Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 3/22/26 — 3/28/26

Posted on March 28, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

1st & Ten (Tubi)

The Addams Family (YouTube)

Cousin Itt came to visit! I watched an episode of this classic sitcom on Wednesday with my friend Dani. She was celebrating John Astin’s birthday.

Baywatch (Tubi)

I reviewed Baywatch here!

CHiPs (Prime)

I reviewed CHiPs here!

Dance International Magazine (NightFlight+)

Everyone on the program was dancing and I danced while watching.

Decoy (Tubi)

I reviewed Decoy here!

Degrassi: The Next Generation (Tubi)

Look for my Degrassi review tomorrow!

Diff’rent Strokes (Tubi)

Tubi showed me a random episode on Thursday. Arnold and his stupid friend Dudley took up smoking. Dudley’s father went to the hospital to have a lung removed. I think there was a message in there somewhere.

Freddy’s Nightmare (Tubi)

I reviewed Freddy’s Nightmares here!

Highway to Heaven (Tubi)

I reviewed Highway to Heaven here!

Homicide: Life On The Street (Peacock)

Look for my Homicide review tomorrow!

Lonesome Dove (Tubi)

I binged Lonesome Dove on Wednesday, as a tribute to both Texas and the late Robert Duvall. It was a great adaptation of a great book.

The Love Boat (Paramount Plus)

I reviewed The Love Boat here!

Miami Vice (Prime)

I reviewed Miami Vice here.

Nero Wolfe (YouTube)

I watched two episodes of Nero Wolfe on Tuesday. These episodes featured Maury Chaykin as Nero Wolfe and Timothy Hutton as Archie Goodwin. Seymour Cassel was in one of the episodes. I enjoyed the episodes, even if I did have a hard time following the twists and turns of the mysteries.

Night Flight (NightFlight+)

On Saturday, I watched an episode of this old music video program. It was a countdown of the top music videos of 1983. I like the music of the 80s. It was very energetic.

Pacific Blue (Tubi)

I reviewed Pacific Blue here!

Saved By The Bell (Tubi)

This week’s review will drop in 90 minutes.

Saved By The Bell: The New Class (Prime)

I reviewed this week’s episode here!

St. Elsewhere (Daily Motion)

I reviewed St. Elsewhere here!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Freddy’s Nightmares 2.6 “Lucky Stiff”

Posted on March 27, 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 Fridays, I will be reviewing Freddy’s Nightmares, a horror anthology show which ran in syndication from 1988 to 1990. The entire series can be found on Tubi!

This week, a lottery ticket leads to misery.

Episode 2.6 “Lucky Stiff”

(Dir by William Malone, originally aired on November 12th, 1989)

After the lottery-obsessed Lenny Nordhoff (David L. Lander) has a heart attack and dies, his widow, Greta (Mary Crosby), marries her brutish boyfriend, Hank (Richard Eden). Haunted by nightmares of Lenny holding out his bloody heart and accusing her of having broken it, Greta is not happy with her new marriage. When she and Hank realize that Lenny was buried with a winning lottery ticket, they break into the mausoleum, open his coffin, and retrieve the ticket. Then, Greta pushes Hank into the coffin and seals him up.

Months later, Greta is wealthy but now she’s haunted by visions of Hank and threatening phone calls. Eventually, she is confronted by a gravedigger (Tracey Walter), who blackmails her into marrying him.

This episode’s only memorable moment was an outdoor scene that was apparently filmed on a windy day, resulting in Mary Crosby having to awkwardly reach down to keep her dress from blowing up. (I supposed it says something about the show’s budget and production schedule that, rather than reshoot this scene, they just went with it.) Crosby didn’t do a bad job in this episode. She had the right neurotic femme fatale look.

