Category: Uncategorized

R.I.P. – Ted V. Mikels

Any way you look at it, Theodore Vincent Mikacevich, better known to the world as filmmaker Ted V. Mikels, was a legend. Whether you are a fan of his movies or not, he was able to produce features in the ...

Doctor Who: A Personal Journey

On Monday, November 25, 2013 I ventured out to a local movie theater to see the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special – Day of the Doctor on the big screen.  I had watched the show two days earlier on television ...

The Comic Book Connection: A One Man Show

Joe Peace takes the old adage “if you want something done right do it yourself” a little too literally when it comes to putting on comic books shows.  After participating in and even partnering up on other people’s comic book ...

Megacon 2012

Low expectations aren’t necessarily a bad thing.  When I was asked in advance of this year’s Megacon if I was looking forward to it, I had to grit my teeth and utter a tentative “maybe”.  The two main factors that ...

ZAAT’s All Folks!

If that title sounds a little more like an ending statement than an opening one, it’s because that is exactly what it was intended to be. The February 21, 2012 home video release of the film ZAAT on both DVD ...

Mission Accomplished But The Beat Goes On!

“There are places I’ll remember all my life, though some have changed. Some forever not for better, some have gone and some remain. All these places had their moments with lovers and friends I still can recall. Some are dead ...

Forgotten Florida: Stars Hall of Fame Part 2

Special Note: Part one of this special photo journal piece covered the motion picture portion of the museum. Part two picks up where our tour left off. The final two sections of Stars Hall of Fame deviated slightly from the motion ...

Forgotten Florida: Stars Hall of Fame

Special Note: The Stars Hall of Fame wax museum was one of my favorite Florida attractions during it’s slightly less than a decade of operation. Very little exists to document this forgotten attraction so this special two part article will ...

A John Water’s Christmas

I have to confess, I have never considered myself a big fan of John Waters’ films. I find his earlier movies to have a certain perverse charm to them and I certainly credit him for being willing to do anything ...

Show Review: Renninger’s Antique Extravaganza 2011

It’s a beautiful November morning in Florida. The sky is bright and clear and the temperature has not risen above 70 degrees yet. The sounds of the antiquers is in the air with calls like “I’ll take twenty for that”, ...

Surviving Mommie Dearest

The junkies down in Brooklyn are going crazy, they’re laughing just like hungry dogs in the street. Policemen are hiding behind the skirts of little girls, their eyes have turned the color of frozen meat. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, ...

Halloween Horrors on DVD

One of my favorite parts of the Halloween holiday season, ever since I was a young child, is the extra helping of horror films that always turn up on television around this time of year. With all the cable stations ...

Loose in Las Vegas: 2011

After two visits to Las Vegas in 2010, I had no intention of returning this year. In fact, my friend Danny and I had specifically scheduled a vacation to California for 2011 since neither of us has ever been to ...

Forgotten Films: Up The Academy

When Animal House started cracking up audiences and cleaning up at the box office in 1978, Warner Brothers already had a standing contract with Mad Magazine to produce a feature film in conjunction with them. National Lampoon’s seal of approval ...

Hippiefest 2011

I’ve been a confirmed fan of the Hippiefest shows ever since I discovered them two years ago. The combination of 60’s era musicians each performing one segment of a five act show never ceases to delight audiences. When the 2011 ...

DVD Review: Damnation Alley

DVD Review – Damnation Alley Released By: Shout Factory Release Date: July 12, 2011 Number of Discs: 1 Approximate Running Time: 91 Minutes Special Features: Producer Commentary Track, Trailers, Featurettes Suggested Price: $19.93 The Source: After nuclear war has devastated most of the planet, a small group ...

Revisiting the Planet of the Apes

As a child of the 1970’s, I had the great pleasure of living through the original saga of the Planet of the Apes, including four sequels, two television series, and more merchandise than could probably ever be properly cataloged. The ...

Forgotten Films: Gargoyles

Back in the 1970’s, the phrase “made-for-TV movie” not only wasn’t the pariah it is today, but it could actually mean a quality film. With television in need of programming material and viable theatrical films limited, producing their own movies ...

DVD Review – Gamera vs. Zigra / Gamera: Super Monster

DVD Review – Gamera vs. Zigra / Gamera: Super Monster Released By: Shout Factory Release Date: March 15, 2011 Number of Discs: 1 Approximate Running Time: 179 Minutes Special Features: Promotional materials, behind the scenes photos Suggested Price: $19.93 The Source: The final two films in the ...

Series Retrospective: The Bowery Boys

In the pop culture trinity of theatrical properties that achieved greater success on television, the Three Stooges and the Little Rascals will always be firmly situated in the first two positions. The third and perhaps more disputed spire will, in ...

