Robert Wagner: January 2010

Saturday 30 January 2010

MONK: Little Monk and the Talent Show

Another MONK webisode, featuring a young Adrian Monk. When an unwelcome guest sneaks into the school talent show without paying, Little Monk and Ambrose attempt to prove his guilt.

Friday 29 January 2010

Promo for the next PSYCH (Feb 3)

Check out this preview of next week's episode of Psych on USA Network:

Watch the DICK TRACY serial free online!

In this 15-chapter serial from 1937, Ralph Byrd plays the famed detective Dick Tracy as he goes after the master criminal The Spider. Based on the cartoon strip by Chester Gould, it also stars Kay Hughes and Smiley Burnette.

Thursday 28 January 2010

It Takes a Thief: A Matter of Grey Matter

A feature-length thriller from '60s spy series It Takes a Thief starring Robert Wagner. Al Mundy sets out to steal the formula for a solid missile fuel from a wealthy recluse -- and discovers a 12-year-old boy may be the brains behind the formula.

A Matter of Grey Matter: Part 1 Season 2 : Ep. 16 (51:10)

A Matter of Grey Matter: Part 2 Season 2 : Ep. 17 (51:04)

Wednesday 27 January 2010

PSYCH kicks off tonight (Jan 27)

Funny detective series Psych returns tonight on USA Network for the second-half of its fourth season. From the official newsletter:

Psych returns tonight with an all-new episode! Shawn tangles with the Army when he claims that a Private's suicide was actually murder, and suspects that Juliet's former military/current mercenary brother is involved. John Cena and Rachael Leigh Cook guest star in "You Can't Handle This Episode," premiering tonight at 10/9C on USA.

New on the official site:

Psych Interactive Office - Now there's even more to see in this interactive look at the Psych office! This week we've got three big games: Gus' Blueberry Express and upgraded versions of golf and bowling. Plus, you can now listen to Shawn & Gus' voicemails!

Psych '80s Challenge - Think you know the '80s better than Shawn and Gus? See if you can identify which film, TV show or band from the '80s is represented by each image in this spectacular collage!

Dulé Hill & John Cena Video Chat - Just a few hours before hosting this week's Monday Night Raw, Dulé Hill sat down with WWE's John Cena to answer fan questions in a special video chat. So where was James Roday? Watch and find out...

Countdown Calendar - For the past 31 days we've been counting down to tonight's premiere by revealing a new Psych tidbit every day! Check out all episode previews, answers to fan questions, Where Are They Now? updates, trivia questions, and the shocking photo for Day 1!

Producers Interview - In our new video interview, Psych's executive producers Steve Franks, Kelly Kulchak and Chris Henze discuss upcoming episodes, special guest stars, the return of Mr. Yang and much more!

Find the Famous Pineapple - Art lovers have long been impressed by Marc Chagall's painting "I and the Village". But what impresses us most are the 8 pineapples he managed to hide in it! Can you find them all?

Related links:
Watch PSYCH episodes free online!
Check out this nifty PSYCH widget

Tuesday 26 January 2010

It Takes a Thief: Guest-starring Bill Bixby

Another pair of episodes from the classic 1960s espionage series It Takes a Thief starring Robert Wagner, including one guest-starring Bill Bixby.

To Steal a Battleship Season 1 : Ep. 10 (50:50)
Al Mundy is assigned to recover NATO defense plans from a woman who is offering them for sale to the wrong people. Bixby guest stars as a competing thief from Al's past.

Locked in the Cradle of the Keep Season 1 : Ep. 13 (50:49)
Al Mundy searches in the dungeon of an old castle to find out why an agent was killed.

A sneak preview of The Palace: Theatre of Crud by Jimmy J. Aquino

The 14-part Theatre of Crud arc is the next arc of my webcomic The Palace, and it's coming soon to this blog. All 14 strips will be single-panel. As with all other arcs, I'll be posting one strip per day.

Letterer Janice Chiang's old Transformers comic word balloon shapes, which were boxy with sparks emanating from the corners to distinguish the robot characters from the human ones, influenced my boxy word balloon for the talking digital camera in the strip below. Day four of Theatre of Crud refers to a certain jozjozjoz.com post that was brought to my attention by a Time.com article last week.

