• On Ursula Andress in 1965's "She" the author says: "That's a pretty impressive pedigree, but it's not as impressive as pre-Honey Ryder Andress in all her glory." Andress played Honey Rider three years before she played the title character in "She." So "She" features a POST-Honey performance. (I thought nerds were supposed to be sticklers for this kind of detail)

• "Note in the trailer how his arctic headquarters is called the Fortress of Solitude. That's just flagrant cheating, Doc!" Why does the author say that? Is it because Superman ripped off the whole FofS thing from Doc? Check the facts, man! By the time Supes introduced his arctic FofS in 1958, Lester Dent's Doc Savage had been going to his own arctive FofS for almost 20 years. DC ripped off the Doc!

• Wow, hadn't thought of that one in a long time. Had a VHS copy I recorded of off cable. It appears to be 25% off on the WB archive site. But good grief, what's with the cutsified versions of the characters in the cover picture they show?

• I just got JOSE AND THE PUSSYCATS IN OUTER SPACE the entire season on DVD its pretty awsome

• Thank you for having enough sense to post the best damn intro to SWAT KATZ. It is the most metal intro in the history of cartoons. The other intro doesn't compare.

• Both Darkwater and Swatcats can be seen on Boomerang so I'm not really jonesing for the DVDs, however DOc Savage is a MUST!

• He was describing the plot to Earth II, not Genesis II. It can get confusing, what with all the similar names and shared actors! :) Earth II also did some fun stuff involving freefall, water balls, and the concept of zero-gravity surgery. It tried really hard to adhere to actual science.

• There's a surprising amount of cleavage but not much else but camp. Kids laugh at it, at least.

• Norton Juster is the author if you're hunting for it in a bookstore. Maurice Sendak does an intro to the latest edition. It is still totally awesome as an adult to read.

• Thank you for posting this for the longest time I remembered reading The Phantom Tollbooth when I was a kid but I could not remember what the title was. I'm hunting down this book now to reread it and see if it is as good as I remember it was.

• Saw UNDERWATER CITY in the theater and loved it. A couple corrections. One, Peter Lorre is not in this film; he was in the original. Two, Nemo had built two 'Nautilus'es, including a newer, larger one. Connors as a US Senator is desperate to get back to the surface and his diplomatic mission to stop the UK from aiding the CSA. Nemo's second in command is jealous as he knows Nemo wants to make Connors his new executive assistant. The second aids Connors escape by hijacking the nearly completed Nautilus II. Nemo in the original Nautilus pursues them, knowing the II's design is fatally flawed. Sure enough, the engine fails and the II starts to fall apart. In the haste to abandon ship, the Second is killed. Nemo rescues the others except for Connors, who has made his way to the surface and a passing ship. The Nautilus I was used to spear a sea monster what threatens the domed city. ---------------------- My wife and I enjoyed THUNDARR when it aired. We decided Ariel and Ooka were the real couple and that Thundarr was kept around for appearancecs and conveniece.

• "Ah, Genesis II. .... Meanwhile, a well-meaning Mariette Hartley decides to send the nuke to the sun to be rid of it. Alas, her knowledge of trajectories were lacking (i.e. non-existent) and accidentally sent it to Earth." Okay, hafta correct what actually happened. Yes the elders of Pax were debating what to do about the nuclear power plant the mutants had discovered and were repairing. Alex Cord's character (he was replaced by Saxon in the next flick) comes back from an unshown field trip and tells the council not to worry, he and Hartley had snuck into the site and sabotaged it so it would never be operational. They got seperated on their escape and he's worried she's not back. The elder council member berates Cord because he may have killed the people working at the plant. Cord replies his sabotage would be non-explosive. Cord, the elder ruler, and Harper-Smythe look out a window in the direction of the nuclear plant. There is a brief flash of light and they realize the plant has exploded. Cord is griefstricken as he realizes Hartley must have gone back and set off the detonation by hand.

• I watched that show just to oogle at the semi-nude sorceress Witch Bethel played by Randi Brooks (also Prince Justin was all kind of awesome)

• You, my friend, have a lot of testicular fortitude to be able to watch these...

• Ariel, Ookla... RIDE!!!!!

• The intro to Thundarr ranks up there with Buck Rodgers has one of my favorite TV intros of all time.

• Thundarr rocked! However I don't get the infatuation with SwatKats and Pirates... i might have been a smidge too old by then (oh my god, i'm old), but both were just too generic and 90s as far as i can remember.

