RetroFan #36

This issue is making me completely mental, I must say!

January 2025 No. 36 $10.95

STEFANIE POWERS

On ‘Girl from U.N.C.L.E.,’ ‘Hart to Hart,’ & Planet Earth

THE ODDBALL WORLD OF SCTV

Sci-fi animation fave

Battle of the Planets Rankin/Bass’

Santa Claus Is Coming to Town

Chuck Connors, from athlete to actor • One-season TV shows & more!

Featuring Andy Mangels • Will Murray • Scott Saavedra • Scott Shaw! • Mark Voger • Michael Eury The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley © Hanna-Barbera Productions/Ed Grimley character © Martin Short. Battle of the Planets © Sandy Frank Film Syndication Inc. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town © Miser Bros. Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives. All Rights Reserved.

Satiate Your Sinister Side!

“Greetings, creep culturists! For my debut

All characters and properties TM & © their respective owners.

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

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The Future of Comics Horror History.

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CRYPTOLOGY #2

CRYPTOLOGY #3

CRYPTOLOGY #4

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.

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!

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The Crazy Cool Culture We Grew Up With

Issue #36 January 2025

15

Columns and Special Features

Departments

3

Retrotorial

Voger’s Vault of Vintage Varieties Stefanie Powers

41

15

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12

Too Much TV Quiz TV Nerds

Retro Animation Rankin/Bass’ Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town

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RetroFanmail

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Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon One-Season TV Wonders

ReJECTED

33

Retro Sci-Fi Battle of the Planets

33

41

Retro Sports The Rifleman’s Chuck Connors

46

Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning TV Comic Ads

46 3

51

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Oddball World of Scott Shaw!

SCTV

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Scott Saavedra’s Secret Sanctum TV Catch Phrases

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RetroFan™ issue 36, January 2025 (ISSN 2576-7224) is published bi-monthly 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. Ed Catto, Associate Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: RetroFan, c/o Ed Catto, Editor, 304 N. Hoopes Ave., Auburn, NY 13021.

Email: retroed@twomorrows.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $73 Economy US, $117 International, $29 Digital Only. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley © Hanna-Barbera Productions/Ed Grimley © Martin Short. Battle of the Planets © Tatsunoko Productions Co., Ltd. Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town © Miser Bros Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2024 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

BY MICHAEL EURY

Michael Eury ASSOCIATE EDITOR Ed Catto PUBLISHER John Morrow CONTRIBUTORS Michael Eury Rick Goldschmidt Jason Hofius David Krell Andy Mangels Will Murray Scott Saavedra Scott Shaw!

Mark Voger DESIGNER Scott Saavedra PROOFREADER Eric Nolen-Weathington SPECIAL THANKS Jim Alexander Hake’s Auctions Heritage Auctions Walter von Bosau VERY SPECIAL THANKS Stefanie Powers

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January 2025

Change is inevitable. Classic television taught us that. At an early age we discovered that the friendly faces we knew as Billie Jo and Bobbie Jo Bradley, Darrin Stephens, and Lionel Jefferson could change with the advent of a new season. Were our lives upended that fateful Friday evening when we gasped at a new Chris Partridge drumming alongside his singing family? It was startling at first, but we adapted to the new Chris, as we did with the new Darrin, et al., and quickly found ourselves enchanted by these new faces wearing familiar names.

In last issue’s Retrotorial I wrote that you should expect big things from RetroFan’s new associate editor, Ed Catto. That was no hyperbole. Beginning next issue, Ed will become the editor of this magazine.

While Ed Catto may be the Dick Sargent to my Dick York (if you don’t get the reference, grab a copy of RetroFan #31 and bone up on your Bewitched lore), other than a change in our credits, you probably won’t notice any other changes in our content. Scott Saavedra will continue to design our pages and write his column, and our other columnists and freelance writers have a plethora of pop culture flashbacks to share. There’s a ton of material in the works for the next wave of issues, so for the immediate future it’s business as usual, with Ed Catto taking over as your guide. Ed brings to our mag a new energy, however, plus loads of marketing ideas, with the goal of catapulting RetroFan to greater heights. I can’t wait to see what magic he will work in this mag. Welcome, Ed Catto!

But what of our outgoing editor-in-chief?

As I write this column on July 12, 2024, I am six weeks away from my retirement on August 30, 2024—which will be past tense by the time you read this in December. Several years of declining health have now made it impossible for me to continue my job, but since I’ve been behind an editor’s desk (off and on) since the waning days of the Reagan Administration, I’m certainly of retirement age. My love of my work made the notion of retirement a bitter pill to swallow at first, but as the time nears I’m enchanted by the possibilities that await—including the chance to finally read an issue of RetroFan simply for fun, without having to police punctuation and deadlines.

But I have had a blast policing punctuation and deadlines—and the myriad other duties required of an editor—all these years. I am extraordinarily proud of RetroFan, and must offer my deepest thanks to TwoMorrows publisher John Morrow for allowing me to develop this mag, which we launched back in June 2018. I am grateful for the wonderful Scott Saavedra, who has made each page of each issue sizzle with his captivating layouts, and has tickled my funny bone repeatedly with his columns. I must thank our regular columnists—Andy Mangels, Will Murray, Scott Shaw, Mark Voger, and the aforementioned Mr. Saavedra—our many freelance contributors, and our past columnists (Ernest Farino and the late, and sorely missed, Martin Pasko) for their dedication, professionalism, and friendship. And I bow with gratitude to each and every RetroFan reader for supporting this publication. If you have had half as much fun reading RetroFan as I have had being its editor, then you’re a pretty happy bunch!

I’ll end my final Retrotorial with a confession worthy of our “Celebrity Crushes” column.

When I was a kid I had a huge crush on our featured cover star, Stefanie Powers. While I have vague memories of her as the Girl From U.N.C.L.E., it was the 1970 Disney flick, The Boatniks, that put her in my then-12-year-old sights. I remember buying the Gold Key comic book adaptation of The Boatniks just to stare at her photo on the cover! Luckily, I’ve long since outgrown such creepy behavior (don’t let me catch any of you staring at this issue’s cover for too long!).

Hart to Hart, her detective/romance series with co-star Robert Wagner, is a favorite in my household (my wife Rose and I often call each other “darling,” just like Jonathan and Jennifer Hart), so Stefanie Powers’ presence makes my last issue of RetroFan special.

Yet there’s so very much more waiting for you in the pages that follow. So get ready for another groovy grab-bag of the crazy, cool culture we grew up with!

VOGER’S VAULT OF VINTAGE VARIETIES

Stefanie Powers Actress made fans cry U.N.C.L.E. Stefanie Powers attained TV icon status as the title secret agent and fashionplate in the 1966–1967 spin-off series The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. © Stefanie Powers.

BY MARK VOGER Once they make a doll out of you, or star you in a comic book, you will never be forgotten by a certain strain of fan—the unerringly loyal, hopelessly devoted genre fan.

Devotees of the super-spy genre of the swinging Sixties—which yielded Dr. No, Goldfinger, Secret Agent, Get Smart, and The Man From U.N.C.L.E.—will always remember Stefanie Powers for her 1966–1967 spin-off series The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. (TGFU). Powers starred as April Dancer, the glamorous and resourceful secret agent who karate-chopped her way into our hearts while wearing the latest groovy fashions.

“I was under contract at Columbia at the time,” Powers told me of being cast as April, when we spoke in 2011.

“They had done a pilot of the show with Mary Ann Mobley playing the girl from U.N.C.L.E. and Norman Fell, the comedian, playing her assistant. But they [the studio] didn’t like the chemistry.

“I was in England working when I got the message that my contract had been sold; MGM bought me out of my contract to do The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. Because I was in England—with the ‘mods’ and ‘rockers’ and Carnaby Street and all of that ‘swinging Sixties’ stuff happening—I thought it would be interesting to bring that into it.”

CONTRACT PLAYER

Born in 1942 in Los Angeles, Powers has had many career milestones apart from The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. She worked with such movie icons as Tallulah RETROFAN

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Voger’s vault of vintage varieties

(LEFT) In an early attention-getting role, Powers played Rebecca, the modern-thinking debutante daughter of John Wayne’s wealthy cattle baron in the Western comedy McLintock! (1963). © Batjac Productions. © United Artists. (BELOW) Powers, as the glamorous, resourceful superspy April Dancer in The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

(OPPOSITE PAGE) From left: Yootha Joyce, Powers, and Tallulah Bankhead in a intense scene from the “hagsploitation” horror film Die! Die! My Darling! (1965). © Columbia Pictures.

Bankhead, Helen Hayes, and John Wayne; she was a two-time Disney heroine; and she co-starred with Robert Wagner in the long-running romantic mystery series Hart to Hart.

Powers felt fortunate to have been among the last wave of contract players signed to a studio at the tail end of Hollywood’s so-called “star system.” Powers was young but, she maintained, experienced.

Recalled the actress: “I had been in a ballet company; I worked for [choreographer] Jerome Robbins. I had worked in a couple of movies when I was put under contract to Columbia. But I was a teenager. And I was a real teenager, not an overly sophisticated teenager. And certainly not a teenager the likes of which we have today.

“So you might say I was wide-eyed by comparison to the teenagers today, who are exposed to so much more, and who begin a ‘physical’ life—even though they’re not emotionally stimulated—much earlier than we did in those days.”

Powers paid her dues in small film roles and episodic television. A breakthrough came when she was fourth-billed as Rebecca, the daughter of John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara, no less, in Andrew V. McLaglen’s Western comedy McLintock! (1963).

Rebecca’s separated parents bicker over where “Becky” should stay once she returns home from an Eastern school. Should she live with father in the rollicking town of McLintock (named after Wayne’s wealthy cattle baron)? Or with mother in stuffy Newport?

Few characters get the buildup, or the entrance, that Powers’ Rebecca receives in this movie. The whole town is on hand, complete with a marching band, beneath a “Welcome home Rebecca McLintock” banner, as her train chugs in. The movie even gives Powers a dramatic moment in a thoughtfully written heartto-heart with Wayne.

Was Wayne a teddy bear toward Powers?

“I would never call him a teddy bear,” she said with a laugh.

“Everybody on that set was part of the John Ford/John Wayne extended family. It was very much a familial feeling on that set.”

McLintock! led to larger roles in such films as Die! Die! My Darling!

(1965), “hagsploitation” horror opposite Bankhead, and Stagecoach (1966), an all-star remake of the classic 1939 John Ford Western that made Wayne a household name.

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Voger’s vault of vintage varieties

“Back then, even the movie stars were actors, and everybody was a human being. Today, everybody’s got a phalanx of bodyguards just to walk around the corner, you know?

“It’s really quite such a hype, that it’s very difficult to understand that you could actually walk up to John Wayne in a restaurant—as people frequently did— right in the middle of his meal and say, ‘Oh, excuse me, Mr. Wayne, but I think you’re wonderful.’ And he’d stand up and say, ‘Well, that’s really kind of you.’

“And honestly, it’s what one would have expected from such a professional icon of the movie industry who came to stardom in a period when actors were actors. Even the movie stars were actors.”

SUPER-SPY SPIN-OFF

Powers herself attained star billing in The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. as title super-spy April Dancer. TGFU was a

I asked Powers what she learned from working with Bankhead and later Hayes, who are considered two of the greatest actresses of the theater.

“I learned something from everyone, because I had the privilege of working with so many extraordinary people,” Powers said.

“I think one of the most important things I realized was their humanity—that while these people were consummate professionals, they were also human beings.”

She explained that it is a prerogative of so-called stars not to be present when a supporting player shoots a dialogue scene opposite the star but not within the same shot. (In other words, if you’re a star and you’re not in the shot, why hang around?) But Powers said neither Bankhead nor Hayes exercised that prerogative while working with her.

“Not one of them ever refused to be off-camera, if I was on the other side [of the camera],” Powers said. “That’s not only when I was the star of the show—that’s even when I was the supporting player.

Most of them were extremely generous as actors.

(LEFT) Powers and co-star Noel Harrison were teamed as hip, attractive secret agents April Dancer and Mark Slate in The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. (RIGHT) Harrison, the son of Rex Harrison, played Mark Slate in The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. Powers was behind Harrison’s casting. © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

spin-off of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., the espionage thriller starring Robert Vaughn and David McCallum as secret agents Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin, respectively. (The acronym stood for United Network Command for Law and Enforcement, as if y’all RetroFans didn’t know.) [Editor’s note: Will Murray, Agent of R.E.T.R.O.F.A.N. (don’t ask us what the acronym means), wrote about The Man From U.N.C.L.E in issue #15 of this magazine, still available from TwoMorrows.]

In contrast to The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. had a lighter tone. At heart, TGFU was a comedy or, at the very least, a show that didn’t always take itself seriously.

“That was one of the points of it,” Powers admitted.

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“Our producer [Douglas Benton] was also a writer. He loved kind of crazy comedy. He was a great devotee of the great comedians. He’s the one who set of the tone of the show. It was markedly different from The Man From U.N.C.L.E. It was satire.

“Because that half-hour series with the cartoon-esque characters—Batman, and then The Green Hornet—had already been on. He loved that. He incorporated a bit of that into our show, which was adorable, I always thought.

But it irritated NBC, who thought we looked as if we were having too much fun. That was their big criticism.”

Powers was behind the casting of a British actor to play Mark Slate, April’s partner-in-spying.

She recalled: “I’d read an article about Noel Harrison, Rex Harrison’s son. I thought it would be interesting if we could have a kind of mid-Atlantic couple, in keeping with the fashion that was going to hit America full-swing, and did, with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and all of that stuff that came from England in the Sixties. Fortunately, we were able to get Noel. That’s how it started.”

Another Brit, Leo G. Carroll—who played Alexander Waverly, boss of Solo and Illya, on The Man From U.N.C.L.E.—did double-duty as Waverly in the spin-off series. In playing April, Powers spoke in a faint quasiBritish accent.

Watching TGFU is an opportunity to spend an hour with two hip, attractive young people who trade pithy banter and wear up-to-the-minute fashions while traversing the globe—even if this continent-hopping was achieved via stock footage.

You never know what Powers will wear as April; she often has three or four costume changes per episode. But for action scenes, April has a no-frills fallback; like her fellow Sixties lady enforcers Mrs. Peel (Diana Rigg) and Honey West (Anne Francis), April is quite comfortable dishing out karate chops and judo throws wearing sleek black tights.

Said Powers of April’s many looks: “Well, the fashions, I brought a lot of them from England.”

The actress also drew on her experience as a dancer to perform her own stunts. Powers was game for anything, often charging fearlessly into the muck.

“I did most of them [the stunts],” she said, “until I got hurt.

There I was, jumping off of things and explosions and all. But I was injured during one, and we had to shut down for a few days. I was not allowed to do some of the hairier stuff after that.”

GUESTS GALORE

With movie stars clamoring for “guest villain” roles on ABC’s hit action-comedy Batman, there was bound to be spillover. The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. provided likewise colorful roles for many contemporary and vintage stars, which became a great game of Spot the Star for film and TV buffs.

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(ABOVE) Horror icon Boris Karloff, center, flanked by Stefanie Powers and Robert Vaughn in “The Mother Muffin Affair” episode of The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. (LEFT) Powers on the cover of TV Guide. © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. (BELOW) Powers graced the cover of MGM Records’ Girl From U.N.C.L.E. soundtrack album. © MGM Records.

Voger’s vault of vintage varieties

Such guests included Gena Rowlands, Fernando Lamas, Leslie Uggams, Luciana Paluzzi, Edward Asner, Peggy Lee, Jack Cassidy, Dom DeLuise, Tom Bosley, Wally Cox, Ellen Corby, and Nanette Fabray; veteran players Raymond Massey, Sidney Blackmer, Joan Blondell, Ann Sothern, Broderick Crawford, and Eduardo Ciannelli; horror players Boris Karloff, John Carradine, and Martin Kosleck; Addams Family and Munsters stars Ted Cassidy, Lisa Loring, Felix Silla, and Yvonne De Carlo; as well as some who also worked on Batman such as Victor Buono (King Tut) and Estelle Winwood (Aunt Hilda).

In a hilarious turn, horror icon Karloff donned an atrocious orange bouffant wig as guest-villain Mother Muffin in Episode 3, titled “The Mother Muffin Affair.”

Vaughn guest-starred as Solo. What were Powers’ memories of working with Karloff?

“Well, I was, of course, thrilled,” the actress said. “When I walked into make-up that morning. The make-up department had, you know, lots of chairs in it, and there were people with sheets over them and all. I walked in and said, ‘Good morning, everybody!’ I was usually the first one in. And I said, ‘Oh, my God, Boris Karloff!

We’ve got Boris Karloff! This is fantastic!’ I said, ‘He used to scare me when I was a kid!’ I was so thrilled.

“Suddenly, this body moves in this chair. He just turns around.

He’s in full make-up with the hair and all of that as Mother Muffin. He turns around and says [imitating Karloff], ‘Hello, my dear.’

That’s how I met Boris Karloff,” Powers added, laughing again.

Karloff was an absolute scream as Mother Muffin, who took a liking to Solo, calling him “dear Napoleon” and lamenting being forced to kill him. With Mother Muffin, Karloff added another unique characterization to a long list that included Frankenstein’s monster, the Mummy, and the Grinch. Thankfully, Karloff didn’t whip off his wig and suddenly speak in a lower register at the end of “The Mother Muffin Affair.” He really is playing a woman, which makes it all the more funny and weird.

“He was charming, the most lovely man,” Powers said. “His wife [Evie] was with him.

They had a long and successful marriage. I’ve

(LEFT, ABOVE) The first three of five issues that Gold Key published of its Girl From U.N.C.L.E. comic book in 1967. All had photo covers. © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

(LEFT) Composite photograph shows how Marx’s Girl From U.N.C.L.E. doll looks in one of the “wigs” that come with the set. (RIGHT) Box art for the versatile Girl From U.N.C.L.E. doll from Marx. © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

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Voger’s vault of vintage varieties

met his daughter [Sara Jane]. I’ve contributed to a book about him. He could not have been a more giving and charming man.”

Powers believed she scored a “first” as a result of The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. “I have really fond memories of some of the episodes, although it was my first experience in television,” the actress said.

“Unbeknownst to me at the time—because it was never made an issue—it was groundbreaking in its way because it was, in fact, the very first hour-long television series starring a woman. Isn’t that something?”

(Powers’ information may be correct.

Barbara Stanwyck received special star billing in The Big Valley, but Richard Long was top-billed.)

Though April Dancer didn’t inspire nearly as much swag as her colleagues Solo and Illya, she had her moments. Gold Key put out five issues of its Girl From U.N.C.L.E. comic book in 1967, with issue #1 artwork by Al McWilliams. This wasn’t the first, or the last, time Powers was depicted in a comic book; she is also in Gold Key’s adaptations of McLintock! (in Mike Sekowsky art) and The Boatniks (in Dan Spiegle art).

New York–based New American Library published at least two TGFU paperbacks under its Signet imprint, while Londonbased Souvenir Press published at least four TGFU paperbacks under its Four Square imprint. Leo Margulies Corp. published

New American Library published at least two Girl From U.N.C.L.E. paperback novels. Shown: “The Blazing Affair.” © Metro-Goldwyn Mayer.

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ESSENTIAL APRIL

10 groovy ‘Girl From U.N.C.L.E.’ episodes

“The Dog-Gone Affair” Episode #1 (Sept. 13, 1966) In the series premiere, a wiener dog’s fleas carry a chemical component needed to produce an antidote for a gas that causes people to move in slow motion. (Just so you know out of the box that the credibility factor will not only be stretched, but obliterated.) This is no origin story; April and Mark hit the ground running. Italian actress Luciana Paluzzi, remembered as a drop-dead-gorgeous (pun intended) assassin in the 007 flick Thunderball, plays a love interest, however fleeting, for Mark.

“The Mother Muffin Affair” Episode #3 (Sept. 27, 1966) Powdered dowager Mother Muffin (Boris Karloff) operates a London attraction called Twicksbury’s House of Murders, which is really a front for her ring of professional hitmen. Mother wishes to make figures of Lady Macbeth and Prince Hamlet using April and Napoleon Solo’s bodies, à la House of Wax. Meanwhile, April and Solo are assigned to return a kidnapped American girl (Jennifer Kaye Evans) to her gangster father (Bruce Gordon). In a rare appearance in front of the camera, Oscar-winning make-up artist William Tuttle (The Time Machine, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao) is seen as... a makeup artist called Tuttle.

“The Montori Device Affair” Episode #4 (Oct. 11, 1966) U.N.C.L.E. and their antagonists T.H.R.U.S.H. are in hot pursuit of the Montori device, which allows users to listen in on any transmitted communications. This is a mini Addams Family reunion; Ted Cassidy (Lurch) plays a violent henchman, while Lisa Loring (Wednesday) plays a bratty child who—spoiler alert— has been wearing the Montori device as costume jewelry all along.

Upping the monster factor, Cassidy is teamed with John Carradine, a two-time Forties Dracula, here playing an evil scientist in specs that comically magnify his eyes. You kind of wish there was yet another spin-off series, this one teaming Carradine and Cassidy as the Frick and Frack of T.H.R.U.S.H.

“The Atlantis Affair” Episode #9 (Nov. 15, 1966) April and Mark protect an eccentric professor (Sidney Blackmer) who claims to know the whereabouts of the fabled lost city of Atlantis.

T.H.R.U.S.H. wants the professor to lead them to crystals that have 1000 times the power of a laser beam. April makes like Errol Flynn, fencing with a T.H.R.U.S.H. asset (Claude Woolman) who lives like a 17th-Century French nobleman, wig and all. (Don’t ask.) Blackmer was between a memorable Outer Limits episode and Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby. “The Atlantis Affair” was penned by prolific novelist/screenwriter Richard Matheson, who specialized in science fiction and fantasy (The Incredible Shrinking Man, The Omega Man).

Voger’s vault of vintage varieties

“The Romany Lie Affair” Episode #12 (Dec. 6, 1966) April joins a circus (as an acrobat, yet) to investigate its proprietor Sadvaricci (Lloyd Bochner), a charismatic Lothario who is suspected in the ritual murders of wealthy European women for their stock holdings. (He has an interesting way of burying them.) The colorful episode boasts clowns, jugglers, a fortune teller, and, speaking of The Addams Family, Felix Silla (Cousin Itt) as a circus performer, which the actor once was in real life. Cal Bolder, who played the monster in Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter that same year, is appropriately cast as the circus strong man.

“The Jewels of Topango Affair” Episode #14 (Dec. 20, 1966) At a rendezvous point “somewhere in Africa,” Mark is led to believe that a beautiful stranger (Leslie Uggams) is, at Waverly’s behest, substituting for April on a mission in Topango (not to be confused with Topanga, I suppose). To find Mark, April joins a safari there, unaware that someone in the party is plotting to steal the royal jewels.

Brock Peters (the unfairly accused in To Kill a Mockingbird) plays the king; Booker Bradshaw (the lying, cheating boyfriend in Coffy) is his son; and Rupert Crosse (the first African American nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar) is the king’s wary wingman. At times, the episode may set off your Stereotype-O-Meter, but it is generally lighthearted.

“The Faustus Affair” Episode #15 (Dec. 27, 1966) Oscar nominee Raymond Massey gives the campiest performance of his long career, and does so with gusto. Massey plays a baddie styled like the devil—widow’s peak, goatee, black cape with Lugosi-friendly collar—whose appearances are heralded by bursts of colored smoke. The character’s name is B. Elzie Bubb. (Do I have to say “Get it?” I didn’t think so.) Bubb is abetted by a nerdy scientist (Tom Bosley) who becomes smitten with April. Powers is a riot in the scene in which Bosley, who has deluded himself that they are a couple, “dumps” her.

“The Fountain of Youth Affair” Episode #20 (Feb. 7, 1967) April and Mark infiltrate Rejuven Isle, a private retreat where Baroness Blangstead (Gena Rowlands) treats wealthy women with injections of her formula which reverses the aging process. The Baroness holds certain women hostage in order to blackmail their influential husbands to obtain top secret documents. One such client is Madame Dao (Miiko Taka), whose husband (Philip Ahn) compromises his country’s security to rescue his wife. It’s fascinating to see Rowlands, a two-time Golden Globe winner, play ball in this over-thetop role. Rowlands, bless her, even wears “old age” make-up! Powers gets down-and-dirty while tussling with an aggressive henchlady in a vat of “beauty” mud.

“The Furnace Flats Affair” Episode #22 (Feb. 21, 1967) In this Western send-up, April and Mark visit Furnace Flats in Death Valley, where an abandoned mine is rich with a destructive element coveted by T.H.R.U.S.H. After the mine’s owner dies, the U.N.C.L.E. agents meet the executor of his will, happy widow Packer Joe. She is played with a nod to Mae West by singer Peggy Lee (“Fever,” “Is That All There Is”). Mark asks sexy, glamorous Packer Joe why she chooses to live in dusty, remote Furnace Flats. “To get away from tall, handsome men,” she coos. When Mark notes Packer Joe’s shirtless, muscular manservant, she admits: “I’m tapering off.”

“The Kooky Spook Affair” Episode #29 (April 11, 1967) In the series finale, Mark is named the 14th Earl of Maddington after seven relatives who were in line for the title die in mysterious accidents. At Maddington Manor, he and April encounter icy Lady Bramwich (Estelle Winwood), whose nerdy son Cecil (Harvey Jason) is next in line should Mark, too, happen to perish.

Strange things begin to happen at the castle: Mark’s convertible is sabotaged, the electricity and phone service go out, bagpipes are heard in the dead of night, eyes peer from behind framed art, and the “ghost” of the original Earl, a dead ringer for Mark, occasionally emerges from the shadows.

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Voger’s vault of vintage varieties

(LEFT) Leo Margulies Corp. published the fiction-packed The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. Magazine. © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

(RIGHT) Powers and co-stars in caricature form in a detail from the movie poster for Walt Disney’s The Boatniks (1970). © Walt Disney Productions. (BELOW) Robert Wagner and Powers starred as married jet-setters Jonathan and Jennifer Hart, who traded droll banter while solving crimes. © American Broadcasting Co. © Spelling-Goldberg Productions.

several issues of a Girl From U.N.C.L.E. magazine that presented fiction (stories and “complete novels”) and often featured painted cover illustrations.

April gave Ideal’s costume-changing super-hero toy Captain Action a run for its money with the costume changes and accessories that came with her Marx action figure. Promised the box-cover type: “Complete with over 30 pieces of personal attire, disguises and weapons.” Within the box, children found a radio purse, hat box, clutch purse, shoulder bag, garter holster, assorted “wigs” (in plastic, not doll “hair”), grenade bracelet, opera glasses, sword umbrella, revolver, and derringer. Whew!

The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. lasted for one season; the final episode aired on April 11, 1967. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was cancelled the following year.

AFTER U.N.C.L.E.

Following TGFU, Powers starred in a pair of Disney features, The Boatniks (1970) and Herbie Rides Again (1974), the latter co-starring Hayes. Powers maintained a high profile on TV with guest shots on just about any series you can remember from the period: Banacek, Mod Squad, The Sixth Sense, Barnaby Jones, McCloud, Marcus Welby, Medical Center, Cannon, Kung Fu, Petrocelli, Harry O, The Streets of San Francisco, McMillan and Wife, and The Bionic Woman.

It all paid off when Powers landed her second hour-long series, Hart to Hart (1979–1984), in which she co-starred with Robert Wagner. For fans of Sixties TV, Hart to Hart was a bit of deja vu, with the stars of It Takes a Thief and The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. joining forces, looking more or less like their old selves. (Only the hairstyles had changed.)

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Voger’s vault of vintage varieties

The premise had married jet-setters Jonathan and Jennifer Hart who, without an iota of training, solved crimes more efficiently than seasoned professional detectives, all the while trading droll banter that conjured Nick and Nora Charles. Comic relief was supplied by Lionel Stander as the Harts’ gravelly voiced jack-of-all-service-trades Max. For playing Jennifer, Powers was nominated for two Emmys and five Golden Globes.

