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January 2023 No. 24 $10.95

There’s no need to fear!

UNDERDOG IS HERE!

Look who we found! Lost in Space’s

Angela Cartwr ight & Bil l Mumy Rankin-Bass’ Christmas classic

The Little Drummer Boy

THE CRAZY CREATIONS OF CARTOONIST MIKE DORMER!

Land of the Lost’s Wesley Eure • X-Mas Gifts You Didn’t Want • Cabbage Patch Kids & more! 1

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Featuring Andy Mangels • Will Murray • Scott Saavedra • Scott Shaw! • Mark Voger • Michael Eury

Hot Curl © Michael Dormer and Lee Teacher. Underdog © Classic Media. Lost in Space © Space Productions. Leave It to Beaver © NBCUniversal Television. Little Drummer Boy © Miser Bros. Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives. All Rights Reserved.

In RetroFan #25

(should you decide to accept it...) NEXT ISSUE! In #25, meet Mission: Impossible’s LYNDA DAY GEORGE in an exclusive interview! And celebrate RAMBO’s 50th birthday with his creator, novelist DAVID MORRELL! Plus: TV faves WKRP IN CINCINNATI and SPACE: 1999, Fleisher’s and Filmation’s SUPERMAN CARTOONS, commercial jingles, JERRY LEWIS and BOB HOPE comic books, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY. SHIPS FEBRUARY 2023!

RETROFAN #26

The saga of Saturday morning’s Super Friends, Part One! Plus: A history of MR. T, TV’s AVENGERS (Steed and Mrs. Peel), Daktari’s CHERYL MILLER, Mexican movie monsters, John and Yoko’s nation of Nutopia, ELIZABETH SHEPHERD (the actress who almost played Emma Peel), and more! With ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, MARK VOGER, & MICHAEL EURY. SHIPS APRIL 2023! (84-page magazines) $10.95 • (Digital Editions) $4.99

RETROFAN #19

RETROFAN #20

RETROFAN #21

RETROFAN #22

RETROFAN #23

Interview with Bond Girl and Hammer Films actress CAROLINE MUNRO! Plus: WACKY PACKAGES, COURAGEOUS CAT AND MINUTE MOUSE, FILMATION’S GHOSTBUSTERS vs. the REAL GHOSTBUSTERS, Bandai’s rare PRO WRESTLER ERASERS, behind the scenes of Sixties movies, WATERGATE at Fifty, Go-Go Dancing, a visit to the Red Skelton Museum, and more fun, fab features!

MAD’s maddest artist, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, is profiled! Plus: TV’s Route 66 and an interview with star GEORGE MAHARIS, MOE HOWARD’s final years, singer B. J. THOMAS in one of his final interviews, LONE RANGER cartoons, G.I. JOE, and more! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Meet JULIE NEWMAR, the purr-fect Catwoman! Plus: ASTRO BOY, TARZAN Saturday morning cartoons, the true history of PEBBLES CEREAL, TV’s THE UNTOUCHABLES and SEARCH, the MONKEEMOBILE, SOVIET EXPO ’77, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Surf’s up as SIXTIES BEACH MOVIES make a RetroFan splash! Plus: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, ZORRO’s Saturday morning cartoon, TV’s THE WILD, WILD WEST, CARtoons and other drag-mags, VALSPEAK, and more fun, fab features! Like, totally! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Meet the stars behind the Black Lagoon: RICOU BROWNING, BEN CHAPMAN, JULIE ADAMS, and LORI NELSON! Plus SHADOW CHASERS, featuring show creator KENNETH JOHNSON. Also: THE BEATLES’ YELLOW SUBMARINE, FLASH GORDON cartoons, TV’s cult classic THE PRISONER and kid’s show ZOOM, COLORFORMS, M&Ms, and more fun, fab features! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

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RETROFAN #15

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Sixties teen idol RICKY NELSON remembered by his son MATTHEW NELSON, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., rural sitcom purge, EVEL KNIEVEL toys, the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Saturday morning’s Super 7, The Muppet Show, behind-the-scenes photos of Sixties movies, an interview with The Sound of Music’s heartthrob-turnedbad guy DANIEL “Rolf” TRUHITTE, and more fun, fab features!

An exclusive interview with Logan’s Run star MICHAEL YORK, plus Logan’s Run novelist WILLIAM F. NOLAN and vehicle customizer DEAN JEFFRIES. Plus: the Marvel Super Heroes cartoons of 1966, H. R. Pufnstuf, Leave It to Beaver’s SUE “Miss Landers” RANDALL, WOLFMAN JACK, drive-in theaters, My Weekly Reader, DAVID MANDEL’s super collection of comic book art, and more!

Dark Shadows’ Angelique, LARA PARKER, sinks her fangs into an exclusive interview. Plus: Rankin-Bass’ Mad Monster Party, Aurora Monster model kits, a chat with Aurora painter JAMES BAMA, George of the Jungle, The Haunting, Jawsmania, Drak Pack, TV dads’ jobs, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by FARINO, MANGELS, MURRAY, SAAVEDRA, SHAW, and MICHAEL EURY.

Our BARBARA EDEN interview will keep you forever dreaming of Jeannie! Plus: The Invaders, the BILLIE JEAN KING/BOBBY RIGGS tennis battle of the sexes, HANNABARBERA’s Saturday morning super-heroes of the Sixties, THE MONSTER TIMES fanzine, and more fun, fab features! Featuring ERNEST FARINO, ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW!, and MICHAEL EURY.

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The Crazy Cool Culture We Grew Up With

Issue #24 January 2023

51 15

Columns and Special Features

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon Who Created Underdog?

Retro Animation Rankin/Bass’ The Little Drummer Boy

Retro Television Lost in Space’s Angela Cartwright and Bill Mumy

Voger’s Vault of Vintage Varieties ‘Beaver’ Fever

Scott Saavedra’s Secret Sanctum RetroFan Gift Guide

Oddball World of Scott Shaw! Michael Dormer, Hot Curl, and Shrimpenstein

Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning Comic Book Ads for Animated Cartoon Shows

Retro Interview Land of the Lost’s Wesley Eure

Departments

Retrotorial

Too Much TV Quiz Bill Mumy TV roles

RetroFad Cabbage Patch Kids

RetroFanmail

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RetroFan™ issue 24, January 2023 (ISSN 2576-7224) is published bi-monthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Periodicals postage paid at Raleigh, NC. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to RetroFan, c/o TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: RetroFan, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 112 Fairmount Way, New Bern, NC 28562. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $73 Economy US, $111 International, $29 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Lost in Space © Space Productions. Underdog © Classic Media, LLC. Leave It to Beaver © NBC Universal Television. Little Drummer Boy © Miser Bros. Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives. Hot Curl © Michael Dormer and Lee Teacher. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2022 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury

BY MICHAEL EURY

PUBLISHER John Morrow CONTRIBUTORS Mike Clark Michael Eury Rick Goldschmidt Ernie Magnotta Andy Mangels Will Murray Scott Saavedra Scott Shaw! Mark Voger DESIGNER Scott Saavedra PROOFREADER David Baldy SPECIAL THANKS Mark Arnold Classic Media, LLC Jim Cornelius Mark Evanier Hake’s Auctions Heritage Auctions Mary McLaren Brian K. Morris NBC Universal Television Next Chapter Publishing Sid & Marty Krofft Productions Bruce Simon Bryan D. Stroud VERY SPECIAL THANKS Angela Cartwright Ted Eccles Wesley Eure Jerry Mathers Bill Mumy Beverly Washburn IN MEMORIAM Tony Dow (1945–2022)

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RETROFAN

Lost in Space. Land of the Lost. Three of the actors interviewed this issue—Angela Cartwright and Bill Mumy, and Wesley Eure—appeared in many joyful hours of childhood television viewing for most of us, even though their characters—Penny and Will Robinson, and Will Marshall—faced no end of dangers from the hostile environments into which they were marooned. But another familiar face from television that’s also in this issue—Jerry Mathers, as “The Beaver”—was, one might argue, more “lost” than the others. Penny, Will, and Will relied upon their wits, weapons, and families to fend off each episode’s space monsters or prehistoric beasts. Poor Beaver, however, was besieged by threats that seemed insurmountable to a kid: peer pressure, confusing adult expectations, and that creep, Eddie Haskell. As this edition of RetroFan was winding down production in late July, another former child actor whose recollections are shared in the forthcoming pages, Tony Dow—best known as Beaver Cleaver’s sporty older brother, Wally—passed away, on July 27, 2022, at the age of 77. This sad news followed the May 7, 2022 announcement from his wife, Lauren Shulkind, of Tony’s battle with an unspecified type of cancer. RetroFan offers its condolences to the Dow family during this difficult time. This issue is respectfully dedicated to his memory. This magazine is a safe haven from the harsh realities of the real world, a magical place where we can revisit, and learn more about, the things we loved during Tony Dow (1945–2022). our youth. But Mr. Dow’s death reminds us that the Courtesy of Mark Voger. beloved actors—and animators, musicians, cartoonists, toy manufacturers, fad inventors, and other wizards— who helped shape our childhoods are, like each and every one of us, not invincible, despite the seeming immortality of the gifts they shared. Their creative legacies may be forever with us, but they themselves will not. It is our great privilege as journalists to capture their stories and present them NEXT ISSUE to you. In addition to our Lost in Space, Land of the Lost, and Leave It to Beaver features, in this issue you’ll discover the origins of Underdog; hang ten with surfer cartoonist Mike Dormer; time-travel to the days when the new Saturday morning cartoon line-ups were teased in comic books; and get into the holiday spirit by going behind the scenes of the time-honored Rankin/Bass TV special, The Little Drummer Boy. If you’re reading this while taking a break from Christmas shopping, our wacky gift guide might offer some ideas (for that mildly deranged person on your list), and this issue’s “RetroFad” flashes back to the stormiest shopping season ever—the year the must-have Cabbage Patch Kids premiered! So get ready for another groovy grab-bag of the crazy, cool culture we grew up with!

