Posts by Gino Sassani

It appears that Kevin Sorbo has shed his heroic image for that of the direct-to-video family film. Back in 2009 we interviewed the actor for another horse film called Tommy And The Cool Mule. Interestingly enough, Storm Rider also involves a mule. He appears quite comfortable with the change. And while he's not playing the kind of heroes he did in Hercules or Andromeda, he has been working quite a bit in these smaller productions. I'm sure that the fans would love to see him once again in the larger-than-life roles that made him famous. For now you'll have to settle for heartwarming and small-budget. For now, you'll need to settle for Storm Rider.

Dani (Churchran) is used to getting what she wants. Her family is filthy rich, and she gets to ride thoroughbred horses in competitions. As the movie begins, we see she has a rather huge collection of blue ribbons for such a young teenage girl. It all comes tumbling down when her father (Howell) is busted by the Feds for security fraud. Now we know how they got so rich. Her stepmother (Sorbo) jumps ship as soon as things go bad. That's no big loss, but she takes Dani's younger half-brother with her. She's forced to sell her favorite horse Admiral to her rival. Since Dad's on his way up the river, she has to move in with her Uncle Sam (Sorbo).

"There's nothing like good wine and friends. Or cheap wine and relatives."

No one is going to get you closer to Mama for the holidays than Time-Life and Star Vista. It's the moment that fans have waited for over 20 years to arrive. The complete series of Mama's Family is finally out on DVD, and that means there's a lot to talk about. No one is trying to say that Mama's Family was the best sit-com to hit television. I'm not even sure I'd put it in the top ten. But it's the little show that could and survived six years on television and even longer in reruns. Few shows have beaten the odds this many times and come out on top. Mama's Family did just that, and here's how it happened.

The Three Stooges might well be one of the most famous comedy teams in American entertainment history. What started as a Vaudeville act in the early 1920's would take theater audiences by surprise in the Depression years of the early 1930's in the famous shorts for Columbia Pictures. The shorts featured brothers Moe and Curly Howard with Moe's vaudeville partner Larry Fine. The shorts found them in all manner of situations from plumbers to Civil War soldiers. Moe was the domineering leader of the trio who ruled with an iron fist, usually slammed against Curly's head or Larry's jaw. The boys took slapstick rather literally, and before long their routines became part of the pop culture. The shorts appear violent even today. Moe wouldn't think twice about slamming a sledgehammer into Curly's head. The show's sound effects would become iconic as well.

In the 1960's and 1970's the Stooges found new fame when their shorts showed up on television. A brand new generation was introduced to the Stooges, who had gone through a few line-up changes over the years. When Curly became too ill to go on, brother Shemp joined the gang. Other incarnations included Joe Besser and finally Joe DeRita as Curly Joe. Moe and Larry remained for the entire run. It's these television airings that first introduced me to the boys.