Episode Review: #5, "The Mole Men" - Sept. 23, 1967

(WARNYNG: Here there bee spoylers)

Synopsis:

(NOTE: my copy of this episode does not start with a prologue/teaser. It may be that there was no teaser; or perhaps the prologue was edited out of a syndicated or Cartoon Network broadcast. If I find a prologue for this episode, I'll recap it here.

My guess is, if there is a prologue, it shows a cylindrical craft drilling up through the surface from below. A hatch on top opens, and two Mole Men survey their surroundings while ominous music plays.)

Title Card:



The episode opens on two Mole Men, standing in the open hatch on top of their craft, taking stock of their surroundings.



A Mole man points; "Look!"



The Mole Man fires a beam at the creature; it is paralyzed, lifted off its branch and levitated to the Mole Men. "Is this one of the Surface People?"

"No!" replies his comrade. "That is what the Surface People call a 'bird'. Turn off your magno-ray! Put it back!"



The "bird" is returned to its perch; but upon regaining mobility, it flies away, squawking in distress. Its path takes it past the tree - or whatever it is - where Zandor and his family live.





The bird's cries alert Zandor. He looks over: his wife Tara and son Dorno (using Gleep as a pillow) are still asleep, so Zandor decides to quietly investigate the cause of the bird's alarm.





But Dorno awakens in time to see Zandor leave.

Dorno gathers the Herculoids. "I don't know where Zandor went, but I'm gonna follow him." He sends Gleep to guard Tara.



Zok is also to stay behind, as Dorno sets off with Igoo, Tundro and Gloop to find Zandor.





In no time, they find a craft which Dorno immediately identifies as a "Mole Ship".



A hatch opens in the belly of the craft, and a ray cannon unleashes a deadly barrage!

The bolts are deflected harmlessly off Tundro's neck plates, protecting Dorno. One bolt, however, catches Igoo in the chest, knocking him back off his feet. Gloop splits in two to allow the bolt to pass between his halves.

Tundro then unleashes his own attack, a fusillade of energy rocks. The ray cannon is composed of some very resilient metal, however, as the explosive rocks can inflict no damage. A huge boulder pitched by Igoo proves more effective, smashing the nose of the ship.




(Ain't interlacing wonderful?)

Two Mole Men emerge from the top hatch, guns drawn, only to be swiped off their perch by Gloop. "Now to find Zandor!" exclaims Dorno.

At another Mole Ship...



"Markon's orders were to stay here and guard the tunnel?"

"Yes. And prepare for the attack on the Surface People!"



Zandor's (over)heard enough. "So! Markon's up to his old tricks!"



Zandor's presence is detected; he throws his mighty shield which knocks out the two guards and returns to Zandor's hand.



"That will hold them for awhile. I've got to stop Markon!" And Zandor descends by vine into the tunnel…



Markon, the Kind of the Mole men, is furious with one of his underlings. "No longer will you interfere with my plans, Targo!" The rebellious Mole Man, standing before Markon in chains, remains defiant. "You forget Zandor, Markon!"



"I will deal with Zandor. But first you must die!" With a shark-toothed grin of pure malice, Markon raises his ray gun to execute Targo on the spot.

Zandor takes quick but careful aim with his slingshot, delivering an energy rock precisely on target: the gun melts in Markon's grip.



Zandor has another rock nocked and ready to go when Markon spots him, and orders his capture.



A squadron of hovercraft set out to take Zandor prisoner…



but a series of well-aimed energy rocks wipes out rank after rank of would-be captors.





Zandor finds an unexpected ally, as Targo sends an unmanned hovercraft to him. "Here, Zandor; this should help you escape Markon's guards."

"Thanks, Targo!" Zandor shouts as he leaps into the passing hovercraft.



Markon has now boarded his own craft, and sets off in pursuit of his Nemesis. "Leave him to me!"

Commercial break!





Back on the surface, the two tunnel guards revive from their unconsciousness to the beeping of the intruder alarm. This time, the alarm has detected the approach of Dorno, Tundro, Igoo and Gloop.



The Mole Men fire at Gloop, who splits into two, then four, then eight copies of himself before the guards see the futility of their attack. "What manner of creatures are these?"



Meanwhile, back underground…



"Markon's gaining on me!" Zandor observes, as he is chased through the extensive tunnels of Markon's domain.



Markon brandishes a ray pistol. "You'll not get away, Zandor!" He fires; the beams are deflected by Zandor's shield.



Meanwhile, back on the surface…



Igoo charges the Mole Ship with a huge log.



The Mole Men train their weapons on the log, which disintegrates into cinders in Igoo's fists.

Meanwhile, back underground…

"This energy rock ought to slow you down, Markon!" shouts Zandor as he lets fly, aiming for the roof of the cave above Markon's head. The explosion dumps what look to be several tons of rubble directly on Markon. "That shot stopped him… No! Here he comes again!"



And indeed, Markon blasts out of the rubble and resumes his pursuit! Zandor tries again; once again Markon falls victim to a rockfall, and once again blasts out. "Nothing stops me, Zandor!"

