Yet Another Proud Moment!

So yesterday I described how my Little Monster made me proud by recognizing the voice of Tom Servo (see previous blog). Well, she did it again this evening! You know the three-part episode arc of "The Brady Bunch" where they went to Hawaii and got into all kinds of trouble after Bobby finds the supposedly bad-luck tiki idol? Well, The Monster likes the show (poor thing) and loves the Hawaii episodes the best. And who doesn't? I mean, you have a mysterious tiki, Greg showing his mad surfing skills, a giant tarantula menacing Peter, Alice throwing her back out doing the hula, a great guest in the immortal Vincent Price and even a cameo by Don Ho!

Tiki Idol

So what was today's moment of Monster Dad pride? Well, we had hot dogs and baked beans for dinner tonight. I made some innocent reference to the baked beans, and The Monster--without missing a beat--said: "You saved my beans, boy"--which is a quote from Vincent Price in the Hawaii episodes of "The Brady Bunch"! A small moment, but a great one for me personally.

Vincent Price's Beans

This is a scene from the episode in question (via YouTube). It doesn't have the exact quote, but he does mention his beloved beans.

Here's one more recent Vincent Price moment that relates to this. While The Monster doesn't really know who Vincent Price is, per se, she is gradually becoming more familiar with him. I showed her the old commercial for the 1970s game Stay Alive that features Vincent a couple days ago. I asked her where she knew "that guy" from, and she said "The Brady Bunch". Good job! Eventually I'll introduce her to more of Mr. Price's work, but for the moment I don't want to show her anything her little four-year-old psyche can't handle...

Stay Alive commercial

I'm indeed very proud of The Monster, but have to admit that I worry about her a bit too. We don't have cable, so most of her TV-based entertainment comes from her Monster Dad's collection of DVD materials of stuff that he loves (most of which comes from a different era). What's going to happen when she goes to school and everyone else is talking about Hanna Montana, Spongebob, and the latest hip stuff on The Disney Channel, Nick, and whatever else kids are watching these days? She'll be talking about Godzilla, Ultraman, The Love Boat and The Brady Bunch. Will her classmates think she's crazy? I hope not...

A Proud Moment for Monster Dad!

My Little Monster done me proud today and I had to share the news!

A couple months ago I watched the movie "Missile to the Moon" (1958) for the first time. It was just another in a looong line of old horror/Sci-Fi movies I'd never seen. I don't know if I'll ever be able to work my way through all the movies I want to see, but I'm pecking away at them one at a time. "Missile to the Moon" wasn't a great movie, but it was pretty fun. I watched it by myself but brought the Little Monster in for a few scenes that I knew she'd enjoy (namely the scene where the Moon rock monsters make their initial appearance and the scene where one of the earth people, named Gary, gets burned up by the sunlight on the Moon). She did like these scenes and, on sunny days for a couple weeks afterward, would yell "Gary, stay out of the sun!" to me while I pushed her and her sister around in their stroller on walks every time we'd head out of a shady area into a sunny area.

Here's Gary being chased by the rock monsters, about to go into the deadly sunlight!

Yesterday I got the Rifftrax version of "Missile to the Moon" from Netflix. Rifftrax is similar to the show Mystery Science Theater 3000. In fact the guys who do the riffing on the movies are former MST3k personalities. My daughter woke up from her nap in time to watch the best parts of the movie with me. I hadn't explained to her that this was Rifftrax's version of the movie and that it was their voices making the comments over the film. Suddenly she turned to me with a serious look and asked me "Daddy, is Tom Servo in this?" Well, the thing I haven't mentioned yet is that one of the members of Rifftrax is former MST3K member Kevin Murphy--who did the voice of robot Tom Servo on that show! The Little Monster recognized his voice and remembered the Tom Servo character--who happens to have the same voice as Kevin Murphy of course. I was extremely proud of her in that moment! To top it off, she then asked if we could watch "Eegah" (1962), a former favorite movie of hers. I introduced her to "Eegah" a couple years ago because it's the movie featured in my all-time favorite episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (as well as simply being a great bad movie in general). She knew that we'd be watching the MST3k version of "Eegah" with Joel, Crow T. Robot and (of course) Tom Servo! How great is that I ask you?

Tom Servo

If you'd like to see a little of what this movie "Missile to the Moon" is all about, check out this clip from YouTube. We have not seen this colorized version, but it looks pretty cool (blue Moon-chicks and all). Keep an eye out at the end for Gary's demise. When The Monster first watched this scene and saw Gary turn into a skeleton she made the remark "Now they're gonna put him in a museum."