• Almost all of these are great watches, I agree. Especially good ol' Thundarr. (I also remember practically nothing of Dark Water, though.) But I remain convinced that The Phantom Tollbooth is one massive ode to weed and its virtues.

• I remember that movie. Chuck Connors and Peter Lorie were the only two characters to make it back to the surface (and they decided not to tell about the city). One character died trying to escape and the rest decided to stay. If memory serves, Nemo had recently built a 2nd sub, but it didn't last (used to destroy a monster, I believe).

• <i>Swat Kats: The Radical Squadron</i> was a lot of fun and one of the better cartoons of that time. <i> Another one I enjoyed from my early childhood was the original <i>Johnny Quest</i> series. People actually died in that show (pretty intense for a mid-sixties adventure cartoon). I was a very young kid and I ate it up. :-)

• Ah, <i>Genesis II</i>. I remember seeing it over and over, so this must have been shortly after we got our VHS recorder. There was a debate over what to do with a nuke they "found" (don't recall the circumstances). The debate took place on close-circuit TV and the populous of the station voted electronically. Meanwhile, a well-meaning Mariette Hartley decides to send the nuke to the sun to be rid of it. Alas, her knowledge of trajectories were lacking (i.e. non-existent) and accidentally sent it to Earth. <p> All-in-all, a good 70's story.

• <i>The Bermuda Depths</i>? {looks it up on wiki} Oh god THAT movie. I still remember that and I only saw it the one time when it originally aired. Spooky flick. Hadn't remembered that it was Connie Sellecca who played the turtle girl. That was before <i>Flying High</i> and <i>The Greatest American Hero</i>.

• Ah, <i>Doc Savage: Man of Bronze</i>. A wonderfully, campy movie. Favorite line: "Mona, you're a brick." Favorite bit: quickly turning sideways to (successfully) dodge a bullet fired at very close range (yeah, that'll work :-) ). And Ely plays it wonderfully straight.

• Chuck Jones and Mel Blanc could do no wrong. Also, Thundarr was pretty kick-ass.

• never heard of doc savage, sorry!

• old school!

• My dad has a Doc Savage award pin that was only given to members who were actually voted on by people, instead of a regular pin which you simply mailed in for. I think it's only 1 of 3 in existence. A rare find indeed. It was my grandfather's, so now I know not only my dad was and still is a nerd(3 words, comics & star trek), and found out my grandfather was pretty much a nerd too. So even if this pin is worth nothing, it still revealed a bit of history about my family and that alone is worth it to me.

• Cool, the pirates of dark water brings back memories. I actually know a guy who was an animator for Hanna Barbera. He sais it is one of the best gigs he's ever had...

• "In the year 1994..." Thank you, Thundarr Clip, for one more example of why calendars and sci-fi don't mix. Otherwise, is Strange New World just John Saxon narrating over shots of comatose people and space station models? If so, then I'll pass.

• I want to see Roast of the Superheroes in Space!

• F#ck MotU, Thundarr was actually written by Jack Kirby, and its totally awesome (just try to figure out why Ookla its called like that and watch the scene with him piloting a helicopter).

• You forgot Wizards and Warriors, the campy fantasy show that pre-dated Xena and Hercules! It was a WB show that has never been released on DVD... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizards_and_Warriors_(TV_series)

• i know you can watch it on boomerang now and then but i do not remember what time it is on at although.....

• Many of these bring back memories and make me feel old :s

• In that Justice League atrocity with David Ogden Steirs, he should have been called Martian Maneater...never saw control top superhero tights before, i dare not watch it sober...and am i the only one that thought "thats a vibrator!!!" when Doc Savage was making the new scientific discovery to aid mankind on that lathe in the trailer?

• I reviewed the Pirates of Dark Water box set when I first got it back in September. I won't post it here (too long), but the crux is that it's non-remastered, broadcast quality video (still acceptable to me) with the shoddiest attention to authoring and packaging I've ever seen. The back cover was great, but the oversaturated front cover had Niddler with a freaking FIST photoshopped on top of his head. And the menus are worse than first-gen DVD releases from well over ten years ago. I realize it's meant to be a cheap way to get an otherwise unavailable show, but I made better menus in less than an hour on a PoDW disc I made from old VHS copies. They could have done far better than they did.

• I require Pirates of Dark Water, Phantom Tollbooth, and especially Legends of the Super Heroes.

