Evening Entertainment: Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn and Sarah Silverman in the comic book store pilot SUPER NERDS

How does a sitcom featuring noted Andy Milligan fan Patton Oswalt and current "Deadpool" writer Brian Posehn working in a comic book store not get picked up?  Espeically when it has Sarah Silverman as a customer?  The laugh track doesn't help and it lacks some polish, but there's certainly potential there.  It's still an interesting piece of nerd culture history, though when it was made in 2000, it may have been a bit ahead of the times in terms of the cultural zeitgeist, as Evan Dorkin's similar WELCOME TO ELTINGVILLE pilot suffered the same fate two years later.  Watch it before it gets pulled!

CNN investigates the mystery of Thomas Pynchon in 1997

INHERENT VICE, P.T. Anderson's film adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's novel, opens is some theaters this weekend, and while it's the first feature-length adaptation of Pynchon's work, his enigmatic nature has fascinated the media for years.  In this 1997 report, CNN looks at the enigma of Pynchon's reclusiveness, including the word "cyberspace" and a brief segment about "The John Larroquette Show," which featured Pynchon input after the show started making jokes about him.

Wings Hauser, William Smith and Linnea Quigley battle earthquakes in the never-made THE DEED TO HELL

Today marks the birthday of Wings Hauser, whose contributions to the world of exploitation are endless, appearing in dozens of notable genre films.  But never mind those -- let's take a look at one of the films he was involved with that didn't get made!  Okay, so he only "expressed interest" in this million-dollar production that sounds like a bit of a mess from a company called Huntington Action Films (Glenn Andreiev, who eventually made a film with the same name in 2008), but hey, I'd certainly inquire about their informative business package.

The VHS trailer for THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW

Believe it or not, until 1990, you didn't have the option of seeing ROCKY HORROR at home, making rehearsing for the midnight shows virtually impossible unless you had a raggedy, third-generation bootleg.  The film's long-awaited release on VHS was controversial, partially because die hard fans feared that this would be the end of the midnight movie circuit (it wasn't), but also because the VHS wasn't released at a sell-through price, causing thousands of fans to shell out $90 for a VHS tape.  But, heck, at least there was a new mini-documentary on the tape.

Thrill to the deranged sexploits of 1998's GAS HUFFIN' BAD GIRLS!

Harry McCoy's four-part epic wears its FASTER, PUSSYCAT... KILL! KILL! influence on its sleeve, down to the theme music, but it's an endearing charm, and anyone who loves Russ Meyer's exploitation classic should have a great time with this short that seems to have vanished into obscurity after its appearance in the 1998 New York Underground Film Festival.

A Frank Sinatra album gets promoted by singing animated octopi and turtles

Sure, "Let's Do It" makes sense to come out of the mouths of those in the animal kingdom, but I don't quite know why advertisers thought that frogs covered in flies would be the best way to sell "Frank Sinatra's Twenty Golden Greats."  Happy 99th birthday, Ol' Blue Eyes!

"Mind Match" from The State (1994)

Looks like Jerry's looking to double his orphans!  There's so much perfection in this game show parody from "The State," from the reticence of Thomas Lennon and Kerri Kenney to answer questions to Kevin Allison's exuberance to Michael Showalter's Vanna White impersonation.  It's uncomfortable humor at its best.

MTV Shows

Morning Cartoon: Insect infidelity in Ladislaw Starewicz's THE CAMERAMAN'S REVENGE (1912)

Yes, this work of stop-motion is over a century old.  It's still creative, interesting, and completely relateable, as a roach stepping out on his spouse makes an enemy in the form of a cameraman (or camerabug) that prepares a very special night out for him.

Morning Music: Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - "The Canyons of Your Mind" (1968)

From the TV series "Colour Me Pop," a music performance show that aired on the BBC.  Because there's never a bad time for the Bonzo Dog Band.

