You may not upload any more photos to this memorial, This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has 20 photos, This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 5 photos to this memorial, This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has 30 photos, This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 15 photos to this memorial. Ken Curtis (born Curtis Wain Gates, July 2, 1916 - April 28, 1991) was an American singer and actor best known for his role as Festus Haggen on the CB. There was even bigger to come. We see you are using AdBlocker software. For a year, 19801981, Campbell was artistic director of the Liverpool Everyman Theatre. It was probably the only time I've personally seen the worlds of theatre and rock and roll truly merge, warp even, as people from the city's then exciting music scene piled in after their own gigs and became part of the show. He had seen them, and furthermore he had evidence that they were dragging people from villages into the jungle, turning them into zombies and sending their victims back to walk among the tribal people. His own productions were getting bigger. He claimed a can't-live-with-it, can't-live-without-it affair with the city, the sort that other non-native artists have described as stomach-churning, and it began in 1976, in Mathew Street, then a collection of really ramshackle warehouses. Campbell clashed with his leading man, and Anderson took over the direction. There are no volunteers for this cemetery. Raleigh's School of Night (also called The School of Atheism) was a group of highly literate and intellectual men who would meet to discuss forbidden topics. One eye-popping aspect of the production was that for each set change the entire audience was wafted 1/2000th-of-an-inch above the floor aboard an industrial hovercraft. Please contact Find a Grave at [emailprotected] if you need help resetting your password. The sponsor of a memorial may add an additional. Include gps location with grave photos where possible. The Cardenio shows used Campbell's now well-established "Goader and Rhapsodes" technique, in which the goader (Campbell) pushed the rhapsodes (the cast) into feats that they would not be able to achieve without the pressure he could apply. His other small screen roles included Oscar Dean in Brookside, and an episode of classic sitcom Fawlty Towers. In May 1979, again at the ICA, the company presented the first stage version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He was all about risk, about breaking the rules without even stopping to consciously consider what the rules might be. The place was packed. Campbell was found dead Sunday at his home in Epping Forest, east of London, said Nicki Stoddart of United Agents. Ken Campbell, legend, dies at 66 Angie Sammons 1 September 2008 IT seems fairly astonishing that someone with the sheer nerve and verve of Ken Campbell should bow out of the physical world without warning, without a final act or curtain call. From the late eighties onwards Campbell wrote and performed a series of one-man shows, each a mlange of autobiographical stand-up comedy, ontological speculation and popular-science rant. Born on 31 August 2008 in United Kingdom, Ken Campbell started his career as actor, director and writer (1941-2008) . Family (1) Spouse If you have questions, please contact [emailprotected]. I left convinced he was a genius. The show, If I Ruled The National Theatre, was a sustained attack on what he called the law of little imagination. His theatrical ideas, like the Enantiodromia expounded in Pigspurt (that each half of the asymmetrical face has its own character), have opened new possibilities for actors. After seeing the American Living Theatre at The Roundhouse in the early 1970s he was inspired to found The Ken Campbell Roadshow, a small theatre group that performed in unconventional venues such as pubs. Comic and actor Ken Campbell died yesterday at the age of 66. On 23 April 2005, Ken Campbell was asked by Mark Rylance, the artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe, to stage a celebration of Shakespeare's work. He co-wrote a stage version of the epic work Illuminatus!, a cycle of five plays lasting more than eight hours, later producing The Warp, a 10-play cycle which went on for 22 hours. on stage, Recording of performance in Manchester of The Captain sequence from, 2004 recording of Campbell on the origins of Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool, Gemma Bodinetz, artistic director of the Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ken_Campbell&oldid=1140477765, This page was last edited on 20 February 2023, at 06:53. After seeing the American Living Theatre at The Roundhouse in 1969 he was inspired to found The Ken Campbell Roadshow, a small theatre group that performed in unconventional venues such as pubs. Such was the