Wednesday, May 31, 2017

FAR OUT SPACE NUTS - Sid & Marty Krofft (1975)

I toyed with the idea of doing the second segment of the new "Twin Peaks" tonight, but then I remembered I had this, which is so much better! I will say something good about the new "Twin Peaks" though, and that's that the band that played at the end of the last episode I watched was excellent, and I had never heard of them before, so thanx for that anyway David! You restored my faith a little bit! Their name is The Cactus Blossoms, and they're the closest thing you're going to find to The Everly Brothers today!

Even though it was originally a Saturday morning kid's show, I think "Far Out Space Nuts" also qualifies as a pretty good candidate for a Dungeon Wacky Wednesday!

It's all in your mind, and the reality is that everything else is a figment of your imagination!
So, if you don't like something, then that's tough, because it's all your fault anyway!
Actually, now that I think about it, the new "Twin Peaks" might be wickedly disguised, but actually based on "Far Out Space Nuts!" Yeah, it's all starting to make sense now!

The stars of the show are two losers played by Chuck McCann and Bob Denver! Chuck McCann was also a co-writer on the show! Chuck is still working today, and has a long, long history of doing cartoon voices for decades now. Some of his voices are of main characters like Ben Grimm, The Thing, but a vast amount of Chuck's career was doing all the other voices of incidental characters you might hear! Wind him up, and let him go! I think Bob Denver was getting tired after doing 144 episodes of "Dobie Gillis" and another 99 episodes of "Gilligan's Island" at this point!

One inch shy of being four feet tall, Patty Maloney kept busy for years, not only acting, but doing voice over for stuff like the voice of Darla in the 1982 "Little Rascals" cartoon series!
(Seriously though, the Honk character is extremely annoying!)

This was the pilot episode of "Far Out Space Nuts!" It starts off with two dim witted maintenance workers getting launched into space instead of going to lunch like they expected!

Here's where they ended up! You have to admit, some of this stuff looks pretty good!

Mr. Clean Green Screen!

I love the spray painted tumbleweed alien plant life!

Pretty rough for Saturday morning! The boys are put into solitary confinement!

For being a Saturday morning kid's TV show, the sexual implications of G.A.L. are not too subtle!!

What the Hell kind of krazy Muppet monster is this?

Be gone Earth men, and be safe and diligent as you traverse the universe!
I'm totally convinced now that this was David Lynch's favourite TV show!
And do check out The Cactus Blossoms!
If you like good music, you will not be disappointed!

Monday, May 29, 2017

GODZILLA, MOTHRA AND KING GHIDORAH: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack / Toho Company - 2001

I'll finish off my month with this great Godzilla flick. The story goes something like this... Strange incidents occur when an American submarine has been destroyed by a mysterious force at sea and only Admiral Tachibana is certain that Godzilla's behind the disaster! To further prove Tachibana's claim, his daughter Yuri, who works for the TV news program, Digital Q, investigates strange phenomena in three separate areas in Japan and meets a mysterious old man who proclaims that aside from his infamous nuclear origins, Godzilla is also an accumulation of vengeful souls!

After the submarine incident, a giant Mothra worm breaks up the swim party at a lake!

Then, Godzilla is reborn and makes his way to a city, and, as usual, looking for trouble.

japan sends out their guardian monsters to attack Godzilla and protect the population from the destruction the big guy's capable of! But, he disposes of his lesser opponents post haste.

Big G is roaming the countryside, looking for more trouble, when a group of jet fighters show up and fire their missiles into the lumbering hulk!

Mothra appears in the sky and is ready to rumble with Godzilla, the battle leaves Mothra defeated and the big lizard just keeps rolling along.

Then, King Ghidorah joins in on the fun and the fur flies!..

Big G deep sixes The King, but, the three headed monster reassembles its molecules and gives us a fantastic light show! This is one of the very best modern Godzilla flicks, no G flop!

It's the battle of the century as the two monsters go back and forth, but in the end, our atomic big guy defeats King Ghidorah yet again...

Godzilla goes back to the sea where a small sub is ready to put some special boring missiles into him. Unfortunately, the monster swallows the submarine and it's stuck inside his stomach! So, why not just bore your way out of the thing!!

The day is saved and Godzilla goes down for the count, goodnight sweet prince!! We're back Wednesday with our last post in May...

Saturday, May 27, 2017

ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS: Season 03 - Episode 01 - "The Glass Eye" (1957)

Tonight's Saturday Night Special welcomes the 'Master of Suspense' Alfred Hitchcock back to The Dungeon one more time, and trust me, it won't be the last!

"Alfred Hitchcock Presents" was on for some seven seasons and 268 stories which amounts to a 30 minute show almost every week for seven years! I've got some serious catching up to do!!

