Late Night Retro Television Review: Check It Out! 3.17 “Fatal Harrassment”

Posted on May 17, 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 is getting sued!

Episode 3.17 “Fatal Harrassment”

(Dir by Alan Erlich, originally aired on January 10th, 1988)

The newest cashier at Cobb’s, Kim Dillard (Lolita Davidovich, in a very early role), is suing Howard for sexual harassment!

Actually …. yeah, I could see that. Everything about Howard screams lawsuit, if not for sexual harassment than for something else. The same can be said of the behavior of just about everyone who works at Cobb’s. One thing I’ve noticed over the years that I’ve spent watching old sitcoms for the site is that, in the 80s and 90s, everyone just harassed everyone else and regularly made comments that would end friendships and lose jobs today.

Anyway, Howard swears that Kim was actually coming onto him and that he’s being set up. Yeah, whatever, Howard. No one buys that! Except, it’s true! It turns out that Kim has a history of taking jobs and then suing her boss for sexual harassment. Since most of her bosses settle to avoid the bad publicity that would come with a trial, Kim makes a lot of money without having to prove anything. Howard, however, threatens to go to court, which cause Kim to drop her suit. Howard keeps his job, disappointing Christian who was hoping to take over the store.

This episode wasn’t great but it wasn’t terrible. It was very middle-of-the-road, featuring a lot of obvious jokes that were saved by the cast’s third season chemistry. That said, it also painted Kim as too obvious a villain and it again left me wondering why Edna is still wasting her time with Howard. For three seasons now, Edna has been complaining about dating Howard. Strangely, Edna always says that she’s been dating Howard for “Seven years,” even though three years have passed since she first said that. Poor Edna!

Checkered Flag or Crash (1977, directed by Alan Gibson)

Posted on May 17, 2025 by Jedadiah Leland

Joe Don Baker stars at “Walkaway” Madden, a race car driver who got that name because he has always managed to walk away from every crash. When Madden agrees to compete in an off-road race through the Philippines, he is not happy to discover that his sponsor has arranged for a female journalist named C.C. Wainwright (Susan Sarandon) to accompany him and record his adventures. Walkaway’s a good ol’ boy and C.C.’s an independent woman but wouldn’t you know it, they’re in love by the end of the race.

This has one of the most simple plots that I’ve ever seen. Madden and C.C. race through the jungle and there’s never really any doubt about how the race is going to end because all of the other drivers are terrible, except for Madden’s former partner, Doc Pyle (Alan Vint). A manic Larry Hagman plays Bo Cochran, the promoter who put the race together, and gets the majority of the film’s laughs. When I watched this movie, I thought it had been made to capitalize on the success of Smokey and the Bandit but then I saw that Checkered Flag actually came out a few months before Burt Reynolds and Jackie Gleason hit the drive-in circuit. The young Susan Sarandon is a lively presence and she has a surprising amount of chemistry with Joe Don Baker, ideally cast here as a good ol’ boy who likes to drive fast. The movie doesn’t hold many surprises but the game cast keeps it watchable.

Director Alan Gibson was a Canadian filmmaker who had previously worked for Hammer films, directing the last of their Dracula films before he eventually found himself in the Philippines, working with Larry Hagman, Susan Sarandon, and Joe Don Baker.

Retro Television Review: The American Short Story 1.1 “The Music School”

Posted on May 17, 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 The American Short Story, which ran semi-regularly on PBS in 1974 to 1981. The entire show can be purchased on Prime and found on YouTube and Tubi.

Today, we start a new series of reviews with an adaptation of a John Updike short story!

Episode 1.1 “The Music School”

(Dir by John Korty, originally aired on January 1st, 1974)

The first episode of The American Short Story is based on a story by John Updike. Alfred Schweigen (Ron Weyand) is a writer who sits at his typewriter and who occasionally looks out the window of his office. His wife playfully sprays the window with a garden hose and the writer thinks about how she’s in therapy because of his affairs. He remembers taking his daughter to her music school and thinks about the sounds of music floating through the building like ghostly memories. He thinks about a priest who, while talking to a bunch of “Protestants and non-believers,” explained that it was now permissible to chew the Eucharist wafer instead of waiting for it to dissolve. He thinks about a friend of his, a computer programmer, who was apparently assassinated by a random sniper while his family watched. In his mind, Alfred takes the random thoughts and occurrences and builds a story around them.

