THE BIONIC WOMAN - Season 02, Episode 07 - "Black Magic" (1976)

 Tonight's Saturday Night Special is from the 1976 TV show, "The Bionic Woman" starring the beautiful Lindsay Wagner!

 In 1976 I had a black and white TV that got about 3 1/2 channels, so it's a good thing I have friends in Germany like Lord Litter to remind me of what I missed! "The Bionic Woman" is a fine example!

 "Black Magic" was episode number seven from season two of "The Bionic Woman" and has a brilliant cast which makes it really easy to watch!

 Any 1970's television show that was intelligent enough to use the talents of Vincent Price is okay in my book, and in "Black Magic" he even plays more than one character!

 The poor man's Boris Karloff, the always entertaining Abe Vigoda, plays the butler named Barlow. A couple years later and Abe would star in his own detective series called "Fish!"

 Vinnie plays both Manfred and his dying brother Cyrus Carstairs! After Cyrus dies, The family is called together for the reading of the will or what Cyrus considers to be a scavenger hunt, winner take all!

 Besides money, Cyrus also had guv'ment secrets, and now it's up to "The Bionic Woman" aka Jaime Sommers, to make sure they don't fall into the wrong hands! Jaime poses as a hippie/gypsy niece that nobody has seen since she ran off to join the circus 18 years earlier!

 Is that a wolfman hiding in the bushes?

 The Stimson House is a 43,560 sq ft house located at 2421 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90007. It was built in 1891, and has been the location of many a movie!

 Great portrait of Vinnie as Cyrus Carstairs!

 Richard Anderson is Oscar Goldman, "The Bionic Woman's" guiding light! Richard was Chief Quinn in "Forbidden Planet!" What else do you need to know?

 Julie Newmar and Lindsay Wagner together, what, is this some kind of dream come true?

 This great ensemble shot besides Vincent, Julie, Abe, and Lindsay, also includes William Windom as Warfield, and Hermione Baddeley as Aunt Tess! Among his 253 acting credits, William was in two "Twilight Zone" episodes, "Miniature," and "Five Characters In Search Of An Exit!" Hermione worked in film and TV from 1927 to 1985. Pretty damn incredible!

 Cyrus made a video will. Commercial VHS and Beta tapes were being produced for the first time in Japan in 1976 also.

 Vinnie gets to do another bit as Cyrus on tape!

 Is it any wonder that as a teenager I was totally enthralled with Julie Newmar?

 I really like Lindsay as this character too. Her and Julie, it's almost like Mary Ann and Ginger!

 This is just a great shot of Vincent Price at the bottom of the stairs in The Stimson House!

Another great shot of Lindsay! 

 And one last shot of Vincent!

Pretty obvious this is not a normal TV show!

When it's all said and done, the Carstair family ends up at the same restaurant as Jaime and Oscar who are trying to avoid eye contact. The family gets up to join them, and the ending credits roll!

MAN WITH THE SCREAMING BRAIN / 'He's Losing Their Minds' - 2005

Today's feature's all about greed, betrayal and revenge in a small Bulgarian town. William Cole, wealthy industrialist, winds up with part of his brain replaced by that of a Russian cab driver, Yegor. The two could not be more different, but they share one thing... They both were killed by the same woman! Brought back to life by a mad scientist, William and Yegor form an unlikely partnership to track down their common nemesis... Filmed in Sofia, Bulgaria.

This one stars Bruce (EVIL DEAD) Campbell, Tamara (RETURN TO THE LOST WORLD) Gorski, Ted (SPIDER-MAN) Raimi, Antoinette (REBEL) Byron, Stacy (UP IN SMOKE) Keach and Vladimir (MINDSTORM) Kolev.

From left to right are William Cole, his wife Jackie and their Taxi driver, Yegor...

It doesn't take long before a car full of hoods start following them. Hey, it's Bulgaria!

After a few adventures, William and Yegor get bumped off by Yegor's fiancee, because, you know, she's freakin' ca-raaaaaazzzy!! They both end up in the lab of the mad Dr. Ivanov and his goofy helper, Pavel.

The doctor decides to cut part of William's brain out and replace it with some of Yegor's, something he's definitely been wanting to do to prove a theory of his!

William freaks out and escapes into the city, and everyone runs away from the monster in blue!

William changes clothes but Yegor's part of his brain is trying to take over. Here, Yegor forces William to stick his head in a super gross toilet!

And, wouldn't you know it, Yegor's fiancee pushes William's wife, Jackie, down two flights of stairs, killing her! She also ends up at the doc's place, this time though, he makes her into a robot in a yellow jump suit.

She escapes too, and finds herself at a garage to get a battery charge. Dude wants her to leave and starts pointing his finger at her...

So, she grabs it and bends it into a position it shouldn't be in! He screams like a little girl.

William goes to a bar to chill out, but freakin' Yegor's fiancee shows up and tells the tough guys there that William left her at the alter. Three drunks take him on.

After getting his clock cleaned, Yegor convinces William that they need to cheat to win, so, that's what he does and wins the fights!

Eventually, Yegor's fiancee gets into a situation and ends up falling to her death... Hooray!!

Back in the US, six months later - Wow, check out Jackie's hair, nice!! Looks like everything ended up okay...

Dark Horse Comics even did a four part series based on the movie. This issue has an EC/Wood inspired cover, I did a pile of production work for Dark Horse, restoration of horror and sci-fi comic work of Basil Wolverton, what an honor that was! We will see you again tomorrow with more interesting junk, later...

LEAVE IT TO BEAVER Season 01, Episode 13 - "Voodoo Magic" (1958)

It's Voodoo Woodoo Wednesday in The Dungeon, and I'm got something wild from 1958 for you!

  

Tonight's show just might be the best "Leave It To Beaver" episode of all time! It's titled "Voodoo Magic," and was episode 13 of season one.

The boys, Wally, the Beaver, and Eddie Haskell want to go to the movies. Wally and Beav's parents specifically tell them they need to go to the theatre that's playing "Pinocchio," not the one that's showing "Voodoo Curse," because the last time they saw a movie like that, the Beaver had nightmares!

But Eddie figures out a workaround! The kids were told that Wally couldn't take Beaver to the movie, but they didn't say that Beaver couldn't take Wally to the movie, so they have Beaver buy the tickets, and that way everything should be copacetic!

"Voodoo Curse" is full of 'spine tingling horror,' that's for sure, although we never get to see any of it!

Of course the boys get busted when they can't even answer simple questions about "Pinocchio!"

The Beaver learned something from the movie, so since Eddie Haskell got them in trouble...

.......Beaver makes an Eddie Haskell voodoo doll, and sticks a nail and a hat pin in it!

When Eddie gets real sick, Beaver tries to patch up the doll in an effort to make things better!

Beaver brings Eddie an apology and some flowers!

But then he finds out when Eddie's Mother is out of the room that the little shit was just faking it so he could stay home from school!

I should go back and watch it again, but if I remember correctly, this all takes place over about two days time, and in those two days....

.....Barbara Billingsley as June Cleaver......

.......Wears a minimum of........

.......At least five different outfits! I'll bet she drove the wardrobe department krazy! The only thing that remains the same is her pearl necklace!

Anyway, that's it. Great episode! Too bad they never had another kid, a psycho baby brother named Meat Cleaver! Now that would have been really good!