Aucbvax.1612
fa.sf-lovers
utzoo!duke!mhtsa!eagle!ucbvax!JPM@MIT-AI
Wed Jun 10 20:37:49 1981
SF-LOVERS Digest V3 #138
SF-LOVERS AM Digest Tuesday, 2 Jun 1981 Volume 3 : Issue 138
Today's Topics:
SF Fandom - Awards, SF Books - Cyber-SF,
SF Radio - HHGttG & Star Wars & HitchHiker Guide Guide,
SF TV - Space: 1999 & The Champions,
SF Topics - Children's TV (Rocky and Bullwinkle and
Crusader Rabbit and Jay Ward Productions and
Super Chicken) & Physics Today (Moons of Jupiter)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 27 May 1981 1023-PDT
From: Wmartin at OFFICE-3 (Will Martin)
Subject: Awards
It's sad that the various awards for good SF, or children's books, or
whatever, have to nominally give an award to a weaker book in a series
in order to acknowledge the series itself. Does any book award scheme
even acknowledge the existence of any multi-book form, such as
trilogies, or open-ended series which all fit in some larger
structure? What sort of lobbying effort would it take to get such a
category added to the Hugo or Nebula awards? It would have to be a
break from the "annual" orientation such awards currently have, but it
would free them to consider an author's entire output, or any
selection from it they chose. I think that it would be a good thing to
have such a category.
Will Martin
------------------------------
Date: 27 May 1981 at 2122-CDT
From: hjjh at UTEXAS-11
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ "Magical" CY-DEVICES ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Originally, "magical" TYPEs were set up to characterize cy-devices
which either functioned in a fantasy environment, or whose operation
smacked more of magic than mechanics.
For the former there was Tic Toc of Oz. For the latter, we had odd
devices such as Clayton's cyborging Diadem, Trimble's City Machine
robot, and some very strange "computers" of Norton's (and often
Dickson's), Foster's Tar Aiym Krang, and on Chalker's Well World.
Our object was to have a way of indicating that these were somehow
different... that despite superficial similarities, Dickson's
psionically operated computer in TIME STORM just wasn't the same kind
of thingie as Hogan's in THE GENESIS MACHINE.
Well, it turns out that we were wrong to introduce this distinction as
a TYPE difference. TYPEs \are/ groupings by superficial similar-
ities. Tic Toc and C-3PO and R Daneel Ovilaw \are/ all humanoid
robots. The Tar Aiym Krang and Dickson's and Hogan's psionically
operated computers form a TYPE because of the similarity of their
operation.
So we've scrapped the "magical" TYPEs. The difference it represented
is now coded elsewhere in the database entry for the given cy-device.
(Tho TYPE is the most crucial characteristic, a full entry has a lot
more info than that. If anyone is interested, I can send him/her a
copy of the full range of data we are trying to collect for each cy-
device.)
------------------------------
Date: 1 Jun 1981 06:43:31-PDT
From: decvax!duke!unc!smb at Berkeley
Subject: Radio SF in the Research Triangle Park area
Starting Sunday, June 7, WUNC-FM (91.5) will rebroadcast all of "The
Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and "Star Wars." "Hitch-hiker's"
will be on at 6:00 PM Sundays (and 11:00 pm Tuesdays, I think); "Star
Wars" at 6:30 pm Sundays and 11:00 pm Thursdays.
------------------------------
Date: 1 Jun 1981 10:46:02-EDT
From: cjh at CCA-UNIX (Chip Hitchcock)
Subject: SPACE: 1999
I'm a bit surprised at this being included in Anderson's
highly-praised work without even a caveat. I could only sit through a
couple of shows (usually when the TV was background to something else)
but don't recall (even allowing for the effect of seeing them on video
rather than in a theater) any particularly daring or innovative
effects. It was widely held that the largest expense on that show was
Barbara Bain's Novocain(r) supply so her face could stay as wooden as
that of Anderson's marionettes. The show's ultimate putdown was one
of Bob Chartrand's better puns: "SPACE: 1999--marked down from 2001".
------------------------------
Date: 1 June 1981 14:34 edt
From: JRuggiero.PDO at MIT-Multics
Subject: Re: SF-LOVERS Digest V3 #136
Hello there, this is in response to an inquiry about the hitch-hikers'
guide to the galaxy. There are currently 12 episodes in the guide. I
have taped them all. the series is broken into sets of six episodes so
if you hear episode 6 it will say that it is the last episode. For
further idenification, episode 6 is the one where everyone is eaten by
the Hagunenon admiral while he has evolved into a carbon copy of the
Ravenous Bugblattar Beast of Traal. For more info send me mail.
