Late Night Retro Television Review: 1st & Ten 4.11 “Final Bow”

Posted on August 5, 2026 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, yet another new player joins the Bulls.

Episode 4.11 “Final Blow”

(Dir by Stan Lathan, originally aired on December 14th, 1988)

Bubba’s fighting with his wife again! Maybe Jethro can fix things by sending her a fur coat, along with a card claiming that the coat is a gift from Bubba. Yes, that really is one of the main storylines on this week’s episode. If nothing else, you can always count on 1st & Ten to keep things simple.

As for the other storyline, the Bulls have signed Olympic runner Moses Jackson (Peter Parros) to the team. Moses’s agent (Calvin Lockhart), who is obviously meant to be a stand-in for Don King, announces that Moses is both the fastest man on the planet and also the world’s greatest athlete. For his part, Moses doesn’t even want to play football. He’s terrified of getting tackled.

Wide Receiver Coleman King (Richard Lawson) is scared that he’s going to lose his job to Moses. Even though Coleman had never been seen or mentioned before last week’s episode, he is apparently an old friend of TD Parker (OJ Simpson). TD is not so secretly in love with Coleman’s wife, Della (Vanessa Bell Calloway). When a depressed Coleman goes to Bulls Stadium with a gun, it’s up to TD to turn on the charm and convince Coleman that violence is never the answer. TD tells Coleman that he can’t play forever and he has to start thinking about what he wants to do once his athletic career is over. Coleman decides that he would like to be a teacher. TD takes Coleman’s gun and drives Coleman home in his Bronco.

During the next game, Moses turns out to be a bust. Every time he gets the ball, he gets tackled almost immediately. It’s not until the final quarter that he finally manages to break free and run for a 60 yard touchdown. However, Moses then runs into the locker room and refuses to come back out. The Bull are still down by 6 and their star player has just announced his retirement. Fortunately, Coleman King is still playing and he manages to make a last-minute, game-winning touchdown.

Yay! The Bulls remains undefeated.

After the game, TD congratulates Coleman and tells him that he picked a great way to go out. Coleman laughs and says he’s not going anywhere. He figures that he has at least another three years to go before retiring. Teaching can wait!

This was actually not a terrible episode. A lot of that is due to Richard Lawson’s empathetic performance as Coleman King. In fact, Lawson turns Coleman King into one of the few interesting characters on the series. I can’t wait to see what else he does …. oh wait. According to the imdb, this episode was the last time that either Richard Lawson or Coleman King appeared on 1st & Ten.

Oh well, I guess that’s football for you!

Late Night Retro Television Review: 1st & Ten 4.10 “Out of the Past”

Posted on July 29, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

After last week’s trip to “the future,” this episode returns to 1988.

Episode 4.10 “Out of the Past”

(Dir by Stan Lathan, originally aired on December 7th, 1988)

As a show, 1st & Ten has a weird habit of introducing new characters and pretending as if they’ve always been around even if they’ve never been seen or even mentioned before. In this episode, we meet Coleman King (Richard Lawson), the team’s veteran running back who fears that he’s on the verge of being dropped from the Bulls. Coleman is also an old friend of TD Parker’s (O.J. Simpson).

TD is conflicted. He knows that Coleman is past his prime. The Bulls are on the verge of signing a new running back and, when they do, TD knows that he’s probably going to have to cut Colman from the team. As a former player, TD knows how painful it is when your professional career is murdered and no one is held responsible for it. Complicating matters is the clear attraction between TD and Coleman’s wife, Della (Vanessa Bell Callaway).

While TD tries to figure out how to protect both the team and Coleman, Ernie Denardo runs into his ex-girlfriend, Brenda (Shannon Wilcox), at a bar. Brenda has some scary people after her because of her unpaid gambling debts. She tells Denardo that she has money on the next Bulls game. If the Bulls win by more than ten, her debt will be paid off and then she and Denardo can be together.

The next day, the Bulls are on the verge of winning by 9. With only a few seconds left in the game, Denardo has the team kick a field goal so that they can win by 12. Denardo returns to Brenda’s apartment and discovers that she’s gone. It was all a scam, hatched by Brenda and her real boyfriend.

In tears, Denardo tells TD that he has to quit as coach of the Bulls.

TD argues that Denardo didn’t do anything wrong because he didn’t have money on the game. TD points out that the field goal unit needed the practice and that the Bulls need as many points as possible to clinch home field advantage in the playoffs. The episode ends with TD embracing the sobbing Denardo. Awwww! Is there nothing an OJ Simpson pep talk can’t fix?

After last week’s bizarre episode, this was a traditional 1st & Ten episode. This episode served as a reminder of just how bland OJ Simpson was as an actor. That said, Reid Shelton did a good job as the grief-stricken Denardo and the gambling subplot at least did have a few interesting twists. By the standards of 1st & Ten, that makes this episode a success.

