(Savage Curtain) Colonel Green's costume

[Scott Kellogg]

You find weird junk floating around on MeTV.

Last night, I accidentally caught an episode of "Happy Days" with Robin Williams
doing his cocaine best as Mork From Ork. And his costume was a Star Trek retread.

As if that isn't weird enough for your early morning goofiness,
while looking it up, I found this:

Who knew that shower curtain material would last that long?

Ya'll have a nice day!

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Even Shatner crossed over!

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[Phaser Two]

Right - I forgot about this. IIRC Mork & Mindy was a Paramount production so they borrowed from their storehouse, sort of like Star Trek borrowed Nazi costumes for Patterns of Force, probably some gladiator stuff for Bread & Circuses, and a Mugato from the well-known Night of the Mugato 2: The Return movie.

In any case I always loved Col. Green's costume.

 

[J.T.B.]

Mork also had Michael Ansara's helmet from The Outer Limits "Soldier."

 

[Scott Kellogg]

This is one of the reasons why I like sneaking goofy details into my comic strip.
At one point, I needed to send my main character to a space station, but the budget for his trip was very limited.
So, he was issued a used space suit. As a gag, I patterned it after Mork's suit.
In doing the research on it, I found out it was originally Colonel Green's suit.

Drawing a comic strip gives me an excuse to go out and learn the silly trivia that clogs up my brain.

 

[Qonundrum]

You find weird junk floating around on MeTV.

Last night, I accidentally caught an episode of "Happy Days" with Robin Williams
doing his cocaine best as Mork From Ork. And his costume was a Star Trek retread.

As if that isn't weird enough for your early morning goofiness,
while looking it up, I found this:

Who knew that shower curtain material would last that long?

Ya'll have a nice day!

Easily. Many forms of plastic don't get brittle after a couple decades like the 27" CRT TV set I bought in 1994 but literally crumbled when I tried to take it down from a hutch in 2012... those 16:9 format screens are so much nicer for movies than 4:3, but I digress. I've numerous bric-a-brac from the early 1960s (1963 for most thanks to the little copyright date imprinted) that have held up perfectly, albeit with some faded or scuffed off paint. Thickness, chemical components, exposure to UV light, and scores of other factors all involved... note that plastic was first invented in 1907... there's quite a bit of history involved and all we know is that, depending on composition, how and when it breaks down... if you find a plastic phone from the 1950s on eBay, but it and feel contented as well as proud that it didn't fall to pieces sooner than some of the moon landing equipment - but, again, UV light and numerous other factors all play a role and spacesuits and cute beige phones aren't used in quite the same environmental conditions... not to mention "retrobrighting" - there's a fun hobby for those who like to sniff certain chemicals, some of which you'd get a good whiff of in a salon... but I digress again.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Hmm. And I might add that Mork & Mindy shared an actor (Conrad Janis), a composer (Perry Botkin, Jr.), and a producer (Bruce Johnson) with the earlier science fiction comedy, Quark (where the sagging old rust-bucket of a starship literally was a garbage scow).

Conrad Janis was Fred McConnell (Mindy's Father) on M&M, and Otto Palindrome (Commander Quark's boss, and The Head's errand-boy) on Quark.

 

[FormerLurker]

Otto Palindrome

How long did it take for you to get that joke?

 

[johnnybear]

JB

 

[Scott Kellogg]

On the durability of materials:

Thickness, chemical components, exposure to UV light, and scores of other factors all involved... note that plastic was first invented in 1907... there's quite a bit of history involved and all we know is that, depending on composition, how and when it breaks down... if you find a plastic phone from the 1950s on eBay, but it and feel contented as well as proud that it didn't fall to pieces sooner than some of the moon landing equipment - but, again, UV light and numerous other factors all play a role and spacesuits and cute beige phones aren't used in quite the same environmental conditions... not to mention "retrobrighting" - there's a fun hobby for those who like to sniff certain chemicals, some of which you'd get a good whiff of in a salon... but I digress again.

