I Love The 40's!!

So...pretty much what I said in the rant that capped off the last one, I guess...

So, when we left off, Superman had just premiered on the scene in Action Comics #1...

This immediately led to...

Superman #1

The book-

This was the first time a superhero had had his own named comics title.
We take this for granted now, but, this started it all off.

The history-

N/A

Supes was immediately followed the same year by....


Detective Comics #27, and Batman #1

The book-

Yep, from the beginning, Batman was never far behind ol' Supes.

They've been the yin and yang all along.

Note, how in the early days, he was called "The Bat Man".

So, that's where they got that from in the reboot that spawned "The Batman vs. Dracula".
Guess that universe was supposed to be a direct return to the Bob Kane days...

Anyhooo....

The history-

Whelp, I fast-forwarded Tarzan, Zorro, Buck, Flash, Shadow, etc, etc, etc, to modern times...

Okay, so, in the 60's, you had the Adam West Batman, and then, in 1977, when I was a kid, came...

...."The New Adventures of Batman", by Filmation, which was actually a continuation of the Adam West show, and even starred Adam West and Burt Ward in the key roles.

Then, it merged with Tarzan into "The Batman/Tarzan Adventure Hour", which would morph along the way, and lose Batman in favor of Zorro.

I missed Batman, but Zorro was cool too.

And, in 1979...

...dad gave me my very first comic, and it was Batman #307.

And the rest is history.


Marvel (Mystery) Comics

The book-

All right, so really, we're still in 1939 here...

But this, was really the birth of Marvel Comics.

The company was called Timely, but Marvel was their first book, and it introduced their first superheroes, The Human Torch, and The Sub-Mariner.

That second cover there is issue 4, just to show Subby.

The original Human Torch was an android, and Subby was...pretty much a misanthropic version of Aquaman before Aquaman.

And from the start, Marvel was edgy, like "Gladiator".
Sub-Mariner hated mankind, and Torch roasted people.

Later on, in the 60's, when Stan Lee revived the superheroes, he had Johnny Storm from Fantastic Four be a mutant human version of The Human Torch, and then Johnny located Prince Namor as a smelly bearded hobo with amnesia, and burnt off his beard, and showed him a mirror, and Namor was shocked back into his memory, became Sub-Mariner again, and found out humans had blown up Atlantis with H-Bomb tests, and hated humanity more than ever.

Later still, in the 70's, android Human Torch's scrapped body was located, his brain was essentially cold-rebooted (to use today's techno-jive parlance), losing his original personality forever, and he was upgraded with new powers, and turned into The Vision.

So, that accounted for everybody.

Well,...except for one other, but we'll get to him....

The history-

Well...I grew up a Marvel kid, more than DC, but...I've told all those stories....


Will Eisner's The Spirit

The book-

The first one to premiere in 1940.
And, the one book at the time to have an exceptionally good artist doing the thing!

He was the guy the other fellas in the business looked up to, and he's who The Eisner Award is named after.

Fast-forward to 2007, and Spirit became part of the DC Universe, first with a Batman crossover, and then...

...a stinky-winky movie a year later.

Well, at least poor Will didn't live to see it...


Meanwhile...

...Superman came to radio!

The show-

So, the radio show writers actually came up with a lot of Superman's backstory.

His childhood in Smallville, Kryptonite, The Daily Planet, lots of stuff.

And they had balls, they had Superman fight the fuckin' Klan.
See? Even back then, good people knew what assholes the Klan were.

The history-

N/A

Meanwhile...

....The Flash was premiering....

...as was Green Lantern...

....as was Captain Marvel...

They were all coming out of the woodwork.

And Captain Marvel was immediately given...

....the Republic Serial treatment.

Course, National/DC sued Fawcett for 12 years claiming their guy was a ripoff of Superman, and eventually, Fawcett gave in, they went under, and DC bought Captain Marvel.
And now, no one knows any better, they think he was always a DC guy.
If they know him at all.
Tch, lawyers again...

Meanwhile....

...in 1941, Timely/Marvel created Captain America!

