Category Archives: My Weekly Spock

My Weekly Spock – Mr. and Mrs.

I came across these lovely pictures of Leonard and Susan (Bay) Nimoy at the premiere of Star Trek: Into Darkness last May.  Married over 2 decades and obviously still crazy about each other;Leonard+Nimoy+Star+Trek+Premieres+Hollywood+gj_J3FBzBlDl Leonard+Nimoy+Star+Trek+Darkness+Premieres+cqEcFKghvlbl Leonard+Nimoy+Star+Trek+Premieres+Hollywood+B4l8LoM0fTol Leonard+Nimoy+Star+Trek+Premieres+Hollywood+8pPaMxsNT1Cl Leonard+Nimoy+Star+Trek+Premieres+Hollywood+7k50T3_knkBl you can see the love. Sweet.

My Weekly Spock – Football season! Nimoy in Francis Goes to Westpoint (1952)

I admit, I am not into football at all.  I have no idea who the top teams are,  I don’t do fantasy football teams, couldn’t care less about who wins the Superbowl,  but this is a game I’d watch! (Nimoy in Francis Goes to Westpoint 1952)  The guy on the left has a perfect Jim Kirk hairdo…

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Hey, that gives me an idea…

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And here’s Nimoy’s key scenes:

My Weekly Spock — How’s THIS for a meeting of minds?

Mr. Nimoy posted this on his Twitter feed this past week — Wow! I think if these three men ruled the world it would be a happier place!  Could you three at least do a Shakespeare play together? 🙂

stewart nimoy mckellanHere’s the full tweet–Sweet! :

My Weekly Spock 9/23/13 Nimoy on The Captain and Tenille Show (1976) (Photos and Video)

Hey Kids,

In the waning years of the weekly Variety Show format Mr. Nimoy appeared as a guest star on the short-lived Captain and Tenille Show.  For you youngsters out there, a Variety Show was a weekly entertainment broadcast which usually featured comedy skits and musical numbers.  The closest thing we have today is Saturday Night Live.  The Captain and Tenille were best known for their hit song “Love Will Keep us Together” (Never one of my favorites)  and the producers at ABC figured this was enough to qualify them for their own variety show.  The result is, well…I’d still take this any day over Miley Cyrus!  Nimoy appeared in several skits here, the best (in a very nice blue suit) as “Alistair Bannister”, the host of “Masterjoke Theater”* where he performs the running joke that every guest host would  do;  ending the skit with a pie in the face. He also does a Shatner-Style ballad/poem with the couple.   I give him credit for being able to laugh at himself, and any TV appearance he made was welcome by me! Here’s his skits:

You can buy the whole series here. (It’s episode 5)

*Masterjoke Theater was C&T’s version of the much loved Masterpiece Theater with Alistair Cooke.

My Weekly Spock: Singing Nimoy

There was a strange compulsion in the era of 60s and 70s AM radio to make singing stars out of celebrities not known for singing.  Richard Chamberlain, Noel Harrison, William Shatner,Telly Savalas and of course, Leonard Nimoy, all fell into this camp. (Chamberlain actually wasn’t too bad).   I never became aware of Nimoy’s vocal contributions until I joined the LNAF in the 1970’s, and I remember actually buying a couple of his albums for fun.  Yet I couldn’t actually bring myself to listen to them.  Rhino Records compiled many of these recordings into their “Golden Throats” collection; it’s the type of stuff you’d hear on NPR’s Annoying Music Show.

Now to be fair, Nimoy did do a few musicals in the 70’s (Camelot, The King and I, and My Fair Lady) but alas, I’d rather hear his speaking voice on vinyl!  Here’s some covers:

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My Weekly Spock (8/26/13) — Leonard Nimoy on The Flip Wilson Show

I recall way, way back when this first aired, (1974) I was not aware that Nimoy was a guest on The Flip Wilson Show that week, and I remember passing through the channels that night just in time to hear Flip Wilson say “…and thanks to my special guest, Mr. Leonard Nimoy!”  My pubescent heart screamed “Nooooooooo!”  (We had been watching  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn on the other channel)  and it didn’t occur to me that there might be a rerun of this Flip the following summer (this was in the before-times of no DVRs, On Demand,  Hulu, Netflix, or even VHS).

I was happy to see this skit some many years later on TVLand, but even this was an edited version of the original 60 minute broadcast  (Mr. Wilson had personally edited down his original show to 30 minute segments for syndication)  I know there were other skits on the show involving Nimoy, (for I had read about them in my LNAF Yearbook).  But these other skits may have been lost to posterity — I hope somewhere they still exist!  For now, enjoy these stills from the opening act of Flip!, where Flip wonders where the ear points are, and Nimoy goes into total Spock mode! The skit ends with Flip’s famous version of the High Five,(including the bump) – and of course, a Vulcan nerve pinch!

