Late Night Retro Television Review: Check It Out! 3.13 “Edna, Howard, Cathy & Morty)

Posted on April 12, 2025 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 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, Edna continues to allow Howard to humiliate her.

Episode 3.13 “Edna, Howard, Cathy & Morty”

(Dir by Alan Ehrlich, originally aired on November 28th, 1987)

When her friend Cathy (Deborah Grover) comes to town and talks about her wonderful marriage to Morty (John Stocker), Edna once again wonders how long she’s going to have to wait for Howard to ask her to marry him.

If this episode seems familiar, it’s because I’ve lost track of how many times Check It Out! has done an episode featuring Edna getting frustrated with Howard’s refusal to settle down. Honestly, Edna can do better. The first season at least pretended like Howard was a born romantic who truly loved Edna. From the second season on, Howard has been taking Edna for granted and Edna really does need to move on. Howard is in his 60s, now matter how much this show insists that he’s actually in his 40s. If he’s not ready to commit yet, he never will be. At this point, it’s hard to really care about Edna’s situation with Howard.

On the plus side, this episode did feature Viker trying to become a magician. I laughed because Gordon Clapp could make just about anything funny. For that matter, the pre-credits sequence made me laugh. It featured Edna imagining that she was on the Dating Show and everyone reacting with shock when she announced she was going to pick Howard. I don’t blame them! You can do better, Edna!

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 4/6/25 — 4/12/25

Posted on April 12, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidinfluencing (Netflix)

The latest Netflix docuseries takes a look at kid influencers and the adults who get rich off of them. The first two episodes were a disturbing portrait of manipulation and exploitation. The third episode got bogged down with politics, with Taylor Lorenz demanding that the social media be regulated and various politicians making an unwelcome appearance. The problem with the third episode is that it often felt as staged as the youtube videos that dominated the first two episodes. That said, overall, this was a sobering call for parents to be a bit smarter about keeping track of what’s going on with their children, especially when it comes to their online lives.

Happy Hour (YouTube)

I watched an episode of this 90s, celebrity-driven game show on Friday night. Dweezil and Ahmet Zappa were the hosts. Dweezil was the epitome of cool while Ahmet kind of needed to calm down a little.

It’s The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown (Apple TV+)

Erin and I watched this holiday classic on Saturday afternoon. You can read her thoughts about it here.

Song of the Day: Diamond Diary by Tangerine Dream

Posted on April 12, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This is from the soundtrack for the 1981 film Thief, which I watched earlier this week and will be reviewing next Tuesday.

Retro Television Review: Welcome Back Kotter 4.23 “The Bread Winners”

Posted on April 12, 2025 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 Welcome Back Kotter, which ran on ABC from 1975 to 1979. The entire show can be purchased on Prime.

This week, we finally finish this show up.

Episode 4.23 “The Bread Winners”

(Dir by Norman Abbott, originally aired on June 8th, 1979)

Epstein is excited about getting a job working at an antique store. However, a chance meeting with the store’s owner leads to Freddie getting the job instead. Epstein gets upset and, after a tense confrontation at the Horshack residence, Epstein challenges Washington to a boxing match at the local gym. However, once at the gym, Epstein and Washington realize that they’re friends. They care about each other. They’re not going to let a little thing like a job come between them. The owner of the gym is so moved that he gives Epstein a job.

And so ends Welcome Back, Kotter. After 95 episodes, Kotter ends not with a bang but with a definite whimper. We don’t even see the Sweathogs defy the odds by finally graduating. It’s an underwhelming finale but apparently, it was made when there was still the possibility of a Kotter spin-off, which would have focused on Horshack and his marriage to Mary. This episode also sets up the possibility of a show featuring Washington working at the antique store or even Epstein working at the gym. (Henry Beckman plays the owner of the gym while Priscilla Morrill plays the owner of the antique store and both of them get a lot more dialogue and character-building moments than the guest stars typically got on Kotter.)

On the plus side, the show did manage to get nearly the entire cast to show up for the finale. Barbarino is absent, of course. But Gabe Kaplan makes one of his rare appearances, giving Washington some advice on how to make up with Epstein. Julie shows up at the beginning of the show but, noticeably, Marcia Strassman doesn’t share any scenes with Kaplan. John Sylvester White, as Woodman, gets to do his crazed laugh one last time. Beau gets a few lines of dialogue. We get a peek at Horshack’s homelife with Mary and even Epstein’s girlfriend, Kelly, shows up for a few scenes.

