Author Archives: Lisa Marie Bowman

Late Night Retro Television Review: Check it Out! 3.19 “Losing It”

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 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 and Leslie go into business together!

Episode 3.19 “Losing It”

(Dir by Alan Erlich, originally aired on January 30th, 1988)

After Howard refuses to give Leslie a raise and suggests that Leslie instead explore other ways to make extra money, Leslie ends up inviting Howard to a franchise convention.  Howard agrees and, one scene later, Howard and Leslie are in charge of a weight loss franchise!

Howard is thrilled, especially after a group of overweight individuals comes to the store for a meeting.  Howard can’t wait to start making money off of them but Leslie is concerned.  He’s worried that the diet and the dietary supplements that come with it are a sham.  He doesn’t want to cheat anyone.  Leslie shares a story about being sent to the “husky” department when he was a teenager looking for a jacket.  Howard comes to realize that he doesn’t have it in him to cheat the people who are coming to the store in hopes of losing weight.  At the next meeting, Howard announces that the product is a sham.  The group forgives him and they decide to continue meeting at the store in order to give one another moral support.

Awww!

Listen, when I saw that Check It Out! was going to do an episode about weight loss, I was expecting the worst.  Check It Out! has rarely dealt sensitively with body issues.  But I have to say that this was really a heartfelt and surprisingly sweet episode.  The jokes were not mean-spirited and the show’s message was one of acceptance and empowerment.  I was stunned!

A lot of the credit goes to Aaron Schwartz, who was often underused on this show but who always shined whenever he was given a chance.  The scene where Schwartz, as Leslie, talked about the insecurity that he felt over his teenage weight was beautifully acted.

This was a good episode.  As I’ve said before, as uneven as this series often is, the third season has been a marked improvement over the two that came before.  This episode was a perfect example of that.

Only three more episodes to go!

Retro Television Review: The American Short Story #3 “The Jolly Corner”

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 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, we have an adaptation of a Henry James short story.

Episode #3 “The Jolly Corner”

(Dir by Arthur Barron, originally aired in 1975)

In 1906, Spencer Brydon (Fritz Weaver) returns to America from Europe, where he’s spent the majority of his adult life.  Brydon has specifically returned to oversee some properties that he has inherited, including his childhood home and an adjacent building that’s going to be turned into an apartment complex.  The middle-aged Brydon reconnects with his old friend, Alice Shaverton (Salome Jens), and finds himself wondering what type of man he would have come if he had stayed and worked in America as opposed to living a life of leisure in Europe.

Soon, Spencer comes to feel that his alternate “American” self is actually haunting his childhood home, his so-called “Jolly Corner.”  His American self haunts him like a ghost, a menacing shadow that continually forces him to ask “what if?”  He becomes obsessed with both his former home and his shadowy alter ego.  But is this American version of Spencer Brydon real?  And if it is real, what does it want from the Spencer Brydon who went to Europe?

This was a really well-done adaptation of a Henry James short story, one that was full of gothic atmosphere and which featured a compelling lead performance from Fritz Weaver.  As directed by Arthur Barron, this episode did a good job of portraying the story’s horror elements while also reminding us that James’s story, for all of its talk of ghosts and alternate realities, is ultimately a portrait of a really bad midlife crisis.  Spencer did what a lot of rich Americans do.  He went to Europe to escape the responsibilities of his home country.  And now, in middle-age, he’s asking himself, “Is this all there is?”

If nothing else, watching this episode might inspire the viewer to read more Henry James.  That’s a good thing.

 

Live Tweet Alert: Join #ScarySocial for A Quiet Place: Day One!

Posted on 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?  A Quiet Place: Day One!  

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.

The film is available on Prime!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Friday the 13th: The Series 3.16 “My Wife As A Dog”

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 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 about a man and his dog.

Episode 3.16 “My Wife As A Dog”

(Dir by Armando Mastroianni, originally aired on February 19th, 1990)

I knew I was going to dislike this episode as soon as I saw the title.

While Johnny and Micki spend their time trying to get the store up to code so that it can pass a fire inspection (and good luck doing that when there’s a literal portal to Hell located in the basement), Jack searches for a cursed leash.  Jack has no idea what the leash does.  He just knows that it’s cursed.  However, the leash’s owner — fireman Aubry Ross (Denis Forest, making his fourth appearance on the show) — has figured out that, by using the leash to strangle people, he can transport the mind of his dying dog into the body of his estranged (but not dying) wife.

