Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 9/27/26 — 10/3/26

Posted on October 3, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

2026 Video Music Awards (Sunday Night, CBS)

I had them on but I also mostly had them on mute because I don’t feel like listening to any political speeches. My Sunday attention was divided by the Vide0 Music Awards and old TV shows on YouTube. That said, I definitely did notice Madonna. I know Madonna’s gotten a lot of criticism over her somewhat odd behavior at the VMAs but, to be honest, I thought it was kind of refreshing to just have someone who didn’t really care up on stage. With Madonna, you were never sure what she might say and that was quite a contrast to Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter.

The Amazing Race (Wednesday Night, CBS)

I wrote about The Amazing Race here! And then I wrote about it again!

Bar Rescue (Paramount+)

On Friday, I watched an episode that took place at a bar called Hogwash. The owner of the bar had a drinking problem. Jon Taffer yelled at him until he poured out his pitcher of beer. Whatever works, I suppose.

Big Brother (Sunday and Thursday Night, CBS)

It’s over! It’s finally over! I tried to cover this season of Big Brother over at Reality TV Chat Blog but I have to admit that I never really got into the latest installment. This was one of the blandest seasons that I can remember. That said, I was happy when Rick Devens won on Thursday. They may have hated him on Twitter (and I’m not sure why) but everyone else loved him enough to award him with the title of America’s Favorite Player.

On Monday, I rewatched the first season premiere of Big Brother. Originally airing way back in 2000, this was the very first episode of Big Brother, back when CBS was still pretending that it was a social experiment and Julie Chen was still trying to convince people that she was a serious journalist and not a game show host. As I watched the episode, memories came flooding back of watching the first season with my mom. We both liked Chicken George. We were happy Eddie won. We thought Brittany was annoying. And Curtis Chen was our favorite. I understand that Curtis is a judge now. As for the first episode, it was definitely humorous to watch Julie and special correspondent Ian O’Malley breathlessly talk about how Big Brother was doing something that had never been done before …. except, of course, Big Brother had been done before. Big Brother originated in the Netherlands and the first season of the UK version pretty much ran concurrently with the American version. From the start, Big Brother was pretty silly.

Blind Date (Nosey)

I watched a few episodes on Sunday night. I had totally forgotten about this silly show. Needless to say, I only cared about tracking down the episodes with bad blind dates. The good dates were always boring.

Cheaters (Tubi)

On Tuesday, I relaxed my racing mind by watching two episodes of this classic reality show. I cheered whenever I recognized any place that I had been in Dallas.

The Curse of Degrassi (YouTube)

As always, I started off my October by watching The Curse of Degrassi!

Doctor, Doctor (YouTube)

This was an old sitcom from the 80s, one that starred Matt Frewer as an annoyingly goofy doctor. Jeff, Brad, and I joined our friendly Patrick and Dani in watching an episode on Friday because it featured Dennis Haskins as a charlatan pushing a phony weight loss supplement.

E! True Hollywood Story — Eight Is Enough (YouTube)

On Sunday, I watched this edition of the E! True Hollywood Story almost at random. Eight Is Enough is a show that I had previously never heard of but it did have an interesting story behind it, from Mark Hamill being cast shortly before the release of Star Wars to John Travolta’s much older girlfriend dying shortly after being cast as the mother of eight children. The show was big in the 70s and early 80s so, of course, the special was full of actors talking about getting famous and abusing drugs.

E! True Hollywood Story — Herve Villechaize (YouTube)

I watched this episode of the E! True Hollywood Story on Sunday. What a sad life Herve lived. The special covered both Herve’s time on and his exit from Fantasy Island and also the circumstances of his tragic death. It also took a look at how Herve became an advocate for abused children. Herve was definitely a complicated person but he definitely tried to do some good in this world of ours.

Fear Itself (YouTube)

I’ve been watching and sharing episodes of Fear Itself for this year’s horrorthon. Click here for the first episode and here for the second one, which stars Eric Roberts!

Football Game: Chiefs vs Dolphins (Sunday, Paramount+)

*Gasp* Taylor wasn’t at the game!

