Issuu

Are you too square to solve me?

Fall 2019 No. 6 $8.95

THE RUBIK’S CUBE CRAZE

Tune in to

The MUNSTERS’ BUTCH

SVENGOOLIE and the retro line-up of MeTV

PATRICK…

& HORRIFIC HOTRODS

Who ya gonna call? The ORIGINAL

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GHOST BUSTERS s? e Nauga h t r e b m Reme vered ot ’em co g e v ’ e W

“I Was a Teenage James Bond!” • The Dobie Gillis Dilemma • Pinball Wizardry & more! Featuring Ernest Farino • Andy Mangels • Will Murray • Scott Saavedra • Scott Shaw! Svengoolie © Weigel Broadcasting Co. Ghost Busters © Filmation. Naugas © Uniroyal Engineered Products, LLC.

It’s GROOVY, baby! Follow-up to Mark Voger’s smash hit MONSTER MASH! All characters TM & © their respective owners.

From WOODSTOCK to THE BANANA SPLITS, from SGT. PEPPER to H.R. PUFNSTUF, from ALTAMONT to THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY, GROOVY is a far-out trip to the era of lava lamps and love beads. This profusely illustrated HARDCOVER BOOK, in PSYCHEDELIC COLOR, features interviews with icons of grooviness such as PETER MAX, BRIAN WILSON, PETER FONDA, MELANIE, DAVID CASSIDY, members of the JEFFERSON AIRPLANE, CREAM, THE DOORS, THE COWSILLS and VANILLA FUDGE; and cast members of groovy TV shows like THE MONKEES, LAUGH-IN and THE BRADY BUNCH. GROOVY revisits the era’s ROCK FESTIVALS, MOVIES, ART—even COMICS and CARTOONS, from the 1968 ‘mod’ WONDER WOMAN to R. CRUMB. A color-saturated pop-culture history written and designed by MARK VOGER (author of the acclaimed book MONSTER MASH), GROOVY is one trip that doesn’t require dangerous chemicals! (192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • Digital Edition: $13.95 • ISBN: 9781605490809 Diamond Comic Distributors Order Code: JUL172227

LOU SCHEIMER

CREATING THE FILMATION GENERATION Hailed as one of the fathers of Saturday morning television, LOU SCHEIMER was the co-founder of FILMATION STUDIOS, which for over 25 years provided animated excitement for TV and film. Always at the forefront, Scheimer’s company created the first DC cartoons with SUPERMAN, BATMAN, and AQUAMAN, ruled the song charts with THE ARCHIES, kept Trekkie hope alive with the Emmy-winning STAR TREK: THE ANIMATED SERIES, taught morals with FAT ALBERT AND THE COSBY KIDS, and swung into high adventure with TARZAN, THE LONE RANGER, ZORRO, HE-MAN, MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, live-action shows SHAZAM!, THE SECRETS OF ISIS, JASON OF STAR COMMAND and others. Now, LOU SCHEIMER tells the entire story to best-selling author (and RETROFAN columnist) ANDY MANGELS, including how his father decked ADOLF HITLER, memories of the comics of the Golden Age, schooling with ANDY WARHOL, and what it meant to lead the last all-American animation company through nearly thirty years of innovation and fun! Profusely illustrated with PHOTOS, MODEL SHEETS, STORYBOARDS, PRESENTATION ART, looks at RARE AND UNPRODUCED SERIES, and more—plus stories from TOP ANIMATION INSIDERS about Scheimer and the story behind Filmation’s stories!

By RetroFan’s ANDY MANGELS!

(288-page trade paperback with COLOR) $29.95 • (Digital Edition) $14.95 • ISBN: 9781605490441 Diamond Comic Distributors Order Code: JUL121245

HERO-A-GO-GO!

All characters TM & © their respective owners.

Welcome to the CAMP AGE, when spies liked their wars cold and their women warm, good guys beat bad guys with a pun and a punch, and Batman shook a mean cape. HERO-A-GO-GO celebrates the camp craze of the Swinging Sixties, when just about everyone—the teens of Riverdale, an ant and a squirrel, even the President of the United States—was a super-hero or a secret agent. BACK ISSUE magazine and former DC Comics editor MICHAEL EURY takes you through that coolest cultural phenomenon with this all-new collection of nostalgic essays, histories, and theme song lyrics of classic 1960s characters like CAPTAIN ACTION, HERBIE THE FAT FURY, CAPTAIN NICE, ATOM ANT, SCOOTER, ACG’s NEMESIS, DELL’S SUPER-FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA, the “Split!” CAPTAIN MARVEL, and others! Featuring interviews with BILL MUMY (Lost in Space), BOB HOLIDAY (It’s a Bird … It’s a Plane … It’s Superman), RALPH BAKSHI (The Mighty Heroes, Spider-Man), DEAN TORRENCE (Jan and Dean Meet Batman), RAMONA FRADON (Metamorpho), DICK DeBARTOLO (Captain Klutz), TONY TALLARICO (The Great Society Comic Book), VINCE GARGIULO (Palisades Park historian), JOE SINNOTT (The Beatles comic book), JOSE DELBO (The Monkees comic book), & more! (272-page FULL-COLOR TRADE PAPERBACK) $36.95 • (Digital Edition) $13.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-073-1 Diamond Comic Distributors Order Code: JAN172100

TwoMorrows. The Future of Pop History.

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

By M EURY ICHAEL , edito r of

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

The crazy cool culture we

grew up with

CONTENTS Issue #6 | Fall 2019

Columns and Special Features

Departments

Retro Television Saturday Nights with Svengoolie

Retrotorial

RetroFad Rubik’s Cube

Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Mornings The Original Ghost Busters

Retro Trivia Goldfinger

Oddball World of Scott Shaw! The Naugas

Too Much TV Quiz

Ernest Farino’s Retro Fantasmagoria I Was a Teenage James Bond

Retro Toys Kenner’s Alien

Celebrity Crushes

Scott Saavedra’s Secret Sanctum Three Letters to Three Famous People

Retro Travel Pinball Hall of Fame – Las Vegas, Nevada

Retro Interview Growing Up Munster: Butch Patrick

RetroFanmail

ReJECTED RetroFan fantasy cover by Scott Saavedra

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon The Dobie Gillis Dilemma

75 11 RetroFan™ #6, Fall 2019. Published quarterly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 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. Four-issue subscriptions: $41 Economy US, $65 International, $16 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Svengoolie © Weigel Broadcasting Co. Ghost Busters © Filmation. Naugas © Uniroyal Engineered Products, LLC. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2019 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING. ISSN 2576-7224

by Michael Eury

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow CONTRIBUTORS Tammy Brown Michael Eury Ernest Farino Richard J. Fowlks Dan Johnson Andy Mangels Will Murray Scott Saavedra Scott Shaw! Rob Smentek DESIGNER Scott Saavedra PROOFREADER Rob Smentek SPECIAL THANKS Tim Arnold Bob Burns Michael Chaudhuri Fayetteville ComiCon Brian Flynn Heritage Comics Auctions MeTV Leila Murray Martin Pasko Pinball Hall of Fame Jim Roche Jim Schelberg Larry Strothe Jim Swearingen Uniroyal Engineered Products, LLC Renee Witterstaetter Philip Wlodarczyk VERY SPECIAL THANKS Rich Koz Butch Patrick

Don’t STEAL our Digital Editions! C’mon citizen, DO THE RIGHT THING! A Mom & Pop publisher like us needs every sale just to survive! DON’T DOWNLOAD OR READ ILLEGAL COPIES ONLINE! Buy affordable, legal downloads only at