Or something like that.  To be honest, I had a hard time following the particulars of this curse.  Fortunately, so did Jack.  This is the first episode that I can think of where Jack admits that he has no idea how a cursed objects works.  Even when he retrieves the leash at the end of the episode, he admits that he’s still not sure what Aubry actually did with it.  Jack being confused made me feel a little bit less dumb so I was happy with that.  The episode ends with Aubry in jail, being visited his panting wife.  She brings him his slippers because she’s now a dog in a human body.

Ugh.  This was an attempt to do a light-hearted episode and I respect the show for trying to do something different.  At the same time, it also featured four murders and a woman, who simply wanted to get a divorce from her creepy husband, being transformed into a dog.  Our regulars were barely in this episode and, when they did appear, we had to suffer through some awkward flirting between Johnny and Micki.  Denis Forest did a good job as Aubry but otherwise, this was an episode that I could just as soon forget.

Retro Television Review: St. Elsewhere 2.3 “Newheart”

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 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, things get dark.

Episode 2.3 “Newheart”

(Dir by Mark Tinker, originally aired on November 9th, 1983)

What a depressing episode!

It doesn’t start out on a particularly depressing note.  It opens with a bachelor part for Dr. Vijay Kochar, who is about marry a woman that he’s never actually met.  (It’s an arranged marriage.)  The bachelor party, which appears to have been held in Fiscus’s apartment, is a bust.  Dr. White shows up with a sex doll.  Victor Ehrlich shows up with a short film called “Sally Takes a Ride,” which turns out to be not the pornography he was expecting but instead, a short film about astronaut Sally Ride.  Vijay mentions that he’s a virgin and soon, with the help Dr. White and Nurse Daniels, the news is all over the hospital.  Kathy Martin decides to give Vijay an early wedding gift by having sex with him.

Since this episode aired in 1983, there’s a random aerobic class being held in the hospital, which leads to a lengthy scene of spandex and dancing.  It’s a bit of a silly scene for what was, for the first half hour, shaping up to be a silly episode.

Fran and Jerry Singleton finally check out of the hospital.  Fran has regained the ability to speak and can stiffly walk.  Jerry has learned to stop being such an overbearing jerk.  Dr. Morrison is not there to say goodbye to the Singletons because….

…. and here’s where things start to get dark….

….his wife is in another hospital!  Jack Morrison’s wife has an offscreen cerebral hemorrhage and, as evidenced by Morrison’s tears at the end of the episode, she does not survive.  At the same time that she’s dying, Dr. Craig gets a call telling him that there is finally a heart available for the transplant.  And, though it wasn’t explicitly stated, it seems pretty obvious that the heart in question belonged to Morrison’s wife.

AGCK!

Seriously, how much more depressing can one episode get?  And for all this to happen to Jack Morrison, who is probably the most decent character on the show, it’s just not fair!  I mean, he was literally the only married intern who had a happy marriage.  He has a newborn son.  And now, he’s going to have to balance being a single father with being a resident.

Poor guy!  I hope next week finds some sort of relief for him.

10 Films For The Weekend (6/20/25)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hail To The King, Baby

This Sunday is Bruce Campbell’s birthday.  Our own Case Writes will be reviewing Bruce’s two autobiographies on that day.  Here’s a few films you can watch while celebrating.

Sadly, the first three Evil Dead films are not streaming anywhere for free this weekend.  However, Bubba Ho-Tep (2002), which features Bruce as a nursing home resident who may or may not actually be Elvis Presley, is available on Tubi.  This is definitely Bruce’s best non-Ash performance and there’s actually something very touching about the idea of an elderly and forgotten Elvis teaming up with John F. Kennedy (Ossie Davis) to battle an ancient mummy.  There’s a lot of humor to be found in this film but there’s also a definite strain of melancholy and Bruce gives a truly moving performance as someone who you’ll want to believe in.  The film is on Tubi.

Maniac Cop (1988) is nowhere near as good as the Evil Dead films or Bubba Ho-Tep but it does give audiences a chance to see Bruce giving a relatively “serious” performance as a policeman who is accused of a murder that was actually committed by a hulking zombie cop.  Not only does this film feature Bruce Campbell but it’s also got Tom Atkins, William Smith, Richard Roundtree, and Robert Z’Dar.  If nothing else, this film is a tribute to exploitation canniness.  Director William Lustig and screenwriter Larry Cohen understood that the idea of dangerous cop would remain compelling one long after the film’s initial release and, as such, Maniac Cop retains a definite cult appeal.  The film is on Tubi.

