Episode 014: Shopping on Gamedays and Town Comparisons, A Traffic Pet Peeve, "The Love Boat" (First Appearance)

On this show, Frank talks about shopping on football gamedays with his wife while he would rather be on campus all day partying.  Then he goes in to differences between shopping in Lubbock vs. Amarillo, and discusses which one is better and speculates the how and the why it got this way.  He then talks about a non-accident in traffic, which  is still very much a pet peeve of his these days.

Finally he reviews the popular classic "sitcom" The Love Boat with Priscilla Barnes' first appearance on the show in a plot called "Winner Take Love" from early 1978.  He mentions that the show is tricky to review with its long history, charm, and three plots per episode, not to mention its iconic permanent cast and loads of recognizable guest stars.  Who can forget the song either?  In the end it is always satisfying TV viewing.

The Love Boat is available on Paramount +, Pluto TV, and Blu-Ray/DVD.  

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

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

Transcript

Frank: 0:00

All right, in this episode of Frank Weber's Party, I'm going to tell you a couple of personal stories and maybe pet peeves here about shopping on football game days in Lubbock and Lubbock versus Amarillo in terms of shopping in general and a traffic story. And then I'm finally going to review, an appearance that Priscilla had in the love boat, her very first appearance from 1978. So, stay tuned. I know you're gonna enjoy it. Well, hello once again. This is Frank Weber's Party. You've reached your party destination. I'm your host, Frank Weber. So glad that you could be with me again, once again on this show. I have, some personal stories to start out with today. as I mentioned last week, my wife and I, we go to Lubbock, for all the Texas Tech home football games and On the last week's show I mentioned Tarleton State was the opponent. One of the things that she likes to do while we're there, and I'm not really sure, well I know I don't like it. I mean, she goes down there to do some shopping on game day, and there's... Some pitfalls to doing that, I mean, there's seems to be some more traffic in general in town. And certain stores are busier on Saturday to begin with, Her favorite, and my favorite too, I mean, I like it too, I just don't. Not a big fan of shopping is to go to Costco. but the problem, of course, that I have is I would rather be at campus all day or at least most of the day partying and drinking beer and... Talking with other people and, checking out the scenery, if you will, because there is a lot of scenery there and on campus and I'm not a dirty old man for saying that. Am I? You know, certainly hope not. But, I mean, I guess it works out for both of us. It's compromise. It's marriage and everything. And, I, have noticed over the years There is a definite difference between shopping in Lubbock and shopping in Amarillo now. I'm not entirely sure what the reason is for that, but let me give you some examples. So Lubbock has a Costco. I think it has a Sam's that's not too far from there. We prefer Costco now. Amarillo has no Costco, but two Sam's. Don't know if it'll ever get a Costco. Lubbock has an HEB, which took many years to get, this far north. I And, uh, it's an alternative to United and Walmart as far as grocery stores go. Amarillo does not have that. And then Lubbock also has some other specialty type stores that Amarillo doesn't have. You know, near the Costco there's a, a miniature Cabela's. I'm trying to remember what the exact brand was, but it's still a Cabela's. So Lubbock has one, Amarillo does not. I would also say that, chains that are in both places, I know there's always exceptions to the rule, but I, I tend to think that the customer service and the communication is maybe a little bit better in Lubbock than it is in Amarillo. I don't really know what the reason is for sure about that, if it's economics or something I don't think it's per capita income or something like that. I do know that the Amarillo City Council, until recently, didn't seem to be really interested in economic growth of the city. They were actually kind of corrupt. And, they've now changed officers and have a lot of new blood in there since the election last May. So it may change a little bit here now. But I find those to be some pretty interesting observations, and you can name some other stores, as well as differences. I believe Lubbock is definitely the larger city now, and seems to have a little bit more going for it. I know some of you are probably going to be pissed that I'm saying that, but that's me. I guess I'm more of a Lubbock guy than an Amarillo guy. Uh, even though it's, Lubbock's about 110 miles, and Amarillo is 10 to 15 miles, if that. I'm just saying this because I. I think the city needs