Retro Fan 12 Online

January 2021 WHAT IS…
No. 12 $9.95
The GREATEST Christmas
movie of all time??
The answer
will blow-ho-ho your
mind!
Come and knock on SHEENA

their door… Pin-up
Three’s
Queen of
the TV Jungle
Company The Making

of Rudolph
the Red-Nosed
Reindeer
Popeye’s
Long, Strange
TV History
Behind the
scenes of the
sexy Seventies
sitcom
Did you own these

retro Dr. Seuss
toys?
Good Morning World with Ronnie Schell • Doctor Who • CB Radios & more!
1 82658 00429 3 FEATURING Ernest Farino • Andy Mangels • Will Murray • Scott Saavedra • Scott Shaw! • Rick Goldschmidt
Three’s Company © DLT Entertainment. Sheena © Galaxy Publishing and Valdoro Entertainment. Rudolph © 2012 Miser Bros. Press/Rick Goldschmidt. Popeye © King Features Syndicate, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
RetroFan: The
Pop Culture You
Grew Up With!
If you love Pop Culture of the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties,
editor MICHAEL EURY’s latest magazine is just for you!
RETROFAN #11 (Now Bi-Monthly!)

Just in time for Halloween, RETROFAN #11 features interviews with Dark Shadows’ Quentin Collins,
DAVID SELBY, and the niece of movie Frankenstein Glenn Strange, JULIE ANN REAMS. Plus: KOLCHAK
THE NIGHT STALKER, ROD SERLING retrospective, CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST, TV’s Adventures
of Superman, Superman’s pal Jimmy Olsen, QUISP and QUAKE cereals, the Drak Pak and the Monster
Squad, scratch model customs, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ERNEST FARINO, ANDY
MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, and SCOTT SHAW! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.
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RETROFAN #6 RETROFAN #7 RETROFAN #8 RETROFAN #9 RETROFAN #10

Interviews with MeTV’s crazy creepster With a JACLYN SMITH interview, as we NOW BI-MONTHLY! Interviews with the NOW BI-MONTHLY! Interviews with NOW BI-MONTHLY! Celebrating fifty
SVENGOOLIE and Eddie Munster himself, reopen the Charlie’s Angels Casebook, and ’60s grooviest family band THE COWSILLS, ’70s’ Captain America REB BROWN, and years of SHAFT, interviews with FAMILY
BUTCH PATRICK! Call on the original visit the Guinness World Records’ largest and TV’s coolest mom JUNE LOCKHART! Captain Nice (and Knight Rider’s KITT) AFFAIR’s KATHY GARVER and The Brady
Saturday Morning GHOST BUSTERS, with Charlie’s Angels collection. Plus: interview Mars Attacks!, MAD Magazine in the ’70s, WILLIAM DANIELS with wife BONNIE Bunch Variety Hour’s GERI “FAKE JAN”
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Plus: “My Life in the Twilight Zone,” “I in Hollywood, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Girl, Honey West, Max Headroom, Popeye Previews for Saturday morning cartoons, rare GODZILLA merchandise, Spaghetti
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to Famous People,” the ARCHIE-DOBIE ator DOUG WILDEY, a visit to the Land of With MICHAEL EURY, ERNEST FARINO, favorite TV commercial characters, view specials, fake presidential candidates,
GILLIS connection, Pinball Hall of Fame, Oz, the ultra-rare Marvel World superhero ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT BENNY HILL, the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Spider-Man/The Spider parallels, Stuckey’s,
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T! T!
OL D OU D OU
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ALM ALM
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LOU FERRIGNO interview, The Phantom Horror-hosts ZACHERLEY, VAMPIRA, Interview with SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE Interviews with SHAZAM! TV show’s JOHN Interviews with MARK HAMILL & Greatest
in Hollywood, Filmation’s STAR TREK CAR- SEYMOUR, MARVIN, and an interview director RICHARD DONNER, IRWIN (Captain Marvel) DAVEY and MICHAEL American Hero’s WILLIAM KATT! Blast
TOON, “How I Met LON CHANEY, JR.”, with our cover-featured ELVIRA! THE ALLEN’s sci-fi universe, Saturday morn- (Billy Batson) Gray, the GREEN HORNET off with JASON OF STAR COMMAND!
goofy comic Zody the Mod Rob, Mego’s GROOVIE GOOLIES, BEWITCHED, THE ing’s undersea adventures of Aquaman, in Hollywood, remembering monster maker Stop by the MUSEUM OF POPULAR
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Mount Airy, NC (the real-life Mayberry), The long-buried Dinosaur Land amuse- Seventies, Spider-Man and Hulk toilet Monica Pacific Ocean Amusement Park, a Tarzan,” MAJOR MATT MASON, MOON
interview with BETTY LYNN (“Thelma Lou” ment park! History of BEN COOPER paper, RetroTravel to METROPOLIS, IL Star Trek Set Tour, SAM J. JONES on the LANDING MANIA, SNUFFY SMITH AT
of THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW), TOM HALLOWEEN COSTUMES, character lunch- (home of the Superman Celebration), SEA- Spirit movie pilot, British sci-fi TV classic 100 with cartoonist JOHN ROSE, TV
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24
The Crazy Cool Culture

We Grew Up With
27
CONTENTS Issue #12 January 2021
Columns and 48
Special Features Oddball World of Scott Shaw!
41 The Fantastic, Plastic Zoo
3 of Dr. Seuss
Retro Television
Three’s Company 57
Will Murray’s
13 20th Century Panopticon
Retro Interview Sheena, Pin-up Queen of the
Nancy Morgan Ritter TV Jungle
34 19 65
Retro Cartoons Retro Interview
The Weird, Wonderful Good Morning World star
History of Popeye Cartoons on Ronnie Schell
Television
Departments
57 27
Retro Animation
Rankin/Bass’ Rudolph the
2
Retrotorial
Red-Nosed Reindeer
3
48 34 24
RetroFad
Andy Mangels’ Retro
CB Radios
Saturday Mornings
Christmas cards from
animation companies 54
Too Much TV Quiz
41
Ernest Farino’s Retro 73
Fantasmagoria Retro Brit
What is the Greatest Christmas Doctor Who’s Sixties
Movie (with Martians) U.S. Invasion
of All Time?
77
65 RetroFanmail
19 80
ReJECTED
RetroFan fantasy cover
by Scott Saavedra
RetroFan™ #12, January 2021. Published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office.
Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Three’s Company © DLT Entertainment. Sheena © Galaxy Publishing and Valdoro
Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: RetroFan, c/o Entertainment. Rudolph © 2012 Miser Bros. Press/Rick Goldschmidt. Popeye © King
Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 112 Fairmount Way, New Bern, NC 28562. Features Syndicate, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective
Email: [email protected]. Six-issue subscriptions: $67 Economy US, companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter
$101 International, $27 Digital. © 2020 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING. ISSN 2576-7224
by Michael Eury
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Michael Eury How COVID-19 Stole Christmas. That was my editorial fear when the pandemic slammed us back
in March and shuttered or slowed many businesses, including TwoMorrows’ editorial and distribu-
PUBLISHER tion networks. I was apprehensive that this issue might be delayed to where its special Christmas-
John Morrow related content—our look at TV’s time-honored Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Ernest Farino’s
tongue-in-cheek Santa Claus Conquers the Martians flashback, and Andy Mangels’ sharing of holiday
CONTRIBUTORS cards from animation studios—might be delayed to early 2021, making its yuletide material seem
Michael Eury as stale as fruitcake in February. Luckily, that wasn’t the case, and as I pen these words in late July
Ernest Farino 2020 RetroFan #12 is slated to go on sale the first week of December. I hope that the Grinch doesn’t
Rick Goldschmidt slow your copy from reaching you in time for the holidays.
Jason Hofius Despite the Christmas-themed features, RetroFan’s eclectic content mix is still on display this
Andy Mangels issue.
Chris Mann A “parent” should never play favorites with his “children,” but if forced to pick a feature from this
Will Murray issue that touched me the most, it’s Chris Mann’s interview with the charming and talented Nancy
Scott Saavedra Morgan Ritter, the first wife of the late John Ritter. Even if you weren’t a fan of Three’s Company, the
Tom Speelman sexy sitcom that Chris also writes about this issue, you couldn’t help but like its handsome and hilar-
ious Emmy-winning co-star, John Ritter. His comedic timing and flair for slapstick made Jack Tripper
DESIGNER one of television’s most memorable characters. John Ritter’s diverse range of roles, from The Waltons
Scott Saavedra to my personal favorite, an earnest would-be superman in the delightful 1980 film Hero At Large,
proved his versatile range. He left us much too soon, passing away unexpectedly on September 11,
PROOFREADER 2003, but Nancy’s interview this issue brings us closer to the unforgettable funnyman.
Rob Smentek For those of you concerned about your health during the pandemic (and who isn’t?), this issue
we have two doctors in the house: Doctors Seuss (from columnist Scott Shaw!) and Who (from
SPECIAL THANKS RetroBrit columnist Ian Millsted). Also, columnist Will Murray goes ape over Irish McCalla as Sheena,
Jerry Beck guest contributors Jason Hofius and Tom Speelman tune in to Good Morning World’s Ronnie Schell
Ivan Briggs and Popeye TV cartoons, respectively, and ye ed’s spotlighted RetroFad is CB radios, good buddy.
Martin Grams, Jr. Scott Saavedra’s Secret Sanctum column is on break this issue, but he delivers a wacky fantasy cover
Fred Grandenetti and his always-amazing layouts, per usual. All that and
Hake Auctions more is waiting for you, making RetroFan #12 yet another
Heritage Auctions NEXT ISSUE
groovy grab bag of the crazy, cool culture we grew up
with.
VERY SPECIAL THANKS We close on a sad note: We’re heartbroken to report
Nancy Morgan Ritter that one of this magazine’s original columnists, Martin
Ronnie Schell Pasko, died on May 10, 2020. Marty was the prolific
writer of numerous comic books on properties as diverse
as Superman, Swamp Thing, and Star Trek, and boasted
Don’t STEAL our credits in other media, including television animation
Digital Editions! (winning a Daytime Emmy for Batman: The Animated
C’mon citizen,
DO THE RIGHT Series), animated film (Batman: Mask of the Phantasm),
THING! A Mom
& Pop publisher newspaper strips (The World’s Greatest Superheroes), and
like us needs
every sale just to
survive! DON’T
live-action television (Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, the
DOWNLOAD
OR READ ILLEGAL COPIES ONLINE! Twilight Zone revival, Roseanne). We will feature a trib-
Buy affordable, legal downloads only at
www.twomorrows.com ute to the late, great “Pesky” Pasko in a future issue of
or through our Apple and Google Apps!
RetroFan. In the meantime, we extend our deepest con-
& DON’T SHARE THEM WITH FRIENDS
dolences to Marty’s family, friends, and family.
OR POST THEM ONLINE. Help us keep
producing great publications like this one!
2 RETROFAN January 2021

RETRO TELEVISION
Come and Knock

on Our Door —
An Author’s
Journey
by
Chris Mann
And we continued to
invite the show’s cast,
“Come and knock on led by John, Joyce
our door,” their iconic DeWitt, and Suzanne
sitcom theme song Somers (and later
enchantingly calls. Jenilee Harrison and
“We’ve been waiting Priscilla Barnes), into
for you.” our homes long af ter
Since March 15, Suzanne was fired
1977, the melodious during a historic and
Three’s Company friendship-ending
opening tune has contract dispute in
invited us to join 1980–81 and Joyce
TV’s most beloved, lef t Hollywood
breeziest, and—cue for more
the controversy— than a
decade when
John moved
once bawdiest mixed- on alone in a
sex, cohabitating trio, secretly devised
who helped us escape spin-of f in 1984.
reality with their zany hers-and-hers-and- Publicity photo of the original Three’s For these once-close actors, these hurts
his misunderstandings, titillating (and Company cast, (LEFT TO RIGHT) Joyce were unmistakably, profoundly real.
then-taboo) sexual double entendres, DeWitt (Janet Wood), John Ritter (Jack And this sitcom-loving, eager-to-escape
giggly and (for one) jiggly antics, and fall- Tripper), and Suzanne Somers (Chrissy Oklahoma misfit—who since age five
off-your-couch-funny pratfalls. Snow). Three’s Company © DLT Entertainment. faithfully tuned in to tune out serious
All of which could elicit from the ABC Courtesy of Ernest Farino. family strife (when he wasn’t mediating
hit’s top star, the late, legendary John it) and oppressive school drama (when he
Ritter, as the aptly named Jack Tripper, a wasn’t making light of it as a Jack Tripper-
hilariously quick and cheeky “Hurt me!” anything but a tawdry ménage à trois. À inspired class cut-up) and to boisterously
Hurt me, indeed—with from-the-gut la French farce, wild innuendos and wacky laugh away the pain—got that to his core.
guffaws. hijinks ensue. Most U.S. critics didn’t get it. (My dear mom forbade me from watching
Critics scoffed at the silly series and But audiences gladly welcomed fun- ABC’s racy 1977–1981 sitcom Soap—which
its risqué premise: Two girls live with a loving—and platonic—roommates Jack, she saw as too adult—but sweetly allowed
girl-crazy guy who pretends to be gay to Janet, and Chrissy (and then Cindy, then Company’s family fun. Love ya, Mom.)
convince their prudish landlord to permit Terri) into our families and our hearts, just Jack, Janet, and company’s “loveable
what otherwise couldn’t possibly be as these caring friends did with each other. space that needs your face” became my
RETROFAN January 2021 3

retro television
happy place where, for a half hour a week (or day, Early ad for TV’s hottest new comedy. Three’s
thank you, Eighties syndication), my spirit and Company © DLT Entertainment. Courtesy of Ernest
outlook expanded well beyond life’s oft-dismal Farino.
confines. Their silliness became my soothing
balm, their sunniness my California-dreaming
optimism. In this social media age, I know I’m not Days later I saw John Ritter, fresh from his
alone. This extended TV family gave me—gave big-screen comedy hits Skin Deep and Problem
us—something to look forward to. For many in Child, promote his lead role in ABC’s upcoming
these socially isolating times, it still does. miniseries spooker Stephen King’s IT on Joan
Little did I know how potent looking Rivers’ daytime talk show. When Joan asked
forward could be when, as a University of Tulsa about “scary things happening in dark places,”
journalism and mass media studies freshman John quipped if she was inquiring “about the
in 1990, I set my 18-year-old mind and heart breakup of Three’s Company.” Like so many, I
on meeting and interviewing my comic-relief cracked up yet again at his masterful comic
idols, celebrating their merrymaking magic, and timing. But few knew how much he wasn’t joking.
breaking my favorite comedy’s untold, of ten My book, I instinctively knew, was
dramatic, thoroughly human—and, as fate increasingly ready for me to write it.
would one day have it, E! True Hollywood—story. In summer 1991, while interning in Burbank,
Come and Knock on Our Door was my future tell-all book, and it California, and intent on manifesting my dreams, I spent my off
was waiting for me. hours at Kinko’s repackaging my Suzanne interview with updates
on the entire gang (from John’s Problem Child sequel to Joyce’s
The Door Knocking Begins self-imposed Hollywood exile and return to theater to Suzanne’s
Forever seeking the real story, I read and watched anything sitcom comeback in ABC’s Step by Step), a Three’s retrospective,
Company I could get my hands on. I’d perused media-savvy cheeky ThighMaster jokes, and a potpourri of other tenant tales
and Hollywood-comeback-minded Suzanne Somers’ 1986 in the first issue of my Company fanzine/newsletter, The Roomie
TV Guide cover article “The Rise and Fall of a TV Sex Symbol,” Report.
in which she said she was “mortally wounded” by an angry “Sharing is healing,” Suzanne said in her now-republished
letter that John Ritter wrote her during her contract fight. (In interview, noting that Three’s Company’s on-screen family gave
response, at age 14 I submitted to TV Guide’s letters section an her a chance to live out her childhood. But the one-time behind-
impassioned note calling for Company peace and its return to the-scenes family still needed resolution. So, I thought, let’s see if
ABC. Not shockingly, it didn’t make the cut.) And I’d recorded a sharing this little tribute can start a dialogue on the long road to roomie
rare 1987 Evening Magazine TV interview in which media-shy and healing.
retreat-from-Hollywood-minded Joyce DeWitt revealed how I sent copies to all ten cast members, with letters stating my
Three’s Company’s conversion to Three’s a Crowd—or rather, the desire to one day write a book about their show. Only one initially
disrespectful way her producers handled it—launched her on responded—but it was a huge one.
a life-changing spiritual quest. These pieces deeply resonated,
but so much more was lef t unsaid, especially by Joyce and John, Opportunity Knocks Back
who maintained their silence about falling out with Suzanne After a note from his assistant requesting my phone number,
and each other. Hey, I thought, if anyone can get these three on John Ritter himself called me (!), saying, “I really dig the
the same page, if not the same stage, why not this roommate-lovin’ newsletter.” A Beatles fan who totally got how entertainment
communication major? and art could transform hearts and minds, he was “touched
I asked, and the Three’s Company universe began to answer. and flattered” by my appreciation, and would gladly give me
In November 1990, I got the chance to meet and interview an interview, first for The Roomie Report. I couldn’t believe it—
Suzanne for my college newspaper. A year this internationally loved, Emmy-winning actor
away from her decade-in-the-works network known for making each of the many sets he
primetime return, she was in town to discuss worked on a happy place was taking the time to
her bestselling 1988 memoir Keeping Secrets and respond so personally to my dream project. How
in-development ABC movie based on this truly lucky was I! (Clearly, the Heartland values instilled
relatable story of growing up the child of an by his late father, legendary country singer and
emotionally abusive and violent father (in her actor Tex Ritter, were not lost on John.) He was out
case, a raging alcoholic) and the resulting life of of town at the time, so his assistant arranged for a
self-created chaos she led virtually into Secrets’ phone interview when I met her at his production
1974 ending. She was also writing her next
tome. “Will this book,” I asked, af ter finessing a
question about Company’s familial themes, “pick An example of Topps’ Three’s Company stickers,
up where Keeping Secrets lef t of f?” distributed with a stick of gum in a wax pack,
“I’m not ready to write that book yet,” she retailing for 20 cents in 1978. Three’s Company © DLT
replied. Entertainment. Courtesy of Heritage.

retro television
company office at 20th Century Fox, where she dubbed for me members of my family to live with me (hello, theme song) down
some VHS rarities. “John never really talks to the press about at my rendezvous.
Suzanne Somers,” she advised. He had, though, just given People a But real life, it turned out, didn’t always wrap itself up like
quote wishing her and her Step co-star Patrick Duffy well in their an episode of Three’s Company. The Roomie Report gave way to
new series. studies, a student editorship, and everyday life challenges
But my interview went much deeper. During call #2, John after issue #4, with—despite my best efforts—no additional
was finally ready to discuss Company’s “dark places” and its good interviews. Getting that gang on the same page would be a fairly
times—and he gave me the exclusive. monumental feat.
“I really did love working with her,” he told me about As all humans can attest, we of ten have to go through the
Suzanne. “[But] there was a time when I thought I could never dark to get to the light. John’s willingness to continue on this
forgive her. I had just had a baby, my life was totally upside journey with me got me through my final years in Oklahoma
down, John Lennon was killed. And I just couldn’t believe that and gave me the courage to keep knocking on his former
Suzanne could literally walk of f the show and hold it up for costars’ doors in hopes of illuminating and “lightening up” any
money, fame, and power, when remaining dark places.
the show had opened up the
doors for all of us. I felt that all of Pilot/Part 1: Getting
us were getting attacked by her Real—and Real Funny—
in the press. And she threatened with Jack Tripper and the
us with lawsuits. I never went Ropers
up against her in the press; I Funnily enough, the book’s
just kept my mouth shut. I just unfolding mirrored the show’s
refused to work with her.” up-and-down-and-up-again
And the show’s ending? “It development. Though it was
was all tense at the end,” he said. now 1995 in real time, in Company
“Three’s a Crowd wasn’t handled flashback land it was the 1975–76
very well by the producers. All of TV season. Enter John Ritter,
a sudden it was announced that Norman Fell, and Audra Lindley.
I’m leaving the show and they’re John met with me at Café
all out. There were hard feelings. Figaro on Melrose during my first
Hurt feelings.” week in Los Angeles in July 1995.
He shared lots of fun I’d just landed my first entry-
memories, too. So how about level job at a trade magazine (as
Three’s Company reunion? It an editor and designer—I was
“would start out,” he said, “at that determined to make it) and
Chrissy’s grave, with all of us very, he’d just wrapped filming what
very sad.” Ouch! would be one of his most critically
Oh, yes. I had a book to write. acclaimed performances of his
And TV’s best pratfaller was career, playing a gay store owner
about to open the door for me in Billy Bob Thornton’s Oscar-
to take this once-in-a-lifetime winning drama Sling Blade. As
trip. But would I be able to get Autographed photo of the Seventies’ coolest roommates. a versatile artist he had again
the ever-private Joyce to open Three’s Company © DLT Entertainment. Courtesy of Heritage. transformed himself—and yet
up? And would Suzanne do an here he was, taking time to meet
interview if she was writing her with me and open up about a
own book? And what about the rest of the cast, including Norman critically dismissed show many of his acting contemporaries
Fell and Audra Lindley (the oh-so-salty landlords, the Ropers), might have advised him to keep locked away in his distant past.
Don Knotts (their replacement, the hilarious Mr. Furley), and I’d met him the year prior during one of my summer L.A. getaways
Company co-tenants Richard Kline (Larry) and Ann Wedgeworth at a taping of Hearts Afire—his 1992–1995 CBS sitcom co-starring
(Lana)? I had to get the whole family, including the producers, Thortnon and Markie Post—and he welcomed me this time with
writers, and director. one of his famous bear hugs. Like so many others would say about
Bringing my sitcom “extended family” back together was John, he put me at ease with his kindness and humor.
symbolically quite important to me, as my own family was John’s easy-going demeanor and quick wit were part of his
breaking down. My mom and my sister—my longtime beloved charm and talent repertoire that made him a hot small-screen
“live-ins”—were going through bitter, if ultimately liberating, commodity when two U.S. TV execs, Donald Taffner, Sr. and Ted
divorces, and my niece and nephews (my godchildren) were Bergmann, sought in 1975 to “Americanize” the saucy 1973–1976
likewise suffering. If I could make three (or ten) company again, at British sitcom Man About the House, about (sound familiar?) an
least that part of my childhood could be “fixed.” And, I dreamed, aspiring male cooking student masquerading as gay to share
after establishing myself in sunny L.A., I could bring all five a flat with two women. All three U.S. broadcast networks’
retro television
standards-and-practices departments—alias ABC, CBS, and NBC comeback in the miniseries Hollywood Wives) and declined her
censors—rejected this idea. “They said, ‘You can’t have a boy invitation to appear in 1994 on her short-lived daytime talk series
living with two girls in the same apartment! Not on our network!’” The Suzanne Somers Show. The wounds remained.
Bergmann would soon tell me. Weeks later, TV programming Only love remained in his relationship with his TV landlords,
wizard Fred Silverman, then ABC Entertainment’s new president, though. “Oh, you talked to John?” Audra Lindley, the forever
took Bergmann up on his pitch to develop this concept for U.S. muumuu-clad Helen Roper, asked me when her agent connected
audiences. Also on Silverman’s radar, the legendary network chief me with her via phone in August 1995. “I’m happy to meet with
would tell me, was John Ritter, who’d starred in the Silverman- you.” Was I in for a treat. The prolific actress—whose film and
ordered, Grant Tinker-produced CBS comedy pilot Bachelor at Law television career spanned from the Forties and included diverse
in 1973. CBS didn’t order that pilot to series, but Silverman kept roles in live Kraft Television Theatre performances, features (from
his eye on a starring vehicle for John, who since 1972 recurred Cannery Row to Troop Beverly Hills to 1995’s Sudden Death), soaps,
as Rev. Fordwick on CBS’ The Waltons and since 1970 had proven and sitcoms (including her final role, as Cybill Shephard’s mom
his dramatic and comedic chops in primetime hits, including in Cybill)—couldn’t have been kinder. We met at the Academy of
Dan August, Hawaii 5-0, Kojak, Mannix, Barnaby Jones, The Streets Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where I interviewed her and
of San Francisco, The Rookies, and Tinker’s MTM sitcoms The Bob then joined her for a screening of Dangerous Minds. (Holy cow,
Newhart Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, I was watching a movie with Mrs.
Rhoda, Phyllis, and Doc. His films included Roper!) Given her artistry and cachet,
Disney’s The Barefoot Executive and Peter it didn’t surprise me that ABC paid
Bogdanovich’s Nickelodeon. $8,000 to buy out a playhouse where
When Bergmann hired M*A*S*H she was performing a Sunday matinee
writer-producer Larry Gelbart to pen to secure her involvement in Gelbart’s
Man’s first California-based U.S. pilot, the pilot. “I mean, gee whiz, they’re buying
future Tootsie and Broadway writer had out a theatre for me?” she said.
likewise noticed something special in John, She fondly recalled her Three’s
who also appeared in a 1973 episode of Company days. “We became intimate,
M*A*S*H. “I love John,” Gelbart told me. we became a family who shared
“I saw something in John that was really everything with each other,” she
fresh, young, and modern, yet he had a added. Audra decided early on that she
knack for old-style, vaudevillian pratfalls.” saw her sex-starved TV landlady not as
Once ABC greenlit Gelbart’s script—co- the tough-talking, pantsuit-clad harpy
written with his stepson, Gary Markowitz, depicted in Gelbart’s edgy and more
who came up with the series title Three’s sophisticated pilot. “I believe Helen
Company—Gelbart saw John as perfect Roper was a very warm, loving woman.
for the part of David Bell, the aspiring film She had a maternal instinct with the
writer who shared an apartment with a kids,” said Audra, who also appeared
witty brunette, Jenny (played by Valerie as Phoebe’s grandma on Friends. TV’s
Curtin, who later starred in the TV Mrs. Roper reminded me of my own
version of 9 to 5), and a dippy blonde, grandma—at once warm and super
Samantha (played by future Days cool. A year later, Audra and Norman
of Our Lives costar Susanne Zenor). Fell reunited at an autograph show. As
Clinching John’s casting as the future I walked the old pals to her car after
Somers’ Chrissy was
Jack Tripper: Former CBS head of lunch, they bantered like the Ropers.
merchandised in
casting Ethel Winant called him “the He comically circled his wheeled
posters, dolls, puzzles,
next Jack Lemmon” when Bergmann luggage, joking, “Hurry up, Audra. I
and other items. Three’s
mentioned his name. have to be on set in three years.” She
Company © DLT Entertain-
John’s boyish charm and hilariously retorted, “Norman, take
ment. Poster courtesy of
wholesome appeal helped make the damn thing and put it in the damn
Ernest Farino. Doll courtesy
Company’s “man about the house” trunk.” Pure gold.
of Hake's.
essentially a non-threat—so much so that Jack became more like I first met Norman in fall 1995
a brother to his female roomies. Behind the scenes, a family of at Jerry’s Deli in Marina Del Rey,
friends would form with his eventual co-stars. During our July California. He cracked wise throughout his interview, but was
meeting, he especially kept opening up about Suzanne—the also most forthcoming. The 40-year veteran of stage, screen,
good, the bad, and the season-five ugly. “I really did love her,” and television had plenty of dramatic credits behind him (Ocean’s
he said. “I loved them all. That’s why it hurt so much when she Eleven, Inherit the Wind, Catch-22, and playing Dustin Hoffman’s
started going nuts. It was like breaking up with a girlfriend. I’d landlord in The Graduate among them). He was thrilled to play the
never thought she’d ever do that; it kinda surprised me. And I henpecked husband and finger-wagging, comically suspicious
missed her, too.” “Missed,” as in past tense. He ducked out of an landlord Stanley Roper in Gelbart’s pilot. “It seemed like a good
ABC event she attended in 1985 (while promoting her attempted character for me to play at that point because I was doing a lot

retro television
of serious stuff, but not really funny, goofy, nutsy parts,” he said. I’m anything but a natural-born salesman, but deep down I
His willingness to play the buffoon fit well with the fact that Mr. felt that “no” might eventually become a “yes.” So I summoned
Roper’s homophobia around the supposedly-gay Jack was one of my inner Larry Dallas—the used car dealer who gave Jack, Janet,
Stanley’s shortcomings—the joke, of course, was on the sexually and Chrissy a puppy in the show’s fourth episode and stayed
insecure landlord, who also often “had a headache” when it came on as Jack’s best friend till the end—and kept on keeping on.
to his wife’s desire for romance. Norman hailed Mr. Roper’s and Fortunately, the guy who brought Larry to life, stage and screen
Company’s “innocence.” actor Richard Kline, not only said “yes” to an initial interview (at
Fell got a raw deal, though, when ABC cajoled him to join a a Regal Beaglesque eaterie next to his gym—so very Larry!), he
willing Audra to do their own spin-off to premiere in March 1979. hosted a second interview at his Hollywood Hills home so I’d also
His “guarantee” to return to Three’s Company if The Ropers didn’t have the chance to meet another of his comic partners in crime,
last more than a season proved hollow when the spin-off was TV’s leisure suit-clad landlord/ladies man Ralph Furley, played by
cancelled in May 1980—after one full season and one six-episode the iconic and inimitable Don Knotts.
season. Was he angry about this? “I put it behind me,” he claimed, While the antsy and often hyperventilating Mr. Furley came
adding how much he missed working with John while doing The wrapped in, to quote Richard, “a psychedelic, bad-acid-trip
Ropers. “I was upset about it. Yeah, I could have gone on in Three’s wardrobe,” Don Knotts presented as Ralph’s laid-back, totally
Company for another
five or six years, but…”
From the original
pilot on, John and “the
Ropers” jelled. The
cast’s chemistry would
be complete, though,
only after two more
pilots added Joyce and
then Suzanne to the
ensemble. “Everyone
was the right person for (LEFT) Landlords Stanley and Helen Roper (Norman Fell, Audra
the right part,” Norman Lindley) quickly spun off into their own series, The Ropers. (TOP)
said, pausing with Former Barney Fife Don Knotts signed on as the new Three’s
Roper-esque timing. Company landlord, Ralph Furley. Three’s Company and The Ropers © DLT
“Even Suzanne behaved Entertainment.
herself.”

