Episode 006: My 4th of July, Twitter Scams, and "The American Girls"

This week, after some further calls to action, Frank discusses the 4th of July holiday that just passed.  Mentioning the big annual celebration in Canyon, TX, he notes some nuances of having the day in the middle of the week (Tuesday this year) and why he is grateful to live in the USA.  He emphasizes the opportunities available to us all here, including those to make this podcast and write a novel.

He then gets in to some recent Twitter interactions where two alleged "celebrities"  built a relationship with him to later (unsuccessfully) attempt a scam.  He laments that such platforms, despite all the potential good conversations and connections, are abused in these ways.

Finally, Frank discusses Priscilla's top-billed starring role in a short-lived CBS show called The American Girls from 1978, reviewing the pilot episode.  Despite having some potential with 70s kitsch and innuendo, it largely failed due to its stiff ABC competition from a popular show that Priscilla guested on three times.

The theme song is called Retro Funk by SoulProdMusic and can be found at pixabay.com.

The American Girls episode "The Cancelled Czech" is available through the Ross Martin tribute site on YouTube.  Sincerest thanks for the ability to view and review it.

--The best way to contact is:
Twitter: @frankwebertx
Web:  frankwebertx.com
Email:  frankoweber@hotmail.com

Transcript

Frank: 0:00

Well, in this episode of the party, I talked to you a little bit about my 4th of July. Celebration this year and. I also talked to you about some recent interactions I've had with Twitter and some apparent Twitter scams. Before we get into a review of. Priscilla's role in a short-lived TV series on CBS called the American girls. So stay tuned. Hello and welcome once again to Frank Weber's party. I'm your host, Frank Weber. So glad that you could join me once again today. So thankful for you for listening to the podcast and hitting subscribe. A few of you have even downloaded episodes, and so I'm really grateful to you for that. Please be aware that we also have a site where you can support the show financially. If you feel so led. one of the things that I would encourage you to do is to gimme some feedback regarding the show. I know we're still pretty early on. It would help me to really know what changes to make, maybe changes to the format, whether you think the content is right, whether you think it's bullshit. whether you think talking about Priscilla is bullshit, which I don't think it is, but it's supposed to be a show for you and, I'd love to hear from you in terms of how we could make it better. And so I'm gonna talk about a couple of things first, and then we're gonna get into Priscilla's role in A very short-lived show called The American Girls that aired in the fall of 1978 on cbs. but before that, I wanted to tell you, we just celebrated 4th of July here in Canyon. It's a big deal. We have A concert and we have a pancake breakfast and then a parade and a fair on the square, and then fireworks. And it is a really big show and shindig and lots of fun. Always a blast going there, whether you. live in Canyon or you're from nearby in Amarillo or some other place. it's always enjoyable. And so as I record this today, it's now July 5th, and for me, July 5th is sort of like, the day after Christmas for a lot of people, oh, well it's over now. and that's it. Till next year. and actually it's gonna be a little while till our next really big holiday, which would be Labor Day, I think. I just wanted to tell you a little bit about what 4th of July means to me. and also particularly, we'll start off by talking about what it meant this year because it's unusual when it happens in the middle of the week, especially on a Tuesday. My wife, works a couple of hours out of town, travels, back home for the weekends. she chose to stay at her. Town of work, for 4th of July because it's not practical to go back and forth as much as it would've taken, especially having to work on Monday and then, having to go back to work today on Wednesday, July the fifth. So she stayed there and I, spent the day by myself and, went to some of the activities there, in town and, it's interesting how people try to make it into a weekend The way, the calendar falls. we're known in this country for three day weekends, but not for or five day weekends. And I don't know if that's a reflection of work attitudes today or just wanting extra time off. Next year. I think it's on a Thursday. with her schedule and my old schedule when I was working in dentistry, that would lead to a four day weekend. So it would probably work out better there. Of course, part of the problem though too, is having to stay up somewhat late to watch fireworks cuz it doesn't get dark till. at least 9 45 or 10. And then you gotta be back at work first thing in the morning. so that's one of the drawbacks to it, just depending on how the calendar falls. But regardless of what day it falls on, it's important to remember what it is still about in this country. and it's about freedom and independence from many things. all with responsibility of course, and I could talk a lot about that, but I would tell you that my biggest thing is that this country gives us a lot of opportunities to do things that may not be possible in other countries. usually requires a lot of hard work. there may be a lot of bumps in the road, lots of ups and downs. There may be even a failure or two, but failure is never final. You can learn from it and pick yourself up by the bootstraps and get up and do it again, and, maybe talk to