5 Year Blogiversary!

I created Wonderful Wonderblog five years ago today! I had no idea what I was doing or what I would blog about. Things really haven't changed that much. :) Thanks everyone for sticking around.

Cheap DVD Winner!

Nine people entered, but only one could win.

I wrote everyones name on a little piece on paper and then folded them. I shook them up and picked one at random. The winner is...

ROB TULLO

Congratulations Rob! Send me your address and I'll get the DVD in the mail ASAP. Thanks everyone for playing along. And thank you for checking out Wonderful Wonderblog.

Sherwood Schwartz, R.I.P.

Sorry, I'm a little late in posting this. Growing up watching Gilligan's Island and The Brady Bunch made me what I an today. RIP Mr. Schwartz.

From SFGate --

Sherwood Schwartz, who created "Gilligan's Island" and "The Brady Bunch," two of the most affectionately ridiculed and enduring television sitcoms of the 1960s and '70s, died Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 94.

His death was announced by the Archive of American Television.

Mr. Schwartz weathered dismissive reviews to see his shows prosper and live on for decades in syndication. Many critics suggested that they were successful because they ran counter to the tumultuous times in which they appeared: the era of the Vietnam War and sweeping social change.

Give or take a month or so, the original network run of "The Brady Bunch" coincided with two major upheavals in U.S. society. The show, about a squeaky-clean blended family in California, began in 1969, shortly after Woodstock, and ended in 1974, soon after President Richard Nixon's resignation following the Watergate scandal.

Mr. Schwartz's work may have been seen as lighthearted entertainment, but some scholars of popular culture took it very seriously. David Marc and Robert J. Thompson, authors of "Prime Time, Prime Movers," in which they advance an auteur theory of television, considered Schwartz an innovator who made a "surgical strike into the national psyche."

Describing the advent of "Gilligan's Island," which told the story of seven very different castaways stranded on a desert island, they wrote, "Schwartz was pioneering a dramatic matrix built upon the emerging cultural concept of the 'support group': a collection of demographically diverse characters thrown together by circumstance and forced to become an ersatz 'family' in order to survive."

In a 1996 interview, Mr. Schwartz said he had always planned the series as a social statement, the message being, "It's one world, and we all have to learn to live with each other."

Once or twice a year, he added, he received word of an academic paper whose author claimed to have uncovered the "real meaning" of the series, also stating that its creator probably had no idea what he was really saying.

Not so. Mr. Schwartz remembered describing the idea of "Gilligan's Island" to William S. Paley, then chairman of CBS, as a microcosm. Paley, he recalled, blanched and replied, "Oh, God, I thought it was a comedy show," to which Schwartz quickly answered, "But it's a funny microcosm!"

Sherwood Charles Schwartz was born in Passaic, N.J., on Nov. 4, 1916. He grew up in Brooklyn and was a premed student at New York University. After receiving his bachelor's degree, he moved to Los Angeles to attend graduate school at the University of Southern California, but the master's he earned in biological sciences was never put to use.

After World War II, during which Mr. Schwartz wrote for Armed Forces Radio, he became a writer for "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet," which was then on the radio. He made the transition to television in the 1950s with the sitcom "I Married Joan" and "The Red Skelton Show," for which he became head writer. In 1961 he shared an Emmy Award with his brother, Skelton and two other writers for the show.

Mr. Schwartz's survivors include his wife, Mildred; three sons, Donald, Lloyd and Ross Schwartz; and a daughter, Hope Juber.

Incredible Hulk Pinball Machine

My birthday is coming up at the end of the month and I found the perfect gift if someone wants to buy me something. It's an Incredible Hulk pinball machine from 1979. It still works and they only want $900 for it. Maybe all of my faithful blog readers could pool their money and buy it for me. :) Found on Craigslist.

50 Likes and a Cheap DVD Giveaway

To celebrate the 50th person to "like" the Official Wonderful Wonderblog page on Facebook, I'm gonna have a giveaway. Up for grabs is a DVD I accidentally bought two of at Big Lots for $3.00. It's the 1982 comedy Night Shift starring Henry Winkler, Michael Keaton and Shelley Long. All you have to do to win is leave a comment on this post that says "I want to win that cheap DVD" and make sure your email address is either on your blogger account or you provide it in your comment. On July 15 I will randomly pick a winner. Good luck and thanks for following Wonderful Wonderblog.

NBC Saturday Morning Peacock Club Update

Way back on July 24, 2009 I posted a 1979 comic book ad for the NBC Saturday Morning Peacock Club and asked if anyone had ever joined it. Well, someone did. John from the Wary Meyers Decorative Arts blog joined the club in 1980. Check out his post here to see what NBC sent you for joining.

Happy 4th of July!

Did I post these last year? I don't remember and I'm too lazy to look.

The Mighty Marvel Bicentennial Calendar 1976.

This was one of my favorite calendars when I was a kid. You can see all the scans over at Rip Jagger's Dojo.

Happy Independence Day!

Fireworks: Famous Banner Assortment - Only $4.95

Get your Fleer Dubble Bubble Gum and fireworks kids!

This ad appeared in comic books in 1950.

Mmmerica!

Mmmerica! Land of the free and home of the bacon.

This shirt is availabe at TShirtBordello.

Rue Morgue Radio's Hymns From the House of Horror II

From the Rue Morgue website --

Last year's free, downloadable compilation album was so much fun to stitch together that we decided to try our monstrous hand at it again! Behold: Rue Morgue Radio's Hymns From the House of Horror II! It has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Over the past year, a number of bands have caught our attention, so we asked some of 'em to lend us a song that we could pass along in the hopes that their macabre melodies will incite the same kind of incurable madness in you as they have in us. We received exclusive tracks, previously unreleased oddities, sneak peeks and killer cuts that, once mashed together with some fake grindhouse trailers (courtesy of RM staff and friends), makes for one hell of a horror set. Just don't drag your feet! Hymns II will only be available until July 31, 2011. After that, it's gone forever!

Click the link below for more info and the download link --

Rue Morgue Radio's Hymns From the House of Horror II