Tag Archives: TV

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi: The Next Generation 1.6 “The Mating Game”

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, everyone’s thinking about sex!

Episode 1.6 “The Mating Game”

(Dir by Anthony Browne, originally aired on April 22nd, 2002)

Sex therpaist Dr. Sally (Sue Johanson, recreating her role from Degrassi Junior High) is coming to Degrassi and it’s not a minute to soon because everyone is thinking about sex.  Ashley and Jimmy’s 8-month reunion is approaching and, when Paige is cast as Juliet opposite Jimmy’s Romeo in a class assignment, Ashley starts to worry that Jimmy might not be happy with their sex-free relationship.  Of course, Jimmy is more than happy with his relationship with Ashley.  If anything, Spinner seems to be the one who is obsessed with when Ashley and Jimmy are going to “do it.”

Meanwhile, Toby has a crush on Emma but Emma has a crush on Sean.  Toby invites Emma to join him in watching a DVD about an endangered turtle.  Emma agrees because Emma is all about endangered animal documentaries.  But then she stands him up so that she can help Sean out with his school project.  Sean tells Emma about how he had to give up his pet dog when he moved in with his brother, Emma says. “Awwww!,” and Toby ends up heart-broken.  Emma, for her part, is shocked when Manny later tells her that Toby has a “huge crush” on her.

(Though I’m a huge Degrassi fan, I have to admit that I always forget how much time the first season of Degrassi: The Next Generation spent on storylines that were, more or less, abandoned in future seasons.  Toby’s crush on Emma is a good example.)

As for Ashley and Jimmy, they both do the right thing and buy condoms.  (Jimmy goes to a drugstore.  Ashley orders online.)  However, they don’t have sex and instead just blow the condoms up and write cutesy little messages on them.

Finally, this episode features Terri once again getting offended when Ashley comments on her having never had a boyfriend.  For those of us who know our Degrassi history, it’s hard not to cringe at Ashley’s comment because we know what’s going to happen to Terri (and eventually Jimmy) once Terri finally does start dating someone.

This episode was okay.  These first season episodes are not always easy to watch because the show itself got a lot more interesting after the second season.  It’s hard not watch the episodes from the first two seasons and spend most of the time thinking about what the future holds for the characters.  In this episode, Jimmy is gawky and Ashley is confident that she and Jimmy will know when the time is right.  In the future, Ashley is going to lose all of her friends after taking ecstasy and Jimmy is going to end up paralyzed from the waist down.  In this episode, Toby and JT are bummed that only the eighth graders get to see Dr. Sally.  In the future, JT’s going to get stabbed to death and Toby’s going to end up dating Spinner’s adopted sister.  Meanwhile, Sean’s going to end joining the Army and Emma’s going to end up married to Spinner and Terri’s going to leave school after her boyfriend shoves her and she hits her head on a rock.  When you know all that is going to happen, it’s hard to get caught up in Terri’s hurt feelings or Ashley’s awkwardness when she has to pay for her condom delivery.  Seriously, they should be enjoying their lives while they can because the future is going to be dark!

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 4.7 “Thrill of the Kill”

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

This week, Homicide explores the theory that, when it comes to twins, there’s always an evil one.

Episode 4.7 “Thrill of the Kill”

(Dir by Tim Hunter, originally aired on November 10th, 1995)

Pembleton and Bayliss are working with the FBI to try tack down Newton Dell (Jeffrey Donovan), a Florida man who the FBI believes has committed a series of murders up and down the interstate.  He’s in Maryland now, driving a stolen truck.  Pembleton and Bayliss are able to catch him, though not before three murders have been committed in their jurisdiction.  However, in the Box, Newton insists that he was not the murderer.  He says that the murderer was someone who was traveling with him but he refuses to give out the name.  He says he can’t betray the murderer.  Even when it’s pointed out that his fingerprints were found at the crime scenes, Newton insists that that the murderer wasn’t him.