some people who can help you out. generally you can do pretty much anything you want to as long as you put your mind to it. there really isn't much you can't do. Now, I know there are a few notable exceptions. I'm 45 now and I could not become a professional athlete at my age. Now, I don't have the body and physique for it either, but I couldn't do that now if I really wanted to. But there are many other things that I could get into, one of which is this podcast and writing a book. a novel and grateful for those opportunities. So they are there if you can work hard and find them, but you can find them and just put your mind to it. And that's the thing that I'm really grateful about this 4th of July. And, just grateful to live in a country where we can do that. We can do lots of different things, and have great holidays, great celebrations every so often, like the 4th of July. I'm just really thankful and grateful for that, and I hope you are too. And there are other things I could say about the holiday in our country I think it's a good country. I do think that we are very unique in what we are able to provide, for our citizens and myself and for you. I just wanted to tell you that real quick. And the second thing I wanted to get into, and hopefully this will be a little bit funnier and more comedic. I'm new obviously to podcasting sixth episode. Now, I'm also pretty no new to social media, and I'm always puzzled and taken aback by all the scams and craziness that sometimes happens on social media I personally like Twitter the best out of all the social medias, I guess you could say, because there's a chance to have a real conversation about something that's really important there. Maybe even meet people and build relationships if that we're, a real possibility. I think it is, but there's just so much other junk and shit on there that that doesn't always happen. and I'll give you a couple of. Cases in point here, the last month I would follow a celebrity. I'm not gonna say their names, there's actually two of them that I dealt with in June. but I would click on the celebrity and follow them and shortly thereafter they would come from what appeared to be a secondary account and follow me. And I'm like, I'm really flattered. This person is really following me. To be clear. It wasn't actually the celebrity, but somebody using their name and likeness. And an account that looked like theirs to scam me. So I would follow back and then there would be a little conversation going on the Twitter direct messaging. And we would actually build something of a relationship with each other especially with the second celebrity that I was talking to Or I believe was a celebrity. And, we build this nice relationship and talk to each other about our lives and everything. And eventually, it would get to a point where they wanted into my bank account or my retirement account And then I had to start blocking them and, dropping the chat apps that I put on my phone because they wanted to. Go from the Twitter DM to a private chat app, perhaps because the privacy would allow them to scam me, and then Twitter wouldn't have any knowledge of it, wouldn't be able to police them. I believe that's why they did it. but I didn't get scammed. I ended it. Before it got to that point. it's a real shame too. I know some of you're out there listening to me, like you're just, you're thinking that Frank is such a moron here and why would I fall for that sort of stuff. But the issue here, as I was saying, with Twitter, you have a chance for good conversations and relationships, and everybody has a real desire for connection. Especially in this day and age, we got all this technology around and new ways to connect and meet people, and yet people are lonelier than ever and these scam artists, especially using as celebrities. name and account are trying to, use that need and that desire to scam you out of a lot of money And there's other scams too, prize scams I think it's a shame that we see that in human nature. I wanted to warn you about that. I think there's a lot of good that can come through social media and I can see how it can be useful, but people are always finding ways to get around that and try to use it for their own nefarious purposes. And I think the celebrities would be very mad that it was happening because, the real celebrities, it ruins their brands to have somebody scamming their fans, But I just wanted to share that story with you. I thought it was kind of funny. I don't really have a joke based on it, but that's what happened to me recently. And I haven't posted a lot. I've been on the social medias about three months. I. And, kind of been afraid to take control there and ask questions or make comments and so forth. And, it's kind of a sad commentary. We have these things that are at our use that could be really good and really useful, and yet some they get perverted and misused, mistreated, and people are, obviously upset and taken aback at that. I'm gonna take a quick break right here, and then we're going to get into a review of the American Girls, so stay tuned. All right, welcome back to the show. We're gonna get into Priscilla's appearance on a very short-lived, hour long show on CBS called The American Girls. And some of you may be wondering like, why am I spending any time on this? This wasn't a big show after all. If you blinked. You would've missed the show, And, I'm talking about it because this was actually the first show where Priscilla was part of a main cast and she actually got top billing in the show, So I wanted to give that to you. informatively, there were only six episodes that