Author Archives: Lisa Marie Bowman

Late Night Retro Television Review: Freddy’s Nightmares 2.3 “Welcome to Springwood”

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 Freddy’s Nightmares, a horror anthology show which ran in syndication from 1988 to 1990. The entire series can be found on Tubi!

This week, more and more people are coming to Springwood.

Episode 2.3 “Welcome to Springwood”

(Dir by Ken Wiederhorn, originally aired on October 22nd, 1989)

Roxanne (Leah Ayres) and her husband, Doug (Michael Horton). have just moved to a new house in Springwood, Ohio.  Doug, a lawyer, has to go to his office and he leaves Roxanne, who is recovering from a mental breakdown, alone with the boxes that the moves have already brought into the house.  He tells her not to worry about opening them and promises her that they’ll unpack when he gets home.

Roxanne, however, opens the boxes.  And she finds things that clearly don’t belong to her.  She calls Doug at work.  Doug says that there must have been a mix-up with the moving company and that he’ll call and make sure that their stuff gets delivered as soon as  possible.

Meanwhile, at the house, Roxanne starts to see people who may or may not be there….

As surprised as I am to say this, the first segment of this episode of Freddy’s Nightmares was an enjoyably macabre story.  Yes, the final twist is one that you’ll see coming but director Ken Wiederhorn does a great job creating and maintaining atmosphere and Ayres, Horton, and Todd Allen all give strong performances.

The second story isn’t close to be anywhere as interesting.  Emily Jamison (Dey Young) has moved into a new home and she finds a hidden stack of letters that were written years before.  The letters detail a doomed romance and Emily soon starts to see ghosts.  The story isn’t terrible but it’s a bit bland.

Still, this was another good episode of Freddy’s Nightmares.  So far, at least, the show appears to have found its footing during its second season.  It’ll be interesting to see if that continues next week.

Retro Television Review: St. Elsewhere 3.10 “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”

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 Daily Motion.

This episode proves that Dr. Cavanero is the worst.

Episode 3.10 “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”

(Dir by Bruce Paltrow, originally aired on November 28th, 1984)

The struggle is real.

Seriously, I am thankful that someone uploaded St. Elsewhere to Daily Motion.  With the show no longer on Hulu and Prime only having the first season available, Daily Motion is pretty much the only place where I can stream the show.  That said, the sound quality is not great.  The sound quality wasn’t particularly good when the show was on Hulu either but at least then I could turn on the captions.  The Daily Motion uploads don’t have that option.  I had to strain to hear the dialogue and, as a result, this review is not going to be as in-depth as it could be.

What I can tell you is that Dr. Cavanero is now one of the least sympathetic characters that I have ever seen on a television show.  Last week, Dr. Christine Holz (Caroline McWilliams) told Cavanero that she was a lesbian.  This week, Cavanero blabbed that information around the hospital, leading to a lot of homophobic comments from certain members of the stuff.  (Not surprisingly, Victor Ehrlich was there to say something stupid.)  Cavenero admitted to Christine that she found Christine’s lifestyle to be “unnatural.”  Christine smiled sadly and left Cavanero’s apartment and left the show.  Keep in mind, Dr. Holz was portrayed as being a brilliant surgeon and bone marrow expert.  It probably would have been good to keep her around the hospital for a little while but nope.  Sorry.  Dr. Cavanero — who really hasn’t done anything of note since the first season — felt uncomfortable.

(Originally, Christine and Cavanero were supposed to have a romantic relationship but Cynthia Sikes, the actress playing Cavavero, objected to the storyline.  As a result, the story was rewritten and perhaps it’s not a coincidence that Cavanero comes across as being a bit of a homophobe.)

Meanwhile, Dr. Chandler was concerned when he discovered that a neighborhood woman (Beah Richards) was practicing medicine out of her apartment.  This storyline at least gave Denzel Washington more to do than usual, which was good.  St. Elsewhere, at least so far, has often tended to underuse both Chandler as a character and Washington as an actor.

Jack’s friend (John Schuck) insisted on doing an experimental kidney procedure to try to save the life of his daughter (Brandy Gold) and Dr. Auschlander finally gave his approval for it to be done.  I would say that was a good thing except for the fact that Jack’s storylines hardly ever have a happy ending.  There’s a reason why Morrison is the most depressed resident in the hospital.

Nurse Rosenthal continued her affair with Richard Clarendon, even though Richard’s wife (Beverly Sanders) is now working at the hospital.  Wow, that’s going to be awkward.  In fact, I hope it’s really awkward.  I’m tired of Nurse Rosenthal and her holier-than-thou attitude.

Dr. Craig testified at a city council hearing.  The poor sound quality kept me from fully understanding what the hearing was about but at Dr. Craig told everyone off.  It’s always fun to watch William Daniels tell people off.

Here’s hoping the sound will be a bit less muddy next week!

 

Scenes I Love: Julie Christie Visits Nashville

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In this scene from Robert Altman’s 1975 masterpiece, Nashville, Julie Christie plays herself as a famous visitor to the city for which the film is named.  She is introduced to Haven Hamilton (Henry Gibson), Haven’s lawyer, Delbert Reese (Ned Beatty), political advance man John Triplette (Michael Murphy), and country music star Connie White (Karen Black).  Julie Christie may be a star in Hollywood but Connie is the star of Nashville.

Karen Black improvised her dismissive line about Julie Christine not even being able to comb her hair.  It was a moment that reportedly shocked the rest of the cast and the crew but it was also a line that perfectly summed up both Connie as a character and Altman’s version of Nashville.

Song of the Day: I’m Easy by Keith Carradine

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Since today would have been Robert Altman’s 101st birthday, it only seems right that today’s song of the day should come from his best film.  In this scene from 1975’s Nashville, Keith Carradine sings I’m Easy as Altman’s camera finds each of his lovers in the audience, all convinced that Carradine is singing expressly to them.

This song won Nashville it’s only Oscar.  It also made Keith, who wrote the song, the only Oscar winner amongst the fabled Carradine family.

 

Live Tweet Alert: Join #FridayNightFlix for Hell Comes To Frogtown!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

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?  Hell Comes To Frogtown!

If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, find Hell Comes To Frogtown on Prime or Tubi, 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.

See you there!

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Robert Altman Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

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 celebrate what would have been the 101st birthday of the great director, Robert Altman!  It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 Robert Altman Films

MASH (1970, dir by Robert Altman, DP: Harold E. Stine)

The Long Goodbye (1973, dir by Robert Altman, DP: Vilmos Zsigmond)

Nashville (1975, dir by Robert Altman, DP: Paul Lohmann)

Short Cuts (1993, dir by Robert Altman, DP: Walt Lloyd)

Music Video of the Day: Because I Do by X (1982, dir by Peter Haskell)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Here’s a classic music video from X.

When I was looking for a music video to share today, I discovered that the majority of the music videos had recently been uploaded to YouTube were AI.  It wasn’t just that the videos were made with AI.  It was that the singers and the songs were often AI as well!  That was disturbing, especially since most of the AI artists didn’t sound that different from their autotuned real-life counterparts.

Needless to say, I was happy to find this from Exene and X.

Enjoy!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Highway to Heaven 5.8 “Goodbye, Mr. Zelinka”

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, it’s time for yet another student protest.

Episode 5.8 “Goodbye, Mr. Zelinka”

(Dir by Michael Landon, originally aired on June 23rd, 1989)

The students at Lincoln High are upset to learn that beloved English teacher Mr. Zelinka (Lew Ayres) is going to have to retire because he’s reached the mandatory age of 70.  The school’s new maintenance workers — Jonathan Smith and Mark Gordon — suggest that they should all conduct a walk-out to demand that Zelinka be allowed to keep his job.  The evil school board president (James Karen) says that Zelinka can stay if he takes and passes an exam.  However, the exam is rigged for Zelinka to fail.  Jonathan uses “the stuff” to make sure that Zelinka not only passes but that he also gets the highest score ever.  In the past, Jonathan always refused to use “the stuff” to help people cheat.  Instead, Jonathan would have shown the school board president the error of his ways.  But, for this episode, Jonathan rigs the rigged exam and the villain is left in power so that he can presumably continue to make Mr. Zelinka’s life miserable.

I did not like this episode.  Yeah, it’s heart was in the right place but the entire school walking about in support of Mr, Zelinka just felt kind of silly.  I mean, did every student at the school have Mr. Zelinka for English?  What did everyone’s parents think about the protest?  If Mr. Zelinka had been a compelling character, may be I would have felt differently but  Mr. Zelinka was instead a pretty passive character and I have to admit that I wondered about all the other good teachers who had been forced to retire at 70.  Why didn’t Jonathan show up to help any of them out?  What made Mr. Zelinka so special?  It didn’t help that Lew Ayres was 80 years old when he played Mr. Zelinka and that he looked and sounded even older.  The obviously frail Ayres comes across as someone who maybe does need to retire.

I’ve sat through a lot of Highway to Heaven episodes about clean-cut teenagers walking out of class so that they can protest injustice.  Highway to Heaven was a very earnest show and that was one of the things that made it likable.  But, by the fifth season, Highway to Heaven‘s formula was a bit less effective than it had been in the past.  This is an episode just just seems to be going through the motions.  This is also the rare Highway to Heaven episode in which I wanted someone to tell Jonathan and Mark to just mind their own business.

Retro Television Review: Decoy 1.21 “The Showplace”

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 Decoy, which aired in Syndication in 1957 and 1958.  The show can be viewed on Tubi!

Casey goes under cover at yet another cocktail lounge.

Episode 1.21 “The Showplace”

(Dir by David Alexander, originally aired on March 3rd, 1958)

There’s been a murder at a cocktail lounge.  One of the girls who worked there has been found in alley, strangled.  That means that it’s time for Casey to go undercover as a clip-joint girl, convincing men to buy her drinks.  It’s a sleazy place, run by two brothers (Bill Hayes and Lewis Troy) and featuring a sad-eyed bartender (Lou Polan) with a mysterious past.  Casey’s investigation uncovers all sorts of nefarious dealings.  In the end, the murderer is revealed and it’s not who you might have thought.  In a cocktail lounge full of largely ugly people, the murderer is the one handsome man.  Casey mentions that he may have been handsome on the outside but, on the inside, there was nothing.

This was a great episode, a moody slice of downbeat noir that featured Casey doing actual undercover work.  The cocktail lounge was a wonderfully atmospheric location, the supporting cast was full of strong character actors, and Beverly Garland did a great job as Casey both empathized and suspected the men with whom she was working.

This episode ended, as the best ones always did, with Casey talking about the tragedy of it all.  Casey’s New York is a city of dreams but it can also be a nightmare.

Song of the Day: Keep Hope Alive by Crystal Method

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s song of the day is from Crystal Method.  Though Keep Hope Alive was featured in the film The Replacement Killers, it was actually inspired by a 1992 speech from Jesse Jackson, which is heard throughout the song.