(That was the subject line of the email from Will Rodgers, and it warranted use as the headline!)
Will is at it again! The author of "The Ultimate Super Friends Companion" has just loaded up on some more Figures Toy Co. action figures celebrating that great '70s-'80s cartoon with the heroes we all know and love. The key thing is that there's now Wendy and Marvin! So cool. No Wonder Dog, but we can forgive that! "I also got the new Robin figure in the Teen Titans line and photographed him with the Neal Adams style Batman," Will says. "I might buy another figure and transfer the head and costume to an 8-inch body."
Photos by Will Rodgers; please do not copy without permission.
Clink-clank goes the spare change when you're banking on this beauty -- a model of the Mystery Machine, set in ceramic! It's the latest item up for review on the Terrific TV Toys series. Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, too, and the rest of the gang are riding inside, ready to solve the latest mystery...
We've been celebrating anniversaries a lot recently on the Terrific TV Toys series. Last year, we marked the half-century point for "Star Trek" and "The Green Hornet," and we celebrated same for the 1966 "Batman" series all year long with the Figures Toy Co. figure set. Now, another 50th anniversary emerges, this month, actually, and it's for the character we hold in our highest esteem ... Batgirl, specifically the Batgirl whose alter ego is Barbara Gordon, daughter of police commissioner James Gordon.
It was January 1967 when she first came on the scene, in Detective Comics No. 359, set to coincide -- roughly -- with her addition to the "Batman" TV series later that year, for the show's third season. Played by Yvonne Craig, she was forthright and bright, deftly landing her pointed kicks on criminals like Penguin and Joker and assisting the not-at-all-begrudging Dynamic Duo. She lit fanboy dreams everywhere, and she had this author dreaming of becoming her someday.
Diamond Select Toys crafted a wonderful statue in 2015 capturing the essence of Craig's portrayal of Batgirl, and it becomes the first episode of Season 4 as well as the launch of another year-long anniversary celebration. There's lots of Batgirl stuff down in the Batcave at BRBTV headquarters, so you'll be seeing one item a month or so all year long.
Franklin Canyon Park is a public park in the hills of Los Angeles. While you may have never heard of it, you’ve most likely seen it, as it has been used in countless films and television series. The iconic introduction to “The Andy Griffith Show,” wherein Andy and young Opie head out for a day of fishing, was filmed in the park. But it wasn’t Andy Griffith that drew me there on a recent visit to L.A.
My interest in the park was twofold, the first involving the final frontier, the second involving a very lovely lady, who was bringing up three very lovely girls. Yes, both “Star Trek” and “The Brady Bunch,” two of my favorites series, filmed memorable episodes in the park, so I knew I had to see it firsthand.
In June 1968, “Star Trek” came to the park for production of an early third-season episode entitled “The Paradise Syndrome.” The story finds Captain Kirk joining a tribe of Native Americans after losing his memory on a doomed planet that the Enterprise has been sent to intercept. Much of the story was shot on the shores of Franklin Lake, including a specially designed set piece involving an obelisk. The piece is infamous among “Star Trek” fans, as its cost overruns resulted in the series ending location shoots with this episode. As a result, the third and final season would shoot exclusively indoors back at Paramount Studios, using pre-existing sets over and over (and over) again.
Finding the area where the obelisk once sat is fairly easy to do. Today, it's home to a picnic table and a trash can (below), belying its more popular position in pop culture history.
Look across the lake and you’ll see the area where the Indian village set once was, though it was only used for exterior shots. This is also the area where, just a year later, the Bradys would set up camp in the first-season episode “A Camping We Will Go.” (See the black box in the third photo below.)
Didja notice? Captain Kirk performs CPR on a boy who was pulled from the lake, and Cindy Brady is seen soaking wet after having fallen in herself. But no one is ever actually shown in the lake itself. That’s because back in the '60s, the lake was used as a backup water supply, and park rangers were quick to tell the productions no swimming. In the case of “Star Trek,” canoes were rented for the express purpose of filming on the lake, but instead were shown merely being cleaned on shore.
Today the park is home to locals out for a jog or letting their dogs stretch their legs. Even if you’re not a fan of these classic series, it’s still a scenic and beautiful way to spend an afternoon. But like the Bradys, better bring your own lunch, as there’s no fish to be found in that lake!
Once in a while a book comes along that the author was truly meant to write. "The Ultimate Super Friends Companion" is just such a book, because author Will Rodgers is a lifelong fan of the animated kids' TV show, which originally aired from 1973 through the 1980s, and he is no less than an expert on it. In early 2016, BRBTV announced Will's book as the fifth book in its fact book series, released on Amazon's Kindle format and readable on any mobile device. Now we are more than pleased, a year later, to unleash the print edition of "The Ultimate Super Friends Companion"!
