Sticking with a superhero theme tonight, denizens. It’s no wonder, considering what I’ve been reading this past week…but you’ll just have to wait to hear more about that, now won’t you?

So Space Ghost. He wasn’t the greatest superhero on the block (although he’s still cooler than Aquaman). And to be completely honest, I don’t really remember all that much about his adventures. I do remember his theme, though. It was so blatantly 60s sci-fi groovy with the horns, the beat, and that crazy theremin vibe:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ6qpulpmnc&w=480&h=390]

Of all the superhero cartoons that I watched when I was little, Space Ghost’s theme was the one that stuck with me. Probably because, much later on, I used to watch the Cartoon Network’s Space Ghost Coast to Coast, which featured the same theme, updated with funky 90s electric guitar and some R&B-lite harmonies added in:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNH3CiyDA1U&w=480&h=390]

For those who never experienced the surrealistic joy of Space Ghost Coast to Coast, it was a talk show spoof hosted by Spacey himself, with his sidekick nemeses Zorak and Moltar. It was utterly bizarre in the way that only those fledgling shows from the early years of a new network could possibly be. There were no rules, no expectations, no limits to what the Cartoon Network could do in those early days…so they pretty much did whatever the hell they wanted. Throw it against the wall and see what sticks. Well, Space Ghost stuck for almost a decade before finally retiring to that Old Superhero Talk Show Host Home. If you can find some copies, check them out. Here’s a little something to wet your whistle…

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixQ7nrimxYs&w=480&h=390]

I know. Technically, this is not a cartoon theme song. However, here’s the great crime in my life, denizens. The only Pink Panther I have ever seen is the cartoon version. I’ve never seen any of the David Niven Peter Sellers movies (see? I didn’t even know the actor who was in these movies; I told you I’ve never seen the damned things!), and prophets know I’ve never seen the Steve Martin remakes.

Nope. All I’ve ever seen were those silly, silent, and very pink cartoons. I’d watch The Pink Panther Show every morning while getting ready for school. I honestly couldn’t tell you anything about any of the cartoons (other than the fact that they had a ridiculously distracting laugh track), but dammit if I didn’t love this theme. Simple, cool, and jazzy, it’s one of those themes that the minute I hear it, I smile. Henry Mancini gave us so many wonderful, memorable tunes throughout his career (and he gets bonus points from me for having scored so many Audrey Hepburn movies, including Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Charade, and one of my all-time favorite Hepburn movies, Wait Until Dark).

Waitatick. How’d I get from a cartoon panther to Holly Golightly? Oh, yeah. Anyway, so I love this theme song. It was the first ringtone I ever downloaded, and the proof of my love for the theme is the fact that I actually enjoyed getting phone calls when I had this as a ringtone (people who know me well know that I hate telephones). So, there you go. And here you are:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp6z3s1Gig0&w=480&h=390]

So I’ve decided that since June rhymes with tune (and toon) that the Flashback Fridays this month will all be…toon tunes.

Mainly, I decided this because I’ve had the theme song to this cartoon stuck in my brain for the past few days and I’m not really sure why. It’s the theme to Tiny Toon Adventures, one of the few things to carry Steven Spielberg’s blessing (and backing) that doesn’t make me want to gag from all the excessive schmaltz.

I loved this cartoon when I was a teenager (yes, I did mean teenager). The animation was a much higher quality from the myriad Saturday morning cartoons I grew up watching as a wee wolf; the writing was also a lot more sophisticated. There were plenty of jokes for younger viewers, but a lot of what was going on on-screen was delightfully multi-layered, with plenty of jokes for older audiences.

