Actually, I do. (I never watched SCTV to any great extent, not like I did SNL or Monty Python.) That line about Larry choking on an apple was pretty funny. Also, "killed in Viet Nam" is a reference to an urban legend. Another prevalent one I rememeber hearing was that Ken Osmond was actually Alice Cooper.
STILL THE BEAVER: One of my choices. I watched this 1983 TV movie when it first aired on CBS. It is exactly as I remembered it: pretty bad. Thoughts...
I hate to be redundant, Jeff, but my thoughts are exactly the same as yours---making the Beaver a downtrodden loser as an adult implied that all of Ward's efforts to show him the proper way to live didn't take. I sat down on the davenport in anticipation when this movie aired, but wound up sorely disappointed. I was stunned that this piece of drek came from the creators of Leave It to Beaver---Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher.
It would've worked much better if the premise had been that the Beaver was now the father of two boys, roughly the ages that he and Wally were at the start of the series, and the trials and tribulations he has with them. When his boys get into trouble, as they will, the Beaver deals with them---in part by going to his mother for advice and in part, by remembering his father's lessons---but often by coming up with his own wisdom, from recalling his boyhood.
Depicting Eddie Haskell as still being the oily, unctious bad egg was a mistake, as well. There were a few episodes of the original series (e.g., "The Spot Removers" [14 May 1960], "Eddie Spends the Night" [25 March 1961]) which showed that, deep down, Eddie could be thoughtful and compassionate, and that he knew the way he acted was not the way to be. A better approach for Still the Beaver would've seen Eddie more or less rehabilitated, but stuck with a son who was just like him as a boy.
And when I come up with better plotlines than the fellows who were paid to do so---well, that's always a sign of bad writing.
There was one moment in Still the Beaver that evinced the lump-in-the-throat moment so common to the original series. That was when the Beaver, visiting his old house, recalls his father. The sequence begins by returning to the scene in the original series episode "Most Interesting Character" (25 June 1959) when Ward reads the simple, heartfelt tribute that the Beaver wrote about his "most interesting character", his father (the absolute best moment in the original series, by the way). And while the audio sticks to the voiceover of Ward reading the letter, the visuals segue to Ward's funeral. That moment choked me up. (And I would've love to have seen a quick bit where we see Eddie privately in grief over the death of the man he most respected and probably wished had been his own father.)
The series which sprang from the film, Still the Beaver/The New Leave It to Beaver, was just as bad, filled with clunky, over-the-top emotional moments and sentiment which, somehow, missed the mark of the original series. And, again, there's one exception . . .
In the second episode of the new series, "Thanksgiving Day" (21 November 1984), a sub-plot has Wally's daughter working surreptiously to bring a special guest to the Cleaver home for Thanksgiving. Forget the stupid A-plot. The highlight of the episode is when the guest arrives and is revealed as---Ward's sister, Gloria! And the capper to this moment is that the producers cast Hugh Beaumont's real sister, Gloria Beaumont Rusman. The emotion on June's face when she comes out of the kitchen and discovers her sister-in-law is genuine, I think, because of that.
One last thing, Jeff . . .
. . . raising the question why they didn't cast Sue Randall (who was still alive in 1983) as the better known Miss Landers.
I can only surmise, but Sue Randall died on 26 October 1984, of lung and larynx cancer, and it's quite possible that, by the time of the production of Still the Beaver, Miss Randall was too ill to participate.
I was stunned that this piece of drek came from the creators of Leave It to Beaver---Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher.
Did it? I thought I saw a line in the credits that said something along the lines of "Based on the series created by..."
...making the Beaver a downtrodden loser as an adult implied that all of Ward's efforts to show him the proper way to live didn't take.
Exactly.
When his boys get into trouble, as they will, the Beaver deals with them---in part by going to his mother for advice and in part, by remembering his father's lessons---but often by coming up with his own wisdom, from recalling his boyhood.
Like Kung Fu!
...it's quite possible that, by the time of the production of Still the Beaver, Miss Randall was too ill to participate.
MANHUNT IN THE AFRICAN JUNGLE(S): As I mentioned before, I have 16 serials on VHS or DVD, most of them "superhero" or "superhero adjacent." Raiders of the Lost Ark has Manhunt in the African Jungle(s) in its DNA. It's got an exotic locale, Nazis, World War II... what's not to love? In addition to each chapter ending on a cliffhanger (and beginning with the resolution of one) as one would expect, this has the best action/fight scenes I have ever seen. Each chapter features a large set: a throne room, a dungeon, an airplane hanger, a saloon... you name it. Each set is filled with props and at least one large piece furniture, such as a bookshelf, a wine rack, a workbeanch, etc. There will also be a staircase as well as something to swing from, such as a chandelier, or rope or a doorframe. You can count on Rex Bennett and his opponent(s) making their way across the entire set, smashing or overturning every piece of furniture in sight. Radar Men from the Moon is my favorite science fiction serial, and Manhunt in the African Jungle my favorite action/adventure.
