There’s a new Captain Scarlet and The Mysterons podcast from Luke at UFOcast. As a guest presenter (Captain Aubergine) on the latest podcast, I look into episode 2 Winged Assassin, in which Captain Scarlet attempts to save the day by driving badly and being very rude to his passenger.
Action packed Supermarionation from Captain Scarlet
I enjoy my debut as Captain Aubergine, reviewing an episode of Captain Scarlet made me look at this show that aired in the UK the same year The Beatles released their Sgt Peppers album. It screened in 1967 (55 years ago) but was set in the wildly futuristic year of 2068.
While certainly dated (a children’s show with cigarette ad billboards and multiple characters smoking) it really showcases the talent and imagination of Century 21 Television Productions. The Supermarionation of Gerry Anderson, along with Sylvia Anderson’s costume designs in all their 1960s swingin’ colours, are really on display here alongside a very dark theme of amorphous alien revenge.
Spectrum Is Green!
Watch the actual episode Winged Avenger and see if we got it right…
Captain Scarlet does a drive-by of Sonny and Skippy
What I was playing during the festivities on the final night of The Castanet Club exhibit at Newcastle Museum. Three hours of uncool cool. With smatterings of Castanet Club and Musical Flags tracks.
Steve Abbott & Maynard at The Castanet Club Exhibition
Dave Mulligan brought Dave’s Dud Discs into my life originally in 1986 on Radio Stupid, the Saturday morning show on 2SER-FM. “Rare ungroovy” would be the best way to explain the collection of over 10,000 7″ singles that are in Dave’s collection.
These segments are from the Triple J breakfast show 1988 & 1990 and you will hear these previously unheard discs from the 50s & 60s, perhaps for good reason.
Asiatic Flu – The Uptowns
Taxtime – Cab Calloway (Mr Minnie The Moocher)
The Ballad of the Green Hornet
I Just Can’t Wait – Noel Harrison
The Joker Went Wild – Brian Highland
I’m Gonna Be Warm This Winter – Connie Francis
Boeing Boeing – Roger Miller
It’s Summertime USA – The Pixies Three
Ain’t Too Proud To Beg – The Temptations
Ain’t No Surf in Portobello – The Valves
The Rockin’ Teenage Mummies – Ray Stevens
Desafinardo – Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd
Just What I Always Wanted – Mari Wilson
Louie Louie – The Surfaris
Isn’t This Just Like Empty Vee? – The Atavistics
Adam West was fond of saying that the 1960s were about the three Bs; Beatles, Bond and Batman. While that may be an over simplification, I am overly simple. So I’ll go with that.
I’ve curated a short video list of Adam West performances below that are well worth your screentime.
The mere idea that William Shatner AND Adam West could have starred together in weekly series of Alexander The Great in 1963 should have been sign of big things to come. Big camp 1960s things.
The Last Precinct was a little seen police sitcom that had a short run in 1986 and was a good vehicle for Adam West’s surreal side. A side that would be explored in full as Lookwell and Mayor Adam West.
Ty Lookwell, as the capsule description from 1991 states, was a “washed-up TV action detective hero who falsely believes he can solve crimes in real life.”
I enjoyed the obvious serious psychological issues that Lookwell has and how the voice of the Shakespeare statue he regularly visits helps him (accidentally) solve the case. How this would have been treated with Robert Smigel (Triumph The Insult Comic Dog) and Conan O’Brien (everything good in this world) writing the ongoing series would have been a festival of wrongness to say the least.
Lookwell was green lighted and was due to go into production for NBC, but the pilot didn’t do well with audiences and the network never took the series up.
Enjoy these few snippets of Adam West. We can all take the advice of Ty Lookwell when being unceremoniously removed from the police commissioners office, as he admonishes a junior police officer for not recognising him from his 70s detective show;
“Maybe if you watched more television, you’d be better at your job.”
To the Batpole…
The Last Precinct
Lookwell
Alexander The Great
They May Be Drinkers Robin..
The Batusi
Batman surfs
Mayor Adam West and his cat launcher
Some more of Mayor Adam West
Great interview with Adam West from 2016
http://www.gilbertpodcast.com/adam-west/
