Nov 15, 2020

Flipper Toys

When I was a kid in the 1960s, the Saturday or Sunday night tv series Flipper (1964-67) was a great source of beefcake, about two boys, their Dad, and a dolphin in the Florida Everglades. I thought Sandy (Luke Halpin) was too skinny, but Bud (Tommy Norden) had a bodybuilder's physique, and Dad (Brian Kelly) was nicely built, with a hairy chest.

Unfortunately, the Flipper toys usually emphasized the dolphin rather than the beefcake, and the figures at the edge of the picture were bizarrely drawn.

For example, this Flipper lunch box: what is that liquid shimmering on the two boys who look nothing like Bud and Sandy?  They look like contestants in  a greased pig contest.


 And this tie-in novel: why are both the redhead and the blond, who are drawn as several years older than Bud and Sandy, facing away from the viewer?  So we can't tell that they're stand-ins?












This puzzle depicts Bud as somewhat less muscular than on tv, and with the face of an elderly grandmother.












The Flipper comic book series lasted for only three issues.  They all had nice photo covers, but even as a kid, I thought the artwork inside inept.

f you wanted to see the real Bud, Sandy, and Porter Ricks, not a crazy artist's rendition, you had to wait for the show to be rerun.

See also: Sandy Ricks in Trouble

9 comments:

  1. I believe "Flipper" was on Saturday night and Luke Halpin was a heart (and another part) throb of mine.

    BTW just found your blog a couple of weeks ago and have promoted it on FB and will eventually on my blog Focus On The Rainbow.

    Presuming you and I are both in the boomer range it's great to look back at the stuff we grew up with and putting a gay (or Bi in my case) spin on things.

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    1. It was on Saturday night during its initial run (1964-67), but I don't really remember it. I don't remember much before 1966. But later in the 1960s, I watched on Sunday nights just before we had to leave for church, probably local reruns.

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  2. According to "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946-Present", Flipper aired on Saturday nights from September 1964 until September 1967, then was on Sunday nights from January 1968 'til September of that year.

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  3. Oh how I wish Flipper was on reruns like other TV shows of the time! I may have to find some sets on DVD to get my Sandy Ricks fix!

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    1. Flipper is on for two hours on
      Pluto tv....from 12pm to 2pm..
      Then from 11pm to 1am...every day.......My faves was Tommy nordon....


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  4. When I used to watch the show on television, I wanted to scuba dive with Sandy and Bud

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  5. Brian Kelly (1931-2005) was a very sexy father figure.

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  6. And look, it's the company of choice for Boomer-era tie-ins, Gold Key.

    At least Emergency went to Charlton, leading to me imagining them treating Captain Atom for radiation burns.

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  7. Two things strike me when I watch this series. How thick the New York accents are on these boys, especially in the early episodes. I guess that when they weren't filming that they went home to New York and brought the accent back with them. The other is how completely homoerotic this show is. This show leaves virtually nothing to the imagination. Yet in that oh, so strange, 1960s-early 1970s-sort of way, it was acceptable because we all played games with what was-and what wasn't, and what we did see, and what we didn't see, or to be more precise, what we were looking at and what we weren't looking at, as a matter of demonstrating sound moral character. So here are these two boys, and their hunky dad, living the ultimate idyllic gay dream life in a cabin on the water (interchangeably in murky Florida waters and the aquamarine sea paradise of the Bahamas), with days filled of play, adventure, danger and an 800 pound elephant in the room. I'm not talking about that squeaky, annoying fish. I'm talking about Tommy Norden's endowment. My God. I'm sitting in the recliner, binging the episodes, transfixed by the shimmering sea and ready for a nap when they cut to a fairly standard shot: looking up at little Bud sitting on the boat dock in his wet cut-off jeans when suddenly there IT is. Nearly fully erect. How can this be? The offspring of Zeus and Jeff Stryker no doubt, a freak, but how? How could they have aired this? At a time when the network was being inundated with angry letters from viewers who objected to Burt Ward's revealing green tights this went on the air again and again with nary a peep. I have come to the conclusion that since Batman and Robin were of adult dating age, and Bud and Sandy were not, that to admit to seeing the 800 pound elephant in the room was to admit to looking at the 800 pound elephant in the room. Apparently this rule applied to the production crew, editors, director and network executives. Otherwise, it is a mystery wrapped in an enigma of a simpler time.

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