Tagged: 1970’s
Whatever Happened to H.E.R.B.I.E. the Robot?!
Well the one good thing about having your own blog is that you can shamelessly hype your own shit! In this day and age of the internet let’s face it, it’s hard to get anyone to help you get the word out there on your own projects. So as you may or may not know, my musical alter ego is Mister Saturday, the first and as far as I know ONLY nerdcore reggae dancehall artist. I’ve been cranking out these ridiculous songs for years now, singing or toasting (as a Jamaican might call it) which is essentially rapping about the kind of stuff I want to hear in a reggae song. Stuff like Star Trek, The Incredible Hulk, Land of the Lost, Three’s Company, Godzilla, D&D and comic books. Basically stuff that you would never hear a reggae artist sing about ever, past or present.
Being a big fan of reggae since I was a kid in the 80’s I decided it was time to make these type of songs myself, whether anyone liked it or not. So, this brings me to my latest song, I wrote over a popular Swedish dancehall riddim about H.E.R.B.I.E. the Robot. I realize most people probably don’t even remember Herbie the Robot, but in the 1970’s he replaced The Human Torch on the animated series!
They actually thought The Human Torch was bad for children because they thought kids might try and light themselves on fire to emulate the character! So we got good ol’ Herbie instead! Well he kinda disappeared after that series, so I decided to find out where he went! Check it!
The Grinch’s Halloween Special Prequel?!
Call me severely uninformed, but I just discovered today that Dr. The Suess’ The Grinch had a holiday special before the classic “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”! Yep-The Grinch was grumpy as hell in the 1977 prequel “Halloween is Grinch Night”. Maybe this is common knowledge for most people but I had no idea the Grinch had a Halloween special-that won an Emmy!
The Grinch is once again a total dick to the people of Whoville and this gives us all a little more insight to his back story-so if you, like me, never knew the Grinch first “celebrated” Halloween then feast your eyes on this cool little forgotten cartoon….I still can’t believe I never saw this one!
Universal Dork’s Halloween Horror Picks #2! Cronenberg’s BEST!
People just love Cronenberg! However many people who love him today for movies like Eastern Promises & A History of Violence have long forgotten his amazing horror films like The Fly and his best in my opinion “The Brood”. If you have never seen this incredibly creepy movie from 1979 you are missing out big time. It’s also best that you know as little as possible about the plot as it will confuse you right up until the truly shocking finale. It’s been described as a horror version of Kramer vs. Kramer and I’d have to say that’s a neat way to look at this one.
It’s follows the story of a man who’s wife is receiving a strange theatrical therapy to help her with mental and emotional problems she’s experiencing. However when the husband finds bruises and cuts on their daughter he begins to suspect his mentally imbalanced wife may be to blame.
To make matters worse a brood of horrifying mutant children begin creeping around inside their house and soon people end up dead. This one is a Cronenberg masterpeice that should not be missed or seen again this Halloween! A true horror classic!!
Shatner’s 1970’s Supermarket Commercial Career!
Check out this super old skool tv commercial from the 1970’s featuring William Shatner! Loblaw’s is a supermarket chain in Canada and it seems that back in the 70’s Bill was up for just about everything after Star Trek fizzled out.
Shatner being Canadian himself must’ve shopped there quite a bit as he ended up doing several commercials for them! Who would’ve known huh?
Davy Jones: My Favorite Scooby Doo Character…
It’s bummed me out big time today upon finding out that Davy Jones, my favorite Monkee passed away today. I LOVE the Monkees, I always have they have been a huge part of my childhood with my parents playing their music, watching the tv show as a child after school and even more so as a kid seeing Davy Jones guest star on Scooby Doo! Below are the concept Davy Jones Scooby cartoon art for the epsiode!
Yeah he appeared on the legendary 1972 episode of the New Scooby Doo Movies called “The Haunted Horsemen of Hagglethorn Hall”. These episodes were an hour long and featured guest stars like Batman & Robin, Phyllis Diller, Don Knotts and The Harlem Globetrotters. From what I remember of this episode was that Scooby and the Gang were off to help Davy Jones solve a mystery of a castle he inherited-He sang a super groovy song to a huge monster toad too. Davy was my favorite voice of the Monkees, I never got to see them live, but I should have…rest in Peace Davy….
