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| Image by Tumisu from Pixabay |
And, so, another month approaches its doom.
But there is one thing that never dies.
Like Boris Karloff wrapped in bandages in an Egyptian tomb, it always returns from the far banks of the Styx to wreak more havoc in a strangely shuffling manner.
That thing is the feature the world knows as Speak Your Brain, a dread experience in which the first person to comment gets to set the topic of the day.
But what shall be that topic of the day?
That, I cannot say.
It is known only to the gods - and to you.
Posts
51 comments:
THE YEAR 1979 - Any interesting memories, cultural & otherwise?
I remember a holiday, with my brother having brought 'Spider-man Comic' # 328. This was when the Marvel Revolution finally got its act together. Sal Buscema & Pablo Marcos's Avengers, with Wonderman knocking Namor out!
That holiday was interrupted by a telegram, saying my grandfather had passed. I didn't really know him well, but remember my father remarking: "That's the finishing touch!" Other things had already gone wrong, earlier that day.
In September, on my birthday (and my brother's), we got Marvel Superheroes Monthly # 1, with The Avengers vs Graviton. Comics had never been better! Also, the MfP Themes for Superheroes tape. A great birthday.
I read my first Warlock, in Star Wars Weekly # 53. Outstanding.
The New X-Men was great, too - and seemed very 'modern', compared with other superhero titles.
Captain Marvel's excellent Titan Saga was reaching its crunch, too.
On TV, the Richard O'Sullivan Dick Turpin made excellent Sunday viewing. I think Lifelines (Astrology/palmistry, etc for celebs?) may also have been Sunday viewing.
Return of the Saint on ITV, perhaps?
Music had 'Video Killed the Radio Star' - but lots of other stuff, too.
What are your interesting memories from '79?
Phillip
Who was your favorite villain(s)??? Why?
Charlie Horse 47
1979? Charlie graduated high school and went to University. I walked into the large Armory at Purdue University curious about the miltary and what it could offer…
But I really have no other particular memories other than getting arrested day after prom at Turkey Run State Park in Indiana with 6 cases of beer, 4 bottles of wine, a 5th of Jack. I was with my prom date and 3 of her girl friends in the family econo-line ford van.
The pencil-necked dick who arrested me was convinced I was a stud and they were my harem and offered to let me go if “the red-head” would do him during the orgy that for sure was going to happen. That’s when i started to realize a lot of cops are dicks.
Charlie - Indiana isn't a 'dry' state, is it? Or were you drinking underage? Or is it just the cop just needed a pretext to involve himself in things? 'Dick' in both senses of the word - as in 'detective' - and as in 'dick'!
Phillip
Fave villain? That'll need some mulling over!
Phillip
Charlie was 17. Also, alcohol was prohibited is State parks at that time. Though, knowing Indiana, you probably could bring your loaded gun.
So, Charlie got busted two ways: underage possession of alcohol and unlawful possession of alcohol in a state park.
And I was being totally facetious about the orgy. But that pencil-necked, dick-weed of a cop had probably been sitting in his car all morning, reading the penthouse letters column… Maybe this seemed like a nice change of pace for him instead of bopping his baloney per usual?
I turned 13 in February 1979 during the infamous Winter Of Discontent that destroyed the Callaghan government and paved the way for Margaret Thatcher to become Prime-Minister on May 3rd so nowadays pre-teen and pre-Thatcher are the same thing in my memory!
Phillip, I bought Marvel Superheroes #1 on September 3rd so only a few days before you. It was the final day of the school summer holidays and the mag had been due to come out on August 23rd so I'd been disappointed not to find it initially. But it wasn't actually #1 as the numbering was continued from the short-lived Marvel Comic which had continued the numbering from MWOM and this still bugs me 44 years later. Three completely different comics all sharing the same numbering which is madness I tells ya, MADNESS.
