The 1974

Not much to say about these rides, so let’s use the “74 days left” thing as an excuse to link to a bunch of YouTube videos of TV and movies from 1974. That’s right, it’s the blog post version of a clip show!

New TV for 1974

All shows in 1974 starred Angie Dickinson

While there are a ton of classic shows that premiered in 1974, I think everyone’s favorite moment of TV every week was when the little kid from Little House on the Prairie would eat it running down a hill in the opening credits.

“Let’s show her concussion every week! People will love it!”

Movies of 1974

If you want to see how much the variety of movies has narrowed in the last half century, just look at the trailers for some of the stuff you could have watched in a theater in 1974.

And the most popular science fiction film of all time:

I know there’s still a wide range of visual entertainment out there through television and streaming, but I do miss the days of going to a movie theater and discovering weird things in a dark room full of strangers.

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The Mystery of Mooncrest Drive

My main biking goal right now is to get ready for AIDS/LifeCycle, but I’m trying whenever possible to work in my “ride every street in the San Fernando Valley” project. I’m not quite two-thirds of the way done.

64.54%. Not bad, right? Looks pretty full.
The “untraveled” map tells the real story.

I’ve done nearly all of the flat areas that are close to home, so now I’m starting to get deeper into the twisty little streets in the hills. Sometimes that means I find weird stuff usually hidden from the hoi polloi who crawl around the floor of the valley. Yesterday’s discovery was Mooncrest Drive, where the Fancy Lads are unhappy to have their lives interrupted for the entertainment of the masses.

“These signs will stop them!”

I can’t figure out exactly what triggered these people so much that they’d go to the trouble of getting signs made, but I did find a couple of clues. The first was this article from last year that isn’t specifically about Mooncrest Drive, but features a 2020 picture of the street with the “FILMING NOT WELCOME” signs visible in the background.

“See? The signs are almost working!”

The problem is that it doesn’t say what production was filming, so that wasn’t much help.

Then I found this page on a Twin Peaks blog. I thought that might have been the source of the complaint, but Twin Peaks filmed four years earlier and the signs look newer. And the scene was so short that it would have wrapped before the neighbors had a chance to organize. Also, it was used for a nondescript scene featuring a very minor character, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a one day second unit shoot.

Everyone still talks about the scene where the nurse leaves the secretary’s house.

The only other thing I found was that Norman Lear used to live on Mooncrest Drive, but I have no idea if it was even this section of the street.

Brian could figure this out.

A couple of unrelated pictures!

Disney loves to find off model versions of their characters on a beat up truck selling “soft serve ream.”

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