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.)

Episode Review: #4, "Sarko the Arkman" - Sept. 16, 1967

(WARNING: Spoilers. Sorry I couldn't find a more creative way of saying it this time…)

Synopsis:



A mysterious spacecraft plies the skies of the jungle planet.



It lands in a clearing; a large hatch opens in the side, and something shoots along an energy beam that issues out of the hatch.

Title card:





From behind a bush, a short, frog-faced alien watches as Igoo approaches. "Good! A perfect specimen for my experiments!" Bad luck for Igoo: he's standing directly over the "trap area".



The alien punches a button on his remote-control device…



and the ground falls out from beneath Igoo's feet. Igoo falls into the pit…

...only to rise a moment later, encased in a bell-jar-like container.



Igoo's roars of distress draw the attention of Zandor, who commences his bouncing-between-the-vines-stunt, and Dorno, riding atop Tundro accompanied by Gleep.





Another press of a button on the remote control opens the hatch in the spaceship's side, from which levitation beams appear to pull Igoo's trap into the interior. "That was even easier than I expected," gloats the alien.

"But you didn't expect me, did you, Arko?"



Arko turns to face Zandor. "Yes, I did, Zandor. You warned me never to return to this planet, so…"



A button-press opens a small hatch in the ship's side; Zandor is overcome by a burst of sleep-gas, and falls unconscious at Arko's feet. "Yes, Zandor, you warned me," laughs Arko.



The growls of the charging Tundro attract Arko's attention. Tundro comes to a stop - atop another of Arko's traps, as it turns out…



...and he, with Dorno and Gleep still on his back, ends up encased in a trap as well. "Gleep! Go get help!" orders Dorno.



Gleep separates into several small copies of himself, escapes through the ventilation holes ringing the bottom of the cage, and reassembles, bouncing off to summon aid.



That aid comes in the form of Tara, to whom the wildly-gibbering Gleep tells of the events of the past few minutes. Zok flies Tara, Gleep and Gloop to the scene of the trouble.





They find Zandor just regaining consciousness - but no sign of the spacecraft. "Arko must have used some kind of sleep mist on me," Zandor explains.



"Arko!" exclaims Tara. "Then that means they must have been taken to the planet Zodan!"



Zok screeches; "That's my feeling, too, Zok." Zandor resolves to go after Arko, and rescue Tundro, Igoo and Dorno. "Gleep, you know what to do." Indeed he does: surround Tara with multiple Gleeps for protection, as Zandor, Gloop and Zok take to the sky.

Commercial time-out…



On the planet Zodan: a rocky hillside, into which huge cages for Arko's newest "acquisitions" have been hollowed.





From his hovercraft, Arko delights in Igoos' and Tundro's futile attempts to break down the metal bars over the caves' openings: "It is useless! You have great strength; but my bars are stronger!"



He then flies up to the cage holding his third trophy: Dorno, whose cage is suspended several yards over the ground. "The animals I can use; but for you, son of Zandor, I have no use… except to control Zandor!"



"Who by now is on his way!" challenges Dorno. "And I will be ready for him," Arko gloats as he flies over to a small building from which protrude two deadly-looking ray cannon.





As Zandor, Zok and Gloop appears in the skies over Zodan, Arko unleashes a barrage of energy bolts at them.





One especially powerful bolt, even though deflected by Zandor's shield, still carries enough kick to knock Zandor and Gloop off the dragon's back!



Dorno cam only watch helplessly as Zandor plunges to certain doom -



- until Gloop forms himself into a parachute to lower Zandor gently to the ground.



Zok attacks the bars of Igoo's and Tundro's cages with eye- and tail-beams, weakening the metal enough to allow the mighty creatures to break the bars down. Safely on the ground, Zandor and Gloop watch as Igoo and Tundro charge toward Arko's fortification. "So… the creatures are loose. Which means their finish!" he says as he aims the ray cannons at the approaching Herculoids.



But Zandor pitches his shield, severing the electrodes and causing an energy backup which destroys the cannon.



Energy rocks fired from Tundro's horn batter the sturdy metal door leading to Arko's control room…



…Igoo pushes the door in, and they both charge down the corridor. But a quick press of a button on Arko's console drops three more doors into the hallway, separating Tundro and Igoo from their target.