January 2023

LosT (aN (a Nd Fou ouN Nd) iN SpacE RETRO TELEVISION

Blast Off into the Expanded Edition

Angela

Cartwright and Bill Mumy share

a half-century of Lost in Space memories

BY MIKE CLARK Angela Cartwright and Bill Mumy’s Lost (and Found) in Space book that includes a new bounty of unseen photos and memorabilia: Lost was issued in 2015 on the 50th anniversary of Lost in Space. It was (and Found) in Space 2: Blast Off into the Expanded Edition. a delightful romp through the pair’s personal history of work and In an interview conducted for RetroFan through Zoom, Cartfriendship that resulted from the series that ran from 1965 to 1968 wright and Mumy discuss the bounties available in the updated (and forever in reruns). Along with rare photos and behind-theedition. “This book is more than twice as long as the first,” explains scenes tidbits, the book was an archive of memories small and large that made an impression on the young actors. (ABOVE) This issue’s cover stars Angela Cartwright and Bill Mumy, and their After the book went out of print and on new book, the crowd-pleasing Lost (and Found) in Space 2: Blast Off into the the recommendation of producer Kevin Expanded Edition. “I feel like this book is a very fitting look into everything we’ve Burns, their friend who kept Lost in Space experienced so far in the last 57 years,” Bill Mumy tells RetroFan. Lost (and Found) in Space in the public eye, Mumy and Cartwright 2: Blast Off into the Expanded Edition. Published by Next Chapter Publishing, a division of Next Chapter Entertainment LLC. Licensed by Synthesis Entertainment. © 2021 Synthesis Entertainment. commenced work on an expanded edition RETROFAN

January 2023

retro television

personal note to Angela from Irwin Allen on the first day of shooting the pilot. Bumper stickers and promotional pins made only for television publicists are shared along with something extremely personal to Bill, his name imprinted on the fabric backrest of a director’s chair. Of particular interest to fans are call sheets attached to scripts, behind-thescenes photos of Irwin Allen and his associates making magic, and rare press releases from the network run. Angela’s collection predates Lost in Space with several issues of the Linda Williams doll from The Danny Thomas Show. She also has collectible dolls in the image of her characters from The Sound of Music and Lost in Space. The updated book features original costume drawings by the Irwin Allen’s wardrobe designer, Paul Zastupnevich. “Paul was great,” says Bill. “He was like the [The Simpsons’] ‘Smithers’ to ‘Mr. Burns’ in terms of his relationship with Irwin.” Zastupnevich was a showman himself when it came to designing the costumes of Lost in Space. Angela’s thirdseason outfit was especially wild. “Paul came up with that whole pop look and the combination of those colors, which worked so well,” she recalls to RetroFan. “Bill and I were both growing because we were young kids, and they had to keep extending the pant legs. That’s why I think Paul eventually ended up putting me in a skirt because I just kept growing and growing. I changed quite a bit from that first season to the third season.” The Robinson kids meet the Boy Wonder! Batman co-star Burt Ward in a studio encounter with Mumy and Cartwright. © Legend Pictures, LLC.

END OF AN ERA

By the end of Season Three, ratings were holding up well enough for Lost in Space, with an average of 15 million viewers a week. NBC’s The Virginian was more popular in the time slot, but considered a much different demographic to the CBS bean-counters. In the days of only three networks (no cable or satellite channels), 15 million sets of eyeballs was good, but nevertheless, Lost in Space’s potential renewal was on the bubble. Adding to the woes was economic inflation eating into the show’s profits. Actor’s raises and the increased costs of sets had already taken its toll on the show’s production quality. Despite that, Lost in Space pulled off some stunning episodes such as “The Anti-Matter Man,” set in a strange mirror world of living rocks and trans-dimensional walkways. On top of that, CBS had asked Fox for a lower budget if the show would be renewed for another year. It all came to a head after the wrap party for Season Three as the cast headed out for a few weeks of relaxation before resuming production in the fall of 1968. 8

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January 2023

“We had been verbally assured that there would be a fourth season,” recalls Bill. “As you know, that suddenly changed, and there was no fourth season. I was shocked. I even cried. Angie and I didn’t have anywhere to go to school for the balance of semester, so we stayed there on the lot for quite a while. Our attachment to the lot and our perspective of experiencing all that entailed between the ages of ten and 16, by the time we wrapped things up, was a very wide spectrum of experiences and memories.” Lost in Space ended its CBS run in the summer of 1968, and immediately went into syndication for local televisions station to schedule as they wished. Many channels wisely put reruns of the show on five days a week between the end of school hours and prior to the six o’clock news, gaining a whole new generation of fans. Lost in Space was a hit in syndication and ran in many markets for over a decade.

retro television

INTO THE FUTURE

In the updated edition of their book, we see Angela, Bill, and the cast members move on to other series and projects. Bill grew his hair long, sometimes sported a beard, and developed his musicianship to a professional level. He appeared in the feature films Bless the Beasts and Children (1971) and Papillon (1973). His TV series included Sunshine and Babylon 5. The Netflix Lost in Space series (2018–2021) featured Bill as the “real” Dr. Smith. Bill’s musical duo, Barnes and Barnes, had a cult hit in “Fish Heads.” Over the years, Bill has released multiple albums of his music and performed live on many occasions. He became a narrator for documentaries produced by Kevin Burns’ company, and later a co-producer on Ancient Aliens. Bill married in the Eighties and has two grown children Angela matured from an adorable teenager into a beautiful young woman and continued working on film through the Seventies. Danny Thomas asked Angela back for a short-lived sequel to his CBS show, retitled Make Room for Grandaddy. Angela resumed

her role of Danny’s daughter Linda… who was now a mother! She appeared on various networks shows including Logan’s Run, The Love Boat, and Airwolf. Irwin Allen called for her to appear in Beyond the Poseidon Adventure in 1979. Angela built a career of professional photography and opened her own boutique. She played a reporter in the 1998 Lost in Space feature film, and appeared as Parker Posey’s mother in the Netflix Lost in Space series. Angela is married and has two children. By the early Eighties, Lost in Space was starting to fade in the public’s mind when home video came about and a whole new life began for the show. But only the studio benefited from the success, as pre-home-video actor contracts did not have any residuals for VHS sales. As sci-fi conventions ramped up in popularity and the nostalgia markets boomed with cable TV channels devoted to Sixties programs, the cast began to make appearances and were featured regularly in the media. The person most responsible for keeping the flame alive was producer Kevin Burns, a Fox executive who grew up loving Lost in Space. His expert direction of the show’s assets resulted in new TV specials, toy licenses, comic books and a Blu-ray collection of the series issued on the show’s 50th anniversary in 2015. “TV shows get lost, too,” says Angela. “They get lost on shelves and you never see them again. People say, ‘Why can’t I see that movie again?’ Kevin made [Lost in Space] come back and kept it alive. And we were brought together by Kevin, and from then we celebrated many occasions and anniversaries together. We cover a lot of that in the new book, like going to NASA and attending Comic-Con on the show’s 50th

RETROFAN

January 2023

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CHARLTON COMPANION

TEAM-UP COMPANION OUR ARTISTS AT WAR AMERICAN TV COMICS (1940s-1980s)

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JON B. COOKE’s all-new history of the notorious all-in-one comics company, from the 1940s to the ’70s, with GIORDANO, DITKO, STATON, BYRNE and more!

MICHAEL EURY examines team-up comic books of the Silver and Bronze Ages of Comics in a lushly illustrated selection of informative essays, special features, and trivia-loaded issue-by-issue indexes!

Examines US War comics from EC, DC COMICS, WARREN PUBLISHING, CHARLTON, and more! Featuring KURTZMAN, SEVERIN, DAVIS, WOOD, KUBERT, GLANZMAN, KIRBY, and others!

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GLEN CADIGAN’s bio of the artist who redesigned the Legion of Super-Heroes and introduced X-Men characters Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Logan!

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‘Beaver’ Fever

VOGER’S VAULT OF VINTAGE VARIETIES BY MARK VOGER Ah, Mayfield. Quintessential suburbia. You can almost smell the flowers in the town square. You can almost see the gentlemen tipping their hats to the ladies. And you can almost hear the rustle of the newspaper as neighborhood dad Ward Cleaver turns the page, relaxing on the couch after a hard day at the office while his wife June knits by his side, wearing her omnipresent pearl choker. Mayfield is a real place—at least, as real as Mayberry, Gotham City, or Bugtussle. It is the hometown of Theodore Cleaver, a.k.a. “the Beaver,” an inquisitive, baseball cap-wearing, freckle-faced everykid played by Jerry Mathers on the sitcom classic Leave It to Beaver (1957–1963). Also starring were Barbara Billingsley as protective mom June; Hugh Beaumont as sage dad Ward; and Tony Dow as Beaver’s good egg of a big brother, Wally. Leave It to Beaver was one of several comedies from the period built around family life, such as Father Knows Best, Make Room for Daddy, The Donna Reed Show, and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. But Beaver was different. More true-to-life. Funnier, even. How so? There’s an outmoded expression that encapsulates much of the parenting style of the Fifties and Sixties: “Children should be seen, not heard.” TV fathers from the era weren’t what you’d call demonstrative. They generally wore suits, and left the messier aspects of childrearing to the missus. So Leave It to Beaver was, for its time, a trailblazer. Though the show has a reputation for being about a dopey kid with a knack for getting into hot water—the famous soup-bowl-billboard episode of 1961 is a handy metaphor for this view—Beaver was really about parents having thoughtful conversations to decide how to discipline their children without trampling their feelings. Ward often reminisced about growing up on a farm under a father who was quick to dish out corporal punishment. June was always there to remind Ward not to allow history to repeat itself. Their boys were a study in contrasts. Wally was a top athlete, a good student, and popular with boys and girls. Theodore was a klutzy dreamer who hated “yucky” girls and had few ambitions beyond reading comic books or skipping stones. Beaver wasn’t a bad kid so much as a gullible one. When he messed up, his ne’er-

Gee, Wally! Stars of Leave It to Beaver recall the making of a sitcom classic

(LEFT TO RIGHT) Tony Dow, Barbara Billingsley, Hugh Beaumont, and (IN FRONT) Jerry Mathers as the Beaver in Leave It to Beaver. © NBC Universal Television.

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January January 2022 2023

Voger’s vault of vintage varieties

Some goofy stuff Beav got talked into: (LEFT) A police officer (William Kendis) addresses Larry (Rusty Stevens) and Beaver (Jerry Mathers) in “The State Versus Beaver” episode of Leave It to Beaver. (RIGHT) Beaver precariously negotiates a threedimensional billboard in the “In the Soup” episode. © NBC Universal Television. do-well pals were usually near the crime scene. It was Larry (Rusty Stevens) who insisted Beaver take the go-cart for a spin; it was Gilbert (Stephen Talbot) who convinced him to fly the ornate kite before the glue was dry; it was Whitey (Stanley Fafara) who goaded him into climbing that billboard. That’s another difference between Wally and Beaver. Wally usually knew better than to listen to his pals, two-faced Eddie (Ken Osmond) and sad sack Lumpy (Frank Bank). Mathers and Dow created believable chemistry despite their vastly different backgrounds in the acting field. Mathers was, at age eight, a show-biz veteran when Leave It to Beaver began, while Dow was a TV tenderfoot.

‘HELLO, MR. MATHERS’

While shooting Leave It to Beaver, Mathers was occasionally greeted by a formidable filmmaker: Alfred Hitchcock. Prior to Beaver, Mathers had a role in Hitchcock’s The Trouble With Harry (1955) as Shirley MacLaine’s pint-sized son who finds a body in the woods. “When I was doing Leave It to Beaver on the Universal lot, Hitchcock was doing [the series] Alfred Hitchcock Presents at the same time,” Mathers once told me. (I interviewed the actor in 1993 and 1998.) “He would always come by in his chauffeur-driven Rolls, and he’d roll down the window and say, ‘Oh, hello, Mr. Mathers.’ It was kind of interesting to have somebody like that—who was a very imposing figure—call me Mr. Mathers. I was about eight or nine at the time.” According to Mathers, the Leave It to Beaver scripts were often based on experiences in the families of the producer-writer team (INSET) Director Alfred Hitchcock cast Jerry Mathers in The Trouble With Harry (1955). (RIGHT) Mathers in a scene from the film (and, hey, how about that swell toy raygun?). © Paramount Pictures.

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January 2023

that created the series. Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, who cut their teeth in radio, had nine kids between them—plenty of comic fodder for plotlines. “All of the stories from the original Leave It to Beaver were from real life,” Mathers said. “They may be a combination of 50 things that happened to 50 different kids in just one episode, but the main storylines in most of the truly funny episodes are real. “I think that’s what makes them so timeless. You know, things that really happened to kids in the Fifties—you can still relate to them.” A lot of Mathers’ funniest lines derive from irony; Beaver didn’t always realize what he was saying.

Voger’s vault of vintage varieties

Did young Mathers comprehend everything that came out of Beaver’s mouth? “I think I did,” the actor said. “The reason I say that is, everything was scripted. People ask me, ‘Did you just say a lot of that stuff?’ No. None of it was off the top of my head. And because it’s comedy, everything has to play. “We also had two days of rehearsals. We would go in Monday and read the script over several times—sometimes nine or 10 times—just sitting in a big room like they do with a stage play. Everybody would sit around, and the writers would listen for what people would laugh at. Not just the cast, but they had other people in the room who were professionals.” How is it that Mathers escaped the former-child-star-introuble-with-the-law syndrome that plagued, for instance, Danny Bonaduce, Dana Plato, and Todd Bridges?

held some national records in those age groups. So I spent a lot of time in the pool.” Still, Dow took note of the entertainment world. His mother, Muriel Montrose, was a former stuntwoman who once doubled for silent-movie siren Clara Bow. Young Dow was a TV fan as well. “Those were the good old days, when you would take your TV tray at 6 or 7 [p.m.], and the whole family would watch Ed Sullivan,” Dow reminisced. “I liked Westerns a lot. You only had three [network] choices back then. Local TV hadn’t really grown up yet. I’d watch two or three hours a night. But then, when I was on the show, I had a lot of other stuff to do. I had my homework; I had to learn lines; and I still wanted to pal around with my friends.” Dow’s introduction to the acting field was unintentional on his part.

(LEFT) Brothers on television, friends in real life: Jerry Mathers and Tony Dow. (RIGHT) Jerry Mathers doing regular kid stuff as Beaver Cleaver, part of the appeal of Leave It to Beaver. © NBC Universal Television. “I was really, really lucky,” he said. “At the time I was doing the show, my father [Norman Mathers] was principal of the largest high school in the Los Angeles city school system. He was graduating about 3,000 kids [per year]. He knew exactly what to look for when you were a little out of line, and just needed to be yanked right back in.”

NATURAL ATHLETE

Meanwhile, Mathers’ TV brother had never planned to become an actor. He was plenty busy with other pursuits. “California was a cool place to grow up,” Dow told me in 2017. “I was a beach guy. I played a lot of volleyball; I played in four national championships. I loved playing volleyball on the beach and indoor, six-man. I was a swimmer and a diver, so when I started, it was in groups of ages seven and eight; and nine and 10; and 11 and 12. I

“What happened was, a friend of mine who was an actor asked me if I’d go along on an audition for [the pilot] Johnny Wildlife,” Dow recalled. “So I went and I ended up lucking out. I don’t know how or why. Things mushroomed from there, and I ended up in Leave It to Beaver.” Dow believed his athleticism was written into the character of Wally after he was cast in the role. “Those guys, Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, were really smart,” Dow said. “They were terrific writers. They played to our strengths. Especially me because I was a novice. Jerry had been acting since he was two years old or something ridiculous like that. “I guess if they had cast a bookworm as Wally, he’d be on the debating team instead of the basketball team. In fact, they had another Wally [Paul Sullivan] in the pilot. He was not an athletic Wally. If he’d have stayed in the show, it would have been a RETROFAN

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Voger’s vault of vintage varieties

FAST FACTS

(TOP) Opening credit from the Eighties' series The New Leave It to Beaver. (RIGHT) Advertisement for the 1983 TV movie Still the Beaver. © Universal Television.