anger among the older professionals that he reduced himself to appearing to forget his first line so the audience would not laugh. Add to your scrapbook. Biography. He has presented the Channel 4 television shows Reality On the Rocks, Brainspotting and Six Experiments that Changed the World. We are currently listing 6,083 upcoming comedy events. Several were published by Methuen. Campbell's School of Night group has become well known in the improvisational theatre and comedy scene, putting on shows and workshops and appearing in festivals as far afield as Elisnore Castle, the Wiesbaden Summer Improv Festival and the Improvaganza festival in Edmonton, Canada, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe; and returning several times to Shakespeare's Globe. There was an error deleting this problem. After RADA, he joined the Colchester Repertory Theatre. Played the role of Festus on TV's Gunsmoke and also sang with Sons of the Pioneers prior to becoming an actor. So he would have liked the fact that his final performance in the city, last year, was on that very same November 23. Shortly afterwards, I got a postcard beginning, typically, with the word "SEEKER! Campbell's take on it was that the group,[which?] which included playwrights and poets, were steeped in the art of extemporisation and would create from scratch, in perfect meter, plays and poems. Television and stage actor Ken Campbell has died at the age of 66, his agent has confirmed. The Bolton Octagon had money for an outreach project. This browser does not support getting your location. He staged his first performances in the bathroom of his childhood home: I was three years old and helped by my invisible friend, Peter. No, said Anderson, but he invited Campbell to join the Royal Court as a junior director anyway. Three of them were performed together at the National Theatre in 1993, as The Bald Trilogy: Furtive Nudist, Jamais Vu and Pigspurt.[14]. Quotes " In practice it turned into a nightly-changing series of literary challenges for the performers. He toured them worldwide. He performed in New York with the Public Theater at Lincoln Center, and with Ensemble Studio Theatre; and in Los Angeles at the Taper, South Coast Repertory . More mainstream ventures included an appearance on Fawlty Towers, a role in the 1980s sitcom In Sickness and in Health and work presenting science television programs. ken campbell actor cause of death. [12] Campbell was invited by John Cleese to appear with his Roadshow team in the first Secret Policeman's Ball in June 1979. This is a carousel with slides. In 2006 Campbell worked with Adam Meggido's theatre company the Sticking Place (now Extempore Theatre) and staged a run of In Pursuit of Cardenio at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, during which the cast were supposed to re-create a lost Shakespeare play through improvisational techniques. Ken Campbell Birthday and Date of Death. "[7] The artistic director of the Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse said, "He was the door through which many hundreds of kindred souls entered a madder, braver, brighter, funnier and more complex universe. This flower has been reported and will not be visible while under review. Campbell. He once told the critic Michael Billington, I dont believe in the pararnormal, but I allow or enjoy it. Aside from the paranormal themes that run through the Bald Trilogy, he also hosted several popular science programmes on television, including Brainspotting and Six Experiments That Changed the World. He worked as a stooge for the comic Dick Emery, who poured a pot of coffee into his lap one night for getting an unsolicited laugh. trilogy, an eight-hour epic reinterpreting world history as a giant conspiracy theory, opened the Cottesloe Theatre at the National, in March 1977. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate, or jump to a slide with the slide dots. . Neil Oram The Warp", "Ken Campbell: Actor, writer and director famed for his epic plays and one-man shows - Obituaries, News", "Ken Campbell oneman whirlwind of comic and surreal performances", "Obituary: Ken Campbell | Stage | guardian.co.uk", "Past productions 1991-1995 - Past Events - National Theatre", "Robert Anton Wilson 1: Ken Campbell intro", 'Nina Conti: The acclaimed ventriloquist on the seductions of acting and throat-singing', 'Nina Conti: A Ventriloquist's Story, BBC4 review', 'Nina Conti: 'I feel it's not in my film how much I miss Ken', British Comedy Guide - Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast - Nina Conti, British Comedy Guide - Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcase - Cariad Lloyd, British Comedy Guide - First Gig, Worst Gig - Michael Brunstrm, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Campbell on BBC Radio 3, on the Library of the Peculiar, Jeff Merrifield on putting