Unlike most of the unadulterated admirers here, I have mixed feelings about High Chaparral. Yes, it was one of the best western of the late Sixties (though it never approached Gunsmoke or the late lamented Rawhide, and apart from the short-running The Outcasts, Cimarron Strip and about on a par with Lancer and Hondo), because Bonanza had taken a terrible dip in quality of average episode after Pernell Roberts left, and there were so few westerns still running by the end of the decade to compete with. The Virginian had become uneven, and The Big Valley somewhat soapish. Chaparral was best at the end only for lone-man dramas featuring Cameron Mitchell (as brother Buck on a mission). The distraction of "Blue Boy" and his ever-ongoing growing pains had gone. But the most predictable character, Victoria (Linda Cristal), as a supposedly strong woman, never learnt one lesson: Never trust a ruthless, homicidal bandido in chains and locked up in the back room when he starts to play on your sympathies. She fell for Alejandro Rey as her long-lost true love returned as a land-grabber who had her "so confused" (she told new husband-of-convenience Big John); Robert Loggia as a half-breed who tugged at her always exposed heart strings; and Ricardo Montalban as a fake revolutionary -- and maybe Cesar Romero and Fernando Lamas for all I know. Every time, she put the whole family and crew at the enemies' mercies all for the sake of her overweening 'virtue'.
Reviews
100 Reviews
Fun Girls getting boring
3 February 2024
Warning: Spoilers
While I appreciate the talents of Jean Carson and Joyce Jameson, and the foursome works with Andy & Barney (sorry, Bernie), like some other reviewers I feel the episode -- that I watched part of last night -- was lacking somehow. The Fun Girls' first meeting with Andy & Barney was fun, but I think this second script went way beyond belief. The two lawmen see a car speeding dangerously through town, which Andy clocks at either "going 50" or "going 60". When they catch up to them and realise it's the enemies of their relationships they not only don't arrest them but end up chivalrously hosting them in front of Helen and Thelma Lou -- twice. I kept thinking about Khrushev's crack about American women being the boss of their men, or even men they barely know.
Amazing Stories
(1985–1987)
Bland and soporific
15 October 2023
I suppose the fact that this series is produced by Steven Spielberg is what makes it so bland, designed to appeal to the 1980s-2000 audience, so invariably with a happy ending. He is not backward about calling them amazing stories either, though most of the ones I've seen are anything but. The special effects are "technically more advanced" (not more realistic) than series like "The Twilight Zone" and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" made 25-30 years before. But otherwise they pale in comparison -- almost to invisibility. Like other productions from the Star War era onwards, it is a chore to sit through this dumbed-down Pablum.
"One of a kind"
27 July 2023
Unlike a couple of the other reviewers I can easily accept this effort of Adam (Pernell Roberts) on behalf of the perceived underdog, or rather the odd man out, as part of his particular idealism. He took the same stance with another new acquaintance played by charming murderer Rory Calhoun in an October 1964 episode. His explanation was that Rory's rule-breaking outlaw was "one of a kind" and that was enough for him.
I can see why in retrospect Pernell Roberts later regretted leaving "Bonanza" after six series (with seven and a half still to go). As Michael Landon put it, the four stars were on $10,000 a week up to that time and merely split Adam's share three ways. Roberts' complaint at the time about the quality of the scripts can hardly refer to the ones he was given. This was the fifth (and last) episode centring on him as Adam in the space of 13 weeks screening up to early April 1965 -- and all meaty, dramatic roles. There was a good whimsical episode with him too, facing Henry Jones as a would-be knight-of-old. Dan Blocker as Hoss and Michael Landon as Little Joe meanwhile carried on mainly as the goofballs of the family. Roberts' departure gave them and Lorne Greene more room for drama, though from memory the not-very-well-done meatball episodes continued unrelenting.
