Tuesday, November 04, 2014

Subzero´s favorite cult sirens - Markie Post

Today 80s Power Girl Markie Post celebrates her 64th birthday so I thought this is the right time to repost what I wrote about her all those years ago.


As with my other reposts this is just a shortened version and you can read the original post - where I go into much more detail about FALL GUY, bounty hunters and comics - right here. So it´s time to give this tv cult siren from my youth some props and take a stroll down memory lane. 

Markie Post had appearances on tv shows like CHiPs, The incredible Hulk, Buck Rogers in the 25th century, Hart to Heart, Eight is enough, The Greatest American Hero, Simon and Simon, Matt Houston, Love Boat, Cheers, A - Team or Hotel so when you were watching tv in the 80s you were bound to catch her somewhere sooner or later. She was probably best known outside of Germany for playing public defender Christine Sullivan in the NBC sitcom Night Court from 1985 to 1992.

Aside from that she also played bail bonds contractor Terri Michaels on the tv show THE FALL GUY ( who replaced previous bail bonds contractor Samantha Jack played by Jo Ann Pflug ) beginning with Season 2.

At the beginning she played a minor role but one of the producers must have realized what a waste it is to have somebody like Markie on the cast without letting her " show what her Mama gave her " like they say Today.

 
So she got more involved in the stories where she stole the scene from Heather Thomas as soon as she donned a bikini ( mainly in Season 3 ), like in this scene from the " Inside, Outside " Season 3 episode 8.



Now there is this period in life where you are already interested in girls but because you´re still not 18 you can´t get the PLAYBOY, which in the times before the internet was a big thing. So as a pubertal boy in his prime you were looking for other stimulation which could be books, pulps, pin ups, BRAVO starpuzzles or comics with Black Canary in underwear.


Follow the link to DAVE´S LONGBOX post on Black Canary´s underwear and you will see that I wasn´t the only one who studied this panel intensely.

So my age group had different sources for hot massitas and one of them was comics although in that regard not that much has changed. She may have worn many different costumes but Black Canary´s still a hottie.


Although with the NEW52 that may not longer be the case. My brother had the new BIRDS OF PREY book on his pull list but he has long since dropped it so I have no idea what´s up with Black Canary. I mean, those guys made Amanda Waller skinny so they might have fattened up Dinah Lance.

And speaking about Dinah Lance, I´m a huge fan of the ARROW tv series and I was totally surprised that they turned her sister into Canary. They really pulled her character off very nice on the show even the costume.


On top of that she got some serious fighting skills, I mean she really kicks ass on ARROW. And Caity Lotz is one sexy babe. The scene where she´s drifting after the shipwreck were she´s just wearing wet underwear and you can literally see everything ? I almost creamed my pants only from watching that. And she has some impressive cleavage as Black Canary.


You know, there are a lot of posts that I have prepared but never get around to do and one of them is my TOP TEN BLACK CANARY COSPLAY, like most of my cosplay related posts. I have been postponing my big Yaya Han post and there is always something else coming up. I hope I can get to do another cosplay post before the end of the year but I doubt it.

 
Okay, back to the hot babes that were available to me in my youth. Like I said I found some of them in the pages of four colored funnybooks but most often it was television. There were a few tv shows that were indispensable if you wanted to join in the schoolyard conversations, which were must see tv. One of the shows we watched was THE FALL GUY , in german EIN COLT FÜR ALL FÄLLE - A Colt in any case - don't ask me, typical unrelated german translation at work here. The original title is a clever play on words since a " fall guy " can be a scapegoat who will take the fall for someone else so to speak, a stock character which is a two dimensional archetype on television or literally someone who takes the fall for someone else like a stunt man does for the actor in a movie.

THERE´S SOMETHING ABOUT HEATHER THOMAS - AND HER BLUE BIKINI

The series had everything a good tv show needed : a cool main character, car chases, fisticuffs, explosions, shooting, monkeys, dangerous stunts, a lot of celebrity guest stars and the hot hardbody of Heather Thomas.


