sam-468-676831 Reviews

Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV (2024)

If your born in the 80's or early 90's, prepare to forever loose all of your childhood innocence

[10/10 · 22 March 2024]

It seems like every generation goes through Hollywood icons that turn out to be people who were not the sharpest tools in the shed (meaning they did some pretty cringe worthy things)

For the Gen X people, it was Bill Cosby who went to jail for sexual assault & harassment but wasn't caught red handed with his crimes until many years after his heyday as an actor & TV show producer

For the Millennials, this documentary series definitely represents our own version of that

I'm currently 28 going on 29, so I grew up watching the shows mentioned in this docuseries and I must warn you, unless you want your ENTIRE childhood innocence absolutely RIPPED to shreds if your around my age, please skip this series

BUT if your someone around my age who's willing to grow up & accept the facts & reality like we all do as adults (like how the entire generation who grew up watching this show is now) then please, dig into this

I can pretty much GUARANTEE you you WILL NOT be able to revisit your old Nickelodeon favorites if your a millennial the same way again if you watch this. For me this show was very eye opening & i'm not even sure if I or anyone else my age was aware of how hyper sexualized our favorite shows were when we were watching them when they were new

And also, I somewhat knew about the controversy surrounding the guy who created this show & the absolute hell he put the people involved in those shows in, but for me, this was absolutely a "wake up the smell the coffee" like documentary series for me

Cause there was a lot that I didn't know that was unraveled to me in this series, and as an adult, you learn about adult things like sex & alcohol, but what's REALLY weird about the shows we (millennials) grew up watching is the adult humor that was peppered into these shows that were meant for KIDS that just COMPLETELY flew under our radars when we watched these shows growing up

But now looking back at it as an adult, I'm at a loss for words for how adult our favorite shows were

I honestly feel like Nickelodeon did us dirty, and this is also a great example of something that a production company that makes entertainment shows for kids should LEARN from. This series clearly represents the mistakes that Nickelodeon made that new & up & coming production companies that make shows for kids SHOULD not make.

Nickelodeon should have NEVER hired Dan Schneider, and if they didn't, maybe our childhood innocence wouldn't be forever ruined IF you decide to watch this

If they never hired him, those pedos who wound up working on his shows probably NEVER would have shown their faces on Nickelodeon's sets

This series might also make you absolutely LIVID over Nickelodeon, cause they are VERY much responsible for all of this, but unfortunately, who knows if they will ever truly suffer the consequences for what they did.

This is NOT an easy series to watch, because you honestly CANNOT unsee the sexualization of the jokes that were made on the shows that he worked on after watching this

The ones that my generation (I'm a millennial) was LITERALLY glued to on the TV growing up.

And MAN, it's a TOUGH pill to swallow regarding learning about what went down behind the scenes for his shows, but like many things in life, as much as we don't want to hear these truths, it's important for us to still hear them anyway & not be kept in our long nights sitting in our Grandma's living room watching TV till the sun goes down & rises again childhood fantasies forever

Watching this series made me realize "I'm a grown up now. I'm definitely not a kid anymore" and if you watch it, maybe you'll feel the same way I did when I watched this series if your a millennial

Onward and upward.

I Spy (1965–1968)

A Spy Show Like No Other.

[10/10 · 13 November 2020]

Ok So Imagine This. It's the Mid 60's. THEE NUMBER ONE thing that is sweeping pop culture in America at the time (and arguably around the world) are Spies and Espionage. The first James Bond movie came out in 1962 and all of a sudden, EVERYONE wanted to be secret agents. The idea of basically being a globe trotting super hero with a gun and fancy gadgets fighting off crazy bad guys all of a sudden seemed appealing to most people after being introduced to this world by the words & characters of Ian Fleming (the creator of James Bond).

So when this happened overseas, America DID NOT WAIT ONE MOMENT to jump on this craze. They soon came out with their version of this both in Movies (Matt Helm and The Flint Movies). And on TV (first with The Man From UNCLE)

But when the Spy craze was going on in America. Another movement that at the time was reaching it's boiling point in America that was making news headlines night after night that stemmed from a problem that was long rooted into American Society for many years was The Civil Rights Movement. And for the first 4 years of the 60's, the lack of opportunities blacks were getting in Hollywood at the time was starting to show itself when you turned on the TV and every major show on Network Television at the time consisted of all white casts. You almost NEVER saw black actors & actresses on TV, while the records you heard on Top 40 radio consisted of both black & white artists.

But on TV. It simply wasn't like that. Until this show came on the air and literally changed EVERYTHING. The producers knew what they were going to do for this show, and they knew what they were up against and what kind of criticisms they were going to get from people in the south but they simply thought "if not now, then when?". They realized network TV was stuck in a vast wasteland frozen in time and things needed to be propelled forward instead of backwards.

So they decided to cast an UNKNOWN Actor of Color in a lead role alongside a white actor in a co lead role. The black actor in question was someone who's race was almost never in question in the show nor was it ever an issue. For all anyone cared, he could have been a white guy. This was the first time EVER this occurred and it couldn't have come at a BETTER time. America was experiencing MAJOR Civil Rights Reform at the time the show aired. And along with TV going from Black & White to color, People Of Color also started to show themselves on TV creating a realistic view of American Society on TV for the first time EVER.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg as far as how groundbreaking this show is. Not only did they cast a black actor in a lead role, but he was also a COMEDIAN and because of this, he brought a flair of comedy to the series and since him and his co Star worked as a team of American Government agents, they brought a certain level of Chemistry to their roles combined with one liners & banter that probably was never scripted or made up really, and the friendship Culp & Cosby had on screen was also real and would last long after the series ended. Robert Culp was already a star in his own right having guest starred on DOZENS of TV shows before he landed this role, but Bill Cosby at the time basically had NO acting experience when he was cast in this show alongside Culp and the only thing they had to go by for him was clips of his stand up comedy routines on the late night or day time talk shows

But that was enough for them to sign him on to do this show because even though he was basically unknown, they saw something of a certain kind of charm and likeableness in him that no one else did and Robert Culp & Sheldon Leonard wanted to make history. They knew this had to happen eventually and the time to do that was now. They knew NBC's southern affiliates wouldn't air the show but did they care? Absolutely Not! Time marches on and this show is a good example of that.