I can see why in retrospect Pernell Roberts later regretted leaving "Bonanza" after six series (with seven and a half still to go). As Michael Landon put it, the four stars were on $10,000 a week up to that time and merely split Adam's share three ways. Roberts' complaint at the time about the quality of the scripts can hardly refer to the ones he was given. This was the fifth (and last) episode centring on him as Adam in the space of 13 weeks screening up to early April 1965 -- and all meaty, dramatic roles. There was a good whimsical episode with him too, facing Henry Jones as a would-be knight-of-old. Dan Blocker as Hoss and Michael Landon as Little Joe meanwhile carried on mainly as the goofballs of the family. Roberts' departure gave them and Lorne Greene more room for drama, though from memory the not-very-well-done meatball episodes continued unrelenting.
Old Earl of a narrow outlook?
14 July 2023
Warning: Spoilers
I suppose the opening narration of Earl Hamner had to draw a passing mention of the war into this episode, however contrived, even if the story had nothing to do with the war.
Yes, the war proved many jobs previously thought to be the domain of men were well within women's capabilities. But I don't think women "found themselves" to be able. I think they knew it already. And as if men after the war didn't push hard to get their old jobs back. In fact, the Fifties' American ideal was someone who strived to be "the hostess with the mostest" and dreamed of dressing like Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, and Jacqueline Kennedy in very stereotypical feminine roles.
I fail to see how the Walton girls, with 12-year-old Erin as coach, were delving further into a man's world by racing horses and running foot races.
Yes, the war proved many jobs previously thought to be the domain of men were well within women's capabilities. But I don't think women "found themselves" to be able. I think they knew it already. And as if men after the war didn't push hard to get their old jobs back. In fact, the Fifties' American ideal was someone who strived to be "the hostess with the mostest" and dreamed of dressing like Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, and Jacqueline Kennedy in very stereotypical feminine roles.
I fail to see how the Walton girls, with 12-year-old Erin as coach, were delving further into a man's world by racing horses and running foot races.
A sad ending
12 July 2023
Warning: Spoilers
I'm thinking this was a low point for Michael Learned to leave the series, though it had been going downhill (with a select few episodes as exceptions) since Richard Thomas left, then Grandma was incapacitated and effectively written out of the series soon after her "comeback". And Grandpa died, the departure of Will Geer in particular leaving a huge hole impossible to fill when deeper dramatics were required for more serious storylines.
In this episode, "The Waiting", imagine the shock when John & Olivia have hoped and waited all this time to be reunited with John-Boy.just to find a total stranger lying in the bed where their beloved son is supposed to be. Still, they carried it off well, without a glitch. Then the penny dropped with me and I realised the producers had resorted to that cheapo "out" of hiring a new actor. In this case, a John-Boy who looks nothing like the old one facially and who seems to have grown about six inches. At least in the daytime soaps they try to cover up as well as possible.
In this episode, "The Waiting", imagine the shock when John & Olivia have hoped and waited all this time to be reunited with John-Boy.just to find a total stranger lying in the bed where their beloved son is supposed to be. Still, they carried it off well, without a glitch. Then the penny dropped with me and I realised the producers had resorted to that cheapo "out" of hiring a new actor. In this case, a John-Boy who looks nothing like the old one facially and who seems to have grown about six inches. At least in the daytime soaps they try to cover up as well as possible.
The Waltons
(1972–1981)
Heroes of Their Own Autobiographies
6 April 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Some of the episodes of "Walton's Mountain" are very watchable -- a good smattering of them up to but not including 1976, when Grandma (Ellen Corby) and Grandpa (Will Geer) were having less and less to do with the show. The sibjects covered got more and more teenage and trivial and it turned into an ordinary period soap. Soon after, the two oldies (and the Baldwin sisters), who had seen so much of life, were elbowed aside entirely and that was virtually the end of character-driven drama in the series. Like Laura Ingalls Wilder who originated "Little House on the Prairie", Earl Hamner's "Spencer's Mountain" was boring as a feature film. Other series writers outdid him in the tv series, thank goodness -- though one or other of the Waltons (and the Wilders) was invariably the hero of the hour. One glaring oversight was seen in "The Wedding" -- Mary Ellen Walton's near the end of 1976. Only two years before when a young fella not much older had tried to "spark" her she was taken under the family's wing as "a child". Now at 18 she is married off to a 50-year-old without a single reservation expressed.
