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[Roygbiv666]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes_(1965_TV_series)

Only a couple Wilmer episodes are missing. There's a DVD set of them:
http://www.amazon.com/Sherlock-Holmes-Classic-Starring-Douglas/dp/B003NF97NA/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1394318190&sr=1-2&keywords=wilmer+sherlock+holmes

There are 6 surviving Cushing episodes:
http://www.amazon.com/Sherlock-Holmes-Collection-Peter-Cushing/dp/B001TE6P78/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1394318190&sr=1-1&keywords=wilmer+sherlock+holmes

Wilmer, by the way, is still alive (aged 94). He played a small role as an irate member of the Diogenes Club in the SHERLOCK episode, "The Reichenbach Fall". His Watson, Nigel Stock, was the eccentric scientist in YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES. Cool.

Some time back, I discovered that about half of the 1968 Peter Cushing TV series was avaialble on DVD.  It's been on my "git" list ever since... but as I'm having trouble just paying my car insurance from month to month, it's still on hold.

I understand the other half of his series-- and possibly ALL of the 1965 Douglas Wilmer series-- were WIPED by the BBC.  Bureaucratic idiots.
...

[Roygbiv666]

The obvious man making the dog growls annoys me. Or is that the CREEPING MAN episode. Either way - how hard is it to tape a dog barking? Was it a union problem?

There's something about Brett's HOUND and FOUR which makes me rank them near the bottom of his entire run.

[profh0011]

Ahhhhh, so much to look for (once I'm working steady again).

[profh0011]

There are 4 versions of HOUND that I really love, and more than once have watched back-to-back as a set...

Basil Rathbone  (1939)
Peter Cushing  (1959)
Tom Baker (1982)
Ian Richardson (1983)

Rathbone is probably the best "movie" overall.  baker is by far the most "authentic", and only suffers from low budget, cheap videotape, and being 2 hours instead of 2-1/2 or 3. Richardson has the biggest budget, the most lavish production, a fantastic cast... but also is more of a remake of Rathboone than true to the book.  Plus, it "dumbs down" some of the dialogue for American audiences.

Of these, Cushing is furthest from the book... but, like HORROR OF DRACULA, it doesn't matter!  It's a BLAST to watch!!


I really wish the Brett version was better, but it gets worse each time I watch it.

On the other hand, the one you want to AVOID at all costs is the one with Peter Cook.

[Captain Audio]

My Doubleday edition of "the complete Sherlock Holmes" appears to haveall the stories and novels but none of the illustrations.
I may have another Holmes collection with at least some of the illustrations from the Strand.

I have a copy of "Without a Clue", its insanely funny. Micheal Caine is at his comic best in that one as the down on his luck souse of an actor that Dr Watson hires to play the part of the great consulting detective because no one ever listens to Watson who is the real brains behind the duo's sucess.

[Roygbiv666]

Just watched the first disc of the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series -- on BLURAY!! It's some Spanish set (with English as a language option). Apparently its been released in Japan, Spain, and ... someplace else. But not the UK. Or US. Or Canada.

But I got it as an import.

Not that I watch the show for how it looks, but holy cow - it looks awesome, especially as compared to the DVDs.

Also watched the surviving Peter Cushing Holmes episodes. I liked them, not great, not bad. Cushing's Holmes is a bit too affable for my taste. It was interesting how they gave Watson some of Holmes' lines, like in the Blue Carbuncle, it had Watson giving some insight into the hat's owner. The Brett series did the same on occasion.

Fun. Next up - the Wilmer series?

[profh0011]

I just had to pass this on...

CRAZY-- but true:  About a year ago, I found myself watching 2 different SHERLOCK HOLMES tv series at the SAME time. I was alternating between them, every other episode.

Jeremy Brett-- and Ronald Howard.

And here's the crazy part.  I was ENJOYING Ronald Howard MUCH MORE!!! 

[profh0011]

Let me just add to that... many years back, I remember thinking, I could really believe that the Ron Ely TARZAN and the Jock Mahoney TARZAN were the SAME guy-- I mean, the same VERSION of the same guy-- except, Mahoney was older.  (Never mind he did his earlier.)

Well, recently, I got the SAME feeling about the Ronald Howard SHERLOCK HOLMES-- that he could easily be the SAME version-- as Ian Richardson. Except, Richardson is when he got older.  Both have the same irrepressible sense of FUN about what they do.

