Tag Archives: Hal England

Late Night Retro Television Review: CHiPs 5.2 “Vagabonds”

Posted on 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 Mondays, I will be reviewing CHiPs, which ran on NBC from 1977 to 1983.  The entire show is currently streaming on Prime!

This week’s episode features a future Oscar nominee!

Episode 5.2 “Vagabonds”

(Dir by Bruce Kessler, originally aired on October 11th, 1981)

The saying goes that “everyone had to start somewhere,” and, for actor Ed Harris, somewhere included guest-starring on an episode of CHiPs.

The future Oscar nominee appears as Lonny Wilson, the scion of a family of a hillbilly con artists.  He and his brother, Daws (Jesse Vint), purposefully cause auto accidents and con their victims out of their money in return for not calling the police or the insurance company.  Lonny’s young son, Jamie (James Calvert), is looking forward to joining the family business until he actually is injured while taking part in one of the family’s cons.  Lonny reconsiders his way of life and, by the end of the episode, he’s cooperating with the highway patrol.

Does Ed Harris come across as being a future star in this episode?  Well, he definitely has charisma.  He has screen presence.  That said, this is also CHiPs, a show that was mostly about capturing potentially serious auto accidents in slow motion.  No one came across as being a future star on ChiPs and that was actually a part of the show’s appeal.  The stars on CHiPs were always the motorcycles, the cars flipping over on the freeway, and Ponch’s blinding smile.  That said, Ed Harris gives a good performance.  For that matter, so does Jesse Vint as his brother.  This is a well-acted episode of CHiPs.  Such things do exist.

In all fairness, I should also note that, when this episode aired, Harris had already starred in George Romero’s Knightriders so, while Harris may not have been a household name, it’s probably still debatable whether or not this was really at the start of his career.  Ultimately, the important thing is that, two years after appearing this episode, Ed Harris would play John Glenn in 1983’s The Right Stuff and firmly established himself as one of our best character actors.

As for this episode, it also features the Highway Patrol taking part in a “supercycle” race, which is a race featuring bicycles that you lie down on as you peddle.  I don’t know why anyone would want to do that but whatever.  Jon Baker wins.  Yay, Highway Patrol!

On that note of victory, Retro Television Reviews is going on a holiday break so that I can focus on the Oscar precursor awards and reviewing Christmas movies so this will be last CHiPs review of 2025!  CHiPs will return on January 5th, 2026!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Highway to Heaven 3.23 “Heavy Date”

Posted on 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 Thursdays, I will be reviewing Highway to Heaven, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1989.  The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi and several other services!

This week, Jonathan and Mark are back in Los Angeles.

Episode 3.23 “Heavy Date”

(Dir by Michael Landon, originally aired on March 18th, 1987)

Jonathan and Mark’s latest assignment finds them in Los Angeles, where they share an apartment in a building that is managed by Marge Davis (Peggy Pope).  Marge, a widow, is upset that her son, Gary (Patrick O’Bryan), doesn’t seem to have any direction in life.  When Gary loses his job, Marge kneels down and puts her head in the oven.  Uhmm …. okay.  Suicide humor, that’s great, I guess.

Alice Hartman (Lorie Griffin) shows up in Los Angeles and takes an apartment in the building.  Alice is seven months pregnant.  Her mother has created a cover story, that Alice has gone to Europe for the summer.  Instead, Alice has gone to Los Angeles so she can have the baby and give it up for adoption without her father finding out.  Jonathan works his magic and manipulates Gary and Alice into falling in love.  When Alice has her baby, Gary asks her to marry him and says that he wants to help her raise the baby.  So, I guess the nice couple who wanted to adopt the baby are just out of luck.

This episode was a bit odd.  When Alice first comes to Los Angeles, she says she’s seven months pregnant.  The episode takes place over  a longer period of time than usual and Alice eventually has the baby.  At no point does Alice ever appear to be pregnant.  She wears baggy clothes but still, there’s only so much that an extra-large sweater can conceal when you’re that pregnant.  There was also a weird scene where Gary, pretending to be the baby’s biological father, lied to the adoptive parents and claimed that he was on probation and that his mother was in a mental institution.  The show played it for laughs but again, the couple seemed so nice and happy about the idea of adopting that Gary’s lies just felt cruel.  And, for a show that was all about an angel on a mission from God, it’s interesting that Gary’s actions went unpunished.  If anything, he was rewarded for them.

(Seriously, the couple that wanted to adopt Alice baby, they were so nice!  That the episode just kind of pushed them aside really didn’t feel right.  I get that Jonathan and Mark’s assignment was to help Alice and Gary but Gary is kind of a jerk and Alice is kind of immature.  Whose going to help the Wallaces, who sincerely wanted to give the baby a good home?)

