T.V. Tidbits

Cartoon References Galore

Alf Tales
Episode Title: Robin Hood
Season 1, Episode 1
In the opening titles of this animated spin-off of the 1980s sitcom, we see Alf "clad in a long black coat, red scarf and black fedora against a film noirish Manahattanish nightscape...before being hit in the head with creamy pastry".
More on this series
(Thanks to Doug Rice for the heads up!)

Alvin and the Chipmunks
Episode Title: Chipmunk Vice
Season 4, Episode 44
In this parody of "Miami Vice" where Alvin plays detective, we see a thief dressed up like the The Shadow, called..."The Shadow".
More on this series
(Thanks to John McDonagh for the information!)

Clerks
Episode Title: -
Season 1, Episode 2
Based on the 1994 Kevin Smith movie of the same name, this animated series follows the adventures of convenience store clerks Dante Hicks and Randal Graves.

Dante and Randall are trapped in the convenience store freezer. An old lady, seeing the place deserted, steals Dante's coat. After she leaves, Randall yells, "The weed of crime bears bitter fruit, you old hag!"
Dante says, "Where have I heard that before?" and we go to a flashback of Randall yelling the phrase again. The recipient this time turns out to be his prom date.
...plus, Alec Baldwin features in the show as the voice of their arch-nemesis, Leonardo Leonardo.
(Thanks to Antony for the heads up!)

CyberSix
Episode Title: -
Season -, Episode -
This cartoon series was based on the graphic novel series by Carlos Meglia. One look at this character and you'd swear she's a female version of The Shadow. But CyberSix is different; she was created in a lab (a la James Cameron's Dark Angel). Eventually, she escaped and now lives in the city of Meridiana, disguised as a man. With her genetically engineered strength, reflexes, and predatory instincts, she fights off the monsters produced by her creator.
More on this series
(Thanks to Doug Rice for the heads up!)

Codename: Kids Next Door
Episode Title: Operation: Z.E.R.O.
TV Movie
Based on the TV series featuring "spy" kids who battle evil villians (i.e. the teenagers and adults of the world). In one scene the kids encounter a boy who wears a familiar-looking slouch hat and cloak.
More on this series

Darkwing Duck
Episode Title: Dances with Bigfoot
Season 1, Episode 43
An animated t.v. series from Disney that premiered in the fall of 1991 and ran for a few years. It is interesting to note that the title character fought crime and wore a slouch hat and cape just like The Shadow (view the picture here). Some of Darkwing's dialogue seems to be a parody of Orson Welles's dialogue in some of the Shadow radio shows. In an episode entitled "Dances with Bigfoot", we find yet another similarity between Darkwing and The Shadow: Darkwing mentions that he was trained by Tibetian monks. But in Darkwing's case, they taught him his mantra "a-e-i-o-u-and-sometimes-y".
(Thanks to Ayn for this information, and K Pearson for the season and episode numbers!)

Episode Title: Fungus Amongus
Season 2, Episode 69
In this episode, Darkwing uses a set of suction cups to scale a building, much like The Shadow on the pulp cover of "Gems of Doom" (July 15, 1940).
View the comparison
(Thanks to Planetloud for this information and picture!)
Read the episode synopses
Here's more information about Darkwing

Earthworm Jim
Episode Title: The Upholstered Peril
Season 1, Episode 6
The phrase "The weed of crime bears bitter fruit" was uttered by Jim and one of his enemies, Psycrow.
More on this series

The Family Guy
Episode Title: Death Lives
Season 3, Episode 6
(August 15, 2001) One of the characters, Peter Griffin, quotes a line from the radio show. Here's the synopsis:

In this episode, Peter ditches his wife, Lois, on their Anniversary to go play golf. At the golf course, Peter is struck by lighting and "dies" and is visited by Death himself,who informs Peter that he is in Limbo.
Death takes Peter on an out-of-body journey through his life and his courtship with his wife. In one scene, journeying across some clouds, Death informs Peter that he can't go back to living until he has a revelation. In one flash of a "revelation" Peter quotes,"The Shadow is, in reality, Lamont Cranston, wealthy young man-about-town".
(Thanks to Rich Sawyer for this information!)

Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy
Episode Title: Wild Parts
Season 4, Episode 36
In this cartoon about two kids and their "best friend", the Grim Reaper, Mandy (one of the kids) comes and asks, "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?" The Grim Reaper replies, "I know, I know..."
Find out more about this show
(Thanks to Qutime for this information!)