It’s an interesting episode, even if it doesn’t quite work. Tasked with bringing Updike’s words to visual life, this episode far too often falls back onto cliche and Ron Weyand often looks more annoyed that sincerely perplexed by life’s mysteries. (The writer’s narration is provided by Henry Fonda, whose middle-American voice doesn’t quite match Weyand’s petulant performance.) It’s a midlife crisis type of story, one in which the writer tries to deal with his own ennui and infidelities by turning them into fiction. Unfortunately, this is a case of what was compelling on the page falling flat when it’s adapted for film. I appreciated this episode’s ambition, even if it didn’t work in the end.

Next week, the American Short Story interprets a story by Ambrose Bierce!

I review SHENANDOAH (1965), starring James Stewart!

Posted on May 17, 2025 by Bradley Crain

Jimmy Stewart plays Charlie Anderson, the patriarch of a large farming family in Virginia during the time of the Civil War. His family doesn’t own slaves, so he doesn’t figure it’s any of their business what all the fighting is about. He wants to keep working the land in hopes that the war will pass them by. Besides, he has six sons, a daughter, and a daughter in law that he wants to keep safe. He’s trying to keep the family together on his own as his beloved Martha had passed away sixteen years earlier giving birth to their youngest son, who we only know as Boy (Phillip Alford). Aside from the war that’s going on all around them, things seem pretty good for the Anderson’s. They all sit down for a big delicious meal every night. They attend Church every Sunday where they’re usually late and given the side-eye by Pastor Bjoerling (Denver Pyle). One of the sons, James Anderson (Patrick Wayne) and his wife Ann (Katharine Ross), have a precious newborn baby to take care of. The beautiful daughter Jennie (Rosemary Forsyth) is being courted by, and eventually marries, a lovestruck confederate officer named Sam (Doug McClure). Unfortunately the war won’t just go away, and when Boy is taken prisoner by Union soldiers, Charlie can’t stand idly by any longer. They head out to find him and bring him home.

In the guise of an entertaining semi-western, SHENANDOAH does a great job of illustrating how futile and randomly tragic war can be. The movie starts out lighthearted and fun as the family goes about its normal life, with Jimmy Stewart’s Charlie Anderson giving his homespun advice and rolling his cigars. This is a self-sufficient family that loves, respects and enjoys each other even if they don’t agree on everything. But the war keeps inching its way into their lives. First in the form of small group of confederate soldiers who come by to get some water and try to convince the boys to join up. None of the boys will join up, but they do help bury the soldiers when they’re ambushed and killed just down the road. Next a group of men come to the ranch to try to confiscate their horses for the Union army. Of course, Charlie Anderson isn’t going to let that happen and this turns into the type of brawl that seems to come right out of John Wayne western comedy like MCLINTOCK. Everybody joins in with the participants punching and being punched repeatedly, while Boy keeps getting knocked into the horse trough. This shouldn’t be a surprise because Director Andrew V. McLaglen directed MCLINTOCK and many other John Wayne films. Finally, Boy is taken prisoner because he is wearing a confederate cap that he found floating down the steam while he was out fishing one day. Once Charlie and most of his family head out to search for Boy, the movie begins a turn into tragedy. I won’t give the specifics away, but some members of the family will die, and not a single one of their deaths will be based on the actual fighting of a war. Rather, their deaths will be based on the chaos and depravity that surrounds the war. It’s tough to see, especially when they were all so happy just a little bit earlier. For me, the movie’s changes in tone make the tragedy more powerful and really drive home its message about the futility of war. But the Anderson family, like the United States of America after the Civil War, is made up of tough, resilient folks, and the movie ends on a hopeful note that definitely brought some extra moisture to my eyes.

