BEST OF FEBRUARY 2025

Balladeer’s Blog’s annual end of year retrospective looks at February’s most popular posts.

GENE HACKMAN: R.I.P. – HIS BEST 1970s ROLES – With the passing of actor Gene Hackman I examined some of his best roles in 1970s movies HERE.

COOL-NAMED SPORTS TEAM: ARKANSAS STATE AT NEWPORT – It’s HERE.

LUCKY SEVEN: SYRACUSE’S PIRATE TELEVISION STATION IN 1978 – For three wild days a renegade broadcasting crew dared to air commercial-free and eccentric programming. Click HERE.

KRIS STRAUB’S NEW EPISODES OF HIS ONLINE SERIES LOCAL 58 TV – I looked at them HERE. 

THE TELEVISION GHOST: REALLY, REALLY FORGOTTEN TELEVISION (1931-1933) – Much earlier than most people realize, television broadcasts were already hitting the airwaves, including this horror anthology series.

I threw in 1930s newspaper listings of some of the other primitive tv offerings of the time. Click HERE.

BALLADEER’S BLOG RANKS THE PRESIDENTS – I composed this list the way that anyone trying to be objective should – by omitting the most recent presidents. Click HERE.

COOL NAMED SPORTS TEAM: BLACKHAWK TECHNICAL COLLEGE – It’s HERE.

MOTOR PIRATES (1906) – My review of an early silent sci-fi film short featuring a high-tech, armed and armored vehicle and its criminal designers. Click HERE.

PROFILES IN COURAGE (1964-1965) – This Forgotten Television series was inspired by John F. Kennedy’s book and presented dramas about heroic men and women from U.S. history. Click HERE.

COOL NAMED SPORTS TEAM: JOHN MELVIN UNIVERSITY – Click HERE.

TEXAS 27 FILM VAULT – I marked the cult show about bad movies’ 40th anniversary year. Mars Needs Women and Demon from Devil’s Lake HERE, Queen of Blood HERE.

ASTREA: STRONGWOMAN OF ITALIAN SILENT FILMS – Before Gina Carano, Sigourney Weaver or Milla Jovovich came this butt-kicking action starlet from Italy HERE. She did films from 1919-1922 then vanished.

BESS THE DETECTRESS: SILENT FILM ADVENTURESS (1914) – This series of shorts starred Bess Meredyth, starlet, writer, director and the wife of Michael Curtiz (Casablanca) and mother of sci-fi writer John Meredyth Lucas (Star Trek). She’s HERE. 

ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION – Elektropolis (1928) a German novel about a high-tech city built in the Australian desert HERE, Adventures of Esplandian (1510) when California was an island and the home of odd creatures and a matriarchal civilization HERE, and El Hombre Artificial (1910) an Argentine story about obscene human experimentation HERE.

NAMATHON – My reviews of several Joe Namath star vehicles from Spaghetti Westerns to rom-coms, biker flicks and more HERE.

BIG HAWAII (1977) – The 1970s series that went from its powerhouse pilot movie to floundering as a series by abandoning the pilot film’s genre. Click HERE. 

A COMEDIC LOOK AT AMERICA’S VICE PRESIDENTS – A sequel to my long-ago short takes on each of America’s presidents HERE.

MEXICO’S SUPERHEROES – A look at Relampago, Meteorix, El Hombre Mosca, Llanera Vengadora and many, many more HERE.  

MS. MARVEL II: MORE OF HER 1970s STORIES – Carol Danvers uses her Kree-born powers to fight villains like Ronan the Accuser, the Elementals, Tiger Shark, Ultron, Warbot and Mystique, who was her villain before she ever clashed with the X-Men. Click HERE.

THE BELLE STARR STORY (1968) – Interesting Spaghetti Western with virtually nothing to do with the real Belle Starr. Click HERE.

GHOST OF FLANDERS (1941-1942) – A look at this overlooked superhero from the Golden Age Comic Book Era. Click HERE.

NEGLECTED MARVEL SUPERHEROES – I examined characters like Doc Samson, Bloodstone, Paladin, Jack of Hearts, El Aguila, Skull the Slayer and It! The Living Colossus. They’re all HERE.