Retro Television Review: St. Elsewhere 4.2 “Fathers and Sons”

Posted on July 10, 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 Fridays, I will be reviewing St. Elsewhere, a medical show which ran on NBC from 1982 to 1988. The show can be found on Daily Motion.

This week, Dr. Craig’s son returns home.

Episode 4.2 “Fathers and Sons”

(Dir by Mark Tinker, originally aired on September 25th, 1985)

In this episode, we discover what Dr. Westphall did after he left St. Eligius. After checking Tommy into a special school for autistic children, Westphall went to Africa and volunteered his time at a clinic. Now that he’s returned to Boston, he wants St. Eligius and its residents to follow his example. In fact, he’s requiring it. He wants to set up a free clinic. He wants to set up a charity. He tells the residents that they will now be required to volunteer in the community. He’s planning on shaking things up. Auschlander tells Westphall that not all of his plans are practical. Westphall says that he doesn’t care.

Westphall also proceeds to move back into his old house and he retrieves Tommy from the school. (Tommy responds by hitting Westphall.) It’s actually pretty easy to see what’s happening here. At the end of the previous season, Westphall was determined to move on with his life. He was going to leave his depressing house. He was going to admit that he couldn’t raise Tommy by himself. However, now that he’s returned to Boston, Westphall is returning to his old life while expecting St. Eligius to change. Westphall is channeling his personal frustrations into the hospital. I don’t think this is going to go well.

Speaking of change, Luther is training to become a paramedic. In this episode, he rides around in an ambulance with two bickering paramedics who are also a couple (played by Adam Arkin and Melanie Chartoff). This storyline allowed the action to move beyond the confines at the hospital and, at times, it almost played like a parody of a more traditional medical show. Luther becomes a stand-in for the viewer, watching as the domestic drama unfolds in between medical emergencies.

The majority of the episode revolves around Dr. Craig, who is not happy that his son, Stephen (Scott Paulin), is visiting with his very pregnant wife, Yvonne (Suzanne Lederer). When we last saw Stephen, he was a hotshot Ivy League medical student with a bright future ahead of him. Then he got busted for drug possession and Dr. Craig stopped speaking about him. In this episode, we learn that Stephen is now a student at Ohio State. Stephen claims that he’s no longer on drugs but it’s obvious that Dr. Craig is never going to be able to forgive Stephen for letting him down. That said, Dr. Craig does soften a bit when he talks to Yvonne and she lets him feel the baby kicking.

At the end of the episode, Stephen is driving down a street in Boston. He’s just had dinner with his parents. Yvonne is in the passenger’s seat. A quick shot of Stephen’s eyes reveal that he’s high on something. Yvonne screams as Stephen crashes the car. Yikes! That’s a frightening way to end things!

This was a good episode. It appears that, with the start of season four, the showrunners finally figured out that Dr. Craig was the most interesting character on the show. William Daniels and Bonnie Bartlett are both excellent in this episode.

I just hope the baby will be okay.

Retro Television Review: St. Elsewhere 4.1 “Remembrance Of Things Past”

Posted on June 26, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, we begin season 4 of St. Elsewhere!

Episode 4.1 “Remembrance of Things Past”

(Dir by Bruce Paltrow, originally aired on September 18th, 1985)

This week, we start a new season of St. Elsewhere!

Dr. Cavenero is no longer listed in the opening credits. She’s not even mentioned in this episode, leaving her absence as a mystery. The last time we saw her during the third season, she was suffering from a cold so maybe she died. From what I’ve read, the real reason that she’s gone is because Cynthia Sikes, the actress who played her, objected to a season three storyline that would have featured her coming out as a lesbian.

From the start of this epiosde, St. Eligius seems like a happier place. A lot of that is because Dr. Westphall is gone. (That said, he’s still listed in the opening credits so we know, from the start, that will return.) Doctors Craig and Aushlander are a bit overworked having to cover Westphall’s duties but still, the residents seem to be a bit more hopeful than usual in this episode. Westphall’s perpetual glumness is no longer there to drag everyone down.

Morrison and Chandler have a conflict over a Vietnamese patient. Morrison wants to give the patient the best care possible. Chandler is upset because his older brother died in Vietnam and he feels like the patient doesn’t appreciate the sacrifice that Americans made during the Vietnam War. Morrison, of course, was an anti-war teenager. (There’s a reason why Helen Hunt calls him “boomer.”)

