Kermit Schafer Series: "ALL TIME GREAT BLOOPERS VOLUMES 5 & 6" (1977)

Want to revisit the first in this series of Kermit Schafer blooper releases? 100 SUPER DUPER BLOOPERS is reviewed and deconstructed here.

1977 marked the Silver Anniversary for producer Kermit Schafer and his bloopers.  As always, the Blooper Man was all over our existing media of the time to celebrate.  (Can you imagine what a born promoter like Schafer would have done with today's social media?)  A quarter century after the first Blooper LP sold over two million copies for Jubilee records in the early Fifties, Schafer released dueling multi-volume sets on K-Tel and MCA to mark the milestone year.

As I noted in reviewing the well-remembered K-Tel anthology 100 SUPER DUPER BLOOPERS Kermit had to keep it fairly clean on his releases for Philip Kives' wide-reaching company.  Only one in five bloopers on that set contained profanity and F-bombs were verboten.  

MCA apparently had fewer qualms: we get two of the latter in the first ten bloopers of this more raucous set. ALL TIME GREAT BLOOPERS VOLUMES 5 & 6 is also marginally more profane overall (closer to 25%), and commendably has far fewer repeat blunders from previous Schafer epics than Volumes 1 through 4 contained.  But the $64 question is: how authentic was Schafer this time around?  

If you'd like to follow along with me, the entire 49 minute two LP set has graciously been uploaded to YouTube:

VOLUME 5: SIDE ONE (0:00 TO 13:34)

1. 0:00 Bank Robbers 2. 0:37 Cash Register 3. 1:14 Pregnancy Report 4, 1:29 Telephone Interview 5. 2:15 No Smoking Please 6. 2:40 Jack Paar/Kaye Stevens 7. 3:22 Big Ben's Clock 8. 3:38 Candles 9. 4:23 News Report 10. 4:36 Crank Up 11. 5:08 Chesterfields 12. 6:36 Pope 13. 7:20 Farmer's Crop 14. 7:38 Engelbert Humperdinck 15. 7:27 Micro-organism 16. 8:43 Bread Baker 17. 9:06 Betrayed 18. 10:40 Twilight Time 19. 11:10 Technical Difficulties 20. 11:23. BBC Soccer 21. 12:02 Northwest Orient Airlines 22. 12:11 Georgia Peach 23. 12:29 Telephone Interview

FAKES/RE-CREATIONS: 1, 2, 5, 7, 9, 15, 20

THE REAL DEAL: 3, 4, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 17, 23

1. held up "a bank" this morning.  Ever NOT hear the bank identified by the newscaster?

2. The first appearance on this 2-LP set by the male contestant, but not the last; sure sign of a "re-creation"

3. Governor Rockefeller's veto took place on May 14, 1972.

5. As much as I want to believe this one, the actress pops up elsewhere on this record.

Sammy Davis Jr. with Kaye Stevens

6. Kaye Stevens lost her virginity on Jack Paar's TONIGHT SHOW on November 17, 1961.

7. This actress pops up elsewhere on the record also.

8. Candle Grove was located at 3066 Grand Avenue in the Cocoanut Grove section of Miami, Florida.  Schafer seemed to have tons of Florida-centric bloopers on his later albums after moving his headquarters to Coral Gables in 1965.

10. Van Morrison's VEEDON FLEECE was released in October 1974, charting at # 53 in Billboard.

11. This one is legendary, probably tied with Side 4's Ma Bell Satire for number of listens by 12 year old me back in the day.  It's from 1958, and HERE you can hear it back to back with the Chesterfield Kings commercial being parodied.  The announcer is Jackson Beck.

