Tag Archives: Lisa Marie Bowman

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 2.13 “One Last Dance”

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 Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1989 to 1991!  The series can be streamed on YouTube and Tubi

Degrassi High comes to a close.  Here’s the final time we’ll be hearing this theme song.

Episode 2.13 “One Last Dance”

(Dir by Kit Hood, originally aired on February 11th, 1991)

With the end of term approaching, the students of Degrassi High are shocked to hear that their school will be closing.  The next year, everyone will be split up and going to different schools.  Lucy may have just been elected president of the student council but she’s never going to take office.

It’s sad news but at least the students get one last dance.

Joey and Caitlin finally get back together as the series come to a close, dancing in Degrassi’s gym.  Upon hearing some students discussing the rumor that one of their classmates is HIV+, an angry Dwayne finally admits that it’s him.  His “friend” Nick (George Chaker) refuses to speak to him.  His other friend, Tabby (Michele Johnson-Murray), finally gets over her fear and shares a dance with him.  Snake dances with Michelle.  Wheels shows up to the dance and I’m going to assume that he’s no longer homeless.  Arthur — remember when this show was all about Arthur? — is spotted dancing with someone.  The camera pans over all of the students in the school’s gym, sharing some final moments as they prepare to end one chapter of their life and start another.  It’s a low-key but effective ending for the show.  It helps that the we’ve gotten to know the characters so well.  Degrassi High didn’t need to burn down the school to have an effective ending.  It just needed to get everyone together in the gym.

However, it was not the end of the franchise, not hardly.  A year after Degrassi High ended, School’s Out would air and our characters would be given temporary (and, in some cases, rather tragic) closure.  I’ll take a second look at School’s Out next Sunday. And then, a decade or so later, a new generation would become students at Toronto’s most famous learning center.  Degrassi: The Next Generation is coming soon!

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 3.20 “The Gas Man”

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 Sundays, I will be reviewing Homicide: Life On The Street, which aired from 1993 to 1999, on NBC!  It  can be viewed on Peacock.

This week, the third season of Homicide comes to an end.

Episode 3.2o “The Gas Man”

(Dir by Barry Levinson, originally aired on May 5th, 1995)

The third season of Homicide was coming to an end and NBC was dragging its heels as to whether or not it would renew the show.  Homicide was critically acclaimed but its ratings were low, despite the efforts to make the show more audience-friendly during the third season.  Producer Barry Levinson grew frustrated with NBC’s refusal to tell him whether or not the show would be renewed.  Feeling that show was probably over, Levinson and showrunner Tom Fontana decided to do something truly radical.  They crafted a series finale that sidelined most of the major characters.

Instead, The Gas Man focuses on Victor Helms (Bruno Kirby) and his best friend, Danny Newton (Richard Edson).  Helms has just gotten out of prison, where he served six years after a gas heater he installed malfunctioned and caused the death of one of his customers.  Helms blames Frank Pembleton for the loss of both his freedom and his family.  (After getting released, Helms tries to talk to his teenage son but is rejected.)  Helms and Newton follow Pembleton across Baltimore, watching as he goes to work and to a fertility clinic.  While Pembleton is investigating the murder of a fortune teller, Helms and Newton sneak onto the crime scene and find both the murder weapon and the fortune teller’s severed head.  Helms takes both of them home and sends pictures to the Baltimore Sun, trying to taunt Pembleton.  Both the Sun and Pembleton assume its a hoax.  Eventually, Helms makes his move and, even with a knife to Pembleton’s throat, he realizes that he doesn’t have it in him to commit a cold-blooded murder.  He starts to cry.  Pembleton arrests him.  Life goes on.

This was an interesting episode.  The first time I saw it, I was a bit annoyed that the focus was taken off the lead characters.  But the more I think about it, the more I appreciate what Levinson was going for.  With this episode, he shows us what happens after the investigation and the conviction.  Victor Helms is angry because he feels, perhaps with some justification, that he was unfairly charged and convicted.  He’s obsessed with Pembleton but it’s clear that Pembleton doesn’t even remember him.  For Pembleton, arresting Victor Helms was a part of his job, nothing more.  For Helms, it was the moment that his entire life collapsed.  Bruno Kirby and Richard Edson both gave good performances as Helms and Danny.  Kirby captured Helms’s obsession but he also gave us some glimpses of the man that Helms used to be.  As portrayed by Edson, Danny’s loyalty to his friend was actually kind of touching.

