Late Night Retro Television Review: 1st & Ten 4.12 “Duty Calls”

Posted on August 12, 2026 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 Wednesdays, I will be reviewing 1st and Ten, which aired in syndication from 1984 to 1991. The entire series is streaming on Tubi.

The season continues! Can the Bulls hold on to their undefeated record?

Episode 4.12 “Duty Calls”

(Dir by Stan Lathan, originally aired on December 21st, 1988)

Considering all of the time that I’ve spent complaining about how there’s usually very little continuity from one 1st & Ten episode to another, I really do have to start this review by giving this show some credit. This episode actually follows up on something that happened a few episodes ago. Harley (Ken Morrison), the kid that Dr. Death befriended in “Injustice for All,” shows up at Bulls Stadium and tells Dr. Death that his mother has abandoned him yet again.

Dr. Death tracks Frankie (Beth Broderick) down at a biker bar and tells her that she needs to go home and take care of her son. It turns out that Frankie hasn’t even told her new boyfriend, Deacon (John Benjamin Martin), that she has a son. When Deacon finds out, he’s offended that Frankie wasn’t honest with him. He explains that bikers are all about family. If Frankie has a son, that means all of the other members of the motorcycle gang have a son as well.

(While it’s easy to scoff at this episode’s mawkish dialogue and its simplistic handling of what looks to be a case of massive parental neglect, I do have to say that my Dad had his share of biker friends and, underneath their admittedly rough exterior, they were some of the nicest people that I have ever met.)

While Dr. Death is fixing a family, Gail (Shanna Reed) and TD Parker (OJ Simpson) are trying to motivate the team to win their 11th game by offering them a $900,000 bonus if they secure a victory. This gets Gail in trouble with the rest of the league’s owners, all of whom are worried that Gail’s bonus is going to harm their bottom line. Gail’s boss, Mr. Medford (Monte Markham), thinks that it’s a great idea.

That said, the Bulls are going to have a tough game. Two Miami gamblers (one of whom is played by a youngish Chazz Palminteri) bribe the temperamental chef at Bubba and Jethro’s bar to give the Bulls food poisoning! On the morning of the game, all of the players are feeling sick and — ugh — flatulent. Will the Bulls still be able to win the game?

Yes, they do.

How do they win the game? I have no idea. Coach Denardo yells at them and then, one jump cut later, we see that the Bulls are ahead on the scoreboard. All of the players are still sick and constantly having to run off the field, but somehow they still crush their opponents. Maybe they were just playing a really bad team….

(For a show about a football team, it’s always interesting how little time 1st & Ten devotes to things like strategy or play calling. We’re told that Coach Denardo is one of the best, but it’s rare that we ever actually see him coaching.)

As nice as it was to see Dr. Death reuniting Harley with his mother, the rest of this episode was pretty much the epitome of everything that bothers me about this show. Who are the two gamblers who poisoned the entire team? The episode keeps things vague, and I imagine that we’ll never hear about either one of them again. The gamblers will vanish, just like the team’s female placekicker vanished after appearing in one episode. There really aren’t any stakes in 1st & Ten because most storylines get abandoned only a few minutes after they start.

Oh well. At least OJ Simpson always killed it in the role of TD Parker. This episode finds OJ — or actually, TD, but we all know TD might as well be named OJ — talking about the beauty of an undefeated season. Maybe that’s why the team won. They knew better than to get on OJ’s bad side.

Next week: The march to the championship game continues!

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 8/2/26 — 8/8/26

Posted on August 8, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

America 2100 (YouTube)

I reviewed America 2100 here,

Baywatch (Tubi)

You can read my review here!

Big Brother (24/7, CBS, Paramount+, Pluto TV)

You can read my ongoing review of Big Brother here.

Cheaters (Tubi)

Cheaters is on Tubi! I watched a few episodes on Saturday. This show is a guilty pleasure for me because 1) it was filmed in Dallas and 2) Joey Greco is just so judgmental!

CHiPs (Prime)

You can read my review of CHiPs here.

Crime Story (Tubi)

You can read my review of Crime Story here.

Diff’rent Strokes (Tubi)

After buying their father a birthday present, Arnold and Kimberly decided to hitchhike home. They were picked up by a man who locked Arnold in a room and then threatened to rape Kimberly. This was pretty disturbing for a sitcom! I watched this two-part episode on Thursday and I was relieved when the police finally showed up to rescue them.

