R. I. P MIKE CONNERS

One of my earliest memories of watching TV as a child was the show Mannix. The jazzy opening theme song, with the blue, red and yellow tiles (based on the Armenian flag and a tribute to Conners' Armenian heritage) and multiple tiny screens of Joe Mannix in action, including one of him dancing with a blonde girl, who spins around giving us TV's first upskirt shot. Also, Joe had his faithful African-American secretary Peggy Fair.

Mannix was a cool show, but as with many shows that stay around awhile, people picked up on things that could be parodied. Bob & Ray created a parody they called Blimmix. MST3K frequently made jokes about Joe Mannix's habit of jumping off of something on top of a crook, as well as, using Mannix jokes during any Roger Corman film from the 50s staring "Touch" Conners. When TV Land ran reruns of the show, a promo pointed out that with all the gunfire on the show, nobody was ever hit.

I've mentioned before that one of my favorite books as a child was The World Encyclopedia of Comics by Maurice Horn. In that book was a listing for a German comic strip called Mike Macke. The character was based on Mike Conners and a parody of Joe Mannix. All I could find on the Internet about the character was a scan of the same page from that book.

Here is those great opening credits. Watch for that girl.




  

Female Comic Strip Character Movie No. 3: FRIDAY FOSTER

The only Friday Foster comic book ever

We have all experienced that feeling. We watch a movie that we thought was great when we first saw it, only to realize it is not that great. That was what I experienced with the 1975 Friday Foster movie. I probably should say the only Friday Foster movie, since the comic strip Friday Foster only lasted from 1970 until 1974. It is doubtful that there will ever be another Friday Foster movie.


This movie is a perfect example of what comic fans had to put up with in film adaptations prior to Superman the Movie and other more recent films. The producers licensed the characters but did not attempt to create the world of the comic strip/book. Granted, Friday Foster was a character of her times. Her story lines were similar to other soap opera strips as Mary Worth, Apartment 3-G or The Heart of Juliet Jones, with a dash of Brenda Starr thrown in, since Friday worked as a magazine photographer. Basically, the producers made a blaxploitation movie about Friday Foster.

Pam Grier as Friday Foster

First off, Friday is played by Pam Grier, who is absolutely beautiful and incredibly sexy in this movie. I also believe she is more attractive that the comic strip character. The character was created by Jorge Longarion and modeled after model Donyale Luna. As with Brooke Shields in Brenda Starr, Pam Grier plays Friday Foster as a cute and fashionable, but gutsy and resourceful photographer.

In looking at the few examples of the comic strip available on the web, I noticed most of the stories featured her boss, Shawn North, playing a major role. In the movie, Shawn has a small role. The actor playing the part is more Sean Cassidy than the Shawn North of the comic strip. Friday's version of Basil St. John is Blake Tarr (Thalmus Rasulala), who we are lead to believe is the villain for most of the movie. Colt Hawkins in the comic strip was an author of detective novels and good friend of Shawn North. In the movie, Colt (Yaphet Kotto) is Friday's boyfriend and a private eye. Friday's brother, Cleve (Tierre Turner), is not sweet, idolizing little brother of the comic strip, but a joking flimflam artist.

I'm Issac, I'll be your pimp in this movie.

Where the film has problems is when you incorporate the cliches of blaxiploitation films into a movie about a comic strip character. Cleve is making money selling the presents that are meant for his sister from a pimp named Fancy (played by The Love Boat's Ted Lange). He wants Friday to work for him. Fancy refers to his women with the B-word and his business using a word that beginning with S.

Friday's best friend from her modeling days is stabbed backstage at a fashion show hosted by Madame Rena (played by Eartha Kitt). When Colt and a potato chip munching police detective ask who would be behind the killing, she names a rival fashion designer, Ford Malotte (Godfrey Cambridge). She then calls him a "faggot who couldn't design a handkerchief." Friday and Colt goes to meet Mallote at a bar called the Butterfly. The bar is filled with drag queens. After speaking with a waitress with a manly voice, Colt says that "His muscles are bigger than mine." Friday replies "That isn't all that he has that is bigger than yours." Cambridge plays Malotte as an over-the-top gay stereotype.

