Tag Archives: TV

Retro Television Review: Saved By The Bell: The New Class 2.18 “Breaking Up”

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 Tuesdays, I will be reviewing Saved By The Bell: The New Class, which ran on NBC from 1993 to 2o00.  The show is currently on Prime.

It’s Tommy D’s birthday!

Episode 2.18 “Breaking Up”

(Dir by Don Barnhart, originally aired on November 12th, 1994)

Lindsay wants to buy Tommy a great birthday present but, unfortunately, she’s broke.  All of her friends are broke.  It looks like they’re going to have to cancel Tommy’s birthday this year.  But then Brian comes up with a plan.  What if they convince Belding to let Brian and Bobby be in charge of the video yearbook and then the use the camera to shoot a birthday video Tommy while, at the same time, screwing over all of the students who actually want a yearbook?

It’s a great idea!  Bobby films Linsday talking about how much she dislikes everything that Tommy is really into, like cars.  Bobby also films Tommy growing close to Katie Keller (Kim Baranof), Brian’s never before-mentioned sister who does not appear to be from Switzerland.  (In all fairness, she could be a stepsister.  The show has never really made it clear just why exactly Brian left Switzerland for Bayside so maybe his mother married an American or something.)  Katie likes cars and videogames, just like Tommy!

Realizing that Tommy and Lindsay’s relationship is in trouble, Brian pays off a lot of other students to tell Tommy that Katie’s been coming onto them.  Wow, way to slutshame you own sister, Brian.  What a jerk.  Anyway, Tommy puts the kibosh on his growing attraction to Katie but, at his birthday party, Lindsay learns about how Brian spread rumors about Katie to save Lindsay’s relationship with Tommy.  Lindsay and Tommy admit to not having much in common and Saved By The Bell: The New Class’s longest relationship comes to an end….

And that’s  not really a good thing for either Lindsay or Tommy D.  This isn’t like when Slater and Jessie used to break up.  Slater and Jessie actually had personalities that went beyond who they were dating.  The same can’t really be said about Tommy and Lindsay.  It’s not the fault of the actors, as Jonathan Angel and Natalia Cigliuti were actually two of the more likable members of the ensemble.  It’s just that Saved By The Bell: The New Class was never about complex characters.

It’s also not about continuity.  Lindsay and Tommy D are still dating in the country club episodes.  Because all of the members of the Gang already knew Screech in the country club episodes, that means that they had to have taken place in the summer after the school episodes.  Plus, in this episode, Brian is not dating Rachel and that again means that the country club episodes had to happen after this episode.  So, Lindsay and Tommy D are either going to get back together or the show’s writers just didn’t care.

What a mess!

Late Night Retro Television Review: CHiPs 6.8 “Head Over Heels”

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 Mondays, I will be reviewing CHiPs, which ran on NBC from 1977 to 1983.  The entire show is currently streaming on Prime!

This week, Ponch falls in love.

Episode 6.8 “Head Over Heels”

(Dir by Richard Irving, originally aired on December 5th, 1982)

Ponch falls in love.

Well,  of course he does.

Listen, it’s not like Bobby is going to be allowed to fall in love.  Bruce isn’t going to fall in love.  Grossman?  He’s been on this show since the beginning and he’s still struggling to even get a date.  Nope, if anyone on CHiPs was going to fall in love, it was going to be Ponch.  Watching this episode and taking the last few seasons into account, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was specifically written into Erik Estrada’s contract.

We all know what we’re watching.

Ponch falls for Vanessa (Beverly Adams), a teacher who he meets while speaking at a Mothers Against Drunk Driving meeting.  It’s a whirlwind romance.  Sure, they have their problems.  Vanessa isn’t sure that she can handle falling in love with a “street cop” who puts his life in danger every day.  Ponch gets mad when he sees Vanessa talking to her ex (Dennis Holahan).   But eventually, Vanessa realizes that Ponch will always be a cop and Ponch is informed that talking does not necessarily equal cheating.  Ponch asks Vanessa to marry him.  He gives her a “space puppy” that he buys from a kid on a street corner.  (“He’s not really from space,” the kid says.  Hey, kid, we saw Ponch battle a UFO a few weeks ago.)  Everything is perfect….

And then, during a big picnic to celebrate the engagement, Vanessa gets run over by a drunk driver.  Vanessa dies with Ponch holding her.  It should have been a big dramatic and emotional moment and perhaps it would have been if the show had let the scene play out as opposed to dropping in a montage of flashbacks to scenes that we had just watched ten minutes ago.  Perhaps if the episode had been scored to the unnerving silence that comes with most tragedies, it would have brought tears to my eyes in a way that the adult contemporary romantic ballad did not.  We get the full Erik Estrada experience as Vanessa dies, with Erik trying so hard to force us to cry that the performance runs the risk of having the opposite effect.  Ponch is distraught but Estrada still makes sure that the camera gets his good side.

I’ll say this.  I appreciate that the show’s anti-drunk driving message.  (Rumor has it that this episode was specifically made in an attempt to turn down the heat after Tom Reilly was arrested for driving under the influence and the real Highway Patrol  threatened to pull their sponsorship as a result.)  Imagine the episode’s impact if the victim had been someone we actually knew as opposed to a one-off character who was so obviously being set up to tragically die that she might as well have had “Doomed” stamped onto her forehead.  As it is, Vanessa ends up feeling more like a plot device than an actual human.

That said, don’t drink and drive.  It’s not worth it.

Retro Television Review: Crime Story 1.19 “The Pinnacle”

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 Mondays, I will be reviewing Crime Story, which ran on NBC from 1986 to 1988.  The entire show can be found on Tubi!

This week, things get dark.

Episode 1.19 “The Pinncale”

(Dir by John Nicolella, originally aired on February 27th, 1987)

When an earnest businessman named Pete Bauer (Bob Stupak) decides to open up a casino with Luca’s help, he has no idea what he’s getting himself into. Pete’s vision is a fun tourist destination where a chicken plays tic-tac-toe and the biggest loser at a table is still given $5,000 for being a good sport. Luca’s vision is to drive Pete out of business by skimming all of his profits, fixing his slot machines so that they always pay off, and sending Pauli, Holman, and Jack Claymore over to make sure everything goes off as planned.

As we learned last week, Jack is an FBI agent working undercover. Being sent over to Pete’s casino gives Jack a chance to see how Luca and his people rip off others. One night, when Pauli has a date with a showgirl, Jack is the one who gets to take the envelope containing the cash over to Luca. Jack hands it over. Luca gives him a $500 tip, little realizing that he’s also given Jack enough evidence to take back to Torello and Abrams.

Unfortunately, Pete is forced to sell his casino to Luca before Jack’s next meeting with Torello and Abrams. Pauli and Holman decide to celebrate. They stop off at Jack’s apartment complex to pick him up. Unfortunately, they arrive just in time to catch Jack in a phone booth leaving a message for Torello. They beat up Jack and then drag him off to a deserted construction site, where he’s tied crucifixion-style to a casino sign.

When Luca finds out, he leaves a meeting with Manny Weisbord so that he can personally shoot Jack in the back of the head. As Luca explains to Steve Kordo, there are some things that he simply has to do himself. Even though Luca may be recreating himself as a businessman in Las Vegas, he’s still a Chicago gangster at heart.

When Abrams and Torello find Jack’s body, Abrams says that whatever chance they had to arrest Luca was just blown out of Jack’s head. Yikes! That’s a graphic way to put it, but Abrams isn’t wrong.

This episode was a case of tonal whiplash, starting out as a comedy but ending in tragedy. For the first 30 minutes, it was hard not to be amused by how efficiently Luca and his men ruined Pete’s business. (Holman even convinced Pete to book a polka band.) However, the final few minutes reminded us that Luca, Holman, and even Pauli are all ruthless murderers. It doesn’t matter if you were a likable character like Jack Claymore. If you betray Luca, you’ll regret it.

As for Torello, this is the second cop he’s lost in his pursuit of Luca. His entire obsession with taking down Luca started with the murder of Detective Wes Connelly in the pilot. How will he react now that he’s seeking justice not just for Wes but for Jack as well?

Scenes I Love: Jeff Boomhauer Explains the Internet

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s scene that I love comes from the greatest show ever made about my home state of Texas, Mike Judge’s King of the Hill.

Listen as Jeff Boonhaumer explains the Internet!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi: The Next Generation 3.10 “Never Gonna Give You Up”

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 Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi: The Next Generation, which aired from 2001 to 2015!  The series can be streamed on YouTube and Tubi.

This week, Terri has a boyfriend!

Episode 3.10 “Never Gonna Give You Up”

(Dir by John Bell, originally aired on November 19th, 2003)

Hey, it’s Rick Murray!

When last we saw Rick (played by Ephraim Ellis), he was the shy, nerdy-but-cute guy leaving flowers at Terri’s locker. When this episode starts, Terri and Rick have been dating for a while. From the outside, Rick seems sweet, romantic, and utterly devoted to Terri. Jimmy and Spinner both think he’s a little weird, but Hazel and Paige insist he’s perfect for her.

