Salute to Sneaky People
Airdate:
Thursday - November 9, 1972 (Airdate Confirmed)
WOR Show Original Airing
(NOTE ABOUT TIME REFERENCES: Since there are many different copies of shows out there from different sources, all time references are from the beginning of one single recorded copy, since various copies, depending on when the recordee started recording, had news at the beginning or shortened themes. The times would vary from copy to copy.)
First Spoken Line After Theme Ends
That's kind of a hard salute to make. . .
Show Description
[ Courtesy: GROK Summary - - ]
Unknown composers and King Kong
The unsung heroes who write 30-second commercial themes have a sardonic streak. In a studio next door, an oil company’s glossy “institutional” spot (sunrise, brave crews, public-service nobility) is scored with original music that quietly quotes the King Kong theme. The agency thinks it’s original; Shepherd hears the gag: no conglomerate wants to be Kong.
Sponsors are never in the room. He riffs Fu Manchu (jade eyes, snake pupils, foot-long nails, man-eating fungi, Seton Hall undergrad) as a House of Chan plug
A man in Florida flies a huge red kite painted “This hotel is a rotten, crummy fleabag” with an arrow pointing at the motel below.
Bumper-sticker war: “Think snow” vs. a guy who cuts him off with “Think slush.”
A seventh-grader’s letter: English teachers stage a pie fight in class. Mr. Gumpox argues about books, Mr. Oshenschlager “warns” Miss Stembottom, then Gumpox hits her with a chocolate cream pie. The kid swears it’s real; Shepherd figures it was a setup so the class would remember it forever.
In a fancy Chicago restaurant (79th floor, months-ahead reservations), a loud customer abuses the waiter. The waiter “accidentally” dumps a bowl of chocolate mousse on his head. The room howls; carbon tet won’t remove the humiliation.
A TV engineer and psych student in Cincinnati splices eight-frame bursts of hardcore porn into cheap late-night features (sentimental war pictures, singing cowboys). Viewers get a half-second flash they can’t quite place; ratings rise. One night he’s off, a bad splice freezes on a dirty frame, the engineer on duty is at coffee, and Cincinnati explodes. They never catch him; the station blames Hollywood. Shepherd links it to old talk of subliminal ads.
Sneaky people are everywhere—fake callbacks from “20th Century Fox,” nine practical jokes a day you never notice.
This Show