Otherwise, this episode was pretty forgettable. The first story featured Greta having nightmares about a dead man and marrying a loser. The second story featured Great having nightmares about a dead man and marrying a loser. Even Freddy, in his reduced host role, looked pretty bored with the whole thing.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Freddy’s Nightmares 2.4 “Photo Finish”

Posted on February 27, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, it’s Halloween in Springwood!

Episode 2.4 “Photo Finish”

(Dir by Tom DeSimone, originally aired on October 29th, 1989)

This episode starts with Freddy welcoming us to a special Halloween episode of Freddy’s Nightmares. Because it is the season, Freddy actually plays a role in both of this week’s stories and it must be said that they are both rather gruesome, even by the standards of this show.

In the first story, photographer Stoney Adler (Patty McCormack) is commissioned to take some photos for a Halloween spread that will appear in Kink Magazine. Stoney is amazed at how good her models are at pretending to be scared. That’s because they’re all actually terrified because they keep seeing Freddy. Stoney isn’t aware of Freddy’s presence, at least not until Freddy drives a stake through the heart of one of her models. Stoney tries to avoid doing any more horror shoots but she takes on one final assignment. Freddy appears and asks Stoney, “Do you want me to make (the model) scream?” Stoney says yes. Freddy plucks out Stoney’s eyes. That certainly does lead to some screaming.

The second story feature three FBI men trying to figure out why a suburban father shot his wife and daughter the night before Halloween and then apparently slit his own throat. One of the agents — a profiler who owes more than a little to William Petersen’s performance in Manhunter — figures out that Freddy possessed the father. Freddy, however, then possesses another one of the FBI agents and the tragedy plays out a second time. The profiler ends up with his throat slashed, slowly dying while the camera lingers on him. There’s no way this episode didn’t inspire a few nightmares.

This was a good episode. It was scary, it was gory, and it was definitely designed to offend people who weren’t into horror. This episode was exactly what you would want Halloween with Freddy Krueger to be. The second season continues to be a hundred times better than the first.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Freddy’s Nightmares 2.3 “Welcome to Springwood”

Posted on February 20, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, more and more people are coming to Springwood.

Episode 2.3 “Welcome to Springwood”

(Dir by Ken Wiederhorn, originally aired on October 22nd, 1989)

Roxanne (Leah Ayres) and her husband, Doug (Michael Horton). have just moved to a new house in Springwood, Ohio. Doug, a lawyer, has to go to his office and he leaves Roxanne, who is recovering from a mental breakdown, alone with the boxes that the moves have already brought into the house. He tells her not to worry about opening them and promises her that they’ll unpack when he gets home.

Roxanne, however, opens the boxes. And she finds things that clearly don’t belong to her. She calls Doug at work. Doug says that there must have been a mix-up with the moving company and that he’ll call and make sure that their stuff gets delivered as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, at the house, Roxanne starts to see people who may or may not be there….

As surprised as I am to say this, the first segment of this episode of Freddy’s Nightmares was an enjoyably macabre story. Yes, the final twist is one that you’ll see coming but director Ken Wiederhorn does a great job creating and maintaining atmosphere and Ayres, Horton, and Todd Allen all give strong performances.

The second story isn’t close to be anywhere as interesting. Emily Jamison (Dey Young) has moved into a new home and she finds a hidden stack of letters that were written years before. The letters detail a doomed romance and Emily soon starts to see ghosts. The story isn’t terrible but it’s a bit bland.

Still, this was another good episode of Freddy’s Nightmares. So far, at least, the show appears to have found its footing during its second season. It’ll be interesting to see if that continues next week.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 2/8/26 — 2/14/26

Posted on February 14, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Winter Olympics (All week, Peacock and NBC)

I wrote about Korey and Cory this week. On Tuesday, I watched as they won the Silver Medal in a match with Sweden and I have to admit that I was depressed for the rest of the day. That’s nothing against the Swedish team. They did a good job and they earned the win. It’s just that I had gotten so invested in Korey and Cory that it was hard for me to accept that 1) it was over and 2) it ended with them coming in second.