Between Tundro's energy rocks and Igoo's brute strength, however, the doors are soon dealt with, and Arko finds himself confronted by his two erstwhile victims, and Zandor, slingshot at the ready, demanding his surrender.



"You win, Zandor… and you lose! With this switch, I release the cage containing your son!" Zandor launches an energy rock at Arko just as Arko pulls the lever; the control room is destroyed in a mighty explosion...





...but not in time to prevent the bottom from dropping out of Dorno's cage!



Quick action by Gloop, forming himself into a mattress, saves Dorno from a deadly fall.



Arko's spaceship once again leaves Zodan; but this time it's Zandor at the controls, as Zandor, Dorno, Gloop, Igoo and Tundro fly home.





"Are they all strapped in?" Zandor asks. "All but Zok," answers Dorno. "He's flying escort!"



Comments: So why is the episode titled "Sarko the Arkman" when the character is referred to throughout the show as "Arko"? The most likely explanation: the character's name was changed sometime during the cartoon's production, but after the vocal tracks were recorded, and rerecording those lines was not possible for some reason. Perhaps the actors were unavailable at the time, perhaps the budget and/or schedule wouldn't allow for the corrections to be made.

But I think I can guess why the change was made: someone in a position of authority didn't like the redundancy of the title "Arko the Arkman", and I can't say I blame them. The name "Sarko" is actually pretty cool; it's a name I wish I'd come up with.

I am absolutely certain this time that that's Paul Frees giving voice to (S)Arko. Frees is one of my favorite voice actors, and I've heard him use that voice, or something similar, for other characters. If you're not familiar with Paul Frees, I know you've heard his voice before: he's the "Ghost Host" for the Disney Parks' Haunted Mansion attractions; he's the voice of Disney's Ludwig von Drake, of the aliens from Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, of Ben "The Thing" Grimm and the Watcher from Hanna-Barbera's version of Fantastic Four (which also debuted in 1967, the same year as The Herculoids) and… of the Pillsbury Doughboy(!) Frees didn't do a lot of work for H-B, but he was the narrator of the opening titles for Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles, as well as the voice of Fluid-Man in that same show. (You can find the theme here at Toon Tracker in RealAudio; scroll down about a quarter of the page.)

I think this cartoon was just about the right length for the story being told. But the story I would have liked to see done as a single half-hour episode was the first encounter between (S)Arko and the Herculoids. It's obvious this is not (S)Arko's first visit to Amzot; Zandor has warned him never to return, and even Tara knew, not only his name, but his planet of origin (Zodan). PIty they never told that story…

So Zandor, Zok and Gloop travel through interplanetary space to reach Zodan without the protection of pressurized craft or even space suits. That might have thrown me for a loop, even at the age I watched this show originally, had I not been watching Space Ghost the year before. With Space Ghost, Jan, Jace and Blip traveling the spaceways sans space suits as a matter of course, the viewer comes to accept that, for whatever reason, the Hanna-Barbera version of space is not an airless vacuum against which elaborate precautions must be taken, lest our heroes die a painful death upon leaving their planetary atmosphere for the first time.

OR, maybe Space Ghost's power bands, and Jace, Jan and Blip's inviso-power belts generate a force field that protect them from the airless vacuum of space. And just maybe Zok generates a similar force-field to insulate himself and his passengers from hard vacuum. Tundro, Igoo and Dorno have to use (S)Arko's spaceship to travel back to Amzot because Zok can't fit everybody on his back!

The ease with which Zandor pilots (S)Arko's ship tells me that there's a lot more to this man than just a Tarzan-like figure who lives in the wild with his family and a cadre of super-animals. Zandor has dealt extensively with technology in the past, but chooses to live a primitive existence for whatever reason. Wouldn't the reasons behind that make an interesting story!

Speaking of Space Ghost (we were, weren't we?): the next episode review will be of a Space Ghost episode! Why, you ask (as if you didn't know, or couldn't guess, the answer)? Because it's the occasion of the first Space Ghost/Herculoids crossover!

