Technically, the French composer Marius Constant did not set out to write the theme song for The Twilight Zone. In the 50s, CBS commissioned Constant to compose a number of short pieces for CBS stock music library, basically as musical stingers that could be used for radio shows. In 1960, when The Twilight Zone needed a theme song, an enterprising CBS employee combined two of Constant’s composition to create the iconic Twilight Zone theme.
Enjoy our short but haunting song of the day.
Hey, I remember Play.
Enjoy!
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 the Canadian sitcom, Check it Out, which ran in syndication from 1985 to 1988. The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi and Peacock!
This week features some adorable kittens!
Episode 3.16 “My Hero, Mr. Bannister”
(Dir by Jayne Schipper, originally aired on January 3rd, 1988)
Stockboy Derek (Andrew Miller) admires Howard and decides that, in order to be like his idol, he’s going to drop out of high school and devote himself to becoming manager of a grocery store. Howard has to show Derek has stupid that would be. Fortunately, Derek comes to his senses by the end of the episode. No one wants to grow up to be Howard.
This was a weird episode, largely because everyone acted as if Derek was a regular member of the cast despite the fact that this was only his second appearance on the show. (He appeared earlier in the season, in yet another episode that was devoted to his character.) One of the oddest things about this season is that it keeps introducing characters who seem like they’re going to be regulars — Howard’s brother, the executive from the company that bought Cobb’s — but who then never show up again. Or in Derek’s case, they showed up on more time. Seen today, all of these episodes feel like backdoor pilots for shows that were never actually put into production. That doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily bad episodes, of course. While Derek’s storyline was a bit forgettable, the third season has still been a marked improvement over the first two.
This episode featured a B-plot about an adorable cat named Marvin who decided to live in the store with “Mrs. Marvin.” They had kittens! And the kittens were adorable. I’m a cat person so I enjoyed that. Otherwise, this episode was fairly forgettable.
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 3 By Cheever, which ran on PBS in 1979. The entire show can be purchased on Prime and found on YouTube.
This week, we finish up 3 By Cheever with an adaption of one of his best-known short stories.
Episode 1.3 “The Five Forty-Eight”
(Dir by James Ivory, originally aired on James Ivory)
Laurence Luckinbill stars as Blake, a business executive who rides the train into the city for work and then back to the suburbs when it’s time to return to his perfect home. One day, as Blake heads to his train, he comes to be aware that he’s being followed by his former secretary, Miss Dent (Mary Beth Hurt). Blake is concerned because Miss Dent made quite a scene when she was fired from her job a little while ago. Of course, a part of the reason why she was so upset was because Blake had earlier seduced her, something that he has a habit of doing when it comes to his secretaries. On the train, surrounded by neighbors (including one that Blake can’t stand because of his long hair), Blake finds himself sitting next to Miss Dent. She explains that she has a gun in her purse. As the train heads for its destination, Blake’s confident facade crumbles and he is soon as humiliated by his former secretary as she was by him. And yet, this being a Cheever story, one wonders if Blake is even capable of realizing why any of this is happening to him.
The final episode of 3 By Cheever was an adaptation of one of John Cheever’s best short stories. As directed by James Ivory, this adaptation can feel a bit overdrawn. The short story, for instance, opens with Blake on an elevator, already preparing to head home on the train. Ivory’s adaptation opens with Blake at the start of his day and we see a lot of things — like Blake’s antagonistic relationship with his long-haired neighbor — that Cheever simply mentioned. It takes a while for Miss Dent to finally sit down next to Blake and Ivory doesn’t do much to build up any sort of suspense while we’re waiting.
