Movies - Take Two. Action!

[Gruno]

The Rockford Files was a good show. I always liked the intros, with people leaving answering machine messages for him. .

101 1974-09-13 "The Kirkoff Case" "It's Norma at the market. It bounced. You want me to tear it up, send it back, or put it with the others?"
102 1974-09-20 "The Dark and Bloody Ground" "Hey Jim, this is Louie down at the fish market. You going to pick up these halibut or what?"
103 1974-09-27 "The Countess" "Hey Rockford, very funny. I ain't laughing. You're gonna get yours."
104 1974-10-04 "Exit Prentiss Carr" "It's Morrie. Got a call from Davis at the IRS. You were right. They bounced your return. Call me."
105 1974-10-11 "Tall Woman in Red Wagon" "It's Laurie at the trailer park. A space opened up. Do you want me to save it or are the cops going to let you stay where you are?"
106 1974-10-18 "This Case is Closed" "Really want Simbu in the seventh? C'mon, that nag couldn't go a mile in the back of a pickup truck. Call me."
107 1974-10-25 "The Big Ripoff" "It's Aundra. Remember last summer at Pat's? I've got a twelve hour layover before I go to Chicago. How about it?"
108 1974-11-01 "Find Me If You Can" "This is the blood bank. If you don't have malaria, hepatitis, or TB, we'd like to have a pint of your blood."
109 1974-11-08 "In Pursuit of Carol Thorne" "This is the message phone company. I see you're using our unit, now how about paying for it?"
110 1974-11-15 "The Dexter Crisis" "I staked out that guy only it didn't work out like you said. Please call me. Room 234. County Hospital."

The rest can be found here.

[Hal...]

The Shelter
It's a Good Life
The Midnight Sun
The Jungle
Five Characters in Search of an Exit
Dead Man's Shoes
Kick the Can
Young Man's Fancy

To be honest, I enjoyed every episode to a certain extent.

Back in the very early '80s, they began showing reruns of The Twilight Zone. I'd rarely seen the show up until then so I watched it all the time. I always liked the ones where I was familiar with an actor from the movies or TV shows. But the ones from that season that really standout in my memory are The Arrival, It's a Good Life, Five Characters in Search of an Exit, Nothing in the Dark, The Hunt, and Little Girl Lost.

I think my all time favorites are Escape Clause (Season 1), Nothing in the Dark (S3), The Hunt (S3), Valley of the Shadow (S4), Stopover in a Quiet Town (S5), and The Bewitcin' Pool (S5). I knew The Hunt was written by Earl Hamner, Jr, the creator of The Waltons, but just discovered that two more of those were written by him as well.

The episodes written by Richard Matheson are some that I also really liked. FYI, he also wrote two of the stories in the TV movie Trilogy of Terror, including the one with the warrior doll.

Since we are talking detectives and space, does anyone remember, The Andromeda Strain? Of course by todays standards, rather plain, but I liked the way they built up the excitement of the virus escaping.

I haven't seen it in a long time but remember loving it. The novel was written by Michael Crichton.

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

The Shelter
It's a Good Life
The Midnight Sun
The Jungle
Five Characters in Search of an Exit
Dead Man's Shoes
Kick the Can
Young Man's Fancy

To be honest, I enjoyed every episode to a certain extent.

heh... obviously, from what I've stated already about TZ, I do too. My Season 3 favorites are:
The Shelter
The Passerby
The Trade-Ins
The Gift

Those 4 are sheer excellence IMO. But Season 3 was so strong, with other excellent tales like:
Kick The Can
A Piano In The House
To Serve Man
The Fugitive
I Sing The Body Electric
Cavender Is Coming (a comedy!)
Death's Head Revisited
The Midnight Sun
Once Upon A Time (another comedy!)
Nothing In The Dark

I really liked: In His Image, Death Ship, Jezebel and On Thursday We Leave For Home. But no, around these parts they just don't show them. Been years since I've seen the sci-fi channel.

