The Jackson 5ive and other Real Rockers in Animation
Featuring Mark Arnold • Will Murray • Scott Saavedra • Scott Shaw! • Mark Voger • Michael Eury
co-stars Joanna Pang & Brian Cutler
“Greetings, creep culturists! For my debut issue, I, the CRYPTOLOGIST (with the help of FROM THE TOMB editor PETER NORMANTON), have exhumed the worst Horror Comics excesses of the 1950s, Killer “B” movies to die for, and the creepiest, kookiest toys that crossed your boney little fingers as a child! But wait... do you dare enter the House of Usher, or choose sides in the skirmish between the Addams Family and The Munsters?! Can you stand to gaze at Warren magazine frontispieces by this issue’s cover artist BERNIE WRIGHTSON, or spend some Hammer Time with that studio’s most frightening films? And if Atlas pre-Code covers or terrifying science-fiction are more than you can take, stay away! All this, and more, is lurching toward you in TwoMorrows Publishing’s latest, and most decrepit, magazine—just for retro horror fans, and featuring my henchmen WILL MURRAY, MARK VOGER, BARRY FORSHAW, TIM LEESE, PETE VON SHOLLY, and STEVE and MICHAEL KRONENBERG!”
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 #1 is Now Shipping!
CRYPTOLOGY #2
The Cryptologist and his ghastly little band have cooked up more grisly morsels, including: ROGER HILL’s conversation with our diabolical cover artist DON HECK, severed hand films, pre-Code comic book terrors, the otherworldly horrors of Hammer’s Quatermass, another Killer “B” movie classic, plus spooky old radio shows, and the horror-inspired covers of the Shadow’s own comic book. Start the ghoul-year with retro-horror done right by FORSHAW, the KRONENBERGS, LEESE, RICHARD HAND, VON SHOLLY, and editor PETER NORMANTON
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95
(Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships January 2025
CRYPTOLOGY #3
This third wretched issue inflicts the dread of MARS ATTACKS upon you—the banned cards, the model kits, the despicable comics, and a few words from the film’s deranged storyboard artist PETE VON SHOLLY! The chilling poster art of REYNOLD BROWN gets brought up from the Cryptologist’s vault, along with a host of terrifying puppets from film, and more comic books they’d prefer you forget! Plus, more Hammer Time, JUSTIN MARRIOT on obscure ’70s fear-filled paperbacks, another Killer “B” film, and more to satiate your sinister side!
Our fourth putrid tome treats you to ALEX ROSS’ gory lowdown on his Universal Monsters paintings! Hammer Time brings you face-to-face with the “Brides of Dracula”, and the Cryptologist resurrects 3-D horror movies and comics of the 1950s! Learn the origins of slasher films, and chill to the pre-Code artwork of Atlas’ BILL EVERETT and ACG’s 3-D maestro HARRY LAZARUS. Plus, another Killer “B” movie and more awaits retro horror fans, by NORMANTON, the KRONENBERGS, LEESE, VOGER, and VON SHOLLY!
Scott Saavedra’s Secret Sanctum Coffee Advertising
Retro Television The Name of the Game
Retro Animation Real Rockers of Saturday Morning
Voger’s Vault of Vintage Varieties TV’s Gomez Addams, John Astin
Retro Interview The Secrets of Isis ’ Brian Cutler and Joanna Pang Atkins
Batman… in Space
Hanna-Barbera’s
BY SCOTT SHAW!
Born in 1951, I was fortunate to have been in the first generation of American kids to grow up watching newly made-for-television cartoons. The series that impressed me the most were HannaBarbera Productions’ The Ruff and Reddy Show (1957) and Jay Ward Studios’ Rocky and His Friends (1959). Both were hip and clever cartoon shows starring “funny animals” in lengthy adventure stories told in sequential “shorts.”
Producer Jay Ward valued quality over quantity and therefore focused on one series at a time. Producers/directors
Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera had bigger plans and quickly launched a number of very successful cartoon series that introduced Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, and Quick Draw McGraw, among dozens of others, as well as the prime-time animated TV series The Flintstones [see RetroFan #8], Top Cat [#30], and The Jetsons [coming in RF #37!]. Hanna-Barbera was the Nickelodeon of its era, creating appealing characters and stories that our generation could relate to. I loved them all, watching while laying on the floor, close to the warmth-emitting screen of our family’s television set, with my drawing pad, pencils, and crayons, teaching myself how to draw all of my favorite H-B characters. The first “comic” I ever drew teamed up Ruff and Reddy with Rocky and Bullwinkle.
But by 1964, it seemed like H-B was running out of ideas, still grinding out more funny animals, which began to remind viewers of earlier characters—still in syndication—who were much funnier. The Flintstones continued to be successful (although aimed at a much younger audience), but H-B’s other prime-time series became one-season wonders. There -
fore, Bill and Joe tried something new (which had a lot in common with the earlier Clutch ). Hanna-Barbera’s Jonny Quest #7] proved that the studio could produce something other than talking biped animals, cavemen, and a family of the future. Indeed, it was well executed but tremendously expensive for an animated TV series, so much so that the chiaroscuro shadows on the animated characters in the early episodes were soon dropped. As memorable as it remains, Jonny Quest was yet another one-season wonder. But the show had one positive effect: now Bill and Joe realized that they could do animated cartoons starring more “realistic” characters if they could figure out how to do them less expensively by using “planned animation,” a.k.a. “limited animation.” Disney had tried but he didn’t like the results. Bill and Joe rebuilt the money-saving approach for comedic animation, so they surely could conceive a way to do it with adventure cartoons.
Suddenly, a bat flew through their studio’s window (sorta, kinda) to save the day (sorta, kinda).
There were already a few animated super-hero–ish characters out there: Max Fleischer’s Popeye (1933–1942) and Superman (1941–1943); Terrytoons’ Mighty Mouse (1942–1961) and Tom Terrific (1957–1959); Adventure Cartoon Productions’The Mighty Hercules (1963); and Total Television’s Underdog (1964–1967). Warner Bros.’ Bugs Bunny dressed in Superman drag a few times too. [Editor’s note: Attention, animation fans! See RetroFan #25 for the Fleischer
Superman, #32 for Mighty Mouse, #28 for Mighty Hercules, and issue #24 for Underdog.]
