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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 14, 2024 19:08:43 GMT -5
I watched the Rookies, regularly and it was always good. Great cast of character actors and young leads. I can't remember the actor's name (too lazy to google), whose character was married to Kate Jackson, in she show; but, he turned up in a guest role, in Scarecrow and Mrs King and I seem to recall a moment where there was a bit of a wink about it.
I recall when they did the backdoor pilot for SWAT, with the guys cross-training with the SWAT team, and the series that followed, which was a favorite as akid, but didn't hold up as well, as an adult, when the first season DVD came out. Steve Forrest was more wooden than I remember, though Robert Urich was good in it.
Man, we used to watch most of the cop shows, except the ones on CBS, due to signal reception issues: Baretta, Toma, Adam-12, Dragnet, Emergency (fireman show), Police Woman, Police Story, Starsky and Hutch, Mod Squad, The Rookies, SWAT.
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Post by Batflunkie on May 11, 2024 19:53:56 GMT -5
Picked up two old school dvd sets the other day, Super Robot Red Baron and Iron King. It's always nice to see older Tokusatsu shows get love here in America since the fandom for this stuff has mostly been underground for years until Shout started releasing Sentai and Kamen Rider shows here in America about a decade ago
Both Red Baron and Iron King are made by the same production company who helped create the original Ultraman. Iron King is more of a blatant knock-off with a bit more camp going on (the story focuses on a wandering special agent who's investigating this ninja clan who wants to overtake Japan. Luckily the agent is aided by this giant named Iron King who's super reliant on water), while Red Baron feels more like a live-action version of say Mazinger Z or Getter Robo. (Evil scientist burgles a robot exhibit and uses them to take over the world but he didn't count on one of the robot builders having a brother who works for the science police who gets gifted the most powerful of all the robots regardless of the fact that Red Baron doesn't look particularly powerful at first glance)
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Post by codystarbuck on May 12, 2024 20:09:55 GMT -5
Picked up two old school dvd sets the other day, Super Robot Red Baron and Iron King. It's always nice to see older Tokusatsu shows get love here in America since the fandom for this stuff has mostly been underground for years until Shout started releasing Sentai and Kamen Rider shows here in America about a decade ago Both Red Baron and Iron King are made by the same production company who helped create the original Ultraman. Iron King is more of a blatant knock-off with a bit more camp going on (the story focuses on a wandering special agent who's investigating this ninja clan who wants to overtake Japan. Luckily the agent is aided by this giant named Iron King who's super reliant on water), while Red Baron feels more like a live-action version of say Mazinger Z or Getter Robo. (Evil scientist burgles a robot exhibit and uses them to take over the world but he didn't count on one of the robot builders having a brother who works for the science police who gets gifted the most powerful of all the robots regardless of the fact that Red Baron doesn't look particularly powerful at first glance) I had the Red Baron set, bought at the local WalMart, and watched a couple of episodes, but never got back to it and lost it in a move (with a few other dvds). It was okay, but it wasn't as fun as Johnny Sokko, to my tastes. Never saw Iron King. I saw Johnny Sokko and Ultraman (the original series) on Channel 44, Chicago, at my grandparent's house, in the late70s/dawn of the 80s. Weekday afternoons were heavily Japanese, with Speed Racer and then Ultraman on M, W, F and Johnny Sokko Tu and Th. They also showed the Marvel Super Heroes cartoons then. That same channel also used to show Star Blazers (Space Battleship Yamato), on the weekend. Ultraman was okay, but the episodes always had a sameness to them, which got old quickly. Johnny Sokko had a bit more variety and was goofy fun. as an adult, I appreciate the goofiness even more and have watched the whole series. Like the organizational stuff (loved that the UNICORN regional branches wore culturally stereotyped clothing that matched the region, like Tyrolean hats, in Switzerland) and the Giant Robot and Monster fights were pretty good. Doug Rice, the comic book artist, turned me onto Kamen Rider, though I had already heard of the earlier hero Gekko Kamen, which was featured in a 1960s tv series and manga. I had asked him about his designs for Mark Skaw's new Manhunter costume and mask, in the 1980s series and he said from that and the Super Sentai shows (and the Metal Hero and similar tokusatsu shows). Luckily, there was a bootleg video at the same show and I picked up Kamen Rider Z-O, which was relatively recent (a movie special) and a compilation of Kamen Rider X episodes (I should have also grabbed one of the Kamen Rider V3 tapes he had). I enjoyed the heck out of Kamen Rider X. Z-O had nice effects and look good, but the story was kind of dull and it took a while for anything exciting to happen. The earlier stuff got down to business right away. From there, I saw an ad in The Comic Buyer's Guide classified section for someone selling that stuff and bought a tape of the last 4 episodes of Kamen Rider Blax RX, which featured the hero teamed up with all of the previous Riders, against the main villains. That was pretty damn awesome. I then bought a Kamen Rider Black tape from the same guy (Damon Foster, who contributed articles to Draculina magazine and did the fanzines Oriental Cinema and Heroes on Film, through Draculina), with the first 4 episodes. Loved that stuff. I have since gotten digital downloads of all of the