"Wait a minute-- I KNOW that song...?"
"Well it DOES sound better on the violin..."

[Captain Audio]

I've read that Ron Ely got so into the Tarzan role that he thought he could do anything Tarzan could do.
When on location a wild leopard strolled into camp and Elfy tackled it.
If not for the camp cook beating the leopard with a cast iron skillet Ely would have been killed.
True or not I couldn't say.

I enjoy the Ronald Howard Sherlock Holmes TV series eps. Have a few of the DVD collections of these.
Brett is a bit more drawn into Holmes darkside.
The Howard eps had a bit of humour to them, much like the Rathbone movies.

[profh0011]

Ronald Howard also has the benefit of having one of the best-ever Dr. Watsons, in the form of Howard Marion Crawford.  In the 60's, he played Dr. Petrie in all 5 Chris Lee FU MANCHU movies.

[paw broon]

Shetland has started it's 2nd. series on BBC.  Three 2 parters make up this series.  Dougie Henshall as D.I. Perez is well cast and, in this first story, Brian cox simply steals the show.  He's not acting, he's being.  The other great star is Shetland itself.  The photography is excellent and the slowness of the islands, the weather, the remoteness are personalities in their own right.  Story's not bad either.

[profh0011]

I have one tape of STAR COPS. To my tastes, it's UNWATCHABLE. It's so DULL, and FLAT, and DREARY. But that's me.

But this made me realize something, and I think it's a perfect comparison...

STAR COPS is like something by Denny O'Neil.

SPACE PRECINCT is like something by JACK KIRBY.


I've noticed over the years several very definite clues that Gerry Anderson (or someone very closely tied to him) was a Jack Kirby fan.

1 - On CAPTAIN SCARLET AND THE MYSTERONS, Spectrum's "Cloud Base" was similar to SHIELD's "Heli-Carrier"

2 - On UFO, the organization was "S.H.A.D.O." -- Supreme Headquarters Alien Defense Organization

3 - On TERRAHAWKS, "Dr. Tiger Ninestein" was one of 9 clones. When one would get KILLED (which happened in the 3rd episode, never mind that it was run out of sequence, dead last), his already-recorded memories would be uploaded into one of the others, and he would be "reborn"-- just like CAPTAIN VICTORY.

The sense of sheer wonder, excitement, imagination and joy I get watching every single episode of this show, SPACE PRECINCT does rather remind me of reading a Kirby book. From the moment it debuted here, it was DISSED by sci-fi fans, mistreated by the local TV stations running it, and cancelled after only one season. Yet I love every frame of every episode of this thing-- which is something I can't even say about STAR TREK!

Among other things, ALL of the main characters are likable people, and even the most bizarre-looking aliens seem more "alive" and "human" than the HUMAN characters on ST: TNG. And they make better and more imaginative use of sci-fi concepts... and do so without beating you over the head with endless "techno-babble" explanations.

[paw broon]

I must have missed Space Precinct.  Need to try an episode or 2.
The Terrahawks thing you mention is very familiar, (again, I have never seen it) but not from Kirby.  Way before Cap. Victory,
No Man did the same trick in his own title and Thunder Agents.
I have been re watching some Star Trek and other Trek series recently and in a STNG episode the other night, it became so obvious that the only one who could act was Patrick Stewart.  Tasha Yar was so wooden and in conversation with Ryker, it was almost embarrassing. Fortunately, this show improved a bit as time went on, imo.

[profh0011]

A good friend of mine in Wales is a huge Anderson fan. He knows so much about several of his shows inside and out, far more than I do. He also feels that FIREBALL XL5 was his best-written show, and STINGRAY the last well-written one. I tend to agree... I even figured out exactly why THUNDERBIRDS wasn't as good as it should have been (and I love that show). But my friend, oddly enough, has never seen TERRAHAWKS or SPACE PRECINCT, both of which had some of the best writing I've ever seen in an Anderson show. It got frustrating because I couldn't even make copies of my tapes to send him, due to the difference in broadcast systems between the US and UK.

I came to the conclusion that Gerry & Sylvia getting DIVORCED must have had a really big effect on Gerry, as sometime after, the writing on his shows began to focus more on characters & less on technology.



Wasn't NOMAN an android or robotic body? CV was a set of clones (apparently kept in cold storage). What made Tiger Ninestein even more perverse was, apparently, his clones each were out in the world living their own lives, until one was needed, and then, they'd step into the machine, and effecively BECOME someone else-- more or less.

TERRAHAWKS was run very much out of sequence in the UK, and even worse in the US. I know that Tiger got killed in the 3rd episode, but apparently, in the UK, someone thought that was too disturbing, and held it back to run 39th (out of 39).



I owe it to Captain Audio for bringing up STAR COPS. It never occured to me before to compare the style and tone of those shows, and the O'Neil / Kirby comparison just jumped out at me. It would be hard to find 2 comics writers with more different attitudes in their work.

I suppose that means it's not really fair to try to compare the 2 shows on any kind of levels of quality. They're simply aimed at 2 completely different audiences (they just both happen to be sci-fi cop shows).

[paw broon]

No Man was Anthony Dunn who cheated death by transferring his mind into a synthetic body, stronger and more durable than a human one.   As a Thunder Agent, in " mortal" danger, he can transfer his mind into another robotic body.  There are a number of these.
I highly recommend all the Thunder Agent, No Man and Dynamo comics by Tower.  They are excellent.

[bowers]

PBS finally came through for us this month! Not only a new series of "Doc Martin", but also a second season of "Father Brown Mysteries", and a third season of "Death in Paradise". The episodes of Doc have been hilarious- well worth the wait. New season of Father Brown is a bit more fast-paced, with a new DCI. Haven't seen Death yet, but I've been warned it will be a shocker! Also, newer "Midsomer Murders" with Neil Dudgeon replacing John Nettles. Next month we should be getting the third season of "Call the Midwife". PBS has been very good to us so far this year, starting with a dynamite "Sherlock", and now all these goodies. Cheers, Bowers

[profh0011]

I'M GONNA GIT YOU SUCKA
ANIMAL HOUSE

It totally slipped my mind until some minutes into the 2nd one that John Vernon was in both of these.

[Roygbiv666]

I'm wrapping up Season 4 of BREAKING BAD on Netflix, pretty sweet.

[Captain Audio]

Just started watching "UFO" the TV series.
I can barely remember this series from when it first appeared in the 70's.

[paw broon]

Ah, so you don't remember the female cast?  You could be in for a treat.

[Captain Audio]

Ah, so you don't remember the female cast?  You could be in for a treat.

Don't think I ever saw a full episode before now, I worked the night shift back then and seldom watched TV.

No lie about the space vixens in this series, and the costuming did little to hide their assets.

I also noticed the camera man liked to linger on the shapely bottoms as they walked away.

I kept expecting Austin Powers to show up saying "oh Bee-Hay-vah".

[profh0011]

The last few days...

I'M GONNA GIT YOU SUCKA!
ANIMAL HOUSE
1941

"That-- is the CRAZIEST son of a bitch I ever saw!"
--Gen. Stillwell  (Robert Stack)

[Captain Audio]

New TV series I've seen the first two episodes of "the 100".
In the future the remnants of the human race are housed on a huge space station composed of 25 space stations linked together.
Every thing aboard is totalitarian life boat rules, with all infractions even the most minor punished by death.

They clean out death row by sending 100 juvenile deliquents to earth to find out if it can now support human life after 97 years of radioactive desolation and nuclear winter.

It only takes about six hours for these young people to go Lord of the Flies. Also unfortunately for them there are survivors on earth but apparently no longer exactly human.

This sort of survival of a limited number with no back up has been a plot tried numerous times in the past.

You can find a few earlier attempts at making a TV series along these lines during the 70's, and of course the more recent "Lost" used the same basic situations.

Heres a Pilot of one such attempt from 1969, "the New People".
Written by Rod Serling, dated but worth watching.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyv8fiCPpuM
In this case the young people are stranded by an airliner crash on an isolated nuclear test range with buildings and various vehicles and supplies left there after the testing. So its much as if they were survivors of a nuclear war.

[narfstar]

Thanks for the link I am watching it. I liked it on first run. I have the comics.

[jimmm kelly]

Just finished watching the 1982 movie of THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL, starring Anthony Andrews as Sir Percy Blakeney, Jane Seymour as Lady Blakeney and Ian McKellen as Chauvelin.

What an absolutely, brilliant perfect movie. I almost feel robbed that I never got the chance to see this in a movie theatre.

All three actors are wonderful in their roles, but this is a tour de force performance by Anthony Andrews. Simply amazing.