It is with great sorrow that I report the death of announcer and voice actor Dick Tufeld, best known to a generation of genre fans as the voice of the Robot on the wonderfully campy ‘60s TV series Lost in Space. He was 85.
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Tufeld, who suffered from heart disease and had been in failing health since sustaining a fall last year, passed away at home while watching the NFL playoffs on January 22.
Richard Norton Tufeld was born December 11, 1926, in Los Angeles, California. He began his career as the announcer for the ABC radio programs The Amazing Mr. Malone and Falstaff’s Fables before landing a gig as announcer for the sci-fi radio serial Space Patrol in 1952.
Tufeld left radio for television news in October 1955, but then transitioned to a role as announcer for Disney TV series such as Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color and Zorro, which starred future Lost in Space co-star Guy Williams.
Soon after this, he began doing voiceover work on producer Irwin Allen’s series The Time Tunnel and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. But the Allen series Tufeld will always be remembered for is Lost in Space.
Though actor Bob May inhabited the costume of the Class M-3, Model B9, General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Control Robot (nicknamed “Robot”), Tufeld’s nuanced voice work, which garnered laughs as easily as it did empathy, gave Robot a soul and made him as real as any of the show’s flesh-and-blood actors. Many of Tufeld’s lines, such as “Danger, Will Robinson!” and “That does not compute,” entered and have remained in the pop-culture lexicon since the show’s initial 1965 – 1968 run.
In his long and varied career, Tufeld also did voice work for local TV and radio, commercials and several animated series, including The Fantastic Four, Thundarr the Barbarian, and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. He went on to reprise his role as Robot in two episodes of The Simpsons as well as the 1998 big-screen version of Lost in Space.
Tufeld lost his wife of 56 years, Adrienne, in 2004. He is survived by sons Bruce and Craig, daughters Lynn and Melissa, six grandchildren and a brother.
If you’d like to stroll down memory lane, head over to Hulu and enjoy Tufeld’s work on Lost in Space. He really was one of the best things about the show.
Just when it appeared The Crow would never again take flight, the wind has shifted and the remake of the 1994 cult favorite is now preparing to fly.
After several personnel shakeups and various legal difficulties, The Crow is nearly ready to take wing. With F. Javier Gutierrez signing to direct a script by Jesse Wigutow, almost all the pieces are in place. All that’s missing is, well, the Crow.
If ever a franchise seemed cursed, it’s this one. We all remember the sad circumstances surrounding the production of the original film, during which actor Brandon Lee died tragically after being shot with a faulty prop gun. This heartbreaking misfortune saw The Crow followed by several substandard sequels, which, in Hollywood is almost a fate worse than death.
Miraculously, the powers that be (namely, production house Relativity Media) decided to resurrect The Crow. But as the reboot started to get its wings last year, the production became mired in lawsuits with The Weinstein Company, which claimed it held exclusive distribution rights to the series. Of course, Relativity Media countersued and the project ground to a halt. Finally, that dispute was settled “amicably out of court” (read: someone got paid) and the launching pad appeared clear.
Then, The Crow had its wings clipped once again due to problems with actors, writers and directors. For a while, it looked like Bradley Cooper would star in a version written by Alex Tse (Watchmen) and directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later). But Cooper left to explore darker pastures, which stopped the flick again.
Now, with a director and screenwriter in place, all that’s needed is a leading man. It’s rumored that Ryan Gosling, Channing Tatum and Mark Wahlberg are in talks for the role and I’m sure they’d be fine (well, maybe not Wahlberg), though I think Gosling would be best. But while Gosling’s name is avian in nature, The Crow seems a little out of his wheelhouse.
Ooh, maybe it’s time for a game of speculative casting! C’mon, let’s see if we can help the producers out. I know you have opinions. Who do you think should play the Crow?
It’s time once again for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to distribute its meaningless awards for what are highly subjective cinematic efforts. This is the 84th time the Oscars have been handed out and it feels like I’ve been around for most of them, which might explain at least part of the awards season ambivalence I’m currently experiencing.
When I came on staff last year over at Planet Fury, I decided Planet Fury (then FanGirlTastic) really needed to cover Hollywood’s awards season. We are an entertainment site, I reasoned, so of course we must report on the motor that keeps the Tinseltown machine moving. (Well, the motor that isn’t money.)