Of course, it turned out that this episode was not the series finale.  Homicide would return for a fourth season, without Daniel Baldwin or Ned Beatty.  We’ll start season four next week!

Song of the Day: Rip Her To Shreds by Blondie

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

She thinks she’s Brenda Starr/her nose job is real atomic….

I love this song.  It makes me regret that I was born to late to experience New York in the 70s.  “She’s do dull …. rip her to shreds,” is a favorite expression of mine, one that gets me strange looks from people who are not familiar with this song.

Oh well.  I can live with the looks!

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special 1990 Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!

Today, we pay tribute to the year 1990!  It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 1990 Films

Goodfellas (1990, dir by Martin Scorsese, DP: Michael Ballhaus)

Avalon (1990, directed by Barry Levinson, DP: Allen Daviau)

Dances With Wolves (1990, dir by Kevin Costner, DP: Dean Semler)

The Forbidden Dance Is Lambada (1990, dir by Greydon Clark, DP: R. Michael Stringer)

Scene That I Love: Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to Martin Sheen.

In this scene from 1979’s Apocalypse Now, Sheen shows the intensity that not only nearly killed him when he suffered a heart attack during filming but which also served to make Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam epic a true classic.

 

Music Video Of The Day: Summer Girl by HAIM (2019, dir by Paul Thomas Anderson)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

What happened to summer this year?  Seriously, it’s just kind of flying by.  We’ve got August and then the first half of September and then it’s going to be Autumn again!  Get out there and enjoy yourselves while you still can!

Today’s music video of the day is all about summer.  It captures a few essential truths.  Number one, it’s fun to get undressed in public.  Number two, if you take off enough clothes while walking down the street, some dude with a saxophone will undoubtedly start following you.  What I like about this video is how everyone is both intrigued and annoyed by the saxophone player.  This is a video that just captures what it’s like to be young and have your entire future ahead of you.  It also captures the feeling of summer!

(On a personal note, the Haim sisters remind me of the Bowman sisters, except we’re four and they’re three.)

This video was directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, who apparently has directed a few films as well.  No, not the Resident Evil films.  That’s a different Paul Anderson, all together.

Enjoy!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Good Morning Miss Bliss 1.3 “Wall Street”

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 Saturdays, I will be reviewing Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which ran on the Disney Channel from 1988 to 1989 before then moving to NBC and being renamed Saved By The Bell.  The entire show is currently streaming on Prime!

This week, Miss Bliss makes the mistake of trusting her students.  Zach Morris also learns a lesson about the Stock Market.  Mr. Belding learns better than to try to be nice to Miss Bliss.  It’s quite an episode!

Episode 1.3 “Wall Street”

(Dir by Burt Brinckerhoff, originally aired on December 14th, 1988)

Mr. Belding is concerned.  Miss Bliss is teaching her class a lesson about Wall Street.  Each of her students has donated $2 and the money has been used to buy a safe and dependable stock.  Belding doesn’t think that it’s good for the students to invest real money but, as usual, Miss Bliss just smirks away his worries.

However, Zach needs $300 to pay for a video camera that he damaged.  With the help of his friend Mickey (Max Battimo), Zach breaks into the classroom, gets on the computer, and invests the class’s money in potatoes.  He buys the stock on margin.  So, of course, when the stock tanks, Miss Bliss ends up owing $1,500.

“You just cost me my new car!” Miss Bliss angrily exclaims.

What car was Miss Bliss going to buy for $1,500?  It sounds like maybe they did Miss Bliss a favor, to be honest.

Miss Bliss gets angry and storms out of her classroom.  Mr. Belding comforts her and tells her that she’s a good teacher.  He jokes that something even worse will probably happen in the future.  Miss Bliss snaps that he should have just said, “I told you so.”

This exchange between Mr. Belding and Miss Bliss gets right to the heart of why I can’t stand Miss Bliss.  Mr. Belding is trying to help.  He compliments her.  He tells her that this sort of thing happen to every teacher.  He attempts to lighten the mood with a joke.  And Miss Bliss snaps at him.  Miss Bliss is someone who has no problem dismissing everyone else’s problems but, once something goes wrong for her, the entire world is supposed to stop.  Mr. Belding didn’t say “I told you so,” because Mr. Belding isn’t a condescending know-it-all, unlike a certain teacher who no longer afford a new car.

