Tag Archives: Lisa Marie Bowman

Retro Television Review: The Love Boat 8.13 “Paying the Piper/Baby Sister/Help Wanted”

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 Wednesdays, I will be reviewing the original Love Boat, which aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986!  The series can be streamed on Paramount Plus!

Welcome aboard!  We’re expecting you….

Episode 8.13 “Paying the Piper/Baby Sister/Help Wanted”

(Dir by Richard Kinon, originally aired on December 1st, 1984)

Cheryl Enicker (Rue McClanahan) is sick of her husband, button manufacturer Harold (Donald O’Connor), taking her for granted.  When she gives him a watch that cost $1,200, Harold points out that, since she gets all of her money from him, he basically bought the watch himself.  Cheryl gets upset and hands Harold an invoice, listing everything that she’s done as a wife and mother for 25 years and demanding that Harold pay her half a million dollars.  That’ll show him!  After the episode, I was kind of of curious as to why the invoice was only for half a million dollars.  It seems like it should have been more.  I did some calculations and discovered that $520,00 in 1980 was the equivalent of $2,000,000 today.  Wow!

Recent high school graduate Patty Springer (Dana Plato) can’t understand why her much older sister, Eleanor (Jaime Lynn Bauer), is freaking out about Patty hanging out with Peter Barkan (Christopher Knight).  Eleanor goes as far as to kiss Peter in order to make Patty think that Peter is cheating on her.  Patty’s mother, Eve (Vera Miles), suggests that Eleanor should tell Patty the truth.  Eleanor isn’t actually Patty’s sister.  Eleanor is …. Patty’s mother!  And Eve is actually Patty’s grandmother.  Needless to say, Patty is shaken by this news but she accepts it by the time the cruise ends.  The Love Boat was only an hour show so most cases of generational trauma had to be resolved fairly quickly.

Kim Carlisle (Michelle Johnson) is the niece of a friend of Captain Stubing’s.  Kim shows up, saying that her uncle said Stubing would find something for her to do on the ship.  Kim goes from department-to-department, screwing things up.  She removes all of the labels from the wine bottles so she can wash them.  She snaps a picture of a man cheating on his wife.  However, when she starts doing aerobics, several passengers join her.  Kim is hired to be the new recreation director and — WAIT A MINUTE!  I thought that was Charo’s job!  Well, apparently, Charo is out and Kim is in.

This cruise was pleasant but forgettable, which seems to be becoming the norm for season 8.  It didn’t take me long to guess the big twist about Eleanor being Patty’s mother.  Poor Dana Plato.  Knowing what I now know about her life and what the future had in store for her adds a definite melancholy feel to this episode.

Song of the Day: Do It To Me (Once More) by Riz Ortolani

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The House on the Edge of the Park (1980, dir by Ruggero Deodato)

Today’s song of the day is a deathless little disco song that comes from the soundtrack of Ruggero Deodato‘s legendarily tacky film, The House On The Edge Of The Park.  This was one of many songs composed by Riz Ortolani, the John Williams of Italian exploitation cinema.

(This is also the song that Giovanni Lombardo Radice was dancing to in today’s scene that I love.)

Scenes That I Love: Giovanni Lombardo Radice Dances in The House on The Edge of the Park

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today, the Shattered Lens celebrates what would have been the 72nd birthday of the great Italian actor (and my friend), Giovanni Lombardo Radice!

I’ve shared this scene before but I’ll happily share it again.  In Ruggero Deodato’s The House On The Edge of the Park, Giovanni Lombardo Radice shows a bunch of rich jerks how he can dance.  Dancing with Radice is his frequent co-star, Lorraine De Selle.  Wearing the yellow suit is the equally iconic David Hess.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special 2014 Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Shots From 4 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 cinematic year of 2018.  It’s time for

4 Shots From 4 2018 Films

Mandy (2018, dir by Pan Cosmatos)

First Reformed (2018, dir by Paul Schrader)

A Quiet Place (2018, dir by John Krasinski)

Mom and Dad (2018, dir by Brian Taylor)

 

Late Night Retro Television Review: Pacific Blue 4.20 “Trust”

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 Tuesdays, I will be reviewing Pacific Blue, a cop show that aired from 1996 to 2000 on the USA Network!  It’s currently streaming everywhere, though I’m watching it on Tubi.

