Look at your cast. Boris Karloff the great! Audrey Dalton the beautiful! Robert Conrad the beautiful! Ross Martin the kickiest sidekick ever! A man in a gorilla costume! Robert Conrad in green felt skintight fightin' duds! Three alpha male henchmen pummeled repeatedly by James West! All in glorious 1960s color! I first saw this when they first broadcast it on Friday, September 23, 1966 when I was ten years old. I didn't mind that the corked-up Mr. Karloff was racially inappropriate, but at least he spoke normal, not pidgin. Did I mention the beautiful Audrey Dalton? She wears a harem outfit the whole time!
Reviews
47 Reviews
Yikes
7 May 2021
Good History, Good Productions, Bad Set-up
17 January 2021
WARNING--DO NOT WATCH THIS PROGRAM IF YOU CANNOT HANDLE CRITICISM OF THE BIBLE.
This film is a brief, enjoyable, yet maddeningly unprofessional accomplishment. Most of the scholars interviewed are either members of the Jesus Seminar or similarly critical theory writers about the origins of Christianity. Incredibly, not one of the interviewees is identified on screen. Not even John Dominic Cross, one of the most brilliant scholars of this critical theory school. Believers expecting reinforcement of their prejudices should look elsewhere; they have plenty of alternatives. I have no explanation of why the producers, whoever they were, deliberately chose to not identify the theologians in the film. It's as if someone in charge of the money changed their mind and backed out before they were done. Still, if you are intellectually honest and curious enough to accept real biblical history, this show is a good 50 minute introduction. But there is no substitute for reading the works of Crossan and others.
Look at that cast!
13 January 2021
The best thing about this episode is seeing the beautiful Carol Lynley lounging near the swimming pool. You either like those sort of things or you don't. Then there's magnificent character actor Hans Conreid, only three years before his death. Other notables include Diana Muldaur, Donna Pescow and Richard Anderson. And our usual crew of Congressman Gopher's pals.
A Warning Left Unheard, You Dig?
24 July 2020
Six months before four mop tops calling themselves The Beatles degraded our shores with their "ugga bugga" noise, Fred MacMurray tried to warn us of the perils of rock and roll music. This program needed to be taped, if only to chide those libertine progressives Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, who actually encouraged their boy, Ricky, to caterwaul on television for two years and making "hit" records to boot! What an outrage to family television in 1963.
Rock AND Roll music is "fiddle faddle" as The Boss reminds Fred. Well, that's what it sounded like to unbiased old farts in those days. If only The Youth of America had listened to the wisdom of the 70-year-old fathers behind My Three Sons in September of 1963, how much more conserved our nation would be! For one thing, we probably would not have assassinated President Kennedy that November. And we might still have pull-tabs on our beer cans. My Three Sons reminds us why Rock and Roll music will never last.
Highway Patrol
(1955–1959)
A Time Capsule of America and Cop Culture Before Your Time
4 February 2020
Made with the cooperation of the California Highway Patrol at first, they soon jumped ship, and for just cause. It was clear, as in Art Gilmore's bare-knuckled narration, that "Highway Patrol" was only a metaphor for any police enforcement agency, including 'the militia' which isn't a state agency at all. The ZIV gods were not interested in stories restricted between two highway lanes. So Broderick Crawford rapidly expanded into performing police duty in the city, the country, and even the air. So much to admire and more to be amazed at in this time capsule of Americana. Look at how rural so much of Los Angeles was, even as late as 1959. Those country shacks are now someone's million-dollar home. Look at the smog covering the hills. Reviews dated 20 years ago are now outdated by technology. Once "lost", this series is now available in a wide variety of formats, including YouTube. I'm watching on METV, who time compress it and edit out Crawford's hey-pal-listen closers, but are still fun. Lots of early career actors to spot. The plots are as bare-bones as HP's detection skills. It seems Crawford's hunches are always right, and he's rarin' to pull out his gat and start blasting away. The body count is pretty high. Google "Fearless Fosdick" if you like. But when your TV screen was only a 13-inch circle, it must have been great fun! Still is.
Thanks Ernie
23 January 2020
Warning: Spoilers
My title is the last words spoken in the series, by Fred MacMurray to the last of his three sons (there were four actually). Twelve years on, what had started as a whimsical comic vehicle for Fred MacMurray crashed on a serious note. Son Ernie is tasked by a friend of Steve's to narc out their sullen teenager. Surely a Douglass lad, so straight an arrow, can reform any deviant. And of course he does, with the show's trademark 'Sure Dad!' effortlessness. And that's why we won the war on pot. Everyone expected the M3S dream to go on for another season and were caught unprepared when it didn't. But 1972 was a world of different from 1960, and all the stars of the 1940s were shown the TV door around the same time. There was no room for maudlin sentiment on television anymore. They had to make room for the Brady Bunch.
