Wednesday, 24 September, 2025.
In continuing celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Space: 1999 on television in most of North America, I have done a broadcast history for Space: 1999 on New York City's independent Superstation, WPIX 11. Going as far as I could, to find listings for it in newspapers in Staten Island, Glens Falls, and other municipalities within broadcast range of WPIX.
As can be seen, the first season received a very sizable run on WPIX in 1975-6, airing twice weekly for quite awhile. And second season's initial run was terminated just eleven episodes into it. The populace of New York and/or the programme manager of WPIX, were not interested in Space: 1999 as it was constituted in its second season. And "bailed" on it in scarcely any time at all. WPIX moved the television show from Sunday to Saturday before dropping it in advance of the Christmas repeats.
I do know that "The Bringers of Wonder" did air on WPIX at some time before that two-parter was removed from the episode package following the creation of Destination: Moonbase Alpha in 1978. Because back in the late 1980s, someone sent to me a videotape-recording of it from WPIX. And a WPIX 11 promotion of it was available on YouTube some time ago. So, Space: 1999 was eventually brought back to WPIX, and at least some of second season's latter half, was telecast then. "Space Warp" was another episode whose WPIX broadcast was videotape-recorded, a copy thereof sent to me in the late 1980s. WPIX was notorious for vastly reducing length of the episodes, removing around six minutes from each. I remember being shocked at how much was missing from the episodes that I saw on videotape copy. I had a copy of "The Metamorph" from WPIX too.
What do I say to the demise of Season 2 on WPIX not even three months into it? What am I supposed to say? That the haters of second season, the hostility toward Fred Freiberger, and the belittling of me for fancying "Year 2", all are right? Maybe it "bombed" in New York City. But it did not "bomb" in Canada. And whether or not it did "bomb" is not relevant to its artistic qualities. If people are blinkered to those qualities, that is their failing. It is abundantly clear to me in this decade, if it was not already so before, that people in general are dense, obtuse, narrow-minded, prone even to "mass formation psychosis". Vast majorities of people can be wrong, and it seems to me, often are. I have watched the people of my country vote again and again and again for a government that is undeniably lowering our standard of living, infringing on our rights, and denouncing the country's founding peoples- in addition to being proved again and again and again to be corrupt. Yes, I know. This is Canada to which I refer. The same country in which Season 2 Space: 1999 did not "bomb", stayed on air throughout 1976-7, and even lead to there being a further year's life for Space: 1999 on the primary national broadcaster. But Canada today is not the Canada then. If it were, so many people like me would not feel so alienated by it, as we do.
Besides, not every television station in the U.S. abandoned Season 2 before half or more of its episodes were run. My recent broadcast history for WLVI is a case-in-point. WUAB in Ohio was keenly adherent to showing Space: 1999 through the second season, and for many years of repeats. Actually, WPIX was an outlier in this regard, from what I have seen of TV Guide magazines from many a region of the U.S.. And let us not forget that WCVB ceased transmitting Space: 1999 just six months after airing "Breakaway" in 1975. First season had its restless, wavering television station.
The order of episodes in first run on WPIX closely resembles but does not match the sequence of the episodes in Starlog issue number 2 that said that it was using WPIX broadcasts as reference. Starlog had "War Games" coming between "Mission of the Darians" and "Black Sun" on first run, but I cannot find that. If "War Games" did air within that time frame, it had to be at not a regular time, and without television guide listing.
Here is what I have.
WPIX- New York, New York (1975-6) Sundays Select Station 11- New York, New York Date Channel Episode Airtime Sept. 21, 1975 11 "Breakaway" 6:30 P.M. Sept. 28, 1975 11 "Dragon's Domain" 6:30 P.M. Oct. 5, 1975 11 "Death's Other Dominion" 6:30 P.M. Oct. 12, 1975 11 "Collision Course" 6:30 P.M. Oct. 19, 1975 11 "Force of Life" 6:30 P.M. Oct. 26, 1975 11 "Alpha Child" 6:30 P.M. Nov. 2, 1975 11 "Guardian of Piri" 6:30 P.M. Nov. 9, 1975 11 "Earthbound" 6:30 P.M. Nov. 16, 1975 11 "Mission of the Darians" 6:30 P.M. Nov. 23, 1975 11 "Black Sun" 6:30 P.M. Nov. 30, 1975 11 "End of Eternity" 6:30 P.M. Dec. 7, 1975 11 "Voyager's Return" 6:30 P.M. Dec. 14, 1975 11 "Matter of Life and Death" 6:30 P.M. Dec. 21, 1975 11 "Dragon's Domain" (R) 6:30 P.M. Dec. 28, 1975 11 "Death's Other Dominion" (R) 6:30 P.M. Jan. 4, 1976 11 "Collision Course" (R) 6:30 P.M. Jan. 11, 1976 11 "Force of Life" (R) 6:30 P.M. Jan. 18, 1976 11 "Alpha Child" (R) 6:30 P.M. WPIX- New York, New York (1975-6) Saturdays and Sundays Select Station 11- New York, New York Jan. 24, 1976 11 "Breakaway" (R) 7 P.M. Jan. 25, 1976 11 "Guardian of Piri" (R) 6:30 P.M. Jan. 31, 1976 11 "War Games" 7 P.M. Feb. 1, 1976 11 "The Infernal Machine" 6:30 P.M. Feb. 7, 1976 11 "Mission of the Darians" (R) 7 P.M. Feb. 8, 1976 11 "Another Time, Another Place" 6:30 P.M. Feb. 14, 1976 11 "Black Sun" (R) 7 P.M. Feb. 15, 1976 11 "Ring Around the Moon" 6:30 P.M. Feb. 21, 1976 11 "End of Eternity" (R) 7 P.M. Feb. 22, 1976 11 "The Full Circle" 6:30 P.M. Feb. 28, 1976 11 "Earthbound" (R) 7 P.M. Feb. 29, 1976 11 "Missing Link" 6:30 P.M. Mar. 6, 1976 11 "Voyager's Return" (R) 7 P.M. Mar. 7, 1976 11 "The Last Sunset" 6 P.M. Mar. 13, 1976 11 "Matter of Life and Death" (R) 7 P.M. Mar. 14, 1976 11 "Space Brain" 6 P.M. Mar. 20, 1976 11 "The Infernal Machine" (R) 7 P.M. Mar. 21, 1976 11 "The Troubled Spirit" 6:30 P.M. Mar. 27, 1976 11 "Another Time, Another Place" (R) 7 P.M. Mar. 28, 1976 Preemption Apr. 3, 1976 11 "The Testament of Arkadia" 7 P.M. Apr. 4, 1976 11 "The Last Enemy" 6:30 P.M. Apr. 10, 1976 11 "The Full Circle" (R) 7 P.M. Apr. 11, 1976 11 "Dragon's Domain" (R) 6:30 P.M. Apr. 17, 1976 11 "Missing Link" (R) 7 P.M. Apr. 18, 1976 11 "Collision Course" (R) 6:30 P.M. Apr. 24, 1976 11 "The Last Sunset" (R) 7 P.M. Apr. 25, 1976 11 "Death's Other Dominion" (R) 6:30 P.M. May 1, 1976 11 "Space Brain" (R) 7 P.M. May 2, 1976 11 "Force of Life" (R) 6:30 P.M. May 8, 1976 11 "The Troubled Spirit" (R) 7 P.M. May 9, 1976 11 "Alpha Child" (R) 6:30 P.M. May 15, 1976 11 "The Testament of Arkadia" (R) 7 P.M. May 16, 1976 11 "Guardian of Piri" (R) 6:30 P.M. May 22, 1976 11 "The Last Enemy" (R) 7 P.M. May 23, 1976 11 "War Games" (R) 6:30 P.M. May 29, 1976 11 "Breakaway" (R) 7 P.M. May 30, 1976 11 "Mission of the Darians" (R) 6:30 P.M. Jun. 5, 1976 11 "Dragon's Domain" (R) 7 P.M. Jun. 6, 1976 11 "Black Sun" (R) 6:30 P.M. Jun. 12, 1976 11 "Death's Other Dominion" (R) 7 P.M. Jun. 13, 1976 11 "End of Eternity" (R) 6:30 P.M. Jun. 19, 1976 11 "Collision Course" (R) 7 P.M. Jun. 20, 1976 11 "Earthbound" (R) 6:30 P.M. Jun. 26, 1976 11 "Force of Life" (R) 7 P.M. Jun. 27, 1976 11 "Voyager's Return" (R) 6:30 P.M. WPIX- New York, New York (1975-6) Saturdays Select Station 11- New York, New York Jul. 3, 1976 Preemption Jul. 10, 1976 11 "Guardian of Piri" (R) 7 P.M. Jul. 17, 1976 11 "War Games" (R) 7 P.M. Jul. 24, 1976 11 "Mission of the Darians" (R) 7 P.M. Jul. 31, 1976 11 "Black Sun" (R) 7 P.M. Aug. 7, 1976 11 "End of Eternity" (R) 7 P.M. Aug. 14, 1976 Preemption Aug. 21, 1976 11 "Earthbound" (R) 7 P.M. Aug. 28, 1976 11 "Voyager's Return" (R) 7 P.M. Sept. 4, 1976 11 "Matter of Life and Death" (R) 7 P.M. Sept. 11, 1976 11 "The Infernal Machine" (R) 7 P.M. Sept. 18, 1976 11 "Another Time, Another Place" (R) 7 P.M. WPIX- New York, New York (1976) Sundays Select Station 11- New York, New York Sept. 26, 1976 11 "The Metamorph" 7 P.M. Oct. 3, 1976 11 "All That Glisters" 7 P.M. Oct. 10, 1976 11 "Journey to Where" 7 P.M. Oct. 17, 1976 11 "The Taybor" 7 P.M. Oct. 24, 1976 11 "New Adam New Eve" 7 P.M. Oct. 31, 1976 11 "The Mark of Archanon" 7 P.M. Nov. 7, 1976 11 "Brian the Brain" 7 P.M. Nov. 14, 1976 11 "The Rules of Luton" 7 P.M. WPIX- New York, New York (1976) Saturdays Nov. 20, 1976 11 "The AB Chrysalis" 7 P.M. Nov. 27, 1976 11 "Catacombs of the Moon" 7 P.M. Dec. 4, 1976 11 "Seed of Destruction" 7 P.M.And that was that. If any New York City inhabitants wished to continue following the odyssey of Moonbase Alpha through the end of 1976 and into 1977, they had to do so through another broadcaster available, maybe, through cable television.
This is all for today.
Saturday, February 3, 2024.
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-January 30, 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.
In my vacation time this year, I did once go to the Miramichi region. I end today's Weblog entry with a photograph, snapshot on that 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 the Space: 1999 fan movement, 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 first page 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 first page 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" first page 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.
Back cover to LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE: VOLUME 4.
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 palette 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 I gratefully appreciate this, 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 interloper 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.
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", 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 quite 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 engaging on this viewing. And "Hiss and Make Up" is rather 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 have charisma here either, but one can see director Freleng making progress with the premise, which would eventually reach an ultimate fruition in Sylvester-versus-Tweety. See. 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-and-literature-spanning situations in which the characters found themselves being compelling in how they positioned the characters, to elevate the cartoons to 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 U.S. television networks what was the "premium" package, composed of post-1948 cartoons. Year after year. For forty years. No pre-1948s were ever, ever in that mix. Not in the days of black-and-white television (i.e. before 1966). Not in the eras of the "redrawing" or the computer colorisation of the older cartoons. Not even after Warner Brothers regained all of the cartoons that it had sold. Moreover, the secondary "syndie" package, though including some pre-1948s, was largely post-1948s. Up until the late 1990s.
It is not hypocritical 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 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 cartoons 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 middle demarcation in the oeuvre to be unfit for recognition, and scapegoating in perpetuity one man, a man no longer with us, 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 demeanour 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 dissemination 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 hordes of people in the fandom for Space: 1999.
All for today, I think.
The next release of a vintage Doctor Who season in the DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION range, has been announced. It is Season 7. One of my two most favourite seasons of Doctor Who. The first to star Jon Pertwee as the Doctor. The first full season of the ones involving the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT). A season for four serials, three of them long at seven episodes each. Serials in which the Doctor and company battle the octopod Nestenes, the humanoid reptilian Silurians and their deadly, transmissible bacteria, a scheme to use alien astronauts with the touch of death for criminal purposes, and the machinations of a mad scientist with an apocalyptic plan to penetrate the Earth's crust and whose imprudent efforts have already exposed men, including himself, to a green ooze of a horribly retrogressive mutational effect.
Season 7 of Doctor Who will be the first of probably only two THE COLLECTION releases next year. A release date for it has so far not been specified. Probably sometime in March, if the past couple of years provide some pattern to "go by".
Here is an image of DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION- SEASON 7.
Definitely something to which to look forward in 2025. It and whatever curators have planned for the cartoons of Warner Brothers next year. I am more trepidatious than I am optimistic about what 2025 will bring. I fear the political and financial and economic situation in Canada will this year "come to a head", as our leader makes his grasp for permanent, total power.
I just wish that every new year could be expected to be more or less of the same norms as the year that had just passed. Such always used to be the case. Before 2020.
As Christmas Day approaches, I am planning to simply rest my ageing batteries, cook a turkey as I usually do on the day, watch some Blu-Rays or DVDs, and try to keep from falling down again on slippery pavement. I have done much this year to try to instill some peace in my life as I verge upon my final year as a pre-sexagenarian. I believe that I have now blocked all of the people I need to block, to keep the "wolfpacking" assaults upon Space: 1999's second season from spoiling mornings like this one. I am no longer privy to what is happening in the incessant invective of "Year 1"-against-"Year 2", and I do prefer it this way.
Of course, it means that I will not be writing defences of second season against fan attacks, as I have been doing these past ten years. I have defended just about everything that there is to defend, and my writings on the subject, are all available on this Weblog. If indeed anyone regards them to be of value. I propose to let that stand. I also believe that I have "said my piece" on the Warner Brothers cartoons and my esteem for them versus that of the now quite preeminent people who are all "Clampett, Clampett, Clampett", "Freleng-was-a-hack, "Jones-is-overrated", "Freleng's-Tweety-is-sickeningly-cloying-and-worthless", and so forth. Always the same "talking points", no matter who it is making the commentary videos or contributing to the discussion forums, as if every elaborate fan has consolidated into yet another group-thinking mass. For some reason, different opinions seem never to be ventured, despite the long history on television and on home video of the post-1948 cartoons, and the acclaim that they were said to have had, before the likes of Michael Barrier and John K. started dominating the discourse and so many people began parroting them ad nauseam with nary a word spoken in contention, apart from mine, which have long now been deemed worthless. But nobody of my persuasion is choosing to come forward, and as I am derided as a crackpot and easily dismissed as garbage, what good does it do to go on spending my precious remaining time on this Earth "tapping out" more and more rumination? Whatever will be will be, on the cartoon selections for further Blu-Ray releases.
I have come upon a professionally edited video of the Space: 1999 celebration in London this past September. It is so much better to see the convention in moving images instead of as still photographs. Of course, I do have to avert my eyes on a couple of occasions, as some of my least favourite people are seen. But it is a visual feast for one who still aesthetically fancies Space: 1999 after all of the bile flung at it, and a most pleasant sight to behold the actors and actresses at the celebration. And contrary to what I am sure are the expectations of the vast majority, the music used in the video is that of Derek Wadsworth for Season 2. One of the variations on the main title music. Here is the video.
Official Gerry Anderson Space: 1999 Celebration Video
And I have found another video, one that encapsulates phenomena of the month of June, 1978. I especially like the music chosen to represent the month. It transports me mentally back to what life was like back then. Not the greatest year for me, was 1978. But my parents were living, I was a young boy of twelve years, and the world was a far saner place than it is today. Here is that video.
The America We Knew: June, 1978
All for today, 21 December, 2024. The Winter Solstice. And it certainly is winter today. Snowing. Cold. People this year in my Canadian province will be having a white Christmas. I wish them joy of it.
First order of business today is to report updates to numerous Web pages. I expanded the summary to the Bugs Bunny Show episode, "What's Up, Dog?", on The Bugs Bunny Show Page. I added the recently deceased actor Michael Cole to the In Memoriam section on The Littlest Hobo Page. And I have discovered at Newspapers.com television listings in a Yarmouth, Nova Scotia newspaper called Le Courrier de la Nouvelle-Ecosse, for CBHT in 1983. Which is of interest to me, of course, for Space: 1999. CBHT's airing of such in 1983, 1984, 1985. Some discrepancies with the listings in Halifax Chronicle Herald were noted. Le Courrier had Space: 1999 airing on 22 May, 1983 whereas the Chronicle Herald had a movie called Bless the Beasts and the Children scheduled instead in the same airtime, and for June 12, the Chronicle Herald's stating of a broadcast that day for Space: 1999, is not agreed-with by Le Courrier, which had Royal Wedding slotted as bumping from broadcast both Gunsmoke and Space: 1999. So, which was right? Which newspaper do I believe? As Prince Charles and Princess Diana were expected to visit Nova Scotia late in June of that year, a rebroadcast of their wedding is a very real possibility. I am inclined to believe Le Courrier about June 12. And as I believe it there, to be consistent, I will also believe it for May 22. I now have "Breakaway" airing on May 8, "War Games" being transmitted on May 22, and "Death's Other Dominion" showing on May 29. And then "Collision Course" on June 19 after two weeks of preemptions. The Space: 1999 Page now sports the changes. And I have reworded sections of McCorry's Memoirs Era 4 to adjust to the revised airdates. Television listings project Webpage for 1983 also has been updated to accord with the revisions. Lastly, I have done further improvement on the image of the "Showtime" first page with It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown on it, in McCorry's Memoirs Era 2, and also improvements to Newcastle, Nordin, and Douglastown images in McCorry's Memoirs Era 1.
Another Christmas has come and gone. I must say that Christmases since my father's death in 2012, have been indistinguishable from one another. I cook a turkey. I watch some Blu-Rays and DVDs. I exchange some wishes with people on Facebook. I go for a walk. I remember Christmases past. And then the five o'clock dusk arrives. I look out the window into the darkness, contemplating my life. And in no time at all, it is preparations for bed, and another Christmas goes into the rearview.
Christmas Day was a monumental day every year in my upbringing. Even for our small, three-person family. We joined my grandparents, spent nearly an hour opening presents, and then for the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon, I would enjoy the presents that I received, between viewings of some of what was on television. If Christmas Day fell on a Saturday, that meant watching Bugs and company, and, in 1976, Space: 1999 and Cosmos 1999 (both of those with apt-for-Christmas episodes, Season 2's "The Taybor" and "One Moment of Humanity" ("Humain, ne serait-ce qu'un Moment")). If Christmas Day was on a weekday, The Flintstones might be seen at its regular airtime. The Edge of Night, also. And such CBC afternoon fare as Hi Diddle Day and Dr. Zonk and the Zunkins. Or special half-hour cartoons that were abundant around Christmastime. Christmas is. The Remarkable Rocket. The Selfish Giant. The City That Forgot About Christmas. And so forth. The living room of my grandparents' house would be replete with wrapping paper and boxes and items received as gifts in positions around the tree. My mother and grandmother could be heard preparing turkey dinner, while my father and grandfather would be talking about sports or politics. The year, 1976, that I received a typewriter as a present, I was at my grandmother's kitchen table through most of the afternoon, tapping typewriter keys in some insistent effort to write a book.
Yes, yes, yes. Even then, in my ten-year-old mind, I had aspirations to write something. I did eventually write something. I cannot say that it was a book. If it were, I might have received more recognition and respect. Might have. Might have.
I did not write a book. Rather, a Website dedicated to the majority of the entertainments that impressed me aesthetically through many years of my life. I lacked the contacts for entering into the book-publishing field. What was I but a lowly non-elite inhabitant of one of the less significant provinces of Canada? And an ex-member of a couple of Space: 1999 fan clubs. But the Internet provided to me a ready platform for writing something for public consumption. And I seized upon it. At the time, I was most interested in disseminating what I knew about The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour, The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show, and other television vehicles for the cartoons of Warner Brothers, a couple of essays that I had written, about "Hyde and Hare" and the cartoons of Tweety and Sylvester, and a chronology that I had "cooked up" for events in both seasons of Space: 1999. My Website would grow around that, to be something of a shrine for all of the entertainments that had come into my life and made an aesthetic impression whilst I was going through my formative years. Entertainments flashed onto the television or cinema screen that had looks, sounds, and ideas that resonated somehow with me and my particular sensibilities. My sensibilities that are rooted in my personal set of life experiences chronicled in a thoroughly comprehensive autobiography also included in the Website. My personal response to the many works to meet my eyes and ears and captured my imagination, my taste, and my lifelong veneration, is something that I do regard as significant, as being worthy of sharing with the world. And my Website sprung forth- and has been kept going for close to thirty years now. Even in the face of people telling me that what I say is irrelevant in the going discourse on those works, of value only to myself.
Why is all of it worth sharing with the world? My impressions, my "readings", of those entertainments and my recountings of how I experienced them? Because, I believe, of some spark in the creative process yielding those entertainments. Some compulsion in the human psyche to place particular concepts, archetypes, meanings, into some of the more elaborately imaginative fare of the entertainment industry. Most especially productions of the genres of the animated short cartoon and science fiction/fantasy.
Not all works of the genres, mind. Only some of them. Some that seem to act as a conduit for the expressing of particular ideas, symbolisms, and compelling visual or aural manifestations. And in discernible patterns or connections within the body of a particular episode or series of episodes. Whether intentional or not, on the part of the makers. If intent was not there, then this speaks to something within the human imagination conducting itself beneath the threshold of consciousness, a person (or persons) being influenced without conscious awareness, to instill a certain notion, or combination of notions, perhaps even an exquisitely intricate pattern of notions, into whatever it is that he or she (or they) is (or are) creating. Jung was of the opinion that a "collective subconscious" is at play in at least some of what people conceive for entertainment, and I honestly do think that it was so, in the making of almost everything to have attracted my aesthetic sense from a very young and impressionable age. Jung's theory is very much a part of my thinking as I regard certain cartoons of Warner Brothers and also how cartoons of Warner Brothers were put forth on television, or second season Space: 1999, or the episodes of Spiderman before and after the oncoming of Mr. Ralph Bakshi, and a number of other things.
And so do I lobby, justifiably, for recognition of the worth in the entertainments to which I have had a lifelong commitment. Alas, in vain does that lobbying so often seem to be. People are either unable or unwilling to accept the presence of unintentionally meaningful content in a work that they judge to be artistically vacuous, or inferior to something else, something else that had more deliberate creative thought undertaken for it and/or more time and/or money lavished upon it. And all too many people contend that imagination should be constricted, that it should stay within certain boundaries that are set for it by persons touting themselves as experts. "No bug-eyed monsters." "No robots". To quote the BBC's Sydney Newman around the time that Doctor Who was born. No people turning into things. No sentience without anatomical brain function, in things that on Earth would be inanimate or without self-regarding intelligence (i.e. rocks, trees). No mutants in caves or corridors. No venturing into worlds where the rules of reality are not Earth-specific. No invoking of concepts of human duality, or of Jung's "the shadow", or of the concept of "the other". No depiction of evil as a skin-complexion-changing, or whole-body-changing sickness. Et cetera. By choosing to move out of those boundaries, many of my favourite entertainments have hit the brick wall of incredulity, arrogant, sweeping incredulity, often vulgarly expressed incredulity, of persons in majority formation proferring some other work, or portion of a body of work. And me, too, hitting that brick wall, as I say, "Wait a minute. There may be something here."
Something drew me to those works in my formative years. Oh, I acknowledge, of course, the importance of nostalgia in my long adherence to the works that had impressed me. Nostalgia is a very, very powerful force in my life. And definitely is in my allegiances to favourite cartoons, television programmes, and movies. But I became attached to those works, the look of them, the sound of them, the ideas in them, some while before nostalgia was upon me. And there was in my life a large array of things to which I could become nostalgically attached. Why those particular productions? And why me? Why was I unlike so many of my friends and schoolmates, who favoured hockey, vinyl records of popular music, Hot Wheels toys, and Archie comic books. There was something peculiar about me that bonded me with television shows that friends enjoyed, yes, but did not value as much and embrace with as stalwart a supreme enthusiasm as I did. Doubtless, I was attracted to those entertainments in the early days because they had "cool" hardware and garments, inspiringly heroic characters, and Space Age explorations that fired the imagination and looked... "cool". Or had colourful scenery that was not real-life and was otherworldly. Or went beyond the everyday to a degree that was captivating. Or used concepts both unnerving and fascinating. But my awareness of the finer aspects to them had yet to develop into recognition of metaphors, symbolisms, recurrent imagery, instances of foreshadowing, less readily noticeable correspondences between entries in a line of stories, Dean's "provinces" in second season Space: 1999, and so forth. And yet, something in me drew me to them at a very young age, in a way that was quite different from how my friends, and my foes, responded to them.
I have, these past ten years, spent more time bemoaning the scorn heaped upon my entertainment favourites than singing the praises for those favourites, or delving deeper yet into them. Dean impressed it upon me in his study of second season Space: 1999 that the artistry in a work may have several levels, some which are more subtle, less easily detectable, than others. It is entirely possible that my awareness may yet be nascent. Indeed, it would be arrogant to profess otherwise, that I know all that there is to know. What I will say as an offerred axiom, is that the human mind, and how it works in combination with others of its kind, to manufacture fictional otherworlds, is a marvel. As petty and as destructive as we humans so often are, there is something about our creativity that is quite magnificent, and that may yet be a redeeming element for our species. We need to understand our human nature. Thoroughly. Why there are so many depictions of "the other" in our imaginations, and what those may represent. The human tendency to dismiss certain vividly imaginative works, to reject the idea of giving any thought to them, should be seen as suspect. Not as sacrosanct.
I do believe that there is something in the Warner Brothers cartoons made after World War II, in the style with which they were done, in the aesthetic through which they were rendered, and in the what-do-do-now decisions of the writers and directors, that brought forth expression of some concepts, archetypes, symbols, or subtle, sophisticated points of view or commentaries. Ones that are of importance in study of human and anthropormorphised animal determination to achieve some end in a variety of locales or situations, or in what makes man and his society tick. And I do concur with Dean that there is something quite wonderful in the second season of Space: 1999. The appeal of such works, and others, to me, denotes a sensitivity in me that the majority of my fellow humans just do not have and do not appreciate. I still do not know precisely what that sensitivity is and how it came about, and why it drew me to certain productions and not others. I may never know. Not in this life. But nonetheless, it galls me that people steadfastly refuse to acknowledge it and respect it. And that I must be seemingly forever subjected to heaping criticisms of the works that I fancy. Day after day. Even some fifty years after the works first were provided to audiences.
Oh, I could have relented to peer pressure. Utterly. I could have just said, "To hell with it," and become a typical Fredericton teenager contemptuous of anything and everything distinctly imaginative. Conversant only in popular music lyrics, the Fonz, John Travolta, reefer, and violent sport. Alternatively, I could have stayed interested in science fiction/fantasy, but only in what was currently being shown in movie theatres and on television screens. I could have just rebuffed Space: 1999 as passe and embraced Star Wars as much as any Star Wars fan at the time was doing. But I did not. I did not "go with the flow", as my old friend Michael counselled me to do. I refused to "toe the line" in Space: 1999 fandom and Freiberger-"bash" and denounce second season at every turn, and indeed advocated for just the opposite. I would not eschew all regard for the post-1948 cartoons at the insistence of the domineering contributors to discussions at The Termite Terrace Trading Post. I would not just sit on my hands and say nothing as there were fewer and fewer post-1948 cartoons to be found on new DVD and Blu-Ray releases. And in a contrary tide to all of this and other matters, my experience on the Internet these past nearly thirty years has been a litany of demoralising and "gaslighting" efforts by people opposed to the viewpoints that I was putting forth. And I am still here. I keep on going. In my solitude, as people of more accepted mindsets congregate for celebrations and bask in the approval of their fellows and the people involved in the productions. I am trying, striving, to stay true to myself. And not cowering wordlessly in doing so. If people hate me for that, berating my writing as "flowery", alleging that I smoke crack cocaine from a pipe, declaring me "one can short of a six pack", then bully for them.
I have decided to desist from further agitating on the releases to Blu-Ray of the Warner Brothers cartoons. What will be, will be. And I am blocking from my view the sorts of comments on Space: 1999 that would "get my dander up" and prompt a lengthy defence response. I do need some peace in my life as I converge upon the first life year of the senior citizen. But what I have ventured to write these past nearly thirty years, will remain. For as long as I can afford it.
Some of my Christmas was spent watching an hour-long compilation of video footage of the Space: 1999 celebration in London this past September. Most of it was not new to me; some of it was. Nick Tate's anti-Freiberger, anti-Season 2 spiel was included in it. And in consequence, I prefer not to share a Hyperlink to the video. I still stand by my opinion on Mr. Tate and what he said. I am done with him. And my enthusiasm for Jeffrey Morris' film (whatever its title now is) due this year, is diminished as a result of my reduced esteem for Mr. Tate whose seated position in an Eagle cockpit is to be a centrepiece to Mr. Morris' documentary. A definite "turn-off" for me, that. That and the inclusion, also, of anti-Season 2 fans in it. I am looking forward to receiving the Eagle: 1976 that I bought. That is my big Space: 1999 purchase for 2025. And it may be the only one.
I think that this is all for day after Boxing Day, 2024. I covered quite a plot of land in this Weblog entry, reiterating for the first time in ages what the rationale is for having this Website, and why I am so resolute in my stances on a number of subjects. There is something in my fascination with the works that I have fancied, that needs to be preserved as readable material. As this Website continues to provide a medium for such.
Thursday, January 9, 2025.
Firstly, some more sad news of death of persons involved with Space: 1999. Canadian actor Angus MacInnes, best known as one of the Rebel pilots in the assault on the Death Star in Star Wars and who was the leading actor in a television science fiction/fantasy opus called Space Island One, died before Christmas. In Space: 1999, he played prisoner Jelto in "Devil's Planet". The prisoner most belligerent toward Commander Koenig after hearing Koenig's reveal that everyone is dead on planet Ellna. He later was a prison warder in another production to come out of Buckinghamshire's Pinewood Studios, Superman II. "Lights out, Luthor. ... I said lights out." Littlest Hobo fans know him as the actor portraying Tigh Ridley in the Littlest Hobo second season episode, "Carnival of Fear", made after his return to Canada from the U.K.. He is one of a handful of actors to have been in both Space: 1999 and The Littlest Hobo, Barry Morse, Nicholas Campbell, and Norwich Duff being the others. He had a minor role in Rollerball as one of the bodyguards to James Caan's Jonathan E. character.
Also deceased recently was actor and stuntman Nick Hobbs, who played Records Officer Clive Kander in the second season Space: 1999 two-part episode, "The Bringers of Wonder", and an unnamed Security guard in some other episodes. Mr. Hobbs could be seen in numerous serials of Doctor Who, and in a pair of Doctor Who stories, "The Curse of Peladon" and "The Monster of Peladon", concealed inside a costume as the beast, Ageddor. He worked on Superman and James Bond films, and was still active in the movie industry in the 2010s, contributing to Avengers: Age of Ultron and the Disney Star Wars movie, Rogue One.
May these gentlemen rest in peace. The In Memoriam sections of my Web pages for Space: 1999 and The Littlest Hobo have been updated accordingly.
I am resolving to this year finally add a new Web page to my Website. An essay on animated cartoons and television shows of the twentieth century, to go in the section that includes the Web pages for The Flintstones, Rocket Robin Hood, Spiderman, The Pink Panther Show, and Star Blazers. The intention is to highlight those aspects to cartoon animation that interest me aesthetically, phiosophically, and to incorporate into my Website's non-autobiographical writings such productions as the Peanuts television specials, Yogi's Gang, The Marvel Superheroes, and the 1982 Incredible Hulk cartoon television series. If I can stay focused on such a project long enough to see it to completion. This is provided that real-life concerns for personal safety from government overreach, and for bodily autonomy, do not come to the fore and "drown out" all other considerations. And in this day and age, there can be no certainty that all in one's life will be as it was, as it used to be. As it used to be before the world, and my country, especially, went mad in this decade.
I recently undertook a search in issues of Fredericton's The Daily Gleaner for photographs of the Plaza Cinemas. For use in my autobiography. I found not a photograph but an artist's rendering of the look of the Plaza Cinemas after they were expanded to a four-screen operation, in August of 1981, the Gleaner printing an announcement of the newly renovated movie house's grand opening. Here is that announcement of the grand opening of what was then called Plaza Cinemas Four, on 21 August, 1981.
First movie I saw there after the expansion was The Cannonball Run (in Plaza Cinema 1). I saw that solely because Roger Moore was in it. I cannot say that I was ever a fan of Burt Reynolds, who had the leading part in the movie. And then, Under the Rainbow (in Plaza Cinema 3), on a late-summer afternoon's outing with Tony. Not exactly a very noteworthy first two movie-going experiences at Fredericton's newly expanded cluster of cinemas. Third movie that I saw at the expanded Plaza Cinemas was, I believe, Star Trek II- The Wrath of Khan (in Plaza Cinema 1).
No further news about Blu-Ray releases in 2025. I am awaiting the release of Daffy Duck's Quackbusters, by Warner Archive, late this month. It cannot be ordered as yet from Amazon.com in the U.S.. No knowledge as yet of what Messrs. Beck and Feltenstein have in mind for the LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE range, or its replacement, in 2025. And DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION- SEASON 7 has yet to receive a definite release date.
I have not seen sunshine and blue sky in nearly a week, and temperatures are now consistently below zero day after day after day. Ah, it is January, what some Facebook memes are calling a month-long Monday. January has my birthday in it, which is definitely a plus for me. Always nice to receive some twenty Facebook birthday greetings, and to have dinner at a restaurant (Swiss Chalet, it was, this year), and to have a bought-from-store cake. But, of course, my best birthdays were when my parents, and my grandparents, were living. And when I had birthday parties with friends physically with me in the same room. My mother would bake a chocolate birthday cake with boiled icing. My grandmother would provide a card with some money in it, for a treat. When we were living in Douglastown, my grandmother would telephone me her happy birthday wish. And friends being by my side was a certainty.
I am now fifty-nine years-old. I say it and can scarcely believe it. I am one year away from being a sexagenarian. I am older than William Hartnell was when he played the Doctor of Doctor Who. I am older than Roger Moore was when he retired from the role of James Bond. I am years older than Sean Connery was when he played the ageing Bond in Never Say Never Again. I am older even than Barry Morse was when he played Victor Bergman.
