughter) is now some sort of computer specialist. Good for her!
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 1:27 PM on October 27, 2007

OK, one more -- anyone remember "The Ugliest Girl in Town"? Some guy dresses up as a woman (I forget why). Predates "Bosom Buddies" by at least ten years....
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 1:30 PM on October 27, 2007

telstar-- I LOVED "My World and Welcome To It."
posted by nax at 1:37 PM on October 27, 2007

You forgot Nanny and the Professor.

...Phoebe(?) Picadilly's such a silly name,
and silly things keep on happening, ...
but love's the only magic thing,
that Nanny brings...
: >
posted by amberglow at 2:21 PM on October 27, 2007

wfc123: "You would be shocked if you actually met these two fine people."

I'd be shocked if I actually met Dom DeLuise in a deli. I'm easily shocked.
posted by ZachsMind at 4:04 PM on October 28, 2007