And again with the balls, there's Cap punching fucking Hitler in his slobbedy chops right on the muthafuckin' cover....and we weren't even in the fucking WAR yet!

...I love it, I miss this level of pluck.

I dunno, Frank Miller thinks he's aping this kinda stuff with "Holy Terror", but, fuck off, you missed your spot, "24", did all that anti-Muslim pro-torture shit already.
Too slow, old man.
Too slow.

Anyhoo...

The history-

So, yeah, Stan Lee also revived Cap in the 60's by having him frozen in the arctic, and thawed back out, and this has been updated in the latest movie.

As for my personal Cap stories, I told 'em all here.


Meanwhile...

...still 1941, Wonder Woman premiered in "All-Star Comics #8".

Course, up there is "Sensation Comics #1", her first cover feature.

But man, imagine that, woulda?
from 1938 to 1941, every month, literally, you had a new hero pop out, and each one was one of these timeless classic heroes that are still here in the 2010's!

What times those must have been for kids!

The history-

Right, and then, in the 70's, the Wonder Woman TV show, A.K.A "Tuts".

Meanwhile...

...still 1941, Superman made his debut in animation in theatrical shorts from Fleischer studios, makers of Betty Boop, and Popeye, and voiced by Bud Collyer, who also voiced Supes on the radio show.

Also, this is where Superman started flying, instead of leaping.
Why? The animators thought the jumping looked silly.

2 years later....

...in 1943, Batman became the first DC hero to make the transition to live-action.

...man, you'd think it'd be Superman, wouldn't ya?
Nope.
T'wasn't.
T'was Batman.

So, I've generally heard pretty good things about this incarnation...except for the blatant anti-Japanese racism...
...you were pretty hard-pressed to find stuff without such sentiments back then though...

Oh, and these invented The Batcave, and the look of Alfred as a skinny mustached guy.

These are out on DVD now if ya wanna check 'em out.
Gotta admit, I'm curious.

1 year later...

...in 1944, Cap got the Republic Serial treatment.

These were kinda goofed on in the new movie.

And the cornball patriotic Cap was goofed on in the 90's movie.

4 years later....

....in 1948, Columbia finally coughed up a fuckin' live-action Superman serial!
Jesus Christ!!

A decade after the premiere of the comic, what were they fuckin' waiting for??
Captain Marvel got one the same year as his comic debut!

Anyway...this introduced Lex Luthor into the Superman canon.

And Kirk Alyn, and Noel Neill (Supes, and Lois, here) played young Lois Lane's parents in a deleted scene of the 1979 Superman movie, that's been reinserted on the DVD.

And Noel Neill would later play Lois on the George Reeves Superman show.

And, she played the dying old lady who leaves Lex her fortune in "Superman Returns".

And, she was interviewed for "Look, Up In The Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman",

1 year later...

...in 1949, and leading all the way to 1953, the "Rocket Man", character first appeared, and evolved into "Commando Cody".

These were the last Republic serials leading into the television era, and the character inspired...


The Rocketeer

See here.


And...that was the 30's and 40's.
Or, "The Golden Age".

All the players were pretty much in place...

The guys like Hulk, and Spidey would come in "The Silver Age".

I might do a thing on that someday...

But next....

TeeVee Three! (some stuff I forgot)

Read More......

Happy President's Day!

Um, well....what does one do on President's day?

...watch "The Presidents", on The History Channel, I guess...


Read More......

I Love The 30's!!

The 1930's are interesting, we seem to be living in the science-fiction future of the 1930's, and economically, we seem to be doing them all over again.

Also, this is the decade where the superhero was truly born, so, any navigation of superheroes really starts here.

The 30's were pretty nifty....except for the institutionalized racism, and the rise of Nazism, and eugenics, and...again, the depression, and the dust bowl, and...ah, well, nobody's perfect.

Let's look at the nice parts....

Read More......

Superhero TeeVee Too!!

All righty, so, last time, we left off in the 80's with these, right?

Okay then, let's keep going all the way up to today....


