Doug: Here's an example. I don't know if it ever would have been all that chic to say that one really, really liked Superbaby stories. But I did. Somehow at one point I came into a decent-sized stack of Silver Age Superboy comics. All of them predated the Legion's run in the title. If memory serves, there were 2-3 books that included a Superbaby tale. In fact, if you click here you can see one I reviewed many moons ago on this very blog. I thought those stories were cute! I have always preferred the "stories of Superman when he was a boy!" to contemporary tales of the Man of Steel. So what would be a better extension than of seeing lil' Clark in action? Hey, complete with a cape to go with that blue onesie! And I cannot imagine that I ever would have divulged this secret "like" to the fellas on the playground. And certainly not to the girls!
Doug: Do you have a character, a television program, or a musical act that you've long taken a shine to, even when that might have gone against the popular grain? Share all you want, people!
When I was a kid I loved reading The Three Investigators, the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books - a couple of years ago I discovered that Nancy Drew was for girls !!! Had I known that in the '70s it's certain I wouldn't have gone near them and would have missed some great stories so Nancy Drew would be the thing I admit liking - I've also always loved uncool pop music but would never admit it. Disco sucks ? Not for me - I loved it.
ReplyDeleteColin --
ReplyDeleteI generally like all kinds of music from our Bronze Age framework. I never had a problem with disco, and don't now. I suppose there are some periphery issues, but as to the music itself I still play it.
As they used to say on Dick Clark's American Bandstand, "it's got a great beat and it's easy to dance to."
Doug
Colin, join the few, the proud, the loyal 'Three Investigators' readers. I must have read each and everyone circa 1974/1975.. I went through them 'like butta..'.
ReplyDeleteIn the realm of sci-fi, my most fav shows are Space:1999 and Galactica (in addition to Trek TOS/TAS/Next Gen..). I got kidded about the obscure 1999, but I hung true and loved meeting Barry Morse just a year prior to his passing. Also the great John Colicos just before he passed on after the LA Galactica 20th anniversary.
And yes, despite it's awfulness at times, 'QUARK RULES'.
(Umm, the Buck Henry NBC series, not the DS9 character..)
I'm looked at less-charitably for my occasional viewership of Southpark, Simpsons or Family Guy. Every so often they have some pretty satiric themes or funny stories, pretty much hit/miss but I'll still watch 'em.
Yes, I'm still an acknowledged Monkees buff. Gone against the grain for many years in the pop industry, drop the record player needle on their 'Pisces' album or 'Head' soundtrack and it's all good. I love that Frank Zappa was such a strong proponent of their productions when he was interviewed back in the day.
Comics..? Howard the Duck, for the same reasons as my animated show preferences above. It was just the ripest time in the Bronze Era for folks like Gerber to reportedly drop acid with Englehart (doing Doc Strange at the time..) and Marvel to allow such ponderances and freedom of expression, before the days of Shooter and 'the trains having to run on time'..
It felt like the inmates running the asylum and, for a time, it was grand.
Oh, and like you've mentioned in the past, Doug, I typically enjoy the Silver/Bronze Superboy comics over the older Supes himself.
ReplyDeleteThose late Silver Adams covers were awesome as well.
'Mothers-In-Law' sitcom from 1968, anyone..? One of the few post-Lucy Desi Arnez productions to actually reach network television.
Also, still a big 'My Three Sons' fan. Tina Cole was (and still is) a hottie.
In some of the circles I ran in as a teen-ager, you wouldn't admit to reading comics - period. Collecting Mego dolls, I mean, action figures, would call into question your sexual orientation.
ReplyDeleteMusic: How about Barry Manilow or John Denver? I used to buy those types of records for my mom. heh, heh.
And I actually had a couple of friends (friends mind you, not me) that would sit around watching Sesame Street when they were in college.
Tom
Tom, apparently The Teletubbies was very popular viewing for British university students (?!)
ReplyDeleteOh, and David - it's great that somebody else remembers the Three Investigators !!
