Tripped-out Saturday morning cartoon groove.
Continue reading ‘Mission: Magic!’: Rick Springfield’s trippy animated ’70s toon rocks onCategory Archives: Reviews
‘Peyton Place’ (Part 3): 9 years later, DVD releases resume!
Peyton Place, that puritanical New England hot-bed of sex, scandal, class conflict, repressed emotions, and tasteful suffering, is back!
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‘Getting Gotti’ (1994): Gambino crime boss gets ’90s TV treatment
Well, maybe more like Getting Close to Getting Gotti…but no cigar from the Teflon Don.
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‘The Yellow Rose’: 80s primetime soap could have been a contender
All the talk this week about the 40th anniversary of Dallas’s debut got me thinking about one of the many pretenders to its prime time network soap opera throne—NBC’s The Yellow Rose—right before I saw word this morning that actress Susan Anspach had just passed. She was quite good in this expensive, all-star outing from NBC, so in memory of Miss Anspach, let’s look back at The Yellow Rose.
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‘Dallas’ (Season 1): 5 episodes & a BBQ – a taste of what’s to come
2018 marked the 40th anniversary of the premiere of Dallas, the CBS prime time soap opera that ran for 14 seasons, including the second-most watched series episode in U.S. broadcast history (the cliffhanger-solving Who Done It?, with at least 90 million viewers), and gave television its hands-down greatest villain: actor Larry Hagman’s J.R. Ewing, the evil, scheming, downright degenerate Texas oilman who captivated the imaginations of America’s last unified TV viewing audience.
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‘Crossbow’ (Season 1): Late ’80s adventure brings William Tell legend to life
Sharply plotted, exciting and serialized(!) – exactly what you don’t expect from a throwback ’80s syndicated adventure series.
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‘Peyton Place’ (Part 2): Soap conventions amp up 2nd set of episodes
“This is the continuing story of Peyton Place….”
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‘Dynasty’ (Season 2): Joan Collins to the rescue!
Ah, yes…round two of the original Dynasty: the bastard child of night-time super-soap Dallas.
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‘S.W.A.T.’ (Season 1): ’70s adult action still fun today
Hey, bro—you tired of your girlfriend making you wear matching pink pussy hats, snuggling on the couch watching Grey’s Anatomy while she whines that the President’s mean?
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‘100 Years of Horror’: Vintage horror, sci-fi docuseries comes to disc
100 years of movie horror in 11 hours…sorta. Mill Creek Entertainment (with MultiCom Entertainment) has released 100 Years of Horror, the 26-episode syndicated TV series from 1996, hosted by horror icon, Christopher Lee.
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‘Wiseguy’ (Season 1): Stephen J. Cannell gets edgy, serious, & serialized
Classic TV fans will no doubt want to cut a slice of birthday cake today for Stephen J. Cannell, the prolific creator of such muscular, iconic tube fare as The Rockford Files, Baretta, Baa Baa Black Sheep, The A-Team, Riptide, and 21 Jump Street. For a birthday treat, let’s look at the first season of Cannell’s critically acclaimed cop/mob series, Wiseguy.
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‘Payback’ (1997): Mary Tyler Moore, Ed Asner reunite
Good ‘ol Mare. I had to poke around all the way up into the 1990s to find a TV movie where Mary Tyler Moore is menaced (apparently she was too good to do cheap actioners during her series’ heyday…): ABC’s Payback, from 1997, with Fredric Lehne, Adam Scott, and guess who? ‘Ol Lou Grant!
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‘Night Terror’ (1977): Valerie Harper shifts gears in tense suspenser
Next up on our hit list is Rhoda! Now, you can find Valerie Harper’s 1977 NBC made-for-TV movie, Night Terror, for sale on various public domain discs, but make sure you type in Night Drive, because somehow, somewhere, this spiffy, creepy little actioner was re-titled. Or, snag a copy of the 2021 Blu-ray release from Scorpion Releasing and Kino Lorber Studio Classics.
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‘Dying Room Only’ (1973): Cloris Leachman’s deadly vacation
Available through Warner Brothers’ Archive Collection (a real rarity, considering how few MTVs from this era have made it onto disc), ABC’s 1973 telemovie, Dying Room Only, directed by Philip Leacock, written by the master, Richard Matheson, and starring Cloris Leachman, Ned Beatty, Ross Martin, and Dabney Coleman, is a model of efficient, effective suspense.
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‘The Secrets of Isis’: A Look back at Golden Age live-action on Saturday morning
Hey 70s Saturday morning TV fans—do you remember when the word “Isis” conjured up not some p.o.s. terrorist, but rather the knee-weakening presence of a gently-scolding Joanna Cameron, calmly gazing at you…right before you passed out in pre-teen ecstasy?
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‘It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!’ (2012): Modern holiday special is a hit!
Classic stop-motion Christmas fun, SpongeBob-style!
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‘Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever’ (2014): Crappy Lifetime movie still making the rounds
Hey, who doesn’t like their Lifetime Christmas cat movies with child rape jokes thrown in?!
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‘The Year Without a Santa Claus’ (2006): Nominee for worst-ever Christmas movie
During this Christmas season, if you want your child to believe that the world is coming to an end from greed and indifference, and for him or her (or god forbid “ze” or “hir”) to think that Santa is an aggressive, violent, psychotic rageaholic with possible suicidal tendencies…then by all means, give them the gift of love and put 2006’s made-for-cable movie The Year Without a Santa Claus under the tree: certainly in the running for the worst Christmas movie ever made.
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‘Peyton Place’ (Part 1): A look back at Shout!’s glorious DVD experiment
“Peyton Place is more complicated than you think.”
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‘Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.’ (Season 1): R.I.P. Jim Nabors
2017 continues to be a terrible year for vintage TV lovers: talented comedian and singer Jim Nabors died today at the age of 87. In honor of this iconic performer, we here at Drunk TV look back at the first season of his beloved 1960s sitcom, Gomer Pyle.
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