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RetroFan

Fall 2019

Operation Kid Brother. How can I have existed for six decades without encountering this movie until now?! As you’ll read this issue in Ernest Farino’s Retro Fantasmagoria, Operation Kid Brother is an obscure Sixties’ spy spoof starring Sean Connery’s brother, Neil, accompanied by 007 film veterans. Yet I’d never heard of it until Ernie’s trivia-drenched article, “I Was a Teenage James Bond.” Then there are the Naugas, those cute, cuddly, slightly creepy hug-a-beasts made of Naugahyde®. I had a vague recollection of magazine ads featuring the Naugas, but thanks to this issue’s Oddball World of Scott Shaw!, I was able to learn more about them. It just goes to show you, that old adage is right: You learn something every day. Or, you do when you pick up a new RetroFan. Not that my newfound discoveries of a Bond brother or little leather-like lovables will earn me a contestant’s spot on Jeopardy, but I can beam with pride that, as I’m inching toward an age when I could be pondering, “Where are my keys?” or “Do I take this pill in the morning or afternoon?”, I. Can. Still. Learn. And you can too! Discoveries are one of the things I love about editing (and researching and writing) RetroFan articles. I’m always amazed by what our talented columnists and guest contributors dig up. Really, could anyone other than our own Retro Saturday Morning columnist Andy Mangels have unearthed, as he reported back in issue #4, that TV’s Batman, the great Adam West, was the uncredited (and presumably voicemodulated) announcer of the live-action Shazam! TV series of the Seventies? There’s always something to learn from our columnists, and we’re lucky to have Ernie, Scott, and Andy, plus Marty Pasko, Scott Saavedra, and Will Murray, the brightest batch of know-it-alls to ever grace a pop-culture magazine. Our guest contributors always bring something new to the table as well. This issue, Dan Johnson— who pried open the tomb of TV horror hosts back in #2—chats with TV’s kookiest cryptkeeper, Svengoolie, and Eddie Munster himself, Butch Patrick. Rob Smentek is a name familiar to those of you who read our masthead as he’s RetroFan’s proofreader, mopping up the mistakes ye ed misses. This issue Rob reveals his writing chops with his chest-bursting Retro Toys article about one of the oddest What were they thinking?! merchandising moves of the late Seventies, products marketed to kids based upon an R-rated movie they were too young to see, Alien. Rich Fowlks, known as the designer of the other magazine I edit for TwoMorrows, Back Issue, proves he’s a decent reporter with his Retro Travel trip to the Las Vegas Pinball Hall of Fame. (Rich is a devoted hubby and daddy, so the only thing during his visit that happened in Vegas that stayed in Vegas was the bucket of quarters he dumped into pinball machines.) And Tammy Brown, who has worked for several of the country’s biggest entertainment companies, shares a Celebrity Crushes revelation of her youthful fixation on several celebs, including a certain singer with the grooviest hair on Seventies TV (sorry, Farrah)! Two features planned for this issue unfortunately did not materialize. Martin Pasko’s “My Life in the Twilight Zone” has been rescheduled to next issue. David Mandel, showrunner of HBO’s Emmy-winning comedy Veep, was slated to share his comic art collection in our Super Collector feature, but at presstime was “deep in Veep.” David and I have agreed that he will produce that column when he has a chance and I’ll schedule it accordingly… but if you’re jonesing for a Super Collector feature, wait’ll you see Jack Condon’s Guinness World Records’ largest Charlie’s Angels collection in issue #7. Joining our columnists and guest writers this issue are a couple of fun features from yours truly, making RetroFan #6 another groovy grab bag of the crazy, cool culture we grew up with.

RETRO TELEVISION

Saturday Nights with

by Dan Johnson In 2010, MeTV launched nationwide. The over-the-air digital channel, billed as “Memorable Entertainment Television,” has become the destination for fans of classic TV shows, offering reruns of such beloved series as Bonanza, The Andy Griffith Show, Wonder Woman, and The Twilight Zone, to name just a few. MeTV is the must-see-TV channel for many readers of RetroFan. Shortly after the network launched, MeTV began airing a program that brought back one of the great staples of classic television: the horror host. [Editor’s note: See RetroFan #2 for the behind-the-scenes story of TV’s horror hosts.] Every Saturday night, MeTV presents Svengoolie, who under the make-up and costuming is actually Rich Koz, a veteran of Chicago television and a legend in the Windy City. MeTV took him national and has made Svengoolie America’s Horror Host. Svengoolie screens classic horror movies that many of us grew up with like Creature From the Black Lagoon and The Invisible Man, with the host introducing these films to a whole new generation of fans. But frightening his viewers is not the primary goal of Svengoolie. Between movie segments, Svengoolie entertains his audience with comedy bits including song parodies that would give Weird Al Yankovic a run for his money. As for the jokes and puns, they fly almost as fast as the set’s rubber chickens do. Svengoolie is also great about interviewing horror and comedy legends on his show. While most interviews are conducted at horror conventions, a good many take place right in the studio. Indeed, you never know who might pop up on Svengoolie. It could be Gilbert Gottfried, Trace Beaulieu and Frank

Conniff from Mystery Science Theater 3000, or even Vicki Lawrence as Thelma Harper from Mama’s Family. Recently, RetroFan got to sit down with Svengoolie for this exclusive interview. RetroFan: First of all, thank you for doing this interview with us. I consider it a high honor to have you in RetroFan. I used to work with Scary Monsters magazine, and its Dennis Druktenis introduced me to you back in 1996. He sent me a couple of your shows on video and I was hooked from that moment on. This was when you were starting out on U 26 (WCIU in Chicago), and looking back at the commercials for the classic sitcoms that ran on the channel (The Munsters and Gilligan’s Island), U 26 appeared to be a prototype for MeTV. Svengoolie: Yes, actually, it was. That is definitely so. When my boss, Neal Sabin, took over WCIU for the owners, he wanted to make it the kind of retro, independent station that we all grew up with. And that station was the first basis for what MeTV would become. RF: The channel looked great, and I remember wishing I had a station like this in my viewing area. Even though I couldn’t watch it, I still fell in love with U 26. Svengoolie: That’s very cool. I think that is exactly why MeTV has been so successful. A lot of people feel that way. RF: The shows on MeTV are comfort food for your mind. You can have a tough day at work or school, but then this channel just takes you back to a simpler time. If just for a little bit, you get to escape reality. RetroFan

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RETRO television

Svengoolie: Definitely so. Of course, MeTV stands for Memorable Entertainment. One of the things I think about our show is that I think almost everybody grew up some sort of horror host, and it’s kind of a kick to see that type of show being done again since most local horror hosts have fallen by the wayside. Today, most local stations devote most of their airtime to news, sports events, and public af fairs, and they don’t really do my type of entertainment show. [The horror host show] was one of the things Neal wanted to bring back when he started WCIU. I was his first talent acquisition, I believe. He asked me to do the Svengoolie character again. I told him, very honestly, that in whatever time I had been of f the air, a week would not go by that somebody didn’t recognize me and tell me, “You know, I really loved that show, are you ever going to do it again?” The show meant so much to people, and I would say, “Sure! I would be happy to do it.”

(TOP) Jerry G. Bishop, the original Svengoolie. (CENTER) Rich Koz as Son of Svengoolie, 1980. (BOTTOM) Koz in a 1995 WCUI-TV promotion.

RF: Our local host that I grew up on was Billy Bobb, a redneck who hosted horror films on Saturday afternoons and also did a kids cartoon show on weekday afternoons on WGGT 48 in Greensboro, North Carolina. Besides Billy Bobb’s show, WGGT 48 also showed the old Universal Studios horror movies on Saturday mornings, and that was where I discovered the classic films like Tarantula and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. One of the things I love about your show is that you bring the old Universal horror movies back to the air. Svengoolie: When we started airing the Universal horror movies again, a lot of the markets that we go into had not had them on broadcast TV for at 15 or 20 years. So in a way, we are re-educating a lot of people about these movies and presenting them for the for the first time to some other viewers. RF: I know of parents and grandparents who watch your show with their kids. They know the old Universal horror movies will thrill the kids a bit, and give them a fright, but they won’t traumatize them. Plus, having you as the host, you are a nice buffer for the scary stuff. You let them laugh a little before going back to the scary stuff.

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Svengoolie: It’s kind of like a safety valve, having the comedy relief to offset things that might be a little upsetting. And granted, there are movies, like the Universal horror movies certainly, that are a lot milder than what currently passes for horror movies today. They are a nice introduction for younger viewers who may have never seen a horror movie before. RF: I think one of the best movies to show younger viewers is Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, and I can tell you are always having fun when you show that movie. Svengoolie: Oh, definitely. Also good are the origin movies, like Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, and Dracula. They are just great movies that I really enjoy, but they offer a lot in the ways that we can have fun with them. RF: As a horror host, are the Universal horror movies your favorite movies, or are there any other movies you like better? Svengoolie: With Universal, the great thing about them is that they cover so many different decades. Even into the Fifties they were giving us Creature From the Black Lagoon, which I think is one of the classic monsters. In the Forties, there was such a wide variety of monsters. I also love American International’s stuff, that’s always fun. A lot of the modern stuff I like are the really original films, like Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween. Those are really impressive films and I like those as well. RF: There are some fans out there that may not be aware that your legacy as a horror host extends well before MeTV. You’ve been at this for four decades now, correct? Svengoolie: Actually, this year in June marked 40 years since I first put the makeup on and started doing the show on TV. There were years when I was not on TV with a regular show, but I was still doing appearances and people would have me come on TV shows and radio shows as the character. Originally, Jerry G. Bishop was the original Svengoolie. In 1970, he happened to be the staf f announcer who was on duty at the WFLD station on Friday nights when they were running horror movies. He started goofing around during his announcements for them, doing, as he put it, a Transylvanian Yiddish accent,

RETRO television

and created the Svengoolie character. Originally he just did voiceovers, then it went to voiceovers over still pictures of him, and then it became a full-fledged live show. I revered him and was a fan of his. Jerry did radio here [in Chicago] and I loved his sense of humor, which was very similar to mine. He would read jokes that people sent him, so I started sending in jokes. He found out I was a broadcasting student and he liked the stuf f I was sending him. Eventually, he started to ask me to write stuf f for him, like a parody of a specific song or a current commercial that was on TV, and that led to me working with him on his Svengoolie show, writing and doing voiceover work, a whole variety of things. RF: How was the Svengoolie torch passed from Jerry to you? Svengoolie: After Jerry was off the air, there was one summer where someone at one of the local stations asked him, “Have you ever thought about doing Svengoolie just as a summertime replacement show and just do it for fun?” Jerry didn’t feel like he wanted to put all the make-up back on, so he came to me and said, “You know, you could do this. You could be the Son of Svengoolie. You can write it and I’ll produce it and that would be a good idea.” I was all for it, and we had some callbacks on it, but it never really happened. Later on, when Jerry was getting ready to leave the Illinois area to go to San Diego,

because he had a big job waiting for him there, he asked me what I wanted to do. I was just freelancing then and I thought I would try pitching a show to one of the local stations. He told me, “If you want to try and do the Son of Svengoolie thing, I give you my blessing.” So, I shopped the idea around and brought it to WFLD, the station Jerry had done Svengoolie for, and there was interest, but they said, “We want to do this kind of show, but let’s let anyone who wants to audition!” I had just brought them a full concept and script and everything, but they were like, “Yes, but we want a bake-off!” The rest is history, though, and I did get the job and I began my career as the Son of Svengoolie in 1979.

(LEFT) You never know who’ll drop by Svengoolie’s show—like rock ’n’ roll songman Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon, of “Palisades Park” fame. (RIGHT) Svengoolie’s duet with Freddy earned the horror host a contract— luckily, the hit man never showed up. (BELOW) Legendary wrestler Mick Foley gets comfortable.

RF: I love your sense of humor. It’s clean and loaded with puns and corny jokes and that appeal to me. It can also be very off the wall at times. Did you ever run into any problems at your original station regarding content? Svengoolie: For my part, no, but there were people at the station who didn’t understand it. They also didn’t understand why the show became so popular. They just saw the show as some filler type thing on Saturdays. When we did some of our very first promos, I did take-offs on other shows, like The Six Million Dollar Man and The Brady Bunch, which were running at the same time on WFLD. The woman who was in charge of promotions kept looking at them RetroFan

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RETRO FAD

Rubik’s Cube

by Michael Eury The Rubik’s Cube was created to make me feel stupid. Well, I doubt that was the intention of Hungarian architecture professor Ernõ Rubik when he sculpted his first “Magic Cube” in 1974 as a tool to teach algebraic group theory at the Budapest Academy of Applied Arts. But after Dr. Rubik licensed his three-dimensional puzzle to Ideal Toys in 1980 and it became a worldwide sensation, I just couldn’t get the hang of his rechristened “Rubik’s Cube,” that plastic block of brightly hued, pivoting rows of squares where the solution is the alignment of its like colors on each of its sides. In the early Eighties, I was a recent college graduate, dripping with hubris and ambition—nothing was going to hold me back now, I was gonna make my dreams come true, doing it my way. Then the Rubik’s Cube shattered my confidence, and I wanted to shatter it with a well-aimed mallet swing. I couldn’t, because this cube wasn’t mine… it belonged to my younger brother. Fiddle and shift and turn the cube as I might, the only skill I honed from it was my recitation of four-letter words. There’s a four-letter word that’s at the heart of the Rubik’s Cube, and the explanation for my inability to conquer it: m-a-t-h. There are Math people, and there are Word people. I’m the latter. Luckily, Wheel of Fortune was around to help me lick my wounds from the accursed cube—I can glance at a word puzzle and quickly “see” its possibilities, sometimes without having to buy a vowel. Not so with math. If your life depends upon my solving a Suduko puzzle, I hope your Last Will and Testament is in order. There are not enough Math people in the world to make a “toy” an international sensation, so I obviously wasn’t the only Word person fumbling with a Rubik’s Cube during its heyday. The New York Times reported that 25% of Ideal Toys’ sales of $216.8 million in 1981 was attributed to the Rubik’s Cube, not a bad haul for a novelty that retailed for five bucks or so. The sure sign of a successful product is a tsunami of profiteers, and by those standards, the Rubik’s Cube was a smash: knockoffs crowded the shelves, how-to books like The Simple Solution to Rubik’s Cube became bestsellers, and supplemental products like the unfortunately named “Cube Lube” lubricant were rushed onto the market. Saturday morning television added RubySpears Productions’ Rubik, the Amazing Cube to its line-up, a 10

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largely forgotten toon about a sentient, superpowered cube named Rubik (voiced by Welcome Back, Kotter’s own Arnold Horshack, actor Ron Palillo) that solved mysteries with a group of kids. In just a few short years, however, the Rubik’s Cube fad had peaked, and most of the millions of Rubik’s Cubes sold joined other former favorites like lava lamps and pet rocks as household dust collectors. Yet this was not the end of the Rubik’s Cube. While its sales had dropped precipitously by the midEighties, those aforementioned Math people helped make the Rubik’s Cube a perennial item, one touted by brainiacs as an intelligence gauge. Speedcubing quickly evolved as a “sport” among cube aficionados, with Math people plying their algorithms to out-solve their opponents. These competitions, which occur across the globe and have gained popularity during the 21st Century, include events where contestants race to solve the Rubik’s Cube while blindfolded. Or with one hand. Or with their feet! Rubik’s Cubes have been featured in numerous TV shows and movies, and have inspired sculptures in major metropolitan areas. You can watch YouTube videos of Math people wrestling with refrigerator-sized Rubik’s Cubes. While the fad has long faded, the Rubik’s Cube’s main contribution to our culture was its liberation of the slide-ruletoting, pocket-protected Math people who were once shoved into school lockers by jocks. Now they are the ones twisting and turning society with their creation of the hardware and software that define us and the codes and algorithms that run them. The ultimate revenge of the nerds.

(TOP) Rubik’s cube. © Rubik’s Brand Ltd. (LEFT) Rubik’s Cube creator Ernõ Rubik in 2014. Photo by Babak Mansouri/Wikimedia Commons. (RIGHT) Title card cel to the animated Rubik, the Amazing Cube. © Ruby-Spears Productions. Courtesy of Heritage.

ANDY MANGELS’ RETRO SATURDAY MORNING Ghost Busters stars Forrest Tucker, Larry Storch, and Bob Burns, and the show logo. © Filmation.

by Andy Mangels Welcome back to Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning. Since 1989, I have been writing columns for magazines in the U.S. and foreign countries, all examining the intersection of comic books and Hollywood, whether animation or live-action. Andy Mangels Backstage, Andy Mangels’ Reel Marvel, Andy Mangels’ Hollywood Heroes, Andy Mangels Behind the Camera… three decades of reporting on animation and live-action—in addition to writing many books and producing around 40 DVD sets—and I’m still enthusiastic. In this new RetroFan column, I will examine shows that thrilled us from yesteryear, exciting our imaginations and

capturing our memories. Grab some milk and cereal, sit crosslegged leaning against the couch, and dig in to Retro Saturday Morning! It’s 1975, and ghosts, werewolves, and mummies are creeping you out at the castle inexplicably placed on the southern California hill. In other words, there’s something strange in your neighborhood… Who you gonna call? The Ghost Busters, that’s who. But not Venkman, Stantz, Spengler, and Zeddemore, who wouldn’t strap on their proton packs for another eight years. RetroFan

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Mickey Rooney show, and occasionally got other jobs in his suit. Feeling the Kogar mask was too angry looking, Burns asked future make-up star Rick Baker to sculpt him a new, friendlier head, which was completed in 1974, just before fate was about to drop a banana in Burns’ paws. “I worked in the film department there at CBS,” says Burns, “and a gal that was one of the assistant directors there was at a meeting one night, a production type school thing, and Lou Scheimer was one of the guest speakers. And during a break, he was sitting there saying, ‘Oh, man, this is the worst day I’ve ever had in my life.’ She said, ‘What’s wrong?’ He said, ‘We’ve got this show to do, it’s called The Ghost Busters, about three detectives, one is Forrest Tucker, and Larry Storch, and other is a gorilla! But we gone through all the gorilla people, we’ve seen the suits, they’re terrible, and we may even have to cancel the show if we can’t find a gorilla.’ She said, ‘Well, wait a minute, I work with a guy at CBS, he has his own gorilla suit, and he works and does stuff all the time.’ And Lou says, ‘Well, why haven’t I heard of him?’ She says, ‘Well, he doesn’t really go out looking for jobs, they just kind of come to him.’ And he says, ‘Any way you can get hold of him first thing in the morning? I mean, we’re desperate now.’” The next morning, at the behest of the girl, Burns asked his wife to take a long lunch hour to help him. “She’s the gorilla wrangler, of course. So anyway, she puts me in the suit, we go 14

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Tracy and his “trainer,” Bob Burns, the man inside the very hot gorilla suit. © Filmation.

into Lou’s office. Norman Abbott, the director was there, Marc Richards, who wrote the script, they’re all there. I go walking in, and I could see they liked the look of the suit when I walked in. Marc says, ‘All right, let me tell you, Tracy the Gorilla, he can’t talk, he can grunt and snort, he can draw, he can do pantomime, he just can’t talk. That’s all he can do. So, what would you do if you were Tracy the Gorilla?’ So I looked for a moment, thinking, ‘hmm… what am I going to do here? I’ve never had to audition for a thing like this.’ So there was a chair there, I sat down in the chair, and I crossed my legs, mainly the way I sit anyways, and there was

RETRO FAD

(LEFT) Director Norman Abbott (SEATED, CENTER) and the Ghost Busters cast. (TOP) Abbott directs Storch and Burns on the GB set. (ABOVE) Somebody dock that sign painter’s pay! He misspelled “Spencer” on the Ghost Busters’ agency door! © Filmation.

