Tag Archives: review

Late Night Retro Television Reviews: Friday the 13th 1.11 “Scarecrow”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing Friday the 13th, a show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990. The show can be found on YouTube!

This week, Micki and Ryan visit the country and battle a killer scarecrow!  Yikes!

Episode 1.11 “Scarecrow”

(Dir by William Fruet, originally aired on February 1st, 1988)

While Jack is off in Europe searching for a cursed antique, Micki and Ryan head into the country.  They’ve recently received a letter from someone requesting that they come to a small rural town and collect the scarecrow that was bought from their shop years ago.

Seriously, do people usually buy scarecrows from antique shops?  I mean, I always thought that half the fun of having a scarecrow was getting to build it yourself.  And even if you didn’t want to build your own scarecrow, I imagine that you would probably go to a country store to buy one as opposed to heading into the city and going to an antique store.

No matter, though.  Even if it doesn’t make much sense to buy a scarecrow from an antique store, the scarecrow is undeniably scary.  Of course, when Micki and Ryan arrive in the town, the farmer who bought the scarecrow lies and says that someone set it on fire three years ago.  However, the viewer knows that the scarecrow not only still exists but that it comes to life at night and kills people with a scythe!  Every harvest, the scarecrow beheads three people and, as a result, the owner of the scarecrow has a good crop while everyone else in the town is struggling to make ends meet.

The viewer also knows that the villain of the story is Marge Lonacre (Patricia Phillips), the rather severe-looking owner of the town’s only inn.  Even if the episode didn’t show us Marge activating the scarecrow early on, it would be easy to guess that she is the villain because everything about Marge — from the way she dresses to the way she glares at people to the abrupt way that she speaks — screams villainy.  Oddly enough, it takes Micki and Ryan forever to figure out that Marge is the villain, even though they’re staying in Marge’s inn and Micki witnesses the scarecrow depositing a dead body on Marge’s front porch.  In fact, for some reason, Micki gets into her head that the helpful sheriff (Steve Pernie) is the killer and she even locks him in a closet so that he can’t keep her from running back to the inn.  Ryan and Micki are both likable and Micki’s fashion sense is to die for but, without Jack around to guide them, neither of them is a particularly effective investigator.

While searching for the scarecrow, Ryan bonds with the son of one of the scarecrow’s victims, which leads to some nicely-acted moments from John D. LeMay.  I mention this because Friday the 13th, much like Nightmare Café, was always at its best when it explored the humanity of its lead characters.  For all of the violence that Micki and Ryan have witnessed, they’re still trying to make the world a better and nicer place and it’s hard not to admire that.

This was an effective episode, one of that was full of creepy atmosphere and which featured one truly scary scarecrow.  I think even Jason Voorhees would have avoided this country town!

Retro Television Review: T and T 2.9 “Hostage”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing T. and T., a Canadian show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990.  The show can be found on Tubi!

This week, Amy, T.S. and Joe get involved in a — ugh — hostage situation!

Episode 2.9 “Hostage”

(Dir by Don McCutcheon, originally aired on November 28th, 1988)

Fleeing from the police after a botched robbery, two sweaty crooks, Rook (Lawrence King) and Larry (Angelo Rizacos), duck into Don’s Sporting Goods and end up holding 8 people hostage, including Amy and Joe!  What a scary situation!  These eight Canadians probably just wanted to buy new hockey jerseys and now, they’re being held hostage!

The police, of course, are ineffectual.  T.S. tracks down the ex-wife of one of the men but she can’t convince him to come out of the store.  The two crooks don’t want to go back to prison so they’ve demanded a lot of money and a plane and they’ve given the Toronto police only two hours to meet their demands.  Inside the store, Amy tries to reason with them.  Rook knows that things have gone too far and that they need to surrender to the police.  But Larry is sweaty and violent and determined to escape with the money.

I groaned a bit when I saw what this episode was going to be about.  I absolutely dread sitting through anything that involves hostage negotiation.  There’s really not much that can happen in a story like this, other than the hostage takers doing a lot of yelling and the negotiators saying, “You’re going to have to give us more time!”  It’s really not much fun to watch people getting guns pointed at their heads while some loser rants and raves about how he’s going to pull the trigger unless he gets what he wants.  With the exception of Dog Day Afternoon, hostage taking is usually pretty boring to watch.

