Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 1/9/22 — 1/15/22

Posted on January 15, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Another week and I have yet to watch the latest season of Cobra Kai. What can I tell you? This was a busy week and I was sick for a good deal of it. No, not COVID sick. Instead, I was just sick with the cold and the allergies that I get hit with every January. You would think that would lead to me having a lot of extra time in which I would have nothing to do but watch all the latest shows but it didn’t quite work out that way.

Anyway, I’m feeling better now and David Lynch’s birthday is next Thursday so this upcoming week is going to be a good one.

Here’s my week in television.

Allo Allo (Sunday Night, PBS)

LeClerc was nearly executed in the town square by Herr Flick. Apparently, it was because Flick is still searching for the stolen money. (To be honest, it can be a bit difficult to keep up with everyone’s motivations on Allo Allo.) Fortunately, the British bombers flew over the town just in time to provide a distraction. “The bummers!” Office Crabtree announced, in his mangled French, “Just in the nock of tome!” LeClerc escaped with his life but the British airmen are still stuck at Rene’s café.

The Amazing Race (Wednesday Night, CBS)

The Amazing Race went to Scotland this week, which made me feel very nostalgic for the last time that I was in Scotland. Unfortunately, at the end of this leg of the race, Phil announced that shooting was being suspended due to the COVID lockdowns. The action then picked up over a year later, with the remaining teams gathering in Switzerland to continue the race. Unfortunately, not all of the teams could return, including my favorite, the team of Anthony and Spencer. Boo hoo. Anyway, I reviewed this week’s episode here!

The Bachelor (Monday Night, ABC)

This Monday, I watched the Bachelor while also watching a Steven Seagal film. I’m still trying to decide which leading man had less charisma. Seagal is pretty boring but Clayton is just like a piece of cement that can speak in barely legible sentences.

Bar Rescue (Weekday Morning, Paramount)

I had this on the TV for background noise on Thursday morning. While Windows updated, I listened to Jon Taffer yell at an owner who forgot to call a cab for a drunk guy. Usually, I think Taffer needs to calm down but, in this case, he did have a point.

The Brady Bunch (Sunday Morning, MeTV)

On Sunday, MeTV aired four episodes of The Brady Bunch and they all featured Alice being taken for granted. In the first two episodes, her boyfriend took her for granted. In the next two, the family took her for granted and even drove her to quit at one point. The new maid wasn’t as nice as Alice so the family went down to Alice’s new waitressing job and basically got her fired. What a bunch of jerks. Why did Alice put with all that? Was the money that good?

Dexter: New Blood (Sunday Night, Showtime)

I wrote about the series finale here! For the record, I refuse to believe that Dexter’s dead.

Judge Steve Harvey (Monday and Tuesday Night, ABC)

I watched this new series on Monday. It came on after The Bachelor and I was too busy (or maybe lazy) to change the channel. I can’t really say I paid that much attention to it. Why would you air a cheesy courtroom show in Primetime? Why would you get Steve Harvey to be the judge? Why, why, why?

By the way, since Steve Harvey is now an ABC employee, you know he’s going to end up hosting the Oscars right? The Oscars are going to come back from commercial and Steve’s going to say, “If you ain’t thanking God in your speech, that Oscar’s not going to provide much comfort while you’re burning in Hell.”

King of the Hill (Weekdays, FXX)

I watched a few episodes of King of the Hill on Sunday afternoon. My favorite of them was the two-part episode where Hank was briefly a murder suspect and he feared that, due to accidentally taking one hit off a joint, he might be guilty. “My God, I’m hearing things. That’s a side effect of the marijuana poisoning.”

The Larry Sanders Show (HBOMax)

This is a 90s sitcom that aired on HBO, about a neurotic talk show host (Garry Shandling), his sleazy sidekick (Jeffrey Tambor), his profane producer (Rip Torn), and the show’s staff. Jeff loves this show so we watched two episodes on Sunday morning. The first one we watched featured Larry freaking out over David Duchovny having a crush on him. The second one featured Larry’s sidekick, Hank, freaking out because one of his sex tapes had been stolen. In short, there were a lot of people freaking out. Both episodes were pretty funny, though the whole thing was definitely a relic of a different era. (The highlight of the second episode was a bizarre conversation between Norm McDonald and Henry Winkler. Winkler thought Hank’s sex tape was an exercise video. McDonald said, “Hank’s got a huge cock,” in that Canadian way of his. Winkler replied, “Then why is he so upset?” Trust me, it was funny.) Rip Torn was hilarious as Larry’s producer. That said, I don’t think I would have wanted to spend any time with any of the characters on The Larry Sanders Show. They were all funny but kind of mean. They probably would have made me cry.