Comic Book Confidential: Green Lantern / Green Arrow Team

The Silver Age Green Lantern had enjoyed a very successful comic book run throughout almost the entire decade of the 1960’s. As the 70’s rolled in, readers began to grow tired of the colorfully drawn tales of heroics that seemed ...

Comic Book Confidential: Green Lantern Primer

While many characters from DC comic books have found their way onto the big screen, Superman and Batman are two of the earliest and most often used examples; none has quite garnered the same anticipation as Green Lantern. While this ...

Forgotten Films: The Point

Harry Nilsson was firmly established as a talented songwriter by the early 1970’s with a significant number of his compositions covered by everyone from Glen Campbell to The Monkees. His success as a singer was still developing and even though ...

The Monkees: 2011 Concert Tour

The Monkees: 2011 Concert Tour     One of my guilty pleasures in life is being a fan of The Monkees. In much the same way that the puppet Pinocchio became a real boy in the classic fairytale, The Monkees somehow went from ...

Forgotten Films: The Last of the Secret Agents?

Steve Rossi and Marty Allen were a talented comedy duo. By the mid-60’s, they had made countless television appearances on variety shows, honed a successful stage act, and recorded a number of well received comedy albums. What Steve Rossi and ...

Comic Book Confidential: Jimmy Olsen – The Jack Kirby Years

The world of comic books was extremely turbulent on both sides of the illustrated page as the 1970’s dawned. Marvel Comics had undergone a recent change of ownership, the biggest fallout from which was the departure of one of the ...

DVD Review: Scream Theater 12 Cheap Chills

Released By: VCI Entertainment Release Date: February 1, 2011 Number of Discs: 4 Approximate Running Time: 1080 Minutes Special Features: None Suggested Price: $14.99 The Source: The good folks at VCI Entertainment have packaged twelve pseudo-public domain films into what they have termed a “horror marathon” ...

The Deland Collectibles Show 2011

Almost one year ago to the day, I took a gamble on a new show in Central Florida and was pleasantly surprised with both the selection of merchandise and the laid back atmosphere of the Deland Collectibles Expo. One year ...

Comic Book Confidential: The Freedom Fighters

In 1956, DC Comics acquired the rights to all of the characters published by their competitor Quality Comics which had recently folded. Some of their popular military characters like Blackhawk were immediately integrated into the DC book lines while others, ...

DVD Review: The Redeemer: Son of Satan

Released By: Code Red Release Date: October 19, 2010 Number of Discs: 1 Approximate Running Time: 84 Minutes Special Features: Theatrical Trailer Suggested Price: $16.98 The Source: A mysterious boy rises from a lake and posses an overly enthusiastic priest. The priest then stages a ...

MEGACON 2011

    I have always considered collectibles shows to be something of a mathematical equation. The enjoyment factor of the show is equal to a combination of the distance traveled, celebrity guests, merchandise selection and price, and the potential for meeting up ...

The Royal Guardsmen: Alive & Well

The Royal Guardsmen have had more than their fair share of studio time over the years. During the 60’s they released four albums and a slew of singles in only a four year period. After the original incarnation of the ...

Forgotten Films: Melody

Who is the girl with crying face, looking at millions of signs? She knows that life is a running race; her face shouldn’t show any lines. - Melody Fair, The Bee Gees The 1968 musical film adaptation of Oliver! was both a box ...

A(nother) Day in the Life of an Astro-Zombie (Victim)

Regular readers of this column will recall about a year and half ago when I had the opportunity to play an Astro-Zombie in Ted Mikels' third installment in this cult film series. While I would not trade that experience for ...

The Television Legacy of Irwin Allen – Part V: Land of the Giants

By 1968, Irwin Allen had already explored the depths of the ocean, the farthest reaches of space, and even the paths of time in his television series. Always the innovator, Allen decided that for his next show he would concentrate ...

The Television Legacy of Irwin Allen – Part IV: The Time Tunnel

For his 1957 feature, The Story of Mankind, Irwin Allen had two things going for him – an all-star cast and access to the massive stock footage libraries of Warner Brothers Studios. The cast may have taken up most of ...

The Television Legacy of Irwin Allen – Part III: Lost in Space

Irwin Allen was a long standing fan of the book The Swiss Family Robinson and its story of a highly resourceful family stranded on a remote island. He modified this basic storyline to incorporate the 1960’s public’s fascination with space ...

The Television Legacy of Irwin Allen – Part II: Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

Irwin Allen had his sights set on his first science fiction television series before its 1961 feature film counterpart was even completed. Wisely realizing that the cost of special effects would be the biggest hurdle in selling a series of ...

The Television Legacy of Irwin Allen – Part I: An Introduction

January 11, 2011 marks a historic occasion for fans of television science fiction that grew up in the 60’s and 70’s. With the DVD release of the second volume of the fourth season of Voyage to the Bottom of the ...