The truth is that Rick is controlling, arrogant, and easily offended. In private, he loses his temper fast. In Ms. Kwan’s scene-study class, he’s in a group with Jimmy, Hazel, and Terri, assigned to bring to life a one-act written by budding playwright and actor Marco. Rick wants to direct. When Jimmy takes that job, Rick agrees to be stage manager. That’s right, folks! Rick is one of those people who likes to work crew. Anyone who ever did theater in high school knows how annoying those people were. (Seriously, you’d come offstage glowing because you’d just given the best performance of your life and some lighting-crew dork would go, “You nearly missed your mark.” Like, seriously, just shut up and stay out of my way, you weirdo.)

Marco takes the lead male role. Jimmy gives the nurse to Hazel and then announces that Terri will be the female lead. Terri is stunned and excited. Rick is immediately defensive, telling her it’s obvious Jimmy “has a thing for you. Why else would he give you the female lead?” (I think it may have had something to do with Terri being the last person left.)

This episode follows a pattern that will be painfully familiar to anyone who has ever been in an abusive relationship. Rick gives Terri a pile of overly technical acting notes that make her look stupid onstage. When she gets upset, he grabs her wrist and leaves a bruise. Then he buys her flowers and apologizes. When Terri says she’s having a girls’ night with Paige and Hazel and Rick can’t come because “it’s just for girls,” he backhands her and leaves her with a swollen lip. (Hazel sees the lip and immediately knows Terri is lying about a cold sore.) When Terri says she needs time to herself and that Rick is suffocating her, he shoves her against a wall. Terri announces that she’s done with him.

Unfortunately, every Degrassi watcher knows that isn’t true. This episode may end with Terri throwing away the flower Rick left at her locker, but we know he’ll be back in a few episodes. We also know Season 4 is basically the season of Rick Murray’s revenge.

It’s an episode with a commendable message and a good performance from Ephraim Ellis. That said, as I rewatched it, I found myself obsessing over just how bad Marco’s little scene was. Marco played Ray, a dying man, and spoke in an exaggerated Italian accent. Hazel was the nurse who told Terri (playing Ray’s mother) that Ray was not going to live. In the episode, Terri takes the blame for everyone laughing at the play’s big dramatic beat, but I think the real culprit was Marco’s writing. “We do not always get what we want .… or want what we get.” I’ve always assumed the play was meant as a parody of bad teenage dramatics. At least, I hope it was.

The B-plot is an amusing little prank war between Spinner and J.T. Spinner is sick of J.T. hanging around Paige, so among other things he plasters the inside of J.T.’s locker with glamour photos of Mr. Raditch and slips a romantic poem under Raditch’s office door. J.T. responds by showing up at The Dot and being such an obnoxious customer that Spinner, waiting tables, loses his temper. Spinner gets in trouble with his boss and is demoted to — get this– “dish pig.” Is that an actual job? I mean, I guess he’s washing dishes, but “dish pig” is a really vivid way to put it. It’s certainly better than anything Marco ever wrote. J.T. and Spinner call a truce, but not before Ms. Kwan gets a love poem from “Spinner.”

This week’s episode was classic Degrassi. I liked that the ultra-dark Rick Murray storyline was balanced with JT and Spinner acting like idiots. That’s high school for you.

Next week, it’s Christmas in Canada!

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 6.3 “Blood Ties, Part 3”

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 Sundays, I will be reviewing Homicide: Life On The Street, which aired from 1993 to 1999, on NBC!  It  can be viewed on Peacock.

This week, the Wilson case is finally resolved.

Episode 6.3 “Blood Ties, Part 3”

(Dir by Mark Pellington, originally aired on October 31st, 1997)

“Yo, Frank!” Detective Ballard yells at Pembleton at the start of this episode and I have to admit that I immediately cringed at the sound of it.  The man’s name is “Detective Pembleton.”  Ballard has done nothing so far to give her the right to address Homicide’s best character as “Yo, Frank!”

Of course, the main theme of this episode seemed to be all the detective who have been with the show since the beginning suck and that the new arrivals can do no wrong.

Take Falsone, for instance!  After a drug dealer is murdered, Falsone proves himself to be the only one who can talk to the dealer’s traumatized child.  Lewis is a buffoon in this episode, gloating over the dead dealer and traumatizing the kid while trying to lead him through the police station.  But Falsone?  He knows exactly what to say and, with his gentle prodding, the kid identifies the murderer of his parent as being a narcotics detective who is on the Mahoney payroll.   When Lewis asks Falsone why he’s so awesome, Falsone explains that he’s divorced and he misses his own kids….

