RetroFan #14 by TwoMorrows Publishing

May 2021 No. 14 $9.95

Who loves ya, baby?

TV TIE-IN TOYS NO KID WOULD WANT!

Star Trek

Holy Backstage Pass!

The Lean Years

The Man Behind the Mask

Behind the Scenes of Your Favorite TV Shows!

Saturday Morning Sasquatch! Bigfoot on TV

Van Williams Ready to Rumble?

WWF WrestleFest Game Zoorama • The Saint in the Sixties • Scooby-Doo Super Collection & more!

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FEATURING Ernest Farino • Andy Mangels • Will Murray • Scott Saavedra • Scott Shaw! • Michael Eury

Batman © DC Comics. Bigfoot and Wildboy © Sid and Marty Krofft Productions. Green Hornet © The Green Hornet, Inc. WWF WrestleFest © Technōs Japan Corp. Kojak © Universal Television. All Rights Reserved.

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Pop Culture You Grew Up With! If you love Pop Culture of the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties, editor MICHAEL EURY’s latest magazine is just for you!

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Sixties teen idol RICKY NELSON remembered by his son MATTHEW NELSON, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., rural sitcom purge, EVEL KNIEVEL toys, the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Saturday morning’s Super 7, The Muppet Show, behind-the-scenes photos of Sixties movies, an interview with The Sound of Music’s heartthrob-turnedbad guy DANIEL “Rolf” TRUHITTE, and more fun, fab features!

An exclusive interview with Logan’s Run star MICHAEL YORK, plus Logan’s Run novelist WILLIAM F. NOLAN and vehicle customizer DEAN JEFFRIES. Plus: the Marvel Super Heroes cartoons of 1966, H. R. Pufnstuf, Leave It to Beaver’s SUE “Miss Landers” RANDALL, WOLFMAN JACK, drive-in theaters, My Weekly Reader, DAVID MANDEL’s super collection of comic book art, and more!

Dark Shadows’ Angelique, LARA PARKER, sinks her fangs into an exclusive interview. Plus: Rankin-Bass’ Mad Monster Party, Aurora Monster model kits, a chat with Aurora painter JAMES BAMA, George of the Jungle, The Haunting, Jawsmania, Drak Pack, TV dads’ jobs, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by FARINO, MANGELS, MURRAY, SAAVEDRA, SHAW, and MICHAEL EURY.

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NOW BI-MONTHLY! Interviews with ’70s’ Captain America REB BROWN, and Captain Nice (and Knight Rider’s KITT) WILLIAM DANIELS with wife BONNIE BARTLETT! Plus: Coloring Books, Fall Previews for Saturday morning cartoons, The Cyclops movie, actors behind your favorite TV commercial characters, BENNY HILL, the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention, 8-track tapes, and more!

NOWbackstage BI-MONTHLY! Celebrating fifty Holy pass! See rare, behind-theyears of SHAFT, interviews withfavorite FAMILY scenes photos of many of your AFFAIR’s GARVER and The Brady Sixties TV KATHY shows! Plus: an unpublished Bunch Variety Hour’sHornet GERI “FAKE interview with Green VAN JAN” REISCHL, ED “BIG on DADDY” ROTH, WILLIAMS, Bigfoot Saturday morning rare GODZILLA merchandise, Spaghetti television, TV’s Zoorama and the San Westerns, Diego Zoo, Saturday The Saint,morning the leancartoon years ofpreviewTrek specials, fakethe presidential candidates, Star fandom, WrestleFest video Spider-Man/The Spider parallels, game, TV tie-in toys no kid wouldStuckey’s, want, and andmore morefun, fun,fab fabfeatures! features!

HALLOWEEN ISSUE! Interviews with DARK SHADOWS’ DAVID SELBY, and the niece of movie Frankenstein GLENN STRANGE, JULIE ANN REAMS. Plus: KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER, ROD SERLING retrospective, CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST, TV’s Adventures of Superman, Superman’s pal JIMMY OLSEN, QUISP and QUAKE cereals, the DRAK PAK AND THE MONSTER SQUAD, scratch model customs, and more!

CHRIS MANN goes behind the scenes of TV’s sexy sitcom THREE’S COMPANY— and NANCY MORGAN RITTER, first wife of JOHN RITTER, shares stories about the TV funnyman. Plus: RICK GOLDSCHMIDT’s making of RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER, RONNIE SCHELL interview, Sheena Queen of the TV Jungle, Dr. Seuss toys, Popeye cartoons, DOCTOR WHO’s 1960s U.S. invasion, and more!

Exclusive interviews with Lost in Space’s MARK GODDARD and MARTA KRISTEN, Dynomutt and Blue Falcon, Hogan’s Heroes’ BOB CRANE, a history of WhamO’s Frisbee, Twilight Zone and other TV sci-fi anthologies, Who Created Archie Andrews?, oddities from the San Diego Zoo, lava lamps, and more with FARINO, MANGELS, MURRAY, SAAVEDRA, SHAW, and MICHAEL EURY!

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Interviews with MARK HAMILL & Greatest American Hero’s WILLIAM KATT! Blast off with JASON OF STAR COMMAND! Stop by the MUSEUM OF POPULAR CULTURE! Plus: “The First Time I Met Tarzan,” MAJOR MATT MASON, MOON LANDING MANIA, SNUFFY SMITH AT 100 with cartoonist JOHN ROSE, TV Dinners, Celebrity Crushes, and more fun, fab features!

Interviews with MeTV’s crazy creepster SVENGOOLIE and Eddie Munster himself, BUTCH PATRICK! Call on the original Saturday Morning GHOST BUSTERS, with BOB BURNS! Uncover the nutty NAUGAS! Plus: “My Life in the Twilight Zone,” “I Was a Teenage James Bond,” “My Letters to Famous People,” the ARCHIE-DOBIE GILLIS connection, Pinball Hall of Fame, Alien action figures, Rubik’s Cube & more!

With a JACLYN SMITH interview, as we reopen the Charlie’s Angels Casebook, and visit the Guinness World Records’ largest Charlie’s Angels collection. Plus: interview with LARRY STORCH, The Lone Ranger in Hollywood, The Dick Van Dyke Show, a vintage interview with Jonny Quest creator DOUG WILDEY, a visit to the Land of Oz, the ultra-rare Marvel World superhero playset, and more!

NOW BI-MONTHLY! Interviews with the ’60s grooviest family band THE COWSILLS, and TV’s coolest mom JUNE LOCKHART! Mars Attacks!, MAD Magazine in the ’70s, Flintstones turn 60, Electra Woman & Dyna Girl, Honey West, Max Headroom, Popeye Picnic, the Smiley Face fad, & more! With MICHAEL EURY, ERNEST FARINO, ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, and SCOTT SHAW!

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The Crazy Cool Culture We Grew Up With

CONTENTS Issue #14 May 2021 33

Columns and Special Features

Departments

Retrotorial

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon I Rode with the Green Hornet!

Retro Toys TV Tie-in Toys No Kid Would Want!

Retro Television The Saint in the Sixties

Super Collector A real-life Shaggy’s Scooby-Doo collection

Retro Games WWF WrestleFest

Ernest Farino’s Retro Fantasmagoria On the Set… Television in the Sixties

Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning Bigfoot on Television

RetroFad Paper Dresses

Oddball World of Scott Shaw! The world famous San Diego Zoo, Part Two

Too Much TV Quiz

Scott Saavedra’s Secret Sanctum Star Trek: The Lean Years

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RetroFanmail

ReJECTED RetroFan fantasy cover by Scott Saavedra

RetroFan™ #14, May 2021. Published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: RetroFan, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 112 Fairmount Way, New Bern, NC 28562. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Six-issue subscriptions: 68 Economy US, $103 International, $27 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Batman © DC Comics. Green Hornet © The Green Hornet, Inc. Bigfoot and Wildboy © Sid and Marty Krofft Productions. WWF WrestleFest © Technōs Japan Corp. Kojak © Universal Television. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2021 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING. ISSN 2576-7224

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow CONTRIBUTORS John Cimino Michael Eury Billy Ferguson Ernest Farino Dan Hagen Andy Mangels Will Murray Scott Saavedra Scott Shaw! DESIGNER Scott Saavedra PROOFREADER Rob Smentek SPECIAL THANKS Hake’s Auctions Heritage Auctions Joanne Marshall San Diego Zoo Worthpoint

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RETROFAN

If you think our culture is divided today, you should’ve been around in the Sixties! (Actually, if you’re reading RetroFan, you probably were!) Adults were at odds over the Vietnam War, civil rights, and changing mores as the United States was experiencing cultural growing pains, and the Cold War cast a polarizing chill across the globe. While adults tried to shield their children from such matters, Sixties kids were dragged into the mire with our own clashes, some of which devolved into shoving matches on school playgrounds: Who do you like best, The Beatles or The Monkees? DC or Marvel? Ginger or Mary Ann? Samantha or Jeannie? Matchbox or Hot Wheels? Quisp or Quake? James Bond or Napoleon Solo? Betty or Veronica? The blue Rock ’Em Sock ’Em robot or the red robot? The success of ABC-TV’s Batman, which premiered on January 12, 1966 and instantly made mega-stars of Adam West and Burt Ward, prompted another clash later that year. During the Fall 1966 television season, Batman executive producer William Dozier rolled out a second series featuring a different masked man from the funnies (in this case, originally from a radio drama which soon spawned movie serials and comic books), The Green Hornet. Dozier’s Batman was bright and fanciful, a colorful campfest where A-list celebs vied for coveted guest-villain roles. Batman drove children and, for a brief period, college students and adults, quite batty. Viewers were expecting more of the same with The Green Hornet. Instead, Dozier and company played it straight, with an absence of costumed villains and scene-stealing guest-stars and an emphasis on street-level criminals and moody, nighttime action. While The Green Hornet helped catapult its co-star, Bruce Lee (Kato), to eventual stardom, and returned a familiar, handsome face, Van Williams, to weekly television as the Hornet and his alter ego, Britt Reid, it didn’t sustain its initial buzz and was axed after a single season. (Fun fact: Bill Dozier also produced two other comics-inspired pilots during this period, a semi-straight take on Dick Tracy and a ridiculously over-the-top spoof of Wonder Woman. For more info I refer you to my 2017 TwoMorrows book, Hero-A-Go-Go: Campy Comic Books, Crimefighters, and Culture of the Swinging Sixties, designed by RetroFan’s own Scott Saavedra, still available at www.twomorrows.com, for more information.) And thus, another divisive topic was introduced: Which show’s tone was best, Batman’s or Green Hornet’s? Would The Green Hornet have gone on to at least a second season if it had been played for laughs? That’s anybody’s guess, but as a young boy back in the day, I loved ’em both. And I feel their respective tones were right for each series at the time. It’s been several years since The Green Hornet’s Van Williams passed away, but this issue we’re lucky to revisit the late actor’s perspective on the iconic show thanks to columnist Will Murray, who interviewed the star for Starlog several years back and offers an edited version of that discussion in this edition of RetroFan. Fans of Batman will also rejoice over columnist Ernest Farino’s feature this ish, which presents behind-the-scenes photos from the Caped Crusader’s series as well as many other Sixties TV faves. If these two articles don’t reactivate your inner child, check your pulse and dial 911. There’s a heavy classic TV focus this issue, which was happenstance from the contributors’ material that was in the queue in time for this issue, not the result of a coordinated theme. Since most of us were glued to the tube during our childhoods, I doubt you’ll complain. All that and more is waiting for you, making RetroFan #14 yet another groovy grab bag of the crazy, cool culture we grew up with.

May 2021

The Green Hornet logo TM & © Green Hornet, Inc.

by Michael Eury

WILL MURRAY’S 20TH CENTURY PANOPTICON

e h t h t i w e d o R I

! t e n r o H Green by Will Murray

During the nearly 30 years I wrote for the Starlog Group of magazines, I interviewed hundreds of celebrities, ranging from Sylvester Stallone to Keanu Reeves. Most of these assignments were relatively routine. But one stood out as having personal meaning to me. Interviewing TV’s Green Hornet, Van Williams, was special. I was a huge fan of that 1966–1967 ABC-TV show. Over the course of my Sixties youth, I had several heroes, beginning with Superman and progressing to Captain America and probably culminating in the Green Hornet. I was a teenager by the time The Green Hornet aired, and the fact that the show took itself so seriously deeply impressed me. Alas, it was a one-season wonder. But what a season! The Green Hornet was a crime drama Original painting (artist unknown) for the box art for with the cooler trappings of Hasbro’s The Green Hornet Paint By Number set. Courtesy the ridiculous Batman TV show, of Heritage. (INSET) Van Williams in his iconic role as the which I also watched faithfully, Green Hornet’s alter ego, crusading media mogul Britt of ten cringing as I did so. Reid. The Green Hornet © The Green Hornet, Inc. TV version © 20th Century Television/

Let’s Roll, Van!

Greenway Productions.

When the opportunity to interview Williams came, it was by telephone. I called in at his workplace and he generously gave me about an hour of his time. We stayed in touch and he paid me of the high compliment of telling me I was one of the few who quoted him accurately. Well, I taped the interview. That certainly helped. I began by asking him how familiar he had been with the Green Hornet radio show that ran from 1936 to 1952. “I was a big fan of it,” he admitted. “My family was a big fan of it.” Yet when the part of crusading newspaper publisher Britt Reid was offered, surprisingly, Williams was at first reluctant. RETROFAN

May 2021

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

“To be honest with you,” he confessed, “I really didn’t really want to do it. I had just done a pilot for Four Star. I really liked that role.” He was a submarine commander in Pursue and Destroy. But the pilot failed to sell and so the actor agreed to wear the midnight green overcoat and mask of the Green Hornet. Having grown up on a Texas ranch, Williams found it ironic. “For some reason,” he told me, “when I went to Warner Bros. under contract, with all those Westerns they had going over there, they put me in a modernday thing as a kid from Tulane University in a coat and tie!” That was on Bourbon Street Beat. His character, Ken Madison, grew up and migrated over to Surfside 6 for two seasons. Despite his initial reservations, Williams got into the dual role of newspaper publisher Britt Reid and his masked alias. “It was a fun show in the stunts and the gadgets until we had done it long enough,” he said. “We did a great many run-throughs with Black Beauty [the Hornet’s sleek sedan] in the mountains of Malibu, and it gets quite hot here. I had to wear a suit and a muffler, and the overcoat, the hat, and the mask. I would just jump in the car and do it, and get out and do the fight or whatever. I always insisted on doing all my own fights. Some days, I would lose ten to 12 pounds.” Next to Bruce Lee as his combination manservant, chauffeur, and bodyguard Kato, the Hornet’s black limousine was the third star. When I reminded Van that he had joked to TV Guide that it should have been called Black Ugly, he stated, “It really was when you first saw it. More than ugly, it was mean-looking. It was low-slung, dull black, and had those dark windows. It looked like a typical hood car, which was exactly what it was supposed to look like. We had a good number of problems with the car even though it was a tough old bird. We almost wrecked the thing so many times in chase sequences.” 4

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A Hornet’s Nest

One of the last half-hour TV adventure shows, The Green Hornet suffered due to the restrictions of its 30-minute time slot. “We didn’t really have time to develop anything except a stern guy who was out to do good,” he lamented. “There was no scope to it. Somehow, we would discover a new criminal element and there we would go. That wasn’t really the time to do Kato and I. Bruce was very adamant about not being shown as a manservant, but we had a hard time trying to come up with any scenes. “It was my contention that Britt Reid as Britt Reid should have gotten more involved in those stories. All you ever saw of Britt Reid was in his den or his office, setting up the story. He could have gotten into it, which would have allowed us to do certain things during the daytime. But they felt, ‘Ah, this is a kids' show. You don’t need any romance to sell it.’ I think we had a following more of adults than of kids. The kids liked Bruce, but the adults liked the show.” There were also problems with the character’s owner, radio executive George Trendle, who also owned the Hornet’s ancestor, the Lone Ranger. “Trendle didn’t like the show’s grim tone,” Van revealed. “Trendle complained about the lack of humor. Instead of doing it like the radio show, he thought it would be have been better to have done it like Batman. I didn’t agree with that. We tried to make The Green Hornet as truthful as you could be with a guy running around in a mask. I feel proud about that and I don’t care what anybody says.” The Green Hornet was produced by Batman’s William Dozier, who decided (TOP) Williams as Commander Russ that the Hornet and Kato should guest-star Enright in a screen capture from the 1966 on a Batman two-parter, which has since TV pilot, Pursue and Destroy. © ABC. (ABOVE) become notorious. Van Williams as Ken Madison, opposite— “I felt very strange on that show,” Van make that up close and personal to—Diane allowed. “I didn’t want to do it because McBain, in a publicity still from TV’s I didn’t think it was going to work. And Surfside 6. © Warner Bros. Courtesy of Heritage. it didn’t. And Bruce! Oh, Bruce was just

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

the difference and he became a believer. Then, he had to learn it all over again.” Despite its future cult status, The Green Hornet was a showstopper for the careers of its co-stars. Fortunately for Bruce Lee, he escaped Hollywood for Hong Kong, where he became a superstar, thanks to Kung Fu, which he popularized. “I had no idea it was going to take off like it did,” Williams said, “because after the show went down the drain, Bruce had a big problem getting work. What he really didn’t want to do was that show he ended up doing, where he played a teacher to the blind guy on Longstreet. He was really depressed with his role. They didn’t give him anything to do. One of Bruce’s problems was that he had a very heavy Chinese accent and you couldn’t understand what he was saying half the time. He didn’t really study the craft as an actor, but he wasn’t bought as an actor.”

Hanging Up His Mask

Williams was equally fortunate in finding a new direction. “It did definitely put a big damper on my career,” he admitted. “And I was more or less decided in the middle of The Green Hornet that I was going to get out. I never liked the business, even though Green Hornet publicity still signed to Green Hornet co-creator (with Fran Striker) George Trendle by star Van Williams. Courtesy of Hake’s. TV Green Hornet © 20th Century Television/Greenway Productions.

livid. He didn’t get along with Burt Ward at all. Ward was always making cracks about Bruce being a waiter, and it got back to Bruce. He didn’t want to have a confrontation with Robin where he would be bested. As a matter of fact, Bruce almost walked off the show because he thought Robin was just a comic character and had no balls. Here, Bruce was the big kung-fu guy and he was going to be bested by this kid. It was just a mess. I don’t remember much about the show. I think they ended up making two stamps out of Kato and me.”

Van Williams and Green Hornet co-star Bruce Lee in costume (RIGHT) and, unmasked, in a publicity still (BELOW). © 20th Century Television/Greenway Productions.

Remembering Bruce Lee

Williams had vivid memories of his late co-star. “I always knew Bruce had a hell of a talent with his Jeet Kune Do, which was what he called it back then. There was nothing, being an actor or anything, that had any importance besides that. He was always practicing. He used to drive everybody nuts around the set because he was constantly kicking. You would be watching the set and suddenly, you would feel a breath of air go by your ear. You would turn around and Bruce had kicked out and tickled your ear lobe. One time he did it, the guy turned and Bruce kicked him in the jaw and broke it! “Bruce didn’t realize he was dealing with a two-dimensional medium and not a three-dimensional one. He always wanted to work everything in close. You could swing at three feet and as long as the reaction’s right, it looks real on film. Bruce hurt a lot of people. He didn’t mean to. He just got going and he couldn’t stop. He got to the point that we used every stuntman in town because Bruce hurt them. Finally we took the time to show him RETROFAN

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Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

I spent 25 years in it. I grew up on a ranch and dealt people who were very honest. Your word was your word.” After the series ended, Van starred in a final show, Westwind, and had recurring roles in How the West was Won and The Red Hand Gang, as well as many TV guest-star parts. Looking back at The Green Hornet’s 26 episodes, Van admitted that he didn’t recall them in detail. “The two-parters were better,” he declared. “What I was mainly disappointed about in the show was that the people we dealt with were more small-time crooks than international criminals. You didn’t have to have a Penguin and that type, but big-time crooks where we were really getting in and doing something big. I’ve been in law-enforcement for 15 years. That’s basically where most of the crime is, with the small-time crooks.” His last TV appearance was in the final filmed episode of The Rockford Files, where he played a California police lieutenant. By that time, he had already gotten involved with police work. “It started when I was with The Green Hornet,” he related. “I was approached by a different agency. I can’t mention the agency or what I did. I did a great amount of work for that agency. In doing that, I got in contact with the L.A. Sheriff’s office.” It seemed a strange choice, and Williams struggled to explain becoming reserve Los Angeles deputy. “People have asked me that so many times and I’m not really sure I can answer it. I enjoy it. There’s camaraderie and a brotherhood to it. Much of it is boring. It seems the higher side, where you get into the adrenaline-popping stuff, is where you

(LEFT) Van Williams and Bruce Lee as the Green Hornet and Kato in a photo transparency by Roger Davidson. It is suspected that this was from a shoot for (RIGHT) the photo cover of Gold Key Comics’ The Green Hornet #1 (Feb. 1967). Both, courtesy of Heritage. The Green Hornet © The Green Hornet, Inc. TV version © 20th Century Television/Greenway Productions.

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May 2021

have sheer boredom 99% of the time. Then suddenly, it’s panic city and running and shooting and other stuff. I was involved in shootings, and things like that. I think I was involved in hairier experiences in mountain rescue stuff that I did, climbing cliffs and rappelling out of helicopters and down into a 2,000 foot canyon.” In uniform, Van Williams was no stranger to infamous L.A. car chases. “I was involved in a pursuit that went all the way from Malibu,” he recalled, “across Malibu Canyon, down the Ventura Freeway, down the Hollywood Freeway, and down the Long Beach Freeway that took about an hour and a half on a crowded Sunday with speeds up to almost a hundred miles an hour with the freeways looking like a parking lot and we’re right by the fence. There was a sergeant in front of us that was throwing up bolts and rocks and cracking our windshield. He ran out of gas and we had to pick him up. That’s heart attack city when that goes on for that long. By the time we got there, they had shot the guy to death.”

My Neighbor, Batman

Over time, Williams became a businessman, ramrodding ranches in Texas and Hawaii, and running a communications company in Santa Monica. In later years, Williams bought a home in Sun Valley, Idaho. Amazingly, one of his neighbors was Batman star Adam West, with whom he often went pheasant hunting. “Adam has been a friend of mine for years and years and years,” Van related. “Adam did the best job he could with Batman.

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

Let’s roll, Kato! The Black Beauty, at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. Williams once called his TV wheels the “Black Ugly.” Photo by La Belle Berthe/ Wikimedia Commons.

(LEFT) The Black Beauty was customized by Dean Jeffries from a 1966 Chrysler Imperial. Courtesy of Will Murray. (RIGHT) And it was heavily merchandised, including this Corgi miniature. Courtesy of Heritage.

It hurt him worse than it hurt me. He’s still trying to get rid of it, and never will.” After the interview broke in Starlog, Jonathan Harris, then running the Dreamwerks Conventions, requested Van’s phone number. He invited Van to appear at a nostalgia show in Allentown, Pennsylvania. John and my editor, Dave McDonnell, and I greeted Van at the airport, taking him to dinner. It was a genuine thrill. The show was sparsely attended, alas. Van was scheduled to give an afternoon talk, but I suggested to him that he mingle in advance of that. The Black Beauty was on display in a ballroom. It wasn’t one of the originals, but a fiberglass replica created decades later. So we wandered over to the display. Fans began gathering. Van pulled up a chair and took questions from everyone. This went on for three hours. At one point, the question of what made the TV show so special came up. Van turned to me for my opinion. I opined that it was the glamour of the secret identities and the gadgets, including the Black Beauty. Van dismissed that answer, but no one came up with a better one. I still think I was right. If it had been the adventures of a

crusading newspaper publisher, I doubt that the show would be as beloved as it is. On the last day, the Black Beauty was driven out to be loaded onto a flatbed truck. Van and I were invited to take a ride in the replica. We got into the back and rode around the parking lot. It was quite a moment for the former teenager who loved The Green Hornet. I was sitting in the backseat of the Black Beauty with the man himself! As it happened, Warren Murphy, for whom I was ghostwriting the martial-arts paperback series, The Destroyer, lived nearby. He dropped by the convention to see me, and invited us to his house. That night, we drove over to Warren’s rather impressive mansion in the Lehigh Valley. Sitting around the Murphy kitchen table, eating pizza, we had a great time talking. Warren pulled out an expensive liquor, and by the time we got Van into the car and back to our hotel, he wasn’t feeling any pain.

A Secret Revealed!