But none of us were prepared for Batman, which premiered on Wednesday, January 12, 1966 on ABC-TV, airing at 7:30 PM. The campy parody of comic book super-heroes was amusing for the adults, exciting for the kids, and somewhat irritating to longtime Bat-fans. When the first season of the televised Batman ended, a theatrical Batman movie was released to theaters on July 30, 1966 (although it was originally planned to be released before Batman first aired on TV). Batmania had officially arrived!
Suddenly, almost every form of entertainment was eager to cash in on this new and genuinely exciting fad. But one of the first—and arguably the best—offshoots of Batmania was Hanna-Barbera Productions creation of “Space Ghost.”
If you’re asking yourself, “Has Shaw! been ingesting too many ‘wacky’ gummies? What does the Dark Knight have to do with a rather obscure super-hero who wore an image of himself on his own chest?,” please allow me to explain.
THE MAN WITH THE GOLdEN GUT ANd THE MAN f OR THE JOB
At various times, Fred Silverman (September 13, 1937–January 30, 2020) was a top-level TV network executive at CBS, ABC, and NBC. He brought the medium such programs as All in the Family, The Waltons, The Mary Tyler Moore Show [coming in RF #43], Charlie’s Angels [RF #7], and Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, as well as the miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man; Roots; and Shogun. For his uncanny ability to birth and nourish successful TV series, Time magazine declared him “The Man with the Golden Gut” in 1977. Born in New York City, young Silverman’s masters thesis was an analysis of a decade of ABC’s programming. It led to being hired at WGN-TV in Chicago, WPIX in New York, and CBS. Silverman’s first job at CBS was to oversee the network’s daytime programming... which included Saturday mornings.
Meanwhile, at H-B, Joe Barbera—who oversaw the “pitches” for new cartoon concepts, characters, and plots to networks and sponsors among his other pre-production duties—was cooking up a slew of new ideas that aligned with the current super-hero craze sparked by Batman. (Bill primarily was in charge of the production of the cartoons that Joe sold and oversaw.) H-B was composed of pro cartoonists who’d worked for all of the major animation studios, but the majority had trained for drawing funny talking animals, not super-heroes. Joe required a cartoonist with a style that possessed simplicity and gravitas.
Legendary comic book artist Alex Toth was definitely the right man for the job.
Alexander Toth (June 25, 1928–May 27, 2006) was a cartoonist who drew noteworthy material for comic books and animation.
Born to immigrants from Hungary, Toth’s talent was noticed early when a junior high school teacher urged him to devote himself to art. After graduating from the School of Industrial Art in 1947, he was hired by National (DC Comics). While freelancing there, he worked on Green Lantern, the Justice Society of America [in All-Star Comics], Rex the Wonder Dog, All-Star Western, military stories, and eventually, DC’s toy tie-in, Hot Wheels. Alex also drew a number of romance and crime stories for Standard Comics. While serving in the army and stationed in Tokyo, he wrote and drew a comic strip, Jon Fury, for his base’s newspaper. After ending his
contracted work with DC, Alex moved to Los Angeles in 1956, where he began working for Western Publishing, drawing a Disney-based Zorro comic book and four-color adaptations of other TV shows and movies. Toth also drew short stories for James Warren’s horror comics magazines, Creepy and Eerie, as well as Pete Millar’s Drag Cartoons [see RF #22] and Big Daddy Roth [RF #10], both automotive humor magazines.
In 1960, Toth began working for Cambria Studio Productions as art director of the show Space Angel. It was the same animation studio that produced Clutch Cargo and Captain Fathom. All three series featured
(LEFT) Toth illustration for Cambria Studio Productions’ Space Angel (circa 1963). Courtesy of Heritage.
the visually disturbing “Syncro-Vox” process, which consisted of filmed live-action lips added to mostly un-animated but very appealing inked-and-painted drawings. Toth’s designs for the world of a sci-fi superhero caught Joe Barbera’s interest. (Ironically, Cambria’s owners, cartoonist Clark Haas and cameraman Edwin Gillette, felt that H-B’s Adventures of Jonny Quest was a direct plagiarism of Clutch Cargo, but Cambria couldn’t afford a lawsuit.)
Joe Barbera and his writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears—edging out of their day jobs at Paramount as film editors, a decade or so before they launched their
own studio—worked on characters’ and stories’ descriptions (Jack Mendelsohn may have had some input as well), and Joe and a few artists—including Alex Toth—drew sketches of what a space superhero named “Space Ghost” might look like. Toth’s interpretation of a character who can fly through space, emit power rays, and become invisible, plus his cast of two teenage super-sibings and a monkey and his vehicle, are the designs that were a major element in Fred Silverman’s buying the show. The other reason that happened were three words coming from the mouth of one of animation’s greatest salesmen, Joseph Barbera: “Batman... in Space.”
Forties like many Japanese-Americans, was forced to move to California’s Manzanar internment camp. They spent the rest of World War II there, and it was at the camp that Takamoto—who was already taking his goal to become an artist very seriously— received basic illustration training from two co-internees who were former Hollywood art directors.
Takamoto first entered the animation world after the end of the war. Without the benefit of a formal portfolio of his work, he created a sketchbook of, by his own admission, “everything I saw.” It was based on this sketchbook that he applied to work at the Walt Disney Animation Studios. He was hired as an assistant animator by Disney in 1945 and eventually became an assistant to Milt Kahl. Takamoto worked as an animator and character designer on such titles as Cinderella (1950), Peter Pan (1953), Lady and the Tramp (1955), Sleeping Beauty (1959), and One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961).
