Daily Archives: September 29, 2024

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi Junior High 3.10 “Twenty Bucks”

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, everyone needs some money.  Gourmet Scum is coming.

Episode 3.10 “Twenty Bucks”

(Dir by John Bertram, originally aired on February 6th, 1989)

To quote the Zit Remedy, everybody wants something they’ll never give up.  In this week’s episode, everyone wants twenty bucks.

That’s how much it costs to buy a ticket to see Gourmet Scum, Canada’s hottest band.  Melanie, who has gotten her braces taken off and who is finally feeling confident about herself (Hey, I’ve been there!), has been invited to the concert by Snake.  There’s just one catch.  Melanie has to pay for her own ticket.  When Melanie asks her mom for the money, Melanie’s mom says that she can’t spare twenty dollars.  Not with the cost of groceries!  (Hell, try living in 2024.)

Melanie decides to steal twenty dollars from her mom’s purse.  Melanie justifies it by assuming that she’ll get paid twenty dollars for her next babysitting job and she’ll be able to pay her mom back as a result.  Melanie steals the money and buys the ticket.  However, her weekend babysitting job is canceled.  Without the twenty dollars, Melanie’s mom will only be able to make chili until her next payday.  A guilt-ridden Melanie finally confesses to stealing from her mom.  Her mom promptly grounds Melanie, meaning no concert and probably no chili either.

Snake, when he hears Melanie can’t go to the concert with him, decides that he doesn’t want to go to the concert either.  Awwww!  Snake and Melanie are cute together but, those of us who have seen Degrassi: The Next Generation, know that Snake is ultimately going to marry ….. well, I won’t spoil it.

Meanwhile, Spike is upset because Shane has told her that he’s broke and won’t be able to pay her any child support.  Why is Shane broke?  Because he used his last twenty dollars to buy a ticket to Gourmet Scum!

Finally, Joey makes a twenty-dollar bet with BLT (Dayo Ade).  (Yes, the character’s nickname is BLT.)  BLT bets that Joey can’t get a date for Friday night.  Joey asks and is turned down by almost every girl at school.  Even the Farrell twins turn him down!  (Seriously, how much of a loser do you have to be to actually get turned down by a Farrell?)  Finally, he asks the girl that he really likes (but who he fears no longer likes him), Caitlin.  Caitlin says yes.  Awwwww!  Unfortunately, BLT pays Joey right in front of Caitlin.  In order to prove that he didn’t ask Caitlin out just for the money, Joey proceeds to rip up the twenty dollar bill.  (Keep in mind, it’s a Canadian twenty so he probably just ripped up the equivalent of an American dollar.)

I enjoyed this episode.  It deftly balanced several storylines but it also set up a few big developments that we’ll talk about next week.  Joey and Caitlin are a cute couple and so are Melanie and Snake.  As for Shane and Spike …. well, like I said, we’ll talk about it next week.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Review: 9/23/24 — 9/29/24

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Rest in Peace, Dame Maggie Smith.

Today is the last weekend before the start of our annual Horrorthon so things are about to get very busy around here.  Believe it or not, the whole reason I started doing these weeks in reviews was to help people navigate the site during the month of October.  This has been a pretty rough year so I’m really looking forward to diving headfirst into the next 31 days.  This is my favorite time of year!  Last year, we posted over 600 Horrorthon articles.  We’ll see what happens this year!

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

Films I Watched:

  1. The Apocalypse (2007)
  2. The Asphyx (1972)
  3. The Boogey Man (1980)
  4. Brothers (1977)
  5. Death Takes a Holiday (1971)
  6. The Devonsville Terror (1983)
  7. Dredd (2012)
  8. Express to Terror (1979)
  9. The Fall of the House of Usher (1960)
  10. Gozilla (a.ka. Cozilla) (1977)
  11. Inheritance (2017)
  12. Listen To Me (1989)
  13. Mindreacher (2022)
  14. Murder-Rock (1984)
  15. Night Explorers: The Asylum (2023)
  16. The Octagon (1980)
  17. An Officer and a Murder (2012)
  18. Paul McCartney Really Is Dead: The Last Testament of George Harrison (2010)
  19. Revenge of the Boogeyman (1983)
  20. Ring of Terror (1961)
  21. Ripper’s Revenge (2023)
  22. She Made Them Do It (2013)
  23. Sleepaway Camp (1983)
  24. Spookies (1986)
  25. Swingers (1996)
  26. Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)
  27. Virgin Pockets (2007)
  28. X: The Man With X-Ray Eyes (1962)
  29. You’re Not Alone (2020)

Television Shows I Watched:

  1. American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez
  2. Fantasy Island
  3. Hell’s Kitchen
  4. The Love Boat
  5. Miami Vice
  6. One Step Beyond
  7. Rescue: Hi-Short

Books I Read:

  1. Bats Out Of Hell (1979) by Guy N. Smith
  2. Revolution in the Head (1997) by Ian MacDonald
  3. Runaway Train, or the Story of My Life So Far (2024) by Eric Roberts and Sam Kashner

Music To Which I Listened:

