American Dreams 2.09 - Eric Clapton's grandfather played by Richie Sambora
Chuck Miller
Dreams... JJ gets ready to leave for Okinawa, Patty figures out how to make a
tourinquet out of a chin strap, Henry shows his repair skills by working at
home, JJ gets ready to leave for Okinawa, the WFIL security lets more strangers
wander onto the American Bandstand soundstage, JJ gets ready to leave for
Okinawa, and Chuck notes that the episode title is "The Long Goodbye," which is
fitting because it seemed like the episode took a week and a half for JJ to say
goodbye.
The whole episode featured JJ's final day or days at the Pryor household before
shipping off, and he and Beth have an engagement party at the Pryors. Now for
some reason there's a frosty relationship between Beth and her parents, which
may or may not have been exacerbated by her relationship with JJ. I remember
in an early episode in the first season, Mr. Mason made some disparaging
remarks about JJ and his family owning a television store in West Philly. It
would be nice to find out if this arc - Beth and the relationship with her
parents - goes into more detail in the coming episodes.
And we can see that the relationship between Sam and Henry is getting extremely
icy. Sam's still feeling that Henry does too much for Mr. Pryor, including
working on electronic equipment at home and not taking a portion of the profits
for himself for doing so. I don't know if this is simply Henry's nature,
possibly to keep on working if for no other reason than to keep his mind
occupied and not think about his wife or the situation his family is in.
Sometimes people do that - bury themselves in their work so that their other
problems aren't so painful. Or it could be that Sam still feels like blaming
Henry for Gwen's death, because he still misses her and thinks that she
sacrified herself for the white people to whom she was a maid - and he doesn't
want his father to sacrifice himself for the white owners of Pryor's TV and
Radio Repair. Want to discuss this thought?
Nice continuity touches in this episode - did anybody notice in Meg's room she
now has photos of American Bandstand performers and a group snapshot of the AB
kids? Also, it seems Jack is keeping at least one eye on his brother Pete's
drinking, reminding him to take it easy, company is in the house.
By the way, somebody should explain to Meg the policies about friends and/or
family strolling onto a soundstage during a live broadcast of a nationally
airing program. This is not, as I have said before, some afterschool
extracurricular activity, and to have Drew Mandel stroll onto the WFIL
soundstage during a broadcast is unacceptable. Kudos to the assistant producer
(Colin something, I can't remember his name right now) for telling the guy to
get out of the soundstage, but I'm still thinking that the WFIL security is
still pretty lax. Let's see... Jack Pryor walked onto the soundstage one time,
Meg and Roxanne and the East Catholic girls broke into the AB soundstage at
night one time and somebody damaged a camera, now Drew just strolls onto the
show... Man, if it was that easy to get on Bandstand, how come Meg and Roxanne
had to wait in a long line for entry in the pilot episode? And it looks like
the "chatter in the bleachers" is back in vogue again...
Another thing - this "stunt casting" of today's performers as yesterday's stars
is getting ridiculous. Richie Sambora looked like Eric Clapton's grandfather
up on that stage. Let's see... Sambora's in his 40's, while Eric Clapton
wasn't even 20 when the Yardbirds first hit these shores. If you're going to
hire an old rocker to play Eric Clapton, why don't you just go that extra mile
and see if Eric Clapton's willing to play himself??
Timeframe - it's mid-February, 1965. Malcolm X has just been murdered. This
means that all pop culture references that happened AFTER February 1965 - like
the Yardbirds' "For Your Love" on American Bandstand (May 1965 release), or the
playing of the Knickerbockers' "Lies" or the Byrds' "Turn Turn Turn" (both late
1965) are off. There. I've said it. I don't care if the AD writers are using
music to foreshadow a mood, similar to Japanese anime where danger is
foreshadowed by dark clouds in the horizon. For those who feel that it's
"okay" to fudge music history as a dramatic point, I guess we'll just have to
agree to disagree on that issue.
And in the spirit of it being February 1965, this means it's winter in
Philadelphia. That means there's snow on the ground. Yet there are plenty of
scenes in this week's episode that take place outside, with no characters
freezing or shivering or wearing any sort of long coats. And for that matter,
there's no steam or vapor coming out of their mouths when they talk outside.
There's snow falling on the ground, and nobody's even pretending to shiver.
What did they think is falling out of the sky? God's dandruff? I know there's
no way they could have refrigerated that soundstage to the point where we could
have seen their steamed breaths, but at least act like you're cold or
something. And for the amount of snow I see on this episode, they must not
realize Philadelphia borders the Delaware River, and while I'm not expecting
Buffalo-like lake-effect snow, there should be more than just a few flurries in
the air now and again.
Oh yeah, the plotline with Roxanne and Lenny. We've now established that Del
Shannon is a womanizer. Although we did acknowledge that Del did perform one
of the earliest Beatles covers, as his version of "From Me To You" did predate
the Beatles' version by about two or three months (Shannon was touring England,
he heard the Beatles' version, decided to take it back to America and cover
it). But part of me was wondering if, when I heard Lenny say something about
he and his bandmembers going for a beer run, there might be something tragic
occurring in the next ten or fifteen minutes of the episode - e.g., the
bandmembers driving while intoxicated and hitting a tree or something... or
Roxanne finally discovering she's carrying Lenny's child (or Del Shannon's
child, how wild would that have been?) No such luck, all we got was Roxanne
deciding she didn't want to watch her favorite singers cavalierly ignoring
ignoring the commandment about coveting thy groupies. And here I was hoping
Lenny and his band would make it to Chicago, where we could have had a guest
appearance by American Idol's Kimberly Caldwell and Carmen Rasmussen as the
Plaster Casters.