A Horse is a Horse Unless it's a Turkey
15 August 2019
Watching this relic of an American icon is like discovering your grandpa's love letters to someone else's grandma. What a paradigm shift! For the full story on why the main character is called Pope and not Post, check out the Wikipedia page on Mister Ed. To make it short, Walter R Brooks, the author behind the Mr Ed franchise, began writing stories about Ed the Talking Horse in 1937. They were published mostly in the long-extinct Liberty magazine. In those stories, while a man named Wilbur does befriend a talking horse, both he and the horse are, well, booze-hounds. Wilbur's beautiful exotic wife doesn't like him, as the older man is unable to perform his, er, "husbanding chores" let's say. So she spends all her days partying with boy toys and spending his money. Thus, Wilbur's faithful steed helps him wreak revenge on his faithless wife. Pretty Shakespearean, all in all.
While Drunks were seen as amusing back in the day, by the early TV era they were unacceptable as main characters. Thus a sober protagonist, reborn as Wilbur Post, and his caring wife Carol, needed to replace them. That didn't happen overnight--it took three years from this attempt to get all the details right. So from the page in the late 1930s to the TV screen in 1961, we see an interesting evolution.
Actor Scott McKay was game to play Wilbur, but he lacked the comic zip Alan Young brought along. By 1961 Young already had more than 20 years success as a radio and television comedian.
Mister Ed was corny and poorly written, but it's success all over the world proved that American junk TV had some kind of zing no other country could provide. C'mon, who wouldn't want a horse than could surf or fly a space capsule?
A Confusing Move
19 July 2019
This is a head-scratcher of an episode since it discombobulates a big chunk of the MTS universe. One episode after a hasty trip to Hawaii, the Douglas family flies back to Michigan so Papa can make another hasty decision to relocate to southern California. College student Robbie (Don Grady) is demoted back to high school so he can meet his future wife Katie (Tina Cole), who has a locker next to his, as well as her house. Or are we meant to believe college students have hall lockers? Papa Steve Douglas flashbacks to black-and-white clips to remind his tearful progeny how important family is, except for oldest son Mike (Tim Considine) who doesn't exist anymore (perhaps he slipped into the Upside Down with Bub?). Everything about this episode seems hastily cobbled together. I realize the purpose of My Three Sons was to counter-program Fred MacMurray's brilliant film career in the '40s, where he specialized in playing heavies and adulterers. It's disappointing that he devoted the end of his cinematic career in the '60s by making those awful "family friendly" Walt Disney movies about talking dogs and flying cars, only to be replaced by the now-forgotten Dean Jones. The moral is when story continuity is sacrificed for convenience, everyone suffers.
A Solid Gas
14 March 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Once again, the 70-year-old men who ran American television in the 1960s took it upon themselves to ridicule the counter-culture that would soon swamp them. This time out they show they're only ten years out of date by lampooning Beatnik culture. But curiously, by the end of the episode, Robbie (Don Grady) is allowed to score a good point that even seems to be accepted by the Douglass household: "You guys are always making fun of anything you don't understand."
This stands in contrast to this 1964 episode's basic gist that "Square" is Best because....well, because being inert is easy. Within five years, the pointless waste of life in the Vietnam War and the rage that spilled onto the streets of America over racial inequality would prove any praise of social inertia short-sighted.
Despite the mockery, it is fun to see Jamie Farr as a beatnik proprietor and the Beatnik guys and chicks are way more attractive than their drab counterparts. As usual, Fred MacMurray's Lonesome Dad character suddenly appreciates Beatniks only when Gloria Talbott's cleaned-up bohemian artist makes herself available to him. The 25-year age gap doesn't count, since horny trumps corny.
A fun episode with a couple of dazzling daughters
23 October 2018
I enjoyed this MM a bunch. the murders were maybe a tad more ridiculous than usual, but that's well within the spirit of "English murder mystery killings" as John Nettles whimsically explained them. I was a journalist on the crime beat, and most murderers are as dim as they are unscrupulous. There's usually even less planning than there is remorse. It's all impulse. So the imaginative doing-aways in MM is what makes them sparkle. This episode benefits from a rare nude scene by a comely lass under 60 and a spirited English Music Hall song done quite well by Charlie Covell. I thought she was singing Gilbert & Sullivan at first, but it wasn't, it's The Galloping Major, 1906, and you can catch several versions on YouTube. You can just imagine someone singing it in Charlie Chaplin's tour with the Fred Karno troupe.
