RetroFan #22 by TwoMorrows Publishing

September 2022 No. 22 $10.95

I have the power!

HE-MAN & THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE

Zorro makes his mark on Saturday mornings!

zy These cra are a CARtoons ! real drag

TV’s Wild, Wild West • Sitcom legend Norman Lear • Valspeak (Like, totally!) & more! 1

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Featuring ANDY MANGELS • WILL MURRAY • SCOTT SAAVEDRA • SCOTT SHAW! • MARK VOGER • MICHAEL EURY He-Man and Masters of the Universe © Mattel. Zorro © Zorro Productions, Inc. Drag Cartoons © The Pete Millar Family. All Rights Reserved.

RetroFan: The Pop Culture You Grew Up With! Remember when Saturday morning television was our domain, and ours alone? When tattoos came from bubble gum packs, Slurpees came in superhero cups, and TV heroes taught us to be nice to each other? If you love Pop Culture of the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties, TwoMorrows’ new magazine is just for you! Editor MICHAEL EURY (author of numerous books on pop culture, former editor for DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics, and editor of TwoMorrows’ Eisner Award-winning BACK ISSUE magazine for comic book fans) has assembled an unbeatable roster of regular and rotating Celebrity Columnists to cover the pop culture you grew up with: • ANDY MANGELS (best-selling sci-fi author and award-winning pop culture historian) • ERNEST FARINO (Emmy Award-winning visual effects designer, animator, and director) • SCOTT SHAW! (acclaimed cartoonist, animator, Emmy Award-winning storyboard artist, and historian) • WILL MURRAY (pulp adventure novelist and pop culture historian) • SCOTT SAAVEDRA (graphic designer, cartoonist, and COMIC BOOK HEAVEN creator) • MARK VOGER (renowned pop culture newspaper columnist and book author), and others!

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Meet Mission: Impossible’s LYNDA DAY GEORGE in an exclusive interview! Celebrate Rambo’s 50th birthday with his creator, novelist DAVID MORRELL! Plus: TV faves WKRP IN CINCINNATI and SPACE: 1999, Fleisher’s and Filmation’s SUPERMAN cartoons, commercial jingles, JERRY LEWIS and BOB HOPE comic books, and more fun, fab features! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Interviews with Lost in Space’s ANGELA CARTWRIGHT and BILL MUMY, and Land of the Lost’s WESLEY EURE! Revisit Leave It to Beaver with JERRY MATHERS, TONY DOW, and KEN OSMOND! Plus: UNDERDOG, Rankin-Bass’ stop-motion classic THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY, Christmas gifts you didn’t want, the CABBAGE PATCH KIDS fad, and more! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Meet the stars behind the Black Lagoon: RICOU BROWNING, BEN CHAPMAN, JULIE ADAMS, and LORI NELSON! Plus SHADOW CHASERS, featuring show creator KENNETH JOHNSON. Also: THE BEATLES’ YELLOW SUBMARINE, FLASH GORDON cartoons, TV’s cult classic THE PRISONER and kid’s show ZOOM, COLORFORMS, M&Ms, and more fun, fab features! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Meet JULIE NEWMAR, the purr-fect Catwoman! Plus: ASTRO BOY, TARZAN Saturday morning cartoons, the true history of PEBBLES CEREAL, TV’s THE UNTOUCHABLES and SEARCH, the MONKEEMOBILE, SOVIET EXPO ’77, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

MAD’s maddest artist, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, is profiled! Plus: TV’s Route 66 and an interview with star GEORGE MAHARIS, MOE HOWARD’s final years, singer B. J. THOMAS in one of his final interviews, LONE RANGER cartoons, G.I. JOE, and more! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

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Interview with Bond Girl and Hammer Films actress CAROLINE MUNRO! Plus: WACKY PACKAGES, COURAGEOUS CAT AND MINUTE MOUSE, FILMATION’S GHOSTBUSTERS vs. the REAL GHOSTBUSTERS, Bandai’s rare PRO WRESTLER ERASERS, behind the scenes of Sixties movies, WATERGATE at Fifty, Go-Go Dancing, a visit to the Red Skelton Museum, and more fun, fab features!

Our BARBARA EDEN interview will keep you forever dreaming of Jeannie! Plus: The Invaders, the BILLIE JEAN KING/BOBBY RIGGS tennis battle of the sexes, HANNABARBERA’s Saturday morning super-heroes of the Sixties, THE MONSTER TIMES fanzine, and more fun, fab features! Featuring ERNEST FARINO, ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW!, and MICHAEL EURY.

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.

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!

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!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

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(Turn to the inside back cover for older back issues of RetroFan!)

The Crazy Cool Culture We Grew Up With

55 Issue #22 September 2022

Columns and Special Features

Departments

Retrotorial

Voger’s Vault of Vintage Varieties Beach Movies

Too Much TV Quiz

Celebrity Crushes Sally Struthers

Retro Television The Wild, Wild West

RetroFad Valley Girls and Valspeak

Scott Saavedra’s Secret Sanctum Actor Michael Dunn

Super Collector Remembering Robb Versandi

Oddball World of Scott Shaw! CARtoons and Drag Cartoons

RetroFanmail

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Retro Interview Norman Lear

ReJECTED by Scott Saavedra

Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning Zorro

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon He-Man and the Masters of the Universe RetroFan™, issue 22, September 2022. (ISSN 2576-7224 ) is published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Periodicals postage paid at Raleigh, NC. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to RetroFan, c/o TwoMorrows, 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, $29 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. He-Man and Masters of the Universe © Mattel. Zorro © Zorro Productions, Inc. Drag Cartoons © The Pete Millar Family. All Rights Reserved.All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2022 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury

BY MICHAEL EURY

PUBLISHER John Morrow CONTRIBUTORS Mark Ellis Michael Eury Paula Finn Michal Jacot Andy Mangels Will Murray Scott Saavedra Scott Shaw! Mark Voger DESIGNER Scott Saavedra PROOFREADER David Baldy SPECIAL THANKS Act III Productions Michal Beaumont Jonathan Goldberg Heritage Auctions Susan E. Kesler Dave Lemieux Errol McCarthy W. T. Vinson Zorro Productions, Inc. VERY SPECIAL THANKS Norman Lear William Stout IN MEMORY OF Robb Versandi

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RETROFAN

My social conscience was shaped in the Seventies by two talented men. The first was Denny O’Neil, writer of the early Seventies DC Comics series Green Lantern/Green Arrow, which used superhero and science-fiction storytelling to address relevant social issues including gender equality, racism, and environmental degradation. And then there was Norman Lear, the creator of many of Seventies and Eighties television’s most pioneering sitcoms including (but certainly not limited to) All in the Family, Sanford and Son, and The Jeffersons. Unlike O’Neil, he had no power rings or well-stocked quivers in his creative arsenal. Instead, Lear wielded comedy as his weapon as he and his writers dared to tackle the delicate and divisive social issues of the day in the 30-minute sitcom format. As the rightwing space-cop Green Lantern and the bleeding heart Green Arrow argued society’s ills through their biased perspectives in their DC comic book, so did the characters in Lear’s shows. None were more famous than the often intense verbal battles between the bigoted Archie Bunker and the free-spirited Mike Stivic. Lear’s comedies not only amused and enlightened us, they taught us that no matter how bitter the disagreement between characters, their bond of family or friendship reminded them that while they viewed the world differently, they shared space in it—a lesson unfortunately lost upon our polarized society today. We are honored to have Mr. Lear’s presence in our magazine this issue. Bringing Norman Lear to RetroFan is Paula Finn, a writer with quite an impressive pedigree herself. She’s no stranger to sitcoms, being the daughter of Honeymooners writer Herbert Finn. Her interview is excerpted from her book, Sitcom Writers Talk Shop: Behind the Scenes with Carl Reiner, Norman Lear, and Other Geniuses of TV Comedy by Paula Finn (2018, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers). Thank you for sharing it, Paula… we hope you’ll grace us with your return in a future issue (maybe with a Honeymooners-related retrospective?). Before you start complaining about this issue being stuck in the Right On Seventies with its Norman Lear/All in the Family feature, stifle, ya dingbat—we also travel before and after that dy-nomite decade in the pages that follow. From the Swinging Sixties, our own Mark Voger stuffs a wild bikini—no, not with his chest hair, but with his column on Beach Party movies, which is perfectly complemented by Scott Shaw!’s column on CARtoons and those groovy gearhead mags that were anything but a drag. Plus guest writer Mark Ellis brings us a history of one of TV’s coolest action shows, The Wild, Wild West—while our own Scott Saavedra digs up some history on Michael Dunn, who played its most notorious villain, Dr. Loveless. And if the Big Eighties are, like, your most awesome of decades, Andy Mangels tunes in to Zorro’s animated adventures, Will Murray pulls He-Man out of the toy box, and our totally tubular RetroFad column looks back at Valley Girls mania. The mere thought of missing this issue is enough to gag you with a spoon! So get ready for another groovy grab-bag of the crazy, cool culture we grew up with! DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS Scott Shaw! informs us that in his Oddball World column in RetroFan #19, the photo of Pauline Peril cartoonist was not Jack Manning. “I’m sorry,” Scott says, “but that’s not Jack, who I knew well and who looked like a combination of W. C. Fields and the character actor Herb Vigran.” Actually, Scott, that was Jack Manning we depicted—but not your Jack Manning. The Jack Manning whose photograph appeared in issue #19 was a musician. RetroFan regrets the error and offers its apologies to the fans and families of both Jack Mannings.

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VOGER’S VAULT OF VINTAGE VARIETIES

Beach Culture, Frankie and Didi, and the cinematic wave

BY MARK VOGER

It sounds insane, but Frankie, Bonehead, and their fellow boys of summer from the “beach party” movies are male role models. I can explain. (Cue twangy flashback music.) Let’s say you’re a pre-adolescent boy, a little fella, on a beach in the Sixties. (Any public beach will do, but in my case, it would be Brigantine, Atlantic City, Ocean City, Sea Isle City, Wildwood, or Cape May, all coastal burgs in South Jersey.) Let’s say you’re starting to notice the older girls frolicking nearby—but not too nearby—in the sand and surf. Let’s say you’re wondering how to approach such exalted beings, once you get a bit taller and your voice a bit deeper. If you’re a devotee of the beach party movies starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, you have archetypes to aspire to. You could be Frankie, the coolest guy on the beach (Avalon). Or you could be one of Frankie’s likewise cool wingmen (John Ashley, Aron Kincaid, et al.). Or—as was more likely in my case—you could be Bonehead (Jody McCrea). He was the klutzy, dimwitted guy whose only shot at romance was to meet a girl who found him amusing. It’s too bad the one time this happened, she was a mermaid. The beach party series from American International Pictures (AIP) played no small role in the proliferation of Beach Culture throughout popular entertainment in the Sixties. The films generally teamed Philadelphia-born Avalon, a singer who scored a swoony #1 hit with “Venus,” and Utica-born Funicello, who grew

up before the very eyes of Baby Boomers on TV’s Mickey Mouse Club. They played star-crossed teens Frankie and Didi. He wanted to, as the Supremes sang, hurry love. She wanted to proceed at a more sensible pace. The five (or is it eight?) films in the series—agreeing on a total is a bit complicated—can be goofy and sometimes downright insipid. But they are also clever, breezy, and funny. Culturally, the films stand as a last gasp of naïveté before the hippies came in, with their marijuana and their free love. (The only “high” in beach movies was the rush you got from “hanging ten,” a.k.a. surfing.) At heart, the movies tell a story as old as time: Girl and boy are meant to be together, but not before a bunch of crazy stuff happens. Still, Beach Party and its sequels (ABOVE) weren’t created in a vacuum. There were Annette precedents. (More twangy flashback music Funicello is heard here.) and Frankie Avalon starred BEFORE THE PARTY in American 1953 saw the formation of United States International Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Pictures’ beach Delinquency, which was chaired by the party series. world’s least-fun guy, Estes Kefauver. (He © Metro-Goldwynopposed both EC horror comics and Bettie Mayer. RETROFAN

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Voger’s Vault of vintage varieties

Page.) Not coincidentally, rock ’n’ roll music itself came along in the middle Fifties. The zeitgeist was ideal for two pop-up film genres that often coalesced: the “J.D.” (for juvenile delinquent) movie and the rock ’n’ roll movie. The J.D. films ranged from high-minded big-studio releases (Rebel Without a Cause, Blackboard Jungle) to good old low-budget exploitation (High School Hellcats, Reform School Girls). Rock ’n’ roll movies cashed in, rather cynically, on the burgeoning musical trend (Shake, Rattle and Rock; Rock, Rock, Rock!). In all of these films, there are traces of the character models, interactions, even the humor that would later be interpolated, and sanitized in the beach party movies. Two films that preceded Beach Party are set squarely in the sandand-surf milieu: Gidget (1959), based on a novel about a surfer girl (then a rarity), and Where the Boys Are (1960), a big-studio road-trip movie set in Fort Lauderdale during Spring Break. The 1957 novel Gidget was penned by Frederick Kohner, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter whose daughter Kathy (now Kathy Kohner-Zuckerman) was the inspiration for the titular heroine. “When I started my discovery of the surfboard life, I remember very well that I could not drive; I was 15,” Kohner-Zuckerman told me in 2001. “My father would drop me at the surf-rider beach, and pick me up at the surf-rider beach. I remember very well looking at him one day while I was sitting in the car. I said, ‘I want to write a story about what’s going on here. This is amazing. This is an unusual kind of subculture.’ I didn’t maybe use those words at the time because I was 15. And I remember Frederick saying, ‘Why don’t you tell me about what you’re experiencing, and I will write the story for you.’ I believe we even struck up some sort of deal where I would get a percentage of the take; I had no idea what that was all about. But it was the two of us. “I kept a daily diary, and I have those diaries. I would tell my dad about the nicknames, about the surfing expressions, about the fellas who lived in the shack, about the fact that I was crazy in love with the guy who was the inspiration for Moondoggie (a character in Gidget).” Kohner-Zuckerman recalled that her father banged out Gidget, his first novel, in six weeks. “What’s interesting is that my father’s native tongue was German,” she said. “So here’s a man, like [Vladimir] Nabokov, who wrote this little gem in a language that wasn’t his mother tongue. So the little gem—a little, short novel—was sent over to 4

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(LEFT) Sandra Dee catches a rear-screen wave in Gidget (1959). © Columbia Pictures. (RIGHT) Connie Francis, Paula Prentiss, and Dolores Hart don sunscreen in Where the Boys Are (1960). © Warner Bros. the William Morris Agency. I do remember that someone called from the William Morris Agency and said to my father, ‘Mr. Kohner, this is incredible. I think you and your wife can relax. This is going to be a book. This is gonna be a movie. This is gonna be a television show. This is gonna be a comic book. This is marvelous.” It all came true. I would call the 1959 movie Gidget—starring Sandra Dee as a gangly only child who is “pushing 17,” and not ready to follow the lead of her older, boy-crazy girlfriends, but discovers surfing instead—the first proper entry in the beach movie genre, with Where the Boys Are coming in second.

FINANCIAL GAMBLE

During the fabulous Fifties, the independent “studio” (a term used loosely) American International Pictures made its bones cranking out drive-in fare with black-and-white cheapies about—whaddaya know?—juvenile delinquents and rock ’n’ rollers. A common thread had the plots frequently told from the point of view of teenagers played by young unknowns, a real budget-stretcher. In 1960, at the urging of director Roger Corman, AIP took a financial gamble with House of Usher, an Edgar Allan Poe adaptation. Unlike AIP’s previous output, the color House of Usher had opulent production values and a “real” movie star in Vincent Price. The somber Usher made its producers happy at the box office. AIP co-founders James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff learned they would not die if they (gasp!) spent more money on their films. Corman and Price embarked on a series of stylish Poe adaptations.

Voger’s Vault of vintage varieties

Funicello and Avalon pucker up on the beach—or, more likely, in a photo studio © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

According to Avalon, a comment he once made to Lou Rosoff, a screenwriter who cranked out many scripts for AIP, led to the beach party series. As Avalon told me in 1998: “I had worked with Lou. We got friendly enough to where he used to come to my house. In conversation, I would say to him, ‘Lou—you know what’d be a real good picture to try and do, that maybe you could write? Something that has to do with kids and, like, a club, and the old kind of relationship that the Dead End Kids used to have. You know, with the guys together and the girls. “He came back and said, ‘I’ve got the script. I just finished it. Take a look. It’s called Beach Party.’ That was really how it started. I took a look at it and said, ‘Gee, this is fun. Kind of nice.’ He said, ‘OK, we’re starting to cast it now.’ And then they [AIP] came back and said, ‘Do you know Annette Funicello?’ I said, ‘Gee, I met her years ago. I know her from The Mickey Mouse Club.’ They said, ‘We can get her on a loan-out to play the role of Didi.’ Finally, they signed her.” AIP co-founder Arkoff recalled that upon casting Funicello as Didi, he received an irate phone call from the actress’ old boss. “Well, Walt Disney created Annette Funicello,” Arkoff told me in 1998. “I don’t mean to say he created her, but he built her up. And he

had her under an exclusive contract. Walt was a creative, ingenious man, but he had some warped ideas about young people. If you look at any Walt Disney movie, the young people are very nice kids who never have any problems or talk back. They never have any opinions of their own. This is the way Walt liked it. It was the adult who got himself into trouble. Someone like Fred MacMurray as the absent-minded inventor or whatever. “Annette had worked for Walt since The Mickey Mouse Club on television. She would be on there singing, ‘M-I-C… K-E-Y…’ And usually, she would be one of the nice kids in his features. Well, eventually Disney got rid of The Mickey Mouse Club, and they signed Annette to a non-exclusive contract. So now she could work for anybody else, though she would still do two or three pictures for Disney. When we heard about this, we signed her for the first Beach Party movie. “We had an ad campaign that we sent around, and it showed the girl in the bikini. In those days, a bikini was considered very risqué. Well, one day Walt calls me. And he’s livid. He’s holding our [advertising] slick in his hand, and he goes, ‘What are you doing, putting Annette in a bikini like this?’ I said, ‘We’re not putting Annette in a RETROFAN

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Voger’s Vault of vintage varieties

bikini.’ Which we weren’t. She had a nice form, but it wasn’t what you’d call a bikini form.” According to Arkoff, Disney also complained about the tagline for Beach Party: “It’s what happens when 10,000 kids meet on 5,000 beach blankets!” (Arkoff died in 2001 at age 83.) Added Avalon: “We made the first one. Just had a lot of fun. Had a great director, Bill Asher. From that first day on, we just felt the chemistry—Annette and myself—because we’d been friends. The

(CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT) Poster for Beach Party (1963), lobby card for Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), poster for Bikini Beach (1964), and lobby card for Muscle Beach Party (1964). © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

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whole flavor and feel of the picture was just fun. The whole feel of young people.”

FORMULA ESTABLISHED

The formula for AIP’s beach party films was established out of the box: the cast of zany characters (Harvey Lembeck’s blowhard biker Eric Von Zipper was a bloated Brando); the surfing; the pop songs performed amid dancing beachgoers; the slapstick; the celebrity cameos. More or less contemporary players such as Paul Lynde, Linda Evans, Keenan Wynn, Marta Kristen, Morey Amsterdam, and Don Rickles took roles in the films. But for movie buffs, the real fun was to spot screen veterans in cameos and supporting roles, such as silent-era stars Buster Keaton and Francis X. Bushman; horror stars Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester, Basil Rathbone, Peter Lorre, and Price; comedic actress Patsy Kelly; Dorothy Lamour (leading lady in the Road pictures starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope); and Mickey Rooney. Musical stars that performed onscreen include Stevie Wonder, Dick Dale, James Brown, and Nancy Sinatra. Dale—the guitarist behind the surf-rock instrumental “Miserlou”— called the experience “good, clean fun.”

Voger’s Vault of vintage varieties

The gang’s all here! Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Deborah Walley, and John Ashley in “Beach Blanket Bingo” (1965). © MetroGoldwyn-Mayer.

(LEFT) Harvey Lembeck (CENTER) played dimwitted biker Eric Von Zipper in American International Pictures’ beach party series. (RIGHT) Lobby card for How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965). (BELOW) Donna Loren sang in four of American International Pictures’ beach party movies. © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. “The majority of it was filmed right there on the beach, even though we did film in the studios, AIP,” Dale said when we spoke in 1998. “We did it at Malibu Beach. In those days, it was true Americana. It was true camaraderie. We all surfed. You’re working with Annette, and Annette was like a sweetheart. We were very, very close together. God bless her. And Frankie was such a perfectionist in everything he did. It was just a fun time. “When we were shooting on the beach, it was like: Hurry up and wait. I would grab my board and I’d run out and I’d be catching a wave. They’d go, ‘All right, where’s Dick Dale? Where’s that damn Dick Dale?’ ‘He’s out there hangin’ ten!’ ‘Get him in!’ They’d take the bullhorns and call me in. I’d say, ‘Oh, I thought you wanted me to do some shots in the background.’ “It was just fun. It was good, clean fun and hard, hard work. You’d be on the set at 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning, and we’d film all the way through 10, 10:30 at night. Then we’d go back at 5 o’clock in the morning again. People think it’s an easy thing, but it’s not.” (Dale died in 2013 at age 81.) In addition to the guest musical talent, the movies featured songs performed by “house” singers such as Avalon, Funicello, Ashley, and Donna Loren, a onetime Shindig regular. Loren sang in four of the beach party movies. According to the singer-actress, a

commercial sponsor was behind her casting. “Dr. Pepper was involved in those movies,” Loren told me in 2012. “Basically, I was product placement. I really wasn’t supposed to sing. I was just supposed to sit there and hold a Dr. Pepper. But the musical director discovered my jingles that I recorded for Dr. Pepper, and had me sing.” As a child, Loren had appeared on The Mickey Mouse Club, which gave her a special feeling of kinship with Funicello. “Annette was someone I always looked up to from the first time I met her on The Mickey Mouse Club in 1957,” Loren said. “We had quite a history stemming from The Talent Roundup to the beach party movies.”

BONA FIDE SERIES

A box-office success, Beach Party kicked off a bona fide film series, just like 007 or the Bowery Boys. It was followed by Muscle Beach Party (1964), Bikini Beach (1964), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965). These are the solidly agreed-upon films in the series. But there is debate over whether certain, shall we say, “satellite” films from AIP belong on the list. Pajama Party (1964) has Funicello as Connie, an alternate-reality version of Didi whose boyfriend, Big Lunk, is played by McCrea in goofball mode (as usual). Ski Party (1965) relocates the beach party cast and premise to a snowy resort at which James Brown performs. Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966) finds the beach party gang, more RETROFAN

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Voger’s Vault of vintage varieties

or less, still cavorting in bathing suits, but at a pool. To include them or not include them—that is the question. (My two cents: I count all of the above.) Hovering on the periphery are the many imitators that sprang up from other studios, such as Columbia’s Ride the Wild Surf (1964); Paramount’s Beach Ball and The Girls on the Beach (both 1965); United Artists’ A Swingin’ Summer (1965); 20th Century Fox’s Wild on the Beach (1965); Dominant Pictures’ Daytona Beach Weekend (1965); and Trans American’s It’s a Bikini World (1967). Bikini World co-starred Tommy Kirk and Deborah Walley, who both appeared in several of the AIP movies, further blurring the line of demarcation. We should also take into consideration the surfing documentary The Endless Summer (1966), which helped immensely to popularize the sport. Some movies appropriated elements from the genre, but don’t quite qualify as genuine beach movies. Paramount’s beach-y Blue Hawaii (1961), Girl Happy (1965), Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966), and Clambake (1967) are, first and foremost, Elvis Presley movies, thank yuh vera much. Warner Bros.’ Palm Springs Weekend (1963) has everything a beach movie needs—except a beach. MGM’s Don’t Make Waves starring Tony Curtis has beach movie–type scenes that were overplayed in the film’s poster and trailer. Don’t Make Waves is notable, however, for its title song by the Byrds and for “introducing” Sharon Tate. Horror—albeit, comedic horror—entered the mix with 1964’s The Horror of Party Beach (an astute, if low-budget, parody of beach movies) and 1965’s The Beach Girls and the Monster (um, it is what it is). Speaking of horror, who can forget the creepy climax of Robert Aldrich’s “hagsploitation” classic of 1962, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? Co-stars Bette Davis and Joan (TOP) Annette Funicello and Dwayne Hickman in How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965). (BOTTOM) Tommy Kirk, Annette Funicello, and Elsa Lanchester in Pajama Party (1964). © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

The Beach Boys’ album Surfin’ Safari (1962) and the single “Surfin’ Safari” b/w “409” (1962). © Capitol Records.

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Voger’s Vault of vintage varieties

(LEFT) Lobby card for Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966). © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. (RIGHT) Joan Crawford and Bette Davis have a beach day from hell in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). © Warner Bros.

Crawford—nemeses on and off screen—took part in what is, hands down, the most horrific beach outing captured on celluloid. Which says a lot.

OTHER MEDIUMS PLUNGE IN

Meanwhile, Beach Culture was making a splash in other entertainment mediums. The Beach Boys of Hawthorne, California, formed in 1961 and rode a wave of popularity with beach-themed hits “Surfin’” (1961), “Surfin’ Safari” (1962), “Surfin’ U.S.A.” (1963), “Surfer Girl” (1963), “The Warmth of the Sun” (1964), and “California Girls” (1965). The group’s founding line-up—brothers Brian, Carl, and Dennis Wilson; their cousin, Mike Love; and their friend, Al Jardine—were teenagers when they first began to harmonize. “The music we listened to was a combination of R&B and doo-wop and a little bit of folk music mixed in, which surfaced in ‘Sloop John B’ on the Pet Sounds album (of 1966),” Love told me in 1998.

(LEFT) Jan and Dean’s single “Surf City” (1963). © Liberty Records (RIGHT) Mr. Gasser and the Weirdos’ Surfink! album (1964). © Ed Roth, Inc.

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Voger’s Vault of vintage varieties

(LEFT TO RIGHT) Annette Funicello’s albums Annette’s Beach Party (1963) and Annette: Muscle Beach Party (1964). © Buena Vista

Records. Frankie Avalon’s album Muscle Beach Party and Other Motion Picture Songs (1964). © United Artists Records.

“Originally, we heard it first from the Kingston Trio. And of course, we all listened to Little Richard and Chuck Berry and all the great doo-wop groups. We sang a bunch of those songs by the Coasters and the Cadillacs and the Ravens and all these groups. We loved the R&B doo-wop sound.” Beach Boys lyrics brimmed with seductive imagery—of cars, of waves, of surfer girls. Was it as fun as Beach Boys songs made it seem? “In advertising, they call it ‘heightened reality,’” Love said with a laugh. “And of course, when we were making up those songs, there was a bit of heightened reality going on. But the basics were there. Our interests and our lifestyle, pursuits, or activities were definitely generic to southern California because that’s where we grew up. The beach was only a few miles away. We got there in our cars. Our high school life was pretty extraordinary. It was fun.” Sound-alike songs not performed by the Beach Boys also charted. The best—or most egregious?—of these came from the likewise Californian

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duo Jan and Dean: “Surf City” (1963), co-written by Brian Wilson, “The Little Old Lady from Pasadena” (1964), and “Ride the Wild Surf” (1964). Annette’s Beach Party (1963) and Annette Muscle Beach Party (1964) were movie tie-in albums from Ms. Funicello, while her leading man Avalon had a competing Muscle Beach Party album. Cartoonist/car customizer Ed “Big Daddy” Roth [see RetroFan #10—ed.], a looming figure in Beach Culture, was behind two surf-themed Rat Fink tie-in albums of 1964 (credited to Mr. Gasser and the Weirdos): Surfink and Rods N’ Rat Finks. You might assume Roth’s records would be surf rock, but actually, they’re more faux (very faux) Beach Boys. Did someone say “surf rock”? This musical sub-genre emerged with a less slick, more garage-y sound that somehow evoked the

(LEFT) Cesar Romero as the Joker and Adam West as Batman match surfing skills in a 1967 episode of Batman (1967). © DC Comics/Warner Bros. (BELOW LEFT) Barry Williams as Greg Brady catches a wave for real—no rear screen—in a 1972 episode of The Brady Bunch. © Paramount Television. (BELOW CENTER) Fred Flintstone enters a surfing competition in a 1965 episode of the animated series The Flintstones. © Hanna-Barbera Productions. (BELOW RIGHT) Butch Patrick, Yvonne De Carlo, Pat Priest, and Al Lewis camp out in the sand in a 1965 episode of The Munsters. © NBC Universal Television.

Voger’s Vault of vintage varieties

crave for waves. Hallmarks of this sub-genre are often instrumentals, including the Shadows’ “Apache” (1960) and “F.B.I.” (1961); Dick Dale’s “Let’s Go Trippin’” (1961) and “Miserlou” (1962); and the Surfaris’ perennially hip “Wipe Out” (1963). Beach Culture ultimately achieved ubiquity via the democratic medium of television. Pop-music programs like Shindig, Hullabaloo, American Bandstand, and Where the Action Is hosted the aforementioned recording artists, and often broadcast special remote episodes from beach resorts on either coast. Uncle Jed (Buddy Ebsen) and the Widow Poke (Ellen Corby) posed as dancing beach kids in a 1964 episode of The Beverly Hillbillies. Fred Flintstone entered a surfing tournament in a 1965 episode of Hanna-Barbera’s suburban send-up The Flintstones. That same year, the creepy TV clan The Munsters camped in the sand. Sworn adversaries Batman (Adam West) and the Joker (Cesar Romero) had a surfing (TOP LEFT) The cover of the May 1963 edition of SURFtoons. © Petersen Publication. (TOP RIGHT) A beachy scene on the cover of Betty and Veronica #105 (1964). © Archie Comics. (RIGHT) Romantic turmoil from the cover of Young Love #105 (1973). © DC Comics. (BELOW) Detail from Frank Frazetta art for a surfing-themed anti-smoking PSA (1960s).