Evening Entertainment - Sex and art collide in Susan Seidelman's THE DUTCH MASTER with Mira Sorvino and Aida Turturro

Susan Seidelman turns 62 today, and the director will always hold a place in psychotronic film history as the writer/director of the '80s New York punk film SMITHEREENS. She also directed DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN and Madonna's "Into the Groove" music video, though in recent years, she's turned more towards television. Here is her short film THE DUTCH MASTER, in which Mira Sorvino plays a future bride that becomes enamored by a painting, much to the dismay of all of her friends and family. The work was one of four segments in the 1993 anthology TALES OF EROTICA, which isn't as bawdy as it sounds, though it's still mildly NSFW.

Afternoon Music Video: Mogwai - "Teenage Exorcists"

An entrancingly beautiful video to an equally moody track that's so good I can forgive it for not being a sequel to Fred Olen Ray's TEENAGE EXORCIST.  Directed by Craig Murray.


MOGWAI: TEENAGE EXORCISTS (2014) from Craig Murray on Vimeo.

Allan Havey interviews Robert Downey in 1991 about TOO MUCH SUN

Downey (a prince) jokes that his latest release, TOO MUCH SUN, would be his last (it wasn't), but the director of GREASER'S PALACE, PUTNEY SWOPE and POUND certainly has plenty to say in this 1991 interview.  Havey's "Night After Night" was a great forum for guests like Downey, as the informal style and long-form discussions were a welcome departure from the more quick-entertaining-story focus of most late-night talk shows.  This nearly 15 minute interview would be a welcome addition to any Downey retrospective. (Havey can more recently be seen as Lou Avery on "Mad Men.")  

TOO MUCH SUN is still a pretty ridiculous movie.

Trailer: Jonathan Rhys Meyers is a dog turned man in KILLER TONGUE (1997)

KILLER TONGUE gets a bad rap and, well, it kind of deserves it, as the movie about a woman that is overtaken by an alien with a giant, maniacal tongue and her band of poodles that she turns into men (including Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is a complete mess.  But it's not an uninteresting one.

Cher does Edith Bunker, Sonny does Meathead and Teri Garr plays Gloria in a 1971 opera version of "All in the Family"

Teri Garr, who turns 67 today, has been a welcome presence in film and TV for decades, from her days in Elvis films to YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN to CLOSE ENCOUNTERS. Here she is on the "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour," playing Gloria in an opera version of "All in the Family," with Robert Merrill and Cher and Archie and Edith, and Sonny playing Meathead.

Vampira performs a beat poem in 1959's THE BEAT GENERATION

Today would have marked the 92nd birthday of Maila Nurmi, the actress more commonly known for the character Vampira.  As Vampira, Nurmi became one of the first horror hosts, delivering her sultra, disaffected schtick on Los Angeles's Channel 7 in 1954, a fame that led her to appearing in Ed Wood's PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE.  Here she is, out of Vampira costume, reciting a beat poem in Albert Zugsmith's THE BEAT GENERATION, an entertainingly dismal attempt to cash in on beatnik culture.  The shirtless man behind her seems entranced, anyway.

Sandahl Bergman wins "Best New Female Star" Golden Globe in 1983 for CONAN THE BARBARIAN

Yes, CONAN THE BARBARIAN is a Golden Globe winner, with Bergman beating out Molly Ringwald, Lisa Blount, Amy Madigan and ANNIE's Aileen Quinn to win an award that is no longer presented.  It's a shame, and I blame/give props to Pia Zadora for ruining it for everyone.

Morning Cartoons: The work of Jim Simon provided a little-seen African-American voice to '70s animation

Jim Simon was one of the few African-American voices in '70s animation, lending his unique style to a number of a great shorts for "Sesame Street" and "The Electric Company."  Below are a little over seven minutes of his shorts, which, sadly, seems to be the total of his work available online.  (Doesn't the idea of sending a small child out for groceries seem weirdly antiquated?)  Read more about Simon here.