The Palace: Theatre of Crud, Chapter 4 by Jimmy J. Aquino

Monday 25 January 2010

Opening Theme: MEDICAL CENTER

Opening credits from Medical Center starring Chad Everett.

More main titles:
Mission: Impossible
Mod Squad
Monk
NBC Mystery Movie (Columbo)
Perry Mason

Saturday 23 January 2010

ASK DISHER: "What do you think of online dating?"

Another MONK webisode starring Lt. Randy Disher.

Dr. Horrible vs. Batman

TV star Neil Patrick Harris clearly has musical talent, given his song-and-dance appearances on everything from The Emmys and Sesame Street to Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and even the 100th episode of How I Met Your Mother. Last fall, Cartoon Network series Batman: The Brave and the Bold recruited NPH to play Music Meister, a bad guy whose hypnotic voice forces everyone around him to sing and dance to his whim -- including Aquaman, Green Arrow, and Black Canary, plus an assortment of familiar baddies. They even released a soundtrack album.

Batman: the Brave & the Bold "Drives Us Bats" Music Video

Speaking of Dr. Horrible, here's when he interrupted the Emmy Awards ...

Friday 22 January 2010

Rock out with MANNIX!

From time to time, private investigator Joe Mannix (Mike Connors) followed a lead that took him to a club or recording studio -- where he crossed paths with some real-life recording artists. Three examples below, including videos:

Neil Diamond performed "The Boat That I Row" and "Raisin' Cain" (and has a line of dialogue!) on the episode "The Many Deaths of Saint Christopher" (Oct 7, 1967).

NEIL DIAMOND on "Mannix"

Buffalo Springfield performed "Bluebird" and "For What It's Worth" on the episode "Warning: Live Blueberries" Oct 28, 1967).

BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD on "Mannix"

The Peppermint Trolley Company performed "Trust" on the episode "Who Will Dig The Graves?" (Nov 16, 1968).

PEPPERMINT TROLLEY CO. on "Mannix"

I'll be on the next episode of Javiland

Javier Hernandez--El Muerto comics creator, Javiland cartooning talk podcast host and Fistful of Soundtracks fan--invited me to be one of several guest webcomic creators on the phone during this Sunday's Javiland episode about webcomics at 6pm PST (Tyler James, whose Over online graphic novel I just started reading after Jav mentioned it to me, has confirmed he'll also be part of the ep). Javiland is a must-listen for anyone who's interested in creating self-published comics like Jav has done with El Muerto.

It's a great time to do Jav's show because I'm in the middle of writing and drawing another Palace arc. The targets in this arc will include right-wingers and craptastic movies, whether they're mainstream or art-house flicks (The Palace is based on the years I spent going to art-house theater screenings for local critics--art-house movies can often be as awful and hackneyed as mainstream ones, and man, I was subjected to a lot of awful ones). I'm constantly rewriting the gags. I don't want to turn into the crazy but brilliant Danny Arnold, who rewrote the gags in his scripts for Barney Miller so much that he caused afternoon tapings of the show to continue all the way into the early morning (what a nutso way to write comedy, and I bet the actors really enjoyed staying up all night at the studio).

Since the 2002 launch of my radio station (which Jav calls a podcast, but AFOS has never really been a podcast like Javiland because if it were, I'd be saddled with so many music clearance fees I'd end up standing around wearing nothing but a barrel), many of my most responsive listeners have been artists, graphic designers and cartoonists like Jav. I never thought I'd become one of them. But that's what happens when you need something to keep yourself busy when you're unemployed (or underemployed, to be exact).

So tune in to Javiland to hear me stammer and say "But, um" a lot.

Watch CASTLE episodes free online!

Episodes of Castle starring Nathan Fillion as best-selling mystery writer Richard Castle and Stana Katic as Detective Kate Beckett. Castle's fame gives him an all-access pass to her cases and he's working her last nerve. But somehow, together, they're the perfect partners in crime.

