How is Steve Perry going to get over his heartbreak with so many people in his apartment? There weren’t many singers in the late 70s and early 80s who did as good a job singing about emotional angst as Steve Perry and in this video, he’s at his angstiest. Not even the sight of the other members of Journey falling outside of his window can bring him out of his funk. Eventually, even the other members of the band get sick of hearing about his problems and walk out on him. What is left for Steve to do than to break out some awkward dance moves?
After the Fall was included on Journey’s 1983 album Frontiers and it was the band’s 11th top 40 and their ninth top 25 single. It was also included on the soundtrack of Risky Business.
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Thursdays, I will be reviewing City Guys, which ran on NBC from 1997 to 2001. The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi!
C. I. T. Y. These guys, the neat guys, are smart and street-wise….
Episode 1.5 “The Dance”
(Directed by Frank Bonner, Aired on October 4th, 1997)
L-Train is back!
(For the record, Wikipedia swears that the character was named L-Train. IMDb says it was El-Train. I’ll probably switch back and forth as I review this show.)
Last seen threatening to kill Jamal and Chris at the end of the first episode, EL-Train returns in The Dance. If he was the school bully in the first episode, this episode presents us with the L-Train who would be present for the rest of the series. This EL-Train is a dim-witted but well-intentioned and dedicated to trying to turn his life around. Steven Daniel’s portrayal of L-Train was one of the (few) highlights of City Guys and El-Train was really the only character on the show who had any depth. The best of the show’s occasional “serious” episodes were the ones where he was tempted to return to his old lifestyle of being the school bully.
In this episode, El-Train asks Cassidy to the school dance and she accepts. “Awwww!” the audience says. However, El-Train wanting to date Cassidy is only one of my subplots revolving around Manny High’s fall dance.
Al wants to DJ. Dawn wants the dance to be a success. Ms. Noble wants to get through the night without there being any drama like at the last school dance. (What happened at the last dance is never really described, which is odd. It makes the viewer wonder if maybe someone fell off the roof of the school or something. Did I mention that all of the school’s dances are held on the roof?) And Chris wants to go to the dance with Kaisha who just happens to be Jamal’s sister!
(Cue the audience: “Woooo!”)
But wait a minute, this seems familiar. Remember, on Saved By The Bell, when it was suddenly revealed that Slater had a sister who no one had ever previously talked about? Zach took her out on a date and Slater got upset about it, for much the same reason that Jamal gets upset at Chris. And didn‘t Saved By The Bell have an episode where Mr. Belding was worried about holding a school dance after something happened at the previous one? And didn’t Screech somehow always end up as the DJ?
My point is that there’s really nothing original to be found in this episode but it’s still better than the four episodes that came before it. Kaisha wisely rejects both Chris and Jamal, telling them that they’re both controlling jerks. (“Yay!” says the audience.) Chris and Jamal realize how much they have in common and share a very uncomfortable laugh. Ms. Noble demands that Chris and Jamal dance with her. (“Woooo!’ the audience says.) For the first time, during this episode, the cast really seems to click. As Jamal and Chris, Wesley Jonathan and Scott Whyte finally seem to have adapted to each other’s rhythms. Jamal is called out for being overprotective. Chris gets called out for lacking ambition. Neither one is in the right. This is probably about as nuanced as one could ever hope for an episode of City Guys to get.
Episode 1.6 “The Communication Gap”
(Directed by Frank Bonner, originally aired on October 11, 1997)
After starting a food fight at the cafeteria, Chris and Jamal are in trouble once again! Ms. Noble calls their fathers. Jamal’s father (well-played by Ivory Ocean) shows up and proves himself to be a firm but loving disciplinarian. Chris’s father sends his personal assistant.
Somehow, this leads to Chris living with Jamal and his father while Chris’s father is away on business. To pay for his room and board, Chris ends up working at the diner that’s owned by Jamal’s father. Unfortunately, because they’re so eager to see the new Jim Carrey film, Chris and Jamal leave work early and get in trouble. Seeing how Jamal and his father handle things, Chris is inspired to fix his relationship with his own father. (“Awwwww!” say the audience.)
This episode was …. actually, it was okay. Ivory Ocean gave a really good performance was Jamal’s father and the show actually took some time to consider why Chris has all of the issues with trust that he has. It was a little weird to see everyone getting so excited over a Jim Carrey movie but then I reminded myself the episode was made before Jim married Jenny McCarthy and went all anti-vaxx.
So, that’s two good episodes of City Guys in a row! Could the show be turning a corner? We shall see next week!
Supposedly, this is a video that MTV initially rejected, feeling that it would be too intense and sordid to appeal to its audience. In the end, the only reason MTV relented was due to the intervention of David Geffen, who convinced the channel to play the song once at five in the morning. No sooner had the video aired than the station started to get calls from viewers who wanted to see it again. Just as the song would become one of Guns N’ Roses’s signature songs, the video became one of MTV’s signature videos.
This is yet another video that was directed by Nigel Dick. The video follows a young Axl Rose, as he gets off the bus in Los Angeles and finds himself in the jungle. Interestingly, the members of the band appear as an assortment of drug dealers and other lowlifes, all of whom are trying to corrupt Axl. It’s been said that the video actually follows the real life dynamic of the group as Axl, despite his reputation, stayed away from the heavy drug use that the rest of the band happily indulged in,
The video has been called a combination of Midnight Cowboy, The Man Who Fell To Earth, and A Clockwork Orange. That sounds right to me.
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Wednesdays, I will be reviewing the original Love Boat, which aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986! The series can be streamed on Paramount Plus!
It’s time to set sail on adventure and set your mind on a new romance!
Episode 1.2 “A Tasteful Affair / Oh, Dale! / The Main Event”
(Directed by Richard Kinon, Adam Rafkin, and Stuart Margolin, originally aired on October 1st, 1977)
The second episode of The Love Boat was all about fighting lovers.
For instance, one storyline — I assume it’s the one that was called “The Main Event” — features Sherman Hemsley as Maurice Marshall and LaWanda Page as his wife, Stella. From the minute that they get on the boat, Maurice and Stella are arguing but it soon becomes obvious that, like many couples who have been together for a while, arguing is just the way that they express their love for each other. The insults may be frequent but they’re always affectionate, which is kind of sweet. Anyway, while on their way to dinner in the ship’s lounge, they get stuck in an elevator. After arguing about the best way to escape from the elevator, they end up making out. Of course, when the doors to the elevator do finally open, Captain Stubing and Gopher see that the couple, rather than being dead, are instead making good use of the space. Everyone laughs. Seriously, that’s the entire story. Two people get suck in an elevator and make out. That’s it. You know, you can fool around on a moving elevator as well. You don’t have to fry the circuitry ahead of time. Just listen for the ping before the elevator doors open.
In a rather more serious storyline, Jaclyn Smith plays Janette Bradford, the wife of a wealthy but heartless man named Lucas (David Knapp). Lucas is convinced that Janette is only taking the cruise alone because she’s planning on cheating on him. Lucas hires a private investigator named Dennis Kingsley (Dennis Cole) to watch her on the boat. Dennis soon discovers that Janette is not cheating on her husband but instead, she took the cruise because she needed a break from his controlling and emotionally abusive ways. Dennis ends up falling in love with Janette and Janette with him. However, Dennis also knows that he’s going to have to tell her the truth about why he’s on the cruise. It doesn’t quite lead to heartbreak but it’s still far more serious than anything you might expect to see on a show of The Love Boat‘s reputation. Jaclyn Smith, it should be said, does a wonderful job in the role of Janette, capturing both the vulnerability of someone in an abusive relationship and also her growing determination to escape from Lucas’s control.
Unfortunately, while all of this is going on, you have to deal with John Ritter playing a guy whose lover actually is cheating on him. Ritter plays Dale. Dale wants to follow his girlfriend on the cruise for the same reason that Lucas hired Dennis to spy on Janette. Dale suspects that he’s being cheated on. However, the cruise is almost entirely sold out. There’s only one ticket left but it’s to share a cabin that’s already occupied by a woman. Since Dale is not a woman, he can’t buy the ticket. So, of course, Dale steals a blonde wig and a suitcase full of the frumpiest dresses imaginable. Can you guess where this is going? Dale gets his cabin, falls in love with his cabinmate (played, in a likable performance, by Tovah Feldshuh), and spends a lot of time changing clothes in the ship’s linen closet. Captain Stubing ends up getting a crush on the mysterious woman with the big blonde hair and the ugly dresses and yes, it’s as stupid as it sounds with a heavy dose of cringey 70s gay panic humor tossed in to boot. It doesn’t help that John Ritter gives such a frantic performance in the role that I actually got nervous watching him. “Calm down!” I wanted to say.
As you can guess, the tone is all over the place in this episode. That’s to be expected when you’re telling three stories at one time but there’s such an imbalance between Jaclyn Smith acting depressed and fragile and John Ritter doing pratfalls that it ultimately takes away from both stories. With the second episode of The Love Boat, it seems obvious that the show was still struggling to find the right balance between drama and comedy. As well, this episode suffers because the crew isn’t given much to do. The first episode was enjoyable because the main cast had a fun chemistry but, in this episode, everyone is a bystander except for Captain Stubing. Unfortunately, this episode couldn’t even treat Stubing consistently as the elevator storyline requires Stubing to be significantly smarter than the Stubing who appears in the John Ritter storyline.