The Highwayman

The show-

Okay, so, it's like this, in the mid/late 80's America became infatuated with Australian culture.
"Crocodile Dundee", got that shit going.
But, maybe even Mel Gibson and the Mad Max-es before that....remember, this was long before we knew he was a crazy drunk Nazi.

So, there was this Aussie punk looking guy called "Jacko", in the Energizer commercials, and...the public fell head over heels for him, like, people forget, he was as big as "where's the beef?", at one point, it was Jacko-mania.

Well, here...

So, society rewarded him for that with the greatest gift it knows how to give, a TV series.

Aaand, ehhh, it was all right.

I dug it back then, but remember, I dug Automan, and Manimal...

All right, so the brunette guy in the pic was actually the title character, and Jacko was the sidekick.
And they rolled around in that big motor-home thingy you see up there, and the top of the trailer could unfold, and the whole top half, including that pointy cab separated off into a helicopter.

They'd try to work that at least once into every episode.

Most times, Jacko flew the helicopter, and Highwayman drove the truck.

Also, Highwayman had a gun with a dial on the side that adjusted the caliber of the bullets.
...I've spent years in the back of my mind on how to mechanically get that to work, still no dice....

So...it's like...they were making a 20th century land/air version of Han Solo, kinda.
I...think that's what they were going for....

Anyway, I think that lasted a season, two, tops.

Then, Rosanne hit, and the era of sitcoms with edgy standup stars started up, and that killed SF on the big networks.
But, much as it pains me to say it, cuz I love the stuff, looking back, it was time for them to go.
Or, at least to hibernate for awhile.
They had a good run.
From Steve Austin, to Jacko, those were some good years.

Anyway, when mainstream culture flushed the sf/action/superhero genres, it took the whole Aussie-mania thing with it, and...things haven't quite been the same between our countries.

They learned what a fickle little teenage bitch America can be.

The history-

The above covers it.


My Secret Identity

The show-

So, with superhero/SF dead on the networks, they went to syndication.
Usually, carried by local FOX affiliates.

And this here fills the gap in Jerry O'Connell's career from "Stand By Me", to "Sliders".

My review on that/him from here....

Sliders

This showed so much promise, but never before have I seen a show jump so many fuckin' sharks.
Ouch.
But, in those early seasons, it was really good.
I gained a new appreciation for John Rhys-Davies from this.
He's really a cool cat.
He lobbied for the show to be hard-sci-fi, and bailed when they wanted to make it dumb for the masses.
So, if you Netflix, Torrent, or buy this, bail on it when his character gets killed off.
That's the red flag.
One thing this show did demonstrate, was Jerry O'Connel's luck-invincibility powers.
The implosion of this show didn't seem to touch him, and he keeps getting plum roles, and ended up with Rebecca Romijn.
And Piranha 3-D?
Piece of shit, it made 80 million dollars.
The guy stumbles over piles of gold.
It's infuriating.
Yet I like the guy.
It's part of his damnable superpower.
Curses.

Okay, now let's rewind back, and talk about this show.

So, the scientist looking guy in the pic, he accidentally zaps Jerry with a gamma ray beam, and instead of killing him, this endows him with superspeed running, and the ability to levitate, but not exactly fly, but he uses spray cans to guide his flight.

When CFCs became the boogeyman du jour, it was suddenly politically incorrect to fly with spray cans, so they either had him learn to fly without them, or get another dose of rays, and upgrade his flight that way.
I think he also finally got his wish for super strength from that second zap.

Anyway, this show hung on for awhile, even outlasting Superboy, which came out at the same time.
And it took Jerry up into his teens.

Cute show.
In the last few episodes, it became less about superpowers, and more of a sitcom-y thing about the characters, and bullshitting up ways to put them in altered realities so the actors could play around as different characters and such.

But, yeah.

Oh, and the professor guy was the worm man in "Freaked".
He did some car commercials or something too....

The history-

The above covers it.


Chameleons

The show-

A failed CBS pilot.

Guess they were testing the waters, but no, superheroes still weren't gonna (forgive the pun) fly on the big networks.

Not until The Flash, anyway.

