Tag Archives: TV Show

Late Night Retro Television Review: Sledge Hammer 1.9 “Magnum Farce”

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 Fridays, I will be reviewing SLEDGE HAMMER!, a cop comedy which ran on ABC from 1986 to 1988. The entire series can be found on Prime!

A man’s got to know his limitations.

Episode 1.9 “Magnum Farce”

(Dir by Charles Braverman, originally aired on November 22nd, 1986)

Someone is executing the criminals that the justice system fails to convict.  The new district attorney, Ms. Collins (Janice Lynde), demands that the police discover who is acting as judge, jury, and executioner.  Sledge Hammer is not happy about his new assignment.  Not only is he having to go after people who hate criminals almost as much as he does but he’s also having to work for a woman.

When the latest victim holds up two fingers before dying, Sledge Hammer assumes that he’s saying he was shot by hippies.  However, when the shell casings turn out to be from police-issued ammunition, Sledge realizes that the victim was actually signing that he had been shot by two cops.  “I’m really bad at Charades,” Hammer explains.

Hammer and Trunk stage a fight so that the vigilantes will attempt to recruit Sledge Hammer.  It works, even though Hammer accidentally knocks out Trunk.  However, it turns out that the head of the vigilantes is none other than the liberal district attorney, Ms. Collins!

If this sounds familiars, that because this episode borrows a lot from the classic Dirty Harry sequel, Magnum Force.  The vigilantes are even motorcycle cops, just like in the earlier film.  Whereas Magnum Force was a rather grim film, this episode is silly even by the standards of Sledge Hammer.  The two murders are largely bloodless, the dialogue is full of non-sequiturs, and the whole thing ends with Ms. Collins firing her gun at Sledge Hammer while Sledge calmly stands still because, according to him, women are terrible shots.  The humor is nonstop and bizarre and the end result is the funniest episode since the pilot.

My favorite moment cames towards the end, when Captain Trunk burst into Ms. Collins’s mansion with several other police officers.  When Hammer asks Trunk to explain to Collins the careful police work that went into uncovering her role as the head of the vigilantes, Tunk replies, “I live next door.”

For once, Sledge Hammer makes the city safe for criminals and it’s absolutely hilarious.  He knows what he’s doing.

Horror On TV: Fear Itself 1.9 “Something With Bite” (dir by Ernest Dickerson)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

On tonight’s episode of Fear Itself, Wendell Pierce plays a veterinarian who gets bitten by a werewolf and then has to prove that he’s not the same werewolf who is currently on a killing spree.  This episode was directed by Ernest Dickerson, who first came to prominence as Spike Lee’s cinematographer and subsequently directed several horror films and thrillers of his own.

This episode didn’t air because Fear Itself was put on hiatus in July of 2008.  However, it was included when the show was subsequently released n DVD.

Retro Television Review: St. Elsewhere 4.14 “Family Ties”

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 Fridays, I will be reviewing St. Elsewhere, a medical show which ran on NBC from 1982 to 1988.  The show can be found on Daily Motion.

This week, the matriarch of a powerful Massachusetts political family comes to St. Eligius.

Episode 4.14 “Family Ties”

(Dir by Allan Arkush, originally aired on January 22nd, 1986)

After Elliot makes a clerical error that leads to one of his patients getting a mohawk, he’s more than happy to be assigned to check on a sick gorilla. Elliot not only diagnoses the gorilla as suffering from a brain tumor (luckily, it’s not malignant) but also gets a date with the animal’s keeper, Dr. Valerie Harding (Diana Canova).

When Fiscus freaks out about getting older, he tries to push up his wedding date with Mona and pressures her to abandon her career to start a family immediately.  After Fiscus interrupts an operation to argue with her, Mona dumps him.   (“I told you he was a bubblehead,” Dr. Craig says.) When Fiscus learns that his sperm has been used in an IVF procedure, he becomes obsessed with tracking down the woman who might be having his child. He then runs into Morrison’s ex-girlfriend, Clancy (Helen Hunt), and is soon flirting with her.

