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[josemas]

The 70s weren't a total dead zone for these genres.  It did bring us such shows as The Incredible Hulk, Kolchak:The Night Stalker, Planet of the Apes, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, Logan's Run, Mork and Mindy, and on Saturday mornings- Shazam, The Mighty Isis, Ark II, Space Academy, Jason of Star Command plus animated versions of Star Trek and Planet of the Apes.

There's probably more too but these came to me off the top of my head.

Best

Joe

[jimmm kelly]

I wish I could find it on youtube, but there was this great scene I remember from "Newhart" where Peter Scolari's TV producer character, Michael, is lamenting that all the networks want these days is quality programming, rather than the kind of entertainment he wants to produce. And Bob Newhart's character, Dick, tells him to take heart, reminding him that in the 70s there were all these quality programs (like the Mary Tyler Moore Show and All in the Family), but they soon enough gave way to shows like Manimal and Charlie's Angel. So just hang in there Michael, because it's bound to turn around again.

The scene has always stayed with me--because it's funny on many different levels. Of course, Bob Newhart was part of that quality programming trend, with his own 70s show. And Scolari was part of the trend that followed after it, with "Bosom Buddies" in the early 80s.

[bowers]

Some pretty good new shows this month. BBC-America gives us "Orphan Black", "Spies of Warsaw", and of course some new episodes of the Doctor. "Orphan Black" is well-written with a good premise, but not for the kiddies. "Spies" is a four-parter featuring David Tennant as a French espionage agent ,pre-WW2. The Doctor's initial "Spoonhead" episode was fairly weak, but the second was much better. Also watching "Vikings" on History Channel. Well-written, acted, and produced but ultra-violent with intense sexual situations, although no real nudity. Not for family viewing. PBS gives us a new season of "Call the Midwife", and the current Masterpiece is "Mr. Selfridge"- both quite good. Read somewhere that new episodes of "Falling Skies" won't debut until June- kinda miss that show. Cheers, Bowers

[narfstar]

I really like Vikings and I hope  Orphan Black stays good. What I really dislike is how long it is between seasons of Falling Skies. The show just gets going really great then takes another long break

[narfstar]

I just found My Living Doll on HULU. This program was thought to have had all copies destroyed. It is great that there is always a saver around. I loved this show when it ran originally. In case you are unaware the beautiful Julie Newmar is a robot in this series. I just found it on there today so I have not watched it yet. I am sure it will not be as good as when I was 8 but I will like if for nostalgia's sake at least. Now I know that Mr. Terrific has survived so maybe Hulu will pick it up. They already have My Mother the Car and I also found The Mother In Laws today.

[mr_goldenage]

Mr. Terrific can be bought for a price. Not from me but on the 'net.

RB up late scanning

[narfstar]

I have seen it and almost bought it but I figure as soon as I do it will be offered somewhere free to watch.

[mr_goldenage]

Gotcha, same here.......Lol......I am just waiting it out.....Got Captain Nice that way.

[Captain Audio]

I ran across some very low quality but watchable downloads of "Quark" online years ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_(TV_series)
A great short run (8 episodes) TV sci fi comedy series of the 70's. Very funny stuff.

[narfstar]

I did not like it on its original run but probably would now

[josemas]

My three current weekly serials-

The Lost Special-1932-Universal-   Our new Movie Night serial is one that is loosely based on an Arthur Conan Doyle short story.  Plenty of action in a railroad setting in the opening chapter.  Hoping it continues along these lines in the following weeks.

Don Winslow of the Navy-1942-Universal-   I'm a good two thirds or so into this chapter-play based on the popular comic strip (1934-1955).  It's fast moving and did well enough in its day to spawn a sequel (Don Winslow of the Coast Guard).  You'll find plenty of comics here at CBM featuring Don's adventures.  Dell reprinted the comic strip in issues of Crackajack Funnies and Popular Comics (as well as a couple of issues of Four Color) while Fawcett created new stories for a successful 69 issue run of Don Winslow of the Navy beginning in 1943.  Charlton also had Don in a short-lived mid fifties revival.