Thursday 21 January 2010

It Takes a Thief: Guest-starring Fred Astaire

Another double-shot of classic '60s espionage series It Takes a Thief starring Robert Wagner, featuring a pair of episodes guest-starring Fred Astaire.

The Great Casino Caper Season 3 : Ep. 4 (51:08)
Al Mundy and his father set out to loot the vault of a casino in Venice and sell the lira to a counterfeiter.

The Three Virgins of Rome Season 3 : Ep. 7 (51:39)
When Al Mundy is assigned to protect three priceless paintings, he finds that his father wants to steal them.

Wednesday 20 January 2010

The Black Dynamite score kung-fus its way onto A Fistful of Soundtracks' "Assorted Fistful" playlist

'Wherever he walks he withers the grass/King Kong steps aside when his bad ass pass.'

I finally got around to buying the Black Dynamite score CD, which Wax Poetics magazine's record label released in October. Every single funkdafied, old-school-style track on the album is a banger. The title theme, one of eight original Black Dynamite tracks I've added to "Assorted Fistful" rotation on the Fistful of Soundtracks channel, contains one of my favorite lyrics that never made it to an actual '70s blaxploitation soundtrack and should have ("This nigga took out Nixon/So you know he's dynamite"). Had I listened to the album sooner, I would have named the score my favorite of 2009.

Black Dynamite score composer Adrian Younge--who, in addition to being the movie's editor, was serving as a law professor when he wasn't toiling over the movie--painstakingly recreated a typical '70s blaxploitation score. All the recording equipment Younge used was analog instead of digital, and all the instruments he and his musicians played were built before 1979. "Our movie takes place between '73 and '74, so I wanted to position myself where I was a composer in 1973," said the Morricone and Goblin-loving L.A. composer and vintage R&B aficionado in Wax Poetics' recent special issue about African American cinema and funky film music.

Enjoy these illustrations of Black Dynamite (which plays briefly here in the Bay Area this week before it drops on DVD and Blu-ray in mid-February) by one of the illest Korean American artists around, David Choe.

Black Dynamite discovers the only good thing about a cold stethoscope.

'Whether you're Korean or not Korean, whether you're a boy or a girl, if you're smart you'll listen to me and never date a Korean. You can fuck but don't marry; it'll be much easier on your constitution. Just mark us off your dating pool.'--David Choe

Tuesday 19 January 2010

It Takes a Thief: Guest-starring Joseph Cotten

A feature-length thriller from classic '60s espionage series It Takes a Thief starring Robert Wagner, with special guest Joseph Cotten (Shadow of a Doubt). Al Mundy (Wagner) arranges to be imprisoned in East Germany as a spy, to make possible his exchange for a supposed Communist spy -- a man who is actually a U.S. agent.

Hans Across the Border: Part 1 Season 2 : Ep. 7 (51:24)

Hans Across the Border: Part 2 Season 2 : Ep. 8 (50:57)

Monday 18 January 2010

Watch HUNTER episodes online free!

Episodes of Hunter (1984-91) starring Fred Dryer as LAPD detective sergeant Rick Hunter and Stepfanie Kramer as his partner, Sgt. Dee Dee McCall. Created by Stephen J. Cannell.

Opening Theme: CHARLIE'S ANGELS

The opening credits to Charlie's Angels, starring Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Jaclyn Smith, and Cheryl Ladd.

PILOT MAIN TITLES

SECOND SEASON MAIN TITLES

CHARLIE'S ANGELS 2000

More main titles:
Checkmate
Dragnet
Equalizer w/ Callan
Get Smart
Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Mysteries

Memorable quotes from commentary tracks #6

'Is this it? This is what I got all those ass-whuppings for?!'

"There's a rumor going around that Al Sharpton was holding two pieces of chicken right before King said 'nigger,' and I can't say what happened, but paramedics were called."

--Boondocks co-executive producer Rodney Barnes, joking about Rev. Sharpton, who protested the show's "Return of the King" MLK holiday episode in 2006, from the crew commentary for "Return of the King," which later won a Peabody Award

Sunday 17 January 2010

Shows I Miss: Keen Eddie

This photo makes it look like Keen Eddie was an all-blonde show and Hugh Hefner was the casting director.

Tonight, prime-time takes another stab at adapting the DC comic Human Target when Fox premieres a much-hyped, Bear McCreary-scored series loosely based on Peter Milligan's Vertigo version, one of my favorite comics during its too-brief run. In a previous TV version of Human Target that was produced by Flash TV series showrunners Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo, Rick Springfield starred as bodyguard Christopher Chance, who disguised himself as his victimized clients to throw off the bad guys and flew around in a pimpin' stealth bomber/bachelor pad that's the only thing I remember about the show. This time, Jericho co-creator Jon Steinberg is the showrunner, the master-of-disguise gimmick has been ditched, the stealth bomber has been left to rot in a hangar somewhere and Chance is played by Mark Valley, who will always be Keen Eddie to me.

Human Target reunites Valley with Con Air director Simon West, who also worked on the much-missed, Guy Ritchie-esque Keen Eddie, which first aired on Fox in the summer of 2003. Early reviews have said Human Target is less like the gritty Vertigo comic--which put Chance through one hell of a psychological wringer by having him suffer from an identity crisis--and more along the lines of lighter fare like The A-Team, MacGyver and Keen Eddie.

I doubt the new show will be as offbeat or raunchy as Keen Eddie, which premiered (and then died) a few months before Janet Jackson's Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime wardrobe malfunction caused the major networks to overreact and kill some of the fun out of prime-time by overpolicing their raunchier shows. There are certain storylines and bits of dialogue during Keen Eddie that teleplay writers probably can't get away with in today's post-Janetgate prime-time landscape--they're more likely to be able to get away with them on FX. Cable was where Keen Eddie belonged.

In fact, cable was where most of Keen Eddie's cult following first discovered the series. After Fox's top exec at the time--who was as impatient with Keen Eddie as the shit-for-brains NBC execs have been with The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien--defied the wishes of other Fox execs who loved Keen Eddie and abruptly cancelled it, Bravo picked it up and debuted its unaired episodes.

The series, which last popped up on Sleuth a couple of years ago, is a lost comedic gem from creator J.H. Wyman, who currently co-produces Fringe, where Valley was briefly a regular before he moved on to Human Target. The Desert Storm vet-turned-actor was terrific as NYPD detective Eddie Arlette, who travels to London to track down an elusive drug dealer and winds up joining Scotland Yard. Eddie doesn't quite find his drug dealer (Crockett and Tubbs had far better luck with their nemesis Calderon on Miami Vice), but the fish-out-of-water falls in love with the city and takes a liking to both the British crooks he locks up (they're more like the not-so-dangerous oddball criminals from Barney Miller than the mustachio-twirling villains from Miami Vice) and his hot but snooty and argumentative flatmate Fiona Bickerton (a then-unknown Sienna Miller). The series was a love letter to London, where it was filmed on location on what was clearly a ginormous budget. Wyman's creation was too foreign, anarchic and weird for mainstream America (it wasn't dour and moralistic enough for them--the original CSI, the #1 prime-time hit that year, was more up their conservative-leaning, bodybag-filled alley). But it won the hearts of some TV critics (Marvin Kitman called it "a show that could have started something new, like how Miami Vice took police shows out of L.A.") and whoever were the three or four viewers who watched it on Fox. I was one of them.

'What's your position, Miss Moneypenny?' 'On all fours.'

Eddie is a roguish, down-on-his-luck crime show hero in the mold of Jim Rockford and Black Tie Affair's Dave Brodsky. If Rockford's Achilles heel was having knuckles made of Kleenex, Eddie's Achilles heel is thinking with his boner too much--one reason why this show wouldn't fly on prime-time today. Eddie's crush on his gorgeous informant, the mysterious gangster's moll who tricks him and the NYPD into busting down the wrong door, is the whole reason for his banishment to London. The series' most enjoyable running joke involves Carol (Rachael Buckley, who's even hotter than Miller but seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth), a Scotland Yard secretary Eddie nicknames "Miss Moneypenny," and the never-answered mystery over whether her flirtatious exchanges with Eddie about her tastes for crotchless panties or being on all fours are real or the figment of Eddie's oversexed imagination. But Eddie's a prude in comparison to his floppy-haired partner Monty Pippin (Julian Rhind-Tutt), whose off-duty sexcapades make Jimmy McNulty from The Wire look like a monk (even though because this isn't HBO, we never see Monty in the middle of one of his swingers club orgies).

