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Late Night Retro Television Review: Monsters 2.12 “Museum Hearts”

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 Monsters, which aired in syndication from 1988 to 1991. The entire series is streaming on YouTube.

Wow, it’s been more than a little while since I last reviewed an episode of Monsters!  Well, it’s time to get back to it!  Like most anthology series, Monsters can be frustratingly uneven but occasionally, the viewer does get lucky with a really good episode.  Take this week, for instance….

Episode 2.12 “Museum Hearts”

(Dir by Theodore Gershuny, originally aired on January 7th, 1990)

Cheryl (Louise Roberts) comes to the natural history museum to see her husband, Danny (Patrick Breen).  Danny, one of the museum’s curators, said he would be working late in the basement but, as Cheryl discovers, Danny is actually in basement cheating on her with Edwina (Sarah Trigger).

However, the three of them have an even bigger problem that Danny’s infidelity.  While they’re busy arguing in the basement, the museum closes and all the doors are locked.  Danny’s suggestion is that they spend the night having a threesome.  Cheryl’s suggestion is that Danny find a way to get them out of the basement.

Attempting to reach a high window, dumbass Danny climbs on top of ancient coffin.  His foot goes through the wood.  Danny not only cuts open his ankle but he also steps on the mummified remains of Cerridwen (Pamela Dean Kelly), a Druid priestess.  His foot goes through her chest, revealing her heart.  Danny decides that it would be a good idea to grab the heart and take it as a souvenir.  Cerridwen, who is not quite dead, is not happy about that idea.

At first, Danny, Cheryl, and Edwina are terrified about the idea of being stuck with a mummy.  But it turns out that Cerridwen hates cheating men like Danny.  Cheryl and Edwina proceed to sacrifice Danny, allowing Cerridwen to revert back to her youthful appearance.  The three women leave the museum together.

So far, Monsters has been a rather uneven series but I really liked this episode.  A lot of that is due to Theodore Gershuny’s direction.  Gershuny also directed one of my favorite grindhouse films, Silent Night Bloody Night.  Just as in that film, Gershuny creates an ominous and dream-like atmosphere that goes a long way towards making up for the fact that episode’s story is rather predictable.  Fortunately, Danny is such a sleaze that it’s impossible not take some joy out of him getting his macabre comeuppance.  I liked the fact that all three of the women worked together rather than allowing Danny to turn them against one another.  Instead of getting mad at Edwina, Cheryl put the blame for Danny’s infidelity right where it belonged, on Danny.

This was a good episode with a good message.  Don’t mess around in the basement of a museum because you never know what you might find down there.  And, for the love of God, don’t step on a mummy’s chest.

Retro Television Review: The Love Boat 4.21 “Clothes Make The Girl/Black Sheep/Hometown Girl”

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!

It’s time for another cruise on …. THE LOVE BOAT!

Episode 4.21 “Clothes Make The Girl/Black Sheep/Hometown Girl”

(Dir by Earl Bellamy, originally aired on February 28th, 1981)

This week’s cruise is all about money!

For instance, in this episode, we learn that Doc Bricker is from a small town called Cedar Flats.  Doc was the head of a committee that raised the money necessary to send Mike Lucas (Randy Powell) to medical school so that Mike could return home and serve as the town doctor.  However, when Mike boards the cruise with his fiancée, Tracy (Cindy Morgan), it turns out that he has some bad news.  Tracy’s wealthy father has offered Mike a job working at a Park Avenue clinic in Manhattan.  Mike is planning on taking the job because of the money and the fact that Tracy doesn’t want to live in a small town.  Unfortunately, that will leave Cedar Flats without a doctor.

Doc Bricker, showing that he actually is a man of integrity despite also being a walking HR nightmare, decides that he has no choice but to return to Cedar Flats and serve as their doctor until someone can be found to replace him.  He asks Captain Stubing for a six-month leave of absence.  Stubing agrees but warns that the cruise line might hire someone to take Doc’s place.

Meanwhile, Suzy Marshall (Kyle Aletter) is excited because it appears that her daughter, Anne (Lee Meriwether), has attracted the attention of a wealthy man named Jonathan (Larry Breeding).  Little do they know that Jonathan is actually just Johnny, the ship’s valet.  Johnny is wearing another passenger’s clothes and pretending to be rich.