(TOP LEFT) Hawk’s “Beach Bunny Catchin’ Rays” model kit. (TOP RIGHT) Hawk’s “Hot Dogger and Surf Bunny Riding Tandem” model kit. © Hawk. (ABOVE) Revell’s “Surfink!” model kit by Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. © Revell.

competition—or at least a pretend one with generous use of rear screen—in a 1967 episode of ABC’s action comedy Batman. Greg Brady (Barry Williams) caught a wave in a 1972 episode of The Brady Bunch that was filmed in Hawaii. Props go to Williams, who did his own surfing—and suffered a wicked wipeout for his trouble. Model kits in Revell and Hawk’s monster lines memorialized the sport in polystyrene. For Revell, Roth brought out “Surf Fink” (a manic surfer with protruding eyeballs and fangs, natch) and “Surfite” (a surf shack with a beach buggy). For Hawk, artist Bill Campbell, father of the Weird-Ohs, brought out the “Silly Surfers” line, which included “Beach Bunny Catchin’ Rays” (she’s cute, but with monster feet); “Hot Dogger Hangin’ Ten” (a tan, blond surfer with a bulbous red nose); “Hot Dogger and Beach Bunny Riding Tandem” (the title tells all); and “Woodie on a Surfer” (a “woodie” being the perfect surfboard-totin’ vehicle). Pass the glue? Comic books reflected the trend, especially in romance-genre titles (Young Love, Hollywood Romances) and the Archie series (every RETROFAN

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(LEFT) Sally Field on the cover of a comic adaptation of the TV series Gidget (1966). © Sony Pictures Television. (CENTER) Jack Kirby’s surfing super character went solo in Silver Surfer #1 (1968). © Marvel Comics. (RIGHT) Comic adaptation of Beach Blanket Bingo (1964). © MGM. (INSET) Batman and Robin pursue Tiger Shark, a surfing baddie, in this 1966 Batman trading card. © Topps. © DC Comics.

summer, we saw a lot of Betty and Veronica in bathing suits). Dell published a comic-book adaptation of Beach Blanket Bingo with passable likenesses of Avalon and Funicello, and a Gidget TV tie-in series. In the spirit of Petersen Publications’ illustrated hobbyist magazines CARtoons and CYCLEtoons came SURFtoons [see “The Oddball World of Scott Shaw!” elsewhere in this issue—ed.]. Illustrator Frank Frazetta set his memorable anti-smoking public-service comic strip in the surfing milieu. Batman and Robin took to the waves to pursue Tiger Shark, a surfing masked baddie, in Series 2, Card #20 of Topps’ painted Batman trading card sets of 1966. Also in 1966, Jack “King” Kirby introduced his spin-off super-character, the Silver Surfer, in Fantastic Four #48. Kirby’s creation navigated the cosmos while riding… a silver surfboard.

DUSK AT THE BEACH

To be honest, 1967 was a little late for a beach movie. The charming but threadbare It’s a Bikini World was the ignominious end of the line. Just consider some of the other genre films released during this pivotal, tumultuous year: The Love-Ins, Valley of the Dolls, The Trip, The Born Losers, and Hell’s Angels on Wheels. Of course, there has been the odd beach movie since those days, including the disappointing Avalon/Funicello reunion of 1987, Back to the Beach. (Alas, the filmmakers made no discernible attempt to recapture the spirit of the old movies.) While promoting Back to the Beach, Funicello began experiencing symptoms that led to a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS). After concealing her illness for several years, Funicello went public with her diagnosis in 1992. When I spoke with Avalon in 1998, he wasn’t sugarcoating the situation. “It’s not easy at all, and it’s not getting better,” Avalon said. “She’s just very brave and very strong, and trying to keep that wonderful attitude up, whatever happens. She’s a sweetheart. She just keeps saying to me, ‘I have this for a reason. I don’t know why, but I have this for a reason.’” 12

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The actress established the Annette Funicello Fund for Neurological Disorders in 1993, and died from complications due to MS at age 70 in 2013. Avalon had no illusions that the beach party movies would have been as successful without Funicello. After all, the chemistry between him and Funicello fueled those silly movies, which were shot in about 15 days each, often in the winter on a cold Malibu beach. “Frankie and Annette” became a brand, a symbol—a final flicker of romantic innocence before Beach Culture gave way to the “counterculture.” “What mattered was, there was a close relationship between Frankie and Annette, and a young romance,” Avalon said. “And of course, they’re friends. There was a purity to them. There were morals. The girls were on one side, the boys on the other. It just worked. It was just fun.” By the late Sixties, the whole idea of virginal teenage kids dancing in the sand and riding surfboards had become outmoded and obsolete. It took a while for the squares in the beach party movies to become hip again, but it eventually happened. This was good news for all nerds, shut-ins, wintertime sufferers of “cabin fever,” and the landlocked. When the going gets tough, we can always live vicariously through the shiny, happy girls and boys in colorful bathing suits who gyrate on Malibu to the rhythm of electric guitars that aren’t really plugged in. MARK VOGER is the author and designer of five books for TwoMorrows Publishing, including Monster Mash (a Rondo Award winner), Groovy, and Holly Jolly. Voger worked in the newspaper field as an entertainment reporter and graphic artist for 40 years and lives at the Jersey Shore. His first Aurora monster model kit was “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” Please visit him at MarkVoger.com.

RETRO TELEVISION

The Sun Never Sets on

The Wild, Wild West BY MARK ELLIS Genre mash-ups are nothing new, definitely not on network television. Match a medical drama with a crime mystery, you have Quincy. Slap together elements of Forties B-Westerns with Dragnet, shake well, and out pops Cowboy G-Men. To that mixture, add a touch of Jules Verne, a bit of James Bond, and the kind of unrestrained imagination that made most Sixties network execs uneasy, and you have The Wild, Wild West. The brief period between 1964 and 1968 was a watershed mark in television programming. Never before had there been such a wave of imaginative series with such a high caliber of talent behind them. The Wild, Wild West appeared during this short renaissance and quickly established itself as that rarest of commodities—an entertaining anomaly which was so unique it could never be successfully imitated, and in fact is credited with creating an SF sub-genre known as “steampunk.” Although the aforementioned Cowboy G-Men (1953) had a similar premise with government agents in the Old West, it required

(ABOVE) An iconic Wild, Wild, West animated show bumper. The Wild, Wild West © CBS Studios, Inc.

the popularity of the James Bond films to inspire the crazy-quilt panache that became WWWest’s trademark. Actor-turned-producer Michael Garrison is credited with creating the basic concept. In the mid-Fifties, he and a partner held the film rights to the first James Bond novel Casino Royale—but they were unable to secure backing for a movie and sold their interests in the property. A decade later, with the Bond Craze at full speed [see RetroFan #6—ed.], Garrison brought the idea of James Bond in the West to his friend, Hunt Stromberg, then head of programming at CBS. Ethel Winant, associate director of development at the network, wrote a short prospectus about a group of secret agents who operated in the post–Civil War U.S. The agents reported only to President Grant, all with the last names of points of the compass. Winant recalled, “The others got lost very soon, but Jim West remained.”

‘SUCH WAS THE MAN THEY CALLED JIM WEST’

Once the go-ahead was given for a pilot—then entitled The Wild West—the script was assigned to Gil Ralston, a well known TV writer and novelist. Ralston’s script, “The Night of the Inferno,” introduced almost all of the underpinnings of the series: James T. West, former U.S. Cavalry Captain, and Artemus Gordon, former RETROFAN

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(ABOVE) Publicity photo signed by The Wild, Wild West’s heartthrob star, Robert Conrad. Courtesy of Heritage. The Wild, Wild West © CBS Studios, Inc.

Chisel-jawed Rory Calhoun was an early contender to play The Wild, Wild West’s Jim West. He had earlier headlined the TV Western The Texan, which scored this 1960 issue of Dell Comics’ Four Color. © 1960 Rorvic and Desilu Productions.

actor/inventor, traveled post–Civil War America on missions for the Secret Service. The two agents were conveyed from assignment to assignment by the Wanderer, a steam locomotive, and they lived in a lavishly appointed (by 1870s standards) coach car. Said car contained a chemistry lab, hidden arsenal, booby-traps, telegraph unit, and even a billiard table. The cover story was that West was a rich man’s son, “the dandiest dude that ever crossed the Mississippi,” but this was soon dropped. While the pilot script was still being written, the process of finding the leads began. Western star Rory Calhoun was a major contender and even the early costumes were made to accommodate his six-foot, four-inch frame. A theme song extolling the heroics of “Jim West” was written by famed composer Dimitri Tiomkin, with lyrics by Paul Francis Weber. Two versions were recorded, but rejected by Michael Garrison. That is little wonder, with lyrics like: “Men who could climb to the eagle’s nest/Men with their eyes on the far, far horizons/Such was the man they called Jim West.” Allegedly, Rory Calhoun wasn’t enthusiastic about returning to series TV after his stint on The Texan (1958–1960), nor did his screen test impress the producers. Robert Conrad was the 17th actor tested for the role, an experience he later recalled as painful, due to wearing elevator shoes fitted for Alan Ladd’s feet in order to make him seem taller than he actually was. A former Marine and stuntman, Conrad was already well known in Hollywood, having co-starred in the popular Hawaiian Eye series (1959–1963). He was chosen for the part, although adjusting for his height became an issue throughout production of the series. According to Ethel Winant, they had to be conscious of who they cast to play opposite him: She told writer Susan Kesler, “If he was supposed to be this great hero, he couldn’t look like a child.” For the part of Artemus Gordon, the only choice was Ross Martin, who had impressed CBS executives with his gift for dialects on the short-lived adventure series, Mr. Lucky (1959). His acting credits were far more extensive than Conrad’s, including roles on numerous TV series and featured parts in in two Blake Edwards’ films, Experiment in Terror (1962) and The Great Race (1965). Before accepting the part of Gordon, Martin asked for changes to be made to the character and CBS obliged. “The Night of the Inferno” established the format, tone, and attitude for the entire series. The plot dealt with a crazed Mexican revolutionary named Juan Manolo (Nehmeiah Persoff), who wreaked havoc in the border towns of the Southwest. James West and Artemus Gordon were assigned to stop the raids. Although a simple enough premise, the story quickly became convoluted with the introduction of a mysterious Chinese merchant named Wing Fat (played by Victor Buono) and Lydia Monteran (Suzanne Pleshette), the gun-toting owner of a gambling casino who bore a grudge against West. After a stretch of cat-and-mousing in the local cemetery, which included crossing a rattlesnake-filled trench in a crypt, West and Lydia were captured by Manolo’s men. West was beaten and subjected to villainous posturing by Manolo, but he managed to escape by using a smoke bomb.

(LEFT) An unbeatable team: a screen capture of Secret Service agents Artemus Gordon (Ross Martin) and James West (Robert Conrad). The Wild, Wild West © CBS Studios, Inc. 14

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At the end, it turned out that Wing Fat was actually Manolo in disguise. During the final struggle, he was stabbed by a rapier hidden inside of a pool cue. As the man lay dying, West wanted to know the purpose of the masquerade. Manolo/Wing Fat gasped out, “No one would ever expect a fat Chinese of being a revolutionary.”

‘THE NIGHT OF’ A SUCCESSFUL FORMULA

“The Night of the Inferno” aired on the night of Friday, September 17, 1965. The positive audience and critical response to the inaugural episode was very encouraging. Gil Ralston’s script was fast, taut, and suspenseful, with the right touches of humor mixed with plenty of surprises. For reasons undisclosed, he never wrote another episode of the series he essentially created. His versions of West and Gordon became the template for all of the other series writers. Oddly, in the pilot, the relationship between the two men was much more relaxed and on more equal footing than in later episodes. West addresses Gordon familiarly as “Arte,” which wasn’t done again until late in the first season. James T. West and Artemus Gordon, like the actors who portrayed them, were contrasting personality types: West was a self-assured man of action with a dry wit and fists of iron. He never thought twice about taking on a dozen brigands. Utilizing karate and boxing, he would, as a general rule, lay them out in short order, but not before every stick of furniture in the vicinity was reduced to kindling. He even had a whistle-trained horse, a black stallion named Duke. Unlike earlier Western heroes—with the possible exception of the Maverick brothers—West was an inveterate womanizer, like James Bond. Also, like Bond, he carried a standard kit of gadgets on his person—his belt buckle contained a smoke bomb, his hollow boot-heels contained explosives, his sleeves contained spring-powered derringers and daggers, and the toe of one boot held a knife-blade, à la Rosa Klebb. Sometimes the weapons and gadgets were swapped out, depending on the episode. Artemus Gordon was a happy-go-lucky fellow. Ross Martin described him as an “absolute rogue… a complete con man.” According to a draft of the pilot script, Artemus had done a stretch in the Federal prison in Atlanta, but this detail never made it into any episode. As the series progressed, Arte constructed intricate plans that often went awry, but he was best known as the unchallenged master of disguise. With a few latex appliances, a dab here and there of spirit gum, and using affected accents, he could become an Irish laborer, a Tong soldier, or a fancy-dressed, tap-dancing assassin from the Bronx. He could also play the piano, the violin, and the flute when needed to further his impersonations. In contrast to the disguise abilities showcased on Mission: Impossible by Martin Landau (and later Leonard Nimoy), Ross Martin actually created his own characterizations, sketching them out beforehand. He rarely used rubber life-masks (as on M:I, where it was usually just an actor pretending to be impersonated by the

(TOP) Under the watchful eye of CBS art director Albert Heschong, artist W. C. Smith illustrated this preliminary concept painting for the interior of West and Gordon’s train car for the Wild, Wild West pilot. This scan of Smith’s original art, from the collection of Joseph R. Jennings, an assistant art director on the show, sold for $2,232 on December 11, 2018 at Heritage Auctions! Courtesy of Heritage. (CENTER) Arte in another attention-getting disquise as seen in this screen capture from “The Night of Sudden Death” (Season 1, Episode 4). (BOTTOM) Robert Conrad is cover-featured on this 1968 issue of TV Guide. © TV Guide Magazine. All Rights Reserved. The Wild, Wild West © CBS Studios, Inc.

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hero). His appliances and dialects were of such excellence that he was sometimes unrecognizable—at least for a few seconds. Like West, Arte too loved the ladies and, when in the mood, could play the continental playboy, oozing sophisticated charm. He preferred to avoid fisticuffs, but when pressed was as capable as anyone in a fracas—except for his partner, of course. The opening credits of the program were unique even in a time where animated intros were fairly commonplace. An animated Jim West karate-chopped a bank robber, blasted a card cheat, shot a villain with his sleeve derringer and, with a kiss, changed the intentions of a woman about to backstab him. During the second and succeeding seasons after the show transitioned to color, the latter scene was altered. Instead of changing the woman’s murderous impulse with his lips, the animated West used a right cross. Although amusing, the scene was misleading— West never slugged a female in any of the episodes. The title sequence was cued to composer Richard Markowitz’s memorable and hummable theme song. The intro was created by famed DePatie-Freleng Enterprises (The Pink Panther) and directed by veteran Friz Freleng. The design and animation was by Ken Mundie, who had crafted titles for the film The Great

Race (which had co-starred Ross Martin), TV series such as I Spy, Secret Agent, and the final season of Rawhide. Another artistic innovation was the commercial break “bumper graphics.” In the first season, right before the fade-out, the scene would freeze on the principal image and change to a 19th Century–style daguerreotype photo. This trademark was borrowed for later programs such as How the West Was Won (1976–1979) and Wizards and Warriors (1983). Every episode title employed “The Night of…” after the fashion of dime-novel stories and stage melodramas of the 1800s. As far as crafting scripts were concerned, three basic rules were established early on: 1: Have a gorgeous woman. 2: Have a strong adversary. 3: Have something very bizarre. Another key factor lay in the plausibility of the stories, of the willing suspension of disbelief. No matter how outrageous the villain or how over-the-top his motives, the writers and producers took pains to make the destructive technology seem consistent with the era, even it really was not. Famed CBS art director Albert Heschong did an excellent job creating sets and props that were both faithful to the historical period and atmospheric. He made certain that villain’s futuristic lair would look like the

(INSET ABOVE) Bolero-style jackets, strong colors, and form-fitting fabrics were tailored for Robert Conrad’s trim form. This original James West costume netted $7,800 in a June 5, 2018 Heritage auction. Courtesy of Heritage.

Arte often got smaller co-star billing on the photo covers of Gold Key Comics’ tie-in to The Wild, Wild West in favor of spy gadget– spotlighting images featuring the West’s number one secret agent. Covers to (LEFT) issue #1 (June 1966) and (RIGHT) #4 (Dec. 1968) of the irregularly published series. The Wild, Wild West © CBS Studios, Inc.

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future as envisioned by a 19th Century man—full of steam-driven machinery and pseudo art-deco furnishings. The sets and lighting of the first season suggested the classic black-and-white film noir of the Forties. Another unique aspect of WWWest was its focus on stunt work. Never before—or since— had an action-adventure TV series made stunts such an integral part of its format. Robert Conrad reputedly didn’t care for the men doubling him, and felt he could do a better job. Conrad and his own handpicked team framed all the shots, did all the choreography, and saved the network both production time and money. CBS, initially reluctant to allow the star of the show to perform his own and very often dangerous stunts, finally relented. Due to this, network TV audiences were exposed to martial arts on a weekly basis for the first time, since Conrad was a student of kung-fu. Many of the first season fight scenes incorporated karate, judo, and even tae kwon do into the mayhem. When Dick Cangey joined the stunt team, he convinced Conrad to use a boxing style of fighting since there were far more trained boxers among stunt men than martial artists. As the series went on, Conrad became so involved with the stunts, he preferred handing the lion’s share of a script’s exposition and dialogue over to Ross Martin. This choice gave Martin more screen time and more chances to expand his range. He liked to call Conrad “My pal, the stuntman.” Still, Martin occasionally wanted to be part of the stunt gang, but after he broke his leg during the filming of “The Night of the Avaricious Actuary,” he left the stunts to the experts. Even the experts weren’t immune to injury. Several of the stuntmen were seriously injured in various episodes. Stuntman

Red West had his head split open when Conrad threw him against a prop player piano, and Jimmy George suffered a broken leg and dislocated shoulder. For every injury that required medical attention, the insurance costs rose.

THE WILD, WILD VILLAINS

Creating scripts for the series was always a challenge and called for writers who understood WWWest couldn’t be viewed as a standard Western. Although several of the early Season One storylines were straightforward and could have worked just as well in other Western TV series, later episodes had their basis in classics of literature, from Gothic horror such as Frankenstein to proto–science fiction like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. During Season One, viewers were introduced to the world’s first cyborg (“The Night of the Steel Assassin”), a thief who could move at such high speed he was rendered invisible (“The Night of the Burning Diamond”), and a mad scientist who harvested the brains of his colleagues (“The Night of the Druid’s Blood”), among other adversaries. The rogue who held the top spot in the gallery of foes was the shortest in stature, but the most gigantic in ingenuity and ambition: three-foot-tall Dr. Miguelito Quixote Loveless. Created by writer John Kneubuhl and splendidly portrayed by Michael Dunn, Loveless was the most classic of villains—an idealist gone wrong. Introduced in “The Night the Wizard Shook the Earth,” Loveless harbored explosive ideas for the re-creation of real estate in Southern California. West, of course, thwarted his scheme, but not before gaining the brilliant dwarf’s undying enmity.

WILD, WILD WEST MERCHANDISE In 1998, Berkeley Books published three original novels by Western writer Robert Vaughan: The Wild, Wild West; The Night of the Death Train; and The Night of the Assassin. In 2006, Paramount began releasing The Wild, Wild West: The Complete Series on DVD. A 27-disc set was released in 2008, containing all 104 episodes of the series, as well as both TV movies. In July 2017, La-La Land Records released a limited edition four-disc set of music from the series, featuring Richard Markowitz’s theme and episode scores by Markowitz, Robert Drasnin, Dave Grusin, and other composers. The Wild, Wild West © CBS Studios, Inc.

For a TV series that was so popular and ran for so many years, The Wild, Wild West had surprisingly little in the way of tie-in merchandise. During the show’s original run, there was a single paperback novel, titled simply The Wild, Wild West, with a story by pulp writer Richard Wormser adapting the first season episode “The Night of the Double-Edged Knife.” Gold Key published seven comic books between 1966– 1969, all with photo covers. A series of notepads featuring the likenesses of Robert Conrad and Ross Martin were produced by Topflight Paper Co. in 1966. In the same year, Transogram released a board game. In 1969, Aladdin Manufacturing produced a lunch box and thermos. In 1988, Arnett Press published The Wild, Wild West: The Series by Susan E. Kesler, a thorough production history and episode guide. In 1990, Millennium Publications released a four-issue comic-book miniseries (“The Night of the Iron Tyrants”), with story and art by Mark Ellis, Darryl Banks, Adam Hughes, and John Hebert, and colors by Melissa Martin and Deirdre DeLay. In 1997, Exclusive Toy Products released a “Best of the West” limited edition 12-inch action-figure of James West.

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(LEFT) Dr. Miguelito Loveless (Michael Dunn) plots to be rid of James West once and for all in this screen capture from “The Night of Miguelito's Revenge.” (RIGHT) Robert Duvall as the Falcon, a villain with the biggest gun shaped like a falcon in the world, in “The Night of the Falcon,” alongside falconer Lana Benson (Lisa Gaye). The Wild, Wild West © CBS Studios, Inc.

Loveless and his entourage (spritely songstress Antoinette, played by Phoebe Dorin) and brutish giant Voltaire (Richard Kiel) returned in three more episodes during the first year. In “The Night of Murderous Spring,” the next-to-last episode of the season, Loveless and Antoinette were back without Voltaire. Instead, they were in the company of Kitten (Jenie Jackson), a woman of great size and strength, hopelessly in love with the diminutive doctor. Loveless’ plan this time involved poisoning the waters of America with a drug that induced murderous insanity. The final scene of the episode established the tone for the remainder of the war between West and Loveless: the doctor had apparently drowned in a lake. After diving repeatedly in search of him, a saddened West said, “Maybe hate is as strong a bond as love... I’ll miss him... that little man with the giant rage against the whole universe.” As he and Gordon walked away, the surface of the lake began to boil as if in sly mocking laughter... freeze and fade out. Phoebe Dorin reported during the filming of the drowning scene, her long dress became tangled in the mechanism that sank the boat she and Michael Dunn were sitting in. She was dragged underwater. Fortunately, Dunn dived down and tore her dress free. As colorful and vivid a villain as he was, Dr. Loveless wasn’t the only major antagonist West and Gordon encountered over the course of The Wild, Wild West’s four-season run. There was the disfigured Zachariah Skull (Lloyd Bochner) in “The Night of the Puppeteer,” and fiendish sorcerer Count Manzeppi (Victor Buono), who was aided in his first nefarious scheme by a young Richard Pryor, in “The Night of the Eccentrics.” Burgess Meredith played manic-depressive Professor Cadwallader, who invented a device to trigger earthquakes, in “The Night of the Human Trigger.” Robert Duvall portrayed the outlandishly costumed Falcon, who boasted the biggest cannon in the world, in “The Night of the Falcon.” West and Gordon also contended with Emma Valentine, played to the wicked hilt by Agnes Moorehead, in “The Night of the Vicious Valentine,” and Boris Karloff as an oil-rich Maharajah in “The Night of the Golden Cobra.” 18

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There were hostile Indian tribes, supposed reincarnations of John Brown and Cortez, weird cults, secret armies, zombies, exploding duplicates, and even a lost city of Aztecs. Fiendish deathtraps, mad villains, and beautiful women were all integral parts woven into the tapestry of The Wild, Wild West. Although the focus on before-their-time geniuses and disaffected military officers became almost formulaic, a few segments went off in totally unexpected directions, like the surreal “The Night of the Man-Eating House,” in which Arte dreams that he and West are trapped in a decaying antebellum mansion possessed by the spirit of a long-dead woman. The last scene of the episode showed the pair approaching the very house Artemus had dreamt about. “The Night of the Lord of Limbo” dealt with the time-travel experiments of crippled Colonel Vautrain (Ricardo Montalbán). In this story, West is transported to an alternate timeline where he is forced to duel Arte and then preside over his death. “The Night of the Returning Dead” featured Sammy Davis, Jr. as a psychic who used his abilities to unmask a murderer (Peter Lawford).

LIFE AFTER CANCELLATION

Unfortunately, even breaking the formula was not enough to save the show past its fourth season. Although WWWest had never been a ratings blockbuster or a pop-culture fad like The Man from U.N.C.L.E. [see RetroFan #15—ed.], it still stacked up impressive numbers, even when Ross Martin had to leave the show for a number of episodes due to a heart attack. He was replaced by

retro television

Another example of WWW’s limited Sixties merchandising: Aladdin’s metal lunch box and thermos. Courtesy of Heritage. The Wild, Wild West © CBS Studios, Inc.

As the sidebar on page 17 explains, what little Wild, Wild West merchandising was produced during the show’s original run included Topflight Paper Co.’s 1966 notepads featuring photographs of Robert Conrad as James West and Ross Martin as Artemus Gordon. Courtesy of Dave Lemieux. The Wild, Wild West © CBS Studios, Inc. a rotating roster of “special guest agents,” Pat Paulsen, William Schallert, Charles Aidman, and Alan Hale, Jr. among them. Insurance costs continued to skyrocket, especially after Robert Conrad fractured his skull while filming a stunt for the Season Four episode “The Night of the Fugitives.” He dove from the top of a saloon staircase, lost his grip on a chandelier, fell 12 feet, and landed on his head.

Around the same time, in the wake of the tragic Robert F. Kennedy/Martin Luther King assassinations, a public outcry arose about the level of violence on network television. The Wild, Wild West was violent in the sense that if a gun was fired, someone usually died, but it was rarely, if ever, graphic. The episodes showcased action—gobs of running, jumping, window-breaking, exploding fun for an hour every Friday night. RETROFAN

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CBS president Frank Stanton didn’t see the series that way. Not only did he order the cancellation of TV programs that exceeded his standard of the amount of violence per episode, he also axed all shows that, according to actor L.Q. Jones, “had a tree in it.” The only Western series that survived the so-called “Rural/Violence Purge” [also covered in RetroFan #15!—ed.] was Gunsmoke, and that was reportedly because Stanton’s wife was a friend of Amanda Blake, who played Kitty Russell. After airing “The Night of the Plague” in April of 1969, The Wild, Wild West was cancelled without much fanfare. The time slot (and that of Hogan’s Heroes) was filled by the short-lived family show The Headmaster, starring Andy Griffith. It was a disheartening experience for all involved in the production. Conrad and Martin loved the show and asked the network to give it another chance, particularly after CBS ran a number of episodes as a summer replacement in 1970 for the Carol Burnett Show and they garnered unexpectedly high ratings. Instead, the 104 episodes went into syndication, where they became a syndication staple for the next 25 years. Although embittered at first, Robert Conrad admitted in later interviews the show’s cancellation was probably for the best. Not only were the stuntmen pushing their luck, he felt the role of James West had prevented him from advancing as an actor. He said, “I jumped off roofs and spent all my time with the stuntmen instead of other actors. I thought that’s what the role demanded. That role had no dimension other than what it was—a caricature of a performance. It was a comic strip character.” (Olavee Martin, Ross’ widow, told this writer that in the months following WWWest’s cancellation, Conrad would often drop by their home to brainstorm with her husband about new projects they could work on together. In her opinion, “Bobby” Conrad was insecure about his acting ability and felt he needed Ross as a safety net.) After WWWest, Conrad starred in the short-lived Jack Webb series The D.A. and held the title role in the Nick Carter TV movie/ pilot set in the 1890s. Similar to WWWest in many respects, the character of Carter was a meld of both Artemus and Jim West. A series did not materialize. Conrad portrayed famed WWII aviator “Pappy” Boyington in the well-received Black Sheep Squadron (1976–1978) and later in The Duke, a private-detective series (1979). That show was quickly cancelled in order for Conrad to star—reluctantly—in A Man Called Sloane, a very short-lived rehash of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. However, Conrad stayed in the pop-culture spotlight by starring in a series of late-Seventies commercials for Eveready Batteries. He balanced a battery on his shoulder and, while glaring at the viewer, made the challenge to knock it off: “Come on, I dare ya.” The commercial was parodied for years. Ross Martin remained very busy both in on-screen roles and as a voice actor. He had prominent parts in many primetime shows throughout the Seventies, including a semi-recurring character on Hawaii Five-0. He played the title role in the TV movie/pilot The Return of Charlie Chan (1972), but like Conrad’s Nick Carter, it did not spawn a series. 20

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FAST FACTS THE WILD, WILD WEST f No. of seasons: 4 f No. of episodes: 104 f Original run: September 17, 1965–April 11, 1969 f Primary cast: Robert Conrad, Ross Martin f Network: CBS

SPIN-OFFS AND REMAKES: f The Wild, Wild West Revisited (1979 made-for-television reunion movie starring Robert Conrad, Ross Martin, Paul Williams, and Harry Morgan; directed by Burt Kennedy; original airdate May 9, 1979) fMore Wild, Wild West (1980 made-for-television reunion movie starring Robert Conrad, Ross Martin, Harry Morgan, and Jonathan Winters; directed by Burt Kennedy; original airdates October 7 and 8, 1980) fThe Wild, Wild West (1999 movie remake starring Will Smith as James West and Kevin Kline as Artemus Gordon, with Kenneth Branagh and Salma Hayek; directed by Barry Sonnenfeld; premiered June 30, 1999) © Warner Bros.

