It's been a while since we celebrated Cinco de Mayo, and so, we present Speedy Gonzales in "Chili Corn Corny".
Speedy tries to help a starving crow (Gonzales Gonzales), but has to deal with Daffy Duck.
To cartoon devotees, Granville Van Dusen was the 2nd actor to essay the role of Roger "Race" Bannon on Jonny Quest, taking over the role from Mike Road for the mid-80's revival of the series as part of The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera.
What you might not be aware of is Van Dusen's extensive live-action resume. A couple of guest appearances on Barnaby Jones put him on producer Quinn Martin's radar, and Van Dusen was thus signed to co-star in a pilot for a proposed American version of The New Avengers.
Escapade paired Van Dusen with an up and coming star in Morgan Fairchild, later of Flamingo Road. As we documented over at The Land of Whatever, Escapade did not go to series, leaving Martin with Barnaby Jones for 2 more seasons at CBS.
Van Dusen's resume also includes The Young & The Restless, Soap, The West Wing, Space: Above & Beyond, and another unsold pilot, The World Beyond, also in 1978.
Here's Escapade:
Japan's entree into the superhero sweepstakes wasn't limited to anime.
In 1966, Tsuburaya Productions introduced the Ultra Series, the collective name for a family of adventure series, which began with Ultra Q, and would continue with Ultraman.
United Artists acquired the rights to both series, but Ultra Q has never aired here due to it being produced in black & white, and by then, Americans were getting used to seeing everything in full color. Today, Shout! Factory has the American rights to DVD releases of each available Ultraman series, including 1996's Ultraman Tiga, which landed here in 2002 on Fox.
With Marvel Comics having acquired a license last year to adapt the franchise, now would be a good time to scope the series opener. The English subtitles certainly help.
Milton Bradley's Twister had long been established as a game for the whole family by the time a similar, but slightly different game, Limbo Legs, was introduced in 1969.
Limbo Legs was an elimination game, like doing the limbo itself, but this was a wee bit different.
As the 80's began, Christopher Cross was one of the hottest artists on the planet, as disco was doing a sudden fade-out, and soft rock reclaimed AM radio.
"Ride Like The Wind", when it was recorded a year earlier, featured then-Doobie Brothers frontman-keyboard player Michael McDonald on backing vocals (McDonald would also lend his assistance to Kenny Loggins on "This Is It" later in 1980). Unfortunately, McDonald was a no-show, due likely to a scheduling conflict, when Cross and his band popped up on The Midnight Special in early '80.
Some sources are claiming that Allen Swift (ex-Underdog, Tennessee Tuxedo) did most of the heroic voices for Hostess' mascots, such as Twinkie The Kid (other sources credit Mort Marshall). Others have identified Howard Morris as the voice of Happy Ho-Ho, a Robin Hood-style archer.
In this undated entry, they're rescuing a stagecoach out of control:
In 1958, entertainer Danny Kaye recorded a children's album, "Mommy Gimme a Drinka Water" (yep, that's how it's spelled), which, admittedly, had flown under the radar until I started doing research on another album of the same name.
Nearly 40 years later, actress Didi Conn (ex-Shining Time Station, Benson, Fonz & The Happy Days Gang) recorded almost the entire album, with the tracks in a different order. Kaye recorded 20 songs, all written by Milton Schafer. Didi put 12 of them on a video compilation, in which she reaches for her inner child, as Kaye did on his album, but I don't think Kaye was able to visually interpret any of the tracks. We'll have to see about that another day.
Because each song is so short, the video flies by in a shade over 20 minutes. Have fun.