John-Boy just too generous
22 March 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Why do all of the Walton family's faults turn out to be virtues under the pen of Earl Hamner Jr? The lesson of this story, summed up by the voice-over of writer Hamner (played by John-Boy) at the end, is that he and the family were just too generous for their own good. (Except for Grandpa Walton, apparently the only one with the sense he was born with. You would never know the others in the family were scratching for survival during the Great Depression the way they give away their last dime to a total stranger.) I waited for years for the Walton family to show a single serious character flaw. Now in a matter of two or three episodes there has been John-Boy not owning up to the family that he burnt the house down with the pipe he left lit -- and instead is consoled by Grandpa; and his responsibiiity here of bringing this thieving -- but very appealing -- waif into the family home. John-Boy and the rest of the family write it all off to experience (in contrast to how they treated their old friend Clancy for innocent misdeeds) and John-Boy bathes in the glow of being helplessly virtuous as a "big brother" to all and sundry forever.
Film Noir Rawhide
13 January 2023
The screenplay by Jack Curtis certainly lent itself to a Film Noir approach to shooting, and director Stuart Rosenberg, who helmed many episodes of some of the best tv dramas of the late 1950s and '60s, made the most of this opportunity, with highly expressive use of light and shadow, strange camera angles, close-ups of characters' sweaty faces, boots, spurs... His centrepiece in this was femme fatale extraordinaire Lola Albright, looking highly alluring at 40 (an age which most on-screen glamor girls didn't reach in those days). The regular "Rawhide" cast do good jobs, notably "Mushy", who acts out of his skin -- and out of character -- to give possibly the performance of his life. Guests Strother Martin, Steven Hill and Vic Tayback were passably good. As bold an experiment as it was, it marked the last appearance of Eric Fleming as trail boss Gil Favor. The next season limped along through a dozen or so episodes with Clint Eastwood as trail boss, and nothing was ever the same again, what with the loss of mainstay characters Pete Nolan, Mushy, Hey Soos, Joe Scarlet and the rest. A shot at film noir might have been justified to wind up this season, but I'm thinking this over-the-top retro exercise did not do service to "Rawhide".
The Winds of War
(1983)
Not classic Mitchum
24 December 2022
Warning: Spoilers
This is a combination of travelogue and a stroll down memory lane of WWII. It passes as a primer reader for young students of history. Robert Mitchum is more than adequate in the role of "Pug", but being an unreasonably stern boss to his son (played by hunk-of-the-day Jan Michael Vincent) at the same time as being a prostrated doormat to his luxury-loving, airhead wife (played very well by Polly Bergen) would test any actor ever born. There used to be an educational cartoon on tv about "Hector Heathcote", who through mishaps found his way at various junctures of history surrounded by legendary figures. And here Pug is, a lowly naval commander who somehow, in very short order, becomes an advisor, buddy and confidant to Roosevelt and Churchill on the way to sipping cocktails with Hitler and Stalin. The hardest to take is when Pug turns down a beautiful English rose who is head-over-heels for him in favor of his insufferable wife who is carrying on an affair with a very boring diplomat (Peter Graves).
Cully's career takes a tumble (again)
1 November 2022
Though I am a sometime fan of "Midsomer Murders" (not since around 2012), I have always been at pains to understand the imperative of including the character Cully (or even Joyce) at all, except as a sop to the chick-flick minded. Cully has dumped suitors/ fiances over the years for not paying obeisance to her non-existent acting career. In this one it's taken far past the point of reality, when Barnaby, under the influence of a sudden brainwave, must leave Cully's performance in the middle in order to prevent a murder. Does he have his priorities right? No. Cully, about to turn 30 when this episode was screened, stares at him from the "stage" as if willing him rooted to the spot -- most unprofessional -- and then sulks when poor Barnaby tries to humble himself to apologize to his very, very immature daughter -- nothing less will do. I know that women's feelings rule the Western World, but this is just too much.