In 1978, when CBS offered the actors the chance to reprise their iconic roles in a telefilm entitled The Wild, Wild West Revisited, both men jumped at it. Jay Bernstein, Conrad’s publicist, sold CBS on the idea of a reunion movie. Many of the original production team returned, including art director Albert Heschong. Revisited was set ten years after the series. The script by William Bowers was humor-oriented and reintroduced West as an indolent, tequila-swilling layabout in a Mexican village where he was attended by a harem of adoring señoritas. Though not directly stated, the unmistakable implication was the many children in the scene were of his own illegitimate issue. Artemus Gordon was performing Shakespeare before crowds of unappreciative miners and trail hands. When summoned by the director of the Secret Service (Robert “Skinny” Malone, played by Henry Morgan) to find out who had substituted a double for President Cleveland (Wilford Brimley), the two agents climbed back aboard their special train. The malefactor who had created a double for Cleveland (and other world leaders, including Queen Victoria) was none other than Miguelito Loveless—Junior. Michael Dunn had passed away in 1973 due to complications from his achondroplasia [see Scott Saavedra’s column, which follows, for Dunn’s story—ed.]. Singer/songwriter Paul Williams was asked to play the son of Loveless and although not as diminutive as his father, Junior

retro television

was crazier: not only had he been replacing kings, queens, and presidents with clones (!), he had created bionic warriors (portrayed by mimes Shields and Yarnell) whom he referred to as his “Six Hundred Dollar People.” All the attempts at humor weren’t as broad or unfunny as that one. At one point, Junior, responding to a jibe about his height, snarled, “I’ll have you know I towered over my father!” To which Artemus replied, “Well, who didn’t?” As if clones, imposters and bionics weren’t enough, Junior had also invented the first nuclear bomb. Although entertaining, Revisited was far more of a pastiche than its James Bond–inspired parent series. Evidently still smarting from the arbitrary cancellation of a decade before, the producers of the TV movie mellowed out Jim West and toned down the wild and crazy action. Still, the rapport and interplay between West and Gordon made it worth watching. Revisited earned sufficiently high ratings to warrant a sequel entitled More Wild, Wild West (1980). This film was much more in the vein of a Get Smart–type of parody. The usually entertaining Jonathan Winters was miscast as Albert Paradine II, a typical megalomaniac out to rule the world. Instead of Six Hundred Dollar People, two body builders painted green and called “Hunks” were his aides. Strangely, Victor Buono, who played a thinly disguised Henry Kissinger in More WWWest, was not asked to reprise his role as the colorful Count Manzeppi. Airing during the World Series, More’s ratings were catastrophically low.

In July of 1981, Ross Martin passed away of a heart attack after a game of tennis. He was only 61. His wife, Olavee said, “He had a smile on his face... he had a good life… wasn’t long enough, but a good life.” Conrad understandably grieved him, and when asked how he reacted to the news replied simply, “I cried.” Robert Conrad went on to a long and storied career, including critical acclaim for the TV movie Will, wherein he portrayed convicted Watergate conspirator, G. Gordon Liddy. In 1982, he briefly reprised his role as James West in a sketch on Saturday Night Live wherein he contended with time-travelling pimp, Velvet Jones (Eddie Murphy).

THE WILD, WILD MESS

In the early Nineties, several attempts were made to produce a WWWest motion picture. One effort involved casting Patrick Swayze and Raul Julia as West and Gordon. Another cast Mel Gibson as West with Richard Donner as the director. It wasn’t until 1999 that a Wild, Wild West film was released theatrically. Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, it starred Will Smith as West, Kevin Kline as Gordon, and Kenneth Branagh as Arliss (not Miguelito) Loveless. The movie was such an unmitigated critical and box-office disaster that Smith apologized to Robert Conrad for making it. As it was, Conrad accepted the Golden Raspberry Award for the movie when it was awarded the Worst Picture of 1999. When production of the film was announced, Gil Ralston, writer of the pilot episode, filed suit against Warner Bros., claiming in part that he created all the characters and concepts that became The Wild, Wild West for which he had not been compensated. He passed away in 1999 before the suit was settled, but Warner Bros. reportedly paid his estate between $600K and $1.5 million. The Wild, Wild West has lain largely fallow since the Nineties, although there were rumors of a reboot series in the works by Ron Moore, who helmed the Battlestar Galactica reimagining. Interest was briefly renewed when the entire series was released on DVD in 2006. Robert Conrad recorded audio introductions for every episode of the first season. He was also inducted into the Hollywood Stuntmen’s Hall of Fame for his work on the series. He passed away of heart failure at age 84 in February 2020. Although imitations of The Wild, Wild West such as Barbary Coast (1975–1976) and The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. (1993–1994) had cult followings, they failed to make much of a lasting impact. Like few other TV series of its era, The Wild, Wild West’s unique combination of wildly inventive plots and love of the bizarre could never be successfully duplicated. As mentioned before, The Wild, Wild West was an anomaly, but one that the sun will never set upon. Special thanks and acknowledgements to Susan E. Kesler.

Cover to a DVD release of The Wild, Wild West Revisited. The Wild, Wild West © CBS Studios, Inc.

MARK ELLIS is a novelist and comics creator whose many credentials include Doc Savage, The Wild, Wild West, Death Hawk, Lakota, and scores of others. Writing under the pen name of James Axler, he created the bestselling Outlanders SF novel series. Outlanders was consecutively published for over 18 years in various editions by Harlequin’s Gold Eagle imprint, making it the most successful mass-market original paperback series of the last three decades. He lives in rural Ireland with his wife, writer/photographer Melissa Martin Ellis. RETROFAN

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BOOKS FROM TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING

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SCOTT SAAVEDRA’S SECRET SANCTUM

Michael Dunn The role of a lifetime: Michael Dunn as the brilliant and petulant Dr. Miguelito Loveless from The Wild, Wild West. The Wild, Wild West © CBS Studios, Inc.

BY SCOTT SAAVEDRA This may sound familiar to some readers. You are a young kid and your rear end has fallen asleep. You are rump-dead because you’ve been sitting on the floor for hours watching television and you had—just had—to be up close to the set to change channels and tune the UHF knob. Seeing me, or any of her kids with faces positioned nearly against the television screen, would prompt my mom to tell her little rug-potatoes to move back or we’d hurt our eyes. We’d comply, but just barely. Nearly all of her now-adult children wear glasses at least part of the time. So… yeah. I’d sit there and watch the shows, often in reruns in the afternoon, that we now talk about here in RetroFan. As I recall there were two things I especially loved to see: a Star Trek episode that was new to me, and a show featuring a favorite occasionally occurring character. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy seeing the stars of the shows. Who doesn’t love Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore or Andy Griffith and Don Knotts? Nobody. That’s just Entertainment Science. However, every time, say, the egotistical, loudmouth boss Alan Brady (played by show creator Carl Reiner) turned up on The Dick Van Dyke Show, it was a must-watch-I’ll-get-some-fresh-air-

later-Mom situation. Same for the sorta-not-all-there Mayberry businessman Floyd the barber (Howard McNear) and his appearances on The Andy Griffith Show. But one of my topmost favorite occasionally occurring characters was The Wild, Wild West’s persistent villain Dr. Miguelito Loveless, who very memorably vexed Secret Service agents James West and Artemus Gordon in ten out of 104 episodes. The actor who brought the complex and fun creation of Dr. Loveless to excellent life was Michael Dunn, making an impact with far fewer appearances that some of the others in my gang of favorites. Floyd the barber (whose last name was not actually “the barber,” but Lawson) was an unfocused conversationalist in 80 of 249 episodes. And Alan Brady rattled Rob Petrie (Dick Van Dyke) in 32 of 158 episodes. Michael Dunn, like many good performers, was just worth watching. Certainly, nobody could play frustrated genius quite like him. Part gentleman, part spoiled tyrant. But as a youthful TV-viewing fanatic I used to worry about Dr. Loveless/Michael Dunn. Due to his dwarfism, Dunn’s body didn’t grow straight and he appeared to struggle to do fairly commonplace things like walking. Dunn presented such a deep humanity via his RETROFAN

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performances that he seemed more real to me than many other TV actors. I assume the empathy of youth is part of the explanation and, of course, his unusual height probably factored into my fascination as it did for others. Dunn was right at the top marker for dwarfism at 3' 10", and he was plenty aware that his size was an attention-grabber. Eventually, though, I stopped seeing Dunn on television, put more attention to my comic books and MAD magazines, and my thoughts just moved elsewhere. Turns out that having a regular nostalgia-centric magazine column forces one to look backwards and refocus on memories that I never expected to revisit. And Michael Dunn came to mind.

ESCAPE FROM THE DUST BOWL

Michael Dunn was the stage name of Gary Neil Miller (for reading ease he will be referred to by his better-known stage name). He was born in Shattuck, Oklahoma, on October 20, 1934, as the effects of the Dust Bowl—both the name of a geographic area and the historic dust storms and drought that occurred there—battered the Southern Plains. When he was four, Dunn and his parents moved to Dearborn, Michigan. In an interview with TV Guide (July 8, 1967), Dunn claimed to know, also at age four, that he “was a dwarf.” (Dunn frequently referred to himself as a midget or dwarf, terms more commonly accepted then.) This seems young to have such a self-revelation. Dunn, however, was an unusually bright child, able to read by age three. He showed musical talent early on as well. Dunn’s dwarfism was not medically diagnosed until he was five. But it wouldn’t be his height so much as the related medical problems that proved to be his greatest obstacle. Well, that and social antipathy toward anyone

Phoebe Dorin played one of Dr. Loveless’ minions, Antoinette (seated at the piano). Dorin was in six episodes of The Wild, Wild West until Dunn asked to replace her with his new wife (who didn’t make the cut). This ended Dorin and Dunn’s long partnership and deeply hurt Dorin, but they did eventually reconcile. Note James West's discomfort with having to listen to the music. Dorin would later say that Robert Conrad “adored” Dunn. The Wild, Wild West © CBS Studios, Inc.

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“different.” He had dislocated hips that made walking increasingly painful as he got older, his spine curved in a way that made him appear barrel-chested, and his lung growth was constrained due to the size and shape of his ribcage, which brought extra work for his heart. His parents wanted their only child to learn to function in the world, so they refused to send him to any sort of “special school.” The future Dr. Loveless proved to be more than up to the challenge despite having to navigate a world that was not designed for people his size. To Dunn, an obstacle was something to go around or ignore. He could see humor in his size. One oft-told tale had Dunn and his young friends going to the movies, where the small youth asked the person in the ticket booth if his height qualified him for “half price.” It did not. Dunn’s early years were happy. He loved baseball as a sport to study and as an activity. He could play the piano, but hated to practice. He enjoyed singing. He had a fairly high Dunn, writing under his birth opinion of himself (which family name, pens a heartfelt thank-you to and friends would note as well, everyone who helped get him a car usually without rancor). In an to ease his travel difficulties. From interview with the New York a 1952 issue of the University of Post in 1965, Dunn explained Miami’s student magazine, Tempo. that he felt he read more than © University of Miami.

scott saavedra’s secret sanctum

his teachers as a kid and would sometimes be removed from class for getting “lippy.” He won the Detroit Metropolitan Spelling Bee in 1947. The Detroit News both covered and sponsored the event. His win sent him, with his mom, to Washington, D.C., for the nationals. He made it 14 rounds, but was tripped up by “fuchsia.” At Detroit’s Redford High School, Dunn was in the Honor Society, Student Council, choir, Red Hi-C (a Christian group; Dunn was a regular churchgoer), and was on the all-male cheerleading squad as its co-captain. Notes in his Redford 1950 senior yearbook indicate he was well-liked. In 1951, Dunn attended the University of Michigan and was on the staff of their humor magazine, The Gargoyle. He ended up in a three-month hospital stay after being struck by a wave of students coming down a staircase. Thinking a better climate was needed to help him recover, Dunn’s parents moved him to the University of Miami to resume his freshman year. At UM, his educational focus was on political science and journalism. There he was the managing editor of the UM Tempo, a more serious publication than The Gargoyle. And yet, Dunn, despite an IQ reported to be 178, found his interest in education fading and other non-academic activities taking more of his time.

THE IMPROMPTU MAN

Dunn enjoyed singing and performing for people. A quote in The Big Life of a Little Man: Michael Dunn Remembered by his first cousin, Sherry Kelly (Tate, 2011), reveals a less confident side: “I feel like I’m not any use to anybody, but then I sing, and people like it and say so, and I feel better.” Often friends would encourage Dunn to sing wherever they happened to be. The outgoing young man would perform anywhere, anytime. He also performed in plays on campus. He struggled to get around, so fellow students and local businesses combined efforts to buy him a car. Ultimately, Dunn left college without graduating. 1956 began a period of about 18 months that remain a bit of a blank. Of this time, Dunn would tell select friends and family that he had been a secret agent stationed inside a television console and sent to Russia. His claimed spy-murder tool of choice: a piano wire garrote. The people who loved him most wrote this explanation off as just Gary (Michael) being Gary (Michael); someone with an active imagination. This is a quality that would surface in his professional life, where his fabrications would turn up unchallenged in serious reporting. He later claimed, for example, to have entered college at only 15, but was actually closer to 17 when he went to the University of Michigan.

BROTHER GARY GOES TO NEW YORK

Hollywood, California, has long been a compelling magnet for young performers. Dunn drove to the West Coast alone in 1957 with the hopes of finding regular work to support him in his efforts to enter show business, but was unsuccessful. His parents, who were of modest means, paid for everything. While in California he visited a monastery and was drawn to its quiet openness. Dunn stunned everyone in 1958, especially his Baptist mother, when he suddenly announced that he was moving to St. Bonaventure Monastery in Detroit and becoming a Capuchin lay brother. His mother was distressed, partly because she didn’t understand why her son became Catholic, but mostly she hated the idea of his talent languishing in a dark monastery. She needn’t have worried—

(LEFT) Michael Dunn received an Academy Award Nomination for his performance in Ship of Fools (1965). © Columbia Pictures. (RIGHT) Lobby card for Madigan. © Universal Pictures. Lobby cards courtesy of Heritage.

Brother Gary’s stay was fewer than three months. Through it all, his parents remained supportive. Dunn briefly returned home, sang where he could, and then moved to the big city, New York, New York. It was there, living near the famed Actor’s Studio in the equally famed area known as Hell’s Kitchen (causing much worry for his parents), that Gary Miller became Michael Dunn and set about the work of getting on stage to perform. Dunn sang for whoever would have him… small clubs, cafes, anyplace that needed a singer to draw in a crowd. It was at one such “saloon” (as Dunn liked to say) that he was discovered and got his first honest-to-gosh paid professional acting gig in an off-Broadway play, Here Come the Clowns. More plays followed, and it was during this period he met his soon-to-be singing partner, friend, and future Wild, Wild West co-star, Phoebe Dorin. Actor Roddy McDowall, who was doing a photo essay on Dunn for LIFE magazine, suggested they partner as a nightclub act. TIME magazine and The New York Times also took notice. The TIME article was entitled “Elf’s Progress.” Most writing about him tended to lead with puns relating to size. TIME did note that, as a singer and actor, Dunn’s talents “in both areas are considerable.” Good reviews for his off-Broadway work led to roles on Broadway. He played the inside of a robot in How to Make a Man. For his performance in The Ballad of the Sad Café he received a New York Critic’s Circle Award and was nominated for a 1964 Tony Award. He got an Oscar Nomination for Best Supporting Player for his role in his first film, Ship of Fools (1965). In 1966, he got married to Joy Talbot, about whom little is known. The marriage did not last long. More films followed, with notable actors like Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in Boom in 1968 (not a hit), and Madigan also in 1968 (much better received) with Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda. Television also beckoned. RETROFAN

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The pilot for Get Smart featured Dunn as Mr. Big. Of course, he captures Maxwell Smart (Don Adams, sitting) and Agent 99 (Barbara Felton), but only briefly. Get Smart © CBS Studios, Inc.

DR. LOVELESS, MR. BIG, AND OTHERS

Despite his success on stage and screen, my exposure to Michael was entirely via the television, so I focused on that work since my Secret Sanctum, my rules. But sitting down (in a chair —no more watching TV plunked down on the rug for this guy) and watching or even re-watching some of Dunn’s television work, mostly of the type I would have watched as a kid, was a pleasure. The shows may not have aged especially well, but allowances were made. Michael Dunn’s smiling, raging, hurting, laughing, singing performances hold up just fine. h Get Smart Pilot: “Mr. Big” (Season 1, Episode 1, original airdate: Sept. 18, 1965) Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 of CONTROL, a secret government intelligence agency, has been sent out to get Mr. Big of KAOS, a secret unaffiliated group of bad guys. Michael Dunn plays Mr. Big and his function is largely to be a visual gag. Mr. Big’s men capture Maxwell Smart (played by the taller Don Adams, who was 5’ 9”) and says that, with Smart’s head framed out of the shot, he is happy to finally meet “face to face.” He then offers Smart a cigarette. A very short cigarette (get it?). Dunn is smooth and urbane and performs the short jokes like a pro. This first Get Smart is notable for introducing many jokes (over)used in the series including the “Would you believe…?” routine and the “And loving it!” response to being warned about the dangers Agent 86 will face on his assignment. The malfunctioning Cone of Silence makes its debut, too, as 26

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does having an agent in the tiniest space possible. This episode is the only one in black and white. It was written by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. Howard Morris directed it (you know, he also played another of my favorite occasional characters: the excitable, rockthrowing Ernest T. Bass for six episodes of The Andy Griffith Show). Please don’t get the wrong impression. I love Get Smart, but felt like I’d watched all of them just in this one pilot. Get Smart Predicts the Future: Max’s shoe phone rings while at a concert, annoying the audience members around him. Happens all the time now, but back then it was a significant breach of social norms (and, also, completely impossible). h The Wild, Wild West: “The Night the Wizard Shook the Earth” (Season 1, Episode 3, original airdate: Oct. 1, 1965) The classic debut of Dr. Miguelito Loveless, an unstable genius who literally would not hurt a fly and yet be quite willing to kill thousands (especially including Secret Service agent James West) to achieve his goals. His desire to reclaim land that once belonged to his mother and stolen by the Spanish was understandable. Loveless is a bit vague as to the actual acreage of his claim, but it looked like pretty much all of Southern California, which was even more arid then. Who would want so much inhospitable property? The mad (and he was pretty peeved) scientist planned to bring water to the land from wetter parts of the state via his new powerful explosive. Loveless wanted to create a beautiful place where children “can grow, be strong and happy… a world without pain.”

scott saavedra’s secret sanctum

This first Dr. Loveless episode was written by John Kneubuhl (height unknown), an American Samoan who got the idea for the character after reading the article about Michael Dunn in TIME. Loveless was immediately popular and eventually Dunn was signed on for four episodes a year. Only ten were made during the run of the series due to his health issues. Kneubuhl would write four more episodes with the troublesome and deadly genius and a total of eight for the series overall. Wild, Wild West show creator Michael Garrison saw Dunn and Dorin perform and thought Dunn would make a great villain and that having the two sing during each appearance would make for a great reoccurring show element. During his debut, Loveless makes comments that seem to reflect the actor as much as the character. After cutting his hand,

he claims that “I’ve lived so long with pain, I no longer feel it.” And Loveless, who couldn’t straighten his body any more than Dunn could, admitted, “Oh, how I hate any twisted thing, Mr. West.” It was almost shocking to hear. By necessity Dunn had to do most his own stunts—who could double for him? A scene in a clock tower has Robert Conrad (5' 8") doing his own stunts as usual, climbing around the set, high above the studio floor. Michael Dunn, in the same scene, leapt from the ledge onto a swinging pendulum. As Dunn completes the leap and grabs the pendulum rod, his eyes briefly pop wide. I first assumed that he was terrified, but I was wrong. Garrison recalled that Dunn had in fact smacked himself hard in his Gentleman Parts. In this episode, we also meet Loveless’ early crew: Antoinette, played by Phoebe Dorin (who is 5' tall), and the (mostly) silent

giant, Voltaire (Richard Kiel, who was 7' 2" and also suffered from growth-related health issues and role limitations, but was a hit as Bond villain Jaws in two 007 films).

Scenes from Dr. Loveless’ debut in “The Night the Wizard Shook the Earth”: (TOP LEFT) Voltaire carries Dr. Loveless to an assassination. (TOP RIGHT) agent James West is shown Loveless’ stolen land (roughly Southern California). (ABOVE) Michael Dunn did his own stunts when possible and unfortunately hurt himself in the most unfortunate way filming this scene. The Wild, Wild West © CBS Studios, Inc.

h Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea: “The Wax Men” (Season 3, Episode 24, original airdate: Mar. 5, 1967) Man-size crates are being loaded into the Seaview’s missile room because they don’t have any place else to put boxed-up statues from the fabled city of Atlantis. Admiral Nelson (Richard Basehart) is skeptical, but shrugs. Orders are orders. No one examines the contents of the crates that are crammed into an area full of high-tech advanced nuclear submarine weapons and such. Once crew members have left the area, a clown, played by Michael Dunn, punches his way out of a crate and in time turns everyone aboard the Seaview into mindless wax duplicates. Fortunately, Captain Crane (David Hedison), for reasons of plot, returns for duty late and discovers that nobody will talk to him. The clown orders the wax crew to capture Captain Crane, who is definitely in “what fresh Irwin Allen hell is this?” mode. His life is clearly in danger, so he takes time to change from dress uniform into his regular service gear. Michael Dunn as the clown is silent in the early part of the episode (which is very creepy), and while he talks more later, he never explains what he’s doing or why. Well, he gets his in the end. Literally (spoiler: it’s the ol’ back-up-into-an-open-highvoltage-piece-of-equipment type deal). And, on a very personal note: I never get tired of watching the cut shots of the Seaview doing its stuff. RETROFAN

September 2022

scott saavedra’s secret sanctum

h Tarzan: “Alex the Great” (Season 2, Episode 26, original airdate: Mar. 29, 1968) This was the final episode of the Sixties’ Tarzan television series. Ron Ely plays the jungle hero wearing the most body-positive outfit of the era. In this story, Tarzan has to endure the ego of Alex Spence (Neville Brand), the world judo champion. He wants to fight the Ape Man. Alex, who thinks he’s better than Tarzan (as if), has his girlfriend and boat stolen by a no-good band of smugglers led by Michael Dunn’s Amir Chin (he is in semi-Chinese drag). Ron Ely’s next big genre role would be as pulp legend Doc Savage in the 1975 movie of the same name. He does get to wear more in the way of pants, but his shirt gets torn up almost to the point of non-existence. (INSET) Michael Dunn’s costume from the Star Trek third season episode, “Plato’s Stepchildren.” (RIGHT) Kind-hearted Alexander (Dunn) watches with concern as Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) struggles against mean-spirited psychokinesis. Star Trek © CBS Studios, Inc.

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September 2022

(LEFT) For no stated reason, a clown played by Dunn turns the crew of the Seaview into animated wax men in loosefitting gloves for this third season episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea © Irwin Allen Productions, LLC/20th Century Studios. (RIGHT) Dunn in semi-Chinese drag as Amir Chin for the final Tarzan broadcast in “Alex the Great.” Tarzan © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. h Star Trek: “Plato’s Stepchildren” (Season 3, Episode 10, original airdate: Nov. 22, 1968) This classic Star Trek installment is largely remembered for the interracial kiss between Lt. Uhura and Captain Kirk that is forced on

scott saavedra’s secret sanctum

our heroes by no-good-oh-we’re-so-superior mind-power aliens. This episode has a number of characters-acting-against-their-will moments due to the psychokinetic abilities of the Platonians, humanoids with an Ancient Greece esthetic and an enthusiasm for using said powers to humiliate others (they’re space jerks, basically). Objectively, the best such moment is when Kirk is made to slap the heck out of his own face. Dunn plays Alexander, a severely abused servant (to beings with telekinetic powers?), who is the heart and soul of the story. When given the opportunity, he opts to not seek revenge against his tormentors. The third season is generally not considered Star Trek’s best, but grab a gif of Kirk smacking his own head around. That’s entertainment. h Night Gallery: “Sins of the Father” (Season 2, Episode 21, original airdate: Feb. 23, 1972) Dunn appeared as the loyal Servant in the “Sins of the Father” segment (there are two stories in this episode). The story takes place in famine-wracked Wales during medieval times. Richard Thomas, Geraldine Paige, and genre favorite Barbara Steele are co-stars. Not fun fact: During production, a horse stepped on Dunn’s leg, which fortunately was not broken.

FINAL ACT

Dunn became unhappy with the kinds of roles he was being offered. They weren’t the cutesy little characters he hated, but they weren’t especially interesting or challenging either. His drinking—a long-simmering issue—got worse. So did the pain his body put him through. Films of this period include Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971), The Werewolf of Washington (as a presidential psychiatrist named Dr. Kiss with a Dr. Frankenstein–type side hustle), and The Mutations (1974). Michael Dunn died in his London hotel room on August 30, 1973 while in England to film The Abdication with Liv Ullmann. He was a couple of months shy of his 39th birthday. The cause of death was originally reported as “undisclosed,” but was later amended to cor pulmonale (pulmonary heart disease). Of course, it doesn’t end there. Sometime before he died, Dunn sent a telegram to his

Screen capture from the trailer to Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971) featuring Dunn as Pierre Triboulet. © American International Pictures.

mother that said cryptically, “I’m OK. The cops are looking.” There were also claims that his body had been stolen (it was not). No evidence of foul play was found by authorities. His cousins gathered in 2007 for an article in The Oklahoman about their beloved relation, the former Gary Neil Miller. One photograph illustrating the news story shows the cousins on a couch behind a table full of memorabilia from Dunn’s career. There are VHS tapes and DVDs of his work stacked in one corner. Photos (one with Robert Conrad as James West and Dunn as you-know-who) and other bits. His framed Oscar Award Certificate of Nomination is a bit smaller than the framed news clipping reporting on his Metropolitan Spelling Bee win. He is grinning widely in the newspaper’s photograph. Dunn’s success encouraged other little people (a term he didn’t like) to pursue entertainment careers. Zelda Rubenstein, the 4' 11" actress best known for Poltergeist and Picket Fences, began the Michael Dunn Memorial Repertory Theater Company in Los Angeles in 1981 to honor him. Sadly, it is no longer active. Dr. Loveless once told James West that he would never die. “Death is too ordinary. The humiliation would kill me.” Thanks to DVDs, streaming, and whatever is technologically next (brain plugs?), his roles in The Wild, Wild West and Star Trek alone insure that Michael Dunn will have the kind of immortality that Dr. Loveless could only have imagined in his dreams. Antoinette, a song… 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

September 2022

Too Much TV COLUMN ONE

1) Robert Wightman 2) Gunilla Hutton 3) Walter Baldwin 4) John Hart 5) Donna Reed 6) Daphne Maxwell Reid 7) Kraig Metzinger 8) Geri Reischl 9) Jeannine Reilly 10) Beverley Owen 30

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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 actor in Column One corresponds to a TV role in Column Two that was also played by a betterknown actor. Match ’em up, then see how you rate!

RetroFan Ratings

“Riddle me this, Batman...”

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

“Which recastings left viewers in a lurch?”

0–3 correct: Tuned-Out RetroFan Ya big dummy! Put down that book and go watch some classic TV!

COLUMN TWO

A) Miss Ellie Ewing, Dallas B) Original Marilyn Munster, The Munsters C) Jan Brady, The Brady Bunch Variety Hour D) Original Floyd (the barber) Lawson, The Andy Griffith Show E) Vivian “Aunt Viv” Banks, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air F) John Boy-Walton, The Waltons G) First (of three) Billie Jo Bradleys, Petticoat Junction H) Phillip Traynor, Maude I) The Lone Ranger, The Lone Ranger J) Second (of three) Billie Jo Bradleys, Petticoat Junction The Andy Griffith Show © Mayberry Enterprises. Batman © DC Comics/Warner Bros. Television. The Brady Bunch, Petticoat Junction © Paramount Pictures Television. Dallas, The Waltons © Warner Bros. Television. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Munsters © NBC Universal Television. The Lone Ranger © Universal Studios. Maude © Sony Pictures Television. All Rights Reserved.

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

RETROFAN

September 2022

Pop Culture Books from TwoMorrows!

BRITMANIA

by RetroFan’s MARK VOGER

Remember when long-haired British rock ’n’ rollers made teenage girls swoon — and their parents go crazy? BRITMANIA plunges into the period when suddenly, America went wild for All Things British. This profusely illustrated full-color hardback, subtitled “The British Invasion of the Sixties in Pop Culture,” explores the movies (A HARD DAY’S NIGHT, HAVING A WILD WEEKEND), TV (THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW, MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR), collectibles (TOYS, GAMES, TRADING CARDS, LUNCH BOXES), comics (real-life Brits in the DC and MARVEL UNIVERSES) and, of course, the music! Written and designed by MARK VOGER (MONSTER MASH, GROOVY, HOLLY JOLLY), BRITMANIA features interviews with members of THE BEATLES, THE ROLLING STONES, THE WHO, THE KINKS, HERMAN’S HERMITS, THE YARDBIRDS, THE ANIMALS, THE HOLLIES & more. It’s a gas, gas, gas! (192-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $43.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-115-8 • SHIPS OCTOBER 2022!

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Save $24!

