The 1977 animation Wizards and that kiddies sci-fi horse opera in space, Star Wars have quite a lot on common. Not only where they both released in 1977, by 20th Century Fox. But Mark Hamill was in both movies. Playing the voice of Sean, king of the mountain fairies, in Wizards. And some bloke called Luke something in Star Wars. Both Ralph Bakshi, the genius behind Wizards, and George Loosearse were in the same meeting with 20th Century Fox, asking for money. Neither of them got any. Bakshi finished the movie with his own money. Not sure what Loosearse did with his little film. Apart from that he spat his dummy out because Bakshi was originally going to call Wizards, "War Wizards". But Loosearse wanted to call his little flick Star Wars, and he felt the names were too similar. The words "Wizards" and "Stars" both sounding like they're both sort of magic like.

Look, when you lay one over the other, the match is uncanny! Loosearse you plagiarising bastard! It doesn't end there you know. Oh no, not by a long shot. Wizards has characters called "stormtroopers" in it. Guess what Star Wars has? Yeah you know it, stormtroopers, who just happen to look a lot like Peace from Wizards. Did little old George Loosearse never have a original idea of his own?

Oh and talking of Peace in Wizards. He started out as an evil "robot" called Necron 99, controlled by the evil ruler Blackwolf. Who is the dark-side one of twins, born to a queen, the other being to good-side called Avatar. Avatar changes Necron 99 it a force for good called Peace. Now, come on, dark-side, light-side, imbued with magical force, evil becoming good and bloody twins!!! Loosearse took the whole of Wizards, chucked in a massive dollop of Just Garland, and a bunch of crappy westerns he'd once seen and stretched it over 6 bloody movies. What a twat! 

I'd almost forgotten about the ITV comedy series called Astronauts, that featured Hull actor Barrie Rutter. The series was written by comedians and ex-Goodies Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie. The show told the story of the first three British astronauts in space, who had been sent on a six month mission to a "sky lab". They all lived in the cramped two room little space station, with a dog they took up with them called Bimbo. The comedy of the show predominately (as it would) revolved around the claustrophobic conditions under which they lived.

What has been called The Goodies in space, simply didn't work. How it even made it through the six month mission and into a second series is a mystery. The three actors involved are all Shakespearean actors, what possessed them to do this show is another mystery. All of them have somewhat of an exemplary list of acting credentials, apart from this weird little blip, that I'm sure they Tiptex out of their CV's. Bruce Boa, continued to play the token American in British comedies and TV shows, despite being Canadian. The whereabouts of Bimbo are unknown.

In 1975 Ideal Games decided to make a board game based on the sinking of the Titanic. You'd have thought after 63 years, time would have passed sufficiently for the game to pass relatively unnoticed. But no, the game courted controversy, and was pulled form the shelves for a while. In the UK the company had to change the name, but not the obvious image of the Titanic on the box cover it would seem, to Abandon Ship Game. 

The game was played in two phases. In the first part players had to help passengers escape the ship. For every roll of a one or a six the ship (which rotated) would be turned, so it looked like it was going down. In part two, once in the life-boats, players must find food and water, by visiting islands!!! What islands? Not only did they make a game that some people found distasteful, they went and changed history too.

In the British version of the game, they simply changed the in-game story-line. The "ship" was now in the Pacific, and had struck a coral reef. Because that makes it all okay. The ending of the game was just harsh. After the Titanic had sank, a rescue ship would appear. The first player to land on one of the rescue ship squares won the game. All the other players and their passengers were left to drown at sea. A game for all the family right there.

Chocky was a creepy 1984 sci-fi series, based on a John Wyndham novelette, first published in the March 1963 issue of Amazing Stories. And later developed into a novel, which was published in 1968. Although before the publication of the novel, there was a 60 minute BBC radio play adaptation of the original story, written by John Tydeman. The story revolved around a young boy called Matthew, who developed a bizarre relationship with what his parents think is an imaginary friend. 

The friend however is an extra terrestrial being, that communicates with and through Matthew to gain an understanding of humanity, as part of a potential colonisation mission that the being is a scout for. Through its connection to Matthew, Chocky imparts extraordinary intelligence and abilities to Matthew. Which come to the notice of shadowy groups that wish to exploit Matthew, and ultimately get access to Chocky.

It is the ITV adaptations that most people remember, which were produced by Thames Television. Chocky ran for three series, each made up of six 30 minute episodes. They were Chocky, Chocky's Children and Chocky's Challenge. They were written by Anthony Read, who was previously a writer and script editor for Dr. Who and co-wrote the fifth season of the dark and creepy sci-fi series Sapphire & Steel.  Apparently Wyndham's estate considered Read's adaptation to be the best.