So, cover awards season I did. I covered the Golden Globes, the NY Film Critics’ Circle Awards, the Screen Actors Guild Awards, the American Film Institute Awards and a few others I now believe were probably invented by publicists. But I digress. My point is, by the time we finally made it around to the Academy Awards (the only awards that truly matter), I and everyone else in the Planet Fury offices were awarded out.
This year, I resolved to break up with awards season. It’s sad, but we are seeking different things from a relationship. All awards season wants is to pat itself on the back and go on endlessly about how important it is and how it’s still relevant in the digital age despite a splintering, disinterested audience. But all I want is to get lost in the movie magic it trades upon. What once was infatuation is now merely boredom. Hopefully, we’ll meet again someday and reminisce about the good times we had. Though, you know, not too soon.
Oh, who am I fooling. I can’t leave awards season behind completely. I’m always going to be a sucker for the Oscars. They are indeed a sentimental favorite. I’ve been watching them since I was a kid, and I’ll keep watching them until I die (this year, on Feb. 26 at 7/6c — not my death; the Oscar broadcast). So I might as well write about them.
But this year, there will be no in-depth examination through deathless prose, no parsing and positing on the winners and losers of all the various and sundry categories no one cares about. Nope, not this time. All you get is a list of the main contenders. (For a complete list, go HERE.) And I’m not even going to put the film titles in italics per Slammed & Damned style guidelines. Take that, awards season!
Best Picture “The Artist”
“The Descendants”
“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”
“The Help”
“Hugo”
“Midnight in Paris”
“Moneyball”
“The Tree of Life”
“War Horse”
Best Actor Demian Bichir, “A Better Life”
George Clooney, “The Descendants”
Jean Dujarin, “The Artist”
Gary Oldman, “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
Brad Pitt, “Moneyball”
Best Actress Glenn Close, “Albert Nobbs”
Viola Davis, “The Help”
Rooney Mara, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
Meryl Streep, “The Iron Lady”
Michelle Williams, “My Week with Marilyn”
Best Supporting Actor Kenneth Branagh, “My Week with Marilyn”
Jonah Hill, “Moneyball”
Nick Nolte, “Warrior”
Christopher Plummer, “Beginners”
Max von Sydow, “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”
Best Supporting Actress Berenice Bejo, “The Artist”
Jessica Chastain, “The Help”
Melissa McCarthy, “Bridesmaids”
Janet McTeer, “Albert Nobbs”
Octavia Spencer, “The Help”
Best Directing
Michel Hazanavicius, “The Artist”
Alexander Payne, “The Descendants”
Martin Scorsese, “Hugo”
Woody Allen, “Midnight in Paris”
Terrence Malick, “The Tree of Life”
Best Adapted Screenplay
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, “The Descendants”
John Logan, “Hugo”
George Clooney, Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon, “The Ides of March”
Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin and Stan Chervin, “Moneyball”
Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan, ”Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
Best Original Screenplay
Michel Hazanavicius, “The Artist”
Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig, “Bridesmaids”
J. C. Chandor, “Margin Call”
Woody Allen, “Midnight in Paris”
Asghar Farhadi, “A Separation”
Despite the title’s claim to the contrary, it wasn’t The Last Exorcism after all.
That’s right, a sequel to the 2010 found-footage hit with the “what the fuck” ending starts filming next month in New Orleans. There’s no word on the official title yet, but I hope against hope they call it Probably Not the Last Exorcism Either.
The original film starred Ashley Bell as Nell, a young girl who either was or was not possessed by a demon named Abalam. But whether or not she actually was possessed, Nell is definitely one of the most limber young ladies to ever hit the screen in a PG-13 movie — in several scenes, Nell appears to have a pretzel as a stunt double. Anyway, Bell is returning as Nell in an R-rated story set to pick up three months after the shocking and polarizing end of the first flick.
Ed Gass-Donnelly will direct a script by Damien Chazelle, but plot details are being kept quiet. Producer Eli Roth told Deadline he’s “very, very excited to continue to this story. Obviously with the title of the first one we had not planned on a sequel, but we love the story and subject matter and had what we feel is an inspired idea to continue it . . . we want to go deeper and darker this time . . . we want to go R-rated and show the true horror of what this subject matter offers. The biggest creative challenge will be coming up with the right title!”