Freddy’s Nightmares (Tubi)

I wrote about the series finale here!

Election Coverage (Tuesday Night)

I was pretty depressed going into this week’s primary elections but I have to admit that watching the results in Michigan cheered me up, Even though the latest DSA flavor-of-the month, Abdul El-Sayed, won his primary, it was only by one percentage point as opposed to the election being the blow-out that so many predicted. Not everyone is on board with extremism and I take some hope from that.

On Thursday, I watched as the election results rolled in from Tennessee. Other than that one congressman that lost his primary, the Tennessee results weren’t quite as exciting as the Michigan results. I did find myself amused as I remembered how, way back in 2018, some pundits were convinced that Taylor Swift coming out as a Democrat would somehow turn the state blue.

1st & Ten (Prime)

You can read my review here.

Flight of the Conchords (HBOMax)

I watched one episode from the first season (Todd joined the band and things quickly fell apart, despite his skill with the bongos) and one episode from the second season. (Bret and Jermaine met Murray’s best friend, Jim.) Both episodes made me laugh. This is definitely a show that I miss, even if it does seem like Bret and Jermaine probably did everything they could with the concept during the first two seasons.

Hunter (Tubi)

You can read my review here.

The Love Boat (Paramount Plus)

You can read my review here.

Mad TV (Tubi)

Mad TV’s on Tubi now! I watched two episodes on Thursday and, unfortunately, they were even worse than I remembered.

The Office (Peacock TV)

“THIS WAS THE BEST DUNDIES EVER! WHOOOOO!” As much as I complain about the show’s final two seasons, the first three seasons are about as good as anything that has ever aired on television. On Friday, I watched The Dundies.

Pacific Blue (Tubi)

You can read my review of Pacific Blue here.

Saved By The Bell (Prime)

My review will be dropping shortly.

Saved By The Bell: The New Class (Prime)

You can read my review here!

St. Elsewhere (YouTube)

You can read my review of St. Elsewhere here!

60 Minutes (CBS, Sunday Night)

I caught the last 30 minutes of 60 Minutes on Sunday night. It’s funny that, for all the acclaim that this show has received and all the current controversy surrounding it, the only time that I have ever watched it has been when I’ve been waiting for something else to start. It seems like I always end up turning on the show whenever Anderson Cooper is doing one of his “look at my exploring the wilderness!” type of stories.

Survivor 50 (CBS, Wednesday Night)

As I watched this week’s rerun of Survivor 50, it occurred to me that the all of the Survivor icons are starting to get really, really old. A better name for Survivor 50 would have been Survivor: Seniors’ Retreat.

Late Night Retro Television Review: 1st & Ten 4.11 “Final Bow”

Posted on August 5, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, yet another new player joins the Bulls.

Episode 4.11 “Final Blow”

(Dir by Stan Lathan, originally aired on December 14th, 1988)

Bubba’s fighting with his wife again! Maybe Jethro can fix things by sending her a fur coat, along with a card claiming that the coat is a gift from Bubba. Yes, that really is one of the main storylines on this week’s episode. If nothing else, you can always count on 1st & Ten to keep things simple.

As for the other storyline, the Bulls have signed Olympic runner Moses Jackson (Peter Parros) to the team. Moses’s agent (Calvin Lockhart), who is obviously meant to be a stand-in for Don King, announces that Moses is both the fastest man on the planet and also the world’s greatest athlete. For his part, Moses doesn’t even want to play football. He’s terrified of getting tackled.

Wide Receiver Coleman King (Richard Lawson) is scared that he’s going to lose his job to Moses. Even though Coleman had never been seen or mentioned before last week’s episode, he is apparently an old friend of TD Parker (OJ Simpson). TD is not so secretly in love with Coleman’s wife, Della (Vanessa Bell Calloway). When a depressed Coleman goes to Bulls Stadium with a gun, it’s up to TD to turn on the charm and convince Coleman that violence is never the answer. TD tells Coleman that he can’t play forever and he has to start thinking about what he wants to do once his athletic career is over. Coleman decides that he would like to be a teacher. TD takes Coleman’s gun and drives Coleman home in his Bronco.

