Showing posts with label Norman Lear. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Norman Lear. Show all posts
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Friday, April 26, 2013
The Virtue of Vera Valiant
Here's a post from 2009 - with a few edits:
A long-forgotten, short-lived soap opera parody from the 1970s. This was Stan (The Man) Lee's daily comic strip answer to Norman Lear's brilliant MARY HARTMAN, MARY HARTMAN late-night syndicated serial.


Talk about predicting the future! Who knew back then that most TV by the year 2009 would be 'reality' soaps? If only THE REAL HOUSEWIVES was more like The Virtue of Vera Valiant and less like, um crap. Here a reminder of what made MARY HARTMAN, MARY HARTMAN so great:
A long-forgotten, short-lived soap opera parody from the 1970s. This was Stan (The Man) Lee's daily comic strip answer to Norman Lear's brilliant MARY HARTMAN, MARY HARTMAN late-night syndicated serial.

This rare 1977 collection (the first of two) featured strips from October 1976 to January 1977. It was MARY WORTH, BRENDA STARR, REPORTER and WINNIE WINKLE all rolled into one with a satirical touch. Drawn lovingly by Frank Springer, the series daly never caught on–probably because readers had no idea it was all a parody! This is from the paperback introduction:

Here's a sample storyline from 1977 when daytime TV executives are hoping to turn Vera's real-life tragedies into plotlines for a 'reality' soap opera!
Talk about predicting the future! Who knew back then that most TV by the year 2009 would be 'reality' soaps? If only THE REAL HOUSEWIVES was more like The Virtue of Vera Valiant and less like, um crap. Here a reminder of what made MARY HARTMAN, MARY HARTMAN so great:
Labels:
comic strip,
Marvel Comics,
Mary Hartman,
Norman Lear,
Parody,
reality,
soap opera,
Stan Lee,
TV
Friday, March 1, 2013
Monday, July 25, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Sunday, April 26, 2009
When TV Didn't Suck...
Labels:
1970s,
All in the Family,
Bea Arthur,
CBS,
Maude,
NBC,
Norman Lear,
Sanford and Son,
sitcom,
Time Magazine,
TV
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