TIME CAPSULE

LEAVE IT TO BEAVER f No. of seasons: Six f No. of episodes: 234 f Original run: October 4, 1957–June 20, 1963 f Primary cast: Hugh Beaumont, Barbara Billingsley, Tony Dow, and Jerry Mathers f Networks: CBS (Season One), ABC (Seasons Two–Six) f Created by: Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher f Theme song composers: David Kahn, Melvyn Leonard, and Mort Greene

SPIN-OFFS AND REMAKES: f Still the Beaver (two-hour reunion movie directed by Steven Hillard Stern originally airing on CBS on March 18, 1983) f The New Leave It to Beaver (spin-off of Still the Beaver and airing for four seasons, from March 19, 1983–June 4, 1989; Season One was shown on the Disney Channel, while Seasons Two–Four were aired on Superstation TBS) f Leave It to Beaver (1997 Universal Pictures movie remake directed by Andy Cadiff; starring Cameron Finley as Beaver, Erik von Detten as Wally, Christopher McDonald as Ward, and Janine Turner as June) 24

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The original Leave It to Beaver aired during an anxious time in modern American history. The Army-McCarthy hearings had convened in 1954, but rest assured, the Red Scare was still a thing. Though Beaver rarely referenced current events, the shows couldn’t help reflecting the times in cryptic ways. When June once told Beaver that doing wrong “hurts” God, Beaver replied: “I wouldn’t want to do anything to hurt God. He’s got enough trouble with the Russians and all.” The final episode aired on June 20, 1963; President Kennedy was assassinated the following November 22. So, even though Beaver concerned itself with baseball games, school dances, and ice cream sodas, Mayfield remains a time capsule of American attitudes during the Cold War and the “Camelot” era. One more urban legend about Leave It to Beaver needs to be dispelled—that as Mathers got taller and his voice deepened, he was still playing Beaver as a little squirt. Not true. All of the boys of Mayfield matured appropriately. Wally got a car and chose a college. Beaver tried to teach himself how to dance for a boy-girl party. As painful as that episode is to watch—few among us didn’t have an awkward stage between ages ten and 20, and Beaver had a doozy—Leave It to Beaver was still in there pitching, still trying to be relevant and real. This is why the show is still beloved. Back then, most family sitcoms were peddling a squeaky-clean ideal of suburban life in Fifties America. But Leave It to Beaver wasn’t selling anything. It just plain rang true. MARK VOGER is the author and designer of six books for TwoMorrows Publishing, including Monster Mash (a Rondo Award winner), Groovy, Holly Jolly, and Britmania. His favorite Funny Face character (and flavor) is Goofy Grape. Please visit him at MarkVoger.com

SCOTT SAAVEDRA’S SECRET SANCTUM

X-Mas Gifts You Didn’t Want BY SCOTT SAAVEDRA Gift-giving is one of humanity’s oldest activities. Not as important as finding food, shelter, and avoiding predators, but we’ve been doing it a long while, that’s all I’m trying to say. Fast-forward many thousands of years, and we’ve evolved so much as a species that not only do we give gifts to others, but to ourselves as well. The opportunity to gift ourselves is, in part, due to the abundance of inexpensive goods and the ease with which we can make our purchases. This easy access came from the rise of shopping through the mail as exemplified by the thick Sears Roebuck catalogs (not the first, but the most important) and at brick-andmortar five-and-dime stores like the once mighty Woolworth chain. Mail order was a very attractive option for hard-working entrepreneurs. It didn’t require the start-up costs a large retail business did, and if you could find your niche market you didn’t need to compete head-on with the giants of the business.

(TOP LEFT) The 1969 Hanover House catalog and (BOTTOM LEFT) the 1967 Sunset House catalog. Both Christmas-time catalogs were full of many of the same types of inexpensive (some would say unnecessary) merchandise. (INSET) A 1965 mail-order ad touting an easy entry into the mail-order business. RETROFAN

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scott saavedra’s secret sanctum

TALK-BACK PHONE (1967) “The voice on the line repeats every spoken word clearly and distinctly… to give little chatterboxes… the thrilling fun of an actual phone call… the delayed echo of the youngster’s own words is like a mystery playmate talking.” A playmate that can only say what you say, you know, like in a nightmare. “Safe.” COST: $1

MOOD CAP (1969) A sleep cap that “not only protects your hairdo while you sleep, but also reveals your mood without a word.” I’m speechless. The Yes side features two bunny rabbits (wink, wink), and the No side has a howling dog and dog house. COST: $1.49

ELECTRIC HAND FOR THE BACK (1964) “Talk about jet-age wonders.” Well, we could talk about jet-age wonders, but instead we are discussing back scratchers. Comes with a “little plastic hand” that “really works.” Sounds creepy. And if the illustration is any indication, the lady here likes creepy. COST: $2.98

WHISKEY SANDWICH (1967)

INSTANT FACIAL HAIR (1969) Now “any man” (with brown or gray hair) can look “conservatively groomed all day then emerge at night as a continental, debonair man-about-town!” You may use the fake hair to look “distinguished… wicked… cool.” COST: Mustache, sideburns, or Van Dyke beard are $3.00 each. The self-delusion is free! 28

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You may have a drinking problem if you need to hide your booze inside a fake sandwich made of foam. “A super spoof for lunch breaks, picnics, or stadium snacks.” Comes wrapped in wax paper (for freshness) and is placed inside of a brown paper bag with the words “whiskey sandwich” printed on it. Seek help, my friend. Your family loves you. COST: a mere $1 and, eventually, everything you hold dear.

LITTLE BLACK BOX (1964) “There it sits, quiet, sinister, waiting.” Turn it on and there is a grinding sound as the lid slowly opens and a hand emerges. The hand turns the switch off and then disappears. “It does absolutely nothing but switch itself off” (emphasis theirs). The real benefit of the Little Black Box? “Fantastic psychological impact.” That is fantastic. COST: $4.98

scott saavedra’s secret sanctum

PROTEST DOLL (1967) “Express yourself!” by mocking “fuss-makers” (hippies, one assumes, who are expressing themselves) with the “biggest laugh-getter” of the year. A “squelch for every occasion.” Also great for “friendly get-togethers” where your squelching will be appreciated. 18 pre-printed “witty” signs plus blanks. COST: $1.39

SQUIRREL MONKEY (1962)

OIL PORTRAIT (1964) Custom paint-by-number kits are not a bad idea, really. My main question is, did circus clowns ever get this product? COST: $9.95, for somebody’s future “ironic” yard sale/thrift store purchase.

ILLEGAL LONG DISTANCE CALL BLOCKER (1983) No more “costly long distance calls made without your permission.” Was strangers sneaking into homes to make “illegal” long-distance calls a thing in the Eighties? Probably not. To be fair, charges for such calls were considerable. In New York, the cost of the first minute of a long-distance phone call in 1977 was 50 cents (according to an AT&T ad of the period). Adjusted for inflation, that would be about $2.35 today. It would add up quick. COST: $49.95 for rotary phones and $69.95 for Touch-Tone® phones.

“A human-like pet to caress and play with” to bring “companionship” and “very lovable eyes.” This actual living creature “eats what you eat” and otherwise only needs “understanding and affection.” Here’s the bad news. I had a neighborhood friend who got one of these little guys (and it was a guy). He was only interested in one thing: furiously giving himself “affection.” And he would do this while staring you directly in the eye with his own “very lovable eyes.” The good news: “guaranteed live delivery.” So, that’s something. COST: $19.95 (dresses and clean-up are your responsibility). Enjoy the monkey!

POCKET TELEVISION (1983) LET THEM KNOW WHO’S BOSS! (1967) Oh, boy… “delightful… super gag gifts for families (in what way?), brides-to-be… parties, sports, and just plain fun!” My mom sure would not put up with this stuff even in her early “sweet wifey-poo” (her words) years. COST: To your relationship? Buddy, you have no idea. $3.98 per “delightful” top.

WOOL NOSE WARMER (1964) “Kooky but practical… sized to fit any nose… the perky tassel bobs up and down as you move.” COST: $1 and, frankly, your dignity.

A scientific miracle in your pocket! Imagine watching any television program you want when you want to, so long as you’re in range of a signal, and the program you want to see is broadcasting. And all without the distraction of color! Extra special feature: listen to your favorite shows without the picture! Use at “the beach… on the road… out on the patio… at sporting events” Embrace the future. COST: $299.95 RETROFAN

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Now shipping at www.twomorrows.com!

BRITMANIA

by RetroFan’s MARK VOGER

Remember when long-haired British rock ’n’ rollers made teenage girls swoon — and their parents go crazy? BRITMANIA plunges into the period when suddenly, America went wild for All Things British. This profusely illustrated full-color hardback, subtitled “The British Invasion of the Sixties in Pop Culture,” explores the movies (A HARD DAY’S NIGHT, HAVING A WILD WEEKEND), TV (THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW, MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR), collectibles (TOYS, GAMES, TRADING CARDS, LUNCH BOXES), comics (real-life Brits in the DC and MARVEL UNIVERSES) and, of course, the music! Written and designed by MARK VOGER (MONSTER MASH, GROOVY, HOLLY JOLLY), BRITMANIA features interviews with members of THE BEATLES, THE ROLLING STONES, THE WHO, THE KINKS, HERMAN’S HERMITS, THE YARDBIRDS, THE ANIMALS, THE HOLLIES & more. It’s a gas, gas, gas! (192-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $43.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-115-8 • NOW SHIPPING!

