As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in hosting a few weekly live tweets on twitter and occasion ally Mastodon. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of Mastodon’s #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We snark our way through it.
Tonight, for #MondayActionMovie, the film will be 1996’s Marked Man! Selected and hosted by Rev. Magdalen, this movie stars Rowdy Roddy Piper! So, you know it has to be good!
Following #MondayActionMovie, Brad and Sierra will be hosting the #MondayMuggers live tweet. We will be watching 2002’s Eye See You! This one stars Sylvester Stallone so you know it has to be …. well, you get the idea.
It should make for a night of fun viewing and I invite all of you to join in. If you want to join the live tweets, just hop onto Mastodon, pull up Marked Man on YouTube, start the movie at 8 pm et, and use the #MondayActionMovie hashtag! Then, at 10 pm et, switch over to Twitter, check the hashtag for the link to the movie and then start Eye See You, and use the #MondayMuggers hashtag! The live tweet community is a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
Hi, everyone! Lisa Marie here with a quick programming note!
For nearly two years, I’ve been posting daily retro television reviews here on the Lens. That feature is going on hiatus for this upcoming week so that this site can concentrate on the Oscars. Speaking for myself, I know that I have a lot that I need to watch and review before the Oscars are handed out on March 10!
So, my daily reviews of Miami Vice, Baywatch Nights, CHiPs, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, Monsters, Highway to Heaven, T and T, Friday the 13th, Welcome Back Kotter, Check It Out, and Degrassi Junior High will return on March 11th, after Oscar week concludes!
Today, we wish filmmaker George Miller a happy birthday!
Today’s scene that I love comes from 1983’s Mad Max 2 (a.k.a. The Road Warrior). In the scene, Lord Humongous and his followers arrive at a compound. Humongous and his followers are both ludicrous and menacing at the same time. While watching this scene, Miller makes sure that the viewer knows that, even if Humongous’s followers are a little bit daft, Humongous himself is truly dangerous.
Incidentally, when Mad Max 2 was in the pre-production stages, one idea was that Max would discover that, underneath the mask, was his old partner from the first film, Jim Goose! Miller says that idea was abandoned but, just as I imagine Immortan Joe was actually Toecutter grown up, I also always assume that Humongous was the formerly cheerful Jim Goose.
In this new video, Charli XCX challenges the world. I’m proud to say that Charli XCX and I both walk through airports with the same defiant attitude. Of course, I’m making an effort to start walking with a little less attitude, if just because my attitude often seems to result in me spraining my ankle.
This was an odd week. Other than the shows that I watch for my retro television reviews, I only watch six other shows this week. And no, Shogun was not one of them, though I do plan to watch it tomorrow.
On Wednesday, I watched Abbott Elementaryand I thought it was funny, even if it didn’t really reach the heights of last week’s episode. Abbott Elementary is definitely the best sitcom on network television but it’s still starting to show some signs of age.
Also on Wednesday, I watched the season premiere of Survivor. It seems like a good group, even if I still wish Survivor would go back to its old format. It does kind of bother me that every new season of Survivor has to have some whiny, socially awkward person who acts scared of everything and who were supposed to feel sorry for. If I want to watch Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison on a reality show, I’ll watch more true crime.
On Friday night, I watched an episode of an 80s music video show called Radio 1990 and an episode of Night Flightthat featured a lot of Canadians. I also watched another chapter of the 1930s serial, The Vanishing Shadow. They were all fun.
On Friday and Saturday, I watched several episodes of — cringe! — The Jerry Springer Show. They’re on YouTube and I watched them as research for a future post. There’s no way that whole show wasn’t staged.
That’s it! Not much to this week in television. I almost skipped this week’s post altogether but …. well, I’m a completist. Even if I don’t do anything, I still feel it’s important to officially acknowledge my inactivity.
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 is currently streaming on Tubi!
This week, Gabe considers selling out!
