Superhero Memories

I've never really considered myself much of a Superhero fan. When I was little my cartoon and comic book tastes gravitated always towards the funny animals. I'd take Yogi Bear over Superman any day of the week. With the recent explosion of Superhero movies coming out of Hollywood, I had still kept some distance from most of the fare offered. I had seen some of the older Batman movies, and Superman Returns and even the first Spider-Man film, but I still didn't really pay much attention to the genre. Then came the 1-2 punch of Thor (2011) and The Avengers (2012). I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Thor only a year later to be completely blown out of the water by how awesome The Avengers was. With Iron Man 3 and Man of Steel this Summer, I found myself way more into the comic book movies than I ever was before. It got me thinking about the handful of Superhero stuff that I did like as a child...the few things that made an impression on me. And with the release of the new Thor movie this past weekend (It was awesome!) I thought it would be a good time to unveil this list of my Top 10 Childhood Superhero Memories...


Spider-Man (1967-1970)

 This was the first Spider-Man cartoon which I wasn't alive for the first time it came around but I remember catching it early in the morning and, for the first time, being drawn in by the storytelling instead of the slapstick and laughter. This is the show that gave us the classic "Spider-Man" theme song too! Growing up, the only time I saw this show was if I was able to wake up early enough on a Saturday morning. In Baltimore, Channel 2 ran reruns of Spidey at 6:30am, an hour and a half before the network cartoons started. It was always a treat if I could sneak out into the living room and watch Spider-Man sling his webs through New York with the TV sound turned down real low so I didn't wake my parents up.

 



Spidey Super Stories (1974-1977)

Spider-Man would also pop up on segments in The Electric Company, a show designed for graduates of Sesame Street. This show was awesome because it was presented like a comic book with the different scenes taking place inside panels of a comic book. The real-life comic book motif was played out more by having Spider-Man only speaking in word bubbles above his head. This Spidey was a web-slinger of very few words but the other people in the stories could read the bubbles above Spider-Man's head. In these stories, Spidey didn't fight Doc Oc or the Green Goblin, but instead dastardly villains like the Spider who sat down beside Ms. Muffet. There was also a print version of these stories in The Electric Company Magazine which I'm sure I read every issue at least 100 times!

 

Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (1981-1983)
 

I LOVED this show and never missed it on Saturday Mornings. Spider-Man joins forces with Firestar and Iceman to stop various Marvel Super Villains. Spider-Man would do his thing while cracking jokes and tossing off one-lines, while Firestar shot fire everywhere and Iceman would surf around on a path of ice he shot out of his hands. Apparently, Iceman is also a member of the X-Men, which I didn't even know the X-Men was a thing until those movies started coming out in 2000. I don't know if Iceman makes an appearance in any of the X-Men movies past or future...but if he does I would watch the crap out of that movie! I loves me some Iceman!

 

Superman: The Movie (1978)
Superman II (1980)
 

Back before HBO or VHS, if a Superman movie was on TV - you dropped what you were doing and watched it. You just did because it was Superman and we showed respect to our elders that way back then. I think these are still really the gold standard in Super Hero movies, funny and exciting and easily accessible to children. Later, when we had HBO, I easily caught these two movies a million times each. They are still great films and fun to watch. (I've still never seen Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, and I hear I'm not missing much.)

 

Fantastic Four (1967/1978)
 

I don't remember much about this show except that I loved it and thought the drawings were really cool. There were actually two versions of this show; a 1967 series from Hanna-Barbera and a 1978 version from DePatie-Freleng. I'm not sure which ones I saw, possibly both, but whenever I could catch it I was on board! This show is so ingrained into my memory that I was excited when the recent movies came out.

 

Batman (1966-1968)
 

 As with most people my age, this version of Batman was THE version of Batman and so much so that when the Michael Keaton movie came out in 1989 I was just like, "What is this crap? That wasn't funny at all!" Besides the cool costumes, crazy villains and bright colors...I loved how they put the action words on the screen during a fight scene. That was the best!

 

SuperFriends (1973-1986)
 

My #1 TV nerd memory of this show was that it was the first time a cartoon that I knew from Saturday mornings came to strip syndication after school. So, it was a nice change of pace from all the old Popeye and Casper cartoons we had for our viewing pleasure in the afternoons. Not pictured above, but the Wonder Twins would make the best Super Hero movie out of them all!

