Ultra Swank - Retro Adventures

Television

Looney Tunes – Not Just Merrie Melodies

Watching a modern cartoon and then watching a vintage Looney Tunes cartoon is like eating dinner at burger stand in a town full of steak houses; there’s no comparison. In 1930 Warner Brothers Pictures released the first Looney Tunes cartoon. A decade later or so, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck are fighting the axis and playing on African-American racial stereotypes. But let’s start from the...

Finding Dark Shadows in the Sixth Grade
Written by Patricia Greenwood in Television

Finding Dark Shadows in the Sixth Grade

In the spring of 1969 my family moved from the pastoral setting outside of Centreville, Virginia, a small town in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains to Fairfax, a burgeoning suburb outside of Washington, D.C. A sixth grader at the time, transitioning from a country school to a more sophisticated environment was not easy for me and I found myself feeling like an outsider...

Mr Peabody and Sherman – The Original Cartoon

Today I saw an ad for a new 3d animated kids movie Peabody and Sherman and it suddenly brought back memories of the original. No wonder I have always been obsessed with the past, loving history, pop culture from the past and of course time travelers. For those growing up in the sixties, seventies or eighties you might remember Peabody’s improbable history. The cartoons which...

Marty Milner – Ginger Kid Extraordinaire

My son is the classic movie aficionado in our household and it’s always a treat to see what he will come up with next. I had been complaining about the unusually severe winter we were having here in Upstate New York and he countered with a movie which featured some of my favorite actors from the 1950s and 1960s, probably so he didn’t have to...

The Outer Limits
Written by James Vaughan in Television

The Outer Limits

For those who watched the original Outer Limits on flickering black and white screens in the early 1960’s the experience is imprinted on a section of our brain labeled awe and terror. Baby-Boomers have deep and dark memories from The Outer Limits original airing or early re-runs. With tilted camera angles, nerve jarring close-ups and shadowy surreal sets; many episodes of Outer Limits already had the feel...

Farrah Fawcett – An Uncommon Angel
Written by Patricia Greenwood in Television

Farrah Fawcett – An Uncommon Angel

I’ll never forget that summer day in 1976 when I walked into my boyfriend’s pad and saw the poster of a blond in a red bathing suit pinned up on the wood paneling. “Really?” I asked. “Are you kidding me?” He grinned at me rather sheepishly and replied, “She’s really hot.” “Oh brother.” Rolling my eyes, I continued “I thought you were more mature than...

Why Don Draper must remain a swinging New York Bachelor

When it comes to lounge culture there is a man who really does epitomize the culture through and through. Don Draper. The characteristics of Don Draper is that he that guy that looks great in formal wear, business wear and casual wear. He has great taste in clothes and has great taste in women, he has money, is successful, confident, well groomed and looks a...

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