Muppet Babies
Episode Title: The Muppet Broadcasting Company
Season 3, Episode 31

The younger versions of the most popular muppets are in the playroom and the lights go out. Nanny brings down from the attic several old tapes of radio plays, and an episode of The Shadow is among them. Gonzo actually dons the cape and hat in one of their "pretends". That show bowed it's head to a lot of cultural icons, almost ignoring the fact that it's characters were icons in their own right.

Pinky and the Brain
Episode Title: Pinky and The Fog
Season 1, Episode 4
Attempting to take over the world by "fogging" everyone's minds, Pinky tries to take control of the fictional radio show, The Mist, featuring the Shadow-like character, The Fog (complete with slouch hat and cloak).
Read the synopsis here
View Pinky's resemblance to Orson Welles's Shadow
(Thanks to Chris R. for the pictures!)

The Real Ghostbusters
Episode Title: Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Ghost
Season 2, Episode 20
The ghost of an old man tries to be scary by "turning bright blue and intoning, 'Who knows what evil lurks in the brains of ducks? Me do! Me do!' " Unfortunately, this proves ineffective.
More on this series
(Thanks to Planetloud for the information!)

Yu-Gi-Oh!
Episode Title: Settling the Score (Part 1 of 2)
Season 3, Episode 11 (a.k.a. Episode 108)
This popular Japanese Anime series revolves around a fantasy card game known as "Duel Monsters". Basically, opponents duel each other by strategically using monster, trap, and magic cards to their advantage. The one with no life points or with the least or no cards left loses. In this episode, a group of friends are trapped in a virtual world where they must use their Duel Monsters card game knowledge to survive. One of the characters, Seto Kaiba, must confront a vengeful former employee of his corporation. In the virtual world, this employee has taken the form of one of the monsters from the card game: Jinzo. Jinzo disguises himself in a hat and trench coat, drawing comparisons to the bridge scene in the 1994 movie where The Shadow first appears. By the way, that scene in Yu-Gi-Oh! also takes place on a bridge.
Screenshot 1 | Screenshot 2 | Screenshot 3 | Comparison to The Shadow
View a clip of the episode (scroll down the episode menu to episode 108 and click on it)
Learn more about Yu-Gi-Oh!

From Radio to Television

More Information Please

Entertainment Tonight
This news show, focusing on the movie, television and music industries, did a behind-the-scenes profile on the 1994 Shadow movie in the same year. (Thanks to Michael M. for this information!)

Movie Magic
This documentary series about special effects ran on the Discovery Channel for a few years. On this particular episode, staff from Matte World Digital explained the process behind the Temple of the Cobras scene.

The Incurable Collector
This series on the A&E Channel about people who collect anything and everything featured Robert Lesser, the author of "Pulp Art". In this episode, Robert showed off his collection of canvas paintings of pulp covers, including The Shadow. More information about this series.

Biography
This series on the A&E Channel, about the lives of the famous and infamous, featured actor/writer/director Orson Welles. There is a brief mention of his role as The Shadow on the radio, complete with famous tagline ("The Shadow Knows!") and laugh.

In the episode featuring Alec Baldwin, there were two screenshots from the movie - both with Lamont and Margo (one at the end of the movie, and the other at Lamont's mansion). There is a brief mention of the movie by Penelope Ann Miller (Margo), who remarked, "We're about to start doing 'The Shadow', and he had just married to Kim Basinger, so he...was giddy. He was so in love."

Film 101
This series on TVO (TV Ontario) - a channel available only in the province of Ontario, Canada - gives an inside look at how films are made. One episode featured various screenwriters discussing their craft, including the 1994 Shadow movie screenwriter, David Koepp. As he is interviewed, you can see behind him shelves of scripts he has worked on over the years. In fact, right behind his head is a huge stack of scripts for the 1994 movie. Each script is labled "The Shadow". Why so many scripts? It's mostly likely the many versions of the story he was working on. Don't forget, scripts are continuously edited, even during the actual filming itself. Unfortunately, Koepp doesn't mention the 1994 movie in the interview. The show focused more on his work on "Jurassic Park" and "Panic Room".

Talking about The Shadow

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
Featured interviews with Penelope Ann Miller and Jonathan Winters during the opening week of the 1994 movie. (Thanks to Michael M. for this information!) Alec Baldwin also appeared on the show, which featured a clip of the restaurant scene with Shiwan Khan and the Phurba. (Thanks to Don for this information!)

The Late Show with David Letterman
Featured an interview with Alec Baldwin.

Classic TV Sitcoms

The Cosby Show:

Theo was sitting alone in the dark because he was depressed or something; Cliff (played by Bill Cosby) walked in, took a look around, looked at Theo and said, "Lamont Cranston."
(Thanks to Don for this information!)

