Big Things Coming for the Balance of September!

 

Some “Big Things” will round out the month of September at TIAH Blog! 

By the end of the week, we’ll have a big animation DVD review – in Two Parts! 

Early next week, we’ll follow with another 50th Anniversary tribute to something we like.  This will be in Three Parts! 

Last time we did a 50th Anniversary post, it drew quite the reaction.  Let’s see what happens with this one. 

Be there for both, won’t you! 

On With the (Extra) Show, This Is It!

When I posted THIS ITEM on the upcoming Looney Tunes Superstars Porky Pig DVD set, even *I* failed to notice a significant little something. 

Look closely at the box below…

Now look at the Road Runner set…

 

Finally, look at the Foghorn Leghorn set…

The Porky set has 18 CARTOONS (!), while the other sets had only 15! 

When reviewing Looney Tunes Superstars DVDs, I often find myself duplicating the same PROS and CONS as, beyond individual contents, they change little from set to set. 

The excerpt below could be from ANY of my prior reviews, but is from the Foghorn review. 

The CONS:

The Number of Shorts vs. the Price: Fifteen cartoons may seem like a lot, until you consider that (at the rate of three shorts per a theoretical half-hour show), you are only getting the equivalent of FIVE SHOWS! That’s not very much for an MSRP of 19.98.

[ End of Reproduced Material ] 

The additional three cartoons give the Porky Pig set the equivalent of ONE EXTRA SHOW – making SIX instead of five! 

Oddly, the Looney Tunes Superstars Pepe Le Pew set (which I never got around to reviewing) has 17 cartoons – but, per THIS REVIEW, that may have been in an effort to present Pepe’s ENTIRE RUN in one collection… I idea I rather liked.   Not that it could be applied to as long-running a character as Porky Pig!

But, with 18 shorts in the Porky set, can we hope that the days of 15 cartoon sets – that translate to a mere FIVE shows – are over?   We shall see…

Finally, on a related note, care to guess which post has received the most hits in this Blog’s four-year history? 

It’s the Looney Tunes Superstars Foghorn Leghorn DVDReview!  (Aw, go on… Click on the link to give it still more hits!) 

…And by quite a wide margin!  Who’d have ever guessed Ol’ Foggy was that popular!  

Star Trek: “The Enemy Within” -- A TV Listing for Our Times!

Anyone familiar with STAR TREK knows the episode "The Enemy Within" (1966), in which Captain Kirk is split into his "bad" and "good" sides -- both of which (it turns out) are necessary in order to be a top commander.

 

This wonderful item below comes to us through the courtesy of friend Bruce Kanin!

 

How do you not love THAT?! 

 

Bruce also has a Blog (Go on and see -- I'll wait!) where he posts both funny and interesting stuff.  Give him some page-views and maybe he'll post more often!  That'll be a win-win for all of us!

Pro (not so) Active!

Despite there being no Disney comic books for me to script in 2012, I will be attending New York Comic Con this year.  October 11-14. 

Anyone else planning to go this year? 

My personal friends can let me know via e-mail.  My Blogging friends who’d like to meet up – but don’t have an e-mail address for me – can send me a comment with their e-mail address in it.  I won’t publish that comment – but will use the e-mail address to make plans for the con. 

It’s always a great deal of fun – and has become for me what San Diego used to be – and I hope to see you all there! 

You “Met” Your Life! …Or, “The Day We Met Met Life Stadium!”

The last time Esther and I went to a New York Jets football game, they played in a facility with the curious name of “Giants Stadium”. 

As best my research could determine, the stadium appears to have been named after the outsized antagonists of this classic Irwin Allen Sci-Fi TV series…

…OR, it could have been named after the reigning Super Bowl Champions!  Who can ever really tell for sure? 

Nevertheless, yesterday (September 09, 2012), the New York Jets beat the Buffalo Bills 48–28, on our first trip to the new football facility called “Met Life Stadium”!  …Possibly and incongruously named for Baseball’s New York Mets in some arcane connection with the classic Milton Bradley board game?    



...OR, maybe some big insurance company!  Again, can one ever really be certain?  

"MetLi" Stadium?  Where's the rest?

Scoring 48 points, quarterback Mark Sanchez and the Jets offense piled it on… and so did the Sun! 

Our seats, in the third level between the 40 and 50 yard lines, were in direct exposure to the Sun for the entire game.  There was nary a cloud in the sky to block the searing and penetrating rays.  (Why even Wayne Hunter could have offered better protection than did Mother Nature!  …Private Joke for Jets fans, sorry!)  When an occasional cloud DID appear, it was greeted with as many cheers as were Mark Sanchez and Darrelle Revis! 

Yay, Sanchez!  Yay, Revis!  YAAYY, CLOUDS! 

To make matters worse, a woman in an adjoining seat gave off a noticeable level of body odor – and, being the chivalrous husband that I am, I selflessly switched seats with Esther, providing her with as much cover and distance from the olfactory onslaught as could be.   

