This music video goes out to everyone who will be traveling this holiday.
Enjoy!
Tag Archives: Lisa Marie Bowman
Late Night Retro Television Review: Baywatch Nights 2.21 “The Vortex”
Welcome to Late Night 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 Baywatch Nights, a detective show that ran in Syndication from 1995 to 1997. The entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!
This week, Mitch has a day off but still has to work.
Episode 2.21 “The Vortex”
(Dir by L. Lewis Stout, originally aired on May 9th, 1997)
Mitch has the day off and he’s spending it with Ryan! No matter what else one might say about Baywatch Nights and the direction it took as the production budget grew smaller, David Hasselhoff and Angie Harmon made for a cute couple and, as this episode began, I was kind of looking forward to watching them spend the day together.
Unfortunately, when they come across a fortune teller’s shop, Ryan insists that they go inside and discover their future. Mitch mocks Ryan for “believing in that stuff” and says that there’s no such thing as psychic powers or being able to see the future, despite the fact that, over the course of the second season, Mitch has both gotten psychic powers and traveled through time. Seriously, I get that Mitch was supposed to be the skeptic of the group but, by this point in the series, Mitch has seen and dealt with enough that his continual skepticism is just not believable. Especially after last week’s episode, Mitch should be prepared to accept anything. If this was a Lovecraft short story, Mitch would be ranting about the things he’s seen while locked away in an insane asylum.
At first, the store appears to be deserted. Ryan sits at the fortune telling table and, when an actress (played by Priscilla Inga Taylor of Malibu CA), comes in the store, Ryan is able to tell her that she’s going to get the next role for which she auditions. (I’d like to think that Taylor is playing her Malibu CA character, Traycee, here.) After the actress leaves, Mitch and Ryan are suddenly joined by the owner of the shop, Wahote (Floyd “Red Crow” Westerman). Wahote invites them to step behind a curtain and into a vortex and soon, Mitch and Ryan find themselves ten minutes into the future and watching as their future selves receive a call from Teague telling them that they need to investigate a boat that’s come back from the Amazon. Future Mitch complains about always having to do things on his day off. What I find strange is that neither present not future Mitch and Ryan seem to be curious as to why Teague, who apparently has connections with the CIA, is always asking the two of them to do these things.
A mysterious woman (Elaine Bilstad) shows up and says something about pollution and the rain forests. Mitch and Ryan jump around in time and eventually, future Ryan and Mitch have to help present Ryan and Mitch get off the boat because the boat is full of mutants that have been created by pollution. Or something. To be honest, I had a hard time following the plot of this one. Time travel nonsense is always a bit difficult for me to follow and the constantly moving camera was a bit of a distraction.
To give credit where credit is due, this episode had a good deal of atmosphere and, as I said earlier, Hasselhoff and Harmon were a likable team. But the episode’s story was nearly incoherent and the fact that Mitch was still a skeptic at the end of the episode required too great of a suspension of disbelief. During this episode, all I could think about was how obvious it was that Baywatch Nights was on its last legs.
Speaking of which …. next week, we finish up Baywatch Nights! It’s time for it all to end.
Retro Television Review: Fantasy Island 5.20 “Forget-Me-Not/The Quizmasters”
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 1984. Unfortunately, the show has been removed from most streaming sites. Fortunately, I’ve got nearly every episode on my DVR.
This week, Tattoo is still missing.
Episode 5.20 “Forget-Me-Not/The Quizmasters”
(Dir by Cliff Bole, originally aired on April 10th, 1982)
Amnesiac Ellen Layton (Jill St. John) comes to the Island in hopes of remembering who she was in her past life. Ever since she was tossed off a horse and struck her head, Ellen has not been able to recall a single detail of her old life. Roarke agrees to help, using another one of those magic plants that seem to grow in abundance on Fantasy Island. However, Roarke also shows Julie a hologram that reveals that, in her previous life, Ellen was a ruthless businesswoman who fired people at the drop of a hat.
As quickly becomes obvious, amnesiac Ellen is far happier than corporate Ellen. Afterall, amnesiac Ellen has all sorts of friends on the Island and she even has sleazy Mike Collins (Dan Gautier) pretending to be in love with her. (In what I believe is a Fantasy Island first, we hear the thoughts of Mike and several other men when they first learn that the wealthy and beautiful Ellen can’t remember anything about her past life.) But when Ellen’s real husband (Brett Halsey) comes to the Island looking for her, she has to decide if she wants to go back to who she used to be or if she wants to continue being the carefree amnesiac that she’s been for the last several months. Which will she choose?