I’ve watched the Olympics off-and-on since then but I have to admit none of the other athletes have really captured my attention the way that Korey and Cory did. I do like our hockey teams, because they’re all blue collar and they don’t talk badly about my country. Our skiers appear to be a bunch of spoiled rich kids.

I’ll definitely rewatch the figure skating.

Also watched and reviewed:

Late Night Retro Television Review: Freddy’s Nightmares 2.2 “Heartbreak Hotel”

Posted on February 13, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, two more people fall victim to Springwood, Ohio.

Episode 2.2 “Heartbreak Hotel”

(Dir by William Malone, originally aired on October 15th, 1989)

“Learn to use the proper pronouns …. OR DIE!” Freddy shouts at us this week and he has a point.

When tabloid reporter Roger Dittano (John Stinson) is sent to Springwood to write a story about an Elvis sighting at a local hotel, he discovers that everything he writes comes true. He writes about a woman having a demon child and, a few minutes later, a pregnant maid goes into labor and gives birth to a deformed stillborn baby. Roger writes about a man being electrocuted in a bathtub and, shortly afterwards, he’s nearly electrocuted while taking a bath.

When Roger discovers that a newspaper publisher (played by Stacy Keach, Sr., father of the better-known Stacy Keach) is staying at the hotel, he comes up with the following story. “Newspaper publisher leaves empire to reporter after he drinks poison.” Hey, Roger — who drank the poison!? The reporter or the newspaper publisher? As you can guess, Roger’s vague wording leading to him drinking arsenic and dying as the publisher laughs and says, “Oh, and I’m leaving my empire to you!”

That was actually a pretty clever story. For once, the show actually did the work to set up the twist. Roger spends the entire episode being told that he’s a sloppy writer. In the end, that sloppiness kills him.

The second story also has a twist but it’s nowhere near as interesting. An amnesiac named Jerry (Richard Cox) wakes up in a hospital after a car accident. A woman (Anne Lockhart) claims to be the Jerry’s wife. A teenage girl (Tammy Ames) claims to be Jerry’s daughter. Jerry goes home with both of them and is soon haunted by nightmares in which he sees himself killing a man. You can probably guess that Jerry is not married and he does not have a daughter. This story had a lot of noir atmosphere — right down to a saxophone wailing away on the soundtrack — but it was also pretty predictable.

That said, this episode was still an improvement on just about season one episode. Two good episodes of Freddy’s Nightmares in a row? I’m as stunned as anyone.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 2/1/26 — 2/7/26

Posted on February 7, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Bar Rescue (Paramount Plus)

On Monday, I turned over to Fave TV so that I could binge Bar Rescue and I discovered that Fave TV no longer exists! It’s been replaced by Outlaw TV, a western channel. I was disappointed so I watched the Pirate Bar episode of Bar Rescue online. I hope One-Eyed Mike was able to find another job about the tavern went out of business. He was cool.

Baywatch (Tubi)

I wrote about Baywatch here!

CHiPs (Prime)

You can read my thoughts on CHiPs here!

Decoy (Tubi)

I reviewed Decoy here!

Degrassi: The Next Generation (Tubi)

You can read my Degrassi thoughts here!

1st & Ten (Tubi)

I wrote about 1st & Ten here!

Freddy’s Nightmares (Tubi)

I reviewed Freddy’s Nightmares here!

The Grammy Awards (Sunday Night, CBS)

Watching the Grammy Awards on Sunday, I realized just how boring modern music has become. I can’t wait for someone new to come along and hopefully remind us of what it’s like to be surprised.

Highway to Heaven (Tubi)

I wrote about Highway to Heaven here!

Hill Street Blues (DVD)

This week, I binged the second and third seasons of this classic cop show. It made for oddly calming background noise. Poor LaRue, he was always getting in trouble.

Homicide: Life On The Street (Peacock TV)

You can read my thoughts on Homicide here.

