196 Mr Men

First  watched  :  Uncertain

A  couple  of  years  ago  my  son  was  watching  Channel  5's  Milkshake !  in  the  mornings  and  it  was  good  to  see   the  Mr  Men  still  flourishing  on  there  as it  is  is  to  see  anything  that's  endured  from  my  childhood  through  to  his. I  have  to  say  it  wasn't  one of  his  favourites.

Mr  Men  was  first  broadcast  on  31.12.74  which  surprises  me; I'd  have  said  1976  if  pushed. Roger  Hargreaves's  simply  drawn  colourful  figures   and  little  stories  promoting  tolerance  for  difference  and  eccentricities   were  an  instant  hit  and  there  was  a  fair  bit  of  merchandising  around  them. I  used  to  have  a   Mr  Happy  key  ring  ( perhaps  I  still  have  it  somewhere)  which  became  a  sort  of  lucky  mascot  for  a  while  although  my  favourite  was  Mr  Noisy, the  cheerful  red  chappy  shown  above.

Political  correctness  pushed  Hargreaves  into  introducing  Little  Miss  characters  from  1981  onwards  and  his  son  continued  the  series  of  books  after  his  death.  The  first  series  ran  for  28  episodes  with  Arthur  Lowe  doing  the  narration. Lowe  had  died  by  the  time  the  Little  Miss  characters  came  on  TV  in  1983  so  Pauline  Collins  and  John  Alderton did  the  narration. A  new version  was  made  in  the  mid-nineties  with  Geoffrey  Palmer  doing  the  narration.  This  was  shown  in  the  early  days  of  Milkshake ! ;  the  one  they  have  now  is  an  Americanised  version  with  Simon  Callow  bookending   the  narrative  but  not  actually  delivering  the  story.

195 The Sporting Superstars

First  watched  :  Uncertain

The  Sporting  Superstars  ( later  just  Superstars )  was  first  broadcast  on  New  Year's  Eve  1973.  The  format  was  simple, a  group  of  sportsmen  from  different  fields  competed  against  each  other  in  a  series  of  sporting  events  and  awarded  points  according  to  their  position  in  each  one  to  find  an  overall  champion. The  stars  were  not  allowed  to  compete  in  their  own  discipline  and  some  handicapping  was  applied. David  Vine  claims  he  first  came  up  with  the  idea  at  a  dinner  with  Ron  Pickering, Don  Revie  and  Billy  Bremner  but  the  BBC  rejected  it  and  then  bought  the  rights to  the  same  idea  from  an  American  , Dick  Button.

The  first  champion  was  athlete  David  Hemery  in  1973.  The  show  became  very  popular  with  European  and   World  versions   following  in  due  course  and  some  of  the  winners  like  athlete  Lyn  Davies  and  judo  man  Brian  Jacks  became  much  more  famous  for  being   Superstars  champions   than  for  achievements  in  their  own  sport.

The   show's  most  famous  moment  of  course  was  football's  golden  boy   Kevin  Keegan  coming  off  his  bike  in  the  European  event   in  1976  , ripping  half  his  back  off ,  then  getting  back  on  and  winning  the  re-ride.  Bjorn  Borg  was  also  competing  in  that  event. It  just  goes  to  show  how  professional  sport  has  evolved   in  the  intervening  years. The  very  idea  of  insurance  companies  allowing  Gareth  Bale  , Novak  Djokovic  or  anyone  else  from  the  big  money  sports  to  take  part  in  a  risky  television  competition  is  now  preposterous.  And  that's  what  eventually  did  for  the  show. As  the  big  names  dropped  out,  the  ratings  understandably  fell   and  it  was  cancelled  in  1985.

There  have  been  brief  revivals  this  century  usually  featuring  the  recently-retired. The  most  substantial  was  an  eight  part  series  on  Five  in  2008  with  Jim  Rosenthal  and  Sharron  Davies.

194 David Copperfield

First  watched  :  Sunday  1  December  1974

Heidi   finished  and  was   replaced   immediately   by   this   six   part   adaptation  of  Dickens's most  auto-biographical   work.  After  A  Christmas  Carol  this   was  probably  my  first  introduction  to  his  work.

I've  not  read  the  book  since  or  seen  another  adaptation  so  this  is  the  plot  as  far  as  I  can  recall. Young  David's  father  dies  when  he's  very  young  and  his  mother  re-marries  an  absolute  bastard  called  Murdstone. Unable  to  bear  the  ill-treatment  David  runs  away  to  his  Aunt  Betsy  who  takes  him  in  then  packs  him  off  to  boarding  school. There  he  makes  friends  with  a  lad  called  Tommy  Traddles  and  eventually  the  flash  bully  Steerforth.

When  they  become  adults  Steerforth  runs  away  with  his  friend's  wife   and  later  perishes  in  a  shipwreck  as  does  the  husband  who  unknowingly  tries  to  rescue  him. David's  discovery  of  their  bodies  on  the  beach  is  the  scene  I  recall  best. Thereafter  I  got  a  bit  lost  . David  marries  first  Dora  who  dies  and  then  Agnes  and  there's  a  complicated  legal  storyline  featuring  Traddles  and  the  self-effacing  but  corrupt  lawyer  Uriah  Heep.  

David  Yelland  played  the  title  role  but  was  overshadowed  by  Anthony  Andrews  as  Steerforth  and  Arthur  Lowe  as  the overbearing  but  financially  inept  Micawber.

193 The Six Million Dollar Man

First  watched  : 1974

In  1974  a  new  word  from  the  world  of  engineering  became  ubiquitous  across  the  playgrounds  of  Britain. "Bionic"  was  coined  by  Jack  E  Steele  in  1958  and  referred  to  the  application  of  biological  phenomena  to  engineering  design. In  1972  the  science  fiction  writer  Martin  Caldin  turned  the  idea  on  its  head  in  his  novel  Cyborg  where  electrical  implants  and  prosthetics  made  his  human  protagonist  a  superman.

This  idea  transferred  to  TV  as  The  Six  Million Dollar  Man  where  astronaut  Steve  Austin  was  rebuilt  after  a  crash  with  new  legs, a  right  arm  and  mechanical  eye. This  made  him  super-strong , super  fast  and  telescopically  sighted. Obviously  government  agencies  found  a  use  for  him.

With a  limited  budget  for  special  effects,  Steve's  feats  were  filmed  in  slow  motion  with  a  scraping  electronic  sound  which  made  it  very  easy  to  spot  who  was  playing  him  in  the  yard.  As  that  would  suggest  it  was  phenomenally  popular  , particularly  among  young  boys  for  whom  it  performed  the  same  function  as  those  Charles  Atlas  ads  in  the  Marvel  comics, the  stuff  of  endless  daydreams  and  revenge  fantasies.

Austin  was  played  by  hunky  Lee  Majors  whose  acting  gave  the  impression  that  his  non-bionic  parts  were  actually  made  of  wood  but  no  one  was  watching  it  for  that.  Later  on  he  picked  up  a  girlfriend  Jamie  Summers  who  got  her  own  spin-off  series. The  show  was  abruptly  cancelled  in  1978  partly  because  Majors   was  being  awkward  about  a  new  contract. However  he  soon  bounced  back  ( presumably  in  slo-mo )  in  The  Fall  Guy.    

192 The Flintstones

First  watched  : Uncertain

This  is  another  well-loved  series  that  never  really  grabbed  me. That's  not  too  surprising  for  although  it  was  a  cartoon  shown  in  a  teatime  slot  it  was  never  really  aimed  at  kids . The  satire  of  baby  boomer  values  and  consumerism  went  over  my  9-10  year  old  head  and  I  just  didn't  find  it  very  entertaining.

