What are you watching right now?

[Cavaliere (moderator emeritus)]

Criminal Minds: "Amplification"

[The Baron]

I have a VHS of that I bought years ago, almost certainly bootleg now that I think about it..  I'm not a huge Floydhead, but I guess it matches up OK

Jeff of Earth-J said:

Mark Evanier coined a term ("video redundancy") for when you watch something as you are flipping through channels when you already own it on VHS/DVD and could theoretically watch it any time.

Have you ever watched The Wizard of Oz with the volume down and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon playing in the background? It is AMAZING how well it works if you get it synched up correctly. A former roommate of mine first told me about it. I called him up (while in an "altered state of consciousness")to tell him how well it had worked, but he wasn't home. Unfortunately, I didn't explain the urgency in my voice, and he ended up waking me up when he got home and called me back in the "wee small hours" of the morning. Unfortunately, I have been unable to synch it up quite as well as I did (accidentally?) that first time. If anyone's interested, I suggest you Google exactly when to cue the album.

[ClarkKent_DC]

The Baron said:

I never missed The Wizard of Oz  when it was on TV.  Now I own it on disk and could watch it whenever I want, and haven't watched it in ages.

I like the convenience of owning copies of my favorite films, but I miss the "Oh, wow, this is on!" experience.

Jeff of Earth-J said:

Mark Evanier coined a term ("video redundancy") for when you watch something as you are flipping through channels when you already own it on VHS/DVD and could theoretically watch it any time.

I have a friend who always laments missing A Charlie Brown Christmas when it airs even though I bought her a copy specifically because the video hasn't been whittled down to cram in more commercials.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

BONANZA: We have recently finished watched season one (what we recorded of it, anyway; I think we missed a few of the earliest episodes). Season one is a cornucopia of "Hey, it's that guy!" character actors. Here's an episode that caufgt my attention.

"The Fear Merchants" (first broadcast January 30, 1960): "the ugly consequences of bigotry are examined in this episode. Andrew Fulmer runs for mayor of virginia city on a 'hate all outsiders' platform. Backed up by hired thugs, Fulmer targets the town's Chinese population for his most violent persecution."

Plus ca change, eh? 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

LAND OF THE GIANTS:

Commander Benson said:

Several years back, I read comments by Robert Duncan in a piece on Irwin Allen's television efforts---I believe it was in Filmfax and may have been the source of the quote by Duncan posted by TurningPoint. Those comments corroborated what was always painfully obvious to me about all of Irwin Allen's television fare: initially, the writers were given free rein to develop truly intriguing plots based upon the shows' premises, including genuine emotional and psychological drama. But as soon as Allen, who was notoriously hands off the day-to-day business of production, turned his attention back to a given show, he would start ordering the writers to take out all of that "talk talk talk". He wanted action action action. Lots of running and fistfights.

That, combined with his pecadillos, meant that, in each of his series---Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel, and Land of the Giants---the best episodes, the most dramatic and thought-provoking ones, were at the beginning of the series' runs, and then at some point, they would all decline to "monster of the week" and/or sheer silliness.

And it's true; all four of his series follow that same parabolic arc. Voyage held on to its quality the longest, delivering some genuinely mature and gripping episodes for the first season and a half. Then Allen-itis set in, and it seemed like every week after that, Seaview was attacked by a giant squid or Captain Crane was turned into a werewolf or something.

If you watch the first season or half-season (or in The Time Tunnel's case, the first half-dozen episodes), you can see the writers trying to mine the gold out of the shows' premises and showing their potential. That makes the later devolution of the programmes more of a pity.

I have a competing theory (or at least an alternate one). These two theories are not necessarily contradictory; they may both be true. My theory regarding the decline in quality of Irwin Allen's television series is that he stretched himself too thin. In the '64-65 television season, allen had one series: Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. The next season he had two: Voyage plus Lost in Space. By the '66-67 season he had folded in a third, Time Tunnel. Each series became increasingly campy as another was added, and the decline in quality for Time Tunnel was precipitous. By the '68-69 season, though (when Land of the Giants began), the other three series were off the air. We are currently 14 episodes in to the first season (of two), and so far the quality has remained consistent. It remains to be seen (by me, anyway), what season two will bring.