But another thing that made this show different was When the Secret Agent genre was established, the shows (like The Man From UNCLE and The Saint). were shot on bland fake sound stages & sets that didn't always look realistic. When it looked like American TV watching audiences were seeing them in Hong Kong. They actually weren't in that country. But this show went the extra mile and did something no other show had done before. They did extensive location shooting in other countries besides America and all of a sudden, the idea of having two globe trotting spies seemed all the more real with actual locations that matched the places they were in in each episode of the show vs Hollywood sets and sound stages . The show is AMAZING to watch now because you get to see what the world looked like 55 years ago and how maybe if you've been to these countries Kelly and Scotty go to, you'll notice they aren't that incredibly different now from when the series was shot.

But also, the series was different from other Spy shows of it's time because Kelly and Scotty we're undercover agents bud they didn't always enjoy their jobs and often questioned why they were even doing their jobs in the first place. They also never owned any special gadgetry other then their guns so all they had to go by to fight off the bad guys were their wits & gut instincts. And since One of them was black, this also allowed some MAJOR black celebrity actors & actresses to guest star on the show. Then all of a sudden, TV was no longer a white washed medium and people of minorities became well represented on TV for the first time in history.

Bill Cosby also became the first black actor to win an Emmy for Best Actor in a Dramatic series and this show served as a launching pad for his incredibly successful career he would have after this show ended. But not only that? Just a season after I Spy debuted, SEVERAL network TV shows all of sudden had black actors & actresses in lead parts (everything from Star Trek to Mission Impossible and Mannix and everything in between) I mean this show LITERALLY kicked the barn door open for black actors & actresses to thrive on TV in non stereotypical roles for the first time EVER.

I can't speak highly of this show enough, and it definitely was THEE BEST Spy/Espionage show at that time because it dared to be different and defy all odds and be a successful show. Please go watch it. Even if you can't stomach seeing Cosby in anything right now, It's worth watching just to see all of the cool foreign location shooting they did at that time. It's available to watch on Prime in it's entirety (Prime Video has Seasons 2 and 3, you can watch season 1 on YouTube as well).

The F.B.I. (1965–1974)

Good but predictable & bland

[6/10 · 7 November 2020]

The FBI is one of those crime dramas that isn't very interesting because really there's no gray areas between the good guys & the bad guys. The Criminals are usually REALLY bad and the good guys (the FBI agents) are usually good and their's never any question or doubt as to why they are after any specific bad guys. They just do their job every episode and the bad guys ALWAYS get caught at the end of every episode by the good guys. But the main interesting things about this show is that every episode is based off of real FBI case files and the Real FBI had anything & everything to do with this show, from approving the episode scripts & sets and approving the wardrobe worn by the actors playing the agents.

And as you can imagine, the show comes off as EXTREMELY pretentious because it basically serves as a walking billboard/paid advertisement for the FBI. VERY much like how Dragnet served as a paid advertisement for the LAPD. In fact you can find SO many parallels between those two shows it's not even funny. First of all, they both based their episodes from real case files (with Dragnet basing their episodes off of real LAPD case files and the FBI basing their episodes from real federal FBI case files). And both shows faced a untimely demise but for different reasons (when LA cops began to garner a bad reputation for Police Brutality against Blacks at the end of the 60's and the beginning of the 70's something that is still an issue today. The popularity of Dragnet plummeted and lead to it's cancellation. When Watergate happened and people found out the FBI was behind that, no one really wanted to watch the show anymore and then it was cancelled).

The shows also unfortunately lead into some unpopular political opinions at the time such as being Anti Drug and Pro Vietnam but it is interesting noting how long the show originally lasted (It ran for a whopping 9 years). And how after it cancelled it was seen VERY little in Syndication, but I think that's because it was basically a product of it's time and the situations in each episode quickly became dated after the series left the air.

So this show is available in it's entirety on DVD through Warner Archive (but you can find those DVDs for cheaper on Amazon vs the Warner Archive website). but it's not on any over the air free TV station or on any streaming app right now and it hasn't been shown in reruns in years despite it's impressive 9 season run. As far as the cast is concerned, the one thing the show has going for it is it's character. We've got Inspector Lew Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr) who plays as widowed FBI agent who doesn't let his own personalities & opinions get in the way into his job. His daughter in the first season (Lynn Loring). is dating special agent Jim Rhodes (Stephen Brooks) who disappeared after the second season replaced by William Reynolds. Phillip Abbott plays the older FBI agent Erskine reports to on his latest findings on each criminal they catch in each episode. Efrem previously had a starring role in the Warner Brothers Detective Series 77 Sunset Strip and since he was still technically under contract with Warner Brothers he naturally signed on to do this series which gave him another incredibly steady gig for a long time. (The previous show he did ran for 6 seasons. He would outdo himself with show lasting for 9 seasons).

So I would recommend this show if your into bland typical crime dramas and can stand The FBI's brand being shoved into your face constantly if your not one of those people I would skip this show completely. Also, this show also was a walking Billboard for Ford because it was the show's primary sponsor for the majority of the show's run, and the characters in this show can be seen driving Ford cars in the show. Also you can tell by watching this series Quinn Martin had a BIG ego problem with his name being imprinted with each episode intro, but then again, he was the producer for this series and this was his longest lasting series he produced.

Route 66 (1960–1964)

A drama show like no other!

[8/10 · 22 October 2020]

Imagine watching a TV series from 60 years ago that is CLEARLY frozen in time. Where everything about it is just a GLORIOUS snapshot of a specific era in time that has long passed. Imagine getting to see what America looked like 60 years ago and how INCREDIBLY different it was back then compared to now.

Route 66 is a series that broke ground and did something no other show has done before it or since. Every and I mean EVERY episode was filmed on location outside of Hollywood and EVERY single location on the show is 1,000 percent real. Watching this as someone who completely missed the 60's and was born in the 90's, I am always complete in AWE and just blown away at the sense of realism in this series with every location used on this show NOT being a contrived cheaply built Hollywood sound stage set but instead someone's house or business or someone's real backyard. It's ALWAYS fascinating to see what American life was like back then and how it isn't even REMOTELY close to how it is in today's world.