The Monster and the Ape-1945-Columbia-  Only a few chapters into this one but it has been fun.  A wacky looking robot and giant ape enliven the action.  Robert Lowery makes a fine hero and is at the top of his game here.  He would go on to star in another more popular serial, Batman and Robin, in 1949.  I remember seeing him on various television shows in the 1960s when I was a kid.  He did tons of TV work in the 1950s and 60s.

Best

Joe

[josemas]

Some DVD collections I recently finished watching-

Doctor Who-"City of Death"-(1979)-  Very enjoyable four-part time travel serial written by Douglas Addams.  Got a real kick out of John Cleese's cameo in the final chapter.   The budget must have been increased for this one too as they actually went to Paris to do some location shooting.  Some nice extras on the set include about 20 minutes of behind the scenes video footage that somehow managed to avoid being wiped all these years.

Burn Notice Season Two (2008-2009/16 episodes)   Continued good writing on this season will have me coming back for season three.  The cast has settled in well with their characters by this point too.

Coronado 9: The Complete Series (1960-1961/39 episodes)  Rod Cameron starred in many B movies, westerns and serials in the 1940s and early 50s before segueing into TV work.  He starred in three series for Revue-  City Detective (1953-1955), State Trooper (1956-1959) and Coronado 9 (1960-1961).  After that he kept busy guest starring in numerous television shows and playing the occasional supporting role in feature films until he retired in the late 1970s.  In this series he plays PI Dan Adams.  The series benefits from having a number of it's episodes directed by William Witney.  Witney had spent years directing serials and B westerns.  He knew how to keep the pace moving and turn out a solid product on a limited budget.  He was a natural for television during it's first couple of decades.

Best

Joe

[jimmm kelly]

Some DVD collections I recently finished watching-

Doctor Who-"City of Death"-(1979)-  Very enjoyable four-part time travel serial written by Douglas Addams.  Got a real kick out of John Cleese's cameo in the final chapter.   The budget must have been increased for this one too as they actually went to Paris to do some location shooting.  Some nice extras on the set include about 20 minutes of behind the scenes video footage that somehow managed to avoid being wiped all these years.

Last week, I finished my self-imposed project of watching all of the original DOCTOR WHO. Mind you, I saw all of these online, on free sites, where the quality wasn't so good (in the future I may invest in some of the DVDs). And with a couple of stories featuring Daleks I found it impossible to hunt down all of the stories--parts of the stories, yes, together with short clips from the rest--then I had to fill in the gaps by reading the synopses online. Plus there's those Hartnell and Troughton stories where the video was destroyed, so I had to listen to the audio with the still pictures. But all in all, I feel like I now have a very good knowledge of the 1963 series.

In terms of the Tom Baker Doctor, I have to say that I prefer the Robert Holmes version. Despite its unforgivable Chinese stereotypes, "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" is not only one of the best Fourth Doctor stories, but one of the best of any Doctor Who TV stories.

"City of Death" is pretty good. I like the relationship between the Doctor and Romana II in this one. It shows the positive side of having two people who are lovers in real life working together--Tom Baker and Lala Ward have an easy nature with each other in this story. But on the whole, I can't say I really liked the Douglas Adams stories as much as the Holmes stories. Adams is trying too hard to be funny. And when he's script editor he's goosing the scripts to camp them up. The result, I think, was this silly Tom Baker Doctor which became stamped in everybody's mind (in North America) as what Doctor Who is all about--and what is still parodied on American TV shows to this day. The Adams brand of comedy works perfectly for his HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE..., but it's a little much for DOCTOR WHO.

However, the last season of the Fourth Doctor, after Douglas Adams, was far worse. This version of the Tom Baker Doctor felt cold and dour. The tension between him and Ward comes through in their characters. While Baker was a great talent, he must've been a nightmare to work with.

If there's some kind of karmic relationship between the different iterations of the Doctor, I think just as Baker was a more alien incarnation in reaction to Pertwee's earthy Doctor--so Peter Davison's nice, inoffensive version is a reaction against the hubris of the Tom Baker Doctor.