Illuminatus! Mr. Campbell was found dead Sunday at his home in Epping Forest, east of London, said Nicki Stoddart of United Agents. Book theatre tickets to award-winning West End shows to see for London Theatre Week, Book theatre tickets to top West End plays during London Theatre Week. By the latter part of the run, a large section of the show was devoted to improvised songs. Ken was 66 years old at the time of death. ken campbell actor cause of death. They include Recollections of a Furtive Nudist, Jamais Vu, Mystery Bruises and Pigspurt. There, with Chris Langham, he formed the Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool, after stumbling across Peter O'Halligan and O'Halligan's Parlour above a market-stall place called Aunt Twackies (now Flanagan's Apple). Close this window, and upload the photo(s) again. Simule o espao aqui. Watching him work with young people was a joy. This was slightly romantic, but he learned a great deal about the craftand prevailing cultureof theatre in weekly rep. he was one of famous actor, director and writer (1941-2008) with the age years old group. In the early 1970s, he established The Ken Campbell Roadshow, a pub-performing theatre group whose other members included Bob Hoskins and Sylvester McCoy. Biography - A Short Wiki. His talents were already recognised as different from those of other students, but of a high and distinctive quality. Taxi driver Carl Chase as Hank Williams in The Show He Never Gave, Downtown Julie Brown as Disco Queen, and student Mark McGann as Lennon. Back at a regional repertory theatre, he really hit his stride. His film work included Derek Jarman's The Tempest (1979), Breaking Glass (1980), Joshua Then and Now (1985), The Bride (1985), Chris Bernard's Letter to Brezhnev (1985), Peter Greenaway's A Zed and Two Noughts (1985), Charles Crichton's A Fish Called Wanda (1988), Hard Men (1996), Alice in Wonderland (1999), Saving Grace (2000) and Creep (2004). Known as a master improviser and a pioneer of experimental theatre, he became known for his one-man shows that mixed stand-up, theatre and lecture. Your Scrapbook is currently empty. Try again later. You can customize the cemeteries you volunteer for by selecting or deselecting below. The doc says he died at his Los Angeles home at 12:35 AM. Neither party felt that Campbells work reflected the productions in the main house. Ken Campbell(1941-2008) Ken Campbell. The cause of death is currently unknown. Ken Curtis' Death - Cause and Date Born (Birthday) Jul 2, 1916 Death Date April 28, 1991 Age of Death 74 years Cause of Death Heart Attack Place of Death Fresno, California, United States Profession TV Actor The tv actor Ken Curtis died at the age of 74. Verify and try again. He was a writer, director and monologist, a. The tv actor Ken Howard died at the age of 71. Biography - A Short Wiki [20], Many contemporary performers cite Ken Campbell as an influence early in their careers, including Richard Herring, Nina Conti, Cariad Lloyd, Diane Morgan and Michael Brunstrm. A writer, director and actor, with a groundbreaking series of epic productions in the early 1970s, and latterly a highly acclaimed sequence of semi-autobiographical monologues, Campbell forged a highly intelligent and energetic theatrical style. Several grandees of the English theatre had been taken in by the hoax. Failed to remove flower. We will review the memorials and decide if they should be merged. Home; Sobre. Simon McBurney recalls Campbell waking him to talk about a musical sequel to the Ballad of Eskimo Nell, and vegetarian sausages. Death Valley Days, also guest-starring Denver Pyle and Cathy Lewis. [10] He was in a relationship with the ventriloquist and actress Nina Conti when she was 26 and he was 59; from him she inherited his collection of ventriloquist dummies. Family members linked to this person will appear here. The venue had been renovated in the 1970s to take rock operas. He was beginning to move in his own idiosyncratic directions. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? florida statute of frauds exceptions ken campbell actor cause of death. [6], Michael Coveney, in an obituary in The Guardian, described him as "one of the most original and unclassifiable talents in the British theatre of the past half-century. He. [11] He soon began writing and directing his own productions, including working with director Lindsay Anderson. From 1984, he made repeated efforts to adapt for the stage VALIS, the largely autobiographical cult science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick, but to the disappointment of fans, these efforts came to nothing. Year should not be greater than current year. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, Ken Campbell: Actor, writer and director famed for his epic plays and, Extra 10% off dresses & shoes - boohoo discount code, Extra 10% Nike discount code for students, Extra 20% off selected fashion and sportswear at Very, Compare broadband packages side by side to find the best deal for you, Compare cheap broadband deals from providers with fastest speed in your area, All you need to know about fibre broadband, Best Apple iPhone Deals in the UK March 2023, Compare iPhone contract deals and get the best offer this March, Compare the best mobile phone deals from the top networks and brands. If you notice a problem with the translation, please send a message to [emailprotected] and include a link to the page and details about the problem. At Nottingham Playhouse, Richard Eyre commissioned two plays on local historical subjects Bendigo (1974), a portrait of a 19th-century prize-fighter whose training regime included wandering into pubs and spitting into people's drinks to provoke them into trying to hit him, and Walking Like Geoffrey, (1975), about an entire village that feigned madness to avoid taxation. The cause of death has not been determined. Translation on Find a Grave is an ongoing project. Jessica Campbell, best known for her roles in the 1999 film "Election" and cult classic series "Freaks and Geeks," has died at 38.. Campbell's family announced the actor died on Dec. 29 . The craft's carrying capacity meant that audiences were limited to a maximum of eighty each night. Having moved away from Walthamstow, he lived in Epping Forest with his dogs, Max, Gertie and Bear, and continued to inspire new generations to nonconformity, with evenings of improvisation, most recently appearing at the Edinburgh Fringe. He was never less than professional and serious in his commercial work, but his description of television as tie acting (where you have to mumble into your tie) indicates where his real interest as a performer lay. Looks like you might have an AdBlocker on. He was an actor and writer, known for Creep (2004), A Fish Called Wanda (1988) and Letter to Brezhnev (1985). British actor, director and writer (1941-2008) - Ken Campbell was born in Ilford (town in east London, United Kingdom) on December 10th, 1941 and died in Loughton (town in Essex, England) on August 31st, 2008 at the age of 66. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. Early life [ edit ] Campbell attended York Community High School in Elmhurst, Illinois , Southern Illinois University Carbondale and Columbia College Chicago . cemeteries found within kilometers of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. This relationship is not possible based on lifespan dates. She added: Ken was a one-off. Doctor Who could have learned a lot about parallel worlds from it. The world will never be the same.. Save to an Ancestry Tree, a virtual cemetery, your clipboard for pasting or Print. This reflects the man. . Try again later. He died on August 31, 2008 in Epping Forest, Essex, England, UK. He had just come back from the South American jungles and was claiming he had proof positive that zombies did exist. The Warp, which he claimed to have funded by lying to the Arts Council, went hand-in-hand with pranks against the British theatre establishment. This account already exists, but the email address still needs to be confirmed. He was memorable in Jack Pulman's 1981 television series Private Schulz as the acerbic Herr Krauss, an underwear factory owner hoping the war would continue so as not to jeopardise his contracts with the German army. Quickly see who the memorial is for and when they lived and died and where they are buried. Ilford, London Borough of Redbridge, Greater London, England, Loughton, Epping Forest District, Essex, England. Born in Ilford, Essex, in 1941, Campbell went to Rada before launching his acting career in the early 1960s as Dick Emery's stooge. If you ever saw him perform or got caught up in his madness, as, down the years, countless people did, hereabouts, you might have heard the small news item that he had died, and be then left wondering: How did that happen? Or That wasn't in the script!. Ironic, given that Campbell was one of a small number of artists who couldn't tear himself away from the place. The Scottish audiences were as enthusiastic as the London crowd. Chortle. His friend Mark Borkowski, the PR guru, confirmed the news, saying: 'The theatre and entertainment . "[5] The Times labelled Campbell a one-man whirlwind of comic and surreal performance. Campbell himself boasted that he had out-Alf Garnetted Alf Garnett, with the line "If there's been a murder, it's better to hang the wrong person than nobody". He played Alf Garnett's neighbour, Fred Johnson in the series of the 1980s sitcom In Sickness and in Health, which had the effect of cementing his career-long friendship with Warren Mitchell. Learn more about managing a memorial . An email has been sent to the person who requested the photo informing them that you have fulfilled their request, There