Probably the biggest mistake that this episode makes is that it sidelines T.S. Turner for much of the action.  The main appeal of T and T is the chance to watch and hear Mr. T take down the bad guys.  T.S. spends the majority of this episode just standing around and only he gets to call one person “brother.”  Finally, during the final few minutes, T.S. ends up crawling around in the building’s loft so that he can break through the ceiling and take out the hostage takers but, by the time he does, the two criminals have already turned on each other.  For once, it falls not to T.S. to capture the main bad guy but for the bad guy’s accomplice to shoot him in the back.

All in all, this was a disappointing episode.  Amy failed to talk the criminals into giving themselves up and T.S. failed to capture the criminals by himself.  What is Canada even paying these two for?

Late Night Retro Television Reviews: Highway to Heaven 1.12 “Hotel of Dreams”

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, Mark and Jonathan work at a hotel …. a hotel of dreams!

Episode 1.12 “Hotel of Dreams”

(Dir by Michael Landon, originally aired on December 12th, 1984)

Barry Rudd (Brian Kerwin) may be the son of a wealthy hotel owner but he’s far more comfortable living out in the country, wearing denim and flannel, and helping to raise goats.  However, one day, Barry is summoned to his father’s hotel.  His father even sends a helicopter out to get him.  Barry gets on the helicopter but he insists on bringing his goat with him.

At the hotel, Barry’s father (Jacques Aubuchon) explains that he’s gotten married to a woman who is much younger than him and he needs Barry to run the hotel while he’s on his honeymoon.  Barry is stuck running the snootiest hotel in California, despite the fact that he doesn’t even own a suit and all he really wants to do is look after his goat.  Unfortunately, the hotel has a lot of problems.  The manager (played by Dean Dittman) is a mean-spirited snob who takes bribes from the guests.  A child (Douglas Emerson) is running wild through the halls of the hotel, all because his father is too busy working to keep an eye on him.  Saintly maid Elena (Julie Carmen) does the best job that she can but she’s looked down upon by the guests and the hotel’s manager.

Can Barry solve all of the hotel’s problems and also find time to attend his high school reunion?  Will he stay true to himself or will he sell out in an effort to impress people like his former classmate, Allison Rutledge (Judith-Marie Bergan)?  It’s not going to be easy and Barry doesn’t even know where to begin.  Fortunately, he has some help.  The hotel’s two new bellhops are Jonathan Smith and Mark Gordon!

Especially when compared to the previous two episodes, Hotel of Dreams is a rather light-hearted episode.  There’s nothing particularly surprising to be found in this episode.  Of course, Allison is going to turn out to be a total snob.  Of course, Elena is going to help Barry take care of his goat.  Of course, Barry and Elena are going to fall in love and end up together, all with the help of Jonathan.  And, of course, Mark is going to become a surrogate father figure for the bratty kid.  This is a thoroughly pleasant if not particularly memorable episode, one that plays out more like a pilot for a show about the hotel than an episode about an angel trying to make the world a better place.  Brian Kerwin and Julie Carmen make for an attractive couple and, as the episode ends, you can’t help but hope that Barry and Elena are going spend the rest of their lives raising goats together.

There is an unfortunate moment in this episode when Jonathan gives Mark a hard time for smoking.  When Jonathan tells Mark that he could die if he doesn’t stop smoking, Mark replies that everyone has to die of something.  Mark then asks Jonathan what cause his death.

“Lung cancer,” Jonathan replies.

Victor French, who played Mark, would die of lung cancer just five years later.  Shortly afterwards, Michael Landon would also die of cancer.

Retro Television Reviews: Jennifer Slept Here 1.11 “Life With Grandfather”

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 Thursdays, I will be reviewing Jennifer Slept Here, which aired on NBC in 1983 and 1984.  The entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!

This week’s episode made me cry.

Episode 1.11 “Life With Grandfather”

(Dir by John Bowab, originally aired on April 28th, 1984)

George Elliott’s father, Barney (Milo O’Shea), is coming to visit.  He’ll be staying up in the attic, which upsets Jennifer until Barney actually arrives and she discovers that Barney is a lovable eccentric who loves her movies and spends his time trying to invent new toys.

Unfortunately, the rest of the family is not as thrilled to have Barney around as Jennifer is.  Barney and George have a strained relationship and Joey keeps making excuses not to spend time with his grandfather.  Jennifer is the only one who understands how lonely Barney is but she can’t help him because Barney can’t see her.

Sadly, that changes when one of Barney’s toys explodes in the attic.  Suddenly, Barney can see Jennifer and Jennifer can talk to him.  That’s because Barney is dead.  Jennifer helps Barney come to terms with being dead and she also tells him that he’s not alone because there’s ghosts all over the place.  Barney says that he had so much he still wanted to tell his family and Jennifer assures Barney that his family had a lot that they wanted to tell him.  It’s a surprisingly poignant scene, one that is wonderfully acted by both Ann Jillian and Milo O’Shea.

The episodes jumps forward a few days.  George and Joey are still struggling to come to terms with Barney’s death.  George admits that he was never as close to his father as he wishes he had been and that he has a lot regrets about not getting to tell Barney how much he loved him before he died.  Joey, for his part, goes up to his bedroom and tells Jennifer that he wants to talk to his grandfather.  Joey feels that, since he can talk to Jennifer’s ghost, he should also be able to talk to his grandfather’s ghost.  Jennifer gently explains that Barney has moved on and Joey can’t talk to him anymore but he can continue to love him.

I mean …. MY GOD!  Though this series is admittedly uneven, I’ve enjoyed the majority of the episodes of Jennifer Slept Here that I’ve watched.  But I never thought that this show would bring me to tears.  This was such a sweet and poignant episode and I think it’s one to which everyone watching could relate.  We all have loved ones who we miss and we wish we could speak to.  And sadly, we rarely say everything that we want to say to people while they’re still here.  Joey’s desire to speak to his grandfather is an emotion that we’ve all felt.  But Barney has moved on and the show deserves a lot of credit for not going for the easy solution and having Barney suddenly return to say goodbye to Joey.  Instead, this episode (and Jennifer) emphasized the importance of enjoying the time together that we have and always carrying our love for others in our hearts.

This was a sweet episode and well-acted by the entire cast.  As I’ve said, this is an uneven series but this was a truly good episode.

Music Video of the Day: All I Want For Christmas Is You by Vince Vance & The Valiants (1990, dir by ????)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

There are a lot of version of this song out there.  Right now, I’m forcing everyone in the office to listen to the Mariah Carey version but, since our readers might be tired of that version, here’s the Vince Vance and the Valiants version!

I really hope we get some snow either this Christmas or in January.

Enjoy!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Monsters 1.11 “Rouse Him Not”

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 Wednesdays, I will be reviewing Monsters, which aired in syndication from 1988 to 1991. The entire show is streaming on Tubi.

This week, there’s a monster in the cellar!

Episode 1.11 “Rouse Him Not”

(Dir by Mark Shostrom, originally aired on December 31st, 1988)

Linda McGuire (Laraine Newman) is a painter who, for financial reasons, has moved from New York to a cottage in New England.  (As she explains it, she wouldn’t even be able to afford the tiniest hovel in New York for the amount she’s paying for the cottage.)  Along with hoping to paint some landscapes, Linda also plans to transform the cellar into her own personal art gallery.

Unfortunately, things are not going quite as well as one might hope.  First off, the scenery is not as inspiring as Linda thought it would be.  Instead of painting beautiful landscapes, she’s been painting portraits of the cottage, often with a dark figure standing in the doorway.

Secondly, her neighbor, Mr. Ritzen (Terrence Evans), keeps peeking through her windows.  Linda thinks that he’s just a perv but Mr. Ritzen actually has another reason for continually checking on her and the cottage.

One day, after Linda chases off Mr. Ritzen, she is visited by a mysterious man named John Thunston (Alex Cord).  The eccentric Thunston informs her that her cottage was once the home of a warlock named Crett Marrouby.  The warlock was hung by the other townspeople, an event that was witnessed by Mr. Ritzen.  Before Crett was executed, he warned everyone to avoid using black magic because they might accidentally summon something evil.

