The inbox may ebb and flow, but it never stops, so it's time to clean and move some things out adequately!
Ryan sends this from the 13th Dimension on the greatness of Frank Gorshin's portrayal of the Riddler on the original Batman series.
Dan Greenfield's thoughts on the Gorshin Riddler are all similar to mine, and I've thought for years that if you were creating a Batman series or film and you could magically pluck anyone from any time that played a role in any Batman related vehicle, Frank Gorshin as the Riddler is the one slam dunk to retain that role above any challengers that was originally from the 1966 TV series.
Gorshin's Riddler is that good.
The Premier League is changing its game ball manufacturer.
Puma will provide the official league ball for the 2025-26 season.
Nike had been the provider of the official ball for twenty-five seasons and, along with Adidas, had been the top two companies involved with worldwide soccer, but Germany-based Puma has begun to make strides in an attempt to catch up.
Puma has been supplying the game balls for Serie A (Italy) and La Liga (Spain), but the English Premier League brings even more prestige and visibility as the most widely watched league in the world.
ABC News wonders about the ethics of bringing back extinct animals.
Recently, scientists announced the revival of the Dire Wolf, and the article questions (without judgment either way) if it is ethical to bring back animals that became extinct.
It's interesting to consider, although I'm more concerned with returning a dangerous predator that may not have a natural enemy to the modern environment!
The Athletic writes of one of the better shots that you will see by someone off the floor.
In 2013, photojournalist Gary Knox tweeted to keep an eye on sixth-grader Paige Bueckers, rating her as the best player of her age he had ever watched.
Twelve years later, the Dallas Wings selected Bueckers as the top overall pick in the WNBA draft.
Good call.
KC Yesterday writes of the story behind the June 1979 roof collapse of Kansas City's Kemper Arena, which hosted the NBA's Kansas City Kings at the time of the incident.
The article discusses the engineering issues that led to the collapse and how equipment that could have been replaced might have avoided the problem.
Kemper would reopen within a year, and the Kings would play their games at their previous home, Municipal Auditorium, until the roof was fixed.
Kemper Arena is still around after being converted to a youth sports facility. It is now known as Hy-Vee Arena, and a local grocery chain owns the naming rights.
Way behind on cleaning the inbox as often happens during football season.
13th Dimension writes of the opening of the first museum devoted to the Batman 1966 television series.
Located in Logansport, Indiana, the museum possesses items from the show, reconstructed sets, and a theatre.
This is worth the stop for the photo ops alone from the photos in the article!
ESPN writes of former Oklahoma and Dallas Cowboys head coach Barry Switzer's life in Norman, Oklahoma as the unofficial "King of Norman".
Switzer, Jimmy Johnson, and Pete Carroll are the only men to win a Super Bowl and a collegiate national championship.
In recent years, Switzer discovered that he had a daughter that he had never known, and is spending much of his time with here among his many interests in the Norman area.
The Barry Switzer story has to be read to be believed and is the greatest sports biography documentary or scripted film waiting for someone to make.
The next three notes are all from The Athletic.
The Premier League continues to move further south with fewer and fewer teams from the North side of the country.
Other than Newcastle (the northernmost city in England), the three other teams nearest the Magpies have been relegated, Sheffield United and Burnley last year and Leeds two seasons ago.
For the first time since the Premier League began, there are only five teams in the Northern half of England, Newcastle, Liverpool, Everton, and the two Manchester squads
The Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions played an epic game a few weeks back and this article deals with two Rust Belt towns still seeking a Super Bowl trophy along with some famous names in sports with connections to both cities.
Names such as Bob Lanier, Dominik Hasek, Pat LaFontaine, and Chris Spielman are among the many with a background in both areas with arguably the most influential person, former Bills owner Ralph Wilson, a Detroit resident who owned a minority share of the Lions but unable to gain controlling interest, purchased a charter franchise in the AFL and didn't know where to base his team.
Wilson picked Buffalo after he couldn't use the Orange Bowl for his team's home stadium and pulled out of Miami.
The final word from the Athletic writes of the school with the surprising lead in the best transfer portal class- the Texas Tech Red Raiders.
The article discusses the Tech NIL operatives, who and how they look at potential recruits, how quickly Tech moves on players they want to sign, and how the entire collective works together to energize the Red Raiders, who finished 8-4 this season before a Liberty Bowl loss to Arkansas.
TechSpot writes of a small Indiana bakery that is still using the Commodore 64 as its cash register!
The 64 RAM Commodore (hence the name) has more than enough processing power to run a cash register and was released in 1982 with updates discontinued in 1994.
