Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 2.1 “Bad Blood: Part 1”

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 Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1989 to 1991!  The series can be streamed on YouTube and Tubi

It’s time for another school year!

Episode 2.1 “Bad Blood: Part 1”

(Dir by Kit Hood, originally aired on November 5th, 1990)

It’s time to start another year at Degrassi High!  There’s a lot going on:

  • Michelle spent the summer on a trip, which gave BLT time to find a new girlfriend.  He hasn’t told Michelle yet.  BLT says, “Michelle is so sensitive,” as if that’s a bad thing.  Remember when BLT was like the perfect boyfriend last season?  I guess that’s all gone out the window.
  • L.D.’s cancer is in remission!  However, she’s not back at school.  Her father sold his garage, bought a sailboat, and now he and L.D. are circling the globe.  So, I guess L.D. is just going to be a high school dropout?  Lucy films a video for L.D.  Good luck delivering it to the middle of the ocean.
  • Condom machines have been installed in the bathrooms!  The Farrell twin who keeps getting pregnant is super excited.
  • School bully Dwayne also loves the condom machines because he can fill the condoms with water and drop them on his longtime nemesis, Joey Jeremiah.
  • Joey is upset that Dwayne and his gang are in Joey’s special ed class.  However, Joey does have one good thing happening in his life.  He finally got his license!  Now, he just needs a car.
  • Hey, here’s a car that’s for sale!  But it costs …. $3,000!  And Joey only has $75.  Ha.  Loser.
  • How can Joey raise money?  What if he asks everyone to pay him to walk naked through the cafeteria?  All of the teachers are going to be in a staff meeting so there’s no way Joey’s going to get caught!
  • Joey goes through with it, walking into cafe naked while holding his fedora over his …. well, you know.  Joey’s embarrassed but he’s going to get a car!
  • Except …. OH NO!  IT’S RADITCH!
  • Who snitched on Joey?  That’s right, it was Dwayne!  Joey gets dragged to the office and he doesn’t get any of the money that he needed for his car.
  • Dwayne is still laughing about it when he arrives home.  His father tells him that “some chick” called for you.
  • Dwayne calls Penny, his summer girlfriend.  Penny tells him that her ex-boyfriend has tested positive for HIV and that’s she tested positive for HIV and maybe Dwayne should get tested….
  • To be continued….

Agck!  That’s quite an ending for what was, otherwise, a fairly light-hearted episode.  But that’s one thing that made Degrassi such a good show.  It understood how being in high school was often a bizarre mix of comedy and drama.  This episode spends a good deal of time portraying Dwayne as being the biggest jerk ever and then it ends with him looking absolutely terrified.  It’s a powerful moment.

Next week, the story continues as Dwayne’s life is changed forever.

 

Lisa Marie’s Week In Review: 4/7/25 — 4/13/25

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Sorry, everyone.  Today was a long day and, as a result, I’m tired and I’m a little bit under the weather so this is going to be yet another mini-week in review.  Hopefully, next Sunday, I’ll be able to get back to doing the big, long week-in-review posts that I enjoy sharing.

Films I Watched:

  1. Assault on Wall Street (2013)
  2. Carter High (2015)
  3. Command 5 (1985)
  4. DC Down (2013)
  5. Deadly Sanctuary (2015)
  6. The Delta Force (1986)
  7. Destroy All Monsters (1968)
  8. Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
  9. The Jericho Mile (1979)
  10. A Killer Within (2004)
  11. King Dinosaur (1955)
  12. Las Vegas Story (2015)
  13. Night Night (2021)
  14. Nomads (1986)
  15. The Perfect Summer (2013)
  16. Point Break (1991)
  17. Raptor (2001)
  18. Revolution (1985)
  19. Rough Air: Danger On Flight 534 (2001)
  20. Thief (1981)

TV Shows I Watched:

  1. Bad Influence
  2. Check It Out!
  3. CHiPs
  4. Degrassi High
  5. Fantasy Island
  6. Friday the 13th: The Series
  7. Happy Hour
  8. Highway to Heaven
  9. Homicide: Life On The Street
  10. It’s The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown
  11. The Love Boat
  12. The Masters
  13. Miami Vice
  14. Monsters
  15. Pacific Blue
  16. St. Elsewhere
  17. Welcome Back Kotter