As soon as The Gold Edition DVD collection was released back in the day, I had to buy it right away. Mr. Serling produced very few stinkers. The man was a genius.

[headcrash]

Regarding the Apollo 11 film, here's a site that will probably eat up a fair amount of my time over the next couple of days:

https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/

"This website replays the Apollo 11 mission as it happened, 50 years ago. It consists entirely of historical material, all timed to Ground Elapsed Time — the master mission clock. Footage of Mission Control, film shot by the astronauts, and television broadcasts transmitted from space and the surface of the Moon, have been painstakingly placed to the very moments they were shot during the mission, as has every photograph taken, and every word spoken."

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

I always liked The Rockford Files & The Sweeney

oh yeah... TRF was very good along with Columbo

and I remember when The Andromeda Strain came out. Good tension in that one!

[Staun]

Hal, I did hear how good the book was and sorry I never got it. Wonder if I can find at least a paperback copy.

[Staun]

Regarding the Apollo 11 film, here's a site that will probably eat up a fair amount of my time over the next couple of days:

https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/

"This website replays the Apollo 11 mission as it happened, 50 years ago. It consists entirely of historical material, all timed to Ground Elapsed Time — the master mission clock. Footage of Mission Control, film shot by the astronauts, and television broadcasts transmitted from space and the surface of the Moon, have been painstakingly placed to the very moments they were shot during the mission, as has every photograph taken, and every word spoken."

Thanks for the site, great stuff.

[Staun]

heh... obviously, from what I've stated already about TZ, I do too. My Season 3 favorites are:
The Shelter
The Passerby
The Trade-Ins
The Gift

Those 4 are sheer excellence IMO. But Season 3 was so strong, with other excellent tales like:
Kick The Can
A Piano In The House
To Serve Man
The Fugitive
I Sing The Body Electric
Cavender Is Coming (a comedy!)
Death's Head Revisited
The Midnight Sun
Once Upon A Time (another comedy!)
Nothing In The Dark


As soon as The Gold Edition DVD collection was released back in the day, I had to buy it right away. Mr. Serling produced very few stinkers. The man was a genius.

MT, around here they seemed to have boiled things down to just a few of the good episodes showing them over and over. Now if someone would just run the original, Outer Limits.

[Hal...]

Hal, I did hear how good the book was and sorry I never got it. Wonder if I can find at least a paperback copy.

Staun, I always say, if you want to read a book (or watch a movie), check your library. If want to buy a book, check Half-Price Books. It looks like there's two in Milwaukee and two in Madison. I think they'll ship from store to store for free. Or, you can just buy it online from them and have it shipped directly to you if you can't find a copy of something in your local store. They'll also notify you if something comes in that you want.

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

MT, around here they seemed to have boiled things down to just a few of the good episodes showing them over and over. Now if someone would just run the original, Outer Limits.

funny you should mention OL... I also bought the OL collection on DVD because I remember those being excellent when I was a kid

Sadly, though there are a few great episodes, the majority of OL stories fall a bit flat

[GuitarGeek]

101 1974-09-13 "The Kirkoff Case" "It's Norma at the market. It bounced. You want me to tear it up, send it back, or put it with the others?"
102 1974-09-20 "The Dark and Bloody Ground" "Hey Jim, this is Louie down at the fish market. You going to pick up these halibut or what?"
103 1974-09-27 "The Countess" "Hey Rockford, very funny. I ain't laughing. You're gonna get yours."
104 1974-10-04 "Exit Prentiss Carr" "It's Morrie. Got a call from Davis at the IRS. You were right. They bounced your return. Call me."
105 1974-10-11 "Tall Woman in Red Wagon" "It's Laurie at the trailer park. A space opened up. Do you want me to save it or are the cops going to let you stay where you are?"
106 1974-10-18 "This Case is Closed" "Really want Simbu in the seventh? C'mon, that nag couldn't go a mile in the back of a pickup truck. Call me."
107 1974-10-25 "The Big Ripoff" "It's Aundra. Remember last summer at Pat's? I've got a twelve hour layover before I go to Chicago. How about it?"
108 1974-11-01 "Find Me If You Can" "This is the blood bank. If you don't have malaria, hepatitis, or TB, we'd like to have a pint of your blood."
109 1974-11-08 "In Pursuit of Carol Thorne" "This is the message phone company. I see you're using our unit, now how about paying for it?"
110 1974-11-15 "The Dexter Crisis" "I staked out that guy only it didn't work out like you said. Please call me. Room 234. County Hospital."

