Retro Television Review: St. Elsewhere 4.4 “The Naked and the Dead”

Posted on July 31, 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.

Life is getting dark in Boston!

Episode 4.4 “The Naked and the Dead”

(Dir by Leo Penn, originally aired on October 30th, 1985)

This episode opens with Dr. Craig in an even worse mood than usual. There’s two newspapers in Boston and they each have a totally different weather forecast. One says that the day is going to be warm and sunny. The other says to expect rain. How is Dr. Craig supposed to know whether or not take an umbrella to the hospital!? Ellen, meanwhile, is preparing for Stephen’s funeral, which is going to be held later in the day.

Yes, Dr. Craig does go to the hospital on the day of his son’s funeral. He says that he has no choice because his patients need him but it’s obvious that the hospital is his way of avoiding the grief and guilt that he feels over the death of his son. Ellen worries about whether or not Stephen will be buried in a comfortable suit. Dr. Craig yells at a post-op patient for smoking and eating too much. They’re both dealing with their sadness.

Dr. Westphall, meanwhile, deals with his nonstop depression by coming up with new (and impractical) community projects for the hospital. In this episode, he leaves Tommy with a babysitter so that he can try to persuade the Board of Directors to fund his latest project, a clinic devoted to battling malnutrition. The Board turns him down. Westphall returns home a depressed. That’s nothing new. Westphall is always depressed. That said, this was the first episode in which I really felt as if I understood Westphall’s depression. Westphall feels guilty because, for all of his medical training, he still doesn’t understand his son’s autism. So, instead of dealing with Tommy, Westphall throws himself into the hospital. He’s really not that much different from Dr. Craig.

While that’s going on, Bobby hooks up with a physical therapist at the hospital. Nurse Lucy (Jennifer Savidge) steals his scrubs and we get the sight of a half-naked Mark Harmon running through the hospital. Meanwhile, an aspiring teenage photographer (Robert Romanus — DAMONE FROM FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH!) is beaten up when he sells some bad drugs to the other inhabitants of the group home where he lives. The photographer is dead by the end of the episode. It’s just that type of day.

This episode ends with Dr. Craig and his wife going to the funeral. It’s raining, of course.

Wow, what a depressing episode! Fortunately, the strong ensemble cast kept things bearable, even though there wasn’t much happiness to be found over the course of the hour. Still, I worry about Dr. Craig. He really does seem like he’s just a few days away from snapping. Hopefully, he’ll express his grief at some point. It’s not good to hold all that in. We know there’s a bar near the hospital and Dr. Craig seems like he’s on the verge of becoming a regular.

Are things going to continue to get dark or is Boston going to see happier day? We’ll find out next week!

Retro Television Review: Decoy 1.33 “The Lieutenant Had A Son”

Posted on May 28, 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 Thursdays, I will be reviewing Decoy, which aired in Syndication in 1957 and 1958. The show can be viewed on Tubi!

Episode 1.33 “The Lieutenant Had A Son”

(Dir by David Alexander, originally aired on May 26th, 1958)

After spending five years overseas, career soldier Lt. Larry Hayes (Leo Penn) returns to New York City. He wants to see the son that he’s never met and he’s not happy when he discovers that, in his absence, his wife (Loretta Leversee) has married another man (Will Kuluva). His wife goes to the police for protection but, once it becomes obvious that she committed bigamy, Casey has to try to sort out who is married to who and who Larry, Jr. (Robie Grant) belongs with.

This was an odd episode. Absolutely no one was sympathetic. I even got annoyed with Casey for getting involved with these people. Lt. Hayes was a self-righteous martinet. His wife was a flake who simply didn’t seem to understand why she wasn’t being given a pass on the whole bigamy thing. Five year-old Larry, Jr. was played by a child named Robie Grant. I was not surprised to discover that this was Grant’s only credit because he was beyond lousy in the role. I have never been more annoyed by a five year-old.

The most interesting thing about this episode is that Larry Hayes is played by Leo Penn, the father of Sean, Chris, and Michael Penn. Leo Penn gives a believable performance as Larry. It wasn’t his fault that the character wasn’t particularly likable.

Retro Television Review: St. Elsewhere 3.18 “Any Portrait In A Storm”

Posted on May 1, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, it’s a stormy episode!

Episode 3.18 “Any Portrait In A Storm”

(Dir by Leo Penn, originally aired on January 30th, 1985)

As a rain storm rages outside, the drama inside St. Eligius continues.

