Recently, MF posted about her longtime fear of the movie Foul Play. That got me thinking about the irrational fears I still have left over from when I was a kid, one of which is quicksand. TV is to blame. If I'm not mistaken, most of my readers are too young to have been plagued by fear of quicksand, which is of the same generation as alien invasion and being eaten by piranhas. The following list, stolen from The Quicksand Page, is a sampling of television shows that fed my phobia (and the creator of the site's apparent fetish):
Batman. An episode with the Riddler where Batman and Robin sink into quicksand cake (yea, right!) Another episode has poor little Batgirl thrown into a vat of caviar (like qs.)
Black Beauty/English TV Series - Episode: The Pit Pony(RKO Video rentals used to have this one on their shelves.) A teenager falls into quicksand after backing away from a pony that keeps advancing on him.
Brisco County Jr. and his partner Lord Bowler are captured by pirates in the desert and forced to 'walk the plank' into a quicksand pit. Up to their chins and then some, they are rescued by Brisco's horse, Comet. Great scene.
Dukes of Hazard. While running thtough the woods, Daisy Duke falls into quicksand and is rescued by her brothers.
Fantasy Island - (TV Episode) One plot has a man who wants to find out about his father. This lands him in an Island prison. As he escapes with a guy who he believes killed his father, the guy falls into very realistic, thick, grey quicksand and is rescued by the the man and his wife just as Mr. Rourke shows up at the last minute.
Get Smart- At the end of an episode where KAOS has the giant magnet on an island, the bad guy marches Max, Agent 99, and the chief to a point where they start sinking in Synthetic-(99:"Synthetic-sand!?" Bad Guy:"It's kvicker than kvicksand!")Funny shots as they sink knee-deep, waist deep, chest deep, and then shoulder deep in sawdust/water.
Gilligan's Island. There is a LOST episode with headhunters involved where MaryAnn and Ginger are up to their necks in a mud bog, taking a mud bath (very little motion or muddy skin seen, but nice, never the less). This episode doesn't show up in the official guide to Gilligan's Island, but it is confirmed! The headhunters weren't as politically correct as today's producers would have liked! :)
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys - In one episode, Hercules is guiding a group of refugees through a swamp. While attacked by a giant, winged reptile, a well-endowed young lady and her brother fall into a quicksand pit and are pulled out by our hero after going all the way under. The quicksand is of the dry type, but the scene is good, nonetheless.
I Love Lucy. There's an episode with Jack Benny where Lucy shows him how they have made their vault impossible to be broken into. They step into dry looking quicksand together and slowly sink into it while talking.
The Incredible Hulk. In the second movie before the series began, Bill Bixby and this girl he's protecting step into quicksand (muddy water). He turns into the Hulk after he gets her out but can't get out himself. Baddies also fall in but get out with the help of their dogs.
JAG.The episode dealt with an investigation into a female marine recruit who was killed in boot camp. A pretty JAG lieutenant goes undercover as a recruit to find the killer. She ultimately does find the killer... sinking in quicksand, and gets a full confession before pulling her out. The killer then shows her gratitude by pushing the lieutenant into the same bog.
Land of the Giants. Episode called "Manhunt." Giant is caught inquicksand and has the ship of the heroes with him. Slow quicksand, as almost entire episode takes place with giant caught.
One Life to Live - In an episode (?) several years ago, a group stranded on Barrington Island tries to escape from a mob family that owned the island. A woman crosses a clearing because she thought she saw a boat and stepped into quicksand....it lasted several episodes until she finally got pulled out.
Six Million Dollar Man- One of the first episodes. A girl needs her scientist/father rescued from evil types in the everglades. On the way in, Steve rescues her from some watery quicksand. At the end, leads them to the same spot, leaps over, and waits for them to spot him so they rush forward to their doom.
The Bionic Woman- After plunging in and pulling herself out, she pulls the same trick as above on the prison guards pursuing her.
The Fall Guy- Hunting for treasure in the Everglades, Heather Thomas falls into some quicksand.
Tarzan: The Series - While searching for his beginnings, Tarzan and Jane must cross a swamp. Jane falls into muddy quicksand and goes under. Tarzan rescues her and they clean up under a waterfall. The coverage in this one is very nice.
PBS Wonderworks movie - title forgotten. Based on the book 'Freckles, Boy Of The Limberlost': A boy working in a Pacific Northwest logging camp encourages his budding romance with a pretty naturalist by pulling her out of the quicksand into which she had sunk up to her pretty ankles.
Xena: Warrior Princes - In "Return of Callisto," Xena and Callisto fall into a quicksand pit after a running chariot battle.
4 comments:
I remember being a little scared of quicksand and being worried that I'd walk into it at any moment - on my way to school, on a hike at Girl Scout camp.
The worst one I can remember is in the movie The Neverending Story when the boy's horse Artax sinks in the Swamp of Sadness.
I didn't remember the horse's name and had to look it up and then I spent 20 minutes trying to figure out which story is true - if the horse really DID die while filming that scene or if it was the boy who was injured, but not horribly. I think the horse didn't die. I hope, anyway. The internet is so unreliable. And I have work to do!
Come on now, every good child of TV knows that Bo, Luke, and Daisy Duke were cousins, not siblings.
tania, tania, tania.
don't feel pressured to put just anything on your blog. we all can wait for something interesting.
Would my fear of vampires be more entertaining?
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