Marty Krofft Q&A

Marty Krofft by Daniel Robert Epstein

What a smart guy:

We did 13 kids shows. But the big thing is we’re still independent. We’re probably the only independent left in the business. We own everything we ever did. We never made the mistake of selling everything to the majors.

Never, never, never, ever sell your rights!

YouTube: Diver Dan

There are 11 episodes of this very early kids’ show on YouTube. I haven’t seen these since they first aired. I’ve put them in order:

DIVER DAN TV SHOW ” HARD WATER ” FREE LIMITED TIME 1962
DIVER DAN TV SHOW 1960 “GOLDIE THE GOLD FISH”
DIVER DAN TV SHOW 1960 ” TALKING FISH”
DIVER DAN TV SHOW 1960 “SKIPPERS GOLD”
DIVER DAN TV SHOW 1963 TREASURE SHIP FREE LIMITED TIME
DIVER DAN TV SHOW 1963 SAW FISH RESCUE FREE LIMITED TIME…
DIVER DAN TV SHOW 1963 SHELL-O-PHONE FREE LIMITED TIME…
DIVER DAN TV SHOW ” THE OCTOPUS” 1963
DIVER DAN TV SHOW “MURDER INK”
DIVER DAN TV SHOW 1963 “BOTTOMLESS PIT”
DIVER DAN FEARSOM FRED

Man, Baron Barracuda was cruel and absolutely evil waaaay before it was fashionable to go watch someone like Hannibal Lecter on the big screen. Watch him cut off Diver Dan’s air supply! Outright attempted murder! And this was a show for kids! TV was so damned great back then!!

Additional:
Diver Dan wikipedia entry
Diver Dan tribute page
Planet X Diver Dan article (available as PDFs)
Diver Dan at Kennedy’s SF TV Guide
Diver Dan at TV Party

Playstation 2 Does Gerry Anderson

Two YouTube trailers for a Thunderbirds game coming to the PS2.

Thunderbirds PS2 Trailer

Thunderbirds PS2 Trailer 2

Only the second one is worth looking at. How sucky is that? TB2 looks retarded! How good can the game be if they can’t even render the craft correctly? More importantly, even if you buy the game, do you want to look at a retarded TB2?

Previously in this blog:
Gerry Anderson category
Supermarionation category

In Space No One Can Smell Your Shit

The daily getTRIO.com newsletter brings this:

Brent Hoff received an unmarked package in the mail from Istanbul. Inside was a tape. He popped it in, pressed play and watched his first episode of “Tatli Hayat,” a.k.a. “The Sweet Life,” a.k.a. the Turkish “Jeffersons.”

It was fantastic television, even if Brent didn’t understand a word — so he asked a handful of writers to pen a few sets of subtitles for the show, creating a series of different plots and dialogue that turned it into a new experience with each viewing. It’s this kind of “found” art that Wholphin is all about: the self-dubbed “DVD Magazine of Unseen Films” (which gets its name from a compound of whale and dolphin — in Hoff’s words, “a new species of hybrid cetacean that no-one ever thought existed”) from the McSweeney’s folks brings together films with no binding theme other than their unavailability up until now, and no agenda other than to make sure lost treasures reach the audience they deserve.

Now in its fourth issue, Wholphin has featured works by Steven Soderbergh, Alexander Payne, Dennis Hopper, David O. Russell, Spike Jonze, David Byrne, Miranda July and John C. Reilly, among others (including the abovementioned Turkish sitcom exercise). One year of Wholphin, published quarterly, costs $40; back issues are available for purchase.

So I go to the site and sample a few films. Yeesh, it’s the type of arty stuff that makes me flee the very thought of attending anything that has the word “experimental” in the proximity of “film.” However, several movies stood out that I highly recommend.

First:

David and Mamet

Directed by ALEX ROSE

Liner Notes:

Two David Mamets at a bar.

Biography:

Alex Rose grew up in Providence, RI and graduated from Hampshire College where he studied film and creative writing. He has written and directed many short films, videos and animations which have played on HBO, MTV, the BBC and Comedy Central, have screened in over two dozen festivals worldwide, and have won nine prestigious awards, including “Best Music Video of 2005″ by Rolling Stone Magazine. Currently, he is currently working on a graphic novel about trains, ear-ringing, secret passageways, maps, and neuroscience.

If you loved Dark Star, you’ll love this one too:

Day 37

Directed by DYLAN HAGGERTY

Liner Notes:

“From the beginning of human space colonization, the question of waste disposal has been a matter of great concern for scientists and astronauts. Because of the carefully controlled hermetic environments required for sustained artificial life support systems, treatment and recycling of human feces and urine is of paramount importance in the development of environmental suits (EV) and permanent base facilities.

It is estimated that the adult human body produces approximately 1500 grams of urine, 200 grams of feces, and an average of 1 kg of carbon dioxide per day. In domains where renewable sources of bio-matter and oxygen are unavailable (such as on the Moon or Mars), the creation of what is known as a Controlled Ecological Life Support System (CELSS) is essential.

A CELSS is a closed environment wherein 100 percent of the food, water, and breathable atmosphere are harvested from the waste generated by the inhabitants of the support system. The first experiments in the field of CELSS were undertaken by the great Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in the 1920′s, culminating in the early 1960′s with the creation of the manned Bios-3 habitat located at the Institute of Biophysics in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. The Bios-3 habitat became the model for the more famous Biospheres 1 and 2 in Arizona, USA.