Because Will wrote so long and hard on the subject, what was an e-edition that encompassed 800 pages in Microsoft Word has now become two big print volumes bursting at the seams (seriously, it would have translated to one print volume at nearly 1,000 pages -- actually too big to bind for a 6-by-9" paperback!). Volume 1 at 530 pages covers the 1970s run of the show, and Volume 2 at 448 pages covers the 1980s.
Lengthy commentary and analysis of each episode of the 1980s series
Character profiles of the heroes and villains
A rundown of the DVD content for each '80s series
An index to every character's appearances in the episodes
A look at the toylines pertaining to our heroes
A guide to all of the Super Friends comic books
At the same time that these two print volumes have been released, the Kindle edition has been updated to reflect them. And you still get all of this great content in one volume with the Kindle edition.
As a special treat to readers, Shannon Farnon, the original voice of Wonder Woman, writes the foreword of "The Ultimate Super Friends Companion," and talented Baltimore artist Dale Cuthbertson offers his own interpretation of our heroes for the book's cover!
We here at BRBTV love television. We always have. We love how it reflects who we are as human beings, how it moves us, motivates us, makes us get all emotional in a variety of ways, often provides simple mindless escape, and just plain entertains us! This author is thankful to have witnessed several truly history-making moments live, as they originally aired, on that thing that's been called a Boob Tube over the years. These key moments were all water-cooler talk the next day, for sure.
So as a special New Year's Day celebration, and to mark one full decade for this continuously operating news blog, we've assembled what we consider the top 10 iconic television moments, almost all of which this author witnessed as they originally aired (can you guess which one I didn't?) ...
10. Sinead O'Conner tearing up the photo of the Pope on "Saturday Night Live."
What the heck??? That's what we were all wondering, right? Ah, the marvel of live television ...
9. Farrah getting loopy on Letterman.
This author cringed for poor Farrah -- I've always loved her.
8. Sally Field: "You like me!" Oscar speech.
Quoted so many times since then, and often inaccurately, Field's acceptance speech nevertheless lives forever.
7. Geraldo Rivera opens Al Capone's vault ...
... and there's nothing there! Ooops, did we spoil that for you? Can't believe there could be somebody out there who hasn't heard the jokes about this one over the years. Don't need to explain it much more, because Geraldo does a pretty good job in this clip.
6. Alien Autopsy
All the more chilling because it's silent, this footage -- supposedly from the U.S. government's examinations of alien bodies after the 1947 Roswell, New Mexico, UFO crash -- was unleashed on the TV viewing world in the mid-'90s. We remember Jonathan Frakes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" hosting this primetime special, and boy, did we eat it up. Everybody knows that something did happen in Roswell back then, and whether or not it has been debunked over the decades since, this footage sure makes you wonder, doesn't it?
5. O.J. Simpson fleeing in the white Bronco
It's another one of those news moments -- like the Challenger crash or the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Tower, which would have made this list if it were longer! -- that you remember the physical place you were when you heard or when you saw it live on TV. O.J. Simpson, an all-American athlete, revered by so many, fleeing the law in the wake of some ugly charges.
4. Sophia coming out of the barn on "The Walking Dead."
Maybe there's some of you brainiacs out there who saw it coming, but this author sure didn't. Blown-the-heck-away. One of the best moments of scripted television, hands down.
3. Bobby's in the shower on "Dallas."
"Dallas" has to have two moments in this list because it showed every other TV series how it was done, as far as cliffhangers and bringing a character back from the dead. Continuity, schmontinuity! We don't need no stinkin' continuity -- we make our own!!!! Soooooo ... we forgave "Dallas" quite wholeheartedly for this major rewrite to resurrect Patrick Duffy's beloved Bobby Ewing. And because of that, this moment became a pop-cultural landmark. This plot point is continually cited, in terms of TV plot history. Plus, you've got to consider the fact that it was a grand TV production cover-up that would be a whole lot harder nowadays in the social media age.
2. Mary Lou Retton nailing a perfect "10" vault to win the gold in women's gymnastics in the 1984 Olympics.
Friggin' amazing, and my favorite gymnast forever. That moment lit the viewing world on fire, as we knew she'd clinched the medal.
AND FINALLY ... our vote for top 10 iconic moment of all time ...
