Pinball In The Media - Jericho S1E20 Casus Belli

[Pintrepid]

Whenever I see pinball tables in various media, in this case, TV, I always like to know what table it is, and whether I've seen or played it anywhere IRL before.

In this case, this scene comes from the TV Series Jericho, S1E20 Casus Belli. Mary Bailey and Johnston Green are having a moment in her bar after Johnston helped her fix her still.

And here is this lil' ol' pinball table behind them. It's been bothering me for awhile now, as I've been watching the Season 1 episodes on Netflix, and this table has appeared in several episodes so far. And I thought, Damn, this is just depressing! Pinball and a post-apocalyptic scenario just don't mix. Poor pinball table! I don't think I've even seen it lit ... they had power at this bar, but only intermittently, and on a generator, and on a very limited basis at that. A generator would not have enough power for pinball ... not unless you had a really desperate pinball addict drop by with a whole pallet of booze or a truckload of gas or something like that!

So what table is this?

At first glance, as the scene pans by it rather quickly, I thought maybe Gottlieb's Spirit of 76. But no, the side panels on that table have a red paint scheme with white stars. This table has a white scheme with red and blue designs. My next thought was Gottlieb's Pioneer ... but no, same thing, the side panels do not match. Bally's Freedom? Nope!

Then I opened my eyes and started actually LOOKING at the screen capt ... something to do with a 50s style car! On the backglass, that's definately a car that appears like it just drove up. The grill and front tire are clearly visible. There's a person standing on the passenger side of the car. There's also a large white rectangle above the scene, I assume for the scoring reels. The background of the backglass is a large dark blue circle. A side view of the car appears on the cabinet. And there's a circular red and blue design on the front of the cabinet to the right of the coinbox.

Anyone know what table this is??? I'm guessing it's an older Gottlieb table, possibly from the early 60's.

[Itchigo]

This is earlier than that, I'm guessing Chicago Coin, by the looks of the door.

[Pintrepid]

Ahhh, dammit, this is a tough one.

Itchigo says that this might be a Chicago Coin machine. He thinks the coin door looks like that style of machine.

What really gets me is that this machine features that CAR so prominently. The car's in the foreground, front and center. Some cocky kid is sprawled across the hood of the car. The grille of the car should be a dead giveaway, but I can't place it! Not sure who's standing to the left of the car, but I think that's a girl. The background appears to be a crowd looking on.

So ... either this is some kind of car-show-themed table, or something to do with racing.

That car is the key! Figure out what model car that is and it should tell me what table this is!!!

The search continues ... stay tuned ...

[Pintrepid]

Thanks to yukiko1701d, on VPF, for ID-ing this phantom machine for me!  ;D

It's "Memory Lane" by ... and I never would have guessed this one ... STERN!
Memory Lane 1978 Stern IPDB #1570

I thought I knew most of the late EM and early SS Stern tables.

There were a few Stern tables that I played IRL back in the day. I played Stingray in front of the cinemas at Mt Farms Mall, Hadley MA after watching the original Star Wars in '78. I played Meteor extensively while stationed at Chanute AFB near Rantoul, IL in '80. I also played Sea Witch at the Norfolk Naval Shipyards while my ship, USS Iwo Jima LPH-2, was being overhauled there in '81.

And since discovering VP in 2008, I discovered several more tables that I'd missed in my Arcade Days. I would really like to have played Star Gazer on the real machine; it would have become one of my favorites, like Meteor. I love Ezepov's Lectronamo and Stars VP9 tables; I would have mistook both these tables for Gottlieb's back in the day. And I can thank dear Itchigo  ;) for introducing me to one of the strangest, yet compelling in the finest early Stern tradition, tables I'd ever see, Quicksilver!

But I never would have guessed, from the clues I've seen in Jericho, that this was a Stern table. I looked up all the Chicago Coin tables, as Itchy had suggested, but no dice. I was about to search through all the many Gottlieb tables of the 60's, thinking that this table was probably from that era.

But thankfully yukiko1701d saved me from hours and hours of searching through all that! *-Phew!-*

Thanks and cheers to yukiko1701d.  I know who to call the next time I find an obscure table in the media somewhere.

[faralos]

I also went bonkers looking up each and every Chicago Coin IPDB entry
trying to locate that image of the car!
Stern eh? I never would have guessed that

HEY PINTREPID you were stationed at Chanute?
 I was there in '83 (jet mech school)
Lovely place...so much corn!!
reminded me of Gatlin county (Children of the Corn)

[Itchigo]

I've been to Chanute too. Not in the service but when I was over the road I used to pick up production automotive parts from the company that bought the land that the base was on and turned it into a company. Conceiveably, I could have hualed the parts for the very car I drive. I hauled for Ford, Chevy and Chrysler in about 1994, and I drive a 1995 Ford.

[Pintrepid]

Heh! Wouldn't you know ...
 
In going back through the Jericho episodes, I found this image in S1E05 Federal Response. It seems the pinball came back to life with everything else when the feds restored power. Heh! The things you miss if you ever blink ...


RE: Chanute ...

Very cool place. I liked all the planes they had all over the place. They even had a B-52 bomber there, all the historic jet fighters and even a couple of rockets.

Too bad I missed my calling .... should have realized then that I wanted to be Air Force instead of the Navy ... might even have gone all the way and learned to fly.

Anyway, Chanute was REAL good for the coin-op operators! They had pins and games EVERYWHERE, the local restaurant, the cinema, the bowling alley, the PX ... pretty much anywhere they could shove a table or two.

Laserball, Firepower, Blackout by Williams.

Meteor by Stern.

KISS, Playboy, Silverball Mania, Space Invaders, Mystic by Bally.

Countdown, Sinbad, Cleopatra, Close Encounters by Gottlieb.