I have no idea who directed this or where it was filmed. The Black Sabbath YouTube channel lists this as being the official music video for Rock ‘N’ Roll Heaven and the IMDb says that the video was released in 1976 so that’s what I’m going with. I’m going to assume that this video was filmed at one of the American stops during the first part of the Technical Ecstasy Tour.
Like most 70s music videos, this is a pretty basic performance clip. The video lets the band do the talking, as it were.
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 Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which ran on the Disney Channel from 1988 to 1989 before then moving to NBC and being renamed Saved By The Bell. The entire show is currently streaming on Prime!
This week, Screech goes on trial!
Episode 1.10 “Practical Jokes”
(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on February 25th, 1989)
“It’s Hoosier Harvest Festival!” Miss Bliss tells us. Apparently, this is some sort of Indiana thing where everyone rolls around in hay and plays practical jokes on each other. In her 11 years of working at JFK Junior High, Miss Bliss is proud to have never been pranked. Mr. Belding gets pranked all the time. In fact, Belding spends this entire episode getting humiliated over and over again. After eating some tainted food, he runs from the cafeteria. Miss Bliss has a good laugh over the suffering of a man who, just a few weeks ago, moved Heaven and Earth so she could win the Teacher of the Year award.
In other words, Miss Bliss is a bitch.
When Miss Bliss sits down in class, it turns out that someone has painted her chair. Her new sweater is ruined! Miss Bliss gets angry and demands that the responsible party step forward or the entire class will be punished. The class immediately pressures Screech to confess. Screech does so and is told that he will have to pay for Miss Bliss’s sweater. Screech takes back his confession.
Miss Bliss says the only way to settle this is by holding a mock trial. Hey, that’s convenient! Would you believe that Miss Bliss just happens to be teaching a unit on the Constitution? Screech is put on trial. Zach is his lawyer. Nikki is the prosecutors. Mikey is the bailiff. Lisa is a witness. The rest of the cast — you know, the dorky kids who don’t get names or storylines — are the jury.
The evidence is stacked against Screech but Zach gets most of it thrown out. (Nikki may have found a paint brush in Screech’s locker but she had no right to search it.) The only evidence against Screech is that he said he was going to get Miss Bliss and …. well, he did confess. Somehow, his confession never comes up at the trial. That’s a pretty big piece of evidence, even if everyone knows he was pressured into making it. Screech surprises everyone by taking the fifth when asked why he went to his locker after saying he was going to get Miss Bliss.
Screech is acquitted for lack of evidence. (Uhmm …. confession? Hello, he confessed?) Miss Bliss reveals that she pranked herself to trick the kids into learning about the Constitution. Because she pranked herself, this mean that she has still never been officially pranked. After class, she helps Screech open his locker and gets hit by the silly string that Screech previously set to go off. So, Screech did prank Miss Bliss!
(Wouldn’t Nikki have gotten hit by the silly string when she illegally searched Screech’s locker?)
This episode was dumb. Screech should have been wrongfully convicted because Zach wasn’t that good of a lawyer. Unfortunately, Nikki wasn’t that good of a prosecutor either. That’s the system for you, dagnabit!
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.
This week, The American Short Story adapts a short story by Katherine Anne Porter.
Episode #16 “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall”
(Dir by Randa Haines, originally aired 1980)
Granny Weatherall (Geraldine Fitzgerald) is dying. While the doctor tries to comfort her and the priest tries to provide salvation, Granny obsesses on cleaning her house and getting everything in its proper place. She thinks about how her adult daughter, Cornelia (Lois Smith), is incapable of keeping the house as clean as Granny Weatherall believes it should be. Memories of the past and hallucinations of the present flood her mind and she remembers the time that she was jilted by a suitor and she thinks about how she has to live long enough to destroy the letters that he once wrote her. But the coldness of death is always hovering in the background….
This episode moved a bit slowly but it was effective due to the performance of Geraldine Fitzgerald and also Randa Haines’s direction, which kept the viewer unsure of whether they were seeing reality or if they were just seeing Granny Weatherall’s dying thoughts. The short story itself is written as a stream-of-consciousness and Haines does her best to capture that feeling in her adaptation. One of the main problems with The American Short Story has been that most of the adaptations have struggled to capture the tone of the original stories. The Jilting of Granny Weatherall’s visuals come very close to recreating the power of Katherine Anne Porter’s words.
