Amentep

Oh there are huge gaps in my knowledge, so anyone with more rounded knowledge would beat me. Also it helps if I have reference works handy which wouldn't help in Trivial Pursuit.

I know its mostly supposed to be funny, but to be that guy... The original development for SCOOBY-DOO, WHERE ARE YOU? was inspired by THE ARCHIES cartoon (where Archie, Reggie, Jughead, Betty, Veronica and Jughead's dog Hotdog are a band) crossed with the radio serial I LOVE A MYSTERY (where former WWII Pacific theater vetrans Jack Packard, Doc Long, Reggie York form a detective agency and travel the world to help people caught up in mysteries and intrigue). The show at that time was called MYSTERIES FIVE and had 5 kids in the band (Mysteries Five) named Geoff, Mike, Kelly, Linda, and Linda's brother W.W. and a bongo playing dog named Too Much. Between gigs, the group would solve mysteries. This idea would be developed further to become SCOOBY DOO, WHERE ARE YOU, but would also be used for the most obvious Scooby-Doo clones: Goober and the Ghost Chasers (like Scooby-Doo, but with less kids, Scooby could turn invisible, ghosts were real and would usually assist in helping against the fake ghosts + the Partridge Family. No the real ghosts didn't assist AGAINST the Partridge Family, the Partridge Family just showed up a lot) - Clue Club (like Scooby Doo, but with two dogs helping solve crimes) and The Funky Phantom (like Scooby-Doo, but the dog is a normal dog and they partner with the Ghost of a revolutionary war ghost to solve mysteries) - But the Mysteries Five format is also the starting point for Hanna-Barbera's adaption of Josie and The Pussycats (the version where they tended to solve spy mysteries between gigs), Speed Buggy (three kids and their anthropomorphic buggy car stopped villains between races), Jabberjaws (where a band in the future stopped threats to their marine world with the help of their drum playing shark), and Inch High Private Eye (a tiny detective, his two friends and their dog stops criminals). Arguably Hanna-Barbera wouldn't have tried The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan either, even if the source for the show pre-dates Scooby-Doo...

I don't think they say her name a whole lot in the show as it is, to be fair, and she only really gets one episode dedicated to her and an episode or two later she's gone.

I can't help but wonder how much the creative differences that caused Bryan Fuller to leave the show derailed the actual development of it, cascading through the seasons. The first season isn't focused as all, it commits (IMO) the writing sin of starting at event 1 and not where the story starts (the story starts with Burnham coming to Discovery; the rest is 2 episodes of pointless prologue ("What's Past is Prologue" - yes, I know, throw the rotten fruits)). For shorter seasons like they're doing, they should be taking much smaller bites of the pie. But the first season is a plotting mess, and I think it negatively impacted season 2. I'd argue the first season wasted a lot of time with Klingon politics when that was never the point of the story, really. As a result, Airiam gets no screen time and is "interesting looking crewmember #3 on the bridge" for the first season. But even if they wanted to build up that character's tragedy they could have - but they'd needed to have slowed the pace down a good bit. Which would have helped a number of character storylines for season 2, to be fair, like Tilly-Fungal May and Stamets-smothers-(not-really)-Culber or even Tyler-comes-back-and-awkwardly-reunites-with-Burnham which all just sort of become these brief and broad character bits which I'd rather have spent more time with developing rather than short-handing them in place of giving screen time to another monologue. I feel kind of bad for the actors, as I think they're getting let down in the scripts a good bit with respect to character. And its really weird seeing the main character's ostensibly main romantic relationship acting like an after thought. I like Tilly, Stamets, Culber, Jett, and Saru. I even like Burnham even if her character is all over the place. But they're not really getting a lot of character time. Another set of questions that struck me about season 2 -

Follow through on ideas is one of the weaker things DISCO does. If they spent less time trying to make these "hell yeah!" speech scenes and more time just dealing with the characters and their continuity, they may have time to follow-up on dealing with ideas or concepts that float by the wayside.

Don't use one of those either. Probably laser my eye out if I did. I'm a failure as a leader, clearly.