Episode 3.12 “Kotter For Vice Principal”
(Dir by Bob Claver, originally aired on November 17th, 1977)
Gabe tells Julie about his uncle who tried to teach an octopus how to play the bagpipes. The octopus instead just “made love to the bagpipes” and it sounded exactly as if he knew how to play them. Julie, who has a broken arm in this episode, doubles over laughing.
Meanwhile, at the school, rumor has it that the position of vice principal will soon be open. While visiting the principal’s office, Epstein came across a memo in which it was stated that Mr. Woodman’s contract was up and the school board was thinking of replacing him. The Sweathogs immediately start to pass around a Kotter For Vice Principal petition. Freddie signs it 20 times. Epstein threatens to beat up anyone who doesn’t sign.
The only problem is that Mr. Kotter does not want to be Vice Principal. He’s happy being a teacher and he doesn’t want to abandon his Sweathogs. However, two things change his mind. First, Mr. Woodman — who has been calling himself Uncle Woody in an attempt to bond with the students — mocks the very idea of Gabe in an important position. Then, Julie mentions that they could use the extra money. Gabe decides to throw his hat in the ring.
That night, Gabe has an extended dream sequence. It’s 2050. The Sweathogs are all in their 90s and still students at Buchanan High. And Gabe is walking through the hallways with a crown on his head and basically acting like a pretty tyrant. “Call me king!” he demands. Eventually, even elderly Julie shows up and it’s hard not to notice that her arm is still in a cast. (How badly did she break it!?) Julie announces that she can’t wait until the peasants rise up and execute Gabe. YIKES!
Not surprisingly, Gabe wakes up and realizes that he’s happy not being vice principal because if he had any power, it would go to his head, he would become insufferable, and his wife (or the actress playing his wife) would call for him to be killed….
Uhmm …. yeah. Given what I’ve read about the tense set of Welcome Back, Kotter and Gabe Kaplan’s not particularly harmonious working relationship with Marcia Strassman, it’s tempting to read a lot into this episode. Were the writers venting about working with Gabe Kaplan or were they satirizing Marcia Strassman’s hatred of the show and the characters? Regardless, it makes for an odd episode. On the plus side, Mr. Woodman got some good lines and the Sweathogs were back to being their usual borderline criminal self. On the negative side, I do wish they had done more with Gabe’s dream than just put the Sweathogs in silly costumes and have them speak in exagerrated “old man” voices.
In the end, though, the important thing is that Mr. Woodman still has a job. He’s seriously the funniest character on the show.
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!
On this day, 110 years ago, Martin Ritt was born in New York City. Like many of the Hollywood directors who came to prominence in the 1950s, he started his directorial career in the theater before moving over to live TV. In 1952, his television career was derailed when he was accused of being a communist. Blacklisted, it would be five years before Ritt could get another directing job. When he did start to work again, he moved from television into the movies, starting with 1957’s Edge of the City. Perhaps due to his own experiences, his films always had a social conscience and always defended the individual against corrupt corporations and governments. In 1976, he directed one of the first films about the Hollywood blacklist, The Front.
As a director, Ritt was known for his skill with actors. More than anyone, he played a huge role in making stars out of both Paul Newman and Sally Field. He was also one of the few directors to understand how to harness Richard Burton’s self-destructive tendencies and, as a result, Burton gave one of his best performances in Ritt’s adaptation of The Spy Who Came In From The Cold.
It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Martin Ritt Films
Hud (1963, dir by Martin Ritt, DP: James Wong Howe)
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (1965, dir by Martin Ritt, DP: Oswald Morris)
The Front (1976, dir by Martin Ritt, DP: Michael Chapman)
Nuts (1987, dir by Martin Ritt, DP: Andrzej Bartkowiak)
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, for #ScarySocial, Deanna Dawn will be hosting the original, 1956 Invasion Of The Body Snatchers!
If you want to join us on Saturday night, just hop onto twitter, start the film at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag! The film is available on Prime. I’ll probably be there 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.
Through the Shattered Lens 