Takamoto left Disney in 1961 and joined Hanna-Barbera Productions, where he first worked as a layout artist and character designer on The Flintstones and other then-current and upcoming
H-B shows. He was responsible for the original character design of such characters as The Jetsons ’ dog Astro, Scooby-Doo, and Penelope Pitstop, as well as the shows The Addams Family, Hong Kong Phooey, and Jabberjaw. He directed his first and only feature-length animated films with Charlotte’s Web (1973). He also drew character designs and storyboards for the production of Hanna-Barbera’s Jetsons: The Movie (1990). Takamoto was Vice-President of Creative Design at Hanna-Barbera and responsible for overseeing the company’s merchandising lines as well as design work for their Animation Art department. After Time-Warner merged with (thenowner of Hanna-Barbera Studios) Turner Broadcasting in 1996, Takamoto became Vice President of Special Projects for Warner Bros. Animation.
Iwao Takamoto died on January 8, 2007, at the age of 81. He received the Winsor McCay Award, the lifetime achievement award from the International Animated Film Association (ASIFA) Hollywood. He also received an honorary citation from the Japanese American National Museum. Takamoto was presented with the Golden Award in 2005 from the Animation Guild, to honor his more than 50 years of service in the animation field.
THE MAN WHO CRIE d ‘SPA-A-A-ACE GHO-O-O-OST!!’
Born Gary Bernard Altman, Gary Owens (May 10, 1934–February 12, 2015), who could speak with a tone of campy authority like no other, provided the perfect voice for Space Ghost. In fact, that was Gary’s natural voice just amped up a bit. I once asked his wife Arleta if he always spoke like that. She told me that he sounded the same way when he hit his thumb with a hammer as when he was on the air. After decades of disc jockeying on radio stations all over the country, it became his default voice.
Owens, born in Mitchell, South Dakota, was a kid who suffered Type 1 diabetes, a condition with which he was first diagnosed at the age of eight. Gary began his radio career in 1952 in his home town and spent the next seven years bouncing around from Iowa to Nebraska to Texas to Louisiana to Missouri to Colorado. In 1961, he moved to California, first to Sacramento and Oakland, before landing in Los Angeles and remaining there for the rest of his long
Dino Boy animator Iwao Takamoto. Courtesy of Hanna-Barbera Wiki.
Say... That’s a well-advertised cup of coffee!
COFFEE ADVERTISING
“Jim never has a second cup.”
- Jim’s unnamed wife to party hostess, Yuban coffee commercial (1972)
An early Seventies television commercial for Yuban coffee features a couple (Jim and Jim’s wife) about to exit a party. The hostess, oblivious to the departing couple’s intentions, offers a “second cup” of coffee to Jim but not specifically his wife. Clearly, the hostess is better at tracking coffee consumption than being a thoughtful party-giver (or maybe Jim’s wife was “over the limit”). Jim’s wife tries to wave off the hostess speaking the line quoted above. However, Jim is totally into getting another hot cup of the rich, caffeine-laden beverage much to his wife’s mild chagrin. Jim’s wife makes the internal observation, “Jim never has seconds of my coffee.” Even though, per the commercial, Jim’s wife makes a pretty good cup of coffee. She just doesn’t make Yuban branded coffee which has, according to the advertising of the day, “Richness worth a second cup.”
And isn’t that just what we want in life? Coffee, and then more coffee? Okay. Maybe we all don’t want coffee, per se, but a nice hot cup of something can be extremely comforting. To this observer, coffee is best. And in the U.S. coffee is the way-ahead hot drink of
radio, movies, and television (her last role was on an episode of Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo) her Folger’s’ commercials were her entertainment legacy. Very Fun Fact: Her husband was the actor Fritz Feld, whose signature move was slapping his open mouth with his palm making a loud pop sound. Show business!
The Mrs. Olson ad campaign lasted 21 years, ending in 1986. Folger’s began featuring the jingle “The best part of waking up, is Folger’s in your cup” with its advertising in 1984 and it is still heard to this day, having been sung by such notables as Randy Travis and Aretha Franklin. Less long-lived were the hidden-camera commercials that gave “fancy” restaurant customers instant Folger’s instead of, I guess, real coffee. Each spot is narrated in a quiet tone in the manner of a golf tournament. The guests are all amazed at just how not different from the establishment’s regular coffee the Folger’s instant was. I have had Folger’s instant and haven’t been amazed even once. In fact, as a young man I drank a lot of instant coffee, but I just didn’t know any better. Beginning in the Seventies, these ads continued until the Eighties. Amazing.
Joel Cheek was a wholesale coffee broker when he discovered that some coffee bean suppliers’ product produced better coffee than others. To his surprise, a cheaper brand was actually superior to the more expensive ones. Working with another broker, the two devised a blend that they felt they could sell. A batch was sent to the Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville on a trial basis, and when the coffee ran out customers complained when the previous brand was reinstated at the hotel. Months later the coffee was branded with the hotel name and Maxwell House coffee was born.
The coffee’s popular slogan “Good to the last drop” was first attributed to former president Theodore Roosevelt around the Thirties, though the company had been using the phrase since 1915. The story was that Roosevelt had a cup of Maxwell House after visiting the Andrew Jackson estate and declared that the coffee was “Good to the last drop.”
He was misquoted.
According to witnesses in the press, what Theodore Roosevelt said was, “This is the kind of stuff I like to drink, by George, when I hunt bears.”
Close enough.
Vivian Vance, best and forever known as Ethel Mertz from I Love Lucy specifically and more generally as Lucille Ball’s (the Lucy we love) prime female comedy partner, played Maxine, a Maxwell House coffee enthusiast, in an office setting during a mid-Seventies series of ads. Vance played the character as slightly crazed and was just happy to not be playing an Etheltype character. Eventually, Maxwell House decided to try a different type of character and went with another actress who had also endured typecasting.