1. J.R. getting shot on "Dallas."
You could argue that the big reveal of "Who Shot J.R." was the iconic moment here, as it got record-breaking viewership, but really, it was the moment the old dog slumped over the doorway to his office that really got us, thereby touching off the fervor in the ensuing months. A truly groundbreaking moment for the TV cliffhanger and the TV soap in general, from a historical perspective ...
What have been your own landmark or favorite TV moments?
And once again ... Happy New Year! Here's to a great 2017!
Oh, we are soooooo there, when two of our favorite things come together ... "The Dukes of Hazzard" and Deeee-troit!!! Who would've ever thought someone would jump a blazin' orange General Lee right downtown in the city we love? But it's happening, in February, as part of Autorama.
On Friday, February 24, at 11:45 a.m., just 15 minutes before the opening of the show for the weekend, the Northeast Ohio Dukes will offer up a stunt show on Atwater Street behind Cobo Center, where the show is being held. This will reportedly include a jump of a General Lee car. Plus, Autorama will feature Catherine (Daisy Duke) Bach and Tom (Luke Duke) Wopat greeting fans on Friday and Saturday afternoons. Woo-hoo! See ya there!
Many thanks to our buddy Grigg for fishing this one out of a used bookstore for us. We remember those celebrity "year" books that were popular in the '70s and '80s, geared toward younger readers, where you could learn more about your favorite TV or movie stars. (Yea, yea, there's the Internet for that now, but this really takes ya back ...)
"TV Superstars '82" by Ronald W. Lackmann (Weekly Reader Books) profiles a whopping 64 stars in a slim paperback -- 192 pages. That's about three pages each, with black-and-white publicity photos. It's soooooo super-cool. The actors from "The Love Boat," "M*A*S*H," "Happy Days," WKRP in Cincinnati," "The Greatest American Hero," "Little House on the Prairie," "Alice," "CHiPs," and so many other shows we love, including the shows we cover here at BRBTV ...
Some fun tidbits rising up from the pages:
"Dallas"
Larry Hagman once had the juvenile lead in a production of "South Pacific" in London, which starred his mother, Mary Martin.
Patrick Duffy was 6'2" and 195 pounds at the time.
Linda Gray as a child attended school across the street from the MGM studios where "Dallas" was filmed and would stand out there after school to meet stars.
Victoria Principal was studying to be a chiropractor at Miami Dade Junior College when she decided to go into acting after recuperating from a car crash.
Barbara Bel Geddes at the time lived in a "beautiful country house in Putnam Valley, New York."
Charlene Tilton was 5' tall and 95 pounds. Yea, you probably knew that one.
Leigh McCloskey studied acting at the Julliard in New York under John Houseman.
Ken Kercheval collected a bunch of stuff, including the glass he became known for later.
Steve Kanaly worked as a manager and instructor at a trap and skeet shooting club frequented by celebs before his break on "Dallas."
As a boy in Lodi, Wisconsin, Tom Wopat's original singing audience were the cows in the barn. He excelled in sports and other activities in high school, and his father is quoted as saying, "It was very important for Tom to win all the time. In his last year in high school, Tom even played football with a broken bone in his ankle."
Catherine Bach is quoted as saying, "I empathize with Daisy. She's my kind of people. She knows how to enjoy herself, and she's always ready to give everything she has to help out in whatever big problem comes up. And she's a bit reckless. That's me, too. I enjoy that. I like taking chances, not only in my acting life but in real life, too."
On December 17 of last year, we offered an episode guide of the first two seasons of Terrific TV Toys, the series that gives you a look up-close and personal at toys celebrating the wonderful vintage TV shows we love. Since then, BRBTV has knocked out a huge Season 3 of the show.
We kicked off this past year with a big Bionic Blitz, then ran an even bigger Bat-Blitz throughout the ensuing months, marking the huge 50th anniversary of the 1966 "Batman" TV series starring Adam West and Burt Ward. That Bat-Blitz was in 22 whopping parts, 22 figures from Figures Toy Co.! We also marked the 50th anniversaries of "Star Trek" and "The Green Hornet." All of this took us from episode 51 through episode 89 ... whew! ...
51. Steve Austin figure by Bif Bang Pow!
52. Bigfoot figure by Bif Bang Pow!
53. Fembot figure by Bif Bang Pow!
54. Dr. Rudy Wells figure by Bif Bang Pow!
55. Oscar Goldman figure by Bif Bang Pow!
56. Bionic Transport and Repair Station by Kenner
57. '66 Batman figure by Figures Toy Co.
58. '66 Robin figure by Figures Toy Co.
59. '66 Riddler figure by Figures Toy Co.
60. '66 Joker figure by Figures Toy Co.
