So recently, and I use recently in the loosest way possible (and in comparison to my obsession with 20-30 year old nostalgia), I got into a French/Japanese cartoon from the 80s called the Mysterious Cities of Gold. I'm not sure how well known the cartoon is, I have trouble gauging the extent to which some of the cartoons that I love from the 80s have ensconced themselves into pop culture. On the one hand shows like G.I. Joe, the Transformers, He-Man and Thundercats seem very well known (which goes to show why they all had pretty speedy TV on DVD releases and retro merchandising ala Hot Topic or product line relaunches), but then there are other shows that I'm not so sure about, stuff like Turbo Teen, Kidd Video, Count Duckula or Mysterious Cities of Gold. There are fan sites, and Count Duckula even had a season 1 DVD release, but these are also shows that I get questions about from time to time (for example, e-mails asking if I can identify the show with the guy who turns into a car whenever he gets overheated or stressed.)

Mysterious Cities of Gold was certainly off my radar as a kid as I completely missed out on it until about 2001 or so. It originally aired on Nickelodeon around the 1982-1989 timeframe, I'm not sure exactly when. TV.com and IMDB have it listed as 1982, but my friend Kevin (who introduced me to the show) watched it regularly and I doubt it was when he was five, which just seems a bit too early. Wiki doesn't help as it lists the show as airing in the US in the "later 80s". Either way I missed it, even though I was a Nickelodeon junkie and really dug the foreign cartoons and shows that the station was known to air (like Count Duckula, Danger Mouse, Inspector Gadget, segments of Pinwheel, Belle and Sebastian, etc.) Maybe I was too busy trying to catch You Can't Do That on Television and Out of Control reruns.

Well like I mentioned above, my friend Kevin was a fan of the show and after he got out of college he picked up a set of bootleg VHS videos off of eBay with all 39 English dub episodes and over the next three years we'd get together occasionally and bang out an episode or two, slowly making our way through the show. That was a really cool experience for me as I got a chance to tag along on a friend's nostalgia trip, something that I could relate to, yet was still new for me, and in the end I found a sort of lost gem from childhood. Getting together to watch the show was also the beginning of a regular movie night for us, which has been a weekly mainstay for years now, so I've sort of attached a retro-nostalgia to the show.

For those who aren't familiar with the cartoon, or for those who want to get a little spark of nostalgia, the show focused on three children, Esteban, Zia and Tao and their adventures seeking out (say it with me) the mysterious cities of gold in South America in the 1500s. Though there are a lot of fantastical elements (and eventually it devolves into Alien/master race territory), one of the coolest aspects of the show is how grounded in history and reality it is, which is certainly in the grand tradition of 80s cartoons trying to slip in a spoonful educational content with every mouthful of action and adventure. In fact the cartoon was followed by mini live action documentaries on the non-fiction aspects of the show in many of the countries where it originally aired. Add to this the fact that it's a rare example of a period 80s cartoon with tinges of archeology and fantastic steampunk-esque technology and traps (ala Indiana Jones), it's hard to deny the appeal of the show.

Unfortunately the show is in a sort of DVD limbo, as it exists in various language dubs that were distributed by a handful of different companies, so there isn't really one version of the show. There was a French release of the show but it didn't contain the English dub, and currently it isn't even known if masters of the English dub even still exist. There are a lot of dedicated bootleggers though and if you look hard enough you can find copies of the show on DVD that have the picture content ripped from the French release mixed with the audio from various English VHS copies that were taped off of Nickelodeon in the 80s. The final product is good but not great.

Anyway, here's a breakdown of the opening credit sequence along with MP3s of both the

English Theme Song and the

French Version of the Theme Song (in much better quality.)



The show opens with narration describing the setting…

It is the 16th century. From all over Europe great ships sale west to conquer the new world, the Americas. These men eager to seek their fortune, to find new adventures in new lands.


They long to cross uncharted seas and discover unknown countries. To find secret gold on a mountain trail high in the Andes. They dream of following the path of the setting sun that leads to Elderado, and the Mysterious Cities Of Gold.


The song then kicks in while the credit sequence shifts to Esteban. I thought it was interesting that the production on this credit sequence is very similar to that of Danger Mouse and Count Duckula which has elements of animation mixed in with augmented live action shots (made to look psuedo-animated.) It's both very 80s and very British, ala the Terry Gilliam shorts from Monty Python (and yes I know he's American, but his work still feels very British to me), as well as the opening credits from You Can't Do That on TV (a knock off of the Python animations.)


There's a lot of water in this sequence as well, jumping into water, screwing around in water, sailing, etc.














There are also lot of instances of anachronistic ancient technology in the show; one of the coolest being the Golden Condor airship from the end of this credits sequence. It's definitely a striking element from the show and another example of the myriad of awesome flying machines in shows of the 80s. Between this, the Maraj from the Silverhawks, the Sky Strikers and Rattlers from G.I. Joe, the Veritechs from Robotech, Airwolf, Blue Thunder, the Batwing, and a million others, flying in the 80s was certainly in style.


This is certainly a show that I want to re-watch someday. Hopefully sooner or later an official English dub will surface. Until then this is the perfect example of the positive side of bootlegging, and outlets like Eyebum and Youtube, which help to keep shows like this alive.

So here we are in the last week of May, and the last chunk of 80s Super Hero stickers that I have in my collection. It's going to be a short week for me as I'm finally tying the knot with the wonderful woman that I've shared the last seven years with, and sort of reflected, this will be a short post.

This entry of Peel Here will effectively close out my collection of DC super hero related sticker schwag, by far not all there is out there, but all that I've managed to procure to this date. This first package of stickers actually brings back a lot of memories. In 1988, Gordy International, jumping on the huge Batman movie bandwagon, released this series of DC puffy stickers. In 1988 I became a comic collecting freak, and in particular I was all into Batman in any shape or form that I could find, and trust me it was everywhere; Batman cereal, toothbrushes, band-aids, candy, trading cards, toys, lunch boxes, shirts, bed sheets, nighttime lighting schemes on large buildings, you name it. Well, as I was obsessively buying up all the crap with a bat symbol on it I effectively made my last "stickers-for-collecting" purchase with the three different variations on these DC super hero puffy stickers. I no longer had photo albums to put stickers in, and in learning about proper collecting procedure, I left them all mint in package, at least until my Batman collecting bubble burst (and I ripped them out and stuck them on school folders.)




There are two other variations on these stickers, though the'’re both in a similar format, 1 Superman sticker, 2 Batman, 1 Batman & Robin, 1 Robin, and 1 Batman villain. I think the other villains are Penguin and the Riddler.

On the standard flat paper sticker front, there are these stickers produced by Hallmark in 1987. What I thought was cool about these was the addition of Captain Marvel (Shazam to some.) Typically you see Wonder Woman and every once in awhile the Flash, but Captain Marvel is pretty rare on merchandising, at least 80s merchandising. He was a little bigger in the 70s what with the live action show and all.


I thought I'd also drop a link here to an older Peel Here post with the Zero Heroes Sticker Card Set, which is timely for this month's theme, something I wasn't thinking about back when I started the column.  I really dig these parody cards, so enjoy.

Next week on Peel Here I'm going to share one of my favorite sets of sticker cards, one that was a holy grail item on my 80s sticker collection wish list, and one that I managed to find at a decent price after almost a year of searching. It's going to coincide with an awesome DVD on TV release that I've also been waiting for, for a very long time. So strap on your black leather driving gloves (or tan if you prefer), and get ready to hit the road in 7 short days…

I'm back for week 28 of Peel Here, which also happens to be the 4th week of exploring my 80s Super Hero sticker collection, not to mention the DC Comics portion of the month long exploration. This isn't the last week as there are practically 5 weeks in this May, so there will be one more to follow.

Now to dig deeper into the DC Comics branded stickers of the 80s I wanted to take a look at the 1984 Topps sticker card set for the cult flick Supergirl. Now I completely missed Supergirl in the theaters, but I saw it a million times on HBO and even though the film is sort of the weird bastard cousin of the Superman flicks, I remember having some fond memories. Hell, I even liked Superman III and IV as a kid, so that should illustrate my bad taste in films.

Supergirl was more or less the last attempt to revive the Superman franchise after Superman III was a bomb at the box office. The producers of the series, Alexander and Ilya Salkind, had purchased the rights to make Supergirl at the same time they bought the rights to Superman. The Salkinds (along with Richard Donner) were pioneers in the area of movie franchises, as they not only had a hand in the filming of Superman and Superman II back to back, but also were, from the get go, thinking of spin-offs and future sequels. With Supergirl the Salkinds hoped to continue on with franchise while giving Reeves and that story line a rest for a while, hoping that some new blood in the series would reinvigorate the series. They took a very similar approach to the film as they did to the first Superman by casting an unknown in the lead role (Helen Slater) as well as packing the rest of the cast with big names like Mia Farrow, Peter O'Toole, and Faye Dunaway.

Though the film fared poorly in theaters, it was popular enough to be merchandised a little, most notably with a poster magazine and a couple series of stickers. There were some puffy stickers, but the really nice set of stickers came from Topps. Typically Topps would license the rights to produce trading card sets off of films and TV shows, and then a lot of times they would produce a chase sticker card sub-set, but for the Supergirl film they changed their format a little to combine both the trading and the sticker cards. Basically they quadrupled their normal sticker count, from 11 to 44, and mixed the sticker card backs between puzzle pieces and movie story scenes (there were 10 puzzle backs and 33 story backs.) The story backs were similar to their basic card sets in that the contained images from the film, but instead of having a synopsis (like on the reverse of a basic trading card) they inserted stage directions and speech bubbles to relate the story. This isn't new, Topps also did similar things with other cards sets, namely Mork and Mindy and Three's Company, but I believe it was the first time they did this with sticker card backs.