Was I watching “Le New Yorque Jettes” or sumpthin’? 

Former Jets and New England Patriots great Curtis Martin was honored by the Jets at halftime, on the occasion of his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  Jets legend Joe Namath was a featured speaker – and only now has it dawned on me that I was actually in a stadium at a moment in which Namath was on the field!  …Wow! 

 Jets head coach Rex Ryan has lost so much weight in the off season that he was difficult to spot on the sidelines.  …If not for the fact that he still wears his trademark dark green sweater vest – even in the face of the unyielding sun (…albeit in a smaller size!) 

Highly touted Tim Tebow was a non-factor in the Jets’ offense this game.  With such a big lead built up by Sanchez and his runners and receivers, perhaps Coach Ryan is keeping Tebow’s wildcat a secret for another week!  Look out, Pittsburgh Steelers! 

The new Met Life Stadium is beautiful.  Indeed with this shrine for the Jets and Giants, the new Yankee Stadium, and the new Citi Field for the Mets – not to mention the soon-to-open Barclay’s Center for the Brooklyn Nets – we sports fans in New York are fortunate indeed! 

Finally, if you live on the New York side of the Hudson River and ever wish to travel to Met Life Stadium, (in East Rutherford, NJ) TAKE THE TRAIN! 

NJ Transit offers service from Penn Station (connecting shuttle from Secaucus Junction) that PULLS RIGHT UP TO THE STADIUM!  (Yes, as you see above, it's really THAT CLOSE! Click the Pic to Enlarge!) It is comfortable and easy to use.  I truly hated the ordeal of driving to the old Giants Stadium – and maybe went to fewer games than I wanted to because of that.  Now, with this great convenience, we’ll likely go more often. 

Indeed, the only unfortunate consequence of the day’s events (once I was again able to take-in a deep breath of clean fresh air) is the noticeable sunburn that continues to remind me that it’s there.  But, to see the Jets score 48 points, it was WOTRH IT! 

J-E-T-S!  …JETS! …JETS!  …JETS! 

 

Porky Pig Meets Bunny and Claude?

Check out THIS ITEM on an upcoming Porky Pig DVD collection. 

Now look closely at the end of the list of included titles. 

 Not only do we get "Corn on the Cop", the last original appearance of Porky Pig (from 1965), but we also get...

...“Bunny and Claude” and "The Great Carrot Train Robbery”? 

Really?  The 1968  “Bunny and Claude” cartoon and its sequel – that made up a series of only TWO cartoons in Warner's final days as a producer of theatrical shorts?   That “Bunny and Claude”? 

From the illustration, it's not perfectly clear if BOTH “Bunny and Claude” AND "The Great Carrot Train Robbery” are included -- but, if the count of 18 shorts is to be believed, that would make it so!

I’ve gotta commend Warner’s for realizing that they actually did create some cartoons in the ‘60s. 

Sure, they weren’t the best – and often they weren’t even good at all, but fans and collectors want as large a piece of the overall output of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies as they can get – and that includes the mid-late ‘60s stuff!   

 August 2012’s MOUSE CHRONICLES release included “It’s Nice to Have a Mouse Around the House” (1965 – which actually transitions Speedy Gonzalez’s nemesis from Sylvester, who suffers a nervous breakdown, to Daffy Duck), and “Merlin the Magic Mouse” (1967 – the debut of that character, who may have run longer in Gold Key Comics, than in theatrical shorts). 

 

There were also 9 Road Runner cartoons from 1965-1966 on THIS 2011 RELEASE. 

 But, of all things to release as a tack-on to a Porky Pig collection…   “Bunny and Claude”? 

I must say I’m thrilled.  I NEVER thought I’d see those cartoons released on DVD – and, in fact, I’ve never seen them period! 

I only knew of the characters of “Bunny and Claude” from THIS Gold Key Comic – where, as the cover indicates, Bugs Bunny spends the story watching the cartoon short of “Bunny and Claude”! 

 

It wasn’t until Leonard Maltin’s wonderful ‘80s book “Of Mice and Magic” did I even know it was a theatrical series.  …Strictly speaking, even two shorts constitute a series, I suppose. 

So, hoo-ray for Warner’s for including these sixties curios, instead of still more double-dipping from the previous Looney Tunes Golden Collections – and for actually listing them on the package… which (AHEM!) they didn’t do for MOUSE CHRONICLES and other sets. 

Whillikers!  I wish *I’D* survived into the sixties! 



Aw, gosh, Sniffles... I wish you JUST SURVIVED, period! 

Care to Guess What I Did Yesterday?

 

At the unthinkable risk of making this read like a “Tweet” or Facebook post that calls attention to any old meaningless thing one might do, and that even most of your closest friends won’t care about…

…Care to Guess What I Did Yesterday?     Click HERE to find out. 

 

Yeah, I do this every year (...and may link to it every year, too!)... So, what!  How do you mark the end of summer?