Once in awhile I’ll find a gem on Netflix. This past Sunday it was “She-Ra” princess of power. Do you know about this? Just telling the backstory took five episodes. Five! That’s a lot of “To Be Continued…”’s going on. Don’t you hate that? You watch the clock, see that time’s running out and there is no possible way “the rest of the story” (said in my Paul Harvey voice) can be told. Then those dreaded words fill the screen (always with the ellipsis following). You think, Aw man, I have to wait. At least these shows ran daily and you could knock out the story in a week.
I watched this with my daughter. I got to explain that she was a princess and a superhero. She asked why Hordak snorted when he talked. She got a good laugh out of watching him.
My husband will say these shows were lame. He’s more of a Transformers and Thundercats kind of dude. I accept that the animation wasn’t the best, but here is what I liked about the Masters of the Universe. First, I know it was a marketing ploy to sell dolls action figures. But the they didn’t shy away from female characters (evil and good). If you were a girl, you didn’t have to look to the token girl character who added NOTHING (Cheetara, I’m looking at YOU). Men and women played equal roles (which is marketing brilliance, since you get twice as many viewers and twice as many suckers parents buying the toys). Sometimes there was flirting and jealousy (and oval shaped, sparkly magic portals to other planets!). It wasn’t all about boys.
The year was 1985. The show was "Street Hawk." The viewers were me and my sister. This is probably why it lasted one season.
Let me explain--the star was Rex Smith. The only reason we knew about this guy was because of my mom's repeated viewings of a VHS copy of the Pirates of Penzance. I might have been a kid, but even then, I appreciated Rexy-poo's fineness.
So imagine how I felt when I saw that this was on DVD. Of all the obscure, short lived series to air in the '80s, this one gets burned to DVD for the ages?
Don't get me wrong, we were thrilled about it in 1985. It meant watching Rex in a new role that didn't involve singing, dancing, prop swords and other broadway musical-converted-to-film hokeyness. We did watch a few episodes and in my sister summarized it to be "Knight Rider. Except with a bike."
This makes Rex Smith like the Hoff, except a little less well known (but judging from his website, he's pretty derned cringeworthy).
I am a fan of the original Twilight Zone, and a few years ago, I broke down and bought the entire collection on DVD (Thank you, Amazon). Actually, what happened was, I had a baby and I couldn't watch the marathons held on New Year's anymore. I reasoned that I could have my own marathons this way.
I was also a fan of: Tales from the Dark Side The Hitchhiker Tales from the Crypt Alfred Hitchcock Presents The New Twilight Zone and... Ray Bradbury Theater. All of these shows* have their own feel, but most of them involve some kind of science fiction and plot twist. Some have aged better than others (I think the Twilight Zone is dated, but in a cool way, unlike some of those series from the '80s). I bought this from Amazon, and get this--the collectable tin with all of the episodes inside is a few dollars less than the same collection without the tin. You get 1571 minutes of show for $16.49 AND a collectable tin. That's just a little over 1 cent per minute! When I compare that to the 3.5 cents per minute I spent on the Twilight Zone, I have to admit--I feel a little cheated.
One of my favorite Ray Bradbury stories was not on his series, but a series called "Wonderworks," which ran on PBS. I thought about it a few months ago and actually found it on YouTube (thank you, Google). I'm embedding the first part, but you should easily be able to find the next two parts of the story there as well.
*In case you were wondering, I never could get into Outer Limits and I've never seen Night Gallery.
Some people like this as a holiday song. I wonder if they realize the lyrics are bitter and not exactly full of joy? Yes, I am talking about the Wham! song. My last post inspired me to look up some Band Aid photos. That search inadvertently turned up some Wham! photos, and let me tell you, some of those were pure comic gold.
Presenting the many moods of George Michael and that other guy Wham!:
Serious:
Playful(!):
Reindeer games?
Wow, check out George Michael's sack*:
*Sorry, I could only hold back the seventh grade humor for so long.
Does that sound like a line that belongs in a holiday song?
Did you watch it? Didja? Don't you feel old? Look how baby faced everyone was. They were just a bunch of crazy kids throwing together a benefit song. Sure the words were depressing, but it was catchy. I'll even admit that I still like it.
The title of this entry sums up the one line that sticks in my head every time I hear or think of the song. What you gain from watching the video is the not-so-subtle cleverness of the camera zooming in on Sting for the "bitter sting of tears" line. Well done!