Though the property is basically unisex in its appeal, I believe these stickers were designed more for girls than boys as you can see in some of the above captions. The even Supergirl gets the blues card in particular is pretty much standard 80s girl fare (right up there with cute animals doing ballet or gymnastics, unicorns, flying piano keyboards, and pictures of roller skates.) The images on the stickers were in a loose chronological order and were numbered via the story card backs. Actually, in essence the stickers acted like the card back, but since that's weird, I decided to present them in the reverse.)


Also, since there were around 22 additional stickers to have images for (since Topps usually dealt in 11 or 22 sticker card sets) a lot of these stickers are sort of hokey with mind numbing captions like the above Friendship is hard to beat. These are rounded out by a number of iconic Supergirl stickers (either in flight or in battle ready poses), so it sort of balances out. Above we also get a look at another tie-in character to the regular Superman universe in the form of Lucy Lane (who has some tie to Lois, probably a cousin, as Supergirl is Superman's cousin.)


Actually, some of these stickers might as well double as Valentine's they're so inane. Like I said, definitely marketed towards girls here. Another weird plot device in this movie is the exchange of Kryptonite for sorcery as a weakness for super powered beings. The story involves Supergirl chasing a mystical object, an Omegahedron (which has the power to create when used properly), to Earth where she realizes that she has special powers thanks to Earth's yellow sun. The Omegahedron falls into the hands of Faye Dunaway who fancies herself a witch, and with the object actually gains sorcery powers. She uses these to banish Supergirl to the Phantom Zone, the place of punishment introduced in the first Superman movie (it's where General Zod and his cronies were banished, you know, that clear pane of glass floating in space that looks like a bad album cover.)


Supergirl ends up powerless in the Phantom Zone, but is saved by her mentor (Peter O'Toole) who sacrifices himself to free her so that she can go back to earth and save the world from a mystical Faye Dunaway. There's also a bo-hunky stud somewhere in the mix, as well as bumbling evil sidekicks, and an appearance from Marc McClure, reprising his role of Jimmy Olsen from the other Superman movies.


Christopher Reeve was supposed to make a cameo appearance, but bowed out due to script changes and possible disagreements with the creative team. I believe the original script called for Supergirl to save a defeated Superman from the Faye Dunaway character, but that was changed as production ramped up.


Like I said earlier, this set consisted of one 10 card puzzle as well as 33 (32 if you don't count the above title card) story cards.


Here's what the completed puzzle looks like. It's a pretty cool image, though not necessarily what one might want out of a Supergirl poster.


Here's the basic story of Supergirl in a very inanely condensed fashion…










For anyone interested, the film was released twice on DVD. Once by Anchor Bay in a nice 2-Disc special edition (that unfortunately now out of print) which featured both the extended international edition of the film as well as a longer original cut, commentary, and a making of featurette, and then is was recently re-released by Warner Brothers as part of their marketing ramp-up for the Superman Returns flick (though not in the huge deluxe Superman box set) and though it's only the 125 minute cut of the film, it retained the commentary track. Also, as I learned recently, Helen Slater is in fact not related to Christian Slater, a rumor that began after the two starred together (as brother and sister) in the very underrated Legend of Billie Jean.

Come on back next week as we finish off our look at 80s super hero stickers with some more DC sticker swag.

Chris over at the Goonies Soundtrack Campaign contacted me recently to let me know that the good people at Varese Sarabande are thinking about the possibility of releasing the Goonies score (music by Dave Gursin) on CD. I know that there was an album of the pop songs released from the film in the 80s, but I think even that is out of print now (though it can be found pretty easily if you're into dubious ways of getting music.) I thought I'd give Chris' site a shout out here in case anyone was interested in signing a petition to get the score released.

I will say that my experience has led me to believe that a hand written letter campaign typically works best, but it's worth a shot if Varese Sarabande is listening to online petitions.  Regardless, here's their snail mail contact information:

Varese Sarabande
11846 Ventura Blvd.
Suite 130
Studio City, CA  91604

Being that I'm on a sort of super hero kick lately, and since I've found a few extra pockets of time to watch some DVDs that have been sitting on the shelf for months, I thought I take a moment to share one of my favorite super hero movies of all time. Now after I'd been into comics for a while, (always a "Make Mine Marvel" kind of kid) and after I've fallen into a group of similar minded friends, we would sit around and talk SH movies all of the time, arguing over which was better. Though the original Star Wars trilogy was our bible, super hero films were the next ring of interest and speculation. Of the four of us that hung out together, each of us had our preferable set of Marvel characters: I was into the Punisher and the X-Men, though Wolverine in particular was my favorite, Jeremy was into Spiderman and Namor, though Cyclops was his favorite character, Darrel was an expert on the more fringe characters in the Marvel universe (Cloak and Dagger, The New Mutants, Star Jammers) as well as some indie comics like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, though he had a pretty strong affinity for Gambit, Kitty Pryde and Night Crawler, and Stephen was the resident underdog lover, covering everything that the rest of us weren't into like Iron-Man, Daredevil, and the Avengers, though like the rest of us he was partial to an X-Men character, Colossus.

Anyway, while we were comparing and contrasting flicks like Tim Burton's Batman, TMNT: The Movie, The 1989 version of the Punisher, Superman the Movie, the Flash TV Pilot, Swamp Thing, the 70s-80s Spiderman TV movies, and the 80s unreleased Captain America movie, all of us always neglected to bring up the original pilot movie for the Incredible Hulk TV series. Sure, all of us were familiar with the later TV movies that introduced characters like Daredevil and Thor to the big screen, but I never saw the pilot movie in repeats until the late 90s. In fact I'm not sure if it was ever released on video, and it sure wasn't released on DVD until the merchandising and publicity started to ramp up for the Ang Lee version in 2003. Universal put out four DVD sets that year, the pilot movie, a really expensive Best Of, and a couple of TV movie collections with the Return of, Trial of, and finally Death of the Incredible Hulk.

Well considering the mass amount of super hero flicks that have been released since '95, I thought it would be fun to see how this 1977 TV movie held up in comparison.


First off, the pilot movie DVD, which might still be available individually (it comes with the awesome 1st season set which also includes commentary on the flick) on DVD, is pretty good for the price. I've only ever seen it in $5.50 bins in the various chain stores, so it's cheap, and in addition to the pilot it also includes the bonus fan-favorite episode Married. The DVD also contains some fluff special features like a sneak peek at the Ang Lee feature film and a decent introduction from Lou Ferrigno (who if you don't know was the Hulk to Bill Bixby's David Banner.)


Ferrigno doesn't get all that much time to reminisce, but he manages to get a few interesting nuggets out about getting the gig, the annoying time in the make-up chair, etc. He's also very aware of the fan base for the show and he even hits the convention circuit every year taking time to talk with the fans and stuff (unlike a lot of the other "celebrities" who frequent the circuit and are amazingly rude.)


The pilot movie was basically the pitch for the regular series, which was produced, written and directed by Kenneth Johnson the mastermind behind another 80s TV sensation that I was obsessed with as a kid, V. The flick opens up very quietly with a very 70s hazy out-of-focus feel to the text, an effect that makes the flick seem like a bad soap opera more than anything else. It opens with Bill Bixby's name over the title, and eventually it scrolls to Lou Ferrigno who was more or less an unknown to viewing audiences, but would soon rocket to stardom.


After the credits, the is a quick quote which in a very unsubtle way (completely fitting into the Marvel tradition) lets us know that we are about to see a flick about hidden fury. What's kind of funny, and what ultimately makes this silly quote work for me is the barrage of imagery that follows. There are approximately six million mini scenes that educate the audience about just how much David Banner and his wife love each other.


I mean this couple does every stereotypical thing imaginable from walking in flower-strewn fields, to cavorting in the rain, hilariously goofing off while fishing, loving kittens, comforting each other when receiving a sad telegram...


...perfecting their tom foolery while baking, having snowball fights, eating breakfast in bed, lovingly autographing a cast (remember those times of trouble), tailoring each other's pants (no, seriously, that's how much he loves her)...


...laying in bed at night (did I mention they love spending time together), and walking through more fields of flowers. It was about this point when I seriously considered shutting off the film (actually it was during the un-pictured "we-love-each-other-so-much-we-went-disco-dancing" scene.) I mean, hit me over the head why don't ya. Jeez, where was the playful swimming at the beach scene, or the post coitus afterglow-hugging scene, huh? Anyway, the movie takes a very ironic turn for the better when the couple climbs into their car and some very foreboding piano music starts playing in the background. As much as I hate to see people in pain and suffering, this movie needed to get off the Hallmark "I love you ever so much" train and back on track to being a super hero flick.


It's at this turn where the movie really starts becoming interesting, and it sets a tone for the rest of the film that I think works amazingly well and is something absent in most super hero origin movies from that point on. In this last opening sequence the audience witness the tragic car accident that leads to the death of David Banner's wife as well as his pent up aggression and rage that will propel him in becoming the Hulk.

Real quick I'd like to make it clear that I am going to spoil the hell out of the story and sequences of this film, so if you haven't seen it and want to be surprised, you might want to ditch this trip down nostalgia road.


Anyway, during the accident, when the car is flipping out of control, David Banner is flung from the vehicle. The car bursts into flame and as he struggles to try and get the door open and his wife out, but it's impossible no matter how hard he kicks or pulls. It's a very disturbing scene and does a very good job of putting the audience in the character's place, frustrated with the flame spreading everywhere. Just as the character reaches his breaking point he wakes up from what we now know is a reoccurring dream he's been having since the incident. This is where the casting of Bill Bixby really pays off in this film. Bixby was an amazing dramatic actor and he completely owns the role of Banner. One thing I was super glad about from a technical standpoint was when Banner awakens from the dream the whole hazy, out-of-focus, Vaseline on the lens effect stops, which is very dated and annoying. This type of overbearing visual cue really gets on my nerves, as it doesn't trust me to make the connection that it was a dream. I mean, having Banner wake up is quite enough; you don't need to do any more work than that.