You already know the answer to that one. Ellen’s fantasy really wasn’t that interesting. I preferred the first part of the show’s other fantasy. Two game show hosts (Gene Rayburn and Jan Murray), who are both in love with the same woman (Vikki Carr), come to the Island because they want to compete in the ultimate game show. Roarke actually sets up a game show for them, with himself as host and a studio audience. The two men are asked a question. The first man to answer correctly is given the choice of opening one of four doors. Three of the doors contain prizes, like love and money. The other door is the …. DOOR OF DEATH!
One of the joys of this episode is watching Ricardo Montalban play a game show host. He appears to be having a blast, especially when he gets to dramatically remind the two contestants about “the Door of Death!” And, while the two men do manage to open up two of the doors successfully (leading one contestant rescuing Vikki Carr from being burned at the stake as a witch and the other contestant robbing a 1920s bank), the third door that the two men open is THE DOOR OF DEATH!
Unfortunately, the Door of Death turns out to be a bit anticlimatic. The two men and the women they love have to survive in the wilderness while being pursued by an archer whose fantasy is to — *sigh* — hunt the most dangerous prey of all, man. The show just did a Most Dangerous Game knock-off just two episodes ago so why do it again? Fortunately, both of the game show hosts and the woman they’re fighting over survive. They leave the Island together, their love triangle unresolved.
The game show had a lot of potential but this episode was disappointing. Unfortunately, Tattoo was not in this episode and Julie served as Roarke’s assistant. Nothing against Julie but the whole game show thing seemed like it would have been a perfect set up for some Roarke/Tattoo banter. This show was definitely better with Tattoo than without him.
The New York Film Critics Circle Honors The Brutalist
The New York Film Critics Circle has announced their picks for the best of 2024 and it was a good day for The Brutalist, RaMell Ross, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Kieran Culkin, and — in probably the biggest surprise of the voting — Carol Kane! As for the social media reaction, there are a lot of happy Brutalist fans but there’s also currently a lot of very angry Wicked stans.
Here are the winners:
Best Picture: The Brutalist
Best Director: RaMell Ross, Nickel Boys
Best Actor: Adrien Brody, The Brutalist
Best Screenplay: Sean Baker, Anora
Best International Feature: All We Imagine As Light
Best Actress: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hard Truths
Best Supporting Actress: Carol Kane, Between the Temples
Best Non-Fiction Film: No Other Land
Best Cinematography: Jomo Fray, Nickel Boys
Best First Film: Janet Planet
Best Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain
Best Animated Film: Flow
Here Are The Winners Of The 2024 Gotham Awards
The Gotham Awards were presented last night. Here are the winners!
Best Feature Winner: A Different Man
Outstanding Lead Performance Winner: Colman Domingo in Sing Sing
Outstanding Supporting Performance Winner: Clarence Maclin in SING SING
International Feature: All We Imagine as Light
Best Director: RaMell Ross, Nickel Boys
Breakthrough Director Winner: Vera Drew for The People’s Joker
Best Documentary Feature Winner: No Other Land
Best Screenplay Winner: Azazel Jacobs for His Three Daughters
Breakthrough Performer Winner: Brandon Wilson in Nickel Boys
The Gothams are not exactly the most dependable of Oscar precursors but still, the people behind Sing Sing and Nickel Boys have to be happy with their awards. Sing Sing, in particular, is a film that was getting a lot of buzz but seems to have lately been overshadowed by more recent releases.
Awards season is here! I’ll do my best to keep up.
Music Video of the Day: Let Me In by Olya Sonica (2024, dir by Taylor Hungerford)
Enjoy!
Late Night Retro Television Reviews: CHiPs 2.23 “The Greatest Adventures of CHiPs”
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 Freevee!
This week, the second season of CHiPs comes to a close. Now, if you don’t remember much about what happened during the first two seasons of the show, don’t worry. This finale has got you covered. But first, let’s watch the opening credits and chair dance to the CHiPs theme song.
Episode 2.23 “The Greatest Adventures of CHiPs”
(Dir by Don Weis, originally aired on May 12th, 1979)
With Ponch and Baker absent from the morning briefing because they’ve gone to Bakersfield to teach a class, Sgt. Getraer announces to the assembled members of the High Patrol that they have been nominated for an award for going beyond the normal call of duty. Everyone’s totally excited for Ponch and Baker. Armed with a bulky 70s tape recorder, Grossie asks everyone for their favorite Ponch and Baker stories so that he can write a speech honoring them….
Yep, it’s a clip show.
It’s not just any clip show, either. It’s a 90-minute clip show. Of course, there’s only about fifteen minutes of new footage. The rest of it is made up of scenes of Baker yelling at motorists and Ponch smiling. Even when CHiPs attempts to show why both of them deserves a reward, it’s obvious that Baker does all the work and Ponch gets all the credit.