This week, Cory makes another stupid mistake.

Episode 4.20 “Trust”

(Dir by Terence H. Winkless, originally aired on April 11th, 1999)

When her best friend is murdered, Cory assumes that the killer is her friend’s ex-boyfriend, Mark (Joel Gretsch).  FBI profiler Jerry Beck (Eric Scott Woods) agrees.  In fact, he claims that Mark is a serial killer who has been stalking and killing blondes across the country.  Cory, who blames herself for her friend’s death and who has recently broken up with Bobby Cruz, works with Jerry to try to stop Mark’s reign of terror.  But what if Jerry Beck isn’t who he says he is?  What if the real Jerry Beck was murdered and an imposter took on his identity?

This is one of those episodes where Monica pretty much figures out what’s going on but everyone ignores her because both the characters and the show itself seem to have a bizarre hated for her.  Every episode in which Monica appears seems to feature Monica doing better detective work than everyone else on the bike patrol and getting absolutely no credit for it.  In this case, Cory does eventually admit that Monica was right so I guess that’s progress.

Oh, this was a stupid episode.  Having an FBI profiler turn out to actually be a serial killer isn’t a bad idea but having the killer somehow steal the identity of an actual FBI agent without anyone noticing is one of those things that just asks for too much of a suspension of disbelief.  Having Cory then fall for the fake FBI agent while she’s supposed to searching for the killer of her best friend was just another example of Cory basically acting like an idiot.  That’s been a frequent thing with Cory this season.  It’s odd because Cory used to actually be the smart member of the bike patrol.

While Cory is trying to avenge her friend’s death, Granger hooks up with a woman that he meets online.  Jamie is skeptical that CyberVixen is going to be the next Mrs. Granger.  It’s always funny to me to see television shows that attempted to deal with the Internet in the 90s.  You can always tell that they were written by aging boomers who weren’t quite sure what the Internet was and probably expected it to just be a brief fad.

To me, the funniest moment in this episode was the members of Pacific Blue realizing that Cory was alone with a serial killer so, instead of calling a squad car, they all just hopped on their bicycles and rode over to Cory’s apartment.  I mean, would it kill them to take a car for once?  I imagine they would have gotten over to the apartment quicker.

This episode was pretty dumb.

Retro Television Review: Saved By The Bell: The New Class 2.19 “The Class of 2020”

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 Saved By The Bell: The New Class, which ran on NBC from 1993 to 2o00.  The show is currently on Prime.

“One thing I’ll never forget is when the writers were too lazy to come up with a new episode so we just did a clip show instead….”

Episode 2.19 “The Class of 2020”

(Dir by Don Barnhart, originally aired on November 19th, 1994)

Screech and Belding are making a documentary to put in the time capsule for the class of 2020.  Wow, those 2020 graduates will be amazed to see what the world was like before they were born!

Megan and Bobby are interviewed.  Lindsay and Tommy are interviewed.  Rachel and Brian are interviewed.  There’s a lot of dialogue like “Remember that time we thought we got Mr. Belding fired?” and “I’ll never forget the time my friends helped me out.”  Yep, it’s a clip show.  One of the clips comes from the previous week’s episode.

Two things of note:

One of Lindsay and Tommy’s clips features Weasel and Scott from the previous season.  That makes this episode the only time that anyone during the second season actually acknowledged that Scott, Weasel, and Vicki used to go to Bayside.