Lakeview Terrace (2008, directed by Neil LaBute)

Posted on March 25, 2025 by Jedadiah Leland

Chris and Lisa Mattson (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington) move in to a large house in the Lakeview Terrace neighborhood of Los Angeles. It’s a good house in a good neighborhood and it’s just too bad that their neighbor, Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson), is a corrupt cop who hates interracial couples.

I remember that Lakeview Terrace caused a brief stir when it was released in 2008. It was hardly the first film about an interracial couple being harassed by a bigot but it was one of the few where the bigot in question was a black man. Abel hates white people. He says it’s because his wife was cheating on him with a white man when she was killed in a car accident. He does not appreciate Chris listening to rap music and dropping his cigarettes on the street. When Abel’s children spot Chris and Lisa having sex in their swimming pool, that’s all Abel needs to justify his dislike of the couple and his feelings that he doesn’t want this couple living next door. When Chris asks if Abel could turn off the floodlights that shine into their bedroom window, Abel refuses. When Chris tries to plant privacy trees, Abel cuts them down. What starts out as a neighborhood feud escalates as Abel orders one of his informants to break into Chris and Lisa’s house. Unfortunately, that third act twist also signals the moment that Lakeview Terrace goes from being a reasonably intelligent social satire to being a standard thriller. Neil LaBute is a director who specializes in making people uncomfortable so it is too bad that Lakeview Terrace ends in a way designed to conform to what audiences have come to expect from thrillers.

Abel’s a hateful figure but Samuel L. Jackson is just as charismatic as ever and the passive-aggressive way that he initially responds to Chris and Lisa will be familiar to anyone who has ever had a bad neighbor or who has to deal with a cop having a bad day. Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington, neither one of whom is really that interesting an actor to begin with, are both stuck in bland roles and struggle to keep up with Jackson. (Wilson and Washington even get out-acted by Ron Glass, playing Lisa’s disapproving father.) It throws the movie off-balance. At the same time, Jackson is such an actor who projects so much intelligence that it’s hard to believe that Abel would make the stupid mistakes that he makes towards the end of the movie. Lakeview Terrace starts out fairly strong but loses its way towards the end.

October Positivity: To Hell and Back (dir by Christine Swanson)

Posted on October 17, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Book of Job is a bit of a Biblical Rorschach test.

Job is a prosperous man who always obeys and give thanks to God. The Devil claims that Job’s faith is only due to the fact that he’s successful and has a large family. The Devil boasts that, if he’s allowed to ruin Job’s life, Job will respond by cursing the name of God. Instead of asking the Devil what he’s doing outside of Hell, God says, “Go ahead, just don’t kill him.” The Devil kills Job’s family. The Devil kills all of Job’s servants. The Devil takes away all of Job’s wealth and afflicts Job with terrible sores. Job’s friends tell Job that he should blame and reject God but, because Job refuses to do so, he is rewarded with a new family and even more servants.

Some people look at the story of Job and they see it as being a story about the importance of having faith, even in the most troubling of times. Job refuses to surrender his faith and he is rewarded. Even though Job cannot understand why bad things are happening to him, he refuses to surrender to despair and anger and puts his faith in the idea that God has a plan.

Others look at this story and see Job as a pawn in some private game between God and the Devil. Job keeps his faith and is ultimately rewarded but his family and his servants still all die. Job may be rewarded but why should he have to suffer just to prove a point to the Devil? Indeed, what is the Devil doing in Heaven, debating with God in the first place. I mean, the Devil got kicked out of that place. He’s in Hell for a reason.

The 2015 film, To Hell and Back, is a modern-day retelling of the Book of Job. Joe (Ernie Hudson) is a successful businessman, a man who built his company up from nothing and who now lives in a mansion with his wife (Vanessa Bell Calloway) and his five children. Joe gives money to worthy causes and he is never without his Bible. God and the Devil are heard in voice-over, debating the sincerity of Joe’s faith. God agrees to allow Joe to be tested. One tragedy after another befalls Joe and his family. One son is killed during a burglary. One daughter commits suicide. A car crash leaves another daughter dead and another son in a wheelchair. Joe’s company is driven into bankruptcy by a lawsuit while the last of Joe’s sons leaves to start his own company. Abandoned by even his wife, Joe grows ill and soon finds himself homebound.

Even if the film leaves us wondering why God would hurt someone just to prove a point, To Hell and Back is a well-directed and well-acted film. Ernie Hudson gives a heart-breaking performance as Joe, a man who always tries to do the right thing and is basically punished at every single turn. Joe definitely deserves better than to just be a pawn in a cosmic waver but at least Ernie Hudson gets a chance to show off what a good actor he can truly be.