Guest Post - A Short Theme...

Doug: Redartz is along today as our host, and does he have a fun topic for us. This is one, no doubt, that will be near and dear to all our hearts.

Redartz: Good day, all!  Before we start, let me issue a proactive apology: if this topic has been covered previously here, you may all grant me 10 demerits.  Memory can be a nebulous thing, but this subject is (hopefully) a bit of fun. Therefore, here goes...

Television Theme Music! The tuneful introductions that open, and often close, our favorite programs; the variety here is as wide as the variety in the shows themselves. Some featured spoken introductions, such as Rod Serling's classic “Twilight Zone” intro. Others were sung, ballad style: think “Gilligan's Island” or “The Beverly Hillbillies”. Some were purely instrumental, as in “Hill Street Blues” and “The Bob Newhart Show”. Some even impacted the public consciousness enough to earn a spot on the Billboard Pop Singles charts (Mike Post's theme from “The Rockford Files”, as well as his above-mentioned “Hill Street Blues” each reached number 10, while “S.W.A.T.” and “Miami Vice” both reached number 1!).

As a boy, the “Batman” theme would get me stoked  for the “wham, pow” adventures soon to be filling our black-and-white console screen. In my teens, Cindi Grecco”s “Making Our Dreams Come True” (Laverne and Shirley, of course!) would bring a smile of anticipation for the impending laugh fest. A good theme song will stick in your mind; certainly a show's creators hope this is the case. Often a theme song becomes so indelibly linked with it's show; just hearing a few notes will bring the  program to mind. Angelo Badalamente's theme from “Twin Peaks” always does this for me; it so perfectly evoked the mysterious, somewhat creepy feel of the show. With all this in mind, here are a few of my favorite theme songs:

Jonny Quest Theme: greatest saturday morning show theme from arguably the greatest Saturday morning adventure show.

Lost in Space: John Williams provides this memorable winner.

Barnaby Jones: a bit obscure, but a very cool theme tune...

By the way, the CD cover presented above is representative of a series of such collections issued by TeeVee Tunes. The first collections were released originally on vinyl; and were among the last LPs I bought before converting to digital. These CDs are a great source of television themes, ranging from the late 40s up to the 90s ( and a great party soundtrack: at college we played the first collection at a weekend fest, everyone had a blast trying to identify the associated programs and singing along with the lyrics). I'd say a few of the recordings may be remakes, but most are the original versions we knew and recognized.

So, here is my first question to you: What theme songs are your favorites? Which ones are most memorable, which are excruciating to hear even today? Feel free to make your lists!

Incidentally,  there were also the variety shows (I sorely miss those...), whose hosts often had their own theme song: Dean Martin and “Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime”, or Sonny and Cher signing off each show with “ I've Got You, Babe”. This brings us to our second question today:  imagine you are starring in a show based upon your life . What would be your theme song? What song would be playing as you enter the room, take the stage and let the world see who you are?

Again, to get things rolling, here is my personal theme song: Thomas Dolby's “ She Blinded Me With Science” (don't ask; suffice it to say the song reflects my interests, and my nerdish nature; as my wife nods in agreement...).

Who's the Best...Batmobile?

Karen: Pictures of the Batmobile leaked from the upcoming "Superman V. Batman" movie show another tank-like vehicle, complete with large-caliber guns. That's right, Batman has guns on the Batmobile. Sigh. It leaves me cold. Certainly not my idea of the Caped Crusader's vehicle of choice. It got me to thinking: of all the live-action Batmobiles, which ones are the best? Here's your choices:

The newest "Batmobile", from Batman v Superman

The Tumbler, from Christopher Nolan's Bat-trilogy

This over-the-top Batmobile, from Batman and Robin

Batman Forever's Batmobile

Michael Keaton drove this in Batman and Batman Returns

The atomic-powered Batmobile from the 1966-68 TV show

Karen: Which one of these would you like to jump behind the wheel of and take out for a spin? Personally, I'm drawn to the classic TV version, although I recognize how dated it is. I don't think any of the movie versions have really worked for me. What about you?

PS -I just learned today is Adam West's 86th birthday! Holy octogenarian!

A Day at Phoenix Comic Con

Karen: Hey kids! Well it's summer in Phoenix and that means the thermometer is rising above 100 degrees every day now, but that didn't stop us from having a great big ole comic con this last weekend. The Phoenix Comic Con has really become quite a show -almost too much of a show! We went on Saturday and the crowds were unbelievable (I had heard that 55,000 attendees were expected for the four day show!), but we still had an enjoyable time.

I went to three panels that took up most of my day. Just navigating from the dealers room downstairs to the meeting rooms upstairs was a challenge. But each panel I went to was fun in its own way.