61. "Dynasty" Barbie dolls -- Part 1, Alexis
62. "Dynasty" Barbie dolls -- Part 2, Krystle
63. '66 Bruce Wayne figure by Figures Toy Co.
64. '66 Dick Grayson figure by Figures Toy Co.
65. '66 Penguin figure by Figures Toy Co.
66. '66 Egghead figure by Figures Toy Co.
67. Some goodies from "ALF"
68. "Dukes of Hazzard" coloring book
69. '66 Shame figure by Figures Toy Co.
70. '66 Mad Hatter figure by Figures Toy Co.
71. Scooby-Doo Kids' Meal toys by Wendy's
72. Marie Osmond doll by Mattel
73. '66 Bookworm figure by Figures Toy Co.
74. '66 Mr. Freeze figure by Figures Toy Co.
75. '66 King Tut figure by Figures Toy Co.
76. '66 Alfred figure by Figures Toy Co.
77. J.R. Ewing ornament by Hallmark
78. Terrific TV Toys on Wheels: The Mystery Machine
79. '66 Batman "Surf's Up" variant figure
80. '66 Joker "Surf's Up" variant figure by Figures Toy Co.
81. '66 Chief O'Hara "Surf's Up" variant figure by Figures Toy Co.
82. '66 Barbara Gordon "Surf's Up" variant figure by Figures Toy Co.
83. "Star Trek" anniversary special with Vina figure by Playmates
84. "Green Hornet" anniversary special with playing cards by Ed-U-Cards
85. Wonder Woman Barbie doll by Mattel
86. '66 Batman with removable cowl by Figures Toy Co.
87. '66 Chief O'Hara figure by Figures Toy Co.
88. '66 Barbara Gordon figure by Figures Toy Co.
89. '66 Batgirl '66 figure by Figures Toy Co.
So now we look forward to a great Season 4 of the show! We're kicking it off with yet another 50th anniversary in January ... can you guess what that will be?????
Thanks to Phyllis for the updates on John Schneider, Mr. Bo Duke of "The Dukes of Hazzard" ...
Schneider will be meeting fans at the Niagara Falls Comic Con in Niagara Falls, Canada, on June 2-4, 2017. For more information go to http://niagarafallscomiccon.com/.
Our country boy also will be meeting fans at the Southern Wheels 'N Motion Car and Truck Show in Tullahoma, Tennessee, on June 17, 2017. For more information call 931-455-8096 or 931-247-2663.
John's new CD "Ruffled Skirts" will be available soon. Please continue watching his store for that item. Items are available at http://www.studiostore.us/ and at https://johnschneiderstudiostore.myshopify.com/.
We'd heard it earlier, but the confirmation just came through. Our condolences to the wife and family of Mr. Van Williams, known to us as the great "Green Hornet" of the 1966 TV series. He was a gracious man that this author had the privilege to interview, and he will be missed by fans everywhere.
The cause of death is stated as renal failure, although the star had been struggling healthwise for at least a couple years and lamented to me that he had stopped doing the cons he had enjoyed so much. He loved meeting fans.
The moment this author was waiting for finally arrived just a few weeks ago ... The Figures Toy Co. interpretation of the Barbara Gordon Batgirl as portrayed by Yvonne Craig on the 1960s "Batman" TV series was in my hot little hands at last. And on this week's episode of the Terrific TV Toys series, you get to see it up close and personal! We talk a little history of the Bat-ladies from the 1950s onward, as well. There have been other "Batgirls" over the years in the comics (Steph Brown, Cassandra Cain, whatever), but the Barbara Gordon Batgirl remains the best known ...
We're thinking this concludes a very big Season 3 of T3. After the volume we've pushed out this year, we're due a little break! Stay tuned for new episodes in January, for Season 4!
With her pert little hairstyle, she was the adorable daughter of Police Commissioner James Gordon, mentioned a couple times in foreshadowing toward the end of Season 2 of the 1960s "Batman," before her big debut in the first episode of Season 3. That debut was on September 14, 1967, and the episode was "Enter Batgirl, Exit Penguin." We saw the lovely Yvonne Craig as Barbara first, kidnapped by the Penguin, before we saw her transform into the purple-metallic-clad crimefighter.
We lost Yvonne Craig last year, but her legacy as Batgirl -- and as Barbara Gordon -- lives on, half a century later. This week's episode of Terrific TV Toys shows you another installment in Figures Toy Company's line celebrating the "Batman" series ...