Again, this was an underwhelming finale but that makes sense when one considers that season 4 was an underwhelming season. Looking over this show, the first two seasons were the best. During those seasons, the show had a bit of an edge and the actors really seemed to be trying to ground their outlandish characters in at least a hint of reality. The third season saw the show turn into a living cartoon and Kotter never really recovered. By the fourth season, the actors cast as the Sweathogs were too old to still be playing high school students, Kaplan was refusing to appear on the show that was based on his stand-up act, and way too much time was wasted on Julie getting upset and glaring at people.

Well, we’re done with Welcome Back, Kotter. Next week, a new show will premiere in this time slot. It’s been a while since I started a new show so I’m looking forward to finding one that will be a slight change of pace. What will the show be? Check here next Saturday to find out!

The Eric Roberts Collection: The Perfect Summer (dir by Gary Wheeler)

Posted on April 12, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

It’s the perfect summer …. or is it?

In this 2013 film, teenage Jake (Adam Horner) moves to California with his mother, Alyssa (Sydney Penny). They move in with Jake’s grandfather, surf shop owner Lou Reynolds (Eric Roberts). At first, Jake is miserable. He misses his friends. He doesn’t know what to make of the California lifestyle. He has a crush on Kayla (Katie Garfield) but he feels insecure because he can’t surf and, when he does buy a surfboard, it’s promptly broken in half by the local surf bullies.

(Is there really such a thing as surf bullies? I’ve never lived on the beach so I really haven’t had much experience with surfers. The ones that I met in Hawaii and Galveston all seemed pretty cool, though. But, in the movies, they’re all like, “Can’t surf our beach, brah.” A part of me suspects that movies should not be used as a guide for real life.)

It’s a good thing that Lou just happens to be a legendary surfer! While Alyssa pursues a romance with Marcos (Louis Mandylor), Lou tries to teach his grandson how to surf. It’s not always easy. Jake gets frustrated easily and he doesn’t quite understand the zen philosophy behind surfing. But, with Lou’s help, Jake gets the hang of it and soon, Jake is ready to enter the big surging competition!

If this all sounds familiar, that’s because you’ve already seen a hundred films like this. Think of The Karate Kid, but with surfing and Eric Roberts as the mentor. It’s all very predictable but the beach is pretty. The ocean is majestic. My favorite American Idol also-ran, Jason Castro, shows up for a few minutes. And Eric Roberts actually gets a fairly substantial role and a chance to show what a good actor he can actually be! There’s absolutely nothing surprising about the film but, for what it is, The Perfect Summer works.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

Music Video of the Day: Spike Island by Pulp (2025, dir by Jarvis Crocker)

Posted on April 12, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Look who has returned….

Enjoy!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Friday the 13th: The Series 3.9 “Femme Fatale”

Posted on April 11, 2025 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 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, Micki finds herself trapped in a movie!

Episode 3.9 “Femme Fatale”

(Dir by Francis Delia, originally aired on November 20th, 1989)

In an isolated mansion, former film director Desmond Williams (Gordon Pinsent) lives with retired actress Lili Lita (Kate Reid). Lili is sick and bed-ridden now but, when she was younger, she starred in all of Desmond’s noir melodramas. Desmond still enjoys watching their old films, particularly one in which Lili played a doomed femme fatale named Glenda.

Unfortunately, Desmond’s copy of the film is cursed. Whenever he watches it, he has to watch with a young woman who will suddenly find herself switching places with Glenda. Glenda is allowed to live in the real world until her unfortunate replacement is killed in the film. Desmond is overjoyed to have Glenda come into his world. Glenda, however, is more than little frustrated by the fact that she always has to return to the movie.

When Micki shows up to try to retrieve the cursed film, she ends up trapped in the movie. Micki, however, is a bit more creative than Desmond’s other victims and continually tries to change the script, just to discover that the black-and-white characters around her are always going to do the same thing no matter what.

Meanwhile, Jack and Johnny show up and try to rescue Micki. While Glena explores the real world and even drops in on a showing of one of her old movies, Lili ends up shooting Desmond and then willfully taking Micki’s place in the movie. Micki returns to the real world. Lili dies in the film. Gloria burns up into nothingness. With Desmond dead, Gloria is now forever trapped in the film.

This was a good episode. When it started, I thought Desmond was going to turn out to be one of the quasi-sympathetic villains who was using a cursed object in an effort to help someone else. But, as the episode progressed, it becomes obvious that Desmond didn’t really love Lili. Instead, he loved the character that he created for her to be. He loved the imaginary femme fatale but not the real-life woman who played her. As well, the scenes inside the film were handled with a lot of wit and style. I enjoyed watching Micki trying to disrupt the film’s story. As much as I miss John D. LeMay’s Ryan, his absence really allowed Robey to come into her own during the third season.

Friday the 13th could be an uneven show but this episode was definitely a triumph.

Song of the Day: Theme From First Blood by Jerry Goldsmith

Posted on April 11, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In memory of Ted Kotcheff.

