Category Archives: geek culture

Today in Halloween: The return of Count Chocula

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It’s that time of year again. Time for the return of the ultimate trio of monster cereals.

Count Chocula, Franken Berry and Boo Berry, of course.

I was at Target today and snapped the picture above of a Count Chocula box. It was part of a display, near the checkout, of the three General Mills monster cereals.

Talk about your impulse buy aimed at 30-, 40- and 50-somethings.

Although there are plenty of indications General Mills makes the three cereals year-round, they seem to show up on store shelves every fall.

General Mills’ own website makes the connection to the fall release of the cereals:

Remember the excitement of autumn back in your childhood years?

Fall brought pumpkins, falling leaves, and a fun holiday when you could morph into anything you desired. With a mental image of the character selected, you devised a brilliant Halloween costume idea. There were parties, caramel apples, and chewy peanut butter kisses, and breakfast.

Monster breakfasts.

Count Chocula and Franken Berry were introduced not for Halloween, though, but in March 1971. Boo Berry, a ghostly figure, came along in December 1972.

General Mills doesn’t say so, but the cereals were almost certainly intended to capitalize on the rebirth of interest, beginning in the late 1950s and continuing into the 1970s, of the classic Universal Studios monsters like Frankenstein, Dracula and the Mummy.

That interest had been kicked off by the release to television of the “Shock Theater” package of 30s and 40s Universal horror classics.

While I was fond of the cereals, I don’t remember some of the spin-offs and freebies. Like a record, “Monster Adventures in Outer Space,” that must have been included in cereal boxes.

Anyone else remember the two discontinued monster cereals? I can’t say that I remember either Fruit Brute or  Fruity Yummy Mummy.

They were introduced at a later date and didn’t have a long shelf life. Pun intended.

The monster images changed somewhat over the years. Above is an earlier Count Chocula image.

One thing that hasn’t changed? The monster cereals are “part of this nutritious breakfast!”

 

Today in Halloween: ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’

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Considering what a clever show Joss Whedon’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” was, it shouldn’t be surprising that its treatment of Halloween would be exceptional.

More than a few series use “Halloween” as an easy holiday to hang an episode on. “Community” and “Roseanne” got some good laughs out of putting their characters into freaky costumes and situations.

But part of what made “Buffy” Halloween episodes special was the premise that Halloween was indeed different for the Scooby Gang and the rest of the people living on the Hellmouth.

Halloween, the characters note, is something of a night off for real-life creatures of the night and the people who battle them. Self-respecting vampires like Spike consider Halloween “amateur night,” kind of the way big drinkers feel about New Year’s Eve.

The series’ second-season episode, “Halloween,” finds Buffy, Willow and Xander going out in costume to trick-or-treat. What they don’t know is that the costumes are cursed and make the wearer adopt the traits of the outfits. Buffy’s old-timey lady costume turns her into a shrinking violet. Willow’s ghost costume turns her into … a ghost.

It’s a great episode, the first of three set on Halloween that the series featured.

Random observations:

Xander’s guise as a soldier – and his instant depth of knowledge about the ways of a warrior – are retained, in a way, after the episode ends. His skills come in handy in later episodes.

The episode introduces not only costume shop/chaos worshipper Ethan Rayne, an old frenemy of Giles, but gives an early indication of Giles’ past as much more than a stuffy old watcher.

We once again see Oz, Willow’s future significant other, as the series continues to tease us with important characters still to come.

Today in Halloween: Who’s a cute little Frankenstein?

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Could. Not. Be. Any. Cuter.

Seriously, our latest dip into vintage Halloween costumes is probably the cutest picture yet.

The devil on the left is pretty doggone cute.

But the Frankenstein on the right? Wow.

Maybe it’s the cute grimace in the mask. Or the cheesy tunic.

But I personally think it’s the upraised hands, fingers curled in monster-ific fashion.

Awwww!

Bonus points if anybody can identify the costumes. I did Google image searches to see if the costumes were from Collegeville or Ben Cooper, big makers of kids costumes in the 1950s and beyond, and didn’t come across them.

Today in Halloween: Clowns and Indians?

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Here’s another of our looks back at old-timey Halloween costumes, pulled from the vast array somebody plunked down on the Internet.

