Calling in sick ( at least if I worked Today )

Today I´m just doing a short post because I was sick for most of the day, just watching some episodes of Challenge of the Super Friends in the mexican version and some old episodes of Doctor Who with Tom Baker.

I just recently found some new episodes online - or rather I found some old episodes I hadn´t seen before : TERROR OF THE ZYGONS and PLANET OF EVIL. Both are in four parts what was the standard back then.

What is a bit strange is that so far I only found episodes of the old Doctor Who series with Tom Baker. I just finished watching parts seven and eight of the DOCTOR WHO REVISITED documentary ( what´s weird is how nobody mentions that Eric Robert´s Master wears Doctor Strange´s costume ) and it got me really interested in seeing some episodes with Sylvester McCoy but so far all I could find were episodes with Tom Baker. Yes, I know he´s everybody´s favorite Doctor but I would like to see some other interpretations. Guess it´s my own fault because I stopped with the old Doctor Who episodes back when. Now they are only available through a website where you have to wait 3 hours for each download which makes downloading four episodes in 15 parts an almost herculean task.

Anyway, that´s not really what I wanted to write about and I´m sure I´m not the only one who has to go back to watching old episodes of Doctor Who to bridge the time until the 50th anniversary special episode finally airs. It´s just that lately I seem to spend more time with old stuff.

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN ( EVEN THE PICTURES BELOW )

What I mean with old stuff is old comics, old movies and old tv series. And it´s not only Doctor Who. With all the new tv stations that are available now in Germany I watch more episodes of Star Trek, Starsky and Hutch, The Streets of San Francisco and other 70s and 80s series. I also just started with the tenth season of Dallas and just got the first season of Fall Guy, mainly for Heather Thomas who plays eyecandy Jody Banks.

Heather Thomas mainly got the part because of her absolutely amazing bikini figure that she showed in a few episodes as well as in the intro. Thanks to her stunning 37 - 23 - 32 measurements she became a famous pin up model with posters in every adolescent boy's bedroom at time. 

She even replaced pin up godess Raquel Welch on the number one spot.

Careerwise she didn't manage to cash in on her popularity mostly because she didn't want to use her physical attributes to succeed and the high points of her filmography were her parts in Fall Guy and the screwball comedy ZAPPED. Beyond that she appeared in such awful movies like CYCLONE and RED BLOODED AMERICAN GIRL and the less said about that the better. So her part in history is keeping generations of male viewers hooked to Fall Guy by providing the highlight of the week with the short moment during the intro where she appeared in her famous blue bikini.

Yes, Markie Post was also on the show but she doesn´t appear until the second season and has her most famous episodes ( the ones in which she sports some hot bikinis that give her a chance to show off her incredible 36 - 24 - 36 measurements ) in season three. So far only the first two seasons are available in Germany like it is with a lot of series here.

But I already wrote at length about that in my post about Pop culture tv siren Markie Post so back to my tv ( and DVD ) watching habits.

It´s not that I ONLY watch old tv series. Together with the first season of Fall Guy I also ordered the first season of MODERN FAMILY because they had a special " Get the first season for ten bucks or less " sale at amazon. And the first season has been really expensive ever since it came out. So I have been waiting a long time to see this one. Okay, they show the episodes on RTL NITRO now but I would really like to see it in order.

I really like watching the shows without commercials and with the end credits and more than one episode at a time. And it really is always a mix of the old and the new because I like to mix it up instead of watching all the episodes of one series straight before starting another one. Right now I have just finished seasons three, four and five of THE DEAD ZONE and on my desk are the first seasons of HAWAII FIVE - O, BOARDWALK EMPIRE, seasons two and three of ANGEL and the second season of MISFITS. By the way, if you want to buy the first season of HAWAII FIVE - O in Germany ( the new one not the old one which my mother watches a lot now ) be sure to get the version where it´s in two parts. It has all the material that the complete box has but it´s at least 15 EUROS cheaper.

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE ( FOR THE WORSE IN THIS CASE )

Now tv series are not the only things where I go back to older stuff. It seems that comic companies nowadays are either trying to alienate older readers on purpose or they´re just more interested in promoting new movies or toys - or they just don´t care. Probably some Hollywood thing.

So it shouldn´t surprise anybody that I´m reading more old Marvel comics than new ones. I mean, most heroes aren´t recognizable anymore and since titles like the Avengers seem to turn into scinece fiction comics more and more I have gone back to the glory days of the team.

I got the AVENGERS - SERPENT CROWN hardcover and the one with the THING - SERPENT CROWN AFFAIR ( which is basically one story told in two parts and two titles ) both with some great art by George Perez. Like this wonderful splash page from AVENGERS 148 with the Avengers beat by the Squadron Supreme, Marvel´s stand - in guys for DC´s Justice League.

And I also just recently purchased THE PRIVATE WAR OF DOCTOR DOOM hardcover - which also has some very fine issues by George Perez - and the HEAVY METAL trade by John Buscema and Tom Palmer.

Now I would have preferred it if the John Buscema and Tom Palmer issues would have been in hardcover but I guess Marvel doesn´t think all the issues of Roger Stern´s run deserve the special hardcover treatment.

Which I can understand from a business perspective. The most beloved story from the run is UNDER SIEGE which is already available in hardcover with ASSAULT ON OLYMPUS a close second in scope and grandeur. Apart from that it´s pretty difficult to single out any other particular stories so the rest will probably not sell as good in hardcover - if it sells at all - which probably is the reason it´s being offered as trades. At least the bulk of the run is now available through the new THE ONCE AND FUTURE KANG and HEAVY METAL trades. The only issues that are missing right now are the last ones from Walter Simonson´s run on the book and I really hope they put it into one book together with Walt´s Fantastic Four issues.

You see, Walt Simonson really got big cojones, so he used his tenure on Avengers to write the prologue to a story that wraps up much later in his run on Fantastic Four where he writes and draws. But I already mentioned this stroke of genius in this post ( which oddly enough also mentions Markie Post and Heather Thomas ) and I don´t want to repeat myself.

Which seems to be all I have time for Today. Once again our time is up and I haven´t even gotten to the part I really wanted to write about, namely SECRET WARS II and what I loved about it. No, seriously dude.

Terry Hooper just made a post about SECRET WARS on his blog ( I hope you all check out his posts religiously on his new address that´s also on the blogroll of this post ) to which I commented. I just had to mention the sequel - the nine issue mini series SECRET WARS II - because that was around the time I got in and it was just so big and with a gazillion tie in issues it was crazy. But I will talk about that at length in my next post.

As I have mentioned Sylvester McCoy in this post Today´s video at the end of the post is ENDGAME a documentary about the last days of the classic Doctor Who series and how it would have continued.



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