Hear that? Roth thinks the biggest creative challenge involves the title. Personally, I’d worry a tad more about coming up with an ending that doesn’t kill all the goodwill earned during the film’s previous 85 minutes, as happened in the first flick. Or, hey, how about worrying about contriving a halfway decent plot for a movie that really, really doesn’t need a sequel. But, of course there’s going to be a sequel — the first one cost $1.8 million and grossed $67.7 million!
Someone is surely possessed, but it’s not by a demon. The evil spirit of avarice has taken root. And when that happens, there’s not a priest alive that can drive it out.
Filmmaker Ti West has taken some hits over the years. But he’s enjoying a career surge at the moment, and he seems to be making the most of it.
Following the February 3 release of The Innkeepers and a trip to Sundance behind the multi-director horror collection V/H/S, West is set to shoot a psychological thriller called The Side Effect, starring the lovely Liv Tyler.
West hit big back in 2009 with The House of the Devil, a retro-style horror flick that divided critics somewhat with its slow pace, but remains one of my favorite genre pieces from the past few years. He followed that with Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever, a film he took as a work-for hire gig.
Sadly, the movie West made was not the movie the producers wanted, so they wrested control of the film and severely re-edited it. I’m sure West’s film was an atmospheric, measured exercise in horror, which probably didn’t have any of the cheap jump scares or gratuitous nudity the producers likely demanded. (My only question: Did the producers even bother watching The House of the Devil before hiring West?) West has since disowned Cabin Fever 2.
Following that debacle, West moved on to The Innkeepers, a haunted house flick that looks fantastic, after which comes V/H/S, a found-footage anthology that finds directors such as West, Adam Wingard (You’re Next) and Glenn McQuaid (I Sell the Dead) each contributing a segment.
Then, after all of that, West will film The Side Effect, which, as a thriller starring a major actress, is something slightly new for the indie horror-meister.
“Although [The Side Effect] is still somewhat of a horror film,” West told Deadline, “it is much more psychological than any of my previous efforts. It was essential that I find an actress who could portray a wide range of emotion and always earn the audience’s sympathy no matter what the situation. As soon as I sat down with Liv, it was obvious she was the one.”
The film’s plot sounds like it provides West the opportunity to do what he does best: slowly ramp up the tension until you feel like you’re going to snap like a rubber band. In The Side Effect, Tyler will play a woman who spends several months alone in space as a test subject for a pharmaceutical firm. Things get complicated when she mysteriously becomes pregnant while marooned off-planet.
I hope West can maintain this level of activity for the foreseeable future and keep making the films he wants to make. He’s one on the most promising voices horror has at the moment. Let’s hope the bastards don’t grind him down.
There’s a new action movie that’s getting a lot of attention on the festival circuit. It’s called The Raid, and it’s something of a cross-cultural mutt.
Made by Welshman Gareth Evans and starring Indonesian Pencak Silat master Iko Uwais, the martial arts action of The Raid centers on an elite SWAT team ordered to raid a derelict Indonesian apartment building that’s home to Jakarta’s most notorious crime boss. Let the fists of fury fly.
The Raid premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it garnered critical acclaim and won the Moonlight Madness Award, beating out You’re Next by hot horror wunderkind Adam Wingard. Not satisfied with that triumph, Evans’ marauding movie is now planning an attack on U.S. soil.
For its first foray into American territory, The Raid has chosen as its target the Sundance Film Festival, where it will play out of competition as part of the Spotlight program. Sony has already picked up the flick’s North American distribution rights and will open it in the U.S. on March 23.
Of course, since The Raid is an attention-getting foreign film in a language that’s not English, there’s a plan to shoot a U.S. remake with a different director and cast. Were I a cynical man, I’d predict a travesty to result.
But until that happens, you still have a chance to check out The Raid in its unadulterated stylish ass-kicking Indonesian glory — the way the god of your choice meant it to be seen. Here’s a little taste to put you in the mood.
If you follow me over at Planet Fury, you might remember that Powers, the comic book by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming, was being adapted into a television pilot for FX, the basic cable network that specializes in edgy original programming. Well, the project has hit a few snags recently.