King of the Hill (Hulu)

“I don’t know you. That’s my purse!” I was depressed on Monday but watching a classic episode of King of the Hill cheered me up!

The Love Boat (Paramount Plus)

I reviewed The Love Boat here!

Miami Vice (Prime)

You can read my thoughts on Miami Vice here.

Pacific Blue (Tubi)

I reviewed Pacific Blue here!

St. Elsewhere (Daily Motion)

I wrote about St. Elsewhere here!

Saved By The Bell (Tubi)

My thoughts on Saved By The Bell will be dropping 30 minutes after this post.

Saved By The Bell: The New Class (Prime)

I reviewed The New Class here!

The Winter Olympics (NBC & Peacock)

I’ve been enjoying curling! Go Korey and Corey! I also enjoyed watching the Parade of Nations. I had the volume down so I didn’t hear the booing that people have been talking about. If I had heard the booing, I would have shrugged it off. Other countries will always hate America, for the same reason that some people are still resentful towards the rich kids from high school. When you consider what certain countries are on the record as supporting, it’s almost an honor to be booed by them.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Freddy’s Nightmares 2.1 “Dream Come True”

Posted on February 6, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, we begin the second season! Welcome back to Springwood!

Season 2.1 “Dream Come True”

(Dir by George Kaczender, originally aired on October 8th, 1989)

The second season of Freddy’s Nightmares features Freddy getting involved in the action.

The first story features Freddy haunting the nightmares of teenager Randy Jennings (David Kaufman), who has only recently moved to Springwood with his mother, Cathy (Linda Miller). Randy is having nightmares about Freddy so his mother buys tickets to attend a talk show hosted by Stan Brooks (Jay Thomas). Stan’s guest is therapist Dr. Brandon Kefler (Scott Marlowe), who has written a book about nightmares. Cathy begs Brandon to see Randy and, after being pressured by Stan, Brandon agrees. Stan arranges for cameraman Garry Heath (Gerard Prendergrast) to film the session.

At the Jennings home, Brandon talks to Randy about his nightmares. Brandon’s therapy seems to work as, afterwards, Randy is able to sleep peacefully and without having any nightmares. However, it turns out that Freddy just jumped from Randy’s mind to Brandon’s! (Hey, didn’t almost the same thing happen in a movie, something about an exorcism….) Soon, Brandon is the one who is having nightmares and being driven mad by visions….

As for the second story, it deals with Garry the cameraman and his belief that Freddy Kruger is real. One reason why Garry believes that Freddy is real is because Freddy keeps showing up in footage that he’s filmed. Unfortunately, no one else can see Freddy, certainly not Garry’s boss (Charles Cyphers). Even more unfortunately, the body of Garry’s girlfriend is found in a dumpster and the police aren’t buying Garry’s story that Freddy did it….

This episode actually wasn’t that bad, especially compared to some of the episodes that aired during the show’s first season. Perhaps it’s because this episode was the first of the season and the production budget hadn’t gone dry yet but Dream Come True actually features some adequate production values. The house looks like a real house. The television studio looks like a place where something would actually be filmed. The abandoned warehouse with Garry tries to confront Freddy is actually an atmospheric location and the episode even manages to generate a little suspense, even if neither plot is particularly original. Both Scott Marlowe and Gerard Pendergrast give decent performances in their stories and, as always, Robert Englund is a properly evil Freddy.

(That said, the show did manage to misspell Charles Cyphers’s name in the opening credits, despite the fact that he was this episode’s big guest star. I did a double take when I saw “Charles Syphers,” on my screen. Seriously, the man was Sherriff Brackett!)

Despite getting Charles Cypher’s name wrong, this was still a good start to the final season. It’ll be interesting to see if the remaining episodes live up to it.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Freddy’s Nightmares 1.18 “The Art of Death”

Posted on December 5, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week’s episode is actually decent.

