Saturday, October 13, 2012
Friday, October 12, 2012
The Monkees, Season 1, Episode 7: "Monkees in a Ghost Town"
This episode was written by Robert Schlitt and Peter Meyerson, and was directed by James Frawley. The Monkees' songs performed in the episode are "Papa Gene's Blues," written by Michael Nesmith, and "Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day," written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart as well as "(Theme From) The Monkees" by Boyce and Hart. Both are from the Monkees' debut album. In addition, two other songs are performed by the guest cast, "Everybody Loves My Baby" by Spencer Williams and Jack Palmer (it's a jazz standard) and "Hi Neighbor," by Warren Tucker (incidentally, that latter song was first performed in the movie "San Antonio Rose," which had Lon Chaney Jr. as one of the stars!). The guest cast in this episode are Rose Marie as Bessie Kowalski, Lon Chaney Jr. as Lenny, Len Lesser as George, and Hollis Morrison as 1st Cop.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Cover Redux!
Countdown to Halloween: My Toys: Frankenstein Air Freshener!
Yes, that's right, he's an air freshener, but I'm including him in My Toys anyway! My blog, my rules!
Remember last time I mentioned being lucky sometimes? This was another case... summer of 2011, my wife and the kids and I were in Tacoma hitting some garage sales before getting together with my mom. Now, at the time, we had four kids -- our two adopted kids, Tristan and Desi, and two foster kids (who were almost one and two at the time, and as of this writing, I don't know where they'll be by the time you read this). Now, going to garage sales with kids that are three and under is a challenge, especially when they fall asleep in their car seats. You can't just leave them in the car and go browsing, and you don't want to wake them up when they're napping!
So we usually compromise, and at alternate stops, either Jessi or I will wait in the van while the other goes to look with Tristan and Desi. This particular sale, it was my turn to wait with the little ones, and after a few minutes of browsing, Jessi comes back with this large Zip-Loc bag to show me and says, "Do you want these?" Inside, there was a witch candle, a witch air freshener.. and this guy! I could care less about the witches, but I definitely wanted Frankie, having seen this on eBay many times (so I knew exactly what it was). The seller only wanted a buck for all three items, so it was a no-brainer!
How big a no-brainer? Well, as I'm writing this, there's one on eBay in the exact same condition with a buy it now price of $21.50! And no, I don't think I'd be willing to sell mine for that price, either! It's the oldest Frankenstein item I have in my collection, and in my collection it stays (although I'd imagine once I've passed away, it'll be part of many things my wife and kids will be auctioning off).
Tuesday, October 09, 2012
Comic Book Ads!
Comic Book Ads!
Countdown to Halloween: Geek TV: The Groovie Goolies!
Total Episodes: 16
Original Air Dates:
September 12, 1970 – September 4, 1971
Original Network:
CBS
Geek Factor:
8
Characters:
Drac
(Voice of Larry Storch): Short-tempered vampire, head of Horrible
Hall. Often, his first appearance in a show was flying in bat form
towards a window, which would move out of his way (causing him to
remark, “This place is driving me batty!”). Plays the keyboards
in the band.
Frankie
(Voice of Howard Morris): Mellow Frankenstein's Monster, often zapped
by lightning (which would show mechanical innards, and cause him to
remark, “I needed that.” Maybe it's just me, but Frankie appears
to be drawn as a caricature of Lou Scheimer! Plays the drum/xylophone
in the band.
Hagatha
(Voice of Jane Webb): A fat witch, known for her cooking. Her
enchanted broom is named Broomhilda.
Bella La Ghostly
(Voice of Jane Webb): Vampiress switchboard operator and advice
columnist.
Dr. Jekyll and Hyde
(Voices of Howard Morris and Larry D. Mann): Two headed resident
doctor.
Boneapart
(Voice of Larry D. Mann): Skeleton in a Napoleon hat who goes to
pieces.
Ghoulihand
(voice of Howard Morris): Giant disembodied glove
Batso and Ratso
(voiced by Larry D. Mann and Larry Storch): Fanged brats with a
penchant for practical jokes that often backfire.
Hauntleroy
(Voice of Howard Morris): Fat, selfish sissy kid, often the target of
Batso and Ratso's pranks.
Sabrina Spellman
(voice of Jane WEbb): Occasional guest-star, because the Goolies were
a spin-off of her show. Best known for being a teenage witch.
Geek Guest-Stars: Not
applicable.