is an open photo request for this memorial. The original London theatre guide since 1995 Stay up to date with our newsletter. He accepted more television work in the 1980s, making regular appearances in Brookside and rejoining Warren Mitchell for In Sickness and in Health. Trilogy - also featured Jim Broadbent and Campbells then wife Prunella Gee and later transferred to the National Theatre. The cause of his death is not yet known, as he has not been ill. Thank you for fulfilling this photo request. Here is all you want to know, and more! The two had previously fallen out when Nunn had been director of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1981. The 2005 Improvathon attempted a 36-hour performance without a script. His death was unexpected. We have estimated Ken Campbell's net worth , money, salary, income, and assets. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/90003585/ken-campbell. Lindsay Anderson invited him back to the Royal Court with the Roadshow; but before this, he had experienced an epiphany, at the Station Hotel at Newcastle Upon Tyne in 1971, when the Roadshow happened to coincide with a science-fiction convention. Writer, Actor & 'One-off' Ken Campbell Dies, Age 66 Locations West End 01 September 2008 Playwright, director, actor, comedian and science fiction fan Ken Campbell(pictured) passed away yesterday (31 August 2008), aged 66. Essex-born Campbell was also a theatre producer, bringing The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to the stage for the first time in 1979. The death of the restlessly brilliant Ken Campbell, aged just 66, has robbed the theatre of one of its most inspiring talents. They divorced in 1983 but remained close friends. 11 September 2008. Wide-rangingly entertaining (his show Im Not Mad, Ive Just Read Different Books was aptly titled), the plays introduced his latest theatrical obsessions (ventriloquism, pidgin) and tied them into a narrative of coincidences and conspiracies. Campbell is survived by his ex-wife Prunella Gee and their daughter Daisy. The success of this remarkable effort by all concerned led to three full marathon performances at the ICA. Campbell had recently returned from the Edinburgh Fringe festival, where he performed in a typically anarchic work titled Showstopper! ", inviting me to attend a lecture by Gerry Webb of the British Interplanetary Society on colonisation of other worlds, organised by Campbell under a railway arch on Walthamstow Marshes. No animated GIFs, photos with additional graphics (borders, embellishments. He more or less said it was a crime to be serious."[13]. You have chosen this person to be their own family member. Try again. Campbell became a star turn at the annual Fortean Times convention, UnCon. IT seems fairly astonishing that someone with the sheer nerve and verve of Ken Campbell should bow out of the physical world without warning, without a final act or curtain call. The death certificate also notes Ken was a veteran of the United States Armed Forces . A clash between Campbell and the Octagon was inevitable. The cause of death is currently unknown, but Campbell had not reportedly been ill. Born on 10 December 1941 in Ilford, Essex, Campbell trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and got his first break understudying Warren Mitchell with whom, years later, he appeared in the TV sitcom In Sickness and in Health (playing Alf Garnetts neighbour Fred) and in 1999, in the West End production of Yasmina Rezas comedy Art at Colchester Repertory theatre. Drag images here or select from your computer for Ken Campbell memorial. My own slight acquaintance with Ken Campbell dated from around 1989, when I saw an early version of Furtive Nudist at a basement theatre in Camden: in the interval, he invited the audience over the road to the pub, where he showed off photographic evidence of some of the improbable claims he had made. Langham was Arthur Dent, and narration of "The Book" was split between two usherettes. He toured these nationally internationally, with numerous stints in London. Ken Campbell was a great enthusiast. There is 1 volunteer for this cemetery. His passion for science fiction was a recurrent feature of his work, forming The Science Ficton Theatre of Liverpool in 1976. The show continues to tour and has had a BBC Radio 4 series. Failed to delete memorial. June 8, 2022 ken campbell actor cause of death . He has been called "a one-man dynamo of British theatre." Other roles included playing a mad scientist on the children's programmeErasmus Microman on ITV from 1988 to 1989. Members included Bob Hoskins, Bernard Wrigley, Jane Wood, Dave Hill and Sylvester McCoy. Ligue agora tel: (86) 3213-1000 / 99541-1000 / 99517-4096. Campbell was hired to run it. People like Terry Canning and Ian Broudie were in the band, Bill Drummond designed the sets for the strong acting ensemble