Links and News From Last Week:

  1. Ted Kotcheff, RIP
  2. Nicky Katt, RIP
  3. Mario Vargas Llosa, RIP
  4. Jean Marsh, RIP
  5. Oscars Finally Give Stunts Their Day, Will Add Category Beginning In 2027
  6. Arleigh shared the trailer for Havoc and a song of the day!
  7. Jeff reviewed Uncommon Valor!
  8. Erin reviewed Underdogs and Major League: Back To The Minors!
  9. Brad wrote about Dennis Quaid and Howard Keel!
  10. Happy Caturday! (4.12.2025)
  11. The 2025 Cannes Film Festival Lineup Is Here! My Stories With Jim Carrey, Joan Rivers And Prince Albert Too!

Click here for last week!

Westward Ho (1935, directed by Robert N. Bradbury)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

As a young man, John Wyatt (John Wayne) witnessed an attack on a wagon train by the evil outlaw Wick Ballard (Jack Curtis).  John’s parents were killed and his younger brother Jim was abducted.  Years later, the grown John Wyatt realizes that the law cannot be depended upon in the wild west so he raises his own band of vigilantes and delivers justice to the frontier.  (Wayne’s second-in-command is played by the legendary Glenn Strange.)  Wyatt remains committed to taking down Ballard.  Going undercover as John Allen, Wyatt joins a cattle drive that he thinks will be attacked by Ballard.  Also working undercover as a member of the cattle drive is Jim Wyatt (Frank McGlynn Jr), John’s long-lost brother, who is now working for Ballard!  Both the Wyatt bothers end up falling for Mary Gordon (Sheila Bromley), the daughter of rancher Lafe Gordon (Jim Farley).

This was a good example of the the type of B-movies that John Wayne made in the years before John Ford cast him in Stagecoach.  The story is simple but Wayne gives a commanding performance as Wyatt.  Unlike many of the B-movies that featured Wayne as a callow singing cowboy or a fun-loving rogue, Westward Ho features Wayne playing the type of character that he would often play after he became a star.  Wyatt is determined to get justice for his family and to protect the innocents who are attacked by men like Ballard.  The presence of his brother in the enemy camp adds an extra dimension to Westward Ho.  Wyatt learns that vengeance isn’t everything.

It’s only 61 minutes long but it tells a good story and it has all the gunfights and horse chases that Western fans expect from their movies.  Of Wayne’s poverty row westerns, Westward Ho is one of the better ones.

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 3.8 “All Through The House”

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 Sundays, I will be reviewing Homicide: Life On The Street, which aired from 1993 to 1999, on NBC!  It  can be viewed on Peacock.

It’s time to celebrate the holidays!

Episode 3.8 “All Through The House”

(Dir by Peter Medak, originally aired on December 16th, 1994)

It’s Christmas in Baltimore!  Decorations are up.  A heavy snow is falling.  The Homicide Detectives are starting the night shift on Christmas Eve …. there’s no way this is going to be depressing, right?