But I detested 'Spider-Man Comic' and in my opinion Dez Skinn had ruined the Marvel weeklies. The monthlies were good though, Marvel Superheroes numbering notwithstanding obviously!
On June 13th I got my very own b/w Ferguson portable TV which I'd pestered my father to buy for me. Now I could watch whatever I wanted including Top Of The Pops - my father had a very low opinion of pop music so I'd only previously been able to watch TOTP in other peoples' houses!
Phil, you didn't mention the ITV strike which lasted from August to October 1979. It was a great relief when it ended and I have a vivid memory of me, my sister and her friend Dawn all cheering when the HTV logo appeared, signalling the return to normality!
Video Killed The Radio Star was one of MY favourite songs of '79 too along with Blondie's Sunday Girl, Dreaming and Union City Blue, Anita Ward's Ring My Bell and Dr Hook's When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman.
Charlie - About 10 years ago (maybe more), when my town had a chess club (venue - a Working Men's Club), things finished late (about 11pm - closing time), and I started driving home. In my rear-view mirror, I saw a cop-car behind me, so instinctively depressed the brake, to slow down (just in case.) The cops made me pull over, and a young PC had me wind down my window. He told me I was driving without a seat-belt on. I pointed to my seat-beat, which I was obviously wearing.
The young cop smugly replied: "No - you just put that on, after we pulled you over."
At this point I realized how easy it is for corrupt police to fit people up. The cop asked for my driver's licence. When I said: "I thought you only had to produce it within a week", the cop replied, "No - that's an old wives' tale." He then called in my registration, and checked my car was insured. It all came back legit, so they eventually let me go - but I got no apology, whatsoever. I didn't get confrontational, as I had no witness to back me up, and the cop could have claimed anything happened.
That was an eye-opener for me, showing me what local police are really like. Yourself, and many other people, learn that lesson earlier in life!
Phillip
Colin - Being somewhat older (just hitting your teens), your memory may be more accurate. I've forgotten about the strike.
Those logos! I associate HTV with Robin of Sherwood.
Yes - Anita Ward certainly rings a bell (awful pun!) Dr.Hook was (later) on that 20 Song Brotherhood of Man cover album I'm always harping on about!
Phillip
Phillip- yep! That this cop would trade sex for an arrest is actually quite common among police. My uncles’ best friends were County sherrifs in Indiana. Shop lifting? Speeding? No insurance? Nooo problemo! We can work it out!
1979 was certainly a great year for music. Disco was still king ( massive hits from Earth, Wind & Fire, Chic, Sister Sledge etc. ) but post-Punk and the ska revival were just getting warmed up - The Cure, The Jam, The Specials and many more bands beginning with "The" were raiding the pop charts. I was 12, going on 13, and was just starting to get interested in music, so it was a very special time.
At the movies, it was the year Alien came out. Or burst out, ha ha. I was gutted ( ha ha again ) that I was too young to see that film. It looked tailor made for me: a monster movie... in space? Perfect. I had to wait a few years until I could actually watch it and it certainly lived up to my expectations.
Small screen spookiness also abounded with Tales Of The Unexpected, Sapphire And Steel ( I had such a crush on Joanna Lumley ) and the John Mills version of Quatermass.
Phillip - I was in the HTV area here in the Shire, and always associate that logo with creepy kids' folk horror series Children of The Stones...
Colin - I can see what Dez Skinn was trying to do with the Marvel UK "Revolution" ( making the comics more like traditional "boys' papers" so they might actually sell ) but it obviously didn't work. Saying that, the UK-produced strips in Hulk Comic ( Black Knight, Nightraven etc. ) were often very good with some excellent artwork from John Stokes, Paul Neary, David Lloyd...
Simon - Yes, Sapphire & Steel. That episode with the soldier (?) creeped me out, as a kid. Was he waiting on a platform? - I forget. But, most memorable of all, the final episode with the pair trapped in that 2-D house/room, with a window, rotating through space!