 

Wonder Woman (1975-1979)

Simply put: Wonder Woman's invisible jet remains the single most coolest prop ever built in the history of television.

 

Hostess Comic Book Ads (1977-1982)
 

My only exposure to (then) second-string Superheroes like Captain America, Flash, Green Lantern and Iron Man were in one page ads that ran in all the comic books...including the talking animal comics that I read. In each of these comics, a noted Superhero would use tasty Hostess Apple Pies, Twinkies or Cupcakes to overpower a super villain. Who needs all the gold in the world when you can have a bit of golden & delicious Hostess Cupcake? Even an 8 year old me knew this was a ridiculous concept...and I ate up every page of it!

 

Spider-Man for Atari 2600 (1982)

As with any Atari game that I owned, I played it one hundred million times in my youth. As it turns out, this one was the very first video game based on a Marvel Comics property. In it, you would sling webs and try to get your three pixels that represented Spider-Man up to the top of a skyscraper to defeat Green Goblin.  Did I say I played it a hundred million times, now that I'm looking at the picture I'm sure it was closer to 30 zillion billion times. What a great game!

 

 

Now's the part where I ask you to share some of your Super Hero memories in the comments section......

My Week In Movies - July; Week 2

The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) So many questions with the newest Spider-Man movie. Why did we need to sit through his origin story...again? Why does it take Spider-Man almost an hour to show up to his own movie? Why does the bad guy always have to have a backstory, can't he just be evil? Why does the villain's story always have to be something personal with Spider-Man? Why can't they just make a movie where some robots rob a bank and Spider-Man swings in, battles them, and saves the day? And why, oh why did Spider-Man...NOT ONCE...sling web out of the 3D movie screen and into my face!?! All that being said, I enjoyed the new movie.

21 Jump Street (2011) A silly movie (staring Tatum Channing or Channing Tatum, whichever it is) based on a 20 year old FOX show should not be good. Yet alone, how does it be great. 21 Jump Street is a fantastic movie. Very, Very funny. It pokes fun at itself while still being genuinely funny on it's own. It plays around with the aspect that it's based on an existing property and most importantly it never once lets the story of the film stand in the way of the humor. I hate when a silly comedy gets too bogged down with it's own plot. This movie is perfect. As an added bonus, there's a really great cast including a few people from The Office, Parks & Recreation and New Girl. Plus there's Brie Larson who I thought was kind of cute in Hoot, and she's very pretty here too.

The Cannonball Run (1980) Simply put - my favorite movie of all time. It still makes me laugh from beginning to end. The kids were interested in seeing it since they've heard me talk about it and quote it so often. The youngest fell asleep quickly and my older one found it pretty boring. Perhaps I sprung it on them a little too early. Although I guess I was Elias' age when I first started watching it religiously on HBO. Of course back then, we didn't have 14 new animated films a year competing for our attention. We made do with what we had.

Starcrash (1978) I hate that whole "so bad it's funny" thing. This Italian knock off of Star Wars is not all that funny, but it's so bad and silly that it is very enjoyable. I have no idea what it was about, but there is some girl in a leather bikini fighting bad guys with a robot named Elle The Police Robot. Elle speaks with a slight southern accent and is full of witty C3-PO-esque things to say. Oh, and near the end David Hasselhoff shows up to help Bikini Girl battle some space cavemen. Good times!

Dennis The Menace (1993) I remember this being kind of funny. I think I watched it when I worked at a video store once. My kids love the old black and white TV show so I thought they'd get a kick out of this updated (read: Color) version. They enjoyed it ok but I have to say it is god-awful. The movie is 95% soundtrack. Things aren't funny...but the soundtrack sure works hard into making you think you just saw something funny. Also, Dennis the Menace was never mean spirited, he wasn't out to make people's lives a living hell. In this movie, Dennis is a pretty naughty boy. Also, kids movies shouldn't have so many sex jokes in them! Do I sound old?

Seven Shows I'd Like To See On Broadway

Last week when I was putting together my list of Vegas shows that I'd like to see, I got to thinking...it takes me less time to drive to New York City than it does to fly to Las Vegas! I should really get up to New York more often, especially since I enjoys me some live theatre. I've only ever been to one, actually honest-to-goodness Broadway performance. When I was a senior in high school we took a bus trip up to see Les Miserables. I didn't understand a second of it. Years later, Debbie Gibson took over one of the lead roles and I would have been delighted to see her in it but all I got out of it was somebody stealing a piece of bread, a spinning stage and the French Revolution! I also saw the touring company production of Disney's Beauty & The Beast, which was one of the earlier dates my wife and I went on. That was a memorable evening.