At one point, Johnny takes Anne back to his cabin, making this the first episode to show us what a low-level employee’s cabin looks like.  It’s small and cramped and located at the bottom the boat, which means it’ll be the first to flood if The Love Boat ever hits an iceberg.  It’s also mentioned that Johnny is not allowed to eat in the main dining room with the passengers.  I have to admit that it’s all a bit disillusioning.  Apparently, the Love Boat is a terrible place to work!

Finally, a passenger named Donald Gray (Robert Ginty) tells the Captain that he works for the Secret Service.  He is on the Love Boat because he hopes to capture a notorious counterfeiter.  But what will happen when that counterfeiter turns out to be Jesse (Demond Wilson), Issac’s ne’er-do-well uncle who claims to have turned a new leaf?  Poor Isaac!

Well, don’t worry.  Everything works out:

1) Mike realizes that he has to honor his commitment to Cedar Flats and, after talking to her father, Cindy realizes that she loves Mike enough that she can be happy in a small town.  (Cindy’s father says some very dismissive things about Cedar Flats but it turns out that he was only doing that to get Mike so outraged that he would have no choice but to return home.  He was doing it as a favor to Doc Bricker.  Can you imagine if that plan didn’t work?  What if Mike just said, “You’re right!  New York, here we come!”)

2) Anne learns the truth when she sees Johnny in his valet uniform.  Luckily, she doesn’t care.

3) It turns out that Donald is actually a criminal who is masquerading as a treasury agent and Uncle Jesse is an undercover government agent!  Isaac is happy to learn this but also agrees to keep Jesse’s secret.  “You’re my favorite nephew,” Uncle Jesse replies.  Awwwww!

This was an okay cruise.  The guest stars weren’t particularly interesting but Bernie Kopell and Ted Lange both got an opportunity to show what they could do when given a real storyline to deal with.  Kopell especially deserves a lot of credit for showing that humanity that lurked underneath Doc’s carefree surface.  This episode kept me entertained and I enjoyed the scenery.  Really, what else can you ask for from The Love Boat?

Late Night Retro Television Review: Baywatch Nights 2.8 “Last Breath”

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 YouTube!

Some people stand in the darkness …. let’s get back to reviewing Baywatch Nights!  I’ve missed talking about this silly show.

Episode 2.8 “Last Breath”

(Dir by Gregory J. Bonnan, originally aired on November 17th, 1996)

Lifeguards are disappearing!

After hearing the sounds of someone shouting for help in the distance, three lifeguards — including Donna — vanish while investigating.  It’s assumed that they’ve drowned but Mitch has his doubts.  And it turns out that Mitch is correct!  This is an evil haunting the sea and yes, it’s stalking lifeguards.

What type of evil is it?

Is it a sea monster?

Is it a ghost?

Is it an alien creature?

How about a mutant octopus?

Maybe a dinosaur of some sort?

Could it be an unfrozen Viking or a vampire or a time traveler or a….

Well, you get the idea.  And really, it should have been one of those things.  The second season of Baywatch Nights was all about David Hasselhoff and Angie Harmon investigating supernatural ocean stuff.  It was specifically designed to be X-Files on the beach.  We’ve all heard the urban legend of the weeping woman who haunts lakes.  As soon as the lifeguards heard those shouts, I assumed this episode would feature an ocean version of La Llorona.

Well, it turns out I was wrong.  Instead, the lifeguard are being kidnapped by a man who blames them for the death of his family in a car accident.  The madman (Brett Baxter Clark), who is not at all supernatural, is keeping the lifeguards trapped in a cage.  (How do random madmen always manage to have a super-strong cage just lying around?)  He wants to recreate the accident that led to the death of his family.  Can Mitch track the cage down and rescue his lifeguards?

This episode was disappointing on many levels, with the main problem being that there was really nothing to distinguish it from a typical episode of Baywatch.  All it needed was to open with that Some People Stand In The Darkness song for it to be an episode of Baywatch.  When you watch the second season of Baywatch Nights, you’re watching because you want to see David Hasselhoff and Angie Harmon pretending to be Mulder and Scully.  You watch it because you want to see a combination of swimsuits and supernatural phenomena.  Once you take away the supernatural, you take away this show’s main appeal.