Get Mark Voger’s three other books for $99.95! Monster Mash • Groovy • Holly Jolly Normally 120, get this specially-priced trio for only $ 99.95! $

Save $24!

THE ODDBALL WORLD OF SCOTT SHAW!

MICHAEL DORMER How a Potbellied Surfer and a Jellybean Monster Took a San Diego Beatnik to Hollywood and Back! BY SCOTT SHAW! I was very lucky to be born in 1951 and to have grown up in San Diego, California. Beyond being a tourist town (and a great place to throw a convention about funnybooks), it was a surfing community long before surf culture achieved national attention. I loved listening to the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean. I read Surfer magazine because it featured Rick Griffin’s “Murphy the Surfer” comic strip, which taught me how to draw surfers for both my classmates and my junior high newspaper. I even got in trouble with my parents for using the local thumbs-up surf-term “bitchen” too often. (Yeah, elsewhere it’s spelled “bitchin’,” but in San Diego, it was definitely “bitchen.”) The only time I ever actually surfed was when I was a scholarship student at Point Loma’s Cal Western University and lived in a dorm that was located less than 100 yards from a surfing beach. I waded in with a friend’s surfboard and was about to mount when a wave hit me, and I lost the board, as well as my swim trunks. At least we found the board—if not my trunks—which was also lucky because I needed it to cover myself while doing the Walk of Shame to my dorm room. A bit farther up the coast from where my embarrassment occurred was where—a few years earlier—one of my favorite elements of surf culture was created by a local cartoonist named Michael Dormer. In fact, Mike was much more that that, creativitywise, but in 1963, I didn’t know his name. But “Hot Curl the Surfer”? Bitchen!

(ABOVE) Cartoonist Michael Dormer. Photo by Louise King. (INSET) Cover to the book, Michael Dormer and the Legend of Hot Curl (2017, Fantagraphics Books), edited by Michael Powers and Eric Reynolds and still available. Hot Curl © Michael Dormer and Lee Teacher.

A ‘BITCHEN’ BIO

Being born in 1951 also allowed me to be in the front row for the popularity of monsters in entertainment, publications, and merchandise from the mid-Fifties to the mid-Sixties. The first time RETROFAN

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The oddball world of scott shaw!

Stomp,” Dracula’s Greatest Hits was one of my favorite things to listen to while reading the latest Marvel mags. It also featured some of the best monster-related artwork ever done by Jack Davis on both sides of its sleeve as well as a perforated sheet of original Davis-drawn monster trading cards, now highly desired, especially if intact. Gene Moss (1926–2002) was a voice actor and writer born in Cleveland, Ohio. He not only co-owned an ad agency with Jim Thurman, he was the creative director for Ken Snyder Enterprises, producer of some of the animated inserts for the first season of Sesame Street. Gene provided the voice of fire safety advocate Smokey the Bear in a series of television commercials. Some of his other TV writing credits: The Bob Hope Christmas Special; The Dean Martin Show; The Carol Burnett Show; and Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp. In animation, he did voiceovers for The Fantastic Four (1978) and Plastic Man (1979). James Frederick Thurman (1935–2007), born in Dallas, Texas, was an actor, writer, director, cartoonist, and producer. His career began as a copywriter for Los Angeles ad agencies. After Shrimpenstein!, he juggled working for network television and Sesame Street. After that, much of his work was for young audiences, including material by Dr. Seuss. His credits include: The Dean Martin Show; The Carol Burnett Show; Sesame Street; The Electric Company; Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids; The Bob Newhart Show; and The Muppet Show. KHJ’s Shrimpenstein! debuted in September 1966, airing live every weekday at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time. Formatted similarly to the 1959–1961 Soupy Sales Show, Shrimpenstein! was an afternoon TV show for kids… at least, that’s what it started out to be. The star’s show was a puppet designed by Dormer, but built by a noted Hollywood artist, as Mike himself explained. “The Shrimpenstein puppet was cleverly crafted by noted sculptor 40

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(TOP LEFT) The 1964 comedy LP Dracula’s Greatest Hits, featuring Jack Davis artwork. (ABOVE) Gene Moss provided the voice for Doodles on Roger Ramjet. (LEFT) Jim Thurman interviewed by Kermit the Frog. Kermit the Frog © Muppets Studio LLC. Shrimpenstein © Michael Dormer and Lee Teacher. Roger Ramjet © Snyder-Koren Productions.

and puppetmeister, Wah Chang. I designed the Shrimpy set and all the goofy machines used on the show, and our crackerjack stage crew built everything in record time. Teacher and I wrote the Shrimpenstein! theme song lyrics.” Wah-Ming Chang was a Chinese-American designer, sculptor, and artist whose credits included figural character designs for Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Bambi; special effects for Tarantula; Elizabeth Taylor’s headdress design for Cleopatra; and props for Star Trek and Planet of the Apes. Due to a small budget—most of the moola was already spent on the small puppet and the small set—the show’s on-screen cast consisted of two humans in multiple roles: f Shrimpenstein – Voiced by Jim Thurman, Shrimpy was an intelligent kid who liked to give his creator a hard time. He still had the wonderment of a child and wasn’t irritatingly snarky or creepy, just cute. His nose—located high, between his eyes—was a tribute to Dick Briefer’s Frankenstein comics of the Forties. f Dr. Rudolf Von Schtick – Voiced by Gene Moss doing an imitation of Boris Karloff, Von Schtick was the central character of the show, a professional mad scientist reduced to temping as a horror-host for a kiddie show. He nervously laughed at his own jokes a lot, probably because he was surrounded by neurotic monsters—who were all played by Jim Thurman! Jim especially loved to break up or confound Gene with comedic setups that could get the show thrown off the air if responded to with anything suggestive. (Fortunately, a lot of it did get past Standards

The oddball world of scott shaw!

& Practices.) No wonder the doctor always had that deer-in-the-headlights look on his face. f Klaus –Thurman played this obvious swipe from The Soupy Sales Show’s “White Fang,” a hairy white glove with a sleeve long enough to cover the arm. Klaus was an enthusiastic, hilarious, utterly stupid monster who like to repeat things a lot, stalling so Jim could concoct what he was gonna do next. f The Tijuana Bats – These stiff, felt-made puppets had no individual names nor personalities; their only routine was bopping to the beat while being waved around on a stick. They were reminiscent of Chipmunks Alvin, Simon, and Theodore’s sped-up performances—using then-current Top 40 hits—and appeared as “filler” for the youngsters. f Wilfred the Wiener Wolf – Wilfred was created as a mid-series add-on character when the show got a new sponsor, Hormel Wieners. All we ever saw of Wilfred was Jim Thurman’s hand inside a werewolf glove (probably purchased at Hollywood Toys and Costumes) doing The Addams Family’s “Thing” bit, but with improv dialogue added. After one of Jim’s ad-libs went too far, the show lost its sponsor, but Wilfred abided, providing improvisational narration for black-and-

white educational wildlife films from the Fifties. (When one of them was about seagulls, Wilfred griped, “Yeah, they’re the ones who left white spots on my car.”) Thanks to Jim, Wilfred was certainly one of the funniest and least censored characters on the show. f The Unnamed Guy in the Raincoat with Squishy Boots – This tall fellow (played by Jim) never said a word as he slowly schlepped across the set, while everyone stopped to watch and listen to his boots. f The Crew – The viewers never got a look at the crew behind the camera, but we certainly heard them. Their reactions reassured us that we weren’t just imagining how funny the show was—especially when things went awry! Initially, Gene Moss operated the Shrimpenstein puppet and attempted to do his voice. That lasted for about a week, then Jim Thurman took over, setting up gags for his partner to react to. This was what made the show so great. Moss and Thurman would write an outline and a few bits, but winged the rest. Watching Moss onscreen, mentally writhing while trying to come up with TV-friendly responses to Thurman’s often-outrageous setups, was one of the show’s most entertaining aspects.

‘SHRIMPENSTEIN!’ MERCHANDISE For a one-season, low-budget regional show, it’s surprising that there were a few pieces of Shrimpenstein! merchandise: f A 45RPM record on the Startime Records label featured an extended version of the show’s theme, “The Shrimpenstein Song,” on the A-side, with “Karate Man” on the B-side. Both were performed by Gene Moss. The records were sold in Southern California music stores. f A rubber doll of Shrimpy was available through the mail. A few still exist, but the material they were made from is turning back into petroleum. f The show also had its own “Shrimpenstein Monster Fan Club,” whose members received a Shrimpenstein newsletter, a sheet of Shrimpenstein trading stamps (including some reused Jack Davis monsters from Moss’ Dracula’s Greatest Hits LP), and an autographed photo of Shrimpy and Von Shtick. f There were Shrimpenstein! ads in TV Guide, newspapers, and the entertainment trades. The much-loathed post–Moss and Thurman “Uncle Carbunkle” was also advertised as a hired personality to liven up parties.

