That is even more amazing than learning a double-amputee was hired to create the scene in John Carpenter’s The Thing where the gaping chest cavity rips off Copper’s arms. From a fun article about it:
In order to pull this off, special makeup effects designer Rob Bottin (known for his work on Robocop, Total Recall, Se7en, and Fight Club) found a man who had lost both of his arms below the elbow in an industrial accident. Bottin fit the man with two prosthetic forearms consisting of wax bones, rubber veins, and Jell-O. Then, for the wide-angle shot, he fit the man with a skin-like mask taken from a mold of Dysart’s face (à la Hannibal Lecter) and placed the ersatz arms into the chest cavity, where a set of mechanical jaws clamped down on them. As the actor pulled his arms away, the Jell-O arms severed below the elbows. The rest is practical effects history.
I’m ashamed of how much I enjoyed that show. And baffled by how much I enjoyed that show. Youth is no excuse in the face of something so atrociously bad.
Okay, I still think Hawk is pretty cool, but only because the actor who played him seemed like a cool guy. The idea of a spacefaring birdman who’s only birdlike quality is feathers on his head is…it’s so awful I can’t even finish the sentence.
Not to sound prudish but in those days I would have watched anything with spaceships and robots no matter who was in it.
Since you mention Ms. Gray, though…I can’t find it now but there was a documentary on YouTube about the making of the show. One of the producers was pretty clear about the need to “put in a little something for daddy” which didn’t exactly help me keep any fond memories.
not really, unless you liked it to begin with, like i did. but even i roll my eyes a lot. i knew that muffitt was a chimp back in the day – it was one of the things that was cool to 11-year-old me about it. it’s not like it was a secret back then – i remember articles about “how did they do that??”
to be fair to them, i don’t think this can be classified as abuse, either. i remember videos and articles showing the handlers and stuff, and they seemed to really care about the chimp.
An Austin Ambassador we called ‘The Ambastador’ due to its weird ignition timing gremlins, among sundry other BL horrors, and a Bedford Viceroy of 1960s vintage that bore the legend ‘udlings aches’ due to some of the letters being painted over by a waggish prior owner. The Viceroy was a much more tractable beast, although the beige velour seats and turbine wheels on the Ambastador were pretty sweet. The Viceroy had a bedroom and a nice Scandinavian log stove too, so overall it was the winner.