The Love Boat (Sunday Evening, MeTV)

MeTV paid tribute to Betty White on Sunday by showing a 1984 episode of The Love Boat, in which she was a passenger. Also on the Boat for that cruise: Carol Channing, Rue McClanahan, Michelle Phillips, Cesar Romero, Alan Thicke, Dick Van Patten, and Fred Willard.

Betty White and Carol Channing played showbiz veterans who were trying to convince Cesar Romero to publish White’s memoirs. Thicke played a man who was trying to convince his ex-wife (Phillips) to marry Fred Willard so he wouldn’t have to pay any more alimony. Meanwhile, in a totally serious subplot, Dick Van Patten played an abusive salesman married to McClanahan. The serious subplot was kind of jarring when mixed in with scenes of White and Channing singing and Fred Willard doing his amiable goof routine.

The Mary Tyler Moore Show (Sunday Afternoon, MeTV)

MeTV showed four episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, all featuring Betty White in the role of Sue Anne Nivens. Needless to say, they were all funny but it was hard to watch them without considering that the entire cast is now gone.

Mom (Weekday Afternoon, Paramount)

On Thursday, I forgot the change the channel before Paramount started their two-hour Mom bloc. All four of the episodes dealt with the moms and their friends freaking out over people smoking weed. The few time that I’ve seen Mom have made me happy that I don’t have an addictive personality because I don’t think I could handle being a Recovery person.

The Office (Weekday Evenings, Freeform)

I’m happy to say that The Office is now on FreeForm, so I can watch it without having to deal with Comedy Central’s weird, mental health commercials. (“The past two years have been difficult for everyone….” Yeah, no shit. That’s why I’m watching your station, so I can escape for a few hours.) I watched a few episodes from Season 4 on Wednesday and then a few from Season 5 on Friday.

Open All Hours (Sunday Night, PBS)

While Arkwright cheated his customers and sold them spoiled food, Granville swept the store in quiet misery.

Relatively Famous: Ranch Rules (Saturday Morning, E!)

The children of celebrities work at a ranch, that’s the plot of this show. On the episode I saw, Billy Bob Thornton’s son was fascinated by a cow giving birth. Then everyone went back to their cabin and talked about how difficult it was being only relatively famous.

Silk Stalkings (Tubi)

On Sunday morning, I decided to get back to binging Silk Stalkings, the 90s show about half-naked people committing crimes. The first episode that I watched featured Chris and Rita investigating the murder of a hair dresser. At first, they thought it was mob-related but then it turned out to be relationship related. This was actually an episode that I had seen before but it was still enjoyable to rewatch. The second one I watched featured Chris and Rita investigating the murder of a surgeon and again, this turned out to be one that I had seen before. (Both episodes previously aired on ZLiving while I was dealing with that terrible sinus infection last year.) Still, even if it was a rewatch, it was still enjoyable. Silk Stalkings was delightfully trashy.

The first episode that I watched on Monday was another one that I saw last summer, while I was dealing with that sinus infection. (Yuck. I hate word sinus and I hate the word infection.) A real estate tycoon was beaten to death by a baseball bat and all the suspicion fell on the baseball player that Rita happened to be dating. This was followed by an episode in which an obnoxious radio talk show host bullied people into committing murder and suicide. It was a well-done episode. Rodger Bumpass (who is perhaps best-known for voicing Squidward Tentacles on Spongebob) was perfectly cast as the evil talk show host. The third episode I watched involved Chris and Rita solving a homicide that was witnessed by a teenage runaway. Rita encouraged the runaway to get back in school. Good for Rita! Finally, the fourth episode featured Rita investigating the murder of a friend’s nanny. I didn’t really pay much attention to it but, from what I saw, everyone appeared to be having fun.

On Tuesday, I got things started with an episode that featured Chris and Rita investigating a murder at an exclusive casino. Chris got to wear a tux while Rita went undercover as a dealer. They were so cute together! This was followed by an episode with Rita and Chris investigated the death of a drug dealer, despite the fact that the new DA wanted them to lay off the case because it might make the department look bad. It was a bit of bland episode, to be honest. The third episode was considerably better, as it featured Chris shooting a suspect and then the suspect’s sister trying to get revenge by seducing him. It was trashy and fun. Even more trashy and fun was the final episode that I watched on Tuesday, in which a prostitute witnessed a murder and Chris and Rita ended up investigating a judge.

I didn’t watch the show on Wednesday but I did return to it on Thursday. The first episode I watched featured Chris, Rita, and their captain (played by Broadway legend Ben Vereen) going undercover to bust a bunch of drug dealer who were working out of a club. Vereen seemed to be having a lot of fun and that made this otherwise pedestrian episode entertaining. This was followed by an episode that found Chris and Rita going undercover yet again, this time on the set of a trashy film shoot. It turned out that one of the actresses on the film was Chris’s mother! It was a fun episode.