Why is Clancy back at the hospital? Morrison slipped on a wet floor and injured his knee. He has to have surgery. Clancy comes up with Morrison’s little-seen son, Pete. Pete, for his part, wanders over to Ken Valere (George Deloy), who, along with his wife (Deborah May), has been having second thoughts about whether to use a surrogate. Meeting Pete inspires the Valeres to adopt. So I guess that plotline is finally over, and I won’t have to ignore it anymore.

The majority of this episode is taken up with the arrival of Augusta Endicott (Dorothy McGuire), the matriarch of one of Massachusetts’s most powerful political families. She’s also the widow of a notorious anti-Semite, one who kept Auschlander from getting appointed to a state board in the 1960s.

From the minute Augusta and her family show up at the hospital, it’s obvious that they’re meant to be stand-ins for the Kennedys, even though Endicott is not an Irish name. (One gets the feeling the Endicotts are meant to be WASPy Episcopalians.) I always find it curious when an obvious Kennedy stand-in turns up on a television show. Does that mean St. Elsewhere takes place in a universe where the Kennedys don’t exist? The parallels are so obvious that it seems strange no one would point them out in-universe. This show is set in Boston. It seems as if someone would say, “Hey, Augusta Endicott sure has a lot in common with Rose Kennedy.”

Augusta is in the hospital for a checkup. She’s having heart problems, but she tells Dr. Craig that she would prefer to let nature take its course rather than spend the rest of her life having surgeries. Augusta also arranges for Auschlander to finally be appointed to the state medical board.

I’m getting the feeling that the Endicott family is going to be around for at least a few episodes. I can’t say I’m particularly enthused about the idea, but I get it. This is a show about Boston. You’ve got to have Kennedys.

A Horrific Blast From The Past: Dr. Tongue’s House of Cats In 3D

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today, we have another comedic blast from the past from SCTV.

Like last week’s, this one features Joe Flaherty’s Count Floyd.  It also features John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Catherine O’Hara.  So, put on your 3D glasses and enjoy these scenes from Dr. Tongue’s House of Cats!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Hunter 2.5 “Killer In A Halloween Mask”

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 Hunter, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1991.  The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi and several other services!

This week, Hunter faces off against a scarred killer wearing a mask!  Pretty scary, kids!

Episode 2.5 “Killer In A Halloween Mask”

(Dir by Sidney Hayers and Michael Peerce, originally aired on October 26th, 1985)

After getting the bill for yet another high-speed chase involving Hunter and McCall, Captain Wyler (the great Bruce Davison) decides that they need to take a week off from causing trouble.  He assigns them to work as technical advisors for a cop show called Street Heat. 

At first, everything seems fine.  Hunter hits on the publicity woman.  The star of the show, J.J. Hendrix (Stephen Shortridge), asks McCall out to dinner.  But then, one night, a man in a cheap plastic mask breaks into Hendrix’s house, bashes in his skull in with a fireplace poker, and sprays acid on the star’s face!  (I guess he wasn’t a fan of the last season of Welcome Back Kotter.)

A masked killer is targeting the cast and crew of Street Heat!  Hunter and McCall suspect that it might be Dave Tolan (Gary Graham), the former star of the show whose career ended when he set himself on fire while freebasing.  The horribly scarred Dave now works at a wax museum and has access to all sorts of chemicals and acids.  Plus, Hendrix was dating Dave’s ex-girlfriend….

And, of course, Hunter and McCall are correct.  We know that they’re correct because we see Dave plotting the murders at the start of the episode.  I have to admit that I spent the entire episode waiting for some sort of twist.  I thought Dave would have an accomplice or something similar.  But nope, it’s just Dave.  It all leads to a confrontation in the wax museum.  During a struggle with Hunter, Dave gets impaled.  Hunter doesn’t say, “Works for me,” but you can tell that he’s thinking it.

There weren’t any big surprises in this episode but I still enjoyed it.  It aired on October 26th and it was obviously produced with Halloween  in mind.  The late Gary Graham gave an appropriately unhinged performance as Dave.  The scenes on the set of Street Heat also served as a commentary on Hunter as a show.  After watching Hendrix “shoot” a suspect in a scene that felt like it could have been lifted from any episode of Hunter, McCall and Hunter commented that Street Heat wasn’t very realistic.

