Neato Coolville might've missed the Halloween countdown but our pal Vlad was working feverishly to bring to life some new episodes of Castle Vlad. As a Halloween treat...or trick, (you be the judge), here are all the October episodes in one place. Let's start with the annual Halloween outtakes first!
Come a little closer madam—I want you to watch this 30 second commercial for Monster Vitamins!
The credits for this commercial.
Advertising Agency - SSC&B. Art Direction by Warren Godfrey. Written by Nancy Richmond
Wow! Now that was neato cool!!! I've been wanting to see this "lost" commercial forever and I'm thrilled for the opportunity to share this amazing artifact relating to TV, "kids food" and monsters. Anyone remember seeing this when it first aired in 1974? Of course, I remember taking my Monster Vitamins every morning with breakfast, but unfortunately I have no memory of this commercial.
I've blogged about Monster Vitamins a few times before and hoped the TV commercial would eventually surface. Thanks to Clio award winning art director Warren Godfrey, my wish finally came true. In Warren's archives, he found an U-matic tape featuring a collection of his commercials including the Monster Vitamins commercial. I can't thank Warren enough for his time and generosity for sharing the MV commercial with all of us! (Click here to read my original blog post featuring Warren.)
Print ad from early 1975
Wait! There's one more Monster Vitamins treat! Inside the current issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland Magazine—you can read a Monster Vitamins article written by David Weiner, whose father Joel Weiner helped create Monster Vitamins (along with PALS) for Bristol-Myers.
Be sure to pick up a copy of Famous Monsters #288, the Forry Ackerman centennial tribute issue on newsstands now.
One last thing, as there seems to always be something else hiding in the shadows related to Monster Vitamins. The animation cel below is from my collection and a handful of these surfaced several years ago.
I'd always assumed this was the animated sequence from the Vincent Price commercial. Now after finally watching the VP commercial I now know that this animation sequence is...zoinks...from another commercial. Okay neato readers, let's go and find this second "lost" Monster Vitamins commercial!!
Big thanks to Warren Godfrey and David Weiner for their help shedding some more light on these crazy little Monster Vitamins!
Today marks the 50th anniversary of everyone's favorite TV space western! Actually, it was two days ago on September 6th that truly marked the 50th because Star Trek aired first on Canadian television. Above is an ad that ran in the Edmonton Journal newspaper on September 6, 1966, for CFRN Channel 3 TV and it aired that evening at 7:30 p.m. Viewers had a choice of Let's Sing Out, a rerun of Glynis or Star Trek. I suspect some of the first Trekkies in the world were born that night in Canada.
In the United States, Star Trek was shown as part of NBC's sneak previews night on September 8, 1966, beginning with the episode, The Man Trap. The ad above is from the Sept. 3-9, 1966 issue of TV Guide. Understandably not realizing the cultural impact that Trek would have; TV Guide put Eva Gabor on their cover. Apparently, the folks at TV Magazine, a supplement for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch had a good idea of the importance of the show and featured Captain Kirk on their cover.
(Images from eBay)
Newspaper TV listing for the first Star Trek
Watch some early promos for Star Trek!
1967 RCA Television Ad
Trekkie, Trekker or Trek-hater; I'm sure all of us can remember our own introduction to Star Trek. I wasn't around for the original broadcasts and discovered Trek thru reruns in the 70's. My dad, brother and I watched the show most Saturday nights on KRCG-13 out of Jefferson City, MO. I don't think I ever saw a complete episode as I could never stay awake. I did much better once it aired in the afternoon after school.
I just had to photoshop together this simple tribute.
It was sad to hear the recent news that Kenny Baker had passed away. Of course, it was a collaborative group of talented people that helped bring R2 to life, but without Baker, R2 would have been a lifeless prop. In a statement soon after Baker's passing, George Lucas said, "Kenny was truly the heart and soul of R2-D2."
Anyone who discovered Star Wars in their childhood was probably amazed to learn that someone was inside of R2. I know my mind was blown when I found out at age seven. Really? R2 is not a real robot?
My very well-worn and heavily played with R2-D2 figure from childhood.
I'm not sure when or how I learned this amazing true fact. It was probably from the back of a Topps trading card or maybe from a kid at school. Actually, I probably learned there was a person inside of R2 from this article inside Weekly Reader Senior magazine. One of the great things about Star Wars was all the "making of" info being published. It let us kids look behind the curtain to see how the movie was made and because of this; we sort of got to know the people involved with the movie. I suppose this is why it's a bit more sad to lose a person associated with one of your favorite things, even though you don't have a personal relationship with them.
