Alpha: 2012 Convention

Two SPACE:1999 events in one day: timelike01 posts the below great mashup image at his deviantart page and this announcement:

A press release from Paul Bens of Alpha: 2012, A Space: 1999 Event; a 3-day Space:1999 convention September 14-16, 2012 in Brubank, CA:

February 10, 2012 --Jace Hall, President of HDFILMS, Inc., and Executive Producer and Creative Lead of Space: 2099, a re-imagining of the British cult-classic television series Space: 1999, will give fans their first opportunity to hear his plans by joining an impressive roster of guests attending Alpha: 2012, a three-day convention to be held at the Burbank Airport Marriott Hotel on September 14-16, 2012 in Burbank, California. Hall will be joining Australian actor Nick Tate and Glasgow-born Prentis Hancock, co-stars of the original series, as well as revered actors Roy Dotrice and Judy Geeson, both of whom made pivotal guest appearances in the series’ first season. More guests are likely to be added.

It was 34 years ago that fans of Space: 1999 first gathered in Columbus, Ohio, to celebrate their beloved show, and—it was hoped—convince the producers to give the green-light for a third season. While further adventures of the inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha did not come to fruition, fans have loyally gathered over the last three decades, hosting a series of conventions to benefit chosen charities, all the while hoping that a movie or new series might be somewhere in the near future. With the recent announcement by HDFILMS and ITV Studios of Space: 2099, their loyalty may just have paid off.

Starring Oscar® winner Martin Landau and three time Emmy® Award winner Barbara Bain, Space: 1999 was originally broadcast from 1975 -1977 and followed the adventures of the inhabitants Moonbase Alpha who are cut off from earth when a freak nuclear accident send the moon careening off into the universe. While Hall and ITV are keeping details of the new series closely guarded, fans are hopeful that Space: 2099 will capture the sense of wonder, mystery and danger that was the hallmark of the original series.

With a unique convergence of the original series and the proposed reboot, Alpha: 2012 promises to be one of the most exciting conventions since Breakaway, the popular Los Angeles event held in September of 1999. “We’re thrilled that Jace and HDFILMS have agreed to join us,” says Rosie Badgett, one of the organizers of both Alpha: 2012 and the original Breakaway convention. “It really is a unique opportunity for us all to celebrate Space: 1999 and the stars of the original series who have supported us all these years, while, at the same time, getting a sneak-peek at some of the details of this new series. It proves that the future really is fantastic for Space: 1999.”

Above art by timelike01. Isn't it great?

Video: 1968 STAR TREK Commercials

Commercials, 1960s style!

Via videoholic50s60s70s: here is a film-chain copy of the STAR TREK episode "Space Seed" with all of the commercials intact and the episode mostly taken out. Yes, really: the parts where you would walk out of the room in 1968 for a visit to the fridge are all here. The length and pre-MTV cutting pace of the commercials is a reminder of a different time with a different attention span. This is a very faded 16mm bit of film.



The commercials in order: Polaroid (narrated by Alexander Scourby, whose voice you may remember from a bunch of shows - you may still buy a copy of him reading the Bible at his site), Viceroy cigarettes, Shell Oil, RCA Victor, Pepsi, Lay's Potato Chips (with the one and only Bert Lahr in a devil outfit), Geritol, and Aqua Velva.

TV Themes That Get Stuck in My Head

THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR

I remember watching THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR when I was a kid but haven't seen it since. Why does the theme song still linger in my head? I can't recall the show nor have I seen it since. I remember the maid character being a bit more scary than the dead sea captain. And any title sequence with the dog getting credit is cool.At least, when you're a kid it's cool.

TEMPERATURES RISING

I had a tape recorder when I was a kid and I recorded the TEMPERATURES RISING theme off the air. So ... that's why it stayed in my head I suppose! It's a bouncy theme for a proto-SCRUBS show that was a vehicle for Cleavon Little. The first year costarred James Whitmore as a crusty buy benign doctor. The second year Whitmore was out and Paul Lynde was inserted. The tinkering fizzled and the program was canceled.