So, the premise to this was, this guy finds out his dead dad was a superhero for the government, and his dad's old partner takes him under his wing to groom him to be his replacement.

The chameleon deal comes in that they wear costumes that can change color, and their capes are green-screens that can flat out make them invisible.

Aside from that, they're pretty much at Batman levels of tech.

The history-

It was corny, and cheesey, but...I woulda liked to have seen a couple more episodes before it fizzled.

Oh, and round about this time, or earlier, there was this one, also a failed pilot, where a superhero inside a comic strip, that knows he's a comic strip, finds a way to fly fast enough to break the reality barrier, and come into our world, then from there, it becomes a sitcom.
I can't find any information on that at all, I can't even remember the title.
If someone remembers, help me out.


Forever Knight

The show-

About a vampire cop.

I remember, it premiered on either CBS, or NBC, as "Nick Knight", failed miserably, and then went to syndication as "Forever knight".

Kinda like...a white Blade, with a dash of Highlander, a smidge of Law & Order, and the fashion sense of Spike from "Buffy".

The history-

It was awful, I hated it.
It was porn for lonely women.

I hate porn vampires.
The culmination of that is fucking "Twilight".
The guy in this wasn't that bad, he had some balls, but still....the seeds were planted, and the clock on the bomb was ticking.


Robocop: The Series

The show/history-

See here.


Power Rangers

The show-

So, we're well into the 90's now, and starting with "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers", this thing has been on for 19 years, and as you can see in the graphic I assembled, there have been just as many spinoff incarnations (left out the MMPR reboot).

Holy shit...20 years of this shit next year...holy shit...if you told me back then, I woulda laughed in your face.

I covered the two movies here..
And...I think I said it all pretty well there, actually....

The history-

The above covers it.


Hercules: The Legendary Journeys

The show-

So, yeah, superheroes, still out in the syndication wilderness....

Covered this fairly well in "Hercules!".
Or, as good as I could....

Anyway, corny as this often was, it was leaps better than a lot of the drek that led up to it, as these reviews reveal.
Compared to the outright schlock shows, this was a revolution.

The history-

The above covers it, especially the link.


Xena: Warrior Princess

The show-

Spinoff of Hercules (duh!) this was a lot better.

Darker edged stuff, better character development.
Pretty sure this paved the way for Buffy, and her spinoffs.

And boy, was this ever a hit with the lesbian community!

The history-

I had a huge crush on Gabby.
Oh, don't get me wrong, Xena got me horny, but she was a handful, I would've liked to have dated Gabby.
Xena was a one night stand, and be glad you survived the night kinda thing.
Anyway, the Gabby crush kept me watching.
Well, until they butched off her hair, and started doing dark stuff to her character.


BibleMan

The show-

Ugh...*facepalm*

Well, I'm surprised this combination didn't happen sooner, actually.

So...Willie Aames, who you'll remember (if you're a gen-X-er) as Scott Baio's sidekick in "Charles In Charge", and "Zapped", is Bibleman.

Tch,...Willie, Willie, Willie....you spend the 80's pooning Scott's castoffs,...and then you go all Jesus-y on us?

Why, why, WHY does this happen?

And why, when you pour Christian sauce on things, does it become lousy?
Superheroes, comic strips, rock music, folk music, films....

Although, I hear the Muslims are catching up, with shitty versions of "Friends", and a castrated take on "South Park", so...hey that's....progress?

History-

Anyway, everyone from MadTV, to Venture Brothers has goofed on poor Bibleman.

Both versions went the most blatant route of knocking Christianity's stance on homosexuals.
Well, on the one hand, it's shooting fish in barrel, on the other hand...it had to be done, or satirists aren't doing their job.


Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation

The show-

So, Turtle-Mania was finally coughing up its last breath into a bloody hanky, and the last stop off before oblivion, was whoring the property to Saban/Levy, to produce a live-action version, and cross them over with Power Rangers.

I'll just leave you to stare in horror at that graphic for a bit...

The history-

I was done with Turtles looong before this, but I'd note the ads for shit like this with passive bemusement.


Buffy The Vampire Slayer

The show-

Covered the movie here...