I had the pleasure of meeting Kenny Baker at a comic convention back in the late 90's or early 2000's. (Sad I can't remember the exact year.) He was the first actor I met associated with Star Wars and it was a thrill to meet him in person.
He will be missed by many and remembered by many! Thanks Kenny for the fun memories and entertainment! Bleep! Bloop!
Today as we celebrate the 4th of July and the 40th anniversary of the Bicentennial. Let's take a look at a neat box of Fireside Chocolate Chip cookies from the bicentennial year of 1976!
It's hard to believe one of my favorite all-time movies hit theaters 25 years ago today. Some people have comfort foods; I have comfort movies and The Rocketeer is one of them.
I was introduced to the story of The Rocketeer before the film was made thanks to my pal Tim, aka Vlad, back in the late 1980's. He showed me this really cool comic book of a 1930's movie serial type of character and that was all it took for me to become a fan. It was also my intro into the wonderful world of artist Dave Stevens, the creator of The Rocketeer.
(I had the honor of meeting Dave Stevens at the 2000 San Diego Comic Con.)
As we all know, Dave's artwork was amazing! One of the best comic artists to draw the female form and the way he told a story between the panels was always exciting and exhilarating! Back when I was in college my comic lovin' pals and I were excited for the movie version of the Rocketeer to premiere. It didn't disappoint and we've been talking about the film since its release. I believe it is still one of the best film adaptations made from a comic book. If only the film could have found more success at the box office. Because of this, we were all cheated out of more Rocketeer films.
I've been snooping around on YouTube looking for Rocketeer vids from back in the day and I think you'll enjoy watching these embeds. I know tonight, I have a date with the first lady of Neato Coolville and we'll be watching The Rocketeer once again, just like we did on June 21, 1991...except this time we'll be cheering on the flying hood ornament from our sofa instead of a crowded movie theater.
First up, watch Dave Stevens talk about his hopes at trying to get The Rocketeer made into a movie. (Uploaded by comic artist Greg Theakston)
A 30 second TV spot for the theatrical release of The Rocketeer. (Uploaded by IntermissionSociety)
Next, we have a fun "making of" doc that aired on the Disney Channel back in the day. (Uploaded by IntermissionSociety)
Here's clip from Entertainment Tonight that aired one week after the release of The Rocketeer. (Uploaded by IntermissionSociety)
Next up is this segment from the 1992 Discovery Channel TV show, Hollywood FX Masters hosted by Christopher Reeve. (Uploaded by ThePropKing)
An excellent interview with James Horner from 1991 about the Rocketeer soundtrack. (Uploaded by Eyes on Cinema)
Let's visit the South Seas Club and enjoy the sweet sounds of Melora Hardin sing Begin Beguine. (Uploaded by Dr.AtomicThunder)
The prop display at Disney/MGM studios back in the summer of 1991. (Uploaded by Smithfilmproductions)
The Rocketeer blasting off from Disney/MGM Studios. Watch the video starting at the 5:00 mark. (Uploaded by Dillos Diz)
(Detail of a Rocketeer VHS video promo sweatshirt from my pal Mike who has owned it since his video store clerk days!)
Happy 25th Rocketeer and big thanks to Dave Stevens, Joe Johnston and all the amazing men and women that brought The Rocketeer to the big screen. Many fans and I will always be grateful!
What if Blue Snaggletooth was really in the movie Star Wars?
This year for Star Wars day, I had fun creating this Blue Snaggletooth card. Any Star Wars toy collector knows that Blue Snaggletooth was never in the movie and only existed as a Star Wars figure.
(If you don't know the blue guy's story, you can check it out here.)
Here's this year's card paired with the Jaxxon card I made for last year. Hmm...I wonder what non-movie Star Wars character I should create for next year's card?
Here's something neato cool for your Easter basket today! We all have fun memories of decorating eggs and probably most of us used PAAS kits to color eggs. The other day I found an uncommon kit that was available back in 1979 and was created by Current, a company that's still in business and has a neat origin going back to 1950. You can read their story here.
Now check out what kids were using to dress up Easter eggs back in 1979. Enjoy!
As a fun bonus, I turned this image into a desktop wallpaper. Kinda fun for Spring!
