Welcome to another fun-ducational episode of the Nerd Lunch podcast. This week we are again Jeeg-less, but we are joined in the 4th chair by Tim Lybarger. Tim is the proprietor of The Neighborhood Archive, your one-stop shop for all things Mr Rogers. Check it out, the site is pretty awesome.
Tim joins us this week for our topic about live action children’s programming. We talk about PBS and Nickelodeon. We discuss shows like Sesame Street, Electric Company, Double Dare, Kids Incorporated and, of course, Mr Rogers. Come check it out, I guarantee you we talk about one of your favorites.
Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner.
Back in April, over on Nerd Lunch, CT wrote an extremely honest review of that Garbage Pail Kids retrospective book that was released earlier this year. He admitted that he didn’t have the nostalgia tied in with the cards to make him really love that book.
I, on the other hand, do have that nostalgia and CT had me write a counterpoint to his book review. That review was just posted today over on Nerd Lunch.
As a previous collector of the cards when they were originally released, click on over and see what I thought of the book.
On June 27 the 1992 Basketball Tournament of the Americas was held in Portland, Oregon. Just over 20 years ago. This would be the qualifying tournament for the 1992 Olympic games in Barcelona, Spain.
This particular tournament is important because it was the international debut of the 1992 Men’s Olympic Basketball Team, the original Dream Team.
Selected the Summer before in 1991, the team consisted of co-captains Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan as well as Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, John Stockton, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, Scottie Pippen, Clyde Drexler and Christian Laettner. This would be the first time that FIBA would allow the use of NBA players on a country’s Olympic team.
Though the tournament started on June 27th, the Dream Team didn’t debut until the second day, June 28, where they played Cuba.
Here are the team intros and some highlights of that debut game.
The game was televised. I was actually working that summer as a lifeguard. I, unfortunately, had to work that day, but during my lunch break I ran home and watched a little over an hour of the game before having to go back. I, of course, video taped the game so I could watch it in its entirety later that evening. Earlier that summer, I had purchased a replica of Larry Bird’s Olympic jersey and when I ran back to work that afternoon, I wore it the rest of the day. I still have the VHS of that game as well as Bird’s Olympic jersey. I also would later purchase a replica Bird Celtics jersey and a replica John Stockton Jazz jersey. They are my two favorite NBA players.
The Dream Team would go on to sweep that tournament and win their birth in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. After their spectacular debut in the tournament, the country caught Dream Team fever and, as expected from a David Stern NBA venture, the team was marketed to the general public with jerseys, videos, collector cups and more.
I’ll take a look at some of that merchandising this week in my week long look at the 1992 Olympic Dream Team. This week will culminate in my review of the new book by Jack McCallum, The Dream Team, which is a look back at the formation of the team as well as “behind the scenes” of being on the team.
I’m going to start up another feature on this blog. Thanks to CT over at Nerd Lunch I was able to acquire a very cheap set of The Six Million Dollar Man Complete Series DVD collection from Time Life.
I’ve been a huge bionic fan since I watched the show in reruns while I was growing up. I have VHS copies of some of the more famous episodes like the original Bigfoot episodes, the original Bionic Woman episodes and The Seven Million Dollar Man episode. But ever since Time Life released this set, I wanted it. The asking price was a little out of my price range though, but I maintained hope that it would go on sale at some point. Then CT spotted a coupon code on Facebook for the set that gave me over $80 off the price so I pulled the trigger and got the entire set with free shipping for a price that fell smack dab in the middle of my desired price range. YES.
So now I have the full set at home. It’s awesome, it comes in this collectible box with a lenticular image of Steve Austin on top that actually runs when you move the top up and down. Also, when you open the top, you hear Oscar Goldman say, “Steve Austin. A man barely alive…” Like I said, AWESOME. My son loves that the box talks when you open it and he also likes looking at the Steve Austin lenticular “run”. Maybe sometime he’ll watch these episodes with me.
So now I want to start watching the episodes of the show.
