All this talk here about the Catman & Reuben pilot here got my pal Scott Shaw! to thinking about another local-in-Los-Angeles TV special we both remember from the same period. In 1966 (we think), KCOP Channel 13 (we're pretty sure) ran a special about the then-new fad of collecting and treasuring old comic books.
The show was hosted by Gary Owens who — since Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In was not yet in existence — was best known as a local radio personality on KMPC 719. The show included tours of the Hollywood book shops like Cherokee Books and Collectors Book Shop. In those stores, amazingly, kids of all ages paid as much as twenty whole dollars for a copy of Superman #1 that originally sold for — get this! — ten cents.
I was already hanging out at such places…though I was wise enough not to spend that kind of money for old comic books. Scott first learned of those stores and about this thing called "comic book fandom" from the special. It did a lot to legitimize our hobby, promote the notion that comics weren't just for kids…and I think it even drove the price of a Superman #1 all the way up to twenty-five or thirty bucks.
For years, Gary searched for a copy of that special and I helped him search. We both became satisfied that KCOP no longer had one. They kept almost nothing. And this was well before the days when one could record a TV show off the air so it's doubtful any video still exists. But some of you folks did wonders to search archives and find info on Catman & Reuben so Scott was wondering — and he got me to wondering — what could be found about this special.
We think it was 1966. We're sure it was Gary Owens and Channel 13 and I think it aired more than once…but not much more than that. We don't remember what it was called (neither did Gary) but I wouldn't be surprised if there were Batman-style sound effects in the name. A genuine-but-intangible newsfromme no-prize will go to anyone who can come up with any info on the program.