Avengers, Rocky Jones among new cult TV offerings

By STEVE D. STONES

This is part two of a three part series on cult television shows. Here at Plan 9 Crunch, we acknowledge the importance of television as part of the “cult-dom” culture that we are passionate in writing about and documenting on this blog site. Part One is here.

Here are five more “cultish” TV titles:

The Avengers – Mandrake – episode 18, season three – aired January 25^th, 1964

John Steed (Patrick Macnee) attends the funeral of a former prominent colleague at a small Cornish cemetery. He becomes suspicious of the man's cause of death and wonders why the man is being buried in a town cemetery that he has no association or ties to. Steed's investigations take him to Mandrake Investments, led by a doctor and his associates.

Mandrake Investments is a “for-hire” assassination agency who poisons victims then buries them in the Cornish town near a churchyard with an old mine where the soil does not detect poison and has high levels of arsenic. Most of the victims are rich, prominent men who lived outside of the Cornish community.

Considered a fan favorite of early Avengers episodes, Mandrake is an intelligent and fun episode. The chemistry between actress Honor Blackman and actor Patrick Macnee always works well in all of the early Avengers episodes. Blackman later left the TV show to star as Pussy Galore in the James Bond film – Goldfinger (1964). Patrick Macnee would also star in a later James Bond film – A View To A Kill (1985) with Roger Moore.

Timeslip – The Wrong End of Time – episode one, season one – aired September 28^th, 1970.

A young woman walks through a time barrier in the field of the old abandoned Ministry of Defense at St. Oswald that has been empty since the end of World War II. A town drunk witnesses the girl being transported through the time barrier and reports the incident to a few of his drinking buddies at a local hotel pub. Commander Traynor (Denis Quilley) overhears the conversation in the pub and becomes intrigued by the report.

Two teenagers – Liz Skinner (Cheryl Burfield) and Simon Randall (Spencer Banks) also find the time barrier and walk through it. Liz and Simon encounter a group of German marines in the field after stepping through the barrier. Luckily, they are not captured by the marines.

A guard finds Liz and Simon and takes them to Commander Traynor's office at the Ministry of Defense. Traynor is much younger and is serving in the British Navy. Liz and Simon tell Traynor that they overheard men out in the field speaking in German. Traynor does not believe them.

While left alone in Traynor's office, a young man speaks to Liz and introduces himself as Frank Skinner – who is Liz's father in the future. We discover that Liz and Simon have been transported to 1940 during World War II.

The entire series of Timeslip addressed such topics as cloning, anti-aging drugs, global warming and government conspiracies – making it way ahead of its time. A&E Television released all four seasons of the Timeslip television series as a boxed DVD set in 2005. The box set is a great treasure to have for any fan of British science-fiction television.

Rocky Jones – Space Ranger – Beyond The Curtain of Space – season one – chapter 1 (of 3 chapters) – aired February 23^rd, 1954.

Rocky Jones (Richard Crane) and Winkie (Scotty Beckett) return to the Office of Space Affairs to report to Secretary Drake (Charles Meredith) and to start a long deserved vacation. While being issued their vacation papers by Drake, Rocky and Winkie learn in a televised message that Professor Newton (Maurice Cass) and young Bobbie have been brainwashed and captured on the planet of Ophiuchus.

Rocky cancels his vacation plans and rushes to Ophiuchus in his rocket ship – the X-V-2 with Winkie and sexy assistant and language expert – Vena (Sally Mansfield) to rescue Newton and Bobbie. Rocky objects to Vena coming along on the trip because she is a girl, and later tells her to “go home and knit a sweater” in a sequence that would be considered politically incorrect by today's standards.

Vena gets trapped in a compartment of the rocket ship and faints from lack of oxygen. Rocky and Winkie rescue her, but Rocky becomes more skeptical of Vena being along for the trip because of her sex. He orders her to return home to earth.

The funnest aspect of watching Rocky Jones – Space Ranger is to see all the interesting special effects, props and costumes of early television. It's unfortunate that Rocky Jones – Space Ranger had to be canceled because of the special effects budget going overboard in each episode. The early days of television often encountered these types of problems.

