I've written in the past about my love (and that of the inveterate Chris Dunn) for the series, Frank's Place.  Unfortunately, it doesn't appear available to stream, and only a couple of episodes can be found on YouTube (at just mediocre quality).  But happily, one of those two is a Hannukah episode!  And we have it today as part of our Fest.

The quality is a fuzzy, but watchable.  You may have to turn the volume all the way up, as well.  I wish the video was better, but this is it, and since it’s hard to track down much of anything from Frank’s Place, I'll take what we can get.  Especially during the holiday.

By the way, the video may jump start, and the opening credits being at the :40-second mark.  The episode itself begins after commercials at 3:00.  (This should ​start at 0:00, but I was having a little trouble.  If for any reason it doesn't, just scroll back.)

As I mentioned earlier, our Holiday Music Fest also includes a few little-seen TV specials from the past.  This one tonight wasn't a standalone special per se, but instead was the Christmas special episode for the weekly Julie Andrews Hour, and they went all out to make it stand out.  This is from December 20, 1972, and the cast includes Jimmy Stewart, Joel Grey, Mama Cass Elliot, Carl Reiner, Steve Lawrence, Sergio Franchi, Dan Dailey, Alice Ghostley and Rich Little. 

(Side note: For those who don't know his name, Dan Dailey had a successful movie career in the 1940s and 1950s, including many musicals, and even got an Oscar nomination as Best Actor for When My Baby Smiles at Me.  I saw him on stage at the Blackstone Theater in Chicago as 'Oscar' in a 1966 production of The Odd Couple, which also starred Richard Benjamin as 'Felix,' who so often played nervous, neurotic characters and was memorably picture-perfect for the role. And years later I got to tell him that when I met him and his wife Paula Prentis at a Northwestern alumni party which was held before the football team played in the Rose Bowl in 1995.  And yes, he was stunned.  And pleased.)

This is fun, offbeat ‘Mystery Guest’ segment of What’s My Line? -- especially if you lived in the era or watch the Game Show Network. The contestants are Bud Collyer, Allen Ludden, Gene Rayburn and Ed McMahon, who were then all hosts of TV game shows produced by the Goodson-Todman company, which also produced What’s My Line?  But what makes it all the more fun is that one of the panelists is Mark Goodson.
 
If you want to jump to the “Mystery Guest” segment, it starts around the 17:15 mark.

Here was this attractive woman – who not only was a cover model, and not only a famous cover model, but one so famous that she was the Model of the Year!!!  And…and…and No One in the Entire World Ever Recognized Her!!!  (The team often had missions in Europe and South America.) Forget that no one ever knew her name, the Model of the Year – forget even that on that “Model of the Year” cover it had her name -- but no one in the series ever stopped her and said, “Hey, you look familiar.  How do I know you??  Are you famous?”  No one – and I don’t even mean the targets that she was thrown into close confines to trick each week, but I mean even people on the street or in restaurants or store who would regularly pass by her and say, “Wait, I know you!!   You’re that lady on the magazines!”  No one even ever did a double-take when seeing the Model of the Year right in front of them.

It's like, for that era, being the target of a spy mission, and the woman trying to con you is Twiggy or Cheryl Tiegs or Lauren Hutton or Jean Shrimpton or Grace Jones.  Or today, Christie Brinkley, Cindy Crawford, Heidi Klum, Tyra Banks, Gigi Hadid or Gisele Bündchen -- and no one in the entire world for four years even recognizes that she might look familiar...!!!
 
I’m sorry, that was just a bridge too far for me.  I never have been able to believe it that Cinnamon Carter, Model of the Year was never recognized.  On occasion, sure, I could accept it like when on a mission in a small far-Eastern European country or a South American country that generally had a name like San Cristobal, or when she was made up to look like an old woman, but not recognized over the 78 episodes she was in – not once.
 
I almost, sort of have the same issue with Martin Landau as Rollin Hand, who was an actor and apparently a successful one.  But because he was a character actor who could sublimate himself into secondary roles – and of course because often he’d create a perfect mask so that he could look like someone else, generally played by someone else -- that, at least, had an aspect of the "willing suspension of disbelief,” where you could accept, “Okay, his career is looking like other people, he’s the Man of a Million Faces, after all.  The World’s Greatest Impersonator.”  But not the Model of the Year the point of whose career was the exact opposite – making herself as attractive as possible and ensuring that you see her, stare at her, are enthralled by her jammed in your face on magazine covers.
 
Okay, yes, it’s a small thing in the great scheme of things.  But in the world of famous TV series that one loves and has watched for decades, it’s worthy of being bugged by.  And for all the absolutely unbelievable things on a show about “the impossible,” it’s the one thing I just don’t and have never bought.
 
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There are similar offers for two streaming services which I wanted to mention in case they're to anyone's attention here.

Both Hulu and Peacock TV are having Black Friday sales on their websites.  The offers are for $1.99 a month for 12 months.  (You can cancel at any time -- though for $1.99 a month, it's almost worth keeping it in case they end up having a movie or series later on that interests you.)  Peacock TV has an additional offer -- $19.99 if you sign up for the full year.  That's two months free, or the equivalent of $1.67 a month.

The one caveat is that these Black Friday offers are all for the ad-supported services.  

I'll mention that I signed up for this same Hulu offer last year (I'm not eligible for it this year...), and was fine with the ad-supported plan.  They only have a few ad breaks for each show and tend to be about 90 seconds to two minutes.  Never longer, sometimes less.  And they have a little clock counting down the time left in the ads, which I love.  I keep a book by my chair and read during the break, knowing how much time I have -- or run some "errand" in another room.)  For $1.99, I found it well-worth it.  If I watched Hulu a lot, I don't know if I'd have gotten the ad-supported plan.  But because I don't watch Hulu a lot, that's why I tried it out this way.  (And it turned out that I found more things that I watched than I expected it.)

And that's why I never paid for Peacock TV before.  They didn't have much that interested me.  But there are about 4-5 movies I have on my "Peacock List" that I do want to see, and was going to sign up for a month to watch them all.  However, that would cost $12 for a no-ads plan.  So, for just eight dollars more, I'm getting it for the whole year, during which time they might have some more movies I want to see, or series.  Plus they carry Big Ten sports (like my beloved Northwestern...), which includes things not on my standard Big Ten cable channel.

Anyway, that's the deal.  Do with it what you will...