Daily Archives: April 14, 2024

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi Junior High 2.13 “Pass Tense”

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!

The second season of Degrassi Junior High comes to a close with a historic episode!

Episode 2.13 “Pass Tense”

(Dir by Kit Hood, originally aired on March 28th, 1988)

The school year is nearly over and it’s time for the 8th Grade to graduate.  Next year, they will all be going to high school except …. well, they won’t.  Even while Stephanie and the Farrell Twins are making fun of the 7th Graders for having to do all the work to prepare for the big graduation dance, word comes down from the district that, starting next year, Degrassi Junior High will have a Grade 9.  Even though most of the show’s characters are set to graduate and go to High School, they’ll still be attending classes at Degrassi Junior High next season school year.

(The official story is that the high school was overcrowded so adding a Grade 9 to Degrassi was the only option.  The truth, of course, is that the show got popular and was renewed for a third season and the show’s producers didn’t want to lose 75% of their cast.)

However, one eighth grader will not be “graduating.”  Joey Jeremiah has flunked! Oddly, Joey passed his final exams but, as Raditch puts it, he only scraped by and Raditch feels that Joey is too smart to only be scraping by.  Mr. Raditch called Joey’s parents and told them that Joey could either go into the 9th Grade and be put in a low-academic program or he could repeat the 8th Grade and hopefully mature a little.  Joey’s parents agreed that Joey should be held back.  “Flunk our son!” they apparently said.

(To be honest, this seems like kind of an unfair move on the part of Mr. Raditch and I’m not really sure how Joey can be held back after passing all of his exams.  It seems rather arbitrary.)

At first, Joey declares that he’s not going to go to the graduation dance, even though the Zit Remedy is scheduled to make their public debut.  Wheels confronts Joey and tells him that he’s smart and that he owes it to his friends to show up.  Wheels gets a bit judgmental, all thing considered.  Joey is being held back on the whims of Mr. Raditch so Joey really has every right to be mad.  Aren’t there any lawyers in Canada who can sue the school on Joey’s behalf?

(Add to that, I always smile a bit whenever Wheels gets judgmental of anyone.  Hey, Wheels, Joey’s not the one who is destined to go to prison for killing someone while driving drunk.)

Joey eventually does show up at the dance, apparently having been convinced that his friends won’t be laughing at him behind his back.  (From what we see, everyone is supportive.  I guess they’re just nicer in Canada.)  Greeting Snake and Wheels, Joey takes a moment to flirt, for the first time, with Caitlin, who is destined to become the love of his life.  He then says that he’s ready to perform.  This leads to a historic moment as the Zit Remedy takes the stage for the very first time.  They perform their one and only song, the deathless Everybody Wants Something.

Everybody wants something

They’ll never give up

Everybody wants something

They’ll take your money

And never give up

Finally, Spike, who is allowed to attend the dance after not being allowed to attend class, goes into a labor as the episode’s end credits roll.  This is a huge moment, both because Spike is giving birth to Emma Nelson, who will be the lead character for the first few seasons of Degrassi: The Next Generation.  A running joke on DTNG would be Emma’s hatred of Everybody Wants Something so, for me, it was kind of fun to watch this episode and discover that this was the last song Spike listened to before giving birth.

(Speaking of Degrassi: The Next Generation, I had to smile at just how much Joey freaked out about getting held back.  DTNG was infamous for using the flimsiest of excuses to keep its more popular characters from graduating on time.  Ashley, Jimmy, Spinner, and a host of others were all held back.  Spinner was actually held back twice.)

And so ends the second season of Degrassi Junior High.  The second season was great and this finale did everything that a good finale is meant to do.  It wrapped up two major storylines while also hinting at what the future held.  It also gave Pat Mastroianni, Neil Hope, and Amanda Stepto a chance to show how much all three of them had developed as actors since the show’s first season. Mastroianni especially did a good job as Joey realized that his year of goofing off and not trying had finally caught up with him.  That said, I still think he needs to sue both the school and Mr. Raditch.  He probably needs to get emancipated from his parents as well.  What type of mother or father says, “Flunk my child?”

Next week, we start season 3!

