Jan & Dean - On The Run 

Wow! What an incredibly great find. I've been a huge Jan & Dean fan since I was 7 years old and my parents bought me Jan & Dean's Golden Hits which was at least half covers of other artists hits. But I totally loved it and played it a thousand times. Pretty soon I had all their albums. I lived in Southern California so I was tuned right in to the surfin' hot rod scene. I liked the Beach Boys, but LOVED Jan & Dean. They were so much cooler and more fun. This would have been my favorite show if Jan hadn't had his accident and it had gone into production. I laughed a lot watching this, those guys had so much personality and strong character presence. Jan was one hell of a guy before his accident. He was signing t-shirts and photos at a concert I was at and I handed him my copy of the Ride the Wild Surf album and the original I Found a Girl 45 single. He wrote on the album Fun Time. I asked him if he would take the album with him and have Dean sign it. He said I can do better than that. He told the security guard standing there to unlock the big chain link gate and let me in. The guard said Are you sure? Jan motioned with his arm Let him in! Everyone crowded behind me waiting for autographs looked at me like Who's THIS guy? I walked with Jan to a big trailer they had and we went inside. Dean was in there with all the band members of Papa Doo Run Run. They were having cold bottled beers in between their double set that evening. Jan told Dean This is Denny. He's one of our biggest fans. Dean said Oh great and reached out to shake my hand with a very warm smile. Dean introduced the band members to me and they all said Hi, good to meet you. Then Jan said to Dean Look at what record he's got. I handed him the mint condition I Found a Girl in the paper sleeve. He said Wow, haven't seen this one in a long time. It was one their very first singles from 1959. Extremely rare in mint cond. in the sleeve. I asked Dean why were those words inscribed in the record. In the grooveless area where the numbers are inscribed were 4 single words. Dean said In those early days I went to watch them press our first records. I asked if I could write something in that clear area. They said Yeah, but it will be in every record as that's the master pressing. So I wrote in those 4 words. The 4 words were BARONS....FIJIS....A is P.....and one more that slips my mind at the moment. I asked him What do those words mean? He told me Well, the Barons was the name of our car club when we were teens. The Fijis was our college alma mater name. He told me the third one I can't recall then stopped at A is P. I said So what was A is P? He looked at Jan and they both got a big smile and burst out laughing. He said Well....that's kind of a private joke about one our producers at the time. And they both laughed again. He said All I can tell you is that I was commenting on the character of that producer. There were two producers at that time Lou Adler and Herb Alpert both names beginning with A, so it could have been about either one. Whatever it was I very happy to have brought back a fond and very humorous memory for my favorite singers of all time.........Jan & Dean.

So glad this has been posted. I knew about it but never thought I'd see it. ABC actually picked it up but Jan's accident ended that. It was zany and surreal enough to have caught on for at least a season or two. Great to see Hal Blaine as "Clobber". The Wrecking Crew were Jan & Dean's band throughout their Liberty era. Jan turned Brian Wilson on to them.

Grettle from the Sound Of Music!

Nice to see Jan and Dean at such a level of popularity. The concert scenes and a TV network banking on the potential workability of the series based on the duo was a testimony to their success at the time. Looking back, my memory of the time ( I was in 8th grade), and I seemed to believe that their star may have been fading at the time. Glad to be proven wrong. I thought so, because their last hit, a giant one, was the novelty song "The Little Old Lady From Pasadena", sung in their trademark surf style, with great harmonies (I LOVED the little musical interlude on that song)! For those who were around at the time, you would recall that the song was also a promotional commercial for the Dodge Charger, with Jan and Dean appearing regularly with a woman who looked to be in her 80's, who would peel off in the Charger like a bat out of hell. She was also on the cover of their album that included "The Luttle Old Lady..." hit. It was nice to revisit that era. Thank you for posting it.

4:50 .... Jan hopping down the airplane stairs on one leg with no hands and cast weighing down his other leg - pretty athletic maneuver for a musician / medical student.

Shame this never took off. Surprisingly good - though very surreal

Wow, I don't think I've ever seen anyone book it that fast on crutches before!

Great fun! A real time capsule of early 1966 American pop culture.

Lindsay, as talented as the Wrecking Crew was compared to Jan & Dean's vocals, Jan Berry's talent as an arranger and producer was not marginal. The Crew simply played what he told them to play.

Narrated by Vince Scully, still the voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers fifty years later!

It was SO bad that it was great!!!

It's ashamed that this pilot never took off.

Love how William Asher fit in the Mrs. (Elizabeth Montgomery) for a cameo!

I meant to continue, briefly. "The Little Old Lady From Pasadena" was their last big hit, in the fall of 1964. They released other records, such as "Popsicle", a song I personally liked, but which wasn't a big hit. So, nothing hit wise, in 1965 or 1966. Which is why, looking back, I thought their star was fading, (along with other factors, such as the British Invasion). This TV show proves me wrong. Of course, Jan's tragic accident would sideline their career, but at the time of this TV show, they were still on top!

wow ... Tommy Tedesco and the WHOLE Wrecking Crew backing up these marginally talented vocalists.

Hal Blaine de actor.......Jan was so cool!

Hal Blaine!

Director's cameo at 12:35 (William Asher). Director's wife's cameo at 14:40 (you know who).

16:00 Awe! That's sweet ! Sooooo 1960's(wonder why?) Very cute; oh , yeah, so is the video :-) How many ladies wish they could trade places with the little girl ?♥

This is a whacky take on their real lives. Jan was in fact in medical school and Dean was studying architecture at USC. Their day job of being rock stars did finance their continuing educations.

1966. Hmmm. I wonder who went to the San Diego Zoo first. Jan and Dean or the Beach Boys? My guess is Jan and Dean.

Vince Scully as the narrator .

What happened to Jan's leg?

Jan didn't let "a little thing" like a broken leg bother him. Broken leg?.....WHAT broken leg...?

The look on that blonde's face is priceless! I wonder if she was on some heavy drugs!

7:14 FANFARE

IT WAS A BROKEN LEG HIT BY A RUNAWAY DERAILED TRAIN FLAT CAR 22:14

appalling that they made Jan film this while still on crutches from a previous injury, which obviously needed more time to heal

14:22

beautiful chick beautiful silver polish

jan ended up in a near fatal crash!

harebrained

No plot!