PORTRAYAL of characters from outside of our Mother Earth's boundaries and her normal areas of life, human or otherwise, has long been a staple of the Comic Book story. Strictly speaking, the whole SUPERMAN Feature falls into this category; when one considers that Superman's origin is being a man from another world, the doomed Planet Krypton.
REMEMBERING that this last survivor of the doomed world is the heroic centerpiece of the story, we can grant both Superman as well as the entire Comics Feature/Comic Strip a waiver on this classification.
MOVING on to find some examples of this category, we cite the Comics stories that feature the character of Mr. Mxyzptlk. For anyone not familiar with the impish little man from the 5th Dimension, let's try to get you up to speed.
IN a nutshell, Mr. Mxyzptlk comes to our world more or less at will; but can be made to return to his own world by saying or even spelling his name backwards. The character has been around the Superman stories from nearly the beginning. He is strictly magical in a science fiction/fantasy world. He is said to have been inspired by both Bugs Bunny as well as that Joe Btfsplk, 'World's Worst Jinx' character from Al Capp's LIL ABNER Comic Strip.
ALTHOUGH he is an enemy for the Man of Steel to deal with; albeit an obviously non-lethal opponent whose very existence was always intended as what the guys who make the movies call "Comic Relief." MXYZPTLK made multiple appearances in the Saturday Morning cartoons' entry THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN (National Comics-D.C./Filmation Associates/CBS, 1966); as well as SUPERBOY (Alexander Salkind/Cantharus/Lowry Productions/Viacom, 1988-92), where he was portrayed most handily by talented actor of the Stage and Screen, Mr. Michael J. Pollard. (He portrayed "C.W. Moss in BONNIE AND CLYDE (Warner Brothers-7 Arts, 1967)
ALTHOUGH this little pixie-like, extra-worldly Superman Antagonist was never portrayed on the original SUPERMAN Show, we offer evidence that many a story could easily have been of comic books derivation. With a little tune-up or tweaking in the right direction, today's subject, 'Mr. Zero', could have easily been the first on a TV screen adaptation of a Superman foe from the printed page.*
IN a variation on the Hans Christian Anderson UGLY DUCKLING fable, the story has the diminutive Martian with the long serial number coming to Earth after feeling himself to be a failure among his own people on our neighboring Red Planet, Mars.
DUBBED "Mr. Zero" by the Daily Planet staff, he displays a fascination with Miss Lois Lane (Noel Neill of course). After Clark Kent (George Reeves) and Jimmy Olsen leave the little guy alone, he is soon encountered by criminal gang boss, Georgie Gleep (Herb Vigran), who manipulates the Martian into using his power of pointing gesture, which renders a subject paralyzed, as a weapon for pulling off Bank Jobs without the use of gunplay.
THE GLEEP Gang has fed the Alien the lie that the Banks have Miss Lane's personal fortune and that the gangsters were aiding her; sort of like being a damsel in distress.
IN the end, there is of course, an old fashioned happy ending; with Mr. Zero having been reinstated with the folks back home.
THE 'Mr. Zero' episode was another one of those more 'child friendly' installments of the ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN. It will surely be appreciated by the youngsters in the audience and give some Chuckles to the grown-ups. (No, Schultz! These Chuckles are little laughs, not the Candy! **)
NOTE: * One of the true shortcomings of this original SUPERMAN TV Series is it's lack of adaptation of his Comic Book foes from page to screen; which was the mainstay of the later BATMAN Series (Greenway/20th Century-Fox, 1966-68). In addition to Mr. Mxyzptlk, Superman had the likes of Prankster, Puzzler, Toyman and the evil scientific genius, Luthor. Luthor had been featured in the Movie Serial ATOM MAN VS. SUPERMAN (Columbia, 1950). He was portrayed by screen veteran and former Leading Man, Lyle Talbot.