IT CREPT FROM THE TOMB

Since 2000, FROM THE TOMB has terrified readers worldwide. This second “Best of” collection of the UK’s preeminent magazine on the history of horror comics uncovers Atomic Comics lost to the Cold War, rarely seen (and censored) British horror comics, the early art of RICHARD CORBEN, GOOD GIRLS of a bygone age, TOM SUTTON, DON HECK, LOU MORALES, AL EADEH, BRUCE JONES’ Alien Worlds, HP LOVECRAFT in HEAVY METAL, and a myriad of terrors from beyond the stars and the shadows of our own world! It features comics they tried to ban, from ATLAS, CHARLTON, COMIC MEDIA, DC, EC, HARVEY, HOUSE OF HAMMER, KITCHEN SINK, LAST GASP, PACIFIC, SKYWALD, WARREN, and more! Edited by PETER NORMANTON. (192-page Trade Paperback) $29.95 ISBN: 9781605490816 (Digital Edition) $10.99

HERO-A-GO-GO!

HERO-A-GO-GO! celebrates the camp craze of the Swinging Sixties, when just about everyone—the teens of Riverdale, an ant and a squirrel, even the President of the United States—was a super-hero or a secret agent. RETROFAN magazine and former DC Comics editor MICHAEL EURY takes you through that coolest cultural phenomenon with this all-new collection of nostalgic essays, histories, and theme song lyrics of classic 1960s characters like CAPTAIN ACTION, HERBIE THE FAT FURY, CAPTAIN NICE, ATOM ANT, SCOOTER, ACG’s NEMESIS, DELL’S SUPER-FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA, the “Split!” CAPTAIN MARVEL, and others! Featuring interviews with BILL MUMY (Lost in Space), BOB HOLIDAY (It’s a Bird … It’s a Plane … It’s Superman), RALPH BAKSHI (The Mighty Heroes, Spider-Man), DEAN TORRENCE (Jan and Dean Meet Batman), RAMONA FRADON (Metamorpho), DICK DeBARTOLO (Captain Klutz), TONY TALLARICO (The Great Society Comic Book), VINCE GARGIULO (Palisades Park historian), JOE SINNOTT (The Beatles comic book), JOSE DELBO (The Monkees comic book), and more! (272-page FULL-COLOR TRADE PAPERBACK) $36.95 ISBN: 9781605490731 (Digital Edition) $13.99

AMERICAN TV COMIC BOOKS (1940s-1980s) From The Small Screen To The Printed Page

A fascinating and detailed year-by-year history of over 300 television shows and their 2000+ comic book adaptations across five decades. Author PETER BOSCH has spent years researching and documenting this amazing area of comics history, tracking down the well-known series (STAR TREK, THE MUNSTERS) and the lesser-known shows (CAPTAIN GALLANT, PINKY LEE) to present the finest look ever taken at this unique genre of comic books. Included are hundreds of full-color covers and images, plus profiles of the artists who drew TV comics: GENE COLAN, ALEX TOTH, DAN SPIEGLE, RUSS MANNING, JOHN BUSCEMA, RUSS HEATH, and many more giants of the comic book world. If you loved watching The Lone Ranger, Rawhide, The Andy Griffith Show, The Monkees, The Mod Squad, Adam-12, Battlestar Galactica, The Bionic Woman, Alf, Fraggle Rock, and “V”—there’s something here for fans of TV and comics alike. (192-page FULL-COLOR TRADE PAPERBACK) $29.95 ISBN: 9781605491073 (Digital Edition) $15.99

THE BEST OF FROM THE TOMB This first collection compiles features from its ten years of terror, along with new material meant for the NEVER-PUBLISHED #29 • (192-page Digital Edition) $10.99

LOU SCHEIMER

CREATING THE FILMATION GENERATION

Biography of the co-founder of Filmation Studios, which created the first DC cartoons with Superman, Batman, and Aquaman, ruled the song charts with The Archies, kept Trekkie hope alive with the Emmy-winning Star Trek: The Animated Series, taught morals with Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, and swung into high adventure with Tarzan, The Lone Ranger, Zorro, live-action shows Shazam! and The Secrets of Isis, and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Written by LOU SCHEIMER, with RetroFan’s ANDY MANGELS. (288-page Digital Edition) $14.99

TwoMorrows. The Future of Pop History. Phone: 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com Web: www.twomorrows.com

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614

THE ODDBALL WORLD OF SCOTT SHAW!

No License Required SoCal’s CARtoons, CYCLEtoons, Drag Cartoons, and more! BY SCOTT SHAW! Southern California was the birthplace of two unique American cults, custom cars and surfing. Both had been around a long time before they blossomed in the early Sixties, and after they became key themes of multiple Top 40 hits by SoCal musicians like the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean, many more young Americans found themselves hoping that their parents might move to Southern California. I grew up in San Diego and was also influenced by both cults. My love of hot rods and outlandish custom cars was propelled by the grotesque characters, designs, and rebellious vibes of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, Stanley “Mouse!” Miller, and William Campbell’s plastic model kits and T-shirts. I was obsessed with Finks, Weird-Ohs, Silly Surfers, Frantics, and a slob named “Fred Flypogger” [and if you need proof of Scott’s obsession, see his Oddball World column in RetroFan #10!—ed.]. My interest in surfing had nothing to do with the sport itself. I was riveted by two surfing mascots: Rick Griffin’s “Murphy the Surfer” in Surfer magazine and Mike Dormer and Lee Teacher’s “Hot Curl the Surfer,” a seaside statue that became a national fad with its own line of model kits. They were all popular with many kids my age, so I taught myself how to draw them so I could draw monsters and surfers on my classmates’ book covers for a few cents to bolster my allowance. In eighth grade, I even stole Mouse!’s exclamation point to attach to my own name. I went to custom car shows at the downtown San Diego’s Community Concourse to meet Big Daddy and see the latest

(ABOVE) Detail from the cover of Petersen Publishing Co.’s Hot Rod Cartoons #1 (Nov. 1964). Art by George Lemmons.

custom cars. I read every issue of Car Craft magazine to see the latest artwork by Robert Williams in ads for Roth’s T-shirts. I put together so many plastic model car kits that I filled a tall cabinet with leftover parts. I undoubtedly reduced my IQ a few digits thanks to my unintentional inhaling of who-knows-how-many tubes of Testor’s model kit cement and bottles of Testor’s enamel model paint. However, I didn’t know a thing about how a car ran or what it was like to ride a wave. I couldn’t even drive. I was a goofy 14-year-old who was trapped in that Sargasso Sea of powerlessness of pre-adolescence and being eaten alive by my own insecurity, hormones, and goals. I needed someone or something to glue me together. Of course, that mental cement came from teaching myself how to draw, studying the work of my favorite professional cartoonists in print and animation. At the time, there was no better example of the best humorous illustration than MAD magazine, which became like one of my floppy textbooks to me. MAD was rapidly rising in its success while gathering a flock of imitators, mostly with decidedly underwhelming material. But there was one black-and-white comic magazine that really got my attention, due to the cover presence of a cartoonist whose style and name were familiar to me from many of Hanna-Barbera Productions’ cartoons. His name was Willie Ito and the magazine was Petersen Publishing’s CARtoons. I’d seen Willie’s name in H-B shows’ credits, and after seeing his printed work, the first thing that came to my naive brain was, “If Willie Ito is this good, how come his Hanna-Barbera cartoons aren’t better?” Little did I suspect that I was absolutely in the crosshairs of the magazine’s newly targeted market.

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September 2022

The oddball world of scott shaw!

‘HOT ROD’ REVS IN!

Hot rods was already a genre in comic books. When the American survivors of WWII came home, single males finally had a chance to act like the teenagers they were before they were drafted. Now that metal and rubber drives were a thing of the past, junkyards were once again full of automobiles in varying conditions. That’s when hot rodding bloomed, and, of course, there were comic publishers who wisely exploited the new trend. Fawcett (Hot Rod Comics), Ziff-Davis (Speed Smith the Hot Rod King), Hillman (Hot Rod and Speedway Comics), Charlton (Hot Rods and Racing Cars, Speed Demons), Archie (Archie’s Mechanics), Gold Key (Mod Wheels), and DC (Hot Wheels) all published car-themed comic-book series at one time or another. (Marvel’s U.S. 1 doesn’t count because it’s about trucks.) They all had one thing in common: none of those funnybooks were intended to be funny. However, there was a very popular comedic character that appeared in Hot Rod magazine, cartoonist Tom Medley’s “Stroker McGurk.” Medley was in the first wave of hot rodders, and his

appealing strip premiered in the second issue of Hot Rod. Tom was the first cartoonist ever to specialize in drawing gag cartoons about hot rods. His material was in the format of a Sunday comic strip and targeted adult readers who were also rodders. His character “Stroker McGurk” was the opposite of the outlaw, street-racing juvenile-delinquent stereotypes who appeared in all forms of mid-century American entertainment. First appearing in Petersen’s Hot Rod magazine, the likeable, clever, and relatable nice guy Stroker supported the concept of hot rodding as a respectable hobby. Hey, what if there was an entire magazine full of cartoons like that? CARtoons was the brainchild of engineer/cartoonist Pete Millar and gag cartoonist/animation writer Carl Kohler, who both lived in Southern California. After noticing that EC’s four-color MAD comic book had evolved into the more respectable and profitable black-and-white MAD magazine, Millar thought that a publication composed entirely of automotive humor might catch on. In 1959, the Millar and Kohler pitched the concept to Robert Einar “Pete” Petersen, the owner of

(INSET) Cartoonist Tom Medley’s hot-roddin’ Stroker McGurk, a character that originated in Hot Rod #2. This metal sign featuring Stroker is one of several merchandising items featuring his likeness. © Stroker McGurk, LLC. CARtoons covers by the title’s creative big daddies, (LEFT) Pete Millar (issue #10, Feb.–Mar. 1963) and (RIGHT) Carl Kohler (issue #13, Aug.–Sept. 1963). © Petersen Publishing Co., LLC.

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September 2022

The oddball world of scott shaw!

a Los Angeles publishing company, Petersen Publishing (formerly Trends Books), which was rapidly becoming the nation’s top provider of automotive magazines. Hot Rod’s Stroker McGurk never had his own magazine, but his popularity was proof that the automotive theme had plenty of humorous potential. Kohler and Millar left Petersen’s office with a $2,500 contract to assemble a 64-page, 5.5-inch x 7.5-inch digest-sized magazine, a size ratio that matched the dimensions of Petersen’s recently acquired Rod & Custom. For many decades, the Petersen Publishing Company was a key element in the publishing industry with titles such as Guns & Ammo, Tiger Beat, Photographic, Snowboarder, Skin Diving, and Motorcyclist, among dozens of others. By the late Nineties, the company published roughly 80 different magazines. But of all the magazines in Petersen’s publishing empire, Hot Rod was the first as well as the most influential. Petersen (1926–2007) was a kid of Danish descent who learned about cars from his father, a truck mechanic. After serving in the military during WWII, he became a Hollywood publicity man. In 1947, he was hired to promote a local hot rod car show. Since there were no magazines being published about hot rods, Petersen took advantage of that situation and left the firm to create a new magazine about the post-WWII automotive craze, Hot Rod. Petersen was its self-appointed publisher, editor, writer, layout artist, printer, and salesman. The first issue of Hot Rod had a run of 5,000, which were sold outside the Los Angeles Hot Rod Exhibition, the show Petersen was contracted to publicize. Hot Rod eventually became so successful that Petersen launched a second publication, Motor Trend, aimed at an older readership. More automotive titles followed, each one with a slightly different theme. The Petersen Publishing Company went on to launch many new periodicals not only about cars, but reflecting myriad manly recreational fixations. Petersen became a publishing giant with clout to match. His magazines—sold primarily at newsstands and supermarkets without the option of subscriptions—were successful. Petersen’s goal was to snag readers when they were young and make them lifetime readers. His motive certainly applied to CARtoons.

PUTTING THE ‘CAR’ IN ‘CARTOONS’

The first issue of CARtoons was created at Carl Kohler’s family home in Burbank, but things immediately went haywire. Trends Books’ check didn’t arrive when promised by the publisher’s executive Kenneth M. Bayless, which insulted editor Kohler so much that he quit, although he’d continue to sell gag cartoons and scripts to the CARtoons line of mags on a freelance basis, eventually rejoining the crew as SURFtoons’ editor. Millar pressed on, editing, writing, and drawing for the magazine at home, changing the digest format to standard magazine dimensions after the fourth issue. But in 1963, with issue #11, Petersen Publishing’s Bayless determined that CARtoons, already rising in popularity, would be produced within the company. According to Millar, who was now out of a job, “When Petersen took it in-house, I was hoping to become the full-time editor, but Dick Day got the job. I told Bayless what he could do with CARtoons.” Bayless is often mentioned as an “editorial director” in Petersen’s B&W comic magazines. However, the indicia of those early issues don’t exactly jibe with that story (employees with titles don’t necessarily do the work they take credit for). In the 4th through 11th issues of CARtoons, William H. Martin is listed as the magazine’s editor, although in #10, Pete Millar’s position is described as “editorial coordinator.”

(TOP) Publisher Robert E. “Pete” Petersen. (RIGHT) Hot Rod dedicated this cover to the publishing legend upon his 2007 passing. © Petersen Publishing Co., LLC.

Lynn Windland is listed as editor in #16. Without a humor specialist running CARtoons, perhaps Petersen’s “normal” editors were struggling. Pete Millar was still freelancing for CARtoons, but he was secretly preparing to become CARtoons’ #1 competitor with his own magazine. The cover of CARtoons #1 featured a gag cartoon written by Millar and co-drawn by him and Kohler. It’s definitely aimed at teenagers and adults familiar with automotive mechanics and high-performance race cars. This theme continued in most of Millar’s material. By CARtoons #12, a cartoon of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth airbrushing his sweatshirts occupies the cover, as well as on the cover of #14. Although “Big Daddy” was certainly one of the best-known ambassadors of the custom-car scene—he started out as a “crazy” pin-striper—he and his “Finks” were becoming a distinct influence on preteen Americans in general and on CARtoons in particular. Early on in CARtoons, “Unk and Them Varmints” was introduced, a less-outrageous version of Roth and his rather disgusting Finks. Unk was a broad caricature of Carl Kohler, and the cute and wacky Varmits were designed by Willie Ito. They made their first cover appearance on CARtoons #19. Unk was soon joined by “Unkle Einar the Viking,” an X-Acto knife–wielding weirdo bearing the publisher’s middle name. At that point in its early existence, CARtoons shifted from an automotive humor magazine to become to preteen boys what Archie comics was to preteen girls: a glamorized and upbeat promise of their next few years. Fortunately, Petersen Publishing was headquartered in Hollywood—the land of animation studios—and thus had access to plenty of creative people who RETROFAN

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The oddball world of scott shaw!

(LEFT) Ed “Big Daddy” Roth runs into difficulties while airbrushing a T-shirt on the cover of CARtoons #14 (Oct.–Nov. 1963). Cover by Wes Bennett. (RIGHT) The ample belly of “Unk” (based upon Carl Kohler) offers one hill-uva track obstacle for the slot-car-racing Varmints on issue #28 (Apr. 1966). Cover by Mike Arens and Jim Collender. © Petersen Publishing Co., LLC. were experts on what kids enjoyed. They also hired young cartoonists with ties to underground comix and experienced mainstream comics creators with incredible legitimacy. And then there were the pro cartoonists whose specialty was depicting cars, auto parts, tools, and kinetic warping of vehicles to infer high speeds. The majority of the contributors wrote their own stories. Combining all of these different aspects of the cartooning industry, CARtoons had no “house style,” but an impressive assortment of written and visual automotive humor, now primarily aimed at a younger readership that had yet to qualify for a driver’s permit. Although MAD had what was arguably the most talented “usual gang of idiots” in monthly humor magazines, it was in every way a New York publication. But many of CARtoons’ readers and contributors felt that it was the MAD of the West Coast, specifically Southern California. Other than Western Publications, a.k.a. Gold Key Comics (which also had an office in NYC), CARtoons was the only mainstream comic that was published on the West Coast at the time, a noteworthy exception to the industry.

A skateboarding cover—and trouble ahead for Unk—on this original cover art, illustrated by Willie Ito and painted by Don Gleason, for CARtoons #22 (Apr. 1965). Courtesy of Heritage. © Petersen Publishing Co., LLC.

RETROFAN

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The oddball world of scott shaw!

Pete Millar, the original creative engine behind CARtoons, spun off to do his own mag, Drag Cartoons. Covers to Drag Cartoons #7 (Sept. 1964) and 8 by Millar. © The Pete Millar Family. One of CARtoons’ biggest advantages was that its omnipresent automotive publisher had incredible distribution clout; therefore the magazine was easy to find. CARtoons sold especially well in the South [home of NASCAR – ye Southern-born ed!]. And being a magazine rather than a comic book, its higher price tags brought bigger per-issue profits. The original CARtoons featured articles, comic strips, step-bystep how-to drawing pages, and more. Early on, the magazine carried the “Unk and Them Varmints” strip by Carl Kohler and Willie Ito, with Mike Arens drawing the feature when Willie got too busy in animation. They were the magazine’s only character-based stories for well over a decade until they were retired in 1975 due to a big CARtoons makeover. The remainder of every issue was an anthology of short gag-based tales, six pages or less, sometimes just a single page. The material depended on the creator’s humor specialty. The editors usually concocted a nice variety of gags about racetrack mishaps, automotive oddities in the garage, model kits, captioned photos, outrageous stuff mirroring increasingly bizarre designs for custom cars, slot cars, visualized puns, getting stopped by the police, the occasional parody, crowd scenes full of caricatures of actual people in the businesses of auto parts and drag racing, and very legitimate how-to-draw lessons by George Trosley… among many other articles.

In contrast to its outrageously illustrated stories, from 1964 to 1975, CARtoons’ letters page was often quite poignant, filled with messages from its military readership in Vietnam reaching out to correspond with fellow car nuts or female pen-pals.

COMPETITORS AND A ’75 MAKEOVER

CARtoons not only launched the field, it set the standard for automotive humor magazines with multiple readerships. Due to that, it sold extremely well for decades. Petersen eventually expanded its line with Hot Rod Cartoons, CYCLEtoons, SURFtoons, and even SKItoons, which lasted only a single issue. They were all filled with the same sort of stories produced by the same crew that generated material for CARtoons. Of course, at the height of the CARtoons empire’s success, there were a number of lower-quality imitators, as well as Pete Millar’s very legit new rival-zine Drag Cartoons. All of these were diluting the genre. Eventually, the non-automotive titles struggled and faded with the major changes in magazine distribution in the Seventies. The fact that CARtoons publisher Pete “The newsstand is king!” Petersen discouraged subscriptions and encouraged minimal advertising didn’t help either. More ads crept in during the late Eighties, to prevent CARtoons’ cover price from increasing. In February 1975, in its 80th issue, CARtoons underwent a complete overhaul with a new logo, new artists, and new features. Referring to the fact that all of the other Petersen humor magazines had been cancelled, its cover blurb “It’s All In One Bag Now!” was ironically accurate. Illustrator William Stout recalls how he designed “The New CARtoons” logo: “CYCLEtoons editor Dennis Ellefson was made the RETROFAN

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Even after he stepped down from the editorship of CARtoons, Carl continued to write many stories and draw the occasional gag cartoon for the magazine. In 1970, under the moniker “Lrac Relhok,” Carl wrote about cartooning and gag writing for Mother Earth News. He wound up as the primary editor of SURFtoons and SKItoons. Years later, Carl’s son Christopher contributed stories to CARtoons and CYCLEtoons when Dennis Ellefson was editor. William H. Martin was an editor for a number of automotive magazines for Petersen Publications including its flagship title, Hot Rod. He was a very early editor on CARtoons who worked on every other related Petersen magazine except the one-issue-wonder SKItoons. Like Martin, CARtoons editor Dick Day served for many years THE PIT CREW on the staff at Petersen, where CARtoons went through a slew he began as a cartoonist. He of editors in its early days. advanced to become the editor Its first, Carl Kohler, was a of CARtoons, the editor of Car With issue #80 (Feb. 1975), CARtoons introduced this new magazine gag cartoonist whose Craft, and publisher of Motor logo, designed by William Stout. Scan by Justinman. © Petersen venues included a late-Fifties Trend magazines. He also was Publishing Co., LLC. skin-diving publication. He was one of those who established also the publisher of information and advice about the gagthe National Champion Custom Car Show. cartooning business, including Carl Kohler’s Cartoonyfellers’ Digest, Longtime CARtoon editor Jack Bonestell, who also edited an and wrote scripts for Disney’s foreign comics department. issue of SURFtoons, started out drawing gag cartoons for a variety Carl also wrote a number of animated cartoons. These of magazines. He also worked in animation, primarily as a writer, included the Warner Bros. Merry Melodies theatrical shorts including Matty’s Funnies with Beany and Cecil (Snowball, 1959), Yogi’s “Martian Through Georgia,” written with Chuck Jones, (1962); Space Race (H-B, 1978), Casper and the Angels (H-B, 1979), Buford and “Quackodile Tears” starring Daffy Duck, written with John W. the Galloping Ghost (H-B, 1979), and Jokebook (storyboarding, H-B, Dunn (1962); and “All Teed Off” starring Sad Cat (1968). Carl also 1982). wrote for the television cartoon shows Bozo: The World’s Most George “Pappy” Lemmons was the editor of CARtoons’ first Famous Clown (Larry Harmon Pictures, 1962) and The Huckleberry spin-off, Hot Rod Cartoons, which incorporated the same logo as Hound Show’s “Jungle Bungle” episode (Hanna-Barbera ProducPetersen’s first magazine, as well as Lemmons’ self-caricature, tions, 1961). which adorned every Hot Rod Cartoons cover for ten years. He was

editor of CARtoons as well. To signal this editorial change, he had me design a new logo for the magazine. I did several roughs, then picked the one I liked the best. I liked having tires as the two O’s in ‘toons.’ I showed the finished art to Dennis and he immediately began using it.” When asked about his actual logo drawings, Stout tells RetroFan, “I’m afraid the sketches and finished art for the CARtoons logo are long gone.” Other new CARtoons features were George Trosley’s “Krass and Bernie”—CARtoons’ new unofficial gearhead mascots—as well as full-color centerfold posters reusing the cover art, and all-new iron-on CARtoons patches designed by the publication’s most popular contributors.

PETERSEN PUBLICATIONS COMPANY’S COMIC MAGAZINES f CARtoons Quarterly: four digest-size issues from Trend Books (Fall 1959–Fall 1961) f CARtoons #1 (Apr.–May 1962)–178 (July 1991) f Best of CARtoons: five issues (Fall 1977– 1990) f Go Kartoons: One-shot booklet (1960) of go-kart gag cartoons, all by Pete Millar f Hot Rod Cartoons #1 (Nov. 1964)–61 (Dec. 1974) f CYCLEtoons #1 (Feb. 1968)–37 (Feb. 1974) f SURFtoons #1 (1965)–15 (Jan. 1969) f SKItoons #1 (1967) (Yeah, it was all downhill from there…) © Petersen Publishing Co., LLC.

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a good cartoonist with a solid style and a genuine interest in cars. Aside from a few issues edited by Carl Kohler, “Pappy” edited the entire run of Hot Rod Cartoons as well as an issue of SURFtoons. However, Lemmons did have his quirks. Here’s CYCLEtoons contributor William Stout reminiscing about his first and last encounter with “Pappy”: “I met him through the girlfriend of my band’s lead guitarist. George was her neighbor out in Simi Valley. It was 1967. I had started art school and was looking for comics work. George seemed tough but approachable. When I mentioned that I loved drawing comics, he asked to see some samples of my work. The next time I came by, I showed Lemmons a story I had drawn just for him. He’s featured in the story, titled ‘Stuck in Sticksville.’ I also brought Lemmons a comic of mine that had just Photographs new and old were a been published—an anti-Vietnam understaple of Drag gags. (TOP RIGHT) ground war comix titled Those Loveable This subscription ad appeared on the Peace-Nuts. Lemmons’ reaction to it was a inside front cover of Drag Cartoons bit extreme, to say the least. He exploded #1, while inside that issue (TOP LEFT) with rage and nearly breathed fire as he this was one of several vintage car accused me of being a ‘dirty little commie.’ pics in the “Oldies But Goodies” He screamed that he would do everything feature. (RIGHT) Pin-up girls from in his power to have me, my book, and my beach party movies were Drag reputation destroyed. He shouted at me to Cartoons “Dragmates,” such as issue get out of his house, get out of Simi Valley, #7’s Patti Chandler from Bikini Beach and get out of this country! Party. (And if you haven’t yet read “Not my best portfolio interview.” Mark Voger’s column this ish, there’s Dennis Ellefson was first published more beach party movie mania in in Millar Publications’ Big Daddy Roth store for you endless-summer types!) magazine in 1964 and later in Wham-O’s © The Pete Millar Family. Manufacturing Company’s Wham-O Giant Comics in 1967. He began a longtime artist. Rather than collaboration with Petersen Publishing, first as a contributor to filling out multiple CARtoons, then as the editor of all 37 issues of CYCLEtoons, and then official employment-application forms, I suggested to the employback to CARtoons for a long haul from 1975 to 1991 as its last editor. ment office personnel director that maybe it would be better if I During the Seventies and Eighties, Dennis’ art was also present in just showed my portfolio to one of their cartoon-book editors. She underground comix like Slow Death Funnies, Cocaine Comix, and L.A. gave me the office number of Dennis Ellefson, the editor of CYCLEComics. Dennis also had a stint working at Mattel Toys and liked to toons. ‘He’s the crazy one here,’ she said. Robert Louis Stevenson hang out at Hollywood’s most famous dive, Barney’s Beanery. look-alike Dennis Ellefson was an immediately likeable tall, lanky Dennis was very dedicated to CARtoons. He edited it from #80 to the final issue, #185, an incredible run. Sadly, he seemed to know guy. His boyish haircut (not long enough to get him into serious trouble at Petersen, but just long enough to tweak the conservative it was on the wane. It was getting hard to keep kids interested in sensibilities there), thick dark mustache, and ever-present pipe CARtoons’ automotive humor, as the younger kids were more in were his visual trademarks. love with skateboards and video games than cars. Not long after “Dennis loved to talk cartooning and cartoonists,” Stout CARtoons was cancelled by Petersen Publications, Dennis took his continues. “At his high school in Monrovia, Dennis formed the own life. Cartoon Club. He had known and worked with some of the best— WILLIAM STOUT’S ‘CYCLETOONS’ DAYS including Hank Hinton, Hal Robinson, and Alex Toth, to name just Cartoonist/illustrator/painter William Stout, who worked on the a few. We both idolized Harvey Kurtzman. Ellefson’s first printed first two of Dennis Ellefson’s underground comix, recalls, “In 1970, professional cartoons were World War I biplane gags published in again looking for work, I thought I would try a more traditional and Kurtzman’s Help! magazine. official route. I applied for a job through Petersen’s employment “Dennis scanned my portfolio samples and was immediately office. I inquired about the possibility of employment as a comic drawn to a pen-and-ink self-promotion piece. He gave me my first RETROFAN

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DIG THESE GROOVY GEARHEADS

CARtoons’ gearhead contributors remain some of its most memorable ones, starting with the man who co-created CARtoons and continued to contribute to it over three decades. Born in San Diego, California, in 1929, Pete Millar was in many ways automotive humor’s most significant cartoonist. After military service, he became an aerospace engineer and technical illustrator at Convair, with dreams of a cartooning career. Moving to Los Angeles in 1953, he sold his illustrations to Quinn’s Rod & Custom magazine, and next, to Petersen Publishing Company. When Trends Books purchased Quinn, Millar was offered the assignment of doing illustrations for the letters columns in Hot Rod and designing the magazine’s mascot “Arin Cee.” After his early exit from CARtoons, Pete created a rival publication, Drag Cartoons, the same genre, but from a business-of-drag-racing point of view. According to Pete’s wife Orah Mae, “Many racers have told me that they bought the magazine to look for themselves. They felt that if they saw themselves in a Pete Millar cartoon, they knew they’d made it.” Millar even owned a drag racing car partially funded by donations from Drag Cartoons’ readership. His magazine’s logo was proudly obvious on the dragster’s shell. After the Millar Publishing

(OPPOSITE PAGE) One of William Stout's contributions to Drag Cartoons. © William Stout.

(INSET) Artist William Stout. JaSunni Productions, LLC, at PicasaWeb/

Wikimedia Commons. (TOP) You’ve been Rat Finked, sweetie!

ROTHaddicts were called to join Big Daddy’s Fan Club in this ad from the inside front cover of Pete Millar’s Drag Cartoons #8. © Ed Roth, Inc.

MILLAR PUBLISHING COMPANY’S COMIC MAGAZINES f Drag Cartoons #1 (June–July 1963)– 49 (Apr. 1968), plus #50 (May 1999) and 51 (Oct. 2000) f The Wildest Drag Cartoons #1 (1968) f Pete Millar’s Drag Comics #1 (1972)–6 (2000) (Originally a tabloid for drag-racing professionals, later issues were Millar reprints.) f Pete Millar’s Isky ’Toons, which appeared in Drag News between 1971 and 1974, are considered “the most controversial advertising cartoons in drag racing history” and incited threats of lawsuits. They were thought to have been lost for over 20 years but have been collected into two volumes from Millar Publishing Company. f Big Daddy Roth #1 (Oct.– Nov. 1964)–4 (Apr.–May 1965) [see RetroFan #10] f Wonder Wart-Hog Quarterly #1 (Winter 1967)–2 (Spring 1967) [see RetroFan #15] RETROFAN

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Drag Cartoons © The Pete Millar Family.

job at CYCLEtoons. My first story appeared in the June 1970 issue. Dennis gave me a three-page script he had written titled ‘Witch Switch.’ My next story was a self-written four-pager titled ‘Stuck in Sticksville,’ a revision of the story I had submitted when seeking employment from George Lemmons four years earlier. I was on a personal search to discover a style that was good, fast and me… and Dennis was gracious enough to let me execute that kind of experimentation within the pages of his magazines. He gave me a quick demo on how to draw motorcycles and advised me to also purchase and build a couple of plastic scale-model motorcycle kits to pose and copy from. I also bought a set of ellipse stencil guides so that my tires, wheels and word balloons would look slick and professional. Ellefson gave me tips on how to improve my amateurish lettering (his lettering was terrific, crisp, and fresh—pure comics and pure Dennis). He was especially helpful to me as a writer, carving away my story fat with his editorial knife and showing why and how he cut what he cut. “Unlike Marvel or DC, Dennis and Petersen were local, so I could just drive up Sunset Boulevard to meet with him or the editors at the Petersen building. I don’t recall the exact page rate, but the figures $35 and $75 seem familiar. Unless Dennis wrote the story, we were expected to deliver everything on the page—script, inked and toned artwork, and lettering. Whatever the rate was—and I never felt like I was being taken advantage of—my rent was $90 a month and I could support myself due to CYCLEtoons. Dennis Ellefson and CYCLEtoons were incredibly important in my development as an artist.”

