ILLUSTRATED SUNSHINE #1

Because we all need a little sunshine, especially sunshine that smiles back!

This happy sun is from the label of a 1970's Chocks Vitamins bottle.

NUTTIN' BUT BAD NEWS

STEPHEN J. CANNELL'S DAUGHTER DONS THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO SUIT

Stephen J. Cannell has a YouTube channel with interviews about his books and TV shows. Most of the videos are hosted by his lovely daughter, Chelsea Cannell. In this video Chelsea wears the suit that William Katt made famous in the early 1980's TV show The Greatest American Hero and takes a stroll down Hollywood Boulevard. Click here to watch Stephen talk about the creation of The Greatest American Hero.

1947 BUB BUBBLE GUM NEWSPAPER AD

RAIDOLAND MURDERS 1974 ADVERTISEMENT

What if Radioland Murders was made instead of Star Wars? I'm sure things would have been very different. At one time Steve Martin's name was attached to Radioland back in the late 70's. The movie was eventually made and released twenty years later in 1994.

RANDOM COMIC BOOK PANEL #1

Yeah, yeah I know I'm not too original as a slew of other bloggers are putting up random comic book panels. Really, it's an excuse to flip thru my old comics and use the panels as fillers when I got nuttin'. Today is one of those "I got nuttin'" days. So collect 'em all!

MEET MR. INFLATABLE FLIPPER AT THE FRONTIER HOTEL

Check out this 1970's postcard from the Frontier Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. This postcard is so great that its beyond words.


Don’t feel bad. It took me a few minutes to stop laughing too.

I decided the inflatable dolphin should be in the bottom photo, so I took the liberty to insert, whom I’ve named Mr. Inflatable Flipper into the dinner scene. He seems like a better date for the blonde woman instead of that old guy.

1978 WALLPAPER

My mom was cleaning out a closet the other day and found a roll of wallpaper leftover from the first year of our house. The house was built in 1977-78 and this bright leafy wallpaper was in our dining room. I don't think this wallpaper made it into the 1980's and was replaced with something you didn't have to wear sunglasses to look at it.

I'm crossing my fingers that my mom will run across a roll of my old sailing ship wallpaper from my bedroom. If she does, I might be tempted to cover my office walls with it.

SAY CHEESE!

REAL PEOPLE

One of my favorite shows from when I was a kid. This really needs to be released on DVD.

WISE OLD OWL MOTH TABS

FLEA MARKET FRIDAYS #37


Since this owl is a good looking ad character, it's too bad this mascot was stuck hocking moth tabs.

1924 BAKERSFIELD THEATRE NEWS PROGRAM

Info links to the California Theatre, Pastime Theatre and The New Hippodrome.

WISHING EVERYONE A HAPPY GREATEST AMERICAN HERO DAY!

Happy Greatest American Hero Day! Yep, believe it or not, today is the 28th anniversary of The Greatest American Hero.


During the evening of March 18, 1981 at 7:00 on ABC the two-hour pilot premiered. That night was a television event that found my brother and I parked in front of the tube with big bowls of popcorn and orange soda. We loved it! The show was so good that it was one of the few times that two hours went by without us wrestling on the shag carpet over a TV show or Atari.


We followed the show until its untimely cancellation in 1983. The show was created by the king of TV characterization, Stephen J. Cannell, the guy who whips out the paper from his typewriter at the end of his TV shows. Probably the main reason why this show has become a cult classic is the main cast - William Katt, Robert Culp and Connie Sellecca. They were a fantastic trio!

See one of the original TGAH suits at the in the Hall of Heroes Museum.

Also, I came across a couple of vintage snapshots of TGAH fans from back in the day. View ‘em here and here.

I know what I’m doing tonight and that’s watching the pilot episode, popping some popcorn and drinking some orange soda!

TGAH IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Good news for Greatest American Hero fans, because Ralph, Bill and Pam will continue their adventures, not on television, but instead in the panels of a comic book. This new comic book series is produced by Catastrophic Comics, the comic book company started by the Greatest American Hero himself, William Katt.

Here's the gang at last year's San Diego Comic Con -



The teaser trailer for the comic can be viewed here.

You can buy a limited edition variant edition straight from publisher and have it autographed by Katt for the low price of ten bucks. I ordered my copy!

Catastrophic looks to be a comic company to keep your eyes on. Besides TGAH, they produce Sparks, a nitty gritty Super Hero book set in the late 1940's. You can also find Sparks as a full blown "motion comic" staring TGAH alum Michael Pare.

Watch the very cool trailer for Sparks here and then a short documentary here.

SUPERMAG WITH THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO

As a bonus here's a promo photo of Michael Pare and Faye Grant from TGAH.

THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO TV GUIDE

CRACKED THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY

Ok, now my blog is safe from anyone pinching it!

MY STICKER POSTER FROM 5TH GRADE

Back in 1980 in the 5th grade I ordered this poster from the Weekly Reader book order form. It appealed to my ten-year-old brain because of its Wacky Package style humor and the basic fact that it was a poster with a ton of stickers. Wow, I had never seen a poster that was also a giant sticker sheet. 80 stickers, oh boy, I was going to be in sticker heaven! When I got my poster, I was really in a dilemma. I wasn’t sure if I should hang it on the wall or go sticker crazy and stick the stickers anywhere and everywhere. After some deep thinking I decided to go sticker crazy! To the chagrin of my parents these little square stickers started showing up on my walls, my dresser, my desk, my lampshade, my notebooks, my lunch box and even on the collar of the family dog, Bluebell. Savoir-Faire they were everywhere!

Here’s the only photo evidence of my sticker sticking handy work on the lampshade in my bedroom.


And a close-up of the two stickers seen in the photo.


Through the years the stickers disappeared and became sort of a forgotten memory. Just a few weeks ago I found a stack of some of my old Star Wars paperbacks. I flipped thru ‘em seeing if I had left any bookmarks or baseball cards inside and sure enough an unused sticker from my poster popped out.


The memory of my poster came rushing back and I quickly scanned it and posted the lone sticker to flickr. Naturally, my pal Dan, said he had the original poster with the stickers intact and he would try to scan and post ‘em to flickr. Dan did one better as he just packaged the poster up and mailed it to me for my collection. After I opened the package, I flipped when and the sticker poster fell out. I had no idea Dan was sending it to me. A great gift from a great guy and I’m very thankful to have it! This time I’ve decided not to stick the stickers and to keep the poster intact.

Though it is tempting to go sticker crazy again!

Here’s some of my favorites -








Thanks to Dan Goodsell for helping me get a piece of my childhood back!

VROOM VROOM VROOM

LIVERPOOL LEGENDS BEATLES TRIBUTE BAND

It was Beatle mania here at the Lake of the Ozarks last week when Liverpool Legends performed at the Main Street Music Hall.



This fab four redux played all the classic Beatles hits from the British Invasion to the psychedelic end of the band.



After the intermission Louise Harrison, sister to George and the mastermind who created Liverpool Legends came out on stage and reminisced about her brother and the Beatles.


See the commercial for the Liverpool Legends concert that we saw last week here.

We really enjoyed the show and so did the audience, since everyone including my party, screamed like thirteen year old girls from the 1960's. (Luckily, no one fainted!)

Liverpool Legends perform regularly in Branson, Missouri. Watch Liverpool Legends perform She Loves You.

Below, check out a local news report from Iowa and then a fun car commercial from Springfield, Missouri -