Your guess is as good as mine – likely better – on a time frame for this snapshot. The boots on the kid in the middle are interesting and make me guess early first half of the 20th century.

As for the costumes?

The fringe on the kids on the outside makes me think they’re western getups, maybe Indian costumes.

And while I can’t quite figure out the mask on the kid in the middle, that outfit sure looks like one worn by a clown or jester.

More next time.

Why we should care about ‘Ant-Man’

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Disney announced today the Nov. 6, 2015 release of “Ant-Man,” directed by Edgar Wright and featuring the longtime Marvel Comics hero. No casting has yet been announced.

Why should we be excited about “Ant-Man?” He’s just a guy who shrinks, right?

Wrong. Here’s why we’re excited about “Ant-Man.”

Edgar Wright. This is the guy who directed cult classics like “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz.” And he loves Ant-Man. He’ll bring an offbeat approach to a somewhat offbeat hero.

He’s important. Ant-Man, also known as Henry Pym, was a founding member of the Avengers. He’s been there since the beginning – in the comics, at least. He’s linked to the Wasp, his girlfriend/wife Janet Van Dyne, who in the comics gave the team its name.

He might be edgy. If they choose to go that way, “Ant-Man” as a solo movie or member of “The Avengers” paves the way for some domestic drama. In some versions of the character, Pym has anger control issues and even abuses his wife. It’s a character point not unlike Tony Stark’s alcoholism. It might not make its way into the movies, but a lot of people will be wondering and speculating, and that creates buzz.

Ant-Man is not Aquaman. I love Aquaman as much as anybody, but he’s (unfairly) received a reputation as the worst member of the Justice League. And to the outside observer, Ant-Man seems just as limited. He shrinks. Hmm. But in reality, Henry Pym has a lot of cool capabilities – apparently the Ant-Man test footage screened this summer at conventions demonstrated this – and they’re not all based around shrinking. Pym has also, at various times, adopted other personnas including Giant-Man (Guess what? He not only shrinks!) and Yellowjacket (Goes with Wasp, get it?). Plus he’s a genius, not unlike Tony Stark and Bruce Banner. Getting Pym on the team will add a lot to the roster.

Most of all, Ant-Man’s existence in the Marvel movie universe paves the way for my favorite Avengers villain of all time, Ultron, an android created by Pym who becomes a recurring and deadly enemy for the supergroup. If the next “Avengers” movie – due out a few months before “Ant-Man” – revolves around Thanos – that guy glimpsed in the end credits of “The Avengers” – then Ultron would make a great bad guy for the third movie.

Excited yet?

Today in Halloween: Trick-or-treating trio

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Here’s another vintage trick-or-treating picture from the vast resources of the Interwebs.

What I like about this picture is that – just guessing here – it’s a snapshot of three brothers, trying out their spooky masks before heading out to trick or treat.

Two of the kids are in what look like elf masks and hats, while the oldest (tallest, anyway) has what might be a clown mask.

Look closely at the oldest boy. He’s missing part of his left arm. Makes you wonder what happened.

If he’s anything like one of my uncles, he lived to a ripe old age and enjoyed tormenting kids with that abbreviated appendage. To this day, I have vivid memories of my Uncle Oren, who was missing a hand, and how he would good-naturedly tease me by poking his stump into my belly. We would laugh and laugh, but it was a little unnerving.

‘Til next time.

‘The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror’ for 2012

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For a couple of decades, “The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror” was an annual ritual in my household. Even after we weren’t watching the show regularly, we would tune in each October (sometimes November, when Fox pre-empted the show for post-season baseball) to see the yearly collection of horror and sci-fi parody shorts.

So we watched the show this week. And yes, this is another of those “‘The Simpsons’ isn’t as funny as it used to be” entries.

A quick overview:

The pre-credits “cold open” of the show might have been the most consistent of the stories in the episode. Set in Mayan times, Homer is about to be sacrificed but Marge saves him, thus dooming the Earth to destruction in … 2012.

The next segment, about the creation of a black hole (“Can we call it that?” Homer asks in a stage whisper) that swallows most of Springfield and transports it to an alien planet where the aliens worship everything that’s worthless. Good premise, funny visuals, totally flat punchline.