During the next game, Moses turns out to be a bust. Every time he gets the ball, he gets tackled almost immediately. It’s not until the final quarter that he finally manages to break free and run for a 60 yard touchdown. However, Moses then runs into the locker room and refuses to come back out. The Bull are still down by 6 and their star player has just announced his retirement. Fortunately, Coleman King is still playing and he manages to make a last-minute, game-winning touchdown.

Yay! The Bulls remains undefeated.

After the game, TD congratulates Coleman and tells him that he picked a great way to go out. Coleman laughs and says he’s not going anywhere. He figures that he has at least another three years to go before retiring. Teaching can wait!

This was actually not a terrible episode. A lot of that is due to Richard Lawson’s empathetic performance as Coleman King. In fact, Lawson turns Coleman King into one of the few interesting characters on the series. I can’t wait to see what else he does …. oh wait. According to the imdb, this episode was the last time that either Richard Lawson or Coleman King appeared on 1st & Ten.

Oh well, I guess that’s football for you!

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 7/26/26 — 8/1/26

Posted on August 1, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Austin City Limits (PBS)

I watched an episode of this show on Saturday morning. My musical tastes pretty much start and end with EDM. Sorry, Austin.

Big Brother 28 (24/7, CBS, Paramout+, Pluto TV)

I’ve been sharing my thoughts on the show that I love to hate over at the RealityTVChat Blog. Feel free to leave a comment over there because, right now, the blog is not quite living up to the chat part of the name.

The Larry Sanders Show (HBOMax)

It’s a funny show and it helps to ease my anxiety. I’ve watched quite a few episodes this week.

Rogue’s Gallery (NightFlight+)

I watched an episode about John Dillinger on Friday. Now there was a handsome bank robber!

Saved By The Bell (Tubi)

Running Zack! I’ll be posting a review of this week’s episode in a bit.

Survivor 50 (CBS, Wednesday Night)

CBS has been re-airing Survivor 50 after episodes of Big Brother. I missed Survivor 50 when it first aired and I’m still struggling to get into it right now. I prefered Survivor when it was only an hour long. I have ADHD so asking me to concentrate for 90 minutes is a bit much.

Watched And Reviewed:

Late Night Retro Television Review: 1st & Ten 4.10 “Out of the Past”

Posted on July 29, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

After last week’s trip to “the future,” this episode returns to 1988.

Episode 4.10 “Out of the Past”

(Dir by Stan Lathan, originally aired on December 7th, 1988)

As a show, 1st & Ten has a weird habit of introducing new characters and pretending as if they’ve always been around even if they’ve never been seen or even mentioned before. In this episode, we meet Coleman King (Richard Lawson), the team’s veteran running back who fears that he’s on the verge of being dropped from the Bulls. Coleman is also an old friend of TD Parker’s (O.J. Simpson).

TD is conflicted. He knows that Coleman is past his prime. The Bulls are on the verge of signing a new running back and, when they do, TD knows that he’s probably going to have to cut Colman from the team. As a former player, TD knows how painful it is when your professional career is murdered and no one is held responsible for it. Complicating matters is the clear attraction between TD and Coleman’s wife, Della (Vanessa Bell Callaway).

While TD tries to figure out how to protect both the team and Coleman, Ernie Denardo runs into his ex-girlfriend, Brenda (Shannon Wilcox), at a bar. Brenda has some scary people after her because of her unpaid gambling debts. She tells Denardo that she has money on the next Bulls game. If the Bulls win by more than ten, her debt will be paid off and then she and Denardo can be together.

The next day, the Bulls are on the verge of winning by 9. With only a few seconds left in the game, Denardo has the team kick a field goal so that they can win by 12. Denardo returns to Brenda’s apartment and discovers that she’s gone. It was all a scam, hatched by Brenda and her real boyfriend.

In tears, Denardo tells TD that he has to quit as coach of the Bulls.

TD argues that Denardo didn’t do anything wrong because he didn’t have money on the game. TD points out that the field goal unit needed the practice and that the Bulls need as many points as possible to clinch home field advantage in the playoffs. The episode ends with TD embracing the sobbing Denardo. Awwww! Is there nothing an OJ Simpson pep talk can’t fix?

After last week’s bizarre episode, this was a traditional 1st & Ten episode. This episode served as a reminder of just how bland OJ Simpson was as an actor. That said, Reid Shelton did a good job as the grief-stricken Denardo and the gambling subplot at least did have a few interesting twists. By the standards of 1st & Ten, that makes this episode a success.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 7/19/26 — 7/25/26

Posted on July 25, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Big Brother (24/7, CBS, Paramount+, Pluto TV)

I’ve been sharing my thoughts on Big Brother here.

Homicide: Life On The Street (Peacock TV)

My review will drop tomorrow.

The Larry Sanders Show (HBOMax)

Rip Torn could make any line funny.

Saved By The Bell (Tubi)

My review will drop in an hour.

Survivor (CBS, Wednesday Night)

CBS is reshowing Survivor 50 this season. I missed it when it originally aired but I’m having trouble getting into the reruns. The 90-minute runtime is a problem for me. Survivor is the perfect 60-minute show. At 90 minutes, there’s way too much filler.

TMZ Investigates: The Reiner Murders (Tubi)

TMZ takes a shallow look at the murders Rob and Michele Reiner. This special offered up no new insights but it did serve as a reminder of what a loser Nick Reiner was (and is).

Watched and Reviews:

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 7/12/26 — 7/18/26

Posted on July 18, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Big Brother 28 (24/7, CBS, Paramount+, Pluto TV)

Big Brother, the show that I love to hate, is back. You can read my thoughts about the show here.

The Larry Sanders Show (HBOMax)

For some reason, this very 90s show relaxes me whenever I watch it. This week, I watched as Jeffrey Tambor sang Spinning Wheel and a young Bob Odenkirk played the most shallow agent possible.

Saved By The Bell (Tubi)

My review of Saved By The Bell will drop later tonight.

St. Elsewhere (YouTube)

This week’s episode was so depressing that I couldn’t review it. Expect to see my thoughts on it next week.

Watched and Reviewed:

Late Night Retro Television Review: 1st & Ten 4.8 “Injustice For All”

Posted on July 15, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Oh my, this epiosde.

Episode 4.8 “Injustice For All”

(Dir by Stan Lathan, originally aired on November 23rd, 1988)

The Bulls narrowly win a game against Texas’s team when Coach Denardo decides to give the ball not to usual running back but instead to Bubba Kincaid. Bubba is pronounced the hero of the game, which makes Jethro jealous. During the next game, when Denardo tries to pull off the same play, Bubba insists that the ball should be given to Jethro. Jethro fumbles the ball and Bubba falls on it, scoring once again for the Bulls. Afterwards, Bubba assures the press that Jethro was supposed to fumble and that Jethro is actually the hero of the game. That’s nice!

Less nice is what happens when the press talks to Coach Denardo. When asked whether or not he thought Texas lost because they had a black quarterback, he shrugs and says, “Maybe. Blacks have excelled at every other position in the game. Eventually, they’ll excel as quarterbacks.” Denardo is branded a racist. He insists that his words were taken out of context.

Personally …. I don’t know, it all sounds pretty racist to me. The question was definitely racist. Denardo wasn’t asked if he felt Texas lost because their quarterback didn’t play well. Instead, he was specifically asked if Texas lost because their quarterback was black. Then, Denardo’s answer is that apparently blacks are not good quarterbacks right now but they will be someday. How is that not racist? Denardo (and the reporter) are taking an individual player, considering nothing about him beyond his race, and then saying that’s why his team lost. All Denardo had to say was that the quarterback struggled, just as many white quarterbacks have struggled. Denardo could have just said, “Race doesn’t have anything to do with it.” Instead …. well, you get the idea.

The Dobbs Corporation, which now owns the Bulls, has recently had to settle a lawsuit about their discriminatory employment practices. Executive Michal Westwood (Paul Tuerpe) wants Denardo fired and really, Denardo probably should be fired. But TD Parker (OJ Simpson) tries to play peacemaker. He tells Denardo that it would help if he apologized.

“TD,” Denardo says, “I’ve got white friends and I’ve got black friends. But if you don’t drop this, I might have one less black friend.”

And then, presumably, Denardo complimented TD for being articulate.

Meanwhile, Dr. Death’s attempt to have a one night stand with a biker chick (Beth Broderick …. wait a minute, Aunt Zelda!?) comes to an end when he meets her son and discovers that the kid is being abused by his mother’s other boyfriend. Dr. Death takes the kid under his wing and then beats up the abuser. Yay! Seriously, this whole episode should have just been Dr. Death beating up that guy.

