Made for TV Mayhem

Scruples the TV Series?!?

2012-01-31T11:05:00.004-05:00

No joke, guys! ABC just announced that they greenlit a new show based on Judith Krantz's scandalous novel, Scruples. Natalie Portman will be producing and you can read more about it here.

As you all know, Lindsay Wagner starred in the fun, but obviously watered down 1980 TV mini-series adaptation, which is available through Warner Archives.

Anybody have any thoughts on the novel, mini-series or upcoming TV show?

Happy Birthday Tom Selleck!

2012-01-29T12:05:00.005-05:00

Tom Selleck turns 67 today!

This beautiful and wonderful actor has been such a mainstay in my life. As a huge Magnum P.I. nut, I can truly say I only appreciate the show more and more with each viewing. Thomas Magnum was machismo-laden charisma at its best! So, it's truly surprising that when he starred in a pilot called Bunco (1977) alongside Robert Urich some critics felt both actors lacked leading man qualities! Wow, talk about missing the mark completely! Of course, Selleck is still ruling the airwaves with the hit show Blue Bloods and another Jesse Stone TVM in the works. They say you get better with age, and that's certainly true with Selleck, one of the most likable actors of the small screen.

Happy Birthday Tom!

Check out Selleck's auspicious beginnings in this commercial:

And check out this post I wrote for Tom Selleck's 65th birthday, which features some pictures from Tom's first TVM, The Movie Murderer.

Celebrating Freddie Prinze

2012-01-29T09:22:00.004-05:00

Today marks the 35th anniversary of the day we lost Freddie, but rather than feeling sad (although it's really hard not to, even now), I'd like celebrate Freddie's short but fantastic career. Last summer I dedicated a week to his fabulous talent and in my retrospective I looked at Chico and the Man, his sole TV movie Million Dollar Ripoff (by the way, it's still streaming on Netflix and Hulu, so check out the links in the review) and the TVM biopic about his life titled Can You Hear the Laughter.

Freddie was a one of a kind talent, and someone I have adored for as long as I can remember. I'll be spending a little more time thinking about his smile today and I hope you do too.

Deliver Us From Evil (1973)

2012-01-27T17:32:00.011-05:00

Network: ABC
Original Air Date: September 11th, 1973

ABC kicked off their 1973 – 74 Movie of the Week season with Deliver Us from Evil, which was shot entirely on location in Mount Hood, Oregon. Production for the film began in July and lasted a whole three weeks – the longest ever for a TVM at that time.

Three weeks?!?

This is one of the reasons why I tend to be more forgiving of retro-TVMs. They were made for a fraction of the budget of a theatrical and they obviously had to shoot their films under very demanding schedules. And I have to say, most of these films deliver an amazing amount of entertainment. Of course, a lot of the success comes from the actors who tend to be film veterans that can bring in the goods at the drop of a hat. George Kennedy, who stars in Deliver spoke about the perils of television in an interview he did in 1973. While he enjoyed the format and professed he had “no snobbery” when it came to working on small screen treats, he really disliked a lot of the writing. He said, “Nine out of ten scripts they send me are very bad. You turn them down and then you see somebody else has done them. Makes you wonder who’s running the nuthouse.” Kennedy also found Deliver to be a particularly grueling shoot. He commented, “I thought I was in pretty good shape until I started working in those mountains. It’s amazing what being high up does to your body. We had oxygen with us, and believe me, we needed it.” It’s interesting that he brings up the writing because I felt parts of Deliver felt a preachy. However, the performances move it up a notch to make it a fantastic little potboiler.

George Kennedy is Cowboy. He’s the cocky type - full of pseudo-machismo, complete with the ten-gallon hat and a survivalist attitude. He is on a camping trip along with 4 other guys and a well-worn guide named Dixie (Jim Davis from Dallas!). The men seem to know each other, but they also appear rather distant in many ways. Certainly, they are not much alike. Steven (Bradford Dillman) works in accounting, Al (Jack Weston) is a blue-collar type and Arnold and Nick (Charles Aidman and Jan Michael Vincent looking kind of dreamy) are a father-son duo who look like the prize of middle class suburbia. Cowboy spots someone parachuting into the forest and then the men hear on the radio that a skyjacker has stolen $600,000 and escaped by jumping from a plane. The next day they search for this D.B. Cooper knock-off and when he’s finally cornered, Cowboy shoots him. The men decide to split the money but Dixie and Nick find themselves torn with how they should handle the situation. Luckily for Cowboy, Dixie takes a big plunge off of a mountain. This sets a trend for the men as one by one they meet horrible ends.

I don’t remember Sam Raimi’s A Simple Plan well enough to compare them, but they do seem quite similar in theme. Both films are about taking what isn’t yours and making excuses for why you deserve it. These statements are probably more overt in Deliver, simply because TV movies tended to overreach in that respect. Dixie is the big moral voice in the film and in the first act (before he takes a flying leap) he begs Nick to consider man’s true nature – and not to succumb to it. It was perhaps wise to get rid of him early on because then the men’s motives can be carried out through their actions instead of being told how they feel. However, seeing Jim Davis leave so early was a total bummer. Why is he always the victim?!? He got his just deserts in Satan’s Triangle way to early too! Like Jock Ewing could be taken down so easily…

Whoops! Getting off track…

Deliver is desolate, suspenseful and well acted. Kennedy is especially sleazy, but in the end, he’s really the most honest character in the film. I’ve never been much of a fan of Jan Michael Vincent, but he’s really great as the remaining voice of reason.

Deliver was just the first of over 50 TV films produced for ABC for that season! While not as successful as the previous year, which had ranked # 5 in the Neilsons, the offerings were indeed tasty. I think Deliver was a nice way to start the year, which would also offer such Movie of the Week cult classics as Satan’s School for Girl’s and Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark. It’s moody, thoughtful and suspenseful, just the way we used to like ‘em!

Deliver Us From Evil is available through Warner Archives.

James Farentino (1938 - 2012)

2012-01-26T20:58:00.009-05:00

I don’t know why I was so shocked when I read yesterday that James Farentino had passed away, but it probably had something to with the fact that I found him to be such a looming presence on screen that I couldn't believe anything would ever stop him. If he seemed larger than life it’s probably because the actor often found himself in situations just as dramatic as the ones he reenacted on TV. His personal life sometimes made front page news, and because of that I think people would forgot that this darkly handsome actor was one of the biggest leading men on television.

Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1938, Farentino trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and found fame on Broadway when he was in his early 20s. His first television appearance was in 1962 when he appeared in an episode of Naked City titled Let Me Die Before I Wake. While he would star in some interesting theatricals (The Final Countdown and Dead and Buried being two of his most popular films), the small screen not only beckoned him, it adored him. He appeared in a ridiculous number of made for TV movies. He’s a look at some of his contributions:

Birdbath (1971)
Vanished (1971)
The Family Rico (1972)
The Longest Night (1972)
The Elevator (1974)
Crossfire (1975)
Emily, Emily (1977)
Jesus of Nazareth (1977)
The Possessed (1977)
No Margin for Error (1978)
Silent Victory: The Kitty O’Neill Story (1978)
Son-Rise (1979)
Something So Right (1982)
The Cradle Will Fall (1983)
License to Kill (1984)
A Summer to Remember (1985)
The Fourth Wise Man (1985)
Picking up the Pieces (1985)
Sins (1986)
That Secret Sunday (1986)
Family Sins (1987)
The Red Spider (1988)
Who Gets the Friends (1988)
The Naked Lie (1989)

And he did oodles more into the 90s and beyond. Farentino’s contribution to the world of TVMs cannot be overstated. While he said he often felt marginalized by Hollywood, he graced the small screen with several fine performances. From this list, my favorite would have to be The Possessed, partially because he wears a lot of groovy turtlenecks but also because I thought he was really fun as the ex-priest out to put a little foot to Satan’s ass! The Cradle Will Fall is another film I find myself watching from time to time as well. Farentino was interesting because he had a very distinctive look but he could also easily slip into varied roles. He played everything from an ex-priest to rugged cop to a killer doctor to whatever else he decided to take on. That obviously worked into his success on various television series as well. Farentino is most noted for appearing in The Bold Ones: The Lawyers (1969 – 1972), Dynasty (he played Dr. Nick Toscanni from 1981 – 1982) and Blue Thunder (1984), which also starred a then-unknown Dana Carvey as a computer genius jokester. Farentino enjoyed working on Blue Thunder, which was a revamp of the film which had starred Roy Scheider. He said in an interview, “This is something new for me... I’ve watched enough TV to know there isn’t anything better, and it won’t get any better. It’s an entertainment medium and people want to enjoy it.” The show only ran for 11 episodes but the match up of Farentino, Carvey, Bubba Smith and Dick Butkus made for an unforgettable combo!

And I think that’s the perfect word to describe Farentino… unforgettable.

Rest in peace, James. You made the world a much more interesting place while you were here.

Daytime After Dark

2012-01-15T10:02:00.006-05:00

As you may have guessed, I've been celebrating the world of daytime television this week as One Life to Live drew to a close. I've been going through old soap magazines and all of my other soap literature (of which I seem to have a lot), and I remembered that I have two old reviews here of TV movies featuring daytime television performers. Please follow the links if so inclined.

The first is a review I did of a movie called Woman on the Ledge which is so full of daytime drama that it was destined to find itself on the ledge of my heart. I know, silly... but true.

The other review is for a movie called Fantasies and it stars Suzanne Pleshette as a dragon lady of a night time soap creator. It features many familiar daytime faces and is a great little made for TV slasher.

Melodrama comes in all shapes and sizes, and for that I am grateful. Enjoy!

Worlds Without End are Ending

2012-01-13T10:37:00.009-05:00

Who knew that Friday, January 13th, 2012 was going to be so unlucky for Amanda By Night? I guess I did last April when ABC announced it was cancelling two long time soaps, All My Children and my story, One Life to Live. Since then I’ve watched my show get cancelled, get picked up by a production company named Prospect Park as part of an interesting online venture and then dropped again, when they couldn’t secure the right financing (and guild deals, apparently). Now it’s completed its run and I am beyond words.

OK, I'm not completely beyond words... I'd just like to say that the actors, writers and crew of One Life to Live have risen to an extremely difficult challenge. The last few weeks have been nothing short of sheer brilliance, and the cliffhanger ending was fantastic. While I know they had to leave some stories open because they thought they'd go online, I love the choices they made and I'm looking forward to watching some of the characters move over to General Hospital.

