Santa Claus Is Coming on a Stairway to Heaven

I wish I could re-do and re-record music the way Weird Al does. Or, like a group called Fleming and John, who do a KILLER version of "Winter Wonderland," to the tune of Led Zeppelin's "Misty Mountain Hop." Here's the link for that. It's GREAT! http://www.flemingandjohn.com/audio/winter_wonderland.mp3

Anyway, if I could re-perform a song for Christmas, I would re-record "Stairway to Heaven" with these words, adapted from "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town."

Santa Claus Is Coming on a Stairway to Heaven
You’d better watch out, you’d better not cry,
You’d better not pout, and this is why:
Santa Claus is coming to town
When he gets there he knows if the doors are all closed
With a nod he can get down the chimney

There’s a sign by the plate but he wants to be sure
For you know cookies can be so fattening
Up the stairs in a room there’s a father who snores
Sometimes all of our gifts are misgiven

And it makes me wonder

And it’s whispered tonight, if we turn out the light
Santa’s reindeer will walk on the rooftop
And a new day will dawn for those who sleep long
And the children will echo with laughter

You know he sees when you’re asleep
And then he knows if you’re awake
He knows if you’ve been bad or good
So just be good for goodness sake
And if you listen very hard
You’ll hear the sleighbells ring at last
And you’ll see hoofprints in the yard
Then you’ll believe he’s come to town

And you know that Santa’s coming to town

More Superboy TV

Here is another small selection from the Superboy "TV Syndication Publicity Packet." One of the images is some more TV Guide-type ads & images that were provided. Local syndicators could cut-and-paste preprinted days and air-times into the little white flag in each ad.

The other image shows an example of some of the "autograph-quality" photos also enclosed. This photo has plenty of room at the top for your local station to paste its own logo or call letters above the Superboy Poster.

To the right you'll see the covers to the boxes that contained "Superboy Radio Spots." These three-inch boxes contain reel-to-reel tapes. No, I haven't heard them! No reel-to-reel tape recorder in this house.

The Superboy TV Series

No, not the one-shot pilot made in 1956 or so.

Season One of Superboy, starring John Haymes Newton (in his only season), started in 1989, and for Seasons Two through Four, starred Girard Christopher, ending in 1992.

A kind friend, Mark Barragar (aka Ranger Roger aka the King-Sized King), was nice enough to make a "Superboy TV Promo Packet" available to me.

Here are a few of the images seen in the promo packet.

The packet contains episode summaries, paste-in TV Guide-type ads, and other stuff. More tomorrow!

Super Pretzels

As the more mature of us may recall, 1988 was Superman's 50th Anniversary. Among the celebrations was the completely cheesy but fun and touching TV Special, now in release as part of the Superman movie 14-disc edition.

Another fun and silly celebration was the production of cans of Superman Pretzels! That's right, campers. The can was about 6 inches around and about 11 inches high. It was covered with comic cover reproductions.

The bottom and the top of the can are featured below, along with what those antique preztels look like. Although a lot have fragmented, I've circled some of the ones who still have their S-shield shape.

No, I haven't tasted one lately.