Margaret Hamilton, best and forever known as the Wicked Witch of the West in MGM’s 1939 Wizard of Oz, played Cora, a shopkeeper who only sold Maxwell
‘THE NAME OF THE GAME’
The Forgotten but Influential TV Series
BY ROBERT GREENBERGER
When I was 13, I was taken to the mall one night after dinner to buy a suit for my bar mitzvah. To my mother’s surprise, I knew exactly what I wanted. I sought out a double-breasted outfit, determined to look like Glenn Howard. In my photo album of the event is a close-up of me, my arms folded, looking serious, my Glenn Howard expression.
Glenn who?
Glenn Howard, scion of the powerful and glitzy Howard Publications, television’s answer to the powerful Time, Inc. As portrayed by actor Gene Barry, he was the titular anchor to the “wheel series” on NBC, The Name of the Game, which ran for 76 episodes across the 1968–1971 seasons. [Editor’s note: A “wheel series,” a.k.a. an “umbrella series,” is a program where two or more different, often thematically compatible, series rotate airings in the same time slot.]
After it left its Friday night 8:30–10 PM berth, the series went into syndication, where I discovered it as WCBS in New York aired an episode every Sunday night at 11:35 PM, following the local news. I was hooked on the serious approach to journalism, something ingrained into me since George Reeves’ work at the Daily Planet on TV’s Adventures of Superman
In celebrating our spotlighted series’ 50th anniversary, The Hollywood Reporter said, “In 1968, The Name of the Game was the most prescient show on TV, predicting everything from cable-style dramas to Game of Thrones –size budgets and even a magazine called People
“In the fall of 1968, the airwaves were full of blandly loopy, family-friendly fare like The Andy Griffith Show, Gomer Pyle, and Petticoat Junction. But on Friday nights on NBC, slipped between a Bonanza-clone Western called The High Chaparral and the troubled third season of Star Trek, there was an unusual little series that, even more than Gene Roddenberry’s show, seemed to be beamed in from the future.”
Because it is not streaming anywhere, nor can you buy the series on disc, it is overlooked and outright forgotten, except for aficio-
nados who recall it as a platform for rising writers and directors, including Steven Spielberg, Stephen Bochco, and Richard Levinson & William Link (right after that duo created Mannix). The series, a wheel show, also proved influential, spawning numerous imitators, mainly for NBC.
PRE-PRESS
It all began in 1966 with Fame is the Name of the Game, a telefilm starring Tony Franciosa as Jeff Dillon, a high-profile Fame magazine reporter investigating a call girl’s death. His managing editor was Glenn Howard (George Macready), and accompanying him as his
newly hired research assistant was Peggy Chan, Susan St. James in her debut role at 20. Also starring in this episode were Jill St. John, Jack Klugman, Jack Weston, and Robert Duvall.
The story was said to be inspired by the 1949 Alan Ladd vehicle Chicago Deadline. It was one of the first made-for-television features, a precursor to series such as the ABC Movie of the Week. The one-off made a believer of NBC, which blitzed people with ads, billing it as the first “world premiere” of a “major motion picture” when, in reality, it was a production from Universal Studios’ television division. No one complained, and the airing on November 26, 1966, resulted in stellar ratings, prompting the peacock network to commission a series. This would be the first show based on the publishing world since 1959’s The Best of Everything, a tale of career girls taking Manhattan that was more akin to The Bold Type than this hard-hitting show. According to Dean Hargrove, producer of the Robert Stack episodes, “Universal had sold NBC on the concept that Name of the Game was not going to be television, it was going to be movies. It was a pretty big sales job. And when it came down to it, it was pretty high-gloss television.”
In a press release, Jennings Lang, senior vice president for Universal TV, said, “The Name of the Game breaks the last barrier separating motion pictures from television programs. His project provides us with every opportunity to use our vast roster of contract stars and players, producers, directors, and writers, many of whom have been working in motion pictures.”
Over the course of the next year, Universal came up with the idea of the wheel, rotating the stories among three leads: Franciosa’s Jeff Dillon; Robert Stack as Daniel “Dan” Farrell, the editor of
Crime magazine; and Gene Barry as Glenn Howard, publisher of the eponymous firm. St. James was back, this time as Peggy Maxwell, assigned as the research assistant to all three leads, providing connectivity among the shows (and she was very prone to being kidnapped). Each 90-minute series was given its own production team so shooting could be simultaneous, and each boasted an unprecedented $400,000 per episode budget.
Even before the cameras rolled, Franciosa was proving to be a challenge to work with. In fact, an October 30, 1968 article suggested that the producers were ready to replace him with Doug McClure. Leslie Stevens, Franciosa’s producer at the time, went on to cast both for his 1972 cult classic series Search (see RetroFan #21 for the declassified files). It is believed today it was all a ploy by Universal after the actor objected to the script for “Pineapple Rose,” erroneously believing he had script approval.
Despite the three components sharing a core, it’s interesting to note that while Barry made 14 appearances on the other series, all three were never in the same show. Franciosa made two appearances on Barry shows. All told, Barry led 27 of his own stories, with Stack headlining 26, while Franciosa appeared in a mere 15 episodes before being fired during the third season.
Wrapped around each episode was a mod title treatment set to a theme composed by Dave Grusin. The actors’ names would
Robert Stack as Dan Farrell. Shown with him in this NBC
The Real Rockers of Animation A Singing Celebrity Toon-In
BY MARK ARNOL d
Music and visuals have been a staple ever since movies began. Silent films were never completely silent, as they always had some sort of instrumental accompaniment before proper scores were composed for each film. When silent films transferred to sound films or talkies, music never went away, from either orchestral background scores to today’s trend of having a soundtrack of rock and pop music classics.
Like live-action, music was always an important part of animation. The earliest talking cartoons such as Disney’s Steamboat Willie (1928) had a lengthy musical number of “Turkey in the Straw,” for example, that Mickey Mouse proceeded to play on the various animals aboard the small boat he was sailing.
Warner Bros. Studios and various others expanded upon this concept and typically used their cartoons to promote the latest hit songs from their full-length feature motion pictures. This gave each song added exposure and later led to sheet music and vinyl record sales. A good example of this is with the film I Love to Singa (1936). The song “I Love to Singa” was first featured in the 1936 feature film The Singing Kid. On Wikipedia, it says about the cartoon, “As with several early Warners cartoons, it is in a sense a music video designed to push a song from the Warners library.”