The oddball world of scott shaw!

The extraordinary Alex Toth was no stranger to the pages of Sixties hot rod comics mags. This one-pager, “All’s Quiet,” hails from Drag Cartoons #5 (July 1964). Original art courtesy of Heritage. Art © The Alex Toth Estate. Drag Cartoons © The Pete Millar Family.

Company went out of business in 1968, Millar and his family relocated to Sweden, and later, camped their way around Europe, with Pete drawing material for CARtoons during the journey. During that time, Pete expanded his skills in fine art and sculpting. In the Nineties, Pete became a successful illustrator and model builder for court trials, demonstrating traffic and industrial accidents, and sought financial backing for an unfulfilled ambition, a traveling show featuring the greatest achievements in automotive art. Later, in 2008, “Tales from the Strip: The Hot Rod Comics and Drag Racing Cartoons of Pete Millar,” opened at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. Pete died in 2003. After graduating Mission Bay High school, San Diego’s Shawn Kerri moved north to Van Nuys and began her career as a professional cartoonist. She was soon juggling three regular gigs: writing stories for Disney’s foreign comics department; writing, drawing, and painting gag cartoons for Hustler magazine; and writing and drawing stories for CARtoons. Her appealing and kinetic drawing style seemed like “What if Chuck Jones and Jack Davis had a baby?” She was a genuine gearhead who drove a 42

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blue 1957 Chevy Bel-Air. Shawn loved the punk scene and created the familiar “Skank Kid” character, appropriated by the The Circle Jerks. She drew underground comix, record sleeves, posters, murals… and then disappeared. Long assumed to be deceased, Shawn Kerri’s legacy transformed the young woman into a legend. Fortunately, she’s still alive, relatively healthy, and is the namesake of a new nonprofit organization created to encourage and assist female cartoonists, “The Friends of Shawn Kerri.” Fred Boatman’s impressively slick style resembled MAD cartoonists Mort Drucker and Jack Davis. After the cartoon car craze calmed down, Fred returned to graphic design as a living. He was able to contribute to the new CARtoons not long before his death in 2018. Soon after his stint in CARtoons, Jerry Barnett became an award-winning editorial cartoonist for the Indianapolis News. Dave “Big Deal” Deal created “Deal’s Wheels,” a line of appealing, cartoony model cars for Revell Plastics in the Seventies. He also did development art for Pixar’s Cars (2006). George Trosley’s “Krass and Bernie” moved over to Petersen’s Car Craft and recently back to the new CARtoons. In between, he wrote and drew gag cartoons for Hustler and other adult magazines. George also compiled a collection of his how-to-draw instructional articles in CARtoons as a book, Trosley’s How To Draw Cartoon Cars (2015). Nelson Dewey is still drawing for a living, not just automotive humor but also storyboards, illustrations, animation, caricatures, you name it. This multi-talented “working cartoonist” has drawn stories for Harvey Comics’ Stunt Dawgs, Monster In My Pocket, and Back to the Future, too. And then there’s Terry Gilliam. Y’know, the controversial film director who’s the member of Monty Python who executed all of the sensational animation in their tellyshow. Not long

(LEFT) That’s Pete Millar (with the crew-cut, standing) on his photo cover for Drag Cartoons #38 (Apr. 1967). (TOP) Pete was also featured on issue #40’s cover, along with a pic of the dragster he owned, the Chicken Coupe. © The Pete Millar Family.

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WINNER’S CIRCLE OF TALENT Any issue of CARtoons featured a variety of freelancing cartoonists who (mostly) wrote, drew, and lettered their own stories and gags. It was rare that someone’s style referenced another’s. Some were experienced pros who drew work in mainstream comic books and newspaper comic strips, some had new careers in underground comix, some were illustrators, some were moonlighting from day jobs at the animation studios, and some were gearheads who simply loved to write about and draw cars. The available talent on the West Coast was bountiful and Petersen’s editors wisely made good use of that. Let’s start with the CARtoons contributors who also worked in mainstream comic books. Russ Manning, who was well known for the comic Magnus, Robot Fighter; The Brothers of the Spear, and the Tarzan and Star Wars comic strips, also enjoyed hot rods. Alex Toth, often described as “the artists’ artist,” was incredibly skilled whether he was creating comic books, storyboards, or designs for animated cartoons. Dale Hale not only “ghosted” Charles Schulz’ Peanuts comic books for Western Publishing, he wrote and drew the nationally distributed comic strip Figments, and worked on Format Films’ The Alvin Show. While working for DC, Marvel, and Disney, Alex Niño brought an underground comix vibe to mainstream entertainment. He also was on staff at Disney, doing conceptual development art for many of the studio’s animated features. In the Eighties, Ron Harris drew the Star Trek and Dallas syndicated comic strips as well as Marvel’s Crash Ryan and First’s Alter Ego. Ron also worked in animation at H-B, DIC, and Marvel/Sunbow. Blackhawk and Crossfire’s Mark Evanier and Dan Spiegle collaborated with Dennis Ellefson’s editorial assistant Sharman DiVono on a CARtoons story. Then there was the outrageous element of the young turks who also drew underground comix. Rick Griffin created and drew Surfer Magazine’s “Murphy the Surfer” during the same time he was contributing to Petersen’s magazines. Rick later worked on Zap Comix, designed psychedelic posters for Bill Graham’s Fillmore and Chet Helm’s Family

(TOP) Robert Williams (attributed) Ed "Big Daddy" Roth T-shirt ad detail original art (1966). © Ed Roth, Inc. Courtesy of Heritage. (LEFT) Various artists from CARtoons #8 (Oct. 1962) including—and drawn by—Pete Millar. © Petersen Publishing Co., LLC.

Dog rock concerts, and went on to do album art for the Grateful Dead. Robert Williams’ art career began by illustrating Car Craft ads for Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s T-shirts and decals. His underground work includes Zap Comix, Coochy Cooty Men’s Comics, and Felch Cumics. Williams’ delving into intentionally “low brow” oil paintings has resulted in museum exhibits and fancy coffee table books extolling his outrageous fine art. In the mid-Sixties, CARtoons contributor Mike Dormer and his buddy Lee Teacher co-created San Diego’s “Hot Curl the Surfer,” a character who launched a line of plastic model kits. Soon after, they co-created Shrimpenstein!, an afternoon kids show with a monster theme for KHJ, Los Angeles’ “boss” TV station. [Editor’s note: Oddball World will examine both in RetroFan #24.] Shrimpenstein! also featured Grantray-Lawrence’s syndicated Marvel Super Heroes cartoons. Writer/artist Don Lomax has a long history with offbeat comics for adults, including Hustler Humor, Heavy Metal, American Flagg!, The ’Nam, Starslayer, and Vietnam Journal, among many others. William Stout has worked in nearly every field of art in existence: comic books, T-shirt designs, designing motion pictures and theme parks, painting wildlife and prehistoric animals, creating CD and LP covers, painting murals for museums, and designing toys and their packaging. [Editor’s note: William Stout’s extraordinary dinosaur comic books are the subject of an exclusive interview in the November 2022 edition of our sister publication, Back Issue, #140, available at twomorrows.com!] CONTINUED ON PAGE 45

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after the Petersen building was razed, I was on my lunch break from Hanna-Barbera Productions and dropped into a tiny new comic-book shop on Hollywood Blvd. On a counter sat a two-foottall stack of original artwork from CARtoons and its related titles. They were sealed inside a wall and discovered by the demolishers. The pages were ridiculously cheap and I loaded up on my favorites, including a six-page SURFtoons story written and drawn by none other than the aforementioned Terry Gilliam. Hey, anything can happen in Hollywood, right? Other contributors to Petersen’s line of B&W cartoon magazines included Don Gleason, Jake Thompson, Jim Grube, Duane Bibby, Steve Austin, Renfrew Klang, John Larter, Bob Hardin, John Kovalic, Joe Borer, Quentin Miller, Jeff Slemons, John Deaton, Jon Pogorelskin, Bob Tupper, Susie Pollard, Jim Williams, Tom Butters, Michael Streff, Forrest Plesko, Jack Feagan, Dale Krutz, Leslie Reynolds, and Tom Marnick.

SPINOUT

Like MAD, the business inspiration for CARtoons, Kohler and Millar’s creation had many imitators (see sidebar) that signified not only both magazines’ success, but also their influence on American culture. Over three decades, CARtoons was the only comic book read by a lot of teenagers. It also showcased the work of an incredible spectrum of talent, styles, and outlooks. And it launched the careers of a number of cartoonists who moved on to successful careers in related fields of entertainment.

Petersen kept on truckin’ in the Sixties with a whole line of cartoon mags. Shown here are: (TOP LEFT) SURFtoons #2 (1966), (TOP RIGHT) the single edition of SKItoons (#1, 1967), and (RIGHT) CYCLEtoons #1 (Feb. 1968). © Petersen Publishing Co., LLC.

THE LEMONS (AND WE DON’T MEAN “PAPPY”!) OF AUTOMOTIVE COMICS After Pete Millar cancelled Drag Cartoons and returned to creating material for Petersen, new publishers picked up the title, if not the quality, with the exception of reprinted stories from the original series. Six new CARtoons-derived titles were from three different publishers, each immediately following the previous iteration. They include: f Drag Cartoons (Rex Publishing Company) #1 (Nov., 1969)–3 (Feb. 1970) f Best of Drag Cartoons (Rex) #1 (1968)–2 (1969) f The Wildest of Drag Cartoons (Rex) #1 (1969) f Drag Cartoons (Professional Services) #1 (Mar. 1970)–7 (1971) f The Best of Drag Cartoons (Professional) #1–3 (1970) f Drag Cartoons (Lopez) #1 (July 1971)–11 (Mar. 1973) f The Best of Drag Cartoons (Lopez) #1 (1970) Then there were series of Petersen-eque magazines that I never encountered nor heard of until I did research for this column. Racin’ Toons had two runs with two different publishers: Professional Services with four issues from 1970 to 1971; and Lopez with 11 issues from 1971 to 1973. The first issue of TRM Publications’ Chopper Toons was cover-dated Summer 1971. Two more issues about extended motorcycles followed. Then there were four issues of Breezy Rider from Colony Publishing Co. starting in 1971. These starred a mild cartoon character that had adventures while boldly riding a cycle more suitable for the suburbs. (INSET) The Best of Drag Cartoons #1 (Rex Publishing, 1968). 44

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And although some of its readers obsessively collected CARtoons and its ilk, most of its readers obsessively read the magazines. Considering how well CARtoons sold, it’s very difficult to locate back issues of any of these magazines that aren’t nearly read to pieces. Therefore, fresh copies of CARtoons have become so rare that their rabid collectors are willing to pay grand-larceny money to acquire these genuinely scarce and highly collectable pop-culture relics. Said Ro McGonegal, editor of Petersen’s Motor Trend magazine, “CARtoons assumed its original bimonthly schedule and continued until it ended abruptly in 1991. By that time, it had three distinct followings: the young enthusiast, the comic-book collector, and the comic-book cultists, but collectively they weren’t enough to sustain it. The reason was moolah, not enough return on investment. The costs of printing, paper, mailing, and the newsstand spiff was spinning a few thousand R.P.M. faster than the magazines’ ability to keep up with it. Advertising reigned like T-Rex. Bean-counters and efficiency freaks began slashing through the historical imperative.

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CARtoons’ Errol McCarthy looked back with fondness on his website. “My first freelance comic-book job came from answering a job in the paper. It was a one-shot titled Car Nuts, published by Quentin Reynolds, who had been a CARtoons regular. That job—plus an underground comix story—led to Petersen Publishing, which had three comic books at the time: CARtoons, Hot Rod Cartoons, and CYCLEtoons. I soon had work in all three, plus my full-time job as an illustrator at McDonnell-Douglas. My favorite work in CARtoons was probably the posters, but I enjoyed it all and wrote nearly everything I did. It was also wonderful working with the talented editors of the three books, Jack Bonestell, George ‘Pappy’ Lemmons, and especially Dennis Ellefson, who later worked with me at Mattel.” Some of the magazines’ contributors had design and storytelling skills that relied on unique illustration styles. Hank Hinton went on to a prolific career, his art appearing in and on numerous slick magazines, a weekly slot in the Los Angeles Times Sunday “Book” section, and illustrating Oliphant, a children’s book written by J. R. R. Tolkien. Bruce Steffenhagen’s career evolved into commercial art and illustrations for adult magazines. He wrote and published a 1991 instructional book, The Cartoon Coach: How to Draw Cartoons That Sell!! His work also appeared in 1968’s Wham-O Giant Comics. W. T. Vinson, whose work was highly influenced by Jack Davis, blogged, “I was an illustrator, did work for almost every magazine but MAD. Hot Rod Cartoons, National Lampoon, West Magazine, Rolling Stone, Scientific American, Playboy, and many others. I really don’t know how I missed MAD. MAD and EC Comics are what originally inspired me.” Speaking of which, like his cartoonist father Basil Wolverton, Monte Wolverton’s work has also appeared in MAD—and more times, too! He’s currently a nationally syndicated editorial cartoonist. Then there was the unplanned benefit that Petersen Publications was located only a few miles away from all of Hollywood’s animation studios, feeding animators into his magazines’ talent pool. Willie Ito—whose childhood was spent in a Nevada internment camp—began his career in animation at Disney after WWII. He had already been doing freelance work for

Art by Errol McCarthy from CARtoons #71 (June 1973). (INSET) Cover to the same issue, by Bruce Steffenhagen. Scans by Justinman. © Petersen Publishing Co., LLC.

Trends Books/Petersen even before CARtoons was created, drawing mastheads and humorous illustrations for the letters pages of Hot Rod, Motor Trend, and other Petersen automotive magazines. By that point, Willie was working at Warner Bros.’ Termite Terrace, where he met Carl Kohler. They liked to play off of each other, with Carl coming up with gags that Willie would visualize. After his stint at Hanna-Barbera, Willie returned to Disney and became internationally famous as an ambassador for the Mouse House. Cartoonist Jerry Eisenberg was working at Warner Bros., alongside Willie and Carl. He had a long career at HannaBarbera and Ruby-Spears, where he was a producer of Thundarr. He also worked at Marvel Productions on Jim Henson’s Muppet Babies. Jim Mueller also worked on Muppet Babies, drew layouts for HannaBarbera, and wrote gags for the Bugs Bunny comic strip. His sense of humor was a combination of Charles Addams and Dr. Seuss. He drew the “Unkle Einar” CARtoons cover, one of my faves. Mike Arens also worked at H-B in the layout department. He also drew “Unk and Them Varmints” for many years. Jim Willoughby, who was a storyboard artist who worked at H-B, R-S, and Filmation, also edited the final issue of SURFtoons as well as creating illustration work for Arizona Highways magazine. John Bruno was a character designer and layout artist at HannaBarbera. While working for CARtoons, he and William Stout had an ongoing friendly rivalry, trying to beat each other in coming as close to Wood’s style as possible. John later received an Academy Award for his special effects work on James Cameron’s The Abyss (1989). Brazil’s Rogerio de Almeida Nogueira is known for his animation design work on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987), Animaniacs (1993), Pinky and the Brain (1995), Teamo Supremo (2002), Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (2011), and many others. He also self-published a graphic novel, Hippie Hooray: The Woodstock Story (2015). RETROFAN

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CARtoons had become a stepchild of the circulation department, and those who tried to save it simply ran out of arguments against its demise. Viva CARtoons!” In the later Nineties, CARtoons briefly re-emerged in the aisles of—oddly enough—Toys ‘R’ Us as the brand name of a new die-cast line of hot rod toy cars similar to Hot Wheels. None of them resembled any particular vehicle or cartoonist from the contents of the magazine, just the name and logo licensed from Petersen Publishing Company. They were marketed toward adult men who grew up reading CARtoons, who also refused to grow up by collecting die cast toy cars. Kinda ironic, eh? It seemed like the automotive humor magazine industry had finally evaporated faster than open fuel. But in 2015, Ontario, Canada, artist Marc Methot successfully filed for the abandoned trademark of CARtoons despite the fact he had no financing or publication experience. Twenty-five years after Petersen’s CARtoons vanished from the newsstands, Methot’s Picturesque Publishing re-established the magazine in January 2016, and it continues to be published bimonthly in print and digital versions. Classic CARtoons contributors George Trosley (with new “Krass and Bernie” and “How-To-Draw” articles), Fred Boatman, and Errol McCarthy returned to the revived title. The new CARtoons crew includes Kat Ruiz, Ben “Drag Daddy” Mitchell, Dave Beaty, Marcus Mitchell, Larry Williams, Myer Cooper, Jeff Norwell, John Skidmore, Jeff Slemons, Jason Sylvestre, Paul Townsend, Dan Falconer, Mr. Bilbil, Bob Hardin, Chuck Kelly, Joe Krecji, Mike Yapps, and Scott Fisk. Over the years, I’ve been asked, “Did you ever write or draw for CARtoons? And if not, why not?” I’ve always been far more

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interested in weird-looking automobiles than in learning how they operate. Therefore, although Dennis Ellefson repeatedly invited me to pitch potential CARtoons stories to him, I never did. I knew I’d have to fake things that would be very obvious, and I never even tried. But I still enjoy assembling plastic model kits, primarily reissues of the same cars I glued and painted 57 years ago… but I’m more careful with the glue now. At 70 years old, I just can’t afford to destroy any more of my brain cells. For 50 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.

RETRO INTERVIEW

Interview with

Norman Lear BY PAULA FINN

[Editor’s note: This interview is an excerpt from Sitcom Writers Talk Shop: Behind the Scenes with Carl Reiner, Norman Lear, and Other Geniuses of TV Comedy by Paula Finn (copyright © 2018 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. All rights reserved).] Norman, before we start, how much time do we have? We have three days. That will barely scratch the surface! [laughs] Can you talk first about your father’s influence on you and how that led to some of the most poignant scenes in your shows? You know, I just finished my memoir last Friday and sent it east to the publisher, so oh my God, have I covered that question— because that is the central question of the book. But I’m happy to talk about it. I spent my life unconsciously seeking to make up for a father who let his son and everybody else down. He was a rascal; he went to jail because he was such a rascal. And I’m using the word “rascal” because I adored him! [laughs] So I don’t want to call him a crook. But I couldn’t stop loving him, so I fought all my life to make up for him. That’s about it in a nutshell. I was a kid of the depression, so I watched my father and his brothers go belly up. There was never anything. And my own father was one of these guys who

Norman Lear, creator of many of television’s most influential comedies including All in the Family, Maude, and The Jeffersons, in his office in Los Angeles, California, June 2018. © Ringo Chiu/ZUMA Wire/Alamy Live News.

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retro interview

was gonna have a million dollars in ten days to two weeks. And I did a show about that called P.O.P. with Charlie Durning, who played my father. The theme also came up in an All in the Family episode where Mike and Archie are locked in the basement of Archie’s Place [“Two’s a Crowd,” S8/E19]. And for the first time, Archie talks about how his father abandoned him. He says to Mike, “He goes out, works his fingers to the bone to put food on the table—and you think he’s a bad guy?” Yeah. That was me. [laughs] Did you write that particular scene? I worked on all of the shows; I don’t remember who got writing credit on this episode, but that exchange between Mike and Archie was solid out of my background. And how did All in the Family come about for you originally? I had read about the English show Til Death Do Us Part from some publication, I can’t remember the name of it. I saw some reference to it, and I thought, “Holy sh*t. I grew up with that!” How could I never have thought of that! Because my father used to call me the laziest white kid he ever met. And I would scream at him, “You know you’re putting a whole race of people down just to call me lazy?” And he’d say, “That’s not what I’m doing; you’re the dumbest white kid I ever met!” How would you describe the character of Archie Bunker? He was afraid of the future, afraid of the new, afraid of what disturbs what he knows. Let’s talk about the writing. In general, what kind of guidance did you give your writers? What I used to say to the writers working on all the shows was, “Pay a lot of attention to what’s going on in the house, to your families. And read at least two newspapers a day.” I suggested the NY Times and the LA Times. And the Wall Street Journal if you can make a third, just so you know what’s going on. Because we’re going to be writing about what’s affecting us in our lives, so start with the relationships. The expression I always used was, “Scrape the barrel of your experience.” And that’s what’s gonna feed us. And also, for every character that entered, I wanted the writer to know what was on that person’s mind: what was making them unhappy, what was making 48

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Carroll O’Connor as Archie Bunker and Jean Stapleton as Edith Bunker, in a Seventies publicity photo from All in the Family. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions. All in the Family © CBS.

them happy—whether the person had to tie a shoelace or had indigestion or didn’t get enough sleep last night or needed to fart or was upset with his child or—I wanted the writer to know what was on the character’s mind, not just what they said to the convention of speaking as they were entering a room but what was behind that. In other words—something is on his mind, whatever it is. Know what’s on the character’s mind. Do you believe that humor comes from pain or is a defense against it? I think, when it’s best, humor comes from some understanding of the foolishness of the human condition. There’s a wonderful Huffington Post piece tonight by Marty Kaplan, who runs the Lear Center. I just read it a little bit ago. He writes about a game called Flappy Bird that so many

people were playing, and it was the biggest success. Someone in the Far East put it online, and then they took it down, so there was a big ruckus about that. And Marty wrote—and I’m adding the word “foolishly”—about the amount of time that people foolishly spent on that game. Missing the opportunity to see everything that was in their life at the moment and if what is surrounding all of us isn’t of more value than the time we spend on these games. That’s his suggestion—that there’s more just in nature than playing a game like that. So to answer your question, I think humor comes from a basic understanding of and ability to see the foolishness of the human condition. How much so many kids and others are missing in their immediate surroundings because they’re glued to a TV set or an iPhone or to a game.

retro interview

Do you think humor is related to anger? Well, a lot of humor is used to tear something down, to tear a point of view down, tear an opinion down, tear a person or a cause or idea down. How do you see the world differently as a comedy writer? I saw the world differently, which is why I became a comedy writer. In what way do you see it that others don’t? I have a better understanding perhaps of the foolishness of the human condition! [laughs]

Behind the scenes on the All in the Family set, Carroll O’Connor, TV’s Archie Bunker, takes a load off while Norman Lear (standing, with arms crossed) confers with an unidentified party. © Mike Salisbury/Globe Photos/ ZUMAPRESS.com.

You started writing television in the Fifties. I’ve heard that the pressure was very hard for you. Well, in television, the clock is ticking. And you better get that bloody thing finished. [laughs] The early years of my career were filled with an incredible amount of fear and anxiety. I always wrote in a clutch. By one o’clock in the morning, I had to start writing or else. I remember sitting on the phone with a shrink after vomiting and literally weeping for hours. I had four hours, five hours to get a monologue in. For years I was stopped by fear. I used to call it “sh*t in the head”; I called it that because I couldn’t

identify it. But it was a fear, I guess a fear of not making good. I started to wear a hat because I would sit all those hours and I would pick my head. I was bald. And it was my wife who threw a hat on me one day and said, “Don’t take this off, or you’ll lose your scalp.” Do you still have doubts when you sit down to write? No. No. Somewhere along the line, I began to understand myself. And you’ll see a lot of that in my memoir. Because that inward path is our most important, our most arduous of journeys—just getting to know yourself. A psychiatrist gave me a great piece of advice when I had sh*t in the head. And the one piece of advice that worked and it came years into the process of having that—was to imagine 50 people in a room, and somebody shouts, “Fire!” And there’s one small door, and when everybody rushes to the door, everybody’s not gonna get out. Some of them are gonna be burned. And you think of your ideas that way. It doesn’t matter in what order those people get out; you sort them out afterwards if you wish to. Just get ’em out. It’s the same thing with your ideas. Good, bad, indifferent, they fit, they don’t fit—you’ll sort that out after they’re out the door. It was a great piece of advice, and I’ve given it ten thousand times. And at some point, when I was letting all the ideas out when there was a fire in a crowded room, I picked up a tape recorder. Because that was the easiest way for me to do it. Because then I didn’t see them when they left the room. It didn’t matter who went first! [laughs] So I started to dictate out of that, and just like the other metaphor, the rewrite was a lot easier. Everything was out. Do you have any quirks that help you to write? No. I often play music, but not always. Can you put into words what you feel when you’re writing most creatively? That’s the payoff, I guess, for all the torment. It’s like having great sex. When I was younger, I’d need to masturbate when ideas were flowing; the whole body was flowing, so you either woke up your wife or jerked off. I’ve also compared it to somebody climbing a mountain—the greatest high in the world. RETROFAN

September 2022

retro interview

Lear’s groundbreaking sitcom was cover-featured in the November 29, 1971 edition of Newsweek. Look closely and you’ll see that this copy is signed by each of the show’s four stars. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions. All in the Family © CBS.

Did your writing style change over the years? Somebody else has to be the judge of that. My memoir is entirely different from anything else I’ve ever written—so I’ve learned a lot about myself and my ability to write. I learned how hard it is to be a human being. If you do it right. However you do it, it’s hard to be a human being. And I discovered that the learning curve never ends. What is the hardest thing about writing comedy? I think knowing where the comedy is. And that harks back to understanding the foolishness of the human condition. The better you are with that, the more you know it’s 50

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there, everywhere. I don’t care what the scene is, you know—the starkest moment, the most pitiable moment— there’s a laugh there somewhere. Do you have a theory about what makes things funny? The closest I come to a theory of what makes things funny is—and this explains a lot of the kind of shows we were doing—when you had an audience caring about something, they laughed harder. The more they cared, when something funny occurred, the harder they laughed. Even just between Archie and Edith; if they were on Edith’s side when she got a laugh, it was far bigger than if they were caring about Archie. Were social relevance and meaning always an important part of your writing?

I can tell you a story which answers that; I remember this because I just researched it all for my memoir. I’d written a sketch for The Colgate Comedy Hour with Martin and Lewis. And I was worried that the scene was blown because the guys went out of character; they left the script, and you know, they just behaved the way they behaved. And it broke my heart. But the interesting thing is, that scene was still on target enough—or angry enough or whatever it was—that it caused a big reaction. I’ll tell you what the scene was. After the war, when television was coming along, the motion picture industry was afraid of television; they feared it would hurt films or it would maybe kill films. And so, they had an advertising campaign called Movies Are Better Than Ever. It was a big campaign that all the studios participated in, and it was hot at the time. We were doing our first show, and in the very first scene we did, Dean was with an actress whom I think was Marilyn Maxwell, who was gorgeous. And he managed a theater, and she was an usherette, and the two of them were trying to get people into the theater to see a movie. And this was a satire on Movies Are Better Than Ever. And Jerry was just a feckless guy walking along, and they stopped him. And she, as a pretty girl, tried to lure him, and Dean tried to talk him into it. And they finally went into the dark theater, and that was the scene. But it caused a huge ruckus among the studios, and they asked for an apology. And an hour after the show, I was unhappy over dinner. And then three days later, there was publicity everywhere about the motion picture industry asking NBC to apologize for the sketch. Interesting foreshadowing of the impact you’d have later. Norman, how would you explain the popularity of All in the Family? The four actors were heaven sent. The way they worked together and off of each other—in every direction, whether it’s Edith and Gloria, Edith and Archie, Archie

retro interview

and Edith, Archie and Mike, Mike and Gloria—the four of them, the chemistry was just explosive. And that’s a gift of the gods. So that was the biggest factor. We wrote well, but that cast was miraculous. And what made Maude work so well? You could say the same thing about Bea. Bea Arthur made me laugh in places in my body that I didn’t know existed. Nobody ever was as mad as Bea Arthur—mad in the most extraordinarily funny way. “Maude’s Dilemma” about abortion was a landmark episode of the show [S1/E9–10]. Was that your idea? I’m thinking the idea may have come from Irma and Austin Kalish, but the decision for her to abort was my decision. I was the only one who could make that decision and fight it out with the network. Was there any backlash once it aired? Oh, there was enormous backlash. There were two CBS stations that refused to run it all together, the first time. And when it came into reruns, the religious right didn’t know what was happening, of course; nobody did, except a couple of the stations. But once the religious right had it, they weren’t going to let it go. So by the time it came into May or so when it was going to

be rerun, they were prepared to lie down in front of William Paley’s car, in front of my car. Only the network knows how many letters they received over it. Do you have a favorite anecdote from the Maude writers’ room? We did a fiftieth birthday on Maude; it was Walter’s fiftieth birthday [“Walter’s 50th Birthday,” S1/E15]. Walter had always told stories about this kid that he loved when they were about eight, nine years old. And they used to do a little song routine together. And Walter would do that routine every once in a while for Maude. So she knew there was this special, special kid in Walter’s life, but they hadn’t been in touch in forty years. So to surprise Walter on his birthday, she found this guy, and he was due any minute. And when the doorbell rang, everybody left the room in order for Walter to be alone to answer. He yells, “Come in,” and the door opens, and this guy comes in. And from twenty feet away, Walter says—I don’t remember the first name, but let’s say it’s Henry—he says, “Henry?” And “Walter?” “Henry?” “Walter?” They’re ready to explode. And then one of them starts to do that little routine, and the other guy follows, and now they’re confident that each is, you know, Walter is Walter, and the other guy is Henry. And Walter says, “Oh my God, I can’t believe

it.” And the other guy says, “Walter, gosh! I’m so happy I could”—and he falls and drops dead. And that’s the end of the first act; he just falls behind the couch, dead. The second act opens with Maude on the phone saying, “What do you mean the box arrived without the body?!” And it got a huge laugh. But what makes it most memorable is that a couple of the writers said the audience will freeze. That’s the scariest moment, and they’ll freeze; you’re never going to get a laugh in the second act. They begged me to change it, and I wouldn’t change it. And finally, I said, “Put it in writing that the second act isn’t going to work following this death. Give me a letter.” And I got the letter. Well, the second act worked great. And of course, they admitted they were wrong because I had it in writing! [laughs] So that’s what came out of the writers’ room. What was your style of running the room? You’d have to ask the writers. You probably talked to a couple. Yes, Elliot Shoenman and Charlie Hauck. Oh my God, Charlie Hauck. One of the greatest, Charlie Hauck. And Elliot, too, a lovely writer. But Charlie, oh sh*t. This year my wife called Charlie Hauck and said,

Norman Lear, on December 30, 2005, reunited with two of his Seventies sitcom stars, Maude’s Bea Arthur (LEFT) and All in the Family’s Jean Stapleton (RIGHT). © Judie Burstein/ Globe Photos/ZUMPRESS.com.

RETROFAN

September 2022

retro interview

Paula Finn’s book, Sitcom Writers Talk Shop: Behind the Scenes with Carl Reiner, Norman Lear, and Other Geniuses of TV Comedy, also features her dialogues with Carl Reiner (The Dick Van Dyke Show), James L. Brooks (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Simpsons), Leonard Stern (The Honeymooners, Get Smart), Treva Silverman (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), Ken Estin (Cheers), and other writers, plus forewords by Ed Asner and Carol Kane. It’s available at booksellers including Amazon (https://amzn.to/2tWBXah). © 2018 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. All rights reserved.

“Instead of a Christmas card, you’ve been sending out a letter for thirty years. Please tell me you kept those letters. I have to have a copy of those letters!” We couldn’t find ours. And he had them, thank God. Because it was so funny, she just had to have them. This was just this Christmas. Nobody’s funnier than Charlie. And he worked with the guy who hired him, Rod Parker, and the director of that show; it took a great director. I mean, they were the best. They were just the best. After all these years, do you see any signs that your shows have changed people’s minds? I know that The Jeffersons and Good Times helped a lot of African Americans, especially kids, because they saw themselves on the tube where they hadn’t ever before. What that meant to them I don’t know, you have to ask them—but I hear that all the time from African-American people. People now in their fifties will say, “I grew up on that.” So that’s wonderful to hear. When I’m asked, “Did you change anything?” I always repeat the story my grandfather taught me. My grandfather said, “When you throw a stone or a rock into the ocean or the lake, the level of the water rises. You’ll never see it. What you get to see is the ripple.” So I use that metaphor. What you get is a ripple. Of all your characters, which do you love the most? Maude, because of the character in Bea Arthur; well, all of them—Edith and Archie, 52

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September 2022

and Mike and Gloria, too—I mean, they brought so much to those characters. And Sherman [Hemsley]. [laughs] He was wonderful. The Jeffersons was on the air for weeks before I found a father; it was just an offstage voice until I remembered I’d seen this guy in a show years before. And on Mary Hartman—oh my God, Louise Lasser. There’s only one Louise Lasser. What was your goal for that show? I wanted that show to say a lot about what the media was doing, its impact on an average housewife. That’s what that whole series was about. And you know, she went mad at the end and was in an institution. You thought that was the best-performed scene on TV. Ever, ever, ever. I believe you can find it on YouTube now. That was live; it was not edited or cut. That was one performance, and it was fabulous. I mean, she really looked like she was going from sane to mad. What do you think of today’s shows? Well, today is the Golden Age of television, certainly for drama. God, the amount of shows that people say to me, “Have you seen? You gotta see.” And what about comedy? The shows I think are the funniest are the animated shows, like South Park. And they’ve got something on their mind. If you asked me what show I’d most want to write for other than my own—past and present—I’d say South Park ’cause it’s hilarious. And meaningful.

Which shows do you think will be timeless? I guess The Simpsons is already timeless. [laughs] It’s not a question of which one will be—it is. Can you think of something from your shows that still makes you laugh today? Oh, I can think of a lot of things that still make me laugh today. I mean, my God. And all I have to do is go to YouTube and I can find thirty or forty of ’em. What are you most proud of that you’ve done in your life? Stayed sane. What in life do you find most rewarding, professionally or otherwise? My family. I’ve got six great kids. I have daughters from nineteen to sixty-seven. So that’s a lifetime of joy. Do you have any words to live by? I’ve always liked a Talmudic story that says a man should have a jacket with two pockets. In the first pocket, a piece of paper, on which is written, “I am but dust and ashes.” In the second pocket, a piece of paper, on which is written, “For me, the world was created.” I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask how you broke into television. I managed to reach Danny Thomas on the phone by pretending that I was a reporter writing an article, and I sold him something he needed. He needed something new and something short because he had to learn it quickly and do it for a show business audience who knew all his material. And this was the day before, and what I had for him was short, and he could learn it quickly. And he did it. And I got a phone call off of that because, when he performed it the next night, it was a smash. And David Susskind called and asked me to write some sketches for a show he was repping. Two last things. Norman, congratulations on finishing your memoir! Now I go on with the rewrite. You know, nothing is ever written. It’s rewritten. And what do you feel is your greatest strength? I think conviction. I didn’t lack conviction— even when I was wrong. [laughs]

CELEBRITY CRUSHES

Sally Struthers Sally Struthers publicity photo courtesy of Heritage. © Hanna-Barbera Productions.

BY MICHAL JACOT

“Boy, the way Glenn Miller played… songs that made the Hit Parade…” All in the Family was a huge hit for CBS in the Seventies. The show featured the Bunkers, led by family patriarch Archie Bunker. Cantankerous Archie peppered his rants against society with racial and ethnic slurs. He was the lead character but also the patsy; his prejudicial words and actions always backfired on him. My dad was a huge fan of All in the Family, albeit for the wrong reasons. He loved Archie and identified with him. So our family got to watch the Bunker family every week. Which wasn’t a bad thing because I got to watch Sally Struthers. Sally played Archie’s cute daughter Gloria, and I was totally smitten. The blonde hair, the gigantic blue eyes, and the thousand-megawatt smile captivated me. And yes, the tight jeans she wore didn’t hurt. I couldn’t take my eyes off her every time she came on-screen. I found a magazine interview with Sally. The article stated that her birthday was July 28. That was only a few weeks away. Armed with that information, I ran to the nearest store and picked out a birthday card. I scribbled a handwritten note on the inside of the card, pouring my heart out to her as much as a 17-year-old boy dared to. I addressed the card to “Sally Struthers, c/o All in the Family, c/o CBS Television,” along with their mailing address, and sent it out. As soon as it was in the mail, my heart skipped a beat. It was like offering your heart to a secret love and hoping she would accept it. Then, my realistic attitude kicked in. Sally

Struthers was a big TV star; chances are she wouldn’t even see my card. She probably received thousands of pieces of fan mail all the time. My card and its little note would probably end up buried in a mountain of letters. But at least I sent it. If nothing else, I could say that I let my crush know how much I liked her. A few weeks later, an envelope arrived in the mail for me. I looked at the name on the return address and nearly tripped over my jaw. I opened the envelope and found a 5x7-inch blackand-white glossy of Sally. And not just Sally as Gloria; it was a glamour shot, and she looked drop-dead beautiful. I had never seen a woman look as perfect as Sally did in that picture. And written on the photo with a red felt-tip marker, arranged in an arc over her head (like an angel’s halo), were the words, “Dear Michal, thanks for the birthday wishes.” And across the bottom: “Sally Struthers.” She added a little heart after her name. She sent me a picture. A gorgeous picture. An autographed, gorgeous picture. And she acknowledged the card I sent; yes, she had seen it! And, the icing on the cake: she even spelled my name right. No “e,” like most people spell it. And she drew a little heart. I treasured that picture for years. One day, a friend saw it in my room. His eyes popped out of his head. He said, “Is this your girlfriend?” I just smiled and responded exactly as any 17-year-old would: “Yep.” As if a guy like me could land Sally Struthers. But, hey, she corresponded with me. And she knew my name. So that’s almost like a girlfriend.

Hey, lovelorn, quit sobbing into your pillow and writing diary entries—instead, share your Sixties/Seventies/ Eighties Celebrity Crush with RetroFan readers! You can become famous, get three free copies of the magazine, and earn a whopping $10 as well. Submit your 600-word-maximum Celebrity Crush column to the editor for consideration at euryman@gmail.com. RETROFAN

September 2022

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ALTER EGO #176

The Golden Age comics of major pulp magazine publisher STREET & SMITH (THE SHADOW, DOC SAVAGE, RED DRAGON, SUPERSNIPE) examined in loving detail by MARK CARLSON-GHOST! Art by BOB POWELL, HOWARD NOSTRAND, and others, ANTHONY TOLLIN on “The Shadow/Batman Connection”, FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, JOHN BROOME, PETER NORMANTON, and more!

ANDY MANGELS’ RETRO SATURDAY MORNING

Zorro BY ANDY MANGELS Zorro swings his lightning-quick blade while atop his trusty steed Tempast (Tornado) on this promotional cel set-up. (INSET) Zorro's first appearance. Zorro TM & © Zorro Productions, Inc.

Welcome back to Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning, and prepare for a swashbuckling adventure with swords, masks, pendejos, and pirates as we take a trip to the Pueblo of Los Angeles in the 1700s! There, clad in a black costume, cloak cape, mask, and hat, a mysterious hero named Zorro fights against injustice—and for the rights of the people against tyrants who would rule them—astride his horse, Tornado. With three slashes of his sword, he leaves behind a “Z” mark etched onto all who oppose goodness, fairness, and decency! Like our last two RetroFan subjects, Tarzan and the Lone Ranger, Zorro has been a staple in multimedia since his 1920 movie debut. But as with the other heroes, Zorro has only rarely experienced Saturday morning superstardom… but when he did, he changed the fate of American animation forever! Grab the reins of your horse and the pommel of your sword as we ride into a look at Zorro’s history, including his few Saturday morning heroics!

ORIGINS OF ZORRO

Zorro’s origins date back to 1919, when the character first appeared, cover-billed, in the August and September issues of pulp magazine The All-Story, which promised a new hero in “The Curse of Capistrano” by author Johnston McCulley. “When romance

and rapiers ruled in Old California,” the cover script stated, and indeed, a pretty woman watched as a masked hero with sword and pistol charged to her defense. In the story, set in some vague period post-1781, Señor Zorro (“Mr. Fox”) is a dashing hero who avenges the helpless, aids the oppressed, and punishes cruel politicians. The villain of the tale is Captain Ramon, and both of them vie for the attention of the lovely Lolita Pulido, a noblewoman who has fallen on tough times. Also wooing her is Don Diego Vega, a dull fop who is the son of one of the richest landowners in the area. By the end of the story, readers knew what Diego’s mute manservant Bernardo and ally Friar Felipe knew: that Diego and Zorro are one and the same! The inspiration for Zorro has been traced to multiple sources, including the tales of Robin Hood, Reynard the Fox, and The Scarlet Pimpernel series of books by Baroness Emma Orczy. He also carries traces of real-life characters such as a Mexican-California bandit in the 1800s named Joaquin Murrieta, also known as “the Robin Hood of El Dorado”; an Irish rebel named William Lamport, who was executed in the Mexican inquisition in 1659; and Estanislao, a Native American of the Yokuts tribe who led revolts against both California Missions and the Mexican government in the early 1800s. RETROFAN

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andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

Then, too, there was the Masked Rider, the black-clad masked Mexican hero who was created for a silent 1919 Western film serial by Arrow Film Corp. While McCulley’s Zorro story is credited with impressing early silent-film action-star Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and his new wife Mary Pickford enough that on their honeymoon, they decided to make it Fairbanks’ first film under his own banner, it is significantly clear that The Masked Rider played a part in the visuals for the new Zorro. Fairbanks made a deal with United Artists, and the silent adventure-romance film The Mark of Zorro was released on November 27, 1920. Not only was The Mark of Zorro a box-office smash, but it defined an entire genre of swashbuckling films to follow, making stars of Errol Flynn and others. The film kept many of the elements of the original story, including pitting Zorro/Diego against the corrupt Governor Alverado, Captain Juan Ramon, and Sergeant Pedro Gonzales. More importantly, it established a look for Zorro that defined him to the present day: all black, from a wide-brimmed sombrero cordobes down to black boots and a black horse. Only the lower half of his face is visible, with his silver rapier—with which he carves the initial “Z” into the faces of criminals—the only other flash of color… not that audiences seeing the film in black-and-white would know. McCulley began to turn out The Further Adventures of Zorro in 1922 in Argosy All-Story Weekly, after which he wrote the novellas Zorro Rides Again (1931) and The Sign of Zorro (1941). Following many stories in Argosy and Cavalier, McCulley wrote over 50 short stories in West Magazine, from July 1944 to July 1951. Two final McCulley Zorro stories would later appear, including one posthumous one in 1959. But while Zorro’s creator toiled away, the character was no longer solely his. Four film serials were produced from 1937–1949, and the feature films Don Q, Son of Zorro (1925), with Douglas Fairbanks, The Bold Caballero (1936), with Robert Livingston, and the remake, The Mark of Zorro (1940), with Tyrone Power, kept the character alive. So too did Mexican versions in 1948 and 1959, and multiple films in Italy and Spain! Oddly, although Zorro clearly influenced the rise of masked crimefighter comic-book heroes—young Bruce Wayne had canonically seen The Mark of Zorro just before his parents were gunned down in Gotham City in Batman’s classic origin—Zorro didn’t appear in comics himself until November 1948, when he debuted in Quality’s Hit Comics #55, albeit not in his traditional costume. He made a handful of further comic appearances prior to 1957, when Zorro’s entire legacy changed. 56

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Zorro has been portrayed on the big screen by (LEFT) Douglas Fairbanks, (RIGHT) Tyrone Power, and on screens big and small by (BELOW) Guy Williams. © Zorro Productions, Inc.

Walt Disney Productions licensed Zorro for a television series in 1957, premiering it on ABC primetime on October 10, 1957. The show starred Guy Williams as Don Diego de la Vega, a student who is brought by his landowner father from Madrid to his home in El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora Reina de los Angeles sobre El Rio Porciuncula (later known as “Los Angeles”) in 1820. There, Don Diego hides his championship fencing skills and adopts the role of a foppish intellectual. Secretly, he takes up his father’s

andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

Filmation's iconic Seventies-era studio sign. (RIGHT) Frequent RetroFan face Lou Scheimer. Italy in 1972, and a made-for-TV US movie in 1975; but for all intents and purposes, Zorro had appeared to ride off into the sunset, having carved his last Z. Only in the comics, and the occasional animated parody such as the black-masked El Kabong in Hanna-Barbera’s cartoon The Quick Draw McGraw Show in 1959, was the legend of Zorro progressing. Of course, kids were seeing reruns of Zorro on Saturday afternoons in syndication throughout 1965–1967 and occasionally in the Seventies, but perhaps the hero was ready for an earlier time slot on the weekend?

FILMATION MOUNTS UP

Show bumper for the Tarzan/Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Hour. © Filmation. Zorro © Zorro Productions, Inc. Tonto and the Lone Ranger © Universal Pictures. Tarzan © Burroughs, Inc.

cause for action against the tyrant Captain Enrique Sánchez Monastario, although he does not tell his father of his masked heroics. Operating mostly at night as the black-clad Zorro—riding his now-named horse Thunderbolt—Zorro fights for the people against the corrupt officials, as well as evil banditos, and other villains. Zorro was a huge hit for Disney and ABC, and 39-weekly episodes were produced in the first year, with three 13-part serialized stories. Comic-book adaptations followed swiftly. The character gained tremendous popularity, a fact that pleased creator McCulley, who enjoyed a last round of fame before his death in November 1958. A second series of 39 shows was also popular, but Disney and ABC disputed over rights and finances, leading to the series’ cancellation in 1959. Disney later produced four hour-long specials to air as part of the Walt Disney Presents anthology series in 1960 and 1961. Disney also repurposed episodes of the show, edited into feature films, for international and domestic release. And then, as dramatically as he had risen, Zorro all but disappeared for American audiences. Mexican, Italian, and Spanish films continued to be made, as well as a soft-core erotic parody in

Founded in the early Sixties by animators Lou Scheimer and Hal Sutherland, with ex-disc jockey Norm Prescott, Filmation Associates had enormous television success by licensing properties from other media such as film, television, and comics. Their The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure, Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Archie Show, Fantastic Voyage, and The Batman/Superman Hour were warm-ups for series like The Hardy Boys, The Brady Kids, Lassie’s Rescue Rangers, Star Trek: The Animated Series, My Favorite Martians, The New Adventures of Gilligan, Shazam!, Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, and more. Filmation was one of the top content providers for Saturday morning animation, and they practically owned the weekend schedule for CBS. Utilizing an anthology format, CBS aired The Batman/Tarzan Adventure Hour in 1977, calling it Tarzan and the Super 7 in 1978 and 1979, and changing it again to The Tarzan/Lone Ranger Adventure Hour in 1980. In April 1981, CBS announced that for its upcoming Fall season, a third well-known character would be added to the title mix, creating The Tarzan/Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Hour (although the individual segment itself was titled The New Adventures of Zorro). The fact that Filmation was providing 2.5 hours of content for CBS and an hour for NBC on Saturday mornings that Fall was a pivotal moment for the company. Unlike every other animation company in the market—especially lead rival Hanna-Barbera— Filmation kept 100% of its animation done in America… mostly at its Reseda, California headquarters. Everyone else was shipping work overseas to Japan or Australia or other countries in a practice called “runaway production.” The phrase meant that most studios were keeping writing, design work, and storyboarding in the U.S. or with skilled animation crew members Canada (although some outsourced even those jobs), but they were outsourcing the more labor-intensive and less-skilled work (animation and ink-and-paint) RETROFAN

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to cheaper non-union labor abroad. The move was costing U.S. animators work, and IATSE 839, The Animation Guild, was not happy. And a storm was coming… Before we get to the brawl that changed the face of animation, let’s back up a bit. Already working on Tarzan, The Lone Ranger, and Batman for CBS, and Flash Gordon [see next issue for Flash! –ed.] for NBC, Filmation was riding high on four of the top six fictional heroes in public recognition. Only Superman—whom they had already done, and who was now animated by Hanna-Barbera—and Zorro were left. Zorro had never been done in animation before, and Lou Scheimer was able to sell it to CBS solely based on its fame. In 2012 interviews with me for the TwoMorrows book Lou Scheimer: Creating The Filmation Generation, Scheimer recalled, “We sold Zorro because it was a recognizable name. It was always difficult to sell shows that had never been seen or heard of before. But with this show, even if you had never seen one of Zorro’s adventures, you knew the name.” At the time, Filmation licensed the rights to the character from Gertz-Larson Productions, a small company run by John Gertz and Nancy Larson that would later become Zorro Productions, Inc. With Zorro sold to CBS, development proper began. Arthur Nadel was in charge of the writing department for the company. The scripts would mostly be written by Arthur Browne, Jr., along with Robby London, Ron and Sam Schultz, and Marty Wagner. “Robby was a fan of swashbuckling stories and told me he even had fencing lessons as a kid!” Scheimer said. “Arthur liked him a lot, and Ted Field, one of the guys in control at CBS, liked his stories as well.” In a 2006 interview with this author, Robby London recalled, “Zorro was the very first series that I worked on at Filmation; my first day there, I was writing premises for Zorro. It was very ironic because, as a child, I was obsessed with Zorro. I mean, so obsessed I made my parents give me fencing lessons as a young child. So, how appropriate that my first writing job would be on this property that I loved and knew very, very well. It was a good match. It was a network series for CBS at the time, and I remember when I first came in, they were having a very hard time getting story premises accepted by the network, and I had one of the first premises that the network just put right through. My premise got submitted to CBS, the executive at CBS, a guy named Ted Field, very tough guy to get stuff by, just seemed to like my work, and I was in. That was an episode called ‘Fort Ramon.’ I went on to write a couple of other episodes of Zorro. I loved the swashbuckling thing.” The basis for the show would take elements from throughout Zorro’s career, while establishing a few new spins of its own. Don Diego de la Vega was now from early Los Angeles directly, and his black horse’s name was changed from Tornado to Tempest. Instead of mute servant/helper Bernardo, Don Diego was aided in his 58

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exploits as Zorro by a young swordsman named Miguel, who wore a colorful disguise as the hero Amigo, and rode a palomino horse. The romantic interest was Maria, although a sultry female pirate named Lucia established a flirtatious relationship with Zorro in later episodes. The lead villain was Captain Ramon, leader of a garrison of soldiers, which included Sergeant Gonzalez, a friend to the de la Vegas, but foe to Zorro. Gonzalez was a character in the original “The Curse of Capistrano” story, but had been replaced by Sergeant Garcia in Disney’s TV series. For the stories, other forces that stood against Zorro included pirates, bandits, corrupt military and government officials, and the fury of nature itself. According to Scheimer, “Zorro was the first animated show for certain—and possibly the first U.S. show of any sort—which featured a cast composed entirely of Spanish or Latino actors and actresses.” Indeed, only one other show until after the turn of the century used a significantly Latino voice cast: Ruby-Spears’ 1983 series Rubik the Amazing Cube, which featured three Hispanic children in its main cast. Filmation had long been a champion of diversity on its shows, already featuring the first African-American and Native-American leads on Saturday morning and regularly featuring other ethnic minorities in their casts. Zorro would be no different. Even the traditional informational/educational/“prosocial” messages at the end of each episode—which featured Zorro speaking directly to the viewing audiences—played on his heritage. He often talked about the Latin history of California, or taught viewers Spanish words or phrases. “It was nice to have an ethnic character that no one else had ever used quite like this before,”

andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

said Scheimer. “We did the tags that would appeal to a Spanish audience and yet also be of interest to a non-Spanish audience.” As for that cast? “Originally, we announced that Fernando Lamas would be the voice of Zorro, but in July, as production began, Lamas had to cancel out on us,” said Scheimer. “We chose Henry Darrow to replace him as the voice of Zorro and his alter ego, the wealthy Don Diego de la Vega.” Darrow thus became the first Hispanic actor in Zorro history to play the lead role in an American production. It seemed fitting, as Darrow had been a Zorro fan as a child, when his name had been Enrique Delgado. When Darrow auditioned for the voice role for CBS, the network worried that his voice sounded too sexy in a scene with a señorita when he said, “Buenas noches, señorita”; Scheimer told Darrow to play the part with less expressiveness and ardor. CBS was mollified, and Darrow was cast. Julio Medina voiced Zorro’s faithful sidekick, Miguel, a.k.a. Amigo, and the female leads on the show were Christina Avila, who played Diego’s love interest Maria de Varella, and Socorro Valdez, who played sexy pirate Lucia. Don Diamond—who had co-starred in the Fifties’ Zorro live-action Disney show—played the incompetent Sergeant Gonzales, essaying the role mostly for laughs. Also

featured were Eric Mason as the ruthless villain Captain Ramon; Carlos Rivas as Zorro’s father, Governor General Don Alejandro de la Vega; and Ismael “East” Carlo as the Mission’s priest, Fray Gaspar. Zorro was dressed in all black, like previous versions, with character designs by Kevin Frank, Mel Keefer, Janice Stocks, Tim Gula, and comic-book artist Russ Heath. Zorro himself bore a strong resemblance to live-action TV Zorro, Guy Williams. Captain Ramon also strongly resembled actor Basil Rathbone, who had played the character in the 1940 remake of The Mark of Zorro. Amusingly, Miguel was drawn to look very much like Zorro’s voice actor, Henry Darrow. A show’s opening narration was always Filmation’s chance to boil the base of their characters down for viewers to quickly understand, and Zorro’s was no different: “The mark of Zorro… Zorro! As Don Diego, I pretend to be afraid. But with a mask as my disguise, I ride into the night, and raise my sword in the name of justice! For I am… Zorro!” Network censors—also known as the Standards & Practices department—were ready to stand in the way of Zorro, but Filmation had an ace in their hand. As recalled by Scheimer, “As with Lone Ranger, we also had an issue with the possibility of violence portrayed by the good guy, as Zorro used a sword and slashed the letter ‘Z’

(CLOCKWISE, LEFT TO RIGHT) Henry Darrow provided the voice for Zorro/Don Diego de la Vega, model sheet image of Zorro riding Tempest, and a turn-around model sheet of Zorro. © Zorro Productions, Inc.

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into people’s chests and cheeks and foreheads. We ended up having him generally slash the letter ‘Z’ Zorro encounters Sergeant Gonzales in into a wall or a piece of cloth; he would do anything this cel set-up, circa 1981. © Zorro Productions, with his sword but touch a human with it. Zorro Inc. also used a whip sometimes, and it was the same story; he never used it against a person.” As for how they got the sword past the censors at all, Scheimer said that, “We got away with the swordplay mostly because it was such an integral part of the character, but also because one of the CBS staff members—I believe it was somebody in Standards & Practices, no less—had been on the 1976 U.S. Olympic fencing team. Because he was so supportive of the show— and had the chops—we filmed him as our rotoscope model for the Zorro swordfights.” The rotoscoping was especially evident in the stylish opening credits. Writer Robby London recalled, “One of the challenges to writing Zorro was, because it was animated, it’s very hard to animate sword fights, swashbuckling scenes. It’s very, very hard, painstaking work to spell out on paper all of the moves and the swordfights, and who moves their sword where. In animation writing, you’re absolutely expected to direct on paper, which is the antithesis of live-action writing, where you’re asked not to direct on paper. In animation, you have to spell it all out, and Zorro was a particular challenge in that respect.” So, with scripts and designs and production underway, how and why did Filmation end up sending Zorro overseas, instead of doing the entire series in-house… as they had done with every series in the company’s history to that point? “The fault was mostly in the hands of the networks, which were delaying approvals on the majority of the scripts for both us and Hanna-Barbera,” said Scheimer. “We were busy hiring as many people as we could to complete the shows we had orders for, but we knew that Zorro was going to miss the delivery date thanks to the network delays.” Filmation had to make a horrible choice: miss their deadlines, or send the work overseas…

RUNAWAY PRODUCTIONS AND CROSSED SWORDS

In The New Adventures of Zorro special attention was paid to sword handling (TOP) and movement, as seen in this storyboard. © Zorro Productions, Inc. 60

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In mid-July, Filmation was forced to finally cave in to “runaway production.” Faced with a very short lead time on their shows, the company was further hampered “due to the network being so late at approving story premises and scripts,” recalled Scheimer. “There was no way we could deliver all the work in time with the people we had working, who were already working on our other shows to deliver. We were forced to finally send our first TV series overseas to Japan to complete animation. It was a crushing disappointment to me, and it brought the swift wrath of the animation union, IATSE 839, who filed their first runaway grievance of the season—though not their last, as other studios followed suit—against Filmation.” Filmation sent the 13-episode animation order to Tokyo Movie Shinsha (TMS), a Japanese animation studio established in 1946. Regular producers of anime, TMS was now branching out of their own country by animating Zorro concurrently with the French series Ulysses 31, a co-production with DIC. But TMS was rushed. They only had five weeks to deliver the first episode back to Filmation, completed.

andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

Filmation sent layout producer Don Christensen over to Japan to work with TMS. “He loved the way the Japanese worked,” said Scheimer. “He said they would come in and work all day, then sleep at night at the office, and wake up in the morning at their job.” The style apparently appealed to Christensen, whose similar habits at Filmation had led to a bottleneck at his own department. “But now he was off to Japan to work with TMS to get Zorro produced correctly,” said Scheimer, “and Filmation’s layout department became a calmer place.” Having Christensen oversee TMS “was not a good way to work, but TMS tried hard, and Filmation tried hard, and we all did as well as we could. I probably should not have taken the show on; I should’ve refused to produce it,” Scheimer confided, sorrow evident in his voice. “We just had too many shows to do this year. It hurt a lot to send this stuff overseas, and TMS broke their bones to try to get it to us on time, but there were little mistakes in it. The work looked good, but in some places it was not up to our normal standard, and it was not TMS’ fault; they did an impossible job.” One of the elements that made Zorro difficult was that it’s hard to animate a character dressed completely in black. Animators had to use white lines instead of black lines to encompass the body, so that painters knew where to do the cel paint on the back of the animation cels. Viewers of Zorro could see things disappear onscreen every now and then, the victim of outlines being colored wrong. Despite that, most viewers agree that Zorro looked great. A staunch supporter of American animation and unions, Scheimer remained bitter for decades after about the imperative to send work overseas. “The saddest part about us subcontracting work to TMS in the end wasn’t that I had sent work outside the country for the first time in Filmation’s history... The worst part was that it helped a Japanese studio get a foothold into the networks at a time when the balance of power was shifting from domestic animation houses to the potential for more overseas work. It was only a small crack in the armor, but added to the larger cracks already caused by Hanna-Barbera, Ruby-Spears, and DePatieFreleng—and the actions of the animation union that were to come in 1982, it was a crack that I regret ever having contributed to.”