On the plus side, the film reveals Ivory’s skill when it comes to working with actors as both Luckinbill and Mary Beth Hurt give excellent performances. Luckinbill goes from being oily and overconfident to being a neurotic mess by the end of the show while Hurt does the opposite, going from being meek to commanding. Both the original short story and Ivory’s adaptation succeed in making you wonder what the future could possibly hold for either one of the two characters. They both seem to reach a point of no return and it’s hard to imagine Blake going back to his suburban home and his train rides and his motel hook-ups but, then again, this is a Cheever story so the implication is that he does just that, untouched by the fact that he nearly lost his life due to his own behavior. As for Miss Dent, she reclaims her self-respect by going to an extreme.
This was the last episode of 3 By Cheever. This was an interesting series of adaptations, even if Cheever’s prose does seem to work best on the page than literally translated to film. Next week, a new series will being in this spot.
Today’s song of the day is the haunting zither theme of The Third Man. Whenever I hear this music, I immediately think of Orson Welles, emerging from the shadows with that charming smile on his face. I also think about poor Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten), being chased through Vienna by that little kid who wouldn’t stop yelling at him. And, of course, there’s that famous final shot….
You should probably play this one loud.
Enjoy!
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 Friday the 13th: The Series, a show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990. The entire series can be found on YouTube!
This week, it’s just Jack and Micki!
Episode 3.12 “Epitaph For A Lonely Heart”
(Dir by Allan Kroeker, originally aired on January 22nd, 1990)
Eli Leonard (Neil Munro) is a mortician who uses a cursed embalming needle to bring the dead back to life. Of course, he has to kill someone for the needle to work. Eli has fallen in love with the corpse of a young woman and …. EEK!
The dead woman’s fiancé is Steve Wells (Barclay Hope), a friend of Micki’s who let’s her know that he thinks something strange is happening at the funeral home before he himself is killed by Eli. Micki and Jack investigate! It all ends with a big and convenient fire, which not only kills Eli but also the two women who he has recently brought back to life.
Johnny Ventura was not in this episode and, as much as I’ve complained about the character, he actually is missed. Having Micki just working solely with Jack threw off the show’s balance a little. Jack is so much older than Micki that, in this episode, it felt as if Micki was Jack’s apprentice as opposed to being an equal partner in the search for the cursed items. As a character, Micki works best when she has an impulsive guy like Ryan or Johnny to play off of. Both she and Jack tend be cautious so this episode just felt a bit off.
(That said, there was an enjoyable scene of Jack and Micki having to host a gathering of all the other local antique dealers, none of whom knew that Jack and Micki spend all of their time fighting the Devil.)
The mortician was one of the least sympathetic villains that this show has ever featured. He was lonely but he also an obsessive creeper with no people skills. Friday the 13th has often featured villains who were tragically misguided or seduced by the cursed antique. The mortician was just a creep. Neil Munro did a good job playing him, making him into a villain who you couldn’t wait to see meet his fate.
In the end, though, this episode just felt off. I guess this show really does need Johnny screwing up and accidentally giving away the cursed antiques. Who would have guessed?
Welcome to 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 St. Elsewhere, a medical show which ran on NBC from 1982 to 1988. The show can be found on Hulu and, for purchase, on Prime!
This week’s episode is a much better Dr. Craig episode than last week’s.
Episode 1.21 “Baron von Munchausen”
(Dir by Victor Hsu, originally aired on April 19th, 1983)
Anthony Rizzo (Louis Giambalvo) seems like a nice guy. He’s admitted to the hospital with complaints of stomach pain and a high fever. Dr. Morrison can’t find anything wrong with him but he does notice that Rizzo has a lot of scars. Rizzo explains that he’s had a lot of surgeries over the course of his life and he’s got a story to go with each one of them. Morrison brings in Ehrlich for a consult. Ehrlich, who loves to perform surgery, suggests opening Rizzo up and doing an exploratory. Morrison thinks it’s too early for that, Rizzo, however, loves the idea. Rizzo then proceeds to die on the operating table.
