5 years after the project was first in development, the X-Men are back on the air.
X-Men '97 picks up where the 1992-7 series leaves off. Professor Charles Xavier is believed to be dead. In the original series, he had been taken to a distant world where his girlfriend, Lilandra, hoped to cure him of his illness. 27 years later, the creative team has decided to sell the idea that Xavier had been assassinated by rogue government agent Henry Peter Gyrich.
As we resume, the time-traveling Bishop and the shape-changing Morph have been added to the open. Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, has wed Jean Grey, who is expecting their first child. Roberto DaCosta, aka Sunspot, who debuted in the pages of The New Mutants circa 1992, makes his debut, and they're already teasing something between him and Jubilee.
Check the trailer.
Comics from the 90's are being adapted in this 10 episode 1st season, airing on Disney+. Two more seasons are in the planning stages, and Marvel is helping with a 5 issue miniseries tie-in. The original theme music by Haim Saban & Shuki Levy has been updated.
Universal Cartoon Studios and Lacewood Productions, after Problem Child & Savage Dragon ended production, teamed with a French studio to produce a series that has been compared to the mid-80's series, M.A.S.K, except that aside from the use of morphing vehicles and masks worn by the drivers, it's not even a spin-off.
Vor-Tech: Undercover Conversion Squad started as a toy line developed by Kenner (now part of Hasbro). The series was part of Claster Entertainment's Power Block, but lasted just 1 season.
Depending on where you lived, the show aired on Sundays or Saturdays. I'm guessing the lack of station clearance, coupled with poor toy sales, doomed the show.
The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera was starting to run out of steam by 1990.
The studio collaborated with England's Sleepy Kids to produce Midnight Patrol: Adventures in The Dream Zone, which lasted 1 season, but was very, very popular across the pond.
The Patrol is a group of kids, along with their dog, Potsworth (who was the show's star in England), and a stuffed animal. When their dreams take them into the Dream Zone, all except Rosie gain special abilities. Potsworth, in particular, is granted the power of speech, enabling him to vent about his issues in the real world.
The voice talent included Janice Kawaye (Captain Planet), Rob Paulsen, Michael Bell, Ronnie Schell, and Jim Cummings.
In this sampler, Rosie has trouble just trying to be nice to a boy she seems interested in....
I never saw the show when it first aired. Back then, Sundays usually meant a late breakfast with friends over bagels. Based on what we have above, our rating is a modest B-.
A sure sign of a superhero parody is when the hero is prone to crashing into things (think Underdog or George of The Jungle).
For Laverne & Shirley, the season 1 episode, "Super WACS", parodies another ABC series of the period, The Greatest American Hero, especially when the girls (Penny Marshall & Cindy Williams) and Sgt. Squealy (Ron Palillo) discover that the supposedly benevolent alien that gave Laverne a super suit isn't really a noble fellow after all.
Sunn Classic Pictures announcer Brad Crandall guest stars as an Army officer.
This was obviously unworthy of the incidental action music used on Super Friends, Space Stars, and Fonz & The Happy Days Gang for a reason.
"Love to Love You, Baby" was the title song from Donna Summer's 1975 album, in the early days of disco. Nearly 50 years later, an animated music video was produced, aimed to mark what would've been the singer's 75th birthday on New Year's Eve.
It's way past time we checked in on The Mighty Hercules.
Arch-enemy Daedalus, who really wasn't a villain in Greek myths, according to past commentaries, takes a bite of an apple from the Valley of Giants, and......
Wikipedia is now claiming that actor David Hartman, later of The Virginian, The Bold Ones, Lucas Tanner, & Good Morning, America, was the original voice of Hercules. Not so here.
If you missed the opening of "Mrs. Doubtfire" back in 1993, you missed a treat at the very start.
Director Chris Columbus sets things up with an animated short, produced & directed by the inestimable Chuck Jones, in the latter's 1st work for 20th Century Fox.
Pudgy, a green parrot, and Grunge, a blue-furred cat, are a parody of both Tweety & Sylvester AND Tom & Jerry, with both characters voiced by the movie's star, Robin Williams, in his role as struggling actor Daniel Hillard. Williams was coming off "Aladdin" and a cameo in "FernGully", which itself was also a Fox movie.
Fox missed the boat by not spinning off Pudgy & Grunge.
Jean de Brunelle's Babar had first been adapted for television in a pair of NBC specials starring Peter Ustinov.
In 1989, Canada's Nelvana Studios obtained the rights to the series, which aired in Canada, and, while it wasn't listed per the series' Wikipedia page, I seem to recall it airing on HBO, too.
