Oh Mighty Isis

[shipperx]

Link gakked from ww1614: 

Oh Mighty Isis  I remember loving that live action cartoon as a kid.  That and Land of the Lost were my favorites.  Both are almost certainly cheesy as hell, but whenever people talk about how Buffy was some sort of "first" in action heroines, I keep wondering why they're forgetting the ones I grew up with.  Was something really all that wrong with Isis and The Bionic Woman?  They might not have kicked demon ass in high heels, but I remember really loving them.  Hell I even loved screechy HaleyHolly who had to run from Tyrannasaurs and Sleestaks all the time.  And I don't care what anyone says,  Sleestaks were scary!)

...and my mother wonders how in the heck I grew up to be a genre fan.

Comments

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

Hey, Land of the Lost was actually written by real science fiction writers! Ones who normally wrote books! Of course, I didn't know that at the time, and I was pretty shocked when I found a list of the show's writers a few years ago.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Looks like they're touting that on the DVDs:
http://www.navarre.com/prodhome.aspx?ItemNumber=2184663&Prod=video


I wonder if I watched it again who cheesy it really is. Through the eyes of a kid, though, it was magnificent fun and was one of the favored games of pretend when we played in the woods and gullies behind the houses on my street.

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

whenever people talk about how Buffy was some sort of "first" in action heroines, I keep wondering why they're forgetting the ones I grew up with. Was something really all that wrong with Isis and The Bionic Woman?

Word word. I watched Wonder Woman and The Bionic Woman and Charlie's Angels, which was sorta-kinda progressive for the time period, weird as that seems now. I idolized Jacklyn Smith. And I remember catching a TV rerun of one of those exploitation movies when I was a kid - Cleopatra Jones. Damn, I thought she was the coolest!

People do forget. Which amazes me, since it was only as recently as the '80s that genre sci-fi and horror movies were kicking out all sort of tough chicks. Ripley, anyone?

For some reason, I never really watched Land of the Lost regularly, tho. I think I'd discovered Star Trek recently, and my childhood snob thought that LotL's special effects were, y'know, lame in comparison. (snort) And now I find charm in Star Trek's styrofoam boulders.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I think part of the allure of Land of the Lost as a kid was that it gave such a fun world to play in. Star Trek would have required props. Hard to get a bridge for a space ship (though, come to think of it, I remember many a play period playing Battlestar Gallactica and arguing over who would get to play Athena. The loser would have to play Casseopia... who when I watched an old ep about a year ago I figured out that -- dude! She's a hooker! We didn't seem to compute that at the time).

Anyway, where I lived, there was this relatively elaborate gully system behind the neighborhood with sink holes, caves, rock walls, etc. Pretty easy to play Land of the Lost. Probably also helped that there was the ongoing mystery (I don't think it was ever resolved. Dunno. Can't remember) of the Sleestaks and the ruins, and the portals that would open if you moved the crystals in just the right way. There was some kid appeal to that kind of thing.

And, yes, Ripley was one of the first and still one of the best. I rewatched Alien in the last year or so and it still works in darn near every way (other than some of the surprises have been blown). Ripley is great because she isn't some super hero. She isn't annointed with special powers or anything (at least until Alien:Resurrection which I spit upon long before I had ever heard the name Joss Whedon.) She's just a woman. Confident and intelligent, yes. But she's realistic in so many ways. She isn't being exploited sexually in skimpy outfits. And, as played by Sigourney Weaver, she's not just a guy with girly bits. She's a human character who, when push comes to shove, thinks on her feet and fights to survive. She continues to be one of my all-time favorite heroines.

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

I think part of the allure of Land of the Lost as a kid was that it gave such a fun world to play in. Star Trek would have required props.

Hah, true! I think I improvised on my bicycle by pretending I could get into warp drive if I pedaled fast enough, but that's hardly a group activity. LotL would've been much better for that.

Anyway, where I lived, there was this relatively elaborate gully system behind the neighborhood with sink holes, caves, rock walls, etc.

Ooh, cool! My area was more woodsy, with a lake nearby - great for forest adventure, like Robin Hood. (Cut branches and string did indeed make okay makeshift bows, if you weren't too worried about accuracy - as in, say, shooting stick "arrows" into the air.)

Ripley is great because she isn't some super hero. She isn't annointed with special powers

Yes! That's one of the aspects I still love the most about the character. You can load her up with unnecessary motives (the "motherhood" aspect that was played up in Aliens, etc.), but at the heart, she's just a human being trying to survive, and that's what makes her work so well as a character. She's an everyperson in extraordinary circumstances, getting by on wits, luck, and sheer guts.

She continues to be one of my all-time favorite heroines.

Me too. I also have a huge affection for Sarah Connor, which makes me curious about this "Sarah Connor Chronicles" project I've been hearing about. It's really about time to see some more tough girls on TV, I think.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Ooh, cool! My area was more woodsy, with a lake nearby - great for forest adventure, like Robin Hood. (Cut branches and string did indeed make okay makeshift bows, if you weren't too worried about accuracy - as in, say, shooting stick "arrows" into the air.)

THe area behind the neighborhood where I grew up was woodsy too (just with a bunch of gullies). There was an old abandoned logging road that ran behind my best friend's house and we were constantly building forts and making "haunted" trails.

When watching "The Bridge to Tarabithia" recently (which really is a good movie), it reminded me a lot of those days. Except instead of a rope, we had one of those vines that grew in the tree. Which we cut one winter, and when we went back the next (we usually waited until it was cold to play back there because we were terrified of snakes) anyway, when we went back the next year and swung across the stream, the vine broke, dumping us in the water and causing us to hike, soaking wet, in the freezing cold the 1/2 mile back to my best friends house. Heh.


Me too. I also have a huge affection for Sarah Connor, which makes me curious about this "Sarah Connor Chronicles" project I've been hearing about. It's really about time to see some more tough girls on TV, I think.

Oh I lived Terminator, too. And honestly, to this day, if someone asks my favorite romantic moment in a movie, I still think of T1 and the scene with Reese making the pipe bombs with his confessing, "I came across time for you." Poor doomed Reese. In that scene I think he hit all my kinks. I sniffled over the ending of that movie a bunch of times. Loved it!

[ladypeyton.livejournal.com]

I keep wondering why they're forgetting the ones I grew up with. Was something really all that wrong with Isis and The Bionic Woman?

Not to mention Electra Woman and Dyna Girl!

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

My problem here is that I simply cannot get over Diedre Hall being Electra Woman.

If you want to know why. I present to you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pgB3KZUkp4

(I remember quite literally falling to the floor laughing over this stuff)

[kcarolj65.livejournal.com]

Isis rocked! I think it was the headdress that got me. I also loved "Wonder Woman" (hey, I was, like, 9 years old at the time).

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Way to a little girl's heart:

Superpowers and a tiara! (Frankly, I'm willing to bet that combo still works)

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

Sleestaks were HELLA scary, especially first season. Not to mention that light-creature in his spaceship. *brrr* I only hope when I finally get them on DVD, they live up to my memory.

Besides, I always loved watching a show where my own real name appeared in the credits every week (I share it with the actress who played Holly). *g*

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Dude, I'm convinced that Sleestaks scarred a generation.

Either Sleestaks or the Wonder Twins. One or the other did some damage. >:)

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

Well, the sleestaks scarred me in a GOOD way... *g*