That said, I still have a few bones to pick with the world of television programming...

I understand that television is a business. It’s all about the bottom dollar and deciding what kind of shows will reap the greatest financial rewards. It’s always been like that, but inside of that world of cold, conglomerate business-making there has been an artistic venture residing within. People who want to make great entertainment come in and do what they can with what they’ve got. It’s part of why I love made for television movies so much. Filmmakers were lucky if they were given two weeks to shoot something, and because of small budgets, they concentrated on characters, stories and mood. While the TVM genre became less fiscally rewarding, soaps kept up that tradition by putting together one hour shows, five days a week, all year. It’s amazing to think of how such a large group of people assemble everyday to rehearse, block and film dozens of pages of scripts. Of course they too were all about characters and ambiance. I know melodrama has become less cool over the years, but what’s disparaging is how cold (no pun intended) some people have become towards the daytime genre. I think people have lost respect for the work these people do, and it’s really sad. Sometimes I feel like we’ve become a world who either wants the cruddiest low budget reality programming (technically, the new soap opera) or extravagant effects-laden shows. Somewhere, we forgot about the middle.

I say that knowing that’s not completely true, and I know that with the advent of cable, there are simply too many options and audiences become fractured. In the end, all network television is in decline. But that doesn’t make it any less upsetting to see One Life to Live disappear from my daily viewing habits (and the only current programming I follow aside from Hot in Cleveland).

Soaps are a fantastic venue for escapism. I started watching One Life to Live 30 years ago, and I haven’t regretted an hour I set aside for my daytime drama. One of the reasons the show worked for me was because it had a great sense of humor about itself and the writers never seemed afraid to go there. Characters went back in time, they went to heaven (and came back), they discovered an entire city beneath the most palatial Llanview mansion, Llanfair and they had hilarious characters who often summed up the over-the-top situations with quirky one liners. They also had some incredibly intense and moving drama, such as when Megan died of lupus (I will never get over her death), or when they almost executed Todd Manning for a crime he didn’t commit. They had characters of all kinds of ages finding love in the afternoon. It was a beautiful, fantastic and wonderful ride, and I’m so happy I got to visit Llanview for the last three decades.

But the end of the show doesn’t just mean that I will be wondering how to fill that hour in my day, it also stands for the ongoing, and somewhat brutal, death of the genre. Since ABC announced they were cancelling One Life to Live, I’ve become a member of several Facebook groups (and yes, I am even part of a letter writing campaign), and there are thousands of us gathered together, wondering if it is possible to save our soaps. With SoapNet going bye-bye in the near future (another boneheaded business decision, as far as I am concerned) there isn’t much of an outlet for these shows, which I had once assumed would eventually move to cable. It’s a scary time for people like me, who love this kind of storytelling. It feels like no one is listening, and those channels I once held dear to me have become nothing but strangers, who I pass by on my remote as I look for better entertainment.

Sounds kind of melodramatic, don’t it? Well, I think I’m allowed to mourn to loss of my friend here today and I can’t think of any better fashion than to say there is no more love in the afternoon. Goodbye One Life to Live, I will always love you and I will never ever forget you.

Remembering Peter Falk - Griffin and Phoenix: A Love Story (1976)

2012-01-02T19:28:00.005-05:00

Network: ABC
Original Air Date: February 27th, 1976

Anyone who reads my blog is probably aware that I have a deep love for Peter Falk. You can only imagine how crestfallen I was when he passed away in 2011. But who am I kidding? We were all crestfallen. Falk was such a wonderful actor and if you were born in the 70s or later, chances are he was a mainstay in your life. Of course, he was best known as the disheveled Lt. Columbo, but he was one of the few actors who was lucky and talented enough to move through his famous television series, which he would eternally be identified with, while portraying several other characters on both the big and small screen. Undoubtedly Columbo would become Falk’s trademark, but it was his portrayal as Geoffrey Griffin in Griffin and Phoenix which had the greatest impact for me.

I remember watching Griffin and Phoenix with my father when I was about 10 years old. It was playing on the Afternoon Movie on our local channel (good old KVVU, which is now a Fox affiliate). Although I was too young to really understand what was happening, the ending was moving enough that I carried the image of it with me through my life. I didn’t see it again until 2005, and I watched it three times in one week. In fact, I can remember the last time I saw it because it was February 14th. Despite a maudlin premise, I thought it would be a great Valentine’s Day film choice because it is a simply exquisite and romantic experience.

Peter Falk is Griffin, and he’s just been given a very short time to live. After a misguided attempt to reconnect with his ex-wife and kids, he heads to LA to spend his last days as quietly as possible. Sara Phoenix is 34 going on spinster, and she aimlessly travels from place to place after each failed romance. She is diagnosed with a terminal form of cancer, and she also finds herself heading to LA to… well, I don’t think she knows exactly what she’s doing just yet. She ends up meeting Griffin at the community college in a death and dying class. Phoenix is hesitant to get involved with Griffin although it’s obvious they are attracted to each other. After some pursuit, she finally gives in, but both have decided to keep their disease a secret.

Griffin and Phoenix is a romantic comedy which sounds like it has no romance or comedy in it at all, and that’s the magic of this film, which takes on death and makes it seem a little less scary (at least for a while). Aside from Clayburgh and Falk’s exceptional performances, credit should also be given to producers Tony Thomas and Paul Junger Witt who not only worked on several other made for TV movies together (including the famous tearjerker Brian’s Song), but also collaborated on SOAP which always managed to move the audience from hysterical laughter to tears. I’m not saying Griffin and Phoenix is exactly hysterical, but there are plenty of laugh out loud moments sandwiched inside the sad story. This was screenwriter John Hill’s first film, and despite being an uncredited writer on Close Encounters of the Third Kind, his career has fluctuated to varying and odd degrees. Hill also wrote Heatbeeps (!) and Steel Justice, along with a few scripts for television series like Quantum Leap and Diagnosis Murder. His story really comes from the heart, touching on some incredibly poignant and realistic moments.

Peter Falk is simply stunning as Griffin. The fact that he didn’t instantly become a romantic lead after this film shows that even in the edgier 70s, Hollywood was still hesitant to hire unlikely but capable actors in the romance genre. He doesn’t miss a beat as the sensitive and perceptive love interest, and dare I say it? He’s damn sexy in the part too. Falk’s Griffin is haunted by his future, but he’s also led by a passion to make his last days worthwhile to himself. He looks for the little, and often childish, joys in life, such as flying a kite or jumping a train, and he teaches Phoenix to revel in those minor details of happiness instead of wallowing in her own ill fated destiny. Clayburgh is wonderful in the part of Phoenix. Her small screen work often gets overshadowed by her immense theatrical achievements, but she was nominated for an Emmy for her appearance in the excellent tele-film Hustling, and probably should have been nominated here as well. I can only imagine how the original audience perceived Falk in this film, who had already been playing Columbo for five years when it premiered. Griffin and Phoenix was successful enough that it enjoyed a theatrical run overseas under the title is Today is Forever (with a little nudity added to the proceedings!), but mostly it seems this film has been forgotten about. Some attention was brought to it when the story was remade in 2006 with Amanda Peet and Dermot Mulroney. I have no problem with either of those actors, but Griffin and Phoenix is such a holy grail to me, that I was insulted by the fact that someone would remake this movie (without giving much of a nod to the 1976 version) yet the original film remains in limbo, waiting for some kind of DVD release.

Griffin and Phoenix is a film I think about often although I find it very hard to watch now. I’m not sure what made me pull out my old VHS copy in early 2005, and although I found the film to be extremely moving, I can’t pinpoint exactly what compelled me to watch it three times in one week. But just a few months after that peaceful Valentine’s Day my world was turned upside down when both of my parents passed away from cancer about three months apart. I instantly connected with Griffin and Phoenix on a level that I had never expected to, and both Clayburgh and Falk became symbols of my parents, who were also able to finally get in touch with their carefree side when they met. The fact that both actors died fairly close together has only deepened my emotion for this film. Griffin and Phoenix is a truly beautiful movie that deserves a much larger audience.

One of my favorite scenes from Griffin and Phoenix:

Murder, She Wrote Meets Parker Stevenson... and it was heaven

2011-12-28T21:08:00.010-05:00

I keep no secrets here at Made for TV Mayhem so I will confess that my current obsession is Murder, She Wrote. After many years of dismissing J.B. Fletcher as a detective for the geriatric set, I came to understand the pure magic of Cabot Cove. Sure, lots of people get randomly murdered, making New York City look like Disneyland. But I call that ambiance. You never know when the local crab shack is serving up a pot full of mysteries!

I'm also not shy about how boy crazy I am, and there's been lots of tasty treats popping up in old Cabot Cove. I recently watched an episode with the delish Jared Martin, and the pilot does indeed feature Bert Convy (I will be covering that episode in the future, mark my words). But CBS really cashed in their machismo chips when they got Parker Stevenson to appear in a season 2 episode called Sticks and Stones. Parker is great as Michael Digby, an interloping travel writer who invites himself into Jessica's house and life. At first he seems like one of those obnoxious ne'er do wells, who have no appreciation for small town charm, but he quickly becomes J.B.'s confidante after a couple of murders are committed.

I've always thought Parker had a great sense of comic timing, but because he's so damn heavenly, I think it tends to get overlooked (as I'm looking him over, you dig?). He's so much fun in this episode, and if I didn't completely lust after him already, I would be completely lusting after him.

Let me set the scene here... There is yet another random murder in Cabot Cove, followed by a series of crank letters which sets the town into a tizzy. After another murder (set up to look like a suicide, but by season 2 we knew better), Jessica is on the case, and she enlists Michael as a tasty lure for Lila (Betsy Palmer).

Let's take a look at Michael, shall we?

Michael's goofy entrance

You can tell he's a nerd because he totally wears glasses

He's a ridiculous person because he tucks his pants into his boots (or maybe it was just the 80s. Tough call)...

Hey, this goofy guy could totally be a male model

But he's also a silly, sloppy drunk!

No comment!

Even Jessica wants him!

Who am I? I'm the interloping ne'er do well, that's who!