On Friday, the first episode that I watched featured the great Patrick Muldoon as a serial rapist who had just been released from prison. Chris and Rita made sure that he didn’t go back to prison by sending him to the graveyard instead. Muldoon, in his younger years, was always perfectly cast as a villain and this episode was effectively disturbing. Rita and Chris’s fury felt real and cathartic. At its best, Silk Stalkings was trash with a conscience. That was followed by an episode where Chris and Rita went undercover as a married couple and were totally adorable as they solved the murder of a man who was found on the beach wearing a tuxedo.

I did not watch the show on Saturday but I look forward to returning to it over the course of the upcoming week!

WKRP In Cincinnati (DVD)

This 70s sitcom dealt with the daily life at a radio station in Cincinnati. Jeff loves this show so we watched a few episodes on Sunday morning. One dealt with a man in a pig costume painting the station’s lobby. Another one featured the station manager running unsuccessfully for city council. And the third one featured the station’s ad guy appearing on an early reality show called Real Families. WKRP was a pretty funny show. Like The Larry Sanders Show, it was very much a show of its time. Unlike The Larry Sanders Show, the show’s characters were really likable and I would have probably enjoyed working with them. No one would have made me cry.

Music Video of the Day: Time Has Come Today by The Chambers Brothers (1969, dir by ????)

Posted on January 15, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hey, it’s the song where they keep yelling, “TIME!” over and over again.

That’s how I best know this song. It’s one that I’ve heard in a few movies and in a few commercials and I always assumed that it was just like three minutes and that “TIME!” was the chorus. Then, last year, I decided to track it down on YouTube and I discovered that it’s actually a 15 minute song and it takes them a while to get to the “TIME!” part.

The 60s were apparently a good time for extended jams about the nature of the universe but I can imagine legions of hippies yelling, “GET TO THE TIME PART!” whenever this song was performed. I also have to admit that, listen to this song, I found myself thinking about my friend Suzi who was determined to put on a production of Hair in Denton. Everyone she hit up for money asked her if her version was involve much nudity, as Denton was seen as being a fairly conservative town and there was also some question about whether or not community actors would be willing to get naked for free.

“It’s not about the nudity, man!” she would reply, “It’s not about the nudity.” I have to admit that, for a few years afterwards, I would randomly bust out that line for no particular reason. Any conversation can be made suddenly awkward by suddenly shouting either “It’s not about the nudity, man!” or “TIME!”

That all being said, it’s a good song so here’s an early music video that was shot for German television.

Enjoy!

Time has come today
Young hearts can go their way
Can’t put it off another day
I don’t care what others say
They say we don’t listen anyway
Time has come today
(Hey)

Oh
The rules have changed today (Hey)
I have no place to stay (Hey)
I’m thinking about the subway (Hey)
My love has flown away (Hey)
My tears have come and gone (Hey)
Oh my Lord, I have to roam (Hey)
I have no home (Hey)
I have no home (Hey)

Now the time has come (Time)
There’s no place to run (Time)
I might get burned up by the sun (Time)
But I had my fun (Time)
I’ve been loved and put aside (Time)
I’ve been crushed by the tumbling tide (Time)
And my soul has been psychedelicized (Time)

Now the time has come (Time)
There are things to realize (Time)
Time has come today (Time)
Time has come today (Time)

Time

Oh
Now the time has come (Time)
There’s no place to run (Time)
I might get burned up by the sun (Time)
But I had my fun (Time)
I’ve been loved and put aside (Time)
I’ve been crushed by tumbling tide (Time)
And my soul has been psychedelicized (Time)

Now the time has come (Time)
There are things to realize (Time)
Time has come today (Time)
Time has come today (Time)

Time

Time
Yeah

Miniseries Review: Ford: The Man and The Machine (dir by Allan Eastman)

Posted on January 14, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Henry Ford changed the world, for both the better and the worst.

Starting from his own small workshop in Dearborn, Michigan, Henry Ford designed the first mass-produced automobile. He transformed cars from being a luxury item to being something that nearly every family owned. He created the concept of the assembly line. He argued that workers needed to be paid a livable wage and he also advocated for an 8-hour workday. At a time when every facet of American life was heavily segregated, he encouraged his factories an auto dealerships to hire black employees. He was a pacifist, who took part in a widely-ridiculed but apparently sincere effort to try to convince the leaders of the world to just stop fighting.

Unfortunately, Henry Ford was also something of an unhinged lunatic, a man whose skill at engineering and his empathy for his underpaid workers did not necessarily translate into a sophisticated understanding of anything else. When the workers in his factories tried to unionize, Ford employed violent strike breakers and he felt that most of the population were like a children and therefore incapable of governing themselves. He understood how to make car but he also fell for all sorts of quack science and was a believer in reincarnation.

