Post-Modern Stone Age Family – Delayed!

One of our favorite Bloggers, YOWP, reports that Seth MacFarlane's coming version of The Flintstones has been delayed! 

I'll not comment further here, but you can find some of my thoughts in the comment section of Yowp's post. 

I *WAS* looking forward to it, though! 

So, apparently, were Fred and Stewie! 

See, See, See Tennessee Tuxedo Meet Woody Allen!

Peter & Brian thank Joecab!

…AND DO SO VIA FAMILY GUY!

ONCE AGAIN, Friend of this Blog “Joecab” has sent me a comment that I feel merits a full post of its own! 

I should hire him as a contributor, or he should start his own Blog.  (…It would be interesting either way!)    

Just click on THIS LINK and enjoy.   Thanks, “JC”! 

For the record, my memory failed me and *I* thought Family Guy did it first, too!  

Though Homer Simpson clearly disagrees!

Oh, and check out the GREAT BLOG devoted to 1966!  (My favorite pop-cultural year of all time!)  It’s unbelievable! 

“Riddle” Me This!

Sixties Entertainment “Geeky Warning”:  We are about to link the BATMAN TV Series, with a John Wayne movie – by way of THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. and a single, specific episode of VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA.  There will even be a tangential reference to Alfred Hitchcock. 

Bail out now, if you can’t take it! 

The Adam West BATMAN TV Series (1966-1968) was distinctive in several ways.  Its visual sense and set decoration, based on character design, costumes, and props from just over a quarter century of Batman comic books, delineated by the likes of Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson, Dick Sprang, Sheldon Moldoff, and Carmine Infantino.  The over-the-top acting, that ushered in a new era of sixties camp that swept contemporary television for a (brief but wonderful) time. And the memorably unique music scores, courtesy of composer Nelson Riddle.  

C’mon, folks… no matter how long it’s been, you can still hear those Bat-scores echoing in the recesses of your mind’s ear! 

Though BATMAN was but a mere fraction of this great composer’s output – it is the cornerstone of a particular segment of Nelson Riddle’s work – the segment he did for television.

A year or so before BATMAN, this particular type of score got its “tryout” on the 1965 VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA episode “Escape from Venice”. 

An aside, “Escape from Venice” recycled a key plot element from the Alfred Hitchcock film “The Lady Vanishes”. (We’ll discuss that when I someday review “The Lady Vanishes” on DVD.) The writer of “Escape from Venice” was a man named Charles Bennett, who was a former associate of Hitchcock – as seen in THIS POST.  And, that probably accounts for any similarities between “Escape from Venice” and “The Lady Vanishes”.  End of aside. 

Many of Nelson Riddle’s cues for “Escape from Venice” are very similar to (or even the same as) those he would later make famous in BATMAN.  It was the only score Riddle would do for VOYAGE, with subsequent (…or would that be “SUB-sequent”) scores, mostly by Alexander Courage and Leith Stevens, overshadowing Riddle’s as the series standards. 

Similar Riddle scores would be heard throughout the third, and most “campy”, season of THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. – lending much to the particular atmosphere that season wished to project. 

But, here’s where even *I* was taken aback…

I just viewed the John Wayne film “El Dorado” (1966 or 1967, depending on which source you accept) – and the distinctive background music styling that appears to have begun on VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, became famous and indelibly identified with BATMAN, and worked its way through THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. also supports (almost incongruously) the western adventures of The Duke! 

To me it seemed weird – yet, somehow wonderful – to see John Wayne riding the trail and swinging into both fist and gun-fighting action to the type of music cues I’ve spent a lifetime associating with Adam West, Burt Ward, Frank Gorshin, and Caesar Romero! 

But, overall, Nelson Riddle’s score for “El Dorado” was quite enjoyable – especially if you’re “me”! 

Sixties composer geekiness aside, “El Dorado” is a great film – as far as the sixties Western genre goes – with John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, (Introducing) James Caan, and (as the villains) Christopher George and the great Ed Asner. 

Many of the plot elements of “El Dorado” are directly lifted from an earlier Wayne film, “Rio Bravo” (1959), with just enough of the elements “re-mixed” to keep it barely this side of an actual “remake”. 

In the event I never get around to doing an actual “Loooong DVD Review” of “El Dorado”, consider this post to be made up of SOME of the observations I would make there! 

End of Sixties Entertainment “Geeky Warning”.  You may now resume your “normal lives”! 

…Assuming we HAVE “lives”!  J  

R.I.P. Warren Stevens.

Enthusiasts of Sci-Fi TV – and sixties TV in general – suffered a notable loss, with the passing of Warren Stevens on March 27, 2012, at the age of 92. 

You can read more about Mr. Stevens HERE. 

Warren Stevens was a particular favorite actor of mine, for his frequent association with Sci-Fi productions (noted in the list of his credits below) – and his wide range of appearances over what will always be my favorite era of television.  

He was generally a deliberate, no-nonsense type of character actor, whose portrayals could fall on “the side of good” or “the side of evil” with equal dexterity. 

Warren Stevens aboard the Seaview. Is he "good" or "evil"?  Stay Tuned!

Indeed, he appeared in THREE different episodes of VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, as THREE distinctly different characters – and tallied one for “good” and two for “evil”.  And, in those VOYAGE roles, his talents shined in such diverse characterizations as a Hard-Boiled Government Security Agent, an Invading Alien Leader, and a Cursed Ancient Mariner who has survived into the modern world as a US Navy Commander! 

