Spiderman - In Color!

At some point in my childhood ('round about 2nd grade c1976) I recall being given the choice between taking Catholic lessons on a Saturday or going to a Catholic School. That was a no-brainer. Spiderman was on Saturdays. Unknowingly I chose Epiphany School and the harsh nazi-style teachings of Sister Mary Esther. Once while leaving to get on my bus, I feigned pulling a fire alarm to a friend. Sister Mary Esther was somehow there in a flash with a vice-like grip on my arm and her stern face inches from mine making sure I knew very well that was not the sort of thing I should be doing. I knew that. It was the lynchpin of my joke. There was that experience and the experience of taking first communion classes from her. She was never my full-time teacher, yet she made more of an impression on me than my actual full-time teachers. I'm sure she's still alive and teaching at Epiphany. You can't kill that kind of evil.

How cheesy is too cheesy?

You can make the excuse; "it was 1976, it was a different time". I don't know if that's good enough. On the flip side, I think a show with the exact same production values these days might do well if done right... then again maybe the powers that be have no taste.

Heat Vision and Jack was featured on the brilliant Brilliant but Cancelled. You can check out more clips of it on youtube.com.

Napoleon Part 2

While locating the Utah State Fair Ads, I found this sweet Letterman Top 10 list. I can't believe he was able to keep a straight face the entire time!

Are these ads cool? Flip yeah!!!

Last year, Utah was in a Napoleon Dynamite frenzy, as the movie was set in an Idaho town close to the Utah border, and the people who made the movie, including star Jon Heder, were BYU students. There were also an infinity of Utah cultural references.

The Utah State Fair organizers were lucky (said like Napoleon) to have enticed Heder and Efren Ramirez (Pedro) to do these hilarious ads. So fix yourself a dang quesadilla, sit down, and enjoy!

Hey good lookin'...

It's never too soon for Christmas gift ideas! Mr. Microphone swept the nation in the late 70s, enticing everyone to become a poorly-broadcast superstar. At the very least, it was a tool to aid the smooth lothario in his conquest of sweet love.
I must wonder... When one is walking along the street and is suddenly informed from a moving vehicle that they are good-looking and that a ride will be forthcoming... does etiquette dictate that one should wait on the spot or is it incumbent on the ride-giver to locate the good-looker further down the path?

Smells like the 70s

I don't think there is anyone who was alive in the 70s (or at least over the age of two), who doesn't remember this one. She was all things to all people, thanks to a couple of squirts of some drugstore perfume. Love how, toward the end, she kind of runs and sprays at the same time.

This commercial is kinda wow!

Demon Dogs!

Starting in 1980 Thundarr the Barbarian burst onto the Saturday morning scene promising high-adventure and intelligent dialogue... well not so much dialogue. Thundarr was the slash first, ask questions never-type. Ookla the Mok was an obvious Chewbacca rip-off who growled and smashed his way through the show. Princess Ariel was the brains of the operation, but was given very little credit by her unlikely cohorts (honestly, she could have done much better). Thundarr used a sun sword, essentially a short-handled lightsabre which was stored on his gauntlet. I always worried that his sun sword would be accidentally activated, slicing his arm off at the elbow. For sure Thundarr's limited dialogue was fun. He said such things as "Demon Dogs" and "Ariel, Ookla, Ride!" What's not to like?

Interesting note: Comic book legend Jack "King" Kirby worked character/production design on this show. Watch the opening for the dude with two faces to see a very Kirbyesque character. The late Jack Kirby lent his pen to the creation of Captain America, the Fantastic Four, The Hulk and the X-Men (not to be confused with the Ex-Men who were post-op transsexual crime-fighters).