Meant to mention that they had a still with Bob Hope.
MeTV's SuperSci-Fi Saturday Night
- Thread starter JD
- Start date
You would think Svengoolie falling on Christmas Eve would naturally inspire Me-TV to re-run the Santa Claus Conquers the Martians episode, or something along those lines.
All good stuff. I was watching the night that the David Bowie meets Bing Crosby teamup was on and it was just amazing. It was in the days before home video, so it was years before I saw it again. The Waitresses, of course, are sooo 80s.
Nice.
It was the Bob Hope version, which is a good one, but it seems like I've seen it very recently. Must have been on TCM. What our affiliate does on Saturday nights is show the main station's news at 10oclock, then Get Smart, then Sven. No Yule log this year, thankfully.
I actually had the MST3K version waiting in my inbox when I got home. It was the latest classic episode drop for Kickstarter supporters.
Also noteworthy that it was recorded a month before Crosby died, and evidently aired a month after his death.
Not sure if I saw it at the time. The family watched a lot of Christmas variety shows...and I wouldn't have known who Bowie was at that age. (I knew who Crosby was....
)
Last edited:
Land of the Giants: "The Night of Thrombeldinbar": My local MeTV affiliate pre-empted the first half of this for some reason, but I found it online; apparently there's a service called Yahoo! View that offers a certain portion of the Hulu catalog for free, just as ShoutFactory does with The Time Tunnel and others.
Anyway, they showed this a week early because it's the holiday episode, and it was a surprisingly effective story, not as sappy or silly as I'd thought it might be. Fitzhugh's compassion for the children is nicer to see than his usual cowardice and bumbling, and it's a nice bit of worldbuilding to give the giants' culture their own distinctive holiday custom, although the rules of the tradition are kind of arbitrarily set up to put Fitzhugh in danger (burning a paper bag? Really?). And Alfred Ryder makes a fairly good Grinch/Scrooge equivalent. The bit with the malicious organ grinder and his "monkey" was less appealing, though. Why do so many shows try to pass off baby chimpanzees as monkeys? Chimps are no more monkeys than bears are badgers.
The Time Tunnel: "The Revenge of Robin Hood": Your pretty standard Robin Hood story, naturally based on the cinematic version so they could use stock footage; judging from the costumes, I'd assume they used the Errol Flynn movie as their source. But they tried to blend it with the story of the Magna Carta so it'd be a bit more historical. I'm not sure if there's any tradition of linking Robin Hood to that specifically, though of course King John has been his traditional nemesis for a while now. Anyway, I liked it that Herman Stein's score was a straight-up Korngold pastiche.
I was actually expecting that King John would touch the homing rod, get whisked forward to 1968, and be convinced of the need to sign the Magna Carta by General Kirk. Maybe the writers were finally getting tired of the "Tunnel snatching the wrong person" trope. Anyway, the resolution of the homing-rod business was vague. Why did Doug and Tony just abandon it? Did King John break it with his sword strike? Meanwhile, what good is a "smoke attack" if the smoke is released inside the castle instead of concealing the attackers' approach from the defending archers? That plot point was completely wasted.
Anyway, they showed this a week early because it's the holiday episode, and it was a surprisingly effective story, not as sappy or silly as I'd thought it might be. Fitzhugh's compassion for the children is nicer to see than his usual cowardice and bumbling, and it's a nice bit of worldbuilding to give the giants' culture their own distinctive holiday custom, although the rules of the tradition are kind of arbitrarily set up to put Fitzhugh in danger (burning a paper bag? Really?). And Alfred Ryder makes a fairly good Grinch/Scrooge equivalent. The bit with the malicious organ grinder and his "monkey" was less appealing, though. Why do so many shows try to pass off baby chimpanzees as monkeys? Chimps are no more monkeys than bears are badgers.
The Time Tunnel: "The Revenge of Robin Hood": Your pretty standard Robin Hood story, naturally based on the cinematic version so they could use stock footage; judging from the costumes, I'd assume they used the Errol Flynn movie as their source. But they tried to blend it with the story of the Magna Carta so it'd be a bit more historical. I'm not sure if there's any tradition of linking Robin Hood to that specifically, though of course King John has been his traditional nemesis for a while now. Anyway, I liked it that Herman Stein's score was a straight-up Korngold pastiche.
I was actually expecting that King John would touch the homing rod, get whisked forward to 1968, and be convinced of the need to sign the Magna Carta by General Kirk. Maybe the writers were finally getting tired of the "Tunnel snatching the wrong person" trope. Anyway, the resolution of the homing-rod business was vague. Why did Doug and Tony just abandon it? Did King John break it with his sword strike? Meanwhile, what good is a "smoke attack" if the smoke is released inside the castle instead of concealing the attackers' approach from the defending archers? That plot point was completely wasted.
I'm really not as critical of music as it might seem. It's just that TIH occurred during a particularly bad time. Oh, I forgot about that.
I was a huge Bowie fan in the 70s and I liked Crosby a lot because of my love of old movies. My love of the Arts and my love of history were always kind of synergistic (for example, in my head prime time series like Starsky & Hutch and Charlie's Angels and Late Show movies like Thin Man and Charlie Chan were all part of the same universe, just in different decades), so the generational pairing of Bowie and Crosby was very exciting for me. The kids at school, of course, thought I was crazy.Not sure if I saw it at the time. The family watched a lot of Christmas variety shows...and I wouldn't have known who Bowie was at that age. (I knew who Crosby was....