Apparently the series was very popular in Czechoslovakia, where it was translated and dubbed into both the Czech language and Slovak language. It was also dubbed in French and broadcast in Canada in the late 1980s and early 90s. It was also released in the mid-80s, in the French speaking part of Switzerland, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland. Of all places, where it was known as Ystävä avaruudesta. Which means "a friend from space".

It's Saturday, so time for another vintage morning kids TV animation from Hanna Barbera. Based on the fictional Chinese detective, the character of Mr. (Charlie) Chan was played by Keye Luke. The only actor of Chinese decent to ever play the character. Luke played Charlie Chan's "number one son", in the movies of the 1930s and 40s. He also played the original Kato, in the Green Hornet movie series, as well as Master Po in the 70s series Kung Fu, and Mr. Wing in the 1984 movie Gremlins.

In the animation series, Mr. Chan, his large clan of children and their dog Chu Chu solve mysteries. As with every Hanna Barbera mystery solving team, the Chan Clan had their vehicle, a van that could transform at the press of a button. In addition the series borrowed the idea of a band from animations like The Archies. So each episode featured a song, which was played over an action sequence. Ex-Archies lead singer Ron Dante provided the vocals for the songs. 

Like many Hanna Barbera animations, The Amazing Chan And The Chan Clan had only one season produced, made up of 16 episodes. Originally aired from September 1972 until December that same year. Though as with many of the Saturday morning animations, it was shown on repeat throughout the 70s, and into the 80s on syndication. The show is still shown on reruns today, via Cartoon Network's sister channel Boomerang. 

Stephen King's directorial début, and only movie as director. After seeing Maximum Overdrive, it's best that he has since stuck to writing. Based loosely on his own short story Trucks, after the Earth passes through the tail of a comet, electrical objects come to life and quickly turn killers. It stars Emilio Estevez, who along with King was nominated for a Golden Raspberry, for the movie. Even King himself described this literal car crash of a sci-fi horror as a "moron movie", as he put his director's chair into storage forever. Rumour is that King was coked-up throughout the whole production of this camp classic.

The movie is a "take your brain out" masterpiece of mayhem. No one is spared in what is just an excuse for blowing shit up to an AC/DC soundtrack. And let's be fair, there's nothing wrong with that. King's favourite band, AC/DC's classic album Who Made Who was released to coincide with the movie release. The album featured what are now AC/DC standards, such as the title track Who Made Who and Hells Bells.

 In a movie that contains scene after scene of machines going haywire, and stuff blowing up, you'd expect there to be some accidents. And Maximum Overdrive had its fair share. One involved the director of photography losing an eye, after being sprayed by splinters of wood, after a lawnmower went rogue. He later sued King for damages. The whole movie is littered with goofs and gaffs. In fact IMDb lists 43 goofs on its website.

Soju (소주) is not only the most popular alcoholic drink in Korea, but the best selling in the whole world. Never heard of it, or at least never drank it? Well that'll be because Koreans have the highest consumption of spirits per capita in the world. And soju, and in particular the Jinro brand is the most popular drink of choice. Jinro soju regularly sells 3 times as much as popular whiskey brand Johnny Walker, and over twice as much as Smirnoff vodka, globally! On highest selling brands of spirits globally, two soju brands have held 1st and 3rd place for may years. And most of it is consumed in South Korea.

Traditionally made from rice, wheat or barley, soju is essentially water and ethanol. That's it! In fact these days, with the high consumption, manufacturers have tankers pure ethanol shipped in, which they water down and filter. ABV varies from around 16.7% to 45%, with 20% being the most popular.

Soju was first distilled around the 13th century, during the Mongol invasions of Korea. The Mongols brought the technique of distillation with them, and the Koreans quickly adopted the technique, and have been getting hammered ever since. These days everywhere in Korea posters advertising soju featuring young sexy ladies, enticing Koreans to drink the liquor (not that they need enticing). Back in 1959, they used frogs, sailors and of course sexy ladies!

Produced as a tie-in the classic 1978 Romero zombie movie, Dawn Of The Dead the board game is now a rare find. Produced by the popular board game RPG game makers SPI, it's been disparagingly described as a cross between the board game Mall Madness and a zombie apocalypse. It's an early example of a board game for adults, where the goal is for the zombie to kill the humans, or for the humans to secure the four mall entrances. And offing all the zombies inside the mall, sniper style.

The game can be played with between 1 to 4 players. Yes that's right, you can play it on your own, if you are that geeky. In fact the website boardgamegeek actually recommends that the best way to play is on your own. Rather than playing with yourself, that's a totally different thing altogether and shouldn't involve zombies!

Not a perfect game, but a fun game all the same for any board game / zombie horror geeks out there. Which I know there are many. So because the game is so old, and out of copyright, it's available on the Weird Wide Web. You can get hold of all the game parts you need, and even an updated version, with a new map. Just print it off, maybe laminate it, and play away!

Link: Home Page Of The Dead