Months year, Van was doing the convention circuit and I flew down to Baltimore for another one of his convention appearances. The convention was set up in two cities and we RETROFAN

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Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

traveled by van to the other site. He told funny stories about Van took to the nostalgia show circuit and loved it. ranching in Texas and Hawaii. I remember the one anecdote “Oh, I’ve had a lot of fun,” he told me. “Adam West has been about the problem with Hawaiian ranches is the cows would doing this stuff for years and turned me on to it. He said what wander up on the higher elevations and fall off. In Texas, during you’ll do is really appreciate the knowledge that what you did 22 blizzards, the bulls suffered from frozen testicles, which would years ago is still extremely well remembered and appreciated. then drop off. I said, ‘Oh, yeah, there might be ten people.’ Hey, you know, I During the ride, Van let slip the agency for which he worked: won’t say that I was mobbed—I’ve never been that type of actor the C.I.A.! Amazed, I pressed him for more information but he to be mobbed—but I’ve signed thousands and thousands and was reticent. I suggested he write his biography, but apparently thousands of autographs. But I think I have gotten more of a feel his undercover work for that than anything I precluded it. have done in the last 15–20 After that appearance, years. I wasn’t really that we did a follow-up happy about having to do interview. Tony Caputo’s The Green Hornet but after Now Comics had launched 22 years to know that you its Green Hornet comic line made an impression on and I spoke to him about somebody that remembers his plotting a Tales of the so much about it, that Green Hornet miniseries for makes me feel good. It Robert Ingersoll to script. really does! It makes me “Tony approached appreciate that for 28 or me,” Van related. “‘Hey, 30 years I spent in the have you had anything in acting business someone your experiences with law remembers what I did. I enforcement and the other made my mark. Not the stuff that you’ve done that mark that a [Tom] Selleck or might make an interesting somebody like that made, story?’ I said, ‘I don’t know. but I made my mark.” I’ve had a lot of interesting experiences, but I don’t know whether I can put it The Hornet’s Sting to the Green Hornet or not.’ But when Meeting his fans was eye-opening. I started to think about it. I put down “I don’t know whether I want to make this a big thing or not,” he declared, “but some ideas and I figured, hey, this kind as long as it goes along like this, and the of stuff was interesting.” people are as nice as they are, why not? The story was called “The Burma Here I’m meeting people who have an Horse” and Van based it on several interest in what I’ve done and know the undercover C.I.A. assignments. The (TOP) Who’s your fave Sixties super-guy? A 1966 history of what I’ve done in that business names were changed to protect the publicity photo of Van Williams and TV Batman a lot more than I know about it, really. It innocent… and the guilty. Asian drug Adam West. (BOTTOM) Williams later in life, at a amazes me! And it’s fun. It gets me out smugglers were transporting narcotics of L.A., breaks up the monotony of my concealed in 16mm film canisters, which celebrity signing event. WorldFilmGeek.com. life—which is not exactly what I’d say is could not be opened by customs, lest a great life anymore running around and spending a lot of time on they expose the valuable footage. It was an ingenious scam, and airplanes—so I’ve enjoyed it.” Van admitted that he was instrumental in cracking it. Just like By that time, we had gotten to know one another and Van Britt Reid in real life! spoke candidly about his feelings about his Hollywood career, “It really wasn’t one particular episode,” Van clarified. “It was a which he considered a conditional failure. number of different things that I was involved with and I just put “I did it all wrong,” he admitted frankly. “If I could have gone them all together so it would make sense with the Green Hornet. back to the very beginning and prepared myself well as an actor It was very believable.” instead of stumbling through a bunch of junk. I did about ten Williams was pleased with the result. “I was really amazed at shows that I’m proud of. I’m not saying I’m not proud of The Green how he picked up on it, kept everything almost exactly as I did it, Hornet. I’m a lot prouder of it right now than I was six months and used the names that I gave him, because I spent a lot of time ago. I’m more than proud of myself for becoming a businessman, in Japan, in Thailand, in Cambodia, in Laos, and all those places, and I was involved in a thing with the Yakuza. That’s the Japanese becoming a police officer for real, running ranches, doing this, that, and the other. The whole thing about Hollywood acting, the Mafia. For some reason, they didn’t use that. I don’t know where way they do it in this country is a never-never land. It’s all based that got killed, but they did not use that the bad guy was using all on a bubble. I didn’t like the play-acting. I wanted to do this stuff these fronts as a producer and everything else, which actually, in that I was doing for real. I think I got into police work because I fact, took place.” 8

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Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

Feel the sting! Photos and likenesses of Williams and Lee appeared in a slew of merchandised items and on periodicals, including these, during The Green Hornet’s one-season run. The Green Hornet © The Green Hornet, Inc. TV version © 20th Century Television/Greenway Productions. Courtesy of Heritage and Hake’s.

really wanted to do it and find out what it was like—not playacting on a television show. I have always been an outdoor guy. I was a cowboy from Texas, grew up on a ranch. Never was a big city guy. I was never a coat and tie man. And I got stuck in the coat and tie role all through almost every series that I did, except for the last two.” Of the hundreds of TV episodes he did, Van most treasured an award-winning 1974 episode of Gunsmoke and the Pursue and Destroy pilot. But his later acting roles were often bit parts as policemen.

“I didn’t get bitter,” he said frankly. “I got upset, because it was my own fault. I did things that I shouldn’t have done. I should have done things that I didn’t do. I knew better about it, just from a businessman standpoint. But we all learn. By the time I had [gone] far enough along in it, I had already burned all of my bridges. You finally get to the point of where, I had a house, I had a wife. I had a certain amount of nut to crack, and you finally decide, hey, is it worth sitting around waiting for the phone to ring?” RETROFAN

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Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

Feeling that his career had been fatally stung by The Green Hornet, Van Williams struck off on his own. He remained defensive about that experience. “We were probably made fun of because we played it so seriously. But it was the way it was meant to be with The Green Hornet. I was trying to be honest with myself in the role and that’s the way I felt it should have been played. And I’ve gotten a good amount of criticism for that. People were disappointed in it. They thought it was going to be another Batman. I’m just now starting to get many people who are showing that they appreciate what I did. But it took a long time to come out.” Green Hornet ratings never matched the Batmania phenomenon, but the show was not renewed for that reason. “We were winning our timeslot,” Van explained. “Bill Dozier wouldn’t agree unless the show was expanded to an hour.” Thanks to fan feedback, Williams came to realize that he had the superior show.

LOOKING FOR MORE GREEN HORNET?

RetroFan #4 featured the late Martin Pasko’s column about the Green Hornet in Hollywood. And our sister magazine, BACK ISSUE, examined Now Comics’ Green Hornet series in issue #18. Visit www.twomorrows.com to order both.

“It’s amazing how many die-hard Green Hornet fans are not fans of the Batman TV show,” he noted. “They didn’t like it. They thought they were being cheated. I don’t know whether it works the other way when Adam goes out on these things or not, but I’m surprised that most of the real die-hard fans do not like it. “Nothing I did stayed alive as long as The Green Hornet,” he observed with quiet satisfaction. “It’s a modern day kind of a James Bond, but without the super-criminals, that if we could have done it probably would have made the show more successful. The fans have stuck with it and I guess they’re probably going to stick with it for the next generation, and beyond.” Van’s final role was another bit part, but a fitting one. In Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, he played the director of an episode of The Green Hornet. Over the years Van Williams and I fell out of touch. I always regretted that. He passed away on November 29, 2016 of kidney failure, a year before his good friend and fellow TV crimefighter, Adam West. WILL MURRAY is the writer of the Wild Adventures (www.adventuresinbronze. com) series of novels, which stars Doc Savage, The Shadow, King Kong, The Spider, and Tarzan of the Apes. He also created the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl with legendary artist Steve Ditko.

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SCOTT SAAVEDRA'S SECRET SANCTUM

STAR TREK The Lean Years

Death is in the air. With a sudden jolt, the bridge crew of the USS Enterprise lurches in unison, first toward the port bow and then just as violently toward starboard. Captain Kirk intensely stares at the main viewscreen, moments earlier filled with stars but now roiling with static, offering no clues to their situation. A Red Alert sets off the familiar attention-getting klaxon. Kirk sharply queries his helmsman, “Mr. Sulu, report!” “The controls, Captain, they’re not responding,” Sulu replies with usual efficiency. The static grows louder and more frantic. Dr. McCoy, often on the bridge instead of the Sick Bay during times of danger, and Lt. Uhura exchange concerned glances. Lt. Leslie tugs at his red shirt, wondering, “Is today going to be the day?” A call comes in from Engineering. The familiar brogue of Chief Engineer Scott is tense, “Captain, it dunna make any sense but we’re dead in the water!”

by Scott Saavedra

Kirk brings a clenched fist to his mouth. He turns toward the Science Station, where Mr. Spock is usually deep in his duties. He is not at his post. Ensign Chekov bolts from Navigation to take over the Science Station on Kirk’s orders. The situation demands answers. “Captain, the sensors must be malfunctioning, we appear to be… nowhere,” the ensign reports with considerably more concern than the Vulcan First Officer could ever muster. Kirk gives his com button a swift punch. “Spock! Report to bridge… Spock!” No answer. Abruptly, the chaotic, jagged lights on the viewscreen and the overwhelming static noise stop. What remains is a single bright but fading dot of light in the middle of a dark screen. It blinks out. “Spock, where are you?” Kirk half-whispers through clenched teeth. Then everything goes black…

William Shatner as a distressed Captain Kirk (more or less—it's complicated) in the final episode of the final season of Star Trek. Digitally altered screen capture from "Turnabout Intruder." © CBS Studios, Inc.

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Scott Saavedra's secret sanctum

A Dropkick to the Gut

Star Trek, the first science fiction-adventure show with an adult sensibility, was off the air. This inventive hour-long program (in color!) about beings—human and otherwise—in space ended on June 3, 1969, just a fistful of weeks before the U.S. successfully put two astronauts on the Moon. Earthlings on the lunar surface? That was something. A cancelled television series? It was just in the nature of things. That year saw the demise of a number of fondly remembered shows, Daktari, Gentle Ben, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and The Wild Wild West. Oh, and Happening ’68. That got the (groovy) axe, too. Famously, Star Trek had been cancelled before, and its second season was to be its last. Fans of the show, organized by Betty JoAnne (Bjo, to one and all) Trimble and husband John, sent letters to relevant parties at NBC to ask/demand that they reverse the cancellation. The claimed number of letters sent vary from tens of thousands to about a million, but the key matter is that the effort, which also included picketing of the West Coast offices of NBC, worked. Star Trek returned for a third and, ultimately, final season. This time no amount of letter writing could save it. Put a fork in that, it’s done, Jim. Still, Star Trek fans—the Trekkies and the Trekkers—decided they couldn’t let matters rest there.

(space) seeds of a future for Star Trek from nearly the moment the show began.

The Fans on the Edge of Forever

Star Trek fans were often creative and intellectually curious. They wrote new stories and created art based on the series. They delved deep into the details of the show, ship, and crew. This was done just for their own enjoyment or was shared, sometimes via fanzines (usually modest, self-published, low-circulation magazines). The first Star Trek fanzine was Spockanalia (Sept. 1967), edited by Devra Langsam and Sherna Comerford, and was enjoyed and endorsed by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry himself. Other fanzines followed, some from fan clubs devoted to particular characters (Kirk and Spock, mostly) and some to specific elements of the show like Captain Kirk’s imaginary (and comically complex) game Fizzbin in Fizzbin: History and Rules by Martin Joki (1976). Elsewhere, Bjo Trimble and Dorothy Jones (a fan and linguist who filled notecards with show facts) created the Star Trek Concordance of People, Places and Things (published by John Trimble's Matham House Publications in 1969), an impressive effort given the primitive pre-warp culture of the time. Not

(LEFT) Cover to Spockanalia #2 (Apr. 1968). Spockanalia was the first of many Star Trek fanzines. (CENTER & RIGHT) Star Trek Concordance was an impressive undertaking that eventually led to a mainstrean edition published by Ballentine Books in 1976. Spockanalia © Devra Langsam and Sherna Comerford. Illustration by Kathy Bushman. Star Trek Concordance © Dorothy Jones & Matham House Publications.

From the perspective of the past’s future, we know that Star Trek—as a concept and franchise—is bigger and more vigorous than ever. But there was a time of uncertainty in the aftermath of the original series’ cancellation. The Lean Years, roughly a decade, would feel to some like travel through an unstable wormhole, a kiss from a Denebian slime devil, or, perhaps, just normal childhood, which is how I lived it. But for all of us it was a time without new live-action Star Trek on television, and that was unambiguously rotten. Individual fans may not have been aware of it then, but as a group (or collective, if you will) they had been busy planting the 12

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only was it full of information about Star Trek’s fictional world, but it was generously illustrated by soon-to-be-noted artists like George Barr, Tim Kirk, Wendy Fletcher [Pini], and future scifi model maker Greg Jein. Sequels followed to include Season Three and Star Trek: The Animated Series. In 1976, Ballantine Books released a mainstream edition. Other fan and mainstream publications would continue to compile detailed information about every aspect of the show. The most important fan effort was the first to get national publicity: the previously mentioned letter campaign to save Star Trek from cancellation. That endeavor, participated in by Trek fans

Scott Saavedra's secret sanctum

(LEFT) Stardate #10 (Aug. 7, 1976) was a publication of the Sacramento Valley S.T.A.R. (The Star Trek Association for Revival). Circulation for this issue was 2,000. (RIGHT) The Collector #29 (Summer 1974), a more general fanzine, features this impressive cover by Robert Kline, who was not only active in fandom but worked on Star Trek: The Animated Series. (INSET BELOW) Ad promoting Star Trek syndication from the trade publication, Broadcasting (Mar. 24th, 1969). Stardate © Sacramento S.T.A.R. The Collector © William G. Wilson, Jr. Star Trek © CBS Studios, Inc.

of every sort, did more than save the show for an extra season. It did the thing that has been a fixture of science and fantasy fiction for ages. It set in motion the revival of the dead that then returned not only stronger than ever but practically immortal.

“Maintain standard orbit, Mr. Sulu.”

The 79 original episodes of Star Trek went into syndication the same year the show ended. Mostly this was unusual because 100 episodes was the generally accepted minimum for a successful run of reruns. Just to belabor the point: Without the (admittedly not very terrific) third season, the odds of Star Trek hitting syndication were 2,228.7 to 1. These repeated re-showings had the effect of growing the audience (and appetite) for more Star Trek. This was the point where I discovered and came to love the show, which I had missed in its original primetime run (on past my bedtime). I wasn’t a robust Trekkie or Trekker then or now, really, but I sure liked the show and did kid stuff like play-acting Star Trek during lunch. I’d be Mr. Spock because I was so skinny. And later a friend and I would tape original Star Trek “radio shows.” He would play all of the roles except Sulu, who was my responsibility. I had only one line, “Aye, Captain Kirk,” but gave it my all. There are no small roles in Star Trek fandom.

The Reads of the Many…

When the reruns weren’t on, a great way to enjoy Star Trek was via books. The earliest were collections of short stories—adaptations of the broadcast episodes by writer James Blish. Each of the 12 volumes of the series, which were published by Bantam Books between 1967 and 1977, were not exactly the same as the episodes. This was because show scripts still in progress would sometimes be used as the basis of the adaptation. For the “City on the Edge of Forever” (Season 1, Episode 28) adaptation, elements from both Harlan Ellison’s original draft and something closer to the show’s final version were combined. Because the books managed to include extra details, we found out that Lt. Uhura was “the most popular member of the crew” and a “truly ‘out-of-this-world’ female.” Blish’s wife, J. A. Lawrence, did uncredited writing for the series but got a shared credit for the 12th and final volume published after Blish’s death. The main advantage of these books was that you could relive your favorite Star Trek episode on demand as soon as it was adapted (over the ten-year period the books were produced) simply by going to your local momand-pop bookstore. If they didn’t have the title you wanted in stock, you could have them special-order it, and quick as a two-week blink you’d possess a copy of your own. RETROFAN

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Scott Saavedra's secret sanctum

Blish also wrote the first all-new Star Trek novel, Spock Must Die! (Bantam, 1970). Bantam would end up publishing a total of 13 new Trek novels between 1970 and 1981. Fan fiction came to the masses with the Star Trek: The New Voyages (Bantam, 1976) anthology and a sequel (1977), from Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath. Some fans felt that Bantam was “colonizing” their culture, but I enjoyed access to stories like “Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited” by Ruth Berman. In the tale, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelly (Dr. McCoy) are accidentally sent to the “real” USS Enterprise via a transporter accident (but of course). It was told with the kind of humor the show itself was known for. The first behind-the-scenes book for Star Trek or any television series was The Making of Star Trek (Ballentine Books, 1968) by Stephen E. Whitfield and Gene Roddenberry. By 1976 (when my interest in Star Trek hit maximum warp), this book was still in print. David Gerrold wrote about his first Star Trek script sale, “The Trouble with Tribbles” (Season 2, Episode 15), in The Making of the Trouble with Tribbles: The Birth, Sale and Final Production of One Episode (Ballentine, 1973). Gerrold went on to write another volume about the series and its fans, The World of Star Trek (Ballentine, 1973). In a similar vein was Star Trek Lives!—subtitled “Personal notes and anecdotes”—(Bantam 1975) by then-fan writers Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Sondra Marshak, along with Joan Winston, a highly regarded Star Trek convention organizer. Originally conceived to focus on fannish activities and history, the final result was more show related with just a nod toward fan activities like writing Star Trek fiction. Collecting material from Trek, the long-running prozine (a fanzine with better production values that makes some money), The Best of Trek (Signet/New American Library) series, edited by Walter Irwin and G. B. Love, had 18 volumes from 1978–1996. For me, some of these volumes helped sustain my interest in Star Trek when I needed more than just the reruns to feed my need to spend time in Federation space.

To Boldly Go

It’s never fun losing a job. With the end of Star Trek, actors and crew began the process of seeking out brave new opportunities. Leonard Nimoy promptly turned up on Mission: Impossible in the middle of its fourth season (1969), replacing Martin Landau. Nimoy would later pursue stage work. William Shatner hit the road with a one-man show, traveling across the country, sleeping in his trailer at night. He enjoyed the experience enough that he put together another one-man show that was recorded in a twoalbum set (Shatner once referred to an album side as “the comedy side”—I am not joking and, never having heard the albums in question, am afraid to 14

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A titanic trove of terrific Trek tomes. Star Trek © CBS Studios, Inc.

Scott Saavedra's secret sanctum

(LEFT) Accuracy to the show wasn't the hallmark of the Gold Key Star Trek series (1967–1979) but the early photo covers were often very nice. This one from Star Trek #9 (Feb. 1971) is one of two to feature Mr. Spock in the throes of pon farr, a particularly fraught time in the Vulcan reproductive cycle. (ABOVE) Star Trek: The Cryer in the Emptiness (Book and Record Set #PR-26, 1975) shows Lt. Uhura (left panel) as a white, blond woman instead of an African-American and Mr. Sulu (right panel) looks nothing like George Takai, the Japanese-American actor who portrayed the beloved character on TV. Star Trek © CBS Studios, Inc.

research the matter further). In discussing the tour in Starlog #9 (Oct. 1977), he brought up a growing concern over the plight of whales and how we were on the verge of destroying them. I thought I’d picked up a previously unknown origin of Star Trek IV: the Voyage Home’s main plot point, the extinction of whales. I did not. The whales concept grew out of reading taken on by Nimoy, also the film’s director. DeForest Kelly took some time off from acting, though he did appear in the killer-bunny movie, Night of the Lepus, in 1972. The remaining actors who didn’t get the chance to shine as much as “the big three” struggled with typecasting. For some of the original actors, Star Trek: The Animated Series, once it managed to emerge out of the bar fight that was the relationship between Paramount and Gene Roddenberry, provided some work. Filmation had wanted to put together an animated version of the show while it was still on the air, but tension between Roddenberry and Paramount made that impossible. Eventually, two seasons of the show (1973–1974) were made using as much of the original cast as they could afford (sorry, Chekov). There were 22 episodes with scripts by original show writers like David Gerrold, Samuel A. Peeples, and D. C. Fontana. Being an animation snob, I never warmed to the show, but I’ve always been happy that it existed (if that makes sense). [Editor’s note: See

(INSET) Star Trek: The Animated Series brought the voices of much of the original crew back to television for two seasons in 1973–1974. (ABOVE) Bill Shatner goes on the road and records his efforts for posterity. Star Trek © CBS Studios, Inc.

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(BELOW) NASA’s official caption for the September 17, 1976 event: “The Shuttle Enterprise rolls out of the Palmdale manufacturing facilities with Star Trek television cast members. From left to right they are: Dr. James C. Fletcher (NASA Administrator), DeForest Kelley (Dr. “Bones” McCoy), George Takei (Mr. Sulu), James Doohan (Chief Engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Leonard Nimoy (the indefatigable Mr. Spock), Gene Roddenberry (The Great Bird of the Galaxy), Democratic Congressman Don Fuqua, and Walter Koenig (Ensign Pavel Chekov).” NASA.

(LEFT) One of many Star Trek products that seemed badly thoughtout, a kid’s puzzle showing an unconscious (and shirtless) Captain Kirk in flames with Mr. Spock (minus his insignia) apparently losing his right hand in a magical whirlwind. Star Trek © CBS Studios, Inc. Courtesy of Heritage.

(RIGHT) Hamilton's Invaders fans will quickly recognize the helmet at right which was repurposed to become the Star Trek Astro-Helmet. While stylish, it was not Trek canon. Star Trek © CBS Studios, Inc. Courtesy of Hake's.

RetroFan #1 for Andy Mangels’ extensive history of Star Trek: The Animated Series.] Further attention was brought to the actors because of the characters they played following another Trimble-organized letter-writing campaign urging President Ford to name the first Space Shuttle Enterprise instead of Constitution. The main cast, minus Shatner, was on hand September 17, 1976 (which is Constitution Day) as Space Shuttle Enterprise was introduced to the public. Another way for actors to try and shake off typecasting was to show off other skills. This involved singing. Shatner’s “songtalking” performance of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” in 1968 is likely the best known. Nimoy did three albums, with The Touch of Leonard Nimoy being the last during the show’s run in 1969. Nichelle Nichols could actually sing and had performed with Duke Ellington. She had a few albums to her credit. And Grace Lee Whitney (Yeoman Rand) wrote and sang a number of songs, including “Disco Trekkin.’”

A Piece of the Action

The model maker AMT released USS Enterprise and Klingon Battle Cruiser model kits while Star Trek was still being made. They were designed by Star Trek art director Matt Jefferies. Other kits eventually followed including scaled-down versions of the tricorder and communicator. 16

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There were Trek toys, but they had space sickness or something. The disk-firing Star Trek Tracer Gun that shot off colorful plastic circles is probably the one of the earliest and probably recalled most by fans. There was a rifle version, too. Neither resembled anything seen on the show, though the rifle looked pretty futuristic. Remco’s bug-eyed Star Trek Astro Helmet (c. 1967) was a yellow re-release of the company’s gray Hamilton’s Invaders helmet of 1964. I know this because there is a picture of me as a child wearing the Hamilton’s Invaders helmet and a simple pair of white kid undies. That’s my complete outfit. You will never see this photo. [Whew.—ed.] 1975’s Official Star Trek Space Fun Helmet with a large red flashing light on top is a beautiful thing, especially with a “Spock” sticker emblazoned across the front. It didn’t appear on the show, which is too bad since it could only have improved “Spock’s Brain” (Season 3, Episode 1—yes, they began the third season with this gem). Other equally wrong merchandise included an Astro Wrist Radio and the Kirk and Spock Official Star Trek Sky Diving Parachutist toy (1974). The Mego Star Trek figures (1974–1976) were fine, but the playsets were wrong. The cardboard and plastic Mego Bridge playset not only had too many colors but short bar stools instead of chairs for the navigator and the helmsman who were, ironically, not part of the original Mego line-up. On a personal note, a Mego Mr. Spock figure travelled with me on business trips for a few years as a good-luck token until he lost his pants (a mystery to this day). Surprisingly, there will be more on this later. There were, however, show-accurate items made by specialty companies. Replicas of the communicators, phasers, tricorders, insignias, and even Vulcan ears (in pro or slip-on styles) could be mail-ordered or found at conventions.

Scott Saavedra's secret sanctum

Open Communication Channels

Popular mainstream magazines didn’t much cover the subject of Star Trek then. Thankfully, the show’s growing popularity left an opening for small publishers to fill. The first issue of Starlog (O’Quinn Studios, Aug. 1976) had a large section devoted to Star Trek. Fan geek-out: I still vividly recall purchasing that issue at the Thrifty Drug Store across the street from my high school—I was pretty excited. Various other modest publications popped up but didn’t last very long. There was Star Trek Giant Poster Book (not much of a magazine, but, yep, it unfolded into a giant poster), All About Star Trek Fan Clubs, and junk like Space Wars. It would be in these newsstand magazines and others like them that I would have to rely on for news about a possible Star Trek return.

Before Star Trek (and its stars) regularly turned up on the covers of major magazines, smaller circulation, more focused newsstand publications kept fans informed. Star Trek © CBS Studios, Inc. Images of the Monster Times, Castle of Frankenstein, Monsters of the Movies, and Starlog are from Archive.org.

More Trouble with Trek

Following the final season of Star Trek, Roddenberry began lobbying Paramount Pictures for a movie based on the show. The negotiations (or lack thereof) and various proposals lurched about (what’s the opposite of warp speed?) for years. Eventually, progress was made, or so everyone thought. Star Trek Phase II was intended to have a 1978 debut. All of the old cast was returning except for Nimoy, who didn’t want to do regular television work. Shatner signed a contract, but Paramount was worried that he would get too expensive. (So. What.) A new character, Executive Officer Willard Decker, was created as a hedge against Shatner wanting more money. Scripts were being written and sets were getting built. Happily, it didn’t get made

(who wants the original Star Trek without Spock?), but there would be a good reason for that.

Journey to Babel

Just to remind everyone, popular-culture conventions were not a thing when Star Trek first hit the airwaves (which is where our home video entertainment came from, the air), although sciencefiction fans had held conventions since the Thirties. One of the first such gatherings convened at the home of a nuclear physicist in 1936. Among the attendees were Frederik Pohl (soon to be a science-fiction writer and, later, a somewhat disinterested editor of Star Trek books) and James Blish. By 1939, the granddaddy of such conclaves, the World Science Fiction Convention, was first RETROFAN

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Scott Saavedra's secret sanctum

held. As WorldCon, it continues to this day. You would think that such an event would be the perfect place to share one’s Star Trek passions. Not so much back then. Serious science-fiction fans reportedly looked down their noses at Trekkies. Science-fiction fans that also collected comic books report similar reactions to their “all in color for a dime” interests. In Star Trek Lives!, Joan Winston recalls in painful, yet amusing, detail how the first Star Trek-specific convention came together in 1972 (despite nightmares like broken NASA exhibits). This type of event not only grew in number and frequency but demonstrated the sustained interest in all things Trek. Space-Con 4, held June 18–19, 1977 in Los Angeles, was my first and only Star Trek con. Happily for me, it was William Shatner’s first Southern Californian convention too. I was likely in a state of shock the entire time. There were people everywhere. Lines everywhere. Pointy ears everywhere. Some 15,000 or more attended. I was overwhelmed. Despite my addled state, some memories remain. While waiting in line to get into the convention center, Harlan Ellison (a con guest) drove up and spread out his arms in a Moseslike gesture. We parted and he drove on through. My first-ever sighting of a sci-fi writer. There was a transporter demonstration that was basically a magic

entered one of the restrooms. Instead of proper urinals there was a long, open trough on the floor for the same purpose. I’d never seen such a thing before and it wasn’t private, but, man, I really needed to use the facilities. So I began to unzip (stay with me here), looked over to my right, and I found myself not five feet from Walter Koenig, Chekov himself. I don’t know, I just couldn’t. I re-zipped and found other accommodations. My problem, not Mr. Koenig’s.

A New Star in the Heavens

Space-Con 4 happened about a month after the debut of Star Wars. I must have seen Star Wars prior to the convention (loved it), but it is not part of my memories of Space-Con. Odd, since Star Wars was already a very big deal and, as we know, would only get bigger. I had forgotten that there was a time when millions of us weren’t conversant in all things Star Wars. Starlog #7 (Aug. 1977) reported on the film before it came out, describing characters like “farmer/astronaut” Luke Skywalker and “robots See-Threepio and Artoo-Detoo as themselves.” Also, we were told that the characters have never heard of Earth. Paramount abruptly decided a Star Trek movie was the way to go after all, and Nimoy was on board. Phase II was ditched like a phaser on overload. Star Trek: The Motion Picture was formally announced March 28, 1978. You could have knocked me over with

(LEFT) Space-Con 4 was William Shatner’s first Southern California convention. Program book illustration by Lela Dowling. (BELOW) Shatner addresses the crowd (approimate author location indicated by arrow) in this image from Starlog #9 (Oct. 1977). Program book © Space… The Final Frontier, Inc. Star Trek © CBS Studios, Inc.