I liked this episode.  The overwhelming smugness of Miss Bliss meets the overwhelming self-absorption of Zach Morris.  The end result is Miss Bliss doesn’t get a car but she does get a bag of potatoes.  Miss Bliss even forgives her students for stealing from her.  To be honest, Zach is in the 8th Grade and most 8th Graders know better.  Add to that, Zach sneaks into the school to buy those potatoes.  Again, this is not typical 8th Grade behavior.  It might be time to get this kid some professional help because God knows what he’s going to be like when he reaches high school….

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 7/27/2025 — 8/2/2025

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Big Brother 27 (24/7, CBS, Paramount, Pluto TV)

I’ve been writing about Big Brother over at the Big Brother Blog.

Diff’rent Strokes (Tubi)

On Sunday morning, I watched an episode in which Mr. Drummond was being sued by an employee who had lost out on a promotion because Drummond felt he had a responsiblity to give the promotion to a black executive.  At first, Willis was all in favor of handing out jobs based on race but then, when he was cut from the school basketball team to make room for a white player, Willis realized that he was actually against Affirmative Action.

I followed this up episode up with a two-parter in which Arnold wore a wire to take down two bullies at his school.  Is that really something that the police needed to get involved with?  Of course, the middle school bullies did appear to be in their mid-20s so maybe it was a good idea to get the police involved.

On Monday, I watched an episode in which Mr, Drummond gave a promotion to a woman.  Willis was all like, “How can you promote a woman!”  Kimberly thought the woman was going to try to steal her father.  It was a dumb episode.  I’m probably not getting the plot right because I was bored.  I followed this up with an episode where Arnold wanted to join a football team but the football coach was a jerk.  Mr. Drummond told the coach off.  Then, I watched an episode where a baseball coach wanted to recruit Willis but Mr. Drummond didn’t approve of the coach’s tactics.  Mr. Drummond was kind of a busy body.

Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service (Hulu)

Gordon Ramsay helped a restaurant that was owned by a woman and only employed women.  The owner said that her goal was to empower women.  So, of course, she brought in Gordon Ramsay to save the restaurant.  This restaurant had a dead rat in the kitchen.  Close that place down!

The Prisoner (Night Flight Plus)

I watched two more episodes on Saturday night.  Rover is my favorite character.

Untold: The Fall of Favre (Netflix)

I watched this Netflix documentary earlier today.  It was about how Brett Favre went from being a beloved football hero to a somewhat shady figure of scandal.  It really didn’t dive that deeply into the story but I guess it worked as a reminder that a celebrity’s public self is often far different from their private self.

Untold: Johnny Football (Netflix)

Johnny Manziel was trending on twitter for some reason so Erin and I decided to watch this Netflix documentary about him.  The documentary explored why Johnny Manziel failed to make much of an impression as a professional football player.  The main reason would appear to be that he was kind of dumb.

Untold: Malice at the Palace (Netflix)

This was a documentary about a brawl that broke out during a basketball game.  It was interesting to watch, even though I’m not really into basketball.  Both the fans and the players came across as being spoiled and immature.  I recognized Metta World Peace from his brief stint on Celebrity Big Brother.

Watched and Reviewed Elsewhere:

  1. 1st and Ten
  2. The American Short Story
  3. CHiPs
  4. Degrassi High
  5. Fantasy Island
  6. Freddy’s Nightmares
  7. Good Morning, Miss Bliss (Review will drop in 90 minutes)
  8. Highway to Heaven
  9. Homicide: Life On The Street
  10. The Love Boat
  11. Miami Vice
  12. Pacific Blue
  13. St. Elsewhere

 

 

The TSL Grindhouse: Bummer (dir by William Alan Castleman)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 1973 film Bummer tells the story of a California rock band known as The Group.

