Monthly Archives: November 2023

Late Night Retro Television Reviews: CHiPs 1.2 “Undertow”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Mondays, I will be reviewing CHiPs, which ran on NBC from 1977 to 1983.  The entire show is currently streaming on Freevee!

This week, Ponch takes a deep breath and he gets real high.

Episode 1.2 “Undertow”

(Dir by Christian I. Nyby II, originally aired on September 22nd, 1977)

On tonight’s episode of CHiPs, a true crisis breaks out.

The California Highway Patrol’s basketball team loses a game!

Now, they would have won the game if Ponch had been playing.  I’m only two episodes into this series and it’s already pretty obvious that there’s apparently nothing that Ponch can’t do.  However, while at the scene of an accident on the highway, Ponch stood right in front of a leaky cannister of nitrous oxide!  He ended up getting so high that he started seeing double, dancing in the halls of the station, and basically just acting like a total jackass.  Of course, he smiled the whole time.  Baker was less amused.

Because of his temporary high, Ponch was sent home and ordered to stay in bed for a day.  He missed the game and the CHiPs lost to some other off-duty branch of California law enforcement.  Fortunately, Sgt. Getraer is able to set up a rematch and, with Ponch now able to play, the CHiPs win by two points!  And, of course, the winning shot is taken by Ponch because there’s nothing that Ponch can’t do.  This episode ends with a series of freeze frames of Ponch winning the game and proving that California has the best highway patrol in the country.

Of course, the basketball game is only the B-plot of this episode of CHiPs.  The main storyline deals with fake tow truck driver (Angelo de Meo) who is listening to the police radio for calls from women who have broken down on the highway.  The driver goes to wherever the women are calling from but, instead of towing their car, he instead steals their money!  The first time that Ponch and Baker chase him, the crooked tow truck driver gets away.  The second time, they catch him.  Of course, both of the chases lead to multi-car wrecks on the highway.  This episode features the first instance of a car flipping over in slow motion on this show.  Apparently, that would go on to become a CHiPs trademark.

Of course, there are other little things that Ponch and Baker have to deal with.  They pull over a drunk driver (Jim Backus) and Ponch, who is high from the nitrous oxide, struggles to give him a sobriety test.  They also pull over an old surfer (Paul Brinegar), who has a talking myna bird in his truck.  The bird was cute.  These scenes did not add up too much but I imagine they were included to drive home the idea that Ponch and Baker are professionals, even if they do spend a lot of time talking about basketball.

This episode was actually kind of fun.  Erik Estrada is not a particularly subtle actor to begin with and this episode actually gives him an excuse to overact even more than usual.  As much fun as it is to watch Estrada bounce off the walls, it’s even more interesting to glance over at Larry Wilcox and see just how much he appears to resent having to work with someone who always has to be the center of every scene.  Neither Wilcox nor Baker seem particularly unhappy about Ponch being sidelined for a good deal of the episode.  Just as in the pilot, the chase scenes were genuinely well-filmed and it was impossible not to enjoy the shots of the motorcycles weaving in and out of traffic.

Next week, Ponch will probably save someone’s life while Baker seethes in the background.  We’ll see!

Retro Television Reviews: Miami Vice 1.11 “Give a Little, Take a Little”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Mondays, I will be reviewing Miami Vice, which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989.  The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi!

Tonight’s episode is a reminder that you don’t mess with Miami Vice!

Episode 1.11 “Give a Little, Take a Little”

(Dir by Bobby Roth, originally aired on December 7th, 1984)

Oh my God, this episode…. this episode put me through an emotional ringer.  After two episodes that were somewhat light and airy, Give A Little, Take A Little is a return to  the dark and surreal storytelling that was Miami Vice’s signature style.

Things start out on an energetic note, with a montage of Miami nightlife set to the tune of Tina Turner singing You Better Be Good To Me.  For once, Gina (Saundra Santiago) and Trudy (Olivia Brown) are seen before Crockett and Tubbs, this time purchasing appropriately trashy (but stylish) outfits for their undercover prostitution sting.  When Crockett and Tubbs are finally seen, they’re heading over to see their informant, Noogie (Charlie Barnett).  The very high and very talkative Noogie tells them about a warehouse that is being used by a dealer.