Reason for being
23 October 2022
Martin and Louisa are very much "better adjusted" to life and to their marriage compared to all the previous seasons I've watched. And virtually all of the comedy has gone -- as I've only watched this one episode I'm hoping it's an isolated mistake -- and that that's left seems so weak that's it's often impossible what lines are supposed to be funny. The acting is also so stilted, off-key or ambiguous that it must be the result of some disastrous new direction the show has taken. Who is Martin when he's being polite and considerate instead of impatient with everyone? And Louisa without her insecurities and her flirtatiousness ? Penhale used to make me laugh just looking at him -- no longer. Whatever whoever is doing, please stop it.
Frost suffers hardening of the arteries
19 October 2022
"A Touch Of Frost" is also a personal favourite of mine, even if it is my fourth time watching an episode, as with this one. Though Cherie Lunghi seemed wasted to me, John Lyons (Sgt Toolin) and especially Bruce Alexander (Chief Superintendent Mullet) are as good as ever. David Jason looks considerably older than his 68 years here. I can't help thinking the producers/writers have fatally compromised the Frost character into a complete muddle. One incongruous aspect is that he keeps making "Del Boy" style jokes -- very childishly. When Mullet asks him who the suspects are for murdering a clown, he answers "Uh, Punch & Judy?" This hardly squares with Frost screaming close up in the faces of people who have come into the station voluntarily, and making all sorts of wild-guess accusations at them. Over the past few episodes he seems to have lost his once-redeeming compassion entirely. He even yells at a highly distraught witness, and then when it's explained to him that she has a severely debilitating phobia about clowns, a condition that is common knowledge, Frost quips casually, "Well, it's not common knowledge around here!" This only points up that Frost has got stupider and more wilfully ignorant with age and more experience -- highly unrealistic. When at the end the sympathetic pastor tells him she's sorry for everyone, not only her "client" who was banged up for years by Frost, but for Frost also. She says she can't imagine how Frost must be feeling now -- still believing the "slow" man is guilty until Frost is knocked over the head by incontrovertible evidence that the man is totally innocent and was actually the friend of the two victims many years before. The look of total confusion on Frost's face in response to this is priceless -- very good acting. And totally out of line with Frost's previous history of going the extra mile for, and getting in trouble for it, those who are intellectually challenged, even a suspected child molester who was "backward" socially.
Frost & "Son"
25 September 2022
Warning: Spoilers
This is a great, thoughtful episode and well executed apart from the scenes as the tension reaches its climax. We all know and admire Frost for his bravery, which he always humbly disavows. This time it costs the life of his sergeant, when Frost very obviously should have called for armed back-up. After the older abused children have told Frost that the homicidal grandfather would kill them all if he knew they were escaping, Frost tells his sergeant as he goes into the house, "He's not dangerous, just very sick." Frost already knows this retired military captain has killed his own son in cold blood -- by what he says upstairs to the acquiescent grandmother. Is it the nature of Frost to rashly risk himself out of ignorance?
Also, the revelation of the bad news back at the policemen's ball is horribly staged -- everyone reacting in exaggerated horror as soon as they see the duty sergeant come to tell them the bad news, as if the mere sight of him explained what had happened. But David Jason does act a very affecting scene in mourning over Matt Bardock's coffin.
Also, the revelation of the bad news back at the policemen's ball is horribly staged -- everyone reacting in exaggerated horror as soon as they see the duty sergeant come to tell them the bad news, as if the mere sight of him explained what had happened. But David Jason does act a very affecting scene in mourning over Matt Bardock's coffin.