Another thing to note is that right from the start, Johnson has made major changes to the mythos of the Hulk universe, yet most of the changes are perfectly natural and help to ground the character in a reality that the comics don't need. The character from the comics, though he has some repressed issues with his father, didn't really have a tragic incident like this to put him in the mood of the piece. As we see in the next set of scenes, Johnson also chose to change the character's name from Bruce to David, as well as switching him from being a nuclear scientist to a doctor studying the untapped resources of the human body. I'll be honest, it's changes like this that typically get my fanboy fur to stand on end, but in this film most of the changes help bring the character to life in a much more natural and less coincidental way. Whereas in the comic Banner is pelted by a mass amount of gamma rays in a weapons testing accident, in this film it's worked into the story and becomes more of a deliberate act. The one change that I can take or leave is the name change. I believe Johnson decided to switch it to David because he didn't care for alliterative names (which are Marvel and DC specialties), but he also reportedly made the change because he felt that Bruce was too "gay" of a name (which I think is a rumor that Stan Lee started on that interview DVD he did with Kevin Smith.)

Anyway, the story continues by introducing Dr. Elaina Marks, Banner's research partner, who together are searching for the untapped source of strength that some people seem to hit upon during times of high stress or tension. They interview a series of people including a mother who saved his son from a car accident that mirrored Banner's accident to a T. The duo keep hitting a wall though as they can't seem to find any common links between the subject outside of the fact that they all had a traumatic experience.


It's at this point that we're introduced to a very (now) common super hero movie trait, which is looking to very realistic scientific explanation for super heroic powers. In most cases, this film included (and it may be the first film to explore this), this means getting deep down into the DNA, up to including a sweeping shot where the audience is taken on a ride into a person all the way down to one individual DNA strand. You see this in two of the the Spiderman movies, the X-Men flick, the Ang Lee Hulk film, and some of the super hero TV series as well I think. It's just a very common visual effect, and one that's very effective as we live in a world that is so DNA-centric what with the various crime scene investigation shows, flicks like Jurassic Park, paternity tests, and the possibility of cloning and designer babies right around the corner, DNA is pretty much the most iconic representation of body science imaginable.


Well, in a breakthrough, the couple figures out that in all of the cases they're investigating, all of the subjects have an odd DNA signature that is abnormally high in adenine and thiamine. This leads them to testing Banner's DNA, which in true super hero form is not only abnormally high in these same elements, but much more so than the rest of the subjects, which only adds to the frustration that Banner is having with losing his wife. Why couldn't he tap into this power and save his wife? Though Elaina packs it in for the night, David can't let it go and continues to search for something that would point to why this abnormality might produce excessive strength. He stumbles upon an idea as he's talking to a fellow scientist about gamma radiation activity from sunspots, and matches up the time line on the subject's increased strength to sunspot activity and high levels of gamma radiation.

This is where the film's slow build begins to pay off for me. In the comic, and in most comic stories and movies, there is one quick incident, usually an accident that requires a jump in logic to buy the fact that a character has gained monumental new powers. Be it Peter Parker getting bitten by a radioactive spider, Matt Murdock having toxic waste flung into his eyes, or Bruce Banner running out to save a friend during a gamma bomb test (man, I see Johnson's point on the alliterative names), there usually seems to be a coincidental accident that results in powers that are unbelievable (though in a good way.) When Banner realizes that the key the hidden strength lies in exposure to gamma radiation it's a much more natural conclusion when he decides to test this theory out on himself.


Something else I really love about this film and its realism is probably the side effect of being filmed on a TV budget. It looks like a real laboratory was used in these scenes, or at least some real equipment, and it's completely non-flashy. When Banner doses himself with the gamma rays it's silent and invisible, much like getting an x-ray. For all of it's non-flashiness, it's still a very effective an haunting scene filled with much of the iconic imagery that would eventually make up the opening credit sequence of the TV show, from sitting the in the contraption to the x-ray of David's skull.


It's in this sequence that the camera travels deep into David, so deep that it gets down to his DNA in a very effective sequence, which makes it out to look like tiny glass beads and bubbles, a much more detailed sequence than the movie lead me to believe it would get. It's also here where the accidentally over dosage that Banner gives himself is revealed (which was foreshadowed in a previous scene in which Elaina mentions that most of the research equipment had been upgraded, which is why new tape marks have been added to consoles, effectively showing that the makings can go up to 11.)


For me this is when the movie shines as in the next few scenes we see the build-up of anger that David is suffering from. After the gamma dosage, Banner is unable to lift anything heavier than normal and again he is frustrated as he hits another wall in the research. On the way home he gets stuck in the rain, has troubles starting his car, and then blows a tire after running over some road debris. There's a slow burn as he gets out to take care of the flat, hurting himself getting the spare out of the trunk, fumbling with the jack in the rain, and then hurting his hand as it slips off the tire iron. This all just builds and builds in a very natural and understanding way (we've all had days like this.) This finally hits a crescendo that pays off in David's first transformation into the Hulk, an effect that could make or break the movie. The effect is pretty astounding, beginning with the tinny high-pitched hum where David flicks open his eyelids to reveal that his irises have turned a light greenish-white, and is then followed by a barrage of quick edits showing his features changing, his muscles bulging out and ripping his sleeves, his shirt ripping up the back and eventually his unnaturally green skin. This first transformation is done flawlessly and is really beautiful, even when compared to the advanced effects work today and is the perfect illustration of how you don't need a ton of CGI to do really effective and believable effects work.


There's a great moment as the camera pulls back and shows the Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk for the first time in the pouring rain and then is highlighted and illuminated by a lightning strike which is helped along by the great orchestrated score. When then get to see David let out all of the tension that's been building (through the slow first half of the film) on his car as he pounds on the hood with both fists clenched.


This whole sequence where he thrashes his car, smashing the windows, ripping off his flat tire and flinging it into a nearby ditch is all very exciting and fun and culminates in the Hulk picking up and flipping the car into the ditch where it explodes very unrealistically, but at this point realism doesn't matter as much as the audience has bought into the concept. That's the first major strength of this film, that the first half is gruelingly realistic, it totally sets up the transformation scene. The second strength of the film is that there is no set up for a villain that the Hulk will fight. By this point in any other super hero movie there's usually a very obvious and awkward villain built up and in place for the final showdown sequence. It's a cliche that I really don't care for, and something that I think should be left for a sequel. This flick completely sidesteps the villain angle.


It's at this point where Johnson starts playing with the character. He's basically set up with the back-story straight out of one of the Universal monster movies, so Johnson playfully homages the little girl and the lake sequence from Frankenstein. The Hulk confused and dazed wanders through the woods until he stumbles upon a little girl fishing at the edge of a lake and just like Frankenstein he scares the living piss out of her. Unlike Frankenstein the Hulk doesn't hurt the girl, instead she gets herself into trouble paddling out into the water in her canoe and then falling overboard. As the Hulk tries to save her, her father comes back from hunting and ends up shooting Banner in the arm. This is when Johnson decides to hammer home the point that his version of the Hulk will not kill or really even hurt innocent people (or villains for that matter) and instead of "Hulk smashing" the dude, he takes the gun, breaks it, and then throws the dude into the lake with his daughter.


There's another really strong scene here where Johnson films the Hulk from over the shoulder as the Hulk stoops by the lake and sees his reflection for the first time. In this moment of calm Banner slowly changes back to himself in a series of edits that are cut between the character reaching out to touch his reflection in the water, a very nicely executed and creative effect.


It's at this point that the film goes full force into only exploring the Hulk's origin as Banner flees to his friend and colleague Dr. Marks, and together they try to understand this crazy situation. They retreat to a deserted portion of the research facility they work at which houses a pressure chamber that Banner hopes will hold the Hulk if he ends up changing again. The movie reverts back to its plodding pace, but honestly it's a very welcome deviation to the over-produced frantic pace that most super hero films follow today. The two try to recreate the transformation inside the chamber, going so far as to artificially make it rain and lightning, but try as they might they can't do it. Then hours later, Banner decides to rest, and during another episode of his reoccurring nightmare where he once again powerlessly has to relive his wife's death, he unconsciously begins the transformation into the Hulk. Even though the chamber is constructed with thick metal lining and six inch thick glass, the Hulk still manages to smash and break his way out where he confronts Elaina, but once again we see as the Hulk isn't just violence incarnate, but human bound by his alter ego's morals.


Again, Johnson makes homage (though a little more heavy handed) to another monster, one a little more close to home, Dr. Jekel and Mr. Hyde. Unlike Hyde the Hulk isn't evil or a beast derived from all of the hidden carnal instincts of man, but merely a physical manifestation of anger, frustration and rage. He won't hurt Elaina, in fact he even obeys her much like a dog. She also has enough of a calming effect on the creature that he slows down enough to revert back into Banner.


This time, unfortunately, the effects work doesn't shine and is very dated with a cut-out segment of film that flashes between various versions of Ferrigno and Bixby, overlaid with a very odd green light that just services to make the transformation all the more awkward. Buried within this though is a very awesome bit of subtlety where Bixby has the white contacts in, he closes his eyes, and in an imperceptible cut, opens his eyes and the contacts are gone. It's funny how you can have all ranges of quality in the effects work within one shot like that.


Another thing that this movie does very well is to introduce story threads that are left in the background until later, which makes the story seem more over arching that it might really be. At the beginning of the film we are quickly introduced to Jack McGee a reporter for a crappy tabloid that's trying to score an interview with Banner or Mark about the work they're doing on hidden strength. Well, he pops up again towards the end, though this time he's more interested in the sightings of the Hulk and it's connections to Banner who he was already pursuing. Here again Johnson makes allusions to monsters, this time to Bigfoot, and places McGee in the role of the monster hunter.


Johnson uses McGee as a catalyst that will set up the continuing TV series later on in a move that it a little bit of a groaner, but not so bad now that most of the movie is dedicated to discovering the understanding the Hulk. There is an accident after McGee breaks into the lab where Banner last turned into the Hulk; he's hiding in a closet listening to Banner and Mark when he's discovered and then knocks over a jug of a highly reactive chemical. As Banner escorts McGee out of the building the chemical reacts with another substance causing a drastic explosion with Dr. Mark trapped inside.


