"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
I know they are cheezy but I have been a Sci-Fi fan since I was a kid and did enjoy 80's series like Automan, Man from Atlantis and Invisible Man. With all the advancements of CGI, those series now look very primitive to say least but were fun nonetheless. The only UK series that has survived for decades of course is Dr. Who but I was never a fan, too weird for my liking.
The listing for an episode later today on antenna TV reads, and I quote:
"Episode 116: Follow the Leader. Barbarino is overthrown when the Sweathogs hold an election for class leader. Cast: Gabriel Kaplan, Marcia Strassman, John Sylverter White, Robert Hegyes, Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs."
John Travolta has never been listed in any of those program listing cast credits.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
Well, you're being a little tough on the Travolster, however, I can only guess that this is a contractual issue that now prevents his name from appearing in credits. I am not a big fan of his, however, I do think that he was good in Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Pulp Fiction and Michael. I haven't seen much more than those, and even the mentioned ones aren't at the top of my list of greatest movies. "Welcome Back Kotter" was a cheaply made, uninspiring TV comedy, however, I thought that Kaplan played it pretty good through the crapola production and acting.
I think initially Welcome Back Kotter was pretty good. As you say, I think Kaplan was great. I'm not sure how they determine what actors get listed in the synopses on those things. I notice on Mannix, they'll list the same cast on every episode, which would read something like "Mike Connors, Joseph Campenella, Ward Wood, Robert Reed", regardless of whether or not those last three appear in a given episode. I don't think Gail Fisher's name is ever listed. And beyond the recurring cast members, I think the only guests they ever list are Milton Berle (in one episode) and William Shatner (in another).
I remember my dad being mystified that Charles Bronson wasn't listed when we watch House Of Wax one night. I'm trying to explain to him, Bronson is in like two scenes, I don't think he had any lines, but somehow my dad couldn't figure out why he wasn't listed in the synopsis.
Took the day off. Long week. Saw a great film on Movie Channel........Somebody Up There Likes Me, with Paul Newman. Rocky?
Seen last night: the 1980 version of Flash Gordeon. Mindless fun. Good character chemistry between Flash (Sam Jones, Jr.), Dr. Zarkov (Topol), Prince Vultan (Brian Blessed), and Prince Barin (Timothy Dalton). Amusing minor part by Richard O'Brien. Max von Sydow marvellously over the top as Ming the Merciless. Alas, the women (Melody Anderson as Dale Arden and Ornella Muti as Princess Aura) were mostly eye candy with very little real acting to do.
The special effects range from meh to cheesy, but that's okay because they blew a lot of their budget on getting Queen to do the soundtrack. Of course, it's probably Queen's weakest album, but still...
Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.
In The Space Capsule, Ming's Theme, The Ring, Football Fight, Battle Theme, and The Hero are all great tracks. The Hero has one of my favourite Dr. Brian May guitar solos, and I love the fills he plays when they come back to the Flash reprise at the end, as well as the vocal harmonies that follow!
As for the movie, it answer the question, "Is it possible to make a B-movie with a big studio budget". Yes, the answer is very much yes.
The movie has the craziest cast imaginable. I mean, you've got a guy who worked with Ingmar Bergman, a Blue Peter presenter, the creator of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, the playwright who wrote Look Back In Anger, a future James Bond, Jason King, Brian FRELLING Blessed, a soap opera actress, a Fiddler On The Roof refugee, Deep Roy, and in the title role, a Playgirl escapee!
And the dialog!
Dale: Flash, did your flying lessons get as far as landing?
Flash: I was afraid you'd ask that!
"This Ming is a psycho"
"Are you men on the right pills? Maybe you should execute that traitor!"
"He's playing some barbaric game! Now match him! Like THIS!"
"We intend to empty your mind, as we would empty your pockets"
"This place is a lunatic asylum"
"Wake me when we're in sight"
"Hail, Flash! You've saved your Earth! Have a nice day!"
And of course that brilliant good cop/bad cop routine Klytus and General Kala try running on Princess Aura is brilliant.
I still maintain they knew they were making a turkey, so they decided to have fun with it.
Yeah, there's some good stuff on that album.
But it's still their weakest album. Can you honestly name one that's weaker...?
Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.
Not sure it's vintage but there's a Firefly marathon on Comet TV.
Don't know if this has cropped up...
...just watching the "making of" special feature accompanying the bluray of Logopolis, Tom Baker's final appearance as Dr Who - & Matthew Waterhouse, who played Adric, is wearing a VdGG/Pawn Hearts t-shirt!
My brother recommended watching Game of Thrones. I told him I really don't go for "fantasy", and asked him if it had dragons in it.
He said it does, and I told him there's only one thing I'm going to watch on TV if I want to see a dragon.
^^ Every Sunday night on Me-TV
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
Watching the Tres Tooges while . First time in a while. Hilarious....
We don't go get HBO, so I never got to see Game Of Thrones, really. We did have one of those free preview weeks at one point, and I saw the end of an episode, what I'm told was the first one, where this kid climbs up this huge tower, finds two people inside, and gets shoved out of the window, because apprently he "saw something he wasn't supposed to" or whatever. ANd I thought, "Oh, so it's one of THOSE kind of shows, huh?".
DId we ever actually find out what Ward Cleaver did for a living? We know he works in an office, but I don't remember them ever saying what he actually did there, beyond his apparent belief that he "works very hard" (sorry folks, nobody who works in an office "works hard").
Did we ever figure out where the Cleavers live? We know the town is called Mayfield. In one episode episode Ward mentions Euclid, and in another, he mentions Shaker Heights> Hey, wait a minute! The Cleavers live in Ohio! (though admittedly, we have no Friend's Lake, or Metzger Field here).
Oh, and in the opening of the third season, Ward and June are shown waking the boys up. Uhm, why would your parents, both your parents need to come into your woman every morning, to wake you up? Had alarm clocks not yet been invented?
Here's some input:
"Ward cleaver was a stock broker.
In the episode where Lumpy wants to join the merchant marine Fred and Ward are talking in Wards office.
The certificate on the wall in Wards office reads:"
STOCK EXCHANGE
CERTIFICATE OF BROKERSHIP
WARD CLEAVER
"Mentally taxing"? I doubt that very much. Try working in a restaurant kitchen, having to do five things at once, and having to do it for 9 hours with no break (apart from occasionally using the john), because the people who run the restaurant are too cheap to hire extra help. Try getting up at 5:00am (4:30 on Sundays) so that you have sufficient time to eat breakfast and get ready so you can the better part of a mile to the bus stop, so that you can get to work before 7:00am. Try making four gallons of sausage gravy at once. Try making salads, deserts, and prepping everything else that's needed in the restaurant. Try having to break off in the middle of doing something that's needed for the grill line, because the idiot servers need cantaloupe or lemon wedges or whatever and are somehow unable to do it themselves. Try doing all of that while worrying about your father's health and about the possibility that you might end up being homeless in the very near future.
Don't fucking talk to me about how "mentally taxing" it is being able to stroll into work at 9:00am, sit behind a desk, getting to take a lunch break at around noon, going home at 4:00 or 5:00, and probably getting paid at least twice what I get paid working in the kitchen.
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