London Kills
(2019– )
Not up to it
4 September 2022
All in all, considering its ongoing story line, the character development of this production doesn't make up for its slow-moving lack of action. I was expecting much more from this very, very low-key series mainly because of Sharon Small's presence. The previous performances I've seen from her have been involving and engaging. Unfortunately she is unable to lift it much, and her Scottish accent in this grates a bit. Hugo Speer, I find, doesn't have the charisma for the lead role, and the fact that he always speaks as if he's had a terminal punch to the larynx doesn't help. Tori Allen-Martin does a good job of portraying a hopeless social worker who puts in 9-5 as a cop instead.
Frost too old or not?
18 August 2022
Warning: Spoilers
This is a good episode, as almost always. In this one, though, it's a bit of a stretch that Frost has no clue about psychological profiling -- 2005 was not the Dark Ages. As almost always, too, Frost captures the villain single-handed. But in this one you can readily notice a glimpse of the face of a younger, fitter man as Frost's stand-in running after the masked avenger. Then, in close-up, the all-puffed-out David Jason doesn't think twice about taking on this fully-primed relatively athletic man with a knife and overcomes him.
Nowhere near as good as "The Closer"
15 July 2022
I agree with the previous reviewer, Michael J, that this series is not within a country mile of its predecessor "The Closer" in writing, directing, editing, and most of the acting. I don't know what ratings expert decided to introduce "Rusty" to the mix but his presence merely detracts from the main events with his soap opera life events.
Not one of the better Frosts
5 July 2022
This episode was undermined by awkward comedy relief by the writers, and David Jason looked uncharacteristically awkward delivering some lines. Generally, I rate Jason's drama better than his comedy. I also found his offsider "Presley" less than engaging compared with his other younger proteges. And this is a generation gap too far this time for Frost's love interest. Don't know how old Julie is supposed to be -- but she looks younger than the 30 years old of the actress. David Jason was 65 and looking older. Don't know how this can possibly be justified as being realistic. The two of them walking together look like a fit young thing leading her grandad along.
Last appearance of "Foggy Dewhurst"
22 June 2022
Warning: Spoilers
A great shame that this episode marked the departure of the remarkable Brian Wilde, who with writer Roy Clarke created an unforgettable character. Brian Wilde apparently left due to ill health, but for me the show had trouble maintaining its supreme standards during the 1996 series -- a year before "Foggy" left. I think this might have been a good time to end the series, before Bill Owen ("Compo Simmonite") was to be on his last legs for a couple more years. But especially before endless new characters diluted the character of the show. I do understand though, that the upside was professional continuity for the actors and behind-the-scenes creators.
Not a good look for Gunsmoke
29 December 2021
Warning: Spoilers
This story poses a strange mishmash of an ethical dilemma, which is seemingly settled to everyone's satisfaction when Doc shoots the would-be avenger (Ramon Bieri) in the back with a shotgun. I've seen Doc be gentler with guest star Steve Forrest playing psychopaths who enjoyed shooting anyone or anything that talked, walked or crawled. The avenger had been twisted by having "everything he lived for taken away" on the betrayal by a wife-beating poor-excuse-for-a-human-being (William Windom) and simply wants to have it out with him man to man, western style. When the snivelling cpward finally agrees to it the avenger gets the whole town to a man against him trying to shoot him down in what was supposed to be a one-on-one gunfight. William's wife Katherine Helmond somehow construes the relationship with her husband to be "sacred" unlike a friendship between men.
Almost a "9"
16 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers
This is a very good episode, well acted especially by the guests Leif Erickson, Michael Sarrazin, and Karl Swenson, and well written. I spotted only a couple of minor faults and both were dumped on famous veteran ex-sheriff Bill King (Erickson). Now, Bill must have been plenty savvy to have lived so long in those days and even flourished as a lawman. So, why, when he plans the takedown of his three outlaw tormentors, does he not allow for them to be waiting in ambush from a vantage point en route? Instead, he drives his wagon up to the huge tree that has somehow parked itself right across the road. Bill pulls up and leisurely hops down, but not before the sharpshooter outlaw gets him with his Winchester from said ambush spot on high. Bill takes this probably fatal shot well, hunkers down under the wagon and kills off two of the baddies with some real fancy long-distance shots. When the ultra-sly ringleader (some mastermind he turns out to be) saunters around the wagon to finish Bill off, Bill not only fails to put bullets into his shins from close range to totally disable him, he waits till he gets around the wagon and then Bill leans out to be a better target. They plug each other for the finale. But it's all a little contrived, making Bill be that dumb just for a sad ending.
Sergeant Tucker Rides Again
19 October 2021
This is a strange "Gunsmoke" comedy which I couldn't stomach watching right through. I tuned in several times over the first half-hour and each time the screen was filled with Forrest Tucker recreating his "F Troop" character of 5 years before -- and here he was playing that same sergeant in the same uniform right down to the sideways cavalry hat, and purveying that same roistering, drunken "Irish" charm. He comes to a point where, having borrowed money from Kitty, he rides out of town and gets a down-and-out Indian to drink whiskey from a jar, the same as the sergeant does, pumping him for information about where the bad guys went. This only goes so far as entertainment, even a curiosity of showbiz trivia. So I won't say any more, except that when Kitty catches up with him she plays along as his wife -- and the rest of this fiasco has them wrestling on the floor like the kind of spirited man and wife you're likely to see in John Wayne-Maureen O'Hara romantic comedies. It's just eve harder to see the comedy element, that's all.
"Laramie" in full stride
14 September 2021
This fourth episode ever of "Laramie" sees the classic series suddenly well into its stride, realising its potential and up alongside the level of the best westerns of its day, including "Rawhide" which had started just eight months before and the well established "Gunsmoke" and "Wagon Train". Beginning at the same time as "Bonanza", autumn 1959, "Laramie" beat it out for realism and in all departments except color photography. The partners John Smith (as Slim Sherman) and Robert Fuller (as Jess Harper) are fully comfortable in their characters, with Slim taking the guiding "older brother" role in the relationship and Jess the somewhat wayward, unconventional youth. While last week's appearance by guest Ernest Borgnine was something of a tour de force by the Academy Award winner, this week's guests Bert Freed and Anthony George were fully integrated into the comprehensive scheme of things as "Laramie" would continue for four years. Slim Sherman is also showing himself to be the athletic one, throwing himself around like a gymnast, and diving full length into a swollen river (reminiscent of the Tarzan movies) to save non-swimmer Jess.
"Laramie" comes right
7 September 2021
The combination of writer John Dunkel (a frequent contributor to "Gunsmoke" and "Rawhide") and veteran western director Virgil W. Vogel proved to be just the shot in the arm to bring "Laramie" up to a standard approaching the best westerns of the time with this third episode. Good, captivating performances from guests Ernest Borgnine and Marsha Hunt helped considerably. The radically named John Smith (originally Robert Van Orden), the nominal top-ranked star of the show as solid, stable Slim Sherman, was given space to come into his own up against a largely absent Robert Fuller (playing the edgier Jess Harper), who came to somewhat overshadow Smith through the series, and especially in posterity.
Not believable
7 September 2021
As "Laramie" joins a couple of dozen other westerns on tv in the autumn of 1959 it continues its very shaky start begun by the opening episode, which looked irredeemably artificial throughout. While the regular cast are settling into their characters the guest stars Eddie Albert and Nanette Fabray way overplay their roles. Fabray's evangelist is so innocent to the very end she treats her most devoted convert (Albert), who early on reveals himself as homicidally inclined, like a wayward lamb led astray who will come right with gentling. Her performance as a goody-goody totally oblivious to everyday realities recalls a hilarious parody I remember by Fabray from a later seventies comedy show on tv. It was a script which requires careful control by the director, not forthcoming. Fortunately, it is onward and upward beginning with the third episode, which raises the standard of the series out of sight.
Tell Your Friends