RIP Davy Jones

It's with a heavy heart that I acknowledge the passing of a true icon. Having worked in "the organization" it touches me greatly and I am in an extremely sad mood today. My thoughts are with my good friends and Davy's family.

The Story of Marc

Here's an incredible BBC Documentary about Marc Bolan and T. Rex. It's narrated by the one and only, Suzi Quatro. Enjoy!

The Best of the World of Wonder: The Genius Of The Marx Brothers

The brothers Marx were by far the greatest comedy team ever! Their mad cap humor extended from the stage and screen right into their real lives! I have so much Marx Brothers stuff that I thought I would post this as a "starter kit" for those who are unknown to the genius of these fine gentlemen! It is actually not one of my personal favorites but it does showcase their comedic talents from their films. It's "The Marx Brothers :Actual Voice Tracks From Their Movies." This came out in the 70s as part of a series of old time film comedians' voice tracks from old movies. Enjoy!

The Marx Brothers: Actual Voice Tracks From Their Movies

The Best of The World of Wonder:The TV Guide Fall Preview circa 1978

There was a time when the first days of the fall were looked upon with eageriness in the world of television. TV Guide usually came out with their Fall Preview Issue and that was all a television junkie needed to keep themselves occupied for the next month. The fall preview showcased all of the new and returning shows on all three networks (remember, these were the great days of only ABC, CBS and NBC. All other channels were just reruns and old movie). Each show got its own page complete with a synopsis, promo photo and air dates. It was beautiful!
Which brings me to today's sharity.Here for you now, from the golden decade of the 70s comes the Peter Pan Records' "Themes From Hit TV Shows". This was a favorite album of mine then and now. It features studio musicians doing their versions of the popular themes of the day including Welcome Back Kotter, Happy Days, MASH, Chico and The Man, SWAT, Laverne & Shirley and Baretta among others. I present it for you now in all of it's original glory! Enjoy!

Themes From Hit TV Shows

The Best of The World of Wonder: Logan's Original Run

Since Rapidshare deleted a ton of my shares, the one that I get the most requests to re-up is, without a doubt, the audio from the advance screening of Logan's Run. So, as requested, here it is.


5 years from the day I was born, in San Diego, California, there was a special advance preview screening of a new motion picture from MGM called Logan's Run. Shortly thereafter the studio hacked a ton of stuff out of the movie to make it shorter, and gain the film a PG rating. The cut footage no longer exists (it vanished mysteriously along with the preview print)but thanks to a sci-fi fan named Fay Popejoy who took along a cassette tape recorder into the theater, an audio cassette exists containing the entire preview screening. This recording was originally released on a web site back in 2000. The web site is still there but the files have long since been taken down. Luckily, I happened to download those files and present them for you now. If you have seen the film, then you are in for a real treat. Included in this recording of the preview screening are several scenes that you have never seen bfore (or heard before to be exact). Among these are the deleted opening sequence where Francis kills a runner in a residence pool. The citizens then applaud the Sandman's shot. Other hilights include: A longer carousel sequence minus the computer voice, more dialogue in Nursery, Francis' 'lastday girl' cut completely form the film. There is also a part where Jessica talks about flameout as the ultimate thrill. Logan describes the effects of Muscle. Francis announces he is going to Cathedral to help backup Logan. We learn Holly's number is 13, and hear the infamous longer Love Shop sequence. Unfortunately the person doing the recording's tape also ran out during this sequence. Of course, the tape is changed and the rest of the film along with more cut goodies are there. Now, remember, this was a tape recording of a film being played in a theater in 1976. It is not going to sound perfect. But, none the less, it is still pretty cool to listen to. It reminds me of when I was a kid and I used to tape television shows on audio cassettes. This was long before the days of VCRs and DVRs so the only way to keep the program was to do that. I was extremely happy and very much surprised to find out that I was not the only person who did this. I have found many people from my generation who did this as well. Anyway, keeping all of this in mind when you are listening to the preview screening of "Logan's Run". Enjoy!

Logan's Run - Preview Screening Audio Tape (part 1)
Logan's Run - Preview Screening Audio Tape (part 2)

A New Podcast!!! A New Podcast!!!

After a long absence from them (and many requests) here is the latest podcast! In all fairness, this was done over the last few months and was actually almost complete before Christmas but I left it on the back burner. After all that time, I gave it the proper finishing touches but alas, did not have the time to add any spoken word sections aka dialogue from yours truly. So this time around, it's an all music podcast. It does feature some great songs from the likes of Blondie, Suzi Quatro, They Might Be Giants, The Muffs with CC Deville, The Beatles, the Kinks, Orson Bean and more. There's even a super cool phone message sent to me from a Sunoco station on the day of a snow storm (obviously a wrong number!) Here it is for your listening entertainment! Enjoy!

Dartman's Wacky Podcast #20

"They're Cards, Jim!"

Sorry it's been a while since the last post, but things are hectic. Here is the final pack of cards for the 1976 TOPPS Star Trek Series. Complete with bonus stickers, this will make your set complete! (Of course, if you want the real deal, you can head to e-bay and spend a fortune on them - I prefer the cheap cyber way, myself. And hey, you can always print them out and collect them that way) Enjoy!

Star Trek 1976 Trading Cards Pack 6

An Enterprising Paper Project

Here's an interesting item: a do-it-yourself Enterprise made out of paper. All of the plans are here and even a few reference pictures. I have not made this yet but I plan on doing it. My son and I have craft time almost every day and this will come in handy someday soon. If you make one, send us a picture of your finished project. Here's all you need with the exception of the paper of course. Enjoy!

