Tag Archives: Lisa Marie Bowman

Retro Television Review: Decoy 1.35 “Tin Pan Payoff”

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

This week, Casey goes undercover!

Episode 1.35 “Tin Pan Payoff”

(Dir by David Alexander, originally aired on June 9th, 1958)

After songwriter Chick Williams is found murdered in his apartment, the only clue that the police have going for them is a vinyl record spinning on Chick’s record player.  (Welcome to 1958!)  The singer on the record is Sally Masters (Ellen Parker), a local nightclub performer.  The police figure out that it’s a “demo record.”  Sally is the number one suspect so Casey goes undercover as a music agent and discovers just how cutthroat the business can be.

This episode was a whodunit.  It turns out that Chick cheated and betrayed a lot of people in his life.  It seems like the entire city of New York has a motive but, since this is Decoy, Casey quickly narrows it down to four suspects.  Casey going undercover as a music agent was actually more interesting than the mystery itself, if just because Casey got to dress up and hang out in one of those wonderfully atmospheric New York nightclubs.  She also learned about how DJs like Jerry Lynch (Lee Bergere) can make someone a star and also how even successful songwriters like Chick Williams occasionally employed “a ghost writer.”  Watching Decoy, it’s hard not to feel that the best thing about Casey’s job is that she has an unlimited wardrobe and she gets to investigate every single facet of New York society.

Like a lot of the later Decoy episodes that I’ve seen, this episode isn’t quite as gritty as the earlier episodes.  There’s less emphasis on Casey as a tough cop and more on Beverly Garland looking glamorous undercover.  That said, Casey still gets the job done and takes a few minutes to speak directly to the audience.  One thing I appreciate about Casey is that she doesn’t let her own feelings get in the way of doing her job.  At a time when women were often portrayed being too flighty or emotional to be trusted in a position of authority, Casey always got results.

Join #TubiThursday For Troll 2!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hi, everyone!  Tonight, on Mastodon, I will be hosting the #TubiThursday watch party!  Join us for 1990’s Troll 2!

You can find the movie on Tubi or Prime and you can join us on Mastodon at 9 pm central time!  (That’s 10 pm for you folks on the East Coast.)  We will be using #TubiThursday hashtag!  See you then!

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Steve Miner 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, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to director Steve Miner.  It’s time for….

4 Shots from 4 Steve Miner Films

Friday the 13th Part II (1981, dir by Steve Miner)

House (1985, dir by Steve Miner)

Lake Placid (1999, dir by Steve Miner)

Day of the Dead (2008, dir by Steve Miner)

Late Night Retro Television Review: 4.5 “….The Clock Runs Out”

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 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, Joe Hears meets his fate.

Episode 4.5 “….The Clock Runs Out”

(Dir by Stan Lathan, originally aired on November 2nd, 1988)

Poor Joe Hearns!

Last episode, Joe went from being a skid row windshield cleaner to being a defense coordinator to being a linebacker on the team.  This episode …. well, he dies.

Seriously.

It’s not a particularly noble death either.  After a rookie player (played by Kevin Sorbo, of all people) is seriously injured in a prank involving a bull, Hearns decides to go back to the farm and challenge the bull himself.  The show ends with the bull charging at Hearns and since Harold Sylvester (the actor who played Hearn) is not listed as having appeared in any episode of 1st & Ten beyond this one, I can only assume that the bull won.

Seriously, what was the point of that whole storyline?  Bubba, Jethro, and TD all thought that Joe Hearns would be able to redeem himself on the Bulls.  Hearns turned out to be suffering from massive PTSD, the result of having crippled an opposing player the last time he played.  This episode, Joe has a near breakdown when one of the team’s new executives reprimands Joe for parking in his spot.  And then Joe dies.  I guess the lesson here is that he would have been better off if Bubba and Jethro had just left him in that parking lot.

Watching this show, I get the feeling that the writers really didn’t have much direction in the writing room.  It’s amazing how often a potentially interesting character like Joe Hearn will be introduced and then dropped an episode later.  There have been so many storylines that have been started and abandoned in a similar fashion.  This very season started with the Bulls players buying the team and then, three episodes later, they decided that they didn’t want to be team owners after all.

The one thing that remains consistent?  The bland affability of OJ Simpson.  OJ may not have been a particularly good actor but he certainly was personable.  That undoubtedly paid off for him later in life.

