Tag Archives: Roger Hewlett

Late Night Retro Television Review: Pacific Blue 1.2 “First Shoot”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing Pacific Blue, a cop show that aired from 1996 to 2000 on the USA Network!  It’s currently streaming everywhere, though I’m watching it on Tubi.

This week, the bicycle cops continue to expect to be taken seriously.

Episode 1.2 “First Shoot”

(Dir by Michael Levine, originally aired on March 9th, 1996)

It’s a busy time for the bicycle cops of Santa Monica.

Elvis (David Lander), the bicycle repairman who speaks with an indecipherable accent, is paranoid because a group of Bulgarian men are wandering the beach and asking if anyone knows where they can find him.  It turns out that the men are not dangerous but instead, they are the members of Bulgaria’s Olympic bicycling team.  They want Elvis to be their official team repairman.  However, Elvis previously had an affair with the girlfriend of one of the Olympians so he declines the offers.  He prefers the glamour of California.

Meanwhile, a pickpocket is robbing people on the boardwalk.  When he makes the mistake of grabbing the wallet of an old Italian man named Mr. Tataglia (Joseph Campanella), Tataglia goes to Lt. Palermo and explains that he wants the wallet back because it contains a picture of his wife.  He would consider it a matter of personal respect if Palermo retrieved the wallet and he promises to repay the favor.  Fortunately, the brave bicycle cops do catch the pickpocket.  Mr. Tataglia watches from a distance and nods.  I guess Mr. Tataglia is meant to be a mobster.  Believe it or not, not all Italians are in the Mafia.  I’m a fourth-Italian and I’m fairly sure that side of my family is not mob-related.

While that’s going on, Chris and Del Toro ride their bikes out to a film set and provide security for a spoiled movie star named Scott Magruder (Bojesse Christopher).  Chris is the one who has a crush on Magruder but it’s Del Toro who is seduced by the prospect of fame.  When Magruder gives Del Toro a line in the movie, Del Toro has visions of movie stardom in his head.  But then the scene gets cut.  Sorry, Del Toro, looks like you’re just going to have to spend the rest of your life riding around the beach on a Schwinn like a dumbass.  Scott later gets arrested in a bar fight but it turns out it was a publicity stunt.  Chris is saddened to learn that celebs aren’t as likable in real life as they are in the gossip pages.  Myself, I’m just wondering why Chris has gone from being the smart and driven character that she was in the pilot to being a total airhead just one episode later.

Finally, Cory and the bike cops help the real cops bust a group of drug dealers.  Cory shoots an aspiring rapper named Rasheed (Jeremiah Birkett).  Rasheed claims that he didn’t have a gun.  Cory is determined to prove that he did.  Apparently, this was the first time that Cory ever shot anyone.  Strangely, it doesn’t seem to rattle her at all that she nearly ended someone else’s life.  I mean, it seems like most people would have a more emotional reaction to nearly killing a man, even if that guy was a criminal with a gun.  Cory, however, is cool and calm and kind of creepy about it.  It’s established that Cory comes from a family of cops so maybe that’s why the shooting doesn’t faze her.

There was a lot going on in this episode.  Actually, there was probably too much going on.  This is only the second episode of the show and it’s not like any of the characters have really developed much of an individual personality.  Everyone is still pretty much interchangeable.  As a result, none of the action in this show carried much of an emotional impact.  The characters are all still strangers to me.

Maybe things will improve next week.

(Seriously, let’s hope so!  I’ve got a lot of episodes to make my way through before I’m done with Pacific Blue.)

 

Late Night Retro Television Review: Baywatch Nights 1.21 “A Closer Look”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing Baywatch Nights, a detective show that ran in Syndication from 1995 to 1997.  The entire show is currently streaming on You tube!

Mitch has yet another old friend who needs help!

Episode 1.21 “A Closer Look”

(Dir by Bernard L. Kowalski, originally aired on May 11th, 1996)

Another old friend of Mitch’s had a problem.

Seriously, how many old friends does Mitch have and why are all of them always getting involved in something dangerous?  And why is it always Mitch’s responsibility to help them out?  I mean, doesn’t Mitch ever just want to tell them to take care of their own problems?  Mitch isn’t Superman, after all.  He’s a middle-aged guy who is already struggling to balance his day job with his night job.  STAND UP FOR YOURSELF, MITCH!

Anyway, Dewey Morgan (Gary Collins, looking like Robert Redford in All Is Lost) is worried that his model wife, McKenna (Lisa Schad), has been replaced by an imposter.  As he explains it, she’s been different ever since she returned from a health spa.  She looks the same but there’s just all sorts of little differences.  It’s the type of things that only an intimate acquaintance — like a husband, for instance — would notice.

Mitch is skeptical.  He thinks that maybe Dewey is just upset because McKenna has recently left him and is now finding success as a model.  Still, Mitch decides to investigate because Dewey is an old friend.  It’s never really made clear how Mitch and Dewey became friends in the first place but Dewey does spend a lot of time in a wet suit and on a surf board.  So, I guess having a shared love of having a mid-life crisis on a beach is the bond that holds Mitch and Dewey together.