The Enterprise Paper Project

Trek Toys (re-post)

Back during one of the past Christmas seasons I ran a series of posts describing several of the toys that I received as a child at Christmas time. Seeing as how I am posting a series of Star Trek posts, I thought I would re-post the entry about the Star Trek toys of the 70s. Here it is:


Before Star Wars, there was of course, Star Trek. Don't get me wrong, Star Wars still rocks and the toys that they put out for Star Wars were and still are awesome. But the toys for Star Trek were a little more, I don't know, adult feeling. Take for instance the Star Trek Communicators.

These babies were real. Heavy plastic with real working walkie talkie parts! They came in a package of two and you could use these anywhere! What was really cool was when you hit the little red button on the side it made a high pitched squeal that if hit at the same time as the talk button, could be broadcast to the other communicator! How cool is that?!?!? I still have one of these communicators and it still works! I also had the super cool phaser gun that shot discs! This rocked as well. You loaded up the phaser with the discs (mine were multi-colored, not like the ones in the picture) and just pulled the trigger. Toys like this would never be approved today but back then, they were the best!!!! I'm sure my poor sister took many a plastic disc to the body and face from this plastic weapon.


The action figures for Star Trek were more like the old super hero action figures. They were tall and wore real uniforms complete with utility belts, tricorders and small phasers. Again, these small pieces would never pass inspection today. I had Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty and a Klingon. These came with the Enterprise Playset!

This was an amazing toy! On the outside was a drawing of space with the Enterprise soaring through it. The inside was the bridge of the Enterprise, complete with Captain's Chair, Command Center and a screen that could be changed with various scenes of planets and aliens and such. The coolest feature was, without a doubt, the transporter. You would put an action figure in the transporter and spin the dial on the top. There were two buttons to stop the spinning. The red one put the action figure facing the outside while the green one put them facing the inside. Super cool!!!!!! This toy was designed really well because when you were done playing with it, you just folded it up with everything inside and stored it on the shelf (or on top of the toy chest in our house!)

The last Star Trek item I want to show you is the Telescreen Console. This was pretty cool. You could sit Captain Kirk (or any other character for that matter) in the Captain's Chair and then play a pseudo-video game where you would have to hit various asteroids and planets and such. It was pretty cool and from what I can tell, very rare. I haven't seen too many of these around, even on e-bay. They're hard to come by! Anyway, it provided me with lots of good times! A special thanks to Plastic Stallions and The Mego Museum for the pictures.

To Boldly Go Where No Cards Have Gone Before!

Here's the next pack of Topps Star Trek cards from 1976. I was noticing that I have not been consistent with the sticker to card ratio so as a result I have included bonus stickers in all of the remaining packs to complete the entire collection. Enjoy!

Star Trek 1976 Trading Cards Pack 5

Lt. Uhura, Song Report

Way back in 2009, I posted Nichelle Nichols' album, "Out of This World". In the post, I stated that this was her second album and that I did not own the first one, "Down To Earth". Since that time, I have come to own "Down To Earth" and thought I would share it with you all. I stated in the 09 post that I thought it might be pretty good. In my opinion, though it is way better than "Out of This World", it still sounds like someone who is trying way too hard. But all in all, not terrible. You decide when you listen to Nichelle Nichols' "Down To Earth". Enjoy!

Nichelle Nichols - Down To Earth

For some added enjoyment, here is the post from 2009 featuring "Out of This World".


Many Star Trek cast members have released albums over the years. There is the infamous "The Transformed Man" by William Shatner (along with the great follow up, "Has Been"), Leonard Nimoy's classic records and even Brent Spiner got in on the act in 1991 with an album called "Ol' Yellow Eyes Is Back". But for my money, it doesn't get any more "far out" then Nichelle Nichols' musical contribution to the world of celebrity recordings. In all fairness, we must remember that Nichelle started out as a professional singer. Her first gigs were with some big time heavy weights named Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton. This was all before she donned the infamous short red dress and went down in the history books as Lt. Uhura. And in 1967 she banked on this fame and released her first solo album entitled, "Down To Earth". 23 years later she would release her second album. That's the one we are going to talk about today! It's called "Out Of This Word" and believe me, it is! I have never had the privilege to hear "Down To Earth" but I have owned "Out of This World" for years. I picked up a copy back in the mid 90s and hold it in my collection but never put it on. I am going to assume that "Down To Earth" is not all that bad and that Nichelle really shines (if anyone has a copy, please feel free to share it with me as I will pay the favor forward forward and share it with everyone here). With "Out Of This World", Nichelle has completely gone in the opposite direction. Her singing is not the problem. It's also not the cure! However, what really tends to stick out more than anything is the poor songwriting and even worse production. The whole album sounds like it was put together with Casio Keyboards and a Tascam Porto-Studio. There's a whole batch of "space-inspired" songs and Nichelle evens takes a stab at singing the immortal Theme from Star Trek. Then there's "Gene". Nichelle's tribute to her former lover (yes, you read right!). There are two versions of "Gene" here. The first is sung and the second is spoken and both are bad. At the end of the album is an interview track that lasts just about the same amount of time as the songs do. All in all, a complete package. But don't let my opinion sway you. Take and a listen and judge for yourself as I present to you "Nichelle Nichols: Out of This World". Enjoy!

Nichelle Nichols - Out Of This World

BONUS:
While listening to the caucaphonus sounds of Miss Nichols, why not color Uhura?! (click picture to open a new window with the full size)

Sing Long and Prosper

Continuing on our Trek through Star Trek, we find a great listen with the incredible vocal stylings of Leonard Nimoy. Probably the most famous Nimoy song is The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins. But there are others that are just as good if not better. My favorite happens to be the Spock infused, "Highly Illogical". That and many more appear on the classic album, "Mr. Spock's Music From Outer Space". Instead of heading to outer space to hear this, you can do it right here at The World of Wonder. Enjoy!

Leonard Nimoy - Mr. Spock's Music From Outer Space