Butch Patrick talks "Munsters" a paranormal house (what?) and more with BRBTV

Buying a paranormal house? Riding around on a Harley? Working on a new book that will initially have only a 100 or so copies? These are the elements of Butch Patrick's life right now. Hear all about it in this video of the "Munsters" star chatting with Billie Rae Bates of BRBTV at the Steel City Con near Pittsburgh earlier this month.

We had mock-threatened him before, when we spoke to him on the phone for this interview regarding the proposed new "Munsters" series, that we were going to get him on camera! Thanks, Butch, for chatting with us. Thanks to Brian for the assist with the camera! (And please pardon the fact that we were flying without a mic that day!)

Tony DeGuide talks with BRBTV about his movie with Mickey Rooney

Tony DeGuide is an actor and a filmmaker, and he's done some modeling over the years, too. Based in Chicago, he's got a movie project coming up that he discusses with BRBTV, plus he gives us the goods on the movie he did with Mickey Rooney, which was one of that legendary actor's last projects. Enjoy his comments below, at this video shot at the Hollywood Show in Chicago in August 2014.

This rounds out the BRBTV coverage of the Hollywood Show -- now on to those Steel City Con videos from earlier in the month!

Thanks, Tony! And thanks to Don for the assist!

Diane Franklin tells BRBTV all about her new book

Diane Franklin was just adorable back in the day, when she was making '80s movies like "Better Off Dead," "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure," and "The Last American Virgin." She's still adorable, BRBTV learned as we chatted with her at the Hollywood Show the weekend before last on a sunny day in Chicagoland.

Franklin has also done some television over the years, like "Matlock," "Charles in Charge" and the "Dallas: The Early Years" movie, where she played the young Amanda (Ewing). Now Franklin has released an autobiography, "The Excellent Adventures of the Last American, French-Exchange Babe of the 80s," which you can find on Amazon. She's quick with a dainty little accent -- French or English -- and she's a delight to talk to. Thanks, Diane, for chatting with us.

Parker Stevenson talks "Hardy Boys" with BRBTV

Let's get frank, shall we? Because that's what we tend to do here on the BRBTV News Blog. When this author was a little girl, it wasn't Shaun Cassidy she was watching on the 1970s hourlong drama "The Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Mysteries," based, as you know, on the popular kids' books. Though I loved Nancy Drew, and had probably read each and every one of my yellow hardcover Nancy Drew books at the time and never missed an episode of the series starring Pamela Sue Martin, when it came to the Hardy Boys installments of that series, I wasn't a Shaun girl. That was my best friend Julie. She couldn't get enough of Shaun. Shaun posters, Shaun issues of Tiger Beat, Shaun everything. Da-Do-Run-Run. But me? It was Parker Stevenson for me. He was the hunky one, as far as I was concerned. He was the real man of the two, the older, rather stable brother. And just so hot. OK, that's pretty frank.

Last weekend's Hollywood Show just outside of Chicago offered up a nice selection of stars of the classic TV shows we grew up with. You saw the John Amos interview on Monday. Well, how about none other than Parker Stevenson? This longtime actor, who we also loved in the 1980s "North and South" miniseries, was kind enough to chat with us for a few minutes toward the close of the show on Sunday. He reminisced a bit about "Hardy Boys," as well as his role on "Baywatch," and gave us a tidbit on his very recent "Longmire" episode -- he'll be coming back to the show! Fabulous!

We love TV books!

Wow, what a nice find! This is a big part of the reason we go to shows like this past weekend's Hollywood Show at the Hilton in Rosemont / greater Chicago. We've been reading about Hollywood Shows for years and have been wanting to go to one, seeing list after list of wonderful guests from classic TV shows. Finally, we got to experience one of the shows, and if we could characterize the vendor offerings of this particular event, it would definitely be TV and movie books. Just about every vendor had them on their table, and the choices were marvelous. Here's what we snagged on Sunday ...

 

We left the price tags on so you could see them, but these were all half-price at this particular table. That "Mod Squad" is a hardcover, a Whitman Book copyright 1970, and sitting next to it on the shelf were similar books for "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," "My Favorite Martian," "Dr. Kildare" and others. There were three of those "Welcome Back, Kotter" paperbacks, produced by Tempo Books (and we could've glutted out and gotten all three, but you should see the BRBTV book collection already). This one is copyright 1976 by the Wolper Organization Inc. and the Komack Co. Inc. We couldn't tell how the three editions were numbered and wanted to get the first in the series if at all possible, but this one evidently ain't it. No. 1, it says on the inside pages, is called "The Sweathog Trail." The author is William Johnston.

The "TV Super Stars '81" tome very much reminded us of the "TV Time '78" paperback this author got as a child. It has a little chapter on each of a bunch of different stars of the era, including Patrick Duffy of "Dallas," above. Larry Hagman and Linda Gray are also featured, as are John Schneider and Catherine Bach of "The Dukes of Hazzard." The recently passed Robin Williams, starring in "Mork and Mindy" at the time, is in there, interestingly enough, as well as a bunch of the "Eight is Enough" stars, the original Big Three of "Three's Company," Valerie Bertinelli, Erik Estrada and more. In all, 29 stars have chapters, which give little bios and snippets of their lives at the time, plus a black-and-white photo and vital stats that include birthplace, birthdate (not year), hair and eye color, height and weight.

Great TV reading, man!!!

John Amos talks to BRBTV about "Good Times" and "Roots"

Once in a while you talk to someone you've always really-really-really wanted to meet, and for this journalist that was yesterday, that was the Hollywood Show in Chicago, and that was John Amos, star of "Good Times" and "Roots" -- both history-making television series and so important from a cultural standpoint.

As James Evans, Amos was strong, solid, wise, protective of his children, faithful and devoted to his wife, and a man who felt a strong sense of responsibility as a father, both in providing for his family and imparting values to them. To this little girl growing up in a small town in the Midwest, he was the ideal dad. You just didn't mess with James Evans. As he talks about his experience on the popular 1970s sitcom, Amos describes just who was his inspiration for this portrayal of this iconic dad, as well as how he felt about the social responsibility in helping present this classic TV family of color that was so real and unapologetic amid struggles with rough times in inner-city Chicago.

Amos also played the older Kunta Kinte in the groundbreaking 1977 TV miniseries "Roots," based on Alex Haley's novel, while Levar Burton was the younger version of Kunta Kinte. This TV event -- busting out viewership records -- rather brutally brought this era of American history alive like no history book could.

I watched both of these TV series when they originally aired, and I'm so thankful to have met and talked to Mr. Amos!

Terrific TV Toys: The Mego figures of "Star Trek"

Mego Corp. ruled the action figure world back in the 1970s, and we're not just talking superheroes. Not by any means. They did tons of great figures from TV shows, like our beloved "Dukes of Hazzard," "Happy Days," many others. But one set that was pretty popular was the "Star Trek" collection of Megos. This author owns a few of them and shows them to you in the newest installment of the regular BRBTV series, "Terrific TV Toys (*of a vintage nature)."