The whole Morrison/Chandler storyline felt a bit too heavy-handed to be effective. While I can believe that Chandler would have his own strongly-held opinions about the war, I have a hard time believing he would be as unprofessional as he was in this episode. Still, all of this does lead to a great scene where Morrison goes to Craig for the type of advice that he would usually get from Westphall and Craig responds by telling Morrison to get over it and concentrate on his job.

Seriously, I’ve been waiting for three seasons for someone to tell Morrison that.

Alfre Woodward joins the cast as Dr. Roxanne Turner, an OB-GYN. In this episode, she counsels an infertile couple. Dr. Turner wasn’t in much of the episode (and Alfre Woodard is not included in the opening credits) but I get the feeling that both she and the couple she was counseling are going to be around for a while.

The episode’s main storyline featured an amnesiac known as Joe Doe No. 6 (Oliver Clark). After John Doe escapes from the psychiatric ward and steals a suit, he’s mistaken for Dr. Jonas Wisner, who has beent sent to St. Eligius to evaluate its teaching program. John Doe No. 6 has a great time pretending to be Dr. Wisner and the doctors enjoy spending time with him. Unfortunately, the real Dr. Wisner (Joseph Ruskin) shows up and the fun ends.

Oh, how I loved watching John Doe No. 6 interact with the staff. Not only did it allow me to see the show’s characters through someone else’s eyes but it was also just an enjoyable storyline. It was a reminder that the hospital can be an entertaining place when Westpall isn’t wandering around the hallways.

However, towards the end of this episode, Westphall showed up at the hospital. Craig and Auschlander were happy to see him. Westphall asked if he could have his old job back. Of course, he can! Really? Didn’t Westphall walk off the job? But apparently, he can just wander back into the hospital while wearing his hobo cap and all is forgiven.

The episode ends with Chandler taking an impromptu trip to Washington D.C. and visiting the Vietnam War Memorial. As I watched this, it occuured to me that the memorial was still fairly new when this episoe aired. Once I realized that, I understood why the show included the Morrison/Chandler storyline. It pays to know history.

Season 4 is off to a good start! I just hope Dr. Westphall doesn’t drag everyone back down.

Horror on TV: The Twilight Zone 1.23 “Shadow Play” (dir by Paul Lynch)

Posted on October 6, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

For tonight’s trip into the world of televised horror, we have an episode from a 1986 attempt to revive The Twilight Zone.

This episode is a remake of one of my favorite episodes of the original series, Shadow Play. That’s the one where the guy is on death row but he says he’s not worried about being executed because he knows he’s just having a reoccuring nightmare. Of course, this kind of freaks out some of the people around him because, if he’s just having a dream, what happens to them when the dream ends?

While the remake is nowhere near as good as the original, it’s still fairly well done. Plus, it’s on YouTube and the original isn’t.

This episode was directed by Paul Lynch, the Canadian director who also directed the original Prom Night.

Enjoy!

A Movie A Day #228: Johnny Be Good (1988, directed by Bud Smith)

Posted on August 24, 2017 by Jedadiah Leland

Johnny Walker (Anthony Michael Hall) may be the best high school quarterback in the country but he has a difficult choice to make. He promised his girlfriend, Georgia (Uma Thurman), that he would go to the local state college with her but every other university in the country wants him. (Even legendary sportscaster Howard Cosell calls Johnny and advises him to go to an Ivy League college.) As Johnny tours universities across the country, he faces every temptation. By the time he makes his decision, will Johnny still be good?

The main problem with Johnny Be Good can be found in the first sentence of the above synopsis. Anthony Michael Hall plays the best high school quarterback in the country. By taking on the role of Johnny Walker, Hall was obviously attempting to prove that he was capable of more than just playing nerds for John Hughes. But Hall is never convincing as a quarterback, much less the best in the country. Though he bulked up for the role, it is impossible to imagine Hall in a huddle, coming up with the big play that wins the game. It’s easier to imagine Johnny getting shoved in a locker and left there until the school year ends. Hall seems to be lost in the role and the movie never seems to be sure who Johnny Walker is supposed to be. (Two years later, Hall would again play a jock and give a far better performance in Edward Scissorhands.)