13. Well, FWIW, Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia is known for its apples.  

14. That Liberace Show from London was a 1969 series of specials.  Diller, Gilliam, Pearl and Benny all appeared, but not in the same show.  Here's Benny on the show:

17. BETRAYED was released September 7, 1954.  This is one of many from this record to get a standalone YouTube post.

20. The "girlfriend" pops up elsewhere.  "Rodney" might have been authentic before that.

VOLUME 5 SIDE 2 (13:35 to 24:43)

1. 13:35 Whoopie John 2 14:04 Election Results 3 14:15 President Ford 4. 14:42Showers Forecast 5. 14:50 Soap Opera 6. 15:11 Pre-marital 7. 15:34 Robin Hood 8. 15:53 Running Man 9. 16:05 Duc Fo/Vietnam 10: 16:38 Roger WIlliams 11. 16:50 Assembly Line 12. 17:25 Sam Snead 13. 17:53 Flight Bags 14. 18:22 Wally's Hit Parade 15. 18:58 Gunsmoke

FAKES/RE-CREATIONS: 3, 6, 7, 9, 13, 14

THE REAL DEAL: 1, 8, 10, 11, 12, 15

1. "Whoopie John" Wilfahrt (1893-1961) understandably tended to withhold his last name from his professional moniker during a career that included recordings of 1,000 polka songs.  Gotta put a face with the name, though, right?

2. David Dick (1930-2010) was a CBS correspondent from 1966 to 1985.

3. Maybe she's really a "streetwalker", eh?  Sounds a little too forced to be real IMO.

4. Between Whoopie John, Cedric Adams and this one, we seem to have a lot of Minnesota material for some reason.

6. Re-creation.  I don't doubt that it happened, but this ain't Bob Eubanks and "our newlywed game" is suspect. 

8. This blooper also made it onto 100 SUPER DUPER BLOOPERS, the only one to appear on both records.

9. In Schafer's posthumously published 1979 BLOOPER TUBE book, Peter Jennings' photo accompanies this one--but the actor here is heard elsewhere on the record (such as the Fulton Lewis Jr. blooper below) While this is definitely a re-creation, a Marine patrol did indeed liberate a V.C. prison camp near Duc Pho on July 23, 1967.

10. Roger Williams tinkled on that Don Knotts Special on Thursday, October 26, 1967 at 8 PM ET on CBS.  Andy Griffith and Juliet Prowse were also in the cast.

12. This one was fun to determine.  Pinehurst hosted the PGA Club Professional Championship from 1971-1974.  Sam Snead played each year sans 1973, winning in 1971, but he only had a 141 after the second round in the tournament's final year there.  This blooper was heard on October 26, 1974.  Sam just couldn't piss up a shot at that $16,500 first prize, and held a two stroke lead after round 3, but Roger Watson caught Snead at the end of regulation and vanquished old Sam on the first playoff hole.  Sammy had to settle for the $9,000 runnerup money.  

13. Same soap opera actress from Side One's blooper?  

15. This legendary GUNSMOKE rehearsal was for "The New Hotel", which aired February 19, 1956 and starred William Conrad as radio's Matt Dillon.  The entire original recording is over twenty minutes long; even in this edited form, at 5:45 it is perhaps the longest cut on a Blooper LP.  Highly entertaining to hear Conrad, Parley Baer and Howard McNear cutting up.  The sponsor?  Ches-ter-fields!

Volume 6 Side ONE

1.24:43 Queen Victoria 2. 25:14 Mormon Choir 3. 25:36 Fulton Lewis, Jr. 4. 25:50 Atlantic City 5. 26:31 Football Players 6. 26:41 Cedric Adams Break Up 7. 28:47 Yassir Arafat 8. 29:03 Let's Make A Deal 9. 29:31 Queen Of The Blues 10. 29:50 Telephone Talk Show 11. 30:29 Queen's Royal Artillery 12. 31:05 Delicious Flavor 13. 31:32 Fire Fighters 14. 31:54 Coast Guard Break Up 15. 33:50 Suit Commercial 16. 33:59 Alan Courtney 17. 34:08 Paris Talks 18. 34:22 Stock Report 19. 35:23 Baseball Game 20. 35:26 Kissinger 21. 35:50 Brief Pause 22. 36:01 Locker Room

FAKES/RECREATIONS: 2, 3, 7, 17, 21, 22

THE REAL DEAL: 6, 14, 15, 16, 18

Mr. Junior shilling for The Lord in 1948

3. This actor is way overused on this set; also, too clean sounding for what would have been Lewis' era (he died in 1966).

