Today’s music video of the day is another voyage into the wild world of the rural landscape. I watched this video and ordered a new pair of thigh high boots.
Enjoy!
Tag Archives: review
Late Night Retro Television Review: Check It Out! 3.9 “Bannister & Dale”
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!
I guess Howard’s a TV star now.
Episode 3.9 “Bannister & Dale”
(Dir by Alan Erlich, originally aired on November 14th, 1987)
Mr. Dale (Paul Soles) is an old vaudevillian who now shops at Cobb’s. He doesn’t have enough money to pay his rent so Howard gives him a job working at the store. He doesn’t have enough money to keep his retirement home running so Howard gets Mr. Dale booked on a television show. Mr. Dale’s old partner died in 1952 so Howard agrees to step in and….
Wait. Howard’s a talent agent now?
Seriously, how does a grocery store manager have the connections necessary to get an obscure vaudevillian booked on a national talk show? I mean, I get that they’re all up in Canadas and it’s a simpler place but still, it just seems like a stretch. And really, how popular was vaudeville in the 80s? I always see all of these old TV shows, where the characters are doing a fundraiser or something and they recreate a vaudeville act or they put on clown makeup and sing Bring In The Clowns but it never feels very realistic.
Anyway, most of the show is made up of Howard and Mr. Dale recreating Mr. Dale’s old vaudeville routines and it’s all pretty dumb. But I will say that it was a lot easier for me buy Don Adams as an old man who remembered and loved vaudeville than as the swinging 40-something store manager that the show usually presents him as being. Still, it’s a bit strange to imagine a national talk show setting aside time for an act featuring an old vaudevillian and a grocery store manager. I guess that’s Canada for you.
Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 3/2/25 — 3/8/25
I watched the Oscars on March 2nd. I originally intended to watch it on Hulu but Hulu struggled, just as Netflix did during its first time out, with streaming such a large event and I ended up just watching the ceremony on boring old ABC. I liked the Oscars this time around. Conan O’Brien was a good host. The politics were kept to a minimum. The ceremony moved along efficiently and it was hard not to get caught up in Sean Baker’s enthusiasm. I cheered when Flow won. I groaned when the Best Documentary winners started their long ramble. The ceremony felt like a throwback to the old Oscars. The ratings were not good, regardless of how they’ve been spun. Eventually, the Oscars will be something that will be exclusively streamed on Hulu and that’s it. Hopefully, Hulu will get the bugs out of the system before next year.
Before I watched the Oscars, I watched Devil In The Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke, the latest creepy true crime docuseries on Hulu. I watched as Ruby went from a successful mommy vlogger to a convicted felon. Interestingly, most of the people hurt by Ruby went on to become influencers themselves. The docuseries was an intense look at just how crazy people can get in a world where everyone is famous.
Also on Sunday, I watched Gordon Ramsay rescue a gastropub on Kitchen Nightmares. Come Thursday, I watched another episode of Dark with Case.
Throughout the week, I watched my usual shows for my Retro Television Reviews. I didn’t watch a lot and I need to get caught up on Abbott Elementary, Survivor, and a few others. But this week was still an improvement over last week!
Song of the Day: Adagio for Strings by Tiesto
For today’s song of the day, we have Tiesto putting a new spin on an old classic.
Retro Television Review: Welcome Back, Kotter 4.19 “The Gang Show”
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.
Gabe and Julie are gone but life continues at Buchanan High.
Episode 4.19 “The Gang Show”
(Dir by Norman Abbott, originally aired on March 17th, 1979)
It’s time for the annual Buchanan High talent show and this year, Epstein and Washington are totally convinced that their lame mid-reading act is going to win. They’ve lost every year that they’ve entered and, considering that both Epstein and Washington appears to be pushing 40, that’s a lot of failure! Horshack and Beau talk about how their friends came in dead last during the previous show. How does Beau know? Beau’s the new kid. Beau was in Louisiana or wherever he’s supposed to be from when the last talent show was held.
