Rate The Last TV Show Episode You Watched

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jkholm
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Re: Rate The Last TV Show Episode You Watched

#136 Post by jkholm »

I'm not familiar with the Ellery Queen TV show but it sounds very interesting. I've been in a 70s TV show mood lately. I started the first season of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and also am going through The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries. That one is a show I remember watching as a kid but i was so young I don't remember much other than the main title sequence. I also recently purchased the Columbo box set. I first became aware of Columbo through the later TV movies and only in the last few years have watched the original episodes. Surprisingly, my eleven year old son likes Columbo.

Eric Paddon
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Re: Rate The Last TV Show Episode You Watched

#137 Post by Eric Paddon »

I highly recommend Ellery Queen if you're finding original Columbo enjoyable since it is the same creative team of Richard Levinson and William Link and producer Peter Fischer. Both shows I feel are the yin and yang of the great 70s detective shows since they give us similar absentminded geniuses with the key difference of how for Columbo and who for EQ. EQ also had a great late 40s period setting that they stayed faithful to every week in the clothes, hairstyles and topical references.

I remember Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew when it was on and yes that title sequence was memorable. In fact that show gave me a very strange introduction to the Hardy Boys books. The first episode I remember watching is S1 "Mystery Of Witches Hollow" which by almost sheer coincidence is the only episode of the series faithfully adapted from a Hardy Boys book. A week after I saw that, at age nine I read my first Hardy Boys book which by sheer coincidence was the one that episode was adapted from "The Clue Of The Screeching Owl!" As a result I was given a false expectation as I began reading other books that the TV episodes would also be adaptations of those books but that was never the case. "Witches Hollow" is one of only two episodes that features the character of Chet Morton who is prominent in all of the Hardy Boys books.

Season 2 gave us some episodes that stayed with me like "Hardy Boys Meet Dracula" that are hilarious to revisit when they conjure back memories of what was trendy-ABC hip in those days. The Nancy Drew episodes I admit I really didn't watch as a kid but I've come to appreciate Martin's solo episodes of S1 (it soon became clear the character wasn't gaining as much traction with audiences which was why they phased her out).

jkholm
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Re: Rate The Last TV Show Episode You Watched

#138 Post by jkholm »

I watched a few more episodes of The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries. The plots of each episode are just OK and it's clear the show thrived on the charisma of the leads as well as the supporting performances, especially by the actors playing the teens' respective fathers.

The one I saw last night was The Flickering Torch Mystery, a Hardy Boys episode. Two things struck me. One is the title which is never once mentioned or explained during the episode. I know that several of the novels were revised and The Flickering Torch is one that was completely rewritten. I believe a rock band was part of the plot of the book and that's also true of the episode.

The other thing is how the episode was unfortunately prescient. The Hardy's foil a plot to kill a rock star, played by Ricky Nelson, by causing his plane to crash. And it was just a few years later that Nelson was killed in a plane crash.

Eric Paddon
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Re: Rate The Last TV Show Episode You Watched

#139 Post by Eric Paddon »

Been going through many episodes of the 1959-61 game show "Take A Good Look" hosted by Ernie Kovacs which was released a few months ago by Shout! I have to admit, I have never bought into the argument of Kovacs as one of the all-time great comedians. Like so many who die tragically at young ages (and in his case, his obsession with his cigars may well have distracted him and caused him to skid off the road to his death) there is always the tendency to then call them "legends" because they didn't live as long as they should have. With Kovacs, I see someone who was technically brilliant in many respects but who was more of a stunt gimmick type than coming up with a well-crafted joke or punchline. We were supposed to laugh at the brilliance of what he could do in the editing room than whether the material was actually funny or not.

"Take A Good Look" is the only one of Kovacs' ventures where there's some needed counterbalance. Kovacs had briefly been a "What's My Line" panelist for a couple months in 1957 where he got to show off what a funny ad-libber he could be, but he turned down the offer to become a full-time panelist to go west and pursue other things. This show was basically a Kovacs stunt skit show placed in the dressing of a panel game show where a panel had to look at the sketches that contained obscure "clues" to the identity of a guest (sometimes a famous person or someone who had recently made the news). The "clues" were anything but helpful and designed only to showcase the wacky nature of Kovacs humor but unlike his standalone specials, here you could get the fun of seeing the befuddled or indignant panelists like Cesar Romero and Hans Conreid (Edie Adams, Mrs. Kovacs was also a regular) rail at Ernie over the obscurity of the "clues" and the fun ad-libbing back and forth with Ernie. As a result, what would leave me cold in Kovacs' standalone specials comes off much better and more palatable here.