(ABOVE) Actor Walter Koenig— Ensign Chekov—and the author have a meeting but not of minds at ComicCon. Star Trek © CBS Studios, Inc. Courtesy of Heritage.

trick. I believe DeForest Kelly hosted. Grace Lee Whitney was in a side room singing space-themed music to a bunch of, forgive me, way-too-attentive middle-aged men. I don’t know if she sang “Disco Trekkin.’” Probably. But the main draw was the big Captain himself, Bill Shatner. The hall was large and packed. I was, sadly, way in the back. Shatner looked like a glowing grain of rice from where I was sitting. He performed a portion of his traveling stage show, I think, and there were whale sounds. Lots and lots of whale sounds. I definitely recall the whale sounds. It was weird, but I “saw” Captain Kirk, so I was happy. Sometime later, I attended a San Diego Comic-Con (which was its name back then) when it was held at the older, smaller San Diego Convention Center downtown. Needing to relieve myself, I 18

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a tribble. Some observed at the time that a Star Trek movie would be the first time a television show had migrated to the big screen [Hey, “some” people, what about the Batman movie of the summer of 1966? Holy forgetfulness!—ed.] [And Munsters Go Home!, also in 1966—Scott.], which actually prompted the question: Would people pay to see what the got for free at home? Seems so. It was the success of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (with model work by Greg Jein) at the end of 1977 that showed Paramount executives that there was a market for such projects. The resulting movie, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, came out in December 1979. I was delighted to see my space pals again. I think that the movie works a little better if you realize (which I didn’t at the time) that director Robert Wise was going for a 2001: A Space

Scott Saavedra's secret sanctum

Star Trek merchandise continues unabated to this day. If there ever were pizza cutters on the Enterprise, could they have possibly looked better than this one? The cutting board shows various versions of the USS Enterprise. It may be unlicensed. The Tribble, thankfully, does not reproduce. All are gifts to the author from family. Star Trek © CBS Studios, Inc.

Ricardo Montalbán reprised his character Khan Noonien Singh for the successful Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan, which ended the Lean Years. Star Trek © CBS Studios, Inc. Courtesy of Heritage.

Odyssey vibe (with considerably more dialog). It even had special effects by Douglas Trumbull, who performed visual magic for Stanley Kubrick on 2001. Because it had to meet a rigid deadline, Wise felt The Motion Picture hit theaters still needing work. He got his chance with a “director’s cut” DVD in 2001 (ironic). The film wasn’t a huge hit, so again, fans wondered, is this it? But it was promising enough that Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan came out in 1982. I saw that one at a drive-in, sitting in the back of a VW bus with my mom and sister up front. Ricardo Montalbán reprised his character Khan Noonien Singh from “Space Seed” (Season 1, Episode 22). Mom would not stop talking about how good Montalbán looked. As for myself, yeah, I teared up near the end (and, sure, Montalbán looked fine). Wrath of Khan is, and always will be, my favorite Star Trek movie. With Wrath, the Lean Years were over. Star Trek was now well anchored as a broadly shared popular-culture touchstone. Not just serious fans could use “Your Agonizer, Mr. Kyle” or “Beam me up, Scotty” (yes, it was never said on the show, but we all say it anyway) in a sentence. And while the original show didn’t come back to television as we had hoped, its offspring did. Additional movies, novels, toys, calendars, and more followed.

Amok Time

Star Trek's first live-action spin-off for television debuted in 1987 in the form of a show taking place in the future’s future, Star Trek: The Next Generation. These days you can't turn around without bumping into a new Star Trek television program (or new Star Wars thing for that matter). But I was looking forward to it then. The movies would take care of my desire to see the original crew in action. My only concern at the time (outside of whether or not the show would be good—eventually it was) was wondering if my girlfriend would also like it. The subject of Star Trek hadn’t ever come up. Quite happily we discovered our mutual fannish interest. Turns out she,

with a friend, wrote a rock opera (!) called James T. Kirk, Stupid-Star and saw Leonard Nimoy read from I Am Not Spock at the community college right next to her parents' house. Oh, and the traveling Mr. Spock figure? It belonged to her mother. We still enjoy sitting together watching all of the Trek as husband and wife. Spock once said, “After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true.” But not always, you pointed-eared hobgoblin. Not always. The familiar electronic buzz and twitter of the Enterprise bridge filled the air. Kirk snapped open his eyes. Everything was… normal. He looked over to the Science Station and saw Spock lost in some calculation. Kirk smiled broadly. Spock noticed the attention with a quizzical tilt of the head. Kirk waved him off. Spock, raising an eyebrow, silently returned to his work. It seemed to the Vulcan, rather illogically, that he could keep doing this forever. He has no particular feeling about such a state of affairs but was rather… fascinated. Writer’s Log, Supplemental: Several sources were referenced for this article, but Number One was Computer. Sure, I had plenty of magazines and books to refer to, many mentioned in the article, but for every query I had about names, dates, or Spock quotes about numerical odds, Computer had a quicker answer than I could manage on my own. You are always working, Computer. Thanks. SCOTT SAAVEDRA is a Retro Explorer operating from his Southern California-based Secret Sanctum. He is a writer (more or less), artist (occasionally), and graphic designer (you’re soaking in it). Check out his Instagram thing, won’t you, at instagram/scottsaav/ RETROFAN

May 2021

Too Much TV If your old man used to gripe that you’d never learn anything with your nose glued to the boob tube, here’s your chance to prove him wrong. (Father doesn’t always know best.) Each of the TV captains or pilots in Column One corresponds to their vessel (plane, ship, or spaceship) in Column Two. Match ’em up, then see how you rate! COLUMN ONE

1) Jonas Grumby 2) Merrill Stubing 3) Scott Tracy 4) Anthony Nelson 5) Mike Nelson 6) Troy Tempest 7) Lee Crane 8) Quinton McHale 9) Steve Zodiac 10) Joe Gallagher 20

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RetroFan Ratings

10 correct: Fine-Tuned RetroFan Sock it to me, baby! I bet you know theme song lyrics too!

“Ski-i-i-i-pp-p-per!!”

7–9 correct: Rabbit-Eared RetroFan Dy-no-mite! You wasted your childhood with the rest of us! 4–6 correct: Fuzzy-Receptioned RetroFan Up your nose with a rubber hose ’til you spend more tube time! 0–3 correct: Tuned-Out RetroFan Ya big dummy! Put down that book and go watch some classic TV!

COLUMN TWO

A) Thunderbirds 1 B) Seaview C) Piccadilly Lily D) Stardust One E) Fireball XL5 F) S.S. Minnow G) Argonaut H) PT-73 I) Stingray J) The Pacific Princess Fireball XL5, Stingray, and Thunderbirds © ITV Studios Limited. Gilligan’s Island © Warner Bros. Television. I Dream of Jeannie © Sony Pictures Television. The Love Boat © CBS Studios, Inc. McHale’s Navy © NBC Universal Television. Sea Hunt © MGM Television. 12 O’Clock High and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea © 20th Century Television. All rights reserved.

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ANSWERS: 1–F, 2–J, 3–A, 4–D, 5–G, 6–I, 7–B, 8–H, 9–E, 10–C

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RETRO TELEVISION

IN THE SIXTIES by Dan Hagen “I’ve never seen so much crap in all my life,” said NBC vice president of programming Mort Werner. It was 1963, and Werner was reacting to a screening of the first episodes of the imported TV show The Saint. Although the actionadventure series became the second most popular show among British males, American TV networks weren’t interested. Too British, they said. Too old-fashioned. And indeed, Leslie Charteris’ crimefighting criminal Simon Templar, the “Robin Hood of Modern Crime,” had by then been famous for more than 30 years, appearing in every popular medium—novels, movies, magazines, dramatic radio, comic books, and a newspaper comic strip. So why not TV? American network executives had underestimated the Saint, and—as many an ungodly villain might attest—that’s always a mistake. Simon Templar, the cosmopolitan thief played by Roger Moore, ended up stealing ratings from the networks that had rejected him. “The Saint became one of the most successful dramas ever offered in American syndication,” noted Wesley Alan Britton in his book Spy Television. “The New York NBC affiliate found the show won in ratings against its competitors’ movies on Saturday nights, and similar success followed in Los Angeles and Chicago. Until the advent of independent cable stations, The Saint was

the only series aired coast-to-coast in syndication in primetime broadcasting.” And so it came to pass that a few years later, NBC reversed itself. In 1967, the network began to air new episodes of The Saint, now in color, as part of its primetime line-up. The move was just another of the Saint’s impossible feats. TV shows might go from a major network into syndication, but not from syndication onto a network. In fact, the Saint’s career on American television paralleled that of another cool-cat British import, Danger Man, alias secret agent John Drake. Danger Man began in 1960 as a half-hour adventure series about a NATO counterintelligence agent played by Patrick McGoohan, with CBS broadcasting some episodes in 1961 as a summer replacement for Steve McQueen’s bountyhunter Western Wanted: Dead or Alive. In 1964, the series was revived in an hourLeslie long format with John Drake now a British Charteris, intelligence agent, and those shows aired creator of on CBS under the title Secret Agent in 1965 The Saint. and 1966. The show’s American theme song, Secret Agent Man by Johnny Rivers, hit No. 3 on the U.S. Billboard chart. In fact, Patrick McGoohan was one of the first actors considered to play the Saint on TV. And, of course, the moment was right for both Danger Man and The Saint. Cool British international men of mystery were at the forefront of the Sixties zeitgeist. RETROFAN

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retro television

Spies Are Us

“The success of the spy shows, starting with [The Man from] U.N.C.L.E., combined with the still-growing popularity of the James Bond movies starring Sean Connery (notably Goldfinger in 1964 and Thunderball in 1965), caused network programmers to buy practically every international intrigue show in sight,” observed Jon Burlingame in his book TV’s Biggest Hits. “The Saint wasn’t a spy show, but the debonair Simon Templar was something of a jet-setting troubleshooter in this incarnation of the Leslie Charteris-created character.” Charteris—a figure nearly as colorful as Simon Templar himself—wasn’t yet 21 when he created the Saint in 1928. Born Leslie Charles Bowyer Yin in Singapore in 1907, Charteris was the son of a Chinese father and an English mother. He dropped out of Cambridge after a year, and worked odd jobs as “…gold miner, bartender, professional bridge player and temporary policeman” while establishing himself as a prolific novelist. In 1932, with all of $25 in his pocket, Charteris moved to America, a land of opportunity and other immigrants, and a country he later crisscrossed more than once in his custom-designed house trailer. Like his cosmopolitan creator, the Saint was quite the globetrotter, recording adventures in such varied locales as Amsterdam, Arizona, Bermuda, Bimini, Bonanza City, the Canary Islands, Cannes, Central America, the Channel islands, Chicago, Devonshire, Germany, the Gulf Coast, Havana, Hamburg, Hollywood, Innsbruck, Inverness, Jamaica, Juan-les-Pins, Las Vegas, Île du Levant, London, Los Angeles, Lucerne, Malaysia, Manchester, Mexico City, Miami, the Middle East, Montreal, Naples, Nassau, New Orleans, New York City, Oregon’s Rogue River, Palm Beach, Palm Springs, Panama, Paris, Port-au-Prince, Provence, Puerto Rico, Rome, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, the Isles of Sicily, Sierra Nevada, Stockholm, St. Tropez, Texas, Tyrol, Vancouver, Veracruz, the Virgin Islands, and Washington D.C. So this handsome, witty author who didn’t really fit in anywhere created a handsome, witty outlaw who didn’t really want to. It’s no wonder, then, that Charteris identified more closely with the Saint than other authors have done with their own fictional creations. In the May 19, 1941 issue of Life Magazine, Charteris even appeared as Simon Templar in the photo-story “The Saint Goes West.” 24

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“[I]n 1947, I was hired by the New York Herald Tribune to go out to California and work with Leslie Charteris on The Saint newspaper strip,” recalled artist Lew Sayre Schwartz for TwoMorrows’ Alter Ego magazine, issue #51 (Aug. 2005). “I was the first artist on the strip. Charteris was a piece of work. I mean, I was 20 years old, from New Bedford, Massachusetts. Now I’m in Hollywood, walking into a guy’s office at [ten] in the morning, and he’s got a drink in his hand. He’s a 6-foot-3 Eurasian with a monocle [laughter]. The whole nine yards. “I must say, he was very nice to me in the sense that he invited Chic Young [creator of Blondie] and his wife to dinner one night so I could meet him.” Translated into more than a dozen languages, Charteris’ long-running rogue might be described as a protosuper-hero—or, for the bulk of the Saint’s career, sort of a retired super-hero. Like Batman or the Green Hornet, early in his crusade the Saint functioned anonymously, using a haloed stick-figure drawing as his symbol, warning and calling card. Introduced in Charteris’ third novel Meet the Tiger, Simon Templar didn’t really hit his stride until the 1930 novel Enter the Saint. In his 1930 novel The Last Hero (a.k.a. The Saint Closes the Case), Charteris wrote, “Thus it came to pass that in those three months the name of the Saint gathered about itself an aura of almost supernatural awe and terror, so that men who had for years boasted that the law could not touch them began to walk in fear… For the most part, he worked secretly

(TOP) A rare 1929 edition of Leslie Charteris’ Meet the Tiger, featuring the first appearance of the Saint. (BOTTOM) Soon, the haloed stick figure became the avatar of the Saint series. © Leslie Charteris estate. Courtesy of Heritage.

retro television

The Saint in other media: (ABOVE TOP) Among the early Saint movies was 1940’s The Saint Takes Over, starring George Sanders (who later played Mr. Freeze on TV’s Batman). Courtesy of Heritage. (ABOVE ) Vincent Price, from the NBC radio program, The Saint. © NBC. (RIGHT TOP) The stylish poster for 1954’s The Saint’s Girl Friday, starring Louis Haywood. Courtesy of Heritage. (RIGHT) Avon Comics’ The Saint #1 (Aug. 1947). Art by Jack Kamen.

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retro television

and unseen, and his victims could give the police nothing tangible in the way of clues by which he might have been traced.” Nevertheless, Templar’s “secret identity” became known fairly quickly. After all, it shouldn’t have been that hard for Scotland Yard to figure out in any case, given the fact that his initials are “ST.” “[L]ike Robin Hood, the Saint steals only from criminals and rascals, and there are no limits to the methods he will use to help innocent victims,” wrote Chris Steinbrunner and Otto Penzler in their Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection. “He has broken the law so often that his constant adversary, Chief Inspector Claude Eustace Teal of Scotland Yard, is thrilled when Templar moves to New York, where he becomes the special headache of Inspector John Fernack. But the Saint has also helped official lawenforcement with some of their biggest problems.” Templar lived well by relieving crooks of their ill-gotten gains. Charteris’ durable hero had the skills of a burglar, the wit of a poet, and the ruthlessness of a pirate, and wasn’t averse to quietly murdering wrongdoers if the wrongs they’d done were bad enough.

(RIGHT) Who needs an Aston Martin? Roger Moore, TV’s Simon Templar, and the famed Volvo P1800 with its ST� plates. Courtesy of Ernest Farino. (BELOW) The legendary Saint car on display at the 2018 Techno Classica in Essen, Germany. Photo by Matti Blume / Wikimedia Commons.

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retro television

Ivor Dean as the long-suffering Inspector Teal, with Roger Moore as Simon Templar.

Teasing his nom de guerre, Templar frequently referred to his criminal enemies as “the ungodly.” The Saint characteristically approaches grim events with a seeming light-heartedness. Like Cyrano, he can taunt his opponents with spontaneously creative displays of poetry and song. The Saint also gets a lot of witty mileage out of the phrase “As the actress said to the bishop” (which turns almost any ordinary statement into something suggestive).

Multimedia Sleuth

The Saint starred in some 53 books, and more if you count the unpublished manuscripts. One Saint novel never saw the light of day because it was first censored by a nervous publisher—and then was immediately outdated when it became reality. In the summer of 1941, Charteris wrote The Saint’s Second Front, a novella describing an attempted Japanese military attack on the United States. Cosmopolitan rejected the 237-page manuscript on the grounds that “…we do not think this is the time to publish anything which might aggravate the tensions with our Japanese friends.” They need not have bothered, since their Japanese friends attacked Pearl Harbor that December. No Saint story would go unpublished after The Saint Detective Magazine was launched in the spring of 1953. Later known as The Saint Mystery Magazine and then The Saint Magazine, each of the publication’s 141 issues would feature a Simon Templar story. But the apex of the Saint’s fame came with the television show. In a 2015 list of ITV’s greatest shows, the Daily Telegraph called The Saint “one of the longest-running as well as most internationally successful of TV shows,” one which added “…a weekly dollop of glamour to light up the 1960s.” Saint-casting can be a tricky business. Louis Hayward was charmingly energetic if a bit manic in the first film, 1938’s The Saint

in New York. But maybe that was understandable, because Simon Templar ruthlessly and singlehandedly snuffed out the entire upper echelon of Manhattan gangland in that movie (with the winking approval of city authorities). “The very activities and attitudes responsible for the Saint’s popularity were virtually guaranteed to violate every existing movie code and standard,” observed Burl Barer in his The Saint: A Complete History in Print, Radio, Film and Television, 1928–1992. “He had knives up his sleeves and a personal code of justice in this mind.” Beginning in 1939’s The Saint Strikes Back, George Sanders had the Saint’s suave urbanity but not his athleticism. Hugh Sinclair, who starred in two Saint movies in the late Forties, nailed Simon Templar’s manner, but didn’t look the part. The sophisticated Vincent Price played the part on dramatic radio, but it was another of the radio Saints—the handsome, elegant Brian Aherne—who got Charteris’ vote as the actor best suited to the part. Unfortunately, Aherne never made a Saint movie or TV show. But then what does a Saint look like? The TV series would poke fun at the whole business in the 1963 episode “Starring the Saint.” Asked to play himself in a movie, Templar is told he doesn’t look like the Saint. “But I am the Saint,” Templar insists. “What difference does that make?” replies the director (Alfred Burke), who says that the Saint should have slicked-back hair and a mustache—an in-joke, I presume. That description sounds like Charteris, the “real” Saint. But Roger Moore did, indeed, look like the Saint—at least to the worldwide audience that made him the actor most identified with the role. Vincent Price happened to be around when Moore was shooting the first Saint episode, “The Talented Husband.” “Actually, I was doing The Masque of the Red Death in Elstree outside London and often ran into Roger filming the first episodes of The Saint,” Price recalled. “I allowed as to how I’d play Simon Templar, RETROFAN

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retro television

Bond girls on The Saint: (ABOVE) Honor Blackman, fabled as Pussy Galore in 1964’s Goldfinger, as Pauline Stone, with Roger Moore, in “The Arrow of God” (The Saint Season One, Episode 7, original airdate November 11, 1962). (RIGHT) Shirley Eaton, Goldfinger’s Jill Masterson, as Reb Denning, with Moore, in “Invitation to Danger” (S6/Ep2, original airdate February 17, 1968). This was Eaton’s fourth Saint appearance throughout the show’s run, playing a different character each time. Both, courtesy of Ernest Farino.

but as always the case actors only care about their playing it. He was polite but not much interested.”

My Name is Moore, Roger Moore

The son of a London police constable, as a boy Roger Moore had been shipped off to live with strangers in West Sussex in order to dodge Nazi bombs. A talented artist, Moore became an animator and then an actor. Addressing the audience directly in the opening sequences of The Saint, Moore displayed a sparkling charisma and striking good looks. Moore modestly understated the latter point, characteristically, by remarking on the advantage of his having “even features.” The Saint needed an equally handsome signature sports car to drive, and Moore thought he’d buy a duplicate car for himself so the production company would have a spare. Naturally, he’d get a good deal, too. So why not a Jaguar? That company wasn’t interested because they were flooded with back orders and didn’t need the publicity. 28

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Production manager Johnny Goodman went back to the car magazines, and showed Moore a photograph of a Volvo P1800. Terrific-looking, Moore said. So the white Volvo P1800 with the license plates “ST 1” became the famous car of the infamous Simon Templar. The Saint’s vanity plates attracted the attention of a clueless bicycle police officer in the Thames village of Cookham, Buckinghamshire, during the filming of the 1962 pilot episode. Moore was waiting for a signal to drive the Volvo around the corner for the cameras when the police officer asked him about the plates. The distracted actor absent-mindedly replied that yes, the plates were fake. As the officer started to write him a ticket, Moore saw the signal, jumped in the car, drove around the block and parked again next to the puzzled police officer, who hadn’t been told a TV crew was in town. In addition to that car, Simon Templar needed an equally distinctive and stylish musical theme, and composer Edwin “Ted” Astley provided him a satisfyingly iconic one. When you mention the name “Simon Templar” to someone at random, they’re as likely as not to hum the opening bars of Astley’s Saint theme. The series’ signature opening gag was so effective that it was imitated, equally effectively, in the opening to the Marlo Thomas sitcom That Girl (1966–1971). “The teaser of every episode ended with an animated halo appearing over Moore’s head, accompanied by the opening of the Saint theme: a female voice with muted brass in a sevennote intro, answered first by guitar and drums, then by flute,” noted Burlingame. “Astley’s scores were the first hint that British television had become hip to the jazzier sounds of the [S]ixties (which had already made an impact on American TV).” The Saint’s pre-credits monologue was producer Bob Baker’s idea. “The whole point is this is a fairy story for adults, so we wanted to have a totally different approach to an action-adventure show,” Baker recalled in an interview. “We decided to take the audience in—it’s a sort of tongue-in-cheek representation of the story that is to follow.” Templar’s erudite asides to the audience in the pre-credits sequence were sometimes the best part of the show. The commentaries wandered far afield from crimefighting into such unlikely areas as sports (Templar’s enthusiasm for the Stanley Cup Playoffs), ornithology (Templar is disappointed to learn that

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birdsong is territorial, not romantic), and dramatic criticism (“This play will open and close in one devastatingly dull evening, or my name isn’t Simon Templar”—cue halo). Parisian bookstores, the practice of tipping, show jumping, and Incan sun worship were among other topics the Saint addressed when he broke the fourth wall to deliver an impromptu lecture. Such stylishness was one of the things that set the Saint apart. After all, you weren’t going to hear an American TV hero quote Oscar Wilde (about fox hunting being “the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable”). This venerable Saint’s appeal extends even into the 21st Century. “Simon Templar is a character very much unlike other crime fiction figures,” observed 27-year-old fan Michael Skasick. “He isn’t broody, he isn’t tortured, and he isn’t brutal. Like a laughing cavalier, he dives into sticky situations with a cheeky grin, only to emerge from it all with a snappy one-liner and his suit still spotless. The Saint is a reminder that fiction doesn’t have to be gritty and realistic, and still can be escapist fun!” “Roger Moore was a less lethal but still authentic Saint in 118 hour-long episodes made for the British independent television company ABC between 1962 and 1969,” noted William L. DeAndrea in his Encyclopedia Mysteriosa. “Moore had already appeared in a couple of American series, but it was The Saint that made him an international star and that led him to even greater fame as James Bond.” Derek Adley, who with W. O. G. (Bill) Lofts wrote The Saint and Leslie Charteris, said he loved Moore in the role, adding that, “I now cannot ever think of the Saint’s opponent at Scotland Yard, Chief Inspector Teal, without remembering Ivor Dean.” Sleepy-eyed and sardonic, droll and world-weary, Dean wasn’t the first actor in the series to play the Saint’s perpetual foil, but he became the definitive Claud Eustace Teal. Dean’s acerbic verbal

fencing with the mocking Moore added a running note of dry humor to the series. Although fondly remembered, the TV series wasn’t everybody’s cup of English Breakfast tea at the time. Charteris himself complained tirelessly about the series, but then rather contradictorily mined several episodes for Saint books published under his name—The Saint on TV (1968), The Saint Returns (1968), The Saint and the Fiction Makers (1968), The Saint Abroad (1969), and The Saint and the People Importers (1971), all written with Fleming Lee.

Recommended Viewing

Here are a few notable episodes of The Saint, with their original U.K. airdates: “The Golden Journey” (Dec. 6, 1962; based on Charteris’ original story from his 1953 book The Saint in Europe) Concerned that a friend is marrying a selfish, spoiled girl who will ruin his life, Simon secretly steals her money, jewels, and passport, manipulating her into backpacking 100 miles with him across the Spanish countryside to rejoin her fiancé. By living rough and exposing Belinda Deane (Erica Rogers) to the virtues of ordinary peasants, little by little Simon helps the girl mature and awaken to a deeper appreciation of life. Left unspoken, as they finally part, are the feelings Simon and Belinda may have developed for each other. It’s an offbeat and even poignant story, one without a single ruthless criminal anywhere in sight. “Marcia” (Oct. 24, 1963; based on Charteris’ story The Beauty Specialist in his 1937 book The Ace of Knaves) One of several Saint stories named after women, this episode stars Samantha Eggar and plays as a nod to the death of Marilyn Monroe the year before. The Saint investigates the case of a hauntingly beautiful movie star who was driven to suicide. “The Saint Plays with Fire” (Nov. 28, 1963, based on Charteris’ 1938 novel Prelude for War) When the Saint spots an English country mansion ablaze, he plunges in to save someone left inside—but can’t because the man has been locked into his room. The murdered man turns out to be an investigative reporter who’d been about to expose a network of rich and

(LEFT) The Saint’s TV popularity led to Moore photo covers on reissues of Charteris Saint novels. © Leslie Charteris estate. (RIGHT) Moore on the cover of a 1970 television magazine.

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powerful neo-Nazis in Great Britain, America, and Germany. So Simon takes on the job for him. “Less than 20 years ago, we won the war against Nazi tyranny and today the specter is emerging again,” the Saint observes grimly. “It’s the same shabby doctrine—race hatred, survival of the fittest, brutal intimidation of the opposition.” Baker, who produced and directed the episode, observed decades later, “The story worked perfectly well then, and would work perfectly well today, in point of fact.” After overpowering two of the fascist thugs, Simon says, “Call the police. Not that you two deserve police justice. Maybe I should…”

FA ST FAC TS The Saint

Luckily, the Saint is clubbed over the head by the Hitlerian Kane Luker (Joseph Furst) before Simon can violate television standards and practices.

“The Benevolent Burglary” (Dec. 26, 1963, based on Charteris’ original story from his 1939 book The Happy Highwayman) While playing roulette in Monte Carlo, Simon runs into a sad friend, musician Bill Fulton (Gary Cockrell). The drummer’s girlfriend Meryl (Suzanne Neve) is being kept on a tight leash by her arrogant and wealthy father, Elliot Vascoe (John Barrie), an art collector who has “arranged” Fulton’s unemployment. When Vascoe tries to have Simon thrown out of his “burglar-proof” art gallery during a press event, the Saint bets him 5,000 pounds that his art collection will be burglarized within four days. “All right, Templar. You asked for it,” Vascoe replies. “I’ll take your money and see you in jail!” The confrontation ends up under a banner headline on the front page of the London Daily Mail, complete with photos of Simon, Vascoe and the Saint stick figure. And that draws the ire of the Saint’s old adversary Colonel Latignant of the Monaco police (Arnold Diamond), who vows to watch the Saint constantly. But even though a more ruthless gang of thieves takes a hand in the game, Simon wins his bet, teaches the obnoxious millionaire a lesson in humility, and reunites the lovebirds.

