Simon and Simon

Woodsy, you have mentioned a couple of times not being familiar with the US detective series Simon and Simon. 

Here is a short video looking at the series, and its two likeable leads.

Do you know this show readers?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtQmFLErzjc

Paul from NZ

Christmas Supermarket Ads

 There appears to be two types of Christmas TV ads from the big UK supermarkets this year, kind-hearted and mean spirited.

My favourite so far is the BFG one. With great big friendly words like Delumptious and Telly Telly Bunkum Box and the final message of It's Christmas, we'll Make Room, it captures what surely Christmas is all about, good will to all, despite the ardour and baggage in everyone's lives.

That's the Christmas magic: to make room. 

Then there's the ad where two grown-up brothers are arguing loudly in front of a flip-chart pictionary drawing with the family watching on silently aghast. Really? Do we really need an expensive Christmas ad to remind us of all our usual baggage, all that family aggro we all endure anyway?

No Xmas magic here; just the same old trouble.

Which style do you prefer?

Del Toro's Frankenstein

 As recommended by Bill, I watched the first half of the new Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein on TV.

And wow! What a treat for the eyes. Clever, lush, big and bold, it's a fabulous production and a worthy entry in Promethian Shelley  telly. 

Watching Del Toro's sumptuous gothic feast made me think of Aurora monsters, Tim Burton, Bernie Wrightson and the 1970's TV film starring Michael Sarrazin, itself an enfant terrible of evening TV which shocked us all with its decapitation scene. Yuk! 

There's even a similarity between Michael Sarrazin and Del Toro's leading man Oscar Isaacs!

Are you watching Frankenstein?

 

Did you have a TV in your Bedroom?

I never had a telly in my bedroom.  None of my friends did in the late Sixties/ Seventies.

Up till 1970 our family TV was black and white.

All the great kids TV like Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet was black and white too! 

 It only went colour at our house for the Mexico 1970 World Cup! 

What are your telly memories readers? 

For Your Eye Sockets Only

 What can I say about Alien Earth, the new TV series on Disney+?

Superlatives don't really cover it.

Think supremely fantastic and cringingly yucky in equal measure, maybe somewhere round the dripping joints between films like the Thing and Sputnik grafted onto a waiting open Alien.

Not for the faint-hearted and completely compulsive. 

For me the current icky award goes to one of the show's smaller varmints.

But before I reveal it, it's interesting to dawdle over some precedents ... But watch out!

This golden oldie sets the scene, a movie that terrified me as a kid and one I know as the Trollemburg Terror! Is it one you know?

This is the box art to a model kit.

Cuneo's painted slithering devils spring to mind as well, as introduced to us on MC by Wotan 17 years ago.

I just couldn't help jiggling this into a clip, but it's Cuneo's artistry.

Similarly Bill brought us his fondness for rubber uglies on MC and this oily eye-squid fits right in (a phrase which comes into its own on Alien Earth! 🐙 )

Once more I was compelled to meme it.

But none of these wrigglers can prepare you for the truly cringing orb that is Alien Earth's small and parasitic crawling eye!

You've been warned!

Yuk!

Biddy Baxter and Ray Brooks RIP

Biddy Baxter

I  saw on the news that Biddy Baxter has sadly passed away. It was the first time I recall seeing what she looked like but I remember her name so vividly from the end credits of Blue Peter. There she was every week.

Blue Peter was essential TV for me as a kid like many of my generation. My Blue Peter team were the iconic threesome of Peter Purvis, John Noakes and Valerie Singleton, my first crush! 

It's hard to describe how important the show was. Yes, there were other magazine type shows like Magpie but Blue Peter, during the late Sixties and early Seventies, had our ear. The presenters, the stories, the challenges, the antics, the charity mail-ins, the pets, the annuals and the badges made sure of that and Biddy Baxter was behind it all.

Like our beloved Gerry Anderson, Biddy Baxter's name will be forever associated with the golden age of kids TV.

RIP.

Was Blue Peter something you watched? Anyone get a Blue Peter badge?

*

 Ray Brooks

Ray Brooks, the veteran actor who gave voice to the popular kids TV character Mr. Benn has also sadly passed away. 

