The golden age of Aaron Spelling TV. Wait…no! Every era was a golden age for Aaron Spelling TV, and if you were a teenager in the 1990s, you remember this “golden age” best!
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‘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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‘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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‘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 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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‘Magnum, P.I.’ (Season 5): Quintessential 80s detective show still delivers
Sad news: versatile character actor John Hillerman passed away the other day, so we thought we’d dig out a Magnum, P.I. season five review, featuring Hillerman in his most recognizable role as the indomitable Higgins.
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‘The Legend of Lizzie Borden’ (1975): Brilliant made-for-TV splatter shocker
Haunting, dreamy, crazy nightmare thrills. There’s a reason I and several million other people my age and older remember so well The Legend of Lizzie Borden, the 1975 ABC made-for-TV splatter shocker: it’s flat-out brilliant.
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‘This Is Us’ (Season 1): Grab your tissues – the whole box
Flashbacks, flash forwards, alternate realities…no, this isn’t a review of Lost.
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‘Dynasty’ (Season 1): A soap in search of a villain
As we await the CW’s way more Hispanic, way more gay Dynasty reboot this October, why don’t we go back to the all-white, just a tad gay original ABC primetime soap opera that debuted in 1981.
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‘Petrocelli’ (Season 2): The final courtroom battle
A continuance has been granted, pursuant to improved ratings, for Petrocelli’s second season. Too bad about Starsky and Hutch, though….
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‘Petrocelli’ (Season 1): From the big screen to weekly TV
Your Honor, now that the jury has seen the exhibits concerning Petrocelli’s inception—specifically the big-screen The Lawyer and the made-for-TV movie Night Games, let us proceed to Petrocelli’s first season.
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‘Night Games’ (1974): Petrocelli returns…on TV
In anticipation of reviewing the recent DVD release of the cult 70s TV courtroom mystery, Petrocelli, starring Vanishing Point’s Barry Newman, we thought we’d first look at the two movies that directly led to the creation of that fondly-remembered NBC series, this time with a look at the TV film, Night Games, from 1974.
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Drunk TV 