bgb (01/12/83)
Here are a few questions that deal with shows out of the sixties (I believe)
Saturday mornings there was a cartoon dealing with three super-heroes
called "The Impossibles". What were their (hero) names, what were their
powers, and what was their day to day job?
Hint: I think it was on when Frankenstein Jr., the Herculoids, and
Space Ghost were on.
There used to be a show called "It's About Time". It dealt with cavemen
meeting contemporary people. Does anyone remember anything else about
the plot? It's been a sore point on my mind because I used to know but
it just won't come clear.
Also , there used to be a show about a man who was immortal somehow
and some wealthy man was trying to get the immortal's blood to get that
same ability. Does anybody know the name or details concerning this show?
Bill Backus
houxa!bgb
houxg!bgbmclure (01/14/83)
#R:ariel:-19900:sri-unix:3800004:000:1090 sri-unix!mclure Jan 14 09:25:00 1983 The book by James Gunn you're referring to is THE IMMORTALS. This is an entertaining tale about a man and his family who have a special chemical in their blood that greatly slows down cell degeneration and speeds up healing of wounds. An old wealthy recluse gets a transfusion from the immortal (who didn't know he was immortal at the time of the blood donation) and is temporarily rejuvenated. Naturally he goes after the immortal, hoping to breed him, his family, and their descendents like cattle. The book was filmed in considerably different form first as a TV-pilot movie and then as a series called THE IMMORTAL, with Christopher George as the immortal. I seem to recall watching a few episodes back in the early 1970's when it was out. The show considerably trivialized the medical slant Gunn wrote the novel in. In the movie/series there is no family, just the immortal, and it was essentially a simple chase and adventure potboiler. While I'd recommend the book, I don't recommend the series or movie. The last few pages of the book are an excellent denouement. Stuart
bernie (01/17/83)
"The Impossibles" was a *long* time ago. I seem to remember that one could
stretch his body (Plastic Man-like), another could turn into a liquid,
another could turn his legs into springs and bounce, and another could split
into multiple copies of himself. Since that makes four and there were only
three of them, I'm wrong about one of the above abilities.
Their day-to-day job was playing as a rock band.
(of the same name, I suspect).
"It's About Time" was about two astronauts whose space capsule somehow goes
through the "time barrier" and arrives in prehistoric times. Imogene Coca
was in it, as a cavewoman. A subsequent season of the series (how's that
for alliteration?) brought our two travellers back to the present day, along
with a couple of prehistoric stowaways. Theme song (just for the record)
went something like this :
It's about time, it's about flight
travelling faster than the speed of light
Here is the tale of our strange crew
right through the barrier of time they flew...
Past the fighting minutemen
Past the armored nights
Past the Roman senators
to this ancient sight.
"The Immortal" was about Ben somebody-or-other (played by Christopher George,
whose wife Linda Day George was on Mission Impossible for several seasons).
Ben had been born with some rare factor in his blood that rendered him
immortal (sort of). He didn't age, didn't get sick, etc. He could, however,
be shot or stabbed or electrocuted or thrown off a bridge or eaten by a lion
or any number of other things (thus making the series considerably more
suspenseful). An aging multi-millionare (played by Ralph Bellamy, I think)
wound up getting a transfusion from Ben and being rejuvenated. The effect,
however, was temporary; he began aging again and arrived at his true age
within about 24 hours. The story was therefore a long chase sequence, as
Ben tries to evade the old guy's goons, who are out to capture him to serve
as a one-man blood bank to keep the geezer young and healthy. The trick was
to capture him but not kill him. Ben basically wandered from place to place
having interesting adventures, much like all those other characters from all
those other series in the sixties. (The most recent example of this genre
is "The Incredible Hulk", where Banner wanders from place to place evading
McGee). The problem is that the kind of immortality Ben had didn't make him
interesting to watch; I mean, spending an hour a week watching someone not
grow old is *boring*.
--Bernie
...decvax!watmath!watarts!berniekent (01/21/83)
the names of the character in the impossibles were Multi-man, iron man and coil man. Multi man could replicate himself, iron man could do the obvious (change himself to iron ) and coil man could coil himself Its about time. Its about space . About two men in the strangest place. Wait till they see, what is in sight, is it goodbye or is it goodnight. Its about three astonauts, it's about their fate. It's about a woman and her prehistoric mate. It's about time cavemen too, about the time when the earth was new....etc.