Misfits of Science is an American science fiction comedy-drama television series that aired on NBC from October 4, 1985, to February 21, 1986. Although the show only lasted 1 season and 16 episodes, it’s only my childhood favourites and it should have been more successful. It starred Dean Paul Martin, Kevin Peter Hall, Mark Thomas Miller, a very young Courtney Cox, Jennifer Holmes (she was only in 7 episodes), Max Wright (just before he joined ALF) & Diane Civita. It’s about a group of super-powered humans, and later inspired the tv show Heroes, (same writer). It was a lot of fun.
Dr. Billy Hayes, the leader of the team (who has no superpowers). He is a young research scientist at the Humanidyne Institute who specializes in “human anomalies” and his boyish enthusiasm who often gets the team into as much trouble as he gets them out of. He like Jane Miller has no superpower but his thinking always finds a way out. Dr. Elvin “El” Lincoln, Billy’s colleague and close friend. He has the ability to shrink for minutes at a time from his height of 7 ft 4 in (224 cm) to 11 in (28 cm) via hormonal treatments which he activates by pressing a nerve on the back of his neck.  Johnny “Johnny B” Bukowski, a rock and roll musician who was electrically shocked on stage which resulted in disturbing electrical powers. He continually drains any electrically charged items in his surroundings, forcing him to live in isolation. He wears sunglasses because his eyes glow when he is fully charged. He can throw lightning bolts forcefully and run at superhuman speed, but is vulnerable to water.
Gloria Dinallo, a troubled telekinetic teenager with a history of juvenile delinquency and a mother in a mental institution who claims Gloria’s father is from outer space. She has a crush on Johnny. Gloria can only use her telekinesis on things that she can see: using a blindfold on her renders her powerless.  Jane Miller, Gloria’s probation officer. Although attracted to Billy, she is often put off by his eccentric behavior. Her character appears only in the earlier episodes, disappearing after the first 7 episodes. Dick Stetmeyer, the uptight director of the Humanidyne Institute & Miss Nance, the scientists’ secretary, who is more interested in working on her nails and coffee breaks, round out the characters.
Dean Paul Martin died in 1987 in a snowstorm up in the mountains. Kevin Peter Hall, who would later portray The Predator in two films and Harry in Harry & The Hendersons, would later died due to AIDS related pneumonia in 1991. In 1991, Mark Thomas iIller was in a disfiguring accident that stalled his career, so he became a building contractor specializing in home remodeling for the handicapped, which he did until 2003. Mark made a minor attempt at reviving his career by performing with the Groundling Improv Group, but soon found out that he had lost the patience required for the business of acting. In 2003, he started a product engineering and development company.
Well does this game ever bring back memories. Even though I think we also played the Indian version called Hind Trade (with Indian places and Indian Rupees) Monopoly is where it’s at. I never owned a board of my own but a couple of my cousins did and whenever we had a few days off from school & college, we would gather up in one house and play hours and hours of games while listening to music. I associate monopoly with late afternoon & evening games with my cousins.
Well, it has been a long, long time since I stepped foot into a phone booth or an STD/ISD booth as they are usually called here. We also had the old coin operated booths as well which were only for local calls. Back in the 80s & especially throughout the 90s and early 2000s we used to be dependent on them. Usually when you were out of your home and you wanted to make a phone call, you had to go to one of these.