The N-word is used quite a bit in the film. Friday is also naked in several scenes. Not that seeing Pam Grier naked is a bad thing, but unlike with Kiss Me, Kill Me, there was no nudity in the comic strip Friday Foster. One might say that Friday Foster had too much nudity in her movie and Valentina didn't have enough nudity in her movie.

The point to make about this film is that it doesn't capture the feel of the comic strip. It also goes off in another direction. Kiss Me, Kill Me and Brenda Starr work because they kept the story and situations true to their strips. Friday Foster tries to force the material to be something else. It seems like the attempt was made to turn tame soap opera comic into an oversexed, action packed drive-in movie.

With that said, I enjoyed this more than the other movies Pam Grier made at this time because it is lighthearted and fun. Instead of the usually grim, angry and vengeful woman she usually played at this time in her career, she plays Friday as a funny and flirtatious career woman. Friday Foster fails as a comic strip adaptation, but succeeds as an entertaining movie.  

Audrey Totter dies at 95

1940s film noir actress Audrey Totter dies at 95

She also played Nurse Wilcox on Medical Center.

'Ironside' star Don Mitchell dead at 71

'Ironside' star Don Mitchell dead at 71

Toma star Tony Musante dead at 77

Tony Musante, 'Oz' star, dead at 77

Movie Villain Richard Lynch dies at 76

Richard Lynch, actor from Rob Zombie's 'Halloween,' 'Battlestar Galactica,' dies at 76 - Brandon Sun

Two clips from Richard Lynch's career. The Seven-Ups and the TV movie The Vampire.





COOL TV SHOW OPENING - THE NAME OF THE GAME

I have noticed many people on various lamenting the disappearance of theme songs and opening sequences on TV series. The truth is I don't get to see very many current TV shows due to work and I don't count some of the comments on these websites vallied. There are so many Freepers, rednecks and paid right-wing hacks commenting of the web these days that it is disgusting.

For some reason, maybe related to my recent viewing of The Untouchables, I thought about another Robert Stack series The Name of the Game. This was followed The Virginian as one of Universal Studios attempts at a 90 minute long program and like Four-In-One and NBC Mystery Movie, it was a "wheel" concept. However, unlike Four-In-One and NBC Mystery Movie, The Name of the Game centered on two journalist (Stack and Tony Franciosa) working for the same publisher (Gene Barry). Each week concentraited on one of the characters. Journalist as heroes? That was the good old days.

Like The Virginian, McCloud, and Colombo, The Name of the Game is rarely seen in syndication because of its 90 minute length. If it does turn up, it is on Saturday or Sunday afternoons or late nights. I remember seeing this show as a kid locally on KOLR-TV, Channel 10 in Springfield, MO. It usually aired on Saturday after cartoons.

I don't remember any of the stories, but the thing that always stuck with me was the opening credits and the jazzy theme song. Looking at the credits on You Tube, I find they are an amazing and very complex design. The use of color and the names of the actors forming their faces is very elaborate and must have been very complicated to create in 1969.

Sadly, The Name of the Game isn't on commercially produced DVDs yet. One episode I want to see is an episode where Gene Barry's character is in a car accident on the way to a symposium on environmental concerns. He wakes up in a dytopian future where the hippies are all old and facist psychiatrist control the government. It was directed by a young guy at Universal Studios named Steven Spielberg.

Also you cannot find a good commercial full length version of The Name of the Game theme song by Dave Grusin. He apparently released one version of it as the B-side of a 45 version of the theme from It Takes a Thief back in the early 70s. The only version I can track down for download is by (I'm not kiding) Dickie Goodman, the guy behind the cut-in novelty records "Mr. Jaws" and "Flying Saucer." Luckily, I have a copy of the original that was on Televisions Greatest Hits 3.

BTW: If you like full length versions of TV themes of the 70s, check out this Retrospace post of Charlie's Angels themes.    

BEST OF DESDINOVA: THE MOD SQUAD WAS COOLER THAN 21 JUMP STREET (Sorry Johnny Depp)

I realize many people of my generation will hate this post. There will even be some Baby Boomers that will hate this post.