In my mind, I conflate 'Children of the Stones' & 'Into the Labyrinth', for some reason! On one of the two, Pamela Salem shouted: "What - be kind to my enemies?" Very OTT performance, from Pam!
For me, despite a rubbish start, towards the end, the Marvel Revolution got good.
Phillip
Phillip - Yes, there was an episode set in a train station... I think it was the one with the faceless man. I really need to rewatch S&S, it's been a very long time.
Pamela Salem was definitely in Into The Labyrinth, so that must be the performance you remember. Another spooky kids' show from HTV, they really cornered the market in scaring children around teatime.
Ah, 1979. A year well worth remembering.
Phillip and Charlie- Like you I had an uncomfortable encounter with the local constabulary (and I think it was in 1979). I had gone out for a drive, taking my younger brother along, just cruising around. Suddenly there were flashing lights in my mirror, so of course I pulled over. Up comes a beefy County Sheriff, gun drawn! You can be certain young redartz was quite polite in asking what the problem was. It turned out there had just been a bank robbery nearby, and the two young male suspects were driving a car like mine. Fortunately he found no bags of cash when he checked us out, and sent us on our way...
Also from 1979- I was in college, working as a photographer for the University newspaper. It turned out I was downtown just as a spontaneous protest march arose- it was November, and Iran had just taken over the US Embassy! I took a bunch of photos and they made the front page of the paper the next Monday.
My then-girlfriend talked me into singing and dancing in the local production of "Camelot" during the summer. It was fun, but I'm sure no singer (or dancer).
Loved a bunch of comics that year, big on X-Men and Spider-Man (with the Black Cat's debut). Musically I was playing Supertramp, Talking Heads, Blondie and ABBA's "Voulez Vous" (which I played to death).
And that just scratches the surface; whatta year. Great question, and great stories all!!!
Oh, and for Charlie's question: favorite villain is Dr. Octopus; just thought he was cool from the first stories I read (and seeing him on the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon just as I started reading those books)...
Interesting how some movies become mnemonic touchstones. For me, 1975 is JAWS, 1976 is LOGAN’S RUN, 1977 is STAR WARS. I don’t have a strong associational movie for 1978 but 1979 is definitely ALIEN.
It’s also DAREDEVIL 158 (Frank Miller’s first), Stephen King’s novel THE DEAD ZONE, Cheap Trick’s DREAM POLICE (their last “great” album IMO) and CANDY-O by The Cars. Looking at lists of the top TV series of that year, WKRP IN CINCINNATI is the only one that I have fond memories of.
b.t.
1979 was a turning point year for me, so it’s etched indelibly in my memory.
I was brought up in Kent [in the South-East of England for our US friends]; but when in 1978, for complex family reasons we moved up to the North-West.
We stopped off with my grandparents in Earls Court in West London. They lived in the top floor flat of the West Indian Students’ Centre, a huge beautiful listed building where they worked. I’d visited several times in the past and loved it when it was buzzing and I was allowed to wander downstairs to the bar under my grandfather’s supervision [much to the bemusement of the patrons]. But the Centre had recently closed and the place was empty and a bit ghostly.
We were meant to stay there a week or so whilst my father went ahead and got the house ready, but it was a bitterly cold winter and a pipe had burst and the house was flooded, so we ended up staying right through until Easter 1979. It was incredible, like living in the Overlook Hotel. Libraries and basements and games rooms and a dance studio and bars, all empty and dark.
So that first half of 1979 was me at an interim school in Earls Court surrounded by children from posh families. It was OK. Living in London was exciting. I went to see Superman The Movie. 2000AD had just merged with Starlord so was required reading, though I missed a few progs as it was harder to find there, weirdly enough.
When we moved up North, finally, there was the massive culture shock. A different atmosphere, and different accents, and apparently I was ‘a cockney’ and ‘a snob’ at the same time because I didn’t have a Northern accent. I got 2000AD reserved for me every week at the newsagents, so it was all about that comics wise.