More Wild than West
20 October 2018
Warning: Spoilers
There's enough storyline here to fill an Indiana Jones movie, but the execution is strictly pop-art 1960s TV. There's just not enough time in the 52 minute run schedule to accommodate the ambitious story. What makes this particular episode fun is a guest tour by everyone's favorite Martian, Ray Walston. (Also the redoubtable Mr Hand, Spicoli's nemesis at Ridgemont High.) Sadly, his character starts strong, but quickly fades behind Jack Elam's patented one-eyed Jack the Menace bit. The episode's beautiful damsel in distress, Carla Borelli, barely has enough time to pop up, rap a few Aztec riffs, and get smooched by James West. The Peril of the Aztecs is hastened along by forged metal padlocks and anvils, technology the Aztecs didn't have, to lock up our two intrepid heroes, Artemis and James. After using his 1870s James Bond weapons to escape, West stumbles onto the bad guys stuffing their pants with loot. Incredibly, the Bad guys put all their rifles in a neat pile to do this. Even more incredibly, James West grabs a rifle-- then inexplicably tosses it aside so he can jump on a villain instead of holding a gun on him. These forced errors allow another Batman-overhead-crane-level fight scenes WWW demanded. Its all just for fun so don't overthink it.
Interesting foreshadows
14 August 2018
Lots of interesting bits and pieces to enjoy in this episode. Marg Helgenberger plays the victim, ironically, about 10 years ahead of her starring role in the Las Vegas-based CSI. Vincent Schiavelli, a ubiquitous character actor has a strong bit part. Was there a TV show in the 1980s that Ken Kercheval did not appear in? Dick Gautier shows he's no Hymie the Robot. And what fun to see Sheldon Leonard play the Tout, a role he perfected on the Jack Benny Program thirty years before on radio. (How odd that Leonard's IMDb bio does not even mention his extensive Old time Radio work.)
Another creepy foray abroad
15 December 2017
Our heroes have a genuine French babe working in their own office but they don't even consider taking her to France to help them on a French case? Is this sexism, chauvinism, nationalism or just dummyism? And what's this hang-up the WB has with 17-year-old girls? Last show it was Sherry Jackson, here it's Judy Nugent. We get a brief lecture about how the virtues of young ladies must be preserved, then scenes of her swizzling booze and romancing guys old enough to be her Hollywood producer. Hmm. Anyway, this mademoiselle in distress story is as routine and worn as the stock footage of Paris we see. Zee peepul are Franch becuz zey talk like zes, we? How come they don't talk American? The only thing missing is a mime in a striped shirt and black beret eating a baguette. Zoot suit alors!
Perry Mason, Smut Fighter
13 December 2017
It isn't the murder that will get you riled about this episode--it's Perry Mason's casual attitude towards censorship. Someone wrote a "smutty book" and Perry is out to help punish him.What an antique!
Apparently the tiny town of Cliffside is rife with naughty people who have sex with each other, and sex did not exist in 1963 America. Babies were made by birds. So, when a nefarious novelist decides to write about ladies and men doin' it, all the bluenoses puff up. Except for publisher David Lewis he says he will, then says he won't, after Perry slaps a class defamation suit against him. This is weird because the lurid book cover looks like a Perry Mason novel.
Anyway, whatever sordid sex details were covered in Michael Pate's novel would be tame topics today. They'd likely be put in a reality show.
To sum up, Perry should have had a keener eye to the First Amendment. What a prude..
Apparently the tiny town of Cliffside is rife with naughty people who have sex with each other, and sex did not exist in 1963 America. Babies were made by birds. So, when a nefarious novelist decides to write about ladies and men doin' it, all the bluenoses puff up. Except for publisher David Lewis he says he will, then says he won't, after Perry slaps a class defamation suit against him. This is weird because the lurid book cover looks like a Perry Mason novel.
Anyway, whatever sordid sex details were covered in Michael Pate's novel would be tame topics today. They'd likely be put in a reality show.
To sum up, Perry should have had a keener eye to the First Amendment. What a prude..
Another Wasted Stripper Trip to Backlot Europe
15 July 2017
This is what 50s-60s television did the most and the worst: showcase patronizing world stereotypes. They helped Americans think they were the new world masters because we won that last big war, remember? They were insufferable. This time, we're off to backlot Italy. The only 77 Stripper needed in this show is handsome and deboner Jeff Spencer (Roger Smith). He is supposed to give out some kind of inheritance an eccentric American has left to his home village. He needs to be there in person to do it because, well, otherwise there is no story. This of course is welcome news to our colorful scripted peasants. But there's a mysterious pair of fake news journalists from Milan who show up. They pretend they want to help our villagers celebrate, when they really mean to steal the money for themselves. They are the villains.
