STRANGE REPORT - Episode 01 - "Report 5055 - CULT - Murder Shrieks Out" (1969)

This week's Saturday Night Special is a strange one! 

Once again, Thanx to Lord Litter in Berlin for pointing this one out to me!

"Strange Report" was a 1960's British TV show about a criminologist named Adam Strange that was on for one season of sixteen episodes from 1969 to 1970!

The first episode was titled "Report 5055 - CULT - Murder Shrieks Out" and involves a brotherly but murderous cult called The Cypress Fund that gets donations of goods from all over the world, but are siphoning off a large portion of it for their own nefarious and greedy means!

The star of the show is Anthony (A Study In Terror) Quayle as Adam Strange!

Born in Lithuania, Kaz (Humanoids From The Deep) Garas is Adam Strange's assistant Hamlyn Gynt. I'm not sure who has got the stranger name, the actor or the character!

Anneke (Dr Who, The Avengers) Wills is the lovely Evelyn McClean, a talented artist who lives next door to Adam Strange!

Look to the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane, no, it's a helicopter flying into the Cypress Fund's compound with their beloved leader on board!

The leader of The Cypress Fund is Ray (The Avengers) McAnally as Lars.

Flying in with Lars are the musical spirit of the organization, the demure Pamela (Necromancy) Franklin as Maggie, and Christopher (What's Up Superdoc?) Mitchell as guitar player and singer Jay Brand.

You've just really got to hear this pure pop pablum if nothing else.......

.....And you can doing that by watching about the first 2 1/2 minutes of this video where they perform a song that must be called something like, "A World Of Love!"
Or you can watch the whole show if you want!

There's one big problem with this world of love though.........

................Somebody has rewired Jay's guitar, and he gets electrocuted right on the spot!

Strange and Maggie have got some history together, so he volunteers to help her find out what happened to Jay Brand.

Evelyn shows that she has some real style!

Strange and Gynt are on the case!

Evelyn spends the night with Maggie to make her feel more safe and comfortable, and Maggie shares some pictures like this one of her and Jay Brand in happier times!

They also look through a scrapbook of Maggie's photographs that will later help Strange figure it all out!

This is the swingin' sixties flat that Maggie lives in!

Actually, the whole show is eye candy like this cool record player!

Strange seeks help from the big boys!

How's that for bigger than life?

He has a few trials, but eventually Adam Strange will get it all figured out.

Personally, I'm hoping I can find some time to watch the other fifteen episodes now!

MERRIE MELODIES / "Drip-Along Daffy" - 1951

So, I can't think of anything better than some laffs... Today I gots one of my favorite cartoons from the amazing Chuck Jones and my favorite toon writer, Michael Maltese. Him and Chuck made the best cartoons for years, what a great team they made!!

The story begins in the old west, Daffy and Porky are riding through countryside and eventually come upon the lawless town of Snake-Bite Center. Hey, just a few miles down the road from The Dungeon is a small place called Pumpkin Center! For reals!!

Daffy and Porky check out the town's population statistics...

It's time for a new Sheriff, and it has Daffy's name written all over it!

First thing he does is go to the saloon to order a sarsaparilla...

Daffy knows the place is full of law breakers so he draws his guns to show them all that he's not fooling around!

I love this wanted poster, a five million dollar reward (DEAD)!

Of course, Nasty arrives and freakin' Daffy gets in his face!! Nasty sez.. Let's have a drink!

He tells the bartender.. The usual.

Nasty gets his drink and downs it, all that happens is, his hat does a flip and lands back on his head, that's it. Okay, now it's Daffy's turn!

Daffy does some quick thinking and offers the drink to Porky, who downs it and says it's good.

Daffy then demands his drink and chugs it down...

After reciting 'Mary Had A Little Lamb' in unison, Daffy and Porky walk around like crazy wound up toys. Then, out of nowhere, Daffy's guns go off, perforating the floor of which he naturally falls through. Funny as Hell...

So, there's going to be a shootout between Daffy and Nasty. As Nasty passes by, Porky winds up a toy he whittled and puts it on the ground...

Nasty sees it and picks it up. While laughing at the tiny toy rifle, it goes off in his face and he's down for the count. And the townspeople pronounce Porky the new Sheriff!

So, Daffy said that he was going to clean up this one-horse town!

And Porky says... He's lucky it's a one-horse town!.. See you tomorrow when Eegah!! spreads the insanity, here at The Dungeon!!..

THE RAY BRADBURY THEATER - Season 01, Episode 02 - "The Playground" (1985)

Tonight's Weird Wednesday feature is just that! It's from season one, episode two of "The Ray Bradbury Theater," a show that was on for six seasons from 1985 to 1992!

I've been a big Ray Bradbury fan ever since I read "Something Wicked This Way Comes" in high school, but honestly, I didn't really get this story called "The Playground."

This one just might be better off to read instead of watch!

The show opens with Ray in his office that is just a big mess of everything, and that pretty much describes this whole show as far as I'm concerned, just a big mess!

Of course the real reason I chose this particular episode to watch was because William Shatner is in it!

I don't remember ever seeing The Shat in the role of a Father before! Here he is Charles Underhill. His son Steve is played by Keith Dutson in one of his only three credits!

The super small cast includes Kate (Murder In Space, Alligator Pie) Trotter as the live-in sister.

The Shat shares a pensive moment!

The Playground is just down the street from their home, and is also a place where Charles Underhill was harassed and bullied as a child, so Charles doesn't really want his son Steve to go there to play!

The whole place just freaks Charles Underhill out!

After much begging from Steve, and badgering from his sister, Charles finally agrees to take Steve to the Playground.

They don't get a very good reception from the local kids!

Then somewhere along the line, everything goes to Hell! You don't really know if Charles is just having flashbacks, or hallucinating for some reason, or if this is the new reality!

You don't know if the kids are really monsters.....................

.............................Or are they just monsters in Charles's mind?

What you do know is that something ain't right!

Pretty cool that they had to have a "DANGER Electrical Equipment" sign in the Playground! That's always fun!

Charles is confronted by Ralph, the specter bully from his past!

I thought maybe I was just stupid because after it was all over, I had no idea what happened, so I went online to see what other people thought the ending meant, and I was surprised to see that a lot of people were just as confused as me. I'm a little short on time right now, so you're just gonna have to go figure it out for yourself! Have fun!