Bayliss thinks that Newton is trying to set up a insanity defense.  Pembleton doesn’t care.  His job is to catch people who commit murder and, as far as he’s concerned, he’s done just that.  Besides, Newton Dell’s story doesn’t make any sense.  Why would his fingerprints be all over the crime scene if he wasn’t the killer?  Why has every witness provided a description that roughly fits Newton Dell?

Strangely, neither man seems to remember that Munch earlier mentioned that Newton Dell has a twin brother.

Yes, you read that correctly.  This week, Homicide — a show that started off as a very realistic and gritty crime drama — present us with a murderous twin!

Miles Dell calls the department and lets them know that he can’t let his brother go to prison for a crime he didn’t commit.  Soon,  all of the cops are pulling up outside of a convenience store.  Miles (also played by Jeffrey Donovan) is waiting for them.  In the store, a dead clerk is sprawled out on the floor.  So, that’s another murder that occurred because Pembleton and Bayliss somehow overlooked the evil twin theory!

The entire tone of this episode feels different from every episode that preceded it.  With this episode, we hear the tortured inner thoughts of Miles Dell, we get some random slow motion, and we finally get an ending that is so over the top that it feels like a dry run for CSI or Criminal Minds.  Yes, Bayliss and Pembleton do have their usual philosophical debates about the nature of evil.  This is definitely a Homicide episode.  However, it’s also a Homicide episode that shamelessly embraces the melodrama.  There’s not a subtle moment to be found in this episode.  It’s a weirdly entertaining episode but it’s still somewhat jarring to watch.  This is one of those episodes that was obviously made to keep NBC happy.  One need only compare it to something like Doll’s Eyes to see how different this episode was from what came before it.

Again, it’s an entertainingly trashy episode.  Bayliss and Pembleton are enjoyable to listen to.  Jeffrey Donovan was entertainingly over-the-top as both Newton and Miles.  That said, I hope this episode was just a one-off and not a sign of what’s waiting for me over the rest of the season 4.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Good Morning Miss Bliss 1.10 “Practical Jokes”

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 Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which ran on the Disney Channel from 1988 to 1989 before then moving to NBC and being renamed Saved By The Bell.  The entire show is currently streaming on Prime!

This week, Screech goes on trial!

Episode 1.10 “Practical Jokes”

(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on February 25th, 1989)

“It’s Hoosier Harvest Festival!” Miss Bliss tells us.  Apparently, this is some sort of Indiana thing where everyone rolls around in hay and plays practical jokes on each other.  In her 11 years of working at JFK Junior High, Miss Bliss is proud to have never been pranked.  Mr. Belding gets pranked all the time.  In fact, Belding spends this entire episode getting humiliated over and over again.  After eating some tainted food, he runs from the cafeteria.  Miss Bliss has a good laugh over the suffering of a man who, just a few weeks ago, moved Heaven and Earth so she could win the Teacher of the Year award.

In other words, Miss Bliss is a bitch.

When Miss Bliss sits down in class, it turns out that someone has painted her chair.  Her new sweater is ruined!  Miss Bliss gets angry and demands that the responsible party step forward or the entire class will be punished.  The class immediately pressures Screech to confess.  Screech does so and is told that he will have to pay for Miss Bliss’s sweater.  Screech takes back his confession.

Miss Bliss says the only way to settle this is by holding a mock trial.  Hey, that’s convenient!  Would you believe that Miss Bliss just happens to be teaching a unit on the Constitution?  Screech is put on trial.  Zach is his lawyer.  Nikki is the prosecutors.  Mikey is the bailiff.  Lisa is a witness.  The rest of the cast — you know, the dorky kids who don’t get names or storylines — are the jury.