At the warehouse, Crockett and Tubbs find a nervous watchman, Bob Rickert (Lenny Von Dohlen).  The obviously terrified Bob explains that he’s just watching the warehouse for an old college friend of his.  When Tubbs and Crockett open up a box and yank out several bags of pills, Bob admits that he knows his friend is a drug dealer but Bob also insists that he’s never sold any drugs in his life.  Sonny takes sympathy on Bob and, after Bob gives them the name of his friend, he allows Bob to go home to his wife.

Bob’s friend is Sally Alvarado (a very young and smoldering Michael Madsen).  After the expected car chase, Crockett and Tubbs arrest him.  However, Alvarado’s lawyer — Richard Cain (Terry O’Quinn, of future Stepfather and Lost fame) — demands that Crockett reveal the name of his confidential source.  (When Crockett meets with the lawyer, he insists on calling him, “Dick.”)  The judge at Alvarado’s trial agrees that Alvarado has a right to know who has accused him of being a drug dealer and she orders that Crockett name his informant.  When Crockett refuses, Crockett goes to jail.

Meanwhile, Gina and Trudy are working at Club Ocho, which is owned by Cinco (Tony Plana).  They are both pretending to be sex workers who have just moved down to Miami from Philadelphia.  Cinco sends them out to work the streets, where they are picked up every night by their fellow Miami Vice detectives, Switek and Zito.  When Cinco’s boss, Lupo Ramirez (the great Burt Young), spots Gina at the Club, he promotes her to working directly for him.  When Ramirez comes to suspect that Gina might be an informant, he invites her to his house late at night for a meeting and, off-screen, he rapes her.

Crockett is released from jail, despite having not named his informant.  He assumes that Lt. Castillo called in a marker but Castillo instead reveals that Bob felt so guilty about Sonny being in jail that he went to Cain and confessed to being the informant.  He also agreed not to testify against Alvarez.  While Sonny was still sitting in jail, Sally Alvarez was released from prison.

That night, Noogie introduces Sonny and Tubbs to another informant, Trick Baby (Henry Sanders).  Impressed that Crockett went to jail to protect an informant, Trick Baby tells Sonny and Tubbs that Sally Alvarez is Ramirez’s second in command.  He also reveals that Ramirez is sending Cinco to kill Gina.

Back at her apartment, Gina is being comforted by Trudy when Cinco shows up.  Fortunately, Crockett and Tubbs show up at well.  A chase and gunfight leads to Cinco being seriously wounded.  Cinco promises that, if he lives, he’ll testify against Alvarez and Ramirez.

At Club Ocho, Alvarez is watching as Switek makes his debut as a stand-up comedian.  Switek’s act is terrible but it provides the cover needed for Crockett and Tubbs to arrest Alvarez.  After being told that Cinco has ratted him out, Alvarez agrees to rat out Ramirez.

The next morning, Gina and Trudy show up at Ramirez’s mansion.  Gina draws her gun and tells Ramirez that he’s under arrest.  Ramirez, who is holding the knife that he was using to make his breakfast, laughs and smugly says that Gina can’t arrest him after what “we’ve shared.”

And….

GINA SHOOTS HIM!

HELL YEAH!

Seriously, that was one of the most satisfying moments that I’ve experienced since I started watching this show.  It’s also a reminder of how different the cops on Miami Vice were from most of the other cops who showed up on crime shows in the 80s and 90s.  Just when you’re expecting Gina to sigh, lower her gun, and read Ramirez his rights because she’s a cop and a cop has to obey the law, she shoots him.  And since Ramirez was dumb enough to act like a smug jackass while holding a knife, the shooting will undoubtedly be ruled as being justified.

This was an emotional episode and not always easy to watch but it all built to a powerful conclusion.  While I did spend a lot of time playing “spot the famous guest star,” I was even happier that this episode finally gave Miami Vice‘s often neglected supporting cast to show what they could do.  John Diehl, Olivia Brown, Michael Talbott, and especially Saundra Santiago all got their chance to shine in this episode.

Next week, Giancarlo Esposito plays a drug dealer decades before Breaking Bad.