Illustrator and Artist James Bama. He had a lengthy career, first as a commercial artist where he did advertising art, magazine illustrations, book covers, and product images. This included illustrations for the like of THE SATURDAY EVENING POST like this one: But also for Argosy, Reader's Digest and others, doing both the slick glossies and the Men's Adventure mag market.. He may be best known to a legion of fans, though, for two different products. First, he did a lot of paper back covers like these - But he may be best known today as the man responsible for the look of the Modern Doc Savage, illustrating the iconic first paper-back release that supplanted Walter Baumhofer's original version of the character. He'd go on to do dozens of Doc Savage reprint covers; when he left the series other artists (including Bob Larkin) would imitate his style (and use the same model who posed for the Doc covers, Steve Holland) He was also did a lot of advertising art, like this for Aurora Slot cars; But he was famously the artist responsible for the artwork on the Aurora Monster models that decorated many a Monster Kid's bedrooms: He even did promotional illustrations for the premier of Star Trek on NBC that got used in print ads (as in TV Guide) and later was used as the cover of the first James Blish novelizations. In the late 60s, he moved out west to Wyoming and eventually transitioned into a fine artist rather than a commercial one. Painting whatever interested in him, he primarily did western scenes (cowboys, farmers, Native Americans, landscapes, animals), but also painted other topics (like a series on the people of China from his trip there). Bama was 95.

I never get to point with a stick at my meetings.

End of season 2 of DISCO. I didn't hate it, but why do they have people stop in the middle of intense action to give lengthy monologs? At least Pike shut one down before it got started, but there were so, so many more. The writers really seem to enjoy belaboring a point. Also the pernicious STAR WARS influence on modern Trek is no stronger felt than in the final battle where the Capital Ships of the Rebel Alliance Enterprise and Discovery engage in battle with the Imperial Star Destroyers Control Section 31 Ships while the X-Wings and TIE fighters armed shuttles skirmish.

TNG "Firstborn" - possibly the best Alexander episode. But it sorta just...stops instead of having a real ending. Made me think re: ST: Discovery TNG "Bloodlines" - this was a weak episode. I liked the idea of doing a callback to the 1st season and Bok but the drama falls flat for the most part. The fact that it's ultimately a ruse from Bok makes it even more non-sensical. A better revenge idea with Bok would have made it more interesting. And how many relatives are going to come out of the woodwork this season? DIS "Perpetual Infinity" - speaking of awkward drama, Burnham gets to meet her mom, but the meeting which should be the heart of the episode doesn't work. The side Story working out Leland has been taken over by Killer Bob Control works okay I guess. Perhaps I expected too much from the daughter-mom reunion. DISC - "Through the Valley of Shadows" Pike goes through a metaphysical journey. I thought it was a solid episode.

I haven't seen Hidden Fortress since VHS days. I really should rewatch it.

Dude cooties.

He's still on Twitter. Don't think he tweets as much as he once did, perhaps. I remember Threshold, vaguely. I know I watched it (my memory is that either they moved the time it aired, or I changed the days I worked and anyhow never saw the whole thing). Remember almost nothing else about it. Wouldn't mind revisiting.

That's not what Alan said. He's saying what they're doing with racial topics and CRT, they're doing to LGBTQ+ topics by linking LGBTQ+ to pedophilia, thus making anything related to LGBTQ+ a part of a strategy to 'groom' kids, and thus when they legislate against the LGBTQ+ community, they're doing it under the guise of protecting children from the 'grooming' of 'pedophiles'.

It's funny, I knew Spiner as Bob Wheeler from Night Court (Bob was the head of a rural family that re-occured on the show) so mentally I've always seen him as a comedic actor really.

Its been destroyed in the comics a few times, and has been repaired by the Celestials, by Doctor Strange and Thor (who was channeling the Odin-Force), by Surtur, by Thor again using God Tempest (a galaxy sized galactic storm) and by Angels. I think once the hammer repaired itself.

They have a few comic based options. In the comics (and from memory) Thor has been temporarily replaced by Beta-Ray Bill, Erik Masterson and Jane Foster. Since they're doing Jane Foster now, they could still use Erik later (I doubt we'll see Beta-Ray Bill as the main star, just because he'd be a main character needing major effects work, but I've been wrong before) which would allow for a new Thor without restarting the characters. Also they've had Thor die along with the remaining Norse gods resulting in the rebirth of the gods in the comics (restarting the cycle of origin-gods-ragnarok) which could allow them to recast him and all of Norse gods if needed (including the villains) whenever they need to. There's a few other esoteric replacements they could (but are unlikely to) use as well. Then again Marvel has a LOT of characters, and could just retire the character and replace with a completely different one as well.

Yeah, the German version is supposed to be better, but I had time to watch the short English version. I wish the French version wasn't lost, as it'd be fun to see all three versions. I was just a victim of time though with respect to the German version. I don't think there will ever be consensus on Riefenstahl, whose works were acclaimed at the time for their technical skill even if their role as Nazi propaganda (and thus her role as well) makes them notorious. I thought Brooks had met Riefenstahl when she was in Germany as well? I know G. W. Pabst (Die Büchse der Pandora, Tagebuch einer Verlorenen) had been the co-director of Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü and they all date to 1929.

Triumph of the Will was distributed by UFA. Prior to the Nazi takeover of film in Germany, UFA made a science fiction film F.P.1 antwortet nicht (lit "F.P.1 doesn't answer"). The movie about a race by an idealist, Lt Droste to create a floating platform in the Atlantic for air travel being sabotaged by less-inspired industrialists and political types. Meanwhile Drost, his friend Ellison (a flying ace) and Claire, who owns the docks the plans for the floating platform were created in have a romantic triangle to sort out. A big success, the film inspired an insult to Hitler where he was referred to in the early days of his rise to power as "P.G.1 antwortet nicht." (meaning "Parteigenosse 1 antwortet nicht," or "Party Member 1 doesn't answer.") Maybe you had to be there. But I imagine Hitler took some satisfaction when he took over UFA and had them put out Triumph... F.P.1 was directed by Karl Hartl, an Austian who remained working for the Austrian arm of the German government when they nationalized UFA. Hartl returned to directing post-war in Austria and did so until the early 60s. He died in 1978. F.P.1 starred Hans Albers as the flying ace (who went on to do another sci-fi film that squeaked under the Nazi control, Gold). Albers also stayed in Germany, but as a big star he never endorsed the Nazi party. Albers, after the end of WWII and unlike many actors who stayed in Germany, was able to find work even if in a much reduced fashion, usually in wise old man roles. Partially this was due to his early popularity, partially because he never endorsed the Nazi party and partially because he had a Jewish partner, Hansi Burg. While they stayed partners during the war, for her safety he got her to Switzerland; Albers was so popular he didn't get blacklisted even though the Nazi's knew of the relationship. He died in 1960, having become increasingly dependent on alcohol. His female lead was Sybille Schmitz as Claire. She also stayed in Germany during the war, but post-war her career never recovered despite the fact she had a contentions relationship with the Nazi run film industry. Finding few film roles and spiraling in drugs and depression, she committed suicide in 1955. The third lead, Droste, went to Paul Hartmann. He too stayed in Germany, and like Albers he continued to work after the war through 1969 (and appeared in the 1962 film the Longest Day). He died in 1977. Peter Lorre had a small part as the photographer friend of Albers; Lorre famously fled Germany, first to England and the to the US where he had a long career as heavies in dramatic and comedic roles. Similarly writer Kurt Siodmak, whose book the film was based on and who co-wrote the screenplay, fled Germany, ending up in the US where he changed his name to Curt Siodmak and wrote and directed a veritable 'who's who' list of films that would be recognized by Monster Kids (including The Wolf-Man and I walked with a Zombie) F.P.1 like other big productions in the early sound period was made three times. Once in German, once in French and the Second in English. The French version, called I.F.1 Ne Répond Plus stared Charles Boyer as Ellison. Boyer was already an international star, starring in films made in several countries. While he enlisted during the early part of WWII, he was discharged to make films in the US as it was believed that would support the cause better. He would continue acting in films into the mid-70s. In declining health himself, he committed suicide after the death of his wife. Claire was played by Danièle Parola who made several films in multiple countries in the late 20s and 30s. She was married to actor André Daven and died in 1998. The role of Droste went to Jean Murat who continued making films through the war for France and into the 1960s. He passed away in 1968. The French version of the film is considered lost. The English language version of the film ended up being a much shorter film than the German original. It was released as F.P.1 in the UK, then reissued as Secrets of F.P.1 and released as F.P.1 Doesn't Answer in the US and Where the Light house Shines Across the Bay in Australia (literally WTF Australia?) and starred Conrad Viedt (Cesare in Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari and Gwynplaine in The Man Who Laughs) stars as Ellison. Viedt had a long career in German and UK film, but died young due to a congenital heart condition in 1943. Jill Esmond, Laurence Olivier's first wife, stars as Claire. Her acting career slowed down after Olivier and she divorced so Olivier could marry Vivian Leigh; presumably this was as she had to take care of their son. Olivier and Esmond remained friendly through the rest of his life, and he never stopped paying her alimony. Their son recalls her writing to him late in her life that she still loved Olivier despite everything. She died in 1990. Leslie Fenton played Droste; Fenton was born in the UK but his family had emigrated to the US when he was young. He made many films in the 20s and 30s before becoming a director. His second career was cut short by WWII where he joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve and was wounded during Operation Chariot. Post war her returned to the US and directed a few more films before retiring in the late 1950s. He died in 1978. So all this is the wind-up, but given the Nazi-era film stuff, I thought it might be interesting background. I watched the Secrets of F.P.1 version of this film. Its definitely early sound filming, and I think the shortened running time particularly hurts understanding the relationship triangle between Ellison-Claire-Droste and I think makes the motivations of the saboteurs less clear. But its an engaging early film anyhow, and other than a few quibble about things not being clear in the film, worth watching I think.

I'd argue that Clarisse, in Cagliostro really doesn't get enough time in the film to be a character; she propels the plot but she has no real control over the events unfolding to her and is, for the most part, a prize to be fought for by other characters (to rescue, for Lupin; to exploit, for the Count). At least in The First, Laetitia actually has a role to play in the story and a character arc of her own, its just a shallow arc once it gets revealed in my opinion. But her character arc is imbedded into the plot, and Laetitia is an active participant in the story who helps in the unfolding action, unlike Clarisse who is, to be fair, locked in a room for much of Cagliostro. The animation is a real strong attempt to translate 2d anime into 3d, IMO. From an animation perspective, it reminds me a bit of Genndy Tartakovsky's pulling in 2d US animation style in use of weight and motion into the first Hotel Translyvania film, but in this case for a certain type of anime style (sorry, less up on Japanese anime styles, so not sure I can articulate it better, but it seemed recognizably anime, even though it was 3d). I thought it worked well, but YMMV. I think Mystery of Mamo is going to get a bluray release soon here in the US (if it came out on that format before, I missed it), so that'll probably be next for me Lupin wise, as I'm not sure I have time yet to finish the original TV series. These anime series to watch really stack up if you don't keep up with them!

Supēsu Kobura / Space Cobra Episode XIX: "Naruka!? Gyakuten Hōmu Ran" aka "Will It Happen?! A Grand Slam From Behind" We get the second half of the Rug Ball game. This seems to be the end of the Rug Ball story arc; I really thought they'd continue following drugs to their source, but I guess that's really a job for the Galactic Patrol, not Cobra. **** Not sure if it counts for here, but I also watched Lupin III and the Raiders of the South American Space Ark the inelegantly titled CGI animated move Lupin III: The First. Its a pretty fun family comedy-adventure film. The CGI blends Monkey Punch's original manga designs with the feel of the animated cartoons but all rendered in CGI. If you like some of the other Lupin films, you'll probably enjoy this. Also its a period piece (which I didn't expect) set in the 60s (when the original manga came out) and involves ex-Nazi's trying to get their hands on an archeological secret to resurrect the Third Reich. All the usual players get some good highlight scenes (Fujiko, Jigen, Goemon, Inspector Zenegata). Probably the weak link is the somewhat underdeveloped female lead's dramatic story arc, but its serviceable for what it needs to do in context of the greater story.

Freeman and Olson are both happy; Atlanta misses Freeman, but it seems to have been the rare move that turned out well for everyone.