Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 27, 2010 in Star Trek
I came across this amazing video from back in the day showing quite a bit of behind-the-scenes work that went into Star Trek: The Motion Picture back in 1978. The film would be released in 1979 to mixed reviews, but while it wasn’t Star Wars you have to admire the amount of work that went into this film. You also get a glimpse into how making a special effects film was different then: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 24, 2009 in Television
Ed McMahon represents the passing of the age of broadcast television which his career mirrored, and of course he’s best known for his long lasting gig at the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson from 1962 until 1992. But over the years he worked on a number of side projects: And from a fanboy point of view the most amusing to me is Legends of the Superheroes. This 1979 show was a sort of live action version of the Super Friends cartoon which was produced by Hanna-Barbera at the time. Read more…
I won’t give away my age but at the time I couldn’t see Alien because i was an R rated movie and i was too young — so what funny about this commercial was that they had a toy for the film which was clearly aimed a kids. It should be noted that a bit after the film came out that it was very popular in the early days of cable television, along with other R rated science fiction films I discovered from that era like Mad Max and the Warriors. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 8, 2009 in Star Wars
This is a vintage 1979 Star Wars themed public service announcement produced for the Department of Transportation. The funny thing to me about the Cantina scene is that for this dive bar filled with scan and villainy the music is inspired by Benny Goodman, which is rather upbeat: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 12, 2008 in Animation
Children today are so spoiled — there’s not one but several channels full of kids shows on cable TV, and to top it off there’s an entire internet filled with tons of websites. But sadly 1979 was a dark age in children’s entertainment as seen in this above advert for Ice Capades: I frankly can’t think of anything more painful to do as a child than to watch some dufus dressed up as Jabber Jaw prance around on the ice. But oh wait if that hasn’t hade you want to play with your lint collection there’s more: We’ve got Yogi Bear, Fred Flintstone , Scooby Doo AND Dorothy Hamill.