Episode Review: #3, "The Pod Creatures" - Sept. 16, 1967

(Spoilers, spoilers, getcher red hot spoilers rat cheer!)



Prologue: A saucer-shaped space craft enters the atmosphere of Amzot.

"We have reached the jungle planet," intones a mechanically-filtered voice. "Prepare to drop pods. And remember: no life is to survive." Circular ports ringing the bottom edge of the saucer open, and pods like tailless lawn darts drop to the planet's surface.



Cue the title card...





The strange sounds caused by the deployment of the pods do not go unnoticed by Tara and Zandor, though they are puzzled by the cause. Zandor summons Zok from a nearby cave, and they fly off to investigate. "If you find Dorno and Igoo, tell them to stay close to home," asks Tara.

An airborne search proves fruitless for the moment, and Zandor decides to start a ground search, sending Zok to find Dorno and Igoo.



Dorno is apparently having "Iggy" do his chores for him: as the boy relaxes against Gleep, Igoo uproots trees with segmented trunks, and karate-chops them into shorter logs for firewood.



"That's enough firewood, Iggy. Gleep and I are tired just from watching!" But the bucolic moment is cut short by the strange noises again; "Let's go see what it is."



The saucer continues to drop pods, row upon row; conceivably hundreds, if not thousands, have now landed.



Finally the saucer's ports close, as Gleep, Igoo and Dorno (carried in one of Igoo's giant hands) approach. They come upon a patch of pods, which Dorno describes as looking "like some kind of weird vegetable."



A pod opens behind Igoo, revealing a strange creature shaped like a large bullet. "It's alive!" exclaims Dorno.



Pods are suddenly splitting open all around them, the creatures inside extending thin black tentacles toward Dorno and Igoo. "They're after us... head for the caves!"



A tentacle grabs Gleep, but at Dorno's urging the protoploid separates in two, slipping out of the tendril's grasp. The creature's tentacles continue to pursue Gleep, as another creature's tentacles wrap themselves around Igoo. The stone ape breaks their grip, and fights them off with karate-like chops of his hands.



Gleep joins Dorno in the shelter of the cave, as the boy urges Igoo to get to safety as well. But Igoo is surrounded on two sides by pod things, which hover on rocket-like engines. Grabbing the tentacles of one group of pods, Igoo flings them against a cliff face, repeating the stunt with the other group.





A creature flies straight for Igoo, punching him squarely in the midriff... and putting himself right into the ape's mighty grasp. Igoo slams the thing into the ground. Three more creatures launch themselves at Igoo, who catches them, shoves them into the ground, and proceeds to pound them even deeper into dirt like the pegs in a child's workbench toy.



Commercial...



Tara hears Igoo's battle roars, and asks Tundro to call for Zandor; Tundro does so by projecting his growl through his hollow forehead horn. Zandor hears Tundro's summons, and bounces off tightly stretched vines. Zok hears Tundro as well, and joins Zandor, Tundro, Gloop and Tara in a nearby clearing.

Zandor orders Zok and Tundro to follow him to aid Igoo and Dorno, and Gloop to stay behind and guard Tara (which he does by surrounding her with multiples of himself).



Igoo is beset by more pod creatures, whose tentacles are apparently becoming harder to repel. Dorno is grabbed by a creature until Igoo chops its tendrils away and smashes it. Still more pods attack Igoo.





Gleep ties himself into a knot around a pursuing tentacle, causing the hydraulic pressure on either side of the knot to split the tendril apart.



But the creatures press their attack, and their numbers seem endless..



Zandor, Zok and Tundro finally arrive on the scene, to find Dorno and Igoo helplessly bound in tentacles, being dragged toward a group of pod things. Energy rocks fired from Zandor's slingshot and Tundro's horn prove to be very effective weapons against the creatures.



Zok struggles to break free of tentacles; Zandor throws his shield and severs Zok's bonds. Zok destroys several creatures with his eye and tail beams, as Zandor wrecks a few more with another expert throw of his shield, and Tundro makes like a shooting gallery...



Finally, all the pod creatures are destroyed. "But I have an idea that there are a lot more where they came from," Zandor muses. As the saucer rises into the air and fleees the planet, he adds, "I suspect that that spaceship could give us all the answers."



