I’ve certainly been on a YouTube kick over the past few days, haven’t I?
Oh well I say go with it.
The great thing about YouTube is that it has the ability to trigger certain memories, most of them fond ones, of a certain time and place. The first video I found today takes me back to 1982. My family was living in a rented house in Mountain Top, PA and Superman: The Movie was coming on ABC. It may have been the first time. It may not have. Memories from that time are sometimes sketchy, but I know that I sat there and watched most of it before I had to go to bed.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY9N9Gs0YwI&feature=related
The next video I stumbled across is neat in that it not only has the ABC opening from the particular affiliate that was showing the movie for the very first time but it also has some of the ads leading up to the premiere and even one for Atari, which just takes me back like you wouldn’t believe. They even threw in some snippets of one of the deleted scenes that were put into the television version. This is the last time we would get to see them legitimately until the Special Edition in 2001. More than anything this video reminded me that the first time Superman: The Movie played on ABC it was a two night event to which I say, “As well it should be!”
I’m sure the die hard fans of That’s Incredible were crushed. but it didn’t bother me in the least.
The narrator of this opening sounds like William Woodson, who narrated most of the various Super Friends series. Listening to it I half expect him to intone, “Later, at the Hall of Justice!”
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kay-eRh4Phg
Finally, another ABC intro that was obviously before a Yuletide showing of the movie. Sure it doesn’t have a whole lot more to it, but I think it is neat just the same.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2khYg5BbOpc
Part of me really misses the excitement of this movie coming on television. If I want to see it now I can watch up to four different versions at my leisure, but there was a time where I had to wait for it to come on. Thankfully I have not lost my love of the film, so I still have that.
More to follow…
Wow, that six-minute clip is right out of the wayback machine. That retreating starfield that ABC used would mystify me as a kid. Where were all the stars going? And how did the hole at the back stay a perfect shape? Crazy stuff.
Discover Atari, and discover how far you can go.