Everybody in town, about two dozen people and a donkey, speaks Italian as if they learned it off the back of a frozen pizza box. Excepting two momma-poppas and a comely daughter, and one sophisticated lady, the local characters are mostly silent. These other villagers shop at Chico Marx's Rag Locker and spend their days huddling around in the background, making incoherent mob noises, sometimes happy, sometimes sad. Eye candy includes Marianna Hill and Lisa Gaye for the guys and the suave Nico Minardos for the ladies.
It's always fun to see character actor John Marley, most famously the Godfather's Hollywood producer who wakes up with Mr. Ed's head in his bed. Here he is the Bad Guy.
I don't even want to chase what happens to Jeff and the money. Let's just say the story for this episode is thinner than half a strand of angel hair pasta. One of the worst.
Everybody in town, about two dozen people and a donkey, speaks Italian as if they learned it off the back of a frozen pizza box. Excepting two momma-poppas and a comely daughter, and one sophisticated lady, the local characters are mostly silent. These other villagers shop at Chico Marx's Rag Locker and spend their days huddling around in the background, making incoherent mob noises, sometimes happy, sometimes sad. Eye candy includes Marianna Hill and Lisa Gaye for the guys and the suave Nico Minardos for the ladies.
It's always fun to see character actor John Marley, most famously the Godfather's Hollywood producer who wakes up with Mr. Ed's head in his bed. Here he is the Bad Guy.
I don't even want to chase what happens to Jeff and the money. Let's just say the story for this episode is thinner than half a strand of angel hair pasta. One of the worst.
No Big Plot, but a Solid Twist
24 June 2017
Warning: Spoilers
This show cops out as caper. Instead it's a feel-good freebie as Jeff goes undercover to help out the denizens of a doomed boarding house. It's home to six down-but-not-out-'50s stereotypes who have no place to live except a rundown Victorian mansion. Some mysterious Force of Badness wants to muscle them out of the mortgage our collective of misfits have committed to paying. Why? So they can make more money by building some sleek new checkerbox mega-apartment building I guess. There's a meathead boxer with anger management issues, a forlorn jockey who's discriminated against because he's outgrown horses by two feet and a hundred pounds, a young punk who don't get no disrespect because people can't see past his suit-and- tie to see him as the punk he is. Plus there's Grace Lee Whitney, a stunningly beautiful blonde actress in a tight-fitting dress. What use would Hollywood have for her? Rounding out the roommate roster is Mae Questel, the voice of Betty Boop. What does she really mean when she serves Jeff and Roscoe a free hot dog?
Eventually Jeff decides he needs help to trap the villains so he recruits Strippers Roscoe and Suzanne as fellow undercover operatives, including Kookie—who shows up unexpectedly in the episode's best scene, a hip, rocking, blast of a Twist fever. This dance-off scene is the ginchiest three minutes in the history of 77 Sunset Strip! You've maybe seen the Twist with a bunch of slobs tossin' and turnin', but baby, pop your peepers for this! There's no L-7s on the Cloud Nine Dance floor, as lucky Edd Byrnes gyrates with Grace Lee and two professional dance couples, doing justice to a solid saxophone-wailing rock'n'roll instrumental. What a disgrace they don't list the musicians in the credits, because I can't believe it's just an anonymous studio group. Check it out on YouTube, cats: "77 Sunset Strip - Twisting at the Cloud Nine Dance Hall."
Anyway, in the end, Jeff helps his personal police dog Lt. Gilmore suss out the suspects and save the day. It's a happy ending for all as the kindly banker atones for the sins of the wicked real estate developer by gifting our misfits with their brand-new home– a sleek new penthouse apartment in a checkerbox mega-apartment building! I love when that happens.
Eventually Jeff decides he needs help to trap the villains so he recruits Strippers Roscoe and Suzanne as fellow undercover operatives, including Kookie—who shows up unexpectedly in the episode's best scene, a hip, rocking, blast of a Twist fever. This dance-off scene is the ginchiest three minutes in the history of 77 Sunset Strip! You've maybe seen the Twist with a bunch of slobs tossin' and turnin', but baby, pop your peepers for this! There's no L-7s on the Cloud Nine Dance floor, as lucky Edd Byrnes gyrates with Grace Lee and two professional dance couples, doing justice to a solid saxophone-wailing rock'n'roll instrumental. What a disgrace they don't list the musicians in the credits, because I can't believe it's just an anonymous studio group. Check it out on YouTube, cats: "77 Sunset Strip - Twisting at the Cloud Nine Dance Hall."