Banner, reacting to the incident, turns into the Hulk and rushes into the building to save Elaina. He manages to get her outside and into the nearby woods (where McGee sees the Hulk carrying her) but she's badly hurt and ends up succumbing to her wounds. Before she passes she tells Banner as the Hulk that she loves him, which is heart breaking as Banner doesn't remember much that happens during the hulking out episodes. This is another story thread that is carried throughout the show as Banner is never sure whether or not he killed her, and always carries this guilt around with him.


The film ends with a funeral for both Banner (who was thought to have perished in the facility fire) and Elaina. There's a fun nod to the character's original name (Bruce is now David's middle name, which is actually the same as in the comics, the character is Robert Bruce Banner) on his headstone. As the mourners slowly drift away Banner emerges and pays his last tribute to Elaina, illustrating his remorse and guilt (also mentioning that he loved her and thinks she did too), and then he turns and walks away with his backpack slung over one shoulder, and to the tune of Super Heroes (from the Rocky Horror Picture Show) in a scene that would be repeated at the end of every episode of the show.


After I was done watching this I was surprised how much I really ended up loving this movie. I wish that other super hero movies would take the time to tell a well-crafted story like this and do it at a pace that is right for the story and not what the audience expects. Hell after watching this, I wish Bryan Singer had, had the guts/clout to go ahead and completely nix the Lex Luthor plot line from Superman Returns, instead focusing on the characters and the love story. I'm sure it would have pissed off a bunch of people (I mean the ones that the film didn't already piss off) but it would have been bold and satisfying (at least for me.) I guess I'm sick of every single super hero film having to be an action film first and then a good story second. I know it's a convention of comics and all, but there are other stories to tell. Astro City is a great example of a comic that tried to defy these conventions, at least partially and tell other types of super hero stories, from other perspectives (like a regular Joe watching this craziness from the street.) The Incredible Hulk does this really well for me. It might be boring for others, but oh well.

As a P.S., there was one change that Johnson wanted to make from the comics that I'm glad didn't happen. He wanted the Hulk to be red to mirror the anger that the character was suffering from. Man, though would have totally negated everything I said above and would probably have been a fanboy nitpick that completely took me out of this film (much like the absence of the Punisher skull was for the 1989 version, which up until just recently made me hate that film.)

Well, it's week three in our month long look at super hero themed stickers from the 80s, and with this week we make the switch from Marvel to DC's stable of characters. I sort of kicked off this month because of the release of Spiderman 3 in theaters, but was quickly bummed out after I caught it opening weekend with my fiancée, so I'm sort of happy to past pictures of Spiderman for a bit. Man, what the heck was Raimi thinking with this last flick? It was all over the place and story-wise it ranked down there with the Daredevil and Ghost Rider flicks. Dance numbers and emo-Pete aside, there was just some really rank storytelling. I mean, c'mon, how the hell does it seem like a good idea to have Harry's butler (a character we have yet to see in the films to this point) schooling him on the blow by blow of the death of his father and the innocence of Spiderman? Worst Deux Ex Machina I've seen in awhile. The film was riddled with moments like that, on top of having almost no time to develop any of the five story lines it was trying to juggle, which in the end just gave me a headache more than anything. The film was pretty, and it has some of the most convincing web-slinging we've seen to date, but that's not saying much for this film. I think word of mouth got out as it went from being the most successful movie in history to dropping 60% this past weekend. Granted, it's still raking in the dough, but at a drastically lower level with no new competition to blame.

What am I spouting silly box office numbers and ragging on Spiderman for when I have new stickers to share? So lets get back on track and take a look at some of the weirdest 80s stickers I've run across yet, the 1984 DC Super Powers Stain*A*Sticker set from Craft Master (a division of Fundimensions, which is in turn a division of CPG Products Group, whew.)


This was a very difficult purchase to make when I was looking for stuff to share on the blog. On the one hand these are pretty darn wacky and I'd never seen anything like them outside of slightly similar products like Shrinky Dinks or those Makit Bakit homemade sun catcher sets (which are actually still around.) On the other this set wasn't cheap and I knew I’d have to rip it open in order to be able to share decent pictures of the set. Well, I said screw it and here it is in all of it’s crafty glory.


Basically this set comes with two pages of black and white vinyl stickers whose picture outlines are raised slightly so that you can paint in the white gaps to make your own colorful stickers. The set comes with 4 stain cups (red, yellow, blue, and black, actually I had two blacks in mine; you mix them to get orange, green, and purple if desired), a brush and the two sheets of stickers.


There is one sheet dedicated to Superman and one to Batman, with Batman coming off much better in the process. What kid is going to get a kick out of a phone-booth sticker, I mean seriously? At least with Batman you get the Bat-mobile and 3 bat-logo stickers.


At the end of the day I think it's kind of weird to have a do-it-yourself set of stickers like this. I mean you know these has to cost three or four times the price of normal stickers, not to mention the fact that some kids would either be too lazy to stain them, while others ended up using the stain on stuff like carpeting and junk. Don't get me wrong, I am all for encouraging kids to be creative and artistic, etc. I'm just not sure this is the best course to take in making an innovative sticker set. I guess I'd have to give the company props for trying to do something different, it just seemed like a doomed product to me. To be honest, I haven't seen any other variations on this set from this comapny, though I'd have to believe they're out there. I have seen a set of black and white A-Team stickers that came with some scented crayons to color them with. In fact the crayons were chocolate scented, which I think is maybe borderline racist considering coloring Mr. T and all. It just seems in bad taste.

It's interesting to see the rest of the product line that Craft Master was producing in 1984. In addition to these sticker sets, there were also Paint*A*Figurine sets, Stain*A*Painting sets, as well as a couple varieties of puzzles (which "dramatic" artwork seems to make special), and a set of stamps with DC character logos. Since when is the Wonder Woman logo a silhouette of her head and not two winged Ws? Did this change in the 80s or where they just being creative with these stamps?


Anyway, I guess these get brownie points for being some of the oddest in my collection, but those don't add up to much and you can't buy anything with them anyway.

Next week we'll spend some time with Helen Slater, Faye Dunaway, Peter O'Toole, Mia Farrow and the creamy dreamy Hart Bochner, so remember stamp sticky time, same sticky channel…

I guess I'm hitting a semi-productive spurt this week. I found that I had an afternoon free so I decided to take a look at another TV on DVD set that I've been meaning to get to for weeks now, the BCI Eclipse release of the 1975 live action Filmation series, The Ghost Busters.

Now I'm more familiar with the cartoon that was spun off of this show, but even then I only saw handful of the episodes in syndication. Over the years and thanks to sites like wiki I've leaned a lot more about both the original show and the cartoon, in particular the whole debacle with the 1984 Ghostbusters film and how Filmation successfully sued the studio over the likeness to the 1975 show's logo. In fact, I believe that the Filmation cartoon spin-off is directly related to that lawsuit because Lou Scheimer wanted to go ahead and call it off in exchange for getting the license to create a cartoon based on the movie, but the studio chose not to do that, instead creating their own cartoon. Scheimer and company shot back by making a cartoon based on their previous show.


So anyway, I am a more or less coming to this show with no preconceived notions or nostalgia. So what's in the box? This set features the entire live action series, 15 episodes in total over two, double-sided discs, which are packaged into two DVD slim cases. There are five episodes per each side of the discs, with the flip side on the second disc containing all of the special features. The slipcase itself is pretty nice, though the cover has a very odd "colorized" look to it, which is weird because the show was shot in color. I believe the still that's used for the cover may have originally been B&W, but I’m not sure. Though the "colorized" look gives it that icky Photoshop feel, the image is pretty darn accurate to the feel of the opening credits, so I easily cut it some slack.




Also included is a foldout insert that is loaded with episode summaries as well as cast and crew information and trivia for each episode. Pretty much this insert is a nicely printed version of anything you'd hope to find on the show trivia wise and is a welcome addition to the set.


The reverse side of the insert features some basic info, mostly the same stuff that's included on the back of the box set, though as a nice little bonus they've added the theme song lyrics.


The menus on the DVD are pretty simple and easy to navigate. There's a "play all" function as well as a sub menu where you can choose a specific episode or where you can jump to a specific chapter. Pretty standard stuff. Since all of the special features are on the fourth side, most of this stuff is strictly episode oriented. Watch out for easter eggs though. I stumbled upon one while navigating through the menus on side one of the first disc. To access it, enter the chapter section menu for the episode "The Canterville Ghost" and then select the back option to return to the main episode menu. Next, press the up button once and you should be automatically taken to a snippet of Lou Scheimer talking about his feelings on nepotism that's pretty funny.


As far as the picture quality goes on these episodes, it's not so hot, maybe a 3 out of five or so. The show looks like it was shot on video and there are plenty of scenes that are hazy with some ghosting and light trails. Nothing that isn't common for TV shows of the 60s and 70s. Like the WKRP set, there's not much restoration work that can be done with video so the quality is about the best it's going to get and probably isn't that far gone from how it looked when it originally aired.


As far as the show itself I was pleasantly surprised. Having missed out on most of the live action children's shows of the late 60s and 70s I've always been curious to see what these shows were like, mostly because it's the sort of programming that my sister grew up with. The show is very campy and crazily over acted, but it's totally on par with stuff like Sesame Street or the Electric Company, though with a lot less education and a lot more laughs.  In fact it's a little bit more like Land of the Lost, though obviously not on such an epic scale but it's more about entertaining kids than teachin them anything.  Actually the show reminds me a lot of a live action Scooby Doo, only on limited sets with less characters.  Tracy is very much cast from the same mold as Scooby Doo, except he grunts and snorts instead of "ralking rike riss."


There are basically three main stars in the show, Forrest Tucker as "Jake" Kong, the leader of the group of ghost busters…


Larry Storch plays Spencer, Kong's sidekick and comic foil. Both Storch and Tucker are playing off of the same dynamic that they used in the show F-Troop, so it's certainly refined and comfortable.


