Tag Archives: review

Music Video of the Day: Banned From The USA by The Covids (2024, dir by Rene Nuijens)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

This song is actually based on a true story.  When the Covids were about to embark on the first U.S. tour, two members of the group ran into visa problems and, after what appears to have been a rather tense encounter with the customs people, were banned from entering the country.  The two members of the band who did enter the country couldn’t tour so they wrote a song about the whole mess.

This video was shot after the the two members who entered the U.S. returned home to Amsterdam.  It features all the members of the band, including those who were banned from the U.S.A.

Enjoy!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Baywatch Nights 2.10 “Space Spores”

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 Baywatch Nights, a detective show that ran in Syndication from 1995 to 1997.  The entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!

This week, the threat comes from space!

Episode 2.10 “Space Spores”

(Dir by Richard Freidman, originally aired on January 19th, 1997)

Having completed another intergalactic mission, the Space Shuttle Discovery returns to Earth.  Of course, when I say Earth, what I actually mean is America because we all know which country is the most important around here.

Unfortunately, the Discovery also spreads a bunch of “space dust” over a small farm in California.  It wasn’t intentional on the part of the Space Shuttle crew.  Those people are saints!  Instead, it’s just one of those accidents that happens.  The problem is that space dust is a lot more dangerous than Earth dust.  Earth dust can trigger asthma attacks (believe me, I know), while space dust can cause animals to explode.

At first, the government shows up at the farm, all decked out in their HAZMAT gear.  A few days later, Daimont Teague drags Mitch and Ryan out to the farm so that they can take another look.  Daimont doesn’t bother to give either Mitch or Ryan a HAZMAT suit and he also doesn’t bother to tell them what exactly they’re looking for.  He says he wants them to keep their minds fresh but I think it’s more a case of Teague just being a dick.  I mean, why would you task a lifeguard with investigating space dust?

While Daimont goes off to meet with his connections in the government, Mitch and Ryan investigate the farm.  They discover that the space dust has caused a lot of animals to explode.  They also discover the farmer is dead but his young daughter, Katie (Ashley Buccille), has survived.  Unfortunately, when the family dog explodes, Ryan and Katie end up covered in space dust.  Now, Mitch and Griff (who shows up because he apparently has nothing better to do on a Sunday night) have to get Ryan and Katie to a decompression chamber before the space dust causes them to explode.  Unfortunately, there’s a lot of evil government types who are more worried about the public learning about the space dust than they are about saving the lives of Ryan and Katie.

I was kind of surprised by how much this episode depressed me.  It was entirely due to the exploding animals.  We only actually see a rat and then the dog explode but apparently, a cat explodes off-screen and so do several other animals.  I always get upset when bad things happen to animals on shows like this.  For whatever reason, I don’t really seem to care that much when the same thing happens to a human being.  Some of that’s because I’ve seen all the other human beings on other shows.  I was glad that Angie Harmon didn’t blow up because Angie and I are both Texas girls and we vote the same way.  But even if Mitch hadn’t been able to save Ryan, I know that Angie would have still gone on to appear on Law & Order and Rizzoli & Isles after this show ended.  Whereas with animals, I don’t have that reassurance.

This episode, I didn’t really like.  I appreciated the anti-government theme but all of the exploding animals just weren’t for me.

Retro Television Review: Fantasy Island 5.9 “Romance Times Three/The Night of the Tormented Soul”

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 Tuesdays, I will be reviewing the original Fantasy Island, which ran on ABC from 1977 to 1984.  Unfortunately, the show has been removed from most streaming sites.  Fortunately, I’ve got nearly every episode on my DVR.

Smiles, everyone, smiles!  It’s time to visit the Island.