But enough rumination on the fact of life that is the ageing process.
Imprint in Australia has announced a new UFO Blu-Ray box set for late March. Comprising eight Blu-Ray discs, it will include all twenty-six UFO episodes, of course, plus Invasion: UFO in its 2016 Network iteration as a reassembly from High Definition film-to-digital-video transfers of the episodes. And the rather disappointing documentaries made for the 2016 Network Blu-Ray box set plus the Fanderson-produced-in-the-1990s The UFO Documentary which towers above the 2016 efforts undertaken by the then (in 2016) fledgling Anderson Entertainment for Network. Some new value-added content will include interviews with actress Jane Merrow and actor Darren Nesbitt, and some new audio commentaries, a couple of them involving Chris Drake, who wrote the book, UFO/Space: 1999, in the 1990s. And another audio commentary, situated on Invasion: UFO, with ITC historians Jonathan Wood and Rick Davy. Commentaries on the Umbrella DVD box set of 2007 and hitherto nowhere else, will be "ported over" to the Imprint Blu-Ray set. There will also be a large, 120-page booklet. And new colour grading work is promised for certain episodes.
Indications are that with regard to bonus material, at least, this will be the definitive home video release of UFO. But what about the episodes? Is Imprint using the Network masters from 2016 and tweaking them, requiring further processing, and possible softening of their video?
I gave some episodes of Imprint's The Prisoner set from last year, a rewatch. I was rather less than dazzled, this time around, by their detail, their vividness. It is possible that, as with Space: 1999, my eyes had tricked me on first watching of the Imprint Blu-Rays, and I just saw what I wanted to see, the episodes looking as detailed and as vivid as they had been with Network. I am no longer convinced that to be any more the case with The Prisoner as it was with Space: 1999. The Network UFO masters were criticised in 2016 as lacking in picture quality, and I fear that additional digital processing of them will cause them to look even less impressive.
And the fact of the matter is, I am not the ardent fan of UFO that most other Anderson enthusiasts are. As I have said before, I rank it below Space: 1999, The Day After Tomorrow- "Into Infinity", and Journey to the Far Side of the Sun with regard to imagination and pioneering and gripping space exploration. I have criticised some of its episodes for improbabilities and for deficiencies in characterisation. I do stand by what I said. Despite the fact that UFO does not fire my imagination as the other above mentioned Anderson works do, I have spent rather a ton of money on UFO on home video already. I bought the Carlton DVDs, the A & E DVDs, the Umbrella DVD set, and Network's Blu-Ray set plus the standalone Invasion: UFO Blu-Ray. And oh, yes, also the UFO and Space: 1999 documentaries DVD from Fanderson. I am rather "S.H.A.D.O.ed out". Money promises to be very "tight" for me this year, and I do find myself inclined to balk at this release. As the episodes likely will look less sharp, less vivid, than they are already on the Network Blu-Rays, I just cannot justify making yet another purchase. And this time, I think that my willpower will be supreme.
Here is a glimpse of the upcoming Imprint UFO Blu-Ray set.
There is still no release date for DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION- SEASON 7. Word is that restoration work on the serial, "The Ambassadors of Death", was only just completed a couple of weeks ago. This latest entry in the range of DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION may not be commercially available until mid-to-late-spring.
Nothing much more to report today. Progress is slow on the new Web page on which I am now working. Alas, the volatile political situation in Canada is making focused attention on any new writing project, rather difficult. I do prefer to say no more today on the matter of politics. Anything that I would say, would need deleting, anyway, before very long.
Tuesday, January 14, 2025.
Wednesday, January 29, 2025.
These past two weeks, I have been working on my new essay on cartoon animation, and screen-capturing newspaper television listings whilst I am still subscribed to Newspapers.com. I intend to stop that subscription shortly. I cannot afford to maintain it.
I still have not blocked enough people on Facebook to spare myself the displeasure of reading sorties against second season Space: 1999. There is a person who recently regaled the not-so-good people at the Online Alpha Facebook group with his ruminations on the differences between the seasons of Space: 1999. He contended that the two seasons are too dissimilar to rest on the same timeline, and that they ought to be seen as residing in different universes. I do not subscribe to that, obviously. It usually is a prelude for what is soon to follow. A disparaging of second season as being unworthy to shine first season's boots.
I have a small amount of time free from my routine, earning-a-living labours today. So, I will use it to write a response to some of the aforementioned person's statements. Onward...
"I think Gerry Anderson was more or less forced into it: either seriously revamp the show, make it more like an American space adventure show, or it's cancelled."
It was cancelled before a proposal, with a number of changes, was made by Anderson and Freiberger to Sir Lew Grade. Anderson was not given an ultimatum in autumn of 1975 to change it or else. The cancellation was a fait accompli coming out of the offices of Grade and Abe Mandell, before Anderson and Freiberger brainstormed and put together their proposal to Grade for a readjusted Space: 1999.
"And Anderson caved."
No. That implies pressure. He was not under pressure from ITC to change the television series or face cancellation. It was cancelled in the autumn of 1975 by Grade. Period. Full stop. Anderson and Freiberger then rallied to obtain a new lease on life for Space: 1999. Anderson did what he could to extend the production of Space: 1999. Grade approved the changes and commissioned a second season. Or "series", as was the British saying.
"From what I've read, it sounds like Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's original conception for the show is much like we encounter it in Series 1: we have this colony of humans pretty much unprepared to encounter and deal with the situations they find themselves in; and among those are the strange mysteries of outer space, far from human experience, where we the viewers are to be left contemplating the awe, majesty, and mysteries of the cosmos -- a show built around existential themes."
Well, yes. I suppose that was their original conception, as that was what was done. But, really, how much did Season 2 deviate from that? The Alphans still are facing the dangers of space without omniscient knowledge. They learn as situations unfold. They have some defences, but those defences often are insufficient protection against the aggressors threatening them. Sure, they do appear less daunted by what might be awaiting them. But why is that so bad a thing, or a non-sequitor? Is it not natural that the Alphans would gain experience and make use of that experience in their latter-day encounters with space phenomena or aliens? And there is awe and majesty to be found in second season. There is even music that expresses it. As in "New Adam New Eve", "Brian the Brain", and "Catacombs of the Moon". As usual, the ever so erudite critic fails to acknowledge the merits of second season, and denies the legitimacy of people who fancy the second season. As for "existential themes", is not survival in a universe of limited resources and desperate races, one of those? Or the human desire for rejoining Earth and its inhabitants? Or asserting not being a fool in someone else's dream?
"But Lew Grade decided this was BOOOOORRR-ING."
No, he did not. He simply looked at the ratings drop in the autumn of 1975, and he was disappointed at not scoring the U.S. television network sale. He judged money to be better spent elsewhere, and he declared Space: 1999 cancelled. Why attribute opinions to Grade that he is not documented as having had?
"What we need is an action-adventure show, which is the only thing American audiences understand."
No, no, no, no. American audiences embraced The Fugitive, which was a drama. They watched M*A*S*H for eleven seasons, and it was a comedy-drama. Action-adventure was not the only thing that American audiences understand or appreciate. And what is wrong with action-adventure, anyway? Is it not capable of being artistic, meaningful, praiseworthy?
"So, we're going to force upon you an American producer who's currently out of work, and who has a reputation for being a show-killer (e.g., Star Trek, The Wild Wild West)."
And here it comes. Here it is. The requisite Non-Player-Character squawking about the big, bad F-man. Yet again, the falsehood that Fred Freiberger killed The Wild Wild West is thrown at the wall in hopes of it sticking, no one saying anything to refute it. And as usual, it clings to the wall, like the linguine in a scene in the movie of The Odd Couple. The only television show prior to Space: 1999 that Mr. Freiberger was demonstrably shown to have been responsible-for in an untimely (or supposedly untimely) termination, was Star Trek. And it had already been beleaguered by a television network's lack of long-term commitment and proneness to decide cancellation.
But as this person mindlessly resorted to invoking the exhausted, old "talking point" of "show killer", I would be inclined to regard as twaddle his purported-to-be-sophisticated treatise. Even if his reading of the premise of Space: 1999 as originally conceived by the Andersons, and their writers, is essentially correct. He just could not resist the urge to go for the cheap slur on Fred Freiberger and an arrogant, sweeping disregard of everything in second season from "The Metamorph" to "The Dorcons", and the invalidating of people who like second season, or people whose fandom for Space: 1999 originated with the second season.
"Either way, Anderson was being forced into accepting the death of his show."
As the saying goes, "That's show business." First season did not garner the steady ratings that were needed for it, as a distinct rendition of Space: 1999, to continue being made. Second season did not achieve such a ratings success either. A producer can accept this as a professional and "move on", or stomp his feet and finger-point and cultivate a climate of bitter resentment or sheer hostility. Anderson at the time, chose to do the former. I prefer not to comment on his later bearing. The man is dead now.
All for today.
February 1, 2025.
I thought that I would begin today's Weblog entry with some humour. Here is a comic strip having reference to Space: 1999 that my small body of readers may find to be amusing.
Chuckle, chuckle, chuckle.
Some humour before I note another deep trough of late in my Web page visitor numbers. Rather a depressing situation, this, and it is in advance of my expected invoice from my Website provider for renewal of payment. And is not something that I would expect to be happening in the dead of winter, when people tend to be indoors and at their computers. Last year, my Website traffic for February was rather large.
The Warner Archive Blu-Ray of Daffy Duck's Quackbusters was released on January 28 but has not as yet been shipped to me from Amazon.com. It is backordred, for some reason. Other people have received their copy. No reviews are available as yet. There are none that I am aware of, anyway.
I await the release of the Season 7 Doctor Who Blu-Ray set slated for release on March 3. I am still not inclined to buy Imprint's UFO set. No news yet on any further Blu-Ray releases for 2025. Jeffrey Morris' documentary is due this year, but I am really not an enthusiast for it, at this juncture. Too much involvement of the anti-Season 2 juggernaut, by my reckoning, for me to endorse it or to purchase it (if it is to be released on pressed Blu-Ray (pressed Blu-Ray, as opposed to BD-R)).
Work continues, slowly, on my essay on the animated cartoon. I am not expecting that it will be one of my better works. But something to add to my Website's section of Other Animated Cartoon Television Programmes, bringing that section to a desirable even number of Web pages so that the "layout" on my main Web page of the Hyperlinks to those, matches the "layouts" of the others.
In my recent efforts to screen-capture as many newspaper television listings as I can, I decided to have a search for a news story on my mother's career (in the "Today's Woman" section of The Daily Gleaner). No joy yet on that score, but another quest, for something regarding Barry Morse's playing of Scrooge at Fredericton's Playhouse in December of 1980, did yield results. I found the advertisement for Theatre New Brunswick's rendition of the Dickens classic, on pages of The Daily Gleaner. From the 20 December, 1980 issue of the Gleaner, here is that advertisement.
As I have before said, it is one of my life's regrets that I did not go to see the play and meet Barry Morse. Oh, how fourteen-year-old me would have been awe-struck and tongue-tied to be in the presence of someone from my favourite television show! My parents would have indulged me on that, I feel sure. And it would have been so interesting to see how Barry Morse played the part of old Ebeneezer. But I allowed my friend (or associate) Tony's antipathy for Barry Morse and the Bergman character, to prevail over me in my decision over whether or not to go. So sad.
I remember there being a review with some photographs of the play. That, I have so far been unable to find. I do not think Newspapers.com's archive for the Gleaner to be exhaustive. Some supplements of the newspaper appear to have been omitted. Which would explain my inability to find that news story about my mother. There was, however, a short December, 1980 news story on Theatre New Brunswick in The Telegraph Journal with Barry Morse offering some comment on the New Brunswick stage performances organisation's budgetry problems. It referred to Mr. Morse's play being an unqualified success, the most successful Theatre New Brunswick production to that time. Every evening and matinee performance was a "sell out". Alas, the funding required from the Hatfield government for the organisation's future, was in doubt, hence the news story. I wonder how many people went to see the play because they wanted to see the actor from Space: 1999 practicing his craft on stage, and meet him backstage. If only I could have been there. If only.
Monday, February 10, 2025. February this year is consistently cold. There is not a single day in the forecast with above-freezing temperatures, and on many a day the mercury is not expected to rise above minus 10 degrees Celcius. And snow is piling up too. Fredericton is one major snowstorm away from being like it was in the winters of the 2010s. Further, the heating in my car is not optimal. It is definitely failing. Defrosting or defogging the front windshield is usually a forlorn hope now. I must scrape and scrape and scrape to clear the accursed frozen water caked onto said windshield.
Last evening, Amazon.com still had not shipped my Blu-Ray of Daffy Duck's Quackbusters and had pushed the projected delivery date back a week, to that of February 18. Previously, the date for receiving item had been February 13. As I was fretting over the persistent delaying of the sending of the item, I discovered that Amazon.ca was offering same Blu-Ray for sale. So, I ordered it from Amazon.ca and tried to cancel the Amazon.com order. But Amazon.com finally shipped the Blu-Ray while my cancellation request was being processed, as I am seeing to be the case this morning. And now, I have two copies of Daffy Duck's Quackbusters coming my way. By the time that this venture in acquisition will have seen completion, I will have two Daffy Duck's Quackbusters and a large hole in my budget for February. I do not understand why Amazon.com was so reluctant to ship the Blu-Ray, only doing so when I moved to cancel the order. It was in stock every day since its January 28 release. Unavailability was not the issue.
I just want the movie without having to go through such rigmarole to acquire it.
Is this what I have to expect henceforth when ordering from Amazon in the U.S. and the U.K.? If so, I dread next month and the release of the seventh season of Doctor Who on Blu-Ray.
I found some corrections needing to be done with regard to the opening for The Empire Strikes Back in 1980. I do not remember where I saw it in newsprint, but I was led to believe that opening to have been on Tuesday, June 3, 1980. But an issue of The Daily Gleaner that I found this past weekend states opening night for The Empire Strikes Back at the Nashwaaksis Cinemas to have been Wednesday, June 18, 1980. I have to concede to the newly gleaned printed fact of this, and adjust my memoirs accondingly. It is strange. Wednesday was (and still is) the day of the week when there are no classes in the afternoon at Park Street School. And Tony was late joining me in the theatre queue for The Empire Strikes Back premiere. I doubt that he would have been kept in after-school detention all that afternoon until after I left for Nashwaaksis pair of theatres after four o'clock. So, what was he doing at Park Street School that afternoon that prevented him from joining me at my home for the walk down to the Nashwaaksis Cinemas (and McDonald's) as we had arranged? I do not know. I do not remember what he told me, or if he told me anything at all. My memory of that time in my life is not as reliable as that for Era 2 and Era 4. I allowed my recall of my mid-Era 3 years, the ones in which I was in Grades 8 and 9, to long go seldom tapped and to become rather atrophied. Not my favourite years of my upbringing, those.
But I still vividly remember seeing The Empire Strikes Back on its opening night. That was the definitive viewing of the movie for me. And indeed, the memory of that experience is always refreshed whenever I watch the movie. Yes, even though I am watching the umpteenth tweaking of the movie by Lucas, not seeing it as it was originally constituted.
Work continues on the essay on animated cartoons. I am hopeful that it will be completed before the first day of spring.
I am continuing also to capture newspaper television listings before I cancel my Newspapers.com subscription. In my efforts, I am discovering many interesting first pages to the "Showtime" supplement to the Saint John Telegraph Journal and of them the most delightful find is the first page to the "Showtime" for the Saturday, July 15, 1972 issue of the Telegraph Journal, on which Wile E. Coyote is shown and described. I propose to provide that front page here, accompanied by images of cartoons to be included in the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour episode to air on CBC Television on 22 July, 1972, which was listed in that same July 15 supplement as slated to be broadcast on Saturday next.
It is quite fitting for the cartoons of Warner Brothers to have some representation on a front page to Showtime, as The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour was in the top ten viewed television programmes in Canada. To the best of my knowledge, this was the only time that "Showtime" had cartoons of the Oscar-winning rabbit and his cartoon cohorts gracing its front page.
Friday, 21 February, 2025.
New Brunswick is still locked in a frigid weather pattern, with days of minus twenty degree windchills and snowstorms every two or three days, the banks of snow rising higher and higher. Indeed, nearly all of the eastern half of North America is mired in the Arctic air brought to us by the vexatious jet stream that almost always favours western Canadian Provinces and U.S. States, and no end in sight to this.
My two Blu-Rays of Daffy Duck's Quackbusters arrived last weekend. One of them was buried under snow, and it was only the sight of the edge of the envelope that alerted me to its presence a day before another snowstorm that would have completely buried it. Amazon.com sure does not pack its merchandise like it did some years ago. Gone are the cardboard boxes or bulky cardboard folds. Now, the purchased items are sent in thin, slightly bubble-wrapped envelopes that can, as I have now seen, be completely lost under snow after they are placed flat on the landing outside one's door. The deliverer, an employee of a courier company, I believe, did not even try to fit the envelope into my mailbox. I might have stepped on the package and damaged the Blu-Ray disc within, under my weight.
Does not exactly fill me with confidence that what I am buying will reach me in undamaged state.
But enough about the delivery process. What is my assessment of the Blu-Ray?
The movie has never looked better, which is to be expected as it is now in High Definition. A new film-to-digital transfer of it was done for the High Definition age. The vintage cartoons used for the movie were from the best available film elements in 1988. Not restored under meticulous attention as they have been in recent years. The recent transfers of those vintage cartoons were not sourced and edited into the movie. So, the movie as presented on the Blu-Ray contains solely the whole movie as it was printed in 1988, and the look of the vintage cartoons in it is not pristine. "Hyde and Go Tweet" looks dark. "Claws For Alarm" has jittery or twitchy backgrounds. And all of the vintage cartoons have a hair or scratch in the lower right corner of film frame. So, anyone seeking to see footage of cartoons "Daffy Dilly", "The Prize Pest", "Water, Water Every Hare", "Claws For Alarm", "Water, Water Every Hare", "Transylvania 6-5000" and "The Abominable Snow Rabbit" (cartoons that, as they were originally constituted, have not seen release on Blu-Ray yet) looking as fetching as possibly can in High Definition on Blu-Ray, will be disappointed. Audio is very satisfying. Full range very resonant. Dialogue, music, sound effects thoroughly audible. The Blu-Ray offers an option to view the movie with and without the cartoon short, "The Night of the Living Duck", preceding the movie's main opening. Viewing the movie with the preceding cartoon short is designated as watching a "matinee version". Several latter-day cartoon shorts adorn the Blu-Ray as value-added material. All look gorgeous in High Definition. Especially "Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers". The colours in that are magnificent. And pin-perfect sharpness. It is like seeing it for the first time.
But was it worth nearly a hundred dollars in my dwindling currency, to upgrade Daffy Duck's Quackbusters from DVD to Blu-Ray? It is a difficult expenditure to justify, as I am facing more financial uncertainty this year than ever before. But it is done. And I do not anticipate many more Blu-Ray purchases this year besides two Doctor Who sets, a probable Blake's 7 set, and whatever it is that Jerry Beck and George Feltenstein are planning for this year. I will absorb the cost, knowing that about half of the months this year will be Blu-Ray purchase-free.
There has not been any word from Anderson Entertainment on the Eagle: 1976 that I purchased. I shall have to make some inquiries with Anderson Entertainment on this. I do hope that my order was not misplaced.
There is no end in sight to my blocking of people on Facebook with regard to Space: 1999. Whenever a new spate of anti-second season and anti-Fred Freiberger comments is sparked by a photograph or someone with yet another observation of a critical nature of something in Season 2, out pours a new cohort of "F-man bad" Non-Player-Characters with the same, tired "talking points". People whom I did not encounter before in earlier anti-Season 2, anti-Freiberger "hate-fests" whose participants I did block. There does not appear to be an end to these people. I cannot seem to block enough of them. The knowledge that people of such mindset are so legion, does have a demoralising effect upon me. How can it not? It weighs upon my mind, impairing my ability to continue enjoying the Space: 1999 television series. Blocking people can only do so much. And Nick Tate's verbal onslaught to the widespread approval of those celebration attendees, has exacerbated the problem. Oh, how I long for the blissful days of my youth when I was not aware of the extent of the animus toward half of my favourite television show's episodes, and the season of it that drew me into its universe during best months of my life. For sure, the enthusiasm of people around me for Space: 1999 was fertile ground for the growth of my appreciation for it. Conversely, the pouring of poison over it, by fans of it, yet, has deadened that previously fertile soil. Now, when I watch an episode, say, "All That Glisters", coming to mind is some oh, so witty, cantankerous outburst by a Freiberger-loathing churl. Maya's statement of, "Red is death! Red is death!" at the climax of the episode, can no longer be watched by me without my mind recalling me to that fan saying, in substitution of Maya's dialogue, "Fred is death! Fred is death!" to the hearty approval of his like-minded comrades of the bad old Space: 1999 Mailing List. I dearly wish that I could unsee that and never be plagued with the memory of it when I watch the episode, but I cannot. That damnable dastard forever spoiled the climax of "All That Glisters" for me. I cannot regain the immersion in the episode at its critical moment, that I used to have as a matter of course. All because of some selfish, probably narcissistic, maybe even sociopathic, individual who could not abide someone enjoying an episode of Space: 1999 that he did not. And they are all like that, these people. Oh, I tried giving to them a taste of their own medicine, once. That was a mistake. I should never have descended to their level. Blocking people will prevent more such adverse effects upon my enjoyment of episodes, but I am afraid that it is much too late in the day, to be doing so. I ought to have done it thirty, thirty-five, or forty years ago.
Saturday, March 1, 2025.
And the dreaded month of March begins. The month that killed my mother, my grandparents, my cat, friends' parents. I pray that it does not bring the Grim Reaper for me this year. Or anyone in my life not as yet morbidly harvested. However, people are saying that a political Grim Reaper is about to come to office in Canada. I have been gloomy of late about such a prospect. The whole matter of tariffs and counter-tariffs and counter-counter-tariffs between Canada and the U.S. does not bode at all well for what is left of Canada's economy after ten years of horrible Liberal rule, and Mark Carney is just the person to complete the changing of Canada from a freedom-loving democracy to a socialist dictatorship of the World Economic Forum model. While the U.S. prospers, thrives, enjoys a Renaissance, Canada becomes the North Korea of North America. I can envisage it. Really, I can.
I feel helpless in the face of rising poll numbers for the Liberals as they leverage Canadians' intense antipathy for the orange man to their advantage, absurdly wrapping themselves in the Canadian flag and calling themselves "Team Canada" after having berated the country, its history, and its traditions for the past ten years.
Canadians are behaving like the boors that they frequently say the Americans to be, booing fifteen-year-old American girls singing the U.S. anthem at sporting events. And Trudeau says that he is proud of them for doing that. And more do the Liberals rise in the polls. "Calgon," I say, "Take me away!!!"
No sense saying anything more about politics. It will all need deleting anyway.
I have completed my essay on cartoons of the twentieth century. Images have been added to it, and it is now at my Website in the Other Animated Cartoon Television Programmes section, though Warner Brothers cartoons do receive considerable attention in it.
Far from my most accomplished and proudest work. More a filler item to bring my Hyperlinks in Other Animated Cartoon Television Programmes to an even number. But it is something new to my Website after so long, so very long a Website having been static (static except for updates to existing Web pages). Will this spark some renewed interest in my Website? I doubt it. I have no doubt that most of the more expressive pundits of the cartoons will dismiss whatever I say. But the work is done. I finished what I set out to do.
Also, I have expanded upon my rememberings of the dropping of Cosmos 1999 by CBAFT in September, 1979, in my Era 3 memoirs, and I have corrected, in my Era 2 memoirs, the time of Earthquake airing on CHSJ one night when I was in Grade 5. It was shown on a Wednesday night in November, 1976, and not in early 1977 as was previously noted.
Some short while ago, I mentioned coming upon the advertisement in Fredericton's Daily Gleaner for the opening night for The Empire Strikes Back at the Nashwaaksis Twin Cinemas in 1980. I have inserted that advertisement into my Era 3 memoirs.
In advance of the Fredericton June 18, 1980 opening night of The Empire Strikes Back, Nashwaaksis Twin Cinemas had a poster for the second Star Wars movie visable through lobby windows. Here is that poster.
Remarkable, it certainly is, that Frederictonians were almost a month behind the people of the U.S. in having first occasion to see the then-latest Star Wars movie. And we would not have our opening day for Return of the Jedi until July 1 in 1983, more than a month after release date for that in the U.S.. Now, today, release dates for blockbuster movies are the same across North America. Such was not the case in the 1970s and early 1980s. I have also learned that the first showings of Moonraker in Fredericton in 1979, were nearly two months after the movie's relese in the U.S..
I do not remember being particularly impatient for the first opportunity to see The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. I do not think that I was cognizant of the U.S. release date for those two movies. I just knew that they were to be "coming out" inevitably sometime in the late spring, or, as the Empire Strikes Back poster above the preceding paragraph states, summer.
My DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION- SEASON 7 is on its way to me now. I decided to order two copies, one from Amazon.co.uk and the other from Rarewaves. In case my Amazon.co.uk shipment would be delayed for weeks as the dispatch to me of the Daffy Duck's Quackbusters Blu-Ray from Amazon.com, was. Happily, both companies have shipped the item to me in advance of release date. I have paid a small furtune for this Blu-Ray set, as Season 7 is my second favourite season of Doctor Who. And as the DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION sets are limited editions, I might be able to sell my second copy for a sizable amount of money when the item has out-of-print status and will be highly sought-after. It is an investment with somehing other than money in case Canada's dollar does crash. It is better to have material holdings of significant value. I ought to have bought second copies of all of the Doctor Who Blu-Ray sets.
Jerry Beck and George Feltenstein are talking about the Daffy Duck's Quackbusters Blu-Ray and the coming into being of the 1970s and 1980s theatrical feature films with the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies characters. They do so in an interview done by same person who hosted a review, with them, of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE: VOLUME 4. No hints, unfortunately, as to what those ambitious plans are for the vintage Warner Brothers cartoon shorts on Blu-Ray in 2025.
The Story Behind Daffy Duck's Quackbusters
All for today.
Saturday, March 8, 2025.
March is being March. Tempestuous, treacherous, frustrating. The month, as usual, when winter has well outstayed its welcome- if it had any welcome at all. Last year, the March Break week was mild, warm. My ailing knee was feeling better, and the neighbourhood children were frolicking outdoors as I was walking my street. One of them playing badminton in his shorts. This year for March Break week, if it is not bone-chillingly cold, with windchills deep into the minus teens, it is pouring rain, or snowing with wind blowing the snow in drifts. The wind is howling this morning, as the sun struggles to show itself in between show showers under mostly overcast skies. There is no one outside.
I continue to await the delivery of DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION- SEASON 7. I am no longer able to monitor the progress of shipments to me from Amazon.co.uk. Yet another thing lost in my life. I can only sit with my fingers crossed and hope that my item reaches me before I find myself in an exceedingly protracted time period of waiting.
Eureka! I found the article in The Daily Gleaner about my late mother. Or one of them, I think that I should say. The one that I have found was in the Saturday, May 16, 1987 issue of The Gleaner. In its "Today's Woman" section. I remember there being one in late autumn of 1983, because I recall my friend Joey telephoning me sometime then to tell me that he had seen it. And I distinctly remember the title being "Mary Jean McCorry Makes Most of Chance". The one that I have found has a different title. However, it is the one that I remember best, of course, because it mentions me. I am not sure if the other one did. But I do feel certain that there were two Gleaner articles about my mother. Both of them in "Today's Woman". But search though I do, I can find no trace of the earlier article. As I have said before, not every Gleaner supplement was saved to Newspapers.com. I should thank my lucky stars that I was able to find the one that I did.
God, I miss my mother! And my father!
Without further adieu, here is the front page of the "Today's Woman" of 16 May, 1987 with the article about my mother.
It is not a perfect image capture of that front page. There is ink "bleed-through" from the second page and what may be residual ink from the newspaper page resting on top. But such was the way of things when it came to newspaper. I am sure that my mother would scold me for being fastidious in this regard. It irritated her whenever I was perfectionist. Just accept the faults, she would advise.
Here is the text of the article.
| Mary Jean McCorry Executive Director of V.O.N.- Which is Integral Part of "The Community Team"
By Connie Shanks It was a classic case of being in the right place at the right time Having decided that psychiatric nursing wasn't her field, Mary Jean McCorry had returned to her parents' home in Fredericton with no idea of her next move. "The same night I flew from Montreal, there was something on television about the V.O.N. needing nurses," Mrs. McCorry recalled. "I went to the office the next day and was hired. It was as easy as that." Chose Montreal General A native Frederictonian, Mrs. McCorry knew she wanted to train as a nurse following high school graduation, and she opted for the Montreal General. "They had one of the best training programmes in the country, and I suppose I wanted to try my wings in the big city," she explained. "My parents wanted me to train in Fredericton, and my dad even offered me a fur coat if I would stay," she said, laughing. "I went to Montreal and I didn't get a fur coat until I earned enough to buy one myself." The programme at Montreal General deserved its reputation. As for life in the big city, that was another story. Times Were Different "At that time, the programme was very strict," Mrs. McCorry said. "You lived in residence, and there were curfews and all kings of regulations. Since the hospital is in a rough neighbourhood, we weren't tempted to stray too far. However, one of our instructors assured us that as long as we had that clean, scrubbed look, we'd be okay." "As a student, I took an interest in psychiatric nursing and did post-graduate work in it," Mrs. McCorry said. She worked under the world-renowned Dr. Hans Selye, but after 18 months she decided that she didn't want to make a career of this branch of nursing. After six months with the V.O.N., she was encouraged to expand her credentials. The next year was spent at the University of Western Ontario, where she studied public health nursing. Her study leave over, Mrs. McCorry was sent to Chatham, where she met and married Edward McCorry. Travels Abroad "I worked in Chatham for a year, and following our marriage we were posted overseas for four years." That was a time of enforced unemployment for Mrs. McCorry, but on their return to Canada to a posting in Rivers, Manitoba, she was soon working at the local hospital. "Although it was only a 22-bed hospital, it had everything from maternity to trauma cases," Mrs. McCorry said. "It was an ideal area to develop all kinds of skills." In the five years they spent in Rivers, the McCorrys' son, Kevin, was born. "I really appreciated the flexibility of my work at Rivers," she said. "I could schedule my work around Kevin, and I worked mostly nights and weekends when Edward could be home with him. It was a great help." The next posting was back to Chatham, and Mrs. McCorry became involved with the V.O.N. again, this time in Newcastle. In the eight years she worked there, the Chatham and Newcastle branches merged into the Miramichi Branch. In the Beginning "When the position of Executive Director became open in 1977, I applied for it and got it," she recalled. When her husband's hoped-for transfer didn't come through, he commuted for several months. "We couldn't keep going like that indefinitely," Mrs. McCorry said. "Finally, he resigned and looked for work here." Always supportive of her work, Edward McCorry has even accompanied his wife on her rounds when the roads were hazardous. "We don't let storms stop us- we can't- and we're used to driving in all kinds of conditions, but there were times when he felt better driving with me," she said. "When I became Executive Director, I was used to working in a small branch," she recalled. "Here, I was dealing with a larger staff complement and learning to function in a position requiring both administrative and supervisory skills, which are completely different. At that time, the branch was still heavily into visiting nursing as there was also a counselling service to seniors." Changes Have Occurred "Since then, visiting nursing has changed somewhat. We will always be in the business of maintaining health, but since the advent of the Extra-Mural Hospital, our focus is almost totally on long-term care, and we will continue in that area. No government programme will ever be able to address all of the health-care needs of the community." Diversification has become the watchword during Mrs. McCorry's decade as Executive Director. "We don't want all our eggs in one basket," she stressed. "We have several programmes which promote health in various ways." "Our day programme for seniors and disabled adults prolongs the client's ability to remain at home and provides a respite for family care-givers. Every activity in the programme is geared to a specific purpose, although each is flexible enough to meet individual needs. The programme has been operating for four years, but it doesn't have high visibility and isn't well-known. We think it serves a useful purpose and we're trying to promote it through professionals, adult children, and the seniors themselves." "The health maintenance clinic provides assessment and counselling as well as basic foot comfort," Mrs. McCorry continued. "We also have a pre-natal education programme and an audiometric programme which measures noise levels in the workplace." Looking Ahead An ambitious new programme which the local branch hopes to launch in the next year centres on health promotion. "We have always been educators, and we have an expertise in health education, primarily in group settings," she said. "Most chronic illness is the outcome of lifestyle behaviours. This programme would be geared to providing health information with an intensive workshop and counselling support for up to 18 months. The goal is to assist people to change negative behaviour; to give them the skills needed to change and provide long-term reinforcement." The proposed programme would address areas such as weight control, alcohol abuse, smoking, poor nutrition, hypertension, and lack of fitness. "The inter-relationship of these risk factors and the concept of change theory are keys to the programme," Mrs. McCorry pointed out. "We want to provide an opportunity for people to gain self-awareness and take responsibility for their own lives without sending them on a guilt trip." Plans Underway "We're developing a questionnaire to get a picture of the community and indicate the level of interest. The proposed programme would have a screening phase where clients would be interviewed, their needs assessed, and their programme individualised. Anyone undertaking such a programme would have to be committed to it, but the benefits are there. Similar programmes in other areas have shown that participants have reduced their health risks." As the V.O.N. celebrates its 90th anniversary, Mary Jean McCorry is proud of the past and looking to the future. "Prevention, education, and meeting unmet needs will be our role," she said. "There is no doubt there will have to be a number of programmes which provide options for seniors, because the adults of today are used to having choices." "We see a need for a unit that does health assessments, and it doesn't have to be an expensive acute-care facility," she continued. "Right now, services to rural areas are very limited, and there is very little care-giver support in these areas. Mobile geriatric assessment units might fill some of the service gaps." V.O.N. Able to Adapt "The strength of the V.O.N. is in our ability to adapt," Mrs. McCorry stressed. "We're not burdened by bureaucracy. Decisions are made at the local level. Our board of directors is forward-looking and willing to accept the challenges of modern health-care needs. We have one of the more innovative branches in the country." "The V.O.N. is one of the few organisations having a client-friendly orientation, and everything we do is decided by that," she said. "The client's need takes precedence. We have a staff who are motivated to excel." "We see ourselves as part of the community team. We need to work closely with other groups to simplify access to the health-care system, perhaps by having a single contact point to access any of the community services," she suggested. "We're not in competition with anyone," Mrs. McCorry concluded. "We're all in it for the same reason: to improve the quality of life." |
My mother was an educated woman of some refinement, as does "come through" in the article. Throughly professional. Caring deeply for the people of the community. She was a good woman. Though she had few friends. That says as much about the nature of the world as just about anything else would say. Genuinely good people tend to walk lonely roads. My father was a good man, and the same was true for him. They did have more friends in the Miramichi than in Fredericton. Which was the case for me, too. Not that I am trying to contend that I am as good as them, mind. Assuredly, I am not. One wonders how two such good people came to have so selfish a son. Selfish. Ego-centric. Empathy-deficient. But I will leave this direction of inquiry where it is.