The rest can be found here.

Oh that's awesome! Without going through the whole list, one of my favorites is one is when one of Rockford's friends calls him to say he has the money he owes Rockford, but "You gotta call me back right away, because I'm on my way to the track". I also like the one where someone calls to tell him that a guy will pay him 20 grand, but the name of the guy who'll pay off and the phone number are both obscured by line noise.

Back in the very early '80s, they began showing reruns of The Twilight Zone. I'd rarely seen the show up until then so I watched it all the time.

You remind me that channel 43 here ran Twilight Zone reruns during that era, but they showed it at 11:30 at night. At the age of 9-10, I typically wasn't allowed to stay up that late. And the weird thing was, they'd only show it Monday through Thursday nights. Friday night, ya know what they'd show? The Benny Hill Show! I liked Benny Hill, but I wanted to see The Twilight Zone.

But now that I think about it, I must have seen it on occasion, because I remember a couple episodes from that era. I also remember seeing a couple Night Galleries from that time, because I remember the one with Arte Johnson as the DJ in hell, and one with...was it John Astin, as the hippie who dies, and goes to hell and finds himself surrounded by boring people?

I know I saw more of both series later in the 80's and 90's, along with The Outer Limits, but I can't quite account for why I remember those episodes from seeing them in the early 80's.

[Rogue Mail]

Anyone a fan of the 90s Twilight Zone?

I know overall the episodes were poor, but there were some gems.

Wordplay is probably my favorite, about a guy struggling to come to terms with the notion that language has changed and people appear to be speaking gibberish. I thought Nicholas Pryor Putin a very good performance here.

A Small Talent For War, I nice little twist in the tale, with John Glover excellent as always.

Nightcrawlers, a Vietnam flashback tale directed by William Friedkin.

Paladin Of The Lost Hour, with Danny Kaye.

I am sure there are more that I cant remember. Sometimes the 90s video effects look a bit crude, but that's to be expected.

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

I tried to like the TZ reboot of the 90s (isn't there another reboot right now?) but the stories just did not have the magic of the ones Rod Serling wrote and chose for his original series.

[Hal...]

You remind me that channel 43 here ran Twilight Zone reruns during that era, but they showed it at 11:30 at night.

I was trying to remember what channel it was shown on and now that you mention it, that's what it was. For some reason, TimeWarner carried Cleveland's channel 43 in Springfield. They used to have a lot of interesting programming. I remember that for awhile they even had limited commercial interruptions during movies. I wonder if they were the first to do that. The only problem was the commercial break was like 10 minutes long. lol

[Staun]

Staun, I always say, if you want to read a book (or watch a movie), check your library. If want to buy a book, check Half-Price Books. It looks like there's two in Milwaukee and two in Madison. I think they'll ship from store to store for free. Or, you can just buy it online from them and have it shipped directly to you if you can't find a copy of something in your local store. They'll also notify you if something comes in that you want.

Wow, and we had one just a couple of miles away a few years ago. They had all sorts of things, books, movies, vinyl and comics. They were like the Ben Franklin of book stores.

[Staun]

I tried to like the TZ reboot of the 90s (isn't there another reboot right now?) but the stories just did not have the magic of the ones Rod Serling wrote and chose for his original series.