Lisa Marie’s Week In Review: 4/8/24 — 4/14/24

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

On Monday, I spent 20 minute staring straight at the sun.

Before anyone freaks out, there was actually a lot of cloud cover so my eyes were protected.  I mean, I don’t think my eyesight has gotten any noticeably worse over the last few days.  The important thing is that I got to watch the solar eclipse.  It was a beautiful moment, standing in my backyard as the afternoon suddenly went dark.  A few minutes later, I experienced the world lighting back up.  I’m glad I was able to witness it.

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

Films I Watched:

  1. After Shock (1990)
  2. All-American Girl: The Mary Kay LeTourneau Story (2000)
  3. Back to School (1986)
  4. Berlin Correspondent (1942)
  5. The F.B.I. Girl (1952)
  6. For My Daughter’s Honor (1996)
  7. The Glass House (1972)
  8. Indict & Convict (1974)
  9. The Love Boat: Happily Ever After (2022)
  10. The Man I Married (1940)
  11. Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night (1977)
  12. Pink Floyd: Live in Venice (1989)
  13. Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii (1972)
  14. Shadows In An Empty Room (1976)
  15. Shattered Innocence (1988)
  16. Silent Predators (1999)
  17. Stations of the Elevated (1981)
  18. X: The Unheard Music (1986)

Television Shows I Watched:

  1. 1775
  2. Abbott Elementary
  3. Baywatch Nights
  4. Chaser
  5. Check It Out!
  6. CHiPs
  7. Degrassi Junior High
  8. Fantasy Island
  9. Friday the 13th: The Series
  10. Highway to Heaven
  11. Law & Order
  12. The Love Boat
  13. The Masters Tournament
  14. Miami Vice
  15. Monsters
  16. Night Flight
  17. T and T
  18. Unlocked: A Jail Experiment
  19. Welcome Back, Kotter

Books I Read:

  1. The Women (2024) by Kristin Hannah

Music to Which I Listened:

  1. Adele
  2. Adi Ulmansky
  3. Armin van Buuren
  4. Britney Spears
  5. Charli XCX
  6. The Chemical Brothers
  7. Coldplay
  8. David Bowie
  9. Dillon Francis
  10. ELO
  11. Eva X
  12. Lenny Kravitz
  13. Lindsey Stirling
  14. Olivia Rodrigo
  15. Pink Floyd
  16. Robert Koch
  17. Rolling Stones
  18. Sabrina Capenter
  19. Saint Motel
  20. Twenty One Pilots
  21. Van Morrison

Live Tweets:

  1. After Shock
  2. Shadows In An Empty Room
  3. Back To School
  4. Silent Predators

News From Last Week:

  1. Eleanor Coppola Dies At 87
  2. Music Producer Rico Wade Dies
  3. Artist Trina Robbins Dies At 49
  4. Actor Ron Thompson Dies At 83
  5. O.J. Simpson Dies
  6. OJ Simpson to be cremated and no plans to donate brain to science, lawyer says
  7. Here Is The Official Cannes Line-Up!

Links From Last Week:

  1. An Evening with John Cleese and “The Holy Grail” at the Florida Film Festival
  2. Tater’s Week in Review 4/12/24
  3. Thomas Jefferson and a Concrete Jungle Update
  4. “Hard-Boiled Hospitals!” Haunted Houses And Hoosiers Too! “Cinema A – Z” Has The “H” Factor!

Links From The Site:

  1. Leonard shared the trailer for Maxxxine!
  2. I reviewed Degrassi Junior High, Miami Vice, CHiPs, Fantasy Island, Baywatch Nights, The Love Boat, Monsters, 1775, Highway to Heaven, T and T, Friday the 13th: The Series, Welcome Back Kotter, and Check It Out!
  3. I reviewed The Man I Married, Berlin Correspondent, Chaser, and All-American Girl!
  4. I shared my week in television!
  5. I shared a music video from Robert Koch and a song from Pink Floyd!
  6. I shared scenes from A Field In England, Breathless, and Red Dawn!
  7. I paid tribute to Ward Bond and John Milius!
  8. Jeff reviewed Streets of Ghost Town, Phantom Valley, Law of the Canyon, 3 Desperate Men, and Cyclone Fury!
  9. Jeff shared music videos from FireHouse, Slayer, Cinderella, W.A.S.P., Megadeth, and Pantera!
  10. Erin shared Untitled, Breezy Stories, Knockout Magazine, Adventure, Strange Friends, Rogues and Lovers, and Hollywood Love Romances!
  11. Erin shared the Covers of Submarine Stories!

More From Us:

  1. At Days Without Incident, Leonard shared music from Nine Inch Nails!
  2. At my online dream journal, I shared Last Night’s Long and Weird Dream!
  3. At my music site, I shared songs from Sabrina Carpenter, Lindsey Stirling, Van Morrison, Adele, Olivia Rodrigo, Twenty One Pilots, and Eva X!
  4. At her photography site, Erin shared Path, Bus Stop, Horses on a Fence, Together, Paw Prints In The Snow, Camera Shy, and Midday!

Click here for last week!

Retro Television Review: All-American Girl: The Mary Kay Letourneau Story (dir by Lloyd Kramer)

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 2000’s All-American Girl: The Mary Kay Letourneau Story!  It  can be viewed on YouTube.

In 1996, a 34 year-old teacher named Mary Kay Letourneau decided that she had fallen in love with someone who was not her husband.

A 34 year-old deciding that they are no longer happy in their marriage and subsequently deciding that that they’ve found love with someone else is hardly an unusual or even surprising occurrence.  What made Mary Kay Letourneau’s case a national scandal was that the person that she decided that she was in love with was a 12 year-old student named Vili Fualaau.  Mary Kay started her affair with Vili when she was his sixth grade teacher.  When she was arrested and charged with two counts of second-degree rape of a child, Letourneau was pregnant with Vili’s child.  Even after being arrested, Letourneau insisted that she and Vili were soulmates.  After giving birth to Vili’s child, Letourneau was sentenced to six months of prison and somehow managed to avoid having to register as a sex offender.  After serving her sentence, Letourneau was promptly arrested again with Vili and was sent back to jail, where she gave birth to Vili’s second child.

All-American Girl opens with Mary Kay Letourneau (Penelope Ann Miller) in jail, insisting that everything that happened between her and Vili was consensual and that their love is real.  The majority of the film is shown in flashbacks.  Some of those flashbacks deal with Mary Kay, her husband (Greg Spottiswood), and Vili (Omar Anguiano).  Watching the flashbacks, I couldn’t help but notice that the film really did seem to be on Mary Kay’s side, to an almost ludicrous extent.  Her husband is portrayed as being a soulless sociopath, even before Mary Kay starts sneaking around with Vili.  As for Vili, he is presented as being the one who initiated his relationship with Mary Kay, flirting with her in class and comforting her when she starts crying in a school hallway.  The actor playing Vili looked, acted, and sounded considerably older than just 12 years old.  At times, he appeared to be nearly as old as Penelope Ann Miller.  And I’ll admit that it’s totally possible that Vili could have looked older than his age and maybe he did have a surprisingly mature vocabulary.  But still …. he was 12 years old!  Apparently, Letourneau cooperated with the film’s producers and that’s pretty obvious from the first minute we see Vili giving Letourneau a wolfish smile in the 6th grade.

The flashbacks dealing with Letourneau’s childhood are a bit more interesting, if just because Letourneau was the daughter of a congressman who ran for president in 1972.  (One of her brothers served in the first Bush White House.  Another served as an advisor to the 2016 Trump campaign.)  At one point, she taunts a group of protestors that have gathered outside of her family’s home and her father praises her courage.  The film hints that it was the twin traumas of her brother’s death and the discovery that her beloved father had fathered two children with a mistress that led to Letourneau’s subsequent instability.  Perhaps that’s true, though I think the film is a bit too eager to accept that as an all-purpose explanation.

You may have guessed that I had mixed feelings about this film.  Penelope Ann Miller gave an excellent performance as Mary Kay but the film’s attempts to portray May Kay as being even more of a victim that Vili were undeniably icky.  

As for the real Mary Kay, she married Vili four years after being released from prison.  They separated a year before Mary Kay died in 2020.  Their relationship inspired several films, most recently May/December.