which was meant to include Bill Nighy, but didn't at first. He was instantly recognisable: a short . Ken Campbell Net Worth. Chortle had 244,853 unique visitors in January 2023. Campbell felt humiliated and concluded that he was not cut out for the standard theatre. He also presented Channel 4 TV shows on science and the paranormal. In 1999, Campbell starred with Warren Mitchell and John Fortune in Art in London's West End. He presented a series of literary improvisation shows, including a run at The Royal Court called Dcor Without Production, in which the cast would create scenes and songs in the styles of poets, playwrights, novelists and songwriters. In 1976, he established the Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool: its staging of Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminatus! They were generally long, enthusiastic, sometimes repetitive or tedious, more often astoundingly hilarious. Campbell's theatrical credits also included a series of offbeat one-man shows, including The Bald Trilogy and a performance of Macbeth in Pidgin English. Ken Campbell, who has died suddenly aged 66, was one of the most original and unclassifiable talents in the British theatre of the past half-century. Playwright, director, actor, comedian and science fiction fan. Once youd developed this [RADA-type] voice, he said, You were encouraged to use it at all timeson the bus, in the pub and so on. The school by no means discouraged him. [17][18][19], Campbell lived in Loughton, adjacent to Epping Forest, in a nineteenth-century Swiss chalet. By signing up you are confirming you are 16 or over. He was nearly cast as Dr. Who in 1987, but lost out to Sylvester McCoy: insiders said his reading of the part was too dark.. Trilogy, which, very sweepingly, was all about conspiracy theories, magic and drugs, the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu and the 23 Enigma. You are only allowed to leave one flower per day for any given memorial. The experience was not happy. Campbell remained fascinated by science, both official and fringe. On radio he played Poodoo in The Hitchhiker's Guide and he unsuccessfully auditioned for the part of the seventh Doctor Who in 1987, being beaten to the role by Sylvester McCoy. Written by on 27 febrero, 2023.Posted in long text copy paste i love you.long text copy paste i love you. It's difficult to believe that a mind like Ken Campbell's can suddenly be no more. cemeteries found in North Weald, Epping Forest District, Essex, England will be saved to your photo volunteer list. That he first turned up without being appointed to any role, on any salary, by any board of officials, was perhaps why it worked. Variety and the Flying V logos are trademarks of Variety Media, LLC. Instead, he was encouraged to think of his own, well-developed voice as part of a repertoire of funny voices. Kenneth Hudson Campbell (born June 5, 1962) is an American Film, television and voice actor. He was found dead in his home in Epping Forest, Essex, where he recently returned at the end of a holiday after performing at last months Edinburgh Fringe festival in the new improvised musical comedy Showstopper!, created anew each night based on reviews. He established the Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool, in part so he could socialise with science fiction writers, whom he found much more fun than playwrights. With Chris Langham he co-wrote a five-play, eight-hour version of Illuminatus! Despite his committed anti-establishment stance, the establishment continued to court him: in the early 1990s, when the National was having a success with the Hare Trilogy, David Hare's plays about contemporary Britain, Campbell came on board with his own "Bald Trilogy" three long, digressive monologues (Recollections of a Furtive Nudist, Pigspurt and Jamais Vu, all 1993) inspired by Charles Fort, after whom the Fortean Times is named, and his belief that everything is connected: hence, Campbell explained, Fort never used any punctuation but a dash, believing that a full stop is either a mistake or a dash heading straight at you. . Scuba Certification; Private Scuba Lessons; Scuba Refresher for Certified Divers; Try Scuba Diving; Enriched Air Diver (Nitrox) Weve updated the security on the site. Are you sure that you want to report this flower to administrators as offensive or abusive? In the late 1960s, his play Jack Sheppard, about the 18th-century highwayman, was staged at the Mermaid Theatre, in London, and he tried his hand at directing at the Royal Court. He was best known for being a TV Actor. In the final years of his life Campbell suddenly found himself cast in a whole new TV role: that of doggedly curious sceptic called upon to probe the outer realms of particle physics and cognitive science on behalf of the casual viewer, particularly where the science bordered on the paranormal.