Dick Tracy Revives a Dead Villain...

The current Dick Tracy continuity (aka storyline) features a familiar...yet unfamiliar...face...

...who's likely based on a villain most CrimeStoppers (as some Tracy fans call themselves) have never seen!

In the spring of1966, due to the success of midseason replacement Batman, producer William Dozier was asked to try out other comic properties as TV series for the 1966-67 season.

He considered three...

Wonder Woman

(which resulted in a test reel featuring gorgeous future Planet of the Apes starlet Linda (Nova) Harrison as Wonder Woman...(actually a delusional Diana Prince's self-image of herself) which you can see HERE.)

The Green Hornet

(which had a half-hour pilot, then a one-season series that (damn it) still isn't available on DVD/BluRay or streaming!

and

Dick Tracy

(in a half-hour pilot starring future soap opera fixture Ray MacDonnell as the square-jawed hero!)

The villain of the episode was Victor Buono as Mr Memory, a villain who used computers linked directly to his brain...

.....does he look...familiar?

In reference to the "henchmen" the as yet-unnamed character mentions, Tracy made short work of them using karate!
(He was a serious kick-ass in this version!)
There's a kool blog entry about the pilot HERE with a link to the pilot on YouTube!

Is the character in the strip, in fact, Mr Memory?
Keep reading in your local paper or HERE to find out!

(Trivia: there was a Dick Tracy novel by William Johnston issued in 1970 featuring a villain named "Mr Computer".
Since Johnston was primarily a novelization writer doing books based on TV series and movies ranging from Get Smart to Room 222 to Klute to Caligula, I suspect this was based on unused plots for the TV series featuring Mr Memory.)

Crime & Punishment: the newest RetroBlog™

In the pop culture criminal justice system...

...crime does NOT pay!

EVER!

And starting today, we'll prove it on a weekly basis with our newest RetroBlog™, beginning, appropriately, on the 80th Anniversary of the debut of the greatest comic strip policeman of all...Dick Tracy!

Click on the art to enlarge

We'll be presenting never-reprinted tales of Sherlock Holmes, Mr. District Attorney, GangBusters, Ken Shannon, Mr. Risk, Johnny Danger, and many others.

Plus video clips, rare poster art and other oddities worthy of inclusion in the Black Museum at Scotland Yard!

Visit it!

Bookmark it!

Be there every week!

Dick Tracy Returns!

The dawn of a new day, courtesy of Mike Curtis and Joe Staton!

Noted comics pros Mike Curtis (Richie Rich) and Joe Staton (Green Lantern / E-Man) take over the long-running Dick Tracy newspaper strip as of today!
Created by Chester Gould in 1931, the incorruptible Chicago-based detective has also been the subject of movie serials, tv series (both live action and animated), radio shows, comic books (reprints and new stories), novels and short story anthologies, and a feature film!
BONUS for our faithful fans: Here's the opening credits from an unsold pilot done by 1960s Batman / Green Hornet producer William Dozier!

Fantastic Femmes--Linda Harrison

Note: this page has been updated with NEW info HERE!

We bet that, after Linda Park, you thought we'd do Battlestar Galactica's Grace Park, right?
Nope, we're presenting our third (and last) "Linda"! (We will get to Grace a little later on...)
Like Linda Park, most of this Linda's credits are genre credits!
And, Like Lynda Carter, she ALSO played Wonder Woman! In fact, she was FIRST, although the general public never got to see her!

In 1966, at the height of the "camp" craze spawned by Batman, the show's producer William Dozier tried three more comic characters as tv series.
One, The Green Hornet, ran for a 26-episode season.
The second, Dick Tracy, never made it past the pilot.
The third, Wonder Woman, reached the "test reel" stage, with about 10 minutes of footage being shot. Linda was Wonder Woman, opposite a plain-Jane Diana Prince played by Ellie May Walker. After seeing the footage, 20th Century Fox execs vetoed even going for a 30-minute pilot and the project died.
The footage has surfaced on a number of bootleg vhs and dvds and the Internet.

A year later, 20th began pre-production on the first Planet of the Apes film.
Concerned that the ape makeup, so critical to the success of the film, might not look right on film, a screen test was done with Edward G. Robinson as Dr. Zaius, James Brolin as Cornelius, and Linda as Zira playing opposite Charlton Heston.
The concerns proved valid. The makeup was redesigned before main unit shooting began. (You can see the test footage on the Planet of the Apes Special Edition and Behind the Planet of the Apes DVDs)
Linda was then cast as "Nova", the non-speaking human female lead in both Planet of the Apes, and it's immediate sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes. (And yes, I know she has one line in BtPotA!)

She married 20th Century studio boss Daryl V. Zanuck between filming the two Apes movies.
After BtPotA, Linda changed her name to "Augusta Summerland" and did minor tv and film roles
She divorced Zanuck and retired from acting in 1978.
Linda returned to acting in 1985, in Cocoon, produced, ironically, by her ex-hubby, Zanuck!

Genre appearances include...
Planet of the Apes [2001] (Woman in cart)
Cocoon / Cocoon: the Return (Susan aka Mom)
Planet of the Apes / Beneath the Planet of the Apes (Nova)
Planet of the Apes Makeup Test (Zira, played by Kim Hunter in three films)
Way, Way Out (Peggy)
The Fat Spy (Treasure Hunter)
Wonder Woman "Who's Afraid of Diana Prince?" [test footage] (Wonder Woman)
Batman "The Joker Goes to School" / "He Meets His Match, the Grisly Ghoul" (CheerLeader)

Check out...
Cult Sirens: Linda Harrison
The Forbidden Zone (PotA FanSite)

Nova returned in the animated Return to the Planet of the Apes episode "Flames of Doom", voiced by Claudette Nevins. Note: most purists consider both the animated and live-action PotA tv series to be "alternate universe" and / or non-canonical.
"Nova", played by Lisa Marie in the 2001 PotA movie remake, was a chimpanzee. Not the same character.

Other Wonder Women since Linda include...
Wonder Woman (1973) Cathy Lee Crosby
New, Original Wonder Woman / New Adventures of Wonder Woman (1975-1978) Lynda Carter
Super Friends / The All-New Super Friends Hour / Challenge of the Super Friends (1973-83) Shanon Farnon
SuperFriends: the Legendary Super Powers Show (1984) Constance Crawford
The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians (1985) / Superman (1985) "Sorceress of Time" "Birthday Party" BJ Ward
Justice League / Justice League Unlimited (2002-06) Susan Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning (WW as child in "Kid's Stuff")
Justice League: New Frontier (2008) Lucy Lawless
Wonder Woman (2009) Keri Russell
Video Game performers: Tara Platt, Courtenay Taylor