Monday Live Tweet Alert: Join Us For Black Scorpion and Notting Hill!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in hosting a few weekly live tweets on twitter and occasionally Mastodon.  I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of Mastodon’s #MondayActionMovie!  Every week, we get together.  We watch a movie.  We snark our way through it.

Tonight, for #MondayActionMovie, the film will be 1995’s Black Scorpion!  Selected and hosted by Bunny Hero, this film was produced by Roger Corman!  So, you know it has to be good!

Following #MondayActionMovie, Brad and Sierra will be hosting the #MondayMuggers live tweet.  We will be watching 1999’s Notting Hill!  The film is on Prime!

It should make for a night of fun viewing and I invite all of you to join in.  If you want to join the live tweets, just hop onto Mastodon, pull up Black Scorpion on YouTube, start the movie at 8 pm et, and use the #MondayActionMovie hashtag!  Then, at 10 pm et, switch over to Twitter and Prime, start Notting Hill, and use the #MondayMuggers hashtag!  The live tweet community is a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.   

Music Video of the Day: Eat It by Weird Al Yankovic (1984, directed by Jay Levey)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Reportedly, Michael Jackson really liked the video for Weird Al Yankovic’s Eat It and why shouldn’t he?  The video so closely followed the video for Beat It, duplicating it scene-for-scene, that Jackson was actually paid royalties from it.

Another fan of this song and also of Fat was Kurt Cobian who was flattered when Weird Al asked to parody Smells Like Teen Spirit but who also specifically asked, “Is it going to be about food?”  (Al assured Kurt it would be about how no one could understand his lyrics.)

This is the song and the video that put Weird Al on the map.

Enjoy!

Late Night Retro Television Reviews: Degrassi Junior High 1.10 “Smokescreen”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi Junior High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1987 to 1989!  The series can be streamed on YouTube!

This week, Rick and Caitlin team up to save the planet!

Episode 1.10 “Smokescreen”

(Dir by John Bertram, originally aired on March 22nd, 1987)

Caitlin has a crush on the school bad boy, Rick.  All of her friends say that Rick is dumb and a criminal.  He’s known for getting into fights (though, as we learned a few episodes ago, most of his bruises actually came from his abusive father) and he was also held back a grade.  Everyone tells Caitlin that she needs to stay away from Rick but Caitlin says they’re wrong about Rick.  Rick, she says, is sensitive and misunderstood and she can fix him.

Agck!  Seriously, I’ve been there.  I knew exactly what Caitlin was feeling and what was going through her mind because I’ve always had a weakness for the troubled bad boys who hide their poetic soul underneath a tough exterior.  When I was in high school, I idealized more delinquents than I can even begin to remember.  Unfortunately, it often turned out that guys who had a bad reputation had that reputation for a good reason.  But still….

Anyway, Rick also has a crush on Caitlin and he doesn’t realize that she had one on him despite the fact that she’s totally obvious about it.  (Maybe Caitlin’s friends have a point about Rick not being the smartest kid at school.)  After finding out that Caitlin is a member of the Environmental Action Committee, Rick decides to join as well.  At first, snobby Kathleen is like, “Rick can’t join, he’s a criminal!”  But Caitlin insists that Rick really does care about the environment.  Rick even signs Caitlin’s petition protesting the foul-smelling pollution that is being spewed out of a nearby factory.

Rick actually has some ideas for what the EAC can do to combat pollution.  He says that the EAC has to actually be about action and not just endless meetings.  Kathleen rolls her eyes but Caitlin thinks that Rick has a point.  In a scene that practically screams, “This was filmed in the 80s,” Caitlin and Rick get on the school’s public address system and perform a rap called “Stop the Stink” and yes, it’s just as cringey as it sounds.  It does, however, inspire all of the students to sign Caitlin’s petition.

Unfortunately, it turns out that the corporate overlords don’t really care that much about a petition from a bunch of 13 year-olds.  Upset because Caitlin won’t admit that the petition was useless, Rick goes outside and lights up a cigarette.  Kathleen spots him smoking and uses it as an excuse to kick him out of the EAC.  This leads to Caitlin telling off Kathleen and Rick tells Caitlin that he only joined the committee because he liked her.

(If all this sounds familiar, it’s because pretty much the same thing happened nearly two decades later, when Sean Cameron joined Emma Nelson’s environmental club and volunteered to help clean the ravine.  In that case, it was Sean’s delinquent friends who dragged Sean away from environmentalism while  Emma was so busy getting mad at Manny for changing her look that she barely noticed.  We’ll get to that episode sometime in the far future….)

While all this is going on, Yick Yu is upset because, as a class assignment, he’s supposed to bring in a family heirloom.  As a refugee, Yick has no heirlooms.  Arthur tells him to just tell the class about how he came to Canada but, instead, Yick buys a vase from an antique mall.  Unfortunately, Arthur breaks the vase when he accidentally knocks it off a desk so Yick is forced to tell his life story anyway and the entire homeroom is impressed.  Yick learns to be proud of his background.  It’s a good B-plot, though you do have to wonder how many more times Arthur is going to do something stupid before Yick gets tired of him constantly messing things up.  I mean, in this case, I almost feel like Arthur was specifically trying to destroy the vase when he “accidentally” let it fall off of the desk.  No one can make that many mistakes without a few of them being deliberate.

This episode was a classic Degrassi mix of relatable characters and cringey moments.  I could totally relate to Caitlin’s crush on the school bad boy but my God, was that environmental rap ever cringey.  The scenes of Kathleen running the the environmental club like a dictator made me smile because I think we all knew someone like that in school.  That said, for anyone who knows their Degrassi history, any episode that features Caitlin but not Joey is going to feel strange.  I’m watching Degrassi Junior High for the first time so I don’t know how exactly this whole Caitlin/Rick thing is going to play out, but I do know who Caitlin is eventually going to end up with and let’s just say that it’s not the environmentally-concerned tough guy.  That’s the way it goes with bad boys.  They never stick around.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Review: 11/13/23 — 11/19/23

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Well, I’m home.

I say this every time I return from any sort of vacation, whether it’s to another or just up to the lake.  It’s my homage to the last line of Lord of the Rings.  After any long journey, it’s always nice to realize that you have a home to which you can return.

Here’s what I watched, read, and listened to this week.

Films I Watched:

  1. Abba: The Movie (1977)
  2. Black Friday (1940)
  3. The Burial (2023)
  4. Fallen Angel (1981)
  5. High School USA (1983)
  6. The Killer (2023)
  7. Shoplifters: The Criminal Horde (1983)
  8. Track of the Moon Beast (1976)
  9. Universal Solider (1992)

Television Shows I Watched:

  1. The Amazing Race
  2. Baywatch Nights
  3. Check it Out
  4. CHiPs
  5. Degrassi Junior High
  6. Fantasy Island
  7. Frasier
  8. Friday the 13th
  9. Highway to Heaven
  10. Jennifer Slept Here
  11. Kitchen Nightmares
  12. The Love Boat
  13. Monsters
  14. Night Flight
  15. Survivor
  16. T and T
  17. Welcome Back Kotter
  18. Yes, Prime Minister

Books I Read:

  1. After Death (2023) by Dean Koontz
  2. Exposed: A History of Lingerie (2014) by Colleen Hill

Music To Which I Listened:

  1. Abba
  2. Adi Ulmansky
  3. Amy Winehouse
  4. Britney Spears
  5. Camila Cabello
  6. The Chemical Brothers
  7. Elle King
  8. Gerry Rafferty
  9. Gwen Stefani
  10. Hilary Duff
  11. Katy Perry
  12. Moby
  13. Olivia Rodrigo
  14. Saint Motel
  15. Taylor Swift

Live Tweets:

  1. Abba: The Movie
  2. The Burial
  3. Universal Soldier
  4. Track of the Moon Beast

News From Last Week:

  1. Actor Joss Ackland Dies At 95
  2. Actor Peter Spellos Dies At 69
  3. Box Office: ‘Hunger Games’ Prequel Lands on Top With $44 Million, ‘The Marvels’ Collapses With Historic 79% Drop

Links From Last Week:

  1. Tower of Borage
  2. Ready For “Saltburn?” Director Emerald Fennell’s Diabolical New Movie Is… “WOW!”
  3. Tater’s Week in Review 11/18/23

Links From The Site:

  1. I reviewed Unseen, The Killer and Fallen Angel!
  2. I shared my week in television!
  3. I paid tribute to Allison Anders and Martin Scorsese!
  4. I shared a scene from Wolf of Wall Street!
  5. I reviewed Degrassi Junior High, Miami Vice, CHiPs, Fantasy Island, Baywatch Nights, The Love Boat, Monsters, Jennifer Slept Here, Highway to Heaven, T and T, Friday the 13th, Welcome Back Kotter, and Check It Out!
  6. Erin shared The Golden Eagle, Hotel Nurse, I Am Desire, Startling Stories, Passionate Peril at Fort Tomahawk, Tattle Tales, and True Detective!
  7. Jeff shared music videos from Bush, The Madness, Phil Collins, X, Michael Jackson, Weird Al Yankovic, and The Smile.

More From Us:

  1. At Days Without Incident, Leonard shared songs from Underworld and Sammy Hagar!
  2. At her photography site, Erin shared Black-and-White Window, Changing Colors, Invasion in Black and White, Duck, Fountain, Waterfall, and Wise Squirrel!
  3. At my music site, I shared songs from Gerry Rafferty, Camila Cabello, Olivia Rodrigo, Hilary Duff, Gwen Stefani, Elle King, and Amy Winehouse!

Want to see what I did last week?  Click here!

Retro Television Review: Fallen Angel (dir by Robert Michael Lewis)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sundays, I will be reviewing the made-for-television movies that used to be a primetime mainstay.  Today’s film is 1981’s Fallen Angel!  It  can be viewed on Tubi.

Jennifer Phillips (Dana Hill) is 12 years old and struggling to find her place in the world.  Sometimes, she wants to be a gymnast.  Sometimes, she wants to be an actress.  She misses her late father.  She has a difficult time communicating with her mother, an often-exhausted waitress named Sherry (Melinda Dillon).  She is definitely not happy that Sherry is dating the well-meaning but rather dorky Frank Dawson (Ronny Cox).  Jennifer wants to watch an awards show.  Frank changes the channel to a baseball game.  That pretty much sums up their relationship.

One night, Jennifer escapes the unhappiness of her home life by going to an arcade.  That’s where she is approached by Howard Nichols (Richard Masur), a seemingly friendly older man who takes her picture and then tells her that she’s just as beautiful as Farrah Fawcett and Olivia Newton-John.  Jennifer replies that she doesn’t think that she should talk to Howard because he’s a stranger.  Howard tells her that’s very smart of her and then explains that he coaches the local girls softball team and that he thinks Jennifer would make a great shortstop.

You can probably guess where this is going and you’re absolutely right.  Soon, Jennifer is spending all of her time with Howard, who tells her that he understands what she’s going through even if her parents don’t.  Howard’s an amateur photographer and he’s constantly asking Jennifer to pose for him.  He tells Jennifer that she probably shouldn’t tell any adults about their “special friendship” because they just wouldn’t understand.  He even buys Jennifer a puppy, one that he threatens to take back to the pound whenever it appears that Jennifer is trying to step away from him.  

Howard is not only a pedophile but he also works for a pornography ring and, as Jennifer soon finds out, he’s actually got several young people living with him and posing for pictures.  Jennifer’s mother eventually becomes concerned about what Jennifer is doing when she leaves the house and she even comes to suspect that friendly old Howard is not quite as friendly as he pretends to be.  But is it too late?

Yikes!  I watched this film on Tubi and I cringed through the whole thing.  Of course, that’s the reaction that Fallen Angel was going for.  This is a film that was made to encourage parents to maybe be a little concerned about with whom their children are spending their free time.  Jennifer is fortunate that her mom eventually figures out what is going on but, as the film makes clear, a lot of victims are not so lucky.  This film is pure paranoia fuel but in the best way possible.  There are some things that every parent should be paranoid about and the adult who only spends time with people 20 years younger than him is definitely one of those things.  The film is well-made, well-written, and well-acted.  Richard Masur, with his friendly manner and his manipulate tone, will give you nightmares.