(LEFT) The pirate Lucia is a formidable foe. (RIGHT) Zorro makes his signature move. (INSET) Miguel, a new addition to the Zorro legend. © Zorro Productions, Inc.

FAST FACTS

FILMATION’S THE NEW ADVENTURES OF ZORRO Overall series title: The Tarzan/Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Hour f Studio: Filmation f No. of seasons: One f No. of episodes: 13 episodes (22 minutes) f Original run: September 12, 1981–September 11, 1982 (CBS, Saturdays) Series title: The Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Show (1982– 1983 Sunday reruns)

PRIMARY VOICE PERFORMER CAST f Henry Darrow: Don Diego/Zorro f Julio Medina: Miguel/Amigo f Don Diamond: Sergeant Gonzales f Eric Mason: Captain Ramon f Christine Avila: Maria f Socorro Valdez: Lucia f Carlos Rivas: Don Alejandro/Governor General f Ismael “East” Carlo: Fray Gaspar RETROFAN

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The Tarzan/Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Hour debuted on CBS on September 12th, 1981, with The New Adventures of Zorro component just barely squeaking by in its delivery from TMS. Despite this, Filmation was making plans to possibly do a Zorro movie, along with a Fat Albert movie, and another Oz movie. Ratings for the heroic block were strong, though not quite… heroic. In June 1982, when the new Fall schedule was announced, the series was relegated to Sundays with no new episodes, when the show title was changed to The Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Show. By then, Scheimer faced another regret: company co-founder Norm Prescott—whose name moved in a circle with Scheimer’s in the opening credits of every Filmation show—left the company on April 12th, 1982. The New Adventures of Zorro holds the distinction as being the final show with the Scheimer-Prescott credit wheel. The runaway productions fallout continued, reaching a peak in the summer of 1982. The Screen Cartoonists Union IATSE 839 contract was set to expire on July 31st, and a strike was looming. The biggest issue the union saw with future studio contracts was dealing with runaway productions, as more and more companies were sending work to Korea and Taiwan, even though many U.S. animators were unemployed. Other than their earlier experience with Zorro, Filmation had kept all its work in-country. The union negotiating committee was meeting with the “Big Four”— Hanna-Barbera, Filmation, Disney, and Warner Bros.—with the newer Marvel Productions and 36 other signatory smaller studios all being affected as well.

All the negotiations were for naught, and the second major animation strike for television animation began on Thursday, August 5, 1982. Labor complaints and counter complaints were filed, and pickets were set. IATSE 839 was considering an independent deal clause with producers—like Filmation—who agreed to sign a contract agreeable to local 839, but until then, all four studios were treated the same and picketed. In the press, IATSE business agent Bud Hester called Hanna-Barbera the biggest offender in sending work overseas. As the strike continued, Hanna-Barbera made matters worse by threatening to send all their work overseas to meet the Fall schedule deadlines. Even as Hanna-Barbera dug in their heels, Filmation continued to negotiate. On the day Filmation was picketed, Scheimer actually joined the picket line outside his own offices, showing solidarity with his workers and keeping his promise to keep future animation in America. Filmation became the first major animation studio— and the second studio overall, after micro-studio Welcome Entertainment/Ziggy Productions—to sign a new contract with the union on September 1st, 1982. The strike delayed the start of the fall season—although some studios had completed their shows in Taiwan and Korea—as Hanna-Barbera, Warner Bros., and Disney kept a hardline stance and eventually “broke” the union. The strike ended on October 10th because union members felt that some work was better than no work. Hanna-Barbera retaliated and blacklisted employees who had been on strike, and immediately made the decision to send more of their work overseas. Disney also moved to outsource the majority of its animation. Japanese

Turn-arounds of (TOP LEFT) Don Diego de la Vega, (TOP RIGHT) Miguel, (BOTTOM LEFT) Captain Ramon, (BOTTOM RIGHT) Sergeant Gonzales. © Zorro Productions, Inc.

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animation companies had now proven to other studios that they could produce American-style animation more cheaply than Americans could. Filmation became the only animation company—now that Zorro was done with—that kept all of its animation in America. By February 1989, when Filmation closed its doors, the 13 episodes of Zorro were the only shows they did which were not produced 100% by American animators.

FAST FACTS

ZORRO RIDES AGAIN

Also in 1981—though completely unrelated to the Filmation cartoon—20th Century Fox released the live-action film Zorro, The Gay Blade, a comedy film which found George Hamilton playing both Zorro/Don Diego de la Vega, and his flamboyant twin brother, Bunny Wigglesworth. This would be the final Zorro appearance on film for almost two decades. In 1983 however, Henry Darrow—who had voiced Filmation’s Zorro—starred as Zorro in a short-lived live-action Disney sitcom called Zorro and Son. Darrow next played Zorro’s father in a live-action syndicated Zorro series from New World Television in 1990–1993, taking over the role from Efram Zimbalist, Jr.! Duncan Regehr played the title hero. In 1996, a second animated version of Zorro was created, though this one wasn’t runaway animation; it was full-on anime! The Legend of Zorro, also known as Kaiketsu Zoro, was created by Tokyo anime studio Ashi Productions. Fifty-two episodes of Kaiketsu Zoro aired on Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai/NHK, also known as the Japan Broadcasting Corporation, in 1996–1997. It would later be dubbed in

Zorro anime style! (TOP) Fred Wolf's The New Adventures of Zorro featured a blond hero, a change from the standard depiction, but (BOTTOM) Sergeant Garcia was played for laughs. © Zorro Productions, Inc.

FRED WOLF’S THE NEW ADVENTURES OF ZORRO f Studio: Fred Wolf Films/Warner Bros. f No. of seasons: Two f No. of episodes: 26 episodes (22 minutes) f Original run: September 20, 1997–September 1999 (syndicated, Weekends)

PRIMARY VOICE PERFORMER CAST f Michael Gough: Don Diego de la Vega/Zorro f Jeannie Elias: Isabella Torres f Earl Boen: Captain Montecero f Tony Pope: Sergeant Garcia f Pat Fraley: Don Alejandro de la Vega f Additional voices: Ed Asner, Dee Bradley Baker, Mary Kay Bergman, Susan Blu, Victor Brandt, Clancy Brown, Warren Burton, Hamilton Camp, Brian Cummings, Daniel Davis, Ron Feinberg, Ed Gilbert, Jennifer Hale, Mark Hamill, Jess Harnell, Sherman Howard, Alan Oppenheimer, Ron Perlman as Gomez Rudolfo, Mark Rolston, Rino Romano, Neil Ross, Kevin Schon, Glenn Shadix, Fred Wolf English, French, Spanish, and Italian and shown in Australia, Italy, France, and Mexico. The Legend of Zorro followed elements of the original story, although the Spanish Diego Vega was blond, he wore a puffy white shirt with his black costume, and his brown horse was named Viento. Lolita Prideaux was the female protagonist, while Bernard was an abandoned orphan raised by Diego who took up the mantle of “Little Zorro.” Commander Raymond of the Spanish Army was the main villain, supported by Lieutenant Gabriel. Bandits, pirates, assassins, and debt collectors made up the remainder of the series’ rogues. In 1997, a third animated series, The New Adventures of Zorro, was created by Fred Wolf Films Dublin and Warner Bros. International. This new version featured Zorro (Michael Gough) facing down Captain Montecero (Earl Boen), the head of the Los Angeles garrison, as well as weapons-master Machete, feline villainess La Pantera, cyborgs, monsters, ghosts, pirates, Sasquatch, sorcerers, samurais, steampunk villains, and more. Aiding Zorro in his heroics on this version were his mute servant Bernardo (no voice actor… mute!), love interest Isabella (Jeannie Elias), and a Native-American shamaness named Grey Owl. Mostly running on Saturday mornings, The New Adventures of Zorro was syndicated for two seasons beginning on September 21, 1997 on 129 stations; each season ran 13 episodes, for a total of 26 episodes. It was later aired on the Cartoon Network. RETROFAN

September 2022

andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

On December 22, 2002, DIC aired a featurelength animated film titled The Amazing Zorro on Nickelodeon, as part of DIC’s Incredible Movie Toons package. Cusse Mankuma voiced the title role. The animated film was clearly low-budget, and is generally regarded by most Zorro fans as the least successful animated iteration of the hero. Two big-budget feature films brought Zorro back to live-action. In 1998’s The Mask of Zorro, Anthony Hopkins played an older Don Diego de la Vega who passed his heroic mantle down to Antonio Banderas, who became the new Zorro and married Diego’s daughter Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones). A 2005 sequel to the popular film reunited Banderas and Zeta-Jones in The Legend of Zorro. Since those films, “the Fox” continued to be featured in books and comic books—including 2005’s bestselling Zorro book by Chilean author Isabel Allende. That book established an origin story for Zorro, and incorporated elements drawn from not only books, but the films and various other sources. Allende’s version also became the blueprint for license-holder Zorro Productions; that company required all future projects adhere to its timeline. Well, more or less… Timelines became more important for Zorro’s next animated series. Zorro: Generation Z was released by BKN International in 2008 (some sources incorrectly list 2006). The series was a slightly futuristic update of the concept, set in 2015 in the fictional town of Pueblo Grande. There, young college student Diego; his sidekick, mute Bernardo; and crack-shot laserwhip–wielding heroine the Scarlet Whip all fought against injustice and villains. As the opening showed, the new Zorro was part of a long generation of men who had been Zorro—Diego was the great-great-greatgreat-great-grandson of the original Zorro—only now, instead of a horse, the hero rode a Tornado Z motorcycle into battle. Additionally, his cape was bulletproof, and his Z-Weapon could become a laser gun, a double-bladed lightsaber/sword, a bo staff, a whip, or a grappling hook! Ironically, most of the writing for the international series was done by American writers who had worked regularly for Filmation, and a lot of animation work was done by G7 Animation, a company comprised almost entirely of exFilmationers. Twenty-six episodes of Generation Z were produced and aired in England, Spain, Italy, Russia, Greece, South America, and other countries. Oddly, they didn’t appear on America television—though episodes were released on DVD, and later on iTunes—despite similar updated heroes peppering the Saturday morning animation landscape, such as Phantom 2040, Batman Beyond, and Spider-Man 2099 Unlimited. A second season was intended for 2010, titled Zorro Generation Z: HD, but BKN International went out of business in late 2009. The final television—and animated— appearance of Zorro was another foreign 64

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(LEFT) Title card for Zorro: Generation Z and (BELOW) a screen capture of the futuristic look (not to mention the replacement of his horse) of this animated version. © Zorro Productions, Inc.

Zorro: The Chonicles uses 21st Century CGI technology to tell a 19th Century story. (ABOVE) Zorro: The Chronicles promotional art. © Cyber Group Studios. © Zorro Productions, Inc.

andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

production. Zorro: The Chronicles was produced in 2015 by French company Cyber Group Studios. The series broke new ground for the concept by introducing HD CGI animation. In this version, teenager Don Diego de la Vega returned home to 19th-Century Los Angeles, California, after schooling in Spain. There, he rejoined his twin sister Ines and mute friend Bernardo, and the trio worked to thwart the corruption and evil deeds of Army captain Monasterio and other villains. Diego took on the black and red costume of Zorro to become a swashbuckling hero. Zorro: The Chronicles ran for one season of 26 episodes in France and Italy.

ZORRO’S LEGACY

While it is a shame that no major Zorro project was released for the character’s 100th anniversary in 2019, it’s clear that Zorro has carved a heroic legacy for himself. In December 2021, Disney-ABC announced that it was beginning development on a new version of Zorro, to be produced by and starring Wilmer Valderrama. In a Deadline article, Ayo Davis, president of Disney Branded Television, said, “We’re reimagining this Disney classic as a compelling period piece, set in Pueblo de Los Angeles, but told in a very modern telenovela style—with richly drawn contemporary characters and relationships set against the action, drama, suspense and humor of the original, iconic Zorro.” Producer/star Valderrama added, “Growing up, Zorro was the one character that made me, as a Latino, feel like I could be a hero. As an adult and a storyteller, I have a responsibility in the stories that I help bring to life. To partner with Gary [Marsh] and Disney to bring Zorro back into the family after 60 years and be a part of the legacy for other children to know they too can be the heroes of their own stories is a dream come true.” On December 18, 2007, following the success of DVD releases of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, BCI Eclipse released The New Adventures of the Lone Ranger and Zorro, Vol. 1 DVD Set as part of a series of the Filmation library on DVD. The New Adventures of the Lone Ranger and Zorro, Vol. 2 was released on July 15, 2008, shortly before BCI Eclipse went out of business. Each was a two-disc set produced by the author of this very article,

BCI Eclipse released The New Adventures of the Lone Ranger and Zorro, Vol. 1 DVD Set in 2007. The New Adventures of the Lone Ranger and Zorro, Vol. 2 followed in 2008. © Filmation. © Zorro Productions, Inc. © Universal Pictures.

Andy Mangels, and included all episodes, plus multiple crew interviews, image galleries, and more. Both sets are now out-of-print and demand big dollars in online sales. Mangels also paid tribute to Filmation’s series with his co-written homage to the continuity— including the return of vivacious pirate Lucia—in a short story in Moonstone Books’ Tales of Zorro prose anthology in 2008. For the other series, home-video release is spotty: 1996’s Kaiketsu Zorro does not appear to have had any U.S.-language home-media release. 1997’s The New Adventures of Zorro seems to have only had a ten-episode VHS release by Warner Home Video in 1998, and a six-episode “Animated Triple Feature” release by Warner in 2010. 2002’s DIC’s The Amazing Zorro was released by MGM on DVD in 2003. 2006’s Zorro: Generation Z has had at least four DVD volumes released, and is available to download on Amazon Prime Video. 2015’s Zorro: The Chronicles does not appear to have had any U.S.-language home-media release, but is available to download on Amazon Prime Video. But the lack of specific home-media release is not a cause for alarm: almost every episode of the animated Zorro, no matter what version, is available in full on YouTube! So, you can now sit down with a bowl of cereal on a Saturday morning and thrill to the swashbuckling hero’s adventures. Just remember to always carve a “Z” into any other foods you enjoy with it. The spirit of Zorro will thank you! Unless otherwise credited, the quotes from Lou Scheimer are from the autobiography he wrote with Andy Mangels, Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation. Artwork and photos are courtesy the collection of Andy Mangels. Some photos were provided by Heritage Auctions. ANDY MANGELS is the USA Today bestselling author and co-author of 20 books, including TwoMorrows’ 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, released by Abdo Books in 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

September 2022

RETROFAD

Valley Girls and Valspeak BY MICHAEL EURY

After hot rods and hippies, and surfing and psychedelic art, you’d think that Americans would have tired of Southern California– spawned pop culture trends. As if! Then came the Big Eighties, when Ronald Reagan strode… well, out of California, into the White House. He and First Lady Nancy Reagan, familiar faces from both the silver screen and the boob tube, brought Hollywood pizzazz to the nation’s capital. Some might argue that the Reagans also offered a step up in social class from the Georgia peanut farmer who had previously inhabited

the Oval Office (anybody remember Billy Beer?). Bolstered by television’s blaring of lifestyles of the rich and famous, a contagion of obsession with affluence and self-indulgence took hold. And its poster child was the Valley Girl. Valley Girls were the image-obsessed, shopaholic teenage daughters of upper-middleclass parents of California’s San Fernando Valley, a.k.a. “The Valley,” the 260-square-mile region that’s home to many of Los Angeles’ residential suburbs. The area was founded in September 1797 as the Mission San Fernando Rey de España. By the mid-20th Century, The Valley had become “America’s suburb,” a pastoral getaway from the hustlebustle of nearby Hollywood. The velvet-voiced Bing Crosby crooned about this wonderland to homesick G.I.s in his 1944 hit, “San Fernando Valley.” If its Spanish settlers could have foreseen that the region would, by the early Eighties, be home to no end of clothing boutiques, shoe stores, and shopping malls connected by smoggy, traffic-choked roadways, they no doubt would have considered such exploitation as “grody to the max,” or perhaps shrugged off 66

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this progress with a dismissive “whatever.” If they were fluent in Valspeak. But that language, punctuated a vocal rise in pitch at the end of sentences and often accompanied by a flippant eye-roll or hair toss, epitomized the Valley Girl as she sashayed from store to store, armed with limitless credit cards and shopping bags brimming with designer shoe purchases that even Imelda Marcos would covet. The Valley Girl’s mecca was the mall—no, let’s make that The Mall—as SoCal’s multi-tiered gallerias became “the” place to be, and to be seen. It was a movie that rocketed this lifestyle into the public consciousness: director Amy Heckerling’s sleeper smash of 1982, Fast Times At Ridgemont High, where much of the film’s teen soap opera (and comedy) occurred at a shopping mall. The mall in your Anywhere U.S.A. neighborhood might have lacked the dazzle of Fast Times’ Sherman Oaks Galleria, but in those pre-Walmart days virtually every community had some sort of shopping mall nearby. The Mall became the nucleus of Eighties teen and youth culture. “Stranger dangers” for kids might have lurked on the streets, but The Mall was a safe haven where parents could drop off their younger kids for an entire day without concern for their welfare. It was where teens could go to hang out, to shop, and—for those working-class adolescents lacking the daddy dollars necessary to ascend to actual Valley Girldom—to work after school as a retail store clerk or food court server. The Valley Girl, her pouty lips sparkling with gloss and her well-toned bod clad in neon-hued fashions, developed a language all her own. Her predilections were “awesome,” “gnarly,” “bitchin’,” “tubular,” “righteous,” and “fresh.” Her dislikes would “gag me with a spoon,” “barf me out,” “gross me out,” or be “grody to the max.” Emotional situations (usually a cute, rich boy looking her way) that would “freak her out” with an “Oh my god!” gasp might spark a fellow Valley Girl to advise her to “take a chill pill” or “don’t have a cow.” If she agreed with you, the Valley Girl’s support was signaled by a “totally” or “fer sure.” If forced into compliance, she would acquiesce with a “whatever” or “okay, fine.” If she could no longer tolerate you, or

some “dweeb” she considered beneath her, you might be admonished to “bite me” or “eat my shorts.” And, like, every sentence was, like, sprinkled with at least one “like”—a carryover from their hippie parents’ own youthful slang. This language wasn’t “all her own” for long. Musical madman Frank Zappa was so repulsed by the teenage prima donnas he saw swarming The Valley that he partnered with his daughter Moon Unit, then a mere 14 years of age, to write a song about them. Their father-and-daughter collaboration became the 1982 record “Valley Girl,” which mocked their mini-skirted, big-haired subjects with lyrics like, “On Ventura, there she goes. She just bought some bitchin’ clothes. Tosses her head and flips her hair. She got a whole bunch of nothing in there.” The Zappas were laughing, but America didn’t get the joke. What was intended as an indictment against gratuitous consumerism instead became a radio hit. Listeners thought Moon Zappa’s accompanying vocals, where she intoned Valspeak catchphrases, were, like, totally bitchin.’ A new fad was born. Valspeak became teen-speak from The Valley to Vermont and all points in between. For the geographically impaired (Val Gal wannabes who didn’t live in SoCal), hastily published how-to books like The Valley Girls’ Guide to Life, The Totally Awesome Val Guide, and Fer Shurr! How to Be a Valley Girl hit the market. Parents who were having a cow over their daughters’ insipid jargon and shopping frenzies could bone up on the guide How to Deprogram Your Valley Girl. Director Martha Coolridge’s modern-day twist on Romeo and Juliet, the 1983 culture-clash movie Valley Girl, where an emo-punker from the city falls in love with a valley girl from the ’burbs, was a modest box office hit. It was followed the next year by Night of the Comet, a horror-comedy featuring Val Gals as heroines during a zombie apocalypse. While “totally” and “awesome” became top buzzwords of the Eighties, Valley Girl fever started to wane by mid-decade. Some movies that followed wouldn’t quite let it go, though, including 1992’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which one-upped Night of the Comet by enduring as a franchise. Valspeak’s last big gasp came from the filmmaker who brought it to our attention in the first

Valley Girls once roamed gallerias like this Eighties multi-leveled Virginia mall. Photograph from the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

place. Amy Heckerling set her 1995 teen comedy Clueless—a contemporized riff on Jane Austen’s Emma, about a young matchmaker—in Beverly Hills, not in The Valley, although it employed much of the same Val Gal lingo and consumer culture. Clueless was popular enough to warrant a TV spinoff that ran from 1996–1999. I’d like to report that Americans’ obsession with vapid vixens with deep-pocketed daddies ended with the Valley Girl fad, but a cadre of Kardashians suggests otherwise. The vocal inflection of Valspeak has morphed into what linguists now call “uptalk” or “upspeak,” a current communication trend mainly among Millennials where spoken statements sound like questions, although some contend its roots stretch back to long before the Eighties. And the Valley Girl herself has become a retro icon, as you’ll discover the next time you shop for a Halloween costume. Even the movie Valley Girl enjoyed a totally awesome remake in 2020! The Mall hasn’t been so lucky, however. Online shopping has shuttered many of these one-time teenage hangouts, while other malls have hemorrhaged retailers and barely remain alive. This faded glory no doubt saddens the Valley Girl of yore, now middle-aged, who can at least seek solace by texting her fellow Val Gals, “OMG!” RETROFAN

September 2022

SUPER COLLECTOR

Remembering

Robb Versandi

Editor’s note: Normally, our “Super Collector” column is a guest article about the passion behind the writer’s collection or the challenges of finding certain rare items. But in this edition we are saddened to report the March 22, 2022 passing of the Bronx-born Robert J. “Robb” Versandi (1941–2022) of Tierra Verde, Florida. A talented cartoonist, Robb boasted a scholarly knowledge of toys, comic and cartoon art, and films. After a successful career as an advertising executive, he operated two collector-oriented businesses, Toys Around the Clock and Art Around the Clock. Awhile back, Robb, a RetroFan subscriber, sent me photographs of some of his prized memorabilia with the note, “Here are some random photos of my collections. Perhaps they might be of interest to your readers.” Dagwood, Dick Tracy, Disney, Dracula—I’m certain these photos will be appreciated by RetroFans. And thus, with a heavy heart RetroFan remembers Robb Versandi through his pop-culture collections. We extend our deepest condolences to his widow, Susanna Johnston-Versandi, to his family, and to his friends.

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September 2022

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September 2022

THE

CHARLTON COMPANION by JON B. COOKE

An ALL-NEW definitive history of Connecticut’s notorious all-in-one comic book company! Often disparaged as a second-rate funny-book outfit, Charlton produced a vast array of titles that span from the 1940s Golden Age to the Bronze Age of the ’70s in many genres, from Hot Rods to Haunted Love. The imprint experienced explosive bursts of creativity, most memorably the “Action Hero Line” edited by DICK GIORDANO in the 1960s, which featured the renowned talents of STEVE DITKO and a stellar team of creators, as well as the unforgettable ’70s “Bullseye” era that spawned E-Man and Doomsday +1, all helmed by veteran masters and talented newcomers—and serving as a training ground for an entire generation of comics creators thriving in an environment of complete creative freedom. From its beginnings with a handshake deal consummated in county jail, to the company’s accomplishments beyond comics, woven into this prose narrative are interviews with dozens of talented participants, including GIORDANO, DENNIS O’NEIL, ALEX TOTH, SANHO KIM, TOM SUTTON, PAT BOYETTE, NICK CUTI, JOHN BYRNE, MIKE ZECK, JOE STATON, SAM GLANZMAN, NEAL ADAMS, JOE GILL, and even some Derby residents who recall working in the sprawling company plant. Though it gave up the ghost over three decades ago, Charlton’s influence continues today with its Action Heroes serving as inspiration for ALAN MOORE’s cross-media graphic novel hit, WATCHMEN. By JON B. COOKE with MICHAEL AMBROSE & FRANK MOTLER. SHIPS NOV. 2022! (256-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-111-0

THE

TEAM-UP COMPANION by RetroFan’s MICHAEL EURY

THE TEAM-UP COMPANION examines team-up comic books of the Silver and Bronze Ages of Comics— DC’s THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD and DC COMICS PRESENTS, Marvel’s MARVEL TEAM-UP and MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE, plus other team-up titles, treasuries, and treats—in a lushly illustrated selection of informative essays, special features, and trivia-loaded issue-by-issue indexes. Go behind the scenes of your favorite team-up comic books with specially curated and all-new creator recollections from NEAL ADAMS, JIM APARO, MIKE W. BARR, ELIOT R. BROWN, NICK CARDY, CHRIS CLAREMONT, GERRY CONWAY, STEVE ENGLEHART, STEVE GERBER, STEVEN GRANT, BOB HANEY, TONY ISABELLA, PAUL KUPPERBERG, PAUL LEVITZ, RALPH MACCHIO, DENNIS O’NEIL, MARTIN PASKO, JOE RUBINSTEIN, ROY THOMAS, LEN WEIN, MARV WOLFMAN, and other all-star writers and artists who produced the team-up tales that so captivated readers during the 1960s, ’70s, and early ’80s. By BACK ISSUE and RETROFAN editor MICHAEL EURY. (272-page SOFTCOVER) $36.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-112-7 • NOW SHIPPING!

TwoMorrows. The Future of Pop History.

Phone: 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com Web: www.twomorrows.com

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA

Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation Publication Title: RetroFan Publication Number: 2576-7224 Filing Date: May 16, 2022 Issue Frequency: Bi-monthly Number of Issues Published Annually: 6 Annual Subscription Price: $68 Address of Known Office of Publication and General Business Office of Publisher: TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Dr., Raleigh, NC 27614 Contact Person: John Morrow Telephone: 919-449-0344 Editor: Michael Eury, 112 Fairmount Way, New Bern, NC 28562 Publisher and Managing Editor: John Morrow, TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Dr., Raleigh, NC 27614 Owner: John Morrow, 10407 Bedfordtown Dr., Raleigh, NC 27614 Known Bondholders, Mortgagees, and Other Security Holders: None Issue Date for Circulation Data: May 2022

(3) Paid Distribution Outside the Mails Including Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales, and Other Paid Distribution Outside USPS®: 4897 (4) Paid Distribution by Other Classes of Mail Through the USPS (e.g., First-Class Mail®): 60

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Paid Circulation (By Mail and Outside the Mail) (1) Mailed Outside-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541 (Include paid distribution above nominal rate, advertiser’s proof copies, and exchange copies): 340 (2) Mailed In-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541 (Include paid distribution above nominal rate, advertiser’s proof copies, and exchange copies): 0

Total Paid Distribution: 5297 Free or Nominal Rate Distribution (By Mail and Outside the Mail) (1) Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies included on PS Form 3541: 107 (2) Free or Nominal Rate In-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541: 0105(3) Free or Nominal Rate Copies Mailed at Other Classes Through the USPS (e.g., First-Class Mail): 0 (4) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail (Carriers or other means): 2 Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution: 107 Total Distribution: 5404 Copies not Distributed: 696 Total: 6100 Percent Paid: 98%

WILL MURRAY’S 20TH CENTURY PANOPTICON Here’s He-Man! An early Masters of the Universe (MOTU) promo poster. Courtesy of Heritage. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe © Mattel, Inc.

BY WILL MURRAY An alliance between a toy company and an independent animation studio led to the wildly popular syndicated television program He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and a billion-dollar merchandizing phenomenon that continues to this day. The concept burst upon the world in 1982 as a Mattel Toys playset. Previously, Mattel had passed on licensing Star Wars toys—consequently losing a small fortune in revenue. So the company went looking for something similar in order to reclaim market share. Conan the Barbarian had been a hit film in 1982, and before that Thundarr the Barbarian had run for two seasons as a Saturday morning cartoon on ABC, ending in 1981. The “sword and sorcery” sub-genre, pioneered by pulp writer Robert E. Howard in the Thirties, was enjoying a revival in virtually all media. Howard’s

Conan, King Kull, and related characters were selling millions of paperbacks and Marvel comic books. Initially, animated commercials were planned to promote the Mattel action figures. But when Mattel’s Tom Kalinske pitched the new line to Toys R Us, he was rebuffed. “Boys don’t read,” was the cold response. On the spot, the Mattel executive explained that a He-Man cartoon series was in the works. But one wasn’t. He had to act fast. Filmation executive producer Lou Scheimer took the call. “The Mattel deal actually started right after we did [the sci-fi cartoon series] Blackstar. They came to me and they had this product. They had this deal with the Conan people. I didn’t know they had this guy coming out of the forest with a sword, and [they] wanted to know if I could sell it to the networks. I said yeah, I would try. I really didn’t like the story; it was pretty much a long toy commercial.” The project might not have gone anywhere except for fact that Westinghouse acquired Filmation, improving the company’s financial strength. Scheimer said, “We went back to Mattel and told them if they let us develop it the way we think is appropriate, give us a shot at it, we would try to sell it into syndication. And, on top of that, I got Westinghouse to finance it!” Fortunately, FCC chairman Mark Fowler had just relaxed the rules to permit toy-based cartoons so long as the toys were not advertised on the show they inspired, freeing up Group W and Filmation to launch the show. Scheimer oversaw the redevelopment of the characters and conceptualized the series. The first working title, “Lords of Power,” was rejected as sounding too religious. Originally, the Mattel concept had called for a “He-Man Trio,” consisting of a hero who would dress as a barbarian, a soldier, or a spaceman. This proved cumbersome, so the focus shifted to the barbarian as the star. Designer Roger Sweet produced the first prototype, making He-Man resemble a helmeted Viking. This was rejected for a more friendly blond-haired look. Mattel had commissioned writer Donald F. Glut to script a quartet of He-Man mini-comics that created a backstory and introduced additional characters destined to become subsequent toys. But Scheimer thought Glut’s grim post-apocalyptic concepts unsuitable for his vision of a kid-friendly program. RETROFAN

September 2022

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

“I went back to Mattel with the concept of Prince Adam, a father, son, mother, a family,” Scheimer explained. “Well, they didn’t know what to do with it, but we made a deal with them to give us creative control. We financed it, and it was a good deal for us—the money that came in from syndication, which was good back then—but it was all luck. If the show hadn’t worked, it would have been death. We ended up doing about 223 episodes. That’s a lot of stuff!” During this period, Mattel turned to DC Comics for cross-promotion. Out of this collaboration emerged a Masters of the Universe (MOTU) miniseries preceded by an issue of DC Comics Presents where Superman visited Eternia to help He-Man in his ongoing struggle against Skeletor, and a 16-page preview of the miniseries, which further developed the nascent MOTU milieu. The preview was included as a free insert in select DC titles cover-dated November 1982. “We received very little input from Mattel,” writer Paul Kupperberg recalled. “They really hadn’t developed much beyond character names and powers and some basic background information; the details were left up to us.”

