MeTV's SuperSci-Fi Saturday Night

[The Old Mixer]

^ Vantastic name association.

Now, you're just appealing to my Vanity.

You're not seeing (hearing) it because its not there. Axford is no Irish, nor is he implied to be in the series. You are correct that there's a trace of some ethnic accent, but nothing even remotely close to O'Hara.

I want to say that the subtle accent may be Scandinavian-American...he reminds me of my departed ex-father-in-law.

Lloyd Gough's surname is Welsh in origin, though that might not tell the full story of his ethnicity.

Early on, Robin was portrayed as being as sharp as Batman, usually figuring out key elements of crimes, hence Batman's oft-used, "You've done it again, old chum!"

But he has a lot more "Gosh, Bruce/Batman, when you put it that way..." moments when they're alone...whereas his IQ seems to go up to supergenius levels when he's sharing scenes with Gordon and O'Hara.

...and to think, for as secrecy-minded as Batman seems to be, he's missed the value in a simple lock for the Wayne study.

Or hide the phone in a manner similar to how he hid the Batpole button.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

I think you're viewing McGee through a much more hostile lens than the writers or Colvin would have intended.

The writers were not loose with their character development of the leads, particularly in major episodes, so McGee's actions all build the negative profile referred to here.

You're definitely taking the spur-of-the-moment suicide misunderstanding gag too seriously.

Not at all. I'm viewing it as the characters do, and he used her belief that he was suicidal to his personal advantage. That's not a gag.

 

[Christopher]

I caught this quote far enough ahead to watch my last couple of episodes of TGH with this in mind...and I'm not seeing it. Axford's name isn't Irish in origin...there's a slight hint of some sort of ethnic accent, but it's not distinctly Irish to my ear, and it could just be the actor's normal inflection (though I'm not familiar with his other work)...and I can't recall them doing any obviously Irish references in relation to the character.

I'm referring to the original version of the character in the radio series and movie serials, where he was a blatant Irish stereotype -- so much so that the radio show killed him off after getting complaints that he was too much of a stereotype.

http://www.audio-classics.com/mgarticle022.html
https://jheroes.com/2012/03/17/something-green-for-st-patricks-day/

I've experienced those versions of TGH more recently than the TV series, so I forgot that they dialed down his Irishness for the show.

If anyone got into Bruce's study who'd also been in Commissioner Gordon's office, just the phone could have been a big giveaway.

Well, there are other people who have used red hotline phones...

"Why, Bruce! All this time, you've secretly been... the President of the United States!"

Sometimes I find it odd that the Batphone wasn't Bat-styled in any way, just an ordinary red phone. The car phone in the Batmobile had a batwing-shaped receiver, but the main Batphones were sadly devoid of any Bat-branding. Why, they didn't even have signs saying "Batphone"!

What's that gated area to the left side of the Batcave exit? The signage says Entrance to something, but I can't make it out in SD. Or is it a gate to the exit that's always open?

It's the ENTRANCE TO SUB-SUBTERRANEAN GROTTO. Which is a fascinating bit of background detail that I hope the Batman '66 comics or animated reunion movies investigate someday. (Although the first movie used a different Batcave design, so they probably wouldn't.)

 

[The Old Mixer]

I'm referring to the original version of the character in the radio series and movie serials, where he was a blatant Irish stereotype -- so much so that the radio show killed him off after getting complaints that he was too much of a stereotype.

Ah...didn't know about that.

Why, they didn't even have signs saying "Batphone"!

It would have to be busier than that...like "BATPHONE TO COMMISSIONER GORDON'S OFFICE".

It's the ENTRANCE TO SUB-SUBTERRANEAN GROTTO. Which is a fascinating bit of background detail that I hope the Batman '66 comics or animated reunion movies investigate someday.

So this was never utilized in the series? I thought perhaps it had been, but maybe it was just something that had intrigued me as a kid and I'd forgotten.

"Intergalactic Recorder"? What the heck does he use that for?

 

[Christopher]

It would have to be busier than that...like "BATPHONE TO COMMISSIONER GORDON'S OFFICE".

