Rate The Last TV Show Episode You Watched

[Paul MacLean]

Lorna Doone (9/10)

First-rate co-production of the BBC and A&E, made in 2000 (back in the days when A&E actually cared about producing quality television). Based on R.D. Blackmoor's classic novel, Lorna Doone takes place in 17th century Southeast England -- a lawless region terrorized the the Doones, a clan of cutthroat brigands. The story concerns a young farmer, John Ridd, whose father was savagely murdered by the Doones, who is one day saved from drowning by a beautiful girl his age -- Lorna Doone -- and two fall passionately in love. The ensuing story is a rich tapestry of romance, adventure, suspense, the triumph of love over clan (and class), and works equally well as both "chick flick" and "blokey actioner".

One can see some influence of Last of the Mohicans (in tone if not in setting), but screenwriter Adrian Hodges and director Mike Barker pull together a production that makes resourceful use of historic locations and the verdant scenery of South Wales, and more than holds its own against pricier Hollywood fare of the time (the visual style and scope of this series looks every bit as spiffy as Rob Roy -- despite having been made for the fraction of the cost).

The casting of this film is spot-on, with the two leads, Richard Coyle and Amelia Warner exhibiting a passionate chemistry. The supporting cast is equally impressive, and includes some of Britain finest character actors, such as Martin Clunes, Michael Kitchen, Anton Lesser, Peter Vaughn and a young unknown named James McAvoy. John Lunn's score is sumptuously beautiful, with a gorgeously romantic love theme, and bursting with wonderful orchestral colors. One wonders why Hollywood has never called on this man's talents (then again the reason is obvious -- because he writes themes and uses colorful orchestrations instead of unsubtle synth power chords).

The series is currently available to stream on Amazon.com -- happily newly transferred in HD (the Blu-ray release was a lousy upconvert from interlaced PAL). Lorna Doone without a doubt remains one of the finest period dramas ever produced for the small screen, and well-worth a look.

[mkaroly]

I am really excited about the Complete Columbo box set that I just got...cannot wait to dig in to that. Have to finish up the last season of Hogan's Heroes. Also looking forward to watching the full F-Troop TV series.

[AndyDursin]

That's awesome -- I bought the Japanese Blu-Ray set years ago, watched Season 1 when Theo was born but have yet to get it cranked up again...I might now Michael if you get into it!

[mkaroly]

I didn't watch Columbo as a kid...only as an adult and only in the last few years. There is such a great satisfaction at the end when he nails the criminal - it really is one of the great detective characters ever created (IMO).

I couldn't wait to get started so I watched the two pilot movies this weekend - Prescription:Murder and Ransom for a Dead Man. P:M was interesting because I had never seen it before and because the Columbo persona was in its infancy. Compared to later episodes Columbo was too quiet and reserved here, and his interrogation of the murderer's lover was a little too aggressive (though probably right in line with detective dramas of the time).

RfaDM had Lee Grant in it and took the artsy route with a lot of its style and film techniques (which matched the psyche of Leslie in a weird way). Whoever played the daughter was a little over the top...lol...nice score in that episode too. Very entertaining!

[Eric Paddon]

The 1968 pilot film "Prescription Murder" was actually an adaptation of a play Levinson and Link wrote in 1961, which starred Joseph Cotten and Thomas Mitchell in the Columbo role. And they had originally envisioned it were Cotten was the star and the Columbo character a supporting part, but because Mitchell got such great reactions, they recognized Columbo was the true star and so the film version made a critical adjustment to highlight more the killer's villainy and so Columbo emerges more as the star of the piece.

Falk's performance in the first pilot is heavily influenced by his performance as a similar detective (complete with the same suit!) in the Natalie Wood comedy, "Penelope" with other elements borrowed from his character in the 1965 series "The Trials Of O'Brien" where he played a brilliant but disorganized attorney. It wasn't until the second pilot, three years later where we saw the character adjusted further and more in line with the sloppier detective in the 70s. Columbo of "Prescription Murder" is a bit more restrained and you believe Gene Barry when he says, "You're an intelligent man, but you play the clown." As the years went by though, Falk unfortunately slipped more into a caricature mode of the part where he was too disorganized. The earlier Columbo might act stupid in front of the suspect to fool him but when later episodes show Columbo acting stupid in front of people he knows aren't suspects, that's when the edge was lost IMO.

I've loved "Columbo" for decades and it remains one of the best TV shows ever IMO.