Five "seasons" were produced between 1989-91, and then, the series returned in 2001 for a short run.
I had read at least one of de Brunhoff's books when I was much younger, but never saw the cartoons until now. From season 2, here's "The Elephant Express":
In memory of Laurent de Brunelle, who passed away over the weekend. No rating out of respect.
It's been a while since we checked into the Fender Bender 500.
This time around, the racers are in Washington. This is tame compared to the real-life chaos that has consumed the nation's capital in the 33 1/2 years since this first aired. Get in line to catch "The Monumental 500". Our race announcer/narrator is Shadoe Stevens (American Top 40, ex-Hollywood Squares):
So Dick Dastardly (Paul Winchell) is allergic to roses? Who knew?
Autograph has largely been forgotten amidst all the metal bands that were rolling out in the 80's. As American Bandstand host Dick Clark explains in his intro, the band made their debut opening for Van Halen in front of 12,000 fans.
"Turn Up The Radio", however, ended up a 1-hit wonder.
I wonder how much money was spent on hair spray back in those days.......
Greg Weisman's vision for The Spectacular Spider-Man began to unfold in the series opener, "Survival of The Fittest".
Norman Osborn (Alan Rachins, ex-LA Law, Dharma & Greg) has both Adrian Toomes (Robert Englund) and Otto Octavius (Peter MacNicol, ex-Ally McBeal in his employ, until he decides to dump Toomes and claim ownership of Toomes' inventions.
That leads to the debut of the Vulture as the first foe for Spider-Man (Josh Keaton), but Spidey must also battle the Big Man's Enforcers, who have been given a bit of an upgrade in that they're also helicopter pilots. Keith David & Danny Trejo are also among the guest stars.
As Peter Parker, Spidey also narrates, something that was brought over in the next series, Ultimate Spider-Man. Co-executive producer Eric Rollman came over from Saban to work on this series, getting an EP credit with Weisman and Craig Kyle.
Stinky (Joe Besser) collides with Lou, and it leads to a wrestling match, where Stinky has his brother, billed as Ivan The Terrible, stand in for him when he takes ill. Given Besser's aversion to violence, this should be no surprise.
Here's "The Wrestling Story". I will remind that this series did air on Saturday mornings in reruns after its 1st run in primetime ended. The open & close have been edited off.
Rose Petal Place was a secondary line of toys for young girls marketed by Kenner (now part of Hasbro) in the mid-80's. However, after the 2nd of 2 animated specials, Real Friends, hit the air in the fall of 1985, a new set of figures, set to be released in time for Christmas, was cancelled.
Ruby-Spears and then-independent producer David Kirschner (who'd later work for Universal and Hanna-Barbera) co-produced the Rose Petal Place specials, headlined by singer-actress Marie Osmond as Rose Petal. I believe the Rose Petal specials marked Marie's voice-over debut, more than a decade after her brothers had their Saturday morning series.
In Real Friends, Nastina (Marilyn Schreffler, ex-The All-New Popeye Hour) tries to create discord among Rose and her friends.
Football lineman Tyler is having trouble learning. It's not known if he had issues with, say, dyslexia, or something else, but the fear of losing his spot on the football team prompts him to take a risk, and, at the same time, Mork (Robin Williams) is framed for the crime.
Stan Jones (Richie Rich, Super Friends) is credited as Principal Caruthers, but in this case, the principal sounds more like Bill Woodson.
Dick Tufeld leads us into "Mork, PI":
The reason I brought up the prospect of dyslexia with Tyler is because Archie Comics' Marmaduke "Moose" Mason was later diagnosed with the learning disorder, and it was news at the time. Tyler might've thought he was clever enough to get away with it, but, nope.
The gang is forced to land on a planet whose inhabitants can turn invisible at will. Melody (Jackie Joseph) finds some irradiated bubble gum, and finds herself turning invisible....! Ted Cassidy gets no screen credit as the ruler of this planet, but there's no mistaking his distinctive voice.
Two years earlier, the Pussycats dealt with an invisible villain, and the shenanigans in that one almost entirely mirrored The Archies in "Disappearing Act" two years prior to that. Archie Comics must've liked that plot.....
This was actually the middle part of the "Bruce Lee Urkel" trilogy from Family Matters.
In season 7, Carl (Reginald VelJohnson) steps into Steve Urkel's transformation chamber after the police warehouse is robbed. Mix in some Hope & Crosby (a quick pattycake sequence), some Three Stooges, and, well, you get the idea....