The evidence is stacked against Screech but Zach gets most of it thrown out.  (Nikki may have found a paint brush in Screech’s locker but she had no right to search it.)  The only evidence against Screech is that he said he was going to get Miss Bliss and …. well, he did confess.  Somehow, his confession never comes up at the trial.  That’s a pretty big piece of evidence, even if everyone knows he was pressured into making it.  Screech surprises everyone by taking the fifth when asked why he went to his locker after saying he was going to get Miss Bliss.

Screech is acquitted for lack of evidence.  (Uhmm …. confession?  Hello, he confessed?)  Miss Bliss reveals that she pranked herself to trick the kids into learning about the Constitution.  Because she pranked herself, this mean that she has still never been officially pranked.  After class, she helps Screech open his locker and gets hit by the silly string that Screech previously set to go off.  So, Screech did prank Miss Bliss!

(Wouldn’t Nikki have gotten hit by the silly string when she illegally searched Screech’s locker?)

This episode was dumb.  Screech should have been wrongfully convicted because Zach wasn’t that good of a lawyer.  Unfortunately, Nikki wasn’t that good of a prosecutor either.  That’s the system for you, dagnabit!

Retro Television Review: The American Short Story #16 “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall”

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 The American Short Story, which ran semi-regularly on PBS in 1974 to 1981.  The entire show can be purchased on Prime and found on YouTube and Tubi.

This week, The American Short Story adapts a short story by Katherine Anne Porter.

Episode #16 “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall”

(Dir by Randa Haines, originally aired 1980)

Granny Weatherall (Geraldine Fitzgerald) is dying.  While the doctor tries to comfort her and the priest tries to provide salvation, Granny obsesses on cleaning her house and getting everything in its proper place.  She thinks about how her adult daughter, Cornelia (Lois Smith), is incapable of keeping the house as clean as Granny Weatherall believes it should be.  Memories of the past and hallucinations of the present flood her mind and she remembers the time that she was jilted by a suitor and she thinks about how she has to live long enough to destroy the letters that he once wrote her.  But the coldness of death is always hovering in the background….

This episode moved a bit slowly but it was effective due to the performance of Geraldine Fitzgerald and also Randa Haines’s direction, which kept the viewer unsure of whether they were seeing reality or if they were just seeing Granny Weatherall’s dying thoughts.  The short story itself is written as a stream-of-consciousness and Haines does her best to capture that feeling in her adaptation.  One of the main problems with The American Short Story has been that most of the adaptations have struggled to capture the tone of the original stories.  The Jilting of Granny Weatherall’s visuals come very close to recreating the power of Katherine Anne Porter’s words.

Next week, The American Short Story wraps up with an adaptation of a James Thurber short story.

Retro Television Review: St. Elsewhere 2.16 “After Dark”

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 Hulu and, for purchase, on Prime!

This week, it’s time to name the Doctor of the Year!

Episode 2.16 “After Dark”

(Dir by Eric Laneuville, originally aired on February 29th, 1984)

It’s time for the annual end-of-the-year dinner, during which the Women’s Auxiliary will announce their pick for Doctor of the Year.  Last year, to Dr. Craig’s shock, Westphall won the award.  This year, Dr. Craig is sure that he’s going to win.  Even though Craig says that he doesn’t care about awards, he still has his wife, Ellen (Bonnie Bartlett), write out a speech for him.

The dinner is just as boring as usual.  The majority of the doctors who show up mention that their spouse couldn’t make it because they suddenly came down with the flu.  When it is time to announce the Doctor of the Year, Dr. Craig prepares to accept the award.  However, the award is given — for the second year in a row — to Dr. Westphall!

Seriously?  I mean, what the Heck?  Nothing against Dr. Westphall but what exactly has he done to deserve the award this year?  Dr. Auschlander has continued to see patients while battling cancer.  Dr. Craig performed a heart transplant!  Meanwhile, Dr. Westphall has dealt with the administrative stuff and been kind of grumpy.  I’m totally on Dr. Craig’s side here.  There’s no way Westphall deserved that award for two years running.