-john
------------------------------
Date: 1 Jun 1981 06:46:09-PDT
From: decvax!duke!unc!tyg at Berkeley
Subject: Next fall's Sat. TV and comix
>From the latest issue of the Comic Reader: Rocky and Bullwinkle will
be rerun on NBC. New episodes of Space Ghost. And a new show,
Superhero High, 'bout a HS for guess who. The only one mentioned was
Captain California, a surfer type with a wave that always follows him
around.
As for comix, yes i too wasted my youth, adolescence, and my current
young adulthood on them. I learned to read from them, and even won
the trivia contest at the only comicon i ever attended (do YOU know
what Phlon is? No, not Mexican egg custard, its Chemical King's home
planet). I doubt that Aquaboy and Aquaman are related, especially
since back around 66-67 Aquaman had his own Sat. show.
Personal inquiry: i'll be working in Waltham this summer. Would some
nice MIT person let me read news over there? Pretty please?
tom galloway @ unc
------------------------------
Date: 1 Jun 1981 8:22:48 EDT (Monday)
From: Ben Littauer <LITTAUER AT BBN-NOC>
Subject: rocky and bullwinkle
If Boris Badinoff and Natasha are from Pottsylvania, where (and what)
is Rongivia. There is a bar in upstate NY called the Rongovian
Embassy, and I felt sure it was named for a country in Rocky and his
Friends. Anybody remember? [By the way, the Rongo has great mexican
food and a large beer menu...]
Ben
------------------------------
Date: 1 June 1981 12:35 edt
From: JSLove at MIT-Multics (J. Spencer Love)
Subject: Crusader Rabbit and Title Query
Sender: JSLove.PDO at MIT-Multics
I remember Crusader Rabbit. I think that I became aware of it at
about age 5 (circa 1861), although it could be as much as two years
later. I lived at that time in the NYC broadcast area, and it was on
very early in the morning, perhaps on Saturday.
My memories of the show are fond, although I don't remember much
detail and haven't seen it in at least 18 years. The show was broken
up into cartoon-length segments, and several different series were
interleaved. I particularly remember one about a skunk named Odie,
but there were others. Does anyone know when or where these might be
seen? Even if I don't like them anymore (a distinct possibility), I
would like to see them again for curiousity's sake.
I also remember another show, in the late sixties, probably of English
make, which was about three secret agents who crash landed in the
Himalayas (or someplace like that) and were nursed back to health by
monks (or aliens pretending to be monks) and given mysterious powers
that weren't entirely dependable but which included telepathy and
precognition, as well as some amazing physical abilities. I have
forgotten almost everything about it; I think it was called The
Champions, and it had some really far-out (read, great) theme music
which I would very much like to get a tape of or music to. Does
anyone remember enough to identify the music? Other details would be
appreciated. If you reply directly to JSL at MIT-Multics I will
digestify the replies and submit them, eliminating duplication.
[ The show in question was called "The Champions" (see the next two
messages for more about this show). If anyone can identify the
music for this show, then please send your replies directly to
JSL at MIT-Multics, not SF-LOVERS. -- Jim ]
------------------------------
Date: 1 Jun 1981 11:55 PDT
From: Kolling at PARC-MAXC
Subject: The Protectors/Champions
Could "The Protectors" be the show I remember as "The Champions"?
Three agents of some British government organization acquired various
super powers (telepathy plus?) when their plane crashed in the
Himalayas(?) and some remote tribe of advanced beings operated on them
to save their lives. The leads were two men and a women; one of the
men was American (Stuart Damon or something?)
Karen
------------------------------
Date: 1 Jun 1981 2035-PDT (Monday)
From: Lauren at UCLA-SECURITY (Lauren Weinstein)
Subject: The Protectors/Champions
No -- There is no relationship between the two shows. The characters
in "The Protectors" were quite "normal": no super powers, no remote
tribes helping them.
--Lauren--
------------------------------
Date: 1 Jun 1981 0838-PDT (Monday)
From: Mike at UCLA-SECURITY (Michael Urban)
Subject: Jay Ward etc.
Where to begin? First of all, back in the 50's, Crusader Rabbit
and Ragland P. Tiger lived in Galahad Glen and went out to foil the
villains Dudley Nightshade and Bilious Green. Crusader Rabbit was a
serial, and each episode ended with a promise of the next episode by
title, usually a bad pun. If the format sounds like Rocky and
Bullwinkle, it's probably because Jay Ward created Crusader Rabbit.
Unfortunately, unlike his later creations, he didn't retain his rights
on the characters. I don't know any more details than that. I can
remember quite a few things about the show, since it aired not too
long ago in the LA area.