My Dad took me to see ‘Battlestar Galactica’ in the cinema the night before I started my new school. I was generally into crap SF movies like ‘Saturn 3’ and ‘Buck Rogers’ because I had no discernment whatsoever: I was an SF movie whore. ‘The Black Hole’ as well. Jesus.
Things did pick up at the end of the year with the very strange ‘Star Trek’ movie. And ‘Alien’.
Obviously at 8 I was too young to see ‘Alien’, but I saw the fotonovel in Smiths one day and was freaked out.
I picked up the soundtrack as well - my first cassette on my first cassette player, which chewed it up on first play and both had to be sent off for repair. That was the start of a life-long ‘Alien’ obsession. I watch it at least once every year [saw it in its latest restoration on the IMAX screen a few months ago].
TV-wise, yes - ‘Sapphire & Steel’ thought I associate that with 1980? I watched some of it on DVD recently and it holds up possibly even better now than it did then. The pacing is remarkable.
‘Quatermass: The Conclusion’ is another one. It scared the life out of me. Though I have to say that these days I prefer the book. Kneale’s scripts were great, but on the TV screen this series sometimes seem to be a shouting match between the actors. ‘The Stone Tape’ has the same problem.
Music-wise it was whatever was on heavy rotation on the radio:
‘Dance Away’ by Roxy Music.
‘When You’re In Love With A Beautiful Woman’ by Dr Hook.
‘Use It Up, Wear It Out’ by Odyssey.
‘Heart of Glass’ by Blondie’.
‘Ring My Bell’ for sure!
A generally sunny vibe that year, though I liked the North a lot less than I had The South.
Sorry. That was really long. Obviously a good topic for me.
Charlie - that was the funniest story I’ve read in a long time. Thank you.
Phillip and Charlie, thanks for the topics.
My favourite villain is Doctor Doom. I feel he's the closest to me in temperament.
As for 1979, my main memories of it are of the charts being filled with stuff I liked and of there being an insane variety of music on them; disco, synth-pop, reggae, ska, punk, post-punk, pop, rock, country, novelty songs, easy-listening. Basically, everything.
That summer, I got my first radio-cassette recorder which enabled me to kill music with home-taping. Strangely, the music industry survived that assault and is still going.
I remember the ITV strike which led to Doctor Who's City of Death getting the highest viewing figures the show's ever had. Also, it causing the interruption of the John Mills Quatermass serial.
In comics, as others have mentioned, there was Dez Skinn's revolution which all but murdered the weekly Marvel books but did, at least, lead to monthly thrills.
I also have a feeling that Yorkshire TV didn't get round to showing the second series of Space:1999 until 1979. Total madness.
Matthew - I know it's scant consolation but, despite being 'Northern', starting high school, I too got picked on for 'talking posh', not having a strong Yorkshire accent - and I've lived in the North all my life! Now, my brother works 'down South', and one of his colleagues said he pronounced the word 'poem' in a Northern way, like Simon Armitage! So - as you pointed out - you can't win either way! One of Northern culture's worst aspects is its attitude to perceived 'outsiders'. I'm reminded of Boyd Crowder, on 'Justified', referring to outsiders to Harlan County as 'Conquistadors' & 'Carpetbaggers' ! Over the last few years, more and more Londoners have moved up here so, slowly, this will change. In the past, I worked with colleagues from other regions, who spoke about locals as if they were scum (this rankled with me), but those colleagues were from further north - not 'down South'! Maybe you could have poked fun at your persecutors, by adopting a totally deadpan expression, and telling them you were a child actor on Mary Poppins, or from Fagin's camp, in Oliver!
I only got the first 3 Starlords, but my brother continued far longer. He still buys 2000AD today!
b.t. - Maybe 1978's movie was Superman - or did that tip over into '79, as Matthew watched it then? The Dead Zone's definitely a terrific film. When it's repeated, I never fail to watch it.