Fans of washed-up politicians will be happy to see Jesse “The Body” Ventura in this episode.  He shows up at the start of the show.  He’s been arrested for attacking his dentist.  Ventura complains about his toothache.  Hunter knocks the tooth out of his mouth.  Ventura thanks him.  Whenever I see Jesse Ventura in an old TV show or movie, I always regret that Arnold Schwarzenegger was the only other future governor that he co-starred with.  If Fred Dryer had later been elected governor of California, this episode would have been legendary.

Governor Dryer.  It has a nice ring to it.

Horror On Television: Fear Itself 1.8 “Skin and Bones” (dir Larry Fessenden)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

On tonight’s episode of Fear Itself, Doug Jones plays a rancher who disappears on one snowy night.  After ten days, he returns but there’s something different about him.  This episodes is a good example of rural horror.  Don’t go hunting unless you’re sure you can get back.

This episode originally aired on July 31st, 2008.  It was the last episode to air before Fear Itself went on hiatus for the Summer Olympics.  The show never returned, though the remaining five episodes were subsequently released on DVD.

 

Retro Television Review: Area 57

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!  This Thursday, I will be reviewing Area 57, which was produced for NBC in 2007.  The show can be found on YouTube!

Episode 1.1 “Pilot”

(Dir by Dean Parisot, filmed in 2007, never aired)

Col. Steven Isaac (Matthew Lillard) has been assigned to Area 57, a military base in the Nevada desert. Isaac is excited to read his orders and discover that Area 57 is home to an extraterrestrial. He arrives at the base. He meets by-the-book Lt. Irene Maloof (Jane Lynch). He meets the plain-spoken General Keller (Bruce McGill). He meets head scientist Dr. Annabelle Fermi (Kelly Hu). Finally, Isaac announces that he really wants to meet the alien.

Suddenly, Dr. Fermi emerges from her laboratory and says that the alien has died. General Keller announces that Area 57 is being shut down. All of the soldiers cheer. The general explains that the alien wasn’t always popular. Isaac still insists on seeing the body. With Dr. Fermi at his side, he gets his first look at the alien and accidentally spills his coffee on him. The alien (played by Paul Reubens) comes back to life.  It turns out that he was just going through a sleep cycle. General Keller announces that Area 57 is not closing and no one is going home.

With the entire base still angry with him, Isaac still insists on meeting the alien. The alien asks him about his education. Isaac says that he attended college through an endowment. The alien says that many of the soldiers like Dr. Fermi. Isaac agrees that she’s attractive. The alien then announces to Irene that Isaac was making crude comments about Fermi and bragging about how endowed he was.

Isaac realizes the truth. The alien is a jerk. He also learns that the alien has been at Area 57 for 40 years and that, so far, the government has learned nothing from him.

That’s the plot of Area 57. NBC thought enough of the idea to commission a pilot, but the network never aired it. It’s available on YouTube. Watching it, you can see what the problem was. The alien is established as such a jerk that it’s hard to imagine anything else that could have been done with the character. Paul Reubens plays the role under a good deal of makeup, and he’s more off-putting than intriguing. That said, Matthew Lillard was genuinely funny as the earnest and idealistic Col. Isaac. He was so excited about meeting an alien that it was impossible not to feel sorry for him when the alien turned out to be a jerk.

If we ever do meet aliens, I have a feeling that something like Area 57 might be seen as prophetic. There’s a tendency to assume that alien visitors will be interesting, erudite, and worth knowing. I think that if there are aliens out there, they’re just as likely to be as annoying as the average human.

Area 57. The truth is out there!

Lisa Marie Takes A Look At The Amazing Race 39.3 “This Is Sick and Twisted”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

“To be continued….”

Really, Amazing Race? We’re ending on a cliffhanger!?

Well, kind of. Watching last night’s episode, it seemed pretty obvious to me that this was going to be the first non-elimination leg of the season. When you’ve got a roadblock, a detour, and then an extra task that are all as difficult as the ones last night, it typically means that the leg is going to turn out to be a non-elimination leg. The first roadblock, for instance, was pretty much dependent on luck. (Jody and Jenn had some bad luck, and Jenn spent two hours smashing vases and searching for the next clue.) The detour involved either learning a difficult language or rolling a giant tiger through the desert. And then the extra task was designed to upset and frustrate the players. This was a leg designed to generate drama as opposed to an elimination.

