Late Night Retro Television Review: Check It Out! 3.8 “Mutiny on Mr. Christian”

Posted on February 22, 2025 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 and Peacock!

This week, Howard leaves the store once again. Chaos follows.

Episode 3.8 “Mutiny on Mr. Christian”

(Dir by Alan Erlich, originally aired on November 7th, 1987)

Howard goes on another one of the 100 vacations that he seems to take during the year, leaving Christian in charge of the store. To no one’s surprise, Christian turns out to be a total martinet who times Marlene’s check-out speed, bothers Leslie at the deli, and refuses to give out the paychecks early. “The book says 4:00,” Christian explains, “and I’m doing things by the book.”

When Howard returns early, Marlene rats on Christian and reveals, amongst other things, that Christian attempted to strip search a female shop lifter. (Agck! As someone who was a compulsive makeup stealer in her teen years, I’m glad Target didn’t have the same policy.) Howard probably could fire Christian for the strip search stunt but instead, he …. well, he does nothing.

Christian, however, gets back at Marlene by disguising his voice, calling her, and telling her that she has won two tickets to Atlantic City as a part of a newspaper sweepstakes that she was taking part in. Marlene is super-excited and can’t wait to take her grandmother on a real vacation. Christian suffers a pang of guilt. When he later calls to tell Marlene that she didn’t win the tickets, Howard overhears him. Christian is forced to tell Marlene what he did. Instead of yelling at Christian, Marlene says she’ll just win the tickets for real.

Marlene does not win the contest. But Howard, Leslie, and even Christian all buy her tickets to Atlantic City. Awwwww!

Plotwise, this episode felt like a season two episode. Howard is once again going on vacation whenever he wants. Christian is once again acting like a jackass. Leslie and Marlene are once again allied against the world. Edna is not in the episode and neither is Viker. Even the ending feels like a season two ending. Marlene takes the tickets from Christian while Marlene returns the other tickets to Leslie and Howard so that they can get refunds. They laugh about getting one over on Christian though they might want to consider that Christian, for once, tried to do the right thing without being ordered to do so.

That said, this episode works like a season 3 episode because it focuses on the show’s three most consistently funny performers, Jeff Pustil, Aaron Schwartz, and Kathleen Laskey. Schwartz has fun with Leslie’s snarky insults. Laskey brings an edge to Marlene’s sarcasm. Jeff Pustil is always at his best when he’s portraying Christian’s attempts to weasel out of being held responsible for his actions. The three of them more than make up for the fact that Don Adams himself feels a bit off in this episode.

All in all, this wasn’t the best episode of the show or even the third season. But it still made me smile.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Friday the 13th: The Series 3.4 “Crippled Inside”

Posted on February 22, 2025 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 Fridays, I will be reviewing Friday the 13th: The Series, a show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990. The entire series can be found on YouTube!

This week, it’s all up to Johnny Ventura!

By the way, it is true that these reviews usually run on Friday. This week, however, all the cold weather caught up to me and I spent most of yesterday in bed. As a result, this week’s review got preempted to tonight. Now, let’s find out what’s been going on in the world of cursed antiques!

Episode 3.4 “Crippled Inside”

(Dir by Timothy Bond, originally aired on October 21st, 1989)

This week’s episode opens with teenager Rachel Horn (Stephanie Morgenstern) nearly getting gang-raped by a group of jocks. Rachel manages to escape from them but, as she runs away, she’s hit by a car and left a quadriplegic. Feeling that her life is over, things start to look up for Rachel when an old man (John Gilbert) gives her his antique wheelchair, which he suggests will help her regain the ability to move. When Rachel sits in the antique wheelchair, she can send out her astral form. Each time she uses the wheelchair, her body heals just a little bit more. The only catch is that the wheelchair only works if Rachel kills people while in her astral form. Hey, I can think of at least four guys that Rachel might want to kill….