Ryan sends word of a fire that burnt down the four-story Morrison Hotel in Los Angeles, which is famous for the backdrop of The Doors "Morrison Hotel" album in 1970.
The hotel had been vacant for over a decade and was being used by squatters and homeless and LA firefighters have used it as a training site.
The story behind the album cover is that a clerk had told the group that they weren't allowed to take photos but when the clerk was called away from his desk the group jumped into the lobby into place for the photo taken through the window by famed rock photographer Henry Diltz.
One of the original Philadelphia "Teen Idols" of the early to mid-1960s, Rydell placed thirty-four hits in the Billboard Top 100 including his biggest hit "Wild One" which reached second on the charts, and a cover of "Volare".
Rydell would star on Broadway as "Conrad Birdie" in the original adaptation of "Bye Bye Birdie and would have a cameo role in the 1978 film "Grease"
Rydell is also credited as the inspiration for John Lennon and Paul McCartney writing the Beatles hit "She Loves You" as both said that a Rydell song was playing on the radio as the duo penned the song,
Rydell's biggest claim to fame here was in the 1990s when the 1960s NBC program Hullaballoo was released on VHS and DVD and an episode with Rydell singing the song below in such an over-the-top manner is one that Ryan and I still laugh about to this day.
Sheridan is best known for portraying Jerry Seinfeld's mother in "Seinfeld" but to me, Sheridan will be forever "Raquel Ochomanek" the nosy busy-body next-door neighbor on "ALF" that was constantly trying to figure out what was really going on at the Tanner residence.
A long-time character actress in film and television, Sheridan was a singer and dancer in the 1950s in the New York nightclubs and was the first person in show business to have a relationship with the young James Dean.
Adams, a long-time artist, and writer in comics, made his biggest mark with DC Comics where Adams created such characters as Ras Al Ghul, Man-Bat, and John Stewart as Green Lantern as well as doing classic work for years with Batman.
It was Adams that brought the Batman into his dark brooding figure and away from the campy version popularized by the television show starring Adam West, revitalized the Joker into his homicidal maniac from his clownish version during the same period, and brought Two-Face back into the Batman rogues gallery after a long absence from the comic.
But it will be Adams and Denny O'Neil's run on Green Lantern/Green Arrow that is most remembered. GL/GA is so fondly recalled that many are surprised to hear that the title only lasted a surprisingly short time of only two years and was canceled for low sales.
The title dealt with controversial social issues (for its time) of the day and the most remembered issues dealt with Green Arrow's ward and former sidekick Speedy in secret identity Roy Harper admitting an addiction to heroin.
Adams would later be heavily involved with artists' and creators' rights with their work being returned to them after the comics had been printed.
Birney may be best remembered as a husband to Meredith Baxter, who Birney married after their television show, "Bridget Loves Bernie", but had a career that saw him star in his own drama "Serpico", was part of the first season of "St. Elsewhere", and starred in many guest roles on television as well as stage work.
Birney was lambasted by the former Baxter Birney in her 2011 autobiography as being physically and emotionally abusive during their marriage, charges that Birney denied.
Sidebar: "Bridget Loves Bernie" remains to this day- the only program in television history to have finished in the top ten in the ratings in its first season and would not be renewed for a second season.
Sidebar part two: Meredith Baxter during the run of this show ranks high (as in highest level) on the TRS beauty scale...
The longtime character actor never had the opportunity to star in a breakout role but spent years in both film and television usually playing regular, working man type roles.
Hagerty would only receive one shot as a regular on a series, which was during the only season of "The George Carlin Show" in 1994-85.
My favorite supporting role that Hagerty performed was as "Bad Billy Platt" the best friend of Kurt Russell in the 1987 film "Overboard" starring Russell and Goldie Hawn.
Time to clean the inbox with various interesting works around the web!
BBC Sky at Night Magazine discusses the importance of returning to the two outer "Giant Planets".
Uranus and Neptune have only been visited by one probe, both as objects that Voyager 2 flew by on its mission- Uranus in 1986 and Neptune in 1989.
The article makes the case for a return to one or the other and notes that with the current propulsion for probes an orbital swing past Jupiter is needed to assist the probe towards the planet of choice.
However, the alignment of the planets needed to allow only occurs every 12-13 years and the next window is in the early 2030s, so if this is to happen it will need to be decided soon to start the project.
Some scientists say so and others are skeptical as wood will degrade over time where steel would not.
There also are questions about which knife is more environmentally friendly with cases to be made for each knife.