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ANDY MANGELS’ RETRO SATURDAY MORNING

TV Comic Ads BY ANDY MANGELS

Welcome back to Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning, and prepare for a visual feast! Saturday morning television was appointment viewing for anyone growing up from the Sixties to the Nineties. From 8am to Noon, while their parents slept in from the workweek, kids could sit in front of the television and enjoy a time just for them. Cartoons—and later, live-action

series—were produced by studios like Filmation Associates, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, Total Television, Jay Ward Productions, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Sid and Marty Krofft, D’Angelo Productions, Marvel Productions, Sunbow Productions, Ruby-Spears, DIC, Film Roman, and others. But how could the networks best reach kids to let them know when the new

shows would be airing? Enter the television ads that ran in comic books, touting new and exciting Fall seasons! It made sense, since many shows were adapted from comic books! For most kids, those two-page spreads were their first looks at future TV favorites. In the first of a semi-regular series, we’re offering you a rare look at every Saturday ad we can find!

The first comic-book ads for Saturday animation appeared in Harvey comics cover-dated May 1962, showcasing Casper and other Harvey stars on ABC. Here is that first ad (LEFT), and two later ads from 1966. Characters © Classic Media, LLC.

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(LEFT) The first double-page ad from CBS appeared in both DC and Marvel comics cover-dated November 1966 (books were dated three months early for newsstands). It illuminated the super-hero-heavy line-up beginning on September 10th.

(ABOVE) This rare DC ad only appeared in color in one book (Superman #187), though it was printed in black-and-white in several other DC comics cover-dated June 1966. It promised the never-to-materialize cartoons for Wonder Woman, Plastic Man, and Metamorpho! © DC Comics.

Foretelling the future when both ABC and Marvel would be owned by Disney, ABC debuted its first Fall ad only in Marvel comic books cover-dated November and December 1967.

CBS double-downed on super-heroes in 1967, even calling their ad in DC books coverdated November 1967 “Saturday’s Super Heroes.”

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MAC GEORGE ART PRINTS About the Artist Mac George has received credits that include The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Chicken Little, Tangled and Wreck It Ralph. He designed the stained glass prologue for Beauty and the Beast, has been nominated for two Annie awards and in 2010 won a prime time Emmy award for his work on Prep and Landing.

macartprints.com

RETRO INTERVIEW

Living in the BY ERNIE MAGNOTTA “Marshall, Will, and Holly… on a routine expedition…” Any child of the Seventies recognizes those opening lyrics. They were written by Linda Laurie (“Ambrose (Part 5)”) and belong to the memorable theme song of the Sid and Marty Krofft live-action, Saturday morning television classic, Land of the Lost, a children’s sci-fi/adventure series in which the Marshall family—teenage Will (Wesley Eure, TV’s Days of Our Lives), younger sister Holly (Kathy Coleman, TV’s Adam-12), and their father, Rick (Spencer Milligan, TV’s General Hospital)—are transported to an alternate universe after their raft plunges down a waterfall and they are sucked through a time doorway. The Marshalls awaken in the primitive Land of the Lost, a place inhabited by dinosaurs, ape-like bipeds called Pakuni, and the

“Marshall, Will, and Holly, on a routine expedition, met the greatest earthquake ever known”… and look where it got them! Title card for Sid and Marty Krofft’s Land of the Lost, starring the dino-fighting Marshalls: (LEFT TO RIGHT) Wesley Eure as Will, Kathy Coleman as Holly, and Spencer Milligan as Rick. © Sid & Marty Krofft Productions.

Wesley Eure Remembers RETROFAN

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retro interview

Wesley is a popular and frequent guest of nostalgia, sci-fi, and monster conventions. Look for him under this colorful banner! RF: What was it like to be a teen idol and to star in such a popular show at so young an age? WE: It was fun. I did personal appearances. I got to be on the cover of Tiger Beat and so many other magazines. And back then, a lot of the teen idols like Leif Garrett and Shaun Cassidy used to come to my house to go swimming. We all knew each other. It was fun. RF: Do you have a favorite episode and season? WE: I like the one called “Circle” (Season One/ Episode 17, original airdate December 28, 1974). It ended Season One, which is my favorite season. Everybody asks me if we ever got home. Well, in that episode, we do. Kind of, anyway. It’s like an endless cycle sort of thing. We leave through the time doorway and our A new patriarch stepped in for Land of the Lost’s third and final season: Uncle Jack, played by Ron Harper, also known by RetroFans for his roles on TV’s Garrison’s Gorillas (1967–1968) and Planet of the Apes (1974). © Sid & Marty Krofft Productions. Photo courtesy of wesleyeure.com.

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doppelgangers come through. But I love Season One the most because we had some of the best writers. Things got thinner as the show went on. RF: Did you keep any props? WE: Yes. I still have my red backpack that I had in all three seasons. It’s signed by the Kroffts, David Gerrold, the cast, and some of the Sleestaks. I kept my knife, too.

RF: Any final thoughts or memories about Land of the Lost? WE: I have to tell you about the time we were filming this lagoon scene, and Spencer and I were topless. Spencer had the make-up people paint a Las Vegas slot machine on his chest. So, when he removed his shirt and everybody saw this, the cast and crew were laughing hysterically. Unfortunately, Marty Krofft suddenly appeared on set with some industry executives. They saw this insanity, and Marty was so angry. [laughs] But we had a lot of fun like that on the show. Wonderful memories. To learn more about Wesley Eure and Land of the Lost, visit his fun website at www.wesleyeure.com. This article is dedicated to the memories of Walker Edmiston, D. C. Fontana, Theodore Sturgeon, and Linda Laurie. R.I.P. ERNIE MAGNOTTA is a writer/ filmmaker from New York who has written many articles and reviews, and has done interviews for the magazines The Dark Side, Scream, Cinema Retro, and Infinity. He is best known for his “Big E’s ‘Bad’ Movies That Hurt So Good” reviews, in which he lovingly and humorously points out the worth of schlocky B-movies from the Fifties through the Eighties. His first book, Halloween: The Changing Shape of an Iconic Series, was released in October 2018 and has received glowing reviews.

WILL MURRAY’S 20TH CENTURY PANOPTICON

Who Created

? g o d r e Und

BY WILL MURRAY

In October 1964, I was 11 years old and a huge fan of Marvel Comics, having graduated from being a DC Comics reader just a few months before. In those days, super-heroes were hard to find outside of comic books. On TV, reruns of the Adventures of Superman TV show and occasional showings of the 1940s Max Fleischer Superman theatrical cartoons dominated. Batman creator Bob Kane’s Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse was in reruns. Mighty Mouse was a familiar face, but not a television original. That was it. But the Saturday morning network television block was undergoing renovations. New cartoons were being commissioned to satisfy growing

Baby Boomers, of which I was one. The networks had yet to discover the ratings potential of serious super-heroes, but they would soon tap that golden geyser. An early effort in that direction was Total TeleVision productions’ [those aren’t typos—it’s a capital “V” and lowercase “p”—ed.] Underdog, which debuted on Saturday, October 3, 1964. With its stirring theme song and clever writing, it became an instant hit, running for three years on two networks and jumping into syndication seemingly forever. While Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse [see RetroFan #19] were a gentle takeoff on Batman

(ABOVE) There’s no need to fear! From Shoeshine Boy to Underdog, in a 2000 limited edition print signed by Underdog cartoonist Joe Harris. © Classic Media, LLC. Courtesy of Heritage. (LEFT) The men behind Underdog: co-creators Buck Biggers and Chet Stover, from their Seventiesvintage TV Tinderbox letterhead, and cartoonist Joe Harris. Courtesy of Mark Arnold. RETROFAN

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Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

He was a political science major and I was an English (ABOVE) From Total TeleVision’s archives, a gaggle of Joe Harris major. I never read comic books. Actually, I wasn’t production drawings of the Underdog cast (with a couple of Go Go allowed to read comic books.” Gophers tossed in for good measure). (BELOW) Screen capture of They studied the few animated super-heroes that had Underdog giving ol’ Riff Raff the what-for. © Classic Media, LLC. Sketches come before, giving special attention to Mighty Mouse courtesy of Heritage. and Courageous Cat, analyzing their strengths and deficiencies. Brainstorming specific concepts was not a joint venture. Once the core “We saw it,” Biggers said, “and in it direction was agreed upon, they was this creature who spoke slowly separated, working individually and almost in poetry. And that was on a key question, namely: Who Wally Cox. The only other person would their new super-hero be? who we really thought about “We came back with was Don Knotts, who was tied everything from Super-sheep to up with The Andy Griffith Show, the Masked Raccoon,” Biggers and we felt also there was a recalled. “We had a lot of slight similarity in looks to Don animals. In the meantime, we Adams. So we didn’t want to go had decided that we wanted in that direction.” our super-hero to be the guy on Total TeleVision’s executive the beach that got sand kicked in producer, Treadwell Covington, his face. The 98-pound weakling. approached Wally Cox about We weren’t having too much luck the still-developing project. The marrying that idea to Super-sheep actor asked to see some scripts. or the Masked Raccoon.” Even though the spec scripts they had Previously, they had resolved that issue generated did not specify the name or any in a novel way. Modeling their character on an existing actor, the description of their nascent super-hero, they did the trick. duo then hired him to voice the part. This was how tuxedoed come“[Cox] loved it!” Biggers remembered. “He did it for kids. He dian Don Adams became a cartoon penguin named Tennessee didn’t have kids. But for kids that were around him. Other people’s kids. We were all excited Wally Cox was going to be the voice, and Tuxedo. the countenance. We wanted him to look like Wally Cox.” Coincidentally, a 1963 film called Spencer’s Mountain hit theaters. “We just knew that Wally Cox was right for it,” agreed Stover. This later led to the hit TV show, The Waltons. But at the time “The voice was beautiful,” noted Biggers. “In some meeting, Chet Biggers and Stover saw the movie, both men noticed one actor quoted poetry from the Statue of Liberty, and I got all excited by whose meek personality and mild voice suggested possibilities. 60

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Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

that. I thought that would be just great. So we decided to have him speak in poetry.”

