Tag Archives: review

Retro Television Reviews: Welcome Back, Kotter 3.1 “Sweathog Back To School Special”

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 Saturdays, I will be reviewing Welcome Back Kotter, which ran on ABC  from 1975 to 1979.  The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi!

This week, season 3 begins!

Episode 3.1 “Sweathog Back to School Special”

(Dir by Bob Claver, originally aired on September 10th, 1977)

A new school year approaches and the Sweathogs have decided to throw a surprise party for their favorite teacher!  Julie and Woodman (who makes it a point to say that he was against the party) lead Gabe to his classroom and surprise!  The Sweathogs even spent $5.75 to get Gabe a new watch.

Gabe and the Sweathogs talk about everything that they’ve been through over the past year and….

Yep, it’s a clip show.

Usually, I skip over clip shows but I did watch this one, just because the first season and the first half of the second season of Welcome Back, Kotter were both pretty good.  Unfortunately, the first half of this clip show was more devoted to catch phrases than sharing classic scenes.  As such, we got a lot of clips of Horshack laughing, Freddie saying “Hi there,” Epstein handing over notes, and Barbarino dancing.  It allowed all four of the main Sweathogs to show off their trademarks but it also made the overall series seem even more gimmicky than it was.

It was only during the second half of the episode that the show offered up some clips from the first season in which Gabe helped each Sweathog find their confidence.  Gabe encouraged Barbarino to get tutoring.  He played a game of basketball with Freddie and, even though Gabe lost big time, Freddie still agreed to take a makeup exam.  Gabe told Epstein that he knew there was a sensitive soul underneath Epstein’s fierce exterior.  And Gabe listened as Horshack talked about the reality of being the class weirdo.  I was glad these clips were included because they served as a reminder that the show started out as an earnest series about a teacher trying to help kids who had been written off by the system.  John Travolta, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Robert Hegyes, and Ron Palillo all showed, in those early episodes, that they were capable of more than just delivering jokey one-liners.

The best part of the episode was when Gabe said, “Remember that time I nearly got fired?” and Woodman replied, “That was a wonderful day.”  John Sylvester White could do a lot with a one-liner and one of the pleasures of the show was discovering just how truly out there Woodman could be.

As for Julie, she remembered the time the Sweathogs destroyed the apartment while trying to clean it.  She still didn’t appear to have forgiven the Sweathogs but that could just be because, as always, Marcia Strassman came across as if she would rather be doing anything other than co-starring on Welcome Back, Kotter.

Once all the clips have been shown, Gabe asks everyone if he’s ever told them about his Uncle Morris, bringing the party (and the episode) to an abrupt end as everyone flees the classroom.

Next week, Julie gives birth and Barbarino drops out of school!

Music Video of he Day: Car Wash by Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliott (2004, dir by Rich Newey)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

This video, which was used to promote the film Shark Tank, is not quite up to the Brady Bunch standard but it’s still a good interpretation of the song.

Enjoy!

Late Night Retro Television Reviews: Friday the 13th: The Series 1.10 “Tales of the Undead”

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, Ryan learns why you never meet your heroes.

Episode 1.10 “Tales of the Undead”

(Dir by Lyndon Chubbock, originally aired on January 25th, 1988)

Comic book fan Ryan is shocked when he witnesses the murder of the owner of his favorite comic book store.  He’s even more shocked by the fact that the murderer appeared to a legendary comic book character, a robot who was created and drawn by an artist named Jay Star.

Micki is skeptical when Ryan tells her that he thinks one of his favorite comic book characters has come to life.  Despite having dealt with a cursed doll and quill that could kill someone just by being used to write that person’s name, Micki draws the line at living comic book characters.  However, Ryan does some research and discovers that a cursed comic book was indeed purchased from the store.

Seriously, think about this.  Ryan not only witnesses a murder but the murder is committed by his favorite comic book character and then he discovers that it’s all linked to the cursed antique store where Ryan just happens to work.  That’s an amazing coincidence!  Jack would probably be concerned about how all of that came to happen but, oddly enough, Jack is not in this episode.