Unfortunately, Joe Hearns was not personable.  And now, he’s dead.

(Actually, so is OJ.)

 

Retro Television Review: The Love Boat 7.24 “A Rose Is Not A Rose/Novelties/Too Rich and Too Thin”

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!

Come aboard, we’re expecting you.  And love …. won’t hurt anymore…. Actually, that’s not quite true.  There’s some real pain in this week’s episode.  Then again, there’s also Don Adams and Rich Little.  It’s all a bit strange, to be honest.

Episode 7.24 “A Rose is Not a Rose/Novelties/Too Rich and Too Thin”

(Dir by Neil Cox, originally aired on March 17th, 1984)

Hey, Don Adams is on The Love Boat …. again!  This time, he’s playing a novelties salesman who is in love with Audrey Meadows.  Meadows, however, assumes that Adams is only pursuing her because he wants to place his gag gifts in her store.  Adams doesn’t help his case by constantly bringing up his novelties.  This was a silly story.  It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t particularly memorable.  It was pleasant in the way that watching an old sitcom with a grandparent can be pleasant.

Both Doc and the Captain have fallen for Jamie Sloane (Jamie Lynn Bauer), an actress who is up for a big commercial.  Jamie worries about her weight.  She pops diet pills like crazy.  She doesn’t eat at dinner.  Yes, that’s right — The Love Boat deals with anorexia!  And there’s nothing wrong with that except for the tonal whiplash that comes from having a relatively serious story about a potentially fatal condition playing out next to Don Adams trying to sell novelty gifts and Rich Little pretending to be a woman.

Yep, impressionist Rich Little boards the cruise.  He’s playing Barry Corwin, the best friend of singer Rose York.  Rose has been hired to sing on the boat but she’s fallen ill.  So, Barry boards the boat disguised as Rose …. no, come back.  Come back.  This is really dumb but at least let me finish the review.  Of course, passenger Radford Harcourt (Arte Johnson) falls for Rose.  In fact, no one figures out that Rose is actually Barry, even though Rose has a noticeable five o’clock shadow and is wearing a pretty obvious wig.  Meanwhile, Barry falls for Julie.

And again, it’s not that this is really a bad story.  It’s pretty much a standard silly Love Boat story.  But there’s just a massive tonal whiplash here as the episode goes back and forth from Don Adams and Rich Little to a woman dying to be thin.  As such, this episode really doesn’t work.

But I know what you really want to know.

How coked up was Julie?

Obviously, very coked up.  I mean, she didn’t even notice that the cruise’s entertainer was just Rich Little in a wig.  Somehow, I can’t help but think this could have been avoided if Ace had been on this cruise but this the second week in a row that the ship has sailed without its photographer on board.

This was an odd cruise.  Eating disorders suck.

Song of the Day: Main Theme From Zombi 2 by Fabio Frizzi

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Zombi 2 (1979, dir. Lucio Fulci, DP: Sergio Salvati)

For today’s song of the day, we celebrate the birthday of Lucio Fulci with Fabio Frizzi’s main theme from 1979’s Zombi 2.  If you’ve ever seen the film, it’s impossible to hear this piece of music without imagining hundreds of zombies walking across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Scenes that I Love: Checking Out The Boat in Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The scene below comes from the 1979 Lucio Fulci masterpiece, Zombi 2.

In this scene, a mysterious boat is floating towards New York City.  Two cops are sent to check the boat out and, as they eventually discover, the boat isn’t quite as deserted as they thought it was.

Now, there’s a few reasons why this scene is important.  Number one, Zombi 2 is an Italian film that was designed to pass for an American film.  (Technically, it was sold as being a prequel to Dawn of the Dead, which was released under the title Zombi in much of Europe.)  In order to maintain the illusion, Italian filmmakers would often spend a day or two shooting on location in a recognizable American city.  More often than not, that city would turn out to be New York.

Number two, since Zombi 2 was promoted as being a bit of a prequel to Dawn of the Dead, one could argue that this scene shows how the whole zombie apocalypse began in the United States.  It wasn’t radiation from space or Hell running out of room.  No, instead, it was juts a boat floating from an island in the Caribbean all the way to New York.

