Thursday, December 12, 2024.
I received an overnight early Christmas gift. With temperatures above ten degrees Celsius and strong wind gusts, almost all of the snow to have accumulated over the past couple of weeks, has melted away. Green lawns are visible again all over Fredericton. The only lingering snow is that which was ploughed or shovelled or snow-blown into piles. Temperatures will drop back below zero as the day progresses, and I do not expect that the snow will be completely gone by then. That snow will probably not melt away until April or May.
I have discovered an instance of "DVD rot" amongst my LOONEY TUNES SUPER STARS DVDs. FOGHORN LEGHORN: BARNYARD BIGMOUTH will not play beyond the fifth cartoon on the DVD. In the "full-frame" section, to be precise. I do not know if that is where the layer change is. I believe that my FOGHORN LEGHORN: BARNYARD BIGMOUTH DVD was pressed in the Canadian Cinram facility in November, 2010, which was, I guess, still within that time frame wherein faulty and doomed-to-"rot" DVDs of the Warner Brothers label, were legion. Cinram Canada was a problematic manufacturer of DVD as has been noted in discussions at Home Theater Forum. So, I guess that I am a victim of the Warner Brothers DVD "rot" problem. I have repurchased FOGHORN LEGHORN: BARNYARD BIGMOUTH, along with every other LOONEY TUNES SUPER STARS DVD made before 2012, for good measure.
If anyone who collects Warner Brothers cartoons on DVD, is reading this, my advice to him or her, is to check the DVDs for playability. With what has befallen me and the known issues in general with Warner Brothers DVDs produced in the latter half of the 2000s and into 2010, I would be inclined to regard every DVD bought within that span of time, to be suspect. I trust that any DVD acquired today brand-new from Amazon.com, is of a later pressing. Or I hope that I can trust that.
I have digitally cleaned the latest set of 1971 images of Newcastle, Nordin, Douglastown, and now have them included in my Era 1 memoirs. The images can be found amongst my memories of summer of 1972. I have not decided whether to undertake the adding of further Miramichi region 1971 images to my memoirs. It is time-consuming and tedious work digitally painting out scratch marks, digital compression artifacts, colour bleeding, and other faults in the screen captures of the 1971 video. Having worked for the past several weeks on eleven images, I have tired of the task. But the allure of having images of 1970s Miramichi in my autobiography may compel me to continue.
Now, I propose to address some things that I said last Weblog entry. Oh, I can see the accusations if hypocrisy levelled at me for my bemoaning of people's closed-mindedness and disappreciation of a section of an oeuvre, when I am always a "downer" with regard to the pre-1948 Warner Brothers cartoons, and more particularly those of certain directors who were gone from the cartoon studio when the post-1948s started to be produced. Well, to counter the upbraiding that I may receive for closed-mindedness, I did last evening give to LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 2 another spin in my Blu-Ray player and watched several cartoons in that volume again after my disagreeable turn with that specific entry in the COLLECTOR'S CHOICE range in late 2023. And with my resentment over "Hyde and Go Tweet" and "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide" being seemingly forever snubbed, no longer weighing upon my sensibilities, or no longer clouding my judgement, I did enjoy some of the cartoons on the second go at experiencing them in their rendition in VOLUME 2 COLLECTOR'S CHOICE. "The Eager Beaver" does indeed have some cartoony amusement in the activities of the river-damming "critters" and in how they go about their business, and there is some sympathy to be had with the titular member of the river-damming society, and satisfaction in his heroic act. The cartoon is fairly fast-paced, and it does not just end without a satisfying resolution, as some other before-1948 cartoons do. "Behind the Meat-Ball"'s conflict between dogs is more entertaining than I originally stated it to be; on second watch, I think that it is better than "Bone, Sweet Bone". But not by much. The frenetic energy in the events of "Brother Brat" was more appealing on this viewing. And "Hiss and Make Up" is quite an effective cartoon, and it has an unexpected ending. The cat does "get the bird" after all, after his eviction from house. "Hiss and Make Up" is "The Cagey Canary" with a dog added, and a much less repulsive matronly woman. Mind, the characters do not exactly have charisma here either, but one can see director Freleng making progress with the premise, which would eventually reach ultimate fruition in Sylvester-versus-Tweety. I am not the closed-minded ogre that so many other people are. Indeed, if people can persuade me that there is more to the pre-1948s than just more abundant and "looser" animation, or just zaniness for zaniness' sake, I would change my tune. Somewhat. But I will not be made inclined, I will never be made inclined, to be another disappreciator of the post-1948s- though I will have more respect for the pre-1948s than I had. Provided that they stop being used against the post-1948s. Ah, but that is really the problem, is it not? People are not going to stop weaponising the pre-1948s against the post-1948s. They are not going to be open-minded. They are going to keep saying that my observations and insights have value only for myself, the worthless loner that I am. And so, a lasting peace on the matter of pre-1948 and post-1948 cartoons, is, alas, a forlorn hope.
And I am not going to desist from my stance that the cartoons of Warner Brothers developed from primitive beginnings, went through a long phase of trying to find characters and combinations of opposing characters that had audience appeal and potential for long series of stimulating adventures, to eventually discovering the characters and honing the medium into a sophistication and a vastly imaginative art form, the characters and their adversarial pairings having the nuance and the depth, and the universe-and time-spanning situations in which the characters found themselves being compelling in how they positioned the characters, to elevate the cartoons to the status of high art. And that it was not until the post-World War II phase of the cartoons' long history, that the cartoons reached the rarified level of deserved appreciation, with the character-driven cartoon series now established, and "moving out" into the vast array of situations that imagination could provide. No longer constrained to woodland hunting situations or household denizens in contention within the four walls of a domestic milieu- though there still was the occasional cartoon to be set within such parameters. Jones and Freleng both opined that their work post-World War II, was their best. Particularly when they had their characters in personas that they could utilise to the most sophisticated effect, and when they had the teaming with the writer with whom they best partnered (Jones with Maltese, Freleng with Foster). And when they had refined their gag creation and cartoon "staging" and timing to the loftiest incontestable standard. Yes, budgets were reduced. And that was what was needed for the directors and writers to "up their game" as creators, to do more with less, to "tighten" and improve the timing, and to do more subtle, more nuanced characterisation, concepts, and gags. The pre-1948s were the development to this. With some diversions to wartime jingoism along the way. I say this not as a matter of opinion but as a matter of fact. Not only Jones and Freleng were preferring of their post-World War II work. So was Warner Brothers itself, which "sold off" a sizable chunk of the pre-1948s. And which consistently provided to the television networks what was the "premium" package, consisting of post-1948 cartoons. Year after year. For forty years. No pre-1948s were ever, ever in that mix. Moreover, the secondary "syndie" package, though including some pre-1948s, was largely post-1948s. Up until the late 1990s.
It is not hypocrtitical for me to give a lesser degree of appreciation to what were not yet the culmination in sophistication of the cartoons of Warner Brothers. And why should I be barred from lamenting the attitudes of pre-1948 cartoon pundits fans at discussion groups who regard themselves as the true serious fans of cartoons and who berate me and others, others who do not contribute to discourse, who accord with Jones, Freleng, and Warner Brothers (or Warner Brothers of the twentieth century, at least) and regard the post-1948 cartopons as the culmination of the artistry of the Looney Tune and the Merrie Melodie, as being "unserious"? Oh, people can fling allegations of hypocrisy at me all that they like, but I am not doing what the Space: 1999- Season 2-haters do day after day after day. I am not declaring everything after a near-the-middle demarcation unfit for recognition, and scapegoating in perpetuity one man for "destroying" the cartoon careers of Bugs Bunny and company. I regard the pre-1948s for what they are. A developmental phase and not the culmination. I will like some of them and dislike some others. I will aesthetically rate the work of one director as being not on par with that of others while not scapegoating him as destroyer of anything. It is a false equivalency to liken my stand on the cartoons of Warner Brothers with the demeanor of those people who loudly proclaimed their approval to Nick Tate calling Fred Freiberger a "total prick" who ruined "our series".
And at the end of the day, I really do not object to the pre-1948 cartoons seeing full release on home video. As long as post-1948s, top-tier post-1948s that were on the television networks for decades, are not held back from release for their benefit. I dislike the slurs that pre-1948 cartoon "buffs" chose to level at the latter section of the catalogue, and at people who appreciate that latter portion and who have insights about cartoons or television dissemenation of cartoons, in that latter portion. I object to those slurs, and that objection leads me into casting maybe an overly critical eye over the earlier cartoons. I will grant that my judgement can sometimes be jaundiced. I have the humility to admit that- unlike hoards of people in the fandom for Space: 1999.
All for today, I think.
Saturday, December 16, 2023.
Onward I go to yet another incarnation of my Weblog. Previous incarnations of Kevin McCorry's Weblog are April 16, 2007-to-September 19, 2015, October 4, 2015-to-May 4, 2018, May 5, 2018-to-June 19, 2020, June 20, 2020-to-October 19, 2022, and October 21, 2022-to-December 9, 2023.
I will continue today's Weblog entry with an image of the back cover of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 2.
Considering the preponderance of pre-1948 cartoons on the Blu-Ray and the paucity of post-1948s thereon, and the sparing presence of cartoons of the major cartoon characters on it, is not this back cover something of a misrepresentation? A cynical one, at that. "Slapping" scarcely more than a handful of post-1948 cartoons on the Blu-Ray so that images of them may be used as "selling points" on the back cover, in order to induce casual buyers unfamiliar with the vintage of cartoons from their titles, to "plop down" cash to purchase the product. A truly representative back cover ought to have images predominantly pre-1948, no? And of the obscure characters of those cartoons, to boot.
I am not intending to rant again about the choices of cartoons populating this latest Blu-Ray release of the cartoons of Warner Brothers. I am just making an observation about the decisions on what to put on the back cover. What it does seem to "smack of". I will also observe that the cartoons are listed in alphabetical order. Could there not at least have been some imagination in how the cartoons are ordered on the Blu-Ray disc? Alphabetical order? Really? If memory serves, I have never before seen a release of the Looney Tunes and the Merrie Melodies offered in alphabetical order on a home video software.
COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 2 is now en route to me. I doubt that it will be in my mailbox before Christmas. But who knows? Maybe Santa will intervene and give to the delivery service through which Amazon.com sent the Blu-Ray to me, a little push for it to come into my possession before turkey day.
At the very least, it will be gratifying to see "Lickety-Splat" through something better than a VHS videotape recording of an old film print used on a Standard Definition television broadcast.
I have made an interesting discovery. The runs of Space: 1999 on CBHT- Halifax, CBIT- Sydney, CBCT- Charlottetown between 1983 and 1985, were preceded by CBRT- Calgary giving a nod for a repeat of Space: 1999 in the 1981-2 television season. CBRT and no other broadcaster in Alberta, CBC-owned-and-operated or otherwise. My information comes from The Calgary Herald, which, unfortunately, is not the easiest newspaper through which to do a scanning of the eyes for Space: 1999, and is not the keenest of newspapers to print episode synopses. I have found evidence of but forty-five showings of Space: 1999 on CBRT in 1981-2. If we exclude both parts of "The Bringers of Wonder" from the mix, as they were excluded from the CBHT/CBIT/CBCT broadcasting of Space: 1999 betwixt 1983 and 1985, and also omit "One Moment of Humanity" from the CBRT 1980s reiteration of Space: 1999 as it was omitted from that of CBHT/CBIT/CBCT, this brings us to forty-five. So, it appears that, unlike its compatriots in the eastern Maritimes, CBRT only gave to Space: 1999 a single regional repeat in the 1980s. No second one. Assuming, of course, that all of the episodes bar the three aforementioned, all were telecast once in 1981-2 by CBRT. None of them twice.
I could speculate until the proverbial cows come home what order CBRT aired the episodes in, between the first episode shown, in October of 1981, supposedly, and the final one provided, in September of 1982, ostensibly. I say supposedly and ostensibly because, as I also say, The Calgary Herald's listings are not easy for the eye to scan- and also there were some hour-long "To Be Announced"s in weeks preceding the first detected listing of Space: 1999 in CBRT's solitary engagement with Moonbase Alpha in 1981-2. And, curiously, one of the last episodes in CBRT's run, the only one to be synopsised in The Herald, was "The Full Circle". Why would that be so late in the run? Surely, if CBRT hewed at least somewhat to Space: 1999 broadcast protocols, Season 1 would have been offered first, and "The Full Circle" would be somewhere in the middle of Season 1. It is possible that the order of episodes on CBRT was scrambled. Very scrambled. Or that "The Full Circle" and a few other episodes were skipped and then shown in a batch after "The Dorcons", to "tail off" the run. I am inclined to go for the latter. But I just do not know, and unless a more reliable provider of episode synopses becomes available to me (TV Guide magazine may be the only other one possible), I may never know.
CBRT started offering Space: 1999 at a consistent 4 P.M. airtime on Saturdays, and later in the run became exceedingly erratic, on one occasion even airing an episode on a Sunday afternoon. I much prefer CBHT/CBIT/CBCT's decision to show Space: 1999 on Sunday morning. Airtime was much, much more stable.
Below is all of the information that I have on CBRT's regional rebroadcast of Space: 1999 in 1981-2.
CBC Alberta Regional Broadcasts (1981-2) Saturdays CBC Alberta Stations 5- CBXT- Edmonton, Alberta (did not show the television series in this rerun) 6- CKRD- Red Deer, Alberta (did not show the television series in this rerun) 6a- CHAT- Medicine Hat, Alberta (did not show the television series in this rerun) 9- CBRT- Calgary, Alberta Date Channels Episode Airtime Oct. 10, 1981 9 unknown 4 P.M. Oct. 17, 1981 9 unknown 4 P.M. Oct. 24, 1981 9 unknown 4 P.M. Oct. 31, 1981 9 unknown 4 P.M. Nov. 7, 1981 9 unknown 4 P.M. Nov. 14, 1981 9 unknown 4 P.M. Nov. 21, 1981 9 unknown 4 P.M. Nov. 28, 1981 9 unknown 4 P.M. Dec. 5, 1981 9 unknown 4 P.M. Dec. 12, 1981 9 unknown 5 P.M. Dec. 19, 1981 9 unknown 3 P.M. Dec. 26, 1981 9 unknown 11 A.M. Jan. 2, 1982 9 unknown 3:30 P.M. Jan. 9, 1982 9 unknown 4 P.M. Jan. 16, 1982 9 unknown 4 P.M. Jan. 23, 1982 9 unknown 4 P.M. Jan. 30, 1982 9 unknown 4 P.M. Feb. 6, 1982 9 unknown 4 P.M. Feb. 13, 1982 9 unknown 4 P.M. Feb. 20, 1982 9 unknown 4 P.M. Feb. 27, 1982 9 unknown 4 P.M. Mar. 6, 1982 9 unknown 4 P.M. Mar. 13, 1982 9 unknown 4 P.M. Mar. 20, 1982 9 unknown 4 P.M. Mar. 27, 1982 9 unknown 4 P.M. Apr. 3, 1982 9 unknown 4 P.M. Apr. 10, 1982 9 unknown 4 P.M. Apr. 17, 1982 9 unknown 4 P.M. Apr. 24, 1982 Preemption May 1, 1982 9 unknown 4 P.M. May 8, 1982 9 unknown 4 P.M. May 15, 1982 9 unknown 4 P.M. May 22, 1982 9 unknown 4 P.M. May 29, 1982 9 unknown 4 P.M. Jun. 5, 1982 9 unknown 9 P.M. Jun. 12, 1982 9 unknown 9 P.M. Jun. 19, 1982 9 unknown 12 P.M. Jun. 26, 1982 9 unknown 9 P.M. Jul. 3, 1982 Preemption Jul. 10, 1982 9 unknown 5 P.M. Jul. 17, 1982 Preemption Jul. 24, 1982 9 unknown 5 P.M. Jul. 31, 1982 Preemption Aug. 7, 1982 Preemption Aug. 14, 1982 9 unknown 5 P.M. Aug. 21, 1982 9 unknown 5 P.M. Aug. 28, 1982 9 unknown 5 P.M. Sept. 4, 1982 9 "The Full Circle" (R) 9:30 P.M. Sept. 11, 1982 9 unknown 5 P.M. CBC Alberta Regional Broadcasts (1982) Sundays CBC Alberta Stations 5- CBXT- Edmonton, Alberta (did not show the television series in this rerun) 6- CKRD- Red Deer, Alberta (did not show the television series in this rerun) 6a- CHAT- Medicine Hat, Alberta (did not show the television series in this rerun) 9- CBRT- Calgary, Alberta Date Channels Episode Airtime Sept. 26, 1982 9 unknown 2:30 P.M.Space: 1999 was replaced on Saturdays by CBRT with Star Trek in the autumn of 1982.
I would suppose that the circulated-in-Canada Space: 1999 film prints were all back in ITC Canada's vaults before CBHT started receiving them in May of 1983. The CBC eastern Maritimes television stations reviving Space: 1999 as a viewable production for the viewing public, may still have been precipitated by my letter to the CBC in mid-1982. CBHT just needed to have a broadcast slot open up for it, as happened after The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries was finished its run on CBHT/CBIT/CBCT in spring of 1983.
Why did CBRT opt to rebroadcast Space: 1999 in the 1980s? Maybe someone in southern Alberta had done as I did. Written a letter. And did so before I did. Or maybe someone working at CBRT was a fan of the television show.
All for today.
Saturday, December 23, 2023.
It has not been a pleasant week. A violent wind and rain storm on Monday night struck central New Brunswick, and the Fredericton area most intensely, as it passed through the province. Trees were broken or fallen, and tens of thousands of homes were without power. By the grace of God, I guess, I was not one of the hapless souls devoid of electricity and heat. But, out of all of the houses on my street, mine sustained the worst roof damage. Many roof shingles were dislodged and were left standing upright, if not completely torn free from the roof and laying on the ground. My roofer did a full repair of the roof, yesterday. I will need to live a most frugal next few months to compensate for the loss of retirement savings, that I incurred with the repairs after the storm.
Here is a photograph of my house with its damaged roof.
Santa did intervene, apparently, and sped the shipment to me of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 2. The Blu-Ray was in my mailbox on Tuesday. I am not sure that he should have bothered.
Wednesday evening, I gave to LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 2 a spin on one of my Blu-Ray players. I went with "play all", and into it I went. Bravely determined to sit through, attentively, whatever cartoons that Mr. Beck and others chose to throw at me in the ever-so-creative alphabetical order.
Oh, what a fool I was! I ought to have just watched the seven post-1948 cartoons on the Blu-Ray disc, and one or two others that were produced close to 1948, and then ejected it from my player. Life really is too short to subject myself to what I did Wednesday evening. After "Catty Cornered", third cartoon on the Blu-Ray disc, and one not looking all that much sharper or more colourful than it did on DVD (on I LOVE TWEETY VOL. 1), I hasten to add, it was a barrage of very pre-1948 cartoon shorts, seemingly unrelenting. One after the other, boom, boom, boom, boom. Some of them bearing the multi-coloured concentric circles of the 1930s ancient cartoons (I wince every time I see such), others having the musical refrain of cartoons of the 1940s adorned with "Blue Ribbon".
Honestly, with very few exceptions, these are among the worst pre-1948 cartoons that I have seen. The situations in them dull as dishwater. Their obscure characters not commanding attention or interest. The comedy, if it may be called that, is often laboured. And the cartoons, after going on for far too long (many pre-1948 cartoons are well over seven minutes in length), just end, the climax, if any, being not much more impressive or gripping than the rest of the cartoon.
"The Eager Beaver" is a series of scenes of beavers cutting down trees. Few of them doing so with much in the way of cartoony artistry. And it ends with the titular character felling a tree that happens to conveniently drop into a dam, inserting itself therein at a critical moment. The beaver is hero to his fellows but was not shown to be enough of an outlier before for the viewer to feel satisfaction for the keen beaver of cartoon's title. And this is one of the better pre-1948 cartoons on the Blu-Ray. "Hamateur Night" is a cartoon counterpart to the Little Rascals' "Follies of...", but with no characters of any gravitas or import. Un-comely characters. Roosters and chickens with overly circular heads (scarcely any structure to them apart from a circle), designed with not much more artistry than a circling motion of a geometry set's compass. A repulsive-looking sultan. And so forth. By the time that I was subjected to "Hamateur Night", my capacity for attention had largely been spent. I cannot remember much of the cartoon. Just that I had seen better material with The Little Rascals. There was a Romeo and Juliet parody. That, I do remember. It had the circle-headed rooster and chicken. I much prefer Alfalfa and Buckwheat in their hilarious Romeo and Juliet effort.
"From Hand to Mouse" could be the worst Chuck Jones cartoon ever made. It would be a strong contender for the title. Jones himself admitted that his early work, before post-war, was far from his best, that he even was ashamed for much of it. And I think of "From Hand to Mouse" when I remember him saying such. The only eyebrow-raising thing about the cartoon is its title, substituting mouse for mouth in the saying of, "From hand to mouth." Background design and colour palette are dull. Uninspired. The lion is floppy and slobbering. I have seen better, more streamlined lion designs in other cartoons ("Tweety's Circus", "Roman Legion-Hare", "Tweet Zoo"). And then there is the story. A mouse who is too clever by more than half and has zero charisma (unlike Speedy Gonzales, or Tweety) and is not the least bit sympathetic, fools and humiliates a none-too-bright, scarcely demonstrably villainous, quite pitiable lion again and again and again, calling him "sucker", with the lion going into a paroxysm of ugly gurns, and then banging his head against a tree. The same gag, if it can be called that, done over and over again. And the cartoon simply ends with the lion's latest humiliation and his latest head-banging. Never does the lion have an oncoming of savvy and successfully resist the humiliation, or have some nemesis against the mouse. Nor is there an escallation of the routine to some imaginative change of locale, like outer space, or the Moon (as in "The Lion's Busy"). Not that such would make the routine any funnier, mind, but at least it would do something different with it. And the cartoon has all of the subtlety of a bulldozer wrecking my favourite ice cream establishment, and all the sophistication of ten-year-old me's idea of a funny comic page. If even that. Ten-year-old me might have concocted a better premise.
"Fin'n Catty", directed by my favourite cartoon director, Friz Freleng, ends with a generic cat turning amphibious after being suspended under water in a sealed shower cabinet. He has locked himself in the cabinet and swallowed the key (of course), not noticing that he is under water as he is doing so. Lame. And instead of drowning as he ought to, he just decides that he likes water (what the hell?) and subsequently claims a goldfish's bowl property as his own. Somehow. But the cat is too bland a character through the cartoon for one to care what has happened to him. And he does not visibly gain gills or any such thing. Anything that might explain how he went from being aquaphobic to being the Cat From Atlantis. Why he should suddenly start liking water after having been averse to it.
"Ghost Wanted". What in perdition was that? I must have fallen asleep as I was watching it. I did not care one iota for the characters, a Casper-like young ghost and a taller, oafish one. Doing something or other in the usual run-down house setting of many a spectre. One of the cartoons of Jones' cutesy time period, a time period for which I have scant enthusiasm.
I almost completely "zoned out" for a cartoon called "Greetings, Bait". It featured a moustached worm. Same one, I guess, as is in "The Wacky Worm". For some reason the compilers of this cartoon Blu-Ray were of a mind to put as many cartoons involving worms, onto it, as possible. There is a worm in "Fair and Worm-er", too. Another Jones low-light, that one. Bird chases worm. Cat chases bird. Dog chases cat. Dog catcher chases dog. Dog catcher's rolling-pin-wielding battle-axe wife chases him. None of these obscure characters have a smidgen of charisma. Nor much or any appreciable personality. No humour is to be gleaned from such. And the chase is in a generic American hinterland. Nothing quite so elaborate as the U.S. southwestern desert or the French Riviera or a historio-literary setting. No ACME products or any such thing, in use to aid in someone's pursuit. Just a foot chase. How lacklustre. A skunk appears in the mix, too. Why did not Jones have the skunk be Pepe Le Pew? That would have raised the interest bar a little, at least.
I tossed, turned, "dozed off" through "Cross-Country Detours". Interminable, seemingly, that. Far better, funnier spot-gag cartoons can be found in the post-1948 catalogue. And what is Tex Avery's fixation with drawing human characters with red noses, as though they have had too many alcoholic beverages? They do not act drunk. So, what is "the point" in doing the red nose thing? The human characters in Avery's cartoons typically look repulsive, besides. And Friz Freleng was correct about Avery's cartoons lacking subtlety and showing a lack of confidence in themselves and pandering too much to the audience. I have yet to find a Tex Avery cartoon that I like. And then there was Norm McCabe's "Daffy's Southern Exposure" (I cannot remember what that one was about). Later, I marvelled at the boredom that I felt at "Ding Dog Daddy", another cartoon directed by my idol, Mr. Freleng. Friz Freleng did say once that one of his early 1940s cartoons, "Meatless Flyday", was awful (that one is probably on Mr. Beck's short list for COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 3). And I think that with some notable exceptions ("Rhapsody in Rivets", "You Ought to Be in Pictures", "Pigs in a Polka") his opinion was that his work was not his best until the emergence of Yosemite Sam in 1945, the teaming of Tweety and Sylvester in 1947, and so forth. And I agree with that. "Ding Dog Daddy" has a nondescript hound falling in love with a metal dog statue that is turned by the military into a bomb shell. And apart from some brief conflict between the hound and another canine, the requisite bulldog, this is all that there is to "Ding Dog Daddy". At least it ends with a gag that amusingly marked a cartoony escallation over previous ones.
And I found the much-acclaimed "Brother Brat" directed by Frank Tashlin to be fast-paced but not particularly likeable. A baby who wields sharp objects to intimidate Porky Pig before launching into Winston Churchill imitations, and a plethora of wartime propaganda about the women of America doing their part (surely Jones' earlier "The Weakly Reporter" had done enough with that particular subject). Not the best hour (or seven minutes) of Warner Brothers cartoon output, "Brother Brat". Better wartime cartoons are to be found elsewhere, ones with caricatures of the Axis leaders. "Behind the Meat-Ball" that starts the Blu-Ray has some moderately amusing content before it becomes the standard dog-versus-dog conflict that was better handled, I think, by "Bone, Sweet Bone".
It was a cruel barrage of seemingly endless cartoons of deficient appeal to me that almost had me losing the will to live. Or at least the will to stay awake. Each one less compelling than the one before it. I sat lamenting the loss of the good old days when I could buy a Looney Tunes VHS videotape or laser videodisc, start it playing, and enjoy every cartoon offered to me, all of them post-1948, most of them having one or more of the "star" characters, and the gag timing and the aesthetic being fairly uniform. The worst thing that ever happened in my following of the cartoons was the merging of the post-1948 cartoon package with the formerly Ted Turner-owned pre-1948s. That combined with Jerry Beck and his preference for the earlier material, being very much of influence in the selecting of cartoons for compilations on home video media (DVD and Blu-Ray). The VHS videotape and laser videodisc years were halcyon days for me, oddly enough, despite the obvious inferiority of those home video formats to DVD and Blu-Ray standard. After some twenty-five years of the digital videodisc, "Hyde and Go Tweet" and "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide" are still not in the restored-for-and-released-on-DVD-or-Blu-Ray category, while I have to sit through the likes of "The Wacky Worm", "Cross-Country Detours", "Hamateur Night", and "Ding Dog Daddy". It galls me. It plays upon my mind. As I sit through the barrage of pre-1948 cartoons, restless for anything, anything, post-1948. By the time that "Hare-Breadth Hurry" (a familiar cartoon, at last!) had finally arrived in the run of cartoons on the latest Blu-Ray, my interest and attention in continuing with watching that Blu-Ray had flat-lined. And it was not gaining any momentum again. I pressed stop.
On another spin of the Blu-Ray disc, this time with more selective viewing options, I watched "A Hound For Trouble". A set-in-Italy cartoon of 1951 with Charlie Dog. One that I have always liked. Now, all I could think about was how resentful that I was toward the producers of this Blu-Ray for subjecting me to what I had experienced. Them and the people giving five stars to this Blu-Ray at Amazon.com.
I believe that I have reached the limit, the absolute limit, of my patience and tolerance for these people in the Beck "camp" and their fixations on those early cartoons that were not successful in their day. Not successful, and rightly so. There is a reason why the characters in them did not proceed to becoming "cartoon superstars", or even lesser characters of enduring appeal such as Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog, the Goofy Gophers, Claude and Frisky, Michigan J. Frog, and others. They had practically zero appeal then. And even less in later years, when Hollywood personalities upon whom they were based, had become quite obscure (Jerry Colonna, for instance). Why "The Wacky Worm" and not Ralph and Sam, or Claude and Frisky? Why could not this Blu-Ray have been populated by those characters, with many an outing of the major "stars"? Oh, and people in the Beck "camp" like to "rag" on McKimson's television parodies of the 1950s. Claiming that their references are lost in time. Well, Hollywood personalities like Mr. Colonna, or Lew Lehr, are, too.
"A Hick, a Slick, and a Chick" is decent. I have yet to see an Arthur Davis cartoon that is not at least that. And it was made close to the 1948 demarcation. I chose to bypass "I Wanna Be a Sailor" (I do not want to be; no sailors, please, or worms). I watched "The Leghorn Blows at Midnight" and "Lickety-Splat", appreciated the High Definition look of those though lamenting throughout them that they were vastly outnumbered by cartoons for which I have scant love. And then my deficient interest and my purturbation were fully rekindled with "The Penguin Parade" and "The Wacky Worm", which I resolved to "sit through". "Rabbit Rampage" was not a noticeable improvement over its earlier appearance on DVD.
I do not know when, or if, I will watch the cartoons that I chose to eschew. And I have no intention of watching again any of the cartoons that I have above in this Weblog entry criticised. Life is just too short. And, in all honesty, I am not sure that my enthusiasm for watching even the cartoons that I like, even those post-1948, will ever again be what it used to be. I have been "worn down", demoralised, in my adherence to the Warner Brothers cartoons to an extent that even nostalgia is insufficient to draw me toward a viewing of the cartoons with an appreciably high enjoyment quotient. All of the "aggro" of contending with the pre-1948 cartoons pundits and the frustration time and time again at seeing their point of view dominating the compilations of cartoons assembled for home video releases this century, weighs so heavily upon my psyche. And I feel defeated. Abjectly defeated. All of that writing that I did on the television show vehicles for the post-1948 cartoons, and certain of those cartoons, and my tributes to directors Freleng, Jones, McKimson, and memories in my autobiography of my seminal viewing experiences of the post-1948 cartoons, have failed utterly to yield improved recognition of the cartoons that I fancy. My demoralising and feeling of defeat are such that I cannot seem to fully connect with younger, pre-2000 me, and delight in the cartoons that I long fancied. Even when they are looking gorgeous in High Definition. I cannot help but feel a resentment toward the people flooding the discussion forums with pre-1948 cartoons-heavy want lists, and Mr. Beck and others paying heed to them and downplaying, if not ignoring, me and other followers of the cartoons on The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour, The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show, Bugs Bunny and Friends, et cetera.
I showed good faith and bought PORKY PIG 101. And I bought this Blu-Ray with the knowledge that post-1948 cartoons are few and far between on it. But now I am done. Quite done. I will not buy another Blu-Ray or DVD of Warner Brothers cartoons. I will not buy COLLECTOR'S CHOICE 3. When its contents are announced, I will not read that announcement. I do not care to know what cartoons were opted-for on that third volume in the COLLECTOR'S CHOICE range. I will not be subjected again to another heaping serving of early cartoons and a mere sprinkling of the cartoons post-1948 that were on the television shows upon which I was weaned and which had brought many a Saturday of enjoyment to me last century. Not even in an itemised listing. I wish the Beck crowd joy of it. Thank goodness I have other interests, interests that were rewarded with releases in full of the material on Blu-Ray, or DVD at least. I will focus on those.
Maybe the time has come at last for me to "put the cartoons aside" and "grow up". My old friend Michael will be happy to see me saying this, I am sure. Goodness knows that there are far more serious concerns to have with what is happening on 2020s Earth. I ought to place much more importance on the desperate need for political change, for a return to mid-to-late twentieth century values and standards of political movement, than I do on whether Season 2 Space: 1999 is better than Season 1 or vice versa, or whether the pre-1948 cartoons of Warner Brothers are or are not "all that and a bag of chips".
Maybe the damage to my roof from the storm is a message from God that I need to be concentrating my attention on matters of highest importance, and they definitely are not in the entertainment realm. Having said this, I do report that my Era 2 memoirs have been updated with improvements to images of The Hudson Brothers Razzle-Dazzle Show, Let's Go!, and Kidstuff, and a title image of The Littlest Hobo added to the collage of the in-this-paragraph-aforementioned images. I also desaturated the images of The Littlest Hobo- "Trouble in Pairs", so that they are more authentic to my experience of that Littlest Hobo episode in the mid-1970s. Keeping alive awareness of old times is one component, I think, of denouncing the way that things are now.
All for today.
Friday, December 29, 2023.
Christmas was per normal for me since the death of my father in 2012. I exchanged greetings with friends on Facebook. I cooked a turkey. I watched what has come to be my usual Christmas Day fare from my Blu-Ray and DVD collection. Productions that I watched on December 25 back when my parents were living. The Six Million Dollar Man episode, "The Deadly Replay", which I watched on DVD on 25 December, 2006. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, viewed many a Christmas Day in my home theatre in the 2000s. The Blake's 7 episode, "Ultraworld", that I watched on Christmas Day in 2008, the final normal McCorry Christmas. And in days leading to Christmas, I also gave a Blu-Ray player spin to the Space: 1999 Blu-Ray discs containing Space: 1999 episodes "Journey to Where", "The Taybor", and "One Moment of Humanity", phenomena, all, of a particular Christmas past, that of 1976.
This year, more than ever, I find myself wondering if my Christmas norms are to be no more. Whether perhaps this particular Christmas will be my final one in my house, with all of my possessions, with my cat with me, and with a turkey roasting in the oven. The outlook for 2024 for Canada and indeed the whole of the Western world, is quite bleak.
My Era 2 memoirs have been updated with some additional images of Spiderman and The Littlest Hobo, accompanying my memories of mid-to-late-1974.
I am commencing this, my final Weblog entry of the year, 2023, with a report that the further DVD box set of Spiderman that I bought, in hopes of procuring a non-defective Disc 4 in the set, arrived in my mailbox late Thursday. And I am pleased to say that Disc 4 in this newly purchased DVD set, is faultless. So, now I have a full set of Spiderman DVDs as "back-up" to the one that I have retained since 2004. Hopefully, the two Spiderman sets that I now possess, will be with me for the rest of my days. And if any DVDs other than the fourth one, should "rot", I have an additional "back-up" that I can source. I do have three quality copies of all of the DVDs in the set except for Disc 4.
I note that there are bootleg Blu-Ray sets of Spiderman being sold by on-the-Internet vendors. Although DVDs have a marked propensity to "rot", I would still prefer a pressed-in-factory DVD over a BD-R. And BD-R is what I feel sure that the bootleg-purveyors are peddling. One of those purveyors is also offering Blu-Ray sets of The Marvel Superheroes, presumably BD-R copies of U.K. DVDs of the thirteen episodes, each, of the Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, and the Sub-Mariner. Again, I would much prefer pressed DVD to "burned" BD-R. And I have the DVDs of The Marvel Superheroes that I want.
I do quite enjoy a good marathon of Spiderman episodes every now and then. Watching Spiderman episodes does have to capacity to recall me to happier days when I was watching and videotape-recording 4:30 P.M. episodes of Spiderman on CHSJ-TV back in 1982 and 1983, my father out in the kitchen preparing supper and occasionally providing an amused laugh to some of the dialogue he was hearing from the television in my den, as he came down the hallway toward the den door. Happier days when I had imminent gatherings and mostly pleasant baseball games with friends and associates. Happier days when I did not feel dread at my national government's next probable moves. I miss my parents, my friends, and the Canada of old. If only I could have them and my current collection too.
There is, I have discovered, a planned 2024 Space: 1999 convention in London, England. Among the guests will be Italian thespians Gianni Garko, Orso Maria Guerrini, and Carla Romanelli. Such a pity that I cannot partake in events such as this. But such is the reality of being deemed the illegitimate one for whom Season 2 is most aesthetically satisfying, and of having zero tolerance for the incessant vitriol and malignant efforts at "gaslighting" on the part of the dominant persuasion of the fan movement. And the obsequiousness toward said vitriol and efforts of "gaslighting", practiced by the slim minority second season accepters. Leaves a foul taste in my mouth, such obsequiousness. It is one great tragedies of my life, that I cannot be among kindred spirits, in my enthusiasm for favourite works. But as I say, it is a facet of that curse that I invoked upon myself almost forty-seven years ago. And besides. I would not be welcome at any fan gatherings. Even if I did have the tolerance for the "'Year 2'-is-excrement" crowd. And the very people who were parties to my "cancellation" in the mid-1990s, are still very much "in the thick of things". Which does tend to repulse me.
Some qualification is needed, I think, in my criticism of the cartoon, "Brother Brat", two Weblog entries ago. I do not object to some wartime "jingoism" to aid the morale on the "home front". The evil wreaking havoc in the world, had to be vanquished. And morale was essential. It is admirable that Warner Brothers wanted to buttress the spirit of America in some of the darkest hours for mankind. But would I much rather watch a cartoon without any wartime references "weighing down" its story, and which ventured into unconstrained imaginative territory for its situations and gags? Yes. And there has already been a surfeit of wartime cartoons on DVD and Blu-Ray. For more than sufficient representation of all of the often unsubtle wartime messaging within cartoons. But what is there to be gained from opining further on cartoon selections for home video? Clearly, I and the people like me who came to know the Warner Brothers cartoons through the network television showcases for the post-1948 cartoons, are not to be heeded. We are the outliers, even if we may be in the majority among the public at large.
I have this week been suffering an inflamed, swollen, stiff right knee that causes pain as I walk. It is a rather tenacious affliction. Every time I feel my knee pop and the stiffness lessen and think that I have started to recover, the knee stiffens again some minutes later. I struggle to lay comfortably in bed with my knee in its current state, as I seek some much-needed sleep. My fifty-eighth birthday is approaching, and I am feeling my years now, definitely. I will soon be as old as Roger Moore was when he stopped playing James Bond, and as old as William Hartnell was when he stopped playing the Doctor. And I am seeing childhood friends leaving the mortal coil.
All for today, the thirtieth of December, 2023.
Thursday, January 4, 2024.
One day away from my fifty-eighth birthday, and I continue to feel my years. My right knee has not improved, and I am wondering if it will not improve until spring weather arrives and I can walk on warm pavement under Vitamin D-boosting sunshine. Or indeed if it will never improve. Maybe I am condemned to having a weak right leg for the remainder of my days. Maybe it is arthritis. I am not about to consult a doctor because the health care system in New Brunswick, or at least in the Fredericton region, is collapsing. I saw a front-page story yesterday in one of the province's newspapers. Horizon Health is advising the populace to stay away from the Emergency Room at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital, the only hospital in Fredericton, built in the 1970s when Fredericton had half of the population that it has now. Evidently, a huge amount of staff are sick and wait times are in the order of two days.
I am just going to have "soldier on" with my leg ailment and any others that I may experience in weeks to come. Hoping that increasing amounts of daylight will stimulate my immune system. I am also going to try intermittent fasting, as some people say that reduced inflammation due to lower blood sugar, is one of the benefits of such. I did buy for myself a chocolate roll yesterday for my birthday. I may binge tomorrow on that, after thirty-six hours of fasting.
My updates of Website this week have been concentrated upon The Littlest Hobo Page. The CTV broadcast history section of it, more specifically. Now added is broadcast history for The Littlest Hobo for Quebec and Ontario CTV television network stations. My intention is to labour further to provide broadcast history for all provinces west of Ontario, but it is proving to be rather more complex a task than that for Ontario, Quebec, and eastern Maritimes broadcast histories, as there was much less consistency in airtime. Most especially in Saskatchewan.
I propose to ruminate some on the "tack" of me being illegitimate as an appreciator of Space: 1999 because I became enamoured with the television programme through Season 2's run in 1976-7, and unlike others who were similarly affected by Space: 1999's second season, I refused to kowtow to the naysayers or coopt their perspective and "rag" on Season 2 with the same, or almost the same, gusto. Or to be an "apologist" for it. But rather an ardent singer of its praises. Even if I had not met Dean in the late 1980s and become privy to the extent of aesthetic curiosity to be had with the second season subject matter, I will still have bristled at the hyperbolic slurring of everything from first scenes of "The Metamorph" to the epilogue of "The Dorcons", and producer Fred Freiberger. That became legion in the 1990s and beyond. Would that have happened if Dean and I had written nothing as regards second season having artistic qualities? Oh, probably. The majority of the people slinging bile at Season 2 whenever any image of it is shared on Facebook, probably are not aware of our existence or that of anything we submitted to fan newsletters. Mind, the bandwagon effect might not have gained the momentum that it had as soon as it did. Indeed, repudiating what had been contributed by Dean to the newsletters of the International Space: 1999 Alliance and the Calgarian's club, was where the rubber did first start spinning on the pavement with rather formidable force.
These days, there is never a shortage of ostensibly never-before-opining-in-public persons saying that "Year 1" was an unqualified success and that the man of initials F.F. destroyed the ratings triumph of the 1975-6 television broadcast year, with his uncalled-for tinkering. People who are unaware of the fact that Season 1 did experience a ratings decline prompting ITC mogul Lew Grade to declare Space: 1999 cancelled. And unaware that Gerry Anderson had already started moving in other directions, as with The Day After Tomorrow- "Into Infinity", before he and Fred Freiberger rallied to "pitch" to Grade the Maya character, giving impetus to Grade to overturn the cancellation, but with requirements of a reduction in budget and filming schedule. The imagination content would be retained, and Keith Wilson would continue envisaging aliens, alien worlds, alien spaceships, and Alpha sections, of an aesthetic following what he had achieved in first season. Cast reductions were necessary. Some people were not under renewed contract but were offered appearances on an episode-by-episode basis. But other television series, successful television series, had episodes in which characters, sometimes main characters, did not appear. I am watching many an episode of Bonanza nowadays (they are all available on YouTube), and many times an episode focused on one of the Cartwrights, to the near or total exclusion of the others. Some while back, I made an observation about The Adventures of Black Beauty often sidelining one or more of the children characters for whole episodes, them not appearing or not even being mentioned. Such is routine procedure in television series whose production, for one reason or another, requires simultaneous filming of episodes. Second season Space: 1999 was not first to undertake such practice. Grade was not supportive of another fifteen-month filming schedule, with all of the associated costs thereof, for Season 2. Production had to be "sped up". Sets had to be streamlined. But still, the production values remained high. Higher than those of every other work of the imagination made for television in 1976.
All of the other tiresome rants invariably follow. Rubber, rubber, rubber. Weekly monsters. Comic book. "Dumbing down". No more saying in dialogue to the audience what this or that episode is about (as if that is really necessary). I have responded to all of this before and am not going to waste my time doing so again. What sticks in my craw especially today, is the contention that Anderson and Freiberger need not have bothered. That maybe they did manage to persuade Grade to grant a reprieve for a second season, to Space: 1999, but it would have been better for Space: 1999 to have been only Season 1. And that any fans who were drawn into the Space: 1999 universe through the second season, are irrelevant in such a consideration. Unless we repudiate our loyalty to Season 2 and go with "the herd", we are illegitimate. Bastard fans who deserve not the slightest whit of consideration.
Let us imagine, shall we, a scenario in which Grade did not reverse his decision. One in which Space: 1999 stayed cancelled through late 1975 through 1976, and never went back into production. The knowledge of terminated production would no doubt have had an impact on the summer repeat season of 1976. Ratings would have fallen, narturally, once it had become known that ITC had cancelled the television series. And numerous broadcasters might have "pulled the plug" early on Space: 1999 and opted to air something else that would boost ratings and interest of potential sponsors. Or bump Space: 1999 out of prime-time and air its repeats at a late hour, before dropping it entirely. Probability would be that a distant television station would not have been airing the repeats in summer of 1976 by which I happened to see "The Infernal Machine" one evening. And there certainly would not have been any Space: 1999 promoted by CBC for autumn of 1976. I would likely have gone onward being oblivious to Space: 1999's existence. Maybe never knowing of it until seeing some mention of it in Starlog sometime in 1979 or 1980. And Starlog being Starlog, the mention would no doubt have been rare and not one of effusive praise. With Space: 1999 having not come into my life in 1976, and my interest in space being what it then was, I would probably have watched Star Trek on CHSJ before being swept away in 1977 by Star Wars like many a person of my generation was. I would have been another run-of-the-mill Star Wars fanatic, with Star Trek as a side interest, I suppose. I would have been doodling the Star Wars logo on my jeans as Tony did, or on my school books. And buying even more Star Wars merchandise than I did. It would have been Star Wars that offered solace to me in my difficult first months as a Frederictonian. A mere two hours of film as opposed to forty-eight. I am not really sure that my nostalgia for Douglastown and my final year there would have been anything like it was. It seems unlikely. And without that nostalgia, I do not know how I would have coped with loneliness later in life. Would I still have been lonely as a more mainstream science fiction/fantasy proponent, with Star Wars? Difficult to say. In school in Fredericton, at least, I think being the odd one out, still would have been the case for me. Later in life, maybe I would have found my way to some kindred spirits.
A Kevin McCorry devoid of Space: 1999 is an interesting subject to ponder. For me, at least. But what of the world at large with Space: 1999 never having had a Season 2? Well, the television show would have faded into obscurity rather quickly. As UFO had done, I would think. Like UFO, it would not have been granted much, or anything, in the way of syndicated repeats, post-cancellation. Not in my neck of the woods, certainly. It would have been considered a failure, a "flop", not going beyond a single season. And it would have been regarded as such by television station programme managers. The "sell" would been a darned sight "tougher" for anyone writing letters requesting a further run. Merchandise in stores would have been liquidated much sooner. The books. The toys. Et cetera. Space: 1999 would have been that much more in the rearview in the public consciousness when Star Wars made its grand entrance, pushing all other science fiction/fantasy merchandise well to the side in the stores.
Would Cosmos 1999 have been given a further run on Radio-Canada? In autumn of 1976 or in 1979. Maybe. Maybe not. I cannot say for sure one way or the other. If it did, it might have slipped under my radar. Watching Radio-Canada was not my standard procedure in September, 1976 for anything other than the cartoons of Bugs Bunny, et al.. In 1979, who knows? I might have been so fixated on Star Wars that my eyes would not pour over the television guides, especially the listings for French television programming. I might never have seen an episode of Space: 1999. Ever. Some people, my mother included, would say that this would have been so much the better for me. Maybe it would have been. Maybe not. I would have certainly been spared much anguish.
But back to reality. Space: 1999 is a two-season television series. There is enough of an aesthetic constant through the entirety of it, courtesy of Keith Wilson and Brian Johnson and team, for it to be seen as one television programme. Not an original one followed by a "reboot". An aesthetic constant in addition to the faces of Landau and Bain, and the premise of the runaway Moon and from it peculiar sets of "threads" of concept ideas and potential meanings. Planets being gender-coded female, for instance. "Reboots" usually, if not always, re-engineer the opening episode or first movie, telling the premise-setting story again with a discretely different set of conditions. Space: 1999 did not do this. "The Metamorph" opened with the Moon moving about through space, nearly a year, Alpha time, after leaving Earth orbit, and having had earlier encounters and experienced some earlier betrayals, as stated by Tony Verdeschi. There were changes, yes. And it was left to the imaginative audience (or the expected-to-be-imaginative audience) to explain them in personal "head canon". Space: 1999 was not the first Anderson television series to have characters vanish with no on-screen explanation. And Alpha was vast enough for sections hitherto unseen, to suddenly appear. And changes in Alphan outlook could be addressed by unseen encounters.
And Space: 1999 did garner new viewers and new fans through the airing of the second season in 1976-7. Fandom is the size that it is today because of the two seasons' runs on television and subsequent releases on home video. The people bemoaning the existence of Season 2 are nothing but absurdly incessant, petulent crybabies. Fifty-year-old crybabies sitting at their computers and daily typewriting epithets of teenagers, to slur their unloved season of their favoutite opus of the imagination. Closed-minded, stubborn crybabies. The world ought to have left them behind, regarded Space: 1999 as a two-season television production with highs and lows in both seasons, and proceeded to craft a better existence for us all. Not the dystopia that looms. But I am not going to go further down that line of discussion today. Other than to note that, all too predictably, the powers-that-be are now trying to "pass off" the heart damage caused by the "jabs" as a symptom of a new strain of COVID-19, for which more needles will be required into an already pincushioned and likely subclinically heart-damaged populace. Dark times coming. If this is to be "narrative" for an even more oppressive set of mandates.
All for today. I may do a further Weblog entry on my birthday tomorrow.
Monday, January 8, 2024.
