Tonight's shows:
Dynaman - The Lizard of Oz (USA Network Parody Dub)
Spectreman Episode 27 - Titanic Battle Seven Giant Monsters
Since Spectreman is taking a half-day with a single-episode story, I decided to fill in the time and expand on the new trend I started with Tuesday's live tweet: more than just Spectreman! Although I started with an episode of Battle Hawk, my first intended non-Spectreman show live tweet was the classic parody dub of Kagaku Sentai Dynaman.
I was an 80s child, and there was something special about that if you were a fan of obscure foreign movies and television shows. It's easy for me to get into a "you young whippersnappers and your YouTube and your hundreds of cable channels and taking for granted all the material at your fingertips" speech, but it's probably something you're not going to get if you were born later than 1990. The fledgling years of basic cable and late night network television in the early 80s were struggling to meet the growing demand for televised material, and by more televised material, I mean less hours of this after 10PM:
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| The original (I hate I have to use the word "original" now in the description) Poltergeist genuinely scared me because that after-hours test pattern and static hit close to home. |
I was an insomniac 80s child with cable, and we had a unique introduction to cultural diversity as TV channels tried to fill the static gaps with anything they could get their hands on. Dialogue-free cartoons from all over Europe were a big thing as well as the Dot movies from Australia, and the young USA Network set its sights on action in the form of dubbed Hong Kong and Japanese martial arts movies while premium cable had its fair share of Italian zombie gore and Vietnam War movies from the Philippines. In my opinion, it was the USA Network that held the line in what was great about early basic cable for the longest. They took advantage of a great vault of movies and cartoons that may have fallen into obscurity without USA giving them some more exposure. I know that I probably would not have been exposed to black and white Mexican horror movies if not for Commander USA, but that is only one tiny example. Then there was the monumentally classic late night music video/movie show Night Flight. I don't think anything made the insomnia more manageable.
Aside from being an infinitely better version of MTV despite not being 24-hour programming, Night Flight was a mixed bag of awesome with barrage edit clip montages, movies like Fantastic Planet, movie trailers, parodies, stand-up comedy, short films, cartoons, music videos, and musician profiles and interviews on bands like The Doors, Genesis and Lush. It also introduced the English-speaking public at large to what would come to be known over a decade later as the Power Rangers. What they served us, however, was something beyond a preachy kids show with costumed fighters and giant monsters. Instead, the fine folks at USA chucked the entire script and went full-on What's Up, Tiger Lily? with the dialogue. The result was Dynaman, a tongue in cheek poke at culture, martial arts, and the bad dubbing of the 80s that we know and love.
I got to experience Dynaman twice in my childhood as I saw it first on Night Flight in the early 80s. My parents got rid of cable when I was seven, forcing me to endure local late night movies (which were nonetheless a profound influence on me in their own right) and only one premium cable channel I won't mention by name because we weren't paying for it (back then, getting that channel required a special little coaxial adapter that the cable company didn't want back with the rest of the equipment, and its late night programming was glorious). Aside from going to my grandmother's house after school to watch You Can't Do That on Television, I didn't have access to basic cable again until four years later, shortly after my family moved to Florida in 1987. I was hitting a major point in the budding of my personality that year, and my tastes were forever cementing themselves in Japanese giant monsters and classic sci-fi and horror movies, strengthened by the likes of horror hosts Elvira, Grandpa Munster on TBS, Commander USA, and Tampa, Florida's late great horror host Dr. Paul Bearer (to VHS tape traders out there, I'm still on the lookout for a circa-1988 TV broadcast of Dr. Paul Bearer hosting Legend of the Dinosaurs. It virtually changed my life). It was on a weekend afternoon somewhere around that time that Nickelodeon wiped the dust off of Dynaman and showed it again (I felt like they did it just for me) as part of their Special Delivery movie.
Nickelodeon and I are the same age and grew up together, and I wish I could say either of us aged well. Dynaman was deliberately corny and enjoyable, and I speak of it here and add it to my live tweet schedule with the hope that I can blow some of the dust off of it. It deserves its place in history, and if YouTube can help it to avoid being lost to obscurity forever as generations pass, then I'm happy.
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| Oh, no! The villains are jamming the airwaves with a Chibi Sugoi marathon! (shameless Small Wonder joke, but that was the sort of wacky humor you could expect from Dynaman) |
I didn't forget about Spectreman! I know what you're really here to see. This time around, we see an atypical one-episode story unfold as Dr. Gori resurrects a handful of his past monsters from the dead. Gokinosaurus, Nezubirdon, Satan-King, Magnetudon, and a new cyborg monster with Spectreman's powers are among the roster as a landslide the monsters cause while fighting each other coincidentally forces George and friends off the road and traps them in a mountain cabin. Trapped in closed quarters and unable to reveal his identity, all George can do is watch the monsters fight until he can find an opportunity to escape and transform.
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| I shouldn't have bought these fight seat tickets from a scalper. I can see only every third bob and every fifth weave. |
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| I have had it with your attitude, mister. |
The fun starts Friday night after #BMovieManiacs.
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