[Captain Audio]

I've been watching the old "Starmaidens" British TV series. My sis watched the first episode and nicknamed the two main alien visitors "Man Ho" and "Happy Gillmore".
I like this series.
Favorite bit so far was when the little girl told them she was going to tell her mom and they freaked out and fled in terror, leaping over a high stone wall. 

[narfstar]

I do not think I have seen any of these. Are they on Netflix?

[Captain Audio]

Found them on Youtube.

[narfstar]

thanks

[profh0011]

Jimmm, it's interesting to hear you feel Tom Baker's 7th season was "worse" than his 6th.  The 6th has caught a lot of hell over the years, both for its "excessive" humor and its visibily decreased budget. Despite both of those, the entire season (barring that annoying Dalek story) has continued to grow on me over the years. I note that just about every story has ONE actor whose performance suggests they thought they were doing the Adam West BATMAN or something (not that that show couldn't EASILY have been much better with the right attitude in charge). Note the scientist in CITY OF DEATH with the exagerated accent (same actor who played Charlie The Bartender in THE GUNFIGHTERS-- no kidding!), or the guy who played "Tryst" in NIGHTMARE OF EDEN, who goes thru the entire story impersonating Peter Sellers' character from WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT.

Too many science-fiction fans insist that their "SF!!!!" be taken "seriously!!!" all the time, which can get boring, or depressing. JNT & Christopher Bidmead (season 7) went way, way too far the other way, discarding or destroying many things that made the show watchable in the first place.  It's difficult enough in England to hold onto actors on any TV series when they keep wanting to move on to the next job, but to deliberately KICK a character who really works and is really popular off a show (Romana, K-9) is practically creative suicide.  (Everything they did just "inspired" Tom Baker to quit, too...)

Ironically, the story that caught hell when it first aired, "MEGLOS", in the long run, I found the most fun to watch.  It's got a few gaping plot holes in it... but that's an entirely different problem!

For the most part, in the right state of mind, most of Baker's last season does remain at least watchable... UNTIL I get to LOGOPOLIS.  Early-on, I was captivated by this, for the most part, I think, because it broke so many "rules", because I had so much trouble figuring out what the HELL was going on, etc. But in the long run... it's where the REALLY BAD writing on the show started. Christopher Bidmead over-worked himself that whole year re-writing everyone else's scripts to bring them in line with his own narrow view of how the show should go, but the final story was a LAST-MINUTE replacement, and it really shows just how rushed he was trying to get the thing out.

In addition, once JNT decided to boot Lalla Ward off the show, and then found out Tom Baker was leaving, he strongly considered bringing back an earlier companion, at least for a few stories, to help "bridge" the transition from the show's longest-running and most popular star to whoever he wound up with.  Both Lis Sladen & Louise Jameson were contacted. I believe one was unavailable, and the other turned it down (allegedly) for not being asked first (which sounds childish, so I question the truth of it). Try watching LOGOPOLIS and imagining how it might have gone with Sarah or Leela INSTEAD of that awful, annoying B**** Tegan.

The last time I watchged my entire DOCTOR WHO collection, ALMOST every girl on the show I found myself liking more than I ever had before, except 2 of them.  Sarah, for whatever reason, who'd been my favorite since 1979, I had no reaction to at all this last time around.  Very strange.  (Maybe my taste in women is changing?)  Tegan-- I just can't stand. The one bit with Tegan I enjoy is in FRONTIOS, where the Doctor tries to save her life by pretending she's a robot.  "I got this one CHEAP because the walk's not right, and of course there's the accent..."  That's the REAL Doctor finally showing through, after 2-1/2 years of him being buried under "too nice and wimpy".

If you'd like to see Peter Davison the way I feel he SHOULD have played The Doctor, watch CAMPION.  He's brilliant on that, in every scene.  He still managed to be a "nice guy", but unlike his Doctor, Albert doesn't take C*** from anyone! (Including his butler, played by Brian "impenetrable accent" Glover.)

[jimmm kelly]

Yes this is pretty much how I feel. The 6th season of Baker tried too hard to be funny, the 7th tried too hard to be serious. One was too campy, while the other was too boring. Seasons 1 - 5 were on the whole much better, balancing the fun with the drama.