Also, this is one of the cartoons that really made me fall in love with voice-over artists. There were appearances by classic voice artists like Don Messick and Frank Welker (the one and only original Scooby Doo and Freddy Jones) as well as June Foray, better known as Rocky the Flying Squirrel or, for my generation, Jokey Smurf. Then there were artists like Cree Summer, who we all knew as Freddie from A Different World…and then there was Tress MacNeille. By far, MacNeille was one of the standout artists from this show. Her performance as Babs Bunny was always perfectly timed, perfectly delivered, and perfectly funny. Quite the proliferate voice-over artist, MacNeille is probably most well known to most people for her roles on The Simpsons (she pretty much does every voice not done by Harry Shearer…okay, maybe not that many, but pretty close). Plus, she’s Crazy Cat Lady. Seriously, how do you not love that character?

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2-15mYWpmA&w=480&h=390]

She’s also done Futurama voices and can even be heard as various voices on a Star Trek video game. Ace.

So, there you have it: Tiny Toon Adventures. Not everything that Steven Spielberg has been involved with makes me feel like I need an insulin injection.

Happy Toon Tune June at Flashback Friday, denizens.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HW7YTWeg20&w=480&h=390]

Oh, come on, denizens. I know someone out there must have seen this one coming! After all, I did say last time that I love themed Flashbacks…

Happy Day Before Rapture!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHCdS7O248g&w=640&h=510]

Oh, and in case anyone is interested, no, Debbie Harry was not the first rapper. Several instances of rap appeared in music long before Debbie came on the scene to tell us about Fab Five Freddy and that crazy Man from Mars. And The Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” was the first rap song to hit Billboard’s Top 40, in August 1979 (almost 2 years before “Rapture” was released in January 1981). Blondie’s “Rapture,” however, is credited as being the first “rap” song to top the Billboard 100. It’s also credited as being the first rap video ever aired on MTV.

Oh, how I do loves the themed Flashback Friday post!

I actually meant to do this particular Flashback the last time we had a Friday the 13th, but I completely forgot. Please don’t take this as a negative reflection on the subject matter at hand, because this show, denizens, is money. Yes, I used a dated Swingers reference to describe an even more dated horror show based on an even more dated series of 80s slasher flicks. When we roll at the lair, we roll deep.

So, Friday the 13th: The Series. There was a trend in the 80s wherein horror-themed television became the hot item. I want to say that the reboot of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone as well as the occasional scares from Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories, all of which debuted in 1985, helped solidify this trend. However, I think perhaps 1984’s Tales from the Darkside, one of my personal favorites, kicked it off. Later on, HBO decided to get in on the fun with 1989’sTales From the Crypt.

Wow, there’s a great list of ideas for future Flashbacks!

Somewhere in between the beginning and the end of this 80s boom came two shows that greatly impacted my adolescent viewing habits: Freddy’s Nightmares and Friday the 13th: The Series. Both were vaguely tangential spinoffs of two of the most popular slasher series from this blood-soaked decade. All they would have needed to do was make a Michael Myers-based show and they could have had the triumvirate of slasher villains slicing and dicing their way through the airwaves each week.

Actually, though, this last statement is only partially true. Yes, Freddy Krueger actually appeared in each episode of Freddy’s Nightmares. He was the host of the show, playing a role somewhat akin to Rod Serling’s role in the original Twilight Zone series…only he chewed the scenery and camped the hell out of his role like a Serling on crack.

Jason Voorhees, however, never appeared in the Friday the 13th series…although something of his was supposed to appear as a way of tying everything together. But we’ll get to that in a minute.

The premise of the series was that once upon a time there was an owner of an antiques store. His name was Lewis Vendredi.

[Loba Tangent: Okay, already, I hope you Francophones are laughing as much as I did when I first realized the grand joke here. Vendredi is the French word for…Friday. BAHA!]

Anyway, Vendredi made a pact with the Devil in which he would sell cursed objects from his store in exchange for immortality. However, the deal fell through after a few years and Vendredi became Satan’s sack kitten. No, I have no idea what a “sack kitten” is. It just popped into my head and next thing I knew, my fingers were typing it.

