Hello, Ms. Bancroft... Anne Bancroft was, of course, a busy lady of both stage and screen, and every once in a while those two planes collided, such as in the BBC production of Paddy Chayefsky's The Mother. The play is set in the Bronx, New York in 1954 and deals with family, aging, and accepting reality. … Continue reading Anne Meets Mrs. Fanning
Oz Goes Highland
Ye Scots, wha wish auld Scotland well! One of the most popular characters on the Christy TV show was, by far, Doctor Neil MacNeill, and one of the most popular show arcs was the triangle between Christy (Kellie Martin), Neil and preacher David Grantland (Randall Batinkoff). Neil was wonderfully played by Stuart Finlay-McLennan, who seemed to burr with the … Continue reading Oz Goes Highland
Page To Screen: Anne Frank Remembered
Miep Gies was the last of the Secret Annex helpers to survive, passing away in 2010 just shy of her 101st birthday. She and Anne had a special sisterly relationship from the time Anne was four, and naturally people wanted to know more about that. In 1987, she published a book, Anne Frank Remembered, with Alison Leslie … Continue reading Page To Screen: Anne Frank Remembered
Oh, It’s You, Mr. Lee
Hello, all... One of the interesting things about Sir Christopher Lee is that he never turned his nose up at a good part whether it was large or small, and over the course of his career he amassed quite a selection of bit roles in various films and TV shows. There wasn't a lot of … Continue reading Oh, It’s You, Mr. Lee
Onward, Duplicitous Humies
Who here has seen JourneyQuest? If not, what are you waiting for? Not to be confused with the Colorado rafting company, JourneyQuest premiered in 2010, the brainchild of writers Kate Marshall and Matt Vancil, the latter of whom also directed a few episodes and played a character named Wharrgarbil. The show has caught on in … Continue reading Onward, Duplicitous Humies
Be Kind, Rewind
Click... Ah, Red Dwarf. Part Star Trek send-up, part Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy and part sitcom, it's original enough that it's taken on a life of its own since its 1988 debut. It's such a big deal that the Red Dwarf Fan Club holds a convention every year, with cosplay and panel discussions with cast members. There … Continue reading Be Kind, Rewind
I Just Want To Be Evil
Joan Collins, darlings, and not a swimming pool in sight. As we've talked about before, Hollywood lined up to guest star on the Batman TV show, and one of the favored few was Joan Collins, who played a wily woman known as the Siren. She was fresh off an appearance on Star Trek and not well-known to … Continue reading I Just Want To Be Evil
A Partial Defense of “Bunheads”
Amy Sherman-Palladino once said that she peaked with Gilmore Girls. "It's me under a bus after this." Well, you can't keep a good writer down, and Sherman-Palladino is still at it. Her second artistic follow-up to Gilmore Girls was 2012's Bunheads, a show that brought in mixed-to-favorable reviews and unfortunately only ran for a single season. The … Continue reading A Partial Defense of “Bunheads”
We Gather Together
What are you thankful for? OK, you all know one of my all-time favorite shows is Christy (read my earlier thoughts here). The show had a short life, but they did manage to make one feature-length holiday special, "The Sweetest Gift," which originally aired on November 24, 1994. As it leads up to Thanksgiving and … Continue reading We Gather Together
Holy Guest Star, Batman
Mr. Johnson's back... When Batman was on TV in the 60s, it seemed like every star in Hollywood lined up to take their turn at being a villain, and one of these was Van Johnson. Early in Season Two, he played the Minstrel, a devious lute player who sets his sights on the Gotham City Stock Exchange … Continue reading Holy Guest Star, Batman
The Binge Goes On
Aaaaand we're still quarantined in California. I won't give my opinion of certain people in charge of my state except to say, "Question everything," and "Consider the source." We do have light at the end of the tunnel, of course, but staying inside is definitely having its effects. A couple of weeks ago my dad … Continue reading The Binge Goes On
Bingeing In the Time of Coronavirus
Hi, all, hope everyone had a good Easter! I originally was supposed to go back to work tomorrow, but heh heh, no, I'm not, because I got temporarily laid off until the schools go back to normal. Whenever that is. Of all the states in the United States, California's among those which have gotten hit … Continue reading Bingeing In the Time of Coronavirus
Go Team
*click* *adjusts rabbit ears* In my humble opinion, the most iconic villain of the original MacGyver series was Murdoc, played by Michael Des Barres. He appeared on the series a total of nine times, and for one reason only: MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson) was the only target master hitman Murdoc couldn't murder. Well, that, and he lived … Continue reading Go Team
It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Netflix
Ah, Netflix, where the motto has become, "Let there be original content. Oodles and oodles of original content." Every genre is fair game, every level of production is worthy, every potential heartstrings-tugging saga might mean more views. Basically anyone with a camera, a little bit of production experience, and the right connections can get greenlighted … Continue reading It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Netflix
More Cuisine, Stars Hollow Style
If you've been reading my blog for a while, you probably remember a post I did a couple of years ago in which I reviewed Eat Like A Gilmore: The Unofficial Cookbook for Fans of Gilmore Girls. Well, dear readers, author Kristi Carlson and her entourage of chefs are back with more eats for the … Continue reading More Cuisine, Stars Hollow Style