Well, as long as we're digressing on the subject of old clothes and durability, here's a complete digression:
Maybe 10 years ago, I saw a TV show about sending an underwater UAV into the hull of the USS Arizona, on the bottom of Pearl Harbor since 1941. They sent the drone into a forward part of the ship and the crew's quarters. They found a uniform jacket hanging on a hanger in a closet like it had been put away...

It was unnerving to say the least.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

The costume itself is on display at MoPOP (Museum of Pop Culture), here in Seattle. I saw it when I visited on my birthday back in 2019.
Unfortunately, my cell phone died before I got to the science fiction wing of the exhibits, so I couldn't take a photo like I wanted.
Now that everything is reopening, I really have to go back and do some more exploring. (This time making sure my phone is fully charged.)

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

At the International Printing Museum, we have books that were printed over a century ago, that are still quite robust enough to handle, because when they were printed, nearly all paper was rag paper. Contrast that with a six-month-old newspaper (newsprint is full of both acid and lignin).

 

[MAGolding]

At the International Printing Museum, we have books that were printed over a century ago, that are still quite robust enough to handle, because when they were printed, nearly all paper was rag paper. Contrast that with a six-month-old newspaper (newsprint is full of both acid and lignin).

I have ocassionally read and handled in rare book rooms in libraries books printed in the 1700s the 1600s, and the 1500s.

As for the durabiity of cloth in the right circumstances.

I have seen flags in museums from the US Civil War of 1861-1865, and some of them looked like they were in good condition.

The Fairy Flag of Clan MacLeod is many centuries old, with stories about its origin in the Middle Ages.

The MacLeod Estate Office (Dunvegan Castle) website claims that experts have dated the flag to the 4th and 7th centuries—hundreds of years before the Crusades.[5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_Flag

The various coronation vestiments of the Holy Roman Empire were about 392 to 630 years old when they were last worn in 1792.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/...oly_Roman_Empire_-_Imperial_Treasury_(Vienna)

The coronation mantle of the Kings of Hungary is believed to date back to 1031 and was last worn at the coronation of Charles IV in 1916, when it was about 885 years old.

https://www.emperorcharles.org/blog/2017/12/19/the-saintly-hungarian-coronation-mantle

A few years ago regalia believed to have belonged to Emepror Maxentius and hidden after he was killed in 312 were discovered. https://rebeccabranch.wordpress.com/2015/08/04/regalia-of-the-emperor-maxentius/

And I have read that they were wrapped in fragments of cloth.

A Roman Vexillum (flag) form the 3rd century (AD 201-300) was unearthed in Egypt and is now at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, being about 1,721 to 1,820.years old.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vexillum#/media/File:Vexillum-Pushkin_Museum_of_Fine_Arts.png

I believe that many items of clothing were found in the tomb of Tutankhamun (d. c. 1325 BC) when it was opened in AD 1922, about 3,247 years later. A review of a travelling exhibition of items from the tomb complained that it displayed more of Tut's loincloths than seemed necessary to the reviewer..

And I beleive that many mummies have been found much older than Tut's, and still wrapped up in cloth.

 

[publiusr]

I always wished toy plastic was as though as old phone plastic

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Drawing a comic strip gives me an excuse to go out and learn the silly trivia that clogs up my brain.

What's your comic strip? I'd like to check it out.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Right - I forgot about this. IIRC Mork & Mindy was a Paramount production so they borrowed from their storehouse, sort of like Star Trek borrowed Nazi costumes for Patterns of Force, probably some gladiator stuff for Bread & Circuses...

Updated pic: Tabards and Andorians by Ian McLean, on Flickr

This guy (left) is supposed to be an East Indian, a character in "Wild Wild West" Season 2's "The Night of the Golden Cobra". Does the suede tunic/tabard look familiar?

Almost exactly one year later, Ambassador Shras the Andorian (right) wore it in the "Journey to Babel".


John Wayne as Genghis Khan, "The Conqueror" (1956) by Ian McLean, on Flickr

 

[Maurice]

Yeah. Likewise, you can see Trelane's coat in a lot of old shows.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Yeah. Likewise, you can see Trelane's coat in a lot of old shows.

Mike Nesmith wore it in the Monkees episode "The Prince and the Pauper."

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