  • Russert and Lewis (who no longer has a permanent partner because Crosetti committed suicide) investigate the murder of a woman who was set on fire.  The victim’s mother (Nancy Marchand) is in the midst of throwing a Christmas party and refuses to acknowledge the fact that her daughter is dead.  Instead, she obsesses on the amount of red decorations.  It’s a human moment.  How would you react if you found out a member of your family had been murdered on Christmas Eve?
  • Still, this storyline kind of reinforced the fact that it really doesn’t make much sense for Russert to be a regular on the show.  She’s a shift commander but it’s a totally different shift from the one that the rest of the characters work.  She was originally introduced having an affair with Beau but that appears to be over.  Russert really has nothing to do and her choosing to work Christmas Eve didn’t really make much sense.
  • Scheiner, the crusty old medical examiner, shows up wearing a Santa hat.  Assistant State’s Attorney Ed Danvers also makes an appearance.  He mentions that he’s got someone coming to his apartment to celebrate Christmas Eve with him but Kay is working!  Did they break up!?
  • Meanwhile, Bolander and Much investigate the mystery of a dead man dressed as Santa Claus….
  • SERIOUSLY, HOMICIDE!?
  • Much suggests that Santa was killed by angry elves.
  • Okay, Homicide, that made me laugh.
  • Munch thinks that the man is someone who has been ringing the bell for the Salvation Army for decades.  Bolander says that they need to inform the man’s child….
  • STOP IT, HOMICIDE!
  • While Bolander goes to the morgue to try to get a positive ID on the guy, Munch sits in an apartment with a kid who want stop talking about how his father promised to spend Christmas Eve with him….
  • WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS, HOMICIDE!?
  • Munch takes the kid out.  They go bowling.  They hit some baseballs.  The kid’s antagonistic and Munch is miserable.
  • Oh wait!  The kid’s father is alive!  Yay!  It turns out that someone stole his Santa Claus outfit and that person — that thief of holiday joy — is the one who was brutally murdered while dressed as jolly old St. Nick.
  • Uhmm …. that’s still pretty depressing but at least the kid’s not an orphan.
  • Back at headquarters, a disheveled Bayliss tries to get someone to play Hearts with him because he needs to make some quick money.
  • Seriously, what’s happening with Bayliss?  He went from being clean-cut and idealistic to being a somewhat seedy, convenience store-robbing burnout in record time!

Merry Christmas, everyone!  This was a good episode, actually.  Any episode that involves Munch getting frustrated is usually enjoyable and Russert and Lewis made for a good team.  And, in the end, Santa was not dead.  It’s a Christmas miracle!

The Eric Roberts Collection: Rough Air: Danger on Flight 534 (dir by Jon Cassar)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

It’s disaster time!

In 2001’s Rough Air: Danger on Flight 534, a plane is making its way across the country.  The pilot is the arrogant Jack Brooks (Kevin Jubinville), who is convinced that all a pilot has to do is let the instruments and the plane’s computer run the flight.  He has total faith in technology.  His first officer is Mike Hogan (Eric Roberts), a veteran pilot whose career went downhill after he was unfairly blamed for a crash in Boston.  Mike is old school.  He doesn’t have much use for all this technology nonsense.  Mike thinks that a pilot has to listen to his own instincts and be willing to improvise.  That sounds dangerous!  It’s a good thing that Jack’s in charge of this plane!

Unfortunately, turbulence and a concussion temporarily puts Jack out of commission.  Mike is going to have to conquer his own fears and insecurities to land this plane.  Fortunately, he has the support of the head flight attendant, Katy Phillips (Alexandra Paul).  Also, one of the passengers has some flight experience!  Grant Blyth (Dean McDermott) is willing to help out.  Of course, Grant is also a convicted murderer who was being flown to prison but whatever.  I just find it interesting that, in the movies, convicted murderers and their handlers are always put on commercial flight.  That seems kind of irresponsible to me.

Rough Air is a throwback to the old disaster movies of the 70s.  The airplane is full of people who have to set aside their differences to work together and try to avoid a disaster.  There’s a soccer star (Mark Lutz) and an engineer (Russell Yuen) and a rich guy (Carlo Rota) who only exists that he can be told to shut up whenever he doubts Mike.  Unfortunately, this film isn’t quite as fun as any of those old disaster movies.  There’s one funny moments where Jack wakes up and deliriously demands to be allowed to fly the plane but otherwise, this is a pretty boring flight.  Not even Eric Roberts giving a typically committed performance can save this flight from being forgettable.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

  1. Star 80 (1983)
  2. Runaway Train (1985)
  3. Blood Red (1989)
  4. The Ambulance (1990)
  5. The Lost Capone (1990)
  6. Love, Cheat, & Steal (1993)
  7. Voyage (1993)
  8. Love Is A Gun (1994)
  9. Sensation (1994)
  10. Dark Angel (1996)
  11. Doctor Who (1996)
  12. Most Wanted (1997)
  13. Mercy Streets (2000)
  14. Raptor (2001)
  15. Wolves of Wall Street (2002)
  16. Mr. Brightside (2004)
  17. Six: The Mark Unleased (2004)
  18. Hey You (2006)
  19. Amazing Racer (2009)
  20. In The Blink of an Eye (2009)
  21. Bed & Breakfast (2010)
  22. Enemies Among Us (2010)
  23. The Expendables (2010) 
  24. Sharktopus (2010)
  25. Beyond The Trophy (2012)
  26. The Dead Want Women (2012)
  27. Deadline (2012)
  28. The Mark (2012)
  29. Miss Atomic Bomb (2012)
  30. Bonnie And Clyde: Justified (2013)
  31. Lovelace (2013)
  32. The Mark: Redemption (2013)
  33. The Perfect Summer (2013)
  34. Self-Storage (2013)
  35. A Talking Cat!?! (2013)
  36. This Is Our Time (2013)
  37. Inherent Vice (2014)
  38. Road to the Open (2014)
  39. Rumors of War (2014)
  40. Amityville Death House (2015)
  41. Deadly Sanctuary (2015)
  42. A Fatal Obsession (2015)
  43. Las Vegas Story (2015)
  44. Stalked By My Doctor (2015)
  45. Enemy Within (2016)
  46. Joker’s Poltergeist (2016)
  47. Prayer Never Fails (2016)
  48. Stalked By My Doctor: The Return (2016)
  49. The Wrong Roommate (2016)
  50. Dark Image (2017)
  51. Black Wake (2018)
  52. Frank and Ava (2018)
  53. Stalked By My Doctor: Patient’s Revenge (2018)
  54. Clinton Island (2019)
  55. Monster Island (2019)
  56. The Reliant (2019)
  57. The Savant (2019)
  58. Seven Deadly Sins (2019)
  59. Stalked By My Doctor: A Sleepwalker’s Nightmare (2019)
  60. The Wrong Mommy (2019)
  61. Exodus of a Prodigal Son (2020)
  62. Free Lunch Express (2020)
  63. Her Deadly Groom (2020)
  64. Top Gunner (2020)
  65. Deadly Nightshade (2021)
  66. The Elevator (2021)
  67. Just What The Doctor Ordered (2021)
  68. Killer Advice (2021)
  69. Night Night (2021)
  70. The Poltergeist Diaries (2021)
  71. The Rebels of PT-218 (2021)
  72. A Town Called Parable (2021)
  73. Bleach (2022)
  74. My Dinner With Eric (2022)
  75. D.C. Down (2023)
  76. Aftermath (2024)
  77. Devil’s Knight (2024)
  78. The Wrong Life Coach (2024)
  79. When It Rains In L.A. (2025

Song of the Day: Shed a Tear by Teresa Laughlin

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

This is from 1974’s The Trial of Billy Jack.  Yes, Billy Jack killed a lot of people and broke a lot of laws but ultimately, he was just a man who protected animals, children, and other living things.

And, eventually, despite all of the murder convictions, he ended up serving in the U.S. Senate.

That’s a wonderful American story.

shed a tear, running deer
don’t turn back billy jack
i am crying, are you dying
just for me?

whenever trouble came about
i could feel you coming out
you were there, i could feel you
in the air
when anyone had a happy moment to share
you were there
when anyone had a burden they couldn’t bare
you were there to share the load

shed a tear, running deer
don’t turn back billy jack
i am crying, are you dying
just for me?

when they took you from the church
i couldn’t bare to watch the town stare
you aren’t an animal, you’re a man
it wasn’t fair, it just wasn’t fair
and they trialed you for murder
they said you were guilty, it just wasn’t fair
wanted to tell them they were unjust
i didn’t dare, i could only stare
what will happen to you now
you’ve got to live, but i don’t know how
i am crying, are you dying
just for me?

shed a tear, running deer
don’t turn back billy jack
i am crying, are you dying
just for me?

Scenes That I Love: Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse in Singin’ In The Rain

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

For today’s scene that I love, we have Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse dancing in the Broadway Melody sequence from Stanley Donen‘s 1952 masterpiece, Singin’ in the Rain!

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Stanley Donen Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

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 would have been the 101st birthday of the great Stanley Donen.  It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 Stanley Donen Films

Singin’ In The Rain (1952, dir by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, DP: Harold Rosson)

Funny Face (1957, dir by Stanley Donen, DP; Ray June)

Charade (1963, dir by Stanley Donen, DP; Charles Lang)

Two For The Road (1967, dir by Stanley Donen, DP: Christopher Challis)