aired. They actually had filmed 11 of them. this episode that we're going to look at today is from September 23rd, 1978. This is the very first one, or the pilot called the canceled check. Czech being spelled like Czechoslovakia. the show was uploaded from a videotape onto YouTube by Ross Martin or perhaps one of his family members, cuz I found out that Ross Martin died in 1981. He played Za in this show as a guest star. And this is the only episode that's available. Really wish we could see more and review more, but if this is all we have, then we'll go ahead and review it. there's also another YouTube video promo, CBS promo where, Deborah Klinger, who's Priscilla's CoStar in this and Priscilla appear, and Deborah Klinger says, turn us on, meaning cbs, and then Priscilla goes, and we'll turn you on. Definitely a late seventies ish. The type of thing you would see on tv, and we'll go into why it was so short lived and canceled after a short time. We'll probably go over that at the end, but the overview of the show is it's essentially a Charlie's Angels type show, except in this case you only have two women who are investigative reporters rather than trained as police officers or detectives. They work for a 60 minutes type show. They don't carry any guns or weapons on them. It was really in that regard, a little bit of a lighter show compared to Charlie's Angels. They travel around in a very equipped van with studio equipment and they have a kind of a demanding boss who gives them the assignments and sometimes, flies out to help them in their assignments. going over some of the cast here, Priscilla plays a young reporter named Rebecca Tomkins, who doesn't really have a lot of experience reporting. She's really trying to get a desk job or a studio job. and then you have Deborah Klinger. Who, plays Amy Waddell, who's a very young reporter with reporting aspirations. Deborah Klinger was part of a group, an old girl rock and roll band from 1966 to 71 called the K Clings. those were with her sisters, I believe, leave. And then as far as acting goes, she was also on the Cross Super Show on Saturday mornings in 1976 and 77. That was. Produced by Sid and Marty Croft, who did things like Danger Island several years before. she was in a few other shows and movies, Brady Bunch, variety Hour that was on. Not too long before this show, she was also in a movie called Midnight Madness that I wrongly thought was some kind of an early porkies movie or something like that. And it wasn't that at all. It was actually a relatively family friendly movie about college students that break up into groups and go on a scavenger hunt around town. And the movie's notable because it's Michael j Fox's first movie appearance. Deborah Klinger very pretty, very attractive. she had been. Showbiz a little longer than Priscilla at this point. She looks a little like a cross between, I would say Erin Gray from Buck Rogers and Silver Spoons, and, Cindy Williams from Laverne and Shirley. I don't know what happened to Deborah Klinger. After the midnight madness movie, she kind of fell off the face of the earth. so to speak. but apparently hasn't, Done too much in Hollywood. she is apparently still alive. The next guy. And, other cast members, older cast members of course, are no longer with us, but we have David Spielberg who plays Francis or Frank X. Casey. He died a few years back. he's the executive producer of this program that the reporters work for called The American Report. He is no relation to Steven. as you might be wondering, and he's from deep South Texas, right there by the Rio Grande. So it's, I always think it's fun to have a fellow Texan in there. He was born in West Laco and lived in Mercedes. so a couple of towns down there. He has several movie critics. Was mostly a guest star on TV shows though. Bob Erik's name keeps coming up on this show time and time again. He started with Bob Urick on a 1973 risque sitcom based on the risque movie. A few years before that called Bob and Carol, and Ted and Alice, that show was canceled within about two months. And then, the only other regular star on this, he was barely in this show, this pilot that I reviewed is a guy named William Prince. Played a guy named Jason Cook. He was in, quite a few movies, some of which were with Clint Eastwood right around this time. Soap operas guest star on numerous TV shows. William Prince as well as the guy who played Mr. Phillips is no longer with us. as you might have surmised. I'm not really sure what part he played in this show. He seemed to be somebody ahead of Frank Casey, maybe a lower level boss, but he wasn't the main boss. as we'll get into this show, I don't think they even used his name in it, So now the canceled check, the pilot episode, start watching this. the music is very newsy. It has that typewriter sound that they used to have in a lot of newsrooms. people typing in the background when Walter Cronkite or Sam Donaldson, or. Peter Jennings, Tom Brokar or something. they used to do that a lot back in the day, especially, in that era. but they've added sort of a flute to the music to make it, more of a primetime TV show and, a little bit lighter hearted. And I'll try to give you the lead into the show here and try not to go into a lot of details, but there was some funny stuff in this show. a little bit of, innuendo and double entendres, really pretty lighthearted stuff outside of Frank Casey being a demanding and firm boss. and I will tell you at the end that I thought that this show probably could have done better. And I'll give you one big example maybe why it didn't. But the show opens with Amy. That's Deborah