Dan Greenfield at 13th Dimension writes of the recent death of Neal Adams and how Adams along with Adam West with the TV series and the Batman Mego action figure all combined together to make him a Batman fan for life.
It's a really cool article that people of my age and are fans of all three can relate to very well.
There are many biomarkers still to find before SIDS can be considered eliminated, so the cause is still unknown but this is an interesting study to reach that end.
As we finish up clearing out the various passings from the inbox as we near 2021, today's sad news adds another sad log on the pile of a year that has been just plain horrid.
Let's all hope together for a better year in 2021...
Wells, who is best remembered as "Mary Ann" from the 60s TV program "Gilligan's Island" and one of the protagonists of the question considered by so many people since the show began- Mary Ann or Ginger?
Wells didn't have another starring vehicle after Gilligan's Island, but always stayed busy in guest roles on television shows, many theatre productions, and stayed very involved with the Gilligan franchise and its various reunion films and specials along with voice work on the cartoon show of the early 80s, Gilligan's Planet where Wells voiced both Mary Ann AND Ginger.
Wells wrote a memoir and Gilligan's themed cookbook and worked in recent years as an ambassador for MeTV, which currently runs Gilligan's Island in syndication.
Wells also was very busy on the convention and paid appearances circuit and was regarded as one of the nicer celebrities to meet in those situations.
Wells also owned and operated "Wishing Wells", a collection that catered to making clothing for those with limited mobility and has difficulty finding things that are easy to put on and take off.
Stuart was one half of the British pop duo "Chad and Jeremy" in the 60s with hits such as "Yesterday's Gone" and "A Summer Song", which is still used on commercials occasionally and as recently as last year by Coors Light.
While "A Summer Song" reached number two in the United States in 1964, Chad and Jeremy are even more remembered for their television appearances as "The Redcoats" on The Dick Van Dyke Show and as themselves on Batman when their voices are stolen by Catwoman as well as an appearance on "The Patty Duke Show" and others.
Chad and Jeremy were the rare act of the British Invasion that was a bigger hit in the United States than in their native Great Britain. notched eleven top 100 hits in the U.S. from 1964-66, while not even "A Summer Song" reached the charts in the U.K.
My best guess is that Chad and Jeremy were bigger in the States than at home because of those television appearances and because of those guest roles, Chad and Jeremy are remembered by generations that may not have noticed them.
Lander was best known for his portrayal of "Squiggy" on the 70s television program "Laverne and Shirley" with Squiggy's constant companion "Lenny" played by Michael Mckean.
The gimmick with Lenny and Squiggy was usually this- Laverne or Shirley would be talking amongst themselves and describing it as disgusting, slimy, or something like that with Lenny and Squiggy then bursting through the door with Squiggy bellowing "hello!".
Lander was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1984 and transitioned to voice work, but also served was connected to baseball in two ways.
It was Lander who played the radio commentator in the baseball film "A League of Their Own" and Lander also worked as a scout for the Angels and Mariners in their personnel departments.
The character actor worked often in from the 50s-80s and you'll see him in many films and television shows of the age.
Berlinger had a co-starring rule in an Elvis Presley flick "Spinout" and a brief TV series of his own entitled "Warren" that starred Berlinger as an Archie Bunker-type character.
Berlinger also guested on "Happy Days" in an episode where the army attempted to draft Fonzie, a small part in "Cannonball Run", and a cameo in the last role that I remember him "That Thing You Do".
Sarbanes served in the House of Representatives for three terms and was part of the judiciary committee to impeach Richard Nixon before winning five terms as Maryland Senator.
Sarbanes was known locally as the "Stealth Senator" because the word in Maryland was that Sarbanes was invisible until it was time to be re-elected and then he re-emerged.
Sarbanes likely would have won re-election in 2006 for another term, but he was frustrated with the "Stealth Senator" term and he wasn't getting to chair committees despite his long-term service.
The inbox still has plenty left and I was busy today, so I didn't have a chance to write about the Cavaliers first loss to the Knicks.
The inbox still needed a little more sifting through in order to consider it cleaned for a while and after the last cleaning, I was able to set things up to make this one a non-sports version.
We start with two passings from outside the sports world with the word of the death of Charles Van Doren at the age of 93.
Van Doren, the Columbia professor, who famously received the answers to the questions that would be asked on the 1950's quiz show "Twenty One" beforehand and was subsequently disgraced passed from natural causes in Connecticut.
The scandal would be developed into the film "Quiz Show" that focused mainly on Van Doren, the opponent that he defeated, Herb Stempel and congressional investigator Richard Goodwin and the status of television during the fifties.