Worst of all, he was a rabid anti-Semite, who blamed almost all of the world’s problems on “Jewish bankers” and who played a huge role in popularizing a scurrilous work called The Protocols of Elder Zion in America. Claiming to lay out the details of a Jewish plot to secretly control the world, The Protocols were a ludicrous document but many people believed them because they were promoted by Henry Ford, who was as big a celebrity in the early 20th Century as all of the social media influencers are today. All these years later, The Protocols are still cited by anti-Semites. A series of anti-Semitic editorials (which Ford later claimed to have signed off on but not actually written) were published in Germany under the title The International Jew, the World’s Foremost Problem. Hitler wrote of his admiration for Ford in Mein Kampf. Ford, it should be noted, did keep his distance from Hitler, though whether that was due to a personal distaste or the threat of an economic boycott is not known. (Jewish leaders had already organized one successful boycott of Ford in the 20s, which led to Ford closing down his newspaper and offering up an apology.) At the Nuremberg Trials, many of the Nazis said that they had first been introduced to anti-Semitism through the writings of Henry Ford. Reportedly, when Ford saw newsreel footage of the concentration camps, he was so overcome with emotion that he collapsed from a stroke.

(Two years ago, when Nick Cannon regurgitated the usual anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on a podcast, he was pretty much saying the exact same thing that Henry Ford said at the start of the 20th Century. Later, under threat of economic boycott, both Ford and Cannon would off up half-hearted apologies for their statements. Ford continued to make cars. Cannon continues to host a handful of television shows. How does that work?)

First broadcast over two nights in 1987, Ford: The Man and the Machine was a Canadian miniseries about the long and controversial life of Henry Ford. Cliff Robertson played Henry Ford. Hope Lange played his wife while Heather Thomas played his mistress. R.H. Thomson played Ford’s son, the sensitive Edsel. Michael Ironside played Harry Bennett, a sinister figure who was hired to break up union activity and who eventually became Ford’s right-hand man. If I remember correctly, I believe Canadian law actually required that Michael Ironside appear in almost every Canadian film and television show made in the 80s and the 90s. His glowering presence and menacing line delivery practically shouted out, “Don’t mess with Canada,” and he does bring a note of genuine danger to his performance here.

Ford: The Man and the Machine opens in the late 20s, with an aging Henry Ford already starting to lose control of his mental faculties. A series of flashbacks then show how Ford built his first engine, his first car, and eventually his first factory. We watch as Ford goes from being an enthusiastic, self-taught engineer to being one of the most powerful men in the world. Along the way, Ford grows arrogant. The same stubbornness that led to his early success also leads to his later problems. For all of his ability, Ford’s ego and his refusal to reconsider his conclusions leaves him vulnerable to both flattery and manipulation, whether it’s coming from the White House of Woodrow Wilson, from his own executives, or from the authoritarians who rose to power in Europe following the first World War. As portrayed in the movie, he’s a loving father who also flies into a rage when Edsel designs a car on his own. He loves his wife but he keeps a mistress. He loves his family but he’ll always prefer to spend time working on his cars than spending time with them. Henry Ford changes the world but his own hubris makes it impossible for him to change with it.

The miniseries is built around Cliff Robertson’s performance as Ford and Robertson does an excellent job in the role, convincingly playing Ford as he goes from being an enthusiastic dreamer to a paranoid millionaire to a doddering old man, a Bidenesque figuredhead who is only nominally in charge of his own company. Neither the film nor Robertson shy away from showing us Henry Ford’s flaws. Instead, both the production and the actor offer up a portrait of a complex man who transformed the way that people lived but who couldn’t escape from his own prejudices and resentments. Ford: The Man and The Machine is a history lesson but it’s a valuable one. If you’re a student of history, you’ll find much to think about in this miniseires.

For the record, I do drive a Ford and it’s a good car. However, I tell myself that it’s named after Gerald Ford.

The Films of 2021: Dear Evan Hansen (dir by Stephen Chbosky)

Posted on January 14, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Last night, I finally watched Dear Evan Hansen.

Dear Evan Hansen is the film adaptation of the Tony-award winning Broadway musical of the same name. Recreating his stage role, Ben Platt plays Evan Hansen, a teenager who suffers from social anxiety and who is mistaken for having been the best friend of Connor Murphy (Colton Ryan), a troubled classmate who committed suicide after stealing a letter that Evan had written to himself. (Somewhat awkwardly, it was also a letter in which Evan somewhat obliquely wrote about the crush that he had on a member of Connor’s family.) When the letter is subsequently found on Connor’s body, it’s assumed that it’s a suicide note that Connor meant for Evan. Evan, who is in love with Connor’s sister, Zoe (Kaitlyn Dever), allows everyone to believe that he and Connor were friends. Connor’s mother, Cynthia, (Amy Adams) and his stepfather (Danny Pino) adopt Evan as a sort of replacement for their dead son. Cynthia views Evan as being the only way that she’ll ever understand what Connor was going through and Evan continually reassures that Murphys that Connor really did love all of them and that he was trying to change his life for the better. With the Murphys now treating Evan as a member of their own family, Evan’s mother (Julianne Moore) feels that her son is now ashamed of her. And Evan’s classmate, Alana (Amandla Stenberg), launches a movement to raise money to preserve the apple orchard where Evan claims that he and Connor spent all of their time together.

