Originally published at: Dr. Strange 1978 | Boing Boing
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Sorry if I’m missing a joke, but this was a real thing.
The youtube channel just reposts clips from 70s tv
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Jessica Walters! They should have retconned this into her role in Archer. “Yes, I spent a good part of the 70’s being possessed by Morgana Le Fey. At least I missed disco.”
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Yes, believe it or not Marvel adaptations existed before Disney. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr.Strange(1978_film)
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To be fair, I was busy watching Roots (which aired at the same time).
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I just don’t know what isn’t real anymore!
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“It’s just the Wand of Watoomb, Stephen. What could it cost, ten dollars?”
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Oh yes, it was indeed a real special. Spinning out of the same vein as the (terrible) Spider-man television show of the same time period, and the (less-terrible) Hulk series, and the (even MORE terrible) Captain America specials. Marvel was trying hard to get established on TV, but mostly swung and missed except for Hulk.
I may try and watch this someday. I’m surprised 11 year old me missed it at the time, but we only had one TV and my family was probably watching something else.
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My memory of this era is a reason why I appreciate today’s MCU. I remember watching the very very bad Captain America TV movie, that had more to do with Evel Knievel than CA. They were very forgettable.
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Indeed. They were definitely trying to hook into that Evil Knievel love of the time period.
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I remember staying up late one night as a teenager and watching this in rerun. It was as bad as it appears, even by 70s standards. Not as bad as Captain America and his amazing wobbly plexiglass shield (that was horrible), but pretty bad.
I do remember in the pilot, he got owned pretty hard because he didn’t know the rules. As I remember, he was given a spell, “By the hand of [sinister sounding name], begone!” to banish evil forces. Later his love interest is captured by said evil forces, he ends up trying it. Baddie says something snarky like, “well if you insist!” and starts dragging her off to the Evil Shadow Realm of Evil™. “WAIT! By the hand of [whatever that name was], let her go!” “Wow, you really are new at this, aren’t you?”
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I watched it back in the day, just a couple of years before I became a true Marvel Zombie, and remembered it being entertaining. A friend loaned me a bootleg copy of it a few years ago, so I could see if it still held up to my teenage memories. For the times, it’s surprisingly good and relatively faithful to the source material, especially compared to the other Marvel TV movies and shows at that time. I’d love to see a restored version of it on Disney+ (assuming they have the rights).
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The 1970s era and aesthetics could be an interesting alternate-universe exploration for Disney too. : )
I’d love to see low-budget 1970s Marvel superhero characters explored like a series of 70s supernatural / action flicks.
Ghost Rider as an actual urban legend/wandering badass biker. The Swamp Thing. John Carter of Mars redone with that 70s science fantasy flair.
All with a contemporary soundtrack of deep cuts from Black Sabbath, James Brown, P-Funk, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and maybe for Dr. Strange a lot of Mahavishnu Orchestra.
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Kitaro, man. Totally Kitaro.
It’s… uh… an acquired taste.
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I still hold out hope for a Quentin Tarantino “Power Man/Iron Fist” movie, set in the early 1970s. Sweet Christmas!
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I could see it being sort of fun if they had crossovers with Wandavision.
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The less said about the 70’s Spiderman TV series and Captain America starring MST3K stalwart Reb Brown, the better. Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno’s Incredible Hulk was the most successful of the bunch.
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Yeah, I’d watch that.
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I was 6 at the time. Definitely would not have seen/remembered it. But I do remember seeing the Star Wars Holiday Special that year. Its amazing what got burned into my adolescent psyche.
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