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RETRO FAD

Dueling Ghostbusters! After the success of the live-action Ghostbusters film, Filmation and Columbia battled for kid-TV ratings with their respective incarnations. Filmation’s Ghostbusters © Filmation. The Real Ghostbusters © Columbia. Animation cels courtesy of Heritage.

what it brings in at the box office, the accountants have ways of making sure that on paper, no picture is ever profitable. So, taking a piece of the deal was a mistake, as we never got another dime. But we did get $608,000, which was okay. The one other mistake we made in the settlement—and it was my fault for not thinking about it—was that Filmation didn’t keep the rights to any animated version of Ghostbusters. That would end up being a much bigger mistake.” Filmation began developing a five-day-a-week syndicated animated sequel to The Ghost Busters, using the sons of Spencer and Kong, and the original Tracy. The second week of August 1985, Filmation announced that 65 episodes of their “Ghostbusters” would be offered to televisions stations worldwide. A week later, Columbia announced that they, too, would be bringing a 65-episode animated Ghostbusters series to syndication for fall 1986, going head-to-head with Filmation’s. The mistake in not keeping the animated rights to Ghostbusters in the settlement deal had come back to bite Filmation! Filmation’s 65-episode syndicated Ghostbusters debuted on September 22, 1986 on 75 U.S. stations, while ABC ran 13 episodes of Columbia’s The Real Ghostbusters beginning September 13, 1986, before launching its own 65-episode syndicated run in September 1987. With competing shows of almost identical names and competing toylines, viewers were confused. “Doing two Ghostbusters shows eventually turned out to be a huge error,” said Scheimer. “It muddled things in the audience’s minds. Our Ghostbusters was a great show, and I loved it a lot, but people got us confused with Columbia’s show.” Filmation was closed down by a new parent company on February 3, 1989, and nothing would be heard of The Ghost Busters again for almost two decades.

Busting a Legacy

On April 17, 2007, following the success of DVD releases of HeMan and the Masters of the Universe, BCI Eclipse released The Ghost Busters: The Complete Series DVD Set as part of a series of the Filmation library on DVD. The three-disc set was produced by the author of this very article, Andy Mangels, and included all 15 episodes, plus interviews, rare footage, a gallery of photos, and all 15 PDF scripts. The animated Filmation’s Ghostbusters were released in two boxed sets (February 27 and July 3, 2007). All three sets are now out of print and demand big dollars in online sales. 20

RetroFan

Fall 2019

Lou Scheimer and Bob Burns were included in some DVD promotions at Comic-Con International in San Diego in July 2007, alongside other Filmation actors, but the poor booth layout for their signings meant that most fans never even knew they were present. Today, Bob Burns still lets fans come to visit “Bob’s Basement” to see old make-up and props from vintage films, and occasionally acts. Peter Jackson even put Burns and his wife, Kathy, in a scene in his 2005 King Kong remake, reacting to the giant monkey when he breaks out of the theatre. “I’m not good at remembering lines,” says Burns. “And my own face, I’m not good at that. Put the gorilla face on me, a whole different ballgame… I want to climb into the suit everyday now, but she won’t let me do it! But I’d love to! There’s two things I love to do, and one is comedy, and one is the gorilla.” As for The Ghost Busters, Burns says that, “It had something for everybody in it, including adults! It was a fun, fun show, and it wasn’t scary, it wasn’t meant to be scary! It was a great, great show… and just about the best time I’ve ever had in my life.” Unless otherwise credited, the quotes from Lou Scheimer are from the autobiography he wrote with Andy Mangels, for Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation. Mangels’ interviews with Bob Burns were conducted in 2006. Artwork and photos are courtesy the collection of Andy Mangels and Bob Burns. ANDY MANGELS is the USA Today bestselling author and co-author of 20 books, including the TwoMorrows book Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation, as well as Star Trek and Star Wars tomes, Iron Man: Beneath the Armor, and a lot of comic books. He recently wrote the Wonder Woman ’77 Meets the Bionic Woman series for Dynamite and DC Comics, and is currently working on a book about the stage productions of Stephen King. Additionally, he has scripted, directed, and produced Special Features and documentaries for over 40 DVD releases. His moustache is infamous. www.AndyMangels.com and www. WonderWomanMuseum.com

THE ODDBALL WORLD OF SCOTT SHAW!

NAUGAS Adorable Threat or Loveable Menace? by Scott Shaw!

NAUGA: Jeff Kaplan/Archive.org BACKGROUND: andreas160578/Pixabay

New plant and animal species are constantly being discovered by scientists, usually in the most distant and desolate places on our planet. However, there is a strain of creature that we have known about for over half a century, one that’s both savagely indestructible and yet a selfless boon to mankind. The name of this monstrous miracle of xenozoology? I’m writing about the once-elusive Nauga, of course. And here is its story… Naugahyde®, an artificial leather, was invented in 1936 by Byron A. Hunter, a senior chemist at the United States Rubber Company, now known as Uniroyal® Engineered Products, Inc. The material itself is composed of a knit fabric backing coated by a layer of polyvinyl chloride plastic. Its name was derived from the city of Naugatuck, Connecticut, where it was first produced. Naugahyde, a leather-like material, is extremely durable and easily cleaned, therefore it was well suited to upholster furniture such as sofas and beanbag chairs. The new material became so popular that in its wake, many imitations abounded. Therefore, it became necessary for Uniroyal to “brand” Naugahyde to stand out from the crowd. In 1966, the advertising agency Papert Koenig Lois, also known as PKL—founded by Fred Papel, Julian Koenig, and George Lois—was hired

to accomplish the branding. Due to such successful accounts as Peugeot automobiles, Maypo cereal, and Xerox, PKL’s assignment was to make consumers comfortable with a synthetic material of vaguely mysterious origin. Working with their designer Kurt Weihs, the PKL team created a non-existent critter to be the source of Naugahyde. But the “Nauga” looked like the opposite of a lovable Dr. Seuss character. Instead, the Nauga, all crazed eyes, fangs, and claws, looked more like, “What if Gonzo illustrator Ralph Steadman redesigned Warner Bros.’ Tasmanian Devil?” Surprisingly, it worked, possibly because the Nauga looked even more unnatural than the material of which it was both the source and the result. The bizarre-looking creature supposedly hailed from Sumatra and shed its hide once a year for the good of mankind—and Uniroyal. It sounds to me like the PKL team were fans of Al Capp’s Li’l Abner syndicated comic strip, which introduced the similarly cooperative Shmoos in August 1948. After all, that lovable creature laid eggs, gave milk, and died of sheer ecstasy when looked at with hunger. The Shmoo loved to be eaten and tasted like any food desired. Anything that delighted people delighted a Shmoo. Fry a Shmoo, and it came out chicken. Broil it, and it came out steak. Shmoo eyes made terrific suspender buttons. If cut thin, the hide of the Shmoo made fine leather, and if cut thick made the best

When in Connecticut, be sure to visit Naugatuck. Naugas ©

Uniroyal Engineered Products, LLC.

RetroFan

Fall 2019

COMICS MAGAZINES FROM TWOMORROWS BACK ISSUE

BACK ISSUE celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through a variety of recurring (and rotating) departments, including Pro2Pro interviews (between two top creators), “Greatest Stories Never Told”, retrospective articles, and more. Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

BACK ISSUE #113

ALTER EGO

ALTER EGO, the greatest ‘zine of the ‘60s, is all-new, focusing on Golden and Silver Age comics and creators with articles, interviews and unseen art. Each issue includes an FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) section, Mr. Monster & more. Edited by ROY THOMAS.

ALTER EGO #160

COMIC BOOK CREATOR

COMIC BOOK CREATOR is the new voice of the comics medium, devoted to the work and careers of the men and women who draw, write, edit, and publish comics, focusing always on the artists and not the artifacts, the creators and not the characters. Edited by JON B. COOKE.

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #19

DRAW!

DRAW! is the professional “How-To” magazine on cartooning and animation. Each issue features in-depth interviews and step-by-step demonstrations from top comics professionals. Some issues contain figure-drawing instruction nudity; Mature Readers Only. Edited by MIKE MANLEY.

DRAW #36

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR celebrates the life and career of the “King” of comics through interviews with Kirby and his contemporaries, feature articles, and rare & unseen Kirby artwork, showcased in dynamic full-color! Edited by JOHN MORROW.

KIRBY COLLECTOR #77

REMEMBERING STEVE DITKO! Sturdy Steve at Marvel, DC, Warren, Charlton, and elsewhere! A rare late-1960s Ditko interview by RICHARD HOWELL— biographical notes by NICK CAPUTO— tributes by MICHAEL T. GILBERT, PAUL LEVITZ, BERNIE BUBNIS, BARRY PEARL, ROY THOMAS, et al. Plus FCA, JOHN BROOME, BILL SCHELLY, and more! Spider-Man cover by DITKO!

Celebrating the greatest fantasy artist of all time, FRANK FRAZETTA! From THUN’DA and EC COMICS to CREEPY, EERIE, and VAMPIRELLA, STEVE RINGGENBERG and CBC’s editor present an historical retrospective, including insights by current creators and associates, and memories of the man himself. PLUS: Frazetta-inspired artists JOE JUSKO, and TOM GRINDBERG, who contributes our Death Dealer cover painting!

MIKE HAWTHORNE (Deadpool, Infinity Countdown) interview, YANICK PAQUETTE (Wonder Woman: Earth One, Batman Inc., Swamp Thing) how-to demo, JERRY ORDWAY’s “Ord-Way” of creating comics, JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews the latest art supplies, plus Comic Art Bootcamp by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY! May contain nudity for figure-drawing instruction; for Mature Readers Only.