While Thunston is talking to Linda, a guttural roar comes from the cellar.  When Thunston and Linda go down to check on what is making all the noise, Thunston discovers that, as a result of Linda’s renovations, a mystic seal has been broken.  Thunston speculates that Crett summoned a demon and then used the seal to keep it trapped in the cellar.  Now that the seal has been broken, the demon is free to attack and kill.  Fortunately, Thunston just happens to have a special sword that he claims can be used to behead and kill the demon.  Now, it’s just a matter of waiting for the demon to appear and removing demon’s head before the demon removes Thunston’s.

The odd thing about this episode was how straight-forward it was.  I kept waiting for some sort of diabolical twist that would reveal that Linda was actually a witch or that Thunston was actually the warlock but it never came.  Instead, everyone in this episode was exactly who they said they were and the monster was pretty much exactly what Thunston thought it would be.  Things would have been improved by a sudden twist or two because, despite an effective monster and a enjoyably campy performance from Alex Cord, this episode is pretty boring.  The premise promises some Lovecraft-style horror but the anti-climatic conclusion will leave most viewers saying, “Really?  That’s it?”

Next week, let’s hope that things will be a bit more interesting when three friends battle a fire-breathing troll!

Retro Television Review: The Love Boat 3.21 “The Remake/The Perfect Match/The Captain’s Ne’er Do Well Brother”

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 Wednesdays, I will be reviewing the original Love Boat, which aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986!  The series can be streamed on Paramount Plus!

This week, special guest star O.D. Warbux brings The Love Boat to life!

Episode 3.21 “The Remake/The Perfect Match/The Captain’s Ne’er Do Well Brother”

(Dir by Richard Kinon, originally aired on February 2nd, 1980)

At the start of this week’s episode, Marshall Stubing boards the ship.  As you can guess by his last name, Marshall is Captain Stubing’s brother.  He bears a pretty strong resemblance to Merrill, except he’s a little thinner and he has more hair and a pencil-thin smile.  He wears suits and has a quick smile and is quick to flirt with every woman the he sees.  He’s played by an actor named O.D. Warbux and….

Wait a minute….

That’s not O.D. Warbux!  That’s Gavin MacLeod!  Yes, in this episode, Gavin MacLeod plays both the serious Captain Stubing and his carefree, free-loading brother.  And you know what?  MacLeod/Warbux actually does a pretty good job playing the two roles.  In the scenes in which the brothers argue, MacLeod really does seem to be sincerely annoyed with himself.  Seriously, though, you have to give MacLeod some credit.  If he had joked his way through the double role, I doubt anyone would have called him out on it.  Instead, MacLeod gives two believable and emotionally nuanced performances.

As for why Marshall is on the boat, he’s looking for a woman to continue to fund his life.  Merrill threatens to kick Marshall off the cruise but Marshall reveals that he bought a ticket and he has ever right to be there.  As Merrill watches with a disapproving frown, Marshall meets and romances Ruby Gibson (Diane Ladd), who is the millionaire widow of an Oklahoma oilman.  Marshall actually does fall in love with Ruby but he fears that he’s not good enough for her.  Ruby announces that Marshall is perfect for her and even Merrill says that Marshall is actually a good guy.  Marshall leaves the boat with Ruby and I assume they got married a few weeks later.  That’s good.  Hopefully, Ruby will help to pay for Vicki’s college education (assuming Vicki is actually allowed to leave the boat to attend school).

Marshall Stubing is not the only family member on the boat.  Julie’s aunt, Christine (Florence Henderson), is also on the boat.  When she meets Neal Rich (James Broderick), he immediately reminds her of her late husband.  Neal and Christine fall in love on the boat but will Christine ever stop trying to make Neal behave just like her late husband?  Of course, she does.  This is The Love Boat!  Back when I was reviewing The Brady Bunch Variety Hour, I said some fairly negative things about Florence Henderson as an actress but she’s actually really good in the episode and she has great chemistry with James Broderick so I guess it was really the Brady children who were holding her back on the Variety Hour.  This was a sweet story and I have to say that I actually found myself really hoping that Christine and Neal would work things out.