Welcome 2011 and 1971 Revisited

To put it very bluntly, 2010 is a year I am very glad to see the last of. It was a year full of more than its share of turmoil, both on a personal and professional level and I sincerely ...

A Very Fanboy Christmas 2010

Season’s greetings all you good little boys and girls and welcome to that special time of the year when the Fanboys of Christmas Present get to share a little bit of Christmas Past with you. We’ve had an excellent turnout ...

John Lennon Remembered

The dream is over, what can I say? The dream is over, yesterday. I was the dream weaver, but now I'm reborn. I was the walrus, but now I'm John. And so dear friends, you’ll just have to carry on. The dream is over. God – ...

DVD Review: Gamera vs. Everybody

By the conclusion of 1966’s Gamera vs. Barugon, the giant flying turtle was firmly established as the protector of humanity and he managed to churn out an annual film for the next five years until Daiei Studios went bankrupt for ...

Show Review: Renninger’s Antique Extravaganza 2010

When Florida’s winter weather starts to set in around mid to late October, it doesn’t take much of an excuse to get people outside. Once the Sunshine State enters its brief period of cool but not cold temperatures, most natives ...

The Lost Drive-In: Nature Runs Amuck!

The 1970’s was a great decade for fans of exploitation cinema. What was once considered a second tier genre was now being embraced by major distributors and becoming available to every area of the country. One of the more entertaining ...

Forgotten Films: Bless the Beasts & Children

Ding (ding) n. – something that don’t fit any where, any time, any thing, any place. It uses up space but it’s useless. Nobody wants it or knows what to do with it, so it’s got no use for livin’. - ...

Friday the 13th: The Legacy Part 2

Part one of this Friday the 13th retrospective last week covered the second through sixth films in the series which all featured Jason Voorhees as the central psycho. This week we pick up with part seven and the latter half ...

Friday the 13th: The Legacy – Part 1

Note: For some strange reason , the Friday the 13th film series features some of the blandest posters ever devised for a promotional campaign. Most of the films from Part 6 forward feature at least average poster art but earlier ...

Spooky Empire 2010

After a less than spectacular experience at the 2009 Spooky Empire show, not the least of which involved my friend Byron swearing off the event, I approached this year’s con with some understandable caution. The guest list only included two ...

Friday the 13th: 30th Anniversary

Has it really been thirty years since Jason Voorhees first popped his decayed bulbous head out of the serene waters of Crystal Lake and changed the way we look at horror movies forever? Yes, as of May of this year, ...

Forgotten Films: Stop, Look, and Laugh

In 1958, Columbia Pictures dusted off their short films starring The Three Stooges and unceremoniously dumped them on television stations across the country, hoping for nothing more than a quick buck from an outdated format. Local stations were eager for ...

DVD Review: “Dark Night of the Scarecrow”

Released By: VCI Entertainment Release Date: September 28, 2010 Number of Discs: 1 Approximate Running Time: 96 Minutes Special Features: Director Commentary Track, Original CBS Promotional Spot Suggested Price: $19.99             The Source: In a small rural town, a mentally handicapped man is murdered by a group of ...

Loose in Las Vegas: 2010 – The Deuce

As much as I enjoy visiting Las Vegas, one trip a year is usually more than enough for me. Every once in a while though, life tosses you an opportunity that you just can’t pass up. For me it was ...

Nearly Almost Famous

I will probably never have an opportunity to travel the country with a musical group to write an article for Rolling Stone magazine but, for one brief moment, I did receive a pretty cool consolation prize. I was recently invited ...

Forgotten Films: Little Fugitive

Mention the name Morris Engle and even the most astute film fan might be reduced to a puzzled stare. Engle was a highly respected photographer but his career as a motion picture director lasted only five years from 1953 to ...

The Lost Drive-In: Demented Double Features

Welcome to the inaugural installment of The Lost Drive-In. I was fortunate enough to grow up about two miles from a drive-in movie theater so my family spent a lot of time of there over the years. My home town ...

Series Retrospective: Legends of the Superheroes

Before we begin this week’s retrospective, please take a moment to review the advertisement to the right of this article. Done? Good, now imagine for a moment that you are twelve year old boy in January of 1979 when this ...

DVD Reviews: Roger Corman’s Cult Classics

In June of this year, Shout! Factory unveiled the first wave in what will ultimately comprise approximately thirty DVD releases (and some Blu-Ray) of Roger Corman’s New World Pictures catalog. These DVDs are a significant improvement over previous home video ...

Happy Together Tour 2010

The mid 1980’s saw a renewed interest in the classic pop sounds of the sixties and the revival of many bands from that period. After Mark “Flo” Volman and Howard “Eddie” Kaylan reformed their chart topping group The Turtles for ...

The Hat Trick

I’m not usually one for sports analogies but this seemed like the perfect one to acknowledge the third anniversary of Retrorama on this wonderful website we call Nolan’s Pop Culture Review. As the site’s resident retro-ologist, I’ve spent the last ...

