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.

       This week is a full matinee from the '30s on an alternate Earth, replete with a cartoon, a comedy short, a serial, a trailer and the main attraction.  CARTOON The video for "The Ghost of Stephen Foster" by the Squirrel Nut Zippers was made to look like an old Max and Dave Fleischer cartoon. It directly references the Betty Boop cartoon of "Minnie the Moocher" and "Bimbo's Initiation".  COMEDY SHORT In 1991 Rob Reiner introduced six episodes of a television show called "Morton and Hayes". They were supposedly lost comedy shorts of Chick Morton and Eddie Hayes (played by Kevin Pollack and Bob Amaral). The shorts were played in the style of great comedy duos like Abbott & Costello, Laurel & Hardy and the Three Stooges. SERIAL Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was Kerry Conran's love letter to the old serials. It was originally going to have cliffhangers and chapters with title cards.  TRAILER The fake trailer for ...