"And our answer to them was our animal army," Dorno replies, as they all return home.

Comments: Remember what I've written, about how some episodes would benefit from being expanded to a half-hour story? "The Pod Creatures" is not one of them.

This episode is about as basic as you can get: a mysterious alien race infiltrates the planet, and the Herculoids drive them off. So bare-bones, in fact, that it wouldn't be surprising to find out that the staff actually had trouble filling nine minutes; there certainly seems to be a lot of reused and repeated footage, especially of Igoo fighting off the tentacles.

This episode is actually pretty typical of one type of Herculoids story: the mysterious extraterrestrial invasion force. An unnamed alien culture comes to Amzot and drops warriors, machines or creatures onto the surface to conquer, colonize, and/or "cleanse" the planet of its existing life (as in this case). And it's up to Zandor and co. to save the planet from the threat of annihilation or conquest.

I believe that's Paul Frees doing the voice of the saucer.



The "Oh, Come ON!" Moment: This episode didn't really have a notable OCO, at least not one which took me out of the story or made me wonder about the intelligence and/or competence of the character(s) involved. There are a few scenes that get me scratching my head, though:

• Isn't it convenient that the tree Igoo is chopping up grows a segmented trunk that separates easily into equal-sized logs? I'm not saying that couldn't happen…


• Why doesn't Zok use his power beams on the pod things holding him captive? Why does Zandor have to free him first, using a shield that is apparently razor edged?


• I guess the closest to an OCO we have in this episode is that Zandor's shield returns unerringly to him, no matter how many objects it's struck in its trajectory. But I have that same gripe about Captain America's shield, so it's not like Zandor is unique in that regard. (It's certain that Cap was the inspiration for this "boomerang shield" thing in the first place.)


• And: why is Zandor so nonchalant about the departing spacecraft that tried to wipe out all life on Amzot (once again unnamed, referred to only as "the jungle planet")? I think I would've jumped on Zok's back and pursued that thing, to at least find out what section of space it probably came from. (And they could've pursued it quite a distance, even into interplanetary space, as we'll see in the next episode.)

This is the first episode that shows what would become a recurring image in future cartoons: Zandor bouncing between tightly-stretched vines. The purpose, I'm guessing, is to build up speed to be "launched" at… what, exactly? After Zandor flies away from the final vine, we're never shown where he lands! Is this to get him on Zok's back? There have to be easier ways, like maybe Zok kneeling down so his rider can climb onto his shoulder? This has always been the most mystifying aspect of the series, because there's simply no need for this elaborate procedure.



This is also the first occurrence we see of what becomes (for me, anyway) a rather annoying habit of Zandor's: his insistence that Tara stay behind, and that Gloop (or sometimes Gleep) guard her while the rest of the crew go off to face the latest danger to their existence. I understand the impulse; hey, I'd want my wife to stay safe if I think I'm about to face danger, but -- Zandor's taking his son (who looks to be anywhere from ten to thirteen years old) with him! Besides, we've already seen what a great shot Tara is with the family weapon (the slingshot), and that she's capable of great courage, so it seems to me that she'd be an asset on any mission they'd undertake. But the pop culture of the time still wasn't quite comfortable with the idea of a truly heroic female (with the exception of Wonder Woman, perhaps), so stay behind like a good little wifey she does. (If there's one thing that I think the Space Stars revival did better than the original series, it was to give Tara a bigger role in their adventures.)



It's fortunate that the pod creatures are, individually, easy to destroy. It's the sheer number of them that make them a formidable foe. I also wonder, too, why is a fleet of creatures whose purpose is the destruction of all life on a planet not equipped with a broader array of weapons? Tentacles? that's a "capture and hold" weapon, not a "destroy everything that lives" weapon.



So one wonders how the Herculoids would fare against an invasion force whose numbers are as great as the pod creatures', but one in which each individual unit is practically invincible? …yes, if you remember the show, or have watched it recently, you know which episode I'm referring to. And it'll be coming up for review in just a few weeks.

Finally: another shot of Tara, just because I like her…



…and the dirty old man in me wishes that Tara hadn't been left behind, and had fallen victim to the pod things herself…