Episode 5.9 “Romance Times Three/The Night of the Tormented Soul”

(Dir by Don Weis, originally aired on December 5th, 1981)

This week again finds Tattoo working as Roarke’s assistant, which again means that the episode opens with Julie explaining that she won’t be able to help out Roarke and Tattoo with any of the new people coming to the Island.  What makes this week memorable as far as Julie excuses are concerned is that the reason Julie can’t help is because she’s been given a difficult task by Tattoo.  A 300-pound woman has come to the Island with a fantasy of leading the Charge of the Light Brigade and Tattoo has told Julie to find a horse for her.  Tattoo smirks as Julie tells Roarke.  Roarke wishes Julie luck while declining to help her himself.

As for the fantasies, let’s get the boring one out of the way first.  Sally Harris (Georgia Engel) works for a phone answering service.  I had to look this up via Google but apparently a phone answering service was something that people and companies used in the days before texts, voice mail and email.  Someone like Sally would answer the phone for you, collect your messages, and then call you later to give them to you.  I guess it was something that companies did when they were too cheap to hire a receptionist or a personal assistant.  I don’t know, it just seems strange to me.

Sally has fallen in love with three of her clients, though she hasn’t actually met any of them.  Jack (Frank Bonner) is a bon vivant who calls her for love advice.  Tony (Frank Converse) is a businessman who calls her for financial advice.  Ben (David Groh) is a writer who often discusses his writer’s block with Sally.  All three of the men have come to the Island.  Sally fears how the men will react to discovering the real her so Mr. Roarke casts a spell and tells Sally that each men will see her the way that he thinks of her.  Tony sees Sally as a prim and determined businesswoman.  Jack sees her as a dark-haired seductress.  And Ben sees her as a …. well, as a clown.  He has always resented Sally’s advice.  Of course, Ben is the one who ultimately falls in love with the real Sally.

It’s not a bad idea for a fantasy but it doesn’t really work because Georgia Engel isn’t convincing whenever she takes on any of Sally’s different personas.  No matter what costume she’s wearing, she still delivers all of her lines in this high-pitched whisper that sometimes make it difficult to understand what she’s saying.  (She’s not quite as inaudible here as she was in Jennifer Slept Here but still, I did struggle to hear everything she said.)  The men are all thinly written, as well.  I was glad she ended up with the writer but in the end, I really wouldn’t have cared that much if she had ended up with the businessman or the sex addict.

The better fantasy features Stephen Shortridge and Dianne Kay as Jason and Beth Martinique.  When they were children, Beth and Jason survived a shipwreck and washed up on the shore of Fantasy Island.  They were raised by a local millionaire, Richard Martinique (Richard Anderson) and their nanny, Blanche Barrens (Elinor Donahue).  Both Richard and Ms. Barrens died one stormy night.  Richard was shot and Ms. Barrens’s neck was broken in a fall.  Jason and Beth want to go back to their childhood home so they can learn what happened that night.  Fortunately, the ghosts of Richard and Ms. Barrens are still in the mansion, giving Jason and Beth a chance to see the tragic accident that led to the deaths of both Richard and Ms.  Barrens.  Even better, Mr. Roarke and Tattoo show up to inform Jason and Beth that they aren’t really brother-and-sister and therefore, they are free to pursue a romance.  That’s good because, before Roarke showed up, Jason and Beth were gazing at each other like the brother and sister from the old Folger’s commercial.  You know who I’m talking about.

I always enjoy it when Fantasy Island deals with ghosts and haunted mansions and this fantasy was filled with atmosphere and melodrama.  The accident that led to death of Richard and Ms. Barrens was ludicrous and yet somehow poignant at the same time.

So, an overall mixed review on this episode but I think the ghost fantasy makes up for the other fantasy.  Plus, Tattoo gets to show off his karate skills!  Let’s see Julie do that!

Late Night Retro Television Review: CHiPs 2.12 “High Explosive”

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 Mondays, I will be reviewing CHiPs, which ran on NBC from 1977 to 1983.  The entire show is currently streaming on Freevee!

This week’s episode is all about mistakes.

Episode 2.12 “High Explosive”

(Dir by Barry Crane, aired on December 9th, 1978)

This week’s episode features Jon Baker competing in a rodeo.  That’s not really a surprise.  Since the show began, it’s been established that Baker is a cowboy at heart and this episode is certainly not the first time that he’s mentioned growing up on a ranch in Wyoming.  (Larry Wilcox, himself, grew up in Wyoming and had some real-life rodeo experience.)  What is interesting is to listen to how the various actors pronounce the word rodeo.

Most of them, to their credit, pronounce it correctly.  A rodeo — that is, an event involving cowboys, steers, clowns, and all the rest — is pronounced “road-ee-oh.”  That’s how Larry Wilcox, Robert Pine, and the majority of the cast pronounce it.  Erik Estrada and Paul Linke, however, both pronounce it “Roe-Day-Oh,” as in the famous street in Beverly Hills.  Just a tip to any of our readers up north: Down here in the southwest, we pronounce it with a “dee” and not a “day.”

As for the rest of the episode, it’s all about mistakes.  For instance, ambulance driver Brad Holmes (Steve Oliver) loses his job after he gets arrested for reckless driving.  Desperate for money and not wanting to tell his wife that he lost his job, he agrees to transport a huge amount of old and unstable dynamite and he steals an ambulance with which to transport it!  Not smart.  Brad is an even worse driver with the explosives in the ambulance.  Ponch and Baker chase him down and Brad crashes on a playground.  While Ponch and Baker arrest Brad, a bunch of kids pick up the dynamite.  UH-OH!  Fortunately, Brad helps Ponch and Baker get the dynamite back.  He asks Ponch and Baker to put in a good word with the judge.

(Yeah …. I don’t know how many good words you can really put in for someone who used a stolen ambulance to transport highly unstable explosives through a heavily populated area of Los Angeles.)

Meanwhile, 14 year-old Barry (Ike Eisenmann) accidentally shoots a car with his pellet gun.  The car crashes.  The driver, Mary Barnes (Roseanne Katon), survives with minor injuries but her sister nearly dies.  Mary says that she wants to press charges against Barry.  She doesn’t care that he’s only 14.  Baker and Ponch arrange for Mary to spend the day at the rodeo with Barry, so that she can see that he’s just a scared kid who didn’t mean to hurt anyone.  Barry is from Utah and lonely and Baker and Ponch feel sorry for him.

But you know what?  The fact of the matter is that Barry is 14.  He’s not some 10 year-old kid.  He’s a teenager.  He’s old enough to know better than to shoot a pellet gun around a busy highway.  Barry is a lonely kid and that sucks.  But again, he nearly killed someone and he caused a huge wreck.  I’m on Mary’s side.  Throw the book at Barry.  Letting Barry get away with doing something that stupid isn’t going to be good for him or anyone else.  Mary, however, disagrees with me.  Barry’s off the hook and he even gets to go to the rodeo.

What a frustrating episode!  Ponch and Baker let me down but at least one of them knows how to pronounce rodeo.

Retro Television Review: Miami Vice 2.22 “Trust Fund Pirates”

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 Mondays, I will be reviewing Miami Vice, which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989.  The entire show can be purchased on Prime!

This week, things get weird in Miami!

Episode 2.22 “Trust Fund Pirates”

(Dir by Jim Johnston, originally aired on May 2ns 1986)

Pirate radio DJ Captain Hook (Richard Belzer) sits on his yacht in international waters and broadcasts music to Miami while, at the same time, brokering drug deals among other yacht owners.  His assistant is Noogie (Charlie Barnett), the informant who was all over the place during Miami Vice’s first season but who, up until this episode, was absent from the second season.

On another yacht, a group of Bolivians are gunned down by preppy young men who are led by Ivy League dropout Skip Mueller (Perry Lang).  Skip and his buddies brag about being pirates and cheerfully make jokes while standing over the bodies of the men and the women that they killed.

A seaplane pilot named Jackson Crane (a young Gary Cole) raids the Bolivian yacht and takes some of the boat’s equipment home with him.  Jackson is a longtime drug smuggler who claims that he’s on the verge of retirement.  He’s dating a woman named Lani (Nicole Fosse), who happens to be Skip’s sister.

