1973 Mad Spoof On Apes Movies

The collection cabinets open this time to bring forth issue #157 of Mad magazine, published in March of 1973. By this time there were four films in the Apes series, with another in the works to be released the following year, with a TV series soon after that. Enjoy this Mort Drucker-drawn overview of the films titled "The Milking Of The Planet That Went Ape."

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Bonus: Below, an ad I clipped from a newspaper sometime around 1974.

Bonus: below, a unique photo of McDowell as Cornelius in a rare good mood; most likely thinking of his fiancee, Zira.

Below is one of my pencil drawings of Galen from the TV series, drawn in 1974 sometime, probably while in homeroom. I was big into Apes that year!

More Sci-Fi Book covers

As a young boy and teen I devoured the old science fiction novels I picked up at the used bookstore. Here are a few of the cool covers from some off my bookshelf...

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Burl realised he should have been suspicious of a videophone booth way out here.

Spreading his arms like the robot did nothing to help him get away faster.

G'nrex had 500 quatloos riding on this guy and he wasn't about to let him rabbit.

As he faded away, Sam knew he shouldn't have tried to put the space fireflies in a bottle.

"V - The Final Battle" 1984 TV Guide article

Back in 1984, one of the most anticipated events on TV (at least for me) was the sequel to the highly-rated "V" saga. The article featured this time is from the May 7, 1984 edition of TV Guide, revealing the makeup technique used on the memorable scene where the Visitor is revealed to the rest of the world.

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It was then that "John" realised he should have disguised himself as someone more beloved than TV's Karl Maldan.

Below, the TV Guide Close-Up on the return of the popular V epic.

Below are some splash ads for the miniseries.

1975 "Space:1999" Premiere Review

Below is an article I clipped from the September 11, 1975 edition of the Miami Herald. I lived in Ft. Lauderdale at the time, and although I was a fervent dyed-in-the-wool Trekkie, I enjoyed other good sci-fi series also. This is one of several articles I clipped about it, and I'll post more in the future. The author was withholding judgement on it until he saw more, and I'm sure he felt as I did that it was too dry and hard to follow. It's significant that it took bringing in the man that screwed up Trek's third season, Fred Frieberger, to bring it at least up to a level of action and characterization to improve the second season. Even then it never equalled or surpassed Trek as it's promoters bragged it would; at least in my opinion. Although the effects were superb, I enjoyed the earlier effort "U.F.O." more.

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Below is an earlier article, clipped from The Macon telegraph, about the upcoming show. It was this one article that, more than any other, predjudiced me against the new program. Replace "Star Trek"? Never! I would have been more open to it if every article about it didn't compare it to Trek. Here's an article from my other blog that does the exact same thing on a bigger scale.

Below are a couple of ads, one for an interview with the stars and another for the show itself, taken from the same publicity photo.

1978 Mark Hamill interview

From Rona Barrett's Hollywood Super Special: Winter 1978, comes a one-page interview with Mark Hamill, who was about to begin work on "The Empire Strikes Back." I have featured this magazine in an earlier post about "Battlestar Galactica."

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It's interesting to go back and read stuff like this, from before we had ever seen the movie!

1966 comic book ads

The first things I ever collected were comics, and looking through those earliest ones I bought as an 8 year old (that I still have) I am amused and taken back in time by the ads themselves. I liked "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." but this ad about a pen that "let you see through walls" was a bit deceptive. It doesn't mention that you must first have a hole in said wall or door to use the pen!

Below is a time capsule of all the shows I liked to watch on Saturday mornings in 1966, spent in my pyjamas and nursing a bowl of cereal ( I liked "Ka-Boom" cereal, remember that one?).

1976 UFO series article

Those of you that also read "My Star Trek Scrapbook" blog, will know I have scanned some material from the excellent British publication "TV Sci-Fi Monthly." From issue #7 comes this two page layout on the first Gerry Anderson live-action series (vesus his marionnette programs) UFO. I enjoyed the show whenever I could catch it on TV as a young teen, and I taped the intro theme song onto cassette along with others I liked and played it endlessly. I also really dug the purple-wigged, mini-skirted hotties occupying the moonbase! What were the program administrators thinking? It's a wonder any work ever got done!

First, the cover of the magazine, which opened up similar to the "Star Trek Poster" magazine, except with more pages.

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