Swamp Thing: Season One

Science fiction is often a reflection of the current concerns and fears of society. In the fifties the use of atomic energy was all the rage in Sci-Fi both as the means to complete destruction and the way to save the day. As science fiction catches up with science fact writers are always looking for a new means to present their stories. In 1990 nuclear power was in common use in the military as well as public power plants. The new fear for the public was the growing advances made in the field of genetics. Man was learning how to alter the basic design of animals potentially changing human beings. At that time there was also resurgence in concern over the ecology. More and more people were very worried about the deleterious impact we have on the environment. It was time once again for a hero to rise up and show us the way to be one with out environment. That hero was Swamp Thing. This half man have tossed salad first appeared in DC comics way back in 1972. It took almost a decade for the story to be converted to the big screen and in 1982 horror mastermind Wes Craven made the first Swamp Thing flick. It would take another seven years for a sequel but then finally in 1990 Swamp Thing became a weekly television series.

Swamp Thing was never at the top of the pop culture pyramid but there is a legion of loyal fans out there. Just go to any Sci-Fi or comic convention and you will find a few people dressed as Swampy. At those same locations you will also discover many people who were extremely happy to hear that Shout Factory is releasing the first twenty two episodes of the 1990 series to DVD. Now this is not to be confused with the 1991 television series; Shout is releasing the live action version not the cartoon. Shout Factory is rapidly becoming the best source of pop culture gems both old and new. They have release to DVD everything from current programs such as ‘Inside the Actor’s Studio’ to classics of an era long gone by like ‘That Girl’ and ‘My So-Called Life’. Even series under appreciated by the studios like ‘Freaks and Geeks’ have found a new life on Shout Factory DVDs. Now it is Swamp Thing’s turn to once again pull him self out of the muck and find discover new fans and delight die hard ones. One thing true fans will realize about this set is the episodes are for the first time presented in the order they were intended to be shown. When the series was on television for some reason the USA network presented them out of order. This made it difficult if not impossible to follow the season long story arcs and character development. The same thing happened to another Sci-Fi cult classic, ‘Firefly’ which was also corrected on the DVD. As you can see by the chart below the season started out with the episodes almost randomly placed. Since this is when the characters are introduced, developed and exposition is made it is the absolutely worse place in a series to mess with the order. By just after the mid point of the season they did level off and present the episodes properly. This is the kind of commitment to the fans that Shout Factory so if you are a fan of the smaller shows and want more please support them whenever possible.

The first episode was presented in proper order and it introduces the main characters of the series. We know right from the show will be strange; the opening shot is of a little person hanging upside down on a red and white stripped pole the middle of the bayou. We hear in a voice over from Swamp Thing (Dick Durock) that he was once a man, he knows the evil that men do and warn us not to bring evil into his swamp. Okay, he is a little over protective but if you were a vegetable man living in a swamp you would have issues. A young boy, Jim Kipp (Jesse Zeigler) is in a boat taping the wildlife and happens upon the dangling little person. The little man is upset and paranoid that the monster that did this to him will come back. At home Jim tells his mom, Tressa (Carrell Myers) that he found a dwarf in the swamp and is taking him food. Mom is a little reluctant to accept the story at first since the kid has a habit of telling lies. When he returns Jim is approached first by a little lizard people and then Swamp Thing. After awhile we get some of the back story. Swamp Thing not only has super natural strength but he can cause bad guys to grow into plants. We see screaming faces embedded in the trees including a fresh victim looking out with still human eyes. The Swamp Thing was once a normal human, a research scientist named Dr. Alec Holland who was working in the Louisiana swamps on an ecological restorative that could potentially turn a desert into a garden. When his lab is exploded he is left for dead but actually became changed by his formula into the Swamp Thing.

The series does have an arch villain, Dr. Anton Arcane played by Mark Lindsay Chapman. He makes for a reasonably sinister bad guy always sending his mutated henchmen, Un-Men, after Swampy. Jim sort of looked at Swampy as a leafy Yoda type mentor. Jim would ask Swampy a simply question and the leaf man would give some cryptic answer. Naturally there has to be some romantic entanglements. Tressa is hit on right from the start. His mile high hair was not only a bad left over from the eighties but the hair spray required to keep it up was probably responsible for half the hole in the ozone. There was also Abigail Arcane (Kari Wuhrer) who shows up in the later part of the season but leaves before season two.

The series had a difficult time in this first season in defining its niche. It starts out more like the ‘Outer Limits’ which is understandable since Joseph Stefano wrote and worked as executive producer for several episodes. Some of these earlier episodes had good little morality plays and twist endings. Later in the season the stories frequently degraded into the freak of the week club. This inconsistency hurt the series almost as much as the out of order episodes. USA Network was just finding its way then. It was changing from a sports oriented network to a wider viewer base. It also was affiliated with the then new Sci-Fi Channel.

Even though the season here was uneven it is still part of cult classic Sci-Fi. It is also great that even a little show like this gets attention from Shout Factory. Aside from the twenty two episodes there are interviews with series co-creator Len Wein and Swampy himself, Dick Durock. This is fun and a part of sci-fi history so enjoy it.

Posted 01/17/08