Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Forum administrators, Interface administrators, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
116,916
edits
m (revise quote template spacing) |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (rewrote part of main article, added tropes, franchisetropes, added Project Gutenberg and home page links.) |
||
Line 1:
{{work}}
1910
While popular in his time, Tom proved to have less staying power than his Stratemeyer stablemates [[Hardy Boys|Frank and Joe Hardy]] and [[Nancy Drew]], perhaps because of how quickly his "cool technology" was superseded in the real world.
An Atomic-age revival of the franchise starring his son reached 30 or so volumes between 1954 and 1971, and expanded out of what was basically the [[Diesel Punk]] setting of the original series into more distinctly "Golden Age of SF" devices and stories, starting with a giant atomic-powered airplane and eventually going into space with antigravity. An intriguing thread running through the books was the continuing effort of the Swifts to establish meaningful communication with a distant race of [[Starfish Aliens]] who had contacted them.
Revived IN SPACE! in the early 1980s, in [[Hollywood California|Southern California]] in the 1990s and [http://tomswift.bobfinnan.com/ts5.htm in the first person] in the 2000s.▼
▲Revived IN SPACE! in the early 1980s, in [[Hollywood California|Southern California]] in the 1990s and [http://tomswift.bobfinnan.com/ts5.htm in the first person] in the 2000s. However, none of these series showed nearly as much staying power as the first two
Origin of the "[[Tom Swifty]]", such as ''"Pass me the shellfish," said Tom crabbily'' or ''"How was your colonoscopy?" asked Tom probingly.'' This is something of a [[Beam Me Up, Scotty]] (or "Play it again, Sam") situation, as while Stratemeyer was [http://www.fun-with-words.com/tom_swifties_history.html eager to employ adverbs] and [[wikipedia:Tom Swifty|reluctant to use]] [[Said Bookism|the plain verb "said"]], actual "Tom Swifty" puns were rare.
The first 25 as well as the 39th Tom Swift Sr. books are in the public domain and available as [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/267 downloadable texts] from [[Project Gutenberg]]. [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/42251 Two of the "Tom Swift, Jr." books] are also available there, as well.
Home pages exist on tomswift.info for both the [http://www.tomswift.info/homepage/oldindex.html "Tom Swift, Sr."] and [http://www.tomswift.info/homepage/index.html "Tom Swift, Jr."] series.
In 1983, an abortive attempt at a television adaptation was made. ''[[The Tom Swift/Linda Craig Mystery Hour]]'' starred [[Willie Aames]] and [[Lori Loughlin]] as the title characters. It only got as far as a [[Pilot Episode]] which was broadcast as a [[TV Movie]] to disappointing ratings.
----
{{franchisetropes}}
* [[Antiquated Linguistics]]: Inevitable, due to the time they were written.
* [[Character Name and the Noun Phrase]]: Probably the [[Ur Example]].
* [[
* [[Defictionalization]]: [[Shock and Awe|Thomas Swift's Electric Rifle]] is the source of the term "TaSER".
* [[Dirty Communists]]: A frequent antagonist in the "Tom Swift, Jr." books.
* [[Either or Title]]: All of the books in the original series, such as ''Tom Swift and His Motor Cycle; or, Fun and Adventure on the Road''
* [[First Contact Math]]: Tom Swift Jr. and his father communicate with aliens this way.
* [[Gadgeteer Genius]]: Possibly the [[Ur Example]] of this trope, too.
* [[Kid Detective]]
* [[MST]]: ''[http://keithpalmer.ca/mst3k/favourites/tom-swifts-war-tank.txt Tom Swift's War Tank]'' is one of the more extensive [[MS Ting
* [[Parrot Exposition]]: Notoriously overused in the earlier novels and the source for much of the humor in the aforementioned [[MS Ting]].
* [[Raygun Gothic]]
Line 27 ⟶ 37:
* [[Teen Genius]]: Tom, of course.
* [[Tom Swifty]]: [[Trope Namer]], though as mentioned actual examples are rare.
----
=== The ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' presentation of ''[http://keithpalmer.ca/mst3k/favourites/tom-swifts-war-tank.txt Tom Swift's War Tank]'' has examples of: ===
|