Meanwhile, back on the surface…

It's a standoff between Tundro and the tunnel guards. Their ray guns are useless against Tundro's shields, but Tundro's energy rocks are equally ineffectual against the hull of the ship.



Gloop turns the tide, snatching the pistols out of the guards' grasps.

Meanwhile, back underground…



"So, nothing stops him?" Zandor muses as he stands outside his hovercraft, setting the craft in reverse. "Well, let's see how he handles this!"

As Zandor makes his escape, the unmanned hovercraft flies unerringly at Markon, who realizes too late that it's on a collision course! An off-screen crash and explosion marks the end of Markon's pursuit.

Meanwhile, back on the surface…



Tundro makes one final charge, galloping at full speed toward the Mole Ship. The sight of the charging monster sends the Mole Men into the ship.



Tundro rams the ship, shaking its occupants and preventing their escape.



More poundings on the hull indicate that Igoo's fists have joined the attack, until Zandor's voice rings out: "That's enough, Igoo! Now send it back where it came from!"



Igoo roars with grim delight as he lifts the ship over is head and throws it unto the tunnel!





Zok arrives, with Tara on his back. "And just in time for Zok to seal up the tunnel!" says Zandor.



Zok's eye and tail beams make short work of the tunnel entrance.



Relief now at the end of the threat of the Mole Men… "At least until Markon shows up again!" says Dorno. A sharp roar from Igoo, though, prompts Dorno to add, "Oh, I forgot. Igoo can take care of him!" This brings another roar from Igoo, but this time a roar that's tinged with more than a little amusement.



Comments:

From the Mole Man of Marvel's Fantastic Four to the "Underminer" from Pixar's The Incredibles, "mole men" have been a staple of pop fantasy for some time: subterranean dwellers who envy the "surface dwellers" their freedom and fresh air while they fester in the dark and putridity, slowly plotting their revenge.

Again, a longer running time could have fleshed out the story in interesting ways. I would like to have seen more of Targo's backstory: is he a member - or maybe the leader - of a rebellion against the rule of Markon? Why does he aid Zandor against Markon, other than to simply oppose the Mole King? Were Targo and Zandor personally acquainted? It's obvious that Markon and Zandor know each other by reputation at least, and perhaps have clashed in the past.

The "Oh, Come ON!" Moment for this episode comes courtesy, not of the actions of any of the characters, but of the writers having Markon survive being buried under not just one, but two rockfalls! Markon's taunt "Nothing stops me, Zandor!" certainly makes sense in that context, but: just how resistant are Amzot's Mole Men to injury? If Markon became the dictator of the Mole Men because he was the most impervious to injury, why then does it take a mild (compared to a rockfall, at least) collision with an unpiloted hovercraft to incapacitate him enough to end his plans to invade the surface world? (By the same token, what metal are those Mole Ships made of that they're impervious to energy rocks? That should have been a more important plot point, I think.)



And how nice of the writers to finally have Tara show up after all the real action's over. How did she and Zok know where to find the others, anyway? And how did they know what's expected of them? Is that an assumption Zok makes? "There's a big hole, guess I have to seal it up."





This episode offers a rare glimpse, brief though it may be, at the home life of Zandor and his family. Their lifestyles are primitive indeed; Zandor and Tara apparently sleep directly on the "floor" of their tree (or whatever that is) house, while Dorno uses Gleep as combination mattress and pillow. They also sleep in their clothes; what, no pajamas? They don't sleep in the nude? (Yeah, I know; they wouldn't have been allowed to be depicted sleeping in the nude, especially an underage boy.) But still… do they have any other clothes? I don't see any closets in that tree (or whatever it is). Or kitchen, or storage space, or really anything else!



And one final point: check out that deltoid muscle on Tara in that final shot! Probably unintended, and just the result of careless drawing; nevertheless, me likey!

Tara and the Old-Time Radio Connection

Internet institution James Lileks recently wrote about "the moment when you discover that the voices of your favorite childhood Disney movies had long careers that preceded their appearances in the cartoons. The fun in life? Filling in the details, making connections."

Well, I'm still finding the fun in life, because I'm still making these connections.

Anyone who's watched as many cartoons as I have over lo these many decades - and paid attention to the talented men and women who made them possible - will see a certain number of the same names pop up again and again as the voice artists. Mel Blanc is most famous for the classic Warner Bros. cartoons, but he pops up again and again in the credits for other animation studios as well; he's the original voice of Woody Woodpecker and Barney Rubble, just to name two out of hundreds. June Foray, the voice of Rocky the flying squirrel from Bullwinkle And Friends, Witch Hazel (Warner Bros.) and Cindy-Lou Who (How the Grinch Stole Christmas) could be considered the "female Mel Blanc", so numerous are her credits. Paul Frees, Daws Butler, Janet Waldo, the list of names you see over and over in the voice cast credits is almost endless.