Bernard and the Genie (1991)

2011-12-23T20:19:00.007-05:00

Network: BBC
Original Airdate: November 23rd, 1991

I have a long history with Lenny Henry. I first discovered him in high school when The Lenny Henry Show used to air on Bravo (hey, anyone else remember when Bravo used to show nothing but uncut, commercial-free foreign films and British comedies? Good times). I was going through one of my typical teen angst moments, which lasted from ages 14 – 19 (and then some) when I caught an episode of the show and did something I never did in those bygone goth days… I laughed. Henry’s humor sometimes borders on the silly but it’s always effective, and dammit, he’s just so friggin’ lovable. I was instantly smitten and followed his career as best I could in those pre-internet days. A few years later, when I realized I didn’t have to wear black on the outside because black was how I felt on the inside, Bernard and the Genie was released on video. At this point I was working at a video store, and I’m certain the second the film shipped to our store, I checked it out. It was the very first time I saw Alan Cummings and like Henry, I instantly feel in love. The combo was perfect for this sweet little Christmas film.

Cummings is Bernard Bottle, an up and coming art dealer who gets dealt a bad hand of fate, thanks to his greedy boss, Charles Pinkworth (Rowan Atkinson being appropriately sleazy). In one day, Bernard is blacklisted from the art world and dumped by his girlfriend, who has left him for his best friend. And right before Christmas! Thank goodness when the ex cleared out his place, she left this weird little bottle which produces a big black genie named Josephus (soooooo Just Our Luck)! Of course, not every one of Bernard's wishes turns out perfect, but a wonderful friendship is formed between goofy djinn and man!

This is one of those zinger movies you either love or hate. The jokes fly faster than the speed of light, and it helps if you are familiar with some of the British references such as Melvyn Bragg (Bragg was also a fixture on Bravo as the host of the excellent South Bank Show), and if you love the 80s the way I do, you will love the Bob Geldof cameo! Regardless, Bernard and the Genie works because of the chemistry between the forever likable Henry and uber-adorable Cummings. I had not watched this film for many years when I decided on a whim to give it a go earlier this week. I can’t even tell you how much I still enjoy it. It’s so sweet natured and genuinely funny that I still find myself laughing out loud at many of the jokes. I would say it’s the perfect holiday film for those who tend to get blue around Christmas. I don’t mean to quote Bernard, but it will make you as happy as Michelle Pfieffer’s underpants! Now, that’s fab!

For more Christmas on TV Mayhem, click on the following links:

Terror on the 40th Floor
A Mouse, A Mystery and Me
The Gathering (written by guest blogger Joanna Wilson)
Ebbie
Nestor, the Long Eared Christmas Donkey

Come Get Your Rankin-and-Bass-On!

2011-12-21T15:42:00.004-05:00

Hey guys, with Christmas right around the corner (I know, I can't believe it either), I thought I'd re-post a link to a review I contributed to the beyond awesome Christmas TV History blog. I wrote about my all time favorite Rankin and Bass special, Nestor, the Long Eared Christmas Donkey. I actually gave the film its annual spin the other night, and it's still one of the sweetest and most moving films I have ever seen.

And now it's your turn. What is your favorite Rankin and Bass special? I know almost everyone will say Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer, but please leave a comment and share a little Rankin and Bass love!

Happy Holidays!

Darkroom: The Bogeyman Will Get You (1981)

2011-12-16T17:31:00.004-05:00

Network: ABC
Original Air Date: December 4th, 1981

Darkroom was a short lived television series which premiered in 1981 and enjoyed a short but sweet six episode run (featuring 16 stories) before sailing off towards obscurity. Aside from rerunning on the USA Network in the early 90s, this clever anthology series seems to have all but disappeared.

Darkroom came out at just the right time for my budding love of being scared silly. I was ten when I first saw The Bogeyman Will Get You and through the many years of sampling other warped products, it stuck with me because it was clever and subtlety creepy. This segment was written by Robert Bloch and starred a then-unknown Helen Hunt as well as the famous child actor Quinn Cummings (who was way too old for dolls when she appeared in The Babysitter the year before). These girl play sisters who tend to let their imagination run away with them. This might come in handy when a darkly handsome man from their past shows up. Not surprisingly, as soon as he appears in town the first body washes up in the local lake. He’s hiding something alright, and Hunt will soon find out that his secret is not quite the one she was expecting.

How I adored stumbling upon this treasure one dark Friday night. At the time, I was not aware that it was an episode of Darkroom, but when I began to dig back into my TV-laden memories, this was one of the first things which appeared before me. It was some years later that I was able to actually re-watch the episode, and it’s only gotten better with age, even if the end reveal is a little ridiculous (in fact, I think I remember chuckling a little back then too). It’s all about the build-up, baby, and there’s lots of sneaking around through dark rooms to make this episode a rather exciting watch.

James Coburn was the host of Darkroom but when the show reran on USA I believe his host segments were removed, probably to make room for more ads. That is truly a shame, since I think we can all agree that Coburn can turn on the sinister factor when needed!

Watch The Bogeyman Will Get You here:

Initiation of Sarah is on Impact on Demand!

2011-11-28T10:03:00.003-05:00

If you have Comcast cable and you love TV movies, today is a good day! They are currently airing The Initiation of Sarah!

Impact is a great little on-demand channel that airs mostly 80s and 90s B action movies with a little soft-core erotica, comedy and horror thrown in for good measure (and obviously, some stuff from the 70s pops up as well). It's all about balance, right? I was happily surprised to see Sarah is available to an audience who may have missed it the first time around. Impact's YouTube channel wouldn't let me embed the video, but you can watch a clip preview of what they are showing this month here. And you can keep up with their schedule additions on their Facebook page.

Sarah is also streaming on Netflix as well. And you can read my review here.

The People Have Spoken: TV Movies are In, In, IN!

2011-11-22T14:50:00.004-05:00

I'm not kidding... Today just may be the official Made for TV Movie Day. I'm calling my representative.

The A.V. Club tackled the lost respect for classic television in their awesome article We Need a TCM for Television. It's mostly about series television but there is definitely some love of the oft-maligned classic TV movie. And for the record (and just in case you couldn't guess by my blog theme), I agree with every word. God bless and goodnight, right?

And as luck would have it, The New York Times, of all places also took on the world of small screen films in their article Made for TV Movies, Reborn on Cable. Sure, it's about the new, invigorated state of the made for TV movie, but there's some nice history in there, including a mention of one of my all time favorites, Seven in Darkness!

While I would prefer a return to the fun, sometimes sentimental (in all the right ways, mind you) world of TV movie horror and romance, I am thrilled beyond words to see so much attention turning to a piece of history which seemed all but forgotten.

And now I have a question, if the higher powers decided to actually give us a TCM for TV, what kind of programming would you like to see? Movies and otherwise. Please leave a comment and let me know what you want to see back on TV!

Winter Kill (1974)

2011-11-20T22:46:00.004-05:00

Network: ABC
Original Air Date: April 15th, 1974

There’s no doubt that Andy Griffith did his best to shun his good natured country boy persona by making some very interesting, and often quiet dark, made for TV movies during the 70s (and of course A Face in the Crowd… I know a little bit about other movies sometimes too). He lent his performances as the bad guy some dark justice as audiences would see in both Pray for the Wildcats ("I'm a hippie with money!") and Savages (both were released also released in 1974). In Winter Kill he returns to his more recognizable good guy shtick, but there’s not much of his signature joviality to be seen as he finds himself on the trail of a cold-blooded killer in a small, snowy mountain town.

Griffith is Sheriff Sam McNeil, an officer of the law who is caught off guard when a mysterious sniper starts picking of the locals. After each kill the menacing marauder leaves the number of the victim behind, painted in the snow or in some visible spot, and McNeil attempts to link all the victims together. In a voice over, the audience is given snippets of a diary belonging to a wide-eyed teenager named Cynthia (Elayne Heilveil). This device puts us one step ahead of the sheriff - and one step behind the killer. There is no shortage of suspects and Mayor Bickford (Eugene Roche) is hot on the heels of McNeil to catch the culprit so they can open their town to tourists without fear of losing business (It’s like Jaws on dry land with a sniper!) As the evidence begins to unfold, a serious of odd happenings also take place, and then there are a couple of twists galore! In short, my kind of flick.

Directed by ex-DGA president Jud Taylor who was a stalwart of the TV film (and served as president of his guild from 1981 – 1983), he also directed the stylish and creepy Shelly Winters TV horror flick Revenge. Winter Kill is no less stylish with its serene, snowy, small town settings which place a stark contrast on the cold blooded murders (no pun intended!). Shot mostly in Big Bear, the old school architecture of the snow town elite looks fantastic on Warner Archives DVD.

Winter Kill is an excellent film. The acting is fantastic, with lots of interesting and likable characters. Sheree North plays MacNeil’s main squeeze and the gorgeous John Calvin is his right hand man. The best performance might be Joyce Van Patten who always makes the snow just a little more icy with her bitch-perfect delivery. Lawrence Pressman, Tim O’Connor, Louise Latham, a young and studly Nick Nolte and of course, Roche, are all given some nice moments as MacNeil works his way through his population of suspects.

The opening murder scene is tense and frightening, and really sets the pace for this underrated thriller. There is a murder a little later that quickly turns into something far more devastating, in one of the slick twists.

The movie was intended to be a pilot for Griffith, and although it was not picked up, the actor repackaged it as a show called Adams of Eagle Lake, but only two episodes aired before it was replaced by The Rockford Files. He then managed to repackage this idea again (and again, it turns out!) with two more TV films. Girl in the Empty Grave and Deadly Game were both released in 1977, but no other series came of them. Grave was definitely a far more light-hearted version of Winter Kill, and if I remember correctly, a pretty fun film.

While looking up this movie I found an interesting article about how two such famous television faces – Andy Griffith and James Garner – could have such opposite results when they returned to television. This article poses the theory that Maverick and Garner aren’t that separate, while Griffith attempted to considerably alter his familiar television image, which turned off television audiences. Something to think about, eh?

Columbo is on Me TV!

2011-11-17T18:06:00.004-05:00

I should have posted this a few weeks ago, but Me TV added Columbo to their schedule recently. It airs at 8 pm on Sunday nights, and like the tried and true Columbo fan I am, I still enjoy watching the episodes on television (even though I have most of the DVDs). I'm old school...