Mr. Benn was a charming animated show in which Mr.Benn, if I recall rightly,  whilst visiting a fancy dress shop changed his suit and dressed up as another character like a knight and then entered the life of that character. 

Like a Westworld for kids and a cosplay herald, as a 9 year old I loved the show and Ray Brooks' calm voice. Did you?

RIP.

Telly Watching

TV update:

Westworld: I finished it, sort of. Seasons 1 and 2 were amazing. Alas, they left the park in 3 and 4 and it just couldn't hold my interest. I skipped a lot of 3, saw the end and went into season 4. The spark had gone and all I could manage was the finale, Qué Sera Sera. Still, seasons 1 and 2 were riveting TV.

Moebius: caught this lower ranking Marvel character in his own flick last week. I used to read Moebius, the Living Vampire as a kid. Despite good make-up as a vamp the story was thin and it looked like a side-step from the Underworld franchise.

War of the Worlds with Ice Cube. Not seen this but a 0% rating on Rotten Toms has me intrigued. Can it really be that bad?

The Sinners: my nephew recommended this. He's in his thirties so I have to add a pinch of millennial salt. There's odd and strange comments online about fake positive reviews. Anyone seen it?

What are you watching readers?

Mumfie? Who?

 I came across this old paperback from the mid-Seventies.

Here Comes Mumfie?

On TV?

It's a complete mystery to me. Never heard of it, never saw it!

Are you aware of Mumfie readers?

Will O's Mumfie update!

Hi Woodsy, Back in the 1990's Hornby did a range of Mumfie toys. Licenced by Britt Alcroft who also held the Thomas the tank engine licence. 

 Will O

UK

Image: Will's shop deadstock

In my Mind I'm a Western Hero

 Now, I just don't recall Simon and Simon on TV but I would have loved those walkie talkies! 

"Simon, it's Simon. Over!" Ha ha

Riptide is another show that passed me by. They needed Gordy handcuffs though.

And why stop there! Wild Bill Hickok (is that the right spelling?) gets Gordy cuffs too! 

I guess Wild Bill is in the public domain as well as many other 'Western Heros' in this line. 

Anyone know the TV shows? You got any handcuffs? Any Western Hero stuff? 

Emergency Ward 10 Annual

Today was mentioned the old British TV Series Emergency Ward 10. This is not a show I recall, and I do not know if it ever made it to NZ, but a quick look turned up a little background information.

Emergency Ward 10 ran from 1957 to 1967, twice a week on Tuesday and Friday, on ITV. It was set in Oxbridge General Hospital.

According to BFI Screen On Line, there were 966 half-hour episodes, and 50 weekly hour-long episodes (or was this London only ?).

It was a spin-off from the six-week series Calling Nurse Roberts; and itself produced a spin-off Call Oxbridge 2000 (1961-62). There was also a feature film, Life in Emergency Ward 10 (black and white, released 1959).

Two hard-back Emergency-Ward 10 Girls’ Annuals were published by Purnell to tie-in with the series. Published in 1962 and 1963, they both ran to 128 pages.

I picked up this example of the second volume at a book fair a few years ago. It has the usual mix of picture-strip and text stories, articles on the lead actors and actresses, and articles on the real emergency services.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Tufty Club Anyone?

Tufty and Zoo Quest!

Remember them?

I recall the Tufty Club but what was it? 

Automan Anyone?

 

Now obscure TV shows came and went. For instance I remember Street Hawk and Manimal but this Automan passed me completely by.

He did get his own action figure though. Maybe there's more!

Made by Acamas Toys, it's new to me.

How about you readers? 

Jason King, Adam Adamant and The Champions DVD's

Adam Adamant Lives did not screen in NZ, and I had never seen it. However it was often referred to, and seemed to be well regarded. It was also mentioned a few times on Moonbase Central, so when I saw a boxed set of the surviving episodes (many were thrown out by the BBC, just as they did with Doctor Who), I bought it. A great, fun series. Very happy with it.

The Champions was a series that did not screen in NZ at the time it was made. It finally arrived, around the late 1970s ? Say a decade or so after it was made. It was clearly an older show by the time it arrived here. Another good series. I managed to pick up a few DVDs with the first ten episodes on them, but then found this boxed set with all 30 episodes, so I snapped it up.