Instead, it falls to Ryan and Micki to track down the comic book.  This leads them to the man who created the robot, Jay Star (played by special guest star Ray Waltson).  Jay Star created the robot in the 40s and became a hero to comic book readers everywhere but he feels that he wasn’t properly compensated for his services.  (This is something that happens far too often to real comic book artists as well.  Some people have definitely gotten a lot of money as a result of all the Marvel films but the families of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko have not.)  The comic book company kept the rights to his character and they refused to publish the issue in which Jay killed him off.  The company is still making money off of Jay’s work while Jay lives in obscurity as a recluse.  At the start of the episode, Jay Star does not own the cursed comic book.  However, he does manage to track it down and steal it from its current owner, Cal (David Hewlett).  Soon, Jay is transforming into the killer robot and seeking revenge on everyone who he feels has betrayed him.

This was one of the stronger episodes of Friday the 13th.  What really set this episode apart from some of the ones that came before and after was that Ryan had a personal stake in recovering the cursed item.  As he explains it to Micki, comic books were the one constant he had during his dysfunctional childhood.  He grew up admiring artists like Jay Star and dreaming of being one of them and of being a hero who could solve all of the world’s problems.  In this episode, Ryan discovers that his hero is a murderer and John D. LeMay does a very good job of playing Ryan’s disillusionment.  The episode ends on a rather sweet note, with Micki encouraging Ryan to remember Jay Star for his talent and not for his crimes.

The episode is also distinguished by Ray Waltson’s empathetic performance as Jay Star, a villain for whom you can’t help but have some sympathy.  When Jay transforms into the killer robot, the episode itself switches to comic book-style animation, which is one of those gimmicks that works far better than one might expect.  Even the robot was about as scary as a monster on a low-budget show like this could possibly be!

This was a good episode.  I hope Ryan never stopped drawing.

Retro Television Reviews: T and T 2.8 “Every Picture….”

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, T.S. and Amy battle the Canadian Mafia!

Episode 2.8 “Every Picture….”

(Dir by Don McCutcheon, originally aired on November 21st, 1988)

This episode of T and T continues to insist that the show is taking place in a place called Metro County.  It even features a newspaper called the Metro County Eagle and suburb of Metro County that is called Ridley.  As well, it appears that all of the cars in Metro County have American-style license plates.

Listen, T and T, you’re not fooling anyone.

We can all see the snow on the ground.

We can all see the frozen breath whenever a scene takes place outside.

We have all noticed how polite all the extras are.

We can all see the hockey hair and the denim jackets.

Even more importantly, we can all hear the accent whenever anyone apologizes or asks, “What’s this all aboot?”

Everyone knows that T and T totally takes place in Toronto!  Obviously, a lot of a Canadian shows deliberately tried to leave their setting ambiguous so that they could appeal to viewers in the United States.  Interestingly enough, the most successful syndicated Canadian show in the United States was Degrassi, which was always proudly and forthrightly Canadian.

As for today’s episode, it opens with a waitress named Kathy (Jacqueline Samuda) fleeing from a diner after she happens to see her picture in the newspaper.  It turns out that a lot of people have noticed that picture.  One of them is a burly mob hitman (Paul Coeur) who calls the paper and demands to know who took the picture.  When the editor refuses to name names, the hitman breaks into the office to search for the name himself.

Because Amy is friendly (and maybe more!) with the editor, she volunteers T.S. to investigate the photograph.  T.S. and Amy track down the photographer, a nerdy teenage prodigy named Lenny (Robert Haiat).  After talking to Lenny, they track down the diner where Kathy worked and eventually, they break into Kathy’s apartment.  Kathy isn’t there.

“She either left in a hurry or she’s a bad housekeeper,” T.S. growls.

Meanwhile, the hitman kidnaps Lenny and demands that he take him to the diner where the picture was taken.  When Lenny’s father tells T.S. that the abduction is all his fault, T.S. says, “I’m going to make this right!”

Kathy, it turns out, is actually named Maria.  Because she testified against her mob boss brother, she’s in the Canadian witness protection program.  Lenny kind of ruined all that by taking her picture.  Now, she’s hiding out in a church but, after the hitman catches a priest entering Kathy’s apartment, he’s able to track her down.  This hitman is so evil that he’s prepared to shoot Kathy in the head in the middle of a church!  Luckily, T.S. shows up just in time.

“HEY, FOOL!” T.S. shouts before beating the crap out of the hitman.

There’s a simplicity to T and T that you really have to admire.  For all the talk of T.S. being a detective and an advocate of peace and understanding, he solves most of his problems by either punching someone out or throwing them through a window.  This show reminds us that the simple solution is sometimes the best.

