SHAT ATTACK - "The Early Days Of William Shatner" (1958 - 1978)

 

Out of over 3300 films and TV shows we've written about, we've never done one "Star Trek" episode unless you count the Turkish version, but it's not because we're not big William Shatner fans, it's just that we'd rather focus on the strange things The Shat's done in his career, and boy, there are plenty of them! I created this "Shat-scape" that shows some of Bill's strangeness we've covered so far, but there is far more than the average Shat fan even realizes, and that's why I've got some samples for you on this Weird Wednesday down in The Dungeon!

 

William Shatner just turned 90 a few months ago, and he has a whopping 246 credits to his name playing a wide assortment of characters, plus he has another 464 credits where he appeared as himself. One of his earliest appearances was in 1954 where he appeared on "The Howdy Doody Show" as Ranger Bob. I couldn't find any pictures of Ranger Bob. The shot above is from an appearance he made on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1958 where he appeared with France Nuyen and the cast of the Broadway show "World Of Suzie Wong."

 

Here's a weird one! William played a boxer in this "Family Theater Production" in 1962 that was a series of film meditations on the Psalms.

 

 In 1963 William Shatner appeared on the drama series hosted by Fred Astaire called "Alcoa Premiere" in an episode titled "Million Dollar Hospital," where he plays Dr. William Grant.

 

 Dr. Grant has to try and make the best of dealing with a run down hospital!

 

1963 was also the year William appeared as "Alexander The Great!"

 

In this 1963 episode of "The Dick Powell Theatre," called "Colossus," William plays Eric Tegman, a poor man who gets tired of being pushed around by the rich guys. William speaks with an accent in this show!
 

In 1964 in an episode called "The Shattered Glass" on "The Bob Hope Presents The Chrysler Theatre," William plays a man with a drinking problem!  

In 1975 Bill appeared in an uncredited role as a Doctor attending Ben Franklin in Part 4 of the mini-series "The Lives Of Benjamin Franklin."

 

In 1978, he played Captain Harrison in two episodes of the TV series "How The West Was Won."

Also in 1978.........

.........William played Paul Revere in the TV series "The Bastard."

 

In 1978, a curly haired William also played Prof. Friedrich Bhaer in the classic "Little Women."

The list goes on forever, and I've just given you a taste of what has happened in The Shatosphere in the early years, but I have to stop somewhere.

 

Thanks to my man in Berlin for showing me the way to this great YouTube site hosted by Ruby Pearl. Go there, and you'll not only find most of what I've shown you here, but also a virtual hoard of other Shatner wonders! In the meantime, enjoy this rockin' and hilarious tune done by William with Henry Rollins in 2004 called "I Can't Get Behind That."

LIGHTS OUT / :The Upstairs Floor" - 1952

Here's a sad tale from this creepy series, it stars Josephine Hull as Mrs. Hawkins and a young John Forsythe as Bill Holloway. Josephine Hull, with only 14 acting credits, well, she was the 34th actress to win an Academy Award, as best supporting actor in the movie HARVEY in 1951. John is probably best known for BACHELOR FATHER airing from 1957-62, and is in two other LIGHTS OUT episodes.

In this story (written by Lucille Fletcher, so, it has a woman's touch) a man rents the same upstairs apartment where him and his late wife lived. He claims that he has remarried and that his new wife will be moving in with him, the elderly landlady half-heartedly agrees and that's when things start getting a little weird...

Here's one for Eegah!! He'll know what I'm selling.

A few months after his wife died and he moved out, Bill Holloway shows up and wants to rent the room again!

He tells Mrs. Hawkins that he has remarried and wants to rent the room again. She thinks it's a bad idea but he has the money, so, she agrees.

Mrs. Hawkins visits Bill in his room, he's furnished it with the same items that him and his wife had when they lived there. When the landlady asks him the name of his new wife, he says... Josephine.

Mrs. Hawkins starts freaking out... Hmmm, now let's see... Oh yeah, Josephine was the name of his dead wife!

