The All-New Adventures of Herbie, The Love Bug

****Editor's Note (written on my 16th consecutive day of "self-isolating" at home):

As some of you might have noticed by now, I usually publish only one post per month (and on rare occasions, two). I just got in the habit of doing that years ago and it's what works for me. I do work on some of my posts pretty far in advance. They are usually a work in progress and I am often adding things to them and tweaking them, before they ever get published.

This post was already written and pretty much ready to go, but it wasn't set to publish for several months from now. I thought I would bump it up to an earlier date, because of the current situation with so many people at home, either "sheltering in place" or "self-quarantining." This particular post has multiple videos to watch, for anyone who is looking for something to keep themselves and/or their loved ones occupied.

I would like to thank you in advance, for reading my post. And if you read my blog regularly, thank you so much for "following" it. I appreciate all of you! Please stay at home, if you are able to. Please be safe! And please stay well! -TokyoMagic!

In 1982, the Walt Disney Studios produced a "limited-run" television series (only 5 episodes), based on it's successful Herbie/The Love Bug movies. The TV series reunited the titular Volkswagen, with Dean Jones, who starred in two of those previous movies.

Here is the Wednesday night listing for the premiere episode of the All-New Adventures Of Herbie, The Love Bug, from the March 13, 1982 issue of TV Guide.

Let's take a look at what else was on TV that week! On Saturday night, Walt Disney was airing the 1964 film, The Moon-Spinners, starring Hayley Mills. This was the fifth, of six films that Hayley Mills did for Disney (not counting her three Parent Trap sequels, which were all made-for-TV movies).

T.J. Hooker, starring William Shatner and Adrian Zmed, was also debuting that night.

On Monday, Carol Burnett was starring in a TV special, featuring her "Eunice" character from The Carol Burnett Show. The success of this special, led to the series, Mama's Family, one year later.

Later in the week, an 18 year-old Rob Lowe was playing a 16 year-old, in the ABC "After School Special," School Boy Father. This was seven years, before he sang and danced with Snow White at the Academy Awards.

The Facts of Life was in it's third season, and Jack Klugman and Tony Randall where together again on television (just not in the same show).

KCET was airing a "Making Of" special, for the soon-to-be-released film version of the Broadway musical, Annie.

Police Squad was a TV series, from the creators of the film, Airplane. The series was cancelled after only 6 episodes, but it led to the creation of the successful The Naked Gun films, 6 years later.

The 1981 film, S.O.B., was available to "rent" on videocassette. This was the movie in which Julie Andrews says, "I'm going to show my boobies!" and then actually does it!

Here is the cover story article on actor, John Ritter:

The back cover of this issue featured an ad for cigarettes. I guess they wanted us to believe that smoking would lead to all sorts of "adult" fun and hijinks....instead of disease and death.

By the way....at some point, all five of the All-New Adventures Of Herbie episodes re-aired on The Disney Channel and they are all available on YouTube. I'm including a link to each episode, below. I also just happened to have the 1982 TV Guide listings for each episode, so I've included those as well.

Dean Jones sang the show's theme song, "Herbie, My Best Friend." If you would like to watch just the show's opening credits and theme song, here it is:



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Episode 1 - "Herbie The Matchmaker" (Produced by Disney child star, Kevin Corcoran - Originally aired on March 17, 1982.)

Here again, is that ad and listing from the March 13, 1982 issue of TV Guide:

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Episode 2 - "Herbie to the Rescue" (Originally aired on March 24, 1982.)

Here's an advertisement and the listing from the March 20, 1982 issue of TV Guide:

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Episode 3 - "My House is Your House" (Originally aired March 31, 1982.)

The listing from the March 27, 1982 issue of TV Guide (there were no special ads for the remaining episodes):

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Episode 4 - "Herbie, The Best Man" (Originally aired April 7, 1982.)

The listing from the April 3, 1982 issue of TV Guide:

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Episode 5 - "Calling Dr. Herbie" (Originally aired April 14, 1982.)

The listing from the April 10, 1982 issue of TV Guide:

Snow White at the 61st Academy Awards - 1989

Today, let's take a look at an article from the March 2010 issue of Los Angeles Magazine. It recalls the Academy Awards of 1989, or what the article was calling, "The Worst Oscars Ever."

Back in 2011, I did a post about the "trainwreck" of an opening number, featuring Rob Lowe and Snow White. This article gives a step by step breakdown of that opening number and explains the backlash that was experienced by it's producer, Alan Carr.

This screen shot is from the very beginning of the show when Snow White comes up to Variety columnist, Army Archerd in the lobby of the Shrine Auditorium and asks him how to get into the theater.

Here is the entire opening number, but just a warning here....every copy of it that I have ever seen posted on YouTube, eventually gets removed. The Los Angeles Magazine article states that when the opening number first turned up on YouTube, 20 years later, it received one million views in one day!





Incidentally, Snow White made another appearance at the Academy Awards in 1993, to present the award for "Best Animated Short Film." This time however, it was the "animated version" of Snow White. I'm really surprised at just how bad Snow White looks here and also how bad her voice is. After all, Disney HAD to be involved this time around!

Snow White's Blind Date With Rob Lowe

Do you have ten minutes to spare? Do you want to watch a train wreck?


Maybe "wreck" is a little too strong of a word, but what I'm referring to is the Alan Carr ("Grease") produced opening number for the Oscars, 21 years ago. You'll see Snow White shake hands with Tom Hanks, dance alongside her "blind date," Rob Lowe, sing a special version of "Proud Mary," attempt some Tina Turner moves, bump and grind in a lineup of chorus boys, and share the stage with Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Vincent Price, Dorothy Lamour, Cyd Charisse and Alice Faye. Did I mention that the number also features Merv Griffin singing, "I've Got A Lovely Bunch Of Coconuts?"


The number ends with Snow White coming out in a dress that rivals a Disneyland Electrical Parade float, while at the same time donning a headdress in the shape of Grauman's Chinese Theater....which Lily Tomlin ends up hiding inside of! Do you think I'm making this up? Have I completely lost you all at this point? Well, you can watch a clip of the whole thing HERE, but watch it soon if you have any interest because many of the YouTube listings for this that I have seen in the past have been removed because of copyright infringement. Disney even sued the Academy over the use of Snow White's likeness without their permission and defamation of the Snow White character. They later accepted an apology and a settlement that the footage never be aired or seen again.

Here's what a New York Times article dated March 31, 1989 had to say about that lawsuit:

"The Walt Disney Company filed suit Thursday against the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, alleging unauthorized use of its Snow White character in what it called an unflattering opening number of the nationally televised Oscar awards ceremony Wednesday night. The suit, filed in United States District Court, alleges copyright infringement of the Snow White character, unfair competition and violation of the state anti-dilution law, which protects the value of a trademark. The show began with an actress dressed as Snow White being interviewed in the lobby of the Shrine Auditorium, and then following a chorus to the stage. The actress then sang spoofs of popular songs rewritten with Oscar-oriented lyrics. The show was broadcast live on ABC. Bruce Davis, the academy's executive administrator, declined comment on the suit, saying, ''Not only do we not have any comment, but we haven't even seen it.''"

A few months later, the incident was parodied by a certain artist.....

Happy Oscar Weekend, everyone!