Anyway, you know what?  This was a really good episode.  The mystery was intriguing.  The show generated actual suspense over who would find Kathy first.  The scene in the church was nicely atmospheric.  Even the sentimental ending, with Kathy giving T.S. a crucifix to thank him for saving her life, felt totally earned.  Way to go, Toronto!

Music Video of the Day: Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow by Jessica Simpson (2004, dir by ????)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Here’s Jessica Simpson to help get us into the Christmas spirit!  I don’t know if I’m going to get any snow in December but I’ll take some rain and some moderately cold weather.  I love the holidays no matter what the weather may be.

Enjoy!

Late Night Retro Television Reviews: Highway to Heaven 1.11 “Dust Child”

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, Jonathan offers up some clues about his past.

Episode 1.11 “Dust Child”

(Dir by Victor French, originally aired on November 28th, 1984)

Mark and Jonathan’s latest mission finds them in a small California town.  It seems like a nice and welcoming  community …. or, at least, it does if you’re an American.  If you are one of the many refugees from Vietnam who have recently settled in the town, it’s a far less welcoming place.

When Mark goes into a gas station, he witnesses the owner refusing to give change to two Vietnamese kids.  When Mark demands to know why, he’s told that the refugees are coming over and stealing everyone’s jobs.

“It’s a sickness worse than the plague,” Jonathan later says, “But the cure is in every one of us …. love!”  And that may sound a bit simplistic but Michael Landon delivers the line with such conviction that he totally makes it work.

Working as house painters, Jonathan and Mark get a job remodeling the home of Richard Gaines (James Whitmore, Jr.), a Vietnam vet who has just discovered that, as the result of a wartime romance, he has a daughter named Nguyen (Denice Kumagai).  15 year-old Nguyen comes over to America to live with Richard and his wife (Jenny Sullivan) and his teenage son, Brad Gaines (Billy Jacoby).  From the minute she arrives in the town, Nguyen finds herself facing prejudice.  The other kids at school taunt her with derogatory slurs.  Brad resents both the attention that Nguyen gets and the fact that his best friend, Larry (K.C. Martel), now refuses to talk to Brad because Larry’s father was killed while serving in Vietnam.

Eventually, Jonathan introduces himself to Larry and we discover a little bit about who Jonathan was before he became an angel.  Jonathan says that he served in Vietnam with Larry’s father and he goes on to explain that Larry’s father died while protecting a group of South Vietnamese orphans from the Viet Cong.  As Jonathan explains it, Larry’s father viewed the orphans as his own children.  That’s all it takes for both Larry and Brad to see the errors of their ways and to welcome Nguyen into the neighborhood.

(Is Jonathan telling the truth about serving in Vietnam with Larry’s father?  Jonathan’s an angel so I assume that he is.  That, of course, means that this episode’s mission was not to help Nguyen feel at home in America but instead to help Larry overcome his own prejudice.)

As Jonathan and Mark prepare to leave for their next assignment, two kids on bicycles ride by and shout a slur at Nguyen.  They immediately fall of their bicycles and, when they try to get back on, they fall off yet again.  Mark laughs and says that God probably won’t object to Jonathan making that happen.  Of course, if Mark read about what happened to the Canaanites, he would know those two kids got off easy.

Especially when compared to last week’s odd episode, this was an admirably straight-forward episode.  There weren’t any great surprises to how the story unfolded but the story was told with such obvious sincerity that it worked.  It can be easy to laugh at this show’s lack of subtlety but, in an episode like this, the lack of subtlety worked to the show’s advantage.  Personally, I’ve gotten so used to snarky entertainment that it can be a bit of a pleasant surprise to watch something like this that is totally earnest and well-intentioned.  This was a heartfelt episode and, in its old-fashioned way, it still holds up today.

Retro Television Reviews: Jennifer Slept Here 1.10 “Do You Take This Ghost?”

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, Jennifer wants to get married!

Episode 1.10 “Do You Take This Ghost?”

(Dir by Alan Myerson, originally aired on April 21st, 1984)

George is super-excited because Susan and his anniversary is coming up.  (Awwwww!  George is being sweet and romantic.  That kind of goes against everything that has been previously established about his character but whatever.  Let’s go with it.)  George says that he and Susan are going to celebrate by renewing their vows.  He’s even called the minister who performed their wedding to come do it again.  The ceremony will be held in the house because another set would cost money.