"Missile to the Moon"

Boston Children's Museum - Then & Now

Recently we took our two Little Monsters to the Boston Children's Museum. The oldest had a great time, and the other was only about nine- or ten-months-old at the time so she was pretty much oblivious. But rather than delve into this recent trip itself I'd like to talk about a little mystery about the museum that had bothered me since our visit, but which has now been partially solved.

Before the trip to Boston, the wife and I discussed our experiences with the museum from when we had visited it ourselves as kids. She remembered a room where kids would try on all kinds of clothes. I didn't recall this from my visit (probably around 1980 or so), but I remembered a computer room which had a bunch of "modern" computer terminals that would let you play neat-o electronic games and activities on them. The thing that drew my attention was a bank of switches and blinking lights along one wall. This unit had clear plastic strips over the switches so you could see them but not touch them--but the small hand of a ten-year-old could easily slip past the plastic. I was having a grand ol' time playing spaceman until I noticed that the kids at the computer terminals seemed to be getting very frustrated. Just as a museum employee started heading toward me I realized that this unit wasn't part of the exhibit and wasn't supposed to be touched. Apparently I was randomly resetting and otherwise messing up all the computer terminals. It must have been some sort of 1980s-era server unit of some sort. I left the vicinity before I could get yelled at. Why would you have a big, inviting wall-o-switches and blinking lights in a museum where you were encouraged to touch everything and then not expect kids to touch it? I didn't see any signs saying "Do Not Touch" or anything like that. Oh well.

Anyway, my other main memory from that day (not counting having orange soda come out of my nose when I laughed while eating lunch in the McDonald's restaurant in the museum) was a big exhibit of old cars and other transportation objects that we visited. The funny thing was that you were supposed to look at, but not touch, these exhibits. This seemed a bit strange when everything else was so hands on. It was like something from a completely different museum. I kind of thought that maybe my memory of this part of the day was faulty--but it seemed so clear. Similar to my favorite part of the Children's Museum (the forbidden switch panel), this exhibit had a section of a big jet airliner's control console. It was a big, tall section (taller than the ten-year-old me) of a bunch more switches--many with those cool red safety covers over them--that I had another grand ol' time playing with (though I'm not sure if I was supposed to be playing with those switches either).

Panel similar to the one I played with

Needless to say, when we went back to the museum with the kids after all these decades it had changed drastically. The giant Hood Milk bottle was still out front, but nothing inside rang any bells with me or my wife. Obviously a lot of things have changed in the world of children's museums since the early 1980s, and in a place where touching and interaction are encouraged the objects themselves can't possibly last for very long before they have to be replaced. I certainly understand why the computer room was gone. In an age where kids grow up with the internet from birth and having access to computers in their homes, at school and pretty much everywhere else they go, a room like that would be pretty boring and obsolete. Actually, a room like that would fit in rather nicely in a display of historical technologies in some kind of computer museum I think, but I digress...

Where was the dress-up area my wife remembered? Where were all the antique cars and stuff I remembered? Nothing in this children's museum felt familiar in any way to either of us. We just chalked it up to being former kids now nearing middle-age who are a bit out of touch with what goes on in today's children's museums.

Then a couple weeks ago I found myself in the Worcester Public Library doing a little research on some old local TV programming when a neat little coincidence happened. While looking through microfilm for the Boston Globe from 1979 I stumbled across something that solved the two biggest mysteries that were bothering me about the Children's Museum. The Sunday July 1, 1979 Globe TV Week section had a photo of Mary Richardson and Captain Kangaroo on the cover. What were they doing together? Why, they were hosting a show about the opening of the brand-new Boston Children's Museum in it's new home on the waterfront of course! Seems like the museum had moved from its former location and was set to open on that very day. It was quite the event, occurring a couple days before the Fourth of July and warranting two TV specials and quite a few pieces in the newspapers.

The articles on that day and the next described much of what was new and exciting in the museum. It featured an exhibit called "Grandparents' House", which had a "Grandfather's Basement" filled with tools and stuff for kids (obviously mainly meant for boys in that more innocent and less PC age) to play with. The "Grandmother's Attic" featured...all kinds of clothes that kids (obviously geared more toward girls) could try on! Hey, Mystery Number One solved!

But what about my kooky memory about the antique cars and stuff? Well, it turns out that wasn't in the Children's Museum, but... The same renovated building that housed the Children's Museum also happened to be the new home of the Boston Transportation Museum! Mystery Number Two solved!