Football Game: Cowboys vs Ravens (Sunday, CBS)

They were playing in Brazil! I’m not sure why I watched. I don’t even like football. Maybe I just needed a distraction from the stress that I was under. I’m not surprised the Cowboys lost. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Cowboys win a game.

Lauren Lake’s Paternity Court (Tubi)

On Tuesday morning, as I scheduled and reviewed the posts for the first day of Horrorthon, I used Lauren Lake’s Paternity Court as background noise. I love the way the people in the courtroom always seems to resent having to say, “Good Day” to Judge Lake.

Saved By The Bell: The New Class (Prime)

Jeff, Pat, Dani, and I watched three episodes on Saturday morning in memory of Dennis Haskins. As the only one of us who had previously watched this series, I got to show off my encyclopedic New Class knowledge.

SCTV (Netflix)

I watched two early episodes on Monday. The one that I truly remember features John Candy and Dave Thomas playing the role of The Incredible Bulk and his human alter ego, Bill Brigsby.

The Steve Wilkos Show (Nosey)

I watched two episodes on Sunday. Steve was yelling at everyone. While none of the old daytime talk shows were particularly good, I have to say that Steve, at the very least, always came across as being more sincere in his emotions than either Maury or Jerry.

I also watched a few episodes on Monday, mostly as a way to distract myself from the stress of preparing for Horrorthon. (I love Horrorthon but it’s a lot work!) One absolutely terrifying episode featured one of the worst mothers I had ever seen. For 30 years, she kept her daughter in the dark about the identity of her biological father. When he turned out to be a decent guy who refused to be bitter about the way he was treated, she got even angrier. I felt so bad for her daughter.

I then went on t0 watch three episodes on Tuesday and ended up feeling like I was wasting my life. But they did provide good background noise for when I was working on this week’s Horrorthon posts. I needed something to keep me focused and Steve Wilkos throwing chairs at people was apparently just what the doctor ordered.

On Wednesday, I wasted yet another precious hour watching Steve Wilkos. An abusive man refused to get out of the chair on Steve’s stage so Steve shoved him to the floor and then threw the chair across the stage. That was satisfying to watch! Still, I have to wonder why Steve even had the chair out there if people weren’t allowed to sit in them.

Survivor (Wednesday Night, CBS)

I reviewed Survivor here!

Unsolved Mysteries (Tubi)

I watched two Robert Stack-hosted episodes on Thursday. Both were from 1995. The first one featured the rather sad case of Philip Taylor Kramer, a former bass player for the band Iron Butterfly who later went on to found a computer company before mysteriously disappearing in 1995. This story came with an update that said Kramer’s van and body were found in 1999 but authorities couldn’t say whether his death was suicide, homicide, or a tragic accident. The second episode featured an update on a woman whose husband mysterious vanished. After seeing a story about himself on Unsolved Mysteries, the husband called his wife. It turned out that he had been attacked during a business trip and had suffered from amnesia for two years. This was followed by a story about a shrine to the Virgin Mary in Kentucky where people claimed to have had religious visions. This was interesting to me because I’ve actually been to that shrine. When I was 10, I visited it with my mom and my sisters. I did not have any visions but I do remember my mom praying for us.

Horror Film Review: Trap (dir by M. Night Shyamalan)

Posted on October 3, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 2024’s Trap, Cooper Abbott (Josh Hartnett) is a Philadelphia fireman taking his teenage daughter, Riley (Ariel Donoghue), to a concert. Riley has been having a difficult time at school after recently falling out with two other girls, so seeing her favorite singer, Lady Raven (Saleka Night Shyamalan, daughter of the film’s director), should be just the thing to cheer her up.

However, when Cooper and Riley arrive at the stadium, Cooper is surprised by all the police officers and FBI agents milling around. After some checking, he discovers that the FBI believes a serial killer known as The Butcher will be at the concert. Under the leadership of profiler Josephine Grant (Hayley Mills), the authorities plan to check out every male at the show. As one helpful vendor puts it, “the entire show is a trap.”

Cooper is not happy to hear this because he is The Butcher. In fact, his latest victim is currently tied up in a basement somewhere. (Cooper occasionally uses his phone to check on how he’s doing.) However, Cooper is also a good father and wants to make sure Riley enjoys the concert. Can Cooper find a way to escape the stadium without ruining Riley’s special day?

That’s a pretty good premise for a suspense thriller, and the first hour of Trap works like a charm. Even though Cooper is a serial killer and the viewer knows he’s not someone they should root for, it’s hard not to be impressed with the way he skillfully manipulates everyone at the concert. He manages to steal a vendor badge. He learns the codeword venue employees are supposed to use to identify themselves to the police. He even steals a police radio so he can listen to Dr. Grant give orders to the cops. And he does it all while Riley enjoys the show. He’s just so diabolically clever that it becomes rather fascinating to watch.

Unfortunately, the film suffers a bit during the second hour. That’s when Lady Raven goes from being a figure performing on stage to an important supporting character. (Unfortunately, it turns out Saleka Night Shyamalan is a much better singer than actress.) Both Lady Raven and Cooper end up making some decisions that, in the grand scheme of things, don’t make much sense. The film is still entertaining, but the second half is not as tightly plotted as the first. Considering that M. Night Shyamalan is famous for his twist endings, it’s a bit strange that it ultimately feels like he never really figured out how he wanted Trap to end.

That said, the first hour of Trap is an enjoyably macabre mix of suspense and dark humor. That first hour is strong enough to make up for the weaker second half. Josh Hartnett puts his everyman charm to good use as a friendly family man who just happens to be a deranged serial killer. At its best, Trap is all about people trying to disguise their true nature. Cooper puts on an act of being a loving father while trying to find a way to continue killing. Lady Raven’s mentor (played by Kid Cudi) is friendly to his fans but a spoiled diva backstage. Even Lady Raven spends the second half of the film pretending to know less than she does. Probably the only character in the film who is truly genuine is Riley. She just wants to see her favorite singer.

Trap may not be Shyamalan’s best. It doesn’t hit you emotionally like The Sixth Sense and it’s nowhere near as icky as Old or Split. But it’s still an entertaining little thriller.

Horror On TV: Fear Itself 1.2 “Spooked” (dir by Brad Anderson)

Posted on October 3, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Tonight’s episode of Fear Itself stars the one and only Eric Roberts!

Eric plays Harry Siegel, a cop who is kicked off the force because of his brutal methods. Harry becomes a private investigator but, when one of his cases leads to him staking out a mysterious house, he’s forced to confront his past demons. This episode features Eric Roberts at his most intense.

Spooked originally aired on June 12th, 2008. Director Brad Anderson is best known for Session 9.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

October Hacks: Bikini Guillotine (dir by Jamie Grefe)

Posted on October 3, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

2025’s Bikini Guillotine is a slasher film that features plenty of bikinis but not one guillotine. The motiveless killer is a man who wears a mask that was put together with duct tape. He’s definitely a bad guy, but the true villain of this film is whoever was responsible for recording the dialogue.

The first half of this 65-minute movie is made up of footage of several bikini-clad girls hanging out in a pool. They’re all carrying red Solo cups, which they pretend to drink from despite the fact that they’re obviously empty. Every few minutes, they all hold up their Solo cups and go, “Whoo!” The majority of the dialogue is incoherent. Either you can’t hear a word that they’re saying, or you can hear the sound of their voices but you still can’t make out what they’re actually saying. Occasionally, there’s a strange echo effect that does nothing to make the dialogue any more legible. Strangely, we can hear the Solo cups. One girl taps a finger against her Solo cup and it’s suddenly the loudest thing in the movie. Whenever anyone puts their Solo cup down, the sound of the cup hitting the tile reverberates. The weird soundtrack gives certain moments a dreamlike feel, but for the most part, it just feels incredibly shoddy.

(On a personal note, it was impossible for me to look at all of these Solo cups without thinking about the Flipadelphia episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Flip! Flip! Flipadelphia!)

A coherent, non-muddy soundtrack is something that filmgoers tend to take for granted. It’s not until you watch a film like this that you really appreciate just how important sound actually is. I sat through this entire film, but I couldn’t tell you the names of any of the characters or how they even knew each other. Maybe that was revealed in the dialogue. Maybe it wasn’t. I’m not sure what anyone was actually talking about.

