Top 5 Live Action Lex Luthor’s

 

Lex Luthor has always been an awesome villain. Just as Joker is the perfect foil for Batman, Luthor is the perfect foil for Superman. He is metaphorically as powerful as Superman but uses his powers for his own agenda. Though in the comics it didn’t start that way. For years he was just a mad scientist with another crazy robot every week, wearing a silly purple “power suit”. Eventually they tried to give him more, and it got kind of silly. This was in the 70’s and early 80’s when EVERYTHING had to have a sci fi slant. So Luthor would somehow become ruler of his own planet, that was named after him, and have a wife and child until all of them were killed (huh?) which led into the war suit era. The war suit was a cool design but it didn’t change the fact that the character was just another crazy villain out to kill Superman.

 

Enter John Byrne & Marv Wolfman in 1986 who finally gave us the opponent I think most of us are familiar with. A conniving business man who only cares for himself. He uses people and tosses them away, and of course he finds Superman a threat.There were many things that would stick with this version, like Luthor using a kryptonite ring to keep Superman at bay. Eventually (and long story short) he would have to get a new cloned body, with an Australian accent, before getting a new human body back. It’s a verryyy long story.

 

After that he kind of switches back and forth from scientist to business man. Of course the comics have evolved, Luthor was even president for a time (imagine, a crazy billionaire as president!) with the war suit even coming back into canon. It disappeared after the Byrne relaunch aside from a clever gag in “The Man of Steel” mini series.  I am not really familiar with Luthor today except from what I’ve seen he seems to be a blend of the silver age mad scientist and more modern business man. He’s even joined the JLA, someone care to explain that one? 

 

Comics and cartoons are one thing. but what about the live action versions? There haven’t been that many, but of the few who captured the spirit of the character the best? The reason I am focused only on the live action versions is because there have been a ton of animated version, most of which I never saw. And my heart will always be with the Superfriend’s version. Stan Jones had the role down. He just got the character and that voice was so awesome it’s still the voice I hear in my head when I read a comic.

So after that long intro, here are my top five live action Luthor’s. Well, six.   You’ll see….



#6.Sherman Howard (Superboy)


I knew some people were going to kill me for leaving out Scott James Wells and Sherman Howard who played Luthor from the old Superboy TV show (the 80’s one). But I never watched it, and when I saw a clip it was stupid. The actor did NOTHING with the character! Course that’s from a one minute clip so maybe that’s unfair. Looks like the character was based more on the silver age “mad scientist” era which is fine but then you deal with the same problem the comics had in that era. Namely, Luthor was just a one note mad scientist with nothing interesting abut him. Maybe I’m wrong and i should check it out but it seemed silly to me.

Five Disliked Cartoon Characters I Always Liked

So last time I talked about five beloved cartoon characters that I never really cared for. Seems only natural to discuss the opposite, characters that most or many find annoying but I have a soft spot for.

Now I said last time that everything was subjective, and that is even more true in this case. I tried to pick five characters that are generally disliked, but that sure doesn’t mean I am alone in liking them. Obviously since they are not beloved they are not as much a part of pop culture. They are the second banana’s that don’t get enough love. That all being said, here we go:



ORKO

For some reason every cartoon has to have the annoying sidekick character who was only there to be goofy comic relief. From Gleek on The Superfriends to Slimer on The Real Ghostbusters! to….What the heck was Snarf anyway? These characters were just here to be silly and goofy and serve no real purpose. And while Orko on He-Man and the Masters of the Universe sure fit this particular bill, I never disliked him. In fact he was a pretty good character. Oh sure he was silly and caused trouble but he had a really good heart. He would help out and was often brave saving the day a few times! It’s one instance I can see why the others put up with him, they know he means well! Compare him his She-Ra counterpart Kowal who was sooo useless! So as far as silly comic relief characters go, this one wasn’t so bad. I even had the action figure once upon a time!

Five Beloved Cartoon Characters I NEVER Liked

I’ve talked about my favorite cartoons in the past, but what about the one’s I didn’t care for? Everything is subjective and just because a cartoon character is popular doesn’t mean everyone likes him or her. Others love them, and that’s great, but not me. Maybe I never watched the cartoons. Maybe when or if I did they did nothing for me. Sure as an adult I can appreciate them for their legacy and endurance, but as a kid not so much.