  1. Adi Ulmansky
  2. Armin van Buuren
  3. Avicii
  4. Britney Spears
  5. The Chemical Brothers
  6. Christina Aguilera
  7. The Clean
  8. The COVIDs
  9. Daft Punk
  10. Dillon Francis
  11. DJ Snake
  12. Fatboy Slim
  13. Glass Animals
  14. Goblin
  15. Gwen Stefani
  16. Hans Zimmer
  17. The Heavy
  18. Hilary Duff
  19. Housewife
  20. John Carpenter
  21. Juliette Lewis
  22. Katy Perry
  23. Lancelot
  24. Madness
  25. Muse
  26. Phil Collins
  27. The Prodigy
  28. Ramones
  29. Saint Motel
  30. Sofia Monroy
  31. Tiesto
  32. UPSAHL
  33. X

Trailers:

  1. Thunderbolts
  2. Sinners
  3. The Ballerina

Live Tweets:

  1. The Octagon
  2. Swingers
  3. Dredd
  4. Sleepaway Camp

News From Last Week:

  1. Maggie Smith Dies At 89
  2. Kris Kristofferson Dies At 88
  3. Actor John Ashton Dies At 76

Links From Last Week:

  1. Have You Been Inside L.A’s “Last Book Store?” Here’s Their Iconic “Book Tunnel!”
  2. Happy Caturday! (9.28.2024)
  3. Tater’s Week in Review 9/27/24

Links From The Site:

  1. Leonard shared the trailers for Thunderbolts, Sinners, and The Ballerina!
  2. I reviewed Degrassi Junior High, Miami Vice, CHiPs, Fantasy Island, Baywatch Nights, The Love Boat, Monsters, Malibu CA, Highway to Heaven, T and T, Friday the 13th: The Series, Welcome Back Kotter, Check It Out, and Death Takes A Holiday!
  3. I shared my week in television!
  4. I shared music videos from Juliette Lewis, Tess Parks, Housewife, Sofia Monroy, Glass Animals, The COVIDS, and Lancelot!
  5. I shared a scene from Convoy.
  6. Erin shared Wrong Jail, Complete Sports, Stocking Parade, Movie Humor Magazine, Sports Novels, Pep Stories, and Traveling Salesgirl!

More From Us:

  1. At her photography site, Erin shared Green 2, Evening Sky, Sunset, Window Seat, Limbs To Be Picked Up, Freshly Mowed, and Corner Branch!
  2. At my music site, I shared songs from Ramones, The Clean, Katy Perry, Gwen Stefani, Hillary Duff, Phil Collins, and Katy Perry (again)!

Want to check out last week?  Click here!

Scenes That I Love: Convoy (RIP, Kris Kristofferson)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Rest in peace, Kris Kristofferson.

Today’s scene of the day comes from 1979’s Convoy and it features Kristofferson as the greatest trucker of all time, Rubber Duck.  In this scene, Rubber Duck rescues a fellow trucker from jail and lets the authorities know what they can do with their law.

Retro Television Review: Death Takes A Holiday (dir by Robert Butler)

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 1971’s Death Takes A Holiday!  It  can be viewed on YouTube.

For a few days in 1971, no one dies.

The Vietnam War continues but there are no casualties.  There are natural disasters but no one loses their life.  Doctors are stunned.  World leaders start to panic.  An emergency session of the UN is called to debate what to do about living in a world where no one is dying.  One gets the feeling that the world’s leaders prefer it when people are dying in wars and disasters.

Death has taken a holiday.

Death (Monte Markham) has become confused as to why humans so desperately want to live despite the fact that the world in which they exist is not always a happy one.  He is particularly confused by the elderly Judge Earl Chapman (Melvyn Douglas), who has suffered multiple strokes and other ailments and yet has always resisted whenever Death has come for him.  Death decides to take his holiday on the isolated beach where the Judge and his family are spending their weekend.  Though Death introduces himself as being David Smith, the Judge recognizes him.  It turns out that the Judge was always aware of death lingering around him and his family.

Death, for his part, has fallen in love with the Judge’s headstrong and rebellious daughter, Peggy (Yvette Mimieux).  In fact, Peggy was meant to die on the beach but, as soon as Death saw her drowning, he decided not to take her and instead allowed her to wash up back on the beach.  Death explains to the Judge that he can only spend so much time on vacation and that soon, people will start dying again.  Death says that he’ll be taking Peggy to the afterlife after the weekend ends.  The Judge tries to change his mind but Death is in love and he wants Peggy to be with him.

An adaptation of a play that inspired both 1934’s Death Takes A Holiday and 1998’s Meet Joe Black, the 1971 version of Death Takes A Holiday is a well-acted and intelligent made-for-television movie, one that eschews heavy-handed drama in favor of being a rather low-key meditation on what it means to both live and to die.  Melvyn Douglas and, as his wife, Myrna Loy both give poignant performances and Douglas even manages to sell the potentially maudlin moment where he explains why he has always clinged to life.  Monte Markham may not be the first actor who comes to mind when you think of someone to cast as the human form of Death but he does a good job in the role and he and Yvette Mimieux have a wonderful chemistry together.  The beach scenery is lovely and the story is an interesting one.  Clocking in at just 73 minutes, this version of Death Takes A Holiday is the best of all of them.