Powers had known Wagner (whom friends call “R.J.”), and once appeared on It Takes a Thief. The actress told me she remembered the series “with great affection and nostalgia,” and credited its success to producer Tom Mankiewicz.

“Today, unfortunately, of the nucleus that created the show, R.J. and I are the only ones left standing,” Powers then said.

“Unfortunately, we lost Tom Mankiewicz [in 2010], who was our director, writer, creator.

“Although the idea of the show was to have the couple mimicking a bit of ‘The Thin Man’ series of films, which was [series creator] Sidney Sheldon’s idea, ‘Mank’ changed a great deal of it and brought it into the characters that they became.

He introduced the dog [Freeway], he introduced the butler, he introduced this repartee that R.J. and I became so successful with, I suppose. That show is still loved and talked about all over the world.”

‘IT’S ALL OUR FAULT’

In her memoir One From the Hart, Powers wrote that she had a couple of chance meetings with William Holden, an Oscar winner for Stalag 17 (1953) and one of the biggest box-office stars of the Fifties. When the two began dating in the Seventies, Holden’s career was on the upswing with a string of roles that led to his portrayal of a wizened broadcasting exec in Sidney Lumet’s Network (1976). “For Bill, he approached his acting as playing the ‘everyman,’ ” said Powers. “He tried to bring honesty and approachability to his roles. He tried to get at the truth.”

Powers traveled extensively with Holden, often to Kenya, where the actor founded the Mount Kenya Safari Club in 1959. Holden’s passion for conservation and wildlife preservation became Powers’ cause as well. “He became aware of diminishing herds,” she said.

“There are species that have survived thanks to Bill.”

The couple was together for nearly ten years, though their relationship was not perfect. (Powers wrote candidly about Holden’s alcoholism.) Holden died from a fall at age 63 in 1981. Powers later established the William Holden Wildlife Foundation.

At the time Powers and I spoke in 2011, the actress was living in England, but happened to be in New York one fateful weekend shortly before our interview.

“I was there for the hurricane,” Powers said of Hurricane Irene, which made landfall in New York and New Jersey on August 27 of that year.

(LEFT) Powers and Wagner were depicted in a 1980 TV Guide cover by artist Richard Amsel, who defined the look of Seventies-Eighties entertainment with his many iconic movie posters and TV Guide covers. © American Broadcasting Co. © Spelling-Goldberg Productions. © TV Guide. (RIGHT) William

Holden, shown in Network (1976), inspired Powers to advocate for conservation and wildlife preservation.

“You had a lot of flooding in New Jersey. When a 150-year-old bridge goes down, it makes you wonder,” Powers added, referring to a 156-year-old bridge in Blenheim, New York, which was destroyed in the storm.

“You think, well, surely there must have been floods during the 150 years that bridge existed. So it’s all man-made. It’s all human beings developing land that shouldn’t be developed. It’s all our fault.

“We are losing our environment so rapidly. The world that our children will inherit is going to look substantially different, very quickly, than the world we have today. It’s alarming. I was reading the Royal Geographical Society’s report on the loss of the ice fields in Antarctica, where species of shrimp and other marine life have appeared that have never appeared in those waters before, because of the change in temperature. That’s not a joke.”

Things have only gotten worse in the 13 years since our conversation, with persistent record-breaking flooding, heat waves, wildfires, icecap melting, and the extinction of species vital to the ecosystem. Sadly, Powers’ warnings have been coming true.

“We have to stop thinking about ourselves so much and start thinking about the environment,” she said. “We have to change.”

MARK VOGER is the author and designer of seven books for TwoMorrows Publishing including Monster Mash (a Rondo Award winner), Groovy, Holly Jolly, Britmania, and Zowie! As a child, he didn’t realize that Mother Muffin was really a man in ladies’ clothing. Please visit him at MarkVoger.com.

RETROFAN

January 2025

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Too Much TV

BY MICHAEL EURY COLUMN ONE

1) Steve Urkel 2) Prof. P. Caspar Biddle, birdwatcher 3) Lenny and Squiggy 4) Irwin “Skippy” Handelman 5) Ernie Douglas 6) Roger “Raj” Thomas 7) Todd DiLaMuca, boyfriend of Lisa Loopner 8) Arnold Horshack 9) Samuel “Screech” Powers 10) Les Nessman 12

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January 2025

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 nerd or uncool character in Column One corresponds to a television program in Column Two. Match ’em up, then see how you rate!

Fifty lashes with a wet noodle for each incorrect answer!

RetroFan Ratings 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!

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

COLUMN TWO

A) Laverne & Shirley B) Welcome Back, Kotter C) What’s Happening!!

D) Family Matters E) Family Ties F) WKRP in Cincinnati G) Saved By the Bell H) My Three Sons I) Saturday Night Live J) The Beverly Hillbillies The Beverly Hillbillies, My Three Sons © CBS Television. Family Matters © Warner Bros.

Television. Family Ties, Laverne & Shirley © Paramount Television. Saturday Night Live, Saved By the Bell © NBCUniversal. WKRP in Cincinnati © MTM Enterprises. Welcome Back, Kotter © Komack Company Inc./Wolper Productions. What’s Happening!! © ABC Television. All Rights Reserved.

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

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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.

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 Mission: Impossible’s LYNDA DAY GEORGE in an exclusive interview!

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The saga of Saturday morning’s Super Friends, Part One! Plus: A history of MR. T, TV’s AVENGERS (Steed and Mrs. Peel), Daktari’s CHERYL MILLER, Mexican movie monsters, John and Yoko’s nation of Nutopia, ELIZABETH SHEPHERD (the actress who almost played Emma Peel), and more! With ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, MARK VOGER, & MICHAEL EURY.

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Interview with Captain Kangaroo BOB KEESHAN, The ROCKFORD FILES, teen monster movies, the Kung Fu and BRUCE LEE crazes, JACK KIRBY’s comedy comics, DON DRYSDALE’s TV drop-ins, outrageous toys, Challenge of the Super Friends, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns

by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

The BRITISH INVASION of the Sixties, interview with Bond Girl TRINA PARKS, The Mighty Hercules, Horror Hostess MOONA LISA, World’s Greatest Super Friends, TV Guide Fall Previews, the Frito Bandito, a Popeye Super Collector, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

The story behind BOB CLAMPETT’s Beany & Cecil, western queen DALE EVANS, an interview with Mr. Ed’s ALAN YOUNG, Miami Vice, The Sixties’ Wackiest Robots, Muscle-Maker CHARLES ATLAS, Super Powers Team—Galactic Guardians, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns

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The Brady Bunch’s FLORENCE HENDERSON, the UNKNOWN COMIC revealed, Hanna-Barbera’s Top Cat, a Barbie history, RANKIN/BASS’ Frosty the Snowman, Dell Comics’ Monster Super-Heroes, Slushy Drinks, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Magic memories of ELIZABETH MONTGOMERY for the 60th Anniversary of TV’s Bewitched! Plus: The ’70s thriller Time After Time (with NICHOLAS MEYER, MALCOLM McDOWELL, and DAVID WARNER), The Alvin Show, BUFFALO BOB SMITH and Howdy Doody, Peter Gunn, Saturday morning’s Run Joe Run and Big John Little John, a trip to Camp Crystal Lake, and more fun, fab features!

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Meet the Bionic Duo, LEE MAJORS and LINDSAY WAGNER! Plus: Hot Wheels: The Early Years, Fantastic Four cartoons, Modesty Blaise, Hostess snacks, TV Westerns, Movie Icons vs. the Axis Powers, the San Diego Chicken, and more!

Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER. Edited

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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.

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RETRO ANIMATION

is sheer Animagic!

BY RICK GOLDSCHMIDT In 1970, Rankin/Bass Productions was in its lucky seventh year of making classic holiday specials, and they really hit the jackpot with Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town. It defined the magic in their trademark Animagic stop-motion animation. Until this point, Santa Claus was a character that was primarily used to sell Coca-Cola and cigarettes—a jolly, round, and lovable character, but the public didn’t know much about him. This special aired on ABC-TV December 14, 1970, and changed all of that for generations to come.

ALL-STAR VOICE TALENT

Originally sponsored by Milton Bradley and Playschool, Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town made it into the Nielsen Top 10 with its debut and with subsequent airings. A big part of its success was the star talent that producers Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass secured for this one. Film dancing super-star Fred Astaire was a Hollywood

legend by 1970, and is still considered one of the greatest dancers in the world. At 1970’s Academy Awards ceremony, which was preceded by Rankin/Bass’ Mad, Mad, Mad Comedians (their highest-rated special), Fred Astaire was called up to the microphone by Bob Hope. Astaire jokingly said he didn’t do much dancing anymore, and then launched into a wonderful dance routine.

Fred was still amazing in 1970, and a wonderful host for this special as North Pole mailman S. D. Kluger.

He explained in an open air interview for Rankin/Bass Productions, “Well, Kluger is like all the other characters in Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town. He’s an Animagic puppet, that’s actually what they call them. He’s carved and painted and dressed and then placed on the set, and then a technician is in charge of each movement he makes, and each separate motion is photographed and

(TOP) Promotional art by Paul Coker, Jr. (digitally enhanced and edited) featuring caricatures of (LEFT TO RIGHT) Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass. (ABOVE) Rankin, Jr. and Bass, circa 1970s. (LEFT) Santa and Mrs. Claus stand at the center of this promotional photograph. Unless otherwise noted, all images accompanying this article are courtesy of Rick Goldschmidt. © 2012 Miser Bros Press/Rick Goldschmidt archives.

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retro Animation

then, it’s sort of like an animated cartoon, you know, only these are actual figures, then they are put together to make a movie out of it.

The final effect is really very life-like and it is quite delightful!”

When Fred Astaire was asked to describe the animated special’s legends of Santa Claus, he exclaimed, “Well, first I’d like to say that the way the story of Santa Claus is handled here is what attracted me to the script, and led to my doing the narration for it. The explanations are imaginative without being too cute, you know, for instance, it tells why Santa Claus is sometimes called Kris Kringle. To explain this, there’s a foundling wearing a pendant with Claus engraved on it, and it is adopted and raised by a family of toymakers named Kringle. The story treats other legends in the same logical way. Like how Santa came to give out presents only on Christmas Eve, and his reindeer learned to fly, and that sort of thing.”

Arthur Rankin told me, “My favorite story about Fred was when [voice actor] Paul Frees walked into the studio. Paul was my dear friend and we used him in almost everything we did, and he had a great sense of humor. So, in the studio was Fred with his agent, Shep Fields. Before Shep became an agent, he had this ridiculous act called Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm, in front of an orchestra. He was known for the novelty of blowing into a champagne glass with music and making bubbles. When Paul walked into the studio to record, he walked right past Fred Astaire and said, ‘Not the Shep Fields!,’ I was on the floor laughing!”

For Kris Kringle/Santa Claus, they needed the perfect voice. Stan Francis, who voiced Santa in Rankin/Bass’ Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, had already passed away—during a performance on stage, actually—in 1966. Arthur wanted someone who could act, but bring a performance to the screen that would be good for animation, and Mickey Rooney fit that bill perfectly. Arthur explained to me, “Mickey was very, very good as an actor. When I gave him the script, he would crawl up my lapel very excited. He was perfect!” A friend of mine from FOX 32 in Chicago, Vic, later

(LEFT) Detail of the Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town album’s reverse side. Pictured are (LEFT TO RIGHT) Mickey Rooney as Kris Kringle, Fred Astaire as the Narrator, and Keenan Wynn as the Winter Warlock. (RIGHT) Robie Lester is all dressed up as Mrs. Claus in this lighthearted promotional image.

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The Narrator was not just voiced by Fred Astaire but looked like him as well. approached Mickey Rooney about this special, and had him sign his laser disc. Rooney told him that at first he didn’t want to do the special, but was very glad that he did. So many fans had told him how much it had meant to them, and he could see the magic in it.

Rankin/Bass Productions musical composer Maury Laws said, “My favorite things that we did had Mickey Rooney in them! We ended up using him again for The Year Without a Santa Claus and for the 1979 feature film Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July.”

Keenan Wynn was another excellent and versatile character actor, whose voice was perfect for the character Winter Warlock and for animation in general! His father, Ed Wynn, appeared in Rankin/Bass’ The Daydreamer in 1966. I believe Keenan was approached by Arthur Rankin on the set of the film The Monitors in Chicago, during filming, sometime in 1968 or 1969. Actress Sherry Jackson told me she met Arthur and took pictures with him, and Jackie Vernon was there, signing up for his [voice-acting] role as Frosty. Keenan was one of the hardest-working men in show business and could handle most any kind of role. He brought personality to old Winter, and personality is the key to Animagic.

Robie Lester was the voice of Jessica, the future Mrs. Kris Kringle. She had great success in recording for various Walt Disney or Disneyland records over the years, and even appeared on Walt’s various TV shows. Before her passing, we formed a great

retro Animation

As a child, Kris is left on the Kringle family doorstep and welcomed as one of their own.

When I wrote my book The Making of Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town and The Daydreamer, I located Greg Stern, who, credited as Greg Thomas, voiced Kris as a youngster.

He offered some wonderful material for my book. So did his dad, Charles Stern, who provided much of the voice talent for Rankin/Bass, including Joan Gardner and Paul Frees.

I believe that [legendary animation voice actor] Paul Frees’ all-time best performance was that of the friendship. She signed photos (LEFT) Cover to Rick Goldschmidt’s The Making of Santa for our Rankin/Bass website Claus is Comin’ to Town (Miser Press, 2018). (RIGHT) ABC Burgermeister Meisterburger, a role he seemed meant to play, even and I was able to get for her promotional teaser for the special. though he’s best remembered the handwritten sheet music for so many great cartoon voices for “My World is Beginning including Boris Badenov and Ludwig Von Drake. He and Arthur Today,” a beautiful song in Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town that ABC Rankin were close friends. I can’t imagine what The Enchanted World has removed from the special in their heavily edited version they of Rankin/Bass would be like without Paul Frees. He fit into everyair each Christmas. When the graphics during the song turn to cel thing so perfectly. animation, it really has sort of a psychedelic, anime look. Jessica Paul even did the voice of the Burgermeister’s sidekick, Grinzley looks like she came right out of Speed Racer. In her later years, Robie (the correct spelling, as seen in the shooting script printed in my turned to writing, and I arranged a contact for her at Pixar.

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retro Animation

book). Paul was a master at doing two separate characters who interact with each other in two distinct voices.

BEHIND THE SCENES OF ‘SANTA CLAUS IS COMIN’ TO TOWN’

Romeo Muller’s writing for Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town was exceptional—he should have been nominated for an Emmy Award for it, but never won one for any Rankin/Bass special! (The only Rankin/ Bass special that was even nominated for an Emmy was The Little Drummer Boy, Book II.) Romeo conceived everything we know about Santa Claus in a very clever way.

One of the special’s characters, Topper the Penguin, temporarily experienced a name change. Topper became “Waddles” in 1979, with a strange overdub, and it remained that way through 1983 on ABC. While no one in the Rankin/Bass camp could recall why this change was required, I believe there was a threatened lawsuit from the party that owned the property Topper from radio/television/ film. [Editor’s note: Bolstering Rick Goldschmidt’s theory is the fact that Topper—about a newly dead couple’s comedic haunting of a stuffy old codger—was remade into a 1979 TV movie co-starring Andrew Stevens, Kate Jackson, and Jack Warden.]

The Animagic animation for Rankin/Bass’ Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town was primarily done by Hiroshi Tabata. He studied under the “father” of stop-motion in Japan, Tadahito “Tad” Mochinaga, and he started taking over the reins during The Daydreamer in 1966. Hiroshi never quite felt that they ever lived up to Tad’s work in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but it is quite obvious that this special lacks none of the magic in their Animagic! It is spectacular, and the effects, like when Winter melts and changes into his warm version, are groundbreaking. When I think of Kris and Topper flying through the air during “Put One Foot in Front of the Other,” I am still not quite sure how they did it.

On a Bill Gaines MAD magazine trip to Japan in 1970, my late friends Paul Coker, Jr., who designed most of the Rankin/Bass TV specials, films, and TV series, and Jack Davis, were invited to

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The Narrator dances in the title sequence as directed (BELOW) in these storyboards by Don Duga.

retro Animation

the Animagic studios by their friend Arthur Rankin.

This was the first and only such time they visited the studios, and they remembered seeing Hiroshi working on the scenes with Fred Astaire and his character’s unusual mail truck (which was actually based on real sled trucks of days gone by).

My late, great pal, Rankin/Bass storyboarder Don Duga, got to work on the scenes with Fred Astaire and his truck (as illustrated here for the first time). Don loved storyboarding the song sequences the most, and explained, “I would walk into Jules’ office, and he usually had his feet up on his desk. The songs were always telling part of the story, and they were exciting for me to show the movement that was needed to advance the story. Sometimes we would work in some of the forest animals, like during ‘Put One Foot in Front of the Other,’ and sometimes it would be a magical setting, like during ‘Christmas Carol (What Better Way to Tell You).’”

Jules Bass and Maury Laws brought their songwriting partnership to new levels with this special. It would also extend into the following year with Here Comes Peter Cottontail. They were able to repurpose a song from an un-produced Raggedy Ann special written

by Romeo Muller and use it in Santa; that was the song “The First Toy Maker to the King.” This is by far one of their strongest soundtracks, containing some of their

(ABOVE) Kris Kringle delivering gifts, with Topper the Penguin. (BELOW) Kris brings gifts to a couple of sad—or perhaps just skeptical— children.

(TOP, CENTER, BOTTOM) Hiroshi Tabata did most of the laborintensive work necessary to create the animated magic of Animagic.

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(ABOVE) Soundsheet (a thin plastic sheet with a layer containing grooves playable on a record player) recording of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” (LEFT) Young Kris says goodbye to Tanta Kringle before leaving to make his way in the world. (INSET) Album with rare promotional banner. most popular compositions. MGM Records issued it as a “DJ Only” release in 1970 and Rankin/Bass issued its own “Promo Only” LP on red vinyl (I got one from Romeo Muller’s collection) with a Paul Coker, Jr.–designed sticker on a brown cover. In 1971, ABC produced a special release with literature and a Fred Astaire interview record attached for DJs (seen here in print for the first time). The interview was closed on one side with the interviewer’s voice and open on the other, so DJs could sound like they were talking to Fred.

In 2002, I was hired by Rhino/Warner Music Group to co-produce a CD release (paired with the Frosty the Snowman soundtrack) in a Digi-Pack, for which they went back to the master tapes. The booklet inside was quite extensive, as was an interview with me. This CD commands pretty high prices now, since it has been long out of print. A friend of mine recently sent me the theme song sung by Fred Astaire that was issued on a flexi-disc in 1982 with a Christmas wreath sleeve (seen here for first time in print). This special’s music is so well loved that songs are featured on satellite and regular radio stations every Christmas. Rankin/Bass Productions also issued a rare Christmas card LP for friends and clients, Music from Rankin/Bass Productions RB-101, that included “Santa’s Song (Price You Pay)” and “Christmas Carol (What Better Way to Tell You).”

Coker’s style is all over this one: his lettering on the Kris Kringle Wanted poster, the new look of the elves 20

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Promotional photo of models for Mrs. Claus and Santa.

retro Animation

FOUND! THE RANKIN/BASS HOLY GRAIL! Shown below is the long-lost photo of the Rankin/Bass Productions (then-NBC Videocraft International) Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Animagic figure display 1964–1971!

(LEFT TO RIGHT) Christmas package, Standard Elf, Elf (with incorrect bug eyes with white around them), Yukon Cornelius, Sam the Snowman, Hermey the Elf/Dentist, Santa Claus, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and another Standard Elf. For years, I had heard from fans that there was a display of the Rankin/Bass Animagic puppets at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. Many fans remember seeing them on field trips with their schools or visits with their families. I asked the staff at Rankin/ Bass, but no one really had a strong memory of this.

I had been searching for many long years for a photo. Then last Christmas (2023), my friend Bob Pearce posted a photo on my Rankin/Bass Productions Facebook page.

He posted in the comments of the article I wrote for ReMind magazine about the display and not being able to find a photo. At first he thought the photo might have been taken by a visiting college student, but after closer inspection he thought it may have been part of an NBC record. At any rate, it answers and confirms many of the things I have been saying, and I now own this original photograph.

The Animagic figures in the display are the same puppets used in all of the publicity photographs. None of them had been used in the actual animation. Some had said that the Bumble was in the display, and this photograph confirms he was not. Some have said he was too big for the display, so they put him in the basement at NBC. As you can see from the display, there was plenty of room to fit him into it. There is a Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer television trade article I included in my book, The Arthur Rankin, Jr. Scrapbook: The Birth of Animagic, that describes the Bumble as being almost three feet high. If the Bumble was in New York, they could have fit

him in the case by kneeling him down, as there was plenty of room on the ends of the case. The Bumble publicity picture I own was actually taken on the set in Japan, with a miniature Rudolph.

If you look at Santa Claus, you will notice he is sitting as he has limp legs. This is the way he turned up on TV’s Antiques Roadshow and later in my friend Kevin Kriess’ collection. You may be wondering why. Since these puppets were used for the publicity photographs only, the puppet makers didn’t need to make jointed legs for Santa.

When the Animagic puppeteer posed Santa, he would run rods into his legs from the bottom of the set. These figures are all seen in the many publicity photographs I now own. In fact, you can see the most famous grouping from the publicity photo sessions in the first edition of my book, The Making of the Rankin/Bass Holiday Classic: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Miser Bros Press).

The Sam the Snowman puppet seen here is the one seen on the Decca Album record jacket. Many had commented to me that the vest had a different look and pattern to the one seen in the television special. This Sam was also photographed in New York with Burl Ives holding him and Johnny Marks holding Rudolph.

I really like the banner that was created for this lighted box. I always thought this display might have looked more like a set from the special, instead of them lined up with name tags and crinkled aluminum, but it still has that Sixties charm that I love. Maybe now, Antiques Roadshow and other media outlets will stop referring to these Animagic figures as “screen used.” The screen-used puppets stayed in Japan with the animators. Look for photos of the Tad Mochinaga–owned puppets in my books, The Making of Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town and The Daydreamer and the Frosty the Snowman 50th Anniversary Scrapbook (both, Miser Bros Press). — Rick Goldschmidt

(ABOVE) A long-lost photo of a display at 30 Rockefeller Plaza featuring models of characters from Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer, including Santa.

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(LEFT) Sketch by Rick Goldschmidt for an unrealized Santa Claus figure line. (RIGHT) Industry ad by Paul Coker, Jr. for Rankin/Bass. (very different from Tony Peter’s in Rudolph), the plump Santa, and all of the various versions of Kris. Paul had a style that really became the Rankin/Bass look—Arthur Rankin never wanted to copy Walt Disney or another studio, and he wanted something unique. “Paul’s style was very animatable, where Jack Davis’ was not as easy to translate,” said Rankin. “We liked Paul’s designs so much that we put a full-page ad in Variety every year that Paul would draw for us. I kept him very busy for many, many years!” said Arthur Rankin.

Other than the MGM LP, there wasn’t any merchandise issued based on the special until after my 1997 book, The Enchanted World of Rankin/Bass: A Portfolio, was released.

I consulted with the initial Rudolph and Frosty releases by Stuffins and CVS Pharmacies, and in 1999 the Enesco Corporation in Itasca, Illinois, saw me on the WGN Morning News and asked me to come into their showroom. I accepted a job, putting my illustration degree to work, and helped give direction on several Rankin/Bass figurine lines, including Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town (as illustrated here). Enesco ultimately decided against doing a figurine line, but they did issue a series of ornaments sold at Walgreens. Then Round Two/Playing Mantis issued Santa Claus action figures, including a Fred Astaire figure in a battery-operated mail truck. There were also keychains, candy, puzzles, storybooks, stickers, etc. Hallmark started a line of ornaments with Winter Warlock/Topper and Kris Kringle and then abruptly stopped issuing them (perhaps sales didn’t meet expectations).

The best DVD/Blu-ray release was by Golden Books from 2001.

All of the Blu-ray releases lack quality and are missing sound effects, most notably Topper’s sigh when Peter Pine the tree is holding Topper and Kris for Winter before he makes his transformation. There is no credible or Official Rankin/Bass commentary on them, either.

In 1974, Rankin/Bass followed up Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town with The Year Without a Santa Claus (the subject of my newest book release, for its 50th Anniversary in 2024). Mickey Rooney returned 22

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(LEFT) Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town album signed by Arthur Rankin, Jr. (BELOW) Rick’s latest book: Rankin/Bass’ The Year Without a Santa Claus and ’Twas the Night Before Christmas 50th Anniversary Scrapbook.

as Santa Claus, but he is surrounded with a new cast of characters including the Heat Miser and Snow Miser.

When I look back at my career as the Rankin/Bass historian/biographer, it is Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town that makes me most proud to be associated with this material. Romeo Muller really put his patented heart and warmth in his writing in this one. The wedding scene is just perfect. The scene at the end of the special where Fred Astaire talks about people that just don’t get what Christmas is all about puts into perspective of what the real meaning of Christmas is. Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town is special, and will outlive us all!

As the official historian/biographer of Rankin/Bass Productions’ enchanted world of stop-motion Animagic and other animation and film projects, RICK GOLDSCHMIDT has written multiple books on Rankin/Bass’ beloved holiday specials and shares behindthe-scenes details with RetroFan readers through annual articles each Christmastime.

WILL MURRAY’S 20TH CENTURY PANOPTICON

One-Season TV Wonders

BY WILL MURRAY When I think of my favorite television programs of the Sixties, I have a special place in my heart for a handful of shows that lasted only a single season. This is pure nostalgia, of course. But another part is the desire, now 60 years along, for more episodes of those short-lived series.

With that in mind, let’s look at two of my favorite one-season wonders.

CORONET BLUE

Although it ran as a midseason replacement in 1967, Coronet Blue was initially filmed two years previously, for the 1965–1966 television series.

Starring Frank Converse, it debuted on May 29 with the episode titled “A Time to Be Born.” Arriving in New York City by passenger ship, the protagonist is called by the name “Gigot” by a fellow traveler, who tells him that Margaret wants to talk to him.

Up on deck, he meets with an extremely well-dressed woman, who tells him: “We know what you’re doing. You’re not really with us. You’ve been pretending all along. I’m surprised at you.”

One man pulls a silenced gun, but it’s knocked aside. Gigot is slugged unconscious and thrown overboard, but not before all identification has been stripped from him.

When he comes to at dock side, he can’t remember his name or anything except two words: coronet blue.

The nameless protagonist is taken to Alden General Hospital.

Regaining consciousness, he has no idea who he is. He adopts the name Michael Alden, based on the hospital where he landed and the first name of his doctor. Against the supervising physician’s orders, he decides to strike out on his own. This despite having no money, home, or identity.

(LEFT) Are you curious yellow? Perplexingly, the series’ logo for Coronet Blue was yellow. (RIGHT) Cat got your tongue? A feline beast peers with silent menace over the T.H.E. Cat logo. © CBS Studios.

“I gotta find out what’s out there, doctor,” Alden explains. “I mean, what’s out there for me.”

Leaving the hospital, he gets a job washing dishes at the Screaming I coffee shop run by Max Spier, played by Joel Silver.

While attempting to reassemble his life, Alden discovers he’s being followed. He also has recurring dreams of a woman he can’t identify.

The hunt for his real identity begins when Alden discovers a bar called the Blue Coronet, owned by a man who is obsessed with the coronet symbol. This leads Alden to a party and a young woman named Alix, who introduces him to his father, a dealer in boats.

While at work, he discovers that he speaks fluent Spanish.

Where did he learn that language? It’s a mystery.