And I boiled down my summation of the show fairly well here...

Hated it.
It got a bit better when they got out of high school.
I never liked the actual character of Buffy though, liked Willow better.
And again, only when they got out of high school.
That last couple of seasons.
Well, except for the very last season.
There's only a very little window of Buffy I can stand.
And again, not the character herself.
Not a high recommendation, is it?

Yeah, I was a Willow fan, and mostly in seasons 5-6.
Hence, me digging up a graphic with her in it.
Ahhh..

Whedon has made continued "seasons", in comics form, and I've skimmed spoiler synopses of where they've taken the characters, and...those can just go suck eggs.

The history-

The above just about covers it.
From about Buffy onward, the cultural boats everyone was getting on, I've let pass along.
Rarely is the thing that everyone's into my thing too anymore.


The Tick

The show-

Fucking great.
What is there to say?
It's The Tick.

The history-

Man, on the one hand, you had great stuff like Tick out there, finally...on the other hand, this is the same time  that comic shops turned comic book geeks into hateful exclusionary insufferable pud-fumblers.

I wasn't in on the whole Tick thing when it very first broke, so I walked up and asked some of these assholes what the big deal about Tick was...and...they acted like I asked what fucking water was, you know?

And I was like "oh, wow, this is what I waited for all these fucking years? The geeks are finally rising up, it's not jocks vs. nerds anymore...and they're gonna exclude ME??? ME?!?!? Well fuuuuck this!".

I still carry residue of that with me.
Stuff like that shows you what people really are.

I didn't let it ruin Tick for me though.
Fuck them, that's way more than they deserve.

But no, that whole comic shop era left me out in the cold more often than it didn't.
My memories are full of mixed emotions.
I'm so glad for Amazon, and TFAW.

Sorry if this is a downer....


Heroes

The show-

So, this, and Smallville, were really when superheroes broke back through into mainstream culture.

Paving the way for, well, the wave of hero movies that have been gushing forth since the 00's.
The wave will break someday, but I hope for it to hang on as long as possible.

As for the show itself, it was brilliant in the first couple seasons, almost on par with Watchmen, and then...pppt.
It will be missed.

And, hopefully, this raises the bar forever.
Yeah, network suits, this is how good it was always supposed to fucking be!
This is what we've been telling you.
Now you get it!

The history-

The above covers it.


Terminator: 
The Sarah Connor Chronicles

The show-

An alternate timeline continuation of T2.

Excellent.
FOX sucks when it comes to keeping good shit like this on the air, though.
Ask Futurama.

Oh, and it bears mentioning that the cute Terminator chick was River in Firefly.
The Rivernator!

The history-

Only got to see a handful of episodes before it got killed off.
Shame...


No Ordinary Family

The show-

As far as I can tell, live-action "The Incredibles".

The history-

Never saw it, always forgot when it was on.
Dammit.
Ah, well, I heard it kinda stunk.

Aaaand that takes it up to 2010, and that's close enough.


Hmnh, are there any hero shows on now that aren't animated?
I don't think so...

Yeah, maybe the wave crashed....

Well, we got some really good shit out of it this time through the cycle.
So, there's that.


Up next: I Love The 30's!!

Read More......

Superhero TeeVee!!

Okey dokey, so awhile ago, I did DC TV, and Marvel TV, now, to fill in the gaps with all the off-brand supers.

Many of whom, established their own "brand".


Mr. Terrific

The show-

Came out about the same time in the 60's as Batman, and Green Hornet, as an answer to that trend.
(Course, it bears mentioning that George Reeves's Superman was the first TV superhero period)

About  a gas station attendant who secretly works for the government as a superhero.
He changes into Mr. Terrific by popping  a power pill that only works on him, and lasts an hour (cue bad Viagra jokes) and, he's the one superhero that actually had to fly by flapping his arms (he had a wing suit).

The comedy came from him losing his powers at the worst possible moment.

The history-

Never heard of this until researching for this post, but I'd check it out.


Captain Nice

The show-

Created by Buck Henry.

