MeTV's SuperSci-Fi Saturday Night

[Christopher]

No one extolling the value of women's intuition and tea leaves is the intellectual equal of a person said to be a extraordinary detective with years of experience.

I can't believe you're taking those wisecracks as literal, sincere statements of her methodology. She often found things out from her connections to Commissioner Gordon or Alfred, or through her work at the Gotham Library, and naturally she didn't want to reveal her sources lest they provide clues to her identity. So she gave facetious answers when asked how she figured something out.

And nobody's denying that the character was required to conform to certain gender stereotypes. Obviously we wouldn't have gotten Xena or Korra in 1967-8. Progress gets made incrementally. At the time, those feminine tropes that stand out for us today would've been routine and expected, and what would've stood out for audiences at the time would be the ways in which she rose above conventional feminine roles -- her fearlessness, her smarts, her skill at a "man's job," etc. If our modern expectations have moved beyond her, it's because she was one of the characters that started the progress in that direction. It doesn't make sense to dismiss the progress she made just because she didn't make it all the way to 2014 levels.

 

[Morpheus 02]

I think Batgirl was just fine, considering the era. I never noticed before that Batgirl never punched anyone. In tonight's episodes, she seemed to hold her own pretty well. She whacked the Penguin & i think someone else with an object, and did lots of kicks and jumps. She's no less effective than Robin.

Robin aggressively fought adult males, using all manner of fighting, including a few scenes utilizing Ward's martial arts training. Batgirl's molasses-slow kicks and conveniently placed planks would have been completely out of place in the fight choreography of seasons 1 & 2.

Batgirl seemed to be the "damsel in distress" FAR LESS than RObin did.

And are you SERIOUSLY going to be arguing about the "effectiveness" of campy TV fighting in the 60's? Can you also justify the effectiveness of Kirk's hand-in-hand punches (or hits --whatever you call that move) on TOS?

Her attitude made her seem pretty smart -- an equal to Batman.

No one extolling the value of women's intuition and tea leaves is the intellectual equal of a person said to be a extraordinary detective with years of experience.

Certainly she was far more competent than her dad or Chief O'Hara!

Again, are you going to SERIOUSLY debate 60's Batman's portrayal of intellect of its characters???? Didn't Batman use some kind of "swami" trick in an episode. Today, that'd be considered racist and unscientific.

Bat girl didn't talk tea leaves ALL the time...just as frequently as the swami trick, and far less than the Batcomputer.

ANd speaking of ME TV's Saturday....no comment on WOnderWOman?

The series should have continued in the world War Two setting, as it provided opportunities for her to stand out as an unusual force in the globally overwhelming trials of the war. The shift to the modern day stories ultimately took a quick turn for the worst, after a fre genuinely interesting stories, but again, WW was better off in the war era.

That i'd probably agree with you.

Also, the 1st season used Steve Trevor and even Etta Candy, with Queen Hyppolyta in occasion. By 3rd Season, poor Steve Trevor seemed to have less screentime than Dr. Theopolis in that TV era.

i'm not sure what Wonder Woman villains they could have used... but the writing, especially in the later years was pretty bad. Lynda Carter is really the only reason it's tolerable (and that i was a preteen when i watched it the most).

 

[Christopher]

Me-TV has announced their new schedule that starts Jan. 1. It looks like the Super Sci-Fi Saturday lineup is staying put, but they'll also be showing Superman at 4 and 4:30 EST on weekdays. Don't know if this will affect the sequencing of the Saturday episodes, but we'll see.

Looking at the schedule on their website, the episodes showing on Thursday, January 1 will be the first two of the series, but the Friday episodes will pick up in season 2 just after tonight's episodes, and next Saturday's episodes will be the two after that, and so on. So the Saturday episodes will be part of the same sequence as the weekday episodes, rather than a separate sequence. So from now on, if we want to catch the whole series, we'll have to watch or record the show 6 days a week. To summarize:

Sat 12/27: Superman in Exile; A Ghost for Scotland Yard
(Thu 1/1: Reruns: Superman on Earth; The Haunted Lighthouse)
Fri 1/2: The Dog Who Knew Superman; The Face and the Voice
Sat 1/3: The Man in the Lead Mask; Panic in the Sky
Mon 1/5: The Machine that Could Plot Crimes; Jungle Devil
Tue 1/6: My Friend Superman; The Clown Who Cried
Wed 1/7: The Boy Who Hated Superman; Semi-Private Eye
Thu 1/8: Perry White's Scoop; Beware the Wrecker
Fri 1/9: The Golden Vulture; Jimmy Olsen, Boy Editor
Sat 1/10: Lady in Black; Star of Fate

And presumably on from there.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Good to know. Jan. 1 they're doing a theme day of first episodes, which explains those two.

