TED CASSIDY - "Beyond Lurch" (1959 - 1978)

This week's Saturday Night Special is a tribute to Dungeon Hero Ted Cassidy, better known to most people as Lurch on "The Addam's Family," but Lurch was only the very beginning of this big man's career!

 

Ted Cassidy was 6' 9" tall and played football and basketball, but he was also super intelligent, and began going to high school when he was only eleven years old!

In the late 50's, he was a lifeguard in Florida.

Because of his towering height, Ted actually had trouble finding work at first, but after playing Lurch, there was no turning back!

Curiously enough, Ted also played The Thing in the box because he had the longest arms.

Because of Ted's larger than life voice, he also did a lot of voice overs and narrations in the movies and on TV. His first credit for anything was in 1959 as the voice of the Martian in "The Angry Red Planet." I got a Wollensak tape recorder just like this for X-Mas when I was in about eighth grade. Lost in the sands of time, and never to be recovered, Tabonga and I made our very first sound productions on it. Bill Cosby and The Smothers Brothers were two of our early comedic inspirations.

In the mid 60's Ted was the opening announcer for "The Atom Ant Show," which is kind of funny I think when you consider how big Ted was, and how small Atom Ant was.

In 1966, Ted was 'The Slave' in the "Lost In Space" episode titled "The Thief From Outer Space."

 

Ted was in three episodes of "Star Trek," including this one from 1966 called "The Corbomite Maneuver," where he did the voice of "Balok's Puppet."

In 1967, Ted played a dim-witted character named Monte on the TV show "Laredo." The episode was titled "The Small Chance Ghost."

In a 1968 episode of the TV show "Daniel Boone," Ted had the role of a guy named Gentle Sam.

Also in 1968, Ted was Hamid in an episode of "I Dream Of Jeannie," called "Please, Don't Feed The Astronauts."

 

Besides Lurch, one of Ted's most memorable roles was that of Harvey Logan in the 1969 hit movie "Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid." Cassidy Vs. Cassidy, as it were.

In a 1970 episode of "Bonanza," Ted had a role as Garth, who Ben Cartwright is trying to avoid getting into a fight with.

 

 

 In 1974, Ted had the role of Isiah in a TV movie called "Planet Earth" that also starred Jon Saxon.

 

In 1976-77, Ted played Bigfoot in two separate episodes of "The Six Million Dollar Man."

In the 1978 cartoon series "Challenge Of The Superfriends," Ted did the voice of Brainiac as seen here, and also the voices of Black Manta, and Diamond Exchange Man."

Yet another memorable role of Ted's was as Ruk in the "Star Trek" episode titled "What Are Little Girls Made Of" that also included Sherry Jackson. Actually, all of Ted's roles were memorable in one way or another, and he was either in, or did voices in much more than I've shown you here. All that, and he did it before the age of 46.

I got most of these photos from a video on YouTube called "The Life Of Ted Cassidy" that I suggest you watch if you'd like to know even more about this great man!

There is one thing I should make perfectly clear, despite all his amazing accomplishments, Ted never played drums for the band Spirit. That was Ed Cassidy!

MERRIE MELODIES / "The Trial Of Mr. Wolf" - 1941

Here's an hilarious WB cartoon, when cartoons were works of pure art, no crutches like today. And what else, it's written by my guy, Michael Maltese, so you know it'll be a winner!

Mr. wolf is on trial for his evil antics, but he's portraying himself as a little angel...

The jury is all wolves and one skunk, seems like Mr. Wolf has it made!

The defense lawyer argues that Red Riding Hood is guilty...

Guilt is written all over her face!

Since there are always two sides to every story, our Mr. Wolf starts telling the story from his perspective.

Well, he was out picking flowers for his dear sweet mom, when, Red Riding Hood approaches him, saying that she has lost her way and can't find her grandma's house! 

Mr. Wolf pulls out his trusty compass and it locates grandma's house.

Red jumps onto her motorcycle and rushes away with the wolf in the sidecar!

And moments later she's on the path that leads to her grandma's place.

Obviously Mr. Wolf's not paying attention!

In the house, grandma tells him.. You have such big eyes! And he responds.. The better to enjoy all the splendors of nature! Then she pulls out her big old mallet.

After he almost gets his head clobbered, the wolf tries to get out of the house.

But no matter what door he opens, grandma has a big surprise waiting for him!

And when he finally thinks he can get away, grandma conks him on the head.

She jumps on him and starts strangling his pencil neck!.. And he ends with, it's a miracle he got away from that crazy old lady!

Even the jury of wolves aren't buying the ridiculous story he just told.

Mr. Wolf then tells the court...  If I'm not telling the truth, may I... May I get run over by a streetcar!

In an instant karma moment, well, a freaking streetcar runs him the Hell over.

And after that he says... Well, I may have exaggerated a little... And a brick in the wall falls free and hits him where it hurts the most! Great cartoon I loved as a kid.

THE LOST ROOM - "The Key And The Clock" (2006)

 

This week's Weird Wednesday feature is a six episode mini-series made in 2006 titled "The Lost Room."

 

This first episode was called "The Key And The Clock," and involves a strange motel room key to a room number 10 that doesn't really exist.

When the key is put into any door lock, the door unlocks to a room full of light and who knows what else.

This guy named Weasel just paid two million dollars for the key, and is not happy when it slips through his sticky fingers!

I had never heard of this show before, but as you can see, it's got a good look to it!

A Detective named Joe Miller ends up with the key, but doesn't know about it's powers. He puts the key in his closet door, and when he walks in, this is what he sees, an apparently empty motel room.

Joe Miller was played by Peter (Blood Harvest) Krause, who has had an ongoing role on the television series "9-1-1" as Bobby Nash, since 2018.

It is indeed, nothing more than a motel room, and Joe is just a little baffled!

Looking out the window, it looks like this motel is smack dab in the middle of absolutely Nowheresville!

Joe leaves, shuts the door, and then re-enters again, and this time he finds himself in some island paradise.

Elle (Maleficent) Fanning is Joe's daughter Anna. Joe has been keeping the key and door secret from her, but she figures it out on her own!

Joe tells his partner Lou about the key, and when they go through the door, they find themselves at some sports event that is impossible to get tickets for, and they decide to stay for a while. Might as well take some advantage of the situation!

A woman shows up and claims to be one of the victim's sister, but when confronted, she admits she is the one in charge of the key, and she wants it back. Joe wakes up on the floor.

Joe meets a krazy guy in the hospital named Wally Jabrowski, and watches him disappear one of the orderlies working in the hospital into thin air. Wally is played by Peter (The Midnight Meat Train) Jacobson.

 

 Wally makes Joe disappear three times, with some kind of magical bus ticket he's holding, and he always ends up in the same place. Luckily this old run down house has a door he can go through to get back.

 

The last time he comes back, Joe catches Wally off guard in an elevator and punches his ticket. Since Joe has the key, and after getting a free meal, Wally reluctantly tells Joe some of what is going on.

In between time, Weasel kidnaps Joe's daughter, and burns all the doors in the agreed meeting area!

It all goes South, and Joe is left in a morass of despair, lost in between worlds with no clue where his daughter is. Because of the nature of the beast of what we do, I don't often have time to watch more than one episode of a show before moving on to the next thing, but I'm going to make time to watch at least the next episode of "The Lost Room" because it was fairly interesting.