Before the Robert Redford produced film, PBS did an "American Experience" documentary, which I thought was even better than the film, which as most films are, was embellished for the purposes of the film.
Van Doren lost his job as a TODAY show correspondent and would spend the remainder of his career working at the Encyclopedia Brittanica writing and editing books often using a pseudonym as well as a return to teaching later in life.
Van Doren rarely discussed the scandal but finally commented in a large reminiscence in the New Yorker in 2008.
Goodbye to Scott Walker at the age of 76.
Walker, who first gained prominence with the Walker Brothers (none of the brothers were actually related) in the late '60s with various hits such as "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore' being the highest on the U.S. charts, would move away from not only pop music, but even contemporary music. preferring to make more experimental and progressive cuts instead.
Walker's takes on some classic tunes range from interesting in a good way to wondering why someone would even think of releasing this, but Ryan has always been a huge fan and I've recently been listening to some of his non-pop work, some of which I've enjoyed a great deal and others... well not so much!
Walker would have his own television series in Great Britain and is unusual for the small amount of footage that is available.
Even then, music programs would often be archived for future use, which is why we have so many terrific performances from the various ages of television and I'm surprised that the Walker series is bereft of material.
The title of the link above from Billboard may have said it best- Scott Walker changed the face of pop music by turning his back on it.
The Guardian brings word of Ken Lawson of Australia, who as an amateur photographer and astronomer nails the perfect shot of the International Space Station crossing the face of the Moon.
It appears that Lawson just got lucky with the photo on March 14 with his telescope and camera, but alas it took plenty of planning, patience and practice as Lawson says that he had attempted to get it right for over eight years before he finally snapped the picture on a rare pass near his home that he says occurs about as often as a solar eclipse.
Joe Plum sent me this link to the website Yupitexists.com offered up this fastball on Pestalotiopsis Microspora.
Just what is that?
Well, it's a mushroom that can eat plastic!
I would imagine this won't be on a large scale in my time, but imagine the possibilities of removing plastic from the environment and generating an edible product?
In controlled conditions of testing, the mycelium breaks down the plastic and in a few weeks, the plastic is gone and in its place?
A mushroom brought to you by your friends in nature.
And we wrap up with 13th Dimension and their ratings of the top 13 Batman action figures ever made.
One would think we could not pass that up and we didn't!
How many do we own? Two.
How many would we like to? Far More
How many are on the list to buy? Three.
With that, the inbox is now scrubbed clean for a while.
Coming soon, last weekend's road trip to Lexington, tonight's Crawford-Khan bout and early next week, some thoughts on the draft for the Browns and a rare draft day without a first rounder.
I'm sitting in a hospital.
No, not for me.
My dad appears to have suffered a stroke yesterday and we're still trying to see if it was of the mini variety or not, but he seems to be himself, so I'm hoping that this was a small issue that might give him a warning about keeping himself together a little better.
Please keep him in your thoughts.
Anyway, since I am without wi-fi at the moment, I thought I would knock out a nice easy column that finishes one from last month- My favorite podcasts, this time from the non-sports universe.
Let's start with one with a really basic title- New books in biography.
I must admit that I don't listen to every one of these because the subject range is so huge and wide and not everyone interests me, but some of these are just wonderful hour plus programs with various authors that are incredibly interesting.
When the topic is one that really grips me, this might be my favorite podcast around.
The Batcave podcast is one that deals with episodes of the classic Batman 1966 TV series, but also talks about the Filmation cartoons from the 60's (that I so loved in the early 70's in syndication) and the Batman comic book that has been created over the last few years that is based directly on the TV series.
If you are a Batman fan like me or if certain episodes just make you smile or laugh, they have episodes that deal with specific episodes and is well worth the listen.
More from the animation world with Limited Cel where a father and son duo (Nick and Mike Wood) look back and rewatch Hanna Barbara programs from the 1960's through the 1970's.
I would bet that the show will eventually lead to the H-B 1980's shows as well.
It's pretty entertaining and nostalgic and I do enjoy the father/son dynamic going back and forth over the merits of Quick Draw McGraw very much.
And even more from the comics world with Heroes and Villains.
This one generally selects a Hero or Villain (really?) from either the DC or Marvel universe and discusses in great detail that character's background, powers, weaknesses, appearances and about anything that you can think of about that particular character.
Bruce Leslie is about as comprehensive in covering the subject as one could find and trust me if you walk away from an episode with a question, you likely weren't paying attention!
The Watch Party is hosted by my friend Samantha Blinn with her friend Crystal and the premise of this podcast is films that Sam (a huge film buff) has seen many times, yet Crystal has never seen.
