Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the seven hundred and ninety-sixth installment where we examine three comic book legends and determine whether they are true or false.
As usual, there will be three posts, one for each of the three legends. Click here for part one of this installment's legends.
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Conan the Librarian was first parodied in Monty Python's Flying Circus.
False
IN HONOR OF CONAN THE BARBARIAN'S 50TH ANNIVERSARY IN COMICS, THIS INSTALLMENT (LIKE LAST ONE) WILL BE ALL CONAN LEGENDS!
Quickly, as noted last time, whoever suggested I write about Conan the Librarian told me, I believe, over Facebook. I can't search my Facebook messages (and I get a lot of them), so I can't tell who suggested this. If you're fine with your suggestion not being credited, then that's fine by me, but if you want credit, please be sure to e-mail me your suggestions to either brianc@cbr.com or cronb01@aol.com. That way, I can do a search through the suggestions and make sure to properly credit you. On with the show!
In 1983, PBS launched a new show about reading called Reading Rainbow, starring LeVar Burton, then known for his work on the smash hit miniseries, Roots.
The series featured Burton spotlighting a notable children's book and then having topics tied to that book's theme. There would also be readings of books, often by celebrities. Once Burton joined the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, there was a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff about that show, as well.
A classic bit at the end of the episode would have Burton introduce real life kids who recommended their favorite books, with Burton adding the really fun sign off, "Here’s some other books you might like. Of course, you don’t have to take MY word for it."
The show ran for decades and won Burton all sorts of awards and acclaim.
In 1986, there was an episode that featured a short cartoon called Conan the Librarian.
In the cartoon, a young girl is bringing her younger brother to get his first library card. He is aided in this journey by Conan the Librarian (voiced by acclaimed character actor, Eric Bogosian). It was a delightfully over the top look at getting a library card, as Conan forces the young boy to confront the fact that he might be called a bookworm for loving books. Was he prepared to defend his love of reading? The boy was, indeed, ready.
One of Reading Rainbow's writers (not a staff writer, but he did some work for the show) was Ellis Weiner. Weiner was a writer for the National Lampoon. In 1982, he did his OWN Conan parody in an issue called Cohen the Boybarian, parodying both the Robert E. Howard Conan novels as well as the whole idea of the 90-pound-weakling on the beach from popular culture....
While that doesn't seem to be the sort of thing that would be appealing to PBS folks, it turned out that it drew the attention from the staff of Reading Rainbow. From a 1990 spotlight on Weiner:
He was about to move from Los Angeles when one of his parodies, "Cohen the Barbarian," attracted the producers of "Reading Rainbow" who wanted him to look at "Ramona." Beverly Cleary, a major children's writer, has turned out her well-known "Ramona" series from the mid-1950s until today. PBS was doing a 10-week adaptation of the books as a major coproduction with Canada.
By 1987, Weiner ended up writing two of the scripts and sprucing up the others as the series' story editor; he wrote a couple of scripts for the LeVar Burton series "Reading Rainbow," including "The Purple Coat" and "Robbery at the Diamond Dog Diner." There was also a 10-part animated series for the U.S. Department of Education, called "Drug Avengers," which had classroom distribution, and a library project drawn up to boost reading called -- the old parodist at work again -- "Conan the Librarian."
Yes, you read that last part right! Four years after that Reading Rainbow episode with the Conan the Librarian animated short in it, they were planning to do a whole TV series based on the concept!
It was still in the planning two years later in another article about Weiner:
Weiner is also waiting to hear from PBS about his latest pilot, "Conan the Librarian," which he based on an animated character from a "Reading Rainbow" episode of a few years back.
It's a sitcom to promote reading and is being tested with audiences now. "Conan is exiled to the future, which is our time, and finds the only way to get the knowledge to go back is to work at the library. We won't hear until March, and if we get a go, there'll be 12 more scripts to be written. The word I hear is very good," he said.
Sadly, I guess that the news turned out not to be good in the end. I read somewhere else that the pilot actually tested well, but I haven't seen a good enough source on that, so I really don't know why the show was not taken from a pilot to a series.
But boy, that would have been an interesting TV series, right? It's especially interesting as the 1990s were when the Conan comic book stopped being published by Marvel, so I wonder what would have happened to the comic book license had Conan suddenly had a national television series on PBS.
In the latest TV Legends Revealed - Why did the Munsters have a motion picture released the same year that their TV show was canceled after just two seasons?
Check back soon for part 3 of this installment's legends!
Feel free to send suggestions for future comic legends to me at either cronb01@aol.com or brianc@cbr.com
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