The  Flintstones   was  notable  for  its  pre-Simpsons  longevity , lasting  from  1960  to  1966. Its  decline  was  put  down  to  a  shift  in  tone  following  the  birth  of  Pebbles  which  lost  some  of  the  adult  audience. For  the  next  30  years  there  were  periodic  revivals  and  spin-offs none  of  which  lasted  for  more  than  a  couple  of  years.

191 Planet of the Apes

First  watched : 1974

Over  to  ITV  now  for  this  adventure  series  based  on  the  film  franchise  ( probably  the  first  to  enter  my  consciousness ). Discussions  about  a  TV  series  began  in  1971, the  year  of  the  third  film  in  the  franchise  Escape  from  the  Planet  of  the  Apes  but   stalled   as  the  audience  fell  away  with  its  sequels. After  the  pretty  dire  Battle  for  the  Planet  of  the  Apes   premiered  in  1973  the  series'  producer  died  and  his  company  sold all  rights  to  20th  Century  Fox. They sold  TV  rights  to  the  first  three  films  on  to  CBS  who  immediately  broadcast  them  to  high  ratings. This  gave  a  green   light  to  development  of  the  TV  series.

The  premise  of  the  series  goes  back  to  the  first  film  with  two  astronauts  Virdon  and  Burke  crashlanding   on  the  earth  of  the  future  where  apes  rule  the  roost.  The  relatively  liberal  Zaius  - the  only  character  lifted  directly  from  the  films  although  the  bone-headed  general Urko  is  pretty  much  identical  to  Ursus  from  the  second  film -  wants  to  study  them   but  his  acolyte  Galen,  played  by  the  faithful   Roddy  McDowall,  breaks  loose  and  goes  on  the  run  with  the  two  humans.

From  that  point  on  it's  pretty  much  Alias  Smith  and  Jones   accompanied  by  a  man  in  a  monkey  suit   as  the  two  fugitives  roam  around  the  semi-civilised  planet  chased  by  Urko  and  solve  the  problems  posed  by  various  guest  stars  while  trying  to  find  a  way  out  of  their  predicament.

Poor  ratings  in  the  US  put  an  end  to  it  after  13  episodes  although  it  was  very  popular  here  and  gave  rise  to  a  brand  of  crisps  and  a  Marvel  comic  which  I  bought  for  a  while  until  it    interrupted  its  adaptation  of  the  fourth  film  without  warning  in  favour  of  a  densely  written piece  of  fan  fiction  ( and  not  from  the  beginning  either )  and  I  abandoned  it  in  disgust.

Neither  Ron  Harper  nor  James  Naughton  became  household  names  after  the  series  although  the  latter  has  been  notably  more  successful  with  a  couple  of  Tony  Awards  and  character  parts  in  some  big  films  such  as  The  Devil  Wears  Prada.  No  one  from  the  series  was  involved  in  the  2001  film  reboot, McDowall  having  died  three  years  earlier.

190 Chinese Puzzle

First  watched : 13  November  1974

Although  not  written  by  the  same  person  and  much  shorter  and  less  ambitious  this  kids  adventure  serial  was  very  much  in   the  same  mould   as   The  Long  Chase. Two  teenagers  stumble  across  a  smuggling  plot  at  an  old  airfield  led  by  a  sinister  Chinese  figure  The  Master.  I  can't  remember  too  much  about  it  except  that  The  Master  turned  out  to  be  the  respectable  Wing  Commander  played  by  William  Fox  wearing  a  Chinese  mask  and  he  was  stopped  by  a  hand  on  his  shoulder  as  he  was  getting  onto  the  plane  in  the  final  frame. I  don't  think  that  spoiler  really  matters  as  the  series  hasn't  been  repeated  since  it  was  the  Sunday  tea  time  serial  in  1975  and  there's  been  no  VHS  or  DVD  release . Nor,  as  you  can  see,  are  there  any stills  knocking  about  on  the  net.

It  was  written  by  versatile  scriptwriter  Brian  Finch  and  shown  in  six  parts. I  remember  it  being  quite  enjoyable.