As a musical, Dear Evan Hansen was very popular. As a film, it doesn’t work and it doesn’t work for all the reasons that everyone assumed that it wouldn’t work. Believe me, I wanted it work. From the minute that the trailer first dropped, the reaction to the film has been so overwhelmingly negative that I was really hoping that the film itself would turn out to be an overlooked gem. I was really hoping that this would be one of those underappreciated films that just needed a few brave champions. Instead, it turned out to be not terrible in the way that Cats was terrible but still too flawed to be considered a success.

First off, the plot itself doesn’t transition well from the stage to film. There’s too many holes and there’s too many places in the story where you find yourself wondering why you should care about Evan and his problems. Those plot holes may not have been as big of a problem when the story was presented on the stage because watching any story play out against an artificial backdrop requires a certain suspension of disbelief. But, on film, seeing Evan attending an actual school and walking down an actual street and visiting an actual house, you’re much more aware of how inauthentic the story feels. Evan’s actions rarely make sense and it’s difficult to accept that anyone, even Connor’s emotionally desperate parents, would believe the stories that Evan concocts about his friendship with Connor. On stage, you could perhaps accept that Zoe would buy that Evan and Connor were friends who confided in each other despite the fact that Evan doesn’t seem to know anything about Connor’s family or home life. On screen, especially when one considers the fierce intelligence that Kaitlyn Dever brings to the role of Zoe, it’s a bit more difficult to believe.

The other big problem with the film is Ben Platt is too old for the role of Evan. Platt first played the role in 2015, when he was 23. He won a Tony and certainly, he deserves a lot of credit for creating the role from the workshop phase all the way to Broadway. Now, however, he’s 28 and he looks considerably older. So much of what Evan does is acceptable only if you believe that he’s an immature 17 year-old who is desperately looking for a place and a family where he belongs. The same actions go from being poignant to being creepy when they’re done by someone who appears to be in his mid-30s. While Platt has a great singing voice and shines in the musical numbers, he’s a bit too mannered when he just has to recite dialogue. He’s still giving a stage performance, even though he’s now playing the role on film and everyone around him is giving a film performance. Platt’s talent is undeniable but he’s miscast here and casting him opposite performers who can actually still pass for teenagers doesn’t help the situation at all.

(When I watched the film, I thought that obvious age difference between Ben Platt and Kaitlyn Dever occasionally made the scenes between Evan and Zoe uncomfortable to watch. Then I did some research and discovered that Dever is only three years younger than Platt. It’s just that Dever still looks like a teen while Platt looks very much like an adult. And there’s no shame in looking your age. Someone just needs to cast Platt in an adult role.)

In Platt’s defense, the film doesn’t really make perfect use of any of the members of its talented cast. Amy Adams is such a good actress but the film casts her as a stereotypically flakey rich suburbanite who flitters from one trend to another. Julianne Moore and Amandla Stenberg are similarly wasted, playing characters who have potential but who are never quite given as much to do as they deserve. Of the cast, Kaitlyn Dever is the stand-out, even though Zoe is a bit of an inconsistent character. Initially, she seems like the one person willing to call out everyone on their BS and then, just as suddenly, she’s oddly forgiving of someone who essentially manipulated her emotions for his own benefit.

Not surprisingly, Dear Evan Hansen works best when people are singing. Ben Platt and Colton Ryan bring so much energy to Sincerely, Me that I briefly had hope that the film was turning itself around. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case but still, it’s a good production number. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie doesn’t really live up to it.

A Blast From The Past: The Other Fellow’s Feelings (dir by Arthur H. Wolf)

Posted on January 14, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Why is Judy crying in class?

She says it’s because Jack “won’t stop teasing me.” Is Jack to blame or does Judy need to toughen up? Should Jack’s classmates have said, “Lay off?” Should Judy’s friends have tattled to the teacher? Should Judy have teased Jack back? What would you do?