But aside from that, the series is also an AMAZING accomplishment because since it was entirely shot on location, it was essentially a traveling TV show with the cast & crew traveling to a different American location each episode of the show. Something that absolutely CAN'T be done today. But the reason why the show is like that is because the show's two main protagonists (Todd Stiles and Buzz Murdock, Martin Milner and George Maharis, who were btw COMPLETE POLAR OPPOSITES in the series btw) are essentially two young guys with no wife & kids, and no real responsibilities they need to attend to and really no rhyme or reason to stay in one place & settle down. So they hop inside their corvette & hit the road in America and in each city they travel to they pick up odd jobs & mingle with the locals and get heavily involved with their personal lives. (Something that absolutely CAN'T be done today. I can't imagine a series with that kind of premise today, but things were much simpler & more carefree back then & it was before Vietnam & when traveling from place to place without any ambition to stay in one area actually kind of made sense).

Their reasons for being like this is never really explained, but Todd's parents did die and left him a corvette and he decided to take his buddy Buz with him. So this series is somewhat of an anthology show (witty Tod and Buz being the only reoccurring characters in the series). So because of this, the show heavily relied on cool guest stars and like many shows of their time, we're a mix of well established movie actors (Walter Mattheau, Nina Foch, Rod Steiger, Tuesday Weld, Jo Van Fleet). And up and comers (Robert Redford, Suzanne Pleshette, Martin Sheen, James Caan, Keir Dullea, Dick York etc.)

The series also had EXTREMELY sophisticated and poetic dialogue that's worthy of the scripts written for the big theatrical movies of that time. And the show also went through a BIG cast change in the third Season. George Maharis decided to leave the show after he catches hepatitis while filming a specific scene in one of the episodes. (He missed a bunch of episodes in the third year of this show) plus he was growing tired of the ABSOLUTELY grueling filming schedule for this series and his absence from the series was woven into the plot of the show, but when he was dropped for the series for good and replaced by young Hot Shot Glenn Corbett playing Vietnam War vet Linc (good on them for being just a few years ahead of their time by having a character be a vet of a war most of America wasn't aware of yet, at least not when the series was made and on the air premiering new episodes, but just in a few short years after the show left the air, the war would be front page news in America & change everyone's life for good). as Todd's new traveling buddy, him being dropped from the series is never explained in the show nor is he ever mentioned again in the show after that happens.

The cast was like this for the next season until the series was cancelled after the 63-64 tv season. Another REALLY interesting thing about this show is simply the fact that this show was NOT a drama that fell under the run of the mill categories of that time for drama shows (it was NOT a detective or a cop series, It was NOT a western, OR a medical drama, OR a lawyer show). And since this series didn't fall into any of those fore mentioned cliche Genres of dramatic tv of that time, the plots & acting all of a sudden became more varied & less predictable which gave the writers of this show A LOT more to work with and the ability to bring this show to more of a feature film level of quality for the scripts & the exciting visuals of this show since it was filmed entirely on location all across the US. And also, despite the show's title, they never actually stayed with in the confines of US Highway Route 66. The series often travelled outside of the route of that famous long gone US highway and they actually did a few episodes in Vancouver in Canada but that's the furthest they went outside of America in the series.

In conclusion, this series is AMAZING to watch but I would DEFINITELY recommend this series to ANYONE who was NOT there for when this series was made & filmed and basically wants to be teleported back in time to the early 60's for 51 minutes per episode (tip, if you watch the credits for each episode to the very end, you can usually see where each episode was filmed & shot, which allows you to look up images of the places they filmed each episode & compare & contrast what that place was like when they filmed the episode 60 years ago vs right now). This show is a joy to watch for that reason alone. The location shooting done on this show compared to the LITERALLY dozens of series of that time that built fake sound stage sets often times made out of cardboard since this was before Green Screens ever existed is worth the price of admission. Plus I think the show has a chance of reaching a younger audience because the entire show is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video now. But yes, if you were NOT alive back then, and would like to see what America was like 60 years ago, then DEFINITELY watch this show! But if you were alive & old enough to remember this series when it First came out, maybe pass on this show if your simply not interested in reliving the 60's and are more compliant to the way things are now. (Which is. A LOT of baby boomers).

The Untouchables (1959–1963)

Good, But Cliche to the Max.

[7/10 · 17 October 2020]

If there ever was a Crime series that lived up to basically every Crime Drama stereotype imaginable, it's this series. And when you take all of the Cliche's associated with Crime Dramas, and put them in the late 20's/early 30's Prohibition/Great Depression Time Frame. Man do you have a sight for sore eyes!

But what I mean by this is that the Untouchables tackles all of the Major Cliche's a Crime drama can tackle. Everything from the bad guys being REALLY bad and the suspects of their crimes that they commit being taken into the "questioning" (Yes, you can imagine the Old Cliche of the Criminal being questioned by the Police under a big white heat lamp in a pitch black dark room and the Police Slapping the Suspect when the Suspect to the crime the big criminal committed isn't giving them the information they need to stop the big Criminal from carrying out his deeds with this particular show)

And basically you have the criminals of this show committing the most Cliche crimes any Criminals can commit (Bank Robberies, Drug Smuggling, Prostitution Rings, etc.) and one can expect a big shootout between Elliott Ness and his crew and the Criminals at the end of every episode. One particular thing that is interesting about the series is it's ahead of it's time, extreme and sometimes very realistic violence. Later on in the 60's a show like this would have not been palatable/existed because of Nixon's original crack down on TV violence but luckily this show came out when it before that ever happened in the late 50's early 60's.

