Andyland, USA

A quick glance around the internets these days, and you'll discover that many a person is all hot and bothered over Benedict Cumberbatch and the BBC's Sherlock , the series which modernizes the adventures of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic detective and his companion, Dr. Watson. But that is the not the first time an attempt to modernize the classic literary character had been made. That happened during the run of the first, arguably, wildly popular media adaptation of the characters, the Sherlock Holmes film series from the late '30s to mid '40s, staring Basil Rathbone as Holmes, and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson. All together the series comprises 14 films made between 1939 and 1946— made alongside a popular radio program staring the two leads as well. The first two films in the series were made at 20 th Century Fox, then a gap in the series occurred, resuming in 1942 at Universal. Though the films made at Fox were big budgeted A pictures, Universal laun...

There was a time, not so long ago, when superhero movies were not the bread and butter of the Box Office. All that change in 1989, when Tim Burton's Batman opened up and blew the roof off. I was a kid who was obsessed with Batman. I had Batman shoes, Batman socks, Batman pajamas, Batman bed sheets, Batman shirts, even a custom made Batman chair. With the chance for a new line of monster money makers, Hollywood started to look at what could be, essentially, be the next Batman . Disney tried their hand at it with 1990's Dick Tracy, and 1991's The Rocketeer. The former was a box office smash, and the latter wasn't. But an issue with the rights to the Dick Tracy character prevented a film franchise from going forward. Both though, were films I very much loved growing up. With the second Batman film, 1992's Batman Returns opening to big returns, it was still unclear what, if at all, would be the next hero to take the box office throne. During all of th...

Couldn't think of a picture, so we default to Hitch My brain can be a little methodical. Not to mention that as I've gotten older, I've developed this tendency to over think things. I used to not be this way, I used to be a somewhat impulsive person who would quickly make his mind up. The most notorious example of this, in my family, is the time I bought a full sized pinball machine at a yard sale. This was back when I was a young lad of 17, and requested help from my family in hauling it. My mother came very close to ending my life. The reason why I bring this up is that I recently underwent a task that I've only done two other times in my life, thinning out my home video library. For the majority of my life on this planet, I've always had something of a sizable movie collection. I'm a film geek, and if there's anything a film geek likes more than talking about movies, it's talking about their home collections. Even as a kid, I owned se...

I've recently begun reading the new book Slimed! An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age by Mathew Klickstein. It's exactly what you think it is, a book full of history, details, and info on all those great old Nick shows that filled our heads, and that are still with an entire generation. The book covers the kid's network from around 1985-1998, with a forward written by Marc Summers (the host of Double Dare ) and an afterword by Artie, The Strongest Man in the World, this book is an ideal read for anyone who grew up in the late 80s and early 90s. Did you know that the costume designer for Mad Men was also the costume designer on The Adventures of Pete & Pete ? Yep, from Artie to Don Draper, who would have thunk it? There's also details on projects that never came to be, perhaps the most disappointingly, is the story of how Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures were going to make a movie based on Are You Afraid of The Dark?, the kids “spooky tale...

I woke up in a mood on that particular Friday. I have no clue why I was in a mood, most people wake up on Friday full of sunshine and happiness. However on that Friday, I woke up all moody and grumbly and all “ugh, me no like shining orb in sky.” It sent the precedent for how that day was going to go. Nothing was going right, I cut my hand on the toaster that morning while making breakfast. Don't ask me how I managed to cut myself on a toaster, I'm still trying to figure that one out for myself. I felt horrible all morning long, and that afternoon I had a number of errands to run, I begrudgingly placed myself in my car, and drove out into the wild. After checking on my grandmother, picking up medicine for my aunt, and other general errands, my mood had improved some. Still looking for some cheer, I stopped by my favorite antique shop to browse, and ponder things. You'd be surprised at how well an antique mall serves as a great place to think. As I wandere...