After weeks, Mrs. Hawkins has not seen Bill's new wife, in fact, she has not even heard one sound coming from the upstairs floor. The landlady calls to the wife after Bill has left, but still, no response.

She confronts Bill about his wife and he tells her that his wife isn't feeling well and she should not bother her.

Mrs. Watkins calls the plumber and makes up an excuse so that he can snoop around for her. Love those old telephones, what a contraption!

Bill is upset about the plumber and accuses Mrs. Watkins of spying on him. She says... You and your wife have to leave... Tonight!

Then, Bill tells Mrs. Watkins that Josephine wants to meet her, come on up and have some tea with her...

But, Mrs. Watkins still can't see anyone! Bill keeps talking about his wife being there and the landlady is getting creeped out about the whole thing.

She wants to leave but Bill gets animated after she tells him that he's insane, there's no wife there. She even tells him, I have to go, I have a pie in the oven!! But the door's locked.

Stuck in the room, she goes over to the window and sees a horrifying sight in the yard.

Bill has dug up his wife and put her in the yard. He hangs his head and tells Mrs. Watkins, crying... She died and they took her away... Poor Bill.

KOMMISSAR X - DREI GRÜNE HUNDE - "Death Trip" (1967)

I thought we had done all the Kommissar X movies, but I've come to learn, it's hard to get to the end of some things. We've done "Kommissar X - Drei Gelbe Katzen,""Kommissar X - Drei Goldene Schlangen," "Kommissar X - In Den Klauen Des Goldenen Drachen," and "Kommissar X - Jagd auf Unbekannt," but we never did "Kommissar X - Drei Grüne Hunde," so that's why it's this week's Saturday Night Special!

 

Lord Litter discovered that this film was streaming on YouTube, so he naturally passed it on to me, and so I'm doing the same for you, because it's not too bad of a copy, and the commercials are limited. "Kommissar X - Death Trip" (Drei Grüne Hunde)

 

 

So here they are again, Tony Kendall as Joe Louis Walker or Kommissar X, and Bad Brad Harris as Captain Tom Rowland, in what is considered the fourth of the "Kommissar X" series.

The original title is "Kommissar X - Drei Grüne Hunde," but it was also released in English as "Death Trip," and/or "Kill Me Gently."

There's enough L.S.D. in this container to destroy the security of a whole nation, and now it's been stolen!

Herbert Fux as Eddie Shapiro is one of the main thugs who want to get their hands on the L.S.D. The disheveled Shapiro reminds me of some character out of a Bowery Boys movie because he's got that classic gangster look to him!

Herbert (House Of 1000 Dolls, Gorilla Gang) Fux had an amazing 281 credits to his name before passing away at the age of 79 in 2007. The last thing he worked on wouldn't be released until two years after his death and was titled "Zapping-Alien@Mozart-Balls." Now that was a title I had to look further into, and I found out the whole almost two hours of non-stop madness was put up on YouTube in it's entirety by the Filmmaker himself, Vitus Zeplichal. I take no responsibility for any mind erosion incurred by watching this, you're on your own on this one!

"Zappin-Alien@Mozart-Balls"

 

So you guys think it's funny, eh? Well, we'll see who is laughing at the end of the movie!

"Cigars, cigarettes, little weird dolls!"

This particular shot says a lot about this movie! What it's saying is another story!

Joe Walker pulls a fast one on Shapiro by telling him the goods he wants are at the bottom of this aquarium, and then when he reaches in, Joe drops his electric razor into the tank. Shapiro's reaction was kind of shocking!

What a terrible place for Jo Louis Walker to have to hide! 

Not!

It's hard to get much cuter than puppies recording bad guys!

This is a trick car. A girl goes in........

............And a guy comes out!

"So, what'd we gonna do?" "I dunno, what'd you wanna do?" "I don't know, what'd you want to do?" "I don't know, what'd you wanna do?"

And so it goes!

In the movie, they call this area the Valley of a Thousand Mountains, but in reality this is Cappadocia, a region in central Turkey that is so olde, Troglodytes used to live here!

 

 

I think that leaves us with one more Kommissar X film!

You'll be the first to know when I figure it out!