It's been a while since we checked in on Hanna-Barbera's ill-advised reboot of The Thing.
Here, Kelly's sister, Betty (Marilyn Schreffler, The All-New Popeye Hour), is up for Homecoming Queen, but the Yancy St. Gang may have something to say about that........
From the final season of Slimer! & The Real Ghostbusters.
The boys and Slimer are in Russia when they learn of a monster in Siberia. Here's "Russian About", written by J. Michael Straczynski.
One big reason why Ghost Busters flopped the way it did as a live action series was the ham-handed writing of series creator Marc Richards, who apparently couldn't be bothered with proper context in his scripts, which is why most of the episodes came off as being, well, amateur night, despite the talent involved.
One case in point is the adventure of an Egyptian queen's ghost (Barbara Rhodes) and her mummy bodyguard, who wasn't exactly a menace.
This video comes complete with commercials, including a spot promoting CBS' lineup that we pulled a long while ago, and a Crest commercial with Arthur O'Connell. Jackson Beck narrates the spot for Ideal's Evel Knievel toys.
You may need to turn up the volume for this one.
Yes, The Monster Squad turns 50 this year. To mark the occasion, the team deals with a master of disguise named No Face (Edward Andrews), who has impersonated the Mayor to declare crime legal.
The villain is a knockoff of an old Batman villain, False Face. Sid Haig co-stars.
Due to anti-violence regulations, DC couldn't license out any of Captain Marvel's foes for Shazam!. While Mister Mind likely could've been used via animation (and he'd come along in 1981), the Captain had the same issues that Superman had before him, but also took the time to rescue endangered animals, such as a dog trapped in a burning room.........
From season 2 of The All-New Popeye Hour:
The Popeye Sports Parade sends Popeye (Jack Mercer) back to the rodeo, but this time, he & Bluto (Allan Melvin) aren't dueling over Olive. Instead, they're competing to become "King of The Rodeo":
Something tells me this Three Musketeers entry might've had a hand in developing the basic plot for Scooby-Doo, which bowed the next year.
Anyway, phony ghosts robbing coaches? Yeah, that tracks.
The kids from Mission: Magic! head off to Paris to track down a missing statue, but all three suspects have their own version of the Contemplator. Or do they?
Blackstar turns 45 this year. The series finale seems appropriate for Halloween season, so, here's "The Zombie Masters".
It seems inevitable that Lassie's Rescue Rangers would have an episode set in Hollywood, two years after Lassie's live-action series had ended......
We've had this before, but then, it was deleted by YouTube. The Chuck Shack has brought back "Tabitha & Adam & The Clown Family", from season 1 of the ABC Saturday Superstar Movie. Tabitha & Adam Stephens have been aged up to teenagers for this one-off. As you know, they were further aged up to adults for the live-action Tabitha 5 years later.
"Big Monster on Campus" was the series finale of Archie's Weird Mysteries, first shown in February 2000.
A mad scientist with a major hate on for Riverdale decides to avenge himself by inserting an android onto Central High's wrestling team, targeting Riverdale's star, Marmaduke "Moose" Mason.......
This installment of Archie's TV Funnies takes a good natured poke at the infamous "rural purge" of 1970-1, with Reggie (John Erwin) trying to pass himself off as a rural host.
Featured strips:
Broom-Hilda, The Captain & The Kids, Dick Tracy, Smokey Stover, The Dropouts, Moon Mullins.
By the mid-50's, Columbia was running out of ideas for the Three Stooges.
For example, our next entry, 1954's "Scotched in Scotland" was a remake of "The Hot Scots", which was made 6 years earlier. The boys are given a private graduation from a detective school, and head off to Scotland.....
From season 2 of the ABC Saturday Superstar Movie:
"The Spirit of Thunder Mountain" was the pilot for Lassie's Rescue Rangers, but didn't air until November, two months into the season. Ted Knight (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Super Friends) is Ben Turner, Sr., the leader of the family-based Rescue Force, which incorporates some forest animals to assist Lassie.
Lassie's trainer, Rudd Weatherwax, condemned the series because of its writing (mostly Chuck Menville & Len Jansen) and (animal) violence. Viewers must've agreed, since the series lasted just the one season.
Aside from the 50's series, Fury, few series centered on horses as protagonists have succeeded.
When CBS announced Wildfire as part of their 1986 lineup, some would be forgiven if their first thoughts were of a song by the same name that was a hit for Michael Martin Murphey 10 years earlier. Instead, it was another fantasy cartoon. If memory serves, this was a lead-in to the returning Muppet Babies. The cast includes David Ackroyd, Jessica Walter, and, in a rare dive into animation, Krofft stalwart Billy Barty.
Here's the open:
What happens when you have a crow, a bulldog, and a Siamese cat, all belonging to the same family?
You have The Incredible Detectives, which TV & comics writer Mark Evanier adapted for the ABC Weekend Special in 1979, 13 years after the original novel was released.
Davey (Al Eisenmann) is kidnapped, and the family pets set out to rescue him. Additional voices include Frank Welker, Marianne Aragon, Laurie Main, & John Stephenson.
NBC thought that the success of Jack Webb's Emergency! would translate into an animated spin-off in the daytime. Nice idea, but Emergency! Plus 4 was entrusted to Fred Calvert, whose shoestring budget resulted in two seasons of stiffer than normal animation.
In the opener, a couple of teens in a dune buggy cause some issues.
Cool McCool turns 60 this year. In what would be the final episode of the series, Cool (Bob McFadden) faces off with "The Moon Goon":
"Without a Vengeance" was the series finale of The Legend of Calamity Jane. As we discussed when first looking at this series, WB only aired 3 episodes before pulling the plug, while the rest of the series aired everywhere else.