Jason King was a fun series that did screen in NZ. So I knew what I was getting when I got this boxed set. A spin-off from Department S, which I do not have.

Honey West was another series that did not make it to NZ. But after seeing it mentioned a few times on Moonbase Central, I had a look on You Tube, and found some of the episodes. I was so impressed I ordered the DVD set. No one local had the set, so I had to get it from overseas.I have already written this set up for Moonbase, it was 2020.

Have you got any of these?

Paul Adams from NZ

ZERO DAY AND NIGHT AGENT

Thinking it was sci-fi I began watching a US series called Zero Day on Netflix.

It wasn't sci-fi but apocalyptic enough for me to carry on and finish the whole series in two nights!

Basically a cyber 9/11, the so-called Zero Day, with a massive slab of US Washington politicking thrown in. 

I kinda like all that DC, POTUS, Speaker of the House, Congress and Senate shenanigans!

I never knew that past US Presidents are still referred to as Mr. President when addressing them! I also didn't know that the CIA cannot operate on US soil itself! Every day's a school day!

Not one for the Missus, despite an aging Bob di Niro starring, I was quite taken aback by the ending, which I won't spoil for you.

Zero Day did fit right into another Netflix series we both saw last week called Night Agent, or was it Action?

This one was about the FBI and the CIA and a batphone called Night Action. In fact we watched two whole series over two weeks. POTUS was the word of the show, being used virtually every five minutes. I reminds me of MOTU [Masters of the Universe!]

We both enjoyed Night Agent and look forward to Season 3 next year.

Have you seen Zero Day or Night Agent readers?

What are you watching?

What was your favourite TV show?

I've been thinking about this. It's not an easy question. It changes as I consider it, as my memory revs up. 

One day it's Thunderbirds and those fabulous vehicles, another it's Scooby Do and those wonderful monsters and another it's Blue Peter, with something new all the time. There are many more contenders too.

Do you have this dilemma readers? What was your favourite kids TV show in your part of the world?

BILLY BLASTOFF AND LUNAR SCOUT: WHATS ON THEIR TV'S?

I love miniature toy TV's.

I always have and had lots of different types as a nipper in the Sixties: viewmaster types, which you clicked for a new piccy through the tiny eyepiece; the little TV in the Corgi Lincoln Continental and of course Billy Blastoff's TV. 

In the Billy Blastoff  knockoff Lunar Scout set the picture used as its mini TV screen is a neat looking and familiar Thunderbird 2.

Ringing bells I found its source. Here it is courtesy of Arto, the boxed and wondrous box art on the Ray Guided X-2 Space Ship..

Taking a look at the real Billy Blastoff's TV by Eldon/ Scalecraft, pictured below, it has a completely different screen picture, though in order to identify it I really need it to be illuminated by Billy's backpack. Can anyone oblige?

Other miniature toy TV pictures welcomed!

LIGHT UP THE CLOWN! WATCHING MY CORGI LINCOLN CONTINENTAL TV

 I adored my Corgi Lincoln Continental die-cast as a kid in the 60's.

Everything about it was just the best. The atom symbol on the rear window frames were just fantastic.

The bestest of all though was the TV screen at the back! Yes!

Mine was the clown picture - at least that's the one I remember [I must have had them all though!]. 

You could illuminate the lenticular picture and I would have loved to have sat in the back and watched it as a little Woodsy!

I liked my own 'clown' TV screen so much that I melded it into a radio story about ten years ago called Sarge, which was brilliantly produced and aired by Bill Everett and Dave Carrington over at Celtica Radio [were you a listener?]

Looking further into that TV screen I thought I'd change channels and see what the six pictures were in the Corgi Continental.

Despite reading they were everywhere on the net, I found finding pictures of the whole lenticular strip of six not easy to find.

Here's what I did find, courtesy of Ebay, Worthpointt, various auctions and Planet Diecast.

Here you can see the uncut strip of five mini TV screens resting on the front blister plinth, with one already in the rear of the car; the boxers.

All six were: clown, racing car, Mexican [or is it a US General?], rocket, galleon and boxers.