ABC MOVIE OF THE WEEK

The very exciting graphics, reminiscent of those in 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, with a serious announcer telling you that this ABC MOVIE OF THE WEEK was produced especially for television which, in the tones he invokes, sounds terribly important. Tonight, from January 22, 1972: Kim Darby and William Shatner in "The People." It's a sci fi mystery based on a a series of stories by author Zenna Henderson. Darby and Shatner worked together in the STAR TREK episode "Miri" as you well know. I had no idea they co-starred in something else! Wow. We're learning stuff here. Useless stuff, but, well, nonetheless.

NBC MYSTERY MOVIE


Maybe one of the most favorite of TV themes. The NBC MYSTERY MOVIE theme is by Henry Mancini and it was a staple every Sunday night for years, used to introduce every darn first-run episode of COLUMBO, MCMILLAN AND WIFE, McCLOUD and others not-so-well known "Mystery Movies" like Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick as THE SNOOP SISTERS and Richard Boone's HEC RAMSEY.

ROOM 222


The ROOM 222 theme by Jerry Goldsmith gets stuck in my head all the time. The first season of the show, created by the same people who would later create THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, is out on DVD in a no frills edition.

Thank you for your kind attention to the tunes in my head.

1950s-60s TV Comic Book Covers

The Saved From the Paper Drive blog showcases a mountain of TV-related comic book covers from the 1950s and 60s. Most are Dell and Gold Key. The interesting thing about the collection is that there were comic books for such short lived, not-so-well-remembered series as HE'S DICKENS, I'M FENSTER, IT'S ABOUT TIME and THE NEW PEOPLE.

Begin with Part One here. 

This got me thinking about today's television. What if there were Dell and Gold Key Comics around today? What would their TV show tie-in covers look like?

I think they would go a little like this ...

Above: A BURN NOTICE Dell comic book cover I made up. I would buy it -- especially if it had some Dan Spiegle art in it!

Above: the Gold Key PROJECT RUNWAY comic book cover mock up!

Above: THE MILLIONAIRE MATCHMAKER comic that I Photoshopped. OK, I don't think I'd buy this one.

OK, a 30 ROCK TV comic book with Kenneth the Page on the cover? I would totally read this one.

A mock up cover for Dell Comics' THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF BEVERLY HILLS. Drama, drama, drama! And plastic surgery! This would be a big seller!

 

Note how the line-up for Rachel Maddow's comic book are from THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW and the other half are from THE LAND OF THE GIANTS! Hoo ha! Mash up, mash up!

And here's a made-up cover for Gold Key Comics' JERSEYLICIOUS!

Lots of fun to mash up these covers, I tell ya!

Video: STAR TREK Anger Management

Via Laughing Squid with a Vulcan salute to Mark Anderson for the heads up!



One of the best mash ups I've seen.

Video: "The One Ronnie" Christmas Special Sketch

Harry Enfield and Ronnie Corbett from The Guardian blog. "For years the Two Ronnies were regarded as unfunny and unfashionable – now we're once more celebrating their brand of humour."

A sketch from BBC One's "The One Ronnie" 2010 Christmas Special starring Ronnie Corbett:



If you don't like puns, don't click.

I couldn't hep but think of Ronnie Barker, the late comedy partner of Ronnie Corbett, who could have been playing the shopkeeper ala Arkwright from OPEN ALL HOURS.

Adrian Sinnott, this clip is for you, my fellow British TV comedy fan!

Coming to BBC: DIRK GENTLY'S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY

Above: the DIRK GENTLY cast: Darren Boyd, Stephen Mangan and Helen Baxendale.