Ehrlich is shaken. Morrison is angry. However, Westphall and Craig take one look at the case and deduce that Rizzo suffered from Munchausen’s Syndrome. For whatever reason, he was addicted to going to the hospital and having surgery. He knew all the tricks, from using a light blub to make it look like he had a fever to pricking his finger with a needle to convince the doctors that there was blood in his urine. It turns out that he died because of the drugs that he had been taking to help him fake his symptoms. Both Morrison and Ehrlich are relieved to learn that Rizzo’s death was not their fault.
“So, Ehrlich lost his first patient today,” Craig says to Westphall. “It won’t be his last.”
This was a good episode for Dr. Craig, especially after all that nonsense last week. When Westphall finds himself in need of a doctor to speak to a group of inner city medical students, he is horrified to discover that Mark Craig is the only one available. Craig accepts, saying that Westphall should have asked him earlier.
Westphall’s concerns are justified. Dr. Craig is opinionated, wealthy, and more than a little prejudiced against …. well, everyone. “My ancestors came here on the Mayflower!” Craig is quick to say. And yet, the students love him, specifically because he doesn’t pretend to be anything that he isn’t. Unlike Westphall, who tries give an inspiring pep talk, Craig is open about the reality of practicing medicine in what this episode refers to as being “the ghetto.” When asked if his medical student son will be working in a ghetto clinic, Craig replies, “Why would he?” Craig gets a standing ovation from the students, which felt like a bit much but whatever. It was nice, for once, to see the show admitting that Craig’s blunt honesty can sometimes be more effective than Westphall’s noncommittal style of encouragement.
Afterwards, in a wonderfully acted scene, Craig asked Westphall why people don’t seem to like him, Westphall shrugs and then says that Craig can be arrogant, rude, prejudiced, intolerant of other worldviews …. “Thank you, Donald,” Craig cuts him off.
Meanwhile, back at the hospital, a crazy woman (Micole Mercurio) is sent to the psych ward after threatening to kill Nurse Daniels. (No, leave Shirley alone!) Dr. Wendy Armstrong, who is one of the worst characters on this show, promptly discharges the woman and lets her leave the hospital. “She threatened to kill me!” Shirley says while Wendy shrugs, unconcerned. Fiscus also proves to be of no help, as he is once again feeling attracted to Kathy Martin.
Finally, Dr. White goes to a drug addict support group and walks out when things get too emotional. Booo! Dr. White is even worse than Dr, Armstrong!
This was a good episode. Next week, the season finale!
Chicago is having a bit of a moment so today’s song of the day is one that pays tribute to the city’s history. Here is Ennio Morricone’s Theme From The Untouchables.
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 brings us a touching episode.
Episode 3.22 “A Father’s Faith”
(Dir by Michael Landon, originally aired on March 4th, 1987)
Jonathan and Mark visit an old friend of Mark’s, a fisherman named Gene Malloy (Eli Wallach). The Malloy family has been struggling ever since Gene’s son slipped into a coma after risking his life to save Gene’s daughter, Michele (Katherine Wallach), from drowning. Gene neglects his business and his family to spend all of his time visiting his comatose son. Gene’s wife (Anne Jackson) is feeling neglected and, because she blames herself for the accident, Michele has never visited her brother. Everyone tells Gene that his son is never going to wake up but Gene has faith.
This was a simple but effective episode, one that worked largely because of the cast. Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson were married in real life and Katherine Wallach was their daughter. Watching this family drama being played out by a real family made it all the more touching. In the end, Gene’s faith is rewarded. It’s a little bit implausible but it doesn’t matter. I still teared up a little. For that matter, so did Michael Landon and Victor French and I’m pretty sure those tears were real. Eli Wallach really poured his emotions into his performance as Gene. This was a very heart-felt episode where the sincerity of the emotions carried the viewer over any rough spots in the narrative.
As I watched this episode, it occurred to me that, if it was made today, the story would probably be used to promote assisted suicide or euthanasia. For whatever reason, there’s a lot of people who have really fallen in love with the idea of killing people who are sick or disabled. Personally, I prefer this episode’s approach. Sometimes, good things do happen.
Through the Shattered Lens 