[mkaroly]

I finished watching the complete HOGAN’s HEROES series last month and really enjoyed it. The episodes kind of run together though with the same theme of Hogan and his gang undermining the Nazis from Stalag 13. It is a very absurdist comedy but funny because of the interactions between the main characters as well as some of the bit characters. The main cast is great; Bob Crane is solid but I really like his subordinates and their uniqueness – the relationship between Newkirk and LeBeau is especially entertaining. Admittedly, as good an actor as Larry Clovis is, I felt his character was a little too dumb for the show at times (though his Nazi officer impersonations, including Hitler, were fantastic). Ivan Dixon’s Kinchloe didn’t always have a lot to do, but when he had his moments I thought he was pretty funny (Dixon’s replacement for the last season, Kenneth Washington, was okay but to be fair he was only there for one season). Schultz stole the show really…John Banner’s delivery (both physically and verbally) is always a joy to watch. Klemperer did a great job playing Klink as well – Klink was never one you could really sympathize with, was utterly incompetent, and could be amazingly annoying at times.

I kind of liken the show to MASH since it an ensemble piece which gave guest stars and the like an opportunity to shine and add a different color to the show’s repetitive premise (though MASH had much more room for varied storylines, drama, etc.). Hogan’s Heroes had two bit characters who I thought were integral in the show’s success: Leon Askin’s General Burkhalter (equally as stupid as Klink) and Howard Caine’s Major Hochstetter (eternally annoyed by Klink’s incompetence). I have always been a fan of Burkhalter’s character and love seeing him in episodes. Hochstetter grew on me over the series to where I wished he had been in a few more episodes. For me, the best small part recurring character the show ever had was Marya the White Russian (Nita Talbot). She was only in around five or six episodes I think but I loved every episode she was in – she was to Hogan’s Heroes what Colonel Flagg was to MASH. Without these types of characters I don’t think the show would have lasted as long as it did.

There are so many episodes I enjoyed…the one I keep going back to as a favorite was Kling vs. the Gonculator. The guys make a rabbit trap look like a complicated piece of machinery and call it a Gonculator in order to manipulate Klink into bringing an electronic expert into the camp so he can defect. Since no one on the Nazi side of things wants to admit ignorance everyone claims they know what it is. It reminded me of the Captain Tuttle episode in MASH where Hawkeye and Trapper John make up a perfect soldier named Tuttle. Anyway, great episode. Without a charismatic ensemble cast who worked well together and without memorable bit characters Hogan’s Heroes I think would not have been a successful show.

[Paul MacLean]

Some Hogan's Heroes trivia -- Werner Klemperer, John Banner, Leon Askin and Robert Clary were all Jewish immigrants. Klemperer was the son of world-renowned conductor Otto Klemperer (whose family fled Nazi Germany in 1935 -- the elder Klemerer ultimately becoming conductor of the LA Philharmonic). Clary was actually holocaust survivor who had been a prisoner in Buchenwald. Banner and Askin were Austrian; Banner happened to be in Switzerland when the Nazis invaded Austria, and Askin fled Austria in 1940. Howard Caine was a Jewish American who served in the Pacific during the war.

Predictably, Klemperer, Banner, Askin and Caine all relished their defamatory portrayals of Nazi soldiers as bumbling imbeciles.

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/histor ... stars.html

[Eric Paddon]

To me, Hogan's Heroes gets an unfair rap from those who say it cheapens the horror of the war etc. Those people always lost sight of the fact that the show was set in a regular POW camp, not a concentration camp. Geneva Convention procedures were always followed in these camps in contrast to how the Japanese ran *their* prison camps (a subject that has been whitewashed for too long). So consequently, it was perfectly legitimate to capitalize on the precedents of both "Stalag 17" and "The Great Escape" (without those films there is no series) for the sitcom format.

Arlene Martel's recurring part as underground agent "Tiger" was also a plus.

BTW, here's an edit I did to create the Trek/Hogan crossover!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a3m0xpvg8v4ey ... 1.mp4?dl=0

[AndyDursin]

Speaking of HOGAN'S HEROES...

EXCLUSIVE: Another classic TV sitcom is mounting a comeback. The iconic 1960s comedy Hogan’s Heroes is being rebooted by the original series co-creator Al Ruddy, Village Roadshow Entertainment Group, and Rough Pictures.

The reimagined version will be a single-camera action adventure comedy series set in present day focusing on the descendants of the original heroes, now scattered around the world, who team up for a global treasure hunt.

Ruddy will executive produce with Rough House Pictures principals Danny McBride, David Gordon Green and Jody Hill and the company’s President of Production Brandon James. Alix Jaffe and Adam Dunlap will oversee for VREG.

Co-created by Ruddy and the late Bernard Fein, the original Hogan’s Heroes spanned 168 episodes that ran on CBS from 1965-1971. It centered around a group of Allied POWs imprisoned in a German prison camp, led by Colonel Robert Hogan, who secretly used the camp to launch Allied espionage missions. The series starred Bob Crane as Hogan, Werner Klemperer as Colonel Wilhelm Klink, Richard Dawson as Corporal Peter Newkirk and John Banner as Sergeant Hans Schultz.

Hogan’s Heroes is part of the Rysher Library, which VREG’s parent company Vine purchased in 2015.