Well, of course the one in the Stately Wayne Manor study wouldn't have a sign (although the one in the Batcave could). I was thinking more of the one in Gordon's office -- which connects with all the other Batphones (the ones in the Manor, the Batcave, and the Batmobile), so the sign couldn't be that specific.

"Intergalactic Recorder"? What the heck does he use that for?

You never know when an understanding of cosmic phenomena may come in handy in the ever-changing war against crime, old chum.

I wonder more about the Bat-Terror Control.

 

[The Old Mixer]

"BATPHONE TO VARIOUS OTHER BATPHONES"?

You never know when an understanding of cosmic phenomena may come in handy in the ever-changing war against crime, old chum.

[smacks fist into palm] Gosh, @Christopher, you're right...!

 

[RJDiogenes]

The Rolling Stones could do a lot with just an empty set though I think the ultimate video like that was Start Me Up.

That triggers a memory. I think it was around this time that the Stones released a concert video theatrically, which is something you don't often see.

With all due respect to the craftman that is Greg Nicotero--but I'd rather face any five Walkers than Francois Edmonds. Walkers fall apart easy. Francois, on the other hand, is clearly in Soloman Grundy territory, and humans fall apart in his hands easily. He'd be a match for Ferrigno's Hulk.

Romero Zombies are scary because of their numbers-- it's the Apocalypse, not the Zombie (although there's no reason it can't be both). It's a shame that traditional Zombies have been forgotten. They are definitely monsters on a par with Vampires and Werewolves.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Ah...didn't know about that.

...which has no bearing on the Dozier version of Axford, who was not supposed to be Irish, or TGH version of O'Hara. Just as the race of Kato was changed between the original radio drama, the Universal serials, comics and ultimately, the Fox TV series. In other words, like Axford, there was no hard adaptation from the radio dramas, so referencing it in the handling of Dozier characters is pointless.

So this was never utilized in the series? I thought perhaps it had been, but maybe it was just something that had intrigued me as a kid and I'd forgotten.

If memory serves, Robin used it to run to Gotham City sometime in season two, but that needs to be checked out again.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Hmmm...no love for Tattoo You? "Start Me Up"? "Waiting on a Friend"? (I'll save the videos, they'll be coming up within the timeframe of the show.) Personally, I'm fond of the singles from 1980's Emotional Rescue, but I could see where they might be considered a step down after Some Girls.

The albums were okay, but I still believe Some Girls was the last, great effort of the group, where they were still innovating.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I've read that the Stones were more of a singles band than an album band, and that holds true in my own experience. I made a point of getting all of their albums into the '90s, and the only ones I could get into listening to were their early albums from the mid-'60s. In contrast to the Beatles, I enjoyed them more on an album level when they were doing lots of blues/R&B covers than when they were filling albums with their own material.

...which has no bearing on the Dozier version of Axford, who was not supposed to be Irish, or TGH version of O'Hara. Just as the race of Kato was changed between the original radio drama, the Universal serials, comics and ultimately, the Fox TV series. In other words, like Axford, there was no hard adaptation from the radio dramas, so referencing it in the handling of Dozier characters is pointless.

So what ethnicities was Kato in the other versions?

If Axford was an Irish stereotype in earlier incarnations, it makes you wonder why they gave him that name rather than something Irish.

If memory serves, Robin used it to run to Gotham City sometime in season two, but that needs to be checked out again.

I'll let you know.

Poor Robin...if they were going to pretend that he was too young to drive, they could have at least given him a Bat-Bicycle or something. (Was he too young for a Bat-Moped?) It's 14 miles to Gotham City by road...who knows what the mileage is in the subterranean grotto...?

 

[Christopher]

So what ethnicities was Kato in the other versions?

On radio, he was originally Japanese, but it stopped being mentioned after Japan invaded China in 1939, and sometime in 1941 he was retconned as Filipino (though apparently not immediately after Pearl Harbor as the urban legend has it). He was Korean in the movie serials. I don't think the TV series ever mentioned Kato's ethnicity, but of course Bruce Lee was Chinese-American.

Kato is a Japanese name, of course, although its first syllable should be pronounced "Kah" rather than "Kay."

If Axford was an Irish stereotype in earlier incarnations, it makes you wonder why they gave him that name rather than something Irish.