With Jack and Micki in London, it falls to Johnny Ventura to try to get the wheelchair back. I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical when I saw this episode was going to be a solo effort on Johnny’s part. I was like, “Johnny’s only been a regular for two episodes and he’s already working alone?” (I have to admit that my feelings towards the Johnny Ventura character are very much influenced by how much I liked Ryan.) But I have to say that this was a good episode and a lot of that was because Johnny was working alone. Not understanding the true danger of the cursed antiques, Johnny was torn about whether or not to take the wheelchair away from Rachel. Rachel was a very sympathetic character and the people she was targeting truly were terrible. Johnny, not understanding that Rachel was losing her soul to the devil, actually gave the wheelchair back at one point. By the end of the episode, he realized he had made a mistake. Steve Monarque did a wonderful job portraying Johnny’s growing realization that there are no good curses.

This was a good episode. I still miss Ryan but Johnny held his own. The story was emotionally effective and the ending left me feeling genuinely unsettled. Johnny learned the truth about curses and I learned that, even during its final season, Friday the 13th: The Series was capable of producing intelligent and memorable horror.

Song of the Day: Once In A Lifetime by Talking Heads

Posted on February 22, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s song of the day, much like our scene that I love for today, is taken from Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense. Here is Once In A Lifetime, performed by Talking Heads.

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself, “Well, how did I get here?”

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again, after the money’s gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground

And you may ask yourself, “How do I work this?”
And you may ask yourself, “Where is that large automobile?”
And you may tell yourself, “This is not my beautiful house”
And you may tell yourself, “This is not my beautiful wife”

Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was

Water dissolving and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean
Under the water, carry the water
Remove the water from the bottom of the ocean
Water dissolving and water removing

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again, into the silent water
Under the rocks and stones, there is water underground

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Leting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again, after the money’s gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground

You may ask yourself, “What is that beautiful house?”
You may ask yourself, “Where does that highway go to?”
And you may ask yourself, “Am I right, am I wrong?”
And you may say to yourself, “My God, what have I done?”

Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, look where my hand was
Time isn’t holding up, time isn’t after us
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was (I couldn’t get no rest)
Same as it ever was, hey let’s all twist our thumbs
Here comes the twister

Letting the days go by (same as it ever was, same as it ever was)
Letting the days go by (same as it ever was, same as it ever was)
Once in a lifetime, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground

Songwriters: David Byrne / Phoebe Esprit / Tina Weymouth / Jerry Harrison / Christopher Frantz / Brian Peter George Eno / Ronald Amanze

Scenes I Love: The Performance of Life During Wartime from Stop Making Sense

Posted on February 22, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s scene that I love comes from the Jonathan Demme-directed concert film, 1984’s Stop Making Sense. In this scene, brilliantly directed and edited by Demme, Talking Heads perform Life During Wartime. I love the energy in this performance. I’d love to be Tina Weymouth, able to play perfect bass and run in place at the same time.

Bar-Z Bad Men (1937, directed by Sam Newfield)

Posted on February 22, 2025 by Jedadiah Leland

After getting kicked out of town for shooting the place up during a night of friendly fun, cowboy Jim Waters (Johnny Mack Brown) drops in on his old friend, rancher Ed Parks (Jack Rothwell). Ed has got a strange problem. There are cattle rustlers about but instead of stealing Ed’s cattle, they’re adding cattle to Ed’s herd. It’s an obvious scheme to try to create a feud between Ed and his neighbor, rancher Hamp Harvey (Frank LaRue). Before Jim and Ed can solve the problem, Ed is gunned down. Harvey is the number one suspect but Jim figures out the truth, that Harvey has been betrayed by one of his own employees and that all of this is a part of a scheme by Sig Bostell (Tom London) to take control of both ranches.

Bar-Z Bad Man is a B-western with a notably twisty plot as Bostell plays both sides against each other for his own benefit. As usual, Johnny Mack Brown makes for a good and convincing western hero. Whether he’s chasing someone on his horse or drawing his guns, Brown is always a convincing cowboy. What makes this film interesting is that it opens with Johnny Mack Brown engaging in the type of behavior that most B-western heroes would never think of doing. Shooting up the town and then getting exiled for his actions adds an element of redemption to Jim’s efforts to get to the bottom of Bostell’s schemes. Or it would if Jim ever really seemed to feel bad about shooting the town up. His excuse is that he was just having a good time. Try to get away with that in the real old west, Jim!

Bar-Z Bad Men is a good B-western for those who like the genre. The story is solid and Johnny Mack Brown is as convincing saving the west as he was shooting it up.

