Mr. Smith Money Set

One of the beautiful thing about Rack Toys is they are proof of some of televisions weirdest moments, I didn't dream that show about the super intelligent talking Orangutan who works for the government.

Ja-Ru must have got these to shelves in time for the show's cancellation.

New Six Million Dollar Man Shirt in our Redbubble store!

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Get the expanded digital edition of Rack Toys here.

Yep, this happened

If you're like me, you wake up most mornings wondering "Did i dream a show about a hyper intelligent monkey that works in Washington or was that a thing?" 

Well, my answer comes in the form of this brilliant, meaningless rack toy from the good people at Ja-Ru. You see, there are no online tribute sites for Mr Smith (don't prove me wrong), nor is there ever hope of a deluxe DVD boxed set, this piece of merchandise truly is, one of the few shreds of evidence that this was a thing.

Rack Toys: Cheap, Crazed Playthings is a limited edition 144 page book from the creator of Plaid Stallions. Order from us and get three free promotional post cards.

Forgotten TV: Monster Squad

Monster Squad was a 1976 NBC saturday morning series that married the classic monsters with the 60's Batman series ( Stanley Ralph Ross who developed Monster Squad wrote 17 episodes of Batman).

In a nutshell, Museum night watchman Walter (a pre Love Boat Fred Grandy) is an aspiring criminologist, his crime computer brings to life the figures of Dracula (Henry Polic 2), Frank N Stein ( Mike Lane) and Bruce W Wolf (Buck Kartalian) who decide to be crime fighters.

Below is an episode in 3 parts, this originally aired on December 4 1976.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Despite it being a very memorable series, Monster Squad only aired for one year. Ideal Toys also cancelled their line of Monster Squad action figures, double whammy....

Forgotten TV: Cliffhangers

I'm going to devote a couple of times a month to obscure stuff in my video collection, mostly forgotten or short lived TV from the 70's/80's. The first show I chose to highlight is Cliffhangers.

Cliffhangers was produced by Kenneth Johnson (V, The Incredible Hulk) and it's concept was throwback to the movie serials of the 30's and 40's, each show would contain 3 separate adventures, each week it they would end with a "cliffhanger" (hence the title).

Cliffhangers opening

The three segments were:

1) The Curse of Dracula: which depicted the count as a handsome University professor in modern day San Francisco.

2) The Secret Empire: A homage to the Gene Autrey Serial "The Phantom Empire" this story featured a US Marshal who uncovers an underground society of technologically advanced aliens run by the evil Mark (Star Trek) Lenard

3) Stop Susan Williams: international adventure starring Susan Anton as a jet setting reporter who manages to get herself into some deadly situations.

As a child, the Secret Empire was my favourite, so I leave you with an episode.

Part One

Part Two