I wonder how many thousands of kids went to both museums like I did and were confused and frustrated by the fact that, after playing with hands on exhibits and stuff all day, you suddenly found yourself in a place (in the same building) full of cool stuff that you couldn't touch. The Boston Globe write up on the opening of the museums actually brought up this confusing conflict of rules. Check out this excerpt from page 16 of the Monday July 2, 1979 issue of the Globe written by Terry Ann Knopf:

"But with two museums housed in the same building, comparisons are bound to be made. And, whereas the Children's Museum emphasizes participation, the Transportation Museum tends to be preachy. Significantly, one irate father kept ordering his son to read the signs around the cars. For all its thoroughness and attention to detail, the Transportation Museum is more of a throwback to the standard collector's museums and lacks the cleverness and imagination of its sister on the floors below.

Nor are matters helped by the fact that all of the displays but one are strictly hands off. After experiencing the Children's Museum, youngsters are bound feel frustrated, if not cheated, upon learning they cannot board a car or go up and down on an elegant Victorian elevator. Essentially, all they may do is look."

The Children's Museum has changed a LOT over the past thirty-plus years. The Transportation Museum is long gone and the Children's Museum has greatly expanded over time. Not only has all the "stuff" I saw long since been replaced, the layout of the whole museum is completely different. The same 1979 Boston Globe article referred to the "fabulous outdoor glass elevator which provides a stunning view of Boston". This elevator is still there, but it is now inside the building due to all the expansion.

It probably seemed like a good idea at the time to pair the Transportation Museum with the Children's Museum in the same renovated building. The Transportation Museum probably figured they'd draw in many people who had just visited the Children's Museum--kind of piggy-backing on the drawing power of it. I certainly enjoyed seeing all the cool transportation-related exhibits there when we went way back then. But at some point it must have become obvious that a hands on museum and a static one weren't meant to share the same space. I wonder if the Transportation Museum decided to leave, or if it was forced out by the successful Children's Museum's expansions over the years. I guess that's another mystery for another time...

TV Guide Time Machine

...Not to be confused with the Hot Tub Time Machine!

I don't consider that new, glossy Hollywood-gossip and trash magazine to be TV Guide (despite the familiar logo). The old ones were the real TV Guides. This new "version" barely even has TV listings in it anymore. And they don't cover local programming at all--just what's on the major networks, cable channels, PBS...

A couple years ago I started looking at old TV Guides from the Boston/Worcester/Eastern New England regions. I wanted to see the listings for the local TV stations from back when I was a kid (roughly 1975-1985) and when WLVI TV56 played Creature Double Feature on Saturday afternoons. In fact, CDF was the main reason I wanted to check these old issues out. But then I discovered that the old TV Guides can act as a sort of time machine (at best) or at least a time capsule (at worst) for someone who watched a goodly amount of TV as a kid. Old TV Guides have now developed into a bit of an obsession for me.

I did spend a lot of time playing outside as a kid, and enjoyed a variety of other activities besides sitting in front of the tube. But I did enjoy sitting in front of the tube too! In the mid-80s I used to love racing home from school to watch the old 1960s "Spiderman" cartoon on channel 25. After that I'd watch Force Five and Star Blazers. That would give me enough animated excitement to last until the next day.

The weekend was the best time of the week for a kid of course--both TV-wise and otherwise. My absolute favorite part of the week was the moment I got home from school on Friday. It was the longest possible time until I had to go back to school. A perfect TV weekend would include watching the standard cartoons listed above after school on Friday afternoon, and then watching "The Incredible Hulk" and "The Dukes of Hazard" later on channel 7 (CBS).

Saturday would start with cartoons--at least until I got my paper route and never seemed to manage to get up early enough to do the route AND get home in time to watch cartoons. That was okay though, because at 1:00 in the afternoon channel 56 would roll out Creature Double Feature--a twosome of some of the scariest (to a little kid at least) and most exciting monster, horror and sci-fi movies that a geeky kid could ever ask for. After a Godzilla movie (or something similar) at 1:00 and another spookfest at 2:30, WLVI 56 would run it's 4 O'Clock movie. Sometimes this would be something cool like a Don Knotts comedy ("The Reluctant Astronaut", "The Shakiest Gun in the West", "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken", "The Incredible Mr. Limpet...), but was more frequently a Doris Day comedy or an Annete Funicello/Frankie Avalon beach movie--not really my cup of tea. Things would perk up at 6:00 though when Channel 27 would air it's weekly Abbott & Costello movie. I'd always hope for one like "Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein", "Abbott & Costello Meet The Mummy" or "Abbott & Costello go to Mars", but pretty much any Abbott & Costello movie would suffice. Saturday night would close out with "The Love Boat" and "Fantasy Island" on WCVB Channel 5 (ABC).