This concept of using a song in a film or other form of media for promotion of that song carried over into television, where a weekly TV series could make a music star out of an actor or make a hit song due to the repeated exposure. The first major time that happened was with The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Ozzie Nelson was a bandleader and his wife, Harriet, was a singer in that band. They appeared regularly on radio as far back as 1933 on The Baker’s Broadcast and then received their own radio show in 1944.
Their sons, Ricky and David, first appeared in 1944, originally portrayed by professional actors since the Nelsons’ real-life sons were too young. Eventually, the real Ricky and David joined the radio cast in 1949, and eventually the entire show moved to television in 1952. The radio show continued through 1954.
The television version of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet proved to be quite successful, and the series ran for an incredible 14 seasons through 1966, a feat eventually surpassed by shows like Gunsmoke and The Simpsons
Besides its longevity as a series, Ozzie and Harriet achieved one more remarkable milestone: it made their younger son Ricky into a major music star. Ricky first sang on the show on April 10, 1957. His repeated exposure on the series led to Ricky having a string of hits including “A Teenager’s Romance,” “I’m Walkin,” “Travelin’ Man,” “Hello, Mary Lou,” “Young World,” “Teen Age Idol,” “For You,” and many others. [Editor’s note: RetroFan went ga-ga over dreamy Ricky Nelson way back in issue #15!]
(LEFT) Television’s first singing heartthrob, Ricky Nelson (see RetroFan #15), was so popular in the Fifties that was also a comic book star! Detail from the back cover of Dell Comics’ Four Color #1192 (1961). (RIGHT) Melodic Mouseketeer and Disney movie darling Annette Funicello had a number of Sixties music hits collected in this 1972 album. Courtesy of Heritage.
Ricky’s success in this area proved that songs were a good venue for promotion on television. Many shows featured the latest pop songs usually in a “Top Ten” format and sometimes performed by the actual artists. Shows like this included American Bandstand, Hullabaloo, Where the Action Is, Shindig, and variety shows like The Ed Sullivan Show and Hollywood Palace helped to make many pop songs or singers into major stars.
Besides these, many stars like Dean Martin, Carol Burnett, Jerry Lewis, Mac Davis, Captain and Tennille, the Bay City Rollers, Barbara Mandrell, Dolly Parton, Don Knotts, Tim Conway, Mary Tyler Moore, Bill Cosby, Dick Van Dyke, Shields and Yarnell, Tony Orlando and Dawn, the Brady Bunch, Andy Williams, Danny Kaye, the Smothers Brothers, Jim Nabors, Glen Campbell, Judy Garland, Sammy Davis, Jr., Edie Adams, Flip Wilson, Sonny and Cher, Bobby Goldsboro, the Hudson Brothers, Donny and Marie Osmond, the Jacksons, Julie Andrews, Red Skelton, Jackie Gleason, and Garry Moore made musical numbers a television mainstay.
After The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet was successful at making Ricky Nelson a star, the floodgates were open to do the same with virtually every other TV star in the Sixties. Celebrities such as Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, Sebastian Cabot, Jay North, Noel Harrison, David McCallum, David Canary, Lorne Greene, Jack Webb, Andy Griffith, Jim Nabors, Telly Savalas, Chad Everett, Goldie Hawn, Jack Palance, Buddy Ebsen, Merv Griffin, Walter Brennan, and many others all made attempts at showing off their “golden throats” with few achieving any success or lasting success. Some of the more successful ones were Annette Funicello of The Mickey Mouse Club and Paul Petersen and Shelly Fabares of The Donna Reed Show
With the advent of music videos being shown regularly on MTV and other stations beginning in 1983, it spelled the end of the variety show or at least the end of the necessity for a variety show in order to sell or promote a song or singer or musical group.
cartoon, the most fondly remembered team became animated characters such as Curly Neal, Meadowlark Lemon, and Geese Ausbie, along with their manager Granny and dog named Dribbles. The Globetrotters came back on Saturday mornings for a liveaction variety show called The Harlem Globetrotters Popcorn Machine (1974–1975), and later, back to animation in Super Globetrotters (1979–1980).
Music was always important to the Globetrotters, as they appropriated Brother Bones’ whistling version of “Sweet Georgia Brown,” originally recorded in 1949, as their theme song. The wizard behind the Monkees and the Archies, Don Kirshner, was back to produce a new album of tunes called The Globetrotters that was released on Kirshner’s eponymous label. Kirshner used his same stable of songwriters from the Brill Building, and Meadowlark Lemon was the only actual Globetrotter involved in the project. Lemon went on to record two solo albums, in 1979 and 1998.
Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels feature film (1972) features an animated segment that is quite humorous and psychedelic. It was animated by Murakami-Wolf, the principal animation studio behind a number of other projects including singer and composer Harry Nilsson’s The Point animated TV special, as well as many projects with Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan—a.k.a. Flo and Eddie—late of the Turtles music group, which is best known for the
song “Happy Together.” Flo and Eddie contributed music and sometimes voices to the animated Down and Dirty Duck movie (1974) as well as animated TV specials starring Strawberry Shortcake and the Care Bears. Soundtrack albums featuring the songs from these specials were released during the late Seventies and early Eighties on Kid Stuff Records. For more information on Volman, Kaylan, Flo and Eddie, Frank Zappa, and the Turtles, I’d recommend Not Just Happy Together: The Turtles from A to Z (AM Radio to Zappa) by Charles F. Rosenay!!! and myself.
