T.V. Tidbits
Note: I'm accepting submissions for
this page. Know of any good tidbits about The Shadow? Email
me!
Cartoon References Galore
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.
(Thanks to Doug Rice for the heads up!)
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 Psycrow.
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. (Thanks to Wm.
Walter Ingle, Jr.for this information!).
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!)
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 the no life points or with the least or no cards left
wins. 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
Alan Reed was the first actor to play Shrevvy
on the radio shows. He eventually went on to become the voice of Fred
Flintstone. More
information about The Flintstones. (Thanks
to Agent Will for this information!)
Agnes Moorehead, the first Margot Lane,
went on to become Endora on Bewitched.
More
information about Bewitched. (Thanks to Agent
Will for this information!)
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!)
Babylon 5 Reference List - you have to scroll down to "Hunter, Prey" to find the reference to The Shadow
A great fan guide to the Babylon 5 series - Includes plot synopses, links, and more
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!)
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!)
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