to do something and get its act together. And like I said, I, I don't really know what the origins of the differences are, but a lot of people will compare the two towns and they'll have one of them, their favorite and the other they don't like as much. So the story that the other story I wanted to talk about with regard to that, you know, and I'm kind of anxious. When I'm at these stores before the game, because I just want to get to campus and tailgate and party and everything. The other story I wanted to tell you another pet peeve. and I talked about this. several episodes ago about traffic and people's traffic habits and whether they're courteous or not. I would tell you that both Amarillo and Lubbock have people in them who drive like they're in Dallas. I think it's kind of a, could be a bad sign anyway if you, Have a toll tag on your windshield. at least I equate that to bad driving or fast driving or whatever. Let's just slow down and be courteous and get there in one piece. But some of the roads in Lubbock are kind of confusing. And, we were coming out of a place. I needed to turn left, but sometimes I kind of. Go the other direction just to, be safe and avoid cars. I don't drive the area enough, I guess you could say, to know which lane I should be in to turn and what my ultimate driving objective is there in the moment. But I come out of the shopping center lot, and I don't want to give away the store names or where exactly I was, but So I decided to turn right because there was a lot of that was coming from the right to the left. So, maybe I should back up for a second. First, I have two cars that I primarily drive. A little Toyota Camry from 2020. And then my big Dodge Ram pickup from 2007. Both of them have been great, I love both of them. But the Camry's pretty small compared to the truck, and I don't feel quite as safe in there. And I'm always kind of praying that people will be kind and gentle to me, but if I'm in the truck, I'm totally safe, and I feel like I'm above most everybody besides semis, But anyway, I'm in the Camry on Saturday. I need to go left, but I decided to go right. First, and so I figure, yeah, I'm going to go down here to this Lowe's turn left after I get these cars past me. It's a long way around, but anyway, and as I'm going slowly and I'm actually in the turn lane, this guy in his pickup speeds by me and goes in front of me in the turn lane to the Lowe's. Which I thought was kind of rude, But I turned into the Lowe's and then I went around and got back onto that road. I'm trying very hard to, so that you can visualize this, I, I hope. But I go back onto that road what was originally left and, go where I need to go. And at this point I need to turn right, I need to make a right and a left to get back onto the freeway. And the two right lanes both are going to help you get onto the next road so you can make a left onto the freeway. So basically, two right lanes and then two left lanes are onto the freeway. It would be preferable if you were in the leftmost lanes on both those roads. I, however, was not. I was in the right lane on the first road. So I turn, and that light is totally green, so people from both lanes now turn onto the next road. And I wanted to get into the furthest left lane, but some asshole in a big black pickup truck cut me off, wouldn't let me in. of course this is everywhere by the way, so unfortunately drivers, bad drivers are everywhere. It's not like the shopping thing I just mentioned, I still have a chance to get onto the freeway. Because the two left lanes are both turning, but then if I'm in the outermost lane, I'm going to have to merge back to the innermost lane to get onto the freeway. And then I may have to deal with this asshole again. So I have to go through the underpass and then I turn into an apartment building. and then I pull into a spot and then as I'm backing up, there's another guy that's backing up to my right, not too far away from me and almost felt like we were going to have a collision there and everything. but anyway, I finally get back onto the road. Make the right turn safely, get back onto the freeway and then head to the Costco. I just wanted to share that with you. I'm just trying to be safe and out there. it really, an old school saying was it really is a jungle out there and it really seems to be that way on the roads now. people driving too fast and, not really caring about the safety of others but in some cases their own. And I really, I don't know what's going on with that. I don't think that was game day specific traffic either as far out as I was. But, I thought I'd just share that story with you and hopefully you found some amusement with that. like I said, I'm trying to make the show as funny as possible. Anyway, I'm going to take a quick break and when I come back, I'm going to review Priscilla Barnes first appearance on the love boat. I