The Munsters-Herman the rookie

1965

So Herman takes his boy Eddie out to the ball field to teach him how to play ball. After some foolishness Herman uses his might to effortlessly pound the ball over the trees and far away. Meanwhile some ways away Leo Durocher (who is supposed to be with Dodgers but wasn’t by the time this aired) is arriving at the airport when Herman’s ball whacks him on the head. He’s okay but is very interested when he learns that the nearest ball field is a long ways off. Eventually he finds Herman and invites him for a tryout with the Dodgers. Herman shows off him power, but it kind of leads into a destructive kind of power and he seems to tear stuff apart at the field without meaning to. Turns out they don’t sign him because they figure each time he plays would cost them more than he’s worth in damages to the stadium. Oh, well better luck next time Hermie baby.

Team- The Dodgers

This is a great episode of one of my favorite shows. It follows a theme they use several times where Herman gets his hopes up only to have them dashed but life goes on.

Baseball week rolls on, another review coming on Tuesday.

Space Station 76-Can’t wait

Space Station 76 is a new indie film starring Patrick Wilson, Liv Tyler and Matt Bomer. It has apparently been shown in a few limited places including having been shown at SWSX a few weeks ago. Apparently it’s at least part spoof focusing on 1970’s space shows and movies which is why it would appeal to me. From the few pictures I’ve seen it definitely borrows some sets and costume ideas from Space: 1999 plus there’s lots of mustaches, big hair on the female characters and simplistic robots. For a cameo it’s looks like (according to IMDB) that Keir Dullea from 2001: A space odyssey and Starlost has a small role in the film. I hadn’t heard about this one at all until recently. While I prefer movies and shows right from the 70’s I’d be interested in a spoof if it’s done in at least a semi-loving way. Either way if it ever gets a proper release either in the theater or on DVD I’ll be all over it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2369317/

Robin’s Holy Exclamations!

To wrap up UFO week this week’s exclamations are Holy Known Unknown Flying Objects!  This one might serve to startle and confuse at the same time.

The Hardy Boys-The disappearing floor

1977

So the Hardy boys Frank and Joe are asked by their dad to follow this scientist (Howard Platt who you may recognize from Sanford and son and Bob Newhart) at night by car to an isolated area. He loses them so they eventually they stop rrrrkk and get out. Hoping to find him on foot they soon see a glowing saucer shaped object in the sky aaaaaieee! It comes right at them and vanishes. Then the come upon a large house and decide to go in you know because that’s okay to do, wait it really isn’t.   Ahhh they are fictional detectives so we’ll let it slide. Once I the house it looks all fancy, but then it starts looking warped and the floor seems to open up. Eventually the brothers get away and tell their dad about it. He tries telling this to the company he is working for and gets fired. Oh, dear that’s horrible and it starts a rather confused mystery that involves Russian agents, underground lairs, holograms and some people you may recognize from Star Trek episodes. The pace is steady but the logic and the conclusion aren’t quite as engaging. On the plus side Shaun Cassidy doesn’t sing in this one. The UFO and the weirdo not so funhouse are explained all too easily by them having been holograms.

The positives- Some good guests stars help a little. I liked the UFO and remember this one from when I saw it when it first on.

The negatives- There are far better episodes of this show but they don’t have UFOs in them. To be honest the accompanying Nancy Drew show beats the crap out of this show.

The UFO-It is an elongated saucer shaped ship wrapped in a very bright blue-white light. It’s fairly large, but of course turns out to have been a hologram designed to scare people off. When I was kid it looked more impressive then it does now.

 

Who put this whoopee cushion here?

That’s no moon!

Me, UFOs and the 1970’s

Much of my interest in UFO’s in the 1970’s came from the TV. As I have reviewed several episodes of shows that featured them. Plenty of shows had these discs in them including sci-fi, action and comedy shows. Whether these episodes were good or not wasn’t as important to me as it was that they had UFOs. That’s kind of the approach I had to the late 70’s show Project UFO. Now back then I only watched it for the saucers and that’s what I remember most about the show. Actually I have not seen it since it was first on and since it isn’t on DVD I may never see it again. It was a Jack Webb/Dragnet dry matter of fact type show that re-enacted UFO sighting. Most of what I do recall was the spaceships. After seeing the show I would go outside looking for a UFO. Hey, give me a break I was like 8. Another source of UFO material for me were comics like the one above. Along with Captain America, the Flash, Marvel Team-up and other comics in the 70’s I also liked anything with UFOs. The title above like Project UFO showed reports of saucers sightings, but had them in comic form. I read these over and over back then often when my brother and I were camping in the yard in a tent. Somewhere around the early 1980’s my interest in UFO’s declined. Now I still go back and watch some of those shows and remember how the subject caught my interest so strongly back then.

Upcoming junk and stuff

I still have two more posts for UFO week-Hardy Boys review today and a general item tomorrow. Robin will be by Sunday. Next week will be baseball week to celebrate opening day. I will have reviews of baseball episodes of the Munsters, the Incredible Hulk, Gallactica 1980 and Voyagers.

 

Take care!

Charlie’s Angels-Unidentified Flying Angels

1977

The plot-
So this rich woman disappears or actually she is roughly escorted from the room after seeing a UFO. Such beastly behavior. The angels are called upon to investigate this place which is run by a flim flam man (Wild Wild West’s Ross Martin) and an ex-astronaut who wears the worst blond wig/hair helmet this side of a Star Trek alien. Apparently they charge people a bunch of bread in exchange for the chance of maybe spotting a UFO. Oh, boy! Bosley (David Doyle) and Kris (Cheryl Ladd) pretend to be a couple (of what I am not sure) who want to see a UFO or rather Kris does so her sugar daddy gives in. Meanwhile Sabrina (Kate Jackson) plays a cheap PI looking for a missing person (although not the one she is really looking for) at the UFO/rich guy place. The third angel Kelley (Jaclyn Smith) hits up the bewigged ex-astronaut in hopes of finding out information. So the girls and Bosley play their roles trying to figure out what is going on. They go through different outfits, fool the baddies, stroll through 70’s style rooms and eventually Sabrina finds the UFO is a fake. There is also an airplane, a water running car (yeah, right) and uh a desert. This UFO business is all a sham, the evildoers are outed, the saucer revealed and the case solved. The girls talk to their boss Charlie over a little black box while they grin a lot and our show is over.

The UFO-
The saucer looks relatively detailed and is a typical saucer shape. It’s grey and makes a whooshing sound. When it is revealed as a fake it’s a metallic looking thing around a meter in length. It’s on a rod and it goes up and down while being controlled by remote control and the controls are a big desk like thing. So a fairly elaborate set-up and it’s kept outside behind a stone wall a ways from the house.

I just saw this one for the first time last week. It’s a decent enough episode that shows how people can want to see a UFO and I’m sure that happened in the 70’s. Ross Martin is good as the crook. Kate Jackson is always a delight when she gets to play a tacky person as her cover as she does here. The UFO actually looks very good, like a Hollywood style prop which of course it is. Once you see the model it’s hard to believe that’s the same huge thing that duped a room full of adults.

Happy Birthday to Leonard Nimoy

Happy birthday to one of my favorites! Now go watch Star Trek.

The Brady Bunch-Out of this world

1974

What’s this about?
Bobby and Peter meet an astronaut who claims to have seen a UFO. That gets saucers on their minds. Later at home they hear a whining noise, they look outside and see a red saucer shaped thingamabob floating out in the distance. Oh me garsh it’s a flying saucer it is! Or at least it looks enough like one to get this episode rolling. Peter and Bobby are thrilled by having seen this, but the rest of the family doesn’t believe them. So they decide they need evidence like a picture. Next thing they set up in their back yard with a camera prepared to see the UFO again. Eventually they do and get a picture. Also around this time Bobby has a dream where a UFO complete with red-afro wig wearing little aliens come and talk to him. After the dream the pictures are developed and show a saucer. The parents still don’t know what it is however an Air Force investigator is called in. Turns out that Greg was doing it all along to prank Bobby and Peter, but he didn’t intend for it to go this far. So he confesses and gets punished, no UFO, show is over.

The UFO-Greg explains earlier to Marcia that he hung a plastic sheet on a line between two trees like a movie screen. Then the saucer is a cutout on a flashlight that he shines on the sheet while blowing into a whistle thingie for the sound. Of course the saucer looks too good for what he says he did. While Bobby is always wanting to believe in things it’s not surprising he was duped. Peter however is like 15-16 here and should have known better.

Impact-I loved this one as a kid and still appreciate it for the UFO aspect and the hoax aspects.

UFO verification checklist

So you see an object in the sky, how do you verify whether it’s real or not.

For UFOs that only appear in the sky and vanish check these.
1-Make sure there isn’t a clear plastic sheet out in the distance because maybe someone was just shining a flash light UFO on it.
2-Inspect the area where you saw the object to make sure there isn’t fishing line between trees to pull a saucer object across.
3- Check area for hub caps, frisbees or other objects that may have been tossed in the air by hoaxers.

Other sound advice.
If the saucer is still in the sky then make sure it looks solid and it isn’t just a projection.

If the saucer is one the ground then look closely to make sure it isn’t made of cardboard or plywood.

If the saucer says UFO on it then it probably isn’t.

Some of those will show up this week in reviews as UFO week moves on. Feel free to add any tips to the list in the comment section.