Sadly, Bruce Campbell is killed off rather early in Maniac Cop 2 (1990).  That’s a shame because the second film is a lot better than the first one.  Robert Davi plays the detective who won’t be pushed around while Robert Z’Dar takes the maniac cop’s search for revenge to a whole other level.  Leo Rossi is memorably unhinged.  Personally, I would have liked to have seen Bruce try to take a chainsaw to the Maniac Cop but it was not be.  Maniac Cop 2 can be viewed on Tubi.

Finally, The Woods (2006) is a sadly underrated horror film, one the features Bruce in a supporting role as a loving dad.  Agnes Bruckner give a wonderful performance in the lead role, investigating her mysterious school and taking way too much abuse just because she has red hair.  Hey, I’ve been there!  I’m just happy that “fire crotch” didn’t catch on the way that “Gingers have no soul” did. (Seriously, the redheads have no soul thing was funny when South Park did it but everyone else needs to shut up about it.)  The Woods is an atmospheric horror film from Lucky McKee and one that I would recommend even if it wasn’t Bruce Campbell’s birthday.  View it on Tubi.

Pleasures, Guilty And Otherwise

Seriously, if I had to suggest one non-Bruce Campbell movie to you for this weekend, it would be my favorite Lifetime film, True Confessions of a Go-Go Girl (2008).  Chelsea Hobbs plays a recent college graduate who realizes that she can either waste more of her life in law school or she can just make a bunch of money by being a …. GO-GO GIRL!  The use of the anachronistic term “go-go girl” really does get to the charm of this movie, which manages to be both enjoyably trashy and quaintly old-fashioned at the same time.  Hobbs discovers that she loves to dance and that men love to watch her dance.  Her wimpy boyfriend freaks out when Hobbs goes from being a meek “good” girl to an aggressive temptress.  The film is at its best when its embracing the decadence and the melodrama.  On stage, Hobbs is empowered and I was all about that.  Of course, Hobbs has to using hard drugs and learn a lesson because that’s the way these films go.  Still, this one is a lot of fun and it features Corbin Bernsen doing his somewhat sleazy father figure thing.  Find this film on Prime.

The Perfect Teacher (2010) is also available on Prime and you need to watch it because it features my favorite line of all time.  “I can be your dream …. or I can be your NIGHTMARE!”  This is another perfect Lifetime film and it can be viewed here!

The Wrong Cheerleader (2019) is one of the best of Lifetime’s wonderfully over-the-top “Wrong” film, featuring Degrassi’s Cristine Prosperi and, of course, Vivica A. Fox.  “Looks like he messed with the wrong cheerleader.”  Hell yeah!  It’s on YouTube.  (I have a feeling that if I ever hire someone incompetent, Vivica A. Fox will show up at my door and say, “Girl, looks like you hired the wrong landscaping crew.”)

The Babysitter’s Seduction (1996) was not originally made for Lifetime but it definitely found a home there.  Keri Russell is the innocent babysitter.  Stephen Collins is the handsome but sleazy guy who seduces her and then tries to frame her for killing his wife.  This film’s twists was probably more effective back when Stephen Collins was still best-known as Rev. Camden as opposed to being known for …. other things.  But it’s still a top-notch example of embracing the melodrama.   It can be viewed on Tubi.

From the best Lifetime films, let’s now consider the best SyFy films.  Jersey Shore Shark Attack (2010) not only features Tony Sirico, Paul Sorvino, and Jack Scalia but it also features characters with names like Nooki, TC, and Paulie Balzac dealing with killer sharks in New Jersey.  Joey Fatone appears as himself and is promptly eaten.  Of the many shark films to have been produced by the Asylum, this is definitely one of the best.  It’s on Tubi!

Directed by actor Bruce Davison, Bigfoot (2012) not only features the title character but it also includes Danny Bonaduce, Barry Williams, and Sherilyn Fenn amongst the cast.  Alice Cooper plays himself and meets a less-than-heroic end.  This Asylum film is a true classic.  It’s on Tubi!

(Click here for last week’s recommendations.)

A Book For The Weekend (6/20/25)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Wow, I thought as I read Howard Hughes: The Secret Life, was there anyone Howard Hughes didn’t have sex with?

Actually, I  imagine there was.  Charles Higham’s 1993 biography, which I found in a used bookstore in Pensacola, is full of all sorts of “scandalous” details about Howard Hughes’s life and the decadent Golden Age of Hollywood but it’s not always convincing.  Hughes, who was the subject of Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator, was undoubtedly an eccentric and I have no doubt that he treated a lot people badly but the book itself tends put a lot of faith in gossip and rumors.  As such, we get the established stories of Hughes bringing his control freak tendencies to Hollywood and having affairs with Katharine Hepburn and Ava Gardner mixed with stories about Hughes’s being involved with the Watergate break-in and also carrying on clandestine affairs with everyone from Errol Flynn to Tyrone Power, Jr.  The book goes as far as to suggest Hughes died of AIDs, using an evidence the word of a doctor who didn’t examine Hughes but who did apparently read a list of symptoms that Hughes was rumored to have during his final days.  That’s really the way that Higham approaches the majority of Hughes’s life.  The established facts are mixed with rumor and speculation on the part of the author.  It’s not always convincing but then again, since when does gossip have to be believable?

In short, the book is trashy but readable.  It’s one of those books that one should probably read with a healthy sense of skepticism but, at the same time, one can appreciate the sheer number of personalities that Higham manages to weave into his narrative.  Hughes goes from aviation to Hollywood to politics and he meets everyone who was anyone.  It’s a history nerd’s dream.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Highway to Heaven 4.1 “Man’s Best Friend Part One”

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 Thursdays, I will be reviewing Highway to Heaven, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1989.  The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi and several other services!

This week, we start the fourth season of Highway to Heaven.  This episode features orphans and dogs!  I feel the tears coming….

Episode 4.1 “Man’s Best Friend Part One”

(Dir by Michael Landon, originally aired on September 16th, 1987)

Oh, this episode made me cry and cry.

Why?  Well, for a couple of reasons….

First off, Jonathan and Mark got new jobs working at a kennel.  Many of the dogs at the kennel had been abandoned by their owners and Ms. Lil (Fran Ryan) took care of them all, rather than taking them to the pound.  And listen, I’m not a dog person.  I’m a cat person.  We all know this.  But seriously, those dogs were adorable!

A Siberian husky named Jake gets lost.  After running across the interstate (gasp!), he finds himself alone at night.  Coyotes approach.  (OH NO!)  Suddenly, Jonathan appears and turns into a lion, scaring the coyotes off.  (*sniff*  *sniff* I’m okay.)

Every few days, Lil takes the dogs down to the local orphanage — (OH MY GOD!) — and lets them play with the orphans.  Jake, now a part of the kennel crew, begs young Alex (Danny Pintauro, who had a much worse experience with a dog in Cujo) to play with him.  Alex is shy and introverted but Jake quickly becomes his best friend.  Alex starts to come out of his shell and says that he knows he’ll never be separated from Jake.  For the first time in his young life, Alex is happy.

(Oh dear.)

The local media does a story on Lil and her dogs.  They take a picture of Alex and Jake.  The next morning, a young girl named Jenny (Elisabeth Harnois) sees the picture and recognizes Jake.  For the past month, she’s been desperately looking for Jake!

(This isn’t good….)

Jenny and her grandfather (William Schallert) pick Jake up from the kennel.  Jonathan has to go to the orphanage and tell Alex that his best friend is no longer going to be visiting him.

(Sorry, give me a minute.)

Alex is depressed.  Jake is depressed.  Jonathan shows at Jenny’s home and asks if Alex can come and visit Jake.  Jenny and grandpa say yes.  (YAY!)

Suddenly, three dreaded words appear on the screen: “TO BE CONTINUED”

What!?  No, there’s no need to continue.  Alex and Jake have been reunited, let’s end the story here….

This episode was Highway to Heaven at its most earnest, manipulative, and effective.  Not only did it feature orphans but also an adorable dog and William Schallert as a genial authority figure.  There was also a subplot about Jenny’s parents trying to have another child with a surrogate and I’m sure that has something to do with that promise of “TO BE CONTINUED.”

Nothing better happen to the dog!