A good day's Hulk binge..."The First: Part II," "The Harder They Fall," and scheduled for later, "Interview with the Hulk"...all strong, memorable episodes.
Enjoy it while you can. "Interview" is the last real standout episode of the series, for me, and the remaining ten episodes are pretty much the doldrums (though "Sanctuary" is kinda fun).
As for me, I'm one episode from finishing a binge of Kolchak: The Night Stalker before Netflix pulls it. MeTV will be showing it on Sunday nights starting January 8 -- I'd been expecting it be on Sci-Fi Saturdays, but I guess not. If we want to cover it, should we do it here or in the general Retro TV thread?
Yeah, I was glancing at the episode synopses and getting that impression.
Technically I guess that would be the Classic/Retro TV Thread, since it's not on SSFSN. Are they using Kolchak as a replacement for Colombo? I see that Cozi is getting that, and it's been a staple of the Me Sunday night lineup for years.
No, Columbo's still airing Sunday nights at 8, and Kolchak is right after it at 10 PM. Here's an article about their new lineup with links to the PDF of their schedule: http://www.metv.com/stories/macgyver-leave-it-to-beaver-and-more-join-the-metv-winter-2017-schedule
Ah, but they do specify that it's a different batch of Colombo episodes than they were previously airing, so the other ones are probably what Cozi got.
Ohh, they're the ABC revival movies! I haven't seen those in quite a while. I'll have to check those out. I was wondering about the 2-hour time slot, given that the majority of the classic episodes were 90 minutes.
The ABC movies are a mixed bag, though many are quite good, especially in the first two seasons -- well, the only two proper seasons, in 1989-90, since the ones after that were shown intermittently as standalone TV movies. I think they include some of the best Columbo stories of all time. The quality of the later ones gets increasingly uneven; the second-last movie is probably the worst Columbo installment ever, but they mercifully did one final, fairly good one after that. The ABC ones do tend to have more sex, violence, and action than the original series, with the producers apparently being less successful at resisting the pressure to include such things, but most of them still feel like true Columbo stories -- except for the two format-breaking ones that were adaptations of Ed McBain 87th Precinct novels, "No Time to Die" and "Undercover," which I didn't much care for.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Columbo_episodes#The_ABC_years_.281989.E2.80.932003.29
Ooh, and the first one airs on New Year's Day! Better set my DVR.
New Year's Eve, on The Incredible Hulk:
"Babalao"
Originally aired December 14, 1979
Events in the news the week the episode aired:
New on the U.S. charts that week:
"Sara," Fleetwood Mac
(#7 US; #13 AC; #37 UK)
"Longer," Dan Fogelberg
(#2 US; #1 AC; #85 Country)
"Working My Way Back to You / Forgive Me, Girl," The Spinners
(#2 US; #5 AC; #8 Dance; #6 R&B; #1 UK; cover of a song that had originally been a hit for the Four Seasons in 1966)
And new on the album charts, The Wall (#1 US; #3 UK):
"Comfortably Numb," Pink Floyd
(#314 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time)
Saving the album's major single for when it charts.
"Babalao"
Originally aired December 14, 1979
Events in the news the week the episode aired:
New on the U.S. charts that week:
"Sara," Fleetwood Mac
(#7 US; #13 AC; #37 UK)
"Longer," Dan Fogelberg
(#2 US; #1 AC; #85 Country)
"Working My Way Back to You / Forgive Me, Girl," The Spinners
(#2 US; #5 AC; #8 Dance; #6 R&B; #1 UK; cover of a song that had originally been a hit for the Four Seasons in 1966)
And new on the album charts, The Wall (#1 US; #3 UK):
"Comfortably Numb," Pink Floyd
(#314 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time)
Saving the album's major single for when it charts.
Not a good week for the charts. Much to gloss over, with the possible exception of "Longer" from Fogelberg and The Wall.
This thread seems like the right audience for this question, my local video store has the Doctor Strange DVD to rent...the 70s one. Is this worth watching or not?
I only watched it once, back in '87...found it fairly interesting at the time, though the visuals and costumes were a bit a cheesy. Offhand, I'd say it's worth checking out.
It's not bad, for a '70s TV superhero pilot. It takes liberties with the source material, such as having Strange be a practicing resident (no doubt so it could be a standard medical drama on top of the mystical stuff), but it's closer to the source than the other live-action Marvel adaptations of the era. The writing isn't bad per se, and the visual effects are actually relatively good for the period.
By coincidence, I actually watched DR. STRANGE last night. It's no modern blockbuster, but I enjoyed seeing it again for the first time in decades. Just expect a 70's TV-movie that starts out as sorta of a paranormal thriller about ESP and possession before going into full-bore comic-book mode with spells being hurled and travel through astral dimensions . . ...
Note, by the way, that the actual title is DR. STRANGE, not DOCTOR STRANGE. Took me a few minutes to find it on Amazon for that reason.
Note, by the way, that the actual title is DR. STRANGE, not DOCTOR STRANGE. Took me a few minutes to find it on Amazon for that reason.
Its okay--just okay. It was not the worst of Marvel's TV adaptations from the era (that title arguably belongs to Captain America), but to get a good picture of how Marvel was adapted in the period, I suggest you check it out. You will see that there were such extreme highs and lows for adapted Marvel, that there was no way a successful, functioning "universe" was ever going to form on TV, no matter how much Jim Shooter and Stan Lee wanted it.