So, back to the TV Guides. I originally wanted to look through them to see the ads that WLVI sometimes put in for Creature Double Feature, but then I started seeing all the other great programming that was on TV--even in those dark days before cable and having hundreds of channels with nothing good to watch on them. I haven't even mentioned WSBK TV38 and all the monster movies that they'd play. Or the fact that channel 38 had Dana Hersey and The Movie Loft, and it was the channel that introduced me to "The Twilight Zone" on late nights in the mid-80s when I was supposed to be in bed!

Leafing through those old TV Guides isn't like entering a real time machine of course--it's not like you can check what's on and then flip on the TV, adjust the rabbit ears, and start watching those same old shows. But it's a pretty neat and nostalgic thing to do just the same. Now that almost EVERYTHING is available on DVD, one could conceivably re-create a day's programming from the TV Guide if one really wanted to I suppose.

I'm now doing a little collecting of TV Guides from certain specific periods of my youth (namely that same 1975-1985 range mentioned earlier). I'm hoping to scan some of the neat ads that appeared in them for movies and TV shows. Most likely I'll be writing some blogs that will be based on these listings in some way in the near future. Not sure exactly what the format will be, but Stay Tuned.

...Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-Channel!

Explanation of the Unexplained...

Before we go any further I would like to explain the origins of some of my kids' nicknames that may be seen in these blogs--especially for anyone who doesn't know me. I've always been a giver of nicknames. Generally something will pop into my head when I meet someone for the first time, or possibly something someone does or says will come to define them by the nickname that certain "something" causes me to bestow upon them. The nicknames frequently evolve over time (just ask The Wife, aka Schmoopie, Schnoodle, Strudel, Poodle, Noodles...), but sometimes they become fixed. There's no hard and fast rule or anything.

My first daughter has had a plethora of nicknames over her four-and-a-half years on this planet, but the one that seems to come up the most often (and which will be seen most in these blogs) is "Monster". Variations include, but are not limited to: "Little Monster", "My Little Monster" and "The Monster". This probably sounds like something with a negative connotation, but I assure you it's actually a term of endearment. When she was very little I was always amazed by how cute and small she was. I figured that monsters are generally called monsters because there's something "monstrous" about them. They are usually either monstrously large, monstrously ugly, monstrously scary or monstrously strong (or some combination of those traits). Whatever it is, some quality or qualities of the monster tend to be monstrous in some way. I figured that if something could be considered a monster because it was so monstrously huge and ugly, why couldn't something else be considered a monster because it was so monstrously small and cute?

The name stuck. then it became even more appropriate as the Little Monster started showing an interest in some of the things I liked to watch--namely monster and science fiction movies and shows. As I inadvertently (or maybe not-so-inadvertently) started shaping my poor daughter into a Monster Kid in the mold of her dear old Dad, the name "Monster" started seeming even more fitting! For proof that her nickname doesn't have a negative connotation, check out these other variations that she is called from time to time: "Cuteness Monster", "Precious Monster", "Baby Monster", "Mini-Monster" and "Micro-Monster". How could those be interpreted as negative?

My second daughter is a bit of a different story. She gets called "Monster", "The Monster", "The Little Monster" (and even her own variation--"The Littlest Monster") too, but she has also earned her own distinct moniker. As soon as she started crawling she always seemed to be getting into trouble. The only things that she was interested in were things she shouldn't be playing with or messing with (sharp objects, messy objects, fragile objects...). Of course this is a natural trait of babies, and we already saw it with the first Monster, but Number Two seemed to take the concept to an extreme. The problem was exacerbated by the fact that Monster Number One couldn't grasp the idea that her "dangerous" (i.e. small, swallowable, breakable and/or pointy) toys had to be kept out of the reach of her little sister. It was also worsened when the baby transformed into a toddler and started to walk (and seemingly be able to reach a little higher and further every day as she grew). For all of these reasons she became known as the "Insane Beast". I'm not exactly sure why those two words came together, but they did. As I'd run to try to stop her from breaking something (or herself) I'd exclaim "You insane beast!", or something similar. Like with Monster Number One, the name just seemed to stick. "Destructive Creature" has also been used, but it just doesn't have the same ring as "Insane Beast" for whatever reason.

So, when you see my daughters being referred to as Monsters or Insane Beasts, rest assured that there is no ill intent meant toward them. They are simply personal nicknames that may sound a bit outlandish to someone not familiar with me or my ways, but which are generally the same as someone else calling their kids "Sweetheart" or "Honey". Hope this information was helpful to you.