Well, no American Dreams next week - although I do know that Brad Paisley is
scheduled to portray Ricky Nelson in an upcoming episode. Okay,you know and I
know Ricky Nelson NEVER appeared on American Bandstand, and that was because
his father, Ozzie Nelson, restricted Ricky's "music video" performances to the
Ozzie and Harriet TV show. How's Jonathan Prince going to talk his way out of
this one?
Chuck
Larry Caldwell
> By the way, somebody should explain to Meg the policies about friends and/or
> family strolling onto a soundstage during a live broadcast of a nationally
> airing program. This is not, as I have said before, some afterschool
> extracurricular activity, and to have Drew Mandel stroll onto the WFIL
> soundstage during a broadcast is unacceptable. Kudos to the assistant producer
> (Colin something, I can't remember his name right now) for telling the guy to
> get out of the soundstage, but I'm still thinking that the WFIL security is
> still pretty lax. Let's see... Jack Pryor walked onto the soundstage one time,
> Meg and Roxanne and the East Catholic girls broke into the AB soundstage at
> night one time and somebody damaged a camera, now Drew just strolls onto the
> show... Man, if it was that easy to get on Bandstand, how come Meg and Roxanne
> had to wait in a long line for entry in the pilot episode? And it looks like
> the "chatter in the bleachers" is back in vogue again...
It was a simpler time. I doubt that the station had any security of any
kind, and it was up to the employees to police their own area. The only
thing odd was the show producer playing bouncer instead of one of the
stage assistants, but I guess they had to give the guy the lines.
At concerts the only security was the ticket taker, and no such thing as
a "backstage pass." Roxanne coming up with backstage passes was a real
anachronism. When Peter, Paul and Mary played my college in 1965, I
wandered backstage after the concert and said hi. There was no security
and nobody asked me to leave.
Theresa L.
Message-id: <20031130220403...@mb-m27.aol.com>:
<snip>
>Another thing - this "stunt casting" of today's performers as yesterday's
>stars
>is getting ridiculous. Richie Sambora looked like Eric Clapton's grandfather
>up on that stage. Let's see... Sambora's in his 40's, while Eric Clapton
>wasn't even 20 when the Yardbirds first hit these shores. If you're going
>to
>hire an old rocker to play Eric Clapton, why don't you just go that extra
>mile
>and see if Eric Clapton's willing to play himself??
Richie Sambora wasn't playing Eric Clapton (although I agree about the stunt
casting debacle). First of all, Clapton didn't do lead vocals and Keith Relf
didn't play guitar, so I'm not sure who Sambora was supposed to be. Second,
during the autograph scene Meg talks to Sambora's character and tells him that
Clapton's great as a replacement for Topham (although Clapton had been with the
group for close to two years by that time). Almost looks like AD created a new
band member so they could use Sambora. Very bad idea.
Tessa
Jorabi
"Chuck Miller" wrote ...
>
> And in the spirit of it being February 1965, this means it's winter in
> Philadelphia. That means there's snow on the ground. Yet there are plenty of
> scenes in this week's episode that take place outside, with no characters
> freezing or shivering or wearing any sort of long coats. And for that matter,
> there's no steam or vapor coming out of their mouths when they talk outside.
> There's snow falling on the ground, and nobody's even pretending to shiver.
> What did they think is falling out of the sky? God's dandruff? I know there's
> no way they could have refrigerated that soundstage to the point where we could
> have seen their steamed breaths, but at least act like you're cold or
> something.
Not true. The outdoor scenes had them shivering and their breath was clearly
visible. It gave me a chill just watching.
Jeffrey Varnado
snowball fight, LOL. Anyone remember that episode and that scene?
EvieC123
>And we can see that the relationship between Sam and Henry is getting
extremely icy
probably Sam is seeing his dad as an Uncle Tom every time he cowtows to Pryor.
>Another thing - this "stunt casting" of today's performers as yesterday's
stars
is getting ridiculous. Richie Sambora looked like Eric Clapton's grandfather
up on that stage.
He obviously wasn't portraying Eric Clapton (who wasn't the singer of the band)
since Clapton had left the group before "For Your Love". Keith Relf was on
vocals.
>Kimberly Caldwell and Carmen Rasmussen as the Plaster Casters.
OMG! Too funny! Interesting review as always, Chuck.
*~Evie~*
Theresa L.
Message-id: <20031205101338...@mb-m01.aol.com>:
It's true that Clapton left the group largely because of "For Your Love," but
he did play on the recording, leaving shortly thereafter. As we've both
mentioned in this ng, though, Sambora wasn't actuallly supposed to be Clapton
even in the AD world. I suppose he was playing a Keith Relf who miraculously
played lead guitar for the Bandstand performance. (That particular Bandstand
performance couldn't have happened, and those b&w clips were of the AD version
of the Yardbirds.)
By the way, I notice that at least one TV reviewer (for Zap2it, I believe)
reported that Sambora was playing Clapton. But no matter what configuration of
Yardbirds we can accept, the writers planned otherwise, because Sambora's
character talked to Meg about Clapton in the third person.
Tessa
Tony Calguire
>
>
> Well, no American Dreams next week - although I do know that Brad Paisley is
> scheduled to portray Ricky Nelson in an upcoming episode. Okay,you know and I
> know Ricky Nelson NEVER appeared on American Bandstand, and that was because
> his father, Ozzie Nelson, restricted Ricky's "music video" performances to the
> Ozzie and Harriet TV show. How's Jonathan Prince going to talk his way out of
> this one?
>
Will the Thrill and Bratty Patty will be watching Ozzie and Harriet on
TV... undoubtably, it will be the wrong day of the week and wrong
timeslot.