I preferred the more laid-back schedule of two episodes a week, but I'll probably try to keep up.

ETA: OK, I'm not buying any of the British accents in the second Superman episode....

 

[Christopher]

I preferred the more laid-back schedule of two episodes a week, but I'll probably try to keep up.

Me too.


"Superman in Exile" has a cool idea, although the "nuclear pile" as an array of fireworks was kind of silly, and the solution to the problem was a little too pat. And Clark really didn't do a good job giving himself an alibi. (Maybe he should've pretended that Superman was still partly radioactive and had to stay away for a while longer.) But the sequence of Superman in the storm and forcing the plane down actually had some pretty impressive special effects for the era. Another impressive effect was that shot of the plants withering when Superman moved his hand near them. The withering seemed like sped-up footage, but there was no evident split-screen line between it and the moving hand. Maybe the hand was moved very slowly by stop motion?

"A Ghost for Scotland Yard" wasn't quite as effective. I had to wonder, if the theater manager and his wife hated the "dead" magician so much, why did they have a huge photo of him hanging on their wall?

 

[Greg Cox]

Meanwhile, let it be noted that "The Invisible Man Returns," airing later tonight is a fun old movie--and arguably Vincent Price's first real horror role. The scarecrow scene, in particular, has been lodged in my brain for years . . ..

 

[The Old Mixer]

Hot damn, it's Yeoman Barrows!

although the "nuclear pile" as an array of fireworks was kind of silly

I had a feeling that might come up....

And yeah, I think it's just a conceit of the series that Clark doesn't try too hard to make alibis at all. Not enough winking and nudging if he did.

 

[Christopher]

It's actually kind of amusing how Clark, Lois, and Jimmy in these episodes are almost treating Clark's identity as Superman as sort of an open secret among them. It actually makes more sense than having them work alongside Clark every day and never notice that he looks like Superman with glasses.

By the way, ComicsAlliance's Chris Sims has been reviewing Batman episodes once a week for the past few weeks, so the MeTV airings should be catching up with them after next week. Here are the reviews so far:

http://comicsalliance.com/the-batman-66-episode-guide-1x01-hi-diddle-riddle/
http://comicsalliance.com/the-batman-66-episode-guide-1x02-smack-in-the-middle/
http://comicsalliance.com/the-batman-66-episode-guide-1x03-fine-feathered-finks/
http://comicsalliance.com/the-batman-66-episode-guide-1x04-the-penguins-a-jinx/
http://comicsalliance.com/the-batman-66-episode-guide-1x05-the-joker-is-wild/

The reviews talk about one of the interesting aspects of the early episodes, which is that they're actually based on comic book stories. Sims actually understates the similarities between "The Joker is Wild"/"Batman is Riled" and the comics story "The Joker's Utility Belt"; aside from about the first half-episode, it's an almost beat-for-beat adaptation of the comic. The Penguin story that aired tonight takes a few more liberties -- for instance, in the comic, the Penguin actually did go after the jeweled meteorite, but here it was mentioned and discarded in favor of Leslie Parrish. But the basic premise of the story and several of the specific plot beats are the same, right down to the wording on the fake-giveaway sign in the opening scene.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I was thinking the same thing about it being treated as an open secret with Lois and Jimmy.

Also, wanted to note that Superman's little mountain hideaway in the first episode is probably the closest thing we'll get to the Fortress in this series. I understand the Golden Age version was a homier hideaway in the mountains outside of Metropolis, though I've only seen it used in Bronze Age stories about Earth-2 Supes, not in any original stories from the era.

 

[Morpheus 02]

OK...so we had the last episode of Wonder Woman...The Boy Who Knew Wonder Woman's Identity part 2 (orr something like that)...and the end of the episode was interesting....

1) They said Diana was transferring to Los Angeles. Sounds like they were cutting the budget AGAIN. No more traveling elsewhere. (Maybe make use of other soundstage sets??)

2) The episode ended with Diana realizing that Skip STILL knew her identity -- through a tape recording. I think this is the first episode where she ended with a frown rather than a grin

Comcast doesn't have any info on programs after Jan 4, and i'm too lazy to look at the schedule.



Oh, and going back to the Batgirl conversation... looking at Star Trek's Shore Leave, as well...Batgirl seems to be on par (or really above) many of the females portrayed on Trek.

 

[Christopher]

OK...so we had the last episode of Wonder Woman...The Boy Who Knew Wonder Woman's Identity part 2 (orr something like that)...
...
Comcast doesn't have any info on programs after Jan 4, and i'm too lazy to look at the schedule.

There are three more episodes after "The Boy Who Knew Her Secret." Next Saturday is "The Man Who Could Not Die," which was the last episode made but was aired out of sequence, followed by the 2-parter "The Phantom of the Roller Coaster." So MeTV is airing them in their original broadcast order instead of production/story order.