Alden and Alix fall in love and plan to run off together. But during a romantic picnic, a sniper attacks. Alix is shot dead by mistake while the shooter gets away.

The premiere episode ended with Michael Alden planning to go to San Francisco to find the owner of the Blue Coronet bar.

Inexplicably, that continuity set-up was ignored in the second aired episode, in which he encountered a family who claimed to be his own. Of course, they weren’t. Otherwise, the quest might have ended right there.

Evidently, the producers rethought the idea that Michael Alden would be a man on the run like David Janssen in The Fugitive, journeying from state to state in his quest. Other than the odd episode that found him in another state, Alden stuck to New York City—a RETROFAN

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dangerous choice, given the number of times he was ambushed by his original assailants.

Periodically, Alden stumbles upon possible clues that he thinks will point him toward his origins—a sapphire crown worn by a magician’s assistant, among others. Frequently–-at least in the early episodes—he is targeted for assassination by shadowy stalkers who are almost never individualized or identified by name or nationality.

After surviving one attempt to kill him, Alden regains consciousness in a monastery and sees a stained-glass window depicting Saint Anthony bearing his face—surrounded by demons. This episode, “A Dozen Demons,” introduced Brian Bedford as novitiate monk Brother Anthony, who appeared occasionally as one of the few recurring characters who helped Alden pursue his quest.

Coronet Blue was initially promoted as “a no-format format,” because Michael Alden was going to be the only regular cast member. Apparently, the producers also found this too difficult to sustain, and quickly abandoned this trajectory, along with the man-on-the-run approach.

During the development stage, series creator Larry Cohen stated, “Coronet Blue is about a man who is nearly murdered, and in each succeeding week’s episode he is chasing his would-be murderer.”

But according to executive producer Herbert Brodkin, Coronet Blue was an allegory for a “more abstract quest for identity to be explored in each episode.”

These diverging points of view would not help the series as it went through its challenging production cycle.

Star Frank Converse was a six-feet, two-inch blond hunk, blue-eyed, 27, and virtually unknown. Originally an older actor was envisioned in the role, but the casting of Alden, whom the press dubbed as “soulful,” proved key to appealing the youth demographic of the Sixties. Michael Alden is supposed to be 19.

Twenty-two episodes were planned. This was cut to 13 after the show was temporarily shelved owing to a regime change at CBS. When CBS President James Aubrey was ousted early in 1965, Executive Producer Herbert Brodkin got caught in the crossfire and lost several ongoing shows, including The Defenders and Coronet Blue, which never aired in its intended 10 p.m. Friday time slot during the 1965–1966 television season.

Instead, CBS reversed its cancellation of Slattery’s People, scheduling it at that time. The reprieved show didn’t last, and was replaced by 24

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The Trials of O’Brian, which was in turn replaced by another show.

This was typical network politics. Aubrey had not supported Slattery’s People.

Even though it had lost its Friday night slot on the CBS schedule, Coronet Blue began filming in the spring of 1965. After spending two million dollars to produce the series, CBS cut the episode order in half.

“Sure, I’m disappointed,” said Larry Cohen at the time, “but what the hell. They’re committed for 13 episodes, which are being filmed now, so I’ll make at least 20 grand, and who knows, maybe it will go in mid-season. Something on CBS is probably going to flop, and they’ll need it.”

CBS vice president of programming Michael Dann insisted, “We have enormous enthusiasm for Coronet Blue and expect it will be in our schedule in 1966.”

But neither happened. The show was not used as a mid-season replacement, nor did it air during the 1966–1967 schedule. Industry observers wondered why CBS would spend two million dollars on a show and not broadcast it. No one had a good answer to the question.

(ABOVE) No, he’s not Jason Bourne!

Frank Converse in Coronet Blue. (LEFT) Converse, as seen in the opening title sequence. © CBS Studios.

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

Notable guest stars appearing on Coronet Blue include (LEFT) Denholm Elliott with Converse, (BELOW LEFT) Jack Cassidy, and (BELOW) Roy Scheider. Courtesy of IMdB.

First green-lit in January 1965, Coronet Blue remained in a strange limbo of unaired series for more than two and a half years.

After Batman’s surprise midseason success in January 1966 boosted ABC ratings, all three networks decided to launch new shows in what they started calling the “second season.” It was the perfect way to replace ratings failures rather than let them run their doomed course.

Coronet Blue was dusted off and introduced as a summer replacement. It proved to be a hit with television audiences,

receiving the highest ratings of any summer replacement show on any network up to that time.

“Coronet Blue is getting more attention than any successful show I’ve ever worked on,” said Larry Cohen. “It’s amazing. Yes, I know how it ends, but I can’t tell you. I can say this. All of the clues to Michael Alden’s identity are in the first episode.”

The scheduling took Converse by surprise. “I’ve never talked with anyone since the end of work on the show in September, 1965,” he said at the time. “After they shelved it, I thought they might use it someday, but I never figured it for this. I learned Coronet Blue is going on the air this summer from reading the newspapers.”

One of the reasons Coronet Blue pulled such excellent ratings was that Alden appealed to the emerging counterculture. Lenny Welch’s driving theme song and the frenetic quick-cut opening credits, in which a go-go dancer was prominent, hit America’s youth right in the sweet spot. Unquestionably, Michael Alden was a fresh-faced Sixties rebel—but with a cause. His own.

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“It’s a weird experience,” said a bemused Converse. “I’m getting large with the teeny boppers and the Crayola set. I’m getting a lot of mail, mostly from the same types who like Richard Chamberlain or Troy Donahue.”

Critics were more sanguine. Many were lukewarm. But their voices counted a lot less than did smash ratings. Confused by Converse’s slightly shaggy head of hair, some critics branded his character a hippie, but he was far from that.

During the course of the 11 episodes that CBS aired that summer, Michael Alden continually fell into traps and was lured into situations intended to compromise him.

One fascinating episode involved being recruited to a government program testing astronauts in advance of a mission to Mars.

The authorities thought Alden’s amnesia would help him endure the six-month simulated flight. It did trigger tantalizing recessed memories. A pre-M*A*S*H Alan Alda gave a bravura performance as Alden’s astronaut companion who cracks under the stress of isolation and confinement. Unfortunately, his breakdown occurs just as Alden starts to remember pieces of his past.

In that episode, the government agent who decided to recruit Alden reveals that the amnesiac has been seen as far west as Texas and San Francisco. Perhaps in the un-filmed orphan scripts, but not on CBS airwaves.

There was the inevitable Sixties campus protest episode, “The Rebels,” in which Alden lived in a college student dorm while being studied as an amnesiac. The episode was remarkable for its youthful supporting cast—future stars such as Jon Voight, David Carradine, and Candice Bergen.

Another intriguing storyline had Michael Alden recognize the lyrics of a just-released pop song, which led him to think he’d been

present during the recording session. A photograph showing him at the funeral of a murdered girl makes Alden wonder if he was connected to her slaying.

In another episode, he’s able to quote dissident Russian author Yevgeny Yevtushenko from memory without knowing how or why.

One weakness of the program was that every clue seemed to lead to a dead end and more danger. Michael Alden never seemed to advance much in his search for the truth. Eventually, he recalled that the girl of his recurring dreams was named Eileen, and that they had been in love.

In “A Charade for Murder,” the mysterious Margaret resurfaces as the mastermind behind an elaborate attempt to frame Alden for murder, that backfires when his friend, the former Brother Anthony, foolishly goes in his place. His quest continued, but Alden never found the answers he desperately sought.

Over that summer, Coronet Blue was pre-empted twice.

Consequently, two episodes never aired, including “Where You Been and What You Doing,” which was the second episode

(LEFT) Coronet Blue industry-directed promotion from Paramount World (July 1965). Curiously, Chester Morris didn’t actually appear in this episode. © Paramount.

(BELOW) How would you like to spend a Thursday night with Candace Bergen? TV Guide preview of an episode of Coronet Blue. © CBS Studios. TV Guide © TV Guide.

(LEFT) Coronet Blue’s Frank Converse with guest-star Juliet Mills. © CBS Studios.

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filmed and was originally scheduled to air a week after the show’s debut. That story opened with Alden in Coronet, Virginia, apparently having hit a dead end in his countrywide search. Frustrated, he has Max Spier wire him bus fare back to New York. Evidently, this is where the original plan to have Alden travel across country in the tradition of fugitive Dr. Richard Kimble was abandoned.

Location filming is notoriously expensive and logistically difficult.

Obviously, a decision was made to shoot in and around New York City to save costs and avoid production headaches.

In the final unaired episode, “Tomoyo,” Alden discovers that he knows karate and realizes that he’s learning who he is from his own efforts, not from outside sources.

Astute viewers noted that Alden was often mesmerized by blue coronets of the crown type. He never seemed to understand that a coronet is also a musical instrument. Nor did he realize that the key phrase he recalled, “coronet blue,” might have been the name of a racehorse or a popular song, but in fact sounds suspiciously like a codename.

The strong ratings should have led CBS executives to consider continuing Coronet Blue. Unfortunately, any thought they had to reactivating the show was foredoomed. In the interim, Frank Converse had signed to play police officer Johnny Corso in a new ABC-TV show called N.Y.P.D. Although it struggled in the ratings, N.Y.P.D. lasted two seasons. But that time, Frank Converse was five years older than when he had played Michael Alden. It’s hard to play a 19-year-old when you’re over 30. Especially during a time when a popular youth slogan was “Don‘t trust anyone over 30.”

Similar man-on-the-run shows like Larry Cohen’s Branded, Run for Your Life, and Shenandoah were not faring so well, either.

At the time, a CBS executive said there was no plan to revive the show. “We’ve always felt that Coronet Blue was a well-acted, well-produced show, but that it didn’t hang together conceptually,” he stated. At the same time, the network expressed doubt that even the series creator knew Michael Alden’s actual identity.

But American television audiences refused to let go of the unfinished storyline. Fans wrote to TV Guide and their local newspapers wanting to know Alden’s fate. No one seemed to have an answer.

Certainly not Frank Converse. When asked the meaning behind the cryptic phrase coronet blue, he replied flatly: “Absolutely nothing at all. It was just a taking-off point, a story gimmick, one I think would offend any adult watching the show. The Fugitive was much more sophisticated in that respect, in its premise, in filling in background. We had no premise—just amnesia, period. The show was so general, it’s almost impossible to talk about.”

On that latter point, Larry Cohen, who should know, agreed.

“When the Brodkin organization took over the series,” he explained, “they wanted to turn it into an anthology… So, they played down the amnesia aspect until there was nothing about it at all in the show. It was just Frank Converse wandering from one story to the next, with no connective format at all.”

Cohen further complained that Brodkin “changed the original conception because he wanted something more than suspense.

He felt it should have social consciousness, because that had been responsible for the success of his earlier series, The Defenders.”

Cohen insisted that there was a solid backstory to Michael Alden’s dilemma, and only he knew it.

After Coronet Blue had been cancelled, the series originator admitted, “I’ve never been associated with a show like this one.

I know how it ends, but I can’t tell you. I’m negotiating with TV

(ABOVE) A pensive Michael Alden didn’t know who or what he was any more than the audience did. (LEFT) A four-DVD set released in 2017 contains all 13 episodes of Coronet Blue. © CBS Studios.

Guide to do an article on how it would have ended, but even that depends on whether or not someone decides to revive the series. With all this attention, it could happen. I can say this: all of the clues to Michael Alden’s identity are contained in the first episode.”

Frank Converse apparently never saw that memo. “No thought was ever given to a wrap-up show,” he insisted. “It’s a lot of malarkey that anyone knows how it would have ended.”

Even into the Eighties, the aging star held onto that belief, stating, “The words were just a story hook. The history of the show was as much of mystery as the content of the show.”

But Converse always considered Coronet Blue an important steppingstone in his early career. “It was a terrific job at the time. I welcomed it. And the way it did terrific things for me.”

Coronet Blue was never resurrected. Instead, it lingered in the popular consciousness as a cult show, fondly remembered but sadly unresolved.

Eventually, Larry Cohen revealed all. “The actual secret is that Converse was not really an American at all,” he explained. “He was a Russian, who had been trained to appear like an American, and was sent to the U.S. as a spy. He belonged to a spy unit called ‘Coronet Blue.’ He decided to defect, so the Russians tried to kill him before he can give away the identities of the other Soviet agents. And nobody can really identify him because he doesn’t exist as an American. Coronet Blue was actually an outgrowth of ‘The Traitor’ episode of The Defenders.”

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Robert Loggia as Thomas Hewitt Edward Cat in the only season of T.H.E. Cat. Courtesy of Dutch National Archives, The Hague, via Wikipedia.

That 1963 Cohen-scripted episode concerned an aeronautics employee accused of espionage.

In retrospect, I’m not sure how TV audiences would have reacted to the revelation that their seemingly All-American hero was really a Soviet sleeper agent on a secret mission, but they never had to face that issue.

It’s impossible to say how well Coronet Blue might have done in its original 10 p.m. Friday time slot back in 1965. It would have been up against The Man From U.N.C.L.E. [see RetroFan #15], then in its wildly successful second season. Perhaps U.N.C.L.E. might have suffered. More likely, Coronet Blue would have struggled against it.

But it’s amusing to think that Michael Alden had a lot more in common with another cult-favorite blond Russian, Illya Kuryakin, than fans of either show suspected back in 1967.

CURIOSITY AND T.H.E. CAT

Another series I loved ran only 26 episodes: T.H.E. Cat. It sounds like it might have been in the vein of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., but no, it was cut of entirely different fur.

Robert Logia played Thomas Hewitt Edward Cat. This is how narrator George Fenneman described him in every episode’s opening: “Out of the night comes a man who saves lives at the risk of his own.

Once, a circus performer, an aerialist who refused the net. Once a cat burglar, a master among jewel thieves. Now, a professional bodyguard.

Primitive, savage, in love with danger—The Cat!” Why he said The Cat and not T.H.E. Cat, I don’t understand.

Maybe he misread his script.

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The animated opening and accompanying Lalo Schifrin theme no doubt reminds many TV viewers of the similar opening to Peter Gunn—only this show was in color. Or “living color,” as NBC liked to boast back in the Sixties, when black-and-white programs were being phased out as color television sets became more affordable.

T.H.E. Cat was an atmospheric crime series that debuted on September 16, 1966. On the surface, the premise sounded unique.

A former circus acrobat turned cat burglar reforms after a stretch in prison and becomes a professional bodyguard. The concept was inspired by the 1955 Alfred Hitchcock film, To Catch a Thief.

More significantly, the premise was mounted on a familiar TV template. Thomas Hewitt Edward Cat had no office, but met clients at a smoky cabaret called the Casa Del Gato, which he co-owned with his friend, Pepe Cordoza, played by Robert Carricart wearing a gold earring.

This is nothing less than an updating of Peter Gunn, but with a different coat of paint. Similarly to Peter Gunn, T.H.E. Cat belonged to the Film Noir genre. [Editor’s note: RetroFan #31 took a shot at Peter Gunn.] Lots of neon and rain-swept city streets. The locale was San Francisco. Cat drove a customized black Corvette.

The series was produced by Boris Sagal, who felt that, after the flood of Sixties TV spy shows, the crime genre was due for a comeback. Looking for someone to play the lead in the pilot script by creator Harry Julian Fink, Sagal thought Robert Loggia was a perfect fit.

“He has the cat mystique—a greased-lightning effect,” praised Sagal. “He moves like a cat.”

“When Boris Sagal asked me to do this series,” declared Loggia, “it was almost as though it had been written to order for me.”

Indeed, Loggia seemed born for this role. Years earlier, he had played the legendary Mexican-American lawman in Walt Disney’s The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca. That character was called El Gato—the Cat—due to the number of times he escaped certain death.

The actor credited that role with landing him the series. “In one gunfight scene,” he recalled, “I ran up a couple of steps and dove into a saloon, whirled around, and started shooting. A Hollywood stuntman saw the show, liked the way I moved, and remembered me. He’s the man who several years later recommended me for the role of Cat.” Loggia also acknowledged that his own feline attributes played a huge part. “A fantastic coincidence!” he said. “It may be in the stars. I move like a cat, maybe that’s why I got the part. It’s an integral part of the character. He has the spirit of a cat. He’s independent and refuses to be leashed, owned or told what to do.

“And he’s an enigma like a cat—no one knows where he goes at night and what he does. Tom Cat is a pure-blooded cat, a cool cat, all kinds of cat—but not an alley cat! There’s the misleading softness—and the sudden violence! The stealthy, patient approach—and the final lunge!”

The sophisticated Mr. Cat was almost never called Tom. He always introduced himself as T. Hewitt Edward Cat. “This fellow I portray has a kind of shady past,” revealed Loggia, “like Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief. He’s a man of the world who now works as a bodyguard for those who have been threatened with death. Of course, he demands a substantial fee. There is nothing gallant or gratuitous about Cat. He can choose to save or not save a life—it depends on how much he likes or dislikes the subject under attack.”

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

Loggia researched the role by reading Carl Van Vechten’s Tiger in the House. “I’m stressing the cat concept without playing the animal itself. I’ve been looking at all sorts of cats. The most interesting is the house cat, not lions or tigers. I’m dead serious about using real animals as the basis of a characterization. Method actors do it all the time. I even went to the Central Park Zoo to study a black panther’s movements so I could move correctly.”

As with Peter Gunn, the show was peopled with offbeat characters. Cat is of Romani blood, while Pepe was described as a Spanish Gypsy. Several storylines revolved around that subculture, including one where a Gypsy chief is out to assassinate Pepe.

Robert Carricart described his character as a man of mystery.

“He might have been a bullfighter, or a man who wanted to see the world. He is sensitive, a man of action. He has had some tragedy in his life which gives him a sad outlook. He has humor, touched with cynicism. He has pulled himself up by the bootstraps. He might have gone into a life of crime but for a strong sense of justice and the Grace of God.” Like Honey West the season before, Cat wore a black prowling suit and carried a grappling hook, which he used to scale buildings. [Editor’s note: RetroFan #8 featured Honey West.] He rarely resorted to firearms, preferring a throwing knife carried up one sleeve to his .32 Walther pistol, in addition to his superb martial arts skills.

In the series opener, “To Kill a Priest,” McAllister calls in Cat to help save a priest who is being threatened by extortionists. The priest believes he’s safe in his church. In a riveting sequence, armed only with his grappling hook and throwing knife, Cat penetrates the stronghold by walking a tight rope to gain entry and easily overwhelms the priest’s bodyguards, proving his point.

(TOP) Loggia in cat burgler mode for this promotional photo. (ABOVE LEFT) Disney home video collection for The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca (a.k.a. El Gato). © Disney. (RIGHT) Here at RetroFan Central, we love those annual TV Guide Fall Previews—especially for their series previews, like this one for T.H.E. Cat. (LEFT) Loggia with guest-star Laura Devon (who also appeared in an episode of ZZAZ!). © CBS Studios.

Unlike Paladin—one of Loggia’s favorite TV heroes—Cat seldom left his home turf. One episode found him out in the desert, but he usually stuck to the streets of San Francisco, and almost always operated at night. [Editor’s note: We’re on a roll here!

RetroFan #40 will feature Have Gun, Will Travel!)

R. G. Armstrong played Captain McAllister, who often worked with Cat and who had lost his left hand to a gunman’’s bullet. In one memorable episode, he tried to enlist Cat’s aid in settling scores with the ex-con who did it. There were no other recurring characters.

Although marketed as a cool crime drama, T.H.E. Cat was really an action vehicle.

“That’s the tenor of the show,” explained Loggia. “It’s got to move. There’s lots of climbing and running and taking on three guys and hanging upside down on a rope and getting out of deals RETROFAN

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Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

Every cat needs to get around town! Rare TV show merchandise including (LEFT) an AMT Model kit—for T.H.E. Cat. T.H.E. Cat © CBS Studios. Mask, gun, and game courtesy of Worthpoint.

like that. Every script is loaded with action. We take whatever the writers might say and embellish it, and actually choreograph the script. There’s a former stunt man who works out the action and we spend as much time on that as we do on the dramatic part.”

Loggia’s athletic background served him well. “I seem to have a flair for this kind of action,” he acknowledged. “They say Errol Flynn had a flair for the top of the stairs and Douglas Fairbanks had a flair at the bottom. I have a flair somewhere in the middle.”

The moody production managed to avoid criticism for its violence. “I think what gets us off the hook here is the bizarre quality of the show,” Loggia observed. “Also, the spirit of our violence is different. We don’t go in for slow-moving, bonecrunching stuff; instead, Cat is supposed to be not only deadly but beautiful to watch in action, and that’s the way it seems to be getting across. Women write in, not to complain about violence, but to ask if I took ballet lessons, because of the way I move.

“NBC-TV did pull one scene from an episode they considered too violent,” he revealed. “We will remake the scene. But it’s my feeling that if Cat moves like Doug Fairbanks did, it takes the curse of violence off the show. I don’t intend to play the character like Smilin’ Jack.”

Most of the stunt work was by Loggia himself. “This series is ultra-action, full tilt, and I do all my own stunts. I don’t have to, and maybe they’d rather I didn’t. But doing

T.H.E. Cat prowled the comic spinner racks in 1967 with a four-issue Dell series. T.H.E. Cat #4’s photo cover of Robert Loggia, with interior artwork

by Jack Sparling. T.H.E. Cat © CBS Studios.

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it myself, I feel I own the part. And it helps the show. There’s an enormous difference when the camera comes in and it’s you.”

Well, not every stunt, as the actor admitted. “I’d never attempt the things T.H.E. Cat has to do as a matter of routine. In our pilot show, for instance, I used a double for the tightrope scene. And even the double didn’t want to do it. He had to walk about 50 feet across this rope, 100 feet above the ground. He was protected, not by a net, but by a pile of cardboard boxes about 25 feet high that would break his fall. Once he did start to fall, but caught himself.”

Loggia suffered his own scrapes. “I had to pass through a window in the pilot. I was spiked under the right eye when a grappling hook came loose.”

After shooting the first 16 episodes, production took a break in order to retool in the face of only average ratings.

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

“When we resume shooting,” revealed Loggia, “we will try to broaden the show’s appeal to reach the teenagers.”

Changes were implemented. Expensive night shooting was curtailed.

“No more group clients,” Loggia revealed. “The character will work only for individuals in trouble.”

One of the casualties was Robert Armstrong’s Captain McAllister.

“A lot of viewers didn’t like to see me hang around with a cop,” Loggia explained. “I guess I’m supposed to be a dark, sinister hero who, one, isn’t supposed to like cops, and, two, is supposed to be able to handle anything without police assistance. In any event, our audience didn’t like it, and neither did Armstrong. He asked to be let out of the show even before the producer decided it was a good idea.”

Another change was to give Cat some romantic scenes.

“They had me buss a blonde in the premiere,” said Loggia, “but as nearly as I can remember it hasn’t happened since. Now, though, the kissing will start again. The audience seemed to like it—and me, I’m all for the idea.”

Regrettably, none of these changes boosted ratings. It probably didn’t help that T. Hewitt’s romantic interests had a distressing habit of getting bumped off. Before the season ended, a new recurring police foil, John Marley as Lieutenant Lassiter, was introduced.

But he was more hostile than McAllister.

Ultimately, nothing could have saved T.H.E. Cat because it was one of the last TV dramas telecast as a half hour—not enough room to tell a satisfying story or develop the hero, whom audiences found enigmatic.

“I’ve had people tell me the show is too ‘arty,’” acknowledged Loggia. “They don’t understand what we’re doing. They don’t like it because they don’t know anything about the hero. They can’t figure out what he means.”

Robert Loggia was so crushed by the cancellation of T.H.E. Cat that he fell into a six-year depression. Eventually, he pulled out of it and went on to have a diverse and rewarding career. And he never lost his love for the role that he appeared born to play.

“T.H.E. Cat was a series ahead of its time that was never understood by NBC,” Loggia recalled. “The muted color, the action by night only, the mystique of deformity, and the person of a cat/man was beyond NBC Productions in the Sixties. I remember risking life and limb and bringing T. Hewitt Edward Cat to the screen.

Foolhardy but free, and now a fond memory.”

Ironically, one year later, a similar series went on to become a hit. It Takes a Thief was also inspired by To Catch a Thief.

Special thanks to Walter von Bosall for his kind assistance in obtaining unpublished Robert Loggia quotes.

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.

19942024 UPDATE #2

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AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES: 1945-1949

The AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES continues its ambitious series of FULL-COLOR HARDCOVERS, where TwoMorrows’ top authors document every decade of comic book history from the 1940s to today! At long last, this 1945-49 VOLUME covers the comic book industry during the aftermath of World War II, when scores of writers and artists returned from foreign battlefields to resume their careers. It was a period when readers began turning away from the escapist entertainment offered by super-heroes in favor of other genres, like the grittier, more brutal crime comics. It was a time when JOE SIMON and JACK KIRBY created Young Romance, inaugurating a golden age of romance comics. And it was during this five-year period that Timely and National Comics capitalized on the popularity of Westerns, that BILL GAINES plotted a new course for EC Comics in the wake of his father’s death, and that JERRY SIEGEL and JOE SHUSTER first sued for the rights to Superman. These are just a few of the events chronicled in this exhaustive, full-color hardcover, further documenting the ACBC series’ cohesive, linear overview of the entire landscape of comics history! Edited by KEITH DALLAS and JOHN WELLS. (264-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $49.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-099-1 NOW SHIPPING!

MARVEL COMICS In The EARLY 1960s

AN ISSUE-BY-ISSUE FIELD GUIDE TO A POP CULTURE PHENOMENON All characters and properties TM & © their respective owners.

by PIERRE COMTOIS This new volume in the ongoing “MARVEL COMICS IN THE...” series takes you all the way back to that company’s legendary beginnings, when gunfighters traveled the West and monsters roamed the Earth! The company’s output in other genres influenced the development of their super-hero characters from Thor to Spider-Man, and featured here are the best of those stories not covered previously, completing issue-by-issue reviews of EVERY MARVEL COMIC OF NOTE FROM 1961-1965! Presented are scores of handy, easy to reference entries on AMAZING FANTASY, TALES OF SUSPENSE (and ASTONISH), STRANGE TALES, JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY, RAWHIDE KID, plus issues of FANTASTIC FOUR, AVENGERS, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, and others that weren’t in the previous 1960s edition. It’s author PIERRE COMTOIS’ last word on Marvel’s early years, when JACK KIRBY, STEVE DITKO, and DON HECK, together with writer/editor STAN LEE (and brother LARRY LIEBER), built an unprecedented new universe of excitement!

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HOLY PHENOMENON! In the way-out year of 1966, the action comedy “Batman” starring ADAM WEST premiered and triggered a tsunami of super swag, including toys, games, Halloween costumes, puppets, action figures, and lunch boxes. Meanwhile, still more costumed avengers sprang forth on TV (“The Green Hornet,” “Ultraman”), in MOVIES (“The Wild World of Batwoman,” “Rat Pfink and Boo Boo”), and in ANIMATION (“Space Ghost,” “The Marvel Super Heroes”). ZOWIE! traces the history of the superhero genre from early films, through the 1960s TV superhero craze, and its pop culture influence ever since. This 192-page hardcover, in pop art colors that conjure the period, spotlights the coolest collectibles and kookiest knockoffs every ’60s kid begged their parents for, and features interviews with the TV stars (WEST, BURT WARD, YVONNE CRAIG, FRANK GORSHIN, BURGESS MEREDITH, CESAR ROMERO, JULIE NEWMAR, VAN WILLIAMS), the artists behind the comics (JERRY ROBINSON, DICK SPRANG, CARMINE INFANTINO, JOE GIELLA), and others. Written and designed by MARK VOGER (MONSTER MASH, HOLLY JOLLY), ZOWIE! is one super read!

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RETRO SCI-FI

A Hanna-Barbera Production in All but Name?!?

