Welcome to the Show!

Welcome to The Hot Hero Sandwich Project, the online home of a research project documenting the 1979-1980 Emmy Award-winning NBC Saturday morning children’s educational entertainment television series, Hot Hero Sandwich.

Use the tabs on the left to navigate this extensive archive of articles, interviews, and video, or jump right into some of our most popular posts on the right. Start with the Introduction and learn about the series in A Second Serving! and the FAQ tabs on left. The latest updates are noted on the the Project Posts list on the right.

The addresses for this website are:

• www.hotherosandwich.com
• hotherosandwichproject.blogspot.com

ON SALE NOW! An article on Hot Hero Sandwich I wrote for RetroFan magazine #43 is a feature story for the Jan.-Feb. 2026 issue and scheduled for shipping Feb. 11, 2026. We made the cover with Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!

If you wish to order a copy, please visit: TwoMorrows Publishing: RetroFan #43

— G. Jack Urso, Editor, The Hot Hero Sandwich Project

The Hot Hero Sandwich Tribute Music Video introduces the main and supporting cast, the Hot Hero Band, and some of the celebrity and musical guests!

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RetroFan #43, “Hot Hero Sandwich — We Deliver!”

  by G. Jack Urso 

RetroFan magazine #43 cover.

After a 46-year absence from print entertainment media, Hot Hero Sandwich returns to the popular press in the Jan.-Mar. 2026 issue of RetroFan magazine, #43 with the article “Hot Hero Sandwich — We Deliver!” I wrote as an overview of the series and the Hot Hero Sandwich Project. A featured cover story, the article comprises nearly 4,000 words on eight pages with lots of exclusive pictures. 

Begun as a one-off article here on Aeolus 13 Umbra, Hot Hero Sandwich: The Late 70s TV Teen Scene, the Hot Hero Sandwich Project really took off in late December, 2022, when Emmy Award-winning writer and Kate and Allie creator Sherry Coben saw my article and reached out to me, offering both herself and her husband, noted film editor Patrick McMahon, whom she met working on Hot Hero Sandwich to answer some questions. From that, humble start, with help from Coben, and on my own, and with former crew and staff reaching out, the project grew to a total of 26 interviews and to date nearly 120 articles, including rare production documents, a website, and a YouTube channel, with cuts from every scene in the entire series — most of which, since it had been unreleased on VHS or DVD, had not been seen since broadcast. 

Print journalism still lends creditability to projects, such as this one, that few digital media outlets can provide, and hopefully may lead to more people discovering the series, and more former cast and crew from the show to interview!

For a two-page preview, or perhaps to order your own copy, please visit TwoMorrows Publishing. 

A special thanks goes out to everyone who was interviewed, responded to questions, tolerated my enthusiasm, and who otherwise helped me with the Project.

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Hot Hero Sound Engineer Ed Stasium’s Latest!

by G. Jack Urso

 

Ed Stasium, Hot Hero Sandwich’s sound engineer for the recording sessions with Music Director Felix Pappalardi and the Hot Hero Band, is still producing great albums with great musicians! The Long Ryders: High Noon Hymns, Double Vinyl Edition, featuring Sid Griffin, Stephen McCarthy, and Greg Sowders, and produced by Stasium, is slated for release March 13, 2026 from Cherry Red Records.

The Long Ryders, taking their name from the classic 1980 Western of the same name, playing Alternative Country and influenced by the Paisley Underground sound, has worked with Stasium on three previous albums.

According to Long Ryder guitarist/mandolinist Sid Griffin on the Cherry Red Records website, High Noon Hymns continues the band’s “distilled alt country genre we helped found back in the 1980s, one third Paisley Underground adventurism yet with a dash of our own crazed soulfulness thrown in.”

With the passing of The Long Ryders' bassist Tom Stevens, Murry Hammond of The Old 97s and The Long Ryders’ own Stephen McCarthy filled in. Guests appearing on High Noon Hymns include DJ Bonebrake of X on vibes and Wyatt Ellis on the mandolin.

 

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