She played stunt body double ( and what a body it was ) Jody and her job was to keep the male viewers hooked by providing eye candy. She was in all episodes except for an episode in the first season. Yes, fan service is not as new as some people might want you to think and Heather Thomas mainly got the part because of her absolutely amazing bikini figure.


It took a few episodes before she could strut her stuff but once the tv guys got a taste of Heather it happened more often and the famous blue bikini scene was quickly added to the new intro of the second season.


For generations of adolescent young boys the only highlight of the week was the short moment during the intro of FALL GUY where sexbomb Heather Thomas appeared in her famous blue bikini ( if she - or later on Markie Post, or both of them - didn´t wear a bikini in the episode ).



Jody was the female sidekick to main man Colt Seavers ( played by Lee Majors ), a very capable and sexy young woman who Colt saw as his equal or at least like a surrogate daughter. Which was a bit frustrating for her since I think she had a crush on him which he - of course - never realized.


But Jody Banks was the reason guys watched THE FALL GUY ..... and the guest stars although when I first saw the show I didn´t know most of them.


I knew some of the actors or actresses but with most people I only knew that such - and - such was a famous singer, actor, director or whatever because it was mentioned in the episode. Yes, I have to admit that when I first saw the Elvira episode ( " October The 31st " episode 7 of Season 4, in which Jody Banks is Elvira´s stunt double and I have to say, either Heather Thomas has way bigger boobs than Elvira actress Cassandra Peterson or she used a ridiculous amount of  padding to achieve Elvira´s trademark cleavage ) I had no idea that she was a world famous horror hostess. Which in no way diminished my enjoyment of said episode.



When I first saw the series the fact that Colt had two jobs ( stunt man and bounty hunter ) was a bit strange for me but seen from Today´s perspective - where most people have to do two or more jobs to make ends meet - the show was more visionary that I thought. Colt was the prototype of the modern Twentyfirst Century Man so to speak.

Another thing about THE FALL GUY I found strange - or better about american tv series in general - was how many people were bounty hunters. It didn´t strike me as a very safe profession : you are chasing bad guys and criminals, you risk personal injury and a single stray bullet can get you into an early grave. Despite this all there were dozens of tv series with bounty hunters in it long before Dog, and in RENEGADE even the main character who was on the run from bounty hunters was a bounty hunter. By the way, if you don´t know RENEGADE ( oh, how I envy you ! )  you should avoid at all costs unless you´re a really big fan of Gambit or Lorenzo Lama´s wife Kathleen Kinmont who´s real centerfold material.


What I didn´t know was that all one has to do is a one week course and pay 50 Dollars for a bounty hunting license. And if you are after the right guy the reward money is more than you can earn in a regular job.

HEATHER THOMAS´ MISSPENT YOUTH ( YOUTHFUL BODY THAT IS )

But back to Heather Thomas . Thanks to her absolutely stunning 37 ( ! ) - 23 - 32 measurements and the exposure in THE FALL GUY she became a famous pin up model with posters in every boy's bedroom from that time.


She even replaced pin up goddess Raquel Welch on the number one spot.


Careerwise Heather just didn't manage to cash in on her popularity with her mostly male audience because she didn't want to use her physical attributes to succeed. It was what made her famous in the first place but Heather thought she could do without it. Which is often a mistake.

When you have managed to position yourself in the business - no matter in which niche - it's very hard to have success when leaving that niche.


Heather had managed to place herself in the top spot as " hot blonde bikini babe " but when she tried to enter the " actress with a body like a playmate of the year who doesn't take her clothes of " sector there were already hundreds of actresses there - with far better acting abilities.

It's the same thing that happened to the LADY DEATH comic.


Through the hard work of many years CHAOS! COMICS managed to put her in the top spot for hot comic chicks in the HORROR / GOTH / FETISH section. But that wasn't enough so they changed her white skinned goth bikini look to a more normal looking caucasian blonde woman.