I would also point out that the fourth leg also appears to take place exclusively in Morocco. So my feeling is that whenever Dylan and Doug or Jody and Jenn reach the Pit Stop, Phil will say, “You are the last team to arrive. However, you are still racing, and here is your next clue!”

Here’s where the teams stood at the end of the episode.

Ann-Marie and Riley, both of whom strike me as being a bit fake, are currently in first place. They used their Express Pass to get out of doing the fruit stacking.

Anuar and Andrea are in second, mostly because they used their Express Pass to get out of doing the detour.

Ali and Joanna are in third place, and they still have their Express Pass. They’re doing well, but it’s hard for me to root for anyone who took a knee during the National Anthem.

Connor and Garrett are in fourth place and still have their Express Pass. After struggling last week, they came on strong this week.

Cody and Jaime are in fifth place. They seem to be getting stronger as the race goes on.

Michelle and Matt went from second to sixth place. They seem to be a good, middle-of-the-road sort of team.

Dafina and Saran are in seventh place. Dafina and Saran have achieved some good karma by helping out some of the other teams. They also received the Roadside Assistance Advantage, which means that both of them can work together on a roadblock if it is used. (Usually, only one player is allowed to do the roadblock.)

Erin and Javi are in eighth place. It looks like their earlier first-place finish was pretty much entirely due to using their Express Pass, because they’ve been struggling ever since.

Daisha and Dalton are in 9th place. They really need to have a good leg to break their cycle of finishing in the back.

Finally, Dylan and Doug and Jody and Jenn are competing for 10th and 11th place. Dylan and Doug did surprisingly well at the Detour, but then, when they had to stack the fruit, Dylan seemed to be letting his frustration get the better of him. As for Jody and Jenn, I’m sure they spent this leg regretting that they wasted their Express Pass in Madrid.

“The last team to arrive may be eliminated!” Phil said, but I don’t think that’s going to happen to either Dylan and Doug or Jody and Jenn, at least not at this Pit Stop. The fourth leg, though, will be a whole different story.

We’ll find out next week!

For the record, here are the three teams who still have Express Passes: Ali and Joanna, Connor and Garrett, and Michelle and Matt. They’ve only got two more legs left before they expire.

The Agony of Rob: Lisa Marie Takes A Look At Survivor 51

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Throughout the history of Survivor, there have been plenty of people who had to leave the show because they had a genuine medical emergency. They’ve either seriously injured themselves while competing, fallen victim to malnutrition, or developed an infection of some sort while living on the beach. It’s never enjoyable to see someone eliminated for that sort of reason, though we are all glad that the show has a medical team on hand to look after the players.

Then there are the players who pretend to be ill to get off the show so they won’t be voted out. The prime example of this was Colton, who Jeff Probst has always claimed faked having appendicitis to get out of One World. (Colton, for the record, swears that he actually had a severe bacterial infection that felt like appendicitis.) This week, we got the most blatant example yet of a player faking an injury when Rob announced that he had to quit the game because his foot hurt.

The medical team was brought in to look at his foot. We were given a close-up of his foot while it was being examined, and I can say that it did not appear to be injured in any way. There were no bruises. There was no swelling. As a former dancer, I know a little bit about ankle and toe injuries, and Rob… well, I don’t want to call him a liar. If he was in pain, it was probably due to stress. Considering that Brady competed in an immunity challenge after chopping off a piece of his thumb and Kristen has a broken foot, it was hard to have much sympathy for Rob’s declaration that his foot pain made it impossible for him to continue in the game.

Rob, who started out so gung-ho and so determined to run the game, left the Savu tribe at the beginning of this episode. Most of the Savu Tribe suspected that he left not because of his foot but because he was on the wrong side of the cote at Tribal and his bizarre mid-council conversation with Eric didn’t work out the way that he thought it would. Rob left his immunity idol to Carter, who started this episode at the bottom of the totem pole with his tribe. However, Carter then left the Savu tribe when he was given an opportunity to visit the Toka tribe, search for a hidden advantage at their camp, and join their tribe if he felt like it. Carter didn’t find the hidden advantage, largely because the Savu tribe went through his bag and found the information about the hidden advantage while Carter was having a one-on-one conversation with Mike. Brady and Maggie were the ones who found the advantage, which turned out to be an extra vote at tribal. Carter, however, still decided to mutiny and join the Toka tribe.