Oh, before I begin some may expect this little fellow to be on here..

But honestly I never had any issue with Scrappy. I never liked the cartoons he was in either, but that was more because those cartoons deviated from the Scooby Doo formula that I preferred.

Here are five popular cartoon characters that I never cared for…






This is a tough one since I could mean a few things here. I could be referring to Yogi’s friend, but he name was Snagglepus and he never bothered me. I am also not referring to the famous Jacques Clouseau movies. Never saw em. No I am talking about the character inspired by those movies, the animated panther who got his own show(s). And I never got it. What is the appeal? Does he even have a character? Is he a jerk or is he nice? WHY DOESN’T HE SPEAK! OK ok he does talk in the older shorts. This character never did a thing for me and I still don’t get it. To be fair one of the reasons I know Pink Panther are the ads he used to do for Owens Corning (look ’em up).
Oh and in the interest of fairness I do like that Henry Mancini theme. Who wouldn’t?

Underrated Trek:Dark Page (TNG)

Welcome back to Underrated Trek, where I take a special look at Star Trek episodes that I love…which may not be the most popular or even liked by most. I said before there was one more good Season 7 episode, in my opinion, and this is it. And my continuing efforts to convince people that Laxwana wasn’t the worst thing ever continues. Don’t get me wrong, “Menage a Troi”, “Manhunt”, and “Haven” are bad episodes and Majel’s overacting don’t help them. But when they started to treat the character seriously we got more than just goofiness out of her. First we saw she does have a heart in “Half a Life” and then her maternal side in “Cost of Living”. In this episode we get a dark retcon which explains even more about the character. This is :

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is the the one Laxwana episode that isn't annoying? Let's take a closer look :

 

Top 10 Favorite Scores From John Williams

This one is long overdue my friends. I don’t think I really need to explain who John Williams is. He has written some of the most famous and beloved movie music compositions of all time. I’ll be honest when I looked at the full list I was surprised just how massive it was.

Now some may cry foul only having ten, but remember I am not the biggest movie fan out there. So here my ten favorites.


#10.Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Main Theme)

Not gonna lie, I did not care for this movie. Maybe if I had seen back when it first came out it would have been different but man was it boring. The music is great, with that very memorable melody.

Five Good Episodes From Season 7 TNG

A year ago I decided to show how Season 1 TNG did have it’s good points. Oh sure it was mostly awful, but there were some positives. The same can be said about the final season. Season 7 had episodes which were either boring or just flat awful. From “Force of Nature” to “Genesis” to “Sub Rosa” to “Masks”. I realize I haven’t done to many Underrated articles from there, because very few of those episode stand out. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t a few gems.

     



Now I’ve gone on and on about the series finale, so let’s put that one aside for a moment. Here are five decent episodes from Season 7 TNG.Of course this is all opinion, it’s possible someone else hates these episodes and would pick five entirely different examples. These are five that I actually enjoy from that dull season.





Phantasms

I thought of mentioning “Interface”, LaForge’s only outing, but that episode has a weak ending. This is a great episode. It was directed by Patrick Stewart and he does a decent job. The story is about Data getting subconscious messages in his dream’s, and trying to determine what they mean. It doesn’t all work, the image of Troi as a cake was kind of a fail and Data consulting Dr.Freud is a little but out there. But the story is solid and the symbolism works. This is one of my favorite “dream” episodes of any show.

10 Commercials with Celebrities Before They were Celebrities

Let’s continue my little overview of commercials with another category, when celebrities appear in commercials before they become famous!

While it’s common knowledge that celebrities appear in commercials before they’re stars, the fun parts is when you look back at a commercial you remember seeing and suddenly realize you know now the actor!  For example recognize the face at the end of this Oscar Meyer ad?

Yep that’s Jodie Sweeten before Full House fame.


Of course I could be here all day talking about celebrities in commercials before they were famous, but today here are ten ads that are special before either I remember seeing as a kid or found the ad on an old VHS and had to do a double take that I recognized that young face.


Matt LeBlanc
This is one ad I honestly remember, it was a great ad that they ran all the time. I was shocked when I found out years later that the guy getting the ketchup was Joey from Friends!