This short film from 1951 considers all of those issues and yet, it’s hard not to feel that the ultimate message is that Judy needs to stop taking everything so personally. Sorry, movie. Sorry, judgmental narrator. I disagree. Myself, I think the skinny kid with the glasses should have followed through with his threat to beat Jack up. Up until I was 12, I had a really severe stutter so I know what Judy was going through. Fortunately, in my case, I also had three older sisters and a bunch of overprotective cousins that were always looking after me. Judy doesn’t seem to have that type of support system. To be honest, in most cases like this, I put the blame on the teachers. Jack and Judy are sitting up at the front of the class so there’s really no excuse for no one noticing what was going on.

This short film is another one that feels like a Herk Harvey production but it was actually directed by Arthur Wolf. My favorite shot is the entire class staring at the camera while the narrator asks, “What would you do?” Seriously, someone’s in a lot of trouble once these kids come to a consensus on who is to blame.

From 1951, it’s time to consider …. The Other’s Fellow’s Feelings.

Music Video of the Day: I Want Your Love by Chic (1979, directed by ????)

Posted on January 14, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I can relate to the title of this song, as I think almost everyone can. The love of the title doesn’t just have to refer to romantic love. It can also just mean being loved as in being appreciated or admired or praised or …. well, really whatever you mean for it to mean. There’s all sorts of love out there. Everyone wants to be loved and sometimes, that mean exhausting yourself trying to see every movie released in one year in just two weeks. Not that I’m speaking from personal experience, of course…. heh heh….

Watching this video, I found myself a bit upset with myself for having never learned how to play the violin. It’s a neat little instrument and there’s no way you can’t look transcendent while playing it. Oh well. We’ll chalk that up as missed opportunity, I guess. To be honest, I have a feeling I’d end up putting out someone’s eye with that big bow that they use so I guess it’s for the best that I never learned.

Good song, though. You can dance to it. You can laugh to it. You can cry to it. This song came out in 1979 and, as we all know, the 70s were the best!

Enjoy!

I want your love
I want your love
I want your love
I want your love

Do you feel like you ever want
To try my love and see how well it fits?
Baby, can’t you see when you look at me
I can’t kick this feelin’ when it hits

All alone in my bed at night
I grab my pillow and squeeze it tight
I think of you and I dream of you all of the time
What am I gonna do?

I want your love
I want your love
I want your love
I want your love

Sometime, don’t you feel like you
Never really had a love that’s real?
Well, here I am and who’s to say
A better love you won’t find today

Just one chance and I will show you love
Like no other, two steps above
On your ladder I’ll be a peg
I want your lovin’, please don’t make me beg

I want your love
I want your love
I want your love
I want your love

I want your love
I need your love
I’ll share my dreams and make you see
I’m really there, your love I need

I want your love
I need your love
Just like the birds need sky above
I’ll share my dreams and make you see
I’m really there, your love I need

I want your love
I want your love
I want your love
I want your love

Music Video of the Day: Jive Talkin’ by The Bee Gees (1975, dir by ????)

Posted on January 13, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Yes, everyone, I am still in a 70s-type of mood. I imagine this will be the case for the rest of January. Once February comes around, I’ll probably be in a Canadian mood so get ready for a lot of songs off of the Degrassi soundtrack.

Anyway, this video is for Jive Talkin’, which was I guess one of the Bee Gees’s earliest disco songs. (Apparently, they were originally a non-disco band, which I just can’t imagine what that was like. Yes, I know that it would be very easy for me to listen to their non-disco music. That’s not the point. The 70s are all about disco and dancing. The 70s didn’t need any folk rock.) Jive Talkin’ is one of those songs that feels like it should have been written for the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack but it actually came out two years before that film appeared in theaters. That said, it does appear in Saturday Night Fever. Unfortunately, the song did not appear in Stayin’ Alive. That’s a shame since that film was all about jive and I think Frank Stallone could have done wonders with it.

Enjoy!

It’s just your jive talkin’
You’re telling me lies, yeah
Jive talkin’
You wear a disguise
Jive talkin’
So misunderstood, yeah
Jive talkin’
You really no good

Oh, my child
You’ll never know
Just what you mean to me
Oh, my child
You got so much
You’re gonna take away my energy

With all your jive talkin’
You’re telling me lies, yeah
Good lovin’
Still gets in my eyes
Nobody believes what you say
It’s just your jive talkin’
That gets in the way

Oh my love
You’re so good
Treating me so cruel
There you go
With your fancy lies
Leavin’ me lookin’
Like a dumbstruck fool
With all your

Jive talkin’
You’re telling me lies, yeah
Jive talkin’
You wear a disguise
Jive talkin’
So misunderstood, yeah
Jive talkin’
You just ain’t no good

Love talkin’
Is all very fine, yeah
Jive talkin’
Just isn’t a crime
And if there’s somebody
You’ll love till you die
Then all that jive talkin’
Just gets in your eye

Jive talkin’
You’re telling me lies, yeah
Good lovin’
Still gets in my eyes
Nobody believes what you say
It’s just your jive talkin’
That gets in the way