Geek Pedigree:
All the usual
Filmation stuff aside... I've covered Howard Morris' career
before, but as a reminder, some of his role included the title
character and others on Beetle Bailey
(1963), Ernest T. Bass and others on The Andy Griffith
Show, and Gopher on Winnie
the Pooh. I just covered Larry
Storch
in the Ghost
Busters
installment, so you can look him up there. Jane
Webb,
on the other hand, I haven't covered before... she voiced Cindy
Lindenbrook in Journey
to the Center of the Earth,
Erica Lane on Fantastic
Voyage,
Betty, Veronica, Big Ethel, Miss Grundy and others on The
Archie Show
and the various permutations of that, Batgirl and Catwoman in The
Batman/Superman Hour,
Wanda Kay Breckenridge and Aunt Gertrude on The
Hardy Boys
(1969), Geraldine Lewis and Rhonda on Will
The Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down,
Aunt Hilda and Aunt Zelda on Sabrina,
The Teenage Witch
and other shows, Ping and Pong the Pandas as well as Babs on The
Brady Kids,
Laura Turner on Lassie's
Rescue Rangers,
Katy O'Hara and Lorelei Brown (and others) on My
Favorite Martians,
and Ginger Grant on The
New Adventures of Gilligan.
She was continuing to do the Archie voices through the last of the
Filmation Archie programs in 1978.
Writers
on the show included Bill
Danch,
who wrote episodes of Mister
Magoo, The Alvin Show, The Super 6, Spider-Man
(1967-1968), Will
the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down, Archie's TV Funnies, My
Favorite Martians, The US of Archie, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids
(as well as several Fat Albert specials), Ark
II, and
The New
Adventures of Batman,
as well as the movie Monster
From the Ocean Floor;
Len Janson
also wrote episodes of Cattanooga
Cats, Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down, Fat Albert and the
Cosby Kids, The Flintstone Comedy Hour, Speed Buggy, Lassie's Rescue
Rangers, Hong Kong Phooey, Wqheelie and the Chopper Bunch, Star Trek
(animated series), Uncle
Croc's Block, Shazam!, Isis, Ark II, The New Adventures of Batman,
The Space Sentinels, Tarzan
(1976-1978), Jason
of Star Command, Yogi's Space Race,
and many others, and he wrote the Saturday
Superstar Movie
of “Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies”; Jack
Mendelsohn
wrote the screenplay to Yellow
Submarine,
as well as episodes of Beetle
Bailey
(1963), Krazy
Kat
(1963), The
Beatles, George of the Jungle, Abbott and Costello, Rowan &
Martin's Laugh-In, Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down, The
Funky Phantom, The Roman Holidays, The New Scooby-Doo Movies, The
Addams Family
(1973), Shazam!,
The Great Grape Ape Show,
Wonderbug,
and many others.
Other
writers included Chuck
Menville,
who wrote episodes of Cattanooga
Cats, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, Shazam!, Star Trek
(animated), Isis,
Ark II, The New Adventures of Batman, Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle,
Space Stars, and
many others, most recently an episode of Batman
(1993); Jim
Mulligan,
who
had written episodes of Will
The Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In,
When Things Were Rotten;
Bob Ogle,
who had written episodes of Mister
Magoo, The Dick Tracy Show, The Archie Show, Archie's Fun House,
Yogi's Gang, The Dogfather, Scooby's Laugh-A-Lympics,
and many others; and Jim
Ryan,
who'd written episodes of The
Super 6, The Pink Panther Show, Archie's TV Funnies, My Favorite
Martians, The New Adventures of Gilligan, Ark II, The New Adventures
of Batman, Yogi's Space Race,
and many others.
Website:
http://www.groovie-goolies.com/
is worth checking out, although there's not much there other than
Larry Storch reprising Drac's voice for an introduction.
Notes:
This was another series that I was very happy to be a part of the
special features for the BCI/Eclipse release, because my siblings and
I LOVED this show! I did not realize that so many writers of this
show were also Laugh-In
writers, but given that it used a very similar format, I guess it's
not surprising!
Monday, October 08, 2012
Toy Spotlight: Italian Batmobile!
Sunday, October 07, 2012
Dog of the Geek: Fauntleroy!
Breed: Bull Terrier
Original Appearances: FoxTrot
comic strips
Other Appearances: Unknown
Biography: Fauntleroy was the
dog owned by Mrs. Taft, who would hire Peter Fox to dogsit him. The
dog has a tendency to attack Peter.
Powers: None
Group Affiliation: None
Miscellaneous: Possibly
the most vicious dog ever presented on the comics page? You'll notice
there's no picture with this entry – because I couldn't find one of
him!
Kirby Kovers!
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