The show also touched on some Crime history and (probably without permission or consent from the original families of the real life criminals). Used the names of real life gangsters in situations that almost never followed real facts of their actual crime history. But in many ways this series echoed many of the classic Gangster Movies of the early 30's Pre-WWII America during the "pre code" era where American films could say and do almost anything they wanted to without any real censorship restrictions. But you could see that many of the Actors on this show were trying to emulate those of cats like James Cagney and George Raft and Edward G Robinson, and to add extra authenticity to the show, a Well Known Hollywood Gossip Columnist and Radio Announcer of the time The Untouchables takes place in narrates every episode of the show which adds to the excitement of each episode pretty well (his name was Walter Winchell). The show was also hit with some Controversy when Pro Italian groups thought their ethnicity was represented badly in the show (with most of the Mobsters on the show being Italian characters using authentic Italian names as their character names). So a Italian character was quickly added to Ness's team to help take down the Mobsters of that show.

The only difference is that the Series was made 40 something years after the time frame the show takes place in but many of the Older Character Actors in this show were most certainly there during the Prohibition/Mob Gangster days and at the time, they probably still had a decent memory of that era when they did this show. But to conclude this review the show also had some INSANE guest stars on the show, with LOTS of up and comers playing Criminals! (Jack Lord, Cliff Robertson, Robert Redford, Lee Marvin, Ed Asner) along with More Established Movie Actors (Martin Balsam, Charles Bronson, Jim Backus, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Blondell). And also, I would HIGHLY recommend this series to ANYONE who loves those Old 30's Black & White Gangster Movies and wants to see a 50's/60's TV version of that (which is basically this show). You can find the Complete series of this show on DVD for pretty cheap on Amazon (the picture/audio transfers for this particular show for that set are AMAZING btw. Easily Blu Ray/HDTV quality). or you can find it on H&I on Sundays. (an over the air free TV Channel That is accessible with a basic cable package or an Antenna attached to your TV with good reception in your TV room). if that's not your thing I would DEFINITELY give a HARD pass to this show.

The Virginian (1962–1971)

The plots are slow moving, but still very good. If you have the patience..

[8/10 · 15 October 2020]

I'm not going to try to sound like a broken record and repeat what the other reviewers have already said about the show, but in hindsight about this series, the people who made this show basically had EVERY single intention to bring you a 90 minute color Western film each week with Commercials. So because of this, the plots aren't always exciting/filled with LOADS of action packed adventure and there is often LOTS of character drama in the series (which honestly makes it seem a little soapy, but then again, art is in the eye of the beholder, if your into that kind of thing, this show is for you) but the one thing to keep mind about this series is that it is TOTALLY for you if you are a fan of 60's Western Films. The 90 minute time slot for this show basically allowed more time for plot & character development, and the people behind this show were fully aware of that and they took full advantage of that. If your into 60's Western Films and have the patience to sit through them then this show is for you. This show is almost like the diet version of 60's Western Theatrical Movies (often with BIG movie stars as guest stars, too many to name in just one review).With the only difference being each episode clocks in at about an hour and fifteen minutes without commercials vs the 2 hour and often times 2 and a half hour or 3 hour Color Western Films of the same era this show was in. Also the show looks INCREDIBLE if you can watch it now if you have a STARZ account (the color on this series EASILY has Feature Film Quality or the equivalent to that). Now I will say that a series like this COULD NOT be done today (a 90 minute weekly episode series where each season produces about 30 episodes a year? Forget about it!). But that's why it's so amazing to watch now! To think that that is how ambitious they were back then to do stuff like that, AND this show lasted for 9 Seasons On top of all of that! Of course the series went through several cast changes over the course of it's 9 year run, with it's only two consistent characters and cast members throughout the entire run of the show being The Virginian (James Drury) and Trampas (Doug McClure). I can't recommend this show enough to ANYONE who enjoys watching 60's Theatrical Western Films. If that's not your thing, I would personally skip this series if I were you.

Mr. Novak (1963–1965)

A groundbreaking but short lived teacher show!.

[9/10 · 16 August 2020]

In the era of new frontier idealism and Kennedy era optimism in the early 60's , Mr. Novak is a stand out because James Franciscus's character of high school teacher Mr. John Novak represented what every teacher should have been at the time. He was smart, caring and resilient and often times showed no mercy to his students who he caught wrong doing but he also did his best to straighten out any of his students who were troubled and experienced psychological issues that prevented them from doing well and graduating from Jefferson High School.

In Recent years, Warner Archive released the first season of the series back in 2018 and I must say the show is absolutely brilliant! Not only for it's stone cold accuracy with the ginormous set (located originally on the MGM backlot in Culver City.) that was built for Jefferson High being an EXACT Replica of the real John Marshall High School in Los Angeles, but also simply for the fact that the show was forward thinking by having actors and actress of color not ONLY playing students mixed in with the white students but ALSO playing staff and teachers at Jefferson High, at a time that took place just about 9 or so years after the Brown Vs US Board of Education landmark Supreme Court Case ruled that segregation amongst American Educational institutions were deemed illegal and unconstitutional (it's pretty incredible this was done in an early 60's show before I Spy and the advent desegregation of actors and actresses on Network Television as a result of this show, which didn't happen till a few years after this show left the air during the 1965-66 Network TV Season).

But also, Dean Jagger is also fantastic as Principle Albert Vane, his character like Novak, showed lots of TLC with the students at Jefferson High but could also be ruthless to any student who didn't follow the rules and was caught doing horrible things to other students.

But the show is also incredible to watch just to see young actors who were still being cast in Teen roles strutting their dramatic stuff such as Tony Dow and Shelly Fabares, Johnny Crawford and Don Grady. Interestingly enough, Steve Franken who was previously known for playing Chatsworth Osborne Jr on the Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis sitcom is seen here as a semi regular cast member playing one of the teachers at Jefferson High.

