Monthly Archives: March 2024

Late Night Retro Television Review: Friday the 13th 1.23 “Badge of Honor”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing Friday the 13th: The Series, a show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990. The show can be found on YouTube!

This week …. OH MY GOD, IT’S JOHN STOCKWELL!

Episode 1.23 “Badge of Honor”

(Dir by Michelle Manning, originally aired on July 5th, 1988)

Victor Haas (David Proval) is a club owner and also the head of Canada’s most violent ring of counterfeiters.  Detective Russ Sharko (Val Avery) is obsessed with taking Victor down.  Victor attempts to dissuade Sharko by using a car bomb to take out Sharko’s wife.  That just makes Sharko more determined.  However, when Sharko’s obsession leads to a bust-gone-wrong and a dead cop, Sharko is kicked off the force.  Sharko now has to take Victor and his man down on his own.  Fortunately, he happens to own an antique sheriff’s badge.  When he pins the badge on someone, that person suffers a violent death.

This sounds like a job for Micki and Ryan.  (Jack, again, is out of town.)  However, Micki and Ryan are distracted by the arrival of Tim (played by one of my favorite 80s leading men, the superhot John Stockwell).  Tim is Micki’s ex-boyfriend and soon, he and Micki are picking up where they left off.  (When the season began, Micki was engaged so I guess Tim must have been the boyfriend before the fiancé.)  Ryan gets jealous because — surprise! — he’s kind of in love with Micki.  Of course, just a few episodes ago, Ryan was in love with a preacher’s daughter.  And then, after that, he was in love with Catherine, who was murdered by an evil journalist.  Ryan seems to fall in love easily so….

Actually, wait a minute.  RYAN AND MICKI ARE COUSINS!  WHAT ARE YOU DOING, RYAN!?  Of course, they’re not first cousins but still …. it just doesn’t seem right!

Anyway, at first, it seems like Ryan might be correct to be suspicious of Tim because Tim approaches Victor and offers to help him with his counterfeiting ring.  But then we learn that Tim is with the FBI!  Why is the FBI working in Canada?  I guess maybe the show’s producers were still trying to convince viewers that Friday the 13th took place in America, despite the fact that all of the directors and most of the actors were Canadian and the show itself was clearly filmed in wintry Canada.  (This episode is a bit of an oddity in that all three of the main guest stars — David Proval, John Stockwell, and Val Avery — were born in the Lower 48.)  The important thing is that Tim’s a good guy but — uh oh! — Tim also gets shot and dies at the end of the episode.  Micki is a little bit sad but Ryan is kind of relieved because it means he’ll have a chance to hook up with his cousin….

SERIOUSLY, WHAT THE HELL!?

This episode got a little bogged down with all of the counterfeiting stuff.  It felt more like an episode of Miami Vice than Friday the 13th.  The badge was also a bit of a boring antique because it didn’t really do anything other than kill people.  Other antiques changed the personality of the people who owned them and demanded a quid pro quo for their powers.  This antique is far more simple and kind of dull.

Oh well.  It’s a less-than-memorable episode but John Stockwell was hot and I’m a bit disappointed that he apparently won’t be making a return appearance.

Next week, we meet Ryan’s father and discover that he’s not a good man at all!

Retro Television Review: T and T 3.2 “Hargrove’s Call”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing T. and T., a Canadian show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990.  The show can be found on Tubi!

This week, T.S. investigates a shooting involving a retired police officer.  I wonder what Amy would think of all this.

Episode 3.2 “Hargrove’s Call”

(Dir by Don McCutcheon, originally aired on January 13th, 1990)

Bitter, retired cop E.V. Richter (J. Winston Carroll) lives alone, in a house that sits in a neighborhood that has seen better days.  He spends his days drinking and his nights fighting with the teenagers who live in the neighborhood.  One night, the teens are setting off firecrackers in an alley behind Richter’s house.  When Richter yells at them, one of the teens starts to approach his house with a firecracker.  Richter shoots him and then tries to plant a gun on the body.  However, by the time the police arrive, the gun has disappeared.

The wounded teen’s mother recruits Terri and Turner to prove that her son wasn’t carrying a gun when he was shot.  While Turner investigates and tries to discover what happened to the gun, Detective Dick Hargrove (David Hemblen) most deal with his own suspicion that his former colleague is not being honest about what happened.

This was an interesting episode, in that Richter was definitely the bad guy but he also had a legitimate reason to be upset.  Setting off firecrackers behind someone’s house is pretty obnoxious and responding to homeowner’s complaint by trying to toss a firecracker at him is …. well, actually, it’s kind of illegal.  At least, it is down here.  Maybe it’s different up in Canada.  Maybe in Canada, they settle disagreements with firecrackers all the time, I don’t know.  That said, when Richter tries to plant the gun, he reveals that he’s gone over the edge and it becomes apparent that if he hadn’t shot the kid over the firecrackers, he would have shot him over something else.  T and T will never be known as a nuanced or particularly thoughtful show but at least this episode tried to do something more than just follow the standard “Mr. T growls and beats people up” plot.

That said, I still find it weird and distracting that everyone on the show acts as if Terri has always lived in the neighborhood and has always been some sort of crusader.  Two episodes into season three and there’s still been no mention of what happened to Amy or why Terri is now suddenly the one in charge. Are we meant to assume that Terri was always around but not just seen during the first two seasons?  Or did something happen to Amy that required Terri to move to Toronto or wherever this show is supposed to take place?  The lack of even the most rudimentary of explanations feels weird and distracting.  Obviously, T and T was never a stickler for continuity but having a major character just vanish without explanation is a big deal.  Shouldn’t Turner be out looking for Amy or something?

Maybe that’ll happen next week.  We’ll see!

Live Tweet Alert: Join #FridayNightFlix For Reservoir Dogs!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

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

Tonight, at 10 pm et, we’ve got 1992’s Reservoir Dogs!

If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #FridayNightFlix hashtag!  It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.

Reservoir Dogs is available on Prime and Tubi!  See you there!

Music Video of the Day: Don’t Let Me Be The Last To Know by Britney Spears (2001, dir by Herb Ritts)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

It’s Britney on the beach!  This video was controversial when it was first released.  It seems rather tame now.

This video was directed by photographer Herb Ritts and Britney’s boyfriend was played by French model Brice Durand.  Supposedly, neither Justin Timberlake nor Lynne Spears were happy with this video.  Lynne felt it was too explicit and Justin apparently had an issue with Britney kissing another guy, even though Britney was just acting, it was just for the music video, and it’s not as if Justin wasn’t messing around behind Britney’s back.

Enjoy!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Highway to Heaven 2.3 “Bless The Boys In Blue”

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 Thursdays, I will be reviewing Highway to Heaven, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1989.  The entire show is currently streaming on Freevee and several other services!

This week, Jonathan and Mark become cops!

Episode 2.3 “Bless The Boys In Blue”

(Dir by Victor French, originally aired on October 2nd, 1985)

Well, here’s an episode that would never be made today.

While driving through Los Angeles, Mark talks about a story that has been in the news.  A police sergeant shot a young black teenager outside of a crack house.  The teenager was holding a gun but it was subsequently discovered that the gun was unloaded.  The policeman has been suspended from the force.  Mark, a former cop, is on the sergeant’s side.  Jonathan argues that the sergeant could have tried to talk to the teenager instead of shooting him.  Mark claims that Jonathan has no idea what it’s like to be a cop because he’s an angel.  Mark makes the mistake of saying that he wishes Jonathan could experience what it’s actually like to be a cop.

God — or “The Boss” as the show calls him — hears Mark’s wish and makes it come true.  Mark and Jonathan’s assignment is to become cops and, just to make things interesting, God takes away Jonathan’s special powers.  Jonathan becomes human, once again.  If Jonathan gets shot, he’ll actually get wounded.  One gets the feeling that Jonathan is being punished for his pride, though the show never comes out and says it.

On the first day on the job, Jonathan tries to talk a burglar into putting down his gun and it doesn’t go well.  If not for Mark surprising the burglar, Jonathan probably would have gotten shot.  Having learned his lesson, Jonathan is given back his powers so that he can convince the dead teenager’s father to forgive the cop who shot him….