Finally, Holly Christopher (Connie Stevens) boards the ship because she’s spent the last few weeks stalking Howard Samuels (Kent McCord), the man who she has decided will be the father of her child.  As Holly explains it to Doc, she doesn’t want to get married.  She doesn’t want a family.  She just wants a baby.  Doc, who has like a dozen ex-wives and whose entire life seems to revolve around searching for one-night stands on the boat, tells her that marriage and traditional courtship are wonderful and that she should consider them.  Holly realizes that she agrees with Doc and she decides that she wants an old-fashioned romance after all.  This whole storyline felt like it could have come from one of those old 1950s films that would star Troy Donahue and Sandra Dee as teenagers learning the facts of life.  Kent McCord was pretty dull as Howard but Connie Stevens brought a lot of energy to the role of Holly.  Out of the three couples who left the ship at the end of the cruise, Howard and Holly is the one that’s definitely not going to last.

With this episode, The Love Boat kept it all in the family and, overall, this was a pretty good cruise.  Both Gavin MacLeod and O.D. Warbux deserve a lot of credit for giving performances that elevated the entire episode.

Film Review: Assassin (dir by Jesse Atlas)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Assassin tells the story of Alexa (Nomzamo Mbatha), a soldier whose husband (Mustafa Shakir) was a member of secret government program in which people would allow their minds to be transferred into the bodies of strangers so that those strangers could then be used to assassinate America’s enemies.  When Alexa’s husband ends up in a coma as a result of trying to assassinate Adrian (Dominic Purcell), Alexa is forcefully recruited into the program and is sent to complete her husband’s mission.

That may sound like it would make for an intriguing film but Assassin is pretty dull.  Neither Nomzamo Mbatha nor Dominic Purcell give particularly interesting performances and the film’s plot and themes were far better explored in Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor.  Watching the film, I found it impossible to have much sympathy for Alexa because she was not only murdering people but she was also ruining the lives of the innocent people who she ended up possessing.  The fact that her husband was in a coma didn’t excuse any of that.  If anything it made Alexa even less sympathetic.  After seeing what being an assassin did to her husband, why would Alexa want any of that?

Towards the end of the film, one of Alexa’s targets realizes that Alexa is possessing someone else’s body.  Alexa’s handler announces that she’s going to pull Alexa out of the body and then “get the wet team to take this guy out.”  If you have a team that can do it, why are you wasting time with possessing other people’s bodies?  Why would you decide to use the most complicated plan available when you could just simply send in a team and or have a drone blow up the guy’s house?  It’s almost as if the program is designed to be too complex to work.  As I watched the film, I suddenly started to understand why the CIA was never able to take out  Castro.  Sometimes, people just make things complicated for no reason.

Sadly, Assassin is also the final film of Bruce Willis.  Willis plays Valmora, the guy who is in charge of the Assassin program.  As was typical of Willis’s final films, he only gets a few minutes of screen time and he spends most of that time either sitting down or standing in a corner.  Willis, even though he obviously wasn’t in the best of health when he shot this film, still projects enough natural authority to be believable as Valmora.  Even though it’s obvious that he’s repeating lines that were fed to him just a few minutes before shooting, Willis still gives the most (and perhaps only) credible performance in the film.

Assassin is a sad note for Bruce Willis to go out on.  Of Willis’s final batch of films, the best were Gasoline Alley, Corrective Measures, and Wire Room.  Assassin, however, is just dull and anyone tempted to watch it just because of Willis’s presence would be better served to go rewatch Die Hard, Pulp Fiction, The Sixth Sense, 12 Monkeys, or …. well, really, any other movie that Bruce Willis ever appeared in.  Bruce Willis was one of our greatest movie stars and nothing, not even films like Assassin, can change that.

Music Video of the Day: Mean by Taylor Swift (2011, dir by Declan Whitebloom)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today is Taylor Swift’s birthday so it seems appropriate to share a video from Time’s Person of the Year.  This video features three people who, undoubtedly, are destined to grow up to become Taylor Swift fans.

Enjoy and happy birthday, Taylor!