A mild mannered nerdy chemist, Carter Nash, discovers a formula that turns him into a superhero.
His powers include flight, but he's scared of heights.

He chooses the name "Captain Nice", because he already has everything monogrammed "CN", for Carter Nash.

Came out the exact same time as "Mr. Terrific", but MT had the earlier time slot, so...

The history-

My folks remember this one.
Although, they had the names mashed together as "Mr. Nice".

Funny, Nick at Nite never reran these....


The Six Million Dollar Man

The show-

Well, who doesn't remember this guy?

...oh, yeah...young whippersnappers...*grumble*

Okay, Steve Austin, astronaut, test pilot, gets blown to bits on the launch pad, the government spends 6 million bucks rebuilding him as a cyborg to test the limits of their technology, then he's The 6 Million Dollar Man A.K.A. The Bionic Man, and goes on secret government missions fighting bad guys to help pay for his body.

His powers are super strength in one arm, superspeed in both legs, and telescopic and infra-red vision in his left eye.

For some reason, his speed and strength were depicted in slow motion with an accompanying "na na na na na", sound effect.
Must see to appreciate.

The history-

This was the first live-action superhero thing to come along in my childhood, and led (IMO) to Spiderman, Hulk, Wonder Woman, etc, etc.


The Bionic Woman

The show-

A spinoff of "Six Million Dollar Man", this time, it's a chick.

This time, instead of exploded, she's squooshed by her parachute failing to open, and landing in a tree (sss...ahhh..), and gets bionic legs, an arm, and an ear.

Later on, in the late 80's, early 90's, there were Steve Austin/Jaime Sommors reunion TV movies.
One of which had a young Sandra Bullock as a new model bionic woman.

In 2007, there was a remake, in this one, Jaime had bionic legs, and arm, an ear, an eye, and self-repair nanites called "anthrocytes".
I never watched it.
Apparently, it bombed.
Ah, well.

The history-

I think I watched both the Bionic shows at the time...
Also, SyFy reran 'em back when it was Sci-Fi, and didn't suck.


The Invisible Man

The series-

Ducky from NCIS makes an invisible ray, and turns himself permanently invisible, and has to wear an artificial skin to be visible again.

Apparently, there was an early 00's remake of this.
I never watched it.
I don't even remember it.
Well, it was by USA/Sci-Fi, so it was probably ass.

The history-

The '75 one with Ducky I kinda remember as Sci-Fi reruns....


The Shazam/Isis Power Hour

The show-

Dammit, left this out of DC TV.
(Even mentioned it in the next entry)
Well, now I'm fixing it.

From here...

I'm told I had a raging crush on Isis.
I wish I could remember.

Um...I've gotten back some memories of Isis from watching clips...well, screw it, I'll get a boner for her from scratch, she's a honey.

Shazam...it's like Star Wars at two, I don't remember it, but I remember remembering it, cuz I drew all kinds of Shazam pictures.


ElectraWoman and DynaGirl

The show-

By Sid & Marty Croft of "H.R. Puffenstuff", and "Land Of The Lost", fame.

Essentially, an updated girly version of 60's Batman but they had Star Trek/Dr. Who level tech.
Their powers were all electronics based.
Apparently, ElectraWoman had an IQ of one thousand....

Actually...kinda cool.

The history-

Nick at Nite reran a marathon of Croft stuff, including this.
Again, cool.


Buck Rogers In The 25th Century

The show/history-

Biddy, biddy, biddy!

See here.


The Greatest American Hero

The show/history-

See here.


Knight Rider

The show-

Take the buddy-cop formula, but make one of the buddies an A.I. and wire it/him up to a sports car, and, as history shows, your network can now print money.

But...as the crummy 2008 remake shows...it's not just the formula, apparently, there's something magic about Hasselhoff. He's the X-factor. For some reason, it turns out, he's as important to the whole thing as Frosty's top-hat.

As you can see from the graphic, there was a reunion movie "Knightrider 2000", (actually, made in 1991) and then another, "Knightrider 2010", (in 1994) but that one had nothing to do with anything but the title.