NOTE ** Remember the old commercial for those brightly colored orange, green, black, red and yellow jellied candies that wenta somethin lika thisa: " .Five Chuckles, Five Flavors, Five Cents!" A nickel was a nickel in those days!
POODLE SCHNITZ!!
REMEMBERING that this last survivor of the doomed world is the heroic centerpiece of the story, we can grant both Superman as well as the entire Comics Feature/Comic Strip a waiver on this classification.
MOVING on to find some examples of this category, we cite the Comics stories that feature the character of Mr. Mxyzptlk. For anyone not familiar with the impish little man from the 5th Dimension, let's try to get you up to speed.
IN a nutshell, Mr. Mxyzptlk comes to our world more or less at will; but can be made to return to his own world by saying or even spelling his name backwards. The character has been around the Superman stories from nearly the beginning. He is strictly magical in a science fiction/fantasy world. He is said to have been inspired by both Bugs Bunny as well as that Joe Btfsplk, 'World's Worst Jinx' character from Al Capp's LIL ABNER Comic Strip.
ALTHOUGH he is an enemy for the Man of Steel to deal with; albeit an obviously non-lethal opponent whose very existence was always intended as what the guys who make the movies call "Comic Relief." MXYZPTLK made multiple appearances in the Saturday Morning cartoons' entry THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN (National Comics-D.C./Filmation Associates/CBS, 1966); as well as SUPERBOY (Alexander Salkind/Cantharus/Lowry Productions/Viacom, 1988-92), where he was portrayed most handily by talented actor of the Stage and Screen, Mr. Michael J. Pollard. (He portrayed "C.W. Moss in BONNIE AND CLYDE (Warner Brothers-7 Arts, 1967)
ALTHOUGH this little pixie-like, extra-worldly Superman Antagonist was never portrayed on the original SUPERMAN Show, we offer evidence that many a story could easily have been of comic books derivation. With a little tune-up or tweaking in the right direction, today's subject, 'Mr. Zero', could have easily been the first on a TV screen adaptation of a Superman foe from the printed page.*
IN a variation on the Hans Christian Anderson UGLY DUCKLING fable, the story has the diminutive Martian with the long serial number coming to Earth after feeling himself to be a failure among his own people on our neighboring Red Planet, Mars.
DUBBED "Mr. Zero" by the Daily Planet staff, he displays a fascination with Miss Lois Lane (Noel Neill of course). After Clark Kent (George Reeves) and Jimmy Olsen leave the little guy alone, he is soon encountered by criminal gang boss, Georgie Gleep (Herb Vigran), who manipulates the Martian into using his power of pointing gesture, which renders a subject paralyzed, as a weapon for pulling off Bank Jobs without the use of gunplay.
THE GLEEP Gang has fed the Alien the lie that the Banks have Miss Lane's personal fortune and that the gangsters were aiding her; sort of like being a damsel in distress.
IN the end, there is of course, an old fashioned happy ending; with Mr. Zero having been reinstated with the folks back home.
THE 'Mr. Zero' episode was another one of those more 'child friendly' installments of the ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN. It will surely be appreciated by the youngsters in the audience and give some Chuckles to the grown-ups. (No, Schultz! These Chuckles are little laughs, not the Candy! **)
NOTE: * One of the true shortcomings of this original SUPERMAN TV Series is it's lack of adaptation of his Comic Book foes from page to screen; which was the mainstay of the later BATMAN Series (Greenway/20th Century-Fox, 1966-68). In addition to Mr. Mxyzptlk, Superman had the likes of Prankster, Puzzler, Toyman and the evil scientific genius, Luthor. Luthor had been featured in the Movie Serial ATOM MAN VS. SUPERMAN (Columbia, 1950). He was portrayed by screen veteran and former Leading Man, Lyle Talbot.
NOTE ** Remember the old commercial for those brightly colored orange, green, black, red and yellow jellied candies that wenta somethin lika thisa: " .Five Chuckles, Five Flavors, Five Cents!" A nickel was a nickel in those days!
POODLE SCHNITZ!!