A parody of the “Paranormal Activity” movies follows and ends with Homer on the receiving end of a demon-Homer-demon threesome. Ugh. The only good part of the segment? Timelapse video, taken overnight like the “Paranormal” movies, of Homer peeing. And peeing. And peeing.

And peeing.

The final segment has Bart traveling through time, ala “Back to the Future,” meeting his parents when they were young. There’s a nice callback to Artie Ziff, the rich young nerd/suitor of Marge.

What I miss about the annual “Treehouse of Horror” episode:

The gravestones. I loved the ironic and sarcastic tombstones that the “camera” drifted past as episodes opened.

Kang and Kodos. Everybody’s favorite aliens are glimpsed at one point. But I sure wanted  more.

The wrap-arounds and introductions. Remember how earlier episodes had wrap-around framing devices? And that introduction that had Marge taking the stage to parody the introduction to the original “Frankenstein?”

Is it too simple to say … the funny stuff?

On the TV: What I’m watching (and looking forward to)

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Thanks to a lot of work and only a little bit of time, I’m playing catch-up on fall TV shows.

There’s nothing at the moment that I’m looking forward to as much as Sunday’s return of “The Walking Dead.” Here’s hoping the third season of Rick, Daryl, Merle and the rest will be a great one.

Really, considering the machete hand that Merle is sporting, how can it be anything but cool?

In the meantime, here’s what I’ve been watching.

“The Mindy Project” features Mindy Kaling, late of “The Office,” in a sitcom she created and writes. Kaling plays a very different character from Kelly on “The Office.” In this case, she’s a physician who (sitcom cliche alert) is more proficient at work than in her personal life.

Kaling has a likable presence and the supporting cast is quite good. And here’s a bonus: The second episode was better than the pilot.

“Alphas,” in its second season on SyFy, is one of the best shows I’m watching now. This series about a group of mutants who work for the government has a nice, X-Men-type mythology – good mutants versus “evil” ones – an intriguing bunch of characters and a good cast.

“Alphas” is also casting to appeal to geeks, with recent appearances by Summer Glau of “Firefly” and Sean Astin of “Lord of the Rings.”

“Last Resort” continues to be my favorite new fall show. I’ve written about its first two episodes and I’m looking forward to the third.

“Raising Hope” has been on for a few seasons now but I’m always pleasantly surprised by how fun it is. It’s a silly, non-sequitur-filled show about a goofy, white trash family. If you liked “Scrubs,” you’ll probably like it.

Today in Halloween: One is the loneliest trick-or-treater

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I don’t think I ever went trick-or-treating by myself. Not that I was an in-demand Halloween night companion, but I pretty much always made the rounds with cousins and friends in town.

So there’s no snark from me about this solo trick-or-treater. Here’s hoping she (she rather than he? I’m thinking that’s a witch costume) joined up with a whole pack of trick-or-treaters at the end of her sidewalk.

And I’m hoping she has many happy Halloween memories to this day.

 

 

iPhoneorgraphy: More from the Halloween store

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It’s time for another look at fun stuff available this Halloween, courtesy of my iPhone.

This time I thought I’d mention some trends I’m seeing.

Political masks like the one above are a staple of Halloween dress-up, although never more so than in an election year.

I know 7-Eleven does  a straw poll each election year predicting (pretty accurately) the winner by how many straws representing which candidate are taken by customers. I’m not sure you could do this with masks, though, because the best-selling mask might not indicate support. Anyway, with a suit or – better yet – a dress shirt with rolled-up sleeves, symbolizing sympathy with the masses, these masks would make suitable costumes.

I was thinking of Halloween treats that have fallen in popularity recently and thought of popcorn balls. I see them for sale as trick-or-treating items sometimes but I’ve noticed them more this year than other years. Some kind of trend?

Did you watch “American Horror Story” on FX last season? That was a strange show, to say the least. It’s inspired the sale of black rubbery fetish suits.

I’ve seen a lot of big ol’ spiders in stores this year.

Big hairy ones.

And grisly heads on hooks appear to be a thing this year.

Yeesh. In case you need a two-pack.

And I don’t think this Gothic Minx costume represents any particular trend. I’m just posting it because my wife said she would punch me if I ever called her a “gothic minx.”