Posts by Gino Sassani

“My name is Dylan Hunt. My story begins the day on which I died. My last look at my world was to be from inside a pressure chamber at NASA’s underground laboratory at Carlsbad Caverns. Our goal was the development of a form of suspended animation which would allow our astronauts to make longer voyages through our solar system. It had been my decision that our method was ready to test on a human so, it seemed that any risks should be mine…”

Gene Roddenberry was riding high as Star Trek began to grow more in popularity during syndication than it had as a prime-time network series. Suddenly television executives wanted more ideas from the Great Bird of the Galaxy, as Trek fans began to know him. One of those ideas was Genesis II. It tells the story of a scientist who is conducting a suspended animation experiment. He expects to be under for only a few days, but a cave-in traps him in his chamber, and he is not rediscovered for 154 years. He awakes to find an entirely different world than the one he remembers. Humans live underground as a group called the PAX. They are a peaceful sort and have left behind most of the science that destroyed the world Hunt knew. Their enemies are a group of mutants, identifiable by having two belly buttons because they have two hearts. They have enslaved humans and live an aristocratic life in the city of Tyranus. Now Hunt (Cord) is being courted by both civilizations. He must choose between them. Attempting to win him over to the Tyranians is Lyra-a (Hartley). She seduces him and tries to taint his opinion of the PAX. But Hunt soon learns from experience which side is the nobler race.

"This is the way the world ends..."

The Stephen King cycle has turned hot once again. With the enormous success of the two-part It feature at the box office, Stephen King is hitting the kind of popularity he had back in the 1980's and 1990's when it seemed anything he put his name to had to be made into a feature film or some other grand project. The trend led to mixed results. Many of the films couldn't live up to the visceral detail that has become King's trademark. To do this, his books have taken on a large page count that has been nearly impossible to fit into a 2-hour feature film window. It split the book into two very good films. The Stand has twice made it to the mini-series format. Paramount Studios have had their hands in the Stephen King pot on various occasions. So now they've put together an interesting collection from their own library. This 5-film collection includes Stephen King's The Stand (1994), The Dead Zone (1983), Pet Sematary both (1989) & (2019) and Silver Bullet (1985). It's a mixed bag, to be sure. There are some hits and misses to be found inside this collection. Each film or mini-series has its own disc with special features only reproduced on the two Pet Sematary films. Let's take a peek at the films inside, shall we?

"I hear if you're looking for a miracle, now's the time to ask."

When Michael Weatherly left NCIS it was like losing an old friend, both for the cast and crew of the franchise and for the millions of fans who had invited him into their living rooms for almost 15 years. But he returned to both. His presence was very much alive in the last season of NCIS. He was discussed, shown in flashbacks, and somehow continued to carry on his teasing war with McGee. But he wouldn't return in person. That's because he was busy with the second season of his own show Bull. And while Bull is reportedly based on the early career of Dr. Phil, nothing could be farther from the reality that Bull is 100% Michael Weatherly. I'm not sure if the shows exist in the same television universe, but they continue to be somewhat entangled. Both shows aired an episode with the exact same title on the exact same day. The shows were called Keep Your Friends Close, and there's obviously a message to the fans in there that however successful Bull turns out to be, we're not completely done with Tony, and there's an effort to keep the family bonds close.

"We live in perilous times."

He has been called the Father of our Country. Every American history class is replete with his characteristics and important biographic details. In the upheaval of 2020, the name George Washington has taken on a somewhat different tone with populations across the country. A lot of this "cancel culture" movement is a movement of ignorance. I recently read a survey that some of the folks out there trying to bring down statues couldn't pass a rudimentary quiz on who the person even was. It's a disturbing situation. We've all heard the axiom that those who refuse to learn history are doomed to repeat it. But let’s not reduce this to oversimplistic catch phrases. History doesn't repeat itself, but as Mark Twain cleverly observed, "It rhymes." As a history teacher myself, I don't often point toward a television production for a history education, and I won't start here.What I will say is that there is indeed much to be discovered here, and so if you're planning on going out there to topple a Washington statue in the coming days, may I at least implore you to check out History's mini-series Washington. Who knows, maybe if a reporter shows up and offers you a quick quiz, you might be able to surprise them. Better yet, the four and a half hours you spend watching Washington might even offer you a point of view you hadn't considered, and maybe you'll find something else to do on Statue Removal Day. One can only hope. At the very least, know your enemy.

"I was wonderin' if you were going to come to say goodbye."

The world said goodbye to Gunsmoke in 1975 after 635 episodes and 20 seasons. But it wasn't to be quite forever. While most of the cast would never again don the characters that made up the show's iconic ensemble, James Arness would show up for three films that would carry his story forward. Now that CBS has already released the series in individual sets as well as an impressive full series box that delivers all 635 of those episodes, there remained just one more task to perform in order to make the collection complete. There were three television movies released between 1987 and 1992. Arness would be the only star to return for all three. Deaths and other commitments made a true collection of reunion films impossible. Even Amanda Blake as Miss Kitty would return only for the first film before becoming deceased. Two of the prominent returns were characters who were basically part of a single episode or actors who played other parts along the way. But the center of gravity for Gunsmoke has always been Marshall Dillon, and these films certainly do not disappoint on that front.