Ahhh, memories!

It looks like this might be my last post of 2007. Maybe. For the next week, we will be pretty busy with family and get togethers, and all that holiday stuff. Who knows. If I get something really good I will post it, but I don't know. In advance, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to you all!

Been wanting to post some of these old guidance films that are found on the Internet Archive-www.archive.org/ I love this site! It is known for being a little slow, (tonight it was moving a little better than it had been so maybe they got a better server) but hey its a non-profit so give it a break! Its so interesting to see all the photos, clips, and documents of American history. Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Archive gives a great synopsis of all that this interesting site has to offer. I usually head to the "Moving Images" link and check out the Prelinger Archives or the Ephemeral Films link, then AV Geeks. I love to see how norms were presented of American life, (even when I don't think many people living life in the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's followed some of these extreme prudish, militaristic, ultra-strict, and homophobic morality codes). Is it my imagination, or did the same guy with the "smokers throat" narrate all those 40's and 50's social guidance films?!
I can laugh watching these films without a narrator mocking them, but with the treatment these types of films get from MST3K, it makes them that much more funnier! It's too bad the show isn't on anymore, and their website's not too great-no clips of them mocking old dumb movies! Instead, go to YouTube to find MST3K clips.

As a former classroom teacher, (I am still a teacher-just now as an itinerant one) I find the films about education very interesting, and above all, hilarious because of the extreme beliefs about children's conduct for the times. Like this one. We can talk all day about how now kids are out of control in our public schools, but I think this film supposes an unattainable example of classroom environment!
(I had trouble embedding from IA, so I got these at YouTube.)



Crazy film about the "dangers" of gay men.




I remember a great sketch comedy show in the vein of SNL called Fridays on ABC that ran in the 1980's. As a teenager watching it, I thought it was great because it was the "bad boy" of TV sketch comedy compared to what was then the "old man" of SNL. It was edgy, and had some pretty pointed social commentary for a show that ran on ABC. It also had some great musical guests like the Pretenders, The Boomtown Rats and The Plasmatics. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fridays www.tvparty.com/80fridays.html
Here are some of my favorite clips from the show. (although I think there are some others that were good that I could not find)

*YT took off the Ronnie Horror Picture Show clips-here are some other ones:

Here are a couple of comics for the remaining days of 2007.

Related Tags: Internet+Archive social+guidance+films history TV+shows Fridays comics