Anyway, in the end, Jeff helps his personal police dog Lt. Gilmore suss out the suspects and save the day. It's a happy ending for all as the kindly banker atones for the sins of the wicked real estate developer by gifting our misfits with their brand-new home– a sleek new penthouse apartment in a checkerbox mega-apartment building! I love when that happens.
Ground-breaking anti-amnesia drama
23 June 2017
Warning: Spoilers
This ground-breaking episode documents a tragic period in American history: the epidemic of amnesia that swept our nation, beginning around 1948, the dawn of television scripts. This cruel malady proved a devastating scourge among our nation's beautiful leading guys and gals. On the TV, only quicksand claimed more lives.
Stu Bailey (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) is the only one of our suave and lovable 77 pals needed for this show. In the open shot we see him wander into a small Oklahoma diner, uncharacteristically disheveled, and rubbing a sore noggin. Characteristically, our handsome hero puts the moves on a purty young waitress, played by the delightfully dually-named Evans Evans. Stu orders the soup du jour (potato). To his horror he discovers he has no money! Or ID. Or recollection of who he is or how he got to Podunkville.
Luckily, he does remember how to pummel the local bully. That brings in the sheriff, who locks him up and puts his pitchur in the paper until someone names him. That fetches gorgeous blonde Elizabeth McCrae. It's my poor husband, she sobs, he fell out of bed and wandered off during our honeymoon. One look at the lady and Stu decides he's in. The spurned grill gal doesn't buy it. It is her sleuthing the saves the day. Oops, I guess I shouldn't have said that.
Extras include a young William Windom as a baddie and the ubiquitous Med Flory as the sheriff. Burt Mustin, professional old geezer, is credited as a kibitzer but when I saw this on ME-TV his scene must have been whittled out.
It's a quick-paced episode and fun to watch. Amnesia was eventually cured by script doctors in the 1980s.
Stu Bailey (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) is the only one of our suave and lovable 77 pals needed for this show. In the open shot we see him wander into a small Oklahoma diner, uncharacteristically disheveled, and rubbing a sore noggin. Characteristically, our handsome hero puts the moves on a purty young waitress, played by the delightfully dually-named Evans Evans. Stu orders the soup du jour (potato). To his horror he discovers he has no money! Or ID. Or recollection of who he is or how he got to Podunkville.
Luckily, he does remember how to pummel the local bully. That brings in the sheriff, who locks him up and puts his pitchur in the paper until someone names him. That fetches gorgeous blonde Elizabeth McCrae. It's my poor husband, she sobs, he fell out of bed and wandered off during our honeymoon. One look at the lady and Stu decides he's in. The spurned grill gal doesn't buy it. It is her sleuthing the saves the day. Oops, I guess I shouldn't have said that.
Extras include a young William Windom as a baddie and the ubiquitous Med Flory as the sheriff. Burt Mustin, professional old geezer, is credited as a kibitzer but when I saw this on ME-TV his scene must have been whittled out.
It's a quick-paced episode and fun to watch. Amnesia was eventually cured by script doctors in the 1980s.
A Beer, a Baer, and a baby Wells
13 May 2017
Hey cats, this episode is so routine it's a slice of Wonder Bread, save for two bitty bites to chew on: Appearances by a sweet and baby- faced Dawn Wells and a shirtless Max Baer Jr.
Max ain't no Jethro if you know what I mean. No cornpole jive, Daddy-O, but dig those abs and lats! This ain't no Granny's boy.
Miss Dawn "Mary Ann" Wells, is cast away as a victimized vixen. Too brief her appearances are, if you catch my wave.
Lucky you, though, cuz your peepers can pop at the larger role our plus-plus-jolie Mlle. Jacqueline Beer (Mrs. Thor Heyerdahl!) finally has. Cherchezing our foxy femme is The Lout, the Villain, but it is hard to comprendre how anyone who works for a detective agency couldn't scan this scam.
Too sad, too bad, the '50-60s was Don Draperville, and The Man could not allow the girls to play as equals. The Strippers' mademoiselles had to stay dim. Necessary Damsels-in-Distress only, dig? We had to wait a few more years for Diana Riggs' Emma Peel to show us that the girls can do it too y'all.
This strip has 77 problems, but this ain't one.
Max ain't no Jethro if you know what I mean. No cornpole jive, Daddy-O, but dig those abs and lats! This ain't no Granny's boy.
Miss Dawn "Mary Ann" Wells, is cast away as a victimized vixen. Too brief her appearances are, if you catch my wave.
Lucky you, though, cuz your peepers can pop at the larger role our plus-plus-jolie Mlle. Jacqueline Beer (Mrs. Thor Heyerdahl!) finally has. Cherchezing our foxy femme is The Lout, the Villain, but it is hard to comprendre how anyone who works for a detective agency couldn't scan this scam.