…‘JUST LITTLE OLD ME—UNDERDOG’

With the former star of the television show Mr. Peepers on board to voice the yet-unrealized character, one last problem remained. For neither creator had yet finalized what species of cartoon creature they were bringing to animated life. “We were looking for an animal,” Biggers noted. “We had nothing at the end of a meeting. We were getting very tight on time. And that’s when one of us said, ‘We’re going to be the underdogs of this meeting.’ And that was it!” Decades later, neither man could clearly remember which of them first uttered the perfect name for the antithesis of Superman. “We’ve been asked that before,” Stover allowed. “We don’t know. I think I did it, but he thinks he did. We just don’t know.” “We were looking for topspin, a name with topspin,” added Biggers, evoking an old advertising term for instant brand recognition. Visualizing the imaginary Pup of Steel was the next hurdle. “Chet sometimes did preliminary drawings,” Biggers suggested tentatively. “Yes and no,” hedged Stover. “We created the characters. We thought we knew what they would look like. Joe Harris, who I brought into the group as an art director, did the storyboards. At that point, we were fairly far along. I talked to Joe on the phone and told him what we had in mind.” “We asked him to draw a character who looked like Wally Cox,” Biggers recalled. “He came back looking like Wally Cox.” “I can remember the initial drawings,” Stover added. “And I didn’t like any of them. But Buck and I were meeting. What we did was tape some of Joe’s drawings to the window in our motel room, and redid them. We traced over what he did and changed a lot of things. It was a company thing. We just did what we thought was right.” Underdog’s costume, like the character’s name, was a reversal of the Man of Steel’s classic colors. “It’s pretty much a rip-off of Superman’s costume,” admitted Biggers. “The U on his chest gives it away.” “We were taking off on Superman, with the cape and the whole thing,” added Stover. “By that time, Superman was an icon.” Using Wally Cox as a model, they conceived Underdog’s true self, a hound named Shoeshine Boy. Adding a love interest for Underdog was a TV reporter voiced by Norma MacMillan, who had been Casper the Friendly Ghost and Gumby. “I don’t know where Sweet Polly Purebread came from, except we had to have a foil for Underdog,” Stover said. “Buck at that point had a poodle named Sweet Petunia.” “Polly Purebread was a combination of Marilyn Monroe and Sweet Petunia,” Biggers explained. “We thought about calling her Sweet Petunia, but it didn’t sound strong enough. She’s a pretty strong woman. So we called her Polly. ‘Purebread’ obviously just came.” Continuing the canine theme, whenever Polly was menaced— and she was in virtually every episode—she would sing plaintively, “Oh where, oh where, has my Underdog gone?” mimicking the old nursery rhyme, “Where Has My Little Dog Gone?”

Underdog is here—on the toy shelves, at least! (BOTTOM) Original art for an Underdog puzzle. © Classic Media, LLC. Courtesy of Hake’s Auctions and Heritage Auctions.

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January 2023

TwoMorrows. The Future of Pop History.

Phone: 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com Web: www.twomorrows.com

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA

THE BEST OF SIMON & KIRBY’S

MAINLINE COMICS

by JOE SIMON & JACK KIRBY Introduction by JOHN MORROW

In 1954, industry legends JOE SIMON and JACK KIRBY founded MAINLINE PUBLICATIONS to publish their own comics during that turbulent era in comics history. The four titles—BULLSEYE, FOXHOLE, POLICE TRAP, and IN LOVE—looked to build off their reputation as hit makers in the Western, War, Crime, and Romance genres, but the 1950s backlash against comics killed any chance at success, and Mainline closed its doors just two years later. For the first time, TwoMorrows Publishing is compiling the best of Simon & Kirby’s Mainline comics work, including all of the stories with S&K art, as well as key tales with contributions by MORT MESKIN and others. After the company’s dissolution, their partnership ended with Simon leaving comics for advertising, and Kirby taking unused Mainline concepts to both DC and Marvel. This collection bridges the gap between Simon & Kirby’s peak with their 1950s romance comics, and the lows that led to Kirby’s resurgence with CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN and the early MARVEL UNIVERSE. With loving art restoration by CHRIS FAMA, and an historical overview by JOHN MORROW to put it all into perspective, the BEST OF SIMON & KIRBY’S MAINLINE COMICS presents some of the final, and finest, work Joe and Jack ever produced. SHIPS SUMMER 2023! (256-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $49.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-118-9

DESTROYER DUCK GRAPHITE EDITION

by JACK KIRBY & STEVE GERBER Introduction by MARK EVANIER

In the 1980s, writer STEVE GERBER was embroiled in a lawsuit against MARVEL COMICS over ownership of his creation HOWARD THE DUCK. To raise funds for legal fees, Gerber asked JACK KIRBY to contribute to a benefit comic titled DESTROYER DUCK. Without hesitation, Kirby (who was in his own dispute with Marvel at the time) donated his services for the first issue, and the duo took aim at their former employer in an outrageous five-issue run. With biting satire and guns blazing, Duke “Destroyer” Duck battled the thinly veiled Godcorp (whose infamous credo was “Grab it all! Own it all! Drain it all!”), its evil leader Ned Packer and the (literally) spineless Booster Cogburn, Medea (a parody of Daredevil’s Elektra), and more! Now, all five Gerber/Kirby issues are collected—but relettered and reproduced from JACK’S UNBRIDLED, UNINKED PENCIL ART! Also included are select examples of ALFREDO ALCALA’s unique inking style over Kirby on the original issues, Gerber’s script pages, an historical Introduction by MARK EVANIER (co-editor of the original 1980s issues), and an Afterword by BUZZ DIXON (who continued the series after Gerber)! Discover all the hidden jabs you missed when DESTROYER DUCK was first published, and experience page after page of Kirby’s raw pencil art! SHIPS SPRING 2023!

ALTER EGO COLLECTORS’ ITEM CLASSICS

(128-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $31.95 • (Digital Edition) $13.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-117-2

By overwhelming demand, editor ROY THOMAS has compiled all the material on the founders of the Marvel Bullpen from three SOLD-OUT ALTER EGO ISSUES—plus OVER 30 NEW PAGES OF CONTENT! There’s the STEVE DITKO ISSUE (#160 with a rare ’60s Ditko interview by RICHARD HOWELL, biographical notes by NICK CAPUTO, and Ditko tributes)! The STAN LEE ISSUE (#161 with ROY THOMAS on his 50+ year relationship with Stan, art by KIRBY, DITKO, MANEELY, EVERETT, SEVERIN, ROMITA, plus tributes from pros and fans)! And the JACK KIRBY ISSUE (#170 with WILL MURRAY on Kirby’s contributions to Iron Man’s creation, Jack’s Captain Marvel/Mr. Scarlet Fawcett work, Kirby in 1960s fanzines, plus STAN LEE and ROY THOMAS on Jack)! Whether you missed these issues, or can’t live without the extensive NEW MATERIAL on DITKO, LEE, and KIRBY, it’s sure to be an AMAZING, ASTONISHING, FANTASTIC tribute to the main men who made Marvel! SHIPS SPRING 2023! (256-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $35.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-116-5

CLIFFHANGER!