The only problem was that she was now competing in the same sector as Wonder Woman, Power Girl, Jessica Rabbit, Lara Croft and all the other hot comic babes. And the others had decades to fortify their fan base.


So she lost most of her old fans and didn't win many new fans. Sometimes it's better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond.


Nowadays Lady Death has returned to her horror / goth roots but I don´t know if her readership is back to the old numbers. I used to read the series mainly because of the art by Ivan Reis who became more popular when he went on to draw books like GREEN LANTERN, BLACKEST NIGHT, BRIGHTEST DAY, the surprisingly good rebooted AQUAMAN ( one of the few NEW52 books I´m still reading ) and JUSTICE LEAGUE but the latest issues of LADY DEATH haven´t reached the quality level of her glory days.


Like Lady Death Heather Thomas tried the big pond only to become a small fish and the high points of her career were her parts in THE FALL GUY and the screwball comedy ZAPPED where she showed her lingerie.


Beyond that she appeared in CYCLONE and RED BLOODED AMERICAN GIRL, the last one being soooo 80s but not in a good way : it has all the worst cliches from the 80s. It also combines the cheapest SFXs available at that time and a really bad collection of awful dialogue and bad ideas. Two hours of my life I´ll never get back and THANK GOD that genetics went in a totally different direction. Watching this was actually painful !

MARKIE POST : HABEAS CORPUS MAMMARIUS MAXIMUS FANTASTICUS

Anyway, after a few episodes another hot babe appeared on FALL GUY : Markie Post. She played bail bonds contractor Terri and was just as hot in a bikini as Heather if not hotter. Really, if I would have had to pic only one of the two at that time I don´t know who I would have chosen.


TV viewers got a first look at Markie Post´s 36 - 24 - 36 on THE FALL GUY in the episode " Baker´s Dozen " in Season 3 episode 4



NIGHT COURT was another of my favorite series from the 80s although as usual german television policy kept it from reaching a big audience in Germany. Like NORTHERN EXPOSURE it was on after midnight and I don´t know what the translators did smoke when they came up with HARRY´S WUNDERSAMES STRAFGERICHT ( Harry´s woundrous criminal court ).


Now while Markie got to show her goods in THE FALL GUY the producers were much more timid in NIGHT COURT. There were a few occasions in which she had a hot outfit but mainly she wore a business suit - even if it could not conceal her best assets. Her absolutely stunning physique was often addressed in the show by guys constantly hitting on her - which was the realistic part. If she were a public defender I bet that all the guys in town would get into all kinds of trouble just to have her defend them.

But don't despair true believer. There was CHRISTINE`S FRIEND, the 17th episode of the 4th Season, in which Markie showed what she's capable of. The plot was that she tried to go against her image by dressing more sexy and of course it didn't work - at least in the show. In real life : DAIMN !!!


Now this was clearly just a cheap plot by the writers to explain why a hot sexbomb like Markie didn't show more skin - especially since she had already done so in FALL GUY. And it wasn't that she didn't look as hot as before. No, quite the opposite was true. But I didn't mind because at least she showed a cleavage window in that episode to rival Power Girl.


Now with THE FALL GUY there is at least a chance that you have seen the episodes and the show might even be in reruns on german tv stations.


The DVD collections were released pretty late, Season 1 on January 2008 and Season 2 on November 2008 with no release date for Season 3. 

 
Here are the other two episodes with Markie Post in a bikini, at least that I know of. I´ll have to watch more when I find them on YouTube.




Because I don´t expect the clips to survive for long on YouTube I have also uploaded them to the post from my laptop. The quality is not as good as I hoped when you go through blogger and for some strange reason blogger made a big thick black outline around the video so I had to make them really big to get rid of most of that. But it´s better than nothing and I will post better quality ASAP. Here´s the first from BAKER´S DOZEN :


The next Markie Post bikini video is from UNDERSEA ODYSSEY. 


Usually I also add new clips to reposted stuff but as this post already has a lot of clips and GIFs which make the upload time a real pain I´m leaving you with this old one form the original post :  Elvira on THE FALL GUY.



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