First up in the ballroom was a reunion of the cast of the 1966 Batman TV show. Adam West, Burt Ward, and Julie Newmar appeared together and were clearly having a lot of fun. Because the traffic around the convention center was so thick, they were delayed more than half an hour, so their time was limited. Both West and Newmar, while entertaining, seemed to be off in the upper atmosphere, while poor Burt Ward had to ground the panel. But one thing was obvious -they all really loved working on the Batman TV show. My picture is poor because I had to take it from the monitor -I couldn't get close to the stage. The auditorium was filled to the gills to see these childhood idols!

Later I attended the "Wolverine -the Most Dangerous Mutant" panel with Chris Claremont and Len Wein. Boy, was this an interesting panel! It's hard to distill it down into a few sentences. These writers had some great stories and insights to share, about Wolverine and the other X-Men. Claremont felt the Wolverine "Origin" story was unnecessary, saying the character should always remain a mystery. He doesn't need to be explained -it's enough that he is who he is. He spoke about the scene in X-Men #99, where Wolverine's claws are revealed to be part of his body and not part of his gloves. "You never told us," Jean says. "You didn't ask," Wolverine responds. That, Claremont said, was the essence of the character. He doesn't volunteer anything. The reader should get some tantalizing glimpses but no more. He also felt that Wolverine should always have to struggle to restrain his feral side. When asked what was the point when Wolverine became a star, both Wein and Claremont said it was when John Byrne came on board the title, since he favored the character above all others on the team. Wein said he'd intended Colossus to be the star of the team! That didn't quite work out. It was a lively discussion and well worth listening to.

Later I saw author Kevin Hearne, whose Iron Druid Chronicles is a delightfully entertaining urban fantasy series. He and authors Brian McClellan and Zachary Jernigan discussed the dos and don'ts of  fantasy world building. The con had a number of panels focusing on writers which I would have liked to have attended if I'd had more time.

Rounding out my day, I got to briefly meet legendary comics artist Mike Grell, and purchase a signed print from him. Although he was selling many different works, I had to go for a Legion of Super-Heroes one (he had three). The one I chose features star-crossed lovers Wildfire and Dawnstar. I thanked Mr.Grell and told him that when I first began buying Legion, it was during his time on the book, and he's still my favorite Legion artist. He said his Legion fans are always the most loyal. He said DC will be bringing the title back. We discussed how mishandled the book had been, and he said he felt it was really a gateway book for readers. I agreed, saying it was my first DC comic, and it was the combination of teen-age super-heroes and outer space that drew me in. He waved his hand and said, "There you go." He was really friendly and a pleasure to speak with.

All in all, a fun but very busy day. I think next year I'll have to plan to attend two days! This show is really taking off. A far cry from when it was held in a small hotel. I heard a number of people say this was their alternative to going to the San Diego Con. It's not at that level yet -still no big corporate presence -and maybe that's a good thing! Although the show was jam-packed with folks, it was still possible to get in and see most everything. That's a plus in my book. And each year, they seem to be drawing a better level of guests. So I'm looking forward to 2015 and what the show may bring.

Monsterpalooza 2014: Back to the Bat Cave -or at least Bob's Big Boy!

Karen: Howdy friends. You might have noticed that I've been absent from our comments for a few days. That's because I headed out to Burbank, California once again to enjoy Monsterpalooza! This annual celebration of all things monstrous has become a great escape for me and my pal Larry and this was our third year meeting up at the show. This time we decided to get to Burbank early and we enjoyed spending the morning and afternoon of Friday, March 28th, exploring the area (since the show wouldn't start until 6 pm).

We headed out that morning to Griffith Park, intent on finding Bronson Canyon, the site where many films and TV shows have been shot, perhaps best known to people as the hidden exit of the bat cave on TV's Batman show. Larry and I trekked the short distance up a trail towards the caves, only to have two park ranger trucks pass us by headed in the same direction. We wondered what could be going on. We soon found out. The rangers had yellow tape in hand and were getting set to close off the caves to visitors! We asked what the problem was, and they told us a tractor digging on the other side had come across human remains! Holy crime scene, Batman! We asked if they could please let us snap a few pictures before they taped it off, and they obliged. We were sad that we could not go into the caves, but at least we had a chance to see where the Batmobile would come racing out on its way to Gotham City.

Bat cave prior to crime scene shut-down

Bat cave post Rangers

Robby Reed's Dial B for Blog has a nice article on the Batman TV show and discusses how the Batmobile was filmed exiting the narrow Bronson Canyon cave, if you're interested in learning more.

