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!
Today, we pay tribute to the year 1989! It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 1989 Films
The Church (1989, dir by Michele Soavi, DP: Renato Tafuri)
Batman (1989, dir by Tim Burton, DP: Roger Pratt)
Cyborg (1989, dir by Albert Pyun, DP: Philip Alan Waters)
Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989, dir by Uli Edel, DP: Stefan Czapsky)
This song was written for the soundtrack of the 1995 film, Kids, and the video if made up of scenes from the Larry Clark-directed film (along with another story about space exploration). Oddly enough, the song itself doesn’t actually appear in the film.
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!
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to actor Robert De Niro. It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Robert De Niro Films
Taxi Driver (1976, dir. Martin Scorsese, DP: Michael Chapman)
The King of Comedy (1982, dir by Martin Scorsese, DP; Fred Schuler)
Once Upon A Time In America (1984, dir by Sergio Leone, DP: Tonino Delli Colli)
Casino (1995, dir by Martin Scorsese, DP: Robert Richardson)
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, Miss Bliss almost becomes Zach’s stepmother.
Episode 1.5 “Parents and Teachers”
(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on December 28th, 1988)
It’s parent-teacher week! Lisa worries that her parents are going to find out that she wears makeup to school. Miss Bliss promises not to tell them. Mr. Belding worries that the parents are going to start telling principal jokes so, when he hears a few, he apparently tells a ribald joke about Gumby. (We don’t get the full details. Milo says that it involved a side of Pokey that he’d rather not think about …. GOOD GOD, WHAT THE HELL DID BELDING SAY!?)
Miss Bliss is shocked when one of the parents turns out to be Peter (Robert Pine, the sergeant from CHiPs and Chris’s father), a charming man that she met during a singles retreat. It turns out that Peter is Zach’s father….
Wait, what? Anyone who has ever watched Saved By The Bell knows that Zach’s parents are not divorced and that his father is Derek Morris, a bearded computer salesman who played baseball in college and who grounded Zach for drinking too much at a senior party. Who the Hell is this Peter Morris character? I guess, when Zach moved to California, he got a new father as well. Maybe Derek Morris was actually his stepfather and the whole reason he moved to California was because his mother remarried. But why would he bring Lisa. Screech, and Belding with him?
I don’t know. It’s questions like this that haunt me about the Miss Bliss episodes of Saved By The Bell. Maybe I’m overthinking this. Afterall, the only reason why the Good Morning Miss Bliss episodes are considered canon is because they were later added to the Saved By The Bell syndication package with newly shot scenes of Zach saying, “I remember when I was in junior high….” Really, the simplest answer to all of my questions is that the producers of SavedByTheBell just didn’t care. They didn’t care about continuity or anything else. In those pre-Internet days, they thought they could get away with forcing the Miss Bliss episodes into the SBTB universe. That’s the solution that makes the most sense but I’m a continuity person. This is going to bother me for the rest of my life, I can tell already.
Anyway, Zach is not happy that Miss Bliss is dating his father. Quite frankly, I’m not happy about it either. As a condescending know-it-all, Miss Bliss is already annoying enough without having an active social life. Fortunately, the relationship doesn’t last. Zach skips school and, when Miss Bliss catches him, she realizes that it’s simply unethical to date the father of one of her students.
“What if I send Zach to Switzerland?” Peter asks.
Gee, Peter, what if we call Child Protective Services on your ass? How would you like that? Seriously, the main message of this episode seems to be that Zach has a terrible father and Miss Bliss has terrible judgment.
With my aunt in the hospital this week, Big Brother didn’t really interest me that much. I wrote about it over at the Big Brother Blog but there’s a part of me that no longer cares about shows like this. All of the fake drama and all of the crocodile tears don’t add up to much when you’re dealing with real drama and shedding real tears.
The Simpsons (Disney+)
Jeff and I watched a few episodes this week, out of the hope that they might cheer me up and give me a break from worrying. And they did. I enjoyed the episode with Mr, Burns’s son. I enjoyed the episode with Poochie. There was also an episode in which Homer enrolled in clown college. That made me smile.
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Saturdays, Lisa 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, Eric Roberts appears in an adaptation of a Willa Cather short story.
Episode #11: “Paul’s Case”
(Dir by Lamont Johnson, originally aired in 1980)
At the turn of the century, Paul (Eric Roberts) is a young man from Philadelphia who struggles academically and who just doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere. He comes from a poor family but he wants people to think of him as being rich and worry-free. He gets a job working at a theater and finally experiences a life other than the dreary one forced on him by his father. But eventually, Paul steals money from his job and uses it to go to New York. In New York, he lives out his fantasy of being rich and free but, after a few days, he realizes that the fantasy is only temporary. With his father coming to the city to claim him, Paul throws himself in front of train.
Based on a story by Willa Cather, Paul’sCase is an effective and heart-breaking entry in The American Short Story series. It feature a very early performance from Eric Roberts. Roberts was only 24 years old when he played Paul and he gives a poignantly vulnerable performance as a young man who simply does not fit in with the world in which he’s been born. He’s too delicate, too much of a “dandy,” for his father’s unimaginative (and homophobic) world but he’s also not rich enough to truly be a part of the exciting world that he discovers in the theater and in New York.
Perfectly capturing the tone of the source material and featuring an excellent turn from Eric Roberts, Paul’sCase is The American Short Story at its best.
Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:
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!
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to director James Cameron. It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 James Cameron Films
The Terminator (1984, dir. James Cameron)
Aliens (1986, dir by James Cameron)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991, dir. James Cameron)
Through the Shattered Lens 