Spectreman - "Noman: The Tragic Genius Monster" - WPWR Channel 60 (Complete Broadcast, 1/22/1985) 📺

From the earlier years of Aurora's own WPWR while it was still on Channel 60, here's an episode of the early 1970's Japanese superhero series Spectreman. The English was mainly dubbed by Mel Welles, a co-star of the original 1960 version of "The Little Shop of Horrors."

This installment was Episode #49, "Noman: The Tragic Genius Monster." (in some places listed as "Tragic Genius Monster Noman" - Notice that's not "Norman" - not sure what "Noman" is supposed to mean other than he's no longer a man) (adding to the confusion is the fact that parts of this episode also are contained within a longer compilation multi-part episode named "Operation: Genocide". Some of this might have to do with the fact that the English version of the show has different episode titles than the Japanese version)

And for a bonus, the opening of an edition of Music Video 60 ("MV60") is included at the end.

As an aside, Spectreman first aired on local Chicago channels on January 8th 1979. It ran on WSNS Channel 44 for about a year and a half until it's final showing on May 29th 1980. Then it was not seen again for over 4 years until WPWR Channel 60 resurrected it starting September 3rd 1984. (apart from airings via cable on what eventually became WTBS). It was last seen on September 2nd 1989 on the rebranded WPWR Channel 50.

One interesting factoid I discovered - the Spectreman theme song was created by repurposing sections of "The First Day of Forever," by The Mystic Moods Orchestra (using an instrumental version?) -    • The Mystic Moods Orchestra - The First Day...  ) (which itself sounds at times like it's inspired by (or a rip-off?) of parts of "Pinball Wizard" by The Who and "Question" by The Moody Blues).

Includes:

Spectreman opening, and Segment 1 of the program which features the preamble that began each episode:

"The planet: Earth; the city: Tokyo. Like all cities on the face of this planet, Tokyo is losing the battle against man's deadliest enemies: waste and pollution. Despite the efforts of local and world government, the air, the sea and the land may soon lose their ability to support life of any kind. Who will help? Spectreman."

[6:59] - Commercial Break #1:

Channel 60 Spectreman bumper (voiceover by Dean Richards)

Cabbage Patch Kids Posable Figures - "each sold separately" - from Panosh Place (featuring actor Joey Lawrence as "the singular boy interested in playing with these")

College of Automation - "Dial S-U-C-C-E-S-S" - to study the field of "Computers" - "Hey, you don't have to sell me, I'm in your CLASS!"

Grapefruit 45 Fat Burner Plan - "Nature's Best Kept Secret"

Channel 60 Spectreman return bumper (voiceover by Dean Richards)

Segment 2 of episode

[16:07] - Commercial Break #2:

Channel 60 Spectreman bumper (voiceover by Dean Richards)

Low Sugar Cheerios - with the Peanuts gang - (C) 1984 United Feature Syndicate, Inc.

Dominick's Finer Foods - sale on Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Tab and Sprite (voiceover by Lloyd Hanson)

Channel 60 Spectreman return bumper (voiceover by Dean Richards)

Segment 3 of episode

[22:16] - Commercial Break #3:

Lincoln Tech - "The Future Is Yours - If You Take It" (with "A Dramatization" featuring "recent high school graduate, 'Dan' and three other unnamed guys in the same boat, all vying for "a career in less than a year") - 1-800-331-1000.

Promo for that evening's "The BJ/Lobo Show" at 6:00pm (ending voiceover by Dean Richards)

Final segment of episode, followed by ending credits - with promo voiceover (by ??) for The Addams Family for 5:00pm

"Music Video 60 - Next / The Addams Family - Today at 5:00pm" bumper and Station ID

Music Video 60 opening, with preview voiceover (by ??) of what will be shown and advising to call 591-6060 if you see videos by either Scandal or Face to Face on today's edition of MV-60

Opening of the video for "The Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun" by Julie Brown

"Looks like her brains were sucked out..."

This aired on local Chicago TV on Tuesday, January 22nd 1985 during the 4:00pm to 4:30pm timeframe.

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The Museum of Classic Chicago Television's primary mission is the preservation and display of off-air, early home videotape recordings (70s and early 80s, primarily) recorded off of any and all Chicago TV channels (or other cities occasionally); footage which would likely be lost if not sought out and preserved digitally. Even though (mostly) short clips are displayed here, we preserve the entire broadcasts in our archives - the complete programs with breaks (or however much is present on the tape), for historical preservation. For information on how to help in our mission, to donate or lend tapes to be converted to DVD, and to view more of the 4,700+ (and counting) video clips available for viewing in our online archive, please visit us at:
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