Story Behind the Story Twist(s): A Sudden Reunion, unassuming antithesis. In fact, the five-time Emmy-winning Andy
a “No,” and More Co-stars Griffith Show legend and Disney film star’s humble and quiet
Flash forward to October 1995. Three months after his in-person nature begged someone to ask him, “Don’t you realize you’re Don
book interview, John finally allowed his path to cross with Knotts?!?” He would chuckle at such a question, just as he gently
Suzanne’s. Both attended a gala event for the Broadway premiere laughed in recalling some of Furley’s wild facial contortions,
of Victor, Victoria. “I heard someone singing ‘I Won’t Dance, Don’t impressive pratfalls, and hysterical karate chops—all of which he
Ask Me’ at this big banquet,” John later told me. “And I said, ‘Oh, pulled off masterfully during the show’s fast-paced live tapings.
my God, it’s Suzanne.'” Emotions running high, he approached her Don’s more subtle humor completely caught Three’s Company
for the first time in 15 years, exclaiming, “Chrissy come home. All is director Dave Powers (himself a four-time Emmy winner for
forgiven.” But was the feeling mutual? Would this open the door directing The Carol Burnett Show) off guard in summer 1979. “I
to Suzanne talking? “Your name came up during their talk,” John’s went up to Dave on the first rehearsal and said, ‘Dave, by the way,
assistant told me. Triple holy cow: Jack and Chrissy finally reunite they told you, didn’t they, about me using cue cards?’” Replied an
and mention me? My publisher at the trade magazine quipped, amused Powers, who admitted he was at first dumbfounded by
“It’s like you’re reuniting The Beatles!” the comedy stalwart’s comment, “Don’s such a funny man. He
Just as it seemed that peace was finally being given a chance gave the show an entirely new lift.”
in Company land, I received what every author seeking an While Richard and Don’s lengthy Company time was altogether
interview with a key subject hates to hear: a “no.” It wasn’t from happy, co-star Ann Wedgeworth’s brief tenure left an emotional
Suzanne, whose rep said in late 1995 (and again throughout wound that remained with her 16 years later. The Tony award-
1996), “She’s not interested at this time.” Instead, it was from winning actress and Steel Magnolias co-star had recently wrapped
Joyce’s rep: “She appreciates your interest, but she is not a successful four-season run on the CBS sitcom Evening Shade.
interested.” Wait. No Janet Wood, the ever-reliable heart of But she was still most recognized for her half-season turn as sexy
Apartment 201 that held Jack and company together for eight divorcée Lana Shields, an older woman with the hots for Jack
seasons? Total bummer. I respected that she wasn’t ready to Tripper. And did she ever still look the part when I met her at the
break her silence, but her participation was crucial. To quote Mr. late, great Chez Nous restaurant in Toluca Lake, California. At
Tripper, “Lordy, lordy, lordy …” once delicate and resilient, the real-life steel magnolia—whose
retro television
movie credits included 1973’s Scarecrow (opposite Al Pacino) and in-person interview two weeks later), and, after eight seasons of
Bang the Drum Slowly (opposite Robert De Niro)—revealed to Joyce navigating these rocky and oft-painful waters, her Three’s
me that, despite reports, she was not fired from Three’s Company. Company experience—which she stressed was otherwise mostly
Instead, she said, she asked to be let go after her part, originally full of love, joy, and blissfully fun live-audience tapings—ended
presented to her as a replacement of sorts for Audra Lindley’s with deep disappointment and heartbreak. Given her ongoing,
Mrs. Roper, was written down following an on-set “pow-wow” she and deeply enriching, spiritual path post-Hollywood, her ABC
overheard during which publicly unnamed co-stars complained roomie sitcom ups and downs were, she emphasized, “ancient
about the size of her role in the classic episode “A-Camping We history.” But here she was nonetheless, finally agreeing to talk to
Will Go.” The producers apparently responded after this episode me with an open heart and exposed soul.
(which featured Jack repeatedly rebuffing sultry Lana’s advances The way the producers ended the show—by furtively using
while Janet and Chrissy put up a tent) by trimming her role—and most of its still often creatively brilliant but (thanks in large
then cutting it altogether following Ann’s request. part to NBC’s The A-Team) ratings-challenged final season as
Ann did not elaborate on record as to which castmates a springboard for John’s secretly conceived spin-off Three’s a
she overheard, but when asked about her sudden, final day of Crowd—dominated Joyce’s first interview. Our waiter at the
taping, she spoke favorably of John, Don, and Richard—whom Mondrian eventually brought her a box of Kleenex when, after
she approached to say goodbye—and offered no comment on not publicly disclosing virtually any of this for 12-plus years, she
Suzanne and Joyce (the latter of whom, Ann told People, called began to break down. “It is my feeling that the rest of the cast
after this taping “to say something to me about it”). “No one deserved to know this was going to be their last season,” she
said a word to me. None of the producers, the director, nobody,” said tearfully. “But we weren’t told because the producers were
Ann said about her last episode, prior to approaching her male trying to make America think that their new show was the natural
co-stars. “It was like I’d never been there before. It was weird. I evolution of Three’s Company.” She described her acting work with
felt hurt. And I felt angry. I did get an invitation to the Christmas John as strengthened by “what might be described as a telepathic
party, but I didn’t feel welcome.” John and later Joyce would connection,” especially when it came to their physical comedy
later hail Ann’s contributions, emphasizing that Lana—not Ann scenes. Which only made their spin-off-dictated parting that
per se—was written out because the character (and actress) much more crushing. “That he participated in the deception was
was too gorgeous for Jack Tripper to resist, regardless of age. the hardest part for me,” she said. “He was my friend.” (Replied
(And Joyce, who was saddened to learn that Ann [mis?]heard John, whom the producers told to keep mum about the spin-off
anything less-than-supportive of her presence on set, would before they announced it in late 1983, “I didn’t want to hurt her
later amply illustrate that she had little to no power to sway any feelings by telling her what the producers had said. It would have
significant creative/executive workplace decisions.) But Ann’s done nothing but hurt her feelings. This is a really, really tough
on-set experiences gave her a different impression. And her thing. I think they were trepidatious about her being volatile.
chilly departure set the stage for other unceremonious exits and There were certain conflicts they had from time to time; they
complaints of on-set disrespect by female castmates. butted heads a lot. I think they felt there were land mines. It was a
very, very heavy transition.”)
Pilot/Part 2: Getting Joyce DeWitt—and Getting to The heart of Three’s Company‘s longest-running on- and off-
the Heart of the Trio camera arc—the at-times complicated relationship between
“His heart is in the right place,” Company casting director David friends and comedy-of-errors partners Jack Tripper and Janet
Graham told Joyce via phone when I interviewed him in late 1995. Wood and their true-life portrayers—had finally emerged in all of
“I think you should talk to him.” This impromptu call on my behalf its imperfect humanness. This seemingly simple show’s twisting
to the Santa Fe, New Mexico-dwelling Three’s star known as the and turning behind-the-scenes story was, at long last, fully, if
“shy one” was one of numerous efforts that her former sitcom distressingly, unfolding.
pals voluntarily (and kindly) made for me after I mentioned Joyce was cast as the level-headed brunette roomie Janet
that Joyce wasn’t talking. John Ritter also put in a good word for Wood (a florist by day and farcicist by night) without a screen test
me—and, thank you, sitcom gods, I finally got a “yes” from her in in fall 1976, months after All in the Family writers and The Jeffersons
summer 1996, just as I secured a publishing contract for Come and creators and showrunners Don Nicholl, Michael “Mickey” Ross,
Knock on Our Door with St. Martin’s Press. (!) (My new agent sealed and Bernie West—alias The NRW Company—took over as Three’s
the deal.) Company’s executive producers. ABC put the classically trained
Nervously excited but professionally composed (a post-paper- actress and recent UCLA Master of Fine Arts recipient under
bag-breathing Mr. Furley would be proud), I interviewed Joyce contract in 1975 after she auditioned to play Fonzie’s girlfriend,
over an emotional lunch at the historic Mondrian Hotel on Sunset Pinky Tuscadero, in Happy Days. She was wrong for that role,
Blvd. Surprisingly, I wasn’t the emotional one. Joyce revealed that but network honchos at the audition loved her, recalling how
she had declined my invitations to interview going back to my she held her own next to an ad-libbing Robert Blake in a recent
1991 Roomie Report launch for good reason—and none of it was two-part Baretta. Joyce read for the character of the brunette
personal. In fact, the media had often misrepresented her and/or female roommate in Larry Gelbart’s more sophisticated Three’s
her words, her chauvinist producers almost always devalued or Company pilot in early 1976, but lost that part because she looked
categorically dismissed her input, ABC or her producers too young. When NRW, at ABC’s urging, handed her a copy of the
“conveniently” told Suzanne in 1980–81 that Joyce would not work British Man About the House pilot script—for an as-yet-unpenned
with her (“which was not true,” Joyce added during our second U.S. version tentatively titled Mixed Singles—she thought back to

retro television
Gelbart’s “terrifically well-written” Three’s pilot. With high hopes in knee-high silver boots and a low-cut silver dress giddily share
for a Gelbart-like redo, Joyce chose NRW’s project (which would an eyewitness account that helped ABC’s Starsky and Hutch nab a
eventually also be known as Three’s Company) over another ABC bad guy. The jiggly gal was Suzanne Somers—a not-so-/so-not-
sitcom whose producers wanted her so much they were willing to dumb blonde whom Silverman also recalled from one of three
give ABC some of their contract points. dozen Tonight Show appearances she’d made since 1973, when the
Joyce joined actress Susan Lanier—best known as the struggling single mom turned model turned weather girl reject
kittenish and spacy Bambi in ABC’s Welcome Back, Kotter—as turned mostly bit-part actress—known only as the Thunderbird-
John’s two new female costars in NRW’s first Company pilot, which driving babe who mouthed “I love you” to Richard Dreyfuss
was a more sexualized take on Man About the House’s second in 1973’s American Graffiti—first slinked onto Johnny Carson’s
episode, “And Mother Makes Four.” (Lanier replaced future soap stage to read double entendre-laden passages from her book of
actress Denise Galik as the at-times scantily clad Chrissy Snow contemplative poetry titled Touch Me. Silverman sent the Starsky
two days before this pilot’s November 5, 1976 taping. Galik was footage to NRW. Referring to Suzanne’s appearance in the clips as
essentially fired over the loudspeaker while on set.) “zonked-out druggie who looked terrible,” Bernie West said they
That Joyce created such a strong straight-man character that had little choice than to have her read with Joyce. “When the top
helped hold Chrissy and Jack in place, while also becoming an echelon say, ‘This girl is good and will work, and otherwise it’s a
increasingly zany reactor in the physical comedy-rich Furley no-go,’ you say, ‘OK, we’ll see.’”
years, is testament In the 11th hour of the
to Joyce’s talents and writing of my book—just
confidence as an actor weeks before my initial
to move through artistic manuscript deadline of
changes and challenges. January 1, 1997—and
And the challenges she in response to a letter
faced seeking creative from my publisher
expression within sexist again seeking her
power structures were participation, Suzanne
ample in NRW’s Three’s agreed to an hour-long
world. Referring to phone interview. That
Gelbart’s scrapped pilot, chat stretched to two
Joyce said, “Imagine hours and resulted in
a more sophisticated, two follow-up phone
very grown version of interviews. To say that
Three’s Company. Two of these conversations and
the players happen to be the resulting extensive
female, and one happens follow-up interviews
to be a guy—and this with John, Joyce, Mickey,
creates a lot of clash and Bernie, Ted Bergmann,
chaos. There was no T&A. Dave Powers, et al. (Don
There was no blonde- Nicholl died in 1980)
and-brunette, clichéd, altered the already-rich
American old-movie emotional depth and
stuff. So I had no idea. Farrah-thee-well, Chrissy! Stepping in to Three’s Company after Suzanne texture of my book,
Now, all of a sudden, Somers’ departure were (LEFT) Jenilee Harrison, who played Cindy along with the stress
here I am playing Jane Snow, and (RIGHT) Priscilla Barnes, who played Terri Alden. Courtesy of and excitement level in
Russell talking to Marilyn Ernest Farino. completing it, is a vast
Monroe, and it’s like, understatement. But
it’s been done. I have a this was my dream come
hard time being involved in a cliché ever. And I’ve always been true: interviewing virtually the entire key Three’s Company family,
supportive of women being dealt with as human beings, not getting their never-heard memories and perspectives, facilitating
objects—of any kind. So I had some adjusting to do.” a long-needed dialogue, and finally uncovering this show’s
story—the good, the bad, and the ugly. At times this process was
Pilot/Part 3: Getting Suzanne Somers—an 11th Hour painstaking for me and the show’s original trio. “You’re not their
Game-Changer counselor,” I was occasionally reminded.
NRW and Company continued to adjust when ABC, unhappy with (The only castmate I did not “get” was Priscilla Barnes,
Lanier as the blonde roomie, failed to green light the series yet Suzanne’s final replacement in 1981–1984. Priscilla was a favorite
again. Fred Silverman ordered a third pilot around Thanksgiving, of mine, and—after chatting her up at an autograph show
and the hunt was on for a new Chrissy. Feeling the heat, the in spring 1996—TV’s nurse Terri Alden kindly helped me get
scrambling producers had already seen nearly 250 young women Joyce for the book. Vouching for Joyce’s complaints about their
for that part. And then Silverman saw a bouncy blonde dancing producers, the versatile film actress ultimately decided not to
retro television
talk for my book; she later told E! that her Company years were— the inexperienced and pliable Suzanne—with whom he formed
despite being mostly big hits in the Nielsen ratings—“the three a “father-daughter bond”—while trying to force Joyce (an
worst years” of her life, due in large part to Mickey Ross’ treatment actor/director since her teenage years in community theater)
of her. On a happier note, I did get a great interview from Jenilee to give line readings, exerted what he and Don Nicholl called
Harrison, Suzanne’s temporary fill-in who played Chrissy’s cousin, “a benevolent dictatorship” to showrunning. Knowing how to
Cindy Snow, from 1980–1982. “That first year, I was the most read and lighten up a room, the joy-bringing John (the show’s
scrutinized, recognized top star of the year because I replaced star, in NRW’s eyes) went for laughs, even falling over the back
Suzanne Somers,” the former L.A. Rams of the couch during rehearsals if tensions
cheerleader and future Dallas costar said. flared, associate producer Mimi Seawell
“Because John Ritter and Joyce DeWitt were told me. Suzanne grew deeply fond of him.
not speaking to the press, I had to go and “I defended Suzanne for a long time,” John
speak around the country that ‘everything’s said, “until it really became clear… uh-oh.” He
fine, keep watching.’ So I was the PR gal. added, “Celebritydom can kill you; being an
It was extremely exciting and extremely actor or an artist can feed you.”
tiring.” Stepping into Suzanne’s shoes at age Flash forward to Fall 1980, when Suzanne
21, Jenilee added, “was a tough gig.” She did and her new manager, husband Alan Hamel,
great physical comedy bits with John.) requested—many say demanded—a salary
Suzanne secured the role of Christmas increase from $30,000 a week to $150,000
“Chrissy” Snow around Christmas 1976, and plus ten percent of the show’s profits. NRW
on January 28, 1977, the winning series pilot and executives in charge of production Ted
taped. The new trio found instant success— Bergmann and Donald Taffner, Sr. balked.
especially when episode two catapulted the Alan and Mickey Ross blew up at each other
six-episode midseason replacement to the in an attempted re-negotiation meeting,
Nielsen ratings’ Top Ten, where it stayed and soon Suzanne started missing work on
(usually in the top three spots) virtually every multiple tape and rehearsal dates, blaming
week for the next four seasons. Suzanne an alleged rib injury for which X-rays were
immediately used her six-week, $2,500-per- never produced as evidence. NRW then
episode earnings to pay Farrah Fawcett’s reduced Suzanne to insignificant tag scenes
manager-publicist, legendary “starmaker” Jay taped separately from the rest of the cast,
Bernstein, to, well, make her a star. Swimsuit who reportedly refused to work with her. A
posters, Chrissy dolls, and other merchandise vicious and lengthy media battle ensued in
bearing Suzanne’s likeness followed, as did which NRW (Mickey in particular) blasted
more than 50 magazine covers featuring Suzanne as a greedy show-wrecker and cast
her face in the show’s first year alone. One her husband as the villain, while Suzanne
of those, a February 1978 Newsweek cover called Joyce jealous and threatened to sue
about “Sex and TV,” splintered the new the producers for restraint of trade and sue
Three’s Company family when a lingerie-clad John and Joyce for collusion. By April 1981,
Suzanne, seemingly in the know about the after six months of humiliating, brief scenes
magazine’s plans to push her front and in which Suzanne phoned in her part, her
center, was superimposed over an awkward producers, with ABC’s blessing, fired her.
shot of the trio. “They kept trying to get us The moment-by-moment details—buoyed
to pose in ways that felt demeaning,” Joyce by my extensive interviews and exclusive
said, “and John and I kept refusing. We were access to fact-heavy arbitration documents
both innocent about the angle of the story.” that I uncovered—are laid out carefully and
Suzanne said she, too, was innocent, and completely in Come and Knock on Our Door.
blamed the late Don Nicholl for the secret Despite the magic they created—and
agenda. “What screwed up Three’s Company the fun all three had together behind the
was our producers,” Suzanne told me. “They scenes—the original Three’s Company trio
created it and they f****d it up. They f****d Three’s Company’s various casts perhaps was doomed from the get-go.
it up with the constant secrets and the other appeared on numerous TV Guide Was it more of a family, or was it more of
agendas. And it turned us [stars] against each covers, including (TOP) the May a business—and, given the stars’ vastly
other. Because from that shoot on, nothing 20–26, 1978 edition, cover art by different takes on celebrity and showbiz,
was ever really the same between the three Richard Amsel, and (BOTTOM) could these realities co-exist with these three
of us.” the November 20–26, 1982 edition, personalities? The answer, sadly, would be
Suzanne’s focus on becoming a celebrity cover art by Joseph Cellini. Three’s no. “[T]hey were teachers, they were friends,”
clashed with Joyce’s focus on bringing a Company © DLT Entertainment. TV Guide Suzanne told me of John and Joyce in 1997.
theater actress’ sensibilities to a hit network © TV Guide. Courtesy of Ernest Farino. “We loved each other. We laughed. We cried.
cash cow. NRW’s Mickey Ross, who trained We hugged… I think the tragedy is because

retro television
it ended so poorly we’ve really had very little to do with one was coming from my truth,” Suzanne had told me for my book,
another.” “and they were coming from theirs.” I was surprised that After
Suzanne, who’d finally achieved her career comeback, the Fall did not see Suzanne take the same accountability for her
then mentioned that her husband/manager, Alan Hamel, had actions that she took in Keeping Secrets, in which she shared that
approached Don Taffner, Sr. with a business proposal. “Maybe the she constantly created chaos as a teenager and twentysomething
resolution can be when we all get together to do the feature.” because, in essence, that was the life she knew so well as the
child of an alcoholic. But that disconnect was not for me to
Showtime!: Publication, Publicity, and Living the dissect then. I had a book to promote whose subtitle was A Hers
True Hollywood Story and Hers and His Guide to Three’s Company. Her accounts, which I
I’d often wondered if I would feel a sense of “what next?” when was incredibly grateful to have, often conflicted with those of
I completed my manuscript in April 1997—after all, this show the other “hers” and the “his,” but I left it up to readers to decide
had been deeply close to my “feels” for 20 of my 25 years at that where the truth lies.
point—but the truth is my story with Three’s Company was far A producer for Extra was the first to see that my book had
from its final act. By early 1998, word leaked that Suzanne was the goods. Joyce was asked to interview about both books—
also writing a memoir about her jiggle TV years and beyond. After and to my surprise, she held, carried, and promoted my book
the Fall: How I Picked Myself Up, Dusted Myself Off, and Started All throughout her interview while Suzanne pitched her own.
Over Again was indeed that book I’d asked These July 4 fireworks between these two
her about in 1990. After talking to me for former friends were just the beginning.
my book, she was finally ready to write it. Inside Edition took the story from there, this
A magazine quoted her lit agent as saying, time also interviewing John Ritter. Though
“John Ritter and Joyce DeWitt aren’t going John’s displaying of my book was left on the
to like” her book. I surmised that the feature cutting room floor, Inside Edition featured
film hadn’t panned out. footage of me posing with Joyce, Richard,
I often believed—and when writing my Don, Norman, and Priscilla at my first book
book, absolutely knew—that the story I signing. (Yes, even Priscilla showed up to
spent so long unearthing and crafting would show support!) From there, Joyce again
also make for great television. During my promoted my literary efforts in a “Back of
brief breaks while on deadline, I’d watch the the Book” segment on the then-reputable
new cable documentary series The E! True The O’Reilly Factor, and John held my book up
Hollywood Story. Entire one- and two-hour and lauded me during an interview on the
episodes focused on one celebrity. But what daytime talk show Donny and Marie. I was
about a two-hour installment about a TV over the moon, never dreaming that two of
series? My book lent itself as a two-hour E! the three chief Company stars would endorse
THS, even if this “TV-ography” approach was my book (repeatedly) on national television.
outside of the box. St. Martin’s held my book Again, how lucky was I? Having the male
for release weeks after Suzanne’s—a smart version of the name “Chrissy” wasn’t a strike
move, but much of the PR work still fell to against me after all.
me. I recalled Suzanne telling me to “blitz” Tripped out! John Ritter as Jack At the outset of this media blitz, I put
the media with my book when it came out Tripper in the short-lived Three’s my writing and design skills to work and
during its original release date of October Company continuation, Three’s a constructed a press kit for my book primarily
1997. So, in June 1998, I did just that—with a Crowd. Promo from the Fall Preview to pitch a video version of Come and Knock on
key focus on getting E! of TV Guide, September 8, 1984. Three’s Our Door to E! (I even wrote a couple of press
Much was at stake for me personally: I a Crowd © DLT Entertainment. TV Guide © releases that St. Martin’s printed on their
wanted to make a splash not only for the TV Guide. letterhead.) By July, the E! True Hollywood
sake of the project itself, I wanted to use Story came knocking. They loved my book
this success to help reunite two families: the and agreed with my vision that Three’s
Company one—a huge feat, given that Joyce and Suzanne would Company should be their first E! THS episode exclusively about the
not talk to each other for 31 years, when they finally reunited and life behind-the-scenes at a TV series. My interview, filmed at a
made peace on Suzanne’s internet series Breaking Through—and, Hollywood club in August, was used throughout their two-hour
more importantly, my own. I’d promised myself that as soon production, which also featured interviews with all nine surviving
as I “hit it big” in La-La Land, I’d move my beloved mom, sister, Company castmates. (Sadly, Audra Lindley passed in October 1997.
and godchildren out to live with me. Another estranged family This E! show would be Norman Fell’s final bow, premiering two
member remained a bona fide threat to them back in Tulsa, so I weeks after his death in December 1998.)
couldn’t fumble this chance. (In farce, life and death are the stuff Many of the Three’s gang said I was now an honorary member
of hysterical misunderstandings; in reality, not so much.) of their family. And folks recognized me in restaurants, on the
Suzanne’s book presented her own reality—which, when it street, and even during a trip to Mexico. “Aren’t you that guy
came to fame and the details around her firing, varied greatly on that Three’s Company documentary?” A friend of mine said
from her colleagues’ reality—and it especially tore into Joyce. “I she was on a plane trip to Hawaii and saw me on her cabin’s TV
retro television
screen. “Is that Chris?!” she later related. FA ST FAC TS adapting my book for their TV movie
Indeed, the E! show aired ad nauseam about the show. (A surprising Hollywood
for years, transforming the THS brand Reporter item breaking news of the
and spawning competing shows on Three’s Company project in January curiously failed
ET Weekend, A&E Biography, and via a ` No. of seasons: Eight to mention its producers or source
series of FOX/TV Guide Secrets Behind ` No. of episodes: 172 material, despite the fact the same
the Sitcom Scandals specials. The whole ` Original run: March 15, 1977– publication revealed a year prior that
experience was so trippy. I continued to September 18, 1984 a certain producer was shopping my
pinch myself for years—including after ` Primary cast: John Ritter, Joyce book to networks.) While this is a
John, again holding my book up and DeWitt, Suzanne Somers, Norman “true Hollywood story” for another
mentioning my name, joined Joyce on Fell, Audra Lindley, Don Knotts, time, suffice it to say that one of the
TV for the first time in 17 years during a Richard Kline, Ann Wedgeworth, executive producers of that movie was
healing “retro reunion” on CBS’ The Early Jenilee Harrison, Priscilla Barnes at the time attempting to circumvent
Show in March 2001. (My book’s dialogue ` Network: ABC exercising the “purchase” part of his/
helped bring them closer!) Indeed, my ` Theme song: “Come and Knock on the option-purchase agreement
Three’s Company true Hollywood story Our Door,” performed by Ray Charles pertaining to these film adaptation
was far from over. A year later I was (of the Ray Charles Singers) and Julia rights to my book. John’s EW interview
approached to write a 25th anniversary Rinker and my own interview with the same
feature about the again-hot sitcom for EW reporter in fall 2002 helped remedy
TV Guide. (No mention about the book- Spin-offs and remakes: that protracted and oh-so-Hollywood
length letter I wrote them in 1986.) ` The Ropers (1979–1980 spin-off series, situation, and I received credit as
Also in February 2002, a series 2 seasons 28 episodes, starring Consulting Producer for that high-rated
of events serendipitously led me to Norman Fell, Audra Lindley, Jeffrey March 2003 telefilm—the first in NBC’s
move from Hollywood to a beachside Tambor) successful Behind the Camera franchise
apartment on Ocean Front Walk in ` Three’s a Crowd (1984–1985 spin-off (hello, Charlie’s Angels, Dif f’rent Strokes,
Venice Beach—mere feet away from series, starring John Ritter, Mary Mork & Mindy, et al.). I was proud of the
where Jack Tripper fell off his bike Cadorette, Robert Mandan) impact my no-holds-barred book had
during this show’s original iconic ` Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized on the TV storytelling medium. Perhaps
opening credits. Once again, the Three’s Story of Three’s Company (NBC one day my next long-in-the-works
Company universe was moving me to telemovie airing May 12, 2003, book, details of which I’m keeping close
a better place. Only this time it also hosted by Joyce DeWitt, starring to the vest, will have a similar impact.
helped move my mom with me. Thanks Bret Anthony as John Ritter, Melanie With the completion of the DVD
to my successful career as a full-time Paxson as Joyce DeWitt, Jud Tylor as tributes to John in early 2005, my
magazine art director, and with a nice Suzanne Somers) focus turned fully to what mattered
assist from my book sales and the ` Three’s Company Live (stage show in most—my real family. My teenage
optioning of my book for an NBC movie various cities) nephews needed a normal life away
of the week, I was able to help my mom from Venice High School, so we all
relocate to California to live with me. By moved to a charming, family-friendly
October 2002, I moved my sister and godkids out, too—who lived area in northern Santa Barbara county, where I began freelance
in an apartment below us. (Six was company, too!) Finally, my writing and art directing health and wellness stories, including
family was again intact, and happily and safely so. cover features on Joyce and Suzanne. Fifteen years later we still
Tragically, the Three’s Company family would never fully call the California Central Coast our home. And while it’s a couple
reunite. John Ritter died suddenly from an aortic dissection on hours away from that famous beach that Three’s Company helped
September 11, 2003, af ter falling sick on the set of his final hit make as-seen-on-TV famous in 1977, that silly sitcom’s on-screen
ABC sitcom 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter—a year and behind-the-scenes family lives in millions of hearts—and
af ter he attempted to reunite Joyce and Suzanne in a Three’s certainly (my thanks again eternally, Mr. Ritter and company) in
dream scene (Suzanne, wanting instead to do a Chrissy and Jack my own.
feature with just John, declined). His death devastated me on
a deeply personal level—and I simply could not imagine the CHRIS MANN is the author of the 1998
profound loss felt by his actual family. I was honored to help book Come and Knock on Our Door
produce a series of tributes to him for the series DVD release of and was consulting producer on the 2003
Three’s Company in the coming year-plus. Those salutes included NBC telefilm Behind the Camera: The
one of Don Knotts’ final on-screen appearances (he passed in Unauthorized Story of Three’s Company.
2006), Ann Wedgeworth’s final interview (she died in 2017), and The health and wellness writer and pop
an insightful, exclusive interview with John’s first wife, Nancy culture storyteller (chrismann.tv) has
Morgan Ritter, whom I again interview in this issue of RetroFan. interviewed and profiled actors, authors, athletes, and other big
One of John’s final kind acts on my behalf occurred in March names for decades. His chief inspiration, though, remains his
2002, when he revealed to Entertainment Weekly that NBC was beloved mom, Herbie.

RETRO INTERVIEW
Nancy
Ten years after his network television
debut as a 19-year-old comical bachelor
on a 1967 episode of The Dating Game,
actor John Ritter achieved superstardom
with his starring role in the ABC hit sitcom
Three’s Company. But his true brass
Morgan
ring was actress Nancy Morgan
TM & © Meredith Corporation. Courtesy of Nancy Morgan Ritter.