Klinger's character. Remember, she was only a 21 year old college student. She gets an exclusive interview with former President Nixon at his home. Now it's 1978. I was a little young to remember this but he had been out of office for four years and I guess there was a time when he wasn't granting a lot of interviews, in the years right after his resignation at Watergate, but somehow she was able to get it, and then there's some other reporters standing around. I'm wondering how she got it. And she says that's her secret. Some of the dirty mind, it might have thought it had something to do with sex, but she reveals later that it wasn't, she got the interview by dressing up as someone from the gas company and requiring access to the house. So it sounds a little bit plain. and not that creative for what it otherwise could have been, but that was how she got this interview with former president Nixon. the reporter suggested that, reporters would give an eye tooth for this interview. And I'm like, yeah, they would give, a canine to give this interview. That's, an interesting quote to a guy like me who's a dentist by training. But the main subject of this show, there's a guy at Reno Hotel named Akk. Apparently a Czechoslovakian guy, and somebody from the American report. Is trying to get an interview with him. I believe it's because he's a magician there and he's defected from Czechoslovakia. Of course, that was back in the day when Czechoslovakia was still an Eastern block country, still under the rule of Soviet Union. And so there's a guy named Newman that tries to go up from the American report and get an exclusive interview with him, but he throws A smoke bomb and disappears and winds up breaking the camera, and then Casey winds up firing Newman and, then Casey winds up having to go see his big boss, who I think his name is. Mr. Phillips, who is always doesn't know that he's fired. Newman is asking why he doesn't hire this new girl. Amy Wadel. And, he lies to his boss and said oh yeah, I've hired her already, or whatever. And you can tell he's kind of one of those guys, Casey is, and, they try to get her on the phone and she was gone on a jog And Priscilla's character Rebecca says I hear jogging is really good for you. So Casey hires Amy on the spot there after a little small talk, and Amy really brown noses him and kisses his ass there. And at the same time, Rebecca played by our lovely, Priscilla Barnes is disappointed at this hiring. She really. wants to go do the story, get the scoop, and eventually have that desk gig doing the news. And she comes over and sits on Casey's desk and kind of shows her legs and says, I have certain assets that Newman doesn't have. And so there's a little sexy innuendo there. But, Casey decides to send. Rebecca out there to Reno to meet Amy and they meet up and try to go get the story. Rebecca didn't know that Amy was going to be out there and, equipped with the van already, in fact, with has a lot of cool toys like a CB and a mobile phone and police scanner and, other things that, reporters would typically have. And, Amy didn't know at first that it was Rebecca's first assignment and they get into that later. So shortly after this Phillips, the big boss, finds out about, two girls going on this magician story by themselves. And he's not happy with Casey. and obviously the implication is that Casey himself could get fired for that. but it just so happens as it usually does in these episodes that Husak, is auditioning for a new assistant that morning. And, both of the girls, after some prodding, Amy goes ahead and, auditions along with Rebecca. there's a couple other candidates that have kind of corny acts and then Priscilla does a dance for her act. I thought she was pretty good at it. Priscilla was a dancer in some of the younger years. In fact, I think she even. broke her leg once at the Hollywood Bowl, and I'm not sure what the production was on that, but she does a pretty decent dance. And then you have Amy come in and sing, Olivia Newton John's song. Let me Be There. And turns out that Rebecca is hired to be, uh, K's assistant. but of course she was just dancing. She wasn't really planning on being an assistant, she says. I don't have any experience with that, but Kack says, the first time is the most exciting anyway, so you kind of can wonder about what he means by that. So from here, Rebecca Bean, his new assistant, allows her to get an interview with him. Cusack says first that, oh, there's not to be any hanky panky. I don't know if he's necessarily talking about sex there, but he may be talking about not asking certain questions, which is why he's been avoiding these questions. Anyway, and then, you have Rebecca and Amy talking right before this supposed interview and, Amy says, well, it's against my religion to, have sex and in, exchange for information. sex is supposed to be a reward for marriage. And of course Rebecca's saying I'm not doing anything like that. I'm just talking about getting friendly with them. we have, again, more innuendos there. But essentially what happens from then on, just to summarize from here on out, Rebecca goes in for the interview. These two bad guys who were near the van essentially chased them both and they fall down the side a pretty good side of a hill. It's all dirt. that's Rebecca and, Cusak, they fall down the side of this hill. That's the most violent part of the show, quite honestly. And Priscilla does this really cute act, by the way, where Kza puts her into a cage and makes her disappear or replaces her with a tiger. And then he makes her reappear, during these, initial scenes. That was, very