REJECTED BY THE NETWORKS

It was not the smoothest launch. Scheimer expected to sell the series to one of the three major networks for airing in the Saturday morning TV time period. All three passed, one objecting to Filmation’s pro-social approach. It was a blessing in disguise. “If we were doing it for a network,” the producer later admitted, “they would be pounding for more action, more stuff on screen— keep those kids watching! By going into syndication, we were able to get more content, humanity, real personality, fun into the shows.” The lifting of the FCC ban on TV cartoons based on toys was another key development. Although the restriction no longer applied, executives understood that they still had to be careful how they presented the series. “This is because when Filmation decided to do He-Man,” explained scripter Mel Gilden. “[T]hey went in knowing that the various TV watchdog groups would be watching He-Man very closely. It’s a guy with a sword, after all. He was basically Conan with magic. And so what Filmation did was impose their own standards. They hired a child psychologist and carefully went over each script to ensure there wasn’t anything in it to forestall any problems that they might have had right at the source.” Lou Scheimer’s background animating the likes of Superman [coming in RetroFan #25–ed.] and Star Trek [see issue #1–ed.] served him well. “We created a super-hero character who has a family, responsibilities and an alter ego. He gets into situations that try him as a human being, and that gives us an exciting, enter72

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September 2022

Model sheets for He-Man and some of his MOTU cohorts. Courtesy of Heritage. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe © Mattel, Inc..

taining way to present kids with certain problems. We worked hard on getting values into the shows. It’s easy to do a violent show, but who wants to? The figures look inherently violent, and I didn’t want action for the sake of action. First of all, it’s not right. And second, it just doesn’t work. Kids want some content, some inherent social value. We try not to have He-Man hurt any living creature, and the good guys always win. He-Man is heroic, but not omnipotent. He does make mistakes.” It worked. Debuting as a five days a week program, in September 1983, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe grabbed young viewers and didn’t let go. “The year we went on the air, our ratings were phenomenal,” claimed Scheimer. “Advertisers loved it, because with no significant children’s programming off-network, they had been relegated to the Saturday-morning ghetto. It became apparent that this was a much better market for us, both financially and creatively.” Sixty-five episodes were produced that first year. It was a magic number because it meant any single episode aired only four times in a calendar year.

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

There was one hitch. The owners of Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian sued over what it perceived as an attempt to usurp their character. They lost, but for years false rumors that Mattel had been inspired by Conan circulated. In July 1982, Lou Scheimer had attended the National Association of Television Company Executives, giving the trade their first glimpse of the He-Man universe—and leading to an amusing encounter. “I had all of our drawings and some storyboards there,” Scheimer recalled. “It was interesting. People came up and they saw these drawings. They liked these characters. We talked about how we were going to do them with pro-social values built into the show. I looked at one guy, and he was looking at these drawings. I said, ‘That’s Arnold Schwarzenegger!’ And he was looking at these drawings and [going] Hmmm. You could tell he was ticked off!” Schwarzenegger’s Conan the Barbarian was still in theaters.

TV’S TOY BOX

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe opened the door for a new approach to syndicated animation, where the program was toy-driven. It also blazed the trail for other syndicated action cartoon shows that followed, luring audiences and advertising revenue from Saturday morning—ultimately forcing the networks to abandon Saturday morning as a programming block for original cartoons. “I was interested in creating a new marketplace,” Scheimer elaborated, “because I thought Saturday morning was becoming a dreadful ghetto of bad concepts and cheap shots. I don’t think the audience is well-served.” He-Man was Prince Adam of the Planet Eternia, whose running war with Skeletor of Snake Mountain over control of

Castle Grayskull drove events. Grayskull was the repository of universal knowledge, which the Elders of Eternia placed there for safekeeping. Skeletor sought this knowledge, which Prince Adam was sworn to defend. By lifting his sword and shouting, “By the power of Grayskull!”, Prince Adam transformed into He-Man, a superhuman warrior— and the most powerful man in the universe. “I have the power!” was his signature saying after each transformation. Each rival possessed half of the Power Sword. Only by using both swords simultaneously as giant keys could Castle Grayskull and its secrets be opened. Their struggle was over possession of both blades. “Interestingly enough,” observed Filmation staff writer Robby London, who scripted the pilot, “there was some confusion about the phrase Masters of the Universe. I don’t think that Mattel or Filmation was really clear on who was being referred to in the phrase. Whether it was the villains, or whether it was the good guys, or both together. I suspect there was some sort of shift or revision on that thinking, because my first script referred to the villains as the Masters of the Universe. And subsequent scripts referred to the heroes. But in my personal mind, as I think of it today, they’re all the Masters of the Universe. The good Masters versus the evil Masters.” Originally, Skeletor was from another dimension. But as the series evolved and expanded, his backstory was revised to hint that he is the half-brother of King Randor, Prince Adam’s father. Skeletor soon acquired a cohort of fellow villains, among them Beast-Man, Trap-Jaw, King Hiss, and others. The mini-comics that preceded the TV show and established the original barbaric milieu were increasingly ignored. Scheimer dismissed them as “monstrous.”

(LEFT) He-Man and Skeletor premiered in comics in a Superman team-up in DC Comics Presents #47 (July 1982). (CENTER) Soon thereafter, DC published a MOTU miniseries. (RIGHT) A few years later, Marvel Comics briefly published the series as part of its kid-friendly Star Comics line. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe © Mattel, Inc. Superman and DC Comics Presents TM & © DC Comics. Marvel logo © Marvel.

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A combination of histrionic acting and bravura action sold the series—and He-Man toys by the millions. “Mattel was in seventh heaven,” Scheimer recalled. “I did not know what a great deal it was for them. I thought, wow, we could end up doing 65 of these a year, and keep people working all year, the way it should be, and do something for the industry!” With most companies’ animation production moving to offshore to Asia, Scheimer was determined to keep his operation in the U.S., and to keep American animators working. “We’re doing a job with this series that’s better than a network series,” he said at the time, “because we’re completely controlling it in-house. Because we don’t have outside pressures on us, we can produce more efficiently—not for as little as you can overseas, but, all in all, we don’t have any complaints.”

THE WATCHDOGS ATTACK

Despite Filmation’s good intentions, the inevitable and expected complaints poured in from parents’ groups, particularly Peggy Charren’s infamous Action for Children’s Television. “The overcommercialization of children’s television is worse than that of adult television,” she said in 1983. “A show composed of commercials is insidiously horrible, although that’s not to say licensed products are inherently ghastly—I played with the Shirley Temple doll as a child. “The Masters of the Universe is another example of programmers, writers, and producers looking to toys for ideas because of their licensing potential. When the concept of a program is to sell, it limits its creativity. It’s a shame that the people who make their living telling stories no longer care about telling stories.” Thomas Radecki of the National Coalition on Television Violence chimed in, trying to have it both ways. “The He-Man series is a blatant attempt to sell violence to children through the peddling of violent action toys. The fact that there’s no blood or gore does not mean that there’s no violence—the way to sell violence is to clean it up. Cleaning up violence only makes it seem more wholesome. The brutal barbarian is still held up as a model. It’s incompatible with the survival of a democratic society. The violence is opposed to the Judeo-Christian ethic on which our society is based.” “Before it even got on the air,” complained voice actor Erika Scheimer, “everybody was up in arms about how violent it was going to be. I remember just being so frustrated because nobody had seen a frame of film!” “People yell and scream all the time about our work,” Scheimer pointed out in 1987, “but very few really watch what we do. We’re really concerned about the material we do for children. We’ve worked with educators and advisers on every show we’ve done since we began Fat Albert 14 years ago.” “He-Man was a real lightning rod for the kinds of critics who paid no attention to the content of the show,” added scripter Robby London. “I think if you saw 74

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Publicity cel of Filmation’s power couple. Courtesy of Heritage. She-Ra, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe © Mattel, Inc.

(BELOW) MOTU’s main menace, Skeletor. Not a nice man. Cel courtesy of Heritage. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe © Mattel, Inc.

the content of He-Man, there’s not a lot to complain about in terms of violence and lessons and messages it’s giving.” “We start out with the message or moral as the basis for the show in almost every case,” Scheimer explained, “and we build a show around it—subtly, because if you do it so blatantly that it becomes educational, to the extent that the kid’s going to school, then you lose the audience.” Although some He-Man critics were mollified, Scheimer stopped trying to placate them. “Before we even began producing the show, we were vilified in the press,” he pointed out. “Now they’re saying He-Man is ‘worthwhile,’ but they’re complaining that it’s a half-hour advertisement for the

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He-Man toys. After a while you just have to give up and just do a good job.”

THE PRINCESS OF POWER… AND ONE BIG CAT!

The He-Man juggernaut rolled along so strongly that it soon expanded. Prince Adam’s twin sister, Princess Adora of Etheria, was spun off into a series of her own in 1985’s She-Ra, Princess of Power, where her previously undisclosed existence was revealed.

was managing the He-Man toy line, found himself in a dilemma. He-Man needed some type of vehicle, but the budget didn’t allow for tooling a new toy. Cleveland’s solution was to take a tiger created for their Big Jim toy line and repurpose it. The problem was Big Jim with a 9 1/2 inch figure, while He-Man stood 5 and 1/2 inches. Consequently, the tiger was oversized. Tony Guerrero, who had resculpted Roger Sweet’s He-Man prototype into its final form, was given the job of turning an earthly tiger into Battlecat. Guerrero thought this was ridiculous. To make his point, he presented Cleveland with a prototype that was green with orange stripes, complaining that it was as big as a horse, and therefore didn’t work. Cleveland thought otherwise. He instructed him to put a saddle on it. Guerrero did, adding a battle helmet—and Battlecat was born.

(LEFT) Here, kitty kitty! He-Man and the saddled Battlecat are ready for action in this MOTU cel. Courtesy of Heritage. © Mattel, Inc. (BELOW) Poster for The Secret of the Sword, 1985’s full-length animated feature that brought He-Man and She-Ra to movie theaters. Poster courtesy of Heritage. © Mattel, Inc.

“After a year or so of He-Man,” explained Scheimer, “Mattel came back to me and said they would like to do something with a girl character. We had done Isis and you had Supergirl, but what could I do to figure out how to do something with He-Man? Maybe it could be a sister that he didn’t know existed, something like that! Well, it worked. Although Mattel had a bit of a problem because now they didn’t know how to market it. Was it a girls’ toy in an action/ adventure role that is usually reserved for boys? They didn’t know what to do. “The show took off anyway. It was a hit. It broke all the records. It worked out having He-Man’s role in She-Ra. The network knew some of what they were getting, and girls actually already liked He-Man, so despite of the marketing confusion, it worked out great.” Writer J. Michael Straczynski, who scripted several He-Man episodes, developed the new series with Larry DiTillio. One wrinkle was that the toy company insisted upon naming the characters, beginning with She-Ra. “The names all came from the women over in the girls’ department at Mattel,” Scheimer remembered. “I said what the hell am I going to do with a character called Perfuma! Flutterina—who the hell is going to believe that?” John Erwin voiced He-Man. Melendy Britt did She-Ra. Alan Oppenheimer was Skeletor. Lou Scheimer himself played Orko, a troll who was He-Man’s comic-relief sidekick. The hero also had a cat named Cringer, who could transform into a fearsome mount dubbed Battlecat. Battlecat came about by accident. During the production of the toy, Mattel’s vice president of marketing, Paul Cleveland, who RETROFAN

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(LEFT) Masters of the Universe action figures, now deluxe collectibles, can still be found in stores today. March 2022 photograph by Michael Eury. (BELOW) Animator Tom Cook autographs a He-Man print at a convention signing. Capital Sports and Décor/ Amazon.com.

Budget issues also constrained the animation team, forcing constant compromises at the scripting stage. “When I wrote the He-Man,” explained writer Mel Gilden, “I put an elephant into it, and I figured I could probably get away with an elephant because I knew that they had also done Tarzan and so they would probably have an elephant in the library, and they did. But there were other things that I had written into the first draft script that were complicated pieces of action that could be used only once and they said, ‘We can’t do that. We have to do something a lot simpler.’ And I can understand that. Everybody’s got a budget.”

MOTU MILESTONES

Animator Tom Cook, who had previously worked on Thundarr the Barbarian, recently reflected on his Masters of the Universe experience. “We were the first ones to put the woman first, with She-Ra,” he recalled. “She was the first female who had her own show. We had Wonder Woman in Super Friends, but she was just one of the group. Filmation was always that way. We had the first [American] Indian super-hero [Blackstar], before He-Man. There was a character called Blackstar, and he was originally supposed to be black, and the networks wouldn’t let us make him black because they didn’t think it was the right time yet, for that.” As an animator, Cook’s favorite character was a surprising one. “I always say the character I liked to draw the most was Orko, and that was because he didn’t have any legs and I didn’t have to make him walk. I could just float him everywhere, so it was an easier character to draw. But, I liked working on Skeletor and He-Man. Any scene that had those two in it was a lot of fun to do. Orko, you could get away with more animation, crazy animation because he was a cartoony character instead of a human figure. So, you could do a little bit more with him. As an animator, that’s what you like. It was a little straightforward with a human; they have to 76

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move like a human. But, with Orko, he could do whatever the heck you wanted him to do.” Dale Hendrickson designed most of the characters in the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and She-Ra: Princess of Power series, as well as the 1985 He-Man and She-Ra feature film, The Secret of the Sword. Although the show ran only two years due to the glut of similar product, He-Man-spawned revivals of the property continue to this day. He-Man and She-Ra—A Christmas Special was released on November 1985. In 1990, DIC Enterprises produced The New Adventures of He-Man, which emphasized humor and conservation over the bleak sword-and-sorcery action that had catapulted the original series to such ratings heights. The action shifted to the planet Primus. Otherwise, it was more of He-Man vs. Skeletor. Eventually, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe became enshrined as a beloved classic in the minds of the adults who watched the series as children, and all of the original criticism that once surrounded it became forgotten. “People who never saw the show,” Scheimer observed, “complained about its violence. They didn’t see what the show was. They didn’t see the preparation, the thought that went into it. There was one man, Arthur Nadel, the story editor, he was the unsung hero on the show. He lived and breathed the thing.” Another was Filmation’s educational and psychological consultant, Donald F. Roberts, who reviewed all scripts and helped reshape and refocus them. “The approach I wanted to take with that program was whatever the lesson was about is what the show should be about,” he stated. “I think if you watch an episode,” said He-Man executive producer Bill Schultz, “you don’t look at it and say, ‘This is a commercial for a toy.’ These are nice little films. But let’s face it,

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there isn’t a successful children’s show on the air that hasn’t spawned some sort of broad-based licensing program, right down to Blue’s Clues. I think the tolerance comes from the acceptance that kids get their entertainment from everywhere, and that tolerance will continue as long as we remain responsible and produce a show you can watch without feeling it’s just a commercial.” “He-Man is one of those characters who survived even after we stopped making toys,” agreed Sara Rosales, Mattel vice president of public relations. “There are hundreds of websites for fans and people who collect He-Man memorabilia. During the ’80s, He-Man was one of the biggest brands here at Mattel, and there’s a huge ’80s retro phenomenon in pop culture.” A live-action He-Man and the Masters of the Universe movie was made in 1987, starring Dolph Lungren. It flopped. Another He-Man film, titled Masters of the Universe, is currently in pre-production. After Lungren’s preferred choice, Chris Hemsworth, turned down the part as too similar to Thor, Noah Centineo got the part. He has since exited the project.

Netflix’s anime sequel, Masters of the Universe: Revelation, was released in in 2021, with Alan Oppenheimer reprising his role as Skeletor. It received a mixed response from fans of the franchise. Despite these disappointments, He-Man seems destined to be a perennial property, periodically revived for succeeding generations. “He-Man was obviously primarily an action show,” observed Robby London. “But what differentiated it from others of its genre, and why it has resonated for so long, and so deeply, is it was about a family of characters who really cared about each other. It had a moral tone. It had a lesson and a message that underlay all the action.” “When we developed He-Man,” reflected Lou Scheimer, who died in 2013, “I had no idea it was going to be what it turned out to be. I mean, you can’t plan hits. That’s the wonderful part of showbiz. If they’re worthwhile, they’ll work somehow. When we saw the letters that started coming in, it was extraordinary. It was really a phenomenon. It was probably the first show that was that successful in the history of animation.” 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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You got a laugh out of me in focusing on Castle Films, something I recalled, but not without prompting. Haven’t thought about them in decades. I sure didn’t keep them thriving with a lone purchase back in the Sixties. It was Dracula, but with different box art. I hadn’t seen the full-length film back then, so I appreciated the chance to view at least some of it. Without streaming services or DVD players, it was either that or scan TV Guide until the film came on some late-night slot way past my bedtime. Even as a partial fill-in, it had great value. Coloring Dracula green on the cover art—or giving him blood red lips on your published version—undercuts the whole point. He was a monster who didn’t look like one—more like royalty—so he could get closer, making him far more dangerous. I don’t know how later projector releases could have incorporated sound records. It would compete with the clacking of the film being shown. Did love your photo of the kids watching in delight. Of all the cartoon studio Christmas cards [in Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning column], I liked Jay Bird, from Jay Ward, the best as it was simple and funny. The cleverest Christmas gift, though, may be the Filmation RETROFAN

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calendar. Then clients and friends would think of you all year long, not just December. How cool that you received five full pages of feedback mail. A first, and quite welcome. The article about drawing [Scott Saavedra’s Secret Sanctum] was interesting, too. But it’s not just the how-to books themselves, it’s talent, perseverance, and tuning-out harsh critiques. As a kid, I had a skewed reason why comic-book artists were so much better at drawing the various characters: they were adults. They had 30 or 40 years on me. Now that I’m older than they were then, I’m looking for a new excuse. The highlight for me, this time, was [Scott Shaw!’s] “Hanna-Barbera’s Super-Heroes of the Sixties!” For about two years, from ’66 to ’68, Saturday morning and afterschool was super-hero paradise. No end of fun adventure cartoons. Until crusaders, without capes, insisted it was far too violent for impressionable children and took them off the air. That’s why, in subsequent years, when I heard music lyrics, videogames, or whatever was the main cause of juvenile delinquency, I took it with great skepticism. Complex causes and instant, simplistic solutions. If it’s popular, it must be bad. The article, 50-plus years later, answered why some cartoons were fondly remembered and others seemed distant or unfamiliar. It was the scheduling. I couldn’t watch something that was in a slot against a favorite. For me, it was Frankenstein, Jr., Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and Space Ghost. So, anything scheduled against those went unwatched. How funny to see the concept art for “The Space Ghosts.” Approximately the same name, but the look was more futuristic space explorers and not action-packed super-heroes. Alex Toth’s Space Ghost design was clever and ideal for such a hero. Even the twins, with their masks, shouted “crimefighters.” The funniest, of course, was Blip, with his mask. That way, his monkey secret identity wasn’t imperiled. Even the villains were great; both the design and the distinctive voices. You noted a future issue would focus in more depth on Space Ghost. Great. But I’d love to see extended coverage of the 1967 Fantastic Four, too. While not quite

Joe, Andy Mangels will be writing about Hanna-Barbera’s 1967 Fantastic Four (below) in a future Retro Saturday Morning column—and knowing Andy’s penchant for digging up lore and trivia, we suspect your questions will be answered then. There’s other material in the pipeline ahead of it, so it will be a while before it appears. But it’ll be worth the wait!

While the [Home Movies] section by Ernest Farino was very good, I must correct three areas… In regards to the photos of the boxes, there was no release from Castle on Mole People and House of Horrors, or Kong vs.

Loved, loved, absolutely loved the Barbara Eden interview in the latest issue [#18] of RetroFan! Nicely done! Great issue overall, too. I was enthralled by the Home Movies article [by Ernest Farino] and all of the pics of Castle Films’ offerings, etc. I could almost “smell” my old movie screen and hear my Super 8 projector running. Then, Scott Shaw’s Oddball World is awesome as usual. So many wonderful articles. Sad thing is having to wait for the next issue! Thanks for all of the memories. KEN BASS

as cool as the Lee/Kirby comic, it was the closest anyone has yet come to duplicating the charm. It wasn’t radically changed so much as simplified. Again, great voices and tremendous music. A question: Reed (Gerald Mohr), Galactus (Ted Cassidy), and Warlord Morrat (Tol Avery) all appeared as aliens on Lost in Space. Did they have a casting director or agent in common? Or were they just character actors appearing wherever they found an opening in that era? You can tell, back then, that Marvel was new to character options. They changed Sub-Mariner to a different character, mindful of the rights, but still overlapped the Marvel Super Heroes animated series in utilizing Attuma, Dr. Doom, and the Watcher. Also, in researching an article, who owns the rights to the initial FF show? One of the few not on DVD so far. The one thing I particularly enjoyed about the FF cartoon was that they adapted issue #19, with Pharaoh Rama Tut, which I somehow could never find as a back issue. But for the absence of Alicia, it was very similar. Even so, it was funny to unexpectedly happen across a well-worn copy, at a barbershop, to finally read the real thing seven years after release. Another fun issue to jog and clarify fond memories. JOE FRANK

Godzilla (this might have been released overseas, but nothing from Castle). Being a child of the Sixties, all this was brought home to memory again. I am a long-term film collector. JOSEPH CARUSO

As a longtime Batman fan, I have to disagree with Scott Shaw!’s superficial assessment that the Adam West Batman TV series was insulting to the character and comic books in general. For some 25 years before the TV series, the Batman comic itself was insulting to the character and comics in general. In the very first issue, Batman #1, dated 1940, Batman himself broke the fourth wall and talked directly to readers of the comic right it the middle of the story! Were readers supposed to take this seriously? Give me a break. As the years progressed, the stories would get even more outrageous and juvenile and just plain absurd. Batman and Robin would fight crime in outer space, on other planets. There was also the inclusion of Bat-Boy, Bat-Mite, Batwoman, and Bat-Girl, not to mention stories about Batman turning into a human fish, or a jungle crime-fighter like Bat-Tarzan, or going back in time using Hypnosis... The comic book was silly and campy way before the TV series. So to blame the Adam West TV series for all of this is just plain wrong and totally unfair. Just read any Batman comic book from 1940 to 1965 and it was a campfest. It always should be noted that the silliness and juvenile idiocy of the comic book with 25 years of history was the inspiration for the TV series, and if they had done half the things they did in the comic book they would probably still be on the air longer. Maybe you should do a comparison between the comic books published before the TV series that inspired the TV series. Given the kooky, crazy villains that form Batman’s rogues’ gallery, there was no way on heaven or Earth that it could have been played straight and been successful. The trick of the Batman TV series was that kids took it seriously while adults got the humor that went over the kids’ heads. Now, unfortunately, those same kids want to take it all over seriously as adults. CHRISTOPHER KRIEG

To give a short and charitable answer to Hugh Davis’ question regarding William Shatner’s reason for being the only original Star Trek cast member to skip the official rollout of the Space Shuttle Enterprise is that it wasn’t financially lucrative for him. He has been considerably more mercenary when it comes to his public appearances than his former costars have been. This isn’t a criticism, just an explanation that unless it is for a charity he supports, any event that puts demands on his time will properly compensate him. Now, to another matter from Mr. Davis’ letter: There has been a decent, if small, article on Storybook Squares sometime in the last year or so. Before I saw your reaction to it being brought up, I would have sworn that it had been in RetroFan; so I have no idea where I saw it. You can put me down as another vote in favor of an article on the show. I always enjoyed it as a fun break from the regular format. DOUG ABRAMSON

Another great issue of RF! The highlight of #18 was the Barbara Eden interview. I read her bio, Jeannie Out of the Bottle, some time ago and was impressed with her accessibility. It wasn’t so much the typical Hollywood star autobiography as it was a living-room chat with a friend telling about her life. Ms. Eden’s optimistic outlook and sincerity reflected nicely in your interview with her. I highly recommend her autobiography. She will always be Jeannie to millions of people, but the real Barbara Eden is truly a beautiful woman inside and out. Scott Shaw!’s look at Hanna-Barbera’s Saturday morning heroes of the Sixties was a terrific read. It hit the sweet spot for people my age; those weekend mornings between 1966 and 1968 provided a golden age of iconic characters. Just last week, while snooping around a flea market, I stumbled across the Space Ghost Big Little Book, The Sorceress of Cyba-3 (pictured on page 46), and instantly remembered enjoying it as a kid. Of course, I bought it and re-read it, reliving the excitement from my childhood. Finally, I got a kick out of Scott Saavedra’s “How to Draw” article. Especially when I got to the line about a salesman who came to your house unannounced with his sales pitch. I sent one of those “Draw Me” pictures in as a teenager, and that’s exactly what

happened! I remember most of his sales pitch to this day! I’m really enjoying the interviews with people from those classic sitcoms; love those behind-the-scenes stories and memories! Keep them coming, and keep up the good work. MICHAL JACOT My phone interview with Barbara Eden was a career highlight, so thank you for your comments. She was truly delightful, her voice bubbling with the same effervescence she exuded so many decades ago as TV’s beloved genie in a bottle. Regular RetroFan readers will recognize Michal Jacot’s name from his frequent fanmail, but in this very issue he makes his RF debut as a writer with our Celebrity Crushes feature. And there’s a chance his byline will appear in our pages again in the future…

Tell your friends about us, and share your comments about this issue by writing me at euryman@gmail.com. MICHAEL EURY Editor-in-Chief Promo still featuring Barbara Eden from the movie Ride the Wild Surf. © 1964 Columbia Pictures.

NEXT ISSUE

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ReJECTED! Not every great idea is successful, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't celebrate the also-rans, the nearly-made-its, and the ReJECTED. Candy is the favorite food of many a boy and girl, but not every sweet is a winner as this vintage ad from a local market clearly shows.

BY SCOTT SAAVEDRA

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RETROFAN #13

RETROFAN #12

RETROFAN #11

RETROFAN #10

Holy backstage pass! See rare, behind-thescenes photos of many of your favorite Sixties TV shows! Plus: an unpublished interview with Green Hornet VAN WILLIAMS, Bigfoot on Saturday morning television, TV’s Zoorama and the San Diego Zoo, The Saint, the lean years of Star Trek fandom, the WrestleFest video game, TV tie-in toys no kid would want, and more fun, fab features!

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!

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!

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!

NOW BI-MONTHLY! Celebrating fifty years of SHAFT, interviews with FAMILY AFFAIR’s KATHY GARVER and The Brady Bunch Variety Hour’s GERI “FAKE JAN” REISCHL, ED “BIG DADDY” ROTH, rare GODZILLA merchandise, Spaghetti Westerns, Saturday morning cartoon preview specials, fake presidential candidates, Spider-Man/The Spider parallels, Stuckey’s, and more fun, fab features!

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

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RETROFAN #8

RETROFAN #7

RETROFAN #6

RETROFAN #5

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

TwoMorrows. The Future of Pop History.

RETROFAN #4

RETROFAN #3

RETROFAN #2

RETROFAN #1

Interviews with SHAZAM! TV show’s JOHN (Captain Marvel) DAVEY and MICHAEL (Billy Batson) Gray, the GREEN HORNET in Hollywood, remembering monster maker RAY HARRYHAUSEN, the way-out Santa Monica Pacific Ocean Amusement Park, a Star Trek Set Tour, SAM J. JONES on the Spirit movie pilot, British sci-fi TV classic THUNDERBIRDS, Casper & Richie Rich museum, the KING TUT fad, and more!

Interview with SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE director RICHARD DONNER, IRWIN ALLEN’s sci-fi universe, Saturday morning’s undersea adventures of Aquaman, horror and sci-fi zines of the Sixties and Seventies, Spider-Man and Hulk toilet paper, RetroTravel to METROPOLIS, IL (home of the Superman Celebration), SEAMONKEYS®, FUNNY FACE beverages, Superman/Batman memorabilia, & more!

Horror-hosts ZACHERLEY, VAMPIRA, SEYMOUR, MARVIN, and an interview with our cover-featured ELVIRA! THE GROOVIE GOOLIES, BEWITCHED, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, and THE MUNSTERS! The long-buried Dinosaur Land amusement park! History of BEN COOPER HALLOWEEN COSTUMES, character lunchboxes, superhero VIEW-MASTERS, SINDY (the British Barbie), and more!

LOU FERRIGNO interview, The Phantom in Hollywood, Filmation’s STAR TREK CARTOON, “How I Met LON CHANEY, JR.”, goofy comic Zody the Mod Rob, Mego’s rare ELASTIC HULK toy, RetroTravel to Mount Airy, NC (the real-life Mayberry), interview with BETTY LYNN (“Thelma Lou” of THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW), TOM STEWART’s eclectic House of Collectibles, and MR. MICROPHONE!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

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