His full name is Michael Aloysius Axford, which is fairly Irish. None of those names originated in Ireland, but Michael is a common first name there, and Aloysius is a fairly popular name among Catholics. Axford is a name of Norse origin that was brought to the British Isles by the Norse conquests there, and though it mainly took root in England, a fair number of English families emigrated to Ireland over time.

Poor Robin...if they were going to pretend that he was too young to drive, they could have at least given him a Bat-Bicycle or something. (Was he too young for a Bat-Moped?)

There could've been serious merchandising possibilities in a Robin Scooter.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Was just coming back to update that I'd looked it up.

It's interesting that the Wiki article asserts that Lee was the only version of the character who wasn't a mechanic, and that in other versions he was the creator of Black Beauty and the other Hornet gadgets. The TV version may not have independently established that, but they never got into where the gadgets came from, did they?

 

[Christopher]

Land of the Giants: "Genius at Work": Cute idea to let the main actors play at being giants for a change, and at least this time they remembered not to have the clothes change size like they did with Linden Chiles many episodes back. I wish that episode had come after this one, though; if the giants already had a shrinking formula, it makes Opie's growth formula and antidote seem like less of a breakthrough. Although it's quite a convenient happenstance that the amount by which the formula enlarges people (and dogs) just happens to be the exact 12:1 ratio that will put them on the same scale as the giants. What if they'd come out only half the size of a giant? Or twice the size? What would happen if a giant took this formula?

In the final act, when the gang was at the bad guy's farmhouse and Fitzhugh told Barry to run to the university and get Jody to call the police, it took exactly 2 minutes and 1 second after that for the sirens to sound. Even if the farmhouse had been right next door to the university and the police station, it should've taken much longer than that.


The Time Tunnel: "The Walls of Jericho": Good grief, this is a surprisingly blatant exercise in religious piety. "We come from a time when your God is our God." Everyone but Ann being a Biblical scholar and gazing on in awe as "sacred history" unfolds, exactly and literally as the Bible states (even though real archaeology has found essentially nothing to corroborate the Biblical account). The Israelites and believers in their God being unequivocally good and the pagans of Jericho being totally evil and deserving of their fate. It's like one of those freaky Archie comics Al Hartley wrote as Christian propaganda tracts. Heck, it establishes that Tony and Doug were actually mentioned in the Bible itself!

Well, at least the writer's piety means that, for once, there are very few liberties taken with the text the episode is based on, although it is an ahistorical text. It had to embellish Joshua 6 a lot to fill out the episode, like giving Rahab a traitorous servant, saying one of the spies was captured, and inventing an apparently imaginary pagan deity demanding human sacrifice as the justification for Jericho's destruction (the Canaanites had dozens of gods, but none named "Kimosh" or whatever as far as I can tell). The Bible basically just says that God just arbitrarily gave Jericho to the Israelites, not for any particular reason except as a gift to his favored people. One surprise is that the episode acknowledged and used the Biblical description of Rahab as a "harlot" -- I guess the normal reluctance to acknowledge the existence of that profession on TV was overridden by the fact that it was in the Bible.

It did take a few liberties with the Biblical text, though. Tony claimed the Bible mentioned a red sash as the signal to spare Rahab's home, but there's nothing like that in Joshua 6. Also, the chapter does say that Joshua ordered the two spies -- Tony and Doug in this version -- to go in to Rahab's house, bring out her family, and escort them out to near the Israelites' camp. So I guess Ann the skeptic can take some comfort in not every word of the text being literally true -- but either Tony's memory about the red sash is wrong, or the Bible in the TT-verse is a bit different.

Several Trek guests in this one -- Rhodes Reason, Arnold Moss, Abraham Sofaer. And a Batman guess, Myrna Fahey (False Face's moll Blaze), as Rahab. I was impressed by her in both roles.

In first run, this episode was largely pre-empted by news updates, because it aired on the night of the tragic Apollo 1 fire that killed Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee.

 

[The Old Mixer]

In first run, this episode was largely pre-empted by news updates, because it aired on the night of the tragic Apollo 1 fire that killed Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee.

Potentially of interest.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

The TV version may not have independently established that, but they never got into where the gadgets came from, did they?

The TV series? No. It was simply assumed that the duo created their weapons together, since both were proficient in their use of the gadgets.