As for the rest of the cast, Robert Downey, Jr., who plays Johnny’s teammate and best friend, is even less convincing as a football player than Hall. In the 1980s, Downey could play a quirky sidekick in his sleep but not a wide receiver. Paul Gleason also shows up in the movie, basically playing the same role that he played in The Breakfast Club. Uma Thurman is sweet and pretty in her film debut but it’s a nothing role. Fans of Cannon Picture will want to keep an eye out for Steve James, in a small role as a coach.

Poorly written and slackly directed with few laughs, Johnny Be Good fails to take its own advice.

TV Review: The Walking Dead 7.15 “Something They Need” (dir by Michael Slovis)

Posted on March 26, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hi there! Before I get around to saying what little I have to say about tonight’s episode of The Walking Dead, I want to share something with you.

Next week is the season finale and, naturally, it’s an extended episode. I have two fears.

I fear that next week’s episode will be 70 minutes of Rick and Dwight sitting in a cell and discussing right and wrong.
I also fear that the episode will end with Rick standing on a hill, looking back at all of his followers, and announcing, “And now — we attack!” This will immediately be followed by the end credits and Talking Dead. See you once Season 8 starts!

If either of those happen, this will be my response:

I have such mixed feelings about the pace of The Walking Dead. On the one hand, I appreciate that it’s a show that literally takes place after the end of the world. Civilization is over and sometimes, that is best represented by stillness. There’s no need for anyone to hurry because there’s really nowhere to go. There are no more jobs. There are no more movies. There are no more clubs. There are no more schools. There’s nothing. The only thing that matters in the world of The Walking Dead is survival and, often times, it’s necessary to move slowly and with caution to survive.

On the other hand, this season has been so slow! It feels as if it has taken Rick longer to organize this attack than it took for Lafayette to sail across the ocean and track down Gen. Washington. Yes, I appreciate why the pace is deliberate but there’s really only so many times that you can watch the same scene play out over and over again.

Tonight was a perfect example. It featured three storylines, all of which were way too dragged out. Tonight was basically 30 minutes worth of story stretched out to a full hour.

In Alexandria, Gregory again showed himself incapable of … well, just about anything. Nobody has any respect for Gregory. Maggie had to save him from a walker. Gregory’s either going to get killed by Negan or he’s going to get bitten by a walker. I think he actually had the potential to be an interesting character (and Xander Berkeley is certainly a good actor) but Gregory is so obviously doomed that it’s hard to really care about him one way or the other.

In Sanctuary, Sasha is somehow not dead. Instead, she’s in that same little cell that Daryl was in. Negan was apparently impressed by her suicidal attack. Why that would impress Negan, I’m not sure. Anyway, Negan killed a savior who was on the verge of raping Sasha. That’s a good thing, though you have to wonder if Negan set the whole thing up just so he’d have an excuse to play the hero. He wants to bring Sasha over to his side. Again, I’m not sure why. Mostly, I assume that Sasha’s alive so that she can be used as a hostage if Rick ever actually gets around to launching this attack that he’s been going on about.

(In many ways, Sasha being alive epitomizes this season’s greatest flaw. She’s not alive because there’s any real logic behind her somehow not being dead. Instead, she’s alive so she can be used as a plot device later on. Keeping Sasha alive comes at the price of whatever consistency had previously been established as far as Negan’s character is concerned.)

And finally, Tara told Rick about Oceanside so Rick and his people went down there and took all their guns. The scenes of Rick bullying the Oceansiders were mixed in with scenes of Negan trying to bring Sasha over to the Saviors. I got the feeling we were supposed to compare the contrasting leadership styles of Rick, Negan, and Gregory. Gregory is inneffectual. Rick will do what needs to be done but only when he doesn’t have any other choice. Negan just talks too much.

At the end of the episode, Rosita returned from Sanctuary. Accompanying her was … DWIGHT! So, Dwight was the man she saw in the shadows. Rick pointed a gun at him and told him to get on his knees. Apparently, next week’s episode will feature Rick talking to Dwight in a cell. I just hope they don’t spend too much time talking.

Anyway, as you can probably tell, this episode was way too slow for me. But, at least Rick does seem to be inching closer to finally launching that attack.

HURRY UP, RICK!