That said, if you were a fan of the original Baywatch, you may enjoy certain parts of this episode. Newmie shows up!  At first, I was like, “Don’t you dare kidnap Newmie!” but, fortunately, Newmie was too clever to fall for any traps.

Next week, the supernatural will return to the beach!

Retro Television Review: Fantasy Island 5.7 “The Perfect Husband/Volcano”

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 the original Fantasy Island, which ran on ABC from 1977 to 1984.  Unfortunately, the show has been removed from most streaming sites.  Fortunately, I’ve got nearly every episode on my DVR.

Yay!  It’s finally time to return to the Island.

Episode 5.7 “The Perfect Husband/Volcano”

(Dir by Philip Leacock, originally aired on November 21st, 1981)

This week, it’s Tattoo’s turn to serve as Roarke’s sidekick while Julie is sent off to deal with two weddings and a tour for “the seniors.”

On the one hand, it’s incredibly awkward for Roarke to have two sidekicks and it’s pretty obvious that Julie was only hired to serve as insurance in case Herve Villechaize walked off the set.

On the other hand, it is kind of nice to be reminded of the fact that there’s a lot happening on Fantasy Island.  Fantasy Island is not just a mystical nation that is ruled over by the enigmatic Mr. Roarke.  It’s also a resort that hosts vacations and retirement homes.  Apparently, you don’t have to have a fantasy in order to spend some time on Fantasy Island.  Instead, you can just come to Fantasy Island for a nice tropical vacation.  That’s kind of nice.

But, that said, the fantasies are why we’re here.  We’ve got two good ones this week.

Dorothy Nicholson (Susan Sullivan) is a newspaper publisher who has been feeling unfulfilled ever since her husband was killed by a drunk driver.  She want to find the perfect husband, a man without any flaws whatsoever.  After giving her his customary “You may not like what you find,” warning, Roarke sends her to Paradise Cove.  Operated by the sinister Anton Jagger (Rossano Brazzi), Paradise Cover is a resort where wealthy women are assigned the perfect companion.  Dorothy’s perfect man is Gilbert (Lyle Waggoner).  Gilbert is handsome, suave, charming, and attentive.  Unfortunately, like all of the perfect men at Paradise Cove, he’s also a robot and a part of Jagger’s scheme to cheat women out of their money!  Dorothy figures out the truth after Gilbert doesn’t even flinch after his hand catches on fire.  Can she defeat Jagger’s plans and rescue the real Gilbert?

(Of course, she can.  It’s Fantasy Island!)

Dr. Hal Workman (George Maharis) thinks that he’s figured out a way to detect when a volcano is going to erupt.  He wants to go to Fantasy Island’s own active volcano to test out his methods.  Roarke agrees, even though he worries that Dr. Workman only cares about science and not about people.  (Honestly, who cares?  A volcano detection system sounds like it would be a good thing, regardless of the motives of the man who created it.)  Workman is led to the volcano by a disillusioned former priest named Lauria (Richard Romanus).  However, Workman and Lauria are not the only people at the volcano.  There’s also a shady tycoon, Joseph Butler (Norman Alden), and his girlfriend, Terri (Misty Rowe).  You can probably guess what happens.  Workman falls in love with Terri.  Lauria finds his faith.  And Butler presumably dies when the volcano erupts and a deluge of what appears to be very thin tomato sauce comes pouring down the mountain.

Both of these fantasies were cheerfully ridiculous, which made them a lot of fun.  You may wonder why Roarke would send one of his guests to a resort that’s being run by a madman and that’s a legitimate question.  But the important thing is that the viewer gets a montage of all of the robots malfunctioning at once.  And you may wonder at the wisdom of allowing someone to go to an active volcano but the important thing is that we get a scene of George Maharis and Richard Romanus running away from the least realistic lava flow ever caught on film.  Fantasy Island is a lot of fun when it goes over the top and embraces its beautiful absurdity and that’s exactly what this episode did.

What a wonderful trip to the Island!

Late Night Retro Television Review: CHiPs 2.10 “Return of the Turks”

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 Freevee!

After two months, I’m ready to get back on the California highways with Jon and Ponch!

Episode 2.10 “Return of the Turks”

(Dir by Barry Crane, aired on November 25th, 1978)

It’s always bad news whenever Ponch runs into any of his old friends.