Next week, The American Short Story wraps up with an adaptation of a James Thurber short story.
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? Beware! The Blob!
If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag! It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More 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!
Tomorrow will be the birthday of Stephen King. Normally, we honor folks on their birthday but tomorrow is also Bill Murray’s birthday so we’re going to honor King now.
In others words, it’s time for….
4 Shots from 4 Stephen King Films
Creepshow (1982, dir by George Romero, written by Stephen King, DP: Michael Gornick)
Maximum Overdrive (1986, dir by Stephen King, written by Stephen King, DP: Armando Nannuzzi)
Sleepwalkers (1992, dir by Mick Garris, written by Stephen King, DP: Rodney Charters)
The Stand (1994, dir by Mick Garris, written by Stephen King, DP: Edward J. Pei)
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!
This week, it’s time to name the Doctor of the Year!
Episode 2.16 “After Dark”
(Dir by Eric Laneuville, originally aired on February 29th, 1984)
It’s time for the annual end-of-the-year dinner, during which the Women’s Auxiliary will announce their pick for Doctor of the Year. Last year, to Dr. Craig’s shock, Westphall won the award. This year, Dr. Craig is sure that he’s going to win. Even though Craig says that he doesn’t care about awards, he still has his wife, Ellen (Bonnie Bartlett), write out a speech for him.
The dinner is just as boring as usual. The majority of the doctors who show up mention that their spouse couldn’t make it because they suddenly came down with the flu. When it is time to announce the Doctor of the Year, Dr. Craig prepares to accept the award. However, the award is given — for the second year in a row — to Dr. Westphall!
Seriously? I mean, what the Heck? Nothing against Dr. Westphall but what exactly has he done to deserve the award this year? Dr. Auschlander has continued to see patients while battling cancer. Dr. Craig performed a heart transplant! Meanwhile, Dr. Westphall has dealt with the administrative stuff and been kind of grumpy. I’m totally on Dr. Craig’s side here. There’s no way Westphall deserved that award for two years running.
Westphall, himself, had to leave the awards dinner early because of an emergency at the hospital. (More on that below.) Dr. Craig accepts the award in Westphall’s place and — surprise! — gives a sincere speech about how much he appreciates Dr. Westphall’s leadership. Good for Dr. Craig! That said, there’s no way Dr. Westphall deserved the award this year.
Meanwhile, Kathy Martin, who we last saw being raped by Peter White in the morgue, is missing. Peter wanders through the hospital in a narcotic-induced haze, carrying his ski mask in his pocket. He nearly attacks Shirley. He does attack Wendy Armstrong and this time, he doesn’t even put on his ski mask. Fortunately, Fiscus hears Wendy’s screams and knocks Peter out with a fire extinguisher. Peter is taken away by the police while Westphall heads to Peter’s home to tell Peter’s wife that her husband is the Ski Mask Rapist.
Victor is thinking of getting divorced. Bobby, on the other hand, decides to ask Joan to marry him. And Dr. Morrison continues to get too involved with his patients. When Joseph (Dan Hedaya), a construction worker dealing with random bouts of blindness, is told that he’ll have to quite job, Morrison calls out a fellow doctor being callous. Good for Morrison!
The episode, a well-acted one that deftly mixed drama and comedy, ended with some unanswered questions. Peter’s been arrested. Is he gone for good? And where is Kathy Martin? And seriously, how did Dr. Westphall win that award!?
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly watch parties. On Twitter, I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday and I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday. On Mastodon, 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 10 pm et, I will be hosting #FridayNightFlix! The movie? Rocky Balboa!
If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, find Rocky Balboa on Prime, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #FridayNightFlix hashtag! I’ll be there happily tweeting. It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
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!
Today, we remember actor David Hess on his birthday. It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 David Hess Films
The Last House On The Left (1972, dir by Wes Craven, DP: Victor Hurwitz)
Hitch-Hike (1977, dir by Pasquale Festa Campanile, DP: Franco Di Giacomo and Giuseppe Ruzzolini)
The House On The Edge of the Park (1980, dir by Ruggero Deodato, DP: Sergio D’Offizi)
Body Count (1986, dir by Ruggero Deodato, DP: Emilio Loffredo)
Through the Shattered Lens 