My updating of The Littlest Hobo Page has continued. CTV broadcast histories for Alberta and British Columbia have been added. I attempted broadcast histories for Manitoba and Saskatchewan, but the Littlest Hobo airtimes on most of the CTV stations in those provinces were so chaotic that a broadcast history would be an ugly muddle, and a most arduous task, to boot. The television stations would air The Littlest Hobo on Thursday one week and on Friday the next. On one week at 7:30 P.M., and at 8 P.M. the next. And a CTV station would be at airtime variance with the others. Followers of the television series would need to look for it in television guides every week. Thursday or Friday? Early evening or late evening (sometimes the airtime would be 10 P.M. or 10:30 P.M..)? Airtimes were very consistent in the eastern Maritimes, Quebec, and Ontario, all through the 1979-85 history of The Littlest Hobo. And fairly consistent in Alberta and British Columbia. CTV affiliates in Manitoba and Saskatchewan were for some reason not adherent to the concept of regular airtime, when it came to one of CTV's "flagship" domestically made television series.
I have also updated The Space: 1999 Page, with a correction to the 1979-80 Radio-Canada broadcast history for Cosmos 1999.
No news of Blu-Rays coming for 2024. The BBC is in no hurry to continue its DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION range. No announcements. None. The Day After Tomorrow- "Into Infinity" is still coming at some unspecified date. And LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 3 has not been scuppered as yet. Not that it matters to me, as I am determined to ignore it.
All for today.
Sunday, January 14, 2024.
Almost half of the way through January in my counting of the days until spring. Until I may finally see some relief from my knee problem. It does seem to worsen, said problem, when the weather turns colder, and improves, slightly, when the weather is warmer. Warmer being a few degrees above zero. It may require plus-twenty-degree temperature, and daylight lasting far into the evening, for my condition to significantly and conclusively improve.
Season 15 of Doctor Who has been announced (with no definite release date) in the DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION range. No news about The Day After Tomorrow- "Into Infinity" on Blu-Ray. The Eagle Has Landed is continuing to be in the making. An Eagle interior is under construction in the U.K.. The fans of Space: 1999 are doing what they always do. Slur, "circle-jerk" to the slurring, disparage and attempt to demoralise and/or "gaslight" the "clingers-on" to the aesthetic curiosities of second season.
I think that I will comment some more on the phenomenon of "gaslighting". I did not years ago have a name for it when it was being practiced in the fan clubs and Internet discussion groups. I had seen the word mentioned, but only in the context of a character in a television show trying to cause another character to go down a false line of thought and to believe himself or herself responsible somehow, in some way, for an outcome of some tragic sort. Not at all wrong in definition. But not inclusive of all of the possible ways and motives by which a person could be "gaslit".
A more general look at the phenomenon of "gaslighting". "Gaslighting" may be said to encompass any move to undermine people's perceptions, to cause people to doubt the verity of their perceptions, and indeed to question their mental fitness in their determination to believe what their perception is registering, particularly when the conclusions that may be reached, are not those that the "gaslighter" judges to be desirable. Space: 1999 fandom as a collective uses its incessant rancour toward all things second season to discourage any open-minded persons from looking at the subject matter of second season in an aesthetically curious way. And demoralise persons who are fond of second season, to possibly weaken their spirit, maybe even make them amenable to conversion to the "right-think" that Season 1 is all that there should be to Space: 1999. Oh, I do not doubt that some people are just so addicted to sniping at Season 2, because of the satisfaction that doing so brings to them, that they do it whenever they can. And they care not one jot if this is insensitive to people of a different mind concerning Season 2. But it would be exceedingly naive to think there to be no purpose beyond that, on the part of some, if not most, of the daily "gripers" on everything to do with Season 2.
The slurs of mindlessness and excrement applied to Season 2 may arguably be meant to say that anyone appreciating second season is mindless and has excrement for taste. Of course, if challenged, the persons doing the slurring will claim not having launched a ad hominem attack, and that if a person likes the mindless excrement, fair enough. No need to become precious about it. Such would be a sign of mental unfitness. It is disingenuous to say that personal attack is not the intention in these particular instances of Season 2-"bashing". And if someone like myself expresses vehement disapproval at the way that second season and its adherents are treated, onward comes the most egregious, most brazen, attempts at "gaslighting". Toward me, the bad reputation angle is lanced, and should I react to that in the way that any sensitive human being would, it is paranoia, paranoia, paranoia. "Don't be so paranoid." And me responding with, "Didn't you just say I have a bad reputation, which means people must talk negatively about me in order for such reputation to fester and spread?" Response: "Oh, no. I didn't say that. See how paranoid you are." It is "gaslighting". Or a committed attempt at it. The purpose is to cause me to doubt myself, at least enough for me to "shut up" and let the assaults on second season continue unchallenged. If I refuse to stifle myself, then the accusations of my being not right in the head, are tuned to maximum. And if this serves to undermine the perceptions of others as regards second season and their favourable regard for it, so much the better. The better, that is, for the haters of the Freiberger season. And onward they go, ever more "cockily", in disparaging oh, so matter-of-factly, everything from incipient "Metamorph" to finality of "Dorcons".
It is all "gaslighting", including the "tack" of, "The majority thinks this way, and you don't, and therefore you're wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong in the head," routinely thrown into the discussion. As I say, anything undermining people's perceptions, or used in the attempt to do so, is the practice of the "gaslighter".
So, too, is saying to me in the utmost condescension that my imprinting by post-1948 Warner Brothers cartoons, should be regarded as at best tenuous as an orthodox condition, and that I should face the fact that as more people become aware of the pre-1948s in the Cartoon Network broadcasts, that I will be in that oh, so outlying and dismissible minority, inevitably. So, "shut up" and sit alone watching the post-1948s, because my regard for them can have no value to anyone but my irrelevant self.
I do sometimes wonder if the attitudes of fans of any work, is rife with "gaslighting", or if I just had the misfortune of fancying the entertainments whose fan movements are particularly toxic. And if that misfortune is due to my Karmic curse.
Enough for today, I think.
Friday, January 19, 2024.
Coldest day of the winter in Fredericton so far. -12 degrees, with windchill at -20. I opted to work from home today, and I will be avoiding going outdoors. Temperatures as cold as this will be detrimental to my knee problem, I feel sure.
I added some more data to the broadcast history for The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour in Newfoundland and Labrador. And I gritted teeth and ventured forth to do a CTV broadcast history for The Littlest Hobo in Manitoba, navigating through the wild airtime changes for The Littlest Hobo on Winnipeg's CKY and on Brandon's CKYB. From Thursday to Friday to Thursday to Friday to Saturday to Sunday to Saturday to Tuesday to Monday. Some episodes were delayed on CKY and on CKYB, and multi-part episodes were not aired in full. The third and concluding part of "The Spirit of Thunder Rock" was preempted on CKY and on CKYB, as, too, was "The Five Labours of Hercules: Pt. 1". And first part of "Scavenger Hunt" was on a Thursday, and part two of same was on a Saturday. As tumultuous as The Littlest Hobo's run was in Manitoba, that is nothing compared with how CTV's "flagship" television show fared in Saskatchewan. I am afraid that I do not as yet possess the determimation and fortitude to thrust myself into work on a Littlest Hobo broadcast history for Saskatchewan.
The denizens of Blu-ray.com Forum have been "having at" the post-1948 Warner Brothers cartoons with scathing commentary. Most specifically the Road Runner, Tweety and Sylvester, Pepe Le Pew, Speedy Gonzales, et cetera cartoons. The ones typically branded by these people as formulaic and uninteresting and unworthy of full representation on home video. Oh, those early 1940s cartoons are oh, so much better, they say, because they did not have formula to them. Maybe they did. A different sort of formula. But whether they did or not, so, what? They are boring. As indeed is the tiresome refrain that if one has seen one Road Runner or Tweety (Friz Freleng Tweety) cartoon short, then one has seen them all. Bull's droppings! If every Tweety cartoon with Sylvester was restricted to a generic American household, then I would concede to the criticism of, "If you've seen one, you've seen them all." But this is not the case as these people all well know- or should well know. Tweety and Sylvester cartoons are reliably in territory previously uncharted by the cartoon series. Ocean liner, train, San Francisco, woodland, farm, city park, badminton court, big city brownstone, prairie fort, automat, Italy, shopping centre, circus, zoo, beach, the story of Red Riding Hood, the Jack and Beanstalk giant's castle, Dr. Jekyll's labotratory, an Alfred Hitchcock scenario, the American Civil War, and so forth. Some involve the bulldog, some involve Granny, and some involve the orange cat. And Sylvester's attempts to catch Tweety are usually specific to the situation in which they are situated. How his schemes fail, and how he reacts to the failure, is variation on a formula. It is not the exact same scheme every time, or the exact same outcomes and reactions. I can counter the attacks on the Road Runner cartoons using some of the same tenets. Yes, location may be the same, the U.S. southwestern desert, but every ACME product used by Wile E. Coyote is different, and the humour is in how the product will fail, what the effect on Wile E. will be, and how he will react. Every Road Runner cartoon is distinct from the others in the most outstanding ACME-product-enabled scheme of Wile E. to catch the Road Runner. And the aesthetic of the cartoons and their timing, are exquisite. An art. I will admit that Pepe and Speedy have less of a variety in their cartoons' scenarios and processes. But the aesthetic of the cartoons and their timing, are, nonetheless, praiseworthy. I cannot say the same for the pre-1948 cartoons that these individuals at discussion forums, like to laud, and that they request for Jerry Beck to put on shiny digital videodisc. No doubt the "ragging" on Road Runner cartoons, Tweety cartoons, et cetera is going to give to Mr. Beck and others all the more cause to feel more sure of themselves in the minimising of the post-1948 cartoons on the Blu-Rays in COLLECTOR'S CHOICE. The third volume of COLLECTOR'S CHOICE will be even more heavy with pre-1948s than VOLUME 2 was.
All for today.
Sunday, January 21, 2024.
Two months until spring. And spring cannot come soon enough!
I fell yesterday during a simple two-city-block walk to Peter's Meat Market. I was being exceedingly careful, walking slowly and avoiding the snow-covered sidewalks and tredding on what I thought was bare pavement. But even so, I enountered an odd slippery spot. And down I went. I fell on my already ailing knee and on the ankle of the same leg. Happily, my ankle was robust enough to absorb its portion of the force of the fall. And my knee is only slightly more stiff and painful than it had been. I guess that luck was with me enough for me to not have to access the abysmal medical system. Who knows? I might have accidentally been "jabbed" by (sarcasm alert- if my sarcasm is not obvious) the ever so imperative and sacrosanct COVID needles. I dare not tempt providence further. No more walking to the store. Walk outside as little as possible, until the confounded ice and snow are gone. My legs are certainly bearing the legacy of numerous falls over the years. I wish not to add to such with yet more tumbles.
Yesterday, I committed my time to doing Saskatchewan CTV broadcast histories for The Littlest Hobo, and completed work on such in the capacity of CTV affiliates in Yorkton and southern Saskatchewan, including Regina. I have yet to do work on Littlest Hobo broadcasts for Saskatoon. That will be the final component to a fully comprehensive Littlest Hobo 1979-85 broadcast history. I do not expect that readers of my Web page for The Littlest Hobo, will need to wait long. I have a compulsion to not leave work undone or incomplete. It is one of my better qualities. Not many of those, I do have. I prefer to be thorough, and to not dally in being so. I cannot comprehend the reluctance in my fellow Space: 1999 second season aesthete, Dean, to complete and publish his work, in the past thirty-four years since our time together at a house in Belledune in 1990.
Oh, does that seem so long ago! 1990. My parents alive and healthy. Me twenty-four years of age. The world seemingly on the cusp of a promising new future with the Communist block of nations of Europe reforming themselves away from Marx and Lenin's ideologies. Everyone thought that the world would have lasting peace, freedom, and prosperity. Oh, how I miss the stability and hope of the early 1990s! We certainly do not have that today. Oh, the early 1990s! When my only concerns were recalcitrant videotape recorders, less than perfect videotape-recorded cartoons, and deficient empathy from contrary Space: 1999 fans.
Before I close today's Weblog entry, I will show an image of a Connecticut TV Guide magazine issue's listing for Space: 1999 for October 14, 1975 on a television station called WTNH. WTNH was the ABC television network affiliate in the New Haven area. It was one of many U.S. television stations of television network affiliation to air the syndicated Space: 1999. Unusually, in my experience, at least, this listing for Space: 1999 has guest cast separate from the stating of the regular cast actors. All TV Guide listings for Space: 1999 that I have seen before having discovered this one, packed the regular and guest cast together in a single paragraph including episode synopsis. "Force of Life" airing on WTNH in mid-October accords with the placement of that episode in the run of Season 1 Space: 1999 on many another broadcaster, somewhere around fifth episode in the run starting in September. Probably between "Collision Course" and "Alpha Child".
No more to say today on my Weblog. I expect that I will have some time today to work on completing the CTV broadcast history for The Littlest Hobo.
Tuesday, January 23, 2024.
Well. LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 3 has had its front cover and contents officially announced. I could not avert my eyes from sight of such, as the image of the front cover was right before my eyes at the top of my Facebook "live feed", courtesy of The Bugs Bunny Video Guide and Facebook algorhythms. Along with it was text revealing the first three of the cartoons on the Blu-Ray disc. I could have seen the rest had I "mouse-clicked" the "See more" option. But I chose not to, as I doggedly intend to ignore this release as much as I can. I know too much about it already. Two of the three cartoons I saw identified are pre-1948. Of course, they are. I expected nothing different. "A Feud There Was". Tex Avery material from the oh, so desirable 1930s. "A Hop, Skip, and a Chump". Another Friz Freleng lesser-light of the early 1940s. And "China Jones". A Robert McKimson Daffy cartoon of 1959. Not the greatest post-1948 cartoon. With the offensive East Asian stereotypes in it, I am amazed that it was chosen. I am not a fan of it. On the front cover of the Blu-Ray are Daffy in his "China Jones" garments, Bugs, Road Runner, Elmer, Porky, Tweety, Sylvester, Foghorn Leghorn, Sam Sheepdog, and some repulsive Tex Avery thing with the usual red nose. I can make some deductions from this. There is a Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog cartoon on the Blu-Ray. Is it a "double-dip" of "Don't Give Up the Sheep"? "Don't Give Up the Sheep" having been on DVD in the GOLDEN COLLECTION range. Maybe not. It could be "Sheep Ahoy" or "Double or Mutton". I doubt that it would be "Woolen Under Where". And since the listing provided of the titles is evidently again in alphabetical order, with two letter as followed by a letter c, we can "rule out" "A Sheep in the Deep". There must be one Tweety cartoon on the Blu-Ray, and it cannot be "A Bird in a Bonnet", "A Bird in a Guilty Cage", "A Pizza Tweety-Pie", or "A Street Cat Named Sylvester". Or "Ain't She Tweet", "All a Bir-r-r-d", or "Birds Anonymous". Or "Canary Row" ("China Jones" being third on the list after the as precludes "Canary Row"). There are between fifteen and twenty Tweety cartoons possible, if it is to be assumed that the Tweety cartoon chosen was not before on a North American DVD or Blu-Ray. Not "Hyde and Go Tweet", of course. That one is verboten. Road Runner cartoon could be something from the late 1950s or early 1960s. The Bugs cartoon cannot be either "A-Lad-in His Lamp" or "Apes of Wrath". Foghorn, if not a "double-dip", could be "Henhouse Henery", "Leghorn Swoggled", "Of Rice and Hen", or one of a half-dozen others. I do not expect there to be more than one of each major character. At least not of the post-1948 variety. The drawing of Elmer looks to be of the mid-1940s. I am speculating idly, of course. But I am not "bowled over" by the three cartoons I now know to be on the Blu-Ray and entertain no hope of finding a list to my liking if I were to "click" the "See more" option. Seeing that list would only upset me, I feel sure. And I have no wish to be upset.
So let us see. Assuming the characters on the front cover all only have one cartoon on the Blu-Ray disc, and assuming their cartoon to be post-1948 (an assumption that is something of a stretch and likely wrong in some instances), it would be one Bugs, one Daffy (with Porky), known to be "China Jones", one Tweety-and-Sylvester, one Road Runner, one Foghorn Leghorn, one Elmer, and one Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog. That is seven. Same as VOLUME 2. But I think it better to assume the Elmer to be a pre-1948. And the Tweety-and-Sylvester could be "I Taw a Putty Tat" of the earlier side of the 1948 demarcation. I do not feel the least bit encouraged to think VOLUME 3 to be fairer to the post-1948s, or less unfair, than was VOLUME 2. I plan to continue eschewing having a look at the VOLUME 3 announced contents.
Enough on the futility of pursuing a full collection of post-1948 Warner Brothers cartoons. I am happy to report that my work on 1979-85 CTV broadcast history for The Littlest Hobo is now completed. I also went back to the CBC broadcast history for Space: 1999, and the Cosmos 1999 portions thereof, and divided the Radio-Canada western provinces broadcast history into four units, with CBWFT, CBKFT, CBXFT, and CBUFT now having their own discrete listings of broadcasts. It is more pleasing to the eye, even if it prolongs the CBC Broadcast History section of The Space: 1999 Page to a considerable extent. My work on broadcast histories is now done. The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour, Space: 1999, and The Littlest Hobo have all been beneficiaries of my work in this particular area. I do not foresee having occasion to do Canadian broadcast histories for, say, Spiderman or Rocket Robin Hood. At least nothing that is close to being thorough.
Some of the coldest weather in New Brunswick this winter, is on its way for tonight. I have some errands to run and best set myself to the doing of that now.
All for today.
"Kevin McCorry!" I holler to myself. "You have no bloody damned willpower!"
I "caved". I admit it. I looked at the full list of cartoons selected for LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 3.
Having done so, I may as well provide that list here to my dozen or so regular readers.
"A Feud There Was"
"A Hop, Skip and a Chump"
"China Jones"
"Cinderella Meets Fella"
"Dumb Patrol"
"Egghead Rides Again"
"Elmer's Pet Rabbit"
"Hobo Bobo"
"Honeymoon Hotel"
"I Only Have Eyes For You"
"Mexican Joyride"
"Mr. and Mrs. is the Name"
"Of Rice and Hen"
"Pre-Hysterical Hare"
"Punch Trunk"
"Quentin Quail"
"Riff Raffy Daffy"
"Saddle Silly"
"Sheep Ahoy"
"The Mouse On 57th Street"
"The Sheepish Wolf"
"There Auto Be a Law"
"Tugboat Granny"
"War and Pieces"
"Wet Hare
Jerry Beck and his unending fixation on "one-shots" to the detriment of the "star" chartacters. And what is the fascination with Egghead, that ugly proto-Elmer Fudd who was rightly refined, rightly changed? "Come on, man," I say. Or would say if I had an audience with Mr. Beck. "You do not see Egghead T-shirts in the stores, do you?"
I was right, of course, about "Hyde and Go Tweet" and "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide" being yet again ignored, and they shall be again and again until physical media dies. I was right that Tweety, Road Runner, and Foghorn Leghorn would only have one of their cartoons chosen. I was right that there would be only one Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog cartoon on the Blu-Ray, and about "Sheep Ahoy" being a likelier candidate than some of the others. I was wrong about Bugs and Daffy having only one cartoon selected. I was wrong about the representation of the post-1948s being as low as five cartoons out of twenty-five. I am not right about everything. Nobody is. Why cannot I be wrong about "Hyde and Go Tweet" and "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide" being doomed to perpetual sidelining in the cartoon selection process for home video release in the digital videodisc age? Why must I always be right on that?
It is good to see "Pre-Hysterical Hare" finally "make the cut". And "Dumb Patrol" is one of the Bugs Bunnies that I utterly lack in my collection. "There Auto Be a Law" and "Mexican Joyride" are welcome sights. "Punch Trunk" was released unrestored as a bonus cartoon in one of the GOLDEN COLLECTION volumes. I suppose that it is best to have it restored. Though there are cartoons I utterly lack that I would have preferred to have seen. "Riff Raffy Daffy" was on DVD. That one is a "double dip". Why that instead of, say, "Holiday For Drumsticks"? Not a keen aficionado, am I, of the cutesy Jones "one-shot" cartoon, "The Mouse On 57th Street", from 1960 (again, Mr. Beck favours "one-shots" over nearing regular characters' cartoon series to completion on home video). "Tugboat Granny" is not the Tweety cartoon, outside of the verboten "Hyde and Go Tweet", that I would have chosen, but it at least does not have a history of previously being on DVD (on one of the Japanese I LOVE TWEETY DVDs). I would have preferred "Fastest With the Mostest" over "War and Pieces". And there are far too many moldy 1930s duds mixed into the selections. Titles that would be as unrecognisable to readers of my Web pages, as they are to me. If there is no play on words in the title, that usually means that the cartoon hails from the time when the cartoon studio had not achieved its stride. Life is too short for me to sit and watch them. If there is no asethetic or nostalgic reason for me to sit and watch them, then I cannot be bothered. And it must be faced. I am allergic to Tex Avery cartoons. Why cannot they be bundled onto a separate release? Indeed, why cannot the pre- and -post-1948 cartoons be kept separate?
Will I buy this Blu-Ray and sit and watch it? Not until it is on discount. And I will only watch the cartoons of appeal to me.
And it may be a forlorn hope, but is there any reader of this Weblog who has High Definition recordings from HBO-Max, on BD-R, of "Hyde and Go Tweet" and "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide"? I will transact for them, if anyone has them. Them plus a grouping of some other long-elusive cartoons. "A Kiddies Kitty". "Pappy's Puppy". "D' Fightin' Ones". "Fastest With the Mostest". A few others. Provided the BD-Rs are done in a professional manner. And no crummy VHS videotape material with television station logos, tracking problems, and hideous dancing "rainbow glitches" "slapped onto" the BD-R discs as "extras".
Happier news is that the Blu-Ray of The Day After Tomorrow- "Into Infinity" is to be released next week. And this has made me more able to absorb, less sensitively, un-rantingly, the rather less than gratifying news about LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE. I guess that if I had to weaken in my resolve not to look at the cartoon list for VOLUME 3 of COLLECTOR'S CHOICE, it was a good day for such.
Here is the front cover to LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 3. That famous song from Sesame Street about one thing not belonging with the others, springs to mind as I look at the characters shown on the COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 3 front cover. Does any character "stick out like a sore thumb" in not belonging with the others? I believe that one does. One that is not a "cartoon superstar" like the others, nor even one of the semi-regulars of some considerable repute?
All for today, Wednesday. January 24, 2024.
Thursday, January 25, 2024.
The usual people are saying the usual things. "Shut up." "Stop bellyaching because you didn't get the cartoons that you want." "Buy the latest volume of COLLECTOR'S CHOICE, and you'll see your favourite cartoons somewhere down the line." Bla, bla, bla. Yada, yada, yada.
No. I will complain because I supported the cartoon releases in the past in good faith, and continue to see my favourites being overlooked or sidelined. With physical media not expected to have more than a couple more years as a commercial product, there is not time enough for another fifteen volumes or whatever, released at four-month intervals. Many cartoons will not see release. Many other cartoons released on DVD will not have a Blu-Ray upgrade. And this is the best case scenario, assuming that the range of COLLECTOR'S CHOICE is not ended years before it was intended to end, due to declining sales, as happened with the GOLDEN and PLATINUM COLLECTIONS.
The release model being used time and time again for the Warner Brothers cartoons in the DVD and Blu-Ray era very much guarantees division, disparate hopes and expectations, disatisfaction, and "bellyaching". People "bellyached" back when the fourth volume of THE GOLDEN COLLECTION was announced because one of the DVDs therein had only post-1948 Bugs cartoons, and another consisted only of Speedy cartoons. So people of my persuasion have not cornered the market on "griping". But then, the pre-1948s pundits were right to complain, because they were and are "the consensus". I and others like me, are not. So, it is we and only we, who must "zip it".
My readers, few as they are, are no doubt tired of reading my lamentations over the treatment of what used to be the premiere package of Warner Brothers cartoons for network television dissemination. Those cartoons lost in the courtroom of fan opinion some twenty years ago, and outliers such as I must be grateful for what we do receive from the beneficience of Messrs. Beck and company, and, "Shaddup."
Here is an idea, and I am very much in earnest with it. Why not just have COLLECTOR'S CHOICE be entirely pre-1948 cartoons? Just release the pre-1948s henceforth. I have no doubt that the curators of the cartoons for the Blu-Ray releases, would be delighted for such to be the case. As certainly would be cartoon fandom's vast majority of members. The ones branded as legitimate. We illegitimate ones who fancy and favour the post-1948s can go fly a kite. At this juncture, I say fine to this. It will save me money. It will save space on my shelf. No more buying a Blu-Ray for just seven cartoons of my fancy. This way, I can just "give up" for all time, avert my eyes from the whole matter, and have not a smidgen of temptation to gaze at any more lists of Blu-Ray contents. Concentrate my attention on other works that were graced with a release in full on home video, and let the haters of Friz Freleng's Tweety, the detractors of Mr. Freleng and his collaboration with Mr. Foster, the purveyors of the Jones-is-overrated routine, and so forth, have their collection of pre-1948 cartoons be as complete as possible, and be done with grousing about it. They won. They are the dominant force in cartoon fandom this century. Let them enjoy their spoils. Just do not "string me along" any longer with, "Wait your turn." Just be open about the plan to never release "Hyde and Go Tweet" and "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide" fully restored on Blu-Ray, or even DVD. Just say it. Just say, "We don't think the Tweety-and-Sylvester cartoon series to be worthy of release in full on home video, and so it won't be. There indeed are only fifteen good Tweety cartoons. And 'Hyde and Go Tweet' ain't one of them." Just say, "'Hyde and Hare' will not be in true High Definition on Blu-Ray, ever, because it is a rotten excuse for a cartoon." Just say, "Egghead, A. Flea, the Wacky Worm, Quentin Quail, et cetera are 'cartoon superstars' who merit full representation on home video, while Tweety, Sylvester, Foghorn Leghorn, and Road Runner do not." Say it, and let us "move on". I will successfully divorce my mind utterly from any hope of possessing a full library of my favourite portion of the oeuvre, and I will finally "shut my trap". That is what is wanted, right? So, do it. Do it and have done with it.
I am serious. I would advocate for the doing of this. I could then, if I choose to, turn to the bootleg market if I want to acquire the cartoons that I desire to have in High Definition. Why not? If they cannot be had commercially, on sanctioned product. And do so knowing that there is no possibility of the cartoons actually being released by Warner Archive, or Warner Home Video, at any time in the future.
Maybe I will make the proposal at what few forums of discussion still open to my participation. Not enough people read this Weblog for it to become a widely known idea.
Indeed. I am not exactly thrilled at the visitor statistics for this Weblog and my overall Website these days. Mid-winter used to be the time of year when traffic to my Web pages was highest. It is not high now. I can speculate as to why, but I am not going to bother. Right now, I am feeling like saying, "To hell with everything,", and calling everything quits. My friends are dying. My health is starting to decline. My country is going to hell in a handbasket. The future is grim. May as well just lose myself in memories of the past. Nothing I say or do will make things better. My fellow man and I are at cross-purposes, and will be until my final day. Which may not be very "far off".
Nothing more to say today.
Tuesday, January 30, 2024.
One more day, and another January passes into the ether.
I have purchased the Blu-Ray of The Day After Tomorrow- "Into Infinity", and it is presumably on its way to me now. I am very much looking forward to seeing how better it looks after an upscale using Artificial Intelligence technology, and to viewing the "making-of" documentary and hearing the audio commentary, both produced for this Blu-Ray release.
Big Finish has lost the licence from ITV to produce audio dramas of Space: 1999. This comes months after Powys Media was denied the rights to publish and sell Space: 1999 books. It appears that ITV is seeking to restrict the capacity to produce anything to do with Space: 1999, for some reason as yet unknown. Jeffrey Morris' production company appears to be unaffected by this as yet. So, too, Anderson Entertainment, whose Space: 1999 merchandise continues to be available. I have never bought or listened to a Big Finish audio drama. Not one of Space: 1999 or Doctor Who or anything else. My sympathies do go out to people who were hoping for a long life for Space: 1999 at Big Finish. At least, those fans not hostile to me and my particular appreciation of Space: 1999. What few of them that there are.
Ever the one to be self-aware, I have read through some of my Weblog entries of late last year, specifically the ones relating to "gaslighting", and found myself in a mind to enquire upon myself whether the accusations that I level at people on the matter of "gaslighting" could be turned back towards me. Whether I am guilty of projecting a sin on my part, of attempting to cause others to doubt themselves, onto others. Do I "gaslight"? Am I "gaslighting" when I am "having at" the detractors of Season 2 Space: 1999, questioning their mental development in observing the sorties that they launch against everything Season 2? Am I undermining their perceptions, or endeavouring to do so?
It seems to me that if a person's perceptions are limited by blinkeredness and wilful ignorance of positive attributes, those perceptions ought to be brought into question. It is an apt, perhaps a vital, way of calling attention to the positive attributes. And besides, I am responding to their attempts to "gaslight" me. Am I not permitted to respond? And surely there ought to be just cause to question the mentality of people who, nearly fifty years after the fact, are more vitriolic than ever against the television series season whose ringed changes they blame for the cessation of production of that television series. No mellowing at all over time. No recognition of points of view that are favourable to the put-upon season. Just reiterated hatred every day for that season and its deceased producer, ever more indelicately and bellicosely stated. Is it "gaslighting" to declare such behaviour questionable? I do not think so. In any case, I would be happy to stop, if they were willing to stop. But of course they are not. And the quislings who call themselves fans of Season 2 placate the vitriolic detractors by being self-deprecating and apologetic over their enjoyment of second season, calling it "guilty pleasure", or whatever. Or even joining in the attack "threads" of discussion, by "like-clicking" the derisive comments or saying that Season 2 may indeed be deeply flawed and deserving of unending disparagement. And that my experience of it, ought to be forever cheapened, debased. Deemed illegitimate. I am sorry. This warrants response and questioning.
Also, I do not deny the oft-cited strengths of first season. I acknowledge them. I would be a fool not to. I might have been unaware of some of them during my first viewings of the episodes of Season 1, but I have to affirm their existence. I am not trying to undermine perceptions of Season 1 Space: 1999 in the people who laud it. Only when those perceptions cause abject blinkeredness and hostility toward Season 2, and disrespect toward me, do I deign to have umbrage and to faultfind and question validity of perception, or lack thereof.
It is a sort of war. One of words. And the first salvo is never fired by me. Not in the Space: 1999 Alliance and Alpha League club days. Not in the Mailing List days. And not now. I was responding to the weaponising of first season against second and the foul slurring. Responding. As I have on this Weblog, over so many years.
Same thing went for the divisions within the Warner Brothers cartoon fan movement. I did not initially go into the cartoon discussions with anything other than a willingness to respect the viewpoints of others. Mind, I did think it certain that cartoon fans were predominantly singers of praises for the cartoons made from 1948 onward and shown on the television shows names of The Bugs Bunny Show, The Road Runner Show, The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour, et cetera. Cartoons that filled the videotapes and laser videodiscs sold under the Warner Home Video label. Cartoons made when the dean of cartoon directors, Mr. Jones, was at his zenith of creativity. To my shock, I discovered increasingly that the opinion of cartoon aficionados contributing to discussions, was not of a different bearing to that of the fans of Season 1 Space: 1999, and the pre-1948s were being weaponised against the post-1948s. And soon were the post-1948s in clear retreat on the DVD sets.
It is counter to everything that I believed about the cartoons. And counter to what my eyes and my sensibilities have long told to me. I need only watch a pre-1948 cartoon, especially those made long before 1948, to perceive that the look and the gag timing and the sophistication quotient of the ideas, of the latter set of cartoons, was much superior to what had come earlier. It is clear as day to me that a Bosko, a Buddy, or an early Porky is lacking in the pacing, the abstract design, and the wildly imaginative ideas of a Chuck Jones Road Runner cartoon. A cartoon like "From Hand to Mouse" is as far removed from a "One Froggy Evening" as could be envisioned. Friz Freleng's Tweety is profoundly more visually satisfying and refined as a character than that thing in "A Tale of Two Kitties". Painful situations are best thrown at the audience quickly, proceeded by an expression of dread on the face of the antagonist, followed by a fade to black, or a dissolve to another scene, as they usually are in Jones' Road Runners and Freleng's Tweeties, as opposed to the grotesquely and most irritatingly, patience-strainingly, protracted fall down the stairs by the drawn-by-compass, "roly-poly" hotel manager in "Porky Pig's Feat". Oh, how I was raked over the proverbial coals at the Termite Terrace Trading Post, for daring to criticise that!
The cartoons changed over time, refining themselves, because the cartoons as they were originally made, were not of the utmost appeal to the audiences of them. Characters with whom audiences would form a liking and a desire to see again and again, either did not exist as yet, or were in a very early, unrefined phase. The early cartoons lacked subtlety, were the product of cartoon directors with sparse self-confidence and pandering too much to the least discerning viewers. The wit of the writers of the later cartoons, just was not as yet there. The impressionistic layout and background design of such geniuses as Noble, Pratt, Wyner, DeGuard, and Richard H. Thomas were not as yet in evidence, or in an incipient stage. And so forth. If some people want those early cartoons, fair enough. But priority should be given to the years of the cartoon studio's stride. When the major characters were in the midst of their cartoon series. And ideas for them were pouring out of the minds of the directors and writers. This should be the orthodox viewpoint, and it frustrates me that it is not purported to be so. By the people who are being heeded by Mr. Beck and company.
There is no doubt in my mind that Jerry Beck has something against "Hyde and Go Tweet", and is letting his personal regard, or lack thereof, of the cartoon, override the evident popularity of it amongst cartoon "buffs", in the choosing of cartoons to populate DVD and Blu-Ray platters. Why do I say this? Well, for starters, "Hyde and Go Tweet" is being requested by fans, other than myself, of the cartoons. Requested at least as often as "Beanstalk Bunny" was before it finally reached digital videodisc. Why are those requests being ignored release after release after release? But to best illustrate how very apparent the wilful neglect of "Hyde and Go Tweet" tends to be, I propose to supply a list of all cartoons in the pioneering series of VHS videotapes of the cartoons of Warner Brothers, LOONEY TUNES GOLDEN JUBILEE 24 KARAT COLLECTION, showing how many of them have been given the nod for DVD and/or Blu-Ray release in restored form, and what the outliers are. As one can see, only six of the cartoons have not been called upon to grace the shiny digital videodisc in peak splendour. And "Hyde and Go Tweet" is one of those six.
"Robin Hood Daffy" YES
"Bedevilled Rabbit" YES
"Bad Ol' Putty Tat" YES
"Ballot Box Bunny" YES
"Past Perfumance" YES
"Little Boy Boo" YES
"Who's Kitten Who?" YES
"Rabbit of Seville" YES
"Birds Anonymous" YES
"High Diving Hare" YES
"Speedy Gonzales" YES
"A Mouse Divided" YES
"Bunker Hill Bunny" YES
"Show Biz Bugs" YES
"Greedy For Tweety" YES
"Knighty Knight Bugs" YES
"Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century" YES
"For Scent-imental Reasons" YES
"One Froggy Evening" YES
"Rabbit Seasoning" YES
"High Note" YES
"Feed the Kitty" YES
"Zoom and Bored" YES
"What's Opera, Doc?" YES
"Long-Haired Hare" YES
"Bunny Hugged" YES
"The Grey Hounded Hare" YES
"Roman Legion-Hare" YES
"Hare Do" YES
"Bully For Bugs" YES
"Ali Baba Bunny" YES
"Duck! Rabbit, Duck!" YES
"Duck Amuck" YES
"The Daffy Doc" YES
"Beanstalk Bunny" YES
"Deduce, You Say" YES
"Rabbit Fire" YES
"Drip-Along Daffy" YES
"The Scarlet Pumpernickel" YES
"Porky's Duck Hunt" YES
"Curtain Razor" YES
"Boobs in the Woods" YES
"Often an Orphan" YES
"You Ought to Be in Pictures" YES
"The Wearing of the Grin" YES
"Mouse Wreckers" YES
"Cracked Quack" YES
"Dough For the Do-Do" YES
"Fast and Furry-ous" YES
"Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z" YES
"Operation: Rabbit" YES
"Hook, Line, and Stinker" YES
"Zip 'n Snort" NO
"Ready, Woolen, and Able" NO
"Beep, Beep" YES
"To Beep or Not to Beep" YES
"Tweet and Lovely" NO
"Tweety and the Beanstalk" YES
"Tree For Two" YES
"The Last Hungry Cat" YES
"Mouse-Taken Identity" YES
"Tweety's S.O.S." YES
"Canned Feud" YES
"Hyde and Go Tweet" NO
"The Pied Piper of Guadalupe" YES
"Tortilla Flaps" YES
"Cat-Tails For Two" YES
"Cannery Woe" YES
"Lumber Jerks" YES
"Gonzales' Tamales" YES
"Here Today, Gone Tamale" YES
"Tabasco Road" YES
"Hare Brush" YES
"Design for Leaving" YES
"Bugs' Bonnets" YES
"Cat Feud" YES
"What's Up, Doc?" YES
"Lovelorn Leghorn" YES
"The Foghorn Leghorn" YES
"Plop Goes the Weasel!" YES
"The Leghorn Blows at Midnight" YES
"The Hypo-Chondri-Cat" YES
"Leghorn Swoggled" NO
"Feather Dusted" NO
"A Fractured Leghorn" YES
"Scent-imental Romeo" YES
"Past Perfumance" YES
"Really Scent" YES
"Odor of the Day" YES
"Who Scent You?" YES
"Much Ado About Nutting" YES
"The Cat's Bah" YES
"For Scent-imental Reasons" YES
And in the early 1990s, there was a laser videodisc including "Hyde and Go Tweet", name of LOONEY TUNES AFTER DARK. "Hyde and Go Tweet" is the only cartoon on that laser videodisc, not to reach DVD or Blu-Ray, fully restored.
"Jumpin' Jupiter" YES
"Water, Water Every Hare" YES
"Bewitched Bunny" YES
"Hyde and Hare" YES
"Night of the Living Duck" YES
"Transylvania 6-5000" YES
"The Wearing of the Grin" YES
"Scaredy Cat" YES
"Broom-Stick Bunny" YES
"Hyde and Go Tweet" NO
"Hare-Way to the Stars" YES
"The Abominable Snow Rabbit" YES
"The Duxorcist" YES
"The Hasty Hare" YES
But why stop at LOONEY TUNES AFTER DARK? I will list all of the cartoons on the other laser videodiscs output by Warner Brothers, of the Warner Brothers cartoons, in North America. And note which ones are on DVD and/or Blu-Ray fully remastered, and which are not.
"A Bear for Punishment" YES
"Dog Gone South" YES
"Boyhood Daze" YES
"Pests For Guests" NO
"Mouse Wreckers" YES
"A Sheep in the Deep" NO
"Rabbit's Kin" YES
"Feed the Kitty" YES
"The Hypo-Chondri-Cat" YES
"From A to Z-Z-Z-Z" YES
"Chow Hound" YES
"Strife with Father" YES
"Bear Feat" YES
"Feline Frame-Up" YES
"Gone Batty" YES
"A Hound For Trouble" YES
"Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century" YES
"Duck! Rabbit, Duck!" YES
"Drip-Along Daffy" YES
"The Super Snooper" YES
"Daffy Duck Hunt" YES
"Muscle Tussle" NO
"Don't Axe Me" NO
"Stork Naked" YES
"Robin Hood Daffy" YES
"Ali Baba Bunny" YES
"Cracked Quack" YES
"Daffy Dilly" YES
"Golden Yeggs" YES
"Duck Amuck" YES
"Often an Orphan" YES
"You Ought to Be in Pictures" YES
"The Pest That Came to Dinner" YES
"The Ducksters" YES
"Dog Collared" YES
"Porky in Wackyland" YES
"Deduce, You Say" YES
"Porky Pig's Feat" YES
"Claws For Alarm" YES
"The Prize Pest" YES
"The Case of the Stuttering Pig" YES
"Thumb Fun" YES
"Awful Orphan" YES
"Boobs in the Woods" YES
"Rabbit of Seville" YES
"One Froggy Evening" YES
"Hillbilly Hare" YES
"Curtain Razor" YES
"What's Up, Doc?" YES
"Nelly's Folly" YES
"The Scarlet Pumpernickel" YES
"Show Biz Bugs" YES
"Three Little Bops" YES
"Baton Bunny" YES
"High Note" YES
"Long-Haired Hare" YES
"Tweety's Circus" NO
"What's Opera, Doc?" YES
"The Fair Haired Hare" YES
"Bully For Bugs" YES
"Hare Do" YES
"Captain Hareblower" YES
"My Bunny Lies Over the Sea" YES
"High Diving Hare" YES
"Rabbit Seasoning" YES
"Bunny Hugged" YES
"Ballot Box Bunny" YES
"Box Office Bunny" YES
"Big House Bunny" YES
"Rabbit Hood" YES
"Hare Trimmed" YES
"Mississippi Hare" YES
"Rabbit Fire" YES
"Hare Lift" YES
"Big Top Bunny" YES
"Robot Rabbit" YES
"Rabbit Every Monday" YES
"Bedevilled Rabbit" YES
"8 Ball Bunny" YES
"Mutiny on the Bunny" YES
"To Hare is Human" YES
"Beanstalk Bunny" YES
"Knights Must Fall" YES
"14 Carrot Rabbit" YES
"Rebel Rabbit" YES
"Bunker Hill Bunny" YES
"Bugsy and Mugsy" YES
"My Little Duckaroo" YES
"Catty Cornered" YES
"The Blow Out" YES
"Don't Give Up the Sheep" YES
"Porky's Movie Mystery" YES
"Baby Buggy Bunny" YES
"The Stupor Salesman" YES
"Bye, Bye, Bluebeard" YES
"Boston Quackie" NO
"Riff Raffy Daffy" YES
"Dough Ray Me-Ow" YES
"Rocket Squad" YES
"Bugs and Thugs" YES
"Mouse Mazurka" NO
"Frigid Hare" YES
"A Pizza Tweety-Pie" NO
"French Rarebit" YES
"The Timid Toreador" YES
"Trip For Tat" NO
"Little Beau Pepé" YES
"Sahara Hare" YES
"Polar Pals" YES
"A Scent of the Matterhorn" YES
"Roman Legion-Hare" YES
"Dough For the Do-Do" YES
"The Cat's Bah" YES
"Hare We Go" YES
"Fast and Furry-ous" YES
"Beep, Beep" YES
"Going! Going! Gosh!" YES
"Operation: Rabbit" YES
"Zipping Along" YES
"Stop! Look! And Hasten!" YES
"Ready.. Set.. Zoom!" YES
"Guided Muscle" YES
"Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z" YES
"There They Go-Go-Go!" YES
"Scrambled Aches" YES
"Zoom and Bored" YES
"Whoa, Be-Gone!" YES
"Hopalong Casualty" NO
"A Bird in a Guilty Cage" YES
"Canned Feud" YES
"All a Bir-r-r-d" YES
"Greedy For Tweety" YES
"Bad Ol' Putty Tat" YES
"Pop 'im Pop!" YES
"Gift Wrapped" YES
"A Mouse Divided" YES
"Birds Anonymous" YES
"Kit For Cat" YES
"Tweety's S.O.S." YES
"Stooge For a Mouse" YES
"Dog Pounded" YES
"Tree For Two" YES
"A-Lad-in His Lamp" NO
"Little Red Rodent Hood" YES
"The Windblown Hare" YES
"Yankee Dood it" YES
"Pied Piper Porky" YES
"Lumber Jack-Rabbit" YES
"Goldimouse and the Three Cats" YES
"Knighty Knight Bugs" YES
"Porky's Hero Agency" YES
"Tweety and the Beanstalk" YES
"Rabbitson Crusoe" YES
"Porky the Giant Killer" YES
"Red Riding Hoodwinked" YES
"Paying the Piper" YES
"Hyde and Go Tweet" is one of only twelve cartoons in the Looney Tunes laser videodiscs range output by Warner Home Video, not to have a DVD or Blu-Ray release in restored magnificence. There is, in point of fact, a disturbingly high proportion of Tweety cartoons on the laser videodiscs, in the not-on-DVD-and/or-Blu-Ray designation. With regard to North America.
How many of the cartoons used for Daffy Duck's Quackbusters have not reached DVD and/or Blu-Ray in fully restored form? Yes. Again, only one. "Hyde and Go Tweet".
"The Night of the Living Duck" YES
"Daffy Dilly" YES
"The Prize Pest" YES
"Water, Water Every Hare" YES
"Hyde and Go Tweet" NO
"Claws For Alarm" YES
"The Duxorcist" YES
"Transylvania 6-5000" YES
"The Abominable Snow Rabbit" YES
"Punch Trunk" YES
Have I rested my case yet? Not quite. How many of the cartoons in the post-GOLDEN JUBILEE, LOONEY TUNES CARTOON CAVALCADE videotapes have reached DVD and/or Blu-Ray?
"A-Lad-in His Lamp" NO
"Knight-Mare Hare" YES
"The Windblown Hare" YES
"Rabbitson Crusoe" YES
"Rabbit Hood" YES
"A Witch's Tangled Hare" YES
"The Super Snooper" YES
"Daffy Duck Hunt" YES
"You Were Never Duckier" YES
"Golden Yeggs" YES
"Dime to Retire" YES
"A Star is Bored" YES
"The Awful Orphan" YES
"The Pest That Came to Dinner" YES
"Jumpin' Jupiter" YES
"My Little Duckaroo" YES
"Dog Collared" YES
"China Jones" YES
"A-Lad-in His Lamp", I can see being potentially problematic for home video release today because of the Arab stereotypes therein.
I could list the cartoons in other releases. The STARS OF SPACEJAM videotapes, for example. But it would only serve to reinforce my contention. The lion's share of the cartoons on VHS videotape and laser videodisc, have been given the nod for DVD and/or Blu-Ray, and "Hyde and Go Tweet" is being targeted for exclusion. There is no reason for it other than bias. Bias on the part of Jerry Beck, whose book, I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat: Fifty Years of Sylvester and Tweety, only referred to "Hyde and Go Tweet" when it had to, in the listing and synopses of the cartoons, and even then, the entry was perfunctory, even misspelling the name of the notorious doctor and inventor of the Hyde Formula.
So, what is to be done? Nothing that I say is going to have any sway. Nor, it seems, the want lists of cartoon enthusiasts other than myself.
Enough for today, I think.
Saturday, February 3, 2024.
New Brunswick was walloped yesterday by a snowstorm. It snowed all day. A plus to the stormy weather and the overcast skies in its accompaniment, was that the groundhog did not see his shadow. Early spring for my region of the world. If the groundhog's power of prognostication is to be believed.
I have not wavered in my efforts to be as thorough as possible in my provision of the CBC broadcast history for Space: 1999. I was cognizant already of CBKT- Regina, Saskatchewan, having rerun Space: 1999 sometime after CBHT, along with CBIT and CBCT, ceased airing Moonbase Alpha's transstellar odyssey in April of 1985. My erstwhile friend of the city of Regina, the person for whom the Kevin McCorry-denigrating Calgarian was far more worthy and desirable than I as a correspondent, buddy, and collaborator in the exaltation of Space: 1999, told to me once that CBKT did give to Space: 1999 a repeat run in the mid-1980s. He even showed to me a videotape-recording that he had of "Death's Other Dominion" from that CBKT Space: 1999 repeat run. Yesterday, I decided to do a search for Space: 1999 in mid-1980s issues of Regina's daily newspaper, The Regina Leader-Post. And I found it. On Saturday morning of all places on the weekly television programming grid. Nestled between Star Trek and The Twilight Zone in a Saturday A.M. block of science fiction/fantasy. CBKT is the same CBC broadcaster that, in the 1975-6 television season, showed Cosmos 1999 on Saturday mornings. I question the judgement of its programme management department. Star Trek and The Twilight Zone may have been of sufficient restraint in the blood-and-gore body horror element, and also that of sexual tension, to air, without complaint, on Saturday morning. Maybe. But Space: 1999? I do not think so. Lest anyone say that Space: 1999- Season 2 in having aired on Saturday morning in Canada in mid-1980s Regina, proves right a particular person making a statement with which I have had so much umbrage, I need to be clear that he said that Season 2 Space: 1999 aired on Saturday morning in Canada in 1976-7, on first run. Not in regional repeats in the 1980s. And on that, he was wrong. And besides, one misguided programme manager in one Canadian city, is not representative of country-wide practice where Space: 1999 is concerned.
Still, Star Trek, Space: 1999, and The Twilight Zone is a television programming block, that merits appreciation as an idea. Star Trek and The Twilight Zone were already mated on CBKT on Saturday morning before Space: 1999 joined them in early November of 1985. Starting November 2, 1985, Star Trek was offered by CBKT at 9 A.M., Space: 1999 at 10, and The Twilight Zone at 11. With one exception, airtime for Space: 1999 was constant in CBKT's re-engagement with John Koenig and the people of Alpha Moonbase. Alas, I have been unable to find a single synopsis for a Space: 1999 episode on CBKT from 2 November, 1985 onward. The only nuggets of information that I can provide are those of airdate and airtime. And the number of Space: 1999 broadcasts that there were on CBKT from 2 November, 1985. There were forty-seven broadcasts, spanning the final two months of 1985, and then persisting through nine months in 1986, with only one week on which there was a preemption.
In 1985, the Space: 1999 package of episodes available for broadcast in Canada, was down to forty. Both parts of "The Bringers of Wonder" were removed from the package earlier than CBKST's showing of the television programme in 1981 and in 1982. CBHT showed "Breakaway", "War Games", "Collision Course", "Black Sun", "The Metamorph", and "Space Warp" between 1983 and 1985 only once, before they vanished and were not to be shown a second time in the 1983-5 telecasting of Space: 1999 by CBHT and its fellow two CBC-owned-and-operated CBC Television broadcasters in the eastern Maritimes of Canada, whereas almost all other episodes did grace the television screens accessing CBHT, CBIT, CBCT two times betwixt 1983 and 1985. With CBKT only having access to forty episodes, what does there being forty-seven broadcasts on CBKT in 1985 and in 1986, mean? My best guess would be that seven episodes aired twice. At least seven. Possibly eight. If as I suspect "One Moment of Humanity" was left out of the episodes transmitted. As it had been on CBHT. I doubt that there would be seven or eight preemptions contrary to television listings, unless CBKT was very prone to unheralded television programming changes.
It is curious that CBKST, CBRT, and CBKT all gave to Space: 1999 a single year of regional repeats, whereas CBHT, CBIT, CBCT allocated to it nearly two years of such. It could be that Space: 1999 received higher ratings in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, than it did in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Or maybe my letter to the CBC in 1982 gave to Canada's foremost television network impetus to install Space: 1999 in the broadcasting schedule for CBHT, CBIT, CBCT, for nearly two years rather than only one.
But enough of the preamble. Here is the broadcast history, such as it is with my present accumulation of information, for Space: 1999 on CBKT in 1985 and in 1986.
CBC Saskatchewan Regional Broadcasts (1985-6) Saturdays CBC Saskatchewan Stations 2- CKSA- Lloydminster, Alberta/Saskatchewan (did not show the television series in this rerun) 3- CKOS- Yorkton, Saskatchewan (did not show the television series in this rerun) 5- CKBI- Prince Albert, Saskatchewan (did not show the television series in this rerun) 5a- CJFB- Swift Current, Saskatchewan (did not show the television series in this rerun) 9- CBKT- Regina, Saskatchewan 11- CBKST- Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (did not show the television series in this rerun) Date Channels Episode Airtime Nov. 2, 1985 9 unknown 10 A.M. Nov. 9, 1985 9 unknown 10 A.M. Nov. 16, 1985 9 unknown 10 A.M. Nov. 23, 1985 9 unknown 10 A.M. Nov. 30, 1985 9 unknown 10 A.M. Dec. 7, 1985 9 unknown 10 A.M. Dec. 14, 1985 9 unknown 10 A.M. Dec. 21, 1985 9 unknown 10 A.M. Dec. 28, 1985 9 unknown 10 A.M. Jan. 4, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Jan. 11, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Jan. 18, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Jan. 25, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Feb. 1, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Feb. 8, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Feb. 15, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Feb. 22, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Mar. 1, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Mar. 8, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Mar. 15, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Mar. 22, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Mar. 29, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Apr. 5, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Apr. 12, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Apr. 19, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Apr. 26, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. May 3, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. May 10, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. May 17, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. May 24, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. May 31, 1986 Preemption Jun. 7, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Jun. 14, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Jun. 21, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Jun. 28, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Jul. 5, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Jul. 12, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Jul. 19, 1986 9 unknown 1 P.M. Jul. 26, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Aug. 2, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Aug. 9, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Aug. 16, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Aug. 23, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Aug. 30, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Sept. 6, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Sept. 13, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Sept. 20, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M. Sept. 27, 1986 9 unknown 10 A.M.Staying on the subject of Space: 1999, I have to report that a notably nasty barrage of attacks against second season Space: 1999 has been launched over the past couple of days. At one of the now publicly visible Facebook Space: 1999 groups (there are now two of those, I do believe). As it has been quite a long time since I last did a substantive response to the Space: 1999 fans' arrogant, bellicose assaults on the television series that captured my imagination, I propose to venture again into the fray, as it were.
I cannot be bothered scouring the group's discussions for the particular statement and quote it verbatim, but somebody said that Koenig and Russell were on their way to bed for some sex at the end of virtually all episodes of Season 2. And that this is his basis for not considering Season 2 to be worthy of being on the same mantle as Season 1.
Episodes, please. Examples. No. None forthcoming. The person does not "back up" his statement with examples. But I can point to examples to the contrary. There is no indication that Koenig and Russell were going to have a romantic encounter at end of "The Metamorph". Or end of "The Exiles" (Koenig is rebuffed by Helena there). Or end of "One Moment of Humanity", "All That Glisters", "The Rules of Luton", "New Adam New Eve", or "Catacombs of the Moon". Definitely not "The Beta Cloud" (neither Koenig nor Russell are even in the epilogue for that). Not "Seed of Destruction" (which ends with the replica Koenig being reduced to a lump of crystal and no light-hearted moment at all). Not "A Matter of Balance" (Helena is not in the epilogue for that). Definitely not "The Bringers of Wonder: Part 1" (which ends with Koenig being smothered by an alien). Nor "The Bringers of Wonder: Part 2" (in which Koenig falls asleep in his command chair). Certainly not "Dorzak" (which Koenig is not in). Not "Devil's Planet". And not "The Immunity Syndrome". This is fifteen episodes. A clear majority. As to the others. Koenig gives a kiss to Helena in Medical Centre to end "Journey to Where". A kiss. That need not be a precursor to a "romp in the hay". What is with my fellow Generation Xers? Are they incapable of acknowledging that not every romantic encounter need be a sexual one. Most of the other not yet here mentioned epilogues with Koenig and Russell have them being flirty or verbally playful with each other. That does not mean by necessity that they are about to rush off from Command Centre to have sexual intercourse. Space: 1999 is not James Bond. There are enough epilogues in which romance between Koenig and Russell is not even suggested, for me to quash this particular angle of attack. A simple survey of the episodes ought to be instantaneous in the minds of the fans who are reading the person's "gripe". And, as usual, no one challenges it. No one corrects it. It is allowed to go uncontested as though it were incontrovertible truth. Refusing to state the truth in reaction to a falsehood, allowing that falsehood to go unchecked, is dishonesty. Dishonesty by omission rather than by incitation, but still dishonesty.
And the attackers say, "Boo-hoo-hoo," and, "The truth hurts", to the couple of people with a positive thing or two to say about Season 2, or a desire to see Season 2 resting on the same timeline as that of Season 1, followed by a "slap-down" with "blooper", "blooper", "blooper", or "dumbing-down", or "monster of the week", rubber, rubber, rubber, Landau hated it, no Barry Morse means no quality, "serial killer Freddie", yada, yada, yada. One person said with absolute clarity that anyone believing that first and second season can co-exist on a chronology, is stupid. As if there is no possibility of a bridge episode accounting for most of the differences between seasons. One would be correct to extrapolate that this can be seen to mean that I am meant to be stupid. And John Kenneth Muir and his colleagues at Powys Media. And David Hirsch, writer of The Space: 1999 Technical Notebook. And Martin Willey and Shane Johnson, both of whom have scribed pan-Space: 1999-television-series chronologies. Being as we all propose second season to follow first season on a timeline. Them more than me, I suppose, as they have been widely acknowledged in fandom of Space: 1999 for their work while I have not. Stupidity, eh? So, we are all stupid, while people whose notable scribed words with regard to Space: 1999 consist solely of brief and outright rude comments on a single and blinkered line of thought, in a Facebook group, are supreme geniuses. Okay, for the sake of argument that this is the case, I will ask if being pridefully of closed mind and arrogantly ignorant is the best way to use one's gift of intelligence. No. It is not. Indeed, it is stupid to not consider that one may not know all that there is to know about Space: 1999, as these people do in their rejection of everything written on the subject of the aesthetics of Space: 1999 second season.
One person came to defence of second season on some other item, and he was immediately subjected to an attempted "gaslighting", with, "Are different opinions of the show something you take personally?" "Yes!!!" I holler! Yes! Bloody damned yes! My attachment to Space: 1999 is deeply personal. It is intertwined quite intricately with my social existence in important eras of my life, eras that define my identity. My reputation is in no small part informed by it. People think of me when they see or hear mention of Space: 1999. They remember my veneration of it. They will use a viewed derision of Space: 1999, on Facebook or wherever, in forming latter-day opinion of me as I was and as I am. And it offends me to be deemed of deficient taste or faulty intellect. It ought to offend anybody. And if these obnoxious fans were not so sorely lacking in self-awareness, they would need not ask the question, for they themselves have identities and reputations intricately connected with their following, for most of their life, of Space: 1999.
To suggest that there is something wrong with someone who is personally offended at having their long-standing fidelity to a work, that fidelity being an essential component to his or her identity, being cheapened, slurred, portrayed as illegitimate, is a bold-faced attempt at "gaslighting". And having it being insinuated day after day after day that one's tastes are abnormal in the oh, so vaunted group-think, and that the only valid opinion that can be had is that second season is comparable to the foulest substances, and that one's interest in it is a bastardisation, is definitely a matter of personal offence. How do these people feel when Season 1 is attacked, as it was a few years ago by Kevin Smith? They react with offence. Of course. And their empathy for others who are sensitive is, as always, non-existent. While slinging epithets like, "Boo-hoo-hoo", is an indication of an arrested development. I expect that sort of retort from a saucy little girl. Not an adult in his or her fifties.
Someone says, in a disparaging comment, that Maya was to Space: 1999 what Hawk was to Buck Rogers. What was wrong with Hawk? I think even the Buck Rogers fans who regard the second production block of that to have been inferior to the first, do tend to like Hawk as a character. His friendship with Buck was a highlight of second season Buck Rogers. And again, of course, no refutation from anyone. Just some "right-on"s from the copious fans of same anti-Season 2 persuasion. And pronouncements that Season 2 Buck Rogers was just as foul, just as execrable, as Season 2 of Space: 1999, and that the two were parallel. Does anyone proffer the opposing point of view? Of course not. Where is the balance? Where is the debate? The debate that Season 1 versus Season 2 is said to be? Debate? Pah! It is a pile-on. A wolf-packing. The invective becoming ever more hate-filled and matter-of-factly stated in its vile slurring. One person after another saying that they hate second season. Yes. After nearly fifty years. Still hate. No mellowing whatsoever. The contention that Fred Freiberger ruins everything that he touches. The Wild Wild West never mentioned in his defence. Nor the routinely praised third season Star Trek episodes. No mention that the final season of The Six Million Dollar Man had another producer who was responsible for half of the episodes of that, or that five seasons was a good life for a television show of The Six Million Dollar Man's pedigree.
Buck Rogers and the changes between its seasons, is not quite a satisfying parallel to draw, for Season 2 Space: 1999. First season of Buck Rogers was action-adventure. There was very little philosophical comment in it. Episodes ended in a light-hearted manner, often with a laugh. Second season of Buck Rogers opted for a more considered approach to subject matter. It had a philosophising elder scientist, Dr. Goodfellow, in a similar vein to the pensive Bergman character of first season Space: 1999. Its episodes had "cold openings", or prologues, like those of Space: 1999- Season 1 did. Light-hearted endings were reduced. One might say that the changes to Buck Rogers between seasons, were the opposite to what changes were made to Space: 1999. Apart from the addition of a resident alien. And the "rip-off" of "The Bringers of Wonder" that was "Mark of the Saurian". The differences between the second seasons of the two television series, do tend to confound an effort to draw an all-things-considered, thoroughly apt parallel. Surely a reasonable person can see this.
These people's grudge against Season 2 Space: 1999 which they blame for their favourite science fiction/fantasy work not being long-lived (no objective evidence that such a long life was possible), makes them unreasonable, extremely unpleasant, nasty, despicable. They say things about Season 2 that are plainly wrong, and are venerated for it with Facebook "thumbs-up" and a chorus of approving comments. The gentleman (I am being respectful in calling him such, perhaps overly so or needlessly so) who once proclaimed (wrongly, as I have showed) that Season 2 of Space: 1999 aired on Saturday morning in Canada in 1976-7, is having another go at denouncing the twenty-four episodes of production block two of Space: 1999. This time, he is rejecting the statement that first season was cancelled in late autumn of 1975, and contends that Space: 1999 resumed production with ringed changes done by a production company only because of a compulsion to fix something that "ain't broke", and done solely on the purview of a no-talent who only ever ruins television programmes. The clear intent is disparagement of second season as the only season of Space: 1999 ever to have production cancelled.
The facts are that Lew Grade declared Space: 1999 cancelled in late autumn of 1975, Nick Tate did return to Australia, believing, as his colleagues did, that Space: 1999 was "done for", and Fred Freiberger's memories are that it appeared that Space: 1999 was finished before he and Gerry Anderson "came up" with Maya. The first season's particular "take" on the Space: 1999 premise, was effectively terminated. A second season using the same premise but with changes, was green-lit, but with the proviso that production be speeded and budgets be kept within certain limit. Production values remained higher than those of any other television series of the mid-to-late-1970s, imagination was abundant, and criticisms of first season were considered. A faction of fandom groused about the changes and opted to "tune out". Second season was Space: 1999's last. But science fiction/fantasy television's fortunes being what they were in the 1970s, and ITC being what it was, a full two seasons of Space: 1999 is nothing to "sneeze at".
But the fans of Space: 1999 are not appreciative of what they have. Two full seasons of encounters of Moonbase Alpha. Both brimming with stunning depictions and science fiction/fantasy concepts. No. It is just "gripe", "gripe", and "gripe". And "bitch", "bitch", and "bitch". All that they do is "bitch". And scapegoat. And play verbal one-upmanship. The most glib, the most sweeping, the most intransigently rancourous, the most in-favour within the predominant section of the group, proclamations being the ones granted legitimacy. Minority point of view is deemed deluded and valueless. Focus on "bloopers" is solely upon the episodes of Season 2. Of course there are lapses in production. Same is true for any television series for which episodes are produced in six to ten days. First season of Space: 1999 had its share of mistakes. Despite having had a fifteen-month filming schedule. But the errors need not be damning of any production whose efforts at envisaging other worlds is laudable and whose imagination factor is high, whose visual beauty is abundant, and whose special effects, calibre of actors and actresses, and cadre of scriptwriters are of second-to-none repute. And Space: 1999, both seasons, can boast that.
Here is a criticism that I will quote.
"Never liked the Tony character, too much of a hothead. Maya was great, and always looked forward to Allen."
Alan Carter. Not Allen Carter. Has this person never once read the end credits of a Season 1 episode? Or read any of the novelisations? Tony being a "hothead" is a generalisation. He had tender moments. Jokey moments. Moments when he was being compassionate with other characters. Annette Fraser in "The Metamorph", for instance. But he had to be "hard-nosed" and no-nonsense as Chief of Security. And if he was suspicious of someone, like Carolyn Powell in "The Lambda Factor", his concern for the safety of Alpha made him impatient and excitable. I do not doubt that Tony had a fiery Italian way about him. He was written that way. But it is a mistake to assert that such was all that there was to him. Look at his pronouncement of his love for Maya in "The Beta Cloud". And what about Paul Morrow? Was he also not angry a considerable amount of the time? Not that I believe there to be anything wrong with that, mind. Space: 1999 is an ensemble of different characters. Each one having not only a different expertise but a different personality. Temperaments differ. And the television show is the better for it. Who wants a television show in which characters are interchangeable? Not me.
Plans are continuing to be made for that Space: 1999 celebration in London, to be happening later this year. Announced today is a showing of an alternate edit of "The Metamorph" found on one of Martin Landau's videotapes. One in which Maya turns into an orange tree while talking with Mentor, along with some other footage that was not used for the final cut of second season’s first episode. Why? Why show it? Surely the lion's share of the fans present will be of the hate-Season 2 persuasion, and all that can be expected will be proclamations of derision. Maybe this is what is intended. To belittle, demoralise, and attempt to "gaslight" the small number of people who do not harbour intense disdain for the material, or anyone who happens to think it worthy of appreciation. Of course, if Maya can become vegetation in "The Seance Spectre", why cannot she become an orange tree? Indeed. Still, I think it was best not to have a transformation into plant life until the later episodes. The ones of what Dean called the Third Province. The scene was rightly deleted. But back on topic. What is "the point" in having the convention be about Season 2 at all? I mean, it is only the "delusional" garbage humans like myself who wish to see Season 2 celebrated. We need to be "gaslit", dishonoured, cast into oblivion as beings of zero worth, like the fecal-matter-loving filth that we are, no? This is the attitude of the preeminent ones who say, "Boo-hoo-hoo," when anyone protests their aesthetic tastes, sensibilities, and memories being trampled upon by the hoofs of the herd. Dear God, I cannot abide these people. They are my curse, as indeed is everything else "meted out" to me by Karma since 1977.
Already, the declaration of the orange tree transformation is being received with scorn and ridicule. Do these people have imagination so constricted that a plant having sentience on a planet in another galaxy, is utterly unbelievable? Are there not cultures on Earth today that regard nature and several of its non-animal components such as plants, to have souls? What about the Gaia principle? Oh, to hell with it. Just burn all of Season 2, every film element, every videotape, every laser videodisc, every DVD, every Blu-Ray of it, and tell people who mourn the loss not to be “crybabies”. I do not doubt that the vast majority of Space: 1999 fans would love this. They may dream about it on many a night.
Rant for today, done. Nothing else to say for today.
Friday, February 9, 2024.
Winter continues with no end in sight, despite the groundhog having not seen his shadow. And persisting as February progresses, is my knee problem. It is worse than ever. Very swollen. Walking is painful. Standing as I leave my bed in the morning reveals a leg so weak that even standing is difficult. Walking much more so. I am starting to think that not even the arrival of warm weather, whenever that will be, and the ability to walk on warm pavement under Vitamin D-generating sunshine, will give to me some respite from my affliction.
I am trying some tumeric, as it has been said to relieve inflammation. But I am dubious of any benefit in my case.
Once more into the breach, dear readers.
Some of the persons populating one of the Space: 1999 Facebook groups had this to say about one of the usual "whipping boys" of the oh, so contemptible Freiberger season, the episode, "All That Glisters".
"The part where the crew discovers Tony's heart has stopped beating but the rest of his organs are still working never fails to crack me up. Did Fred F and his team do ANY medical research before filming this?"
"I found that a very odd choice by the writers. Dr Russell just had to say he was showing some kind of new, previously unknown type of brain activity and the audience would pretty much have to accept it."
"My niece the nurse laughed out loud when she watched that scene; 'O-Kay, Uncle Ed...' (Eye roll.) Anyway yeah some kind of explanation (maybe his heartbeat was slower?) would've been preferable."
My eyes roll, too. At the inability, or stubborn refusal, of people to suspend disbelief and accept that they are no longer on Earth when they are following, as viewers, the Moonbase Alphans' reconnaissances to alien (I say again, alien) planets. Where is it ever stated in either season of Space: 1999 that the same rules apply to other planets in distant galaxies, as they do to Earth? The tagline of Space: 1999 is, "Escape to worlds beyond belief." Viewer suspension of disbelief, with a broadened imagination, is what is expected.
From the first time that I saw "All That Glisters" in English, on CBC Television, on 5 February, 1977, I understood and accepted that the rock had stopped Tony's heart and was in control of his bodily functions, as Tony was now its instrument, to do with as it chose. The rock had the uncanny ability to keep Tony alive while his heart was stopped. As it was also able to prevent the circuits of Eagle Four's flight systems and long-range communications from functioning, and to only permit the Eagle to operate when it wanted it to do so. I have no issues with this. Period. And if the first season pundits were consistent in their adulation for metaphysics and Mysterious Unknown Forces, they ought not to have issues either. Indeed, it is they who are most fervid in singing the praises of there being metaphysical elements and a Mysterious Unknown Force in first season episodes. Helena and Maya both say that the answer to Tony's bizarre condition is in the rock. I say again, in... the... rock. There is something intangible in the rock that is causing Tony to be as he is. It must be accepted that what is happening to Tony is extraordinary, beyond the medical and scientific experience of the Chief Medical Officer and Science Officer. And this is quite at home in a television series that has had Commander Koenig say, "If we think we know everything that goes on out there, we're making a terrible mistake," in an acclaimed episode of first season. And has had Helena say, "Eva, we're living in deep space. There are so many things that we don't understand." In yet another Season 1 episode basking in the limelight of favour. The rock in "All That Glisters" is able to do things that confound the medical knowledge of Dr. Russell. This is all that there is to it. No need to be snide about the writers not consulting medical journals. And if "cracking up" is the tendency of a certain viewer when presented with a phenomenon that runs counter to accepted norms on Earth, that is his particular idiosyncracy. And he need not be pandered-to by the television show. And his is an idiosyncracy that I suspect is quite selective in what it chooses to scoff-at. I see no mention of any issues on his part, with Regina Kesslann having two brains in first season's "Another Time, Another Place", or with the alien force in first season's "Force of Life" being able, somehow, to immobilise the bodies of everyone on Alpha except for Anton Zoref.
There is no shortage of these people, and no abundance of persons willing to rebut what such people are arrogantly, smugly saying. I am writing rebuttals, of course, but I do not count, for I am garbage. All that is needed, I think, for countering and curtailing the daily sniping at all things Season 2, is for a small number of people, say five or six, to rally to Season 2's defence and to "have each other's backs" if ad hominems, provocations, and "gaslighting" efforts are wielded. But evidently, second season does not have a fandom as confident and as steadfast and as robust as that. Such a pity. Such a travesty.
I have asked the question before and will do so again. Why are these people watching second season episodes when they despise them so much? Why show them to younger family members? Why not just watch Season 1 and ignore the second season episodes completely? Are they trying to "groom" a new generation of revilers of Season 2? Are they looking for new angles of attack, to receive gratifying plaudits from their fellows in the fan movement, and to reaffirm their disdain and thereby stroke their ego in adding more seemingly apt "back up" of their position? So that they have new things to laugh at and about which to feel superior to the garbage humans such as I who are so "dumb" as to fancy "dumbed down" entertainment?
"Series 2 had more than its share of silliness and dumbed-down storylines, but I believe the real problem with this episode was the very choppy development of the plot. Every time there was any kind of puzzle they just took a wild guess and moved on, never really exploring the mysteries they were facing."
Silliness. The refrain of people whose breadth of imagination is constricted. No specific examples to which for me to respond. "Dumbed-down storylines", eh? The standard Season 2 hater's attestation that second season episodes are "dumbed down" in their writing, because not everything is explained. Detail is "economised". "Plot holes"? They exist in most everything. Even first season's loftily touted "Black Sun" has its share of questionable story elements. If Ryan's Eagle is unable to escape the black sun, then surely the "survival ship" ought not to be able to, either. Especially as the Moon is very much closer to the collapsar than Ryan's Eagle was, when the "survival ship" is launched. It ought to be turned into the same Picasso-esque mess. So, why launch it? How about Bergman not recognising the black sun on sight, and not sharing his suspicions about the space phenomenon with Koenig, and not commlocking Koenig and instead wasting valuable time running to Main Mission, when he has computer confirmation of his hypothesis? Does not that warrant criticism? Not everything happening in first season episodes, is explained. But because Bergman runs his hand through his hair and Koenig sits at his desk looking pensively upward, and someone says that what is happening is beyond explanation, all is good. So contends the anti-Season 2 brigade. The principle of "economy of detail" is inadmissible for Season 2 by these people's reckoning. Simply "because". Or "because Freiberger". "Because rubber." "Because Landau hated." I roll my eyes again.
Just because these people do not like the concepts, or their imaginations are insufficiently broadened for them, does not mean they are necessarily silly, objectively wrong, or that the episodes that they underpin, are, without bias, wrong or bad.
The Alphans, it seems to me, are responding to the crisis with the rock in as rational a way as possible given a paucity of available evidence to thoroughly test hypotheses. Sometimes, they have to improvise. To make "wild guesses", and then increase their knowledge out of how their "wild guesses" affect their predicament. Time is limited and "running out". And the "wild guesses" really are not as "wild" as the critic is asserting. It is quite logical for Koenig to ask Maya to try to communicate with the rock. The rock wanting to not leave the rest of itself behind, after it having aborted its launch of the Eagle, is a reasonable inference. And "breaking the rock's hold" upon Tony by stunning him, is worth trying as Tony is moving to collect more splinters of the main rock formation. Dehydrating the rock using concentrated, four-barrel laser energy, is also reasonable to pursue as a strategy for defeating the rock, knowing, as the Alphans do, that the rock needs water. I have no issues with how the episode unfolds, with the Alphans, under time constraint, working to increase knowledge with which to extricate themselves from the situation. Time is limited. The Alphans in "All That Glisters" are in a predicament with a time limit. They have to approach the crisis with the rock in the way that they do.
On and on and on and on it goes.
By the way, while I was watching Season 1's "Collision Course", last evening, I saw some of those "bloopers" that are alleged only to exist in Season 2. While Bergman is talking to Koenig near start of Act 1, a leg of a production light stand is visible in the lower left corner of film frame. In my professional capacity, I have used lighting kits and know what a light stand looks like. It is in film frame for several seconds. Once one sees it, it is impossible to un-see. When there is a cut to "wide shot", and Koenig is walking into Main Mission followed by Bergman, the light stand is gone. And later, when Bergman is explaining his idea of a shockwave to Koenig, Morrow, and Kano, a boom microphone can be seen at top of film frame. And as the episode is approaching climax and Helena and Mathias hurry into Main Mission as the doors to Koenig's office are closing, a boom microphone can be seen again at top of film frame, and rather conspicuously moving. Of course, in the configuration of television sets of the mid-1970s, the two boom microphone appearances that I here cite, were probably concealed. But not the light stand. It is too far into film frame.
Further, when I was recently watching first season's "Mission of the Darians", and a scene wherein Koenig is confronting Kara over the Darians using "the others" for human fodder, I saw the top edge of the set and a stage beam with lettering on it, beyond the set. Again, this probably was not visible on television sets of the mid-1970s. But it was not detected by the production team whilst filming was being done, and it is as potentially illusion-shattering as some of the "bloopers" for which Season 2 is lambasted. The set moving after Paul stuns a Darian, however, is not so out of sight on old-fashioned cathode ray tube televisions.
My Blu-Ray of The Day After Tomorrow- "Into Infinity" arrived at my door around mid-week. The television special looks better than it ever did on DVD. The Artificial Intelligence upscaling work has eliminated all aliasing and fuzzy fringing on the detail of the hardware and of the actors' and actresses' faces. But the source material being videotape, only so much could be done. When juxtaposed with footage of Space: 1999 in the "making-of" documentary, the lack of fine detail and vivid clarity in The Day After Tomorrow- "Into Infinity" is sorely noticeable. And not all of the aliasing was removed from visual effects, alas. But I accept that the people involved, did their best. The documentary is a treat. It contains many clips from Space: 1999, and the viewer learns some things never before revealed about happenings on the Space: 1999 set, and in the Pinewood Studios canteen. Jodie Foster was a fan of Space: 1999 and asked of Nick Tate, if she could visit the Space: 1999 set. And it is lovely to hear actors and actress fondly remembering working together, and the relationship that they had on set. The audio commentary with Mr. Blessed and Ms. Levy is a problematic experience. The audio of the main television special is a tad too high during the comments, and has a peculiar echo to it. But I enjoyed it, nevertheless.
The release date for DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION- SEASON 15 is now set at March 18. Almost six months since DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION- SEASON 20, the last release of a Doctor Who season in THE COLLECTION range, reached store shelves, and close to a year since DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION's prior set, that of Season 9, had its release. It looks plain as day to me that two releases a year is now the norm. In which case, no way will there be a full set of seasons of Doctor Who on Blu-Ray. Already, there is an announcement that one of the bonuses in the range, will soon be rested. The BBC appears to be preparing Doctor Who fans for a declining years for THE COLLECTION, leading to a cessation of it well short of original intention. I expect only a couple more sets before the declaration of the Doctor Who Blu-Ray range ending, and my favourite seasons of Doctor Who never having graced Blu-Ray disc.
Sunday, February 11, 2024.
Here we go again.
Fred Freiberger died nearly twenty-one years ago. He has been gone from this Earth that long. Unlike myself, he had a wife and children. I do not know if his wife is still living or not. Probability is that she is not. But his children likely are. And their children. How would they feel to see their deceased father or grandfather's name being besmirched, cursed, demonised, every single day by groups of arrogant, pompous, loutishly proclaiming, grousing fans of decades-old oeuvres? Fans, who, in their nest of like-thinkers, think themselves infallible in their negative assessments of anything and everything belonging to the body of work contributed by one Fred Freiberger, and who will declare mentally unfit anyone who argues otherwise?
Respect for the dead, is one of the hallmarks of a decent person. A person of honour, of couth, of humanity. And the lack thereof, is indicative of the opposite.
Nearly twenty-one years ago, not long after Mr. Freiberger's death, one of the ever-so-illustrious fans of Space: 1999 was read to say, "Does this mean we can't make fun of him anymore?"
That this question was even asked, is a sure sign of a lacking in those very qualities that I cite above.
There is a Facebook Space: 1999 group today called Online Alpha. It is the nominal and spiritual successor to that den of iniquity, that nest of vipers, of some twenty-five years ago called Online Alpha: The Space: 1999 Mailing List. My last significant conflict of words within the wretched fandom of Space: 1999 with the Season 2 Space: 1999 detractors, was at that particular locale on the World Wide Web. Back when the twenty-first century was but a baby. In all the years since then, I have refrained from engaging directly, the haters of second season Space: 1999 and of the man who produced it. My conflict back then with the fanatical boosters of Space: 1999- "Year 1" who hate Space: 1999- "Year 2" as if it were Satan himself, was particularly nasty, and I was branded as being as mentally unstable and dangerous as the Unabomber. To this day, such is my reputation. Clearly, history has proved those people wrong. I am not a murderous maniac. But they compared me to one because I used an obvious boxing metaphor to refer figuratively to the "beating" that I had received and said that there would be another match someday. They misconstrued me as being literal. A large number of them would not know the difference between literal and figurative if they tripped over it. But I believe that the individual first to respond to my statement, did know full well that it was not literal. But he portrayed it as such. His fellows in the denouncing of "Year 2" then said that I was nutty as the proverbial fruitcake and ridiculed me. And the masses fell into formation. As to how many of them really believed that I had screws loose upstairs, I cannot say. How many of them regarded what I said non-metaphorically? Again. I cannot say. But what does it matter? The people in opposition to me, had me pegged as a person of dubious mental health. Mental unwellness was a label that the leading haters of everything Space: 1999 made in 1976, were applying to me so as to oh-so-credibly dismiss all that I said in second season's defence. And it "stuck". It and the typewritten guffaws. Is it right, is it humane, to ridicule mentally unwell people? Even people merely branded as such by persons of an opposing viewpoint? Given their lack of couth in lambasting a dead man for so many years, does it come as any surprise that these people would be in favour of "poking fun" at someone branded as being "one can short of a sixpack"?
Where am I going with this? What buzzing bee do I have in my oh, so precious bonnet this morning?
There is a discussion at the Facebook Space: 1999 group, Online Alpha, about Mr. Freiberger. Treating scapegoating of him as incontrovertibly correct and proper and proceeding from the supposition that he lacked integrity in not confronting the powers-that-be (thereby putting his job "on the line") when those powers-that-be placed constraints of budget and time upon him.
"Space 1999 2nd season was produced by Fred Freidberger (The same producer that killed Star Trek in its 3rd season). Many people defend him as he had to work with ridiculously low budgets (Compare "Spock's Brain" episode of ST with Space 1998 season 2 where Alphans were put on trial by 3 tree's for eating a berry). My feeling is that, If he had any integrity, He would have told studio that he couldn't produce a quality show on such a low budget."
The correct title is Space: 1999. Space followed by a colon. This nincompoop (I have no compunction in calling him such) cannot even state the name of Space: 1999 correctly. Nor can he spell the name of the man whose integrity he is calling into disparagement. How much labour is required to know how to spell Freiberger? Very little. How much integrity does this piece of work have when he cannot do even a scant amount of research? Has he even watched an episode of the Freiberger-produced seasons of the television programmes that he cites? Fred Freiberger's name is there, on screen. Has he never bothered to make a mental note of the spelling? "Killed" Star Trek, eh? Proof, please. I want documentation that Fred Freiberger's production decisions and that declining ratings caused beyond any doubt by those decisions, were the reason why NBC opted not to renew Star Trek for a fourth season. No. No documentation. Ridiculously low budgets. No. Ed Wood worked with budgets so low as to be ridiculous. Star Trek- Season 3 had budgets for such things as an obilisk in an outdoor location, a fetching depiction of a cloud city, a library with discs and a time portal, convincing make-up on actors Frank Gorshin and Lou Antonio, and the Greek-aesthetic sets of "Plato's Stepchildren". And as for Season 2 of Space: 1999, Lew Grade granted to it a budget that was higher than that of every other television production of 1976. "Ridiculously low budget"? Pah! Ah, yes. The usual refrain. "Spock's Brain". Always "Spock's Brain". There were twenty-three other episodes of third season Star Trek, the writing of most them commissioned "from scratch" by Freiberger and Arthur Singer. "Spock's Brain" was a hold-over from Season 2, penned by Gene Coon. Obviously, the decision to produce it, or to produce it without substantive changes, was questionable. But it is not all that there was in Season 3 of Star Trek. And of course, the standard attack on "The Rules of Luton". Yes, sir. Plants on all planets must be as they are on Earth. Must not deviate from the rules of Earth on alien planets. What is so confoundedly wrong with the idea of being put on trial for eating a berry on an alien planet on which all plant life is sacred? Nothing. If one is truly of the opinion that, "If we think we know everything that goes on out there, we're making a terrible mistake."
Ask the fans of Doctor Who about low budgets and "quality shows" being produce-able with such budgets. They would argue that quality is still possible when budgets are under constraint. Time, too.
Space 1998. I laugh. This jackass does not even correct his typographical error, which ought to be very apparent to him on first reading after posting. Does he not even read what he posts? Is he that lazy? Facebook permits corrections. It is a simple procedure. Does he not know that? Or is he too lazy to bother?
Incorrect apostrophe in the word, trees. Incorrect capitalising of he.
All right. Let us assume that Freiberger did go to studio executives, did say that he could not produce quality with budgets allocated, and put his feet where his mouth was, and, if he was not "fired", quit. It would undoubtedly have resulted in him having a bad reputation as a producer who could not be relied upon to complete the job to which he was assigned. He would therefore not have been considered a good risk to hire. His job prospects would have been few and far between. And he was a professional with a family to support. As was the case for almost all of his colleagues.
How many producers of science fiction/fantasy television, or television of all other genres, have been known to quit because the budgets, or the time, allocated were alleged to be insufficient for quality production? I struggle to think of a single name. Doctor Who had notoriously low budgets and severe limitations in time for production. It had many producers between 1963 and 1989. Not a single one of them quit in dispute over budget and time. And the majority of those producers are highly respected. They accepted the conditions under which they had to work, "got on with it", and strove to do their best. That is professionalism. And that is what Fred Freiberger did. Regardless of the quarrel that people have with the concepts that he chose to use.
Fred Freiberger had imagination. He did not restrict that which he produced to border disputes with aliens, Earth-twin planets, parallels to current happenings on Earth, or family-member-of-the-crew-"beams"-aboard. He was interested in mythology and literature and sought to root his ideas for science fiction-fantasy in archetypes and tropes of mythology and literature. Sometimes choosing to dispense with slavish adherence to realism in so-doing. People criticise him for that. But there can be no denying that he did try to imaginatively broaden the scope of the universes into which his producership brought him.
"Did he oversee Galactica '80 and Airwolf S4 too?"
"Probably." (says the poster of the original comment).
Oh, how clever. Oh, how arrogant.
"No." (says someone finally, finally, dealing in the truth)
"I think (person) was making the point that plenty of shows go down the crapper without contracting Freibergerosis."
See how far gone that the whole matter of Fred Freiberger and Space: 1999 now is? There is nary an appreciable contrary point of view to be found on the subject. Just acceptance as fact Fred Freiberger sending television shows headlong to cancellation over deficient quality. So much so, that his name is given a disease variant.
"Yes. You knew it was dead as soon as Friebeburgef was brought in." (original comment poster, again)
Really? Was The Wild Wild West dead when he was "brought in"? This piece of work yet again cannot spell Fred Freiberger's name correctly. Why is not anyone "calling him out" for that, at least? Because they, all of them, are this far gone.
"James Doohan once commented that Freiberger was a competent line producer and that was the limit of his talents. He had no business having creative control on any show. And I think Doohan was correct."
And I do not. Ah, but who cares what I think? I am garbage.
I will not "take at face value" anything that a Space: 1999 fan says. I want to know where exactly Mr. Doohan said this. I of course think it awfully blinkered and unfair as a statement. I have many times in the past written of Fred Freiberger's worthy contributions to Space: 1999 and Star Trek.
"Aka The serial.killer..."
This is what is routinely done now, by people trying to be witty. People of their persuasion were likening me to a serial killer (the Unabomber) twenty-four years ago. It should come as no surprise that they are directing another disgusting serial killer comparison at the man toward whom their hatred is most paramount. They are all cut from the same moth-infested and foul-smelling cloth.
Then there is the usual mention of Fred Freiberger's producership of the long-in-the-tooth The Six Million Dollar Man, with allegations of him single-handedly pulling the bionic man to his demise. No mention of Richard Landau producing half of the episodes of the final Six Million Dollar Man season. No mention that The Bionic Woman moving from ABC to NBC meaning no more teamings of Austin and Sommers, reduced the appeal of both television programmes. No statement that five years is a good life for a television show of Six Million Dollar Man's imagination quotient.
"No pretence. I have walked away from jobs when I have been told budget isn't available. Guess I have been brought up to respect morals rather than avarice. In other words, I am not Ferengi." (original poster again)
I laugh. He writes of morals. Besmirching a dead man. How moral of him! Sarcasm alert, if my sarcasm is not obvious. Avarice, is it? Doing a job as a professional to keep a roof over family's head and food in family's bellies, is avarice? Ferengi? Is that meant as a variant on Freiberger's name, and to liken him to the greedy Ferengi of Star Trek- The Next Generation? Oh, how moral of him to cast such aspersions over a dead man's character! And I only have his word on him having walked away from jobs due to unavailable budget. His word only. And I think that my readers know how much the word of a Space: 1999 fan, is worth to me.
"Friedburger wrote many of the scripts for 1999 season 2 under various pseudonyms- which explains a lot!"
"Friedburger". I roll my eyes.
He wrote three of the scripts under the Charles Woodgrove pseudonym. All of the other writers of the episodes of Season 2 were flesh-and-blood people separate from the person of Fred Freiberger. Johnny Byrne, whose contributions to Space: 1999's first season, are a matter of record. Donald James, who had collaborated with Gerry and Sylvia Anderson on the screenplay for Journey to the Far Side of the Sun. Tony Barwick, who had had a long association with the Andersons. Keith Miles, who wrote for British television series Crossroads and Z Cars before becoming an author of historical fiction and mystery novels. Thom Keyes, who was a colleague and friend of Johnny Byrne and who wrote for the television series, Colditz. Terence Feely, who wrote scripts for The Prisoner, UFO, and The New Avengers. Terrance Dicks, who was the dean of Doctor Who writers, penning some of the most popular Doctor Who serials ever, and script editing during the hugely popular Jon Pertwee era. Anthony Terpiloff and Christopher Penfold, who were writers of Space: 1999 first season episodes. John Goldsmith, who wrote for The New Avengers and Return of the Saint. Pip and Jane Baker, who wrote for Doctor Who in the 1980s. Jack Ronder, whose long career in television script writing included work on Survivors. Lew Schwarz, whose work included scripts for Crossroads and Crown Court. And Michael Winder, who wrote for The Avengers, The Saint, Callan, and Ace of Wands. Is the person whose comment I am citing, claiming that Fred Freiberger was some of these people? Ridiculous! He is either an out-and-out liar, or someone without the integrity to research the backgrounds of the Space: 1999 scriptwriters. And of course, no one in the group disputes what he says. Which makes them parties to the falsehood.
Now, here is something that I would say to anyone accusing me of hypocrisy in upbraiding the Online Alpha poster for his besmirching of a dead man, while I have been critical of the work of Tex Avery. I do not appreciate Avery cartoons, aesthetically. The cartoons that he directed were not of the pacing, timing, situations, look, and characterisation for which I hold the cartoons of Warner Brothers generally in high esteem. They were superseded by more satisfyingly entertaining, aesthetically appealing (to me, at least), and sophisticated material. But I do not scapegoat Mr. Avery. I do not besmirch his name with assertions of a lack of integrity. I do not call him "cretin" or "cretinous". I do not apply labels to him as killer of anything. I do not claim that he had no talent at all and ought never to have been employed. And I do not every day express my dislike for his cartoons; I rarely mention him at all. I am not lacking in respect for him. After all, Bugs Bunny did come to be in a cartoon under his direction. There was nowhere to go but up, it is true. But I must credit him with the creation of Bugs Bunny. His work, though very early days and showing a deficiency in confidence in itself, and not satisfying to one accustomed to the later efforts of the triumverate of Jones, Freleng, McKimson, was the foundation upon which the later greatness of the studio was built. But his work in itself, important though it is, should not be given priority over the best years of the cartoon studio. I would say nothing negative ever about his work if that work were not weaponised against that of my perferred directors, or pushing out of consideration for Blu-Ray release the cartoons that I favour. I am resentful of the people weaponising his cartoons against the cartoons I fancy, and forestalling the release of the cartoons that I wish to have on shiny digital videodisc, forestalling them with preference to his. Once the later cartoons are all given their presence on Blu-Ray or DVD, I am all in favour of Tex Avery's work being made available, for its historical importance, and for those persons of peculiar aesthetic taste, who prefer his work over that of the three directors of the bulk of the post-1948s.
So, I want to be clear. I do not descend to the level of the everlastingly vitriolic haters of second season Space: 1999. And I have a right to criticise them. I have every right to resent them in perpetuity for how I was treated by a number of them, many of whom still are active in Internet discussion groups. And to bristle at the garbage that pours out of their typewriting fingers today.
I have had enough of this on this sunny February Sunday morning. Disgusting people. Have I not expended enough of my short time on this planet answering their obnoxious drivel? Yes. But somebody has to, mind. Even if it is only me in my scarcely visited corner of the Internet. Someone who does not preface a defence of Freiberger with, "There is plenty of blame to go around with regard to 'Year 2'." Yeech!!! Such defences, offered by the odd Space: 1999 follower professing, quite feebly, to an appreciation of both seasons, only buttress the already riding high bandwagon of antipathy for Season 2 and its few unequivocal admirers.
Sunday, February 18, 2024.
The longer that this winter goes on, the worse my knee becomes. I can no longer walk the full residential block where I live without a driving pain in my leg and a pronouned limp. The only respite that I have had has been the half-day last Sunday and last Tuesday when it was sunny and temperature was a few degrees above zero. The stiffness and pain eased substantially. But of course, the sky clouded over and it became colder than zero degrees, and back it was to my suffering. Only worse. Sunshine and warm temperatures would seem to be my remedy, but of course they will be denied to me for as long as possible in this gripped-by-winter part of the world. No doubt far into April, or even into May.
My friend, Michel, in Quebec this week sent me information on the TVA television network's showing of Cosmos 1999 in the 1980s. And with the information that he provided, I was able to find television listings for Cosmos 1999 on TVA in Quebec newspapers La Presse and Le Soleil and undertake added research, and arrived at a full broadcast history for Cosmos 1999 on TVA, from October, 1983 to May, 1986.
Subsequent to this was further research by Michel on broadcasts of Cosmos 1999 on TVA-affiliated broadcaster CFEM- Rouyn-Noranda. Every TVA affiliate television station is accounted-for in the broadcast history.
ITC policy of withholding from broadcast the eight episodes of Space: 1999 turned into "movies", did not apply to Cosmos 1999 in Canada. All forty-eight episodes of Cosmos 1999 could be seen on TVA. TVA's affiliate television stations could not be depended upon to give to Cosmos 1999 an airing of all episodes, alas. Only CFTM in Montreal, the "flagship" television station of TVA, was constant in broadcasting every showing by TVA of a Cosmos 1999 episode.
Without further preamble, here is the broadcast history of Cosmos 1999 on TVA. Thanks to Michel for all of his help in both supplying information and incentivising me to look for what information remained to be found, from the pages of La Presse and Le Soleil.
All airtimes are in Eastern Time.