(star of the 1977 film Fraternity
Row and “Julie” on the 1977
series The San Pedro Beach Bums),
whom he wed on October 16,
Ritter
1977. “If ABC said ‘Goodbye’ and
everybody else said ‘Hello, has-
been,’ it would be totally fine with
me as long as we had each other,”
John said of his new wife in a
1978 People magazine cover story
about their marriage. Happy Days
by Chris Mann star Ron Howard—with whom
Nancy starred in the 1977 comedy
film Grand Theft Auto—called her “a rock”
who had a “steady cut-through-nonsense
attitude without being super-serious.”
This strength helped build the
foundation of John and Nancy’s 19-year
marriage, which saw the births of their
three children: actor Jason Ritter in 1980,
country and folk singer-songwriter Carly
Ritter in 1982, and actor Tyler Ritter in
1985. The couple also worked together in
numerous projects, including the 1979
feature Americathon, the 1990 telefilm
Dreamer of Oz, and an episode of John’s
1987–1989 ABC dramedy Hooperman. And
their solid friendship, buoyed in part
by their dedicated roles as co-parents,
continued until John’s untimely passing
on September 11, 2003. Even in the 17
years that have followed, the Lucky Luke
actress—who has returned to acting in
recent years in indie films, the acclaimed
web series Break a Hip, and the 2020
comedy film Life’s a Bit—continues to feel
connected to John in large part through
Nancy Morgan Ritter and John Ritter their children and, in the last few years,
in 1979. Courtesy of Nancy Morgan Ritter. their grandchildren.
In this exclusive interview, Nancy
Morgan Ritter, 71, shares some of her
personal insights into John’s comic talents,
his joyous and not-so-joyous Three’s
Company years, his connection to Robin
Williams, and his deep-rooted need to
bring laughter.
RetroFan: You met John in March

1975 while he was recurring on The
Waltons and proving his comedy chops
on the MTM sitcoms. What drew you two
together?
retro interview
Nancy Morgan Ritter: We met in a sadness in both of them. I do believe that creativity, and his willingness to be utterly
crowded theater audience. Our agents Robin was a genius for the ages, so I’m not goofy physically. It may not look like it
pointed us out to each other across the trying to compare them on work or career, takes amazing skill, but it does. On the
room. We smiled at each other from just as human beings. other hand, he had an ability to land a joke
afar, and I think we both felt kind of lit They both had a history of making their so perfectly that it would make a writer
up. Afterwards we went to Joe Allen’s families laugh, and at the start of their weep. He really had both the skill and the
[restaurant] with the cast, agents, and careers, they coincidentally ended up in the freedom.
friends. We talked for hours after the play. same Harvey Lembeck comedy workshop And I think he liked Jack. He liked
We discussed our families and our lives. class. Robin was the new guy in town with that Jack loved the girls. Looking back,
His father had died the year before, my his suspenders and his, just, wildness. It I imagine that it probably wasn’t too
beloved grandmother had died the month was a fun meeting of those two. I saw Robin difficult for John to be around lots of
before. We first connected on deeper when he was a brand new arrival in L.A., and beautiful actresses. Pretending that he
levels about life. But when we was gay to Mr. Roper was
weren’t talking to each other, always sweet and never
he was making everybody pejorative. I think it was
laugh, including me. It was just light and funny and not
just a hit of a night. He got judgmental.
my number, called me, and
we were together from that RF: John said in 1978, “I
point on. think all my life I wanted to
make people laugh doing
RF: John continued to hone my ‘slapschtick’ thing.” Why
his physical comedy skills via was bringing laughter vital
improv classes with Robin to him from an early age?
Williams. Talk about the NMR: I do know for a fact
masters! How were John that as a little boy he felt
and Robin alike? alone. He felt that there was
NMR: I’m not an expert something wrong with him
on Robin Williams [but] I for not having something
knew Robin. We spent time that would get people to pay
together, John and Robin and attention. Within the family
I. That said, it’s hard to know he was the golden boy but
someone unless you have he felt guilty that there was
them in your life for years. nothing to overcome. He
So I will say what I do know. found his purpose within
They were each unique, so the family to bring laughter.
you can’t say they were like I remember him telling me
each other. Yet each had he had to learn how to make
speed, wit, and intelligence girls laugh at school because
in their thoughts and otherwise they did not pay
comedic connections. They attention to him. His humor
were both drawn to extreme was a huge part of his charm,
highs—and however you John Ritter and Nancy Morgan, during the filming of Peter and what made him special and sexy.
got there, you got there. It Bogdanovich’s 1976 film, Nickelodeon, a comedy set during
could be from making people 1911 which featured John as Franklin Frank. As Nancy tells RF: John grew up as his family’s
laugh, it could be from a RetroFan, “I was just visiting John and Bogdanovich stuck goofball—though it seemed he had to
couple of drinks, or anything me in one quick scene doing a stunt.” Nickelodeon © 1976 work hardest to get his famous dad, Tex
else. Columbia Pictures. Photo courtesy of Nancy Morgan Ritter. Ritter, to laugh. How did his childhood
I think both of them tried family dynamic influence the role he took
as hard as they could to keep laughing one knew from the moment one saw him on in the Three’s Company family?
and stay far away from what was hurting that he was going to fly. NMR: His father set a high bar to get
inside, until they couldn’t. Both of them him to laugh. He would say, “Jonathan,
eventually hit a wall where the darker RF: What emotional and artistic qualities that isn’t funny.” And of course John
or the deeper or the sadder part came did John give Jack Tripper that in turn gave remembered that more than the
forward. You saw Robin’s roles in movies Three’s Company much of its heart and soul? innumerable times his father laughed.
deepen; John’s as well. So I would say NMR: When you are watching him play Before Tex died, he had seen and
there was a tremendous amount of joy in Jack in Three’s Company, you are seeing appreciated that John had talent. And he
both of them, and there was also a lot of John’s inner sense of play, his joy, quickness, told him, “You’re good.”

retro interview
energetic. Part of that had to do with they taped. But he was able to turn off
[executive producer] Bernie West, who did the rest. He was very professional at that.
the warm-up for two shows every week. He was always able to be there, whether
I heard his same jokes literally hundreds it was in a Broadway play, whether it was
of times, and I swear to God I laughed at Three’s Company, or whether it was on
them to the end. And I was often laughing the set of a film like Sling Blade. He was
from a different place. Sometimes I’d always ready, always professional, always
be laughing because I couldn’t believe I there. And with Jack Tripper, you’ve got to
was hearing it again. Other times I’d be come with a sense of silliness. And he did.
laughing because it just tickled me to Professional silliness.
hear it eight billion times and for him to
be putting it out there again like it was the RF: John was sometimes called “Jack”—
first time he’d done it. and John certainly did his share of
The audience would always clap when tripping for laughs. What was it like being
Bernie would introduce John’s mother and “Mrs. Jack Tripper” when John went into
me. People would crane their necks to look Jack mode on the red carpet, at award
at us. And yet when it came to audience shows, etc.?
questions, someone would nearly always NMR: In all honesty, I was known well
ask, “Is John Ritter really gay?” I always enough at that point, somewhat from my
shook my head at that one. [laughs] television and B-film roles, but mainly
(ABOVE) Not only was John’s famous father But the energy was good, and they because John was so famous at that point,
“Filmdom’s Fightingest Cowboy,” but he would laugh. I think part of what made that I was known as his wife. So I never had
also starred in his own comic book from that true is because the actors were such a question addressed to me as Mrs. Jack
Fawcett Publications. Tex Ritter Western #1 pros that they would basically tape the Tripper. But, just for the record, tripping
(Oct. 1950). Courtesy of Heritage. show from beginning to end with very few for laughs was something he did as John
retakes after the first or second season. Ritter. And he did that from the day I
They would just go through it, and every met him until the very end. Even when
I recently heard a long and wonderful once in a while they would pick up a little he left my home to go back to his other
interview of Tex Ritter that I found among piece of this scene or that scene. You were house, he would trip on his way down
my memorabilia. [John’s] dad had a great watching it live somewhat
sense of humor, more than I realized. I’d like what you would see on
heard most of his recordings, seen him in TV. And people enjoyed that.
movies, and long appreciated his talent, They knocked it out. And
charm, and sweetness. I hadn’t heard him they knew their parts and
interviewed. And I was laughing. He was they knew their jobs. And
really smart and funny himself. they all wanted the laughter
I can see that in both his Three’s and they got it.
Company family and his real family, that
[John] was the goofball. His dad was RF: And you sensed John
definitely the boss, so I could imagine always brought the joy with
that Mickey Ross and Dave Powers might the other actors?
have earned John’s respect on the level of NMR: He did. He always was
father figures that he could turn to and a pro that way. He always
trust, at least artistically. On the other showed up ready to play.
hand, I don’t think that the girls were like And it did not mean that
sisters. He didn’t have sisters. I don’t think every aspect of his life was
he would’ve thought of them like sisters totally happy every night
unless as stepsisters that you could kind of
love and kind of roll your eyes at. [laughs]
But definitely not your own blood. Neither Nancy co-starred with Ron
one of them were like a member of John’s Howard in 1977’s Grand
immediate family. Theft Auto, which was also
directed by Howard and
RF: You were at every Three’s Company co-written by Ron and his
taping. Describe the energy. dad, Rance. Poster art by
NMR: For the audience, it was always John Solie. © 1977 New World
totally fun, all the time. Most of the time, Pictures. Poster courtesy of
the audience was on. They were up and Heritage.

retro interview
my sidewalk to the car—this was years they marveled at watching the merry-go-
after Three’s Company—to make us laugh round of activity. None of the rest of them,
as he was leaving, because leaving was certainly not John, had thought about
always hard. And not just tripping. It was independently marketing themselves.
bits of all kinds. He would trip, he would So I think they thought it was fine. Until
hump trees. Anything to make us laugh. later, when Suzanne tried to renegotiate
That was just John. That wasn’t all he was, her contract midseason, I think everyone
obviously. But that was certainly what was happy. The eventual negativity began
he did when he wanted a quick and easy then.
laugh.
RF: Any thoughts on the 1978 Newsweek
RF: John and Suzanne [Somers] appeared cover that featured a scantily clad
on posters, T-shirts, mirrors, and Suzanne with John and Joyce peeking in?
other show merchandise, and plenty John commented about he was sort of
of magazine covers. And Suzanne taken aback by that shoot, and Joyce has
merchandised her own image from said she felt “used, lied to.”
the outset. How did the marketing and NMR: I remember that the image on the
media—or “celebrity”—side of the show cover of Newsweek had apparently been
affect the dynamic on set? set up ahead of time to have Suzanne
NMR: I think while Suzanne was at the top of the picture with Joyce and
merchandising and marketing and going John as sidekicks. That’s pretty much all I
for it, I think everybody was happy that she remember. And that kind of stuff I think is
was bringing attention to the show and more like a mosquito—maybe it was more than that for Joyce, but I think for John it
was at most annoying, and maybe one
of the first indications that Suzanne saw
Publicity still of Nancy herself as different from everyone else.
Morgan as Lucy Beth and I think perhaps she was. But I don’t think
John Ritter as Presi- she was the reason for Three’s Company’s
dent Chet Roosevelt in success. But she was good for covers
director Neal Israel’s 1979 of magazines. And she certainly made
political satire, Americ- Chrissy memorable.
athon. (TOP RIGHT) The
comedy’s poster. Americ- RF: Suzanne continues to justify her
athon © 1979 Lorimar Produc- salary requests or demands in 1980
tions. Photo courtesy of Nancy and self-identify as Three’s Company’s
Morgan Ritter. Poster courtesy “breakout star.” But John was the show’s
of Heritage. top-billed star and creative center and
was paid accordingly. Why did her
contract dispute become such a personal
matter for him?
NMR: For Suzanne to separate herself out
and say she is the reason for the show’s
success was something that John would
never have done because he never would
want to hold himself higher, or make
other people feel that they were lesser.
He was the one who came in with the
years of experience, the credits as a rising
comedian, and the salary to prove it. He
was, however, above all a team player.
I don’t think her contract dispute
would’ve remained a personal matter [for
John]. Had she had just taken her best shot
and accepted the negotiated higher salary
that they offered her, she might have
changed the outcome. But she and [her
husband/manager] Alan [Hamel] started
playing hardball and having her not show

retro interview
up for work. This did not turn out well

for them. Ultimately, Suzanne was more
about business and John was more about
family.
RF: Suzanne has publicly stated since

John’s passing that he made “10 times”
what she made. But published reports
in 1980–1981 stated she made $30,000
to John’s $50,000 per episode—and was
offered a bump to $35,000 weekly.
NMR: I think she was inaccurate about
the salary differences between her and
John. He may have been making ten times
as much as she was making the day they
signed their contracts, but after a couple
of years she and Joyce had negotiated
themselves up quite a bit. As had John.
But, at the end of the day, what are
you gonna do? Honestly, it’s just sad.
It’s sad. It didn’t have to be that way.
Suzanne could’ve been extremely wealthy
had she just stayed in the show and re-
negotiated each year. I think it was sort of
boneheaded, personally, because Suzanne
loved the show, loved John, and was
having so much fun! That was worth a lot,
in my estimation.
RF: John was a Beatlemaniac. How did

John Lennon’s tragic death in December
1980 change him?
NMR: I think it just made him deeply sad
and shocked. It made him sad in the same The Ritters dressed to the nines for a
way when John Kennedy was assassinated. gala, c. 1983. Courtesy of Nancy Morgan Ritter.
John Lennon was one of John’s heroes
from the get-go of The Beatles. So the
vulnerability that he felt, the sadness for
John’s little boy—it was a permanent Air”) and in unison especially with RF: Many people fell in love with the show
wound—and he felt it. We both felt as Joyce DeWitt and Don Knotts— during those last three seasons, alias “the
though an immediate family member during Company’s final three seasons? Priscilla Barnes years.” So much great
had died. And John Lennon was one of NMR: He had a lot of ambition artistically ensemble work, led by John.
those towering figures in John’s life. I think and many comedic heroes. In something NMR: I just love Priscilla. I think she’s
it unglued him for a while. He had real like Three’s Company it might have been fabulous. And I think Priscilla and Joyce
trouble recovering. someone like Jerry Lewis. He would had a great time together. They were not
always be striving to ask a little more altogether happy being on the show back
RF: I know there was a lot of heartache of himself. I know that in the “Up in then, which has been well documented.
around the Suzanne contract drama— the Air” episode, where he did a lot of They felt underappreciated by the
NMR: I wouldn’t say heartache [for choreographed dancing, that was all producers. And I think it felt unfair that
John]. I would say more like fury. But not brand new to him. And John worked hard. John got treated so well and was so well
heartache. He didn’t have a heart for He rehearsed diligently. His personal respected. But I’m not sure they held
Suzanne at that point. desire was for excellence—even in a show it against John so much as they held it
that was considered by many people in against the producers. But on the show,
RF: —So given the emotional the era to be fluf f and not important. Priscilla and Joyce together were a delight.
rollercoaster of 1980–81, what drove Still, it was his show and he did the best They made a great trio.
John to deliver some of the best comic with Jack Tripper that you could do. Or And I think Priscilla is a tremendous
performances of his career—alone at least he tried to do the best with Jack actress. She’s truly original, creative,
(Season Six’s outstanding “Up in the Tripper that you could do. fearless. I’ve seen a lot of her work and
retro interview
The Ritter family Christmas

card photo, c. 1989. The children
are: (TOP ROW) Jason Ritter;
(BOTTOM ROW, LEFT TO
RIGHT) Tyler Ritter and Carly
Ritter. Courtesy of Nancy Morgan
Ritter.
she’s hilarious, quirky, and brilliant at RF: Why didn’t Three’s a Crowd, which grandfather to those little ones. So there
making creative decisions for a character. I costarred TV newcomer Mary Cadorette are more than a few times that I bring
just think she’s wonderful. and Soap vet Robert Mandan, work the John into my journey with our children—
way Three’s Company did? it’s quite like a spiritual thing, my own
RF: Why didn’t John tell Joyce and NMR: Well, Mary Cadorette wasn’t funny. personal way, where I just bring him
Priscilla when he learned well before they She seemed focused on the wrong thing— in to what I’m seeing. It’s hard to really
did that Three’s Company would end and and not on the show. Period. I have not describe but I watch our family hoping
he would spin off alone in Three’s a Crowd? gone back and ever watched a Three’s a that from some universe he’s able to see
NMR: In a nutshell, the notification about Crowd episode, so I don’t really have a what I’m seeing through my eyes.
the decision to cancel the show was not more compelling answer than that. It just Other than that, I have 28 years of his
his job. In fact, he had been told not to wasn’t good. notes and letters and cards to me and to
discuss that with anyone. He was not to all of the kids that I’m still organizing and
make trouble on the set by confiding, RF: Though your marriage ended in 1996, collecting for everybody. But it’s been a
“Girls, you’re about to be cut out and I’m you and John remained good friends until while now since he’s been gone, and the
about to stay in.” I can understand totally his passing. What aspects of him do you place where I feel I connected to him the
how hurt they eventually must have been. continue to hold dearest? most is just through the beauty of our
As I understood it at the time, the writers NMR: I connect with John through my children and grandchildren and what good
felt their story lines were getting thin, eyes. And I mean that utterly sincerely. people they are. I just wish he could be
and they wanted to start with something How of ten I am watching our amazing here for this. I’m so proud of all my kids,
fresh. But I have to wonder if in retrospect children and the spouses that each of and I’m so thrilled that they have people
they didn’t regret it enormously, because them love and are loved by. And they in their lives who love them and who they
Three’s a Crowd was not great. have all given birth to more little souls. love. It’s the best it could be. And I wish
And John would’ve been an adoring John could’ve been here for it.

RETRO CARTOONS
The
Weird, Wonderful History of
Popeye
Cartoons on Television
by Tom Speelman
What can be said about Popeye the Sailor at this point? Having
turned 90 this past year, the ol’ mononymous sailor is now as
indisputable a titan in cartoons as Bugs Bunny or Mickey Mouse
(who Popeye famously became more popular than in the Thirties).
King Features Syndicates’ Popeye and Friends official YouTube
channel has been running the manic webseries Popeye’s Island
Adventures since 2018. And, of course, Popeye-brand spinach is still
sold all over the world, and there’s the Wimpy restaurant chain.
But there’s one—or, rather, three—parts of Popeye history
that tend to get downplayed, if not ignored. From the Sixties to the
Eighties, besides the legendary Popeye theatrical cartoons being on
TV, there were actually original Popeye cartoons made for TV! And if
you grew up in those decades, you probably saw them!
Let’s dig into how these came about, who made them and why,
and whether they hold up.
But first, where can you watch them? Well, that’s easy: As
mentioned, King Features Syndicate—who’ve owned Popeye since
E. C. Segar launched Thimble Theatre in 1919—maintain an official
Popeye and Friends YouTube channel that regularly uploads every
episode (complete with ad breaks and PSAs).
It’s not surprising, of course, given the whole reason King
Features made original Popeye cartoons for TV in the first place
wasn’t so much to bring the character to new generations but to
get some sweet cartoon money for themselves.
How so? Well, the answer stretches back to the dawn of TV
itself.
months later, they acquired from Popeye (the scrawny fella, at
A Full Half-Hour of Cartoons Paramount every Popeye cartoon left) and Brutus (no, not Bluto)
See, when television began in earnest again in the late Forties made by Fleischer Studios and its are chummy in this 1961 cel for
and early Fifties (we’re sticking with America here for simplicity’s successor, Famous Studios, for a a made-for-TV Popeye ’toon…
sake), original programming was in short supply. So broadcast total of 234 cartoons. Per the June but don’t worry, the one-eyed
syndicators (like print ones before them) would buy up the 11, 1956 issue of the industry journal sailor would be squarin’ off
broadcasting rights to old movies or shorts and sell them to TV Broadcasting * Telecasting, “the cost against the big galoot before
stations for a tidy sum. of the library is estimated at $1.5 the episode’s end. © King
One of the biggest, if not the biggest, was Associated Artist million.” Features Syndicate, Inc. Courtesy of
Productions. Founded in 1954 by film executive Eliot Hyman, the As they’d been in theatres, the Heritage.
company initially syndicated programs like the original Candid new-to-TV Paramount Popeyes were
Camera and the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes a big hit for all the same reasons: the
films. But in 1956, they hit a one-two punch of acquisitions. expressive animation, the energetic violence, and the great gags.
In February of that year, a.a.p. (as the company’s logo was But King Features didn’t see a dime from it; they’d licensed the
styled) purchased every Warner Bros. film made before 1950 as character to Paramount, after all, and it was Paramount and a.a.p
well as every Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoon. Then, five who reaped the financial windfall.
retro Cartoons
So a plan was hatched. King Features, through their TV To watch these cartoons today, whether on their own or in the
division and in association with Paramount Cartoon Studios (as half-hour chunks on the Popeye and Friends YouTube channel, is
Famous Studios was now called), would make original Popeye the to remember just how limited Sixties TV animation was. While
Sailor cartoons themselves. Hanna-Barbera was already top of the heap at this point with The
To produce as many shorts as possible—220 were made Flintstones and so on, not everybody could pull off the “maximum
from 1960–1963—Paramount Cartoon made some themselves, effect for minimum investment” ethos like them.
overseen by legendary Fleischer/Famous animator Seymour So it is with Sixties Popeye. While there’s an admirable sense
Kneitel (who’d been animating Popeye since the beginning), but of continuity with the Famous Studios shorts—Popeye still has
also farmed them out to Jack Kinney Productions—helmed by his fully visible eye and Navy uniform from that era and the main
the legendary Disney animator and director—Larry Harmon voice cast of Jack Mercer (Popeye, Wimpy), Mae Questel (Olive
Pictures and director Paul Fennell, and British-Hungarian Oyl), and Jackson Beck (Brutus, many others) came back—the
animation form Halas and Batchelor and famed director Gene limited animation sinks all the effort.
Deitch (who at this writing recently passed away at 95). For some Some directors rise to the challenge, of course; Gene Deitch
shorts, animation was farmed out to the Italian studio Corona (no stranger to lowered budgets and time constraints) makes
Cinematografica. “Seeing Double,” where Popeye fights a robot döppelganger
“In many markets,” notes animation historian and former of himself, a goofy exercise in mistaken identity hijinks. But
Nickelodeon executive Jerry Beck, “a Popeye cartoon show might some can’t hack it; Kinney Productions’ Eddie Rehberg, despite
be on two competing channels every afternoon. Popeye on TV in some fun gags, can’t enliven “Popeye’s Corn-Certo,” a music
the early Sixties was a pop-culture phenomenon!” competition gagfest, beyond the occasional chuckle.
Samples from King Feature Syndicate’s publicity

kit promoting the 1960 Popeye television cartoon.
© King Features Syndicate, Inc. Courtesy of Heritage.

retro Cartoons
Popeye anima-
tion cell. © King
Features Syndicate,
Inc. Courtesy of
Heritage.
(ABOVE) The new Popeye cartoon

was big business, as promoted in the
April 4, 1960 edition of Broadcasting
magazine. (LEFT) Two years into its run,
TV’s syndicated Popeye was a ratings
smash, as this 1962 ad shows. Popeye ©
King Features Syndicate, Inc. Courtesy of Tom
Speelman.
As Popeye historian and author of Popeye: A Cultural History cartoons the next year), so they created Brutus as a substitute.
Fred Grandinetti puts it, “As a child, I can recall watching the Per the website The Straight Dope, “The first King cartoons, in
episodes with terrible animation. However, I didn’t notice these fact... had the character referred to only as ‘neighbor.’ Hastily,
goofs at age five. It was only as a teenager when I began to they issued a press release, claiming they were ‘going back to the
discover how poorly some were done as opposed to others. Jack original … in the first newspaper comics[,] the villain was Brutus.’
Kinney’s unit had only one week to get a cartoon finished. The False, as we’ve seen. In any case, it was soon decided that Brutus
quality of the cartoons under Kinney’s direction depended on was actually a whole new character, and his appearance and
the experience his animation directors had working with limited demeanor were altered.” Made obese and less bearded, Brutus
animation.” appeared in all these Sixties shorts but has never been seen in
Still, none of the shorts are outright bad and have a certain animation since (he was brought back to the Popeye comic strip,
ramshackle charm. But today, these shorts are better known where in 2008, Hy Eisman formally established him and Bluto as
for perhaps the strangest addition to the Popeye canon: instead twin brothers).
of the barrel-chested Bluto, Popeye fights the slovenly Brutus Moving into the Seventies, the next Popeye TV cartoon was
instead. a bit more lively and noticeably a lot weirder. Hanna-Barbera
Why did this happen? Well, it comes down to a case of sloppy themselves took the reins for The All-New Popeye Hour, which
research. aired Saturday mornings on CBS from 1976–1981, when it was
shortened to a half hour and renamed The Popeye and Olive Comedy
A Bad Guy By Any Other Name Show, running till 1983.
King Features staff were under the misapprehension that Bluto Hanna-Barbera were old hands by this point and they knew
was created by Paramount/Fleischer back in the day (in reality, how to put some spring in the sailor’s step again. The animation
Segar had made him for one story in 1932 and he’d leapt to was more fluid and better paced and the jokes were funnier.
retro Cartoons
Hanna-Barbera brought back Popeye, Bluto, Olive, and pals in The All-New Popeye Hour to Saturday
morning television beginning in 1976. © King Features Syndicate, Inc. Animation cel courtesy of Tom Speelman.
The voice cast underwent some significant shake-ups, though: Sadly, this would be the last time Mercer played Popeye in
while Mercer still played Popeye (and also wrote scripts, as he’d his 50-plus-year tenure in the role. A year after the show was
done for the Sixties show), Questel and Beck were replaced by cancelled, he passed away from stomach cancer. But the Sailor
Marilyn Schreffler and Allan Melvin (Sam the Butcher, himself!), Man sailed on…
respectively.
When the show switched formats, new segments were added Popeye Went and Put a Ring On It
outside of more traditional Popeye shorts. “Prehistoric Popeye” The Eighties and Nineties famously saw the trend of “famous-
put Popeye, Olive, and Bluto in the Stone Age to odd results, while characters-as-kids” explode after the massive success of Muppet
the even weirder “Private Olive Oyl” saw Olive and Alice the Goon Babies, with everybody from The Flintstones to Tom and Jerry
getting up to Beetle Bailey-esque shenanigans while in the Army. making shows featuring beloved characters as kids. King Features
Goofy, yeah, but these and the more traditional Popeye shorts had went about it a little differently.
the spirit of the classic shorts. Although admittedly, they didn’t 1987 saw the first attempt at moving Popeye’s story forward in
have the violence. time with Popeye and Son. Set in Sweethaven, the show depicted a
Content restrictions prevalent at the time meant Popeye world where Popeye (now voiced by Maurice LaMarche) and Olive
couldn’t punch Bluto but more often just tossed him aside. You (Schreffler) had gotten married and had a son, Popeye Jr. (Josh
miss the punching but the comedy and zippy pacing make up for Rodine), who differed from his dad in two ways: he had blond
its absence, as Grandinetti explains. “Hanna-Barbera made up hair somehow and hated spinach. Bluto (Melvin) had become a
for the lost violence with high-quality scripts. Certainly this was businessman, married the good-natured Lizzie (Scheffler), and
demonstrated in the ‘Popeye’s Treasure Hunt’ cartoons where had a son of his own, Tank (David Markus), who bullied Popeye Jr.
Popeye and Olive were hired as treasure-seekers. Bluto still in the spirit of his dad.
managed to get what was coming to him, despite not getting a While a pretty intriguing set-up, the show is fatally flawed
fist to his chin. People may complain about the lack of violence in three ways: 1. Content restrictions again meant no one could
but forget The All New Popeye Hour/Popeye and Olive Comedy Show punch each other (although there’s an amusing bit in the first
was one of CBS’ highest-rated Saturday morning children’s series episode where Popeye and Bluto verbally square off for an
for most of its five-year run.” entire day); 2. The animation is competent but doesn’t enliven

retro Cartoons
the sluggish pacing of the show; and 3. It’s never not weird to see Outside of 2004’s CG Christmas special Popeye’s Voyage: The
normal-looking kids, like Junior’s irritating surfer bro/best friend Quest for Pappy, the Sailor Man has only been seen on TV in reruns
Woody (Nancy Cartwright), alongside Segar’s classic designs. ever since. And honestly, that’s a bit of a bummer. If the Looney
It’s not bad, exactly; just kind of dull. No wonder Junior, Tank, Tunes can make a snappy comeback in 2020, why not their rough-
and the rest have never come back in any fashion. “Popeye and and-tumble cousin?
Son... had quality scripts and animation,” says Grandietti, “but Still, revisiting (or, if you’re my age, visiting) these older
the concept was wrong. I don’t think fans of the sailor really want cartoons is an interesting reminder of how TV animation evolved
to see him married to Olive Oyl or dressed in a Hawaiian shirt. back in the day and is a fascinating bit of history now. Check them
Audiences were also wondering what happened to Swee’pea. out on YouTube. Who knows? You just might prefer Brutus to
To see him replaced by this blond-haired surfer dude who hated Bluto. Arf arf arf!
spinach was a bit too much to swallow. In 1957 Swee’pea actually
grew up in the Thimble Theatre comic strip produced by Toms TOM SPEELMAN is a contributor to Funimation, Polygon,
Sims (writer/Sunday), Ralph Stein (writer/daily), and Bela (Bill) Comic Book Resources, Comics Alliance, and numerous
Zaboly (artist). He stood on two feet and wore a sailor’s uniform. other websites, and also co-hosts the Pokémon podcast,
That’s what Popeye and Son should have been about: this version of Gotta Recap ‘Em All! with Tyler Gorman. A fan of
Swee’pea going on adventures with Popeye.” cartoons and comics since childhood, he’s also worked on
Beck, who at one point consulted on The Popeye Show for over 100 manga and novels for Seven Seas Entertainment
Cartoon Network, points out another reason Junior has never and other clients, including adapting Magical Girl Spec-
returned. “Popeye is so iconic,” he says, “that really no supporting Ops Asuka by Makoto Fukami and Seigo Tokiya. He lives
character lasts very long. There were original supporting in Indiana and can be found on Twitter @tomtificate
characters in the old Paramount cartoons that have also fallen by where, more than likely, he’s yelling about comics or
the wayside—his sidekick Shorty; his nephews Poopeye, Pipeye, cartoons.
Peepeye, and Pupeye; his hillbilly
love interest Possum Pearl—they
all bowed to Popeye, who remains a
champion for 90 years strong.”
All in the family: Popeye’s

nephews line up in a safety
segment from The All-New
Popeye Hour. © King Features
Syndicate, Inc. Cel courtesy of Tom
Speelman.
Blow me down! Popeye got a makeover—and a kid—in 1987

in CBS’ Popeye and Son. Model sheet from that show. © King
Features Syndicate, Inc. Courtesy of Tom Speelman.

RETROFAD
CB Radios by
Michael Eury
By the time rocker Sammy Hagar buddies” with their “ears on” about
released his 1984 high-octane “Smokey” (state patrol) or “black
single “I Can’t Drive 55,” the CB ’n’ white” (police) speed traps
radio craze of the Seventies and ahead, or about wrecks or gasoline
early Eighties was pretty much availability. A fleet of trucks would
over and out. But the fad itself was occasionally unite in a high-speed
rooted in Sammy’s subject: a need “convoy” when they knew the coast
for speed. was clear.
The citizens band (or CB) radio is As gas prices escalated, many
a limited-range (usually just a few an average mom and dad added
miles), two-way system that links a CB radio to the family’s faux-
individuals via different shortwave wood-paneled station wagon,
radio bands, a more sophisticated version of the walkie talkies learning the lingo of the road to make them privy to those same
that kids would play with after watching episodes of Combat and highway secrets shared by commercial haulers. CB radio users
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. While the CB radio first emerged in the would identify themselves with a usually playful “handle,” a
mid-Forties, it became more precursor to a user name in social media chat rooms. Handles
common in the Sixties. Then, like “Red Baron,” “Treefrog,” “Sugar Bear,” “Smilin’ Jack,” “Large
cell phones were still far in the Marge,” “Night Crawler,” and “Hot Pants” abounded… and if I’m
future and Batman was one not mistaken, some of those names were later recycled as X-Men
of the few drivers you knew characters. (If I had a CB radio back then, my handle would’ve
with a car phone. So the dash- been “Slick Mick.” Not
mounted CB radio was the that you asked.) These
perfect device for your friendly roadway dialogues
neighborhood electrician or might seem primitive in
plumber to communicate with today’s world of virtual
the office about his next job. meetings and parties,
Radio enthusiasts took to the but the CB radio was one
device, with CB clubs forming. of the first electronic
The game changer was devices that allowed
the oil embargo of 1973, when people a chance to zoom
the U.S. was crippled by (literally).
gasoline shortages. Conservation was forced upon the populace By the mid-Seventies,
in the form of gas rationing, where drivers would idle (a stupid the entire nation was
gas-wasting measure, when you think about it) in long lines going CB crazy. Perhaps
on specially designated days for the privilege of a fill up. There it was a cultural backlash
was also a national cap on to television’s purging
highways’ speed limits to the of long-running rural
Hagar-hated 55 m.p.h. sitcoms like Green Acres
Americans don’t like and Mayberry R.F.D.
being told what to do, and in (formerly The Andy
a Boston Tea Party-worthy Griffith Show) to make
act of rebellion turned to room for urban-based comedies like The Mary Tyler Moore Show
the CB radio as their channel and All in the Family, but a redneck revolution took place. Scruffy
to avoid a speeding ticket. truckers in barreling semis and sexy scoundrels in souped-up
Truckers most depended hot rods became Hollywood action heroes, brandishing the CB
upon the CB, signing in as a sword to strike down not the wicked Sheriff of Nottingham
with a “Breaker, breaker!” but instead the hapless roadside cop, who became stereotyped
to radio their fellow “good as a tobacco-chawing, bloated-belly dimwit (character actor

Clifton James made a career out of these
roles—even in James Bond and Superman
movies!).
Television gave us Movin’ On (just two
truckers), The Dukes of Hazzard (just two good ol’ boys), and
B. J. and the Bear (just a trucker and a chimp). And let’s not forget title
The CB Bears (no, not was also
that kind of bear, big billed “The battle cry of
guy!), a Hanna-Barbera The Great Truckers War.”
Saturday morning Kris Kristofferson and Ali
cartoon about a trio of MacGraw teamed for Convoy,
bruin detectives being and according to its hype,
dispatched by their off- “Ain’t nothin’ gonna get in
camera boss via citizens their way!” Even the X-rated
band radio (cribbing movie biz got CB fever, with
from both Charlie’s Angels executive producer Roy
and the CB fad). Toy Stud’s Breaker Beauties, which
stores offered battery- promised “a big 10-4 for sure”
operated play versions (sadly, I’m not making that up).
of CB radios based upon But no CB-inspired movie
both Movin’ On and could outpace Smokey and
Dukes of Hazzard. the Bandit, which anointed
Newsstands and star Burt Reynolds as the
bookstores saw CB king of the road, CB-ing
with his trucker
good buddy Jerry
Reed. Smokey and
magazines and how-to the Bandit spawned a franchise and gave Sally Field
manuals crowd their something to do while she was waiting for Norma Rae.
shelves. MAD magazine It also carjacked the career of Jackie Gleason away
spoofed the trend, as from Honeymooners reruns and numbers with the June
did Benny Hill and other Taylor Dancers and into hot pursuits and car crashes
television comedies. as Sheriff Buford T. Justice. Sheriff Justice’s most
Country-Western famous line could also serve as a metaphor for the
crooners found CB- entire CB radio/fast-driving craze: “What we have here
chatting truckers great is a total lack of respect for the law.”
Images © their respective copyright holders. CB base station photo by Junglecat.
fodder for hits. Climbing You would think that the President of the United
the charts in the mid- States might step in to slow down the nation during
Seventies were “Teddy this time of rubber-burnin’ anarchy. Think again.
Bear” by Red Sovine, Instead, First Lady Betty Ford picked up a CB radio
“The White Knight” and took the handle “First Mama.” Then the redneck
(a novelty tune) by revolution continued as we elected a Georgia peanut
Cledus Maggard & the farmer to the White House, whose sibling became the
Citizen’s Band (actually first-ever First Brother after whom a brand of cheap
Jay Huguely), and the beer was named.
anthem for the whole Eventually, we all came to our senses. Well, not
craze, “Convoy” by C. W. really. They just jacked up the highway speed limits
McCall. and put smartphone caddies on our dashes. And gave
A convoy of CB- us the Fast & Furious franchise, which has nine films
inspired movies and counting as I write this. So here’s to the CB radio,
slammed into theaters the RetroFad that refused to pull
in beginning in 1977. Director Jonathan the hammer back.
Demme’s Citizens Band was a quirky
comedy about small-town lives that
became entwined via CB hookups. You
could watch Chuck Norris put his pedal
to the metal in Breaker! Breaker!, whose

MONSTER MASH
The Creepy, Kooky Monster Craze In America, 1957-1972
Time-trip back to the frightening era of 1957-1972, when monsters stomped into the American
mainstream! Once Frankenstein and fiends infiltrated TV in 1957, an avalanche of monster maga-
zines, toys, games, trading cards, and comic books crashed upon an unsuspecting public. This pro-
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FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND magazine, the #1 hit “Monster Mash,” Aurora’s model kits,
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ROTH (Rat Fink), BOBBY (BORIS) PICKETT (Monster Mash singer/songwriter) and others, with a
Foreword by TV horror host ZACHERLEY, the “Cool Ghoul.” Written by MARK VOGER (author of
“The Dark Age”).
(192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $11.99
ISBN: 978-1-60549-064-9 • Diamond Order Code: MAR151564
GROOVY
When Flower Power Bloomed
In Pop Culture
GROOVY is a far-out trip to the era of lava lamps and love beads. This profusely illustrated HARDCOVER
BOOK, in PSYCHEDELIC COLOR, features interviews with icons of grooviness such as PETER MAX, BRIAN
WILSON, PETER FONDA, MELANIE, DAVID CASSIDY, members of the JEFFERSON AIRPLANE, CREAM, THE
DOORS, THE COWSILLS and VANILLA FUDGE; and cast members of groovy TV shows like THE MONKEES,
LAUGH-IN and THE BRADY BUNCH. By MARK VOGER.
(192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-080-9
Digital Edition: $13.99 • Diamond Order Code: JUL172227
LOU SCHEIMER
CREATING THE FILMATION GENERATION
Final copies, with bookplate autographed by Lou Scheimer & Andy Mangels!
Hailed as one of the fathers of Saturday morning television, LOU SCHEIMER was the co-founder of FILMATION
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charts with THE ARCHIES, kept Trekkie hope alive with the Emmy-winning STAR TREK: THE ANIMATED SERIES,
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RETRO ANIMATION
Enchanted World of Rankin/Bass’

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
TV Special by Rick Goldschmidt
On December 6th, 1964, Arthur Rankin, of Rudolph’s Clarice, who later became an operatic singer in
Jr. (1924–2014) and Jules Bass (b. 1935) Europe. “She came into the studio with her mother after
launched Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the school,” Giles said. “I believe it was just me and Bernard
longest-running, highest-rated television Cowan there. We gave her the song ‘There’s Always
special of all time, on NBC-TV during The Tomorrow,’ and she absolutely nailed it on the first
General Electric Fantasy Hour. take! We recorded a second take, but we ended up
In 2001, I wrote a book entitled The using the first take in the TV special. I worked with
Making of the Rankin/Bass Holiday Classic: many singers, and this was a rare occurrence for
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, with sure!”
participation from Arthur Rankin, Jr., Jules Larry Roemer was given
Bass, and the entire Rankin/Bass staff. credit as the director
Since that time I have learned more and on Rankin/Bass’
gathered lots more in the way of materials. Rudolph the Red-
I will present some of this information Nosed Reindeer, but
here in RetroFan magazine and set straight he did not direct the
much of the misinformation that has been special. Arthur gave
circulating in recent years both on the him that honorary
internet and some very substandard Blu- credit because Roemer
ray and DVD releases. got the special on the air
at NBC. My book, The Arthur
The Voice Actors Rankin, Jr. Scrapbook: The Birth
In my book I covered Bill Giles, of Animagic, covers this and
who was the engineer at the includes a picture of Roemer. It
RCA Victor Studios in Canada took me years to locate a photo
on all of the Rudolph voice-actor of him, because after leaving
sessions. Now retired, Bill today Rankin/Bass Productions, he
splits his time between Canada went to Magno Productions, the
and spending winters in Florida. facility that was run by Ralph
Bill and I have had some long Friedman, who was given credit
recent conversations and I for sound on Rudolph. All of the
learned some things that I find Rankin/Bass films were housed
very interesting. at Magno for many years. The
First of all, I learned that Bill late Antony Peters, who was
worked at RCA in the States the designer of the Rudolph
during his career with some of
my favorite recording artists
such as Elvis Presley, Perry TV’s holliest, jolliest hero and
Como, and even The Beatles, his red-nosed guide, from
for whom he prepared their Rankin/Bass’ beloved 1964
music for U.S. releases. One special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed
of his best stories had to do Reindeer. © 2012 Miser Bros. Press/
with Janis Orenstein, the voice Rick Goldschmidt Archives.

retro Animation
Arthur Rankin, Jr. (CENTER)

reviews the Rudolph script as
he directs the voice actor cast
in Canada. The recording/vocal
supervisor, Bernard Cowan, is in
the foreground. © 2012 Miser Bros.
Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives.
8 10
7
TV special, explained to me, “Roemer’s relationship really soured 6 9
with Arthur and Jules. His picture on the wall was turned around 11
and they didn’t speak of him. I ran into Larry in New York years 3
2
later and he didn’t say much.” 4 5
Engineer Bill Giles has an interesting story on Roemer and his
1
participation in the sessions. “Roemer wasn’t at the RCA recording
sessions in Canada,” according to Giles. “Arthur Rankin, Jr., Jules
Bass, and Bernard Cowan were, as pictured in the photos in your
books. Bernard Cowan rounded up this great group of actors WHO’S WHO IN RUDOLPH
and actresses and was given credit as vocal supervisor, but it was 1. Janis Orenstein (Clarice). 2. Stan Francis (Santa Claus,
Arthur Rankin who called the shots and made some very smart King Moonracer). 3. Corinne Conley (Doll). 4. Alfie
decisions. Jules sort of stayed in the background and didn’t say Scopp (Charlie-in-the-Box). 5. Peg Dixon (Mrs. Claus,
Mrs. Donner). 6. Paul Kligman (Donner, Clarice’s father,
Comet the Coach). 7. Larry Mann (Yukon Cornelius).
8. Carl Banas (Head Elf, Spotted Elephant). 9. Billie
Mae (Billy) Richards (Rudolph). 10. Bernard Cowan
(recording supervisor). 11. Paul Soles (Hermey).
© 2012 Miser Bros. Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives.
1964 publicity photo of the Rudolph voice cast, at Toronto’s RCA

Victor Studios. (LEFT TO RIGHT) Bernard Cowan, Arthur Rankin,
Jr., Paul Kligman, Paul Soles, Corinne Conley, Alfie Scopp, Larry D.
Mann, Billie Mae Richards. See sidebar for additional actors and
their roles. © 2012 Miser Bros. Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives.

retro Animation
much at all. Arthur was in control, and everything sounded great to come to New York for some problems with the soundtrack.
and we had some wonderful takes. I hopped on a train and arrived at the offices of Videocraft
“At this time, Larry D. Mann was the voice of Sam the International [later Rankin/Bass Productions] in New York, and
Snowman in addition to Yukon Cornelius,” Giles continued. “I there was a very hot Larry Roemer, Arthur Rankin, Jr., and Jules
didn’t record Burl Ives [the actual voice of Sam the Snowman] Bass. Roemer was screaming that everything was wrong and
and was surprised to hear him in the final cut. After the sessions, things needed to be redone. He was making many irrational
I actually drove Arthur and Jules to the airport and as I dropped comments and arguing with Arthur and Jules. At some point they
them off, Arthur handed me an envelope with several thousand
dollars in it, which I really appreciated. I later used the money to
buy a boat. A short time had passed, and I get a call from Arthur
Elf Hermey and our favorite red-nosed Reindeer.

Hermey was voiced by Paul Soles, one of Rudolph’s few
surviving cast members. Soles has continued to act and
voice-act in recent years. RetroFans also remember him
as the voice of Marvel’s Web-Slinger in (INSET) Grant-
Ray Lawrence’s Spider-Man cartoon. © 2012 Miser Bros.
Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives. Spider-Man TM & © Marvel.

retro Animation
all went to lunch and when they returned, Arthur and Jules
were without Larry Roemer. Arthur said, ‘Everything is great,’
and we didn’t re-record anything.”
The Magic of Rudolph

It was always obvious to Arthur that they had captured
magic in a bottle, and 56 years later, fans are still watching
the special both on CBS and Freeform TV. I have done many
Rudolph panels at conventions like Dragon Con, the Mid-
Atlantic Nostalgia Convention, McHenry County Historical
Society, Chicago Pop Culture Con, etc.,
and people always ask, “Why has the
special lasted this long?”
While the answer is somewhat
complex and I wrote a whole book about
the special, at the core of the longevity
is the writing of Romeo Muller, Jr. When
Arthur persuaded his New York neighbor
Johnny Marks, the writer of the song
“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” and Arthur Rankin, Jr., Masaki Iizuka, and Jules Bass. Iizuka, who passed away in February 2020,
Mark’s brother-in-law Robert L. May, who was the producer in Japan that worked with Rankin through the end of his career at PAC
wrote the short Rudolph storybook and (Pacific Animation Co.). © 1997 Miser Bros. Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives. (INSET) The early days
created Rudolph, the only two characters of the Rankin/Bass partnership, in a clipping from Rick Goldschmidt’s Arthur Rankin, Jr.
they had were Rudolph and Santa Claus. Scrapbook. © 2012 Miser Bros. Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives.
Romeo Muller had just written the
teleplay for Rankin/Bass’ first TV special, Return to Oz, and Arthur the estates of the two creators not seeing royalties for any of the
and Jules loved what he did. They asked him to write the script merchandise and other use of their characters in modern times?
for Rudolph, and he and designer Antony Peters created all of the More on that later.
other characters that we know and love from the TV special: Sam “Romeo was a real Santa Claus,” said Romeo’s brother
the Snowman, King Moonracer, Hermey the Dentist, the Island Gene, now deceased. “He was such a creative guy and on a few
of Misfit Toys, Clarice, Fireball, Yukon Cornelius, etc. Why aren’t occasions, he [dictated] the scripts over the phone to Arthur
Rankin, as was the case with The Little Drummer Boy. He was the
heart and soul of Rankin/Bass and is dearly missed.”
An early draft of his script appears in my book
The Making of Rankin/Bass’ Holiday Classic: Rudolph the
Red-Nosed Reindeer. When I wrote it in 2001, I was the
same age that Robert L. May was when he wrote his
original Rudolph book. We both lived in Illinois, too,
he in Evanston and I in Oak Lawn. As the Rankin/Bass
historian and biographer and by studying Rudolph
for well over 30 years with six books under my belt,
I have grown to appreciate the quality of Muller’s
writing. Heart and warmth immediately come to
mind, and it was very special. There is nothing like this in today’s
entertainment. I can see why Rankin/Bass hired Romeo and used
him for years on all of their best stuff. His Hobbit [animated film,
1977] won a Peabody and a Christopher Award.
Rankin/Bass’ Characters and Merchandise

Gene Muller told me, “Romeo was a member of the Writers Guild,
and the Rankin/Bass were very simple contracts that made no
mention of merchandise because there was none produced [at
the time]. This was also long before DVDs, Blu-rays, streaming,
Arthur Rankin, Jr. in the animation studios in Japan. © 1997

Miser Bros. Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives. (INSET) Rudolph
screenwriter Romeo Muller, Jr.

retro Animation
Advertisement for the rare picture Enesco Corp., in Itasca, Illinois, saw me on
sleeve 45 RPM single “A Holly Jolly WGN Morning News and called me up at a
Christmas,” by Burl “Sam the book signing in 1999 and asked me to come
Snowman” Ives. © 2012 Miser Bros. Press/ into their showroom to see their Rudolph
Rick Goldschmidt Archives. line, and for the next several years I helped
them design some of their figurines and
spoke to their personnel.
etc. My brother did not sign his life away or Just as this merchandising began,
the use of his characters.” Arthur Rankin, Jr. told Golden Books,
In 1997, my first Rankin/Bass book who owned the Rankin/Bass specials in
came out, The Enchanted World of Rankin/ 2001, “You are allowing the wrong parties
Bass: A Portfolio (in its newest edition it’s to merchandise Rudolph, and the real
now 412 pages). To this point, no Rudolph creators of most of the characters are not
merchandise was originally produced seeing any of the money.” The Rankin/
except for a Decca Soundtrack LP that was Bass Universe was created primarily by
released in 1965 and ties into a promotion writer Romeo Muller and designer Antony
and ad campaign with the General Electric Peters, and post-1968, by Muller and
Houseware Products. In 1997, I got a call Paul Coker, Jr. Comparitively, the Marvel
from a company named Stuffins, which
was producing a beanbag series of Rudolph characters for
the CVS Pharmacy drug store chain. [Stuffins’ rep] wanted
my input and sent me advance sets of the dolls. He told me
he got the idea to merchandise Rudolph toys after reading
my book on a flight to Japan for a toy fair. This is where
the Rankin/Bass merchandising began, and Frosty the
Snowman, Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, The Year Without a
Santa Claus, Here Comes Peter Cottontail, Mad Monster Party,
and The Little Drummer Boy merchandise lines followed.
(LEFT) Kyota Kita

making a Rudolph
puppet. (ABOVE)
Hiroshi Tabata
animating Charlie-
in-the-Box on the
set of Rudolph.
© 2001 Miser Bros.
Press/Rick Goldschmidt
Archives.

retro Animation
Universe was primarily created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and the concept of the Rankin/Bass feature film Willy McBean and His
both were eventually rewarded with huge sums of money. I Magic Machine (1965) and designed its characters. His last Rankin/
believe this will be true too with the Muller and Peters estates. Bass project was Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and he was
I was friends with composer Earle Hagen, who wrote the called back as a freelancer after he left the company. Eventually
theme songs to The Andy Griffith Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, he would work for Grantray-Lawrence on the 1966 Marvel Super
That Girl, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., and others. At this writing, a story Heroes cartoons, and he also created Rocket Robin Hood for them.
just broke that his estate is suing Viacom. The contract he signed Because he started at such a young age with Rankin/Bass, he
in the Seventies did not include all of the uses of his music going always felt underappreciated. “Arthur thought of me as the kid in
on today, including streaming. Similarly, Rudolph the Red-Nosed the back room,” Peters admitted to me. “My wife Adrian was also
Reindeer has been turned into a musical, puppet show, and more, friends with Arthur and Jules and would often play cards with
and they are using Muller’s script and Peters’ designs and not even them. I was always thankful for my start with them, but I wanted
crediting them. The characters they created are also appearing to branch out and do other things. Arthur’s residence doubled as
in theme parks like SeaWorld, Dollywood, etc., and Romeo and the studios in the early days, and it really took years for them to
Antony are not receiving any compensation at all. Hopefully that become a big success. That success came after I left and Rudolph
will all change. aired. I was glad to be a part of that one and design all of the
Paul Coker, Jr. says, “It was very easy for me to design the characters and look of that special.”
characters from the wonderful writing of Romeo. They were so
well written and there was a magical quality to them.” Rudolph’s Animagic
In the case of the late designer Antony Peters, he and I became Now that I have written about the actual creators of the show,
very good friends, as I have with Paul Coker. Peters started with I should discuss the wizards behind the stop motion called
Videocraft International in the mid-Fifties. He worked on tons of Animagic, which was created at the MOM Studios in Japan. The
commercials and came up with the early lettering style that was man in charge of the stop-motion animation was Tadahito “Tad”
eventually used in Rudolph. He wrote and designed much of the Mochinaga. My friend Masaki Iizuka, an associate producer of
series The New Adventures of Pinocchio and The Tales of the Wizard the later Rankin/Bass films, recently passed away. He stayed in
of Oz. He even went to Canada on behalf of Arthur Rankin, Jr. to touch with the surviving Rudolph animators and explained to
oversee the production of Oz at Crawley Studios, after the earliest me at Arthur Rankin’s memorial in Bermuda in 2014, “All of the
episodes were produced in New York. Antony also came up with animators looked up to Tad and saw the work he did on Rudolph as
Rick Goldschmidt works

with Arthur Rankin, Jr. on
his Scrapbook. © 2012 Miser
Bros. Press/Rick Goldschmidt
Archives.
(BELOW) Goldscmidt’s
late business partner and
co-author Wes Garlatz,
who died April 2, 2020.
This article is dedicated to
his memory.

retro Animation
Rankin/Bass historian Rick Goldschmidt at the

McHenry County Historical Society Christmas,
2018, Union, Illinois. Photo © 2018 Mike O’Reilly.
A Portfolio is that even though Ralph Friedman

(owner of the Magno Sound Facilities, which
Rudolph used in New York) and Allan Mirchin
were given full credit for the sound work in the
Rudolph TV special, Peter W. Page did most of the
actual work. Peter also went on to do the sound
in the Rankin/Bass feature films including The
Daydreamer and Mad Monster Party.
The Legacy of Rudolph the Red-Nosed

Reindeer
As the Rankin/Bass historian, I am often asked
which are the best DVD and Blu-ray releases of
their specials, in particular, Rudolph the Red-nosed
Reindeer. (The answer might surprise you—as
the high-water mark of the entire Rankin/Bass catalog. They felt technology gets better, releases seem to get worse.)
inferior to the work Tad did on that.” Hands down, it is the 2001 Golden Books release of Rudolph the
Hiroshi Tabata was sort of Tad’s apprentice, and can be seen Red-Nosed Reindeer, with Rankin/Bass and CBS on the cover. That
working on Charlie-in-the-Box in my Rudolph book. He shared DVD had an Arthur Rankin introduction, complete with behind-
similar feelings. “Tad was the master! I did my best to achieve the the-scenes photos provided by me, and it also includes a 1964 NBC
same effects, but Rudolph we felt could not be surpassed.” around 1998 promo and the Fame and Fortune segment. I helped
Tad Mochinaga was seen as the father of stop motion in Japan. restore all of the missing scenes and Arthur did the introduction
Arthur Rankin spent a lot of time in Japan working with Tad. It is as a favor to me as he looked at my book at the opening.
not well known, but Jules Bass never visited Japan. Arthur loved There have been so many bad releases since that time. In 2018
the culture and loved overseeing the work there. I got a call to work on the Universal Blu-rays and was told they
A few years ago, there was a Tad Mochinaga exhibit in were finally going to do them right. I started calling all of the
Japan. My last two books feature photos and information from remaining people who worked on the specials to do interviews. A
the exhibit. The exhibit featured several Rankin/Bass Animagic friend of mine owns the original 1964 Rudolph end credits in color.
figures including a Santa Claus, reindeer, and Mrs. Claus from I was excited that they would do these right. Then all the wrong
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer; all of the heads from Willy McBean people got involved, many whom knew nothing more than what
and His Magic Machine; early Mad Monster Party storyboards and they read in my books about the specials, and those releases rank
designs, when it was known as Mad Monster Rally; and several as the worst to date. In fact, many of the specials were issued in
photographs from the Rudolph sets, where you could see the edge syndicated, edited versions and fade to black in the middle of
of the sets and Arthur on the scene. scenes. None were restored properly, and the extra content is the
Most of production work on the Animagic figures stayed in worst. The only Rankin/Bass Blu-rays I am happy with are The Year
Japan. Tad hung on to things like IT (King Kong) from Mad Monster Without a Santa Claus and Mad Monster Party.
Party, who starred in his own Japanese TV Show. The animators Despite poor DVD and Blu-ray issues and a badly edited
and puppet makers kept some of the things they worked version airing on CBS TV every year, Rudolph’s nose will shine
on. Masaki brought some to Bermuda for Arthur’s Galaxy at bright for many years to come! Romeo Muller laid a foundation
Masterworks museum, which I helped open in 2014. Many articles that has stood the test of time, and orchestrator Maury Laws
in the U.S. have wrong information in them stemming from helped the Johnny Marks songs stand out in a fun and bouncy
when we restored one of the Rudolphs and Santa Claus in 2005 way!
and then did appearances with them. There are more than one Producer Arthur Rankin, Jr. had an unrealized quest to make a
Santa and Rudolph. The press liked the fact that Barbara Adams, live-action feature filmed on the epic level of Gone With the Wind,
the Rankin/Bass secretary in the Seventies, took the Rudolph cast but said, “If Rudolph is what we are remembered for, I am happy
home from the NBC building display and out of that bunch, only with that!”
Rudolph and Santa survived, but there are others and I appear
with them around the country. You can see photos of all of the Miser Bros. Press co-founder RICK GOLDSCMIDT is the
surviving puppets in all of my books. Most of the puppets were historian/biographer for Rankin/Bass Productions and the
made by Kyota Kita and Pinchan, and I love them all as works of author of several books on the revered holiday television specials
art, too, so I like to document every time we locate one. produced by the company. www.miserbros.com and www.
Something else I learned years later and covered in my enchantedworldofrankinbass.blogspot.com
20th anniversary edition of The Enchanted World of Rankin/Bass:
ANDY MANGELS’ RETRO SATURDAY MORNINGS
SATURDAY MORNING
by Andy Mangels
The 1965 Christmas card from Hanna-Barbera Productions featured almost every character they were animating for television,
except the primetime Jonny Quest and The Jetsons. Shows represented included The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show, The Atom Ant/
Secret Squirrel Show, The Magilla Gorilla Show, Top Cat, The Yogi Bear Show, The Flintstones, The Quick Draw McGraw Show, and The
Huckleberry Hound Show. © Hanna-Barbera Productions.
Welcome back to Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning. Since legged leaning against the couch, and dig in to Retro Saturday
1989, I have been writing columns for magazines in the U.S. and Morning!
foreign countries, all examining the intersection of comic books
and Hollywood, whether animation or live-action. Andy Mangels Saturday morning television was appointment viewing for
Backstage, Andy Mangels’ Reel Marvel, Andy Mangels’ Hollywood anyone growing up from the Sixties to the Nineties. From 8am
Heroes, Andy Mangels Behind the Camera… three decades of to noon, while their parents slept in from the workweek, kids
reporting on animation and live-action—in addition to writing could sit in front of the television and enjoy a time just for them.
many books and producing around 40 DVD sets—and I’m still Cartoons—and later, live-action series—were produced by
enthusiastic. In this RetroFan column, I will examine shows studios like Filmation Associates, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises,
that thrilled us from yesteryear, exciting our imaginations and Total Television, Jay Ward Productions, Hanna-Barbera
capturing our memories. Grab some milk and cereal, sit cross- Productions, Sid and Marty Krofft, D’Angelo Productions, Marvel

HOLIDAY CARDS
(RIGHT) With 1971, Hanna-Barbera began a recurring theme for their Christ-
mas cards and ads: all of their characters interacted with a Christmas tree. Here,
stars of Cattanooga Cats; Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!; Dastardly and Muttley in
Their Flying Machines; The Banana Splits Adventure Hour; and The Perils of Penelope
Pitstop cavorted with Yogi Bear and the Flintstones. © Hanna-Barbera Productions.
The 1972 Hanna-Barbera Christmas/New Year’s card featured cast members of The
Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show, The Banana Splits, The Flintstone Comedy Hour, the
short-lived The Roman Holidays, and Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound. According
to Heritage Auctions, from which this card image came, the art is by Hanna-Barbera
animator Alex Ignatiev. © Hanna-Barbera Productions. Courtesy of Heritage.
Productions, Sunbow Productions, Ruby-Spears, DIC, Film

Roman, and others. Mirroring Saturday mornings for primetime But the producers of content for Saturday mornings were more
were Rankin-Bass, who became famous for their stop-motion of a “family” than those who worked on primetime content. In
holiday-themed specials like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, December, many of the studios would produce Christmas and/or
covered elsewhere in this issue. non-denominational holiday cards, calendars, or advertisements,
Unlike most television studios and networks, the professional often featuring a wide range of projects and characters from their
world of Saturday mornings was relatively close-knit. Animators, output.
writers, voice actors, and other crew would migrate from show to For this edition of Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning, I’m
show, one season working on a comedy, the next season a super- sharing a look at some of those studios’ holiday wishes… with a
hero series. Sometimes they would work for multiple companies, wish that you have a great year to come, and that the cancelled
though that was largely frowned upon. year of 2020 will not be repeated in our future!
Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Mornings
Space Ghost, Dynomutt, and Captain

Caveman finally make a Hanna-Barbera
Holiday greeting, in this 1981 ad.
© Hanna-Barbera Productions.
(TOP RIGHT) Filmation Associates’ inter-

nal Holiday card for 1968 was a celebration
of the success of The Archie Show and the
gold record “Sugar Sugar,” with carica-
tures of company founders (LEFT TO
RIGHT) Hal Sutherland, Lou Scheimer,
and Norm Prescott, drawn by animator
Eddie Friedman. © Filmation.
(RIGHT) Filmation’s public ad in trade

papers of 1968 spotlit their lineup with
Fantastic Voyage, The Batman/Superman
Hour, and The Archie Show characters all
mingling. © Filmation. Batman and Superman
TM & © DC Comics. Archie TM & © Archie Comic
Publications.

Filmation’s ad on Decem-
ber 19, 1973 in trade papers
showcased their “greatest year”
and projects. Another version,
printed in all red ink, was sent
out as a card and poster to their
mailing list. © Filmation.
Filmation’s 1986 Holiday card

spotlit the characters of Brave-
starr, the first Native-American
hero to headline an animated TV
series. Inside, the message was
inclusive of 13 different languag-
es. © Filmation.

“Crossover” was the name of the game

in this 1971 Holiday card and poster
from Filmation, printed in brown on a
cream paper. Sharing the celebration
were the cast of Archie’s TV Funnies—
with its newspaper strip characters
from The Captain and the Kids, Nancy,
Broom Hilda, Dick Tracy, The Dropouts,
Emmy Lou, and Moon Mullins—plus
Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Groovie
Goolies. Captain and the Kids © King Features
Syndicate. Broom Hilda, Dick Tracy, Moon
Mullins © Tribune Content Agency. Nancy,
Dropouts, Emmy Lou © United Feature Syndi-
cate. Sabrina © Archie Comics Publications.
Groovie Goolies © Filmation.
This whimsical Holiday card showcased Wolfie, Frankie, and Drac from the hit Groovie
Goolies, using the Filmation producers as marionettes… thus functioning as a Halloween
card as well! © Filmation.

(TOP) This early Holiday card (c. 1969–1970) from

Sid and Marty Krofft showcases a behind-the-
scenes staged moment with (LEFT TO RIGHT)
Sid Krofft, teen actor Jack Wild, and Marty
Krofft, on the set of H. R. Pufnstuf. © Sid & Marty
Krofft Productions. (BELOW) The 1976 Holiday
card from the Kroffts was really more a “hire us
for anything” message, but it featured charac-
ters from H. R. Pufnstuf (1969–1972), Sigmund
and the Sea Monsters (1973–1975), Land of the Lost
(1974–1976), and others. © Sid & Marty Krofft Produc-
tions. (TOP RIGHT) The latest Holiday e-card
from the World of Sid and Marty Krofft showcas-
es characters from nearly every television show
that the pair produced in the Seventies. It was
sent out to friends and fans in 2011. © Sid & Marty
Krofft Productions.
In 1981, Ruby-Spears Productions used this image for their Holiday greetings. It
included stars from their series The Plastic Man/Baby Plas Super Comedy, Mighty
Man and Yukk, Fangface and Fangpuss, Rickety Rocket, Thundarr the Barbarian,
Heathcliff, and Marmaduke. © Ruby-Spears Productions, except Plastic Man TM & © DC
Comics, Heathcliff © Creators Syndicate, and Marmaduke © United Feature Syndicate.
Next issue: We’ll take a super-heroic look at the adventures of wrote the Wonder Woman ’77 Meets the Bionic Woman series
Hanna-Barbera’s Dynomutt, Dog Wonder and the Blue Falcon! for Dynamite and DC Comics, and is currently working on a book
about the stage productions of Stephen King and a series of graphic
Artwork and photos are courtesy the collection of Andy Mangels, unless novels for Junior High audiences, Fractured
otherwise credited. Fairy Tales from Abdo Books. Additionally, he
has scripted, directed, and produced Special
ANDY MANGELS is the USA Today bestselling author and co-author Features and documentaries for over 40
of 20 books, including the TwoMorrows book Lou Scheimer: Creating DVD releases. His moustache is infamous.
the Filmation Generation, as well as Star Trek and Star Wars tomes, www.AndyMangels.com and www.
Iron Man: Beneath the Armor, and a lot of comic books. He recently WonderWomanMuseum.com

BOOKS FROM TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING
All characters TM & © their respective owners.

ER
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ERNEST FARINO’S RETRO FANTASMAGORIA
What is the Greatest

Christmas Movie
(with Martians)
of All Time?*(*You get only one guess...)
by Ernest Farino
Regular readers of RetroFan will know that My Favorite Year (to

pinch the title of a great movie) was 1964. Kellogg’s came out
with Pop-Tarts. The “British Invasion” had us Meet the Beatles; Ford Yet for all of that—an embarrassment of riches, a veritable
introduced the brand-new, revolutionary, moderately priced cornucopia of culture, pop and otherwise—1964 stands alone for
sports car the Mustang (also featured for the first time on screen inflicting upon an unsuspecting public deluded into complacency
in the James Bond film Goldfinger that same year); and New York by the otherwise high-octane menu of entertainment and
was the site of the spectacular 1964 World’s Fair. The slogan of diversion, a film that single-handedly possessed the power to
the 1964 World’s Fair was “Peace Through Understanding”—as turn anyone’s unsuspecting brain into watery oatmeal.
relevant today as it was then. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.
I patiently built my Aurora monster models and Ed “Big
Daddy” Roth hot-rod show-car models and studied every issue
of Famous Monsters magazine with laser-like intensity (who
needs fractions homework when you can have Frankenstein,
for cryin’ out loud...?). In addition to must-see-TV favorites The
Munsters, The Outer Limits, Bewitched, and The Twilight Zone,
Sunday nights (the last gasp before—blecch—school the
next day) enthralled us with Wagon Train, My Favorite Martian,
My Living Doll (Julie Newmar!), Candid Camera, Walt Disney’s
Wonderful World of Color, and Bonanza.
And no shoebox multiplex theaters for us, thank you very
much. What was playing in those grand movie palaces of yore?
Fuggedaboutit—on the big 60-foot screen we had no less than
Seven Days in May, Becket, The Fall of the Roman Empire, From Russia
With Love, A Shot in the Dark, Mary Poppins, A Hard Day’s Night,
Topkapi, and My Fair Lady. Okay, some of those were “above my
pay grade” as a 12-year-old, and no self-respecting kid would be
caught dead singing along with Eliza Doolittle, but you get the TV News Announcer: “Here’s another UFO Bulletin:
idea. The Defense Department has just announced that
In those films and others in 1964 we caught our first glimpse of the unidentified flying object suddenly disappeared
future stars: Jenny Agutter, Ellen Burstyn, David Carradine, Dom from our radar screen. They believe the object has
DeLuise, Judi Dench, Olympia Dukakis, Morgan Freeman, Elliott either disintegrated in space, or it may be a spaceship
Gould, James Earl Jones, Charlotte Rampling, Roy Scheider, and from another planet which has the ability to nullify
Raquel Welch. all radar beams.”
ernest farino’s retro fantasmagoria
In 1897, when Francis Pharcellus Church, an editor of New Martian, attempts to do away with the children and Santa before
York’s The Sun newspaper, replied to eight-year-old Virginia they get to Mars, but their leader, Lomas, stops him. When they arrive
O’Hanlon’s question by writing, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa on Mars, Santa, with the help of the two Earth children and a rather
Claus,” he almost certainly did not have this in mind…
RetroFan editor Michael Eury’s assignment to write about this
movie here hit me so hard that a Batman-like description of the
POW! BIFF! BANG! impact popped up in mid-air in a word balloon.
So, okay, I’m going to have fun with it.
Because—will wonders never cease—a lot of people actually
like this movie. But even fortified by a sufficient number of vodka
martinis, some films still leave you shaken, not stirred. When
my own instinctive go-to films range from Double Indemnity
to Casablanca to 2001: A Space Odyssey, I can only take solace in
the fact that Santa Claus Conquers the Martians is included in
The Fifty Worst Films of All Time (and How They Got That Way) by
Harry Medved, Michael Medved, and Randy Lowell (Popular
Library, 1978). And it’s in good company: From the decade of
the Sixties alone it proudly stands shoulder-to-shoulder with
an unprecedented gaggle of gag-inducing bottom-feeders that
include The Beast of Yucca Flats, Eegah, The Creeping Terror, The
Horror of Party Beach, The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped simple-minded Martian lackey, overcomes the Martians by bringing fun,
Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies, Monster a Go-Go!, Manos: The happiness and Christmas cheer to the children of Mars.”
Hands of Fate, and They Saved Hitler’s Brain. Not since Citizen Kane has a film… (just kidding).
(Okay, take a breath, splash some cold water on your face, and In 2019, the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention (www.
take a walk. Just reading that list of film titles is enough to trigger midatlanticnostalgiaconvention.com) screened an archival 35mm
a mini-stroke.) print of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. Yes, “archived.” No
Santa Claus…? Martians…? But how could—? doubt right alongside a first edition hand-illustrated Gutenberg
All right, you asked. So here we go. “[email protected]” has gone Bible and fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Convention
above and beyond the call of duty for us on the IMDb by watching organizer Martin Grams wrote an excellent production history
the film and providing the following synopsis (I have it on good of the film for his program booklet. He has kindly given RetroFan
authority that he’s been successfully revived by electroshock permission to quote from that essay:
therapy). “In July, 1964, news first broke that Jalor Productions was
“Martians, upset that their children have become obsessed with about to film a low-budget science-fiction film titled—we kid you
TV shows from Earth which extol the virtues of Santa Claus, start not—Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. Despite warnings from
an expedition to Earth to kidnap the one and only Santa. While on producers and others along New York’s film row that ‘it couldn’t
Earth, they kidnap two lively children that lead the group of Martians be done,’ Paul L. Jacobson (president of Jalor) pulled off a minor
to the North Pole and Santa. The Martians then take Santa and the miracle by completing a ten-day lensing schedule, requiring
two children back to Mars with them. Voldar, a particularly grumpy 14 sets and 100% union crews under a budget of S200,000
[approximately $1.6 million today].
What developed was a holiday movie
for the kiddies that has since built a cult
following.
“Filmed at Michael Myerberg’s
Long Island Studios (an abandoned
aircraft hangar from WWII where such
productions as A Thousand Clowns and
A Carol for Another Christmas were also
produced) with Nicholas Webster as
director. Embassy Pictures quickly
picked up the distribution rights,
premiering the movie in an estimated
100 theaters in Chicago and Milwaukee,
beginning November 21 and 22. As
part of a national promo push, a music
campaign tied to RCA Victor’s new Al
Hirt record, Hooray for Santa Claus, was
sent out across the country throughout
continued on pg. 44

MYERBERG'S MAGIC were sculpted

in clay by James
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians was filmed at Michael
Summers and cast
Myerberg Studios at 216 East 2nd Street, between Avenue B
in foam latex by
and Avenue C, a former church. A two-story structure, the
George Butler. The
ground floor had a fully equipped kitchen and rooms for
puppets were one-
offices and the second floor had a high ceiling and a balcony
third life-size and
running around it.
cost $2,500 apiece
Michael Myerberg was a prolific to build [about
producer who owned the Brooks $24,000 today].
Atkinson Theater for many years. The armatures
From 1925 to 1930 he produced for the puppets
vaudeville band acts, in 1933 produced had a number of
Candide on Broadway, and in 1942 little switches.
produced Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Pressing on the
Prize drama The Skin of Our Teeth switch for the leg,
Michael Meyerberg starring Fredric March, Florence for example, would
(1907–1974), producer, Eldridge, and Tallulah Bankhead. release the leg so
entrepreneur, theater His subsequent shows included Dear it could be moved.
impresario. Judas, The Cradle Will Rock, Beckett’s By releasing the
Waiting for Godot, and Compulsion. In switch, the leg COUNTERCLOCKWISE: Danny Diamond,
the mid-Thirties he hit on the idea of a symphonic musical would lock in Kermit Love, Joe Horstman, Sky Highchief,
film and helped produce the soundtrack for 100 Men and a Girl position. And Teddy Shepard, and (outside of the circle
with Deanna Durbin and the conductor Leopold Stokowski. unlike the Ray with arms crossed) Roger Caras animate
He became Stokowski’s manager and with the conductor Harryhausen-style the descent of the angels from their fairy
organized the All American Youth Orchestra. His subsequent stop-motion puppet kingdom on the detailed, gingerbread set
screen productions included Patterns, starring Van Heflin which was securely for Hansel and Gretel.
and Ed Begley. fastened to the
stage floor with threaded bolts extending up from beneath
the set through pre-drilled holes in the stage, the kinemins
had metal footplates that were “affixed” to the metal stage
floors by electro-magnets underneath. One story has the stop-
motion crew, leaving for the night with a complicated scene in
progress, switching
off the studio lights
but accidentally
switching off
the power to the
electro-magnets
holding the puppets
in place. From the
darkness of the
studio they heard
“plop… plop… plop…”
Don Sahlin (LEFT) and Joe Horstman animate the “kinemins” as the puppets fell
for Myerberg’s Hansel and Gretel. Sahlin was one of the original over one-by-one.
designers and puppeteers who created the original Muppets The mother
with Jim Hensen, and, as an animator, worked on other feature and father figures
films including Jack the Giant Killer (1962) and The Wonderful were sculpted to
World of the Brothers Grimm (1963). resemble Mildred
Dunnock and
But probably of more interest to RetroFan readers is his Frank Rogier, who
unique feature film of Engelbert Humperdinck’s opera Hansel supplied their
and Gretel as portrayed entirely by stop-motion puppets. It was Myerberg briefly continued to use the voices, and the
the first American feature-length animated film not made by stop-motion kinemins for TV commercials, evil witch, Rosina
Disney since 1941’s Mr. Bug Goes to Town and the first American notably early incarnations of the Jolly Green Rubylips, was
feature-length animated film not made with traditional Giant for Chicago’s Leo Burnett advertising voiced by opera star
animation. The puppets used in the film, the “kinemins,” agency. Anna Russell.

Recalling Webster’s second “Mars” film, Mission Mars (1968), his

son Lance Webster, then 24 years old, recounted the true story
about the open space helmets on Mars in a post on the IMDb
(slightly condensed here): “When Darren McGavin first donned
his helmet, it was a bad fit and mashed his nose. He angrily
ripped it off, threw it against the sound stage wall (it shattered),
and stomped off the Mars set. The film’s designer rushed out
and bought and painted some motorcycle helmets. I, as a gopher
and the only person on the crew who could type, was ordered to
quickly write a few lines of dialogue indicating that the mission
crew back on [E]arth had just discovered that there was sufficient
oxygen in the Mars atmosphere to permit simplified helmets that
only needed to augment the oxygen supply. Thus, Darren was
back on the set later the same day.”
the same month. That song, complete with bouncing ball, was Back on Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, future singer/actress
featured prominently during the film’s closing credits. In Chicago Pia Zadora made her film debut as a Martian child. The movie also
and Milwaukee alone the film grossed $135,700 on opening features the first documented appearance of “Mrs. Claus” (pre-
weekend [about $1.1 million today]. The movie opened in New dating the animated Rankin/Bass Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
York City the weekend of December 16. television special by three weeks).
“Santa Claus Conquers the Martians continued to run in theaters
across the country through February. The movie ran mostly (LEFT) Eleven-year-old Chris Month as Bomar (LEFT) and
during matinees (rarely evening hours), but that did not stop eight-year-old Pia Zadora as Girmar, no doubt smiling for
the movie from receiving additional box office revenue the next their Martian Christmas card photo. (RIGHT) Pia Zadora,
year courtesy of limited distribution during the re-release, then now all grown up and looking quite fetching in her leather
made available for television beginning in 1970. Regardless of his outfit, looks startled at having been reminded that she once
attempts to produce second, third, and fourth pictures, Santa starred in a film called Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.
Claus Conquers the Martians ultimately became the There’s an old saying in Hollywood:
only movie written and/or produced by Paul L. “You cannot choose what you’re
Jacobson, who died in Port Washington, New York, remembered for…”
in 2015.”
Nicholas Webster had previously directed
a feature film, Gone Are the Days! (a.k.a. Purlie
Victorious, 1963), but that had been stage-bound
and, by all accounts, a non-cinematic record of
the Ossie Davis/Ruby Dee play of the same name.
Webster did go on to helm a bigger-budget science-
fiction film, Mission Mars (1968), shot in Florida and
starring Darren McGavin and Nick Adams. Most
of his subsequent work would be for television, on
such series as Bracken’s World (1969), Mannix (1970),
and The F.B.I. (1971).

(FAR LEFT) The one-sheet movie poster

for Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.
Befitting the low-budget nature of the
film, the poster was printed in only two
colors, Christmasy red and green. (LEFT)
From Holland Releasing in 2011, Santa’s
Cool Holiday Film Festival, available on DCP,
Blu-ray, and DVD as a two-hour program,
is described as a “delightful two-hour show
chock-full of happy Christmas memories:
Vintage ‘Greetings from the Theater
Management’ ads from the 1950s and 1960s,
two classic Max Fleischer Technicolor
cartoons (Christmas Comes But Once a Year
and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer), wacky
1950s shorts like Howdy Doody’s Christ-
mas, and a terrific bouncing ball animated
sing-a-long to Jingle Bells, all culminating
with the restored version of the hilarious
1964 retro-favorite Santa Claus Conquers the
Martians – ‘In Space Blazing Color!’”
The other notable credit was the music by Milton de Lugg,

later the bandleader on The Gong Show (“Milton de Lugg and His
Band with a Thug”).
In his exhaustive critical overview of the entire sub-genre of
“Mars” movies, Mars in the Movies: A History (McFarland, 2016),
author Thomas Kent Miller commented on Santa Claus Conquers
the Martians: “Not one of the reviews/commentaries that I’ve
so far encountered brings up the one thing that is legitimately
interesting about this movie: Joseph E. Levine. The literature says
he was the uncredited executive producer of this movie. By 1964,
Godzilla, Hercules, and Zulu were in the past, and The Lion in Winter,
The Graduate, and A Bridge Too Far were in the future. A perfectly
good question would be, then: What on earth did Levine see in
this film? Why did he distribute it? Well, I suppose when this film
came across his desk, he probably saw dollar signs. After all, he
did work wonders with Godzilla and Hercules.
“Otherwise, as far as I can tell, there isn’t much redeeming
about this effort. Seeing green Martian children with antennae, One of the U.S. 11x14 lobby cards for Santa Claus Conquers
you know there is something wrong. Adult Martians decide the Martians.
that the better part of valor is to kidnap Santa and bring him to
Mars… [but]… Santa turns the tables on the Martians by spreading “Joe Levine was an enormously successful schlockmeister.
Christmas spirit.” He would buy junk films, have an imaginative aggressive ad
But think about these titles filling out your résumé: The Lion in campaign, and plaster his own name all over it. He flogged his
Winter, The Graduate, and—Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.” But pictures; he got them out there and made a lot of money for
Joseph E. Levine was no dummy. In “Levine: Huckster With Heart" himself in the bargain. I don’t even know if he ‘got’ the book [The
(Dick Griffin, Los Angeles Times, June 21, 1966), Levine said he had Graduate], but he climbed aboard.” Actress Candice Bergen, later
made 15 “family type pictures” in 18 months, adding, “but don’t to star in Mike Nichols’ film Carnal Knowledge, added, “Mike had a
let it get around. I don’t want anybody to know because families cat named Joe Levine, whom he hated. I remember once going to
don’t go to see them—they just talk about them. But I make them Mike’s house in Connecticut. He kicked the cat aside. ‘Get out of
anyway because I have the protection of television. Money in the here, Levine, you bastard!’”
bank, television.” John M. Miller, writing for Turner Classic Movies (TCM),
Mike Nichols, of course, directed the innovative and compiled some of the almost uniformly negative reviews of Santa
groundbreaking film The Graduate in 1967. In their excellent book, Claus Conquers the Martians from 1964—
Life Isn’t Everything–Mike Nichols as Remembered by 150 of His Closest Boxoffice: “…overly saccharine and nonsensical… A lobby
Friends (Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2019), authors Ash sign with ‘No One Admitted OVER 16 Years of Age’ might be
Carter and Sam Kashner quoted Graduate producer Larry Turman: appropriate…”
Film Daily’s Mandel Herbstman:

“…yields little in the way of
substance.”
Motion Picture Herald’s Ronald
Gold: “Youngsters who are old
hands at science fiction may notice
the limited use of special effects…
[and] it could have benefitted from
the interjection of a little more
humor.”
The New York Times’ Howard
Thompson was more charitable:
“Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
is aimed straight at the very small
fry, who probably will eat it up… Using a small
cast of unfamiliar faces, good color, a workable
handful of sets (rather deftly integrated with
documentary background footage), Paul
Jacobson, the producer, has put together a (TOP LEFT) A Mexican lobby card.
Christmasy little movie, with science-fiction (ABOVE AND LEFT) Dell’s movie
trimmings for fledgling astronauts. Adults may tie-in comic book (writer unknown,
find it obvious and as square-cut as cheese… art attributed to Bob Jenney) was
Mr. Jacobson’s economical production and released in October 1965 (cover-dat-
Nicholas Webster’s direction, not to mention the ed March 1966). In some markets
very broad acting, make the picture seem like a recording on Golden Records
a children’s television show enlarged on movie accompanied the comic and was
house screens.” narrated by Don Ocko, featur-
And more recently (December 2000), Nick ing the voices of Ralph Bell, Ann
Cramp of BBC Home (online) wrote: “Some Delugg, and Betty & Billy, with
films are merely bad (The Avengers). Others are music by Milton Delugg along with
enjoyably bad (Showgirls). And some films are the film’s theme song, “Hooray for
so bad that watching them is physically painful. Santa Claus.” The Dell comic sells
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians is one such today for up to $200, depending on
special case. Scripting, acting, production values, condition.
and plot are universally risible. Sets are cardboard
and Martian costumes have been improvised from kitchen quite possibly the worst film ever made. Throughout, one felt an
implements. Amusingly, the film features a youthful Pia Zadora urge to hurl buckets of fetid offal at the screen. Avoid, unless you
in her first role. Most amazing is the seriousness pervading the collect bad films or have a strong stomach.”
entire affair. The makers obviously believed they had a winner But in case you missed all those reviews, reminders abound:
on their hands. The wonder is that director Nick Webster ever Santa Claus Conquers the Martians often appears on lists of the
worked again. In fact, he went on to make gems such as Mission worst films ever made, is regularly featured in the “Bottom 100”
Mars (1968) and Manbeast! Myth or Monster (1978). To sum up, this is list on the IMDb, was featured in an episode of the syndicated
series The Canned Film Festival in 1986, was featured on an episode
of Mystery Science Theater 3000, has been riffed by Cinematic
MARTIAN WEAPONRY
REVEALED
Although there is a credit on the film for “Special Toys by
Louis Marx & Co.,” the weapon used by the Martians to
“freeze” people is actually a custom-painted “Air Blaster”
made by Marx’s major competitor, Wham-O. Wham-O began
in a Southern California garage in 1948 and, in addition to
the Air Blaster, created a string of hit toys: the Hula Hoop,
© Wham-O.
the Frisbee, the Slip ’n’ Slide, the Super Ball, and Silly String.
[Editor’s note: Come back next issue for a history of the
Frisbee.]

The Post-Meridian
Radio Players of
Somerville, Massa-
chusetts, located in
the Unity Somer-
ville Church, offers
“A beloved annual
tradition! An origi-
nal adaptation of
that 1964 Christmas
classic film Santa
Claus Conquers the
Martians in which Martians kidnap Santa Claus (and a couple of
unlucky Earth children). Can Santa get back to Earth in time for
Christmas? Are the children of Mars doomed to a joyless life of
food pills and machine-implanted learning? Is that terrifying,
huge polar bear going to eat our young heroes?
Find out for yourself
at PMRP’s Santa Claus Titanic and RiffTrax, was featured on Elvira’s Movie Macabre, and is
Conquers the Martians!” listed among “The 100 Most Amusingly Bad Movies Ever Made”
in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson’s book The
Official Razzie® Movie Guide (Hachette Book Group, 2005).
From film to comic book to
radio play to the legitimate So there you have it. Viewers seem to enjoy it as a so-bad-
stage, Santa Claus Conquers it’s-good type movie, or just for its cheesiness or innocent
the Martians itself could not charm. Others, intrigued by what appears to be an amusing
be conquered. The Maver- premise, come away from watching the film for the first time
ick Theater of Fullerton, with a deer-in-the-headlights look on their face as if they’d
California, presents its own asked for the newest Schwinn Deluxe Paramount 10-Speed
live theater adaptation of Road Model bicycle for Christmas, but got underwear.
everyone’s favorite Santa You’ll have to judge for yourself.
Claus movie. Remember: There is a Santa Claus.
Maybe not this one, but…
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

Embassy Pictures/Jalor Productions. USA. 81 minutes. Voldar: All this trouble over a fat little man in a red suit!
Crew: Director: Nicholas Webster. Script: Glenville Mareth. Story: Paul L.
Jacobson. Producer: Paul L. Jacobson. Associate Producer/ Production Manager:
Arnold Leeds. Executive Producer: Joseph E. Levine. Music Score: Milton
Delugg. Director of Photography: David L. Quaid. Editor: Bill Henry. Production ERNEST FARINO recently directed an episode
Comptroller: Robert J. Rosenthal. Script Supervisor: Marguerite James. Assis- of the SyFy/Netflix series Superstition
tant Director: Gerry Rich. Art Director: Maurice Gordon. Set Decorator: Jack starring Mario Van Peebles, as well as serving
Wright III. Scenic Artist: Frank Hoch. Head Carpenter: Edward Swanson. Prop- as Visual Effects Consultant. Previously
erty Master: Jack Wright, Jr. Martian Furniture: Fritz Hansen. Costume Design: Farino directed Steel and Lace starring Bruce
Ramsey Mostoller. Wardrobe Mistress: Virginia Schreiber. Makeup: George Davison, episodes of Monsters starring Lydia
Fiala. Sound Mixer: Dennis Maitland. Special Lighting Effects: Duke Brady. Gaf- Cornell and Marc McClure, ABC’s Land of the
fer: Richard Falk. Key Grip: Martin Nallan. Camera Operator: Michael Zingale. Lost starring Timothy Bottoms, and extensive
Editorial Supervisor: Anthony Termini. Music Conductor: Milton Delugg. Music 2nd Unit for the miniseries Dune starring William Hurt, Noah’s Ark
Coordinator: Nick Tagg. Technical Advisor: Cynthia Webster. starring Jon Voight, and Supernova starring Luke Perry. A two-time
Cast: Santa Claus: John Call. Billy: Victor Stiles. Betty Foster: Donna Emmy®-winning Visual Effects Supervisor for SyFy’s Dune and
Conforti. Mrs. Claus: Doris Rich. Kimar: Leonard Hicks. Voldar: Vincent Beck. Children of Dune miniseries, Farino supervised the Emmy-nominated
Dropo: Bill McCutcheon. Billy Foster: Victor Stiles. Bomar: Chris Month. visual effects for the Tom Hanks/HBO miniseries From the Earth to
Girmar: Pia Zadora. Momar: Lelia Martin. Hargo: Charles Renn. Rigna. James the Moon; James Cameron’s The Terminator, The Abyss, and T2; as
Cahill. Andy Henderson: Ned Wertimer. Chochem /Von Green: Carl Don. Winky: well as Starship Troopers, Snow White–A Tale of Terror,
Ivor Bodin. Stobo: Al Nesor. Shim: Joe Elic. Lomas: Jim Bishop. Children TV Creepshow, and many others. His publishing enterprise, Archive
Announcer: Lin Thurmond. TV News Announcer: Don Blair. Polar Bear: Gene Editions, has published Mike Hankin’s elaborate three-volume book
Lindsey. Santa’s Helpers: Tony Ross, Scott Aronesty, Ronnie Rotholz, Glenn set Ray Harryhausen – Master of the Majicks, The FXRH
Schaffer. Collection, and more.
THE ODDBALL WORLD OF SCOTT SHAW!
The
Fantastic,
Plastic Zoo of
by Scott Shaw!
Dr. Seuss!
Like fads, popular children’s books come Hears a Who! (1954), On Beyond Zebra (1955),
One of Geisel’s friends, Alexander Liang,
and go... except for those written and drawn and If I Ran the Circus (1956). I’d read ’em
even wrote this little poem about how
by the cartoonist known as “Dr. Seuss”... in school, I’d check them out of the public
people pronounced “Seuss”:
except that Theodor Geisel, a.k.a. “Dr. Seuss” library, and I’d beg my parents and relatives
(correctly pronounced “soice”—see sidebar), to gift me with copies. Since I was already
did not consider himself to be a cartoonist... “You’re wrong as the deuce a dinosaur nut, I was especially drawn to
except this young-but-budding cartoonist And you shouldn’t rejoice the good doctor’s endless excess of weird
certainly did. If you’re calling him Seuss. and wonderful creatures, everything from
I seemed to know that I wanted to He pronounces it Soice (or fish to birds to beasts of non-specific, non-
be a cartoonist at a very early age. I was existent phylum. I even taught myself how
Zoice).”
fascinated by comic books, the funnies in to draw crude Seuss-ish creatures using
the newspaper, and the animated cartoons certain of his signature shapes and visual
on television and in theaters. But other than tropes I’d identified, copied, and practiced:
animated educational films, my public elementary school was the crescent pupils, stacked feather-clusters, arms without elbows,
one place that none of the other forms of cartoons were allowed. legs without knees, wispy fingers, extra limbs, etc.
Like many fans, I taught myself how to read by examining In 1957, Random House introduced the first of Dr. Seuss’
the relationships and configurations of letters and images in “Beginner Books,” The Cat in the Hat. It was a big hit with everyone
funny animal and kiddie comic books long before I attended but me. I thought that the Cat was irritating and that the limited
kindergarten. Therefore, when I was finally a fledgling student vocabulary was for babies. (I was a geezer all of six years old.) No
I hit the ground running when it came to books. I remember my wonder I avoided 2003’s live-action feature film adaptation of
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego. © Exxon Mobile Corporation.