Another highlight of Keen Eddie is its awesome, pitch-perfect soundtrack. The pilot episode underscored a drug bust sequence with the Archies' "Sugar Sugar"--an early indication that Keen Eddie was no ordinary cop show. For the carelessly compiled DVD release, which should be avoided at all costs, Paramount Home Entertainment removed many of the songs that helped make Keen Eddie such a memorable show, due to clearance fees Paramount refused to pony up for ("Keeping Up Appearances," an episode in which Eddie inherits Jimi Hendrix's Bentley, is utter shit without "Crosstown Traffic"). But the studio didn't lay a finger on the songs in the reruns, so whenever Keen Eddie turns up on cable, fire up the DVR.

Because of the arrival of Valley's first star vehicle since Keen Eddie, I'll soon be adding to the Fistful of Soundtracks channel's "F Zone" playlist some of the tunes that were cut out of the Keen Eddie DVDs: Madness' "One Step Beyond," New Order's "Crystal" and of course, "Crosstown Traffic."

Saturday 16 January 2010

ASK DISHER: "How Do I Meet Women?"

Another MONK webisode, this time starring Lt. Randy Disher.

Opening Theme: SPIDER-MAN LIVE ACTION 1970s

From the 1977 live action series Spider-Man.

PROMOTIONAL VIDEO

OPENING CREDITS

Friday 15 January 2010

Classic Stephen J. Cannell TV on DVD

Mill Creek Entertainment is releasing (and re-releasing) a slew of classic detective and action television shows in DVD box sets. Watch the trailer for previews of low-priced sets featuring Hunter, Wiseguy, Booker, Cobra, Renegade, Greatest American Hero, 21 Jump Street, and Tenspeed & Brown Shoe:

More crime TV:
LAW & ORDER on its way to the record books
Crime TV coming to DVD (Dec 29)
Watch DRAGNET episodes free online!
It Takes a Thief: Guest-starring Ricardo Montalban
Watch CASTLE online: "A Rose for Everafter"

Watch DRAGNET episodes free online!

Watch episodes of Dragnet starring Jack Webb and Harry Morgan.

More:
Opening Theme: Dragnet
Watch BIONIC WOMAN episodes free online!
Opening Theme: THE PERSUADERS
Watch IT TAKES A THIEF episodes free online!
Unaired '60s Batgirl pilot
Watch the MONK finale online!

Thursday 14 January 2010

It Takes a Thief: Guest-starring Ricardo Montalban

Another pair from '60s spy series It Takes a Thief starring Robert Wagner, with two episodes featuring special guest star Ricardo Montalban as criminal fence Nick Grobbo. Watch 'em free online!

The Thingamabob Heist Season 2 : Ep. 4 (51:24)
Al Mundy is assigned to steal a stolen sample of a revolutionary jet fuel from an international fence.

The Galloping Skin Game Season 2 : Ep. 10 (51:28)
Al Mundy competes with an international fence to obtain a stolen treaty.

Wednesday 13 January 2010

Watch CASTLE online: "A Rose for Everafter"

Castle: A Rose for Everafter, Season 2 : Ep. 12 - aired on Jan 11, 2010
While investigating the death of a bridesmaid at a wedding, Castle runs into an old flame (Alyssa Milano). This video will expire on Jan 31, 2010 at 05:00 (EST).

Opening Theme: KOJAK

The opening theme from Kojak (1973-1978), written by Billy Goldenberg. The series starred Telly Savalas.

Kojak - Einsatz in Manhattan - Themenmusik Billy Goldenberg

More main titles:
Opening Theme: The Lone Ranger
Opening Theme: The Magician
Opening Theme: Magnum P.I.
Opening Theme: Mannix
Opening Theme: Mission: Impossible

Tuesday 12 January 2010

It Takes a Thief: Guest-starring Susan Saint James

A double shot of the classic 1960s spy drama It Takes a Thief starring Robert Wagner, with two episodes guest starring Susan Saint James. Watch 'em free online!