In a trailer park, Jumbo (Tommy Chong) and his wife Fluffy (Denny Dillon) keep a running tally of how many rats they’ve killed while trying to buy drugs and fence stolen goods.  Jumbo calls everyone “man.”  Fluffy is good with a shotgun.

And, in the middle of all this, we’ve got two aspiring drug dealers named Burnett and Cooper.  Burnett and Cooper, of course, are actually Crockett and Tubbs.  Just two episodes ago, one of Miami’s fiercest drug lords figured out that Burnett and Cooper are actually cops but I guess he decided not to tell anyone, despite the fact that he still thinks Crockett owes him money.

It’s a bizarre episode, full of strange characters and a plot that has so many double-crosses that it’s hard to keep track of who is betraying who.  The episode was originally intended to be a sequel to Smuggler’s Blues, with Glenn Frey once again playing Jimmy the Pilot.  When Frey couldn’t fit a return appearance into his schedule, the script was rewritten to feature Gary Cole as a friend of Jimmy’s.  That said, it’s still obvious that the script was originally written more to highlight a popular guest star than to tell a totally coherent story.

Fortunately, Miami Vice works best when its a bit incoherent.  One the major themes of the show is that no one can be trusted and that everyone is willing to betray everyone else.  The world of Miami Vice is often illogical because it’s a world full of illogical people who tend to do whatever pops into their head at any given moment.  Another major theme is that everyone either wants to get rich from selling drugs or they’re just adrenaline junkies who get a high from being involved in the underground.  Skip and his friends are rich.  They just enjoy killing people and pretending to be gangsters.  This is one of the more violent and bloody episodes of Miami Vice.  Skip and his friends enjoy their work a little too much.

It’s a good episode and well-acted.  Gary Cole was considered for the role of Crockett before Don Johnson got the part and, in this episode, it’s easy to see why.  Even as a young actor, Cole has a rugged cynicism to him that’s both dangerous and compelling.  Perry Lang appeared in a lot of dumb teen comedies in the 80s, usually playing dorky nice guys.  He’s absolutely chilling as the sociopathic Skip Mueller.  And finally, there’s Richard Belzer, wearing an eyepatch, opening the episode by rapping with Noogie, and encouraging the criminals of Miami to enjoy some good music while breaking the law.  Full of strange characters and shocking violence, this episode captures the idea of Miami being a surreal playground for the rich, ruthless, and crazy.

Next week, season 2 comes to an end!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi Junior High 3.8 “Star-Crossed”

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 Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi Junior High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1987 to 1989!  The series can be streamed on YouTube!

This week …. oh, it’s just another episode about the Farrell twins.

Episode 3.8 “Star-Crossed”

(Dir by Kit Hood, originally aired on January 23rd, 1989)

Hey, it’s another episode where the Farrell twins switch places!

This time, it’s because Erica has a crush on Clutch (Steve Bedernjak) but, because Erica is too shy to ask herself, Heather is the one who ends up asking Clutch’s friends about Clutch’s “star sign.”  (He’s a Virgo, by the way.)  Clutch hears that Heather was asking about him and he asks Heather if she wants to go on a date with him.  Erica is disappointed but then she and Heather decide to switch places.  As Heather, Erica goes with Clutch to the school’s big Bowl-a-rama.  Later the real Heather shows up and switches places with Erica.  It’s all a bit confusing and annoying but, in the end, it really doesn’t matter because Clutch was only talking to the twins so that he could get close to their friend, Lucy.

(Lucy previously dated Clutch’s best friend.  That relationship didn’t end well but apparently, Clutch is not a very good friend.  Actually, Lucy doesn’t appear to be a very good friend either.  Lucy has kind of taken Stephanie Kaye’s place as the spoiled girl with no self-awareness.)