As for the killer, who knows why he was even there or why the word “guillotine” is even in the title. The killer does not carry a guillotine. Instead, he carries what appears to be a chakram with a bunch of rubber worms attached to it. A chakram is a flying disc that is supposed to have sharp edges. Traditionally, one uses a chakram by throwing it. Our killer uses his chakram like a knife. Or at least, I think he does. There are many scenes in which he’s seen plunging the chakram down, but apparently there wasn’t any money in the budget for fake blood, so who knows what he’s actually supposed to be doing with it.

The killer also has the power to hypnotize his victims just by looking at them. As such, every victim simply stops moving as soon as he looks at them. Not only does it rob the victims of their agency, but it also makes for a pretty boring slasher film. It’s just one victim after another, with no personality or variety. That said, at least we can actually understand the dialogue inside the house. “Hello?” “Are you guys here?” Spellbinding stuff, as I’m sure you can tell.

Whatever else one might say about it, this film does offer two important lessons to the aspiring filmmaker. Don’t promise a guillotine if you can’t deliver. Hire someone who knows how to record sound.

SOV Horror: Hollow Gate (dir by Ray Di Zazzo)

Posted on October 3, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

1988’s Hollow Gate begins with a Halloween party that almost goes terribly wrong. When he feels that his son Mark is not properly bobbing for apples, a drunken father (Richard London) shoves Mark’s face into the water and yells at him for embarrassing the family. Mark nearly drowns, and hopefully the family learns an important lesson about being overly competitive.

Ten years later, Mark (Addison Randall) is working at a gas station on Halloween night. An obnoxious man drives up with his girlfriend. The man wants some gas put in his car and he hands Mark his girlfriend’s panties. (I guess that’s how you tip in New Jersey.) Mark proceeds to stuff the panties into the car’s gas tank and then set them on fire. The man laughs as he drives away. However, he’s not laughing when the car blows up.

Two years after that, Mark harasses a woman at a Halloween shop. Everyone in town agrees that Mark has obviously been driven mad by the incident at the Halloween party, but nothing can be done about it because Mark’s wealthy grandmother (Pat Shalsant) owns the entire town. Mark is released to her care.

The next Halloween, four teenagers are invited to a party at Mark’s mansion. They discover that Grandma has been murdered and that Mark wants them all to put on some costumes that he ordered. When they are understandably reluctant to play Mark’s game, Mark decides that he’ll just wear each costume and kill his guests, one by one….

As far as SOV horror films are concerned, Hollow Gate is not a bad one. Director Ray Di Zazzo is able to capture a few memorable images. If none of the performances are exactly convincing, a few of them are so over-the-top that they’re entertaining. The gore is splattery enough to be effective, even if it’s not particularly realistic. The plot is not particularly original, but there are still enough scenes of lawyers and police officers discussing how Mark would be in prison if not for his wealthy family that you can at least argue that the film pretended to have something more on its mind than just cheap kills.

What truly makes this film memorable is the flamboyant killer. Mark not only changes costumes, but his methods are a bit more original than the typical hack-and-slash killer. Yes, he can use a knife and an axe, and he does just that in one scene. But he can also run you over with a thresher while dressed as a cowboy. Or he can dress up like an English gentleman and have two golden retrievers maul you to death. The dog scene is probably the most memorable one in the film, if only because the dogs themselves are very cute and seem to be having great fun as they lick their unfortunate victim to death. They’re the adorable canines of doom!

It’s a cheap movie with a predictable plot, but it also appears to be a film that is truly in love with Halloween and all of the customs that go along with it. The owner of the local costume store is ultimately just as important as the killer. In the true Halloween tradition, the story ends on an ambiguous note. Was that the boogeyman? Perhaps he was.

The TSL Horror Grindhouse: Psychomania (dir by Don Sharp)

Posted on October 3, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 1973’s Psychomania, Tom Latham (Nicky Henson) is the leader of The Living Dead, a motorcycle gang identified by their skull masks, their bad attitude, and their bizarre love of folk music. Under Tom’s leadership, the members of The Living Dead terrorize the small English town in which they live. They also spend a lot of time hanging out at the cemetery. Tom is death-obsessed. While talking to his girlfriend, Abby (Mary Larkin), Tom suggests that they should kill themselves. “Not that again, Tom,” Abby sighs.