I really, really wanted to see the stage version of The Little Mermaid, and had every intention of doing so but then it closed so quickly! Sadness. Anywho...here's some stuff that's playing now on The Great White Way that I'd love to see:

The Book of Mormon - Eugine O'Neill Theatre All I need to know about this show (and just about all I really know) is it was written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the guys behind South Park. I pretty much don't pay much attention to South Park anymore, but Parker and Stone are two brilliant and funny guys. You might not be able to get past their obsession with obscenity, but they are masterful when it comes to parody. The South Park movie blows me away every time I see it. They are also responsible for a hilarious marionette action film Team America World Police which is painfully funny in so many directions. Their Broadway debut takes aim at religion in this country and as with all their work, it backed by what I'm sure is some fantastic music.

The Lion King - Minskoff Theatre It seems everybody has seen a production of this Disney hit but me. If Disney is setting up shop somewhere, I'm in. I'd love to see this show which is just about as critically acclaimed as a show can get yet I still haven't seen it. It's also running in Las Vegas, but this kind of a thing doesn't really feel like a Vegas type show. I'll stick to comedy and boobs out there and hopefully make a concerted effort to catch Simba & Co. next time the touring company comes around.

Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark - Foxwoods Theatre I don't care what the media has been shoving down our throats for the last couple of months, I think this show looks awesome. I'd pay some big bucks to see a fight take place above my head. I'd also really love to take my older son to see this, I think he'd think it was awesome too. I'm not sure his appreciation for the show would match the ticket prices. I'd probably be better off just waiting for Spidey to make an appearance at a car show.

Mary Poppins - New Amsterdam Theatre I know what you're thinking - Ed, you'll go see anything with the Disney name slapped on it. Well, not necessarily true as I wasn't really hankering to ever catch a glimpse of Disney's Broadway version of Tarzan. But when it does come to Disney, Mary Poppins is at the core of everything that is great about the Wonderful World of Walt Disney. I'm sure this would be as spectacular as an evening in one of their theme parks.

The Addams Family - Lunt Fontanne Theatre I'm not a huge Addams Family fan, but I bet this would be a fun show. The stage show is more inspired by the original comic strip than the popular television series, but it still has the good sense to retain the TV show's theme song. A simple step that shows they're doing something right. I've heard Broadway Addams is alot of fun!

Avenue Q - New World Stages Here's the rub, my brother couldn't basically give two rat's behinds about theatre and he's seen this show! It's an off-color, puppet filled take-off on Sesame Street. Have I ever mentioned how much I enjoy the art of puppetry? There's a touring company of this show too. When they scheduled a performance near the WWoB offices I tried to sell my wife on justifying forking over the dough to go see it. I knew going in that it was an uphill battle trying to get her to go to a $50 puppet show...and still I have not seen this show.

Gazillion Bubble Show - New World Stages You're going to do a show where you just blow bubbles? Lots and lots of bubbles? For 90 minutes, you're just going to blow bubbles. Bubbles of all sizes you say? Like a gazillion of them? Who do I make my check out to?

My Week In Movies - Beyond Vegas

In addition to the Las Vegas movies, I also saw:

The Swinger (1966) After watching Viva Las Vegas earlier in the week, I got on a bit of an Ann-Margret kick and ended up finding this little gem on Netflix Instant. What a great film! Ann-Margret plays a writer desperate to get her work published. When she submits her work to a Playboy-esque magazine they tell her it's too tame and not in touch with what people want to read. So Ann-Margret reinvents herself as a phony hedonistic sex kitten and then things really start to take off in her career. The plot actually fades away halfway through the movie but there's so much wacky hi jinks, funky 60's psychedelic camera work and editing plus great singing that it doesn't matter. This movie came out at a time right before the ratings system when films were pushing the envelope with how much mature content they could sneak into a film. Imagine a very soft PG rated comedy about porn and sex...that's what you've got here. (Check out Don Knott's The Love God for a G rated movie about porn.) There's a fantastic opening credits montage that's more entertaining than all of the last 25 years of Hollywood's output. A very fun film that's not out on DVD, but you can find it on Netflix Instant.

