Posts by Gino Sassani

Earlier for our Maude Review I talked about the All In The Family "coaching tree” and the number of spinoff that show produced. Maude was the first, but the most successful by far has to be The Jeffersons. The family moved into the house next door to Archie Bunker early in the first season of All In The Family. While Norman Leer always intended Sherman Hemsley to play Archie's black nemesis, the actor wasn't available for the role. Thinking ahead, the show introduced another actor as Uncle Henry to spar with Archie for a while. The son Lionel would also change actors over the years. There is no doubt that when Hemsley finally appeared as George Jefferson, the chemistry between him and Carroll O'Connor was instant magic.

The families would be neighbors for four years when the network, seeing the popularity of the Jefferson family, decided it was time for them to move it on up to the Eastside. George's chain of dry cleaners was making good money, and they could finally afford a "De-Lux" apartment in the sky. In addition to Hemsley as George and Isabel Sanford as wife Louise "Weezie" Jefferson, the cast included Mother Jefferson, played by Zara Cully. She hated her daughter-in-law and was always turning up her nose at the woman. She thought George was such a wonderful husband. Of course, he wasn't. Like Bunker he was racist and a crude man. He also had a temper, often coming out of his insecurity at being rather short. He never spoke when shouting worked just as well.

"NYPD BLUE wishes to dedicate its season to the memory of the New York City police and firefighters who sacrificed their lives on September 11th, 2001. Their heroism will never be forgotten, and we extend our deepest sympathies to their families and loved ones." 

As NYPD Blue entered its ninth season, there were tragic circumstances both on the screen and in real life. On the show Andy's former partner Danny Sorenson ends up dead, and in the real world New York City experiences the devastating events of 9/11. Both are addressed as the season opens.

"From the chaos of the New York City streets rises a legion of visionary gangsters. Vicious killers and criminal geniuses determined to create their own version of the American Dream."

If you are looking for an actual documentary on the evolution of the mafia and famous Five Families of New York, this is absolutely a bad place to start. I'm a bit uneasy with AMC's use of the word documentary next to drama on this series. It pretty much follows the book The Last Testament Of Lucky Luciano by Martin A. Gosch and Richard Hammer. While neither author is listed in the show's credits as writers, I have found the material pretty much supports that narrative of the story. That's fine, except the book itself has been the subject of controversy since it was first published in 1975. At first there was a rumor the material was based on recordings that Lucky made while in exile in Italy. The authors never made that claim but did claim the material came from various sit-downs between Gosch and Lucky in the early 1960's just before his death. I'm very sure it's the story he might have told. But we're talking about a huge ego here, and much of it is embellished, just as much of Making Of The Mob: New York is quite embellished. This is no history lesson. But is it entertaining.

For over 15 years the CSI franchise has been a solid stable of programming for the Eye Network. The original show blasted through all initial expectations and lasted for 15 years. CSI: Miami went on for a decade, and CSI: New York for a little over five years. Now the original has bowed out of the game, and after 30 years of seasons, the franchise's future hangs with newcomer CSI: Cyber. All dynasties eventually come to an end. Some pass quietly in the night. Others do so quite horribly. After watching the short 13 episode run of CSI: Cyber, I'm afraid it's the latter path for a once-brilliant franchise. Catch it while you can, if you're interested. While it will be back this fall, I do not anticipate a long life for a show that is CSI in name only. Now is your chance to decide for yourself.

It all starts with Patricia Arquette as Avery Ryan. The character was first introduced in a back-door pilot the previous season on CSI. She is a psychologist who had her files hacked and made public. The resulting cybercrime caused one of her patients to die. So she joined the FBI and somehow became the nation's leading authority on cybercrime and now heads that team for the FBI. Forget that this is a weak character back story. It's too much been there, seen that. Characters who change the course of their lives over a death are cheap shortcuts trying to gain sympathy from the audience. But let's overlook that for now. The fact that she became such a knowledgeable techie in whatever time there was is completely unbelievable. It's hard to believe she was even much of a psychologist. Human empathy is something I find in neither the character nor the actor.

Perry Mason officially ended in May of 1966, but that wasn't going to be the end. Twenty years later the surviving cast members reunited for Perry Mason Returns. It was Perry and Della back together again. Both Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale returned to their roles. William Hopper had died in 1970, so William Katt joined the reunion as Paul Drake, Jr. Katt might not have really been Drake's son; he was Hale's son. When Katt left the films he was replaced by William R. Moses as Ken Malansky. Ken was a young law student helped by Perry once when he was framed in law school for a rival's murder. He ends up being both a legal assistant and investigator for Perry in the reunion films. The films also often starred James McEachin as Lt. Brock, the cop on many of the cases.

While the name on the collection and each of the television movies might be Perry Mason, Raymond Burr and his iconic character only appear in two of these six films. Burr died in September of 1993, and CBS attempted to continue the series after his death. They never killed off Mason. He was away somewhere as a guest attorney filled in for him. The rest of the cast remained, and the name of the series was given an "A" before Perry Mason Movie. The style would more or less remain the same, but it just didn't have the legs everyone was hoping for after the loss of Burr. Obviously, this is the last of these film collections. The team would continue to do 30 television movies from 1985-1995. CBS has now begun to package these reunion films in collections like this. You get six films on three discs. The discs appear in a plastic case, and the cases are held by a cardboard slipcase.