Anyway, Me TV has a truly fabulous schedule and if they are in your area, please check them out!

Wyatt Knight (1955 - 2011)

2011-11-03T16:13:00.004-04:00

I had wanted to wrap up my This Blog Possessed theme for Halloween and as you know, time got away once again. But once I read of the passing of Wyatt Knight, I had to set some time aside to say something.

Wyatt was best known as Tommy Turner from the Porky's series. Without question, Porky's II is the greatest teen sex comedy known to man, and part of that is because Wyatt was such a gifted actor. I actually remember the first time I laid eyes on him, because my teenage crush went into overdrive! He was funny and adorable and always great fun to watch.

While I've seen the Porky's trilogy numerous times, I only remember seeing one other performance of his, which was a brief appearance on The Waltons where he played a soldier in a 1979 episode titled The Torch. I was much older at this point, and just getting to know The Waltons for the first time via TV Land. Did my heart do an extra pitter-patter when I saw him? It sure did.

It turns out Wyatt had a pretty nice career on TV and appeared in some TV movies. Here is a list:

Murder in Texas (1981)
Dirty Work (1985)
Promised a Miracle (1988)
Those She Left Behind (1989)
Family of Spies (1990)
The American Clock (1993)
Maniac McGee (2003)

Maniac McGee was directed by Porky's director Bob Clark, who passed away in 2007.

He was also on Family Ties and Chicago Hope, among many other shows.

In the early 2000s I corresponded with Wyatt because he had made a movie with David Naughton that I was hoping to write about. I believe the film was called Rave, but never came out (and indeed, the credit has been removed from Wyatt's IMDb page). He saw that I wrote under the name Amanda by Night and joked that I should call myself Amanda by Knight, which as you can guess, made me giggle... and still does. He was always very kind in his emails, taking the time to answer my questions while throwing in a couple of jokes if he could squeeze it in. I never met Wyatt face to face, but I really treasure our brief correspondence. I was absolutely devastated when I read that the police believe Wyatt committed suicide, leaving behind a wife and two children.

The last time I corresponded with Wyatt was when Bob Clark died. He wrote to me, "There are no words." And that's pretty much all that can be said here.

RIP Wyatt. You will be missed.

Wyatt wrote and produced and starred in a short film called Stages in 2002. His co-star was Cyril O'Rielly who was also from the Porky's trilogy. You can watch the whole thing on YouTube, but here is Part One:

UPDATE (11/17/2011):

Wyatt's wife released a statement about his suicide and she said he was diagnosed with Stage 4 non-hodgkins lymphoma and had endured much pain. You can read her statement here.

I've been thinking a lot about Wyatt and his family and I just wanted to extended my deepest sympathies to his family and friends. I am so sad he is gone.

This Vicar Possessed

2011-10-24T18:06:00.004-04:00

I have just bonded with the Vicar of VHS! It was a warming experience, one that I always get when I find another This House Possessed fan. I don't want to say we are legion or anything, but I think you are starting to get the point. The Vicar had already written an an excellent ode to the house with the best blood shower in the world, and you can read it here. I was so pleased that he agreed to tackle this House again for my blog, and it's forever amazing how much we latch key kids had in common! It makes me want to buy a world a Coke.

This House Possessed
Memories by the Vicar of VHS
I was born in 1971, and thus grew up in the late 70s and 80s. Kids today, with their Netflix and their Internets and their video-on-demand, would find it hard to believe the amount of effort horror-addicted children like me had to put into getting their horror fix. Scouring the listings in the newspaper and the weekly TV Guide, eyes peeled for anything at any hour on one of the big 3 (count 'em!) networks that might give that frisson of fear. Begging parents to allow us to stay up late for the Creature Feature, taking afternoon naps and loading up on sodas for stamina--and more often than not getting a near-unwatchable print of some public domain garbage for our efforts.

So whenever the genre wheel of the TV movie of the week spun up a horror flick, my brothers and I felt like we had won the lottery. And it was a golden age of made-for-TV horror--Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, Gargoyles, Bad Ronald--classics, every one. But the one I remember most, and with the greatest fondness, is 1981's This House Possessed.

I was ten years old in 1981, and my younger brother was just six. I guess my parents were a little permissive about what they would let us watch--but after all, this was Movie-of-the-Week stuff, right? How bad could it be?

Well, for me, the answer was not bad at all--I loved the "high-tech house goes berserk" premise, and as a big fan of Parker Stevenson's work in The Hardy Boys TV show, I was thrilled to see him battle supernatural forces in between rockin' singing gigs. I found the movie exciting, tense, and an all-out blast.

Can Ella shatter glass? So can this house!
My brother, however, did not. He was more than traumatized--he was scarred. For weeks afterward whenever one of the family slipped off to take a shower, within moments my brother was right there at the door, banging frantically, shouting again and again, "Are you all right? ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?!" And as for being in the bathroom by himself with the door closed, forget about it--he needed an escort to shield him from blood-spewing shower heads and possibly explosive mirrors.

Eventually, with time, his fear faded, and the story has a happy ending--he grew up to be almost as much a horror geek as his big brother. And a year or so back, we got to bond over a viewing of THP as adults, and both found it just as much fun as ever.

I don't know how long it was before he showered again, though.

Yet another pensive toast for This House Possessed!
And please visit Vicar's site Mad Mad Mad Mad Movies! You will not regret it!

This John Possessed

2011-10-21T20:57:00.003-04:00

I am very excited to present Made for TV Mayhem's first crossover episode, which is titled Blood Shower Power! In this episode Dorothy Zbornak (Amanda By Night) appears as a foil to Laverne Todd (Aunt John)! We are here to present the crossing of Kindertrauma and my site as we present tonight's Name That Trauma! We are sort of like Svengoolie if he was an independent and sarcastic woman in the 80s. And by we, I mean mostly Aunt John who wrote about one of his earliest kindertraumas. Shelly Smith is tonight's other guest star, and she'll be acting alongside an angry house and a freaky shower.

Name That Trauma : Aunt John of Kindertrauma on a Bloody Bathroom
In the late ‘70s/ early ‘80s, my folks were still on top of their parenting game and strictly enforced a 9pm bedtime. Special exceptions were granted for very special episodes of The Incredible Hulk and that was about it. When the clock struck nine, you had to be in bed.

(Best Sophia Petrillo voice) So picture this... one night a young Aunt John awakes after the mandatory bedtime and comes down stairs in his family's split-level home looking for a glass of water. He is wearing footed pajamas and he is parched.

When he gets to the kitchen, he spies his mother five steps down in the family room doing some ironing and watching TV. Knowing he should not be out of bed and if his Mom catches him -- there will be a shit-storm of epic proportions, Aunt John takes a seat on the top of the stairs from the kitchen to the family room to see what his Mom is watching. Usually she is watching the taboo series The Love Boat or Fantasy Island -- taboo in the sense that both air after 9pm.

This night, however, it was different because it was neither The Love Boat nor Fantasy Island, there was a blonde lady getting into a shower who clearly was not Cruise Director, Julie McCoy. The water started and then it turned to blood.

Aunt John picked himself up from that top step and ran back to bed. Glass of water be damned, he was not thirsty. For years and years, he thought about that scene, especially when he would be taking showers in strange bathrooms, and he would wonder where it came from.

Flash forward to when Aunt John finally meets up with Unkle Lancifer 25 some odd years later and they came up with the idea for Kindertrauma. Along with Dark Night of the Scarecrow and Snowbeast, This Is House Possessed stands as one of Aunt John’s personal Name That Traumas!

We all have them.

Blood Shower Gallery:

This Caelum Possessed

2011-10-18T22:39:00.007-04:00

I've know Caelum Vatnsdal under several names through the years. Originally we became buds on a horror movie webgroup where he posted as Kraken and The Mighty Kraken. Then I knew him as the author of the incredible book They Came From Within: A History of Canadian Horror Cinema, which is where I learned his real name (and am hard pressed to pronounce it correctly!). Then, I saw him over at Kindertrauma where he shows up under the name Walter Paisley, and now he tells me I can find him as the "Exclamation Point Provider" on the Hi! It's Burl blog! Whew, from a kraken to punctuation marks, Caelum has always been a good guy, a great writer, and someone who was equally obsessed with This House Possessed (OK, maybe not equally because that would make him deranged)! I was so happy and honored that he was willing to give me a few words in an attempt to separate his convoluted memory from a convoluted film!

And when you are done here, please stop by Burl's blog and check out his This House Possessed review!

This House Possessed
Memories Brought to You by the Letter C... for Caelum!
How unusual is it to feel a tremendous fondness for a movie you remember almost nothing about? It’s proof, if it were still needed, that movies, even schlocky TV movies, can affect us on a purely emotional level and achieve an importance well beyond what their actual artistic merit can bear.

What I remember best about This House Possessed is the lead-up to it, actually: the excitement created by the promos that no doubt filled the airwaves in advance of its February, 1981 broadcast date. This was the way it was with any Television Event, from the Night of Kings (a double feature of King Kong ’76 and The Curse of King Tut’s Tomb) to the genuine 3D broadcast of Gorilla At Large (glasses available at your local 7-11!) to the sprawling epic that was Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles. Anything vaguely horror or sci-fi was, for me, a big night of TV, and so This House Possessed qualified in spades.

If I make everything pretty the bad will go away, right?
I dutifully sat down and thrilled to the movie on that dark February night, and the next day it was the talk of the schoolyard. I’ve thought about it often in the thirty years since, but my actual hard memories have narrowed to the following: 1) One of the Hardy Boys was in it; 2) The house was of classic California Modern design, rather than the spooky, cobweb-strewn piles that were more typical of the genre; 3) the house liked to watch what was going on inside of it on a closed-circuit TV system; and 4) it featured a scene in which some kind of fire-spitting electrical cable was whipping around a kitchen, shooting sparks at the Hardy Boy and his girlfriend.

And that’s about it. Despite the title, I’d assumed, probably because of the frequent shots of TV monitors, that it was more of a Demon Seed situation involving a computer-run dwelling than a standard possession. Recently I watched the movie again, or at least kind of skimmed through it, and frankly I’m still not sure. Essentially, I think, the house is a creepy pedophile stalker, possessed by little more than its love for seven year-old girls and cringe-inducing yacht rock. It’s not a house that thinks things through: its plot to reclaim the girl of its dreams, now that she’s grown up into cute nurse Lisa Eilbacher, is so ludicrously convoluted as to defy belief, the more so since it depends on the appeal of Parker Stevenson singing some of the most dreadful elevator music ever committed to tape.