` No. of seasons: Six ` No. of episodes: 118 (71 in black and white, 47 in color) ` Original run: October 4, 1962– February 9, 1969 ` Primary cast: Roger Moore, Ivor Dean (preceding Dean in the role of Inspector Teal were Campbell Singer, Norman Pitt, and Wensley Pithey) ` Distributor: ITC (Independent Television Corporation)

“The Wonderful War” (Jan. 2, 1964; based on Charteris’ original story from his 1931 book Featuring the Saint) “You know your problem?” says the irritated Lilla McAndrew (Suzanna Leigh). “You can’t forget for one single second that you’re the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-seeing Simon Templar!” (cue halo) Be that as it may, when Lilla’s father discovers oil in the Middle Eastern country of Sayeda, the Saint’s help is needed after McAndrew’s crooked partner Harry Shannet (Alfred Burke) has McAndrew killed and engineers a revolution. So Simon—with the help of an effete disguise, a helicopter, audio equipment, and fireworks—arranges a bloodless counter-revolution, depositing the nation safely back into the hands of the idealistic teenage Prince Karim (Louis Raynor). Maybe Lilla’s description was more accurate than she realized.

Spanish poster for Vendetta for the Saint, the 1969 international theatrical release that repackaged two Saint TV episodes into a feature-length film. Courtesy of Heritage.

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“The Scorpion” (Oct. 29, 1964; based on the Charteris story The Inland Revenue from his 1932 book The Holy Terror, a.k.a The Saint vs. Scotland Yard) Simon pursues his evil opposite number, a blackmailer who hides behind the secret identity of the Scorpion. True to melodramatic form, the Scorpion (Geoffrey Bayldon) maintains a

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villainous menagerie of poisonous creatures, with predictable results. “Sibao” (Feb. 25, 1965; based on Charteris’ story The Questing Tycoon from his 1955 book The Saint on the Spanish Main) We find Simon in a Haitian nightclub watching Baron Samedi dance and vanish. The beautiful voodoo mystic Sibao (Jeanne Roland) tells him he’s been expected, and makes his name appear in sand (cue halo). Supernatural mysteries mount to a confrontation with the seemingly invulnerable black magician Theron Netlord (John Carson) that tests the limits of the Saint’s bravery. This moody, atmospheric story has marked similarities to Live and Let Die, the 1973 film that introduced Moore as James Bond. “The Death Game” (Jan. 20, 1967; a John Kruse story adapted for Fleming Lee’s 1968 book The Saint on TV) In an episode that anticipated role-playing games and laser tag, university psychology students play at being assassins. But somebody’s not just playing, and the Death Game turns into Richard Connell’s Most Dangerous Game. “Oh, you’ve broken into places before, haven’t you?” says Jenny Turner (Angela Douglas), as she and Simon search for clues. “Often,” replies the Saint. “Your hostility drive must be enormous.” “Gigantic, but my affection index is bigger.”

Charteris did have a high regard for Moore, whom he considered to be the best of the screen Saints. But he thought the actor had been unnecessarily constrained by formula scripts. Roger Moore’s Saint was attractive and intelligent, elegant and tough. He was a ladies’ man and a man’s man, a criminal and a crimefighter, a “Brighter Buccaneer” unbound by the rules that so often seem to render our lives mundane. What Gore Vidal wrote about James Bond, Mike Hammer, and Tarzan applies equally well to the Saint—such characters are our dream selves. “[T]he aim of each is to establish personal primacy in a world which in reality diminishes the individual,” Vidal observed. And that’s how the 1997 Hollywood movie about the Saint starring Val Kilmer missed the point of the character almost entirely. Moore, who had a cameo in the movie as a newscaster, recalled that it was “…a bit of a mess and it didn’t perform well— critically or at the box office. A while later, I met with Val at a Cannes Film Festival. “‘We really screwed that up, didn’t we?’ he said. “‘Why do you say that?’ I asked. “‘I read all the books after we finished filming. They were damn good stories,’ said Val.” With typically dry British wit, Moore noted that he didn’t argue the point. Cue halo.

“The Fiction Makers” (Dec. 8, 1968; a John Kruse story adapted for Fleming Lee’s 1968 novel The Saint and the Fiction Makers) The James Bond novels are parodied, but this version of “Ian Fleming” turns out to be a beautiful woman (Sylvia Syms) who writes thrillers with titles like Sunburst Five and Volcano Seven under a pen name. Simon must fill in for her hero Charles Lake when a megalomaniacal fan (Kenneth J. Warren), styling himself as “Warlock,” creates a real-life version of her criminal organization SWORD (the Secret World Organization for Retribution and Destruction). The two-part episode was repackaged for theatrical release, as was Vendetta for the Saint. The Saint proved flexible enough to fit many genres—criminal intrigue, spy stories, even character studies and science fiction. He tackled giant insects in House on Dragon’s Rock (based on Charteris’ story The Man Who Liked Ants) and solved murders blamed on a plesiosaur in the series’ adaptation of Charteris’ The Convenient Monster. The author later said he would have preferred a TV show more in the spirit of The Rogues, a 1964–1965 NBC series that starred David Niven, Charles Boyer, Gig Young, Gladys Cooper, and Robert Coote as members of a family of sophisticated con artists who swindle various creeps with ingenuity, charm, and humor.

DAN HAGEN, a writer who’s a former central Illinois newspaper editor and university journalism instructor, has won numerous awards from the Associated Press, United Press International, the Southern Illinois Editorial Association, and the Illinois Press Association, as well as the Golden Dozen Award for Editorial Writing from the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors. He’s written articles for several magazines in the U.S. and Great Britain, as well as for Marvel Comics and NPR. RETROFAN

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RETROFAD

PAPER DRESSES Recycling bins aside, we live in a culture of consumerism of disposable items. My 92-year-old father-in-law is still using the same washing machine he’s had since the Seventies, but my wife and I just had to replace the washer and dryer we bought eight years ago. Nothing is built to last anymore. The Scott Paper Company—yes, the kind folks responsible for a range of products used for wiping up messes from kitchen counters to… well, you know—had a brainstorm back in 1966, the celebrated year that gave us TV’s Batman, The Monkees, and Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walking.” Witnessing a wave of popular throw-away-afteruse products like ballpoint pens, razors, and cigarette lighters (the landfills of 2021 are cursing this now), as well as the Mod fashions and miniskirts that were driving ga-ga young people to the go-gos, Scott unveiled “Paper Caper” dresses that could be mail-ordered for a buck (plus a quarter for shipping). Clothing made from paper or paper byproducts wasn’t anything new—chances are you trick-or-treated in an inexpensive Halloween costume made of a paper blend—but never before had it been so cleverly promoted. Scott’s paper dresses (originally available in two styles, a blackand-white op art print or a red bandanna print) were made from a paper-cellulose hybrid the company called “Dura-Weve,” touted as “the fabric of the future” (one wonders, were Jane and Judy Jetson wearing paper dresses?). And it caught on. Instantly. The company was blindsided by orders of over a halfmillion paper dresses in just six months. As we know from our ongoing RetroFad fables, the one recurring theme is, one company’s success will spawn imitators. And soon hosiery companies, cosmetic firms, and clothing manufacturers began rolling out paper dresses and other accessories, made from their own paper-synthetic blends with catchy names like “Webril” and “Kaycel,” names I’m surprised haven’t been snatched up by some modern-day pharmaceutical company. By the end of 1966, well over three million paper dresses had been sold, and over a hundred thousand were produced each week. By 1967, you could find them in almost any clothing or department store. Of course, Scott and other manufacturers didn’t limit this to just Twiggy wannabes. Paper clothing became available for everyone in the family. Parents no longer had to spend a fortune buying clothes for their quickly growing kids, thanks to inexpensive girls’ paper play dresses and boys’ paper pinafores. Men could display their grooviness in paper dashikis and 32

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by Michael Eury

sport shirts, top off a look with a paper vest, or go to work in a paper suit that would be trash-heaped after a few uses (sorry, neighborhood dry cleaner). Ladies, paper evening gowns were oh, so fashionable and available at a fraction of the cost of a cloth gown, and you could even walk down the aisle in a paper wedding dress. Yet it was the miniskirt that dominated the paper-clothing craze. Fashion designers whipped up luminous pop-art patterns for paper dresses, with bold geometrics, funky flowers, and paisley prints commonplace. A “blank” paper dress was sold that allowed artists to customize their own clothing. Product logos and Hollywood celebrity likenesses were plastered onto paper dresses. Perhaps the most famous paper dress was the “Souper Dress” which replicated illustrator Andy Warhol’s popular Campbell’s Soup Cans painting. With this product versatility and an average cost of only eight bucks per unit, it’s no wonder the paper dress became the “in” thing. But there was a catch. More than one, actually. First, despite their trendiness, paper clothes wrinkled easily and weren’t very attractive. Wearers found them uncomfortable. Their paper-synthetic blends were touted as being relatively resistant to water and fire, but an unexpected downpour or smoking mishap could prove problematic to the paper-clothing wearer. Their colors would fade and sometimes temporarily stain the flesh underneath. Before long, people had had enough. By the end of the decade, the paper dress/paper clothing fad was dead, and then along came the Seventies’ environmental movement, where Woodsy Owl taught us to “give a hoot—don’t pollute.” Disposable clothing was a thing of the past. Or was it? Earlier today I tossed a paper facemask after wearing it to the grocery store in our pandemic age. And the next time I go to the dentist, they’ll place a paper bib around my neck, and the hygienist may very well be wearing a paper smock. Maybe the Scott Paper Company was right: This was a “fabric of the future.”

(TOP) The ad campaign that started a fad! © Kimberly-Clark. (BOTTOM) Based on Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans paintings, the legendary 1976 “Souper Dress.” Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation/Wikimedia Commons.

ERNEST FARINO’S RETRO FANTASMAGORIA

In response to issue #7, RetroFan reader Thomas Guild wrote, “I just read the Dick Van Dyke Show article. I will need to watch the reruns. I would like to see more ‘behind the scenes’ articles on shows like Bewitched and The Addams Family (was the set really all pink)?” So, just to show that we do read the mail (keep those cards and letters—and emails—coming in), here’s Part One of a collection of “behind-thescenes” (BTS) photos from some of your favorite TV shows from the Sixties. Part Two, in the next issue of RetroFan, will be a collection of similar photos from movies from the Sixties. Some feel that photos of this nature “spoil the fun,” but, partly because of my own interest in filmmaking and later involvement professionally, I’ve always enjoyed that glimpse “behind the curtain” that conveys… well, How They Did It! So… Roll camera… mark it… annnnd… Action!

HOW THEY DID IT! Compiled and captioned by Ernest Farino

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Every fall season the “Big Three” TV networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, would assemble their stars for groups photos, most often used in TV Guide’s “Fall Preview” issues.

Another CBS line-up. (LEFT TO RIGHT) Clint Eastwood (Rawhide), Paul Brinegar (Rawhide), Tina Louise (Gilligan’s Island), and from The Wild Wild West, Robert Conrad and Ross Martin. © CBS.

From CBS shows airing in 1964–1965: John McGiver (Many Happy Returns), Sterling Holloway (The Baileys of Balboa), Yvonne De Carlo (The Munsters), Paul Ford (The Baileys of Balboa), Fred Gwynne (The Munsters), Julie Newmar (My Living Doll), Cara Williams (The Cara Williams Show), and Tina Louise (Gilligan’s Island). © CBS Television.

From ABC: (LEFT TO RIGHT) Marlo Thomas (That Girl), Judy Carne (Love on a Rooftop), and Elizabeth Montgomery (Bewitched). © ABC.

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It’s all about the hats: Clint Eastwood (Rawhide), Buddy Ebsen (The Beverly Hillbillies), Danny Kaye (The Danny Kaye Show), and Fess Parker (Daniel Boone). © CBS.

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(LEFT) Adventures of Superman may be a Fifties classic, but it became a Sixties favorite due to its heavy syndication. Here’s George Reeves, the only “real” Superman to most Boomers, shielding Lois Lane (Noel Neill) from what must certainly be a dastardly bad guy lurking just off-camera. (ABOVE) A high-angle view of the Clark Kent Office Set with Reeves, Neill, and Jack Larson (Jimmy Olsen).

[Editor’s note: For more Adventures of Superman photos and trivia, see RetroFan #11.]

Jerry Mathers “as the Beaver” takes a few shots for his own scrapbook with what appears to be a Minolta Autocord TLR (twin lens reflex) with Tessar-type 4-element Rokkor f/3.5 lens. Pretty fancy for the Beav…!

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And they said girls playing with dolls wouldn’t amount to anything…

Puppeteers manipulate marionettes from a catwalk above the set. I wasn’t much into the marionettes part, but I sure loved that spaceship…!

Route 66’s Martin Milner (behind the wheel) and George Maharis finally come across a hitchhiker worth stopping for. Under the hood of that great car was a 327-cubic-inch V-8 engine delivering 300 horsepower through a four-speed manual transmission, propelling the 2,925-pound fiberglass Corvette on a 102-inch wheelbase. (And you thought this photo was about the girl…) © Columbia Pictures Television.

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On Friday evening, October 26, 1962 (just in time for Halloween), CBS premiered the Route 66 episode “Lizard’s Leg and Owlet’s Wing.” This episode would mark the last time that Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney, Jr. would ever reprise their signature characters of Frankenstein’s Monster and the Wolf Man. Forry Ackerman previewed the episode in Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine but, given publishing lead time, hadn’t yet seen it. He later received a lot of flack when fans tuned in only to feel that the episode was rather tepid (it was).

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Rod Serling films one of his opening monologues. Rod Serling arrives at MGM Studios in Culver City, California, for another trip through The Twilight Zone.

Inger Stevens prepares for the next shot in a memorable episode, “The Hitch-Hiker” (S1/Ep16, January 22, 1960). The basic premise later made its way into features films such as Jacob’s Ladder (1990) and The Sixth Sense (1999).

Future Captain Kirk William Shatner is “hooked” by co-star Patricia Breslin in “Nick of Time” (S2/Ep7, November 18, 1960).

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The episode “Moonstone” (S1/Ep24, March 9, 1964) reveals that there is life on other planets (bringing an all-new meaning to the phrase “filming on location”).

Robert Webber makes friends with the “Keeper of the Purple Twilight” (S2/ Ep12, December 5, 1964).

(ABOVE) Filming The Outer Limits’ “Tourist Attraction” (S1/Ep13, December 23, 1963), stuntmen George Robotham and Paul Stader can’t shake that fishy smell. (RIGHT) Jill Haworth tutors Darwin the Money (Janos Prohaska) in modern filing methods in The Outer Limits’ “The Sixth Finger” (S1/Ep5, October 14, 1963).

RETROFAN

[Editor’s note: Ernest Farino examined The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, and other spooky anthologies from the Sixties in our last issue, still available at TwoMorrows.com.]

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Don’t go walking there! I just cleaned this planet…

(TOP RIGHT) Make-up artist Fred Phillips gives Leonard Nimoy a trim. (ABOVE RIGHT) Hair stylist Pat Westmore makes final touch-ups on Arlene Martel in her famous role as Spock’s betrothed, T’Pring, in “Amok Time” (S2/Ep1, September 15, 1967). Arlene Martel and Leonard Nimoy run lines as they wait for the next set-up.

These are the voyages of: The Starship Enterprise. At Film Effects of Hollywood, veteran visual effects supervisor Linwood Dunn (looking through camera) lines up a fly-by shot against a blue screen (for later matting over the space art background).

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June Lockhart steps out of the Jupiter 2 wondering what all the fuss is about this time…

Billy Mumy and Angela Cartwright get a surprise visit from the Boy Wonder himself, Burt Ward.

(ABOVE) Producer/director Irwin Allen (CENTER, in eyeglasses) prepares for the next journey through time. (BELOW) Very impressive production design artwork of the Time Tunnel.

[Editor’s note: See RetroFan #8 for our June Lockhart interview.]

(RIGHT) How they did it! Climbing up those buildings was staged by… well, you knew that, right…?

Adam West and Burt Ward in the Batmobile.

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Inside the Batcave! Yes, it was a large, impressive set on a sound stage.

(ABOVE) Holy Rear Projection, Batman! (LEFT) Julie Newmar as Catwoman with Marilyn Watson, her stunt double. (RIGHT) Yvonne Craig gets fitted into that skin-tight suit.

(ABOVE) Adam West offers a lift to Batgirl (Yvonne Craig). (RIGHT) This is thirsty work…!

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(RIGHT) Fred Gwynne visits with a young woman on the set. Some say that the motto for the Sixties Beehive hairdo was, “The bigger the hair, the closer to God.” (BELOW) Herman Munster… cinematographer?

(LEFT) Karl Silvera was the make-up artist for 70 of the 72 Munsters episodes. (ABOVE) Fred Gwynne looks puzzled as he contemplates the new issue of Monster World (#2) with editor Forrest J Ackerman.

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retrofad © Filmways Television.

A rare color photo from The Addams Family as Carolyn Jones, John Astin, and Jackie Coogan take their places for the next shot.

Felix Silla played Cousin Itt in 17 episodes and would later play the diminutive robot Twiki in the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century TV series from 1979–1981.

“There’s a little hotel called the Shady Rest at the junction—Petticoat Junction!” (Actually, General Service Studios, Hollywood.)

The animation and character design for the Bewitched opening main title was done by Ed Benedict. A Disney veteran, Benedict became the primary character designer at Hanna-Barbera and designed Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Yogi Bear, and others. (RIGHT) Elizabeth What’s-Her-Name? memorizes her lines.

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Don’t clap the slate down on that nose or we’re all in trouble…! (ABOVE) Liz’s real-life husband (director William Asher, LEFT) meets TV husband Dick York (RIGHT). Oh, the drama!

(LEFT) Agnes Moorehead (Endora) is perched on the roof (where else?). (BELOW) Filming a ping-pong game for “Charlie Harper, Winner” (S3/Ep25, March 2, 1967).

(ABOVE) Liz has a mischievous look on her face… (RIGHT) Liz checks to see if her latest nose twitch was properly caught on film.

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(RIGHT) The other Liz and Dick (not Taylor and Burton) wait for the special effects team to “smoke up” the set. (FAR RIGHT) Agnes Moorehead seems to be having a fun day in her dressing room.

Editor’s note: Columnist Scott Saavedra wrote show histories of Bewitched, The Addams Family, and The Munsters back in RetroFan #2.]

Barbara Eden against a blue screen for later matting onto a live-action background. (BELOW) Barbara only hopes the phone doesn’t ring… The cast waits patiently for final lighting adjustments. (LEFT TO RIGHT) Jim Backus (Thurston Howell III), Bob Denver (Gilligan), Natalie Schafer (Mrs. Lovey Howell, seated), Russell Johnson (Professor Roy Hinkley), Alan Hale, Jr. (Jonas “The Skipper” Grumby), Dawn Wells (Mary Ann Summers), and Tina Louise (Ginger Grant).

Tina Louise checks her make-up.

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Sharon Tate guest-starred as “Janet Trego” in 12 Beverly Hillbillies episodes (and one more, listed as credit only), as well in additional episodes as “Mary” and “Young Woman/Party Guest,” both in 1963. Shown here with Max Baer, Jr. (Jethro Bodine).

(TOP) The Petrie living room/kitchen at 148 Bonnie Meadow Road “In Living Color on—” (oops, wrong network). (ABOVE) Remember when they’d announce “Filmed before a live studio audience”? (As opposed to—what?—a dead one?) Director Jerry Paris (who first co-starred as dentist/neighbor Jerry Helper) can be seen in background (in light-colored sweater and tie).

[Editor’s note: See RetroFan #7 for Ernest Farino’s trivia-packed Dick Van Dyke Show article.]

During the filming of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’s “The Yellow Scarf Affair” (S1/Ep17, January 25, 1965), Steve McQueen snuck onto the set without telling his wife, Neile Adams (on couch), a guest-star for that episode. McQueen pretended to work on the crew. U.N.C.L.E. co-star David McCallum, who had recently appeared with McQueen in The Great Escape, spotted him. “I knew it was Steve all along,” McCallum laughed, “but I let him play it out for a chuckle. I’m actually quite surprised that no one else recognized him.”

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[Editor’s note: Join us next issue for columnist Will Murray’s look at The Man from U.N.C.L.E.]

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Don Adams (Maxwell Smart, Agent 86) and Edward Platt (The Chief) wait for the Cone of Silence to lower down.

Lorne Greene and Michael Landon on the Bonanza set. I always thought the “exterior” Ponderosa ranch house always looked like an interior studio set, but the added control and comfort over a real exterior location is understandable.

Stay tuned… Before you can twitch your nose the next

will be here with "On the Set" of Movies of the Swingin’ Sixties… All pictorial matter reproduced herein derives from the voluntary, noncompensated contributions of pictorial or other memorabilia from the private collections of the author, and from the select private archives of individual contributors.

Richard Boone takes a break on the Have Gun – Will Travel set.

ERNEST FARINO recently directed an episode of the SyFy/Netflix series Superstition starring Mario Van Peebles, as well as serving as Visual Effects Consultant. RETROFAN

May 2021

RETRO TOYS

TV Tie-in

TOYS

No Kid Would Want! by Michael Eury

The merchandising of popular television shows has been get into trouble each episode, requiring a Lassie-like rescue from big business since the Fabulous Fifties, when Davy Crockett their aquatic pal). coonskin caps and Superman capes were the rage. Today there’s You could fill a bathtub with the Flipper merchandise that no shortage of kid-friendly TV tie-in toys featuring Disney, made a splash with the show. Amid the wonderful Gold Key comic Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network books, coloring books and paint sets, Big stars. An adult collectors market has also Little Book, and View-Master reels, this evolved, with expertly sculpted action monstrosity from the deep sea peeked figures available from cult favorite shows its ugly head onto shelves: Bandai’s 1968 (anyone got a Breaking Bad action figure Flipper Spouting Dolphin. A TV tie-in on their shelf?). toy that spews water? Sounds like fun. Consumers were less discerning back And judging from the smiles on the in the days of television rabbit ears and faces of soaked-to-the-skin Sandy and rotating rooftop antennas. We so loved Bud, having the time of their lives with our favorite characters from the tube, Flipper, on the photo package for this we didn’t care that our Fred Flintstone toy, any kid seeing this side of the box vinyl bank had green hair and green would point and proclaim, “I want!” toenails, or that our Fonzie transistor Until they turned around the box to radio looked more like Vic Damone than spy the actual toy itself. Even if your TV Henry Winkler. It never dawned on us set’s color needed adjusting, there’s no that the pistol-packing Caped Crusader way Flipper could have ever looked on the package of the Batman Escape like this, a red-and-white whale with Gun violated the basic anti-gun tenets concentric eyes and curly eyelashes. of the character, or that Collegeville’s This looked more like Walt Disney’s 1969 Halloween costume allowing Flipper than Ivan Tors’. Sorry, Flipper us to be “One of the Brady Bunch,” Spouting Dolphin, you’re all wet! with a red domino mask instead of a As I wrote in the “RetroFad” molded facemask of Greg or Marcia, column two issues ago, CB Radios put was so lame a laugh track couldn’t the pedal to the metal of the public salvage it. consciousness back in the Seventies And then there were these misfits, and early Eighties, the craze spawning these TV tie-in toys, marketed to kids… several TV series. One of them was Bandai’s Flipper Spouting Dolphin. Flipper © MGM. toys no kid would want. Movin’ On, the adventures of two Courtesy of Hake’s. Back in the mid-Sixties, who didn’t truckers who, not unlike the roaming love Flipper, that adorable bottlenose leads of television’s The Fugitive and dolphin that lived in a world full of wonder? A spin-off of a 1963 Route 66, became entangled in different people’s lives along movie (that was inspired by a story by Ricou Browning—best their journeys—one dramatic encounter per hour-long weekly known as the underwater stuntman in the Creature from the Black episode. All this, and a twangy Merle Haggard theme song, too. Lagoon movies—and Jack Cowden), producer Ivan Tors’ Flipper, The CB fad affected all ages, and kids could play “Breaker, set in Florida, featured a widowed father (who happened to be a breaker!” with toy CB Radios sold with toy vehicles of the General marine game warden) and his two young sons (who happened to Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard and the Gran Torino from Starsky 48

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Pamco’s Movin’ On Radio-Phone Talker. Movin’ On © D’Antoni/Weitz Television Productions. Courtesy of Worthpoint.