Too sad, too bad, the '50-60s was Don Draperville, and The Man could not allow the girls to play as equals. The Strippers' mademoiselles had to stay dim. Necessary Damsels-in-Distress only, dig? We had to wait a few more years for Diana Riggs' Emma Peel to show us that the girls can do it too y'all.
This strip has 77 problems, but this ain't one.
What kind of an animal are you?
29 January 2017
This story was loosely inspired by the infamous Kitty Genovese murder in New York City in 1963. But it's a feeble allusion, as Kitty was brutally stabbed to death and here, the girl lives and a man dies instead, shot by a gun. If you've ever met anyone who's been shot to death six times with a gun, they will tell you it's not so bad as being stabbed. Anyway, the story zips from caring less about who beat up the living girl to who killed the dead guy.
The girl is played by the beautiful Chris Noel, who, even with bruise makeup on her face, still looks gorgeous. You should look up her bio in IMDb, what a life of public service she's had.
There are no less than four possible ways the killing could have gone down, we find out in scene two or three maybe, and Paul Drake is just the sleuth who can suss them out, after he receives his clever instructions from Perry.
Do we spot a hint at a gay relationship between Ron and Hamp Fisher? These two hunky good- looking males were "just driving around" together when the attack on the Babe and the killing took place. Homosexuality was dangerous in 1965, as Raymond Burr and everyone who cared for him knew. Perhaps the characters are just gay for the slay?
Luckily we have Good Old Judge Kenneth MacDonald on bench to keep Perry and Hamilton in check with his best "Now See Here" arguments. There'll be no stoogery in this courtroom!
In the end the Guilty Killer's dramatic confession speech tries to tie it all back to Kitty by blaming big city fears and inhumanity as the cause for his actions. I guess that works, even if the "38 passive observers" in the Kitty Genovese story was debunked in a 2016 film made by her brother.
The girl is played by the beautiful Chris Noel, who, even with bruise makeup on her face, still looks gorgeous. You should look up her bio in IMDb, what a life of public service she's had.
There are no less than four possible ways the killing could have gone down, we find out in scene two or three maybe, and Paul Drake is just the sleuth who can suss them out, after he receives his clever instructions from Perry.
Do we spot a hint at a gay relationship between Ron and Hamp Fisher? These two hunky good- looking males were "just driving around" together when the attack on the Babe and the killing took place. Homosexuality was dangerous in 1965, as Raymond Burr and everyone who cared for him knew. Perhaps the characters are just gay for the slay?
Luckily we have Good Old Judge Kenneth MacDonald on bench to keep Perry and Hamilton in check with his best "Now See Here" arguments. There'll be no stoogery in this courtroom!
In the end the Guilty Killer's dramatic confession speech tries to tie it all back to Kitty by blaming big city fears and inhumanity as the cause for his actions. I guess that works, even if the "38 passive observers" in the Kitty Genovese story was debunked in a 2016 film made by her brother.
A Name with no Street
1 January 2017
Last of four episodes without Barbara Hale as Della Street. Why was she gone? Where did she go? That's irrelevant, incompetent and immaterial. Plus I haven't found out yet.
A couple of intriguing look-alike character actors in this one. The scary housemaid Nellie Conway is played by the multi-named Joan Banks (Lovejoy). She plays it like a haunted Virginia Christie, who later boldly proclaimed herself the Folgers Coffee Lady I.
I yearn tragically across the decades for the stunning Ann(a Lee) Carroll, playing Georgiana Douglas. She's a belle ringer for Arlene Martel. These women are so beautiful they can only exist in Hollywood.
I like this episode. I don't mind that they picked the ubiquitous Harry Townes to play Newton Bain, a middle-aged Lothario. Most Perry Mason episodes involve old geezers lusting after ladies young enough to be their granddaughters. That was the way they played it back then. Good thing that doesn't happen nowadays.
And lay off Jerry van Dyke. I think any final laugh-with-a-fade-out benefits with 59 percent more banjo.
A couple of intriguing look-alike character actors in this one. The scary housemaid Nellie Conway is played by the multi-named Joan Banks (Lovejoy). She plays it like a haunted Virginia Christie, who later boldly proclaimed herself the Folgers Coffee Lady I.
I yearn tragically across the decades for the stunning Ann(a Lee) Carroll, playing Georgiana Douglas. She's a belle ringer for Arlene Martel. These women are so beautiful they can only exist in Hollywood.
I like this episode. I don't mind that they picked the ubiquitous Harry Townes to play Newton Bain, a middle-aged Lothario. Most Perry Mason episodes involve old geezers lusting after ladies young enough to be their granddaughters. That was the way they played it back then. Good thing that doesn't happen nowadays.
