And This Blog Loves Vic Mizzy

While attempting, with some difficulty, to process the recent passings of Sidney Poitier, Peter Bogdanovich and Betty White - a best of the best trio who accomplished numerous great things on and offscreen - we at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog pay tribute to stalwart composer of movie and television soundtracks: the one, the only Vic Mizzy, born Vittorio Mizzi in Brooklyn, New York on this day in 1916.



Those of us of a certain age immediately and emphatically link Vic Mizzy (January 9, 1916 – October 17, 2009) with his many catchy, witty and memorable TV show theme songs. First and foremost would be the theme song from The Addams Family.





Almost as beloved as the music from The Addams Family: Vic Mizzy's theme from Green Acres.



Vic Mizzy’s official website adds: Mizzy broke into television circa 1959, composing music for Shirley Temple's Storybook and the themes for Moment of Fear, Klondike and Kentucky Jones.

Not surprisingly, given his famous themes for Green Acres and The Addams Family, Vic was in demand, creating themes for the 1964–1965 comedy drama Kentucky Jones, Phyllis Diller's series The Pruitts of Southampton, The Double Life of Henry Phyfe, superhero spoof Captain Nice and The Don Rickles Show. Vic Mizzy is frequently erroneously credited for the 1972-1974 sitcom Temperatures Rising; music for that show was by Shorty Rogers.









Vic Mizzy.com adds: He also composed underscores for the television series The Richard Boone Show and Quincy, M.E., as well as for such television films as The Deadly Hunt (1971), Hurricane (1974), Terror on the 40th Floor (1974), The Million Dollar Rip-Off (1976) and The Munsters' Revenge (1981).




There are even PSAs and commercials featuring Mizzy's music.



After success as a composer of the aforementioned incredibly catchy themes for TV shows, Mizzy moved on to feature films. He scored several features produced by William Castle, including the Gothic ghost story The Spirit Is Willing and The Busy Body. Yes, that's right, while primarily associated with such chiller-diller features as House On Haunted Hill, 13 Ghosts and The Tingler, Castle also occasionally produced comedies, more in the vein of James Whale's The Old Dark House than The Bowery Boys Meet The Monsters.



The Busy Body is an offbeat and surprisingly funny vehicle for the gifted comedian from TV's Your Show Of Shows, Sid Caesar, supported by Anne Baxter and uber-villain (mainstay of film noir and westerns) Robert Ryan.



Vic Mizzy's best known work for movies would be his scores for five films starring Steve Allen Show and Andy Griffith Show comedian Don Knotts.







These include The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966), The Reluctant Astronaut (1967), The Shakiest Gun in the West (1968), The Love God? (1969) and How to Frame a Figg (1971).

Our favorite of the group remains The Love God, directed and wriiten by Nat Hiken. While not a box office hit, it holds up well all these decades later, due to the combo of 1960's period flavor and contributions by Knotts and co-stars Anne Francis and Edmond O'Brien. Mizzy's score is terrific.



Amother point of interest is that The Love God, like Knotts' subsequent role in the 1970's sitcom Three's Company, draws from the offscreen Don Knotts - a swingin' wild and crazy guy - as well as his ultra-nerdy onscreen persona. Pop culture vultures (and gluttons for punishment) double bill The Love God? with the flawed but funny Mike "Austin Powers" Myers misfire, a guilty pleasure. The Love Guru.

He also scored the feature films A Very Special Favor (1965), The Caper of the Golden Bulls (1967), Don't Make Waves(1967), The Perils of Pauline (1967) and Did You Hear the One About the Traveling Saleslady? (1968)


Prior to composing for movies and TV, Vic was based in New York City and collaborated with lyricists Irving Taylor and Manny Curtis on a series of pop hits for Doris Day, The Andrew Sisters, Bing Crosby, Louis Prima, Dinah Shore and other recording artists.











For more Mizzy, check out this YouTube playlist and the following excerpt from an interview with TelevisionAcademy.com, conducted by Karen Herman in Bel-Air, CA on March 29, 2004.



The Television Academy Foundation Interviews feature much of great interest to readers of this blog and substantial illumination of 20th century pop culture history.