Starr Struck: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band

At the ripe old age of 70, former Beatle Ringo Starr has done well for himself. The days of pondering what it would be like to be 64 are long past but he has a lot to show for these ...

DVD Review: “Gamera Vs. Barugon (1966)”

Released By: Shout! Factory Release Date: July 6, 2010 Number of Discs: 1 Approximate Running Time: 106 Minutes Special Features: Audio Commentary, Photo Galleries, Photo Booklet Suggested Price: $19.93 The Source: Following the events of the previous film (Gammera: The Invincible in the US), the giant turtle ...

DVD Review: “EYEBORGS”

Released By: Image Entertainment Release Date: July 6, 2010 Number of Discs: 1 Approximate Running Time: 102 Minutes Special Features: Trailer, Behind the Scenes Featurettes, Deleted Scenes Suggested Price: $27.98 The Source: In the not too distant future, the United States Government has instituted the ODIN (Optical ...

Happy Anniversary Video Watchdog!

I was a child of the Famous Monsters of Filmland generation. A late arrival granted but I still spent the majority of the 1970’s thumbing through my dog eared copies of this B&W treasure trove as a supplement to watching ...

Astro-Zombies M3: Cloned – Florida Premier

When I first received the news that the world premier of cult director Ted Mikels’ latest feature film Astro-Zombies M3: Cloned was scheduled for the end of April in Las Vegas, I was bummed. I already had long standing plans ...

Comic Book Confidential: The Seven Soldiers of Victory

In 1940, DC Comics made comic book history when they created the first true superhero team, the Justice Society of America. The JSA’s initial roster featured the most powerful characters operating at the time in the DC universe like The ...

DVD Review: “Supersonic Man”

Released By: VCI Entertainment Release Date: May 25, 2010 Number of Discs: 1 Approximate Running Time: 187 Minutes Special Features: Trailers, Second Feature War of the Robots (1978) Suggested Price: $14.95 The Source: When an Earth scientist developing a new fuel source is kidnapped by a megalomaniac ...

Loose in Las Vegas: 2010

I never need much of an excuse for a trip to Las Vegas. I am not much of a gambler but I find that Sin City has a host of other venues and activities to check out that just don’t ...

CF Presents Retrorama DVD Review: “Greydon Clark Drive-In Double Feature: Hi-Riders & The Bad Bunch”

Released By: VCI Entertainment Release Date: April 27, 2010 Number of Discs: 1 Approximate Running Time: 172 Minutes Special Features: Audio Commentary, Trailers, Interviews Suggested Price: $19.99 The Source: Two lesser known drive-in features from the glory days of the 1970’s produced by exploitation director Greydon Clark. ...

CD Review: The Birds, The Bees, & The Monkees (3 CD Limited Edition Boxed Set)

Between 1988 and 1989, when compact discs were still considered an emerging technology, Arista released the first four Monkees’ albums in this format. Aside from the historical significance, these releases did little other than get Monkees’ music back on the ...

My Friend Erma: The Erma Broombeck Interview

Dick Bennick’s character of Dr. Paul Bearer was inseparable from the experience that was the 44 Creature Feature. Over the span of its twenty-two year history, our horrible host had a lot of visitors to his tenement castle. This cast ...

The Deland Collectibles Expo

As much as I enjoy collectibles shows, I am always slightly suspicious when an unknown quantity turns up. With the reduced number of shows due to online sales and auctions, new shows are something of a rarity and some don’t ...

Forgotten Horrors: Equinox

In 1965, a group of friends and special effects enthusiasts who were all children of the Famous Monsters of Filmland generation, decided to make a monster movie of their very own. Dennis Muren, Mark McGee, Jim Danforth, and Dave Allen, ...

Saturday Morning Fever: CBS 1968

The concept of a Saturday morning network television line up began in 1962 when all three networks began to schedule programs for children on the weekends. Initially these were reruns of movies and television shows aimed at the younger audience ...

Sounds of Terror: Dracula vs. Frankenstein Soundtrack

In this age of collector’s edition DVDs for almost any film imaginable, it is amazing that audio counterpart compact discs are not more prevalent. The good people at Elysee Productions are out to change that though with some impressive original ...

DVD Review: “FANEX Files: Samuel Z. Arkoff”

Released By: Alpha Home Entertainment Release Date: October 28, 2008 Number of Discs: 1 Approximate Running Time: 90 Minutes Special Features: None Suggested Price: $9.98 The Source: From 1984 to 2004, the FANEX Film Convention was held annually in the Baltimore / Washington D.C. area. During this ...

Megacon 2010

The week preceding this year’s Megacon was filled with a lot of unusual changes to my usual con going routine. Chief among these was the last minute cancelation of my friend Byron who has attended every Megacon with me to ...