& Hutch, two hour-long adventure shows with an avid youth following. Yet it’s unlikely that any child would find the craggy pusses of actors Frank Converse and Claude Akins an incentive to ask Santa for manufacturer Pamco’s official Movin’ On Original CB Style Radio-Phone Talker. This impressive battery-operated toy included eight random phrases and might have been more appealing to kids were it branded under Hanna-Barbera’s CB Bears, but being “recommended for children ages 3 & up” certainly didn’t help this stinker move off of toy shelves. Negatory, good buddy! If you were a teenager or older in the Seventies, chances are you watched CBS’ Kojak, the edgy nighttime police procedural drama starring cueballed Telly Savalas as the obstinate yet dapper New York City detective Lt. Theodopholus Kojak. Sure, Theo’s penchant for sucking on Tootsie Roll pops and his comical catchphrase “Who loves ya, baby?” might have amused the little ones who caught a commercial for Kojak before their bedtimes, but this was a show for grown-ups. The U.K.’s Corgi, beloved among collectors for their highly detailed die-cast miniatures based upon vehicles from film and television, released in 1976 a deluxe set featuring Kojak’s bronze-colored Buick, including a mini figurine of ol’ Theo himself aiming his pistol (Kojak’s car was also released separately as a smaller Corgi Jr.). Granted, even back in the Seventies there was a growing market of adults that bought car miniatures, collecting Corgis, Matchbox, and Hot Wheels vehicles, but the toys were still marketed to children, promoted by illustrated ads appearing in comic books. Topping off the Kojak car conundrum was its box copy deeming it “For ages 3 and over.” Someone needed to tell Corgi that three-yearolds in the mid-Seventies were squeezing stuffed Snoopys and coveting their Corgi’s Kojak Buick. Kojak © Universal Television.

big brothers’ and sisters’ Stretch Armstrongs and Cher dolls, not rolling a Kojak car across the living room floor. Who loves ya, baby? No one under 30. In the Seventies, growing opposition to the Vietnam War adversely affected the sale of war and soldier toys—even Hasbro de-emphasized the military implications of their chameleonic fighting man and marketed G.I. Joe as a kung-fu-gripped Adventure Team leader with a super-hero buddy, the chromedomed Bulletman. Yet in 1982, Tristar International Ltd. obtained the license of one of the juggernauts of TV—M*A*S*H, the anti-war dramedy set during the Korean Conflict—and released a line of M*A*S*H action figures. This is one of the most puzzling head-scratchers in the history of toydom. It’s not like there was a surge of kids playing “triage” in their backyards in 1982 to warrant the production of this line… besides, M*A*S*H had been on the air for a decade by this time and was winding down its run (let’s agree to forget AfterMASH, okay?). And with the debuts that year of the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero action figure lines (the latter of which re-popularized battle toys, by the way), what toy execs anticipated a demand for figures of Hawkeye, Hot Lips, Father Mulcahy, and allies from the 4077th? Or a M*A*S*H helicopter, jeep, and ambulance, or a deluxe playset of a military base with a 16foot vinyl playing surface? Tristar’s M*A*S*H line contained two figures of Jamie Farr’s Klinger, one in green fatigues and the other… in drag! In an attractive little pink number with white fringe and a flower in his hair, at that! This was probably the first massmarketed transgender (TOP) Tristar Internationtoy, and while Klinger’s lipstick and Army boots made it al’s M*A*S*H action figure line, from the backside of a clear his get-up was played for blister card. (BOTTOM) The laughs, still, would any child of 1982 ask for this, or for any of the Klinger figures, including the rare “pretty in pink” version. M*A*S*H figures? Over a decade later I bought M*A*S*H © 20th Century Television. Courtesy of Worthpoint. a Mint-on-Card Klinger in drag figure after eyeing it at a Portland, Oregon, collectibles shop—it was too odd to pass up. I paid 40 bucks for it and later sold it for the same, and now you’re likely to pay over twice that if you troll eBay looking for one. And today, my friends, that’s where the appeal of this peculiar line of figures and its bizarre Klinger entry lies—with adult collectors who are fans of the venerable show. But as a toy line in 1982? “Suicide is painless,” went the M*A*S*H theme, but as action figures, the M*A*S*H line was painful! RETROFAN

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NEW BOOKS FROM TWOMORROWS

OLD GODS & NEW A COMPANION TO JACK KIRBY’S FOURTH WORLD

For its 80th issue, the JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine presents a double-sized 50th anniversary examination of Kirby’s magnum opus! Spanning the pages of four different comics starting in 1970 (NEW GODS, FOREVER PEOPLE, MISTER MIRACLE, and JIMMY OLSEN), the sprawling “Epic for our times” was cut short mid-stream, leaving fans wondering how Jack would’ve resolved the confrontation between evil DARKSEID of Apokolips, and his son ORION of New Genesis. This companion to that “FOURTH WORLD” series looks back at JACK KIRBY’s own words, as well as those of assistants MARK EVANIER and STEVE SHERMAN, inker MIKE ROYER, and publisher CARMINE INFANTINO, to determine how it came about, where it was going, and how Kirby would’ve ended it before it was prematurely cancelled by DC Comics! It also examines Kirby’s use of gods in THOR and other strips prior to the Fourth World, how they influenced his DC epic, and affected later series like THE ETERNALS and CAPTAIN VICTORY. With an overview of hundreds of Kirby’s creations like BIG BARDA, BOOM TUBES and GRANNY GOODNESS, and post-Kirby uses of his concepts, no Fourth World fan will want to miss it! Compiled, researched, and edited by JOHN MORROW, with contributions by JON B. COOKE. (160-page FULL-COLOR trade paperback) $26.95 • (Digital Edition) $12.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-098-4 • SHIPS MAY 2021!

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AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES The 1950s

MARVEL COMICS IN THE 1970s (Expanded Edition)

PIERRE COMTOIS’ sequel covers how STAN LEE became publisher, JACK KIRBY left Marvel, and ROY THOMAS rose as writer & editor! New edition with 16 extra pages! (240-page trade paperback) $29.95 (Digital Edition) $12.99 INCLUDES 16 EXTRA PAGES! NOW BACK IN STOCK!

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The 1990s

BILL SCHELLY tackles the Atomic Era of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis: EC’s TALES FROM THE CRYPT, MAD, CARL BARKS’ Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge, the FLASH in Showcase #4, return of Timely’s CAPTAIN AMERICA, HUMAN TORCH & SUB-MARINER, & FREDRIC WERTHAM!

KEITH DALLAS & JASON SACKS detail the decade X-MEN #1 sold 8.1 million copies, IMAGE COMICS formed, Superman died, Batman broke his back, Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN led to the VERTIGO line of adult comics, and gimmicky covers, skimpy costumes, and mega-crossovers ruled!

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Coming Fall 2021: American Comic Book Chronicles: 1945-49 and The Charlton Companion

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THE ODDBALL WORLD OF SCOTT SHAW!

Zoorama and Other

ODDBALL SECRETS of the World Famous San Diego Zoo!

Part Two

by Scott Shaw! If you’ve been binge-watching Animal Planet’s The Zoo: San Diego as I have, I’m sure you’ve noticed the dedication, enthusiasm, and pride of SoCal’s world famous zoo’s employees. They’re not acting—that’s all genuine. Although I no longer know any current employees of the world famous San Diego Zoo, 50 years ago, I knew many Zoo staffers who were exactly like this new batch. I’ve had a lifelong relationship with the Zoo, including: I first visited the Zoo at the age of three; served as the first president of the San Diego Junior Zoological Society; displayed my artwork at the zoo’s public nexus; worked there during college as a “waste control technician”; and had a father who was in a key position there. I loved the Zoo then and I love it now, even though it’s completely different—and even better!—from the San Diego Zoo I grew up with during the first two decades of my life. Here’s a history of Balboa Park’s “world famous” San Diego Zoo, concluding the first part which ran last issue. And believe me, as someone who grew up in San Diego, everyone referred to (ABOVE) San Diego Zoo bus from the Seventies and the “You Belong in the Zoo” promotion. All photos accompanying this article are courtesy of Scott Shaw! and © San Diego Zoo, unless otherwise noted.

it as “world famous”—without the hyphen—because the world famous San Diego Zoo was the #1 tourist attraction in town. Promotional signage for the Zoo was ubiquitous, and every single one of ’em included the phrase “world famous.” So I’m sorry, but you’ll just have to get used to it. Blame San Diego for my “world famous” compulsion. In fact, to make things easier on you, I’ll only use its initials, WFSDZ, most of the time. (But the Zoo really is “world famous!”)

Zoo Transit, Pinnipeds, and Joan Embery

The world famous San Diego Zoo’s tourist-packed tour buses— initiated in 1927—covered 75% of the zoo, excepting the Reptile House and its surrounding exhibits, the primates’ area, and the Children’s Zoo. The park’s tour bus drivers, who—like the pilots of Disneyland’s “Jungle Cruise” attraction—each had their own schtick, added to their mandatory educational spiel. During their circuitous path around the park, each bus would pass Roosevelt High School, separated only by a taller-than-a-giraffe chain-link fence. Their unique patter didn’t matter; they all had to say, as they’d drive by students playing basketball through the wire barrier, “And now, on your right side, is the enclosure of our most dangerous species—the American teenager.” The passengers and the pedestrians always laughed and clapped when the bus drivers would twirl a slice of Wonder Bread to Chester the grizzly bear after he’d show them his toes! Speaking of transportation, zoos have to compete with theme parks, and since 1955 the world famous San Diego Zoo’s RETROFAN

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The Oddball World of Scott Shaw!

most formidable rival had been the world famous Disneyland in Anaheim. And since “The Magic Kingdom” had its “Skyway” bucket ride, it’s likely one of the reasons the Zoo decided to add their own. After all, both parks had very impressive exhibits, architecture, and vegetation that were all exciting to see from an aerial view. Both parks were also huge, so it was a great way to quickly transport visitors from one end to the other… and make a little money in the process. Opened in 1969, an overhead gondola lift called the “Skyfari” was ready for the WFSDZ’s thrill-seeking public. It was built by the Von Roll tramway company of Bern, Switzerland. The original San Diego Zoo Skyfari was a Von Roll type 101. Now the sky ride, a different design, is known as “The Skyfari Aerial Tram.” In 1936, the Zoo’s amphitheater was named the “Wegeforth Bowl” in honor of its creator, Dr. Harry M. Wegeforth. At the unveiling of a commemorative plaque dedicated to him, Wegeforth expressed gratitude but told the assembled officials that the money for the plaque would have been better spent to buy another animal for the Zoo. In 1948, the amphitheater’s stage became a pinniped (aquatic carnivores) playground, where seal trainer Captain Bennie Kirkbride and his slippery students entertained Zoo visitors for 35 years. Benny developed three completely different shows: a “dry act” with on-stage seals and sea lions, a diving act that took advantage of the bowl’s pool wrapped around the stage’s curved proscenium, and a jawdropping act with seals and sea lions riding on the backs of ponies! Harry M. Wegeforth Elementary School opened in San Diego in 1957. The site was dedicated on February 9, 1959, with Mrs. Harry Wegeforth and family in attendance. 52

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Among the ways to travel about the Zoo: the bus (seen here in a 1959 postcard) and the Skyfari (c. 1969).

My father once took me inside of the animal hospital on the grounds of the Zoo. Based on what I’ve seen on The Zoo: San Diego, it looks nothing like it did in the Sixties and Seventies. The one element I’ve always remembered was an operating room constructed for the WFSDZ’s largest animals like elephants and giraffes. Like one of the fiendish traps that Batman and Robin often found themselves in, one of the walls of the room was on a track, so it was possible to anesthetize and operate on the bigger beasts while they were still standing up, supported by that sliding wall. The city of San Diego owned the Zoo’s huge parking lot. My father was one of the guys behind the tropical “security towers” throughout it. He was also an animal lover, and during heat waves, he would patrol the parking lot to rescue pets that their doltish masters had locked in their cars. Sometimes I’d have to clean up the parking lot and its parameters, including the

The Oddball World of Scott Shaw!

bushes, where I once found dirty magazines and a baggie of pot. I burned all of it. Although I didn’t know Joan Embery when we were both students at Crawford High— she was one year ahead of me and graduated in 1967—we also worked at the WFSDZ at the same time. By then, I was goofing off at Cal Western while Joan went to San Diego State College to study zoology and telecommunications. She eventually became the world famous San Diego Zoo’s Goodwill Ambassador, an honor she held for 32 years. Recognized for her many appearances with live animals from the Zoo on Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show, she wrote a book about her experiences there and elsewhere, My Wild World (1980). Since then, she’s hosted a number of educational TV series and specials. Joan is now an animal and environmental advocate.

Zoo Tunes and Promos

The world famous San Diego’s “You Belong in the Zoo!” ad campaign began in 1978. The lyrics sang in the TV commercials were bored into the brains of everyone who lived in San Diego at the time:

YOU belong in the zoo The San Diego Zoo YOU belong in the Zoo And the Zoo belongs to YOU If you’re feeling like a kid again And raise a roubideaux Say howdy-do to the animals too In the San Diego Zoo YOU belong in the Zoo... It was a very successful ad campaign. Not only was it behind numerous hats, buttons, stickers, magnets, and T-shirts, it also spawned a “flexi disk” of the theme song! At the 2016 Centennial celebration of the San Diego Zoo, a chorus of children performed the nostalgic “You Belong in the Zoo” theme song live. In 2016, the Zoo’s “Welcome to Koalafornia” marketing campaign included a television advertisement referencing marijuana with a koala purchasing eucalyptus leaves from a “dispensary.” Far out, mate. As I mentioned, the WGSDZ was (and is) San Diego’s biggest boon for tourism, therefore the Zoo—and probably the city—

Heeeere’s… Joan! The San Diego Zoo’s Joan Embery was a familiar face on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. The Tonight Show © NBC.

was eager to remind every stranger in SoCal from the mountains to the beaches that the Zoo was an essential part of anyone’s visit, therefore there were a lot of billboards for the zoo all over town. As I recall, the standard approach in the Sixties was a riveting photo of an exotic animal, accompanied by a single word and the WFSDZ logo. It sounds Spartan, but the intention was to let the image do the selling. In the Seventies and Eighties, the billboards developed even more spectacular approaches, including one crushed by Albert the gorilla, one squeezed by a python, one that appeared to be perforated by a gazelle escaping a cheetah, and many more that were mind-bendingly creative. There are still almost as many Zoo billboards around town, but the park’s recent advertising agencies have been a bit “too creative” for me, with images and copy too complex to be read by passing drivers or their passengers.

Zoo-per Stars

Over the years, there have been quite a few WFSDZ animals that have achieved local and even national notice. Here are just a few of those cool creatures. g King Tut, a salmon-crested cockatoo, served for 64 years as the world famous San Diego Zoo’s official greeter and became one of its best-known symbols. Mrs. I. D. Putnam of La Mesa donated him to the WFSDZ. In 1951, he became the Official Zoo Greeter. King Tut was a sweet bird, friendly to everyone, that greeted well over 100 million visitors from his perch near the Zoo’s entrance from 1925 until his retirement in 1989. King Tut was the oldest bird in the Zoo, until he died in 1990 at the age of 65. g Albert the gorilla was undoubtedly one of the WFSDZ’s most famous residents. Born in Africa, the four-month-old western RETROFAN

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Johnny’s response? “Come out, fellas!” The Zoo also had a twoheaded corn snake named Thelma and Louise. She went on to bear 15 “normal” offspring before dying in captivity. g Puddles was the Zoo’s first hippopotamus, a bossy little beast that arrived at the WFSDZ in 1936 when he was only one year old. He loved to show off for tourists, doing somersaults in his pool, rolling on his back with his feet in the air, and showing off his cavernous mouth. Puddles was so popular with the public that he significantly increased the Depression-era Zoo’s attendance. Puddles was one of Belle Benchley’s favorites, and she’d often stop by his enclosure to feed him treats of grass and hay. Belle was the world’s first woman to become a zoo director! lowland gorilla arrived at the Zoo in August 1949. He was handraised in the WFSDZ’s nursery, along with two baby female lowland gorillas. Albert was a handsome, full-grown gorilla when the Zoo’s new gorilla grotto opened in 1963. It became his new home, drawing crowds of admirers, and endearing himself to an international audience with his majestic stature, mischievous behavior, and gentle demeanor. Albert’s image appeared on posters, T-shirts, pennants, and other sorts of Zoo merchandise. In fact, the bronze bust of Albert located between the Zoo’s entrance and exit, was possibly the #1 photo opportunity in the entire park for many years. Thousands upon thousands of tourists posed for the camera alongside Bronze Albert. In 1965, Albert became a proud daddy, having fathered Avila, the first western lowland gorilla conceived and born at the WFSDZ and only the seventh gorilla born in any zoo. Albert died peacefully on October 18, 1978. His hairy children and grandchildren remain residents of the WFSDZ and SDZSP. And then there’s “Albert’s.” Located in the heart of the Zoo, Albert’s is a full-service, sit-down, classy restaurant with openair deck dining overlooking a private waterfall, or in the main dining room overlooking the Treehouse gardens. Zoo admission is required to access Albert’s Restaurant. The only disappointment is that the servers aren’t gorillas. g In 1953, San Diego resident L. L. Hunter found a two-headed California King snake in Lemon Grove and donated it to the Zoo. Two-headed snakes have very short lifetimes in the wild; headdominance is the primary issue. Which one eats and which one hunts? Also, twigs are dangerous objects to two-headed snakes. If one of the heads wants to go to the left, and the other chooses right, they’re stuck forever. But surprisingly, the two-headed King snake they named Dudley Duplex lived for six-and-a-half years. During that time he became one of the WFSDZ’s most popular celebrities. After Dudley left us, a second two-headed King Snake, Dudley Duplex II, took the spotlight, even slithering up Johnny Carson’s sleeve on The Tonight Show. 54

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g Diego is a Hood Island tortoise, hatched sometime before 1920 on Española Island—an uninhabited island that’s considered to be one of the oldest parts of the Galapagos chain. Sometime between 1928 and 1933, he was captured and shipped to American zoos with a number of other Galápagos Islands tortoises, although his species was still unknown. After being exhibited at a few different zoos in the late Forties, Diego wound up at the world famous San Diego Zoo, his next-to-last home.

In 1976, zoologists set up a captive breeding program on Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos chain to add to its existing

The Oddball World of Scott Shaw!

12 female and three male Hood Island tortoises. DNA testing revealed Diego to be the same endangered species—Chelonoidis hoodensis—so the WFSDZ was happy to send Diego to the island for an all-expenses-paid vacation in 1977. Placed into breeding pens with each of the female tortoises, Diego fathered around 900 offspring! Although one of the program’s other tortoises produced even more babies, Diego became known as the tortoise that “had so much sex he saved his species.” Diego was aggressive, active, and vocal in the act of mating, which made him popular with the female tortoises. The breeding program ended in January 2020, but in June, Diego and 14 other Hood Island tortoises were returned to Española. The results were spectacular—they increased the population to more than 2,000 Hood Island tortoises! At the time of his release, Diego weighed 175 pounds, measured 35 inches in length, and five feet tall. Diego is still living on Española Island and is expected to live to the ripe old age of 150 years.

“Any kid that had a teddy bear when they were young loved Chester. He was just like the Poppa Bear from Goldilocks.” Chester died in 1985 of an abdominal ailment; he was 15. g And then there’s the WFSDZ’s #1 simian superstar, a Bornean orangutan named Ken Allen, who was named after his two zookeepers, Ken Willingham and Ben Allen. They rescued him from his also-captive mother after she attempted to smother him. The press knew him as the “Hairy Houdini” due to his irrepressible urges to escape captivity. Ken was born in the Zoo in 1971, but by 1985, it became clear that they wound up with the primate version of Yogi Bear. As an adolescent, he would regularly unscrew the bolts of his cage

g Chester, the friendly and photogenic Alaskan brown bear, first came to the WFSDZ as a mere five-month-old cub in 1970, a gift from the Alaska Fish and Game Department. Poor Chester’s mother had been killed by a hunter, but Chester would go on to become the Zoo’s single most popular animal at the time. Visitors knew him as “the bear who waved when the park’s tour bus drove by.” Chester was so well known and loved that it was said if you

could only take one photo at the Zoo, it would be a picture of Chester. Those photos added up to millions. When he first arrived, he lived at the Children’s Zoo, but he eventually grew to more than ten feet tall and about eight hundred pounds. The beloved brown bear was clever and charismatic, and Jim Joiner, Chester’s zookeeper, used to joke that Chester was actually a man in a bear suit. Chester sought attention from tourists by rubbing his tummy, pretending to pray, sliding into his swimming pool, or waving and sticking his feet in the air to show them off to the tour buses as they paused to give their passengers a unique ursine experience. Chester even did his waving schtick for a national commercial for automobiles. Spokesman Jeff Jouett said, “You are not supposed to get attached to any one animal, but it was impossible not to get attached to Chester.” Jim Joiner, the senior bear keeper at the Zoo who worked with Chester since 1972, said, “He was absolutely the most intelligent wild animal I had ever worked with.

and explore his nursery at night, returning in the morning and putting it back together before his keepers arrived. During his 1985 escapes, first on June 13, again on July 29, and finally on August 13, the appealing 250-pound ape would peacefully stroll around the Zoo, among the tourists, checking out at the other animals, and even posing for photos. Ken never behaved violently or aggressively towards the Zoo’s patrons or animals, although someone taught him how to “flip the bird.” These stunts led to worldwide fame for smart, friendly Ken Allen. He had his own fan club (called “The Orang Gang”), was an image on T-shirts and bumper stickers reading “Free Ken Allen,” is referenced to Monkey Paw Brewing Co.’s craft beer label, and was the subject of a San Diego hit song with the title “The Ballad of Ken Allen,” a record that was sold at the Zoo for years. (Sample lyrics: “Ken Allen is one hunk of a man/Never speaks too much/ He has big ol’ hairy hands/He’s got a lifetime sentence for some monkeying around/He said no bars can hold him/Now that boy is jungle-bound.”) At one point, his keepers decided to add four female orangutans to his enclosure, hoping Ken Allen would replace his wanderlust with just plain lust. Instead, the canny primate taught them how to escape, too! Ken also had a feud with his former Zoo roommate, a grouchy orangutan named Otis. During one of his escapes, San Diego’s favorite simian was found tossing rocks at his red-haired rival. Zookeepers were initially stumped over how Ken Allen had managed to escape, so they began surveillance of his enclosure to catch him in the act, but he seemed to be aware that he was being watched. This forced zookeepers to go undercover, posing RETROFAN

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as tourists to learn Ken Allen’s escape route, but he wasn’t fooled. Zoo officials eventually spent $40,000 to hire experienced rock climbers to find every finger, toe, and foothold within the enclosure, then retool every one of them. Eventually, Ken Allen returned to a simple life of sitting in his pen and flipping the finger to young children. He died in 2000 and in his honor, the Zoo has installed a memorial plaque telling the story of the much-loved Ken Allen.

drops. Koalas are also dangerous, but like the macaws, not in an aggressive way. When these furry li’l beasties cling to eucalyptus tree, they hang on by sinking their surprisingly strong and sharp claws into the tree trunk. But if you picked one up in your arms, the somewhat slow-witted koala would think you were a tree and sink its claws into your arms until they hit bone… and you’d get koala pee all over yourself, too. That’s why the WFSDZ’s koala keepers wear heavy-duty protective gloves when handling the fuzzy little critters. Other animal escapees If and when you visit include Trudy the Malayan the Zoo, watch out for the Tapir, who escaped the Zoo camels and llamas. They more than once in 1940, may look mellow, but if you earning the title, “Terrible annoy them, their ability Trudy.” And in 1977, a to spit with distance and Tasmanian devil got loose accuracy can’t be matched. from the Zoo. Coincidently, And whatever you do, don’t the animal control officer wear your best velour shirt who captured him was a around ’em (keep reading)! former WFSDZ tour bus Finally, for the ultimate driver! in zoological aggression, the Zoo’s poo-flinging Born to Be Wild gorillas get my vote. Like When my father was the the camels and llamas, Zoo’s Chief of Security, their pitches have distance he often told me that the Promotional illustration by Michelle Guerrero for Animal Planet’s and accuracy, but since single-most-asked question The Zoo: San Diego series. © Animal Planet. gorillas have hands, it seems from visitors was, “Where more like Frisbee golf with are the wild animals?” My human targets. One of dad instructed his security their zookeepers told me that the gorillas actually have senses of team to respond with a standard answer, “Climb into one of those humor and get a real kick out of this behavior. The primates are enclosures and you’ll quickly find out that they all are!” especially in a funny mood during the summer, when the on-leave For example, at one time, the Zoo displayed their colorful sailors are wearing their white uniforms. The keeper explained, macaw parrots near the Zoo’s entrance, next to the pink flamingo “The gorillas like those white uniforms because they make it pond. They were also near—too near, actually —to the visitors easier to tell if their crap hit its target.” Makes sense to me. walking into the Zoo. The problem was, those birds have extremely poor vision. A bigger problem was that their beaks are powerful enough to effortlessly bite through a wooden broom These Visitors Belong in a Zoo handle! So when a friendly tourist would get close and waggle Of course, you don’t have to pass an intelligence test to purchase a finger in a macaw’s face, they never realized that the mellow a pass to enter the world-famous San Diego Zoo… but frankly, macaw’s eyesight perceived the gesture as someone offering it I’ve wished it were otherwise. A lot of dummies are out there a peanut. It would casually lean in and snip off the first joint of and when they come to the Zoo, it’s often not to enjoy observing their index fingers—but wasn’t the bird’s fault. When the Zoo’s and learning about the animals, but to experiment on them Dr. management realized that their macaws were the cause of more Moreau-style in one way or another. It’s a shame, sometimes injuries than any other animal in the park, the brightly hued birds funny, sometimes tragic. were relocated to a different perch with a moat distancing them For example, when I was working as a Zoo garbage man, I from the public. was approached by a visitor who asked if he could borrow my Everyone seems to love koalas. They’re perceived as cuter “pick-up stick.” I asked him if he’d dropped something into the upside-down sloths. They’re marsupials, so they carry their young turtle moats we were near, something that happened of ten. in a belly pouch. And koalas eat nothing but eucalyptus leaves, He said he wanted to get a peacock feather, so I told him that their sole source of nutrition and moisture. They’re about as they were for sale in the gif t shop. It turned out that he wanted lovable as any animal can get, right? to skip the middleman and pluck one right out of the tail of a Ahh, but their keepers know better. First, koalas stink. When peacock strutting by! Oy vey. koalas relieve themselves, it soaks into their thick fur. And San Diego is a Navy town, and in those days, the city boasted their urine smells like the Bizarro version of eucalyptus cough nine active naval bases and one marine base. Admission to the 56

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Zoo for servicemen was free, so the Zoo always had a significant number of young recruits on leave among the civilian tourists. It was the late Sixties, and I always felt bad/embarrassed for some of the visiting sailors who were desperately trying to look like hippies and failing miserably. I got the impression that, because a lot of them came from rural and farming communities, some displayed an attitude toward animals that made me wonder if they mistook the Zoo for one of those all-the-meat-you-caneat Brazilian restaurants. For example, I once caught a sailor feeding a pack of cigarettes to a capybara… with the cellophane still around the pack. That stuff doesn’t digest and it could have choked that giant rat. I despise animal abuse but I didn’t have the authority to bust him, so I found a security guard to escort the dimwit out of the park. During the era of cheap cameras that used “flashcubes,” an alarming number of the WFSDZ’s sea lions were dying. The Zoo’s hospital conducted autopsies and revealed that their deaths were due to visitors tossing their used-up flashcubes into the seal lions’ pool. Why? Because the tourists thought it was so cute that the pinnapeds were fascinated with the humans’ flashy trash. The reality was that the seal lions were mistaking the cubes for shiny fish… and eating them. What made things worse is that visitors could have purchased a handful of small fish to feed them, so they had every reason to be confused. It was a problem that was very hard to control. Then there are tragic cases of morons who think that they’re invincible. Here’s the official report on how stupidity led to a series of wolf-maulings at the park:

“San Diego Zoo (1971) A few months after the attack on the boy, a man scaled the fence and swung his arms in the exhibit to get the attention of the wolves and got it by being bitten severely on both arms. “San Diego Zoo (1973) Another boy tried to cross the same compound and was attacked, a security guard shot and killed one of the wolves, and the other fled as the boy was pulled to safety.” What’s really astonishing (in a sad, sickening sort of way) is that this account doesn’t mention the fact that, immediately after the first mauling, the Zoo installed the biggest caution signage I’ve ever seen. To ignore warnings like those, one has to possess what I call “aggressive stupidity.” Foolish humans.