Here's a similar strip placed in the screen aperture [Image: Planet Diecast]. Again, the boxer is in the hole.

Here are three of the screens cut from the strip; boxers, rocket and Mexican/ US General.

The best thing though is seeing the screens in situ and ideally illuminated as they were meant to be seen when we were nippers.

Which was your favourite?

Clown [my own fave!]

Rocket

Racing Car

Boxers

I've been unable to find any images of the galleon or the Mexican/ US General in the TV screens. Can you help?

My final shot was one I saw on auction recently and captures for me the fabulous simplicity of play;

some of the TV screens cut and stowed in the boot of the car!

How cool is that!

Is this a car that you had? Which lenticular screen was in your TV?

TELLY BOX TALK

 Further TV watching this last week:

X-Files: me and Missus are ploughing on with our big watch; all of the X-Files episodes, one or two a night. We started last year and broke for Christmas and New Year, resuming this week . 

We skipped the infamously gruesome episode 'Home' about the Peacock 'family', as I knew the Missus would find it a hard and upsetting watch.

Carrying on, We got to Season 4 episode 5 last night - " The Field Where I died". Its about Mulder's previous life in the American Civil War, as well as modern day cult with a member who was also in Mulder's old life. The poem in the field is quite moving.

https://youtu.be/5WsqCuuV_IE?feature=shared

Civil War; I watched this modern American flick late one night on my own. And what a harrowing and wholly depressing carry-on it was too. Parts of the South verses the President's North if I understood it correctly. Kirsten Dunst's dour face said it all - could things really get this bad? It reminded me of the National Guard being mean in Earthquake [1974] but dialled up to Lethal: in the modern movie soldiers were simply killing fellow citizens at random. Could it really get this bad?

Longlegs: the name intrigued me so I thought it might be a sort of slender man horror. No. This wasn't really a horror film, more like a dark thriller in the vein of Se7en or Silence of the Lambs. A socially awkward FBI agent is tasked with finding a cold case killer called Longlegs, who has got up and started stretching his legs again, which is apparently never good for the town. SPOILER ALERT! The killer himself is really odd, a sort of flour-dusted hippy with red lips and a high-pitched voice who loves to sing instead of speak. I found it all a bit slow and boring. He didn't even have long legs!

Have you seen any of these readers? What are you watching?

The Airfix High Chaparral Set

The High Chaparral was an American Western TV series. It ran for four seasons (1967-71), and 98 episodes.

Big John Cannon has just bought a ranch in Arizona, which his brother Buck (an ex-Confederate soldier) is looking after. He arrives with his wife and son, Blue Boy. His wife just has time to name the ranch the High Chaparral, after a local plant, before being killed in an Apache attack. The Indians also steal all his cattle.

He goes to Mexican rancher Don Sabastian Montoya to buy replacements. Don Sabastian agrees, but only if Big John will marry his daughter Victoria, whom he wants to get rid of, and no one else will marry her (very similar to The Onedin Line, where James could only buy the ship he wanted to start his own shipping line, if he also married an unwanted daughter). Big John needs the cattle, and agrees. Victoria's brother, Manolito, is sent along to keep an eye on things.

The series tended to centre around the mis-adventures of Manolito, Uncle Buck, and Blue Boy. It seemed to do well internationally, and certainly screened in Britain and New Zealand. There was a fair amount of merchandising for the show.

One of these items was a set of small HO & OO, or 1/76th, scale soft plastic figures by Airfix. Actually, this was their existing Cowboys set (S7, with 42 pieces) from 1961, with some of the original figures deleted, and replaced with the five main characters from the TV series.

The title of this set is The High Chaparral, number S38. The box art is very good, and shows John Cannon on horseback, with a rifle. Manolito, also on a horse, is aiming a pistol. Uncle Buck is standing, about to draw his revolver. None of these actually match what is in the box.

The back of the end-opening box does correctly show the figures, and names them. It also says From the BBC:TV series, although this was merely the British TV station that played the series, not the original maker of the show. There is also a copyright notice in the lower right hand corner for Xanadu Production Inc.

The set was first shown in the 7th Edition Airfix Catalogue (1970). The artwork was clearly only a mock-up, as it featured a photograph from the show, not the usual Airfix painting. It was also listed under the number S7, which was the same as the original Cowboys set.

