Forgotten Sidekick Week: Orko

 Orko

born 1980s in the Trolla dimension (not to be confused with the Trololololololo dimension). 

Most likely because the beneficiary of his sidekickerage had no real need for it, Mr. Orko could be classified as one of those helpers who actually hindered the hero's progress.  Accidentally ending up in Eternia during some cosmic flimflammery Orko saved young Prince Adam and his pet cat Cringer from a tar swamp.  While this was fortunate for Prince Adam, who later in life took on the mantle of He-Man, it also seemed to be one of the few helpful attempts that didn't backfire for Orko.  Combining a lack of control over his magic powers with a zest to help and a curiousity about life in Eternia, Orko was the source of iritation to others like Man-at-Arms and of laughter for we the viewers.

Interesting tidbit:  the original character prototype for Orko was called Gorpo, but because animaters often would flip cells to double their usefulness a non-symmetrical character like "G" would produce continuity problems.

Lou Schemer (credited as Erik Gunden) provided the voice of Orko.

Forgotten Sidekick Week: Pamela Hensley

Pamela Hensley

Born October 3, 1950 Glendale, CA

Proving that Sidekickology is not restricted to either men or shady characters, Ms. Hensley served as aide du camp to Matt Houston, titular protagonist of the ABC series that ran from 1982-1985.  Lee Horsley played Matlock Houston, a billionaire Texas oilman who, for some reason, also worked as a private investigator in his ample spare time.  Ms. Hensley played his lawyer, C.J. Parsons, who provided sage advice, someone to become imperiled very frequently and a Commodore VIC20 that seemed to have an anachronistic amount of networking/database capabilities.

Ms. Hensley is perhaps better known (especially to young men now in their 30s and 40s) for her previous role as the mischievous Princess Ardala on the 1979-80 series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.

Matt Houston seems to have been the venue for Ms. Hensley's last onscreen activity.  Wikipedia reveals her more recent activities have included the 2004 publication of a small cookbook called The Jewish-Sicilian Cookbook authored under the name Pamela Hensley Vincent.

Forgotten Sidekick Week: Thom Bray

Thom Bray

Born April 30th 1954

80s television crime dramas saw the rise of pastel casual wear, colourful and exotic locations and a sidekick culture that ran  parallel to the tried and true ex-con / small time hood paradigm.  It was the hour of the nerd.  On Riptide Mr. Bray played Murray "Boz" Bozinsky, a scientist / computer hacker who sidekicked Vietnam vets-turned private investigators Cody Allen and Nick Ryder, played by Perry King and Joe Penny.  Boz himself had a sidekick of sorts: a non-verbal robot dubbed "Roboz."  The name of the show was also the name of the boat the trio used as homebase in King Harbor Marina.  The show ran from 1984-86 on NBC.

His post-Riptide credits include stints as writer and producer on shows such as Designing Women and Nash Bridges.  He is currently a drama teacher at Five Oaks Middle School in Beaverton, Oregon, and also teaches Television Studies at Portland State University.

Forgotten Sidekick Week: Charlie Callas

Charlie Callas

Born December 20. 1924 in Brooklyn New York

As a stand-up comedian Mr. Callas' defining moment was, perhaps, getting banned permanently from the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson after shoving Johnny on-air in a desperate attempt to generate laughs.  That was frowned upon, apparently.

His sidekickerage came at the service of Robert Wagner and Eddie Albert for three seasons of Switch, a CBS series that ran between 1975-78.  Wagner and Albert were a crimefighting duo, the latter playing a retired cop and the former an ex-conman who threw together to form a Private Investigations office (as was the way in the 70s) whose speciality was "out-conning the cons."  Callas played Max Argos, another former con-man and associate of Wagner's character, Pete Ryan.  His concurrent function, other than providing ex-con-man insight, was running a restaurant where the crew could meet.

Mr. Callas, apparently also an avid photographer and astronomer, just wrapped production (a cameo appearence) in the as-yet-unreleased 3-D movie Horrorween which also features appearences by Jenna Jameson, William Shatner and Donald Trump.


Here he is with Dom DeLuise.

Forgotten Sidekick Week: Bart Braverman

BART BRAVERMAN


Born Februrary 1st, 1946 in Los Angeles, CA

Mr. Braverman is best known/best forgotten for his role as Bobby "Binzer" Borso on the ABC televsion show Vega$.  His sidekickery was in the service of Robert Urich who played the leading role of P.I. Dan Tanna. He appeared in 21 episodes between 1978-81.  Wikipedia describes Binzer's character arc thusly:  a college student who did Dan Tanna's leg work and usually provided comic relief. In the beginning of the series, Binzer was a petty thief who fled to Vegas to escape his former partners in crime from back east, as described in one episode... Tanna seemed to have taken him under his wing and used his knowledge and connections of the street.

In those halcyon days Mr. Braverman also made several appearences on pre-Reality Show degradation programs like Match Game, Hollywood Squares, Love Boat, and Fantasy Island... the last of which featured segments titled Cyrano/The Magician where Mr. Braverman played a character called Timothy Potter.  Potter... Magician... sound familar???  That Fantasy Island episode also featured a guest appearance from Judy Landers who coincidentally was also a recurring character on Vega$.

Mr. Braverman continues to work in Hollywood, most recently in a 2007 appearence as "Ambassador" on "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody"