Rate The Last TV Show Episode You Watched

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

#76 Post by Eric Paddon »

This really did happen once during a Speed Round.

"What fictional character....." BUZZZ as the contestant has hit her button prematurely.

Contestant feeling stupid just decides to be cute. "Uh, uh.....Rip Van Winkle."

"YES!!!!!"

It took them almost five seconds for everyone to catch their composure and continue even as the clock kept running. Too bad it didn't make the difference in the game.

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AndyDursin
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Re: Rate The Last TV Show Episode You Watched

#77 Post by AndyDursin »

That's hysterical! lol.

The theme music was much better in the early '80s than the "retooled" version of the later seasons. (I never saw any other SALE other than the Jim Perry version).

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AndyDursin
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Re: Rate The Last TV Show Episode You Watched

#78 Post by AndyDursin »

This guy, a former ILM employee, was a contestant on a Sale of the Century episode I watched today:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0725753/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jayriddle

jkholm
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Re: Rate The Last TV Show Episode You Watched

#79 Post by jkholm »

I've been watching a lot of old shows on ME TV recently. Last night I watched an episode of Route 66 called "Like a Motherless Child." This is a show I am quite unfamiliar with. The reason I picked this episode is because it was filmed in my hometown of Fallon, Nevada, s small town about 60 miles east of Reno. The episode was first aired in 1961, 16 years before my family moved there so I was curious to see if I would recognize anything. The opening shot is set on a lonely looking highway with nothing but sagebrush for miles and miles on either side. I can't say where they shot this but it looks exactly like where I grew up. In later scenes, the two main characters get jobs at a livestock auction yard. It had to be the same place where I would sometimes go on field trips to watch the auction process. (Yes, we went on field trips to the auction yard. I did say it was a small town.)

The story wasn't all that interesting, involving the two guys getting in a fight over the decision of one of them to return a hitchhiking orphan back to his orphanage. (One guy grew up in an orphanage and had a bad experience.) They separate briefly before working things out. I have no idea if this is a representative episode or not but I like the idea of a show filming in a different city every week.

There have been a few movies filmed in Fallon also, most notably, TOP GUN. (Also THE WIZARD and PINK CADILLAC.)

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

#80 Post by Eric Paddon »

I went through the first five episodes *filmed* of "Land Of The Giants". The show aired its episodes out of sequence constantly and it really affected one's perception of how the characters were to a degree developed more coherently in the early episodes along with the nature of the giants (they had yet to show them speaking English the first couple ones). There are a couple good character episodes in these early ones courtesy of Anthony Wilson, who had a better flair for this but I also noticed when comparing the original version of the pilot to the aired one, how Irwin had replaced two important character scenes for still more repetitive action sequences. I'll be honest, while I don't dislike the show I'm amazed it lasted two seasons while "Time Tunnel" which had the luxury of diverse settings week after week, only managed one. LOTG has too much of a repetitive formula and it also doesn't have a strong enough cast. Gary Conway, while personable (I liked him as Gene Barry's assistant on "Burke's Law") just doesn't have enough gravitas for the captain and theoretical leader of the group (a Lloyd Bridges type would have been better).

Also, I have to assume that Irwin chose to skimp on the music budget since too many of the episodes sound like recycled LIS scores.

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

#81 Post by Eric Paddon »

Back to another Trek episode I haven't seen in many years, "That Which Survives". This could have been a strong S3 entry but is fatally weakened by a totally inexplicable decision to turn Spock into a Vulcan Don Rickles throughout the episode. Every time at most inopportune moments of crisis, Spock feels a need to be so overly sarcastic in demonstrating his Vulcan logic or disdain for non-Vulcan human behavior that it makes one want to shout, "Shut up, Spock!" If this was John Meredyth Lucas's idea of going for laughs (since I can not believe that Fontana, who is credited with the original story under her Cosmo Kramer pseudonym had this in her first draft), it falls painfully flat. Trekkies say Spock behaves most "un-Spocklike" in "The Cloud Minders" when he gets so candid with the sexy Droxine about Vulcan mating rituals, but frankly that was easier to believe then seeing the way Spock behaves here.

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

#82 Post by Eric Paddon »

I have now found the ultimate bad William Shatner guest shot. From 1962, "Naked City" and there is Shatner playing an Asian named "Mong Tu" complete with the worst black wig and faux accent you ever heard in your life ("I am Mong Tu!") in what is supposed to be a serious drama of him as a sailor who has stabbed a woman to death. I have seen bad cases of Caucasians playing Asians, but this one wins first prize in the unintentional hilarity category.

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

#83 Post by Paul MacLean »

Eric Paddon wrote:From 1962, "Naked City" and there is Shatner playing an Asian named "Mong Tu" complete with the worst black wig and faux accent you ever heard in your life ("I am Mong Tu!") in what is supposed to be a serious drama of him as a sailor who has stabbed a woman to death.
How does it compare to Nimoy's guest appearance as an Indian in Daniel Boone? :mrgreen:

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

#84 Post by Eric Paddon »

That one I need to check out sometime! :)

The laughs just kept coming in that episode with a contrite Shatner on his knees in a local Buddhist temple at one point vowing to "shave my head, wear robes and take vows of monk....".

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

#85 Post by Eric Paddon »

S4 Episode 18 of "The FBI" ("Caesar's Wife") is one of those episodes where you can marvel at seeing different eras of film and TV history suddenly touch each other in surreal fashion based on the guest cast list. An espionage entry that has the soon to be infamous Claudine Longet (the O.J. Simpson of the 1970s) as a communist spy out to romance Michael Rennie, star of "Day The Earth Stood Still" and steal info he has as a government expert on a communist country. Playing Rennie's son at the beginning of his career is Harrison Ford. It's not only fascinating to see Ford and Rennie in scenes together it then gets incredibly surreal when later, Ford gets beaten up and tossed into the ocean and left for dead by Longet's fellow communist agent, Russell Johnson aka "The Professor!" The sight of the Professor overpowering Indiana Jones is one of those moments that makes me love discovering vintage TV episodes for things that could never have been appreciated at the time they first aired.

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

#86 Post by Eric Paddon »

This Christmas season I watched a good many Christmas episodes of classic TV shows and now I present my list of top episodes (excluding sitcoms) based on their ability to convey the true meaning of the season.

#1-Dragnet-Season 2 "The Christmas Story"

-A masterpiece that I can watch over and over as Friday and Gannon investigate the seeming theft of a statue of Jesus from an old Mission Church's Nativity scene. Although it had been filmed previously for the original B/W 1950s version, I have always preferred the remake, mostly because I prefer Harry Morgan's Bill Gannon to Ben Alexander's Frank Smith in the original, plus there is also in the remake a glorious Lyn Murray score.

#2-Dr. Kildare-Season 1 "Season To Be Jolly"

-A powerfully poignant story that could never be made in today's Hollywood environment. Dan O'Herlihy, in the best performance of his I've ever seen, is a drunken department store Santas brought in railing at the injustices of the world and refusing to give his real name. When he then requires a leg operation to prevent an amputation we learn he is a former Episcopal minister who lost his faith and family and has been missing for over a year. The manner in which O'Herlihy eventually recovers his faith is done with powerful understatement, and not a sappy crying breakdown scene. It packs a wallop and I'm sure for some coldhearted cynics would be denounced for being politically incorrect by today's standards. But it sums up the meaning of the season better than a lot of more familiar classic episodes. The script was by Jean Holloway, whose husband, Dan Tobin (best known as the adulterous bank president in the TZ episode "A Penny For Your Thoughts") appears in the episode too as a headline seeking hospital publicity man.

#3-Have Gun Will Travel-Season 1-"The Hanging Cross"

-No episode of "Star Trek" or anything else Gene Roddenberry wrote for TV IMO is more powerful than this script he wrote for this classic Western. Roddenberry thankfully wasn't injecting any of his own viewpoints into this for which we can be grateful. Paladin is caught up in a situation where a rancher and an Indian tribe are on the verge of war because the rancher has kidnapped the chief's adopted son, believing him to be his own son whom the Sioux had stolen years earlier.

#4-Wagon Train-Season 3-"The St. Nicholas Story"

-Jean Holloway also wrote this moving story for this popular western series. Major Adams (Ward Bond) wagon train is forced to stop after an Indian ambush on Christmas Eve. A similar theme with HGWT of ominous, impending war and how the spirit of Christmas ultimately overcomes that hostility. And as in the Kildare episode, there is no shirking in the script in being open about its true meaning in ways that have become lost nowadays.

#5-Six Million Dollar Man-Season 4-"A Bionic Christmas Carol"

-Christmas Carol parodies and allegories are a staple of so many TV shows but I like this one best (among non-sitcoms certainly) because the tale of a miserly industrialist (Ray Walston) and his Bob Cratchit clone nephew (Dick Sargent) manages to work in the context of the show. In addition, for a show of the 70s, the underlying tone found in earlier Christmas shows of the 50s and 60s still manages to be present.

#6-Twilight Zone-Season 2 "Night Of The Meek"

-While not in my top five, it remains a favorite. I also find the videotaped approach a fascinating way of seeing the kind of "live TV" presentation of the 1950s the way it would have been presented as first broadcast. Great performance by Carney.

#7-Night Gallery-Season 2 "The Messiah Of Mott Street"

-Serling also wrote the best interfaith story for the season with this.

#8-Alfred Hitchcock Presents-Season 1 "Santa Claus And The 10th Avenue Kid"

-A similar in theme episode to TZ's as you have Barry Fitzgerald as an ex-con forced to work as a store Santa by his overbearing parole officer Virginia Gregg.

#9-Moonlighting-Season 3 "It's A Wonderful Job"

-Moonlighting had a fun Christmas episode the previous season but I like this one better because its takeoff of "It's A Wonderful Life" with Richard Libertini as a guardian angel who will show Maddie what it would be like if she'd sold the agency is for me, the true "last episode" of Moonlighting before it went all downhill and was ruined starting with the infamous Mark Harmon storyline that led to "they do it" and all the nightmare repercussions afterwards. If you like the earlier seasons of Moonlighting then this is the perfect series end when Maddie, ecstatic that she's not dead and still owns the agency suddenly kisses David passionately and both look into the camera and say in unison, "And to all a good night!"

#10-Adam-12-Season 1

-This classic cop series had three Christmas episodes over its seven season run. I like the first one best. Not profound, but it has a good feel to it.

mkaroly
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Re: Rate The Last TV Show Episode You Watched

#87 Post by mkaroly »

Eric Paddon wrote:#9-Moonlighting-Season 3 "It's A Wonderful Job"

-Moonlighting had a fun Christmas episode the previous season but I like this one better because its takeoff of "It's A Wonderful Life" with Richard Libertini as a guardian angel who will show Maddie what it would be like if she'd sold the agency is for me, the true "last episode" of Moonlighting before it went all downhill and was ruined starting with the infamous Mark Harmon storyline that led to "they do it" and all the nightmare repercussions afterwards. If you like the earlier seasons of Moonlighting then this is the perfect series end when Maddie, ecstatic that she's not dead and still owns the agency suddenly kisses David passionately and both look into the camera and say in unison, "And to all a good night!"
Moonlighting is one of my all-time favorite shows, and I love the second season Christmas episode "Twas the Episode Before Christmas." One Mark Harmon came in it ruined the show (I agree with you there). Moonlighting also has the distinction of having for me, at least, the most depressing final episode of any TV series I have ever seen. I remember being crushed and after watching it again a few years ago I felt that same crushing feeling - I thought of what the show could have been, and how much I wanted the show to return to form (as it tried to do in the fifth season, to its credit), and how much I wanted to see David and Maddie make it as a couple. The show had an incredible magic about it and was extremely satisfying...that is, until Mark Harmon. Lol...props go to Curtis Armstrong and Allyce Beasley who made at least some of the worst episodes watchable.

Atomic Shakespeare...brilliant.

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

#88 Post by Eric Paddon »

mkaroly wrote:Moonlighting also has the distinction of having for me, at least, the most depressing final episode of any TV series I have ever seen. I remember being crushed and after watching it again a few years ago I felt that same crushing feeling - I thought of what the show could have been, and how much I wanted the show to return to form (as it tried to do in the fifth season, to its credit), and how much I wanted to see David and Maddie make it as a couple.
I saw that last episode once, the night it aired and I would never be able to handle watching it again because my goodness think of how it would have at least made us smile at the end if after the guy tells him "You've been cancelled" Dave and Maddie just decide "Okay, what the heck, NOW it's safe for us to be together!" Instead they went for depressing the audience further.

I remember holding fast through the Mark Harmon idiocy to the start of S4 but the episode that I mean totally drove me away from the show and which I only came back to for the last episode to see if they were going to make amends, was "Cool Hand Dave". First off, not having ever heard of "Cool Hand Luke" at the time I saw that episode, I had no idea what the heck this thing was doing or trying to send up. Instead, I saw an episode that was the most sadistic slap in the face of the audience and padding it two parts no less and then culminating things with the Maddie marries Walter Bishop idiocy. That was when I said, "Goodbye, I'm out of here!" It's only to preserve the memory of what was great about the first episodes that makes me stop with "It's A Wonderful Job" and its perfect end note.

mkaroly
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Re: Rate The Last TV Show Episode You Watched

#89 Post by mkaroly »

I feel you there Eric. Watching the first two seasons is an absolute joy...and then the hurt starts to creep in and it sticks like mud...lol...can't get away from it. It actually HURTS to watch the later episodes because of what the show was and where it could have gone.

One of the episodes that has just popped to mind is "Every Daughter's Father Is a Virgin." Maddie has this moment when she confronts her father after she finds out that he is having an affair and just breaks down...it gets me every time. That show was SO GOOD when it was good...and so disappointing when it wasn't what it could be. It's really too bad.

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

#90 Post by Eric Paddon »

I literally blame the downfall of "Moonlighting" for driving me away from being a regular network TV viewer for good in the early 90s. Almost everything that debuted from that point on, I've never watched regularly during its first run because what happened with "Moonlighting" exposed the danger of how you can come to care too much about a TV show and then be disappointed by it. It makes you feel gypped for having been involved to begin with.

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