TVA Broadcasts (1983-6) Saturdays TVA Eastern Quebec and Gaspe Region Stations 5- CHAU- Carleton, Quebec (starting Jan. 14, 1984) 6- CJPM- Chicoutimi, Quebec 9- CIMT- Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec 11- CFER- Rimouski, Quebec Date Channels Episode Airtime Oct. 22, 1983 6 9 11 "A la Derive" 4 P.M. Oct. 29, 1983 6 9 11 "Collision Inevitable" 4 P.M. Nov. 5, 1983 6 9 11 "Un Autre Royaume de la Mort" 4 P.M. Nov. 12, 1983 6 9 11 "Puissance de la Vie" 4 P.M. Nov. 19, 1983 6 9 11 "Direction Terre" 4 P.M. Nov. 26, 1983 6 9 11 "Le Retour du Voyageur" 4 P.M. Dec. 3, 1983 6 9 11 "Question de Vie ou de Mort" 4 P.M. Dec. 10, 1983 6 9 11 "Le Gardien du Piri" 4:30 P.M. Dec. 17, 1983 6 9 11 "L'anneau de la Lune" 4:30 P.M. Dec. 24, 1983 6 9 11 "Le Grand Cercle" 4:30 P.M. Dec. 31, 1983 6 9 11 "Le Maillon" 4:30 P.M. Jan. 7, 1984 6 9 "L'Enfant d'Alfa" 4:30 P.M. Jan. 14, 1984 5 6 9 11 "Le Dernier Crepuscule" 4:30 P.M. Jan. 21, 1984 6 "Au Bout de l'Eternite" 4:30 P.M. Jan. 28, 1984 6 "Autre Temps, Autre Lieu" 4:30 P.M. Feb. 4, 1984 6 "Le Soleil Noir" 4:30 P.M. Feb. 11, 1984 5 6 9 "Ruses de Guerre" 1 P.M. Feb. 18, 1984 Network Preemption Feb. 25, 1984 5 6 "Le Dernier Adversaire" 4:30 P.M. Mar. 3, 1984 5 6 "Cerveau Spatial" 4:30 P.M. Mar. 10, 1984 6 "La Machine Infernale" 4:30 P.M. Mar. 17, 1984 6 "La Mission des Dariens" 4:30 P.M. Mar. 24, 1984 6 "Le Domaine du Dragon" 4:30 P.M. Mar. 31, 1984 6 "Le Testament de l'Arcadie" 4:30 P.M. Apr. 7, 1984 5 6 9 11 "La metamorphose" 12 P.M. Apr. 14, 1984 Network Preemption Apr. 21, 1984 Network Preemption Apr. 28, 1984 5 6 9 11 "Tout ce qui Reluit" 12 P.M. May 5, 1984 5 6 9 11 "Les Exiles" 12 P.M. May 12. 1984 5 6 9 11 "En Route vers l'Infini" 12 P.M. May 19, 1984 Network Preemption May 26, 1984 5 6 9 11 "La planete Archanon" 12 P.M. Notes: CIMT and CFER delayed the TVA showings of Cosmos 1999 on Jan. 21, 1984, Jan. 28, 1984, Feb. 4, 1984, Mar. 3, 1984, Mar. 10, 1984, Mar. 17, 1984, Mar. 24, 1984, and Mar. 31, 1984 to the following Sunday morning at 9:30. CFER delayed the TVA broadcast of Cosmos 1999 on Feb. 25, 1984 to the following Sunday morning at 9:30 P.M.. TVA Broadcasts (1983-6) Wednesdays TVA Eastern Quebec and Gaspe Region Stations 5- CHAU- Carleton, Quebec 6- CJPM- Chicoutimi, Quebec 9- CIMT- Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec 11- CFER- Rimouski, Quebec Date Channels Episode Airtime May 30, 1984 5 6 9 11 "A la Derive" (R) 5 P.M. Jun. 6, 1984 5 6 9 11 "Collision Inevitable" (R) 5 P.M. TVA Broadcasts (1983-6) Saturdays TVA Eastern Quebec and Gaspe Region Stations 5- CHAU- Carleton, Quebec 6- CJPM- Chicoutimi, Quebec 9- CIMT- Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec 11- CFER- Rimouski, Quebec Date Channels Episode Airtime Jun. 9, 1984 5 6 9 11 "En Desarroi" 2 P.M. TVA Broadcasts (1983-6) Wednesdays TVA Eastern Quebec and Gaspe Region Stations 5- CHAU- Carleton, Quebec 6- CJPM- Chicoutimi, Quebec 9- CIMT- Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec 11- CFER- Rimouski, Quebec Date Channels Episode Airtime Jun. 13, 1984 5 6 9 11 "Un Autre Royaume de la Mort" (R) 5 P.M. Jun. 20, 1984 5 6 9 11 "Puissance de la Vie" (R) 5 P.M. Jun. 27, 1984 5 6 9 11 "Le nuage qui tue" 5 P.M. Jul. 4, 1984 5 6 9 11 "Le Retour du Voyageur" (R) 5 P.M. Jul. 11, 1984 5 6 9 11 "Question de Vie ou de Mort" (R) 5 P.M. TVA Broadcasts (1983-6) Saturdays TVA Eastern Quebec and Gaspe Region Stations 5- CHAU- Carleton, Quebec 6- CJPM- Chicoutimi, Quebec 9- CIMT- Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec 11- CFER- Rimouski, Quebec Date Channels Episode Airtime Jul. 14, 1984 5 6 9 11 "Le cerveau ordinateur" 4:45 P.M. TVA Broadcasts (1983-6) Wednesdays TVA Eastern Quebec and Gaspe Region Stations 5- CHAU- Carleton, Quebec 6- CJPM- Chicoutimi, Quebec 9- CIMT- Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec 11- CFER- Rimouski, Quebec Date Channels Episode Airtime Jul. 18, 1984 5 6 9 11 "Le Gardien du Piri" (R) 5 P.M. TVA Broadcasts (1983-6) Saturdays TVA Eastern Quebec and Gaspe Region Stations 5- CHAU- Carleton, Quebec 6- CJPM- Chicoutimi, Quebec 9- CIMT- Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec 11- CFER- Rimouski, Quebec Date Channels Episode Airtime Jul. 21, 1984 5 6 9 11 "Les catacombes de la Lune" 12 P.M. TVA Broadcasts (1983-6) Wednesdays TVA Eastern Quebec and Gaspe Region Stations 5- CHAU- Carleton, Quebec 6- CJPM- Chicoutimi, Quebec 9- CIMT- Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec 11- CFER- Rimouski, Quebec Date Channels Episode Airtime Jul. 25, 1984 5 6 9 11 "L'anneau de la Lune" (R) 5 P.M. Aug. 1, 1984 5 6 9 11 "Le Grand Cercle" (R) 5 P.M. Aug. 8, 1984 5 6 9 11 "Le Maillon" (R) 5 P.M. Aug. 15, 1984 5 6 9 11 "L'Enfant d'Alfa" (R) 5 P.M. Aug. 22, 1984 5 6 9 11 "Le Dernier Crepuscule" (R) 5 P.M. Aug. 29, 1984 5 6 9 11 "Au Bout de l'Eternite" (R) 5 P.M. TVA Broadcasts (1983-6) Tuesdays TVA Eastern Quebec and Gaspe Region Stations 5- CHAU- Carleton, Quebec 6- CJPM- Chicoutimi, Quebec 9- CIMT- Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec 11- CFER- Rimouski, Quebec Date Channels Episode Airtime May 28, 1985 5 9 11 "Humain, ne serait-ce qu'un Moment" 5 P.M. Jun. 4, 1985 5 9 11 "Les directives de Luton" 5 P.M. Jun. 11, 1985 5 9 11 "Taybor, le commercant" 5 P.M. Jun. 18, 1985 5 9 11 "Les chrysalides A-B-C" 5 P.M. Jun. 25, 1985 5 9 11 "Une autre Terre" 5 P.M. Jul. 2, 1985 5 9 11 "Le secret de la caverne" 5 P.M. Jul. 9. 1985 5 9 11 "Deformation spatiale" 5 P.M. Jul. 16, 1985 5 9 11 "Une question d'equilibre" 5 P.M. Jul. 23, 1985 5 9 11 "Un message d'espoir: 1e partie" 5 P.M. Jul. 30, 1985 5 9 11 "Un message d'espoir: 2e partie" 6:30 P.M. Aug. 6, 1985 5 9 11 "L'element Lambda" 6:30 P.M. Aug. 13, 1985 5 9 11 "Le spectre" 6:30 P.M. Aug. 20, 1985 5 9 11 "Dorzak" 6:30 P.M. Aug. 27, 1985 5 9 11 "La planete du diable" 6:30 P.M. TVA Broadcasts (1983-6) Fridays TVA Eastern Quebec and Gaspe Region Stations 5- CHAU- Carleton, Quebec 6- CJPM- Chicoutimi, Quebec 9- CIMT- Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec 11- CFER- Rimouski, Quebec Date Channels Episode Airtime Sept. 6, 1985 6 9 "Direction Terre" (R) 2:30 P.M. Sept. 13, 1985 6 "Le syndrome de l'immunite" 2:30 P.M. Sept. 20, 1985 6 "Le retour des Dorcons" 2:30 P.M. Sept. 27, 1985 6 "Autre Temps, Autre Lieu" (R) 2:30 P.M. Oct. 4, 1985 5 6 9 11 "Le Soleil Noir" (R) 2:30 P.M. Oct. 11, 1985 5 6 9 11 "Ruses de Guerre" (R) 2:30 P.M. Oct. 18, 1985 5 6 9 11 "En Desarroi" (R) 2:30 P.M. Oct. 25, 1985 5 6 9 11 "Le Dernier Adversaire" (R) 2:30 P.M. Nov. 1, 1985 5 6 9 11 "Cerveau Spatial" (R) 2:30 P.M. Nov. 8, 1985 5 6 9 11 "La Machine Infernale" (R) 2:30 P.M. Nov. 15, 1985 5 6 9 11 "La Mission des Dariens" (R) 2:30 P.M. Nov. 22, 1985 5 6 9 11 "Le Domaine du Dragon" (R) 2:30 P.M. Nov. 29, 1985 5 6 9 "Le Testament de l'Arcadie" (R) 2:30 P.M. Dec. 6, 1985 5 6 9 11 "La metamorphose" (R) 2:30 P.M. Dec. 13, 1985 5 6 9 11 "Tout ce qui Reluit" (R) 2:30 P.M. Dec. 20, 1985 5 6 9 11 "Les Exiles" (R) 2:30 P.M. Dec. 27, 1985 5 6 9 "En Route vers l'Infini" (R) 2:30 P.M. Jan. 3, 1986 5 6 9 11 "La planete Archanon" (R) 2:30 P.M. Jan. 10, 1986 5 6 9 11 "Le nuage qui tue" (R) 2:30 P.M. Jan. 17, 1986 5 6 9 11 "Humain, ne serait-ce qu'un Moment" (R) 2:30 P.M. Jan. 24, 1986 5 6 9 11 "Les directives de Luton" (R) 2:30 P.M. Jan. 31, 1986 5 6 9 11 "Taybor, le commercant" (R) 2:30 P.M. Feb. 7, 1986 5 6 9 11 "Le cerveau ordinateur" (R) 2:30 P.M. Feb. 14, 1986 5 6 9 11 "Les catacombes de la Lune" (R) 2:30 P.M. Feb. 21, 1986 5 6 9 11 "Les chrysalides A-B-C" (R) 2:30 P.M. Feb. 28, 1986 5 6 9 11 "Une autre Terre" (R) 2:30 P.M. Mar. 7, 1986 5 6 9 11 "Le secret de la caverne" (R) 2:30 P.M. Nar. 14, 1986 5 6 9 11 "Deformation spatiale" (R) 2:30 P.M. Mar. 21, 1986 5 6 9 11 "Une question d'equilibre" (R) 2:30 P.M. Mar. 28, 1986 Network Preemption Apr. 4, 1986 5 6 9 11 "Un message d'espoir: 1e partie" (R) 2:30 P.M. Apr. 11, 1986 5 6 9 11 "Un message d'espoir: 2e partie" (R) 2:30 P.M. Apr. 18, 1986 5 6 9 11 "L'element Lambda" (R) 2:30 P.M. Apr. 25, 1986 Preemption May 2, 1986 5 6 9 11 "Dorzak" (R) 2:30 P.M. May 9, 1986 5 6 9 11 "La planete du diable" (R) 2:30 P.M. May 16, 1986 5 6 9 11 "Le syndrome de l'immunite" (R) 2:30 P.M. May 23, 1986 5 6 9 11 "Le retour des Dorcons" (R) 2:30 P.M. TVA Broadcasts (1983-6) Saturdays TVA Montreal-Quebec City Region and Northwestern Quebec Stations 4- CFCM- Quebec City, Quebec 7- CHLT- Sherbrooke, Quebec 8- CHEM- Trois Rivieres, Quebec 10- CFTM- Montreal, Quebec 13- CFEM- Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec 40- CHOT- Hull, Quebec Date Channels Episode Airtime Oct. 22, 1983 4 7 8 10 "A la Derive" 4 P.M. Oct. 29, 1983 4 7 8 10 "Collision Inevitable" 4 P.M. Nov. 5, 1983 4 7 8 10 "Un Autre Royaume de la Mort" 4 P.M. Nov. 12, 1983 4 7 8 10 "Puissance de la Vie" 4 P.M. Nov. 19, 1983 4 7 8 10 "Direction Terre" 4 P.M. Nov. 26, 1983 4 7 8 10 "Le Retour du Voyageur" 4 P.M. Dec. 3, 1983 4 7 8 10 "Question de Vie ou de Mort" 4 P.M. Dec. 10, 1983 4 7 8 10 40 "Le Gardien du Piri" 4:30 P.M. Dec. 17, 1983 4 7 8 10 40 "L'anneau de la Lune" 4:30 P.M. Dec. 24, 1983 4 7 8 10 40 "Le Grand Cercle" 4:30 P.M. Dec. 31, 1983 4 7 8 10 40 "Le Maillon" 4:30 P.M. Jan. 7, 1984 4 7 8 10 40 "L'Enfant d'Alfa" 4:30 P.M. Jan. 14, 1984 7 8 10 40 "Le Dernier Crepuscule" 4:30 P.M. Jan. 21, 1984 7 8 10 40 "Au Bout de l'Eternite" 4:30 P.M. Jan. 28, 1984 7 8 10 40 "Autre Temps, Autre Lieu" 4:30 P.M. Feb. 4, 1984 7 8 10 40 "Le Soleil Noir" 4:30 P.M. Feb. 11, 1984 7 10 "Ruses de Guerre" 1 P.M. Feb. 18, 1984 Network Preemption Feb. 25, 1984 7 8 10 "Le Dernier Adversaire" 4:30 P.M. Mar. 3, 1984 7 8 10 "Cerveau Spatial" 4:30 P.M. Mar. 10, 1984 7 8 10 "La Machine Infernale" 4:30 P.M. Mar. 17, 1984 7 8 10 "La Mission des Dariens" 4:30 P.M. Mar. 24, 1984 7 8 10 "Le Domaine du Dragon" 4:30 P.M. Mar. 31, 1984 7 8 10 "Le Testament de l'Arcadie" 4:30 P.M. Apr. 7, 1984 7 8 10 "La metamorphose" 12 P.M. Apr. 14, 1984 Network Preemption Apr. 21, 1984 Network Preemption Apr. 28, 1984 7 8 10 "Tout ce qui Reluit" 12 P.M. May 5, 1984 7 8 10 "Les Exiles" 12 P.M. May 12. 1984 7 8 10 "En Route vers l'Infini" 12 P.M. May 19, 1984 Network Preemption May 26, 1984 7 8 10 13 "La planete Archanon" 12 P.M. Note: CFCM delayed the TVA showings of Cosmos 1999 on Jan. 21, 1984, Jan. 28, 1984, Feb. 4, 1984, Feb. 25, 1984, Mar. 3, 1984, Mar. 10, 1984, Mar. 17, 1984, Mar. 24, 1984, and Mar. 31, 1984 to the following Sunday morning at 9:30. CFEM aired Cosmos 1999 at 4:30 P.M. on Apr. 7, 1984. TVA Broadcasts (1983-6) Wednesdays TVA Montreal-Quebec City Region and Northwestern Quebec Stations 4- CFCM- Quebec City, Quebec 7- CHLT- Sherbrooke, Quebec 8- CHEM- Trois Rivieres, Quebec 10- CFTM- Montreal, Quebec 13- CFEM- Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec 40- CHOT- Hull, Quebec Date Channels Episode Airtime May 30, 1984 4 7 8 10 13 40 "A la Derive" (R) 5 P.M. Jun. 6, 1984 4 7 8 10 13 40 "Collision Inevitable" (R) 5 P.M. TVA Broadcasts (1983-6) Saturdays TVA Montreal-Quebec City Region and Northwestern Quebec Stations 4- CFCM- Quebec City, Quebec 7- CHLT- Sherbrooke, Quebec 8- CHEM- Trois Rivieres, Quebec 10- CFTM- Montreal, Quebec 13- CFEM- Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec 40- CHOT- Hull, Quebec Date Channels Episode Airtime Jun. 9, 1984 4 7 8 10 13 "En Desarroi" 2 P.M. TVA Broadcasts (1983-6) Wednesdays TVA Montreal-Quebec City Region and Northwestern Quebec Stations 4- CFCM- Quebec City, Quebec 7- CHLT- Sherbrooke, Quebec 8- CHEM- Trois Rivieres, Quebec 10- CFTM- Montreal, Quebec 13- CFEM- Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec 40- CHOT- Hull, Quebec Date Channels Episode Airtime Jun. 13, 1984 4 7 8 10 13 40 "Un Autre Royaume de la Mort" (R) 5 P.M. Jun. 20, 1984 4 7 8 10 13 40 "Puissance de la Vie" (R) 4:30 P.M./5 P.M. Jun. 27, 1984 4 7 8 10 13 40 "Le nuage qui tue" 4:30 P.M./5 P.M. Jul. 4, 1984 4 7 8 10 13 40 "Le Retour du Voyageur" (R) 4:30 P.M./5 P.M. Jul. 11, 1984 4 7 8 10 13 40 "Question de Vie ou de Mort" (R) 4:30 P.M./5 P.M. Note: Starting Jun. 20, 1984, CHLT and CHEM aired Cosmos 1999 on Wednesdays at 4:30 P.M., a half hour before the 5 P.M. airtime of Cosmos 1999 on CFCM, CFTM, and CHOT. TVA Broadcasts (1983-6) Saturdays TVA Montreal-Quebec City Region and Northwestern Quebec Stations 4- CFCM- Quebec City, Quebec 7- CHLT- Sherbrooke, Quebec 8- CHEM- Trois Rivieres, Quebec 10- CFTM- Montreal, Quebec 13- CFEM- Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec 40- CHOT- Hull, Quebec Date Channels Episode Airtime Jul. 14, 1984 4 7 8 10 13 "Le cerveau ordinateur" 4:45 P.M. TVA Broadcasts (1983-6) Wednesdays TVA Montreal-Quebec City Region and Northwestern Quebec Stations 4- CFCM- Quebec City, Quebec 7- CHLT- Sherbrooke, Quebec 8- CHEM- Trois Rivieres, Quebec 10- CFTM- Montreal, Quebec 13- CFEM- Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec 40- CHOT- Hull, Quebec Date Channels Episode Airtime Jul. 18, 1984 4 7 8 10 13 40 "Le Gardien du Piri" (R) 4:30 P.M./5 P.M. TVA Broadcasts (1983-6) Saturdays TVA Montreal-Quebec City Region and Northwestern Quebec Stations 4- CFCM- Quebec City, Quebec 7- CHLT- Sherbrooke, Quebec 8- CHEM- Trois Rivieres, Quebec 10- CFTM- Montreal, Quebec 13- CFEM- Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec 40- CHOT- Hull, Quebec Date Channels Episode Airtime Jul. 21, 1984 4 7 8 10 13 40 "Les catacombes de la Lune" 12 P.M. TVA Broadcasts (1983-6) Wednesdays TVA Montreal-Quebec City Region and Northwestern Quebec Stations 4- CFCM- Quebec City, Quebec 7- CHLT- Sherbrooke, Quebec 8- CHEM- Trois Rivieres, Quebec 10- CFTM- Montreal, Quebec 13- CFEM- Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec 40- CHOT- Hull, Quebec Date Channels Episode Airtime Jul. 25, 1984 4 7 8 10 13 40 "L'anneau de la Lune" (R) 4:30 P.M./5 P.M. Aug. 1, 1984 4 7 8 10 13 40 "Le Grand Cercle" (R) 4:30 P.M./5 P.M. Aug. 8, 1984 4 7 8 10 13 40 "Le Maillon" (R) 4:30 P.M./5 P.M. Aug. 15, 1984 4 7 8 10 13 40 "L'Enfant d'Alfa" (R) 4:30 P.M./5 P.M. Aug. 22, 1984 4 7 8 10 13 40 "Le Dernier Crepuscule" (R) 4:30 P.M./5 P.M. Aug. 29, 1984 4 7 8 10 13 40 "Au Bout de l'Eternite" (R) 4:30 P.M./5 P.M. TVA Broadcasts (1983-6) Tuesdays TVA Montreal-Quebec City Region and Northwestern Quebec Stations 4- CFCM- Quebec City, Quebec 7- CHLT- Sherbrooke, Quebec 8- CHEM- Trois Rivieres, Quebec 10- CFTM- Montreal, Quebec 13- CFEM- Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec 40- CHOT- Hull, Quebec Date Channels Episode Airtime May 28, 1985 4 7 8 10 13 40 "Humain, ne serait-ce qu'un Moment" 5 P.M. Jun. 4, 1985 4 7 8 10 13 40 "Les directives de Luton" 5 P.M. Jun. 11, 1985 4 7 8 10 13 40 "Taybor, le commercant" 5 P.M. Jun. 18, 1985 4 7 8 10 13 40 "Les chrysalides A-B-C" 5 P.M. Jun. 25, 1985 4 7 8 10 13 40 "Une autre Terre" 5 P.M. Jul. 2, 1985 4 7 8 10 13 40 "Le secret de la caverne" 5 P.M. Jul. 9. 1985 4 7 8 10 13 40 "Deformation spatiale" 5 P.M. Jul. 16, 1985 4 7 8 10 13 40 "Une question d'equilibre" 5 P.M. Jul. 23, 1985 4 7 8 10 13 40 "Un message d'espoir: 1e partie" 5 P.M. Jul. 30, 1985 4 7 8 10 13 40 "Un message d'espoir: 2e partie" 5 P.M./6:30 P.M. Aug. 6, 1985 4 7 8 10 13 40 "L'element Lambda" 5 P.M./6:30 P.M. Aug. 13, 1985 4 7 8 10 13 40 "Le spectre" 5 P.M./6:30 P.M. Aug. 20, 1985 4 7 8 10 13 40 "Dorzak" 5 P.M./6:30 P.M. Aug. 27, 1985 4 7 8 10 13 40 "La planete du diable" 5 P.M./6:30 P.M. Note: CHLT and CHEM aired Cosmos 1999 at 6:30 P.M. on Tuesdays starting Jul. 30, 1985. TVA Broadcasts (1983-6) Fridays TVA Montreal-Quebec City Region and Northwestern Quebec Stations 4- CFCM- Quebec City, Quebec 7- CHLT- Sherbrooke, Quebec 8- CHEM- Trois Rivieres, Quebec 10- CFTM- Montreal, Quebec 13- CFEM- Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec 40- CHOT- Hull, Quebec Date Channels Episode Airtime Sept. 6, 1985 8 10 13 40 "Direction Terre" (R) 2:30 P.M. Sept. 13, 1985 8 10 13 40 "Le syndrome de l'immunite" 2:30 P.M. Sept. 20, 1985 8 10 13 40 "Le retour des Dorcons" 2:30 P.M. Sept. 27, 1985 8 10 13 40 "Autre Temps, Autre Lieu" (R) 2:30 P.M. Oct. 4, 1985 8 10 13 40 "Le Soleil Noir" (R) 2:30 P.M. Oct. 11, 1985 4 8 10 13 40 "Ruses de Guerre" (R) 2:30 P.M. Oct. 18, 1985 4 8 10 13 40 "En Desarroi" (R) 2:30 P.M. Oct. 25, 1985 8 10 13 40 "Le Dernier Adversaire" (R) 2:30 P.M. Nov. 1, 1985 4 8 10 13 40 "Cerveau Spatial" (R) 2:30 P.M. Nov. 8, 1985 4 8 10 13 40 "La Machine Infernale" (R) 2:30 P.M. Nov. 15, 1985 4 8 10 13 40 "La Mission des Dariens" (R) 2:30 P.M. Nov. 22, 1985 4 8 10 13 40 "Le Domaine du Dragon" (R) 2:30 P.M. Nov. 29, 1985 4 8 10 13 40 "Le Testament de l'Arcadie" (R) 2:30 P.M. Dec. 6, 1985 4 8 10 13 40 "La metamorphose" (R) 2:30 P.M. Dec. 13, 1985 4 8 10 13 40 "Tout ce qui Reluit" (R) 2:30 P.M. Dec. 20, 1985 4 8 10 13 40 "Les Exiles" (R) 2:30 P.M. Dec. 27, 1985 4 8 10 13 40 "En Route vers l'Infini" (R) 2:30 P.M. Jan. 3, 1986 4 8 10 13 40 "La planete Archanon" (R) 2:30 P.M. Jan. 10, 1986 4 8 10 13 40 "Le nuage qui tue" (R) 2:30 P.M. Jan. 17, 1986 8 10 13 40 "Humain, ne serait-ce qu'un Moment" (R) 2:30 P.M. Jan. 24, 1986 4 8 10 13 40 "Les directives de Luton" (R) 2:30 P.M. Jan. 31, 1986 4 8 10 13 40 "Taybor, le commercant" (R) 2:30 P.M. Feb. 7, 1986 4 8 10 13 40 "Le cerveau ordinateur" (R) 2:30 P.M. Feb. 14, 1986 4 8 10 13 40 "Les catacombes de la Lune" (R) 2:30 P.M. Feb. 21, 1986 4 8 10 13 40 "Les chrysalides A-B-C" (R) 2:30 P.M. Feb. 28, 1986 4 8 10 13 40 "Une autre Terre" (R) 2:30 P.M. Mar. 7, 1986 4 8 10 13 40 "Le secret de la caverne" (R) 2:30 P.M. Nar. 14, 1986 4 8 10 13 40 "Deformation spatiale" (R) 2:30 P.M. Mar. 21, 1986 4 8 10 13 40 "Une question d'equilibre" (R) 2:30 P.M. Mar. 28, 1986 Network Preemption Apr. 4, 1986 4 8 10 13 40 "Un message d'espoir: 1e partie" (R) 2:30 P.M. Apr. 11, 1986 4 8 10 13 40 "Un message d'espoir: 2e partie" (R) 2:30 P.M. Apr. 18, 1986 4 8 10 13 40 "L'element Lambda" (R) 2:30 P.M. Apr. 25, 1986 8 10 13 40 "Le spectre" (R) 2:30 P.M. May 2, 1986 4 8 10 13 40 "Dorzak" (R) 2:30 P.M. May 9, 1986 4 8 10 13 40 "La planete du diable" (R) 2:30 P.M. May 16, 1986 4 8 10 13 40 "Le syndrome de l'immunite" (R) 2:30 P.M. May 23, 1986 4 8 10 13 40 "Le retour des Dorcons" (R) 2:30 P.M.Two preemptions were due to the Winter Olympics in February of 1984 and special Easter television programming on March 28, 1986. Other preemptions happened for politics and baseball. I do not have information on whether or not episodes were cut for commercial time, or on what the procedures were for the inserting of commercials, such as whether or not there were commercials before Act 1 or not. That is to say after the main introduction of Season 1 and the "hooks" of episodes of Season 2.
Were it not for TVA's 1983-to-1986 showings of Cosmos 1999, Space: 1999 would have been as much out of the public eye in Quebec as it was for most of New Brunswick, in the 1980s, before YTV's decision to give to Space: 1999 a new foothold in the television rooms of Canada, in 1990. I expect that the four "movies" probably were broadcast, as they were in New Brunswick, at some time in the 1980s, in Quebec. As far as I know, there was, in the 1980s, no Space: 1999 television series-proper to be seen in Quebec on the anglophone television stations there.
By the way, TVA is also the television network that showed Bugs Bunny et ses amis from 1988 through to the late 1990s. A video of the main introduction to Bugs Bunny et ses amis has been uploaded to YouTube. May it have a long, long availability. It can be found here.
The first time that I became aware of TVA was in late 1988, when it first became available on cable television in Fredericton, through a reception of satellite signal of CFTM- Montreal. TVA never expanded into New Brunswick with terrestrial transmission to an affiliated television station in the province. To this day, the only French-language television station in New Brunswick is CBAFT of the Radio-Canada television network. Since being made available on cable television via satellite, CFTM has been viewable in the basic cable television package in Fredericton. Channel 17.
I have this week been busy on an image compilation for my Era 2 memoirs. One that contains images of a Kraft Spaghetti and Meat Sauce commercial, Max the 2000-Year-Old Mouse, The Wonderful Stories of Professor Kitzel, a parade in Newcastle, the Peanuts television specials, Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown and You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown, a vinyl record cover to the song of "Snoopy Vs. the Red Baron", and a certain anti-smoking Public Service Announcement of the 1970s. The image compilation can be found amongst my mid-1975 rememberings. Also added to Era 2 are some images of Space: 1999 second season episodes "A Matter of Balance" and "All That Glisters", that can be found amongst my memories of 1977's late spring. I also updated some of the text of The Space: 1999 Page.
There is an extensive peek at The Eagle Has Landed, now renamed The Eagle Obsession, that can be found at Vimeo.
Looking very impressive! I appreciate the cinematography and the editing of television series footage into the interviews. This project is the only item of interest to me coming out of the fandom of Space: 1999. As is known to my readers, fans of Space: 1999 are not my favourite people. To say the very least. But Mr. Morris has separated himself from the pack as it were, in not being a second season denouncer and in doing something constructive with his interest in the Space: 1999 television programme and one particular component of it. Both my thumbs are upturned. I look forward to having a Blu-Ray of Mr. Morris' film sitting on my shelf aside the Network Blu-Rays.
All for today.
Saturday, February 24, 2024.
Yesterday marked fifty years since "Hyde and Go Tweet" day in the life of Kevin McCorry. Saturday, February 23, 1974. That was the day on which I first beheld the title of "Hyde and Go Tweet", on the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner title card for it, coming after Bugs defeated the bull in "Bully For Bugs" and lifted the red bullfighting fabric rag with a "The End" printed on it. I then saw Sylvester sleeping on the ledge of a modern city building with Dr. Jekyll lettered on the windows behind him, and the sight of beakers and flasks behind the windows. In scarcely more than a couple of seconds, Dr. Jekyll, who, with his grey hair and glasses, looked sort of like Granny, was already in what was clearly a laboratory, and on his way to a bottle marked Hyde Formula. And I knew that this was the cartoon that I had seen some years previous, while I was of pre-school age, that had Tweety turning again and again and again into a monster. Hyde in the cartoon title and then the lettering of Dr. Jekyll. And then the Hyde Formula bottle. This was it. The cartoon with Tweety becoming an evil pursuer of Sylvester. Fear and dread were upon me, and then I heard Mr. Hyde's maniacal laugh. "Hoo-hoo-ha-a-ha-a-ha-a-a!!!" My Memorex T-120 "compact cassette" was being magnetically written with every sound of the horrible and at the same time compelling cartoon.
I was certainly aware of the significance of yesterday's date, as I went about my Friday routines at work and at home. I thought myself back to that day five decades ago in the McCorry home in Douglastown, and that hour of 6 P.M. and 7 P.M. in which I was watching and audiotape-recording Sylvester's pursuit of Speedy Gonzales, Bugs retaliating against a bully of an opera singer, Wile E. Coyote caught in a tornado of his own accidental making, Bugs in conflict with a bull, and Sylvester terrorised by a chemically induced Mr. Hyde transmogrification of Tweety. And I thought of my parents who were elsewhere in the house, and my friend, Evie, whom I visited the day after February 23, 1974, "Hyde and Go Tweet" very much circulating about in my noggin. They are dead now. My parents. Evie. That day, that weekend, endure as a memory in my ageing head.
I did not watch "Hyde and Go Tweet" yesterday. I am exceedingly bitter over not being able to watch it fully restorted on DVD or Blu-Ray, and the eyesore of it in a VHS videotape era film-to-video transfer would only compound that bitterness, effectively thwarting an effort to cast myself mentally back to fifty years previous. I do not need to watch it, anyway, to have such a mental excursion to an earlier time. The vividness of my recall of that day is more than sufficient.
It was -20 this week's Wednesday morning as I was walking to my car to go to work. With the cold came an even more painful and stiff right knee. The persisting of much below zero temperatures, and the knowledge of the effect that they are having on me physically, is definitely a cause of irritability and low morale.
And the cost this year of my Website's continued existence has no small effect upon my finances. I am billed nearly $900 for a further year for my Website. With the constricted budget that I am experiencing already due to the roof damage in December, this expenditure of $900 is tremendously difficult for my finances to absorb. And as I am not happy with the traffic statistics for most of my Web pages, the cost this year of my Website is a struggle to justify. My more personal Web pages, this Weblog being one of them, have a very small readership. Web pages dedicated to specific works of entertainment fare somewhat better in the visits-per-day counts, but the vast majority of those visits are one-Web-page-only. People come and then go, without delving further into my Website. From that, can I infer that my Web page visited was compelling reading? No. I can infer no such thing. Unless the reader contacts me and tells me so, I cannot be sure if my writing was at all interesting. People do not seem to be impressed enough by my Web pages to seek out more of them. They will come to, say, The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show Page (the most visited of my Web pages so far this year) and then depart the kevinmccorrytv locale on the Internet.
I will let the expense of $900 stand and will continue with my Website in 2024. Next year, I may opt not to incur the cost.
Ah, but without a Website, where will I put my refutation of Space: 1999 fans and their latest sorties against Season 2? I will just need to stifle myself, I guess. A number of the latest assaults on second season Space: 1999, by the way, have been launched against episode "A Matter of Balance" underneath a posted picture of Shermeen and Maya passing the Thaed creature. I know. As predictable as Pavlov's dogs druelling after the sounding of a bell. Someone remarked, "Give me Season 1 any day," to a heaping serving of approving "like clicks" and "Right on"s. As if Season 1 has absolutely nothing in it that could be met with dismissive remarks. As if it is incontrovertible that everything in Season 2 is dismissible.
Someone then said that the bobbing-head Thaed is inexcusably bad. I presume that he wishes for the head of the creature to be fastened thoroughly to the neck area of the creature's garment. "A Matter of Balance" was filmed in the summer. The man in the costume would likely have been overcome with heat stroke had there not been an opening between the head and costume. Of course, it is unfortunate that the viewer can see the head bobbing to reveal the neck of the man in the costume. One wonders why Charles Crichton did not do a "re-take" of the scene, leaving the cameras still rolling and asking Schell, Frederick, and the man in the Thaed costume to, "Take it again from the top." Maybe he did, and editor Archie Ludski used the wrong "take". That is possible. Ludski was not the regular editor. He may have been "called in" as a replacement while the regular editor was on summer holidays. Or while the regular editor was busy editing the simultaneously produced "Space Warp". Ludski might have lacked the same experience with hurried editing work, or maybe his mind was not on the job, thinking instead about his next assignment on some more prestigious work of entertainment. Whatever the case may have been, it is an embarrassing error, yes. But as to whether or not it is excusable, or can be overlooked, this is dependent on the viewer's willingness to embrace the episode's concept, characters, happenings, looks and sounds, and nuances. I do embrace them. Evidently, the fan with the unwillingness to excuse, does not. His loss.
At least no one's pants split open, as happens in Star Trek and Doctor Who. See? Productions other than Space: 1999, productions with a larger fan base, are not without flaw. Show business is what it is. And men are imperfect. I would point to a scene in first season Space: 1999's "Breakaway" of a spacesuit's neck application moving far upward as a man jumps into a Moonbuggy, revealing nothing holding the neck application in place. So, there, all who wield Season 1 as a weapon against Season 2.
And "The Exiles" has come under attack, also. Specifically the scene in it of Maya transforming into a black panther.
"I'll never understand why she didn't do more after shapeshifting."
Maya's powers were never called shapeshifting. Not in an episode. Not in a novelisation of an episode. Not in the promotion literature.
"Maybe there was an open cardboard box in the room and she got distracted... but yeah, it seemed lame to just hiss at two armed individuals."
She does not hiss. She growls. The two individuals are not both armed. Only Zova has the gun, and she drops it.
"Agreed! She should have lunged at Zova when she was trying to pick up the laser gun instead of just standing there hissing. Did she forget to ensure she kept her superior humanoid intelligence when she transformed into a cat of prey?"
"I agree this is another plot hole big enough to fly an Eagle through but I think the point of this scene was her unbridled anger at Tony getting attacked - witness her intense 'death stare' at her gloating adversary before she leaps."
"Plot hole". "Plot hole". "Plot hole". "Plot hole". I am so Goddamned sick and tired of reading those words.
"Instead of Maya transforming during mid-leap, she could have been shown landing on Zora and pinning her down on the floor. And transforming only after they drop, the puma now ready to cause harm to the polkadot-faced intruder."
Zova, not Zora. Zora is a villainess in Star Trek- "The Savage Curtain".
"She transforms and then just stands there, I'm sorry what is she waiting for, them to put a bowl of milk down for her? She gives them plenty of time to pick up the the stun gun and use it on her."
Why? Why? Why? Why?
Why does Sandra open the Eagle door so that Spearman can abduct her, in "The Full Circle" (Season 1)? Why does Helena not order Koenig's commlock deactivated when he is confined to quarters in "Collision Course" (Season 1)? Why does Koenig leave Helena alone in Medical Centre with the mortally dangerous Zoref in "Force of Life" (Season 1)? And why does she turn her back to Zoref and stop keeping him under constant observation? Why does Tanner not just tell Rowland that he will age rapidly to death if he leaves the planet in "Death's Other Dominion" (Season 1)? Why does Helena not order Cellini's spears and axes removed from his quarters as she thinks him to be unstable, in "Dragon's Domain" (Season 1)? Why does Koenig not order a Security detail to accompany him to Baxter's quarters, as he is suspicious of Balor, in "End of Eternity" (Season 1)?
A person who wants to question, question, question everything in an episode, is going to find something about which to quibble. And to quibble preemptively, smugly, arrogantly, when it comes to Season 2. I am so sick and tired of answering to such "chipping away" at all episodes. Whether that be done in order to discredit anyone such as myself, who happens to hold the episodes in high esteem, or is simply an exercise in the "picking" of "nits" coming out of overfamiliarity and ennui with the material, or is a mean-spirited effort to undermine or destroy someone's enjoyment of the episodes, or is a bid to curry favour with, and receive plaudit from, the oh, so venerable haters of Freddie Freiberger and the abomination that is Season 2.
No actress or stunt-woman would agree to having a black panther jump onto her. There was no way that a scene of Maya as a black panther leaping onto Zova and pinning Zova down with its claws-endowed paws, could be filmed. At the time. Decades before Computer Graphics Imaging (CGI) became the norm.
Interpret the scene this way, and it works. Maya sees Zova stun Tony. She impulsively turns into the black panther to prevent Tony from being the victim of further violence. She soon thereafter intends also for her transformation to startle Cantar and Zova and to serve as a show of her abilities, to discourage Cantar and Zova from doing further "jiggery-pokery" to Alpha's vital life-support equipment. She expected the two aliens to "back down" upon their witnessing her metamorphic powers. Not that Zova would reach for the gun. Maya is still rather naive at this particular point in time in the second season timeline. She did not expect the two Golosian exiles to regain their wits so promptly and for them to "carry on" with what they are doing. And as Zova is reaching for the gun, Maya reasons that should she move violently against Zova, Cantar might retaliate by doing something damaging to life-support. She may also remember Koenig's concerns about Cantar and Zova possibly being carriers of disease, and therefore is disinclined to risk spilling any blood. And for some critical seconds, she is flustered as to her next move, giving Zova time to pick up and raise the gun and fire it.
Is it necessary for a scene of exposition for this to be stated? Is it necessary to have exposition for the things I mention above in episodes of Season 1? Or can "economy of detail" be sufficient to neutralise the "gripes" that these unhumble grumblers foist into the comment spaces beneath the Facebook postings?
What if the transforming into the black panther, as opposed to, say, a gorilla, in the particular situation, has some symbolic import to it? It may indeed have. Dean and I never discussed this. And as yet I cannot perceive such. But I am not so arrogant as to claim that my not perceiving it means that it does not exist.
Okay. I "get it". These people hate Season 2. They hate everything in it. Every scene. Every concept. Every depiction. Every line of dialogue. It was not made for them, evidently. Watching explorations of elaborately depicted, truly alien, imagination-stretching worlds, and encounters with many a space phenomenon of an aesthetic that only a spectacular science fiction/fantasy opus can strikingly show, clearly means less, far less, to them than "air-tight" story "plotting", with every single detail explained in exposition. Why cannot they just go away? Go away and focus their attention on something more to their liking? Something not requiring suspension of disbelief or not expecting of viewers to accept "economy of detail"? The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, perhaps. Or Road to Avonlea.
I believe that I know the answer. What is really at the root of the matter. So, the question in the preceding paragraph is merely rhetorical. They have a bug in the brain regarding second season Space: 1999. Somewhere in their subconscious, there is a nagging doubt that their contention that Season 2 of Space: 1999 is wretched beyond any credible aesthetic defence or redemption, is true. Their ego is heavily invested in such being true. To be wrong about their favourite television show, would be far too much for their vanity to absorb. They have to be right. Not just about the merits of Season 1, which I acknowledge, but about the utter lack of such in Season 2. And right in their treatment of people like me, and the incessant pugnaciousness directed at one Fred Freiberger. So, to placate their ego, to reassure their ego, they attack Season 2 in a public arena of like-minded cohorts, day after day after day, knowing as they do that the rounds of hearty approval will provide gratifying and further comforting reassurance. And if they can "stick it" to outliers such as I, so much the better. "Jollies" are to be had with that, and with satisfying of a near fifty-year-old habit of venting resentment and hatred, into which daily indulgence is quite a "fix". Indeed, resentment and hatred defines them. It motivates them to go on Facebook and proclaim the same intensely disdainful attitude that they have closed-mindedly clung-to for almost five decades. And we know what the mythology of Star Wars, and religions around the world, have to say about hatred.
Alas, resentment begets resentment. And hatred can beget hatred. I do not deny being resentful of them and their attitude. I will routinely pounce upon them on my Weblog when they say something false that I can "stick to them". The more that I can do that, the more I am able to reassure myself that they are not infallible (far from it, they are), and show so to others. I have to admit to this having a gratifying effect upon me and my ego that sustained much damage in my "run-ins" with persons of the anti-Season 2 persuasion. But cannot I have some some substantive gratification after all that I went through, all that I went through solely because I came to the aid of second season, defended it as an aesthete of it, refused to self-deprecate before a blinkered and arrogant herd?
I hasten to add that I do not hate Season 1. I cannot. I hate the using of it against Season 2. I hate the weaponsing of it. And the attitude of the people malignantly doing the weaponising. I wish that they would find something else to interest them and trouble Season 2, Fred Freiberger, and me no more. But that wish is forlorn.
Here is an angle of discussion I do now believe that I have not before broached. If I had more steadfast, long-standing, faithfully supportive friends, would I be less sensitive, more armoured, psychologically, and less excitable, in the face of the assaults upon Season 2 Space: 1999? Yes, I think so. If I were not so dependent on the memory of my final year in Douglastown (1976-7) for morale in the midst of prolonged, seemingly endless loneliness, would I be less sensitive? Yes. But make no mistake. I will never appreciate the daily attacks on everything from first film frames of "The Metamorph" to final pieces of celluloid of "The Dorcons", and the arrogant presumption that no credible controverting argument is ever possible. I will always have umbrage with that. On a personal level.
All for today.
Saturday, March 9, 2024.
March is being March. The despicable month that it is. Early this past week, warm temperatures had eliminated almost all of the snow on the ground. My lawn and many of the lawns on my street were snow-free. Children were on their bicycles. My young neighbour was playing badminton in his shorts. And I was finally making some progress toward walking normally again. And then, boom! Snowstorm. Twenty centimetres of snow, followed by nighttime temperatures well below zero. Back to the winter wonderland we go. No milder temperatures in the forecast to melt the fresh layer of snow and boulder-shaped ploughed snow on the fringes of people's front yards. Just forecasts of temperatures near zero and mixed precipitation. These are conditions that have sent my knee problem into a relapse. And I am also having stiffness and pain in my ankle. The one onto which I fell, back in January.
I have discovered a duration counter for "hits" to my Website. It reveals that nearly ninety percent of my Website's visitors, are on my Website for zero to twenty seconds. That is no time at all. Most of my Web pages are not fully loaded until at least half of twenty seconds have elapsed. Certainly no time to read much of anything. These visits are, I reckon, by Internet robots, or by persons so uninterested in first glimpses of my Website, that they hasten to move away, "clicking" back on their Internet browser. Moreover, more than ninety percent of accessing of my Website is for images only. Not html.. Not text. The count of visitors to my Website who stay long enough to read what I write, is abysmally low. Across the entirety of my Website, all of the Looney Tunes Web pages, the Web pages for Spiderman, Rocket Robin Hood, The Littlest Hobo, Space: 1999, etcetra, the autobiographical Web pages, this Weblog, the television listings Web pages, the cartoon director tributes, the interviews, the longer-than-twenty-seconds visits count is in the single digits. Every day. Single digits. Considering the size of the world's population, this is pathetic in the extreme. I had a readership of some size twenty to twenty-five years ago. Back when Bugs and company were in the awareness of the mainstream (now, they are not). Back when The Littlest Hobo was in circulation on multiple television stations in Canada. Back when Spiderman was on Teletoon Retro. Back when September 13, 1999 brought approximately 150 visitors to my Space: 1999 Web page. But not anymore. All interested persons have been to my Website, read it, and moved on, never returning. Never giving a thought to it in the present. Or maybe everyone who likes my Website's focused-upon entertainments, are either having to contend with health issues consuming every minute of their time, or, like my old friends Ev and Sandy, are dead. Maybe everyone has lost all interest in twentieth century imaginative entertainment, or at least that which I venerate. Idle speculation my part. I just do not know with any certainty. All that I do know is that the paltry number of Website visits is demotivating me from committing more of my time to increasing or ameliorating Website content.
These past twelve years, I have put a huge, huge amount of effort into improving my Website. Indeed, in the last year alone, I worked tirelessly on broadcast histories for Space: 1999, The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour, and The Littlest Hobo. And visits to my Website are so low in number as to cause me to wonder if it was really time well-spent. My Website certainly is not growing its readership these past two decades. Just the opposite. How many people are going to be reading this Weblog entry today? Two or three?
Yesterday saw the release of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 3. I have it on order from Amazon.com. It has not shipped as yet. I expect that I will enjoy it much more than I did LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 2. And I enjoyed very little of that. Nearly half of the cartoons on VOLUME 3 are post-1948.
Whether or not I will write a review of VOLUME 3, is uncertain. The visits to my Website lasting more than twenty seconds, are almost zero now. And I see no light at the end of the dark tunnel of zero readership. Certainly nothing that motivates me to tap the buttons of my computer keyboard to add to my now daily eschewed Website.
British actor Michael Culver has died. He played Pete Irving in Space: 1999- "Guardian of Piri", Captain Needa in The Empire Strikes Back, a British agent in The New Avengers- "Hostage", and Squire Armstrong in Season 2 of The Adventures of Black Beauty. May he rest in peace. The Space: 1999 Page, its In Memoriam section, has been updated accordingly.
Textual updates have been done for my Era 3 and Era 4 memoirs. I made some changes to my memories of a Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial, which I have seen again at last on YouTube. And I added a needed comma to my memories of going to Burger King for lunch in the 1983-4 school year.
The Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial to which I refer is at nine minutes and thirty-eight seconds in the this YouTube video.
Although it is within a compilation of commercials on Canaadian television in the 1980s, this Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial beginning with, "Spices, from the four corners of the Earth," was first seen in late 1977 or early 1978.
Wednesday, the thirteenth day of miserable March, 2024. I believe that I have said it before. I hate March. The one month too many of winter. The month which has killed relatives, pets, and relatives of friends, in my life. And that is presiding over the worsening condition of my right leg, denying to me the sunshine and warmth that I need to foster the improvement of my right knee and ankle to full health.
Fredericton is back in the deep freeze after a couple of weeks of snow-melting, positive single-digit temperatures. Snow was almost all gone, and the Saint John River was ice-free. Now, this morning, under temperatures of -10, the river is freezing up again. And there are 25 centimetres of snow forecast for tomorrow. I despise March. Despicable month wherein the temperatures at the end of it are no warmer than those at the start of it, despite the tilt of the Earth starting to favour the northern hemisphere. The month that has killed more people in my life than all other months combined.
And March this year has brought a slump in traffic to this Website that shows no sign of abating. I continue to receive only a handful of interested real-people visits a day to certain corners of this rather expansive locale on the Internet. This Weblog entry today seems destined to go unseen by human eyes, other than my own, for many days. This disincentivises me from going to the effort to "pound out" a Weblog entry.
I do have some news to report. DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION- SEASON 15 is now out for sale. And it was not shipped to me within the first three days of its availability. I cannot realistically expect it to arrive before Easter weekend.
Imprint in Australia will be releasing a Blu-Ray box set of The Prisoner in June. It will incorporate almost every bonus item from both of the Network Distributing Blu-Ray releases of the 1967-8 seventeen-episode television series. It is tempting to have so comprehensive a package. But will the Imprint offerings of the seventeen episodes be of less vivid picture quality than what Network provided? The Space: 1999 experience suggests that such may be the case. If same procedures are done by Imprint for The Prisoner. An different encode, possibly a re-encoding with additional video compression? I still do not know precisely why I ultimately found Network's provision of the Space: 1999 episodes to be superior to that of Imprint. I surmise different encoding, but surmising something does not make it definite fact.
Word is that LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 3 has had impressive sales. No commission for a fourth volume is confirmed at this time, though Jerry Beck and George Feltenstein say that they are mulling over the contents to such a volume. I am not going to say a further word on the matter of further volumes of COLLECTOR'S CHOICE. What will be, will be.
I do have COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 3. I watched all of the cartoons on it that are of my fancy. All of the post-1948s, twelve in all, plus two pre-1948s ("Hobo Bobo" and "Mexican Joyride"). The High Definition video quality is gorgeous, of course. I am especially appreciative of being able to view "Pre-Hysterical Hare" in Blu-Ray glory. All that I had of it was a third-generation copy off of a 1991 Nickelodeon broadcast.
My friend, Michel, in Quebec has supplied additional information for the Cosmos 1999 TVA broadcast history above in this Weblog, relating to the availability of Cosmos 1999 on the Rouyn-Noranda TVA affiliate, CFEM. I adjusted the TVA broadcast history accordingly.
Michel has also supplied me with information on a run of Cosmos 1999 on CKRS- Saguenay, Quebec, in 1980-1. This was months after the final broadcast of Cosmos 1999 on the Radio-Canada television network. The option of broadcasting Cosmos 1999 was evidently available to privately owned affiliates of Radio-Canada. as CKRS was, until TVA acquired the rights to Cosmos 1999 in 1983.
Below is a history of the CKRS-only run of Cosmos 1999 in 1980-1.
CKRS- Saguenay, Quebec (1980-1) Saturdays Select Station 12- CKRS- Saguenay, Quebec Date Channels Episode Airtime Sept. 20, 1980 12 "A la Derive" (R) 1 P.M. Sept. 27, 1980 12 "Collision Inevitable" (R) 1 P.M. Oct. 4, 1980 Preemption Oct. 11, 1980 12 "Puissance de la Vie" (R) 1 P.M. Oct. 18, 1980 Preemption Oct. 25, 1980 12 "Le Retour du Voyageur" (R) 1 P.M. Nov. 1, 1980 12 "Question de Vie ou de Mort" (R) 1 P.M. Nov. 8, 1980 12 "Le Gardien du Piri" (R) 1 P.M. Nov. 15, 1980 12 "L'anneau de la Lune" (R) 1 P.M. Nov. 22, 1080 12 "Direction Terre" (R) 4 P.M. Nov. 29, 1980 12 "Le Grand Cercle" (R) 1 P.M. Dec. 6, 1980 12 "Le Maillon" (R) 1 P.M. Dec. 13, 1980 12 "L'Enfant d'Alfa" (R) 4 P.M. Dec. 20, 1980 12 "La Mission des Dariens" (R) 4 P.M. Dec. 27, 1980 12 "Le Domaine du Dragon" (R) 1 P.M. Jan. 3, 1981 12 "Le Testament de l'Arcadie" (R) 4 P.M. Jan. 10, 1981 12 "La metamorphose" (R) 1 P.M. Jan. 17, 1981 12 "Tout ce qui Reluit" (R) 1 P.M. Jan. 24, 1981 12 "Les Exiles" (R) 1 P.M. Jan. 31, 1981 12 "En Route vers l'Infini" (R) 1 P.M. Feb. 7, 1981 12 "La planete Archanon" (R) 1 P.M. Feb. 14, 1981 12 "Humain, ne serait-ce qu'un Moment" (R) 1 P.M. Feb. 21, 1981 12 "Les directives de Luton" (R) 1 P.M. Feb. 28, 1981 12 "Taybor, le commercant" (R) 1 P.M. Mar. 7, 1981 12 "Le nuage qui tue" (R) 1 P.M. Mar. 14, 1981 12 "Le cerveau ordinateur" (R) 1 P.M. Mar. 21, 1981 12 "Les catacombes de la Lune" (R) 1 P.M. Mar. 28, 1981 12 "Les chrysalides A-B-C" (R) 1 P.M. Apr. 4, 1981 12 "Une autre Terre" (R) 1 P.M. Apr. 11, 1981 12 "Le secret de la caverne" (R) 1 P.M. Apr. 18, 1981 12 "Deformation spatiale" (R) 1 P.M. Apr. 25, 1981 Preemption May 2, 1981 12 "Une question d'equilibre" (R) 1 P.M. May 9, 1981 12 "Un message d'espoir: 1e partie" (R) 1 P.M. May 16, 1981 12 "Un message d'espoir: 2e partie" (R) 1 P.M. May 23, 1981 12 "L'element Lambda" (R) 1 P.M. May 30, 1981 12 "Le spectre" (R) 4 P.M. Jun. 6, 1981 12 "Dorzak" (R) 1 P.M. Jun. 13, 1981 12 "La planete du diable" (R) 1 P.M. Jun. 20, 1981 12 "Le syndrome de l'immunite" (R) 1 P.M. Jun. 27, 1981 12 "Le retour des Dorcons" (R) 1 P.M.All for today, Friday, March 22, 2024.