Last November, it was announced that FX was not happy with the pilot and had decided to retool and reshoot it. At that time, Bendis was pretty upbeat about the situation, saying, “[That FX is] spending more [money] on Powers is good. They did the same to the Sons of Anarchy pilot. FX sees pilots [differently] than [regular broadcast] networks . . . The pilot was crazy expensive and very lovely and shows incredible potential for a long series . . . The reshoots are planned for January and are all about tone and clarity. I am very proud of the pilot, as is [Oeming].”
The comic is a professed favorite of FX president/general manager John Landgraf, so Bendis had good reason to be optimistic. But now, Landgraf seems to be cooling a bit.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, during the recent Television Critics Association winter tour, Landgraf announced the future of the pilot is in question.
“We didn’t pick the pilot of Powers up,” said Landgraf. “We went back and Chick Eglee, who had written it, did a fairly substantial rewrite that would require pretty extensive reshoots of the pilot. Right now we’re in the process of deciding whether to pull the trigger on the reshoot.”
Though I’m a major fan of Powers and would love to see it onscreen, I’ve always thought it would be a tricky proposition to adapt it to another medium. The book, a superhero police procedural in the vein of NYPD Blue, has a particular tone that would be hard to translate effectively, and Landgraf seems to agree.
“This is as difficult an adaptation as I’ve ever worked on,” Landgraf said. “Difficult adaptations interest me, but this is a really hard one. When you think about a 10 o’clock drama — a Sopranos-esque drama or any serious drama — there’s never been a feature film or TV series that’s taken the superhero genre into that type of tonality; it’s never been done and it’s just really a struggle.
“But until Game of Thrones,” Landgraf continued, “I don’t think anybody had ever taken the fantasy genre into a 10 o’clock drama territory either. I have enormous respect for HBO, and for David Benioff and everybody who was involved in that show, because they managed to pull it off.So, it can be done, it’s just proving really difficult.”
Despite this news, Bendis remains optimistic, recently writing on Twitter, “Still in limbo is not the end of the world. Never pity a guy with a TV deal. Lots of smart people working on it right now. Stay tuned.”
I hope the powers that be can make it work. There’s a lot of talent involved in this project. The cast includes Jason Patric, Lucy Punch, Titus Welliver, Charles S. Dutton and Carly Foulkes, the cute new T-Mobile girl. On board as executive producer and writer is the aforementioned Charles H. “Chick” Eglee, a veteran writer/producer who previously worked on The Shield, Dexter and The Walking Dead, where he helped turn a comic that’s not nearly as awesome as Powers into must-see TV.
Final decisions will be made in a couple of months, so cross your fingers. If Eglee can make zombies work as good television, surely he can do the same with superheroes. Let’s hope Landgraf agrees.
People really love slasher flicks. They never seem to go out of style and probably never will. The reason for this is simple: Slasher movies are stripped-down formula filmmaking, and when they’re done right, they’re extremely effective. But when they’re not done right, well, you know.
Down the Road, writer/director Jason Christopher’s recent entry in the slasher subgenre, is just such an exercise in stripped-down formula filmmaking. And though Christopher’s film gets a lot right, it never quite overcomes what it gets wrong.
Christopher puts all the pieces in place and begins solidly by developing a believable new mythology, something not enough of these movies bother to do. Years ago, a young girl was killed by a drunk driver. Soon after, her father disappeared. It’s now whispered that he is holed up in the woods, where, using a variety of retro implements that are charming in their low-tech minimalism, he brutally kills any carousing teenagers who happen by.
Cut to a group of carousing teenagers making plans to go into these very woods despite the fact they know this story. After they arrive, set up sex tents and gather around the campfire for beer and the tale of the menacing low-tech killer…well, I don’t have to tell you what happens.
Almost everything that happens in Down the Road is totally predictable. And what isn’t totally predictable, and therefore interesting, is undercut in some way: the group of teens is made up of all the usual types (nice girl, nice guy, dumb jock, party girl, troubled girl), but the one character that is somewhat original (a guy who’s a space case) is dispatched in fairly short order; a lot of time is spent setting up the promising plot point of the troubled girl’s troubles, but it never pays off; the killer gets his expository scene where he explains why he kills, which would be fine if we didn’t already know why — in fact, it would still be fine if the scene didn’t take so long and stop the movie in its tracks.