MONSTERS & BUGS! Jack’s monster-movie influences in The Demon, Forever People, Black Magic, Fantastic Four, Jimmy Olsen, and Atlas monster stories; Kirby’s work with “B” horror film producer CHARLES BAND; interview with “The Goon” creator ERIC POWELL; Kirby’s use of insect characters (especially as villains); MARK EVANIER and our other regular columnists, Golden Age Kirby story, and a Kirby pencil art gallery!

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THE MAGAZINE FOR LEGO ENTHUSIASTS OF ALL AGES! ®

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BRICKJOURNAL #59

STAR WARSTM THEMED BUILDERS! Travel to a galaxy far, far away with JACOB NEIL CARPENTER’S DEATH STAR, the work of MIRI DUDAS, and the LEGO® photography of JAMES PHILIPPART! Plus “AFOLs” by GREG HYLAND, “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art with TOMMY WILLIAMSON, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more! (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Now shipping!

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ERNEST FARINO’S RETRO FANTASMAGORIA

I WAS A TEENAGE JAMES BOND by Ernest Farino

A few years ago the American Cinematheque hosted a retrospective of classic movie main titles with a weeklong screening of films at the Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. On the last night, a Sunday: Goldfinger. Now, being my favorite James Bond film and easily in my Top 3 favorite films in general, I’ve seen Goldfinger more times than I’ve had hot meals, and in every format imaginable: indoor theaters and drive-ins, VHS, laserdisc, DVD, Blu-ray, and 16mm. But I hadn’t seen a 35mm print in a theater in quite a few years, so I decided to treat myself. First things first—purchasing a large buttered popcorn and an ice-cold Coke. I settled into my seat and soon the lights dimmed and John Barry’s electric guitar version of the James Bond theme twanged us right into that famous gun barrel as James Bond walked across and turned and fired. And in an instant I was 12-years-old once again. The music… the imagery… the aroma of buttered popcorn… the tangy taste of Coke… revved up that sensory time machine and whisked me back to a magical Saturday in El Paso, Texas, in 1964. My father was in the Army and stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso. They had shown Goldfinger on the base for the troops and the next day he had regaled us with an enthusiastic retelling of the film: A white dot goes across and you’re down a gun barrel and James Bond walks across and turns and shoots and blood comes down over the screen and then James Bond comes up out of the water with a duck on his head and knocks out the guard and plants plastic explosives in these big oil tanks and then takes off his wetsuit and he’s in a white tuxedo and he goes to a nightclub and the oil tanks explode and Bond goes to see his “girlfriend” and when he’s kissing her a bad guy comes up from behind but he sees his reflection in the girl’s eye so he spins around and they fight and finally Bond knocks the bad guy into the bathtub and throws in an electric heater and electrocutes him! Wow! I couldn’t wait to see this movie! The next Saturday morning my friend Cordell and I got on a bus to the State Theater in downtown El Paso (yes, by ourselves, with our parents’ knowledge and permission—simpler times then). The line of people stretched all the way around behind the theater. Which only added to the anticipation. And as we inched closer once the line starting moving, the marquee gradually came into view with those big, red, plastic chiseled letters—James Bond Is Back!—a huge cutout of Sean Connery holding the gun, and eventually posters and lobby cards outside the theater. Once inside, I got my bucket of buttered popcorn and Coke and we settled into our seats. A white dot goes across and you’re down a gun barrel… and finally Bond knocks the bad guy into the bathtub and electrocutes him! RetroFan

Fall 2019

e M t c e p x E u Do Yo ? … k l a T To Goldfinger Trivia by Ernest Farino

QUESTIONS 1. In the film, what year did Auric Goldfinger first conceive of “Operation Grand Slam”? 2. What day of the week did Goldfinger brief the gangsters of the plan (with his model of Fort Knox, etc.)? 3. What mistake does the lead female pilot make in the countdown to release the Delta-9 gas as the planes fly over Fort Knox? 4. What is the “code name” flight designation of the formation of planes that strafe Fort Knox? Such as, “Pussy Galore’s Flying Circus” (which is not the answer). 5. Following the “gun barrel logo” the pre-title sequence opens with a high wide angle of the large storage tanks and the camera cranes down the other side of a wall to find Bond emerging from the water in his wetsuit. What is unusual about this shot? 6. In the scene where Bond engages the tire-slashers to disable Tilly Masterson’s white Mustang, there is a close-up of his hand flipping the switch on the control panel console next to his seat. What’s wrong with this shot? 7. What is the proper temperature for enjoying “Dom Pérignon ’53”? 8. After the bomb is switched off by the C.I.A. guy just before Bond rips out the wires, 007 says, “Three more ticks and Mr. Goldfinger would have hit the jackpot.” What’s wrong with this line? 9. With Bond on board Goldfinger’s private jet and piloted by Pussy Galore, what time of day do they expect to land in Baltimore, “our port of entry into the United States”? 10. What brand of golf balls do Bond and Goldfinger use, respectively?

Bonus Question

What is unusual about this shot?

RetroFan

Fall 2019

ANSWERS 1. 1949. In the scene inside the clubhouse prior to the golf game, there is a calendar on the back wall dated. So, in addition to the movie having been made in 1964, it is telling the story as if it takes place in 1964. When briefing the gangsters later on, Goldfinger says, “I have devoted 15 years of my life to Operation Grand Slam…” Thus, he conceived of the plan in 1949.

Shot with calendar in golf clubhouse with 1964 circled. © Danjaq, LLC.

2. Goldfinger tells the gangsters that the raid will take place “tomorrow,” and one of them says, “Banks don’t open on Sundays.” Thus, the briefing took place on Saturday. 3. The pilot says into her microphone to the other planes, “Five… four… three… two… Zero!” She skips over “One.” 4. Champagne Section (or Flight). The Pilot says, “Champagne Leader to Champagne Section: commence Rock-a-Bye Baby.” 5. It’s an optical effect, a sliding split screen. Look closely and you’ll see that the shot of the field with the storage tanks is static and the wall that glides up in front of it is matted and tracked over that background. Since the storage tanks are in the distance, there wouldn’t be much of a perspective shift if it were a crane shot on the actual location, so the illusion works.

easy way to remember the temperature is that “38” is also the caliber of a gun. 8. The timer on the bomb originally stopped at 003 (seconds) and the line referred to that count. Producer Harry Saltzman saw the dailies and rushed to the set the next day (they were still shooting in the vault set) and said, “Are you guys crazy?! It needs to stop at 007.” So they made a new shot of the timer at 007 (seconds) but never looped the line referring to the new number.

9. 2:40pm. After Bond has changed into his suit, Pussy Galore says, “We’ll be landing in Baltimore in 20 minutes…” The clock on the wall above the lavatory door beyond her says 2:20, so their arrival time would be 2:40pm. 10. Bond: Penfold Hearts. Goldfinger: Slazenger 7.

Bonus Question

Pussy Galore’s co-pilot, Sydney (Tricia Müller), is reading the April 1964 issue of Vogue magazine. Tania Mallet, who plays Tilly Masterson in Goldfinger, was a high-end fashion model at the time and happens to be on the cover of that very issue of Vogue in a photo by David Bailey.

6. They apparently didn’t shoot a close-up for this scene, so they “stole” a similar shot from later when Bond and Tilly are fleeing from the bad guys at night in the forest (when he uses the smoke screen, etc.). Note that in this shot Bond’s sleeve is that of his black shirt from the later scene in the forest at night, not the sleeve of the gray suit he’s wearing in the tire-slasher scene. 7. 38º Fahrenheit. When Bond leaves Shirley Eaton in bed to get another bottle because their open bottle has “lost its chill,” she says, “Who needs it?” Bond says, “My dear girl, drinking Dom Pérignon ’53 above the temperature of 38º Fahrenheit just isn’t done. That’s like listening to the Beatles without ear muffs.” The RetroFan

Fall 2019

MONSTER MASH

The Creepy, Kooky Monster Craze In America, 1957-1972 Time-trip back to the frightening era of 1957-1972, when monsters stomped into the American mainstream! Once Frankenstein and fiends infiltrated TV in 1957, an avalanche of monster magazines, toys, games, trading cards, and comic books crashed upon an unsuspecting public. This profusely illustrated full-color hardcover covers that creepy, kooky Monster Craze through features on FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND magazine, the #1 hit “Monster Mash,” Aurora’s model kits, TV shows (SHOCK THEATRE, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, THE MUNSTERS, and DARK SHADOWS), “MARS ATTACKS” trading cards, EERIE PUBLICATIONS, PLANET OF THE APES, and more! It features interviews with JAMES WARREN (Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella magazines), FORREST J ACKERMAN (Famous Monsters of Filmland), JOHN ASTIN (The Addams Family), AL LEWIS (The Munsters), JONATHAN FRID (Dark Shadows), GEORGE BARRIS (monster car customizer), ED “BIG DADDY” ROTH (Rat Fink), BOBBY (BORIS) PICKETT (Monster Mash singer/songwriter) and others, with a Foreword by TV horror host ZACHERLEY, the “Cool Ghoul.” Written by MARK VOGER (author of “The Dark Age”). (192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $11.95 • ISBN: 9781605490649 Diamond Order Code: MAR151564

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SCOTT SAAVEDRA’S SECRET SANCTUM

Dad Made Me Do It Three Letters to Three Famous People

by Scott Saavedra Astronaut Neil Armstrong. Illustrator Norman Rockwell. Comicbook creator Jack Kirby. Three individuals generally regarded to be near or at the pinnacle of their professions. When I was a kid, I wrote to all of them. I asked one for comic books. I asked one for a job. And I asked one for government property. My requests were all made under duress. This is my story.

