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Cadbury Creme Egg commercial:

Musica Moonday

"Wild Dreams (Jelly Beans)" by Lancelot Link and The Evolution Revolution:

At the Earth's Core

As I mentioned in my previous post, I first watched At the Earth's Core (1976) some time in the mid 1980s on a Sunday afternoon airing of "Planet 7 Cinema" on WABC-TV channel 7 out of NYC, and in spite of its pre-Star Wars level low budget special effects, e.g. men in stiff rubber monster costumes; a giant fire breathing toad that explodes like a '75 Ford LTD after being hurled off a cliff; steam train and Iron Mole vehicles that are obviously miniature models; set bound jungle foliage, etc. I, as an ardent fan of Doctor Who was well versed in the ability to overlook such production "quirks" and have loved this juvenile escapist fantasy adventure ever since; to this day I think it's a perfect film to doze off to on a rainy Sunday afternoon.  Maybe it's just me but there's something oddly soothing about a '70s synthesizer score combined with weird electronically modulated staccato voices of subhuman pig men that lulls me into a state of altered consciousness, not fully awake yet still just this side of the border of Slumberland.

I love how the film begins with the sounds of electronic synths typical of some arty 70s prog rock song before mutating into a triumphal orchestral score over scenes of British industrial might.  It then moves along at a nice, brisk pace--it's only about twelve minutes and 4,000 miles later before the steampunk'd out earth boring vehicle, the Iron Mole, piloted by the brawny Doug McClure as David Innes and Peter Cushing as Doctor Abner Perry (who is essentially reprising his role of the absent minded genius from the two 1960s theatrical Dr. Who films) burrows beneath the Earth's crust and they're in the fanciful underground world of Pellucidar.  Like Dorothy stepping out of her sepia toned Kansas world into Technicolor Oz, these two nineteenth century specimens of American virility and English ingenuity are here greeted by a weirdly illumined pink sky, and within five minutes of arriving they're attacked by a bird beaked Anglo kaiju before being captured by a band of pig faced troglodytic Sagoth.  A word about the dinosaurs in this film: as mentioned earlier these are not Harryhausen level stop motion creations, but instead are more akin to the man in suit kaiju from Godzilla films, but they still possess personality and their own special charms, particularly the aforementioned giant fire breathing toad and one stiff moving triceratops-like creature that looks as though it lumbered straight out of a Victorian's conceptual etching of an antediluvian thunder lizard.

Though this is essentially a film for kids, it still has a little something for the dads, namely Caroline Munro as the primitive Dia, whose finely shaped bosom--tanned, oiled and fairly busting out of her animal skin brassiere--could have gotten top billing above even Messrs. Cushing and McClure, for Munro's divine bodily architecture surely must have kick started puberty for many a young red blooded male, including yours truly, and probably for just as many young females at that.  Along with such primeval sex appeal there is also a bit of the old ultra-violence present (I'm exaggerating, it's really just regular violence) that may not be appropriate for the youngest or most sensitive of children: in one scene, Doug McClure battles a prehistoric hippopotamus which he then stabs in the ear hole, leaving the side of its head a bloody red mess.  Soon after, one of the pterodactyl like Mahars is violently garroted with a chain around the neck, Jabba the Hutt style.  Really nothing most of us haven't seen by around the age of five years old though.

The film was obviously shot studio bound but due to the lush foliage and set dressing looks more expansive than it surely was, helped greatly by the colorful cinematography; the pink, purple, yellow, green, red, and orange hues lend an air of fantastique luridness that make some scenes look as though they were conjured up directly from the cover of some tattered, dog eared pulp scifi magazine, and as such the recent Blu-ray release from Kino Lorber comes highly recommended.  One wishes that director Kevin Connor could have teamed up with stop motion giant Ray Harryhausen in the 1970s to create a series of similarly pulpy films based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars books: Doug McClure could have made a fine albeit burly John Carter and Caroline Munro a voluptuous red skinned princess of Mars.

Here's my favorite bit of dialogue:
David Innes (Doug McClure): "Get a tight hold, Doc."
Dr. Abner Perry (Peter Cushing): "I have a firm grip upon your trousers, David."

Enjoy the trailer:

Don't touch that dial...