So Vendredi had a will, which is a curious thing in itself since he was supposed to be immortal…but whatever. He left his shop to his niece, Micki Foster (Robey), and her cousin Ryan Dallion (John D. LeMay). Together with Jack Marshak (Chris Wiggins), Vendredi’s former antiques supplier who also had an oddly coincidental knowledge of occult information and rituals that always perfectly fit whatever curse they encountered during that week’s show, Micki and Ryan (and Micki’s hair, which at times seemed to grow to such heights that it really needed to have a guest star credit for some shows) take on the task of retrieving each of the cursed items that Vendredi sold.

And thus you have the show’s heroes and the show’s theme. But why was it called Friday the 13th? It didn’t take place near Camp Crystal Lake and no mention is ever made of anyone named Voorhees. The rumor that I remember reading regarding this is that the final cursed object our heroic trio would be tasked with retrieving would be…dundunDUN…a cursed hockey mask. Yes, that hockey mask.

[Insert ginormous “OH!” followed by even bigger groan at the sheer cheesiness of it all.]

Is this true? I really have no idea. I don’t even remember where I heard/read it. But it does make sense in the silliest of television show kind of ways. You know, like how talking cars, robotic sisters, and cat-eating aliens made sense. It was the 80s!

Regardless of the reasons for the show’s name, I loved Friday the 13th: The Series. Yeah, it went a little off the rails toward the end, but overall it was good, campalicious horror fun. The acting might not have been pitch-perfect all the time, but the stories were solid and some of the cursed items were just downright creepy, from demonic dolls, sinister scalpels, poisonous pens, mesmerizing mirrors…always shown with equal parts cheese and fright. To me, this is the perfect combination that epitomizes so much of the horror that I grew up loving.

If you’ve never seen this show, the good news is that CBS bought the rights to the series and has released all three seasons on DVD. Before you even ask, yes, I own all three seasons. I haven’t watched all three seasons yet; I made it most of the way through the first season before being distracted by some other show. But what I did make it through was surprisingly still good. So often, I will revisit shows from my youth only to discover that time has not been kind and sometimes happy memories are best left at that: memories. However, Micki, Ryan, and Jack are still fun company…just watch out for Micki’s hair and don’t touch anything in her antiques store. That’s definitely not a place where you want to test the “You Break It, You Bought It” rule…

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9trU9y96m0&w=425&h=349]

Oh, and just because I stumbled upon this while looking for show clips, here’s a video for a song from the musical Chess called “One Night in Bangkok,” sung by none other than Micki Foster herself, Robey. It’s definitely something that needed to be shared. I’m not carrying all this WTFery around by myself, dammit.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlihFItzYEc&w=560&h=349]

I guess this could fall under the category of “Copout Flashback.” This is another old post from my Angry Blogger^TM days that I thought was worthy of re-posting. It’s funny how little my opinions have changed in the more than 4 years that have passed since I wrote this post. Okay, so this was before Spider-man 3…but that wasn’t Raimi’s fault!!

Whatever the case, I still stand by my desire for justice to be served. I guess, though, I should just be grateful that Singer hasn’t subjected us to a sequel to Stripper Pole Panties Superman: The High School Musical…

12.04.06 :: hero-less edition
Non-political

Ha, bet you thought that I wasn’t going to post a Flashback Friday today, didn’t you, denizens? Oh ye of little faith in your loyal loopy lupine! Admittedly, I have been rather unreliable when it comes to this particular feature. But I’m trying…

So it seems that Loba is a bit of a prognosticator. It wasn’t too terribly long ago that I made a post about Terminator 5. True, it was completely in jest…but not entirely. See, I knew that once Ahnold was no longer The Governator, he was going to return to acting. And, Hollywood being what it is, I never doubted that another Terminator movie would be a strong possibility. Whatev.

Here, then, is a post I did in 2009, all about Terminator 5: The Rise of the Gipper…

I was looking at a recent photo of “The Governator,” when something quite troubling struck me: When did Arnold Schwarzenegger start looking like Ronald Reagan?