I have seen this kind of thing before (notably "Paul's Adventure on the Floor" from the Beatles' second movie, HELP! and "Planet of Giants," the Doctor Who second season opener, but never to this extent (i.e., a whole series written around the premise). I would like to see a revival of this premise toady with state of the art SFX.

[Richard Willis]

I never watched The Time Tunnel, but early-on I watched Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

The pilot episode of Voyage offered a story of counter-espionage or battle against a SPECTRE-like group. Shortly thereafter they went to giant monsters which were in a fish tank with a miniature ship. I gave it up.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

By season four the episodes were so formulaic that Tracy and I played "Seaview Bingo."

"Seaview is going to crash to the bottom."

"Kowalski is going to say or do something which puts the mission at risk."

"Chip saves the day."

"The Admiral becomes mind-controlled."

"Everything is an illusion."

"A 'Lost in Space' monster becomes an undersea monster."

[Jeff of Earth-J]

BONANZA: Speaking of "Hey, it's that guy!" characters... 

The episode we watched last night featured "Mel Cooley" from The Dick Van Dyke Show, "Larry Tate" from Bewitched, and Tor Johnson from Ed Wood films... all in one episode!

[Richard Willis]

I just found out that the 24th episode of the 4th season of Black-ish ("Please, Baby, Please," from 2 1/2 years ago!) was delayed because the network had cold feet. After some prodding, they finally showed it on August 10, 2020, among the reruns following season 6. THIS WAS NOT A RERUN. If you are a fan of the show and missed it like I did, it is available on Hulu. The On Demand option (for ABC network) on my cable company is only making the last few episodes of season 6 available, as far as I can tell. I was finally able to watch it this evening by clearing my Black-ish "watch history." It then let me see all of the seasons of the show. The episode is available at the end of season 4, as "episode 99." It's a powerful episode.

IMDB page for Please Baby Please

[Jeff of Earth-J]

LAND OF THE GIANTS: The episode we watched last night featured Ronny Howard.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

BONANZA: EPISODE 1: We watched almost all of season one and have since moved on to season two. but we have our DVR set to record any episode we have not seen, and over the time we were offline, we recorded the first two episodes of season one. Now, I have seen S1 E1 before, and I recall it being somewhat out of character in regard to what came later. In particular I remember a scene in which Ben Cartwright delivered the line (regarding a man who trespassed on the Ponderosa), "If we're not back by morning, kill him!" Today (especially after having recently watched several season one and two episodes) I consider that line to be all bluster... especially since he gave the order to Hop Sing!

There's plenty else "out of character" in this episode, though. For one thing, it is written with broad strokes of expository dialogue, and the relationship between the brothers (particularly Adam and Little Joe) is somewhat off. For all intents and purposes Little Joe is James Dean, specifically James Dean from East of Eden, but with an additional brother thrown in for good measure. Also "out of character" is that the Cartwrights seem almost "afraid" to go into Virginia City. Yvonne De Carlo guest-stars in the first episode. 

I have seen (years ago) two of the three flashback episodes dealing with Ben's wives and the mothers of his children, "Elizabeth My Love." "Inger My Love" and "Marie My Love." I don't even know which season(s) those are from, but I hopefully look forward to seeing them all. I have saved S1 E1 and plan to save the "My Love" trilogy as well. 

[The Baron]

Bonanza's one of them shows that I remember being on when I was a kid. I never knew the sons had three different mothers

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Adam's mother was a Bostonian woman, Elizabeth Stoddard (hmm...), and Ben was the first mate on a ship and had a dream to travel west.

In St, Joseph, Mo., he marries a Scandinavian girl.

After establishing the Ponderosa, he travels to New Orleans to see Marie DeMane, the widow of a ranch hand who died while saving his life.

Thrice married, thrice widowed.