It Takes One to Know One Season 1 : Ep. 1 (50:45)
Al Mundy becomes a member of a gang of thieves to prevent them from stealing the crown jewels of Montefiore.

When Thieves Fall In Season 1 : Ep. 6 (50:50)
Al Mundy persuades the SIA to obtain parole for a lady thief to help him steal a fabulous fur coat.

AFOS: "We Want Sleazy" playlist

Airing this week in the Wednesday Fistful of Soundtracks: The Series rerun time slots is the episode "We Want Sleazy" (WEB86) from February 19-25, 2007.

The Kelly Affair sings 'Find It' at a prom full of 35-year-old high-schoolers.

1. Franco De Gemini, "Cheops and Nefertiti" (from Si Può Fare Molto Con 7 Donne), She Had a Taste for Music, Dagored
2. Piero Umiliani, "Mah-Na-Mah-Na," Sweden, Heaven and Hell, Ariel
3. Shirley Bassey, "The Liquidator," The Liquidator, Film Score Monthly
4. Maury Laws, "Mad Monster Party (Instrumental)," Mad Monster Party, Retrograde
5. Bulldog, "Man Before Your Time" (from Napoli Violenta), Beretta 70: Roaring Themes from Thrilling Italian Policefilms 1971-80, Crippled Dick Hot Wax!
6. Lynn Carey & Barbara Robison, "Find It," Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Soundtrack Classics
7. Luis Bacalov, "Summertime Killer" (from Summertime Killer), Kill Bill Vol. 2, A Band Apart/Maverick/WMG Soundtracks
8. Bullet, "Hanged Man," The Hanged Man, DC Recordings
9. Franco Micalizzi, "Italia a Mano Armata" (from Italia a Mano Armata), Beretta 70: Roaring Themes from Thrilling Italian Policefilms 1971-80, Crippled Dick Hot Wax!
10. Jerry Goldsmith, "Ladies Will Kindly Remove Their Hats" (from In Like Flint), In Like Flint/Our Man Flint, Varèse Sarabande
11. Lalo Schifrin, "Bikini Waltz," The Liquidator, Film Score Monthly
12. Roy Ayers, "Exotic Dance," Coffy, Polydor
13. Nico Fidenco, "La Via Della Prostituzione M9" (from La Via Della Prostituzione), She Had a Taste for Music, Dagored
14. David Holmes, "7/28/04 the Day Of," Ocean's Twelve, Warner Sunset/Warner Bros.
15. Stefano Torossi, "Omicidio Per Vocazione" (from Omicidio Per Vocazione), Barry 7's Connectors 2, CAM
16. Guido and Maurizio De Angelis, "New Special Squad" (from Roma Violenta), Beretta 70: Roaring Themes from Thrilling Italian Policefilms 1971-80, Crippled Dick Hot Wax!
17. Guido and Maurizio De Angelis, "Gangster Story" (from La Polizia incrimina, la legge assolve), Easy Tempo Vol. 1: A Cinematic Easy Listening Experience, Right Tempo

(Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, In Like Flint, Coffy and Ocean's Twelve are the only movies on this playlist I've seen. I wonder if The Liquidator, which MGM released in 1966 and I assume Warner Bros. now owns, will be part of the Warner Archive Collection DVD imprint. The enjoyable Lalo Schifrin score and the premise--an accidental war hero goes to spy school and doesn't like his new government assassin job one bit--make it sound interesting.)

Reruns of AFOS: The Series air Wednesdays at 10am and 3pm. To listen to the station during either of those time slots (or right now), press the play icon on the blue widget below the "About me" mini-bio on this blog.

Monday 11 January 2010

Opening Theme: STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO

Opening credits for The Streets of San Francisco, starring Karl Malden and Michael Douglas. Theme by Henry Mancini.

More main titles:
T.J. Hooker
Twin Peaks
Agatha Christie's Great Detectives (anime)
Alias
Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan

Saturday 9 January 2010

MONK: Mr. Monk and the Computer

A web exclusive featuring Adrian Monk and Capt. Leland Stotlemeyer. Monk wreaks havoc on the Captain's computer.