If any show aired an episode like this today, it would be greeted with howls of protest and those howls wouldn’t necessarily be unjustified.  The episode is unabashedly pro-cop, to the extent that it doesn’t even seem to consider the countless number of police shootings that have been ruled unjustified over the years.  As well, asking the teenager’s father to forgive the man who shot his son so that the man himself can work through his guilt feels incredibly selfish on the part of Jonathan.

Then again, the police that we see in this 1985 show have little in common with the police we see in 2024.  For the most part, the cops in this episode walk a beat or drive around in their squad cars.  They’re normal, blue collar folks who are doing their job and who do their best to be polite to everyone.  There’s no body armor.  No one looks like they’ve spent weeks in the gym.  There’s no shaved heads or terse military-style lingo.  There’s no dismissive talk of “bad guys” and “good guys.”  There are no tanks rolling down the city streets.  In many way, this episode feels like it’s taking place in a different reality and, to an extent, I guess it is.  This episode is 39 years old but it feels like a work of ancient lore.

Retro Television Review: Sawdust 1.1 “Pilot”

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 Thursdays, I will be reviewing Sawdust, which aired on CBS in 1987.  The entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!

From executive producer Ed Zwick, we have a show about a really terrible father.

Episode 1.1 “Pilot”

(Dir by Jeffrey Hornaday, originally aired on July 3rd, 1987)

We bought a circus!

That’s the premise behind Sawdust, in which an accountant named Max Galpin (James Eckhouse) buys a circus after the owner dies.  He then pulls his teenage children out of school and, along with his wife, he decides to live with and run the circus.

What!?

Like seriously, why would he do that?  Unfortunately, the purchase of the circus and the moment when Max tells his family that he’s ruined their lives all take place off-screen.  Max mentions them in his voice-over narration and he says something about how, at an auction of the former owner’s possessions, he bid on the circus but he was surprised when he won.  So, I guess maybe Max wasn’t actually planning on buying the circus but he just bid on it to …. what?  I mean, as a part of my day job, I have been to auctions before and I’ve bid on stuff for my boss.  It was fun and yes, sometimes people do make bids just to run up the price of something.  But I still find it hard to believe that someone could 1) accidentally buy a circus and 2) justify uprooting his family to run the circus.

At first, Max’s wife (Marsha Waterbury) and his daughter (Kellie Overbey) and his son (Bradley Gregg) are not happy with him but that changes once they actually arrive at the circus and get caught up in the excitement of putting on a show.  Max’s daughter takes the longest to come around, mostly because Max wants her to wear a skimpy outfit while walking across a tight rope that is suspended above the ground.  His daughter probably wouldn’t die if she lost her balance but still, it would be embarrassing and what type of father does that to his daughter?  I mean, is walking across a tight rope an easy thing to do?  Meanwhile, Max gets shot out of a cannon, his wife works with an elephant, and his son dresses up like a gorilla.  Max is willing to risk his daughter’s dignity but his son just has to dress up like a gorilla.  What the Hell?

Max gets to know the ringmaster, Serge (Elya Baskin), who quits in a huff but then comes back because the circus is all he knows.  And Leslie Jordan shows up, not saying a word but playing various musical instruments.  We also meet a man who has been hired to serve as the tutor for Max’s kids because again, Max has pulled them out of school so that they can join the circus.  Max really is a terrible father.  What a jerk.  Seriously, his children have not only left behind all of their friends but also whatever hope they may have had of getting into an Ivy League college.  Now, they’ll have to settle for a state school.  And why?  Because their father, despite having no circus experience, decided to run a circus.

This pilot was so weird.  There was a laugh track but the show took itself oddly seriously.  Max is a character to whom most viewers would have mixed feelings and the rather frantic performance of James Eckhouse does little to make him sympathetic.  There would not be a second episode.

A Scene That I Really Love: The Rangers Win The World Series!

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Today is Opening Day!  I’m excited!  There’s no way to know who is going to win the World Series this year but I know who I want to win and I bet most people reading this know too.  Because it’s Opening Day, I thought I would share a scene from last year that I really, really love.

Watch as the Rangers win their first World Series championship!

Good luck to all the teams and GO RANGERS!