The Greatest Documentary Ever? Most Likely!
So today I will be getting a movie in the mail I have been looking forward to for quite some time now- Machete Maidens Unleashed! This documentary tells the crazy story of the Grindhouse movies of the 60’s and 70’s.
Following the stories of the actual stars and the crazy locations they shot these films at with a shoe string budget, Machete Maidens looks like the film for all of us Grindhouse fanatics. It looks like they have some cool commentary from the likes of Joe Dante one of my all time faves and Roger Corman. Check out this trailer is doesn’t get any better than this!
More Monsters Like 1979’s Prophecy Please!
I will admit, yes, I do love horror movies! However not the kind that could actually happen to us in real life or torture porn like “Saw” or “Hostel” in the least bit. No when I say I like horror movies what I’m really saying is I love monster movies! Ever since I was a little kid I have been obsessed with monsters-and still even as an adult (in age at least) I will still admit that I am still obsessed with monsters! The problem is today is that a good monster movie is really hard to come by-and most these days are stuffed to the brim with wretched looking CG. There have been a few exceptions like “Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer”, “Splinter” and “Feast”. However in 2011 I feel it’s important to remind people like myself about some of the lesser known gems that must been seen for the first time or re watched in the monster genre.
Today’s gem is 1979’s monster movie bonanza “Prophecy”! If you call yourself a monster fanatic and you never seen this I’ll come over this evening while you’re sleeping an egg your house! Continue reading
Comic Book Cover of the Week!
I don’t know how many times I have to say it but I LOVE the Hulk!! This weeks comic book cover of the week is way back from Incredible Hulk #212 from 1977. This bad ass cover was drawn by Rich Buckler and Ernie Chan and features one of my favorite villains of all time-The Constrictor! He goes on even today in current comics to brag about how he once “went one on one with the Hulk”, well this is the battle he’s talking about. Actually though I must say the Hulk serves the Constrictor’s ass to him on platter pretty quickly. Still folks it just doesn’t get any better than this and to believe that this issue cost a mere 3o cents? Damn those were the days!! This issue is a must have if you’re looking for a great old school Marvel adventure and it’s got one killer cover…
Dork Trivia of the Day!!
So here’s a question I have pondered for quite sometime:
Who came first the Man-Thing or Swamp Thing?!
It would seem that one MUST have copied the other, they both are squishy, slimey monsters that roam around in the swamp and they both decided to have their last name be “Thing”….coincidence? I highly doubt it! Well I decided to finally check out exactly who jumped onto the scene first. It appears that Marvel’s Man thing hopped onto the scene a mere 2 months before DC’s Swamp Thing way back in 1971!!
Man-Thing made his first appearance in the May issue of Savage Tales #1 and Swamp Thing jumped onto the scene in the July issue of House of Secrets #92. So even though it seems that Swamp Thing has reaped a lot more success than our buddy Man-Thing we all know who the O.G. swamp monster really was! Thank god I can finally get some rest at night now!!
Comic Book Cover of the Week! Savage!
Well folks if you’re fans of the Hulk it just DOESN’T get any better that this! Here you have probably my favorite picture ever drawn and or painted of ol’ Jade Jaws by none other than the legendary John Buscema! This one comes from The Hulk Magazine #26 from 1978. The Hulk magazine was called also The Rampaging Hulk, and to be honest they all had pretty amazing covers. They were essentially big Hulk comics, mostly printed in black and white, with original stories written exclusively for the magazine. They often times had back up stories by various other non-Hulk related characters and often times a Hulk “villains gallery” after the main Hulk story. Anyway when it comes to the Hulk this is what I always picture in my heads as what he should look like-a monster! I challenge anyone to provide me here with a better picture of the Hulk! Yeah it’s a dare!
Universal Dork 