All of the episodes are preserved in their original videotape format which is a rarity for programs of this period and a tribute to the tireless efforts of Edie Adams to preserve her husband's legacy after his death. Seeing them in the original format rather than the poor quality kinescopes that are usually standard for shows of this nature also makes them come off better and livelier. So even if you're not a big fan of Kovacs, "Take A Good Look" is still worth seeing (and some of the guest contestants are fascinating to see in their own right with the likes of Rogers Hornsby and Mack Sennett, and also if you are historically inclined as I am you get a lot of insight into stories that were making news at the time as the 50s ended and the 60s began)

jkholm
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Re: Rate The Last TV Show Episode You Watched

#140 Post by jkholm »

Eric Paddon wrote: Thu Feb 01, 2018 1:59 pm and also if you are historically inclined as I am you get a lot of insight into stories that were making news at the time as the 50s ended and the 60s began)
This is the kind of thing that fascinates me when I watch 70's era game shows on Buzzr. Then current references make the questions a lot harder to answer today. And sometimes what seems like an easy question is made harder because the facts have changed. I was watching a mid-80's episode of Family Feud and the question was "Name a U.S. President who served at least two full terms." Sounds easy until you realize you can't say Reagan, Bush Jr., Clinton or Obama.

Eric Paddon
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Re: Rate The Last TV Show Episode You Watched

#141 Post by Eric Paddon »

Quite true a lot of shows require you to be topically savvy, and that's also true of "Match Game" with comedy questions that are lost on today's viewers, like when the question or a celeb answer centers on Euell Gibbons, a naturalist who did commercials for Grape Nuts cereal in those days (and we're also at a point where the lampooning of Howard Cosell in questions and answers is becoming more and more lost).

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AndyDursin
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Re: Rate The Last TV Show Episode You Watched

#142 Post by AndyDursin »

As a sidenote, Buzzr isn't available anywhere near me but I was happy to see Amazon Prime streaming has picked up what appear to be a large number of entire seasons of shows they broadcast, including Match Game, Tattletales, Family Feud, even the Bill Cullen hosted Child's Play which I remember when I was a kid. These shows are all part of the Prime service if youre a member.

Eric Paddon
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Re: Rate The Last TV Show Episode You Watched

#143 Post by Eric Paddon »

And a reminder that you can see *every* episode of "What's My Line?" (including rare lost episodes that never aired on GSN) at the WML channel on YT. We've even had original commercials restored to a number of higher quality GSN episodes.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChPE75 ... dAsO7Nzb8w

Classic "To Tell The Truth"

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZkBUf ... lUV_sQqrTQ

Classic "Password"

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRZkMn ... krPUV97p3A

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Monterey Jack
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Re: Rate The Last TV Show Episode You Watched

#144 Post by Monterey Jack »

Finished up the second season of Avatar: The Last Airbender on Blu-Ray (finally, a watchable version of the show...the DVDs looked HORRENDOUS)...man, this show is even better than I remembered, and I thought it was exceptional when I watched it for the first time eight years ago. Truly great family storytelling, with loads of exciting action, genuinely funny humor, heart and surprisingly mature and thoughtful philosophy smuggled into the margins.

And Toph may be my favorite character in the series, Twinkle-Toes. 8)

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Shame the M. Night Shyamalan movie was such an embarrassing botch...if any series could have spawned a terrific trilogy of films, it was Avatar. Too bad the well has been polluted, and that no one will ever take another crack at it (or, at least for the next ten years or so, after the stink has blown off). Also disappointing that the show's creators got screwed over so badly with the follow-up series, The Legend Of Korra (the last season of which was dumped onto Nickelodeon's website and never aired on TV)...I would have loved to have seen a third series set in this beautifully-realized world.

Eric Paddon
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Re: Rate The Last TV Show Episode You Watched

#145 Post by Eric Paddon »

From time to time I love to do marathons of classic TV devoted to the guest appearances of a specific performer, usually an actress whose career was confined largely to the small screen. This past week I chose Vera Miles and ended up watching episodes of some 20 programs that have had a commercial DVD release or are available on YT in which she guests. These ranged from the obvious like the "Revenge" episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (the very first episode of the series), the pilot for "The Fugitive", the "Forms Of Things Unknown" episode of "Outer Limits" and "Mirror Image" from "Twilight Zone." It also included guest turns on shows from the 50s to 70s like "The Virginian", "Route 66", "Burke's Law", "The Man From UNCLE", "I Spy" and such forgotten one season shows like "Frontier Circus" (1961), "Sam Benedict" (1962) and "The Eleventh Hour" (1963).

Along the way I came to a couple interesting realizations. First, that while Vera Miles never really had a presence that was suitable for the big screen (and why had she actually done "Vertigo" the film would not have been as effective) on TV she had a big screen gravitas quality that always elevated things. She had a chameleon like quality that could tackle just about any kind of role in a general type of TV drama (including westerns), and could be convincing all frumped up or mega-glamorous (and showing the beauty that Hitchcock saw potential in) depending on the role.