OH MY GOD!  He’s a young detective who gets results and he’s divorced!  For a show that previously avoided stereotypes, Homicide is going out of his way to promote a big one in the form of Detective Falsone.

Meanwhile, the Wilson case is resolved.  It turns out that Ballard was totally correct and Pembleton was totally wrong.  Melia was killed by a member of the Wilson family and, to the surprise of absolutely no, the murderer turns out to be Hal Wilson (Jeffrey Wright, giving perhaps the worst performance of his distinguished career), the twitchy son of Felix.  Hal was obsessed with Melia and flew into a rage when he found out she was sleeping with his father.  Pembleton even gets Hal to admit it but –– Law & Order plot twist time! — Felix and Hal were only willing to talk to Pembleton on the condition that they weren’t Mirandized so the confession is inadmissible.  (That doesn’t seem like something that the normally meticulous Pembleton would agree to but whatever.)  Felix, Hal, and the entire family leave Baltimore for San Diego.

Afterwards, Ballard track Pembleton down and tells him that she’s going to be a Baltimore homicide detective whether he likes it or not.  Pembleton admits that he was wrong.  Watching the scene, one gets the feeling that the show is telling us, “Who needs Pembleton and Bayliss and all those boring cops when we’ve got new cop who are young and sexy and infallible?”

And here’s the thing.  There’s nothing wrong with bringing in new characters.  There’s nothing wrong casting attractive actors in those roles.  There is something wrong with pushing the characters to whom we’ve grown attached aside and insisting that we instead embrace new characters that we barely know.

This was a disappointing ending for the first three-parter of the series.  The season has just started and I’m already sick of Falsone trying to prove that the Luther Mahoney shooting wasn’t justified.  I’m sick of everyone talking about George Rae Mahoney as if she’s some total badass as opposed to a plot device.  And I’m tired of my favorites being pushed to the side.

We are not off to a good start.

Scenes that I Love: Anna Chlumsky has a meltdown on Veep

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s scene that I love is one of the greatest television moments of the past ten years.  It’s one that I still think about on a nearly daily basis.

Oddly, ever since it went off the air, there’s been an attempt on the part of the media to pretend that Selina Meyer was meant to be some sort of inspiring figure.  This scenes reminds us that she wasn’t even supposed to be likable.

(I groaned when the cast of Veep reunited to support Kamala Harris in 2024 because Veep was literally the last show that Harris should have been trying to remind people of.)

Late Night Retro Television Review: Saved By The Bell 3.5 “The Aftermath”

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 Saturdays, I will be reviewing Saved By The Bell, which ran on NBC from 1989 to 1993.  The entire show can be purchased on Prime!

It’s the aftermath of Zack and Kelly’s break-up!  Who will survive!?

Episode 3.5 “The Aftermath”

(Dir by Don Barnhart, originally aired on September 21st, 1991)

Last week, Kelly got a job at The Max and developed a crush on her boss, Jeff (Patrick Muldoon). Zack and Kelly broke up at the school dance. Kelly asked Zack if they could still be friends. “Always,” Zack said.

It turns out that Zack was lying. This episode finds him bitter and obsessed. Screech and Slater take him out to the movies but — oh no! — Kelly and Jeff walk in. Jessie, Lisa, and Screech each set Zack up on a blind date. Zack goes out with Jessie’s fat friend and she eats all of his popcorn. Lisa’s friend is more interested in talking about the books of Jackie Collins than watching the movie. And Screech’s cousin turns out to be a perfectly nice and pretty blonde. (“She’s adopted,” Screech explains.)

Zack takes Screech’s cousin to The Max and dances with her… in front of Kelly! And they’re dancing to… A12 on the jukebox! “That’s Zack and Kelly’s song!” Screech says. Apparently, it’s a song that doesn’t have a title or much of a beat. “A12 is sacred!” Kelly says. “It was sacred until you dumped me for that jerk!” Zack says.

Now, I’m a bit torn here. Zack’s definitely in the wrong here, but is A12 actually sacred? I mean, it’s not mentioned in any other episode. And while Zack is definitely trying to make Kelly feel bad, Kelly is being pretty self-righteous for someone who didn’t break up with her boyfriend until after she kissed another guy. I guess my feeling is that sacred songs pretty much went out the window as soon as Kelly and Zack broke up.

