After 31 years, Legends of the Superheroes is now legally, commercially available on DVD (Newsarama even has an exclusive clip right here)— just two months after we detailed the very odd pair of farcical TV specials right here on this very blog.
Coincidence? Well, yes.
It does seem to be a bit of a hastily assembled production — given that it’s a made-to-order DVD, and this caveat: “This film has been manufactured from the best-quality video master currently available and has not been remastered or restored specifically for this DVD and Digital Download release.”
Of course, we were hardly the first people to enjoy the splendid oddity that is Legend of the Superheroes, for the decidedly un-politically correct comedy stylings of “Ghetto Man” alone:
He made so many Sammy Davis Jr. jokes.
Still, one can’t help but wonder the power of Blog@. What else can we get released on DVD next? Keep in mind, we live in a world where the David Hasselhoff Nick Fury movie has been commercially released. (Albeit now out of print. And how great is that “from one of the writers of Batman Begins” line on the cover?)
The ’60s Batman TV series — which, like Legends of the Superheroes, had Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin — has long been the great white whale of genre entertainment DVD released. Can we make that happen? (Probably not.)
OK, well, how about the 1996 Generation X Fox TV movie? That’s never been released. Though it was disappointing that Jubilee was Caucasian, the fact that it included Mondo and Skin — undoubtedly the most obscure Marvel characters to be adapted to live action — kinda sorta made up for it.
Then there’s the Justice League of America CBS pilot, but given that it never actually aired, that may be hoping for too much. Don’t forget about the shelved Gen 13 animated film, either, even if much of the world did long ago.
So what buried treasure (?) would you like to see made commercially available? Let us know in the comments!
October 22nd, 2010 at 4:22 pm
I know there was a Power Pack TV pilot made–and maybe shown in Canada once or so–that should be on the list.
There was the short lived Green Hornet series spun off from the 60s Batman show which I think was briefly available, and is often found in Japan in bootleg form. (Probably as hard to release as the Batman show will be).
There were some ham-fisted attempts to copy/knockoff the Batman show on other networks. Probably not really worth releasing, but if we’re going to be completest?
I think one was a hybrid version of Mr. Terrific + Hour Man combined.
The live action Shazam/Isis show from the 70s.
There’s a handful of obscure Wonder Woman bits, pilots and animation that could easily be put in 1 collection. Including the Cathy Lee Crosby version.
The Dr. Strange TV Movie–It airs very infrequently on basic cable is truly awful condition when shown.
Ditto for the two 70s Capt America flicks.
How about those two DREADFUL 1990 movies Marvel okayed, the Capt. America and Fantastic Four–put ‘em in a double disk, and include a rifftrax commentary.
There’s a couple attempts at a shadow series over the years–and apparently an animated 90s “batman style” cartoon too.
Not sure if it counts, but I understand there were a pair of DESTORYER tv movies back in the day, and it would be fun to see those release.
That’s all the live action stuff I can think of, besides the ubiquitous old movie serials.
October 22nd, 2010 at 5:10 pm
since THE INCREDIBLE HULK RETURNS and THE TRIAL OFTHEINCREDIBLE HULK (JOhn Rhys davies as The Kingpin!!!)were released, nothing else has mattered
October 22nd, 2010 at 6:41 pm
I want the Global Frequency pilot that the CW filmed and decided not to show/pick up.
October 22nd, 2010 at 9:29 pm
The 1987 pilot of Will Eisner’s Spirit staring Sam Jones and Nana Vistor.
October 22nd, 2010 at 10:22 pm
Yeah, um, the unreleased seasons of the Superboy TV series really should have come out before this. Also the 70s live-action Spider-Man.
October 23rd, 2010 at 5:54 pm
Star Wars Holiday Special. What else?
October 26th, 2010 at 8:47 am
The Dick Tracy TV pilot from 1967. I’ve seen it, and it’s actually okay – falls into the same league as The Green Hornet series, which I hope somebody releases soon.
@JRC: “There were some ham-fisted attempts to copy/knockoff the Batman show on other networks.” You had two of ‘em: Mr. Terrific and Captain Nice (created by Buck Henry), and segments from both shows are on YouTube.
Lance Roger Axt
The AudioComics Company
October 26th, 2010 at 10:01 am
thanks Lance! I’ll hit the youtubes up!
October 26th, 2010 at 6:57 pm
Good call on the Tracy pilot. It was well cast and I remember it had a really good, fairly brutal fight scene, more From Russia With Love than Batman.
October 26th, 2010 at 9:02 pm
@Paul Salvi – The Warner Archive is custom-printed DVDs. These are basically things which, if they had to print a few thousand copies and send them out into the open market, Warner doesn’t think would make any money. So it’s not a matter of what “should” come out before a title like this, it’s merely interesting to see what of their catalog Warner considers to be valuable enough to print-on-demand but not valuable enough to actually release. I’ve got reviews coming up of a couple of Warner Archive titles–THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN and THE COMPLETE ADDAMS FAMILY.
October 27th, 2010 at 11:55 am
@Russ, I understand the way WB is doing this, and it’s not a bad idea either.
I am surprised however, they don’t think people would pick up the complete adams family and thundarr?
Seriously, nerd-o-philes will scoupe those up at the right price point.
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March 2nd, 2011 at 5:56 pm
Possibly all of us should be thankful how the Green Hornet is actually a perfectly pleasant Seth Rogen movie… But it is a major missed chance considering the Michel Gondry spectacle that it came so close to being.
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