They do an introduction to the film and Sam asks Crystal her perception of the film before they view it.
The pair then talks about the film after watching. how close Crystal's preliminary thoughts were and what type of grade they would give.
Give it a listen and not just because Sam's a friend- it's very entertaining.
I also have in my queue, multi-part programs that I have listened to some episodes, but not the full series yet, that deal with Watergate, Chappaquiddick and the Robert Kennedy assassination from various podcast hosts.
Hope you give any of these of interest a listen and see what you think.
We continue to work on that inbox and we move now to an all non-sports inbox, which is pretty popular from what I have been told!
We start with 13th Dimension's article on the 1970's comic- Batman Family, which was a favorite of mine then as a child.
The post talks a little bit about Batman Family and then a brief interview with Bob Rozakis, who did some of the writing for the book.
The comic was generally double-sized, so you received a great day for your fifty cents in mid-70's currency and it had stories from the various members of the Batman Family even down to the gimmick characters-like Bat-Mite!
I even had as a kid, the issue to the left, although it isn't in my collection today.
I also have a fond memory of a Superman Family comic that was a favorite of mine, before going away in a story that I'll tell one day IF three people would ask me to (that'll tell you who's reading this!), but I was a much bigger Batman fan than Superman even to this day.
Marc Maron's WTF podcast had a recent guest from "The Office" days as Jenna Fischer (Pam) did his show.
Fischer has a new book out (The Actor's Life), so she is doing lots of media work promoting the book.
Fischer's Pam Beesley Halpert was named the greatest female character in television history by my Fightheads partner Ramon Malpica on a recent episode which is extremely high praise!
Two goodbyes from the inbox.
Goodbye to astronaut Dick Gordon at the age of 88.
Gordon was a Gemini and Apollo astronaut and was the module pilot on Apollo 10, which is most widely thought of as the fun mission among the crews.
Gordon would have walked on the moon on Apollo 18, had the final two missions not been canceled by budget cuts to NASA.
Gordon also was involved in one of the strangest stories in sports as after his resignation from NASA, Gordon was hired as the general manager of the New Orleans Saints despite never having worked in football at any level.
I know fans under 30 have a hard time realizing this, but for the 70's and mid 80's the Saints were looked at in a very similar manner as fans look at the Browns today as they never had a winning record for the first twenty years of their existence and much of it was for reasons like hiring an astronaut to run football personnel operations.
Almost like hiring a beancounter without experience to do the same today.
The Saints would never win more than five games when Gordon was running the franchise.
Goodbye to the "Fight Doctor" Ferdie Pacheco at the age of 89.
Pacheco was part of the well-known team around Muhammad Ali as his doctor, but might be even better known as the color commentator on NBC boxing telecasts.
Pacheco also was the person in charge of making fights and buying them for NBC, which at the time of weekend boxing was known for having the smallest budget of the three networks.
Editor's Note: I have plans for posts soon on two more passings that happened in the last two days-Former Ohio State wide receiver Terry Glenn and David Cassidy of Partridge Family fame.
CNN writes of what it is like to visit Lenin's Mausoleum in Moscow.
The former Soviet leader has been embalmed since his death in 1924 and it has been one of the tourist stops in Red Square ever since.
On occasion, it comes up to bury Lenin and it usually goes away after time.
I've always wondered just how much work that it takes to keep the corpse from deteriorating.
Esquire writes "You'll never love your E-Reader" and why records and books still have that advantage over the digital version.
The article is right about the loving the physical version and I still love having the physical copy, but I must admit to liking my Kindle and the ease of bringing so many books in one small container.
It's OK to like both.
As I read about E-Readers, Esquire had another article on the up's and down's of Vans Shoes, their history and why they are currently thriving.
My favorite pair of shoes ever were Vans and I only had the model once.
We had a Vans at the local outlet for a while and when they went out of business they were blowing out the inventory.
Ryan was at this store with our friend Joe Plum and saw these shoes.
They decided to take a chance and buy them for me and I loved them!
I still even have them still battered at the house and even though the lack of support that Vans have for us older folks-The Duke Kahanamoku Surf Shoe isn't made anymore, but if I was ever able to find a pair in size 13, I would jump on them-price permitting of course
My favorite shoe of all time-Thanks to Ryan and Joe!
I think I'll go cry now...
Adam West passed away today at the age of 88.
West was,of course,most famous for his 1966 portrayal of Batman,but he had become notable in recent years for his voice-over work on Family Guy as himself as "mayor" of the fictional town of Quahog.
I've written before about the importance of those 1960's shows that were in syndication to a kid living in a rural area like me.