Oddly, the Catalogues always described the set as High Chaparral Cowboys, but the boxes always used the TV series title The High Chaparral.

The 8th Edition Catalogue showed the real box, and the new number S38, which was also used in the 9th Catalogue. The 10th Edition Catalogue (printed January 1973) changed the number yet again, to 01738-1. The set was last shown in the 12th Edition (printed January 1975).

From MOS6510 Models, a look at the 7th Edition Catalogue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5rHlmSFhB0

The set was briefly mentioned in the News From Airfix section of Airfix Magazine, January 1971, which would have been published in late 1970. The retail price of the set on its release was 2/11 (two shillings and eleven pence - I am not sure exactly what that was in New Pence, about 15p ?).

https://archive.org/details/Airfix_Magazine_1971-01/mode/2up

This is not a set I had when I was a boy. In fact, I never saw this set in New Zealand, only in the Airfix Catalogue. I picked this box up, second-hand, in the 1990s, for $2 NZ.

Big John Cannon is holding a rifle, and has his arm around his wife Victoria (he obviously does not want to lose another wife) - this being a double figure; her brother Manolito; John's son Blue Boy; and his brother, known as Uncle Buck. The rest of the figures are generic cowboys and outlaws in various poses, both on foot and mounted.

The boxes say 42 Scale Pieces, which includes human figures, horses, and their bases. My set is moulded in a reddish-brown colour, but it was also made in cream, and a much darker chocolate brown.

Most references refer to early boxes saying 42 pieces, and later boxes saying 41 pieces. Most boxes I found on Worthpoint show 42 Scale Pieces, with the old Airfix banner logo, and the number S38 - this is the box I have. The boxes that have 41 Scale Pieces all seem to have the early Airfix logo on the box top, with the later, circular Airfix logo on the sides and rear, and the number 01738-1.

Plastic Soldier Review is a site devoted to small scale plastic figures, including the Airfix High Chaparral set. Their example is moulded in cream coloured plastic.

http://plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=41

Four photographs, all mine.

Did you like the High Chaparral?

Paul Adams from New Zealand

CHRISTMAS TELLY: BAH HUMBUG!

Despite purchasing a Radio Times I've yet to catch-up on Christmas spooks on the wireless, which I'll do in January when everything's calmed down.

I have though been watching TV and keeping an eye on the mainstream scheduling. I have to say its been a bit disappointing so far.

For me and possibly I'm mistaken, the yardstick for top class UK TV listings between Xmas and New Year is a screening of Jason and the Argonauts or at least one of the Harryhausen monster epics.

Nada.

Nichts.

Yes, there's been Alistair Sim's Christmas Carol, Bill Murray's Scrooged and the classic Its a Wonderful Life to jingle our nostalgic bells .... but C'mon!

The high point for the Grandson was the new Aardman Wallace and Gromet movie shown on Christmas Day. Alas, I was close to the soft glow of the Christmas tree on a corner sofa and fell asleep!

I still love 'normal' telly here in Blighty - the Beeb, ITV and the like - but I cant help thinking the glory days of Christmas are over for them. 

The glut of cheapo Freeview channels churning out the same stuff they do every day, endless re-runs of Man V. Food, Wives with Knives etc etc - no change for Christmas! - doesn't lift the festive doldrums on the small screen either.

The exceptions are of course those UK freeview channels - Rewind, TalkingPicturesTV - that cater for aging boomer babies like us showing the delights of the Sixties and Seventies like Thriller, Space Patrol, Department S, Stingray and more.

Maybe all of this is academic in the days of streaming, Smart TV's, Sky, Netflix, Prime, Disney+, You Tube and millions of online videos. It must be a worry for 'normal TV' bosses.

Young people probably don't even watch the Beeb, ITV or any of those old dinosaurs. Not just the young either, a not-so-young friend of ours only watches You Tube videos for her entertainment. Nothing else. My 80 year old Sister is transfixed by TikTok, so what do I know!

I wonder what will be left of terrestrial telly in ten years when I'm 74?

What did you watch this holiday readers in your neck of the world? Is online TV taking over? Was Christmas represented on your telly schedules?