Most of the companions I started out feeling indifferent about them, but then I got to like them as time wore on. With some however it was very hard work to like them (Susan, Sarah Jane, Adric, Tegan, Turlough, Peri, Ace), while others became likable very quickly (Stephen, Jamie, Victoria, Jo, Leela, Romana I).

Seeing Hines and Troughton come back in "The Two Doctors" was a highlight for me. It doesn't matter what the story was about (although the indifference to life displayed by many writers was a continual annoyance in all of the classic series--did they really need to kill off so many innocent bystanders?). I was just happy to see the (platonic) love affair between Jamie and the Doctor recognized.

I got a kick in the latest new Who episode when the Doctor meets the Professor and his companion--but when the Doctor calls her the Professor's "companion," the Prof says she's his "assistant." And the Doctor remarks, Oh right this is 1974, so she would be his assistant. A kind of 4th wall reference to the Third Doctor who had assistants not companions.

Given the back to front way I've been getting into Doctor Who. I saw both Peter Davison and Freema Agyeman on LAW & ORDER: UK before I saw then on DOCTOR WHO. Probably a reason that Martha Jones is one of my favourite companions. Yet, I found Davison's seasoned performance on L&OUK much better than his performance as the Doctor. I think the first part of the two-part "Black Orchid"--even though it's a daft story and apparently hated by Who fans--was one of the best bits for the Fiffh Doctor and his companions, because they get to be themselves, just relaxing and having a good time. It's the one story where the Fifth Doctor's gear made sense--a kind of Aha! this is who he is!

I will have to check out CAMPION, if I can find it.

[profh0011]

"The 6th season of Baker tried too hard to be funny, the 7th tried too hard to be serious."

CITY OF DEATH is my favorite from the 17th season, and it's certainly the funniest (but not the silliest).  Like THE PIRATE PLANET it benefits from just having a brilliant script (though, unlike the former, it started out as someone else's idea-- I think).

The last couple times I watched THE CREATURE FROM THE PIT, it hit me just how funny it would have been if Geoffrey Bayldon had turned out to be William Hartnell's Doctor (a surprise crossover).  It would have probably put Tom Baker's Doctor completely off his game to have himself act condescending toward him.

It's funny, because, something I never noticed before... in the 16th season, Baker suddenly starts to remind me of Hartnell's Doctor (if he were younger of course).  I think it's the way he tries so extra-hard to be superior around Romana, only it never quite works.  The 16th season may be my favorite of all of them, as the balance just seemed so perfect.  Plus, while an occasional "gothic horror" story is nice, having several seasons in a row of nothing but "gothic horror" can get to you after awhile.  Where's the variety, like in the earliest seasons?

Of course then there's Mary Tamm. She just cracks me up so much as Romana. A couple years back, when I watched THE RIBOS OPERATION for the first time in some years, it suddenly hit me, early in the story...  "Oh my God! It's Hermoine Granger-- all grown up!!" I love the stuff early on, like when she says, "You know, before I met you, I was actually willing to be impressed."

THE TWO DOCTORS is definitely a favorite of mine, as is REVELATION OF THE DALEKS.  The irony of the latter is that, the way it's written, The Doctor is hardly in it at all.  And then when he is, he's much more laid-back than he had been for the bulk of the season. See THE LOVED ONE with Rod Steiger as "Mr. Joyboy" for the major inspiration for that story.  (The "Davros" equivalent character was played by Jonathan Winters.)

That over-reaction thing continued with Peter Davison (too wimpy) and Colin Baker (too abbrasive). Both actors are terrific, but for the most part, got lousy writing. I was shocked when Sylvester McCoy came along, and became my favorite of all the Doctors.  He got some flawed writing as well, but the general intent had improved immensely, and I wound up thinking he was so good, it made me want to pretend the previous 5 (or 6) seasons had "never happened".