Love talkin’
Is all very fine, yeah
Jive talkin’, just isn’t a crime
And if there’s somebody
You’ll love till you die
Then all that jive talkin’
Just gets in your eye, yeah yeah

Oh jive talkin’
Jive talkin’
Oh jive talkin’

Film Review: I Hear The Trees Whispering (dir by Jozsef Gallai)

Posted on January 12, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

A man named Will (Gabor Varga) has a new job. He spends his days in the wilderness, living in a small cabin and essentially keeping an eye out for anyone who might need help or who might be doing something that they shouldn’t be doing. His only company is his supervisor, June (Laura Saxon). He never meets June. He just hears her voice as he spends his days exploring the forest. Her voice sounds familiar to him, like someone from his recent past,

Will is a man hiding from the traumas of that past. His wife died in a tragic accident. His daughter is currently being raised by her grandfather (Larry Hankin). Will has next to no contact with her. He says it’s better that way. June tells him that almost everyone who accepts a job in the forest is trying to avoid something or escape some sort of tragedy. The forest is where people go to disappear.

June also explains that strange things are hidden in the forest,. Will comes across creepy and deserted buildings. He finds a backpack and makes a shocking discovery when he searches it. Some nights, he thinks that he might see a figure in the distance trying to give him some sort of coded message.

The latest film from director Joszef Gallai, I Hear The Trees Whispering is full of atmosphere. The majority of the film is shot from Will’s point of view. Indeed, we never see Will’s face. Instead, we hear his voice and occasionally, we see his hands while he’s searching for something. It’s a technique that puts us directly into Will’s mind. Just as he’s lost in the wilderness, so are we. Just as he’s hearing strange noises and trying to see where they’re coming from, so are we. It’s a technique the allows the film to capture the forest in all of it ominous beauty. One can see why Will would want to escape to the forest while also understanding how the isolation could drive someone to the point of madness. However, there’s another reason why the majority of the film is shot from WIll’s point of view, one that I won’t spoil beyond to say that it all pays off in an unexpected but effective twist during the film’s third act.

With a 78-minute running time, I Hear The Trees Whispering moves at a deliberate pace, Once again, it’s a film that’s far more concerned with setting the proper atmosphere and developing the characters of Will and June than with tossing in any cheap jump scares. The audience’s fear and anxiety comes from the fact that it’s impossible to watch the film without imagining how you would react if you found yourself in the same situation. Would you have the courage to leave the cabin and see where the noises were coming from? I probably wouldn’t but Will doesn’t really have a choice. He’s as much a prisoner of fate as he is a prisoner of his tragic past. Just as Jack Torrance was always meant to be the caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, Will was always meant to search the forest in search of answers.

As I mentioned earlier, there’s a big twist in the third act, one that I guarantee will take you by surprise and which will force you to reconsider everything that you’ve previously seen. That’s what a good twist does!

I Hear The Trees Whispering is an effectively atmospheric thriller, one that will leave you thinking long after the end credits have rolled.

Music Video of the Day: The Joker by Steve Miller Band (1973, dir by ????)

Posted on January 12, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

You know the lyrics.

You know the bassline.

You know the “waa waa” effect.

Even if you don’t know all the lyrics or you don’t know the name of the song or even the band, you do know that, in the 70s, someone was a picker, grinner, a smoker, and a midnight toker. Someone got their loving on the run.

I once took a creative writing class with an older student who claimed that he once met the Steve Miller Band in a bar. He said they were a cool group of guys, even in their older years. I’m not sure if he was telling the truth (it was creative writing, after all) but it was still a good story.

Why was this song not used in The Dark Knight, I ask you. We all know that Heath Ledger could sing. Imagine him singing this while holding up a mirror to the face of Aaron Eckhart. Or, if Heath didn’t want to sing it, Eric Roberts was in that film as well. Who wouldn’t want to watch Eric Roberts cover this song? Missed opportunities.

Enjoy!

Some people call me the space cowboy, yeah
Some call me the gangster of love
Some people call me Maurice
‘Cause I speak of the pompatus of love a

People talk about me baby
Say I’m doin’ you wrong, doin’ you wrong
Well, don’t you worry, baby, don’t worry
‘Cause I’m right here, right here, right here, right here at home

‘Cause I’m a picker
I’m a grinner
I’m a lover
And I’m a sinner
I play my music in the sun
I’m a joker
I’m a smoker
I’m a midnight toker
I sure don’t want to hurt no one
I’m a picker
I’m a grinner
I’m a lover
And I’m a sinner
I play my music in the sun
I’m a joker
I’m a smoker
I’m a midnight toker
I get my lovin’ on the run
Ooh, whoo, ooh, whoo