DVD Review: “Mystery Science Theater 3000: XVII”

Released By: Shout Factory Release Date: March 16, 2010 Number of Discs: 4 Approximate Running Time: 400 Minutes Special Features: Introductions, Interviews, Trailers, Photo Galleries Suggested Price: $59.97 The Source: A working class schlep from Gizmonic Institute is trapped by evil scientists aboard an interstellar spaceship and ...

Series Retrospective: Matt Helm

James Bond was a major contender for movie theater dollars in the 1960’s and ushered in a spy craze that would continue for most of the decade. Imitators of all sizes and temperaments popped up on the entertainment landscape in ...

DVD Review: “Inalienable”

Released By: Anchor Bay Release Date: January 26, 2010 Number of Discs: 1 Approximate Running Time: 106 Minutes Special Features: Trailer Suggested Price: $19.97 The Source: A male research scientist is impregnated with an alien embryo and gives “birth” to a human / alien hybrid. The US ...

Tales for Another Day: Night of the Badfinger

Music, much like politics and religion, is an amazingly personal proposition. People will argue vehemently on the merit of one particular artist or the detractions of a certain group and there is usually very little that can be done to ...

Absolutely Fabulous: The Fab Four

I was only three years old in April of 1970 when The Beatles officially disbanded as a group, so my chances of experiencing Beatlemania first hand were effectively ended. It would be another ten or so years before my appreciation ...

DVD Review: “Kingdom of the Spiders”

Released By: Shout Factory Release Date: January 19, 2010 Number of Discs: 1 Approximate Running Time: 97 Minutes Special Features: Interview With William Shatner, Featurettes, Audio Commentary By Director John Bud Cardos, Behind-The-Scenes Footage, Poster Gallery, Trailer Suggested Price: $19.99 The Source: A remote Arizona town is ...

Forgotten Horrors: Bad Ronald

Back in 1974, calling something a “made for television” movie could actually be taken as a compliment. Unlike most of the sludge indiscriminately pawned off on the cable networks these days, movies from this era were actually required to have ...

Welcome Back to the Grindhouse

From the mid 70’s through the late 80’s, a cultural phenomenon sprang up in heavily populated urban areas. Theaters, many of which dated back before motion pictures to the days of burlesque, began to specialize in showing exploitation films that ...

Spooky Empire 2009

Somehow the name Spooky Empire just doesn’t sound as impressive as Screamfest but the title Ultimate Horror Weekend would be misleading. Since another convention in Los Angeles apparently owns, and legally defends, the Screamfest name, we’ll just have to refer ...

Living Fanboy: The Great Star Wars Haul

My apologies to Chris Woods for paraphrasing the title of his column but this week’s article seems like a logical extension of his theme. I have been a collector for the majority of my adult life. It is a passion that ...

Series Retrospective: Our Gang

The Our Gang series was originally produced as one and two reel film shorts intended to precede feature presentations in theaters. The series lasted for over twenty years, with multiple cast changes, and the simple and honest stories made them winners with ...

A Day in the Life of an Astro-Zombie

A Day in the Life of an Astro-Zombie In December of 2008, I sat at a table in the Benihana Steak House in the Las Vegas Hilton listening intently as Ted Mikels described his latest feature film which was currently in ...

A Day in the Life of an Astro-Zombie

In December of 2008, I sat at a table in the Benihana Steak House in the Las Vegas Hilton listening intently as Ted Mikels described his latest feature film which was currently in pre-production. This new project would be the ...

Loose in Las Vegas: 2009

The major lament I had regarding my 2008 trip to Las Vegas was how brief it was. Compared to my return in 2009 though, that visit seems leisurely. As frantic as it turned out to be though, I still couldn’t ...

Forgotten Horrors: A * P * E

Forgotten Horrors: A * P * E In 1976, King Kong was big business. The big budget remake of the RKO classic from Dino De Laurentiis was one of the most eagerly anticipated releases of the 1970’s and Paramount pulled out ...

Movies That Scared Us for Life

Several weeks ago I did a column on the top ten movies that scared me for life. Since this is such a subjective topic and unique to the individual being scared, I also sent out an invitation to anyone reading ...

Hippiefest 2009

Hippiefest 2009 Everything old is new again, or at least it certainly seemed that way on Friday, August 7 at Daytona’s Peabody Auditorium. This was the latest stop of the Hippiefest 2009 concert tour and the entire area outside the box ...

Manson at the Movies

August 2009 marks the fortieth anniversary of one of the most bizarre series of murders in American history. In the early morning hours of August 9, 1969, members of a group known as “The Family”, acting under the instructions of ...

Another Year in the Trenches

Another Year in the Trenches Greetings Retrorama fans! Yes, it’s actually that time again and Retrorama is celebrating its second anniversary on Nolan’s Pop Culture Review website. This has been a great year for me, especially going on to the content management system and taking a greater ...

