Super Mates 79: Starman Chronicles and Stocking Stuffers!

Chris and Cindy celebrate the season with a Christmas edition of The Starman Chronicles! In Starman #27, Jack Knight’s holiday plans are interrupted by a person in need…a homeless Santa Claus!

Then some special audio presents under the tree from DCU Holiday Bash starring Etrigan the Demon and Darkseid, and featuring some of our F&W All-Star Friends!

They gift-wrap up the episode with a look at a TV classic, and another character without a home for Christmas…namely Fonzie in the Happy Days episode “Guess Who’s Coming to Christmas”

Special thanks to Diablou Frank for the Starman intro, and Ryan Daly, the Irredeemable Shag and Dani Franklin for donating their voices!

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Clip credits:

“Christmas All Over Again” by Tom Petty

“Pretty Paper” by Roy Orbison

Selected tracks from A Charlie Brown Christmas by Vince Guaraldi

“The Centre/Hal Shot Down” from Justice League: The New Frontier by Kevin Manthei

“Darkseid’s Theme” from Superman: The Animated Series by Shirley Walker

Opening theme from Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town

Clips from Happy Days: “Guess Who’s Coming to Christmas”

“It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” from Twin Sisters Productions

19 responses to “Super Mates 79: Starman Chronicles and Stocking Stuffers!

    1. Mork was the Flashpoint of the Happy Days Universe. There’s a Lost Happy Days: Rebirth Special where Richie remembers Chuck and things start to lighten up.

      When you have PJ Frightful and ol’ gravel voice pitching in, things are bound to get heavy!

      Merry Christmas Rob!

  1. Great holiday episode. I look forward to new installments of the Starman Chronicles, and the radio dramas were well done. I thought your rendition of Satan’s Little Helper was more tragic and moving than my more humorous read of the comic.

    Thanks to this episode and the power of Google, I also learned about blow molds today. So, thank you for the gift of knowledge.

    1. Thanks Brian! During the editing phase, I noticed Satan’s Little Helper reads a bit darker without Templeton’s artwork. For a lighter approach, read along with pages in the gallery section. 😉

      Spreading the blow mold love is my pleasure. I’ve actually seen quite a few in use this Christmas season, and you really don’t see many new ones at retail, so folks must have dug out their old ones or picked them up second-hand like me.

      Chris

  2. Another great episode. A few thoughts:

    *I think the Cunningham’s disowned Chuck after he converted to Scientology.

    *I agree with you wholeheartedly about the “Justice League” film. On a scale of 1 to 10, I gave it a 6, meaning enjoyable, more bad than good, but plenty of room for improvement. As a comparison, I gave “BvS” a 2.

    * I believe “Yeowell” is pronounced “yoh-well”, as in, rhymes with “Noel”. The first syllable – Yeo – I would guess is pronounced the same as the first syllable in “yeoman”, as in Yeoman Diana Prince or Yeoman Janice Rand.

    1. * Ha! You are probably right.

      * I would probably give JL a 7 but we’re close. I would give BvS a 1 at this point.

      * You are probably right. Yowl is how I always pronounced it in my head, but “yoh-well” makes more sense.

      Thanks for listening!

      Chris

    2. I forgot to mention, I met Steve Yeowell at a comic signing in Atlanta in the early 1990s. He was there promoting his work on the Vertigo mini-series “SEBASTIAN O”. Nice guy! I believe it was pronounced “Yee-ool”, however, I’m not a reliable source for pronunciations. Also at the signing was Grant Morrison and Jill Thompson.

  3. Excellent episode. I almost–ALMOST–ended up covering that Etrigan story. So thankful I didn’t. There’s no way to have topped this! Love it.

    Chuck Cunningham was probably eaten by his basketball after attempting to perform a dark ritual similar to the one in the “Satan’s Little Helper” story.

    What do you have against Troll Santa, Chris?

    Let’s hope Cindy isn’t on the Naughty List. I fear she’d use the lumps of coal to put lumps on Chris’s head!

  4. I have something of a funny story about this Happy Days episode, something I remember vividly.

    When I first saw this episode in syndication, I was probably 7 or 8 and I completely missed the point. I thought the Fonz DID have family he was trying to get to. The ravioli from a can? A light snack before the bus trip. The irritation with the Cunninghams hanging around? Well what would you expect … the man was trying to catch a bus. When the episode ended, I thought ‘how sad. The Fonz’s family will be worried about why he didn’t show up.’ I was pretty young.