Rounding out the group and bringing a little bit of absurdity into the mix is Bob Burns as Tracy the gorilla, playing Harpo Marx to Tucker & Storch's Groucho & Zeppo. In a silly twist, Burns is credited as the trainer for Tracy, which lead many people to believe that Tracy was a real gorilla and not Burns in his Gorilla costume.


Each show opens on the same graveyard set where the ghost or creature would introduce themselves and layout the basic plot, typically in search of something in the nearby house or castle. This would then fade into the credits sequence which introduces the Ghost Busters.


Coming from a studio that specialized in animation it was interesting to see Filmation using some animated sequences to bridge the gap between sets, in particular a nicely painted and pretty spooky scene of the nearby old house.


All of the episodes used more or less the same format. A ghost is introduced before the credits roll, then there would be a silly scene with Storch, Tucker and Burns in the Ghost Busters HQ that inevitably ended with Kong ordering Spencer and Tracy out to get their weekly mission from the mysterious Zero. These mission gathering sequences kind of stand out from the rest of the show because they were the only ones shot on location instead of on set. These sequences for all 15 episodes were shot back to back and then edited into the various episodes later to save on production costs.

In each episode, Spencer and Tracy would pull up to a junk shop where Tracy would get an object that would have a hidden secret mission in it from Zero. Playing off of shows like Mission Impossible and Get Smart the object would always self-destruct 3 to 5 seconds after the tape ended blowing up in Tracy's face, a gag that was later utilized in the Inspector Gadget cartoon. Sometimes the message is hidden in a rubber chicken, sometimes in a bike or cake, and it always explodes with a silly effect. The rest of the show would play out with the Ghost Busters bumbling their way in perfect slapstick style to a confrontation with the ghost or creature which would then be dispatched with their ghost dematerializer.

All 15 episodes were written my Marc Richards, and in many cases overnight as the production schedule was rushed for monetary reasons on the show. Because of this the shows all feel very much like they were written in a template style, but honestly it works perfectly for the audience they were shooting for. Yet even with these threadbare plots, insanely over the top visual gags, and bad puns there was also a certain amount of creativity and subtlety. In the first episode, The Maltese Monkey, the resident ghost is a character named Big Al, a gangster who is more or less the mirror twin of Spencer (right down to the cool colored zoot suit and is obviously also played by Storch.) Storch hams up the Big Al character by doing his best Marlon Brando Godfather impression, yet later in the episode when the Spencer character goes under cover as Big Al, Storch switches to his James Cagney, a gag to be sure, but something that would completely go over the head of the target audience. It sure as heck isn't Shakespeare, but it's a welcome bit of good acting and humor that surprised me nonetheless.

The production values on the show were pretty good considering how fast and cheaply it was shot. I believe there were only about five or six sets (a graveyard, a castle, a few rooms, and the GB HQ) and only one actual location (for the "accepting the mission" scenes), and the costume work was decent. They managed to do up a pretty good Frankenstein's monster, thought he runner mask on the wolfman left a little bit to be desired.  Then best part of the show though was the gorilla suit that Bob Burns brought with him to the show.  In particulat it has an awesome mask that was custom made to fit to Burns' head and face and therefore he can really bring it to life.  To this day it's still one of the better gorilla suits I've ever seen.

There were also a nice cadre of guest stars including Billy Barty and Ted Knight who both turn in relatively fun if not crazily over the top performances.

Being a BCI Eclipse box set, the Ghost Busters DVDs have their fair share of special features produced by Andy Mangels.


Included in the special features are interviews with the show's producer and Filmation head honcho Lou Scheimer…


…as well as Bob Burns who both provided the Tracy costume and preformed in it. Burns recalls the story of how he got the gig on the DVDs as well as on his website. Basically he was friends with a lady who was associated on the Ghost Busters project who knew he had a gorilla suit and suggested he try out for the role. Burns is also well known in horror, sci-fi and fantasy circles for his stunning collection of movie props and memorabilia including such sought after treasures as the original armature that served as the skeleton for the original King Kong movie. Peter Jackson sought Burns' help when working on his remake and even gave both Bob and his wife cameos in the film.


The set also features some more basic features including production and behind the scenes photo galleries, trailers, DVD Rom scripts, and an nice collection of trailers from other Filmation DVD sets (already available or upcoming.) The interviews were a little weird as you can see above that the screen was shrunk down to a little box with Ghost Buster imagery behind it. Typically these interviews, shot against green screen like this, are then composited into a show style background like the graveyard or something, and it almost seems as if these were rushed and just dumped on the DVDs.


By far though one of the best special features, and one of my favorite special features that I've seen in recent years, is a bonus episode of the animated spin-off show from 1986. It's interesting to compare and contrast the style of the 70s Filmation style with that of the 80s.




The episode included on this set is titled, "I'll be a son of a Ghost Buster" which serves as the origin episode and ties the new series to the old. The episode revolves around the original characters passing their ghost busting business onto their sons, as well as introducing a new main villain, Prime Evil.


Surprisingly (at least to me) Filmation took a lot of care to keep the tone and feel of the original show as well as making sure the characters looked like the original actors. This animated still of Spencer is pretty dead on for Larry Storch, a feat that the Real Ghostbusters cartoon notoriously failed at (a blond Egon, multi-colored GB jumpsuits, and a punked out Janine for starters.)


The design crew even managed to get the costuming correct, right down to Kong's porkpie hat and basic number shirt (though they changed his #5 to an 8, I assume incase any of the cells were flipped during the animation or editing processes.)


The Tracy character remained the same though (I guess he doesn't bump into too many gorilla chicks in the city.)


The son characters, Jake Kong Jr. and Spencer Jr. are more less the same as their fathers in terms of personality and style, but it works pretty darn well with the action bumbed up as well as the physical comedy.




All in all, this set, which retails for between $20-$30, is more or less produced with a specific audience in mind, those that grew up with it and want to recapture some childhood nostalgia, so it probably won't appeal to most people, in fact I think most people would probably hate it. But it does have a lot of appeal for those of us that enjoy monster related entertainment, in particular fans of the sillier stuff like Scooby Doo, the Groovie Goolies, the Milton the Monster Show, the Munsters, or the Addams Family.  It'll also be of interest to anyone who really digs the 1986 cartoon and wants to know a little bit more about that show's roots.

One last thing about upcoming DVDs today and then I swear to god I will shut up about them. Just wanted to let everybody know that you can now pre-order The Monster Squad on DVD via Amazon.com for only $14! I'm so glad this is actually becoming a reality...

Of the ton of BCI Eclipse DVD release news coming out of TVshowsonDVD.com recently, the one I'm the most excited about is the 1st release in a series sets for the Bravestarr cartoon! Bravestarr, along with Silverhawks and the Spiral Zone were like my junior favorite cartoons (after G.I. Joe, Transformers, and M.A.S.K.) I'm so excited to see it's finally getting the DVD treatment. This first set is going to be very similar to both the He-Man and She-Ra best of releases and will contain the feature length movie Bravestarr: The Legend, and five fan-chosen (I believe) episodes over two discs. It'll be released on July 3rd.

I absolutely can't wait to get my hands on these cartoons, as I haven't seen them in about 20 years. Tex Hex was always right up there with Darth Vader as a villain for me for some reason. The set is up for pre-order on Amazon right now for $17, and it'll retail for around $25. Once again, Andy Mangels will be helming the production duties on the special features, so I hope they're as good as his work on the He-Man and She-Ra DVDs.

Eyes of the hawk, ears of the wolf, strength of the bear, and freaking speed of the puma people!

Wow, thanks to TVshowsonDVD.com, there are a slew of new TV on DVD announcements coming out from BCI Eclipse. Hot on the heels of the Complete Secrets of Isis series, is Vol. 2 of the Original Ghostbusters cartoon coming July 3rd. My bank account is already sending me hate mail. Andy Mangels is also handling the production of the special features on this DVD set, so check his site often to get info on what will be included on the set.

Amazon.com is already taking pre-orders on the DVDs, which look like they will be priced between $28-$40 depending on when you pick them up.

Though I'm not all that familiar with a lot of the 70s Filmation cartoons and live action shows, I've been slowly checking them out and digging the heck out of them. Well BCI Eclipse, under their Ink & Paint label is rolling out some more stuff this summer. Thanks to the awesome tvshowsondvd.com we now know that they've just announced that the complete Secrets of Isis TV series will be released on DVD on July 24th.

The show consisted of 15 episodes, much like Space Academy and The Ghost Busters series, and aired in 1977 as part of the CBS Saturday morning cartoon skein. If you aren't familiar with the live action incarnation of the character you might remember her as being a member of the Freedom Force cartoon, which aired in 1980 as part of the Tarzan and the Super 7 series. Here's part of one of the Saturday morning cartoon ads that featured that show…


Even though I've never seen it, I'm sort of stoked to get my hands on this series. It reminds me a lot of the live action Wonder Woman show, which I dug as well.  Like all fo the other Filmation cartoons and TV shows, it look slike Andy Mangels will be producing the special features, so if you check over at his site you can probably expect to see a list of those soon.

Of all the TV shows that I watched obsessively as a kid there were always a handful that I completely missed the boat on and for years have been mighty curious about. In particular I've never seen any episodes of M*A*S*H, Magnum P.I. or WKRP in Cincinnati all of which had a pretty big impact on the pop culture of the 70s and 80s. The first two have since been released on DVD and they are on my Netflix queue, but for as long as TV has been blowing up on DVD, the latter, WKRP, has been considered the show that will always remain in limbo in terms for re-release because of insane music licensing issues. I pretty much figured that I'd never get a chance to watch the show as I don't subscribe to cable and I tend to shy away from bootlegs as much as I can, but to my amazement the first season of the series was actually released on DVD just last month.

