Sunday, August 25, 2024

Hot Hero Sandwich: Episode 2 Scene-by-Scene

by G. Jack Urso


Broadcast Date: Nov. 17, 1979

Interviews: Coretta Scott King, Pam Dawber, Jimmy McNichol, Richard Pryor, Christopher Reeve, and Gloria Steinem in conversation with Dr. Tom Cottle.

Musical Guests: The Little River Band, The Hot Hero Band

Themes: Childhood, divorce, frequent moves, growing up, and heroes.

SCENES



2.1. Interview Segment: Gloria Steinem, Christopher Reeve, Jimmy McNichol, and Richard Pryor on their heroes.

2.2. Captain Hero Segment: Adam Ross, Andrew Duncan, Claudette Sutherland, Frankie Faison: Captain Hero saves his parents from an unscrupulous landlord.

2.3. Music Performance: The Hot Hero Band performs the series theme song on Studio 8-H.


2.4. Music Performance:  Andy Breckman performs “Tommy Two” with the Hot Hero Band.

2.5. Interview Segment: Dr. Tom Cottle interviews Pam Dawber and Coretta Scott King about how they played as a child.

2.6. Nightmare High Excuse of the Week with Nan-Lynn Nelson and Edwin Newman, NBC news anchor.

2.7. Interview Segment: Christopher Reeve on growing up without TV and comic books.

2.8. Ym and Ur Segment: Paul O’Keefe and Denny Dillon: Ym and Ur discuss their ages, war, cults, football (sort of), countries, and peace (a short period of time between wars).

2.9. Interview Segment: Jimmy McNichol discusses the difficulty of moving to different schools. Due to a malfunction with the VTR, the end of the interview is lost.


2.10. Interview Segment: Dr. Tom Cottle Interviews Pam Dawber and Jimmy McNichol on how they rebelled as teens.

2.11. Sketch:  Teen Trial. Never come home late! Matt McCoy with parents Claudette Sutherland and Andrew Duncan face Judge Frankie Faison.

2.12. Music Performance: The Little River Band performs “Lonesome Loser.”


2.14. Interview Segment: Dr. Tom Cottle interviews Christopher Reeve about the communication problems when dealing with your parents.


2.15: Interview Segment: Dr. Tom Cottle interviews Christopher Reeve and Jimmy McNichol about the impact of divorce, remarriage, and frequent moves on children.

2.16. Sketch: Living in a Suitcase: Cast member L. Michel Craig delivers a monolog about how the effects of frequent moves on a child can last into young adulthood. Also features some groovy 70s animation at the end.

2.17. Sketch: Don’t Sell the Van Ted! The gang tries to convince Ted (Paul O’Keefe), the Hot Hero CafĂ© owner, not to sell the Hot Hero Van.


2.18. Interview Segment: Dr. Tom Cottle interviews Coretta Scott King and Pam Dawber discuss their experiences about the fear children can have for the safety.

2:19. Animation Segment: Flying to Bermuda. A young girl narrates the animation of her dream flying to Bermuda. When the plane crashes she goes on adventures, but they're saved and everything works out at the end because she likes happy endings.

2.20. Interview Segment: Christopher Reeve discusses the impact of divorce on him. The sound cuts out for 17 seconds in the beginning before resuming. When the sound picks up, Reeve reveals how he used his first Broadway appearance to bring his family back together again.

2.21. Music Performance: The Little River Band, “It’s Not a Wonder.” 
 




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Saturday, August 17, 2024

Hot Hero Sandwich Archives: St. Louis Post-Dispatch Television Cover, Feb. 17-23, 1980

by G. Jack Urso

While Hot Hero Sandwich didn’t make the covers of TV Guide, it did land a cover in TV Week, Nov. 4-10, 1979, as well as the cover of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch issue of Television for the week of Feb. 17-23, 1980, which we see here. While the St. Louis, MO, market is an important one, it didn’t do Hot Hero Sandwich much good since by February the series had been cancelled several weeks earlier in January and was already in repeats. The rebroadcast for this week was episode 5 with celebrity interviews with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and actress Michael Learned.

 


                         
 

Friday, August 9, 2024

Hot Hero Sandwich Project Archives: TV Guide Covers

by G. Jack Urso
 

In researching and creating the first-ever episode guide for Hot Hero Sandwich, I acquired TV Guides covering the weeks Hot Hero Sandwich aired. While Hot Hero Sandwich wasn’t featured on any TV Guide covers during its run, it did have a feature story written up about why the show didn’t catch on with viewers in the Mar. 29-Apr. 4, 1980, issue (see Aeolus 13 Umbra: Hot Hero Sandwich: The Late 70s TV Teen Scene). A look at the covers reveals what was percolating to the top of American pop culture between Nov. 10, 1979 and Jan. 26, 1980, the dates of the original run of the series, and the Mar. 29-Apr. 4, 1980 issue.

                 Nov. 10-16, 1979                       Nov. 17-23, 1979                     Nov. 24-30, 1979

                 Dec. 1-7, 1979                           Dec. 8-14, 1979                        Dec. 15-21, 1979

                 Dec. 22-28, 1979              Dec. 29, 1979-Jan. 4, 1980                Jan. 5-11, 1979

        
                 Jan. 12-18, 1979                       Jan. 19-25, 1979                   Jan. 26-Feb. 1, 1979

Mar. 29-Apr. 4, 1980

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