In this episode, when he pulls over a van, he’s shocked to discover that it’s being driven by his old friend, Sid (Kaz Garas).  After discovering that former wild man Ponch has now become a cop, Sid spirals into a midlife crisis that leads to him and his friend Rudy (Mark Thomas) playing bumper cars on the highway.  Sid is freaked out by the entire experience but Rudy discovers that he loves intentionally bumping into other cars and forcing them off the road.

This episode featured a lot of car crashes and, as usual with CHiPs, they were well-filmed.  But I have to admit that I found it almost too disturbing to watch.  Usually, I enjoy a good car chase or a spectacularly-filmed car crash.  I like fast cars and I’ve always been aware that, when a car crashes onscreen, it’s being driven by a stunt driver.  But, back in May, was Dad was in a very serious car crash.  He not only broke his shoulder but the crash aggravated his Parkinson’s and the subsequent stay in the hospital and in rehab left him so weak that he died two weeks ago.  As a result, I’m not really in the mood for car crashes right now.  That’s not the fault of this show, of course.  And, under normal circumstances, I would probably be raving about how exciting Rudy’s highway mayhem was.

Ponch is not the only one who meets someone from his past.  Baker runs into Pete (James Houghton), the brother of his former partner.  Pete’s brother died when he crashed his motorcycle on duty.  Pete now puts on his brother’s uniform and pretends to be a member of the Highway Patrol, writing tickets and directing traffic,  Because he stole and copied a page from Ponch’s ticket book, Ponch gets the credit for all the tickets but — uh oh! — it turns out that a lot of the tickets are being contested in court.  Pete is a bit overzealous.  Can Baker and Ponch get Pete off the street before he pulls over the wrong person?  And why is a story about the brother of Baker’s former partner mostly about Ponch?

This was a rather melancholy episode.  It’s easy to laugh at any episode that features people talking about how Ponch used to be a delinquent because Erik Estrada’s goofy performance doesn’t exactly lend itself to that interpretation.  But, in the end, Sid, Pete, and even Rudy were all suffering from a general sort of malaise.  They all regretted the way that their lives had turned out and they were all using the California highways as a way to live out their dreams.  Unfortunately, by doing so, they put other people’s lives at risk.  Fortunately, Baker and Ponch were there to keep the highways safe …. though only after two spectacularly-filmed pile-ups.

Retro Television Review: Miami Vice 2.20 “Payback”

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 Miami Vice, which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989.  The entire show can be purchased on Prime!

After taking a two-month hiatus, I think it’s time to finally get back to the reviews.  Thank you for your patience, everyone.  Now, let’s head to down to Miami for some Vice!

Episode 2.20 “Payback”

(Dir by Aaron Lipstadt, originally aired on March 14th, 1986)

A low-level drug dealer named Jesus Moroto (Roberto Duran) wants a meeting with the detective who arrested him and sent him to jail.  When Sonny Crockett arrives to see what Moroto wants, Sonny is shocked when Moroto commits suicide in the visitation room.

Sudden and violent deaths are a recurring thing in Miami but the death of Moroto haunts Sonny.  As Sonny explains to Tubbs, it doesn’t make any sense for Moroto, who was only looking at a few years in jail, to have killed himself.  Sonny wonders why Moroto died in front of him.  Tubbs suggests that Sonny instead focus on their current assignment, trying to get close to the elusive drug lord, Mario Fuente (played by famed art rocker, Frank Zappa).  As a lot of drug lords do on this show, Fuente lives on a yacht and it’s next to impossible to see him.  Using their undercover identities as Burnett and Cooper, Crockett and Tubbs have so far only been able to meet with Fuente’s second-in-command, Reuben Reydolfo (Dan Hedaya).

Crockett and Tubbs find themselves assigned to work with two DEA agents, one whom — Kevin Cates (Graham Beckel) — claims that he can get Crockett and Tubbs onto Fuente’s boat.  Crockett and Tubbs are reluctant to work with anyone but it soon turns out that Cates is apparently better at his job than Crockett and Tubbs gave him credit for.

Except, of course, everyone’s got a secret.  Before he went to jail, Moroto stole several million dollars from Fuente.  It turns out that Internal Affairs is convinced that Crockett helped Moroto steal the money and Fuente, who knows that Burnett and Cooper are actually Crockett and Tubbs, believes the same thing.  The only person who can truly prove that Crockett is innocent is Kevin Cates and that’s because he’s the one who stole the money!