 

[Christopher]

Kolchak: The Night Stalker -- “They Have Been, They Are, They Will Be…”: I hadn’t remembered that this show dealt with aliens as well as supernatural monsters. Again, the reason it’s considered a proto-X-Files becomes clearer -- although it differs in its more acerbic, comedic tone with lots of witty banter and character business. The X-Files certainly had a dry wit and occasional forays into the absurd, but this show blends horror with the tone of a screwball newsroom comedy, which I guess is what makes it distinctive.

It is starting to get repetitive that Kolchak keeps being not just the only one who realizes what the monsters are, but the only one who can figure out how to fight them -- and that he keeps being told to quash his stories and threatened by the authorities, yet never gets silenced for good.

Speaking of things that are familiar, I’m finding the Universal backlot very recognizable after all the Incredible Hulk episodes I binged before this. Although this show was made first, of course. I’ve said before that Hulk’s Jack McGee was basically Kolchak from the monster’s point of view, and I wasn’t far wrong. They’re even both based in Chicago, and they’re both acerbic, somewhat seedy grouches who insist on pursuing monster stories that nobody else believes. Although McGee’s a pussycat compared to Kolchak.

 

[Greg Cox]

The repetitiveness is not going away. As much as I loved the show as a kid, even then I realized that it had a cast-iron formula that it never deviated from. Would that straitjacket have loosened up over time if the show had continued past the first season? Who knows? One likes to think so, but, yeah, the first season is all about doing variations on a single theme: an alien instead of a zombie, maybe, but the same basic story every week.

The thing is, of course, that back in 1974, the mere fact that there was a weekly show featuring werewolves and zombies and aliens was exciting enough. It wasn't like today where where you have plenty of supernatural procedurals to choose between: SUPERNATURAL, GRIMM, SLEEPY HOLLOW, THE LIBRARIANS, WYNONNA EARP, etc.

"Monster of the week" shows were not a genre back then, so THE NIGHT STALKER was new and exciting and pioneering.

 

[Christopher]

The repetitiveness is not going away. As much as I loved the show as a kid, even then I realized that it had a cast-iron formula that it never deviated from. Would that straitjacket have loosened up over time if the show had continued past the first season? Who knows? One likes to think so, but, yeah, the first season is all about doing variations on a single theme: an alien instead of a zombie, maybe, but the same basic story every week.

On '70s TV? No way, except maybe for the rare "special episode." Doing endless variations on a set formula was the norm for episodic TV at the time. No progress, just the same fundamental pattern every week. The only changes were things like cast changes or network-mandated retoolings to boost ratings, like what happened to Space: 1999 or Buck Rogers between seasons, but that was just swapping out one weekly formula for another.

The thing is, of course, that back in 1974, the mere fact that there was a weekly show featuring werewolves and zombies and aliens was exciting enough. It wasn't like today where where you have plenty of supernatural procedurals to choose between: SUPERNATURAL, GRIMM, SLEEPY HOLLOW, THE LIBRARIANS, WYNONNA EARP, etc.

I'm sure. It was the same with science fiction. Growing up, I watched pretty much every SF/F show that came on, even though most of them were lame, because there were so few around that beggars couldn't be choosers. Now, we have such a glut of them that there are quite a few I have no interest in at all.

 

[JD]

I got off early enough on Saturday that I was able to watch Incredible Hulk. I really enjoyed this one. This was the first McGee-centric episode I've gotten to see, andI liked getting to see things from his perspective. I was disappointed they wrote off Patricia at the end, I was hoping she'd be sticking around and joining McGee on more of his Hulk stories.

 

[RJDiogenes]

The repetitiveness is not going away. As much as I loved the show as a kid, even then I realized that it had a cast-iron formula that it never deviated from. Would that straitjacket have loosened up over time if the show had continued past the first season? Who knows? One likes to think so, but, yeah, the first season is all about doing variations on a single theme: an alien instead of a zombie, maybe, but the same basic story every week.

And every cop show had a criminal every week. It's all about the characters and the stories. For me, The Night Stalker was about three things: 1) Kolchak, 2) The monsters, and 3) Kolchak. Actually, the supporting cast was good, too.