Well, I took the time to sit down with the set recently and to see what all the hubbub is about. Lets get some of the basics on the set out of the way and take a look at the packaging and what's in the box. Unlike some of the newer TV on DVD sets from companies like Paramount that are switching over to a super slim packaging scheme, this set, released by Fox is sticking to a more traditional box set feel with the season spread over 3 discs which are packaged in two slim cases. The art and design of the packaging is pretty cool with a nice production photo on top of a minimal black background, and some nice sublte use of color as a border (unlike the eye ache that is the That '70s Show covers.) The only bit of flash is in the prismatic foil inlayed into in the title font, which is actually quite subdued when compared to some other sets. I really dig the use of actual production artwork on the cover in lieu of a hasty Photoshop job, which is typically what we tend to see, especially on older TV on DVD sets released today.


Actually, to get an idea of what the cover could have looked like you don't need to go any further than the slim cases for the set…


At the end of the day I actually dig the this generic colorful artwork in the interior, I guess I've just got a pet peeve about bad cover artwork.

This complete first season set includes all 22 episodes from the 1978-1979 opening season of the show spread out over three discs, with 8 episodes on the first two discs, and 6 on the third disc.


Here's an example of the episode menu screens…


As far as Special Features go, this set is better off than most, but far from loaded. There are two commentary tracks, one on part 1 of the pilot, and one on the episode Turkeys Away. Both commentaries feature the show's creator/writer/director Hugh Wilson and stars Loni Anderson (who played Jennifer Marlowe) and Frank Bonner (who played Herb Tarlek). You can access either commentary by selecting the episode, and then picking the commentary audio track from the episode sub menu, or as a nice easy alternative both are accessible via the disc one special features menu.


Though short, these commentaries strike a nice balance between behind the scenes insight and enjoyable cast reunions and ruminations (particularly on an aspect of Loni Anderson's physique that is often a running gag on the show.) For instance, you're just as likely to hear the cast talk about how the character evolved, even after the first episode (when Loni's character, Jennifer, insults her boss, Arthur Carlson, behind his back, and then in subsequent episodes switches to a more motherly role), than you are to hear the three laughing for minutes on end or pausing to watch Howard Hessman's Johnny Fever ad lib, which though funny, is distracting as far as commentary goes. There's another great story about Loni Anderson's "assets" that CBS was all up in arms over. I guess there were too many scenes where Loni was nipping and therefore the wardrome department had to end up covering her nipples with Band-Aids to keep them from showing through her blouses and sweaters. I wonder who got the job of applying those?

This set also has two mini featurettes, both about 7 minutes long, one that focuses on Loni Anderson and her character Jennifer Marlowe, and a second that focuses on the episode Fish Story. Both of these featurettes include appearances by Frank Bonner, Tim Reid, Loni Anderson and Hugh Wilson.










Now before I get into the issues I have with this set I'd like to address the quality of the show in terms of both visually and how well it holds up over almost thirty years.

As far as the visual quality goes, it's about a 3.5 out of 5 in terms of the sharpness of the image. This MTM show was notoriously shot on video (unlike other MTM productions including the Mary Tyler Moore show ) to take advantage of a loophole in the music licensing fee rules, so the show's visual quality was low to begin with. I believe that most if not all of these episodes are also the syndication versions, which had to be altered for both time and content (again those pesky music licensing issues) so new master copies were made which are a generation past the original airing copies. Even with that in mind the show looks pretty good. There's a little bit of haziness to some scenes, and I noticed some slight ghosting of the images in a few places, but it's more or less presented in the quality that it originally aired, and I don't think there was too much remastering that could be done.

As far as how well the show holds up, I'd have to say again that I'm coming from the perspective of someone who's never really seen the show. To be honest I thought that the show held up very well, and aside from a few references to some older pop culture icons I feel that it's just as funny now as it was at the time. Granted the show is a sitcom, and you have to be into that style of humor (running gags, over the top characters, etc.), but when viewed next to more contemporary shows like New Radio, it's almost indistinguishable except for a few obviously dated qualities like Venus Fly Trap's very pimpin' attire or Herb's horribly 70s swinging wardrobe.


The entire premise of the show is set up in the two-part pilot, which opens with one of the show's main attractions, Loni Anderson as the WKRP radio station secretary Jennifer Marlowe (who does almost no secretarial duties.)


In fact one of the longest running gags opens the show as Herb, the slightly out of touch swinging sales rep (played by Frank Bonner) comes strolling in and immediately begins slinging a barrage of horrible pick-up lines to Jennifer.


Then just as swift as can be we're introduced to the crux of the show when Andy Travis (played by Gary Sandy) is introduced as the new station manager. It’s through Andy that we get introduced to the rest of the cast in quick succession including Arthur Carlson (played by Gordon Jump) as the son of the owner of the station.


Andy meets Les Nessman, the resident news/sports/weather/hog futures man on the scene (or more likely no where near the scene as we get to see his impression of a traffic helicopter that he fakes on air) who is apparently clumsy as he sports a band-aid or bandage in every episode (an un explained running gag that is also an in-joke reference to the rehearsal for the pilot where the actor, Richard Sanders, was hurt by a light and had to wear a bandage in the pilot episode.) This continues on and on until all of the main characters are established.


One of the strongest moments in the first episode involves Howard Hesseman as Johnny (who has a different last name for every single DJ job he's held/been fired from) who is the daytime DJ reduced to playing very old, very "bad" choral music. Travis comes in and institutes a format change to top 40 rock and roll which both brings the station and Johnny (who re-christens himself Dr. Johnny Fever) back to life. There is a great moment as Johnny pauses as the last song of the old format is playing and in the middle he scratches the needle across the record as he switches over to the stations first rock tune. This actually brings up another interesting point that was mentioned in the commentary, that the producers and writers of the show were well aware that radio stations had abandoned using actual records in the booth by this point, that they had switched to using cassettes and reel tapes, but they felt that the imagery of records and albums was too cool to pass up, and I'd have to agree. Seeing Johnny literally rip an album to pieces off of a turntable makes for a great moment in the show.


In this scene we're also introduced to Bailey Quarters (played by Jan Smithers, an actress discovered as a teenager when she played hooky from school and was photographed on the back of a motorcycle in a bikini by a guy from Time Magazine and subsequently made the cover) who is promoted from being a gofer to Travis' assistant.


The episode ends with Arthur Carlson's mother, Momma, (played by Oscar nominated Sylvia Sidney, who was replaced after the pilot, possibly for clashing with the rest of the much younger cast) who owns the station and hates rock music comes to shut the station down, but Travis and Carlson convince her to keep it open. The last gag, and last main character to be introduced, is when Travis shows in his new-hire DJ, Venus Fly Trap (played by Tim Reid) a very pimped out, successful New Orleans disc jockey. This cements the psuedo counter culture ideal the station is shooting for and the style of comedy that will follow for the next four seasons.


Now, as far as the issues I had with this DVD set. WKRP, like I mentioned earlier, is notorious for being the perfect example of a show that would not be able to withstand the financial burden of music licensing, which would in turn keep it from being released on DVD. But it is on DVD, so how did that happen?

Well, the studio decided to strip the show of most of it's original music, replacing it with generic or sound-alike tunes, as well as editing the show to remove any plot points or vocal mentions of specific songs that were removed. Also, again like I mentioned earlier, I'm coming from the perspective of someone who didn't watch the show when it originally aired, or in its first batch of reruns, so honestly most of the music changes have completely slipped past my radar. Now for a more hardcore fan though, this might be very jarring. There are a couple of sites that have kept up with the music replacements and edits, such as Jamie Weinman's blog.

Now, I believe in addition to this, and like a lot of TV on DVD sets these days, the studio has either decided to use the syndication version of these episodes (which are cut for both time and content, and since the WKRP syndicated episodes were cut for music issues in the early 90s already this may be the case) because of music issues, or because it's the only version they own for distribution. Either way, these are not the uncut original versions out side of the music scenes. I'm not sure if Hugh Wilson was aware of this as he and the cast members allude in the commentary that these episodes are restored, or original versions. In fact Loni Anderson makes a hilarious comment about how an entire plot was removed from the syndication version of an episode involving her character getting a sex change. I'm not sure when or if this happened on the show, but it’s something that I'd hate to miss if it was edited out. I also found a separate guide to the music replacements and edits the show underwent in the 90s for its second run of syndication, also written by Jamie Weinman, that goes into some of the who's and why's of the situation.

Randy Salas of the Minneapolis Star Tribune also wrote an article about the whole situation, which the awesome TV on DVD.com passed on to its readers a few weeks back. I know a lot of fans are up in arms about the whole mess, and it's gotten to a point where the DVD is rated fairly low on sites like Amazon.com. Granted there are alternatives to cutting up a show, like having a smaller distribution company like Shout! Factory release the show, though at a much higher price point (as they did with Freaks and Geeks a couple years ago), but it begs the question, would people plunk down $60-$100 for a single season of a sitcom. In this day and age where we're getting used to paying $20 for TV DVD sets, I think not. Also, this first season set, like most 1st season sets, is more a less a test to see if it's financially viable to continue with further seasons. There are a ton of catalog releases that die upon the release of the initial season, shows like Growing Pains, Gimmie a Break, Murphy Brown, and The Fresh Prince, shows that are hugely popular but just don't sell on DVD, so the future seasons are flung back into the studio vaults. I think that this is going to be the case with WKRP, since so many fans seem to be shunning this release, which I think is pretty sad because I enjoyed the heck out of watching it.

Granted, I can totally see the fan's point of view, and if it had been a show or movie that I loved and was changed I'd be just as pissed, but there are always going to be concessions in life, and it is just a TV show. Sometimes fighting the good fight won't lead to victory; it'll only lead to a much longer battle where no one wins. If enough interest was shown in this set, and enough of those people who purchased it also voiced their concerns to both Fox and companies like the ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC who license the music, than maybe things would change. Instead I think this set won't sell well, and sooner or later it'll go out of print and that will be that.

All in all, I would say that if you can find this set on sale and you're even the least bit interested or curious it'd be worth picking it up, if only to show the studio that there is interest in catalog TV series on DVD.