The V.O.N., sadly, is now extinct. It went defunct in the 2010s. I do not remember exactly when, if whether or not it is yet another thing for which I can place the blame at the feet of Justin Trudeau. It was still in existence at the time of my father's death in 2012 because he was still receiving some money from my mother's pension from the V.O.N., as was revealed to me when I had to submit my father's final tax return. The optimism for the future, the positvity, in my mother's statements, does make me long for the 1980s more than I already have done. If my mother and my father could see what is happening to this country now, it would be heartbreaking for them.
The article is not thorough about my mother's promotion to Executive Director; it does not say that the promotion involved a move to Fredericton. I suppose that the journalist who wrote the article expected that it being in the Fredericton Daily Gleaner meant that my mother's new position having been in Fredericton, was not necessary to mention. I would disagree. The year is correct. 1977. The year in which my life changed, and not for the better. I do not remember my father commuting to and from his job in Chatham for "several months" post-our-August-of-1977-move. Weeks, yes. Not months. I can say that I am sure that he was working in Fredericton by mid-to-late October. That he was not away Monday-to-Friday in Chatham then. Why? Because I distinctly remember him conducting me to Beegie's Bookstore mid-afternoon on Wednesday, 19 October, and me there buying The Making of Space: 1999. He could not have done that if he were still working in Chatham, a hundred miles away, at the job whose hours were the standard full-time ones of Monday-to-Friday.
I am thinking of doing some further expansion of my autobiography in the weeks ahead. I have more memories to share of Cosmos 1999 in 1979. And there may be one or two other areas of my life's story that could be elaborated-upon further.
By my next Weblog entry, I ought to have the Doctor Who Blu-Ray set that I am awaiting, in my hands at last, and I will do a review of it should that be the case. Doctor Who may not have a dedicated Web page penned by me at this Website, but it is an important work of the science fiction/fantasy genre, and would be quite deserving of such a Web page, but the task of writing it would be most onerous. Given the sheer length of Doctor Who as a produced opus.
By the way, I have a Doctor Who memory for March 8. March 8, 1986, to be exact. A Saturday then, as now. MPBN was showing the Fifth Doctor story, "Mawdryn Undead", in omnibus form, and was in the midst of its membership campaign, with "pledge breaks" interspersed through its programming. I remember a segue away from the story to the "pledge drive" telephone room and the announcer saying, "Oh, that smiling face of Peter Davison," the cutaway occuring just after the Doctor remet Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart near the obelisk near the boys' school. And at the middle mark of the story, when MPBN usually did a videotape change, the videotape machine operator had put the wrong videotape on play mode, and was showing the second half of later story "Enlightenment" for thirty seconds or so before someone caught the mistake, and the "pledge drive" announcer had to "cut in" with an apology for the "mix-up". I had quite a time editing my videotape-recording of that broadcast. With the "pledge breaks" and that mistake and a few other glitches. There was colour banding and even picture break-up in certain scenes in the second half.
All for today.
Friday, March 14, 2025.
March is showing its benevolent side today and tomorrow and Sunday. Temperatures above plus ten degrees Celsius, and mainly sunny skies. I know how capricious that March can be. So, I intend to make the most out of the mild weather and spend most of my time out of doors.
A bout of acid reflux has afflicted me in recent days. My problem has become so acute that as soon as the chemical promoting sleep is released by my brain, my stomach starts motioning to push upward, even if there is not much in the way of excess stomach acid to force into my upper digestive tract. I undertook the best course of action for stopping acid reflux, short of pills, and that is fasting. Having nothing in my stomach to digest, calms it. And last night, the problem abated, after just one attack before I fell fully asleep. I also raised the head of my bed a few centimetres. I am going to resume eating today, but guardedly, avoiding processed foods and anything particularly acidic.
Both my copies of DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION- SEASON 7 are still in transit. It is two weeks now since they were dispatched. The one from Amazon.co.uk has a tracking number but no way of monitoring the parcel's progress. Oh, how I miss the days when I could reasonably expect a package from Amazon.co.uk to reach me within seven days, and a package from Amazon.com to reach me in just two or three days! And until now, being able to track a package as it goes through all of the relay locations.
Word is that the picture quality on the three serials using black-and-white film recordings of their episodes mated with colour from various sources, is woefully deficient. Made all the more noticeably so by the less forgiving resolution of Blu-Ray. Someone has graded the picture quality of "Doctor Who and the Silurians" as 2/5, that of "The Ambassadors of Death" as 1/5, and that of "Inferno" as 3/5. There have also been criticisms of the audio on the excellent-in-video "Spearhead From Space". I am not sure that I ought to be eager to receive the Blu-Ray set.
News of some considerable import to aficionados of the cartoons of Warner Brothers. Warner Archive has announced the first in a new line of compilations on Blu-Ray of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. This is that anticipated release of which Jerry Beck and George Feltenstein spoke some time ago in that review on video of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE: VOLUME 4. It is to be called LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 1. And the stated intention is for it to be a fifty-cartoon release spanning two Blu-Ray discs. The first of the two Blu-Ray discs is to contain cartoons not previously in restored condition on DVD or Blu-Ray, a la the COLLECTOR'S CHOICE range, and the second of the two Blu-Ray discs to concern itself with cartoons previously on DVD with no subsequent Blu-Ray release. As the front cover indicates, all of the major cartoon characters, including Pepe Le Pew, whose full filmography was output on DVD, will see representation in the upcoming Blu-Ray.
I expect, I hope, that the first volume in the new range will offer a generous portion of cartoons with the major characters. Some Bugs Bunny cartoons only at present on DVD, are likely to be provided in High Definition glory in this upcoming two-Blu-Ray-disc set. I think at this juncture that "Hyde and Hare" would be too much to hope for, but maybe it will receive the nod. Maybe. I am more intent on having "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide" at last on shiny digital videodisc, and my fingers are crossed for its inclusion on Blu-Ray disc one. I worry, though, that the curators will load the first Blu-Ray disc with old 1930s cartoons, and rely on the second Blu-Ray disc and its previously-on-DVD titles, to account for the bulk of the cartoons with the major characters, and the ones post-1948. But they may wait until the second volume in the range before they start doing this. I hope for at least that much, that Volume 1 will be jam-packed with cartoons of the major characters, the majority of those post-1948.
I will, of course, report and comment upon what the cartoons selected for the first volume of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT, are, post-haste when I have the information.
With the state of the Canadian-American trade relationship, I am not looking forward to dealing with the particulars of a purchasing of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 1 from Amazon.com. It is likely to be a complicated and expensive process. And a protracted process. As my buying of Daffy Duck's Quackbusters was, and maybe worse.
I have expanded on my memories of my experiences of Cosmos 1999 on Radio-Canada in first quarter of 1979. My new writings can be found among my rememberings of 1979 in my Era 3 memoirs.
All for today.
Sunday, March 23, 2025.
March is being March. Treacherous. Betraying. A week of spring weather nearly erasing the snow on the ground in Fredericton has been superseded today by heavy, wet snow, high winds, and cold. It is good that I now have my DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION- SEASON 7 to watch, so that I can cheer myself as I hear the howling winds outside. Yes, my Blu-Ray set of the seventh season of vintage Doctor Who, finally reached my doorstep. After a wait of nearly three weeks. One of them did, at least. The other one that I ordered is still somewhere between Rarewaves, U.K., and my driveway.
The assessments, of someone else, that I have cited, of the quality of presentation of the four serials, are accurate. "Spearhead From Space" looks excellent. The audio in the scene in which the Brigadier meets and talks with Liz Shaw, does sound different from before, less echoey but at the same time not as resonant. "Doctor Who and the Silurians" and "The Ambassadors of Death" both look better than they did on DVD. For sure. Especially the later episodes of "Doctor Who and the Silurians", in which the colours are more vibrant and stable than they used to be. The colour in the early episodes has not improved much since the DVD release of the same serial in 2008, but less video compression certainly helps to make the picture more palatable. "The Ambassadors of Death" is never going to look awesome in its picture quality post-Episode 1, short of a re-colouring from scratch by Artificial Intelligence, or manual painting work, frame-by-frame. I do wish that instead of spending money to colourise ninety minutes of "The War Games" and some seventy minutes of "The Daleks", the BBC funded a re-colouring of six episodes of "The Ambassadors of Death". But I would say that the colours as they now stand, are bearable for the most part. Exceptions are the outdoor scenes in which vapours are floating about, such as during the helicopter assault upon U.N.I.T. in Episode 2 and during Reegan's sabotaging of the Doctor's rocket in Episode 5. Colour fluctuates in intensity and timing. Episodes 3 and 4, which looked the worst of the lot on DVD, have seen a marked improvement, though I would be lying if I were to say that they are not still sub-par. "Inferno" looks about the same as it did on DVD in 2013. I do not know how much, or any, extra work was done on it for Blu-Ray. There is no denying that I am watching a film copy of the original videotape, with colour provided from an NTSC video broadcast duplicate off of the original PAL video videotape. I know that it has been said so much as to become cliche, but it is a crying shame that the BBC wiped or junked the original videotape masters of most of the first three Pertwee seasons of Doctor Who, that all that we have left of most of that, are diminished-quality NTSC duplicates and black-and-white film recordings. And in some cases, domestic videocassette-recordings of 1970s broadcasts in the U.S..
In the scene in Episode 6 of "The Ambassadors of Death" in which the Doctor meets astronauts Van Lyden, Michaels, and Lefee aboard the alien spaceship, my player froze and shut itself off. I started the machine again and went back to the same scene, and it played fine. I then started the same episode from its beginning, and it played fine through the scene. I suppose that it could have been a random hiccupping of my player, and no issue with the Blu-Ray disc, per se, when the freezing occurred. But just to be on the safe side, if my other copy of the set ever does arrive, I will "swap out" the "Ambassadors of Death" Blu-Ray disc of that with the one of the set I now have in my holdings.
I must say that value-added content new to this Blu-Ray set, struggled to hold my interest, or, in some cases, met with my disfavour. I think that the well may at last have run dry with regard to new extras. The documentaries, "Terror of the Suburbs" and "Lucky 13", have at best tangential relevance to Doctor Who, the former being mainly about the culture of suburbia in Britain, and the latter mostly to do with science, technology, and space exploraton of the late 1960s and early 1970s and consisting largely of old film footage of scientist lectures and news coverage of space flight. My attention did waver rather quickly. The biographical documentary on Nicholas Courtney made some strange choices that caused it to be somewhat unengaging. "Looking For Mac", a documentary on a particular contributor to the production of Doctor Who, follows in the tradition of the highly acclaimed "Looking For Peter" of the DVD of "The Sensorites" way back in 2012, and I think that it was one too many revisits to that particular idea well, it being I think the fifth of its kind. I found myself frowning with annoyance, and even pique, through much of it, with the revelation that writer Malcolm Hulke had been with the Communist Party of Great Britain, and there being a lack of disapproving commentary on such. It grates on me to see the body count of Communist regimes of the twentieth century, being minimised, downplayed, if not totally unacknowledged. Not that this should come as any surprise, given the Zeitgeist of most countries of the Anglosphere of today, but, still, I cannot approve. And it is staggering and disturbing that writers of Doctor Who had Communist inclinations. Yes, writers, plural. Mr. Hulke's colleague, David Whitaker, also the subject of a documentary in the "Looking For Peter" mould, was revealed to himself have had sympathies with Communism. Happily, the stories that these men submitted to Doctor Who canon were not overtly representative of their politics. Either due to careful restraint on their parts, or intervention by script editor or producer. "John Levene in Conversation", I have not watched yet. I think that I have already heard all that Mr. Levene has to say about his difficult childhood, his chronic insecurities, and his happy time with Doctor Who. And I cannot say that I am a fan of interviewer Matthew Sweet. He certainly did not endear himself to me during the imposition of the COVID-19 needles, with his most outspoken, coercion-approving stance on that. The antics of Matthew Waterhouse and Katy Manning on "Behind the Sofa" this go-around, have received some substantial criticism from commenters, and I must say that I tend to agree with that criticism. I was cringing at some of it. Word was, some time ago, that "Behind the Sofa" was going to be eliminated. I do not know if such is still the plan, but I do not think that I will miss "Behind the Sofa" if it does go.
No news yet about the contents of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 1, though George Feltenstein on a recent podcast has revealed some news of no small interest to me. Work is now underway on restoring The Bugs Bunny Show to full colour, for a release to Blu-Ray in season sets sometime in the next couple of years. This definitely is profoundly gratifying news to hear. I cannot wait to see in High Definition the fifty-two episodes of Seasons 1 and 2, all of the stage scenes therein, plus some cartoons that have not reached DVD or Blu-Ray, one of them being "Which is Witch". One wonders how that one will be handled. Will it be replaced with something else, or edited? I would certainly prefer the latter option. I cannot envision the curators leaving in the episode the scene in "Which is Witch" of Bugs impersonating a Zulu native. The Blu-Ray would most definitely be demanded removed from market for that scene, as YTV was demanded to remove "Which is Witch" from broadcast back in 1998 after having shown it once, to some considerable uproar.
All for today. Back I go to watching the Blu-Ray discs in DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION- SEASON 7.
Monday, April 7, 2025.
Winter is unwilling to release its icy grip upon Atlantic Canada. Last week, there were two storms of snow and freezing rain that struck New Brunswick, covering over the snow that fell the week before last. And yet more snow is on its way tomorrow. High temperatures on the days with fair weather are not much above zero, with windchills making the weather feel sub-zero. And there are no warm temperatures in the long-term forecast as yet.
The weather has my spirits trending downward, while a resurgence of my acid reflux condition is now afflicting me, causing me to have nights of limited sleep. I seem to have developed an intolerance of more foods. Humpty Dumpty onion rings appear to have been the main trigger of my latest bout. A problem for which I am now on a prescribed medication regimen. It is diminishing my enjoyment of the DOCTOR WHO- THE COLECTION- SEASON 7 Blu-Ray box set recently added to my holdings. By the way, both of the sets that I ordered, are now in my possession. And the second set, the one that I ordered from Rarewaves, has the same freezing problem on "The Ambassadors of Death" that the one ordered from Amazon, has had. Same place on the Blu-Ray disc. It cannot be a fault isolated to one poorly manufactured, already "rotting" Blu-Ray disc. It is either an issue with the authoring, or something gone awry with the glass master, or with a particular stage in the process of "pressing" the pits of a run of the Blu-Ray discs in the factory. Puzzling is there being nobody, nobody, on any discussion forum or writing of any review, mentioning an issue with playing of "The Ambassadors of Death". I may have to wait until it has a North American release, and hope that that is free of any issues.
No further news about the plans for the cartoons of Warner Brothers on physical home video media. Contents of the upcoming LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 1, are expected to be revealed any day now. And the restoration of The Bugs Bunny Show is a long-term project, its completion not expected in the foreseeable future. The way that things are going in Canada, I may not be able to buy Blu-Rays for very much longer, or own the ones that I now have.
It seems that Anderson Entertainment in the U.K. has so endeared itself to ITV that it and it alone is to have merchandising rights to Space: 1999, and another release to Blu-Ray for Space: 1999 is on the agenda for later this year, through Anderson Entertainment. To mark the fiftieth anniversary of its first televising, no doubt. Word is that this release will include 4K film-to-digital-video transfers. 4K Ultra-High Definition does not matter to me, as I do not have the equipment for viewing it, and am unlikely to afford an upgrade to such. Besides, 4K Ultra-High Definition Blu-Ray discs have rather a high incidence of "disc rot" reported in Internet discussions, them being comprised of multiple, glued-together layers. If the standard Blu-Ray discs sport an improved audio-visual experience, I may purchase a set. But I do not wish the "fixes" to "New Adam New Eve", "A Matter of Balance", and other episodes, to be reversed. They probably will be, as they came under some substantial criticism from fans who wish for every blemish on the production to be left intact. I, on the other hand, wish that the "fixing" could have gone further, eliminating the compressed air nozzle on Helena's face in "The Metamorph", "air-brushing"-out the people who should not have been in the background in "The Rules of Luton", and maybe even correcting the Eagle mistake in "All That Glisters". But, then, I am forever the outlier. I will, of course, follow this development, commenting upon it, as more information becomes available.
Lee Montague has died at the age of 97. The veteran British actor had many a television credit on his curriculum vitae, not the least of which, in my regard, being the Psychon philosopher-poet and later mind-manipulating megalomaniac, Dorzak, in the Space: 1999 second season episode of the same name. He also connected with another interest of mine, that in Robert Louis Stevenson's "bogey tale" of a chemically induced split personality, when he played Scotland Yard Inspector Palmer in Jekyll & Hyde (1990). And in the 1977 television miniseries, Jesus of Nazareth, he was Habbukuk, a member of the Sanhedrin that turned Jesus over to Pontius Pilate, after Jesus' betrayal by Judas (played by Ian McShane, Mr. Montague's fellow almunus of Space: 1999).
Mr. Montague was one of a small number of thespians not to share screen time with Martin Landau while being in Space: 1999, as "Dorzak" was filmed without Mr. Landau's involvement, him being at work on the simultaneously-produced "Devil's Planet", guest-starring the late Hildegard Neil. The number of still-living actors and actresses who contributed to Space: 1999 continues to sadly diminish, while my Space: 1999 Page's In Memoriam section grows longer.
More deaths recently in the acting world are those of Bruce Glover (Mr. Wint in the James Bond 1971 movie, Diamonds Are Forever), Clive Revill (voice of the Emperor in The Empire Strikes Back and John Steed's childhood chum, embittered over always second-best to Steed, one Mark Crayford, in The New Avengers- "Dead Men Are Dangerous"), and Jay North, the titular character of television's Dennis the Menace. Bad news all around, and it is always especially disturbing to see exuberant child actors grow old and pass into the ether.
On this grim note, I will bring today's Weblog entry to a close.
Tuesday, April 16, 2025.
I have done a complete broadcast history for Doctor Who on Maine Public Broadcasting Network (MPBN) from the premiere on MPBN of Doctor Who Theatre on 2 June, 1984 to the final MPBN showing of Doctor Who in movie-length format on 27 June, 1992. Doctor Who would return to MPBN later in the 1990s, with serials of the Tom Baker years in their original multi-part structure. I lack precise information on the latter run of Doctor Who on MPBN.
Here is that broadcast history.
Eastern Maine Public Broadcasting Broadcasts (1984-92) Saturdays MPBN Eastern Maine Stations 10- WMEM- Presque Isle, Maine 13- WMED- Calais, Maine Date Channels Episode Airtime Jun. 2, 1984 10 13 "Robot" 7 P.M. Jun. 9, 1984 10 13 "The Ark in Space" 7 P.M. Jun. 16, 1984 10 13 "The Sontaran Experiment" 7 P.M. Jun. 23, 1984 10 13 "Genesis of the Daleks" 7 P.M. Jun. 30, 1984 10 13 "Revenge of the Cybermen" 7 P.M. Jul. 7, 1984 10 13 "Terror of the Zygons" 7 P.M. Jul. 14, 1984 10 13 "Planet of Evil" 7 P.M. Jul. 21, 1984 10 13 "Pyramids of Mars" 7 P.M. Jul. 28, 1984 10 13 "The Android Invasion" 7 P.M. Aug. 4, 1984 10 13 "The Brain of Morbius" 7 P.M. Aug. 11, 1984 10 13 "The Seeds of Doom" 7 P.M. Aug. 18, 1984 10 13 "The Masque of Mandragora" 7 P.M. Aug. 25, 1984 10 13 "The Hand of Fear" 7 P.M. Sep. 1, 1984 10 13 "The Deadly Assassin" 7 P.M. Sep. 8, 1984 10 13 "The Face of Evil" 7 P.M. Sep. 15, 1984 10 13 "The Robots of Death" 7 P.M. Sep. 22, 1984 10 13 "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" 7 P.M. Sep. 29, 1984 10 13 "The Invisible Enemy" 7 P.M. Oct. 6, 1984 10 13 "Horror of Fang Rock" 7 P.M. Oct. 13, 1984 10 13 "Image of the Fendahl" 7 P.M. Oct. 20, 1984 10 13 "The Sun-Makers" 7 P.M. Oct. 27, 1984 10 13 "Underworld" 7 P.M. Nov. 3, 1984 10 13 "The Invasion of Time" 7 P.M. Nov. 10, 1984 10 13 "The Ribos Operation" 7 P.M. Nov. 17, 1984 10 13 "Pirate Planet" 7 P.M. Nov. 24, 1984 10 13 "The Stones of Blood" 7 P.M. Dec. 1, 1984 10 13 "The Androids of Tara" 7 P.M. Dec. 8, 1984 10 13 "The Power of Kroll" 7 P.M. Dec. 15, 1984 10 13 "The Armageddon Factor" 7 P.M. Dec. 22, 1984 10 13 "Destiny of the Daleks" 7 P.M. Dec. 29, 1984 10 13 "City of Death" 7 P.M. Jan. 5, 1985 10 13 "The Creature From the Pit" 7 P.M. Jan. 12, 1985 10 13 "The Nightmare of Eden" 7 P.M. Jan. 19, 1985 10 13 "The Horns of Nimon" 7 P.M. Jan. 26, 1985 10 13 "The Leisure Hive" 7 P.M. Feb. 2, 1985 10 13 "State of Decay" 7 P.M. Feb. 9, 1985 10 13 "Meglos" 7 P.M. Feb. 16, 1985 10 13 "Full Circle" 7 P.M. Feb. 23, 1985 Preemption Mar. 2, 1985 Preemption Mar. 9, 1985 10 13 "Warrior's Gate" 7 P.M. Mar. 9, 1985 10 13 "The Five Doctors" 9 P.M. Mar. 16, 1985 10 13 "The Keeper of Traken" 7 P.M. Mar. 23, 1985 10 13 "Logopolis" 7 P.M. Mar. 30, 1985 10 13 "Robot" (R) 7 P.M. Apr. 6, 1985 10 13 "The Ark in Space" (R) 7 P.M. Apr. 13, 1985 10 13 "The Sontaran Experiment" (R) 7 P.M. Apr. 20, 1985 10 13 "Revenge of the Cybermen" (R) 7 P.M. Apr. 27, 1985 10 13 "Genesis of the Daleks" (R) 3 P.M. Apr. 27, 1985 10 13 "Terror of the Zygons" (R) 7 P.M. May 4, 1985 10 13 "Planet of Evil" (R) 3 P.M. May 4, 1985 10 13 "Pyramids of Mars" (R) 7 P.M. May 11, 1985 10 13 "The Android Invasion" (R) 7 P.M. May 18, 1985 10 13 "The Brain of Morbius" (R) 7 P.M. May 25, 1985 10 13 "The Seeds of Doom" (R) 7 P.M. Jun. 1, 1985 10 13 "The Masque of Mandragora" (R) 7 P.M. Jun. 8, 1985 10 13 "The Hand of Fear" (R) 7 P.M. Jun. 15, 1985 10 13 "The Deadly Assassin" (R) 7 P.M. Jun. 22, 1985 10 13 "The Face of Evil" (R) 7 P.M. Jun. 29, 1985 10 13 "The Robots of Death" (R) 7 P.M. Jul. 6, 1985 10 13 "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" (R) 7 P.M. Jul. 13, 1985 10 13 "Horror of Fang Rock" (R) 7 P.M. Jul. 20, 1985 10 13 "The Invisible Enemy" (R) 7 P.M. Jul. 27, 1985 10 13 "Image of the Fendahl" (R) 7 P.M. Aug. 3, 1985 10 13 "The Sun-Makers" (R) 7 P.M. Aug. 10, 1985 10 13 "Underworld" (R) 7 P.M. Aug. 17, 1985 10 13 "The Invasion of Time" (R) 7 P.M. Aug. 24, 1985 10 13 "The Ribos Operation" (R) 7 P.M. Aug. 31, 1985 10 13 "Pirate Planet" (R) 7 P.M. Sep. 7, 1985 10 13 "The Stones of Blood" (R) 7 P.M. Sep. 14, 1985 10 13 "The Androids of Tara" (R) 7 P.M. Sep. 21, 1985 10 13 "The Armageddon Factor" (R) 7 P.M. Sep. 28, 1985 10 13 "The Power of Kroll" (R) 7 P.M. Oct. 5, 1985 10 13 "Destiny of the Daleks" (R) 7 P.M. Oct. 12, 1985 10 13 "City of Death" (R) 7 P.M. Oct. 19, 1985 10 13 "The Creature From the Pit" (R) 7 P.M. Oct. 26, 1985 10 13 "The Nightmare of Eden" (R) 7 P.M. Nov. 2, 1985 10 13 "The Horns of Nimon" (R) 7 P.M. Nov. 9, 1985 10 13 "The Leisure Hive" (R) 7 P.M. Nov. 16, 1985 10 13 "Meglos" (R) 7 P.M. Nov. 23, 1985 10 13 "Full Circle" (R) 7 P.M. Nov. 30, 1985 10 13 "State of Decay" (R) 7 P.M. Dec. 7, 1985 10 13 "Warrior's Gate" (R) 7 P.M. Dec. 14, 1985 10 13 "The Keeper of Traken" (R) 7 P.M. Dec. 21, 1985 10 13 "Logopolis" (R) 7 P.M. Dec. 28, 1985 10 13 "Castrovalva" 7 P.M. Jan. 4, 1986 10 13 "Four to Doomsday" 7 P.M. Jan. 11, 1986 10 13 "Kinda" 7 P.M. Jan. 18, 1986 10 13 "The Visitation" 7 P.M. Jan. 25, 1986 10 13 "Black Orchid" 7 P.M. Feb. 1, 1986 10 13 "Earthshock" 7 P.M. Feb. 8, 1986 10 13 "Time-Flight" 7 P.M. Feb. 15, 1986 10 13 "Arc of Infinity" 7 P.M. Feb. 22, 1986 Preemption Mar. 1, 1986 10 13 "Snakedance" 6:30 P.M. Mar. 8, 1986 10 13 "Mawdryn Undead" 7 P.M. Mar. 15, 1986 10 13 "Terminus" 7 P.M. Mar. 22, 1986 10 13 "Enlightenment" 7 P.M. Mar. 29, 1986 10 13 "The King's Demons" 7 P.M. Apr. 5, 1986 10 13 "Warriors of the Deep" 7 P.M. Apr. 12, 1986 10 13 "The Awakening" 7 P.M. Apr. 19, 1986 10 13 "Frontios" 7 P.M. Apr. 26, 1986 10 13 "Resurrection of the Daleks" 7 P.M. May 3, 1986 10 13 "Planet of Fire" 7 P.M. May 10, 1986 10 13 "The Caves of Androzani" 7 P.M. May 17, 1986 10 13 "The Twin Dilemma" 7 P.M. Eastern Maine Public Broadcasting Broadcasts (1984-92) Sundays MPBN Eastern Maine Stations 10- WMEM- Presque Isle, Maine 13- WMED- Calais, Maine May 18, 1986 10 13 "The Five Doctors" (R) 3 P.M. Eastern Maine Public Broadcasting Broadcasts (1984-92) Saturdays MPBN Eastern Maine Stations 10- WMEM- Presque Isle, Maine 13- WMED- Calais, Maine May 24, 1986 10 13 "Attack of the Cybermen" 7 P.M. May 31, 1986 10 13 "Vengeance On Varos" 7 P.M. Jun. 7, 1986 10 13 "The Two Doctors" 7 P.M. Jun. 14, 1986 10 13 "The Mark of the Rani" 7 P.M. Jun. 21, 1986 10 13 "Timelash" 7 P.M. Jun. 28, 1986 10 13 "Revelation of the Daleks" 7 P.M. Jul. 5, 1986 Preemption Jul. 12, 1986 10 13 "The Daleks" 7 P.M. Jul. 19, 1986 10 13 "An Unearthly Child" 7 P.M. Jul. 19, 1986 10 13 "The Edge of Destruction" 8:30 P.M. Jul. 19, 1986 10 13 Doctor Who Short 9:15 P.M. Jul. 26, 1986 10 13 "The Keys of Marinus" 7 P.M. Aug. 2, 1986 10 13 "The Aztecs" 7 P.M. Aug. 9, 1986 10 13 "The Sensorites" 7 P.M. Aug. 16, 1986 10 13 "Planet of Giants" 7 P.M. Aug. 23, 1986 10 13 "The Rescue" 7 P.M. Aug. 23, 1986 10 13 Doctor Who Who's Who 8 P.M. Aug. 30, 1986 10 13 "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" 7 P.M. Sep. 6, 1986 10 13 "The Romans" 7 P.M. Sep. 13, 1986 10 13 "The Web Planet" 7 P.M. Sep. 20, 1986 10 13 "The Space Museum" 7 P.M. Sep. 27, 1986 10 13 "The Chase" 7 P.M. Oct. 4, 1986 10 13 "The Time Meddler" 7 P.M. Oct. 11, 1986 10 13 "The Ark" 7 P.M. Oct. 18, 1986 10 13 "The Gunfighters" 7 P.M. Oct. 25, 1986 10 13 "The War Machines" 7 P.M. Nov. 1, 1986 10 13 "The Dominators" 7 P.M. Nov. 8, 1986 10 13 "The Mind Robber" 7 P.M. Nov. 15, 1986 10 13 "The Krotons" 7 P.M. Nov. 22, 1986 10 13 "The Seeds of Death" 7 P.M. Nov. 29, 1986 10 13 "The Five Doctors" (R) 7 P.M. Dec. 6, 1986 10 13 "The War Games: Pt. 1" 7 P.M. Dec. 13, 1986 10 13 "The War Games: Pt. 2" 7 P.M. Dec. 20, 1986 10 13 "Spearhead From Space" 7 P.M. Dec. 27, 1986 10 13 K-9 and Company 7 P.M. Jan. 3, 1987 10 13 "Doctor Who and the Silurians" 7 P.M. Jan. 10, 1987 10 13 "The Ambassadors of Death" 7 P.M. Jan. 17, 1987 10 13 "Inferno" 7 P.M. Jan. 24, 1987 10 13 "Terror of the Autons" 7 P.M. Jan. 31, 1987 10 13 "The Mind of Evil" 7 P.M. Eastern Maine Public Broadcasting Broadcasts (1984-92) Sundays MPBN Eastern Maine Stations 10- WMEM- Presque Isle, Maine 13- WMED- Calais, Maine Feb. 1, 1987 10 13 "The Claws of Axos" 3 P.M. Eastern Maine Public Broadcasting Broadcasts (1984-92) Saturdays MPBN Eastern Maine Stations 10- WMEM- Presque Isle, Maine 13- WMED- Calais, Maine Feb. 7, 1987 10 13 "Colony in Space" 7 P.M. Feb. 14, 1987 10 13 "The Daemons" 7 P.M. Eastern Maine Public Broadcasting Broadcasts (1984-92) Sundays MPBN Eastern Maine Stations 10- WMEM- Presque Isle, Maine 13- WMED- Calais, Maine Feb. 15, 1987 10 13 "Day of the Daleks" 3 P.M. Eastern Maine Public Broadcasting Broadcasts (1984-92) Saturdays MPBN Eastern Maine Stations 10- WMEM- Presque Isle, Maine 13- WMED- Calais, Maine Feb. 28, 1987 10 13 "The Curse of Peladon" 4 P.M. Mar. 7, 1987 10 13 "The Sea Devils" 7:10 P.M. Mar. 14, 1987 10 13 "The Mutants" 7 P.M. Mar. 21, 1987 10 13 "The Time Monster" 7 P.M. Mar. 28, 1987 10 13 "The Three Doctors" 7 P.M. Apr. 4, 1987 10 13 "Carnival of Monsters" 7 P.M. Apr. 11, 1987 10 13 "Frontier in Space" 7 P.M. Apr. 18, 1987 10 13 "Planet of the Daleks" 7 P.M. Apr. 25, 1987 10 13 "The Green Death" 7 P.M. May 2, 1987 10 13 "The Time Warrior" 7 P.M. May 9, 1987 10 13 "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" 7 P.M. May 16, 1987 10 13 "Death to the Daleks" 7 P.M. May 23, 1987 10 13 "The Monster of Peladon" 7 P.M. May 30, 1987 10 13 "Planet of the Spiders" 7 P.M. Jun. 6, 1987 10 13 "Robot" (R) 7 P.M. Jun. 13, 1987 10 13 "The Ark in Space" (R) 7 P.M. Jun. 20, 1987 10 13 "The Sontaran Experiment" (R) 7 P.M. Jun. 27, 1987 10 13 "Genesis of the Daleks" (R) 7 P.M. Jul. 4, 1987 10 13 "Revenge of the Cybermen" (R) 7 P.M. Jul. 11, 1987 10 13 "Terror of the Zygons" (R) 7 P.M. Jul. 18, 1987 10 13 "Planet of Evil" (R) 7 P.M. Jul. 25, 1987 10 13 "Pyramids of Mars" (R) 7 P.M. Aug. 1, 1987 10 13 "Trial of a Timelord: Pt. 1" 7 P.M. Aug. 8, 1987 10 13 "Trial of a Timelord: Pt. 2" 7 P.M. Aug. 15, 1987 10 13 "Trial of a Timelord: Pt. 3" 7 P.M. Aug. 22, 1987 10 13 "Trial of a Timelord: Pt. 4" 7 P.M. Aug. 29, 1987 10 13 "The Android Invasion" (R) 7 P.M. Sep. 5, 1987 10 13 "The Brain of Morbius" (R) 7 P.M. Sep. 12, 1987 10 13 "The Seeds of Doom" (R) 3 P.M. Sep. 12, 1987 10 13 "The Masque of Mandragora" (R) 7 P.M. Sep. 19, 1987 10 13 "The Hand of Fear" (R) 3 P.M. Sep. 19, 1987 10 13 "The Deadly Assassin" (R) 7 P.M. Sep. 26, 1987 10 13 "The Face of Evil" (R) 3 P.M. Sep. 26, 1987 10 13 "The Robots of Death" (R) 7 P.M. Oct. 3, 1987 10 13 "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" (R) 4 P.M. Oct. 3, 1987 10 13 "Horror of Fang Rock" (R) 6:15 P.M. Oct. 10, 1987 10 13 "The Invisible Enemy" (R) 6 P.M. Oct. 17, 1987 10 13 "Image of the Fendahl" (R) 6 P.M. Oct. 24, 1987 10 13 "The Sun-Makers" (R) 6 P.M. Oct. 31, 1987 10 13 "Underworld" (R) 