Spectreman!!!!!!!

As a small boy, this was without a doubt the only show that had my imagination and attention fully in its grasp. I was captivated from the first minute I saw this undoubtedly poorly translated Japanese import.

I would watch ever second of every episode I could find on the dial. I would mimic the dialogue, fight sequences, sounds and anything I could possibly recall once the program was over. I spent hour upon hour recreating adventures and making new ones with Spectreman at the center.

There are many episode segments on YouTube that I have yet to explore, but here's what I recall from the depths of my childhood memory banks: there was this evil alien monkey hovering over the earth in a flying saucer. The evil monkey had a stupid brute of a gorilla henchman to run around and pull off devilish schemes that mainly involved unloading crazy beasts to destroy the world.

Fortunately for humanity, another alien -- Spectreman -- was sent to earth to stop the monkey men. Spectreman worked in disguise as George, a reporter (?) and/or low-level government agent addressing the problems of pollution. How convenient: the monkey plots all involved exploiting stupid humanity's propensity to ruin his own world with industrial waste.

Spectreman doesn't sound like much, but trust me -- for an overly impressionable youth, this show was the biggest thing going. In fact, I happen to recall seeing an episode involving bad guys driving around in this strange, black conversion van. The next day while traveling on the expressway with my family, I immediately hid in the floorboard upon seeing a similar looking vehicle.

There will always be a special place in my heart for this simple, over-the-top Japanese monster-robot bashfest. I am thrilled to relive a little of the magic thanks to the postings of others who most likely once cared a lot for seeing this program.

Rock on!!!!