Monster Dad's Father's Day 2010

Father's Day started out very nice today. I slept in a bit (which is a luxury when you have a one- and a four-year-old). The Wife and my Little Monster then brought in the sports section from the newspaper, the card the Monster had made for me and...Breakfast in Bed! Now, I had made breakfast in bed for the The Wife back on Mother's Day, but it was admittedly a pretty lame excuse for a breakfast. We didn't have a lot around the house at the time, so it consisted of tea, cereal with milk, toast with butter and jelly and a banana. I suppose it's the thought that counts. Anyway, MY breakfast in bed consisted of scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns and watermelon!

Next, my Little Monster accompanied me on a trip to the flea market. She was being very cute and charming everyone. I picked up a few old TV Guides from the 1970s + 80s that have some very cool ads for Creature Double Feature and other stuff. The Monster got a new (old) Barbie, a couple stuffed animals and a "Bolt" comic book (given to her by one of the people she charmed along the way).

Here she is hugging the Jolly Green Giant to prove she's not afraid of him (despite the fact that "He doesn't look like The Hulk, but he does a little bit."):

Here she is soon after declaring "Look Daddy, it's Tom Servo! Just kidding!":

And here she is with her new bear after the ride home (it was an exhausting shopping trip apparently):

Later in the day we all went to visit my parents to wish my Dad a Happy Father's Day. This was followed by a drop-in at the home of some friends. We only planned on stopping by to say "hi", but were invited to join their big Father's Day dinner of steak, chicken, bratwursts, baked mac & cheese, pasta salad and all the fixins! What a treat! Nothing like good company and good food.

There's still an hour left of Father's Day. Maybe I'll watch a little "Daddy" stuff. Perhaps an episode of "In Search of..." or "The Twilight Zone"? Perhaps a monster movie? Let's see what looks good...

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

EXTERMINATE!

Just a quick post. Yesterday the Bug-Guy stopped by to give our house its annual treatment. It was just in time too--as we were starting to see little columns of tiny brown ants that were coming in through our side entrance and marching right into the kitchen and up onto our counters. These little guys were nothing like the giant beasts in the movie "Them" (1954), but a bothersome nuisance just the same.

The little ants we tend to see occasionally don't bother me as much as another of our persistent guests--the dreaded House Centipede. These buggers are disgusting, and they tend to show up when and where you least expect to see them. Not only are they too gross to want to squash, but they're a lot faster than it seems like they could be--which also makes squashing difficult.

Anyway, those nasty buggers are a topic for another time. What I wanted to mention here was something interesting that appeared in the bill from the exterminator (and I'm not talking about the price charged for services rendered). I don't know much about the chemicals pest eliminators use, but it isn't surprising that there's a wide variety of them available. The bill had a list of chemicals so the exterminator could check off which ones he used. Some of these have pretty scary names. Some might even make good titles for horror movies! Check these out:

WASP FREEZE

BORID BORIC ACID

STING RAY

PERMA DUST

DEMON WP

DRIONE

CONTRAC BLOCK

TEMPO S/C ULTRA

TALON G MINI PELLETS

KICKER

And my favorites... (exclamation points added for effect)

TERMIDOR!

TRI-DIE!

MAXFORCE!

"You thought that 'The Terminator' was bad-ass? You thought 'Godzilla' was a terror? You thought Hannibal Lecter was sick? Well, you haven't seen anything yet. Brace yourselves for the most fearsome creature the earth has ever seen. Prepare for the arrival of...TERMIDOR!"

"In a world where good and evil are a confused jumble of violence...where the phantoms of the night come out in broad daylight...where your worst fears are realized on a daily basis...you'll discover that even death won't protect you from the horrifying new reality. It's not enough to die ONCE. It's not enough to die TWICE. No, in this world you'll discover that three times is the charm. This is the world of...TRI-DIE!"

"Coming soon to a theater near you! He was left for dead--but he rose from the abyss to become a one-man force of vengeance. The evil-doers won't know what hit them. They will rue the day that they decided to mess with...MAXFORCE!"

Seatopia Sucks!

This isn't a review of the film "Godzilla vs. Megalon" (1973), but rather a diatribe against the subterranean race in the film that threatens to destroy the people of the surface world (us) because they're pissed that we have been testing atomic bombs, and they have gotten tired of dealing with all the bad vibrations caused by the detonations.