The Man from the Moon

Thinking back through the haze of my childhood memories, I don’t recall much about America’s Space Program during the Sixties. Certainly, I was aware of it and interested in it. I know that I wanted to be an astronaut but I had awful motion sickness (plus

I was bad at math and, much later, hated flying). Even playing too long on a swing set was problematic. To this day, my mom will—for no discernible reason—remind me about the time I got “car sick” on a drive one Easter Sunday and threw up in her brandnew purse. There was no malice intended. I just don’t travel well. Also, I was an infant (besides, I was sitting on my mother’s lap in a moving car that was not equipped with seatbelts, therefore a baby blithely barfing was really the least bad thing that could’ve happened). So… space. By the middle of 1969, NASA was on the cusp of realizing President John F. Kennedy’s famous 1961 call to put men on the Moon and return them safely home before the decade’s end. President Kennedy, cruelly assassinated in 1963, would not

(LEFT TO RIGHT) Neil A. Armstrong in a lunar module simulator where he practiced in the weeks leading up to the historic Apollo 11 mission. NASA. Illustrator Norman Rockwell in a portrait by Underwood and Underwood, 1921. Library of Congress. Jack Kirby in thought during a media interview at a fund-raising event in Westlake, California, c.1977. Photo courtesy of the author.

RetroFan

Fall 2019

scott saavedra’s secret sanctum

Original art to Fantastic Four #98 (May 1970). Writer Stan Lee and the legendary artistic team of Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott correctly capture Neil Armstrong’s intended words at this historic Apollo 11 moment (Armstrong famously forgot the article “a” and said “That’s one small step for man”). Kirby would soon leave Marvel Comics and begin his “Fourth World” comics at DC. Fantastic Four TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Art courtesy

of Heritage Comics Auctions.

kid.” Me? Not sound like a kid? Preposterous! Dad dictated a more juvenile version to his liking and it was sent with the T-shirts directly, I believe, to Neil Armstrong in care of NASA. Then Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Mike Collins flew to the Moon in a rocketship. Armstrong, then Aldrin, walked on the surface of Earth’s only natural satellite. They picked up some rocks and took some pictures. And then they came home to Earth. Safely. Humanity marveled at such an historic achievement. With the mission objective achieved the astronauts were then stuck in quarantine for 21 days. What did they do with their time? Well, at least one of them decided to catch up on some correspondence.

A thin manila envelope from NASA arrived that August. Did I get a Moon rock? Well, come on, no. I did allow myself to think that maybe it could happen, so I was briefly disappointed. I squeezed the envelope before opening it hoping to find a lump. What I did get was a machine-autographed photo of the three Apollo 11 astronauts and a personal letter from Neil Armstrong dated August 12, 1969 when he would have still been in quarantine. In the letter Commander Armstrong thanked my parents for the T-shirts (“Our children thought the shirts were great!”) and encouraged my brother and I to study hard (sorry, sir) and keep up our interest in the space program (Roger that). After I showed it around to everyone, I proudly took my historic document and, using masking tape, stuck that sucker to my bedroom wall. I was and continue to be impressed by the simple, decent kindness of the letter. I did eventually see an actual piece of the Moon that was part of a traveling exhibition. It just looked like a rock.

The Mystery of ‘Shuffleton’s Barbershop’

There was a very large book in our house, Norman Rockwell: Artist and Illustrator (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1970). It was a gift from Mom to Dad. I don’t specifically recall any great interest in Rockwell by my father, who was an (mostly) amateur artist, but I loved that book. In addition to reproductions of some of the prolific artist’s work there was also background on his process. That was the part that was most compelling to me. Being a boy of just 13 summers, though, my artistic tastes were still developing and I was more focused on one of this country’s great native art forms: comic books. At that time, 1973, comic books (and Star Trek and Lord of the Rings) were still fringe popular culture as far as the population

NORMAN ROCKWELL (1894–1978) In the early Sixties, NASA initiated an art program to promote the space program. Annie Liebovitz, Andy Warhol, and Norman Rockwell were among the artists who participated. Rockwell managed to convince NASA to let him take a spacesuit home so he could get the details right for a painting of two Gemini astronauts, John Young and Gus Grissom, suiting up. A NASA employee was required to be with the suit at all times. Later, Rockwell was commissioned to paint the Moon landing in the lead-up to the actual event. Other Apollo 11 paintings followed. Astronaut Story Musgrave grew up on the 40-acre Linwood Estate in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, which is now the home of the Norman Rockwell Museum. The painting, “Shuffleton’s Barbershop,” is owned by popular culture giant, George Lucas, and will be on display at the as-yet-uncompleted Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles. Norman Rockwell’s final studio. Out of the 20 or so over a lifetime, he felt it was his “best studio yet.” In 1986 it was moved to its current location at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Photographs from

the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

RetroFan

Fall 2019

scott saavedra’s secret sanctum

at large was concerned. Nothing to notice or take too seriously. My mom worried about me reading comics… she was concerned that it was junk (well, yes). There were no superhero movies that year, no comic-book-inspired primetime television series. What is now called Comic-Con International: San Diego (but usually just referred to as Comic-Con) had an attendance of a mere 1,000+ enthusiasts. I read everything about comic books that I could find at the library (not much) and kept my eyes peeled for any reference to comics elsewhere (slim pickings). And so I was pleasantly surprised one day, while looking through Artists and Illustrator for the umpteenth time, to see something I hadn’t noticed before. A rack of comic books in the left corner of one of Rockwell’s paintings. The painting, “Shuffleton’s Barbershop,” is one of Norman Rockwell’s better-known works. “Shuffleton’s Barbershop”—a real place, by the way—provided the cover to the April 29, 1950 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Artist and Illustrator presents not only the painting but some of the reference photos used to create it. Rockwell definitely had an eye for detail but the photos he used, in this case taken by an assistant, were a supplement for his onsite sketches. What caught my eye—once I stopped marveling at the fact that I found comic books in a Real Artist’s painting— was the fact that the two comic-book covers that I could make out were inaccurately painted. At the time, I only recognized two of the source comics and (much) later research turned up the actual issues: Crime Does Not Pay #82 (Dec. 1949) and Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories vol. 10, #3 (Dec. 1949). Rockwell had misspelled the comic titles. CRIME, for example, became “RIHE” with the letter C clearly painted over.

The only person I could think to share my discovery with was my father. I don’t recall my dad being particularly moved by my incredible discovery. Absentmindedly, and with a complete misunderstanding of how Norman Rockwell worked, I puzzled aloud, “Hmmm, I wonder if he still has the comic books?” “You should ask him. Write him a letter.” Nuts. Now I had my dad’s full and enthusiastic attention. As a younger man, Dad enjoyed collecting autographs from young actresses (and someday I will find that autograph book). But I was his polar opposite. I did not want to bother someone just because they were famous. “Maybe he still has the comic books and he’ll give them to you.” I did not want to write Norman Rockwell and ask him about misspelling comic-book titles and then ask him for 23-yearold comic books that I was pretty certain he didn’t have. But, I allowed, that it was maybe, sorta, possible he might have one or two. I wouldn’t say no to free comic books. This letter, as with the moon rock request, was re-drafted because Dad said that I didn’t sound enough like a kid (if you could ever conceive of such an inconceivable—that word means exactly what I think it does—scenario). We sent the approved version off and waited. Annnnnd… he wrote back! It took a few months but I got a reply. It was brief and polite. He didn’t recall why he left out the C and he didn’t have the “magazines.” Boom. That’s it.

(LEFT) The April 29, 1950 issue of the Saturday Evening Post featuring Norman Rockwell’s “Shuffleton’s Barbershop.” (TOP LEFT) Crime Does Not Pay #82 (Dec. 1949), and (TOP RIGHT) Disney’s Comics & Stories vol. 10 #3 are two of the most visible of the mis-painted comics found on the lower left of the cover. Of the comic books on the rack, writer Richard Halpern notes in his book, Norman Rockwell: The Underside of Innocence, that “it is rare that a specimen of cultural sleaze manages to crawl up from the basement and park itself in the middle of a Rockwell.” Rude. Saturday Evening Post © Saturday Evening Post Society. All Rights Reserved. Donald Duck & related characters © Disney.