ZOONOOZ and Zoorama

The first issue of the San Diego Zoo’s member publication, ZOONOOZ, was published in January of 1926, with Dr. Wegeforth’s driving buddy Caesar the bear as its first cover girl. The publication was originally intended to be read only by the 85 members of the San Diego Zoological Society. Its name was originally conceived by the San Diego Sun’s newspaper columnist W. B. France. He coined the word “palindrome,” which described “the-same-wordforward-backward-andupside-down,” all in capital letters, too. When asked if the Zoo might appropriate the word as the title of their educational publication, W. B. was happy to give it. The first issue of ZOONOOZ consisted of only eight pages, including covers. Among its contents were: a photo of the Scripps Aviary Flight Cage, an announcement about their northern elephant seal’s “San Diego Zoo (1971) record-breaking captivity, A 15-year-old boy climbed and the birth of twin nilgai the fence and tried to take a antelope, as well as a piece shortcut across the exhibit. with this—“one of the zoo’s He didn’t know there were big pachyderms had her wolves in the exhibit and Caesar the bear shows off on the cover of the first issue (Jan. 1926) picture in The Police Gazette tried to run when he saw of the Zoo’s publication, ZOONOOZ. the other day, in company them. The wolves grabbed with several woodland him by the leg attempting nymphs from the Balboa to drag him off. The boy grabbed a tree and hung on. Two bystanders jumped in the enclosure Theater.” Ninety years later, the publication is still thriving, now in color and full of beautiful photography of various animals and and attacked the wolves with tree branches. The wolves did not plants. attack the two men, but continued to maul the boy. Dragging the In 1955, a new television series brought the world famous boy and swinging their clubs, the boy was pulled out of the enclosure. San Diego Zoo into living rooms all over the world. Zoorama was The wolves in the enclosure were all young animals and it was initially a local television series that was shot at the San Diego Zoo thought that if the animals were mature, the boy would have died and which began airing solely on San Diego’s KCBS, Channel 8. before being rescued. RETROFAN

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The World Famous San Diego Zoo was the home of the popular syndicated Zoorama television series, originally hosted by Channel 8 weatherman Doug Oliver. Photos courtesy of Scott Shaw! © The San Diego Zoo. CBS logo © CBS.

Each black-and-white episode filmed its segment in one take and in real time. Each show consisted of three segments devoted to various animals, but no two of the same class of animal ever appeared in the same episode, and the show’s producers could choose from five different classes: mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and marsupials. Each segment featured the show’s host interviewing the Zoo’s various curators. The Zoo’s director, Dr. Charles Schroeder, was not only the big booster behind the show, he was also occasionally seen on-screen. The early seasons were broadcast live from the Zoo on Sunday afternoons, hosted by Channel 8’s weatherman, Doug Oliver. The spontaneity of the interviews and the unpredictability of the animals were a big draw. Within a few years, Oliver moved on, replaced by Channel 8’s new weatherman, feature reporter, and afternoon movie 58

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host, irrepressible, bowtie-wearing Bob Dale. San Diegan Bob Gardner was the show’s Director of Photography. In 1965, Zoorama was picked up for national broadcast on CBS and was finally filmed in color. Later in its run, the show was sold as a syndicated series. By then, Zoorama was being shot on film and dubbed in several languages, including Japanese. People around the world came to know the San Diego Zoo, making it even more “world-famous.” The new color opening, as the original, began with the sound of a whooping siamang monkey fading into Zoorama’s lively orchestral theme song. Bob Gardner recalled, “One time our electrician got things backwards and we were shooting a segment where Bob Dale and a curator were going to ride up the brand new moving sidewalk past the huge bird enclosure. When Dale stepped onto the moving sidewalk, holding his handheld microphone, and touched the railing, he got a full 120 volts through his microphone and his body and he let out a scream and an [expletive deleted] as we heard what sounded like lightening on the sound track. We almost killed him.” Funny now—not so funny then. Of course, the footage was saved for the blooper reel. The popular educational TV seriesended in 1970.

The Zoo in Hollywood

In its early years, the Zoo brought in much-needed funding to keep things going by renting animals to production companies for use in Hollywood films. For example, 1939’s Beau Geste featured

camels from the world famous San Diego Zoo. But it would be two decades until show business came to the Zoo for footage to include in their TV shows, movies, and more. Jan Berry and Dean Torrence was a popular singing duo whose tunes—the most successful of which were “The Little Old Lady from Pasadena” and “Dead Man’s Curve” (both 1964)—were lightweight and humorous songs primarily about Southern California’s surfing and hot rodding cultures. Jan and Dean’s popularity led to shooting a Desilu pilot for an unsold television series called Surf Scene in 1963. The duo even appeared in one of the greatest rockand-roll concert movies of that era, The T.A.M.I. Show (1964.) So, in 1966, they tried again with a second TV pilot, this time for 20th Century Fox Television. On the Run was a lightly plotted comedy concept similar to The Monkees, but frankly, the San Diego Zoo seems like the star of the show, despite the presences of Elizabeth Montgomery and Herb Vigran. It’s full of nostalgic scenes shot near the koala trees, the elephants, and the Tasmanian devil. I was a big fan of Jan and Dean at the time, so my father let me know exactly when and where in the Zoo they’d be shooting footage for the TV pilot. I was ready, standing nearby to see them shoot a scene with a few dromedary camels. Jan and Dean were proudly wearing long-sleeved velour shirts—at the time a hot new fashion fad—when one of the camels leaned over the enclosure railing and drooled thick mucus goobers all over the backs of the boys’ velour shirts. When they realized what had happened, Jan and Dean started cursing like the mean guys in the boys’ locker room. “Swear City, here we come!” Fortunately, the entire scene never made it into the unsold pilot. I just hope it will live forever on YouTube. [Editor’s note: Forgive the plug, but Dean Torrence is interviewed at length in my TwoMorrows book, Hero-A-Go-Go, including his accounts about disasters on the set of Jan and Dean On the Run. A short interview with him also appears in RetroFan #4.] On February 15, 1966, the Beach Boys members Carl Wilson, Brian Wilson, Dennis Wilson, Mike Love, and Al Jardine paid a visit to the world famous San Diego Zoo to photograph the cover of their upcoming record album, Pet Sounds. They were accompanied by photographer George Jerman and reporter Nikki Wine. After all seven of them took long cab rides from Los Angeles to San Diego, the rest of the day was spent shooting photos of the five Beach Boys posing with giraffes and goats in the Children’s Zoo paddock area. According to the reporter, who would go on to be a producer for Casey Kasem, “Once inside Publicity still from one of WFSDZ’s most famous cameo appearances, for the Beach Boys’ experimental album, Pet Sounds. © Universal Music Group.

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signed, but I’ve still got that copy of Pet Sounds that he passed on to me and which I often listened to for years. Aside from Jan and Dean’s On the Run (1965), TV series, TV movies, and TV specials that were shot at the WFSDZ include: ` Border Patrol, “A Bundle of Dope” (1959) ` Perry Mason, “The Case of the Cowardly Lion” (1961) ` Night Chase, a made-for-TV movie (1970) ` Harry O’s early episodes (1974) ` McDonaldland, “Zoo Trip” (1976) ` Switch, “The Cage” (1978) ` Bill Nye, the Science Guy, “Populations” (1995) ` Animal Planet Zoo-ventures (1997–present) ` In the Wild’s Zoo Babies with Whoopi Goldberg (1999) ` Panda Tales, a made-for-TV movie (2002) ` Betty White Goes Wild, a TV special (2013) Theatrical films shot at the WFSDZ include: ` Rampage (1963) ` Poto and Cabengo (1980) ` Killer Tomatoes Strike Back! (1991) Videos shot at the WFSDZ include: ` Rainbow Brite: San Diego Zoo Adventure (1985) ` The Beach Boys: A Day at the San Diego Zoo (2016)

(TOP) Screen capture from Perry Mason, Season Two/Episode 22, “The Case of the Cowardly Lion,” original airdate April 8, 1961. (BOTTOM) Zoo promotional material for that episode. © CBS.

the Zoo, we headed for the Children’s Zoo, where we were led into a huge pen which contained various odd species of lambs, goats, llamas, and a few other animals which defied any sort of description!” Before a major storm came in, they’d taken all of the shots they needed to choose from. My father provided the security for the Zoo, overseeing the photo shoot and controlling the crowds of fans while the Beach Boys posed with goats, Galapagos tortoises, and giraffes. Dad wasn’t impressed and referred to the Beach Boys—then and now one of my favorite musical groups—as “pukes”! Unlike the Jan and Dean shoot, I wasn’t there, but frankly, my dad was not happy with hippies, not unusual for a man who survived both the Great Depression and Pearl Harbor. The Beach Boys’ album Pet Sounds was released on May 16, 1966, and soon after that, Capitol Records sent a box of the albums to the Zoo as a token of the label’s thanks. They weren’t 60

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The world famous San Diego’s connections to the entertainment has led us right back to where we started. So the next time you’re watching Animal Planet’s The Zoo: San Diego, think about this: Those curators and doctors and zookeepers really know what they’re talking about, but now I’ve passed onto you a few weird facts about the Zoo that even some of those fine experts may not be aware of. Just do me a favor: The next time you see me at a fan event, please don’t toss me a slice of Wonder Bread. Or a bear biscuit. Thanks to the “bitchen” San Diegan Joanne Marshall for jarring loose a few zoo memories! Visit the Zoo’s website at zoo.sandiegozoo.org. For 48 years (and counting), SCOTT SHAW! has written and drawn underground comix, mainstream comic books, comic strips, graphic novels, TV cartoons, toys, advertising, and video games. He has worked on such characters as Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew (which he co-created with Roy Thomas), Sonic the Hedgehog, the Flintstones, the Jetsons, the Simpsons, the Futurama gang, the Muppet Babies, Garfield, the Garbage Pail Kids, and yes, even Annoying Orange. His career has garnered him four Emmy Awards, an Eisner Award, and a Humanities Award. Scott is also known for his “Oddball Comics Live!” visual presentation of “the craziest comic books ever published” and for his regular participation in “Quick Draw!” with Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragonés. He was also one of the teenagers who co-created what is currently known as Comic-Con International: San Diego, America’s biggest annual fan event. He can be reached at shawcartoons.com.

ANDY MANGELS’ RETRO SATURDAY MORNING

Bigfoot and Wildboy by Andy Mangels

Welcome back to Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning. Since 1989, I have been writing columns for magazines in the U.S. and foreign countries, all examining the intersection of comic books and Hollywood, whether animation or live-action. Andy Mangels Backstage, Andy Mangels’ Reel Marvel, Andy Mangels’ Hollywood Heroes, Andy Mangels Behind the Camera… three decades of reporting on animation and live-action—in addition to writing many books and producing around 40 DVD sets—and I’m still enthusiastic. In this RetroFan column, I will examine shows that thrilled us from yesteryear, exciting our imaginations and capturing our memories. Grab some milk and cereal, sit cross-legged leaning against the couch, and dig in to Retro Saturday Morning! Super-heroes on television enjoyed a golden year in 1976–1977, but the following season saw a much more experimental slate of programming on Saturday mornings. Goofiness abounded with new series like Wacko, Baggy Pants and the Nitwits, and What’s New Mr. Magoo, while real-world trends led to The C.B. Bears and The Skatebirds, in addition to the Muhammad Ali series I Am the Greatest. Filmation had their live-action Space Academy and animated The Young Sentinels debut, capitalizing on the post-Star Wars sci-fi craze. And Sid and Marty Krofft introduced two new concepts to their anthology series The Krofft Supershow, including genie-based comedy Magic Mongo, and hairy forestenvironmentalist heroes Bigfoot and Wildboy. This latter series is remembered by hardcore fans today even without licensing or release, but its origins and story have never before been told in print…

The Myths of Bigfoot and Wildboy

Before we get to the creation of Bigfoot and Wildboy, let’s explore what elements led to their creation… both the “real” and the “reel” Bigfoot and Wildboy. In the Seventies, one of the many crazes that gripped the nation alongside UFOs, ESP, MPD, and LSD (that would be Unidentified Flying Objects, Extra Sensory Perception, Multiple Personality Disorder, and Lysergic acid diethylamide) was the “cryptid” known either as Bigfoot or Sasquatch. Cryptids are animals or creatures that are considered real by followers of the

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cryptozoology pseudoscientific subculture; the only proof or evidence for their existence is generally (LEFT) A frame anecdotal or blurry photos or film. Mainstream from the 1967 science considers such “evidence” insufficient, and Patterson-Gimlin thus considers them myth at best, and hoaxes at film shows what worst. Normal folk, however, love them! is thought to be a Bigfoot is a cryptid that has elements throughout female Bigfoot. history, though the North American versions sprang up mostly in the mid-1800s. Bigfoot is generally a 6–9-foot-tall humanoid creature that is covered in long hair. Bigfoots are said to be exceedingly strong. Additionally, because of their large feet and great size, they leave behind tracks in the woods or mud or snow… tracks with big feet! He or she is similar to the Yeti or “Abominable Snowman,” though that white-furred creature is generally associated with the Himalayan regions in Tibet and elsewhere. Thousands of people over the last 200 years have claimed to have seen Bigfoot loping through (RIGHT) Buddy Foster is the woods—and not large bears, which also have a feral child in "The Wolf five toes—but the creature has eluded capture or Boy,” a 1976 episode of The any kind of proof. The Pacific Northwest of North Six MIllion Dollar Man. America seems to be Bigfoot Central, with about 1/3 © Universal Television. of reported sightings. In October 1967, filmmakers Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin reportedly photographed a female Bigfoot walking at Bluff Creek near Orleans, California. The one-minute clip was utilized in film and television documentaries thereafter, including in a November 1974 CBS documentary copopular episode of The Six Million Dollar Man titled “The Wolf Boy” produced by the Smithsonian Institution! (aired in October 1975). Played by Buddy Foster, Wolf Boy was Although films utilized Bigfoot—including 1970’s Bigfoot young, physically fit, and had long shaggy hair… not unlike the vs. Bikers feature known simply as Bigfoot—a pair of films were later Wildboy! drive-in cinema hits: The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972) and Return Although both Bigfoot and feral children were part of the to Boggy Creek (1977). Additionally, the hairy hominid occasionally cultural zeitgeist of the Seventies, it is undeniable that ABC’s popped up on television, with an appearance on Filmation’s The The Six Million Dollar Man is crucial to the creation of Bigfoot and Secrets of Isis in 1975 the most well known story until another hero Wildboy… took on the character. In the third season of ABC’s popular The Six The Kroffts and Ruby-Spears Million Dollar Man, cyborg secret agent Colonel Steve Austin faced the hirsute giant down in a two-part episode in February 1976. The The world of Saturday morning television was in its heyday in the mid-Seventies, and only a few companies ruled the roosts character was popular enough to have three more appearances, on the three networks: Hanna-Barbera Productions, Filmation including a stopover in ABC’s companion series The Bionic Woman. Associates, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, and Sid and Marty We’ll explore a bit more about that Bigfoot later in the article, but Krofft. Though Filmation had been dabbling with live-action first, let’s look at the concept of Wildboy… among its animated offerings, the Kroffts had almost singleFeral children were not a new concept by the 1970s, nor were handedly kept live-action on Saturday mornings since the Sixties, they mythological. Examples of human children who were first designing The Banana Splits for Hanna-Barbera in 1968, then isolated from other humans and “raised” by animals are extant throughout history. Popular culture is rife with the idea, including creating their hallucinatory (some would say hallucinogenic) monster-sized hit H. R. Pufnstuf (coming in RetroFan #16) in 1969. the stories of Tarzan in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ books (beginning With the success of H. R. Pufnstuf, the Kroffts were picked to in 1912) and Mowgli in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book (1894). do further Saturday morning development. They created the But in the Seventies, perhaps due to parents looking for reasons insect-themed musical series The Bugaloos for NBC (1970–1972), to explain why their long-haired children were so “out of control,” the anthropomorphic hat series Lidsville for CBS (1971–1973), the feral children were a staple in film, television, and books. humans-adopt-a-cute-sea-creature show Sigmund and the Sea ABC network was particularly invested in the feral concept, Monsters for NBC (1973-1975), the adventures of a family trapped as shown in 1977. They aired a telefilm called Lucan, about a boy in an alternate world full of dinosaurs and lizard-men Sleestaks raised by wolves, on May 22, 1977, which was popular enough known as the Land of the Lost for CBS (1974–1976), and androids to lead to an erratically airing series in September 1977. Played from the future trapped in the present in ABC’s The Lost Saucer by Kevin Brophy, Lucan was young, physically fit, and had long (1975). shaggy hair. Lucan was perhaps inspired by a character on a 62

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(TOP) Sid and Marty Krofft at a 1978 event. (BOTTOM) Joe Ruby and (LEFT) Ken Spears (RIGHT).

together with the highly likeable Kaptain Kool and the Kongs,” Rushnell recently wrote in an email interview. But the first season of The Krofft Supershow wasn’t the hit everyone wanted, so the 90-minute show was cut to 60 minutes. A second season was approved, but a clean sweep was made of the segments in exchange for two new series: a wacky comedy about three teens finding the bottle containing a genie, named Magic Mongo, and the location-filmed series Bigfoot and Wildboy. In a 1998 interview, Sid Krofft said of the inspiration for the show, “Well, Bigfoot was hot. Bigfoot was in the news. So why not? I mean, it always interested everybody, didn’t it? We never saw him, but we all sort of rooted for him, I think. But at the same time, you can’t just string together a bunch of random Bigfoot sightings and call it a series. Kids won’t accept that. They want to see him. And since you have to have some kind of a story, why not give him a career? Why not make Bigfoot a hero?” The job of making that happen was given to two Saturday morning veterans… Joseph Ruby and Kenneth Spears had worked side-by-side at Hanna-Barbera since the Fifties, where they eventually wrote episodes and developed new shows. Their first big hit was Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, which they co-created, but they left the company, frustrated that they couldn’t move up on the ladder to the role of associate producers. After a period of time With their other series in perpetual reruns by 1976, Krofft at DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, Ruby and Spears began working made a deal to create something new for ABC’s fall schedule: for Fred Silverman at CBS—and by 1976, at ABC—taking West a 90-minute anthology series with different components, Coast pitches for the New York-based hosted by a musical group. Due to FCC executive. Silverman then asked them regulations on commercials, the networks to help supervise the Saturday morning preferred 60-and-90-minute programs to shows, and even birth shows for ABC. offer advertisers as a package. The Krofft Because networks worked closely Supershow, as the new series was dubbed, with studios on content at that time, contained two-part stories throughout its Bigfoot and Wildboy Ruby-Spears not only contributed to run, with the first 15 minutes shown one ` No. of seasons: Two the series, they actually created shows, week, leading to a cliffhanger ending that ` No. of episodes: 20 half-hour working for both ABC and Hannawould keep kids tuned to the same channel episodes Barbera and Sid and Marty Krofft to view the second 15-minute story the ` Original run: 12.5-minute Television Productions at the same time! following week. Hosted by a band created segments, September 10, 1977– For the competing companies—but just for the series—the disco-riffic and September 2, 1978 (Saturdays) the same network—they created 1976’s beglittered Kaptain Kool and the Kongs— ` Second run: 30-minute series, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder (see RetroFan #13), the four components of the series were: June 2, 1979-August 18, 1979 Jabberjaw, ElectraWoman and DynaGirl, Dr. Shrinker, Wonderbug, The Lost Saucer, and (Saturdays) and Wonderbug, and 1977’s Captain ElectraWoman and DynaGirl (the latter show ` Network: ABC Caveman and the Teen Angels and Magic was covered extensively in RetroFan #8). Mongo. In the Seventies, the networks were Primary Cast intimately involved with the creation of ` Ray Young: Bigfoot Saturday morning content, and ABC’s Beginning Bigfoot and Wildboy ` Joseph Butcher: Wildboy head of children’s programming was Exactly how much Ruby and Spears ` Monika Ramirez: Suzie Lucas Fred Silverman, working with Squire were “influenced” in creating Bigfoot ` Ned Romero: Ranger Lucas Rushnell as his Vice President of Children’s and Wildboy by the similar episodes of ` Yvonne Regalado: Cindy Programming, and Peter Roth. “With ABC’s The Six Million Dollar Man, versus ` Al Wyatt, Jr.: Cindy’s father The Krofft Supershow, our motive was being influenced by cultural zeitgeist, ` Marvin Miller: Narrator to create a large block of programming is unknown. What is known is that with very compelling characters, melded Ruby and Spears conceptualized a

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show that introduced the hairiest ecological heroes ever seen, who shared an astonishing similarity to the primetime show’s similar characters. As the sonorous opening narration for the series stated: “Out of the great northwest comes the legendary Bigfoot, who, eight years ago, saved a young child lost in the vast wilderness and raised that child until he grew up to be Wildboy!” Bigfoot and Wildboy was the only Krofft series to not have a theme song. Despite being created by Ruby and Spears, Bigfoot and Wildboy became the near-singular vision of Donald R. Boyle, who wrote every episode, and directed at least six of the 20 total shows. In his stories, the man-beast and feral hero would regularly come up against mad scientists, super-villains, secret agents, and others, all of whom wanted to control the world, and many of whom seemed inordinately certain that stealing Plutonium was the answer to their quest. Occasionally, actual aliens or timetravelling Amazons would add a touch of science fiction to the stories. Instead of making plans in cities, the villains plotted mostly in the outdoors near the forests and canyons protected by Bigfoot and Wildboy. Bigfoot was played by Ray Young, a 37-year-old character actor. Due to his size, Young often played heavies and bad guys in episodic television including episodes of Gunsmoke, Police

BIGFOOT AND WILDBOY – EPISODE TITLES Krofft SS 1 — The Sonic Projector, Parts 1 and 2 (September 10, 1977) Krofft SS 2 — Black Box, Parts 1 and 2 (1977) Krofft SS 3 — Abominable Snowman, Parts 1 and 2 (1977) Krofft SS 4 — UFO, Parts 1 and 2 (1977) Krofft SS 5 — White Wolf, Parts 1 and 2 (1977) Krofft SS 6 — Amazon Contest, Parts 1 and 2 (1977) Krofft SS 7 — Secret Monolith, Parts 1 and 2 (1977) Krofft SS 8 — The Trappers, Parts 1 and 2 (1977)

BF and WB 1 — The Secret Invasion (June 2, 1979) BF and WB 2 — Space Prisoner (June 9, 1979) BF and WB 3 — The Birth of a Titan (June 16, 1979) BF and WB 4 — Bigfoot vs. Wildboy (June 23, 1979) BF and WB 5 — Meteor Menace (June 30, 1979) BF and WB 6 — Earthquake (July 7, 1979) BF and WB 7 — Eye of the Mummy (July 14, 1979) BF and WB 8 — The Wild Girl (July 21, 1979) BF and WB 9 — The Other Bigfoot (July 28, 1979) BF and WB 10 — Return of the Vampire (August 4, 1979) BF and WB 11 — Outlaw Bigfoot (August 11, 1979) BF and WB 12 — Spy from the Sky (August 18, 1979)

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(INSET) Ray Young, out of makeup in Wonder Woman, and (MAIN) behind the fur in Bigfoot and Wildboy! Bigfoot and Wildboy © Sid and Marty Krofft Productions. Wonder Woman © DC Comics.

Story, The Bionic Woman, and Wonder Woman. His “biggest” role in Hollywood to that date had been as the title character in Li’l Abner in 1971, an ABC musical that co-starred Krofft regular Billie Hayes (she was Witchiepoo on H. R. Pufnstuf ). He had previously met Sid Krofft when he saw the Kroffts’ puppet show Les Poupees de Paris at a restaurant named P.J.’s in Hollywood, and after consulting with Hayes, Young accepted the job as Bigfoot. Wildboy was played by 21-year-old Joseph A. Butcher, Jr., a Washington-state native. While playing the blind lead character in Butterflies Are Free at an L.A.-area community theater, he caught the eye of an agent. He was soon signed for a spot in the movie Hollywood High (1971), a guest role on The Waltons, and the co-lead on Bigfoot and Wildboy. Butcher’s career did not blossom af ter the Saturday morning show—despite a Joseph Butcher Fan Club springing up—and the actor only had three further credits. The male duo was aided by and/or rescuing a young girl named Suzie Lucas (the daughter of a Native American Forest Ranger) in the first season. Suzie was played by 20-year-old Monika Ramirez, a young-looking girl partial to pigtail braids. Ramirez was actually the cast member with the most credits, and despite online sites listing her as 12 years old, Suzie is clearly written as a tweenager. For the second season of the series, Suzie was replaced by a young collegiate archeology student named Cindy, played by 23-year-old Yvonne Regalado. Like Butcher, Regalado only had a few credits to her name, and her Hollywood career disappeared almost immediately, though she did work as a classical vocalist. Neither girl was treated particularly well by the stories—or characters—of Bigfoot and Wildboy. Typical for shows

Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning

of the era, the girls often needed to be saved more than they helped, and both lead male characters spoke condescendingly or passive-aggressively towards the girls. The Bigfoot costume was created by Siegfried H. Geike, a.k.a. Ziggy Geike, a.k.a. “Ziggy,” wigmaker to the stars. Ziggy had made his career disguising the balding of Burt Reynolds, Charlton Heston, and many other leading men, but now he had to hand-tie brown human hair to a full body stocking! In a 1998 interview, Ray Young revealed that he had gone to “take a look at the suit being constructed… and they had gotten all the way up to the chest and made no provisions in case Bigfoot had to go to the bathroom. Well, I got on the phone posthaste and said, ‘I can handle one of them. But the other one, I don’t think so.’ So, they had to go back and put a zipper in the front.” Two finished suits were created, front zipper intact. Because of how hot it was in the suit—and because filming took place in the warm Southern California sun—Young wore only a jockstrap underneath the costume. “The hair would wear off in places where an animal that hairy would normally have hair wear off: on the knees and on the fanny. So, all the little elves spent a lot of time sewing new hair on those two suits.” The heat inside the suit was “grueling… I wouldn’t be able to go in my trailer, because it was air-conditioned. Because if you go in the air-conditioning, you could get pneumonia.” The crew came to his rescue by creating a fan mounted on a portable generator. “When I wasn’t shooting, I could sit and this fan would be used on me. The guys in the crew were terrific. They helped keep me sane while I was doing the Foot.” That latter name—“The Foot”—is apparently what cast and crew called Young in costume.

Big Feet and Stunts!

If the plot of Bigfoot and Wildboy seemed overly familiar from The Six Million Dollar Man, Young claimed in the book interview that something more clearly was directly swiped from/inspired by the primetime hits: the slow-motion stunts and sound effects. Young had guested on The Bionic Woman the season prior, and suggested that they borrow the slow-motion moves. “I remember we had a heck of a time trying to figure out how to jump in and out of shots. In the beginning, they had like a trampoline that they wanted us to jump on. But when you’re wearing those feet, you can’t spot yourself. It’s impossible. I almost killed myself the day we were doing test shots and stuff…” Young’s stunt double was Al Wyatt, Jr., who would also portray Cindy’s father in the second season (and a second Bigfoot in a second-season show). Neither Wyatt nor Young could master jumping with a trampoline, but Young recalled his time watching Lindsay Wagner do her Bionic Woman jumps. “What they did was just crouch down and jump and then they cut before you’re out of frame. And I would jump out and down from a ladder to jump into a shot. And then there was stock footage of Al going through the air and doing stuff.” That “stuff” for Young and Wyatt was a lot of jumping, a lot of running, and endless Styrofoam boulder throwing—that latter stunt sometimes three times per episode!—with an occasional tree branch fight thrown in. Several episodes had avalanche

cave-ins that Bigfoot had to contend with, and in one show, he picked up the back of a flatbed truck from behind… a trick that Superman, Wonder Woman, the Hulk, Captain Marvel, and both bionic heroes had previously perfected. Once filmed, the stunts were set to bombastic music, used over and over from a stock set, and synthesized sound effects were added. The sounds were close enough to the bionic sound effects to remind the audiences of Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers, but not so close that a lawsuit could be brought.