You can see the whole skit here.

My Weekly Spock 8/19/13 Night Gallery “She’ll be Company For You”

In a 1972 episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, Nimoy played Henry Auden, a recent widower who isn’t too upset that his invalid wife Margaret has passed away.  Although he loved her, he can’t help feeling mildly relieved at his  freedom from his constant care of his late wife.  A creepy friend of Margaret’s gets him a cat who’ll ‘be company for him’, but Henry is slowly driven crazy between still hearing the bell his wife used to ring, and a sneaking suspicion that this little kitty is actually a wild cat out to kill him…  The episode also co-starred Kathryn Hayes, whom Trek fans will recognize as “Gem” from The Empath (I always like it when actors get to work more than once together in different venues).  Here, they argue and almost kiss. (It always seemed to be ‘almost’ or no kissing for Nimoy whenever he appeared in these ’70’s shows;  maybe the TV execs were afraid his fans would simultaneously combust a the sight…)  Even though Nimoy’s character here wasn’t the nicest, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for his fate.  Ironically, Nimoy’s always been an animal lover in reality, but not here!

My Weekly Spock 8/12/13 “Kid Monk Baroni” Part II

Here’s the rest of my stills from Kid Monk Baroni – Enjoy!

Baroni’s bummed at being ‘the gorilla’ who’s always beaten up in the ring, so Baroni’s girlfriend Emily helps him to get plastic surgery and boom- he’s Mr. Charming! But the good looks turn him into a jerk too — he cheats on Emily with floozie June,  and is too afraid to fight hard and wreck his pretty face!  He agrees to fight dirty to make ends meet again, but in the end, loses the fight but wins the respect of his old pal (Jimmy Olsen!–that is, Jack Larson as Angelo) and gets his girlfriend back.  Unfortunately, we only hear that he’s married his girlfriend, and the final scene is spent on silly sight gag of one of his former gang members who liked to hide stuff in his long coat!

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Baroni (and his astonishingly narrow hips) with his crooked manager

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Girlfriend Emily loves him for what he is

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But encourages him to get plastic surgery anyway, for his own happiness

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So he gets the surgery

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And he…

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gets,,,

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Gorgeous

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And immediately sets his sights on…

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…slutty cigarette girl June.

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blows all his money on her…

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Reluctantly agrees to fixed fight with his manager

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He likes what he sees…

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Uh…what was I saying?

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On with the fight

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mouth protector

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Not looking good for the home team…

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Friends to the end

My Weekly Spock 8/5/13 Kid Monk Baroni Part I

Nimoy’s first truly starring role: Kid Monk Baroni (1952)

All in all, not a bad picture – and a fine performance by a young actor still (pardon the pun) learning the ropes!  (and a big step up from Zombies of the Stratosphere. Nimoy plays a young gangster in the streets, Paul Baroni, who’s called “Monk” by his pals, short for ‘Monkey’ for his facial deformity.  Paul feels an outcast for his looks, but the friendly priest from the local church  gets him into boxing and Paul finds himself an amateur welterweight.  He’s still shy and self conscious of his looks, but he meets a nice girl who loves him for himself. His nasty manager wants him to fight dirty.  Yet Paul is still insecure and wants to quit the ring.  Will he find happiness?  Stay tuned for next week’s installment!

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My Weekly Spock 7/29/13 Zombies of the Stratosphere! (1952)

zombiescoverLet’s start at the very beginning, shall we?  Mr. Nimoy goes to Hollywood–he’s gonna be a star! Well, not just yet…And even though he’s seen prominently in the movie posters for the Republic Serial, Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952) (a.k.a.Satan’s Satellites), he’s not mentioned in the cast list there! (A remastered colorized DVD version remedies this great mistake!) Original black and while stills here, as well as highly colorized screen caps from the DVD. Gotta give the man credit for following his dream!  And it gave him practice to be an arch-eyebrowed- second-in-command member of a  spaceship!

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That’s Nimoy (as Narab) on the far left -yep, those are really secure seats!

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An original poster for zombies…

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And the still it was based on… Leonard is only 21 here! (bless him!)

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Now look menacing!

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I had a terrible dream I was in an awful serial… oh, right…

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*sniff!* I just wanted a decent speaking part!

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But where’s the Gamesters of Triskellion?

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You know it’s a bum rap when you have to carry the director’s luggage…

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Nimoy finally gets credit for this movie–(but would probably be okay without it!)

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