6. Adams also had a memorable breakup on 100 SUPER DUPER BLOOPERS.

7. Another overused actor, the most common dead giveaway.

11. We sure end up at the BBC in England frequently this time. 

14. Special thanks to reader and fellow Blooper snooper Jodie Peeler (check out her Garroway at Large blog here) for locating this one that stumped yours truly.  The unfortunate Woodrow Weil was lost at sea off the Master Lee on Thursday, December 21, 1972 and apparently never found, judging from the follow up story in the Miami Herald 5 days later.   

16. Alan Courtney was an institution at WIOD for many years.  

18. This one had to occur on February 21, 1973, the only day I could find where the DJIA closed at 983.59, up 4.36.  I hope the newsman and Donna worked everything out.

20. Has to be from September 1973, when Kissinger was awaiting confirmation as SoS.

21. C'mon, Kermit, Sal Mineo wasn't even in THE BLACKBOARD JUNGLE!

22. The closers of this side and the next side are the most blatant fabrications here.  "How does it feel to be the World Series winner?"

Volume 6 Side Two

1. 36:22 Hi Ho Silver 2. 36:46 NBC News 3. 37:31 President Ford 4. 38:13 Ma Bell Satire 5. 39:52 Watergate 6. 40:03 Sportscaster 7. 40:52 Cisco Kid 8. 42:37 Basketball Score 9. 42:54 Soap Opera 10. 43:23 World Cup Soccer 11. 43:49 Kissinger 12. 44:12 Dial Operation 13. 44:29 Lost News 14. 44:45 Art Linkletter 15. 45:41 Game Show 16. 46:02 Information Please 17. 46:12 Aretha Franklin 18. 46:37 Ural Mountain Question 19. 47:01 Lohengrin 20. 47:40 Ruptured Disc 21. 47:51: Bozo No No

FAKES/RE-CREATIONS: 1, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21

THE REAL DEAL: 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 14, 

2. The date? February 24, 1965, a Wednesday.  Hopefully someone can help me identify the painless announcer.

3.  Gerald Ford played the Inverary Classic from February 27 to March 1, 1975.  

4. 12 year old me thought this was the bomb.  Sure wish I could find more background information on it.  And no, that isn't Rod Serling.

Jack Mather and Harry Lang

7. Jackson Beck (1912-2004) was best known as the voice of Bluto, but the announcer from the Chesterfield's classic on Volume 5, Side One was also the star of the radio version of The Cisco Kid from 1942-1945.  Louis Sorin (ANIMAL CRACKERS) played Pancho.  Jack Mather and Harry Lang handled the roles from 1947-1956.  This doesn't quite sound like either duo to me, so...?

10. Kinda rare to get a C-bomb!  Assuming this one did happen, Manchester did indeed host World Cup Soccer matches July 13th, 16th and 20th in 1966.

14. A very common Art Linkletter question, which a couple of common answers from children.

19. Is documented to have really happened to Melchior at the Metropolitan Opera--in 1936. Recreated but true.  Melchior sang Lohengrin 105 other times between 1927 and 1950.

20. Mickey Redmond was shooting for a third straight 50 goal season in 1974-75.  He underwent that back surgery at University of Michigan hospital on December 18, 1974.  Unfortunately his back difficulties continued and he was out of the NHL at age 28 two years later.  Incidentally, that isn't much of a prediction, since he's going to miss 50 games of a 82 game season!

21. Shades of the notorious Uncle Don re-creation, and just as apocryphal.  

MOST VALUABLE BLOOPERS: To these ears, the top five: 1) Ma Bell Satire; 2) Chesterfield's; 3) Gunsmoke; 4) Betrayed; 5) Cisco Kid

Volumes 1 through 4 of this MCA set did a lot of recycling of the best known bloopers from Schafer's quarter century of goofs.  There's newer material throughout the last two volumes and several longer pieces.  As a result this one sounds fresher to 2020 ears, and provides a fascinating time capsule as always.   

THE FINAL TALLY:  Hopefully the readers can fill in some blanks for me this time.  28 out of 81 I have a question mark on.  For the rest I'm counting 27 authentic and 26 not, making this one more of a 50/50 proposition than 100 SUPER DUPER BLOOPERS which I felt was 65% the real deal.  As always, comments, suggestions and complaints welcomed.