Pic of the Day: “Superstar” revisited

Posted by Marisa on February 24, 2014

Our pic of the day is from “Superstar,” an episode of the (very) short-lived series Supertrain. It first aired on March 14, 1979. Bumbling hit men Clyde (Mills Watson) and Anderson are trying to talk their way out of an awkward situation.

Supertrain got little respect then, and still doesn’t today. It was the most expensive television series ever produced at the time, but money couldn’t overcome poor ratings and bad reviews. NBC had produced the show itself, and they really took a bath when the series was cancelled after only nine episodes. That, combined with the lost ad revenue from the 1980 Summer Olympics boycott, nearly sent the company into bankruptcy. TV Guide named the show one of “The 50 Worst TV Shows of All Time” in 2002, coming in at #28. It certainly wasn’t Timothy’s fault.

Pic of the Day: “Superstar” revisited

Posted by Marisa on August 20, 2013

Today’s pic is another glimpse of grumpy hit man Anderson from “Superstar,” the fourth of only nine episode of the ill-fated Supertrain series, first airing on March 14, 1979. He’s not quite so grumpy here, as he’s reminiscing about the teddy bear he had as a kid.

“You had a teddy bear?” asks his fellow hit man Mills Watson. “Sure, I got him after they took away my dog.” “They took away your dog?” “After I bit him. He had a little discipline problem.” Romeo Carey told me that his mother Doris used to make teddy bears. I wonder if this was one of hers?

Pic of the Day: “Superstar” revisited

Posted by Marisa on March 14, 2013

Today – Pi Day! – our pic revisits the Supertrain episode “Superstar,” which, by some uncanny coincidence, was first broadcast exactly 34 years ago today: March 14, 1979. Timothy’s grumpy hit man Anderson is itching to take a shot at the guy he’s gunning for, Jack Hogarth (Dennis Dugan).

Tim has lots of fun saying the name “Hogarth” in this episode. As usual, his greatest co-stars are his teeth. This ill-conceived series – all 9 episodes – is pretty dismal, but Tim and his interactions with the great Mills Watson as his hapless sidekick make this particular episode (barely) worth watching.

Pic of the Day: “Superstar” revisited

Posted by Marisa on January 7, 2013

Our pic for today takes another look at “Superstar,” the episode of the short-lived series Supertrain that was first broadcast on March 14, 1979. Timothy and Mills Watson are a pair of inept hitmen trailing a TV star (Dennis Dugan). Sylvia Sidney‘s character calls them “Dopey and Grumpy.”

Watson pretty much had a lock on the bumbling sheriff/deputy roles on television in the 1970s and ’80s. Hard-working character actor Ed Lauter reports that he is now retired on a 22-acre spread in Oregon, “happy as a clam.”

Pic of the Day: “Superstar”

Posted by Marisa on October 17, 2011

Getting our week started is a pic from the Supertrain episode “Superstar,” first broadcast on March 14, 1979. Tim is a grumpy, glowering bad guy named Anderson who suddenly becomes nostalgic for his childhood teddy bear during a visit to the train’s gift shop.

“You had a teddy bear?” asks his cohort Mills Watson, incredulously. “Sure, I got him after they took away my dog.” “They took away your dog?” “After I bit him. He had a little discipline problem.”