Wednesday, February 23, 2011

MAN FROM ATLANTIS (1977) TV Guide Preview

From the 1977 Fall Preview Issue of TV Guide, here's the magazine's write-up of the new Man From Atlantis television series. The tone is annoyingly snarky, but to be fair, that was the tone for all of their previews back then.

And, while we're on the subject of Man From Atlantis in TV Guide, I've also decided to include this scan of a lovely cover painting featuring the aquatic adventurer, even though the resolution isn't very good and I can't make out the artist's signature. It's a great painting, though.

I have the entire Man From Atlantis series here now (thanks to a generous Space: 1970 reader), but I've only had time to watch the original four 90-minute TV movies. I intend to write about the series much more in the future, because, despite its faults (and not actually being a "space" show), I have a great nostalgic affection for the program.

For one thing, as a 13 year-old sci-fi fan who thought that submarines were almost a s cool as spaceships, I loved the four-sphere Cetacean submersible. And, for another, I had a huge crush on Belinda J. Montgomery as Elizabeth Merrill. Apparently, I've always liked smart blondes.

As I've mentioned before, I also owned and enjoyed the two paperback tie-in novelizations and the short-lived Marvel Comics adaptation. If Kenner had actually got their proposed toy line off the ground, I probably would have tried to get all of those, too.

4 comments:

  1. I could be mistaken but the artist for this piece has the look of Bob Peak, the famous illustrator of both the Superman and Star Trek movie posters. He was pretty prolific around this time...
    Hope that helps!

    Btw, love your blog.

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  2. I thought it - and the fuzzy signature - looked like it could be Peak, but since I wasn't sure, I didn't want to speculate.

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  3. As it turns out, I have a poor-quality copy of that issue. The credit on the table of contents page does say it's Bob Peak.

    I liked Belinda myself. But you didn't say if you ever bought the webbed gloves they sold at the height of MfA mania. I remember seeing the commercials during lazy summer afternoons featuring kids swimming with the gloves in their backyard pools.

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  4. I just scored an old marvel Man from Atlantis comic.....good stuff

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