And like what has been mentioned before about the series, it won MANY awards during it's initial run (many of them Peabody educational awards), but because the series was scheduled opposite against Combat! (Which was in its sophomore year at the time, about to go into it's third year, at the time it was an EXTREMELY hot show at the peak of it's popularity). It failed to really grab an audience. It did ok/well enough in it's first initial year for it to not become a one season series but the immense popularity of the series it was on up against On the same night/ time slot on NBC's rival network ABC unfortunately killed the show and it was cancelled after it's second year (coupled with the assassination of JFK in the middle of it's first season, that also dramatically changed the overall tone of the series as well, as America was starting to move away from Front Tier Optimism and more towards Cold War threats hence the advent of the Secret Agent series). James Franciscus on the other hand, was a hot young B movie actor who was trying to find his own series really. He was in the first season of Naked City that was initially cancelled but when the show was brought back for a second season he wasn't included in the show's new cast. After that he kicked around doing B movies and TV guest star appearances but whenever he tried to do a series each one he was in didn't do well, and he also was originally offered the role of Dr. James Kildare, but he said no to that because he was contractually involved in the pilot for this series and what do you know, the pilot for this series got picked up by NBC and this show was made.

But anyways, after this series left the air Franciscus continued to kick around doing guest star appearances on TV and more B movies until he landed his landmark role of being casted as Charlton Heston's initial replacement in the Planet Of The Apes movie Franchise. After that he played a memorable role as a blind insurance investigator in Longstreet, but in hindsight, his career never really took off and he didn't have the big name status cats like Redford and Bruce Dern and Clint Eastwood would have

And Mr Novak is also remarkable for the series's casting of adults as teachers such as Martin Landau and Ed Asner and Robert Culp, and for it's tackling of then controversial subject matters such as teen pregnancy and racism and romantic love amongst teachers and students.

And so in hindsight, the series really felt like a pre cursor to Room 222 and it very much was also the teacher version of the other MGM produced series Dr Kildare, so if your a fan of early 60's TV dramas, DEFINITELY pick up the first season of this show on DVD On Amazon! You will NOT be disappointed at all!, trust me :).

Bang! The Bert Berns Story (2016)

A Great Documentary on a Virtually unknown songwriter.

[10/10 · 11 August 2020]

In the past 5 years when the world was open and there was more of a public life then there is now, if you approached a COMPLETELY random person off of the street, and asked them "hey, have you heard of this cool songwriter named Bert Berns!??" 9 times out of 10 they will look at you with a weird look on your face and think to themselves "who the heck is this guy talking about!?! I've never heard such name in my life!", but, even though the name may seem meaningless to the that person, all they have to do is just start singing "well shake it up baby now" or "take another little piece of" and for you to explain to them he is the man behind those two GENRE and GENERATION defying songs, for people's minds to click and for them to become interested in the guy. But 9 times out of 10, unless they are an experienced Rock and Roll Music Historian in their late 60's early 70's, chances are, they won't recognize his name right off the bat, but once they realize the songs that he created, then that's when people will take interest.

And look, there are probably SEVERAL reasons as to why the Bert Berns name doesn't resonate with people or it's not very recognizable. For one, like what is talked about in this Documentary about him, Bert came from an incredible pop music scene in New York centered in Midtown Manhattan, the same scene his legendary peers such as Carole King and Burt Bacharach and Neil Sedaka came out of. The Tin Pan Alley of The Rock And Roll Generation known as the Brill Building, but unlike 90% of his larger then life peers, Bert did not have the longest and arguably fruitful life that his peers had. He didn't live to be able to accept the laundry list of music awards and honors his peers would win and accept when they became older, and this is all because of a major health condition Bert was diagnosed with when he was just a kid, and that was Rheumatic Fever and he was diagnosed with this in a time before there was any major full proof treatment for this disease available for it (Open Heart Surgery was non existent at the time of his diagnosis as a kid up until he was an adult).

So with this in mind, Bert LITERALLY accomplished everything he could within the short time he was alive, and the doctors originally told him he wouldn't make it to 30. He managed to make it to 38. And also, the secondary reason as to why Bert's name was not as well known as the other Brill Building songwriters is that Bert often times got himself into trouble with loan sharks and Italian mobsters and while he was able to have good business relationships with label heads like Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler, his own dealings with the Mob ultimately severed those business dealings he made with those heavyweights, but regardless of all of this, Bert was loved and accepted by people in the industry and people were always blown away by how much soul he had as a white songwriter and how much he could write as if he was a black man and not a 30 year old Jewish White Guy.

But in the documentary, the movie goes through his entire life story from his childhood years to his days in Cuba to working in the Brill Building to his dealings with the mob to his untimely death, but the doc is Chop full of great interviews with HUGE musicians with everyone from McCartney to Jagger and everyone in between. But more importantly, this documentary shines a light on the at the time THRIVING New York recording scene in the 60's from the studios to the musicians and engineers involved in it in a way that up until this movie was made had never been presented in a official professional way in a Documentary like this. (Other past documentaries made like this one focused on other areas of the Music biz of this time like LA/The Wrecking Crew and The Funk Brothers in Standing in the Shadows Of Motown in Detroit and Muscle Shoals in Alabama).

But in hindsight, it's really Amazing how such an obscure songwriter who wrote such legendary songs such as Piece of my heart, Hang On Sloopy, Twist and Shout, Everybody Needs Somebody To Love can get so much love in thugs documentary it's so fascinating how someone like Bert Berns could get such treatment when his then contemporaries have only gotten things such as a PBS Doc. And the movie also does an AMAZING job of describing his personality and how his short life and his condition influenced his songs, how Cuba influenced his musical writing, and what he really was like as a person and what his personal family life was like as well. I'm only hoping more people will know his name and this documentary will reach more people and Bert's name will not be swallowed up in the bowels of Rock & Roll History.

Checkmate (1960–1962)

A truly unique entry into the Detective Genre of Television!

