THE DEAD ZONE TV Series - Season One Episode 01 (2002)

It's time for another Saturday Night Special in The Dungeon, and tonight's special feature was once again brought to my attention by my good friend in Berlin, D.J., musician, and all around good egg, Lord Litter!

"The Dead Zone" was originally a novel written by famed horror author Stephen King in 1979, and the TV show was based on it! It was only his seventh novel, and the fifth penned under his real name. "Rage" in 1977, and "The Long Walk" in 1979 were written using the name Richard Bachman!

Fairly simple, but effective to start with, the story of "The Dead Zone" centers around this young man named Johnny Smith. Johnny has just banged his head on the hard ice! 

Johnny grows up to be a very hands on school teacher, who does things like encourage his students to climb trees and such. Johnny Smith is played by the very affable Anthony Michael Hall!

Johnny's girlfriend is also a teacher at the same school. Her name is Sarah Bracknell and is played by the lovely pixie Canadian Nicole (Lieutenant Ezri Dax) de Boer. They are really a cute couple. Here they are about to embarrassingly get caught kissing in the broom closet!

Johnny Smith's home looks to me like something right out of a Stephen King novel, what's up with that?

I've always like Michael Anthony Hall as an actor ever since his "Sixteen Candles," "The Breakfast Club," "Weird Science" days. He's always been good at playing a sweet and innocent guy, which is exactly what Johnny Smith is.

"Step right up, come on in, see the show, see things you've never imagined before, there's Mysterical Sights to be seen!"

The wheel of luck just might turn unfortunate when the story is written by Stephen King!

This will be about the last time this happy couple's life together will make sense for either of them!

Johnny didn't plan on going out in a blaze of glory, it just worked out that way! He was just going to go get some video tapes to watch!

Six years later, after everybody has completely given up on him, Johnny Smith comes out of a coma!

Sarah never stopped loving Johnny, and she was pregnant when he died, so she ended up getting married to Sheriff Walt Bannerman as played by Chris (Beowulf) Bruno.

When Sarah gets the news that Johnny has come out of his coma, she understandably doesn't know what to think. She loves her husband, but her feeling for Johnny never went away either.

Sarah finally finds the strength to visit Johnny, and tell him that he has a son, but the real story is, since coming out of the coma, Johnny now is a visionary who can see into the past and the future!

I'm really looking forward to watching all three seasons. If you have a Prime account, all three seasons stream for free. Just for the record, "The Dead Zone" was also released as a movie in 1983 with Christopher Walken as Johnny Smith, and Brooke Adams as Sarah Bracknell, then it really started getting weird with deviations on the title like "Zone Of The Dead" in 2009, which was a completely unrelated story! Now it's time for me to step back into my time machine!

BATMAN / Columbia Serial Chapter 3 - The Mark Of The Zombies - 1943

Here's the first appearance of BATMAN in the movies... In this 15 chapter series, the story goes like this... Japanese spymaster Prince Daka operates a covert espionage organization located in Gotham City's Little Tokyo where they turn American scientists into zombie slaves! I chose this chapter because I liked the sound of the title.

This serial stars Lewis (WILD WOMEN OF WONGO) Wilson as Batman / Bruce Wayne, Douglas (died at age 37) Croft as Robin / Dick Grayson, J. Carrol (THE MONSTER MAKER, DRACULA vs. FRANKENSTEIN) Naish as Dr. Daka and Shirley (WORLD WITHOUT END, THE LAND UNKNOWN, IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE) Patterson as Linda Page.

At the end of the last chapter, Batman and Robin go through Hell to save their gal pal Linda Page from the clutches of Dr. Daka's evil henchmen!

So, on to today's story... Dr. Daka can't wait to use his zombie maker on this scientist, he's taken downstairs where all the fun is! That's a cool looking machine, I want one!

After a few minutes in the chamber, our scientist pal is ready to obey his crazed master...

Wow, this looks like a neat place to have some fun. Eegah!! and I would definitely be interested in checking it out for a dime!

It's really quite hilarious to watch this gangster buy a ticket and go on the ride through the Cave Of Horrors!! Thing is, he's using a secret route to report to Dr. Daka. He even has to have his hand x-rayed to assure he's one of the doc's gang before he can access a hidden door!

Okay, here's my WTF! still capture... I don't care how much they paid me as a stunt man, I would never agree to do this one! Again, WTF! This is what happens after Robin knocks this guy through a ceiling window, wow!

At this time, Batman and Robin are protecting this old fart with secrets Dr. Daka wants for some reason. During a scuffle, he calls out for freakin' pizza!! Anyway, he finds a gun and starts blindly shooting, almost killing Batman and Robin, but somehow ends up chasing off the goons!

The costumes look kinda dorky, but, what the Hell, right?!.. Our heroes get a clue and head out for another confrontation... Notice that Robin drives!

Our chapter ends with the doc's guys trying to blow up a bridge and there's an oncoming train!

Of course, Batman gets bonked on the head and is in dreamland there on the tracks!..

So, come back next week to see what happens in chapter 4 - Not really, but, check in tomorrow for more cool junk from The Dungeon Gang!

THE VIOLENT YEARS - "Untamed Thrill-Girls Of The Highway!" - Ed Wood (1956)

 Over the course of the last ten years or so, I've watched a lot of bad movies, and I have to tell you that "The Violent Years" is right up there with the worst of them!

 Welcome back to The Dungeon!

 "The Violent Years" is an extremely simple story as written by Edward D. Wood Jr., and I can't see mocking it, because it's already a mockery of itself! It's that ridiculous!

 When I was rooting around looking for more info on "The Violent Years," I found out that there was an MST3K version. I haven't seen it, but that had to be like shooting fish in a barrel!

 This vicious gang of four girls include Miss Citizenship Paula Parkins. Paula was played by Jean (The Amazing Colossal Man, Attack Of The Puppet People, Atomic Submarine) Moorhead!

Phyllis is Miss Self Restraint! This was Gloria Farr's one shot at fame!

Miss Politeness was Joanne Cangi as Geraldine! Joanne's only other foray into acting was as a telephone switchboard operator in "It's A Great Life."

Last but not least is Miss Loyalty also known as Georgia as played by Theresa Hancock. This was also Theresa's only ever role.

On the right is Barbara Weeks as Paula's Mom Jane Parkins. She is so busy with her social life that she has no clue that her daughter is a conniving juvenile delinquent. If your daughter is 21 and still in high school, you just might need to start wondering if her and her friends are up to no good, don't you think?

These girls are really bad, and Ed would never try and explain anything like where they got all these guns from! They like to rob gas stations!

They like to harass people! They make this gal strip, then they tie her up, and make off with her boyfriend!

All four walked off into the woods with him, and unless he got killed or beaten pretty bad, he just might have kind of had a good time!

The innocence of youth? Not this time!

Pajama Party? This is a smoking and drinking makeout party!

In every one of the couples spit swap, they are also all holding cigarettes between their grubby juvenile fingers!

For a cheapass movie, "The Violent Years" has some pretty cool music in it. No composer is given credit for it, but the Music Director was Michael (King Dinosaur, The Unearthly, The Devil's Hand) Terr.

When offered an opportunity to trash the school for pay, it's like a dream come true for these bad girls, and they go right to work!

A security guard hears the racket they're making busting stuff up, and calls the cops, and everything goes South from there. First Phyllis gets shot and killed, and then Paula shoots one of the police officers!

Not until the end that is!

It's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt, then suddenly it's a stark, cold and lonely world!
Next time kids, dare not to be stupid, or you might end up here too!
This has been a public service announcement from Eegah!! and Tabonga!