BY JASON HOFIUS A Gatchaman promotional image. Artist unknown. Japan’s Gatchaman was the basis for Battle of the Planets. Photos accompanying this article are courtesy of Jason Hofius. Battle of the Planets © Tatsunoko Production Co., Ltd.

It was September 1978 and the previous year’s theatrical release of Star Wars had created an unexpected renewed interest in science fiction/adventure stories.

Most television producers were caught off guard; there were no new programs in that genre being prepared to attract hungry viewers. The only existing science fiction series were well-worn reruns of things like The Twilight Zone (1959) or Star Trek (1966).

Not many other shows in the genre survived long enough to make it as daily syndicated offerings. New programming was being sought out as quickly as possible, and only one company, Sandy Frank Entertainment, was ready by the 1978 series premiere season with their program, Battle of the Planets.

It was a striking animated series that hit the ground running.

Five days a week (in most markets), for 85 full episodes. Its rich, detailed animation, fantastic cosmos-soaring stories, quickpaced action, and rousing music were all immediately attractive to children. Each aspect set it apart from just about everything else on TV. The series became an instant ratings powerhouse that flattened competition across North America. It left a strong impression and achieved its goal of making rapt viewers of Television syndicator youngsters who wanted more Sandy Frank. outer space adventures.

What might be surprising to many are the origins of Battle of the Planets. Viewers didn’t know much about it at first, other than most of it looked nothing like the typical cartoon production they were familiar with. Children who grew up in North America knew a certain type of animation. A style from the most well-known and prolific cartoon studio, Hanna-Barbera Productions, had become standard. Some may also have noticed the phrase, “Produced in association with Tatsunoko Production Co., Ltd.” and the odd little seahorse logo in its end credits. In fans’ eyes, Battle of the Planets clearly wasn’t another Hanna-Barbera show. Or... was it?

The answer is a bit complicated. Battle of the Planets was the end result of a series created in both Japan and the United States. Many of the stateside personnel involved in its production did indeed have histories with Hanna-Barbera. Due to this, Battle of the Planets was actually steeped in the studio’s history. So much so that it could almost be considered as a project from them. But where did it come from and how did so many Hanna-Barbera veterans fit into the story of bringing it to air?

HISTORY

The basis for Battle of the Planets was a Japanese television show called Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. Longtime American television syndicator Sandy Frank was looking to create his very first original syndicated series just as the Star Wars craze took hold. In 1977, he bought the licensing rights to Gatchaman and renamed it Battle of the Planets to capitalize on the trend. Gatchaman turned out to be far from the outer space adventure Frank had envisioned and had already been pre-selling to U.S. television program buyers. Its RETROFAN

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stories took place strictly on Earth. Not only that, it also had a lot of hard-hitting action and violence that would never be permitted to air in North America. Frank had to reshape Gatchaman into what he wanted and he needed people familiar with television animation production to do it.

At the time, a number of studios were creating animation for American television, including Filmation, DePatie-Freleng, Rankin/Bass, the newly started Ruby-Spears, and a few others. But Hanna-Barbera reigned over them all in success and sheer number of series produced.

William Hanna and Joseph Barbera met in the Thirties at MGM’s animated theatrical shorts section. Both were involved in different areas of production; neither was an animator. While there, they worked on the some of the studio’s most popular cartoon series, including Tom & Jerry and Droopy. The duo eventually headed the animated shorts department. But when MGM closed their animation section, Hanna and Barbera struck out on their own, formed Hanna-Barbera Enterprises (soon to be Hanna-Barbera Productions), and expanded into television animation.

Their simplified style cut animation tasks to the bare minimum, which allowed them to more easily create weekly TV

Creator of Gatchaman, Tatsuo Yoshida.

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A Battle of the Planets promotional advertisement that listed contributors Alan Dinehart and Jameson Brewer and mentioned their work at Hanna-Barbera. series. Their first was The Ruff and Reddy Show in late 1957, then The Huckleberry Hound Show (1958), and The Quick Draw McGraw Show (1959). Prime-time TV animation followed with The Flintstones in 1960, and Hanna-Barbera soon entered their busiest period.

The need for creators was at an all-time high. Hanna-Barbera employed scores of production personnel; anyone a normal production studio would need, with the addition of many types of visual artists. It remained that way through the late Eighties, when weekly animation slowed. But in 1977, things were going strong and the thriving studio was putting out about ten shows a week.

It was at that time Sandy Frank purchased Gatchaman. His main task was to find someone to translate the series for North American TV. When getting into something new, Frank always sought out guidance from the best sources he could.

So, it was only natural that he looked toward Hanna-Barbera.

A number of people involved in Battle of the Planets’ creation, including Sandy Frank himself

retro sci-fi

and eventual series head writer, Jameson Brewer, recalled Frank initially approached Hanna-Barbera to see if they would work on his new series. Their likelihood of agreeing was slim. The studio’s main business was creating their own content, and they had enough work with their productions to stay busy. They probably didn’t have much interest, let alone time, to adapt anyone else’s. At any rate, an agreement with Hanna-Barbera never happened.

Without their involvement, Frank still needed experienced personnel for his series. What was his next solution? He knew if someone had spent any time at all in television animation in the U.S., it was likely they had passed through Hanna-Barbera’s doors.

So, Frank looked for frequent Hanna-Barbera collaborators to see if they had interest in joining his production team.

PRODUCTION

The initial attempt to begin the translation fell to a then-current Hanna-Barbera employee named Alex Lovy. Sandy Frank’s friend, and future director of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Irvin Kershner, suggested Lovy. Lovy was with Hanna-Barbera from their late theatrical shorts era, collaborating on MGM’s Loopy De Loop (1960) films. He carried over with them to television where he acted as a story director for most of their shows through the late Sixties.

He additionally served as an associate or co-producer for many programs, including a couple years on The Flintstones. But for Battle of the Planets, Lovy was approached to be head writer. It would have been the first time he held that role.

For the production work of recording the voice actors and editing the series, Sandy Frank was put in touch with Fred Ladd.

Ladd was a veteran in TV animation on the East Coast with no direct Hanna-Barbera involvement. But he was an important person in the field of another discipline... After Astro Boy (1963), Kimba, the White Lion (1965), and Gigantor (1966), he was one of the few who had success translating Japanese animation for American audiences.

However, since Ladd was based in New York City, he was reluctant to take on the job. His reluctance turned to refusal when he

learned Lovy had never written any scripts for the very specific task of lip synching. Ladd knew from firsthand history that the combination of inexperience and distance would have meant a lot of time correcting things in the studio. He didn’t want to start a job with such obvious potential headaches. So, he turned it down and suggested Frank find an experienced synch writer and have the entire production done in one location.

Frank followed the Jameson Brewer, head advice.

He took Lovy out of creative and script superconsideration to write the series visor. and began a fresh search for help elsewhere in Hollywood.

Via Frank’s social circles, he soon landed on Jameson Brewer, who would become the main creative force for Battle of the Planets.

Brewer’s long history in animation started in 1940, when he began as an apprentice at Universal Studios for Walter Lantz. He eventually moved to Walt Disney Studios where he transitioned to writing. He found writing cartoons to be more creatively satisfying than drawing them. Brewer then went independent and created scripts for short subject cartoons, features like The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964), and live-action television, including episodes of The Addams Family (1964) and Branded (1965). Brewer came to Hanna-Barbera in 1972 to work on an Afterschool Special episode they animated, called “The Last of the Curlews.” Happy with his work there, he continued to write for the studio on the The New Scooby-Doo Movies that same year.

Another employee of Hanna-Barbera and close friend to Jameson Brewer, Alan Dinehart, would become Battle of the Planets’ voice director and an actor for two of its main roles. Like

Hanna-Barbera series like these had large concentrations of people who later worked on Battle of the Planets. © Hanna-Barbera.

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many Hanna-Barbera staff, Dinehart did a little of everything at the studio, including production work and acting. He was crucial in the development of The Flintstones as one of the series’ associate producers, and he served the same role on their second prime-time series, Top Cat (1961). Dinehart also wrote episodes of The Flintstones and Adventures of Jonny Quest (1964).

Dinehart eventually found his niche as a voice director, the person in the recording booth who guided the voice actors’ performances. He worked in this capacity on Hanna-Barbera series like Wait Till Your Father Gets Home (1972), Goober and the Ghost Chasers, and Butch Cassidy (both 1973). He also acted in many of the series he worked on. Dinehart was still very active at Hanna-Barbera through to the beginning of Battle of the Planets.

David E. Hanson, Battle of the Planets’ director, was previously an executive at the advertising agency Leo Burnett Company.

While there, he oversaw many TV commercial campaigns that featured animated mascots like Tony the Tiger and the Jolly Green Giant. The animation for their commercials was frequently done by Hanna-Barbera. It was at this position where he became acquainted with many of Hanna-Barbera’s production personnel.

In the late Sixties, Hanson left advertising to become the head of children’s programming at the ABC television network. He decided what the network would air, including programs created

by Hanna-Barbera like The Fantastic Four (1967) and Cattanooga Cats (1969).

Hanson and longtime Warner Bros. animator Abe Levitow formed the Levitow/Hanson Company in March 1972. It focused on industrial films and television commercials, usually in combination with animation. In 1973, Levitow/Hanson created an award-winning public service announcement campaign with characters from Johnny Hart’s B.C. newspaper comic strip that featured animation from Hanna-Barbera.

Following the untimely 1975 death of Abe Levitow, Hanson kept the company going under a new name, Gallerie Films International.

He remained in touch with his Hanna-Barbera contacts. It was through one of them, Jameson Brewer, that Hanson was offered the job of directing Battle of the Planets.

ACTORS

Not only did the main production personnel have roots at Hanna-Barbera, the series’ actors were also heavily recruited from their ranks.

Casey Kasem, who played Mark, the leader of Battle of the Planets’ heroic G-Force team, started in college radio. He moved West and got into TV animation on The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo (1964) for UPA Studios. He was cast as Batman’s sidekick, Robin, in 1968 for Filmation Studios’ The Batman/Superman Hour (a role he returned to when Hanna-Barbera began their Super Friends series in 1973). But his most well-known part, by far, came through Hanna-Barbera when he was cast as Shaggy in Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (1969). Afterward came countless additional guest appearances as the character, as well as roles on more Hanna-Barbera projects like Josie and the Pussycats (1970) and Hong Kong Phooey (1974). These few credits merely scratch the surface of his heavy involvement with the studio.

Ronnie Schell [interviewed by Jason Hofius in RetroFan #12!—ed.] played G-Force’s navigator Tiny in the series pilot, then secondin-command Jason for the remainder of the series. He started 36

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(TOP) A Gatchaman promotional image. Art by Manabu Tagaya and Katsuyoshi Ichihara. (ABOVE) Tagaya’s sketch for the Gatchaman promotional image at top.

retro sci-fi

(LEFT) Casey Kasem provided the voice of Mark, the leader of G-Force. (RIGHT) Ronnie Schell was Tiny (in the pilot) and Jason in the rest of the series.

(LEFT) Janet Waldo played Princess and Susan. (RIGHT) Keye Luke played the Spirit and Zoltar, the series’ villains. his career as a stand-up comic, then moved into television in the early Sixties. His voice acting career with Hanna-Barbera took off in Saturday morning projects like Goober and the Ghost Chasers and Butch Cassidy. He also acted in their prime-time Wait Till Your Father Gets Home.

The explosives and communications expert on the G-Force team, Princess, was played by Janet Waldo. At different times in her career, Waldo focused on radio and film, then TV. Her very first animation acting role was as teenaged daughter Judy Jetson in Hanna-Barbera’s The Jetsons (1962). After establishing herself in the series, Waldo hoped to play more roles. She created a tape of various voices for Joe Barbera, who liked her versatility. Waldo then guested on The Flintstones and went on to main roles in Penelope Pitstop (1968), Josie and the Pussycats (1970), and many more. She was a very important part of Hanna-Barbera’s history and rapidly became one of their foremost performers.

Keye Luke played the two main villains, Zoltar and the Spirit, as well as Mark’s father, Colonel Cronus. Before he started in voice acting, Luke’s most famous role was that of Lee Chan, or “Number-One Son,” in 11 theatrical Charlie Chan films (from 1935 to 1949). His first voice work in TV animation was for Jonny Quest in 1964. He continued in a number of Hanna-Barbera’s programs from that point, including Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and Jabberjaw

(1976). He even voiced the character of Charlie Chan himself in Hanna-Barbera’s The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan (1972).

Performing the role of Jason in Battle of the Planets’ pilot was David Jolliffe. Initially known for his recurring role of Bernie in the live-action comedy-drama Room 222 (1969), Jolliffe started his voice acting career on Hanna-Barbera’s Emergency +4 (1973), which itself was a spin-off of the live-action prime-time Emergency! (1972) series. William Barbera took a liking to Jolliffe and made sure he received a lot of work in their later shows like Devlin (1974) and Clue Club (1976). When it came time to record Jason in the regular series, though, Jolliffe had committed to play guitar on a national tour with pop star Shaun Cassidy, and wasn’t available. Ronnie Schell took over the role of Jason. However, Jolliffe remained a friend of the production and returned to record more Battle of the Planets roles when he was available.

Alan Young [see RetroFan #29] was the only main cast member without any Hanna-Barbera experience. But he was almost part of their family in 1960. When Alan Dinehart began work on The Flintstones, he offered the role of Fred Flintstone’s best friend and next-door neighbor, Barney Rubble, to Young. However, Young had just started on what would become his most well-known project, the live-action Mister Ed (1961) series. Young felt working on two projects at the same time might be dishonest, since he wouldn’t be able to give his full attention to both. So, he turned the voice acting role down.

Young was later brought into Battle of the Planets by Alan Dinehart. Following the end of Mister Ed in 1966, Young took a hiatus from acting until 1974, when Dinehart asked him to voice Scrooge McDuck for a Walt Disney record project. The pair had known each other for decades, having worked together on the star’s eponymous, Emmy Award–winning sketch/variety series The Alan Young Show in 1950. Dinehart served as a director on the program and the two remained very close friends.

(LEFT) Narrator William Woodson. (RIGHT) Alan Young played Keyop and 7-Zark-7.

The distinctively-voiced William Woodson supplied the memorable opening narration for Hanna-Barbera’s The All-New Super Friends Hour (1977). He provided the same role for Battle of the Planets—as well as voicing many of the series’ key episodic characters. Woodson was an on-camera actor for most of his career, but when he began working for Hanna-Barbera, it opened up a whole new arena for him. He very quickly became one of RETROFAN

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their go-to performers and was well on his way to becoming an important contributor to the studio’s history when he joined Battle of the Planets.

Alan Oppenheimer was involved in Battle of the Planets’ pilot, as one of the villains. Mainly a live-action actor, Oppenheimer started voice acting projects with Hanna-Barbera in the early 1970s. He soon became a staple at the studio, and was in many shows that involved Alan Dinehart, including Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, Goober and the Ghost Chasers, and Butch Cassidy. He didn’t have any additional roles in Battle of the Planets after the pilot.

MUSIC

When you wanted cartoon music, you wanted the best. Even if the best was still under contract to—you guessed it—Hanna-Barbera. By the late Seventies, the most experienced and well-known TV cartoon music composer was Hoyt Curtin. He started in industrial films and commercials and was introduced to Hanna and Barbera through those. They asked him to create a theme for The Ruff and Reddy Show. After they gave him the lyrics over the phone, Curtin impressed them by calling back a few minutes later to hum his theme composition, and they were inseparable after that.

Curtin composed the iconic theme songs and incidental music for series like The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Yogi Bear Show (1961), The Flintstones, Top Cat, The Jetsons, and Jonny Quest, to name just a few. In a 1974 article for Billboard magazine, Curtin estimated that, during his peak, he created and recorded 50–70 hours of music a week for Hanna-Barbera. A truly amazing amount of material.

By the late Seventies it had slowed some, but Curtin was still working hard for Hanna-Barbera. When Alan Dinehart contacted him in 1977 about creating the theme song for Battle of the Planets, he was interested. But to do it, he needed special permission to work outside the studio, which he was given.

The theme song composition was, at that point, all he was meant to do. Curtin rarely had the opportunity to create dramatic compositions and relished the times he could. His exciting Super Friends and jazzy Jonny Quest themes were standouts to him, and the chance to write another action-filled theme was likely a key factor for his attraction to Battle of the Planets.

Paul DeKorte also acted as the music supervisor for Battle of the Planets in an uncredited role.

He did the same in many of Hanna-Barbera’s cartoons, alongside Curtin as the main composer.

DeKorte was at the studio from its beginnings, having known William Barbera from their days together in a barbershop quartet. In addition to music production duties for them, he also sang on 38

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Japanese promotional image for Gatchaman. many of their theme songs, including The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!

ANIMATION

Every episode of Battle of the Planets required new animation to fill in for deleted scenes that were too violent or otherwise considered not acceptable for Western audiences. These new sequences were created in American TV animation style. They mainly consisted of the newly added character 7-Zark-7 in his environments, or G-Force relaxing in their Ready Room. The characters in these sequences not surprisingly looked more like those from an episode of Scooby-Doo than they did their original versions.

While much of the new content may not have matched the detail or fluidity of that from Japan, it was created by some of the most experienced personnel in American animation. Battle of the Planets’ original content received the same attention any other new Hanna-Barbera (or similar) production would have gotten.

The American animation included American-style gags, such as 7-Zark-7 flying by flapping his cape, Mark and Jason playing ping-pong in the Ready Room, Tiny eating his favorite Spaceburger snack, and Princess and Keyop supplying the music. Mark would frequently be distracted and knock Tiny’s burger out of his hands with a

A music recording log from United/Western Studios. So familiar was the engineer with Hoyt Curtin working for HannaBarbera, he accidentally wrote the studio’s name in the client box.

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stray ping-pong ball; Keyop played silly drum solos. These types of repeated gags filled time and give kids a familiar “base” to land on each time they were shown. They were examples of the HannaBarbera playbook, and never present in the original Japanese series.

Comic book artist and character designer extraordinaire, Alex Toth came up with the design for Battle of the Planets’ original robot character, 7-Zark-7. Toth was deeply-rooted at Hanna-Barbera and provided character designs for most of their more serious adventure series, including Jonny Quest, Space Ghost and Dino Boy (1966), Birdman (1967), and Super Friends. He was a friend of Alan Dinehart and did the Zark design as a favor to him.

Graphic artist Thomas Wogatzke began his history at HannaBarbera in the early Seventies, where he developed the logos for shows like Super Friends and Scooby’s All Star Laff-A-Lympics (1977). He continued at the studio through the Nineties. While there, he worked closely with Alex Toth. It was Toth who suggested him to Alan Dinehart to work on Battle of the Planets. Wogatzke created several treatments for the design and ultimately developed its final logo.

Emil Carle was listed as Battle of the Planets’ production manager, but he actually created much of the American-produced animation along with Harold Johns. Carle had a long association with Hanna-Barbera, going all the way back to the days of The Huckleberry Hound Show. He also worked on many of the studio’s most fondlyremembered productions, including The Flintstones and Wacky Races (1968). In the early Seventies, Carle went freelance. He then split much of his time between Filmation and Hanna-Barbera. He was no longer exclusive to the Hanna-Barbera studio, but still did a lot of work on their television programs and specials. Jameson Brewer himself even contributed to animation duties. His most noticeable work was in scenes where he redesigned Mark to look more detailed and heroic.

WRITING

The writing staff of Battle of the Planets comprised highly experienced TV writers, most of whom were known by Brewer and Dinehart. Of the 11 writers on Battle of the Planets, only seven actually wrote scripts. Of those seven, four had previous experience at Hanna-Barbera.

Jameson Brewer was the head writer/story editor for the series. He only had credit as co-writer on one script (with Peter

Character designer Alex Toth’s 7-Zark-7 model sheet.

Germano), but he did major revisions and editing on each and every episode.

The primary writer for Battle of the Planets was Peter Germano.

He was a magazine author, novelist, and television writer whose favorite genre was Westerns. Germano gained an interest in children’s television in the late Sixties, due to the frequent visits and viewing habits of his grandchildren. He came to Hanna-Barbera to write for Valley of the Dinosaurs (1974). Germano wrote 27 and a half scripts for Battle of the Planets, making him the largest contributor to the series by far.

Jameson Brewer brought another old friend and prolific scriptwriter, Sid Morse, on to Battle of the Planets. The two worked together on various projects through the years. They both landed at Hanna-Barbera around the same time, where they wrote scripts for The New Scooby-Doo Movies. Morse wrote for more of the studio’s series in 1972, including The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan. Later, he wrote episodes of the teenaged I Dream of Jeannie clone, Jeannie (1973), and was story editor on The Robonic Stooges (1977). He also wrote for their live-action/animated series, The Skatebirds (1977).

Morse created nine Battle of the Planets scripts.

Television script writer Harry Winkler worked primarily in liveaction for decades, but also dipped occasionally into animation.

A comparison of American shots as animated by Emil Carle (LEFT) and Jameson Brewer (RIGHT).

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He was one of the people who helped develop and write the script for The Flagstones, which eventually became The Flintstones. He later worked on the live-action The Addams Family with Jameson Brewer.

Winkler and Brewer also worked on the same Hanna-Barbera projects, including The New Scooby-Doo Movies. By the mid-Seventies, Winkler had essentially retired, until he was brought on by Brewer to write for Battle of the Planets. Winkler wrote 14 scripts for the series, making him its most prolific writer.

EDITING

Battle of the Planets actors Janet Waldo, Ronnie Schell, and Casey Kasem with the author in 2002.

Editor Warner Leighton in a frame from a 1963 Hanna-Barbera promotional film called Here Comes a Star. © Hanna-

CONCLUSION

Barbera.

SITES AND WORKS REFERENCED Personal interviews with: Sandy Frank, Ippei Kuri, Jameson Brewer, Franklin Cofod, Hoyt Curtin, Alan Dinehart, Jr., David Jolliffe, Casey Kasem, Alan Oppenheimer, Ronnie Schell, Alex Toth, Janet Waldo, Thomas Wogatzke, Alan Young Online sources: The Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) For Hanna-Barbera program dates and cast lists: “Here Comes a Star or Six” by Don M. Yowp (4/9/2015) yowpyowp.blogslpot.com Animation Anecdotes #357 by Jim Korkis (4/16/2018) www.cartoonreseaerch.com Print sources: Billboard (The International Music-Record-Tape Newsweekly) December 14, 1974 “Kiddie Rock: Hoyt Curtin Uses Today’s Sounds in His TV Programs,” no author given Children’s Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946–1947—Part 1: Animated Cartoon Series by George W. Woolery (Scarecrow Press, 1983) 40

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Warner E. Leighton was the editor for Battle of the Planets’ pilot episode. His credits with Hanna-Barbera began on their Loopy De Loop theatrical shorts. After Hanna-Barbera switched their sights to television, Leighton followed and worked with them as editor or supervising editor on some of their key early series including The Flintstones, The Yogi Bear Show, The Jetsons, Jonny Quest, and Space Ghost and Dino Boy. Leighton continued to work freelance with the studio through the late Sixties. He was contacted by Alan Dinehart for the Battle of the Planets pilot in late 1977. He continued working on it through early 1978, until it was completed and shopped around to major media and television station buyers. When it came time to go to full series in mid-1978, Leighton was not available, so the editing was done through David Hanson’s Gallerie International Films.

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Could Battle of the Planets have been produced without the participation of anyone from Hanna-Barbera? Perhaps. But since it ended up being made in Hollywood, and because so many animation professionals in that area relied on Hanna-Barbera for their careers, it probably would have been an impossible assignment if someone had actually been asked to do it.

Instead, Sandy Frank was wise to hire Jameson Brewer and Alan Dinehart, as those two men knew the correct people to bring to the project. Their longstanding and deep friendships with so many Hanna-Barbera employees enabled them to recruit the most reliable from the pool. They also knew who could produce results with minimal problems—which was another major factor in who was hired.

As strange as it may seem, Hanna-Barbera was merely an arm’s length away in nearly every aspect of Battle of the Planets’ stateside production. Its stories, direction, music, acting, animation, logo design, and more were done by people who had histories there, many for a considerable time.

It all just happened to be produced without Hanna-Barbera’s direct participation. But they had to have been aware of the program to some extent, having likely been approached by Sandy Frank, and later giving people like Hoyt Curtin permission to work on it. When all was done, the first Japanese animation to come to North America in about a decade owed quite a lot to the studio.

Even though it didn’t happen under their official banner, the deep histories of the personnel involved in the creation of Battle of the Planets practically made it a Hanna-Barbera project.

JASON HOFIUS has previously worked in advertising, but now writes from his home in sunny Southern California. His next project is a Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets art book for UDON Entertainment.

RETRO SPORTS

Chuck Connors Actor, Ballplayer, Legend

BY DAVID KRELL “Connors! He didn’t even play for the Padres! Connors was an Angel! Don’t you remember? The old Padres first baseman was Luke Easter!”

So begins “The Deuce,” a 1979 episode of The Rockford Files starring James Garner [see RetroFan #27 for our look at The Rockford Files]. Mills Watson, who later starred as Deputy Perkins in The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo—a spin-off of B.J. and the Bear—offers the dialogue in a scene depicting his character betting a fellow bar patron that he can’t answer questions about the Pacific Coast League of the Forties. Their familiarity indicates that they’ve been through these types of conversations before.1 “Connors” refers to Chuck Connors. Yes, that Chuck Connors.

Born on April 10, 1921, as Kevin Joseph Aloysius Connors, he graduated from Seton Hall University in northern New Jersey and played professional baseball before he found fame and success as an actor. The Brooklyn native signed with his hometown Dodgers, who sent him to their Newport club in the Class D Northeast Arkansas League in 1940. He notched one hit in four games for an anemic .091 average. His next stint happened in 1942. Playing for the Norfolk Tars in the Yankees organization, Connors fared much better against competition in the Class B Piedmont League. Across 72 games, he batted .264.

After the season ended, Connors enlisted in the U.S. Army and contributed to America’s World War II effort on the home front, where he became a tank training instructor. Semi-pro baseball and professional basketball in the American Basketball League were his athletic pursuits until after the war. In 1946, Connors returned to the Piedmont League and employment by the Dodgers. It was a productive year for the 6'5" first baseman, who played in 119 games and hit .293.

A jump to the double-A Mobile Bears in the Southern Association followed in 1947; he hit .255 in 145 games. Connors ascended to triple-A with the 1948 Montreal Royals of the International League and a roster of future Major Leaguers including Sam Jethroe, Don Newcombe, Al Gionfriddo, Duke Snider, and Clyde King. He stayed with the Royals for two seasons, batting .307 and .319.

Connors also played for the Boston Celtics in the Basketball Association of America from 1946 to 1948. The Dodgers front office called him to the Brooklyn club and he saw action in one game in

(LEFT) Chuck Connors on the set of The Rifleman in a signed publicity photo. (INSET) A Connors-signed baseball. © Levy-Gardner-Laven Productions. Both, courtesy of Heritage.

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1949, pinch hitting for Carl Furillo on May 1 with one out and Gil Hodges on first base in the bottom of the ninth with the Dodgers trailing the Phillies 4-2. Connors hit a ground ball to the pitcher, Russ Meyer, who tossed it to shortstop Granny Hamner covering second base; Hamner fired to first baseman Eddie Waitkus to complete a double play.

Playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers fulfilled a forecast regarding his fate in the hands of Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey. “I told Mr. Rickey it was time he brought me up,” said the ballplayer in February. “I told him that as great as he is at picking men and moving them around, he has never come up with a first baseman, but that I’m his man if he’ll give me a chance in my own hometown.”2 While Rickey assessed Connors and other members of the Dodgers organization at the Major League and Minor League levels during 1949 spring training, a piece in the Brooklyn Eagle noted the first baseman’s gift for entertaining with a focus on an iconic baseball poem. “Like all great artists, he has a wide streak of sentiment in his make-up,” wrote Eagle columnist Harold C. Burr. “There’s pathos in ‘Casey at the Bat.’” Further, Burr revealed that Connors had a side gig and a unique niche regarding his boss. “He rents himself out as an entertainer at stags and smokers. He likes to kid Rickey, which can’t be said of any other ball player in the Dodger organization, and when he has cause to write to the club he always uses red ink.”3 Connors advanced his entertainment pursuits by printing up business cards highlighting his assets, including “reciting, ghostwriting, and magic shows.”4 There was a growing awareness of Connors’s passion for performing. An article from UPI recapped a game in which Connors hit two home runs in the first game of an International League double header against the Baltimore Orioles but added that “he would chuck the whole business for the legitimate stage.” Montreal lost the first game 5-3 and won the second game 7-2.5 Returning to the Royals in 1950, Connors batted .290 in 121 games. Rickey jettisoned Connors to the Chicago Cubs organization after the season, reportedly getting $25,000 for his prospect. The Brooklyn Eagle described the first baseman as “overjoyed” because Gil Hodges had earned security at the position for the Dodgers, which left minimal opportunities for Connors to play the position.

Previous attempts at persuading Rickey to part ways failed.6 Connors competed for a spot on the Cubs with Dee Fondy.

With the Dodgers’ double-A Fort Worth Cats in the Texas League, Fondy’s prowess resulted in a .297 average and 141 games for the 1950 season. Fondy was five years younger, but Connors had an advantage—his mouth.

(ABOVE) Batter up! Chuck Chicago Tribune reporter Edward Connors, with the Los Burns noted the complaints of Angeles Angels, via a 1952 Cubs manager Frankie Frisch Mother’s Cookies trading regarding a quiet infield. “If card. (RIGHT) Is the “C” Connors is elected that squawk for Chuck? Chuck Connors definitely is solved. Chuck can on the Chicago Cubs. Logo be heard for miles.”7 TM Chicago Cubs.

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Ultimately, Fondy went to the Cubs. Connors showcased his power on March 31 against the San Francisco Seals when he smashed three home runs for the Los Angeles Angels—Chicago’s team in the triple-A Pacific Coast League. Final score: 12-1.8 Nearly two months later, Connors went yard twice in another 12-1 victory against the Seals. He got called up to the Cubs after batting .328 with 22 homers. Fondy went to the Angels; he had batted .293 in the National League.9 Connors played in 66 games for the Cubs, tallying a .239 average. After the season, Chicago’s front office sent him back to the Angels. “Every time I look up, I’m either catching a train for

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A cowboy in Boston: Connors in a Celtics publicity photo.

Logo TM Boston Celtics.

(INSET) The Rifleman in the Great White North. Connors’ stats—in two languages—from his stint with the Montreal Royals.

Chicago or missing one out of Los Angeles,” said the statuesque slugger.10 But it was clear that Connors sighted an entertainment career. In January of 1952, a brief news item noted his film debut in the upcoming Spencer Tracy/Katherine Hepburn comedy Pat and Mike; Connors played a police captain and got praise from the illustrious Hepburn: “You’re a lot better actor than I am a ball thrower. You did fine.” 11 When the movie opened in June, Associated Press offered plaudits in addition to his skills on the diamond. “He is also a man who can switch from baseball to a movie career almost any time he chooses.”12 In 1952, Connors performed respectably for the Angels with a .259 average in 113 games. When the calendar turned to 1953, he faced a crossroads of entertainment and baseball. Decision time.

One or the other. “I’m in the twilight of my baseball career—I’ll soon be 32,” said Connors. “At best, I’ll have two or three years left in baseball. Supposing I get hurt this year as I did a season ago. The Angels would have every right in the world to drop me from the team.” Besides his passion for performing, Connors had a financial consideration. “The baseball season is 26 weeks, including spring practice. I am making as much from seven weeks on this picture as I do during a full season for the Angels.”13 By this time, Connors had been in five films. He put baseball behind him as a vocation but remained connected. In June, L.A.’s Wrigley Field—the Angels’ home ballpark—hosted American Legion Day and honored the ex-ballplayer during a ceremony that included 33 American Legion teams.14 Combining the Major League and Minor League statistics, his professional baseball career ended with a .286 batting average, 74 stolen bases, and 110 home runs. Connors continued his acting career with parts in the TV shows The Millionaire, West Point, and The O. Henry Playhouse in addition to the movies Tomahawk Trail and The Hired Gun. His big break happened thanks to a starring role in ABC’s The Rifleman, which lasted five seasons. Connors’ portrayal of Lucas McCain—a rancher and single father in the New Mexico

Territory during the 1880s—enjoyed terrific popularity. Though not a lawman, McCain often assisted Marshal Micah Torrance in upholding law and maintaining order in the town of North Fork. [Editor’s note: Get ready for RetroFan #43, with a deep dive into The Rifleman by Will Murray!]

McCain carried a Winchester 1892 rifle with a pivotal modification—the ability for McCain to rapidly fire the weapon as quickly as another gunman could fire a revolver or pistol. This is seen in the opening credits. Actors who later became Sixties TV icons guest starred, including Adam West, Michael Landon, and Robert Vaughn.

Connors’ success in The Rifleman fit nicely in the heyday of prime-time TV Westerns during the late Fifties and throughout the Sixties highlighted by Wagon Train, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, and Maverick. The Rifleman episode “The Indian,” originally aired on February 17, 1959, was a back-door pilot for the spin-off series Law of the Plainsman. This unique series, starring Michael Ansara as Native American U.S. Marshal Sam Buckhart, lasted one season on a competing network—NBC. Connors reprised the role of McCain in the 1991 TV movie The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw on CBS, the fourth of five TV movies starring Kenny Rogers in the title role and inspired by his hit song The Gambler.

On September 13, 1959, Connors had an unplanned reunion with his old Brooklyn Dodgers boss when the CBS game show What’s My Line? featured Branch Rickey as a mystery guest who almost stumped the panel consisting of Connors, Arlene Francis, Dorothy Kilgallen, and Bennett Cerf. After the foursome determined that the guest was not a ballplayer, manager, or owner, Francis relied on Connors to define the other roles in baseball. He responded that there are the league presidents and the commissioner. Francis shouted, “Is it Branch Rickey?”

When the show’s host John Daly pointed out the previous link between Connors and Rickey, the ballplayer turned actor said, “I remember Mr. Rickey, who actually gave me my career in baseball.

And it’s a pleasure to see him again.”

“It’s a pleasure to see you, too,” responded Rickey, then the president of the Continental League. Although the CL didn’t get off the ground, it led to the Major Leagues expanding with the creation of four teams in the early Sixties—the Angels, Mets, Senators, and Colt .45s (later Astros).15 During his tenure with The Rifleman, Connors endorsed the Western as a bastion of American values two months after FCC chairman Newton Minow gave his famous speech about TV being a “vast wasteland.” The star posited, “What does the Western do?

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them in the right format, give them the right director, protect them for a while with other good actors, and they’ll make it.”17 The former ballplayer had a pipeline to the parties in the holdout that had begun in late February and lasted until the end of March when a press conference revealed the settlement and the pitchers’ imminent return to the lineup. Reporters faced Dodgers general manager Buzzie Bavasi, Koufax, Drysdale, and Connors seated at the table. Drysdale noted the value of Connors’ input: “Chuck was going to (LEFT) Dell Comics’ The Rifleman help me out whichever way it #4. After debuting in Dell Four Color went. Especially in the movie #1009 in 1959, Dell’s The Rifleman business.”18 comic ran for 11 issues, from 1960 to Koufax earned another 1962. (RIGHT) Connors hit a bullseye Cy Young Award in 1966. The with the TV Western The Rifleman!

Dodgers went to the World © Levy-Gardner-Laven Productions.

Series but lost to the Baltimore sized the foundation of his show. “It’s a small thing, Orioles in four straight games. but on The Rifleman we’ve built an atmosphere of love and respect Connors’ next TV series was Cowboy in Africa, an ABC offering between father and son. In the West, by and large, there was more lasting one season against Gunsmoke and The Monkees on the courtesy and respect than today, another reason we need the 1966–1967 schedule. Connors played Jim Sinclair, hired by a British Western today.”16 landowner to modernize his game ranch in Kenya. In the early After The Rifleman ended its five-year run, Connors starred in Seventies, Connors appeared as a mystery guest on the syndiArrest and Trial as criminal defense attorney John Egan. It aired for cated version of What’s My Line? His former panel-mate Arlene the 1963–1964 season on ABC, with each episode Francis deduced his identity; Connors being 90 minutes long and split into two halves hosted another syndicated show at the concerning detectives and the legal process. Dick time—Thrillseekers.

Wolf later used this format to great success in Law Although he found acting work in & Order. In 1965, Connors returned to the Western movies, Connors also graced the TV screen genre in prime time with Branded. His character, former Army captain Jason McCord, battled a stigma of being court-martialed for cowardice.

It was a hollow claim, which forced McCord to convince people of his innocence. NBC broadcast Branded for two seasons comprised of 48 episodes.

Connors returned to baseball in 1966. Sort of. When Dodgers aces Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale refused to report to spring training in Vero Beach, Florida, because they wanted higher salaries, it distressed the team’s fan base. The Dodgers had won two of the last three World Series. Koufax’s accomplishments earned him two Cy Young Awards. Drysdale had one, a result of his 1962 performance yielding a 25-9 record and 232 What’s on TV tonight? strikeouts to lead the Major Leagues. They threatened TV Guide gave Connors’ to leave baseball if the Dodgers front office didn’t meet Branded the cover treattheir demands; Connors vouched for their appeal. ment—twice! Branded © The salary holdout boosted their visibility because it Goodson-Todman Productions. kept them in the headlines. “They’re big, strong, goodTV Guide © TV Guide. looking guys,” said Connors of their allure. “You put 44

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ENDNOTES (LEFT) Milton Bradley created a Branded board game in 1966. © Goodson-Todman Productions.

1 The Rockford Files, “The Deuce,” NBC, January 25, 1979.

2 Bob Considine, “On the Line,” Bakersfield Californian, February 21, 1949: 14.

3 Harold C. Burr, “Revival of Vaudeville in Chuck Connors’ Hands,” Brooklyn Eagle, March 27, 1949: 31.

4 “Diversified Talent,” Associated Press, Evening Vanguard (Venice, CA), July 4, 1949: 5.

5 “Kevin Connors Hits 2 Homers for Montreal,” United Press International, Times Record (Troy, NY), August 16, 1949: 15.

(RIGHT) African lunchtime! Connors’ TV series Cowboy in Africa generated some merchandise, including this lunchbox. © Ivan Tors

6 James J. Murphy, “Dodgers Peddle Connors to Cubs As $25,000 Plum,” Brooklyn Eagle, October 11, 1951: 30.

7 Edward Burns, “Connors or Fondy? Cubs Can’t Decide,” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 26, 1951: B3.

Productions. Images courtesy of Hakes.

(LEFT) The Rifleman’s other rifle?

Toy guns from the series Cowboy in Africa. © Ivan Tors Productions.

again and again in guest starring roles during the Seventies for The Virginian, The Name of the Game, Night Gallery, The Six Million Dollar Man, and Police Story. He played himself in a 1973 episode of Here’s Lucy and had a key role as a slave owner in the 1977 miniseries Roots.

Connors’ TV career continued at a nice pace in the Eighties with guest spots in Fantasy Island, Matt Houston, Best of the West, The Love Boat, Spenser: For Hire, and Murder, She Wrote. He also appeared in the movie comedy Airplane II: The Sequel.

But fans waxed nostalgic for The Rifleman, which created terrific pride for the actor.

“It’s no problem at all for me,” he said in 1983. “My whole ability to make a living is derived from the fact that I was The Rifleman.”19 A year later, Connors got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. During the run-up to that event, he again underscored the impact of his role as Lucas McCain.

“I’m in 52 movies, hundreds of TV shows, seven series and that includes playing

the meanest so-and-so in the world in ‘Roots,’ but my star on Hollywood Boulevard mainly comes from one thing—The Rifleman. That’s the mark I’ve left, this wonderful series about a father and his son in the Old West and keeping the family together under duress. I am so proud of The Rifleman.”

He also clarified the source of the “Chuck” moniker. When he played first base, he would encourage the other infielders to “chuck” the ball to him. It’s a slang term for “throw.”20 Connors died from lung cancer on November 10, 1992. His legacy in 20thCentury entertainment is as strong as the Winchester he wielded to protect North Fork on The Rifleman.

DAVID KRELL is an author, speaker, and former producer at MSNBC. He is the author of 1962: Baseball and America in the Time of JFK (Nebraska, 2021) and “Our Bums”: The Brooklyn Dodgers in History, Memory, and Popular Culture.

8 Al Wolf, “Angels Win As Connors Hits Three Homers,” Los Angeles Times, April 1, 1951: B10.

9 “Cubs Recall Chuck Connors,” International News Service, Pasadena Independent, July 3, 1951: 14.

10 Milton Richman, “Chuck Connors of Cubs Again Will Don LA Uniform,” United Press International, Sacramento Bee, October 16, 1951: 22.

11 “Chuck Connors Takes Fling at Film Career,” United Press International, Sacramento Bee, January 16, 1952: 29; Bob Panella, “Sports Row,” Citizen-News (Hollywood, CA), January 23, 1952: 8.

12 “PCL Ballplayer Can Pull Switch,” Associated Press, Santa Ana Register, June 26, 1952: D2.

13 Bob Thomas, “Chuck Connors Must Choose Between Baseball and Films,” San Bernardino Daily Sun, February 6, 1953: 3.

14 “Sports and Playground Activities,” Southwest Wave (Los Angeles), June 25, 1953: 6.

15 What’s My Line?, CBS, September 13, 1959.

16 Robert E. Lee, “Chuck Connors Takes Shot at Those ‘Safe’ TV Programs,” Birmingham News, July 2, 1961: 24.

17 Charles Maher, “K&D Will Wow ’em in Show Biz,” Los Angeles Times, March 29, 1966: B1.

18 Charles Maher, “Peace at Last! K&D Return to Fold,” Los Angeles Times, March 31, 1966: B1.

19 Yardena Arar, “Chuck Connors,” Corpus Christi Times, August 19, 1983: F1.

20 Don Freeman, “Connors Found He Was Even Better with a Rifle,” Copley News Service, News-Pilot (San Pedro, CA), July 6, 1984: E8.

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ANDY MANGELS’ RETRO SATURDAY MORNING

TV Comic Ads

BY ANDY MANGELS

Welcome back to Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning.

Prepare for a visual feast!

Saturday morning television was appointment viewing for anyone growing up from the Sixties to the Nineties. From 8 a.m. to noon, while their parents slept in from the workweek, kids could sit in front of the television and enjoy a time just for them. Cartoons—and later, live-action series— were produced by studios like Filmation Associates, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, Total Television, Jay Ward Productions, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Sid and Marty Krofft, D’Angelo Productions, Marvel Productions, Sunbow Productions, Ruby-Spears, DIC, Film Roman, and others. But how could the networks best reach kids to let them know when the new shows would be airing? Enter the television ads that ran in the comics, touting new and exciting fall seasons! It made sense, since many shows were adapted from comic books! For most kids, those two-page spreads were their first looks at future TV favorites, but by the mid-Seventies, comic ads were dropping and plain TV Guide ads were sometimes the only promotions. In the third of a yearly series, we’re offering you a rare look at every Saturday ad we can find from 1975–1977!

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(LEFT) This lackluster ad for ABC’s 1975 Saturday morning line-up season—beginning on September 7th— didn’t appear in any comic books; it only appeared in TV Guide!

Artwork and photos are courtesy the collection of Andy Mangels.

The two-page color version of this ad for CBS’s 1975 season appeared in comic book centerfolds, and—as noted by text at the bottom—was meant to be a removed as a wall poster. (RIGHT) The black-and-white version for TV Guide was less busy. Art for both was by Neal Adams’ Continuity Associates, and as the artists were often working from black-and-white photos, the colors for some characters—especially Isis—were a bit off!

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(ABOVE) NBC’s ad in TV Guide wasn’t quite as dull as ABC’s, but it certainly failed to capitalize on popular elements like sea monsters, cats, dogs, dinosaurs, Planet of the Apes, and the Pussycats.

(BELOW) ABC featured a variety of TV Guide ads for its Fall 1976 season, beginning with this one, but skipped the comics again, despite featuring two super-hero shows.

(ABOVE) CBS ran a gorgeous double-page ad in DC comics, with art again by Continuity Associates, for their fall season, beginning September 11, 1976. This year, Filmation dominated the CBS schedule with 2.5 hours of shows, while Warner offered 1.5 hours, and Hanna-Barbera came in with a minor half-hour.

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andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

DC Comics had a quartet of comic books based on TV shows, and capitalized on them with a sub-imprint called “DC TV.” These two versions of the ad for the imprint showcased CBS’s Shazam! and Isis, as well as ABC’s Super Friends, and the primetime ABC series Welcome Back, Kotter.

(LEFT) NBC’s 1976 season was only advertised in a TV Guide ad, but it showed they had nearly abandoned animation in exchange for six live-action series!

(RIGHT) ABC once again only advertised their 1977 season with a TV Guide ad, despite having a pretty cool line-up that would garner decent ratings.

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andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

NBC’s Saturday mornings in 1977 lost all of their previous live-action series, introduced two new ones, and offered a rather bizarre programming line-up, as seen in this TV Guide ad.

(BELOW) CBS took out another double-page ad in the pages of DC Comics. Filmation still dominated with 2.5 hours of shows—starting September 10, 1977—including the return of Batman to his own series!

RETROFAN

ANDY MANGELS is the USA Today bestselling author and co-author of 30 books, including the TwoMorrows book Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation, as well as Star Trek and Star Wars tomes, Iron Man: Beneath the Armor, and a lot of comic books.

He recently wrote the bestselling Wonder Woman ’77 Meets the Bionic Woman series for Dynamite and DC Comics, and has written six Fractured Fairy Tales graphic novels for Junior High audiences, released by Abdo Books, as well as Bookazine projects (available at any grocery store checkout) on Ant-Man, Iron Man, and The Little Mermaid. He is currently working on a series of graphic novels for the online game Planet Xolo, Kickstarter graphic novels for The Patchwork Girl of Oz and Born With the Devil In Me: The Life and Deaths of H. H. Holmes, and a book about the stage productions of Stephen King. Additionally, he has scripted, directed, and produced Special Features and documentaries for over 40 DVD releases. His mustache is infamous.

Follow him on multiple sites at https://linktr. ee/andymangels January 2025

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IT ROSE FROM THE TOMB

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JACK KIRBY’S DINGBAT LOVE

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ALTER EGO COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS

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MAC RABOY

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THE ODDBALL WORLD OF SCOTT SHAW!

Melonville’s Finest Funniest Citizens

SECOND CITY TELEVISION

BY SCOTT SHAW! The first time I watched this show, it was called SCTV Network (a.k.a. SCTV 90) in 1981, when the show was airing late on NBC. I really dug it, but at first, my mind couldn’t help but compare it to Saturday Night Live. There were parodies of celebrities, but also lots of characters who were new to me. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Second City Television (SCTV’s original title)—especially John Candy and Joe Flaherty—and the parodies of every aspect of television: TV series, TV commercials, newscasts on TV, films on TV, public service spots on TV, TV on TV, etc…

But where was this Melonville place, who were its unusual residents intended to be parodies of, and what did “Second City” mean?

Finally, I realized that they were the weirdo “stars” of SCTV, each created by a cast member, not a corporate committee. Bingo!

I also possessed no thoughts of someday working with almost all of the cast of SCTV... but to my delight, less than a decade later, it happened. (The exceptions were Harold Ramis, Robin Duke, and Tony Rosato.) I’ll get around to that later; first things first...

THE SECOND CITY

On December 16, 1959, the first revue show of “The Second City” premiered at 1842 North Wells Street in Chicago, Illinois. The small cabaret theater sarcastically based its name on a series of articles published in the New Yorker magazine in 1952. The string of snarky pieces—later collected as a book—considered Chicago to be inferior to New York City, thusly bearing the title “The Second City.” Rooted in the groundbreaking “Theater Games” of author/

(ABOVE, FROM LEFT TO RIGHT) Joe Flaherty as Guy Caballero, John Candy as Johnny LaRue, Catherine O’Hara as Lola Heatherton, Andrea Martin as Edith Prickley, Eugene Levy as Gus Gusstofferson, Martin Short as Ed Grimley, and behind Andrea Martin is Juul Haalmeyer, SCTV costume designer and “dancer.”

(INSET) SCTV logo. (LEFT) When you’re No. 2, you try harder. The Second City at 1616 North Wells Street, Chicago, Illinois.

Photographed August 15, 2015. Victor Grigas/Wikimedia

teacher/school owner Viola Spolin and co-founded by Bernard Sahlins (eventual Commons. © The Second City. owner and co-founder of the Second City), Howard Alk, and Spolin’s son Paul Sills, it grew to become an influential and prolific comedy empire, developing the art of improvisation and fostering generations of performers. In 1961, their Broadway musical revue, From the Second City, earned Tony Award nominations for ensemble members Severn Darden and Barbara Harris. The alumni of The Second City includes too many well-known talents to list here. But as always, Second City’s comedy style has always leaned RETROFAN

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toward improv satire and commentary regarding contemporary society, performing without scripts nor planning of any kind.

Andrew Alexander’s (b. 1947) a man who developed and produced live theater revues. He purchased the Canadian rights to the Second City of Toronto, which had opened in 1972... for one dollar. How did he get such a bargain? The truth was that the Second City of Toronto was in big trouble, financially speaking.

Alexander took over its debts in exchange for the rights to operate the improv comedy troupe. Bernie Sahlins agreed, and in 1974, Alexander took control of it. Then he formed a partnership with Len Stuart to create the Second City Entertainment Company in 1976, a TV and film production company. Its initial project, a television production, was historic: Second City Television, a.k.a. SCTV, that same year. He went on to co-develop and executive produce over 150 hours of television comedy for SCTV. Alexander was born in London and moved with his family to Canada in 1951. After selling ads for a newspaper, editing Ski Magazine, and working for the ill-fated John Lennon Peace Festival in Toronto, Andrew was eventually hired by the Ivanhoe Theater in Chicago. There, he met Bernie Sahlins. In 1985, Andrew Alexander became co-owner of the Second City Chicago.

In 1974, Alexander called together the then-current cast of the stage show—including John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Dave Thomas, and Eugene Levy—to discuss a format for a Second City TV series.

Also in attendance were Second City vets Harold Ramis, Sheldon Patinkin, and Del Close, along with business partner Bernie Sahlins.

There is much dispute as to who actually created the SCTV series.

The show itself bears no “created by” credit, although it gives “developed by” credits to Bernard Sahlins and Andrew Alexander.

According to Dave Thomas’ account in his book SCTV: Behind the Scenes, various ideas were batted around, but SCTV was created by either or both Sheldon Patinkin and Del Close. No one involved agrees with each other on that “fact.”

However, the premise of a cheap, tiny, obscure TV station in a small town definitely came from Harold Ramis. The fictitious TV station (later network) would be located in the town of Melonville.

(Unspecified, the earliest episodes imply the town is in Canada, but most later episodes place it in the U.S.) The cast immediately jumped on the idea as a workable model for presenting a virtually unlimited range of characters, sketches, and ideas, while still having a central premise that tied everything together. From there, the actual content of the show (the characters, the situations, the Melonville setting, etc.) was all the work of the cast, with contributions from Alexander and Sahlins. Alexander remained as a producer and executive producer throughout SCTV’s run. Sahlins stayed for the first two seasons as a producer. Sheldon Patinkin was the first season’s writer/post-production supervisor, and was constantly irritating the cast by editing their skits, often losing their best lines and poses. By this time, Del Close had no further involvement with the series.

There were problems, too. These SCTV episodes were made on a threadbare budget; the total amount for the first seven episodes was $35,000, a measly $5,000 per episode. Working with the then-regional Canadian network Global, they were aired one month at a time. Also, the cast’s salary varied with the member in 52

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Second City mastermind Andrew Alexander (LEFT) and business partner Len Stuart. Marcmus/Wikimedia Commons. a “Favoured Nations” deceit with unequal pay. It made John Candy especially not trust Andrew Alexander one bit, and he was very open with that assessment.

According to Harold Ramis, “As far as a transition from Second City, we had this wonderful opportunity with SCTV to take all of the things we’d learned onstage and directly translate them into television without any network sponsors or producers in authority. We were the authorities. We got do what we wanted and operate the same way we did onstage, just in a different medium.”

THE ORIGINAL CAST

Harold Allen Ramis (November 21, 1944–February 24, 2014) was born and raised in Chicago. After graduating from a St. Louis, Missouri, college in 1966, he worked in a mental institution. After

Harold Ramis in the “Famous Philosophers School” sketch from SCTV from episode 7 of the first season (1977). © The Second City.

The oddball world of scott shaw!

(LEFT) Future stars of both Saturday Night Live and Second City Television (LEFT TO RIGHT) in 1975: Eugene Levy, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, Rosemary Radcliffe, and John Candy.

Courtesy of Second City. (BELOW) Joe Flaherty as Count Floyd, host of “Monster Horror Chiller Theater.” © The Second City.

avoiding the draft during the Vietnam War, Harold returned to Chicago, where by 1968, he was a substitute teacher at local schools. Ramis began studying and performing with Chicago’s Second City improvisational comedy troupe. It led to him becoming the joke editor for Playboy magazine, which eventually promoted him to associate editor. After leaving Second City for a time, he returned in 1972.

In 1974, Belushi brought Ramis and other Second City performers, including Ramis’ frequent future collaborator Bill Murray, to New York City to work on The National Lampoon Radio Hour. During this time, Ramis, Belushi, Murray, Joe Flaherty, Christopher Guest, and Gilda Radner starred in the revue The National Lampoon Show. Later, Ramis became a performer on—and head writer of—SCTV during its first three years (1976–1979).

“Laser-Matic” commercial from the first episode, first season of SCTV (1976). (LEFT TO RIGHT, FRONT) Dave Thomas, Andrea Martin, and Catherine O’Hara. (LEFT TO RIGHT, BACK) Joe Flaherty, unknown, and Harold Ramis. © The Second City.

Relatively soon, he was offered work as a writer at Saturday Night Live, but chose to continue with SCTV while writing 1978’s National Lampoon’s Animal House.

Harold finally left SCTV to write 1979’s Meatballs. Of course, Harold went on to write—and sometimes act in—films such as Caddyshack (1980), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Club Paradise (1986), Armed and Dangerous (1985), and Groundhog Day (1993), as well as a memorable scene as Seth Rogen’s father in Knocked Up (2007).

In 1976, SCTV was initially produced at the studios of the Global Television Network in Toronto, then a small regional network of stations in southern Ontario. The first six episodes were seen only once a month. For the next seven episodes (beginning in February 1977, and continuing through the spring of 1977) new episodes were increased in frequency to biweekly. In September 1977, Global ordered 13 additional episodes, which were seen once a week from September through December. These 26 half-hour episodes, produced over a period of 15 months, were considered one season for syndication purposes.

The original SCTV cast consisted of John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Catherine O’Hara, Harold Ramis, and Dave Thomas. All of them—except Harold Ramis, who was a Second City veteran, but with the Chicago troupe—were from the Toronto branch of The Second City theatre improvisation troupe.

Joseph Flaherty (June 21, 1941–April 1, 2024), was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the eldest of seven children. Flaherty served in the United States Air Force for four years before becoming involved with dramatic theatre. After moving to Chicago, Flaherty began his comedy career in 1969 with the Second City Theater as “Joe O’Flaherty,”working with John Belushi and Harold Ramis. (He dropped the “O” in his birth name because there was another Joseph O’Flaherty registered with Actors Equity.) Along with several other Second City performers, he began appearing on the National Lampoon Radio Hour from 1973 to 1974. After seven years in Chicago, he moved to Toronto to help establish the Toronto Second City theatre troupe.