Spider-Man 3 (2007) Over the course of the last three Friday nights my boys and I watched the entire Spider-Man trilogy. Overall, it's a very solid trio of films. #3 is a little long, as there are lots of loose ends to tie up from the whole sage. There's a few too many bad guys. Spidey battles Sandman, Venom and New Goblin all in one film. But it's all fun and the most impressive thing about all three films is the sense of humor that is maintained throughout. There are scenes of pure comic joy in all these films that I find refreshing for a superhero franchise. Of course after watching this, Saturday morning my kids dug out all their Spider-Man 3 Happy Meal toys from Burger King and played with them all day.

Blondie Goes To College (1942) On to the 10th Blondie film and the last of the series which is available currently on DVD. Dagwood enrolls in college and drags an unenthusiastic Blondie along with him. Wacky shenanigans arise when Dagwood tries to keep his marriage status a secret so they can better fit into the college scene. It's a nifty look at campus life back in the 40's. This instalment also has a surprisingly emotional ending which stands out from some of the other Blondie films I've seen recently. The five Blondie movies that I've watched over the last few weeks are all on a cheapo DVD release Blondie Vol. 2. Netflix is currently missing their copy of Blondie Vol. 1 and it seems that the remaining 18 films in the series are only out on old VHS releases. I'll have to do a little video detective work in order to enjoy anymore entries in this silly cinema series. (I'm up for the challenge!)

My Week In Movies - The Wrath of Blogger

Blogger had some maintenance issues this week and in the process they seemed to have yanked down my latest "My Week in Movies" post and then lost the final draft in my dashboard. I don't feel like rewriting, I'm pretty sure it was up for a day or so. Anywho, here's what I still have for posterity sake and we'll pick back up with the feature next week!

Duel (1971) The other night I was trying to decide what to watch for my evening movie and I thought to myself - I should watch something really good...for a change. So I decided on Steven Spielberg's film debut, a really tight story about a guy driving a car and a truck that's out to kill him. There's not much of a backstory here, or much in the way of characters. It's a simple game of cat and mouse that is perfectly laid out and extremely intense and creepy. A really good movie which was actually a TV-movie and then expanded into a theatrical feature. Good stuff!

Ghost Story (1981) I actually remember when this came out, I was 8 years old. I didn't see it. I'm sure I had no interest in it. I just remember seeing this poster at the movie theatre way back then. I've wanted to see it in recent years because it is the final screen credit of Fred Astaire. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who didn't expect to find full frontal male nudity in Fred Astaire's last picture. It's not 81 year old Astaire who we see in his birthday suit, but it was still surprising. The story involves four old friends who share a deep dark secret. It starts off really slow and confusing at first, but the movie picks up and was quite entertaining. There's still a few good scares left in this 30 year old horror movie. It's available on Netflix streaming.


Revenge of the Cheerleaders (1976) I'm a huge fan of the 1973 film The Cheerleaders which might just be one of the silliest movies ever committed to film. Surprisingly, I've never seen it's sequel which sadly takes itself a little more seriously.

I also saw:



Blondie Goes Latin (1941)
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
American Raspberry (1977)
Blondie In Society (1941)

Classic Commercial Sunday - #63 - Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Edition

My Week In Movies - Fly The Friendly Skies

Stewardess School (1986) In the wake of the success of Police Academy in 1984, there was a tidal wave of movies ripping off the formula and trying to make a quick buck. As you can imagine, I've seen a good number of Police Academy rip-offs and few are more blatantly stealing from the original than Stewardess School. I first saw this on HBO years ago, as I anxiously awaited it's debut after a brief theatrical run. Recently, while researching silly movies of the 80's, this title was reactivated in my memory banks but I was disappointed to discover that it had not been released on DVD. So, imagine my delight when Stewardess School popped up on the Sony Movie Channel the other night! Ultimately, this sex comedy is horrible - but it's having so much fun trying to be wild and wacky that you just can't help but have a good time while watching it. The movie follows the traditional group of misfits, each with one personality trait, as they enroll in...well, you guessed it - Stewardess School. Police Academy is further ripped off with the plot point that the academy has recently lowered it's standards of admissions and there is an mean, strict instructor who tries to get the various students kicked out of the program. Neither of these borrowed plot devices has any baring on the story - but they are thrown in for good measure. The great cast includes Ralph Mouth from Happy Days, Jack Tripper's wife from Three's A Crowd, Zed's girlfriend from Police Academy 4, and the fat girl from Bosom Buddies. A worse movie has never been more enjoyable.

