Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: Aquaman (2006)

Remember that hit show about Aquaman that used to be shown on the CW channel? Neither do I. And no wonder. This show lasted for only one episode.

If nothing else, the casting is a bit unusual. Lou Diamond Phillips is Aquaman's stepdad, Ving Rhames is a fellow Atlantean, Denise Quiñones is an Air Force pilot -- and one female character in the intro doesn't even get her name mentioned in the opening credits. What's up with that?

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: King Kong (2000)

I don't remember this series but then I wasn't watching a whole lot of cartoons in 2000.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: The Raccoons

Hey, it's the 1980s TV show that no one else remembers. Except for raccoons, of course.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: Godzilla (1978)

I used to love Godzilla films when I was a child but I don't remember seeing this animated series. Then again I am not sure I would want to remember doing so given the fact that supporting character Godzooky looks like the Toho mashup of Scrappy-Doo and Jar Jar Binks. After all, it is not like the original Godzilla movie ever needed that type of comic relief.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: Superman (1988)

Wait! There was a Superman cartoon series in the 1980s? Why doesn't anyone tell me these things?

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: Cimarron Strip

Apparently, this was a ninety-minute Western series set in the Oklahoma Panhandle which was created by the makers of Gunsmoke and aired during the 1967-1968 TV season. Although it was produced at the height of the big TV Western craze, it did not last longer than one season.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: Comrade Dad

Back when I was still watching PBS on a regular basis, I used to joke about one day writing a parody of Yes Minister called Yes Commissar, in which a clever British bureaucrat loosely based on Yes Minister's Sir Humphrey Appleby would regularly pull the wool over the eyes of his immediate Soviet superior while living in a Russian-occupied version of Great Britain. I never went through with that concept, of course, which is just as well since this show seemed to have topped my idea without even knowing about it. Perhaps the creators of this show were psychic. Who knows?

Anyway, I would have never thought anyone on either side of the Atlantic would have tried seriously to find humor in the idea of a fictional Soviet occupation but apparently I was wrong. So is this show yet more proof that reality really is stranger than fiction? Or perhaps 1984 and A Clockwork Orange were more influential on British TV writers than I thought.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: The Super 6

Believe it or not, there is life after Bugs Bunny. Noted Looney Tunes animator Friz Freleng used to be one of Warner Brothers' most famous directors of a certain cartoon rabbit but after the WB closed their animation studios in 1963, Freleng and his partner, David H. DePatie, had to found their own animation company (DePatie-Freleng Enterprises) in order to continue working. Their first big hits were the theatrical Pink Panther cartoons which would be later shown on Saturday morning TV. Their first big hit made specifically for the small screen was this rather unusual cartoon show, followed by the short-lived Super President, whose intro I posted last week.

The Super 6 lasted from 1966 to 1969 but for some reason, I don't remember it. Perhaps because I was way too young to remember its original run. Or maybe it was not particularly widely syndicated in my part of country. Whatever the reason, it was definitely before my time.

By the way, if the voices behind that theme song sound familiar, it is because that song was sung by Gary Lewis and the Playboys of "This Diamond Ring" fame. And yes, I was also very young when they were popular.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: Super President

Apparently there really are no new ideas under the sun. Try and think of the silliest idea one could possibly come up for a Saturday morning cartoon show and the chances are that somebody has already thought of it.

In this case, they thought of it in time to air the result on NBC for the 1967-1968 season, only to change their mind after the show's premise provoked protests. And somehow I doubt all the protests came from Republicans.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: Dan August

I had heard that Burt Reynolds once had his own TV show before he hit big in the movies but I never realized that he had people like Mr. Roper and Oscar Goldman on his team. And yet this show never lasted more than one season. Imagine that.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: Mission: Impossible (1988)

So there was an attempted revival of the old Mission: Impossible TV series that lasted two seasons and ended six years before the first Mission: Impossible movie was released? Why doesn't somebody tell me these things?

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: Alvin and the Chipmunks (1983)

Apparently there was an attempt to reboot the original Alvin and the Chipmunks series of the 1960s back in the 1980s that I don't recall. As much I loved the original Chipmunks show, I somehow doubt I was missing much by not seeing this version. Of course, YMMV.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: AfterMash

Here we have not just one but all three intros from one of the few primetime TV shows of the 1980s that I never saw. Unfortunately for the cast, it was never as successful as the show to which it was so obviously a sequel. In fact, its existence has been eclipsed for most people of my generation by the more successful "spin-off" Trapper John, M.D..*



* Legally, Trapper John, M.D. is considered to be a spin-off of the movie M*A*S*H, which inspired the TV series of the same name, and not of the TV series itself. Frankly, I doubt few TV viewers really cared that much and in any event, the show pleased enough people to last a few more seasons longer than AfterMash so obviously somebody liked it.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: The New Adventures of Zorro (1981)

Apparently Zorro is a very popular TV character -- unless, of course, you are a Chicano militant. But unfortunately Chicano militants don't have a whole lot of clout in the TV industry. Thus, a character whose stories were often described by Chicano writers as unrealistic depictions of the old American Southwest proved to be one of the few Hispanic characters to have more than one animated show made about him. Of course, that doesn't include the various live-action versions made about him as well.

This version is particularly impressive when you consider that the most popular pop culture incarnation of Zorro around this time was that silly George Hamilton movie Zorro the Gay Blade, a comedy which basically made fun of the Zorro movies.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: "Muppet Babies"

Back in the 1980s, there was this big trend toward taking the classic characters of yesterday's children's shows and juvenilizing them to provide Saturday morning cartoons for a still younger audience. Of all those efforts, this was perhaps the most famous. Fortunately, I was too old to watch cartoons back then.

Unfortunately, they didn't seem to give a damn whether people liked these shows or not. Of course, nowadays, the idea of Saturday morning cartoons seems as old-fashioned as hay-rides but still it was a great idea while it lasted. Except for shows like this.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: Sapphire & Steel

Well, I think it's nice that actress Joanna Lumley found something to do between The New Avengers and Absolutely Fabulous but I still don't remember seeing this show on the air. My loss, I guess.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: Hammer House of Horror

I don't remember this show ever coming to our side of the Atlantic. When you consider a lot of the British shows that did, that's amazing.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: The Munsters Today

Until I came across bits from this series on YouTube, I had honestly forgotten that there ever was a Munsters reboot, much less one that aired way back in the 1980s.* And after watching this intro, I can see why this show was not more popular. After all, this show's opening credits do not exactly encourage me to think I had missed out on anything by never watching an episode. However, YMMV.

For what it's worth, this is the intro from the first season, starring Mary-Ellen Dunbar as Marilyn Munster:



And this is the intro from the second season, starring Hilary Van Dyke as Marilyn Munster. She first started playing Marilyn after the thirteenth episode of the first season and went on to play her in the third and final season as well. Please don't ask me why she chose a look more reminiscent of Kelly Bundy than the original Marilyn. I guess she had her reasons. Plus neither she nor any of her fellow cast members sing those awful lyrics from the first season intro so that alone is a big plus. The show's theme always worked better as an instrumental, anyway.



* Actually it aired from 1988 to 1991 and lasted one season longer than the original show. Go figure.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: Drak Pack

A trio of teenagers descended from classic movie monsters decide to redeem themselves by becoming superheroes in this animated TV series from the early 1980s. And to think that all this time, I thought "Drak Pack" was a term invented by Marv Wolfman to describe the team of vampire hunters in Marvel's old Tomb of Dracula comic book series.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: Count Duckula

How did I ever miss out on a show like this? I suppose "just lucky, I guess" would not quite be the right answer...