Episode 0 : Shazam! with Jackson Bostwick

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We start off the podcast by sharing a Roundtable episode of The
Chronic Rift. In it, Shazam star Jackson Bostwick talks about his
time on the classic Saturday morning series. He gets into how he
was hired, how he did many of his own stunts, and how he
ultimately left the series as the second season was starting.


 


Saturday morning's Shazam! brought the world Jackson Bostwick as
Captain Marvel. Bostwick's era as the Big Red Cheese began in the
early 1970's and is only the second guy in history to play
Captain Marvel. Tom Tyler was the first in 1941 in the old
Republic Studios serial "The Adventures of Captain Marvel."
Bostwick became very good friends with C.C. Beck, the artist of
Captain Marvel from the Golden Age of comics. He was the original
Captain Marvel on the live-action TV show, and set the standard
for the highly-rated children's series, which ran for several
years.


The actor says his audition was a very low-pressure situation. "I
had just signed with a commercial agent, and a week later he sent
me out on an interview. I thought it was for a Captain Marvel
cereal, like Captain Crunch, because he was a commercial agent.
So, I went out there in a white T-shirt, jeans and cowboy boots,
thinking it was a general cattle call at Filmation Studios. They
had done the Lone Ranger cartoon, which was their big claim to
fame before Shazam! I walked in and met the producer, Bob
Chenault. Bob told me later that he knew when he heard my voice
and saw my smile that I would be their Captain Marvel. I didn't
realize that they had been looking for more than four months!
They had narrowed it down to four people, and had gone from
actors who were athletes to athletes who were actors. Now they
were back to actors who were athletes."


Bostwick approached the role of Captain Marvel in much the same
way that his friend, legendary actor Clayton Moore, approached
the Lone Ranger. "Being a fan of the Lone Ranger, I wanted to
give the kids something to lookup to like Clay gave me to look up
to. And I hope I did that. I know how critical kids are, and I
wanted to make sure I was presenting myself right, and not
putting my hands on my hips and preaching to them.


Bostwick has always been inclined toward the arts, ever since
childhood in Alabama, where he was also a comic book reader. His
favorite? Captain Marvel, of course! "Captain Marvel was always a
hero of mine when I was growing up with comics. My mother, God
love her, threw out all my comics when I went to college,
thinking she was doing me a favor. The would be worth a fortune
today.


The actor still reports that he's still recognized today for his
role in Shazam! "Most of the time it's, "I know I've seen
him--no, you ask him!" And once they find out, then everybody
knows! It loosens them up. Then it's "I knew you looked
familiar!" My dad told me that he knew I was doing all right when
they went to the country club and it was no longer "Dr. &
Mrs. Bostwick," but "Captain Marvel's mom and dad..."