All these issues relate to Christopher’s script, which was mentored by Victor Miller, writer of the first installment of the Friday the 13th franchise. This might have been something of a mixed blessing. Although it’s quite an accomplishment for a young moviemaker to have his screenplay shepherded by the creator of one of the most successful horror flicks ever made, no one is every going to accuse Friday the 13th of being a well-written film. While it’s clear that Christopher’s script would’ve benefitted from another couple of drafts (actually, most would), remember that film is a visual medium, and it seems that area is where Christopher’s strengths lie.
Christopher’s screenplay might be weak, but his visual storytelling is top-notch. The camera always finds the interesting angle and his shots are blocked, framed and composed well. The film’s pacing stutters occasionally, but Christopher is a skilled editor, crafting many effective moments full of tension and dread. Sadly, these are periodically undermined by an overblown score that demands when it need only suggest.
He’s also good with his actors. Christopher gets a decent work from all, but the best of the group are Jen Dance as the troubled girl, Chelsey Garner as the nice girl, Chris Ready as the space case and Brian Gallagher as the menacing low-tech killer. The rest of the cast tends to fade into a big, attractive blur.
Despite its narrative problems, Down the Road is certainly not a bad little flick. Though well-crafted, it just never manages to find solid footing. Christopher possesses a fine visual sense and a solid grasp of filmmaking technique, but his writing skills aren’t as developed. The end result is a film that never manages to rise above the pack and distinguish itself in an already overcrowded field of ‘80s-influenced slasher flicks.
Being Human, one of Syfy’s strongest original programs, returns tonight with a season of 13 new episodes that find roommates Sally, Aidan and Josh taking a walk on the dark side, and liking it.
Based on a popular British series, Being Human(Mondays, 9/8 p.m. CST) is the story of a ghost, a vampire and a werewolf who are wrestling with what it is to be a monster in the real world. Of course, their monstrousness is actually a metaphor for the plight of The Outsider, something we all can relate to.
In season one, our heroes were dealing with the horrors of their past while also trying desperately to maintain their humanity. But based on a question-and-answer session with the show’s cast, the gloves are off and the roommates are giving in to their appetites in a new season that could easily be subtitled “Monsters Behaving Badly.”
Meghan Rath, Sam Witwer and Sam Huntington (ghost Sally, vampire Aidan and werewolf Josh, respectively) were in fine form during the press conference last week. Jokes of questionable taste flew fast and furious as the trio talked to journalists about all things Being Human.
After the session was over, one thing was obvious: Everyone involved is thrilled to return. “I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we were all really, really excited to get back,” Huntington said.
Witwer concurred, saying while season one was tiring, this year felt easier. “There was something about having a successful season one behind us and knowing the characters and having that momentum that was really positive this year.”
“Scriptwise,” Rath said, “it was a lot easier to just fall back into it this year because there was no establishing who our characters were and what our circumstances were; we just jumped right into it.”
But it’s always smoother sailing when you have a hit on your hands. Last season, Being Human averaged almost 2 million viewers per episode, making it Syfy’s most successful new series in years.
Part of that success was the surprising fact that the show’s audience was 53% female, making Being Human the network’s strongest female draw ever — and a distinct oddity in the man’s world of genre programming.
The show’s storylines might have something to do with that feminine appeal. While Being Human is definitely a horror series, the focus is on character. Sure, there is plenty of gore and sex, with an inordinate number of hunky actors in various states of undress. But the larger themes deal with strong, relatable emotions.
Rath believes the show’s popularity is due to its particular approach. “I think, for me, it’s important to keep in mind that these are real people and not to get sucked into the supernatural element of the whole thing,” Rath said. “What makes the show different is that we are trying to play these as regular people.”
But season two is shaking things up by placing these “regular people” into situations that are anything but ordinary.
“[The coming season is] extremely different,” Witwer revealed. “If season one was about putting these people who are at risk into a safe environment, well season two is all ‘what is that risk about?’ And basically what it means is, these people are in trouble and we’re going to see a lot of that trouble . . . things get a little bit darker this year.”
Huntington continued the thought. “This season, I’ve got to say I was shocked at some of the stuff that we shot. It really is very, very dark emotionally and you can’t really believe the characters are doing what they’re doing at certain times.”