Douglas Adams' book DIRK GENTLY'S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY has now been adapted for TV and will premiere on BBC4 in 2011:



Related: Dirk Gently: Douglas Adams’s detective finally cracks TV

Jack Davis TV Commercials

Here is 6 minutes of Jack Davis TV commercials from years ago. Some unseen Davis work here.



Commercials:

• McCracken's Apple Chips (with voice talents June Foray and Gary Owens)
• Utica Club Beer
• Cask Mountain Wine
• True Temper Uni-Spin fishing rods
• Gillette Trac II (with (I think) the voice talent of Jackson Beck)
• Sominex
• Utica Club Beer (another one)
• The Dodge Boys (1969 Polara)
• Chex Cereal (with Ruth Buzzi)
• Pennsylvania Lottery
• Lectric Shave

Thanks to chiefzabu for posting this!

Another treat: a collection of General Electric appliance commercials created by Rankin Bass for its original 1964 GE-sponsored broadcast of the 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer' TV special. I've never seen these!

SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK Documentary

More information at the YouTube page.

DOCTOR WHO Unreleased Scene

An unseen scene from the cutting room floor of the Doctor and Amy at the end of "Eleventh Hour" and/or the beginning of "The Beast Below." Quite fun, but no plot advancement. "Why have you labeled a time machine 'police box?'" and so on. In HD from TheDoctorWhoMedia.

TV Themes That Include the Pet (Excluding LASSIE)

Above: Asta from the TV series version of THE THIN MAN (1957).

Here is a small collection of TV show titles that include a credit for the pet. I decided, when I was many an eight year old television consumer, that any TV show that included a credit for the family dog was cool.

I've kept a note of what shows credited animals in the back of my mind. I was surprised that sometimes I've remembered wrong. For instance, Darwin the dolphin from SEAQUEST DSV, gets a credit for the first season only.

Ditto Dagget!

I always thought that Muffit the Dagget (for the uninitiated: a monkey in a fur/plastic 'cyborg" costume) from the original BATTLESTAR GALACTICA had a credit. He doesn't. You only see the back of him as "Noah Hathaway's" credit appears.

SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH includes a credit for Nick Bakay, who voiced "Salem the cat" in the show, but most of the time the cat was a puppet. That's a no no, so that doesn't count.

And the big James Thurber dog in MY WORLD AND WELCOME TO IT, while the focus of the opening, is not credited. Below, after the 90 second teaser, are the titles and you can see what I mean:



Okay, here are the top contenders -- the cool TV openings that include the family pet. Please feel free to note any omissions:

Ladadog from PLEASE DON'T EAT THE DAISIES



Lord Nelson from THE DORIS DAY SHOW



Scruffy from THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR



The winner: THE THIN MAN TV series, which starred Peter Lawford as Nick and Phyllis Kirk as Nora. Asta the dog gets third billing. The highest ranking billing I've seen!



Please feel free to comment and add any I missed.

TWILIGHT ZONE/CALVIN & HOBBES Mash-Up

"The Watterson Zone," written by Mark Pellegrini with art by Timothy Lim, adapts the classic TWILIGHT ZONE episode where anything a little boy wants, happens.

It's a spoof of a classic TWILIGHT ZONE episode. The original program title was "It's a Good Life" and starred Billy Mumy. It was later remade as a segment of the TWILIGHT ZONE MOVIE.

Below is the program that originally aired on November 3, 1961, cut into its requisite YouTube 10-minute chunks:

Sergio Aragonés in FUTURAMA

Sergio Aragonés appears in a "San Diego Comic Con 3010" episode of Matt Groening's FUTURAMA series Thursday night on Comedy Central.

Wired has the details and some more pics:

The “world’s fastest cartoonist” and the world’s most badass viper pilot make special voice appearances in this week’s episode of Futurama, which features a glimpse of what Comic-Con might look like in the year 3010.

Sergio Aragonés, the speedy comics legend who made his mark with Mad magazine and Groo the Wanderer, plays himself and appears as a head in a jar at the comic book convention on a panel discussion with Futurama creator Matt Groening and head writer/executive producer David X. Cohen.