Meanwhile, Devin volunteered to visit the Savu tribe. Devin did not mutiny because he felt that their shelter was not up to his standards. He did reconnect with Sharonda and Ori, with whom he made an alliance during the initial helicopter ride to the island. With Sharonda’s help, Devin found the hidden advantage. He also told everyone at the Savu tribe that Kilby could not be trusted.

Toka entered the immunity challenge with 11 members. Savu only had seven, but Savu still managed to win not just immunity but also four hens. The main reason Toka lost was because Savu had to sit out four people and Devin took it upon himself to tell Kilby that he wasn’t allowed to play, despite the fact that Kilby solves puzzles for a living.

At tribal, Devin, Brady, Patt, Jelly, and Mike were all determined to vote out Kilby. Devin felt he couldn’t trust Kilby. Brady was mad because he felt Kilby had insinuated that he was stupid. Kilby, however, was able to convince his allies — Jenna, Maggie, and Thien Ann — to join him in voting for Patt. Lewis and Carter, the two new members of the tribe, decided to join with Kilby, and Patt was voted out by a vote of 6-5.

I actually liked Patt. She reminded me of my best friend. But Brady and Devin have both been so smug that it was nice seeing them get blindsided. Devin, in particular, needs to get a grip and stop being so cocky. Brady can be a jerk, but he’s important to have around if you want to win challenges. I’m not sure what Devin really brings to the tribe beyond his own attitude.

For those keeping track of advantages: Carter has an immunity idol. Jelly has an immunity idol. Maggie has an extra vote. Devin has an extra vote. And there’s still an immunity idol sitting on Exile Island.

Next week — could it already be time for a merge? Or are they reshuffling the tribes? We’ll find out!

Late Night Retro Television Review: 1st & Ten 5.6 “Clean and Sober”

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 1st and Ten, which aired in syndication from 1984 to 1991. The entire series is streaming on Tubi.

This week, Billy Cooper gets in trouble.

Episode 5.6 “Clean and Sober”

(Dir by Stan Lathan, originally aired on November 15th, 1989)

This week’s episode features three storylines.

The simplest of the storylines features Denardo’s ex-wife (Arlene Golonka) showing up at his house and saying that she’s hiding from a stalker.  She even changes Denardo’s phone number.  It turns out that her stalker is actually her current husband and they’re just having a minor argument.  They’re reunited while Denardo stands in the background and smiles.

The comedic storyline features an ex-player named Wes (Bob Chandler) asking Dr. Death and Jethro to serve as his bodyguards for a week.  Wes, who left football and got the lead role on a cop show, says that he’s going to have to testify against a mob boss.  Dr. Death and Jethro agree to keep an eye on him.  For instance, they bring him to practice.  They also freak out when someone tosses an unlit stick of dynamite at them.  Eventually, it turns out that Wes set them up to be the victims on a television prank show.  This storyline also featured Zagred begging Wes to put him on his show.  Even TD Parker (OJ Simpson) got in on the spirit, asking Wes if he could help him pitch a television show about a football manager who solves murders.  Uhmm, yeah, that sounds like a great idea, OJ….

The dramatic storyline features Billy getting into an accident while driving drunk.  His companion for the night is nearly killed.  Billy is sentenced to 90 days of alcohol rehab.  The member of the Bulls are not supportive of Billy’s attempt to get sober.  Johnny Gunn resents that he spent six years in prison for something that he did while drunk but Billy is apparently going to get away with just a slap on the wrist.  Billy stops drinking and starts popping pills.

TD is upset to see that Billy is not making a real effort to get sober.  When TD hears an commentator refer to Billy as being a “true professional,” TD replies, “Not in my book.”

Really, OJ?

This episode was all over the place, as is usually the case with 1st & Ten.  I actually found the storyline about Wes to be amusing but it didn’t feel like it belonged on an episode where Billy was trying and failing to get sober.  That said, this episode’s portrayal of Billy as being too rich and too famous to be held responsible for his mistakes was probably pretty close to the truth when it comes to celebrity addicts.  Billy may hate himself but he’s got enough cash to soothe the pain.