So things are calming down a little bit here at the house of Branded. After last week's car-keying event (actually there were two keying events) I've found out that it's been happening where I work, which though it doesn't ease the mind to know that someone hates me enough at work to do that, but it's better than having it happen at home where I can't help but park. At least at work Carrie can take the car and just drop me off. Either way, it's looking like the Rabbit is going to be in the shop for a couple of weeks and the final estimate is looking like it's going to be in the $5,000 range.

Well, I'm not really here to gripe about the stupidity of normal everyday life, I'm here to talk about the inane world of 80s stickers, and we're right smack dab in the middle of a month long salute to super hero stickers on Peel Here, so lets get back to it. When I left off last week (with the Incredible Hulk TV series Topps sticker cards) I said that I'd share a bunch of Marvel stickers that I've managed to accumulate over the last year, which incidentally cover a nice spectrum of characters and styles. First up we have a complete sheet of the Hallmark distributed 1983 super hero stickers, a sheet that I had as a kid and coveted mightily.


I was six when my mom picked up a pack of these stickers for me, and I was also right in the middle of my sticker-collecting phase. I think this was the first pack of Hallmark stickers that my mom picked up for me and I was excited if only because there were four sheets of these stickers in the package and after I placed a sheets worth of stickers in my photo album/sticker album I wasn't sure how to divvy up the rest of the extra stickers. I'm almost positive that a sheet was brought to school and ended up underneath the flip top desk that I had in first grade, as I seem to remember getting a talking to about it. I think a few more ended up on the side of my chest of drawers, but where the rest ended up is a mystery to me. I'm a pretty big pack rat when it comes to paper items, but I don't have much of anything from this time, so maybe my mom was into culling my stacks of junk.

One of the things that I remember absolutely loving about these stickers was that they opened up a new world for me in terms of super hero characters. I was pretty familiar with the bottom row, The Hulk, The Fantastic Four, Captain America and of course Spiderman, because of the comic books I'd check out of the school library and the various TV shows and stuff, but characters like Dr. Strange, the Silver Surfer, Cyclops, Colossus and Iron Man were completely foreign to me. Looking back on it now I'm kind of surprised that Colossus even ended up in this set as Wolverine was a much more popular character, but I'm even more surprised that the designers of this sheet went with two X-Men stickers instead of including a Spider Woman, Namor, or Thor sticker.

The next couple of sets have popped up in a couple forms during the 80s. These stickers from 1987 (though the stickers are labeled 1984) are branded simply as Marvel Comics Super Heroes Puffy Stickers, but as you'll see in the ad following that the same stickers were previously branded a couple years earlier as Secret Wars puffy stickers.


I believe that there were at least three separate sets of these stickers which all were a variation of 2 Spiderman, 2 Captain America, 1 Doctor Doom, and 1 Doc. Ock stickers. These have some basic Spidey poses, a couple of hideous Doc. Ock stickers (one where he's smoking which you'd never see today) and some very dynamic Doctor Doom and Cap poses (some of the latter taken from Jack Kirby art which is pretty cool.)


As you can see in this mail away Dorman's American cheese premium ad a lot of these same stickers were available in 1985 as part of the big Marvel Comics crossover event, the Secret Wars. It even appears that they ditched a few of the characters, namely Iron Man, Wolverine and Magneto which I guess weren't as popular in the later 80s, though that's when I started getting into the X-Men. This mail away sticker and album set was also available in stores and is in the same style as other popular Gordy sets like the A-Team, not to mention other comic and TV show sticker merchandising.


To round out the style of stickers in this edition of Peel Here, I present another example of what's becoming my favorite set of stickers from the 80s, Colorforms' Lazer Blazers.


Of all the 80s stickers that I've managed to track down, Lazer Blazers are some of the most rare, and can fetch a pretty high price if you're not picky and patient. This Marvel collection is actually the second set of hologram stickers produced, though I've yet to find any evidence of the first collection anywhere online. I have a theory that this packaging might be a misprint, as a lot of the more popular characters are featured here, and I can't imagine who would have come before.

I also think it's interesting that of all the villains that could possible have been included, Magneto was the first choice as he's mainly an X-Men villain and at the time I think he was even starting to be considered a hero. Honestly, I'm really bummed that there wasn't a Red Skull hologram included, because that would have been pretty damn cool. Either way there is something undeniably cool about the packaging and design of the Lazer Blazer brand and these Marvel stickers are a great example for these early hologram stickers. Super Heroes are built to be exciting and dynamic which the hologram technology very easily brings to life, unlike say a close up of Hannibal Smith from the A-Team.

Next week on Peel Here, I'm going to make the jump to DC Comics with some of the weirdest stickers I've managed to find yet.

At long last, and with a sigh of relief from yours truly, there is finally some concrete information on the upcoming release of The Monster Squad on DVD. Lionsgate will release the DVD on July 24, 2007. Here's a look at the cover art...


Now I'm not a big fan of this cover. It exemplifies everything that is wrong with most DVD cover artwork. Not only is it NOT based on any of the original poster or home video release artwork, but it's a terrible mock-up of new and old images that makes it look like it's trying to cash in on a bunch of unrelated films, not to mention that it misses the point of the film by about three inches. First off, it looks like an amalgamation of the Pan's Labyrinth posters, the Bridge to Terabithia poster, and hell, it even invokes the Team America poster as well, which is kind of silly.


Why exactly does the kid have a rifle ammo belt on? Or a short sword for that matter? Not that I'm trying to be super nerdy picky or anything but the main weapons used in the movie were a complex bow, a shotgun, a pistol, a few stakes, and a slice of freakin' pizza (with loads of garlic.) Now other than Photoshopping in a trio of the monsters at the top of the artwork, it's basically lacks the feel of the movie.  I hate that they ditched any artwork of the original actors and just went with a new kid that sort of looks like an Andre Gower clone.  Here's the original poster in all it's hand-painted 80's glory...


At the end of the day, I don't really care. I'm just happy this movie is finally getting the release it deserves. Hell, I would have been happy with a bare bones single disk at this point. If the cover art really bugs you, then I suggest you send Andre Gower an e-mail as he states on his site so that he can forward them on to the appropriate people. Speaking of which, Mr. Gower (who played Sean in the Monster Squad) has a pretty cool site with some MS trivia, links and other fun odds and ends.

For me, this is the culmination of 20 years worth of waiting for a nice copy of the flick that I can call my own. In fact, today is almost a year to the day when I forwarded the plea to get the Monster Squad on DVD. It was last year around this time when some of the Ain't it Cool News people set up a reunion screening at the Alamo Drafthouse that would start the ball rolling on straightening out the mired rights issues and focus the interest in this film.

I saw it in the theater when I was 10 years old with a friend, Bryan Borsom, in 1987. We'd seen the trailers and I remember scanning the newspaper for our local theaters to see when it'd be playing in our area. I don't know what it was about the trailer, but I was super jazzed to see this film. I think I was just at that perfect age, I was on the verge of leaving elementary and moving into middle school, so a huge part of me felt like that was the last summer where I could really feel like a kid. I was about to give up carrying a lunch box, I just got into skateboarding (with an older cooler middle school crowd), I was pretty much graduating from Bunnicula to Stephen King novels, and Metallica was the only band in the world for me.

One of the things that I remember most about that Saturday is that we (Bryan and me) had planned on seeing both the Monster Squad and the Garbage Pail Kids movie, but neither of us had enough money for both. So after we finished watching the Squad kick Dracula's butt back into limbo we begged our way into a free screening of the GPK flick by telling the clerk at the customer service desk that our mothers weren't going to be able to pick us up for three more hours. Man, I was a dork as a kid. In the end I'm glad my hard-earned allowance money went towards Monster Squad as it's by far the better and more deserving flick. When Bryan and I were finally picked up, we spend the ride home arguing about what Sean yells to Horace when confronted by the wolfman. I kept saying it was "Kick him in the nards" while Bryan assured me it was "Kick him in the balls." Once again, time would answer the question as male 30-somethings everywhere will attest that kicking a monster in the NARDS is the best way to go.

I'm not sure if the letter writing campaign that director Fred Dekker suggested was the straw that broke the camel's back, but I know I wrote my fare share. I intended to write like thirty separate letters, and I managed to do about half of that before I felt like I was writing to a brick wall. Then a few months ago the DVD release rumors began to gain steam. Granted, it was about the third or fourth time in as many years that internet rumors started circulating, but this was the first time when both the director and the actors started to chime in on the subject.

Today the whole thing really feels solid for the first time in ages as I read this post on Ain't It Cool, and saw it mirrored around the net. The bad cover art being released is actually what makes it feel real to me. I know this sounds silly and all, I mean it's just a silly kids movie from the 80's, but somehow it feels like it's my movie, and I'd be willing to bet that a lot of kids growing up at the time feel like this. For years I was the only person I knew who loved this movie to death, to the extent of buying an old rental copy from a store for the hefty price of $30 (at a time when the average new video was about $5.) None of my friends felt the way about MS that they felt about say the Goonies, or even Space Camp. So it's always felt like my movie.

Here's a list of the special features that have been announced on this 2-Disc set:
- Audio commentary by writer/director Fred Dekker and cinematographer Bradford May
- Audio commentary by Fred Dekker and actors Andre Gower, Ashley Bank and Ryan Lambert
- "Wolf Man's Got Nards! The Making of The Monster Squad" documentary
- Deleted and extended scenes
- Monster Mania reunion featurette
- Vintage interview with Tom Noonan (in Frankenstein's monster makeup!)
- Poster and still gallery
- Theatrical trailer
- TV spot
- Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen

Looking back at all of the bootlegs I've purchased for this film, this set pretty much covers everything I had before (trailer, widescreen, poster and still gallery) with more than enough additional features. Though I'm not fond of cast commentaries, I'm really looking forward to the director/cinematographer commentary track as it seems like Dekker is genuinely into this flick. I hope it's not all, "Hey, remember when we made this movie? Yeah, it was a blast." I also hope the making of documentary is a little more than a studio fluff piece, and seeing that the film is 20 years old this year I'd hope it would be new stuff and not an archival "making of". It'll also be cool to hear Tom Noonan in the vintage interview. He's a pretty interesting fellow whose performance in Manhunter is pretty imposing. He's got a website up where it looks like he hosts workshops on acting, directing, and writing.