Colin - My bro' & myself inherited a little, portable black & white TV, from my much older sister. Unfortunately, my brother disassembled it, to find out how it worked. That was the end of it!
Simon - Pamela Salem was in almost everything, in the late 70s/early 80s. She even turned up in Ever Decreasing Circles, as Paul's ex-wife!
Phillip
Charlie - Best villain (s)?
For me, villains resembling 'bad heroes' (having 'skills', too) - e.g. The Constrictor, Warhawk, Slaymaster, etc. The Constrictor's similar to Spidey or DD (no great strength, but agility & his coils), yet tackled the Hulk. Warhawk's a metal man (like Colossus or Wolverine - kind of), with combat skills. Slaymaster's a pastiche of the Hitman, Bullseye, Batroc, and another villain, who eludes me.
Also, faithful villain-henchmen, like Mongu (also Powerhouse, in Nova - & various others), who serve their masters out of mistaken gratitude.
Phillip
The Tarantula - Slaymaster's toe-knives!
Phillip
Steve, you're incorrect about the ITV strike interrupting Quatermass. The series didn't begin until after the strike had ended - in fact, the first episode was broadcast on the very evening that ITV resumed broadcasting. But the strike did delay the wedding of Gail & Brian in Coronation Street - they were due to get married in August but the strike intervened and the wedding took place later in the year instead.
Phillip, I'm no expert on the matter but I think it was the growing public mistrust of the police that led to the creation of the Crown Prosecution Service in the early '90s. All those miscarriage of justice cases at the time seemed to show that the police couldn't be trusted and an independent body was needed to decide whether a prosecution should go ahead.
Another personal cultural moment from 1979 was when I attended a pantomime on Christmas Eve. It was a family event so I was forced to go and I hated every minute of it. I've never been to a pantomime since but I've wondered if I might enjoy one a lot more now that I'm older and (hopefully) wiser?
The only US Marvel comics I bought in '79 were a batch with April cover dates including Uncanny X-Men, Master Of Kung Fu and the final issue of Ms Marvel before it was cancelled. I didn't buy any US Marvel comics again until exactly a year later at Easter 1980 and that's when I started buying the US Marvels regularly every month as opposed to merely now and again as I'd done up till then.
I've mentioned before on SDC about a book called 'The Usborne Book Of The Future' which I bought on October 20th 1979. It was a very interesting book but not that great at predicting the coming decades as was the book's intent. There was no mention whatsoever of anything remotely resembling the internet even though computers were becoming more and more evident by the late '70s. And the book featured a double-page spread showing an imagined image of the 2020 Olympics taking place on the moon - because obviously there'd be a lunar colony by 2020! But in fairness the book did correctly predict that satellite TV would be widespread by the 1990s.
1979, Phillip -
Crisis, what crisis?, the Sandinista revolution, the Dez Skinn Marvel Revolution, Thatcher, the Flying Lizards, Apocalypse Now, one day at a time sweet Jesus that's all I'm asking from you, the heroic Vietnamese Peoples' Army take down the Khmer Rouge, Arsenal take down Man U in the final, the Flying Lizards, Jaunty Jim Steranko on Nationwide, the return of Quatermass, 'ello 'ello Public Image Ltd, Joy Division's 'Unknown Pleasures', farewell to the Shah of Iran, good riddance to Rhodesia, I knew a girl from a lonely street cold as ice cream but still as sweet, Soviets in Kabul, the CCP revisionist split with Albania, Three Mile Island, Kraftwerk's 'Trans-Europe Express', Hawkwind's PXR5, Throbbing Gristle, jumpers for goalposts isn't it, hmm?
-sean
I forgot to mention that my enforced Christmas Eve trip to the panto wasn't a complete waste of time as I was able to buy the January 1980 issues of Marvel Superheroes and Rampage monthlies from WH Smith's en route, so I had two Marvel mags to read on Christmas morning!