It doesn’t matter that the twisty plot of this particular episode is not always easy to follow.  It also doesn’t matter that this episode leaves you wondering just how exactly Crockett and Tubbs have managed to maintain their Burnett/Cooper personas for so long without everyone in Miami’s underworld figuring out the truth.  (Personally, I wonder that after every episode.)  This episode works due to the atmospheric direction of Aaron Lipstadt and the performances of Don Johnson, Edward James Olmos, Frank Zappa, and especially Graham Beckel.  Beckel gives a performance that will keep you guessing at just who exactly Kevin Cates is working for and whether or not he can be trusted.  That he makes Kevin into a somewhat likable character makes it all the more disturbing when he turns out to not be quite the honest law enforcer that he made himself out to be.  If the main theme of Miami Vice often seemed to be that Crockett and Tubbs were fighting a war that there was no way to win, this episode shows why their work often felt so futile.  In this episode, Crockett not only has to battle a drug lord but he also has to battle Internal Affairs.  No one trusts anyone.

The episode ends on an ambiguous note, with Crockett technically cleared but still unable to truly prove his innocence.  (Kevin Cates, the only man who can truly prove Crockett’s innocence, is naturally gunned down during the show’s final few minutes.)  Crockett is warned that Fuente is still going to be coming after him.  (Unfortunately, Zappa was in poor health when he filmed this episode and Fuente would never return.)  This episode is Miami Vice at its most cynical and its most effective.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 8/11/24 — 8/17/24

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I didn’t watch much this week but here’s a few thoughts on what I did watch!

American Murder: Laci Peterson (Netflix)

This three-part docuseries is the perfect antidote for that horribly biased The Murder of Laci Peterson show that still occasionally shows up on A&E.  Watching this series (as I did on Thursdasy), you are really left with no doubt that Scott Peterson murdered his wife and child.  As opposed to the one-sided approach taken by The Murder of Laci Peterson (which was essentially bankrolled by the Peterson family), American Murder gave both sides equal time.  As a result, the viewer sees how strong the case  against Scott actually was and they also see just how much in denial the Peterson family is actually in as far as Scott’s crimes are concerned.

Diff’Rent Strokes (YouTube)

Gary Coleman and the kid who played Reggie in Friday the 13th Part V found themselves being groomed by the creepy owner of a bicycle shop.  This was the episode that I watched, for some reason (boredom, perhaps), on Wednesday.  The owner of the bicycle shop was played by a familiar actor named Gordon Jump.  He seemed like a really nice guy but then he started giving the boys wine and inviting them to watch pornographic cartoons.  The episode ended with a detective explaining how the perverted mind works to a stunned Todd Bridges.

This episode is apparently an infamous one.  I thought it was fairly well-done, though the laugh track definitely felt out of place.  The episode opened with the star of the show, the very erudite Conrad Bain, encouraging families to watch and discuss the episode together.  He sounded very sincere.

Night Flight (Night Flight Plus)

The episode that I watched on Friday featured clips from and videos inspired by Woodstock.  The music was great!

The Office (Comedy Central)

I watched the classic “Did I Stutter” episode on Sunday.  That episode was The Office at its best, especially when Stanley and Michael talked about their differences.  Michael was so desperate for Stanley to like him and Stanley, to be honest, seemed like he wished he could bring himself to like Michael as well.  But, as Stanley put it, “I’ve known you for a very long time.”  Great episode.

Sally Jessy Raphael (Nosey)

On Sunday, I watched an episode from the early 90s.  Sally interviewed Corey Feldman about his career and his struggle to get off drugs.  Feldman said that he couldn’t wait to get his film career back on track.  Character actor Brion James also talked about his own struggle to get and stay clean.  It was kind of a depressing episode, to be honest.  James came across like a kind and plain-spoken man but Feldman seemed like he was desperately trying to convince everyone (including himself) that he was okay.

The Steve Wilkos Show (Nosey)

“Get off my stage!” Steve yelled, throwing a chair at a bigamist.  That’s what happened during the episode that I watched on Friday.  I wonder how much money this show spends on chairs.  It can’t be good for them, the way Steve is constantly throwing them at people.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 8/4/24 — 8/10/24

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

For the first time in a long time, things settled down enough this week that I could find time to watch a little television.  Here are my thoughts!

