Hank Gathers is one of the most intriguing “what if?” stories of modern basketball. Growing up in the Raymond Rosen Projects of Philadelphia, Hank stayed out of trouble by playing basketball. An outstanding high school player, he went first to USC before transferring to Loyola Marymount. Along with his friend Bo Kimble, he was a stand-out player at Loyola. However, on March 4th, 1990, the 23 year-old Gathers collapsed during a game with Portland and died on the court, the victim of an abnormal heartbeat. His last recorded words were, “I don’t want to lay down!” Gathers set records in college. Would he have done the same in the NBA? Sadly, we’ll never know but he definitely had the talent and the ability to be one of the best.
FinalShot is a by-the-numbers biopic of Hank Gathers, focusing on his life in the projects and his friendship with Bo Kimble. Victor Love plays Gathers while Kimble is played by Duane Davis and they both give good performances. Their friendship feels real and when Hank helps Bo recover from a broken leg and when Bo worries about Hank’s recently diagnosed heart condition, the scenes are sincere in a way that lifts the film above the normal biopic clichés. Nell Carter and George Kennedy both have good roles as well, Carter as Hank’s mother and Kennedy as Hank’s high school coach and mentor. This is the type of role that Kennedy could have played in his sleep so I appreciated that he actually gave a believable performance.
FinalShot is a made-for-TV movie so it doesn’t dig too deeply into Gathers’s life outside of basketball, the way that college treat their athletes, or the systems that made playing basketball Hank’s only way of escaping the projects. For what it is, though, it’s a fitting tribute.
Welcome to 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 the original Love Boat, which aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986! The series can be streamed on Paramount Plus!
It’s time so set sail for adventure, your mind on a new romance….
Episode 6.3 “The Anniversary Gift/Honey Bee Mine/Bewigged, Bothered and Bewildered”
(Dir by Ted Lange, originally aired on October 16th, 1982)
Oh my God, what did Julie do to her hair!? I mean, I understand that it was the 80s and everything but Julie’s short, spiky look in this episode is not a good decision. No wonder she’s so worried that she’s going to lose her boyfriend (Richard Bergman) to her old college friend, Honey Bee Harknest (Randi Oakes, taking a break from appearing on CHiPs to do TheLoveBoat). Honey Bee has always stolen Julie’s boyfriends so, for this cruise, Julie lies and says that she’s dating Gopher. Normally, Gopher would be happy about this but he’s already got a girlfriend to whom he’s trying to stay loyal.
(I’m going to guess that we’ll never see Julie’s boyfriend or Gopher’s girlfriend again after this episode.)
In other cruise news, Lynn Redgrave and Robert Mandan are taking a vacation to celebrate 20 years of wedded bliss. Mandan is looking forward to traveling. Redgrave wants to have another child. You’ve probably already guessed where this storyline is heading. Lynn Redgrave and Robert Mandan made for a surprisingly believable couple. Redgrave was, of course, an Oscar nominee while Mandan was the best of the celebrity skaters to appear on the Roller Disco episode of CHiPs.
(There’s our second CHiPs reference of the review! Woo hoo!)
Finally, Phyllis Diller plays an old classmate of Captain Stubing’s. When Diller compliments Stubing on still looking young, Stubing starts to worry about how she’ll react when he removes his captain’s cap and reveals that he’s bald. So, he starts wearing a toupee. Oh, Captain Stubing! To be honest, I do like episodes that allow Stubing to be emotionally vulnerable. Gavin MacLeod always did a good job of suggesting the insecurity that lay underneath the commanding presence and that’s certainly the case with this episode. That said, Stubing could take a lesson from Sgt. Getraer, who still manages to run things on CHiPs despite his thinning hair.
(Boom! Three references to CHiPs in one review of The Love Boat. That’s got to be a record.)
This was a pleasant cruise and it was directed by Isaac himself, Ted Lange! Lange keeps the action moving and, as a director, he obviously knew how to get good performances out of his castmates. Julia’s terrible hairstyle aside, this was a good trip on TheLoveBoat.
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!
Here are four classic shots, all featuring rain.
4 Rainy Shots From 4 Films
My Neighbor Totoro (1988, Dir. by Hayao Miyazaki)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994, Dir. by Frank Darabont)
Do you remember G.R.L.? They were the girl group that Robin Antin put together that was not the Pussycat Dolls.
This song is about a man who is beautiful on the outside but ugly on the inside. The members of G.R.L. tattoo “ugly” all over his face as way to let the world know. They get arrested but they regret nothing, which they prove by turning the police station into a dance party.
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing Pacific Blue, a cop show that aired from 1996 to 2000 on the USA Network! It’s currently streaming everywhere, though I’m watching it on Tubi.
This week, the beach gets dangerous.