had kind of been putting off doing these reviews of the love boat because there's so much to discuss in them. It's a very iconic show and both in terms of its history and its cast and the way the show is put together with the three plots. But I'm going to attempt that here in just a few minutes. So stay tuned. Okay, I'm back. that guy cut me off in traffic just recalling a few minutes ago. I actually called a motherfucker, which... My wife didn't enjoy. She, really doesn't like it when I'm swearing like I do. I don't do it that much. I mean, I don't even do it that much on this show. But, she's very prim and proper and doesn't enjoy my language there. So today I'm going to review an episode of The Love Boat. It was from its, the very first season of The Love Boat. the 77 78 season. this particular episode aired on January 28th. 1978 and there's so much to discuss about the history of this show and just a number of odds and ends and I'm going to try not to go into a great deal of detail on that. I mean, I can talk a little bit more about the regular cast, perhaps in a different episode, but this was a very beloved show and I'll talk about that in a second. It aired from September 24th. 1977 to May 24th 1986 for a total of 250 regular episodes that I believe was later eclipsed by Married with Children which if you're not familiar with that is a great very funny slapstick show from the eighties and nineties for the love boat there was Three pilot movies before that started in, September of 1976. And then there were four TV movie specials after the regular show essentially ended or was canceled. That went all the way until February of 1990. later on in the end of the 90s, When they had the, the UPN network, they brought back The Love Boat, I think it was called, The Next Wave, which had Robert Urich as the captain. very beloved series. I don't think... It was a top 5 or top 10 show. It was definitely top 20 though. And it was long and enduring. Men and women could both watch it. It was technically romantic comedy. But there was something dreamy and magical about taking a cruise on the Pacific Princess. which, sadly I think that ship itself, Some years ago was dismantled because it was being used for drugs or something, I think was the story. very sad ending, but... If you bought a ticket to come aboard and spend time with Captain Steubing and his crew, possibly sit at his table. Which my brother, by the way, says that there's no such thing as invitations to sit at the captain's table because he's always on the bridge and stuff. And you know, I don't know, I call bullshit on that, but maybe he's right. But anyway, if you bought a ticket to this cruise and went to wherever they went, a lot of times they sailed the Pacific and went to Mexico, particularly Acapulco, but they would go to other places occasionally like Alaska or. in later episodes, even fly across the world to take another ship, to go wherever they went. But if you were a woman, you had potentially a Hallmark like story, you know, you fell in love. These flawed people would fall in love and it would be great if you were a guy. There's a good chance that you were going to get laid on this ship and maybe fall in love as a, secondary result. But there was just something very magical and dreamy about it that was funny. It, captured everyone's imagination and much, much, much more so than, you know, some Hallmark movie could nowadays. You know, I'm subjected to those along with game day shopping, you know, but, to a brief mention of the cast, by the way, of course, the, the famous love boat theme was sung by Jack Jones, Paul Williams, who played little Enos Burdett. He's the one who wrote it. He was little Enos Burdett and the smoking and the band at movies. And then the last season, which I think was the ninth season, they had, Dionne Warwick singing it instead for some reason. I never really understood that, and then the show had three plots every week, one of them was fairly serious, and then the other two were fairly humorous. One of them, was very humorous, typically. I don't think that they were ever totally stuck in the rules on that, but, this episode from the 28th of January, 78, has three plots, And mostly going to look at the one called winner take love and let me go ahead and just mention the The cast on the show the permanent cast on this show at the time lots of iconic Permanent cast members as well as guest stars many of whom were kind of fading out of acting at the time got another chance to act again or They were guest stars who returned again and again and again Priscilla was on a total of three times This, of course, being number one. and I believe every permanent member who had a top billing on Three's Company, including Ann Wedgworth, was on this show at least once. And there's probably other shows like that. But let's go ahead and mention the cast members. Of