Sadly agree.

[Staun]

funny you should mention OL... I also bought the OL collection on DVD because I remember those being excellent when I was a kid

Sadly, though there are a few great episodes, the majority of OL stories fall a bit flat

I got the sense that they, at times, tried to do a lot of character development in a short time and would forget the story and of course the alien or force they were fighting. There were some great episodes but others would crumble under it's own weight. They were pushing the humanity thing so hard the stories got a little boring. I only have two volumes but still watch them and hoping to get more.

[Staun]

I was trying to remember what channel it was shown on and now that you mention it, that's what it was. For some reason, TimeWarner carried Cleveland's channel 43 in Springfield. They used to have a lot of interesting programming. I remember that for awhile they even had limited commercial interruptions during movies. I wonder if they were the first to do that. The only problem was the commercial break was like 10 minutes long. lol

We get it on ME TV right after Perry Mason 11:30 cst. And speaking of Mason, when you see it uncut, they are good.

[Hal...]

Wow, and we had one just a couple of miles away a few years ago. They had all sorts of things, books, movies, vinyl and comics. They were like the Ben Franklin of book stores.

According to their website, they have one in Greenfield and one in Brookfield.

[Lou]

Thriftbooks.com is a fantastic site for used books as well.

[GuitarGeek]

BTW, there were a lot of Twilight Zone/Outer Limits knock offs in the 80's. I remember a show called The Dark Room, which apparently only ran for something like 7 or 8 episodes, but it was hosted by James Coburn, who did his monologues from a literal photography dark room, and each story would begin with a zoom in on a photo (so I guess in away this was more like Night Gallery) that would turn into the first shot of the story.

One story was about a man who helps his son build a crystal radio for some sort of school project. They end up picking up radio transmissions from the early 1940's, including a report about a passenger ship that was sunk during WWII. He explains that his father was on the ship, so he somehow figures out that he can send a telegraph message into the past, which he's hoping will somehow cause the ship to not be sunk. So he falls asleep at the dining room table working on this. When he wakes the next morning, his father walks in, but he's found that somehow, he's caused the Germans to win WWII.

There's was also a show called Tales From The Dark Side, in the late 80's, but I didn't like that one as much. I think that was the show that had the episode where a musician with writer's block is given a "new musical instrument", something as revolutionary as a Moog synthesizer, or whatever. Anyway, the guy is able to compose new music using it, but it somehow is sucking the life out of his teenage daughter. Finally, at the end he has to destroy the instrument to save his daughter. In doing so, he injures himself in a way that he may never be able to play piano again, but the daughter says "I'll be your hands" or something like that.

I also remember a Nightmare On Elm Street series, which I only saw a couple times, I think, and again, I didn't like it much.

[Progatron]

K.

[Staun]

Regarding the Apollo 11 film, here's a site that will probably eat up a fair amount of my time over the next couple of days:

https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/

"This website replays the Apollo 11 mission as it happened, 50 years ago. It consists entirely of historical material, all timed to Ground Elapsed Time — the master mission clock. Footage of Mission Control, film shot by the astronauts, and television broadcasts transmitted from space and the surface of the Moon, have been painstakingly placed to the very moments they were shot during the mission, as has every photograph taken, and every word spoken."

This has been fascinating. Did they do the same type program for Apollo 13?

[Hal...]

There's no prize for anyone who actually reads this full post. Sorry.

Goddamnit! I want my Kewpie doll!

[GuitarGeek]

Goddamnit! I want my Kewpie doll!

I thought about editing it down. I probably should. I actually had one more entry, but I was told I was 20 letters over the posting limit, so I removed it. BUt I feel like I need to edit more.

Also, it's spelled "Goddammit". Or at least that's how they spelled it in Mad magazine way back when.

Edit: I culled a few paragraphs, so it's shorter, though it still looks too long to me.