My knee problem remains grimly determined to plague me, at the same time as winter weather persists. Windchill yesterday was way below zero. I could not walk around my city block without my knee "seizing up" and causing me enormous discomfort. It was especially stiff and painful this morning. The morning of the final day of March. I am never unhappy to see the back of March. Though I do also know how treacherous April can be.
As expected, my DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION- SEASON 15 set did not reach me before Easter weekend. Not that I am grousing very much about that. The knowledge that my favourite Doctor Who seasons will in all probability not see Blu-Ray release, is impairing my ability to enjoy the sets that do come along. The BBC has managed to avoid releasing all of my favourite Doctor Who seasons on Blu-Ray to this point in time. And one of my least favourites, Season 25, seems to be "locked in" as the second of the only two DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION sets this year. Knowing that my collection of Doctor Who on Blu-Ray will never be completed, is hampering my enjoyment of whatever Doctor Who story I do choose to watch.
The number of people on my Website longer than twenty seconds, is at an all-time low this month. I am not encouraged to entertain thoughts of a resurgence. It could be that everyone interested in my Website's subjects, has already visited my Website and has forgotten about it and is therefore unlikely to return. This being the case, why bother updating? Beyond just satifying my anal-retentive insistence that my Website be as up-to-date and error-free as possible.
I have an Easter turkey dinner to prepare this morning. So, I had best "get at it".
Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024.
Saturday, April 20, 2024.
I have written some additional scenes for the Space: 1999 second season episode, "Seed of Destruction". They ought to counter most, if not all, of the oft-proclaimed "gripes" about the episode's writing, about its "economy of detail" in its final act and epilogue. Without further adieu, here are the additional scenes.
ACT FOUR
As Eagle 1 is approaching landing pad.
KOENIG: "Computer. Emergency command order. Allocate power to Launch Pad 4 boarding tube and Travel Tube."
COMPUTER: "Acknowledged."
Koenig steps out of Travel Tube and runs, encountering Bill Fraser and Security Guard Klaff.
FRASER: "Commander! What are you doing here? I thought you were in Command Centre."
KLAFF: "Look at his jacket!"
KOENIG: "Never mind about that now. Bill, Eagle 1 has enough fuel left for a round trip to the asteroid. And the flight plan is already in the computer. Go to the asteroid as fast as you can and pick up Tony and Maya. Klaff, go with him."
FRASER and KLAFF in unision: "Yes, sir."
Koenig continues running toward Command Centre.
EPILOGUE
After the replica shatters onto Command Centre floor and Koenig and Helena share amazed glances.
KOENIG: "Sahn, halt the energy transfer immediately!"
SANDRA: "Yes, sir."
KOENIG: "And as power builds up from the reactors, allocate it to every essential service."
SANDRA: "Certainly, Commander."
KOENIG: "Meantime, give power priority to Command Centre communications, interstellar frequency."
Power swiftly, almost immediately, returns to the Command Centre video monitors. Koenig becomes aware of his jacket having a glassy feel, and then it turns to crystalline dust and falls off of him, leaving only his tunic. Koenig goes to his desk. He presses a button to fully clear away the sonic feedback loop that Maya programmed into the interbase communications system. Then, he addresses Sandra again.
KOENIG: "Patch me into a communications channel with Eagle 1, Sahn."
CARTER: "Eagle 1?"
KOENIG: "Fraser's piloting it to the asteroid to pick up Tony and Maya."
Fraser appears on Koenig's screen.
KOENIG: "Bill. Situation?"
FRASER: "We're on our way to the asteroid, Commander. E.T.A. eight minutes, approximate."
KOENIG: "Thanks, Bill. Keep me posted. Sahn, see if you can raise Tony on his commlock."
SANDRA (seconds later): "I have him, Commander."
VERDESCHI: "Alpha! Alpha! Come in Alpha!"
KOENIG: "Tony."
VERDSECHI: "John, is that you?"
KOENIG: "Yes, Tony. Fraser's on his way to you. Eight minutes."
VERDESCHI: "I don't know if we can hold out that long, John. The oxygen's going."
KOENIG: "Outside the cave entrance, I left a couple of spacesuits. You and Maya put them on and await Fraser's arrival."
VERDESCHI: "Right. Come on, Maya."
Neither Koenig nor Verdeschi are aware as yet that Maya can transform into a creature with the ability to store oxygen. Maya opts to don the spacesuit rather than transform.
Later, with everyone back on Alpha.
SANDRA: "Power now flowing amply to all essential services, Commander. Hydroponics predicts another twelve hours before cropping can resume."
KOENIG: "Thank-you, Sahn."
MAYA: "Observation Room reports crystal sample turned to dust."
KOENIG: "That figures. Let's dispose of all of it, just to be on the safe side."
MAYA: "Right, Commander. It is a shame, though. It is an exceedingly interesting subject to study."
VERDESCHI: "I'm wondering something. The impostor switched jackets with you, John. Why did your true jacket crumble to dust when the impostor did? It wasn't a reflection."
MAYA: "I would surmise that the Commander's jacket gradually became a part of the reflection's form, adopting the same qualities."
HELENA: "What I'm wondering is how I failed to recognise the part in the impostor's hair being different."
CARTER: "And why I didn't. And everyone on Alpha, for that matter. Everyone saw him on the screens."
MAYA: "I think I can answer that. First of all, we tend not to look at a person's hair, unless it's stylistically altered to a highly significant degree. We focus on the face and the eyes. And the Commander's hair does have a subtler part to it. Also, you've all told me how many times the Commander returned from a mission, and was in the right
when everyone doubted him."
HELENA: "Yes, that's true. The Piri incident. The Arra incident."
MAYA: "I think Alpha is psychologically primed to believing the Commander to be genuine in every respect. You... we... have a psychological need for accepting the Commander and everything that he says, how he looks... everything. Our survival has depended on that in the past, time and time again. So, we didn't notice the subtle changes in his appearance. Our minds prevented us from noticing. And besides, we had our minds on something else. The threat to Alpha that the reflection said we had to neutralise."
HELENA: "I was more focused on his behaviour. He was different in that respect."
MAYA: "Yes, some of us noticed that. But none of us suspected that he was anything other than the real article. Not even me, with my particular hypersensitivity."
KOENIG: "It was a damned clever scheme he had, too. What he said sounded plausible, as he was setting Alpha up for a depletion of all of its energy, supposedly to save Alpha from some hold that the asteroid was exerting. Coming from my lips, or what appeared to be my lips, it was all too believable."
HELENA: "But he went too far. Eventually, I realized that he couldn't be you. Mentally or physically."
CARTER: "That's right. But I still thought he was John, physically at least. I could kick myself for that."
HELENA: "Alan, you more than maybe everyone else has had his survival tied to John being genuine. So many times you were out there in space, with John's judgement being paramount in your survival of a mission. Your psychological investment in the genuineness, in the physical verity, of John may have been that much greater."
CARTER: "You may have a point. But still, I could kick myself."
KOENIG: "I wouldn't want any of you doubting me at a critical time, but I suppose that it cannot hurt to at least give me a thorough look-over next time you find me acting even the slightest bit out of character."
"Catacombs of the Moon" has been the target of a copious amount of slung venom in recent days on the Facebook Space: 1999 group, Online Alpha. I do not really feel like tackling that today. As usual, it is coming from a group of Space: 1999 fans unwilling to "cut" any "slack" for any episode of second season, while being very much inclined to do so for Season One's twenty-four episodes. No "slack" may be "cut". Not for episodes needing to be produced simultaneously with others, and some characters not being available for extensive use in a particular story. Not for some eccentric placements of Helena's Status Reports, as a result of scenes needing to be dropped or shuffled around. No. No quarter given. No acknowledgement of any possible merit in the concepts and depictions. It is to arms, to arms. Everything from scene one to scene final to be run through with the swords of bellicose austerity and hate-filled invective. And do not object to this, anyone. Oh, no. Cannot have that. It must be a consensus that Season Two is awful. And that outliers who like it are defective. Even more so if they protest the attacks.
Some other time. I will say that the assailants are doing the usual things such as misconstruing details presented in dialogue, being hyperbolic, and just not being willing to consider actions of characters from particular angles, or the situations at hand. I will leave the matter at this. Maybe I will return to it. Maybe I will not. This Weblog's scant readership continues to be a demotivating force for me.
Sunday, April 21, 2024.
A brief Weblog entry before I partake of the sunny spring day that is the twenty-first of April in A.D. 2024, and further the slow recovery of my right knee through sunlight-generated Vitamin D.
I found a glitch on the second Blu-Ray disc in the Network Distributing Blu-Ray set of The Prisoner. Picture freezes and pixellates, followed by a couple of skips, as Number 6 is pouring milk for Number 2 in "A. B. and C". "Blu-ray rot"? I guess so. I do not recall seeing the same glitch on earlier watchings of same episode via that particular Blu-Ray disc. So, being as Network's Prisoner Blu-Rays are super-rare and prohibitively expensive in the second-hand market, I have decided to purchase Imprint's upcoming Prisoner Blu-Ray box set and accept whatever be the picture quality of the episodes on that.
Here is an image showing the Imprint The Prisoner Blu-Ray box set.
It is a worrying development, certainly, to discover a Network Blu-Ray in the process of "rot". Being as my favourite television series, Space: 1999, is on Network Blu-Ray. I can only hope that it is a fluke thing, the deterioration of one Blu-Ray disc in the Network box set of The Prisoner.
DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION- SEASON 15 arrived at my door a few weeks back. I enjoyed it. Not my favourite season of Doctor Who, but a few of the stories are to my liking. "The Sun-Makers" is great fun. The Collector is an inspired villain. One of the best ever to come out of the universes of Doctor Who and James Bond. Diabolical in his machinations and at the same time comedic in his mannerisms and fixations. I have always fancied "The Invisible Enemy" for its depictions of the future. And "Horror of Fang Rock" is a magnificent work of Gothic horror blended with Agatha Christie.
No word yet on what the next release in DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION will be. I hope that it is not Season 25. But it probably will be.
There is an Internet broadcast on all things Space: 1999. And it is surprisingly not vituperative as regards second season and Fred Freiberger. Just the tonic for me after having my eyes and sensibilities assaulted this week by the one-attack-after-another campaign against second season Space: 1999 at that ever so illustrious encampment that is the Online Alpha Facebook group. I do object to a comment about "All That Glisters" being a bad episode and a statement about Freiberger producing the last season of The Wild Wild West, but other than this, I can say that I endorse the broadcast, helmed by one Chance Bartels. If a person has five hours and more to dedicate to the endeavour, I recommend giving to it a watch. It is quite comprehensive in its coverage of Space: 1999, its episodes, its promotions, its merchandise.
Here it is.
Web page updates of late have been to The Littlest Hobo Page, The Prisoner Page, and McCorry's Memoirs Era 2. And my friend, Michel, from Quebec has provided information on broadcasts of Cosmos 1999 in Rouyn-Noranda in 1984, which has been incorporated into the TVA broadcast history for Cosmos 1999 above in this Weblog incarnation.
All for today.
Thursday, April 25, 2024.
It is a bitterly cold spring morning in New Brunswick. As is now the norm these past couple of decades, with the accursed jet stream assuming a constant spring position well to the south of Canada's easternmost provinces. All the time, Arctic air. I will wager that it is colder here now than it is in Siberia. It usually is now, in April and May.
My knee has been waxing and waning in the recovery process. It is actually my foot of same side of body that is being most problematical now. It is weak and sometimes painful as I walk.
The people at Online Alpha Facebook Group have outdone themselves these past twenty-four hours. Someone asked who or what was the most evil character that the Alphans ever encountered. And someone said Fred Freiberger. On comes the enormous amount of approving Facebook icons of thumb-up, laughter, and love. A hundred and seven at the time that I image-captured the following. More than a hundred and twenty as I write this Weblog entry.
My readers, few in number as they are, could probably imagine my reaction.
It figures. Oh, it figures. All anyone need do is invoke the word, evil, and the word, character, if not villain, and someone has to promptly supply the name of the scapegoated person in the production team for Space: 1999, and the reaction is one of boisterous acclaim. A person having a modicum of wit, and an axe of forty-eight years to grind, and disrespect for a second season aficionado such as myself, will gladly leap to the opportunity to do it. The outpouring of effusive approval, with nary a contrary word, is galling, to be sure. But predictable. Oh, so predictable. These people are so far gone in their hatred for the man and the season that he helmed, that branding him as evil is done by them with nary a micro-second's hesitation. No compassion for the man's loved ones who may see the posting. Definitely no consideration for the feelings of people to whom his work has sentimental value. The refrain would be, "Oh, lighten up. We're only joking. Can't you take a joke?" Of course, if anyone dares criticise their beloved "Year 1", their response is swift and vituperative. "Don't take things so seriously," they say. While they "take seriously" for nearly fifty years, their animus toward everything to do with their unloved season of their favourite television programme. Seriously enough to attack its scriptwriting, its concepts, its aesthetic, day after day after day after day. With statements of, "Oh, what do you expect? Fred Freiberger was the producer. The producer responsible for everything wrong about Space: 1999's second season that solely was the reason why Space: 1999 production was cancelled."
It is nonsense, on its face. The Alphans never canonically encountered a character by the name of Fred Freiberger. The Alphans are in a fictional universe; Fred Freiberger is real life. And Fred Freiberger was not evil. Not a villain. The man fought Hitler, for Christ's sake! He fought evil. And he believed, as a professional doing a job for which he was hired, that all of the work that he did was for the benefit of whatever it was to which he was contributing. He did not set out to destroy anything. Anything!
Incidents such as this reaffirm my contention that these people and their fan movement are driven by hatred. Said fan movement's only raison d'etre being to supply a platform for daily expressions of hatred for Fred Freiberger and the twenty-four Space: 1999 episodes that were made under his producership. And for the invalidating, demoralising, "gaslighting", and outright bullying of anyone who disagrees. This is all that the fandom for Space: 1999 is about. Has been about. And always will be about. Not an original idea about first season has been advanced for decades since David Hirsch's series of Starlog columns in 1979 and 1980. And original ideas about second season, are verboten.
Season 2 did not have "air-tight" scripting. So, what? What does? Not Season 1. Not the Season 1 pundits' precious "Black Sun". Not The Empire Strikes Back. Not Star Trek II- The Wrath of Khan. And it evidently lacked whatever, whatever, it is that is needed for non-"air-tight" scripting to go unnoticed. Some particular sheen. Some particular facade. Either that, or it has begrudging enemies all too willing to subject it, post-haste, to the most exhaustive scrutiny. While other works with flawed scriptwriting are granted a "free pass". "Air-tight" scripting is an exceedingly rare thing because people are imperfect. Go to the Internet Movie Database and search for a "goofs" section for any movie. There almost always is one, and "plot holes" are itemised there. Often at length. Especially with regard to works of the most imaginative genres.
The "'bloopers'-at-ten-paces" exercise grew tiresome decades ago. These people persist with it because it is how they can claim a victory. A cheap victory because there can be no countenancing of the casting of critical eyes upon "Year One" with equal vigour. A cheap victory because numerous of the so-called "bloopers" of Season 2 are misconstrued details, or outright falsehoods uncontested by anyone in their cosy "echo chamber". But they count their victories as such, and become so complacently arrogant with their wins, that joking about the hated season, its hated producer, and illegitimate fans such as myself alleged to be lacking "one can for a sixpack", is to be expected as "spoils" for the victor. The right to perpetually slur the loser. To rub the loser's nose in the mud. Or in whatever. All the time.
They won. They won through sheer nastiness, through force of numbers, through bullying tactics, including the bullying of holding a possible besmirched reputation over someone's head, if that someone is not obsequious enough. And it is fun for them to "stick it" to second season whenever there is occasion and opportunity to do so, and if anyone who appreciates it is made to feel small, so much the better. They can accuse someone of mental defectiveness if such a someone objects to the derision with any amount of passion. And always "come out smelling like a rose".
It is just going to become worse and worse and worse, the assailing of everything to do with Season 2. As egregious as the latest assault is, the next ones will be worse. This being the case, I have no inclination, zero, to involve myself in any way in the fan celebration of it being fifty years since Space: 1999 was first on television screens. Space: 1999 begat a fandom populated by such hate-driven people who cheer the designation of evil villain applied to a good man who brought many an imagination-stimulating entertainment to the public, and who was a World War II veteran. I do not think that there is reason to celebrate the advent of Space: 1999. I had the misfortune of becoming attached to Space: 1999 before, during, and after a critical junction in my life. It would have been better for me if the attachment, and the junction, had not come about.
Shout! Factory has been offering a marathon of all episodes of Space: 1999 on YouTube for several days now, and there is a running comment section replete with sniping, cavils, jeers, and smears. Directed mostly at Season 2, of course. It is akin to an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. One that is extended over a whopping amount of hours. Nothing appreciative said. Only ridicule. I wish that Shout! did not bother to do this.
It is Saturday, the fourth of May, 2024. How long was it before I this morning had my first encounter with the "May the Fourth Be With You," declaration? About ten minutes.
I am this morning remembering another fourth of May that constituted a Saturday. One that I experienced thirty-nine years ago. On Saturday, May 4, 1985, CHSJ aired Star Trek in the morning, at 11 A.M., as there was a New Brunswick Liberal Leadership Convention spanning much of the afternoon. I remember catching some glimpses of scenes of the first few minutes of episode "The Galileo Seven" before leaving Star Trek and going outside to join Craig and his company for some Saturday morning baseball action under sunny skies. Early in the afternoon, after lunch, I saw Joey while he was doing his newspaper-delivery rounds. Sometime thereafter, Craig summoned me for further baseball actioon, during which I missed a special MPBN Saturday afternoon telecast of the Doctor Who story, "Planet of Evil". I would not see "Planet of Evil" until July of 1987. After dinner, I was watching and videotaping MPBN's showing of Doctor Who- "Pyramids of Mars", at the usual 7 P.M. MPBN airtime for Doctor Who. Some of the scenes in "Pyramids of Mars" recall me to that sunny May Saturday, including one with the Doctor and Sarah perambulating stealthily outside a huge domicile with a particular piece of Dudley Simpson music playing. "Pyramids of Mars" had my rapt attention, in no small part because Michael Sheard, of Space: 1999- "Dragon's Domain", was in it. Some forty minutes into the Doctor Who story about robot mummies, a pyramid on Mars, and Sutekh the Destroyer, I was called yet again to play some baseball with Craig and his fellows. On Park Street School's paved area. I watched my videotape-recording of "Pyramids of Mars" in full sometime later.
In May of 1985, I had a new videocassette recorder, a Maganvox. Tony was living in Moncton, for all of us knew, permanently. Joey plus Craig's baseball buddies, comprised my social circle then. On the fourth of May in 1985, my father was facing impending open-heart surgery later that month. And my grandmother was in mourning after my grandfather's death two months earlier. Such was the condition of my life as the May of 1985 was upon me. 1985 was nowhere as good as 1984, and even less so as 1983. But I do have nostalgia for it. Quite. A very powerful nostalgia. I miss so much the days of being with Joey, of playing baseball (even the games that I lost), and, most importantly, of my parents being alive. Them, my grandmother, and my cat, Frosty. And me being young and un-jaded, sparsely cynical, not as yet in the malestrom of adversity awaiting me in my older adult years. My enthusiasm for Space: 1999, the Warner Brothers cartoons, etc., unhampered by the imposition of fandom and the proclivity of domineering groups of fans to "diss" what I fancy and to purport that persons who unironically, unapologetically, non-sychophantically think otherwise are defective.
The Online Alpha Facebook group, which I approach with the utmost trepidation, has been this week discussing chronology in Space: 1999, and I and my Space: 1999 Web page were mentioned. I braced myself for the worst. For condemnations and invokings of bad reputation and alleged deficient mental health. Usually, reference of me and my writing on the subject of Space: 1999 results in two reactions. Intense invective, or total ignoring. In this case, it was the latter. Two people alluded to me and my Web page, one of them providing a Hyperlink to said Web page. And there was no comment to be seen thereafter. I checked my Website traffic statistics as I normally daily do, and there was no uptick in visitors to The Space: 1999 Page. None. There are thousands of members of that Facebook group. No perceptible amount of them was interested enough by statements about my Web page's chronology and analysis of "minutae" to at least perform a "mouse-click" on the Hyperlink and give a look at what is there to be found. A sizable fraction of the group probably is new to the fan movement in the last five or ten years, not present during events of some twenty-four years ago. Either they were informed of my disrepute among the fan movement and had already "blacklisted" me on the say-so of others, or they already know of my Web page and likely hate it, or they are just not interested in reading at any length about Space: 1999, only in "bitching" about it, daily.
I suppose that I should be grateful that my name's mention did not result in a barrage of aspersion and hate. Would the group's moderators have allowed that if it did gush forth? Who knows? They certainly do not curtail the demonising of Mr. Freiberger.
April was one of the worst months of my Website's history of recent years, with regard to visitor traffic. Bandwidth usage was far below the monthly average. And of the "hits" that my Website did receive, the vast majority of them were for less than twenty seconds. What incentive have I to continue doing updates and improvements? Beyond my own compulsive personality's need for everything to be as thorough and polished as possible. On the subject of improvements, I have found some top-quality YouTube videos of the Parks Canada vignettes of 1977. Using one of them, I have upgraded an image of a Parks Canada vignette on McCorry's Memoirs Era 3. Also, I have done some text revision for same life era and also The Space: 1999 Page.
I have also been remembering the first week of May in 1983, when my parents and I were en route to and from and in Ottawa. This week, in commemoration of that week, I have watched the V television miniseries and the Star Trek episode, "Mirror, Mirror". I intend also to watch Star Trek episodes "Balance of Terror" and "The Tholian Web", and the Spiderman episode, "Spiderman Meets Skyboy". All of these have relevance in my memory of that first week of May of forty-one years ago. It can be read-about at McCorry's Memoirs Era 4.
Sunny Monday, May 13, 2024.
I saw this delightful posting at the Online Alpha Facebook group.
"In 'Rules of Luton' why didn't Maya when she was trapped in the cage as a bird just change into an insect and crawl out?"
Here we go again, around the yum-yum tree. Or whatever.
Ninety-three comments, almost all of them invective against Fred Freiberger. And Season 2. I will tackle some of them.
"Really annoyed me the 1st time I watched it. Still annoying now!!"
Why? Is this person's imagination so constricted that over forty-eight years, no "head canon" explanation has presented itself?
"And for those who say she had to go back to her usual form, check out 'Space Warp'. She goes from one monster to another then. Why do I refer specifically to 'Space Warp'? Because it's written by the same man. And that man is Freddie Freiberger."
So? "Space Warp" came after "The Rules of Luton". Is it not possible that Maya could have learned in the interim to transform from one form other than that of herself, into another one? Or perhaps she does need to transform for a micro-second back to herself before assuming another form? Too fast for the human eye to notice. Or maybe there is some constraint against changing from a smaller form into insect-sized, even smaller forms without first transforming back to herself?
And in point of fact, Maya did not transform from monster to monster in "Space Warp". She actually changed from a monster to a young Mentor (or some other Psychon) to another monster. It is important to be accurate, which the person whom I am quoting is not.
Look, I do not dispute that Fred Freibrger was imperfect. Everyone is. Working under time constraints, under enormous pressure to deliver scripts before deadlines, the imperfections may be more inclined to manifest. For what it is worth, I, too, noticed the discrepancy in Maya's powers back in 1976. But I just presumed some extenuating circumstances, and just enjoyed the story. I suspended disbelief. I certainly did not allow the matter to "annoy" me for upwards of four decades. Just accept it, conceive an explanation for it, and continue on enjoying one's favourite television show. And be grateful that we have as much Space: 1999 to enjoy, that we do.
"I'm SO with you!! 'CREATIVE' writer's license!! The worst part of it, NOT being consistent!! LOL!! On a positive note, almost 48 years later we are STILL talking about the episode!!"
Was first season consistent? I have a matter of the non-suspension of Koenig's commlock in "Collision Course" to present to you, sir. After such suspension having been done in "Guardian of Piri". Or Mathias and company donning surgical masks for an autopsy in "Matter of Life and Death" and Helena and team not doing so for another autopsy, in "End of Eternity".
Was first season's writing perfect? I have Regina's two brains, two Moons in orbit around Earth not causing extreme catastrophies on Earth, and foam on the Lunar surface presumably disappearing, to offer in response to this question.
Forty-eight years later people are still talking, or writing, about the episode because they have it in their brains to despise Fred Freiberger and second season Space: 1999 in perpetuity, and to discourage others from looking upon it with anything other than a scathingly critical eye.
"Couldn't agree more, when a writer (no matter who they are) breaks/ignores their own rules or guidelines for no other reasons except for careless, sloppy writing - they tell the audience they don't care, so why should we??"
We do not know for precise certainty what time constraint and pressure within which he was working, as he was writing the "Rules of Luton" script. Maybe it just did not occur to him that Maya could escape the cage by turning into something smaller. This does not necessarily mean that he did not care. Is the rest of the episode unworthy of viewer caring or attention because of one oversight? Tell this to the fans of Avengers: Infinity War, then. Dr. Strange could have used one of his portals to cut off Thanos' hand with the Infinity Gauntlet on it, and dispatch the hand to the throes of a supernova which would scatter the Infinity Stones through space again. Fans of Infinity War acknowledge this. And they do not allow it to alienate them from the rest of the story.
Maybe Freiberger's brief always was that Maya needed to change back into herself, and some directors failed to heed that. It is quite a stretch of reasoning to claim that Freiberger did not care. But then this person making the claim, is the same person who said that Season 2 Space: 1999 aired on Saturday morning on CBC in its original run. He said it without an ounce of proof. He has no right attacking Mr. Freiberger for any mistake.
"'Space Warp' was the first episode of season 2 I saw as a ten year old. I remember clearly not understanding what had happened to my favourite show. I felt so disappointed."
Well, that is too bad. You ought to have seen "The Metamorph" first, sir. Why did you not? It cannot have been much of a favourite television show if you did not watch an episode of Season 2 until "Space Warp" came along, presumbly four or more months into the run of the second season episodes. I, on the other hand, saw Season 2 from "The Metamorph" onward, and "Space Warp" was the last second season episode that I had occasion to see. I knew by then of the existence of Season 1 and did appreciate both seasons. I acknowledged that seasons of television programmes can be different from each other. I knew such to be the case in my experience with Spiderman.
"I know Freiberger tends to cop the blame for everything when, in reality, things are rarely attributable to a single cause like that.
But as a director, I am reminded that Ed Wood was passionate and seemed to be able to convince people he could direct and, when things weren't done properly, he'd confidently announce "they'll never notice" (or words to that effect). So I don't think Freiberger had a particularly high opinion of sci-fi fans in general."
I do not have a high opinion of them either. And for good reason.
Why bring Ed Wood into this? Ed Wood was a low-budget film-maker with peculiar, some would say deviant, fetishes. He never had the funds that Space: 1999 had. Nor did he have the talent of a Keith Wilson, a Brian Johnson, or a Charles Crichton behind him. And he let his odd fetishes guide his creative decisions. Mr. Freiberger did not. Mr. Freiberger ceded to his interest in mythology. A far cry from that to dressing in women's sweaters. Stupid, idiotic comparison. Par for the course for these people.
I have never watched anything Ed Wood made. But I have a hunch that I would have noticed flying saucers made of paper plates, obviously cardboard tombstones tipping over, and Tor Johnson running into a wall and the set shaking, a darned sight quicker than any lapse in storywriting in Season 2 Space: 1999, and I would have had good will for the latter in its capture of my imagination, whereas I would just say, "Give me a break," to what Ed Wood was peddling, and change the channel.
Space: 1999 was being made for a much wider audience than "sci-fi fans". It had to be. Doctor Who was, for most of its history. Which was why it lasted as long as it did.
"Because 'Charles Woodgrove' was a terrible writer."
Really? You have watched everything he has written? To make such a statement with any hope of honest-to-goodness credibility, you would have to have done so. Or at least watched most of it. Fans of The Wild Wild West would disagree with you. Maybe fans of Superboy. Or Ben Casey. I cannot say that I have watched everything that Mr. Freiberger ever wrote. But what I have seen, I have either enjoyed or been at least abiding-of. I saw an episode of Bonanza (an episode from one of Bonanza's early seasons) that he wrote that did not leap out at me as the best Bonanza I had seen. It was rather dull. But I still abided it.
"He used that pen name on other shows, too."
Really? Which ones? I do not know of any.
"Look guys let's be honest. Our intelligence was being insulted."
Missing a comma between look and guys. And another between guys and let's. How intelligent of you!
Let me be honest. Mine was not insulted. Maybe a mistake was made. Maybe a "plot point" was left unaddressed. So be it. Such things happen. Such things can happen in anything, and do. I accept that and intelligently make allowances for it. I "cut" some "slack". Which these first season fanatics are resolutely unwilling to do when it comes to "Year 2". Certainly, the rest of the episode, its concept, its depictions, John and Maya's talk on the mountaintop, and the rest of the second season, was not an insult to my intelligence. Was the Moon "stopping dead" but still evidently rotating and maintaining a constant range with the star-orbiting planet Arkadia, in first season's "The Testament of Arkadia", an insult to the intelligence? Huh? Hmmm? What about Regina having two brains? Eh?
"If I recall she turned into a worm or caterpillar in another episode so you have a good point."
In "The Lambda Factor", Maya was a monkey and a caterpillar. But we do not see her change directly from monkey to caterpillar. She could have changed to herself for an instant. A micro-second. Or maybe Carolyn Powell with her mental powers, willed the monkey-to-caterpillar transformation to override Maya's metamorphic inabillities.
"Damn writers!"
Always the fixation on writing and on it not being "air-tight". Not on the beauty of the concepts and the depictions? Not on the situating of the episode in the second season chronology. Not on the characterisation or on the essence of the conflict of the regular characters against their antagonists in the story? Not on symbolism or etymology. Nope. Just pick, pick, pick apart the story particulars. Find fault. Attack. Declare people who like the story to be defective.
I have had enough of this today.
Friday, May 31, 2024.
My Website continues to flounder in the visits department, and this Weblog is unlikely to be seen longer than twenty seconds by more than a few pairs of human eyes besides my own. Still, I will "press on" and report news that may be of interest to someone.
Yesterday, I, for the first time ever, availed myself of the block function on Facebook. And I really "went to town" with it. My targets were, of course, the obnoxious first season fanatics of the Space: 1999 fan movement. Everyone whose postings have been a thorn in my side and a morale drainer, was blocked. Everyone who cannot allow an image of either season of Space: 1999 to go without a denunciation of second season, was blocked. Anyone who spews the usual vitriolic, hyperbolic slurs against second season, was blocked. It gave to me a sense of enormous pleasure to block certain particular individuals, including an especially focused, exceptionally arrogant Season 2 hater from Portugal. Everyone who laughed at Fred Freiberger being said to have been the most evil villain on Space: 1999. And of course, the person who said it. Everyone proclaiming Season 2 to be a litany of bad writing and direction. Everyone saying that it ought never to have been made. Everyone saying that it is for children under the age of ten. Everyone trotting out the "serial killer" designation for Mr. Freiberger. All of them blocked. Blocked with gusto. With relish. And I will not hesitate henceforth to block anyone who pollutes Facebook with the same swill. I wish that I had the same option to block people on YouTube. And on that Shout! Studios loop of Space: 1999 which continues to this day, with constant ridiculing of everything in a "live feed" to the right, by Generation X denizens who think themselves to be "all that and a bag of chips" in "snarkily" and most arrogantly disappreciating what their elders did make for their enjoyment some four, five decades ago, under rigid time constraints, using the technnology and seeking to appeal to the cultural norms of the time. Good God! I despise my generation!
I may not have much time left on this Earth. In what time I have left, I intend to put a stop to the demoralisation that people with the mentality of a teenager, would thrust upon me on a daily basis. I intend never again to have my sensibilities assaulted, my existence deemed illegitimate, the best twelve months of my life besmirched, by these heartless sociopaths. I will go on blocking persons until all of the people who would have my enjoyment of Space: 1999 subverted or destroyed, are no longer visible to my eyes anywhere on the social media platform called Facebook. I am cutting you people off, you vipers. To paraphrase a statement from Dallas and the Sue Ellen character thereon. And do not think that it has been a slice of heaven, because it has not. To use a Bugs Bunny saying.
Life is too short to go on seeing the wilfully ignorant tripe of these people who nearly fifty years on, remain as bellicose and as obstinately closed-minded as ever.
At the same time, I have joined a Facebook group for Spiderman, and so far I find the experience in that group to be agreeable. There does not appear, as yet, to be an anti-Bakshi component to the group. There apprears to be a broad appreciation for the full span of the Spiderman television series. I like it. But will it last? How long until some Season 1-only swaggering "yahoos" come on the scene trying to impose a consensus against everything post-"The Origin of Spiderman"?
I am awaiting the Imprint Blu-Ray release of The Prisoner. It has been delayed a couple of weeks to mid-to-late June, and I do not expect a set to reach my door until early July at the soonest. Still no news of a second DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION set for 2024. If it is Season 25, and there is no third set this year, I will be exceedingly disappointed. Season 25 is a mere four stories, two of them quite short, and I cannot say that I am a fan of any of them. "Remembrance of the Daleks" is slick and quite action-packed, but the well was gone-to too many times, especially where Davros is concerned. The annihilation of Skaro by the Doctor is problematic. And the music is an assault on the ears. "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy" did rise in my estimation when I watched it on DVD back in 2012, but I cannot honestly say that it is Doctor Who that I have any desire to revisit. "Silver Nemesis" is rightly derided by Doctor Who fans. "The Happiness Patrol" is Doctor Who trying, with scant subtlety, to deliver a critical message to its audience in 1988 about Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government. The sort of government that I believe is needed today. I doubt that I will watch those stories on Blu-Ray more than once. And I am not interested in multiple alternative edits to them. Such as what was included to "pad out" the Blu-Ray sets of Seasons 23, 24, and 26. I am just not a fan of late 1980s Doctor Who. I like a few of the stories. Not many. And would much prefer to watch earlier Doctor Who. My favourite seasons of which, I am still awaiting, and will probably go on awaiting until I am dispossessed, or murdered by a mandated-by-government "jab".
All for today.
The drought continues. Visits of longer than thirty seconds to any of the Web pages at this Website are abysmally low. Single digit low. And some of them are by me. I have even tried posting Hyperlinks to my Website to certain Facebook groups. All that they yield is a handful of visits, and I cannot tell if those are the ones of longer than thirty seconds.
I suppose that the well has dried when it comes to first-time visitors. And my readers of yesteryear have evidently forgotten about my Website, or no longer are interested in its subjects, or are dead. To be sure, excess deaths are very, very high in number these days. And people have other things, things more important than appreciation of last century's television and cinema, with which to concern themselves, in these crazy times.
Not everyone has more important concerns than "trashing" second season Space: 1999, however. Oh, certain people of a particular persuasion and mindset, will always have time to lambaste "the Freiberger season" of Space: 1999 with cited faults, smears, jeers, expressions of intense disdain, and nearly a half-century-old, sweeping statements of blame. I am filtering such out of my visits to Space: 1999 groups on Facebook, and, alas, only those. I am unable to do so elsewhere, such as at the Shout! Studios marathon of Space: 1999 at YouTube. Yes, that marathon is still ongoing. The forty-eight episodes on a constant loop. People in the live comment section moaning and groaning whenever second season re-circulates, along with the tiresome irreverent variations on the Freiberger name and the, "Year 2 is awful," proclamations in all of their blinkered arrogance.
There are people who sit through every loop of second season, some twenty hours' worth, heaping "nitpicks" and scorn upon everything. Honestly. This is the case. Second season Space: 1999 has a dedicated hate society that seems to surpass, by far, that of any other opus. People who have nothing better to do with their time on sunny spring days than to typewrite out contemptuous objections to everything that the production team of Space: 1999 filmed way back, way, way back, in 1976, as they sit through every one of the twenty-four episodes that they abhor, again, again, and again. They hate the second season with every fibre of their being. So much so that they are prepared to endure it over and over and over again so that they can sling bile at its ideas, situations, and depictions every minute of every waking hour. And in their dreams, too, no doubt.
I have no hope of "keeping up" with those people. I have no hope of mounting a persuasive defence of Season 2 under such intensive enemy fire. Of course, a sizable number of the barrages involve things that I have already addressed in defences of second season over the past ten years. But there is also an abundance of hitherto-unreplied-to grumbles. Most of the venom is, as usual, aimed at the design of alien garb, the behaviours of characters, and the purported "plot holes" in the episodes, and of course the differences between the two seasons, differences as a result of the rung-by-Freiberger changes. There is the why, why, why of the yearning-to-be-ever-so-clever faultfinders. Never any end of that. People who strive to tear down the story structure of the episodes under, "Why don't they do this or that instead of doing such and such?" Persons who contend that nothing, nothing whatsoever, should be left unexplained under "economy of detail". Individuals who refuse to acknowledge clear explanations elsewhere in episodes, to what they are "griping" about, ever so adroitly.
"The Bringers of Wonder" was before the eyes of the Shout! Studios crowd late last afternoon. And I saw one comment to the effect that it is stupid that the aliens decided to manipulate Koenig to crash his Eagle into the Nuclear Waste Domes to cause a nuclear explosion, for they ought to have known from a reading of the mind of Maya, or of Ehrlich and Bartlett, that crashing an Eagle into one of the domes could not bring about such an explosion. "Plot hole", "plot hole", "plot hole". "Gotcha", "gotcha", "gotcha". "Nah-nah. Nah. Nah-nah!!!"
Oh, so erudite. Oh, so much better than the incompetents who produced such drivel. So they posture.
Except that the person is mistaken. It is not said by any of the aliens that they were trying to explode the Domes through the Eagle crash. They were trying to kill Koenig with the Eagle crash. Because he is a strong leader. He might not be as susceptible to their telepathic control as the people under his command. This was before Koenig was put under the Brain Impulse Machine treatment. The aliens may also have wanted for there to be some radiation leakage in the Eagle crash into the Domes. Some radiation for which to feed upon while they put their primary objective, the detonation of the Domes, into effect. I find this to be quite acceptable grounds for repelling the attack upon the Eagle crash portion of the episode. And I might also say that the aliens may not have read the minds of everyone on Alpha yet before the Eagle crash. They might not have known that the crash of the Eagle into the Domes would be insufficient to explode the nuclear waste. Maybe they did. Maybe not. We can speculate without heaping invective upon the episode. I would also cite something that Maya says later, that the aliens are starving. And the aliens themselves say that they are losing energy rapidly. They may not have sufficient energy to do thorough readings of every Alphan's mind. They may not bother with reading Maya's mind at all, as she is not from Earth and can have no memories that will be of use to them in the projecting of the illusory Earth rescue party. They do not know that she is a metamorph because they did not probe her mind at all. Nor did they thoroughly read the minds of other Alphans. They focused solely on memories of loved ones on Earth and Earth itself. I would use this to counter an attack on the episode not having the aliens know that Maya is a metamorph. They did not delve into the Earther Alphans' knowledge of Maya. Nor did they bother looking into Maya's mind at all. They were conserving energy for the maintaining of their illusion of a rescue of the Alphans. The aliens have limited energy and are losing it rapidly. I accept that.
Another criticism is over Maya not using a gun to stun Carter and Ehrlich as they are attacking Koenig on the Lunar surface. Of course, if she were to do that, the episode would be finished. Carter would not be able to deliver the atomic fuel to Bartlett, and the aliens would be thwarted. I had to look closely at the scene. More closely than I ever have before, in order to respond to this criticism. Carter and Ehrlich are quite closely huddled over Koenig. In Maya's line of fire, the two men may not be separate enough for Maya to train a gunshot distinctly at either of them. And she would need that for the stun beam to be effective on the man upon whom she is firing. Koenig's life is in immediate danger. Maya does not have time to wait for the men to be less huddled. She has to think fast. And she transforms herself into the Laran beast.
But I might go further still. I can see no gun on Maya's person as she is being lowered by the Eagle to the Moon's surface. I do not believe that she even has a gun at this point in time. Later, as she is helping Tony to lift Ehrlich to the Eagle, she does. "A-ha! Countinuity error!" says the "Year 2" disappreciation society. Not necessarily. We know that Koenig lost his gun earlier. She may have found it and put it in her holster.
Maya not having a gun with which to stun Ehrlich and Carter while they are trying to kill Koenig would effectively neutralise the complaint above cited. Of course, this does require close attention to detail in the moving image. Most people are not going to be so attentive. But the "gripe" can be refuted.
I would add that we never see a stun ray being fired in the vacuum of space. Lasers, yes. Stun rays, no. Stun rays may require an air conduit through which for them to travel. We also do not see a fully spacesuited person, helmet on head, being stunned. Maybe stun rays cannot penetrate a fully sealed spacesuit. Steiner does not use a stun ray to incapacitate the crazed Nordstrom in first season's "Breakaway". He tries to physically restrain Nordstrom rather than stun him. How about that? Season 1 has a comparable incident! Wow! Oh, I know that these two possible explanations are rather a stretch. Maybe an unacceptable stretch. It may be most acceptable that Maya just did not think to use a stun ray, instead going for her metamorphic powers for a means of stopping Carter and Ehrlich from killing Koenig. An instinctive reaction, within her nature. She is an alien, after all.
Is it necessary for any of this to be explained to the audience? Cannot the audience be left to intuit some things? If the audience even perceives a need to do so. I would think that most audience members would not question Maya's actions in their first few viewings of the episode. I did not. My parents did not. My friends did not. I doubt that Maya using the gun occurred to writer Terence Feely or script editor and producer Fred Freibeger under the time constraints in which they were working. So be it. There are explanations that can be furnished. And there is such a thing as dramatic licence.
Then there are the more routinely lobbied sorties over the flames in a vaccum in the crashed Eagle whist Koenig is being rescued. The scene cannot go without someone having a "gotcha" moment against second season and its beleaguered adherents, by wielding this particular lance. There can still be flames if the oxygen tanks are ruptured, fuelling the fire after the airlock has opened. Alternatively, perhaps the flames are an illusion by the aliens to slow the rescue party from reaching Koenig. The aliens do wish Koenig dead, do they not? Or the whole thing might be surrealistic because "the Third Province" is the way that it is. I can say no more on that.
But all of this does not stop the haters of second season polluting the Shout! Studios live feed with their hostility toward everything in Season 2. They will point to the purported imperfections that they have "ferreted out" as proof of their contention that second season is a farrago from beginning to end. The worst work of imaginative fiction ever committed to film. People who like it illegitimate aficionados of the Space: 1999 oeuvre, and mental midgets to be denigrated on a constant basis. And it will go on and on and on, past the fiftieth anniversary of Space: 1999, past the sixtieth and seventieth birthdays of these revilers of everything Space: 1999 post-"The Testament of Arkadia". I can see these people as crotchety senior citizens "carrying on" like vulgar teenagers about that "cretinous" (their word, not mine) "Fred Fried-Hamburger" person and how he destroyed everything that was good about "their show".
"The Bringers of Wonder" is on the Shout! Studios YouTube channel again now as I typewrite this certain-to-go-unseen-by-all-but-a-very-few-people Weblog entry.
There has been no news aboout a LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 4, no announcement about a further DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION Blu-Ray set, and no notification of the Imprint box set of The Prisoner being dispatched to me.
Tuesday, June 11, 2024.
Monday, June 24, 2024. It is my old friend Joey's birthday today. He would be fifty-two years-old today. I wish I was fifty-two. My right leg would be in much better shape.
Website updates. Text on McCorry's Memoirs Era 2, McCorry's Memoirs Era 3, and The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour Page, has been improved, as I have detected errors to be corrected. Even after so many years since my writing of those Web pages, I am finding mistakes. Spelling mistakes. Mistakes in the written opinions on certain things. For instance, I failed to consider that the Archie gang had been an animated cartoon before I first saw Archie comic books on store shelves. I needed to be more specific in referring to cartoon characters whom I liked in my purchases of comic books.
The Mystery Science Theater 3000 of the comments on the Shout! Studios marathon of Space: 1999, continues. The "live feed" comments section of the Shout! Studios YouTube channel for Space: 1999 has become a communal affair for detractors of second season. The same individuals are "going at it" through all of their waking hours with derogatory remarks, with no end in sight. No one has anything appreciative to offer, through the showings for Season 2's twenty-four episodes. Not that this comes as any surprise. No amount of cynicism is ever too much when it comes to receiving opinions on the latter twenty-four episodes of Space: 1999.
Nothing more to say today.
Tuesday, June 25, 2024.
Summer of 2024 has so far been soggy. It has been raining since Saturday night, and the skies this morning are showing that the rain is not finished yet with New Brunswick.
My right knee and right ankle are continuing to be problematic. Not as much so as they were last winter, but they persist in causing me discomfort when I walk. At least when there is a cooling in the weather. When the winds shift to coming from the northwest.
My Imprint The Prisoner Blu-Ray box set is in transit to me. Being as it is coming from Australia, it is unrealistic to expect it in under three weeks. I have yet to see any reviews of it as regards picture quality.
Awhile ago, I said that I joined a Facebook group for Spiderman. I have left that group, and because it is private, I can no longer see what is being posted to it. Why did I leave it? I left it because it was focused almost exclusively on Season 1. One goes onto the group and has to scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll to find anything to do with Seasons 2 and 3. There is scant enthusiasm apparent for the contributions of Ralph Bakshi and his team, to the aesthetic and the story compendium and "rogues gallery" of the entirety of the television series. Said contributions being to more than half of the overall oeuvre. It is image after image after image after image of the Ray Patterson-produced episodes and their villains. And then, someone posts a video from "King Pinned" with a disparaging comment, to zero rebuttal. And then comes the oh, so requisite attempt to push a consensus with, "The show sure did lose the plot after Bakshi took over, didn't it?" I did not bother to "stick around" after that. I reached for the nearest "Leave Group" button, and "off, I went". It does seem to be the same thing all over, in fan movements. When there are seasons of different style or scope of ideas, always the first season is put on a pedestal and lauded, and the latter one or ones scorned. There always has to be some demarcation, with the earlier part of the oeuvre receiving the lion's share of praise, and the later section of the oeuvre denied much, if any, appreciative comment. And there is usually someone to be scapegoated. Someone whose arrival "on the scene" heralded certain changes. And people who like anything substantial in the later efforts, or prefer the later efforts, are dismissed as "cranks", as invalid fans. Space: 1999 fandom has this on steroids, but it is clearly existent in the fandom for Spiderman, and is also present in the fandom for the Warner Brothers cartoons, the pre-1948 cartoons being that vaunted early section of the oeuvre, the post-1948s being the neglected or the derided portion thereof. Doctor Who has it, too. The John Nathan Turner years being the less esteemed part of the run of the television series. Practically everything before the demarcation is excellent, practically everything after execrable. So says the "received wisdom" that must never be challenged. Television shows must never deviate from whatever is proffered by the initial season. If they do, they have "jumped the shark" and are incapable of offering anything of quality thereafter. Bull's droppings. The universe is not that absolute. Human creativity and imagination is not that absolute.