Westphall, himself, had to leave the awards dinner early because of an emergency at the hospital.  (More on that below.)  Dr. Craig accepts the award in Westphall’s place and — surprise! — gives a sincere speech about how much he appreciates Dr. Westphall’s leadership.  Good for Dr. Craig!  That said, there’s no way Dr. Westphall deserved the award this year.

Meanwhile, Kathy Martin, who we last saw being raped by Peter White in the morgue, is missing.  Peter wanders through the hospital in a narcotic-induced haze, carrying his ski mask in his pocket.  He nearly attacks Shirley.  He does attack Wendy Armstrong and this time, he doesn’t even put on his ski mask.  Fortunately, Fiscus hears Wendy’s screams and knocks Peter out with a fire extinguisher.  Peter is taken away by the police while Westphall heads to Peter’s home to tell Peter’s wife that her husband is the Ski Mask Rapist.

Victor is thinking of getting divorced.  Bobby, on the other hand, decides to ask Joan to marry him.  And Dr. Morrison continues to get too involved with his patients.  When Joseph (Dan Hedaya), a construction worker dealing with random bouts of blindness, is told that he’ll have to quite job, Morrison calls out a fellow doctor being callous.  Good for Morrison!

The episode, a well-acted one that deftly mixed drama and comedy, ended with some unanswered questions.  Peter’s been arrested.  Is he gone for good?  And where is Kathy Martin?  And seriously, how did Dr. Westphall win that award!?

Late Night Retro Television Review: Highway to Heaven 4.14 “Country Doctor”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Highway to Heaven, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1989.  The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi and several other services!

This week, Mark and Jonathan meet yet another grouchy old man.

Episode 4.14 “Country Doctor”

(Dir by Michael Landon, originally aired on January 13th, 1988)

Grouchy old Dr. Hudspeth (Roscoe Lee Browne) is getting older and his health is suffering but if he retires, who will take over his practice?  Jonathan and Mark come together to show Dr. Hudspeth the importance of having faith in other people and also how much everyone in the town has come to love him.

This episode was sentimental in the typical Highway to Heaven way.  Grouchy old man are always secretly saints on this show.  That said, this episode didn’t do much for me because the doctor was a little bit too grouchy.  That’s a polite way of saying that Roscoe Lee Browne yelled almost all of his line and never quite came across as being as great a doctor as he was supposed to be.  Browne wasn’t alone.  Everyone in this episode overacted, including Michael Landon and Victor French.  Considering how over-the-top the show tends to be with everyone delivering their lines normally, having people shout pushed the show over the edge.

In the end, this was Highway to Heaven on autopilot.

Retro Television Review: Decoy 1.4 “To Catch A Thief”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Decoy, which aired in Syndication in 1957 and 1958.  The show can be viewed on Tubi!

This week, Casey investigates a case of insurance fraud.

Episode 1.4 “To Catch A Thief”

(Dir by Teddy Sills, originally aired on November 4th, 1957)

A thief and his girlfriend mug a business owner named Mr. Whitaker (John McGovern).  When the police capture the thief, Mr. Whitaker claims that more money was stolen from him than was recovered.  Casey is sent undercover to discover whether or not Whitaker is lying or if a cop actually skimmed the cash that they recovered.

Pretending to be the thief’s girlfriend, Casey approaches Mr. Whitaker and tries to blackmail him.  When Mr. Whitaker appears to be innocent, his secretary (Mary James) falls under suspicion.  Mr. Whitaker, however, is eventually exposed as trying to commit insurance fraud when he has a conversation with his secretary at the police headquarters.  Unfortunately, for him, the room was bugged.

This episode bothered me.  On the one hand, I didn’t want an innocent police officer to be suspended for stealing money that he didn’t steal.  On the other hand, having Casey go undercover as a blackmailer felt almost as if it verging on entrapment.  As well, I found it hard to understand why Mr. Whitaker would be fooled into thinking Casey was the one who had robbed him earlier.  Didn’t Mr. Whitaker see the people who mugged him?

