Toon Tuesday : The New Scooby Doo movies

Almost definitely one of the top three incarnations of Scooby Doo, the New Scooby Doo movies were two part shows featuring guest appearances by a wide array of famous names.

From Batman & Robin, to the Harlem Globetrotters, to the Three Stooges, the show ran the gambit of fun but also did some with great celebrities like Don Knotts, Sandy Duncan and even country music star, Jerry Reed.

It was truly a fun show but even then a lot of fans asked why there wasn't more, why they didn't have more of the other Hanna-Barbera characters in the mix, like Captain Caveman and Space Ghost.  In more recent (and pretty lousy) incarnations of the shows, they did bring in more characters but it isn't even close to the magic of the originals, not at all.

There was a host of greats that could have been part of this series, although some might have taken a bit of a stretch for the, Scooby-verse, a character like H&B's version of Godzilla could have been a guest hero and it would have been more in the scope of the gangs adventures.

A character like Carl Kolchak (from Kolchak the Night Stalker) might have been a bit over the top but the character was wide open in that era for such a crossover, perhaps the character needed to crossover from Scooby Doo to a group that goes after real monsters, it could have been a great move.

The 80's was no shortage of insane possibilities for the show, the Ghostbusters is an easy one to toss out, or the gang of kids from, The Monster Squad, or even Gizmo & Billy from, Gremlins.

Today, the fools who horribly run Hanna-Barbera & The Cartoon Network do some decent films once in a while, Scooby Doo meet KISS, was a pretty good crossover, but so many others are just plain ridiculous and written for very dull intellects, no matter the age.

One of the great team ups from Hanna Barbera I always thought was an automatic winner was the Scooby gang meeting Blue Falcon & Dinomutt but they have already tried and screwed that up, bad.

Hopefully someone will come along and take the reigns at Hanna Barbera/Cartoon Network that will stop making programs/movies that just dumb down the audience and glorify stupidity rather than enlighten and entertain! 


 

Happy Anniversary KISS Army

It was on this day in 1975 that two rabid KISS fans in Terre Haute Indiana formed, The KISS Army when a local station, WVTS refused to play the rock bands music.

Bill Starkey and Jay Evans began constantly calling the station and sending in letters (including some that threatened to "blow up the station", which I do NOT recommend anyone doing, or threatening to do, ever) that the stations program director, Rich Dickerson finally gave in and started playing the band and referring to the KISS Army on the air.  In no time, fans were calling the station asking how to enlist in the KISS Army.

The official logo was created by Dennis Woloch and Vincent DiGelando of Howard Marks Inc advertising firm that was working with KISS and Bill Aucoin at the time, and was made the official fan club in 1976.

The show on November 21st 1975 (10,000 seats) was completely sold out, Bill Starkey was brought on stage and awarded a plaque by the band.

In 2010, Terre Haute Indiana officially declared that November 21st would now be known as, KISS Army Day.

Here is a photo of Starkey & Dickerson with the band the day before that show in 1975.

According to the former KISS merchandising manager, at it's peak, the KISS Army generated $5,000 per day with a membership of over 100,000 strong.

Like the great fan effort that kept Star Trek on the air, this shows what can happen when the fans come together for what they believe in!  ROCK ON!!!  46 years strong!!!