Rankin/Bass Productions, best known for their holiday specials of Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), Frosty the Snowman (1969), and Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town (1970) [the latter of which is featured in our next issue —ed.], got into the Saturday morning arena with a couple of musical groups that were the top performing artists of the era. Based upon the hit-making singing family the Jackson Five, Rankin/Bass’ The Jackson 5ive was first, which ran from 1971–1973, and capitalized on the Jacksons’ major hit “ABC,” from the previous year. The series also aired on ABC, creating a great cross-promotion, but the Jacksons’ albums were alas on Motown, not ABC Records. The voices were provided by the actual members of the Jackson Five. When lead singer Michael Jackson broke out as a major solo star a decade later, the series reran on MTV.
I absolutely love pop culture. So when I found out that the Smithsonian Institute was adding a pop culture exhibit to the National Museum of American History, I knew that I had to make a visit. I also knew that I wanted to share my experience at the museum with RetroFan readers. In early 2023, I took a trek to the newly opened exhibit called Entertainment Nation.
SMITHSONIAN HISTORY
The Smithsonian Institute is a collection of 19 museums, libraries, and even a zoo. Most of the museums are located in Washington, D.C., on the National Mall. The National Museum of American History, which houses the pop culture exhibit, was originally built in 1964 and called the Museum of History and Technology until 1980. Entertainment Nation opened in December 2022.
A POP CULTURE EXTRAVAGANZA
Due to Entertainment Nation being a new exhibit during my visit, there were posters trumpeting it both outside and inside of the building. The posters featured a variety of pop culture icons including Luke Skywalker and Muhammad Ali. These helped not only to direct visitors to the location of the exhibit, but also to get them even more excited for what they would see when they arrived.
Upon reaching the 3rd Floor West side of the complex where the exhibition was located, I found that it was by far the most crowded section of the building during our visit, showing that people love their pop culture.
When people think of pop culture, they may only think of movies and TV shows because they are admittedly some of the most popular forms of entertainment. However, when the Smithsonian developed the idea for this exhibit, they went all out and looked at popular culture as a whole, creating an experience that would attract audiences no matter what aspect of pop culture they loved. So, whether you are a fan of science fiction, music, sports, TV shows, or children’s entertainment, the exhibit has something for everyone. [Editor’s note: Sounds like your average RetroFan ish!]
While I won’t be discussing every item in the massive collection, I will be highlighting some of the ones that I found fascinating as well as some that stand as examples of just why everyone should visit.
The entrance to the exhibit starts off with a bang or more precisely a blaster bolt. One of the biggest and best (in this author’s humble opinion) pop culture properties is Star Wars. It doesn’t matter if you are a fan of the original trilogy, the toys, comics, cartoons, or even the new movies, there is one part that almost everyone is fan of: the droid duo of R2-D2 and C-3PO. As you first enter, you see these two old friends.
These particular robotic props were the ones used in the 1983 movie Return of the Jedi. This was a pleasant surprise for me for several reasons. First, this visit took place in 2023, which was the 40th anniversary of the classic film. Second, the movie has a special place in my heart because it was the first Star Wars movie I saw in the theater during its original run—actually on opening day, Wednesday, May 25, 1983. (Thanks, Grandma!)
If science fiction isn’t your thing but classic comedy is, the Smithsonian has you covered as well. From a 1922 Charlie McCarthy ventriloquist puppet to a dress worn by comedian Phyllis Diller during a U.S.O. tour of Vietnam with Bob Hope to the iconic sign post from the set of the Korean War–set sitcom M*A*S*H, you can almost hear the laughter echoing through the area.
Speaking of classic sitcoms, not all of the pieces in the exhibit are new to the museum. In fact a pair of well-worn chairs has been a part of the Smithsonian for years. The chairs that Archie and Edith Bunker used on the groundbreaking television series All in the Family have been a part of the museum’s collection for decades but were moved to this exhibition, where they fit in nicely.
If there was one sports icon that smashed the barrier between sports and pop culture, it was Michael Jordan. You don’t need to have seen him play to know who M.J. is, so of course the museum would have one of his Chicago Bulls jerseys to represent this superstar. The jersey is game-worn from the 1996–1997 season. The glove of Los Angeles Dodgers Pitcher Sandy Koufax and the gloves worn by Team U.S.A. Hockey Forward Phil Verchota during the Miracle on Ice in 1980 are featured as well. Even fictional sports icons make an appearance in the form of the robe worn by the Italian Stallion Rocky Balboa from the 1976 movie Rocky
Although music isn’t playing as you make your way through the exhibit, it is all around you. Singer and award-winning actress Diana Ross’ dress from 1967 as well as Cyndi Lauper’s dress from 1983’s She’s So Unusual album cover, help you hear the songs in your head. Fab 5 Freddy’s boombox may make you want to start breakdancing.
Although there aren’t many interactive aspects to Entertainment Nation, there is one extremely cool one. One of the greatest
musicians in history was the artist formerly known as Prince. His guitar is featured in the exhibit but unfortunately its behind glass. However, a replica that you can pretend to play (although probably not as well as Prince) is a photo opportunity just waiting to happen.
Sunny days sweep the clouds away and make it a beautiful day in the neighborhood when you encounter some of the most influential items from your childhood. Oscar the Grouch (trash can included), Elmo, and other Sesame Street Muppets from the classic children’s television program are on display. It feels like I visited an old, trusted friend when I saw Mr. Rogers’ red sweater behind the glass. If recent children’s television is more to your liking then an animation cell from the first season of SpongeBob SquarePants and a lab coat belonging to Bill Nye the Science Guy are there are well.
Entertainment speaks to us to us in so many ways and on so many levels. It can make us forget our problems if only for an hour or so, or it can prompt us to take action to make the world a better place. A hat worn by actor Larry Hagman in his role as J. R. Ewing on the nighttime soap opera Dallas does the former, while manacles worn by Kunta Kinte (LeVar Burton) in the monumental 1977 TV miniseries Roots does the latter. No matter what you are looking for in entertainment, you can find it here.