This episode was obviously heartfelt.  For once, Michael Landon is the sole credited writer so one gets the feeling that this episode’s story and message both meant a lot to him.  (That said, Landon’s approach to the story makes the message come across as being less pro-family and more anti-adoption.)   In the end, the main problem is that neither Gary nor Alice really seem worthy of all of the effort that Jonathan is putting into the assignment.  It’s hard not to feel that maybe Jonathan and Mark needed to help everyone out and not just Alice and Gary.

 

Retro Television Reviews: Fantasy Island 4.2 “The Flying Aces/The Mermaid Returns”

Posted on 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 Tuesdays, I will be reviewing the original Fantasy Island, which ran on ABC from 1977 to 1986.  Almost the entire show is currently streaming is on Youtube, Daily Motion, and a few other sites.

This week, a guest star from the past returns!

Episode 4.2 “The Flying Aces/The Mermaid Returns”

(Dir by Earl Bellamy, originally aired on November 1st, 1980)

The plane is landing, bringing with it a new group of Fantasy Island guests.  As always, Tattoo steps out of the main Fantasy Island office, intent to head down to the lagoon and discover what this week’s fantasies will be.  Except …. wait a minute …. where is Mr. Roarke!?

Tattoo waits for a few minutes and then looks around.  Mr. Roarke is nowhere to be seen!  Is it possible that, after three seasons of reported acrimony between him and Herve Villechaize, Ricardo Montalban has left the Island!?  That would certainly make Tattoo happy.  Though it was a storyline that was phased out as the show became more family friendly, Tattoo did spend the first two seasons of Fantasy Island talking about how he would like to be in charge of everything.  Finally, Tattoo is in charge!  Tattoo heads down to the landing lagoon and, for once, he’s the one who declares, “Smiles, everyone, smiles!”

However, Mr. Roarke has not left the Island.  Instead, he’s been having a meeting with Nyah (Michelle Phillips), the mermaid who lives off the shore of Fantasy Island and who, during the third season, tried to tempt John Saxon to his death.  Nyah reveals to Roarke that she wants to come to Fantasy Island as a guest because she had a fantasy of her own.  Roarke informs her that, to do this, she will have to agree to be human for the weekend.  Nyah agrees and Roarke makes a fist and closes his eyes tight.  Suddenly, Nyah’s tail is replaced by legs!

Roarke then heads over to the landing lagoon, where he meets up with Tattoo.  Tattoo is shocked when Nyah stumbles off of the plane.  (So was I, as I was kind of under the assumption that the plane had already landed when Roarke had his conversation with her.)  Tattoo wonders why Nyah is struggling to walk.  Roarke explains that she’s still learning how to use her legs.  When the friendly island girls offer her a drink and a lei, Nyah rudely shake her head.  It’s not easy being human!  Roarke explains that Nyah wants to experience human love.

As for the other guest, he’s an airline pilot named Tony Chilton (Sam Melville).  Tony feels that World War II was the last time when men could truly be men and he has stated that his fantasy is to be a member of the 53rd fighting group, battling the Germans above New Zealand.  However, as Roarke quickly deduces, Tony’s actual fantasy is to meet the father he never knew.  David Chilton (Tom Wopat) was a member of the 53rd and he died in aerial combat.

Both fantasies play out pretty much the way that you probably expect that they would.  Fantasy Island was a show that understood the importance of fulfilling expectations.  For instance, you’ve probably already guessed that Nyah is going to end up announcing that she’s in love with Mr. Roarke and also that, by the end of the episode, Nyah is going to have realized that her home is in the ocean.  But Nyah’s storyline is still enjoyable because Michelle Phillips does such a good job of playing Nyah and her struggle to figure out how humans do things like walk, make small talk, and wear clothes all the time.  At first, Nyah is rude to almost everyone that she meets and I cringed a bit when Roarke disciplined her by giving her a spanking.  (Oh hi, 1980!)  But, at the same time, I could relate to Nyah because, from my childhood, I know what it’s like to constantly find yourself in a new town and a new school and having to figure out the customs of a whole new group of people.  Sometimes, it’s not easy to learn how to walk in a new place.

As for the World War II story, Tony does meet with his father and he gets to bond with him.  Awwww!  Sadly, he also learns that Roarke wasn’t kidding when he warned that history cannot be changed.  It was a simple story but it worked due to the heartfelt performances of Sam Melville and Tom Wopat.  This storyline was unabashedly sentimental and all the better for it!

All in all, this was a good trip to the Island.