Pop Culture from an Alternate Dimension

       Christopher Reeve's final appearance as Superman was the low budget disappointment Quest for Peace  in 1987. When Batman  came out in 1989 with Michael Keaton, it was huge. Keaton and Reeve did team up in 1994, but it was for the rom-com Speechless . I felt Batman Returns  had too much going on so I removed the Penguin and combined his story of running for mayor and Max Schreck's character and gave them to Lex Luthor so that would bring Superman into the story.

             These are songs that remind me of the great detective, Sherlock Holmes. I open the album with a song named after him, but instead of the original from Sparks, I used a cover version. I followed Holmes with Watson. Then to the street where they rent a room from Mrs. Hudson. Queen Victoria, I felt should be represented if only for Holmes' indoor shooting practice in "The Musgrave Ritual". Reichenbach Falls was the site of Sherlock's death (don't worry, he got better). When thinking of Holmes and Watson I imagine the foggy streets of London Town where these private eyes are looking for clues. Of course, for Holmes it's elementary. It's so simple that I included a song of the same name from a stage musical called Baker Street  starring Fritz Weaver. I wrap up the whole affair with the title music from BBC's "Sherlock". You can listen to my choices here:  Sherlock Holmes: a Musical Portrait - YouTube

       With Batman Begins  starting a new series of Batman movies in 2005 and Superman Returns  promising a new series of Superman movies 2006, comic fans thought we might see the "dark knight" and "the man of tomorrow" joining forces in the 2000s. It did happen in 2016 but not with Routh and Bale. For the main villain of this "what if" version I chose The Riddler. After Christopher Nolan made his first two Batman movies, the plan was to have The Riddler be in the third installment. There were rumors that Leonardo DiCaprio (with whom Nolan made I nception ) was to play the character. I used a fan image someone posted online for the back cover.

       Last week I talked about the television series ED . I mentioned one of the reasons it wasn't available on home video was music rights, which means we also never got a soundtrack. A lot of great songs from the late 90s/2000 and some classics were featured in the show, including "Next Year" by the Foo Fighters, which was used as the theme song. The Stuckey Bowl logo on the back I found online was made by Adrian Olivia. Listen to the songs from the past here: ED soundtrack season 1 - YouTube

      This is a special multiple "what if" this week. What if Ed was released on home video and what if they kept the original casting. Ed ran on NBC for four seasons starting in 2000. I first tuned in because it had Julie Bowen from the WB series Three (see my blog from July 13, 2024 to learn more about that.). During the first episode I also saw Justin Long who I had enjoyed in Galaxy Quest the previous year. I became a fan of the lead actor, Tom Cavanagh, because of this show. All three have done well since the series went off the air so I was surprised it was never released on video. Apparently, music rights and two different production companies making the series are the reasons for that.      The commercials for the series before it aired had Donal Logue, who I had just seen in The Tao of Steve . When I tuned in for the first night, I was surprised to see Michael Ian Black doing scenes that the commercials had Logue in. The show was originally to ...

       I recently started going through my original posts and added playlists. When I got to The Eagles album No Fun Aloud I wanted to re-do the package design. The songs remain the same.      What if the Eagles kept putting out records after  The Long Run ? For this I chose "I Found Somebody", "Party Town", "All Those Lies" and "I Volunteer" from Glenn Frey's 1982 album  No Fun Aloud.  From Don Henley's 1982 album  I Can't Stand Still  I chose the title song (with harmony vocals by Timothy B. Schmit), "Long Way Home" (with backing vocals by Schmit),  "Nobody's Business"  (with Schmit   on bass) and I had to include "Dirty Laundry", not only was it huge in the charts but it has Schmit doing backing vocals and bass, as well as Joe Walsh doing a guitar solo. In place of Glenn Frey doing a cover of the oldie "Sea Cruise" I put in Timothy B. Schmit cover of "So Much in Love" from the ...