• Phantom Tollbooth, huh? I love that book, which is why I never bothered watching the movie version.

• No love for Thundarr? How can you forget his fabulous Sunsword and his oh-so-heartfelt battlecry AAAAAHHHHHHHRRR- eee-y! And don't forget his muscle bound friend Ucla. So fun.

• Hubby still pines for Rocket Robin Hood! We really need Phantom Tollbooth to come out on dvd, our vhs copy is woobly...

• Roddenberry didn't have three pilots during that period--he had five! The two you didn't mention are <i>The Questor Tapes</i> and <i>Spectre</i>. Sadly these weren't for Warner, so I wouldn't expect to see them at the Warner Archives. Also, Wikipedia claims Roddenberry wasn't involved with <i>Strange New World</i>; it reused his PAX concept without his involvement.

• It's not all nostalgia. I was thinking the same thing, but I picked up the DVDs on a whim, and didn't regret it. It is just as awesome of a show as I remember it being in the early 90s.

• This list is not complete without the two Gene Roddenberry pilots, "Planet Earth" and "Genesis II."

• I can get Pirates of Darkwater on DVD?!?!?!? And it's supposed to be high quality? I downloaded the whole series when I couldn't find it anywhere, but if I can get good ones, I'm all over it.

• Goddamnitsomuch. So many things to choose from, yet it would cost an assload to buy them because HB cartoons are always farking expensive for some goddman reason, and to have them shipped to Canuckistan and pay duty? Ugh. They have Funky Phantom! BTW, adding this for the 5th time, it's Alexandra, not Andrea.

• How could Flight of Dragons miss the list?

• They changed Milo's name to Butch Patrick? No wonder that kid was so depressed.

• I used to have a bootleg VHS copy of "Roast of the Superheroes". It was pretty bad, but fun to watch. The real gem on that tape, however, was an unaired pilot for an Aquaman television show, in which he was raised by dolphins, and actually speaks to them and calls them "mom and dad" in the show. I've never actually made it all the way through to the end, and just to give a frame of reference, I own copies of The previously mentioned Doc Savage movie, Star Wars Holiday Special, The Justice League pilot with David Ogden Steirs as the Martian Manhunter, the Corman Fantastic Four movie, the Gen13 animated movie, and an actual, honest to god copy of the television production of "It's A Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman" with Lesley Ann Warren as Lois Lane from the 70's. I spent 2 years looking for that Superman musical. It's glorious...and I've still never been able to watch that whole Aquaman pilot. Because I don't drink.

• Holy cow, Bernard Cribbins played Tom Campbell, the not-Ian character from Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. AND he played Wilfred Mott in nüWho! I had no idea and now my mind is well and truly blown.

• Wondered about that, too! Never heard of Chuck Jones doing any VO work!XD

• A trifle?

• Watching the clip of "She" and noticed bernard cribbins who also was in one of the 1960's theatrical released of Doctor Who, as well as the rebooted Doctor Who series!

• OMG OMG OMG! I watched the pirates of darkwater once when I was very young. I believe we rented it from the local library. I absolutely loved it. Sadly the name of it was lost to me for many years now. NOW I FINALLY REMEMBER IT! Buying it ASAP.

• Warners archives also has the rare Rankin Bass live action tv movie, The Bermuda Depths with a Japanese style giant sea turtle, Burl Ives, Carl Weathers and Connie Sellecca. Perhaps it's more obscure and freaky than geeky though.

• Awesome list, truly an excellent list I just have one small problem with it... HOW ABOUT A LINK TO THE DAMN WEBSITE YOU ASSHOLE!!!

• ....Goddamn this list for making me rush to find my debit card...

• Thanks, edgreen86. Two thumbs up for those comments. I totally agree.

• No "The Green Slime"? Greatest sci-fi horror film of all time.

• Pirates of Dark Water was excellent. I might just purchase it from the archives.

• Ultimate Teacher was one of the best anime ever and if you dont get it then youre not as cool as me. Also, THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH!!!! that is all.

• I would have to add the Rankin Bass movie Flight of Dragons to this list, as that was what got me into the whole fantasy/SF world, and therefore geekdom, to begin with.

• Don't forget Captain Nemo and the Underwater City, a kiddie Verne cash-in that features the mouthwatering Italian redhead Lucianna Paluzzi (Fiona Volpe in Thunderball) in a tight retro diving suit and a skimpy toga. Not a damn thing wrong with that! (That movie turned me into a redhead-chaser at age five.)