And Denardo really should have been fired.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 7/5/26 — 7/11/26

Posted on July 11, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Big Brother 28 (24/7, CBS, Paramount+, Pluto TV)

Originally, I wasn’t going to watch Big Brother this season but I gave in. Watching this show and getting annoyed is pretty much a tradition around these parts and you know me. I’m all about tradition. You can read my thoughts (and Erin’s thoughts!) about the show over at RealityTVChatBlog.

The Contender (Prime)

I watched two episodes of this old reality show on Tuesday. A group of boxers competed to be …. THE CONTENDER! They weren’t bad. I actually remember when this show aired way back in the aughts. Sylvester Stallone was the host for the first two seasons. The episodes I watched were hosted by Sugar Ray Leonard.

Homicide: Life On The Street (Peacock)

My review of Homicide will drop tomorrow.

Saved By The Bell (Tubi)

My review of Saved By The Bell will drop later tonight.

Sledgehammer! (Prime)

I watched an episode of this 80s comedy show on Friday. A contract was put out on Sledgehammer’s life so he hid with with Amish. It was a funny episode.

Watched and Reviewed

Late Night Retro Television Review: 1st & Ten 4.7 “Saturday, Bloody Saturday”

Posted on July 8, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Lawrence Taylor shows up!

Episode 4.7 “Saturday, Bloody Saturday”

(Dir by Stan Lathan, originally aired on November 16th, 1988)

Ever since I started reviewing this show, my friend Mark has been telling me to keep an eye out for Lawrence Taylor. Taylor is an actual football player who has gone on to have a sporadic acting career. (He also did Dancing With The Stars.) This week, after months of searching, I finally spotted Lawrence Taylor’s name in the credits.

Taylor plays Tombstone Packer, an opposing player who goes on television and announces that he’s going to destroy the Bulls to get revenge on Dr. Death for crippling one of Tombstone’s teammates. Usually, I joke about how the worst actors on shows like this are always the professional athletes. But I have to admit that Lawrence Taylor is not that bad in this episode. Of course, he spends most of the episode yelling at and threatening people and I imagine that would come naturally to most football players. Still, that’s more than most of the basketball players who appeared on Hang Time were capable of pulling off.

There’s a lot of drama in this episode, even beyond Tombstone Packer’s search for vengeance. For instance, Billy Cooper is shocked to discover that his newest girlfriend, Sybil (Samantha Eggar, seriously slumming), is the wife of Dodds Corporation executive Robert Nelson (Derek Patridge). Making things even worse is that Sybil dies of a drug overdose and Billy is worried that he and the players might be blamed and even criminally charged. Billy shouldn’t have worried, though. It turns out that Sybil had a long history of sleeping with athletes and Robert was okay with it. He’s not even that upset to hear that his wife has died.

Meanwhile, TD Parker (OJ Simpson) meets Gillian (Michael Michele). The newly-divorced TD flirts with Gillian at a supermarket and learns that she’s a soccer player. TD decides that it’s time for the Bulls to make history by signing Gillian as their backup field goal kicker! Over the objections of Coach Denardo, Gillian becomes the first woman to play professional football. Of course, Tombstone tackles her as soon as she makes her first kick and she’s carted off the field with a bruised leg. The show ends with TD welcoming Gillian to the team but, according to imdb, this was Gillian’s only appearance on the show. Hopefully, she didn’t make TD angry.

(I should also say that, on Tubi, this episode’s sound was extremely muddy and the close captioning was running way behind so the show ended before the captions even reached TD’s postgame talk with Gillian. Their conversation was not always easy to hear. That said, Gillian looked really happy so I’m assuming that TD welcomed her to the team.)

As I watched this episode, I remembered that, a few years ago, a woman actually did try out to be a kicker in the NFL. She received a lot of media hype in the days leading up to the try-out. Everyone was really excited until she actually kicked the football and sent it skidding over to the sidelines. I also thought about how Degrassi spent an entire season building up Jane as being a totally badass football player, just to abandon the idea after a few episodes. I guess my point is that I guess it would be great if a woman played in the NFL and totally dominated all of the 300-pound men who play in that league but I just don’t think it’s going to happen in my lifetime.

Oh well! At least I can now say that I’ve spotted Lawrence Taylor on 1st & Ten.