And lay off Jerry van Dyke. I think any final laugh-with-a-fade-out benefits with 59 percent more banjo.
Great series, but a hasty ending.
13 November 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Boardwalk Empire is a great series that gave a lot of careful insight into how people of average means and morals can be corrupted by cash and cruelty. It was a lot of violent, sexy fun!
Up until this final episode. One more time we have a My-gang-is- meaner-than-your-gang gang scene, only this time between Nucky and Lucky. The problem is we've seen this gather-the-troops scene at least twice before. Once when our Antihero came up against Jimmy and won, and then again when he came up against Gyp Rosetti and won, but only following much blood and grief. But it was so fun to watch!
But now here at the end we're led to believe that Nucky would assemble his troops one last time just to shrug his shoulders and say "I quit"? With a horde of ruthless murderers behind him, who are now suddenly unemployed? Doesn't make sense. Unless you figure it was just all the writers, directors and actors saying let's get this over with and on to the next project.
I was pulling for an ending closer to what the real Nucky Thompson had. He did go to jail for tax evasion like Capone, but finagled his way out early and retired back in Atlantic City where he lived a long retirement basking along the boardwalk as a town founder and 'character.' But crime must not pay. Still, as Van Alden put it, it needn't always end in such pandemonium.
Up until this final episode. One more time we have a My-gang-is- meaner-than-your-gang gang scene, only this time between Nucky and Lucky. The problem is we've seen this gather-the-troops scene at least twice before. Once when our Antihero came up against Jimmy and won, and then again when he came up against Gyp Rosetti and won, but only following much blood and grief. But it was so fun to watch!
But now here at the end we're led to believe that Nucky would assemble his troops one last time just to shrug his shoulders and say "I quit"? With a horde of ruthless murderers behind him, who are now suddenly unemployed? Doesn't make sense. Unless you figure it was just all the writers, directors and actors saying let's get this over with and on to the next project.
I was pulling for an ending closer to what the real Nucky Thompson had. He did go to jail for tax evasion like Capone, but finagled his way out early and retired back in Atlantic City where he lived a long retirement basking along the boardwalk as a town founder and 'character.' But crime must not pay. Still, as Van Alden put it, it needn't always end in such pandemonium.
The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin
(1954–1959)
Rinty's Bite Was Maybe Greater than his Bark
1 October 2016
This program went off the air when I was 5 years old so I only have vague recollections of it, mostly from older brothers talk. I think there was a comic book too. What I do remember is that in the sixties just about everybody had a German Shepherd in their backyard and I suspect this kiddie show was the reason. Now pit bulls are all the rage, and Shepherd puppies sell for between $600-2500!
I just watched the only episode available on YouTube, "Sorrowful Jones" with Sterling Holliday. What a sad, racist depiction of "Indians" -- white guys running around committing mayhem while wearing, for no logical reason, full ceremonial headdresses and buckskins. In the Arizona desert? What a lazy lesson of unhistorical hatred to serve up to kids. I suspect that's why you can't find the series on DVD.
But I was also disappointed by how little the dog actually did. He had a few reaction shots, a couple of dubbed barks and 'saves' the day at the end by jumping on the bad guy. Not very sophisticated tricks. This was an influential show and I wish I could see more episodes to judge it better. From the one I've seen, it's kind of a bad dog.
I just watched the only episode available on YouTube, "Sorrowful Jones" with Sterling Holliday. What a sad, racist depiction of "Indians" -- white guys running around committing mayhem while wearing, for no logical reason, full ceremonial headdresses and buckskins. In the Arizona desert? What a lazy lesson of unhistorical hatred to serve up to kids. I suspect that's why you can't find the series on DVD.
But I was also disappointed by how little the dog actually did. He had a few reaction shots, a couple of dubbed barks and 'saves' the day at the end by jumping on the bad guy. Not very sophisticated tricks. This was an influential show and I wish I could see more episodes to judge it better. From the one I've seen, it's kind of a bad dog.
Scooby-Doo Where Were You?
18 June 2016
OMG, this is awful, just awful. You want it to be campy awful, but that's too much work. It's just plain awful. Bad sets, bad acting, bad directing, bad script.
The saddest part of this dreck is the complete waste of the beautiful Joi Lansing, who never ever appears in a swimsuit or a negligee or even the clingy tattered dress they paint on her on the movie poster. C'mon, movie gorillas are grabby and horny bodice-rippers going back to King Kong. But this ape is too impotent to monkey around - matching everything else in this mess. Lansing should have been one of the screen's great sex symbols, but this snore was no help.
The rest of the show is just unwatchable Z-movie hack work. Basil Rathbone and John Carradine stand around jawing in the suits they were probably buried in. That's about as scary as it gets. Scooby Doo and Shaggy would have turned down the story as too far-fetched.
Merle Haggard sings a great song, Sonny James does an okay one. The other singers, popping up mostly on the tacked-on end, had minor recording careers, but you'll need to Google them to find out why.
The saddest part of this dreck is the complete waste of the beautiful Joi Lansing, who never ever appears in a swimsuit or a negligee or even the clingy tattered dress they paint on her on the movie poster. C'mon, movie gorillas are grabby and horny bodice-rippers going back to King Kong. But this ape is too impotent to monkey around - matching everything else in this mess. Lansing should have been one of the screen's great sex symbols, but this snore was no help.
The rest of the show is just unwatchable Z-movie hack work. Basil Rathbone and John Carradine stand around jawing in the suits they were probably buried in. That's about as scary as it gets. Scooby Doo and Shaggy would have turned down the story as too far-fetched.
Merle Haggard sings a great song, Sonny James does an okay one. The other singers, popping up mostly on the tacked-on end, had minor recording careers, but you'll need to Google them to find out why.
The Scourge of Bongo Music Foretold
25 April 2016
Once again a Perry Mason episode leads the charge in the cultural wars, warning of the perils of bongo music to our Youth.
This episode features another PM appearance by jazzman Bobby Troup, this time playing a Beatnik character named "Bongo" if you can believe it. He smokes cigarettes too, letting them dangle suggestively from his lips. I wonder what that means? And he calls everybody "baby." Ugh.
Anyway, our heroine, innocent, pure Polly Courtland, played by the luscious Jo Morrow, is beguiled into trying to marry a hipster, one Eddy/Eddie King (James Drury, shortly before his ramrod ride as The Virginian). She wisely dodges him, only to be later entangled in the murder of a degenerate musician, one George Sherwin. What music do we hear in the background as Polly flees the murder scene? Bongo music of course! Do you need it spelled out for you?
The forces of law and order, in the person of Lt. Tragg, arrest Eddie, who then becomes Perry's client. There is some confusion as to who was trying to blackmail Polly's father, a wealthy businessman as always. That should be a warning to you too. You never read about anybody blackmailing poor people.
Perry uses one of his favorite tricks on the prosecution by sending a similar but different young lady to "test the recollection of a witness."
"A typical attempt to throw dust in the prosecution's eyes," thunders Hamilton Burger. But the liberal judge lets it slide. Why does Mason always get away with this?
There are several traps laid bare for our youth to see in this show. French cigarettes. Young ladies with uncovered heads tossing 'bones' with gamblers. Photographs. Fins on automobiles. Walter Burke.
But in the end, the murderer is exactly who you think it should be- someone degraded by years of listening to bongo music. There's no melody to such trash, hence our episode's title. If only we had listened, the Vietnam War and so many other disasters could have been avoided.
We need a president like Perry Mason who would build a wall between decent Americans and bongo music. He'd make the Beatniks pay for it too!
This episode features another PM appearance by jazzman Bobby Troup, this time playing a Beatnik character named "Bongo" if you can believe it. He smokes cigarettes too, letting them dangle suggestively from his lips. I wonder what that means? And he calls everybody "baby." Ugh.
Anyway, our heroine, innocent, pure Polly Courtland, played by the luscious Jo Morrow, is beguiled into trying to marry a hipster, one Eddy/Eddie King (James Drury, shortly before his ramrod ride as The Virginian). She wisely dodges him, only to be later entangled in the murder of a degenerate musician, one George Sherwin. What music do we hear in the background as Polly flees the murder scene? Bongo music of course! Do you need it spelled out for you?
The forces of law and order, in the person of Lt. Tragg, arrest Eddie, who then becomes Perry's client. There is some confusion as to who was trying to blackmail Polly's father, a wealthy businessman as always. That should be a warning to you too. You never read about anybody blackmailing poor people.
Perry uses one of his favorite tricks on the prosecution by sending a similar but different young lady to "test the recollection of a witness."
"A typical attempt to throw dust in the prosecution's eyes," thunders Hamilton Burger. But the liberal judge lets it slide. Why does Mason always get away with this?
There are several traps laid bare for our youth to see in this show. French cigarettes. Young ladies with uncovered heads tossing 'bones' with gamblers. Photographs. Fins on automobiles. Walter Burke.
But in the end, the murderer is exactly who you think it should be- someone degraded by years of listening to bongo music. There's no melody to such trash, hence our episode's title. If only we had listened, the Vietnam War and so many other disasters could have been avoided.
We need a president like Perry Mason who would build a wall between decent Americans and bongo music. He'd make the Beatniks pay for it too!
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