Hearing all of this, Jennifer starts to feel sad that she never had a traditional marriage when she was alive.  Fortunately, her ex-boyfriend, film star Doug Chadwick (Warwick Sims), has just died.  His ghost materializes in the house and soon, he and Jennifer are a couple again.  Jennifer and Doug decide to get married at the same time that George and Susan are going to renew their vows.  Joey can act as the best man for both ceremonies!

Can you see where this is heading?

Joey discovers that, even as a ghost, Doug Chadwick has issues with staying faithful.  While Jennifer plans out her wedding, Doug is sleeping with other ghosts.  He even loses the wedding ring while carousing in a hot tub.  (Ghosts in a hot tub?  I mean, I guess that could happen….)  At the ceremony, Joey tells Jennifer that she can do better than Doug.  Of course, since George and Susan are renewing their vows, they think that Joey is talking about them.  They assure Joey that they love each other.  Joey tells them that he knows they love each other because his father is not the type who would ever cheat on the woman that he loves or lose his wedding ring in a hot tub.  Jennifer takes Joey’s words to heart and calls off her ghost wedding.

This was an okay episode.  If I don’t sound too enthusiastic, it’s because I’m a bit exhausted with how every joke is basically Joey saying something to someone no one else can see and everyone responding by rolling their eyes.  I mean, after ten episodes of thinking that their son has been having loud arguments with himself, you have to wonder why his parents aren’t trying to do more to discover what the problem is.

My main issue with this episode is that, with all the good men who have died through history, why would Jennifer settle for a guy who, by her own admission, didn’t really treat her that well when they were alive?  I mean, Jennifer could marry James Buchanan or maybe Martin Van Buren.  Don’t settle, Jennifer!  Of course, that’s kind of the same thing that Joey told her so I guess I have to give him some credit for that.  As always, Ann Jillian was great as Jennifer and John P. Navin, Jr. did his best with Joey (who is a rather inconsistently written character) but this episode just never worked as well as it could have.  The idea of Jennifer having a ghost wedding had potential but this episode just kind of fell flat.

Late Night Retro Television Reviews: Monsters 1.10 “Pillow Talk”

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.

Tonight, a bed demands to be fed.

Episode 1.10 “Pillow Talk”

(Dir by David Odell, originally aired on December 24th, 1988)

Miles Magnus (John Diehl) is one of the most successful horror authors in the world, writing best seller after best seller.  All of his books seem to involve a “master” who forces other people to do something terrible.  This episode opens with Miles bringing home his date, Barbara (Ruth de Sosa), and immediately taking her to his bedroom.

Barbara is impressed, especially with the fact that Miles keeps all of his books in his bedroom.  Miles is more interested in pointing out his rather large bed.  Miles tells her that, like Marcel Proust, he does all of his writing in bed.  Barbara’s reaction indicates that she’s not sure exactly who Marcel Proust is.  Despite the fact that Miles is kind of awkward and geeky, it’s not long before Barbara has stripped down to her underwear, rolled around on the bed, and invited Miles to join her.

Then the bed eats her.

Seriously.  The mattress opens up like a mouth and two rather phallic tentacles wrap around Barbara and pull her into the gaping hole.  All that’s left behind are her high heels because, apparently, the bed does not like shoes.

It turns out that Miles has been using the old trick of writing about what you know.  Miles does have a master and it’s his bed.  Of course, the bed itself is possessed by a creature that Miles describes as being the last of “the Great Old Ones.”  So, Miles’s bed is possessed by Cthulhu?

The next night, Miles brings home another woman.  Vicki (Mary Woronov) is a writer herself.  She writes romance novels and she tells Miles that she feels as if they are kindred spirits because her novels also often feature a master/servant relationship.  Miles tries to maneuver Vicki over to the bed but, instead, Vicki finds Miles’s diary and leaves with it.

Vicki later calls Miles and tells him that she hasn’t been able to put down his diary, which she apparently believes to be a rough draft of his newest novel.  She invites him over to her apartment so they can discuss it.  Mostly wanting to get back his diary so his secrets are not revealed, Miles goes over to Vicki’s place.  Vicki says that she thinks they should collaborate on a new novel and more.  After checking to make sure that Vicki’s bed is not alive, Miles agrees.