Tonight's feature was from Season 03, Episode 01, and is a very interesting tale titled "The Glass Eye!"

Yes, as Alfred does the introduction, he is indeed, holding "The Glass Eye," and seems to be enjoying himself quite nicely!

No shit, it's The Shat, in one of his earliest appearances on television, and a full nine years before he achieved immortality as Captain James Kirk! Bill is a gentleman, and the narrator of the story named Jim Whitely! His cousin Julia has died, and while he's cleaning out her apartment, he finds a glass eye in a little box, and he goes on to tell his wife the whole story of why she had it! Mrs. Whitely was played by Spiderman's Aunt May, Rosemary Harris!

Jessica (The Birds, Cocoon, *Batteries Not Included, Fried Green Tomatoes) Tandy is Julia Lester. I guess you could call her a spinster. Does anyone make quilts anymore? I sure hope so!

I don't know about you, but I love this whacked out makeshift stove!
Looks dangerous as all Hell!!

For lack of anything better to do, Julia tries to be nice to a neighbor kid, and take him out to do things like this show, even though he's a little shit!

Okay, it was already weird, but once the show starts, that's the biggest dummy I've ever seen! Seven years ago, I did a write up on another ventriloquist movie called "Dead Of Night" that got us nominated for a Rondo award for two years in a row, so maybe this post will catapult us back to the top again! In the "I Think This Is Pretty Weird" Department, there was another completely unrelated German movie made in 1969 with a ventriloquist in a major role that was titled "Der Mann Mit Dem Glasauge" or "The Man With The Glass Eye!"
This dummy named George also reminds me too much of Devo's Booji Boy!

While I'm perplexed, Julia is having the time of her life!

Julia has turned into THE biggest ventriloquist groupie in history!
She just cannot get enough of Max Collodi and his show, and follows him all over the place from city to city, but always staying in the shadows!

Julia has now fallen completely head over heels in love with Max, and is seen here putting together a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about him! Does anybody put together scrapbooks or make collages anymore??

Julia's become so obsessed that she finally breaks out of her shell, and contacts Max. He writes her back, but tells her the meeting will only last five minutes, and his dummy George will also be there, so when the time comes she rushes to go meet this man she has become so thoroughly entranced with!  It's a fairy tale romance!

Julia is so in love, you might think Max was a hypnotist, instead of a ventriloquist!
The magnificent Max Collodi was played by the even more magnificent Tom Conway! Here's just a couple of Tom's credits that will floor you, "Bride Of The Gorilla," "The She-Creature," "Voodoo Woman," and "The Atomic Submarine!" He was also The Falcon in ten films! He is obviously a lady killer!!

But not in Alfred Hitchcock's world..........In Alfred's world, he's just a big dummy, and Julia is completely mortified!!

Get out of here and don't come back!!!!!!

One of the most famous of all the little guys of all time, Billy Barty was really the one pulling all the strings! All Julia got out of the deal was a broken heart and the dummy's glass eye, and that's the end of the story! Billy Barty racked up 194 acting credits between 1927 and the year 2000, and that's pretty darn amazing, and a story all into itself!

Friday, May 26, 2017

JOSIE AND THE PUSSY CATS IN OUTER SPACE: The Sun Haters / Hanna Barbara - 1972

To distract a bit from from probably becoming a Poot'n Puppet, I thought I'd keep it light today with some Pussy Cats flying around in Space!! This cartoon series ran from 1972-4 and put Josie and her pals in space adventures to keep the kids interested. Wow, no title card was even shown!

The gang land on a planet only to have their ship grabbed by a weird giant...

The giant dumps the gang on the ground and leaves with their rocket. There, they meet some regular sized aliens who decide to help the lost spacers!

The boy alien takes Josie and her pals to the city of the giants to find their ship.

They find the lab (good thing everything's in English!) and have to push a huge door open. Then, they almost get stepped on by one of the big ones!

The giants seem to be experimenting with their rocket, what the Hell's going on?!

Pssst... I found an empty broom closet, let's go take a break!..

Anyway, it's time to figure out how the controls work to try and get their ship back.

The giants are putting something inside the rocket, now what?!..

Well, believe it or not, they're testing a foam that will put out a sun, because, I guess, they are simply, Sun Haters!!

The gang do all they can to get their ship back, but it's hard to deal with giant sized obstacles.

It turns out that the giants are huge Josie And The Pussy Cats fans, they put on their shades, clap their hands and tap their toes to that groovy Earth beat!

So, the giants give them a big send off...

And, they head off, back into space for more adventures for us kids...

I saw these credits at the end of the episode and noticed writer Tom Dagenais, I used to date his ex-wife when I lived in LA. Anywho, we're back tomorrow when Eegah!! will bring us something cool...

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??