Episode 2.7 “Line In The Sand”
(Dir by Michael Levine, originally aired on October 6th, 1996)
There’s a lot going on in this episode, leaving me to wonder if maybe this episode was edited together from two or three other episodes that, for whatever reason, were never aired in their original form. Seriously, it’s an oddly put together episode, with two very dramatic stories and one silly story and absolutely no tonal consistency whatsoever.
A kayaker keeps trying to kayak where he’s not wanted so two surfers beat him up. When the kayaker continues to kayak, the two surfers break into his home and …. put his girlfriend in a coma? Seriously? That seems like an overreaction. How exactly are these two getting away with this? Every episode of PacificBlue leaves me more and more convinced that bicycle cops are a terrible idea. These surfers aren’t brilliant criminals or anything. Real cops would have been able to stop them.
Even with his girlfriend in a coma, the kayaker continues to kayak. So, the surfers punch out two other guys and steal their jet skis so they can chase the guy. But the kayaker leads them under the pier, which leads to one surfer colliding with a wooden support beam and the washing up on the beach, where he’s promptly arrested by Palermo.
“She woke up,” Palermo explains, referring to the kayaker’s girlfriend. Apparently, this whole thing was just a sting to arrest the surfers but did allowing the surfers to beat up two innocent jet ski owners play into the plan? If the girlfriend woke up and identified them as her attackers, why not just arrest the surfers on the beach instead of making them chase the kayaker?
Yes, it’s good the guy’s girlfriend woke up but consider this. She wouldn’t have been in a coma to begin with if Santa Monica had a real police force. Seriously, how can two surfers cause this much havoc without getting arrested before it reaches the point that they’re breaking into someone’s house and putting his girlfriend into a coma? It is explained that they have a lawyer who represents them free-of-charge in return for surfing lessons. I can’t think of a single lawyer who would do that. Most lawyers need money to pay their bills and stuff.
One of the surfers is named Weed so Palermo got to say, “Hold on, Weed!” at one point. That made me smile.
Meanwhile, a random woman became obsessed with Victor and started painting pictures of him. When Victor rejected her, she tore her clothes and accused him of attempting to rape her. Victor was charged with rape but we never actually saw anyone arrest him. Cory went undercover as Victor’s girlfriend in order to get the woman to attack her. Somehow, this led to the charges against Victor getting dropped, though it didn’t actually do anything to disprove the woman’s claim.
Finally, Elvis — the Pacific Blue mechanic played by David L. Lander — wanted to join a swinger’s club but he was told he would have to bring a woman with him. Elvis asked Chris to accompany him. By this point, Elvis should know that Chris’s character only exists to humiliate people who ask her to do things. Chris isn’t interested in swinging but Elvis continue to look. To be honest, I didn’t even realize that Elvis was still on the show.
I want to wish a happy 37th anniversary to RED HEAT, which premiered on June 17th of 1988. Directed by the legendary Walter Hill, one of the finest directors of the 70’s and 80’s, RED HEAT entertainingly combines Hill’s badass action scenes with the buddy cop shenanigans of Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Belushi. It’s a movie that I dearly love, and I’m glad to have an excuse to celebrate it today!
Enjoy this scene where the Russian cop played by Schwarzenegger, who’s just learned about the “Miranda rights” in the United States, proves he hasn’t quite grasped the concept yet!
Abby (Kaelen Ohm) has been through a lot. A recovering alcoholic, Abby is struggling with the guilt of having caused a car accident while her young daughter was in the backseat. Her daughter’s okay but her husband cannot forgive Abby for putting their child in harm’s way. Needing to clear her head, Abby heads to the farmhouse where she grew up. She hopes that her husband and her daughter will eventually join her there. Instead, she finds herself trapped in the middle of a battle between two drug mules and a corrupt sheriff (Nicholas Campbell).
I liked LastCounty more than I thought it would. It’s a straightforward thriller that doesn’t waste any time getting to the action. Kaelen Ohm was great as Abby and I really found myself getting caught up in her story. I wasn’t just worried about whether or not she would survive the siege led by the sheriff. I was also really worried about what would happen with her as far as her family was concerned. Would her marriage be saved or would she fall in love with the more sensitive of the two drug mules? Along with good performance and direction, LastCounty also really captured the feel of being isolated out in the middle of the country.
Far better than I thought it would, LastCounty took me by surprise. It’s on Tubi.
Hank Gathers is one of the most intriguing “what if?” stories of modern basketball. Growing up in the Raymond Rosen Projects of Philadelphia, Hank stayed out of trouble by playing basketball. An outstanding high school player, he went first to USC before transferring to Loyola Marymount. Along with his friend Bo Kimble, he was a stand-out player at Loyola. However, on March 4th, 1990, the 23 year-old Gathers collapsed during a game with Portland and died on the court, the victim of an abnormal heartbeat. His last recorded words were, “I don’t want to lay down!” Gathers set records in college. Would he have done the same in the NBA? Sadly, we’ll never know but he definitely had the talent and the ability to be one of the best.
Through the Shattered Lens 