[8/10 · 9 August 2020]

In the late 50's/early 60's, the general American public all of a sudden were inundated with tons of Detective shows (mostly on ABC) and most of them either carried on the tradition in a Noir Style of a single Male Detective And maybe a hot young secretary who was always fighting against bad guys, or a group of young guys (and maybe one girl in the mix) who were always fighting crimes and solving murder mysteries or embezzlement/financial crimes, and each of these shows had really cool Jazz Underscores but they all seem to follow the same underlying theme/formula with slight variations in locations and settings

Now the distinction Checkmate had with 90% of the other shows on the air is that the Checkmate Detective Agency of Don Corey (Anthony George) and Jed Siles (Doug McClure) and Dr Carl Hyatt (Sebastian Cabot) specialized in solving crimes BEFORE they happened, so because of this, they always seemed one or two steps ahead the potential "criminal" they are fighting against, where as in all o the other detective shows, the crime is pretty much always already committed, so the detectives were call in to find out who committed it and track him of her down and arrest the person that committed the crime. Each character played a role in preventing these crimes before they happened, Anthony George was often the tough guy who the would be criminals would not want to mess with or would be caught in a big city alley in the middle of the night with. Doug McClure was often the soft nice and like able guy who was easy to trust who often got a long well with his clients, Sebastian Cabot was often the brains behind the whole bunch who could think of clever ways of always staying one step ahead of the potential criminal before such crimes were committed (he also supposedly had a PHD in Psychology, hence the Dr in his name, so he always knew how to psychologically outsmart the would be criminals before they got to the clients they were signed on to protect.)

So in hindsight, The detective agency of Checkmate (who according to the show was based in San Francisco, i think some of the exteriors were shot in that city as well), Was called in to protect their clients when they are feeling threatened or they felt like their life was in danger from someone else they were associated with, but the other amazing thing about this show is the impeccable list of guest stars there are on this show, and many people commented how from Season 1 to 2, they didn't like how the Checkmate team went from protecting clients from being murdered to protecting them for other reasons besides that for season 2, but I think the fact that they strayed away from just strictly "murders" made the show more special and unique and less "cliche".

And yes if your a fan of these old school Detective Series, definitely check this series out! The plots are exciting and unpredictable. And the guest stars are fantastic too! Everyone from then old school movie actors like Peter Lorre Peter Lawford, Joseph Cotten, and Mickey Rooney, to then fresh new faces like Robert Vaughn, Tony Randall, Lee Marvin, James Coburn and so much more! I'd definitely get this series, as the entire show is available on DVD thanks to Timeless Media plus a few select episodes on YouTube! (That is how I was able to see this series, I haven't bought the DVD yet but I plan to in the near future).

Love on the Spectrum (2019–2021)

Exploration of Autistic People is in high gear with this show!

[1/10 · 5 August 2020]

I'm on the spectrum and I watched the first 10 minutes of episode one of this show and I just couldn't take it anymore. Not only was the show as CORNY and SAPPY and as SUGARY SWEET as a show of this nature can get, but unfortunately, COMPLETELY unlike Atypical, the show (whether it was intentional by the the DP's of this show or not) borders on exploiting people on the Autism Spectrum and making them look bad and a lesser form of a human being compared to people who aren't autistic and it feels like the show appeals to the lowest common denominator of people on the Autism Spectrum instead of focusing on the group of Autistic people (like me for instance) who are so high functioning socially and with no real physical disabilities whatsoever that they border on "neurotypical" and not autistic at all (which is a fancy schmanzy way of saying "normal", and I feel like the show could have been WAY better if they did that instead of focusing on the lesser abled people on the Spectrum).

And it doesn't help that this series is basically a reality TV show and knowing the exploitation nature of reality TV, combined with the fact that the show is all about Autistic people, you can see which direction this show could go down. PLUS unfortunately it felt like the show bordered on the "PG-13" aspect of it as it seemed like most of the characters on the show were looking for "true love" and a "real relationship" instead of just Sex. Nothing wrong with that necessarily but a show about relationships that bares little to no mention of sex is a far cry from true reality and Autistic people, just like everyone else, are human Beings and are also incredibly horny just like non autistic people and want sex just as much as other non autistic people do, but to put all Autistic people into this category of all of them wanting is a "fantasty" relationship which includes getting married and having children and not really wanting casual sex at all isn't the most accurate depiction of them. (I don't like the fact that the characters were shown in such an immature adolescent kind of a way instead of a mature adult kind of way despite the ages of the people on the show, who were ALL young adults btw).

If you want to see a fair and not degrading/exploitive representation of someone that's autistic (that's probably more grounded to reality then this show) watch Atypical. It might have been heavy on the stereotypes at first, but that show champions the fact that the person is more high functioning and more "normal" who can make friends with non autistic people and have desires to have sex COMPLETELY unlike the characters in this show.

The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959–1963)

Along with Dick Van Dyke, one of the smartest sitcoms of it's day!

[9/10 · 23 July 2020]

Words cannot describe how absolutely BRILLIANT this show was! I mean think about it like this. In the 60's, Sitcoms tended to be divided into two very finite categories. You had your incredibly unrealistic disgustingly "picture perfect" clean and wholesome pleasentville family sitcoms that bared absolutely NO resemblance to real life whatsoever (My Three Sons, Donna Reed, Hazel, Ozzie and Harriet, Leave It To Beaver, etc) or you had these incredibly stupid sitcoms with outrageous premises that were so out of touch with reality that they aren't that watchable now because they appealed to the lowest common denominator of intelligence amongst American people (Mister Ed, Hogan's Heroes, Gilligan's Island, Beverly Hillbillies, etc).

But then you had a show like The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis that was ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT in every sense of the word, mainly because the characters were so believable and realistic and the family conflicts Dobie and his Dad Herbert and his mom would fade would face I'm sure MANY American families faced at that time, and the relationship between Dobie and his dad Herbert was perfect because it was a well represented take on the wide generation gap between the silent generation parents of the baby boomer kids.

And on top of that Herbert T Gillis was NOT your Steve Douglas OR your Ward Clever AT ALL. Herb was tough as nails and loud and obnoxious but also very loving and sensitive but his temperaments he developed from his years as a WWII vet never really wore off on him. Herbert was probably the most realistic TV dad of the late 50's early 60's, and he probably represented the dads of many baby boomer teens of that time who also served in WWII in real life (smart on them to make Herbert T Gillis a WWII vet, again adds to the realism in the show).

And then you had Dobie, who was one of THE MOST girl crazy young teenage boys of the late 50's early 60's, but like many guys of that time, he had his issues trying to get girls and I'm sure many teenage boys of the early 60's could relate to the trials and tribulations Dobie went through to try to get the girl of his dreams, and probably THE BEST part of the show is Dobie's Beatnik friend Maynard (player by a pre Gillian Bob Denver) and let me tell you something, the fact that the show actually had a Beatnik character on it just shows you how much in touch the writers of this show were with real America at that time (Beatniks were SO MUCH apart of American Society at that time of the show, and good on them for having a beatnik character on the show, totally adding an extra texture of realism to the show).