The Group plays groovy music with a mellow feel.  The music they play doesn’t sound so much like actual 70s California rock as much as it sounds like what someone from the big band era would have assumed mellow 70s California rock sounded like.  The Group is led by the charismatic Duke (Kipp Whitman).  The lead guitarist and the drummer look like groovy dudes as well.  But then there’s Butts (played by the great character actor, Dennis Burkley), the bass player.  Butts is a big fat slop with a beard, unwashed hair, and a genuine aura of grime.  Duke’s girlfriend tells Duke that he really should kick Butts out of the band.  The problem is that Duke owns the van that the Group travels around in.  It’s the type of 70s van that was probably nicknamed “The Second Base Mobile.”

Well, Duke really should have considered kicking Butts out of the band because it turns out that Butts is crazy.  He’s a sociopath with a mother fixation and, when he realizes that he’s the only member of the band who isn’t getting laid on a regular basis, he goes crazy and starts assaulting and murdering groupies.

It’s a bummer!

This film was produced by David Friedman, the genial sexploitation producer who is best-known for his collaborations with Herschell Gordon Lewis.  Lewis did not direct Bummer and I have to say that I was a little bit surprised to discover that because there’s a scene at a strip club that goes on for so long and which features so many pointless close-ups of pervy men staring up at the dancers that I immediately assumed that Lewis must have, at the very least, snuck onto the set and supervised it.  Instead, the film was directed by William Allen Castleman, who also did directed Johnny Firecloud and The Erotic Adventures of Zorro.  So be it.  I’m still convinced that Lewis has something to do with this movie.

Bummer is one of those films about how wasteful the younger generation is, with their mellow rock music and their bongs and their groupies.  The film’s main message seems to be that anyone under the age of 30 is intellectually vapid and spiritually empty but at least they look good without their clothes on.  It’s a mix of exploitation and nostalgia.  “You know who didn’t murder groupies?” the film seems to be saying, “Glenn Miller, that’s who.”

The film is pretty dull.  Scenes drag.  It takes forever for any sort of plot to develop.  Most of the cast is forgettable but Dennis Burkley makes an impression as the unhinged bass player and watching him in this, it’s easy to understand why be became such a busy character actor.  There’s an authentic edge to Burkley, one that comes through even in this film.  One of the groupies is played by Carol Speed, who would later appear in Disco Godfather and warn people about the dangers of “whack attack.”  Oddly enough, the film looks surprisingly good.  Cinematographer Gary Graver worked on films like this in between working on Orson Welles’s The Other Side Of The Wind.

In the end, Bummer lives up to its title.

Retro Television Review: The American Short Story #9: Soldier’s Home

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 Saturdays, I will be reviewing The American Short Story, which ran semi-regularly on PBS in 1974 to 1981.  The entire show can be purchased on Prime and found on YouTube and Tubi.

This week, we have an adaptation of a short story by Ernest Hemingway.

Episode #9 “Soldier’s Home”

(Dir by Robert Young, originally aired in 1977)

Having gone from attending college to serving in the Army during the Great War, Harold Krebs (Richard Backus) returns home to Oklahoma.  He arrives home later than most of the other soldiers who served.  (He stayed in Europe until 1919.)  As a result, there’s no big parade waiting for him.  Everyone in town seems to have moved beyond the war and they no longer have much of a desire to talk about it.

Harold, who was once a popular and optimistic member of the town’s social set, no longer feels that he fits in.  He feels detached, watching people as they go about their lives but never feeling any desire to join them.  His mother (Nancy Marchand) pushes him to go out and date and have a good time but Harold feels lost, regardless of how much she prays for him.

Ernest Hemingway’s short story was one of the first to realistically deal with the feelings of soldiers returning from combat.  Though Harold doesn’t talk much about his experiences, one can tell that he saw and experienced things that left him scarred.  After surviving the horror of The Great War, there’s no way Harold can just slip back into his normal routine.

The adaptation sticks closely to Hemingway’s story.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t really find the visual style necessary to capture the power of Hemingway’s words.  Hemingway was a deceptively simple storyteller and Robert Young’s film is a fairly straight-forward portrait of a young man who doesn’t want to do anything, one that fails to truly capture the subtext of Hemingway’s story.  Richard Backus’s blank-eyed acting style worked well when he was playing a member of the undead in Deathdream but, in this one, he just makes ennui seem boring and petulant.  Nancy Marchand, not surprisingly, is far stronger in the role of his well-meaning but clueless mother.

As was almost always the case when it came to attempts to adapt Hemingway, it’s best just to read the original.