Anyway, Screech’s cousin throws her milkshake on Zack.

Lisa’s Sweet Sixteen birthday party is approaching! Zack says he won’t come if Kelly and Jeff are invited. Lisa tells him that she’ll invite whoever she wants. At first, Zack refuses to go to the party, but then Screech has a heart-to-heart talk with him. Screech basically tells Zack that he’s being a whiny loser. Imagine what it must have been like to hear that from Screech, of all people.

Kelly and Jeff show up at the party. At first, Slater shows admirable loyalty to his friend Zack by giving Jeff the cold shoulder. Then Jeff mentions that he wrestled in high school. “Won my division a few times,” Jeff says. That’s all it takes for Slater to be like, “Zack who?”

Zack does come to the party. He apologizes for being a jerk. He tells Jeff to take care of Kelly. Zack tells us that he doesn’t know if he’ll ever get over Kelly. We’re left to wonder why he doesn’t just stop time if he’s so miserable…

This episode benefits from the presence of Patrick Muldoon, who makes Jeff into a likable “frat boy babe stealer.” It’s too bad that, in his next appearance, Jeff will have had a total personality transplant, because this episode actually made a pretty good point about the importance of accepting breakups and giving people a chance.

Oh well. That’s life at Bayside.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 9/6/26 — 9/12/126

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Again, I didn’t watch much TV this week.  I wish I could say that it was because I was busy watching horror movies in anticipation of Horrorthon but mostly it was just because I wasn’t feeling that good.  I started out with a touch of arthritis in my big toe making it difficult for me to walk or sleep.  Luckily that only lasted a day.  However, as soon as that was vanquished, I ended getting hit by my allergies.  I was congested all the way through Friday.  On the plus side, I recovered enough that, on Saturday, I could go outside and spray a bunch of wasps that were trying to build a nest on the side of the empty house next to mine.

I did watch Big Brother.  I kind of wrote about it over at Reality TV Chat Blog.  The show just hasn’t done much for me this year.

I watched a few episodes of SCTV on Netflix.  Love that Count Floyd!

And then I watched and reviewed episodes of Pacific Blue, Hunter, and Sledge Hammer! 

Yep, I didn’t do anything this week.

Other than suffer….

Retro Television Review: Baywatch 2.19 “The Lost Treasure of Tower 12”

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 Baywatch, which ran on NBC and then in syndication from 1989 to 2001.  The entire show can be viewed on Tubi.

This week, Harvey gets to do something.

Episode 2.19 “The Lost Treasure of Tower 12”

(Dir by Cliff Bole, originally aired on April 27th, 1992)

After a season of appearing in the opening credits and rarely anywhere else, Harvey (Tom McTigue) finally gets a storyline. Because Mitch is going on a camping trip, he has Harvey replace him as the teacher of a windsurfing class. Harvey is excited because the students all attend a local girls’ school. That would presumably mean they’re teenagers, while Harvey appears to be in his thirties.

As Ben correctly deduces, Harvey has no idea how to windsurf. This becomes obvious as soon as Harvey and Ben meet the bikini-clad students on the beach. (Harvey tells all the girls to write down their phone numbers. Again: the girls are teenagers, and Harvey is definitely not.) After watching Harvey struggle with the basics, the students start to walk away. Ben steps up and announces that he can teach them. What follows is a montage of the girls windsurfing while a dejected Harvey stares straight at the camera.

That’s the B-plot. The A-plot features Michael Bendetti as Ian, a poet who lives on the beach and finds a box of stolen jewels a thief buried in the sand. Ian uses the jewelry to bankroll his courtship of Shauni. (Ian has a crush.) The thieves aren’t happy about that.

This episode just felt off. With his obsessive crush on Shauni, Ian comes across as a stalker, and yet I think we were supposed to be charmed by how relentless he was. There’s even an extended fantasy sequence in which Ian imagines dancing with Shauni under a chandelier suspended above the beach. Meanwhile, the main thief is so cruel that he throws the episode out of whack. It’s hard to reconcile a scene of Newmie and Eddie pulling a dead body out of the ocean with the lightweight humor of Harvey trying to windsurf.

This episode confirms something I’ve suspected from the moment I started reviewing this show. The early seasons of Baywatch worked best when they focused on David Hasselhoff’s somewhat corny but undeniably earnest portrayal of Mitch Buchannon. Whenever Hasselhoff isn’t in an episode (or appears in just one scene), the cynicism at the heart of the show — and the emptiness of its style-heavy approach — is much harder to ignore.

In short, Baywatch needed the Hoff.