Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 09, 2014

Good morning all…

Captain Video! I remember him!

I recall that name as well!

Ok, who the heck is Captain Video?

The men from Mars had no use for written history and memorized it. Venusians wrote it all down. Or was it vice-versa. That’s about all I remember from watching Captain Video as a kid.

Were there lost episodes of the show? If not, Flintheart shouldn’t be so amazed. Everything can be downloaded from bit torrent sites these days.

Looks like Nitrate hit a nerve in Flintheart with “Captain Video”…..

Could this be a blackmail case ?

I remember Captain Video.

O.K., what’s the plan today – kidnapping? Blackmail? Extortion? General mayhem? Forcing Vitamin to sit through cheesy movies (the worst we can find… la, la, la) with two robots?

i thought ralph kramden was captain video?

That was Ed Nortons favorite show.

Thanks for the info guys. Boy, these writers are bringing back some old school characters.

I bet SDM still has his crispy uniform! The jacket might be a little tight in front, but with his Dick Tracy frillies, the attention-getting cabby hat, and that official-llooking yellow lightning bolt emblazoned across his mighty heart, he is all set to fight a world of evil! Of course, this was before color TV, but what the heck!

“When your kids want the beer you’re drinking, give ’em BUPGOO!”

Gotta Love the Funny pages….

Ahhh, the Captain…..Al Hodge, wasn’t that who played him? And the send-up in the pre-Alfred E. Neuman Mad Magazine was a hoot!! Now: does it turn out that Vitamin Flintheart had a hand in that serial? Egad!!

Not to wory – if it’s a trap they can send in a stunt double for Flintheart…the winner of his look-alike contest Walt Wallet!

Still Da Man!: You’re the Locher fan. Didn’t DL put into the Tracy verse Richard’s rat phobia? And I don’t even think he’s read Pearls Before Swine!.Too bad Li’l Abner didn’t read PBS before he set up his death traps!

Vitamin Flintheart never played the rôle of Captain Video; that would be Richard Coogan (briefly) or Al Hodge (mostly). Captain Video was my first “favorite” TV show when I was a kid, seen in Chicago at 6:00 PM, I think, on the old DuMont network (Channel 9, which is now WGN-TV). The series is mostly lost because of the deliberate destruction of the DuMont archive after its takeover by Metromedia.I recall the two rockets the captain had, the X-9 and then the Galaxy, his sidekick, Video Ranger (who never had any other name), and his boss/contact, Commissioner Gordon (Commissioner of Public Safety), and the arch-villain Dr. Pauli (who memorably disguised himself in one arc as “Dr. I. Luap,” just as Dracula once became Count Alucard) and his equally villainous seductress-daughter. There was a good-guy with the power of invisibility, Kul (Kool, Cul, Cool?) of Eros (an alien). Some of the greats of science fiction are said (in the Wikipedia article) to have written for the show during its run (1949-1955). In the comic book, of which I once had at least one issue or two of its short run, the captain’s flying machine was the “Whirlyjet,”a rocket-like jet that revolved like a rifle bullet as it flew, and was catapulted from a cannon-like device from the captain’s mountain retreat. I think I ate my first TV dinners in those days in order to watch the show in front of the TV set, which was in the living room….Maybe Vitamin Flintheart could have played Commissioner Gordon….

Someone a day or so ago mentioned the Portage (Park) Theatre on Chicago’s northwest side. While reading Wikipedia on an unrelated topic (navigable rivers in Illinois) I came across two interesting topics that Mike or Tarry Plaguer might be interested in..Once upon a time, Mud Lake was the portage across the continental divide between the Chicago River and the Des Plaines River. That is, east of Mud Lake, rivers flowed east into Lake Michigan while west of Mud Lake, rivers flowed west to the Mississippi..Mud Lake was a swamp somewhere near what is now called Portage Park in Chicago. During wet weather, and Chicago has a lot of that, natives and European traders could ford across Mud Lake without having to get out of their canoes..Much of Mud Lake has since been drained and replaced by industrial development. One Wiki article placed it somewhere near the Stevenson Expressway and the Chicago Sanitary Ship Canal. Nevertheless, the portage was supposed to be closer to Irving Park Road, near the Portage Theatre..It would seem of interest to creators of this series to capitalize on this somewhat mysterious place, a mud lake and the potentially derelict industrial buildings surrounding it to provide an eerie place for the evil denizens of Tracy-ville to ooze out of…

Vitamin needs to get his hands on that film because his performance in “Captain TVideo” was so bad that, if it came to light, it would be the ruin of his current career.

Since I have an interest in history, I am aware of Captain Video, even though it was before my time. It was one of those shows that was deliberately erased so videotapes could be reused, a common money-saving practice in the early days of television.Although I am willing to bet Abner Kadaver had the complete series stored in his vaults.

It should be mentioned that Al Hodge, who played Captain Video also was the Green Hornet on radio for many years. The good Captain was also featured in a serial which was supposed to have segments in “cine-color.” For those of you interested, the serial is also available on DVD.

Dick Tracy, Mary Perkins, Captain Video….what a cross-over. Maybe Tracy will meet Fearless Fosdick!!!!

How good a show is and how good an actor is are not necessarily connected. A script has to be absolutely putrid before it’s so bad that a good professional actor can’t do something good with it.

If Mary Perkins doesn’t speak (as in today’s strip), does this mean that Team Tracy doesn’t have to pay for her usage?

er, DuMont never used Nitrate for it’s kinescopes, they were using Kodak Safty Film

Reminder to Vitamin Flintheart: I you need assistance, your sidekick VISTA BILL is ready and waiting!

Ya know, Gweedo, I still am having issues getting beyond the logistics of the last arc. If no one has gotten past the third trap, then that means at least one person has drowned in the concrete. With that being said, that means that Kadaver had to periodically jackhammer the block (think Jimmy Hoffa), excavate it, haul it, and prepare for his next victim. As Tracy was jamming the drive gear of the spiked iron maiden, did he possibly hear from the other side of the wall, “Put in another 30 gallons of water, Willy,” and the sound of a Detroit 671 running flat out? Not exactly chamber music.

The White City of the Columbian Exposition is generally believed to be the inspiration for the Emerald City of Oz.