THE PHANTOM EMPIRE: I bought this on DVD recently. I was familiar with it, but I didn't think I'd actually seen it. As soon as we started witching we both realized we had seen it before... and as soon as I started typing this, I remembered where: it was on one of those "bad movie" sets.* First, this DVD was supposed to have been "digitally remastered"; it was not. Second, the serial had been edited into a "movie". Neither one of us felt like sitting through it for an hour and a half, so as soon as we realized we turned it off. It's an odd genre: science fiction/western. Gene Autry plays a "singing cowboy" who runs a "radio ranch," but his daily broadcast is being constantly upset by a group of gangsters who want to get ahold of it for its radium deposits. (It's always radium in these old serials.) If that wasn't bad enough, his ranch is also the entry point of an advanced undergroun civilization, Murania, which lies 20,000 feet below the Earth's surface.
I must say that I am impressed with Betsy Baxter (Betsy King Ross), one of Autry's kid sidekicks. She swings herself up into a tree, swings herself onto a running horse, tumbles from the horse when it falls, and stands on the saddle at full gallop (which is more than Frankie Baxter (the other kid sidekick) does. Tracy's opinion: "Weird and mostly stupid." I think now The Adventures of Superman TV show has put me in the mood to re-watch the Superman serial(s).
*I thoughtBuck Rogers was one of my 16 serials but I can't find it. Now that it think of it, I may have the "movie" version on one of those "bad movie" sets as well (in which case my total would be 17).
I believe I saw THE PHANTOM EMPIRE on Matinee at the Bijou way back, but they may have condensed it. The main Muranian villain had an interesting look, if I recall correctly.
Replies
Maybe you'd like this "reunion" better:
Actually, I do. (I never watched SCTV to any great extent, not like I did SNL or Monty Python.) That line about Larry choking on an apple was pretty funny. Also, "killed in Viet Nam" is a reference to an urban legend. Another prevalent one I rememeber hearing was that Ken Osmond was actually Alice Cooper.
I was a big SCTV fan. I remember watching that with my Dad. He got a chuckle out of the "Ward, you're boring" line.
STILL THE BEAVER: One of my choices. I watched this 1983 TV movie when it first aired on CBS. It is exactly as I remembered it: pretty bad. Thoughts...
I hate to be redundant, Jeff, but my thoughts are exactly the same as yours---making the Beaver a downtrodden loser as an adult implied that all of Ward's efforts to show him the proper way to live didn't take. I sat down on the davenport in anticipation when this movie aired, but wound up sorely disappointed. I was stunned that this piece of drek came from the creators of Leave It to Beaver---Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher.
It would've worked much better if the premise had been that the Beaver was now the father of two boys, roughly the ages that he and Wally were at the start of the series, and the trials and tribulations he has with them. When his boys get into trouble, as they will, the Beaver deals with them---in part by going to his mother for advice and in part, by remembering his father's lessons---but often by coming up with his own wisdom, from recalling his boyhood.
Depicting Eddie Haskell as still being the oily, unctious bad egg was a mistake, as well. There were a few episodes of the original series (e.g., "The Spot Removers" [14 May 1960], "Eddie Spends the Night" [25 March 1961]) which showed that, deep down, Eddie could be thoughtful and compassionate, and that he knew the way he acted was not the way to be. A better approach for Still the Beaver would've seen Eddie more or less rehabilitated, but stuck with a son who was just like him as a boy.
And when I come up with better plotlines than the fellows who were paid to do so---well, that's always a sign of bad writing.
There was one moment in Still the Beaver that evinced the lump-in-the-throat moment so common to the original series. That was when the Beaver, visiting his old house, recalls his father. The sequence begins by returning to the scene in the original series episode "Most Interesting Character" (25 June 1959) when Ward reads the simple, heartfelt tribute that the Beaver wrote about his "most interesting character", his father (the absolute best moment in the original series, by the way). And while the audio sticks to the voiceover of Ward reading the letter, the visuals segue to Ward's funeral. That moment choked me up. (And I would've love to have seen a quick bit where we see Eddie privately in grief over the death of the man he most respected and probably wished had been his own father.)