Episode 1.18 “The Art of Death”

(Dir by Ken Wiederhorn, originally aired on March 12th, 1989)

Jack (Carey Scott) is a talented artist and college student who has a crush on Joan (Laura Schaefer). When Joan’s jock boyfriend humiliates Jack, Jack suddenly finds himself approached by The Phantom (Judd Omen), a masked figure who claims that he can kill Jack’s enemies if Jack draws a picture of him doing it. After the jock is killed in a treadmill accident, Joan sees the picture that Jack drew and decides she doesn’t want anything to do with Jack. The Phantom suggests drawing a picture of him surprising Joan in the shower. Jack refuses, just to discover that the picture has already been drawn and the Phantom is now holding Joan prisoner in a boiler room. Jack draws a picture of the Phantom being sucked down a hole. The Phantom vanishes but …. oh no, now Jack’s wearing the mask! Jack was the Phantom all along!

As for the second story, Joan struggles to recover from the trauma. In typical Freddy’s Nightmares fashion, she has a series of hallucinations that lead to her killing her psychiatrist.

This episode actually worked! The first story was genuinely creepy. The second story was predictable but it featured a good performance from Laura Schaefer and the action moved at a decent pace. I’m going to give the majority of the credit to director Ken Wiederhorn, who previously directed one of my favorite zombie films, 1977’s Shock Waves.

This is my final Freddy’s Nightmares review for 2025. Retro Television Review is taking a break for the holidays, so I can focus on Awards Season and Christmas movies! Freddy’s Nightmares will return on January 9th.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Freddy’s Nightmares 1.17 “Love Stinks”

Posted on November 28, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, dreams continue to come true in Springwood, Ohio. Freddy continues to show up in very short host segments because I guess he doesn’t have anything better to do. And I continue to find ways to pad out my reviews for a show that there’s really not much to be said about. It happens. Some shows are interesting and take chances and other shows just recycle the same thing over and over again. Anyway, let’s get to it….

Episode 1.17 “Love Stinks”

(Dir by John Lafia, originally aired on February 26th, 1989)

Adam (John Washington) is a high school jock who has a chance to join the White Sox and who has a girlfriend named Laura (Tamara Glyn). When his parents go out of town, Adam throws a house party. The party goes wrong when he finds himself unable to say the words “I love you,” to Laura. Laura leaves him and Adam has a one-night stand with Loni (Susanna Savee). Soon, Adam finds himself drifting in-and-out of a dream state. He sees Laura chopping him up with meat cleaver. He sees his parents come home and he notices that his father is missing a finger. Loni ruins his interview with the baseball scout. It’s all because Adam can’t say “I love you,” but suddenly, Adam wakes up in bed and hears the party still going on downstairs and realizes it was all a dream. He runs downstairs and grabs Laura and says, “I love you!” Except, Laura now looks like Loni. And when his parents show up and say they brought someone to meet him, it turns out to be Loni except Loni now looks like Laura.

Meanwhile, Adam’s slacker friend Max (Georg Olden) gets a job at Mr. Cheesy Pizza. He’s working for his hated uncle, Ralph (Jeffery Combs). When Max’s girlfriend disappears, Max is horrified to discover that she’s become a part of the special sauce that Ralph uses to make the pizza’s so memorable. Don’t worry, it’s all just a dream. Except, in the waking world, the pizza oven explodes and kills Ralph. Max apparently decides to take a lesson from his dream and makes tasty use of Ralph’s remains.

By the admittedly low standards of Freddy’s Nightmares, this episode wasn’t that bad. Though the first story was incoherent, it still captured the feeling of being scared of commitment. The second story was predictable but at least it featured Jeffrey Combs doing his sociopathic nerd thing. This episode held my interest. That said, almost every episode pretty much has the exact same “It was just a dream” plot twist. At this point, it’s no longer a shock when someone suddenly opens their eyes and breathes a sigh of relief. Even Freddy seems kind of bored with it all.