It would be hard to go much darker than last season. I pointed out that in season one of Being Human, the producers broke the ultimate taboo by killing a child, which caused Witwer to joke, “Syfy kills a lot of children, from back in the Battlestar Galactica days to even now — Syfy 17, Children 3. The score doesn’t lie.”
At this, Witwer’s castmates broke into laughter and Huntington quickly chimed in, “At least the children won three of them, you know what I mean?”
And that’s the kind of offbeat interplay and chemistry that keeps me coming back to Being Human week after week. Sure, I love horror and gore as much as, and maybe more than, the next guy. But a show can survive on shock for only so long. The heart of Being Human is the relationship of the three main characters. And television is all about relationships.
If a series can put characters you enjoy into situations that compel, there’s a good chance it will be around for a while. So far, the producers of Being Human have done just that. Tonight, we’ll see if they can continue to entertain even as the gloves come off. But I think we can all agree, that’s when the real fun usually starts.
Movies like The Big Bad frustrate me. It’s clear there’s talent involved, but in service of what? The filmmakers obviously had some cool ideas, but they’ve been stitched together in such a way that we’re not provided an emotional context, and by the time we are provided one, it’s too late.
Think about it like this: A talented seamstress delivers to you a nicely made winter coat, but with no buttons. The coat is okay and all but, man, it really needs some buttons.
As a werewolf riff on “Little Red Riding Hood,” The Big Bad does have a plot, but the tale is told in what is essentially a series of three setpieces that seem more concerned with style than story. I guess these sections could be described as acts, or chapters, but they don’t actually have the structure for that to be accurate. Though a narrative arc does eventually become apparent, it feels almost like an afterthought.
The Big Bad opens with setpiece #1, in which Frankie (Jessi Gotta) walks into a bar, looking for answers. She meets a girl named Molly (Jessica Savage), who we’re supposed to feel sorry for, but since we don’t know why we should feel sorry for her, she just comes across as an obnoxious mess.
This first section wanders along aimlessly, taking 20 minutes to do what it could’ve done more effectively in half the time. I spent the majority of that extra 10 minutes distracted in my attempts to ascribe meaning to events that seemed random, which is how humanity came up with religion. Luckily, Molly eventually provides some clues and, yes, we eventually discover why we should feel sorry for her. Though by the time we do, she’s gone, having served her purpose, and we’re on to the next setpiece.
Setpiece #2 starts strongly, giving us some welcome expository information. But then it jumps to a segment, featuring a very good Alan Rowe Kelly, that seems designed primarily to trot out Jane Rose’s gory practical makeup effects and to allow the filmmakers to reference Thriller: A Cruel Picture…or maybe that was just me looking for religion again.
Then The Big Bad moves into its final segment, where it’s all made clear. But getting there has been such an episodic journey, shaped in such a way to prevent us from forming the necessary emotional bond with the characters, it doesn’t truly pay off. The filmmakers haven’t earned it.
Adding to the flick’s arbitrary feel is the visual palette employed by director Bryan Enk and cinematographer Dominick Sivilli. With its desaturated colors and hazy look, The Big Bad is reminiscent of the independent films of the 1990s. But occasionally, for a few minutes at a time, the movie explodes into color. When this would happen, I would again try to intuit what the director was doing (“Ah, I see. As Frankie gets more pieces of the puzzle, the world blooms into color!”). But then, the color would fade and, defeated, I’d have to adjust my interpretation, until I finally gave up.
The one thing that really works well throughout and makes The Big Bad worth seeing is Jessi Gotta’s performance. Gotta has a natural screen presence and is always interesting to watch. Gotta is able to make Frankie sympathetic and interesting even when the script, written by Gotta, seems designed to prevent it.
I’m sure the filmmakers could argue that I don’t appreciate their vision, and perhaps that’s true. Granted, there are some cool moments and effective imagery in The Big Bad, but not enough to make me care about the rest. But, hey, maybe I just prefer a coat with buttons.
It is with great sorrow that I report the death of announcer and voice actor Dick Tufeld, best known to a generation of genre fans as the voice of the Robot on the wonderfully campy ‘60s TV series Lost in Space. He was 85.
