Casey Kasem (1932-2014)

Casey Kasem passed away over the weekend at the age of 82.  Like most members of our generation, we were introduced to Kasem through his voicing of Shaggy on Scooby Doo, Where Are You! and Robin on various Super Friends series.  We later enjoyed his work as host of the American Top 40 countdown radio show, and America's Top 10 video countdown.

We pay tribute to Kasem today because his voice acting has been featured several times in our reviews and in other holiday programming that we have yet to cover.

Cases in point:
* Kasem portrayed the title character in Here Comes Peter Cottontail. 

* He also played Robin in "From Catwoman With Love" and "The Great Scarecrow Scare."

* And he voiced Shaggy in "A Scooby Doo Halloween" and "The Headless Horseman of Halloween."

In addition to those, Kasem's voice can be heard in The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas, a holiday staple during the 1970s and early 80s.  And we hope to review other Scooby holiday episodes, such as "A Halloween Hassle In Dracula's Castle" and "A Scooby Doo Valentine."

Kasem will be missed by many.  For our part, our childhoods and this blog would not have been the same without him.   RIP.

-- J.A. Morris & RigbyMel

Fan tribute art borrowed from ninjaink 

The Adventures Of Batman: "From Catwoman With Love"

Premiered December 12, 1968.

Robin:Forget the hearts and flowers!
Batman:It's villains and brickbats time again, come on!

"Holy Cupids Bruce!"  Dick Grayson (AKA Robin) looks at the calender & realizes tomorrow is Valentine's Day.

It's Valentine's Day in Gotham City!

Batman (Olan Soule) and Robin (Casey Kasem) are called to the Gotham police station by Commissioner Gordon (Ted Knight).  Various villains have sent Valentine gifts to the Dynamic Duo.  Most of the gifts turn out to be bombs in disguise.

Catwoman (Jane Webb) has sent them a package...which contains a live Siamese cat!

The package also contains a poem from Catwoman that reads:

Roses are red

Violets are blue-o

And I adore 

The Dynamic Duo! 

Catwoman says she admires the heroes and wants to declare a truce in honor of Valentine's Day.  The cat likes Robin, so he names her Valentina.  Batman says they can keep her, since she doesn't appear to be a bomb.

At the same time, Catwoman and her minions are on a crime spree, stealing money and jewelry.  Batman and Robin are alerted to her whereabouts, but she keeps getting away.

Batman & Robin pursue Catwoman, Valentina joins them for a ride.

We observe Catwoman monitoring the Batmobile on a tracking device.  This allows her to know where they are during her robberies.

Batman and Robin discover that Valentina's fur is covered with a chemical that gives off radio waves.  This is how Catwoman is tracking their movements.

Later, Batgirl (Jane Webb again) joins the Dynamic Duo in their attempt to capture Catwoman.  They succeed in apprehending her Catmen minions, but Catwoman gets away.

The heroes hang on for dear life, while Catwoman whips them (ouch)!

Can the three heroes stop Catwoman and save Valentine's Day?

J.A. Morris says:
"From Catwoman With Love" isn't great, but it's short, fun and one of the few superhero episodes based around Valentine's Day.

The Joker doesn't appear in this episode, but he send his foes a Valentine!

There isn't much of a plot, it's basically just an extended chase scene through Gotham City.  But it opens with a Batman dismantling several booby-trapped Valentines sent by their foes, which is fun, if ridiculous.

Batman opens a Valentine gift using bomb-disposal equipment.

And speaking as a cat-lover, I thought Valentina was cute and enjoyed Robin's interaction with her.  Plus, Valentina ends up helping them fight Catwoman!

Younger fans might find the plot and (limited and often recycled) animation rather simplistic.  But Olan Soule and Casey Kasem were always fun voicing the Dynamic Duo.  Jane Webb also does a nice job here, performing double duty as the voice of Catwoman and Batgirl.

Batgirl tails Catwoman.

I must mention one thing though about Valentina the cat.  When Batman and Robin go chasing crooks in the Batmobile, the cat is riding with them on the back of the car!