Here's a fantastic intro and commercial bumpers for a short lived Sunday afternoon genre movie series called "Planet 7 Cinema" that aired on channel 7 WABC-TV in the New York City area in the mid 1980s.  I always recalled this intro primarily because it was where I first watched At the Earth's Core (1976) one lazy Sunday afternoon at the family home in New Jersey, and since then always associated a strange laughing blue mechanical man and wind up dog with that film due to the great triumphal intro score by Mike Vickers that was also used to good effect in this creative and colorful bumper that really captured my imagination as a kid.

Special tip 'o the hat to YouTuber Tapthatt2012 for preserving this little piece of NYC television nostalgia for future generations.

Enjoy!



Note: I really don't recall if the silence at the beginning of this clip before the music kicks in was intentional or a transmission error, though my guess is it is an error.  One would think the little toy dog's yaps should be audible but until any other version shows up on YouTube, this is all we've got to go by.

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Miller Lite commercial with Yakov Smirnoff (Famous Russian Comedian):

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Common Household Deities of North America, Mid to Late Twentieth Century

No. 7,  Bathtub Elves:

Musica Moonday

"It's a Sunshine Day" by The Silver Platters aka The Brady Bunch Kids:

Vernal Equinox

First day of spring!

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Irish Spring commercial with Martin Kove aka Cobra Kai sensai John Kreese from The Karate Kid (1984):

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Dispatches from McDonaldland #3

In which "everything looks green" thanks to Uncle O'Grimacey and his infernal concoction: the Shamrock Shake:

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Carvel commercial with Cookie Puss AND Cookie O'Puss (thanks and a great day to ya now):

Musica Moonday

"The Fox Chase" from Darby O'Gill and the Little People:

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Lucky Charms commercial:

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Colt 45 commercial with Billy Dee Williams:

TV Guide Tuesday, Part 2

Go to Part 1

Grab a big bowl of Lucky Charms and get comfy on the couch as we find ourselves transported back in time to Saturday, June 10, 1978.  Returning to this long ago Saturday morning once again, there are several viewing options to choose from at 8:30 am: brain melting cartoons include Speed Buggy on channel 2, Globetrotters on channels 3 and 4, or Brady Kids on channel 5 or the more educational live-action Big Blue Marble to watch "hula-hoop hopefuls in California practicing for a national championship" on channel 11 or the always dependable Mister Rogers on PBS Channel 12 WHYY-TV serving the Wilmington, Delaware and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania areas.  We also have our first fright flick of the day, the 1961 black and white film, The Devil's Hand on the great Philadelphia independent WTAF-TV channel 29:

From 9 to 10 there are a couple classic 'toons: Bugs Bunny/Road Runner on channels 2 and 10 or Woody Woodpecker on channel 5, along with the slightly less classic Scooby's Laff-A-Lympics on channels 6 and 7, and some more Mister Rogers on channel 13, with Sesame Street popping up at 9:05 on channel 12.  9:30 brings more Popeye & Friends on channel 5 if you didn't get your Popeye fix earlier at 7:30, along with the possibility of seeing a live action Spider-Man sketch on Electric Company on channel 13:

When 10 am rolls around, 1944's Voodoo Man with Bela Lugosi and John Carradine on channel 9 is the obvious choice, though there's always Flintstones on channel 5 or Sesame Street (again) on channel 13 as an option:

More cartoon goodness at 10:30 with Batman/Tarzan on channels 2 and 10, Pink Panther on channels 3 and 4 and Archies on channel 5, with Wild Wild West as a live action drama alternative on the much beloved independent WKBS-TV channel 48 broadcasting out of Philadelphia:

Saturday morning wraps up at 11:00 with the Krofft Supershow on channels 6 and 7, a rerun of I Dream of Jeannie with guest star Sammy Davis Jr. on Channel 11, some cartoon I have absolutely no recollection of called Baggy Pants on channels 3 and 4, or Zoom on channel 13 for the PBS set.  As we savor the last fleeting minutes of this long gone Saturday morning, 11:30 am presents a trio of intriguing sounding possibilities for our viewing pleasure: Secrets of Isis on channels 2 and 10, Space Sentinels on channels 3 and 4, or the 1970 sci-fi film The Forbin Project on channel 9:

And just like that, we emerge out of the bustling cartoon mecca of Saturday morning and into the vast open plains of Saturday afternoon.  Shall we go outside and play in the sun for the remains of the day like normal, healthy children?  Or shall we instead stay inside only to sit zombie-like in front of this boob tube...our pale, glowing skin becoming an ever more sickly pallor, the very hue of white noise static emanating from an unused channel on the UHF wavelength...?  Tune in next time to find out!