ReplyDeleteIn my comic collecting days, it wasn't cool to like Sal Buscema's art, and I was always a fan. And I'll concede that some of his 80s work isn't great, which I chalk up to Sal being overworked.
ReplyDeleteFor my friends, anything that wasn't Byrne or Perez was crap.
Firstly: might I say Doug, good show, my good man, good show. You slyly get us to put all our metadata in your name rank and serial post, innocently of course, and now you spring NIGHT OF THE GUILTY PLEASURE!!! How soon until we're all in new 501s, black hoodies and fresh Addisases? Well, it goes without saying, I'm in.......
ReplyDeleteB-ly: I'm a big fan of What Not To Wear as well as Melissa And Joey. One is a great way to learn what exactly not to wear and the other is just funny. In a really bad way.
The Prowler (naked under his cowl).
Colin, I find it interesting that you responded to my post as I was consciously thinking about using the term "university" instead of "college". I think that's another of those British/American differences - Brits go to university. Americans go to college, right?
ReplyDeleteTeletubbies, indeed. HA!
Tom
Like Colin Jones, I've loved a lot of uncool pop music. Disco is certainly at the top of my list.
ReplyDeletepeaking of Nancy Drew, I enjoyed Pollyanna, as well as Anne of Green Gable.
OK, off to listen to some Donna Summer now.
At my band gigs we throw in a few disco tunes like I Will Survive and Does Your Mother Know and even recently, YMCA! The crowd goes nuts, especially the women, and if you get the women dancing, the guys will follow. : )
ReplyDeleteI didn't even know there was a Superbaby! Actually nice cover.
I am always proud to declare my love for The Frog Song.
ReplyDeleteOn the TV front, I will always love Star Maidens.
On the movie front, my favourite comedy of all time is Carry on Cleo.
I have no shame.
Count me in with the "Three Investigators" fans...I love those books! Someone should make a TV show of it.
ReplyDeleteI actually liked Star Trek: Enterprise, which everyone seems to hate. I think part of the reason it didn't live up to its potential is because it was cancelled...if it had run seven or eight seasons we would have gotten up to the first Romulan War and things could've really been interesting.
As for comics, I have kind of a reverse one...I really don't care for Jack Kirby's art; I never have. Now, THAT goes against the grain, especially around here!
Mike W.
Hey, you Alfred Hitchcock & the Three Investigators guys? That full page illustration in "Secret of Terror Castle" with the dead girl's ghost appearing in the mirror freaked me out so badly that I always had to cover it up when I read the facing page. GREAT fun series that was changed a couple of decades back when it lost the Hitchcock estate's approval or something. Man, who DIDN'T want to have that massive hidden labyrinth of a clubhouse fort in Jupe's uncle's junkyard?
ReplyDeleteTo my daughter's horrific dismay, I am pretty much composed of appreciations that she would surely prefer I kept secret. Guilty pleasures, anyhow. (And, when she's perfectly honest, she'll confess to loving many of them herself).
Monkees is a big one, both music and the TV show.
GILLIGAN'S ISLAND will never fall out of my favor. . . ever!
The live-action TICK show on Fox was dead-brilliant and hilarious. . . and I don't if anyone's ever seen it but my family & I. My wife loves it!
HBSon & I have a penchant for film composers. . . and my particular weakness is Western themes. . . I simply don't get tired of them.
Also musically, I have a fondness for ABBA's sound that seems incongruous with being a middle-aged straight guy.
In the Musical Theater world, I have always loved THE FANTASTICKS since doing it in college. Unashamedly. I cannot tell you how far outside the realm of "artistically acceptable" that puts me in some circles. You mention the title, and w/out exception the first response you'll get will be "Oh, I can't stand that show." (On the other end of that equation, I abhor CATS-- which is practically blasphemous. . . )
In comics? I stuck with Power Pack through it's whole run, although it wasn't a great book for a lot of its later life. But at its height the characterization and pacing would leave me breathless sometimes.