Would the show ever succeed in finding and striking the right balance? We’ll see what happens next week!
Are you prepared to stand in the place where you live?
Michael Stipe and Peter Buck have both called this the dumbest song that R.E.M. ever recorded, with Stipe going on to explain that he wrote it as almost a parody of the type of “bubble gum pop” that their record label was pushing them to produce. Stipe also said that he actually likes the song.
It is certainly catchy and it won’t leave feeling quite as homicidal as Shiny Happy People.
The director of this video has also worked with Aimee Mann, Sharon Van Etten, and Indigo Girls.
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing the original Fantasy Island, which ran on ABC from 1977 to 1996. The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi!
Smiles, smiles, everyone….
Episode 1.1 “Escape/Cinderalla Girls”
(Directed by Don Weis, originally aired on January 28th, 1978)
Last week, while reviewing the Fantasy Island pilot, I commented on the fact that Mr. Roarke seemed to be a bit sinister, almost as if he took delight in the idea of mortals discovering that their fantasies weren’t as wonderful as they were expecting.
In the first regular episode of Fantasy Island, it’s made clear that, while Mr. Roarke may occasionally act like he doesn’t care, it’s only to teach a lesson.
When internationally renowned stage musician Gregory Udall (Bert Convy) requests that he be allowed to perform the world’s greatest escape, Mr. Roarke doesn’t appear to be the least bit concerned when Udall is transported to Devil’s Island, the infamous French island prison. Devil’s Island was known for being escape proof. It was also known for being harsh even by the prison standards. 75% of the people sentenced to Devil’s Island died before their sentence ended. When Udall reaches the island, he discovers that the Warden (Reggie Nadler, best-known for playing the vampire in Salem’s Lost) doesn’t care whether he lives or dies. He’s also told, by another prisoner named Ipsy Dauphin (Robert Clary), that Mr. Roarke regularly abandons people at the prison!
After Udall’s first escape fails, he is visited in the island’s infirmary by Mr. Roarke himself. Udall says that he’s ready to give up and opt out of the fantasy. Mr. Roarke informs him that failure is not an option. He also suggests that Udall enjoy his cigarette because….
Agck!
Fear not, though, Mr. Roarke is not evil. Instead, he’s just giving Udall the extra push that he needs to not only successfully escape from the prison but to take Ipsy with him as well. Udall not only gets his confidence back but he also saves another human being. Mr. Roarke may have seemed harsh but it was only to make sure that everyone got something out of the fantasy. As well, it’s revealed that Ipsy was not actually prisoner but was instead Fantasy Island’s head chef.
Mr. Roarke is far more cheerful in the episode’s other fantasy. Georgia Engel and Diana Canova want to know what it’s like to be wealthy so they not only get makeovers but they also get a lot of new clothes. Of course, being wealthy also means that they’ll be expected to bid at a charity auction that is being held on Fantasy Island. (Apparently, Fantasy Island also doubles as a resort for people who don’t have fantasies but just want to spend the weekend hanging out by the pool.) Georgia Engel ends up running away with a prince. Diana Canova falls in love with an idealistic doctor who is played by John Saxon. Does the doctor care that she doesn’t actually have any money? Fortunately, it turns out that the doctor is poor himself. Yay!
As you may have guessed, the first episode was a strange mismash of tones. On the one hand, you had a silly but sweet story about two friends who wanted to pretend to be rich. On the other hand, you’ve got a harsh prison story featuring Reggie Nadler as a desiccated villain and uber-70s actor Bert Convy as a stage musician. It really shouldn’t work but it does, largely because the idea of the island is so appealing and Ricardo Montalban seems to be having fun in the role of Mr. Roarke. Plus, who can resist John Saxon pretending to be from Texas?
The premiere episode got Fantasy Island off to a good start! Would that continue next week?
Finally! We have a trailer for Damien Chazelle’s Babylon!
Who would have thought that 2022 would have been the year that would have produced three flamboyant films about the decadence of the entertainment industry? Elvishas already been released. Blonde will be available by the end of the month. And Babylon will coming out just as the year ends. Judging from this trailer, it appears to be a film that will either be brilliant or a total disaster. I’m hoping for the former. America could use a really good movie about cocaine and pool parties.
Through the Shattered Lens 