Larry O. Williams Jr. | Through the Shattered Lens

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.

This week, the playoffs continue.

Episode 2.9 “A Family Affair”

(Dir by Burt Brinckerhoff, originally aired on January 13th, 1987)

A playoff game against Denver is approaching. Denver is coached by a former protegee of Denardo’s and Denardo is obsessed with winning. He’s so obsessed that he alienates the players and Coach Grier (Stan Kamber). Grier is tempted to take a job as Houston’s head coach. Denardo says he doesn’t care until Diane reveals that Grier has turned down several other jobs out of loyalty to Denardo.

As for the other assistant coach, T.D. Parker (OJ Simpson) has problems of his own. His youngest son is acting out and the only thing that’s kept him out of juvenile detention is the fact that the cops are all fans of T.D. and the Bulls. T.D. tells his son that he’s not allowed to leave the house. When T.D.’s wife says that she thinks T.D. is being too strict, T.D. tells her to back off. T.D. gets really mad in this episode but none of it is convincing because OJ Simpson was too amiable an actor to really come across as being threatening. That’s something that would prove helpful to OJ in the years to come.

Meanwhile, the players all invest in the stock market. The stock doesn’t do well. The player who recommended the stock is chased out onto the field before the start of the big game against Denver. Ha ha, those players are all broke now. Good luck dealing with life after the game.

This show, I never know what to make of it. Is it a comedy? Is it a drama? Why is it so oddly edited? How many scenes were cut for syndication? Why do storylines start and then just disappear? For that matter, why do characters suddenly vanish? Dr. Death was a huge part of the show during the first half of the second season but I haven’t seen him during the second half. Did he get traded? Did he get injured? Seriously, what’s going on with this show?

I have no idea. Football’s a confusing sport.

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 Freevee and several other services!

This week’s episode was about baseball so guess who I made watch it with me?

Episode 2.7 “Popcorn, Peanuts, and Crackerjacks”

(Dir by Michael Landon, originally aired on November 13th, 1985)

The Tucson Toros need some help!

The Toros are a minor league baseball team. For years, they have been coached by the kindly Doc Brigsby (Keenan Wynn). When D.W. Rogers (John Milford) purchased the team, one of the first things that he wanted to do was get rid of old Brigsby. But one of the conditions of the sale was that Rogers would retain Brigsby as long as the Toros won more games than they lost. Rogers has been trying to sabotage the team ever since. He’s traded and released all of the team’s best players. The remaining players are dispirited and no longer having fun on the field. It looks like the Toros are about to have their first losing season.

Meanwhile, Ted Tilley (Moses Gunn) is out of a job. Ted was once a pitcher in the Negro Leagues, nicknamed the Louisiana Flash. After he stopped playing, he ran the souvenir stand at the stadium and always made sure to hand out free game tickets to all of the neighborhood kids who did well in school. However, when Rogers signs a contract with a professional vending company, Ted finds himself out-of-work.

Or, at least, he does until two sportswriters named Jonathan Smith and Mark Gordon write an article about the Toros’s bad season. Hoping to generate some positive publicity, Rogers follows a suggestion from Jonathan and signs Ted to the team. Ted makes history as the oldest professional baseball player and teaches the team how to have fun on the field. The Toros suddenly start winning games. But will they win enough to save Brigsby’s job?

Since this episode was about baseball, I got my sister to watch with me. I asked Erin if the episode was, in any way, a realistic portrayal of the game. Erin’s response was to laugh so I’m going to guess that means that most baseball teams would not put an elderly man on the mound as pitcher with the game on the line. Of course, the only reason that Rogers demands that Tilley be put in the game is because he wants the Toros to lose so that he can fire poor old Brigsby. That doesn’t seem like a smart business decision to me but then again, Rogers is typical of the businessmen who appear on this show. He smokes a cigar, he smirks when firing people, and he’s not allowed any sort of redemption.

Myself, I have to wonder just how exactly Jonathan and Mark got jobs as sportswriters. Mark doesn’t even know what their heavenly assignment is until they arrive at the stadium but somehow, within days, Mark and Jonathan’s byline is appearing in the local newspaper. We don’t ever see them get hired by the newspaper or having to deal with any editors. Usually, Mark and Jonathan take blue collar jobs that don’t require them to explain their past employment history or even offer up a list of references. But newspapers generally like to hire actual journalists to report their stories and not drifters who just need a job and a place to crash for a few days. Did the paper ask Jonathan and Mark for references or to see copies of their past work? Did Jonathan break the angel code by lying to the editors? It just seems weird.

Overall, this episode was predictable but heartfelt, in the usual Highway to Heaven fashion. Moses Gunn brough Ted Tilley to wonderful life and it was hard not to be touched by his joy when he struck out a member of the opposing team. Realistic or not, it was a sweet episode.