Also, it struck me how the very idea of the "guest star" on TV is something that has disappeared today in this age of ensemble TV shows etc. In the old days, most TV shows were often driven by the "Guest star" and someone like Miles who was never big enough for the big screen, could always be that top name guest star we would focus on. A performer like Miles thus, could be a regular face on TV without ever being associated with a single TV show at any time. In fact, I'm hard-pressed to think of many others with guest star careers in TV similar to Miles who *never* was associated with a regular TV show for any period of time (even Lois Nettleton, a lady with a similar career guest star career to Miles had one brief turn in her own series in the late 60s, "The Accidental Family")

All-in-all it's the kind of marathon I enjoy doing to see the appeal and allure of a specific actress, and to also find a good reason to sample some of the vintage TV shows in my collection I don't always go through (and a testament to how over time, accumulating a collection can produce good instant marathons where you don't realize just how much you have at your disposal!)

Eric Paddon
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Re: Rate The Last TV Show Episode You Watched

#146 Post by Eric Paddon »

Been doing another of my "interesting TV guest marathon spotlights" of late. As I mentioned when I did Vera Miles, this is a type of performer that doesn't exist today. Someone who was never big in features or known for a regular TV series role but who *always* seemed to turn up as a main guest star on a wide variety of TV shows. Ensemble cast TV shows have really killed this kind of niche performer today.

At any rate the lady I went through this time was Madlyn Rhue, best know as Lieutenant McGivers from the "Space Seed" episode of Trek. She was actually a very big front-line TV guest star for much of the 60s before Trek. Apparently her supporting role in the 1959 movie "Majority Of One" was what launched her into the top-tier TV guest realm and as a consequence there are episodes of shows like "The Untouchables", "Route 66", "The Virginian" etc. where she is the focal point carrying the bulk of the work. It's also interesting how in this period she was frequently cast in ethnic parts as a Latina woman or some other exotic locale. This was no longer the case by the late 60s and 70s when her guest work was still prolific but no longer the front and center focal point.

Trek fans should be aware of two fascinating pre-Space Seed performances. One is a S2 episode of "Bonanza" which marked the first time she worked with Ricardo Montalban and it wouldn't surprise me if there was some awareness of that when they paired them for "Space Seed." They are an Indian couple married to each other and at the halfway point, Rhue is murdered by a bigot and it sends him into a grief-stricken frenzy. Thinking ahead to Wrath of Khan, I can't help but think Montalban, when prepping for WOK by rewatching "Space Seed" subconsciously thought back to this episode when channeling Khan's revenge motivation rooted in the death of his wife.

Rhue also had been paired with Shatner twice before Trek. The first time in the 1963 series, "The Nurses" which was the medical version of "The Defenders." This was an episode dealing with the touchy subject of euthanasia and in that one, Rhue is a nurse who has euthanized a patient she has had a romance with (which is the biggest strike against the episode's credibility. No hospital would *ever* let a nurse with a personal relationship with a patient look after him), in this case terminally ill Dr. William Shatner! The episode flashes back frequently to the developing romance that bloomed between her and Shatner and Rhue's performance elevates a very pretentious script and shows again the high caliber guest parts she was getting at the time. Shatner I have to say is very poor by contrast especially when he tries to be so overly romantically tender with her. But it's fascinating to see this on-screen romance in contrast to three years later on Trek where Kirk can't remember her character's name. That's a nice insight into how acting can work when one time two can be paired together this way and then so dramatically different in another.

Rhue was also in a 1965 "Defenders" where Shatner is playing the prosecutor. In this one, Rhue is on trial for killing her two year old son. I could only find a six minute clip of this on YT, but it has me wondering how the rest of it unfolded.

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AndyDursin
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Re: Rate The Last TV Show Episode You Watched

#147 Post by AndyDursin »

Sat down to watch the $40 copy of the complete BOB NEWHART SHOW I think I bought from Ebay a couple of years ago -- only to realize the low compression rendered it unwatchable. And of course, that means it's a bootleg...Shout's got compression issues, but not like this!

I give whoever made it credit -- from the booklet to the box it's the best looking boot I've ever seen. Does me no good now however!

Eric Paddon
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Re: Rate The Last TV Show Episode You Watched

#148 Post by Eric Paddon »

Whoa! They put out a boot in the Shout case and packaging and camouflaged the discs outward appearance? That's really going to great lengths it seems to spend more to create the final product than you get back in selling it!

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AndyDursin
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Re: Rate The Last TV Show Episode You Watched

#149 Post by AndyDursin »

Yeah everything -- the box, the full color booklet...everything looked identical but I could tell from the bit-rate of the DVD. It was on a single layer disc so it was badly compressed, and when I put it in my computer, it was half the size it should've been! I can't imagine what kind of profit they were making on a $40 auction item when the materials alone, case, box, etc., had to have cost more than the media involved.

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Paul MacLean
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Re: Rate The Last TV Show Episode You Watched

#150 Post by Paul MacLean »

A few years ago I bought the BBC series Connections from an Amazon private seller, who noted in his product description "box missing".

When it arrived, I was dismayed to find the discs were all DVD-Rs with adhesive labels, and the case artwork was all printed on photo paper. The paper even had the “Kodak photo paper” logo on the back side!

I made a complaint to Amazon and fortunately got a refund. But there are a lot of shifty people out there.

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