CODENAME: FOXFIRE (1985) – The often star-crossed career of Joanna Cassidy hit another bump with this short-lived imitation of Charlie’s Angels. Joanna’s attractiveness and wild laugh had been paying decreasing dividends ever since the demise of her 1970s cult series 240 Robert.
This program, which lasted just one pilot movie and seven episodes, starred Cassidy as Elizabeth “Foxfire” Towne, a former intelligence agent fresh out of prison for a crime she didn’t commit. The president’s brother – eight years before Roger Clinton and four years after Billy Carter – recruits Foxfire to lead a special espionage team for Top Secret missions.
African American con-woman Maggie Bryan (Sheryl Lee Ralph) and tomboyish stunt driver “Danny” O’Toole (Robin Johnson) were the other two members of Elizabeth’s team. Henry Jones played their butler Phillips. THE Joel Schumacher co-created the series and also wrote a few episodes. Continue reading
RANGE RYDER AND THE CALGARY KID (1977) – (Also known as The Adventure of the Dinosaur Badlands.) A 14-year-old MIKE MYERS co-starred in this Canadian children’s program that was also aired in the early 1980s on Nickelodeon. (Hey, Nick even showed episodes of The Uncle Floyd Show in its early years.) Myers (in headband) played the Calgary Kid, sidekick to David Ferry’s Range Ryder. 
FANTOMCAT (1995) – This animated adventure series is pretty much the overlooked stepchild of Cosgrove Hall’s much more well-known and longer-lasting series Danger Mouse. No spy antics in Fantomcat, however, but anthropomorphic cartoon animals represent all the characters. 
Fantomcat’s archenemy was the sword-wielding sorcerer Baron Hugo von Skelter. On the night of December 31st, 1699, a battle between our hero and von Skelter and his henchmen ended with the villains mystically trapping Fantomcat in a painting on the wall in Fantomcat’s castle. 
Before MST3K there was … The Texas 27 Film Vault (1985-1987)! Before Joel and Mike, lovers of bad movies had Randy and Richard (at right)! Before Pearl and Kinga there was Laurie Savino! Before Devil Dogs, Observers and Deep 13 there came Cellumites, giant rats and Level 31!
THE MAN WHO SAW TOMORROW (1981) 
THE MOVIE: The Man Who Saw Tomorrow was a hilariously melodramatic and irrational documentary playing along with the silly notion that the 16th Century “seer” Nostradamus’ vague and noncommital quatrains predicted major future events. Orson Welles, in his “anything for money” phase, narrated the film. 
LOOK WHAT’S HAPPENED TO ROSEMARY’S BABY (1976) – With The First Omen currently in theaters, its creative team’s obvious desire to make their Omen prequel seem more like Rosemary’s Baby made me decide to review the often forgotten made-for-television sequel to that horror classic. 
USTINOV AD LIB (1966) – This comedy special was first aired by BBC1’s anthology series Sunday Night at 8:10PM on April 10th, 1966. In addition to the venerable Peter Ustinov himself the special featured Dudley Moore and Antony Hopkins (NOT Anthony Hopkins). 
MAD JACK aka SIEGFRIED SASSOON (April 15th) – A 1970 British telefilm about the young poet Siegfried Sassoon, who was awarded the Military Cross during World War One, but while on leave in 1917 criticized what he saw as the corporate and other vested interests behind the entire conflict. 
QUENTIN DURWARD (1971) – This French-German television series ran for 13 half-hour episodes in Germany but just 7 52-minute episodes during its initial French run. 
Amadeus August stars as Quentin Durward, a fighting young Scotsman who is the sole surviving male from his Scottish clan after a brutal clan war wiped out the rest of his family. At present he is being sheltered in a monastery where the monks have told him the only way to stop the enemy clansmen from killing him to blot out his entire bloodline is to become a monk under a vow of celibacy.
SHIRLEY TEMPLE’S STORYBOOK (1958-1961) – This time around, Balladeer’s Blog’s recurring feature Forgotten Television takes a look at this overlooked children’s series hosted by an adult Shirley Temple. Like Shelley Duvall’s 1980s series Faerytale Theatre this earlier program managed to attract some big names and soon-to-be-big names for its cast. 
Shirley Temple’s Storybook was one of Shirley’s A.J.A. (After John Agar) ventures, in fact it debuted 8 years after their divorce. The program aired from January 12th, 1958 to July 16th, 1961.
DESERT CRUSADER (1968-1969) – This French television series is also known as Thibaud, ou les Croisades, Thibaud, il Cavaliere Bianco, Thibaud, der Weisse Ritter and other variations of those titles. The color series ran two seasons of 13 episodes each, with those episodes lasting around 26 minutes apiece.
Thibaud and his sidekick Blanchot (Raymond Meunier) are part of the knightly efforts to safeguard people making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He often works alongside the Knights Templar but doesn’t seem to be an official member of their Order. 
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