Secondly, Rachel and Brian talk about falling in love over the summer at the country club.  But this episode ends with Screech and Belding talking about how Screech’s first year as Belding’s administrative assistant is coming to an end.  None of the students met Screech until he started working as Belding’s administrative assistant, as the start of the school year.  But they all know Screech in the country club episodes.  In fact, Screech is the one who hired them.  So, the country club episodes have to have taken place during the summer after Screech’s first year as Belding’s academic assistant.  So, this clip show apparently includes clips from the future.  Maybe Brian and Rachel are time travelers.

Anyway, it’s a clip show.  Who cares?

Scenes That I Love: Convoy

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s scene of the day comes from 1979’s Convoy and it features Kris Kristofferson as the greatest trucker of all time, Rubber Duck.  In this scene, Rubber Duck rescues a fellow trucker from jail and lets the authorities know what they can do with their law.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special John Woo Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Shots From 4 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 wish a happy birthday to director John Woo.  It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 John Woo Films

A Better Tomorrow (1986, dir by John Woo, DP: Wing-Hang Wong)

The Killer (1989, dir by John Woo, DP: Peter Pau, Wing-Hang Wong)

Broken Arrow (1996, dir by John Woo, DP: Peter Levy)

Face/Off (1997, dir by John Woo, DP: Oliver Wood)

Late Night Retro Television Review: CHiPs 6.9 “Return To Death’s Door”

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, a future star makes an appearance and Bruce gets a chance to prove himself.

Episode 6.9 “Return To Death’s Door”

(Dir by Winrich Kolbe, originally aired on December 12th, 1982)

Teenage Chris (Lee Montgomery) is risking his life in dangerous street races! Can Ponch, who knew Chris’s older brother and who was there the day that Chris’s brother was killed in a street race, get through to Chris? Sure, he can. He’s Ponch. He can do anything.

This episode of CHiPs felt very familiar. This is not the first time that the show featured Ponch having flashbacks to his youth as a juvenile delinquent. Of course, Estrada plays himself in the flashbacks and, by the time the sixth season rolled around, he was a little bit old to be convincing as a teenager. But no matter! What’s important is that Ponch took part in one last race to convince Chris to change his life around. That’s the power of Ponch!  (And fear not.  Ponch appears to have gotten over the death of his fiancée in record time.)

While Ponch was saving lives and changing outlooks, two honeymooners from the South were stealing cars and having a fun time seeing the sights. Honey Jean was played by Kathy Shower while her new husband, Billy Joe, was played by an actor named Bryan Cranston.

That’s right. Bryan Cranston!

This episode proves that everyone had to start somewhere. Today, Bryan Cranston is best-known for playing Walter White on Breaking Bad and the father on Malcolm in the Middle. (To be honest, I think Malcolm in the Middle is one of those shows that people claim to like more than they actually do.) In 1982, he was just a young actor playing a down-home car thief on CHiPs and speaking with a really broad country accent.

Interestingly, it’s Bruce Nelson who arrests Billy Joe and Honey Jean. Between Ponch ending the street races and Bruce making arrests, Bobby Nelson really didn’t get to do much in this episode. Tom Reilly may have been listed second in the credits but this episode treated him like a bystander. From what I’ve read, Reilly and Estrada got along even worse than Estrada and Wilcox. When Reilly got arrested for driving while intoxicated, it led to the real Highway Patrol threatening to pull their sponsorship and, if CHiPs had come back for a seventh season, it’s easy to imagine that Reilly would have been gone and Bruce Penhall would have been Ponch’s new partner. That actually might have worked because Penhall is a far more believable cop than the somewhat spacey Reilly.

In fact, Bruce gets to do a lot of good things in this episode. He also rescues a dog that had gotten loose on the highway and brings it to the station. Harlan adopts it and Getraer spends this episode sneezing. Eventually, the dog’s owner picks up the dog. Don’t worry, though. Bruce shows up with yet another dog and this one is even cuter than the first!

The dogs were cute and I enjoyed saying, “Wait a minute! Is that Bryan Cranston!?” For a sixth-season episode of CHiPs, that counts as success.