    When I saw it again, whenever that was … probably a year later, I was struck by what I had missed in my first viewing. I told my older brother (who I was watching with) ‘You know … I don’t think Fonzie has family. I think he was embarrassed and made that all up. ‘ My brother looked at me and shook his head and just said ‘idiot.’

    I hadn’t thought about this in forever! Thanks for covering. I laugh at my innocence and ignorance now, not even minding being called a fool by my bro.

    Happy holidays and thanks for all these shows! Love ’em!

    1. That’s a great story Anj. I could totally see how kid logic could interpret the episode that way. Those damn Cunninghams are so pushy! “Fix our car! Fix our Santa! Fix our lights! Now stay here and entertain us!”. What a bunch of jerks!!! 😉

      Chris

  5. Another fun episode. Even though I haven’t (yet) read any of Robinson’s Starman, I enjoyed your rundown – sounds like a good story, and after looking at your image gallery, I seem to have a craving for fig pudding… 😉

    Nice that you covered that episode of Happy Days. I’m actually old enough to have watched that when it originally aired on network TV (I was 6 at the time), and then I think I saw it again a few years later in syndication – and then probably never thought of it again until listening to your show today. I’m actually not really that much of a Happy Days fan (first few seasons were o.k., I guess), but that is a good episode. Just as you both noted about the Starman story, it hit all the right notes a Christmas episode of a sitcom should without getting too sappy.
    As for Chuck, it’s funny, I remember that later he would sometimes come up in conversations about TV with friends in high school or even college, and there would always be someone who didn’t remember him (“What? Richie and Joanie didn’t have an older brother!!”) and think everyone else is putting him or her on. Of course, in those pre-internet days there was no quick way to prove it. Anyway, I think Chuck had the same fate as the dog, Tiger, from the first two seasons of the Brady Bunch: he was sent to that farm upstate…

    Also, excellent performance in a supporting role by Dani. I approve.

  6. I still can’t believe they got away with that Fig Pudding bit. WHOA!

    Yeah, that’s something we didn’t really get across in our Chuck discussion. The bewilderment of his very existence. He didn’t figure into the plot of many early episodes, just kind of walked on sets, made some air-head declaration, and walked off. He was kind of useless character anyhow, so in the grand scheme of Happy Days, he was a bit of a blip. His existence was definitely in question by even regular fans of the show’s later seasons.

    I doubt we’ll get Dani again on the show. She’s getting offers from everywhere. 😉

    Chris

  7. Another great episode! Y’all’s enthusiasm for Christmas helps me get through the holidays!! Loved, loved, loved the coverage of the STARMAN issue! Hearing your coverage brings it all back!! And the Happy Days flashback was an unexpected joy!

    Merry Christmas!

  8. Thanks, Franklins, for this great Christmas episode!
    Starman; I’ve often thought that I might share this story with my wife, if she expressed interest in the character. We frequently quote “A Christmas Carol,” and I think she’d get a kick out of the O’Dares.
    Happy Days; I was a regular viewer of this show right from the start, but I don’t recall this one. What struck me as I listened to the segments you played was the quality of the voices. Even without the visuals, Tom Bosley, Marion Ross, Ron Howard, and Henry Winkler did more than just recite their lines. Bosley and Ross came from the stage, and to me their experience shows. Perhaps that was something that made this show just a little bit better than most network television. Regarding Chuck; I swear that I’ve seen a clip where Richie, played by Ron Howard, asks Mr. C., played by Tom Bosley, “Whatever happened to Chuck?” “Some things we don’t talk about, Richard.” I’m not making this up! It may have been on the film Howard made in 2008 encouraging people to vote for Barack Obama. He re-created his roles as Richie and Opie, and got both Bosley and Andy Griffith to reprise their roles as his father(s). He re-created the look of each show. It was pretty amazing. And I think he faded out with that “Chuck” bit!

    1. Wow, Ward, I’m going to have to go look for that Ron Howard clip. I was unaware of it! As a huge fan of The Andy Griffith Show (I could do a podcast on THAT), it’s right up my alley.

      And I think you’re right about the Happy Days cast. I noticed the great voices when I was editing it together. There was a lot of talent in that show for sure. No wonder it was so successful with that ensemble.

      Thanks for listening!

      Chris

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