He stands at the ready, at Commissioner Gordon's side, ready to brief Batman on the latest criminal antics in Gotham City. He's Chief Miles Clancy O'Hara, a character created specifically for the 1960s "Batman" TV series and now celebrated with a figure in the ever-growing line by Figures Toy Co. As played by Stafford Repp, Chief O'Hara was a dyed-in-the-wool Irish cop, and to this day whenever we hear or think of the phrase "Saints be praised!" we think of him.
This week on Terrific TV Toys, Billie Rae Bates of BRBTV shows you the Chief O'Hara figure in living color ...
We're not a huge fan of variants here at BRBTV (well, at least this author isn't -- maybe my co-author Will is!). Figures Toy Co. has been churning them out, along with the new figures, as part of its line celebrating the 1966 "Batman" TV series. Some of them you'll see on the Terrific TV Toys series, and some you won't. But because our procurement chief Mike tends to procure these figures in the full sets of four, we really couldn't beg off this particular variant the way we were able to with an earlier series that had not one but two variants. If three out of four figures in the series is a new one, and only one is a variant, then weeeelllll ... guess you gotta go and buy the whole series and not break it up, right?
Anyway ... after that long diatribe, we present to you this week's Terrific TV Toy ... the Batman figure with removable cowl from FTC's Series 5, not to be confused with the straight-up Batman figure from their first series, or the "Surf's Up" variant Batman, or even the Batman with different head sculpt from Series 3 that we didn't buy ... sigh ...
One "Dukes of Hazzard" fan we know can't seem to go too far without bumping into something "Dukes"! Our roving reporter Jason, who drives truck cross-country, sent us these photos of what's billed to be a screen-used General Lee in Murdo, South Dakota, originally built by Ray Claridge of Hollywood's Cinema Vehicles for the show.
"This place was featured on 'American Pickers,'" Jason tells BRBTV. "I remember the episode. It is some kind of barn. I regret that I was there just for the General. There is just way too much to see in an hour. This place is way, way out in the middle of nowhere. GPS can't find it. I just happened to see a billboard and it happened to be the same exit the truck stop was at. Even better it was directly across the street!"
But Jason has his doubts about the General (and hey, comment below if you know more!). "The store employee said the car has a 340 engine," Jason says. "That is what makes me think it's not a real one. The 340 was not in those years of Chargers."
"There was just way too much to see in the time I gave myself," Jason says. "There is a ton of things in there besides cars. A lot of the cars are in disrepair because you can tell they've been sitting for a very long time. Also some of the buildings they were in were dilapidated; it was hard to get pics because everything was crammed together. They have everything from apple peelers to Zippos."
Thanks, Jason, for sharing this little "Dukes" adventure with us!
Photos by Jason G.; please do not copy without permission.
We profiled Jim and his art in our posts on March 29, 2013, January 28, 2015 and October 15, 2015, and it was added to the "Them Dukes! Them Dukes" fact book. His friend Jason, whose art we also profiled in 2013, supplied the General Lee for this event (a culmination of many years of work on the car). There was also a Cooter's tow truck in attendance, as well as a Boss Hogg Caddy (owned by friend Rob) and a Hazzard County Sheriff's car (owned by friend Paul).
Mattel has made a few different Wonder Woman Barbie dolls over the years. The 1999 model you'll see profiled in the latest episode of Terrific TV Toys takes a classic approach to her costume -- even with a luscious, red-white-and-blue satin cape that will have you thinking about Lynda Carter in her iconic 1970s role. In fact, though this lovely lady is not a TV-related toy on paper, we still tie it in to that classic superhero series. We can't help ourselves!
Wow! We've heard rumors for years, but it's nice to see something a tad more concrete in print. Thanks to our buddy Brian for the heads-up on this one: The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that a reboot of our beloved "Dynasty" is in the works at the CW network.
The plotline has Fallon Carrington front-and-center in this new take. Hmmm ... Does that mean Fallon is assuming her mother's throne, so to speak, as resident conniving bad gal? And is there any hope of either of the original actresses, Pamela Sue Martin or Emma Samms, reprising the role? And in general, will this one follow the model of TNT's "Dallas" reboot in bringing the original cast on, too, while mixing in new faces? We would love that. Continuity is king, with many fans!
In this July 2015 post, we showed you the amazing costume collection of a diehard "Dynasty" fan. Well, that same fan has acquired a couple more lovely pieces and is graciously sharing his photos once again. He's also thrown in some shots of the ladies who originally wore these amazing pieces ...
Do you have your own collection of "Dynasty" goodies to share? Contact us at brb@brbtv.com, or comment below! We'd love to see what you have!
Photos courtesy of Anonymous; please comment to this blog for permission to copy.
