(Now with updated show times!) (and more show details!)
Starting with a little music and a winter dashcam ride through Melbourne, today we have some substitute Roddenberry and some susbtitute Shatner, some old kids’ telly, some slightly older telly for slightly older kids, along with some of the usual Space Ghostery and Brothers Venture.
The entertainments will commence at 3:20pm.
15:20 – A musical Melbourne dashcam ride featuring music by Total Control.
15:44 – Space Ghost S01E03 – “Creature King”, “The Treemen”, and “The Sandman” (1966)
Space Ghost (and Dino Boy) return for more adventure.
16:05 – Adventures of Aquaman S01E01 – Menace of the Black Manta, S01E02 The Rampaging Reptile-Men (1967)
Introducing some classic aquaventuring with subnauticle Dr. Dolittle, Aquaman.
*viewers’ note: as Aquaman can chat with sea cucumbers, Dr. Dolittle (from the same year) could talk to animals, and that was not considered a super-power, so what Aquaman is playing at is anyone’s guess.
16:20 – The Real Ghostbusters – The Collect Call of Cathulhu (1987)
(known in the UK as The Reverse-Charges Call of Cthulhu – well, clearly not, but it really should have been)
A librarian, a cultist, and a copy of the Necronomicon walked in to a bar…..
16:44 – Ultraman ep 02 – Shoot the Invader (1966)
In this episode, the primary ordnance-and-munitions inventor of the Science Patrol, Mitsuhiro Ide, explains how he bruised his eye. Oh, and Ultraman nearly misses it by *that much*.
17:09 – Look and Read: Dark Towers – Episode 1 (1981)
A loner named Tracey Brown and her dog Towser venture into a garden where Tracey meets Lord Edward Dark, who agrees to help her look for Towser. Tracey’s search leads her into Dark Towers where she meets Edward’s father, Lord Dark.
*(first line from the Wikipedia entry) “Not to be confused with David Enrich’s 2019 book Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction”
17:18 – The Boy With Two Heads – Episode 1 – The Mysterious Box (1974)
(aka) Chico the Rainmaker is a British film serial made by Eyeline Films and the Children’s Film Foundation. It was shown in 1974 on PBS in the USA, and shown in British cinemas in the 1970s and 1980s as part of their “Saturday Matinees”. The series featured a talking shrunken head. It was also shown on television in the Maritimes as a 7-part serial in the mid-1970s on Saturday afternoons.
IMDB review – “Creepy abomination from the pit of all that is perverse. Really. – This show totally freaked me out! I probably saw a ten-minute portion of a single episode, and that’s all it took to scar me for life. That very night (I was probably 7 or 8 y/o) I couldn’t sleep. I told my mommy that I just couldn’t get that hideous head out of mine. In the show, a couple of kids had befriended a talking head that they kept in a shoebox. The head looked like the decapitation of “El Jefe” from The Three Amigos. ¡Ay Carramba! I don’t really think about it often. I was just watching The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which reminded me of Chico the Rainmaker. (The way the President of the Universe flopped his head backward sparked the memory.) So, I decided to Google “chico rainmaker,” and yadda yadda yadda, here I am sharing my pain.
“Chico, the rainmaker… Chico, the rainmaker…” I wonder how many other children were traumatized by this production.”
17:32 – The Spider Returns S01E01 – The Stolen Plans (1941)
The Spider Returns is a 1941 15-chapter Columbia movie serial based on the pulp magazine character The Spider. It was the fourteenth of the 57 serials released by Columbia and a sequel to their 1938 serial The Spider’s Web.
18:05 – Man with a Camera S01E01 – Second Avenue Assassin (1958)
Charles Bronson has a… camera. AND a death wish in this paparazzoid drama.
18:31 – The Questor Tapes (1974)
Gene Roddenberry’s early stab at android antics, though earthbound in this instance. Starring Robert Foxworth as Questor, with Mike Farrell (B.J. Hunnicutt from M*A*S*H) and John Vernon (Animal House’s Dean Wormer).
The Questor Tapes is a 1974 American made-for-television sci-fi drama film about an android with incomplete memory tapes who is searching for his creator and his purpose. Conceived by Gene Roddenberry, who is credited as executive consultant, the script is credited to Roddenberry and fellow Star Trek alumnus Gene L. Coon. The pilot was directed by Richard Colla.
The Questor Tapes was one of a series of television movies in which Roddenberry was involved, which also included Genesis II, Planet Earth, Strange New World and Spectre. All were intended as pilots; none led to a series.
20:07 – The Ray Bradbury Theater S01E02 – The Playground (1985)
Featuring William Shatner for our.. weekly… … dose… ….. of… dramatic… …. ….. …..
20:35 – Journey to the Unknown S01E01 – Eve (1968)
“McCaaaaann!”
In this (unofficial) prequel to Mannequin (1987), a shy sales clerk (Dennis Waterman) falls in love with a mannequin. Based on the short story “Special Delivery” by John Collier. Unlike Mannequin. Which was probably based on this.
21:25 – Son of The Incredibly Strange Film Show – 2×05 – Tsui Hark & Stuart Gordon (1989)
Featuring Jonathan Ross gassing rhapsodically about two horror film directors – Tsui Harl of “Chinese Ghost Story” and “Re-Animator”‘s Stuart Gordon.
22:00 – Bored To Death S01E01 – Stockholm Syndrome (2009)
After his girlfriend Suzanne moves out because of his failure to stop drinking and smoking pot, between-books novelist Jonathan Ames peruses his favorite Raymond Chandler novel, “Farewell, My Lovely,” and is inspired to place an ad on Craigslist offering his services as an unlicensed private investigator.
22:30 – He And She, Episode 2 – The Second Time Around (1967)
22:53 – The Norm Show S01E08 – Drive, Norm Said
23:14 – Space Ghost Coast to Coast – 03 – Elevator
23:25 – The Drinky Crow Show S01E06 – Tunnel Girls
23:36 – The Venture Bros. 108 – Ghosts of the Sargasso
00:00 – The Venture Bros. 109 – Ice Station Impossible
00:23 – Getting on with James Urbaniak – Ep. 3, “Black Label” by Andy Bragen
01:10 – Fin
(…pauses.)