And y'know what else? Although I have hardly any of them, both the Jerry Lewis and Sugar & Spike books from DC were hi-flippin'-larious! I would probably pick up an omnibus of those if they existed-!
Boy, this just scratches the surface. . . but one mustn't reveal all of one's secrets, of course. .
HB
As Tom noted in his first comment, just saying you read comics in general (which all of us here do) really almost trumps everything else I can think of for this category.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that came to mind immediately is the fact that I kind of like the Dune movie, but that topic was already hashed out in the Discuss: Dune post here almost a year ago.
And Steve, I actually had to look up all three of those guilty pleasures you mentioned. I then vaguely recalled the Frog Song when I played it on YouTube - you do mean McCartney's Frog Song, right?
Sorry, anonymous above is me...
ReplyDeleteLike others have said, pretty much everything I've liked has been unpopular- comics, Star Trek, punk. But I don't care. As Iggy said, I'm proud to be a dog! The thing is, it all has become embraced by the mainstream. I feel like I'm just ahead of my time.
ReplyDeleteEdo, I did indeed mean the Paul McCartney song.
ReplyDeleteSomeone already took The Three Investigators, which I was going to say.
ReplyDeleteI'll instead go with the Tom Swift books, which my town's creeky library still had.
Plus I get some ribbing for preferring The Texas 27 Film Vault to the later show called Mystery Science Theater 3000. They were kind of the same show but The Texas 27 Film Vault came first so I always had a soft spot for it.
I often wonder if the MST3K guys had seen that show given the similarities. Randy and Richard on T27FV riffed on some of the same movies MST3K later did plus Rand and Richard did Planet of the Apes, Killdozer, Saturn 3 and other films the MST3K guys were always making jokes about.
When I hung out with rock peers in high school, I got into folk/celtic music which was unpopular. Then I hung out with folkies in university, and they tried to discourage me from playing rock! I think music is less divided now than it used to be, which is a good thing.
ReplyDeleteOne comic I liked that I think wasn't too popular was Dakota North Investigations. Sexy private investigator, interesting art by Tony Salmons.
I like comics and fine art, including abstract/surreal/expressionist etc. Sometimes comic guys have a hard time with modern art--perhaps it seems not structured enough? And some fine artists see comics as "mere illustration", whereas I see genuine Art in many comic artists. I think in both cases it's a lack of exposure to the other side, and a closed mind, that causes the dislike.
Hah I'm with HB on the topic of ABBA - I'm not the world's greatest audiophile, but somehow I could never get why some people bash them nowadays. They were everywhere in the 70s and their music still sounds good today. Same goes with Barry Manilow. While I'm not his greatest fan, every time I hear songs like Mandy I go 'gosh this dude can sing!' Is it the nose? Or maybe these acts never tried to look and act cool or edgy?
ReplyDeleteHmm dunno what Doug sees in Superbaby (try to change those diapers!); I liked the Killraven series back in the day even though Don McGregor's trippy verbose writing style (chemically inspired?) probably didn't appeal to many people.
Literature? Hmm didn't know some guys here liked Nancy Drew so much! I've always loved the Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (my favourite childhood novel)- it's amazing how an anthropomorphic rat, mole, badger and toad fired my imagination as a child! As an adult, I enjoy the Mary Russell Sherlock Holmes series even though some people say it's written mainly from a feminist perspective.
- Mike 'OK I'll admit I like fried chicken - but the whole world knows that!' from Trinidad & Tobago.
I should have also mention ABBA, though I think I have an even more embarrassing one - I love Wham!
ReplyDeleteLate to this show!
ReplyDeleteHB- are we perhaps related? Big Abba listener, I had all their albums. My friends listening to Aerosmith didn't understand...
Also very fond of Sugar and Spike. Sheldon Mayer was quite talented, and responsible for quite a bit of comics history.
My secret admission: a love for bubblegum music. Archies, Partridge Family, Cowsills, even 1910 Fruitgum Company! You should see the contents of my I- phone...
O.k., just thought of one because I saw it mentioned on another blog: I'll admit I like Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes movie.
ReplyDelete