Rounding out this tour of Entertainment Nation, here are three of my favorite items. First, although it was Christopher Reeve who made me believe that a man could fly, one exhibit treated me to the next best thing: George Reeves’ costume from the Fifties Adventures of Superman television show. Seeing the iconic super-hero costume was great. Next, If Batman is more your hero of choice than the Big Blue Boy Scout, you don’t want to miss seeing Julie Newmar’s headband, necklace, and gloves that she wore as Catwoman on the beloved 1966–1968 Batman TV show. Last, for all you Marvel Zombies, there is Captain America’s shield from the 2014 movie Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
There are so many other iconic items to discover in the exhibit including those from the final frontier and over the rainbow. While that’s the end of our tour of Entertainment Nation, our visit is far from over.
LUNCH, SNACK TIME, ANd GAME NIGHT
While most of the pop culture items are found in Entertainment Nation, the Smithsonian has sprinkled some other items and displays throughout the rest of the museum. Here are three more of my favorites.
Whether you are hungry or not during your visit, you must take a trip to the cafeteria. There, expertly placed, is a display of classic lunch boxes. What better spot to showcase these fun lunchtime favorites than in the cafeteria similar to where most fans used them, although without teachers milling about to watch over you?
The display contains metal lunch boxes from Knight Rider, Batman, The Jetsons, and so many others. Being the massive comic book fan that I am, the Silver Age–inspired Batman one was my favorite, but looking at this display felt like I was looking around my elementary school cafeteria. These lunch boxes were a huge part of my childhood and I’m sure the same can be said for many others, so this is not to be missed.
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Next up was a display in the Food: Transforming the American Table section of the museum. It contained a selection of 7-Eleven’s Marvel Super-hero Slurpee Cups from the Seventies. The cups depicted some Marvel mainstays including Captain America, Black Panther, and Cyclops amongst others. I had a craving for the cold icy drink as soon as I left the section. Once again, I could see my childhood on display in front of me. Whether you are a fast food aficionado or not, the McDonald’s display showcasing the McDLT box and other foam packaging brought back many memories especially for my wife and I who both served many meals in those environmentally unsafe containers.
Last up on this tour through the other parts of the museum is a visit to the American Presidency: A Glorious Burden exhibit. There you can see the everything from President Ulysses S. Grant’s ceremonial carriage to the dresses worn by the First Ladies on Inauguration Day. Right about now you are probably asking yourself, what does this exhibit have to do with popular culture? Well, for all of you pop culture fanatics, there is a section on toys and games featuring the presidents, such as 1961’s The Exciting New Game of the Kennedys, a box of Lincoln Logs, and one of the oddest of all in the display is a jack-in-the-box featuring President George W. Bush!
There are other pop culture artifacts throughout the museum, but these were some of my favorites. How many other pop culture items can you find scattered throughout the building?
I highly recommend a visit to this exhibit; I also implore you to visit the other Smithsonian museums on the National Mall. In addition to the National Museum of American History, we were able to tour the Natural History Museum during this visit, but the Air and Space Museum, the African-American Museum, and the Native-American Museum are also great places to spend your time after your pop culture fix has been sated.
ED LUTE is a full-time teacher and pop culture geek. He enjoys sharing his love of pop culture with others as a frequent contributor to Back Issue magazine and has also been featured in the pages of The Jack Kirby Collector. This is his first article for RetroFan, with hopefully more to follow.
John Astin & Gomez Addams Actor’s influence on iconic character endures
BY MARK VOGER
The strange, oval-headed man with the jaunty mustache and pin-striped suit sprang from the pen of cartoonist Charles Addams.
But John Astin created Gomez Addams.
The creepy, kooky TV classic The Addams Family (1964–1966)—a black comedy starring Astin, Carolyn Jones, and Jackie Coogan as members of an odd brood of gleeful shut-ins—was based on Addams’ characters. But Astin, the first actor to portray Gomez, instilled in him a joie de vivre not seen in Addams’ droll cartoons in The New Yorker, in which the characters originated in the late Thirties.
Astin’s animated Gomez wore an ebullient smile and piercing eyes ringed in black. He stood on his head, brandished a saber for exercise, and was arguably the most amorously demonstrative husband on television. Gomez practically devoured his “querida” Morticia, played with a beguiling mixture of gloom and allure by Jones.
Born in 1930 in Baltimore, Maryland, Astin was well aware of Addams’ work in The New Yorker prior to being cast as the peculiar patriarch of the sitcom clan.
“I had been a great fan of the cartoons,” Astin once told me. (I interviewed the actor on five occasions between 1993 and 2008.)
“When I was in college, I remember when my roommate first came home with [the 1950 Addams compilation] Monster Rally. We bought another copy so we could razor out a panel or two and frame it. We didn’t want to do that without buying a second copy of the book, because we wanted one un-defaced copy in its virgin condition.
“When I realized that a [TV] series was going to be created based on the cartoons, I went back and studied them, trying to find out what was underneath them. What were they really about? I personally concluded that Charlie—whom I later got to know— was expressing the joy and wonder of life.”
The Addams Family debuted on Friday, September 18, 1964 on ABC. Coincidentally, another sitcom about a creepster household, The Munsters, debuted six days later on CBS. Both series were cancelled after two seasons, and both have been in reruns ever since, not to mention being adapted in animation, live-action reboots, and movies.
Astin led a cast of seasoned veterans. Jones was one of Vincent Price’s exhibits in House of Wax (1953) and canoodled with Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley on screen. Coogan (Uncle Fester) played the title urchin in Charlie Chaplin’s silent masterpiece The Kid (1921). Blossom Rock (Grandmama) was an MGM contract player seen in the Dr. Kildare movies as Sally, the sassy receptionist. Rounding out the cast was 6-foot-9 Ted Cassidy as Frankensteinian butler Lurch; Lisa Loring as stonefaced moppet Wednesday; and Ken Weatherwax as her roly-poly brother Pugsley.
“I think it’s one reason many of his imitators have never really come close to him. He made us laugh, awakened us to some of our repressed hostilities, which we can sort of carry out through the cartoons without damage. When he implies violence, he never has anything really morbid in his cartoons. Even one as graphic as the woman on the front porch, with the enormous snake that has obviously consumed something, and the wife says something like, ‘George, will you stop mumbling?’ Somehow, there’s no damage done.