Zelda who was the girl Dobie never wanted to begin with but Zelda wanted Dobie so bad also added great chemistry to the show along with Dobie's Rivals Milton Armitage and Chatsworth Osborne Jr. who he was always competing with either for popularity status or for a beautiful girl (Milton was played by a young Warren Beaty just before his career took off). Thalia Menninger (player by Tuesday Weld before her career took off) was the perfect girl Dobie had a crush on but she always seemed way unobtainable and "out of his league" and I'm sure many young guys Dobie's age had a girl like that in real life.

The show had it's charm and it was smartly written and not completely stupid or unbelievable. And it was really ahead of it's time and the first show to really focus on the teenagers and not on kids or pre teens. and I would HIGHLY recommend this one, not just because of how hysterically funny the show is, but for it's lovability and how down to earth the characters are. Max Shulman did an incredible job with the creation of this show, and I hope it NEVER gets remade and people will enjoy it for years and years to come (and it helps that despite how little known the show is, that it's available in it's entirety on Prime Video, that will help it keep the show alive for a long time and for younger people to discover it and enjoy it even though it's 60 years old).

Burke's Law (1963–1966)

A fun light hearted and mindless crime drama

[7/10 · 9 July 2020]

If your looking for a dead serious crime drama with tons of suspense and intense drama, then with this show, your barking up the wrong tree, BUT if your looking for a fun light hearted crime drama which often times had a good dose of self deprecating humor and rarely took itself seriously, then this is the show for you.

Burke's Law was your basic murder detective show starring Gene Berry as LAPD homicide detective Amos Burke and the show had MANY similarities to Perry Mason. The first being each episode was basically a who dun it murder mystery that followed the same formula basically each time, and every episode would open up with the murder being committed with the murderer's face not being shown of course, and like Perry Mason, Burke and his team of police detectives would work hard as to find out "who did it" and they would always find out at the end of every episode and there would always be a twist as to who that murderer was that would ALWAYS be revealed at the end of every episode. BUT, the big difference between Amos Burke and Perry Mason is that Amos was ALWAYS surrounded by beautiful girls and there would literally be a smorgasbord of hot gorgeous girls in pretty much every episode (something that would lack in many of Perry Mason's episodes), But Amos never let any of those hot girls distract him from His line of work, and he always remained a bachelor during the duration of the whole show (something that was probably done on purpose by the creators and producers of the show) AND he was always an insanely rich millionaire who would drive around in a Rolls Royce and would live in a mansion as if he was getting paid millions to do his basic job that most real detectives probably got paid WAY less for (this changed for future PI shows like Mannix and Columbo, those shows showed Middle class detectives who never had rich lifestyles but always did their job very well, unlike Amos Burke who basically acted like he had tons and TONS of money to play around with).

But the show was almost never dead serious and there would always be hints of comedy with each episode making it different then other Police Detective shows of that same era. But the thing that's so attractive about the show are the slew of guest star appearances on the show from actors young and old (young up and coming actors who would later go on to have big careers in their own right and older ones on a career slowdown who were very much apart of Old Hollywood desperately trying to find work) who would appear as suspects in the weekly murders Amos Burke and his team would always solve. The young up And coming actors on this show included George Hamilton and William Shatner and Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello and some of the older actors that appeared on the show included Aldo Ray and Mickey Rooney and Walter Pidgeon and Ida Lupino

Gary Conway also starred in the show as Amos's sidekick Dect Tim Tilsen who always seemed one step behind Amos as far as solving each crime (he too would score himself another two season series called Land Of The Giants later on in the 60's.) but as other reviews have mentioned, the series went through a complete overhaul when the Secret Agent craze happened so the rest of the supporting cast was dropped from the show for the third season and the whole premised was changed from him being a PD to a American government Secret Agent. This didn't work for the show and it was cancelled mid way through it's third season. In hein sight, I can understand why the network did this to the show as ABC was struggling to have their own hit Secret Agent show (they wouldn't really as CBS and NBC were having the most successful Secret Agent shows of that time). So they wanted their own strong entry into the Secret Agent genre, but unfortunately it was an unsuccessful experiment as it seemed like the viewers liked the show's previous format better then the proposed new one. But overall, this show is fun to watch mainly for it's Notable guest appearances and just to have a light hearted show to watch within this genre that doesn't depress you or make your brain think about what just happened or try to understand the plot of each episode in great detail. At the end of the day, it's good old fashioned mindless unrealistic TV and if you are in the mood for that, definitely watch this show. If you want the opposite of that for Crime Dramas (from the same era) check out Naked City or The FBI.

Daydream Believers: The Monkees Story (2000 TV Movie)

Inacruate? I Think Not!

[8/10 · 23 January 2013]

I've been reading a lot of the other reviews of the this movie and on this site, and almost of the all of bad reviews point about the film's minor historical inaccuracies. I have been a huge Monkees fan for a long time and I can personally assure you that this movie is 100% percent historically accurate. Everything down to the last plot detail is true, except for the end. in this movie, After the show got cancelled and the movie Head flops, the Monkees are still together. This isn't true because after all of those things happened, the Monkees broke up. but other than that,it's entirely historically accurate.

What makes this film even better is the fact that not only do are four Lead actors dead ringers to the real Monkees, but they also act like the real Monkees. If you read the plot of this movie and you look up the story of the Monkees, you'll find there both the same. I'd highly recommend this movie to any casual fan of the Monkees who doesn't know anything about there story. It's definitely worth the watch.

The Defenders (1961–1965)

A incredibly groundbreaking show

[9/10 · 25 October 2012]

before this show came out, Television was meant to be pure escapism meaning that like movies,people who watched TV often times watched it to escape from all the turbulent and sometimes horrendous things that happened in that 60's. So because of that, Most network & daytime TV shows often avoided current social issues of the day, making them seem very unrealistic. And then the Defenders came along.