Retro Television Review: Welcome Back, Kotter 4.18 “The Sweat Smell of Success”

Posted on February 22, 2025 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 can be purchased on Prime.

Buchanan High is in chaos! Only one man can save the day but he’s not around anymore.

Episode 4.18 “The Sweat Smell of Success”

(Dir by Norman Abbott, originally aired on March 3rd, 1979)

Where is Mr. Kotter!?

I mean, don’t get me wrong. I know why Gabe Kaplan was hardly ever on the show during the fourth season. He was annoyed that the network refused to allow the Sweathogs to graduate from Buchanan High, despite the fact that the actors playing the Sweathogs were all in their late 20s and early 30s. He was not happy about working with Marcia Strassman. And he was shooting a movie for a good deal of the fourth season. Kaplan felt that he moved on from the series and as such, he allowed his character to become vice principal and kept his appearances on the show to a minimum,

But, in the narrative of the show, where is Mr. Kotter? Usually, someone will mention that he’s out of town or busy with school business. In this episode, he isn’t even mentioned. It’s kind of disturbing how he’s vanished and no one seems to care. The Sweathogs need his guidance and this episode, as dumb as it was, features a plot that feels like it would have been perfect for Mr. Kotter’s corny jokes and gentle mentoring. Even more importantly …. who is the song welcoming back? Kotter’s gone! He’s not around to be welcomed back!

As for this week’s episodes, it appears that the show’s writers finally remembered that, at the start of the season, each of the Sweathogs was assigned a job around the school. Freddie and Horshack run the school store. Meanwhile, Epstein is in charge of the audio visual department. But he sucks at his job so Woodman reassigns him to the school paper. Horshack’s girlfriend, Mary Johnson, edits and writes the paper and is very earnest in her efforts to make the paper something worth reading. That’s quite a chance from the Mary who tried to kill herself just a few episodes ago.

Anyway, Epstein turns the paper into a tabloid. He suggests that Julie is having an affair with Woodman. (“She’s not my type!” Woodman declares, “Too tall!”) He writes about Freddie Washington wore diapers until he was six months old. Epstein describes Horshack as being a diva. Epstein says that Beau is a member of the Ku Klux Klan. He says….

WAIT! WHAT!?

Okay, one of these stories is far worse than the others. Washington did wear diapers when he was a baby and Horshack is a diva and Julie probably is cheating on Gabe. But Beau is a member of the Klan? Where did this come from? “I’m going to need a police escort to go home tonight,” Beau says while the audience laughs.

Seriously, don’t just toss around Klan accusations, folks. It’s just common sense.

Anyway, Epstein’s friends get mad at him so Epstein quits the paper after publishing an expose of himself on the front page. He returns to the audio visual department. He still sucks at his job and I guess Mary is back to having to write, edit, and publish the entire newspaper by herself. Is this a happy ending?

Well, at least Beau didn’t get killed.

Next week, it’s time for the school talent show! Wow, Mr. Kotter would have loved that. RIP.

Retro Television Review: St. Elsewhere 1.13 “Family History”

Posted on February 22, 2025 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 Fridays, I will be reviewing St. Elsewhere, a medical show which ran on NBC from 1982 to 1988. The show can be found on Hulu and, for purchase, on Prime!

Usually, I review this show on Friday but, yesterday, my week of visiting Lake Texoma in freezing weather finally caught up with me and I spent most of the day congested and curled up in bed. As a result, St. Elsewhere got preempted until today. Now, let’s see what’s happening at St. Eligius….

Episode 1.13 “Family History”

(Dir by Kevin Hooks, originally aired on February 8th, 1983)

After being a background character for the past few episodes, Dr. Wendy Armstrong (Kim Miyori) finally gets her time in the spotlight with this episode. When Charlie Heller (Keenan Wynn) comes into the ER with a chronic nosebleed, Dr. Armstrong is too quick to assume that it’s nothing serious. Dr. Westphall, who is in an especially crappy mood this episode, reprimands her for not getting a family history before making her diagnosis. A chastened Armstrong gets Charlie’s family history and comes to suspect that he has a rare blood condition that only seems to effect Jewish men. A very expensive test confirms Armstrong’s diagnosis. Armstrong is excited. “I was right!” she says. Westphall again reprimands her, telling her that she now needs to tell Charlie that he has a chronic condition and will have to take medicine for the rest of his life.