On Earth, the preferred method for waste disposal is the use of bacteria to break down organic waste into more useful forms such as water and carbon dioxide. However, because the use of bacteria on a non-terrestrial base could lead to the potentially lethal contamination of the entire system, the use of alternative forms waste recycling are required. Generally, Lunar and Martian bases have utilized various forms of SCWO

(Supercritical Water Oxidation) for their waste recycling. SCWO uses intense pressure and temperatures to break down solid wastes to create sterile water, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen — all of which can then be re-used in the growth of edible biomass and recycled into the breathable atmosphere.

On excursions outside of an enclosed base where the use of an EV Suit is required, the saving of feces and urine is a vital component to the long-term viability of a sustainable CELSS. Storage and maintenance of human waste is a responsibility that generally falls to the individual astronaut. It has been found that over time, intimate bonds between an astronaut and their waste can form, as the waste becomes an integral link in the chain of life.”

Biographies:

Dylan Haggerty (director, co-writer) is an actor and screenwriter living in Los Angeles, CA.

Kent Osborne is a writer and storyboard director at cartoon network. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.

I also recommend:

Glinder and Glinder

Directed by KASPER HAUSER

Liner Notes:

The lawyer video was shot entirely with video camaras in Oakland, California. It was produced, directed and edited by Kasper Hauser, Julie Caskey, and Jeremy Solterbeck (www.CanopusProjects.com).

Kasper Hauser’s James Reichmuth: “What I remember was this intense feeling that we had done something great; there was this excitement around the set. No one had ever done a video of a lawyer who sues old people pissing his pants HARD. But he does in the video, and we had it in the can. Next stop, the Guiness Book of World Records. I was only thirty-five. Everyone was just glowing. We weren’t even tired. It was 4 p.m. We stumbled out onto the streets of Oakland and grabbed a Tribune. I flipped to the review page: it wasn’t there yet because we had just shot it.”

Biography:

Kasper Hauser is the four-man comedy group from San Francisco that pioneered the use of using language on stage as a comical use. They have offspring galore. They have performed extensively throughout the U.S. and completed a run at the Edinburgh Fringe, where they won the Herald Angel (?). The group’s members wrote and starred in the indie film “Fishing with Gandhi” and have appeared on Comedy Central’s “Crossballs.” Their catalog parody, SkyMaul: Happy Crap You Can Buy from a Plane, will be published by St. Martin’s Press in Autumn, 2006.
http://www.kasperhauser.com

And then finish with this one:

Fork

Directed by MIKE MITCHELL

DIRECTOR BIO

Biography:

Mike Mitchell does not own a computer and therefore did not submit anything in writing.

You. Will. Laugh!

Note: Movies play in a QuickTime popup window.

Google Video: Two Gerry Anderson

Gerry Anderson after Thunderbirds

Description: what happened to Gerry Anderson after Thunderbirds? What was the work produced after Thunderbirds was done and dusted?

Gerry Anderson’s “Thunderbirds”

Description: in depth examination and discussion on the creation and enjoyment of ‘Thunderbirds’ (1965)

Both end too soon. Gee, whoever you are posting these, um, Microsoft Soapbox allows long videos. In case you didn’t know. I sure indeedy would like to see the entire program these non-fiction Gerry Anderson clips are from!

YouTube: A Variety Of TV Things

All of which are probably DMCA violations, so go grab them see them quick!

There’s two episodes of Fireball XL5, an episode of (the original) Kolchak: The Night Stalker, an episode of The Rat Patrol, and more.

Update: As of July 7, 2007, those videos have disappeared.

See the user index.

And if you like what you see, go buy them on DVD (when available!).

YouTube: Holmes, XL5, Night Gallery, More

You want them. You know you do.

Sherlock Holmes (the Granada series with Jeremy Brett!): The Blue Carbuncle

Fireball XL5: Space Monster

Night Gallery: more than one

And more!

Update: As of July 7, 2007, those videos have disappeared. (Goddammit, I should have grabbed Night Gallery immediately!)

This is the user’s index.

Download Helper is your best friend (until Real kicks out their player!).

They look great converted to AVI on my LifeDrive!

Hilarious Sitcom Line (From India!)

Update: Video no longer available when checked on October 10, 2008.

No oil! Only software!

Oh go see it [embedded Nautanki Flash video]. It’ll only take 1 minute 13 to hit the line. You’ll laugh too!

Safe for Work, Christians and Other Children.

–linkswipe via PuppetVision blog

Dell Tech Force: Gerry Anderson Via Team America

No, you wouldn’t believe it if I told you. Had I any free image storage left over, I’d provide some nice screensnaps.

But you’ll have to go look at this for yourself.

Michael Dell, Larry Ellison, Andy Grove, and Bill Gates as marionettes?

Yep.

In two movies! Embedded Flash (.FLV). (Download Helper is your friend!)

Dell Tech Force, Part One
Dell Tech Force, Part Two

Previously in this blog:
Gerry Anderson category
Supermarionation category

YouTube: Space Precinct

A behind-the-scenes clip that is just too brief!

John Barrowman on Live and Kicking in 1995

John Barrowman reports from the set of “Space Precinct” in this clip from the “Electric Circus” strand

Look at that: Gerry used animatronics in the series! What a lost opportunity. If he had thought, “Why don’t I remake Thunderbirds with animatronic puppets?” he might have had something that latest more than one season.

(Then again, had he used Phil Ford as writer, not!)

Previously in this blog:
Gerry Anderson category