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scott saavedra’s secret sanctum

(LEFT) A slightly stalker-y sounding letter to comic-book giant, Jack Kirby. (TOP RIGHT) The author once before recounted, slightly inaccurately, his first meeting with Jack Kirby in strip form for the Aug.–Sept. 2000 issue of his fanzine, Comic Book Heaven vol. 2 #3 (SLG). (ABOVE) Postcard from Jack Kirby, dynamic and to the point (like the artist’s work itself). Art © Scott Saavedra. Artifacts courtesy of the author.

assignment to interview a local interesting person (“Why don’t you ask Jack Kirby?”). That same year a student from my high school was shot and paralyzed. My dad helped spearhead efforts to assist the boy, one of nine kids. This was strange to me, not because my dad didn’t care about others, it’s just that he wasn’t an organizer. I asked my mom about that recently. “Your father was an idea man. Other people had to do the work.” My mom isn’t being unkind. That’s exactly the kind of person my father was. Once, after I moved away from home, Dad called me out of the blue (a rare event). He didn’t even say “hello.” “Boogie Boy!” “What?! Dad?” “Boogie Boy! He makes graffiti and fights crime on his skateboard. Do that one!” I didn’t do that one. Defacing public property is a crime (yep, I’m that guy). Hang on, I’m coming back around to Jack Kirby. So, my dad was involved with some fundraisers for the wounded boy and distressed family. At least two events involved celebrities and my dad invited Jack Kirby to be one of the celebrities both times. He happily drew sketches for kids and I watched as he was interviewed by local media. Years later, Roz Kirby made a point of telling me how much she and Jack enjoyed my parents. I didn’t ever get a letter from Jack Kirby. The reply to my initial letter was a phone call. But in 1982 I received a postcard from him. In it he asked me how my Benchly comic strip (an awful thing I was 50

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doing at the time for the San Jose State newspaper, the Spartan Daily) was coming along. I have no earthly idea why he wrote that postcard. I suspect my mom sent him clippings of the comic strip and maybe suggested I’d like to hear from him. It’s the sort of thing she’d do. Kisses, Mom. “He was channeling through you,” Mom told me recently when I asked why Dad had me write “my” letters. We had opposing personalities. I was a shy, bookish kid while my dad was way more relaxed. Way more. It wasn’t always a smooth relationship. But the Neil Armstrong and Norman Rockwell letters are framed and hanging (properly, minus the masking tape) on my office wall. I smile and usually think of Dad (kindly) when I focus on them. I only recently uncovered the Jack Kirby postcard and I’ll put that up too. SCOTT SAAVEDRA is a graphic designer who writes and draws as needed. He is perhaps best known as the creator of the long-ago comic-book series, It’s Science with Dr. Radium (SLG), and he wrote for the short-lived Disney Comics line, where he scripted stories featuring Chip ’n’ Dale Rescue Rangers, Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and others. His fanzine, Comic Book Heaven, about crazy, vintage comics, had a devoted but, sadly, tiny following. Check out his Instagram thing, won’t you? (instagram.com/scottsaav/)

Growing Up

by Dan Johnson In 1964, CBS introduced America to one of the most memorable television sitcom families of all time. In many ways, they were very typical. There was a father, a mother, a grandfather, a poor distant cousin that seemed destined to be an old maid because of her looks, and a young son. They had the usual wacky misadventures that a lot of television families experienced, and, at the end of the day, it was certain that there was much love in this family. What set this clan apart from everyone else on the air was that they were based on the classic Universal Monsters (Herman Munster, the father, was, more or less, the Frankenstein Monster, and Grandpa was Count Dracula). They were the Munsters, and for two years (1964– 1966) they rode the wave of monster mania that was sweeping the U.S.A. in the early Sixties. Even Butch Patrick, TV pop culture icon, indeed! Courtesy of Leila Murray/ Munsters.com.

though the show ended over 50 years ago, The Munsters remains a fan-favorite thanks to reruns, and it is a show that has never left the airwaves. At the Fayetteville Comic Con in October 2018, this writer got to sit down with the youngest member of this frightening family unit, Butch Patrick, who played Eddie Munster, for a panel Q&A. Butch was nice enough to share his memories of working on the iconic sitcom and also discussed his career after The Munsters. The following is an edited transcription of that interview. RetroFan: Tell our readers how you got the part of Eddie Munster. Butch Patrick: The Munsters came along in 1964. I had started acting in 1961, and I was actually living in Illinois with my

grandparents. They had cast the show with a kid named Happy Derman and a woman named Joan Marshall played the mom, whose name was Phoebe. [They were in the original pilot, and this] has since become the lost pilot for The Munsters, which was shot in color. At the last minute, the producers decided to do screen tests for other kids, and my agent convinced them to fly me out from Illinois and do the screen test, which I did. Before The Munsters, I had appeared on General Hospital and done a year on The Real McCoys, so I had several credits before this series. RF: 1964 was a big year for horror fans. Shock Theater was on the air with the Universal Horror films, Famous Monsters of Filmland was out on the newsstand, and the Aurora monster model kits were huge hits. Were you a horror fan before The Munsters? BP: Yeah, I really enjoyed the classic Universal Monster movies, like Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Wolf Man (1941), The Mummy (1932), and especially RetroFan

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RETRO toys

Believe it or not, Kenner wasn’t the only toy company that took a chance on Alien-related merchandise. New York-based firm H-G Toys, which had a long reputation for their jigsaw puzzles and budget-priced licensed fare, produced several Alien items. In addition to a line of puzzles featuring stills from the movie, H-G also made a three-foot puzzle featuring the title monster amidst a character collage, masterfully painted by noted paperback and men’s-magazine artist Earl Norem. His art is also found on a smaller puzzle, which came enclosed in a glow-in-the-dark green egg (recalling Fox’s initial movie poster). Most prized by Alien collectors, though, are H-G’s two Alien target games, which let kids shoot ping-pong balls or suction darts at Norem-illustrated cut-outs. Also, ubiquitous costume maker Ben Cooper released a vinyl Alien children’s costume for Halloween 1979, and Atari even released a game for their 2600 system in 1982. None of these products found any sort of success upon their initial release. (CLOCKWISE, LEFT TO RIGHT) Atari’s 1982 Alien Game, H-G Toys Alien three-foot puzzle (1979), Ben Cooper Alien mask and costume, and H-G Toys Alien Blaster Giant Target Set from 1979 (a safety dart gun version also exists). Alien TM & © 20th Century Fox.

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I think every person that collected toys and action figures was like “HOLY S*IT!” For me, and a lot of people, that’s when the fascination for those figures began.” Flash-forward two decades: Flynn was finding success with his own toy company Super 7. Initially devoted to making vinyl monster toys for the Japanese market, the company found success domestically with their Star Wars-themed 24-inch Super Shogun Stormtrooper. So, when it came time to planning their next project, Flynn recalled that famed issue of Tomart’s. “After the Stormtrooper, we recouped our money and had to decide what we were going to do next. That’s when I said, ‘The thing I’d like to make the most is those Alien figures.’ Then, Frank Supiot, who was working with us at the time, said ‘I know a guy at Fox. Lemme see if I can get the license.’” Sure enough, Fox was game, and Flynn and his partners went on a quest to find the original prototypes of the 3¾-inch figures that they could scan to produce their new line. “From there, since we were all very die-hard collectors, it was fairly easy for me to call people who dealt into the prototype world. Former Kenner employees, who had them over the years, sold them to collectors. And surprisingly at first, everyone that had the prototypes was like, ‘Hell, yeah, if you’re going to make these, I’ll gladly let you borrow mine.’” Once the prototypes were acquired (except for Dallas, which only existed in a vintage photo), Super 7 went into production. They even went as far as to track down the former Kenner graphic designer who designed card art for the company. Super 7 eventually debuted their Alien figures, released through a 3¾inch line they dubbed ReAction, at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con, where they sold out in two hours. “What we realized is that there’s a whole group of people who grew up liking the same things we did. So if we do our sculpting correctly, do our packaging correctly, and choose our licenses correctly, there’s someone out there like me that feels the same way when they see these toys in stores on a peg,” says Flynn. Since 2015, the Super 7/ReAction Alien line has included a full line-up of the movie’s characters (not to mention several variations of the title creature), a limited edition Egg Chamber playset, a collector’s case, and a new wave inspired by the 1986 sequel. ReAction even offered companion 18-inch figure of the xenomorph from Aliens. Moreover, the manufacturer has licensed dozens and dozens properties and made figures based on retro properties from TV, movies, video games, and music. “I’m intrigued by Super 7’s three-foot ReAction figure releases, says Wlodarczyk. “The fact that Super 7 has been so successful with their pocket-size Alien line just amplifies the amazing history of all of these things.” Special thanks to Jim Swearingen, Brian Flynn, Super 7, Larry Strothe, and Phil Wlodarczyk for lending their time, knowledge, and photos. ROB SMENTEK is the proofreader for TwoMorrows’ BACK ISSUE, Alter Ego, Comic Book Creator, and RetroFan. He counts Alien as his favorite film despite being terrified by the commercial for the Kenner figure as a boy. Oddly enough, his brains also glow in the dark.

