Horror On TV: The Hitchhiker 5.17 “Coach” (dir by Eric Till)

Posted on October 17, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In tonight’s episode of The Hitchhiker, a track coach (Charles Haid) is freaking out over the prospect of his son (Jonathan Crombie) breaking his 25 year-old track record. The coach ends up taking things to extreme to try to preserve his record.

This episode features a ferocious performance from Charles Haid, who plays the coach as every high school student’s worst nightmare. This episode has a lot to say about both the strange rituals of athletic competitiveness and how some people are so scared of getting old that they’ll go to any extreme to hold on to their accomplishments of youth.

The episode aired on September 30th, 1989.

Holiday Spirit: An American Christmas Carol (dir by Eric Till)

Posted on December 21, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

On Christmas Eve, a miserly businessman is visited by a series of ghosts who help him understand the true meaning of Christmas, along with showing him a frightening vision of a possible future.

And that businessman was named …. Benedict Slade!

Yeah, the name’s have been changed and the action has been updated to Depression-era New England but this is basically the story of Scrooge. Henry Winkler stars as the Scrooge character in the 1979 made-for-TV movie. His old age make-up was done by none other than Rick Baker!

A Movie A Day #21: A Case of Libel (1983, directed by Eric Till)

Posted on January 21, 2017 by Jedadiah Leland

a-case-for-libel In the 1950s, at the height of the McCarthy era, no one is more feared than Boyd Bendix (Daniel J. Travanti), an acerbic, right-wing gossip columnist. Anyone who crosses Bendix the wrong way runs the risk of being accused of everything from sexual deviancy to communism. Bendix’s latest victim is prominent journalist named Dennis Corcoran (Gordon Pinset). Unlike everyone else who has been bullied by Bendix, Corcoran refuses to quietly submit. Working with a gruff but brilliant attorney, Robert Sloane (Ed Asner), Corcoran takes Bendix to court.

A Case of Libel was made for Showtime and it is very much the type of movie that was made for teachers to show in classrooms full of aspiring Clarence Darrows. Adapted from a Broadway play, A Case of Libel is also based on the true story of a successful lawsuit that was brought against columnist Westbrook Pegler in 1955. A Case of Libel is basically a filmed play but is memorable for the performances of Ed Asner and especially Daniel J. Travanti.

A Case of Libel is a movie that I used to rent, on VHS, from my local video store when I was just starting to get interested in politics. Because it was a cheap production on a cheap tape, the picture always looked terrible but I still enjoyed it. Despite what the picture above claims, it’s never gotten an official DVD release and it probably never will be since there’s not a huge demand for old Ed Asner/Daniel J. Travanti courtroom dramas. If it ever does come out on DVD, I’ll buy it.