6 P.M. Nov. 7, 1987 10 13 "The Invasion of Time" (R) 6 P.M. Nov. 14, 1987 10 13 "The Ribos Operation" (R) 6 P.M. Nov. 21, 1987 10 13 "Pirate Planet" (R) 6 P.M. Nov. 28, 1987 10 13 "The Stones of Blood" (R) 6 P.M. Dec. 5, 1987 10 13 "The Androids of Tara" (R) 6 P.M. Dec. 12, 1987 10 13 "The Power of Kroll" (R) 6 P.M. Dec. 19, 1987 10 13 "The Armageddon Factor" (R) 6 P.M. Dec. 26, 1987 10 13 "Destiny of the Daleks" (R) 6 P.M. Jan. 2, 1988 10 13 "City of Death" (R) 6 P.M. Jan. 9, 1988 10 13 "The Creature From the Pit" (R) 6 P.M. Jan. 16, 1988 10 13 "The Nightmare of Eden" (R) 6 P.M. Jan. 23, 1988 10 13 "The Horns of Nimon" (R) 6 P.M. Jan. 30, 1988 10 13 "The Leisure Hive" (R) 6 P.M. Feb. 6, 1988 10 13 "Meglos" (R) 6 P.M. Feb. 13, 1988 10 13 "Full Circle" (R) 6 P.M. Feb. 20, 1988 10 13 "State of Decay" (R) 6 P.M. Feb. 27, 1988 10 13 "The Five Doctors" (R) 6 P.M. Mar. 5, 1988 10 13 "Warrior's Gate" (R) 6 P.M. Mar. 12, 1988 10 13 "The Keeper of Traken" (R) 6 P.M. Mar. 19, 1988 10 13 "Logopolis" (R) 6 P.M. Mar. 26, 1988 10 13 "Castrovalva" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 2, 1988 10 13 "Four to Doomsday" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 9, 1988 10 13 "Kinda" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 16, 1988 10 13 "The Visitation" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 23, 1988 10 13 "Black Orchid" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 30, 1988 10 13 "Earthshock" (R) 6 P.M. May 7, 1988 10 13 "Time-Flight" (R) 6 P.M. May 14, 1988 10 13 "Arc of Infinity" (R) 6 P.M. May 21, 1988 10 13 "Snakedance" (R) 6 P.M. May 28, 1988 10 13 "Mawdryn Undead" (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 4, 1988 10 13 "Terminus" (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 11, 1988 10 13 "Enlightenment" (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 18, 1988 10 13 "The King's Demons" (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 25, 1988 10 13 "Warriors of the Deep" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 2, 1988 10 13 "The Awakening" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 9, 1988 10 13 "Frontios" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 16, 1988 10 13 "Resurrection of the Daleks" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 23, 1988 10 13 "Planet of Fire" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 30, 1988 10 13 "The Caves of Androzani" (R) 6 P.M. Aug. 6, 1988 10 13 "The Twin Dilemma" (R) 6 P.M. Aug. 13, 1988 10 13 "Attack of the Cybermen" (R) 6 P.M. Aug. 20, 1988 10 13 "Vengeance On Varos" (R) 6 P.M. Aug. 27, 1988 10 13 "Time and the Rani" 6 P.M. Sep. 3, 1988 10 13 "The Two Doctors" (R) 6 P.M. Sep. 10, 1988 10 13 "The Mark of the Rani" (R) 6 P.M. Sep. 17, 1988 10 13 "Timelash" (R) 6 P.M. Sep. 24, 1988 10 13 "Revelation of the Daleks" (R) 6 P.M. Oct. 1, 1987 10 13 "Trial of a Timelord: Pt. 1" (R) 6 P.M. Oct. 8, 1988 10 13 "Trial of a Timelord: Pt. 2" (R) 6 P.M. Oct. 15, 1988 10 13 "Trial of a Timelord: Pt. 3" (R) 6 P.M. Oct. 22, 1988 10 13 "Trial of a Timelord: Pt. 4" (R) 6 P.M. Oct. 29, 1988 10 13 "Time and the Rani" (R) 6 P.M. Nov. 5, 1988 10 13 "Paradise Towers" 6 P.M. Nov. 12, 1988 10 13 "Delta and the Bannermen" 6 P.M. Nov. 19, 1988 10 13 "Dragonfire" 6 P.M. Nov. 26, 1988 10 13 "An Unearthly Child" (R) 6 P.M. Dec. 3, 1988 10 13 Doctor Who: Then and Now 6 P.M. Dec. 10, 1988 10 13 The Making of Doctor Who 6 P.M. Dec. 17, 1988 10 13 "The Daleks" (R) 6 P.M. Dec. 24, 1988 10 13 K-9 and Company (R) 6 P.M. Dec. 31, 1988 10 13 "The Edge of Destruction" (R) 6 P.M. Jan. 7, 1989 10 13 "The Keys of Marinus" (R) 6 P.M. Jan. 14, 1989 10 13 "The Aztecs" (R) 6 P.M. Jan. 21, 1989 10 13 "The Sensorites" (R) 6 P.M. Jan. 28, 1989 10 13 "Planet of Giants" (R) 6 P.M. Feb. 4, 1989 10 13 "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" (R) 6 P.M. Feb. 11, 1989 10 13 "The Rescue" (R) 6 P.M. Feb. 18, 1989 10 13 "The Romans" (R) 6 P.M. Feb. 25, 1989 10 13 "The Web Planet" (R) 6 P.M. Mar. 4, 1989 10 13 "The Space Museum" (R) 6 P.M. Mar. 11, 1989 10 13 Doctor Who Who's Who (R) 6 P.M. Mar. 18, 1989 Preemption Mar. 25, 1989 10 13 "The Chase: Pt. 1" (R) 6:10 P.M. Apr. 1, 1989 10 13 "The Chase: Pt. 2" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 8, 1989 10 13 "The Time Meddler" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 15, 1989 10 13 "The Ark" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 22, 1989 10 13 Doctor Who in America 6 P.M. Apr. 29, 1989 10 13 "The Gunfighters" (R) 6 P.M. May 6, 1989 10 13 "The War Machines" (R) 6 P.M. May 13, 1989 10 13 "The Dominators: Pt. 1" (R) 6 P.M. May 20, 1989 10 13 "The Dominators: Pt. 2" (R) 6 P.M. May 27, 1989 10 13 "The Mind Robber" (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 3, 1989 10 13 "The Krotons" (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 10, 1989 10 13 "The Seeds of Death: Pt. 1" (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 17, 1989 10 13 "The Seeds of Death: Pt. 2" (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 24, 1989 10 13 "The Five Doctors" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 1, 1989 10 13 Doctor Who: Then and Now (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 8, 1989 10 13 "The War Games: Pt. 1" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 15, 1989 10 13 "The War Games: Pt. 2" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 22, 1989 10 13 "Spearhead From Space" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 29, 1989 10 13 "Doctor Who and the Silurians: Pt. 1" (R) 6 P.M. Aug. 5, 1989 10 13 "Doctor Who and the Silurians: Pt. 2" (R) 6 P.M. Aug. 12, 1989 10 13 "The Ambassadors of Death" (R) 6 P.M. Aug. 19, 1989 Preemption Aug. 26, 1989 10 13 "Inferno: Pt. 1" (R) 6:10 P.M. Sep. 2, 1989 10 13 "Inferno: Pt. 2" (R) 6 P.M. Sep. 9, 1989 10 13 "Terror of the Autons" (R) 6 P.M. Sep. 16, 1989 10 13 "The Mind of Evil: Pt. 1" 6 P.M. Sep. 23, 1989 10 13 "The Mind of Evil: Pt. 2" 6 P.M. Sep. 30, 1989 10 13 "The Claws of Axos" (R) 6 P.M. Oct. 7, 1989 10 13 "Colony in Space: Pt. 1" (R) 6 P.M. Oct. 14, 1989 10 13 "Colony in Space: Pt. 2" (R) 6 P.M. Oct. 21, 1989 10 13 "The Daemons" (R) 6 P.M. Oct. 28, 1989 10 13 "Day of the Daleks" (R) 6 P.M. Nov. 4, 1989 10 13 "The Curse of Peladon" (R) 6 P.M. Nov. 11, 1989 10 13 "The Sea Devils: Pt. 1" (R) 6 P.M. Nov. 18, 1989 10 13 "The Sea Devils: Pt. 2" (R) 6 P.M. Nov. 25, 1989 10 13 "The Mutants" (R) 6 P.M. Dec. 2, 1989 10 13 "Remembrance of the Daleks" 6 P.M. Dec. 9, 1989 10 13 "The Happiness Patrol" 6 P.M. Dec. 16, 1989 10 13 "Silver Nemesis" 6 P.M. Dec. 23, 1989 10 13 "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy" 6 P.M. Dec. 30, 1989 10 13 "The Time Monster: Pt. 1" (R) 6 P.M. Jan. 6, 1990 10 13 "The Time Monster: Pt. 2" (R) 6 P.M. Jan. 13, 1990 10 13 "The Three Doctors" (R) 6 P.M. Jan. 20, 1990 10 13 "Carnival of Monsters" (R) 6 P.M. Jan. 27, 1990 10 13 "Frontier in Space: Pt. 1" (R) 6 P.M. Feb. 3, 1990 10 13 "Frontier in Space: Pt. 2" (R) 6 P.M. Feb. 10, 1990 10 13 "Planet of the Daleks: Pt. 1" (R) 6 P.M. Feb. 17, 1990 10 13 "Planet of the Daleks: Pt. 2" (R) 6 P.M. Feb. 24, 1990 10 13 "The Green Death: Pt. 1" (R) 6 P.M. Mar. 3, 1990 10 13 "The Green Death: Pt. 2" (R) 6 P.M. Mar. 10, 1990 10 13 "The Time Warrior" (R) 6 P.M. Mar. 17, 1990 10 13 "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" (R) 6 P.M. Mar. 24, 1990 10 13 "Death to the Daleks" (R) 6 P.M. Mar. 31, 1990 10 13 "The Monster of Peladon: Pt. 1" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 7, 1990 10 13 "The Monster of Peladon: Pt. 2" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 14, 1900 10 13 "Planet of the Spiders: Pt. 1" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 21, 1990 10 13 "Planet of the Spiders: Pt. 2" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 28, 1990 10 13 "Robot" (R) 6 P.M. May 5, 1990 10 13 "The Ark in Space" (R) 6 P.M. May 12, 1990 10 13 "The Sontaran Experiment" (R) 6 P.M. May 19, 1990 10 13 "Battlefield" 6 P.M. May 26, 1990 10 13 "The Curse of Fenric" 6 P.M. Jun. 2, 1990 10 13 "Ghost Light" 6 P.M. Jun. 9, 1990 10 13 "Survival" 6 P.M. Jun. 16, 1990 10 13 Doctor Who Short (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 23, 1990 10 13 "Genesis of the Daleks" (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 30, 1990 10 13 "Revenge of the Cybermen" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 7, 1990 10 13 "Terror of the Zygons" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 14, 1990 10 13 "Planet of Evil" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 21, 1990 10 13 "Pyramids of Mars" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 28, 1990 10 13 "Android Invasion" (R) 6 P.M. Aug. 4, 1990 10 13 "The Brain of Morbius" (R) 6 P.M. Aug. 11, 1990 10 13 "The Seeds of Doom" (R) 6 P.M. Aug. 18, 1990 10 13 "The Masque of Mandragora" (R) 6 P.M. Aug. 25, 1990 10 13 "The Hand of Fear" (R) 6 P.M. Sep. 1, 1990 10 13 "The Deadly Assassin" (R) 6 P.M. Sep. 8, 1990 10 13 "The Face of Evil" (R) 6 P.M. Sep. 15, 1990 10 13 "The Robots of Death" (R) 6 P.M. Sep. 22, 1990 10 13 "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" (R) 6 P.M. Sep. 29, 1990 10 13 "Horror of Fang Rock" (R) 6 P.M. Oct. 6, 1990 10 13 "The Invisible Enemy" (R) 6 P.M. Oct. 13, 1990 10 13 "Image of the Fendahl" (R) 6 P.M. Oct. 20, 1990 10 13 "The Sun-Makers" (R) 6 P.M. Oct. 27, 1990 10 13 "Underworld" (R) 6 P.M. Nov. 3, 1990 10 13 "The Invasion of Time" (R) 6 P.M. Nov. 10, 1990 10 13 "The Ribos Operation" (R) 6 P.M. Nov. 17, 1990 10 13 "Pirate Planet" (R) 6 P.M. Nov. 24, 1990 10 13 "The Stones of Blood" (R) 6 P.M. Dec. 1, 1990 10 13 "The Androids of Tara" (R) 6 P.M. Dec. 8, 1990 10 13 "The Power of Kroll" (R) 6 P.M. Dec. 15, 1990 10 13 "The Armageddon Factor" (R) 6 P.M. Dec. 22, 1990 10 13 "Destiny of the Daleks" (R) 6 P.M. Dec. 29, 1990 10 13 "City of Death" (R) 6 P.M. Jan. 5, 1991 10 13 "The Creature From the Pit" (R) 6 P.M. Jan. 12, 1991 10 13 "The Nightmare of Eden" (R) 6 P.M. Jan. 19, 1991 10 13 "The Horns of Nimon" (R) 6 P.M. Jan. 26, 1991 10 13 "The Leisure Hive" (R) 6 P.M. Feb. 2, 1991 10 13 "Meglos" (R) 6 P.M. Feb. 9, 1991 10 13 "Full Circle" (R) 6 P.M. Feb. 16, 1991 10 13 "State of Decay" (R) 6 P.M. Feb. 23, 1991 10 13 "Warrior's Gate" (R) 6 P.M. Mar. 2, 1991 10 13 "The Keeper of Traken" (R) 6 P.M. Mar. 9, 1991 10 13 "Logopolis" (R) 6 P.M. Mar. 16, 1991 Preemption Mar. 23, 1991 10 13 "Castrovalva" (R) 6 P.M. Mar. 30, 1991 10 13 "Four to Doomsday" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 6, 1991 10 13 "Kinda" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 13, 1991 10 13 "The Visitation" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 20, 1991 10 13 "Black Orchid" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 27, 1991 10 13 "Earthshock" (R) 6 P.M. May 4, 1991 10 13 "Time-Flight" (R) 6 P.M. May 11, 1991 10 13 "Arc of Infinity" (R) 6 P.M. May 18, 1991 10 13 "Snakedance" (R) 6 P.M. May 25, 1991 10 13 "Mawdryn Undead" (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 1, 1991 10 13 "Terminus" (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 8, 1991 10 13 "Enlightenment" (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 15, 1991 10 13 "The King's Demons" (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 22, 1991 10 13 "Warriors of the Deep" (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 29, 1991 10 13 "The Awakening" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 6, 1991 10 13 "Frontios" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 13, 1991 10 13 "Resurrection of the Daleks" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 20, 1991 10 13 "Planet of Fire" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 27, 1991 10 13 "The Caves of Androzani" (R) 6 P.M. Aug. 3, 1991 10 13 "The Twin Dilemma" (R) 6 P.M. Aug. 10, 1991 10 13 "Attack of the Cybermen" (R) 6 P.M. Aug. 17, 1991 10 13 "Vengeance On Varos" (R) 6 P.M. Aug. 24, 1991 10 13 "The Two Doctors" (R) 6 P.M. Aug. 31, 1991 10 13 "The Mark of the Rani" (R) 6 P.M. Sep. 7, 1991 10 13 "Timelash" (R) 6 P.M. Sep. 14, 1991 10 13 "Revelation of the Daleks" (R) 6 P.M. Sep. 21, 1991 10 13 "Trial of a Timelord: Pt. 1" (R) 6 P.M. Sep. 28, 1991 10 13 "Trial of a Timelord: Pt. 2" (R) 6 P.M. Oct. 6, 1991 10 13 "Trial of a Timelord: Pt. 3" (R) 6 P.M. Oct. 12, 1991 10 13 "Trial of a Timelord: Pt. 4" (R) 6 P.M. Oct. 19, 1991 10 13 "Time and the Rani" (R) 6 P.M. Oct. 26, 1991 10 13 "Paradise Towers" (R) 6 P.M. Nov. 2, 1991 10 13 "Delta and the Bannermen" (R) 6 P.M. Nov. 9, 1991 10 13 "Dragonfire" (R) 6 P.M. Nov. 16, 1991 10 13 "Remembrance of the Daleks" (R) 6 P.M. Nov. 23, 1991 10 13 "The Happiness Patrol" (R) 6 P.M. Nov. 30, 1991 10 13 "Silver Nemesis" (R) 6 P.M. Dec. 7, 1991 10 13 "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy" (R) 6 P.M. Dec. 14, 1991 10 13 "Battlefield" (R) 6 P.M. Dec. 21, 1991 10 13 "The Curse of Fenric" (R) 6 P.M. Dec. 28, 1991 10 13 "Ghost Light" (R) 6 P.M. Jan. 4, 1992 10 13 "Survival" (R) 6 P.M. Jan. 11, 1992 10 13 "Revenge of the Cybermen" (R) 6 P.M. Jan. 18, 1992 10 13 "Earthshock" (R) 6 P.M. Jan. 25, 1992 10 13 "The Five Doctors" (R) 6 P.M. Feb. 1, 1992 10 13 "Attack of the Cybermen" (R) 6 P.M. Feb. 8, 1992 10 13 "Silver Nemesis" (R) 6 P.M. Feb. 15, 1992 10 13 "The Daleks" (R) 6 P.M. Feb. 22, 1992 Preemption Feb. 29, 1992 Preemption Mar. 7, 1992 Preemption Mar. 14, 1992 Preemption Mar. 21, 1992 Preemption Mar. 28, 1992 10 13 "Day of the Daleks" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 4, 1992 10 13 "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 11, 1992 10 13 "The Chase" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 18, 1992 10 13 "Planet of the Daleks" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 25, 1992 10 13 "Death to the Daleks" (R) 6 P.M. May 2, 1992 10 13 "Genesis of the Daleks" (R) 6 P.M. May 9, 1992 10 13 "Destiny of the Daleks" (R) 6 P.M. May 16, 1992 10 13 "Resurrection of the Daleks" (R) 6 P.M. May 23, 1992 10 13 "Revelation of the Daleks" (R) 6 P.M. May 30, 1992 10 13 "Remembrance of the Daleks" (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 6, 1992 10 13 "An Unearthly Child" (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 13, 1992 10 13 "The War Games: Pt. 1" (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 20, 1992 10 13 "The War Games: Pt. 2" (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 27, 1992 10 13 "Spearhead From Space" (R) 6 P.M.As can be seen, in 1989 and 1990, MPBN was breaking many of the longer Doctor Who stories into two parts. I think that such was due to a reduction in revenues from viewer donations, and MPBN purchased fewer Doctor Who stories and spread them out across consecutive Saturdays. I presume that monies improved in mid-1990, and it was back to single, full-length presentations of all stories (except for the mammoth 10-part "The War Games" and the twenty-third-season-spanning "Trial of a Timelord").
MPBN quit airing Doctor Who in June of 1992, just a couple of months before the missing 1967 story, "Tomb of the Cybermen", found in Hong Kong and returned to the BBC, was made available to American broadcasters. In August of 1992, "Tomb of the Cybermen" was telecast on WTVS- Detroit, which Fredericton Cable was offering at that time.
MPBN brought back Doctor Who in the late 1990s, but only the early Tom Baker seasons, with stories in multiple half-hour parts. And usually two per week. I remember watching "The Seeds of Doom" in such a way on MPBN in the late 1990s. Its six episodes aired over a span of three weeks. Doctor Who was popular on MPBN, but I would suppose that interest in it across the MPBN viewing area (including cable television systems in central and south New Brunswick and western and central Nova Scotia) waned a bit around 1989 once every then-available story had aired on MPBN at least once. It might have been the 1992 recession that brought about Doctor Who's cancellation on MPBN, but I am not sure.
Station Manager Bernie Roscetti used to host a filler item called Box 86 in which he gave updates on the state of Doctor Who and its popularity on MPBN. He sometimes read viewer mail. And during the "pledge drives", he would also appear. It was during a MPBN "pledge drive" that I learned of Colin Baker having been replaced by Sylvester McCoy. That was during the March 7, 1987 airing of the Jon Pertwee story, "The Sea Devils".
I have also recently added to my television listing project, television day's listings for numerous days in 1985, 1986, and 1987.
My Website will be undergoing maintenance work at HostPapa for most of the day tomorrow.
Wednesday, April 23, 2025.
First item on the agenda for today. A clipping from TV Guide magazine's Northern California edition for April 3-9, 1976 including listing, with episode synopsis, of the "Dragon's Domain" episode of Space: 1999. Airdate: Saturday, April 3, 1976. Airtime: 7 P.M.. On KOVR, CBS affiliate in Stockton and Sacramento. Channel 13. The episode synopsis was same as would be seen in the Canada eastern Maritimes edition of TV Guide in 1977, 1978, and 1984. The TV Guide in my part of Canada, at least, had a couple more roles and actors credited. Prof. Bergman as played by Barry Morse, and Commissioner Dixon as played by Douglas Wilmer.
Here is that TV Guide magazine clipping.
Next, the contents of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 1 have been released. As promised by the curators, we are going to have a first Blu-Ray disc consisting of cartoons not previously released fully restored on either DVD or Blu-Ray, and a second Blu-Ray platter comprising cartoons previously on DVD in restored state but not previously on Blu-Ray.
The inclusion of "Double or Mutton" on Blu-Ray disc one, is an error, it having been released recently fully restored on Blu-Ray on LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE: VOLUME 4. Word is that someone simply forgot that "Double or Mutton" was on COLLECTOR'S CHOICE: VOLUME 4, and that this error went unnoticed before all assets were sent to High Definition processing and encoding for the glass masters. There is now a promise to compensate for this with an additional cartoon for LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 2, presumably on the docket for later this year.
Here is the list.
First Blu-Ray disc:
"Bars and Stripes Forever"
"Beauty and the Beast"
"A Day at the Zoo"
"The Dixie Fryer"
"Double or Mutton"
"Each Dawn I Crow"
"Easy Peckin's"
"Feather Dusted"
"A Fox in a Fix"
"Good Night, Elmer"
"The Goofy Gophers"
"I'd Love to Take Orders From You"
"A Kiddies Kitty"
"Let it Be Me"
"Of Fox and Hounds"
"Quackodile Tears"
"Ready, Woolen, and Able"
"Robin Hood Makes Good"
"The Squawkin' Hawk"
"Terrier-Stricken"
"Tweet and Lovely"
"Tweety's Circus"
"Two's a Crowd"
"Wild About Hurry"
"Zip 'n Snort"
Second Blu-Ray Disc:
"Ain't She Tweet"
"Banty Raids"
"Birth of a Notion"
"Bye, Bye, Bluebeard"
"Cat-Tails For Two"
"Daffy Dilly"
"Daffy Duck and Egghead"
"Gee Whiz-z-z-z!"
"Gonzales' Tamales"
"Hare Conditioned"
"Hare Trigger"
"Hare Trimmed"
"Horton Hatches the Egg"
"Little Boy Boo"
"Much Ado About Nutting"
"Odor-Able Kitty"
"Past Perfumance"
"Porky's Duck Hunt"
"Rabbit Punch"
"Red Riding Hoodwinked"
"Rhapsody Rabbit"
"Snow Business"
"Tom Turk and Daffy"
"Two Crows From Tacos"
"Zoom and Bored"
Of course, I am disappointed to not see "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide" receive the nod. However, there are many cartoons that I am quite grateful to see on this list. And the majority of the cartoons are post-1948. Assuming that I will still be able to purchase Blu-Rays on the day of this Blu-Ray set's release, June 17, I will happily buy it, with hope that the shipping and delivery of the package will not be frought with problems and delays. Forlorn hope, perhaps.
With the inclusion in this set of cartoons "Zip 'n Snort", "Ready, Woolen, and Able", "Tweet and Lovely", and "Feather Dusted", the LOONEY TUNES GOLDEN JUBILEE VHS videocassette range of 1985 and 1986, is at last now obsolete, fully disposable, for cartoon collectors, as every cartoon on those videotapes, is now on DVD or Blu-Ray. The 1988 CARTOON CAVALCADE videotapes are one cartoon away from likewise being rendered obsolete, the one cartoon still awaited to being that to fruition, being "A-Lad-in His Lamp".
It is nice to see so many Tweety cartoons on Blu-Ray disc two, but I would have preferred to see more of them on the first Blu-Ray disc, more of the Tweety cartoons not previously on North American DVD, as there is still quite a large number of those. Including a handful of them never having had a DVD release, and some ("Tom Tom Tomcat", "Trick or Tweet", "Tweet Dreams") having had no home video release at all. I am, however, very pleased that "Tweety's Circus" will be available to watch in High Definition. "Tweet and Lovely", too. Two of my favourite cartoons with Tweety and Sylvester.
All for today.
Sunday, May 4, 2025.
Star Wars. There. I said it. Now, to move onward.
There is a Space: 1999 celebration scheduled this September in Los Angeles. Since Nick Tate "let loose" his invective toward Fred Freiberger and Season 2 in London last September, I have been paying less attention to the goings-on in Space: 1999 fandom than ever before. The organisers are trying to find some guests who have never before been to a Space: 1999 fan gathering. And Gianni Garko is announced as having plans to attend. He was the foremost fan favourite at the London Space: 1999 celebration, and I am sure that he will be very greatly appreciated again in Los Angeles.
Frankly, I have more of my attention and passion invested elsewhere these days. In the pursuit of just staying alive and propertied in the long term, as my country continues to vote for politicians aligned with ideologies calling for zero ownership on the part of the average Joe, oppressive uses for technology, government from on-high, and compulsory, cursorily tested medical procedures heedless of the concept of idiosyncratic bodily protocol, I have delved into involvement in the political process, at least through the use of social media. The recent Canadian election has been the focus of almost all of my time on the Internet over the past month. And the outcome of the election is even more dispiriting than the persistently cloudy, wet, and cool weather.
New Brunswick is at present locked in a stationary weather pattern. Low-atmospheric-pressure weather systems are not moving swiftly out to sea as they normally do, but lingering, pulling moisture from the Atlantic Ocean, and persisting in spitting drizzle, wind-swept drizzle, over me as I endeavour to do my daily walks. Chilly winds blow from the northeast (the damnable Labrador Current). And the sun may only appear in brief glimpses as there are occasional, very short-lived breaks in the clouds.
This is an all-too-familiar springtime weather phenomenon in Atlantic Canada in recent years. After protracted winters, it is despicable. If New Brunswick were not where I was raised, came of age, and lived the entirety of my adult life, would I leave it? It is certainly not the weather that is keeping me here. Nor the political climate. Sentimentality. Nostalgia. Being close to the memory of my parents and my friends in my house, my neighbourhood, and various places in both Fredericton and Miramichi City. Those are the bonding agent for me. But the day may not be far away now, when I will need to leave my habitat to escape the life-and-liberty-and-happiness-threatening diktats of a despotic government. Leave New Brunswick, leave eastern Canada, or maybe Canada as a whole.
LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 1 is now available at Amazon.com for pre-order. And its back cover has been made visible. Here is that back cover.
Word is that the second volume for LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT will be coming this autumn. Unless sales of VOLUME 1 are abysmal. Which I do not expect them to be. There appears to be a good deal of excitement for this Blu-Ray release.
The Imprint UFO box set is now on the market. Early reviews of it are mixed. One person is saying that its High Definition video is marred by excessive digital video compression artifacts, hampering the expression of fine detail in the image, and with "crushed blacks" further limiting detail. That person says that Network Distributing's encode of the episodes is far superior to that of Imprint, despite having a lower bit rate. Another reviewer contends that the episodes on the Imprint Blu-Rays have a more naturally film-grainy look to them, and that inkier blacks are more appealing visually. Both reviewers say that the episodes look more colourful, more saturated, on the Imprint Blu-Rays. As one who ultimately judged Imprint's Blu-Rays of Space: 1999 to lag behind those of Network with regard to detail and vividness in the episodes, I find myself tending more to accepting the former of the two reviews as definitive. But it can only matter not for me, as I simply cannot afford to purchase this new UFO Blu-Ray box set. It would cost me two hundred and fifty of my plummeting-in-value Canadian Loonie dollars, and that would be before the tariffs likely to be charged on the package before its entry into my country. I just cannot justify that expense, with the struggle I that I am currently having in keeping my home heated and food on the table. I am eating two meals, sometimes only one, a day now. Not three. And with this I am just "breaking even" with my two-week income. Soon, I will be needing to dip into my retirement savings just to survive. My cat needs a veterinarian check-up, having not had one for years, and I have already had to splurge to purchase a new suit for work. Plus, I am seeing a growing patch of rust on the metal of my car. Below the driver side door. Body work imminent there. I need to save my money. I will buy LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 1. That is all that I can afford in the coming months. Besides, as I have said, I am not so ardent a fan of UFO as to keep spending money on more and more new home video releases of it. In all honesty, I only really like about half of the episodes. The ones filmed at Pinewood, mostly. Those of production block two.
All for today.
Saturday, May 24, 2025.
Fifty years ago, the twenty-fourth of May was a Saturday. Sunny, unlike today. My friend, Michael, was with me and my parents from 6 P.M. to 7 P.M. whilst The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour flashed on the living room television screen and my audiocassette recorder was capturing every precious sound from the television speaker. Cartoons "Pre-Hysterical Hare", "Tweet and Sour", "Whoa, Be-Gone!", "Hot Cross Bunny", "Muzzle Tough", "Bugs' Bonnets", and "Out and Out Rout" were on the slate that evening as expected. Followed by an unexpected inclusion of "Dr, Jerkyl's Hide", inserted betwixt the final scene of "Out and Out Rout" and closing credits. To fill some surplus airtime. It was trimmed short at the part of it wherein a monstrously transformed fly is throwing bulldog Alfie repeatedly over its shoulder. Michael and I bicycled at 7 P.M. to the Douglastown general store for an evening snack. Good times. Some of the very best.
Nowadays, even a sunny weekend day is too much to ask. As for being in the company of a friend as I watch a favourite television show. Far, far too much to ask, that. Long gone in the distant past, that is.
I have not had much about which to write, this past month. And I have not felt much like writing. I am still deeply demoralised over the election last month and what I think that it bodes. And the weather in what has always until this year been a favourite month of mine, has been awful. Aside from a string of three days on which I had to work long hours. Those were sunny and summer-like. And of course, I was not able to enjoy them. Indeed, every day that I have not had to work this month, the weather has been drizzly, chilly, windy, with the Labrador Current manifest almost constantly. It is that bad Karma of mine, again. Which I appear to be damned-with, for whatever time I have left on this moral coil.
Less than six months after its last labour stoppage, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers is now threatening to discontinue working and to picket yet again. Once more logjamming the flow of letters and parcels for who knows how long. As Amazon.com does not use Canada Post, I expect that my wait to receive of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 1 next month, will not be any more protracted than it is under the present norm. Though that present norm can be quite a trial in and of itself. Gone are the days when a DVD or Blu-Ray order from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk reached me within a few days of shipment on release date. Now, a wait of two to three weeks, is not uncommon. And three weeks can sometimes be too optimistic. Oh, and I relented (of course, I did; no bloody-minded willpower have I) and did buy the Imprint Blu-Ray box set of UFO. Why? Well, I just could not quell my curiosity over how the episodes look. I want to see for myself how they compare on the Imprint Blu-Ray discs with their look on the Network Distributing Blu-Rays. I cannot realistically expect to see that box set at my door for at least another few weeks.
Another nest of second-season-loathing Space: 1999 fans has popped out of the woodwork to pollute a recent discussion on one of the publicly viewable Space: 1999 Facebook groups. It is the usual invective. Launched over disdain over what seems to be a favourite "whipping boy" of late, the episode, "One Moment of Humanity". An episode that contains not a single rubbery skinned alien creature of which detractors of Season 2 are so fond of bemoaning, but whose dance scene now appears forever to invite heaps of derision, before a broader, second-season-spanning spewing of hate, and the usual characterisation of Mr. Fred Freiberger as "wrecker-of-all-good-science-fiction". I blocked everyone involved. Once again. But I just cannot seem to block enough people to be rid finally of the pugnacious, obnoxious abuse hurled at everything from "The Metamorph" to "The Dorcons" and at anyone who fancies all of that. I have defended "One Moment of Humanity" many a time over the past ten years. I do not feel inclined today to undertake another defence of same. There is nothing new in the bile being flung, anyway. It is the same old, same old. My earlier defences will stand.
Strangely quiescent are the news sources surrounding Space: 1999's fiftieth anniversary Blu-Ray set. Which I presume is due this coming autumn. I have nothing new to report or to comment-upon, on the subject.
I do not expect to write another Weblog entry until I have either the Imprint UFO set or LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 1 in my possession. That will be weeks away. No updates have been done on my Website's many other Web pages, and I do not expect there to be any. I am not motivated to add more to McCorry's Memoirs or to the Web pages dedicated to specific entrtainments. Visitor traffic is abysmally low across the board. Yes, including that to this Weblog. Most places in the world besides mine, it seems, people are outdoors enjoying the nice weather.
All for today.
Sunday, June 1, 2025.
And another May "bites the dust". Raining, of course, on its final day. The rainiest May in my nearly sixty years of memories. Every weekend this May was thoroughly overcast and rainy or drizzly almost without relent. Because I had long work schedules on the weekdays, I was unable to enjoy much of the sunny weather that was to be had by New Brunswick over the past thirty days. I am no doubt very deficient in Vitamin D. Which might explain why I am having pains in my right foot as I endevour to walk (umbrella in hand for that, of course).
Predictably, the Imprint UFO Blu-Ray box set still has not arrived at my door. It is still in transit. Tracking records indicate that it still has not left the U.K. from where it was dispatched to me. What in God's name has happened to Amazon.co.uk delivery time standards? Used to be I would receive in no more than a week any package, large or snall, sent to me from Amazon.co.uk. And in some cases in as little time as a few days. Is this one particular part in a wilful diminuation, by the powers-that-be, in standard of living across the Western world? Must we accept reduced standards in everything in our lives, including the delivery time of items that we purchase?