It is not that I dislike or hate the first season of Spiderman. I do not. It does have its amount of intriguing qualities. Many of which I note on my Web page for Spiderman. But it always came across to me as blander in its aesthetic (visual and aural) and often staid, mundane, in its stories. Thievery motivates most of its villains. Not changing the world with them as a despot. Not forming a kingdom of a vast netherworld. Not constructing a new and menacing dimension. Not moving science in unethical directions and doing horrible things with it. Not laying siege to the city with a gigantic monster. The music is not as moody, building, and expressive as it is in Seasons 2 and 3. Some of the music is rather quaint and soothing. Other pieces of the music are jazzy, in a way, without being notably dynamic. The best of the first season music was carried over by Bakshi in Season 2. The duller material was left behind. I like the music for the Daily Bugle that sounds like the mechanisms of a printing press. I appreciate Bakshi carrying that over to early episodes of Season 2. The music used at the start of "Revolt in the Fifth Dimension" is driving and exciting, and it hails from Season 1. But the bulk of the music used only for Seasons 2 and 3, is what I enjoy most, and what evokes for me the sense of wonder in the Spiderman universe in all of its imaginative scope.
There are people saying that Spiderman should only consist of Season 1 and "The Origin of Spiderman" and "King Pinned" of Season 2. Everything else should be jettisoned. All of those awesome excursions by Spidey to otherworldly locales magnificently rendred by Bakshi and company. All of the highly imaginative grandiose schemes of madmen causing wild, potentially devastating, calamity to the whole of the city of New York. All of it, dismissed. Because the people writing the comic books did not go in that direction. So, what? Cannot Spiderman the television series have its own discrete universe of amazing happenings?
Well, the vast majority of fans for the Spiderman television series have their narrow conception of what should constitute the world of Peter Parker/Spiderman in a cartoon television production. And they have drawn the good-before-bad demarcation that must be acknowledged by every right-thinking aficionado of the work. I choose not to participate in regarding the Spiderman television series in such a way. And so, "off, I go" in my own lonely direction. 'T'is ever thus.
All for today.
My Website was mentioned recently on Home Theater Forum, in a discussion "thread" concerning The Bugs Bunny Show. Is this cause for celebration? Not quite. It was cited as a source of information on which cartoons were in the television network and syndication packages, but with a comment that my writing is a chore to read due to it being "flowery". Wretched writer, am I, who cannot construct a sentence without "turning off" the reader. Well, this might explain why almost nobody stays on any of my Web pages for longer than thirty seconds.
It is an interesting criticism. It is exactly the same one levelled at Dean back in 1990, prior to his departure from the Alpha League fan club. The exact same word. He and I are in the same "league", all right, in receiving the same evaluation on our writing.
I will answer to the criticism, in its pertaining to me and my efforts to persuade people that what I like has merit.
It is true that I do not write in a cursory, colloquial manner. I tend to keep my writing as formal as possible. My university English instructor did impress it upon me not to use imprecise language. Words like get are definitely not to be utilised in formal writing. And I write this Website formally because I want for it to be received as a tome, not as a casual jotting, a glib lark, or a flight of whimsical fancy. It, not my push-button employment, is my life's work. I make no apologies about wanting for it to be as formalised and as academical as possible. If I do use a colloquialism, for some effect, I put it in quotation marks. I do not end sentences with prepositions. I conscientiously try to avoid the use of abbreviations and contractions. Why? Because such is what formal writing requires. I do not say "TV" when television is the formal term. "TV" is a colloquial abbreviation. I strive always to avoid repeating the same words, or using the same simple sentence building. I try to vary my vocabulary and sentence structure as much as possible. Instead of saying the word, episode, every time, I may say instalment instead, particularly when writing about compilings of cartoon shorts into a half-hour, an hour, or an hour and a half. I will sometimes use metaphor to make my writing less in the cursory direction, and more appealing to the more sophisticated mindset. One that appreciates metaphors.
If I had had a mind to it, I could simply have just said, "Here are the cartoons in first season of The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show," and then just listed them. I could have said that Bugs and Tweety aired at this time and that time. And then did same for other television showcases of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. And then "called it a day". I could have done the absolute minimum of effort. No analysis of the episodes. No calling of attention to similarities in cartoons in the episodes or adjacent episodes. No sentences other than the simplest ones. And no doubt people like my critic would have been satisfied. But I would not be. No way would I be satisfied with just that. Not when I have the capability and insight to do so much more.
Still, it is true that the feedback I receive on the quality of my writing, has been mostly negative. In the long tenure of my Website on the Internet, such has been the case. All of the way back to the late 1990s. Most people do not want to have their perspectives expanded as to the artistic qualities of a certain work of entertainment. They do not wish for their long-held biases to be challenged. They do not give a "flying flip" about how or why I was affected by the entertainment productions that came my way in my more socially gratifying times in life. They just want to know if cartoon X or cartoon Y was ever in an episode of The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show or Looney Tunes On Nickelodeon, or if there is a possibility of Spiderman- Season 1 (only Season 1, of course) being rereleased on DVD, or if there is some new angle of attack against second season Space: 1999 to be wielded. Or if the song for The Littlest Hobo may be acquired on Compact Disc. Or if there was ever a cartoon in which such and such occurred. Told in as simple a way as possible.
I make no apologies for trying to make my writing more impressive than simple sentences replete with slang expressions, and certain words being repeated over and over again over the course of a paragraph. And in trying to instill some artistry in how I present information or observations of interest to me and possibly to others.
Of course no one defends me. No one says anything appreciative to counter the criticism of me being, to invoke signage to the hotel of Fawlty Towers, a "flowery twat". I am no longer a member of Home Theater Forum. I presume that I was banned for having had umbrage with persons disparaging or belittling the post-1948 Warner Brothers cartoons. I was never told exactly why. I cannot go on that discussion "thread" and defend myself. And it would doubtless avail me not, were I to do so. Minds are "made up". People hate my writing. And that is that. All that I would accomplish in attempting a challenge to this, would be a barrage of, "Go away, you arrogant jerk. Buzz off. And take your flowery words with you."
I have already done so in my departures from Space: 1999 fandom, and when I vacated the Termite Terrace Trading Post. I left with my "flowery words" and am currently residing outside the limits of the fandoms of my favourite productions. My Website is lucky if it receives one tenacious visitor a day.
What a world, eh? I put so much work, so much time and effort, into a Website, and I receive denunciations of being a "flowery" chore to endure. And no one disagrees.
By the way, I do have the Imprint box set for The Prisoner in my possession, have watched most of its contents, and will write a review, for the handful of people with the patience to endure my oh, so despicable writing style. Maybe on the coming long weekend.
Before I end this, I have to go back to things that I was saying last Weblog entry about fandoms placing good-before-bad demarcations in their favourite works. Some people might ask if I am guilty of doing that, too. Somewhat, yes. I cannot say that I like any of the James Bond movies after Tomorrow Never Dies. I am no fan of the writing of Neil Purvis and Robert Wade. I think that the death of Albert R. Broccoli did have an impact on "the franchise" of the James Bond films. Of course, those films did demarcate themselves with the reboot in 2006, did they not? But still, I am drawing a line between an earlier portion of an oeuvre and another. All that I can say is that I am one man, not a fan movement of thousands or tens of thousands of people. And the Bond movies are rather a strange "kettle of fish", in that they have been produced one at a time, a number of years apart, over the course of more than fifty years, each film coopting popular culture, premise ideas, production design interests, and cinematography of its specific time. They are not a television series of consecutive seasons. Nor are they a treasury of cartoons, some thirty a year, over a forty-year span. And they have long ago exhausted themselves of the Ian Fleming-written subject matter from which they were produced. Of course, someone could also throw Doctor Who or Star Trek at me, being as it is known that I am not a fan of twenty-first century Doctor Who or Star Trek- The Next Generation. But I do not dislike absolutely everything in those. I like the occasional episode. Not many, granted. Besides, they are clearly demarcated from what had come before. One of them was a revival of a television show that had been dormant for nearly a decade. And the other was set a generation, or more, after what had previously constituted the missions of the Enterprise. And besides, I am, again, just one man. I am not a "hive mind" of people, all grimly determined to "holler down" in unison any consideration of artistic value in the latter portion of a work.
All for today, Friday, June 28, 2024.
Sunday, June 30, 2024.
The Imprint Prisoner Blu-Ray box set is in my hands, and I have watched most of the episodes and several of the bonus features. My verdict is unreservedly positive. This truly is the definitive Blu-Ray release of the television series.
The episodes look to be of the same quality as on the Network Distributing 2017 Blu-Rays. A comparison of the episode, "A. B. and C", in both box sets, indicates the same detail, colour saturation, and vividness. All of the episodes that I have seen, pass my tests with the eyes, with "flying colours". Granted, I am not as much of a perfectionist as regards The Prisoner as I am with Space: 1999, and my eyes may not be as sensitive to subtle variation in clarity of image, sharpness, richness of colour, and so forth. But I doubt very much if I will ever regret superseding the Network sets with the Imprint set. And I would add that the audio is so much better on the Imprint. It was so weak on the Network 2017 set. Now, on the Imprint, it is resonant and thoroughly satisfying. As all of the extras on the Network sets seem to be on the Imprint, along with some new ones and some that were exclusively on the old A & E DVDs, there is no reason for a Prisoner enthusiast to not buy the Imprint set and "bin" the Network.
And unlike the Imprint Space: 1999 Blu-Rays, these have menus with music. Plus, there are no typographical errors that I can see. And also, the menus are done in the font used for The Prisoner titles, as is the titling to the photograph galleries for the episodes. Nice touches. The Imprint Space: 1999 menus were truly a shoddy affair. A quotation mark was missing for the Nick Tate interview. The font was not television series-specific. And there was a hissy, faint mix of exceedingly muffled dialogue and sound effects. A ball was definitely fumbled and dropped there. And the episodes seemingly underwent some additional compression, rendering them less vivid. And "These Episodes" was chopped into sections, shorn of main title, and dropped into the episodes Blu-Ray discs, with some bizarre image processing causing them to alias horribly on people's eyes, flying spaceships, et cetera. I am happy to report that on the Imprint The Prisoner box set, Standard Definition content hailing from the Network Prisoner DVDs, including the "Don't Knock Yourself Out" documentary, shows none of the aliasing that plagued Imprint's presentation of "These Episodes" on Blu-Rays of Space: 1999. Imprint has "upped its game" in every way for The Prisoner. It makes me wish that Imprint could revisit Space: 1999 and do a Blu-Ray set of comparable quality, of comparable definitiveness. As it is, Network has to suffice for Space: 1999 (well, Network plus the Shout! extras Blu-Ray disc), while Imprint wins the brass ring for The Prisoner.
A new interview with actor Darren Nesbitt had me shocked with the "f-bombs" that were heard. Yikes! I presume that the ratings system in Australia is not quite as stringent as elsewhere, or the Imprint Prisoner set has an Adult rating. There is also a new interview with actress Annette Andre in which she qualifies her earlier criticism of Patrick McGoohan and says that she has an open mind as regards the meaning of The Prisoner to the people who venerate it.
All told, The Prisoner Blu-Ray box set from Imprint is a a keeper. Hopefully, it will continue to be available for years to come.
And it should be, too, because The Prisoner is more relevant today than ever. With the rights of the individual being subsumed by collectivism and authoritarianism, in so many Western countries. This plus the talk of digital identifications. "I am not a number. I am a free man." Yes, indeed. Everyone should be shouting that with a balled fist in the air.
Monday, July 15, 2024.
I had an arduous task this morning, of Facebook blocking a ton more fans of Space: 1999. People who look down their noses most contemptuously upon Season 2, and who think it funny to "needle" the enthusiasts and aesthetes of second season, tiny minority that we are, with concoctions of keyboard or, more time-consumingly, of video editing software, that they judge to be humourous. Videos that were pieced together with selected scenes of episodes put in rapid succession to misrepresent second season as being all this or all that. All monsters, all shouting, and so forth. With a voice-over saying, "All that's good about Season 2," and then Tony in "New Adam New Eve" asking, "Like what, for instance?" followed by edited scenes of various characters with puzzled looks on their faces, and no answer given.
And of course, fans in copious numbers are signifying their approval of such adoloescent foolery masquerading as sophistication from an ever so superior mindset. After all, only mental midgets with zero taste, and people whose fandom for Space: 1999 is utterly illegitimate and "wrong-headed", can possibly appreciate the wretched second season of Space: 1999. This is the implied judgement in such a video, which is meant to rub the faces of persons such as me who have expressed esteem for Season 2, through the mud. And it is confounding how some people who purport themselves as liking second season, judge such a video to be funny and give to it a Facebook "thumb up". Quislings. Quislings, all of them.
I blocked all of the people aforementioned, most especially the creator of the defamatory piece, with whom I have had quarrels before, years ago. I had forgotten about him, and my life was the better for that, before his most unwelcome reinsertion into my life this morning. Well, he is gone from my Facebook experience now.
Problem is that Space: 1999 fandom is hopelessly teeming with people who have unending animus for second season and its producer, and who think people who appreciate second season to be deserving of zero consideration. I cannot seem to block enough of them. I must have blocked people in the high hundreds, and I still have not found peace in my loner's state, from the arrogantly predominant faction of the following for that nearly fifty-year-old science fiction/fantasy television programme. How many of those people are there? Thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Millions?
Why do I care enough about Space: 1999 to even bother looking at the Facebook groups? Even now, twenty-five years after the actual year of 1999, there continues to be news about it. News that does interest me. News that I must navigate through the swill of bellicose fan opinion-mongering, to find.
From the estate of Martin Landau has come a vast amount of material from Mr. Landau's personal archive, including videocassettes of longer "cuts" of numerous episodes, and correspondence between ITC Entertainment, Gerry Anderson Productions, and the Landaus. This material has somehow come into the possession of the more prominent fans of Space: 1999 who are organising a fiftieth anniversary celebration of the fantastic television series, in 2025. A substantially longer edit of "Breakaway" has been discovered in the Landau holdings, on old U-Matic videotape. It is being put through all of the modern mechanisms for making old videotape as presentable as can be possible, and is expected to be shown at the anniversary celebration. Other episodes are said to have longer alternate edits, and they, too, will be showcased at the celebration. Of course, I am interested in seeing all of these things, but not enough so to suffer the company of a largely horrible assemblage of human beings. Ah, but there is hope of a deluxe fiftieth anniversary Blu-Ray release of Space: 1999, that could incorporate all of the alternate edits, Jeffrey Morris' Eagle documentary, and more. But what company would be "game" to undertake this particular grand project? Now that Network Distributing is no more?
Well, there is news of some import on this score. A home video company out of Austria called Spirit Entertainment, seems to have acquired the assets of Network Distributing following the latter's liquidation. Spirit has announded a re-release of Network's final box set of Space: 1999, what had been deemed "ultimate", plus the Super Space Theater box set, for sometime in August. The re-release may just be for selling what was in Network's warehouse, already pressed Blu-Ray discs for the sets aforementioned. Or perhaps Spirit has the glass masters and is manufacturing new Blu-Ray discs. Whatever the case, the Network Space: 1999 Blu-Rays live again as marketable items in the U.K..
I do not know whether or not Spirit has the facilities for producing Blu-Ray content and new glass masters. Such would be needed for there to be a fiftieth anniversary Blu-Ray set.
But going back to the Landau holdings now in the hands of fans. I have seen numerous articles of correspondence, including one dated October 19, 1976, sent from Gerry Anderson to everyone involved in Space: 1999's production, announcing that ITC has cancelled Space: 1999. And Anderson says that he knows that the remaining second season episodes to be filmed, will be made to the usual highest standards (oh, I know the multitudes of fans who would have unbrage with this).
October 19, 1976. I never knew that the cancellation notice had come that early. The episodes of Season 2 would only have been airing weekly on television for less than a month and a half prior to that. In Canada, only five Season 2 episodes had been shown prior to the nineteenth of October. "The Metamorph", "The Exiles", "Journey to Where", "The Taybor", and "New Adam New Eve". And I expect that television broadcasters south of the U.S./Canadian border were not much further along in their penetration of the second season. Five episodes in, or maybe six. No more than that. For no small number of U.S. television stations, maybe there were less than five episodes aired by 19 October, it being baseball play-off season in early-to-mid-October.
From the information that I have, the first five episodes to air in the U.S., were same as those aired in Canada. Same order. The episodes often blamed for falling ratings leading to Grade "pulling the plug", would not have aired yet. "The Rules of Luton", "Brian the Brain", "The Beta Cloud", "A Matter of Balance", "Space Warp". All of those would have been revealed to the people of North America weeks after October 19, 1976. So, how could they and abysmal ratings said to be the result of them, have been instrumental in bringing about the demise of Space: 1999? Lew Grade had already made his decision before they even aired. Space: 1999- Season 2 had not been given enough of a chance to prove itself as a popular television offering in the U.S., Canada, and other parts of the world, before cancellation was proclaimed. It was not a matter of a lack of quality in the bulk of the second season episodes, and a resultant "tanking" in the ratings numbers over many autumn and winter weeks, that prompted Grade and company to declare Space: 1999 finished. Contrary to what has been argued by Space: 1999 fandom for upwards of forty-seven years.
And I doubt that the October 19. 1976 decision was an "out-of-the-blue" thing on the day. Grade and his executives had probably been in discussion about Space: 1999's fate for some days or weeks. And I do not think that a negative public response to Season 2 was a consideration in the discussion; it would have been too early for data to be conclusive.
Oh, to this I expect some people to say that ratings were already in the toilet from "The Metamorph" onwards. And therefore that available data was conclusive. But this would not be credible. After a summer of repeats, viewers of Space: 1999, learning through word or mouth or through television listings episode synopses, that new episodes were airing, would have been "tuning in" in numbers higher than in the previous summer. This is the norm for returning television series, and I do not see a reason for Space: 1999 to be an outlier to that norm. And "curiosity viewing" due to all of the publicity surrounding the new Maya character, would logically produce a significant "bump" in ratings numbers in the initial weeks, I should think. And besides, episodes "The Metamorph", "The Exiles", "Journey to Where", and "New Adam New Eve" are not the ones that tend to be blamed for plummetting ratings. Not in my experience.
Most likely, the decision to go in the direction of funding theatrical feature films, was made at that time, and the budget for a prospective third season of Space: 1999 was sacrificed then. And this being the case, have all of the people haranguing about rubber monsters in corridors, talking plants, sentient rocks, lack of Mysterious Unknown Forces, and dire ratings numbers through much of Season 2's run being the incontrovertible reason for Space: 1999's end, been "barking up a wrong tree" all this time? All these nearly fifty years? I guess so.
Oh, I suppose that some people might say that there was a possibility of Grade "changing his mind" had second season been a success all through its run, had ratings been high throughout, had episodes been of sufficient appeal to the viewing public for ratings to be high. And that "Year 2" and its producer would still be culpable for Space: 1999's demise under such circumstances. Oh, maybe. Anything is possible. I cannot say for sure either way because I was not there when ITC executives were discussing their options.
Ratings for Season 2 would need to have been higher than those for Season 1 had been, I reckon, for Grade and company to reverse their decision. Season 1 had been cancelled due to ratings, we must remember. For an impression sufficiently strong for ITC moguls to reverse their previous decision, an all-time peak for Space: 1999 ratings would have been a must, I should think.
And yet there was some mention of a short Season 3 along with a "spin-off" Maya television series being given some consideration, post-October of 1976. This would not have been the case if ratings through Season 2's run were truly abysmal. The October 19 decision would have been upheld with no reservations. With no consideration of any contuination for the people of Moonbase Alpha. And yet, there was some consideration. And it has been said, though I do lack documentation, that ratings for Season 2 of Space: 1999 in Canada, were rather high. They were high enough, certainly, for CBC to grant to Space: 1999 a whole further year on the air in Canada. Had Space: 1999 been a ratings failure on CBC in 1976-7, it would have been replaced with something else in the autumn of 1977. Or maybe sooner than that. Normal television broadcasting practice. Even in Canada. "Bums on seats", is the desired circumstance. Whatever the television show that may be needed to attain that.
At the very least, this revelation of cancellation on 19 October, 1976 ought to give people pause for thought. Reasonable people, that is. Such people are in awfully short supply in the fandom for Space: 1999.
Thursday, August 1, 2024.
I am into my third week of vacation. I am on vacation until August 19.
This year, my vacation has included, for the lion's share of the time, rest from working on my Website. What has been done, is the addition of a couple of images of the Huckleberry Hound cartoon, "Piccadilly Dilly", to my Era 2 memoirs. An image of the exterior to Dr. Jikkle's domicile and laboratory, and one of Huckleberry handcuffed to Dr. Jikkle. I had to pull the images off of a Boomerang-sourced copy of the cartoon on Internet Archive, cropping away the Boomerang "bug" at top right of screen. Because "Piccadilly Dilly" has never been released on DVD or Blu-Ray. Nor was it ever released on videocassette, back in videocassette's day. For some reason, cartoons utilising "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" tend to be eschewed in the selection process for cartoons released to the home video market in the twenty-first century, "Hyde and Hare" and "Sicque! Sicque! Sicque!" being the only notable exceptions.
And while I am on the subject of cartoons released to home video media, I have some news on the LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE front. A fourth volume in the range has been announced for this coming November. No information as yet as to contents. I dare not entertain any hopes for the cartoons I desire to see released, to be among the selections. Some people are saying that there have been enough obscure "one-shot" cartoons in the COLLECTOR'S CHOICE range, and that the fourth volume ought to concentrate on the major characters. On this I do concur. There really ought to be five or six Tweetys (including "Hyde and Go Tweet"), a couple of solo Sylvesters (including "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide"), three or four Foghorn Leghorns, three Road Runners, five or six Daffys, and what Bugs Bunny cartoons remain to see placement on a DVD or Blu-Ray. I expect more of the same, though. More 1930s and 1940s "one-shots", and one cartoon for each of the major characters. Maybe two for Bugs and Daffy.
And oh, yes. DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION's second and final offering for 2024 is the expected Season 25 set (yawn!). Four measly stories, none of them outstanding, with several redundant re-edits. The BBC has consistently avoided releasing the seasons that would fill me with some significant anticipation. And at a rate of just two sets annually, it does not look likely that those seasons will reach Blu-Ray. Ah, but Sylvester McCoy's Doctor has full representation on Blu-Ray, the first Doctor to receive such distinction. So much more gratifying, that, is it not? Not.
I do not dislike all of McCoy's stories, but his era is scarcely a "high point" in the history of Doctor Who. Abbreviated stories. Atrocious incidental music. A leading actor of limited talent as a leading actor (and on this, I am being generous), flanked by an "am-dram", pigtailed actress portraying every tiresome cliche of the 1980s youth crowd. And otherworldliness subsumed by political pandering. "Survival" is a good story, with some interesting ideas, if at least an episode too short. "Dragonfire" is okay. And oh, I suppose that "Remembrance of the Daleks" is fast-paced enough and sufficiently deferential to nostalgia, to paste over the enormous contradictions with Doctor Who mythology established in 1963, and the Doctor's premeditated, wanton destruction of a whole planet. And it does have Michael Sheard in it. Other than these, I cannot proclaim to have a substantive regard for the McCoy era. And I say this as one who generally abhors demarcating latter portions of a work for denunciation.
Why cannot we have a third set this year, for the people who are underwhelmed by the Season 25 set? Season 7, maybe. It, too, is four stories. But three of them quite long. One of them, "Spearhead From Space", is already in High Definition and would need no further work. I do not know. These days, happenings to my liking and that actually make sense, are few and far between.
Nothing much to report as regards Space: 1999. I continue to block Season 2 detractors on Facebook. And I am noting an augmented appreciation of the episode, "War Games", with regard to its significance in my life with its airing on 17 September, 1977. I do not feel like spending today's morning elaborating on this. So, it for another time. A snowy Saturday this December, perhaps. If all of us are still alive then as we now are, and not a nuclear shadow. If I am still able to tap the computer keys and compose a Weblog entry, and not thoroughly disposessed and jailed for not complying with the latest diktat. The world does seem to be spiralling out of control, while a powerful cabal of sociopathic oligarchs are waiting to clench fists and rob the masses of everything that constituted a prosperous and happy life.
In my vacation time this year, I did once go to the Miramichi region. More unlikable changes have been visited upon my old habitat, as the craziness of Canada as it is currently being governed, encroaches more and more upon the more traditionally minded parts of the country. Single-occupancy townhouses and apartment complexes are being built in Douglastown. Repulsive things blighting a landscape mostly still graced (thank goodness) by old-fashioned family dwellings with spacious yards. But the familiar sights of the world of old are in retreat there, as everywhere, in this country with a bleak future. Led by a dictator. A dictator who, I feel sure, has something already planned for the election in 2025, for him to stay in power.
Best I stop here. I end today's Weblog entry with a photograph, snapshot on my latest visit to the Miramichi, of the Miramichi Hotel in what used to be (before Miramichi amalgamation) Newcastle. Looks like a building out of a Tweety-and-Sylvester cartoon. I can easily envisage the putty tat chasing the wee birdie up the fire escape stairs.
All for today.
Sunday, August 4, 2024.
I may as well elaborate on what I was mentioning last Weblog entry, about the significance of the Space: 1999 episode, "War Games", as regards my life as it was at the time that I first saw it, on September 17, 1977.
My awareness of the curious aptness of my having occasion to see that episode on that particular day, blossomed a few years ago as I was sharing a Hyperlink to it with my friends on Facebook. And that awareness is now flourishing.
My parents and I had moved to Fredericton from Douglastown nearly a month earlier, on August 19, 1977. And Monday, September 12, 1977 was my first school day in my new habitat of Nashwaaksis in Fredericton North. In my autobiography, I write in some detail about the awfulness of that day, and indeed of the first whole week of my Fredericton school experience. I was definitely not granted a warm welcome by my peers at school. And I had not yet been reached-out-to by any youngsters on our new street. Amongst persons of my generation, I was devoid of friendly company, of acceptance. People spoke disparagingly of me when I was within earshot. Others looked upon me coldly. Contemptuous f-words were legion in the corridors and playground of the school just a path away from my street. It was a most upsetting "comedown" after my pinnicles of social success in Douglastown. My eyes were teary, my throat had a lump in it, as I had lunch at home on 12 September. And I was coming away from a week of being the outsider, the alien, at my new school, when I was awaiting with anticipation the CBC Television broadcast of "War Games", which was to launch a year's engagement of Space: 1999's first season in Canada on Saturdays on the Great White North's foremost broadcaster, after second season having had such distinction in the previous television broadcasting season.
I had known of "War Games" through a dazzing View-Master packet, and some sights of its first five minutes in French. But I had not witnessed "War Games" start to finish (barring edits for advertising time) in moving image, until the third Saturday of 1977's September. I was at my grandparents' house in Skyline Acres in Fredericton South that rainy day, when the first scene of the episode's prologue was joined by CBC Television New Brunswick affiliate CHSJ-TV, at 5 P.M.. I was "blown away" by the episode, as many a Space: 1999 enthusiast was. And in school days following, I wandered the school yard speaking to myself Koenig's monologue as he drifted through space in Act 4. "Ninety-seven munutes of life. And then no oxygen. Hallucination. A slow and peaceful drift through dream to real eternity. Or just nothing. The ultimate negative. Poison and pain. And yet more pain. Until nothing. This body a piece perhaps for some future archaeologist to fit into a historical puzzle. John Koenig from planet Earth. Ninth and last Commander of Moonbase Alpha."
That monologue, somber, depressing, as it was, impressed me sufficiently for me to invoke it in one of those lonely recesses on the pavement of Park Street School. Why? At the time, and for a long time after, I did not ponder why it was so resonant with me. And it was not until years very recent now, that I fully "grasp" the significance of my repetition of the monologue. Goodness knows, my predicament then was a gloomy one. Not so gloomy as awaiting death in a spacesuit slowly being depleted of its life-sustaining air. But nonetheless, a situation in which I was quite despondent. An unwanted loner in a strange place, a school yard in a neighbourhood in which I wished I did not have to be. The possibility of an overheard verbal dagger being brandished at my vulnerable back at any time. I identified with Koenig's dismality as he awaited death by asphyxiation. I was being asphyxiated in a figurative sense, lacking social connection with anyone in what I regarded as a hostile land.
But the appropos nature of my union with the episode then, that day, after that first week of school, is more extensive than I had recognised. In "War Games", the errant Moonbase Alphans find themselves attacked and ravaged by an alien quantity. And the aliens whom the Commander and Dr. Russell encounter in a structure on the surface of an alien world, denounce the Alphans as a contaminating organism, saying that there is no place for them there or anywhere. "You deny us our future," says Koenig, barely able to contain his indignation and severe upset. Was this not also me at Park Street School? Under attack. Ravaged. Declared unwelcome. Upset. Indeed. The people in my new environment wanted nothing to do with me either. I was the contaminating organism.
To be sure, the grim, dark situation in which Koenig and his people found themselves in "War Games", was quite a departure from the norms of second season Space: 1999 that I had watched in congenial Douglastown in the twelve months prior to then. Never in Season 2 had Alphans been so forlorn, faced so dire a set of circumstances. There was no cheerful ending possible, barring a "resetting" of the story to before the destructive events unfolded. The attack was so devastating that Alpha was bereft of its ability to function, and Koenig's desperate effort to gain a "foothold" for his people on the planet, was met with repulsing energy rays that exploded his Eagle. As Koenig is adrft in space, all that he can do is acknowledge that what awaits him now is poison, pain, then nothingness. No happy banter with Helena and the others in Command Centre, as in second season. Space: 1999 on CBC Television had transitioned to a much less convivial "staging" of the Moonbase Alpha experience, and "War Games" was the epitome of such. As indeed had I transitioned to a far less cheery base in life. And poison and pain would be visited upon me. By peers who would be even more abusive. By inconsistent friends around my new home. By a turning away from me by friends after many years of time spent together talking, playing, savouring what imagination had to offer. By hostility toward me and the episodes of Space: 1999 that I fancy. A decision made in the spring of 1977 had condemned me to Karmic punishment, of which that first day of school in Fredericton was merely the beginning.
I am now fully cognizant of the parallel between my life in September of 1977 and the Space: 1999 episode, "War Games", and how fitting it was, that "War Games" did air on the Saturday that it did.
I am also aware of the preservation of Alpha apparently by a "cosmic intelligence" and the Alphans rejoicing after a miraculous reunion, happening in "Black Sun" on October 29, whilst my friend, Michael, called me on the telephone to invite me to visit with him in Douglastown, on Remembrance Day weekend, the weekend on which "Dragon's Domain" with a blend of first and second season Space: 1999, was the episode telecast on CBC. Yes, in "Dragon's Domain", we see Helena kiss Koenig and patches on Alphan jackets, definite phenomena of the second season that had been run when I was a resident of Douglastown living very close to Michael. It is uncanny how close the association was between Space: 1999 as shown on CBC Television, and the circumstances of my life, around the time of the relocation that was as altering for me as the differences between seasons were for my then favourite television programme. "War Games" came my way at a time that could not have been more apt. Of course, when I first became acquainted with Space: 1999 in 1976, I had no foreknowledge of the path that my life was going to "go down" coincident with telecast episodes of that television show, and yet, so many parallels, as things did transpire. It gives one cause to wonder if there is some meaning in life's coincidences, that may be read. Meaning that maybe only God can fully confirm and elucidate.
Oh, and the music that plays as Bergman is making his valedictory speech to Alpha in "War Games" is a personal favourite of mine. Indeed, that speech is also aptly coincident with my life, for I had to bid good-bye to a life that I had known, and from which I was now separated, cut off from, as a result of some drastic change. The same music plays in "Black Sun" before the Alphans are preserved from certain death and joyously reunited, some minutes before our telephone rang with a long-distance telehone call by my old friend.
I note that these are first season Space: 1999 episodes. And to any of my detractors who like to hurl accusations of me having no regard for Season 1, at me, I say, "You're wrong, wrong, wrong." Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Sunday, August 11, 2024.
A sunny morning greets me after a couple of days of rain. Rain from the remnants of Hurricane Debbie passing over New Brunswick.
No further news at yet about LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 4. I am happy to note that many people in cartoon discussions on Facebook and Blu-Ray.com are, like myself, requesting that "Hyde and Go Tweet" be among the cartoons in the next volume. Ah, but Jerry Beck's opinion will prevail. Whether it incorporates the wishes of the collectors or not.
Happenings in Britain are causing me to consider no longer buying anything from that country. Money that I spend on purchases from U.K.-based vendors, will be contributing to some extent to the economy there from which government sources revenue. I am not going to comment on any specific matters. I dare not. Suffice it to say that I would prefer to stay out, far out, of the malestrom that is sending the U.K. into something other than what I was raised to believe is best for meeting every need on the Maslow pyramid.
The fans of Space: 1999, or the ones who are quite happy with the unending denigration of Season 2 and its minority enthusiasts, will be congregating in London in just over a month's time. The last place that I would choose to be now in the entire "Anglosphere", would be the British capital. And who knows what the state of the country and its people will be next month? It is possible that some of the expected attendees will be cancelling their engagement with the event. I certainly would.
I will of course be keeping myself abreast of the goings-on at the Space: 1999 celebration in London next month, and I will report on them here on this Weblog, for the handful of people interested in what I have to say. I expect that YouTube videos of the event will start appearing within a few days of its closing.
On the subject of YouTube videos, I propose to offer a Hyperlink to a quite impressive version of Cosmos 1999- "Le Domaine du Dragon", with revised visual effects and newly rendered French main titles, episode titling, and closing credits.
Cosmos 1999- "Le Domaine du Dragon"
The addition of individual stars, star clusters, and distant galaxies is quite nicely done. Done in the same asesthetic as the visual effects provided by Brian Johnson and his team nearly fifty years ago. The misplaced footage in second act, of the Ultra Probeship shown already docked to the spaceship bearing the monster, has been superseded by correct depictions of the "spaceship graveyard" as seen by the Ultra Probeship. I certainly approve of that. As I also do, the footage of the explosions breaking the Moon away from Earth, which better illustrates the fact that the events of the Ultra Probe mission occurred before "Breakaway" than does the Moon drift visualisations in the episode as originally constituted.
I find myself disagreeing with a decision to show Ultra at a distance in a space flight scene of the Ultra Probeship, as it does undermine the grand reveal of the planet in the episode's original form, whilst Adagio in G Minor is reaching a much more energetic phrase of music. And though I like the view of Earth, Moon, and Sun as Cellini's module is in the last stage of its survival flight, I think that the Earth and the Moon should be further in the distance. Why? Because I would think that Cellini's module should be much further away when it is detected by Alpha and some Eagles are dispatched to meet it. And Cellini looks much more emaciated when he is wheeled on stretcher out of a Travel Tube, than he does when the module is shown approaching the Earth and Moon in the new visual effects, suggesting that some considerable time should pass between Cellini's module being detected, and him being brought into Alpha on the stretcher. For this reason, I would prefer there to be a greater distance between Cellini's module and the Earth-Moon system, seen in the visualisation as revised.
Outside of the finickinesses above stated, I whole-heartedly approve of the changes. I wish that something could be done to eliminate the double exposure of the Probeship and Space Dock, as the Probeship is leaving. And also the earlier double exposure in the view of the Eagle slowing to connect with Space Dock. But I guess that there is only so much that can be done with existing elements. Same goes for correcting docking scenes involving the Probeship, the alien spaceship, and Koenig's Eagle. Those corrections are, I suppose, not possible without actually filming new model effects elements.
But of course, "Dragon's Domain" would not be perfect even with the visual effects revised. Helena ought to say that the Moon is between solar systems, not galaxies. And there is the newscaster's oft-cited mistake on the date. To say nothing of story technicalities that can be challenged.
Nothing more today.
Saturday, August 17, 2024.
Fifty years ago today, it was Saturday, August 17, 1974. I was watching and audiotape-recording The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour episode with "Tweety's Circus". And "Rabbit Every Monday". And "Sahara Hare". And "Pop 'im Pop!". And "Tired and Feathered". The episode that I expected would be shown that day, as the CBC was running the seven-cartoon instalments of The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour in the same sequence as in autumn and winter previous. As I set in front of our television from 6 to 7 P.M. watching Bugs and his associates, I knew that coming next a week later would be the episode with "Hyde and Go Tweet".
On the subject of 1974 and The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour, my Era 2 memoirs have been upgraded with images of the cartoons, "The Leghorn Blows at Midnight" and "Lickety-Splat!", from their release on Blu-Ray. The better images can be found amongst my memories of the airing of instalment twenty of The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour on January 26, 1974.
I was thinking of August of 1974 when I was yesterday back again in Douglastown and amongst my old surroundings of my Douglastown years, 1972 to 1977. Thinking about, remembering those bygone days of long ago when I was happily residing with my parents in that beautiful neighbourhood, and The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour and its constituent episodes and the cartoon shorts and stage scenes and Road Runner interstitials comprising them, were paramount in my ruminations of television offerings of things imaginative, as I was a wide-eyed younger in the certain-to-come company of friends. In a simpler and stable time when the world was governed by people, and populated largely by people, who were not bat-excrement crazy. I often find myself exclaiming to myself how much I miss my parents and the life that we had in those far-away days of long ago.
I stopped at the spot where my late friend, Ev, and I talked almost a year ago. Talked together for the last time before he died. I sobbed as I remembered that day nearly one year previous. I miss him. I miss my parents. I miss my also deceased friend, Sandy. I passed by Sandy's old home, also, yesterday. And remembered all of the times we were in his driveway, doorsteps, or lawn, talking about various subjects of interest. Space: 1999 among them. Sandy was the only person in the Miramichi region whose spirit was thoroughly kindred to mine, as we were both keenest possible followers of the odyssey of Moonbase Alpha as telecast in New Brunswick and in the part of New Brunswick wherein we two lived and were schoolmates. And both only-children. Both unmarried. Both living in 2013 with our parents being deceased. The loss of Sandy is very plaintively felt. There is no one exactly like him on this Earth.
And assuredly, as the creation of Space: 1999 moves further and further into the past, losses of people involved in its making, are increasing with every passing month.
Christopher Penfold has recently died. Christopher Penfold was script consultant on Season 1 Space: 1999, and writer of episodes "Guardian of Piri", "Alpha Child", "The Last Sunset", "War Games", "Space Brain", and "Dragon's Domain", of Season 1, and "Dorzak", of Season 2. "Dragon's Domain" is, I think most people will agree, his most significant contribution to the canon of Space: 1999 and to the culture of the television-watching component of Generation X. Oh, how many people of the generation of which I am a member, were traumatised by that monster devouring those spacefarers!
Christopher Penfold. With a surname such as his, I tend to suppose that he was preordained to be a writer. When I was seeing his name on screen in Space: 1999 in my earlier viewings of the episodes to flow from his fertile imagination, I thought that Penfold was a pseudonym. But, no, Penfold was his name. A very, very apt name for one who puts pen to paper and then folds pen into its cap, upon completion of a chef d'oeuvre.
Christopher Penfold was born in Bristol in England in the United Kingdom in 1941. He was hired by Gerry Anderson initially to serve as story consultant for a second season of UFO. When that second season of UFO was denied a go-ahead by Sir Lew Grade and Gerry and Sylvia Anderson opted to produce a new television programme using some of the pre-production work for the never-to-be second season of UFO, that new television programme being Space: 1999, Mr. Penfold's talents were requisitioned for its extraordinary notions, as story consultant. Gerry and Sylvia Anderson procured the script-authoring expertise of noted American writers George Bellak and Edward di Lorenzo, and Mr. Penfold worked with them as the imaginative Moon odyssey premise for Space: 1999 was being codified in the first filmed episodes. And he also worked with Johnny Byrne, a scriptwriter from Dublin, Ireland, with whom he would henceforth be friends for life. After George Bellak and Edward di Lorenzo had departed the Space: 1999 project, Mr. Penfold began supplying some scripts of his own, the first being that for "Guardian of Piri". He collaborated, as script consultant, with Byrne on the episode to go before the cameras after "Guardian of Piri", it being "Force of Life", and supplied scripts for the next two produced episodes, "Alpha Child" and "The Last Sunset". It was around that time that his script for "Dragon's Domain" was being read by personnel of Gerry Anderson Productions. It was written as a vehicle for the Alan Carter character played by Nick Tate. Carter was going to be the person whose space mission crew were lost to the one-eyed, tentacled people-eater, and who confronted the monster in the end, and was victorious. Martin Landau objected to Carter rising to such prominence, and the script was shelved for a time, eventually being altered to be focused on an astronaut colleague of Commander Koenig name of Jim Calder, who later became Tony Cellini when partnership with the Italian RAI meant that ITC required Gerry and Sylvia Anderson to cast some Italians as guest stars on numerous late first season episodes. And so, Gianni Garko as Cellini encountered the monster, fought it, and, in his case, would not be the winning party.
Mr. Penfold departed Space: 1999's production after "War Games" was made, his remaining two Season 1 scripts, "Space Brain" and "Dragon's Domain", coming under Byrne's eyes for whatever adjustments that were done before their being filmed. As a freelancer, Mr. Penfold submitted to Fred Freiberger a script for Season 2, one titled "Dorzak", and it was commissioned and put into production in the final third of the making of Season 2's twenty-four episodes. For some time, "Dorzak" was erroneously said to have been written by Pip and Jane Baker. Mainly in publications of Starlog.
Christopher Penfold delved again into the possibilities of science fiction/fantasy, when he was responsible for adapting of John Christopher's The Tripods novels for television. The Tripods aired on television in the U.K. and the U.S. in the mid-1980s. It was jointly produced by the BBC and by the Seven Network of Australia, to much acclaim.
In his later life, Mr. Penfold was prolific in documentaries about Space: 1999, appearing in The Space: 1999 Documentary, "These Episodes", and "Memories of Space". He and Johnny Bryne also did an audio commentary for "Dragon's Domain" for the A & E DVD release of Space: 1999, that audio commentary being further offered in Imprint's Blu-Ray set of Space: 1999. Mr. Penfold said that he was proud of his work on Space: 1999 and was particularly happy to have been involved with the metaphysical, quasi-religious aspects of first season.
May Mr. Penfold rest in peace. With his death, and with the death of Edward di Lorenzo last year as I have discovered, John Goldsmith is the only surviving writer of Space: 1999. The Space: 1999 Page has been updated. Specifically its In Memoriam section. To include Messrs di Lorenzo and Penfold. Sadly.
Friday, August 23, 2024.
I continue to add to my autobiography, even though it is rarely accessed and read by anyone. My Era 2 memoirs have some new images of The Wonderful World of Disney to go with images already available of Sunday television programming (i.e. Equestrian Grand Prix, The Adventures of Black Beauty, Upstairs, Downstairs, and The Adventures of Rainbow Country). The Walt Disney images consist of those of The Million Dollar Duck, Napoleon and Samantha, Now You See Him, Now You Don't, and "Mickey's Trailer". I would have liked also to have added images of The Mystery in Dracula's Castle, The Whiz Kid and the Mystery at Riverton, Two Against the Arctic, "The Yellowstone Cubs", and "The Whiz Kid and the Carnival Caper but could not find any of sufficient quality for my standards. All of these were outstanding offerings of The Wonderful World of Disney in the 1970s when I was living in Douglastown. I think that I watched Walt Disney every week in those years. Likewise, The Beachcombers that aired next. Or maybe not every week. There might have been some Sundays when I was with friends in the evening. In the summer.
I have seen some ratings information for television in Canada for the early 1970s. Believe it or not, The Wonderful World of Disney, on CBC Television, was the number one rated television show in the country. It even prevailed over NHL Hockey, which followed in the next couple of slots. Then, The Partridge Family and Adventures in Rainbow Country. The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour came in at number nine, after The Carol Burnett Show and The Mod Squad. Rather a good showing for Bugs and the gang, airing as they did between sports and the evening news on Saturdays, and not in what is usually considered peak viewing hours between eight and ten o'clock in the evening. Both Bugs and Walt Disney were evidently significant draws for Canadian television viewers, the two of them occupying time slots for family television viewing on the weekends. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that Space: 1999, inheriting what was once The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour's airtime, also basked in the attention of an impressive number of Canadian television watchers. This lends some credence to claims that Space: 1999 was in the top three most watched television shows in Canada whilst it aired full-network on CBC Television. I am afraid that ratings data for the mid-to-late 1970s, has not come my way as yet. So, I cannot confirm those claims.
An interesting development across the big pond that is the Atlantic Ocean. The BBC has announced that Blake's 7 will be on Blu-Ray in season box sets not unlike those for Doctor Who. Indeed, the release of Blake's 7 to Blu-Ray will be called BLAKE'S 7- THE COLLECTION, corresponding with DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION. The season sets will be loaded with extras. And unlike the DVDs which came in season sets of five discs, these Blu-Ray sets will comprise six discs, with only two episodes on most of them, whereas the DVDs usually housed three. The full Blake's 7 television series, if it does reach completion on Blu-Ray, will be on twenty-four Blu-Ray discs. Rather excessive for a fifty-two-episode television show. Space: 1999 at forty-eight episodes, fits nicely on ten Blu-Ray discs, with bonus content on two or more other platters. I am loathe now to allocate extra space for storage of DVD or Blu-Ray. So, the bloated size of these sets is a minus. Besides, I am not all that great a fan of Blake's 7. Oh, I do have it complete on DVD and do watch the occasional episode. I tend to return to the same ones, though. And they are often the ones with actors or actresses from Space: 1999 in them. Michael Halsey, Brian Blessed (at perhaps his most blustery; yes, even more so than in Flash Gordon), Robert Russell, Isla Blair, Julian Glover, Marc Zuber, Kevin Stoney, Michael Sheard, Sam Dastor, Roy Boyd, and, of course, David Jackson, who played regular character Olag Gan for all of the first season and some of the second. I have to admit that the majority of the episodes are not compelling viewing for me.
But will I buy the sets? I do not know. I am not even sure that I will buy any more Doctor Who, or whatever is released of Space: 1999 in 2025. I am loathe to support the British economy at all with what is happening politically in the U.K.. And I have said all that I dare to. The British government has claimed the power to extradite anyone whose statements it does not like. And I do not want to fall into that trap. I will just taciturnly deny to the British economy and government coffers any of my money. If this means that I must go without having Blake's 7 on gorgeous Blu-Ray, or the rest of Doctor Who, or even a new set for Space: 1999, then so be it. Besides, if the release of the seasons of Blake's 7 will be as glacial as I expect, the entire television series may not be on Blu-Ray until 2027. Will physical home video media survive until then? What will be the condition then of economies and people's rights under government control?
The Space: 1999 convention in London next month keeps adding new guests to its attendance roster. And I see that the extended versions of certain episodes, will be unveiled at this convention, and not the one next year as I believed. It will be interesting to read the reports about them. Possibly see them as recorded on people's cellular telephones. Them and the speeches and question and answer sessions with the guests. I expect that they will make their way onto Facebook and YouTube sometime in the latter half of September.
All for today.
Sunday, September 1, 2024.
Another August "bites the dust", and with foreboding I look ahead to a coming autumn and the winter sure to follow it. The Farmer's Almanac forecasts a mild and dry winter for the eastern Maritimes of Canada. Of course, I pray that it is right. The last thing we cash-strapped Canadians need is an expensive, cold, snowy winter. And my right knee and ankle, much better but still not fully rehabilitated, could do without frigid temperatures. And I certainly could do without another falling on the ice.
The contents of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 4 continue to be unknown. It could be that the curators are in negotiation with powers-that-be at Warner Brothers to release one or two of the less politically correct cartoons. "A-Lad-in His Lamp", maybe. Or "Tom Tom Tomcat". Or "Horse Hare". I would actually be satisfied with an edited "Horse Hare" or "Which is Witch" if that is the only way that those Bugs Bunny cartoons can see release. Both "Horse Hare" and "Which is Witch" were on television in the 1990s in an edited form, the most objectionable scenes removed. But I expect that my opinion would not prevail. I doubt that it would even be considered. Most cartoon fans would prefer to go without those cartoons than have them edited.
The organisers of the big Space: 1999 event this month continue to add guests to the roster. This will I suppose be the most significant Space: 1999 convention ever with regard to persons of importance attending, and the revelation of previously unseen-by-fans footage. It is such a pity that I am at unending cross-purposes with the Space: 1999 fan movement. Its leaders. Its rank and file. But the fault is on their side of the divide. The anti-Season 2 brigade is more formidable, more insufferable, than ever. I cannot count the number of people professing to have loved second season in their youth, now agreeing with the bellicose detractors of everything from "The Metamorph" to "The Dorcons". There is no consensus to embrace all positive points of view. Only one point of view "rules the roost". Coopt it or "get out". It always was that way, I think, but never has been more overt than it is now.
But I continue to follow the news about the convention and will report that news to my readers who are interested. The guests will include Catherine Schell, Nick Tate, Clifton Jones, Anton Phillips, Julian Glover and his wife, Isla Blair, Paul Jerricho, Jack Klaff, John Hug, Jess Conrad, Gianni Garko, Carla Romanelli, Orso Maria Guerrini, Ina Skriver, Brian Johnson, John Goldsmith, Quentin Pierre, Jack McKenzie, Loftus Burton, and Pam Rose. Apologies to anyone I "left out", if indeed any of them are readers of this Weblog. I have never before seen so many Space: 1999 people listed to be in attendance at a convention. American conventions can boast having had Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, and Barry Morse as their guests, but for sheer number of people this one has the American conventiions "beat". My kudos do go to the organisers for this. Of course. It is just such a shame that the lion's share of Space: 1999 fans are such awful people. I tried not to paint everyone with the same brush. Hence the words, lion's share. There are exceptions to every rule. My first impulse, I have to admit, was to be all-inclusive in the designation of awful people.