The three most important to me were The Wild Wild West (although that was shown less and less due to the "violent" content in the feel good 70's) and as I noted in the past-Batman and Star Trek.
Batman-the television show was played for camp and it succeeded,mostly because the characters played it so straight that kids didn't take it for comedy and yet adults could enjoy it for the hidden meanings and between the lines reading.
There were several architects for the success of Batman,but for all the writing,guest stars and gimmicks,the main reason for that show still being watched fifty years after its run is Adam West.
West's Batman is the most kid-friendly of the Batman's (Batmen?),but is able to play it in a way that made his Batman perhaps the only one that is always good for a smile or a laugh.
It's the performance of West in a role that could have meant the end of his career (although he took his lumps for a while after the show was canceled) that holds up all of these years later.
His Batman is campy,that's true,but it's played with underlying heart and caring that manages to show that you don't always have to get in the dirt with villains.
West did get stereotyped with Batman,which so many actors then and now are often afraid of being with certain roles,but he managed to make many fans happy during the 70's and 80's and did it in a way that continued to pay his bills and take care of his family-he hit the road doing events like state and county fairs,auto shows and memorabilia shows,where people that wanted to meet West/Batman (with the show still in syndication,there was never a shortage of children wanting to see "Batman" years after it left network television).
This included this memorable visit to Memphis for their local wrestling show for a appearance with/against Jerry "the King" Lawler.
I never knew about this until recently,but notice West being very careful to not use the name Batman during this entire skit,although he does mention other DC characters along with Spiderman,who is a Marvel comic character.
West also voiced Batman quite often in various animation projects,most recently in a DC comics straight to DVD Batman movie with Burt Ward returning to voice Robin as well.
What really makes me smile when watching Batman isn't just the enjoyment of the show or the comic that read for years or even the toys from the show from my childhood,it's the memories.
Remember what I wrote earlier about the importance of television growing up in the country?
Well,I have so many memories of watching Batman and just as many of "playing" Batman as a child,mainly with my brother,but occasionally others.
You see during much of Batman's heyday in my childhood,we lived in an large older house that was formerly a church.
This meant tons of hideaways,crawl spaces and nooks and crannies for kids to find and play in and when playing something like Batman,there were plenty of spots to allow imaginations to run wild.
I remember my mom making Shane and I masks and capes to run in around in and kids being kids with the villains always foiled (it might have helped that they were usually invisible),we were always the winners in the end.
Just as important as the "live action" was the toys.
The Mego action figures were such an important part of my childhood with again the line of "World's Greatest Super Heroes" that included both DC and Marvel characters in the same toyline (Imagine that happening today!) along with Star Trek figures as well.
Shane and I had both the Batcave and the U.S.S.Enterprise "play sets" and both showed the wear and tear of constant play.
The Batman figure didn't really look like West (Mainly because if it did,they'd have to pay him!),but it was still "him". as he fought the Joker,Penguin and Riddler (all three of those characters had figures made,but just as with Adam West,none of the three looked like the actors that portrayed them) to victory after victory.
Such good memories from childhood and the stars that were such a big deal from those times are slowly passing away as I age,of which Adam West was always one of those.
I'll wrap up with the most memorable scene to me,which admittedly is a silly one to select.
You couldn't count the amount of times that I quoted "Bruce Wayne" from the scene below with Cherie,who by now knows what's coming and rolls her eyes and of course,my partner in arms-Ryan.
You see,in many ways,Ryan's love of tv and obscure things comes from me from all those times watching them as he grew.
Batman in the 90's and his childhood was just as big of a part then as mine in the 70's and I bet he knows nearly as much about the Batman series as I do.
Combine Batman with 1960's pop stars (again,right up my alley) Chad and Jeremy and you have a memorable episode alone,even before its final scene.
"Every era has its music,art-manner of speech"-
Indeed they do,Mr .West.
Indeed they do.
Time to clean the inbox again and this time,I've piled up enough to do a non-sports edition....
Lots of old school television and to a lesser extent films were thought to be lost,but as we've seen often in the age of YouTube,it only takes one person to uncover what was presumed lost.
A case of this happening was the release of two episodes of Mister Rogers Neighborhood not seen since their original showing in 1983.
The Cold War episodes storyline had the neighboring towns in the land of make believe going through a military buildup and was used to teach children about how to avoid conflict.
Those episodes never hit syndication because they were dated,but the Daily Beast article wonders if there was more behind the release than just rare old television tapes.
Their take offers an explanation that someone perhaps wanted to make people think about the current situation between the United States and Russia.