(As for someone using the twins as a way to get close to another girl, this seems to happen quite often with the Farrell twins.  Frankly, the twins are kind of creepy with the way that they’re always looking up and staring at the exact same time.  They give off definite Village of the Damned vibes.)

Meanwhile, Wheels is finally coming out his shell and even agrees to go to the Bowl-a-rama with Joey and Snake.  But then a random bully makes the mistake of pushing Wheels and then suggesting that Wheels go home and “cry to mommy and daddy about it.”  Wheels snaps and attacks the bully.  As a result, Wheels ends up not only getting suspended but grounded as well.  It sucks to be Wheels but, as fans of the entire franchise know, this is nothing compared to the bad stuff that’s waiting right around the corner for him.

Finally, at the Bowl-a-rama, Simon and Alexa get back together.  I didn’t even remember that they had broken up but no matter.  They’re a cute couple.  As Simon and Alexa pass the depressed Farrell twins, Alexa says, “I love a happy ending, don’t you?”  Alexa’s the greatest character ever.

This episode felt a bit inconsequential, as episodes that focus on the Farrell twins tend to be.  There’s really not much that can be done with the Farrell twins, beyond having them switch places and occasionally get mad when people can’t tell them apart.  Still, at least Simon and Alexa got back together.  I love a happy ending.

Retro Television Review: The Last Fling (dir by Corey Allen)

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 Sundays, I will be reviewing the made-for-television movies that used to be a primetime mainstay.  Today’s film is 1987’s The Last Fling!  It  can be viewed on YouTube and Tubi.

Phillip Reed (John Ritter) is an attorney who has never gotten married, despite all of his friends trying to set him up with single women.  Even his law partner (Scott Bakula) worries about how Phillip’s love life is going.  Phillip’s married best friends (Paul Sand and Kate Zentall) think that Phillip is scared of commitment.  Phillip’s mother (Paddi Edwards) thinks he’s gay.  Joanne Preston (Shannon Tweed) enjoys sleeping with him but she owns a lot of cats that make him sneeze.  And since he’s played by John Ritter, you better believe that every sneeze is more dramatic than the last.

Gloria Franklin (Connie Selleca) is engaged to marry Jason Elliot (John Bennett Perry) but she worries that her rigidly controlled lifestyle has caused her to miss out on enjoying her time as a single person.  When she finds out that Jason is going to go to Las Vegas for a wild bachelor party, she decides to have one last fling of her own.

Phillip and Gloria meet each other at the zoo.  (Again, because Phillip is played by John Ritter, there are multiple shots of him making monkey noises while looking at the gorillas.)  Gloria tells Phillip that her name is Marsha Lyons.  Their meeting leads to Phillip and Gloria/Marsha spending the weekend in Mexico together.  (A very young, pre-Saved By The Bell Mario Lopez shows up as the kid who gives them their renal car.)  Despite an unseen mishap that causes their car to catch on fire, Phillip and Gloria spend a romantic night at a villa.  When Phillip wakes up the next morning, he’s convinced that he’s finally found the woman with whom he wants to spend the rest of his life.  However, Gloria is already gone.  She leaves behind a video confession, in which she tells Phillip that she’s going to be getting married.

Phillip returns to Los Angeles, determined to track down the mysterious Gloria and stop that wedding.

The Last Fling is an uneven romantic comedy.  It starts out as an amiable and sweetly funny film, with both Connie Sellecca and John Ritter giving likable performances.  But once Phillip returns from Mexico and starts searching for Gloria, it gets a bit too manic for its own good.  Instead of being a funny movie about two human beings looking for love, it instead becomes a live-action cartoon with John Ritter running from one location to another while being chased by Gloria’s husband-to-be.  The movie ends up getting so frantic that it actually becomes a bit annoying, which is a shame considering how things started.  By the end of the movie, Phillip is so obsessive that it’s hard not to feel that Gloria would be better off just staying single and maybe spending the next weekend in Mexico with Scott Bakula.

The director of The Last Fling played Buzz in Rebel Without A Cause.  Fortunately, no one plays chicken in this movie.