Kamen Rider series up through Black RX, plus the specials and movies, through Kamen Rider J. Haven't watched it all, since I acquired them recently, but really want to watch the original through X, at least key episodes, and all of Black and Black RX. Also acquired some of the early Sentai/Super Sentai shows (GoRangers, JAKQ, Battle Fever J) and Jetman (since it homaged Gatchaman). The older stuff, I find, is more serious in presentation, but with more entertaining goofiness than the stuff from the 80s...though it depends on the show. Early 70s material, up through mid-70s tends to be more fun, to me. Black and Black RX have good central stories, especially with Shadow Moon, to make it interesting. I gave the Power Rangers a try, when they debuted, but it was so dumb, in the American segments that I couldn't stomach whole episodes just to see the Japanese fight choreography. Plus, by that point the cheesy stuff had gotten institutionalized, in Japan. Jetman would have made a better start (and they pitched it, earlier, but were rejected); but, there you go. Of course, I was in my 20s, when it debuted; so, I wasn't the target audience. I had high hopes for Masker Rider, when it was announced, until I saw what they did with it and decided it was better to watch the originals, even without subtitles or speaking the language. The stuff I have now has fan-made subtitles. I kind of find the Toei shows, especially those initiated by Shotaro Ishinomori, to be more entertaining than Tsuburaya's stuff. I have watched at least the debut episodes of the Ultra series, up through Ultraman 80 (on Youtube, on the Shout Factory channel) and had seen the Hanna-Barbera Ultraman cartoon and an episode or two of Ultraman: Towards the Future. The stuff was fine; but, the earlier stuff seemed a bit more entertaining, even as the effects were better, later. Maybe its the enthusiasm they had for what they were doing, compared to later.
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Post by codystarbuck on May 12, 2024 20:14:46 GMT -5
ps The Night Flight redub of Dynaman was awesome!
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Post by Batflunkie on May 12, 2024 20:40:09 GMT -5
While I've always appreciated Ultraman, it always seemed to struggle finding it's own identity when compared to Sentai or Kamen Rider. My favorite iteration has always been Denkou Choujin Gridman/Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad (which recently got a second life as an anime series by Gainax). It's kind of a hodge-podge of Sentai mech combinations, 90's cyberpunk, and Ultraman thrown into a blender (the American adaptation even had Tim Curry voicing the bad guy)
When it comes to Toku, I generally tend to prefer the "off-the-beaten-path" stuff like Dennou Keisatsu Cybercop, Blue Swat, Tomica Hero Rescue Fire, or even Kodai Shōjo Doguchan. I just love the craftsmanship that goes into this type of stuff. While I flip-flop loving the newer Sentai and Kamen Rider shows (sometimes they can be so godawful, but then you have to remind yourself that they're intended for children), you really can't beat the classics.
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Post by codystarbuck on May 13, 2024 1:05:10 GMT -5
While I've always appreciated Ultraman, it always seemed to struggle finding it's own identity when compared to Sentai or Kamen Rider. My favorite iteration has always been Denkou Choujin Gridman/Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad (which recently got a second life as an anime series by Gainax). It's kind of a hodge-podge of Sentai mech combinations, 90's cyberpunk, and Ultraman thrown into a blender (the American adaptation even had Tim Curry voicing the bad guy) When it comes to Toku, I generally tend to prefer the "off-the-beaten-path" stuff like Dennou Keisatsu Cybercop, Blue Swat, Tomica Hero Rescue Fire, or even Kodai Shōjo Doguchan. I just love the craftsmanship that goes into this type of stuff. While I flip-flop loving the newer Sentai and Kamen Rider shows (sometimes they can be so godawful, but then you have to remind yourself that they're intended for children), you really can't beat the classics. For me its the 60s and 70s material....maybe its just having experienced those eras at a younger age, so it resonates more. Maybe its the fact they didn't have the technology and had to be creative....and more violent. Probably helps that they feel more like the old Godzilla and other Toho movies. It's kind of like how I prefer the Gerry Anderson puppet shows to his live action ones. Thunderbirds was way more animated than Space 1999 and Captain Scarlet more bonkers than UFO (and the Angels made more sense than the purple wigs on the moon crew females). The premise of Ultraman always got me, too. He gets his butt whooped by the monster-of-the-week, until the 1 minute warning goes off and suddenly he remembers he has an ultimate weapon that never fails. Dude; lead with that! With Kamen Rider, he's just tooling along on his motorcycle when the henchman of the week turns up with a bunch of grunts...chop-socky stuff ensues, transformation, serious buttkicking, henchman goes nuclear with monster stuff and KR retaliates with Rider Kick and sundry and then monster goo all over the ground. He trashes henchmen until they run out and fights the big bad, the world is saved and he rides off into the sunset, until a new enemy comes along and a new Kamen Rider. It's like the Lone Ranger gets a makeover every couple of years and the Cavendish Gang is made up of walking crab monsters and dudes who look either like South American revolutionaries in hip duds or Mexican wrestlers with less muscular physiques, who work for guys in fascist uniforms. Actually, that last part is hilarious in the early 70s ones, as Japan seems to forget it sided with the fascists. Hence the joke in Dynaman about a World War 2 movie with a new ending.
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