Morning Music Video: The Silencers - "Peter Gunn, Remote Control and Illegal" with Ken Foree

DAWN OF THE DEAD's Ken Foree tends bar in a wild world of excitement, future sunglasses, colorful lighting, remote controls, and a concert to close the show.

Music

Evening Entertainment: The pictures speak! This 1926 short explains the Vitaphone process

Made one year before THE JAZZ SINGER was released to theaters, this half-hour presentation demonstrates the process of meshing sound to film by issuing separate records that would be played in conjunction with the film on screen.

Rockabilly noir as Webb Wilder, Private Eye investigates UFO hysteria in the south in "The Saucer's Reign"

The character of Webb Wilder, portrayed by rockabilly musician and actor John Webb McMurray, originated in this 1984 short film in which P.I. Wilder, a crooning private dick with a deadpan sensibility, checks into the disappearance of a small town resident's "sweet thing."  Could planet-hungry aliens be involved? Thanks to repeated airing on "Night Flight," Wilder became something of a mini cult icon, and he still performs and appears in shorts today.

PES makes a submarine sandwich

The idea of making things look like other things may seem like an easy trick, especially in the hands of PES, the animator behind great shorts like FRESH GUACAMOLE and KABOOM!.  In his latest, a butcher puts together a submarine sandwich out of decidedly non-sandwich items.  It's two minutes well spent.

Grace Jones and Luciano Pavarotti sing a duet in 2002

Grace Jones can steal a song even with the audio off.  It is worth it for Jones's hat alone.  Now where can I find Pavarotti singing "Slave to the Rhythm?"

It's intermission time! Enjoy some STAR SNACKS!

Popcorn?  Soda?  Candy?  It's all available in the lobby... IN SPAAAAAAACE!

The Castaways play "Liar Liar" in IT'S A BIKINI WORLD (1967)

It's fairly clear they're just lip-syncing to the album version, but it's still great to see the band accompanied by a giant red mouth and a go-go girl.  And happy birthday to Tommy Kirk, the star of BIKINI WORLD!

The late Mary Ann Mobley co-hosts the short-lived 1981 TV series "Wedding Day"

Mary Ann Mobley, who passed away yesterday at 75 after a battle with breast cancer, had a pretty amazing career -- the Mississippi native was crowned Miss America in 1959, co-starred with Elvis Presley in two films, had a music career and took over the role of Mrs. Drummond in the final seasons of "Diff'rent Strokes."  Before marrying Conrad Bain, however, she briefly hosted a different TV series about blending families, the short-lived "Wedding Day," broadcast in daytime during the summer of 1981.  Here she is introducing the program with her co-host, Huell Howser.

Morning Cartoon: The Atom fights beetles in a 1967 Filmation adventure

There's been a bit of speculation recently as to what the costume ot The Atom, the DC comics character that can shrink to the size of, well, an atom, will look like when it appears on "Arrow," so I figured it might be worthwhile to take a look at an earlier incarnation of the Mighty Mite.  In this episode of the 1967 Filmation series, our hero highs bugs with rather disturbing-looking human features.  Through the magic alchemy of nature's most awesome sources of energy!

Morning Music Video: Le Roux ft. Fergie Frederiksen - "Lifeline" (1983)

I believe this is what it referred to as "stadium rock."  All I know is that the lead singer is tormented and sees a lady kissing a man in black in the mirror when he shaves as the band plays in a ridiculously bright nebulous computer graphic.  Frederiksen was the lead singer of Toto.

Evening Entertainment: The unsold pilot for HIGH SCHOOL USA (1984) with Crispin Glover, Jon Gries & an all-star cast

Sure, you may be aware of the 1983 made-for-TV movie HIGH SCHOOL USA, featuring Michael J. Fox, Nancy McKeon, Todd Bridges and an all-star cast of notable '60s TV stars, but few recall that the film was successful enough to warrant an attempt at a TV series, with several cast members (Crystal Bernard, Crispin Glover, Jon Gries) returning for the pilot that never went anywhere. Directed by Jack Bender (CHILD'S PLAY 3) and written by Zucker Bros. collaborator Pat Proft, the pilot also features Barbara Billingsley, Henry Gibson, Jerry Mathers, Ricky and Harriet Nelson, Julie Newmar, Ken Osmond, Burt Ward and Dick York.

