Rest in peace, the great character actor Nicky Katt. The details are still sketchy but it’s being reported that he passed away at the age of 54.
Katt was a child actor who transitioned into adult roles. He appeared in a lot of movies but I’ll always remember him as Clint, the absolutely terrifying bully in 1993’s Dazed and Confused. Here he is, scaring the heck out of poor Adam Goldberg.
(For a while, there were plans for a Dazed and Confused sequel in which Clint reformed and became a respected businessman while Adam Goldberg’s Mike went insane as he continued to obsess on that fight back in 1976.)
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.
This week, we finally finish this show up.
Episode 4.23 “The Bread Winners”
(Dir by Norman Abbott, originally aired on June 8th, 1979)
Epstein is excited about getting a job working at an antique store. However, a chance meeting with the store’s owner leads to Freddie getting the job instead. Epstein gets upset and, after a tense confrontation at the Horshack residence, Epstein challenges Washington to a boxing match at the local gym. However, once at the gym, Epstein and Washington realize that they’re friends. They care about each other. They’re not going to let a little thing like a job come between them. The owner of the gym is so moved that he gives Epstein a job.
And so ends Welcome Back, Kotter. After 95 episodes, Kotter ends not with a bang but with a definite whimper. We don’t even see the Sweathogs defy the odds by finally graduating. It’s an underwhelming finale but apparently, it was made when there was still the possibility of a Kotter spin-off, which would have focused on Horshack and his marriage to Mary. This episode also sets up the possibility of a show featuring Washington working at the antique store or even Epstein working at the gym. (Henry Beckman plays the owner of the gym while Priscilla Morrill plays the owner of the antique store and both of them get a lot more dialogue and character-building moments than the guest stars typically got on Kotter.)
On the plus side, the show did manage to get nearly the entire cast to show up for the finale. Barbarino is absent, of course. But Gabe Kaplan makes one of his rare appearances, giving Washington some advice on how to make up with Epstein. Julie shows up at the beginning of the show but, noticeably, Marcia Strassman doesn’t share any scenes with Kaplan. John Sylvester White, as Woodman, gets to do his crazed laugh one last time. Beau gets a few lines of dialogue. We get a peek at Horshack’s homelife with Mary and even Epstein’s girlfriend, Kelly, shows up for a few scenes.
Again, this was an underwhelming finale but that makes sense when one considers that season 4 was an underwhelming season. Looking over this show, the first two seasons were the best. During those seasons, the show had a bit of an edge and the actors really seemed to be trying to ground their outlandish characters in at least a hint of reality. The third season saw the show turn into a living cartoon and Kotter never really recovered. By the fourth season, the actors cast as the Sweathogs were too old to still be playing high school students, Kaplan was refusing to appear on the show that was based on his stand-up act, and way too much time was wasted on Julie getting upset and glaring at people.
Well, we’re done with Welcome Back, Kotter. Next week, a new show will premiere in this time slot. It’s been a while since I started a new show so I’m looking forward to finding one that will be a slight change of pace. What will the show be? Check here next Saturday to find out!
In this 2013 film, teenage Jake (Adam Horner) moves to California with his mother, Alyssa (Sydney Penny). They move in with Jake’s grandfather, surf shop owner Lou Reynolds (Eric Roberts). At first, Jake is miserable. He misses his friends. He doesn’t know what to make of the California lifestyle. He has a crush on Kayla (Katie Garfield) but he feels insecure because he can’t surf and, when he does buy a surfboard, it’s promptly broken in half by the local surf bullies.
(Is there really such a thing as surf bullies? I’ve never lived on the beach so I really haven’t had much experience with surfers. The ones that I met in Hawaii and Galveston all seemed pretty cool, though. But, in the movies, they’re all like, “Can’t surf our beach, brah.” A part of me suspects that movies should not be used as a guide for real life.)
It’s a good thing that Lou just happens to be a legendary surfer! While Alyssa pursues a romance with Marcos (Louis Mandylor), Lou tries to teach his grandson how to surf. It’s not always easy. Jake gets frustrated easily and he doesn’t quite understand the zen philosophy behind surfing. But, with Lou’s help, Jake gets the hang of it and soon, Jake is ready to enter the big surging competition!
If this all sounds familiar, that’s because you’ve already seen a hundred films like this. Think of The Karate Kid, but with surfing and Eric Roberts as the mentor. It’s all very predictable but the beach is pretty. The ocean is majestic. My favorite American Idol also-ran, Jason Castro, shows up for a few minutes. And Eric Roberts actually gets a fairly substantial role and a chance to show what a good actor he can actually be! There’s absolutely nothing surprising about the film but, for what it is, The Perfect Summer works.
Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:
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? 1986‘s Nomads!
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.
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, Micki finds herself trapped in a movie!