You’re the cutest thing that I ever did see
I really love your peaches
Wanna shake your tree
Lovey dovey, lovey dovey, lovey dovey all the time
Ooh wee baby, I’ll sure show you a good time

‘Cause I’m a picker
I’m a grinner
I’m a lover
And I’m a sinner
I play my music in the sun
I’m a joker
I’m a smoker
I’m a midnight toker
I get my lovin’ on the run
I’m a picker
I’m a grinner
I’m a lover
And I’m a sinner
I play my music in the sun
I’m a joker
I’m a smoker
I’m a midnight toker
I sure don’t want to hurt no one

Ooh, whoo, ooh, whoo

People keep talkin’ about me baby
Say I’m doin’ you wrong
Well don’t you worry, don’t worry, no don’t worry mama
‘Cause I’m right here at home
You’re the cutest thing I ever did see
I really love your peaches
Wanna shake your tree
Lovey dovey, lovey dovey, lovey dovey all the time
Come on baby now, I’ll show you a good time

The TSL’s Grindhouse: Space Mutiny (dir by David Winters)

Posted on January 11, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

“Arggggh!”

— Dave Ryder (Reb Brown) in Space Mutinty (1988)

Space Mutiny, a sci-fi epic from 1988, is full of dialogue about all sorts of political and philosophical concerns but none of it is quite as memorable as the quote above. Dave Ryder says, “Argggggh!” a lot over the course of Space Mutiny. He’s the newly appointed head of security for the Southern Sun, a gigantic spaceship that has spent the last 260 years traveling from Earth to a new planet. Being head of security is important because there are some people on the Southern Sun who are plotting a mutiny. Dave Ryder decides that the most effective way to battle the mutineers is to yell loudly and frequetly. “ARGGGGGH!’ Ryder yells whenever he’s being shot at. “ARGGGGGGGH!” he screams when he finds himself on a very slow and gradual collision course with the head of the mutineers.

When Dave isn’t saying stuff like, “Argggggh!,” he’s saying stuff like, “Go! Go! Go!” When the bad guys open fire on him and his men, it’s time for them to “Go! Go! Go!” When the mutineers are being chased, Dave is quick to tell everyone to “Go! Go! Go!” He’s like the physical fitness trainer from Hell. He never actually yells “Feel the burn!” but you can be damn well sure that he’s thinking it. In fact, there’s a point in the movie where “Feel the burn!” actually would have been a good line. Dave and his girlfriend, Lea (Cissie Cameron), set a mutineer on fire. It’s actually a bit of a sadistic scene and it doesn’t come across as being the big hero moment that it’s obviously meant to be. But, then again, Dave isn’t yelling because he’s a nice guy. He’s yelling because he’s played by Reb Brown. Reb Brown yelled all the way through Strike Force Commando. Why wouldn’t he do the same for Space Mutiny?

Of course, Dave isn’t the only person barking out orders on the Southern Sun. Cameron Mitchell plays the ship’s captain, a wise old man who looks like Santa Claus. John Phillip Law is Kalgon, the main mutineer. He laughs a lot. Cissie Cameron is the captain’s daughter. She falls for Ryder, despite the fact that she appears to be old enough to be Ryder’s mother. (In real life, Reb Brown and Cissie Cameron are married and Cissie is only a few years older than Reb. In Space Mutiny, she’s stuck with an unflattering hair style and is made up to look like an aging cheerleading coach.) There’s also a woman who works on the ship’s bridge. She’s killed in one scene, just to mysteriously turn up alive in the scene that follows. In space, no one can hear the script supervisor. Finally, there’s a group of alien witches who board the ship and spend the entire movie dancing in front of a ball of electricity. Since they don’t actually interact with any of the main characters, it’s obvious that they were added to pad out the film’s running time.

One of the more interesting things about Space Mutnity is that Kalgon actually has a point. It does seem kind of stupid to spend several hundred years traveling to just one planet when there’s other planets nearby that the ship could just as easily reach. Indeed, the mission of the Southern Sun never makes that much sense and the Captain seems to be delusional in his insistence that it does. The Captain’s unending faith and his long-flowing beard makes him come across like a minor biblical prophet, the type who always had to ask a major prophet to interpret his visions for hm. The Captain does not come across like someone who really knows what he’s doing. I don’t care how much Ryder screams, Kalgon had a point!

Today, Space Mutiny is best known for being featured on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and for later being taken apart by the Rifftrax crew. Space Mutiny, though, is such an extremely silly movie that you really don’t even need any professionals to help you snark your way through it. The film offers up such a treasure trove of material then even the most humorless among your friends will be a comedic genius by the time it ends. It’s a fun movie, made even more so by the fact that the filmmakers apparently meant for the film to be taken seriously. There’s a lot of talk about important issues like freedom, duty, and faith. In the end, what you’ll remember is the screaming.