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There were 7 regular cast members of that deathless TV classic Gilligan’s Island; yet during the first season, the show’s catchy theme song only mentioned 5 by name. The Professor and Mary Ann were just lumped together as “the rest.”

When the show was renewed for a second season, Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells asked that their characters’ names be included in the song. At first, the network flatly refused, claiming re-recording the song would be too expensive. Then suddenly, they changed their minds and had the song revised.

What happened?

The show’s star, Bob Denver, had gone to the network and said if the song wasn’t changed, he wanted his name removed from the opening credits. The network panicked and gave in.

The rest of the cast did not find out what Denver had done until 20 years after the show went off the air!

For some reason, this companion magazine to Tiger Beat never caught on...

It’s that time of year again. Many of us will be traveling from our “regular” homes to spend the winter in warmer states like Florida or Arizona.

Be careful. Law enforcement warns that you may at risk at home and away.

Before you leave: Make sure you have one of or more timers set for the lights in your winter home. Also, recruit a friend or family member who’s staying put to check your house periodically to make sure the driveway is shoveled and to pick up any “penny shopper” type newspapers that aren’t held or forwarded by the post office.

When you arrive: If possible, confine all your purchases to a single credit card. That will make it easier to monitor to ensure that no one you encounter during your winter stay has stolen your card number and is making unauthorized purchases or using that card to open other accounts under your name.

Before the Thunderbirds were GO… before David Hasselhoff got behind the wheel of KITT… there was Supercar, the first of the Supermarionation series produced by Gerry Anderson!

Supercar was a bit of a misnomer because the vehicle had no wheels and spent more time flying like a plane or diving underwater like a submarine than it ever did cruising down the highways like a car.

The main character on the show was Supercar’s pilot, Mike Mercury, but the car itself was supposedly the creation of Professor Popkiss and Dr. Beaker who helped guide the vehicle from their headquarters in Nevada. Actually, the car was a way that Anderson could avoid having to have his puppets walk – which never looked very convincing.

In the first episode, Supercar rescues a young boy named Jimmy Gibson. Jimmy has a pet monkey named Mitch (because why not?). They are then invited to live at Supercar headquarters and take part in the adventures. A young boy living alone in the dessert with 3 grown men apparently raised few eyebrows at Child & Family Services back in the day.

The show’s main villain was Masterspy. (You would think his parents might have given him a different name.)

Although the TV series was made in Britain for ITV, the setting for the show was America. That’s because Anderson and his moneyman, Lew Grade, wanted to get the show aired in the more lucrative American market.

They succeeded. The show was syndicated across the United States and led to a line of Supercar merchandise.

The show ran for 39 episodes, produced in 1961 and 1962. Anderson met and married one of the show’s voice artists, Sylvia Thamm, who provided the voice for Jimmy and all of the series’ female characters.

Because the series was filmed in black & white, it was syndicated less and less as color took over and the Andersons moved on to Fireball XL-5, Thunderbirds and eventually, the live-action Space:1999.

The series including its wonderfully cheesy theme song is available on the home video market.

A singer who landed 16 songs in the Top 40 and 4 in the Top 10… 22 songs in the British Top 40… a songwriter who penned Top 10 hits for 3 other artists… an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame… yet he is almost forgotten today.

He is Gene Pitney.

Pitney was born in 1940 in Hartford, Connecticut. By high school he was singing with a local doo-wop group called the Embers. By 1959, he was recording with a young woman named Ginny Arnell under the name Jamie & Jane.

Pitney also started working as a songwriter and actually had his first success there, writing “He’s a Rebel” for Darlene Love & the Blossoms (recording as the Crystals), “Rubber Ball” for Bobby Vee and “Hello, Mary Lou” for Ricky Nelson.

Curiously, Pitney only wrote one of his own singles, “(I Wanna) Love My Life Away,” which gave him his first taste of Top 40 success in early 1961. He achieved his real breakthrough by singing the title song for the movie “Town Without Pity.” His follow-up was also supposed to be from a movie. However, a dispute over publishing rights caused the studio to cut the song from the film. It didn’t matter. “(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valence” was the first of Pitney’s songs to break into the Top 10.

“Liberty Valence” and many of Pitney’s next records were written by a young songwriting duo also just getting started, Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

Pitney was one of the few American artists who continued to perform strongly even after the British invasion. In fact, Pitney was in the UK and sat in on the recording sessions for the Rolling Stones first album, where he contributed some work on the piano. He also had success on the country charts recording with George Jones.

However, as the 60’s wore on, the hits became less frequent. Gene last reached the Top 40 with an up-tempo rocker called “She’s a Heartbreaker” in 1968.

He continued to release singles that charted overseas where he was more popular (particularly in the UK and Australia).

Gene married his high school sweetheart, Lynne Gayton. Together, they had 3 sons.

Pitney continued to tour, finally reaching the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. Just 4 years later Pitney died of an apparent heart attack while on tour in Cardiff, England. The night before, he received a standing ovation at his final concert when he closed the show with “Town Without Pity.”

Few rock singers had his vocal range or his understanding of music. At Boomtown America, Gene Pitney will always be remembered as one of the greats!

Pits Hits

• “(I Wanna) Love My Life Away” (1961) #39
• “Town Without Pity” (1961) #13
• “(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valence” (1962) #4
• “Only Love Can Break a Heart” (1962) # 2
• “Half Heaven Half Heartache” (1962) #12
• “Mecca” (1963) #12
• “True Love Never Runs Smooth” (1963) #21
• “Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa” (1963) #17
• “It Hurts to Be in Love” (1964) #7
• “I’m Gonna Be Strong” (1964) #9
• “I Must Be Seeing Things (1965) #31
• “Last Chance to Turn Around” (1965) #13
• “Looking Through the Eyes of Love” (1965) #28
• “Princess in Rags” (1965) #37
• “Backstage” (1966) #25
• “She’s a Heartbreaker” (1968) #16

If you were a Baby Boomer who got up at the crack of dawn on Saturday mornings, poured yourself a big bowl of Sugar Smacks, and plopped yourself down in front of the family TV, you were up early enough to catch The Mighty Mouse Playhouse, which opened the kiddie programming for CBS.

Among the supporting players on that show were the unusual comic teaming of a goose and a cat named Gandy & Sourpuss. In case you were wondering, whatever became of them after CBS cancelled the show...

The feasting season is here! From Thanksgiving to New Year’s, there will be ample opportunity to become, well, more ample in the weight department!

This year, making smart choices at holiday parties and dinners may help you avoid the yearly weight loss resolutions on New Year’s Day. Here are the foods you should be looking for…

Veggies – Everyone knows that our green and yellow buddies in the vegetable kingdom can fill us up without filling us out
Shrimp Cocktail – High in protein and low in fat
Pork Tenderloin, Turkey or Ham – For the meat-lovers, nutritionists say these are your best choices for maintaining balance in your diet
Swedish Meatballs - Another protein-rich option

Of course, none of these foods gives you a license to over-eat. They just give you a fighting chance to make it through the holidays without packing on the pounds