Movies That Scared Me for Life

In a recent issue of Scream Magazine, contributors were asked to write articles on a movie or movies that scared them for life. These were films that had made a lasting impression in the author’s minds that remain with them to ...

The Stuff of Legend: 2009 Film Florida Legends Awards

When I first heard about the Film Florida Legends Award, I knew immediately that Florida filmmaker Bill Grefe was a prime candidate to receive one. Once I had secured the contact information for the nominations, I wasted very little time sending ...

Saturday Morning Fever: CBS 1975

The end of May brings with it television ratings sweeps weeks and both season and, in some cases, series finales. It also heralds the kick off of summer repeats until the fall season finally arrives in September. On a recent ...

Forgotten Horrors: Blood Massacre

Considering the troubled nature of this film’s production, a more appropriate title for this article might have been Blood Massacre Massacre. What could have been director Don Dohler’s best and most commercially viable film to date ended up as not one ...

DVD Review: “Glen and Randa”

Released By: VCI Entertainment Release Date: April 28, 2009 Number of Discs: 1 Approximate Running Time: 94 Minutes Special Features: Interview with Director Jim McBride, Alternate Scenes and Outtakes, Theatrical trailer Suggested Price: $19.99 The Source: A post-apocalyptic Adam and Eve leave the safety of their rural community in search of a city ...

FX 2009: Another View

  At this year’s Florida Extravaganza Collectibles Show (FX), Lisa Scherer Marsters Ciurro and I covered a lot of convention and collectibles related topics as we canvassed the aisles. One of our discussion items was photographs, which consisted mainly of my ...

Cheech & Chong: Still Smoking After All These Years

In the late 1970’s, I was a big fan of Saturday Night Live (especially Mr. Bill). I wasn’t even a teenager yet but my parents would usually let me stay up late on Saturdays to catch the show as long ...

Fishy Tales: Weeki Wachee

Somewhere north of Clearwater and just south of Brooksville, well off the beaten path, is a little section of Florida that still clings desperately to the magical innocence of the state’s golden age of tourism. Weeki Wachee still looks very ...

US 19: The Highway That Time Forgot

Back in the days before most people had even heard of something called a “theme park” and high end tourist attractions usually included gardens and boat rides, the road sides of Floridawere littered with all manner of eye catching ephemera. ...

Gasparilla Film Festival 2009: Bill Grefe

I have known Bill Grefe for close to ten years but in all that time we had never met face to face. We exchanged a few phone calls and plenty of E-mails, even a few letters, but we never managed ...

MEGACON 2009

With recent discussions of a perceived decrease in fandom and the current downturn in the economy, I was eagerly awaiting this year’s Megacon to see if it would be affected. Last year, the show had more attendees than I have ...

Comic Book Confidential: Watchmen

Comic books were the medium that taught me to read or at least inspired me to with a desire to know what the Justice League characters were saying as they fought supervillians and monsters. I gradually lost interest in them ...

The Yellow Submarine Chronicles Part Eight: It’s All Too Much

The thirtieth anniversary of Yellow Submarine in 1998 saw a resurgence in popularity that even the Beatles and MGM could not have anticipated. Fans were eager to recapture this portion of Beatlemania and Yellow Submarine CDs, videos, and all manner of related merchandise lined ...

The Yellow Submarine Chronicles Part Seven: Many Years from Now

Special Note: The Yellow Submarine Chronicles was originally scheduled to wrap up in December with this installment, effectively ending the series in the last month of the film’s 40th anniversary year. While researching the final portions of the article, I discovered ...

DVD Review: “The Starlost: The Complete Series”

Released By: VCI Entertainment Release Date: September 30, 2008 Number of Discs: 4 Approximate Running Time: 800 Minutes Special Features: US Promotional Sales Film Suggested Price: $49.99 The Source: The giant Earth ship Ark, drifting through deep space over 800 years into the far future. Its passengers, descendants of the last survivors of ...

Show Review: Renninger’s Antiques Extravaganza 2008

When a friend of mine asked me how I rated this year’s Extravaganza inMt.Dora, I told him it was either very good or freaking fantastic depending on events yet to develop. It’s always important to remember that networking is a ...

DVD Review: “Stanley: Special Edition ”

Released By: BCI Eclipse Release Date: November 18, 2008 Number of Discs: 1 Approximate Running Time: 106 Minutes Special Features: Audio Commentaries, Still Gallery, Documentaries Suggested Price: $19.99 The Source: A Seminole Indian veteran of the Vietnam War returns to his Florida home and finds injustice everywhere he turns. Using his special bond ...

Halloween Horror Nights 2008

For the past several years, I have had attending Universal Studios Orlando’s annual Halloween Horror Nights high on my “To Do” list. I had only visited this theme park one time shortly after it opened and many new rides had ...