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May 2021

Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning

First season stars Monika Ramirez as Suzie, Joseph Butcher as Wildboy, Ray Young as Bigfoot, and guest-star Christopher Brown in "The Abominable Snowman." © Sid and Marty Krofft Productions.

Besides, as all three series were on ABC, corporate probably looked at the “borrowing” as synergy. Wildboy rarely got to do stunts other than running, though he did carry a lasso coiled at his hip, which he used to capture several bad guys. He also swung from trees with it, Tarzan-style, though he could only swing from one tree at a time. At other times, Bigfoot would toss Wildboy to a higher vantage point or tree limb, resulting in whomever the stuntperson was hoping that their loincloth held in place as they zoomed past the camera. The most incongruous stunts for Wildboy were the few instances in which he had to drive—stick shift, no less!—as it would seem that a boy raised to teenhood by Bigfoot in the woods might have a difficult time grasping automobile mechanics.

Spotting Bigfoot in the Wild

Filming took place in the summer months, at a frenetic pace. Young recalled that the show sometimes filmed three episodes in a week, though it is unclear whether he meant the shorter half-episodes or the longer full-length shows. One exhausting day, he claimed that there were eighty separate camera set-ups! With very few exceptions—mostly involving some cave interiors that were in a rented special-effects warehouse—the shows were filmed outdoors on location. The outdoor sets were immediately recognizable to anyone who consumed television or films in from the Fifties to the Seventies. The Bronson Canyon section of Griffith Park in the Hollywood Hills was used as far back as 1919 in feature films and serials, and was a frequent sight on such shows as Star Trek, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Little House on the Prairie, The Lone Ranger, and more. One of its caves was also used as the infamous entrance to the Batcave in the Sixties Batman series. Other scenes were shot in 66

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the Lake Sherwood and Westlake area. Some shots on Bigfoot and Wildboy so closely resembled those used on Filmation’s Shazam!— which had previously filmed in the same locations—that one almost wondered if the Kroffts borrowed the footage. Speaking of filming, unlike other Krofft series that were created on videotape, Bigfoot and Wildboy was actually filmed. With bright colors and open air, the lensing gave the series a look unlike most others on Saturday morning. The inclusion of live animals in many episodes also aided the outdoor feel; skunks, wolves, and Tdonka the mountain lion appeared every now and then, but Sha-Tu the Hawk featured in most episodes as a lookout bird for the heroes. Both Bigfoot and Wildboy seemed to be able to communicate with the animals, either vocally or telepathically. When creating his scripts, writer/director Donald R. Boyle made the unusual decision to not have Bigfoot speak much English language, although he seems to understand it completely. The Krofft show Land of the Lost had previously used a made-up language for the Pakuni primates, and Bigfoot’s language resembled it closely. Without scripts or closed captioning available, one has to look to the Bigfoot and Wildboy comic appearances for spellings of words including hungaro, caramba, wan otah, meen tahgu, zungom, mero stawaza, masaba, mehesoma, megoya, wenooah, ding-ha, mena, and win-taw. Speaking of Land of the Lost, one Bigfoot and Wildboy storyline, “The Secret Monolith,” even crossed over with that property, as a lizard-like Sleestak came to the woods! Another episode in the second season almost had a crossover with Marvel, though in “The Birth of a Titan,” the male character changes into an orangeskinned clothes-ripping super-strong hulk-like beast, rather than a green-skinned goliath. Meanwhile, a few famous faces made guest appearances on the series. Dee Wallace showed up as an Amazon five years before her motherly duties in 1982’s E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. The Brady Bunch’s Christopher Knight became a semi-werewolf in another show. Sorrell Booke hogged his scenes just prior to becoming Boss Hogg on The Dukes of Hazzard. Tall actor Carel Struycken essayed a character in an episode long before being fan-favorite characters on Twin Peaks, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the Addams Family movies. And one actor, Richard Moll, made his television-acting debut against Bigfoot. In an interview in Starlog #188 (Mar. 1993), Moll said, “I played a character named Lohr Khan 1, a faceless creature with long, hairy fingers who could touch a rock and turn it into lava.”

Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning

The second season of The Krofft Supershow began airing on ABC on September 10, 1977. Each week, a 12.5-minute segment of Bigfoot and Wildboy would air (the second half would also feature a three-minute recap of the previous half). Sixteen segments, comprising eight storylines, were aired and rerun until the series completed its run on September 2, 1978. Segments of the show were also included in the ABC All-Star Thanksgiving Festival on November 24, 1977. ABC planned to bring back Bigfoot and Wildboy as a standalone series, and 12 half-hour episodes were filmed, eschewing the twopart predecessors. The show might have been put on the Fall 1978 schedule, except that there wasn’t room in the hours available. When the ABC Weekend Special went on hiatus at the end of May 1979, ABC had its chance. The new Bigfoot and Wildboy series aired June 2–August 18, 1979, with 12 weeks of new shows. Despite online sources saying that the previous two-parters were also edited into 30-minute episodes and aired, that was actually done for the Eighties’ syndicated Monday–Friday series Krofft Super Stars. And then, the hairy heroes left the airwaves, as Kids Are People Too replaced them in the timeslot for the remaining few weeks of the season. The finish of Bigfoot and Wildboy episodes would be as sad distinction for the Kroffts; with the cancellation, there were no new Krofft shows on Saturday mornings until Fall 1984! Very little licensing was ever done for Bigfoot and Wildboy. Whitman produced a frame tray puzzle, and a T-shirt transfer was also offered in a book of Krofft transfers. The biggest items to come out of the series were on paper: Golden Press released The New Krofft Supershow storybook, which was written and illustrated by some of the same creators that produced the sixissue The New Krofft Supershow comic-book series under both the Gold Key and Whitman publishing imprints (Apr. 1978–Jan. 1979). Artists on the series included Ernie Colón, Mel Crawford, Jack Sparling, Bill Williams, and Win Mortimer; the writer is unknown. Ray Young does have an interesting coda to his story: in 1979, fresh from finishing Bigfoot and Wildboy, Young was cast as a monster for the science-fiction series Salvage 1, an ABC primetime series starring Andy Griffith. The costumers asked him to come in for a fitting, hoping their monster suit would fit him. Young assured them that it would the moment he saw the suit, telling them he had just worn it for two years; the production had rented the Bigfoot suit from the Kroffts, not knowing the same actor would wear it! Regular readers of this column know that I try to provide some new interview segments or quotes, but sadly, this series proved an impossibility to provide such elements. Almost everyone involved with the series is gone. In preparation for this article, I attempted to find anyone involved, only to learn that of the four main cast members, only Joseph Butcher was alive, but even his extended family members didn’t know where he was. Writer/director Boyle has

Bigfoot and Wildboy Lope Onto the Air

BIGFOOT AND WILDBOY – LIFE LESSONS

Many of the episodes concluded with Wildboy delivering— or translating from Bigfoot—an educational life lesson, to appease the moral watchdogs that required educational value in all Seventies Saturday morning shows. Here are some words of wisdom from Wildboy: ` “See, even a man as brilliant as the Professor can do evil if he becomes too selfish.” ` “Even an invention that makes weapons disappear is still a weapon, and anybody with a weapon is tempted to use it!” ` “Anyone who wants to control weather for his own evil purposes is a danger to us all.” ` “Power in the wrong hands can be the most harmful thing in the world, whether that world is in our time, or in the future.” ` “The greatest danger of all is when someone, or something, controls your mind.” ` “All the resources in the world can help mankind, but like Plutonium in the wrong hands, they can also destroy man.” ` “Some of the secrets of history are better off left unknown.” ` “Nature returns everything and everyone to its rightful place… unless man interferes.” ` “That’s the trouble with man. When he breaks nature’s laws, he has to pay an even bigger price.”

A TV Guide ad for the special Thanksgiving airing of Bigfoot and Wildboy in 1977.

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Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning

been missing in action since 2000, and all four other directors had passed away. Gone from this world were the show’s creators, producers, cinematographers, assistant directors, and even the series' hairstylist.

Backing Up to the Bionic Bigfoot

I would be remiss in this article if—after directly stating that Bigfoot and Wildboy borrowed heavily from The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman shows—I did not actually provide further information on the shows in question. In deference to any who have not seen the classic fan-favorite episodes, I won’t reveal the actual secret of Bigfoot from the show, but the character’s first appearances were in the third season Six Million Dollar Man episodes “The Secret of Bigfoot” and “The Secret of Bigfoot (Part II),” aired on February 1 and 4, 1976. In the story, show hero Steve Austin (Lee Majors) and his boss, Oscar Goldman (Richard Anderson), are working with a team of scientists in the California mountains, when some of them encounter the huge Sasquatch—a.k.a. Bigfoot (played by André the Giant)—Steve is brought into a fight that involves not only Bigfoot, but also aliens, earthquakes, and a potential nuclear explosion! “I needed a Bigfoot,” series writer/producer Kenneth Johnson said in a DVD interview in 2010. “Where do you find a Bigfoot? I looked around, and André the Giant was suggested to me… He only spoke French, which left me really handicapped because my French was not that good. But he was enormous!” André Rene Rousimoff suffered from acromegaly, a disease known more commonly as “giantism,” and stood 7’4”, weighing over 475 pounds! Eventually becoming a wrestler in Canada, André was signed to the World Wrestling Federation in 1972. Bigfoot would become his first Hollywood role, though he already had significant fame in the wrestling world. Show director Cliff Bole remembers in a 2010 DVD interview that “André would go through catering like a bull in a china shop. His arms were laden with food.” The first day of filming alone, André devoured three complete chickens! In one scene, Bigfoot had a fight with Lee Majors’ stunt double, Vince Deadrick. Sr., on the backlot of Universal Studios. “He throws me down again, and I go down this little mini-cliff,” Deadrick recalled in a 2010 DVD interview. “Then he comes at me and he wears a size 25 shoe! He jumps off this cliff… and all I see are these two huge feet coming at me. If they hit me, forget it… and I rolled out of the way, and actually the ground shook when he hit!” The make-up for André was a three-hour chore for each of the ten days of filming the duology. A cast had been made of his face to create a mold for built-up latex molded appliances like cheeks, His face and make-up were then covered in brown greasepaint, then crepe hair was glued down and applied. Special contact lenses and sharp-toothed dental appliances completed the look, prior to André ever stepping into the suit. Bigfoot proved a huge ratings hit for the series. In the tome The Bionic Book: The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman Reconstructed, star Lee Majors joked, “Bigfoot became our staple. If we wanted a 45% share, all we would have to do is pop in Bigfoot.” Indeed, the following season saw him return for the season premieres of two shows! “The Return of Bigfoot” (airing 68

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September 19, 1976) was the fourth-season debut of The Six Million Dollar Man, while “The Return of Bigfoot (Part II)” airing September 22, 1976) was the second-season debut for The Bionic Woman! In this storyline, both Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers (Lindsay Wagner) must use their bionics to fight—and/or team up with—Bigfoot and aliens, all while recovering from radiation poisoning… and with a volcanic geological catastrophe imminent! “The Bigfoot episodes were so popular that we decided to bring him back,” writer/producer Kenneth Johnson said in the DVD interview. “André by then was making a huge amount of money in the wrestling ring and all over the world, and we couldn’t get him… I was lucky enough to discover Ted Cassidy…” Cassidy was best known as the deadpan butler Lurch on the 1964– 1966 ABC sitcom The Addams Family, but lesser known was the fact that he was also the disembodied hand Thing. Cassidy had also been recording animated cartoon voices for Hanna-Barbera, and occasionally, Filmation. At “only” 6’9”, he was a full seven inches shorter than André, but he was tall enough for Bigfoot in the costume! In Starlog #115 (Feb. 1987), Cassidy said of the role of Bigfoot, “Oh, it was awful, just bloody awful. That was the most uncomfortable outfit any man could wear. There were times when I actually fell to my knees from the heat. I thought I was going to pass out, because we filmed the first show in a heat wave, and I was wearing that suit and had hair all over my face, contact lenses, a huge wig on my head, these heavy high-heeled boots—I had no mobility in that thing—and those awful-looking teeth that clamp into your mouth. There was hardly an orifice that wasn’t plugged up. It must have been 200 degrees at all times inside that hair suit!” André the Giant as Bigfoot and Lee Majors as Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar Man. (INSET) Ted Cassidy was the second Bionic Bigfoot. © Universal Television.

Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning

Bigfoot and Wildboy appeared in a few licensed products, including storybooks and comic books. © Sid and Marty Krofft Productions.

The final appearance of the bionic Bigfoot was in the fifth episode of the fifth season of The Six Million Dollar Man. “Bigfoot V” aired on Sunday evening, October 9, 1977, the day following the fifth segment airing of Bigfoot and Wildboy. In this show, Steve Austin once again came into conflict with the hirsute woodland protector. Ted Cassidy returned to the role, but as he told Starlog, he wasn’t pleased. “I’m glad that show was cancelled—at least on my behalf, because I would have had to do Bigfoot again. You may say, ‘You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.’ I say that’s true, but I have to pay the rent. That’s what this job as an actor is unless you are independently wealthy or you have become well known enough in the profession to command a lot of money, and I haven’t—so you do what you must to survive.” Bigfoot was popular enough on the two series to not just garner a place in fans’ hearts, but in their toy boxes as well. In mid1977, Kenner released the 15” Bionic Bigfoot doll as part of their Six Million Dollar Man toyline. Molded completely in plastic and resembling André the Giant’s look, the toy came with a removable chest plate. Kenner also released a boxed set of 3¾” figures of Steve Austin and Bigfoot in 1977, known as the Dual Launch Drag Set. With this set, the two characters could drag race with an airpumped “turbo tower of power”! In 2012, Bif Bang Pow! released a 9 5/8” Bigfoot doll, dressed in an actual cloth costume, while in 2013, Zica Toys released a retrostyle 3.75” Bigfoot figure. Recently, Monsters in Motion created a ¼ scale Bionic Bigfoot resin bust model kit, though it’s unknown if this is an official licensed item or a “garage kit.” The coolest piece

of merchandise, however, is the 2009 CD score for “The Return of Bigfoot (Part II),” self-released by composer Joe Harnell in a limited edition of 1500 copies. Bionic Bigfoot’s final appearance to date was in the 2012 The Bionic Man series from Dynamite, issues #12–15. The storyline is collected in a trade paperback entitled The Bionic Man vol. 2: Bigfoot.

Bigfoot and Wildboy’s Legacy

Today, Bigfoot and Wildboy is almost a forgotten piece of Krofft history. Unlike other series that saw licensing and home video releases, this show got almost no love. In 1985, under their Children’s Treasures banner, Embassy Home Entertainment released two VHS volumes of Bigfoot and Wildboy, the first with two stories, and the second with three complete stories. Over a decade later, a few more shows crept out of the vaults. In 1999, Rhino Home Video offered a three-VHS set of The World of Sid & Marty Krofft, which contained one Bigfoot and Wildboy episode (a DVD release followed in 2002). In 2009, in Columbia House’s ten-volume VHS set of The World of Sid and Marty Krofft, volume 9 contained another single episode. In 2010, Vivendi released a DVD called Sid & Marty Krofft’s Saturday Morning Hits which also contained one episode. Of the 20 episodes, only eight have been released. Fans cannot even find bootlegs of the series in its entirety either online or at conventions, making the series both beloved and befuddlingly forgotten. With the world melting into global warming, perhaps it’s time for somebody to make a deal with the Kroffts to release Bigfoot and Wildboy on home media or streaming. After all, Swamp Thing seems pretty busy in the bayous, and the rest of the planet could use some help from a hirsute hero. As Sid Krofft said in 1998, “Somebody’s got to protect the environment. Why can’t it be Bigfoot?” To which we can only add, “and Wildboy!” Artwork and photos are courtesy the collection of Andy Mangels, unless otherwise credited. Quotes from Sid Krofft and Ray Young are from the 1998 book Pufnstuf & Other Stuff: The Weird and Wonderful World of Sid & Marty Krofft. Quotes from Kenneth Johnson, Cliff Bole, and Vince Deadrick, Sr. are from the short documentaries “The Search For Bigfoot” and “Season 4 VIPs: A Celebration of the Six Million Dollar Man Guest Stars” from the 2010 Time-Life DVD release The Six Million Dollar Man: The Complete Collection boxed set. ANDY MANGELS is the USA Today bestselling author and co-author of 20 books, including the TwoMorrows book Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation, as well as Star Trek and Star Wars tomes, Iron Man: Beneath the Armor, and a lot of comic books. He recently wrote the bestselling Wonder Woman ’77 Meets the Bionic Woman series for Dynamite and DC Comics, and has written six Fractured Fairy Tales graphic novels for Junior High audiences, for Abdo Books (Jan. 2021). He is currently working on a book about the stage productions of Stephen King, and other projects. Additionally, he has scripted, directed, and produced Special Features and documentaries for over 40 DVD releases. His moustache is infamous. www.AndyMangels.com and www. WonderWomanMuseum.com RETROFAN

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SUPER COLLECTOR

by Billy Ferguson

Like most people, I got into Scooby-Doo at a young age. The first thing I remember is getting up for school each morning and my momma would have it on, ready for me and my brother to watch. I was always excited to watch it and couldn’t wait! It was the reruns of the original 1969 Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! We would sit in the floor in front of the TV, eating cereal, waiting for the bus. I remember the episode “Decoy for a Dognapper” scared me to death. It had an Indian witch doctor (along with scary sounds) that gave me the creeps. There were other episodes that scared me, but that one really stands out in my mind. I loved scary things, but at the same time was scared by them. Scooby-Doo fit right in with that theme. My brother and I watched all the other reincarnations of Scooby that came on through the years. By high school we stopped watching as much. It wasn’t till years later when the live-action films came out that I started getting back in to it. Also, I was older and felt like I related more to the character of Shaggy. I always hang out with the outcast and bookworm-type of people, but did have a jock friend like Fred and a couple popular Daphne-type friends, too. I am scared of most frightening things, but my friends can usually drag me in to one of those haunted Halloween attractions 70

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that I hate so much. The last one I walked through, I held my hands to the side of my face and looked down at the floor so I wouldn’t see the scary things that jumped out. I am six-feettall, 160 pounds, brown eyes, and have a scruffy face just like Shaggy. I would also consider myself a tiny bit of a hippie. Even though I don’t like going in a made-up haunted attraction around Halloween, I do love spooky things and my favorite holiday is Halloween. One reason is, I love to make my own costumes and dress up as characters, especially as Shaggy. I always include my friends in on my cosplay adventures. Recently, a friend and I dressed up as Scooby and Shaggy and had pictures made at a “real” haunted house in town. We always go around looking for creepy or abandoned places to take photos, like real “meddling kids.” I have been to a few comic-book shows dressed as Shaggy and I am even going to play him at a local corn-maze farm that will be having a Scooby-Doo theme. I am 33 now but did not start collecting Scooby-Doo merchandise till I was in my middle to late 20s. It started when I found a few things from a flea market and then a few more and a few more till it started taking over my whole bedroom. Now my room looks like a Scooby-Doo museum. I don’t have many rare items, but some of my favorite things are the older pieces from the early Seventies: a drawing my niece drew me and a set of Burger King toys my brother and I got when we were little. I have one figurine in the box of Shaggy that is signed by Casey Kasem, the man who voiced Shaggy in the cartoons. My favorite thing about Scooby is just how I do relate to Shaggy, how I am a big scaredy-cat but still brave enough to actually face what scares me… most of the time. Another is the original 1969 cartoon. Of all the Scooby-Doo shows made, that’s the one most people love the best. Every time I hear that theme song it takes me back to a happy time in my life. Super Collector BILLY FERGUSON is a handyman and artist living in Tennessee. When not cosplaying as Shaggy, he enjoys going to thrif t shops and flea markets to seek out more Scooby-Doo collectibles, as well as items for his Wizard of Oz and Harry Potter collections.

(ABOVE) Zoinks! Billy Ferguson as Shaggy, lurking amid more Scooby-Doo collectibles than you can fill a Mystery Machine with. (OPPOSITE) Random images of Scooby treasures in the Ferguson household and collection. Scooby-Doo TM & © Hanna-Barbera Productions. Photos courtesy of Billy Ferguson.

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May 2021

ED AND EXP COND SE ION! EDIT

THE WORLD OF TWOMORROWS

JACK KIRBY’S DINGBAT LOVE

KIRBY & LEE: STUF’ SAID

MAC RABOY

25th anniversary retrospective by publisher JOHN MORROW and COMIC BOOK CREATOR magazine’s JON B. COOKE! Go behind-the-scenes with MICHAEL EURY, ROY THOMAS, GEORGE KHOURY, and a host of other TwoMorrows contributors!

The final complete, unpublished Jack Kirby stories in existence, presented here for the first time, in cooperation with DC Comics! Two unused 1970s DINGBATS OF DANGER STREET tales, plus unseen TRUE-LIFE DIVORCE and SOUL LOVE magazines!

Examines the complicated relationship of Marvel Universe creators JACK KIRBY and STAN LEE through their own words (and Ditko’s, Wood’s, Romita Sr.’s and others), in chronological order, from fanzine, magazine, radio, and TV interviews!

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MICHAEL EURY looks at comics’ CAMP AGE, when spies liked their wars cold and their women warm, and TV’s Batman shook a mean cape! (272-page FULL-COLOR trade paperback) $36.95 (Digital Edition) $13.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-073-1

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RETRO GAMES

WWF WrestleFest

How the rush of professional wrestling, the explosion of the arcade, and the innovations of a start-up company out of Japan ushered in the most legendary wrestling video game of all time! by John “THE MEGO STRETCH HULK” Cimino © Technōs Japan Corp.

Despite what you think of professional wrestling today, there was a time when it was a pop-culture phenomenon and everybody was talking about it. It was so big that the whole industry came out of the doldrums of cult and became a bombastic super-soapopera carnival on steroids. Many middle-aged, cigar-chomping purists who first scoffed at such blasphemy would soon join in cheering these new larger-than-life modern-day gladiators bursting in neon colors once they got a taste of the excitement from the “Rock ’n’ Wrestling Connection.” And it wasn’t just the older folks—millions of children became obsessed. They couldn’t wait to watch “pro wrasslin’” on the tube after Saturday morning cartoons to see comic-book-like heroes come to life. This glorious period in time was the ten years from 1982 to 1992 (with 1987 being its peak year) that became known as “The Golden Age of Wrestling”… and it truly was.