"Godzilla vs. Megalon" is one of the late-era Godzilla movies where the former Japan-squashing terror has been transformed into a kid-loving, cuddly, funny good guy. I won't bash this aspect of the series because I grew up loving these movies (and, being the demographic target of them, didn't realize that they were specifically geared to appeal to me). The main problem I have with them is their heavy-handed attempt to thrust upon unsuspecting kids various ecological and other concerns. In this case it is the danger of man messing with nature and the atom. In the case of "Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster" (1971) it was pollution. This was the early 1970s after all, and I suppose the filmmakers wanted to convey a message that hippies, conservationists and the Earth Day movement were promoting.

Anyway, Seatopia became the vehicle for the promotion of the ecological message in "Godzilla vs. Megalon". The bad guy of the movie is supposedly the monster Megalon--but the people of Seatopia are the ones who unleash him to destroy the surface world, so they are the real protagonists.

Seatopians are apparently a bunch of hippies who dance around and (for some mysterious reason) have a middle-aged, hairy American dude in a toga, wearing an Isis tiara as their leader. His name is Emperor Antonio (huh?). I guess he must have added a bit of an "exotic" feeling for Japanese audiences, but for an American audience he is just plain-old lame. The disco-dude leader isn't the only thing lame about Seatopia though. Their coolest claim to fame is that they are somehow connected to those mysterious statues on Easter Island. I'll concede that's pretty cool, but how long can you coast on that one fact?

Emperor Antonio

Easter Island Statues

You could say "Yeah, but they control a huge kaiju monster who does battle with Godzilla." Yes, but, for a giant monster, Megalon is pretty lame himself. He's a giant beetle with strange drill bits for hands. That sounds cool, but they don't seem to have much use. He doesn't really use them as drills. He just kind of bangs them together to indicate he's ready to fight. I'm more inclined to believe that he was supposed to have really neat claws, but suffered some sort of birth defect or something like that (possibly caused by the surface dwellers' poisonous radioactive bomb activities?) and he ended up with what we see in the movie.

I'm not done ragging on Megalon. He also seems to be barely able to rouse himself when he's summoned to the surface by Seatopia's fearless leader. One of the quotes that has always stayed with me from this movie has the leader saying something to the effect of: "Oh Megalon, great and powerful one, protector of the people of Seatopia, rise up and defeat our enemies on the surface world. Megalon...Wake Up!" Once he finally does get to the surface, he has to be guided to his target by a robot that was made by a surface-dwelling toymaker. More on that robot later.

If all this isn't bad enough, even the Seatopians seem to realize that their monster-savior is somewhat lame. While the battle is getting underway we discover that they had to request another monster (from another universe no less!) to aid Megalon. This monster is Gigan--another strange creature who is sent, upon request, from the Star Hunter M Universe! Gigan has a pretty cool-looking sunglasses-type visor-thing for eyes, and a table saw mounted in his chest--but he's also saddled with awkward hooks for his hands and feet. He's very pointy, but not really a very effective monster.

Finally, the "great" civilization of Seatopia can't even create their own robot to guide Megalon to his target (kind of like a 1970s version of a GPS unit). They send a couple of agents (two Japanese-looking guys who each have a trait that makes them seem more "exotic" so they can pass for inner-earth dwellers: one has a chunky black beard and the other one has a Michael Penn-esque hairdo) to hijack the robot Jet Jaguar. Jet Jaguar may be the coolest character of the movie, but it's interesting that he's the creation of a bachelor toymaker who has his little brother (nephew, step-son, foster child, youthful ward?) living with him in his workshop.

Michael Penn

The Seatopian agents tell the good guys that their race is working on an army of robots but supposedly don't have the time or resources to do it on their own (yeah, right). Instead they plan on stealing Jet Jaguar and using his technology to create their army. Lame, lame, lame! Needless to say, the Seatopians' plans all fall apart. Jet Jaguar is returned to the good side (and inexplicably programs himself to grow to the size of the other monsters). He joins forces with Godzilla and they take down Megalon and Gigan in a tag team match for the ages! Seatopia is destroyed and the surface dwellers (us) are able to return to their atomic testing in peace.

In closing, Seatopia is like many of the fangless dictatorships we've seen over the past few decades, who bluster and threaten with great sound and fury, but can't back up their words with actions: Iraq's Saddam Hussein, Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, North Korea's Kim Jung Il... The list goes on and on. Seatopia's toga-wearing disco leader fits right in with these losers. He should have left well enough alone--claiming that eventually he'd unleash Megalon to start the mother of all battles while reminding everyone how cool their Easter Island connection was (hell, there was even an "in Search of..." episode dedicated to the mysterious statues).