I am certainly not optimistic for a timely arrival into my hands of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 1.
It being fifty years since Space: 1999's first airings on television, I suppose that it was inevitable that some broadcaster somewhere would give to Space: 1999 a run this year in recognition of its half-century anniversary. Enter Frissons TV, which, says Wikipedia, is, "...a Canadian French-language commercial-free Category B television channel owned by IO Media." Category B comprises television stations whose fare is primarily non-Canadian in origin, and that are classified as being specialty or niche television channels, i.e. those not in competition with Category A (core) television services. Category A television services that are the ones in the basic cable television packages, including the lamentable legacy news media, and traditional Canadian television networks and the drabness of current fictional material that they offer. Frissons TV focuses its television programming upon productions of the horror genre. And no doubt the body horror to be found in some Space: 1999 first season episodes, is what qualifies Space: 1999, or Cosmos 1999, for inclusion on the Frissons roster.
I do not have Frissons. I do not know if it is available in Fredericton. And even if it were, I would not pay for an upgraded cable television package for receiving it. Money for me now is very precious. My friend, Michel, in Quebec has Frissons on his cable television dial and is providing to me all of the information that I am about to convey to my readership.
Frissons is airing two Cosmos 1999 episodes weekly. At 7 P.M. on Wednesday and Thursday. The episodes are being shown in production order. "A la Derive" and "Question de Vie ou de Mort" were broadcast this week, with "Le Soleil Noir" and "L'anneau de la Lune" coming next week. The episodes are not being sourced from the 1970s Cinelume Productions film prints. Rather, from the late 1990s Carlton Communications film-to-video transfers, English text for all of the titles. They look as they do on the French TF1 DVDs. Possibly those DVDs are being used as Frissons' masters for the episodes. The visual quality is definitely not 2020s standard. And if anyone was hoping to see the episodes as they were in the 1970s on Radio-Canada, no such luck to be had. I do tend to wonder if the Cinelume film prints continue to exist, or if they do, whether they are of a quality fit for broadcast, or for commission for a home video release. If the film elements have deteriorated to a catastrophic degree, could the Cinelume versions of the episodes not be meticulously recreated with the most recent High Definition Granada source materials, using textless footage overlain with text in the Space: 1999 titles fonts? I should think that they could be, if someone had the will to undertake doing it.
Alas, with Frissons, what one now sees is what one probably will "get", with the balance of the episodes. Or at least those that Frissons chooses to air. Why do I have the feeling that Frissons will opt not to provide any of Season 2? Transmitting only the first season that had science fiction-horror as one of its facets? Time will tell if Season 2 will receive the nod.
Staying on the subject of Space: 1999, I am reporting that Jeffrey Morris' documentary, The Eagle Obsession, is now completed. A final trailer for it is due this month. It will not see availability for a wide audience until this autumn. With a Blu-Ray release imminent after that. Mr. Morris has written a report on the documentary at the present, final stage of its development, and that report is available through this Hyperlink.
The Eagle Obsession: A Personal Milestone and a Dream That Endures
The wide-eyed child that was me in 1976, 1977, 1978, existing within me now as an almost totally inert force after years and years and years of beleagurement, cannot help but be impressed by what he sees in what Mr. Morris has accomplished. And crave to have it. Child me wanted anything, anything, to do with Space: 1999. Now, I am much less inclined to that way of thinking. I will not yield to the impulse of child me to "snatch up" the latest Space: 1999 product. Not with my animus for the Season 2 hating society.
It is a pity that the dark side of Space: 1999 fandom has again thwarted what momentum of enthusiasm that was starting to build within me, for some new and wonderful Space: 1999 project. Now, Mr. Nick Tate is very much a vocal proponent of that dark side, and his involvement as a major interviewee in the documentary, strains intensely my capacity for embracing this project. And other people in the documentary have expressed their disdain for how people such as myself appreciate Space: 1999. I cannot justify to myself an endorsement or a patronage of anything that those people appear in, are a part of, no matter how impressive the project, overall, may be. Not after all of the "aggro" that I have had to endure from people like them. I resent those people bitterly. And I am still resolved that I am done with Nick Tate. My repulsed and alienated feelings regarding him and his tirade at the celebration last September, have not abated.
All for today.
Saturday, June 7, 2025.
All of eastern Canada is under a blanket of smoke from wildfires blazing in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The smoke is so intense that it is causing authorities to issue stay-indoors advisories, and is so widespread that it has reached the southern U.S. and Europe. Is not this just "peachy"? When we finally see an end to a long winter and the seemingly interminable spring rain with chilly Labrador Current temperatures, when the warm weather finally arrives, we are inflicted with this. God, I miss the twentieth century more and more. The latter half of it. Yes, there were forest fires back then, but not like this.
Prentis Hancock has died. I have had the sad duty of adding him to the In Memoriam section of The Space: 1999 Page. In addition to his having played Controller Paul Morrow in Season 1 of Space: 1999, in all episodes of that bar "The Infernal Machine", Mr. Hancock was a familiar face on other television programmes of interest to me. He was four times in Doctor Who (in serials "Spearhead From Space", "Planet of the Daleks", "Planet of Evil", and "The Ribos Operation"). He was in a stand-out episode of The New Avengers name of "Sleeper". He was in Return of the Saint. And he made an appearance in Jekyll & Hyde (1990). Mr. Hancock wrote the forward to a Powys Books Space: 1999 novel about Paul Morrow's departure from Moonbase Alpha, and appeared numerous times at Space: 1999 conventions over the years. He can also be heard on the DVD commentary for Doctor Who- "Planet of Evil" and can be seen in documentaries on same. May he rest in peace.
My Imprint UFO set arrived on Thursday. Hopefully not affected by the smoke in the air. I have played several episodes and can say that for once, Imprint has definitely delivered a far more pleasing visual experience than did Network. The episodes have much better black levels and contrast, and significantly more detail, along with film grain. The episodes look more vivid, more immersive. Now, I will say that there are more film element blemishes visible. It does not appear that Imprint did anything to remove any of that. But it is a "trade-off" for the much superior black levels, contrast, and vividness, that I am willing to accept. The Network UFO Blu-Rays are now obsolete. The additional extras on the Imprint set, are superlative. I enjoyed the new audio commentaries to "The Cat With Ten Lives" and Invasion: UFO, The UFO Documentary looks so much better than it does on the Fanderson DVD, and Darren Nesbitt's brief interview is charming. One of the Blu-Ray discs, the sixth one in the set, has a scratch on it. I have yet to see if that has any consequences on the playing of any of the content. I shall be delving further into the Imprint UFO set this weekend, as I "hunker down" under the smoke.
First reviews of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 1 are appearing on the Internet. Praise is effusive. Sadly, not much attention is being given thus far to the new-to-digital-videodisc and new-to-home-video cartoons on Bly-Ray disc one. I have yet to see a review with screen captures of every cartoon in the set, and that gives comment on every cartoon. The days ahead will provide such, I feel sure.
A big surprise for the Space: 1999 enthusiast. Anderson Entertainment is re-releasing Network's Super Space Theatre box set with some added material. A new documentary on the Super Space Theatre format for Space: 1999 and other Anderson works, one that will doubtless put the one made by Network using a Zoom video interview of David Hirsch, to shame. I never could understand why Zoom was used. Could not an unconnected-to-Zoom video camera have been positioned on site, with Mr. Hirsch looking into that camera simply answering supplied questions, and the video footage then sent on a memory stick? The quality would have been so much better. And no need to mention that pandemic that I prefer never to name, and never to speak-of or hear-about ever again. I am sure that the new documentary will be of a standard at least as laudable as that for the one on the Day After Tomorrow- "Into Infinity" Blu-Ray. In addition to the new documentary, there will be in the set a fifth Space: 1999 "movie", one assembled specially for this new box set. Called Prisoners in Space. It is to be crafted out of the two second season episodes, "Dorzak" and "Devil's Planet". A pair of simultaneously filmed episodes, one in which Landau's Commander Koenig is absent, and one in which Koenig is front and centre of the action, and most of the other characters are nowhere to be seen, apart from memory probe flashback. I think that I know what the editors have done. Have "Dorzak" transpire at the same time that Koenig is engaged in his reconnaissance mission seen in "Devil's Planet", cutting back and forth between the two episodes. I do wonder how this can be made to work satisfyingly. Are Helena, Maya, Tony, and Alan unaware that Koenig is in trouble as they are focused on the matter of Dorzak and Sahala (how could they be unaware?), or are they so "wrapped up" in the intrigue over which of the two, Dorzak and Sahala, is the evil quantity, that they choose not to give much attention to what is happening with Koenig? Maybe have Koenig's crash-landing on Entra happen late during the events of "Dorzak", while Helena is in Dorzak's mind-control and Tony is out of Command Centre and having his brain implanted and Alan is with Sahala. Have Bill and Alibe leave on their rescue mission before Dorzak is defeated. The overlapping of the two episodes would be minimal in this instance. Except for the epilogue of "Dorzak". That would have to be left until Koenig is reported alive and well and on his way back to Alpha. After the epilogue to "Devil's Planet". The light-heartedness in it would be out of place anywhere during "Devil's Planet". I should think.
It will be interesting to see what the editors of Prisoners in Space have decided to do. Interesting, sure. But not compelling. These playful re-edits of the episodes are doubtless fun for the people involved in making them, and I am curious, of course, to see what they have done. But once I have, once the curiosity factor is put to rest, I have scant inclination to revisit the re-edits. The television series-proper is what continues to be enthralling Space: 1999, for me. Though I do admit to some nostalgia for Destination: Moonbase Alpha and the other three Space: 1999 "movies" as they touched my life a long time ago.
Here is an image of the new Super Space Theatre Blu-Ray set, to be released later this year by Anderson Entertainment.
I am still awaiting the Eagle: 1976 that I pre-ordered from Anderson Entertainment, to a sum of approximately a thousand dollars. I trust that the wait will not be for very much longer.
Back I go to the Imprint UFO Blu-Rays.
Thursday, June 12, 2025.
I read this morning on one of the Space: 1999 Facebook groups that Fred Freiberger was an "idiot" who produced American "soap operas". One learns something new every day. Do tell me. Which "soap operas" did he produce? General Hospital? One Life to Live? Dallas, perhaps?
What is a "soap opera" but a drama about people's relationships? Is not such a thing what Gerry Anderson was going-for in the episodes of UFO of which he said he was most proud. "A Question of Priorities", anyone? I sat through that a few nights ago as I watched one of the Blu-Ray discs of the recently released Imprint Blu-Ray box set. I enjoyed it even less then than I did back in 2016 when I was prompted to write a very critical review of it.
I am almost finished watching the Imprint UFO Blu-Rays. I have only one episode, "Flight Path", to go, plus one or two of the bonus features. Imprint threw everything but the kitchen sink onto this box set. Some of the value-added content taxed my patience, as I sat through it. Just seemed to go on and on and on, forever. Image galleries of Japanese model kits, for instance. Or a documentary on the UFO cars repurposed from Journey to the Far Side of the Sun. Or an interview with designer Mike Trim, who is mostly talking about the earlier Anderson television shows with the puppets. And I endured yet another viewing of the "From Earth to the Moon" ninety-minute, unstructured, undisciplined mess of a "making-of" documentary. Anderson Entertainment has improved itself immensely from that, thankfully, in its "making-of" documentary on The Day After Tomorrow- "Into Infinity".
I have said it before, and I will say it again. I am not an ardent fan of much of UFO that was filmed before a pause in production and the coming onto the scene of David Tomblin. The first thirteen or fourteen episodes, can be tasking for me to watch with some appreciable amount of summoned enthusiasm. With episode fifteen, "E.S.P.", the television series finally starts "clicking" for me. And I can say that I like everything that comes after that, wild and improbable though some of it may be.
Oh, I suppose that the opening episode, "Identified", is adequate as an introduction. Talky, slow, not much action, and what little that there is, is in the "hook" of the episode, or in its third, not its fourth, act. No traditional episodic structure with a fourth act action climax. Just a verbose Straker discussing the nature and purpose of the aliens, as the episode moves through its final act toward its conclusion with a funeral. As far as world-building and establishing of characters go, it it serviceable. "Exposed" is effective as a vehicle for bringing the character of Paul Foster into the proceedings. I like that one. There is some action in it, and it moves along at a fairly brisk pace. "Computer Affair" has a handsomely set-up, suspenceful confrontation with a couple of aliens in the northern frontier of my great (these days, not-so-great) country. Very nice visuals. I give to that one a passing grade. "The Square Triangle" benefits from the presence of Patrick Mower (later geologist Dave Reilly in Space: 1999- "All That Glisters") and an interesting, if tediously rendered, idea of an alien invasion of a home happening during a menage a trois with murder on agenda. "The Responsibility Seat" is an episode with no alien quantity and is one that would be adaptable for any ITC television series involving a secret organisation. Jane Merrow being in it, does elevate it. Still, I need to be in the right mood for it. "Court Martial" is another episode in such a league. It could be done with any television series wherein secrecy is a paramount concern. Or just an allegation of wrongdoing on the part of someone. With the requisite exoneration of that person as the episode nears its end. Again, another UFO episode for which I need to be in the right mood. "Conflict" and "The Dalotek Affair", though involving an alien machination, are boring. The alien machination not interesting. "Small fry", as alien machinations go. Just interference devices. The less said about "Ordeal", the better. Sometimes, Gerry Anderson struck gold with his it-was-all-a-dream episodes. Sometimes, they were dross. "Ordeal" is in the latter category. Both it and "Close-Up" should not have been commissioned as episodes. "Close-Up" would be, for me, the television series' "clunker". A ridiculous and dull premise. No action at all. Talk, talk, talk, protracted rocket launch scenes, and a laboured character-interaction scene with Straker and Ellis clearly there just to "pad things out", to fill time, and more talk, talk, talk. We are expected to believe that an Earth space probe can follow a UFO, which has been established in episode "Identified" as being capable of travelling at many times faster than the speed of light (never mind the impossibility of that, stated in both The Day After Tomorrow- "Into Infinity" and Space: 1999), all of the way to its planet of origin. Is that planet of origin in another solar system, or has it drifted into ours as a rogue? Like Medusa in Star Maidens. Or like Meta and Ultra in Space: 1999 are thought by many a fan of that, to have done. The idea that a camera can photograph super-detailed snapshots of an alien world, and transmit the photographs back to Earth in a short amount of time, might work if the aliens' world is in our solar system. If not, then forget it. S.H.A.D.O. would be waiting years for the data. If the aliens did not destroy the Earth space probe first. But the photographs do not even look impressive anyway as images of a high definition. The episode is nothing but talk about the project, then a prolonged launch sequence, and then more talk about the project's utility being not what had been hoped. It was a waste of time, we are told. Though it does give to Gabrielle Drake (Ellis) a chance to have her legs zoomed-into by a camera. Just to impress "the dads". I can accept it as canon only as an absurd tale being told by Straker as Straker is lobbying General Henderson for funds for a Space Age microscope. But it ought to have been rejected as a script and not filmed.
Oh, yes. There is "Confetti Check A-O.K.". That is "soap opera" if any episode is. But it is better structured than "A Question of Priorities". I have no issues with how it is written as a developing story. We see how Straker's long hours of work in building S.H.A.D.O. caused the dissolution of his marriage, and are provided with all the scenes needed for understanding how that could, and did, happen. I cannot say that I like seeing Straker slapping his pregnant wife. I cannot see anyone liking that, unless one is a sadist. As the episode is proceeding, we already know its outcome, as the earlier episode, "A Question of Priorities", shows to us that the Strakers divorced. And we know that the child that they have, is doomed to die. So, it is practice of watching a story whose "downer" of an outcome, is inevitable. Not an episode that one feels inclined to often revisit. Unless one enjoys watching married couples fight and ultimately go separate ways, with much hollering and hysterics.
Ah, but "old Freddie" was the "soap opera" producer. Oh, right. All of his episodes of Space: 1999 and Star Trek had science fiction/fantasy concepts to them, but let us just brand him as an "idiotic" producer of "soap opera", and leave it at that. Needless to say, that person saying such, has joined the hundreds of others to have received a Facebook blocking by me.
With the Imprint UFO box set, I have purchased UFO for the last time.
All for today.
Just a week since I had the sad duty to report the death of Prentis Hancock, I am having to report the loss of another member of cast of actors and actresses of the inaugural season of Space: 1999, as Clifton Jones has also left this mortal coil. He died a couple of days ago.
The Jamaican-born actor Clifton Jones was cast in the role of computer specialist David Kano for the second produced Space: 1999 episode, "Matter of Life and Death", after his predecessor, Lon Satton, playing computer expert Benjamin Ouma, had proved to be too difficult for director Lee H. Katzin to work with, and was dropped from the television series. What became of the Ouma character was not mentioned, and Kano made an immediate impression with cheerfulness and untrammelled professionalism as a man who believed in the supreme importance of computers in any space exploration initiative, and in their ability to accurately prognosticate the number of future encounters of Moonbase Alpha with planets. Kano had rather a rough go where Main Mission Control personnel went, all too often having to bear the wrath of an angry Commander Koenig, who for some reason never addressed him by first name. He was thrown across the room by Ted Clifford, sent reeling from an explosion of computer circuits, slapped twice by Koenig on planet Piri while hypnotised, and hit on the head with considerable force by Luke Ferro. He had his own moment of outrage in episode "Missing Link" when he fiercely upbraided a Main Mission staffer for dropping a tray of coffee, leading to a heated confrontation with Paul Morrow (Prentis Hancock). Everyone in Main Mission is "on edge" in "Missing Link" as Koenig appears to the Alphans to be on the brink of death in Medical Centre, and there is uncertainty as to who may succeed him.
Kano could always be relied upon to be there in his revolving chair, providing a computer read-out on the latest urgent concern of the Moonbase Alphans. And in "Mission of the Darians", he receives his overdue opportunity to command Alpha. Sadly, we do not see him doing much of that, as the action in that episode is all on the S.S. Daria. Kano defeats Koenig in a game of chess in "Dragon's Domain", and we see his reactions to Professor Victor Bergman's very affecting valedictory to Alpha in "War Games".
I always liked Kano, though I did prefer to play the part of other characters while with my rather imperious new Fredericton friend, David B., in late 1977. And like him as I do, I understand why the Kano character was dropped for Season 2, as Maya's computer knowledge was much in advance of Kano's, and Kano would be surplus to requirements. Budgeting, and character dialogue time in episodes, was strictly apportioned, I know. It had to be. But there was never a need to "kill Kano off", and indeed his death is not canon, as no mention is made, in any Season 2 episode, of him having died. I do not regard Kano as dying in my chronology for Space: 1999. He might indeed have had command of Alpha again within Season 2, in "All That Glisters". I like to think so.
Alas, I cannot say that I have seen Mr. Jones' work in anything outside of Space: 1999. He was in an episode of The Persuaders!, with Roger Moore and Tony Curtis. One of these days, I ought to avail myself of an opportunity to watch that television series. It is on Blu-Ray. And he had a couple of parts in Star Trek- The Next Generation, sometime after I had lost interest in viewing that. Mr. Jones attended the first Space: 1999 convention, in Columbus, Ohio, in 1978, and he was at the Space: 1999 celebration last September in Heathrow.
May he rest in peace along with his colleagues in Space: 1999 production. There are so few of the first season regular thespians still among us. Only Barbara Bain, Anton Phillips, and Nick Tate. I pray that they have many more years with us yet.
Anderson Entertainment has not forgotten my order of the Eagle: 1976, and it will soon be dispatched to me. There is some good news to be shared this day.
I am awaiting the notification from Amazon.com, that LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 1 is on its way to me. Oh, I have no doubt that I will be one of the last aficionados of the cartoons of Warner Brothers, to receive my copy of this latest serving on Blu-Ray of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. Once I do, and have watched it, I will review it, for what small number of people who do visit this Weblog. There have been more reviews of the Blu-Ray set, some with screen captures and assessments of every cartoon in it. In those reviews, many superlatives and no negatives. And the images are all gorgeous. I cannot wait to have the Blu-Ray in my possession- and I am assuredly going to have to wait.
Nothing more today, Saturday, June 14, 2025.
Sunday, June 22, 2025.
It is now summer. Weather in Fredericton has been consistently cooler than normal in the days leading to the summer solstice. Some hotter weather is expected, at last, in the week immediately ahead. The U.S. northeast is already experiencing it, and it assuredly on its way to my environs.
My wait for LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 1 was not as protracted as I expected. It arrived at my door yesterday. Of course, many cartoon aficionados had already received theirs, and reviews of the Blu-Ray set have been plentiful on the Internet over the past few days. Most of what I have to say as regards video and audio quality will already have been said by others. But I do have some unique perspectives, as my experience of the Warner Brothers cartoons over the course of my life is quite specific to me. Onward, I go.
I went for a watching of the first Blu-Ray disc first, as it contains the new-to-digital-videodisc material. And I bravely leaped into its first cartoon through to the last, dedicating three to four hours of my time yesterday afternoon for the purpose of a start-to-finish viewing of Blu-Ray disc 1. I was immediately greeted with a 1930s cartoon about humanoid dogs in a prison. The inmates and the warders, all of them humanoid dogs. Not my aesthetic favourite, the humanoid dog. And it was seemingly ubiquitous in Warner Brothers cartoons of the late 1930s. The prison gags come at quite a brisk clip. Few of them gave to me any amusement. The 1967 DePatie-Freleng Inspector cartoon about prison life, "Le Cop On Le Rocks", tickles my funny bone far more adeptly and frequently, and one of the gags in that did originate, I think, in the cartoon serving as inaugurator of the first Blu-Ray disc of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 1. But done with much better timing and characterisation in the hapless Inspector. There are no interesting characters to be found in "Bars and Stripes Forever" (1939), and it does overstay what welcome I was willing to give to it. Alas, it is followed by another and another 1930s cartoon. I found those to be no more enjoyable than "Bars and Stripes Forever". "Beauty and the Beast" (1934) was one of the early attempts at a surrealist nightmare in a cartoon, and possibly the first in the books-come-to-life trope utilised by the personnel of Termite Terrace. But, again, the lack of any characters of any interest, hampers the cartoon. It does have some striking visuals of a falling Humpty Dumpty and the titled beast emerging out of a book. But it "fizzles out" fast after the beast is engaged in battle. It just ends without effort at a humourous "payoff" from its events in dreamland. "A Day at the Zoo" (1939) is a typical Tex Avery cartoon with human characters with red noses, and laboured gags that mostly fall flat. These ones involve zoo animals and procedures. "Tweet Zoo" (1957) is much funnier, better timed in its gags, and has, of course, Sylvester and Tweety in all of their appeal as an effective adversarial duo. After three 1930s cartoons "right off the bat", I could not help but feel like my zeal for watching the Blu-Ray disc, was under siege. But finally, "The Dixie Fryer" (1960) came along, and I felt at last that familiar "buzz" of being with Bugs Bunny and company in a bastion of stalwart Saturday entertainment. And "The Dixie Fryer" is magnificent in High Definition. "Each Dawn I Crow", "Feather Dusted", "A Fox in a Fix", and especially "A Kiddies Kitty", are dazzlingly sharp and colourful. Blu-Ray picture quality does to them highly satisfying justice. I must note, though, that there are some peculiarly muffled audio elements in "Each Dawn I Crow". John Rooster's building of a stone wall to block the rising Sun, is scarcely audible. And some of the music sounds suppressed. "Quackodile Tears" looks to have had an excess of digital noise reduction applied. "Terrier-Stricken", is, as noted elsewhere, soft. It also has hissy audio in places. "Tweety's Circus" looks superb, thankfully, but some of its music sounds flat. Including the music when Sylvester is chasing Tweety on the high wire. Most sad, this, as that music is among my favourite cartoon music compositions in the history of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. It sends me back to my earliest viewings of that cartoon on the living room floor of our resplendent Douglastown home. When it is rich and vibrant. Not suppressed, flat. No issues, however, with the look and sound of "Tweet and Lovely", "Ready, Woolen, and Able", "Wild About Hurry", and "Zip 'n Snort". They all greatly impress. "Two's a Crowd" looks a tad on the soft side, but certainly better than it ever has looked before.
I must say that, "The Goofy Gophers" excepted, the pre-1948 cartoons on this Blu-Ray were less palatable for me than the ones on LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE: VOLUME 4. More of a chore to sit through. I will not sit through them again. "Good Night, Elmer" does deserve its reputation for tedium- though I will say that it having Elmer Fudd wielding an axe, does serve as an apt correspondence with "Each Dawn I Crow" on the same Blu-Ray disc. "I'd Love to Take Orders From You", "Let it Be Me", "Robin Hood Makes Good" are all totally unmemorable, and had me pining for a reunion with Bugs and the gang in their cartoons that entertained and stimulated me aesthetically for decades of my existence. "Easy Peckin's" is not one of my favourite post-1948 cartoons. But I would go for it anyday over the 1930s cartoons in this Blu-Ray set.
I have watched some of the cartoons on Blu-Ray disc 2. "Ain't She Tweet" looks exceedingly grainy and soft. Definitely not benefitting from High Definition. I do not know why. Did the curators opt for a DVD-quality film-to-video transfer? "Red Riding Hoodwinked" has a twitchy picture, though certainly colourful and sharp. "Rhapsody Rabbit" is top-quality, looking and sounding glorious. "Hare Trigger" is satisfyingly vivid. And "Little Boy Boo" and "Snow Business" look better than ever. I will comment further on the second Blu-Ray disc in LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 1 when I have viewed more of its content.
Back to that Blu-Ray disc, I go now.
Doing a Weblog entry this drizzly morning of Saturday, June 28, 2025.
Fifty years ago today, also a Saturday, I went with my friends Johnny and Rob to Millerton along the river Miramichi for some afternoon frolic in the upriver water uncontaminated by the discharge from the Newcastle pulp and paper mill. Of course, I did not do much but wade and splash around. But it was a pleasant afternoon with friends under sunny skies and in summertime temperatures. Pleasant but also nerve-racking as I was concerned that I would not be at home in time for The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour at 4:30, or at a possible earlier than indicated-in-newspaper-television-listings airtime. Happily, Johnny and Rob's grandfather arrived to collect us and bring us home with plenty of time for me to spare. And I watched and audiotape-recorded the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner episode that I expected would be shown that day. With cartoons "Duck! Rabbit, Duck!", "Little Boy Boo", "Horse Hare", "Putty Tat Trouble", "Don't Give Up the Sheep", "The Solid Tin Coyote". and "Scrambled Aches". And I remember sitting in our kitchen and listening to that episode on an audiocassette sometime later. Summer of 1975 was now underway, and it would see me through a bounty of memorable experiences. Some unpleasant but the vast majority of them very much to my liking, and quite formative for me at that stage of my development. Formative and vastly appreciated and very fondly remembered. I love those Douglastown years of my upbringing so very much. I marvel at how fortunate that I was to have been afforded them. And The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour was one of their more integral components. It and so much more of what I saw then on television.
I would direct readers of this Weblog entry to my Era 2 memoirs for a comprehensive telling of my gratifying experiences of my Douglastown years. 28 June, 1975 is among the myriad of memorable days chronicled. A time period of my life in which I was blessed with a consistent social life within the quieter, less stressed semi-rural surroundings that I found to be most agreeable to my youthful inclination to deliberation alternated with the non-disrupted, fanciful fun to be had in the company of friends. Wide-open spaces, trails, the shoreline, and a hop-skip away my living room television to convey me to worlds of the human imagination at its most elaborate. I would never have it so good again.
On one of my last days in that habitat, I saw, in French, the Space: 1999 episode, "The Last Enemy". That was in the evening of Saturday, 2 July, 1977. I did not have prior occasion to view the episode of Moonbase Alpha coming upon an interplanetary war and becoming inadvertently caught in the missile-firing ballistics of the hostilities. That watching of the episode in French, was my first experience of it apart from some skimmings of its novelisation in the book, Lunar Attack, that I had bought some weeks before. I tend to associate "The Last Enemy" with early summer because of that broadcast, and also the showing of it in English almost a year later, on June 24, 1978. And last evening, to commemorate my viewings of "The Last Enemy" in the two Official Languages of my country forty-eight and forty-seven years ago, I watched the episode from its Network Distributing encode for Blu-Ray. At times thinking myself back to July 2, 1977 and my being seated in our Douglastown house's living room and casting my awestruck eyes over the visuals of the planet Betha, the Gunship Satazius, and the explosions-filled action of the episode. The reds of Main Mission and Koenig's office under emergency power. Dione in her black leather outfit being "grilled" by an angry Commander Koenig. The Eagles on the launching pads. Koenig observing through binoculars the impacts of the Bethan missiles upon the Deltan enemy. All of it, very striking to my eleven-year-old, impressionable retinas.
I have to this day many an inclination to give to "The Last Enemy" a prized re-watch. It is a first season episode of Space: 1999 that would be more easily adaptable to Season 2 than would be most of its Season 1 brethren. Indeed, if there were to be a modifying of a first season episode to second season style, "The Last Enemy" would top the list for that for me. There is no Mysterious Unknown Force in it. Or at least none that is conspicuously at work to "save the Alphans' bacon". Koenig has to use his ingenuity and some technology to defeat Dione. One could ponder, I suppose, if a deux ex machina was involved in Dione not doing a life form scan of the approaching Moonbuggy, or a scan of it for explosives. Koenig is very lucky that she does not. He is also lucky that the poorly fastened helmet on the dummy Koenig does not fall off of it until after the decoy Moonbuggy is under the Satazius. I love "The Last Enemy". Really, I do. But after my viewing of it last night, I do not think that I will ever be able to un-see something that my eyes discovered. When Koenig is doing his bluff of abandoning his command and is holding Main Mission at gunpoint, there is, under his feet and extending around the Main Mission desk area, what appear to be planks of wood. I do not know why they were there. Why they were put there. When we see the situation from Dione's perspective on the Satazius monitor, the planking is gone- only to reappear when there is a film cut back to the interior of Main Mission. Come on, now. Let us have an in-Space: 1999-universe explanation for this. And it is not a momentary "blooper", gone after a second or two. It is there for much, much longer than that. To be sure, the viewer's eyes are trained on Koenig's arm and hand and on the gun that he is pointing, and on the reactions of the Alphans present to Koenig's bizarre action. I certainly did not notice the planking in the dozens and dozens of times over the years that I have watched "The Last Enemy". But it definitely is there. Of course, if this were in Season 2, it would have long ago been discovered and be an angle of attack against second season as routinely "trotted out" as the splitting of the monster costume in "A Matter of Balance" or wooden beams of the Eagle set being seen behind Helena and Picard in "The Metamorph".
Those scenes of "The Last Enemy" are known to have been among that last ones filmed for Season 1. "The Last Enemy" as originally written had Koenig transmitting the coordinates of Satazius' location to Talos, and the Deltans sending a missile to destroy Satazius with Dione and her crew inside of it. Dione supposedly being unaware of Koenig having sent the coordinates to Talos and being unable to intercept and destroy the incoming Deltan missile. When the episode in its editing process was found to seriously underrun its prescribed time of duration, new scenes had to be filmed, and Koenig's gambit with the dummy Koenig in the Moonbuggy, was concocted. So, "The Last Enemy" went back into production after filming of "The Testament of Arkadia" had been completed. Maybe the Main Mission set had to be reconfigured in a hurry, and there were problems with the flooring. Splits or markings that needed covering over with the planks. Does not explain why the view from Dione's monitor does not show the planks. Was that filmed earlier, when "The Last Enemy" was initially before the cameras? I do not know. But the planks are there in the episode, and I cannot un-see them. Nor can I furnish an explanation in-Space: 1999-universe for them. At least not a ready one.
Moving from Space: 1999 to the cartoons of Warner Brothers. I have watched the entirety of the second Blu-Ray disc in LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 1. "Daffy Dilly" looks soft and a touch blurry. I would say that it looks better, sharper, clearer, within Daffy Duck's Quackbusters on the Blu-Ray of that than it does as a selection in LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT. I have no explanation at my fingertips for how this came to be the case. I have already noted issues with "Ain't She Tweet" and "Red Riding Hoodwinked". Everything else on the second of the two Blu-Ray discs of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 1 is of a quality that I would qualify as surpassing that of the Warner Brothers cartoons on DVD. But I would stop short of saying that the quality is equal to that of the cartoons in the PLATINUM COLLECTION sets. I would gave the edge on sharpness and vividness to those, as I have watched some of the PLATINUM COLLECTION's second volume in recent days post-watching-COLLECTOR'S VAULT. It could be the encode. It could be the calibration of the video monitors utilised by the restorers of the cartoons. But a difference in quality is detectable to my eyes. The best-looking cartoon on Blu-Ray disc two of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 1, is "Rabbit Punch". With "Rhapsody Rabbit" and "Hare Trigger" as runners-up. All of those are pre-1948 cartoons. Interesting.
Jerry Beck and George Feltenstein have again appeared on a podcast, this time to talk about LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 1 post-release of such. The discussion is, predictably, largely about the pre-1948 cartoons in the set, and the 1930s ones, especially. My readers can imagine my facial expressions and sighs as I sat listening to that. And my tapping of my fingers impatiently in wait of something, anything, said about the post-1948s. "Each Dawn I Crow" (1949) is given mention, for it being among three newly restored cartoons for this latest set, and there is a round of plaudits both for the restotation and for the cartoon as written, cartoon-animated, and voiced. Though Mr. Beck admits to not having been a fan of it for some time. "The Dixie Fryer" (1960) and "A Kiddies Kitty" (1955) receive some attention later in the conversation, and with a surprisingly effervescent bearing as to their entertainment and aesthetic value, and Mr. Beck does express some appreciation for Friz Freleng as "A Kiddies Kitty" is being considered. He says that his regard for Friz Freleng has risen in recent years.
The said podcast can be found here.
Opening THE VAULT! LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 1 DISC 1 Review
Sales of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 1 have been impressive for Warner Archive, and I believe that a second volume is a virtual certainly. I do feel some trepidation that what happened with LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE's second volume will have a correspondence with this latest range of product, with the post-1948s reduced to a minimum. I pray not. There are many cartoons that I am hoping to see in LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 2. "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide", of course. And "Tweet and Sour", "I Gopher You", "Trick or Tweet", "Fastest With the Mostest", "Aqua Duck" (I love that cartoon; I love the look of it and its situation), "Don't Axe Me", "Pests For Guests", and several others. LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 2 will probably see release late in the year. November or early December.
I have done some rewording to "Hyde and Hare": An Overlooked Masterpiece. I do not like how I said a few things in it. My reading of it before making the latest modifications, had me wincing in places. So, I have made changes. "Hyde and Hare" is due to "come up" this week in a certain Webcaster's chronologically ordered series of Looney Tunes reviews. There may be some attention anew for my article on "Hyde and Hare", and I want for it to be as presentable and as persuasive as I can make it. I have a distinct feeling that the Webcaster and his guests are not going to be gushing with praises for the cartoon about Bugs Bunny's encounter with Dr. Jekyll. Some of the viewers may be motivated to seek out some other assessments of the cartoon, and my article tends to be near the top in Google Search for "Hyde and Hare".
All for today.
Tuesday, July 1, 2025. Canada Day.
Today, I will be commemorating a Canada Day forty-two years ago. The one on which I saw a matinee showing of Return of the Jedi at Fredericton's Plaza Cinema 1. I recount that day in detail in my Era 4 memoirs. Although I was alone for the majority of that day, including the lunch that I had at Burger King and the viewing of George Lucas' third produced Star Wars opus, I have enormously fond memories of that day, nestled within arguably my best year of my Fredericton existence. My parents were living, and I had a social life, albeit one not as robust and as durable as I then believed it to be. And I was on the verge of acquiring Space: 1999 on videotape, by way of its broadcasts on CBHT Halifax and a soon to be established connection with a video store employee in Dartmouth. Today, I will be revisiting the site of the old Plaza Cinemas and seating myself where I sat in line in wait of the opening of the doors. Now, there is a Dollarama there. And Canada Day being a holiday, I expect that the Dollarama will be closed, and I will not be disturbed in my flashbacks to that sunny Canada Day of so long ago.
I have updated "Hyde and Hare": An Overlooked Masterpiece again. I reconfigured the section dealing with the broadcast, mention in books, and home video history of "Hyde and Hare", so that it reads better, by my reckoning. And I added an image of Daffy Duck's Quackbusters.
As I say, I am expecting some attention anew for my article on "Hyde and Hare" when a certain Webcaster does a review of the cartoon sometime late this week or early next week. That Webcaster this weekend reviewed "A Kiddies Kitty", the cartoon preceding "Hyde and Hare" in release order in 1955. This is the order that his reviews are following. Ergo, "Hyde and Hare" should be next. "A Kiddies Kitty" received rather a tepid reception from the Webcaster and his guests, receiving demerits for its purported oddness, Sylvester being pitiable in the cartoon being a departure, ostensibly, from how he is usually portrayed in Freleng's cartoons involving him. Evidently, divergences from norms do not impress the Webcaster and his guests, and I can only say that this does not bode promisingly for a high regard for "Hyde and Hare". "A Kiddies Kitty" received unenthusiastic 7 and 6.5 out of 10 ratings from the persons in the Webcast. I expect "Hyde and Hare" to score the same or lower.
I have also updated my Era 3 memoirs, adding images of front covers of TV Guide magazine issues of the last four months of 1979. They can be found accompanying my memories of Cosmos 1999's removal from CBAFT in September of 1979.
All for today.
It is the eighth of July, and I am having rather a good month so far, as there are happenings that are giving me some sizable gratification.
Firstly, the weather, and my anticipated summertime liberation from my working life. Summer weather has come at last to Fredericton. Celsius temperatures are consistently in the twenties, and most days, including those of the weekends, have sunshine. It is quiet at work, nothing happening, and I am in a "winding down" process before the start of a five-and-a-half-week vacation at end of work day this coming Friday. A vacation that is forecast to be one of continuing mostly sunny and warm weather. I have ample money for at least a few visits to the Miramichi, which I will undertake within my summer time period of freedom from the daily grind of employed labour.
The next release in the DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION line has been announced. It is Season 13. My favourite of all of the Doctor Who seasons. Following the emergence onto Blu-Ray of Season 7, my second favourite, this past March. Season 13 contains my two most preferred serials in all of Doctor Who's exceedingly long life, "Planet of Evil" and "The Seeds of Doom", and two other stories that I hold also in very high esteem, "Terror of the Zygons" and "Pyramids of Mars". I am not especially fond of the remaining two entries of Season 13, "Android Invasion" and "The Brain of Morbius", but they are not among my least favourite servings of Doctor Who. Both have some faces from Space: 1999 that I am of course appreciative to see, and they are consistent with the Gothic horror element spanning the Doctor Who era of which Season 13 is part.
Season 13 will receive the usual deluxe treatment provided by THE COLLECTION range. An abundance of new bonus material will accompany that which had been commissioned for the Season 13 serials on their DVD releases years ago. Alas, there does not appear to be anything new with regard to "Planet of Evil", beyond the usual "Behind the Sofa" lark. Supplementing its provided full-length version in the set, "The Seeds of Doom" will alternatively be offered in a shortened, "omnibus" re-edit. "Pyramids of Mars" and "The Brain of Morbius", likewise. There will be a biographical documentary on actor Ian Marter, revisits to locations for production of some of the season's serials, and an interview with future Doctor Who director Graeme Harper, who was working under ace director Douglas Camfield on "The Seeds of Doom". And I expect to see vintage documentaries on the making of the six stories. And the excellent overview of the early Tom Baker years of Doctor Who, "Serial Thrillers", that was on the "Pyramids of Mars" DVD in 2004. It and the outstanding comedy, "Oh, Mummy", that also adorned the 2004 DVD platter of "Pyramids of Mars".
No release date yet for DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION- SEASON 13, but I would expect to see it sometime in the early autumn. Several weeks after the people in the U.K. do, as I believe my wait for it while it is in transit, will be another long one.
Here is an image of DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION- SEASON 13. It will be a magnificent addition to my holdings.
Sadly, Prentis Hancock did not live long enough to see "Planet of Evil", in which he guest-starred, reach Blu-Ray.
Other persons from Space: 1999 to be in Season 13 of Doctor Who were Robert Russell, Michael Sheard, Max Faulkner, and Philip Madoc. Season 13 of Doctor Who ran in the U.K. in the autumn of 1975, and was in competition with Season 1 Space: 1999 for British viewers, triumphing over the odyssey of Alpha Moonbase. The "making-of" documentary for "Terror of the Zygons" has some extensive mention of the battle between Doctor Who and Space: 1999 for the watching eyes of the British public at tea-time Saturdays in autumn of 1975 and early 1976, with one of the contributors being disparaging of Landau and Bain and the "Mid-Atlantic" accents replete, allegedly, among players of Space: 1999, and saying that Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen and their fellow British thespians of Season 13 Doctor Who easily won the day over the wanderings of Earth's runaway Moon and the actors and actresses involved with that. Maybe so. But Space: 1999, and not Doctor Who, was the opus of the imagination, that attracted Saturday television viewers in my country in the decade 1970s.
That expected review of "Hyde and Hare" by a certain Webcaster, is now available. It had its YouTube reveal on Sunday. And it pleases me to report that the review is surprisingly very favourable to the Bugs Bunny Jekyll-and-Hyde cartoon. The Webcaster and his guest laud the cartoon in numerous capacities, and, to my great satisfaction, both award to it a nine out of ten rating. Naturally, I am exuberant at hearing all that they have to say. And I do give to their review my whole-hearted endorsement.
Here is an image for it and a Hyperlink to it.
Unpacking "Hyde and Hare" (1955): From Dr. Jekyll to Bugs Bunny!
The review focuses on the cartoon's visual design, its techniques of cartoon animation, its voice characterisation, its references to popular culture of its day, and its divergences from norms for Bugs Bunny, with expressed appreciation for such divergences. It does not go deep into the cartoon's subject matter. There is notation of a foreshadowing in the title card for the cartoon (Bugs casting a shadow), but no statement of foreshadowing in Bugs' actions in the events of the cartoon. Forshadowing in Bugs' actions in the cartoon, imagery, symbolism, correspondences in the characters, poetic justice in what happens to Bugs, et cetera, are not addressed. But being as I was first to notice and acknowledge those things and have claim to the documenting of them, I suppose that I should be happy that I am yet still the only person associated with reveal of them. But others are most welcome to highlight them, crediting me, of course, for having first brought them to the world's attention through my article. Whether or not the review is aware of my article (I believe that at least the guest reviewer is), a decision was made not to go into an intensive analysis of the cartoon, and I am very appreciative of the many compliments that there are, of the cartoon's more surface-level artistry. It is a cartoon that merits praise on a number of levels, and I will be forever grateful that this Webcaster and his guest gave to it some substantial time in the sun. It is "Hyde and Hare"'s seventieth anniversary this year, by the way.
One of the persons in the review's comment section, does make mention of my article, says that it is long-lost and can only be seen archived on The Wayback Machine. This is quite perplexing. Is my article, is my Website as a whole, being "shadow-banned"? I do not know. I have no problems Googling my Website. It always appears whenever I type my name and a particular subject of my writing, into Google Search. Even if I misspell my name. But a "shadow-banning" of my Website in some corners of the Internet could explain why traffic to my Website is so dismally low these days. By the way, the Webcaster's review of "Hyde and Hare" has not led to an uptick in visits to my article, or to my Website as a whole. My jovial mood of late is confounded some, by this.
Website updates. There are a few. My Era 3 memoirs have three newspaper television listings excerpts showing the end of days for Cosmos 1999 on CBAFT in September of 1979. They can be found amongst my memories of that month. I updated "Hyde and Hare": An Overlooked Masterpiece again, changing some of the text, removing what I deem to be a frivolous statement of curiosity and eliminating completely a short paragraph that is, I now judge, verbose and unnecessary. In my early days of Website writing, I could be somewhat overly dramatic in my statements of intrigue over phenomena in favourite works, or excessively expositional, not leaving anything for my readers to infer or deduce.
And I have done some tweaking to images of "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide" on "Hyde and Hare": An Overlooked Masterpiece and in my Era 2 memoirs, removing some digital compression artifacts from them. I certainly wish that "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide" could be on Blu-Ray with a minimum of digital compression. But that is in the hands of the curators of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT, and I have a gut feeling that the second volume of such is going to have on its Blu-Ray disc one, new-to-DVD-and-Blu-Ray cartoons of which post-1948s will be few and far between. As was the case on LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE: VOLUME 2. George Feltenstein says that the intention is to go deeper into the vault as it were, for VOLUME 2 of COLLECTOR'S VAULT, and I regard him as meaning that as focusing largely upon the older cartoons, those of the 1930s. Ah, well. At least I have some of my favourite Doctor Who to which to look forward.
All for today, 8 July, 2025.
Friday, July 11, 2025.
My summer vacation starts this afternoon. And the summer weather is definitely in New Brunswick. This time, to stay for quite a long while. And high temperatures will be in the thirties for most of next week.
I usually do a rather large amount of Weblog entries during my vacation. The same will probably be true this year, despite the fact that Website viewer statistics nowadays are trending ever lower. I continue to write in the hope, slim though it may be, that somehow, some way, my Website will be rediscovered, or discovered for the first time, by people following a posting of its URL at some Facebook group, or some such thing, with a large membership. Some place on the Internet where my Website has hitherto not had any mention. And that some people will be interested enough in what they initially see, to read everything, or nearly everything. I do not believe that there has been any Facebook posting of a Hyperlink to my Website for quite a long time. All that I need is for one person to do so, and a resurgence of traffic could result.
I remember September 13, 1999 and my Space: 1999 Web page being accessed that day 161 times. I do not think it to be at all realistic to hope for a resurgent visit count of that magnitude. But a revival of traffic of maybe a quarter of that, for some of my Web pages, the ones into which I put the most work and most thought, and a sustained revival over several weeks, would certainly bring many a smile to my ageing face.
Ah, but will it ever happen? It did not happen with the recent Webcaster's review of "Hyde and Hare" with one of the commenters referencing me and my article. Said review has received more than seven hundred visits over the past five days. Those are numbers I and my Website could only "pipe dream" about. And it seems that I cannot realistically hope for even the most minimal uptick in visits to my article, after my article has received mention somewhere underneath the review.
And these are not good times for any of my favourite works, in the forum of mainstream, or semi-mainstream, public recognition and approbation. Space: 1999 Blu-Rays or DVDs are no longer to be found on the shelves of the local dealers. Spiderman has been in out-of-print status on DVD now for close to twenty years. Kino Lorber's Blu-Rays of the DePatie-Freleng cartoons are also no longer in print. The Warner Brothers cartoons are now niche on home video, through Warner Archive, rather than being on store shelves. At least not in Canada are they to be found in stores. Blu-Rays and DVDs in general are no longer to be found at popular department stores. And I do not think that The Littlest Hobo is running on Canadian television anymore.
And it appears that my generation, Generation X, is immune for life to nostalgia, most particularly nostalgia for past life experiences involving imaginative entertainment. Or at least, the entertainments that captured my fancy. And I, personally, do not appear to be in the thoughts these days of the people who knew me, once upon a time. Judging by the dearth of "hits" for my autobiographical pages by people in Canada. And I expect that the vast majority of my friends, associates, acquaintances of my early life, are still on Canadian soil. The ones with me on Facebook almost all are.
While on the subject of Facebook, I have to report that despite all of the Facebook blocking of people that I have done these past eighteen months, my eyes continue to be assaulted by disparagement of Space: 1999's second season by the people populating the publicly visible Space: 1999 Facebook groups. One "thread" of discussion of late to subject Season 2 to derision, involves Maya's powers of molecular transformation. I believe that I will venture into the fray today and rebut some of the rather easily rebutted assailings of the abilities of the metamorph from Psychon.
"It's nice how Maya knows all of Earth's animals."
Does she? Does she know all of them? We do not see her change into an aardvark, a turtle, a porpoise, or a lamb. Why assume that because she is familiar with certain canines, certain felines, certain rodents and insects, and species of simian native to Earth, that she knows all of the the forms of Earth animals? Yes, she knows some of them and changes into some of them. Through the same process by which she knows Mr. Hyde, she can know the forms of Earth animals. Research. And there having possibly been life forms of similar construction on Psychon, helps her in assuming the forms of certain animals from Earth.
"There's the one where she turns into a martial arts person with a pole for a weapon.
WHERE DID THE POLE COME FROM??"
Ah, me. It is clear that in her transforming into other living things, some inanimate matter can be metamorphosed too, Her clothing. Her commlock. Her laser gun. The Kendo pole that the commenter is referencing is formed out of other inanimate matter that Maya was carrying when she and Tony were attacked by an alien-controlled man named Sandstrom. Specifically, the data stick containing the video recording from Alan and company. She even points that stick like a Kendo pole before transforming. A viewer not hopelessly blinkered against all things Season 2, ought to be able to intuit that the data stick became the Kendo pole. The data stick might have more compressed molecules than the Kendo pole and be of similar mass, though different size.
And the fact that this incident is in "The Bringers of Wonder", would give to me impetus to grant to it some leeway in the direction of surrealism. Alas, I cannot elaborate further. Dean, again. Is that man ever, ever going to publish his project?
"That pole is called a Kendo but yes, where did she get a Kendo from and how did she have a black belt in something that takes years to master?"
She has been on Alpha for years prior to "The Bringers of Wonder". She might have been practicing Kendo in her spare time. As Koenig and Luke Ferro are shown to be doing in Season 1's "The Testament of Arkadia". She might have been dedicating her off-duty time to it, for some Alphan years. Alternatively, Maya is an alien, and proficiency in Kendo might not require years of training. And I am not certain that years of training are essential to be able to Kendo fight as Maya does in the scene being cited. She is not exactly combatting another fitted Kendo fighter, when she is in battle with Sandstrom. Sandstrom may not know Kendo at all. Also, he was not expecting Maya to turn into the Kendo fighter. Maya surprised and flustered him. And the aliens controlling him, too, no doubt.
Enough on Space: 1999 and the incessant sniping at everything post-first-scene-of-"The Metamorph". I propose to return to the subject of nostalgia. When I write of my generation being lacking in it, at least with regard to imaginative works of yesteryear, I ought to qualify that such a description is not applicable to all people. The vast majority, yes. But not all. It does not apply to me, of course. And two of my friends have expressed nostalgic fondness for entertainments that we once embraced. And sadly, both of those friends are now dead. Sandy and Ev. Alas, they would appear to be the only old friends of mine, to have that fondness.
Ev and I were watchers and audiotape-recording-makers of the weekly Friday broadcasts, in autumn of 1974, of the Planet of the Apes television series. It came to an end after just fourteen episodes, and I do not believe that either of us saw the opening episode. Our shared following of that television show is one of my most cherished memories of my friendship with Ev. And I always think of Ev when I hear the final passages of pre-end-credits music in a number of the episodes, as our fugitive heroes are bidding farewell to their latest friends and walking toward the horizon. Ev and those old days in Douglastown that I will forever treasure. I am so grateful to my parents for giving to me those old days.
I was reminded recently of the Planet of the Apes television series, in reading of the death of Lalo Schifrin, who wrote the main-title and incidental music for it. Including the music to which I refer in the immediately above paragraph. He also composed the music for Mission: Impossible, Mannix, and Starsky and Hutch. May he so rest in peace.
Ev and I did not know it at the time, but Planet of the Apes' fate was in the hands of television network executives in the country to Canada's south. Those of CBS. Planet of the Apes might have had scant competition for viewers in Canada's eastern Maritimes where we lived, but in its native U.S. it was pitted against NBC's hugely popular Sanford and Son and the "break-out" "hit", "Chico and the Man". It and ABC's Kung Fu were on the losing side in the battle for ratings numbers. Kung Fu fared better among the defeated parties, with Planet of the Apes being mired in third place. And CBS' powers-that-be were pitiless in reacting to the ratings data for their television network's science fiction/fantasy opus. Rather than move Planet of the Apes to another night to see how it may do there, the suited men in the CBS boardrooms promptly wielded their axe.
Here are listings in TV Guide's Central Indiana edition for Friday, November 8, 1974, showing the Friday night competition in action between Planet of the Apes and its rivals for the affection of the U.S. television audience. The episode of Planet of the Apes was "The Horse Race".
James Naughton is the only surviving member of the regular cast of actors in Planet of the Apes. Ron Harper died not long ago. Roddy McDowall and Mark Lenard have been dead for decades. Booth Colman died eleven years ago.
It has been said that Space: 1999's situation as a syndicated rather than television network offering, was in part a result of the Planet of the Apes television series having been given the go-ahead for autumn of 1974, before Lew Grade and his associates came calling at CBS's door with offer of Space: 1999. CBS already had a science fiction/fantasy property slotted for the 1974-5 television season, and said, "No, thanks," to the men of ITC. ABC and NBC also said no, and the rest was history known very intensively to the fandom for Space: 1999.
But I digress. Back to Planet of the Apes. A DVD release of the Planet of the Apes television series in 2001, was a most delightful surprise. Never before had the television series of Planet of the Apes been graced with a home video release, and I believe that it was public interest in Planet of the Apes in all of its incarnations, following Tim Burton's 2001 Planet of the Apes movie, that sparked Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment to grant to the television series a DVD set. Unfortunately, a Blu-Ray release for Planet of the Apes' iteration in series television is elusive to this day, and seems unlikely to ever happen.
All for today.
Tuesday, July 15, 2025.
Hot weather has established itself in Fredericton today and for the remainder of the week. I beared the heat today to go to University of New Brunswick campus and remember my university years as I walked the corridors and sat in some of the auditoriums and classrooms. Not my best years, those, but they sure do have an allure now. Oh, to be young again, my parents alive, and to be in the company of friends again, even if friendships were in their decline!
Imprint in Australia is poised to announce a new Blu-Ray release involving Space: 1999, for this coming September. The significance of the month is evidently not lost on the decision-makers at Imprint. It could be a deluxe fiftieth anniversary box set, with all content from Imprint's ULTIMATE EDITION plus the alternate edits of "Breakaway" and other episodes, from Martin Landau's private collection, and possibly also Jeffrey Morris' documentary, and the restored-by-Network versions of the Super Space Theatre "movies". The announcement is due tomorrow. I will report on it post-haste once I have read it.
I am ecstatic to have found a couple new videos of New Brunswick Highway 8 passing through Newcastle, Nordin, Douglastown. Both are from 1973, when I was living in Douglastown! One of them goes in the opposite direction to all others, permitting one to see the architecture of the Miramichi region communities from different and sometimes better revealing angles. Moreover, the quality is better than what I had to contend with in the 1971 video last autumn. I am doing screen captures of them now. I do not see me in them, but I might be seeing my friend Michael and his mother, Michael on a tricycle, on the Douglastown main road's sidewalk, in one of them.
All for today.
Wednesday, July 16, 2025.
The announcement by Imprint concerning Space: 1999 and this coming September, has come. And it is underwhelming. Quite underwhelming. It is not a fiftieth anniversary deluxe box set of all forty-eight episodes, alternate edits of certain episodes from the collection of Martin Landau, and Jeffrey Morris' documentary. All that it is, is Imprint's own release on Blu-Ray of the Super Space Theatre Space: 1999 "movies" as restored by Network some four years ago, with a couple of new audio commentaries (one by Jonathan Wood, the other by Chris Drake and Ian Fryer) added, plus a hardcover hundred-page booklet and Imprint's custom Hardbox packaging. All for the price of $99.95, Australian currency. One's mileage will vary depending on how much that one values the "movie" edits, how much of a completist that one is, how desirous that one is of having an Imprint set for Super Space Theatre Space: 1999 in the same style of packaging as that of Imprint's Space: 1999 ULTIMATE EDITION set, how interested that one is in the new audio commentaries, and how intent that one is to have the "movies" without Region B encoding (Network's release of them in 2022 was Region B, whereas Imprint's set will be region-free). And if one is either unaware of, or knows about but does not want, the more embellished Anderson Entertainment release of the "movies".
Here is an image of the front cover and spine of the Imprint Space: 1999 Super Space Theatre Blu-Ray box set.
So the "movies" have now had three releases in the years leading to the golden anniversary for Space: 1999, while the television series-proper is constituted in Network's old Blu-Rays from 2010 and 2015, Shout! Factory's Blu-Ray set of 2019 of distinctly lesser picture quality, and Imprint's 2021 ULTIMATE EDITION that does not quite match Network's picture quality for the episodes and that "broke up" the "These Episodes" documentary. Space: 1999 in my collection consists of Network's Blu-Rays of the forty-eight episodes, Shout! Factory's bonus Blu-Ray disc, the Super Space Theatre set of Network, Anderson Entertainment's The Day After Tomorrow- "Into Infinity" Blu-Ray (inserted between the two Space: 1999 seasons as it is in Space: 1999- The Vault), and the Fanderson documentaries DVD. I do not feel compelled to replace the Network Super Space Theatre set with Imprint's, and I have also decided not to "take the plunge" to buy the Anderson Entertainment set of the "movies". I just cannot justify the expense. And I have to say that I am not a fan of the "Return of Victor Bergman" fan-produced short film that is being included as an extra in the Anderson Entertainment set. It does not "gel" with what is said in "The Exiles" (the Alphans expressly not knowing how to perform suspended animation), and it makes no sense for Bergman to have been in suspended animation and yet to have aged considerably. And much as I respect Barry Morse, I think that it was a mistake for him to do this. To pander to fans. He ought to have let the character of Bergman rest with what was done, or not done, in the 1970s, and not revisit it. Just say that it was part of his past as a "jobbing actor", and should stay in the past. And my opinion of the short film is coloured somewhat, I admit, by my antipathy for one of the individuals, one of the fans, involved in its making. I just cannot sanction having any Space: 1999 item involving that person.
So, it seems that 2025 is going to go easy on my finances where Space: 1999 is concerned. Of course, I spent a pretty penny on the Eagle: 1976, which I am still awaiting. But that money was allocated to the said product in my purchase of it last September, from my 2024 budget. 2025 has so far seen no monies spent by me on Space: 1999. Only Doctor Who and the Warner Brothers cartoons have given me impetus this year to part with my money.
I propose to go back to what I said about the adversarial pairing of Tweety and Sylvester, and it having been effective. I can see some individuals of the hate-Freleng's-Tweety brigade having contention with me saying that, and claiming that Tweety-and-Sylvester was not effective, and should not have been done, and certainly not for as long as it was done. To this, I counter with clear evidence that Tweety-and-Sylvester was successful as to be part of the a popular culture of North America for numerous decades. The phrase of "I tawt I taw a putty tat", is in the lexicon of the often-cited sayings of cartoon characters. T-shirts with the two characters were in many a store in the 1990s. But I would point most especially to the amount of merchandise for Tweety and Sylvester in the decade of my childhood, the 1970s. Tweety-and-Sylvester as a concept was revisited in long-lived comic book series by Dell and Gold Key. There were plush toys of the two characters. They were on drinking glasses. Tweety was a car decal and ornament. There was a Big-Little Book with the two characters that I remember having in 1976. And numerous other books with the duo were published. Tell-a-Tale Books. Little Golden Books. Colouring books. And there was a View-Master packet of Tweety and Sylvester with three-dimensional pictures of three cartoons, "Bad Ol' Putty Tat", "Room and Bird", and "Tom Tom Tomcat" (I so wish that I could have had that). And in countries outside North America, there were even Super 8 film reels of Tweety and Sylvester cartoons. And the two characters would populate numerous home video releases of the vintage Warner Brothers cartoon shorts.
Were Tweety-and-Sylvester ineffective, if neither character, under Friz Freleng who paired them, had charisma, if the array of situations in the writing and direction of some forty cartoons and the effect of those situations on the minds of the two characters (Sylvester, especially) and on their adversarial interaction, were not yielding of sublimely funny gags that "hold up" with repeat viewing, and were there not any substantial relatability and likability of the characters, Tweety-and-Sylvester's life as a marketable concept would not have been as lasting as it has been. Nowhere near it. Merchandise would not sell in the numbers that it did, and further merchandise would not have been green-lit.
And this is not even mentioning the long history of the cartoon characters' pairing in television broadcasts. They were prominent in The Bugs Bunny Show, one of their cartoons was in every episode of The Road Runner Show, one or more of their cartoons could be found in just about every episode of The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour (same for the ninety-minute Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show), and Bugs Bunny and Tweety (with a Tweety-and-Sylvester, at least one, in the lion's share of its instalments) was a ratings victor for television season after television season from the late 1980s through the 1990s. An ineffective character pairing would not have had so long a life on the television airwaves.
And as to whether or not Tweety-and-Sylvester should have been done. As it gave enjoyment to the number of people that it did over many decades, of course it should have been done. Enjoyment and fascination, in my case.
Here is an assemblage of images of some merchandise with the little birdie and "bad ol' putty tat".
I rest my case.
It is only in the past twenty-five years, wherein the Clampett-boosting naysayers of "the Friz" have held sway in the arena of cartoon pundit opinion, that Tweety and Sylvester have struggled to have their cartoon catalogue released onto DVD and Blu-Ray as extensively as their fellow Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies personages have had theirs on shiny digital videodisc platters. Of all of the major players in the cartoons of Warner Brothers, Tweety and Sylvester are farthest from seeing their vintage, pre-1964 filmography fully represented on DVD and Blu-Ray in North America. This is a post-2000 phenomenon. The two characters had no difficulty having coverage on home video equal to that of the others of their cartoon stable, in the 1980s and 1990s.
All for today. I am sorry for raising the hopes of some readers, only to have to dash them, with regard to Imprint's plans for Space: 1999 in September.
Sunday, July 20, 2025.
I am now into my second week of vacation from work. With my days of complete freedom, I have not done much so far, with regard to travel. This week, I am hoping for a journey to Miramichi, car condition permitting.
I have been mentally going back in time, as liberation from the responsibilties and consideration of work, has my mind unencumbered in its propensity for flashback. And I indulge the flashbacks, giving prolonged thought to them, sparking further instances of sudden recall of past experiences. Oh, how I miss the past decades of my life, especially those when my parents were living, and I had friends visiting me, aiding me in some summertime project, inviting me outside to join them in some fun activity, or just "hanging out" (to use the current vernacular) with me at wherever it was that our meanderings had brought us! Oh, how I miss being young, being naive, protected from the nasty world by loving parents! Oh, how I miss the innocence of youth, the wide-eyed sense of wonder, and the un-jaded outlook that I had! That I had on the world and the imaginative entertainments that my fellow human beings had chosen to bring forth.
This month, on some of the Saturdays of it, I have been commemorating my watchings in 1986 of the earliest stories of Doctor Who, which were airing in July of that year on Maine Public Broadcasting Network (MPBN) on Saturday evenings. "The Daleks" was a two-hour-and-forty-minute affair on 12 July, 1986. And the ninety-minute "An Unearthly Child" and forty-five-minute "The Edge of Destruction" both were telecast on the following Saturday, the former of those two stories having been preempted by MPBN two weeks previous. I inserted my DVDs of these Doctor Who television series entries into one of my Blu-Ray players, and watched them at the same time in the evening as I beheld them on MPBN exactly thirty-nine years ago (yes, 2025 July's Calendar is identical to that of 1986). I have especially vivid memories of watching "The Daleks", or, as I then knew it, "The Dead Planet", on July 12 of 1986. Watching it and videotape-recording it. I was riveted by it. The second story of Doctor Who to go before the cameras, and so much of it was impeccable as high-quality television. For when it was made, in 1963, and for when I was having first occasion to see it, that muggy, mostly overcast Saturday evening in the summer of 1986. MPBN's broadcast of it was glitch-free, and with not a single interruption, MPBN being commercial-free Public Broadcaster. I remember pulling myself away from my television screen about 95 minutes into the story, to pop some popcorn in the kitchen. And I was eating that popcorn whilst the TARDIS crew and their Thal friends were on a mission to penetrate the Dalek city and procure the held-by-the-Daleks fluid link from the Doctor's time-and-space-travelling vehicle.
I have also been watching episodes of Space: 1999 this month in remembrance of my experiencing of them on CBC Television (and CHSJ) in July of 1977 and July of 1978. I have watched "Devil's Planet" and "Missing Link", and plan on watching, also, "The Dorcons", "Mission of the Darians", and "Ring Around the Moon". And today, I plan on watching the final two episodes of Carl Sagan's Cosmos, in reminiscence of my seeing them on Sundays in July of 1983.
There have been, this past week, a couple of developments concerning Blu-Ray releases of entertainment of interest to me. StudioCanal in France has announced a 4K Ultra-High Definition Blu-Ray release of all twenty-six episodes of The New Avengers. For this coming September. I am hoping that this means that The New Avengers will be available, also, on regular High Definition Blu-Ray, as I do not have a 4K Ultra-High Definition Blu-Ray player and have no wish to purchase one. Maybe a U.K. release of The New Avengers on both Blu-Ray formats will be forthcoming sometime soon. Or maybe a release by Imprint in Australia. I think the last of these is a distinct possibility as I seem to recall seeing a cryptically optimistic comment about it some weeks ago. On Imprint's Facebook Web page, I think. It would surely be very nice to upgrade my collection of The New Avengers from the German DVD set of it that I now possess. A DVD set with episodes sourced from less-than-pristine, unrestored reduction 16-milimetre film prints. Word is that the original camera negatives of all episodes have been located and are being used for this upcoming home video release. Steed, Purdey, and Gambit will have never looked so sharp and vivid.
And Warner Archive has revealed that its next Blu-Ray release of cartoon animation will be a complete television series Blu-Ray set for The Huckleberry Hound Show. All 68 episodes as they were originally constituted on U.S. network television with cartoon repeats in numerous episodes of the first season, and commercials involving Huckleberry and his cohort characters for the television show, Pixie, Dixie, Mr. Jinks, and Yogi Bear. The Huckleberry Hound Show saw a DVD release back in 2005, but only of its first season, which did not include the cartoon of most interest for me, "Piccadilly Dilly", nor two other cartoons that I had previously had on VHS videotape, "Spud Dud" and "Science Friction". This Blu-Ray set will comprise the entirety of Huckleberry's tenure as a cartoon personality in a cartoon television programme bearing his name. So, if I buy it, I will have "Piccadilly Dilly", "Spud Dud" and "Science Friction", and all of the blue dog's other outings.
I say if, and not when. Why?
Huckleberry and his cartoons were favoured by me in my early childhood, in the first year or so, that I inhabited Douglastown and our gorgeous house there, as they aired on CKCD weekday afternoons, and thereafter for a few years in French as Roquet Belles Oreilles, on Sunday mornings. But I must say that Huckleberry Hound has not aged particularly well for me. YTV in 1999 ran all of Huckleberry's cartoons, and I watched them, memorably less than enthralled as I did so. Most of the cartoons struggled to keep my attention, and all too often, failed to do so. The situations were not engaging, and the cartoon animation and the designs of milieus, did not impress me. I watched cartoon after cartoon in impatient wait of "Piccadilly Dilly", and when "Piccadilly Dilly" finally appeared, it suffered in comparison with every other Jekyll-and-Hyde cartoon in my experience, including those of Warner Brothers and DePatie-Freleng. It suffered in its cartoon animation, how its version of the meek Doctor with the monstrous failing, was drawn, and in the degree to which its horror elements were portrayed. I am afraid that Yogi's cartoons have aged no better with me. And Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks are limited to cat-and-mouse in domestic home or U.S. intercity locations. And cat-and-mouse is doubtless done so much better, in cartoon animation and gags, in the cartoons of Warner Brothers.
But I may cede to nostalgia for my Douglastown years, powerfully resurgent lately it now is, and buy the Huckleberry Hound Blu-Ray set. And, watching its episodes, in little chunks, seek gratification in what memory triggering may come. And have the satisfaction at knowing that another television programme of my early life, is in my hands.
Word from George Feltenstein is that the film elements used for the restoration of The Huckleberry Hound Show are not all in colour. Some of the interstitial segments and sponsor identifications will be in black and white on the Blu-Rays, as will be the closing credits of the episodes. I cannot help but shake my head. Surely, recolourising cartoons is not as complicated, or as expensive, as the colourisation of something in live-action, cartoon colours being more consistent in backgrounds and across the bodies of characters, than colours in live-action footage of people with numerous subtle variations in structures and in people's skin tone. I hope that this does not mean that The Bugs Bunny Show, when it is released on Blu-Ray, is, too, not going to be in full-colour. Jarring mixes of colour and black-and-white are acceptable if something is a bonus feature. Not, in my estimation, in the main material on a Blu-Ray or DVD release. The fact that Huckleberry Hound on Blu-Ray is not full-colour, will be a consideration in my debates with myself whether to part with my money for acquiring the Blu-Ray set.
The Huckleberry Hound Show Blu-Ray set's release date is August 26.
I am working at present on refining the images gleaned from that video of Highway 8 passing through the Miramichi region of New Brunswick. Some digital painting is needed to remove sunlit car interior reflections and digital artifacts from the screen-captured images. There are several images requiring such work to bring them to my standard. I intend providing them all to my Website's readers. Unfortunately, I do not believe that my Era 2 memoirs, already loaded to the brim with images, can absorb more. These newly attained images will need to go elsewhere. Perhaps in a supplementary image gallery for McCorry's Memoirs Era 2.
All for today.
Thursday, July 24, 2025.
I went to Miramichi City for the day on Tuesday. Stopped at all of the usual places. Walked around. Tried to sit in quiet meditation at a couple of places of my old Douglastown habitat, only to be thwarted by the now-ubiquitous sound of sirens. It did not used to be this way, before 2021.
Apartment complexes keep being built, including several that now blight what used to be a spacious and serene field in Douglastown near to where my late friend, Ev, used to live. Them and "coffin home" rows of single-occupant, density houses. No family-sized houses being built. And yet, with all of the people moving into, or being moved into, Douglastown and Miramichi City, commerce continues to diminish. Crocker's Clothing Store in Newcastle is now gone. It was one of the few, the very few, remaining businesses from my time as a Miramichier in the 1970s. Now, it is no more. And the Chatham Scotiabank is closed. The place where in 1975 I thought that I had lost my parents. I lost them for real, thirteen and fifteen years ago. And now their bank in Chatham, is gone, too.
More and more, it seems that all that there is to find in Miramichi are female vanity places, pharmacies, Money Marts, Tim Horton's (for Canada's coffee addicts to queue), and the requisite grocery and hardware stores. And oh, yes, the car dealership, the most prolific thing of Miramichi City. What of the enthusiast of works of the imagination? Where is he or she to go to buy something to his or her liking, to assuage his or her yearning for some fictional entertainment? Where are the video stores? The book stores? The hobby stores? The electronics stores for buying the media on which imaginative opuses can be libraried? Gone. No more HMV or Radioland. No more Coles, Gallivan's, or Book Mart. No more Dupuis' Store or Leisure World. No more Radio Shack. Yes, I know that most of these places were outlets of national or international chains, and that when those chains went defunct, their Miramichi operations had to cease, by necessity. Of course. But nothing replaced them to service the same markets.
I remember the old Northumberland Square in Douglastown. After my time there, certainly, but I always used to go there when I was visiting. It had the Coles, the Book Mart, the Radioland, and the Radio Shack. And the Zellers and the K-Mart. Now, just a strip mall with a few stores having nothing of interest to me. I eat now at the Harvey's in Douglastown across the road from where Northumberland Square once attracted clientele from all over the Miramichi region. I look across the road, and see a dearth of activity. A few people stepping into a Giant Tiger. That is all. I have to go to Harvey's now if I want a hot dog; the Dairy Queen in Newcastle ceased to make them eight years ago.
If I want to experience the Miramichi as I knew it, I need to go to the videos on the Internet, my autobiography and its images, and my mental time machine.
Which segues me into my next subject of mention. My work on those images screen-captured from that 1973 video. Several of them are ready to present to my Website's readers. Or at least those readers who are interested in my life experiences forming me as an aesthete of works of the imagination. I am in the process of creating a supplementary image gallery to my Era 2 memoirs, for showcasing these newly acquired images. It should be completed within the next month.
All for today.
Saturday, July 26, 2025.
Week two of my five-week vacation is coming to an end. I am experiencing many flashbacks to old times, as my mind is free from care of present-day responsibilities, free to wander into an abundance of past memories spontaneously triggered by sights, sounds, tastes, and smells. This is what vacation is for me. I have no interest in travelling to far-away places hitherto unseen by my eyes, even if I could afford to do so, which I cannot.
I plan on going again to Miramichi City. Either this coming week, or the next. And today, I will be spending a couple of hours of time in Fredericton's Skyline Acres where my grandparents resided in the 1970s, visited by us many times in the years comprising my life's second era, my Douglastown years. And several of my Fredericton years, too, post-1977. I saw a considerble number of Warner Brothers cartoons for the first time while at my grandparents' place, when they had cable television when we did not, when their television set was my gateway to the Saturday morning CBS schedule. And it was in my grandparents' house where I saw the first CBC showing of Space: 1999- "Seed of Destruction", the first CBC showing of Space: 1999- "Devil's Planet", the CBC Christmas rerun of Space: 1999- "The Taybor", the CBC summer repeat of Space: 1999- "New Adam New Eve", first full-CBC-Television network broadcasts of Space: 1999- "War Games", Space: 1999- "Collision Course", and Space: 1999- "The Infernal Machine", and some of the Radio-Canada Cosmos 1999 run of 1976-7, especially "En Desarroi" ("The Troubled Spirit"), while in the company there of my friend, Michael.
DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION- SEASON 13 now has a release date of September 29. I should have it sometime in October. No news about LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 2 or about what, if anything, will be released of Space: 1999 aside from Imprint's nod to Super Space Theatre. And no further information has come to light with regard to The New Avengers.
Here is a list of the cartoons that I would like to see on the Blu-Ray discs of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 2. I would settle for a small cross-section if it, provided that such cross-section include "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide". And "Tweet and Sour", "I Gopher You", and "Trick or Tweet" too. And "Hyde and Hare" in High Definition too, of course. These are what I am most desirous of seeing on the next Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Blu-Ray set.
"A-Lad-in His Lamp"
"Aqua Duck"
"Bone, Sweet Bone"
"Boston Quackie"
"Cats and Bruises"
"Don't Axe Me"
"Dr. Jerkyl's Hide"
"Fastest With the Mostest"
"Hop and Go"
"I Gopher You"
"I Was a Teenage Thumb"
"Of Thee I Sting"
"Pests For Guests"
"The Rattled Rooster"
"Rushing Roulette"
"Saps in Chaps"
"A Sheep in the Deep"
"The Slick Chick"
"Sock a Doodle Do"
"Sport Chumpions"
"Three's a Crowd"
"To Itch His Own"
"Trick or Tweet"
"Tweet and Sour"
"Tweet Dreams"
"Zoom at the Top"
"Bacall to Arms"
"Bad Ol' Putty Tat"
"Bunker Hill Bunny"
"Calling Dr. Porky"
"Crowing Pains"
"Daffy Duck Slept Here"
"The Ducksters"
"Kit For Cat"
"Hare Remover"
"Have You Got Any Castles?"
"The Heckling Hare"
"The Hole Idea"
"Hurdy-Gurdy Hare"
"Hyde and Hare"
"Porky's Hero Agency"
"The Prize Pest"
"Putty Tat Trouble"
"Raw! Raw! Rooster!"
"Scrambled Aches"
"Stage Door Cartoon"
"There They Go-Go-Go!"
"Tweety's S.O.S."
"Two Scent's Worth"
"Water, Water, Every Hare"
"West of the Pesos"
Yes, I am fair-minded enough to include a sizable number of pre-1948 cartoons. Which is more than I can say for the want lists of the more rabid pre-1948 cartoons' pundits where post-1948 cartoons are concerned. Fair-mindedness never enters their brains. They openly proclaim their desire to see an end to post-1945 cartoons on the Blu-Rays, and to have only cartoons prior to 1945 populate the Blu-Ray disc platters.
I propose now to return to my coverage of the merchandising of the Tweety-and-Sylvester concept. I made mention of a View-Master packet of Tweety and Sylvester containing three-dimensional pictures of cartoons "Bad Ol' Putty Tat", "Room and Bird", and "Tom Tom Tomcat". Here is the front of that View-Master packet, along with images of a Tweety Pez Dispencer and a Sega Genesis Sylvester and Tweety video game that was quite popular for a time in the 1990s. One of the situations used for that video game was that of "Hyde and Go Tweet".
It so happened that the three Tweety cartoons most elusive to me in the 1970s were the three represented in that View-Master packet. I would have been ecstatic to have discovered it in some store back then. But I was not aware of its existence then or for many years thereafter. All that I knew of "Bad Ol' Putty Tat" in the 1970s were a few clips of it used by The Sylvester and Tweety Show and The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show on CBS. "Room and Bird" and "Tom Tom Tomcat" were also accessed for clips that I saw, but only two in the case of the former, and one in that of the latter. I wondered when, or if, the whole cartoons would be optioned for showing by CBS. And I never did see them in full on CBS. "Room and Bird" was in the first batch of cartoons on home video in the early 1980s. "Bad Ol' Putty Tat" reached home video in 1985 on the Mel Blanc videotape in the LOONEY TUNES GOLDEN JUBILEE range, the most difficult one to find, for me, at least. I was not to see "Tom Tom Tomcat", as a cartoon of beginning, middle, and end, until its inclusion in Merrie Melodies: Starring Bugs Bunny and Friends.
All for today.
Thursday, July 31, 2025.
Nearing the end of my third week of vacation. I have not done much with this one as yet. A further day's journey to my childhood stomping grounds in Miramichi City was planned for mid-week but had to be postponed due to a car problem. The car problem is now no more, but the skies are not consistently sunny, and there are intermittent thundershowers. I may need to wait until the weekend or early next week for ideal weather conditions upon which to set course again for my old habitat.
I have been having a recurring dream in the past couple of months. In it, I am at a hotel and have been staying at that hotel for a long time. I have decided that the time has come for check-out, and I am in the process of packing all of my belongings for a departure from the hotel and a return... home. Home at long last. Home being the place where my parents are, where my former life is, the place where I belong. This dream does not require much analysis to understand. I want to leave the world as I now know it. The lonely world I now inhabit and in which I feel no sense of belonging. One in which there is no limit, evidently, to "off-putting" happenings and situations. And I want the old times back. Or to go back to them. Hence, the wish to pack everything that belongs to me ("own-nothing-and-be-happy" concept, be damned) and turn in my room key and walk out of the hotel, and make my way back to what I consider to be home, my parents there waiting for me. That home would most certainly be Douglastown of the 1970s. At the very least, I want to be back to when my parents were living. Before their deaths in 2010 and 2012.
Best I can achieve now is to go back to Miramichi City and see my old surroundings as they now are, and remember as best I can in the Miramichi as it now looks, my life experiences with my parents and my friends, forty-eight and more years ago. And continue to document those experiences and display images of places and things comprising them, at my Website. I am continuing to work on images from 1973. The supplementary image gallery to Era 2 is a project receiving priority attention from me, and those 1973 images will provide the bulk of that image gallery's content.
2025 is "shaping up" to be the best year for Blu-Ray for quite some while. Now, there is an announcement for a comprehensive release on Blu-Ray of the Peanuts television specials from A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965 to the last one to be made this century. I am certainly aboard for this, even though I am not an adherent of the later, post-1980 specials. I am hoping that every special from the 1960s and 1970s will be fully restored, missing no music, no dialogue, and that I can replace my DVDs of the specials with this Blu-Ray set, due in October. DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION- SEASON 13's release date has gone back to being indeterminate. It had been set for 29 September. Still, I would expect it sometime in the autumn. On either side of the release of the Peanuts set. I am still "mulling over" a purchase of the Huckleberry Hound Blu-Ray set. I will go for whatever New Avengers regular (not Super-High Definition) Blu-Ray set will be released (word now is that StudioCanal in France is intending a November release date for The New Avengers Blu-Rays, and no information as yet about any releases elsewhere, i.e. Britain or Australia). And BLAKE'S 7- THE COLLECTION- SEASON 2 looks like it is coming in November. And I would expect the second volume of LOONEY TUNES: THE COLLECTOR'S VAULT sometime around then.
I have done some changes to text in McCorry's Memoirs Era 2 and "Hyde and Hare": An Overlooked Masterpiece. And reconfigured the entries in this Weblog to allocate some more space for this particular incarnation of the Weblog.
The reviewer to whose video on "Hyde and Hare" I posted a Hyperlink awhile back, has since then reviewed 1955's "Dime to Retire", "Speedy Gonzales", and "Knight-Mare Hare". He and his guests are not ardent admirers of "Knight-Mare Hare", subjecting it to a number of rather harsh critiques. They do not concede to my opinion (if indeed they are aware of such) on the cartoon's merit as a follow-up to "Hyde and Hare", and view the cartoon as an artistically vacuous series of meaningless encounters for Bugs with Middle Ages elements. And overly lavish in its strange backrounds and layouts. The fact that the cartoon is meant to be Bugs' dream with expectation of some extravagance in visualisation, seems not to enter the thoughts of the reviewer and his guests. Ah, well. At least "Hyde and Hare" received a plaudit-filled review. I ought to be thankful for what kindred outlooks I do find, on the subject of the cartoons of Bugs Bunny, et al., and the entertainments, in general, of my fancy.
All for today.
Sunday, August 3, 2025.
A pleasant long summer weekend in New Brunswick with sunny skies and comfortable temperatures.
I went again to Miramichi City on Friday. Walked almost the full length of the village, from Percy Kelly Drive to the Rennie Road, and then back to where my car was parked alongside the St. Samuel's Church hall in middle of village near my old home. Remembering the day of the Douglastown Days Parade in 1976, the day in May of 1977 when our class at school went about the village on a trash-collecting expedition, and numerous other of my many experiences as an inhabitant of, and, later, visitor to, that village along the shores of the Miramichi River.
With my final two weeks of vacation, I am going to relax, to "take it easy", in my Fredericton surroundings. And I may go to the Regent Mall Cineplex to see a movie. I have not done that since 2019, since before that horrible happening that I prefer not to name. Only movie in the theatres that I have any interest in seeing is The Fantastic Four. I trust that this paricular rendition of the concept of the super-heroic Four will not be nearly universally scorned like the 2015 one was. It is ten years almost to the day, since I sat in a theatre and saw The Fantastic Four (2015). I remember thinking it to be an okay movie. Not outstanding, but not a "turkey" either. Ah, but the purported orthodoxy of popular opinion has ruled otherwise.
There is another Space: 1999 celebration planned for this year. Marking fifty years since "Breakaway" was transmitted on television in North America and the U.K., this celebration will be in mid-September. And it will be located in Los Angeles. Confirmed guests are Barbara Bain, Nick Tate (groan!), Yasuko Nagazumi, Karl Held, Kathryn Leigh Scott, Gianni Garko, and Carla Romanelli. Confirmation is pending for other invitees including Catherine Schell and Anton Phillips. Some very interesting, to me, names here. Karl Held and Kathryn Leigh Scott were guest stars in episodes of Season 2, and, to the best of my knowledge, have never been to a Space: 1999 convention before. And it is pleasing to see that Mr. Gianni Garko will be again in attendence at a Space: 1999 celebration. I will enjoy seeing these individuals interacting with Barbara Bain, possibly or the first time since they worked with her on Space: 1999. Yes, I will watch the videos of the celebration as they become available. I will, of course, be giving a wide berth to any address by Nick Tate. Word is that the extended edit of "Breakaway" will be showcased again. Maybe this time, some people will decide to talk or write about it on the Internet so that I can learn more about it, about how much more that there is to it, and whether or not it is of Blu-Ray release video and audio quality.
My Blu-Ray purchases budget will this autumn be filled, indeed exceeded, by my plans to buy Doctor Who- Season 13, Peanuts, The New Avengers, Blake's 7- Season 2, the second LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT volume, and, as was announced yesterday, the Jack Palance-starring The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968) on Blu-Ray (together with the Jack Palance Dracula and a version of Frankenstein). The last of these is to be released in late October. It will have the overarching title of DAN CURTIS' CLASSIC MONSTERS. And here is its front cover.
Kino Lorber is more and more where productions of Mr. Dan Curtis are at on Blu-Ray. This includes the two television movies of Darren McGavin's Carl Kolchak, and now these three opuses, all of them, including the Frankenstein, having been brought to screen by Mr. Curtis. I wonder how the produced-on-NTSC-videotape The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968) will be rendered in High Definition. Same Artificial Intelligence (AI) technique of upscaling used for The Day After Tomorrow- "Into Infinity"?
Nothing new to report on LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 2. No official announcement as yet. Mr. Beck and Mr. Feltenstein are in the process of choosing the cartoons to go on the two Blu-Ray discs. I certainly hope that they are not paying heed solely to the persons at Blu-Ray.com Forum who are calling for a maximum number of dusty 1930s cartoons. But I have an uneasy feeling that they are going to go this route for LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 2. I expect that information on the latest volume in the LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT range, will be forthcoming in September.
All for today.
Friday, August 15, 2025.
I am verging toward the final stage of my vacation, its last weekend plus a couple of weekdays. Before I must resume work at my job next Wednesday. Always melancholic am I to see my vacation coming to an end, and summer to be waning as autumn beckons. As usual, the vacation is not long enough for my liking, with time seeming to be speeding past me. The days just breeze by. It is always later than I expect it to be after I return home following an excursion.
I am planning a third Miramichi day journey for tomorrow, Saturday. Always especially evocative of fond memory to be there on a Saturday, my preferred day of the week in the years we lived there. The day on which I watched The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour and Space: 1999 and was in anticipation of them in morning and afternoon, sometimes in company of a friend as I was in wait of either of those television shows, or as I was watching them. It is, alas, not a very pleasant time now in the Miramichi, and in Douglastown especially, as a wildfire is ablazing not very far away. Hopefully, some rain fell there last night. Temperatures will be moderating over the next few days after a sweltering run of days earlier in the week. That will hopefully help in quelching the flames.
Here it is 2025, and we still have no way of stopping post-haste a fire in the woods. Back when the future held so much promise, back when the future was fantastic, one expected that so many of the disastrous happenings of human existence would be countered or prevented through applied technology. But what has technology brought to us besides cellular telephones to engross the masses, Internet and social media and seeking of approval on such, and more and more sophisticated means of surveillance of a populace and of an individual? It does tend to seem to be by some design, does it not? And not in the best interest of the average Joe. Oh, High Definition video and Blu-Ray is a boon to me, yes. But do the powers-that-be intend to deny ownership of all property, including Blu-Ray collections, to all but the upper echelon of society, that upper echelon being them and only them?
I "plug along" in the hope that maybe ownership of property will continue to be mine, purchasing items for my collection of Blu-Ray and DVD, and growing this Website. There has, alas, been no further news on any of the Blu-Ray releases that I am awaiting. The Internet has this month been bereft of any updates on any Blu-Rays of interest, or indeed any discussion of them. So, I have nothing further to say about DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION- SEASON 13 (a release date for which still not etched in stone), LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 2, The New Avengers, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968), the Peanuts television specials, and Blake's 7- Season 2. The Huckleberry Hound Show Blu-Ray set is imminent. I am now leaning in the direction of buying it. Though I am not happy with its hybrid colour and black-and-white nature.
I am very close now to making available the supplemental image gallery to my Era 2 memoirs. Some 1973 images pertaining to Fredericton have been brought to my standard. They show the Fredericton North Dairy Queen and approach to the Carleton Street Bridge from Fredericton North. Plus, I have completed work on an image of an advertisement for Beegie's Bookstore in Fredericton Mall. These images would mostly better fit my Era 3 memoirs, as I did not eat at Dairy Queen in Fredericton in Era 2 (we only went past it on our way to Carleton Street Bridge), and did not become aware of the existence of Beegie's until Era 2 was finished and I was in the initial hours of Era 3. Eating at Dairy Queen in Fredericton North and buying books from Beegie's were regular procedures for me in Era 3. And we crossed the Carleton Street Bridge from Fredericton North every day that we shopped in downtown and uptown Fredericton after we became residents of Nashwaaksis, Fredericton North. Therefore, these additional images are marked for Era 3, and will be added thereto when I have time to write accompanying text for them.
Here is something that may cause more than a few chins to drop. In my school years in Douglastown, I would reenact episodes of The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour near a tree or tree stump in the school yard. Fancying myself a television station in my own, juvenile right. I certainly "(knew) every part by heart", having audiotape-recorded the episodes and listened to those audiotapes. One of my younger schoolmates in the 1976-7 school year, one with whom I never interacted, one who was in Grade 1 that year when I was in Grade 5, has reached out to me on Facebook, informing me that he remembers seeing me doing my routine thing at a particular tree stump in the school yard, and Bugs Bunny being my entertainment work of choice. Although only being within my orbit for but one year, and for him a very early year of life, his memory retained an imprint of me for nearly fifty years! Amazing! Astonishing! It goes to show how much of an impression that I did leave with youngsters sharing my school environs in that Miramichi region village in that most cherished grouping of experienced years. My schoolmate lives in Fredericton now, and wants to meet in person to reminisce. It would sure be nice to have someone in Fredericton from my Douglastown school years, to regularly see and socialise-with. I am awestruck that he remembers me. And now more than ever as I approach my senior years with old friends like Sandy and Ev deceased, I need someone from my most treasured years, to meet with and share memories of old times of youth. I am definitely going to join this fellow alumnus of the Douglastown school at whatever time and place we will agree upon.
All for today.
Thursday, August 21, 2025.
The twenty-first of August. Two months after the official start of summer and one month away from the official commencement of autumn. The declining days of summer are upon the people of the northern hemisphere, and in eastern Canada very notably as morning temperatures here have a distinct chill in them and leaves here are already withering and falling. My vacation from work is now no more, and I am settling back into my autumn, winter, and spring routines. With more melancholia than usual, as I feel a sense of foreboding about the months ahead. That something deeply unpleasant is going to be foisted again upon the world. Or at least upon my country, which is in freefall. No longer even being invited to conferences of nations of the free world. Alienating its neighbours. Spending itself into financial oblivion. While the people give to government whole-hearted proclamations of approval.
On one of my last days of vacation, I visited uptown Fredericton, walked the fields between the former K-Mart Plaza and Burger King and Fredericton High School, gazed upon Fredericton High School from the same perspective that I had after lunch on many a day, and recalled myself to my high school years. The school experience itself was not rewarding for me socially, but life at and around home then was, on the whole, pleasant. I was happy. My parents and my grandparents and my cat, Frosty, were living, and I had callers, people whom I considered to be friends, and fun to be had in my neighbourhood and within my house. I remember sitting in my classes at school and knowing that not very long after, I would be in the company of my father, my cat, my friends, and, once she arrived home, my mother. I was growing a collection of favourite entertainment, and friends were interested in such. And I was living in a world in which it was inconceivable that government could pull the proverbial rug out from under everyone with the opportune-for-megalomanics emergence of some crisis.
It feels today like the fingers of the politically powerful are poised on corners of that rug and are itching for the occasion to yank it free from under the feet of ninety-nine percent of the populace. Back in the early 1980s, such a thing was only in the scope of a genre of cinema that was then not the dominant strain of popular entertainment. The dystopian thriller. Oh, there were movies about grim futures, and my favourite sort of movie, set in outer space, was beginning to give nod to that dark consideration, as was the case with Alien and Outland. But audiences were flocking more, much more, to the likes of Return of the Jedi, evil being defeated by good, good cheer among the heroes, vulgarity not in evidence anywhere, and the light of hope prevailing. Or the latest James Bond outing, wherein the "bad guys" were quashed with aplomb by the heroic spy, backed by forces of establishment that were then on the side of the continued life and liberty and prosperity of people such as I.
God, I miss the 1980s. And the 1970s, too, of course. Even more. Heck, I would not object to it being the 1990s again. Or even the 2000s. I miss my parents and the stabilising force that they and their generation, were in the world. I miss the company of my friends. In person. In my house or at theirs or in the neighbourhood. I miss the life I had then. And which I then believed would be the norm for however long that I lived.
I went to the Miramichi a third time as planned, last Saturday. And I did not go to the Fredericton Cineplex to see a movie. Popcorn upsets my stomach now for some reason, and the temptation to eat popcorn in a movie theatre once I had stepped into there and sat myself into one of the seats, would be irresistable. Hollywood today is not something that I respect. I prefer not to feed that system, its proclivities to crudity, its divisive identity politics, its "cancel culture", and its aesthtically bland, imaginatively narrow output today. My money could be better spent on something else, I judged. So, I opted not to see another Fantastic Four movie. Or whatever else that the film industry was purveying this summer for public consumption. Whether that be yet another Superman or a retread of The Naked Gun.
And my money is going to be spent on the Blu-Ray set of The Huckleberry Hound Show released this coming Monday. I have dollars earmarked for the other Blu-Rays expected in this year's latter half. Whenever the companies involved decide to make them available. Still no release date for DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION- SEASON 13. Still no further news about The New Avengers, Peanuts, or The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968). Second season Blake's 7 is coming in mid-November. That much I know, at least. And there has been no announcement of a second volume for LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT. There ought to be one by now, I should think, if one were coming in the autumn. Even if the contents list were pending. Last year at this time, it was known that LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE: VOLUME 4, was on its way to us. We did not know yet what was to be on it, but the Blu-Ray was announced as coming.
With "Planet of Evil" in Season 13 Doctor Who, "Piccadilly Dilly" of The Huckleberry Hound Show, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, autumn of 2025 is peak time for representation of Jekyll and his monstrous, induced second self, on Blu-Ray. Warner Archive and the curators of LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT could yield a yet more thorough time this autumn for Jekyll and Hyde on home video media's Blu-Ray digital videodisc, by putting "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide" on COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 2. And "Hyde and Hare" too. That would be so nice. So gratiftying.
On the subject of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as it touches the characters of the cartoons of Bugs Bunny and company, I am notified by one David S. of there having been a Gold Key Comics issue of Bugs Bunny that did delve the cartoon rabbit into the laboratory of a duplicitous doctor. One that slipped past my notice in February and March of 1974. I was not then collecting the illustrated periodicals of the characters of cartoons but was close to starting to do so. At that time, when it came to illustrated publications of drawings and dialogue balloons, I was acquiring Peanuts books, and only those. By the summer of that year, some of the comic books with Tweety and Sylvester, Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, and Bugs Bunny, were coming into my possession. Possibly as early as May or early June, I was holding in my hands my first Gold Key comic books with the Warner Brothers cartoon characters. I think that Tweety and Sylvester was first to receive my patronage, at Gallivan's Bookstore, probably. And Bugs Bunny was sometime later. If I had come upon that Bugs Bunny comic book in February or March of 1974 and was flipping through its pages, and saw Bugs meeting Dr. Jekyll or finding himself in Jekyll's laboratory, that comic book would have been "scooped up" post-haste. For sure, Jekyll-and-Hyde was very much in my consideration that time with "Hyde and Go Tweet" being on The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour on February 23, and "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide" having been a Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour offering on 26 January. How apt it was that this Bugs Bunny comic issue was on shelves then. I have no doubt that Gallivan's would have had it. All that I know of it from my researches prompted by the information from David S., is that the first story in it was titled "Dr. Jerkyll and Mr. Bugs" and that it had Bugs and Porky Pig travelling together one night and encountering a house. Presumably they went inside that house, the property of a Dr. Jerkyll. And therein they encountered the Hyde formula either imbibed by Dr. Jerkyll himself, or by one of them. Followed by the trope of a character lacking awareness that his friend and the ensuing monster, are not two totally separate beings. I am of course prompted to seek out a copy of this particular comic book. One in a pristine or near-pristine quality.
I have added more images to my Era 3 memoirs. Images of Dairy Queen, the approach to the old Carleton Street Bridge, an advertisement for Beegie's Bookstore, and images of Starship Invasons accompanying my memory of seeing that movie at Nashwaaksis Cinema 2 with my parents on 13 January, 1978. It may or may not interest people to know that despite its lack of critical acclaim and its routine trouncing in the one-to-ten rating of movies at Websites like the Internet Movie Database, Starship Invasions was "held over" by "popular request" for a week at the Nashwaaksis Cinemas, moving from Cinema 2 to Cinema 1 for its second and final week of showings, whilst Saturday Night Fever occupied the projector of Cinema 2. I have learned that Starship Invasions has been released at long last on DVD. But, alas, only in Japan and Germany, and no company there at which it is being sold, is shipping to Canada. I have no information on the quality of the film-to-digital transfer. I would presume there to be an English audio track included, but I cannot confirm that.
Celebrity deaths this week include those of Tristan Rogers, who played intrepid secret agent and Police Commissioner Robert Scorpio on General Hospital, and Terence Stamp, who was General Zod in the Christopher Reeve Superman movies and who also had a minor role in the Star Wars movie, The Phantom Menace. In the 1980s, I followed often keenly the exploits of Robert Scorpio as he, accompanied by his friends Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary) and/or Frisco and Felicia Jones (Jack Wagner, Kristina Malandro-Wagner), fought the villains such as would-be-Port Charles-deep-freezer Mikkos Cassadine (John Colicos), scheming psychopath Grant Putnam (Brian Patrick Clarke), Aztec treasure-heisting Sean Donely (John Reilly) (who later was reformed) and his murderous minions Peter Harrell (Judson Scott) and Jack Slater (Randall England), the devious Domino (Joseph Mascolo), and DVX mastermind Cesar Faison (Anders Hove). And General Zod was the ultimate comic book movie villain, the standard against which all later ones would be compared. Christopher Reeve's Superman fighting General Zod in Metropolis, was a definite highlight of my youth. Who can forget the Coca-Cola sign into which Superman threw Zod? Rest in peace, Mr. Rogers and Mr. Stamp.
All for today.
Tuesday, August 26, 2025.
I now introduce my Era 2 memoirs' supplementary image gallery. It is still a work in progress, but most of the 1973 images upon which I had been working this past month, are there for viewing.
Today is the release date of the Huckleberry Hound Show Blu-Ray set. But Amazon.com lists it as being temporarily out of stock. No definite indication as to when it will be available.
On my most revent visit to Fredericton's Regent Mall, I discovered that Sunrise Records was having a clearance sale, for the liquidating of its entire "TV on DVD and Blu-Ray" section. Much of the shelf space previously allocated to television programmes, was already empty. Sunrise Records has appeared to be struggling over the past couple of years, moving as it did into a smaller store area, presumably to cut costs. I do not doubt for a second that the home video market in Canada is diminishing, while people are struggling to assemble enough money for food, clothing, and overhead roof. The process of physical media disappearing from stores, was already underway before the cost of living crisis was manifest in my country (courtesy of our governing political party and its voters), Best Buy eliminating its DVD and Blu-Ray sections, and Wal-Mart shrinking theirs. But now, there is likelihood that soon there will be no brick-and-mortar locations for the purchase of DVD and Blu-Ray. Sunrise Records was, as far as I know, the only place remaining in Fredericton at which one could buy a Blu-Ray or DVD of a television favourite, and now it, too, seems to be on a route to dissolution of Blu-Ray and DVD sales. For now, Blu-Rays and DVDs of movies are still on the shelves at Sunrise, but for how much longer?
How long will I need to wait for The Huckleberry Hound Show? Does this bode for similar protracted time periods of expectation for the other Blu-Rays that I plan on purchasing these next few months? Why has the BBC still not announced a release date for DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION- SEASON 13? These are questions occupying my thoughts as I undertake yet another long work year, with the Blu-Rays stated to be coming, as what I am looking forward-to, whilst another summer is fading away.
Frissons has finished showing first season episodes of Cosmos 1999 and has, happily, proceeded to begin broadcasting Season 2. My understanding is that Frissons is continuing to use the old Carlton film-to-digital transfers of the episodes.
I still wait for my Eagle: 1976. I do not know when it will arrive at my door. In time for the fiftieth anniversary of Space: 1999's first North Anerican broadcasts? I do not know.
Word is that Jeffrey Morris' Eagle Obsession documentary will screen at the Space: 1999 Los Angeles fiftieth anniversary celebration event next month. Maybe a Blu-Ray of it can be expected within a few months of that screening. A pressed Blu-Ray, one hopes, and not a "burned" one. I will buy it, and avert my eyes whenever Nick Tate and certain known-to-be-anti-Season 2 fans appear. Goodness knows, if I can bear having The Space: 1999 Documentary in my holdings and watching it from time to time, I ought to be able to withstand whatever The Eagle Obsession may throw at me. Well, as long as it does not put a certain Calgarian in front of camera.
All for today.
It is September 5, 2025. A partly sunny Friday morning.
I spent a couple of hours walking around Fredericton's uptown on Labour Day with a fellow alumnus of Douglastown Elementary. One who remembered seeing me in the yard of our school, as I was reenacting episodes of The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour (and The Flintstones and Spiderman and Space: 1999 too), at recess in the final year, 1976-7, that I was at that school. I was in Grade 5 then, and he was in Grade 1. We did not talk way back then and become acquainted, but he knew who I was. He had asked of some of the older children on the school playground who I was. He was fascinated at my ability to recall in detail things that I had seen on television, and was impressed at my most keen interest in imaginative productions. He retained memory of me and my name in all the years since then. It was the best experience that I have had in a long, long time, talking with him this past Monday as we walked about on the parking lot of the old K-Mart Plaza, the Fredericton High School fields and parking lots, and the sidewalks of Prospect and Smythe Streets, remembering old times at the school in Douglastown, commiserating together on the sad loss of the Douglastown school building in 2017, sharing insights on the importance of nostalgia in a world gone haywire, and conferring on what ails twenty-first century society and the Canadian body politic. We are on the same page on a great many subjects and have a friendship in the here and now. Fredericton of 2025. A friendship that is a dearly prized legacy of a halcyon time more than forty-eight years ago.
And he gave to me a gift. A piece of tree bark from the last surviving tree of the old Douglastown Elementary School grounds. He had been there recently and collected that piece of tree bark with thought of giving it to me. I shall treasure it.
I look forward to meeting with him again. Hopefully sometime before the snow flies.
My reunion with my schoolmate brightens very much what has been otherwise a frustrating time. No news on the upcoming, or supposedly still upcoming, Blu-Rays. And the Blu-Ray set that was released a couple of weeks ago, still has not been shipped to me, despite its notation of being quite available for shipping. This is a marker, one of many, of how much life has deteriorated. A newly released DVD or Blu-Ray used to be shipped to me on release day, and arrive by the Friday of that week. Now, one must wait for weeks, maybe even a month or more, for the purchased item to grace one's doorstep. The Blu-Ray set that I await, The Huckleberry Hound Show, is now in the hands of numerous persons in the U.S.. Opinion on it is uniformly one of praise. But I sit looking at my order that shows no progress since I placed it weeks ago. I suspect my being Canadian is the reason for the delay. A facet of the forced immiseration and reduced expectations of living upon the people of my country, those who foolishly, ignorantly, gullibly voted for another four years of willful Liberal mismanagement, and those such as myself, who did not.
Top among the frustrations that I am having of late, is the lack of any word about a second volume for LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT. I am beginning to think that sales of VOLUME 1 were not as high as Warner Archive was hoping for them to be, and that maybe a decision was made to only release one volume annually. That a second LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT release will not be forthcoming until mid-2026. If so, such would thwart a possible inclusion of "Hyde and Hare" on VOLUME 2, in seventieth anniversary recognition of it. It having first touched movie theatre screens seventy years ago this year. What is this I say? "Hyde and Hare" on LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 2? Why not? On the second of the two Blu-Ray discs, of course. This year would be an apt time for "Hyde and Hare" to see home video release again, as "Hyde and Hare"'s seventieth anniversary is on this year's 27 August. 27 August, 1955 having been the day that theatre-going audiences first saw it. On August 27 a couple of weeks ago, I did dare to entertain, to myself, some hope that the seventieth anniversary of the cartoon, together with the recent highly lauding review of it by a couple of YouTube Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies enthusiasts to whom I do believe Jerry Beck does pay heed, might bring unto "Hyde and Hare" some particular consideration for going on the second Blu-Ray disc of a LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 2. But as the days tick by with no news about a second entry in the LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT range, that hope wanes and wanes and wanes. To have "Hyde and Hare" and "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide" on Blu-Ray would complete a "trifecta" (with "Hyde and Go Tweet" on last year's final LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S CHOICE Blu-Ray), of the Friz Freleng fascination with the horror story of Robert Louis Stevenson. And be very, very satisfying to me. Enough so, I think, to "shut me up" on the matter of the Warner Brothers cartoons' home video presence henceforth. A prospect that would, I do not doubt, please some people.
And still no release date for DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION- SEASON 13. Is that going to be delayed into 2026, as well? It is very strange that having been announced back in July, as coming, DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION- SEASON 13's date of release is unknown nearly two months after that announcement. In the annals of Doctor Who on home video, I believe that a wait this long for a release date, is unprecedented.
The significance of this month with regard to Space: 1999, is not lost on me. September of 2025 being to Space: 1999 what September of 2016 was to Star Trek. The "big five-O". Of course, it is not lost on me. Even though in my life Space: 1999 did not have its advent until a year after its appearance fifty years ago on most television stations across the U.S. and Canada. The fiftieth anniversary for me and for people in my part of the world, for Space: 1999, will not be until next year. But what am I but an illegitimate fan of Space: 1999 in the thinking of its leading pundits and the herd of rank-and-filers? "Kevin the Destroyer", I still am, am I not? To the people who really matter in the orbit of Space: 1999, this year is Space: 1999's golden milestone. A golden milestone that is fostering some substantive attention to Space: 1999, in Forbes magazine, no less! An article about it and about the celebration of it this month in Los Angeles!
Here is that article.
Space: 1999 at 50- The Ultimate Fan Celebration Planned in Los Angeles
The article pleasingly opts not to condemn second season and invalidate that season's fans as many a British science fiction/fantasy genre periodical's coverage of Space: 1999 has done over the past five decades. And for this, it does receive my kudos. It is quite nice to see some recognition of Space: 1999 in the more mainstream press, and on the U.S. side of the Atlantic.
And this is not all. ITV has commissioned a new documentary on Space: 1999. That documentary is available for viewing on the Internet this month at ITVX. It was produced by Anderson Entertainment in conjunction with something called Take the Shot Films. It is seventy-five minutes in length and is said to be a combination of archive interviews with deceased persons, and new content with surviving actors and actresses of the television series, and "big names" (or I suppose them to be "big names") in the entertainment industry of today. A sure sign of the times is its lack of physical media release. One can only view it on the Internet, and to do so requires membership at ITVX. I hope with the fullness of my ageing heart, that it is not the "hit piece" on Season 2 that the Fanderson documentary was. Here is the Hyperlink to the new documentary on Space: 1999.
Space: 1999: 50 Years Out of Orbit
It is a week before the celebration in Los Angeles is slated to begin. I am priming myself for viewing whatever videos of it become available on YouTube for viewing. I think that my Weblog's readers know full well which videos I will be watching and which ones I will be avoiding like the Bannockburn plus twenty-five Plague. Commentary on those videos will be forthcoming on this Weblog.
At this time, I propose to begin some Space: 1999 celebrating this month at this Weblog, with a TV Guide excerpt from December of 1976. From a Kentucky edition of the magazine, listing Space: 1999 for 5:30 P.M. on Sunday. December 19 on a channel 41, WDRB, then an independent broadcaster (now a FOX affiliate), and providing synopsis for second season opener "The Metamorph"'s Christmas repeat. In Canada, "The Metamorph" was repeated in December of 1976 on Saturday, the eleventh. The synopsis used for WDRB was the same as was seen in TV Guide in Canada for the airings of "The Metamorph" on CBC Television, including that for notation of Space: 1999's second season's first episode on CBHT, CHSJ, CBIT, CKCD, and CBCT in Canada's eastern Maritimes. I hope someday to be able to provide listings for Space: 1999 in the Maritime Provinces TV Guide edition. And I do not believe that hope to be forlorn. There have been some amazing finds for me over the past twelve months. Any discovery seems possible now.
Voila.
These past couple of weeks, I have been busy with the additions of images of newspaper advertisements of Fredericton cinema showings of movies in the late 1970s and in the 1980s, to my Era 3, Era 4, and Era 5 memoirs. And I am working on further material for the supplemental image gallery for my Era 2 memoirs. Which have yet to receive a single visit, alas.
And this is all for today.
13 September, 2025.
September 13 of every year is designated "Breakaway Day" within the fandom of Space: 1999. And this year being the fiftieth anniversary of Space: 1999 on television, the September 13 date has more prominence than ever among the fans of the spectacular space science fiction/fantasy television series, and, as was noted in my last Weblog entry, recognition in publications outside the perimeters of the Space: 1999 fan movement. Well, at least for writers for whom Space: 1999 and its 13 September date of Moon leaving Earth orbit, has some enduring presence in personal memory bank.
My Space: 1999 Page is receiving a small uptick in visits over the past few days. Not comparable, to be sure, with the attention received by it on September 13, 1999. But of course many waters have flowed under quite a few bridges since 1999. People have embraced newer entertainments in the last quarter century and let memories of the old slip out of conscious mind, or fade away completely. Others are no longer with us. And the year, 1975, of Space: 1999 first broadcasts, may not be as effective as an agent in rousing a person's awareness of Space: 1999 as the date of 13 September, 1999 was.
But this Weblog will observe, and celebrate, "Breakaway Day" this year. I am definitely very thankful to be living to see this fiftieth anniversary. Some of my friends, sadly, are no longer alive to see it. My friend, Sandy, who was as affected as I by, and conversant with me about, and showing merchandise purchases with me of, the television show called Space: 1999. Both of us with untrammelled enthusiasm for its Saturday showings, its imagination-grabbing episodes, its characters, its depictions, its aesthetic, way back in 1976 and 1977. And my friend, Ev, who watched "The Rules of Luton" with me on 23 April, 1977, and who watched it again with me and with our mutual friend, Kevin MacD., it and "Brian the Brain", on a Saturday in May of 1988, by way of one of my videotapes. I honour them in this recognition of the television show that gave to us those special shared experiences in a time period long past.
As I have said, a true fiftieth anniversary for me, personally, would not be until next year. In September, 1975, I was completely in the dark about there being a Space: 1999; its existence then was utterly unknown to me. But 1975 was a most important year in Space: 1999's distribution and emergent following by television viewers. And it was transmitted over a wide range in the U.S. and Canada. Even though no television network in the U.S. had purchased it, and Canada's CBC Television network was not airing it across the entire country at an airtime that was constant in every part of the Canadian land mass.
To where I lived, the nearest U.S. television broadcast signal carrying Space: 1999 was that of WAGM of Presque Isle, Maine. Which was not receivable over the air in New Brunswick's Miramichi region, and definitely not on cable television there, as cable television was, in 1975, still several years away from reaching Newcastle-Douglastown-Chatham. My grandparents in Fredericton had cable television and access to WAGM, but never on any of my visits with them in the 1975-6 television broadcast year, did I cast eyes over an episode of Space: 1999, or notice it in Fredericton newspaper television guides. Nor did I notice listings for it in TV Guide magazine when I was starting to purchase that in summer of 1976. What I do now know from the Daily Gleaner Fredericton newspaper, is that WAGM began showing Space: 1999 on Friday, September 12, 1975. With "Breakaway", one would suppose. Airtime 8:30 P.M., between To Tell the Truth at 8 P.M. and Chico and the Man at 9:30 P.M.. Beginning September 26, the Gleaner printed the episode titles. It was "War Games" on September 26, "Death's Other Dominion" on October 3, "Matter of Life and Death" on October 10, "Collision Course" on October 17, "Force of Life" on October 24, "Alpha Child" on October 31, an unknown episode on November 7 (probably "Guardian of Piri"), and "Dragon's Domain" on November 14. I would not hazard a guess as to what episode was telecast on WAGM on September 19. After "Dragon's Domain" on November 14, the printing of episode titles ceased. WAGM stopped airing Space: 1999 before second season Space: 1999 episodes became available for viewing in September, 1976. From what I have learned, eastern Maine had no television station on its territory airing Space: 1999 in the 1976-7 television season. People of eastern Maine having cable television could see it by way of New Brunswick's CHSJ.
TV Guide magazine's Eastern New England edition indicates the first broadcast of Space: 1999 in Boston, Massachusetts as being on Tuesday, September 9, 1975. The ABC-affiliated WCVB, channel 5, opted to bump aside the then exceedingly popular Happy Days and the highly anticipated premiere of Welcome Back, Kotter, for Space: 1999, granting to the inhabitants of Alpha Moonbase an 8 P.M.-to-9 P.M. prime-time engagement for the viewers of television in Boston. And WCVB's sister ABC affiliate, WTNH, channel 8, New Haven, Connecticut, also brushed the Fonz aside that same evening for Space: 1999, filling the 7:30 P.M. to 8:30 P.M. slot of time, with Koenig, Russell, and the fantastic future of Moonbase and Eagles.
Going into its third season, Happy Days was surging upwards in the Nielsen ratings. Weekday repeats of it were already starting to run on ABC that autumn, supplementing its prime-time Tuesday juggernaut status. Its popularity was due largely to the appeal of its Fonz character. Girls were swooning over him, and males were emulating him. The upturned thumb with an expression of, "A-a-a-ay!". The leather jacket. The tight jeans. The greased hair. The hyper-self-confident gait. I did enjoy Happy Days. Then. But it has not aged particularly well for me. I do not like the arrogant dismissal and disparagement of "nerds", for instance. Or the fixation of the characters on sex. On "finding thrill, on Blueberry Hill." Or teenage "cruising" culture. Of which I never was a part. I admit to feeling some sizable degree of satisfaction at seeing Space: 1999 chosen over it. But that did not last. In January of 1976, Happy Days and Kotter were being carried by WCVB on their Tuesday night transmissions. Space: 1999 moved to Mondays at 7:30 P.M.. And once supply of never before shown episodes had run dry in March, WCVB dropped Space: 1999 from schedule, replacing it with Alistair Cooke's America.
Order of broadcast of episodes of Space: 1999 on WCVB.
WCVB- Boston, Massachusetts Broadcasts (1975-6) Tuesdays Select Station 5- WCVB- Boston, Massachusetts Date Channel Episode Airtime Sept. 9, 1975 5 "Breakaway" 8 P.M. Sept. 16, 1975 5 "Dragon's Domain" 8 P.M. Sept. 23, 1975 5 "Death's Other Dominion" 8 P.M. Sept. 30, 1975 5 "Collision Course" 8 P.M. Oct. 7, 1975 5 "Force of Life" 8 P.M. Oct, 14, 1975 5 "Alpha Child" 8 P.M. Oct. 21 1975 5 "Guardian of Piri" 8 P.M. Oct. 28, 1975 5 "War Games" 8 P.M. Nov. 4, 1975 5 "Mission of the Darians" 8 P.M. Nov. 11, 1975 5 "Black Sun" 8 P.M. Nov. 18, 1975 5 "End of Eternity" 8 P.M. Nov. 25, 1975 5 "Voyager's Return" 8 P.M. Dec. 2, 1975 5 "The Testament of Arkadia" 8 P.M. Dec. 9, 1975 5 "The Last Enemy" 8 P.M. Dec. 16, 1975 5 "Dragon's Domain" (R) 8 P.M. Dec. 23, 1975 5 "The Full Circle" 8 P.M. Dec. 30, 1975 5 "Death's Other Dominion" (R) 8 P.M. Jan. 6, 1976 5 "Ring Around the Moon" 8 P.M. WCVB- Boston, Massachusetts Broadcasts (1975-6) Mondays Select Station 5- WCVB- Boston, Massachusetts Date Channel Episode Airtime Jan. 12, 1976 5 "Matter of Life and Death" 7:30 P.M. Jan. 19, 1976 5 "Earthbound" 7:30 P.M. Jan. 26, 1976 5 "Missing Link" 7:30 P.M. Feb. 2, 1976 5 "The Infernal Machine" 7:30 P.M. Feb. 9, 1976 5 "The Last Sunset" 7:30 P.M. Feb. 16, 1976 5 "Space Brain" 7:30 P.M. Feb. 23, 1976 5 "The Troubled Spirit" 7:30 P.M. Mar. 1, 1976 5 "Another Time, Another Place" 7:30 P.M. Mar. 8, 1976 5 "Breakaway" (R) 7:30 P.M. Mar. 15, 1976 5 "Collision Course" (R) 7:30 P.M.WCVB waived the rights to broadcast of Space: 1999 in the Boston area before the start of the 1976-7 television broadcast season, and independent Cambridge, Massachusetts television station WLVI, channel 56, acquired those rights and, in September, 1976, began a run of Space: 1999 starting with "Breakaway", followed by "The Metamorph" (not unlike what the CBC did in Canada). Then, all of the other episodes of Season 2, most of them aired twice, some of them three times. Then, Season 1 episodes and a further serving of Season 2.
WLVI- Boston, Massachusetts Broadcasts (1975-6) Sundays Select Station 56- WLVI- Cambridge, Massachusetts Date Channel Episode Airtime Sept. 12, 1976 56 "Breakaway" 6 P.M. Sept. 19, 1976 56 "The Metamorph" 6 P.M. Sept. 26, 1976 56 "The Exiles" 6 P.M. Oct. 3, 1976 56 "Journey to Where" 6 P.M. Oct. 10, 1976 56 "The Taybor" 6 P.M. Oct. 17, 1976 56 "New Adam New Eve" 6 P.M. Oct. 24, 1976 56 "The Mark of Archanon" 6 P.M. Oct. 31, 1976 56 "Brian the Brain" 6 P.M. Nov. 7, 1976 56 "The Rules of Luton" 6 P.M. Nov. 14, 1976 56 "The AB Chrysalis" 6 P.M. Nov. 21, 1976 56 "Catacombs of the Moon" 6 P.M. Nov. 28, 1976 56 "Seed of Destruction" 6 P.M. Dec. 5, 1976 56 "The Metamorph" (R) 6 P.M. Dec. 11, 1976 56 "The Exiles" (R) 6 P.M. Dec. 19, 1976 56 "Journey to Where" (R) 6 P.M. Dec. 26, 1976 56 "The Taybor" (R) 6 P.M. Jan. 2, 1977 56 "Space Warp" 6 P.M. Jan. 9, 1977 56 "A Matter of Balance" 6 P.M. Jan. 16, 1977 56 "The Beta Cloud" 6 P.M. Jan. 23, 1977 56 "The Lambda Factor" 6 P.M. Jan. 30, 1977 56 "One Moment of Humanity" 6 P.M. Feb. 6, 1977 56 "All That Glisters" 6 P.M. Feb. 13, 1977 56 "The Seance Spectre" 6 P.M. Feb. 20, 1977 56 "The Bringers of Wonder: Pt. 1" 6 P.M. Feb. 27, 1977 56 "The Bringers of Wonder: Pt. 2" 6 P.M. Mar. 6, 1977 56 "The Immunity Syndrome" 6 P.M. Mar. 13, 1977 56 "The Dorcons" 6 P.M. Mar. 20, 1977 56 "New Adam New Eve" (R) 6 P.M. Mar. 27, 1977 Preemption Apr. 3, 1977 56 "Brian the Brain" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 10, 1977 56 "The Rules of Luton" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 17, 1977 56 "The AB Chrysalis" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 24, 1977 56 "Catacombs of the Moon" (R) 6 P.M. May 1, 1977 56 "Devil's Planet" 6 P.M. May 8, 1977 56 "Dorzak" 6 P.M. May 15, 1977 56 "Seed of Destruction" (R) 6 P.M. May 22, 1977 56 "Space Warp" (R) 6 P.M. May 29, 1977 56 "A Matter of Balance" (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 5, 1977 56 "The Beta Cloud" (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 12, 1977 56 "The Lambda Factor" (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 19, 1977 56 "One Moment of Humanity" (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 26, 1977 56 "All That Glisters" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 3, 1977 56 "The Seance Spectre" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 10, 1977 56 "The Bringers of Wonder: Pt. 1" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 17, 1977 56 "The Bringers of Wonder: Pt. 2" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 24, 1977 56 "Dorzak" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 31, 1977 56 "The Immunity Syndrome" (R) 6 P.M. Aug. 7, 1977 56 "Devil's Planet" (R) 6 P.M. Aug. 14, 1977 56 "The Dorcons" (R) 6 P.M. Aug. 21, 1977 56 "The Exiles" (R) 6 P.M. Aug. 28, 1977 56 "Journey to Where" (R) 6 P.M. Sept. 4, 1977 56 "The Taybor" (R) 6 P.M. Sept. 11, 1977 56 "New Adam New Eve" (R) 6 P.M. Sept. 18, 1977 56 "Breakaway" (R) 6 P.M. Sept. 25, 1977 56 "War Games" 6 P.M. Oct. 2, 1977 56 "Death's Other Dominion" 6 P.M. Oct. 9, 1977 56 "Collision Course" 6 P.M. Oct. 16, 1977 56 "Force of Life" 6 P.M. Oct. 23, 1977 56 "Alpha Child" 6 P.M. Oct. 30, 1977 56 "Guardian of Piri" 6 P.M. Nov. 6, 1977 56 "Dragon's Domain" 6 P.M. Nov. 13, 1977 56 "Mission of the Darians" 6 P.M. Nov. 20, 1977 56 "Black Sun" 6 P.M. Nov. 27, 1977 56 "End of Eternity" 6 P.M. Dec. 4, 1977 56 "Voyager's Return" 6 P.M. Dec. 11, 1977 56 "Matter of Life and Death" 6 P.M. Dec. 18, 1977 56 "Earthbound" 6 P.M. Dec. 25. 1977 56 "The Full Circle" 6 P.M. Jan. 1, 1978 56 "Another Time, Another Place" 6 P.M. Jan. 8, 1978 56 "The Infernal Machine" 6 P.M. Jan. 15, 1978 56 "Ring Around the Moon" 6 P.M. Jan. 22, 1978 56 "Missing Link" 6 P.M. Jan. 29, 1978 56 "The Last Sunset" 6 P.M. Feb. 5, 1978 56 "Space Brain" 6 P.M. Feb. 12, 1978 56 "The Troubled Spirit" 6 P.M. Feb. 19, 1978 56 "The Testament of Arkadia" 6 P.M. Feb. 26, 1978 56 "The Last Enemy" 6 P.M. Mar. 5, 1978 56 "The Metamorph" (R) 6 P.M. Mar. 12, 1978 56 "The Exiles" (R) 6 P.M. Mar. 19, 1978 56 "Catacombs of the Moon" (R) 6 P.M. Mar. 26, 1978 56 "Seed of Destruction" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 2, 1978 Preemption Apr. 9, 1978 56 "A Matter of Balance" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 16, 1978 56 "Journey to Where" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 23, 1978 56 "The Taybor" (R) 6 P.M. Apr. 30, 1978 Preemption May 7, 1978 56 "The Mark of Archanon" (R) 6 P.M. May 14, 1978 56 "Brian the Brain" (R) 6 P.M. May 21, 1978 56 "The Rules of Luton" (R) 6 P.M. May 28, 1978 56 "The AB Chrysalis" (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 4, 1978 56 "Space Warp" (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 11, 1978 56 "The Dorcons" (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 18, 1978 56 "The Lambda Factor" (R) 6 P.M. Jun. 25, 1978 56 "New Adam New Eve" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 2, 1978 56 "Dorzak" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 9, 1978 56 "The Bringers of Wonder: Pt. 1" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 16, 1978 56 "The Bringers of Wonder: Pt. 2" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 23, 1978 56 "One Moment of Humanity" (R) 6 P.M. Jul. 30, 1978 56 "All That Glisters" (R) 6 P.M. Aug. 6, 1978 56 "The Beta Cloud" (R) 6 P.M. Aug. 13, 1978 56 "The Immunity Syndrome" (R) 6 P.M. Aug. 20, 1978 56 "Devil's Planet" (R) 6 P.M. Aug. 27, 1978 56 "The Seance Spectre" (R) 6 P.M.WLVI would continue offering Space: 1999 on Sunday evenings through the late 1970s and into the 1980s. Unfortunately, my information on episodes shown becomes inconsistent starting autumn of 1978.
In Canada, Space: 1999 began appearing on television stations in September, 1975. CBET of Windsor, Ontario showed "Breakaway" on Saturday, September 20 at 7 P.M.. The only Anglophone Canadian broadcaster whose order of Space: 1999 episodes televised in 1975-6 is known to me, is CBET. In recognition of CBET's commencement of Space: 1999 telecasts in 1975, I offer the listing for Space: 1999 in The Windsor Star, an episode synopsis for "Breakaway" included therewith, for 20 September, 1975.
CBET's episode order rather closely resembled that of WCVB. "Dragon's Domain" coming after "Breakaway". Then, "Death's Other Dominion", "Collision Course", "Force of Life", and so forth. With December repeats of "Dragon's Domain" and "Death's Other Dominion" closely accompanied by "The Full Circle" and "Ring Around the Moon". WCVB deviated from CBET, and from many another broadcaster, by airing "The Testament of Arkadia" and "The Last Enemy" midway through the run of Season 1 rather than at the end. The Space: 1999 Page has the information on CBET's showing of Space: 1999 in 1975-6.
Pictures of episodes "Death's Other Dominion" and "War Games" (and "Dragon's Domain, also) were often favoured by television stations for newspaper promotion of Space: 1999 in 1975. Or by ITC in North America, that was distributing Space: 1999 in the U.S. and Canada, and supplying promotional materials. Koenig and Russell with the steaming skeletal Dr. Cabot Rowland on Eagle 1. Koenig, Russell, and Bergman in the cavernous Thulian settlement. The male alien who declares the Alphans to be "a plague of fear". Cellini fighting the monster. Those were images that the persons involved in promoting the television series, believed would be most enticing to the public. And I reckon that these were good choices. As, too, was the image of an Eagle being hit from underneath by lightning, as seen in "Breakaway"'s main opening. ITC was evidently aware also that the strongest episodes of Season 1 where public engagement was concerned, were those of the later production order, and decided that they should be among the first to be seen. In September, October, and early November. What this meant, though, was that the episodes of lesser viewer stimulus, the earlier-made ones, aired one after the other in late autumn and in the winter. Ratings dropped, Grade declared Space: 1999 cancelled, Gerry Anderson and Fred Freiberger rallied to persuade Grade to continue commissioning production, the Maya character was "pitched" successfully, and the rest is history.
The Space: 1999 celebration in Los Angeles is underway as I typewrite this Weblog entry. I have as yet no textual information or visuals on how that celebration is proceeding. I expect that by my next Weblog entry, I will have some of that.
My friend, Michel, in Quebec tells to me that Frissons is broadcasting the episodes of Cosmos 1999 Season 2 in the ITV 1976-8 sequence, which was in my opinion a messy jumble. Not one that was best for showcasing the second season. Two Helena "double up" episodes ("Catacombs of the Moon" and "Space Warp") one after the other. "All That Glisters" and "The Rules of Luton" (episodes requiring more suspension of disbelief than do others) close together. Episodes, "One Moment of Humanity", "Brian the Brain", with automatons and a robot airing in sequence early in the run, denying variety of subject matter to viewers "tuning in" week after week. British viewers went sour earlier than persons in other countries, with this order of episode presentation. It is certainly not definitive from a production order or a chronological standpoint.
Okay. This has so far been an all-Space: 1999 Weblog entry. And justifiably so, the date being what it is. Aside from The Huckleberry Hound Show finally, finally, being on its way to me, I have nothing non-Space: 1999-related upon which to comment. It is still stasis with regard to all of the other Blu-Rays that I have been led to expect to be coming. No information. Frustrating.
Bringing today's Weblog entry to a close.
Saturday, September 20, 2025.
First day of autumn, and of that transition from the sunny, bright, warm, long-lit days of green-leafed, green-grassed summer to 5 P.M. darkness, snowstorms every two or three days, high snowbanks, windchill factors, scraping ice off of car, shivering at the heater in my den, and longing plaintively for the return of summer several months away. Or for the start of spring, at least. The older that I become, the more of a toll that winter has upon my morale. In my younger years, it scarcely bothered me. My father dealt with the accumulating snow and the defrosting of the car, power bills were not prohibitive of thoroughly heated houses (and we had an oil-powered furnace, which was an effective central heater, vents gushing with warm air, when we lived in Douglastown), and I had the company of friends which brightened the dead-of-winter days and early nightfalls. And I was not as aware as I am now, of my mortality, of the possibility of my not seeing the next summer. Of not surviving the winter. Numerous people in my life having died sometime within the span of the wintertime months.
Low morale can be a factor in declining physical health, and winter, especially those weeks of November, December, January, when I come home from work in the dark to a dark and cold and, my cat excepted, empty house, is an enormous drain of the morale supply. And of course, I am aware that this coming January, I will turn sixty. Not a very gratifying prospect.
This autumn is happily graced with an abundance of by-me-desired releases of Blu-Rays. News has finally been forthcoming on a number of those. DOCTOR WHO- THE COLLECTION- SEASON 13 is to be available for buyers on October 20. BLAKE'S 7- THE COLLECTION- SEASON 2 will be on the market on November 10. And The New Avengers has a release date of 10 November, also. StudioCanal has provided the box cover for The New Avengers Blu-Ray set. It is gorgeous. Here it is.
News on the Peanuts box set, coming next month, is not winning favour with aficionados of the television specials of Charlie Brown and company. None of the bonus features of previous DVD and Blu-Ray releases are to be "ported over" to the Blu-Ray box set of the bulk of the television specials. In fact, the Blu-Ray set is going to be "bare-bones". And there are concerns that edited versions of some of the specials may be the ones unwittingly selected by Warner Brothers to go in the upcoming Blu-Ray box set, as those are the versions being currently provided for Internet "streaming". I have an uneasy feeling that such will be the case, and that Warner Brothers will be unapologetic and unwilling to right the wrong with replacement Blu-Ray discs.
And The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968) in the Dan Curtis monsters Blu-Ray set, is expected to be made available on October 28.
This accounts for everything anticipated by me bar one specific title. LOONEY TUNES COLLECTOR'S VAULT: VOLUME 2. No announcement of it. Everyone in archive cartoon animation circles is focused on an announced release, by Warner Archive, of all of MGM's Tom and Jerry cartoons this autumn, and Warner Brothers' own stable of cartoon celebrities appears once more to be sidelined for the work of another cartoon studio. Warner Brothers' top cartoon star Bugs Bunny has not ever been graced with a fully comprehensive box set release, or near fully comprehensive box set release (excepting the cartoons deemed politically incorrect), of his filmography. To say nothing of the filmographies of Tweety and Sylvester, Daffy Duck, et cetera. Why does Tom and Jerry receive the honour? I am not a fan of the output of every single cartoon studio of the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s. My tastes are far less broad. I am not excited for Blu-Ray sets for Popeye, Tom and Jerry, or Woody Woodpecker. It is the Warner Brothers cartoons that I seek to have in as complete a collection as possible. If people desire yet another release of the cartoons of Tom and Jerry, then fine and dandy- if that is what floats their boat. But do not "hold back" for another six months or more a further volume of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. The clock is ticking, people. None of us is "getting any younger". And physical media is not guaranteed for many more years to come. The condition that our world is in right now, the market for anything may be caused to contract drastically, scuppering whatever plans there might be for anything. Normalcy is, as this damnable decade has proved, not an assurance year after year, month after month, or even week after week. "Get the stuff out now"- while it is still possible to do so.
My Blu-Ray set of The Huckleberry Hound Show is in my possession. It came last Sunday. I have been slowly dipping my feet into the episodes of Huckleberry Hound, and, as I thought may be the case, it is not a stimulating experience. Some cartoons can only be appreciated in my early youth, and these are among them. "Piccadilly Dilly" looks stunning in High Definition, apart from some digital artifacting on movement. "Spud Dud" and "Science Friction" are of a better picture quality, i.e. with fewer artifacts. On one of the Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks cartoons, "Goldfish Fever", I think, background colours keep fluctuating. And as I expected, the switching from colour to black and white in the episodes, is jarring. Aesthetically unsatisfying. There is a huge lot of repetition across the bundles of episodes on the Blu-Ray discs. Interstitials are repeated, in episodes just two episodes apart. The cartoon commercials for Kellogg's become tiresome very fast. The titling of all of the cartoons in all of the episodes, is protracted, showing full credits for each, unlike the brief title cards seen on Huckleberry Hound, and Roquet Belles Oreilles, in my youth. And unlike the stylish cartoon openings, the full credits ones, for the Pink Panther and Inspector cartoons in The Pink Panther Show, these are rather dull. And there are cartoon repeats early in the mix. In first season. I would have used the syndicated iteration of the television show, that aired in the early 1970s, with no repetition of anything. And colour footage only, in the main programme. Black-and-white material, including the advertisements from the initial television incarnation of Huckleberry Hound, as bonus features.
But to use parlance of the 2020s, it is what it is. In deference to six-year-old me who loved Huckleberry Hound, I add this Blu-Ray set to my holdings, as I await the more, to me, desirable Blu-Ray sets coming my way in the next couple of months.
Anderson Entertainment has been busy, making the most of its licencing agreement with ITV, and putting forth new Space: 1999 merchandise in recognition of the fiftieth anniversary. For persons (myself not included) with 4K High Definition equipment, there is an Ultra High Definition release of "Breakaway" with the new documentary, Space: 1999: 50 Years Out of Orbit, as a bonus feature. And Tim Heald's 1976 The Making of Space: 1999 is being revisited and expanded, to include behind-the-scenes information on first season, a coverage of the "controversial" (oh, brother!) changes from first to second season, and, I cringe, a set of critical reviews of all forty-eight episodes. I do not know if my skin is thick enough now, to endure yet another Season 2 "hate-fest". Which I must assume is to be on the agenda for the pages of the new Making of Space: 1999, just with the acknowledgement of "controversy" which by presumed necessity must contain statements of denunciation on the changes ringed for Season 2, and the intention of critical review which tends per usual to be unfavourable to numerous of the second season episodes. We must not ignore the near-fifty years of vitriol levelled by fans at the latter twenty-four episodes of Space: 1999, producer Freiberger, and the misfits such as I, must we?
Oh, if I have some money to spare around Christmastime after my purchases of all of the coming Blu-Rays, I may buy the new book. If it will have been published by then. As long as my nemesis in Calgary has had no involvement in it. It is to be hardcovered. And a darned sight much more durable, one supposes, than the original Tim Heald paperback. Will it retain the centre-book black-and-white photograph gallery, one wonders?
There has been a dearth of information on how the Space: 1999 celebration in Los Angeles, went. Almost no videos. No reports. At least none from any of the people remaining unblocked by me on Facebook. If people whom I blocked are posting pictures, videos, and text with regard to the celebration, of course I cannot see any of that. And if so, then so be it. I blocked those people for a reason, a reason to which I am steadfastly committed. Maybe some video footage will trickle its way toward my eyes in days to come.
Some precious capture on videotape, of CBS' Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show in its final, 1984-5 season, has surfaced on YouTube. From 29 June, 1985, it includes moving-graphic titling for some cartoons, Part 2 introduction, end credits, and a plethora of commercials from that most exuberant time of the 1980s when playfully imaginative children were outdoors indulging their fancy for the fantastical, products were colourfully flashy, and McDonald's commercials showed everyone smiling radiantly, being closely amiable with each other, and enjoying life to the fullest, to the most uplifting passages of music. That was before product advertising directed at children was outlawed by the liberal busybodies in the U.S., before Saturday morning cartoons later went extinct, and before a certain event starting in 2020 and its aftermath, divested our society of eager fellowship, joie-de-vivre, and blissful naivete.
And I love the swishy spinner titling to "War and Pieces". It was not used again after ABC acquired the broadcast rights to Bugs and the gang, post-1985.
Here it is.
CBS Commercials From June 29, 1985
I remember June 29, 1985. My cousin was married that day in a downtown Fredericton church on Charlotte Street. After the wedding and a delicious reception dinner (turkey with all the trimmings), I was back at home, videotaping Doctor Who- "The Robots of Death" between 7 P.M. and 8:30 P.M.. My buddy, Joey, came to see me at around 7:30, asked me why I was so fancily dressed (still in my suit from the wedding), and sat with me on my front step until well after Doctor Who was finished, talking with me about a great many things, including a yard sale that he wanted to have in collaboration with me. Joey was memorably wearing his rust-red rugby pants. Pants which were very much in style at the time. And Joey being Joey pulled up his pants (on sides then in front) as he stood up after our conversation and headed toward his bright blue bicycle. I went inside and cropped my videotape-recording of Doctor Who post-end-credits and proceeded to watch it from start to finish, fretting over a brief glitch in the broadcast about twenty minutes into the story, while the Doctor and Leela were in the sand-collecting apparatus. And, yes, I do remember seeing that episode of The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show before going to the wedding. Or what portions of it that WAGM Presque Isle allowed to be seen. "Hot Cross Bunny", "Speedy Ghost to Town", "A Pizza Tweety-Pie", and "War and Pieces". I did see that section of the episode. I was thinking about "Speedy Ghost to Town" while we were on our way to the wedding.
For anyone who is interested, I have a report on further updates to my autobiography. Images of newspaper clippings of movie-showing advertisements, now adorn McCorry's Memoirs Era 3, McCorry's Memoirs Era 4, and McCorry's Memoirs Era 5. And some text has been added to go with those images. As have some new images of the movies themselves, in a few cases.
All for today.