Katee Sackhoff, who played Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica, guest-stars in the role of Grrl, a hot young Omicronian who wants to hook up with Lrrr, the ruler of Omicron Persei 8 who is facing a midlife crisis.

Comic-Con serves as the setting for Lrrr’s unsuccessful takeover of Earth at the beginning of the episode, which is titled “Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences.” See the screenshots above for a sneak peek at the episode. Futurama airs Thursdays at 10 p.m./9 p.m. Central on Comedy Central.

Images courtesy MTV. Futurama TM and © 2010 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

Read More http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/08/futurama-guest-voices/?pid=602&pageid=44242&viewall=true#ixzz0xd1b5Fpm

That's Not Uncle Arthur!

Above: Sherilyn Fenn. Yes, she could NEVER be mistaken for Uncle Arthur. More about her in a moment.

There is a little known tradition in TV series. The tradition has no name, so I just call it the "That's NOT Uncle Arthur!" effect.

If you watch TV, you know what I mean. You're watching a show and suddenly, a familiar character is acting a strange way.

Let me explain.

OK, here's Uncle Arthur:



Here's a description. There is an episode of BEWITCHED with Paul Lynde NOT playing Uncle Arthur -- he's this nervous driving instructor. Here's a (colorized) clip from the first time Lynde appeared on the show. It's from the very first season.



This 1965 episode is titled "Driving is the Only Way to Fly," and you can watch the whole thing on Hulu here (or there's a MySpace cut up Minisode, which runs under 5 minutes and really has all the best bits).

Paul Lynde would return the following fall, in his new role as the recurring Uncle Arthur character.

This is the Uncle Arthur Effect.

OK, here's another example. Harry Morgan appeared on M*A*S*H as 2 characters. The first: a one-time appearance as Major General Bartford Hamilton Steele. Here he is in his 1974 episode:



And the next season, he returned in a different role: that of Commanding Officer Colonel Sherman T. Potter. He would stay with the series until its demise in 1983 -- and would reprise his role in the short-lived spin-off series After M*A*S*H.


So, how many times have actors wandered in, played a guest part -- and then are asked to return for a regular role in a series?



Above is Vincent Gardinia, who played Frank Lorenzo in ALL IN THE FAMILY. But before he played Frank, he played two other characters in 2 earlier episodes of the sitcom.


And the same thing with veteran character actor (and ubiquitous cartoon voice talent) Allan Melvin. Melvin was, like, in a zillion shows like PHIL SILVERS, DICK VAN DYKE, ANDY GRIFFITH and GOMER PYLE USMC. With both VAN DYKE and GRIFFITH, he played different characters before being brought in as a semi-regular character.

Alex Borstein, maybe best known for her long running gig as a great comedic character actress in Mad TV, played "Drella," a sarcastic harp player in the first few episodes of the Gilmore Girls series. It was the producer's hope that she play the second banana role of Sookie, but her Fox TV contract prevented that commitment. She returned a 3 years later to GG as "Miss Celine."

Sherilyn Fenn played 2 characters in Gilmore Girls: she was first cast in a pilot-within-the-series as Jess' mother figure and then, later on, a semi regular role as an ex-lover of series regular Luke

And then there's Dennis Franz. Back before NYPD Blue, he was on Hill Street Blues for a short multi-episode arc. He played Detective Sal Benedetto, a drug-hooked, crooked cop for 5 episodes. He returned two years later, portraying Detective Norman Buntz for the remaining two years of Hill Street's network run, and starred in the 12 episode spin-off series Beverly Hill Buntz.