Epstein and Washington think that they’ve got this contest in the bag. The judges are Horshack, Beau, and their classmate, Wilbur (Bob Harcum). Their dedicated teacher, Jean Tremaine (Della Reese), is a bit concerned that the judges won’t be mature enough to set aside their friendships and truly honor the best act. Maybe Mr. Kotter should talk to them….
Oh wait, Gabe isn’t in this episode.
Maybe Julie needs to cross her arms and tell the judges, “This is not funny….”
Oh wait, Julie’s not here either.
That’s right, this is another Welcome Back Kotter episode that doesn’t feature or even mention a single Kotter. Woodman is there, making odd comments and carrying two hardboiled eggs. (Woodman’s so cool.) But the Kotters are gone and, for some reason, everyone’s acting like Ms. Treamaine has always been their teacher.
As for the talent show, Epstein and Washington’s act sucks. Far more impressive is Carvelli (Charles Fleischer), who sings a blues song about peanut butter and jelly and show that there’s more to him than just being a bully. Remember when Carvelli and Wilbur first appeared on the show and they were members of a rival gang and the implication was that both Carvelli and Wilbur had killed multiple people? Now, suddenly, Carvelli is the king of the talent show and Wilbur is one of the judges. It’s amazing how things change. All they really had to do was get rid of Julie and suddenly, Carvelli is revealing himself to be a sensitive soul.
Horshack and Beau do the right thing. They vote for Carvelli. Wilbur votes for Washington and Epstein because he genuinely liked their dumb act. Apparently, there were no other acts. What a lame talent show! Tremiane is proud of Horshack and Beau for doing the right thing. She encourages Washington and Epstein to try again next year …. NEXT YEAR!? Epstein’s going gray and Washington has laugh lines. If they’re still in school next year, Buchanan needs to be shut down!
This was a weird episode. I used to make fun of Gabe’s corny jokes but they would have been useful in this episode. Seriously, this whole fourth season just feels wrong. Kotter without Kotter just doesn’t work.
Music Video of the Day: Gone Fishin’ by MacKenzie Carpenter (2025, dir by ????)
I’m a country girl so I related to this one and I liked Mackenzie Carpenter’s attitude in the song. That’s Southern sass as its best. That said, that doesn’t look like much of a fishing hole.
Enjoy!
Late Night Retro Television Review: Friday the 13th: The Series 3.5 “Stick It In Your Ear”
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, a hearing aide turns into a snake and heads explode all over wherever this show is supposed to be taking place. I always assumed this show took place in Canada but some people insist it was set in Chicago. I just know it’s taking place somewhere cold.
Episode 3.5 “Stick In Your Ear”
(Dir by Douglas Jackson, originally aired on October 16th, 1989)
Hack stage mentalist Adam Cole (Wayne Best) has come into possession of a cursed hearing aid that allows him to hear the thoughts of other people. This is great for act! However, the hearing aid also sometimes becomes so full of other people’s thoughts that Adam has to commit murder to keep his head from exploding. Yikes!
This is yet another episode where more time is spent with the person using the cursed object than with Jack, Micki, and Ryan Johnny. There’s not necessarily anything wrong with that and Wayne Best does fine in the role of the not-particularly sympathetic Adam Cole. But, watching this episode, I still found myself missing the old days — let’s call them the Ryan days — when the chemistry between the three leads was often just as important as the gore and the horror. As a character, Johnny still often feels a bit half-baked, as if the show’s writers still weren’t quite sure who he was. When he was first introduced, he was cocky and streetwise. Then he went to prison for a murder he didn’t commit! Then, he was revealed to be a baseball fan who liked to build ships in bottles. And now, in this episode, he’s suddenly an aspiring writer who enjoys reading the tabloids. Steven Monarque does what he can but the character is so inconsistent that Johnny still feels a bit out-of-place in the show’s world. At the very least, Ryan had a reason for sticking with the often grisly hunt for the antiques. He wanted to do it with his cousin. (I know, I know …. ewwww! But it was also Ryan’s most defining motivation.) Johnny’s motivations are a bit more opaque.