Now, back in the 60's if you decided to make a show that focused on contemporary controversial social issues, you would risk getting your show cancelled because most big corporations would be uncomfortable sponsoring a show that did that, and that's exactly what the Defenders did. They were the first show that was brave enough to focus on such controversial social issues of the 60's such as civil rights,abortion neo-natzis and they almost got cancelled because of it. there was one episode where the father-son lawyer team of Lawrence and Kenneth Preston (E.G. Marshall and Robert Reed) had to a defend an abortionist, and almost every regular sponsor of the show, decided not to sponsor the episode and all of the sudden, the series was hanging by a thread, until one sponsor came in at the eleventh hour to sponsor the episode, and they saved the show from cancellation singled handed.

the bottom line is that this show was incredibly groundbreaking because if was one of the first TV shows to deal with contemporary controversial social issues, something no other show before or on on at the same time did, making it one of the most realistic shows of it's time. it also paved the way for socially conscious shows that came after it. Now what I really don't understand is that the show's not on DVD and it hasn't been seen in reruns in 20 years. But regardless, the show needs to be on DVD or in syndication, and it definitely can't be forgotten by the next generation of TV watchers.

Broadside (1964–1965)

The First Feminime Military Sitcom

[7/10 · 23 September 2012]

from Mchale's Navy producer and creator Edward Montange, Broadside is the first Military sitcom with women as the central characters, which set it apart from most of it's competitors (like Ensign O'Toole and it's originator). the show has an interesting cast, which included a pre-Bewtiched Dick Sargent and a post-Real McCoys Kathleen Nolan. Character Actor Edward Arnold plays a part that is to an extent, a copy of Joe Flynn's Captain Bimgamton but he still manages to carry his own weight, and he makes a good foil for the main cast members.

Unfortunately, the show was scheduled against ratings giant the Ed Sullivan Show, which sealed the show's fate. do I think it should have lasted longer? yes but does it have a chance of a syndicated Revival? it probably does on a third party Retro Cable Network, in fact I recently found a cheap DVD of the show on amazon containing 29 out of the 32 episodes of the show, In which I'll probably buy in the near future. There are also a couple episodes on youtube (and that's how I saw the show).

The Doctors and the Nurses (1962–1965)

A unique medical drama for it's time

[7/10 · 17 September 2012]

during the 1961-62 season, NBC and ABC scored two big hits in a new genre of TV shows known today as the medical drama. Those two Shows were Dr.Kildare and Ben Casey, both of the show's premises were almost Identical and they both started and ended at the same time for 6 seasons.

when CBS decided to air there entry into the new TV genre the next season, they didn't want another Ben Casey or Dr.Kildare, so they settled on a show called the Nurses. Now what makes the Nurses different from the two previously mentioned shows is that The Nurses mainly focuses on the lives of the female doctors where as Ben Casey and Dr.Kildare focused on a single male protagonist, much like the Lawyer shows of that time period.

the show didn't last as long or have as much impact as Ben Casey or Dr.Kildare, but it had a stable fan base for it to run for 3 seasons. the Nurses was also one of the 4 shows made during that time that was shot and took place in New York, along with Car 54, the Patty Duke Show, and Naked City

In Conclusion, I saw an episode of the show on youtube, and I thought it was pretty good but I don't know if it has any potential of getting released on DVD.

Angel (1960–1961)

A not so terrible Lucy knock off

[7/10 · 14 September 2012]

the 1960-61 season was and is know today as the first prime time TV season were America's Favorite TV couple (Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez) were absent from. the Lucy and Desi show was cancelled and sooner or later,they were nowhere to be found. That same season, CBS proposed and aired two replacement shows, the first show was a spin off of December Bride called Pete and Gladys, it starred Harry Morgan and Cara Williams and the show contained a somewhat similar premise to I Love Lucy (not to mention it originally aired on Monday Nights, The Same time I Love Lucy originally aired).

the Second replacement show that aired during that same season came from Lucy creator Jess Oppenheimer called Angel. it starred Annie Farge who played the french female lead who decides to Marry American male lead Marshall Thompson, but once that happens, a big culture clash occurs.

Sounds familiar? well if you think about, Angel is pretty much I Love Lucy in reverse, instead of having a male Latino Man marrying an American Female woman, you have a french female woman marrying an American Man, in which a major culture clash occurs in both situations. Of course there are some major differences (Angel not being a bandleader where as Desi Arnez is) but for me to compare Angel with I Love Lucy would be pretty unfair. I think Angel still has it's own unique charm, despite the fact it didn't do very well (it only lasted for one season) and I Love Lucy is to this day considered a historically important classic. If Angel will ever get released on DVD, it will either find a new Audience with Hardcore Lucy fans or it would dismissed by them because they'll think I Love Lucy's better (which just might happen, that is if it get's a DVD release).

Karen (1964–1965)

one part of a failed Experiemt

[6/10 · 11 September 2012]

Karen was originally part of a 3 show 90 minute programming block called 90 Bristol Court. It originally contained 3 sitcoms, that had completely different casts and crews but they All lived under the same apartment complex, with the address of 90 Bristol Court. The other two sitcoms that made up the rest of the block were Tom Dick and Marry and Harris Against the World. NBC's experiment for the 1964-65 season flopped miserably due to it's tough competition (it was up against three powerhouse CBS shows, To Tell The Truth, I've Got A Secret and Andy Griffith) and the show didn't receive the best reviews from critics at the time and all three of the shows couldn't get a stable audience to continue to the next season.

Sooner or later, the concept of 90 Bristol Court was dropped, Harris Against the World and Tom Dick and Marry were canceled Mid Season while Karen managed to finish the season. Karen probably was the best out of all three shows that made up 90 Bristol Court but the concept of Karen by itself doesn't seem very interesting to me (other teenage girl shows from that era were probably better, Like Patty Duke or Gidget). In fact, I think the whole concept of 90 Bristol court sounds better than Karen by itself, but I guess I'll never know, unless the shows gets put on DVD or in syndication (in which that probably won't happen).