In TV history, there were two cops shows that featured young people going undercover to investigate crimes involving other youth. These shows were the Mod Squad, which ran from 1968 to 1973. The other was 21 Jump Street, which ran from 1987 to 1991.

I remember watching an episode of 21 Jump Street when it first air on the then-new Fox Network and thinking, "This show sucks. I hope they come up with a better show than this or this network with go the way of Dumont and Overmyer Networks." The show not only ran longer than I expected, but Fox has survived, thanks to several great shows like the Simpsons, Family Guy and In Living Color.

It was about this time that a purchased a book called The Best of Crime and Detective TV: The Critics Choice by John Javna and Max Allan Collins. In this book, they list the TV show, Mod Squad, as one of the worst cop shows ever. They practically trash the show (They also slam Charlie's Angels, which makes me wonder about these guys).

I had only seen the Mod Squad reunion movie from the late 70's, but I still thought it probably had to be better than 21 Jump Street for the simple reason it was made in the late 60s/early 70s. As many of you readers know I have always had a special place for the psychedelic era.

I bought a VHS tape a few years ago that featured two episodes of the Mod Squad. I liked it quite a bit and wanted to buy another, but they were taken off the market for some reason. A year ago, I bought a DVD of the first season of the Mod Squad. It featured a longer version of the pilot episode which was on the VHS tape I had earlier. I have enjoyed it very much and plan to buy another DVD set of the show.

A few nights ago, I found the entire first season of 21 Jump Street on DVD at Wal-Mart for $5. I wondered if my opinion of 21 Jump Street would have changed after seeing more than one episode of the Mod Squad. Maybe I would be blown away by the show which gave us Johnny Depp. It turns out, I was right the first time I saw the show. It still sucks.

While people often malign the Mod Squad for being dated, 21 Jump Street is a product of it's time too. It comes with the things of the 80s that I hated. Bad part is some of those attitudes are still with us, thanks to the Fox News Network. As a matter of fact, I suspect that Bill O'Reilly wrote a few of these scripts under an alias. I bet Sarah Palin was a Jump Street fan.

The Mod Squad was from the age of peace, love and "Do Your Own Thing," while 21 Jump Street was from the age of "Just Say No," "Positive Peer Pressure," "overachieving" and "Vigilante Justice." Also, the characters on 21 Jump Street wear the clothes of that era that my mom forced me to wear. When I moved out and went to SMSU, I started dressing more like the Mod Squad.

First off, let's discuss the theme song and opening credits. The theme song of the Mod Squad was composed by Earl Hagen. Hagen created a tough and fast pasted cops show theme, augmented by a psychedelic/garage band organ. The visual was the main characters running through a dark warehouse.

The 21 Jump Street open featured a theme song sung by the cast that sounded like a bad Debbie Gibson song ("You're gonna learn something when we meet you after school" GAG!). The visuals were goofy clips of the cast from episodes. This gives you the impression you are watching a bad sitcom.

The overall plot of the shows are different in that Peter, Linc and Julie ("One White, One Black and One Blonde") were juvenile delinquents paying their debt to society by becoming undercover detectives. They did carry guns or badges. They often questioned the ethics of what they were doing. Yes, they do use quite a bit of the slang of that era. Pete seems to use the word "heavy" a lot, Julie says "groovy" quite a bit and Linc made the phrase, "Solid, Brother" a part of TV history.

On 21 Jump Street, Hanson, Penhall, Hoffs and Loki are cops who look young enough to infiltrate high schools. They carry guns and badges. When the Jump Street cops aren't whining about lawyers and judges "letting off" the people they bust, they insult each other.

The villains on Mod Squad are never the kids, but old, white guys trying to make a money by selling drugs or killing young people. One villain, played by Dabney Colman (Who else?) tells his sister, "Your hippie friends are driving down the value of my real estate." One villain is a Bill O'Reilly-ish talk show who tries to rape Julie. Yes, the message of the Mod Squad could be "No such thing as a bad kid" and "Don't trust anyone over 30."

On the other hand, 21 Jump Street embedded with the 80's idea of "young-people-are-evil." The criminal is always young. Everything from gun toting gang members taking a school hostage to a group of cocaine pushing, preppy-boys who gang-rape/murder a girl to sexually-repressed, pyromaniac Catholic school girls (No, I didn't make this last one up).

Jump Street episodes usually end with a PSA/lecture from the cast about under-age drinking, drug abuse or abstenence. Mod Squad ended with a crane shot of the characters and somber jazz music as the characters contemplate what just happened. Truth is the Mod Squad has a more expensive look to it than Jump Street.

Yes, this has probably been a useless rant, but I had to get this out of my system. I'm sorry Johnny Depp couldn't have been like Clint Eastwood, John Travolta or Bruce Lee and gotten his start on a good show. As a matter of fact, he has said he hated the show.

Just remember, the Maharishi says never drink campaign from a paper cup. Solid, Brother!

DOES THE STATE OF MISSOURI HATE DOC SAVAGE???

Like many guys my age, I became enthralled with the adventures of Doc Savage, through the paperback reprints of the 60s, 70s and 80s. I was delighted a few years back to find that these thrilling stories were written by a man from La Plata, Missouri named Lester Dent. He used the pen name of Kenneth Robeson. The super strong, gadgeteer Doc Savage and his five assistants paved the way for such heroes as Indiana Jones, James Bond, Superman, Batman, the Fantastic Four and Johnny Quest.

So why does the state of Missouri rarely acknowledge Lester Dent and Doc Savage? Why do they spend money time and money promoting about Laura Ingles Wilder, who was born in Wisconsin?

I have found very few articles about Lester Dent and Doc Savage in the state’s media. Two good ones I found online are from Rural Missourian and one from an unknown source on the Truman University - Pickler Memorial Library website. However, you can find numerous articles from local newspapers and magazines about Laura Ingles Wilder’s connection to Missouri.

I will admit up-front, I despise the works of Laura Ingles Wilder. Especially the TV show Little House on the Prairie. This goes back to my horrible, tortured childhood in Lebanon, Missouri. I was often told by the adults in the community that I should watch Little House on the Prairie (and the Waltons) because it was “better for me” than the shows I liked.

That could be one of the reasons that Wilder’s Little House franchise is promoted by the state of Missouri over Dent’ Doc Savage. Wilder’s world is seen as good, old-fashion, wholesome entertainment, whereas Dent’s world is filled with modernism, science fiction/horror, and excitement, which is frowned upon by many in Missouri (especially in the Ozarks). Although, it should be noted that Dent always maintained that Doc Savage had “Christlike” qualities.

The Little House books talk about the world so many in the Missouri want to embrace. They want to keep Missouri a world of one room schoolhouses, church dinners and barn raisings. Even in the Great Depression, Doc Savage had television, jet planes and a telephone answering machine. Doc Savage had at his disposal the things we take for granted.

Part of the reason Doc Savage isn’t mentioned as much is Doc Savage has only been successful in the publishing world of paperback novels, comic books and magazines. He had a short lived radio show in the 30s and one on NPR in the 80s. He also had one movie, Doc Savage - Man of Bronze, in 1975. It stared TV Tarzan Ron Ely and Paul Gleason (later in the Breakfast Club). I seem to be the only person who liked this movie. There wasn’t a sequel.

Of course, Little House on the Prairie ran from the mid 70s through the 80s on NBC. Every week the Ingles family suffered one hard ship after another. That long running TV series, whether I like it or not, gives Wilder more publicity worldwide than Dent and Doc Savage has gotten.

Finally, the state of Missouri may prefer Wilder because her stories frequently took place in Missouri, where Dent sent Doc Savage and his five pals off on adventures around the world. Doc Savage also lived in a penthouse in New York.
Needless to say, I would still like to see Lester Dent and Doc Savage recognized more by the state of Missouri. The state of Missouri should be ashamed for ignoring Lester Dent’s contribution to the literary world and pop culture. Maybe some of our state officials should stop trying to block the President’s health care reform and give Lester Dent and Doc Savage their due.

Of course, opinions, like this one, explains why I’m called the Super Villain of the Ozarks!!! Mwu-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!