Retro Television Review: St. Elsehwere 1.18 “Dog Day Hospital”

Posted on April 11, 2025 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 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, Judith Light has got a gun!

Episode 1.18 “Dog Day Hospital”

(Dir by Victor Lobl, originally aired on March 22nd, 1983)

Finally, Dr. Ehrlich is performing his first solo operation. Dr. Craig is assisting but Ehrlich is in charge. He gets to play his music in the OR. He gets to decide what type of retractor to use. It’s a simple hernia operation. The patient (Sam Anderson) is awake and babbling through the whole operation.

Unfortunately, there’s also an angry woman in the OR and she has a gun. Barbara Lonnicker (Judith Light) is eight months pregnant, despite her husband claiming that he got a vasectomy at St. Eligius. As she already has several children to deal with, she wants to see the doctor who screwed up the vasectomy but she’s just as willing to shoot any other doctor to get her revenge. The operation continues while Dr. Craig and Dr. Westphall negotiate with her.

I have to admit that I did find a lot of this episode to be amusing. Ehrlich’s excitement over getting to do his first operation, Dr. Craig’s stuffy annoyance with being interrupted by a woman with a gun, and the patient’s nonstop rambling all made me smile more than once. And Judith Light, not surprisingly, was great as the woman with the gun. I loved the her husband was played by Tom Atkins. You never know who you might see at St. Eligius! That said, after the episode ended, I couldn’t help but think about how dumb the whole thing actually was. How are people always managing to get guns into St. Eligius? How did Barbara manage to get into an operating room without being stopped beforehand? (Luther does tell her that she can’t be back there but he’s the only one who seems to notice her before she bursts into the OR.) How come no one in the hospital seems to be more upset about the fact that there’s a woman waving a gun around an operating room? At one point, Barbara shoots Ehrlich’s radio and hardly anyone seems to react. The plot is played for laughs and that’s fine. But, in this case, the story was a bit too implausible for its own good.

Meanwhile, Nurse Rosenthal returned to work after her mastectomy and struggled to get back into her routine. Carolyn Pickles did a great job portraying Rosenthal in this episode. And Fiscus and Shirley Daniels visited an old woman in a nursing home. The subplots were handled well but, for the most part, this episode still felt as if it was trying a bit too hard.

The Eric Roberts Collection: Deadly Sanctuary (dir by Nancy Criss)

Posted on April 11, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 2015’s Deadly Sanctuary, Philadelphia reporter Kendall O’Dell (Rebekah Kochan) relocates to a small town in Arizona and proceeds to spend the majority of the movie complaining about it.

Seriously, I could relate to Kendall to an extent. We both have red hair. We both have asthma. We both hate snakes. We both wear high heels in the desert. We’ve both run outside in our underwear after coming across a tarantula in our house. But, even with all that in mind, even I quickly got annoyed with listening to her complain about every little thing. Her father got her a job at the Arizona newspaper so, of course, Kendall calls him up to complain about the desert. An old man stops and helps to shoo a snake away from Kendall’s car so, of course, Kendall gives him the glare of death when he casually calls her “sweetie.” (The guy’s 70 and was clearly not hitting on Kendall so maybe he can be forgiven for not speaking like a 30-something grad student.) Kendall shows up late for her job interview so, of course, she complains about the newspaper to her editor (Eric Roberts). Kendall gets a place to live, rent-free. She complains about the house being located near a mental hospital. Kendall’s co-worker, Ginger (Teri Lee), sets Kendall up with both a handsome cowboy (Marco Dapper) and the richest man in town (Peter Greene) and, of course, Kendall finds an excuse to complain about it.

Eventually, a plot of sorts kicks in. Kendall investigates the death of her predecessor and discovers that the sheriff (Dean Cain) doesn’t seem to be all the interested in solving any of the murders that seem to occur around town. She also tries to set up an interview with Dr. Price (Daniel Baldwin), the owner of the mental hospital, but it turns out that he doesn’t want to talk to her. He doesn’t care that she once wrote a series of articles about mental health in Philadelphia. (Yikes! I’ve seen Parking Wars so I can only guess how scary that must have been.)

Kendall hears strange voices in her house and spiders keep showing up at inopportune moments. Who can she trust? Who is the bad guy here? The rich guy or the salt-of-the-Earth cowboy dude? Well, I won’t spoil the film. I will say that the plot had potential but the poor pacing and the unlikable lead character eventually combine to do this movie in.

Eric Roberts is his usual avuncular self in this film. He spends most of his scenes sitting behind a desk. The rest of the film’s celebrity cameo budget was apparently spent on Dean Cain and Daniel Baldwin, both of whom seem rather bored with the whole thing.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed: