1978: THE SMALL-SCREEN SUPERHERO BOOM

From 1978: Back to the first superhero screen boom: the explosion of superpowered TV shows that filled the airwaves - with various degrees of commercial and creative success - back in the late 1970s.

This STARLOG MAGAZINE article is a fun upsum of what was shooting at the time... And also demonstrates the lack of attention to detail by studio publicity people who sem to be quite happy for pictures of the Green Goliath to circulate... in slippers!  It is possible to see them by attentive viewing of the DVD's (and probably more so on the HD releases) but they have a picture quality above-and-beyond how anyone watched the show when it first aired.  But a still in a national (international!) magazine is something else.  But it is fun.  The picture is - incidentally - from the TERROR IN TIME SQUARE location shoot.

1980: STARLOG'S SCIENCE FICTION TV SUMMARY

From July 1980: STARLOG's summary of the state of small-screen SF.

For me, this article perfectly captures the peak of Star Age SF-TV: all the dumb-but-fun US shows of the time are present and correct.  

The superhero shows might have been winding down (Note to Hollywood: it's a boom-and-bust genre like any other... don't get too cocky...) but they were still present-and-correct.  Larson's domination of small-screen SF was ultimately pretty short-lived but this article sits slap-bang in the middle of his BATTLESTAR-BUCK-GALACTICA triple-play.  

And there's a smattering of oft-forgotten shows like CLIFFHANGERS (from Ken "V" Johnson), SALVAGE 1 and THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES that are worthy of revisiting.  

By my reckoning, we'd have to wait until the 1990s for another comparable wave of telefantasy (a combination of multiple Treks still pretty much at the top of their game, several other syndicated spacers chasing a piece of Paramount's lucrative action and a wave of X-wannabes dolling out ghosts and aliens on moderate budgets.  

This article appeared in STARLOG issue 36. 

1980: WH SMITH MATCHBOX AND CORGI TOYS ADVERT from LOOK-IN

From August 1980: A one-page WH SMITH (love the old 'box' logo... still on the doors of the Cardiff branch... and no doubt throughout the chain with notoriously threadbare carpets and weather-worn stores) advert promoting Corgi and Matchbox toys.

There's a lot of classics on show here, all of these were playground staples in the Star Age and I personally had (and may still have... tucked away in a loft somewhere) the Superman van (and a pink Charlie's Angels variation), the James Bond Lotus, the Wonder Woman buggy (containing a butch-looking WW whom my mum compared to a "Red Indian"), the Batmobile (hard to believe the TV show was already a decade old at this point but ownership of the toy was still a playtime prerequisite) and - best of all - the Supermobile (as plugged in the comic book itself) with spring-loaded "punching fists' feature. 

This advert appeared in a copy of LOOK-IN. 

1980: PRINCESSIONS WONDER WOMAN NEWSZINE AD

From 1980: a full-page advert to sign up for PRINCESSIONS: The Wonder Woman newszine which also (smartly... considering the show was defunct) seemed to cover plenty of other topics too.

Did anyone read or contribute to this?  Does anyone have copies?  Any good?  Copies were apparently sold in the original FP down Denmark Street way.