Ruddy also produced features including The Godfather and Million Dollar Baby. Rough House Pictures’ credits include the HBO series Eastbound and Down, Vice Principals, and The Righteous Gemstones which was recently picked up for a second season.

https://deadline.com/2019/09/hogans-her ... 202736850/

[mkaroly]

This sounds like a really bad premise to me! Lol...the premise means that Klink somehow got married or fathered a child?? I don't see that happening...lol...and a global treasure hunt on top of that? Weird.

[Eric Paddon]

When none of the cast is alive what is the point?? It's as meaningless as doing a movie called "Wanted Dead Or Alive" and having the character be a great grandson of Steve McQueen.....(Oh wait, they DID that once!)

[mkaroly]

So I finished watching Season 1 of Columbo...most of these episodes I had seen before (either the whole episodes or partial episodes), but there were a couple I never saw before that I found interesting. I had never seen the pre-season episode Prescription: Murder and have already commented on that in a previous portion of this thread. I had also never seen Dead Weight before; I would pick this particular episode as the weakest of the episodes from Season 1...I just thought overall it was pretty weak (though Columbo's reaction to Helen Stewart's dejection was, I thought, very sweet). I am also not really a big fan of Short Fuse, though the way in which Columbo got Roddy McDowall's character to show his guilt was genius.

I really enjoyed the rest of the episodes. I had no idea Murder By the Book was directed by Steven Spielberg; if I had to pick a favorite episode from Season 1 I think it has to be Lady In Waiting; Susan Clark's acting combined with setting, music, and interesting camerawork made that episode very memorable and chilling, especially at the climax. Suitable for Framing has an outstanding ending to it, and the final episode of the season, Blueprint for Murder, has an outstanding Hitchcockian moment toward the end when the motorcycle cop stops Patrick O'Neal's character because of a flat tire (not knowing he had a dead body in the trunk). And of course I have to make mention of how good Robert Culp's disturbing performance in Death Lends a Hand is.

One of the great strengths of the series is the emotional satisfaction you get from Columbo cracking the case and getting the arrogant bad guy or gal. All the rest of the story is entertaining enough, but the show does such a good job with the resolutions. It helps when the actors and actresses (especially the guest stars) are so good and charismatic. Falk's interactions with the murderers and bit characters all add a great deal of entertainment to the show as a whole as well. His vocal inflections, facial expressions, and gestures are all fun to watch/pay attention to. All in all I think Season 1 is pretty solid...looking forward to Season 2.

[Eric Paddon]

What I love about Season 1 of Columbo, including even the weaker episodes ("Dead Weight" is considered the weakest story wise though I love the Gil Melle score. Melle was unfortunately not used again after Season 1) is that Columbo is still more nuanced and not yet the caricature he would become more of as the character became a phenom. There's a great scene in "Death Lends A Hand" that shows the difference when Columbo confronts Brett Halsey about his past affair with the victim on the golf course. Columbo takes his coat off to make a golf shot and makes a good shot as he drops subtle hints of "Don't BS me." If this scene had occurred several years later, Columbo wouldn't have taken off his raincoat and we likely would have had three minutes of bumbling comedy of Columbo swinging and missing or breaking the club.

"Murder By The Book" is often cited along with the "Night Gallery" pilot segment as Spielberg's best TV work. The opening where we just hear the clattering of typewriter keys while we see Cassidy's car approach was a cinematic touch you never saw in traditional TV. The one weakness with the episode alas is it's payoff clue. It hardly seems strong enough to get Cassidy to fold ultimately.

[mkaroly]

Eric, good point about the scores. I meant to mention them in the post but forgot - overall I really enjoyed the scores for the shows from Season 1. Would be nice if some of these made their way on to a box set of Columbo scores one day from someone.

[AndyDursin]

THE AFFAIR

This Showtime series has been a real guilty pleasure to watch over the course of its five seasons, and admittedly, this last year lost a lot with Ruth Wilson and Joshua Jackson unceremoniously leaving the series. That said -- and despite its really strange (and stupid) "future world" storyline with Anna Paquin playing Wilson's daughter -- the program ended with a truly beautiful final episode that was a bit unexpected in its hopefulness and grace.

Maura Tierney was the most consistently wonderful thing in this show, and it speaks to how good she and Dominic West were, playing often selfish and occasionally downright detestable characters who eventually arrive at a surprising crossroads in its final few shows -- very much echoing the show itself. Sarah Treem's last few episodes abandoned the formula and rampant narcissism of the series itself (hey, it's an R rated soaper with lovely locations and terrific actors), and she was able to do something a lot of series can't do: conclude in a fitting manner that imparted a poignant, yet powerful, message of forgiveness that really made the entire journey the viewer took with this series worthwhile.

It's really one of the best "finales" I've seen, and I give the producers credit for seizing the moment and going to a higher place with a cast that was deserving of it.