So when an unfamiliar name shows up as the voice of a major character, you can't help (at least I can't) but want to find out more about the actor. So it was with the woman who supplied the voice of my favorite (human) Herculoids character, Tara.

I was already familiar with the credited voice actors Mike Road and Don Messick from their roles as Race Bannon and Dr. Benton Quest, respectively, from Jonny Quest (my fave cartoon series until Space Ghost and The Herculoids came along). Although I was surprised that the rich baritone voice of Zandor (Mike Road) was also creating the growls and screeches for Igoo, Tundro and Zok! Ted ("Teddy") Eccles, the voice of Dorno, was a pretty generic "pre-teenager" voice, and apparently hasn't had much of a career in show business since the series. But the voice of Tara - Virginia Gregg? Never heard of her.

So I looked her up… and whaddaya know? Gregg had a long career in TV and radio; her name is all over the casts for many of the classic "old time radio" (OTR) shows like Dragnet, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar and The Adventures of Phillip Marlowe.

She was born in 1916, so she'd have been 50 years old in 1967 when she voiced Tara in the original series… and 64 (!) when she reprised the role for the 1981 Space Stars revival! She certainly sounded younger than that! (Especially considering that she was one of two uncredited actresses who did the voice for Norman Bates' mother in Psycho, and reprised the role for the two sequels.) Tragically, Gregg would die some 5 years after Space Stars, at age 70 in 1986.

Virginia Gregg isn't the only reason for my recent interest in OTR; but she's certainly one of several, as it was my curiosity about the roles outside of cartoons that some of my favorite voice actors like Paul Frees took on that led me to start listening and appreciating "Golden Age" radio dramas. (And imagine my surprise to find out that Gerald Mohr, the voice of Reed Richards in Hanna-Barbera's Fantastic Four, was Philip Marlowe in the aforementioned radio series! So he and Gregg would have worked together quite a lot.)

Herculoids comics 1: "Invasion of the Martian Ants"

So imagine my delight to see the following cover at the newsstand in 1968:



Actual Herculoids comics! Okay, a little disappointed that it wasn't an actual Herculoids comic; that is, that the entire issue wasn't devoted to them... but, as it is today, ya takes what ya can get.

Now, I have no idea who the writer or the artist is. But the story does manage to capture the flavor of the TV episodes. (And they share one of the handicaps of the TV show: just as I feel the quality of the stories and the storytelling is hampered by the inadequate length of each episode, so the comics suffer from having to be shoehorned into six pages. But the art is serviceable if not spectacular; the writing seems to anticipate the Space Stars version of the series in that Tara, Zandor and Dorno speak (as in Space Stars) in a more stilted manner than in the original series.

One other note: I did not make these scans, and I've forgotten who did. (I found the link for this issue, as well as for issues #2 and 4 which also feature Herculoids stories, here.)

I've toyed with the idea of making my own animation of this story; and I would if I didn't have so many other things I want to do!

Click on each image to open it full-size (896 by 1296 pixels) in a new window:













Stay tuned for more!

Wonder what this means?

I've been taking note recently of various DVD releases from Warner Archives, the MOD (manufacture-on-demand) arm of Warner Bros. Home Video. On the animation/superhero front, they include:

• Thundarr the Barbarian - The Complete Series


• Josie and the Pussycats In Outer Space


• Goober and the Ghost Chasers - The Complete Series


• The Funky Phantom - The Complete Series


• The Dukes - The Complete Series (I didn't even know anyone had done an animated adaptation of The Dukes of Hazzard!)


• Legends of the Superheroes

Now, Thundarr has been on the wantlists of a lot of people for a lot of years now; but some of these choices really make me go "Huh? wut?" Legends of the Superheroes is a 1979 two-hour live-action special that was shown exactly once. It's a spoofy take on DC heroes, like Captain Marvel, Green Lantern and Hawkman, as they take on villains like Solomon Grundy and Sinestro to the accompaniment of a laugh track. (It even stars Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin!) And The Dukes? Really? Has there really been that much demand for this show? And if so... why not The Herculoids?

So I started following Warner Archives on Twitter, and I tweeted the following:



And lo! I did receive the following reply:



Okay, that first part was a little snarky, but that second statement - "Everything will be OK in the end!" - is fraught with meaning. Are they trying to say that there are plans to put The Herculoids on DVD?

If so, I'll be one of the first ordering!!

Unintentional hiatus

Sorry for the lack of posting over the past... two months??? Has it really been that long?

I certainly didn't intend to let it go this long. But that sneaky devil called "real life" tends to interfere with a lot of what I want to do. Commitments to job, to my art commissions, to family, all claim my attention.

I hope to get something posted here by the end of the week. If nothing else, I can post some Herculoids comics here... yes, there were Herculoids comics! They never starred in their own title, but they did make several appearances in a Gold Key series, Hanna-Barbera Super TV Heroes (that also featured characters from several other H-B shows of the time, Like Shazzan! and Birdman.

And I also hope to get back on track with the episode reviews. Next up: "The Mole Men"!