No matter the answer,the videos (they were on the page of the articles) have apparently been taken down....
More news as the Bay City Rollers have apparently ended their reunion with a near fistfight during a live television interview.
The group will finish their remaining tour dates and then they appear to be finished.
Long time readers might remember me writing a small post that Rollers fans moved to one of the higher hit articles that we had to that point....
13th Dimension.com writes about the end of the Batman 66 comic book series.
The series (which if I was buying new comics,I would have been all over) told stories with the art of the Batman TV series with the goofy villains,many of which were never in the comics before or after the show.
The run lasted thirty issues with some other mini-series with other shows from the 1960's.
As campy as it could have been,a Wild Wild West-Batman 66 would have been a mini-run that I would have been very interested in and I still wouldn't mind getting the issue with the first ever comic appearance of "Shame",who was played by Cliff Robertson in the TV show.
Ever try to duplicate sauces that are served in restaurants at home?
Some attempts are better than others and more and more chains are getting their sauces into stores.
Doug Hopkins helps me get Quaker Steak and Lube's Golden Garlic and Arizona Ranch as one example of these,but McDonald's had yet to try to get their sauces to the masses.
Until now as the fast food king is selling their Big Mac,McChicken and Fish sauces currently in stores-the kicker is that it is not here in the United States!
McDonald's is selling them in Canada as the Comeback writes .
No word on an eventual turnout in the States,but if they sell-bet on it...
A group called PTScientists are planning on landing on the moon in 2018.
It won't be them landing,but the plan is for the team to land two rovers on the moon and hit the surface roughly two miles away from the rover used for Apollo 17,which never left the lunar surface.
There are groups that are working towards next year as well as the race to be the first private entity to land on the moon continues.
We wrap with the Washingtonian's look at CNN"s conservative commentator,Mary Katherine Ham.
The article looks at Ham's rise through the last decade as pundit,but also discusses her life as a single mother with two children after the death of her husband in 2015 in a bicycle accident.
It's an honest and open look at Ham and was pretty non-partisan in its writing.
Most of you know that I'm pretty moderate politically and I'm not afraid to side with either party depending on the issue.
I like people of both sides that are able to accept mistakes by their party and are honest about shortcomings-we don't have enough of those types of media members right now.
CNN has a few shining stars that are able to do that in Ham,Margaret Hoover,John Avlon and John Berman,but all too often,those reasonable people are overshadowed by the agenda-driven folks such
Chris Cuomo (who's really bad because he's supposed to be a host,not an analyst) and Bakari Sellers on the left with Kayleigh McEnany (By FAR the worst offender of this) and Jeffrey Lord on the right.
Cherie and I have always wished that C-SPAN would jump into the news business with a nightly newscast-of a Joe Fridayesque "Just the Facts,Ma'am"...
The sports inbox is filling up,so I'll dump that soon-assuming Verizon allows that.
Listen to me on Fightheads,if you are interested-I have plenty to say..
We start with a blog that I found that does reviews of 1970's and 80's DC comics named Chris is on Infinite Earth's.
Chris is reviewing tons of great comics from that age,including my guy Floyd Lawton or Deadshot.
Well before the Suicide Squad,you might remember my post on Floyd from 2013 and how he was perhaps my favorite villain in the DC universe.
I need to break out my collection sometime and look back the way Chris is doing right now.,but it's fun reading his reviews and all the fun memories from long ago....
Richard Deitsch writes the Media Circus columns at SI.com and he put together a massive list of terrific articles written in 2016 from both sports and the outside world.
I spent most of a night looking them over and grabbed a few of interest for the inbox....
The read of the night comes from Pamela Colloff of Texas Monthly entitled the Reckoning-the story of Claire Wilson.
The story of Wilson is what happened in her life fifty years after being wounded in the 1966 shooting from the tower at the University of Texas that killed 15 and injured 31 others.
Colloff had written about the shooting for Texas Monthly ten years earlier in a prize winning article "96 Minutes",but this article uses the shooting for background and focuses on the years following the shooting for Wilson.
I couldn't stop reading,just a tremendous piece of writing..
David Ng of the Los Angeles Times writes about O.J. Simpson,which seems to be a market all by itself,but Ng writes about something that hadn't previously been discussed as Ng writes about what Simpson's life is like behind prison walls.
It's an interesting look about the current life of Simpson,which often isn't discussed when dealing with the topic of O.J.Simpson...
Jordan Ritter of the Ringer writes about the talented former Jaguar receiver Justin Blackmon,who will likely never play in the NFL again after numerous suspensions.