first favorite books were Curious George by Margret and H. A. Rey, The Cat in the Hat starring Mike Myers like it was ooblick. The year
The Sailor Dog by Margaret Wise Brown and Garth Williams... 1957 was also when Dr. Seuss was creating his first-ever and still-
and anything by Random House’s children’s author known as “Dr. memorable line of toys and model kits.
Seuss.” By that time, his oeuvre consisted of: And to Think That I Saw But I’m getting ahead of myself.
It on Mulberry Street (1937), The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins Let’s take a quick look at the career and legacy of the man
(1938), The King’s Stilts (1939 whose nom de plume rhymes
and still my favorite), with “choice,” not “Zeus.”
Horton Hatches the Egg
(1940, adapted as a ten- Who Was Dr. Seuss?
minute animated cartoon Theodor Geisel, a.k.a. “Dr.
short in 1942, directed Seuss,” was born March
by Beany and Cecil creator 2, 1904 in Springfield,
Bob Clampett for Warner Missouri. While in college,
Bros.), McElligot’s Pool (1947), he began signing his
Thidwick the Big-Hearted drawings as “Dr. Seuss”
Moose (1948), Bartholomew for the school’s magazine.
and the Ooblick (1949), If I Dropping out of Oxford
Ran the Zoo (1950), Scrambled and returning to America
Eggs Super! (1953), Horton in 1927, “Ted” immediately

Ted Geisel (Dr. Seuss) at his desk in
1957, the year The Cat in the Hat was
published. (INSET) Seuss later in life.
1957 photo by Al Ravenna. Courtesy of the
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Division.
The May 1934 issue of Life

magazine (then a humor
publication). Its Dr. Suess
cover makes this one quite
collectible.
control her husband’s

vast realm of intellectual
properties, for better, but
pursued a career as a humorous writer and illustrator for national often, for worse. Although
magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, Judge, Life, Liberty, he claimed to have little
and Vanity Fair. That led to work in advertising, including the chemistry with children,
famous “Quick, Henry – the FLIT!” ad campaign for an insecticide he continued to create books and animated TV cartoons for kids
spray from Standard Oil (opposite page) and ads for Holly Sugar until his death in his La Jolla home on September 24, 1991.
featuring a “proto-Grinch.” He also had the Ford Motor Company,
NBC Radio, and Narragansett Lager & Ale for clients. Dr. Seuss Toys of 1959
He also illustrated a series of popular joke books. This It’s been rumored that Geisel was against merchandising his
eventually led to creating storybooks for children, his first one stories and characters, and that only entertainment such as
published in 1937. Three more followed, but as World War II The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T and animated cartoon adaptations for
began Geisel turned his attention to editorial cartooning, and television were his only acceptable exceptions to that... but that
in 1942 began creating artwork for projects benefiting the war isn’t true. Geisel had worked in advertising, a business that’s not
effort, especially informational posters. In 1943, he joined the artistically sensitive in the slightest, and he was not averse to
U.S. Army as a Captain and was commander of the Animation increasing his income flow in honest and creative ways. What
Department of the First Motion Picture Unit of the United States upset him was the fact that many manufacturers in the past—
Army Air Forces, where he wrote propaganda in the form of live- again, using images that he’d mostly created for corporate
action films and animated cartoons. In addition to WB’s Horton clients—were far from the high quality he desired (although
short, George Pal produced and directed stop- there were a few good-looking results, too). To
motion short theatrical film adaptations of The achieve that quality he sought, Seuss was more
500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (1943) and And to than willing to get involved with the production of
Think That I Saw It Happen on Mulberry Street (1944). his books for Random House.
In 1950, UPA produced the Oscar-winning cartoon In 1954, it became known to the public that
short Gerald McBoing-Boing, based on a story when he wasn’t writing or drawing, Geisel also
written by Ted. After the war, he and his first wife enjoyed painting and sculpting. He created
Helen moved to La Jolla, California, just north up dozens of three-dimensional creature-characters
the coast from San Diego, where he resumed his quite similar to the denizens of his kids’ books,
career as a creator of children’s picture books. He and many of them were designed be hung on
also wrote the film The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953) walls. Decades later, many have been reproduced
and in 1966, Chuck Jones directed an animated and are available for sale to collectors with deep
half-hour special for CBS adapting How the Grinch pockets, but in the mid-Fifties, there was no Dr.
Stole Christmas! Seuss merchandise for sale. However, thanks to
Unfortunately, in 1967, after dealing with a manufacturer called the Kreiss Company, there
cancer and Ted’s affair with Audrey Stone soon appeared products that were, shall we say,
Diamond, Helen Geisel committed suicide. In a “Seuss-y.”
sordid chain of events, Seuss married Diamond, Moon Beings ceramic figure. Basing designs directly from based on
the woman who would eventually own and Courtesy of Hake's. characters from what were then his most recent
The Oddball World of Scott Shaw!
(RIGHT & BELOW RIGHT) Individual

packages for Tingo and Gowdy, each
made up of pieces that rearrange
in "thousands" of ways. © Dr. Seuss.
Courtesy of Hake's.
Dr. Seuss Zoo print ad from the

October 19, 1959 edition of Life
magazine. © Dr. Seuss.
Box for the intial Dr. Seuss

Zoo collection. © Dr. Seuss.
Courtesy of Hake's.
books—five from If I Ran The Zoo (1950),

five from Scrambled Eggs Super! (1953),
and one from On Beyond Zebra! (1955)—at
least 11 unauthorized-by-neither-Random-House-nor-Geisel “Dr. Seuss Zoo” and
Kreiss Company “Moon Beings” ceramic figures released in 1956. “Dr. Seuss Beginner’s
Ironically, it was in that same year that the San Diego Fine Arts Hobby Kits”—and
Gallery held an exhibition of his creature sculptures. Ironically, he closely oversaw
Geisel and Dr. Seuss Enterprises were completely unaware of the their production,
existence of Kreiss’ “Moon Beings” until 2002. working with
(Good job, Random House lawyers.) two sculptors for
Fortunately, the real thing wasn’t lagging far behind. The many months
public began wondering why there weren’t any toys based on to capture that wacky vibe that only Dr. Seuss can “prodeuss.”
the characters in Dr. Seuss books. According to one of Geisel’s (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) One of the boss’ wives declared herself
interviewers in 1959, “Over the years… many companies… “Vice-President in Charge of Geisel” and kept a notebook full
besought Geisel to let them manufacture Dr. Seuss products of reminders such as “Test shots of eye decorations to T. G. for
of one kind or another. He has… steered clear of by-products approval.”
that he cannot personally create. Two years ago, though, he was For Dr. Seuss Zoo, Geisel created four fantastical animal
persuaded by Revell Inc…. to authorize, and help design a series of characters with interchangeable body parts. The various
Dr. Seuss toys and games.” combinations seemed almost limitless; according to Revell’s
Since Geisel was now creating “Beginner Books” stories for publicity department, there were around 14,000,000 different
first-time “I Can Read It All By Myself” readers, why not Dr. combinations! The parts were cast in polyethylene, a slightly
Seuss plastic model kits for first-time model builders? And pliable plastic that allowed a snug fit no matter how many
better yet, how about a second line of Dr. Seuss model kits with times the animals’ configurations were altered. In the pages of
interchangeable parts, making model glue unnecessary? Life magazine in 1959, Geisel said, “I’ve designed an articulated
In 1957, Ted Geisel was approached by Lew and Royle Glaser, four-in-one animal I call the multi-beast, which is made up of
the men who ran Revell, Inc., a Venice, California, manufacturer Norval the Bashful Blinket, Gowdy the Dowdy Grackle, Chingo
of plastic model kits of cars, planes, and ships. They asked him to the Noodle-topped Stroodle, and Roscoe the Many Footed Lion.”
develop two lines of variations on traditional model products— Chingo’s name was changed to “Tingo” and the first wave of Dr.

Seuss Zoo hit the stores in the fall of 1959. The toys were heavily
promoted. Surrounded by his plastic creations, Ted Geisel actually
appeared in full-page color Dr. Seuss Zoo print ads running in all
of the country’s top “slick” magazines.
With a neck as long as a giraffe’s, cute-faced Tingo was a
friendly beastie with a happy circus vibe. Sad-faced Norval always
made me think: “What if Eeyore the donkey was an antelope?”
Gowdy, a cheerful-looking quadruped with a bird’s head, looked
like a wingless gryphon. Confident Roscoe was a one-cat parade...
or maybe just a huge, furry caterpillar.
Simultaneously, hobby shops around America were seeking
the allowances of a much young audience than ever before in
the form of Dr. Seuss Beginner’s Hobby Kits... or in this case, kit,
depicting the star of the flagship title of Random House’s first
and best-known “Beginner Book,” the Cat in the Hat. A Revell print
advertisement claimed, “Even a six-year-old can easily cement
together the 25 big, colorful styrene pieces and create a whimsical
figure almost a foot tall.” More Beginner’s Hobby Kits would
follow the next year.
Revell’s THE CAT IN THE HAT Beginner’s Hobby Kit (LEFT) Cat in
According to Revell, the sales of the individual Dr. Seuss Zoo kits the Hat model
from September through December totaled $1.5 million... and promotional piece
those kits originally sold for only $1.98 each! and (RIGHT) a
What made Dr. Seuss Zoo so memorable in the minds of competed model.
people my age was twofold: the wonderfully appealing creature © Dr. Seuss. Courtesy
designs and the insanely diverse varieties of swapping the Zoo of Hake's.
residents’ parts back and forth. But there was more to them than
that. Each animal was multi-colored and consisted of yellow,
orange, blue, and yellow. Most of the modular body parts were
made of two polyethylene pieces each. Snapping them together

was somehow very satisfying, with a noise not unlike that of “pop
beads” made of the same plastic. The “face” half of each head
even had the eyes thoughtfully printed, with black crescent pupils
and surrounded by white.
Most of all, due to Geisel’s creative participation and goal of
quality above all, Dr. Seuss fans and collectors appreciate the
fact that the Revell model kits still are the very best examples
of the Dr. Seuss style (and mindset) translated to three solid
dimensions. They truly have that usually untouchable and un-
nameable “something” that makes Dr. Seuss’ art so welcome
and beloved by so many people who grew up reading his picture
books. Ted Geisel once admitted his biggest secret: “None of my
animals have joints and none of them balance. ...None of them
are animals. They’re all people, sort of.”
Dr. Seuss Toys of 1960

The following year, Revell released a second wave of Geisel IP:
two more Dr. Seuss Zoo—Grickily the Gractus and Busby the
Tasselated Afghan Spaniel Yak, as well as a second Dr. Seuss Zoo
(BELOW) Box top to the second set of Revell's Dr. Seuss Zoo.
(RIGHT) Assembly instructions. © Dr. Seuss. Courtesy of Hake's.
Set including them both as well as Roscoe the Many-Footed Lion.

And although none of these characters had appeared in any of the
Dr. Seuss books, their expressions gave each of them a definite
personality: Tingo was innocent, Norvel was a pessimist, Gowdy
was kinda wacky, and Rosco was confident.
Frankly, Grickily and Busby were disappointments. Their parts
were cast in drab colors (orange, brown, and beige) and their
designs were overcomplicated. Grickily was badly balanced and
many of his parts were incompatible with the other figures. You
got the sense that Geisel wasn’t as involved with these. Either
that, or Revell was cutting costs on their colored plastic.
On the other hand, the three new Beginner’s Hobby Kits were
a notch up from the first one, which was re-issued with additional
figures of Thing One and Thing Two. The two all-new concepts
were the then-recently published The Birthday Bird (cleverly
designed to also serve as a cake decoration) and Horton the
Elephant, complete with nest, egg, and tiny baby flying elephant.
Revell, Inc. also added a new Seuss product, the Game of Yertle,
a balancing game that resembled a component of Ideal’s then-
recent Mouse Trap! game.
Developed-but-never-produced Dr. Seuss toys from Revell, Inc.
include a Beginner’s Hobby Kit of the Grinch and a Horton hand
puppet with a sculpted plastic head.
I don’t know if the toys dropped off in sales or if the license had
run out or gotten prohibitively expensive, but that was the end
of Revell’s relationship with the Seussiverse. The next toy based
on a Dr. Seuss property would be in 1961, with two differently
designed stuffed cloth dolls of the Cat in the Hat from Impulse
Items, Inc. Strangely, there were no additional licensings of Ted’s
intellectual properties until 1970.

Two more Revell models based on Dr. Seuss book and (ABOVE) an
ad for The Game of Yertle, also book-based. © Dr. Seuss. Courtesy of
Hake's.
Of course, after Theodor Geisel’s death in 1991,

the world has been “treated” to an onslaught of Dr.
Seuss-related merchandise, much of it connected to
licensed animated and live-action adaptations of Dr.
Seuss’ stories. In my opinion, the less said about Geisel’s
widow’s judgment and its results, the better. What’s
truly sad to this Seussophile is that the overwhelming
majority of Theodor Geisel’s post-mortem licensed
product output bears little of the quality he always
strived to achieve.
But who knows? If Captain Action, He-Man, and Space
Ghost can make comebacks, why not Dr. Seuss Zoo? The
vintage toys, now tough to locate and tougher to afford,
are highly sought by Dr. Seuss collectors. Sooner or later,
it’s possible that one of these could wind up in the hands
of a canny toy executive.
Now, if we could just revive the concept of toy stores.
Y’know, I think I just saw one on Mulberry Street!
For 48 years (and counting), SCOTT

SHAW! has written and drawn
underground comix, mainstream
comic books, comic strips, graphic
novels, TV cartoons, toys,
advertising, and video games. He has worked also known for his “Oddball Comics Live!” visual presentation of
on such characters as Captain Carrot and his “the craziest comic books ever published” and for his regular
Amazing Zoo Crew (which he co-created with Roy Thomas), Sonic participation in “Quick Draw!” with Mark Evanier and Sergio
the Hedgehog, the Flintstones, the Jetsons, the Simpsons, the Aragonés. He was also one of the teenagers who co-created what
Futurama gang, the Muppet Babies, Garfield, the Garbage Pail Kids, is currently known as Comic-Con International: San Diego,
and yes, even Annoying Orange. His career has garnered him four America’s biggest annual fan event. He can be reached
Emmy Awards, an Eisner Award, and a Humanities Award. Scott is at shawcartoons.com.
Too
Much
TV
If your old man used to gripe that you’d never learn anything with your nose glued to the
boob tube, here’s your chance to prove him wrong. (Father doesn’t always know best.)
Each of the harried homebodies in Column One corresponds to the nuisance neighbor in
Column Two. Match ’em up, then see how you rate.
COLUMN ONE
1) George Wilson
2) Ann Romano
3) Dr. Robert Hartley
4) Carl Winslow
5) Roy Hinkley
6) Margaret Drysdale
7) Shirley Feeney
8) James Evans
9) Samantha Stevens
10) George Jefferson

RetroFan Ratings
10 correct: Fine-Tuned RetroFan
Sock it to me, baby! I bet you know
theme song lyrics too!
7–9 correct: Rabbit-Eared RetroFan

Dy-no-mite! You wasted your
childhood with the rest of us!
4–6 correct: Fuzzy-Receptioned

RetroFan
Up your nose with a rubber hose ’til you
spend more tube time!
0–3 correct: Tuned-Out RetroFan

Ya big dummy! Put down that book and
go watch some classic TV!
COLUMN TWO
A) Dwayne Schneider
B) Willona Woods
C) Kupaki headhunters
D) Leonard Kosnowski and Andrew

Squiggman
E) Steve Urkel
F) Gladys Kravitz
G) Dennis Mitchell
H) Harry Bentley
I) Any of those dreadful hillbillies
J) Howard Borden
The Beverly Hillbillies © CBS Television. Bewitched, Dennis the

Menace, Good Times, The Jeffersons, and One Day at a Time ©
Sony Pictures Television. The Bob Newhart Show © 20th Centu-
ry Fox Television. Family Matters and Gilligan’s Island © Warner
Bros. Television. Laverne & Shirley © Paramount Television. All
rights reserved.
ANSWERS: 1–G, 2–A, 3–J, 4–E, 5–C, 6–I, 7–D, 8–B, 9–F, 10–H
ALTER EGO #167 ALTER EGO #168 ALTER EGO #169 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #24 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #25
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SHORES as he’s remembered by daughter ing the wartime life of Aquaman artist/ co-creator of Marvel’s Ghost Rider! ROY the Kubert School, Grimjack with writer new graphic novel MONSTERS, its origin
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artist ALLEN BELLMAN, DR. MICHAEL Silver Age art gallery)—plus the story wife JEAN FRIEDRICH and nephew rations with son Benjamin. SCOTT SHAW! into his 300-page magnum opus (includes
J. VASSALLO, and interviewer RICHARD of WILLIE ITO, who endured the WWII ROBERT HIGGERSOM on his later years, talks about early San Diego Comic-Cons a gallery of outtakes). Plus part two of our
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artist/creator CHU HING profiled by become a Disney & Warner Bros. animator mystery comics, art by PLOOG, TRIMPE, Carrot, and Flintstones work! Also PATRICK Barbera licensing material and work with
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ISBN: 978-1-60549-098-4
WILL MURRAY’S 20TH CENTURY PANOPTICON
Sheena Pin-up Queen of

the TV Jungle
by Will Murray (ABOVE) Irish McCalla as

Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.
During my long association with Starlog © Galaxy Publishing and Valdoro
magazine, I accepted hundreds of assignments. Entertainment. Courtesy of Ernest
Some brought me to shooting locations around Farino.
the world to interview the cast and crew of
Hollywood films. The jungle queen originated
I remember declining an assignment only in Golden Age comic books.
once—a telephone interview with an actress Sheena #1 (Spring 1942) cover
playing Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. art by Dan Zolnerowich.
Looking back, I wondered if my subconscious © Galaxy Publishing and Valdoro
was talking to me. Because when I think of jungle Entertainment. Courtesy of Heritage.
queens, there’s only one Sheena. And her name
was Irish Elizabeth McCalla. The star of the one-
season wonder that ran back in 1955–1956, she Amazonian actress who
was the first actor to bring the popular comic- could “move like a leopard,
book character to life on TV. swim like a fish, hug like
a bear, and have an eye-
I Am Sheena, Hear Me Roar popping figure. It’ll help if she
Sheena was the creation of packager Jerry Iger could act, too.”
and artist Will Eisner of The Spirit fame. She It was a tougher search
debuted in Great Britain in 1937, and was soon than anticipated. Two years
appearing in Jumbo Comics, and then her own title in the U.S. passed. In the meantime, the Sheena comic book was cancelled
Leopard skin image by skeeze/Pixabay.
Orphaned when her father was poisoned by a witch doctor, young under pressure from reformers for being too sexy.
Sheena was left to fend for herself in the Congo. Growing up to be Finally, pin-up queen and showgirl Irish McCalla was
a blonde Amazon, she was befriended by Chim the chimpanzee announced for the role in August 1954, thanks to glamour
and a conventional great white hunter named Bob. photographer Tom Kelly, who told McCalla about a producer
Attired in an abbreviated leopard-skin outfit that left casting for Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.
little to the imagination, Sheena became a comics vehicle for “I know you used to read these comic books,” Kelly told her.
Cheesecake—today called Good Girl Art. Sheena sold like crazy. It “He asked me if I knew any girls that were perfect for Sheena. I
was just a matter of time before Hollywood came calling. said, ‘There’s only one! That’s Irish McCalla!’”
The search for a female Tarzan commenced in August 1952. Asked how she got the part, McCalla demurred, “Why, I tried
TV producer Edward Nassour announced that he sought an out just like everyone else did when I heard the part was open.”
Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon
Actress Anita Ekberg’s

(LEFT) inability to swim
cost her the Sheena gig.
But when the curva-
ceous Irish McCalla
(RIGHT) showed up,
producers knew they
had their jungle queen.
Ekberg photo courtesy of
Heritage. McCalla photo
courtesy of Ernest Farino.
But the backstory was more complicated, as she later McCalla explained, “When the producers called, I said, ‘Are you
admitted. “I was the first and last person of 200 tested for the kidding? I don’t act.’ They said it didn’t matter much—I only had
part. They almost signed Anita Ekberg—but she couldn’t swim.” to be athletic enough to chase a chimp through a jungle.”
The truth was more complicated, as McCalla later revealed to Cast in the role of hunter Bob Reynolds was Christian Drake,
Scarlet Street. “Anita got a better job with Batjac Productions and a Marine who had fought at Guadalcanal as one of Carlson’s
didn’t show up for work, so they called me in a panic and I got the Raiders. Drake’s rugged good looks convinced Hollywood that he
job. I told Anita later, ‘You’d hated it!’” was good box office.
McCalla was no stranger to the character, having doodled her “Irish was absolutely perfect for the role,” he told Filmfax. “She
as a child and play-acted as Sheena opposite her brother, who was stunningly beautiful, and she epitomized Sheena from the
pretended to be Tarzan. start.”
“I wish I still had my Sheena comics,” she lamented to Starlog, Drake’s account of the project’s beginnings differed from
“but my mother burned them all. When I told her I got the part, McCalla’s understanding. “Sheena was originally going to be a
she couldn’t believe it. She said: ‘You used to play Sheena all the feature film,” he said. “When I was first cast, I was told that Anita
time when you were a kid. Now somebody’s going to pay you to do Ekberg was going to play Sheena. They also told me they had
it? That’s ridiculous!’” another actress in mind—Irish McCalla—who could step in.”
At 24, McCalla was an expert swimmer and diver. “I physically Perhaps McCalla was first envisioned as Ekberg’s stand-in
looked like the Sheena comic book, more than anyone else,” she stunt double. Both screen-tested on the same day.
boasted. And who better to play a busty jungle queen than a pin- McCalla got busy preparing for the strenuous role. Since
up queen? Sheena carried a hunting spear, she practiced throwing a javelin
There was only one problem.

in her North Hollywood backyard and learned how to fight on you go over here, but watch out for that flower. Then, in that fight,
camera. you have to throw yourself this way, because you don’t want to hit
“I practiced swinging from a ladder and soon got the hang of that tree over there.’”
it,” she said at the time. “But the worst thing isn’t the swinging— “If you note the episodes,” Drake explained. “I handled about
it’s the fighting. If you just haul off and hit somebody it looks real 90% of the dialogue, and Irish handled about 90% of the action.
phony, but if you calculate your punches just right it looks great in I tried to be of help to her when I could. I certainly wasn’t a
front of the camera.” teacher, but Irish improved all the time. She did quite well, under
Her ex-Marine costar helped her learn the rough-and-tumble some difficult circumstances. We had some rough days, down in
art of brawling with heavies. Also necessary was learning to work Mexico.”
with the three-year-old chimpanzee named Neil, who was cast as There was some advantage to being a novice, McCalla
Chim. remembered later. “But it was probably good that I didn’t have
“Three times a week for two months I’d visit him and just play acting training when I did Sheena, because people said I was
with him,” McCalla said during production. “Then his trainer so believable as someone who lived in the jungle. One of the
began teaching me how to put him requirements they asked was for
through some tricks and we’re best was that you could run on uneven
friends now.” Publicity photo of ground, and jump. I’ve always been
McCalla as Sheena. athletic, climbing trees and playing
Luck of the Irish © Galaxy Publishing football.
It took a year to sell the series, during and Valdoro Entertain- “Most of the people they used
which time McCalla tested for the ment. Courtesy of Ernest weren’t really actors,” she admitted.
part of Miss Kitty on Gunsmoke, Farino. “They just picked up anybody who
opposite Richard Boone. Once Irish could speak English and remember
showed up in her Sheena outfit, the some lines, and then threw them in
deal was quickly done. front of the camera. That didn’t help
Although the color pilot and first much when the jungle queen herself
two episodes were shot in California, wasn’t too great.”
the Nassau Brothers decided to A trio of 20 Haitian wrestlers
relocate filming to Cuernavaca, played the stock natives. “They were
Mexico, a popular spot to shoot phenomenally tough guys whose
jungle movies. idea of a joke was to jump out of a
“At one time four companies were tree and land on a sleeping buddy’s
shooting pictures in that one jungle,” stomach,” McCalla recalled.
McCalla reminisced. “One day the
Richard Widmark company, Run for Jungle Fever
the Sun, came over and borrowed our The pilot episode, “The Renegades,”
swamp. The Bob Mitchum, Gilbert opened with Sheena taking a shower
Roland, and Tarzan companies came in a primitive stall, and Chim stealing
over and borrowed our trees and
lakes. We were very generous with our jungle.”
The latter film was Sol Lesser’s Tarzan and the Lost Safari (1957), FA ST FAC TS
starring Gordon Scott. Lesser had been involved in the initial
search for Sheena, but mysteriously dropped out—probably to
launch his new Tarzan [film] series. Sheena, Queen of the Jungle
“Television was just getting started and we had no idea how ` No. of seasons: One
popular it would be,” McCalla recalled. “Jungle shows were in. ` No. of episodes: 26
There was Ramar of the Jungle, starring Jon Hall, and Johnny ` Original run: 1955–1956
Weissmuller was doing Jungle Jim. But I was the only woman.” ` Primary cast: Irish McCalla,
Despite her lack of experience, McCalla was confident that she Christian Drake, Neil the chimp
could handle the role. ` Network: first-run syndication
“I couldn’t act, but I could swing through the trees,” she
quipped. “Of course, it’s hard to screw up lines like, ‘Come, Chim,’
and ‘Sheena go now.’ But that was the hardest work I ever did.
Spin-offs and remakes:
Every mistake I learned was on the screen. On the first three
shows I wondered who the guy was who was yelling at me. I ` Sheena (1984 movie, starring
finally found out he was the director.” Tanya Roberts) Sheena © Galaxy
Initially, McCalla remembered, acting wasn’t difficult. ` Sheena (2000–2002 TV series, Publishing and Valdoro
“My main instructions with something like, “You run through starring Gena Lee Nolin) Entertainment.
here, and you jump over there. But don’t jump on that plant. Then
her leopard-skin frock, seemingly setting the stage for a jungle from then on, the chimp was my best friend! Nobody could
peep show. That Cheesecake slant was swiftly abandoned. touch me.”
“We have to avoid all the pin-up stuff,” McCalla told a set This meant rewriting scripts where the villain struck Sheena,
visitor. “Sheena is supposed to appeal to the children. If the otherwise Neil would attack them.
cleavage ever gets too much in a scene, I throw my hair forward One scary situation arose due to working conditions now
over my shoulders.” forbidden.
Nevertheless, after the first airings, the producers were “The grips liked to put live ammunition in the guns we used on
astounded to learn that adults watched Sheena, Queen of the Jungle the show so they could shoot iguanas for target practice,” McCalla
in greater numbers than kids! recalled. “They would give the animals to the local Indians who ate
If the producers were truly surprised, they shouldn’t have the meat and made wallets out of the skins. I got a bit touchy about
been. Before the Comics Code put the Sheena comic book out using live bullets and would always pester people to check out the
of business, an anonymous newsdealer surveyed about buying rifles before they were used in a scene. I also told them to aim a
habits observed in 1948, “Older people go for adventure, Western little bit off to one side of a person rather than right at them.
and the sexy-type like Princess Pantha and Sheena,
Queen of the Jungle.”
The studio called for a three-month shoot, but
the production schedule soon fell victim to heat,
humidity, and other vicissitudes of the rainforest.
“I was in that Mexican jungle seven and a half
months,” McCalla later complained. “The weather was
so hot and the food was not very appetizing and I lost
[12] pounds. You know, gaining weight is harder than
losing it. I had an awfully hard time getting this back.”
Snakes and scorpions were also an issue.
Drake explained, “We did some work at a location
where three rivers have their origin, and this was
most impressive. Water would spring up from
underground. There was a spot where these huge
bubbles would continuously emerge from the earth.
They were about 20-feet in diameter, and maybe
[four] feet high. One time, I saw a huge snake while we
were there. We were filming nearby. I never told Irish McCalla and her Sheena
about it. She didn’t like snakes.” co-stars Chim (Neil the
“The country surrounding the set is inhabited chimp) and Bob Reynolds
by rather primitive people,” the actress told one (Christian Drake), plus a
interviewer, “but they never cause any trouble. Those Tarzan vs. Sheena public-
people of course thought I was positively fantastic. ity pic featuring screen
I mean, they’ve never seen a blonde. For weeks they Apeman Gordon Scott.
called me their golden goddess. The children love to Sheena © Galaxy Publishing and
play with my pet chimp and he seems to enjoy it too, Valdoro Entertainment. Tarzan
but he’s always trying to drag them up into the trees.” © ERB.
Monkey Business
Neil the chimp was a troublemaker, constantly
tripping McCalla.
“Most of the time we got along fine, but the director just didn’t “A good thing! One day an actor, thinking he had blanks in the
realize you can only work a chimp so long in intense heat before chamber, pulled the trigger and a bullet whistled past my ear and
they become fussy and cranky, like children. Just one more take hit the tree next to me. I was shaking like a leaf, and so was he.”
on a very hot day snapped Chim’s patience. He looked like a gorilla By June 1955, only four episodes had been filmed and Irish
when he came after me, luckily sinking his teeth in my leather had yet to ask for a stunt double, proclaiming, “I only fell out of
armband—leaving a big hole!” one tree up till now. At school I made the basketball and softball
Once, Neil got into a beef with McCalla’s young son, Kim. The teams. And I also went in for swimming. I love skin diving. So
actress’ maternal instincts were roused. when I was tested for Sheena, I was told the fact that I didn’t need
“So I took out after the chimp chased him through the jungle. a double, and could do most of my own swinging from trees,
I was so mad I couldn’t see. Everybody—the chimp trainer and helped me get the part.”
everybody—they were chasing after me, yelling, ‘No! No! No!’ “You know,” Christian Drake pointed out, “Irish was quite
I chased the chimp with the spear and was ready to run him athletic. She did most of her own stunts. She was quite good at
through, I guess, but they grabbed the spear away for me. Well, tossing a spear. Then, at one point, Irish got hurt.”