• And the character's name is Alexandra, not "Andrea."

• Strongly seconded. I saw this and its companion special when they first aired and then again during a screening in the Marvel Bullpen in the early 1990's, and they still rank among the most entertainment-void works ever crafted by man. And you simply will not believe the horror that was Ghetto Man...

• Please, I beg all of you: DO NOT TRY TO WATCH THIS THING! I know we have a large contingent of fans of Camp here on TR, but I was looking for a loaded gun barrel to suck on by the time Solomon Grundy was at the service station. I'd place this on the same shelf as SW Holiday Special,'Ultimate Teacher' and live-action 'La Blue Girl'; "Things that make me lose faith in Humanity"

• Oh god I remember SWAT Kats, it was awesome. Lots of action, fun story and characters, and lots of sci-fi elements, though that may all be nostalgia. I really wish the people behind the original Pirates of Dark Water would be able to get back together and finish the story, hell or some fans of the original can capture the feel and release a spiritual successor.

• I ordered the Pirates of Darkwater DVD just before Christmas but I haven't had a chance to watch it. I also have the Pirates of Darkwater tabletop RPG sitting around somewhere.

• Not to poke, but Josie and the Pussycats in Space? The twins were Alexander and Alexandra. Not Andrea.

• Yup, the Fortress was mentioned in the very first Doc story, "The Man of Bronze" in 1933. It finally was revealed in a titular story in 1938. To say that a lot of super heroes (even Mr. Spock with his cool logic and neck pinch) "borrowed" heavily from the character is an understatement. It's a damn shame that a lot of fanboys today only know him as "the dude in the ripped shirt" and the campy Ely movie.

• I re-watched Pirates of Dark Water recently with my girlfriend and we were surprised at how much it sucked. Flat animation, flat vo work (was everyone phoning it in?), flat music. The "hero" is a twerp who should have been murdered by Ioz. It took itself way to seriously and was not fun. We had just come off the delightfully goofy Conan the Adventurer, which was big, bold, brassy and sassy so that may have colored out perceptions. Now we've moved on to Biker Mice From Mars, which isn't very good either, but it least it's not completely full of itseld.

• Add 'The Green Slime' and 'City Beneath the Sea' and 'Man From Atlantis'(pilot film) to this list and it would be perfect. Some in the geekverse have their panties in a bunch because these discs are 'too expensive' and 'why no extras' and yes, the price is a trifle rapish and being a confirmed bonus content whore I am a little sad at the lack thereof, but given the way the home video industry is now I loudly sing the praise of what Warner Archive is doing, because dudes, all THREE versions of Roddenberry's 'Genesis II' concept becoming available? The Super obscure 'Earth II' pilot? (not the TV series that aired some time ago, but a potential series about a large space station that decides to declare itself an independent nation...I think it could have been amazing..ahh, the '70s.). All stuff that, really, has zero commercial value in the usual studio beancounter sense. Yet people (including the very same geeks that are angry) have paid sick money for crappy 4th gen bootlegs of these same things. So, yeah.

• The Doc Savage movie is one of the reasons that we haven't seen anything further about Doc Savage on the screen. It is one of the worst pulp to film conversions ever done and is frankly unwatchable if you are a fan of the original character. I've said in the past the *best* Doc Savage film ever made was Buckeroo Banzai.

• Perhaps you meant to write post-Honey Ryder Andress. Dr. No is from 1962.

• nice list. it should be noted that the warner vault is also the one way Warner's can release some shows like strange new world on dvd due to not having enough fan support for a regular release. as for pirates of dark water can not see why the thing is called the complete series when the show stopped with a cliff hanger. Legends of the super heroe's amazed the thing finaly hit dvd given how it matches star wars holiday special of wtf did one just watch.

• I'm sorry.. Roast? Am I the only one getting images of Gilbert Gottfried (sp?) screaming obscenities at Adam West and Ward as Batman and Robin? I would pay ANY sum of money for a superhero "roast".

• If you just listen to them they are much better,because they feature guys like Ted Cassidy (Lurch,Ruk the Android,Godzilla,Gorn Voice,Incredible Hulk Roars)as Black Manta and Brainiac or Stanley Ralph Ross as Gorilla Grod,and Stanley Jones as the voice of Lex Luthor(he went on to voice Scourge and Lord Zarak in the final season of G1 Transformers)

• The coupon code no longer works.

• I think you're thinking or Winchester from MASH as Martian Manhunter, not Frank Burns.