course, Gavin McLeod played Captain Steubing. Who, was really the fatherly figure who sometimes got involved in, passenger issues and, the like on the, on the ship. and in fact he did in this episode and one of the other plots. Of course, there was Bernie Capel, who played Doc. he was quite, a ladies man. And then you had, Fred Grandy, who was the yeoman purser. He went on to be a senator from Iowa for a little while after the show ended. You had Ted Lange, who, of course, was Isaac the bartender. always wanted him to pour me a drink or make me a drink. And you had Lauren Tooze, who was Julie, your... Cruise ships, director, activities director. I think it was, maybe it may be getting the title off a little bit there. And this was before anybody, this is of course, yeah, season one. So this is before anybody else was on the show, including, Joe Whalen, who played, Vicky Stubing, the captain's daughter. I don't have a lot of material. A lot of this is coming from memory. I just watched it again last night. It was a great episode, a lot of 70s kitsch, I guess you could say. so like I said, there's three plots. And, it's always fun to see. Who else is in, the episode for this, by the way, in season one, they, on the opening, they would usually show a picture of the, the guest stars at this point. They were just showing their names in the circle, no actual pictures. And Priscilla actually did not get credit until the closing credits. she and along a few other people, particularly, the ladies who were in the beauty contest with her. So as far as the other two plots go, one of them involves, Dick Van Patten who was, on eight is enough at this time, which like Love Boat was an hour long show with a laugh track that, is unique in TV history. And he plays, I believe a Senator. I think they may have been a little inconsistent on whether he was a Senator, a US Senator or a US House member. And then he meets up with Vicki Lawrence, who was. Probably, I think, finishing up Carol Burnett's show at the time. I'm not 100 percent sure on that, but she plays an investigative reporter from a newspaper who's trying to get the scoop on him. Apparently, he's getting a divorce because he had an affair with a dancer. And I'm not sure... If he's about to be investigated for it, and she's trying to get the scoop and potentially maybe ruin his career, depending on what she finds. I didn't quite get what was happening there. But it may have been different in 1978, I'm not really sure, but I doubt he would be investigated for a personal affair that he had. it seems like a lot of politicians get into domestic problems like that, and there's no consequences whatsoever. It, it may, and a lot of people will say to you, I probably would say to you that it's not really any of my business either, so I'm not really sure how strong that plot was, but He and Vicki Lawrence's character eventually fall in love, in that plot. And then in the other plot, which I found to be a little bit more interesting, Isaac falls in love with a young Ph. D. student. I think her name was Stephanie. I don't think they actually said where this cruise was going. But, Isaac falls in love with this Ph. D. student who's studying black history. And she's, seems to be pretty angry. Like an angry black woman. Because she's kind of studying and she's kind of interested in Isaac, but not really and the reason that she's really angry is because Another black guy on the cruise Scatman Crothers who by the way was in a lot of movies and flicks over the years particularly one who flew over the cuckoo's nest I'm not really sure how to describe his persona, but he was very jovial, a positive upbeat guy and did a lot of dancing things that were entertaining to a lot of people. And he plays a guy on this cruise who is doing something called the ham bone. And he's entertaining everybody with it and they're getting together and in rooms and he's doing this and they're doing the conga lines and around the pool and, you know, crazy shit like this. And she doesn't like it because she thinks he's, as another black person, because she's black as well, is promoting racial stereotypes, that aren't true. And she doesn't want to have anything to do with him and, and then eventually, you know, Isaac kind of comes on board with her viewpoint and then the captain has to come in as he often does and intervene and tell him that, well, do you know who you're talking to? I mean, this guy is... An old Negro League picture from years ago that struck out Babe Ruth a couple of times and because of him There's black players in baseball now. And so she eventually comes around to it. I don't know what her The actress who played her, I don't know what her name was, she looked a little bit like Ginny from the Jeffersons, but it wasn't her. but those were the other two plots. Now, the plot that involved Priscilla Barnes, very first appearance