Freema Agyeman played Adeola Oshodi, a "red shirt" who had to die in "Army of Ghosts" to emphasis the danger of the invading Cybermen in Doctor Who. (To quote Guy Fleegman in Galaxy Quest: "I'm just "Crewman Number Six." I'm expendable. I'm the guy in the episode who dies to prove how serious the situation is. I've gotta get outta here.") In less than a year, Freema was back, this time in her new continuing role as series regular Martha Jones.

And on it goes.

That's all I can think of. But there must be more. Please let me know.

Video: Tex Blaisdell on "To Tell the Truth"

Above: Tex Blaisdell's NCS bio.

Here's veteran cartoonist Tex Blaisdell, whose talents spanned DC Comics and many syndicated features, guesting on this 1970 episode of the To Tell the Truth game show.

At this time, Mr. Blaisdell had taken over LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE after creator Harold Gray's death in 1968.

Some members of the celebrity panel (composed of Tom Posten, Peggy Cass, Gene Rayburn and Kitty Carlisle) ham it up, reading a very early ANNIE strip aloud. Actually, one of the very earliest ANNIEs. It's the strip from August 14, 1924, the middle of the second week of the feature when Mrs. Warbucks takes Annie from the orphanage to the Warbucks estate. As Kitty Carlisle remarks, people have not heard of Mrs. Warbucks, the wife of Daddy Warbucks. The explanation offered is that she was an unsympathetic character and Mr. Gray wrote her out of the strip.

At the end of this clip, Tex live-draws a portrait of Annie.

Chuck Jones' A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1971)

OK, it's the Holiday season. Let's go watch an Oscar-award-winning adaptation of A CHRISTMAS CAROL, executive produced by Chuck Jones with the voice of Alastair Sim as Scrooge! For now, there's only one -- just one place -- to see this: YouTube.

It's not on DVD. Ands that's crummy. This show has some serious pedigree; the guy who brought us THE GRINCH (the cartoon, not the Jim Carrey monster) is the executive producer and it's directed by the animation director of WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT. I remember seeing it in 1971, and once or twice since then -- but only by chance. It's not a holiday TV tradition ala CHARLIE BROWN or those Rankin Bass puppet specials or the MISTER MAGOO special. Go figure!

YouTube's rules means a 28 minute vid has to be sliced up into smaller segments. Here are the links if you have the time to watch.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL Stave One

A CHRISTMAS CAROL Stave Two

A CHRISTMAS CAROL Stave Three

A CHRISTMAS CAROL Stave Four

Thanks to Grant Miehm for reminding me of this special, which I had forgotten about until now!


- The above was originally posted on December 11, 2007. And this is still not available on DVD or Blu Ray or whatever so far as I know.

Video: MY WORLD AND WELCOME TO IT - Christmas Episode

From the TV show MY WORLD AND WELCOME TO IT, based on the work of James Thurber. This episode is titled "Rally 'Round the Flag" originally aired on Decmber 15, 1969.

The program was canceled after one season, after which it won an Emmy for Best Comedy. I was a very small kid when it aired and I remember being fascinated by the real life actor William Widom interacting with the B&W Thurber-esque characters. I could never make up my mind whether it was wonderful or scary.

STAR TREK Scene Re-Creation

This runs about a minute. It's an audacious side by side comparison of a 1966 STAR TREK episode ("The Naked Time") and a couple of guys who reenact that same scene in 2009. It runs about a minute and is more interesting than it sounds. One thing for sure: these guys shamelessly know the scene. The fellow who plays Kirk has the shiniest orange velour shirt.

BBC One DOCTOR WHO Christmas Ident

Hat tip to Bully via Dorian Wright. I agree with Bully that it just "makes me so happy."

Video: DOCTOR WHO "End of Time" Promo

Here's a new promo from BBC One today, promoting an animated program called "Gruffalo" (which looks to be a very short special) and the final DOCTOR WHO episodes, "The End of Time." The WHO segment contains several new clips and, yes, a mild spoiler about who the villain will be -- but I think everyone knows who that is by now. This runs over a minute.



Hat tip to the Doctor Who news Page!