• I would throw The Bermuda Depths on to this list. It's from Rankin Bass, it has all sorts of half-baked paranormal ideas, a giant turtle provided by a Japanese effects house, and lots of people remember seeing it but can't remember the name.

• Damn, the video store I lived near in the early 90's had the Doc Savage movie (as well as the bootleg FF movie, but that's another story) and it was a good flick. I'd buy the Blu-ray if they released it.

• Hell, the old Doc Savage yarns had a number of tech that was ahead of their time: answering machines, automatic transmission, night vision goggles, electromagnetic rail guns. He was James Bond well before him! We was also the inspiration for Batman, Superman, Dr. Benton Quest, Buckaroo Banzai, Dr. Jonas Venture and that alien bigot from the Teen Titans cartoon. The 30s and 40s was full of awesome characters like him - Batman, Superman, Conan, G-8, Buck Rogers, The Shadow, and many others. When one considers all the stuff that came out of the golden age of Pulp, it was truly a great time to be a reader!

• Thank you! A little research on Doc can turn that one up pretty fast.

• ... wow. That rocket the Pussycats are in is REALLY phallic...

• Oh, seen it - Ugh! Managed to take an exceptional book and make it painfully slow and plodding...

• If anyone here is interested in any of this, Smodcast has had a coupon for it on their shows for the last few months, type "Smodcast" in the as the coupon code during check out for free shipping and $5 bucks off.

• I think you meant "voiced by the legendary Mel Blanc" in the PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH description-- Chuck Jones was the animator, of course.

• "Gumbercules?" I love that guy!

• First, to point out the obvious... Doc Savage started using his Fortress of Solitude back in 1933, waaay before Superman stole the idea. Second, there are also some kick-ass Tarzan movies available from Warner Archives. Tarzan fans know that Gordon Scott starred in the aptly-named "Tarzan's Greatest Adventure" and "Tarzan the Magnificent", both featuring an articulate, intelligent ape-man in gritty, brutal combat against vicious enemies (including a pre-Bond Sean Connery in "Adventure"). Check out the final fight scene from "Tarzan's Greatest Adventure" here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZblFrDbMdJU They ain't cheap, but they're totally worth it.

• I like how the Strange New World trailer just sprinkled random Star Trek sound effects all over like Splenda on a diabetic's halved grapfruit.

• Agreed about Phantom Tollbooth-- such a great book. I may have to check out the movie. I remember beingreally excited for Legends of the Super-Heroes as a kid. I bet they aren't half as great as I remember.

• Phantom Toolbooth? HELL AND YES!

• Actually the Fortress of Solitude in the "Doc Savage" pulps came out in the 1930's. Superman didn't get one until the 1950's. DC actually ripped that off from the Doc. That movie is amazingly funny though. One of the best parts is that the villain sleeps in a giant baby crib for no reason.

• Pirates of Dark water still holds up. I have them on dvd, and it's stunning visually and the plot is pretty good. It does have its share of lame episodes of course, just a shame it never finished.

• ...dear GOD, they actually REALEASED "Roast of the Super-Heroes?" That's supposedly near "Star Wars Holiday Special" bad...the only way to "top" it would be if they also released the "Justice League" piot based off the Giffen-DeMatteis JLI (with Lt. Frank Burns in green body paint as J'onn J'onnz)!

• I remember pirates of dark water fondly... It was well written and interesting for a cartoon series, and held my interest when I had already abandoned my interest in saturday morning cartoons. I haven't seen anything like it in years.

• Weird, that Anonymous guy wrote the exact same thing I did... ...wait a second... Damn you for not attaching my name to my comments!

• I liked the Pirates Of Darkwater. It's made several Topless Robot lists, including the fact that Tula never got an action figure. It focused mainly on an environmental message, but with a much less heavy handed approach than Captain Planet (Although the Captain Planet when they became junkies is classic!) I might actually order this one. I've always wanted to see some of these major companies open their vaults and show all the pilots of TV shows that never made it. Half of them would be just awful, which is made even better when major names are attached to them. The other half would be shows that would frustrate the hell out of you when they decided not to put something into production so they could instead give the green light to some generic family sitcom. I'm waiting for Fox to do the same.

• Pirates of Dark Water was awesome! A shame they never got to finish the story.

• I was expecting to see The Green Slime on the list but your list is damn geeky.

• I must say that Pirates of Dark Water was a whole bunch of awesome that i remember watching

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