Recently, on the local Los Angeles program, "Two on the Town", a
couple of reporters visited with June Foray Donovan, who did the
voices of Rocky and Natasha and a host of others (as they say). It
seems her CB club (she's a CBer) has started a push to get R&B
revived. No more details were given. They also interviewed William
Conrad ("Cannon", "Nero Wolfe") who you will no doubt recall was the
Narrator for Rocky and Bullwinkle. He read a few lines of narration,
then confessed that he couldn't maintain the high pitch for long
nowadays. He agreed that R&B was one of the best things he'd ever
done. Then there was a segment filmed at the Dudley Do Right
Emporioum on Sunset, run by Jay Ward's wife, I believe. Jay Ward
himself is VERY shy and won't talk to reporters. Not much new
information in that segment. But Ward has all the merchandising
rights to his post-Crusader Rabbit creations.
Nobody has mentioned Hoppity Hooper and Uncle Waldo, a R&B clone
also from Ward and Company. Not as good, but certainly in the same
vein.
Evidently, the only new stuff Jay Ward is doing nowadays seems to
be Captain Crunch commercials. A pity. Television NEEDS rocky and
Bullwinkle.
The three George-of-the-Jungle segments air on Sunday Mornings in
LA mixed in with old Popeye cartoons on Tom Hatten's "Popeye and
Friends", I believe. My information is a couple of months old,
though. And yes, old-time LA TV watchers, that's the SAME Tom Hatten.
When you find yourself in danger
When you're threatened by a stranger
And it looks like you will take a lickin'
(cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck)
There is someone waiting who
Will hurry up and rescue you:
Ca-a-a-a-all for SUper CHicken
Fred, if you're afraid we'll have to overlook it;
Besides you knew the job was dangerous when you took it.
He will drink his super sauce
and throw the bad guys for a loss
and he will bring them in alive and kickin'
(cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck)
There is one thing you should learn
When there is no one else to turn
to, Ca-a-a-a-ll for Super chicken
(cluck cluck cluck cluck)
Ca-a-a-a-all for super chicken
(b-GAK!)
Mike
------------------------------
Date: 1 June 1981 12:37-EDT
From: "Kenneth W. Haase, Jr." <KWH AT MIT-AI>
Subject: Jupiter or the Asteroids
There is no problem with getting a mining base on Io, in fact, it may
very well be easier and more profitable than putting one out in the
asteroids. The delta-vee and fuel required to reach a moon of Jupiter
is very close to that required to reach a specific asteroid. It might
even be less- you have to use energy to be "captured" by the asteroid
or by Jupiter, and it takes a LOT less to get caught by Jupiter (the
problem may be staying away!) So it may actually be cheaper in terms
of fuel and energy to go to Io than to, say, Ceres.
Further, if you want to go to another asteroid, it takes a truly
incredible amount of energy, while jumping from Jovian moon to Jovian
moon is cheap in terms of energy. There are very large delta-vees for
capture to capture trajectories.
We also know where there are water and other materials in the Jovian
system, so se don't have to search too much - and when we do search it
will be a lot cheaper than a similar search of asteroids.
And finally, there is a REALLY great view!
A good portion of these arguments came from an article of POURNE's
[ Dr. Jerry E. Pournelle -- Jim ], which is anthologized in A STEP
FARTHER OUT.
See you on the ski slopes of Encaladeus,
Ken Haase
------------------------------
Date: 1 Jun 1981 10:59:16-EDT
From: cjh at CCA-UNIX (Chip Hitchcock)
Subject: mining on Io
As an acquaintance of the person who deduced Io's structure and
dynamics (and got a couple of publications in SCIENCE for it) I would
agree with all of REDFORD's points about the untenantability of Io.
HOWEVER, the end of the msg again forgets ?'s point that we can't
expect continuous linear advances over the course of history. In
particular, he makes a false analogy with mining in Colorado. After
all<ESM>, Colorado today is practically civilized (with the exception
of Coors)---they're even going to hold a World SF convention there
this summer!<LSM> I would argue that there are a couple of believable
analogies between \\1880's// Colorado and Io-as-it-could-be: both are
a substantial amount of travel time removed from what is called
civilization, both are populated mostly by people you wouldn't want in
your house, and people without skins and personalities of leather
leave both to go "back East" in search of smoother life.
OUTLANDS is \\precisely// the sort of story that H. L. Gold said in
the first issue of GALAXY that he would never publish, but that
doesn't make this vision of the future completely illegitimate.
Consider Bester's portrayal of 2450 in THE STARS MY DESTINATION; this
is a reasonable extrapolation of the results of a specific innovation,
even though much of the resulting society strikes us as a reversion to
some of the more unpleasant attributes of previous centuries.
------------------------------
End of SF-LOVERS Digest
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