With the unlucky 13th episode, her luck ran out during what getting smashed right across the face. But I injured my arm and
McCalla called “your average vine-swinging scene.” broke my leg and I looked like I’d been through a meat grinder.”
Drake recalled that day vividly. “I saw it happen. She was McCalla was flown home to convalesce.
swinging across a river; the vine she was swinging on got twisted, “That laid her up for a couple of weeks,” Drake explained. “It
and she crashed into a tree.” was a draining experience, but she really persevered. Irish had a
McCalla recounted, “I was very ill and I had to swing from a lot of spirit, and she was a real trouper.”
high platform on the river to a tree and knock a guy out of the Nursing her knee, McCalla joked, “That was the kickoff for
tree. I was too sick to hold my own weight on the rope, and I that episode. I guess they will have to use my stand-in—the little
smashed into the tree.” Mexican boy wears a blonde wig and falsies!”
Then she remembered advice stuntman and future Tarzan A story was floated claiming that when Gordon Scott broke his
Jock Mahoney had given her. foot filming Tarzan, worried Sheena producers brought in a stunt
“He taught me how to protect myself when I was landing, to girl. Actually, it was a blond trapeze artist named Raul Gaona.
relax and to bring my legs up—and that’s what kept me from McCalla remembered, “Poor Raul, he didn’t speak any English
and may still be cussing me in Spanish.
He was hired because we couldn’t find
an athletic woman tall enough for the
job. The whole cast and crew would
tease him mercilessly by screwing up the
wig and rearranging his falsies.”
That very month, another crisis arose
when ex-Heavyweight Champion Max
Baer, Sr. was hired to play the recurring
(TOP) Entry form
role of a whip-wielding heavy. Like
for a Sheena “Jungle
Anita Ekberg, he received a better film
Safari” contest.
offer, and begged out of his contract.
(BOTTOM) The
His brother Buddy took over the part of
Queen graces the
hulking Bull Kendall.
cover of a 1957
“He was huge!” said McCalla of Buddy
Portland, Oregon,
Baer. “He was on one of the shows and
television listings
he lost a bet that he could hold the
guide. Sheena ©
chimp when he didn’t want to be held.
Galaxy Publishing and
We let him get a good grip on Neil, and
Valdoro Entertainment.
I yelled, ‘C’mon, Neil! Chocolate milk!
Contest form courtesy
Chocolate milk!’ And Neil just pushed
of Ernest Farino. TV
his hands and feet against Buddy’s chest
Prevue courtesy of Will
and was out and running over to me for
Murray.
chocolate milk!”
Hit and Miss

Filming finally wrapped in January 1956.
Irish McCalla had no inkling how well
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle had been
doing in her absence.
“We were so busy turning out the
film that I had time to think of little
else. Meantime, the first Sheena films were of course being
seen in various key cities. Nassour Brothers executives told
me the ratings were good, but I didn’t understand much about
ratings. Then I came back home. When I’d go to the market or
store people would stare at me. At first I thought something
was wrong. Maybe a rip in my toreador pants or something.
But when that cute first little girl asked me for my autograph I
began to catch on—and realize that Sheena, Queen of the Jungle
was a hit.”
But not with everyone. Some critics derided it as cheap and
hokey, criticizing it mercilessly.
“Me Sheena and me happy,” Irish cracked in response.
“Besides, the show isn’t for grown-ups—why do they keep
watching it? I think the chimp is much more intelligent than Sheena, Queen of the Jungle was so hot—in all senses of the
people knocking the show. I’ve taught him not to say bad term—that plans were announced for a Sheena color film to
things.” begin filming in February 1956.
No one would call Sheena, Queen of the Jungle good drama, or But nothing happened. No movie, and no further episodes.
even top television, as McCalla herself readily admitted. Why?
“The show was very basic in terms of good and bad. Good “That’s the mystery of all time,” McCalla confessed in
always triumphs over evil. Sheena was good.” later years. “I knew from my personal appearances how hot
“There was something for everyone,” echoed Christian the show was, so I even tried to buy the rights to make more
Drake. “It was an action show for kids with ‘good versus evil.’ episodes myself—but the Nassau Brothers wouldn’t sell. I had
Adults could enjoy it as a Tarzan parody. And, naturally, the backers on several occasions, but it wasn’t a matter of money.
guys would enjoy watching Irish.” They simply weren’t interested. I think Sheena was really a big
It was also formula jungle melodrama, and grew repetitive. tax write-off for the Nassour Brothers. To them, Sheena was a
“In a number of plots,” Drake noted, “I would serve as a ‘fun’ thing to do.”
guide, and lead some nasty characters into the region. Of Back in 1952, the studio had envisioned a seven-year run.
course, if I didn’t bring them, there wouldn’t be any story.” In the years immediately following, Irish McCalla did well
Yet, no one could be fooled into thinking the show’s appeal making personal appearances around the world.
was anything other than statuesque Irish McCalla, whose “We did only 26 episodes of Sheena, Queen of the Jungle,
height was variously described as five-foot-nine or six-foot- but they were very popular. They played over and over again,
one-inch tall. In those days, a glamour girl’s measurements giving me worldwide fame.”
were invariably cited in press releases. Officially, McCalla’s
was 39-24-37. Some publicists inflated her bust size to a nice, Typecasting
round 40. Unfortunately, this did not lead to Hollywood success. McCalla
Even during filming, McCalla would have none of it. did a few small parts in movies and some TV appearances. She
“All my life I’ve been a tomboy. Just because I’m built in a
certain way, people think I’m sexy. But when I was a model
and the photographer would tell me to look sexy, I’d just
start to laugh.”
(TOP) McCalla’s sultry jungle queen made

the cover Sounds of a Thousand Strings’
1960 LP, Music for Big Dame Hunters. (TOP
RIGHT) Seventeen years later, she was
immortalized in song in the Ramones’ hit,
“Sheena is a Punk Rocker,” which spawned
an unofficial fan-made music video
(RIGHT) featuring an animated Sheena.
Sheena © Galaxy Publishing and Valdoro Entertain-
ment. Ramones Sheena © WB Music Corp.

After the series’ produc-

tion, McCalla made personal
appearances as Sheena as the
show remained in syndicat-
ed reruns. Snapshot from a
March 1958 event. From the collection
of Ivan Briggs.
(BELOW) Post-Sheena, the

statuesque beauty found it
difficult to find good roles,
often being relegated to
schlock like 1958’s chiller
She Demons. She Demons © 1958
Astor Pictures Corp. Lobby cards courtesy of
Heritage.
turned down the lead role in The Beat

Generation (1959) because it involved a
rape scene. She Demons (1958) and Hands
of a Stranger (1962) were horror films. Five
Bold Women (1960) called for her to play
a Wild West outlaw. In Five Gates to Hell “I was sort of a female Tarzan,” she said
(1959), she was all but unrecognizable as a dismissively in 1960. “Practically all I did
nun. was walk around the jungle with this spear
These disappointments were not for in one hand and a chimpanzee on my back.
lack of trying. But let’s not talk about that.”
McCalla explained, “When I came home But when she did, it was to dispel the
after doing Sheena, I saw the episodes and fantasy image of the leopard-skin clad
said, ‘I’ve got to learn to act.’ That’s when I Amazon she helped create. “Actually, it
went to acting classes. But it’s tough now was a fake ocelot-skin costume. I still have
trying to convince people I’m not eight the costume.”
feet tall—they always gave me five-foot Her trusty spear and knife? “I called
leading men—and proving that I’m no them my do-it-yourself suicide kit,” she
longer just a muscle actress.” joked.
But the retired jungle goddess was so No one was spared. “A monkey wrote
typecast it was almost impossible to land the scripts,” she also complained.
decent parts. But these criticisms were well founded
“Nobody wanted to hire a jungle in the harsh reality of early TV.
queen,” she lamented. “No one saw me “We didn’t have much in the way
as a sex symbol. No one could take me of production values,” McCalla told
seriously. I was a freak in a miniskirt. No interviewer Joe Franklin. “That show was
one even noticed my legs.” really done very, very cheaply. They always
During this difficult period, Irish laugh when you say, ‘the golden years of
McCalla began to talk disparagingly about television.’ I say, those were the copper
the very role that had propelled her fame. years. They pinched all their pennies.”
“When my mother learned I was in Before long, Irish McCalla abandoned
acting,” the ex-jungle queen groused, “she the industry, dropping out of sight to
thought in terms of Bette Davis. It was concentrate on her true passion—
quite a shock when she saw me as ‘Sheena, painting. She did well. More importantly,
Queen of the Underbrush.’ she felt fulfilled.
“I left acting at the same time it left me—I never felt like But McCalla did not return to the screen, except to visit the lot.
continuing,” she said in 1981. “All I wanted do was paint, and I’m Seeing the sign for Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, she confessed, “I got
happy.” chills.”
Years passed. When the lure of nostalgia conventions brought She eventually came to terms with her sexy alter ego.
McCalla out to meet her fans, and her attitude softened. “One thing men like about me is that I’m sexy-looking and yet I
“There were a lot of Tarzans, but I was the only Sheena,” she look like the girl next door. If I’d been a sex queen, women would
liked to point out. “It was a great period of my life. I’ve always have hated me. But I was the girl their children liked, so it was a
been an independent person and if I felt that I didn’t need it wholesome thing. I was their jungle Santa Claus.”
anymore, I could just walk away. Which is just what I did. I never
believed that was going to be any great actress or anything. Before her death in 2002, McCalla had fully reconciled to her
Painting has always been more important to me, but acting was sultry jungle past.
supporting me at the time.” “People never say bad things to me about Sheena. They have
In later life, Irish McCalla submitted to an interview with good memories, and they automatically feel good towards me,
Starlog. Regrettably, I was not the interviewer. But she opened up because I was part of a good time in their lives. I am a friend from
about her life and career in ways she could not in the Fifties. childhood, and they’re glad to see me again. And that makes me
“I really didn’t know what I was doing,” she confessed. “But I feel wonderful.”
was unhappy in my marriage. I wanted a divorce. I needed a way Yes, there have been Sheenas since 1956. But only one true
to support myself and my two children. They offered me real original. Her name was Irish McCalla. And she looked hotter in
money to play Sheena, so I jumped at the chance.” black-and-white than her successors did in full color.
When a Sheena movie was announced in 1984, with Tanya WILL MURRAY is the writer of the Wild
Roberts in the lead, the spotlight once again fell on the role’s Adventures (www.adventuresinbronze.com)
originator. series of novels, which stars Doc Savage, The
“They are still casting for Sheena, but they were interested in Shadow, King Kong, The Spider, and Tarzan of
me for a small role,” McCalla revealed. “Perhaps as her mother. the Apes. He also created the Unbeatable
But what would they call my character? The queen mother? The Squirrel Girl with legendary artist Steve
deposed queen? No, it would have to be the queen mother.” Ditko.
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RETRO INTERVIEW
Good Morning World

Ronnie Schell’s
Custom-Made Shot in the Spotlight
by Jason Hofius Dubbed “America’s slowest-rising

comedian” by radio DJ Don Sherwood
in the mid-Sixties, Ronnie Schell began
his show-business career in a rather
roundabout manner. His first love was
baseball, but despite his ambitions to
become a player, he was simply never any
good at it. However, his on-field antics
kept his teammates laughing and the
crowds coming back for more. It was that
energy and excitement he felt from the
public that eventually led to his second
love—stand-up comedy.
Schell was born in 1931 in Richmond,
California, just to the northeast of San
Francisco. After graduating high school he
joined the United States Air Force, where
he did his first performances in various
skits and shows. After his return to civilian
life, Schell took a dare from a college
classmate to audition as a comic at the
Purple Onion nightclub in San Francisco.
He was accepted, much to his surprise, and
stayed on for months honing his comedic
skills. After some disastrous starts, Schell
kept at it and landed a job as the opener
for the Kingston Trio music act around
1958. Then he never looked back.
His stand-up act earned him early slots
on televised variety programs and his
first national television appearance as a
contestant on You Bet Your Life in 1959. The
show, which was hosted by the lightning-
fast Groucho Marx, gave Schell a chance
to trade quips with one of entertainment’s
best. The debut helped jump-start Schell’s
six-decade career.
Schell’s easygoing yet earnest attitude
toward his work contributed to his career’s
longevity just as much as his talent and
technique. When anyone hired Ronnie
The main cast. Front row: Julie Parrish and Joby Baker. Back
row: Billy De Wolfe, Goldie Hawn, and Ronnie Schell. © CBS.

retro interview
Larry Clarke (Ronnie Schell) and David Lewis (Joby Baker) on the air. (BELOW) S’More Entertainment’s
complete Good Morning World series DVD set, released in 2007. © CBS.
Schell, they knew they’d be getting a extensive commercial work. But he found World focused on the morning radio DJ
professional who could lead a production a home on television starting in the Sixties, team of Lewis and Clarke, played by Joby
as easily as he could keep pace with where he appeared on just about every Baker and Schell. The pair’s experiences
anyone else. major network series one can conceive of. were loosely based on Persky and Denoff’s
His incredible history in entertainment From his most recognizable role of Private own radio careers, and the lead character
includes stage, feature films, and First Class Gilbert “Duke” Slater on Gomer of Larry Clarke was written specifically for
Pyle, U.S.M.C. (1964–1969), to appearances Ronnie Schell.
in series like The Patty Duke Show, The Andy After the premature cancellation of
Griffith Show, Emergency!, Happy Days, Good Morning World, Schell immediately
Battle of the Planets, Down to Earth, Mr. transitioned back into his role of
Belvedere, The Wayans Bros., and countless “Duke” Slater through Gomer Pyle’s final
others, Schell’s appearances were always a season (1969). His busiest period followed,
guarantee for fun. with decades of television guest-starring
His early feature film roles include the roles, commercials, and variety shows.
Disney outings Gus (1976), The Shaggy D.A. No matter how busy he was, Schell
(1976), and The Cat from Outer Space (1978). always made time to return to his roots
But he also performed roles in comedies entertaining audiences in person at
like Love at First Bite (1979), The Devil & Mr. comedy clubs all over North America.
Devlin (1981), and animated theatrical Having recently turned 88, the
features like Jetsons: The Movie (1990) and “slowest-rising comedian” (a nickname
Rover Dangerfield (1991). he still wears proudly) finally decided
In 1967, creators and producers Carl to retire from his favorite annual stand-
Reiner, Sheldon Leonard, Bill Persky, and up gigs in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe. He
Sam Denoff, the team behind The Dick continues to work in radio and television
Van Dyke Show [see RetroFan #7—ed.], whenever he gets the chance. He also does
brought Good Morning World to the screen. numerous public appearances each year,
It premiered on CBS on September 5, at where he promotes his work and spends
9:30 p.m. A prototype to shows like WKRP as much time as he can with adoring fans.
in Cincinnati and NewsRadio, Good Morning I caught up with Schell a couple days

retro interview
after he returned from one of his latest

appearances, Mayberry Days, a four-day
celebration of The Andy Griffith Show [see
RetroFan #1 for details about Mayberry
Days—ed.].
RetroFan: It’s great to talk with you again.

How was the “Mayberry Days” weekend
in Mount Airy, North Carolina?
Ronnie Schell: Great! Great. There were
36,000 people last week in a little, tiny
town. I rode in the parade and I was
introduced at one of the festivities. It was a
fun time, my sixth year. Those celebrations
are 20 years old.
RF: When did you first become interested

in entertainment?
RS: I was always an extrovert in school.
Everybody encouraged me to make money
out of it. So when I went in the Air Force,
to get out of KP [Kitchen Patrol], I started
doing shows in the military. I did them
for four years. Then I got out, went back
to college, got my degree, and my senior
year, I started working at the Purple Onion
in San Francisco. From then on, it just
ballooned for me.
RF: Did you ever have interest in doing

anything else? Going on with the military
as a career?
RS: No. I wanted to be a professional
baseball player, but it never came to pass. I
guess I wasn’t good enough. [laughs]
RF: Your stand-up led to being on You Bet

Your Life... “Disc Jockeys” Larry Clarke (Ronnie Schell) and David Lewis (Joby Baker). (BELOW)
RS: That’s right, with Groucho Marx. Contestants Phyllis Warren and Ronnie Schell guess the secret word, on You Bet your
Life, with Groucho Marx (May 28, 1959). © CBS.

retro interview
RF: Was that your first television guys. Jerry Van Dyke. He liked me and out. And I did guest shots on Andy Griffith,
appearance? said, “Would you like to tour some with as you know and after that when Jim
RS: Nationwide, it was. But I was on Andy Griffith as an opening act?” I said, Nabors’ show [Gomer Pyle] was cancelled,
another show when I was in the Air Force, “Sure!” So I started touring with him, off they started doing a variety show called
called Talent Patrol. That was a show with and on for two years, and then, of course, The Jim Nabors Hour, and I was appointed
military talent and I made one appearance Andy went on to do The Andy Griffith Show the sketch comic for all the comedy bits
there in New York. It was a variety show. It and I went on to do Gomer Pyle. Aaron they did. That worked out well… that
was a regional television show. Later on, I Ruben was the producer, Dick Linke was was two years on CBS. Then a producer
did all the talk shows. I did [Johnny] Carson associate producer, and Sheldon Leonard by the name of Freddie [Fred] Silverman
five times and Merv Griffin 55 times. was a producer there for some time, too. I was over at CBS as Vice President and he
did two guest shots on Andy Griffith, it just hated all those type of shows: Andy Griffith,
RF: What did you do on them, your stand- sort of worked out for me. I never worked Petticoat Junction, Jim Nabors [Hour], and
up routines? Panel discussions? hard at it! [laughs] he cancelled them all, even though The Jim
RS: Well, I remember doing the first Bob Nabors Hour was number one in the variety
Newhart Show (1962), the variety show, RF: Sheldon Leonard had worked on The category and was ahead of Carol Burnett.
early on. I did a sketch on there. I was one Danny Thomas Show?
of many comics doing sketches. I did The RS: Yeah, Make Room for Daddy. He had RF: Yes, I remember he wasn’t happy with
Pat Boone Show, and I can’t remember all of quite a history as an actor before he the direction CBS was headed.
them. But I did all the variety shows. started producing. But he had been in New RS: “Hicks,” he called us “hicks.” He cut
York for years before he came out to L.A. out Mayberry R.F.D.... So then I started
RF: How did you go from You Bet Your Life and started doing that. So it all worked doing Disney films, I did six of them and
to more television?
RS: I’d always done a lot of television
locally in San Francisco, where I’m from.
Then I met a guy named Dick Linke Roland B. Hutton, Jr. (Billy De Wolfe), David Lewis
[Richard O. Linke]; he was the manager (Joby Baker), Linda Lewis (Julie Parrish), and Larry
of Andy Griffith, Jim Nabors, a few other Clarke (Ronnie Schell). © CBS.

retro interview
Linda Lewis (Julie Parrish),

David Lewis (Joby Baker),
Larry Clarke (Ronnie Schell),
and Sandy Kramer (Goldie
Hawn). © CBS.
then a couple independent films. I was RF: And you’d known most of the I would do that on a week during Gomer
still working Vegas. I worked Vegas for producers for what… five, six years at that Pyle that I didn’t have any role. So it was
50 years. I just quit Vegas after 50 years point? nice for me, I just went in and started
in January. I got tired of going there and RS: Yes. You’re absolutely right. To be doing it. Sammy and Billy were nice
working with acrobats and magicians. picked was a thrill, to star in your own enough to pick me out of Gomer Pyle to do
That’s all you see there now. We had a television series. that. That was fun.
comedian and then a singer. I opened for But again, I just enjoyed working.
Tony Bennett and Wayne Newton and The show was cancelled after about 26 RF: Had you worked with any of the cast
Carol Burnett. I was the comic who worked episodes. Because we had a bad time slot. from Good Morning World before? Like
with Carol Burnett in her only Vegas show I think it was a little bit ahead of its time. Joby Baker or Julie Parrish, or Billy De
at Caeser’s Palace. That was the same year (1967) that He & Wolfe?
She went on, remember He & She with Dick RS: No, but Billy De Wolfe and I became
RF: I’d like to talk about your time on your Benjamin? And his wife [Paula Prentiss], very close because I admired his work
own sitcom, Good Morning World. and Jack Cassidy. That show was doing from Paramount [Pictures]. He’d been at
RS: Oh, yeah, I could talk about that for well, but our show was a little ahead of its Paramount for years and we became good
hours. I could talk about that longer than time. Even though Carl Reiner did a lot of friends. Joby I loved. Joby had a problem
the show lasted, I’m telling you! [laughs] the directing, on most of the episodes. remembering lines. [laughs] That was his
major problem. They sometimes put his
RF: What led up to Good Morning World? RF: There was definitely top talent lines on my chest, via a sign because I’d be
Was the part of Larry Clarke written for involved with it. off-camera and he’d be on-camera. But he
you from the start? RS: Yes, absolutely right. Sam Denoff and admitted it, he said, “I can do a play, but I
RS: Yeah. Sheldon Leonard and Carl Bill Persky, who created The Dick Van Dyke can’t do where you repeat, repeat, repeat.”
Reiner, who produced the show, liked me Show and what was the other show...? [laughs]
for Good Morning World and picked me out
to co-star in it with Goldie Hawn and Joby RF: That Girl? RF: How was Julie Parrish to work with?
Baker. It was on the same lot as Gomer, so I RS: That Girl, yeah! I was in it. I did a re- RS: Great. She was different. More acting...
wasn’t going anywhere. [laughs] occurring role as her agent, Harvey Peck. She had to feel the part and all that stuff.

retro interview
She was with us the whole year and died

not too long ago. She was always a little ill,
physically. But we all had a good time and
Goldie [Hawn] and I hit it off really great.
I never worked with Goldie again, but we
became good friends. Billy De Wolfe, I
talked with every night.
RF: Every night?

RS: Every single night. He would call me
up and say [puts on snooty voice], “Mr. Schell.
Mr. De Wolfe here. I’m watching Red
Skelton. Not good, because he sticks his
tongue out too much!” [laughs] Stuff like
that, I remember that criticism he had of
the variety shows.
RF: He always seemed like what you saw

on screen was what you got in real life.
RS: Yes. “Mr. De Wolfe.” You never called
him “Billy.” He said [puts on snooty voice], “I
am not Billy De Wolfe, but I am MISTER De
Wolfe!” He had a bad toupee, I thought.
But he said [puts on snooty voice again], (ABOVE) Sandy
“We never discuss it!” [laughs] I said, “How (Goldie Hawn) won’t
you doing?” And he said, “Well, I think let Larry (Ronnie
I’m going to take it over to get a haircut. I Schell) get away with
don’t know whether I’ll go with it or send it anything! (RIGHT)
over!” [laughs] It was a joy. Larry and Sandy
share a kiss. © CBS.
RF: You mentioned Goldie Hawn played
your girlfriend, Sandy Kramer, on Good
Morning World. Was this her first big role?
RS: Yeah. What happened was she was a
go-go dancer out of Baltimore. One of the
guys out here discovered her and put her
in an Andy Griffith special in which she
was dancing. Then we got her and she did
Good Morning World. Then George Schlatter
found her, picked her up and put her in
[Rowan & Martin’s] Laugh-In. Which I never
forgave George for, because I could have
played Laugh-In. [laughs] That was how she
went from there to movies. while working some toilet in Omaha! So I got to work with some of the giants. I
One funny story is, her only credits [laughs] She never lets me forget it. guess the biggest guy I ever worked with
were a go-go dancer and the Andy Whenever I see her, she never lets me was Bob Mitchum, who was very nice
Griffith special. Af ter about three weeks forget it. [laughs] Kurt [Russell], her to me and had a great sense of humor. I
of rehearsing at my apartment, she didn’t hubby, was the nicest guy in the world. worked with a lot of great players.
like to rehearse too much. She thought And a good actor, I might add. The first
it would over-do it. I said to her, “Goldie, movie I ever did was with Kurt Russell. RF: Do you remember how the public
listen to me. I’m a pro, I’ve been in the received Good Morning World?
business five years. You’re just starting. RF: One of the Disney ones? RS: The ones that saw it, loved it. But
But you’re not disciplined enough. You’re RS: Yeah, it was a Disney movie. It was we didn’t get enough viewers. We were
not going to make it if you complain called The Strongest Man in the World (1975). always like 24th or 25th, even further
about rehearsing too much.” And she I played the referee in the final half hour of down. 31, 32 in the ratings.
said, “Yeah, you may be right.” Well, the the show. That was to show how strong he
next year she won the Academy Award was. That had a great cast: Joe Flynn, Phil RF: You mentioned having a bad time
for Cactus Flower (1969) and I found out Silvers, and Eve Arden and Cesar Romero. slot. What were you up against?

retro interview
RS: No, it was in color. The first two

Morning radio team Lewis seasons were in black and white, but then
and Clarke (Joby Baker and the third season, [for] which I was still
Ronnie Schell) ham it up on there, was in color. “On CBS!” [laughs] I
the air. © CBS. think the first color show I ever did was
The Andy Griffith Show. I guest-starred
two episodes. It didn’t bother me, I didn’t
care if it was black and white or green and
yellow. I just liked to work! [laughs]
RF: Was there ever talk of doing a second

season for Good Morning World? Was it
close?
RS: Yes, yes. What happened was, when
the show was cancelled, CBS said, “Maybe
we’ll keep Ronnie, Joby Baker will go
somewhere, and we’ll use Bill Bixby [to
replace Baker].” Remember Bill Bixby?
RF: I certainly do.

RS: It got to where they were going to do
it, then Bill Bixby decided to do some other
show. He would have played my partner,
he would have played the Joby Baker part.
RF: That would have been interesting. He

would have been coming off My Favorite
Martian.
RS: He was very good at it. He’s passed
away. I would have enjoyed working with
him. We’re both from San Francisco.
RF: Did you work with him in anything

else?
RS: No, that was the only thing. We had
the same business manager, if that meant
anything. He had a whole different career.
RS: I’ll tell you what we were up against. RF: Interesting that he was all right to do
We were up against NBC’s Tuesday Night plays, but couldn’t work on the sitcom. FA ST FAC TS
at the Movies. That’s when first-run movies RS: Yeah, that’s right. He was a great actor.
were just starting on television. So I often He did one great movie with Paul Muni
said, “Tuesday night America would look called The Last Angry Man (1959). That was Good Morning World
up in their TV Guide and say, ‘Who should before he did Good Morning World. I don’t ` No. of seasons: One
we watch tonight? Ronnie Schell or Cary know, something happened in between. ` No. of episodes: 26
Grant?’” Guess who won? [laughs] So we Of course, The Last Angry Man didn’t ` Original run: September 5,
didn’t compete with them long, we were have an audience. But he did that and he 1967–March 19, 1968
cancelled after the first year. I was lucky was a good guy. He later married Andre ` Primary cast: Ronnie Schell,
enough to go back to Gomer. Previn’s first wife. She was a singer and she Joby Baker, Julie Parish, Goldie
passed away. I haven’t heard from Joby, Hawn, Billy De Wolfe
RF: Did you shoot Good Morning World in although I know where he is. He’s back in ` Created by: Bill Persky and Sam
front of a live audience? Connecticut. He came from a well-to-do Denoff
RS: Yes, and that was part of Joby’s family, so he didn’t have to worry. ` Executive Producers: Carl
problems. He couldn’t work in front of an Reiner, Sheldon Leonard
audience, couldn’t remember his lines. RF: Good Morning World was in color. ` Network: CBS
They’d be on my chest. [laughs] When you left Gomer Pyle, was that in
color or was it still in black and white?
retro interview
RF: Both Dick and Jerry Van Dyke did (RIGHT) Ronnie Schell as Duke Slater on
guest shots on Good Morning World, right? Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. © Paramount. Courtesy of
RS: Yes. Jerry Van Dyke was best man IMDb.com.
at my wedding. See, we all came out of
nightclubs. So we knew each other. When (BELOW) The author and Ronnie Schell
I got married, he was my best man. Good at a joint appearance at the Los Angeles
guy. Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention
(March 12, 2017). © CBS.
RF: And Carl Reiner was there?
RS: Oh, yeah, because he was producing it.
RF: You shot at Desilu Studios?

RS: Yeah, Desilu. It’s still there, but I think
it’s called Ren-Mar Studios now. But it’s at
Cahuenga, and the next street over from
Vine [Lillian Way]. We did a lot of shows
there. We did The Dick Van Dyke Show. I
did two of those, by the way. Later on.
[Dick Van Dyke’s] dad used to come on the
show and say, “I just drove over to Desliu
‘ka-hoo-en-ga!’” He called it ‘ka-hoo-en-ga’
and we always kidded him for that.
RF: Desilu Studios must have been really

busy at that point.
RS: It was. We did The Dick Van Dyke
Show, the Marlo Thomas show [That Girl],
Good Morning World, Gomer Pyle—they
continued to do it there, even without me,
and what else? Oh, what’s that [one] about
the prisoners and the Nazis? [It was a]
comedy, believe it or not...
RF: Right, Hogan’s Heroes. Did you ever

run into Lucille Ball at the studios? Was
she still working there at the time?
RS: No. I met her once, but that was when
we were doing a variety show. She was
over at CBS one day and they were working
on The Carol Burnett Show, which was right RF: How did you find out Good Morning I was much younger, and I don’t know,
next door to ours. She came in, she was World was going to be cancelled? objectively speaking I think I’m better
very nice. I got to meet a lot of stars, ’cause RS: During the last five episodes, we had now than I was then.
Harvey Korman was a very close friend of hints of it. Because if you’re not big in the I have no regrets. My disappointments
mine and I used to go next door and trade ratings in those days, you’re out. And our were only temporary. If something was
quips with him. Oh, he was crazy. But Bing ratings were sub... not really that great. So cancelled, I’d go right into a dif ferent
Crosby would come over and I met Bing. I we knew we were going to get cancelled thing, a dif ferent show. So I was never
remember I had a nice conversation with four weeks left in it. out of work for more than three weeks.
him and at the end I said, “Well, nice to I enjoyed doing it. I’m just sorry it didn’t
meet you Mr. Crosby,” and he said, “Hang RF: Any final words about Good Morning work out.
in there, Ronnie!” That was a thrill. It World?
wasn’t big, but it was a thrill for me. RS: I haven’t seen it recently, but I have Unless otherwise noted, photos accompanying
watched it, because it plays reruns on this article are courtesy of Jason Hofius.
RF: Good Morning World was 26 episodes, MeTV occasionally and Antenna TV.
and most full seasons around that time When I look at myself in those days, it’s JASON HOFIUS has renounced his
ran to around 30, so it was right in there. like looking at a dif ferent person. I guess shady pasts in both advertising and
RS: Yes, it was. We weren’t that bad. It was that’s the way with everybody. I hear me entertainment. He now writes for the
because of the competition and we were talking and I say, “Gee, that sounds like common good from his home in sunny
ahead of our time. me. That looks like me, it IS me!” Except Southern California.