Retro-Ween 2008

Once again it’s that time of year when the stores all fill with candy and cheap scare props to squeeze some additional revenue out of consumers before the Christmas season starts. It’s also the time of year when we take ...

The Yellow Submarine Chronicles Part Six: There’s Only One Way to Go Out

On Wednesday July 17, 1968, the film Yellow Submarine premiered at the Pavilion Theater in London’s Piccadilly Circus, the same venue where A Hard Day’s Night and Help had made their debuts a few years earlier. Reporters who covered the event described it as the last ...

DVD Review: “Honey West: The Complete Series”

Released By: VCI Entertainment Release Date: September 2, 2008 Number of Discs: 4 Approximate Running Time: 900 Minutes Special Features: Photo Galleries, Vintage Commercials Suggested Price: $39.99 The Source: By the mid 1960’s, the cold war was still a hot topic and Americans were becoming obsessed with spies and secret agents. Television was ...

It’s a Jungle Out There: Monkey Jungle

With Florida’s long list of defunct tourist attractions getting longer every day, we are fortunate that some smaller venues still survive. Monkey Jungle is one of those more laid back attractions that still manage to entertain without thrill rides, stage ...

DVD Review: “Bloodsucking Cinema”

Released By: Anchor Bay Release Date: September 23, 2008 Number of Discs: 1 Approximate Running Time: 57 Minutes Special Features: None Suggested Price: $19.97 The Source: Originally produced for the Starz cable network, this documentary attempts to explain the public’s long standing fascination with the vampire mythos in the cinema. Directors, actors, and ...

The Yellow Submarine Chronicles Part Five: They’ll Be Rough Seas Ahead

With a resemblance of a script finally in hand, staff and materials acquired, and individual sequences well underway, it would seem that it should have been smooth sailing for the production crew of the Yellow Submarine but dark skies were ...

DVD Review: “ Psychotronica Collector’s Set”

Released By: VCI Entertainment Release Date: February 5, 2008 Number of Discs: 3 Approximate Running Time: 480 Minutes Special Features: Audio Commentaries, Grindhouse Trailer-O-Thon Suggested Price: $49.99 The Source: The Psychotronica Collector’s Set from VCI bundles three double feature DVDs together that were also released individually. The six films in the collection range from ...

DVD Review: “Phantasm: OblIVion”

Released By: Anchor Bay Release Date: August 28, 2008 Number of Discs: 1 Approximate Running Time: 90 Minutes Special Features: Audio Commentary with Don Coscarelli, Reggie Banister, and Angus Scrimm, Behind-The-Scenes Footage, Promotional Trailer Suggested Price: $14.98 The Source: Almost twenty years after the release of the first film, the popular Phantasm series comes to ...

Dr. Paul Bearer: The Early Years

Most fans of the late Dick Bennick are aware that the legendary Dr. Paul Bearer was not his first attempt at creating a horror host character (if this is news to you then please read The Lost Interview of Dr. Paul ...

DVD Review: “Frogs”

Released By: MGM Release Date: September 19, 2000 Number of Discs: 1 Approximate Running Time: 90 Minutes Special Features: Original Theatrical Trailer, Fun Facts, Standard and Widescreen Formats. Suggested Price: $19.99 The Source: An annual family reunion at a remote Florida mansion turns into a nightmare when all manner of reptiles and creepy ...

Kiddie Matinee Memories – Part 2

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Summer Fun Movies series every summer for around eight years. This took me from the midst of their heyday to at least the midpoint of their decline before I finally ...

Kiddie Matinee Memories – Part 1

As we enter into the final month of the summer vacation season, I wanted to revisit a related phenomenon from about 30 years ago. The advertisements reproduced in this two part article are all from the archives of the Ocala ...

Happy Birthday To Me!

  For those of you expecting this week’s column to be about the 1981 slasher film starring the dynamic duo of Melissa Sue Anderson and Glenn Ford, let me apologize up front and promise to put that on the back burner ...

The Yellow Submarine Chronicles Part Four: It’s All In The Mind Y’Know!

The credits for Yellow Submarine attribute the screenplay for the film to four writers. According to various accounts though, the number of contributors to the story that eventually found its way to the screen could be as high as forty! In a ...

DVD Review: “’Til Death Do Us Part (Complete First Season)”

Released By: BCI Release Date: July 1, 2008 Number of Discs: 3 Approximate Running Time: 286 Minutes Special Features: Interviews with the show’s creators and host John Waters. New introductions by John Waters. Suggested Price: $29.98 The Source: Imagine Tales from the Crypt as done by CourtTV (now TruTV) and featuring a wedding theme and ...

ED Tucker vs. Spook Hill

Growing up in Ocala, the local Morrison’s Cafeteria was one of my grandmother’s favorite restaurants – this was back in the days when they actually had waiters to carry your tray to your table for you. Our Morrison’s was ...

