On The Buses - "Stan's Worst Day"

ITV's long-running (at least, in British terms) sitcom On the Buses - shown here in memory of its star Reg Varney, who died on this day in 2008 at the age of 92 - was initially pitched to the BBC by its writers, Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney. The Beeb passed, giving ITV's London Weekend Television the chance to snatch up the property, from which 74 episodes were made in all. While the show was a critical flop, it was hugely popular with viewers - and not just in the UK either, but in Canada, Australia, and in the US.



Varney played bus driver Stan Butler, saddled with an obnoxious family and a job at a bus depot in the fictional London borough of Luxton made even more frustrating by an overbearing boss. Stan's mum was played in its first series by Cicely Courtneidge (and later, as here, by Doris Hare), his sister Olive by Anna Karen, and his brother-in-law Arthur by noted character actor Michael Robbins; at work, 'our Stan' traded quips with best friend and bus conductor Jack Harper (Bob Grant) and barbs with Inspector Cyril 'Blakey' Blake (Stephen Lewis).



This particular episode first aired on March 12th, 1972, as part of the show's sixth series; currently, the whole kit and kaboodle - all seven series! - are all available in a lavish DVD box set.


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Remembering... Reg Varney

Reg Varney - the popular star of the long-running British sitcom On the Buses and notable for being the first person in Britain to use an ATM, in June 1967 - died on this day in 2008; he was 92. Although best known for On the Buses Varney first became a household name for his part in another, earlier sitcom called The Rag Trade; both series were written by the writing team of Ronald Chesney and Ronald Wolfe.

After he'd done with TV, by the mid-70s, Varney toured the world with a cabaret act, and later a stage version of On the Buses, until ill-health forced him into retirement in the 1990s.
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"Let's Make Love And Listen To Death From Above" by CSS

Today's birthday wishes are for Carolina Parra, the guitarist and drummer for Brazil's foremost party band, CSS - which is short for Cansei der Ser Sexy (or 'got tired of being sexy'); as much as my cheeky sense of humour compels me to say 'girl, I know what you mean' I really don't.

The band, which formed in 2003, takes its name from Beyoncé, who was quoted in an interview as having said just that... Which just goes to show you that a mere mortal such as myself could never begin to fathom what errybody's favourite caramel love goddess has to go through.
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The Death of Edie Sedgwick

From the time they met in January 1965 until their friendship fell apart the following year, Edie Sedgwick was an integral part of Andy Warhol's inner circle; a model (born into a prominent family) whose career was nevertheless largely confined to editorial work, Sedgwick's introduction to Warhol by her friend Chuck Wein resulted in her film career, her enduring cult fame, and likely her early death. She quickly became a fixture at The Factory, that year appearing in (among many others) Vinyl, Poor Little Rich Girl, and most famously Chelsea Girls.

After her falling out with Warhol, Sedgwick moved into the notorious Chelsea Hotel; while living there she became entangled with Bob Dylan, who wrote Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat about her. Already a notorious drug addict, by 1969 she was being hospitalized for her condition (which, in the days before rehab, meant the psych ward - or, in the parlance of the times, 'the snake pit'); while incarcerated at one such facility she met Michael Post. As her health deteriorated, she moved back to California to be nearer to her family; it was there in July 1971 she married him.

Edie Sedgwick's happiness was to be short-lived; she died under mysterious circumstances just four months later.

The night before she died Sedgwick had taken only the pain killers she'd been prescribed and hadn't been drinking; before she went to bed her breathing had been laboured, but her husband didn't think anything of it, since she'd been a heavy smoker for years. She never woke up, dying at 9:20 AM on this day in 1971. She was 28.

Edie Sedgwick's final movie, Ciao! Manhattan, was released the year after her death; she has since been immortalized in song (Little Miss S by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians off their 1988 album Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars) and most famously portrayed onscreen by Sienna Miller, in the 2006 film Factory Girl. The biography of record is Edie: An American Biography by Jean Stein and George Plimpton, a book which is sadly out of print but one which Sienna Miller said was indispensible in helping her to inhabit the character she played.
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