Episode 3.9 “Femme Fatale”
(Dir by Francis Delia, originally aired on November 20th, 1989)
In an isolated mansion, former film director Desmond Williams (Gordon Pinsent) lives with retired actress Lili Lita (Kate Reid). Lili is sick and bed-ridden now but, when she was younger, she starred in all of Desmond’s noir melodramas. Desmond still enjoys watching their old films, particularly one in which Lili played a doomed femme fatale named Glenda.
Unfortunately, Desmond’s copy of the film is cursed. Whenever he watches it, he has to watch with a young woman who will suddenly find herself switching places with Glenda. Glenda is allowed to live in the real world until her unfortunate replacement is killed in the film. Desmond is overjoyed to have Glenda come into his world. Glenda, however, is more than little frustrated by the fact that she always has to return to the movie.
When Micki shows up to try to retrieve the cursed film, she ends up trapped in the movie. Micki, however, is a bit more creative than Desmond’s other victims and continually tries to change the script, just to discover that the black-and-white characters around her are always going to do the same thing no matter what.
Meanwhile, Jack and Johnny show up and try to rescue Micki. While Glena explores the real world and even drops in on a showing of one of her old movies, Lili ends up shooting Desmond and then willfully taking Micki’s place in the movie. Micki returns to the real world. Lili dies in the film. Gloria burns up into nothingness. With Desmond dead, Gloria is now forever trapped in the film.
This was a good episode. When it started, I thought Desmond was going to turn out to be one of the quasi-sympathetic villains who was using a cursed object in an effort to help someone else. But, as the episode progressed, it becomes obvious that Desmond didn’t really love Lili. Instead, he loved the character that he created for her to be. He loved the imaginary femme fatale but not the real-life woman who played her. As well, the scenes inside the film were handled with a lot of wit and style. I enjoyed watching Micki trying to disrupt the film’s story. As much as I miss John D. LeMay’s Ryan, his absence really allowed Robey to come into her own during the third season.
Friday the 13th could be an uneven show but this episode was definitely a triumph.
Kotcheff directed a lot of classic films but perhaps the most influential was 1982’s First Blood. In today’s scene that I love, John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is arrested by Sheriff Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy). Teasle may think that he’s keeping his community safe and teaching Rambo a lesson about respecting authority but, needless to say, he’s making a huge mistake.
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 is John Milius’s birthday and you know what? It should be a national holiday!
It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 John Milius Films
Dillinger (1973, dir by John Milius, DP: Jules Brenner)
Big Wednesday (1978, dir by John Milius, DP: Bruce Surtees)
Conan The Barbarian (1982, dir by John Milius, DP: Duke Callaghan)
Red Dawn (1984, dir by John Milius, DP: Ric Waite)
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, Judith Light has got a gun!
Episode 1.18 “Dog Day Hospital”
(Dir by Victor Lobl, originally aired on March 22nd, 1983)
Finally, Dr. Ehrlich is performing his first solo operation. Dr. Craig is assisting but Ehrlich is in charge. He gets to play his music in the OR. He gets to decide what type of retractor to use. It’s a simple hernia operation. The patient (Sam Anderson) is awake and babbling through the whole operation.
Unfortunately, there’s also an angry woman in the OR and she has a gun. Barbara Lonnicker (Judith Light) is eight months pregnant, despite her husband claiming that he got a vasectomy at St. Eligius. As she already has several children to deal with, she wants to see the doctor who screwed up the vasectomy but she’s just as willing to shoot any other doctor to get her revenge. The operation continues while Dr. Craig and Dr. Westphall negotiate with her.
I have to admit that I did find a lot of this episode to be amusing. Ehrlich’s excitement over getting to do his first operation, Dr. Craig’s stuffy annoyance with being interrupted by a woman with a gun, and the patient’s nonstop rambling all made me smile more than once. And Judith Light, not surprisingly, was great as the woman with the gun. I loved the her husband was played by Tom Atkins. You never know who you might see at St. Eligius! That said, after the episode ended, I couldn’t help but think about how dumb the whole thing actually was. How are people always managing to get guns into St. Eligius? How did Barbara manage to get into an operating room without being stopped beforehand? (Luther does tell her that she can’t be back there but he’s the only one who seems to notice her before she bursts into the OR.) How come no one in the hospital seems to be more upset about the fact that there’s a woman waving a gun around an operating room? At one point, Barbara shoots Ehrlich’s radio and hardly anyone seems to react. The plot is played for laughs and that’s fine. But, in this case, the story was a bit too implausible for its own good.
Meanwhile, Nurse Rosenthal returned to work after her mastectomy and struggled to get back into her routine. Carolyn Pickles did a great job portraying Rosenthal in this episode. And Fiscus and Shirley Daniels visited an old woman in a nursing home. The subplots were handled well but, for the most part, this episode still felt as if it was trying a bit too hard.
Through the Shattered Lens 