Actor Richard Crane went on to star in a number of other cult classics, such as – The Alligator People (1959) with Lon Chaney, The Devil's Partner (1961) and two serials – Mysterious Island (1951) and Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of The Universe (1953).




Lights Out – The Passage Beyond – season three – episode 44 – aired June 25^th, 1951

Lights Out is early television at its most minimal, bare bones. The show had a nearly zero budget and it shows.

A brightly lit, close up pale face with staring eyes opens each episode with a deep, monotone voice and creepy organ music playing in the background. His head appears to be floating against a dark environment. Creepy stuff, indeed.

Rod (Ralph Clanton) and Milly Taylor (Stella Andrew) return home to their mansion one evening with a guest named Trix (Monica Lang) after attending a party. The ghost of a family ancestor named Lady Anne haunts the mansion. Lady Anne murdered her possessive husband many years before in the mansion.

Rod complains to the butler that the home is too dark inside. The butler was not expecting the trio back for several hours. Rod sits down by the fireplace with Trix as his wife Milly leaves the room. Rod expresses his boredom to Trix of his marriage to Milly. He begins to kiss at her neck and it becomes obvious that the two are having an affair behind Milly's back.

Milly eventually confronts Trix about the affair and tells her that Rod can never stop loving her. The two discuss the affair for a while as Rod walks through a dark passage in the mansion and is confronted by the ghost of Lady Anne holding a knife.

The Passage Beyond is one of the more creepy and atmospheric episodes of Lights Out, despite its shortcomings and minimal budget. Many scenes remind me of German-Expressionist films from the silent era with deep contrasts of light and shadow. The mansion is filled with extremely dark and deep shadows that consume many of the interior environments of the episode. Lights Out aired from 1949 – 1952, and was based on a popular radio program from the 1930s.

Rocky & Bullwinkle – Jet Fuel Formula (part one of forty) – season one – aired November, 19^th, 1959

As a child in the early 1980s, I liked to get up early every morning in the summer to watch an hour of the Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons from the late 1950s and early 1960s. I was fascinated with the simple drawing and animation style of the show. I also loved Cap-N-Crunch cereal, and did not see the connection between Rocky & Bullwinkle and Cap-N-Crunch until many years later. I would save empty Cap-N-Crunch cereal boxes and pile them up in my bedroom closet. My family and friends thought I was strange for doing this, but this ritual later influenced my adult artistic career.

Looking through a giant telescope at Slick Observatory, Dr. Milton meets with “eggheads” and “double domes” (i.e. scientists) to proclaim that there can be no life on the moon. Another scientist spots Rocky and Bullwinkle on the moon through the same telescope. Rocky and Bullwinkle fly back to earth in a rocket ship.

Greeted in Washington by military dignitaries after their rocket ship landing, Rocky and Bullwinkle inform the dignitaries that they are not from the moon, but from Frost Bite Falls, Minnesota.

Days earlier, Bullwinkle was baking a mooseberry fudge layer cake and the cake blasted to the moon in the oven as the cake was baking. The second layer of the cake was placed inside a rocket ship built by Rocky and Bullwinkle to travel to the moon. The military dignitaries demand the recipe/formula for the cake, but Rocky is unable to remember every ingredient.

Meanwhile, Russian spies – Boris and Natasha, are also desperate to get the cake formula from Bullwinkle. Two green moon men – Gidney and Cloyd, arrive from the moon to try and prevent Bullwinkle from recreating the cake formula for fear of tourists coming to the moon.

These early episodes of Rocky & Bullwinkle are a delight to watch. It's interesting to see the evolution of how both characters are drawn. Bullwinkle talks from the front of his face, in these early episodes, instead of from the side of his face, as we see in later episodes. His feet look more like claw shapes, instead of the rounded shapes seen in later depictions of Bullwinkle.

Creative geniuses Jay Ward and Bill Scott were the two brains behind the clever wit and charm of Rocky & Bullwinkle. Jay Ward was often referred to as the “P.T. Barnum” of TV cartoons, and Bill Scott was often referred to as his “Bailey.” Ward was also responsible for the creation of the Cap-N-Crunch and Quisp and Quake breakfast cereal characters.

For further information about the Rocky & Bullwinkle TV show and the life and careers of Jay Ward and Bill Scott, refer to the book – The Moose That Roared: The Story of Jay Ward, Bill Scott, a Flying Squirrel, and a Talking Moose, by Keith Scott (St. Martin's Press – 2000). This is a wonderful book that is well researched and I highly recommend it. Happy viewing!

Cult TV, part 1, Flash Gordon, Land of the Lost, Star Trek ...

By Steve D. Stones

Flash Gordon – The Brain Machine – Season One – episode 21. Aired March 11th, 1955.

The Mad Witch of Neptune, also known as the Mighty Zidarene, forces Dr. Hans Zarkov and Commander Paul Richards to release a deadly methane gas on the planet Neptune. Zarkov and Richards are then placed under Zidarene's Brain Machine on Saturn to empty their minds of their knowledge and memory. The Brain Machine is administered by Zidarene's feisty sidekick dressed like a child's bad bumble bee costume.

Flash Gordon (Steve Holland) and Dale Arden (Irene Champlin) arrive on Saturn to rescue Zarkov and Richards. The Mighty Zidarene paralyzes Flash with her powerful magic ray wand when he tries to capture her. She escapes, and Flash and Dale are left to figure out how to reverse the Brain Machine to restore Zarkov's and Richards' minds. The episode ends with To Be Continued on the screen and continues with the next episode – Struggle To The End.

Actor Steve Holland spends his entire first scene of this episode in a shirtless, beef cake display of male masculinity. Thank goodness he finally puts on his iconic t-shirt with the lightning bolt logo. The female audience may not be so pleased when he puts his shirt back on.

This episode shows the viewer lots of campy, quickly constructed gadgets seen in Zidarene's control room. The Brain Machine itself looks like giant gardening buckets turned upside down with small tin cups glued to the sides and spiral wiring leading to the machine. Zidarene's control room table exhibits a giant glitter ball in the center of the table with a triangle and lightning bolts painted on the globe. Fun, campy stuff.



Land of The Lost – The Sleestak God – Season One – episode two – Aired September 14th, 1974.

This mid-70s TV show is one of three shows I remember watching as a child while sitting on my Dad's lap on his comfortable recliner chair. It quickly became my favorite TV show as a youngster, but I must admit that the Sleestak creatures really scared me and often appeared in my childhood nightmares.

When Star Wars episode IV – A New Hope came out in 1977 and I first saw bounty hunter Greedo confront Han Solo on the big screen, I was convinced that Greedo may be a relative of the Sleestak. The imagination of a child runs wild.

Rick Marshall (Spencer Milligan) assigns his daughter Holly (Kathy Coleman) and son Will (Wesley – last name not shown on screen) to leave their shelter cave to find water to fill water containers. Holly and Will soon run across an ancient ruin of buildings and find Cha-Ka - a part monkey, Neanderthal boy. The trio then come across a cave entrance with the words Beware of Sleestak painted on the outside wall. A group of green reptilian creatures with large eyes, known as Sleestak, capture Holly and Will and put them in a fish net trap suspended above a smoke filled pit in the cave.

Cha-Ka runs to the Marshall cave to tell Rick of Holly and Will's capture. Rick and Cha-Ka have a tough time communicating, but eventually Rick is led to the Sleestak cave and rescues Holly and Will. This won't be the last time that the Marshall family confronts the Sleestak creatures. They are an important staple of the entire TV series and steal the show every time they make an appearance. Funko toys made a Sleestak bobblehead in the mid 2000s. I'm proud to own two of them in my collection.



One Step Beyond – The Dark Room – Season One – episode four - Aired February 20th, 1959.

An American photographer and photojournalist named Rita Wallace, played by young Cloris Leachman, rents an apartment in Paris with a photo dark room studio and is looking for interesting people to photograph. She asks her landlady, played by Ann Codee, if she knows of anyone with an interesting face to photograph.

A strange French gentleman shows up one day at the photo studio without knocking at the door. Wallace shoots many photos of the man during his visit. The man behaves strangely during one photo session by mistaking Wallace for another woman named Cecile. He chases Wallace around the room to try and strangle her. The man then vanishes into thin air.

At the police station, Wallace tries to identify the man by looking at police file photos. She is unable to find a photo of the man in the police records, but goes back to her photo studio to develop the film used to shoot photos of the man. Unfortunately, not a single negative developed shows a photo of the man.

A police detective takes Wallace to a local cemetery to show her a photo on a grave of an man executed in 1926 for strangling his wife named Cecile. The photo on the grave is the man who visited Wallace's apartment and tried to strangle her.

One Step Beyond premiered to television audiences in the late 1950s, and is said to be a precursor to the much better written and produced – Twilight Zone. Although One Step Beyond may not be as great of a TV show as Twilight Zone, it's still an interesting and fun series to watch. Host John Newland opens and closes each episode with details and questions for the viewer to consider about each story. The show is said to have capitalized on American's burgeoning obsession and interest in paranormal activity and mystery.



Star Trek – Arena – Season One – episode 18 – Aired January 19th, 1967.

Here is another TV show I remember watching as a youngster with my Dad in the mid-1970s. I selected this episode because the Gorn creature that Captain Kirk (William Shatner) fights in the episode has always fascinated me, like the Sleestak creatures in Land of The Lost. Science-fiction aliens and creatures always add another layer of interest to any science-fiction story. Kids love them. I sure did.

The USS Enterprise responds to a distress call from an Earth outpost called Cestus III. Captain Kirk and crew arrive on Cestus III to find the outpost destroyed and at least one survivor. The group falls under heavy attack.

The crew beams back aboard the Enterprise and pursues the alien ship that attacked the outpost. The pursued ship is of an alien race known as the Gorn. When the group confronts the Gorn ship in space, a voice challenges Kirk to a fight on the planet surface below in a “trial by combat.” Kirk fights the Gorn captain in what many science-fiction fans consider to be one of the most unconvincing fights in the history of science-fiction television.

Even as a kid when I saw this episode in the mid-1970s, I thought the Gorn captain looked a bit silly and moved too slowly. This episode may be the episode that convinced me that it's okay if science-fiction aliens don't look entirely convincing or believable. Despite the Gorn captain's unbelievable appearance, he's still fun to watch as he chases after Kirk. Arena was the first Star Trek episode to be shown in color in the UK.



The Outer Limits – The Zanti Misfits - Season One – episode 14 – Aired December 30th, 1963.

A secret military installation operates under the cover of an old ghost town named Morgue in the California desert. The installation has communicated with the planet Zanti. The Zantis are a race of perfectionists who banish their criminals and misfits to the desert near the military installation. A military general approves of the Zanti misfits landing, yet the reason is never explained.

Meanwhile, an abusive, alcoholic man named Ben Garth (Bruce Dern) and his female companion named Lisa Lawrence (Olive Deering) break thru the military installation gate and drive out into the desert with a glove box stashed with stolen money. Their car breaks down with a cracked radiator, leaving them stranded. Both witness the landing of a small space ship shaped like a dome tent on the desert plateau.

Garth climbs the plateau to investigate the spaceship and is attacked by a Zanti – a small ant-like creature with a face with human features. Garth is killed by the Zanti, and Lawrence soon finds him.
Lawrence is rescued by Professor Stephen Grave (Michael Tolan) and taken back to the secret military installation. A herd of Zanti misfits soon arrives and attacks the entire installation. The military soldiers are no match for the Zanti misfits.

Most science-fiction films of the 1950s depicted insects as giant creatures who grow as a result of atomic explosion and atomic testing. The Zanti misfits, however, keeps the insect creature at a smaller scale. This may be part of the unintentional humor of this episode. Giant insects appear to be more threatening and scary.

The history of television is rich with many great cult TV titles. This article has only touched on five great shows. Stay tuned for at least two more articles I will be writing in the future to discuss other cult TV shows. Happy viewing.