This episode just didn’t work for me.

Late Night Retro Television Review: 1st & Ten 1.10 “Wine Time”

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, it’s hard to win a game when you’re star players are in jail.

Episode 1.10 “Wine Time”

(Dir by Bruce Seth Green, originally aired on January 27th, 1985)

When the Bulls are cheated by a fake vineyard owner named Jacques St. George (Peter Elbling), Bubba and Jethro (Cliff Frazier) end up in prison for attacking him.  Jethro is surprised to discover that their cellmate is an old friend of his named Mike (Eddie Bell).  Mike wears a long blonde wig and a dress.  Jethro doesn’t know what to make of it.  Mike explains that he likes “dressing like this” and says it’s no different from how much Jethro enjoys playing football.

Meanwhile, Diane is desperate to get Bubba and Jethro out of jail in time for their next game.  She even goes to Arcola Brothers for help but, in the end, she decides that she can’t compromise her morals by accepting favors from gangsters.  The team plays with Jethro and Bubba.  The team loses.

Meanwhile, Dr. Death (Donald Gibb) and Otis (Tiny Lister), two defensive backs, go to the hospital and threaten to toss Jacques out of a window until he agrees to drop the charges.

This episode actually had a few amusing moments, mostly due to the performances of Gibb and Lister.  I appreciated the fact that the team lost the game as opposed to pulling off some sort of last minute miracle.  Diane refused to compromise her principles and that’s a good thing.  But her solution was still basically to allow Dr. Death and Otis to threaten to kill a guy.  This episode sent some very mixed messages.

I will say this.  Michael V. Gazzo’s performance as Sal Arcola is one of the few things that I consistently enjoy about this show.  A playwright, Gazzo had a pretty good side career going as a movie and television mobster.  He’ll always be best remembered for playing Frankie in The Godfather, Part II.  1st & Ten is no Godfather but Gazzo is always entertaining.

Retro Television Review: The Love Boat 6.17 “Gopher’s Daisy/Our Son, The Lawyer/Salvaged Romance”

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 Wednesdays, I will be reviewing the original Love Boat, which aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986!  The series can be streamed on Paramount Plus!

Come aboard!  Love is life’s sweetest reward….

Episode 6.17 “Gopher’s Daisy/Our Son, The Lawyer/Salvaged Romance”

(Dir by Richard Kinon, originally aired on January 29th, 1983)

Gopher has a new exercise machine but only he and the Captain know about it.  All through the cruise, Gopher and Stubing disappear into Gopher’s cabin, put out the “Do Not Disturb” sign and then groan and moan while using the exercise machine.

At the same, the ship has a stowaway.  As a part of her sorority initiation, Jennifer Canfield (Chanelle Lea) has to take a cruise without paying for it.  (That’s an odd initiation ritual.)  Having figured out Gopher’s schedule, Jennifer secretly stays in his room whenever he’s doing his duties.  Julie and Isaac both spot Jennifer sneaking in and out of Gopher’s cabin and they quickly decide that both Gopher and Stubing must have brought her aboard to be their — what?  Their personal sex slave?  That seems to be the implication.  Strangely, neither Isaac nor Julie seem to be too upset about that implication.  Julie has a cocaine problem so I guess I can understand her attitude but Isaac …. well, I expect more from Isaac.

Eventually, Jennifer is caught.  Instead of having her arrested, the Captain allows Julie and Isaac to pay for Jennifer’s fare on the boat.  So, does this mean that Jennifer’s not going to be allowed to join the sorority?

(Myself, I’m just considering the amount of people who have stowed away on the Love Boat over the past few seasons.  Seriously, taking a cruise without paying for it appears to be the easiest thing in the world.)

Meanwhile, James Coco and Doris Roberts play Harriet and Lou, a married couple who board the boat with their son, Jonathan (Adam Arkin).  Now that Jonathan has graduated law school and passed the bar, he thinks that it might be time for him to move into a place of his own.  Harriet is so traumatized at the thought of Jonathan moving out that she demands a divorce from Lou.  Both Harriet and Lou want to be represented by Jonathan.  Run, Jonathan, run!  In the end, the marriage is saved and everything get worked out but seriously, Jonathan needs to do more than just get an apartment of his own.  He needs to move to another state or maybe even another country.

(Also, in the past, there’s no way Julie would have ignored a handsome, single lawyer on the ship.  Unfortunately, Julie now seems to be more concerned with finding her next fix than finding a husband.)

Finally, Allison Newman (Joan Rivers) is a recently divorced woman who starts a tentative shipboard romance with passenger Max Glutovsky (Alex Rocco).  However, when Max tries teacher her how to play shuffleboard and puts his hands around her waist, Allison yells for him to leave her alone and runs away.  Max thinks that Allison is rejecting him because he’s not as rich as she is.  Max, you dumbass!  Allison has just had a mastectomy,  Her husband left her after the operation and now, she’s feeling insecure about getting close to anyone.  Of the three stories, the one worked the best, due to the performances of Rivers and Rocco.

The Rivers/Rocco story was effective.  The storyline with Roberts, Coco, and Arkin was rather shrill and left me feeling sorry for Adam Arkin’s character.  (Casting Doris Roberts as an overly possessive mother made this story feel like an unsuccessful dry run for Everybody Loves Raymond.)  Isaac and Julie thinking Gopher was sex fiend?  That was just silly.  In other words, this was a pretty uneven cruise.

Next week, hopefully things will look up with a two-hour episode set in Greece!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Pacific Blue 2.20 “Bad Company”

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, Palermo is the peace maker.  *snicker*

Episode 2.20 “Bad Company”

(Dir by Corey Michael Eubanks, originally aired on April 6th, 1997)

In Santa Monica, there are two gangs.

One gang is group of white bikers.  The other gang is a group of black men who spend all of their time playing basketball.  The two groups hate each other but they all respect Lt. Palermo.  Palermo previously brokered a peace between the two group.  However, the peace is now threatened because someone has been tagging up both gang’s territories.  The two gangs are about to go to war, despite Palermo riding his bicycle all over town….

*snicker*

I’m sorry, I can’t help but laugh.  Listen, I know that gangs and gang culture are no laughing matter.  But this episode features angry gang meetings that are broken up by Palermo riding up on his bicycle and talking tough to everyone.  Palermo looks ridiculous with his shorts and his polo shirt and his Schwinn bicycle.  “Palermo’s the peace maker!”  What’s Palermo going to do if someone breaks the peace?  Chase him on his bicycle?

It turns out that a gun dealer (Daniel Quinn) is trying to kickstart his business by starting a gang war.  He’s not very good at his job because the gangs soon team up with the — *snicker* — bike patrol to him down.

Meanwhile, when Victor’s friend is killed after an underground fighting match by an associate of the gun dealer’s, Victor goes undercover to catch him.  Elvis (David Lander), the bike engineer who used to be a member of the regular cast, witnessed the murder and he finds himself being pursued by the gun dealer.  Don’t worry, Elvis!  The bike patrol is looking out for you!  Mixing the broad humor of David Lander’s performance as Elvis with a storyline about how gangs are destroying communities and getting innocent people killed was a decision that really didn’t pay off.  “Increase the peace and now laugh at this guy with an exaggerated accent.”

This episode was  a pretty good example of why Pacific Blue’s main weakness was always its premise. This episode featured a lot of scenes of the members of the bike patrol looking serious and barking out orders.  It’s hard to be intimidated by someone wearing shorts and riding a bicycle.

The title of this episode is Bad Company.  In the end, the truly bad company rode a Schwinn.