Ha!  The joke’s on Miles.  Vicki’s bed may not eat people but her refrigerator does!  When Miles gets a beer, he’s dragged into the refrigerator by a familiar set of tentacles and only his shoes are left behind.  Cthulhu really does not like footwear!

This was an enjoyable piece of Lovecraftian-style whimsy, with John Diehl giving an effectively jittery performance and Mary Woronov stealing the entire episode with her more cool and icy turn as the femme fatale, Vicki.  Just as being confined to bed gave Proust the time to perfect his talent, having to feed his bed has made Miles into both a successful author and a mental wreck.  More than just being a show about a bed that eats people, this is also a story about the isolation of being an artist.  In order to keep his talent and inspiration from fading, Miles has to literally destroy every human relationship that he has.  He can blame it on Cthulhu all the he wants but, in the end, Miles is the one who made his bed and must now sleep in it.

Film Review: Cop (dir by James B. Harris)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

First released in 1988, Cop stars James Woods as Lloyd Hopkins, a homicide detective who does not …. wait for it …. GO BY THE BOOK!

Actually, has there ever been a movie about a homicide detective who always made sure to go by the book?  I’m sure there has been but I really can’t think of any off the top of my head.  Whenever a homicide detective shows up as the main character of a movie, you can be sure that he’s going to drink too much, carouse too much, and get yelled at by his superiors.  If the movie involves a serial killer, you can be sure that the detective and the killer are going to be mirror images of each other, two renegades who have found differing ways to work out their issues with the world.

As much as we talk about the cliché of the cop who does it his way, would we really want to see a movie about a cop who plays by the rules?  I mean, most people dread having to deal with cops.  It’s not just that cops usually bring bad news.  It’s also that dealing with a cop means having to spend a lot of time while they slowly and methodically go through all of their procedures.  There have been so many times that I’ve been pulled over speeding and I’ve just wanted to yell, “Just write the ticket!”  Most people agree that we need some sort of police force, regardless of what the Defund folks say.  But most people also hate following the rules, especially when those rules feel rather arbitrary.  That’s the appeal of the renegade cop.  The renegade cop fills a purpose in society but, at the same time, he dislikes dealing with all of the usual cop nonsense as much as the rest of us.

As for Lloyd Hopkins, he’s hyperactive, jittery, sleazy, and a terrible father and husband.  He cheats on his wife.  He tells his daughter all about the gory details of his job.  (His daughter, it should be noted, seems to enjoy hearing them.)  He obsesses on the crimes that he investigates and he pursues murderers with a fanaticism that suggests that Lloyd knows that he’s just one bad life choice away from becoming one of them himself.  (And, indeed, Lloyd kills quite a few people over the course of Cop, even allowing one person to get into another room and get a shotgun just so Lloyd will have an excuse to shoot him.)  Lloyd is someone who is dangerous to know but, at the same time, he’s also probably the only person who can stop the killer who is seemingly committing random murders in Los Angeles.

The plot is typical of films about obsessive detectives pursuing faceless killers but Cop stands out due to the director of James B. Harris and the lead performance of James Woods.  Harris creates an atmosphere of continual unease, one in which the viewers gets the feeling that anyone could become the killer’s next victim at any moment.  James Woods, meanwhile, plays Lloyd as being a live wire, someone who simply cannot stop thinking and talking because he knows that the minute he does, he’s going to have to take a serious look at the wreck of his life and his own less-than-stable behavior.  Lloyd may be a self-destructive bastard but he’s a compelling self-destructive bastard and, in this film’s version of Los Angeles, he’s about as close as one can get to avenging angel.  The film is full of good actors, like Charles Durning, Lesley Ann Warren, and Raymond J. Barry, but it is ultimately James Woods’s show.  Lloyd gets the film’s final line and it’s a killer but it works because, by the time he utters it, the viewer feels as if they have gotten to know Lloyd.

Cop is based on Blood on the Moon, a novel by James Ellroy.  I have not read that novel so I don’t know how closely Cop sticks to Ellroy’s original plot.  Nor do I know how James Ellroy felt about Cop, which was the first movie to be based on his work.  That said, Ellroy’s writing and Harris’s film share a dark vision of humanity and a subversive sense of humor.  Ellroy has often declared himself to be the world’s great crime novelist and, from what I’ve read of his work, I would tend to agree.  Cop is certainly not the greatest crime movie ever made (nor is it the best film to ever be adapted from Ellroy’s writing) but it’s still pretty damn good.