Atomic TV (Night Flight Plus)

This bizarre show, from the 80s, was an entertaining mix of public domain educational films and excerpts from music videos.  It was enjoyably trippy.

Cobra Kai (Netflix)

I watched the first five episodes of the final season on Thursday and Friday.  I know that some people felt that the new episodes got Season 6 off to a bad start and I can kind of understand some of the criticism.  How many times can Kreese come back from the dead?  How many times can Tory be tempted to join the bad guys?  The show has pretty much taken its premise as far as it can go and it’s probably good that this is the final season.

But, you know what?  Cobra Kai is a fun show, one that works because of the combination of Ralph Macchio’s earnestness and William Zabka’s strong comedic timing.  Yes, the show is silly and over-the-top but that’s kind of the point.  The show’s blend of cringe comedy and melodrama still keeps me entertained and William Zabka’s performance as Johnny continues to make me smile.

Plus, there was this wonderful moment:

Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam (Netflix)

I watched all three episodes of this creepy docuseries on Sunday.  The series told the story of how Lou Pearlman created the Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, and O Town and how he ended up stealing over $500 million dollars from his investors.  Pearlman came across as being a bit of a monster and even creepier than he did during the first season of Making the Band.  The docuseries featured interviews with former boy banders (though not Justin Timberlake, Lance Bass, Joey Fatone or anyone else who currently has a career going), in which they shared their mixed feelings about their experiences with Lou.  My heart really broke for Michael Johnson, of Natural, who appeared to have been the most traumatized by his experiences with Lou Pearlman.

Dr. Phil (Pluto TV)

On Thursday night, I watched an episode in which Phil talked to a former Marine whose daughter was out-of-control.  Everyone agreed that it was the father’s fault but the teen was still sent to Turn About Ranch.  Did that ranch ever do anyone any good?

Miami Vice (Prime)

A gangster (played by legendary satirist Frank Zappa) thought Sonny had stolen some money from him.  I’ll be posting a review of this episode on September 2nd so keep an eye out for it!

Summer Olympics (NBC)

Usually, I’m a huge Olympics nerd but this year, I’ve been too busy taking care of my Dad to really pay attention to them.  I did occasionally tune in throughout this week.  Personally, I think I could win a gold medal for Beach Volleyball.  It doesn’t look that hard.

Steve Wilkos (Nosey)

I watched an episode of this talk show on Wednesday morning, when I couldn’t sleep.  A man denied that he was the father of his ex-girlfriend’s nine year-old child.  Steve yelled, “Get off my stage!” and threw a chair at the guy while the audience chanted, “STEVE!”  Lost in all of the chaos and chanting was whether or not the guy was actually the father.  I assume he was, just because of all the booing that went on.

On Saturday, I watched three episodes that featured Steve yelling at someone.  He threw another chair at a different guy.  The audience loved that.

TV 2000 (Night Flight TV)

I watched an episode of this 80s music video show on Saturday morning.  A youngish Gene Simmons was interviewed and come across as being as arrogant but oddly likable as he is today.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Highway to Heaven 2.14 “Close Encounters of the Heavenly Kind”

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 Freevee and several other services!

There’s really not much to say about this episode.

Episode 2.14 “Close Encounters of the Heavenly Kind”

(Dir by Victor French, originally aired on January 15th, 1986)

Adam (Jerry Supiran) is a kid who lives with his grandfather, Harvey (Harold J. Stone).  Unless Harvey can find a real job, Adam is going to be put in foster care.  Harvey is a self-taught electrician but, since he never graduated high school, no one is willing to take a chance on him.

One night, a meteorite crashes into the Earth.  When Adam rides his bike out to the impact area, he sees Jonathan and Mark stepping out of the crater.  Though Jonathan and Mark just happened to be driving by and decided to investigate the meteorite on their own, Adam assumes that they’re aliens.  Jonathan lets him assume that as he and Mark go on to help Harvey find a job and also help Adam to find the courage to stand up to his bullies.

Especially when compared to last week’s episode, this was all pretty bland.  Jerry Spurian was one of those child actors who overemoted with every line while Harold J. Stone comes across as just being cranky and disagreeable.  This felt like a throw-away episode and there’s really not much else to be said about it.

(How’s that for a short review?  Sorry, there’s not much to say about this one.)