Dr. Auschlander cancels the grand unveiling of his portrait, saying that he doesn’t feel worthy of the attention and also admitting to Westphall that the whole thing not only makes him feel old but also reminds him that he’s dying. Westphall’s response is to nod glumly because Westphall is the most depressed man on the planet. Auschlander is dying of liver cancer and he still manages to usually be more cheerful than Westphall. Even this episode ends with Auschlander in a good mood. He finally looks at his portrait and discovers that he likes it. Plus, Luther tells Auschlander how important he is to him and the other workers at the hospital.

While Auschlander feels his age and Westphall sadly stares at the ceiling, Dr. Ehrlich makes an effort to be more polite and fails completely. Ms. Hufnagle argues about her hospital bill. In an amusing moment, Warren spots Dean (Tim Van Patten) getting on an elevator and shouts, “Salami!” Before St. Elsewhere, Byron Stewart (who played Warren) and Van Patten starred together on a show called The White Shadow. Stewart played Warren, the same character that he plays on St. Elsewhere. Van Patten played someone named Salami. What makes the scene especially humorous is that Dean hesitates before saying, “You got the wrong guy,” as if he somehow remembers being a different character on another show.

Dean is at the hospital to tell his pregnant girlfriend that, despite the fact that she’s currently in labor, he’s leaving Boston for Florida so he can set up a drug deal. Both Dean’s girlfriend, Maddy (Lycia Naff), and Peter White’s widow, Myra (Karen Landry), give birth in this episode. Tragically, Maddy’s daughter dies. Myra has a son, who survives and who she names Peter. Afterwards, she receives an anonymous present — a little ski mask, identical in every way but size to the one that her late husband used to wear while he was terrorizing the hospital.

This was not a bad episode. The rain served as a good (if perhaps too obvious) metaphor for the drama happening inside the hospital. A good deal of this episode centered around Dr. Woodley trying to get Maddy to accept some help and get Dean out of her life. The problem is that this is only Dr. Woodley’s third or fourth episode and, as a result, I still don’t feel like I know much about the character. Having her suddenly take center stage for this episode felt a bit premature. Still, Norman Lloyd’s performance as Dr. Auschlander and the scene were Dr. Craig realizes that he left his lights on when he got out of his car kept things watchable, occasionally humorous, and, in the end, rather poignant. Sometimes, Dr. Asuchlander could be almost too good to be true but Norman Lloyd’s performance always sold every moment. That was certainly the case here.

Scenes I Love: Mark Wahlberg performs The Touch In Boogie Nights

Posted on June 5, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

He was born ready!

Since I already shared the full version for today song of the day, it only seems right to share the classic scene from 1997’s Boogie Nights, featuring Mark Wahlberg performing The Touch.

Horror On TV: One Step Beyond 2.14 “Make Me Not A Witch” (dir by John Newland)

Posted on October 14, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In tonight’s episode of One Step Beyond, Emmy (Patty McCormack) makes the mistake of telling her parents (Eileen Ryan and Leo Penn) that she can read minds. Needless to say, the news does not go over as well as Emmy might have hoped. Her parents have a farm to run! The last thing they need is a witch in their midst!

Emmy runs to the church and prays, “Make me not a witch!”

But what if the world needs a witch?

As with every episode of One Step Beyond, this episode is supposedly based on fact. Patty McCormack is best-remembered for her Oscar-nominated performance in The Bad Seed while Eileen Ryan and Leo Penn are best remembered as being the parents of Sean and Chris Penn.

This episode originally aired on December 22nd, 1959.

Enjoy!

Retro Television Reviews: Quarantined (dir by Leo Penn)

Posted on January 8, 2023 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 Sundays, I will be reviewing the made-for-television movies that used to be a primetime mainstay. Today’s film is 1970’s Quarantined! It can be viewed on YouTube!

The John C. Bedford Clinic sits atop a cliff overlooking the ocean. Though it may be a small hospital, it’s also widely respected. The clinic was started by John Bedford (John Dehner) and the majority of its employees are related to him. His three sons — Larry (Gary Collins), Bud (Gordon Pinset), and Tom (Dan Ferrone) — are all doctors and they all work at the clinic. Bud’s wife, Margaret (Susan Howard), is a psychologist and she also works at the clinic, encouraging the older patients not to give up hope in their twilight years. John Bedford is a stern taskmaster and his youngest son, Tom, resents always having his father and his older brothers staring over his shoulder. John and Larry explain that they are simply treating Tom the way that they would treat any new doctor. Tom isn’t so sure.