Jambi the Genie John Paragon sings about voluptuous ladyparts in his 1983 special

It's John Paragon's 60th birthday!  Paragon has turned up in plenty of things over the years, from playing would-be TV station inheritor Richard Fletcher in UHF to a sex shop salesman in Paul Bartel's EATING RAOUL, but he's likely best known as Jambi the Genie on "Pee-Wee's Playhouse."  Like Pee-Wee himself, Paul Reubens, Paragon got his start as a member of The Groundlings -- along with Phil Hartman and Cassandra Peterson, for whom he played The Breather on Elvira's "Movie Macabre."  Here he is as Vegas performer Larry McGuire singing a pleasant little song about the female anatomy, from Paragon's 1983 HBO special.

Trailer: Wynn Chamberlain's BRAND X (1970) is a counter-culture oddity

Wynn Chamberlain, who passed away a week and a half ago in New Delhi at 87, was known as a painter and photographer who was friends with notable artists like Allen Ginsburg, John Cage and Andy Warhol, but he did make the occasional foray into film. His sole feature, 1970's BRAND X, was thought of as a lost film until its re-release in 2011.  While the film still hasn't landed any larger distribution, one hopes that a wider audience will eventually be able to see the film starring Taylor Mead that the New York Times called both "devilishly, piercingly funny" and "smug, cruel and tasteless."  I've read several synopses and I still can't guess what the heck it's supposed to be about. Check out Temple of Schlock's write-up here.  (Trailer NSFW)



Trailer for Wynn Chamberlain's "Brand X" (1970) from Artforum on Vimeo.

The original concept trailer for an animated "Mega Man" TV series

The character of the long-running Nintendo video game franchise "Mega Man" was turned into a TV series in 1994 that turned the blue icon into something much more muscle-bound, but the original concept shows a design much more in line with the original video game.

David Anthony Higgins stars in THE MEDIOCRE SAMARITAN, written and directed by J. Elvis Weinstein

Both Higgins, who turns 53 today, and Weinstein, who doesn't, rose to prominance in the early days of Comedy Central forerunner "The Comedy Channel," Higgins as one of "The Higgins Boys and Gruber" and Weinstein as Dr. Ernhardt and the original voice of Tom Servo on "Mystery Science Theater 3000."  In this 2007 short film, Higgins plays a sword-wielding intruder who's only trying to help.  With Dave "Gruber" Allen.  Very mildly NSFW if you're scandalized by a brief butt.

Birthday boys Redd Foxx and Donnie Osmond play a game of pool

Today would have marked the 92nd birthday of stand-up comedy icon Redd Foxx, who managed to be a mainstream sensation on network television after rising to fame with a series of comedy albums that were too blue for the small screen.  He could play clubs at night, indulging in the filthiest of jokes, and still warm his way into America's hearts by hanging out with the whitest of whitebread, as he does below in this 1977 clip from "The Donnie and Marie Show."

It's a mad, mad, mad, mad... cola! Royal Crown takes you on a fantastic 1967 tour

It seems more "mod" than "mad" to me.  It also has nothing to do with the Stanley Kramer movie.

Morning Cartoon: 1967's Spy Shadow in "The Mystery Rustler Caper," voiced by Ted Cassidy

Government agent Richard Vance had the power to control his own shadow, a talent he used effectively in the secret agent-meets-superhero oddity "Spy Shadow," a segment of the brief "Super President" television show.  Former Lurch Ted Cassidy provided the voice of the hero, with June Foray as his love interest.