Personally, I think it would have been interesting if Mitch and Ryan had discovered that McKenna actually was McKenna and Dewey really was some sort of unbalanced stalker.  That would have been a nicely unexpected twist and it would also have forced Mitch to reconsider his loyalty to all of his old friends.  It would have given the show a chance to say something about the dangers of a beach bum having a mid-life crisis.  But that’s just not the Baywatch Nights way.  It turns out that the real McKenna is dead and the woman claiming to be Dewey’s wife is an imposter.

Usually, I enjoy melodramatic nonsense like this but this episode featured both a murder and an attempted murder and all of that violence felt somewhat out-of-place.  Baywatch Nights works best as goofy fun.  Having people actually die kind of takes away from the goofiness and it makes me wonder how Mitch is holding up mentally.  I mean, he just wanted to make some extra money as a private investigator.  Instead, he’s being regularly exposed to the worst that humanity has to offer.

The first season is nearly over and that’s good because, as this rambling review might indicate to the careful reader, I’m getting kind of bored with it.  The second season is a lot of fun because Mitch and Ryan spend 22 episodes dealing with aliens, vampires, and Vikings!  But, before we can get to all that, there’s one more first season episode to go.

We’ll deal with it next week.

Late Night Retro Television Reviews: Baywatch Nights 1.3 “Silent Witness”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing Baywatch Nights, an detective show that ran in Syndication from 1995 to 1997.  The entire show is currently streaming on Youtube!

This week, Mitch proves that he still has much to learn about being a private investigator.

Episode 1.3 “Silent Witness”

(Dir by Richard Friedman, originally aired on October 14th, 1995)

Have you ever wondered why Mitch’s career as a private investigator didn’t last longer than just two years?

The simple answer, of course, is that Baywatch Nights did not exactly get the best ratings and the show was canceled after two seasons.  Despite the fact that Baywatch Nights is an undeniably fun show, it was undoubtedly harmed by the fact that it didn’t feature lifeguards running in slow motion.  It was a Baywatch spin-off that had little of what attracted viewers to the original show.  Personally, I would think that the presence of David Hasselhoff would be enough but apparently, audiences in the 90s disagreed.

However, in-universe, I think Mitch’s failure to stick with the detective thing is that it doesn’t appear that he was very good at it.

Consider this episode.  Hayley Cartwright (Paige Moss) is a teenage runaway who, while walking along the beach, spots a man in the ocean being pulled under the water and drowned by someone wearing a diving outfit.  The murderer emerges from the ocean and tries to grab Haley.  Haley gets away but not before the killer shouts at her to keep quiet or she’ll be next.

Mitch, who is jogging across the beach, spots a stunned and bruised Haley collapsing on the beach.  Mitch checks out her injuries and assures her that she’s okay but Haley, who is understandably scared of everyone, runs away from him.

Later, Mitch is approached by a woman (Debby Boone) who says that her name is Lorraine and that she is Haley’s daughter.  Lorraine says that she just wants her daughter to come home and she asks Mitch to help find her.  Mitch agrees and sets out to find Haley while giving Lorraine regular updates.

Here’s what Mitch does not do.  He doesn’t bother to ask for any identification from Lorraine.  He doesn’t check out Lorraine’s story before agreeing to help her.  He doesn’t stop to consider that Haley might have a reason for acting like she’s scared for her life.  And really, it would have been good if Mitch had considered all of that because guess what?  LORRAINE IS NOT HALEY’S MOTHER!  Instead, she’s working with the killers!

Fortunately, Haley’s real mother (Janet Eilber) shows up and tells Ryan and Garner that she’s looking for her daughter.  Ryan and Garner actually ask the woman for identification and the woman reveals that she not only has her driver’s license but she also brought Haley’s birth certificate!  It’s a good thing that Haley’s real mom showed up because Mitch has found Haley hiding on a fishing boat and now, he’s having to defend her from the killers!  Now, fortunately, Mitch may not be a good detective but he’s still David Hasselhoff so he is able to beat up the killers and save Haley’s life.

It’s a fairly standard episode, in that it’s not particularly memorable but the California scenery is nice to look at and it’s a show you can relax with.  That said, the episode does have a brilliant opening, in which Mitch and Garner save Destiny from some bank robbers that are menacing her in an amusement park.  This leads to a fight on a Ferris wheel and a miracle-go-round.  Destiny is nearly run over by a miniature train!  It’s a fun and over-the-top sequence, one that has next to nothing to do with the rest of the episode but it does indicate that the people involved in the show knew better than to take any of this too seriously.

Finally, Ryan gets a minor plot, in which she buys a home in Malibu, just to discover that she’s basically purchased land in a trailer park.  It was silly but it showed off Angie Harmon and David Hasselhoff’s likable and playful chemistry.  Watching the two of them together, it’s hard not to regret that Mitch wasn’t a better detective.