BALLADEER’S BLOG
THANK YOU once again to all of you readers for making Balladeer’s Blog so enjoyable to write. As I always say, the unusual and controversial items I sometimes churn out here mean that readers have to be open-minded and very secure in their own beliefs not to just take offense and leave. You folks are the greatest!
Here are some of my most popular blog posts from the past 12 months.
ROBERT REDFORD R.I.P. – After his death I reviewed his obscure films like War Hunt, This Property is Condemned, The Chase, Downhill Racer and others HERE.
RYAN O’NEAL: FORGOTTEN FILMS – A posthumous look at his films like Green Ice, Nickelodeon, Wild Rovers, The Thief Who Came to Dinner and more HERE.
THREE BAD TOM SELLECK MOVIES – The Chinese Typewriter HERE, The Gypsy Warriors HERE, and The Washington Affair HERE.
ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION – A Trip to the Moon by Mr. Murtagh McDermot (1728) An Irishman travels to the moon and meets the inhabitants HERE. Mars to the Earth (1895) – The first Martian visit to Earth HERE. Story of the Second Traveler (1879) An island of sci-fi wonders HERE, Wonderworlds (1911) A spaceship expediton to explore other planets HERE.
BAD MOVIES – JACINTO MOLINA, SPAIN’S KING OF HORROR – I reviewed his movies like Exorcismo, Fury of the Wolfman, Assignment: Terror, Werewolf vs the Yeti, House of Psychotic Women and many more HERE. THE BOD SQUAD (1974) Women abducted by pirates learn kung fu and fight back HERE. AGAINST THE DARK (2009) Steven Seagal fights zombies HERE. FOES (1977) A very weird assault by aliens HERE. KARATE GIRL (1973) Turkish kung fu movie HERE.
FORGOTTEN TELEVISION – PARTNERS IN CRIME (1984) – Loni Anderson and Lynda Carter as widows of a P.I. who take over his agency and solve his murder as their first case HERE. THE GIRL FROM U.N.C.L.E. (1966-1967) Stefanie Powers as U.N.C.L.E. agent April Dancer HERE. MRS. COLUMBO (1979-1980) Kate Mulgrew as Columbo’s wife solving murders HERE.
THE NEGLECTED RAILROAD WAR (1878-1880) – A neglected conflict that involved Robber Barons and various big-name gunslingers like Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson, Texas Ben Thompson, John Joshua Webb and more HERE. Continue reading
DADDY DEAREST (1993) – As usual for Father’s Day and Mother’s Day Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at obscure movies or television shows that fit the occasion. For this Father’s Day it’s Daddy Dearest, a largely forgotten sitcom that starred RICHARD LEWIS and DON RICKLES, a very bizarre pairing. 
JUNE 21st, 1925 – In Wichita, Kansas the black semi-professional baseball team the Wichita Monrovians (named for the capital of Liberia) played a team from the Democrat Party hate group the Ku Klux Klan. During the 1920s the Democrats were trying to improve the image of the Klan via public picnics and other civic events. 
THOR Vol 1 #225 (July 1974)
Meanwhile, a being called Firelord arrives on Earth and enters Krista’s hospital. People attack Firelord, who injures them, prompting Hercules to fight him.
EPISODE SEVEN: JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, DIPLOMAT (Mar 2nd, 1976) – From 1809 t0 1814 John Quincy Adams (David Birney) serves as U.S. Minister to Russia. Showing much more tact than his father, John Quincy charms Tsar Alexander (CHRISTOPHER LLOYD in his television debut!) and manages fairly favorable treatment of the United States by Russia during the Napoleonic Wars. 
SHOCK ARMSTRONG, THE ALL-AMERICAN GHOUL bore a name that was a play on the old radio series Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy. Even in 1964 that was an obscure reference, so it’s possible that many fans of this Bad Movie Host were oblivious to the connection. At any rate, from 1964 to 1968 Shock Armstrong hosted Double-Features on Shock Theatre Friday nights at 11:30pm on WTVT out of Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg, Florida. 
Reynolds donned a quasi-Frankenstein Monster mask worked up by the station’s art department and an old University of Tampa Spartans football jersey sporting the number 13. Paul was already in his 30s by 1964 and remembered the old Jack Armstrong radio show, so that inspired his character’s name. 
DISCLOSURE DAY (2026) – Did Steven Spielberg forget what he accomplished with the ending of Close Encounters of the Third Kind? How does he think that an elderly alien getting brought out in a wheelchair even compares, let alone equals, the wonder of his earlier film? Maybe if Disclosure Day ended with Richard Dreyfus’s character having returned to Earth and standing there beside the alien, he might have had something noteworthy. 