Retro Television Review: Malibu CA 2.15 “Goin’ Up In Smoke”

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 Thursdays, I will be reviewing Malibu CA, which aired in Syndication in 1998 and 1999.  Almost the entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!

Yes, this is from the first season. I don’t care. I refuse to waste my time looking for a second season advertisement.

This week, Jason’s smoking!  And Dick Butkus shows up.

Episode 2.15 “Goin’ Up In Smoke”

(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on February 12th, 2000)

Okay, can we just agree that Lisa is the absolute worst?

No, not me!  I’m talking about the show’s Lisa, the premed student played by Marquita Terry.  In this episode, she somehow gets a job writing theater reviews for the local newspaper.  When Traycee puts on her own version of Romeo and Juliet (an “urban” version that she calls Rom-e-yo and Juliet), Lisa has to review it.  Lisa doesn’t like the play so she writes a negative review in which she says that Traycee is a terrible actress.  Traycee reads the review and gets offended.  Lisa says that she didn’t have a choice.  She had to be honest.

Actually, Lisa did have a choice and it wouldn’t have been involved any sort of dishonesty.  Lisa could have simply said, “I can’t review this show because I have a conflict of interest.”  The show was adapted, directed, and produced by Lisa’s roommate!  That’s all Lisa had to say to get out of writing the review.   The newspaper could have sent someone else to write the review and Lisa would have been off the hook.  Instead, Lisa went to the show, trashed her roommate in the newspaper, and then acted like somehow she was the one being inconvenienced.

Seriously, Lisa is the worst and it doesn’t help that Marquita Terry’s performance on this show was so incredibly bad that she made the cast of One World look Emmy-worthy.  Seriously, you have to be really bad to make Cray from One World look good by comparison.

That was the B-plot.  The A-plot found Dick Butkus returning as Uncle Charlie, just in time for Jason to start smoking …. just like his favorite uncle!  Peter freaks out.  His son is smoking!  Hey, Peter …. your son is 19 years old and legally an adult.  If he wants to smoke, he can smoke.  He’s a musician in Malibu so you should really be thankful that smoking cigarettes is all he’s doing.

Uncle Charlie is a smoker too.  He and Jason try to quit together but, after one hour without a cigarette, they’re both ready to kill someone.  Uhmmm …. okay.  I don’t smoke but I know plenty of smokers and most of them can last for more than an hour without a cigarette.  Anyway, Uncle Charlie gets lung cancer because this is a Peter Engel sitcom and, therefore, every point has to be made with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

This episode felt familiar, mostly because every single Peter Engel sitcom had at least one insane anti-smoking episode.  Having Dick Butkus show up just reminded me of how much better Hang Time handled smoking.  This episode annoyed me beyond all belief.

Thank God it’s the final season.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Monsters 3.21 “Talk Nice To Me”

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 Wednesdays, I will be reviewing Monsters, which aired in syndication from 1988 to 1991. The entire series is streaming on YouTube.

This week, someone won’t stop calling!

Episode 3.21 “Talk Nice To Me”

(Dir by Ernest Farino, originally aired on February 17th, 1991)

A sexist newspaper columnist named Martin (Ed Marinaro) starts receiving phone calls from a woman (Tina Louise) with a sultry voice.  She continually calls him, leaving message after message.  She refuses to reveal her name or how she got Martin’s unlisted “private” number.  (This episode aired during the landline era, before you could block numbers.)  Martin tries everything to get her to stop calling.  He disconnects his phone for two days but, as soon as he reconnects, she calls again.  Martin can’t work.  He can’t write.  When he invites Linda (Teri Ann Lind) over to his apartment, his paranoia prove to be a real turn-off.  He becomes convinced that the stalker has somehow entered his apartment.  The truth is even more twisted….

This episode had potential but it was let down by a rather cartoonish performance by Ed Marinaro.  I could buy Marinaro as a misogynist.  I could even buy Marinaro as a womanizer.  I couldn’t buy him as a successful newspaper columnist and, as a result, the whole “you’re going to lose your column!” subplot fell flat for me.  That said, Martin’s apartment was an appropriately claustrophobic location and the idea of the nonstop caller was suitably creepy.  This was not necessarily bad episode.  It’s just an episode that could have been better than it was.

Only three more episode to go and we will have finished up with Monsters.  Though uneven, the third season has still been a marked improvement over the first two.  Even the third season episodes that don’t work quite as well as they should, like this one, are watchable.