WILL MURRAY’S 20TH CENTURY PANOPTICON

The

Dobie Dilemma

Television. Signed publicity still courtesy of Heritage.

during the CBS show’s four-season run back in 1959–1963. As Dobie once quipped, “I’m not oversexed, mind you. But I’m not undersexed either. Let’s just say I’m sexed.” He couldn’t say that on TV back in the late Fifties, of course. But he did in Max Shulman’s original stories, where it all began. I suppose I must recap the checkered history of Dobie Gillis before we proceed to the secret.

by Will Murray Let me tell you a secret about the classic TV show, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. It’s not what you think it was. No, really. But before I let you in on the secret, allow me to wallow in this classic show’s je ne sais quoi, joie de vivre, savoir faire, and other classy French expressions hinting at my half-centuryplus love affair with this, one of the greatest sitcoms of the Golden Age of Television. If you ever watched more than one episode, you’ll recognize that I’m talking just like 17-year-old Dobie, who often waxed poetic––not to mention sappy and philosophical––about Thalia Menninger, Aphrodite Millican, Elspeth Hummaker—among many of the innumerable girls this love-struck lad romanced

Dobie emerged out of satirist Max Shulman’s experiences at the University of Minnesota, which led to his bestselling sendup of campus life, Barefoot Boy with Cheek. The first Dobie Gillis short stories popped up in Cosmopolitan and The Saturday Evening Post in 1945, later collected in a 1951 book, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. Shulman turned the book into a screenplay, which was filmed as The Af fairs of Dobie Gillis, starring Bobby Van as the Grainbelt University freshman and Debbie Reynolds as his love interest, Pansy Hammer. Other than Hans Conried as Professor Pomfritt, none of the familiar future TV characters appeared in this rather forgettable 1953 musical film. One film critic derided the title character as “One-third Casanova, onethird Henry Aldrich and one-third one of Mr. Wodehouse’s poodles.” Remember the Henry Aldrich reference. I’ll explain later. RetroFan

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“He looked like a Dobie Gillis.”

will murray’s 20th century panopticon

Montana developed the school. About the third feature for comics, he or fourth year of the based the cast on his program––if it lasts school friends. Haverhill that long––they’ll even High School boasted marry me off.” a Thinker statue on its Shulman and his grounds. This signature crew recognized that element appeared in this was inevitable and many early strips. unavoidable. Now it That one stopped was time. me cold. How many “Maybe they just coincidences can you figure I’ve been a have? teenager on TV too Archie was a pretty long,” mused Hickman. big deal in the Forties “I look young yet, but Publicity photo of a post-blond Hickman with Dobie’s and Fifties, appearing I’m not causing any excitement as a popular co-stars, Bob Denver as Maynard G. Krebs and in comics and on radio. teenager. Y’know, like the Fabians and Sheila James as Zelda Gilroy. © 20th Century Fox Television. He was hardly obscure. that bunch. Also, I wouldn’t want to Nor was Archie original. become a part of this new trend to be Henry Aldrich, a popular playing any of those kookie kids like radio program, preceded him by several years. Archie was a you see on these TV series. You know the ones I mean. I think one take-off on Henry. Dobie Gillis was just another variation on the of ’em is called ‘88 Hollywood Blvd.,’ or is it ‘Surfside 666’? Anyway, theme. it’s not for me. Who wants to go around town and be known as This was a theme that Hanna-Barbara milked for their late‘Grasshopper’ or ‘Bungo Pete’?” Sixties cartoon series, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! Legend has it Adult audiences looked askance at Maynard, so Bob Denver that the creators based their cast––Fred, Shaggy, Velma, and softened him, noting, “Maynard is not even close to a beatnik. Daphne––on Dobie, Maynard, Zelda, He’s more of a child of nature, a perennial and Thalia, respectively. While this is three-year-old. Jazz and Dobie are his FAST FACTS undeniable, it’s a little known fact that the whole life, and he’s sort of a conscience, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis/ first creative approach to the series copied like Jimmy Cricket.” Dobie Gillis/Max Shulman’s The Archie Show, then a Saturday morning The season started off innocuously. Dobie Gillis TV hit. Thalia Menninger was out, Tuesday Weld Whatever the truth behind the having proven too difficult. Like Beatty, `` No. of seasons: Four `` No. of episodes: 147 origins of Dobie Gillis might be, from she was too hot to stay in TV. `` Original run: September 29, contemporary reports it sounds as if the “There won’t be any particular girl in 1959–June 5, 1963 boy-and-two-girl triangular formula was the script, except for Zelda Gilroy,” stated `` Cast: Dwayne Hickman, stumbled upon and not copied. But it was Hickman. “I’ll just play the field, I suppose. Bob Denver, Frank Faylen, destined not to last…. They’re allowing Dobie to grow up.” Florida Friebes, Sheila James, In “The Big Question,” Mr. Pomfritt Steve Franken, William “Whither Am I Drifting?” assigned them to write an essay titled Schallert For Season Two, the show was retitled “Whither Am I Drifting?” Dobie and `` Network: CBS Dobie Gillis. More drastically, a decision Maynard sadly realized they had no was made to move the action out of inkling. Central City High. It was no doubt inevitable. Dwayne Hickman The hapless pair inevitably graduated, then wandered still looked youthful, but time was not on his side. Early on, some aimlessly for a few episodes, arriving nowhere. They find of the show’s principals hinted that this might be a direction the themselves yearning to return to Central High in “Dobie vs. the series could go. Machine.” When Dobie’s data is fed into an aptitude-calculating Hickman had predicted, computer, he realizes “During the course of the that he can’t let a series I’m going to grow up soulless machine guide and graduate from high him. For once, the Old Man gives his son solid non-circular-logic An early Archie statue advice. Since it sounds drop-in, from Archie like the easy way out, Comics #2 (Spring 1943), by naturally Dobie takes it. cartoonist Bob Montana. The new format was Archie characters © Archie Comic Publications. truly shocking. Dobie and Maynard enlisted. 70

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Never mind that Maynard had been kicked out of the Army. In typical comedy-of-errors sitcom style, Chatsworth soon joined them. “Let’s face it,” Hickman said at the time. “You can wear these things out. I couldn’t stay in high school forever. You can go into the Army on a six-months program these days. So they could bring me out if necessary.” Having served during World War II, Max Shulman saw military life as rich in satiric possibilities. At first, he was optimistic, saying, “We’re doing this to attract a more adult audience for Dobie. We’re trying to broaden the audience base. After all, high school is a pretty juvenile thing. Folks are not interested in high school. But they are interested in the Army. It’s universal.” Shulman also hedged his bets. “After the Army, maybe junior college. Of course, if the Army shows get a rating of about 35, we’ll think seriously of keeping him in.” This new approach required retooling. The Gillis family was seen only when the boys went on furlough. Shulman began considering a Zelda spin-off show. Everyone struggled to make the format work, but it was a poor fit for the misfit cast. Audiences missed the Gillis family. Modifications were made. “By the end of his six months in the Army,” Shulman quipped, “Dobie will have had more weekend passes than any other soldier. It’s hard to keep the character of our kids in the Army. We’ve got to keep the family alive and that’s why we give him passes, so he can go home.” Dobie’s Sgt. Bilko phase flopped. That six-month hitch was the perfect escape clause.

Higher Education

In the third season opener, the drifting duo were kicked out of Uncle Sam’s Army. Taking advantage of the G.I. Bill, they enrolled at the S. Peter Pryor Junior College, where Zelda was already a star student. This allowed the original cast to be reconstituted. Both teachers returned, Mr. Pomfritt as himself, but Jean Byron portrayed an entirely different instructor, Mrs. Imogene Burkhart. “I’m catching up with myself,” Hickman quipped. “When the show started three years ago, I was supposed to be about 17. Now the character is about 22 or 23.” In real life, the actor was closer to 30. After writing the season opener, Max Shulman scaled back his involvement. Previously, he had quipped, “I don’t think Dobie will ever go to college. The way he chases dames, he’ll get married first, poor fellow.” But here he was, exactly where the character originated 20 years before, a girl-crazy college freshman. Tuesday Weld returned in the middle of the season as a saleswoman who tries unsuccessfully to sway Dobie into quitting college and joining her in becoming rich. Although tempted,

Dobie ultimately realizes Thalia would only break his heart. They part. Much of this season focused on Zelda’s endless schemes to win over Dobie to wedded bliss. In “Dobie, Dobie, Who’s Got the Dobie?,” Zelda’s efforts to sabotage Dobie’s ongoing romances reach a critical mass. This was Sheila James’ favorite episode. In “For Whom the Wedding Bell Tolls,” Zelda’s relentlessness forces Dobie and Maynard to stow away on a cargo ship. But Zelda follows, and works her will again. Dobie is about to let the ship’s captain marry them. Conscience-stricken, Zelda backs out. Two episodes later, Mr. Pomfritt’s marriage lecture half-convinces Dobie that Zelda is his best option. Once more, the scriptwriter saves the day. Dobie continues to chase girls, while his relationship with Maynard is explored and sometimes tested. In “Names My Mother Called Me,” Dobie learns the origin of his name in an unusually mature episode. He was named after a Nobel Prizewinning humanitarian. Midway through filming, pneumonia struck Hickman down.

The cast of Hanna-Barbera’s Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, which premiered in 1969. Remind you of anyone? © Hanna-Barbera Productions. Cel courtesy of Heritage.

Bob Denver and the others had to carry several episodes without the star. Since Maynard was such a unique character, the burden fell on him. He discovered unsuspected powers and wild talents in whacky outings, and for one episode found his slacker soul mate. Denver was delighted. “I’m very lucky to have a character like that,” he said. “There’s no limits to his personality. He’s more of a fantasy than a character. But how Maynard ever got out of high school and into junior college is more than I can understand.” Given their continuing hijinks, however, the cast might as well have stayed at Central High. Other than Zelda—whom he didn’t want—Dobie failed to land a steady girlfriend. Hickman observed, “The chief contradiction of the character is that Dobie never gets the girl. His is a false aggressiveness–– everything he attempts in life backfires and pushes him into last place. I think even Dobie is aware of what a minus character he is.” RetroFan

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