RETRO BRIT
Doctor Who
and the
Failed Invasion
by Ian Millsted
The First Doctor, William

Hartnell. © BBC/Doctor Who TV.
The Retro Brit column You’ve probably heard

continues its investigation of Doctor Who, although
of the nexus points where you may not have seen it.
British and American pop Something of a cult success
culture have met, merged, in syndication from the
or clashed. After our look at late Seventies onwards, the
the example of Benny Hill Pinnacle paperbacks from
finding success in America the same era and Marvel
(in RetroFan #9), this issue we explore the tentative, and largely comics on the newsstands in the early Eighties may all have
unsuccessful, attempts to launch Doctor Who, that great British passed before your eye at some point. More recently, the more
institution of television science fiction, in the U.S.A. Ian Millsted iteration shown on BBC America has raised the profile of the show
brings his expert eye to the times the good Doctor failed to win higher yet. Less well known are the attempts to sell the character
the day. in America in the Sixties.
Doctor Who was launched on the BBC in November 1963 as
When I was working in Illinois in 1996, I visited a great a new science-fiction/adventure series of 25-minute episodes.
science-fiction and comic-book store in Rockford (Yesterday The original brief was to mix in doses of scientific and historical
is Tomorrow—get in touch if you read this, guys). They had education to the storytelling, but it soon became clear that
a petition on the counter for people to sign to ask Fox TV to the audience wanted excitement. The first episode started ten
commission a series follow-up to minutes late due to an extended
the recently aired Doctor Who news broadcast following the
TV movie. Although I was due to assassination of U.S. President
return to England in a few weeks, John F. Kennedy the day before.
I signed the petition. One of their The series started with two
customers had asked if they could London schoolteachers who,
have it there for folks to sign. I curious about the odd behavior
doubt the Fox TV people gave it of one of their students, follow
more than a cursory glance, as the her home to find she lives with
ratings for that movie had been
quite poor. Another false start for
Doctor Who in America, but far Screenwriter Terry Nation.
from the first. Photo courtesy of Ian Millsted.

retro brit
her grandfather in a junkyard. The grandfather, known as The

Doctor, and his granddaughter, Susan, turn out to be aliens who
whisk the two teachers off in their spaceship, which is disguised
as a London police phone box [booth]. In the following months,
the series follows a format of the group of four arriving randomly
somewhere in time and space for an adventure which usually
lasts four to six episodes, before flying off somewhere new. The
first story was a reasonable success, but the show really took off
with the second adventure, wherein they encounter the Daleks, of
which more below. The format of the show was brilliantly flexible.
With a machine that can travel in time and space, any story can
be told. When the producers came up with the wheeze that
the residents of The Doctor’s planet can regenerate, to change
their appearance, allowing the main role to be recast every
few years, there was little stopping the possibility of this thing
running forever. The series was successful enough for the BBC to
produce every season until early 1985. After a one-season hiatus it
continued for another four seasons before being cancelled. There
was an unsuccessful attempt to relaunch it with a TV movie in
1996 and a far more successful return in 2005, which continues to
this day.
The 253 episodes of the series shown on the BBC in the Sixties
were all black and white, which may have hindered interest from
potential buyers in the U.S. at that time. However, it was sold and
Kids in the U.K. went Dalek krazy over these and other
merchandised items. Courtesy of Hake's Auctions.
shown in countries and cities as diverse as Canada (from 1965),

Zambia, Barbados, Singapore, Aden—in fact, at least 24 nations
were showing the program in the Sixties—but not America.
British television series that enjoy success in America tend
to fall into two main categories. Either they are made to be
indistinguishable from American shows (for example, The
Muppet Show) or they are archetypally British (Benny Hill, Downton
Abbey, Monty Python’s Flying Circus). Doctor Who is very much the
latter. As well as being in black and white, the episodes from
the Sixties also tended to be quite slow paced and showed their
low budget. Viewed now, it is easy to see why TV stations might
choose to show reruns of Sgt. Bilko instead. A few early stories
were set in the U.S., with one episode supposedly taking place at
the top of the Empire State Building, but very much filmed in a
BBC studio. Another charming curiosity was the six-part serial,
“The Gunfighters,” in which The Doctor and his companions
arrive in Tombstone in time for the famous gunfight at the O.K.
Corral. This one was also filmed in a studio but actually looks
quite impressive for what it is. At least some of the cast were
drawn from the small colony of American actors then resident in
London. Many aficionados of Doctor Who dislike the story, but I
found it a fun watch.
It was, though, two American film producers who first
Illustration from 1995’s The Dalek World book. Art by John
achieved the first sighting of Doctor Who in the U.S. Max
Wood. © BBC. Courtesy of Ian Millsted.
Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky had achieved some success with

retro brit
rock-and-roll movies (Rock Rock Rock with Tuesday Weld) and horror
films and were looking to branch out. Another producer, Joe Vegoda,
brought the British SF series to their attention. It became clear that
the obvious hook was the series’ occasional, recurring enemies, the
Daleks. In the second-ever Doctor Who story, written by Terry Nation,
the Daleks had made a splash with viewers. Brilliantly simple in
design, they looked like robots (but weren’t) with a casing that went
down to the floor. Devoid of any facial features and with electronic
voices, their schemes for racial superiority made
them villains to remember. (TOP LEFT) One-sheet
Within days of their first appearance, children poster for the Doctor
in schools across Britain were playing at “Daleks.” Who and the Daleks theat-
A whole deluge of merchandise soon followed. rical movie of 1965. © BBC.
Dalekmania hit the country. Fortunately for Poster courtesy of Heritage
creator Terry Nation, his agent, Beryl Vertue, Auctions.
amended the part of his contract with the BBC
that would have given the broadcaster rights (TOP RIGHT & RIGHT)
to the Daleks. That retention of rights allowed Photo cover (with Peter
Nation to become a wealthy man. Cushing) and interior page
Seeing all this, Rosenberg and Subotsky from Dell’s Movie Classic
realized they needed to make not just a Doctor Doctor (Dr.) Who and the Daleks.
Who film but a Doctor Who and Daleks movie. Interior art by Dick Giordano
The result, the film Doctor Who and the Daleks and Sal Trapani. © BBC. Cover
(a.k.a. Dr. Who and the Daleks), was released in courtesy of Heritage.

retro brit
August 1965 while children interested. Such a model had

were still on summer been tried before with the TV
vacation. version of The Third Man.
Significant changes were However, despite the
made for the big-screen project getting as far as
version. The Doctor was studio space being booked
changed from being an for filming to start, the whole
alien to an all-too-human, thing stalled as negotiations
eccentric inventor. It starred over rights and merchandising
Peter Cushing in the title issues reached an impasse.
role, replacing William The blame game started.
Hartnell, who played the “The BBC weren’t a very good
part on television. Although business organization and the
Hartnell had been a top whole thing sort of crumbled
character actor in movies in to dust,” was the conclusion of
the Forties and Fifties, by Terry Nation. At the BBC end,
1965 Cushing, courtesy of the claim was made that “it
his many Hammer movies, became apparent that Terry
was undoubtedly the Nation did not want the BBC
bigger name. The film also to participate in his venture
represented people’s first at all.”
chance to see the Daleks Nation had already been
in color. In the U.K. it was a selling scripts to the BBC’s rival
success, and a further wave network, ITV, for series such as
of Dalek merchandise was The Saint [coming in RetroFan
released. Daleks were taken #14—ed.] and continued
to the Cannes film festival. to work on similar action
In the U.S. it wasn’t released adventure series The Avengers,
until July 1966, distributed Dalek display at the Icons of Science Fiction exhibit, Experience The Baron, The Persuaders, and
by Crown International. It Music Project/Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Seattle, Washington. others, all of which achieved a
mostly vanished without Photo by Theresa Arzadon-Labajo/Wikimedia Commons. measure of success in the U.S.
trace. A sequel, Daleks Indeed, such was his vision for
Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., the American market that he
despite being a better film with a bigger budget, had no theatrical moved to Los Angeles in 1980 and worked on McGyver and other
release in America. series and TV movies.
One by-product of Doctor Who and the Daleks was a comic-book Beryl Vertue was, arguably, even more successful. She took
adaptation from Dell Comics, which is cover-dated December two successful British sitcoms and sold the formats to U.S.
1966, which means it was probably on sale shortly after the film’s networks, where the BBC series Steptoe and Son and Till Death Do
release. [Editor’s note: According to mikesamazingworld.com, the Us Part became, respectively, Sanford and Son (NBC) and All in the
Dell issue went on sale August 1, 1966.] The art was provided Family (CBS). Her son-in-law is Steven Moffat, the producer and
by Dick Giordano, inked by Sal Trapani. The uncredited writer writer of Sherlock and several series of Doctor Who.
adapted the original film script by Milton Subotsky and Terry
Nation. Despite the talent involved, the comic-book version The BBC finally started making Doctor Who in color in 1970,
ignited no more enthusiasm than the movie had. and within a couple of years was selling it to stations around the
Meanwhile, the creator of the Daleks had other plans for them. U.S., although it took until the early Eighties to really take off, but
Scriptwriter Terry Nation, together with his wife, Kate, and agent, that is a story for another column. For now, I’ll give credit to the
Beryl Vertue, formed their own production company, with a view glorious failures. The two Cushing films are entertaining movies
to making a Daleks TV series specifically for U.S. television. The for a young audience and any adults they happen to be looking
series would be set in the future, with a crack team of human after at the time, and I really wish at least one season of The Daleks
agents, led by a woman (something of a pioneering move in 1966) had been made.
called Sara Kingdom battling the Daleks, who would in turn be
fighting other alien antagonists. The plan was for a fast-paced IAN MILLSTED is a writer and teacher based
adventure series that might also have the fringe benefit of acting in Bristol, U.K. He has written a book about
as a platform for developing a toy range of Daleks and other Doctor Who, Black Orchid, which was
creatures. published by Obverse Press. He was born in
Fred Alper was the toy business link working with Nation the Sixties but didn’t watch Doctor Who
at this point. Nation’s first proposal was for a co-production until 1971.
between the BBC and whichever U.S. network might be

Good afternoon, Michael! You mentioned
yesterday that you were planning new
ideas for RetroFan. After our conversation,
I remembered we talked about Richard
Nixon last week and the 50th anniversary of
Watergate.
I’ve got another idea. What about a
retrospective/remembrance of Robert
Conrad? He died a few months ago [February
8, 2020], and Wild Wild West was one of
my all-time favorite shows. He was also
in Hawaiian Eye and Baa Baa Blacksheep/
Blacksheep Squadron. And the Everready Battery
commercials. Someone you and one of your
writers may want to search out is Susan
Keasler, who wrote a book on The Wild Wild
West and produced the DVD compilations.
Another idea: Have you done anything
about The Twilight Zone? That sounds vaguely
familiar, and I’m a couple of issues behind. But
there’s a renaissance in interest about that with
the new version, the Twilight Man graphic novel
(which is excellent and worth seeking out). And I
see that Arlen Schumer is doing a webinar on it.
Speaking of rebooted TV shows, what
about something on Perry Mason?
Some toy stuff: G.I. Joe! And Marx toys,
too! They did a lot of playsets on TV shows and
cartoons, as you know.
One last idea: an interview with Leonard
Maltin. He started writing about movies,
cartoons, theatrical shorts, and TV shows as
a teenager and would be a treasure trove of
information and reminisces.
That’s enough brainstorming for now!
JOHN S. EURY
Those are some great suggestions, John—

and I’d say that even if you weren’t my little
brother!
Re Nixon and Watergate: Let me make one
thing perfectly clear—we’ll definitely cover
that topic in 2022, for the scandal’s 50th.
All of the other ideas are duly noted, and
we’ll see if we can make them happen one
day. Re The Twilight Zone: We did a Rod Serling
feature last ish, and next issue Ernest Farino Lost in Space © Space
tunes into TZ and other spooky anthologies Productions. Courtesy of
like The Outer Limits. And there’s more Zone Chris Krieg.
to come.

mothers. I’m a big Lost in Space fan and a lot Battalion, and I couldn’t make a convention
Just read RetroFan #8. Gotta say, if someone of people forget, or what has been lost to where Lockhart and co-star Bob May (who
had told me a few days ago that I’d be totally time, is that June Lockhart was the first to played the Robot) were appearing. They both
riveted to an article about the Cowsills, I play a female astronaut with a doctorate in sent autographed photos to me in Kuwait.
wouldn’t have believed it. Now I want to delve Biochemistry on a science-fiction TV series, [a CHRIS KRIEG
a bit more into their catalog. plot point] which was “lost” later on (no pun
GLENN GREENBERG intended). I was really impressed with her Thanks for sharing that autographed photo of
performance in Irwin Allen’s first TV series, June Lockhart, Chris.
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, in the episode
“The Ghost of Moby Dick,” which also probably
Thank you for including an interview of actress impressed Irwin Allen as well.
June Lockhart in RetroFan #8. Along with Some years ago, I was deployed to Kuwait, Particularly enjoyed Terry Haney’s Bionic
Florence Henderson and Barbara Billingsly, where I was working as the assistant Public interview with Ken Johnson in RetroFan #8. I
June Lockhart is one of my favorite television Affairs petty officer with U.S. Navy Customs think the opening scene of Johnson’s Incredible

RETRO FANMAIL
Hulk TV pilot is one of the most elegantly I just had to tell you I enjoyed RetroFan #8. now, all three seasons of LIS are on Blu-ray. Had
efficient character introductions I’ve ever seen. Great interview with June Lockhart. I also I known I could watch it, at my leisure, as an
You learn everything you need to know about enjoyed the articles about Popeye and adult, I’d not have had to race home, right after
David Banner in mere minutes, without a word everything else in the issue. Great work! I’m school, to catch it in syndication.
being spoken. looking forward to future issues. Thanks for This covered her entire career, but if you
DAN HAGEN such a great magazine. should do a second interview, focused strictly
JOEL BOWERS on Lost in Space, I promise not to complain.
Also, as a suggestion, love to hear what
composer John Williams thinks about his
I just picked up my first copy of RetroFan brilliant early work on the show (plus, Time
[#8]! Thank you for putting one of my first TV Watched The Flintstones as a kid, but somehow Tunnel and Land of the Giants).
crushes, ElectraWoman and DynaGirl, in your that fondness didn’t translate into adulthood. A very interesting issue, even with, for once,
magazine! Likely because every few years since then, sad reminiscences.
Here are some ideas for future issues: they’ve introduced a different rendition. I did JOE FRANK
enjoy Scott Shaw’s look at them. He eagerly
` The Muppets (Eighties) wanted to draw them and obviously managed While we can’t promise another June Lockhart
` Mr. and Mrs. Evil J. Scientist quite well. The three Flintstones items I recall interview in our pages, the good news is, next
` Milton the Monster fondly—though not to the point of buying issue we have interviews with Lost in Space’s
` Monster Squad them back today—were the record album, the Mark Goddard and Marta Kristen!
` CARtoons (MAD magazine for hot rodders) Welch’s grape jelly drinking glasses, and the An interview with John Williams, composer
` Dark Shadows comic book where they visited the World’s Fair. of some of cinema’s best scores ever (including
` Wonder Woman Lynda Carter Very entertained by the look back at the ye ed’s beloved Superman: The Movie)??? I am
` The Secrets of Isis Smiley face. I recall it, around 1972, being not worthy! But if there’s any way possible we
` Sarah Purcell (Eighties) so astoundingly pervasive you couldn’t go can make it happen, chatting with him about his
` Erin Gray from Buck Rogers anywhere without seeing it. Up till then, I never earlier TV work, we’ll do so.
` Daisy Duke thought anyone could go more overboard And since you dug those groovy 16 covers, Joe,
` Scooby-Doo and its spin-offs than on Batmania some years prior. Boy, was I here’s another, with Barry and John Cowsill amid
` The Funky Phantom, Goober and the Ghost proven wrong. some of your fave stars (of late 1969)…
Chasers, Clue Club, etc. The notion that the Mars Attacks! cards
` Kaptain Kool and the Kongs made parents uneasy probably added to the
` G.L.O.W. (Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, charm for young buyers.
Eighties) Amusing, with issue #8’s coverage of Honey
` The Hudson Brothers Show West, ElectraWoman and DynaGirl, and The Bionic
` Local kids shows and horror hosts Woman, that the concept of super-leading
` Castle of Frankenstein women isn’t quite as recent as some might
` Captain Kangaroo and Mister Rogers believe.
` Far Out Space Nuts The lengthy Cowsills interviews greatly
` Spider-Man Seventies TV show surprised me. Frankly, I didn’t know any
` Pirates of the Caribbean model kits details of their history—just the songs—so
` The Banana Splits, Danger Island, Tom Sawyer it was quite an eye-opener. The unpleasant
` Marine Boy conditions they endured, along with their
` Emergency! rise and fall, make for a surprisingly sad story.
` The Perils of Penelope Pitstop What redeems it as something positive is two-
` SST car toys fold: they appreciated and treated their kids
` Rocky and Bullwinkle with kindness and the surviving members are
` Secret Squirrel still loved for their music, as well as continuing
` WKRP in Cincinnati to perform it. The Cowsills’ songs, especially
© Primedia.
` Logan’s Run “Love American Style,” remain terrific. But what
` The Invisible Man Seventies TV show a terrible thing to go through for all of them.
` The Man from Atlantis with Patrick Duffy That’s the downside to past decades. The
` Ideal Toys thought is, everything was better then. Well, in
this instance, no. Abusive parenting still exists
I hope this helps! but at least today, people are speaking up and
MIKE FARRELL striving to protect kids.
One graphic touch in the Cowsills article I really enjoy reading your magazines, BACK
Welcome to our funky flashback fiefdom, cracked me up: the inclusion of 16 Magazine ISSUE and especially RetroFan. And I really liked
Mike. Glad you found us. covers. Forgot all about that! So much type, your Hero-A-Go-Go book, which I purchased
First order of business: You need to visit naming teen idols of the day, and displaying from your wife at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia
www.retrofan.org and order our back issues, their disembodied heads. Convention last September.
as several of those topics have previously For me, the clear highlight of the issue was You can increase the frequency of RetroFan
appeared in our pages. And make sure you the June Lockhart interview. Loved Lost in Space, to monthly and I’ll be happy (although the
subscribe so you don’t miss out on what’s to so this was a definite connection for me. You workload on your part would probably be
come. even had some information and photos I hadn’t prohibitively overwhelming).
That’s an impressive list of suggestions! previously seen. Her first season snapshot with One minor correction that I wanted
Don’t be surprised if a couple of them appear both daughters was a treat. to pass along from the April issue (#8) is a
in the next year or so. And hopefully we’ll be Life would have been so much better had misidentification of one of the Petticoat Junction
in print for years to come, so we can check off VCRs been commonplace in 1965. I never case in the photo on page 40. The gentleman
your other ideas, one by one! wanted to miss an episode of Lost in Space, so standing at the far left in the back row is
it was a weekly struggle not to go to dinner on actually Byron Foulger, who played the role of
Wednesday nights. Or, in 1966, having to miss Hooterville Cannonball train engineer Wendell
the Wednesday Batman episode. Thankfully, Gibbs during the last couple of seasons, not

Rufe Davis (as Floyd Smoot). Foulger replaced
Davis in the cast. In early episodes, Davis had
been joined by former Western movie comedy-
relief sidekick Smiley Burnette as engineer
Charlie Pratt as well. Davis had also been in
Western movies in the Forties.
I used to enjoy watching Petticoat Junction
when it was on CBS and was sorry to see
it go. CBS cancelled it in 1970 and the next
year cancelled the rest of its rural-oriented
programming (Green Acres, Hee Haw, Mayberry
R.F.D., The Beverly Hillbillies, The Jim Nabors
Hour). A few years later, CBS fell out of first
place in the ratings for the first time in two
decades. Only fitting, I felt.
JOHN FISHEL
John, your letter is the third time this issue

that CBS’ rural sitcom purge was mentioned.
Hmmm… maybe this might make a good article
in itself.
Thank you for the kind words about my work,
and for being a loyal reader. And thanks for the
Petticoat Junction corrections.
By the way, Charlton Comics’ Hee Haw
funnybook is part of the line-up of next May’s
BACK ISSUE #128, a “Bronze Age TV Tie-ins”
issue. I’m pickin’, and you’re grinnin’!
I just had to write you on my discovery of your

super magazine, RetroFan. I have been a fan all
the TwoMorrows books, but this one has me
over the moon.
Serendipitous that I had just, a few weeks
before, started streaming ElectraWoman
and DynaGirl. RetroFan’s article is a welcome ability to make things gone. I searched the I also direct you to the aforementioned and
companion to my enjoyment of the series! alleys for days, no luck. forthcoming BACK ISSUE #128, which will
Ernest Farino’s article on the Mars Attacks! So any magazine with Honey West and examine the comic-book adaptations of Kroff t
cards really struck me because my brother Popeye in the same issue is tops! Saturday morning series.
Gilbert and I obtained our set the hard way MARIO HERNANDEZ Speaking of ElectraWoman and DynaGirl,
in, through a vending machine! At our local we’re Electra-Ecstatic to share with you this
store where we bought all our comics early on Mario, decades ago in the primitive pre-eBay photo from earlier this year of DynaGirl herself,
(Fantastic Four #1 and many more off the spin days, when I was building a collection of vintage actress Judy Strangis, and the wonderful Mark
rack!), at the entry stood a card-dispensing toys by shopping from ads in Krause Publications’ Evanier, whose Saturday morning preview
machine that shot out cards for two cents Toy Shop newspaper, I remember that special work was detailed in recent issues of
apiece, along with an ancient dry gumball. publication included ads from a collectibles shop the above the above magazine. In this photo,
On the right, displayed in the little window, (in New Jersey, I think) that was named: Stuff Mark is presenting Judy with a copy of RetroFan
was a set of baseball cards (snore), but on the Mom Threw Away. #8. (Special thanks to Mark Evanier and Andy
left, a giant caterpillar was humping the Eiffel Mangels for sharing that photo.)
Tower. It was luck of the draw: sometimes you
got baseball, sometimes you got Martians. (In
those days, even two cents was hard to come RetroFan #8 had it all! That fantastic, detailed
by!) interview with the Cowsills—I never knew I am 55 years old. I purchase RetroFan and Alter
The following has a disclaimer, “Don’t try about the Cowsills, and the trivia that The Ego from my comic shop here in Australia. A big
this ever, kids!”: We discovered a way of using a Partridge Family was based on the Cowsills, or THANK YOU! I love your mags! I am taken back
slightly modified nail file to scoop out the cards that the Cowsills were offered their own TV to Saturday mornings, and the feel-good factor
we wanted. We ended up with an almost- series. Great interview, inspiring to know the is amazing. I devour your books from start to
complete set. The only one we couldn’t get? story about their journey as a family band. finish. They take me back to a happy time in my
The “humping caterpillar.” Then, one day, the Also enjoyed reading the story about life of wonder and adventure. Many thanks!
machine was gone. the Honey West TV series!! Another highlight DAMIEN ANDERSON
Our mother was a lover of all things comics, wass Andy Mangels’ terrific and colorful
but not so much with cards. We had complete retrospective about ElectraWoman and DynaGirl,
sets of all these: Batman, Addams Family, with interviews with the stars of that amazing
Green Hornet, James Bond, Beatles, Universal Saturday morning Krofft series. Tell your friends about us, and share your
Monsters, misc. Monster cards, and more. You DAVID DUNSTON comments about this issue by writing me at
can see where this is going… one day, you come [email protected].
home from school, and every card is missing… More Kroff t super-stars will appear in future MICHAEL EURY
gone… disappeared! I was in awe of my mom’s issues of RetroFan, David (personally, I’m Editor-in-Chief
jonesing to do an H. R. Pufnstuf cover one day).

REJECTED!
Just keep telling yourself, "This isn't real... this isn't real..."
by Scott Saavedra
THIS
ISSUE:
Edited by
SHEENA,
Queen
of the
Jungle!
Sheena, in her jungle home
office, shares her thoughts
on this issue’s contents!
Popeye is
sailor man. Strong
to finish. Make good
mate.
Red-nose reindeer
make good meal. Hide
make hat for Bob.
Sheena show
how track good
deal on Dr.Seuss
toy. Also show
how jungle vine
make good
collectible show
case. Impress
whole village!

RetroFan: 2021 Issues!
Exclusive interviews with Lost in Space’s Holy backstage pass! See rare, behind-the- Sixties teen idol RICKY NELSON remem- An exclusive interview with Logan’s Run Dark Shadows’ Angelique, LARA PARKER,
MARK GODDARD and MARTA KRISTEN, scenes photos of many of your favorite bered by his son MATTHEW NELSON, The star MICHAEL YORK, plus Logan’s Run sinks her fangs into an exclusive interview.
Dynomutt and Blue Falcon, Hogan’s Sixties TV shows! Plus: an unpublished Man from U.N.C.L.E., rural sitcom purge, novelist WILLIAM F. NOLAN and vehicle Plus: Rankin-Bass’ Mad Monster Party,
Heroes’ BOB CRANE, a history of Wham- interview with Green Hornet VAN EVEL KNIEVEL toys, the Fabulous Furry customizer DEAN JEFFRIES. Plus: the Aurora Monster model kits, a chat with
O’s Frisbee, Twilight Zone and other TV WILLIAMS, Bigfoot on Saturday morning Freak Brothers, Saturday morning’s Super Marvel Super Heroes cartoons of 1966, Aurora painter JAMES BAMA, George of
sci-fi anthologies, Who Created Archie television, TV’s Zoorama and the San 7, The Muppet Show, behind-the-scenes H. R. Pufnstuf, Leave It to Beaver’s SUE the Jungle, The Haunting, Jawsmania, Drak
Andrews?, oddities from the San Diego Diego Zoo, The Saint, the lean years of photos of Sixties movies, an interview with “Miss Landers” RANDALL, WOLFMAN Pack, TV dads’ jobs, and more fun, fab
Zoo, lava lamps, and more with FARINO, Star Trek fandom, the WrestleFest video The Sound of Music’s heartthrob-turned- JACK, drive-in theaters, My Weekly features! Featuring columns by FARINO,
MANGELS, MURRAY, SAAVEDRA, SHAW, game, TV tie-in toys no kid would want, bad guy DANIEL “Rolf” TRUHITTE, and Reader, DAVID MANDEL’s super collection MANGELS, MURRAY, SAAVEDRA, SHAW,
and MICHAEL EURY! and more fun, fab features! more fun, fab features! of comic book art, and more! and MICHAEL EURY.
(Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Feb. 2021 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships April 2021 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships June 2021 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships August 2021 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Oct. 2021
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CELEBRATE
owners.
CHRISTMAS POP CULTURE!
Break out the candy canes! HOLLY JOLLY is a colorful sleigh ride through the history of Christmas, from TM & © the
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January 2021 WHAT IS…

Come and knock on SHEENA

Company The Making

Did you own these

RETROFAN #11 (Now Bi-Monthly!)

RETROFAN #6 RETROFAN #7 RETROFAN #8 RETROFAN #9 RETROFAN #10

RETROFAN #1 RETROFAN #2 RETROFAN #3 RETROFAN #4 RETROFAN #5

The Crazy Cool Culture

CONTENTS Issue #12 January 2021

2 RETROFAN January 2021

Come and Knock

RETROFAN January 2021 3

4 RETROFAN January 2021

6 RETROFAN January 2021

8 RETROFAN January 2021

10 RETROFAN January 2021

12 RETROFAN January 2021

TM & © Meredith Corporation. Courtesy of Nancy Morgan Ritter.

RetroFan: You met John in March

14 RETROFAN January 2021

RETROFAN January 2021 15

16 RETROFAN January 2021

up for work. This did not turn out well

RF: Suzanne has publicly stated since

RF: John was a Beatlemaniac. How did

The Ritter family Christmas

18 RETROFAN January 2021

Samples from King Feature Syndicate’s publicity

20 RETROFAN January 2021

(ABOVE) The new Popeye cartoon

22 RETROFAN January 2021

All in the family: Popeye’s

Blow me down! Popeye got a makeover—and a kid—in 1987

RETROFAN January 2021 23

24 RETROFAN January 2021

RETROFAN January 2021 25

Enchanted World of Rankin/Bass’

RETROFAN January 2021 27

Arthur Rankin, Jr. (CENTER)

© 2012 Miser Bros. Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives.

1964 publicity photo of the Rudolph voice cast, at Toronto’s RCA

28 RETROFAN January 2021

Elf Hermey and our favorite red-nosed Reindeer.

RETROFAN January 2021 29

The Magic of Rudolph

Rankin/Bass’ Characters and Merchandise

Arthur Rankin, Jr. in the animation studios in Japan. © 1997

30 RETROFAN January 2021

(LEFT) Kyota Kita

RETROFAN January 2021 31

Rick Goldschmidt works

32 RETROFAN January 2021

Rankin/Bass historian Rick Goldschmidt at the

A Portfolio is that even though Ralph Friedman

The Legacy of Rudolph the Red-Nosed

34 RETROFAN January 2021

Productions, Sunbow Productions, Ruby-Spears, DIC, Film

Space Ghost, Dynomutt, and Captain

(TOP RIGHT) Filmation Associates’ inter-

of All Time?(You get only one guess...)