Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on July 14th, 2010
Street Hawk is an adventure series about a young cop named Jesse Mach, played by one-time 80s pop idol Rex Smith, who gets injured on the job and is selected to be a part of an experimental motorcycle / vigilante program (funded by the government), that is helmed by computer genius Norman Tuttle, played by a pre-Murphy Brown Joe Regalbuto.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 8th, 2010
A spin-off from Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life centered around four residents of the Eastland Academy for Girls and their headmistress, Mrs. Garrett (Charlotte Rae). The four girls were characterized in strokes as broad as they way their physical types were presented: Blair (Lisa Welchel), rich, spoiled and blonde; Jo (Nancy McKeon), tomboy and brunette; Tootie, nosy and African-American; Natalie (Mindy Cohn), fun-loving and overweight.
The actual humour in the series is pretty pitiful – in other words, standard sitcom quips that might pass for wit if you're about five. However, like its parent show, it would consistently tackle difficult subjects. In this season, that means the likes of abortion, drunk driving, and hearing loss. Nothing subtle, and much that is painfully earnest here, but at least there is also a little bit of ambition in the stories, so credit where credit is due. The lead-in to the season was the TV movie, The Facts of Life Goes to Paris. While the dire nature of the humour is even more apparent here, now that the laugh track has been stripped away, the shooting was actually done on location, which is, frankly, more than I was expecting.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on April 25th, 2010
C.O.P.S aired in 1988, one year after the debut of Robocop, and the future-cop theme and design is clearly influenced by Verhoven's violent satire. As a child I caught onto this influence immediately and a part of me always saw it as derivative (along with some Judge Dredd influence). Watching it now I get an eery knot in my stomach as I realize just how silly and loaded with slapstick this cartoon really is, and yet cannot help but still recognize the design influence of Robocop. Throughout there is this strange paradox of immensely threatening looking characters doing terribly silly things. One should expect these various behemoths to be murderers, rapists or just violent thugs (just look at the caricature grins most of them have and tell me I'm wrong) and yet they're stealing fur coats and cavemen and all have goofy voices....my brain takes a while to process all of this.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 7th, 2010
Warner nearly singlehandedly invented the cartoon medium as we know it today with the advent of their various Bugs Bunny and associates cartoons. Ever since the early 1930’s these characters have become an indelible part of the American pop culture. Their images became an important part of the World War II effort and even helped to put a face on the issues of the Great Depression. They represent one of the richest histories in animation, second only to Walt Disney. There are some, I’m sure, that would argue they might even belong in front of Uncle Walt. When I was growing up in the 1970’s, I had no idea I was enjoying cartoons and characters that were already 40 years old. The truth is that my grandfather had been a fan of these same cartoons when he was a kid. Today the Warner cycle of Loony Tunes cartoons is over 70 years young. Things might have changed with the passing of Mel Blanc, who provided most of those familiar voices for much of that time, but Bugs and the gang are still out there and going strong.
Which brings us to Bugs Easter Funnies.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 7th, 2010
"Right there in that very house is where our story begins. The story of the first Easter Rabbit. And, you know we came within a hair's breadth, if you'll excuse the pun, of never having an Easter Rabbit at all."
Rankin & Bass brought us some of the most memorable holiday specials ever made. Most of us grew up watching these cartoons and stop motion shorts no matter what age we grew up in. You see, this stuff has been on television non-stop for 50 years. There are so many classics. There's Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty The Snowman, and so many others that we could fill the page with our own memories. For the most part, just putting the Rankin & Bass name to a special pretty much guaranteed an entertaining and enduring tale. Unfortunately, The First Easter Rabbit just isn't one of those.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 4th, 2010
Infinity Entertainment's latest themed grouping of public domain movies deserves some props for originality: eight features that were up for Best Picture during the first decade of the Oscars. Not a single one actually won the prize, but as we all know, that doesn't mean they weren't worthy of doing so.
In chronological order, then, here are the nominees:
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on March 16th, 2010
In many ways Barnaby Jones was seen as the Matlock of private Detectives. The title character's age alone gave him a similar, elderly fan-base that sustained the program for eight seasons. As a spin-off from Cannon, producer Quinn Martin offered us yet another protagonist who is designed to be perpetually underestimated (Cannon because of his obesity, and Jones for his age). Buddy Ebsen (who most know best as Jed Clampett from the original Beverly Hillbillies) is Barnaby Jones, who is always accepting a cold glass of milk over a hard drink, and always asking “a lot of questions” to catch the bad guy.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 5th, 2010
So here we go with yet another heaping helping of public domain offerings from Infinity. I last looked at their Abbott & Costello package, which concentrated on TV shows and only featured a couple of movies. This Mickey Rooney set is heavily oriented towards the movies. Here's what you get:
Disc 1:
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on February 25th, 2010
Oh how the rich can get into mischief. This DVD set is smack dab in the middle of Dynasty's successful nine season run. The mud slinging, both literal and figurative, was at its height in this fourth season, and no $200 haircut or $1000 outfit was left unruffled by the various scandals and plots set into the web of these wealthy Denver residents. In fact, this season was the one and only time this series won a Golden Globe for best TV Drama.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 15th, 2010
What we have here is, essentially, a great, heaping collection of public domain material from the classic comedy duo. The menu is as follows:
17 episodes of their radio show: The Abbott & Costello Show (1942-1949);