After SCTV ended, Joe starred in Maniac Mansion, a Family Channel series based on a video game by George Lucas’ RETROFAN

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outfit (1990–1993) and the syndicated Police Academy: The Series (1997–1998). Joe went on to be a memorable character in Freaks and Geeks (1999), an hour-long “dramedy” set in the early Eighties, as a hilariously tight-wound father of two teens. Joe also had a semi-regular role as a priest on Kevin James’ popular sitcom, The King of Queens (1998–2007). He hosted his original program, Uncle Joe’s Cartoon Playhouse, as well as voice-acting for animated cartoons. Joe also appeared in films such as 1941 (1979), Used Cars (1980), Stripes (1981), Follow That Bird (1985), Club Paradise (1986), One Crazy Summer (1986), Innerspace (1987), Who’s Harry Crumb? (1989), Back to the Future Part II (1989), Happy Gilmore (1996), Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy (2004), and many more. Sadly, Joe Flaherty died in April 2024 at the age of 82, after a short illness, the oldest member of the SCTV troupe.

Eugene Levy (b. 1946) was born in downtown Hamilton, Ontario. He attended McMaster University—a few years before John Candy did—where he met filmmaker Ivan Reitman, who later cast Levy in his Cannibal Girls horror movie (1973) with Andrea Martin. The 1972–1973 Toronto production of the hit musical Godspell launched the careers of many actors, including Levy, Victor Garber, Andrea Martin, Gilda Radner, Dave Thomas, and Martin Short, as well as the show’s musical director, Paul Shaffer.

Eugene has also appeared in such films as Splash (1984), Club Paradise (1986), American Pie (1999), Bringing Down the House (2003), and many more . He’s also known for co-writing and improv-acting in a string of

films with Christopher Guest: Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), and For Your Consideration (2006).

From 2015 to 2020, he starred as “Johnny Rose” in the smart sitcom Schitt’s Creek, a comedy series that Eugene co-created with his son and co-star Dan Levy. Its setting and tone have a distinctly Melonville-ish vibe. In 2023, he began hosting a travel documentary series, The Reluctant Traveler.

Eugene has won multiple accolades throughout his career including four Primetime Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series. In 2020, he received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.

John Franklin Candy (November 31, 1950–March 4, 1994) was one of the public’s favorite SCTV cast members. (For more about John Candy, please read my column “‘I’m the Real Article, What You See Is What You Get’: My Friend, John Candy” in RetroFan #34.)

Andrea Louise Martin was born on January 15, 1947, in Portland, Maine. After graduating college, Andrea had a role in a touring company of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. She relocated from New York City to Toronto in 1970 and immediately found steady work in television, film, and theater. In 1972, Martin played the character “Robin” in a Toronto production of Godspell, with a cast that included many talents she’d soon be working with. Andrea’s Seventies’ stage work included the Toronto branch of the Second City; eventually, she became a valuable member of the SCTV cast, from the series’ beginning to Did Dr. Tongue ever screen this flick end. Andrea was previously on his 3-D House of Horrors? Future married to SCTV writer Bob SCTV co-stars (TOP) Eugene Levy Dolman; therefore, she was the (as Clifford Sturges) and (ABOVE) sister-in-law of actor/comedian Andrea Martin (as Gloria Wellaby) Martin Short, who married headlined director Ivan Reitman’s Dolman’s sister Nancy.

1973 gorefest, (LEFT) Cannibal Girls.

Some of Andrea’s films Fun (and freaky) fact: After Reitman include Wag the Dog (1997), submitted his film to Spain’s InterMy Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002), national Horror Festival that year, and The Producers (2005), Levy and Martin nabbed the event’s among many others.

She’s Best Actor and Best Actress Awards! appeared on such television © Scary Pictures Productions. Poster and series as Roxie (1987), Working lobby cards courtesy of Heritage.

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the Engels (2014), and Only Murders in the Building (2022–2023), and more. Her voiceovers for animated projects include The Rugrats Movie (1998), Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001), The Simpsons (1997), and a long list of others. Andrea’s also a Broadway actor, in such plays as Fiddler on the Roof, My Favorite Year, Young Frankenstein, and Nude, Nude, Totally Nude. In 1983, she was a recipient of the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program on SCTV Network.

Catherine Anne O’Hara (b. 1954) was born and grew up in Toronto, Ontario. She began her career on television in the mid-Seventies, first appearing on a 1975 Wayne and Shuster special. She also appeared in the 1976 television film The Rimshots and the children’s television series Coming Up Rosie (1976–1977). Catherine began her comedy career in 1974 as a cast member of The Second City in her hometown, the understudy for Gilda Radner until she left to join the first cast of Saturday Night Live.

Two years later, when SCTV was created, she was immediately chosen to be one of its regular performers.

When SCTV began airing locally in Southern Ontario in late 1976, Catherine suddenly became well known with her Canadian audience. In 1981, when SCTV was in between network deals, Catherine was hired to replace Ann Risley when Saturday Night Live was being recast.

However, she quit the show without ever appearing on air, choosing to return to SCTV when it signed on with NBC as SCTV Network 90. Considering that season of SNL was a comedic disaster, Catherine’s decision was a very wise move; her fame multiplied when the show began to air on a major network. She left SCTV again prior to its fifth season in 1982, but did return for occasional guest appearances through the end of what was now called SCTV Channel, in 1984.

Beyond SCTV, Catherine has enjoyed a successful career in entertainment, with roles in the films After Hours (1985), Beetlejuice (1988), Home

Alone (1990) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), and For Your Consideration (2006). From 2015 to 2020, she was “Moira Rose” on Eugene and Dan Levy’s TV series Schitt’s Creek. She’s also provided voiceovers for a number of animated cartoons, beginning in the Seventies and continuing throughout her career, such as Witch’s Night Out and Intergalactic Thanksgiving.

Catherine won the 1982 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series for SCTV Network, the Genie Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1999 film The Life Before This, and the “Moira Rose” character on Schitt’s Creek earned her a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a TCA Award, and six consecutive Canadian Screen Awards.

David “Dave” William Thomas (b. 1949) was born in St. Catharine’s, Ontario. One of his brothers is singer/ songwriter Ian Thomas. After temporarily moving to North Carolina and back to Dundas, Ontario, Dave attended McMaster University. Dave’s first career began as a copywriter at the ad agency McCann Erickson in 1974. His creative skills were so clever and effective that within a year, Dave was promoted to head writer of Canada’s Coca-Cola account.

But as successful as he was in his advertising life, Dave was starting to get bored with his job. After watching a Second City stage show in Toronto, Dave auditioned for the troupe and was chosen as a performer.

Beyond SCTV, Dave has appeared in the films Stripes (1981), Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird (1985), Love at Stake (1987), Moving (1988), Coneheads (1993), and Rat Race (2001), as well as his role as “Russell Norton” in the TV series Grace Under Fire (1993–1998). He also produced and performed voiceovers for the McKenzie

(ABOVE) Catherine O’Hara as Lola Heatherton. (INSET) TV Guide ad for the Chicago area debut of Second City Television. (RIGHT) The actors as their most familiar SCTV characters (LEFT TO RIGHT): O’Hara as Heatherton, Flaherty as Guy Caballero, Martin as Edith Prickley, Candy as LaRue, Levy as Bobby Bittman, and in front, Bob and Doug McKenzie, played by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas, repectively. © The Second City.

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Brothers (a popular SCTV sketch which we’ll discuss in a moment) spin-off cartoon series Bob & Doug (2009–2011).

Every one of SCTV’s cast also served as writers on the show, although Martin and O’Hara did not receive writing credits on the first four episodes. Ramis served as SCTV’s original head writer, but only appeared on-screen as a regular during the first season (spread out over two years) and in a few select episodes in the second season before his “Moe Greene” character was written out.

Ramis and Flaherty also served as associate producers.

Sahlins produced the show; Global staffer Milad Bessada produced and directed the first 13 episodes, but he wasn’t a good fit for comedy. Therefore, George Bloomfield became the director as of Episode 14. Toward the end of the season, Brian Doyle-Murray was hired as a writer, due to his experience on the original Second City in its first stage show. The laugh track used in early episodes was recorded using audience reactions during live performances in the Second City theater.

With the exception of Ramis, every cast member of SCTV worked as a regular performer on another Canadian TV show concurrently with the first year of SCTV. Flaherty, Candy, Thomas, and Martin also worked together as regulars on The David Steinberg Show. It also featured future SCTV cast member Martin Short. Martin, Flaherty, and Levy were also cast members of the shortlived comedy/variety series The Sunshine Hour. In addition to his work on SCTV, Levy was also a cast member of the CBC sketch comedy series Stay Tuned, At the same time SCTV debuted, Candy and O’Hara became regular cast members of the CBC comedy series Coming Up Rosie.

This gave John Candy the distinction of appearing as a regular on three TV series simultaneously, on three different Canadian networks.

Speaking of John, his stand-out character, “Johnny LaRue,” a sleazy, dishonest, ladies’ man who behaves like a low-budget Hugh Hefner, was the first regular character to appear on SCTV. Other iconic characters who premiered during SCTV’s Season One included: f Harold Ramis’ “Maurice ‘Moe’ Green,” an incompetent game/talk show host, actor, playwright, critic, licensed chiropractor, and eventually, SCTV’s station manager. f Joe Flaherty’s “Guy Caballero,” the highly authoritative, brusque, and greedy head of SCTV Network, usually seen in a wheelchair to gain respect; and “Floyd Robertson,” the news anchor of the Melonville Nightly News and recovering alcoholic. f Andrea Martin’s “Edith Prickley,” the SCTV Network’s boisterous station manager, as well as “Cheryl Kinsey”, uncomfortable sexologist, and “Pirini Scleroso,” nonspecific foreigner attempting to grasp English. f Eugene Levy’s “Earl Camembert,” socially awkward news anchor on SCTV News, and “Bobby Bittman,” narcissistic, loud, egotistic, showy filmmaker, writer, comedian, and singer.

(ABOVE) Moranis as Gerry Todd, star of “The Gerry Todd Show.” (ABOVE RIGHT) Martin as Perini Scleroso, Candy as Dr. Tongue, (SITTING) Flaherty as Count Floyd, Martin Short as Ed Grimley, and Levy as Bruno. © The Second City.

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Other than its writers and performers, SCTV’s make-up, hair, and wardrobe artists were absolutely the most valuable members of the show. It was a team that was only mentioned in the show’s credits, but SCTV wouldn’t have been remotely as entertaining

The oddball world of scott shaw!

without Bev Schechtman, Judi Cooper-Sealy, Christine Hart, and Ivan Lynch. As Bev explained the process concisely, “We didn’t have any money, so we had to improvise.” With that approach, they melded perfectly with the cast’s specialty, improv.

SEASON TWO

For its second season (1978–1979), SCTV became a weekly series on Global, and was seen in syndication throughout Canada and parts of the United States. After Episode Three of the second season, Harold Ramis was no longer in the cast, but continued to receive credit as the show’s head writer for most of the season. It was written in Bel Air, Los Angeles, and shot in Toronto, so Ramis could continue his movie career. He had recently finished the script to National Lampoon’s Animal House—while working on SCTV. Harold left to write Caddyshack before all of the episodes were shot. Jim Fisher and Jim Stahl were hired as writers during the shooting of the episodes, and Pat Whitley was hired as a line producer; Pat remained a producer on SCTV for the rest of the series. Early in 1979, Joe Flaherty and Dave Thomas became SCTV producers, in addition to their other jobs on the show.

Financial issues were still a problem. SCTV’s budget increased slightly, but you’d have to be an art director to notice the microscopic increase of production values. Much worse, the cast’s weekly paychecks often stalled for weeks at a time. After warning the producers that their faulty promises had to end, Dave Thomas went on strike while filming an episode of SCTV, expecting two checks that he was due, before the scene would advance. The rest of the casts, followed his lead, and they sat for an hour on the set before the checks arrived. Andrew “The Farm Film Alexander got so frustrated, he Report” with Big Jim McBob and Billy Sol Hurok featured Flaherty as Big Jim and Candy as Billy Sol. © The

accidentally overpaid the talent, each with an additional paycheck.

When he realized his error, the entire cast of SCTV refused to return his overpayment. They felt that Alexander owed them.

The first time that Dave Thomas played the role of Hollywood legend Bob Hope was in the sketch “The Bob Hope Desert Classic.”

It really was a classic, with Dave as Bob Hope, Eugene Levy as Yasser Arafat, and Joe Flaherty as Menachem Begin. Dave always admired “Ol’ Ski Nose,” and as a teenager had a fleeting interaction with the star. Dave was nervous about his portrayal of Mr. Hope until his make-up stylist suggested that he stick out his chin more.

Dave continued to play Bob Hope, slightly worried that his version was a bit too “cold.” He didn’t want to insult someone he looked up to as a kid. In 1981, Dave Thomas and Bob Hope finally got together to watch some of Dave’s SCTV skits as Bob. Fortunately, Hope enjoyed them all, to Dave’s relief.

The first two seasons of SCTV had memorable characters, television’s tropes from new POVs, outstanding writing, incredible make-up artists, and a very likable cast. What it still needed was a much bigger budget and producers who understood comedy.

Due to the show’s constant monetary crisis, SCTV shut down from 1979 to 1980 for a year-and-a-half, while Andrew Alexander sought new backers for the show. He eventually found a new backer, a wealthy owner of a TV station in Edmonton. It saved the show, but the new process would be writing in Toronto and shot in Edmonton, over 2,000 miles apart. Not trusting Andrew Anderson and unwilling to shoot SCTV’s Season Three in Edmonton away from his family, John Candy decided to leave SCTV to do his own TV sketch show, Big City Comedy (see RetroFan #34). Eugene Levy wasn’t thrilled with the situation either, but he stayed on the cast. Three writers were added to the Toronto office: Paul Flaherty, Dick Blasucci, and Michael Short. John Blanchard became the series

Second City.

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(LEFT) Popular polka players the Schmenge Brothers, Yosh (Candy) and Stan (Levy). (BELOW) SCTV Network 90 gets the cover to the May 23–29, 1981 TV Guide. © The Second City. © TV Guide.

director. John Candy’s absence left a hole in the cast, therefore new producer Dave Thomas brought in his longtime friend, Rick Moranis.

Frederick “Rick” Allan Moranis (b. 1953) was born in Toronto, Ontario, and attended the same elementary school with Geddy Lee, future frontman of the band Rush. (Now that explains a lot!)

His career began as a radio disc jockey in the mid-Seventies, using the on-air name “Rick Allan” at Toronto radio stations. In 1980, Moranis was persuaded to join the third season cast of SCTV by his friend Dave Thomas. At the time, Moranis was the only cast member not to have come from a Second City stage troupe.

After Rick co-starred in 1983’s Strange Brew, he quickly became a film actor. His list of films includes Ghostbusters (1984), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989), and My Blue Heaven (1990). In 1997, Moranis—sadly, suddenly a widower—took a long break from acting to spend time to raise his two children. He hasn’t appeared in a live-action film for over 25 years, although he’s provided voiceover work for a few animated films.

To complete the cast, new producer Joe Flaherty brought in performers Tony Rosato and Robin Duke.

Antonio Rosato (December 26, 1954–January 10, 2017) was born in Naples, Italy. He arrived in Canada at age four and was raised in Halifax, Ottawa, and Toronto. He planned to study chiropractic medicine but dropped out of the University of Toronto after becoming interested in the improv comedy at The Second City. After

he went over to Saturday Night Live, Rosato appeared on the show for only one year, before leaving due to differences with producer DIck Ebersol and an expired contract. Tony also voice-acted the role of Luigi in the video games The Adventures of Super Mario Bros.

3 and Super Mario World.

Robin Duke (b. 1954) was born in Etobicoke, Ontario. She attended high school with Catherine O’Hara, where they first met in their homeroom class. In 1976, Robin joined O’Hara as part of the Toronto version of the stage comedy troupe Second City.

Robin became a regular on SCTV in 1980 but she joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 1981. Robin recently had a recurring role as “Wendy Kurtz” in Schitt’s Creek. At this writing she is a faculty member at Humber College’s Comedy Writing and Performance program, teaching Improv and Voice and Acting.

By this season, other regulars seen in the population of Melonville include: Harold Ramis’ “Allan ‘Crazy Legs’ Hirschman,” SCTV board chairman, and “Mort Finkel,” home dentist; Joe Flaherty’s “Sammy Maudlin,” late-night talk show host,

(LEFT) Moranis plays Woody Allen and Thomas as Bob Hope in “Play it Again, Bob.” © The Second City.

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(ABOVE) Leave It To Beaver gets the SCTV treatment courtesy of (LEFT TO RIGHT) Joe Flaherty as Ward Cleaver, Catherine O’Hara as June, and John Candy as the Beaver. © The Second City.

“Big Jim McBob,” who blows ’em up real good, and “Vic Hedges,” tough guy; Eugene Levy’s “Gus Gustofferson,” guileless security guard, “Woody Tobias, Jr.,” 3-D horror auteur, “Rockin’ Mel Slurrup,” inept teen dance show host, and “Sid Dithers,” private detective and diminutive union patriarch; John Candy’s “Dr. Tongue,” 3-D horror host, “William B. Williams,” Sammy Maudlin’s simpering second banana, “Billy Sol Hurok,” who also blows ’em up real good, “Yosh Shmenge,” cheerful Leutonian accordionist, and “Harry, the Guy with the Snake on His Face”; Dave Thomas’ “Tex Boil,” organist/curio pitchman, and “Harvey K-Tel,” motor-mouthed TV ad announcer; Andrea Martin’s aforementioned Edith Prickley and Perini Scleroso, plus “Libby Wolfson,” feminist TV show host; Catherine O’Hara’s “Lola Heatherton,” self-destructive superstar in her own mind, and “Dusty Towne,” a risqué Sixties female comedienne; Rick Moranis’ video DJ “Gerry Todd” (Martin Short recalled, “There had been no such thing” up until that point, so “the joke was that there would be such a thing”); Martin Short’s “Ed Grimley,” an optimistic nerd based on a kid that Martin knew at high school, “Jackie Rogers Jr.,” self-absorbed albino Las Vegas singer, “Irving Cohen,” ancient “Gimme a C, a bouncy C!” songwriter, and “Nathan Thurm,” chain-smoking defense attorney.

The cast also specialized impersonations of celebrities of all kinds. Standout examples include Joe Flaherty’s Jack Klugman, Eugene Levy’s Perry Como, John Candy’s Julia Child, Dave Thomas’ Walter Cronkite, Andrea Martin’s Barbra Streisand, Catherine O’Hara’s Elizabeth Taylor, Martin Short’s Jerry Lewis, Tony Rosato’s John Belushi, and Robin Duke’s Shelly Winters.

The new season bore new regular characters hyper-angry opinion broadcaster “Bill Needle” by Dave Thomas and goofy TV chef “Marcello” by Tony Rosato. During the shooting of “The Irwin Allen Show” skit, a stuntman got injured, too.

THE MCKENZIE BROTHERS TAKE OFF

With SCTV moving to CBC in 1980 (and syndicated in the United States), two new characters premiered. Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis created what would become SCTV’s most popular

(TOP) The SCTV 30th Anniversary Episode (Season Two, Episode 11) featured a “vintage” SCTV program “What’s My Shoe Size?” Candy plays the guest and Levy is the host. (ABOVE) Short, Martin, and Candy mugging for the camera. characters, “the McKenzie Brothers.” Siblings Doug and Bob McKenzie were parodies of stereotypic Canadians as a sardonic response to the CBC network’s request that the show feature two minutes of “identifiably Canadian content” in every episode, with the duo’s “take off” barb becoming a catchphrase among fans. The two-minute length reflects the fact that American shows were two minutes shorter than Canadian ones to allow more commercials, leaving two minutes needing content for the Canadian market.

Most of them were improv, with only a few scripted segments.

The McKenzie Brothers ultimately became icons of the very Canadian culture they parodied. Their appearances on SCTV began in Season Three and were present in every episode until 1982. They led to the theatrical feature film, Strange Brew (1983), which Dave also co-directed. (A sequel was planned in the late Nineties, but RETROFAN

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never produced.) There were two LP albums by the duo (with the aid of Geddy Lee), The Great White North (1981) and Strange Brew (1983), the former gaining them a Grammy Award nomination and a Juno Award.

Their “Take Off” single from The Great White North was a hit, peaking at No. 16 on the Billboard 100 singles chart in March 1982.

(Much of the material on both albums was improvised.)

An SCTV episode even poked fun at the duo’s popularity. Guy Caballero declared that they had become SCTV’s top celebrities, supplanting Johnny LaRue. This led to the pair being given a Bob and Doug Special with Tony Bennett as their guest, which wound up being a disaster. Bob and Doug were so popular that Toronto’s Yonge Street hosted a parade in their honor. But once Dave and Rick met many of their McKenzie Brothers’ fan base, they were disgusted to realize that the fans were exactly like Bob and Doug, dumb, crass, and constantly attaching “ehh?” to everything that came out of their mouths. Dave Thomas later revealed in his 1996 book SCTV: Behind the Scenes that the other members of the cast grew resentful at the immense financial and popular success of the Bob and Doug McKenzie albums.

The worst thing was a cover blurb on Rolling Stone magazine claiming that the McKenzie Brothers were “SCTV’s Best Joke,” which didn’t help things. Unfortunately, Bob and Doug had a lot to do with Thomas and Moranis leaving the show in 1982.

In May 1981, NBC picked up SCTV in a 90-minute format as a cheap replacement for the cancelled late-Fridaynight rock ’n’ roll show The Midnight Special. This enabled the show to air nationwide in the United States, a rare example of a Canadian show that moved successfully to American television. Less than two months after Season Three ended, SCTV was back, airing first as SCTV Network 90, then as simply SCTV Network. Wonderfully, John Candy and Catherine O’Hara returned to the program.

Because of the rush to generate material for the 90-minute format, several early episodes consisted partially or entirely of sketches broadcast during the first three seasons. Some of these 90-minute shows were abbreviated to 60 minutes for the Canadian market.

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(ABOVE) SCTV’s resident hoseheads, Bob (Rick Moranis) and Doug (Dave Thomas) McKenzie, scored a hit with their Great White North sketches, spinning off into the 1983 theatrical movie, Strange Brew. The film co-starred Ming the Merciless and Wimpy! Make that Max Von Sydow and Paul Dooley. (LEFT) Cover to Bob and Doug McKenzie’s hit single, “Take Off.” © 1983 MGM/UA. Poster courtesy of Heritage Short joined the cast at the end of Season Four, taping three episodes before O’Hara, Thomas, and Moranis left the show.

Martin Hayter Short (b. 1950) was born in Hamilton, Ontario.

Encouraged by his mother in his early creative endeavors, Short, like so many of the SCTV cast, graduated from McMaster University and was cast in the Broadway hit Godspell, side-by-side his future

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(LEFT) Bob (Moranis) and Doug (Thomas) McKenzie hit the big screen in Strange Brew (1983). © 1983 MGM/UA.

castmates on SCTV while dating Gilda Radner. He subsequently found work in several Canadian television shows and theatrical productions. Chicago’s Second City starting up a sister company in Toronto, and many of Short’s Godspell peers joined the new troupe. At the time, Short felt he had a “phobia of being funny on demand” and considered himself a “traditional song-and-dance performer,” but within six months, he joined his McMaster classmates Levy and Thomas in the improv group in 1977. After a feature film debut, Lost and Found (1979), and a starring role in The Associates, a one-season Taxi-esque TV sitcom about novice lawyers working at a Wall Street law firm, in

1980, Short joined the cast of another sitcom, I’m a Big Girl Now. He finally joined the SCTV cast in 1982. Short took his bestknown character “Ed Grimley” along with him when he moved to Saturday Night Live for its 1984–1985 season.

Martin Short has starred in films such as Three Amigos! (1986), Clifford (1994), Mars Attacks!

(1996), and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006).

His televised entertainment included The Martin Short Show, a syndicated talk show with songs and skits (1999–2000), sitcom Mulaney (2014– 2015), variety series Maya & Marty (2016), and The Morning Show (2019).

Martin Short is Martin Short has Ed Grimley! co-starred with Steve © The Second City.

Martin in the Hulu comedy

Meatheads Bob and Doug McKenzie in a Strange Brew lobby card signed by Rick Moranis.

The duo’s mega-success rubbed some SCTV folks the wrong way. © MGM/UA. RETROFAN

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series Only Murders in the Building alongside Selena Gomez. He has voice-acted in many animated films, including Treasure Planet (2002), Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (2012), and Frankenweenie (2012). Short has also had an active career on stage, starring in Broadway productions.

In 2015, Short started touring nationally with his longtime friend Steve Martin. In 2018, they released their Netflix special An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life, for which they received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Short has earned nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award, the Golden Globe Award, the Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Critics’ Choice Television Award, as well as various awards including two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award.

Martin’s brother, Michael Short, already a comedy writer for SCTV, would become head writer for Schitt’s Creek, and is a 17-time nominee and a three-time winner of an Emmy Award for comedy sketch writing.

Although the show had “official” producers, SCTV Network operated the way it always had: the cast ran the show. Naturally, NBC was nervous about the idea of a cast-run show, especially since they burned through multiple producers, including Nancy Geller, reportedly the only NBC producer who “understood” SCTV. The network considered John Candy as SCTV’s “star,” and it paid him more than anyone else in the cast, which led to grumbling from the rest of the cast. Dave Thomas was made head writer of the show, and he hired more writers: Doug Steckler, John McAndrew, Bob Dolman (Andrea Martin’s first husband), and The Big Bang Theory’s Eddie Gordetsky.

With 90 minutes to fill (not counting commercials) SCTV’s new formatted episodes required a wraparound plot in Melonville and lots of short bits throughout. The cast was very proud of this iteration of SCTV but the length of each episode gobbled up material quickly and the sketches had so many roles that the writers eventually were seen onscreen, acting.

A new semi-regular sketch was “The Fishin’ Musician,” with John Candy as “Gil Fisher” hosting an impressive and diverse cavalcade of singers, (TOP) Candy, Flaherty, Levy, Thomas, and Moranis as the Five Neat Guys. (ABOVE) Thomas and Martin in “Women Say the Darndest Things.” (BELOW) Short is one of the intellectually challenged players on the game show “Half Wits.” © The Second City.

Will the real Joe Flaherty please stand up? (LEFT TO RIGHT) Guy Caballero, Sammy Maudlin, and Count Floyd (“Ah-wooooo!”). © The Second City.

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John Candy as Harry, the Guy with the Snake on His Face. © The Second City.

musicians, and bands performing their songs. These segments were laced into the overall plot, unless it had no time. Here’s all the talent, in order of appearance: Levon Helm, Dr. John, Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, Robert Gordon, Roy Orbison, the Tubes, Ian Thomas (Dave Thomas’ little brother), Al Jarreau, Wendy O. Williams, Natalie Cole, Rough Trade, James Ingram, the Boomtown Rats, David Byrne, Tony Bennett, Third World, Carl Perkins, Hall and Oates, Kim Wilde, Jimmy Buffett, John Mellencamp, Linda Hopkins, America, Andraé Couch, Crystal Gayle, Ben Vereen, and Joe Walsh.

In addition to Gill Fisher, other new SCTV characters were introduced: Rick Moranis’ “Skip Bittman,” Bobby’s irritating little brother; Levy, Flaherty, Moranis, Thomas, and Candy’s “Five Neat Guys,” too-clean singers whose biggest hit was “Patsy Has the Largest Breasts in Town”; and John Candy’s “Mayor Tommy Shanks,” a distracted politician who seemed to be losing his marbles.