Opening Theme: JONNY QUEST

The opening credits for Jonny Quest, 1964. With helpful narration for Brazilian viewers.

More cartoon main titles:
Opening Theme: SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN
Opening Theme: SPIDER-MAN 1967
Opening Theme: The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan 1972

Friday 8 January 2010

Watch CHARLIE'S ANGELS episodes free online!

Episodes from the first three seasons of Charlie's Angels (1976-1981) starring Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Jaclyn Smith, Cheryl Ladd, and David Doyle. Receiving their orders via speakerphone from never-seen boss Charlie, the Angels employ their incomparable sleuthing, combat skills, and lethal feminine charm to crack even the most seemingly insurmountable of cases.

More free TV episodes online:
Watch MATT HELM episodes free online!
Watch BIONIC WOMAN episodes free online!
Watch IT TAKES A THIEF episodes free online!
Unaired '60s Batgirl pilot
Watch the MONK finale online!

Thursday 7 January 2010

Watch MATT HELM episodes free online!

Anthony Franciosa stars as ex-spy Matt Helm, now a swinging, wise-cracking private detective in Los Angeles. The series aired on ABC 1975-76. Watch it online at Sony's Crackle, which is also showing the '60s Matt Helm flicks starring Dean Martin.

More TV online:
Watch PSYCH episodes free online!
Watch BIONIC WOMAN episodes free online!
Watch IT TAKES A THIEF episodes free online!
Watch the MONK finale online!
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1954)

Wednesday 6 January 2010

Mighty love: A look back at Ralph Bakshi's adventurous and long-lost Terrytoons reboot, now on DVD

The flower-sniffing scene is included on the DVD. All you right-wingers who hated on the show because of the flower scene can suck it.

This is a revised version of a June 5, 2009 post--updated to include mentions of the Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures complete series DVD that came out yesterday.

I never thought I'd see the day. Ralph Bakshi and John Kricfalusi's hilarious late '80s Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures reboot of Terrytoons' opera-singing rodent superhero finally got an extras-filled DVD release from CBS/Paramount, delighting animation fans and '80s kids like me who, back in '87 or '88, thought, "There's gotta be a better cartoon than Transformers, G.I. Joe and all the other lamer ones starring toys," and then caught Mighty Mouse: TNA one Saturday morning and said, "Hey man, we just found it."

Bat-Bat and Tick the Bug Wonder by Jeffrey Pidgeon

The amusingly over-the-top and off-kilter Bakshi Animation fanfare that opened every 11-minute Mighty Mouse: TNA story signaled this was not another saccharine and sanctimonious cartoon kingdom like the ones inhabited by the Care Bears, Teddy Ruxpin, My Little Pony and the Little Clowns of Happytown. The Bakshi/John K. Mighty Mouse brought back some characters from the Terrytoons shorts (Pearl Pureheart, a less prominent Oil Can Harry) and introduced several new ones, like MM's lonely orphan buddy Scrappy Mouse, a bald villain named Petey Pate, the Batman spoof Bat-Bat--a precursor to both the Tick and Die Fledermaus--and the Cow, Bat-Bat's bovine nemesis.

The show also ditched the obnoxious opera singing from the old shorts and gave MM a secret identity for the first time. When MM wasn't busy rescuing Pearl, Scrappy or the other citizens of Mouseville, he disguised himself as a plain-voiced construction worker named Mike the Mouse, a new conceit that actually made MM a more relatable character. In the show's much more anarchic and absurdist second season, the writers apparently lost interest in the Mike persona and had MM appear as his caped self all the time, even when he got married to Pearl at a ceremony that was attended by all the other Terrytoons characters.