cute, very lighthearted, anyway, an FBI guy shows up at the New York office of the American report and tells Casey that these reporters are in grave danger. You should get them off the scene. And then Casey decides that he's gonna fly out there and help them out. So Amy helps them out when they fall down the hill and, Cusack says, oh, I'm not really hurt, and thought he'd broken his leg at first, but he is not really hurt. Amy, tries to call the police after these guys on her mobile phone, which of course, in the late seventies was a very cool thing. And they decided to go hide out at a different hotel in Reno. one that's a lot less, swank the, the place that he's playing in. But, the truth comes out, about what he's doing. he has a family in Czechoslovakia trying to bring them over. he likes to bet on the ponies and he's lying to them that he's not some kind of a spy. at one point Amy asks him, are you a spy? he answers, do I look like James Bond? which he doesn't look like James Bond, of course. But anyway, there comes into a thing where Amy winds up getting some airline tickets from the front cashier at this less than stellar hotel. And she bribes him with money. The guy says, oh, I'm a kind-hearted guy, and all that. And while Amy is out, Rebecca reveals to him that she works for the American Report and that ZA is very, discouraged and, alarmed by that. And then the two bad guys show up and they kidnap both of them and take them to this rv. And, Amy meets up with Casey there, they wind up following this RV around and, um, Za winds up doing a little smoke bomb through the roof and I believe uses Rebecca's scarf also has another signal to follow them. And of course the police and the FBI are on them at this time and they wind up getting out in the woods and run off the road through a little maneuver with another vehicle and, they wind up being arrested. Even Casey at one point, got a little rough and physical with one of the bad guys, and it's kind of a comical scene there at the end. that's definitely worth a look The whole thing was that, Even though Cusack had been a defector, he was actually a double agent, and this was a confusing part, but he was a double agent working for the US selling apparently false information to Czechoslovakia at the time. we hear at the end, everything works out good. There's not really. A big story on the news at the end to protect his privacy. now, not only does he have his family, but he's moved to Vegas and is working at an even bigger show at this time with elephants. it was a fun little show. Like I said, it was just a pilot, so it was gonna be a little bit rough on the edges. Usually they don't have the stories and the character's down pat. There's not always a lot of chemistry yet. But it was a very fun, very lighthearted show, and I enjoyed watching it. it's a time capsule into that earlier time, the late seventies, and you could have a very intriguing show that kept your attention without it being too violent or, using a lot of weapons in this case. I didn't really understand how Kuzak didn't get in trouble with at least the FBI. For being a double agent, I guess it was because he worked for them. I'm not really sure. They didn't really explain that part. it's kind of like last week show. I didn't understand how James Bond didn't go to jail after losing his license to kill. But for this episode of American girls, I would give. The overall episode, an a minus, and I'll give Priscilla a grade of a. and so I really enjoyed it and I think you should check it out on YouTube. I think it would be really worth a watch. I think you'll really enjoy it. of course that's the American girls, the canceled cze as in Czechoslovakia from September 23rd, 1978 show ended November 11th of that year. I think it had a chance to do really well. Obviously a little different take than Charlie's Angels. the premise seemed to be you had these reporters who were just trying to get the scoop on a story and they wound up finding out that there was so much more involved to what they were doing. obviously some level of danger and danger to their lives. But the show was less violent than Charlie's angels and nobody died in this episode. There's a few people that died in Charlie's angels. In fact, And it wouldn't be the first time that a show with potential. Was canceled because it was in a poor time slot. it was canceled because it was on Saturday nights on cbs. And it went up against the love boat, which was just in its second season. Then, interestingly enough, because Priscilla had made her first appearance on the love boat in January of 78, and it would make two more appearances later on that show, so hope you enjoy that. I would check that out. I think it runs only about 47 minutes on YouTube. Very grateful to Ross Martin's family or his associate who put this up on YouTube. that's about it for today's podcast. again, I'm so grateful that you've come to the party. Please continue to hit subscribe and tell your friends and family about us. I'm a little concerned about some of my metrics this week. but we really have only been available for about two weeks. but again, I love that you're listening or subscribing, even downloading if that's the way you choose to consume it. really need to hear your feedback hear where. to take this show, and I would really implore you to do that through the means that I have listed on my show notes. But, that's about it for the party. Thank you for being here, and look forward to seeing you once again next week. This is Frank Weber signing off. The theme song is called retro funk. Bye soul prod music and can be found@pixabay.com.