Favourite villain: Boris Johnson.
Because he moved the border to the Irish Sea. Hey, credit where its due.
-sean
Thanks for the words of comfort!
It was just weird, to be honest. I grew up in a small Lego house in a new-build estate in Kent where there just wasn’t any class distinctions at all. But head up North and you’re Lord Snooty, apparently.
Superman was released at the end of 1978 but it was so massive it ran all the way through into the New Year. I’m not sure which side of Christmas I saw it, to be honest.
Favourite Villain: is The Fury a villain? Or simply a monster?
Or Morpheus from Moon Knight.
Colin - A bit like America's Grand Jury System (which the UK once had?), whereby it must be determined whether or not there's enough evidence for an indictment to take place? I'm no expert, either. Like yourself, I only bought US Marvels sporadically until the X-Men's 'Save Us From the Knights of Hellfire' issue, that was either in 1979 or 1980, depending on which date is accurate. After that, I followed the X-Men (unless I missed the odd one) until not getting # 137!
Sean - That's a magnificent list-sentence, worthy of Don DeLillo!
Matthew - Lord Snooty is Jacob Rees Mogg! On the class system, Radio 4's just had Laurie Taylor doing a show about the lower middle-class/petty bourgeoisie, which was quite good. On top of a couple of other recent shows, it seems Radio 4's moving into a 'very good' phase. Might be necessary to buy some blank audio tapes, like in the past!
Phillip
Phillip:
Your mention of Tarantula’s toe-knives reminds me of Gerry Conway’s probable inspiration, Rosa Klebb. Say what you will about the James Bond movies, but they sure had some iconic, memorable villains, and FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE has more than its fair share — high-kicking Rosa Klebb, Aryan psycho killer Red Grant, reptilian chess master Kronsteen and stroker of white pussies “Number One”.
FLASH GORDON (1980) is rather over-stuffed with excellent villains too : Max Von Sydow as Ming, Ornella Muti as Aura, Peter Wyngarde as Klytus and Mariangela Melato as General Kala.
Trying to choose just one “favorite” villain is almost impossible. Dracula, Fu Manchu, Moriarty, Darkseid, Doctor Doom, Doc Ock, Goldfinger, Hannibal Lecter, Emilio Lizardo, Dr. Pretorius, etc. There’s just so many…
b.t.
b.t. - Yes, indeed! I remember discussing Tarantula & Klebb with Redartz, some time ago. I think you're spot on! Flipped the other way, Marvel had Baron Brimstone's henchman, Tong (?), who'd been 'seen to', so he was incapable of feeling pain. Thus, Marvel anticipated Robert Carlyle's character, in James Bond!
Phillip
Thanks Phillip, although I was thinking more of Ron Manager (;
But because of poor editing I included the Flying Lizards twice, and missed out 'Monkey on BBC 2'. Duh.
I wanted to go up t'North in '79, to Leeds for Futurama. It was supposed to be "the world's first science-fiction music festival", and the two day bill included PIL - which would have been the line up with Jah Wobble and Keith Levene - Joy Division, Cabaret Voltaire, The Only Ones, The Fall, A Certain Ratio and er, Hawkwind. But my mum thought a 15 year old was too young to go to something like that, let alone hitch up north for a few days.
Mums, eh?
Iirc I spent some of the money I'd been saving up for that on a copy of (then) new book The Studio, about Jeff Jones, Mike Kaluta, Barry Windsor-Smith and Berni Wrightson instead.
-sean
Sean - 'Monkey' is a very good call - it was remiss of me, forgetting it!
Wasn't David Attenborough 'Life On Earth' a 1979 biggie, too? But I didn't watch it, because Blake's 7 was on at the same time!
Phillip
On the subject of villains, for anyone in the UK here's your reminder that BBC 4 is currently repeating I Clavdivs on Wednesday evenings, and tonight its the downfall of Sejanus, and Caligula becomes emperor.
