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Captain Nice (1967)

 
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Pow
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PostPosted: Mon May 24, 2021 11:50 am    Post subject: Captain Nice (1967) Reply with quote



Look! It's the man who flies like an eagle.
Look! It's the enemy of all that's illegal.
Look! At the muscles on those arms, they're like
hammers.
Look! It's the nut who walks around in pajamas.
That's no nut boy, that's Captain Nice!
Nice! Nice! Nice! Nice! Nice!

And so began our theme song introductory to another weekly episode of the sci~fi, superhero sitcom "Captain Nice."

Created by comedy legend Buck Henry who was also a co~creator of "Get Smart.

Captain Nice had the same funny, over-the-top parody humor for superheroes as Get Smart did for the espionage genre. Both series were hilariously scripted.

Sadly, Captain Nice would not have the same success as Get Smart.

Captain Nice had a 30-minute format and lasted for only 15 episodes on NBC. It had been a mid-season replacement TV show making its debut on January 9, 1967 and ending on August 28, 1967.

William Daniels played police chemist Carter Nash, a meek, mild mannered scientist who invented a formula which he drank that turned him into a caped crusader with super powers.

Those powers were super strength, invulnerability, and flying which was problematic as Carter feared heights.

His mother (Alice Ghostly) encouraged Carter to take advantage of his powers for the good of humankind. She even made him his own super-suit.

Comic book artist and legend Jack Kirby helped create the superhero uniform Carter would wear for his exploits as Captain Nice, as well as publicity artwork for the Show.

The catchy theme score was by composer Vic Izzy who also composed the theme music for The Addams Family TV series; and the Don Knotts horror-comedy movie The Ghost and Mr.Chicken.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 18, 2021 9:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Amazing! The man who brilliantly portrayed John Adams in the hit stage play and 1973 movie 1776 was the goofy superhero in this series. Laughing

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
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Pow
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 18, 2021 5:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Captain Nice was one funny show and even today I can recall 2 laugh-out-loud scenes for me. And this is a show that's rarely rerun due to it lasting only one season. So it has been decades since I saw any episodes.

Scene One: We're at a nightclub where a mentalist is performing his act on stage. He suddenly becomes very anxious as he tells the audience that he is sensing a dangerous man in the audience. He goes on to say that this man has a gun & gives a description of this threatening person.

With that a man jumps up from a nearby table and turns it over. He pulls out a gun and starts firing all over the place.

The mentalist shouts out that no, he isn't the man he had the psychic image of.

The gunman then says oh, pardon me, he then puts his gun back in his holster and then proceeds to pull his table upright and calmly sit down like nothing happened.

Scene Two: Carter Nash is in a commercial laundry business where he overhears a couple of crooks who are there to rob the place.

He has to change into his Captain Nice uniform in a dryer that is operating. He then jumps up as Captain Nice to confront the crooks but his uniform has noticeably shrunk on him.

One crook yells out that it's Captain Nice.
The other crook seriously remarks "My, how he has grown."

Wish this show had a much longer run.
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Krel
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 18, 2021 7:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

In one episode a caterpillar has ingested the super formula and is eating the city park. Captain Nice goes into the park and stumbles out, beaten up. He says that it was horrible, fifty legs all moving in unison. It was like getting kicked to death by the Rockettes.

Carter's Father, who's face was never seen because he was always parked behind a newspaper, was played by veteran character actor Byron Foulger.

Alice Ghostley, who played Carter's Mother was only three years older than William Daniels.

Carter Nash's girlfriend was Sargent Candy Kane, played by Ann Prentiss, the younger sister of Paula Prentiss. Sadly Ann Prentiss died in prison for trying to hire a convict to kill her father, her brother-in-law Richard Benjamin, and her nephew Ross Benjamin. She died on January 12, 2010, no cause of death is listed. She had served 12 years of a 19 year sentence, and was 70 years old.

I loved that show, and it should have run longer than it did. But then, that could be said of a lot of TV shows.

David.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 19, 2021 8:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

KREL wrote:
Sadly Ann Prentiss died in prison for trying to hire a convict to kill her father, her brother-in-law Richard Benjamin, and her nephew Ross Benjamin.

Dear lord, what a twisted person she must have been! I'm a big fan of Miss Paula Prentiss, and it's hard to imagine that such a sweet lady (if indeed she really WAS a sweet lady) had a psycho for a sister!
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Pow
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 19, 2021 10:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've read that Ann's sister, Paula Prentiss, has been open about her own mental illness and emotional breakdown as well as a spontaneous suicide attempt back in 1965.

Paula spent a horrendous 9-month stay at the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic.

Perhaps her sister Ann also suffered from severe mental health issues? Maybe it tragically was something that ran in their family?
I don't know for sure but it seems as if it might have been a possibility.

If so, I am so sorry that both of these beautiful & talented women suffered so.

Ann was fun as Police Sgt. Candy Kane on Captain Nice. And Paula was wonderful with her real life husband Dick Benjamin on their fun and entertaining 1967~1968 sitcom He & She.

He & She, just like Captain Nice, deserved a much longer run.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 19, 2021 11:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

POW wrote:
Perhaps her sister Ann also suffered from severe mental health issues? Maybe it tragically was something that ran in their family?

In view of the facts you've present, Pow, it's not hard to accept the notion that something in the family genes was triggering these tragic events.

I remember watching a few episodes of He & She, and the chemistry was as good between Richard and Paula as it was between her and Jim Hutton in The Honeymoon Machine. Very Happy

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