Long before their recent successes with the Avengers and the various solo hero movies of the last five years, Marvel did not have a lot of luck at getting their properties made into feature films. But they did have some TV success in the late 1970's with The Incredible Hulk and (briefly) The Amazing Spider-Man. The Hulk got a resepctable five season run on CBS, while Spider-Man faced more trouble from ever changing time slots than supervillains in his single season.
But while the prognosis for both series was looking good - CBS tried for a hat trick with this pilot film about Marvel's Sorcerer Supreme. It strayed too far from the source material and had to make do with 70's TV special effects - but as a kid I was glued to my set that night!
Here's Doctor Strange from the comics:
And here he is in the movie:
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| It's in the ballpark, but goes a little too disco for me... |
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| The outfit on the VHS cover is better - and look! There's Jessica Walter from Arrested Development as the villainess Morgan LeFay! |
The ratings for the TV movie were not very good - so no series for Dr. Strange. Sadly, this also put the kibosh on pilots being developed for The Submariner and The Human Torch.
So we watched Spider-Man until he was cancelled and then had to make do with the Hulk - which at least was a pretty good show - though I would have given my eyeteeth for them to have thrown The Rhino in for a big two part battle royale episode!
Well, until the Eye of Agamotto falls into the Flames of the Faltine - you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
I had to laugh at the perm Craig. Yeah Rhino would have been amazing, so it's cool to know he's in the new Spider-Man movie.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that 70's hair - what can you do? Rhino would have been cool because it would have been relatively inexpensive to create him. I'll be interested to see how he's handled in this new movie!
DeleteWas released here but I've never seen or heard of it. Wasn't there a remake a few years ago?
ReplyDeleteThere was an animated Marvel movie - which had Dr. Strange swordfighting a lot (?) and there's been a movie in development hell forever. This old flick isn't much - but you might enjoy a peek for the cheese.
Deleteok, I think I heard of that one in development-hell :D
DeleteThe animated movie isn't much, but it was a fun ride. A little modernized but otherwise okay.
ReplyDeleteI have it in the video vault - it might be a while working up the "To Watch" stack though.
DeleteLMAO!! Good Lord what a bad perm, but still even in the comics, this guy is like a psychedelic musician. It's no wonder he never really took off on TV or film. Yikes! And Morgan Le Fey...methinks this is the only witchy female in the history of the world since she is the only female villain name everyone uses.
ReplyDeleteWell, if they could do the effects to look like the stuff that came out of Steve Ditko's imagination when he was drawing the book - it might catch people's attention. And I misspelled Morgan's name. Dammit.
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