Musica Moonday

"Turn Me Up" by Kidd Video:

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Commercial for McDonald's Star Trek Happy Meal:

Don't touch that dial!

Channel 17 WPHL station ID/Star Trek promo:

TV Guide Tuesday

I've got a few vintage issues of TV Guide that I "liberated" from my good friend Frank Costanza, so I thought it might be interesting every now and then to see what was on television back in the analog days in this new feature on WODS-TV we're calling "TV Guide Tuesday".

First up is a TV Guide for the week of June 10-16, 1978.
Check out that sweet, sweet Close Encounters of the Third Kind inspired cover painting (sorry about that address label, didn't want to risk tearing the cover by trying to remove it):

Very nice!

Ok kids, set your WABAC machine, flux capacitor or TARDIS (depending upon your generational point of reference) to Saturday, June 10, 1978, 5:50 am Eastern Standard Time, head for New Jersey and turn right at the Pine Barrens. Here's the channel line up and early Saturday morning schedule for the New Jersey/Pennsylvania area for this date:

It's hard to believe but there were only seventeen channels total available between New York and Philadelphia back then in '78, and to be honest I don't recall ever getting in channel 23 or 40 where I grew up in central New Jersey--we only ever pulled in fifteen at most, with the UHF channels usually a bit more fuzzy than the majority of the VHF channels (2 through 13).

Even though the listings start at 5:50 am, the actual kid shows didn't really begin until 6:30 am when you had a choice between Casper & Friends on the independent station WNEW-TV channel 5 out of New York or the local live action kid's show Captain Noah on WPVI-TV channel 6, the ABC affiliate out of Philadelphia--unless you were a weird kid and really enjoyed bleary eyed early morning viewings of Agricultural News or the religious program Patterns for Living.

At 7 am you had a few more choices: Underdog on channel 5 being the front runner along with Three Robonic Stooges on CBS channel 10 WCAU-TV out of Philly or Mr. Magoo on WNBC-TV channel 4 out of New York.  If for some odd reason you craved live action instead of animation, you had a few additional options at this hour with several live action kid shows to choose from, including Patchwork Family on WCBS-TV channel 2 out of New York, Chief Halftown on channel 6, and some show I really don't recall called Carrascolendas on both the NBC affiliate out of Philly KYW-TV channel 3 or the independent WPIX-TV channel 11 out of New York; though if you were a glutton for punishment, there was always the dreaded religious killjoy Pat Robertson on the 700 Club on channel 17 WPHL-TV, an independent out of Philly.

At 7:30 you had Muhammed Ali on channel 4, Bugs Bunny & Popeye on channel 5, Popeye and Friends on channel 6, or Marlo and the Magic Movie Machine on channel 10, but it was at 8 am that things really started to "get crazy", kid TV wise.  If you skipped Three Robonic Stooges earlier at 7 am on channel 10, now was your chance to catch them on channel 2, but chances are those robotic knuckleheads would get passed over yet again for more substantial fare, though you had a hard choice ahead of you: Hong Kong Phooey on NBC channels 3 and 4 or Superfriends on ABC channels 6 and 7 (WABC-TV out of New York) being the main contenders, with the Abbott & Costello cartoon on channel 5 running close behind with the slightly more middle brow Gene London show on channel 10, Dusty's Treehouse on channel 11, and the always stalwart Sesame Street on PBS channel 13 WNET-TV in New York bringing up the rear.

Now if you were of the Lutheran persuasion or even a Clokeyite or just an agnostic with a slight Gumbyist bent, you might just decide to forego Zan and Jayna on the Superfriends and switch the dial to channel 9 WOR-TV, an independent in the New York area, to catch up with Davey and Goliath for a half hour of wholesome fun.  Those capsule descriptions above really do sound oddly intriguing: was "Cousin Barney" really Davey's cousin, was Barney even his actual name at all, and why was "Barney's" dad so eager to pawn him off for the whole summer?  And what was the strange machine Davey and Goliath discovered in that abandoned house?  A spinning jenny?  An old bootlegger's still?  A printing press used for counterfeit money?  An atavachron?

Unfortunately, that's all the time we have for now so those questions will just have to remain unanswered mysteries.  Until next time!

Musica Moonday

"Maiden Wine" as sung by the inimitable Mr. Spock: