JKM's Home Office: 2016 Re-Boot (or Re-Imagination?)

Longtime readers of this blog know that, every January, I re-organize my home office.  It's a New Year activity or task that has become an annual routine since we moved into this house in 2009.

This year, I really re-imagined my office. 

With new kittens in the house, it became a necessity (especially for my wife, Kathryn) that I get my priciest collectibles up off the floor.  

Alas, that was no easy task, so I came up with a new vision of my office -- including a coffee table, a new display center, and a sofa -- that would help meet that requirement.  I mostly succeeded (except for the Ghostbusters Firehouse and a few other boxed items in the corners and around my desk....).

So without further fanfare, here is my work space as it exists now, in early 2016.  I think I like this configuration best of all (so far). 

Let me know your thoughts!

Cult-TV Theme Watch: Vans

Although such musings might be more appropriate for a "Memory Bank" post than a discussion of objects that repeat frequently in cult-TV history, I have to tell you, I love vans.

My family purchased a Ford van in 1978, and it was not retired from service until sometime in the mid-1990s.

I still miss it.  

That green van took me to and my friends to see Flash Gordon (1980) for my eleventh birthday, and transported my family on two cross-country trips from New Jersey to California and back again. = In 1979, we took the northern route, visiting the Great Lakes, Mount Rushmore, and Devil's Tower, among other locations.  Then, in 1982, we took the southern route.

Both trips were amazing experiences.  And I still remember the interior of the van vividly (and, of course, its wall-to-wall shag carpeting.)

A van might be described as a large, "box-like" automobile featuring a sliding side door and rear back-doors. The van (notice I didn't say "mini-van") was especially popular in the late seventies for not entirely wholesome reasons. 

Ever heard the term shaggin wagon?

In cult-TV history, vans have appeared so many times, and have become synonymous with specific characters and situations.  The Mystery Machine, for example, from Scooby Doo, may just be the most well-known van in the pop culture.

But The Hardy Boys also drove around the country, solving mysteries, in their GMC van, in The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (1977-1978).  

The heroes of the short-lived Saturday morning TV series, The Monster Squad (1976), similarly, had a van which they would use in their investigations of criminals.

The 1980s brought soldiers of fortune -- The A-Team (1983-1987) who also worked out of a GMC Van. 

On, V: The Series (1984-1985) at roughly the same time, the alien Visitors were often depicted driving white vans emblazoned with the alien insignia.

Even more recent series have featured vans. Early in the run of The Walking Dead (2010) in the first season, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and other survivors of the zombie apocalypse drove a church van to escape from Atlanta.

On Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997 - 2003), the Nerds of Doom -- also known as The Trio -- owned a van, and at one point, Andrew (Tom Lenk) painted some Star Wars illustrations on the side, including imagery of the Death Star.

The Cult-TV Faces of: Vans

Identified by Hugh: The Mystery Machine (Scooby Doo).

Identified by Hugh: The Monster Squad.

Identified by SGB: The Hardy Boys.

4

Identified by Hugh: The A-Team.

Identified by Hugh: V: The Series

Identified by Hugh: Star Trek: Voyager: "Future's End."

Identified by Hugh: Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Identified by Hugh: Lost.

10

Identified by Hugh: Doctor Who: "Gridlock."

Identified by Hugh: Arrow.

At Flashbak; The Fisher Price Movie Viewer (1973)

This week at Flashbak, I recalled a great toy of the 1970s: the Fisher Price Movie Viewer.

Here’s a snippet and the url: (http://flashbak.com/no-batteries-required-remembering-fisher-price-movie-viewer-1973-49908/ )

“In 1973, Fisher Price introduced its popular “Movie Viewer and Cartridge” toy: a camera-like device that -- when operated by crank -- could show Super 8 mm films. 

This was the Fisher Price Movie Viewer, and as the commercials promised, children could crank the device in slow-motion, speed it up, or even run the film backwards.  Best of all, the device needed no batteries.

The Fisher Price Movie Viewer was sold with one cartridge, originally: a 1937 Walt Disney short called Lonesome Ghosts

Very quickly, however, Fisher Price developed a wide catalog of films for kids to purchase watch, including several animated Disney movies. 

Available on cartridge were Snow White (1937), Robin Hood (1973), Pinocchio (1940), and The Rescuers (1977).  There were also several Looney Tunes cartridges, one each for Bugs Bunny, the Road Runner, and Sylvester and Tweety.

Other cartridges sold by Fisher Prince included the Pink Panther, three Marvel Spider-Man titles, and in 1979, Disney’s big-budget space epic: The Black Hole.”

Continue reading at Flashbak.

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Jason of Star Command: "Chapter 14: Peepo on Trial" (December 9, 1978)

In “Peepo on Trial,” Space Academy/Star Command falls into a Galactic Typhoon, while Peepo – under the sway of Dragos (Sid Haig) sabotages the planetoid’s engines at a critical moment.

Jason (Craig Littler) uses W1k1 to stop Peepo, and Professor Parsafoot (Charlie Dell) attempts to undo Drago’s reprogramming.  The poor bot has had his “circuits poisoned,” according to Parsafoot.

Meanwhile, The Academy must attempt a risky move, going to extreme speed in hopes of blasting through the typhoon. The maneuver is attempted, and Space Academy survives the danger!

We get more derring-do and cliff-hanging excitement in this installment of Jason of Star Command (1978-1980), but not much else. W1k1 again saves the day and -- title aside -- there’s no actual trial here for Peepo.

The most memorable aspect of this brief segment, perhaps, is James Doohan’s role as Commander Canarvin.  Here, the character begins talking about the Academy’s engines and how they were never designed for such “extreme speed.”   This is all very deja-vu, and brings to mind many such moments on Star Trek involving Scotty.

The threat of the week is a “galactic typhoon,” a kind of space storm, and exactly the kind of space phenomenon that was featured prominently in many sci-fi TV series of the 1970s.  In Space: 1999’s “The Séance Spectre,” for example, Moonbase Alpha encountered a space “weather belt,” and in the original Star Trek, Spock’s shuttle was briefly lost in the storm-like quasar in “The Galileo 7.”

Next week “The Trojan Horse.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Space Academy "Star Legend" (December 10, 1977)

This week on Filmation's 1977 Saturday morning space adventure, a Space Academy mission "marking the boundaries" of the Alderaan Triangle with "beacons," grows increasingly dangerous. Chris (Ric Carrott) and Paul's (Ty Henderson) Seeker experiences a mysterious power drain after going off course to avoid space junk.

The Seeker is miraculously rescued by a "strange old-fashioned laser beam," which pushes the craft out of the futuristic Bermuda Triangle.

On the view-screen, a strange disembodied head appears and warns the Seeker to stay away.

Meanwhile, back at the Academy, Commander Gampu (Jonathan Harris) comes to believe that the legendary Captain Rampo (Howard Morris), "the flying dutchman of outer space" may be responsible for the incident with the Seeker. 

Gampu describes the legend of how Rampo, captaining an early planetoid spacecraft not unlike the Academy, became lost in space, over a millennium ago. Believing the legend, Commander Gampu flies the Academy in to the Alderaan Triangle's lateral perimeter, and the Academy too is promptly drained of energy...

With the Academy frozen in the Triangle, Gampu takes Blue Team aboard a Seeker to Rampo's space craft, which resembles the Academy, but is lit green. Once on board, a strange specter warns them to "leave...or stay forever" and states that "all visitors here are doomed...doomed!"

Gampu and his cadets laser down a locked door and discover 1,603 year-old Captain Rampo, a funny old man dressed like a train conductor, circa 1910. 

Turns out he's been pulling a Balok strategy (from the classic Star Trek episode, "The Corbomite maneuver.") A thousand years ago, he was establishing a colony on a nearby planet when the sun went nova. A magnetic storm forced him to cross into the Alderaan Triangle, and he and his ship have remained trapped there, orbiting the space trap in an attempt to stop a "scourge of energy vapor" which drains ships of power. He's been pretending to be a fierce specter to keep other ships away...when in reality he's just a kindly old man. 

Gampu and the others decide to give the hungry energy vapor "indigestion." They lure it into the captain's quarters, then return to the Seeker and destroy Rampo's ship...thus ending the star legend, and freeing Rampo from his mission.

I love how "Star Legend" combines aspects of the Flying Dutchman legend with tales of the Bermuda Triangle (a regular 1970s obsession), and then reveals -- in glorious miniature -- a much earlier version of the Academy.  Rampo's "ship" glows green, inside and out, making it appear quite creepy. 

Still, you have to wonder how the builders of the ship could afford to lose it. Also, for being a thousand years old, Rampo's planetoid appears as advanced in terms of technology and production design as the Academy.

Next week: "Johnny Sunseed."

Happy 2016!!!