Seems to me that from the early 1930s up to the late 1990s, or at least up to mid 1990s, campy stuff was everywhere. Laugh-In, variety shows, Batman, He-Man, Hanna - Barberra cartoons, Alvin & the Chipmunks, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Garfield and Friends, US Acres, Josie & the Pussycats, The 3 Stooges, 2 Stupid Dogs, and that list is not even scratching anywhere near the surface of what made this some of the best decades for television and movies. Recently, people just haven't really shown much of an interest in quite possibly the best style of entertainment: CAMPY STUFF!!! While some of the weird movies and great cartoons made recently have a lot of great camp, I can only think of a few examples. Family Guy, Adult Swim, Robot Chicken, South Park, Late Night with Conan O' Brian, and the Simpsons. A couple of years ago, that show Striperella used to be on TV, but I guess they just decided to stop making new episodes or even to show reruns. (Most people can agree, probably, that anything Pam does {at least in the way of TV} will be ultimate camp because, with exceptions the people who starred in Xena and the stars of the original Batman TV series, Pam is queen of campy!) Anyways, let me just type this one other thing before I completely forget just what I am writing about: Let's help bring back camp!!! Show reruns, not show remakes!! Bring the shows back, not making some new movies from the shows!! (However, TV shows can be made into some good movies occasionally, if people follow the examples and "rules" set in place by TV show movies like The Addams Family (just the first and the second, not the horrendous "Reunion,"); The Brady Bunch Movie; and of course A Very Brady Sequel.) And finally, does anybody know where on the internet I could find a website devoted to this comic book that was kind of a spoof of Electra Woman and Dyna Girl. Pretty sure the two characters were Spandex Woman and Lycra Girl. I don't want a website that's just a place where you can buy different comic books. I'd like a website where you can look at the pages of the comic book and where they give a lot of different info is given about the comic book and / or of Electra Woman and Dyna Girl.
... View MoreSid and Marty Krofft have been really criticized and even ridiculed in some circles for the shows that they created during the 1970s. However, I have many fond childhood memories of the happiness they gave me with shows like Lidsville and H. R. Puff and Stuff (I don't think I spelled that correctly). They even had a special on the E channel a couple years ago about Puff and Stuff and tried to say that there was a hidden message about marijuana use in it. In fact with their colorful use of puppets, wild colors and psychodelic ambiance, you could say the Krofft brothers were like Mister Rogers on Captain Kangaroo on LSD. People have said that the Krofft's were like Ed Wood. Their projects were so campy and bad that they were almost good in a sort of way. Let me come to their defense and say that even though their shows might be laughable by today's standards, what kind of standards do we really have today I ask? Especially when it comes to entertainment for our kids. Maybe when you watched Land Of The Lost and other shows you laughed at the crude special effects, cheesy costumes and sets and dialogue, but you could at least let your kids watch it. It brought them joy what is wrong with that. I was so happy when the wonderfully nostaglic TV land channel had a Sid and Marty Marathon recently. I loved watching Lidsville, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters and Land Of The Lost Again (boy the special effects were just like Jurassic Park ha ha). However, finding Electra Woman and Dyna Girl was to me like Howard Carter finding King Tut's tomb. It was a lost treasure. I have always loved Diedre Hall, my favorite show with her was Our House, I had no idea she had starred in this one as well. EWADG has a tremendous cult following, its amazing because only eight episodes of this show were ever filmed. Its worth it because it reminds me so much of the Batman show I loved as a kid. Right down to the colorful villians like the Sorcerer (a wonderfully hammy Michael Constantine) to Professor Frank who was really like Alfred the Butler. Yes folks just but your brain on hold and open the heart to the inner child. Sid and Marty did a really fine thing and have nothing to be ashamed of. I cannot think of her name but the young actress who played Dyna Girl did an amazing job. She reminded me so much of Robin especially with her "Electra" phrases, the way Robin used "Holy" phrases on Batman.
... View MoreI was a child of the 70's. I was raised on Sesame Street and School House Rock. What I loved about this period was Saturday morning cartoons. Ah, what a time to be young! One of the shows I watched was Electra Woman and Dyna Girl. As a kid, I thought it was cool.Of course, when you're a kid, EVERYTHING is cool. When you get older, everything you THOUGHT was cool is really a load of crap. When I found out that TV Land would show an episode of EW&DG, I got really excited. I canceled my plans and planted myself in front of the tv, ready to be washed in nostalgia. Instead, I spent my time cringing,laughing and screaming "NO MORE" every few seconds. Our heroes wore these devices on their wrists that would give anyone carpal tunnel syndrome, and the guy that helps them looked like he just woke up from a night of heavy drinking.Sure, it's dated (It's the 70's, after all),and an obvious rip-off of Batman (Dyna Girl says everything with "Electa" in it!), but it is a fun time if you need a good laugh.
... View MoreOf all the various Sid & Marty Krofft endeavors, "Electra-Woman and Dyna Girl" is the one that sticks out in my mind as the grooviest. By total coincidence, it's also the only one to feature foxy babes in tight costumes, unless you count that one Bugaloo. The titular heroes are two gals who fight all evil deeds. They work for a magazine, hiding the life they lead. They don't have any super powers, save for the various Electra-gadgets designed by their lumpy live-in scientist Frank. Electra-Woman and Dyna Girl live together with Frank, who never leaves their basement. Their adventures don't make any sense. They're like fever dreams, with no logic to guide them. Each episode will have Frank introducing some new invention, and then a silly-beyond-words villain (like Glitter Rock, an incredibly annoying wannabe rock-star with a green afro and hypnotic music) shows up and the only thing that can stop them is? Frank's new invention. The bad guys always hide in abandoned theaters. Dyna Girl constantly uses "Electra" as a prefix, like "Electra-wow!" or "Electra-sneaky!", which makes me wonder why she isn't called Electragirl, or at least say "Dyna-wow!" Everybody acts like they're on drugs.But for all it's pitfalls, it's great TV. I figured out why Sid & Marty Krofft are far superior to other live-action kids programming giants like Saban: They loved what they were doing, they weren't in if for the money. They might have had crappy effects, but they loved their crappy effects! They were proud of those shots of the Electra-Car taking off- so proud that they used it in every episode! They probably thought that optic flash when the gals changed into their costumes was the coolest effect ever. It didn't matter that their stories made no sense and they used the same sets over and over. They loved this sub-Batman camp. They loved Electra-Woman, Dyna Girl, and Frank. They even loved Glitter Rock.In fact, now that I think about it, my respect for the Krofft Empire spans their whole body of work, except for maybe "Pryor's Place". I love the nutty drug-filled antics of H.R. Puffnstuff. I love Hoo-Doo, and Sigmund, and Dr. Shrinker, and I like Magic Mongo and the Far Out Space Nuts as friends. So the next time one of your high-minded contemporaries scoffs at the oeuvre of S&MK, you can tell them that they're scoffing at love, baby, and they can scoff all they want but they'll scoff alone! Those philistines! They'll never know the touch of a felt hand puppet, the passion of an over-the-hill child star, or the fragrant odor of sweaty, under-paid dwarf in a dumb looking sea monster costume. They'll never know about back when TV was good and every show summed up it's premise in the theme song lyrics. I weep for them. Or not. Whatever. Never mind.
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