As far as why there might be as much interest in this film after all these years you don't have to look much further than some of the creative talents behind the monster creation and writing. The legendary Stan Winston was given the task to create the re-vamped look of the classic Universal monsters, and he did so with an amazing gusto and a welcome realism. The film features one of the best Creature suits I've ever seen, not to mention one hell of an imposing werewolf, and a mummy that strikes a nice balance between Karloff and Jack Pierce's version and the current CGI crap fests that were the Stephen Sommers films. As far as the writing goes, Shane Black (he of Lethal Weapon fame, not to mention starring in Predator) was involved on the project, though I'm not sure to what capacity.

As far as the kids that starred in the film, most are either still active in the entertainment industry or are on their way back in. As I mentioned before Andre Gower is still active and I believe has begun work on his putting together his own film festival. Ryan Lambert (who played the older punk Rudy in MS, not to mention starring in Kids Incorporated, a show whose theme song will etch itself into your brain if you aren't careful) fronts a band called Elephone, and Ashley Bank (who played the young Phoebe the feeb) has grown up into a lovely woman who has worked in a more behind the scenes capacity. Sadly, Brent Chalem, who played Horace (and who exhibited the exact same fashion sense that I did, same T&C t-shirts, and surf shorts), died of pneumonia in 1997 at the age of 22 while he was attending law school. Robby Kiger, who played Patrick, pretty much fell of the map though, and in some of the recent interviews I've read with the other cast members no one seems to have kept in touch. Michael Faustino (who played the cute Eugene and who is the brother of David Faustino of Married with Children fame) has also sort of dropped off the map.

I also found Duncan Regehr's art site a couple weeks ago, so if you were ever interested in what a once great Dracula actor does on the side of his acting gigs, take a gander. I also thought I should mention that Michael Sembello has a site up. Sembello recorded the awesome Monster Squad theme song "Rock Until You Drop", not to mention music for flicks such as Flashdance. He's said for years that he'd eventually release a nice high quality MP3 of the MS song on his site, but has yet to do so. Carl Thibault, the man that was under all of the wolfman make-up (not to be confused with Jon Gries, the actor that played the human incarnation of the wolfman) has also struck out on his own creative endeavor recently with his first directorial feature film, the Garage.

What's truly an awesome coincidence for me is that July 24th is just one week after my 30th birthday, so I'll truly get the perfect geek present this year. Man, I can't freakin' wait to see this in nice quality DVD. In 2007 wolfman indeed has nards.

Boxing Helena for me is the perfect example of potential-wasting, gutless filmmaking.  Warning, spoilers follow.  Philippe Caland and Jennifer Lynch presented a genuinely interesting and bold plot, that of a masochistic, mother-obsessed doctor (Nick) who desperately latches onto Helena, a beautiful temptress who wants nothing to do with him.  Nick, after having inherited his mother's palatial estate and running into Helena in a bar, decides to throw an impromptu house warming party as cover for inviting Helena into his home where she yet again rebuffs his advances.  Nick then lures her back to his house where she is accidentally hit by a car and has her legs horrible crushed.  Being a brilliant surgeon, Nick manages to save her life though he amputates both of her legs, and it's at this point that the film becomes both remarkable and lackluster at the same time.



Jennifer Lynch, daughter of filmmaker David Lynch, seems as if she's taking a page out of her father’s surreal dream-logic filmmaking book as Nick keeps Helena prisoner and begins to slowly and literally deconstruct Helena limb by limb until she's truly an object of his desire.  Helena, on the other hand, spends her time digging into Nick's psyche, taunting his manhood and in a very demented twist falling in love with him, I believe based purely on his desire for her, which transcends physical beauty (something she is used to men fawning over.)  Unfortunately this second act is severely hampered by pointless complexity (in terms of the number of characters in the film) and some very forced and unconvincing performances (namely by Bill Paxton who's trying his best to invoke his character Sevren from Near Dark and Sherilyn Fenn who stoicism is almost laughable.)

Though the acting is generally bad and the directing generic the plot would save this otherwise mundane film, but this to is thrashed by a very trite and gutless third act that ends with an ambiguous twist ending, which implies that the entire second act was either a hallucination or a dream.  When I rented this film I had very high hopes based on the loose connection to David Lynch and the story in general.  I mean who sits down to write a movie about a man so obsessed with a woman that he makes her into a living Venus Di Milo, and then pussies out at the end and implies that it's either a dream that Helena has had after the accident, or a hallucination that Nick is having in the hospital after he brings her in (instead of keeping her in a psuedo-box on his dining room table.)

I swear to Christmas, it's been such a crappy week here in the house of Branded. I've been dealing with so many car related issues that I swear, I wish it would surprise me by turning out to be an Autobot, transforming in front of me, do a little dance, and then get the crap kicked out of it by a passing Decepticon jet. As a semi-related shout out to all of the potential car keying vandals out there, don't do it. As angry as you may be, it's such a pointless act. First off, unless you sign your name in scratch on the car, it's anonymous, so your act will most likely not change anything that you're pissed off about.  Second the amount of damage done, though it seems trivial, is quite fucking expensive, which in the long run is only going to hurt everyone, as insurance companies will most likely cover these claim costs by raising rates across the board. Did I mention it's cowardly and freaking expensive (the estimate on my car is $4,000)? Anyway, enough negativity. On to the stickers!

So for the entire month of May, and in celebration of the new Spiderman flick about to hit theater screens, I figured it would be fun to explore a bunch of Marvel and DC super hero branded stickers. It just so happens that I have five columns worth of super hero stickers in my collection, so this should work out perfectly. So to kick things off I'm going to share a pretty cool set of Topps sticker cards for the awesome Incredible Hulk TV series.

As a kid growing up in the 80's I spent a good chunk of time being inundated with plenty of super hero related programming and merchandising, and pound for pound, my favorite character had to be the Hulk. Even though I was amazed that "a man could fly" in the Superman movies, even though Adam West made me giggle in the re-runs of the campy Batman live action show, and even though I watched Spiderman and his Amazing Friends religiously, I always came back to the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno live action series. One of my first plush toys was a stuffed Hulk doll that had Velcro on his hands so that he could grab and hold onto things. I also vaguely remember having one of those plastic Hulk halloween costumes, you know the kind, with the half mask and the vinyl pants suit. The Hulk was also the star of one of my favorite books that I checked out of the school library a million times (which I've mentioned before.)

There's just something magical in the transformation of Bruce Banner (David if you only watched the show) into the muscle bound, green skinned Hulk. I think there's something primordial in a young boy's mind that can completely relate to this anger and frustration and it's got to be one of the most basic and obvious of super hero archetypes. The series did an excellent job of bringing this character to life for me, even if (at age three) I didn't understand everything that was happening in each episode. I know the series was pretty popular after it's initial made for TV pilot movie hit the air in 1978. It lasted through 4 and a half seasons and a handful of additional made for TV movies that helped to launch my interest in comic collecting in the late 80s (spurred on by guest appearances of Thor and Daredevil in two of the MFTV movies.)


This Topps sticker card sub-set does a pretty good job of capturing both the feel of the show as well as providing a bunch of awesomely iconic Hulk stickers. There are 22 cards in the set, all of which have plain white backings. I'm not sure why there wasn't a puzzle included since these stickers came out in 1979 and there was already a Topps Buck Rogers set that used the puzzle gimmick. This set does a pretty good job of focusing on the Lou Ferrigno incarnation of the Hulk, with half of the stickers set up as portraits (with that great thick bordered Topps die-cut) and the other half as scenes involving the Hulk running or pushing things (as he was apt to do most of the time.) In fact in this first scan we can see the Hulk both pushing a rock and running through New York City (you can also sort of make out the fact that Lou Ferrigno was wearing green hulk booties in the third card on the end in the second column, as he didn't want to step on any needles, used condoms, or crack pipes as he ran through the 70's era Times Square.) There's also a nice shot of Bill Bixby with the initial "change" contacts in, one of the greatest TV money shots IMHO.


In this second scan of the set you can see where I swiped my Peel Here logo. This set, like the Buck Rogers, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Mork and Mindy sets don't yet feature the little "Peel Here" arrow, which I've felt was a very iconic part of the Topps stickers. I don't think this was introduced until the mid 80's, possibly with the release of the first Garbage Pail Kids series.

I really dig the production art used for card number 11, which shows Bill Bixby's Banner fading into Ferrigno's Hulk. That's always been my favorite piece of the TV series art. On the bottom left sticker we can also see that in one of the post action scenes, some of the green paint was wiped off of Ferrigno's hand. I read that he had to stay in a refrigerated trailer between takes so that he wouldn't sweat and cause all the paint to run off. It must have been a big hassle to shoot such a make-up heavy show in the late 70's, early 80's.


There are some interesting shots on these stickers as well. In the top left, sticker # 15, there is a rare shot of Ferrigno smiling, and in the bottom right, card # 20, we can see a clearer shot of the hulk in his "protective foot gear" booties. Also sort of interesting is card # 16 (top row center), which has some weird lighting making the Hulk look sort of red which is almost what happened on the production of the show. Apparently Kenneth Johnson (the executive producer on the Hulk series) wanted to change the Hulk's iconic green coloring to red to reflect the anger the character was feeling. This is just another entry in the long list of weird stuff that producers want to change for properties they work on, no matter how established in the public consciousness they are. I can just imagine a producer on the Spiderman flicks taking Sam Raimi aside and suggesting that Spidey wear a cape, you know so that people will know he's a super hero.


Another weird bit of trivia on the TV show that I read on IMDB is that the reason Johnson chose to change Bruce Banner to David is that he felt "Bruce" sounded too "gay". That's just silly.

On next week's Peel Here I'll delve a little further into the wonderful world of 80's Marvel super hero stickers.  Until then, don't key any cars or you'll make a kitten cry, and that's just mean…