R.I.P. Seatopia ...That bunch of posers!

"Godzilla vs. Megalon" Trailer

Who is Monster Dad?

Who is Monster Dad, and why does he want us to read his thoughts? Good questions, and I hope to answer them with my first blog here.

"Monster Kid" is a term for kids who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s watching and enjoying horror and science-fiction movies. This was an era filled with these kinds of films--many of them tending to be of less than high quality (B-movies). While these films were being cranked out at an alarming rate to be screened at local theaters and drive-ins, there was also another phenomenon taking place that further influenced these children. Kids were being exposed to older monster movies--like the classic Universal films "Dracula" (1931), "Frankenstein" (1931), and "The Wolf Man" (1941), as well as their many sequels--on TV through late-night shows like Chiller Theatre. The combination of watching new movies at the theater and seeing older ones on late-night TV left a strong impression on many of these impressionable children. Sure, not all kids watched this kind of stuff, and not all of those that did were greatly affected by them--but many were. Before you simply dismiss these kids as future geeks, consider that writers like Steven King and directors like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were Monster Kids back then. They may be geeks, but they're very successful geeks!

Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s was a different experience. The relative innocence of horror movies like "Attack of the Crab Monsters" (1957) and "Invasion of the Saucer Men" (1957) was replaced by the blood and gore of slasher movies like "Friday the 13th" (1980) and "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984). I suppose that the counter-culture of the late 1960s/early 1970s may have had something to do with this change in the idea of what horror was, but saying that to explain it would be too simple. There are many factors involved with the evolution of horror/Sci-Fi cinema that I don't even know, and trying to list and consider them all would easily fill up a blog of their own. So let's keep with the subject at hand.

I have frequently found myself wishing that I had grown up in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and being somewhat jealous of those Monster Kids who did. I love many of the movies of the period and it would have been so cool to have been able to see and experience them when they were brand new. Even as a kid it always seemed like I was missing out on something while growing up two decades too late. It wasn't until later that I realized how lucky I actually was to have grown up when and where I did. As it turns out, there were a lot of horror/sci-fi shows on TV at the time that featured those very same (though now old) monster movies from the 1950s and 1960s.

I grew up in the small town of Uxbridge, Massachusetts. The 1970s/early 1980s was a time before cable came to town, and our television could barely pick up the signals from the Boston TV stations. Among these stations were great independent UHF channels like WSBK TV38 and WLVI Channel 56. Starting in the mid-1970s Channel 56 began regularly running a show called Creature Double Feature on Saturday afternoons. [Look for a blog on Creature Double Feature in the future.] Two horror/Sci-Fi movies would be shown at 1:00 and 2:30 PM every week. Through this great show (as well as the programming of many other Boston-area channels) I was able to experience many of the great (bad) movies that I felt I had missed out on by not being able to watch them at a theater when they were new. Without even realizing it I had become a Monster Kid myself! I suppose you could call people like me "Monster Kids: The Next Generation". Most likely a lot of the people responsible for what was put on the independent TV channels back then were folks who had grown up watching these same movies when they were kids. Throwing a couple public domain horror movies on was a cheap and effective way to fill up a few hours of programming. Nowadays it's much more cost effective to fill that time with paid programming (informercials). If the kids of today only knew what they were missing out on! Of course, many of the movies shown on Creature Double Feature weren't really that old at the time. I mean, a classic movie made in the 1950s, like "Creature from the Black Lagoon" (1954), would have been barely twenty years old in the 1970s and a more recent film like the Bigfoot-themed movie "Creature from Black Lake" (1976) would have only been a few years old when aired in the early 1980s. A show similar to Creature Double Feature today would most likely be showing stuff from the 1990s and early 2000s.

Of course kids today also have many more entertainment options than we had in the 1970s. Not only is cable television pretty much standard now, but we also have DVD and BluRay players (having already seen the era of the VCR come and go), DVRs, TiVo and video game systems that are light years better than the primitive Pong games of the 1970s and the Atari, Coleco and Nintendo systems of the 1980s. Add to this the virtually unlimited entertainment power of the internet and the fact that cell phones are ubiquitous and can do pretty much everything but make phone calls (oh yeah, they still do that--though it seems like it's the least popular feature on them in this age of texting, taking photos, downloading music and surfing the web on phones).