At the same time I’ve been trying to get this DVD set, I’ve also sort of quietly started collecting the novels that are based on the show. There are four novels written by Martin Caidin who created Steve Austin in his first novel, Cyborg. There are also a bunch of novels that adapt episodes of the show. I got the original Cyborg novel as well as it’s two sequels; Operation Nuke and High Crystal. But it was taking me for-f**king-ever to find the final Caidin book, Cyborg IV. Then I finally worked a deal with a guy online and acquired pretty much the entire run of Six Million Dollar Man novels as well as the two Bionic Woman novels. So now I have those to read.
Since I plan on consuming all of this pop culture bionic awesomeness, I figure I’ll chart my progress here on the blog in much the same way I’m doing my Oz books read through. I’ll start reviewing the books, then I’ll start reviewing the TV episodes. I haven’t figured out how the episode reviews will work. I probably won’t put up an article for every single episode. I’ll probably group episodes together in twos or threes and leave the big two parters and the more significant episodes (Bigfoot, Bionic Woman, Death Probe) with their own articles. We’ll see how I do that when I get there.
Currently, right this very moment, I’ve read the first two Caidin novels and watched the first two Six Million Dollar Man pilot movies (there were three movies in 1973 before the series began in January 1974). I’ll slowly start to post these reviews without any type of regularity at first. The Oz read through stuff will take priority right now. But I’m looking forward to starting and sharing this journey with everyone. It should be fun.
First appearances of famous comic book heroes/villains are highly sought after in the comic book world. Who wouldn’t love an Action Comics #1 or a Detective Comics #27? But what about Action Comics #2? Or Detective Comics #26? Are anyone seeking these titles out?
To me, it’s fascinating to look at very famous comic titles before or after they’ve debuted a very famous character. They may not look like even the same title. It’s weird to see an issue of Detective Comics with Slam Bradley or the Crimson Avenger on the front and not Batman. You feel like you’re in the Fringe universe. Let’s check out some of these fun comic covers and you can see how strange and foreign they look to you.
Action Comics #2 – Action Comics is probably one of the most iconic titles of all time. Who doesn’t know that Superman debuted in issue #1 of Action Comics (left) in 1938? Well, interestingly enough, Action Comics was originally meant to be an anthology adventure comic with several other adventure characters. So even though Action Comics is now strictly a Superman title, back then, Supes was just one of the featured characters. Therefore, issue #2 (right) didn’t feature Superman on the cover at all. Issue #3 didn’t feature Superman either. As a matter of fact, Superman wouldn’t make another Action Comics cover appearance until issue #7 (SIX MONTHS later).
Detective Comics #26 and #28 – Detective Comics is as intimately associated with Batman as Action Comics is with Superman. However, Batman didn’t debut until issue #27 (middle), so there were 26 issues of Detective without Batman on the cover or in the book. As you can see, in the issues before (#26, left) and after (#28, right) Batman you get standard covers of police officers and gangsters that you would normally appear on crime comics of this time. While Batman would return to the cover for issue #29, he would be absent again for issue #30.
All-Star Comics #3 and #8 – All-Star Comics is a very famous Golden Age title. It features the first appearance of The Justice Society of America in issue #3 (middle) which is the first team-up of super-heroes into a single team in history. In issue #2 (left), you can see they still feature the heroes on the cover, but not collected together as one team as designated by issue #3’s giant round table with the team name embossed on the top. All-Star Comics #8 (right) is an interesting issue also. You wouldn’t know it by the cover, but that issue is the first appearance of Wonder Woman in an 8 page insert that was used to test the interest of Wonder Woman as a hero. Wonder Woman would join the Justice Society in issue #11…as their secretary (but she would make the cover!). She would prove popular enough to headline her own book, Sensation Comics, a year later.
Showcase #3 and #5 – The debut of The Flash in Showcase #4 (middle) was one of the defining moments of the Silver Age. Showcase was a tryout book by DC to determine who would get their own series. As you can see, the issue before The Flash debuted (#4, middle) featured a story about deep sea divers called The Frogmen (#3, left). And even though The Flash was a huge hit, he wouldn’t appear in Showcase #5 which featured Manhunters (#5, right). The Flash would reappear on the cover for Showcase #8. The Hal Jordan Green Lantern would debut in Showcase #22.
Cavalcade of Awesome 