I understand the logic behind clip shows. They’re cheap and it allows almost everyone to have the weekend off. They’re not very entertaining to watch, though perhaps they carried more weight in the days before streaming and DVRs ensured that you could rewatch your favorite scenes whenever you wanted to. They are, however, very easy to review.
This clip show marks the end of the show’s second season. A clip show always seems like a weak way for a season (much less a show) to go out but again, I get it. Everyone’s tired. Everyone wants to head to Cabo for the summer. Get us out of here! CLIP SHOW!
(That said, this clip show does get some credit for including some pretty groovy disco footage! SOLID! Estrada gets to do his Travolta impersonation while everyone watches and claps.)
The second season of CHiPs was actually pretty entertaining, even if it is kind of silly just how much the show highlights Ponch over Baker. Technically, of the two of leads, Larry Wilcox was the better actor but Erik Estrada always seemed like he was having more fun. The second season had a few dud episodes but it also had its share of spectacular stunts and a lot of lovely California scenery. Sindy Cahill being perfect at everything got old pretty quickly but at least Arthur “Grossie” Grossman was around to provide some comic relief.
Well, that’s it. There’s not too much you can say about a clip show. Next week, we’ll start season three!
Retro Television Review: Miami Vice 3.10 “Streetwise”
Welcome to 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 Miami Vice, which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989. The entire show can be purchased on Prime!
This week, Bill Paxton and Wesley Snipes walk the streets of Miami!
Episode 3.10 “Streetwise”
(Dir by Fred Walton, originally aired on December 5th, 1986)
I was excited to see that this week’s episode of Miami Vice featured guest turns from not only Wesley Snipes but Bill Paxton as well! Then I remembered that guest stars never survive their episode and I felt a little bit sad. I know what was coming. Miami Vice is not a show that features happy endings. Anyone who gets involved in Miami’s vice trade is destined to end up dead, regardless of how innocent or guilty they may be. It’s a dark world in Miami.
Paxton plays Vic Romano, a vice cop from a neighboring precinct who is arrested during a prostitution bust. Romano has been having an affair with Carla Cappoletti (Alice Adair), an emotionally fragile prostitute who is abused by both her pimp, Silk (Wesley Snipes), and almost all of her clients. She knows that Vic is a cop and Vic knows that she’s a prostitute but neither one of them cares. As Vic puts it, they’re in love.
The Vice Squad is shocked to find that Carla is carrying cocaine that is almost totally pure. Trying to track down who is supplying Silk with the cocaine, the squad discovers that neither Carla nor Vic want to cooperate. While Vic tries to explain things to his wife, Tubbs goes undercover as a pimp. He bails Carla out of jail and tells her that she works for him now. When Silk shows up to object, Tubbs easily beats him up. Silk may talk tough but, without a gun to back him up, he’s not much of a fighter.
When Tubbs demands that Carla go to Silk and find out where he’s been getting his cocaine from, Carla refuses. Tubbs, still pretending to be a pimp, proceeds to yell at her and tear up a hotel room. A sobbing Carla begs Tubbs not to hurt her “too much,” and Tubbs realizes that he’s gone too far in trying to maintain his cover. He shows Carla his badge. It’s always kind of easy to laugh at the way that Tubbs trots out his fake Caribbean accent whenever he’s pretends to be Rico Cooper but Thomas does a really good job in this episode and he is genuinely frightening when he starts yelling at Carla. I found myself wondering just how far Tubbs actually would go to maintain his cover and I was actually relieved when he pulled out that badge.
It ends, as things often do with this show, in a shootout. Silk is gunned down by Crockett and Tubbs but not before Romano is shot by Silk. Romano dies in Carla’s arms and I felt a little teary-eyed. Bill Paxton was a wonderful actor and he gave a likable and sincere performance as Vic Romano. Watching the episode, I never once doubted Romano’s love for Carla. Both Snipes and Paxton were well-cast as their doomed characters. Neither one survived the hour but I doubt anyone who watched the show ever forgot them.
Monday Live Tweet Alert: Join Us for The Challenge!
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in hosting a few weekly live tweets on twitter and occasion ally Mastodon. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of Mastodon’s #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We snark our way through it.
Tonight, for #MondayActionMovie, the film will be The Challenge, from director John Frankenheimer!
It should make for a night of fun viewing and I invite all of you to join in. If you want to join the live tweets, just hop onto Mastodon, pull up The Challenge on YouTube, start the movie at 8 pm et, and use the #MondayActionMovie hashtag!
Enjoy!
Music Video of the Day: Never Say Forever by Mirror of Venus (2024, dir by Joy DaMert)
Enjoy!
Through the Shattered Lens