Voyage: "The Saboteur" with Richard Basehart

Voyage: "Deadly Invasion"

Voyage: "Cave of the Dead"

Warren Stevens will continue to live ALL OVER my DVD collection, with appearances in (Alphabetical Order): Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Amazing Captain Nemo (Irwin Allen), Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, Honey West, I Spy, Ironside, Land of the Giants, Man from U.N.C.L.E., Mission Impossible, Outer Limits, Perry Mason, Rat Patrol, Star Trek TOS, Time Tunnel, Twilight Zone, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. 

Star Trek: "By Any Other Name"

Star Trek: "By Any Other Name" with William Shatner

Land of the Giants: "Brainwash" with Leonard Stone (ABOVE)
Land of the Giants: "A Place Called Earth" (BELOW)

And, never forget he co-starred in perhaps the granddaddy of much televised sci-fi – the ultra-classic fifties film “Forbidden Planet” (1956).  His role in Time Tunnel’s “One Way to the Moon” closely echoes that of “Forbidden Planet”.

Forbidden Planet

Time Tunnel: "One Way to the Moon"

Mr. Stevens also appears as himself in an extra feature of the “Forbidden Planet” DVD set, that was released in 2006. 

More Brave! More Bold! “The Criss Cross Conspiracy!”

Still working my way through BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD Season Two, Part Two on DVD (Released:  March 20, 2012) – and, in addition to the wonderful episode I discussed HERE, I’ve found another one worth reviewing  NOW – rather than waiting to do my (eventual) full review of the set. 

“The Criss Cross Conspiracy!” (…a title that, even after seeing the episode twice, seems to have only a tenuous connection to the story at hand) opens “Ten Years Ago”, with The Riddler raiding some sort of “Puzzle-Awards Ceremony” and taking the prize. 

Batman and young teen Robin are there to stop him – but there is another Bat to contend with. 

Batwoman – sultry brunette with classically styled hair, looking exactly as she did in fifties and Silver Age comic books!  Score another one for this show as a magnificent monument to the vast lore of DC Comics! 

 In those comics, she was “Kathy Kane” (presumably, after Batman creator Bob Kane) – but here she is bored heiress turned thrill-seeker, “Katrina Moldoff”. 

This is interesting in ways well beyond the plot!  Sheldon Moldoff was one of Bob Kane’s “ghost artists”, who never got credit for all his fine work of the period in which the character of Batwoman thrived.  So, as if to balance things out, writer Marsha Griffin and the producers appear to have REMOVED Bob Kane’s name (as it applied to the alter-ego of Batwoman), and APPLIED the surname of  Sheldon Moldoff!  …How’s that for retroactive justice! 

Katrina (somewhat recklessly) assists in the capture of The Riddler – but not before she becomes careless and allows The Prince of Puzzlers to UNMASK her before a crowd of onlookers and reporters… to her shock, horror, and utter humiliation.   Clearly, she is known as something of a public figure or celebrity.

Things get worse for Katrina, when Gotham City soon files an order against her, prohibiting her from dressing and acting as an unauthorized crime-fighter, (…we’ll presume Batman had some sort of unofficial exemption from Commissioner Gordon on this matter) and Katrina retires in bitterness.  

 We shift forward, ten years to “The Present”: 

Batman, Nightwing… and Batgirl (!) stop a bank robbery – and are observed by Katrina, resentful that Batman has allowed another to assume the role as his female counterpart. 


Twisted by her anger, she seeks the assistance of FELIX FAUST – the sorcerer from Silver Age “Justice League of America” comics, who has served his time and is quietly operating a sorcery shoppe somewhere in the nether regions of Gotham. 

 Faust is quite taken with the still-slinky Katrina, and provides her with a potion and incantation that will allow her to (…Ready for this?) SWITCH BODIES with the person of her choice.  She lures Batman to her remote mansion and does exactly that, overpowering him in the process! 

She takes Batman’s uniform and awkwardly (auto) pilots the Batmobile back to the Batcave.  Nigthwing and Batgirl become suspicious when Batman exhibits uncharacteristic (To say the least!) hissy-fits – and asks Batgirl about her shampoo (!)  


Things  take a real turn when they learn that Katrina (as Batman) plans to kill The Riddler for his decade-old deeds, and have Batman appear to be the killer.   Batman comes-to, dons Katrina’s old Batwoman suit, and goes after her.  Big bouts of Bat-gender-bending ensue – with “he as she” and “she as he”! 

“Riddle me this!”, says Katrina, catching up to her unsuspecting prey – weapon in hand, “How do you stop The Riddler from ruining your Saturday Night?”  …“Kill him on Friday!”  

No more spoilers – but I must note that the episode bears a remarkable (…and likely not coincidental) resemblance to the STAR TREK Original Series final episode “Turnabout Intruder” (1969) – right down to William Shatner adopting feminine gestures and inflections, with Batman’s voice actor (Dedrich Bader) and the episode’s animators following suit. 

A surprising amount of humor springs from Felix Faust, who amorously peruses Batwoman – even after it becomes Bat-MAN in her body!  …This sets up one hell of a great final line of dialogue! 

Oh, just see it!  (No matter HOW many times you’ve seen the “Body Switching” thing in animation!)  You’ll be glad you did, especially when you pick yourself up off the floor at the episode’s fadeout! 

Here's (?) the Pitch!

To celebrate the start of the 2012 Major League Baseball season, we present this classic cover from WALT DISNEY’S COMICS AND STORIES # 163 (1954). 

Say, exactly WHO’S PITCHING, anyway? 

Carl Barks?  Fethry?  Melvin X. Nickleby?  Moby Duck? 

Melvin brushes-off a crowd of autograph seekers, who wish to sell his autographed baseballs on e-Bay!

Or, maybe it’s the legendry “Phantom Nephew” Phooey!

Go Yankees! 

Is A-Rod batting against Melvin?