Having revisited all three Bruce Lee Urkel appearances, it's clear that Jaleel White (Urkel) was his generation's Wally Cox. A terrific comic actor whose slight build hid a muscular physique. The other parallel between the two generations of actors? Cox, of course, was the voice of Underdog. White was the original voice of Sonic the Hedgehog.
Bob Clampett needed a backup feature for Beany & Cecil after it was spun off from Matty's Funnies. The end result was Harecules Hare, a rabbit with genius level intelligence.
Only 2 episodes currently are circulating on YouTube, though there might be more. Harecules and his father, Ben, are two completely diverse personalities. Ben is interested in greyhound racing, for example. In "Harecules Hare & The Golden Fleecing", Harecules deals with a wolf.........
Clampett had the right inspiration for some of his gags, as he borrowed from his former employers at WB, using a gag from a Bugs Bunny short with Wile E. Coyote.
As the lead singer of the Raspberries, Eric Carmen had landed a big hit with "Go All The Way". In 1975, he peaked at #2 on the Hot 100 with "All By Myself", which became his signature solo hit, even after he returned to the charts 12 years later on the "Dirty Dancing" soundtrack with "Make Me Lose Control".
Carmen turned up on The Midnight Special, with host du jour Helen Reddy, to perform "Myself" at the piano.
In memory of Carmen, who passed away over the weekend. Rest in peace.
After the release of their initial "Wrestling Album" three months earlier, the then-World Wrestling Federation decided to mark the occasion with the culmination of a winter-long on-air promotion, the 1st ever Slammy Awards, a live special airing on MTV. Vince McMahon, then a simple play-by-play announcer, hosted, as over the top as usual. MTV sent cute, cuddly Martha Quinn to the event as a backstage reporter, and, oh, that did not end so well. Little did the 518's gift to MTV realize this was the beginning of the end of her first tour of duty with the channel, as she would leave at the end of 1986 when her contract expired, only to return in February 1989 for another 3 year hitch.
To say anything further would spoil the memories for those who actually saw the show live (and I didn't)....
The Slammys moved to USA Network in December 1987, again on a Saturday night, but this time at a much later hour, with McMahon debuting his Tom Jones-meets-Adam West cabaret act. It was also the final Slammys for about a decade or so.
From the "Kung Fu Panda 4" Soundtrack comes Tenacious D (Jack Black & Kyle Gass) with a cover of Britney Spears' ".....Baby One More Time". Tenacious D, sporting the trendy beards, may not be the 2nd coming of ZZ Top, but Black, also the voice of Po in the movie, shows his vocal range here (compare this to his work in "School of Rock" 20 years ago).
Viola Davis ("The Suicide Squad") and UAlbany graduate Awkwafina join Black, James Hong, Dustin Hoffman, & Bryan Cranston in the new movie.
Bozo The Clown was originally the property of Capitol Records, which produced those children's records of the famous clown for years. Before Capitol sold the rights to Bozo to Larry Harmon, they contracted with Hal Roach Studios to produce a live-action pilot in 1954, which, as you'll see, is a far cry from the clown's later animated adventures. A far, far cry.
Here, Bozo is just an action figure belonging to a little girl named Amy, and he only comes to life for her. Seems the family dog is being blamed for some issues involving a neighbor's hen......
Invisible paint? I don't think Harmon ever employed that gimmick in his cartoons. The ability to shrink? Sounds like that was lifted from somewhere. Hokey? Yep. Harmon knew what to do with Bozo more than Capitol and Roach Studios did.
In July 1984, Vince McMahon's national expansion of the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) swallowed up the Georgia Championship Wrestling block on WTBS on what would become known as Black Saturday. Ultimately, the National Wrestling Alliance would gain a morning slot on the station, which we've previously discussed some time back.
However, it was not fated to last. Viewer apathy from long time NWA supporters led to a decline in ratings across the country, and, coupled with the fact that McMahon would not have a guaranteed two hour show every Saturday during baseball season, led to McMahon giving the 6:05 pm (ET) slot back to the NWA after a year.
From March 1985, two weeks before the 1st Wrestlemania card, is a show with Georgia standby Mr. Wrestling II, and a few names familiar to NWA and TBS fans from previous runs in the market, such as King Kong Bundy, Nikolai Volkoff, Hulk Hogan (he was known as Sterling Golden during an earlier run in NWA-Georgia a few years earlier), Jimmy Snuka, Ken Patera, and the Iron Sheik.
Gorilla Monsoon goes it alone on commentary, with ring announcer Freddie Miller serving as co-host.
A few quick notes:
Swede Hansen & Paul "Butcher" Vachon were midcard heels in the 70's, brought back as mid-level enhancement talent, with Vachon remaining a heel. We lost Vachon a little more than a week ago.