One of the more clever aspects of Psychomania is that, for all of his attempts to be a nihilistic rebel who refuses to conform to the demands of society, Tom is actually a spoiled rich kid who is devoted to his mother (Beryl Reid) and who is still looked after by his butler, Shadwell (George Sanders). Tom’s followers may all be from the lower classes, but Tom most definitely is not. Instead, Tom is very much aware that his mother and Shadwell worship a toad god that can give its followers eternal life, but only if they kill themselves first. After Tom does kill himself, the members of The Living Dead bury him sitting on his motorcycle. He later bursts out of the ground on that same motorcycle and leads his followers on a rampage. Soon, nearly every member of The Living Dead has committed suicide and come back to life as an immortal. The only holdout is Abby.

Psychomania is an enjoyable, chaotic combination of genres. When they first appear, Tom and The Living Dead feel as if they came straight over from one of the many British films about the ’60s rivalry between the rockers and the mods. The Living Dead love their motorcycles and their leather jackets, and they’re not going to let anyone tell them what to do. They’re the type of characters who have appeared in countless biker films. It’s easy to imagine Tom looking at himself in a mirror and trying to imitate Marlon Brando as he says, “What have you got?” However, the film then adds a dash of the witchcraft films popularized by Hammer and Amicus in the late ’60s. Indeed, Tom’s fussy mother and the urbanely sinister Shadwell almost feel like parodies of the type of characters who appeared in those films. (It’s impossible not to smile when the giant toad appears.) The Living Dead then literally become the living dead and prove themselves to be just as relentless as the zombies in the films of George Romero. (That said, the self-amused bikers have more in common with the sanity-deprived characters in Romero’s The Crazies than with the shambling corpses of Night of the Living Dead.) The film ends on a note of sudden reversal, one that brings to mind countless Roger Corman films that featured villains who just didn’t know when to quit.

With all those different genres mashed together, it’s no surprise that Psychomania’s tone is all over the place. Moments of humor and parody are mixed with scenes of the resurrected Living Dead terrorizing their small town and Tom’s mother worrying, along with Shadwell, that perhaps Tom was too immature to be given immortality. Between the suicide montage, the giant toad, and the sight of Tom being buried while sitting on his motorcycle, Psychomania is relentlessly strange and all the more enjoyable for it. Director Don Sharp doesn’t let the action lag, and the film’s mix of bright color, biker imagery, and campy magic combine to make it a truly enjoyable work of pop art.

George Sanders committed suicide shortly after completing this film. He left behind a note that reportedly read, “I’m bored.” He doesn’t have a huge role in Psychomania, but his performance is one of the most memorable things about the film. He imbues Shadwell with a wonderful sense of arch disdain. He may have raised Tom, but that doesn’t mean he has to like him.

Horror Game Review: Crush, Crumble, and Chomp! (1981, Epyx)

Posted on October 3, 2026 by Jedadiah Leland

Crush, Crumble, and Chomp! is a terrifically addictive old-school PC game where you get to play the role of a giant monster and destroy the city of your choice. (Actually, your choices are pretty much limited to New York, San Francisco, and Tokyo.) You can play as a famous movie monster like Godzilla or you can create a monster of your own. As Serpentor the Giant Snake, I terrorized New York. As Swampy the Sea Monster, I terrorized San Francisco. As Tony Roboto, I terrorized Tokyo with mechanical precision.

Now, to be clear, when I say that this is an old-school PC game, I mean it’s very old school. Don’t bother trying to point-and-click. This game is totally keyboard-driven and, since it’s 45 years old, it’s not like there’s a manual lying around with all the commands in a neat list. I had to play the game a few times and push a lot of random buttons to learn just how to make my monster move from one part of the map to the other. But it was all worth it. Once you do learn that M is for move and L is for changing direction and that pushing G allows you to grab people and eat them, the game becomes very easy to learn.

If you create your own monster, you’ll be given a set of points and some powers to buy. Don’t make the mistake of buying every expensive power that you see because you’re also going to need to use whatever points you have left over to set how quickly your monster heals and how tough its hide is. Of the powers, I suggest purchasing the supersonic scream and the power to zap helicopters. The supersonic scream can destroy enemies even if they’re not in the square adjacent to you. As for the helicopters, they appear to be your greatest foe. They’re difficult to grab. Better just to zap them.

Once you get used to it and feel confident with the keyboard (and I do suggest keeping a list of what happens when you push each button), Crush, Crumble, and Chomp! is a monstrous good time. It can be played at the Internet Archive.

Wonder Woman (1974, directed by Vincent McEveety)

Posted on October 3, 2026 by Jedadiah Leland

A set of code books revealing the identities of all of America’s secret agents has been stolen. Because the agents are all in deep cover, the government has no way to contact them and warn them that their identities have been compromised. Government agent Steve Trevor (Kaz Garas) has received a ransom demand. Rather than just pay, he assigns the case to his best operative, Diana Prince (Cathy Lee Crosby). Most people think that Diana is Steve’s secretary, but actually she’s an Amazon from Paradise Island who has been sent to America to show the world the value of women. Diana heads to Paris to investigate the mysterious Abner Smith (Ricardo Montalban) and his main operative, George (Andrew Prine).

Before Gal Gadot and Lynda Carter, there was Cathy Lee Crosby. The former tennis player turned actress was the first to play Wonder Woman in a made-for-television movie that was a pilot for a possible series. Cathy Lee Crosby’s Wonder Woman did not wear the famous costume, she did not carry a golden lariat, and she never flew in an invisible plane. Her only superpower was that she was athletic. She was also blonde. In fact, if not for the title of the movie, you wouldn’t know she was Wonder Woman at all. She’s a female James Bond. When the movie aired, it got respectable ratings, but it wasn’t the hit that some expected. Later, another made-for-TV movie was produced with Lynda Carter in the role. That movie stayed true to the comic-book version of the character and led to the fondly remembered television series.

As for this first version of Wonder Woman, it’s an acceptable spy thriller if you can ignore that it’s being sold as a Wonder Woman show. Cathy Lee Crosby had just the right mix of spunky but serious attitude to play a spy in a cheap 1970s production. I liked Ricardo Montalban and Andrew Prine as the villains, though I thought it was funny that they kept trying to hide Montalban’s face. As soon as I heard his voice, I knew it was him. Diana also faces off against Ahnjayla (Anitra Ford), an Amazon gone bad. The funniest scene in the movie is when Diana is approached on a city street by an Amazon messenger who tells her that Ahnjayla has left Paradise Island. None of the people walking nearby seem to think it’s strange that a woman in a blue toga has suddenly appeared.

Cathy Lee Crosby did her best, but Lynda Carter is still the definitive Wonder Woman.

Time Walker (1982, directed by Tom Kennedy)

Posted on October 3, 2026 by Jedadiah Leland

While exploring the Egyptian tomb of King Tut, Prof. Douglas McCadden (Ben Murphy) finds a previously undiscovered chamber and a sarcophagus with a mummy inside. He takes the sarcophagus back to the California University of the Sciences, where he discovers that the mummy is covered in a dangerous green fungus. McCadden orders everyone not to touch the mummy. However, one of his students decides to steal the jewels that were buried with the mummy and also gives it a strong dose of X-ray radiation. The mummy, which was actually a hibernating alien, comes back to life and is soon causing havoc on campus. Frat boys and mummies make for a dangerous combination!

Time Walker was released in 1982 and features plenty of scantily clad coeds and green-tinted stalking scenes shot from the mummy’s POV. But the movie itself has more in common with the old Hammer and Amicus films than with the Friday the 13th era. The mummy is a throwback to the kind of monsters that used to haunt horror movies, and its alien origins bring to mind an old Quatermass serial, with Ben Murphy’s prickly American scientist serving as a stand-in for Quatermass himself. The idea of an extraterrestrial crash-landing in ancient Egypt and being buried in a pharaoh’s tomb is an interesting one. It’s just too bad that the film’s half-baked script and Tom Kennedy’s uneven direction don’t really do it justice. This was Tom Kennedy’s only film as a director. He was best-known for being one of Hollywood’s premier advertising men, overseeing the trailers for both the Indiana Jones films and the early Star Trek films.

Time Walker tries to be a little of everything: an homage to the old mummy movies, a slasher, and finally a sci-fi film about how humans should be nicer when greeting visitors from another planet. There are a few dependable character actors in the mix (it’s always good to see James Karen), but Ben Murphy is bland in the lead. The film ends on an overdramatic note and with the promise of “To be continued.”

The story would not be continued, but Time Walker later found new life and a new title when it showed up on Mystery Science Theater 3000 as Being From Another Planet. The joke I always remember from that episode is Joel Hodgson suggesting that the mummy was actually Pete Duel. Even Tom Servo and Crow were shocked.

Retro Television Review: Baywatch 2.22 “Summer of ’85”

Posted on October 3, 2026 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 Saturdays, I will be reviewing Baywatch, which ran on NBC and then in syndication from 1989 to 2001. The entire show can be viewed on Tubi.

This week, season 2 comes to an end!

Episode 2.22 “Summer of ’85”

(Dir by Michael Berk, originally aired on May 18th, 1992)

This was the second-season finale, and it is an odd note to end on. David Hasselhoff is billed and never appears. Baywatch without Mitch is already a strange choice for a season finale; making the hour an Eddie-and-Shauni murder-mystery-slash-old-flame reunion makes it stranger. Tom McTigue’s Harvey has a prominent role in this episode but Hasselhoff, the show’s center of gravity is missing, and you feel it.

As for the plot: frustrated by life on a cramped boat and partly at Harvey’s urging, Shauni drags Eddie to a psychic named Rosalind (the one and only Toni Basil!). Eddie is a skeptic. When Rosalind tells him he will soon meet his first true love, Eddie says that Shauni already is. Rosalind disagrees.

Soon afterward, Eddie spots a woman sketching on a sailboat who looks painfully familiar. He is sure she is Lorna Cosgrove (Michelle Rogers). Eddie was fifteen when he first met her while vacationing at a friend’s place on Nantucket. Lorna asked if she could paint him. He agreed. Eventually he lost his virginity to her but, later that night, he saw an older man at her door, got jealous and never spoke to her again.

When Eddie approaches the woman, she denies being Lorna and calls herself Caitlin. The next day, she pays a boy to deliver a copy of the painting to Eddie’s tower. That not only proves she is Lorna; it also proves she was a terrible painter. I have seen motel art more impressive than her portrait of Eddie fishing.

Shauni is suspicious, and with good reason. There is a warrant for Lorna’s arrest. The same night Eddie slept with her, her husband was shot, and Lorna was the prime suspect. Can Eddie prove she is innocent?

That continuity, for those who care about that sort of thing, in this episode is a mess. In “Point of Attack,” Eddie claimed he did not even see the ocean until he was nineteen. The first season established that he was Philadelphia street kid who grew up in the foster system. And yet, in this episode, here he is at fifteen, on Nantucket, fishing, posing, and losing his virginity in a beach house. As well, this episode plants Shauni and Eddie on a houseboat, with Shauni announcing that they have to get an apartment. The previous episode, “Game of Chance,” had just moved her onto that boat after a fight with her father. Earlier in the season, though, the show had already treated them as live-in partners, sometimes in an apartment. Continuity be damned, I guess. It’s almost as if the show’s writers just didn’t care.

In the end, Baywatch without Hasselhoff is pointless. That said, Toni Basil is amusing as Rosalind. This is definitely a case of a performer giving a better performance than the material deserved.

That closes the first syndicated season of Baywatch, and the second season of the series overall. For the most part, season 2 was dumb and fun. The best episodes used Hasselhoff’s innate earnestness. The worst got too cutesy, especially “Now Sit Right Back and You’ll Hear a Tale,” the one where Eddie dreams he is on Gilligan’s Island. Billy Warlock and Erika Eleniak were both adequate as Eddie and Shauni, but neither was happy with the show’s turn once it entered syndication, and that unhappiness often showed.

Next week, we start season 3!