Valentina climbs a brick wall.  Is she "Spider-Cat"?

When Batgirl goes on patrol, Valentina is in the sidecar of her Batcycle.  Who takes a house cat with them while chasing super villains?  They might be great crime fighters, but Batman, Robin and Batgirl should NOT be trusted as catsitters!

  But thankfully, Valentina makes it through the episode unharmed.

Catwomam attacks the Batmobile with her car's "Cataram".

I was a bit surprised to see Catwoman us a whip on the heroes.  I don't recall seeing many Saturday morning cartoons where anyone got literally whipped.

Batman & Robin capture Catwoman's flunkies.

This series is available for streaming on Amazon and it will be released on dvd  this June.

Valentina turns on her "boss"!

"From Catwoman With Love" isn't exactly "essential" viewing.  But it's an entertaining Valentine episode, and at under 15 minutes in length, doesn't overstay its welcome.

J.A. Morris' rating:

2 and a half Valentine Hearts.

The Adventures Of Batman: "The Great Scarecrow Scare"

First aired on November 9, 1968.

"Stuff this top cop in a closet, while I masquerade as the top cop masquerading as me!"
-The Scarecrow

It's Halloween, and Gotham City is holding its annual charity costume party.  Batman (Olan Soule), Robin (Casey Kasem) and Batgirl (Jane Webb) are in attendance.  They're surprised to see their enemy the Scarecrow at the party.

It turns out to be Commissioner Gordon (Ted Knight) in a "Scarecrow" Halloween costume.  He says the "costume service" delivered it by mistake.  Gordon is there to act as MC of a charity auction.

But when the commissioner steps away, he's attacked by the real Scarecrow (also voiced by Knight) and his minions!

The villain takes out the commissioner with eggs that are filled with knockout-gas.  With Gordon captive, Scarecrow will pose as Gordon...dressed as the Scarecrow.

Batgirl has followed her father and gets gassed as well.  Scarecrow takes her hostage.  Batman says they can track her down through a transmitter on her utility belt.

But the Scarecrow discovers the transmitter and decides to use it to set a trap for the heroes.  The Dynamic Duo will do everything they can to save Batgirl.  Will the combined talents of the three heroes be enough to stop the Scarecrow?

J.A. Morris says:
This is a short, slight cartoon, about 8 minutes long.  It's about one step above "limited" animation.  It sort of falls in the "so bad it's good" category. The Scarecrow is the perfect villain for a Halloween episode.  But hardcore DC Comics fans might be disappointed that this version of the Scarecrow (and his costume) is dumbed down for Saturday morning fare.  He doesn't have his fear gas and is basically just a thug in a scarecrow costume.  But his eggs that shoot knock-out gas are sort of humorous!

Scarecrow steals a painting at the charity auction.

The Adventures Of Batman is (rightly) overshadowed today by later Batman animated series, but it was the first Batman cartoon.  This series featured Olan Soule and Casey Kasem as Batman and Robin (respectively), they would go on to voice the characters for the next decade in various Super Friends series.

At the last second, Robin is saved from getting threshed.

Speaking of voice actors, both the cackling Scarecrow and Commissioner Gordon are voiced by none other than Ted Baxter himself, Ted Knight!  As good as they are, the voice actors are, unfortunately the best thing about "The Great Scarecrow Scare".  It's a credit to Knight's talent that I didn't recognize his voice until I looked up this series on imdb.

At least Mary & Lou never had to deal with the Scarecrow!

The "plot" here is weak.  We see Scarecrow steal a painting at the charity auction that's worth a lot of money...and then the painting is never mentioned again, it just turns into a "Save Batgirl" story.  Did Scarecrow sell the painting on the black market offscreen?

And why would Gordon think it's a good idea to attend a Halloween party dressed like a wanted criminal?  Isn't that asking for trouble, one way or another?  The costume service screwed up so he had no choice but to wear it?  I'm guessing a police commissioner would be smart enough to attend without a costume instead.

Scarecrow cracks a whip at Batman & Robin, a bound & gagged Batgirl looks on.