Jimmy Stewart commands the screen in SHENANDOAH. You simply can’t take your eyes off of him, and his performance alone would make the movie worth watching. But with its powerful message, excellent cast, and solid direction, the movie is much more than just Stewart’s strong performance. I highly recommend it.

Live Tweet Alert: Join #ScarySocial for When A Stranger Calls Back!

Posted on May 17, 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? 1993‘s When A Stranger Calls Back!

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.

When A Stranger Calls Back is available on Prime!

See you there!

Song of the Day: My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) by Neil Young

Posted on May 17, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This is the song that gave it’s title to one of Dennis Hopper’s best films.

My my, hey hey
Rock and roll is here to stay
It’s better to burn out
Than to fade away
My my, hey hey.

Out of the blue
and into the black
They give you this,
but you pay for that
And once you’re gone,
you can never come back
When you’re out of the blue
and into the black.

The king is gone
but he’s not forgotten
This is the story
of a Johnny Rotten
It’s better to burn out
than it is to rust
The king is gone
but he’s not forgotten.

Hey hey, my my
Rock and roll can never die
There’s more to the picture
Than meets the eye.
Hey hey, my my.

Songwriters: Neil Young and Jeff Blackburn

Scenes I Love: Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt In Twister

Posted on May 17, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Bill Paxton would have been 70 years old today.

Today’s scene that I love comes from Twister and it features Bill Paxton showing off some wonderful chemistry with Helen Hunt. One of the great things about Bill Paxton is that he was equally at home in both big blockbusters like Twister and Titanic and low-budget indies like Near Dark. He was an artist who also happened to be a star. As a lover of both films and eccentric Texans, I will always miss Bill Paxton.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Dennis Hopper Edition

Posted on May 17, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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

89 years ago, Dennis Hopper was born in Dodge City, Kansas.

It seems rather appropriate that one of America’s greatest cinematic outlaws was born in a town that will be forever associated with the old west. Dennis Hopper was a rebel, back when there were actual consequences for being one. He started out acting in the 50s, appearing in films like Rebel Without A Cause and Giant and developing a reputation for being a disciple of James Dean. He also developed a reputation for eccentricity and for being difficult on set and he probably would have gotten completely kicked out of Hollywood if not for a somewhat improbable friendship with John Wayne. (Wayne thought Hopper was a communist but he liked him anyways. Interestingly enough, Hopper later became a Republican.) Somehow, Hopper managed to survive both a raging drug addiction and an obsession with guns and, after a mid-80s trip to rehab, he eventually became an almost universally beloved and busy character actor.

Hopper, however, always wanted to direct. He made his directorial debut with 1969’s Easy Rider, a film that became a huge success despite being an infamously chaotic shoot. The success of Easy Rider led to the Hollywood studios briefly trying to produce counter-culture films of their own. Hopper was given several million dollars and sent to Peru to make one of them, the somewhat dangerously titled The Last Movie. Unfortunately, The Last Movie, was such a bomb that it not only temporarily derailed Hopper’s career but it also turned Hollywood off of financing counter culture films. Hopper spent a decade in the Hollywood wilderness, giving acclaimed performances in independent films like Tracks and The American Friend, even while continuing to increase his reputation for drug-fueled instability. Hopper would eventually return to directing with his masterpiece, 1980’s Out of the Blue. (Out of the Blue was so controversial that, when it played at Cannes, Canada refused to acknowledge that it was a Canadian production. It played as a film without a country. Out of the Blue, however, is a film that has stood the test of time.) Unfortunately, even after a newly cleaned-up Hopper was re-embraced by the mainstream, his directorial career never really took off. He directed 7 films, of which only Easy Rider and Colors were financially successful. Contemporary critics often didn’t seem to know what to make of Dennis Hopper as a director. In recent years, however, Hopper’s directorial efforts have been reevaluated. Even The Last Movie has won over some new fans.