Late Night Retro Television Review: Check It Out 2.10 “Edna Displays Talent”

Posted on September 7, 2024 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 Saturdays, I will be reviewing the Canadian sitcom, Check it Out, which ran in syndication from 1985 to 1988. The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi!

After a two month break, it’s time to return to Canada’s favorite grocery store.

Episode 2.10 “Edna Displays Talent”

(Dir by Alan Ehrlich, originally aired on December 19th, 1986)

The tagline for the second season of Check It Out might as well, “Continuity: Who Needs It?”

After spending the previous few episodes as a hypercompetent manager and a great boyfriend, Howard is back to being an idiot in this week’s episode. Not only does he not appear to be capable of managing a lemonade stand (let alone a supermarket) but he is again so dense that he doesn’t realize that Edna is feeling stuck in a rut. Edna begs Howard to assign her the job of designing a display for a new barbecue sauce. Howard, of course, gives the job to Christian.

Christian has no idea what to do so he gets Edna to do it for him. Edna, recalling a romantic camping trip that she took with Howard when they first started dating, creates perhaps the ugliest display that I’ve ever seen. Seriously, look at this:

Not only it an eyesore but how is anyone going to be able to reach the front registers with all of that stuff sitting in the way? Plus, what exactly is the display for? It’s supposed to be for barbecue sauce but it looks like it’s for red tents and Styrofoam trees.

That said, Howard is really impressed by the display. He assumes that Christian is the one who did it. Even after Edna shames Christian into telling the truth, Howard continues to assume that Christian is the one who built the display. I’m not sure why Howard is so stupid in this episode but it certainly makes the company’s decision to fire him in the previous episode easier to understand.

Meanwhile, Murray is desperately trying to lose his virginity. When he asks Howard for advice, Howard tells him about the time he and Edna went on a romantic camping trip and …. suddenly, Howard recognizes the display! He apologizes to Edna and asks her to join him in the tent.

“In the store?” Edna says, surprised.

(Like, seriously, they’ve been together for seven years and they’ve never had sex in the store before?)

Uh-oh, turns out Murray’s busy losing his virginity in the tent. Sorry, Howard and Edna!

This episode was an odd one, in that it required Howard and Edna to behave in ways that went against everything that the show had previously established about their characters. But I laughed more than I thought I would. The truth of the matter is that Don Adams was always funnier when he played Howard as a buffoon than as a nice guy. As well, Jeff Pustil always makes me laugh as the cowardly but sneaky Jack Christian. Pustil was very good at making desperation funny and Christian is desperate for the majority of this episode.

Finally, check out Marlene’s hair this episode:

This episode was dumb but it made me laugh. That’s good enough for me.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 9/1/24 — 9/7/24

Posted on September 7, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I’ve been getting ready for our annual October horrorthon so, this week, I binged a few of the shows that I review for the Shattered Lens and I wrote up several weeks’s worth of reviews. If nothing else, I can proudly say that I’ve got reviews of CHiPs, Degrassi Junior High, Malibu CA, and Highway to Heaven all ready to go for the next two months.

On Friday night, I watched an episode of Night Flight that featured music videos from David Bowie. The music was great. Though it wasn’t featured on the episode, I found myself singing Heroes while I watched it.

On Saturday morning, Jeff and I watched an episode of Homicide: Life on the Streets, which is currently streaming on Peacock. The episode featured Robin Williams as a man whose wife was gunned down in front of him and who found himself disgusted by the seemingly callous attitude of the detective investigating the crime. This is a show that I’ve heard a lot about and one which I’ve been told I should consider reviewing for this site. The episode that I saw was really good so I might have to do just that.

I haven’t really watched that much television over the past few months. In fact, I went a few weeks without watching a single thing, which is one reason why there’s been a few weeks where I didn’t even have a reason to post a Week In Television. All of my focus was on taking care of my father. I have a lot that I now need to get caught up on and I shall. It might take a while but as James Bond told Tracy at their wedding, “We have all the time in the world.”

Retro Television Review: Welcome Back, Kotter 3.25 “Horshack and the Madame X!”

Posted on September 7, 2024 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 Saturdays, I will be reviewing Welcome Back Kotter, which ran on ABC from 1975 to 1979. The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi!

I guess it’s time to get back to reviewing those Sweathog antics!

Episode 3.25 “Horshack and the Madame X!”

(Dir by Al Schwartz, originally aired on February 23rd, 1978)

So, I’m finally ready to start reviewing Welcome Back, Kotter again and …. OH NO! It’s a Horshack episode!

Listen, don’t get me wrong. Ron Pallilo, despite what some critics have said, did not give a bad performance as Arnold Horshack. Consistently, he gave the best performance that he could with the material that he was given. It’s just that, as the series progressed, the character was written in a way that was more and more cartoonish. By the time the third season rolled around, a little bit of Horshack went a long way. If the first season present Horshack as being a relatively believable class clown, the third season Horshack was the type of weirdo who made you want to take out a restraining order.

This episode finds Horshack depressed because he can’t get a girlfriend. The Sweathogs try to help but the truth of the matter is that no one wants to date Horshack. (Not be mean but would you want to date Horshack? Especially when Barbarino, Epstein, and Washington are right there?) When Gabe mentions that he’s going to be teaching a night class at NYU, the Sweathogs announce that they’ll go over to his apartment to keep an eye on Julie. Gabe agrees to this, mostly because he secretly hates Julie.

At the apartment, Julie tries to give Horshack some encouragement and makes the mistake of allowing him to show her how he asks a girl out on a date. Horshack falls in love with Julie and he decides that she’s in love with him. As I said, restraining order time!

The next night, Julie invites Horshack to dinner so she can let him down easy. Unfortunately, Horshack shows up early and Julie has to try to talk to him with wet hair and wearing a bathrobe. Then the other Sweathogs shows up and assume that Julie is leading Horshack on. This episode did the impossible, in that it made me feel sorry for Julie. Usually, Julie comes across like someone who is just permanently in a bad mood but this episode really drove home just how unfair it is that she has to continually play hostess to her husband’s students. To be honest, Julie has the patience of a saint in this episode.

Travolta made me laugh a few times but otherwise, this was one of those episodes where I just wanted the Sweathogs to leave the apartment and leave the Kotter family alone. Probably the most interesting thing about this episode is that Gabe was barely in it. Reportedly, Gabe Kaplan and Marcia Strassman did not get along and it’s easy to sense that during the third season.

As for this episode’s opening joke, Gabe told Julie about his uncle who became a mailman and then bit himself because he thought he was a dog. Gabe’s family is just wacky!

Live Tweet Alert: Watch Don’t Look Away With #ScarySocial!

Posted on September 7, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on twitter. 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, for #ScarySocial, Deanna Dawn will be hosting 2023’s Don’t Look Away!

If you want to join us on Saturday night, just hop onto twitter, start the film at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag! The film is available on Prime, Tubi, and a host of other streaming sites! I’ll be there co-hosting and I imagine some other members of the TSL Crew will be there as well. It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.