The worst thing about it is the portrayal of  Batgirl.  She gets easily captured, then accidentally gasses both herself and Batman, allowing Scarecrow to their re-capture them.  Batgirl is nothing but a victim and an idiot here.  Not a very positive message about a smart & powerful woman (remember, Batgirl is both a superhero AND a librarian!) to put in a kids' cartoon, even by the standards of the late 1960s.  On a positive note, she does use a tractor...

...to send an SOS to Batman!

But that's not enough to cancel out all the negatives.

This series can be found on several streaming video sites.  If you were a kid in the 60s or 70s, "The Great Scarecrow Scare" might be an enjoyable Halloween trip down memory lane, and it was fun to hear the voice actors again.  But without the nostalgia factor, there's not a lot to recommend here.

Batman throws a punch at Scarecrow's henchmen.

J.A. Morris' rating:

2 jack-o-lanterns

Fat Albert's Halloween Special

Premiered October 24, 1977

Fat Albert and his friends go shopping for Halloween costumes at the Root'N Rummage Emporium. Rudy and Devery are creeped out by the presence of Old Lady Bakewell, an elderly woman who lives in “that creepy old house by the cemetery”. Fat Albert wants to know why they’re afraid of her. Rudy says it's because Bakewell is weird and that “all old people are weird.” The store’s owner, Mr. Root throws them out for horsing around in his shop. Russell believes that all old people, including Mr. Root, are bad and that they hate kids. Later, when the gang is dressed up to go trick or treating in home-made Halloween costumes, Rudy & Dumb Donald express excitement about "scaring old dudes" that night.

Later, when the gang is dressed up to go trick or treating in home-made Halloween costumes, Rudy & Dumb Donald express excitement about "scaring old dudes" that night.

So the gang meets up with Devery at the cemetery. They plan an evening of scaring and pranking old people in between trick or treating visits. Fat Albert suggests they just stick with trick-or-treating, but he's overruled by the rest of the gang, especially Rudy and Devery.

Devery's sister Melba shows up reminds her big brother that he's grounded and needs to go home. He mocks her and continues his quest to frighten the elderly.

The gang then goes to a movie theater that is showing 'The Space Squids That Ate Pittsburgh'. Devery wants to scare an usher named "Searchlight" Johnson. After Rudy and Devery cause a disturbance, the whole group is thrown out of the theater. Fat Albert is angry about this because he wanted to see the rest of the movie.

Next,they try to scare Mudfoot Brown (a street smart old man who was a recurring character in the Fat Albert series). This backfires, as Rudy and Devery freak out, thinking Mudfoot is a ghost. Mudfoot then manages to eat most of the gang's Halloween treats while rambling about how much better the holiday was when HE was a kid.

The last stop is Old Lady Bakewell's house. Melba shows up and says Devery is in big trouble and must come home right now. Devery says he will, if she'll go trick or treating at Bakewell's house all by herself. To the shock of the gang, Melba walks right towards the Bakewell house, then Russell follows her!

Now it's up to Fat Albert and the gang to get them out of Bakewell's scary old house! Will they make it out of the house alive? Or will they learn a Valuable Lesson about respecting their elders?

J.A. Morris says:

If you grew up in the 70s (like I did), Fat Albert & The Cosby Kids was probably part of your Saturday morning. Every episode had plenty of laughs, bad plays on words ("you're like school on Sunday-No class!") and every episode taught a lesson. This special is no different. Fat Albert was always the moral/emotional center of the show, often discouraging his friends from doing something stupid. And for a few years, this special was as much a part of Halloween as It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

Without spoiling the ending, the simple message in 'Fat Albert's Halloween Special' is "old people are human beings and should be treated with respect."

It should be noted that 'Fat Albert's Halloween Special' is the first and only appearance of Devery.

My rating:

3 jack o'lanterns

RigbyMel says:

I, too, have fond memories of the Fat Albert series growing up. As a more critical adult, I am not crazy about some of the cheap, recycled animation (one of Filmation's trademarks), but the voices (many done by Bill Cosby, himself - haha!) and story make this Halloween special worthwhile.

My rating:

3 jack o'lanterns