Oh, and going back to the Batgirl conversation... looking at Star Trek's Shore Leave, as well...Batgirl seems to be on par (or really above) many of the females portrayed on Trek.

Yup. Even progressive portrayals of women in the '60s were backward by today's standards. Emma Peel of The Avengers is usually held up as the archetype of the strong '60s heroine, but she was literally named for her intended sex-object role (a pun on the industry term "M appeal," short for "man appeal") and she meekly gave up the spy business to return to being a housewife once her "late" husband turned up alive.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I tend to agree that Batgirl was about as progressive a female as we got on 60s TV. Back then, That Girl was a big deal because it had a young female protagonist who worked and lived in her own place (traits that Barbara Gordon shares, though she wasn't the star of the show). Mary Tyler Moore was the next step forward.

 

[Dude111]

Star Trek TOS (Remastered)

Yuk....A channel like MeTV should show the original versions!!
(Thats what MeTV is all about)

 

[Christopher]

Frankly, I wish more of MeTV's shows were remastered (in the literal sense of making high-quality, restored copies from the original source footage). The versions they're showing tend to be of mediocre quality. Their Superman episodes in particular are such low-quality digital copies that there's sometimes distinct posterization in dim shots or Superman's flying shots.

 

[Morpheus 02]

OK...so we had the last episode of Wonder Woman...The Boy Who Knew Wonder Woman's Identity part 2 (orr something like that)...
...
Comcast doesn't have any info on programs after Jan 4, and i'm too lazy to look at the schedule.

There are three more episodes after "The Boy Who Knew Her Secret." Next Saturday is "The Man Who Could Not Die," which was the last episode made but was aired out of sequence, followed by the 2-parter "The Phantom of the Roller Coaster." So MeTV is airing them in their original broadcast order instead of production/story order.

Thanks for clarifying..it at least FELT like a season finale (as those things go, back in those days)/ Interested to see how it goes & flows

 

[The Old Mixer]

Just caught Phyllis Coates in an episode of The Lone Ranger on COZI...and for once, the masked man disguised himself as a Mexican rather than a crazy prospector!

On the general subject of parts of early TV shows that were carried over from earlier radio versions...I've noticed how every episode, somebody has to comment on the Ranger's mask, causing him to explain that he's not an outlaw and/or his mask is a symbol of justice, yada yada yada. This strikes me as a very radio-ish bit of business. I'm not that familiar with the radio version of TLR firsthand, but it seems like something they would have done every episode to make sure that listeners knew he was wearing a mask.

 

[Christopher]

^Maybe. That's probably also the origin of the "Who was that masked man?" line. But they could've also mentioned it in narration.

Then again, there's Commissioner Gordon's repeated "Whoever he is behind that mask of his" in Batman '66, which is a line I've never seen in a Batman comic as far as I know. You could see that Batman was in a mask, but they still put it in dialogue.

(On the Superman radio series, they usually mentioned Batman and Robin's masks in narration and occasionally in dialogue, as they did with Superman's "blue costume and red cloak." But they somehow interpreted Batman's mask -- generally rendered in comics as black in front and blue on the top and sides -- as two separate pieces, a domino mask and a bat-styled hood. And they somehow thought that Robin was also in a bat-styled hood.)

 

[The Old Mixer]

Now on Me: Adam West working in the 70s on Emergency!

And ChiPs gets a guest appearance by the arcade game Defender....

 

[JD]

Frankly, I wish more of MeTV's shows were remastered (in the literal sense of making high-quality, restored copies from the original source footage). The versions they're showing tend to be of mediocre quality. Their Superman episodes in particular are such low-quality digital copies that there's sometimes distinct posterization in dim shots or Superman's flying shots.

I am curious to see if they're going to switch over to the remastered Batmans eventually.

 

[The Old Mixer]

"The Face and the Voice"--Before anyone asks, it looks like they sacrificed a plot point to syndication edits. The record that was stolen from White's office was a recording of Superman giving a speech. I distinctly recall, because it's been stuck in my head since I originally saw the episode ca. 1979, a scene of the impersonator listening to the record and then practicing his Superman voice with a metronome..."I look like Superman, why don't I sound Superman? I look like Superman, why don't I sound like Superman?" The one thing about this episode that was burned into my brain for all these years, and they don't even show it...!

ETA: Hey, hey, Clark's seeing Dr. Bellows!

Watching the second half of the Emergency! pilot...yeah, Julie London was approximately 30...in approximately 1956!

I never knew that Dix and Cal were supposed to be an item...awkward, in that she was really married to Bobby Troup, the other doctor (and the ex-wife of producer Jack Webb, so I read).