This scene is also memorable because of the “boat zombie,” who is one of the best-known of the movie zombies.  Even people who have never heard of Lucio Fulci will probably recognize the boat zombie.  He’s an icon of the undead!

Finally, this scene sets up one of the greatest closing shots in the history of zombie cinema.  New York beware!

6 Shots From 6 Films: Special Lucio Fulci Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

 

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

99 years ago today, Lucio Fulci — the maestro of Italian genre filmmaking — was born in Rome.  Fulci would go on to direct some of the most visually stunning (and, occasionally, most narratively incoherent) films ever made.  Fulci worked in all genres but he’ll probably always be best remembered for launching the Italian zombie boom with Zombi 2.  His subsequent Beyond trilogy continues to fascinate and delight lovers of both horror and grindhouse filmmaking.

Lucio Fulci, needless to say, is a pretty popular figure here at the TSL.  In honor of the date of his birth, it’s time for….

6 Shots From 6 Lucio Fulci Films

Lizard in a Woman’s Skin (1971, dir by Lucio Fulci, DP: Luigi Kuveiller )

Four of the Apocalypse (1975, dir by Lucio Fulci, DP: Sergio Salvati)

Zombi 2 (1979, dir by Lucio Fulci, DP: Sergio Salvati)

City of the Living Dead (1980, dir by Lucio Fulci, DP: Sergio Salvati)

The Beyond (1981, dir by Lucio Fulci, DP: Sergio Salvati)

The House By The Cemetery (1981, dir by Lucio Fulci, DP: Sergio Salvati)

Late Night Retro Television Review: Pacific Blue 4.7 “Damaged Goods”

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, the bike cops are it again.

Episode 4.7 “Damaged Goods”

(Dir by Michael Levine, originally aired on October 4th, 1998)

Bobby has a new girlfriend named Annie (Tracy Hutson).  Bobby says that he’s in love with her.  Meanwhile, Granger is in lust with Annie’s best friend, Jo (Shannon Elizabeth, in an early role).  After Granger sleeps with Jo, Jo tells him that he owes her $200.  It turns out that both Jo and Annie get paid to have sex.  Meanwhile, Annie’s roommate is found dead below a 6-story window.

Chris is convinced that Annie’s roommate was murdered.  TC and Cory disagree.  TC is especially angry because he thinks Chris is spending too much time hanging out with her friends in Homicide.  Oddly enough, none of those friends show up in this episode.  As well. no one from the Vice Squad shows up to investigate the campus prostitution ring.  Instead, this is yet another episode where it somehow all falls to the bicycle cops.

Monica goes undercover and joins Jo and Annie’s therapy group, where Dr. Alicia Alper (Joyce Hyser) teaches that prostitution is empowering.  Soon, Jo recruits Monica to work as a an escort.  Or, at least, I think it was Jo.  This episode is edited in such a haphazard way that it was hard to keep track of what was actually going on.

This episode finds Cory worrying about how she’s going to survive as a single mom.  Her ex-boyfriend, Doug (Owen McKibben), returns and says that he wants to be in the baby’s life.  Cory says that it’s been over a month since Doug reacted to the news of her pregnancy by walking out on her.  Doug threatens to sue for the right to be a part of the baby’s life.  Cory has a miscarriage.  She says it was due to the stress Doug put her under.  Doug says that it was due to Cory still working a very physically demanding and rough job despite being pregnant.  I felt so bad for Cory in this episode, especially since the only person (other than Doug) who bothered to visit her in the hospital was Chris, who is pretty much incapable of feeling or showing emotion.

Anyway, it turns out that Annie’s roommate was murdered by a client and then the client was murdered by Dr. Alper.  However, when the bike cops arrest her, several other woman all walk up and declares that Dr. Alper is innocent because they killed the client.  However, Dr. Alper confesses.  Bobby breaks up with his girlfriend.  That’s probably for the best.  Everyone knows Bobby should be with Monica.

This episode …. oh God.  I mean, it tried to liven things up a little.  There were a lot of intense interrogation scenes and a lot of jump cuts that were apparently meant to create tension.  We would watch Chris ask a question and then jump to someone in a totally different room answering an unrelated question.  It was very showy but it wasn’t very effective.  These folks aren’t hard-boiled detectives.  They’re bicycle cops.

Seriously, where were the real detectives?