RIP Johnny Duncan, the Boy Wonder...

Johnny Duncan (1923 - 2016)

Most likely you've never heard of Johnny Duncan. He passed away last week at the age of 92.


Johnny grew up near Kansas City during the great depression. He was a great dancer and would dance as an entertainer every chance he got. He even opened a tap dance school for kids and raised enough money to save the family farm from foreclosure.


Not long after that Hollywood came calling and Johnny was in the movies on a $50 a month contract. He appeared in films like 'the East Side Kids & Bowery Boys' and in 'Action in the North Atlantic' with Bogie.


He was in other movies including Ed Wood's 'Plan 9 From Outer Space' but what I would like to touch on is a role of his that makes him so memorable to me... that of "Robin, the boy wonder" in the 15 chapter cliffhanger serial 'Batman and Robin' (1949).

click on the box above to view the opening credits of the serial.

He was 26 when he got the role of Batman's kid sidekick.
The 'Batman and Robin' serial was about a villain called The Wizard who steals a scientist's remote control device that can control any type of vehicle within 50 miles. He's using the device to rob armored cars and shipments of jewels. Batman and Robin must thwart this evil-doer and also rescue Vicki Vale who has been kidnapped by the Wizard's henchmen.
Actor Robert Lowery played Batman in the serial, Lyle Talbot played Commissioner Gordon and Jane Adams was Vicki Vale.

To me, playing Robin in a Batman serial would have been a dream job.
I had the chance to email Johnny a few times and talk to him about his work on this serial. He told me about how the costumes for both Robin and Batman, even though it was black & white film, were some very weird colors... like brown and green and some very bright colors. He said that in black and white those colors contrasted the best to make certain parts of the costume stand out.
I could tell he really enjoyed those years. He spend a lot of his senior adult life attending comicons and conventions signing autographs and merchandise for fans. He even had his own website where he would sell autographed Batman and Robin merchandise.


Johnny is gone, but will never be forgotten. His name and work will live on in DVDs, books, documentaries and other media as one of the pop culture greats of the 20th century.

Check out this serial which is available on DVD and become a Johnny Duncan fan!


- Patrick Shawn Bennett

Reb Brown: 70s TV's Captain America

Marvel Comics' Captain America is now more popular than ever thanks to Marvel's shared cinematic universe of the 21st century. Chris Evans has nailed his portrayal of Cap for a new generation and the comics, toys, clothing and other tie-ins are proof in the pudding of this character's popularity. We're now celebrating the 75th anniversary of Cap's creation, first appearing in Captain America Comics #1 (cover dated March 1941) created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.

I want to take you back to a simpler time...  the 1970s. 1979 to be exact.


As a kid growing up in the 70s, you wouldn't believe how excited I was when I found out a Captain America TV movie was made.
I could not wait!
Cap was always one of my favorite comic heroes and throughout my childhood I would throw a garbage can lid at my brother every chance I got, pretending to be the star spangled man with the plan.

I remember watching this TV movie with my dad and my brother on a small console TV in our living room.


The guy playing Cap was an actor named Reb Brown.
He had a very muscular physique and some curly blonde 70s hair.
I bought into his portrayal of Cap right away.

click the box above to see the "Captain America" TV movie trailer.

As far as the costume, it didn't look like the Captain America I grew up idolizing in comic books. The design was all wrong. He didn't wear a full head mask like in the comics... he wore a big honkin' motorcycle helmet. Yea, it was bad, but still... it was Captain America and as a kid in the 70s, I was diggin' it!




The shield was huge and clear (they didn't get that right either) and when he threw it, it moved very slow.
Looking back now, this had to be the worst Captain America ever. But, it was the only Captain America on TV, so I took what I got... and loved it.

His motorcycle was pretty cool and I liked the way the big shield would lock into place in front of the handlebars giving Cap a bulletproof windshield.

Another cool aspect of the show was the funky 70s muscle van Steve Rogers drove around in.
Hidden inside behind a wall was his Cap cycle.
With the flip of a switch it would swing out of the wall, the back door of the van


would open and WHOOOoooosh...

the cycle would launch out of the back of the van with Cap on it. This was soooo awesome.

Now the budget must have been really low for this TV movie, because instead of fighting the Red Skull and Nazi soldiers like in the comics, he was helping little old ladies stop purse snatchers and stuff like that until later in the movie when he fought a few guys shooting at him from a helicopter.
Not as thrilling as one would have hoped for in a Cap movie, but again, beggars couldn't be choosers back then because this was the only Cap on TV we were getting.

The origin story of Captain America was drastically changed for the TV version. Instead of Steve Rogers being a runty soldier that was given a serum to become the Army's ultimate super soldier... this version of Steve Rogers was a surfer and an artist. He would sit on the beach drawing sunsets and stuff like that. He wasn't a soldier at all. His dad was a scientist who worked for a government agency. He had developed a serum, FLAG ( Full Latent Ability Gain,) to enhance strength and stamina. Some criminals kill his dad and break into his house to find this serum when they stumble across Steve Rogers and shoot him. He is almost dead by the time government agents get to him. He is still slipping away in surgery when the government guys his dad worked with decide to use the serum on him to save his life. It's his only hope. So they do and it does.


Now Steve with his new abilities is talked into helping the government get the guys who did this to him and also killed his dad. Steve agrees, but under one condition... he calls himself Captain America and wears a costume that he designs.
Didn't seem to make sense, but I went with it. Steve sketches a design for the costume and the agency makes it for him. They also modify his surfer van to conceal the super motorcycle they also make for him.
So, for the rest of the movie, Captain America is now on the trail of the badguys dressed in the most hideous Captain America costume you have ever laid eyes on.

With all of its' flaws it must have been somewhat successful because before you knew it there was a second movie, "Captain America: Death Too Soon," coming on TV.

click on the box above to watch the "Captain America II: Death Too Soon" TV movie trailer.

I'm not sure, but I think maybe this was meant to be a TV series and they pulled the plug on it and combined the episodes to make a couple of TV movies. Maybe I'm wrong but that's what it seemed like.

The second movie was better in the single fact that they improved on the costume. He still had that honkin' motorcycle helmet, but the costume looked much better.
The plot of the second film was more like the plot of a comic... a villain trying to poison the world's water supply with a poison that makes people age very quickly and die.
The villain wants a huge payoff for the antidote. What was even cooler is that Christopher Lee (Dracula, Saruman and Count Dooku) played the villain and the beautiful Connie Sellecca (Hotel, Greatest American Hero) played a FLAG doctor that was helping Steve on his mission.

Reb Brown did a good job with the character and the script he was given. I would have liked to have seen this become a full blown TV series and last a few seasons but it just wasn't in the cards.


Reflecting on this show I come to realize that I actually liked it and thought it was a fun and entertaining set of TV movies. I can even remember riding my bike around the neighborhood with a trash can lid on my handlebars pretending I was Cap. Fun times.

These two telefilms are available on DVD as a double feature. It's worth checking out for the nostalgia alone.


Thanks for reading. Your comments are welcomed.


- Patrick Shawn Bennett