“I think I can best illustrate it by mentioning the cartoon in the hospital. The nurse says to one of the characters, ‘Congratulations.
It’s a child.’ There was a rumor for years that the unprinted—or unprintable—Charles Addams cartoon was the nurse saying, ‘Shall I wrap it up, or will you eat it here?’ And later, when Charlie was asked about that cartoon, he said, ‘No, never. I never drew any cartoon like that.’ I think there’s a little distinction there.”
CREATING GOMEZ
Once cast in The Addams Family, Astin did receive some guidance from Addams on how to play the family’s peculiar patriarch—not much, but some.
“Charlie gave us about a paragraph to work with,” Astin recalled. “There wasn’t a heck of a lot except for suggestions of names for that character. He recommended either Repelli or Gomez, and we chose Gomez.
“[Writer-producer] David Levy, the creator of the series, named some of the other characters. It’s really to David that we owe the whole concept of The Addams Family. The title, I recall, was David’s idea originally.
If you were a child in the Seventies, then no doubt your must-see TV included CBS’ The Secrets of Isis. The Filmation series, which starred Joanna Cameron as the title character (and her alter ego, Andrea Thomas), was created to serve as a female-centric companion show to the studio’s successful Shazam! [which RetroFan’s Andy Mangels examined way back in issue #4! —ed.].
Two seasons of The Secrets of Isis were produced (with 22 episodes filmed), and the show ran on the network from 1975 to 1978. The Secrets of Isis was a landmark in television as it was the first network show to feature a super-heroine in the lead role.
Recently I had the honor of interviewing two of the other stars from the series, Brian Cutler (who played Rick Mason) and Joanna Pang Atkins (who played Cindy Lee), and they graciously shared their memories of working on the show.
RetroFan: How did each of you come to be cast in The Secrets of Isis?
Joanna Pang Atkins: Brian was the first one cast, I think.
Brian Cutler: Yes, I was. They probably brought in 200 guys and I guess Norm [Prescott] and Lou [Scheimer] liked me the best. Then I was there for all the auditions
BY dAN JOHNSON
for all the women [who tried out for Isis]. When Joanna Cameron came in, they just loved the chemistry between the two of us. There was nothing to not like about her. She was in great shape, she was beautiful, and she exemplified what they saw as Isis.
RF: Do you remember any of the other actresses who auditioned for the role of Isis?
BC: I really don’t, but any of the lovely women working in the industry in the early Seventies who were Joanna Cameron’s type were brought in. You could go down a list
of all the hot actresses working at that time and I probably auditioned with them.
RF: Joanna, how did you come to be on the show?
JPA: I was in New York and I was doing my very first off-Broadway show. After the show, I got a message that there was a director in the audience. He had directed a CBS show called Patchwork Family, and we set up a meeting. [In the meeting,] he told me about Patchwork Family, and he asked if I’d like to be a member of the family. My segment was going to be about music and dance. It was a fun, kind of educational show, hosted by a woman and a puppet, and there were lots of members of the family. I did every other show for about two or three years, and during that show I also did some other work for CBS.
One day my agent called and she said, “Alan Duchovny is the head of CBS Children’s Programming in New York, and he’s been watching you. He would like for you to come in and have a meeting with him. They’re casting a Saturday morning kids show about Isis.” The funny story about that is, I have in my diary book, ‘ICES.’ I thought it was going to be a children’s show about
selling the frozen ices on the streets of New York. [laughter] There was no mention of an Egyptian goddess.
So when I went to the interview, that’s what I expected to hear about, teenagers
selling or stealing the ices, that kind of thing. But he started talking about the Egyptian goddess and having a super-hero for the girls like Captain Marvel and they wanted to tie them together because Shazam! had become number one in the ratings. [Duchovny said,] “We’re very interested in you. We would like to fly you out to California because that’s where they’re doing casting. Would you be interested?” And I was like, “Of course!” I flew out two days later. I had an agent in Los Angeles, so he picked me up at the airport, took me to the audition and waited for me. I went in and was with a group of three or four men. I don’t recall who I saw, but they were all really, really nice. I did a scene and they thanked me very much for coming. I walked out and I was in the lobby talking to my agent and within five minutes they came out and said they are casting me in the part and how fast can I move out to California. And that’s how I got the part.
Dead Dawn
Dead by Dawn
On Location of ‘Evil Dead II’
BY WILL MURRAY
Way back in the summer of 1986, after I’d begun writing for the Starlog group of magazines, which included Starlog and briefly Comicscene, at that time, my editor, Dave McDonnell, temporally took over Starlog’s popular horror film magazine, Fangoria
RetroFan is no longer sold in Barnes & Noble stores.
I had never read “Fango,” but when Dave asked me to go to the now-defunct [Dino] DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG) Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina, for a press junket to cover three horror films, I was more than happy to oblige.
The previous year, I had visited my first film location, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins [explored in this column last issue —ed.], for Starlog. So I had a little experience under my belt.
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This would be my second film junket, and the most complicated. Once again, I would be working with publicist Paul Sammon.
The three films were Trick or Treat Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn (a.k.a. Evil Dead 2) I didn’t know it at the time but I was about to cover one of the most significant horror films of the Eighties.
The assignment took me to Wilmington to cover Trick or Treat and King Kong Lives at the DEG Studios. We did this over a couple of fascinating days. I principally remember stepping onto a shooting stage and interviewing the director while a giant King Kong lay supine before us. Kong was awaiting an operation, as I recall. Linda
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RETROFAN #35
Saturday morning super-hero Space Ghost, plus The Beatles, The Jackson 5ive, and other real rockers in animation! Also: The Addams Family’s JOHN ASTIN, Mighty Isis co-stars JOANNA PANG and BRIAN CUTLER, TV’s The Name of the Game, on the set of Evil Dead II, classic coffee ads, and more! With ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, MARK VOGER & MICHAEL EURY