Spider-Man (2002) We were in the mood for some Super Hero action the other night, and Spidey fit the bill just perfectly. I forgot how good this movie was. The was the first screening for my little ones. They were completely awe struck with the proceedings. When Peter Parker eventually dons the traditional Spider-Man suit and heads out into the city swinging on webs from buildings...my children might as well have been watching actual video footage of the creation of the universe. They simply went out of their minds with excitement! Which made the movie all the more enjoyable for me. Also, I loves me some Kirsten Dunst! We can't wait to tear into number two, which I've never seen!

April Movie Count: 13 (disappointing)
Best New Movie: Rio (slow month)
Best Rewatch: Yogi Bear
Worst Movie: Country Strong
2011 Movie Count: 70

Classic Commercial Sunday - 9/6

I spent many childhood hours playing this great game...

We Salute You Ice Cream Man

Seriously folks, what could be more American than the Ice Cream Man?! Am I right? Ya got the bubble gum flavored Popsicle thing, the snowball frozen solid that pops out of the cone, and of course the Good Humor bar! Ah, memories! As with everything else great in this world of ours, the concept of "The Ice Cream Man" is a dying art form. We're seen two ice cream trucks since we've moved in here in 2005. Which is why the whole neighborhood came together over the weekend when an honest to goodness Good Humor truck pulled onto our street. It wasn't the old fashioned white truck with the guy in the Maytag uniform, it was a yellow truck with a giant Spongebob on the side and it was operated by a long lost cousin of Cheech and/or Chong, but it was all still pure ice cream magic! I indulged in a Banana-Fudge Pop and both my kids had the Spider-Man pop with gumball eyes. The problem with the character pops is that they are made of slightly frozen ice...in other words, they melt quickly:

Real Quickly! There's Spider-Man's mask dripping down Elias' hand. Good thing I had the sense to remove his white t-shirt before chomping down on Spidey's head. Elias had one of these pops last year at the beach and made the single biggest food related mess in history!


The stick on Tanner's broke and landed on his chest. Luckily, he didn't mind eating the rest of it out of a bowl.

Messy or not, we need more Ice Cream Men!

Hey Kids, It's Wolverine!

The new Wolverine movie comes out today. I'm gonna be honest with ya, my knowledge of Wolverine is very limited, I didn't even know X-Men was a thing until the movies started coming out. What I do know about Wolverine is that he has giant razor sharp claws sticking out of his hands and he's not too happy about it. The new movie looks kind of dark and very violent, which is a shame since they also market Wolverine and his comic book cohorts to preschoolers. There's a whole bunch of different products featuring Wolverine, Spider-Man, and Iron Man rendered in a kid-friendly style. What youngster doesn't love playing with his angry mutant or billionaire suit of armor?! Here's some of the toys and other stuff that we've got laying around our house...

A company called Learning Curve, who also makes the Thomas the Tank Engine toys, came out with a line of wooden play figures a few years ago that are similar to Fisher Price's Little People figures. The Play Town collection features sturdy wooden figures of all the different people in your neighborhood like the fire man, and the postman...and there's a grocery store and a fix-it garage - all the standards. They also went ahead and added Marvel comic book characters to the Play Town collection. You can pick up friendly little Wolverine with his good buddy Captain America. There's another set that comes with Spider-Man and the always lovable Incredible Hulk. Now you can have Hulk destroy the Play Town bank while Wolverine does some gardening!?


There's lots of kiddie books featuring Spidey and friends. In these books, the gang hang out at the playground and have fun with other kids. I don't know if I'd want to be pushed on the swings by Wolverine!

We got these a while ago. We bought a pack of Spider-Man forks and spoons for the kids. When we got home and opened the package we discovered that the forks all had Wolverine on them. Pretty clever, actually. I would assume Wolverine doesn't need a fork...or at least a knife.

And then my favorite of the whole collection...this Spidey and Friends CD. The thing is, this is an actual licenced product from Marvel comics. It has almost nothing at all to do with superheroes. The CD is filled with a dozen songs that are appropriate to play in a Sunday school classroom. Click on the play button on the picture below to hear the CD's tribute to deadly blade wielding Wolverine...