I cannot watch an episode of Season 2 now without anticipating an attack levelled at any ambiguity in the writing. I was watching "New Adam New Eve" last week, and I heard the nasty voices of those people in my head, or saw the nasty typewritten words of them in my mind's eye. Berating the episode for this, that, or the other thing. As I have done before for "A Matter of Balance" and "Seed of Destruction", envisioning scene extensions or one or more added scenes, to answer to the sniping of the haters of "the Freiberger season", I now do for "New Adam New Eve".
ACT THREE
VERDESCHI: "Did you see that? The magnetic field cocoon as Maya calls it, was gone after she transformed. Neutralised."
KOENIG: "Yeah. I guess Magus didn't anticipate that."
HELENA: "Or he forgot that Maya is a metamorph."
KOENIG: "Or he didn't know to begin with."
HELENA: "Which would go to show he's not all-knowing. And he makes mistakes."
ACT FOUR
KOENIG: "By being primitive. It's the last thing he'll expect from us."
MAYA: "What are you going to do?"
KOENIG: "On Earth, we called it a tiger trap."
MAYA: "What's that?"
KOENIG: "You'll see."
MAYA: "Commander, I have to point out the dangers. We don't know if he may have energy in reserve after we deprive him of light. He could use that to retaliate. To harm us."
KOENIG: "That's a risk we're going to have to take."
MAYA: "And if he has no reserve of energy, we break his source of power, this planet could become unstable very quickly."
KOENIG: "How quickly?"
MAYA: "I honestly don't know, Commander. Because he suddenly transported us to the planet, I didn't do the exact reading of the planet's mass, rotation, and magnetic field, that I'd planned to do. And I don't have a reading of the exact present distance of the Moon to it. ... Now, centripital force may be sufficient to keep the planet together for several hours, maybe several days. ... But I just don't know, Commander. It is a very big gamble."
KOENIG: "Again, it's one we'll have to take. The alternative is being stuck on this planet as his guinea pigs for the rest of our lives. And I think we're all agreed that's unacceptable. Once his power is broken, Alpha will be able to send an Eagle down to pick us up. I'm sure they have one fuelled and ready to go."
HELENA: "And our own Eagle might come back. ... Rematerialize."
KOENIG: "Yes, there's that possibility too. Let's not waste any more time talking about this. Let's get at it."
KOENIG: "It's a total black out. Black as pitch."
VERDESCHI: "How about the sides of the pit, John?"
KOENIG (after seven seconds): "Too slippery. He can't climb out."
VERDESCHI (looking at Maya and Helena): "Then, we're all set."
KOENIG: "Right. Get me out."
I think that these appended bits of dialogue are sufficient, in my mind, to counter any denouncing the episode focusing on the Alphans and their determinations about how to put a stop to Magus and his machinations. They work for me. It would have been nice if all episodes had whatever exposition would be needed for detail not to be "economised", if they had been a full sixty minutes, say, and not fifty-two, in length.
Lastly, I have once again updated my Era 2 memoirs. They now include images of George of the Jungle and The Jackson 5ive. I also corrected all references in text to The Jackson 5ive as I had failed to replace the f in five with the number five's numeral. I also made that change in my television listings project.
Thursday, September 5, 2024.
On Sunday night into Monday, my Littlest Hobo Page received a surge of visitors. More than 150 "hits" in a twenty-four hour spread. In my investigations, I found that some mention on Reddit of the song, "Maybe Tomorrow", and someone posting a Hyperlink to my Web page, was the reason for the burst of traffic to that Web page. I also found that less than ten of those visits were for longer than thirty seconds. And nobody, not a single soul, among those more than 150 visitors, delved further into my Website. Of course not. Littlest Hobo followers are the least likely of all of my Website's comers, to "stick around" and explore further. I guess that "moving on" is as much the prerogative of persons who embrace "the Hobo" as it is of the canine character himself. Even persons interested in The Littlest Hobo mostly cannot be bothered to stay on my Web page for more than thirty seconds. I presume that a cursory glance in search of the song and seeing no MP3 of it, or Hyperlink to it, was all that these people were willing to do whilst on my Web page.
On the possibility that someone has come here to this Weblog in search of the song, I will direct him or her to the Spotify Website for Internet music, which has "Maybe Tomorrow" among its selections, with more than two million listeners of it noted so far.
A few years ago, I called to task someone for Facebook blocking a person who was remarking about the snobbery of Space: 1999 first season pundits. I said, "Oh, yes. Must not have anyone with an alternate point of view on Season-1-versus-Season-2. Block him. The group must be a thoroughly sealed 'echo chamber'." And, "What is the matter? Is that person's statement about snobbery on the part of the Season 1 pundits hitting a bit too close to home? Striking a sensitive area, is it? Too close to the truth, perhaps?"
I can picture someone accusing me of hypocrisy in myself blocking people of late, in my case people whose invective toward second season and Fred Freiberger I wish not to see. The accusation would not be without basis. I am doing what I reproached other people for doing. But in my case, the blocking is being done after years of suffering the daily sorties of the Season 2 haters and the seals who clap in unison. I am not a part of the "echo chamber". I wish to be no part of the "echo chamber". All that I ever wanted was for there to be an environment of open-mindedness and respect for all positive viewpoints on the television series. After so many years of having my eyes assaulted with the vitriol and the oh, so clever wordplay against the "serial killer", surely I can be forgiven for desiring some peace as I approach my senior years. Have I not "paid my dues"?
And I just cannot block enough people. Every time a new "thread" of discussion is started on the subject of Space: 1999's allegedly untimely end, there is a barrage of assaults by people who had not been in the earlier "grouse-fests". More haters of everything Space: 1999 made in 1976 just come forth out of the woodwork. And I begin another new round of blockings. Will that one be enough to give me peace? No. There will be another new set of detractors. And another and another. It is abundantly clear that the vast majority of the followers of Space: 1999 are immoderate, bellicose, smugly proclaiming revilers of half of the episodes, or persons who prefer to pretend that that half of the television series never existed (and people like me along with it). It goes without saying that a person such as I can find no happiness, certainly no acceptance or belonging, in such a group.
And so, "block, baby, block". I at least am not doing it from a position of being in an arrogant majority, of being part of the group.
So, what have I to say today beyond "bellyaching" about the followers of various television programmes? Precious little. No news has been forthcoming about upcoming Blu-Ray releases of entertainment of interest. Nothing new to report or comment on, with regard to the Space: 1999 celebration this month. I have done no Website updates since last Weblog entry.
I went to the Fredericton Exhibition yesterday. Admission was free, and for me it was a particularly good thing that it was. A wasp would not leave me alone as I was trying to eat a sausage and some French fries. Kept buzzing right at my face. I went elsewhere to try to eat, and there were wasps there too. Equally aggressive. I guess my Karmic curse now involves a supernaturally possessed wasp or swarm of wasps determined to spoil a visit to a carnival. Why not?
The exhibition was smaller by far than it used to be before 2020. And not as many people there as there once upon a time was. It being free admission day, one would expect that if there was to be a day for the exhibition to be packed to the brim with people, yesterday would be that day. And it was late in the afternoon, some time after school dismissal.
Saturday, September 14, 2024.
This day there are events galore at the Space: 1999 celebration in London. Several photographs of yesterday's happenings have been put onto Facebook by one Mark Craig who is attending the celebration. Here is the Hyperlink to that assemblage of pictures.
My thoughts? Awesome, of course. It is so very gratifying to see so many persons who contributed to Space: 1999, gathered together to celebrate it. I did not know that Peter Duncan was attending. I guess that he was a last-minute addition to the guests list, as I am certain that I did not see his name on that list in the weeks leading to the event. Naturally, I wish that I was there. What enthusiast for Space: 1999 would not? But it is my lot in life to be forever the outcast in the fan movement for the television series about Moonbase Alpha. My destiny was set when I did not become absorbed into the Space: 1999 universe until the run of second season in my backwater place in the world, forty-eight years ago.
I looked and looked but did not see on any of the display tables an effigy of Fred Freiberger hanging from a noose, though I am quite certain that such a thing would meet with widespread approval from the fans at the event. I see that there is an hour reserved for "'Year 1' Versus 'Year 2': The Endless Debate" sometime tomorrow. What a pile of horse's droppings! There is no "debate". Just a bandwagon. One point of view that Season 1 is all that there is that is worthy about Space: 1999, that second season is the most foul pile of steaming excrement whose producer's name must be cursed to the Earth's dying day, and that people who think otherwise are garbage humans- unless of course they keep their mouths shut and grovel not to be too harshly besmirched. Every day, more people join the bandwagon, leaving the people who fancy second season in the dust as the bandwagon speeds onward, gathering more and more occupants. Who represents the "Year 2" side of the "debate" at this function? Oh, do not tell me. Let me guess. The very person who presided over my departure from the fan club in the 1990s. "Yessiree". Characterisation is all that there is to Season 2, for the "lovey dovey"-favouring simpletons who value only that sort of thing.
Oh, but I am too cynical, right? Surely people do mellow and question their vehemently clung-to biases as they age? No. Not in my experience.
It is nice to see so many important people there in recognition of Space: 1999. But I am not going to "kid myself" that there is a place, will ever be a place, for me at such an event. If I do come across as bitter, it is because I am. Someone corresponding with me a year or two ago when I still had access to e-mail, did say that I was one of the greatest fans of Space: 1999. I have that as my solace as I endeavour to live with my bitterness. Someone acknowledges all that I have done for Space: 1999 in my own personal fandom for it, and for that I am grateful. I wish it were an assessment among a sizable minority of people at gatherings such as the one this weekend. But that wish is forlorn.
I will say that with yesterday being twenty-five years since September 13, 1999, there was a slight uptick in traffic to my Space: 1999 Page. Ever so slight. But noticeable. Alas, scant indication of stays of longer than thirty seconds on the Web page. The norm now. Across my entire Website.
The things that most interest me in the celebration are the extended edits of episodes. No information on the showing of those has come forth as yet.
Website updates. Images of more Scholastic Books have been added to my Era 2 memoirs. I have improved an image of a Memorex audiocassette in same memoirs. And in my Era 5 memoirs are some additional images of the cartoon, "All a Bir-r-r-d".
All for today.
Thursday, September 19, 2024.
Fredericton is basking in sunshine with above-normal temperatures. Summer is "holding on", and it is a most welcome thing, as it is usually summer's opposite than cannot resist overstaying its dubious welcome.
The main subject again today is the Space: 1999 celebration in London. Video footage of it is being brought onto Facebook, a video here and a video there, some brief, some not. It is heartening to see so many actors and production crew coming in their senior years to attend a celebration of a television programme to which they contributed talents fifty years ago, or thereabouts. I cannot help but feel unnerved at how frail some of them are; the ravages of time, sure to visit their effects upon me, are always unnerving. I struggle to recognise some of the people in the group photographs. I think that I see Jack Klaff. I cannot say for sure. I presume some of the others are stuntmen or extras from certain episodes, but I cannot identify who is who. If Paul Jerricho was there, I do not recognise him. Nick Tate, of course, is always recognisable. So is Catherine Schell. Here is the longest currently available video. It consists of panel and audience being shown video tributes to late writers Johnny Byrne and Christopher Penfold, and a video message from Barbara Bain. The panel members are Peter Duncan, Yasuko Nagazumi, Catherine Schell, Nick Tate, Clifton Jones, Suzanne Peterson (Barbara Bain's double), Quentin Pierre, and Gianni Garko. Mr. Garko is not present for the Johnny Byrne tribute.
Very moving tributes, doing proud the deceased persons being honoured. I do hate to be the usual lone voice of contention with reference to an all-too-familiar subject, but I cannot help but notice not a single Season 2 clip in either of the two tributes. Mr. Byrne and Mr. Penfold did both write for of Season 2. Surely at least one clip of Season 2 might have been included. "Short-changed" again, Season 2 is. Fred Freiberger did receive a mention. Him and his wife, Shirley. For being so generous in accommodating the Byrnes following the birth of their child. I could sense the tension in the room as the name of Freiberger is said. I guess it would have been too gauche even for Space: 1999 fans, to boo and hiss at that particular moment, but I know what was in people's thoughts. The dark side of the Space: 1999 fan movement is never out of my thoughts. It could not be, as I was a target of it.
And this is the "rub". Space: 1999 fans are capable of doing so much good. They can organize an event such as this, and have it be an unqualified success, winning deserved accolates for it from Mr. Garko himself. There are times when I feel as though I am a part of the event, in the room, feeling all of the same emotions as those of the crowd, to the most amusing memories and anecdotes provided by the guests, a further fan-produced mini-episode, this one with narration by Anton Phillips, acting as a follow-up to "Message From Moonbase Alpha", and news of the sad passing of Rosie Badgett, President of the old International Space: 1999 Alliance. Although I do tend to rue the day that I joined fandom back in 1984, I credit Ms. Badgett for responding so warmly to me and welcoming me into the fold. I met her briefly in 1995 when I was at the convention in Norwalk near Los Angeles, and she remembered me and put a hand on my arm. There are some decent people in Space: 1999 fandom. I could object to their tolerance of the vitriolic herd's endless sorties against second season. But I do not doubt that they would not subject me to the same from them personally.
I can feel what I will, but as I say, thoughts of the dark side of fandom will always be there in my consciousness. And that dark side is predominant, sadly. Worse than ever in the "social media" age.
At some point in time in the video, my old, unfondly remembered nemesis of the city Calgary, stands to say some things. And it is as tough as laying on a bed of nails to listen to him. Whenever I do start to feel mellow about my fandom for Space: 1999 and its place among fans at large, something like this serves as a not-so-gentle reminder of the enormous gap between me and the Space: 1999 fan community. A gap that cannot be bridged, even if I were willing to extend some sections of substructure.
I would have enjoyed meeting Mr. Garko and telling him how "Dragon's Domain" effected me. I would have loved to meet Julian Glover and Isla Blair and tell to them how much I enjoyed them in everything in which I saw them. Mingling with all of the other guests in the autograph and display rooms would have been fabulous. If only fandom was not so intransigent and ugly in its partitioning of the two seasons. I could go to events such as this and revel in the enjoyment and fellowship that could be had. But it is my lot in life, my isolation.
Here is another video. This one is of the closing ceremomies. I love how Mr. Garko does his Cellini pose with an imagined axe in hand. Yasuko Nagazumi speaks effusively of the kindness of Fred Freiberger. And again I could sense the tension. Multitudes of people straining to stifle themselves until they could be back at their keyboards denouncing the second season producer and his work on Space: 1999.
I am hoping that more substantial videos of the panel members sharing thoughts, memories, anecdotes, and especially videos giving glimpses of the extended episodes, do surface on Facebook or on YouTube in the days to come. My eyes will be "peeled", for sure.
Here is another piece of Space: 1999 news. Readers of my autobiographical Web pages will remember the Mattel Space: 1999 Eagle 1 Spaceship from 1976. The toy that I sought most fervently from 1977 through the late 1970s, and always did not find. Not in the Miramichi. Not in Fredericton. Not in Saint John. Not in Houlton, Presque Isle, or Bangor. Not even in Toronto. It has looked like I was destined never to have the Mattel Eagle. Or a reasonable facsimile. Well, it is being re-released by a British distributor, in a much improved form. In a limited run of 311 copies. It is expensive, on the order of nearly $1,000 Canadian dollars. And I bought it. It will be mine when it is released. At last, I will have that toy that I wanted above all others, when I was a boy. And better than what my friends had. Normally, I am not a toy buyer; I left that behind me long before I turned 18. But 11- and 12-year-old me inside of me, wants to at last be able to say that he has it. I may just keep it sealed and in mint condition. I might never touch or move its many parts. I might never have anyone over at my place to whom to show it off. But little Kevin within me craves long, long overdue satisfaction in a long quest. And everything else that I wanted in my youth, has eventually been possible to have. Why not this too?
Here are some images of the product.
I see now that the item is "sold out". Fortune did smile upon me with regards to Space: 1999 in this instance. I was able to make a purchase while the product was still for sale.
I expect that its value will appreciate astronomically because of its rarity. If I should ever need money to live, I could sell it at enormous profit. I pray that day never comes to pass. But with the idiotic choices of the voters of my country, it is a possibility. More possible than it ever was in decades past when my parents were living.
All for today.
Saturday, September 21, 2024.
First full day of autumn, and it certainly feels like it and looks like it.
I propose today to leave my focus on Space: 1999 and comment on some new items of news, what few there are, on the matter of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 4.
Jerry Beck has revealed three of the cartoons to be on VOLUME 4. "Peck Up Your Troubles" (yawn!). "Lighter Than Hare". "Stork Naked". "Lighter Than Hare" and "Stork Naked" are on DVD in cropped widescreen only. So, some proper 4:3 versions of them are of course welcome. And 4:3 versions are most assuredly what Mr. Beck intends. Word is that they will be bonus cartoons and will not fill slots in the twenty-five main selection cartoons. Good. Good. As for "Peck Up Your Troubles", maybe I was a tad too harsh in my reaction. I suppose that more representation of Sylvester on digital videodisc is a good thing. Of course, with Mr. Beck's preference for pre-1948, it should come as no surprise that unreleased pre-1948 cartoons with the major characters would be favoured by him. I actually thought that "Peck Up Your Troubles" was already on DVD. It is because it was mentioned (with excerpts) so much in LOONEY TUNES GOLDEN COLLECTION documentaries (in archived interviews with Friz Freleng) that I thought that it had been released on DVD. But it was not, and so, here we are. I should, I suppose, be glad to see "Peck Up Your Troubles" and not some ancient 1930s cartoon, stated first as being one of the chosen cartoons for VOLUME 4.
Still, I want to be clear. There are much more interesting Sylvester cartoons that still are not released in the digital videodisc age, "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide" among them. No doubt Mr. Beck will continue to give to "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide", and to "Hyde and Go Tweet", the shaft. Despite the fact that more and more people are calling for "Hyde and Go Tweet". It is not just me anymore. Mr. Beck clearly has no regard for those cartoons. I do not know why. And I do not much care why. It should be irrelevant. We, the people, want the cartoons. Release them. Release them before we are all senile, dead, or refused the right to own property.
All for today.
Tuesday, September 24, 2024. It is my father's birthday today. If he were still living, he would be ninety-six years-old today.
More videos of the Space: 1999 celebration in London have surfaced. I am finding those more of a problem to sit through than others previously mentioned. Because in them, the persons who threw me under the proverbial bus nearly thirty years ago, are there with the guests, seated at the same panel table as them, interviewing them. I am sorry. Some things are too much to expect from me. And sitting through the Calgarian who used me, goaded me, invalidated me, tried to "gaslight" me, treated me like I was absolute garbage as a human being, interviewing one of the guests in front of the attendees, is beyond my limit. Way beyond it.
I do not care how this reads; I will say it anyway. I much prefer for the people organising an event such as this, to blend into the background, to be very much behind-the-scenes, as it were. Not at the forefront. Not seated in front of the crowd with the actors and actresses and production crewmembers, as though they occupy the same level of importance. Find an emcee, if one is needed, among the people invited to the event because of their roles in the making of Space: 1999, and have him or her do the emcee duties. I bristle at the idea of "gentry fans" presiding over an event alongside the people who brought Space: 1999 to the cameras, seated at the same table, and basking in favour and privilege, their views given prominence under that aura of favour. No doubt my nemesis is revelling in that, and it sickens me.
But it is, I know, my Karma to have to know of such things, and suffer with that knowledge. But I do not need to subject myself to watching.
There is still nothing about the extended edits of episodes. No videos. No discussion. Nothing. It would be counter-intuitive for fans of a television series to be so uninterested in footage never before seen by them, if it were not Space: 1999 fans of whom I am writing. They are a very peculiar lot, indeed. Strange. Writing silly captions under images of the episodes, is so much more of interest to them than footage never previously available. Nothing should surprise me, I suppose, where those people are concerned.
On a happier note, Gianni Garko was "a hit" with the fans at the celebration, and with me, too, with the photographs and videos that I have seen, of same celebration. Seeing him in a Commander Koenig second season sport jacket inside a mock-up Eagle cockpit, brought a smile to my face. It is a compelling thought that Cellini somehow survived and lived to a ripe old age and assumed the command of Alpha after the death of John Koenig.
Could it be possible that Cellini did not really die after losing his battle with the monster? Of course. It is science fiction/fantasy. It is Space: 1999, wherein mysterious unknown forces can work whatever metaphysical processes that they will. From the idea, I have written some scenes through which Tony Cellini could come back to Alpha. They are bare bones material for an episode-length story that perhaps some fan more industrious than I, might undertake. Oh, I doubt it, though. Nothing I do is ever worthwhile to the fans of Space: 1999. I am just writing these scenes and positing an episode for Cellini's return, for my own fancy, because I do like the notion of Tony Cellini on Alpha post-"Dragon's Domain". Here is what I "came up with".
"The Return of Tony Cellini" (0280)
SANDRA: "Commander! I am registering an energy surge. In Tony Cellini's quarters."
KOENIG: "What? ... Are you sure?"
SANDRA: "Positive. No mistake"
MORROW: "It can't be. What does it mean?"
KOENIG: "We're going to have to find out. Paul, have three Security men join me at the door to Cellini's quarters."
MORROW: "Right."
Everyone in Main Mission exchanges worried glances as Koenig departs.
MORROW: "Security."
VERDESCHI: "Security."
MORROW: "Three men to Tony Cellini's quarters. Priority one."
VERDESCHI: "What? What's up, Paul?"
MORROW: "Energy surge registered there."
VERDESCHI: "Tell the Commander I'll be there myself, with the three men. I'm going to arm them with axes. Just in case."
The quarters doors open, and to everyone's astonishment, out steps Tony Cellini. Dressed immaculately in his uniform.
CELLINI: "Hello, John."
KOENIG: "Tony!!! It can't be!!!"
VERDESCHI: "You're dead!"
CELLINI: "No. Very much alive. It's me, John."
KOENIG: "I don't believe it. We saw you killed. By the monster."
CELLINI: "I'm not a ghost, John. And yes, the monster did put me under it. But I didn't reach its digestive tract before I was whisked away. Teleported."
KOENIG: "What?"
CELLINI: "It's true, John. You never saw my remains spat out of the monster. After you killed the monster, there was no trace of me."
KOENIG: "True."
CELLINI: "That's because I was whisked away before the monster's digestive juices could touch me. I went in legs first. My legs were transferred first, and then my upper body. Transferred... somewhere else."
KOENIG: "Where?"
CELLINI: "I don't know. I don't know where I was. I can't describe it. At first, I thought I had died and was in heaven. ... Or purgatory. But I could feel my flesh. And I could feel my heart beating. And then I heard a voice."
KOENIG: "A voice?"
CELLINI: "Yes. It told me I was not dead. That I had been spared from being killed by the monster. It said that I was... I was too valuable to Alpha to be lost. That Alpha had already lost too many trained, seasoned astronauts, and couldn't afford to lose another. There was still a future for me on Alpha, and I had redeemed myself and was considered worthy of being saved."
Koenig and Verdeschi exchange amazed glances as Cellini continues.
CELLINI: "It told me I had committed a cardinal sin of hubris and vainglory. I ought not to have investigated the small and stationary contacts without first notifying Alpha. I shouldn't have gone into the graveyard. I shouldn't have docked and sent my whole crew into that alien spaceship. I did that because I wanted to bring the technology of the spaceships back to Earth. Deep down, I fancied the thought of being the bearer of the greatest technological leap in history. And even though computer gave the all-clear, I should have considered the unknowns of space. That something undetectable might still be there. Waiting. Something that caused those ships to be lifeless. Something malevolent. ... I sent my crew to their deaths. Horrible deaths. Insanely horrible deaths. But in wounding the monster as I did in the battle, I made it possible for you to kill it, John. I had redeemed myself for my sin, and I was spared."
KOENIG: "Incredible. Absolutely incredible."
CELLINI: "Yes. I can scarcely believe it as I'm saying it."
KOENIG: "This voice. ... What was it?"
CELLINI: "Whatever it was, it was watching over me from the moment I first encountered the monster. It was waiting to see if I would go back and kill the thing. Or die trying.
VERDESCHI: "It was watching over you all that time?"
CELLINI: "Yes. All the way back to Earth. Through the inquiries. Through the leaving of Earth orbit. Everything."
KOENIG: "Victor'll have a field day with this. ... Tony, this voice. Is it... is it... God?"
CELLINI: "I don't know. ... Believe me, the question was on my tongue, John. But I never got it out. ... But to answer your question to the best of my knowledge, I don't think it was God. A being with transcendent power. Maybe a being related to one of the races who built a spaceship in the graveyard. A race that sometime later achieved transcendence, and that had an interest in the monster that killed its ancestors. What I was told is that the monster was the last of its kind. A consortium of races annihilated all of the other monsters, but this one had got away. The voice told me that it wanted the universe to be rid of the last of the monsters. But that it could not do the killing itself. It cannot kill. Others must do that. And if they are in the act of a redemption when the monster is about to kill them, then and only then may the being intervene. It could not intercede to prevent the deaths of anyone whose curiosity or ambition brought them into the domain of the dragon. My crew. ... Only if the person was fighting the creature and had redeemed himself."
KOENIG: "It's incredible. But then, so is the whole matter of the monster."
CELLINI: "I wouldn't blame you if you didn't believe me, John. It does sound like the ultimate flight of fancy."
KOENIG: "Yeah. It sure does."
CELLINI: "But here I am, before you now. Something had to make that possible."
VERDESCHI: "It's been nine days. Were you there all that time?"
CELLINI: "Really? It didn't feel like anything more than ten minutes."
KOENIG: "Maybe time runs faster there. Wherever that is."
CELLINI: "Could be. I suppose so."
KOENIG: "But where were you? Can you describe it at all?"
CELLINI: "I can't. Believe me, I can't. It was intangible. Etherial. I was standing, but I don't know what I was standing on. There was gravity. And, of course, air. That's all I know."
Koenig and Verdeschi exchange glances.
CELLINI: "And then, I was here. In my quarters."
KOENIG: "I'm going to have Dr. Russell give you a complete physical, if you're feeling up to it."
CELLINI: "Sure. No doubt you want to verify that it's really me. That I'm not some alien projection, or an alien in disguise."
KOENIG: "Precisely. I'm going to ask the Security guards to accompany you, just as a precaution."
CELLINI: "I understand."
KOENIG: "And for the time being, I'm going to have your quarters sealed. Until we can do a thorough search for any evidence of an alien presence."
CELLINI (nodding): "Sensible."
MATHIAS: "He checks out, Doctor. Teeth, fingerprints, blood group, the DNA in his hair. Even his brain waves. All match our records of Tony Cellini."
HELENA: "Well, there you are. We're satisfied that you are who you say you are. And you're in perfect health."
Cellini calmly smiles with relief that nothing out of the usual was found.
HELENA: "It's an incredible story. But then it's not the first one you're given us."
CELLINI: "Yes, I know."
HELENA: "Captain Cellini. ... Tony. I do owe you an apology. All of us do, we who didn't believe you."
CELLINI: "Thank-you, Doctor."
HELENA: "Helena."
CELLINI (smiling): "Helena."
Koenig enters the Medical examination room, followed by Bergman.
KOENIG: "Well?"
HELENA: "I'm satisfied he's Tony Cellini."
BERGMAN: "Tony. It's so good to see you. John's told me your whole story about what happened. I could scarcely believe it."
KOENIG: "And that's coming from our resident believer in cosmic intelligences."
BERGMAN: "I'm hoping to talk all about it with you later. But for now, John wants to debrief you himself, one-on-one."
KOENIG: "As old friends."
Koenig and Cellini sip some of Bergman's old brandy as they sit in Koenig's quarters.
CELLINI: "I have always been grateful to you, John, for believing my story."
KOENIG: "I know your character, Tony. It's not your style to lie, or to cover something up with a lie. Nor to concoct a fiction in your own head and believe it yourself, to prevent you from admitting failure. I always believed in you."
CELLINI: "And I appreciate that. Deeply. But my detractors were right about me to some extent. I am a proud man. Too proud. I do have hubris. I
can be vain. It is difficult for me to admit failure. Dr. Russell was right on that score. People saw that, and that was why they found it easy to
dismiss my story. And to believe that I would try to cover up a disastrous mistake with a lie."
KOENIG: "But you didn't."
CELLINI: "Yes, that's right. But I do bear the responsibility for what happened to the others. Darwin. Juliet. ... Monique. It's a cross I must bear for the rest of my life. The monster killed them, but it was I who put them there. ... I was too proud to face that fact. For years. I concentrated solely on the monster for what it did, and didn't give due consideration to my culpability. If the monster had killed me, it would have been my just punishment. But someone... something... thought I was still worthy. Particularly after I faced the monster and wounded it."
KOENIG: "I'm so glad you were given that lease of life. We need you. I need you."
CELLINI: "Thank-you, John. But the belief was that I was not the best commander of that probe, and it is true. If it had been you, and you returned with a story about the monster, I think people would have had a much easier time believing you."
KOENIG: "I wouldn't be so sure. None of my command staff believed my story about Arra and her prophecy. Any story that demands perhaps too much of people's credulity, is bound to be rejected."
CELLINI: "Maybe so."
KOENIG: "So, what now? Do you feel up to returning to duty?"
CELLINI: "I think so. But I would still prefer to keep a low profile. Until such time as you need me for something requiring my expertise in deep space exploration."
KOENIG: "If that's what you want, Tony."
And there it is. I am not proposing to put a Tony Cellini returns episode in the chronology on my Web page. It is just something that I am toying with, at this time.
Monday, September 30, 2024.
Some more videos of the Space: 1999 celebration this month in London have surfaced. Including one with Nick Tate appearing solo at a panel table. My readers, my dear readers, I must say it was the most difficult-to-watch talk at a convention to which I have ever been subjected. The man has permanently sullied his image in my eyes. Not that this matters to him, of course, for I am nothing but a bastard fan of Space: 1999 imprinted first by the second season and its aesthetics, belonging to a wretched minority of but a tiny number of people. People who evidently are judged to deserve not one whit of consideration and sensitivity. Maybe it only matters to the people, what few there are, who think my appreciation for Space: 1999 to have merit. And even they may be tired, very tired, of my ruminations and lamentations on the subject of the unending bile hurled at Season 2. But in deference for what Space: 1999 meant to me, I am compelled to respond.
First, I will say this. I have listened to addresses at conventions of numerous Space: 1999 actors. Some quite lengthy and meandering. The first such I ever experienced was that of Barry Morse at the 1982 Space: 1999 convention in Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.A.. One of my erstwhile correspondents sent to me a videotape copy of that. I must say that I could listen to Barry Morse for hours. He could talk about things most irrelevant to Space: 1999 and keep my rapt attention. The man was very sophisticated. And he had class. The same cannot be said for Nick Tate.
At various times in his digression-filled spiel, I was reaching for my computer mouse to advance the video by several seconds or by some minutes. I was sympathetic with him when he was telling of the death of his mother. That sympathy fizzled away as he launched into an anti-second-season, anti-Fred Freiberger rant. Which of course the crowd was "eating up". There it is, my readers. That dark side of Space: 1999, laid bare on video for all to see. And anyone thinking to "gaslight" me with assertions that I am being paranoid about the existence and extent of that dark side, can be so easily proved wrong that it is quite worthy of a belly laugh. Alas, the only laugh that I could possibly have, with my ears assaulted by Nick Tate's hate-filled sortie. And the reaction to it from his audience.
After a long list of denunciations of the changes, changes that were required for Lew Grade to green-light a second season, ringed by Fred Freiberger, and remembrances of what he judged to be ludricous meetings of him with the new Space: 1999 producer, Mr. Tate calls Fred Freiberger a "total prick" who destroyed "our series". And the plaudits of the people in the room, not just clapping but widespread verbal expressions of hearty approval, come pouring through the speakers of my computer. It was the only time in all of the videos that I have seen of the celebration event, that there was so large an articulated approval. Naturally. Because hatred of Fred Freiberger and the season that he produced, and disdain for persons such as myself, is what Space: 1999 fandom is defined by, what comprises it. It is what is behind that thin veneer of humanity and civility that the fans project.
Nick Tate's address is vulgar, crude, in places. He uses the swear word for bull's feces. He talks about his sex life. He goes on tangents that would strain the patience of any sensible listener. When he finally "gets around" to Season 2 in response to a question from a fan desiring no doubt to hear the most anti-Season 2 tirade possible, he says that he does not really care for Season 2 of Space: 1999. And then he launches into his diatribe. The man either has a very faulty memory, or he is creative, shall we say, where remembering the past is concerned. I do not know which one that it is, but I would not accept as gospel truth anything that he says. He says that he was called back to the television show on the very last weekday before filming began on second season. On the Friday before. I do not know if that is true. It sounds kind of far-fetched. Oh, I acknowledge that it was rather late in the pre-production process for "The Metamorph" when he was summoned by Gerry Anderson back to Pinewood. But that late? What I do know is that the man is clearly wrong when he says that the only people whom he recognised when he stepped onto the set, were Landau and Bain. That everyone else was a total stranger. Nonsense! Both Zienia Merton and Anton Phillips were there; Sandra Benes and Dr. Mathias were both in "The Metamorph". And he knew Brian Blessed (Mentor) and Catherine Schell (Maya), having worked with them before. Acclaimed first season director Charles Crichton, was the director of "The Metamorph". He was there. Frank Watts was back behind the camera. Keith Wilson was back doing the production design. Long-time Anderson personnel Dave Lane and Reg Hill were there. And not very long into the second season, so were Sarah Bullen and Quentin Pierre. Ray Austin was another returning director, slated to direct the second episode, "The Exiles". Clearly, Mr. Tate is exaggerating when he talks of the actors, actresses, and crew being different from what he knew with Season 1. He tells quite a tall tale when he says that Zienia Merton telephoned him to say that she was not invited back for Season 2's premiere episode. I say again, Zienia Merton was in "The Metamorph". And "The Exiles". And a plurality of later episodes. Indeed, the character of Sandra was in Fred Freiberger's original list of suggested characters as shown in The Making of Space: 1999, along with Simon Hays and Gary Wolusky. She was invited back. Even if she had not been invited back as yet before her alleged telephone call, the fact of the matter was that she was invited back, which Nick Tate fails utterly to mention.
He says that he was unsatisfied with Carter's paltry involvement in episode five of second season, Carter only having one line of dialogue. Well, episode five in production order was "Journey to Where", in which Carter was very much involved. I presume that he is referring to "The Taybor", which was episode six. Carter is not in that episode at all. Evidently, it was an episode written before Mr. Tate's return to the television show, and shoehorning Carter into it, was a more difficult task, than it was for other episodes. So be it. But there was compensation for it, in that Carter would be in command of Alpha in two later episodes, "New Adam New Eve" and "Space Warp", a distinction that he never had in Season 1. Of course, Mr. Tate never mentions that, does he? He rails against being demoted from Captain to Lieutenant. I do not remember Carter ever being called Lieutenant at any time in Season 2. Starlog called Carter Lieutenant in Season 2, but we do know how unreliable that Starlog can be where Space: 1999 is concerned. Okay. Maybe some promotional materials out of ITC used the Lieutenant designation. Perhaps. Maybe that did come from the pen of Fred Freiberger, Gerry Anderson not correcting him on this score. Maybe. But it was never canon. It was not in any episode. Besides, Alpha is not a military operation. Not in first season or in second season. There are no Generals, Colonels, Majors, Warrant Officers, Sergeants, Corporals, or Privates. And no Lieutenants designated in any line of dialogue. Eagle Captains do exist in first season. Captains of spaceships. Eagles. And the Ultra Probe. Not military rank Captains. There is nothing to suggest a military hierarchy on Moonbase Alpha. Oh, we do have the Commander, the Controller, the Security Chief, the Chief Medical Officer, and "Section heads", as Koenig calls them. But these are not military ranks.
Mr. Tate lambastes Freiberger for initially not wanting him back. But Freiberger did reconsider. It has often been said that it was Freiberger's children who convinced him to retain the Carter character. I do not know if that is true. It seems more probable to me that some executive at ITC called to Freiberger's attention the popularity of Carter, and urged him and Gerry Anderson to call back Nick Tate to the production.
Look, the simple fact that he calls Freiberger a "total prick" in front of a sizable audience forty-eight years after 1976, twenty-one years after Freiberger's death, just shows that Nick Tate lacks class. He is quite selective in when he says it, too. Only when he is with an approving audience, and no one of import present who might be offended. He did not say it in front of Yasuko Nagazumi or John Hug, did he? He comes across as a cranky old man. Who never "got over" the show business ("Well, that's show business.") decisions of nearly fifty years ago. He is more bellicose on the subject of second season than he was in 1995 at the convention at which I met him. What a pity that he is the only person from Space: 1999 whom I have ever met, and whom I am likely ever to meet. I certainly have no desire to meet him again. Or listen to him on a video. Or see another interview with him on home video media. I am quite done with him. It is going to be tough divorcing him from the Alan Carter character when I watch Space: 1999. Goodness knows that if I were there in that room as he was calling Fred Freiberger a "total prick", I would have stood up and left. I doubt that I would even have gone to his panel discussion, after my experience back in 1995. Not that I would be there at the celebration at all, mind. Because, as I say, I would not go to a convention now, in 2024, to be with those awful people. Quite. This outpouring of anti-Freiberger, anti-Season 2 hostility, and invalidation of people like myself, has certainly proved me right in my decision to steer far away from the convention circuit. Indeed, the "turn off" of me from further coverage, even mention, of this particular celebration, is complete. I will not be saying anything more about it. Period.
And this is all for me today, this dismal final day of September.
Well, yesterday was a day of contrast. First, I was dealing with the unpleasant experiences of hearing and responding to Nick Tate's verbal onslaught. And later, there came the awaited news of what cartoons will reside on the fourth Blu-Ray disc in the line of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE, due to be released later this year.
My small number of Weblog readers are no doubt cognizant of how much that I want for Friz Freleng's other two cartoons utilising "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", to see release on digital optical disc media, both of them in fully restored form. I was quite choleric as Blu-Ray after Blu-Ray was released with neither cartoon on the list of contents. I brooded to no small extent over my having a Karmic curse plaguing me with unending frustration. Me and others who happened to want whatever it was that I wanted. I remarked at some length that the curators seemed to be purposefully keeping those cartoons off the twenty-first century videodisc market. Well, the day has come when I can finally put to rest my pique, my tiresome impatience, my "drama", where one of the cartoons is concerned. When I opened fully the announcement by Warner Archive of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE on my computer screen and cast my eyes upon it and saw "Hyde and Go Tweet" there, big as life, the feeling of gratification was among the more magnificent of those in my fifty-eight years.
Here, ladies and gentlemen, is the list of cartoons to be on the fourth Blu-Ray disc in the LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE range.
"Along Came Daffy"
"A Bone For a Bone"
"The Cagey Canary"
"D' Fightin' Ones"
"Dangerous Dan McFoo"
"Devil's Feud Cake"
"Double Chaser"
"Double or Mutton"
"Fox Pop"
"Henhouse Henery"
"Holiday For Drumsticks"
"Hopalong Casualty"
"Hyde and Go Tweet"
"The Impatient Patient"
"Leghorn Swoggled"
"Meatless Flyday"
"Mouse-Warming"
"The Mouse-Merized Cat"
"Muscle Tussle"
"Muzzle Tough"
"Peck Up Your Troubles"
"Quack Shot"
"Road to Andalay"
"The Sneezing Weasel"
"Streamlined Greta Green"
"Lighter Than Hare"
"Stork Naked"
And with my yearning for "Hyde and Go Tweet" finally assuaged, I cast my eyes up the list to see if "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide" might also have received the nod. But that was too much to expect, I guess. Of course, one would have thought that with both "Hyde and Go Tweet" and "The Impatient Patient" on the list, that, for an extension of representation of a particular idea on the Blu-Ray disc, that Mr. Beck and his fellow curators might have gone with "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide" to make three the cartoons sourcing Robert Louis Stevenson's "bogey tale". But I guess two were judged to be enough. Maybe next time, if there is a next time, "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide" will be there on the list.
So, what finally did it? What prompted Mr. Beck and others to finally grant to "Hyde and Go Tweet" a place on digital videodisc in fully restored glory. Was it just that its number, whatever that number was, finally "came up"? Or maybe, having chosen "The Impatient Patient" to go on the Blu-Ray disc, Mr. Beck and his fellow curators thought they may as well "slap" "Hyde and Go Tweet" on the Blu-Ray along with it. For some connection between the cartoons of the fourth volume of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE. Who knows? Maybe it was the fact that people other than myself were in some substantial numbers calling for it. If that is the case, maybe by calling attention to the absence of "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide" on videodisc, I might "get the ball rolling" on people besides myself expressing interest in seeing Alfie chase Sylvester into the lab of Dr. Jerkyl, in luscious High Definition. Assuming there will be a VOLUME 5, I have a few months, at least, with which to undertake the effort.
What is my "take" on the other cartoons selected this time? "D' Fightin' Ones" is a pleasure to see on the list. All that I had of that for years on VHS videotape was the severely truncated form of it on ABC. "Hopalong Casualty" is long overdue, and welcome. I smile at the sight of "Along Came Daffy" (a cartoon with which I go back as far as my life's Era 2). And I am delighted to see "A Bone For a Bone", "Double or Mutton", "Henhouse Henery", "Holiday For Drumsticks", "Leghorn Swoggled", and "Muscle Tussle". "Muzzle Tough" will be a pleasure to see in High Definition. I would have preferred "Mexican Cat Dance" over "Road to Andalay", but with a connection of the hunting bird in "Road to Andalay" with the monstrous-bird-of-prey Hyde Tweety of "Hyde and Go Tweet", "Road to Andalay" is a nicely apt selection. Even if there was no conscious intent involved in that aptness. And "The Impatient Patient" is right for the Blu-Ray, as a companion to "Hyde and Go Tweet". "Mouse-Warming" was on the MOUSE CHRONICLES Blu-Ray, but I think that it was unrestored despite looking quite impressive. So, it is fitting that "Mouse-Warming" would receive attention eventually for release in restored condition. I am not exactly "bowled over" by the other choices. But it matters not to me, as I am going to have "Hyde and Go Tweet" restored, on digital videodisc, at last. And there is a "good showing" of the post-1948 cartoons on this Blu-Ray disc. I am happy about that. I cannot wait for November 26 when LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE will be released. I pray the world does not come to an end first, or my world does not.
Tuesday, October 1, 2024.
Sunday, October 6, 2024.
I have added an image of newspaper television listings for 23 February, 1974, specifically ones from the Saint John, New Brunswick newspaper, The Telegraph Journal, and its "Showtime" supplement, to my Era 2 memoirs. The image can be found amongst my memories of February, 1974 and of "Hyde and Go Tweet" day, which was February 23, in the year, 1974.
Here is the front cover to the "Showtime" in the January 5, 1974 issue of The Telegraph Journal. January 5, 1974 was the day of the party celebrating my eighth birthday.
The small readership of this Weblog appears to be shrinking fast after my reaction to Nick Tate's indelicate words. Was I wrong to have that reaction? Is that the opinion of the majority of the people who do read what I have to say? Am I now experiencing the invoking of Jesus' words of, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone," of some two millennia ago?
Look, Mr. Tate's address cannot go without reaction. And as far as I know, nobody else has said anything about it. It is all well and good to abide by the maxim that if one cannot say something nice about someone, then best to not say anything at all. But sometimes it is necessary to remonstrate against someone who is himself or herself ignoring that same maxim. I also know that by responding with statements to the effect that Mr. Tate lacks class, I am "opening myself up" to accusations of hypocrisy, for I myself am not without the particular sin of deficient class. I am not a paragon of class or good taste. I cannot make a claim to being so. But, again, somebody has to say something about what Mr. Tate said, and Jesus is not here Himself to do so.
I know, I have used the terminology of "circle-jerk", to describe how fans act in their groups. I do so with trepidation, not fervor. I do so because I am unable to find nomenclature not of a vulgar nature, to use for my description. But I suppose that I could have refrained from making the description at all. I sometimes imply profanity with the employing of similar words. Not as unclassy as saying the profane words, but, still, it would be classier not to make the implication. Have I called people names in my early life? Yes. Not dead people, though, I hasten to add. I have not crossed some of the lines that Mr. Tate did, but I am not lily white. Yet, it behooves someone of allegiance to Mr. Freiberger's work, to respond rather harshly to what Mr. Tate was "dishing out" to an audience of some two hundred people at a celebratory event for Space: 1999, to which Mr. Freiberger was a contributor, a very significant contributor (half of the episodes, in fact). And if that someone has to be me, then so be it. I do not regret any of what I said. And I did not say any of it with the relish that Mr. Tate had in denouncing Fred Freiberger as a "total prick". If people judge my reaction to be unacceptable, is it acceptable to just sit on my hands and write nothing at all, allowing the incident to go without any complaint? Certainly, none of the people at Mr. Tate's address in the panel room, objected to it. And it would be unrealistic to expect anyone in the Facebook Space: 1999 groups to do so. The comments under the video of Mr. Tate's address are all positive. Of course they are.
I enjoyed the appearance of Gianni Garko at the event. He seems to be a true gentleman in every sense of the word, and I wish that I could have met him. It is nice to see photographs of Julian Glover, Isla Blair, Peter Duncan, Jess Conrad, and many others in the autograph section of the celebration. And to watch the videos of John Hug, Yasuko Nagazumi, Anton Phillips, Brian Johnson, and others. But make no mistake. Nick Tate's invective and the enthusiastic embracing of it by the crowd, casts a dark cloud over the event. And I would say again that some of the individuals involved in the organising of the event, are not my favourite people. Yes, they did a good job in putting the event together and having it be a success. That, I will give to them. As I grumble for the rest of my days over how I was treated back in the 1990s. Grumble, yes. Cannot I do that? It was not show business decisions in my case but efforts to besmirch and "throw under the bus" a leading contributor to a fan movement. And fan movements are not show business, though they can be focused on works of show business.
And now, I propose to bring to a final close, my coverage of the 2024 Space: 1999 celebration. And to "move on" to other subjects.
George Feltenstein of Warner Archive has announced that a four-pack of Blu-Rays of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE will be released alongside the coming to market of VOLUME 4. It will contain the Blu-Rays in the range released up to and including VOLUME 4, offered to persons who for whatever reason chose to eschew purchase of VOLUME 1, VOLUME 2, and VOLUME 3. This is causing people at places on the Internet to forecast an end to the LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE line after VOLUME 4. And if the four-pack box does say that it is "the complete collection" of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE, then such a prognostication would be given some considerable credence. I can certainly see the rationale for being concerned. If such does prove to be the case, then so much for my hopes of having "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide" on gorgeous Blu-Ray. Word is that the third volume's sales were disappointing to the powers-that-be at Warner Archive. I have to admit to maybe having some small cuplability in that, as I did say that I myself was not planning to purchase it, in reaction to how I felt about VOLUME 2, though I did purchase it anyway. But I doubt that what I said would have had much of an impact. More likely, it was consumers completely unaware of my writings, who bought VOLUME 2 and were disappointed, who opted to keep their money in pocket when VOLUME 3 was released. Which would be consistent with consumer reaction to pre-1948-cartoon-heavy volumes of the GOLDEN and PLATINUM COLLECTIONs. People want the cartoons with the major characters in their most recognisable appearances and personalities. Not a heaping amount of "one-shots" and cartoons with Bugs and company in their less established forms and personas. I can only hope that the much better curated VOLUME 4 will turn the tide and bring consumers back to the COLLECTOR'S CHOICE range. I certainly do endorse VOLUME 4. And VOLUME 3, too, in all honesty. It is only VOLUME 2 that I would bemoan. If I were inclined to do so. Not right now. I am so very happy that "Hyde and Go Tweet" will be on VOLUME 4.
I hope to have the back cover to LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 4 available soon.
Thursday, October 10, 2024.
Last evening, I was on the production of a televised political debate. It was at Fredericton High School. First time since my teaching practice days that I was deep into the school. Oh, I have been in the northernmost gymnasium section numerous times over the last twenty-five years, for various sports broadcasts. But not any further inside than that. Not past the gymnasium and adjacent auditorium. Last evening, needing a visit to a washroom, I walked into C-Wing, the academic wing of the school. Everything is more or less where it was, but the decor is different. The lockers, too. I passed the cafeteria, the library, and several classroom corridors in an evening-hours semi-darkness. For a time, I did connect with the teenaged version of myself of so long ago. Oh, so long ago. When I was a student, my parents were living, and life had not struck me in the gut so many times that my naivete was pummelled out of me. Oh, how I miss those days!
It was a boring debate. The current Premier of New Brunswick was not there. It was just the opposition party leaders "rattling off" their usual, tired, old "talking points". But the event was mercifully finished in an hour. The enjoyment that I had, in addition to seeing my old high school again, was interacting with colleagues. I seldom have occasion to do that, this decade.
The front cover to the four-pack of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE has been brought to light. No indication on it as to it being a "complete collection". Which should cause some people, myself indluded, to breathe somewhat easier. Here is that front cover to the LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE four-pack.