CINEMATIC SUPERHEROES OF THE SERIALS: 1941–1952 by CHRISTOPHER IRVING

Hold on tight as historian CHRISTOPHER IRVING explores the origins of the first on-screen superheroes and the comic creators and film-makers who brought them to life. CLIFFHANGER! touches on the early days of the film serial, to its explosion as a juvenile medium of the 1930s and ‘40s. See how the creation of characters like SUPERMAN, CAPTAIN AMERICA, SPY SMASHER, and CAPTAIN MARVEL dovetailed with the early film adaptations. Along the way, you’ll meet the stuntmen, directors (SPENCER BENNETT, WILLIAM WITNEY, producer SAM KATZMAN), comic book creators (SIEGEL & SHUSTER, SIMON & KIRBY, BOB KANE, C.C. BECK, FRANK FRAZETTA, WILL EISNER), and actors (BUSTER CRABBE, GEORGE REEVES, LORNA GRAY, KANE RICHMOND, KIRK ALYN, DAVE O’BRIEN) who brought them to the silver screen—and how that resonates with today’s cinematic superhero universe. SHIPS SUMMER 2023! (160-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-119-6

RETRO ANIMATION

The Animagic of Rankin/Bass’

BY RICK GOLDSCHMIDT In 1968, Rankin/Bass Productions’ landmark TV special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer [see RetroFan #12—ed.] was appearing on NBC’s The General Electric Fantasy Hour for the fifth time! Rudolph’s unusually high annual ratings had given producers Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass some clout at the NBC television network. In 1966, on Thanksgiving Day, Rankin/ Bass followed up their original hit with The Ballad of Smokey the Bear, which, like Rudolph, was filmed in their trademark “Animagic” stop motion. Smokey, too, appeared on the NBC General Electric Fantasy Hour. During 1965–1968, Rankin/Bass Productions released five feature films! Three were in Animagic: Willy McBean and His Magic Machine (1965), The Daydreamer (1966), and Mad Monster Party? (1967) [see RetroFan #17]; while The Wacky World of Mother Goose (1966) was filmed in cel animation, and King Kong Escapes (1968) in live-action. This was the busiest Rankin/Bass had ever been! They were also developing, for ventriloquist Edgar Bergen, a pilot called The Charlie McCarthy Show (which would not see the light of day) and off-Broadway musicals A Month of Sundays (1968) and Huck (which would ultimately be handled by another production team). Jules Bass and music composer Maury Laws were even on the set of Jerry Lewis’ 1967 film comedy, The

(LEFT) Miscellaneous scenes from Rankin/Bass Productions’ Animagic classic The Little Drummer Boy, first seen on NBC-TV in 1968. The title’s illustration of Aaron, the drummer boy, is by MAD cartoonist Paul Coker, Jr., who passed away on July 23, 2022. Unless otherwise noted, all images accompanying this article are courtesy of Rick Goldschmidt. © 2012 Miser Bros Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives.

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retro Animation

Big Mouth, discussing and working on preliminary elements of Hey, Bellhop!, a proposed Animagic version of the comedian’s Bellhop movie character. (Shortly after my book The Making of the Rankin/ Bass Holiday Classic: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer pictured the Jerry Lewis figure made for this unproduced project, Lewis wanted to resurrect Hey, Bellhop! I connected Jerry with Arthur Rankin, but nothing came of it.) In 1967, Rankin/Bass produced another NBC special, based on Charles Dickens’ Cricket on the Hearth, in cel animation, at Toei studios, which aired as part of The Danny Thomas Show. Thomas hosted it in live-action, and it also starred his daughter Marlo Thomas, as the voice of Bertha. This led to another cel-animated production, Thanksgiving 1968’s The Mouse on the Mayflower, starring Tennessee Ernie Ford (Rankin/Bass originally planned for Bing Crosby to narrate the special, but the deal fell through). This special would not be sponsored by General Electric, but instead by Your Gas Company (a.k.a. American Gas Association).

THE BEAT GOES ON

“After we made the deal with our sponsors, [Your] Gas Company, I had another meeting with the NBC executives in early 1968,” said producer Arthur Rankin, Jr., who died in 2014. “This was on a Friday, and I told them we had another Christmas special, which could be filmed in Animagic like Rudolph, based on The Little Drummer Boy, which of course was another big Christmas song. “At the time, I actually had nothing,” Rankin confessed. “I needed to keep our Animagic studio in Japan, MOM, working, so I had hoped to rush another Christmas special into production. They said, ‘Get us a script by Monday, and maybe we could fit it into our holiday schedule.’ I went back to the office with my secretary and rang up our writer, Romeo Muller, in High Falls, New York!” According to Romeo Muller’s brother, Gene Muller, “I remember this very clearly. Romeo got a phone call from Arthur Rankin, and I was there. He needed a story about The Little Drummer Boy right away. Romeo actually came up with the story over the phone conversation and dictated it to Arthur’s secretary. This is how fast it all came together, and I was amazed at the talent of my brother!” “I went back with the script on Monday,” said Rankin. “We got the green light, so instead of having just one TV special on NBC sponsored by [Your] Gas Company, we had two. It was essential that I keep our studios in Japan working, and now we were working with several. Toei worked with us on the Saturday morning TV series in 1966, the King Kong [animated cartoon] show, so we did Cricket and Mouse with them; but eventually we would work with Mushi Studios, too, on Frosty [the Snowman, which we’ll cover in next year’s Christmas edition of RetroFan—ed.], etc. Since the stopmotion Animagic became our trademark, we had to keep MOM going, and Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town would follow Drummer Boy in short order.” The quality of these productions during this period is amazing. Even though The Little Drummer Boy was rushed, it is one of Rankin/ Bass’ finest moments, and should have been nominated for and received an Emmy! Actually, its 1976 sequel, The Little Drummer Boy, Book II, is the only Rankin/Bass production to be nominated for an Emmy. (More on the sequel later.) The production designer of the Little Drummer Boy special is listed as Charles Frazier, not Rankin/Bass regulars Paul Coker, Jr. or Jack Davis. Strangely enough, no one seems to know anything about Charles, and this is his only credit as a designer. I am 70

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This early promo for the 1968 Thanksgiving special The Mouse on the Mayflower—featuring art by Jack Davis— reveals Rankin/Bass’ original choice for the special’s narration and songs. Instead, Tennessee Ernie Ford provided those roles. © 2012 Miser Bros Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives. wondering if this was a made-up name for this production. (Jules Bass used the phony name Julian P. Gardner as writer for many of the productions. According to Maury Laws, the P stood for “Phony.” Gardner is the first name of Arthur’s second son.) By this time, Tad Mochinaga, the father of stop motion in Japan and the person in charge of that country’s MOM studios, was handing over the reins to animator Hiroshi Tabata (seen in the production photos pictured here). Hiroshi felt that The Little Drummer Boy’s Animagic didn’t live up to Tad’s animation in Rudolph

retro Animation

the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but it certainly was consistent and still excellent. Like all other Rankin/Bass specials, the music of Maury Laws and Jules Bass played a big role in The Little Drummer Boy. I had earlier thought the special’s song “One Star in the Night” was an old traditional classic, so I asked Maury about this. “That song actually came from a melody that Jules came up with on the piano a few years earlier,” Laws told me. “When we were working on this special, I said to Jules, ‘What about that song you used to play?,’ and it developed from that. We got the Vienna Boys choir to sing it, and they didn’t speak English, so everything they sang was sung phonetically.” The sheet music for “One Star in the Night” was never published. Maury Laws allowed me to publish his original sheet music for it and a few other classic Laws/Bass songs in the 20th anniversary update to my Miser Bros Press book The Enchanted World of Rankin/Bass: A Portfolio.

Narrating The Little Drummer Boy was the noted actress Greer Garson, whose long string of movie classics included Mrs. Miniver (1942), Julius Caesar (1953), and The Happiest Millionaire (1967). Autographed photograph courtesy of Heritage.

WISE MEN AND WOMEN

For The Little Drummer Boy, Rankin/Bass secured the distinguished box office star, actress Greer Garson, to be the narrator, giving the production an element of class. She has a beautiful speaking voice, although some of her dialogue has been lost in recent releases. Veteran animation voice actor Paul Frees, who played Aaron’s father and the three kings in the special, provided a scratch track [an unpolished play-through] for Greer. There is a line toward the end of the special where Paul’s voice is heard during the narration instead of Greer’s. Joining Greer Garson and Paul Frees in the cast was my close friend June Foray Donovan, who provided the voice for the mother of Aaron, the drummer boy. “Working for Rankin/Bass

Will the real Aaron please stand up? Child actor Ted “Teddy” Eccles (LEFT) provided the drummer boy’s speaking voice, but Dick Beals (ABOVE) did the character’s singing.

was wonderful,” said Foray. “I provided voice work, with Paul, for both The Mouse on the Mayflower and The Little Drummer Boy in 1968, and then we both worked on Frosty the Snowman in 1969. It was a great treat!” For the voice of drummer boy Aaron, Rankin/Bass Productions hired the busy child actor, Ted “Teddy” Eccles. Ted made his debut

(OPPOSITE PAGE AND LEFT) The making of The Little Drummer Boy: Hiroshi Tabata masterfully prepares figures and scenes for shooting, from Japan’s MOM studio in 1968. (RIGHT) Promotional art featuring the animated characters in action. © 2012 Miser Bros Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives. RETROFAN

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RetroFan #24