Both of their future predictions were way off the mark.
In 2000, we didn't get sonic stun guns, or computer display windshields, and we still haven't in 2012.
And Hoff? Wrong hairdo, the 00's thing was the Caesar cut as popularized by George Clooney.

And, in 2010, we didn't get nuked back to the Mad Max stone age, and the stealth bomber isn't in some random junkyard to be looted for a hotrod.

And scanning the soul of your dead girlfriend into a holographic prism hardrive to be your hotrod's A.I. unit?
Forget it.
2050 maybe....

The history-

I...don't recall seeing much of KR on its original run...I remember the one with the evil double, KARR.
That was cool.
Another one Sci-Fi refreshed me on with reruns.


The Powers of Matthew Star

The show-

An alien prince hides out on Earth as an every day teenager, while developing this powers to someday be strong enough to free his people.
Sometimes, he is forced to fight crime.

Pretty heavy Star Wars influence there...

Co-executive produced by Harve Bennett (of the original Star Trek Movies) and featuring an episode directed by Leonard Nimoy, and one written by Walter Koening.

The history-

I barely remember this.


Automan

The show-

..um...pretty much TRON in reverse, and with an ass TV budget.

Instead of a human guy getting scanned into the computer, a simulated guy is beamed into this world.
The lame pseudo-science being that, if you just give a hologram enough power, it'll become real.

This is done, and Automan is born.

He brings with him a semi-sentient cursor that buzzes about like an electric pixie, and can draw clothing onto him to cover up his weird glowing TRON body, and also draw his laser-car "the Autocar", that could brake and corner without inertia, but blipped instantly sideways (with a camera trick) like a video game.

There was also an "Autocopter", with glow-y shit on the blades.

The history-

Loved the damned thing as a kid.
Saw it in reruns, hasn't held up.

The human guy who created Automan was played by Desi Arnaz Jr. and the show tanked when he died of a drug overdose.

A shame....


Manimal

The show-

Well, I'm already seeing the pattern, and...I guess in some ways, it was admirable, of TV networks trying to bring the latest hot trends in the multiplex to the small screen.

Battlestar, and Matthew Star, it was Star Wars-y stuff, Automan, it was TRON, and in this case, it was a response to the spate of latex-laden transformation stuff like "American Werewolf In London", and "The Howling", and "Michael Jackson's Thriller".

So, Manimal learned some voodoo bullshit or something that allows him to morph into any animal.
Although, he mostly tuned into a panther, or a hawk.
Hey, the morphing I can buy, but, how did his clothing come back?

Anyway, the transformations were handled by Stan Winston.

The history-

Liked it as a kid.
Like Automan, didn't hold up in reruns.

Got its ass kicked by "Dallas".
....really? Execs were stupid enough to put shit up against "Dallas"?
Hmh.
*Head shake*


Misfits of Science

The show-

Oh, wow, how 80's are those clothes, and hairdos, and that logo, huh?

So, these guys were a superhero team, the guy in the leather jacket could shoot lightning, and run at superspeed when charged up, the black guy could shrink to the size of a Ken Doll, and Courtney Cox (yes, that's her) was a telekinetic.
The remaining guy is just the brains who got them all together.

It was all played very tongue in cheek, almost spoofy.
It was cute.
Didn't last long though.
SF had a helluva time on TV in the mid-80's....

The history-

Commander USA's Groovie Movies

The show-

The hosting segments to, and the title of USA Networks' weekend monster movies from 1985 to 1989.

The Commander was retired, and had the power of flight, and microwave vision, which he only seemed to use on food.

His base of operations was allegedly underneath a New Jersey shopping mall, and his sidekick was "Lefty", a speechless puppet he created by simply drawing a smiley face on his right hand with cigar ash.

The Commander always greeted the latest films with gusto, no matter how z-grade, and schlocky.
Shit, pretty sure some of the ones I've reviewed here were on there.

Ahhh, man, the 80's were fucking great.
You kids really missed out.

The history-

...and, that's a good one to go out on.

Up next, part 2 of these.

Same Dicky time, same Dicky channel.


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