Strange looking Elmer and Charlie Dog. Definitely not a post-1948 model Elmer. And Charlie looks like he is from some latter-day revival of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. Not that it really matters to me, as I do not plan to purchase the four-pack.
At this juncture, I will say that if "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide" could be brought to me on a VOLUME 5, I would be content to "call it a day". I will not agitate for the release of anything else. If we were to be granted the remaining Sylvester solo cartoons, "A Kiddies Kitty" and "Pappy's Pappy", I would be delighted, but I will not grouse at not being able to have them. Or "Tom Tom Tomcat", "Fastest With the Mostest", "Sock-a-Doodle-Do", "Aqua Duck", "Boston Quackie", "Pests For Guests", or "What's My Lion?". If indeed I am destined always to have an incomplete collection of the Warner Brothers cartoons of post-1948, I at the very least want all three of Friz Freleng's Jekyll-and-Hyde cartoons. I can be satisfied with that. So, how about it, dear curators? A VOLUME 5 with "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide" on it.
I am still waiting for LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 4 to be made available for pre-order, and for its back cover to see light of day.
I had to Facebook block another new set of Non-Player-Character Space: 1999 fans. People who were not involved in previous dersive postings against second season (and blocked then by me), but a further assemblage of persons with the usual chorus of Fred-Freiberger-destroyed-Space: 1999, "Year 2"-is-garbage, Maya's-powers-were-invoked-every-episode-to-"save-the-day", monster-of-the-week, yada, yada, yada. Sometimes I wonder if Facebook is unblocking people, or if a number of people whom I blocked, have started new Facebook accounts, or have multiple Facebook accounts, for the sole purpose of accosting second season Space: 1999 and the ever-reducing number of people who happen to fancy it.
Nothing more to say today.
A very overcast, dark, and soggy Thanksgiving. And the weather the past two weeks has been mostly miserable. With this, I am reminded of my very first autumn in my Fredericton existence, the autumn of 1977. Many a day that autumn was overcast, grey, dismal-looking. I suppose that such could be labelled pathetic fallacy. My life had become desolate. So, how fitting it was for the weather to match what had come of me in my new, suburban surroundings.
My first day of school that autumn, at Park Street School, was sunny. Monday, 12 September, that was. The next two days were cloudy and rainy. The Thursday that week was sunny. Then, on Friday, the skies clouded over, leading into a rainy weekend, the one on which I saw Space: 1999- "War Games" at my grandparents' place. On Saturday at 5 P.M.. Saturday, 17 September. It was raining again when I saw Space: 1999- "Collision Course", while at my grandparents' home, again, on October 1. And yet again was it raining on 15 October while I was seeing the "Alpha Child" episode of Space: 1999 with my father in our living room. And raining again on October 29 when I acquired my Space: 1999 Utility Belt from Consumers Distributing. It was memorably overcast on Remembrance Day as my father and I were in our car on our way to New Brunswick's Miramichi region and Douglastown, for me to stay the weekend with Michael. And raining as I was on the bus on my return to home that Sunday- and snowing in the afternoon on the very next day. On the days when I recited Koenig's monlogue in "War Games" to myself as I wandered about the school yard, it was always cloudy. And I remember walking to Kentucky Fried Chicken a number of times that autumn, and on only one of those occasions was it sunny. It was sunny in the evening on Monday, September 19, and sunny on the two Saturdays whereupon CHSJ denied to me the Space: 1999 episodes, "Death's Other Dominion" and "Force of Life". That is true. A few other days, too. But autumn of 1977 was predominantly bleak. With regard to weather and my situation in general. Unaccompanied in the school yard. Not in simpatico with the others in my class. An outsider. My teacher, a disciplinarian. Going home to lunch and after school to a house devoid of other people, no one to talk to, until my parents were home from work as afternoon was transitioning to evening. CHSJ preempting Space: 1999 on a number of Saturdays. I have not forgotten that autumn in even the slightest bit. It does not feel like yesterday. It feels like a very, very long time ago. But the imprint of it on my grey matter continues to foster vivid flashbacks.
There can be no denying the impact that the events of the year, 1977, had upon me. My development. My short- and long-term social condition. The life that I lost. The new life fraught with frustration and recurrent loneliness. Nostalgia becoming manifest in me long before it normally does within most people. With my parents gone, I am left by myself as the only person of my world who is still living who experienced life in Douglastown and then the subsequent life in Fredericton as it unfolded for me. A particular newcomer whose presence, whose outlooks, whose keen interests, were decidedly unwelcome, and whose new, younger friends mainly diminished or "took for granted" his place in their lives. On this day, I search for things for which to be thankful. And the five years that I had in Douglastown before the move in 1977, top the list. Five years of having friends junior, same age, and senior, and a place in the community. Five years wherein my impressionability was fully engaged by what I was seeing on television, not the least of which was Space: 1999, and its second season. But this is all known to anyone who has extensively read the autobiographical parts of my Website, and I can direct other people not as yet familiar with my history, to the pertinent writings.
Another subject about which I have written in memoirs, was the Saturday in spring of 1978, May 6, 1978, on which the "Dragon's Domain" episode of Space: 1999 airing on CBC Television, was preempted on CHSJ-TV, due to broadcasting, by CHSJ-TV, of Liberal Leadership Convention. CBC Television stations CBHT, CBIT, and CBCT of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island showed Space: 1999- "Dragon's Domain" at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, with CHSJ instead transmitting Liberal Leadership Convention starting at 3:30. As noted in TV Guide magazine's edition for Canada's eastern Maritimes. TV Guide had the Liberal Party's convention going from 3:30 to 7 P.M. on CHSJ, and no Space: 1999 in sight for channel 4 (CHSJ). But newspapers The Daily Gleaner and The Telegraph Journal told a different story. They had Space: 1999 "slotted in" at 6 P.M. on CHSJ, the convention supposed to have been "wrapped up" before then. I was so hopeful that the newspapers were correct. That CHSJ was only going to videotape-delay Space: 1999- "Dragon's Domain" by two hours, not refuse outright to air it. In the morning on 6 May, 1978, I bought a Memorex audiocassette on which to audiotape-record the Space: 1999 episode whose first minutes had been missed on its earlier CBC Television transmission (due to an overlong college football game) nearly six months before. But the convention lasted until close to 7 o'clock, and Space: 1999 that day was scuppered on the New Brunswick CBC Television broadcaster. And that was that.
Below is the full-day's television listings for May 6, 1978, in The Telegraph Journal's "Showtime" section, a regular supplement to the Saturday issue of the said newspaper. The channels 4, 6, and 7 within black shapes in the listings are all CHSJ. Channel 4 is CHSJ's original signal coming out of Saint John. Channel 6 is CHSJ's re-transmitter near Newcastle. Channel 7 is CHSJ's Moncton re-transmitter. If anyone is interested, channels 2, 3, 9, and 12 within black shapes are all ATV, with CKCW in Moncton being channel 2 and the other three channels being CKCW re-transmitters, 12 being CKCD which used to serve the Miramichi region as a CBC and CTV affiliate before becoming nothing more than a CKCW re-transmitter, in 1976. Channels 5 and 11 within black shapes are both CBAFT, CBC French, Moncton. The other channels are Maine broadcasters affiliated with one or more of the U.S. television networks. As can be noted, the Telegraph Journal "Showtime" listings are rather sloppy. A hodge-podge of different fonts. And often not perfectly straight in the columns. The television listings in The Journal might have been amended many times before going to press. And the revisions in a different font and not in perfect alignment.
Lastly, George Feltenstein of Warner Archive has confirmed that releases of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies on Blu-Ray will continue. That there will be more, many more, releases of the Warner Brothers cartoons onto digital videodisc in High Definition, in either the COLLECTOR'S CHOICE range or something else. And that the intention is to "do right by" the fans. It is good news, for sure. I can certainly cling to hope that "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide" will see release on Blu-Ray.
Sunday, November 3, 2024.
Busy day yesterday working the swearing-in ceremonies of Members of the Legislature and Cabinet Ministers. Unusual for those ceremonies to be on a Saturday.
This past week, DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION- SEASON 25 came to me in the mail. And I had to pay more than twenty-five of my dollars in Canada Customs charges in order to retrieve the package from the local Post Office. That is on top of the price that I paid for the Blu-Ray box set. One that I bought more for completeness' sake than for repeat enjoyment of the material. Just four stories in the set, and alternate versions of the same stories. I laboured through the watching of the original "cuts" of three of the stories. I do not know if the sting of having to part with more of my money just to procure the item from the Post Office clerk, had me disposed to be rather less than as tolerant as I can be of Doctor Who that I do not care-for. But whatever the reason, I found my patience for sitting through the Season 25 stories and the peculiarities of the McCoy era of the Doctor's long, long run on television, to be rather in short supply. That is when I was not drifting into the Land of Nod as I sat on my sofa before the visuals and sounds of some of the episodes.
I am not going to mince words. Decry as I do the tendency of fans of certain works to disparage later portions of the oeuvres of their favourite opuses, I should not be required to like everything that I watch of another body of work. I should no more be expected to appreciate everything in entertainment than I am to like all people I meet. I have my aesthetic tastes, and some things will appeal to me while others will not. I happen to think that those aesthetic tastes have some import to be shared with the world. I have every right to think that they are of merit. And if something should fall short of them, then so be it.
I just do not fancy the lion's share of ideas that Andrew Cartmel put into Doctor Who in his three seasons as script editor. The foci of his imagination may be to the liking of some people. But not to me. And his writers mostly come across to me as college students coming out of a Political Science course. And have all of the subtlety of a lecture by a dogmatic "Poli Sci" professor. The production design mostly does not impress me, is less than truly futuristic or otherworldly- even if it is sometimes lavish. And the music (by Keff McCulloch) is all of the synthesised excesses of the 1980s on steroids, intrusive to the degree of turning even the most impressive action "beats" of an episode into an "off-putting" experience. And yes, I do say this as one who will have no time for criticisms of Derek Wadsworth's contributions to Space: 1999- Season 2. I just do not rate McCoy as an actor outside of his work on The Last Place On Earth, and even there he can a be a tad over-exuberant in his delivery of lines of dialogue. And the Ace character just does nothing for me. I do not like her. Her mannerisms. Her use of 1980s slang. Why does she always call the Doctor "professor"? And why does he not express disapporoval at her doing so?
The only McCoy story I can honestly say that I like and would be inclined to return-to, is "Survival" in Season 26. I like the idea of a planet that infects people, transforms them into savage cats. That is something that would not be out of place in Space: 1999. Though I could quibble with the execution of the concept, and McCoy and Aldred are no more to my liking there than elsewhere. None of the stories of Season 25 have concepts that I can say that I like. Not a fan am I of artifacts of sword-and-sorcery medieval times being McGuffins in science fiction/fantasy. Clowns and circuses do not frighten me. And thinly, very thinly, veiled unfavourable depictions of Margaret Thatcher's Britain have not "aged well" at all, by my reckoning. Indeed, the West right now needs a Thatcher-esque government. "Remembrance of the Daleks" is as much an abrasive surface as it ever was. The person writing it has all of the subtlety of a bull in a china shoppe. It does have some rather nice depictions of 1963 Britain, as it hearkens back to the earliest Hartnell era stories, but it uses them to portray that time in British history as irredemably bigoted, all bigots needing not reformation or redemption but violent death. The whole concept of the Doctor in his seventh incarnation returning to some unfinished business of his first incarnation, is ludicrous on its face. Why wait so long, through so many interim incarnations, before going back to complete what he started? Especially as it involved the dangerous Hand of Omega. Which he knows could yield disastrous outcomes were it to fall into the wrong hands. It is ridiculous to suggest that the Hartnell Doctor was preparing a trap for the Daleks before he departed 1963 Earth in a fit of pique with schoolteachers Ian and Barbara, where the Doctor as shown in 1963, had no knowledge of the Daleks when he and his companions first met them on Skaro in serial two, "The Daleks". The attempted "retconning" is not acceptable. And the McCoy Doctor's callousness at putting innocent lives on Earth at risk, in luring the Daleks there, is rightly lambasted in an essay called "The Evil of the Doctor". Why does the Doctor allow Ace to bring a ghettoblaster to 1963 London? He mentions later in the story how dangerous to the accepted flow of human history such an anachronism is. So, why allow it at all? A Dalek rants and rants, "Exterminate!", at the Doctor as it levitates up a stairwell, but it does not fire its gun until after Ace has had time to open a door to allow the Doctor to escape, until after the Doctor and Ace are able to lock the door and pull the Michael Sheard school headmaster out of danger, and then after the Doctor and Ace have run away. What was the Dalek doing as they were escaping? Contemplating its navel, if it has a navel? The directing is "naff". And then there is the verbal confrontation between the Doctor and Davros. No scenery could possibly withstand the chewing that was being done there. There is a self-referential BBC advertisement for a new science fiction television series, "Doc..." something or other. Before Ace goes outdoors at 5:16 P.M. on 23 November, in full daylight. The eyes just roll, do they not? The Doctor tricks Davros into obliterating the Skaro solar system with the Hand of Omega. What about the Thals? The Doctor's old friends on Skaro. Are some of them still on the planet? What would they think of the Doctor destroying their home world? Skaro is their planet too. Is not this an important detail meriting mention? And what good would destroying Skaro do, anyway, in ridding the universe of the Daleks? There are Daleks elsewhere in the universe, surely. They have moved out into the universe, and into the corridors of time, on a campaign of total conquest. And as we see in the 1966 serial, "The Power of the Daleks", they can reproduce easily.
At least "Remembrance of the Daleks" is more exciting than "The Happiness Patrol", during which I could not keep my eyes open. Oh, I could not help but gaze upon the Kandy Man (literally a man made of candy). One of the most infamous depictions ever on late-1980s Doctor Who. Subtlety was definitely on sabbatical, there. Gaudiness was on display to the ultimate degree, as Keff McCulloch music poured cacophonically out of the television speaker. Ah, but late-1980s Doctor Who does have its fans. In sizable number. And they are respected a darned sight more than people who fancy second season Space: 1999 are. Some of the detractors of Season 2 of Space: 1999 at the Roobarb's Forum, are fans of McCoy era Doctor Who.
Well, with Season 25 now released, there are now no more McCoy seasons left to hamper one of the mere two COLLECTION releases per year that we now receive. Every Blu-Ray box set of twentieth century Doctor Who from now onward will be of earlier, and in my estimation, better seasons. For however long the range lasts.
My Weblog is not a popular item now in the minds of a couple of regulars at the Facebook group for The Bugs Bunny Video Guide. My scribblings on the subject of "Hyde and Go Tweet" and "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide" both being "passed over" for DVD and/or Blu-Ray release over a span of nearly twenty years, have garnered for me quite a denunciation. I had provided clear elaboration for why I felt, in 2023, as I did. Elaboration illustrated with ponderously long lists of other cartoons that have enjoyed one or more DVD or Blu-Ray release(s) (including practically all other cartoons of substantial fan following that were in The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour and subsequent iterations of the Warner Brothers cartoons on U.S. network television). And yet, unto me came an unsolicited opinion by someone at the said Facebook group. One with a proclamation of the Son of God's name in a condemning manner, and an image of a crack cocaine pipe (alleging that my mind is addled on crack cocaine). And someone else did a laughing emoji to the crack cocaine image. This despite all that I have written on the Warner Brothers cartoons in the past. Or maybe because of what I have written (some fans can be resentful of someone else sharing insights about the cartoons or their appearances on television that they did not themselves arrive-at). Well, I must say that it is a different "tack" to which I am used-to. People usually just allege that I have a mental defect, for my liking what I do and my objecting to the mistreatment of what I like and/or of me personally. I can assure what fraction of my small number of readers who do not dislike what I have to say and publically judge me for it, that I do not smoke crack cocaine, or any other drug. Including my Prime Minister's favourite one. For whatever my word is worth. As for my proclamations of vexation or deep disappointment that two of my favourite cartoons seemed then (in 2023) doomed to be left off of the DVD and Blu-Ray roster while the obscurist cartoons of the 1930s and early 1940s received the nod, it was my right, as a fan of those two cartoons, to feel that way, damn it. And one of them still, still, is not on the slate for a future release to digital videodisc media, as we proceed into 2025.
You see, my readers. Fan attitudes toward outliers (or who may only be portrayed by the more prolific discussion group opinion-mongers, to be outliers) are much the same from one fandom to the next. One of my most upsetting discoveries in my Internet years, has been that the Warner Brothers cartoons have a demarcation all their own with which majority of contributors to discussions, is favoring of an earlier side. After the treatment that I received in Space: 1999 fan circles, I believed that I had found solace in my enthusiasm for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, being within one particular corner of the entertainment realm wherein I was not part of a put-upon minority. What a bitterly disillusioning thing it was to discover that I was outside of a "consensus" there, also. I put the word, consensus, in quotation marks. Why do I do that? Because it is not necessarily incontrovertible that a consensus exists among the fans of the cartoons. A consensus, that is, that runs counter to my experience with the subject matter. The fact that DVDs or Blu-Rays with sparse post-1948 representation tend to be followed by declining sales, would suggest that the "consensus" is not what it is "cracked up to be". And I suppose that I should "take heart" that no other people were approving of my critic's remark and image. At least not openly. But did anyone object? No.
I would wager, if I were a betting man, that my critic is among those numerous people who prefer Clampett, Avery, and Tashlin to Freleng, Jones, and McKimson, and who think me wrong to call for full representation of the major characters of post-1948 first, before DVDs and Blu-Rays were filled to the brim with earlier cartoons. Well, bully for them. They did not live where I did, where the U.S. television network vehicles for the cartoons, and "syndie" packages of post-1948s, were all, or almost all, that there were through most of the final four decades of the twentieth century. All of my detractors in Warner Brothers cartoon fan circles, are unable to relate to how I, imprinted by the U.S. network television programmes, see the cartoons and the curating of them by persons at Warner Brothers. And they are, of course, the ones who judge me to not be right in the head. Them, not the people who agree with me, much as those people do tend not to be seen or heard. I happen to have the contention that I do, that the Freleng-Jones-McKimson era of the cartoons, is the more aesthetically rich and satisfying one. I "make no bones" about it. My Website elaborates on it. If people choose to ignore or disregard my writings on the subject of Warner Brothers' cartoons and their television history, that is "on them". Their problem. Not mine. At the end of the day, I do not object to the pre-1948 cartoons seeing DVD and/or Blu-Ray release. Heck, have at it and release them all. But not at the expense of the post-1948s and cartoons such as "Hyde and Go Tweet" and "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide". The release model of the cartoons post-the-merger-of-Turner-and-Warner-Brothers, is the problem, as I see it. We were "better off" before. Back in the VHS videotape and laser videodisc days. The post-1948s had their dedicated releases, and the pre-1948s had theirs. I have a right to feel as I do, being as I have waited a quarter of a human lifetime, and am still waiting in one case, to see on DVD and/or Blu-Ray, "Hyde and Go Tweet" and "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide" in restored glory. And this is the way that it is. To invoke the refrain of Walter Cronkite.
Friday, November 15, 2024.
I have been busy of late with some images for my Era 2 memoirs.
A few weeks ago, something quite surprising and marvellous emerged on YouTube. An old video from July, 1971 showing from inside of a car the whole of New Brunswick Highway 8 from Gibson Street in Fredericton North, through Marysville, Taymouth, Boiestown, Doaktown, Blackville, and Renous, to Newcastle and the greater Miramichi area. It shows the highway as it was when my parents and I used to travel on it as we returned to the Miramichi after a visit with my grandparents in Fredericton. But best of all is that it follows the route of King George Highway through Newcastle, Nordin, and Douglastown. So many now-extinct sights of places of my childhood as they were then. It is all there. The Dairy Queen in Newcastle. The Miramichi Mall. Millar Avenue with the railway tracks and the old-format railway crossing sign. The Sinclair Rink. The Prince William Street intersection with the Texaco. The forking of the road at the Shell gasoline station. The Esso gasometers. French Fort Cove. The French Fort Cove Restaurant. The Nordin Esso. And all of main-street Douglastown as it all was in 1971 a year before we moved there. Our old home as it would be. Neighbours' homes. What would be my old, late friend Evie's place. Douglastown Elementary School as it looked then. The Douglastown general store. The Seven Sisters. Lower Douglastown years before the McDonald's and the Northumberland Place mall were built. Everything there for my nostalgic eyes to "pour over" most appreciatively. Naturally, I want to capitalise upon this amazing discovery, infusing the Miramichi years of my autobiography with images truly representative of how my surroundings looked back then. I have screen-captured countless images from the video, and already three of them are in my Era 2 memoirs, providing view of my old place with the school in the distance, the old bridge between my house and the school, and the general store. Unfortunately, the quality of the images is not ideal. Being as they come from inside of a moving vehicle, they have image blur in places, and there is a general lack of sharpness about them. And there are scratches, many scratches, presumably on the vehicle's windshield. And digital compression artifacts galore. Much digital paintwork is needed to bring the images to a quality anywhere near to my standard. I am labouring at another four images, images of Newcastle, and the work is time-consuming and tedious. Telephone and power lines and the artifacting around them, are most problematic. I do not know when those images will be acceptable to me for addition to my memoirs. But I am determined to complete the work.
Also, I have been toiling away at the front cover to the Telegraph Journal "Showtime" for 16 February, 1974, that has on it a scene from It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown. I had a huge amount of bleed-through of newsprint to remove from the image. So much so, that I had to digitally paint the entire cover, outside of the drawing lines, to eliminate the newsprint bleed-through, and make pristine the visual quality of the rare sight from long ago. The work was finished last evening, and the said "Showtime" front cover is also a new addition to my Era 2 memoirs, mated with four previously existing images of It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown. This can be found amongst my memories of February, 1974. Memories of the Peanuts television special and of the episodes of The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour to air on Saturdays before and after it.
I have decided to purchase the Blu-Ray box set of the first season of Blake's 7. It is en route to me now. I expect to have it for some time before LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 4 is in my hands. Or maybe my expectation needs a caveat. The people at Canada Post are threatening yet again to walk off of the job. I do hope that this will have no effect on my purchases this month. But, alas, I do not know for sure how the companies from whom I am buying the items, are shipping the goods. Lately, they have been quite inconsistent in such regard.
No further news on the Warner Brothers cartoons' future on Blu-Ray, or on the unending saga of Space: 1999, its fandom, and my fraught following of deliberations on the subject. Which is just as well. This time of year is difficult enough as it is for me to live through, what with the early darkness every day, the increasing coldness, the inevitable long hours of work in a windowless basement until past sunset, going home in the dark to a dark house with no human company to be had, eating with it being dark outside, and walking in the dark. All of the people who like to pass judgement on me, have no appreciation of how difficult that it is to live my life and keep from falling into deep depression. I try to find solace wherever I can. It is rare, so very rare, to find it on my computer. And that includes reading Website visitor statistics, and the unending neglect or berating of the entertainments of my fancy. And soon I will be fifty-nine years-old. Fifty-nine. I say it, and I struggle to believe it. I know that I do not want to believe it. Who would? And my social life now is emptier than ever, friends dying, others having no time for me, as "making ends meet" demands more and more of people's time.
But I "soldier on".
Sunday, November 24, 2024.
Fourth day in a row of chilly, rainy, very windy weather. Sky grey all day before the exceedingly early sunset. Fitting for the mood that I am in, as regards the condition of the world. Global war seems inevitable now. Because socialist globalists in charge of the countries of the West, desire it.
It used to be that the political Left were the pacifists. Back in the days of M*A*S*H and All in the Family, certainly. Now the "Lefties" are the people most "gung-ho" for firing missiles into Russia. And they accuse the people to the political Right or what used to be the political centre, of being unpatriotic for not wishing to go to war against the Russian Bear. Inversion, if ever there was one. Talk about "Clown World". "Clown World" seems intent on "nuking" itself as it virtue-signals ad nauseam about supposedly, supposedly, protecting life. As long as that life is not a fetus, or a person with mental illness in Canada whom "the system" would happily euthanise. If people were not so lacking in self-awareness that they could see the absurdity in their position, our world would be the saner, safer place that it used to be in my younger years. As things now are, anything from war to manufactured pestilence with a deadly needle being pushed, could end one's life with the snap of a finger from a "higher up".
As the world is closer to nuclear war than it has ever been, I am awaiting the shipping of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 4, hopefully on Tuesday. Let us see if I can watch "Hyde and Go Tweet" restored in High Definition before I am rendered a nuclear shadow. On the subject of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 4, I have to share with my tiny number of readers a YouTube video in which Jerry Beck and George Feltenstein are interviewed at length about the latest volume in the LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE range, and what the future may hold for the Warner Brothers cartoons on physical media. Here is that video.
LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 4 Review
I have to give a round of applause to the interviewer for raising the subject of "Hyde and Go Tweet" being on the Blu-Ray disc together with "The Impatient Patient". I could not help but note a reluctance on the part of the interviewees to say much about it. Mr. Beck promptly segues into a generalised discussion about the cartoons. And when the interviewer "circles back" to the Jekyll-and-Hyde cartoons subject, only by concentrating on "The Impatient Patient" and its director, Norman McCabe, is he able to engage Mr. Beck's interest for some cartoon-specific discussion. I believe that I have the long-sought-by-me confirmation of my principal theory on why the wait for "Hyde and Go Tweet" on DVD or Blu-Ray has been such a long one. But I am not going to grouse on the matter of "Hyde and Go Tweet" anymore. Goodness knows, I have no desire to see more Jesus'-name-invoking condemnations of me on Facebook by people who would "gaslight" me with accusations that I am not compos mentis. It was very pleasing to hear the interviewer mention the cartoon and express esteem and favour for it. If more people other than my worthless self, could do so also for "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide", we might see it in the next Blu-Ray release, whatever that be, of the cartoons of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies brandings. The interviewees are both quite upbeat about the future on Blu-Ray for the Warner Brothers cartoons. And that pleases me too. They are reluctant to provide any specifics as to plans. But Mr. Beck in particular seems more confident than ever of releasing the full library of the Warner Brothers cartoons, even intimating that the remaining Bugs Bunnies, all of them with politically problematic content, may yet be seen on physical media. I think that there is a way that such could be done. In a feature-length documentary about political incorrectness in vintage cartoons. One that could include those Bugs Bunny "hold-outs" including "Horse Hare", "Which is Witch", "A-Lad-in His Lamp", et cetera. And also the Inki cartoons, "Nothing But the Tooth", "Slightly Daffy", and others. As long as those cartoons are presented in the context of their being inappropriate today, they might, might, be presentable on home video media.
What I would do is this. Re-release LOONEY TUNES: THE GOLDEN COLLECTION, the LOONEY TUNES SUPER STARS range, and PORKY PIG 101 as Blu-Rays for people to upgrade their collections. Put LOONEY TUNES: THE PLATINUM COLLECTION fully back into print. And then release a new box set. Call it LOONEY TUNES: THE CENTENNIAL COLLECTION. And have it include everything as yet unreleased on digital videodisc media, and within it include the documentary on the politically problematic cartoons. Or at least have the remaining cartoons of 1948 to 1964 plus the Road Runners, Daffys, Speedies-without-Daffy thereafter, and the earlier cartoons pre-1948 that the major directors did, post-Bosko. But of course, what I would do, is not worthy of consideration by the powers-that-be. It is only a fancy that I opt to "toy with", as I await the news on what may be coming. Doubtless, my detractors would say that anything that I suggest comes from a deranged mind. The mind of one who believes in Karma and Karmic punishment for bad early-life decisions or behaviours? The mind of one who is frustrated at always being outside of the imposed "consensus"? And the mind of one who seems to attract "gaslighters" like moths to a flame? Deranged, really? Really? Look, at the end of the day, even with all of the slinging in my direction of "put-downs" that persons of contrary points of view may muster, this is my Weblog and my Website. I am paying "through the teeth" to maintain it year after year. I ought to have some latitude to write of some flights of fancy while in my little bubble.
As I await LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 4, I do have the Blake's 7 Blu-Ray set to watch. It arrived yesterday, by way of DHL. Certainly not through efforts of people of Canada Post, who are "on strike" now. They have been so now for more than a week. Blake's 7 does not look as improved in upscaling to High Definition as Doctor Who does, but there is some superiority over how Blake's 7 fared on DVD. Word is that the remaining three Blake's 7 seasons will not be provided on Blu-Ray any faster than one per year. So, a full Blu-Ray collection of Blake's 7 will not be in one's hands until 2027. A good two years before twentieth century Doctor Who on Blu-Ray will be completed. Of course, all of this is very wishful thinking, physical media's projected future being what it is.
I have watched the alternate "cuts" of the Season 25 Doctor Who stories in the latest DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION release. They have improved upon the original broadcast versions quite substantially. In a couple of cases extending the story run time by nearly fifty percent, "fleshing out" the stories and the characters more, improving on some of the "world-building" of the stories, making them somewhat more palatable. Some of the goofier aspects of "Remembrance of the Daleks" were eliminated, including a number of the complaints that I noted in an earlier Weblog entry this month. But only so much can be done. The premise of that story is still not kosher by my reckoning. "The Happiness Patrol" benefits the most, I think, from revision. It now has a scale that approaches being cinematic. And is near the length of a traditional hour-and-a-half serving of Doctor Who. But I am afraid that there is still no escaping the sledgehammer anti-Thatcher messaging. I am afraid, also, that "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy" has not risen in my estimation. I found it more of a chore to sit through, than it was when I watched it on DVD back in 2012.
The 1971 Newcastle-seen-from-moving-automobile images upon which I was working to improve, are now fully "up to snuff" and are included in my Era 1 memoirs. In the months to come, I may add more such images to my Miramichi life eras. But for now, I propose to "take a break" and enjoy the Blu-Rays coming my way. My next Weblog entry will hopefully include my review of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 4, for anyone who may be interested in reading such.
All for today.
Oh, one more thing. I blocked some new sets of Non-Player-Character Space: 1999 fans on Facebook. The usual ones who bray on and on about "serial killer" Freiberger, about there being no "Year 2" (it not existing except in the minds of garbage humans such as myself whom the world can do without), about "Year 2" being a travesty from "The Metamorph" to "The Dorcons", about how funny parody videos about Season 2's awfulness are, and so forth and so forth and so forth. They always come in new sets, having not manifested themselves before in previous "Freiberger-bashing" sorties. Yes, it does seem that I cannot block enough people to be rid of the invalidations that must always come my way, per my Karmic curse. But I will persist in doing the blocking. There is some satisfaction to be felt in the doing of that.
All right. This really is all for today.
Saturday, November 30, 2024.
LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 4 is still on its way to me. At the pace of a snail. I had the previous two volumes within a couple of days of release date. But of course this volume is requiring a much longer wait. Why? Because I want it more than I did the others. If I did not want it as much as I do, it would be in my hands by now. No doubt about it, people. Karma exists. And my Karma is that I must endure longer, much longer waits, for the most sought-after items, in this case "Hyde and Go Tweet" on Blu-Ray. Of course, other aficionados of the cartoons who do not appreciate "Hyde and Go Tweet" as much as I do, have their copies of COLLECTOR'S CHOICE 4. They are posting comments about it on various discussion forums. While I must gaze upon my computer screen and see my parcel being "sat-on" at various stages of its journey. Amazon.com dilly-dallied and did not ship LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE 4 until Wednesday night, and evidently did not send it through priority shipping as I requested that it be sent. It is not slated to arrive until next Wednesday. Next Wednesday! Almost a full week longer than I had to wait for VOLUMEs 2 and 3. And those were not requested to be sent with priority shipping. Ah, but this is upside down, everything-inverted "Clown World". Priority shipping incurs a longer wait than regular shipping. Particularly if the person wanting the item is more insistent than usual that it arrive post-haste. So, is it a combination of bad Karma and living in "Clown World"? I suppose that one could say that. "Clown World" is serving as a functionary of my bad Karma.
So, no review by me of COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 4 will be forthcoming until at least Wednesday. Probably not until next weekend, as next week will be a very busy one at work for me. It is a good thing that I did not order the Blu-Ray through regular mail. If I did, I would be waiting for it until the proverbial cows come home. There is no end in sight to the Canadian Postal "strike". It will not end until the "Posties" are legislated back to work, and Canada's destroyer, the Prime Minister-for-life, is happy to see more damage inflicted to the foundations of Canadian society for as long as possible, and will therefore allow the cessation of mail delivery to be of indefinite length. Eventually, this will affect me, as I will have a 2025 Visa credit card to be sent to me through the mail. I will not be able to order anything more through Amazon.com and other "online" companies, until such time as I have my new credit card. Clever way to wreak more havoc upon the lives of Canadians, eh, Mr. Prime Minister?
Happily, I have had my BLAKE'S 7- SEASON 1- THE COLLECTION Blu-Ray set to fill my viewing hours. The later episodes of the season look so much better on Blu-Ray than do the early ones. Original film elements for those were found and scanned in High Definition video, and somehow even the videotape portions of the later episodes look to be of a higher standard of picture quality. I commend most highly the look of episodes "Bounty" and "Deliverance". They now show themselves as sharp and as colourful as does any episode of Space: 1999. Everything from "Seek-Locate-Destroy" (episode six) onward is a marked improvement in picture quality over the DVDs of Season 1 Blake's 7. Sadly there are some technical issues with the Blu-Rays. For instance, some stutter occurs in what is I think my favourite episode, "Cygnus Alpha", due to a glitch in the seamless branching allowing for multiple viewing options for visual effects. On the whole, I do prefer the original visual effects. But the new ones do, I guess, have an appeal to persons desiring a glossy "ITC look" to Blake's 7.
Here is a little something said this morning on one of those banes to my existence that are the Space: 1999 Facebook groups.
"When I was a kid, I thought everything about season 2 was better. But watching again as an adult, I realized that season two was more geared TOWARD younger viewers, whereas season 1 had more great stories, along with a bigger budget and some high powered actors like Barry Morse who were sorely missed."
All right. Riddle me this. People are always saying that first season was for adults and second season was for children. Why, then, is it that the fandom for Space: 1999 is composed to a vast extent of people who... were... children when they first saw "Year 1" and became fans of it? Why was nearly all of the merchandise for Space: 1999 in 1975 and 1976 in conjunction with first season, aimed at children? The toys. The vinyl records. The comic books. The colouring books. All of that, made for children. The only things that were not, were the paperback books. People keep saying that Season 2 was for "the kiddies". And yet, it had what YTV Canada deemed "mature content" in it. It had lustful advances. It had beer. It had romance. It had Koenig and Russell as a more loving couple. It had people dying violently, bloodily. I have yet to see convention footage from the early 1980s in which there were copious middle-aged people mingling about, or convention footage in the 1990s and 2000s with an abundance of senior citizens among the rank and file. The "movers and shakers" of fandom who hold Season 1 on a most lofty pedestal and who foster and approve the mindset that second season deserves nothing but contempt until the end of time, are all people who were eight, nine, ten, eleven, or twelve years-old when they were enamoured with Season 1 and hated Season 2 because it was different from Season 1 and did not obligingly wrap every in-universe explanation for the differences in a bow-tied package. And so many of the first season pundits do conduct themselves today with all of the refinement of a group of school bullies. And yet, people who prefer Season 1 are the mature ones, and those persons of minuscule number who fancy Season 2 are the ones who are abjectly immature. So the argument goes. And goes and goes and goes. Ad infinitum. While I must sit here at my computer and endure the "put-downs" day after day, week after week, year after year, because I was a "kid", a "stupid kid" (so my detractors do assert), who became a fan of Space: 1999 through the run and rerun of Season 2, and who later became elaborately cognizant of the aesthetic qualities of Season 2, which the blinkered, arrogant assailers of that season, deny to exist. While the occasonal person from outside of fandom tells me to "shut my yap" and just accept that I do not belong anywhere and that it is quite okay to be a loner who likes "stuff" that is not "good".
Yes, I know. Barry Morse was a classy, dignified man. Yes, he and numerous other classy actors of no small gravitas, brought an aura of conspicuous maturity to first season. But Freddie Jones, Guy Rolfe, Lee Montague, Hildegard Neil, Ann Firbank, and Patrick Troughton "fit the bill", also. They had class. There was a maturity to their performance. The using of Barry Morse, the weaponising of him, against the appreciators of second season, is so very tiresome. It is one of the oldest tanks in the arsenal. Part and parcel of a patent effort to "gaslight" and demoralise people such as I, into dropping our adherence to Season 2. So that everyone, everyone, is of the same mind. So that the consensus truly is absolute. Evidently, it is not enough that people such as I, be dismissed as "cranks". We have to be effectively converted, persuaded that Season 2 is filth and that nothing at all good can ever come of maintaining a fancy for it, so that there are no voices crying out in the wilderness. And then the "dead horse" can be stomped upon until is is crushed down to the smallest atom, for there can never be enough contempt expressed toward that abomination of a television show season, one that many people contend does not even exist.
Such is the world in which I am living, as I can only wait for the next manifestation of my cursed Karma. Yes, I know. "Hyde and Go Tweet" finally "made it" to optical digital videodisc media in fully restored form. Somehow, I gained the reprieve for that much. But I must suffer the long wait for it to reach my door.
I am working on another batch of 1971 sights of the Miramichi region of New Brunswick. To be added to my autobiography. I am hoping to have the work completed sometime before Christmas.
All for today.
LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 4 is in my hands at last. Bad Karma relented so that I could have the yearned-for item today, and not on Wednesday as had been indicated by Amazon.com's shipment tracker. It is fortunate that I have the Blu-Ray today, on my least busy day of this week. I dove straight into it, going for "Hyde and Go Tweet" first, of course. The High Definition picture quality is magnificent. The green of the Hyde Formula, the reddish browns of Jekyll's desks and tables, the oranges of the walls, and the intensity of the Hyde Tweety's evil eyes, the peach skies surrounding buildings, have all never been anything close to being this striking. The clarity of the image is such that one can see the individual paintbrush strokes on Jekyll's office furnishings. And the audio is no slouch. So resounding, so deep. The note that plays ominously as Sylvester looks to the street from the building window and before he says, "I'll jump. I've got a choice?", is startling in its bass and clarity. It has never sounded this good.
After "Hyde and Go Tweet", I set about watching the cartoons from "Along Came Daffy" onward. And I watched the entire Blu-Ray in one go. The pre-1948 cartoons were all either to my liking, or tolerable. And many of the post-1948 cartoons that energise me with their pacing and music, are in this volume.
"Along Came Daffy" has a richness of colour palatte and contrast ratio to its picture that I never before knew it to have. And it is an awesome cartoon, arguably one of Friz Freleng's best pre-1948s. The sense of desperation and the gag timing is prime Freleng. "A Bone For a Bone" and "D' Fightin' Ones", cartoons never before on home video (in my country, at least), are eye-poppingly gorgeous in High Definition. "Henhouse Henery" is a revelation. The lavishness of the colour, the pristine stability of the images, is a marvel to behold after enduring poor quality visuals in that cartoon for decades. Likewise, "Double or Mutton", whose colours and picture stability puts its earlier home video release to shame. Again, the paintbrush strokes are visible, this time in the reds of a rocket utilised by Ralph Wolf in his sheep-procuring efforts. The shades of blue and red in "Holiday For Drumsticks" are resplendent in their depth. "The Impatient Patient" looks like it could do with a reduction in gamma, and a slight increase in contrast. But it still looks impressive. Mind, I am used to seeing it in colour, not in black and white as it is on this Blu-Ray. The colourised version was on the DAFFY DUCK- TALES FROM THE DUCKSIDE videocassette in the 1990s. The sounds of Wile E. Coyote going through his paroxysms of earthquaking in "Hopalong Casualty" could have had my room shaking, a la Sensurround; they were so resonant. "Mouse-Warming" looks so much better than it did on the MOUSE CHRONICLES Blu-Ray. And top marks for the colour and sharpness of "Leghorn Swoggled", "Muscle Tussle", and "Muzzle Tough". Magnificent!
As I was watching "Muzzle Tough", I had a couple of very potent flashbacks to when I first saw that cartoon more than fifty years ago. When I was in our Douglastown living room, my parents with me, as I watched and audiotape-recorded the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour episode on May 25, 1974. It definitely felt like I was seeing that cartoon for the first time again, and I was reconnecting with the young me who first discovered it on that spring Saturday way, way back when. The detail in the images is that effective.
"Peck Up Your Troubles" looks quite fetching, and I have found an appreciation for that cartoon. "Fox Pop" is quite a funny and lovely cartoon, and the colours "pop", if I may use a different meaning of the title word. Though being bemoaned by a number of people reviewing the Blu-Ray, "Road to Andalay" is quite okay in my book, and it looks very nice. I am not much of a fan of "Quack Shot", but I do appreciate its inclusion, and it looks splendid. "Streamlined Greta Green", from the 1930s, is a strange cartoon about anthropomorphised cars (decades before Disney's Herbie). It is not particularly funny or beautiful, but it is cute. Quite delightful in its cuteness. I sat through "Dangerous Dan McFoo" and "The Sneezing Weasel" without impatience or grousing. I think that my disposition has been improved to no small extent by finally being granted "Hyde and Go Tweet" in restored form in the twenty-first century. "Lighter Than Hare" and "Stork Naked", the bonus cartoons, both are of a noticeable drop in quality of restoration. They do not look as pristine as the others, though the colours and sharpness are still of a most admirable standard.
This aficionado of the cartoons of Warner Brothers is happy with what came today. That should impress my readers who are chafed by my propensity to be crusty and broodingly negative.
And this is "all, folks", for today.
Monday, December 2, 2024.
Sunday, December 8, 2024.
This winter is looking like one of those of the 2010s, with snowstorms every second or third day and bitterly cold and windy days in between, and none of the snow melting, just piling higher and higher. I hate winters like that. The prognosticators at Farmer's Almanac and The Weather Channel did forecast a milder winter, with higher-than-normal temperatures. I pray that they are right and that what is happening now in New Brunswick and most of eastern Canada, is an aberration that will soon pass. The last thing that I, or any of my fellow countrymen (country-persons, I ought to say; sorry, Trudeau), need now is an expensive winter with high heating bills, near constant snow removal costs, and roof work required due to heavy snow. And that is not considering the effects on morale, an already straining morale, that a long and difficult winter, will wreak.
I am continuing to enjoy LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 4. Very much so. This plus the promising news for 2025 conveyed by Messrs. Beck and Feltenstein in that Internet video of a couple of weeks ago, is fuelling a resurgence in my enthusiasm for the Warner Brothers cartoons after a long time period of languishing lowness of my interest in Bugs and company. Already, these is cause for celebration in the announcements for 2025, as Warner Archive has declared that a Blu-Ray of Daffy Duck's Quackbusters is coming near the end of January. There is another DVD in my collection that I can soon retire. And most appreciatedly, too, particularly as that DVD hails from that lamented time frame (2006-to-2010) in which most DVDs coming off of the Warner Home Video assembly line, were doomed to be "rotters". And Daffy Duck's Quackbusters is the only movie compiled out of numerous vintage cartoons, that I can honestly say that I like and wish to possess. And on the Blu-Ray will be several bonus latter-day cartoons, including "Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24 1/2th Century", "The Duxorcist", "The Invasion of the Bunny-Snatchers", "Little Go Beep", and "Superior Duck".
Here is the front cover to the Daffy Duck's Quackbusters Blu-Ray.
Returning to the subject of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE VOLUME 4. It is a pleasure to give to it further spins inside my Blu-Ray player, and I can play it from start to finish and delight in the vast majority of the content. The only three cartoons on it that I honestly do not like are "The Cagey Canary", "Dangerous Dan McFoo", and "The Sneezing Weasel". Avery cartoons, all. I just cannot warm to anything that Avery made. That is just the way that it is. I should note that Clampett completed "The Cagey Canary" using the characters, settings, and story structure that Avery had planned and had overseen; so, "The Cagey Canary" is not solely an Avery cartoon. To be fastidious. And doubtless, my critics would be all over me with demerits and denunciations, were I not fastidious.
"The Cagey Canary" is a cartoon with the cat-chases-bird-in-house-while-under-threat-of-eviction-by-house's-matronly-owner routine, with a nondescript (quite nondescript) cat and canary. Not even the flimsiest "patch on" the later Tweety-and-Sylvester duo, though I can see how Sylvester's pursuit of Tweety may have had its inspiration from this cartoon. Or it together with Tashlin's "Puss n' Booty". A repulsive-looking (and repulsive-sounding) woman (ugly human characters are par for the course in Avery cartoons) commands her housecat to leave a canary alone while she is in bed, lest she throw said housecat outdoors into the rain. And cat chases canary, while trying to keep the woman from waking, the canary proving to be both elusive and determined to rouse the woman to effect punishment upon the feline. The gags that ensue would be improved in their timing and delivery, by Freleng in cartoons such as "Tweetie Pie" and "Kit For Cat". The cat and canary both find themselves banished into the rain by the uncomely woman (why she is also angry with, and punitive of, the canary for what has unfolded, is unclear) at end of cartoon. It is not as "off-putting" for me as other works of Avery. But not a cartoon that I would revisit by choice. The woman is irritating in addition to being unpleasant to look at, and the cat and bird have zero charisma. I really, honestly cannot see how anyone can dispute this. "Dangerous Dan McFoo" is the old, old story of a male, his female, and an inteloper with designs on the female. Done with very dull characters. Almost all of them with the then ubiquitous shaggy humanoid dog appearance. The main character, one Dan McFoo, talks exactly like Elmer Fudd, and has much less charisma than a hundred Elmers. The cartoon just ends with no determination on whether the antagonist has been finally defeated, after protracted fist and gun fighting. "The Sneezing Weasel" is the tale of a weasel looking for prey in an abode of chicks. A premise so much better done with Foghorn Leghorn many years later. The weasel, like the antagonists of most Avery cartoons, is much too verbose. Unsubtly portrayed. But these three cartoons, though "letting the side down", are tolerable, being as they are scattered across the selections on the Blu-Ray disc. I like everything else on it. I did say that I am not much an enthusiast for the Daffy cartoon, "Quack Shot", but I still do like it. The timing of the gags in it, by director McKimson, is excellent. However, I do not care for a particular depiction of Elmer after he is the victim of a miniature cannon. It is as repulsive as something that might be found in an Avery cartoon.
Wherever the cartoon releases on Blu-Ray do go from here, I can be optimistic that other cartoons that I seek for my collection, will be on Blu-Ray disc before long. Including "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide". Hopefully as early as next year.
Of course, with my resurgent interest in the cartoons, there is such on the part of others. Others who contribute to discussions on the Internet. Others whose attitudes and opinions grate upon me so very provokingly. It is exceedingly difficult to stifle myself when I find myself seeing a reiteration of a "put-down" to which I was subjected repeatedly some twenty years ago, one to the effect that the post-1948 cartoons should be on the digital videodisc solely for the "casual" cartoon fans and the "soccer moms", while the pre-1948s should be there in sizable number for the "serious" aficionados. That if one fancies the post-1948s and desires those, one is not a "serious" appreciator of the cartoons of Warner Brothers. And should be treated as such. His observations and insights cheapened as being of value only to him and no one else. And nobody in the discussion states any objection to this particular declaration. It goes uncontested, is regarded as truth. This galls me as much as the snide remarks of second-season-hating fans of Space: 1999 do. Having to receive "put-downs" such as this as usual courses of events on any given day, is a big reason why I am so prone to lamentation, vexation, and so forth. Why me being cheerful, effusively praising, non-quarrelsome, is such a rare thing for readers to behold.
And so the saga continues. Me being contrary to the expressed opinions of majority fans of my favourite works, while I must continue to walk my lonely road, into my looming senior years. Oh, there is enjoyment to be had in my acquisitions, as long as I am successful at divorcing in my mind my favourite products of the human imagination, from the slurs of the people who disappreciate those products or large sections of them. And who would declare me to be defective for my steadfast refusal to let go of my adulation for those products. It is ever thus, much to my objection and resentment. I came onto the Internet nearly thirty years ago thinking that open-mindedness and a niche for myself in the world still was possible, after I had gone afoul with the organised fandom for Space: 1999. It has been proved more than abundantly how naive I was back then. Not only are people lacking in open-mindedness, they are also lacking in empathy for how it feels to be "put down" so often and declared irrelevant in the sphere of public opinion on works of entertainment. Therefore do I receive judgements of mental unwellness or comparisons with unsavoury people, just because I do not hold with the majority viewpoint (or what is deemed to be the majority viewpoint), and most vociferously complain about the purveyors of that viewpoint, how they choose to conduct themselves. Or about how that viewpoint may be thwarting my quest to possess whatever it be that I fancy.
At least the world has not been "blown to smithereens". Yet. But J.T. is moving now to disarm the Canadian population. What might he be planning to do in 2025 that the Canadian population might not like? Whatever it is, it will not be pleasant. It will not be conducive to freedom, happiness, and long, healthy, prosperous life. I do not think that he intends to relinquish power, with 2025 being an election year and him being consistently in the low twenty percent in the opinion polls. He has something very nasty planned for we hapless Canadians, as a pretext for sidestepping the electoral process and giving to himself sweeping powers. God help us.
