TV Shows

Watching a rerun of Last Man Standing with Tim Allen tonight and just noticed one of his daughters using a tool chest labeled with the “Binford” tools logo on the side of the box.

Binford was the primary sponsor of Allen’s “Tool Time” show on his previous series “Home Improvement”.

I’ve noticed some references and in-jokes related to that show before - hell, it ran for eight seasons. But this was first time I ever saw a “fictional” product placement in a different series.

GO DODGERS!!!

I remember them well. Gary Del’abate, Howard Stern’s long time suffering producer got his nickname from that.

He was into collecting animation cels from cartoons and had one from that cartoon, only he mid-pronounced the donkey as “Baba-booey” and it has stuck and stayed with him ever since.

Haven’t listened to Stern for years. Used to really like him, but he went WAY over to the “woke” liberal side and his interviews these days consist of celebs ten years ago he berated.

Trump was one of his best friends and on the show ALL the time. He also SWORE he’d NEVER vote for another Democrat for President after O’Bummer and then Shillary’s unsuccessful run.

But he quickly flip-flopped once he got to Sirius. He absolutely ABHORED Rosie O’Donnell and ragged on her every chance he got.

But when she got her own show on Sirius, I guess he was told “make nice” or kiss that ridiculous $5 billion salary goodbye.

Same goes for actresses like Sarah Jessica Parker, Gwyneth Paltrow, etc. He absolutely HATED and made fun of them all the time.

But he had both on for two hour plus interviews within a year or two of signing with Sirius.

I MUCH preferred his chauvinist, loudmouth, obnoxious character to the one he has become. A true definition of sellout.

GO DODGERS!!!

Two favorite Rockford episodes were when he played Billy Bob Meeker. Conman extraordinaire. One is when he's trying to get his police buddy Dennis out of a horrible investment. He discovers oil on residential property Dennis THOUGHT he had invested in.

The second is on right now. A friend's father gets pushed out of his family's business. The character looks like a rip-off of Jack Kent Cooke.

Been watching The Real McCoy's. Walter Brennan was a hoot.

People still want to deny the Holocaust ever happened. 

I guess this is a mini-series on Joe Bonanno. Been watching it since last night. He's a very unheralded Mafia boss. One of the originals. But you can see where they've borrowed heavily from The Godfather. And some of the stances they have Bonanno taking are borderline ridiculous.

They have him being an old time don. He was anti-drugs. Actually, he sent Carmine Galante to Montreal to organize the heroin trade. It was one of the reasons New York exploded in the 'Bananas War.' Joe Bonanno was getting a stranglehold on the heroin smuggling trade.

They have martyred him somewhat over his eventual exile to Tucson. What happened was a standoff. Carlo Gambino, Tommy Lucchese on one side. Joe Bonanno & Joe Profaci on the other. I think Vito Genovese was in prison by that time. Mario Puzo had put all of this together & melded them into Vito & Michal Corleone. Joe Bonanno had his son Salvatore (Bill), made. It was his intention to eventually leave the family to his son. Bonnano had grown strong enough to become boss of bosses. Unfortunately his plan was discovered before it could be implemented. That was the baptismal scene where Michael Corleone has all his enemies wiped out in a single day.

Okay. This is from Wikipedia...

The stable power relationship between the families collapsed with the death of Profaci in 1962. Joseph Bonanno was now threatened by an alliance of Tommy Lucchese and new boss Carlo Gambino, and rising discontent within his own family. Many of the family members had begun to complain that Joseph spent too much time at his second home in Tucson, Arizona.

In 1963, Bonanno made plans to assassinate several rivals on the Commission—bosses Tommy Lucchese, Carlo Gambino, and Stefano Magaddino, as well as Frank DeSimone. Bonanno sought and got the support of Profaci's successor, Joseph Magliocco. Not only was Magliocco bitter at being denied a seat on the Commission, but Bonanno and Profaci had been close allies for over 30 years prior to Profaci's death. Bonanno's audacious goal was to take over the Commission and make Magliocco his right-hand man.

Magliocco was assigned the task of killing Lucchese and Gambino and gave the contract to one of his top hit men, Joseph Colombo. However, the opportunistic Colombo revealed the plot to its targets. The other bosses quickly realized that Magliocco could not have planned this himself. Knowing how close Bonanno was with Magliocco (and before him, Profaci), as well as their close ties through marriages, the other bosses concluded Bonanno was the real mastermind.

The Commission summoned Bonanno and Magliocco to explain themselves. Fearing for his life, Bonanno went into hiding in Montreal, leaving Magliocco to deal with the Commission. Badly shaken and in failing health, Magliocco confessed his role in the plot. The Commission spared Magliocco's life, but forced him to retire as Profaci family boss and pay a $50,000 fine. As a reward for turning on his boss, Colombo was awarded the Profaci family.

In October 1964, Bonanno returned to Manhattan, but on October 21, 1964, the day he was scheduled to testify before a grand jury, Bonanno was allegedly kidnapped by Magaddino's men as he entered the apartment house on Park Avenue and East 36th Street where one of his lawyers lived. FBI recordings of New Jersey boss Sam "the Plumber" Decavalcante revealed that the other bosses were taken by surprise when Bonanno disappeared, and other FBI recordings captured angry Bonanno soldiers saying, "That son-of-a-bitch took off and left us here alone."