"Animals" on American Dreams

steve_hall · Post by **steve_hall** » Fri Feb 28, 2003 2:22 pm

I was watching my local NBC station and saw a flash of the ad for Young Dick Clark's new series American Dreams. They usually have some special guests appearing as a '60s group on Am. Bandstand. This week the "Animals" are appearing. I saw a quick shot of a someone that appears to be a strutting Eric Burdon and Hilton Valentine playing "Boom, Boom" on Rick MG 360/370. Has anyone seen this yet? It may be worth a glmpse.

steve_hall · Post by **steve_hall** » Fri Feb 28, 2003 2:29 pm

The show airs on Sunday nights at 8 or 9 (I think). I usually don't watch the show because like everything else Clark does, it seems kind of corny or "rose-colored". Like I said though, this might be worth a look. At least it offers a glance at a band that has been largely forgotten in the shuffle of today's bubble gum pop.

jwilli · Post by **jwilli** » Fri Feb 28, 2003 4:49 pm

This is very cool! While I was in LA last Jan., this show requested correct era instruments from Jim Eleyea's shop "History For Hire". Nick Thiel helped find the correct instruments. I'll have to check out the show.

steve_hall · Post by **steve_hall** » Sun Mar 02, 2003 4:10 pm

Just saw the show. I apologize, it was a 360 FG O.S. that they were using for Hilton. It was cool. The song "Boom, Boom" is a fine example of the Bluesy uses and tones you can get from Rics. They captured a lot of the essence of the Animals' music along with the look. It was an interesting episode. I'm going to start having to watch the show more often, not just for the music.

joe_hardman · Post by **joe_hardman** » Sun Mar 02, 2003 4:28 pm

Wouldn't either a Rose Morris model 1997 six string or 1993 twelve string have been more appropriate?

http://www.hiltonvalentine.com/

admin · Post by **admin** » Sun Mar 02, 2003 5:11 pm

There of photos of Hilton Valentine and Rickenbackers here.

steve_hall · Post by **steve_hall** » Tue Mar 04, 2003 8:34 am

I guess they didn't think any discriminating Rick fans were watching to see if the gear setup of the "mockups" was absolutely correct

. At least they got the correct era Rick in there. I give Mr. Clark credit for that. Thank you Pete for the photos, they help quite a bit for comparison.

beatlesgear · Post by **beatlesgear** » Sun Mar 09, 2003 11:07 am

Yeah, an RM export model would have been more correct, but Jim didn't have F hole model in stock and we had about an hour to find everything for that order. Aside from the Ric, we needed the Vox organ, Epi bass and Ludwig drum kit. That prop house is a real trip, it's like 40,000 square feet anything you can imagine.

beatlesgear · Post by **beatlesgear** » Sun Mar 09, 2003 12:37 pm

I forgot to mention that there were only two choices of Ric guitars in stock that were finished in fire-glo, it was going to be either a mid '60s round top 360/12 or a mid '80s 360/12V64. So, it had to be the reissue because it was closest thing to a 1993 or 1997. Knowing how they shoot things on the show, there was the slight gamble in our minds that nobody was even going to see the hole long enough to figure it out. That's the problem with TV, the budgets are a little weak compared to films, so they are going for maximum bang for their smallers dollars. They called in the morning and said, "we need the animals...we'll be by in a few hours to pick the stuff up." If it were a flick and a little more time was given, it wouldn't have been any problem finding all of the right gear. Jim has already interviewed Hilton for his upcoming book, it's always a bonus when you've had access to one of the guys too, lol.

I haven't seen this episode, so I don't even know how it turned out, I'd love to see how they shot it. Do they rerun their episodes?

joe_hardman · Post by **joe_hardman** » Sun Mar 09, 2003 4:39 pm

["I haven't seen this episode, so I don't even know how it turned out"]

Like so many efforts that attempt to recreate past events, collectibles, etc., accuracy and attention to detail fell short. For those of us who experienced the 60's first hand, the saying "close, but no cigar" sums up American Dreams.

anonymous · Post by **anonymous** » Sun Mar 09, 2003 6:33 pm

I hope you're not going to tell me that "Happy Days" was wrong too, lol. So if I read this right, you're saying that "American Dreams" is to television, what the Wisconsin 325 clone is to Beatle guitar collectors?

"close, but no cigar"

anonymous · Post by **anonymous** » Mon Mar 10, 2003 5:05 am

Attempts to replicate the past always seem to fall short, which is why there is no substitute for the real thing. The use of inaccurate props is often annoying and can detract from the story line, which was the case in "The Buddy Holly Story". Instead of a 50's sunburst Stratocaster, a Telecaster was used. A major distraction for anyone who was even remotely familiar with Buddy Holly. In the case of The Animals, probably less than 1/100 of 1 percent of the world population knows their guitar player used a Rickenbacker product and as Stephen has already pointed out above, only "discriminating Rick fans" will know.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Wed Jun 11, 2003 6:03 pm

I have seen pictures of Chas Chandler with a Gibson EB-2, I had one and used to get the exact It's my life tone on it.

dave4004 · Post by **dave4004** » Wed Jun 11, 2003 7:14 pm

I only saw Chas with an Epi Rivoli, which was essentially the same bass as an EB-2 with an Epiphone nameplate.

iamthebassman · Post by **iamthebassman** » Thu Jun 12, 2003 6:37 am

I'm a Chas fan and have seen pictures of him with an Epi but mostly the Gibson. Speaking of "American Dreams", did anyone see the one where "The Kinks" were portrayed? I imagine that episode was discussed here somewhere since the "Peter" played a Ric.