When the Bedfords aren’t hanging out in the tasteful ranch house that sits next to the clinic, they’re checking on their patients. As Quarantined opens, they’ve got quite a few to deal with. The most famous is Ginny Pepper (Sharon Farrell), a film star who has come to the clinic because she’s been suffering from back pain. Larry quickly diagnoses her as suffering from kidney failure and announces that she’s going to need to get an immediate transplant. Ginny is not happy to hear that and spends most of her time trying to make both Larry and Nurse Nelson (Virginia Gregg) miserable. Of course, it eventually turns out that Ginny’s not so bad.

Meanwhile, Margaret attempts to cheer up a dying old man named Mr. Berryman (Sam Jaffe) and an eccentric man named Wilbur Mott (Wally Cox) hangs out in the hospital hallway. Martha (Terry Moore) and Lloyd Atkinson (Madison Arnold) are at the hospital to visit their son, Jimmy (Mitch Vogel). Unfortunately, while in Jimmy’s hospital room, Lloyd suddenly collapses and subsequently dies. John takes one look at Lloyd and announces that Lloyd might have Cholera and, as a result, no one can leave or enter the hospital until the test results come back.

In other words, the John C. Bedford Clinic is …. QUARANTINED!

If you’re thinking this sounds a little bit dull …. well, you’re not wrong. Quarantined has a 73-minute running time and a large cast but it really does just feel like an episode of a not particularly interesting medical drama. It wouldn’t surprise me to discover that this movie was actually meant to serve as a pilot for a show that would have followed day-to-day life at the clinic. Each member of the Bedford family is given a hint of characterization, just enough to suggest what type of situations they would get involved in on a weekly basis. Larry was the straight shooter who was dedicated to saving lives. Bud was the well-meaning middle child while Margaret was the one who encouraged the men to talk about their feelings. Tom was the idealistic but impulsive youngest child. John was the wise patriarch. They’re all kind of boring.

The same can be said of Quarantined as a movie. As directed by Leo “Father of Sean” Penn, the movie promises a lot of drama but it never really delivers and there’s something rather annoying about how casually John announces that no one is allowed to leave the clinic. He even calls the police and has them set up road blocks around the clinic. On the one hand, John is doing the right thing. No one wants a cholera epidemic. On the other hand, everyone’s so quick to accept that idea of John being a benign dictator that …. well, one can only imagine what a pain in the ass the Bedfords would have been during the COVID era.

As far as I know, there was never a TV show about the Bedford family and their clinic on a cliff. Personally, I’m okay with that.

Horror on TV: Ghost Story 1.5 “The Summer House” (dir by Leo Penn)

Posted on October 5, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

On tonight’s episode of Ghost Story, Carolyn Jones and Steve Forrest play a couple who spend their summers in a vacation home that appears to be haunted as well. This was one of Carolyn Jones’s final roles.

This episode originally aired on October 13th, 1972. Director Leo Penn is perhaps best known as the father of actors Sean and Chris Penn.

Horror On TV: One Step Beyond 2.14 “Make Me Not A Witch” (dir by John Newland)

Posted on October 24, 2020 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Emmy runs to the church and prays, “Make me not a witch!”

But what if the world needs a witch?

This episode originally aired on December 22nd, 1959.

Enjoy!

Horror on TV: The Veil Episode 5 “The Crystal Ball” (dir by Herbert L. Strock)

Posted on October 9, 2019 by Lisa Marie Bowman

On tonight’s episode of The Veil, a writer (Booth Colman) is heartbroken when his lover, Marie (Roxane Berard) leaves him so that she can marry his boss (played by Leo Penn, father of Sean). To help soften the blow, Marie gives the writer a parting gift, an ornamental crystal ball. However, it doesn’t turn out to be much of a gift because the only thing that the writer can see in the ball are visions of Marie cheating on her husband! Boris Karloff both hosts and plays the role of the writer’s uncle.

This is one of the lesser episodes of The Veil but it still has its entertaining moments, largely due to the performances of Roxane Berard and, of course, Boris Karloff. I guess my main problem with this episode is that it doesn’t so much end as it just stops. I was waiting for one big twist but …. oh well! Listen, it’s got Boris Karloff in it and you should always watch as much Karloff as possible in October!

Enjoy!