On the back of Hulk Hogan, cable television and pay-perview promoter Vincent Kennedy McMahon built the WWF (which he bought from his father in 1982 and jump-started “The Golden Age of Wrestling” decade of dominance) into a financial behemoth. And to go along with Hogan’s incredible surge in popularity (dubbed “Hulkamania”) when he won the WWF World Championship from the Iron Sheik on January 23, 1984, in 1985 McMahon created the greatest yearly wrestling spectacle ever with WrestleMania. To keep up with the demand of their ever-growing fan base, the WWF took a new route in licensing the images of Hulk Hogan and other popular WWF superstars to product manufacturers. Their faces were now appearing everywhere in pop culture: television, cartoons, commercials, clothing, toys, books, magazines, posters, dolls, food products, costumes, movies, and music. Nothing was off limits, especially for video Dedicated to the games that were experiencing a “Golden Age” of The Golden Age of Wrestling memory of Joseph their own. During that decade, some of the most popular Michael Laurinaitis, While the arcade had been more of a novelty wrestlers were Hulk Hogan, “Nature Boy” Ric a.k.a. Road Warrior in years prior, it wasn’t until the release of the Flair, the Road Warriors: Hawk and Animal (a.k.a. Animal (1960–2020). Space Invaders console in 1978 that catapulted the Legion of Doom), Ultimate Warrior, “Rowdy” the entire industry to all new heights of Roddy Piper, Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, popularity. From then on, children, teenagers, Sting, Sgt. Slaughter, Randy “Macho Man” and adults alike were hanging out at their local arcade, frequently Savage, and André the Giant. Besides them, there were so many spending their hard-earned money to capture the highest scores. other colorful and charismatic characters that became household New games/cabinets/consoles came on the scene and became names. And while there were many different regional federations so popular that even the characters in the games themselves that spawned these wrestlers and each had their own respected became part of the culture. Who today doesn’t know Pac-Man, world champion, it was the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) Donkey Kong, or Mario? that was the most popular of them all. RETROFAN

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retro games

Kunio-Kun in Japan), that they became more marketable overseas and had their sidescrolling “beat-’em-up” style of video-game play (nicknamed “belt stroller” style) the company started to become known for. The very next year they honed that style with their biggest hit, the worldwide smash sensation Double Dragon. It quickly became licensed by other companies for various platforms and spawned multiple sequels. When Technōs grew into a major power in 1987, they opened a subsidiary in Cupertino, California, called American Technōs Incorporated. With offices in both Japan and North America, they would release a wide variety of games for a host of different platforms all over the world. Their record spoke for itself when Technōs got together with the WWF to make an arcade game based on their wildly popular wrestling product. Around this time, the WWF had already licensed video games © Technōs Japan Corp. to other companies for other platforms, but never for an arcade console. Technōs The rise of the arcade in the early Eighties coincided with the had achieved a ton of success with pro-wrestling arcade games rise of professional wrestling. How could it not? Both industries when they released Tag Team Wrestling and Mat Mania a few years boasted these larger-than-life, colorful characters that captivated prior, and the other games they currently had in the arcades the youth of the world and kept boys and girls coming back for kept that industry booming. Ultimately, the two companies more. In essence, professional wrestling and the arcade was a became a perfect “tag team” (sorry, I couldn’t help it), with match made in heaven! “So what’cha gonna do when Hulkamania Technōs going through the process of outlining the wrestlers’ and Galaga runs wild on you!?!” moves, introductions, and biographies, while the WWF offered Technōs Japan was founded in 1981, and legend tells us it was assistance and approval every step of the way. “And that’s why started out of a single-room apartment, co-created by Kunio Taki they call me Mr. Perfect!” and Takashi Hanya (who left their respected jobs at Data East), and Taeko Hagiwara. True or not, this small start-up was destined WWF Superstars for big things. They released their first video game, Minky Monkey, In 1989, Technōs released WWF Superstars, and it was a proin 1982, and in the next year they would debut the very first pro wrestling arcade game like one never seen before. It was a single wrestling video game Tag Team Wrestling (or Big Pro Wrestling, as or two-player (simultaneous) game that fully captured the it was known in the East), produced by Data East. In 1985, they mannerisms of its six playable WWF superstars: Hulk Hogan, improved on that game dramatically with another pro-wrestling Ultimate Warrior, “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, Honky Tonk Man, Big video game called Mat Mania (known in Japan as Exciting Hour), Boss Man, and Randy “Macho Man” Savage. It also perfectly laid produced by Taito Corporation. Initially, Technōs had to have their out the basic premise of how a good pro-wrestling video game games published by other companies, as they did not have the should function. The player chooses their character as well as a economical resources to distribute their own product. But that tag-team partner; the goal is to take a tag team through the ranks would change as time went on. to face the tag-team champions the Mega Bucks (which included Japan also had a huge audience that loved professional “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase and André the Giant). If wrestling (called “Puroresu”) and boasted successful, the player would then many regional federations of their own. be able to play through a second During the decade of “The Golden Age tier of matches, once again of Wrestling,” pro wrestling became ending in a match against the even more popular there as well. Due to Mega Bucks to beat the game. this rise in popularity, Technōs’ Tag Team The game itself features a Wrestling and Mat Mania arcade games grappling and attack system became cult hits for the company. And with the side-scrolling “beatwhen those games made their way to ’em-up” style that Technōs had the American arcade scene, they became perfected. From a grapple, a player can slam their opponent, even bigger. However, it wasn’t until 1986, throw them into the ropes, or when Technōs released their first major get them into a headlock from hit, Renegade (known as Nekketsu Kouha 74

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playable superstars: Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Big Boss Man, “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase, Earthquake, Mr. Perfect, Sgt. Slaughter, Jake “The Snake” Roberts, and the Demolition: Smash and Crush. Each wrestler performed all their specific maneuvers including signature finishers and taunts. The grappling system was absolutely revolutionary for its time. While it functioned just like WWF Superstars and the Technōs sidescrolling “beat-’em-up” style with twobutton mashing at its finest, as the action progressed and wrestlers took damage, new moves became available. There were also voice samples, including pre-match introductions by WWF ring announcer Mike McGuirk, voiced cut scenes featuring “Mean” Gene Okerlund, new ring entrances, the crowd cheering and booing for the baby faces and heels (the good wrestlers and bad wrestlers, respectively), © Technōs Japan Corp. full match commentary, and two dif ferent modes of gameplay: Saturday Night’s which character-specific grapple moves could be performed. Each Main Event (Tag Match) and Royal Rumble (Battle Royal). wrestler also possesses standing strikes, running attacks, running In the “Tag Match,” much like the previous WWF Superstars, counterattacks, ground attacks, ducking, reversals, and moves it’s a single or two-player (simultaneous) game where a player from the top turnbuckle. There was even tag partner interference, picks a character and partner to compete in a series of tag-team flashy ring entrances, foreign objects when you fight outside the matches (that now included double-team maneuvers and a ring (make sure you don’t get counted out), and a referee that match inside a steel cage) to fight for the tag-team titles. This roamed around making pin counts. Overall, this game was a great time the champions you face are the fearsome Legion of Doom: first impression for arcade and WWF fans alike, as it laid down Hawk and Animal, who possess their dreaded finisher, the the foundation of what was to come. Doomsday Device! If you manage to defeat them, you’ll go on to WWF Superstars became popular enough for Technōs to defend the tag-team belts in another series of matches to face spawn a sequel arcade game for the WWF that debuted in 1991. the Legion of Doom one more time to beat the game. Good luck. Incredibly, they took all the innovations they made with WWF Superstars, cranked it up a hundred notches, and injected the pure magic of the WWF Universe into the JAMMA board (arcade cabinet purists will get that reference, so don’t judge). It broke all the rules and has made such an impact in the arcade and professional-wrestling hallways of legend that the vibrations and influence of it are still felt to this very day. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you (cue Hulk Hogan’s theme song “Real American”), the World Heavyweight Champion of Wrestling Video Games-WWF WrestleFest!!!

WWF WrestleFest

Right of f the bat, WWF WrestleFest pulled no punches with its megaenhanced 2-D graphics, play and sound that perfectly captured the look and feel of the WWF during “The Golden Age of Wrestling.” It boasted ten

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better, especially during the mid-Nineties, with the release of the Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation, and Nintendo 64. These systems could not only rival the arcade consoles, but blow them away—in every way. By the time the PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, and arcade machine emulators (such as RAINE and MAME) came out, anyone could have their own arcade in their home, with hundreds of games at their fingertips.

Nineties Knockabouts

In the “Battle Royal,” up to four players can play simultaneously in a fast-paced survival match where more wrestlers enter the ring once someone gets eliminated by pinfall, submission, or being thrown over the ropes. If you can be the last man standing after every wrestler is eliminated, you win the match. There were a lot of wrestling video games on the market back then, but they were all dwarfed in comparison to WWF Wrestlefest as it was a true anomaly and went on to be American Technōs’ bestselling arcade game. But despite how successful, groundbreaking, and downright fun WWF WrestleFest was for fans, nothing, but nothing could prepare the arcade, the WWF, and even Technōs for the backlash that the decade of the Nineties would bring. First to feel the impact was the arcade. While arcade consoles and pinball machines got more sophisticated and expensive, the price for kids to play them increased dramatically. During the early days, just about every game was 25 cents to play. Now, the cost increased anywhere from 50 cents to two dollars a game (sometimes even more)—and that was just to start! Many new popular arcade games like Street Fighter II, Mortal Combat, and even WWF WrestleFest were money-gobblers, as players had to plop in more quarters just so they could continue play or regain time and energy. Most people, especially kids, couldn’t afford that. This coincided with home video game consoles getting

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With Hulk Hogan aging and fans now becoming tired of “Hulkamania,” Hogan took an extended leave of absence after WrestleMania VIII, and “The Golden Age of Wrestling” officially ended by mid 1992 (Hogan would return in March of the following year before leaving the WWF entirely that August). Vince McMahon now had to look at other top talent to help plug the void that the Hulkster left behind, to find a new face for the company. In October of 1992, Brett “Hitman” Hart defeated “Nature Boy” Ric Flair for the WWF World Championship and ushered in the “New Generation” era. Sadly, this era didn’t live up

to the hype and fan attendance dropped considerably (it wasn’t just the WWF that suffered; professional wrestling as a whole fell into a big slump). In 1993, while dealing with that, McMahon was indicted in a federal court after a steroid controversy engulfed his promotion, forcing him to temporarily give control of the WWF to his wife Linda. The case went to trial in 1994, where McMahon himself was accused of distributing steroids to his wrestlers. If that wasn’t enough, that same year, the World Wildlife Fund (which also trademarked WWF) insisted that McMahon sign a legal agreement ensuring they limit their use of the “WWF” acronym outside of North America. In return, the World Wildlife Fund agreed not to pursue further litigation against him. Predictably, both companies did eventually go to court in 2000, and after a bunch of litigation, arguments, and drama, the World Wrestling Federation officially changed their name to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on May 5, 2002. While the arcade and the WWE (and the entire world of professional wrestling) would rebound and reinvent themselves over and over to continue onto this very day, Technōs wasn’t as lucky. The drop in arcade and professional-wrestling attendance ended their partnership, so a sequel to WWF WrestleFest was

retro games

They even went so far as to put images of wrestlers from Mat Mania in the story mode part of the game and hopefully will include them as eventual downloadable characters. Retromania Wrestling was released for various home consoles in 2021, and does a wonderful job carrying on the classic Technōs tradition. While sequels are great, nothing beats the original arcade console from 1991. Whether you’re a rabid collector of “oldschool” WWF merchandise or a “classic” arcade console hoarder, a WWF WrestleFest cabinet is a “holy grail” piece and always in high demand on the secondary market. But obtaining an original factory four-player cabinet made directly by Technōs is a rare find indeed and can sell anywhere between $5,000 to $8,000. Most WWF WrestleFest cabinets available are conversion kits (refurbished cabinets of older games remade into newer ones), so depending on the condition and quality of the cabinet, electronics, screen, marquee, control panel, and stickers, a fourplayer console could run you between $3,000 to $4,000 dollars, and a two- or three-player console goes for about $1,000 to $2,000 dollars. “Everybody’s got a price for the Million Dollar man!”

The author’s daughter, Bryn, a few years back, with her father’s WrestleFest game. Courtesy of John Cimino.

never made. They did their best to continue to produce games, but as cash problems mounted, the company officially filed for bankruptcy in 1996. American Technōs struggled on, but ultimately closed in 1999. After Technōs’ closure, many of their intellectual properties were purchased by a licensing company called Million. They continued to produce many of Technōs’ well-known franchise games, as well as reissuing older titles. In 2015, Million was bought out by Arc System Works, and today they continue to release their games both new and old under the “Technōs: By Arc System Works” logo. Pro-wrestling games are a staple in the video game market; many different games come out every year on every platform conceivable. But the perfection of WWF WrestleFest still exceeds all others as game developers continue to try and recreate its magic. On February 2012, THQ partnered with the WWE and released WWE WrestleFest on mobile ports. Although this game had sophisticated graphics with more wrestlers, game modes, and features, it didn’t live up to the hype and was quickly forgotten. In 2019, Retrosoft Studios stayed closer to the source material. They teamed with Arc System Works (which owns the intellectual properties to WrestleFest and Mat Mania) and created the “official” sequel to WWF WrestleFest, Retromania Wrestling. While this game was not licensed by the WWE, Retrosoft Studios acquired the rights to wrestlers not affiliated with them including Road Warrior Hawk and Animal (the boss tag team in the original game, but now as playable characters using their original names).

WWF WrestleFest came along during a time when the world was a little more innocent and a little less serious. It had everything a fan ever wanted from a pro-wrestling video game and today, it certainly hasn’t lost any of its charm. Those of us that played the game in the early Nineties, when it was new, will never forget the excitement and good times we had on this machine. And it’s from those memories why the legend of WWF WrestleFest will last forever. “Diamonds are forever and so is Ric Flair—WHHOOOOOO!!!” JOHN CIMINO is a Silver and Bronze Age comic, cartoon, and memorabilia expert that contributes articles to Alter Ego, the Jack Kirby Collector, and BACK ISSUE, from TwoMorrows Publishing. He likes to pal around with comic legend Roy Thomas, bringing Roy to comic-cons near you. Being an “old-school” pro wrestling fan, John owns a WWF WrestleFest console and plays it with his daughter Bryn (her favorite character to use is Ultimate Warrior); they have yet to defeat the Legion of Doom—Ooohhhh, What a Rush!!! Check out his blog at Hero-Envy.blogspot.com, contact him at johnstretch@live.com, or follow him on Instagram at megostretchhulk.

RETROFAN

May 2021

Just read issue #10. What a delight! I’ll be honest, the RetroFan concept had me on the fence, but I wanted to read the Shaft article. Glad I did, because the entire magazine was fantastic. Already ordered the David Selby issue and the last two issues. RetroFan is quickly becoming my favorite. Any chance we could see a piece on Get Smart? MICHAEL W. RICKARD II

Would you believe, I had hoped to interview Get Smart’s Barbara Feldon in September 2020 at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention, but I missed it by that much due to the con’s pandemic-caused cancellation. Sorry about that, Chief. Like many of you, I grew up on Get Smart (I even saw The Nude Bomb and the Steve Carrell remake in the theaters!) and loved the show, so one of these days we’ll get to it. In the meantime, we’re spotlighting more serious ’60s spy shows: The Saint this issue and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. next issue.

As I was reading Ed Roth Rat Fink article in issue #10 it brought back memories of Peterson Publishing’s CARtoons, SURFtoons, CYCLEtoons, and Hot Rod Toons. Then, while I was reminiscing, Warren magazines popped into mind: Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella. I’m sure by now you can see where this is going. So, what do you think? SCOTT ERICKSON Scott Shaw!, who wrote the Ed “Big Daddy” Roth article in RetroFan #10, is planning a future column on CARtoons and other hotrodding comic mags for a future issue, so that’s in the works. We haven’t considered a feature on Jim Warren’s horror magazines, since that seems a bit more appropriate for the other TwoMorrows magazine I edit, BACK ISSUE (in fact, we covered vivacious Vampi back in BI #36). But if there’s sufficient reader demand, and if one of our columnists wants to tackle the topic, you may just see Creepy, et al. in a future RetroFan.

Lots of amusing bits in issue #10. A whole comic book about The Twist? Exactly like the real thing—except no sound or motion. Liked that the Big Daddy Roth article clarified where the monsters in cars came 78

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creative talents and used their imaginations to innovate a true original. Finally, as to versions of history: Spider, Master of Men, housefly on the wall, etc., why would there be contention or more than one honest account of Spider-Man’s creation? Was someone claiming more than he was entitled to? Thankfully, now, the names of both cocreators are, at long last, associated with the hit character. JOE FRANK

from. I remembered the Weird-Ohs, but this predates them, as well as the Aurora monster hotrod models. Laughed aloud to see comedic candidate Pat Paulsen, again, after all these years. He was always great with his low-key delivery. Frequent laughs in the Saturday Morning Preview Specials. Made me glad I missed them all. Same with the Bradys in disco attire. RetroFan #10 is one of the best yet—chock full The biggest laugh, however, was the focus of great articles. I found David Walker’s article on Stuckey’s, a business I haven’t thought of in 50 years. Don’t know as my family ever stopped on Shaft especially illuminating. DON S. VAUGHAN there, but I do recall seeing them, as well as their billboards advising us to, “Relax, refresh, refuel.” Loved the ad noting their “sparkling restrooms.” On a long car trip, I wasn’t fussy. I have been enjoying Andy Mangels’ Even a halfway clean roadside bathroom retrospective series on Saturday Morning was welcome. The looks on the family’s face, especially the daughter, cracked me up. They’re Preview Specials. I’ve done my own searching through the likes of YouTube to see these that euphoric about “picturesque souvenirs” again, and his articles have taught me and “tropical juices”? It’s about ones before my time. I really like board game box art in hope there’s more than just a third the ’60s, where everyone’s part, and that he covers those that are a dozen times more technically “after my time” as well—I delighted than would know they became more scarce but be humanly possible to were created still for Fox Kids and Kids be with such meager WB late in the runs of those lineups. stimulation. I enjoyed Scott Saavedra’s look at Loved the old color Pat Paulsen and similar other “joke” photos of the Stuckey’s candidates for president (insert joke restaurants. They do look here about current politics, celebrity, inviting, especially if and reality TV stars seeking the office). you’re overheated in the I know he cannot be encyclopedic in a middle of nowhere. The short article, but I was surprised there light blue roofs remind was no sidebar for Pogo’s run. Growing me of another restaurant up, that was the example I always saw branded by the color atop if there was a reference to anyone the place: orange roofs on (Zippy, Howard the Duck, etc.) running, Howard Johnson’s. TM & © Marvel. showing a pop-culture phenomenon The one when students at a “We Go Pogo” disappointment this time: rally got out of hand (at Harvard, but still…). I “The Secret Origin of Spider-Man” came as a know also that the “Betty Boop for President” surprise to me. Usually, I particularly enjoy cartoon and its song (which was also recorded Will Murray’s well-researched articles. Here, by Eddie Cantor) got reworked for Olive Oyl it seemed that any prior use of an element, a few years later. Might we get treated to a in The Spider, was possibly responsible for the RetroFan story on these at some point in the handling, 20-plus years later, in Spider-Man. future. Just as presidential campaigns in Yes, there may’ve been some isolated names, general produce lots of ephemera, you can concepts, or parallels between them. But did find a fair bit of “fictional election” material—I one cause the other? Even if Stan Lee read the have a button for Mr. Spock for President, for pulps, as a kid, would he flawlessly remember instance, and both Kermit and Miss Piggy have all these elements as an adult? What would been promoted as candidates in photos on account for the major differences? Even a magazines and buttons, even though there common name—the Crime Master—is no wasn’t a storyline with them running. At least smoking gun. Reusing an earlier name in a this reader would be interested in pursuing different way isn’t cause and effect. I mean, more of these options. Stan and Steve Ditko used Sandman, which Thanks for continually providing fun, had been in play numerous times, elsewhere, nostalgic articles. over the years. Theirs was unique. It’s like the HUGH DAVIS supposed prototypes in the pre-hero Marvels, with a similar name or ability, being somehow Hugh, in Sixties comic books, Yogi Bear and responsible for the super-heroes. Magilla Gorilla ran against each other for I have another theory besides Stan and Steve having an encyclopedic knowledge of The president, and Alvin (the Chipmunk) threw his Spider to constantly fall back on: they were both hat into the ring, too. Captain America ran for

Another enjoyable issue of RetroFan! I enjoyed the article on unlikely candidates running for president, and it reminded me of an encounter I had with Pat Paulsen. He was doing a With those wall-to-wall Cassidys making comedy show in my town. There was the RetroFan scene, sometimes telling a Jack a guy in the audience videotaping him. Pat did about two minutes of from a Ted can leave a his routine, then turned to the guy, fella in a lurch! Avoid smiling, and told him videotaping embarrassment by Ted was not permitted and that he’d have studying this handyCassidy to put the camera away. At first the dandy Cassidy guy didn’t take the hint, but there was an awkward pause as Pat stood Guide! smiling, obviously not intending to say another word until the camera disappeared. Needless to say, it did. David After the show, people lined up Cassidy for autographs. I had something special—an 8x10 glossy of Mr. Paulsen, given to me by a friend at Jack our local chamber of commerce who Cassidy got it as part of their publicity kit. The problem was, the photo was Joanna Cassidy given to the chamber of commerce for advertising purposes and I wasn’t Shaun really supposed to have it. After his Cassidy reaction to the videotaping guy, I knew Pat might question how I landed one of his publicity shots. And he did. I handed him the Cartoon Butch Cassidy photo, and he studied it for a minute. Where did you get this?” he asked. “A friend of mine knew I was coming to see you, and he had this, so he gave it to me.” It wasn’t a lie. Movie Butch Cassidy Technically. He looked at the photo another few seconds. I thought for a moment he was going to confiscate it. But then he scribbled something on it and handed it back, Tell your friends about us, and share your and that was that. Later, I read the inscription. comments about this issue by writing me at He wrote, “Hi, Bye. Pat Paulsen.” euryman@gmail.com. One of two highlights of the issue was the MICHAEL EURY interview with Kathy Garver. It’s refreshing to Editor-in-Chief see a celebrity who talks about her career with such fondness and gratitude. The other highlight was the Geri Reischl NEXT ISSUE interview. What a delightful woman! I love how she wears the title of “Fake Jan” with pride. Open Channel D. I hope to meet her and Kathy Garver in person some day; in their interviews, they came across as sincere and genuine. I have a correction to bring to your attention: on page 73 you said the voice of the cartoon Godzilla was Jack Cassidy (Lurch from The Addams Family). You undoubtedly know that Lurch was played by Ted Cassidy. Jack EVEL My Dad, the Teen Idol KNIEVEL Cassidy was the talented veteran actor of many TOYS TV shows throughout the ’60s and ’70s, and was the father of teen idols David and Shaun SEVENTIES Cassidy. Every issue of RetroFan is a gem! Keep them coming! MICHAL JACOT

KEEPING UP WITH THE CASSIDYS

president in the Eighties in his Marvel comic, and from that decade I have a “J. R. Ewing for President” button… …the point being—Mr. Saavedra, next election cycle, you’ll have to do a follow-up column! There are lots more “campaigns” out there to cover (but ye ed is glad he spotlighted Pat Paulsen and Dick Gregory in RetroFan #10, as those were fondly, or not so fondly, recalled by many RetroFans). As you’ve now read, in RetroFan #11, Andy Mangels listed the Saturday Morning Preview Specials from 1986 in a sidebar concluding Part 3 of his serial. Since reader response to this feature was favorable, we may circle back to those later specials in a future edition. But after months of immersion into glittery bellbottomed celebrities’ sexy song-anddance numbers on children’s programming, we’ll let Mr. Mangels pursue some other topics before thrusting him back into the weird and wacky world where Darth Vader can shoot hoops with the Harlem Globetrotters. And thank YOU for supporting this magazine, Hugh.

I love the fake Jan Story. I like to see you do an update on the other two fake Brady girls sometime. JOEL BOWERS That’s a great idea, re the other fake Bradys. If I can make it happen one day, I will. Always happy to meet Bradys, real or fake! NOO!! You have it all wrong the fake Jan is really a Terminator sent from the future to kill Jan and the real Bradys to make way for Sky Net to take over the world!! Anyway, that’s my view on the story. Staying inside too long from the pandemic, CHRIS MILLER The Brady Bunch vs. The Terminator—that’s a comic-book crossover I’d buy!

July 2021 No. 15 $9.95

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.

Ricky Nelson

OF THE

Somebody’s gotta play the bad guy

Daniel ‘Rolf’ Truhitte

Eep! Yes, we know the difference between Jack and Ted Cassidy. That was an unfortunate typo that snuck by five of us, from writer through publisher. Thanks for the correction, Michal.

The Fabulous Furry FREAK BROTHERS

Rural Sitcom Purge • The Muppet Show • Super 7 • Sixties Movie Sets & more!

FEATURING Ernest Farino • Andy Mangels • Will Murray • Scott Saavedra • Scott Shaw! • Michael Eury

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May 2021

REJECTED! Just keep telling yourself, "This isn't a real cover... this isn't real a real cover..."

by Scott Saavedra

Hey, Kids! Get the new Zanti Misfit Malibu Death House!

TV TIE-IN TOYS THAT GAVE KIDS NIGHTMARES!

Mr. Spock & Dr. Spock

discuss corporal punishment

Holy Backstage Pass! Behind the Scenes of Your Favorite TV Shows!

The Mask in Front of the Man Behind the Mask and the Artisan Who Made the Mask in the First Place

Are You Ready to Puuuuke!!! 80

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Wrestlers vs. Sasquatch in a limb-removing gross-a-paloosa game!

New Summer Magazines!

ALTER EGO #169

ALTER EGO #170

ALTER EGO #171

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #25 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #26

JACK KIRBY is showcased cover-to-cover behind a never-before-printed Kirby cover! WILL MURRAY on Kirby’s contributions to the creation of Iron Man—FCA on his Captain Marvel/Mr. Scarlet Fawcett work—Kirby sections by MICHAEL T. GILBERT & PETER NORMANTON—Kirby in 1960s fanzines—STAN LEE’s colorful quotes about “The King”, and ROY THOMAS on being a Kirby fan (and foil)!

PAUL GUSTAVSON—Golden Age artist of The Angel, Fantom of the Fair, Arrow, Human Bomb, Jester, Plastic Man, Alias the Spider, Quicksilver, Rusty Ryan, Midnight, and others—is remembered by son TERRY GUSTAFSON, who talks in-depth to RICHARD ARNDT. Lots of lush comic art from Centaur, Timely, and (especially) Quality! Plus—FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, JOHN BROOME, and more!

BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH discusses his new graphic novel MONSTERS, its origin as a 1980s Hulk story, and its evolution into his 300-page magnum opus (includes a gallery of outtakes). Plus part two of our SCOTT SHAW! interview about HannaBarbera licensing material and work with ROY THOMAS on Captain Carrot, KEN MEYER, JR. looks at the great fanzines of 40 years ago, HEMBECK, and more!

Career-spanning interview with TERRY DODSON, and Terry’s wife (and go-to inker) RACHEL DODSON! Plus 1970s/’80s portfolio producer SAL QUARTUCCIO talks about his achievements with Phase and Hot Stuf’, R. CRUMB and DENIS KITCHEN discuss the history of underground comix character Pro Junior, WILL EISNER’s Valentines to his wife, HEMBECK, and more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Now shipping!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships June 2021

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(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Spring 2021

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Summer 2021

Spotlight on Groovy GARY FRIEDRICH— co-creator of Marvel’s Ghost Rider! ROY THOMAS on their six-decade friendship, wife JEAN FRIEDRICH and nephew ROBERT HIGGERSON on his later years, PETER NORMANTON on GF’s horror/ mystery comics, art by PLOOG, TRIMPE, ROMITA, THE SEVERINS, AYERS, et al.! FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and Mr. Monster, and more! MIKE PLOOG cover!

BACK ISSUE #127

BACK ISSUE #128

BACK ISSUE #129

BACK ISSUE #130

KIRBY COLLECTOR #81

BRONZE AGE TV TIE-INS! TV-to-comic adaptations of the ’70s to ’90s, including Bionic Woman, Dark Shadows, Emergency, H. R. Pufnstuf, Hee Haw, Lost in Space (with BILL MUMY), Primus (with ROBERT BROWN), Sledge Hammer, Superboy, V, and others! Featuring BALD, BATES, CAMPITI, EVANIER, JOHN FRANCIS MOORE, SALICRUP, SAVIUK, SPARLING, STATON, WOLFMAN, and more!

TV TOON TIE-INS! Bronze Age HannaBarbera Comics, Underdog, Mighty Mouse, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Pink Panther, Battle of the Planets, and Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl. Bonus: SCOTT SHAW! digs up Captain Carrot’s roots! Featuring the work of BYRNE, COLON, ENGEL, EVANIER, FIELDS, MICHAEL GALLAGHER, WIN MORTIMER, NORRIS, SEVERIN, SKEATES, STATON, TALLARICO, TOTH, and more!

BRONZE AGE PROMOS, ADS, AND GIMMICKS! The aborted DC Super-Stars Society fan club, Hostess Comic Ads, DC 16-page Preview Comics, rare Marvel custom comics, DC Hotline, Popeye Career Comics, early variant covers, and more. Featuring BARR, HERDLING, LEVITZ, MAGUIRE, MORGAN, PACELLA, PALMIOTTI, SHAW!, TERRY STEWART, THOMAS, WOLFMAN, and more!

“KIRBY: BETA!” Jack’s experimental ideas, characters, and series (Fighting American, Jimmy Olsen, Kamandi, and others), Kirby interview, inspirations for his many “secret societies” (The Project, Habitat, Wakanda), non-superhero genres he explored, 2019 Heroes Con panel (with MARK EVANIER, MIKE ROYER, JIM AMASH, and RAND HOPPE), a pencil art gallery, UNUSED JIMMY OLSEN #141 COVER, and more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships May 2021

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships June 2021

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships July 2021

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Aug. 2021

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 . (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Summer 2021

2021

SOLDIERS ISSUE! Sgt. Rock revivals, General Thunderbolt Ross, Beetle Bailey in comics, DC’s Blitzkrieg, War is Hell’s John Kowalski, Atlas’ savage soldiers, The ’Nam, Nth the Ultimate Ninja, and CONWAY and GARCIA-LOPEZ’s Cinder and Ashe. Featuring CLAREMONT, DAVID, DIXON, GOLDEN, HAMA, KUBERT, LOEB, DON LOMAX, DOUG MURRAY, TUCCI, and more. BRIAN BOLLAND cover!

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