The Adventures of Owlman & Academ

While Stan was at Rice, he produced a number of different programs for KTRU. He was even Program Director in during the school year 1977-1978.

During his final semester, he and his best friend in the Rice Student Body, Keller Carney, decided to produce a radio serial influenced by one of Stan's favorite Radio shows, Chickenman. This turned out to be The Adventures of Owlman & Academ.

The Adventures of Owlman & Academ: The Original Series

Owlman was first aired on KTRU in the spring of 1978 and had a total of seven episodes. These episodes were entitled:

• The Computer That Loved Me

• Reveille, A Cur to the Corps

• The Origin of Owlman

• The Origin of Academ

• The Trouble with Triplicate

• The King of the Gnomes

• The Master Baker

Keller and Stan wrote a wrap-up on the series which has never been published until now.

The regular players were:

• • Stan Barber as Owlman

  • Keller Carney as Academ

  • Tom Smith as Chief Street (except for The Computer That Loved Me when the role was played by David Gutierrez)

  • Roberta Witt as Universal Woman

  • David Gutierrez as the Announcer (except for The Computer that Loved Me when the part was voiced by Keith Robinson).

Feature players were:

• • Cindy Childress as the Librarian (from The Computer that Loved Me)

  • Bill Studebaker as the Computer Fairy (from The Computer that Loved Me

  • Bob Raulston as Sammy, The Sprint of Rice and Commander Klutz (from The Origin of Owlman)

  • Alex Schmadt as Kowalski (from the two origin episodes)

  • Debbie Gronke as Ms. Snoid (from The Trouble with Triplicate)

  • Rick Prescott as The Examiner (from The Trouble with Triplicate)

  • Steve Sambrano as the King of the Gnomes (from the episode of the same name)

  • Grungy as the Blear's Announcer (from The King of the Gnomes)

  • David Butler as the Master Baker (from the episode of the same name)

The New Adventures of Owlman & Academ

Owlman returned to the airwaves in 1981. Since Keller was no longer available to voice Academ, Owlman started this new series of adventures with a search for a new Academ. This new series aired that episode in KTRU March 3, 1981.

Episodes during 1981 included:

• • A New Academ

  • The Return of Universal Woman

  • The Adventures of Academ

  • The Adventures of the Announcer

  • The Phonetasm

In the Spring of 1982, the titles of the episodes that aired are:

• The Adventures of the Gnome

• The Adventures of the F.B.I. Agent

• The Adventures of Shelby Kirkpatrick

  • A Performance of The New Wave Owlman written by David Collins

• Pheasantman

• The Case of the Unnamed Villians

• The Birds Return

• The Return of the Master Baker

• The Antique Rice

  • A special episode that features outtakes

  • A Parody of Owlman called Fowlman written by Tom Evans (a.k.a. Snave T. Goat)

• The Wrath of Corpsman

• The Laughing Executioner

• Uncle Nasty

The regular players were:

• • Stan Barber as Owlman

  • Greg Cagle as Academ

  • Paul Williamson as Chief Street

  • Karen Pieper as Shelby Kirkpatrick

  • David Hoehl as the Announcer

Recurring players included:

• • Jon Singer as the F.B.I. Agent

  • David Hoehl as the Gnome

  • Sharon Hughes as various female fans and by-standers

  • David Tuttle as the Crime Counselor from C.R.O.A.C.R., the general manager of KTRU and various male by-standers

  • David Bunch as one of the Macho Brothers

  • [If you know of others, please drop a line to the list.]

Featured players included:

• • William LeFebvre as the Gnome Announcer (from The Adventures of the Gnome)

  • David Collins as the lead vocalist in New Wave Owlman, as the Genius (from The Wrath of Corpsman), and as one of the unnamed villians (from The Case of the Unnamed Villians)

  • Aaron Dvoretzky as Igor Beaver (from The Birds Return)

  • David Tuttle as the Master Baker (from The Master Baker Returns)

  • Dingbat as the Spirit of William Marsh Rice (from The Antique Rice)

  • Bill Brey as Staight Man (from The Laughing Executioner)

  • Grungy as Uncle Nasty (from the episode of the same name)

  • [There are others here as well.]