Tag Archives: Matt Feemster

Retro Television Review: Baywatch 1.2 “Heat Wave”

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 Baywatch, which ran on NBC and then in syndication from 1989 to 2001.  The entire show can be purchased on Tubi.

Save me!

Episode 1.2 “Heat Wave”

(Dir by Gus Trikonis, originally aired on September 29th, 1989)

Not much of an episode this week, I’m afraid.

California is dealing with a heat wave and no one has air conditioning (really?) so everyone in Los Angeles is heading down to the beach so that they can relax in the hot sand.  Eddie and Trevor keep giving each other the side eye because Eddie is a Baywatch lifeguard and Trevor is a country club life guard.  Eddie tries to hit on a woman who has spent the entire day relaxing near his tower but it turns out that she’s visiting from Australia and only has eyes for Trevor.  “Maybe next time,” she tells Eddie.

Craig is told by his boss that he has to choose between being a lawyer at a big firm or a lifeguard.  Craig’s wife, Gina, suggests that Craig quit the law firm and become a beachfront lawyer.  She says that he can still be a lifeguard and he can just use their kitchen table as his desk.  I don’t know if I would be as understanding as Gina.  Craig was making a lot of money as a big corporate lawyer, even if he apparently couldn’t afford to get an air conditioner.

(What the Heck, California?  How are you surviving with air conditioning!?)

Meanwhile, two stupid kids get trapped in a storm drain.  Mitch sends the junior lifeguards out to look for them.  Hobie asks, “What can a bunch of junior lifeguards do?”  Mitch replies that this is an opportunity for the junior lifeguards to go to all the places that they’re usually not allowed to go.  So, basically, Mitch’s plan to find the missing kids is to put a bunch of other kids at risk.  I guess that’s why he’s the lieutenant.

Luckily, the two dumb kids are rescued.  One of the kids is the son of Steve Humboldt (Jeffrey Byron), a former Baywatch lifeguard.  It turns out that Steve lost custody of his kid in a court case and he basically abducted him.  But, after the kid nearly dies, Steve is like, “We’re going to call your mom and go home!” and that apparently makes everything okay under the “He Changed His Mind Afterwards” clause.

This was all pretty dumb.  Stay out of the storm drain, kids!  It’s not that difficult.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Freddy’s Nightmares 1.12 “The End of the World”

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 Fridays, I will be reviewing Freddy’s Nightmares, a horror anthology show which ran in syndication from 1988 to 1990. The entire series can be found on Plex!

This week, dreaming saves the world.

Episode 1.12 “The End of the World”

(Dir by Jonathan R. Betuel, originally aired on January 15th, 1989)

Weird episode.

The first half of the episode featured Mary Kohnert as Amy Collins, a young woman who starts to have dreams about the past and discovers that she can change reality depending on what she does in her dream.  Most of the dreams center around the accidental death of her mother.  Amy sets about to save her mother’s life but she discovers that changing the past will always lead to unforeseen consequences.

Unfortunately, her psychiatrist (George Lazenby) rats her out to the CIA and Amy is soon being forced to work for the U.S. military.  When she senses that a soldier is planning on launching a nuclear attack and plunging the world into war, Amy is forced to do a mind-meld of sorts with him.  She watches as the army manages to break into his bunker and gun him down right before he launches the nukes.

I can’t complain about a show trying something different and I actually found it interesting how the two stories were totally different in style and tone.  The second story featured a dream about a nuclear war that was pretty disturbing.  On TV, Gumby and his horse melted from the atomic heat.  That said, this episode suffered from the same flaw as many of the episode of Freddy’s Nightmares, in that it really didn’t have the budget necessary to achieve what it was hoping to accomplish.

Still, who can forget the image of Freddy Krueger riding a nuclear missile in the style of Slim Pickens at the end of Dr. Strangelove?

Along with having an interesting premise, this one also had some interesting guest stars.  Along with George Lazenby and Gumby, Walter Gotell, Andrew Prine, and Albert Hall all made appearances.  I guess when Freddy Krueger invites you, you don’t say no.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Highway to Heaven 4.7 “Amazing Man”

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 Thursdays, I will be reviewing Highway to Heaven, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1989.  The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi and several other services!

This week’s episode of Highway to Heaven deals with death and is the best of season 4 so far.

Episode 4.7 “Amazing Man”

(Dir by Michael Landon, originally aired on November 11th, 1987)

When a cop who was trained by Mark is killed in the line of duty, his family becomes Jonathan and Mark’s next assignment.  While Lorraine Douglas (Jane Daly) comes to terms with being a widow and a single mother, her young son (Garrette Ratliff Henson) plays with an Amazing Man action figure and seems to be in denial about his father’s death.

This was a surprisingly low-key episode, up until the final few minutes.  That’s when Amazing Man came to life, in the form of Michael Landon wearing a super hero costume.  It says something about the sincerity and the likable earnestness of this show that this episode still worked despite having Michael Landon turn into a version of Superman.  I mean, really, it should have been a ludicrous scene.  It should have made my cynicism go into overdrive.  Instead, I couldn’t help but smile.  Landon’s big heart came through in this episode.

This was a well-done episode and certainly the best of season four so far.  That said, the one-year anniversary of my dad’s death is approaching and this episode was about a father dying and, as a result, it left me feeling rather depressed.  I don’t particularly want to spend too much more time thinking about this episode because, right now, that’s just going to make me more depressed.  That said, the important thing is that show’s the good intentions came through.  This was a sweet episode.  I hope everyone involved with it was proud of the final result because they had every right to be.