-sean
Life On Earth or Blakes 7?
You decided to go for the intellectual high ground then, Phillip...
-sean
Sean - Yes! My junior school teacher (knowing I was interested in natural history), assumed I'd watched 'Life on Earth'. When I said I watched Blake's 7 instead, she seemed somewhat underwhelmed with me.
At least you've raised SDC's intellectual tone, by recommending I Claudius. For the serious Roman history, of course ;)
Phillip
Hello gentlemen, I am sure everybody is reading or aware of the story of how a woman was shot in the leg at the Chicago White Sox baseball game a few days ago.
That she was shot from within the stadium with a gun that a woman smuggled in by hiding it in the folds of her belly fat, is not substantiated. The only thing they seem certain about is that this particular woman, capable of smuggling, a gun via hiding it in her belly fat, alarmed three times.
By the way, the pencil- necked cop, who offered to let me off the hook if he could “do the redhead“ did not get to do the redhead.
I did relay the terms and conditions of me, not having to show up with my father at the courthouse in a couple months, but the four girls simply said “gross!“ And thus we packed up the van and drove home.
Charles
Charlie has a couple favorite villains: Dr. octopus and the vulture and kraven. Is it odd that they are all early Spider-Man villains and I assume creations by Steve Ditko?
Is it odd that red and I are both Hoosiers and like doctor octopus has a villain?
Idk… at this moment, I am thinking of a woman who is so fat that she could hide a gun in her belly fat and I am getting this image of Luke cage hero for hire issue number 10 with black Mariah on the cover, lol
Charlie - There was also a calorifically (is that even a word?) challenged woman, in 'The Circus of Lost Souls':
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Circus_of_Lost_Souls_(Earth-616)
Phillip
Phillip- 75% of Chicago is obese. Too many tube steaks…
Charlie- perhaps it's a reflection on the state of Indiana that helps explain our similar tastes. Growing up in flat, ho-hum central Indiana, it was only natural to find excitement and distraction in the colorful pages of comics! I'd guess that Gary, despite it's proximity to the Big City Lights of Chicago, was similarly...uninspiring.
But of course, that's youth for you. Like Professor Marvel told Dorothy, "You want to see big mountains, big oceans...". Some of us still do...
Phillip, I too watched Blake's 7 but I eventually saw Life On Earth when it was repeated years later. I suppose the most famous scene is Attenborough and the gorillas. Up until then gorillas had had a bad press thanks to King Kong, Planet Of The Apes etc but David Attenborough showed that gorillas are actually harmless, gentle creatures undeserving of their fearsome reputation.
Sean, I've never seen I Claudius before so thanks for mentioning it!
Charlie, I haven't really got a favourite villain but I do have a fondness for The Schemer because he appeared in the first Spider-Man story I ever read. The Schemer was a new rival of The Kingpin but he is eventually revealed to be the Kingpin's son in disguise, gasp!
You hadn't seen I Clavdivs before, Colin?
John Hurt was great tonight - "I'm a god. You can't kill meee..aaarrrrgh!"
They've been putting the episodes on the BBC I-Player after they show them on the Wednesday. Not sure how long for, but I think you can still catch up on the previous ones, which is definitely worth doing.
-sean
I've just been watching episode 5 on iplayer, Sean, so I'll probably watch the rest of them.
I have a weird and hyper specific request. Do you have any recordings of Beautiful Music stations in the New York City or Hartford/New Haven area that happen to fall between 1977 and 1983?
Joe, sadly, I don't have any of those. Here's hoping that someone who visits this site's shores can help you.
Charlie wonders if Beautiful Music was a genre of music or the name of a grouping of radio stations known as Beautiful Music.
I've been assuming it's a group of radio stations but couldn't claim to be an expert on American radio broadcasting history.
Well, then, Steve, seems like you have a new potential pursuit! Probably looking forward to your post things on American radio history going forward!
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