SCTV IS NOW OFF THE AIR

By Season Five, the cast was tired, not only due to committing most of their time to working on the show, but that they were starting to become tired of their own material. After a multitude of skits about TV, movies, advertising, and even their characters, SCTV’s talents were tired of creating new bits with old characters who seemed like ghosts of their earlier material. During Season Five, Ramis and O’Hara returned for one episode each as guest stars. The cast of Candy, Flaherty, Levy, Martin, and Short was augmented by supporting players John Hemphill and Mary Charlotte Wilcox, although neither became an official cast member.

In the fall of 1983, SCTV was offered a slot on early Sunday evenings by NBC. To adapt to this time slot, the producers would have had to change the show’s content to appeal to “family” audiences due to a 1975 amendment to the Prime Time Access Rule. There was also the issue of a ratings face-off against CBS-TV’s Sunday night juggernaut 60 Minutes. Understandably, SCTV declined. Instead, for its final season, the show moved to the premium cable channels, Superchannel in Canada and Cinemax in the United States, changing the name slightly to SCTV Channel. The running time was now 45 minutes, and 18 new

episodes were seen on alternating weeks, from November 1983 to July 1984.

For this final season, the cast consisted solely of Flaherty, Levy, Martin, and Short, although Candy, Thomas, and O’Hara all made guest appearances and writer/performers Hemphill and Wilcox once again appeared occasionally. This final iteration of SCTV was one that none of the cast really wanted to do. Their lack of enthusiasm had already set in during the second season of SCTV Network 90, and now that John Candy, Dave Thomas, and Rick Moranis had left, there were only four people that the audience recognized. After the show went out of production, several SCTV characters made appearances on Cinemax, with Joe Flaherty reprising his roles as Count Floyd and Guy Caballero, and Eugene Levy’s Bobby Bittman appearing in a fictitious biography under the “Cinemax Comedy Experiment” banner.

After six seasons, the amount of SCTV’s skits, parodies, and episode-long tales is simply too overwhelming and RetroFan’s readers’ tastes too specific to even attempt to gather a short list of “favorites.” Instead, I encourage all of you to check out Dave Thomas’ book, SCTV: Behind the Scenes (McClelland & Stewart Inc., 1996).

SCTV’S LEGACY

Over the years, SCTV received mostly positive reviews. Following the first episode, Margaret Daly of The Toronto Star wrote, “Global TV may have just pulled off the comedy coup of this season... the concept is as clever as the loony company members.” During its first season, Dennis Braithwaite of The Star wrote that SCTV was “delightfully funny and inventive” and “the best satire seen regularly on North American television. No, I haven’t forgotten NBC’s Saturday Night [Live].” After SCTV premiered on network TV in the U.S., Marvin Kitman wrote, “The premiere episode was quite simply the most superb half-hour comedy… in a long time.” Gary Deeb wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times, “SCTV is witty, grown-up, inventive, and uproariously funny.” Then there was reviewer James Wolcott, who wrote, “SCTV is far from perfect—there are too many meandering remarks addressed directly to the camera, and the

“Brooke Shields” (O’Hara) hosts the “Brooke Shields Show.” © The Second City.

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musical interludes tend to turn mossy—but it’s the only entertainment show on TV that matters, that goes beyond comedy to create a loopily affectionate world of its own.”

During its run on NBC, SCTV garnered 15 Emmy nominations, often with multiple episodes competing against each other, but it was nothing like competing with “Mr. Television”…

In 1982, SCTV Network’s “Moral Majority” episode won an Emmy Award for Writing for a Variety or Music Program. During Joe Flaherty’s acceptance speech (INSET), award presenter Milton Berle repeatedly interrupted with snarky repeats of “That’s funny.”

Flaherty then turned to Berle and said, “Sorry, Uncle Miltie... go to sleep” (a parody of Berle’s signature old closing line, “Listen to your Uncle Miltie and go to bed.”). Berle was rattled, responding “W-w-what?” The incident was comedy gold and Joe had to mine it. The next season of SCTV Network contained a bit where he beats up a Berle lookalike while shouting, “You’ll never ruin another acceptance speech, Uncle Miltie!”

In 1983, SCTV’s “Sweeps Week” episode received the award again, and in 2002, SCTV was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame. Throughout the length of its run, the series garnered an ACTRA Award and 13 Emmy Award nominations.

However, things weren’t 100% over for SCTV. The Last Polka (1985) was an early “mockumentary” about SCTV’s polka-playin’ Yosh and Stan Shmenge, known as “The Happy Wanderers.” Written by and starring John Candy and Eugene Levy, with appearances by Catherine O’Hara, Rick Moranis, and Robin 64

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(LEFT AND ABOVE) Martin Short’s SCTVturned-Saturday Night Live character, Ed Grimley, got another lease on life in Hanna-Barbera’s 1988 animated cartoon, The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley.

And it’s no doubt making you mental to think that our own Scott Shaw was involved with the show! © Hanna-Barbera Productions.

Promotional cels courtesy of Heritage.

Duke, it was a parody of Martin Scorcese’s The Last Waltz, about the break-up of the legendary musical group the Band. Ironically, it was also the final break-up of SCTV. The Best of SCTV special (ABC, 1988) consisted of clips from favorite sketches peppered with new sequences by Joe Flaherty as Guy Caballero and Andrea Martin as Edith Prickley, attempting to try to persuade the FCC to renew SCTV’s license. Ironically, this special was created to fill screen time due to the writers’ strike of 1988.

The closest thing to a reunion series for SCTV was The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley (TCMMOEG) (NBC, Hanna-Barbera Productions, 1988), the only animated series adapted from a character from both SCTV and Saturday Night Live. The Saturday morning cartoon show featured the voices of Martin Short, Joe Flaherty (who also appeared live in each episode as Count Floyd), Catherine O’Hara, Andrea Martin, and Jonathan Winters. Eugene Levy and Dave Thomas guest-starred, as did Christopher Guest.

Thirteen episodes were produced. Although MTV wanted a

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(ABOVE) Color guide for The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley. (LEFT) A completely promotional cel for Ed Grimley. © Hanna-Barbera Productions. Promotional cels courtesy of Heritage.

hard to fit into an ordinary commercial television schedule, and the market was limited. The original 90-minute shows were never rebroadcast in their entirety.

For years, SCTV was unavailable on videotape or DVD or in any form except these reedited half-hour programs until Shout!

Factory released most of SCTV on DVD: f All episodes of SCTV Network from Seasons Four and Five in four box sets (2004–2005) f Christmas with SCTV (two Christmas-themed episodes from 1981 and 1982) (2005) f SCTV: Best of the Early Years (15 selected episodes from Seasons Two and Three (2006) f SCTV: The Best of John Candy (1996).

Due to difficulty obtaining music rights for DVD releases, Shout!

Factory had to edit music in certain sketches and remove sketches like “Stairways to Heaven.” Dave Thomas acknowledged, “We were

second season of TCMMOEG but budget issues shut down any further discussion. This series directly led to John Candy’s Camp Candy cartoon show (NBC, DIC/Saban, 1989–1991), on which the Second City’s Valri Bromfield had a regular role, as well as guest stars Andrea Martin, Eugene Levy, and Dave Thomas. Speaking of whom, Dave produced two seasons of Bob & Doug (Global, Animax, 2009–2011), but Rick Moranis chose not to provide the voice of Bob—however, Moranis did voice-act his character for the McKenzie Brothers’ “pitch” cartoon that I worked on. No other voice-actor on the series had a SCTV background. Although I had nothing to do with the show, NBC’s Head of Children’s Programming Phyllis Tucker Vinson must have loved SCTV’s cast, because Rick Moranis starred in Gravedale High (NBC, Hanna-Barbera Productions, 1990).

SCTV had a 90-minute format, unique for a dramatic or comedy series, but more common on talk shows. Such shows are typically

Bob & Doug have animated adventures, eh. © Global/Animax.

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(LEFT) John Candy’s animated alter ego starred in Camp Candy. © DIC Entertainment. (BELOW, LEFT TO RIGHT) The 1999 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival featured a reunion of SCTV cast members Dave Thomas, Joe Flaherty, Catherine O’Hara, Andrea Martin, Harold Ramis, Eugene Levy, and Martin Short.

true guerrilla TV in that, when we wanted background music, we just lifted it from wherever we wanted. Consequently, today, to release the shows on home video, it would cost millions to clear the music.”

On May 5 and 6, 2008, most of the cast reunited for a charity event, The Benefit of Laughter, at the Second City Theatre in Toronto. Eugene Levy, Martin Short, Andrea Martin, Catherine O’Hara, Robin Duke, and Joe Flaherty took part; Dave Thomas didn’t attend due to illness. The event was a fundraiser for the Second City Alumni Fund, which helps support former Second City cast and crew members facing health or financial difficulties.

To honor the 50th anniversary of The Second City, SCTV Golden Classics—featuring memorable skits—aired on public television stations across the U.S. in March 2010.

In April 2018, Netflix announced that Martin Scorsese would direct An Afternoon with SCTV, an original reunion special exploring the legacy of the show. It was announced that it would air on CTV in Canada and on Netflix worldwide. As of this writing, the reunion special still has not aired, seemingly due to Scorsese’s many commitments.

In 1988, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Catherine O’Hara, and Martin Short reunited onstage for the Benefit of Laughter at the Second City Toronto to raise money for a crew member of SCTV who required funding to pay their medical costs after a severe illness. The show was a sell-out, raising much more than the crew member needed, therefore; Andrew Alexander formed the aforementioned Second City Alumni Fund to help any former SCTV crew members experiencing critical health and financial needs. The Second City’s 50th anniversary in 2009 featured the original TSCAF team, as well as Harold Ramis and Dave Thomas. There, they raised the fund’s total amount to over half a million dollars.

Martin Scorsese’s SCTV Netflix documentary An Afternoon with SCTV (2018) moderated by Jimmy Kimmel has yet to be released.

The special was scheduled to be released on Netflix and CTV. On May 12, 2021, Joe Flaherty revealed in a Facebook comment on a SCTV fan group that the special had been shelved. However, the following day, on May 13, Netflix revealed the special had not been shelved, but delayed due to director Martin Scorsese’s other commitments.

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storyboarded the animated “pitch” cartoon for Dave Thomas’ Bob & Doug cartoon series. I unintentionally became the go-to cartoonist for SCTV cartoons. As I mentioned, I got to work with and know most of the cast of one of my favorite TV shows of all time. I wasn’t unhappy, but as William Hanna once warned me, “You don’t want to be a producer —it’s like being a custodian!” TCMMOEG and Camp Candy were both given the green light very late in May, shows that would air on network television in a mere four months. The shows were animated in Asian studios and when the footage returned to Los Angeles, we usually were only a few days from airing. The qualities of those shows was, at times, embarrassing because we had no time to correct their flaws. TCMMOEG had a particularly rough liftoff. While Martin Short was filming a film, I filmed him acting out his physical scenes for the rest of the episodes for reference and timing overseas.

When Camp Candy was in its infancy, Martin recommended me to John to be his producer as well.

As for the SCTV cast themselves?

John Candy was one of the sweetest, funniest, and most generous people I’ve ever known. He was even more fun to be with than any of his characters but he was never “on.” (Yes, I’m gonna remind you again to check out my Candy column in RetroFan #34.)

During the breaks while we were shooting the live-action scenes for TCMMOEG’s “Count Floyd” episodes over three days, Disney gagman Don Dougherty, the late Disney maquette sculptor Kent Melton, and I got to know Joe Flaherty quite well. He was a very down-to-earth guy who you’d never expect to be an actor. And Joe really loved those corny monster movies, like us!

Martin Short liked to be called “Marty” (although I never did.)

He was told by my boss that TCMMOEG would have animation “as fine as the best Warner Bros. cartoons.” It took a while to teach him the compromises and flaws of H-B and the low standards of the then-current TV animation industry, but we eventually got along fine. He was “on” in public and casual in conversation.

I spent more time with John, Joe, and Martin than the others.

Catherine O’Hara was very pleasant, always prepared and clearly

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(LEFT) Some SCTV graduates have continued to co-star in different film and television projects in the decades since Melonville shut down its quirky little network.

Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara, in recent years the co-stars of the TV sitcom Schitt’s Creek, have also acted together in projects including Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries like 2003’s folk music spoof, A Mighty Wind. © Warner Bros. Courtesy of Heritage.

content to be a person who knows who she is and without an inflated ego. Andrea Martin was sweet, funny, and a little ditsy (in the best way). I recall her being on the phone a lot. Eugene Levy guested on TCMMOEG only once, so all I picked up about him was a man of great intelligence and quite serious about comedy. Dave Thomas is also very smart, very sarcastic, and very foul-mouthed.

We bonded due to his obsessive love of Silver Age Superman comics and a funny co-experience at the first San Diego Comic-Con. I really like Dave.

I’ll note that those in the TCMMOEG cast were utterly thrilled to be working with the show’s “outsider,” the legendary, (literal!) madman Jonathan Winters. He was a longtime hero to all of us and thanks to TCMMOEG, I was lucky to be a friend of his. I’ll certainly be writing about Jonathan in a future issue of RetroFan.

(Y’know, I never took photos of myself with these wonderful talents and many others that I’ve worked with. Why? I thought that was for fans and that “professionals” like me shouldn’t do that. I still get it, but I regret it.)

Unfortunately, John Candy, Harold Ramis, and Joe Flaherty have now left Melonville. Joe once said, “We will never have that chance again. We will never get that kind of a shot at it.”

Fortunately, SCTV still exists on DVD, and online. It will remain a memorable, unmatchable comedy that has influenced more than one generation of viewers.

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.

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BY SCOTT SAAVEDRA The catch phrase, a few words of little or great import that take on a life of their own by virtue of vigorous vocal repetition, is older than you may expect. My assumption was that it was a construct of our mass communication age, but no. Politics have long driven catch phrases like “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too,” a popular campaign slogan and song in 1840 that promoted the presidential candidate William Henry Harrison, who still lost to Martin Van Buren (embarrassing!). Some of us are old enough (not me) to remember Dwight D. Eisenhower’s “I Like Ike” campaign slogan and song (“I like Ike, you like Ike, we all like Ike…”). He won in a landslide.

Going back to ancient Greece (I like to do research), the catch phrase “resting on laurels” had a positive meaning in that it described a person of achievement. It eventually became a negative when it described a person (often an athlete or popular performer) who sadly relives days of past glories, recounting some long-ago accomplishment (like when I won so, so many trophies while on my high school’s speech team with an informational speech about Superman… I was on top of the world then). “Painting the town red” is another

still-in-use catch phrase all due, so the story goes, to one man and some of his friends. Henry de la Poer Beresford, the third Marquis of Waterford (also known as the Mad Marquis), was a drunk and known troublemaker. In 1837, he and his hooligans were completely sloshed and messed up the sweet little English town of Melton Mowbray (where fine Stilton cheese is made). As part of their wanton foolishness, they removed knockers from doors, broke windows, and painted a post office with red paint. A toll-keeper and a constable were painted red as well. There was more, but you get the idea. Brazen debauchery, to say the least.

Modern mass communication has allowed catch phrases to appear and quickly become part of daily conversation. Newspaper comic strips had them. Popeye said, “I am what I am.” Radio shows have faded in our cultural memory, but somebody somewhere is saying, “Say goodnight, Gracie.” Movie catch phrases are some of my favorite words to use in conversation, “Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!” But our focus today will be on television catch phrases, which are abundant. As you will soon see. The following is just a sampling though (I do have a life you know).

What is it about catch phrases that we seem to like? According to Christopher Peterson, Ph.D., writing for Psychology Today in 2012, it’s because they make us happy, especially when encountering others familiar with the phrase, and that’s good enough for me. Maybe some of the following catch phrases will make you happy, too.

Aaay!

Henry Winkler, who played Arthur “Fonz” Fonzarelli on Happy Days (1974–1984), had dyslexia, a learning disorder that made reading and learning his lines difficult. He decided to reduce his verbiage to expressive versions of “aaay!” The blog popculturereferences.com notes that Happy Days pushed for catch phrases to the show’s detriment. “Sit on it,” “Exactamundo” and its variants, Ralph Malph’s “I still got it!,” and Chachi’s mysterious “Wa, wa, wa” (before he became a show regular) were used, overused, and even discarded by later seasons.

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Exterminate!

- Daleks, nemeses of Dr. Who (Dr. Who first broadcast in U.S. in 1972)

Silly rabbit! Trix are for kids!

Trix is a colorful breakfast cereal from General Mills that has been around since 1954. The Trix rabbit and the product’s catch phrase, usually spoken by crummy little children, were introduced in 1959.

The design of the rabbit and the catch phrase was created by Joe Harris, one of the founders of Total Television (producer of cartoon shows) and creator of Underdog (whose own catch phrase is, “There’s no need to fear, Underdog is here!”).

RELATED: “Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids!” can be heard in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Vol. One (2003).

The thrill of victory… the agony of defeat This catch phrase is actually a portion of the opening to ABC’s The Wide World of Sports spoken by original show host Jim McKay: “Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport… the thrill of victory… and the agony of defeat… the human drama of athletic competition…This is ABC’s Wide World of Sports!” Actor and screenwriter Stanley Ralph Ross wrote the introduction but is better know for his work on Batman as well as other RetroFan-era classics like The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Monkees, and Wonder Woman.

RELATED: “What in the wide, wide world of sports is a-goin’ on here?” Spoken by Slim Pickens as Taggart in Mel Brooks’ motion picture comedy Blazing Saddles (1974).

How sweet it is!

First uttered by Jackie Gleason is the 1963 film Papa’s Delicate Condition. He would use it as one of his signature phrases from then on. His other, earlier catch phrase from The Jackie Gleason Show (1952–1957) was “And away we go!”

Meathead!

- Archie Bunker (Carroll O’ Conner) to son-in-law Michael Stivic (Rob Reiner) on All in the Family

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Book ’em, Danno - Hawaii Five-O’s Steve McGarrett (Jack Lord) to officer Dan Williams (James MacArthur)

Kiss my grits!

First use attributed to Florence Jean “Flo” Castleberry, as played

by Polly Holliday on two television series. The first was Alice (1976–1985), followed by the short-lived spin-off Flo (1980–1981).

Alice was adapted from the film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974). In the film Flo was played by Diane Ladd, who told Mel (Vic Tayback, who played the same character in both film and show), the owner of the diner she worked in, to “Kiss my honeydew.” This was deemed too racy for television because… because… television executives are strange people.

RELATED: In the film Chasing Amy (1997), Jay (Jason Mewes) of the film duo “Jay and Silent Bob” requests that a waitress “kiss my grits.” He then says “Nooch!” The Cambridge Dictionary indicates that “nooch” is an informal term for Nutritional Yeast. There is no sense to be made of this, but the word was uttered and, well, there we are. Of course, the Youths may think it means something else, but I don’t hang out at the soda fountain anymore, so I may be out of touch.

Who loves ya, baby?

- Detective Lieutenant Theophilus “Theo” Kojak (Telly Savalas) to just about anyone in Kojak

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Just the facts, Ma’am Never said by Detective Sgt. Joe Friday (played by series creator Jack Webb) or his Dragnet 1967 (1967–1970) partner Officer Bill Gannon (Harry Morgan). Nor was the exact phrase spoken on the radio version of the show (1949–1957), the first television series (1951–1959), or either of the two Dragnet movies—one theatrical (1954) and the other made-for-television (1966)—starring Jack Webb. The closest Sgt. Friday ever got to the phrase was, “All we want are the facts, ma’am.” (Did he only interrogate women?) So where did this catch phrase come from? Snopes.com places the source as a comedy record, St. George and the Dragonet, by humorist Stan Freberg, with two parodies of Dragnet. The spoof version of Sgt. Friday says at one point, “I just want to get to the facts, ma’am.”

And even that has been shortened in the public’s memory (which, we can all agree, is a funny thing—learned people know it as the Mandela effect, which is a false memory held by many). However, the 1987 Dragnet film comedy starring Dan Aykroyd (also a credited screenwriter) and Tom Hanks did embrace “just the facts” in both dialog and in promotional material.

scott saavedra’s secret sanctum

Hey, hey, hey!

Dy-no-MITE! Spoken by Jimmie Walker as first son J. J. Evans on Good Times (1974–1979). It was certainly one of the few catch phrases to tear apart a show. Suggested by director John Rich, Walker’s energy and comic timing knocked the delivery out of the ballpark. Good Times developer and executive producer Norman Lear hated it.

His shows (All in the Family, The Jeffersons, etc.) tended toward addressing serious issues with humor. Good Times was in that mode, making the very popular catch phrase sound jarringly out of sync.

The show’s tone and focus changed, which upset two of the actors playing J. J.’s parents, John Amos and Esther Rolle. Both would depart the series.

RELATED: RetroFan editor-in-chief Michael Eury uses the phrase “Dy-no-mite” at supermarkets, county fairs, rock quarries, and in the privacy of his marriage chamber. [Editor’s note: …and in dy-nomite intrusive editorial comments like this one!]

- Fat Albert in Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

And that’s the way it is Walter Cronkite was the CBS Evening News anchor from 1962–1981 and known as “the most trusted man in America.” After his first 15minute broadcast (news shows were brief then) he signed off, “And that’s the news. Be sure to check your local newspapers tomorrow to get all the details on the headlines we are delivering to you.” This did not set well with his bosses who, for starters, didn’t want to be promoting newspapers. Cronkite was just enough of a showman to know a sign-off would be good for the show. He quickly settled on his well-known catch phrase and missed using it only once.

Ruh-roh!

The popular Hanna-Barbara animated show, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (shouldn’t that be a question mark!) and its various spin-offs had a number of catch phrases. “Jinkies” is Velma’s go-to exclamation, “Zoinks” belongs to Shaggy, and “And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids!” or variants were used by bad adults. Scooby-Doo actually said “Uh-oh” during the first episode but by the tenth he was saying “Ruh-roh,” and was soon regularly using the phrase many of us now employ in times of great dismay.

Danger, Will Robinson This will blow your mind: Robot, who looked out for Will, the youngest son of the space-faring Robinson family, only said this exact catch phrase once during the three-season run of Irwin Allen’s Lost in Space (1965–1968). Robot, voiced by Dick Tufeld, would say “Danger” or “Warning,” but it was only in “The Deadliest of the Species,” the 11th episode of Season Three, that this useful (you bet) classic was uttered.

I’m just gobstopped. The phrase has turned up a number of times in television shows (CSI, The West Wing, and Farscape) and video games (Fallout 3). The reboot/remake of Lost in Space (2018–2021) made use of the catch phrase in both the show and advertising.

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Nip it!

- Barney Fife (Don Knotts), The Andy Griffith Show

D’oh!

The very long-running animated series The Simpsons (1989– ) has produced many catch phrases, “Eat my shorts” and “¡Ay, caramba!,” usually spoken by little troublemaker Bart Simpson, being just two of the better known examples. “D’oh!” is most often uttered by Homer Simpson (Bart’s dad) in a wide array of situations, making it an excellent catch phrase for actual humans to use in everyday life. Actor Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer, used a proto-version of “D’oh” based on actor Jimmy Finlayson’s similar “D’ooooooh” from his first sound film in 1929. Show creator Matt Groening suggested speeding up the phrase and this silly, well, noise, really, became one of the most popular catch phrases from television of all time (it is #6 on TV Land’s 2008 list). As it happens, scholars have found versions of “D’oh” appearing on BBC radio during the Forties and MAD founder Harvey Kurtzman reprinted a “Hey, Look!” humor strip in MAD #8 (Dec. 1953–Jan. 1954) with a “D-ooh!” In its early Simpsons years, “D’oh” was, from the very first, indicated on scripts as just “annoyed grunt” since no one could agree the spelling.

(LEFT) An old “D-oooh!” from Harvey Kurtzman’s “Hey, Look!” feature in Gay Comics #34 (October 1948). It was later reprinted in an early issue of MAD. © EC Publications, Inc.

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Holy mucilage, Batman!

Robin, the Boy Wonder, was an excitable crimefighter as portrayed

by Burt Ward on the Batman television series (1966–1968). His “Holy—!” verbal explosions changed with each episode and related to actions or surroundings in the story. Some versions, like “Holy Oleo” and “Holy Graf Zeppelin,” were out of date in the mid-Sixties and possibly more amusing as a result. The versatility of the catch phrase, however, has likely contributed to its longevity. Other catch phrases from the show include “To the Batpole” and “To the Batmobile.” [Editor’s note: Batman’s line “Sometimes you just can’t get rid of a bomb” from the 1966 Batman theatrical movie may not have been a catch phrase, but it sorta rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?]

De plane!

De plane!

- Tattoo, played by Hervé Villechaize, a little person with a thick French accent, on Fantasy Island.

scott saavedra’s secret sanctum

Oh, my nose!

- Marcia Brady (Maureen McCormick) after being hit in the face by a football on The Brady Bunch. And let’s not forget “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!”—a frustrated Jan Brady (Eve Plumb), tired of living in the shadow of her older sister

Just one more thing…

In addition to his rumpled overcoat, Lieutenant Columbo (Peter Falk) is known for turning to leave after interviewing a celebrity suspect, and then turning back around to deliver his distinctive catch phrase. The viewer always knows who the murderer is, and a big part of the fun is watching them squirm as Columbo gets closer to the truth and asks about “just one more thing.”

I can’t believe I ate the whole thing Commercial catch phrase for Alka-Seltzer in the early Seventies.

There are many commercial catch phrases that still stick after all these years: “Mikey likes it!,” “You sunk my battle ship!,” and “You’re soaking in it.” But the image of a sad man (Milt Moss) sitting at the edge of the bed unable to either sleep or come to terms with his overeating really grabbed me as a kid (weird kid, I know). Only a couple of tabs of Alka-Seltzer dropped into a glass of water could help. The sound of that action became the next great catch phrase for Alka-Seltzer: “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz. Oh, what a relief it is!”

RELATED: Homer Simpson’s high school year book quote (as seen in Season Four, Episode 19 of the Simpsons): “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.”

It’s the big one!

I’m coming for ya, Elizabeth!

- Fred Sanford (Redd Foxx), stumbling around the room in fake cardiac distress, on Sanford and Son

Heeeeere’s Johnny!

Ed McMahon was the classic talk-show sidekick and fully aware that his job was to support the star of the show. The star: Johnny Carson. The show: The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson.

McMahon was not supposed to shine or draw too much attention to himself, so it’s a bit ironic that he’s the source of the top Tonight Show catch phrase which he performed on every episode he was a part of from the first to the last for a good 30 years.

RELATED: Famously uttered in an insane fashion by Jack Nicholson (as Jack Torrance chopping through a bathroom door to get at his wife) in The Shinning (1980).

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imagine “Aaay” being anything more that an amusing thing to say; something that creates a smile (and no harm there). But the phrase and intent of “Live long and prosper” has historical precedent going back to ancient Egypt (hieroglyphs translating to “life,” “prosperity,” and “health”) have been uncovered. When combined with the Vulcan hand gesture, it can be as small a thing as two fans greeting each other or, more grandly, as a lovely non-denominational blessing.

A better catch phrase simply doesn’t exist.

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). You can find him on Instagram as scottsaav where he updates infrequently.

A ‘Secret Sanctum’ Personal Note About Michael Eury Retiring

Michael by Scott.

Live long and prosper Actor Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock first spoke this phrase on the “Amok Time” episode of Star Trek (1966–1969). This second season episode was written by science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon.

In the previous season, Nimoy introduced the Vulcan greeting, a raised hand with fingers extended in what he once called a “double-fingered” version of Winston Churchill’s victory gesture.

His invention was actually inspired by a childhood memory of a blessing performed at a Jewish Orthodox synagogue. Star Trek and its many spin-offs have generated a number of catch phrases: “He’s (It’s) dead, Jim,” “I’m a doctor, not a (bricklayer or some other trade),” and “Beam me up, Scotty,” which is another catch phrase that was not actually said on the original series.

In terms of cultural impact, Star Trek has been bigger than most other entertainment television programs. It’s hard to

On Feb. 28, 2015, aboard the International Space Station, f light engineer Samantha Cristoforetti saluted Leonard Nimoy’s passing the previous day with the most famous hand gesture in popular culture. Courtesy of ESA/NASA. 74

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If nothing else, you should know that Michael Eury, retiring Editor-in-Chief of RetroFan, really does use the catch phrase “Dy-no-mite!” professionally in emails.

Michael and I first worked together on Hero-A-Go-Go!: Campy Comic Books, Crimefighters, and Culture of the Swinging Sixties (TwoMorrows, 2017). He wrote it. I slapped it together. That was a fun project. Very happily, about a year later RetroFan magazine was born, and I got to work with Michael (and Mr. John Morrow) again on a regular basis. For years and years and years.

Believe it, or don’t: Michael and I have never met face to face. We have never spoken on the phone. This wasn’t planned, it just worked out that way and seemed to be comfortable for both of us. We spoke regularly via email, and that worked just fine. But I’ve seen his face smiling in photos and have read his words in this magazine and his TwoMorrows’ books. He’s a good guy, and I like him a lot. Absolutely, I will miss working with him and learning from him (it’s true!), but I’m happy that he’s doing the right thing for himself. He’s got comics to read, movies to watch, Captain Action adventures to imagine, and his wife Rose to do stuff with.

And, you know, I hope everyday forward is filled with lots of dy-no-mite, and not much of, say, dy-nomeh. You 100% deserve it, my friend. — Scott

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I just looked through RF #33 and, as usual, had quite the good time. Even if it’s something I wasn’t crazy about initially (“The Bionic Duo” or TV Westerns), there is information to be gleaned, and you never know what you can find out.

“Movie Icons vs. Axis Powers” was great!

Mark Voger’s articles are consistently very enjoyable. I always thought it was funny that Sherlock Holmes reaches for a cap instead of the Deerstalker before being admonished by Watson. A bigger question is, why did he have that odd hairstyle in those three films?

I loved Hot Wheels when I was little and had a nice little collection. Even more so when putting the tracks together and watching those little babies fly!

As a Junk Food Junkie, Scott Saavedra’s [Hostess] article was almost as comforting as a Chocolate Twinkie with a glass of milk. I have been able to find them at stores where I live, and also a new treat called Kazbars, which aren’t bad either, especially the caramel-flavored ones. I

had completely forgotten about the thin foil around the Ding Dongs and if memory serves, there was also foil around the Ho-Ho’s.

I suppose I was lucky my mom would put a Hostess in our lunchboxes in elementary school, but it would be one of the twin cakes or half a pie, and that was all for the day. Our house had a garage with four wooden shelves Mom used as a pantry with the boxes of delightful treats staring at us—such temptation, but forbidden and the knowledge of what would happen if we disobeyed her cured any urges.

I liked the Choco-Bliss and found Pudding Pies memories nice as well. And I could never forget the comic ads for Hostess—especially Spider-Man. It seemed some of those treats got him out of every scrape… I just wondered where Spidey kept them.

While on the subject of empty calories, how about something on Little Debbie? My dad was Army, so we moved a lot. In kindergarten, I vaguely recall a field trip to a Little Debbie plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and us getting an

Where does Spider-Man keep all those wonderful Hostess® Cup Cakes? In this ad he brought at least 19 with him on a date with Lisa Skye (is this canon?). © Marvel.

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Oatmeal Pie. I just wish I could find them in single portions like Hostess does.

Thank you again for this delightfully fun magazine—memories of things I remember with affection (Stuckey’s, Aurora models, Dark Shadows, The Brady Bunch, “Behind the Scenes on Movie/TV sets,” etc.), and learning new things (especially the Star Trek Original Series Set Tour—My wife is a big Trekkie and she loved it!). Maybe in the future, could you do something on the Warren magazines, Shakey’s Pizza, Casey Kasem, Eerie Publications (through the mid-Sixties and Seventies, they published these outrageously gruesome horror magazines using reprints from pre-Code comics—not EC and new gore artwork; trash, to be sure, but fun trash)—Bob Wikins (in 1971–1972, I lived in the San Francisco area and he was the host of Creature Feature on Channel 2, I believe), or Knoebels, an amusement park in Elysburg (about an hour north of Harrisburg), Pennsylvania, that appears to be stuck in a time warp with free admission, free parking, and many old-fashioned attractions. Everyone we took there just loved it!

Keep on printing and I’ll keep on reading.

STEVE SCHIMMING Perhaps we should retitle our designer’s column title to “Scott Saavedra’s Cupboard of Empty Calories.”

Regarding the “Behind the Scenes of TV Shows and Movies” features that appeared some time ago, their author, Ernest Farino, has written our RetroFanmail column with some intriguing info about super-sleuth Modesty Blaise…

I very much enjoyed Peter Bosch’s article on the Modesty Blaise comics in RetroFan #33. Beyond the comics, Peter touched on some of the film adaptations, which caught my attention.

Back in 1982, I designed and created the opening title sequence for the Modesty Blaise TV pilot that (mercifully) went unsold, and I can add some details about that project, for what it’s worth. The executive producer was Barney Rosenzweig, who was “hot” at the time for having created the hit police series Cagney and Lacey. This pilot was directed by Reza Badiyi who, interestingly enough, had designed some title sequences of his own in the past, notably the opening for the original Hawaii 5-0 series (I didn’t get to meet him on this project, though).

I was working freelance for Private Stock Effects, who created visual effects for Slapstick of Another Kind, Strange Invaders, and a couple of other films. We were asked to make a “pitch” for the main title job and I storyboarded some ideas for a Bond-like montage. The concept that “nailed” the job was my idea of panning across a row of upright .30-06 Springfield brass bullets only to find that the one at the end of

Ann Turkel starred in a 1982 Modesty Blaise television pilot. RetroFan columnist Ernest Farino (presently on sabatical) shares some behind-the-scenes stories from the shoot on this very page!

the row was a gold tube. It twists, raising up a shaft of bright red lipstick. Barney thought that perfectly captured the idea of “girls and guns” in a single shot.

Once on the job, we spent the first day shooting close-ups of guns and other weapons, our directive from Barney being to make it all look like “guns that were photographed for Vogue.” Ironically, the star, Ann Turkel, had been a successful model and had appeared on several covers of Vogue. Ann came to the studio in North Hollywood on the second day to shoot various bits, including a full-length “Bond-girl” type shot of her in a black satin dress. John Muto was the production designer and George Dodge was our cinematographer.

But the key shot of Ann was a macro close-up of her bright red lips—she turns into camera and “blows a kiss,” which immediately cuts to (causes?) a massive explosion. (Other shots of Ann were photos she provided from her modeling portfolio, to which we added action scenes into, for example, the lenses of her sunglasses.) The “lips” shot was tricky because of the tight, macro-close-up framing, and we

shot probably 20 or more takes: turn into the shot and “kiss”; turn away and then turn back into shot and “kiss”; over and over, since she had to “hit her mark” very precisely. Off just a fraction of an inch and the composition would be no good. This was complicated by the fact that on the day of her shoot (naturally) Ann had developed a zit just above her chin. She was extremely concerned that the camera not see it, despite our troweling on a thick layer of pancake make-up, and I had to shoot Polaroid tests to show her the framing and convince her that we wouldn’t see that darn zit (sounds like a Sixties Disney movie from the bizarro world: That Darn Zit, starring Hayley Mills). In the end everything worked out okay, and although Ann was in the throes of her divorce from actor Richard Harris, she was always pleasant and did the work in a completely professional manner.

I attended a cast-and-crew screening on the lot at Paramount but didn’t think the show was very good. I don’t have a copy of the main title at hand so was only able to pull together a few images. A fun project, though.

ERNEST FARINO

Nice to hear from you, Ernie! Thank you for sharing that fascinating anecdote and these photographs. (Incidentally, That Darn Zit could be used to describe my high school years. I’m probably not alone.)

Quite a bit to enjoy this time around [RetroFan #33].

In your Hostess article, you depicted their amusing straight-faced ad claim of “The good taste kids love and the good nutrition they need.” Nothing too surprising. Didn’t Captain Tootsie, earlier, claim his candy bar gives kids energy?

I did (and do) like Hostess cupcakes and apple pies. They give me the excessive sugar rush I require as a growing senior.

Enjoyed the look back at Hot Wheels cars. I remember them, but the fascination only lasted until I collected the first set of 16. The Silhouette was the coolest, and the Deora the slowest.

I recalled the distinctive look of the Beatnik Bandit but, 56 years later, not the name. Thank

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you for the reminder. Now, I constantly see new Hot Wheels at the supermarket. Can’t even comprehend how many hundreds they have out now for kids and collectors who need a lottery win or overturned Brinks truck to keep up.

Realized one thing in reference to patriotic Forties movies and Fifties Westerns: I saw them both as a kid in the Sixties. They were used as syndicated filler on television.

Of the TV Westerns, my favorite, easily, which you covered here, was The Rifleman with Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford. Appreciated that it was a Western and showed the mutual respect and love between a father and son. Something extra beyond the shootouts.

Also fun, shows from the late Fifties/early Sixties reward viewing with unexpected guest stars—famous faces we weren’t expecting, especially in retrospect. I know watching Zorro, many familiar actors made appearances. Or on Bonanza, I spotted Jonathan Harris and Guy Williams.

Yet, the funniest aspect of the article was the 1958 trading card of Have Gun, Will Travel.

The clumsy way Richard Boone is gripping the snake is just begging for a bite. You don’t leave the head that far out! Hope, for his sake, it was a rubber snake.

The one article I’ve been counting down for a long while was your look at the Fantastic Four on Saturday mornings. Delighted to finally see it (though with some minor criticism).

First, the good stuff.

Loved the Alex Toth simplified-for-animation character designs. The first season captured the visuals and tone of the characters very well.

They were the closest I’ve seen to the actual comics and, to date, from what I’ve seen, still are.

Laughed at the euphemism regarding the FF #19 story in America’s Best TV Comics, that it was “heavily edited.” It was chopped to shreds! The Rama-Tut story on TV was a lifesaver for me. I could never find FF #19 as a reprint or back issue as a kid. Because of the show, at least I knew what it was about.

I thought the music and voices were excellent.

That brings me to gripe #1: I wish you would have shown photos of the four voice actors.

Concern #2? I think some of the villain and supporting player voices were done by different performers than listed. Certainly, Galactus was done by the easily recognizable Ted Cassidy. Dr. Doom was performed by an actor named Joseph Sirola. Once, when Hawaii Five-0 came to DVD, an actor playing Jonathon Kaye sounded so familiar. I couldn’t recall from where, but I definitely knew I’d heard him before. I looked through his credits, online, until I came to the 1967 FF Dr. Doom credit. I burst out laughing.

That was where! Could you investigate some of the others? I think Tol Avery played Warlord Morrat.

78

RETROFAN

January 2025

While I enjoyed the Kirby photo and drawing of ZZ 123, I can’t say as I liked or appreciated the character. In my view, it dumbed down the show. I know they couldn’t have a Fantastic Four with only three characters, but I wish they’d have found a better substitute.

I didn’t see the solo Thing show and based on images and coverage, that’s not a complaint.

Mistake #3? The passage on page 33 that the FF were exposed to “radioactive gamma rays.”

Come on! That would have turned them green

and snarly. You’d better hit your Marvel Science textbooks, again, and read closer!

JOE FRANK Joe, don’t assume there’s a vast warehouse of voice actor photos available. They’re rare, and we share them when we’re able.

Re your final comment: Thanks for that correction! Here at RetroFan we’ve not turned “green and snarly” but instead “red-faced with embarrassment” over that typo that slipped

Two things that RetroFans really like are Hot Wheels and Alex Toth, both mixed together in this fifth issue of DC’s Hot Wheels comic (Dec. 1970). © DC Comics. Hot Wheels TM & © Mattel.

cars. Never being too concerned about looking “cool,” I sat down on the cement floor with the little guy and showed him all the cars, giving him pointers on which ones went the fastest and farthest. The mom ended up buying them, although my intent wasn’t to make a sale; it was fun crawling around on the floor playing with my cars with a friend, like the old days!

After having my Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars for so many years, it was satisfying to pass the fun on to another boy who would appreciate them.

As always, keep up the great work. Every issue of RetroFan is a trip down Memory Lane.

MICHAL JACOT

(RIGHT) Our own Andy Mangels wrote the Wonder Woman ’77 Meets the Bionic Woman DC/Dynamite mini-series. For all you Lindsey Wagner fans (and Lynda Carter fans, of course) RetroFan sez, “Check it out.” Wonder Woman © DC Comics. Bionic Woman © NBCUniversal.

past several sets of eyes very familiar with the differences between cosmic and gamma rays.

Thanks for another interesting glimpse into my past!

As is the case occasionally, this issue did not have a lot to excite me, except for the Bionic article!!! As a teenager at the time, Lindsay Wagner was one of my big-time crushes, and still holds a special place in my old-man heart (imagine my great joy when she later showed up on one of my later favorite shows, Warehouse 13).

I also liked the Hostess, Modesty Blaise, and Axis coverage.

It would be nice to hear some more from Lindsay Wagner if someone is able to interview her.

Your magazine, and Roy Thomas’ AlterEgo, are always able to transport me back to a time when I still had all my hair and teeth, and my body had a lot more energy than it does now.

Keep the memories coming and I will be here to soak them up!

SCOTT BEAL Scott, a few years ago our own Andy Mangels— who wrote the Wonder Woman ’77 Meets the Bionic Woman comic book mini-series —attempted to arrange a Lindsay Wagner interview for RetroFan. It didn’t pan out then, but maybe one day.

I liked the Six Million Dollar Man/Bionic Woman retrospective! Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers were TV super-heroes without the super-hero tropes (i.e., costumes, tricked-out cars, etc.) and that made their adventures even more fun. As teenage fans, my friends and I loved to engage in mock battle imitating the sound effects of the shows—while, of course, moving in slow motion. Needless to say, nobody got injured during our snail’s pace fights. Although my mom laughed a lot. [Like I wrote in that issue’s Retrotorial—the Bionic shows’ sound effects are burrowed into our heads!—ed.]

“The Heyday of Hostess” brought back memories I didn’t even know were in there!

I’d forgotten how much I loved Twinkies. To me, Sno-Balls were like Oreos, you had to

deconstruct them before eating. I peeled the marshmallow coating off and ate the components separately. I told my sister that the proper way to eat a Sno-Ball was to skin it first; I don’t think she ever ate one after that.

Oh, and I thank Scott Saavedra for supplying the answer to a question that has nagged me for years, mainly: Why would they replace a cool name like Ding Dongs with a weird, puzzling name like King Dons?

Brad Farb’s Celebrity Crush column on Jerry Lewis struck a chord with me. Not that I’m as much of a diehard fan of Lewis as he is, but I liked how he showed how one fun discovery sometimes leads to a lifetime of joyful collecting. Whether it’s comics, character memorabilia, or whatever strikes one’s fancy, we’re all in the same boat there, Brad…

Will Murray’s article about TV Westerns was a fun read. Bonanza was a Sunday night staple at our house, and I watched many of the others Will mentioned. When I was researching my TV Guide Fall Preview article [RetroFan #28] I noticed that even the editors of that venerable magazine seemed overwhelmed by the number of shows in that genre.

My favorite article of the issue, though, was Mike Pigott’s look at Hot Wheels. That triggered a lot of childhood memories. My local drug store was my source for Matchbox cars; they had a countertop rotating display, and I loved how the cars came in their own individual box. But then came this upstart line of cars from Mattel, and they sure didn’t look like my dad’s cars. In the years following, I amassed a collection of about 60 toys from Matchbox and Hot Wheels.

When I was 17, I decided to sell them at Mom’s garage sale. A mother came by with her little boy, and he was fascinated with the toy

After all this lettercol’s chatter about junk food, I feel like checking my cholesterol.

Instead, I’d better check my bank account to make sure my Social Security payment was deposited. That’s what retirees do.

I’ll also be checking my mailbox every two months for my subscription copy of RetroFan! I am excited to join you as a fellow RetroFan reader and thank you for the privilege of being this magazine’s pop culture guide since 2018. Ed Catto—Retro Ed—knock ’em dead, buddy!

May the joys of the past bring you comfort in the future, Michael Eury Editor-in-Chief, retired

Tell your friends about us, and share your comments about this issue by writing our incoming editor, Ed Catto, at retroed@ twomorrows.com

NEXT ISSUE

RETROFAN

January 2025

79

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. Catch phrases are audience pleasers when done right. Sadly, with every popular catch phrase there’s plenty that didn’t take.

BY SCOTT SAAVEDRA

Catch Phrases That Flopped That’s donkey talk, Wilbur!

That’s not my function at the junction, Uncle Joe! Grab that again and we’re gettin’ married, Barney!

Now, Marcia, close your trap before I close it for you!

Oh, Pshaw, Potsie!

80

RETROFAN

January 2025

ALTER EGO #191

ALTER EGO #192

ALTER EGO #193

ALTER EGO #194

ALTER EGO #195

#191 is an FCA (FAWCETT COLLECTORS OF AMERICA) issue! Documenting the influence of MAC RABOY’s Captain Marvel Jr. on the life, career, and look of ELVIS PRESLEY during his stellar career, from the 1950s through the 1970s! Plus: Captain Marvel co-creator BILL PARKER’s complete testimony from the DC vs. Fawcett lawsuit, MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and other surprises!

MARK CARLSON-GHOST documents the mid-1950s super-hero revival featuring The Human Torch, Captain America, SubMariner, Fighting American, The Avenger, Phantom Lady, The Flame, Captain Flash, and others—with art by JOHN ROMITA, JOHN BUSCEMA, BILL EVERETT, SIMON & KIRBY, MIKE SEKOWSKY, MORT MESKIN, BOB POWELL, and other greats! Plus FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and more!

An abridgment of EDDY ZENO’s “Drawn to Greatness” book, showcasing Superman artists who followed JOE SHUSTER: WAYNE BORING, PAUL CASSIDY, FRED RAY, JACK BURNLEY, WIN MORTIMER, and others. With appreciations by ORDWAY, KUPPERBERG, ISABELLA, JURGENS, WAID, MACCHIO, NEARY, NOWLAN, EURY, THOMAS, and more! Plus FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and more!

ROY THOMAS celebrates 60 years in comics! Career-spanning interview by ALEX GRAND, e-mails to Roy from STAN LEE, the history of Wolverine’s creation, RT’s 1960s fan-letters to JULIUS SCHWARTZ, and his top dozen stories compiled by JOHN CIMINO! With art by BUSCEMA, KANE, ADAMS, WINDSOR-SMITH, COLAN, ORDWAY, BUCKLER, FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and cover by TONY GRAY!

NEAL ADAMS REVISITED! Interviews by ALEX GRAND and BILL FIELD, as well as EMILIO SOLTERA—and an overview of Neal’s merchandising art for Marvel and DC Comics and in other fields, conducted by JAMES ROSEN! Plus Adams art, as inked

by PALMER, GIORDANO, VERPOORTEN, ROUSSOS, SINNOTT, DEZUNIGA, and others! With FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and more!

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #91

KIRBY COLLECTOR #92

KIRBY COLLECTOR #93

KIRBY COLLECTOR #94

BRICKJOURNAL #87

30th Anniversary issue, with KIRBY’S GREATEST VICTORIES! Jack gets the girl (wife ROZ), early hits Captain America and Boy Commandos, surviving WWII, romance comics, Captain Victory and the direct market, his original art battle with Marvel, and finally winning credit! Plus MARK EVANIER, a colossal gallery of Kirby’s winningest pencil art, a never-reprinted SIMON & KIRBY story, and more!

IN THE NEWS! Rare newspaper interviews with Jack, 1973 San Diego panel with Jack and NEAL ADAMS discussing DC’s coloring, strips Kirby ghosted for others, unused strip concepts, collages, a never-reprinted Headline Comics tale, Jimmy Olsen pencil art gallery, 2024 WonderCon Kirby panel (featuring DAVID SCHWARTZ, GLEN GOLD, and RAY WYMAN), and more!

Cover inked by DAVID REDDICK!

SUPPORTING PLAYERS! Almost-major villains like Kanto the Assassin and Diablo, Rodney Rumpkin, Mr. Little, the Falcon, Randu Singh, and others take center stage!

Plus: 1970 interview with Jack by SHEL DORF, MARK EVANIER’s 2024 Kirby Tribute Panel from Comic-Con, neverreprinted Simon & Kirby story, pencil art gallery, and more! Unused Mister Miracle cover inked by MIKE ROYER!

SPACE RACES! Jack’s depictions of cosmic gods and life on other planets, including: how Ego, Tana Nile, and the Recorder took Thor to strange new worlds, OMAC’s space age future, time travelers in Kirby’s work, favorite Kirby sci-fi tropes in his stories, plus: a 1967 LEE/KIRBY interview, MARK EVANIER and other columnists, never-reprinted Simon & Kirby story, robotic pencil art gallery, cover inked by TERRY AUSTIN!

Take to the air with JESSE GROS and his wondrous airships! KEVIN COPA’s renditions of the ships from International Rescue, a.k.a. the Thunderbirds, are also featured, as well as JACK CARLESON and his airliners! Plus BRICKNERD, BANTHA BRICKS: Fans of LEGO Star Wars, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS!

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COMIC BOOK CREATOR #36 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #37 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #38 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #39 AMERICAN COMIC BOOK STEVE ENGLEHART is spotlighted in RICK VEITCH discusses his career from THOMAS YEATES career-spanning interCHRONICLES: 1945-49 view about the Kubert School, Swamp

TOM PALMER retrospective, career-spanning interview, and tributes compiled by GREG BIGA. LEE MARRS chats about assisting on Little Orphan Annie, work for DC’s Plop! and underground Pudge, Girl Blimp!

The start of a multi-part look at the life and career of DAN DIDIO, part two of our ARNOLD DRAKE interview, public service comics produced by students at the CENTER FOR CARTOON STUDIES, & more!

a career-spanning interview, former DC Comics’ romance editor BARBARA FRIEDLANDER redeems the late DC editor JACK MILLER, DAN DIDIO discusses going from DC exec to co-publisher, we conclude our 100th birthday celebration for ARNOLD DRAKE, take a look at the 1970s underground comix oddity THE FUNNY PAGES, and more, including HEMBECK!

undergrounds and the Kubert School; the ’80s with 1941, Epic Illustrated and Heavy Metal; to Swamp Thing, The One, Brat Pack, and Maximortal! Plus TOM VEITCH’s history of ’70s underground horror comix, part one of a look at cartoonist ERROL McCARTHY, the story behind Studio Zero— the ’70s collective of artists STARLIN, BRUNNER, WEISS, and others, and more!

Thing, Eclipse Comics, and adventure strips Zorro, Tarzan, and Prince Valiant! GREG POTTER discusses his ’70s Warren horror comics and ’80s reboot of Wonder Woman with GEORGE PÉREZ, WARREN KREMER is celebrated by MARK ARNOLD, plus part one of a look at the work of STEVE WILLIS, part two of ERROL McCARTHY, and more!

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Covers the aftermath of WWII, when comics shifted from super-heroes to crime, romance, and western comics, BILL GAINES plotted a new course for EC Comics, and SIEGEL & SHUSTER sued for rights to Superman! By RICHARD ARNDT, KURT MITCHELL, and KEITH DALLAS.

(288-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $49.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-099-1

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RETROFAN #37

RETROFAN #38

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BACK ISSUE #156

Tune in to Saturday morning super-heroes Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, The Mod Squad, Hanna-Barbera cartoonists, Jesus Christ Superstar, Mr. Potato Head, ‘Old Yeller” actress BEVERLY WASHBURN, Flying Nun collectibles, and more! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER. Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Can your mind stand the shocking truth of… ED WOOD CAST CONFESSIONS? Plus: Ideal Toys’ Zeroids, television Tarzan RON ELY, Planters® Peanuts’ Mr. Peanut, CHARLES ADDAMS, TV’s The Fugitive, the forgotten 1981 Spider-Man cartoon, and more! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, ED CATTO, and MARK VOGER.

Here comes TV’s Dennis the Menace, with stars JAY NORTH, GLORIA HENRY, and JEANNIE RUSSELL! Plus: Hogan’s Heroes turns 60, TV Western Have Gun–Will Travel, Big Little Books, The Incredible Hulk in animation, MICKY DOLENZ as Circus Boy, and more! Featuring columns by ED CATTO, ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER.

BRONZE AGE GRAPHIC NOVELS! 1980s GNs from Marvel, DC, and First Comics, Conan GNs, and DC’s Sci-Fi GN series!

With BRENT ANDERSON, JOHN BYRNE, HOWARD CHAYKIN, CHRIS CLAREMONT, JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, JACK KIRBY, DON MCGREGOR, BOB McLEOD, BILL SIENKIEWICZ, JIM STARLIN, ROY THOMAS, BERNIE WRIGHTSON, and more. WRIGHTSON cover.

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All characters TM & © their respective owners.

The Jetsons, Freaky Frankensteins, Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling’s HOLLYWOOD, the Archies and other Saturday morning rockers, Star Wars copycats, Build Your Own Adventure books, crazy kitchen gadgets, toymaker MARVIN GLASS, and more! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER. Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

BACK ISSUE #158

BACK ISSUE #159

BACK ISSUE #160

BACK ISSUE #161

HEY, MISTER ISSUE! The FF’s Mr. Fantastic, STEVE DITKO’s Mr. A, the 40th anniversary of MICHAEL T. GILBERT’s Mr. Monster, Mr. X, the Teen Titans’ Mr. Jupiter, R. CRUMB’s Mr. Natural, Archie’s Mr. Weatherbee, and a Mr. Freeze villain history! Featuring BYRNE, CARDY, CONWAY, DeCARLO, DINI, ENGLEHART, the HERNANDEZ BROS., MIGNOLA, MOTTER, and more!

Cover by ED McGUINNESS.

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS 40th ANNIVERSARY! Pre-Crisis tour of DC’s multiple Earths, analysis of Crisis and its crossovers, Crisis Death List, post-Crisis DC retro projects, guest editorial by MARV WOLFMAN, and more! Featuring BARR, ENGLEHART, GREENBERGER, LEVITZ, MAGGIN, MOENCH, ORDWAY, THOMAS, WAID, and more! With GEORGE PÉREZ’S Crisis on Infinite Earths Index #1 cover.

SUMMER FUN ISSUE! Marvel’s Superhero Swimsuit Editions, Betty and Veronica swimsuit gallery, DC’s Strange Sports Stories, the DC/Marvel softball rivalry, San Diego Comic-Con history, Impossible Man Summer Vacation Specials, DC Slurpee cups, DC/Whitman variants, and more!

Featuring BATES, DeCARLO, HUGHES, JIM LEE, LOPRESTI, MAGGIN, ROZAKIS, STELFREEZE, and more! GUICE cover.

MUTANT MAYHEM ISSUE! BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH’s Weapon X Wolverine, the romance of Havok and Polaris, Rogue and Nightcrawler limited series, Brood and Arcade villain histories, “Mutant Massacre” crossover, and more! With JON BOGDANOVE, JOHN BYRNE, CHRIS CLAREMONT, DAVE COCKRUM, LOUISE SIMONSON, MIKE WIERINGO, and more!

WINDSOR-SMITH cover.

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BACK ISSUE #157

KEITH GIFFEN TRIBUTE ISSUE! Starstudded celebration of the prolific writer/ artist of Legion of Super-Heroes, Rocket Raccoon, Guardians of the Galaxy, Justice League, Lobo, Blue Beetle, and others!

With CARY BATES, TOM BIERBAUM, J.M. DeMATTEIS, DAN DIDIO, ROBERT LOREN FLEMING, CULLY HAMNER, SCOTT KOBLISH, PAUL LEVITZ, KEVIN MAGUIRE, BART SEARS, MARK WAID, and more!