Saturday Morning Fever: CBS 1974

I have always said that I appreciate the full experience of reading a comic book from cover to cover. That includes the advertisements, letter page, and any other ancillary entertainment found within the pages. That’s also why I would rather ...

Dr. Paul Bearer: The Lost Photographs – Part 2

Greetings Fright Fans, continuing our remembrance of Dr. Paul Bearer on the thirteenth anniversary of Dick Bennick’s untimely passing, here is another batch of rare photographs from deep within the Retrorama vaults. First up this week is an alternate hearse shot ...

Dr. Paul Bearer: The Lost Photographs – Part 1

February 2008 marks the unholy thirteenth anniversary of the passing of one of America’s most beloved and longest running horror hosts, Dr. Paul Bearer. This past Christmas, while digging around at my parent’s house, I stumbled upon a small cache ...

Toy Shop–R.I.P.

As 2007 drew to a close, I received the sad news that Toy Shop Magazine would be ceasing publication after the March, 2008 issue which would ship in January. I discovered this when I contacted Editor Tom Bartsch to discuss ...

Saturday Night Dead

Jacksonville film fans owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Tim Massett. As the manager of the San Marco Theater and a member of the Jacksonville Film Festival, he has gone to great lengths to bring some of the legends ...

DVD Review: “HELP!”

Released By: Apple / EMI Release Date: November 6, 2007 Number of Discs: 2 Approximate Running Time: 149 Minutes Special Features: Audio Commentary, Theatrical Trailers, Radio Spots, Interviews With Cast And Crew, Restoration Documentary Suggested Price: $29.98 The Source: In 1965, the Beatles teamed up again with director Richard Lester to produce their ...

Show Review: Renningers Antique & Collector Extravaganza

I’ve lost track over the years of exactly how many of the Renningers Antique & Collector Extravaganzas I have attended but I am sure it is in excess of twenty. The fall show held in November is always the largest ...

DVD Review: “Mothra vs Godzilla”

Released By: Classic Media Release Date: April 3, 2007 Number of Discs: 1 Approximate Running Time: 176 Minutes Special Features: Audio Commentary, Image Galleries, Akira Ifukube Biography Suggested Price: $19.99 The Source: The fourth of Toho Studio’s original Godzilla films, 1964’s Mothra vs. Godzilla, represents a high point for the series. When a giant ...

The Giant Spider Restoration

Once during a phone conversation with Wisconsin film producer / director Bill Rebane, I turned the subject to the whereabouts of the props used in his most recognizable film, 1975’s The Giant Spider Invasion. To my surprise, some thirty years after ...

Retro-Ween

For a child growing up in the '70s, Halloween was a major holiday. It trailed a distant third behind Christmas and your birthday but was still obsessed over for weeks in advance. The approach of October 31 heralded parties at ...

“I Was a Teenage Blood Slave! – The Tricia Anderson Story”

Fate has a funny way of bringing people together. After searching for years for an alternate version of the film Blood of Dracula’s Castle, where one of the characters turns into a werewolf, I sent an E-mail in to the letters ...

Welcome to Retrorama – ED Tucker’s online file cabinet for all things related to the rich history of popular culture!

I spend a LOT of time doing research on various projects and am always coming across all types of bits and pieces of different pop culture items. For years I have been filing these trinkets of nostalgia gold inside folders and stashing ...

The Florida Extravaganza and Collectibles Show 2007

They had me at Peter Graves! The 2007 Florida Extravaganza didn't have to promise to be bigger or better than last year and it didn't need to boast the largest or most diverse guest list to date. The minute they ...

GIANT SPIDER INVASION

Long-time PCR readers know how much we staffers look forward to the not-too-common, but always enjoyable "Fanboy Summits" we're able to stage every once in a while. Sure, on a smaller scale locally, these are more plentiful (our Hooters Sunday ...

F/X 2006 The Florida Extravaganza Marches Onward by ED Tucker

The weekend of January 28 marked the 17th anniversary of FX – the Florida Extravaganza collectibles show. This also marked the second year since founder Mike Herz returned to the reins of the Orlando based con to pull the plummeting ...

Fanboy Micro-Summit and NolanCon Meeting

Long-time readers may remember last year's "Ed Tucker Invasion" when Ed came to Tampa on business and William, Andy and I were able to spend much of his first night here regaling stories of fandom. It was a great experience ...

Introduction to the Ray Dennis Steckler Interview

  The article being posted this week on Crazedfanboy.com could have almost been titled “The Lost Ray Dennis Steckler Interview”! I met with Ray Steckler, face to face, for the second time in April of 2004. The interview I conducted then ...

MEGACONNED

The March 2003 show was the second Megacon I have attended. For those unaware, Megacon is large (for Florida) comic show held annually in Orlando, FL. The show is notable for both it’s size, selection, and what is probably the ...