Okay, so the above image has been given a little…assistance from me in proving my point. But I dare you to tell me all the places where Ahnold begins and Ronald ends. I know that both are former actors-cum-governors of the great state of KAHLEEfornia…but this is a bit ridiculous.

Of course, you could call me out on my hypocrisy right now, since it does seem that I’m poking fun at Arnold for looking like the 62-year-old man that he is. I am the one, after all, who railed against Mary McDonnell for all the plastic surgery she got while starring on BSG.

If it seems that I am being hypocritical, I do apologize. I think I’m more fascinated by the fact that Schwarzenegger has been cut off from the rest of his plastic Hollywood herd by his gubernatorial endeavors. Running California into the ground doesn’t leave much recuperation time for vanity stops with the plastic surgeon like the ones he used to make (or is there anyone out there who believes that his jaw shrank and shaped itself naturally?). So I admit that a part of me admires him for believing so much in his political objectives that he would leave behind his vanity. Part of me, though, wonders how difficult it must be for a man who once based his entire career on his looks and his muscles to have to actually look his age while all his counterparts move forward to their fifth, sixth, and seventh faces.

Ahnold’s political service will come to an end in January 2011, unless he plans to run for a congressional seat. There will be no “Presidenator” in his future, however, thanks to that messy Constitutional amendment about needing to be American-born.

I can’t help but wonder if, on January 21, 2011, there’s going to be a hot time at the old plastic surgeon’s that night. True, Maria’s been keeping the family sawbones busy with her slow transformation into Skeletor, but I suspect that the doctor is champing at the bit in anticipation of Ahnold returning with a valiant, “Come on! Do it! Do it! Come on! Peel me! I’m here!”

Okay, that was a lame ending that only Predator fans will follow. I’m sorry. I just didn’t want to end it with some reference to “I’ll be back.” Again, sorry. Just look at the image again and think happy Ahnold thoughts.

Please look after this bear. Thank you.

This was one of the first things that I ever learned to read, and it’s stuck with me ever since. True to those deeply entrenched Anglophile sentiments that my family planted within me when I was quite the wee pup, I have loved that beautiful, clumsy, fluffy, bumbling, well-intentioned bear from darkest Peru for many years. He was one of the first stuffed animals I ever received. His were some of the first books my aunts ever gave me (right along with Peter Rabbit!). I still have my copies of A Bear Called Paddington and Paddington at the Beach. More importantly, though, is that I just discovered that there’s a Paddington anthology! I might just have to snag a copy of this. I think it would look lovely next to my Roald Dahl anthology.

I’ve also just discovered that the original stop-motion Paddington Bear series is now available here in the States! This is one of the most wonderful Flashback Friday discoveries I’ve made in a very long time (of course, it’s also been quite a while since I had a flashback…hmm.)

My first Paddington Bear is still around, somewhere in storage at my parents’ house. His little rain coat is tattered and the button holes are torn. He’s even sadly missing his little tag asking me to please look after him. I think even his hat might be missing as well. He was a well-loved little bear. He’s also a bear with company. On my first trip to London, I came across a store in Covent Garden, which has sadly gone out of business since, that sold all kinds of things pertaining to the Beatrix Potter animals and Paddington. I bought a Squirrel Nutkin Christmas ornament for my mom and a Paddington Bear plush for myself. He’s still fully clothed and tagged…even still has his price tag because I’m such a sad little Anglophile that the pound symbol on the tag amuses me each time I see it.

I remember the first time I got the chance to take a train from Paddington Station. It was a squee-worthy day, indeed, made even more so by the fact that there was someone dressed as Paddington Bear strolling among commuters who barely flinched at the sight, as though it was the most normal thing in the world. Sadly, though, I didn’t have enough time to find one of the Paddington statues located around the station. Having a photo of me with a bronze Paddington is one of my ultimate touristy goals. That and a photo of me sitting on one of Lord Admiral Nelson’s Trafalgar lions. Yes, sometimes I do like embracing my role as Obnoxious American Tourist. Maybe on my next trip…