Seriously, Westphall was not in a good mood during this episode! But I don’t blame him. From her first appearance on the show, Dr. Armstrong has been complaining nonstop. No matter what happens in the hospital, she seems to take it as a personal affront. Now, after several episodes of complaining about the other doctors, Armstrong fails to do a simple thing like get a family history. No wonder Westphall was all like, What are you bragging about?

That said, even if his mood was understandable, I would not want to get on Westphall’s bad side. Even after Armstrong makes the correct diagnosis, Westphall takes the time to say, “Next time, do what I told you to do.” Agck!

While Westphall was dealing with whatever was eating away at him, Dr. Chandler was getting annoyed by John Doe’s refusal to try to remember anything about his past. Even when John Doe’s real father showed up and explained that Doe was his son, Dave Stewart, he refused to try to remember anything. Eventually, Chandler snapped at Dave for refusing to even try. Chandler, of course, is played by a young Denzel Washington so, when he gets mad, it’s like having the voice of God call you out. After Chandler’s reprimand, Dave finally makes an effort to remember his past. He realizes that, when he was shot, he had a vision of his deceased mother welcoming him to heaven. Awwww!

Dr. Craig’s friend has his gender affirmation surgery. Crag met his friend’s lover, a trans man. Needless to say, this episode featured a lot of scenes of Craig rolling his eyes as he struggled to come to terms with everything he was learning about his old friend. It was all pretty predictable but William Daniels did a great job playing up Craig’s confusion and single-mindedness.

And finally, Peter was happy because his wife wanted to get back together. I get the feeling any happiness Peter feels is destined to always be temporary.

This episode was a bit uneven. Armstrong’s story would have been compelling if Armstrong herself was a more interesting character. The highlight of the episode were the scenes between Denzel Washington’s doctor and Tom Hulce’s amnesiac. It’s always enjoyable to watch two good actors perform opposite of each other.

Next week, the great Norman Lloyd takes center stage as Auschlander’s cancer returns.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Jonathan Demme Edition

Posted on February 22, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!

The late, great director Jonathan Demme was born 81 years ago today. It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 Jonathan Demme Films

Stop Making Sense (1984, dir by Jonathan Demme, DP: Jordan Cronenweth)

Something Wild (1986, dir by Jonathan Demme, DP: Tak Fujimoto)

The Silence Of The Lambs (1991, dir by Jonathan Demme, DP: Tak Fujimoto)

Rachel Getting Married (2008, dir by Jonathan Demme, DP: Declan Quinn)

The trailer for DETECTIVE CHINATOWN 1900, a new movie co-starring Chow Yun-Fat!

Posted on February 22, 2025 by Bradley Crain

I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that a new movie co-starring Chow Yun-Fat was released in time for the Chinese New Year. Chow doesn’t work that much these days, so anytime he’s in a new movie, it’s an important event for me. And just look how cool he still looks in the picture above. The man is turning 70 on May 18th, for pete’s sake!

I was unaware of the DETECTIVE CHINATOWN franchise when I noticed Chow’s participation in this film on IMDB. It has been a huge box office hit as part of this year’s Chinese Lunar New Year festivities. DETECTIVE CHINATOWN 1900 is the 4th installment in the series that actually stars actors Baoqiang Wang and Liu Horan as Gui and Qin Fu, respectively. In this installment, the duo investigates the murder of a white woman in San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1900. Chow seems to be playing some sort of Chinatown boss in this film that also features John Cusack as the U.S. Congressman whose daughter is murdered. It looks kind of silly, but hopefully it’s also a lot of fun. I’ll definitely be checking this film out, and at least one of the other installments in preparation.

Enjoy this trailer for DETECTIVE CHINATOWN 1900!

Live Tweet Alert: Join #ScarySocial for The Grudge!

Posted on February 22, 2025 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, at 9 pm et, Deanna Dawn will be hosting #ScarySocial! The movie? 2004’s The Grudge!

If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag! I’ll be there tweeting 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.

The Grudge is available on Prime!

See you there!