Morning Music Video: Crash Course in Science - "Cardboard Lamb"

Listen up, you Danceteria types!  Today's groovy oddity to get you going comes from Philadelphia-based post-punk band Crash Course in Science, who released these two and a half minutes of weirdness in 1981.

Evening Entertainment: Jake Kasdan's 2002 pilot for a TV series based on ZERO EFFECT starring Alan Cumming

Jake Kasdan's 1998 film ZERO EFFECT, featuring Bill Pullman as an incredibly introverted private eye and Ben Stiller as his long-suffering assistant/only real human contact, garnered plenty of great reviews even if it wound up barely released to theaters.  The film, however, built up enough of a (deserved) cult reputation to warrant NBC to want to try to turn it into a television series.  The series never came to fruition, but at least we have this entertaining pilot, featuring Alan Cumming in the role of the reclusive hero and David Julian Hirsh as his sidekick.  If you've ever wondered what it would be like if Cumming had played Sherlock Holmes instead of Benneton Cuminbun, this is about as close as you'll get.

Leonard Nimoy promises a cosmic laser concert at the LASERIUM!

In a scene like a Nimoy-narrated laser concert at Los Angeles's Griffith Observatory in 1973, you get a contact high.

An 8-year-old Sammy Davis Jr. is in charge in 1933's RUFUS JONES FOR PRESIDENT

Consummate entertainer Davis would have turned 89 today, so check out his acting debut that shows how talented he was even at the age of 8, as a young boy who dreams of being the preisdent of the United States in this musical short co-starring Ethel Waters as his mother.  It's an impressive short that utilizes the talents of both stars well, even if the certain racial archetypes are admittedly pretty dated.  Director Roy Mack helmed a number of early all-black cast shorts, including 1933's THAT'S THE SPIRIT and the Cab Calloway-starring HI DI HO.

Mary Woronov threatens Alexis Arquette in Lizzie Borden's short film BACKSTAGE

Cult icon Mary Woronov, who turns 71 today, stars as an actress who threatens a delivery boy (BRIDE OF CHUCKY’s Alexis Arquette) and dresses him up. Lizzie Borden, who helmed the sci-fi parable BORN IN FLAMES and the Sean Young thriller LOVE CRIMES, helmed this short created the TV series “Inside Out” on The Playboy Channel.

It’s NSFW.

1985 trailer for faux killer chicken film POULTRYGEIST

In 2006, Troma Films released POULTRYGEIST: NIGHT OF THE CHICKEN DEAD, a tale of zombie chickens.  But the title was in conceptual use two decades earlier, when "Turkey Television," the short-lived spin-off of Nickelodeon's "You Can't Do That on Television," aired a trailer for a sequel to FEATHERS OF FEAR, in which the "ultimate horror returns to the screen" using vintage movie clips.  Did this POULTRYGEIST inspire Troma's?  I have no idea, so I'll say "sure."

Learn geometry with 1977's CONGRUENT TRIANGLES

There honestly isn't that much to this six-minute educational film that utilizes basic computer graphics and a low-key jazz score, but it's an oddly entrancing experience that makes you feel like you're hanging out at the grooviest 5th grade classroom that ever was.



Congruent Triangles (1977) from WWM on Vimeo.

Jerry Lewis sings the 7-Eleven Coffee Song in a 1980 commercial

Man's got bills to pay.

Morning Cartoon - Gahan Wilson's DINER (1992)

Illustrator Gahan Wilson's work has been featured in Playboy and the New Yorker for decades, but his gruesome  drawings have rarely made the transition to animation.  One of the only exceptions is this brief tale of a trucker whose stop at a small diner becomes more perilous by the moment.  It's directed by Graham Morris and Karen Peterson, who both served as animation directors on "Muppet Babies."

Morning Music Video: Stooshe - "Slip"

English girl group Stooshe is big in their native U.K., but they haven't really made an impact in the U.S., and it's a shame, as style of vintage girl group pop is an upbeat treat that should garner more attention.