[narfstar]

Thanks to Captain Audio's recommendation, I have been watching Star Maidens. I have to say that I like it a lot. Of course you have to take it for what it is and when it was. I found it very interesting than when the earthmen confronted the Medusa women it was the Professor not the police that was in charge.

[profh0011]

I'm nearing the climax of the long, long "1897" sequence on DARK SHADOWS. Back in 1969, I dropped off a few weeks in, then came back near the end, never having a clue that it was the SAME story still going all those months later. I remember coming in just before or after Barnabas had been "killed", mainly because my Dad used to keep sarcastically saying "SPIKE in the CHEST!" ("Spike", not "stake"-- heh.)


In the 80's, I watched and taped the entire thing off NJN (PBS). I'm finally watching those tapes now. It's pretty clear that in the last 3rd of the storyline, a LOT of episodes went missing. I wonder if they ever turned up later?


About 10 years ago (how time flies, it's scary), I watched some of this on the Sci-Fi Channel again. As with 1969, I caught a few episodes early-on, when "Edith" ("Grandmother") met Barnabas and then died of a heart attack ("YOU! YOU are THE SECRET!!!"), then switched off, but turned it on for the climax. I don't think I saw as much 10 years ago as I did back in '69.


Now, as crazy as it is, to have the SAME actors playing more than one part in the SAME story-- Thayer David as Sandor Rakosi AND Count Petoffi (with one or two episodes thrown in where he's also Professor Stokes!!), Kathryn Leigh Scott as Rachel Drummond (killed by a possessed Judith, under the control of Dirk Wilkins), AND Lady Kitty Hampshire (THE ACTUAL reincarnation of Josette!!!), and Roger Davis as both Dirk Wilkins AND Charles Delaware Tate, now we have the total insanity of Grayson Hall playing Julia Hoffman, who's gone back in time to 1897... and today, ALSO as Magda Rakosi! If ever 2 characters in this story should have met and traded notes, it would have been Magda & Julia... but I don't think they could figure out a way to do it.




Of course, in another day, David Selby is going to be playing Count Petoffi... while Thayer David will be playing Quentin Collins.  (Is that the record? 4 different characters by a single actor in ONE storyline?)

: )

Producer Robert Costello may have felt his time was drawing to a close, as the whole thing feels for weeks now like it's building and building to a gigantic, complex climax.  (I just WISH he'd have actually stuck around until the end... when the new guy took over, he SCREWED over everything Costello had spent 8 whole months building up.)

[Captain Audio]

Just scored all 38 episodes of the 50's TV series "Men Into Space".
Great series. Excellent stories and far above average special effects for the era.
They even used actual experimental high altitude pressure suits in the first/pilot episode.
The suits used later were much less realistic, but pretty much a necessity for the type of filming being done, and with the excellent helmets and air tanks one can over look the thin coverall type suits.

One thing I found really retro was their training for working in zero gee by being suspended by cables from a derrick along with sections of a space station. In real life this sort of training was done in a water tank to simulate weightlessness.

The stories hold up well, mainly because they did not act invincible or all knowing. Mistakes were made and equipment failed, often costing lives or the failure of a mission.
Its Sci Fi with some very real science rather than the technobabble of Startrek and so many TV series that followed.

I first saw these shows as a youngster when they first aired, and I'll always remember Captain McCauley drifting alone in space repeating his name while every radio receiver on Earth was tuned in trying to pinpoint his position and trajectory to guide his rescuers.

Great TV

[narfstar]

This is available on youtube. Youtube's WII app makes watching on TV pretty good. The close caption on older shows is computer generated and hilarious. I put cc on Star Maidens and was LMAO. Every once in awhile it would get a sentence right but then what came next was unpredictable. I like the show but I like it more with cc. It is like watching an autocorrect movie.

[jimmm kelly]

I watched an Italian movie--"Teorema"--on youtube the other day, using the closed caption function. I pretty much had to stand on my head to understand the translation. But I did get most of it and it was a fun exercise in interpretation. Also, being a 60s Italian experimental movie, there are long wordless sections where you don't need translation. Terrence Stamp starred in this movie, so it's worth watching just for him, even though he does almost nothing except seduce everyone in sight.