Ritter goes deep into the background of Blackmon and goes to his hometown of Ardmore Oklahoma to see what the locals think of Blackmon.
Blackmon was such a talented receiver and really lost it all due to his battle with the bottle.
I really loved Blackmon's skills coming out of Oklahoma State and proves the one point that I (and many draft observers) make-the one thing that the franchises have over the rest is the ability to look beyond the film due to access to so many off the field items.,,
Stacey Gotsulias writes for the Hardball Times and her article on her late father was very touching.
Gotsulias reflects on her dad and her memories of spending time with the games and rooting for the Yankees.
It's the type of story that so many of us that are fans have with someone important in their life,but few can put it into the type of words that she does.
Justin Heckert of ESPN writes about the rarest game made by the original Nintendo-Stadium Events from 1987 and the value of what seems to be a pretty crummy game.
I never realized people actually collected video games,but it makes sense as everything has value to someone.
Stadium Events was rebranded as World Class Track and Field for those Nintendo mats that you "ran" on to move your avatar on screen.
Just like baseball cards,it's all about how few are made,not about how good the product is.....
We wrap with another loss from the Apollo years as the last man to walk on the moon passed away as Gene Cernan died at the age of 82.
Cernan,who was a Gemini veteran as well as Apollo,was one of the Apollo astronauts to somewhat stay in the public eye as he was an ABC News contributor for space and science.
Cernan was also noted for the difficulties that he had in his Gemini spacewalk that resulted in some training changes and doing things differently on spacewalks.
Cernan was very outspoken on issues that involved NASA and their decisions that ended manned space missions further than Earth orbit and could always be relied on for honesty when discussing issues involving our investment in space...
Many of you know that the author has been a superhero fan since childhood of both major comic companies (DC and Marvel), collected figures, and comics for many years.
I quit collecting comics because they have gotten too expensive (4.00 and up) for too light of a read (24 pages usually), too many "crossover" stories (having to buy multiple books that I might not normally read to get the entire story) and constant revamps and changes to the heroes and villains that I like, but I still love the genre' and buy "graphic novels" still with reprints of classic comics and my comic collection of too many to count is still intact.
My favorite hero growing up was the Green Lantern, but GL's Rogues Gallery (comic book term for villains that tend to battle a particular hero often) was pretty weak, so I also loved the Flash and of course, Batman, who each had rich Rogues Galleries to mine often.
I read some Marvel comics, but I've always considered myself to be a "DC Guy" and my collection shows it.
I have tons of GL stuff, including a very cool statue that the lovely Cherie bought me for one anniversary, but GL might be my favorite hero and despite many villains fighting for my favors since childhood, the winner is someone that I didn't even hear about until 1987.
Deadshot was a one-note character that appeared once in 1950 as he tried to usurp Batman as a hero while committing crimes, after being defeated, Deadshot was forgotten about until 1977 when he was returned to action with a distinctive outfit and a nasty attitude as the worlds greatest marksman.
Deadshot still did not show up often, so I had no knowledge of him, which is understandable in those times as he wasn't kid-friendly enough to reach the toy lines and wasn't used enough to be known unless you had that comic he appeared in.
However, in 1987 things changed-Hagerstown got its first comics shop and I was a buyer of whatever Batman was on the cover of and he was on the cover of this book called The Suicide Squad.
I bought it and went back the following week to buy the issues that I missed.
As I read The Squad, Deadshot became my favorite and some research helped me find his Batman appearances as well.
Deadshot became so popular that he received his own four-issue "mini-series", which was just reprinted in novel format and is on my XMAS list at Amazon.com.
Deadshot would stay through another mini-series and other incarnations of the Squad, but nothing was ever going to live up to the classic first run of the Squad, which I'll get into down the road.
I have even thought of re-reading the Squad run (No novel reprint yet) and if I do -that will be the Squad post time.
Floyd Lawton was born of privilege and as noted originally wanted to "be" Batman.
The mini-series explains his family background and just how he became so bitter and hated life.
I'd tell you more, but you never know, Deadshot Beginnings might wind up on your Xmas list!
That is how interesting the character is in my opinion.
Floyd doesn't want to commit suicide, mind you, but he is not against death as he takes reckless chances that make many think he has a death wish.
The assassin for hire that never misses (except against Batman, who informed Floyd in the 1st book I saw him that he "Pulls his shots" is certainly multifaceted and far from a standard comic character.
I don't buy current comics for the above reasons, but I must admit if the cost fell (fat chance) I could get back into at least a few and I'm sure Deadshot would be right at the forefront.
Give Deadshot a try this Christmas, I bet you don't regret it!!