We went up to the Griffith Observatory and enjoyed a tremendous view of smoggy Los Angeles. Unfortunately the observatory itself wouldn't open for another hour yet, so we headed off to do some shopping. Right in Burbank are two shops that would send any geek into spasms of delight: Creature Features and Halloween Town. Creature Features had an incredible selection of figures, toys, CDs, books -you name it. They were also hosting an Outer Limits art exhibit that had some absolutely stunning sculptures and paintings. Here I am with a friend (courtesy of FX whiz Greg Nicotero):

Halloween Town is owned by Rob Zombie, and there are actually two store just blocks apart. One is a costume shop and the other -the one we went in -has a little bit of everything. There were t-shirts, toys, Halloween decorations, posters, you name it. I wound up buying two t-shirts, a King Kong shirt -I'd been trying to find one - and possibly the coolest t-shirt of all time:

We had lunch at a historic Bob's Big Boy restaurant. It was the oldest family-owned Bob's still around -been there since 1949! The burgers were delicious. I hadn't been to a Bob's Big Boy in more than 20 years, so that was fun. I think they may be just a west coast phenomenon. Anyone know?

So what about the show? As usual, it was a feast for the eyes. There were so many amazing and fantastic things to look at, it's hard to know where to begin. It always feels like half-trade show, half- fan convention. There are plenty of booths with make-up vendors, sculptors and artists plying their trade, and effects houses showing their work. There's quite a few celebrities just walking around too. Friday night we saw actor/director Jon Favreau and his family just taking it all in like everyone else. Friday night was fairly low-key for us this year -we mostly spent it looking around the dealers' room. I did however get an autograph from Haruo Nakajima on my War of the Gargantuas lobby card. Mr. Nakajima not only played Gaira, the green gargantua, but was the original Godzilla, and played him in several films. He also did the duties in other films, like Rodan. He's the godfather of Japanese monster men! So it was an honor to meet him.

Saturday is always the busiest day of the con (like most cons). We sat in on three really fun panels: the first was a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Creature from the Black Lagoon! Actress Julie Adams was there, along with the underwater Creature, Ricou Browning. Gorilla man and all-around great guy Bob Burns rounded out the group, as they discussed the making of the film, the monster suit, the process that went into the design of the Creature, and a lot more. The second panel I saw featured Garner Holt, whose production company creates animatronic creatures for all sorts of customers, including Disney! His personal story was quite amazing. The final panel of the day once again featured the inimitable Bob Burns and was a video tour through his various Halloween shows that he's done over the years. He was joined by a group of folks, all talented FX professionals, who have worked on the shows. It was hilarious and you can tell how highly everyone thinks of Bob and Kathy.

Bob Burns, Ricou Browning, Julie Adams

Saturday night was a special treat: we got to see the original Creature from the Black Lagoon in 3D! It looked fabulous, the 3D effects were solid, and the whole crowd was very into it. Larry and I made sure to bring popcorn, as you can see. The bag was appropriate as well!

Sunday's big highlight was the War of the Gargantuas reunion panel. Mr. Nakajima was joined by Russ Tamblyn for Q&A with the fans. Kenji Sahara, who played a scientist in the film, was feeling under the weather and only came out at the end of the panel for photographs. Tamblyn was hilarious, recounting that he only took the role because it was a chance to go to Japan and he assumed no one would ever see the film. Little did he know it would be shown over and over again in Los Angeles ( I saw it many times on KTLA growing up and it quickly became my favorite Japanese monster film) and many other cities. Tamblyn also said, to the room's delight, that he ad-libbed much of his dialog, such as his character's remarks about the college students who saw the gargantua 'being on acid.' This didn't go over well with American producer Henry Saperstein but there wasn't much to be done about it as they had to get the film done quickly. Nakajima answered questions through an interpreter and so it made things slightly more difficult. He said he based his movements as the gargantua off of wrestlers. He also said that when he would finish a film and he thought he'd done a good job, he'd reward himself with some sake! But overall, playing the monsters was very hard work.

Russ Tamblyn, Haruo Nakajima, Kenji Sahara

Monsterpalooza is one of those shows where you just never know what you're going to see, but you're constantly blown away by the high degree of skill and artistry. I can't possibly show you everything but in the pictures below I hope to give you a taste of what you might experience. It's a wonderful show and the show staff and the Marriott staff are all fantastic. Can't wait for next year!

Batman '66 to Finally Be Released on DVD

Doug:  Multiple outlets, including DC Comics, are reporting this news today.  What sayest thou?

Holy Revival! What's Up with Batman?

Karen: The first wave of figures from the Batman TV show are out and available from fine retailers everywhere. They look pretty great -detailed and with solid likenesses to the actors. Who's purchased these figures?  Not only are we getting a ton of products, but DC is putting out the Batman '66 series too. What's up with this sudden outpouring of love for the Adam West-era Batman? Sure, there's always been some nostalgia for the show, but why has it become so popular right now? Are people burned out from years of an unrelentingly dark caped crusader? Let's hear what you think about this -and the products themselves.