Nineties cartoons like Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs jumpstarted the whole meta-toon trend of poking fun at rival cartoons. But Mighty Mouse: TNA actually went meta years before--and with funnier and wilder results--in the classic "Don't Touch That Dial" episode, which launched an unprecedented attack on cookie-cutter '80s cartoons and viewers' short attention spans. The show's writers and animators admired the '40s and '50s Looney Tunes shorts (the Termite Terrace crew was in their comedic prime during those decades, but several of their shorts were also pretty racist-ass, to borrow a word from a recent tweet by Geo of Blue Scholars about Looney Tunes marathons). Throughout the series run, the Mighty Mouse: TNA staff succeeded in recapturing the irreverent spirit of those '40s and '50s cartoons, and in "Don't Touch That Dial" and an earlier ep, "Mighty's Benefit Plan," they couldn't resist expressing their hatred for the shabby state of mainstream animation at the time.

In the first-season ep "Mighty's Benefit Plan," the writers skewered one particular '80s cartoon, NBC's Alvin and the Chipmunks revival. They reimagined the Chipmunks as "Elwy and the Tree Weasels" (the band's biggest hit was called "Twitch and Writhe"), and in a series of gags they somehow Jedi mind-tricked CBS censors into ignoring, they turned David Seville into a disgusting-looking, Cheerios-craving pseudo-pedophile--an eerie foretelling of creepy teen pop Svengalis like Lou Pearlman and Joe Simpson.

Mr. E from Mighty Mouse: TNA's 'Don't Touch That Dial' ep

Mr. E (Photo source: Jeffrey Pidgeon)

In season two, instead of targeting just one show, the writers decided to go after a whole bunch of shows with "Don't Touch That Dial." The ep follows a Sgt. Bilko's Cereal-eating, diaper-clad kid viewer as he channel-surfs after MM's latest adventure bores him. Evicted from his own show by the impatient kid's remote, MM gets zapped into lame cartoons that resemble The Flintstones, The Jetsons, The Real Ghostbusters, Rocky and Bullwinkle (with Rocky Balboa instead of Rocky the Flying Squirrel) and Scooby-Doo (complete with canned laughter and a Scrappy-Doo-esque sidekick named "Mr. E," a mash-up of Mr. T and Ed Sullivan who tells MM to get away from his "really big shoe" and stop taunting his "ethnically mixed buddies"). Long before the writers of The Simpsons, Futurama, Arrested Development and 30 Rock were inserting gags that viewers have to freeze-frame, "Don't Touch That Dial" snuck in a great split-second shot of MM getting zapped into a nameless cartoon starring a mash-up of Popeye and a Smurf ("Popeye Smurf").

Not everything in Mighty Mouse: TNA worked. Scrappy, voiced by the late Dana Hill, the Patrick Troughton of Audrey Griswolds, was an annoying audience surrogate who became even more annoying when a cost-cutting Bakshi would string together clips of old Terrytoons shorts and have an offscreen Scrappy snark at the footage for the entire 11-minute segment. Mighty Mouse invented MST3King about a year before MST3K did! (When he was asked in a 1988 interview about the 11-minute montages of old Terrytoons clips, John K. said, "Why waste money on those things? Nobody's going to watch them anyway.") Though these segments weren't very funny--and listening to Scrappy's voice for 11 minutes straight is like being treated to a concerto by the Nails on Chalkboards Philharmonic Orchestra--they showed how much of an improvement the Bakshi/John K. reboot was over the original MM cartoons, which were rather sucky. No wonder the show's writers and animators turned to Looney Tunes instead of Terrytoons for comedic inspiration.

It's a shame this little-seen show has been remembered mostly for the uproar caused by the religious right--they thought they saw MM snort coke from a flower--and not often enough for moments like the ep that pitted MM against a giant, evil and nameless parade balloon that was clearly Pee-wee Herman (a funny reference to another CBS Saturday morning show at the time), the Elwy show and "Don't Touch That Dial," the most entertaining 11 minutes of small-screen animation from the '80s. Though it lasted only two seasons, Mighty Mouse: TNA was popular enough to spawn an early '90s Marvel comic that brought Bat-Bat, his sidekick Tick the Bug Wonder, the Cow and the show's other new characters to the funny pages.

For a while, a Mighty Mouse: TNA DVD seemed unlikely because according to Jeffrey Pidgeon, an artist who worked on the show, "the rights are owned by five different people who don't exactly like each other." I don't know who sorted out the legal mess, but I like to think a mouse in yellow tights was somehow involved.