I'm beginning to digress here. Some of this stuff may become the basis of future blogs. But getting back to this one... Let's flash forward to the 2000s. I never really realized the lasting impact that Creature Double Feature had on me until a friend and I discovered a web site and message board dedicated to the show back in September 2006. It seems that a lot of other people who grew up in the Boston area had fond memories of watching the show too. I suddenly had a great feeling of nostalgia for those old days of black & white TVs, rabbit-ear antennas and snowy reception while watching crappy movies that nevertheless scared the crap out of me. Suddenly, memories of many of these movies returned to me and I had to see them again. It was a strange experience to see just how bad (and not very scary at all) many of these movies actually were. They were thrown together quickly and cheaply to turn a quick buck. The vast majority of them had miniscule budgets--and the terrible monster costumes and special effects reflected that fact. The funny thing was that, regardless of this lack of "quality", I still loved watching these movies even after all those years.

Another thing happened in the mid-2000s that has a lot to do with the Monster Dad moniker of this blog: I became a father for the first time in November of 2005. My poor (or lucky, depending on your point of view) daughter would have to grow up with a former Monster Kid as a dad. By now the reason for "Monster Dad" should be clear: 1.) I was a Monster Kid. 2.) If I have any say in the matter my daughter will also be a Monster Kid (at least to some extent). And 3.) For better or worse, I am now a Monster Dad!

It's a strange, and surprisingly complex, thing to be trying to instill a love of old monster movies into your kid--while making sure you don't turn her into a freak or scar her for life by showing her something that's too scary for her to see at her age. I want my daughter to grow up liking what she likes. I don't want to force any of my favorite movies and shows on her just because I liked them as a kid. At the same time, she's been very receptive to watching stuff that I think is cool. Perhaps she only feels sorry for me and is just humoring me, but I don't think that's the case.

I feel that, for a four-and-a-half year old girl, my daughter's interests are pretty well-rounded. My wife didn't want her to grow up in a world where she was only allowed to be interested in Disney Princesses, Barbies, dolls, ponies and the color pink. She does like all those things, but at the same time she also loves toy cars and trucks, fire engines, "Star Wars", Spiderman and bugs. She doesn't really see the differences between traditionally "boy" or "girl" stuff--she just likes what she likes.

Obviously I'm having some influence on her by exposing her to the stuff that I liked as a kid (and still like). I get excited about the thought of showing her something "new" that I grew up loving when I was young, but have to think about whether she's old enough for it. Like I said, many of those old 1950s and 1960s horror movies are really bad and not particularly scary, but to an imaginative child who's watching them with an open mind they can still be very effective! [My thoughts on the imagination of a child will most definitely be the subject of a future blog.] She is fine with some movies and shows, and others will just be too frightening for her. Trying to find the right balance without inducing nightmares isn't as easy as it seems like it might be.

Well, now you've got an idea of who Monster dad is. You can decide for yourself whether you want to read his thoughts or not. There will most likely be more than a few blogs here about the adventures and mis-adventures of being a Monster Dad, but that's not all you'll find.

I've never been too sure how I feel about blogs in general. As you can tell by my frame of reference I'm a bit older than many hip, young bloggers out there. When blogs first appeared, and were the hot internet thing for a while, I thought they were kind of dumb--just another example of how self-centered the world was becoming (future blog material here?). It seemed so egotistical to think that millions of people would want to read what you were thinking, just because you were thinking it. Obviously some people were better at blogging than others, and some people chose to write (or should I say "blog") about things that others found interesting. Whatever the case, blogging really took off (and I'm sure I don't need to be giving a history of blogs to someone reading a blog).

Political blogs seem to be very popular--though I have to admit that I don't really understand why. Part of the problem I have with blogs is the whole idea of how we, as humans, tend to believe what we read. Everyone has a right to their opinions, but the idea of getting your political news from a blogger (who has no need to be unbiased) seems a bit odd to me (the old codger that I am).

Of course there are blogs about all kinds of subjects--sports, movies, TV shows, parenting, fishing, golfing, celebrities... Pretty much anything that anyone is interested in can be blog fodder. I probably won't be doing much political blogging (though you never know...), but I do hope to write about a variety of topics. You can expect more about my parenting experiences, more about my love of old horror/Sci-Fi movies (probably some random movie reviews too), as well as my other interests (yes, I do have other interests), sports stuff, the horrors of home ownership, random thoughts on life... I guess this won't be a blog with a real focus. Whatever seems worth writing about will be what I write about. Hopefully that's a good enough reason to write a blog. We'll see.

Okay, let's get going...

By the way, I chose the url http://monsterdad69.blogspot.com/ (referencing the year I was born) because http://monsterdad.blogspot.com/ was already taken (by someone who has never even posted a blog on it in the two-plus years it's been up by the way!).