The series which sprang from the film, Still the Beaver/The New Leave It to Beaver, was just as bad, filled with clunky, over-the-top emotional moments and sentiment which, somehow, missed the mark of the original series. And, again, there's one exception . . .
In the second episode of the new series, "Thanksgiving Day" (21 November 1984), a sub-plot has Wally's daughter working surreptiously to bring a special guest to the Cleaver home for Thanksgiving. Forget the stupid A-plot. The highlight of the episode is when the guest arrives and is revealed as---Ward's sister, Gloria! And the capper to this moment is that the producers cast Hugh Beaumont's real sister, Gloria Beaumont Rusman. The emotion on June's face when she comes out of the kitchen and discovers her sister-in-law is genuine, I think, because of that.
One last thing, Jeff . . .
. . . raising the question why they didn't cast Sue Randall (who was still alive in 1983) as the better known Miss Landers.
I can only surmise, but Sue Randall died on 26 October 1984, of lung and larynx cancer, and it's quite possible that, by the time of the production of Still the Beaver, Miss Randall was too ill to participate.
I was stunned that this piece of drek came from the creators of Leave It to Beaver---Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher.
Did it? I thought I saw a line in the credits that said something along the lines of "Based on the series created by..."
...making the Beaver a downtrodden loser as an adult implied that all of Ward's efforts to show him the proper way to live didn't take.
Exactly.
When his boys get into trouble, as they will, the Beaver deals with them---in part by going to his mother for advice and in part, by remembering his father's lessons---but often by coming up with his own wisdom, from recalling his boyhood.
Like Kung Fu!
...it's quite possible that, by the time of the production of Still the Beaver, Miss Randall was too ill to participate.
Yes, you're likely correct.
MANHUNT IN THE AFRICAN JUNGLE(S): As I mentioned before, I have 16 serials on VHS or DVD, most of them "superhero" or "superhero adjacent." Raiders of the Lost Ark has Manhunt in the African Jungle(s) in its DNA. It's got an exotic locale, Nazis, World War II... what's not to love? In addition to each chapter ending on a cliffhanger (and beginning with the resolution of one) as one would expect, this has the best action/fight scenes I have ever seen. Each chapter features a large set: a throne room, a dungeon, an airplane hanger, a saloon... you name it. Each set is filled with props and at least one large piece furniture, such as a bookshelf, a wine rack, a workbeanch, etc. There will also be a staircase as well as something to swing from, such as a chandelier, or rope or a doorframe. You can count on Rex Bennett and his opponent(s) making their way across the entire set, smashing or overturning every piece of furniture in sight. Radar Men from the Moon is my favorite science fiction serial, and Manhunt in the African Jungle my favorite action/adventure.
NEXT: The Phantom Empire
THE PHANTOM EMPIRE: I bought this on DVD recently. I was familiar with it, but I didn't think I'd actually seen it. As soon as we started witching we both realized we had seen it before... and as soon as I started typing this, I remembered where: it was on one of those "bad movie" sets.* First, this DVD was supposed to have been "digitally remastered"; it was not. Second, the serial had been edited into a "movie". Neither one of us felt like sitting through it for an hour and a half, so as soon as we realized we turned it off. It's an odd genre: science fiction/western. Gene Autry plays a "singing cowboy" who runs a "radio ranch," but his daily broadcast is being constantly upset by a group of gangsters who want to get ahold of it for its radium deposits. (It's always radium in these old serials.) If that wasn't bad enough, his ranch is also the entry point of an advanced undergroun civilization, Murania, which lies 20,000 feet below the Earth's surface.
I must say that I am impressed with Betsy Baxter (Betsy King Ross), one of Autry's kid sidekicks. She swings herself up into a tree, swings herself onto a running horse, tumbles from the horse when it falls, and stands on the saddle at full gallop (which is more than Frankie Baxter (the other kid sidekick) does. Tracy's opinion: "Weird and mostly stupid." I think now The Adventures of Superman TV show has put me in the mood to re-watch the Superman serial(s).
*I thought Buck Rogers was one of my 16 serials but I can't find it. Now that it think of it, I may have the "movie" version on one of those "bad movie" sets as well (in which case my total would be 17).
I believe I saw THE PHANTOM EMPIRE on Matinee at the Bijou way back, but they may have condensed it. The main Muranian villain had an interesting look, if I recall correctly.
No, that was the villain from The Fighting Devil Dogs.
I can watch this endlessly, I find it very relaxing. It's a live-cam of some train tracks in Fuefuki City, west of Tokyo.
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