Mr. Dress Up aka Fancy Pants.   From a Canadian Broadcasting Company TV Show.   I guess like their Capt. Kangaroo and Mr. Green Jeans.

(24 votes, average: 3.42 out of 5)

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The two-sided cover of an Underdog picture-sleeve from 1965.   I really liked Underdog as a kid and remember Sweet Polly Purebred fondly.   “There’s no need to fear, Underdog is here!” Wally Cox, TV’s mild-mannered Mr. Peepers, provided the voice of NBC-TV’s Underdog, a super-canine who talked in rhyme. Underdog was the alter-identity of Shoeshine Boy. He was usually called into action by his girlfriend, ace TV reporter Sweet Polly Purebred (voiced by Norma McMillan).   When he heard Polly’s singing plea of “Oh where, oh where has my Underdog gone?”, “humble, lovable” Shoeshine Boy would slip into a phone booth and emerge as the champion of justice. “When Polly’s in trouble I am not slow, it’s Hip, Hip, Hip and away I go !”

The Underdog Show began with a parody of Superman’s famous opening: “Look, up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a frog…a frog?” At that point, the canine would correct the observers with: “Not bird, nor plane, nor even frog, it’s just little ‘ole me, Underdog !” Like his human counterpart, Underdog was not infallible. While he didn’t have to contend with Kryptonite, occasionally his power would fade, causing him all kinds of trouble. For cases like that, the pooch would carry a revitalizing energy pill in a secret compartment in his ring.

Underdog’s main foes included underworld boss Riff Raff, and Simon Bar Sinister, an evil scientist who once created a Big Dipper Machine to steal the world’s water supply. He then enslaved the citizens and made them do as “Simon Says” just to get a drink.

(24 votes, average: 3.17 out of 5)

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“Tina”   “Her Portrait in Hi-Fi”   Tina Louise sings.   (1957)   Louise made four record albums, this one and “It’s Time for Tina” on Concert Hall, and two others on the Urania label in 1958 and 1959.   Before being forever remembered as Ginger on the TV Land staple, “Gilligan’s Island”, Tina Louise was in films like “God’s Little Acre,” on Broadway in the musical “Lil’ Abner (with Batman’s future “Catwoman” Julie Newmar) and one of the favorite pin-up girls and models of the fifties, appearing in Playboy and many other men’s magazines of the time.   Her last notable film role was in 1975’s “Stepford Wives”.

(38 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)

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Felix the Cat: Television Cartoon Star goes record shopping. 1960.

(30 votes, average: 3.53 out of 5)

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Thunderball, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. & Other Secret Agent. Design Records.

(23 votes, average: 3.83 out of 5)

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“It All Happens On Saturday”   The Harry Stoneham Five”   (From the BBC TV Parkinson’ Series).   EMI Studio 2.   These two blokes in a boat are living the high life, not a care in the world.   Toasting their own good taste and good fortune.

(20 votes, average: 2.60 out of 5)

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SUPERCAR The Original TV Cast Recording. Golden Guinea Records. From the UK. (1962) Music by Barry Gray.

(26 votes, average: 3.62 out of 5)

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Buddy Morrow “Double Impact” (RCA) Sixties TV themes about guns and poker games.

(17 votes, average: 3.41 out of 5)

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Shelly Manne & His Men Play PETER GUNN. Music by Henry Mancini from the TV program starring Craig Stevens. Contemporary Records. Shelly Manne (drums); Victor Feldman, Conte Candoli, Herb Geller, Russ Freeman, Monty Budwig. Recorded in January 1959. Manne and his West Coast jazz band interpret a selection of Henry Mancini-composed themes from the popular late-1950s TV show PETER GUNN, including the title track and a variety of atmospheric interludes. Cuts include “A Profound Gass” and “Sorta Blue,” “Soft Sounds” and the shimmering “The Brothers”.

For the most part, television music was a vast jazz wasteland before the Peter Gunn series debuted in the fall of 1958. The show’s score made a name for composer Henry Mancini and changed the sound of televised drama. It was inevitable that Shelly Manne, Hollywood studio mainstay and a proven champion at jazz interpretations of Broadway shows (e.g., “My Fair Lady” also on Contemporary), would give Mancini’s music a more expansive blowing treatment, and the resulting album reminds us that there was more to Peter Gunn than its dramatic theme and the classic ballad “Dreamsville.” Fans of Manne’s Men should note that the album was taped during the brief tenure of alto saxophonist Herb Geller, and that it makes winning use of the vibes and marimba of added starter Victor Feldman.

(17 votes, average: 3.76 out of 5)

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