M*A*S*H
The Shadow made some appearances in two episodes. (To learn more about M*A*S*H, Yahoo has a good list of web sites):

1. Radar is in the chow line to get lunch and asks Klinger "What's under that brown gravy?" Klinger's response is a pretty good evil laugh and he says "Only The Shadow knows!"

2. Another time the characters had been remeniscing about old radio shows like Tom Mix and Klinger again brings up The Shadow. Radar tries to hum some of the old radio theme song also.

3.In an episode called "Adam's Ribs", Hawkeye is fixated on ordering spareribs from a restaurant in Chicago. He finally puts a call in to the States, and tries to get the operator in Chicago to help connect him to the restaurant. Trying to convince her into helping, he identifies himself as "Cranston Lamont", a newspaper reporter doing a human interest story about a soldier from Chicago.

(Thanks to Corey Guigelaar for the M*A*S*H information!)

Sanford and Son:

In an episode of Sanford and Son, Fred Sanford's son Lamont makes a phone call to the police but gets nervous about the call. When asked his name by the Police dispatcher he says "Lamont" pauses, decides he doesn't want to give his name and finished "Cranston" and makes a "poor" imitation of the laugh before hanging up the phone..
(Thanks to Earl Roggeman for this information!)

TV Shows

Babylon 5
Episode Title: Hunter, Prey
Season 2, Episode 35

The official(?) Babylon 5 SF Reference List mentions a character called Agent Derek Cranston [played by Bernie Casey] -- appearing in the episode "Hunter, Prey" -- as being a possible nod to Lamont Cranston, "one of the earliest superheroes". J.M. Straczynski (producer, writer, and inventor of Babylon 5), who has commented on many of the page's other theories, does not deny it.
(Thanks to Planetloud for this information!)

Batman
Episode Title: That Darn Catwoman
Season 2, Episode 74
Catwoman uses a drug on Robin that turns him into her minion. Batman later remarks, "Apparently she has the ability to cloud men's minds."
Learn more about the Batman TV series.
(Thanks to Matthew Hood for this information!)

Carnivale
Episode Title: Milfay
Season 1, Episode 1
In this episode, we see a priest and his sister listening to "Silent Avenger", from the Shadow radio show.
Learn more about Carnivale.
(Thanks to David Rodriguez for this information!)

The Flash
Episode Title: Ghost in the Machine
Season 1, Episode 9
The Flash joins forces with The Nightshade, a crime fighter from the 1950s who has resurfaced to battle an old foe. The Nightshade seems to be an homage to The Shadow in terms of the costume (long black coat and hat), but unlike The Shadow, he uses tranquillizer darts.

Episode Title: The Trickster
Season 1, Episode 11
The Flash goes on the hunt for the criminal of the episode's title. In one scene the characters listen to a message on an answering machine regarding an warehouse address on "Margo Lane".
Watch it here (note the reference at 2:09 min into the episode.
(Thanks to John McDonagh for this information!)

Remington Steele
Episode Title: Puzzled Steele
Season 3, Episode 8
Remington and Laura make a bet to see who can find a missing writer. Laura cheats by harpooning his raft. In response, he calls the cops. As she is hauled away, he remarks, "Ah the weed of crime bares bitter fruit."
Watch it here (3MB) (You will need Windows Media Player to view the clip)
Watch the full episode
(Thanks to xvxTheShadowxvx for this information!)

Star Trek: Enterprise
Episode Title: Storm Front, Part 1
Season 4, Episode 1
The crew of the NX-01 Enterprise wind up back in time in 1944. In this alternate universe the Nazis (aided by aliens from the future) have invaded the East Coast of the United States. Monitoring the radio waves for more information, communications officer Ensign Hoshi Sato picks up several military communicades, "and something called 'The Shadow'."
(Thanks to Michael M, Rebecca, Jeff, Corey, and Earl for this information!)

Wiseguy
Episode Title: Last Rites for Lucci
Season 1, Episode 11
This series from the late 1980s starred Ken Wahl as an undercover FBI agent. In this episode, a character named Vinnie is ordered to go into group therapy. The group's members are in law enforcement, and one of them introduces himself as Joe Cardona.
(Thanks to Keith Holt for this information!)

TV Movies

A Summer Without Boys (1973):
Set in either the 1930s or 1940s, a woman going through a divorce finds respite at a summer lodge. Along for the ride is her daugther. In one scene, the daughter listens to an episode of The Shadow radio show.
(Thanks to Earl Roggeman for this information!)