Barry Windham and Mike Rotundo (Rotunda) would lose the tag titles to Sheik & Volkoff at Wrestlemania two weeks later. Earlier this week, it was announced that Windham & Rotundo, billed as the US Express, would join their former rivals in the WWE Hall of Fame. Both would return to the NWA before the end of the 80's. Windham becomes a 2-time Hall of Famer, as he was previously inducted as a member of the 4 Horsemen.
We had this before, but it was taken down a ways back.
From season 8 of Family Matters:
Steve Urkel (Jaleel White) has a job as a park supervisor at a playground where 3J & Richie (Orlando Brown & Bryton McClure) go to play. However, a street gang has taken over the park.
This edited excerpt shows what led to Urkel having room for his friends in a certain chamber.........
Jason David Frank (ex-Mighty Morphin Power Rangers) not only was a featured guest star, but also choreographed the final fight scene. Another ex-Ranger, Rio Dekin, plays another gang member. The episode, "Karate Kids", was the final appearance of the Bruce Lee Urkel persona.
A trio of desert nomads unwittingly release the "Mindwitch" (special guest June Foray), who subsequently enslaves the nomads, then enthralls Space Ghost (Gary Owens), and 2 of the Herculoids.
Inspector Gadget is sent to the Middle East to prevent Dr. Claw's minions from stealing a valuable scimitar. The subplot has Penny (Cree Summer) undercover in a red outfit, not quite a burqua, and doing most of the detective work, as usual.
Seeing the success Hanna-Barbera had with their Funtastic World anthology package, Marvel decided they needed to do the same.
Marvel Action Universe lasted three seasons (1988-91), and, depending on where you lived, it was 90 minutes, like Funtastic World, or just an hour. The components of Action Universe were these (all have been previously reviewed):
Spider-Man (1981): The syndicated solo series lasted 1 season, while Amazing Friends spent three on NBC (1981-4), so there was plenty available.
RoboCop: Spun off from the movie, the now-cyborg cop formerly known as Alex Murphy continues his patrol.
Dino Riders: Based on the Tyco toy line, this also spawned a miniseries from Marvel Comics
Pryde of The X-Men: An unsold X-Men pilot that pre-dated the subsequent series by 3 years, with Hanna-Barbera mainstays Michael Bell as Cyclops & John Stephenson as Professor Charles Xavier.
Here's the intro to Marvel Action Universe:
We were not interested much in Dino Riders as we were with the other segments.
Heathcliff (Mel Blanc), seeing how a local chef has hired two German Shepherds to guard his trash, decides to do something about it. Here's "Phantom of The Garbage":
Y'see, in "Butler Up", Brutus is posited as an old high school (or is it college?) friend of Olive's, and she needs Popeye to pose as a butler to impress the cad. Of course, Brutus' true colors ultimately emerge, and.....
From season 2 of the original Mickey Mouse Club comes this educational serial, Adventure in Dairyland, which starred Annette Funicello and Sammy Ogg. Ogg had previously appeared in Spin & Marty, but seemed to have disappeared after the Club ended its 1st run.
Kevin Corcoran debuted as Moochie, the youngest of the children in this series. Here, the kids learn about pigs.
The Ranger (William Conrad) & Tonto (Ivan Naranjo) at first make a simple collar of a Native American shoplifter, but then the military gets involved, leading to some complications. The ending, though, will warm the heart.
Also: Tonto fills us in on the Navajo nation, circa 1980.
The week began with the passing of Ole Anderson (Alan Rogowski), founding member of the NWA's legendary Four Horsemen faction in the mid-80's, and a multi-time tag team champion, at 81. Anderson also was a matchmaker for Jim Crockett Promotions during the 80's, and had his final significant run in 1990-1 fronting the Horsemen.
Then, Mike Jones, better known as Virgil from his stint with the then World Wrestling Federation (1987-94), and under a variety of aliases in WCW, as well as Soul Train Jones on the indie circuit, passed at 61. Jones had suffered a pair of strokes in the last year or so. Best known as Ted DiBiase's valet from 1987-91 before turning babyface to finish his WWF run.
And, today, the last member of the Vachon wrestling family, Paul "Butcher" Vachon, passed at 86. Vachon was one of a number of heels (villains) who were regulars on WWWF programming in the 70's, before being used as enhancement talent in the 80's, leading to his retirement from in-ring competition.
Following is an episode of Championship Wrestling from 1977. Vachon was, at the time, managed by Capt. Lou Albano. The card also features a few more future Hall of Famers (Vachon was inducted a few years ago), including Mil Mascaras and Dusty Rhodes.