on this show, she played a character named Jeanette Arnold. a, beauty contest contestant here. there was actually a total of five girls and they were all vying to be the ambassadress for Pacific Cruise Lines for the next year or so. And there were five in total, as I said, and, the main competition and the person who wound up became friends with was played by Maureen McCormick who was Marsha on the Brady Bunch. so Jeanette Arnold, that's PB's character, comes on. She's kind of a ditzy blonde. she's getting accused by this girl from San Antonio of having any brains And, they go through the various contests over several days. You know, your typical pageant with, swimsuit competition and personal interview, evening competition, talent show. At one point the guy who is running the specific contest, his name is Waldo. I don't know his name either. I just remember him. He was the wife's boss on Mr. Mom. He was a bald guy and he also reappeared in an early episode of married with children where Alan Steve were. Trying to procure some Rogaine, which may not have been over the counter just yet. But he plays a guy named Waldo. And Maureen McCormick's character is dating a guy who looks a little bit like David Cassidy, but he's not David Cassidy. And, she gets turned in and disqualified from a competition. And Jeanette does a little thing where, she kind of blackmails Waldo. she tries to get him to scratch her back, then he kind of grabs hold of her, kind of like a sexual harassment, mini sexual harassment type of thing. And blackmails him into letting Maureen McCormick's character back into the pageant. and so, Priscilla and Marine McCormick's character, which I, sorry, I forgot what she was called in the show, but, they become friends and, Marsha Brady wins the pageant. but then she immediately decides to relinquish that because she wants to marry the David Cassidy guy. And she can't be married for the next year as she embarks as the cruise line's ambassadress. So it was a funny, sweet story. I will tell you, there is a running joke there. Captain Steubing was a master of ceremonies for all parts of the... Competition and was kind of told by Waldo what to say and it wasn't really it wasn't very funny He said he could write better jokes than Waldo did there was however one joke where? the Swimsuit competition there at the swimming pool the ladies were walking down a catwalk and everything She said that Jeanette she was the most popular girl at the University of Nebraska, which is unusual, because she attends the University of Oklahoma, and I know as you listen to that right now, it's not a very funny joke, the context is that Oklahoma and Nebraska used to play each other, bitterly every year in football, and I guess a beautiful woman like Priscilla's character, Jeanette, would be popular on other campuses as well, I think is what that's supposed to mean. and of course there were some other corny jokes there. I don't know what happened to the guy who played Waldo. I don't know if he did a lot of acting much past, into the 90s or much past the 90s. it was just interesting to see him there. I should give an honorable mention because one of the other girls, not one of the main girls, Big 12 fans, they announced her as being from Oklahoma A& M, which, I believe is Oklahoma State, which has been state for quite some time. I don't really know why they used the old name there. But in the end, Everybody's in love, you know, you have Dick Van Patten and Vicky Lawrence going off together. You have Isaac and Stephanie, I guess, going off together. I always wonder what would happen with some of these romances after this particular show ended. you know, Isaac is going to fall in love with other people as there are many more seasons ahead. But obviously you've got Maureen McCormick. and the David Cassidy type fellow in love and Allegedly at the end of this Jeanette Arnold played by the lovely Priscilla Barnes says that she fell in love with Waldo, and so I don't know how that really works because Waldo is technically Kind of a superior if not a supervisor of The department that she works for but Anyway, it was a fun episode. I loved it. You should check it out. Paramount Plus has it easily, Pluto TV, some other place. I'm gonna give it an A the episode and Priscilla's effort in it is also an A Really enjoyed it. So that's going to do it for this episode of the party. looking forward to, implementing some things in the very near future. Like I said, it may be October, but in the meantime, if you're enjoying this show, you're enjoying my voice. I would really appreciate it if you would hit subscribe and tell your family and friends about me and about this little bit of time we spend together each week. And so for now, this is Frank Weber signing off from Frank Weber's party. The theme song is Retro Funk from Soul Prod Music and can be found at Pixabay. com