This episode did feature some Cronenbergian body horror, a nice reminder of Friday the 13th‘s Canadian origins. Not clearing out the hearing aid leads to some exploding head action which is quite graphic even for this show. That said, it bothers me that one person’s head more or less implodes in front of an entire studio audience and you really do have to wonder how exactly that’s going to be explained to the press. I would think an exploding head and a snake-like hearing aid would lead to a lot of people saying, “Hey, maybe there is something out there.”
This was a gory episode, nicely acted and featuring an intriguing antique. That said, I still miss Ryan.
Song of the Day: Theme From St. Elsewhere by Dave Grusin
Retro Television Review: St. Elsewhere 1.14 “Remission”
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!
It’s another day at the hospital.
Episode 1.14 “Remission”
(Dir by Mark Tinker, originally aired on February 22nd, 1983)
A young Michael Madsen pops up in this episode, playing a hoodlum named Mike O’Connor who brings his severely beaten friend to the hospital. This was Madsen’s first role on television and, in his very first scene and while delivering his very first televised monologue, he drops the N-word as he accuses a group of black men of beating up his friend. Dr. Morrison is worried about whether or not Madsen’s friend is going to lose a kidney. Meanwhile, race relations in Boston are not doing well. What else is new?
(I remember, after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, there was a commentator who thought he was being clever when he said, “I don’t understand why blacks stay in the South when they could just move to Boston.” The response to his comments served as a reminder that Boston’s history of racism makes some Southern cities seem almost progressive by comparison.)
It’s interesting that Michael Madsen is the second well-known actor to appear on St. Elsewhere as a gang member. Just a few episodes ago, Howie Mandel was chasing Ray Liotta out of the hospital. This particular episode ended with a fight breaking out in the ER between a white gang and a black gang. I assume this will be continued next week so I guess we still have time to see Howie Mandel pull a gun on Michael Madsen. Seriously, it better happen. I’m plotting the upcoming week around it.
Speaking of Dr. Fiscus, he got evicted from his apartment. He was shocked, even though he hadn’t paid his rent in forever. No one wants Fiscus to stay with them but, after Fiscus saved Dr. Ehrlich from getting beaten up in the ER (and no, this was not a part of the gang fight, instead it was a different fight — goldang, Boston’s dangerous! And yes, I gave up cursing for Lent), Ehrlich agrees to let Fiscus stay with him until he gets a new place. I imagine Ehrlich will come to regret that, especially after Fiscus showed up with Dr. Kochar and a homeless guy who had earlier helped them steer a truck out of a traffic jam. What? Don’t ask, it didn’t make much sense on the show either.
Dr. Cavenero has been nominated for a prestigious fellowship by Dr. Auschlander but she’s not sure if she should accept it because the fellowship would be for research and she’s not sure that’s what she wants to focus on. Auschlander has bigger issues to deal with, as he ends up collapsing in the hospital hallway, a result of his liver cancer. The irony that Auschlander, a liver specialist, is dying of liver cancer is not lost on Auschlander and Norman Lloyd did a wonderful job in this episode, portraying not only Auschlander’s frustration but also his gentle humor.
Also, a woman was walking around the hospital and flashing people. She said it was because she wanted to show off that, even in middle age, she still had a good body. That makes sense to me. Played by Janis Page, she was somehow who was fine for a one episode storyline but I’m going to scream if this becomes a multi-episode thing, like it did with Ralph the Birdman.
This was a good episode, even if I get the feeling the whole gang thing is going to be cringey in the way that most 80s television shows tended to be whenever they tried to take on race relations. Norman Lloyd’s heartfelt performance carried the hour. I’m hoping the best for Dr. Auschlander. He’s a character that I would hate to lose.
Music Video of the Day: At The Wedding by Tennis (2025, dir by BLDG)
Consider this to be proof that you don’t have to spend a lot to create an effective music video.
Enjoy!
Through the Shattered Lens 