The TV makes a love connection!
But kids don’t care about any of that; and that is why I loved This House Possessed when I was nine; and that is why I love it today. On top of the hazy but pleasant memories, the movie offers some surprisingly gruesome deaths for a TV movie – Slim Pickens, who plays the world’s most unlikely soft-rock manager, gets an especially bloody demise. I was a little disappointed to find that the fire-spitting cable scene I remembered turned out to be an invention, or at least an amalgam of several different scenes, but isn’t that always the way with childhood memories? Even when they’re TV movies starring Parker Stevenson, Lisa Eilbacher and Slim Pickens, they’re never quite as great in real life as they are in your mind.

This Micky Possessed

2011-10-16T20:20:00.004-04:00

I met Micky Worley through the always friendly comment section of Kindertrauma, but while we shared a love of childhood sufferings, we ended up bonding over our unbridled lust for Parker Stevenson. And through this common obsession, we established a pretty kickass friendship. But I'd smack her down if she stood between me and Parker! But I'm sure she'd do the same! (By the way Micky, I'm kidding, I'm sure you could whoop my sorry behind anyday!)

Micky (aka Mickster) was kind enough to take a few minutes to offer up why she loves House the way she does... and believe it or not, not all of it has to do with Parker!

This House Possessed
Brought to You by the Memories of Mickster
My family always enjoyed made-for-TV scary movies. My dad was the scary movie fan because my mom claims now that she does not like scary movies. Anyway, when This House Possessed appeared in the TV Guide circa 1981, it was a cinch that the Mickster family would be watching. I know personally that I was extra excited since it starred my favorite Hardy Boy, Parker Stevenson (Ahh, the mere mention of his name makes me giddy as a school girl). The movie did not disappoint! Parker is super-sexy singing some cringe-worthy tunes. Lisa Eilbacher is beautiful as his nurse with a mysterious past. I will say that I would not have been pushing Parker Stevenson’s character away for getting a little too fresh the way she did, but that is just the old Mickster fantasizing. The title character in the movie, which is the ultra modern possessed house in question, is to die for…literally. Except for the house killing and/or terrifying all the visitors, it is perfect! If the house let the owners chose whom to kill or terrify, it would be perfect! Someone needs to get off his or her duff and release this spooky classic on DVD immediately!

He's so beautiful, she can't even look at him!
There's lots of Mickster-ness to be found at Kindertrauma, but why don't you start with her review of Jack's Back

These Sisters Possessed

2011-10-14T18:39:00.010-04:00

Seriously, who doesn't love a good catfight? While we don't get to see Sheila and Tanya square off too much in House, the potential for squashed white clogs and torn fur stole madness is always there. Carol and Jeanette McMahon are sisters who I don't think get into too many catfights. I feel this way mostly because I know they share a deep love for House, and that has to be the one bond that brings people together...

They both wrote a little ditty for me about why they love the house that loved the girl that loved the rock star. Let's proceed, shall we?

Carol McMahon:

What's not to love about This House Possessed? You've got hotty hot hot Parker Stevenson being a rock star, Shelly Smith being trashy, dopey Slim Pickens, and a super creepy old lady who lives in a shack. I love so many things about this made for TV movie that it's hard to narrow it down for this little retrospective - so I'm gonna get out my vaseline coated skylight filter and sorta generalize in a hazy way.

One of the things I love most about This House Possessed is just how far, as an adult, you have to suspend your disbelief for this movie. I mean, watching it as a kid it all makes perfect sense (and, believe it or not, is actually scary), but as an adult, you really can't think about it too much. You can't analyze it at all. You have to just let if float over you. You have to believe that a house can not only become obsessed with a child, but also has the capability of using any TV in the general area as an ersatz monitor. You have to believe that a woman can be covered in blood that is spraying out of a shower nozzle one minute, and then can waltz out the front door with no evidence of blood on her. And you have to believe, with all your heart, that a house can, within seconds, turn the temperature of a swimming pool up to the boiling point in order to kill a creepy old lady.

Watching This House Possessed makes me yearn for the days when nothing had to fit into a perfect little box to make sense. It makes me get all nostalgic for that feeling of getting lost in a story - any wacky, silly, crappy story - and thinking that every single turn of events is completely and totally plausible. I mean, it is possible for a house to love a little girl and remain obsessed with her as she becomes an adult, and, not only, keep tabs on a rock star in a club through an analog TV set, but also, cause him to faint and then recover from the fainting attack in the same hospital where the grown-up girl now works (and where the rock star can somehow still be monitored through that same TV set), thereby luring the grown-up girl back to the house so as to entrap her there forever. It could totally happen.

Oh, This House Possessed, you always make me feel like a kid again.

Jeanette McMahon:

First of all, I was in the Parker Stevenson camp of Hardy Boys fans, so it was destined for me to hold this cheesefest of a made-for-TV horror flick close to my heart. It has everything - hairless chest shots of Parker as Gary Straihorn, a temperamental and questionable rock star (complete with the song "Sensitive You're Not," the one that inspired the embroidered tea towel that my sister made for me); A chemistry-free love story between Parker and Lisa Eilbacher (who also did her time on Hardy Boys), who plays Sheila, a live-in nurse helping him recover from the stress of rock stardom; a simultaneous chemistry-free love story between Sheila (or Margaret, according to the house) and the house itself - a house which is an awesome brown and tan vision of late '70s/early '80s rock star glamour and architecture; Slim Pickins as the affable rock star manager (who doesn't need more Slim Pickins?!); a creepy, cryptically prophetic "rag lady" with smeary lipstick and bottlecap-lensed eyeglasses (played by Joan Bennett, the original matriarch on Dark Shadows); multiple murders that scared the crap out of me as a kid (my favorite being a toss-up between the librarian's electrocuting/crushing gate death and the rag lady's overheated pool death); Sheila/Margaret's final pleading words directed at the house, which is going up in flames, "If you love me, you'll let him go - you'll let me go! Oh, please!" Even Barry Corbin and David Paymer make appearances. What's not to love?

This smeary faced lipstick lady is for you, girls!
Do you know what else there is to love? The blogs these girls run! Please check out Carol McMahon at Craftypants Carol Fancy Crafty World and then go on over to Jeannette's faboo JLMShisksablog for more of the awesome!

And do you know what's even way cooler than that? Here is a look at the ultra-incredible This House Possessed dishtowel Carol made for Jeannette:

And Jeanette sent me this supremely cool bootleg box art. The house looks mad:

Hey girls, if you ever want to adopt another TV movie luvin' sister, I've got my paperwork ready. And I'm house-trained!

This Kindertrauma Possessed

2011-10-12T09:10:00.008-04:00

The love for This House Possessed keeps rolling along, and you can check out Kindertrauma's awesome Glamour magazine inspired 10 Signs Your House Has The Hots For You quiz! I got a 7 out of 10.

How'd you do?

This Michael Possessed

2011-10-11T15:43:00.002-04:00

I was so pleased when the Meepster himself (he who runs the incredible blog Cinema du Meep) accepted my request to write a little ditty about This House Possessed! He put together this pithy little tribute:

This House Possessed
by Michael of Cinema Du Meep
This House Possessed is kind of the best TV-Movie title ever. I mean, you get exactly what you are looking for! Who can't find a deep appreciation for that. Well, besides a good haunting story set against sunny California in a creepy mid-century house, Possessed also gives you a few more early 80's treats. For fans of TV's The Hardy Boys, it's in the shape of the former teen idol, now all man Parker Stevenson. For fans of girls with spunk, it's the wonderful Lisa Eilbacher. Before she became Axel Foley's big haired confidant in Beverly Hills Cop, Lisa snagged herself the plum role of cute as a button nurse to Parker's ailing Rock Star. There's also some very swanky music and supporting roles by Former Presidential Candidate John Dukakis (!), Slim Pickens, Joan Bennett, David Paymer, Barry Corbin and Phillip Baker Hall. Character actor heaven! Director William Wiard also directed the likewise fabulously titled Ski Lift To Death and the movie was produced by television producer god Leonard Goldberg. There's a pedigree to This House that ski lifts it over other television movies of the time, and it's a lot of fun. Watch it in the dark in a possessed house you love.

Play Me(ep) like a song!

We Interrupt This Program...

2011-10-11T09:15:00.003-04:00

I just wanted to let everyone know this is my 400th post! Good golly Miss Molly!

Is there a better way to celebrate than with Barry Bostwick performing Jump:

TV Mayhem for all!

This Blog Possessed!

2011-10-10T22:06:00.005-04:00

You knew it was bound to happen! I am dedicating the next week, perhaps two, to my all time favorite TV movie, This House Possessed. For this event I will be featuring several fellow bloggers/writers/all around cool people who have been kind enough to take the time to let the world know why Possessed is the best movie ever made in the history of the world... and perhaps the universe.

I wanted to actually get the ball rolling tonight, but I'm smack dab between writing papers and prepping for midterms. I should be able to get the first post up by tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest. The stuff I have received is wonderful and I'm really excited to be sharing a little of the Possessed love!

For some reason Possessed has not seen a release on either vhs or DVD. That is sad since it has quite a following and truly, it has endured. It's still just as great for me to watch now as it was when I first curled up in bed with it February 6th in 1981. And I think in some respects, it's gotten better. This movie lacks any of that lame self-irony we see so much today, the earnestness of the performances and the overall creepy and uber-fabulous setting have only served to remind me how wonderful growing up in the 80s was.

I am going to write a little more at the tail end of this love fest, but for now I'd like to link you to two reviews I've written. One was for Camp Blood and the other was for a site called CC2K. I do think I could write about this movie forever, and ever and ever! And again, I'm so pleased there other crazy nutjobs like myself in the world!

Enjoy!

Warner Archive TV Movie Sale

2011-10-07T08:38:00.005-04:00

Yes, sir. You too can now bring Phoebe Cates into your living room with an affordable DVD of Lace! And yes, I know that's the TV Guide cover for Lace II, but is that not the greatest photo ever. Ever. But I digress... Warner Archives is having a boss TVM DVD sale, which runs until October 17th!

Now go grab your Winter Kill and have a great Halloween!

Finally... A New Poll!

2011-10-04T21:43:00.003-04:00

OK everyone, here I am, making another sporadic appearance on my beloved blog. This semester has been nothing short of insane, so I haven't really had a chance to watch any movies, much less review them.

These are trying times, indeed.

I did get a new poll up and I chose the same October scary movie theme that I tend to choose every year. Please vote for whatever you think is the scariest of the scary movies I have listed. OK, KISS Meets Phantom of the Park is scary for all the wrong reasons, but it made the list, so there! And of course, I'm sure I missed something uber-important, because that's my MO. So please feel free to let me know in the comments. I can't add anything though, but I will tally it. All voices are heard at Made for TV Mayhem. Deal with it!

Also, last year I did something that was akin to the 31 Days of TV Movie Horror or some such, and you can find the titles I chose by clicking on this link. Some other stuff got tagged in there, so... bonus, right?

And for more October scary movie goodness, here is a list I put together for Film Threat a few years ago. I link to it every year so you may have seen it...

I also have a theme coming up and I am thinking it will last around 2 weeks. Hopefully, I can cram some other stuff in there, but this theme is a co-op effort with myself and several other bloggers/writers and awesomely cool people. So keep your eyes peeled for it!

Hoy Cow! Sweet Hostage is on DVD!!!

2011-09-27T17:21:00.005-04:00

Where have I been and what has happened to my excellent TV movie radar? Time to take it into the shop for fine tuning because I totally missed that Sweet Hostage became available through Warner Archives last week!

This is a somewhat controversial movie featuring an escaped asylum inmate (Martin Sheen looking pretty fine) kidnapping a young teen (Linda Blair looking adorable), only to have her fall in love with him. Only in the 70s guys. This movie aired on ABC on October 10th, 1975 and is based on Nathaniel Benchley's book Welcome to Xanadu (which I own but have not read).

It's great to see that Warner Archives is continuing their excellent TV movie output, and for the record, the non-TVM Killer Party also came out last week. I'm gonna have to quote KP's excellent theme song here... These are the best times of our lives.

Prom Night! Everything is Alright!

2011-09-22T22:15:00.003-04:00

OK guys, it's here. The book Butcher Knives and Body Counts is now available through Amazon! My article on Prom Night is just one of the many featured essays which reflect on the slasher genre. You will find lots of your fave bloggers and some famous folks too! C'mon everyone, it's the right thing to do and the tasty way to do it!

The Phantom of Hollywood is on DVD!

2011-09-20T22:18:00.005-04:00

I know I've been MIA lately (thanks college!), but wild horses couldn't prevent me from letting you all know that The Phantom of Hollywood is now available on DVD thanks to Warner Archives! It's been quite a few years since I've seen this odd but fun little TVM, but I can tell you that Peter Haskell is adorable and the bad guy is cah-reepy! Much of the film takes place on a dilapidated back lot which was actually the famous MGM Lot 2 where several classic films were shot, including The Canterbury Ghost, starring Peter Lawford. By the way, he also appears in Phantom! Coinkydink? The lot was in the process of being demolished when someone decided to shoot a horror film amongst its remaining creepy bones, which practically serve as another character. That makes the Phantom a scarily awesome artifact!

The DVD just became available today, and the print looks dandy. So please support your TVM and pick up a copy. Tell 'em Amanda By Night sent ya!

Remembering John Ritter

2011-09-12T21:08:00.004-04:00

I remembered that it was eight years ago yesterday that we lost John Ritter. I have never been shy about my love for him, and I was truly saddened by his passing. I was flipping through an old TV Guide (the June 20 - 26, 1987 issue to be exact) and I saw a short piece on a tribute concert Ritter helped to organize for the Vietnam veterans. The event was called Welcome Home, and it aired on July 4th, 1987 on HBO. TV Guide quoted Ritter as saying, "I feel something like this on a national level can be almost a catharsis. There's something bigger than being a hawk or dove. The one thing we can all do is embrace the Vietnam veterans. This is an opportunity for real healing."

That article pretty much sums up everything I have loved about Mr. Ritter... well, except for his wonderful sense of humor (and pratfalls)! I miss him every day.

Here is John Fogerty doing a pretty kickass performance of Born on the Bayou at the Welcome Home concert:

And here's John doing what he did best, making us laugh:

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark 2011

2011-08-28T21:15:00.005-04:00

I have waited a long time for the release of the remake of Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark. Like with most re-imaginings I wondered if there was a point, and then I tried to keep tabs on how it was progressing, while checking out teaser trailers and whatever else I could find. I finally decided the remake had fallen into the right hands and I pulled back, trying not to get too much more information. I know I go from hot to cold, but the cold is still kind of hot. What a complicated creature I’ve become.

Anyway, I was finally able to see what I had hoped for and confront what I was afraid of this Friday when I went to catch the remake. Was it worth the wait? Kinda.

Dark is never a bad film, but it’s by no means great either. It has a lot of wonderful stuff, including an incredible house and some really suspenseful set-pieces. It also holds onto many of the things from the original that I love so much, including the ending. It’s different, but also very much the same, and that pleased me. However, the build-up doesn’t amount to the great sucker-punch of the 1973 version. Considering how quickly and cheaply the original was put together, it’s a true testament to how a potentially good film can reach a sort of greatness when placed in the right hands.

That said, I think young people who have no connection to the original will enjoy this reboot. I’m not sure why it’s rated R, but I do think if there are non-jaded tweens in the world (that’s doubtful, I know) they will get a kick out of the modern shenanigans.

I’ve seen fans of the original divided between enjoyment and complete disdain, so I find it a hard film to recommend. But I can say I had a lot of fun and got a thrill out of seeing “Teleplay by Nigel McKeand” in the opening credits! Bravo Nigel! If anything else, the classic version got some respect and for our troubles, we got a new film made by people who loved the original. And it shows.

By the way, it’s worth catching in the theater just to see the lush new trailer for The Woman in Black. Goosebumps, guys. Goose-bumps!

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark Week: The Images

2011-08-27T15:24:00.023-04:00

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark Week... Smoking Allowed!

2011-08-26T16:38:00.005-04:00

Even tiny terrors need a ciggy break...

Or at least that was case with Felix Silla who played one of the little demons in Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. According to an interview he did with the Associated Press, Felix had a tough time getting in a good smoke with the mouthless mask. Felix refused to be defeated though and he found a way to get a straw (with the cigarette on one end) through the nose opening and down to his mouth!

And I won't even get into how much he itched.

You can read an interview with him here where he discusses dealing with all things monstrous!

TV-Movie-Remakes-a-Go-Go: A Wish List!

2011-08-24T07:59:00.001-04:00

Bleargh, aargh and ugh.

Those are the lovely sounds I make when I think of most remakes. I have never been shy about my disdain for our re-boot culture and I tend to dislike all the horror re-imagining that is so popular these days. Of course, a few come down the pike that make you think maybe someone was actually thinking about the film (Dawn of the Dead, I’m looking at you), so I know it’s not impossible for a remake to be good… it’s only unlikely.

Yet, despite all that negative energy (which is so un-70s of me), I find that I enjoy the world of TV movie remakes. OK, so it’s a much smaller planet, with very few features inhabiting its orbit, but I have thus far enjoyed the bulk of the films which have found new life through their re-imagining. Like, I know Satan’s School for Girls 2000 is in no way better than the original, but it’s a pretty fun little flick, as was the Initiation of Sarah reboot from 2006. What I like best about these films is that they come from truly legitimate obscurities and shine a light on originals that might otherwise only be a part of the ultra-cool lexicon of the ultra-cool TV movie fan. So maybe 1973’s Satan’s School for Girls won’t touch a nerve with young girls of today, but the Charmed friendly updo (complete with casting Shannen Doherty in the lead) certainly strokes our inner wiccan.

Now TVMs are getting remade in a big way. Two films are due out, The Woman in Black will (hopefully) get a release date soon and Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark is gearing up for a major theatrical run starting August 26th. Despite my apprehensions about Katie Holmes (and really, that’s only elicits the slightest of hesitations… Go rocked!), I have high hopes that Dark will be a great piece of horror filmmaking, and inevitably some eyes will turn to the original. The thing about the first film is that it stands in a certain place and time. It’s still a classic and it's sure to garner new fans, but how could it be as popular as, say, oh, Ladykillers which is replete with nubile male strippers and the blonde Tina Turner wig?

What? You say male strippers aren’t that popular anymore?!? Where have I been? Oh, I know... 1986. It's good here.

When Lance from Kindertrauma suggested we compose a list of potentially great TVM remakes I instantly pulled some titles off the table. The big classics such as Duel, Dark Night of the Scarecrow and Bad Ronald seem untouchable to me. Is Bad Ronald perfect? No. But I can’t imagine any one other than Scott Jacoby filling those creepy shoes. While it’s not always the case, I believe most remakes should come from a mostly unseen source. The films should have good bones but lack a certain oomph that takes it to classic status. I know not everyone feels that way, but it’s how I roll. Lance offers some strong arguments though, and everyone should check out his fantastic list.

OK, so here’s where we are… By enlarge I normally detest remakes unless they are made from TV movies (preferably obscure). There are certainly plenty of films to choose from, and the list I compiled came from metaphorically pulling names from a hat (i.e. I made a random list and chose whatever titles made me say, “Oh, OK!”). Here is the unsystematic list I put together of ten films I think are worthy of throwing a few of the big Hollywood bucks at:

Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate (1971): I teetered on adding this one to the list because the original is so wonderful as it is. The four leads: Helen Hayes, Myrna Loy, Mildred Natwick and Sylvia Sydney are perfect in their parts as elderly women who jokingly create the perfect woman for a computer dating service. The idea is that the correspondence from potential male suitors might liven things up for these fiery old ladies, but instead they lure a psycho (Vince Edwards) into their lives. He is determined to meet his dream girl any way possible. The story is fun and original, but what really makes Mutilate such a great film are the pre-Golden Girls ladies who refuse to kowtow to stereotyping. They drink, have a wicked sense of humor, and enjoy living their lives to the fullest. In today’s society we see too many women fighting the age clock with every superficial weapon possible, instead of embracing their lives as fulfilled, experienced (sometimes wrinkled), and most importantly, vital people in the world. I think if someone could manage to hire actresses more interested in accepting their age rather than hiding from it, we could have a friggin’ revolution on our hands! OK, maybe not a revolution, but would someone please call Judi Dench, please… I have a movie idea for her! (Click on title for review)

Crawlspace (1972): I’ve been thinking a lot about this film which stars Arthur Kennedy and Theresa Wright as a retired and childless couple who allow the bug-eyed Richard (Tom Happer) into their house. At first Richard just wants to hang out in the crawlspace in their basement, and while no one is quite sure why he’s so off his rocker, the sweet couple believes they can bring him back to society with a little parental love. Of course the whole thing backfires and we come to learn that inherent distrust isn’t always a bad thing. Directed by the John Newland who also helmed the original Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, Crawlspace (both the film and novel) focuses on how some disconnect with civilization, and why some people will never stop reaching out those self imposed loners. While we like to think of ourselves as an iPhone culture, knee deep in social networking, some of us find that we are farther from society than ever before. There’s something here in Crawlspace that could easy transcend to contemporary culture, and it could be as equally moving if done correctly. (Click on title for review)

Madame Sin (1972): Madame Sin should be a well known film. Let’s look at the cast; we’ve got Robert Wagner as a James Bond type and Bette Davis as an Asian (!) evil super force! She kidnaps Wagner and holds him hostage in her Scottish (!!) castle in the hopes she can use him to steal a Polaris submarine…!!! Holy cow!!! What is this? This lush and engaging spy thriller was directed and co-written by David Greene with such a sure hand you start to buy the crazy plot. The main reason I’d like to see this remade is because then we might get a DVD of this sadly overlooked and charming oddity.

Where Have all the People Gone? (1974): Hey baby, it’s the year of the rapture and the apocalypse is coming! Why not celebrate with a film featuring the disappearance of 90% of the people in earth? Peter Graves starred in this excellent slow burn of a film that relied more on mood than overt terror. While I appreciated the (mostly) off screen dog attacks, imagine what could be done now? Also, it’s a timely issue, since we are in a non-stop argument over the environment and our place in it. Watch nature take its course in what could be an absolutely brutal retelling. (Click on title for review)

She’s Dressed to Kill (1979): Want to remake a slasher? Try this rarity featuring beautiful models stranded in a large mansion on top of a secluded mountain. The setting and atmosphere of Dressed is full of creepy ambiance. It’s also a relatively unknown slasher that screams glamour and begs for an update. In modern horror, films tend to want to encourage antagonistic female relationships, so why not put them in a situation where being hostile is part of its charm? And the clothes, oh the clothes... Where's Travilla when you need him?

This House Possessed (1981): Whoa, wha-? I don’t want certain films like Duel or The Night Stalker touched, but I’m OK with my all time favorite made for TV movie hitting the re-chopping block? Yes, sir. As much as I love Possessed (and trust me, I love it), I wouldn’t mind seeing it redone on an epic scale. The house hauntings are orchestrated through modern equipment and I love the idea of the vast gadgetry that could wreak vengeance on the protagonists. All I ask is that someone give Parker Stevenson the role of the music manager (originally played by Slim Pickens). Throw a cowboy hat on my main crush and give him a slightly earthy southern accent and I’ll be at every screening of the film! (Click on title for review and read another review here)

Desperate Lives (1982): OK, so I see this movie as the Reefer Madness of the 80s, and remember how that one got a re-do as a musical? Picture it - a little dance number while a girl has a giant drug freak out before she jumps through a window. That’s good stuff! What makes Desperate Lives work (and yes, it does work in an overwrought fashion) is that it’s so earnest in its message, but so overt in its direction. It is completely misguided and ridiculously fun - all it's missing is a good beat I can dance to!

I, Desire (1982): While we’re living in a modern world replete with emo-vampires, I think it’s about time to resurrect this sexy little thriller and put the campy back in vampy! The anti-Twilight crowd says they want something edgy, and this might make a good compromise. Desire isn’t the deepest film ever made, but it does have feature a vampire doubling as a prostitute, so there’s your edge. It would be really fun to get knee deep in a little vampire sleaze and take away that clean cut image they have been getting. (Click on title for review)

Deadly Lessons (1983): Although I didn’t get a chance to see it until much later, I remember when Deadly Lessons first aired. I was desperate for a slasher film that might be less gruesome than the more popular output (by the way, I was a chicken shit when I was a kid). This film looked destined to be the chance I had to experience some fun stalk and hopefully a little toned down slash, but for whatever reason, the film escaped me until I was an adult. Unfortunately, by then I could handle a lot more gore and looked to Lessons as more of a kitschy addition to the gene. It is also unfortunate that Lessons isn’t either scary or cheesy. It’s not horrible, but it’s not great either. I love the setting and I even enjoyed the killer’s reveal, so there’s much here to work with and I’d like to see this get the royal slasher redux treatment.

Velvet (1984): Seriously, this pilot movie about a band of female agents who work undercover as aerobics instructors is just gold waiting for pick up! It’s sort of like an unabashed Charlie’s Angels rip with more leotards. One agent even has a lipstick tube which doubles as a bomb detonator. Sorry, this pilot movie needs to be remade, perhaps is should still take place in the 80s, embracing every neon-tipped stereotype it can handle. And don't touch that awesome theme song... OK, it's awesomely bad, but still...

I whittled down this list from a couple of dozen titles. Far be it from me to say this is the end all, be all... Do you think there is a title that should be on this list?

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark... The Promos

2011-08-23T22:11:00.005-04:00

Courtesy of Meet in the Lobby

Courtesy of Vintage Toledo TV

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark Week: A Look into the Dark (I’m not Afraid, I Swear!)

2011-08-22T16:42:00.005-04:00

When I first started this blog (almost 400 posts ago!), I had intended to cover mostly made for TV horror. Very early on I threw out that idea when I knew I wanted to write about Sooner or Later, and that was, like, four posts in! Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark was one of those movies I thought I’d be writing about over and over again. Turns out I have only mentioned it more or less in passing or in relation to the upcoming remake. When I tried to think long and hard about why, I got a bad headache (cuz thinking like that is hard), but I also realized that classics like Dark get written about a lot. I think I was just unsure if I could add anything new to the pot.

All I should have said was I remember watching Dark when I was still living in California, I must have been six years old or younger. I recall being so terrified by the opening credits I changed the channel the first time I tried to watch it. The second time, I think I purposely stepped in closer to the end, and that scared the bejeezus out of me too, and I remember watching The Monkees directly afterwards in an attempt to cleanse the palette (I think it worked). Finally, I caught the whole film, but it was after we had moved to Vegas and I was a little older, but still quite shy of ten. I was pretty enchanted by those little demons that wanted to drag Sally (Kim Darby) to the depths of hell. Their malicious whispers and diminutive and creepy presence was the stuff horror legends are made of and I have wanted to brick over every fireplace since.

Dark was a movie, like Gargoyles and Trilogy of Terror, that became a mainstay on our local channel. It’s where I saw most of the small screen stuff, I guess because I was either unable to read a TV Guide or I preferred watching my scary flicks in the comfort of a sunlit room. Either way, Dark followed me throughout my life… at first on television, then as a legend that I was craving to view again, then as a bootleg I picked up at Kim’s Video in NYC and finally as a legitimate DVD through Warner Archives (check out the new special edition DVD due tomorrow ). As my life changed and I grew older, and perhaps more weary, my views on Dark changed as well. At one sorry point in my life, I think I thought the film was one of those good bad movies which were becoming so popular in hipster culture. That was a short stint though because once I decided to dedicate more time to discovering and rediscovering TV movies, I had garnered a deep respect for what the filmmakers were able to do in a 74 minute time span. A little later I got more metaphorical with Dark, and I’ve even briefly said here I thought the film might make a decent comment on the women’s movement of the 70s, when being a simple housewife was leaving something to be desired. But I’m not so sure I want to get metaphorical with Dark... And here I go changing again… I think this is a film that works best as primal viewing. According to the legend, Dark was written by Nigel McKeand in two weeks to avoid the upcoming Writers Strike of 1973. Director John Newland took that script and simply sets up some magnificent scares as he extends a true sense of dread through the film. That’s probably why I carried it so deeply inside of me. As a kid, I had no idea what context or symbolism was, but I sure had that fear instinct working overtime during certain films (Friday the 13th Part 2 damn near drove me to therapy!), and this film filled all of those dark uncertainties about what might be lurking in the shadows.

In a few days the remake of Dark, which producer/co-writer Guillermo Del Toro refers to as the scariest TV movie he has ever seen, gets a new life. It’s pretty amazing to watch the genesis of this little TVM that could, it was first considered a throwaway horror film, only to become a cult hit and then a classic of the genre worthy of a mega budget redux. I get a little tear in my eye whenever I think about it. Or maybe I just bit my tongue. Either way, I’m over the moon about this new version and as I travel the interwebs looking at various articles about the film, I am thrilled to see all the comments from people who have intense memories of Dark from their childhood. This is it, guys. Those of us who love TV movies can say “We’ve arrived!” It’s pretty exciting, so I thought I’d dedicate the next week to Dark. It won’t be a daily thing, but please check back as Made for TV Mayhem takes a look back at one of the biggest influences on the blog.

And if you really do want to get a little metaphorical with Dark, please read the following articles:

Kindertrauma
This Island Rod

My Stuff...

2011-08-22T11:27:00.002-04:00

And I don't just have stuff to read, I have a little to listen to as well!

Check out my newest review at Retro Slashers for a film called Paganini Horror, which I should be embarrassed to admit I liked, but there you go!

Also check out my Made for TV Minute podcast segment, which is on This House Possessed, because everything should be about This House Possessed! I show up around the one and half hour point and the main movie discussed is the awesome Big Bad Mama, so check it out (you can also download the show on iTunes).

I'll be hanging out with the Movies About Girls gang this Saturday, the 27th when we will talk about Sleepaway Camp! It's a fave, so I'm excited! I usually show up around 8 pm EST and you can catch the show on Loudcaster.

I'll be doing another theme week, starting today (I hope). I'm counting down to the Don't Be Afraid of the Dark remake. I'm so excited (and I just can't hide it)! I thought it would be nice to take a look back at where it all started.

1986: Machismo on a Stick

2011-08-20T15:53:00.008-04:00

The Year was 1986 and beautiful men were entering our living rooms every night… Now that’s what I call a good year! TV Guide compiled a list of The 10 Most Attractive Men on TV, which was put together by the ladies who were voted The 10 Most Attractive Women on TV in 1984. Some of the lovely ladies polled were:

Joan Collins
Linda Evans
Diann Carroll
(Go Dynasty!!!)
Stefanie Powers
Jane Seymour
Connie Selleca
Shari Belafonte-Harper

I have to tell you that I adore this list of women, and wish I knew who the other three rounding out the list were. Of the names I have, the youngest was 31 (Selleca) and as you can see, most of these women were not just beautiful but seasoned as well. Represent!

The ladies gladly pulled out their white hot meters and came up with a pretty great list (One of the rules was that they were not allowed to vote on men appearing on their own shows). The Top 10, in order were:

10. William Devane
10. (tie) Jack Scalia
8. Robert Urich
7. Bill Cosby
6. Pierce Brosnan
5. Bruce Willis
4. John Forsythe
3. Robert Wagner
2. Tom Selleck
1. Don Johnson

Don't worry Tom, you'll always be #1 on my list
The famous actresses drooled over their choices. Stefanie Powers loved that John Forsythe was “a solid, real human being.” And Linda Evans said Tom Selleck was “amazing looking. He’s tall, he’s beautiful and he takes your breath away.” Although I would gladly put Mr. Selleck at the top of any list I had, Don Johnson is just sooooo 80s, and oozed sex out of every pore. I know that sounds gross, but it's really not...

The runners up were pretty varied as well. TV Guide said that votes also went to Bruce Boxleitner, Michael Gross, Parker Stevenson and Robert Guillaume, among others. What’s interesting is that I didn’t see James Brolin on the list at all. Not one vote for the most gorgeous man who ever ran a multi-million dollar hotel? Wow. Also, I’m just gonna put it out there – I’d like to see Peter Scolari on this list. Honestly, I’d like to see him anywhere. Rawr! Ah, glad to get that off my chest!

And where are my Riptide guys? All three of them, please!

Yowza!
Even Charles Bronson had turned to the small screen in 1986 to make a film that allowed him to show that he had just as much power as an actor as he did in his fists. Bronson starred in a made for HBO movie titled Act of Vengeance and he told TV Guide, “I have often thought how lovely it would be to lean on a mantelpiece with a cocktail in my hand and let the dialogue do the acting.” Bronson was one sexy cat, that's for sure.

Oh, yeah.
This poll was also conducted just months before LA Law hit our sets. Talk about some hot guys, Harry Hamlin and Corbin Bernsen gave a new, sexy life to the three piece suit.

Was 1986 the pinnacle of TV machismo? I’m starting to think so…

And check out this CBS TV Spot for the 1986 lineup. Hunkadelic!

Lest we forget the hottest game show host of 1986:

The Woman in Black Trailer

2011-08-19T08:03:00.002-04:00

It gave me goosebumps:

The Made for TV Mayhem Minute Takes Off: And it's Totally Glamorous!

2011-08-18T12:19:00.005-04:00

I've been running a little behind on everything lately. School is gearing up and while I panic about classes, payment, applications, book buying and all that fun stuff, I find that I've let everything else take a backseat.

Well, no more... at least no more this week! I wanted to update everyone about my first two segments for the Movies about Girls podcast. Here is some linkage:

In the first podcast, I discuss Inmates: A Love Story because chicks are hotter when they are behind bars (it also helps that we've got some dude behind bars here too!). You can download the podcast here. I show up around the 1 hour 36 minute mark. Please excuse any nervousness! The spotlighted movie for the podcast is The Bad Seed, so please check it out!

The second podcast aired last week and I dedicated my topic to awesome TV movies streaming on Netflix, which you can listen to here. I show up around the 2 hour and 40 minute mark (I know, these podcasts are marathons of all thing pop culture!) A lot of the movies I mention have been reviewed here, so please search for any titles which might interest you... The main movie discussed during the podcast is the incredible Single White Female, so again, give it a go. Lots of fun to be had!

You can also download the show on iTunes.

Enjoy!

A Moxey Twofer: A Taste of Evil (1971) and The Strange and Deadly Occurrence (1974)

2011-08-17T18:19:00.015-04:00

A Taste of Evil:
Network: ABC
Original Air Date: October 12th, 1971

The Strange and Deadly Occurrence:
Network: NBC
Original Air Date: September 12th, 1974

Jimmy Sangster let the cat out of the bag when he admitted on a DVD commentary track for the Horror of Frankenstein that he lifted the story from his Taste of Fear screenplay (aka Scream of Fear, 1971) and used it to write the TVM A Taste of Evil (also 1971). Aaron Spelling recognized the story and for giggles I’ll assume director John Llewellyn Moxey did as well. Since Evil seems to be a remake, it’s slightly ironic that Moxey redid it again (sorta) in 1974 with The Strange and Deadly Occurrence (written by TV vet Sandor Stern). Without knowing the backstory to these films or even that Moxey had directed both (well, maybe I did know that somewhere inside my little IMDb friendly brain but had somehow forgotten, most likely when I saw something shiny), I watched both Evil and Occurrence back to back recently.

Most of you probably know that here at Made for TV Mayhem I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve. I mean, isn’t that what blogs are for? I’ve never made it a secret that I simply adore John Llewellyn Moxey. He’s a small screen horror movie magic maker, creating little universes filled with suspense and sometimes straight up terror. And I won’t even get into his work on Magnum P.I. (OK, maybe I will… Way of the Stalking Horse is excellent!). I also love that he’s made about a gazillion things so I’m still discovering a lot of his films. I was really struck with the similarities between Evil and Occurrence and I found that I had a hard time mulling over one film without thinking of the other, so I thought I’d do a Moxey twofer and review them together.

The most obvious resemblance lies within the premise. Let’s briefly go over the themes, shall we? Evil definitely falls under the is-she-or-isn’t-she-insane plot, which was so popular in the 70s (and almost completely worn out by the end of the decade). Occurrence is more of a is-it-or-isn’t-it-haunted story and both films have fairly predictable conclusions to these questions. While the guesswork for both is child’s play, a little past the halfway point of Evil there is this really great twist, and it almost becomes another film. A little less predictable, the bulk of the energy comes from this turn of events (although if you've seen enough of these then you probably will guess the whole shebang).

Evil opens up with a harrowing sequence featuring the attack and rape of a young girl. After being sent away to a sanatorium, Susan (Barbara Parkins) returns many years later to face her demons and rejoin her mother Miriam (Barbara Stanwyck) who is now married to an old family friend and heavy boozer named Harold (William Windom). Despite feeling fairly grounded, Susan starts seeing things which may or may not be there. Miriam enlists the help from her doctor friend Michael Lomas (Roddy McDowall) and he worries that Susan isn’t as well adjusted as they thought.

Occurrence takes a little more time to get going, focusing a bit more on the family as a happy bunch living out in the middle of nowhere (they are played by Robert Stack, Vera Miles and Margaret Willock). There is no opening trauma but once it kicks off things begin to build quickly. Creepy things start happening to the teenage daughter who is either having bad dreams or dealing with someone coming into her room at night (yikes!). There are other little issues as well, such as a bathtub overflowing when no one ran it, and whatever or whoever is wreaking havoc continues to elevate their reign of terror until the family considers leaving.

Both films begin with the mental demise of the daughter. It starts much earlier for the character in Evil, but whatever is preying on the family in Occurrence first sets out to destroy the emotional stability of the teenager in the house. Both films have an outsider who is their rational thinker. For Evil it’s Dr. Lomas, while Occurrence employs the local sheriff (played by the terrifically macho L.Q. Jones) and they are there to offset what we think might be happening. It’s one of the most common additions to these kinds of films where the intention is to throw the viewer off their center. It works better in Evil, but I really like Jones as the forever annoyed law enforcement officer. And strangely enough, both films feature dead bodies in water. I know, crazy, right?

The unfortunate downfall of the TV movie is that it often has a been-there-done-that kind of feeling to it. The premise of a mental patient trying to ease themselves back into society only to find they may indeed be a total loony is an old foundation for films. Even by the early 70s it was pretty cliché, but Evil relies heavily on atmosphere and it does a good job of making the whole affair lush and creepy, which allows the tired story to finds life through the setting and the earnest performances. Stanwyck is especially good (as if anyone had any doubt), but the cast as a whole seems really intent on making the schtick feel more fresh and alive. Occurrence is also aware of its well-worn premise but continues to concentrate on the build-up rather than working up a twist(ed) ending. In fact, the last couple of scenes almost feel like an afterthought, since the important information is withheld until the climax. Still, the majority of the film is intense, and the actors are game, so I found the outcome easy to forgive.

Evil is gothic, claustrophobic horror, featuring a grandiose locale and it feels a little more dated if only because there aren’t enough flowing nightgowns in modern thrillers (tsk, tsk). Occurrence has a more modern feel simply by giving the characters a middle class dynamic. I felt the family in Occurrence was easier to relate to, while the ostentatious broken family in Evil seemed more unreachable. That’s not a ding against Evil, but it is the one major difference between the two films, aside from the conclusions. But while Occurrence is peppered with the type of people many of us would know (although it’s doubtful anyone else really has the same to-die-for cheekbones of Miss Vera Miles), Evil has some more meat behind its story. Both harken back to the days when horror preferred suggestion over visceral thrills and they make wonderful companions walking together along the long and winding TV movie road.

As luck would have it, Kindertrauma just reviewed Taste of Fear so stop by and see where the madness started!

Private Eye: Not for Sissies

2011-08-10T17:47:00.005-04:00

Oh man, I love the tag line in the TV Guide ad! Sadly, Private Eye was not only not for sissies, apparently it wasn't for anyone else watching TV in 1987.

Private Eye was intended to be the marriage of two of the hottest detective shows on TV, Miami Vice and Crime Story. Set in the 50s, the pilot movie features the gorgeous Michael Woods as Jack Cleary, a former cop who uncovers much in the way of police corruption. He is teamed up with a very young Josh Brolin, who looks like a James Dean type, only more hoodlum-esque. The pilot movie ran on September 13th, 1987 on NBC and the show found itself airing at 10 pm against 20/20 and Beauty and the Beast. Created by Anthony Yerkovich, the man behind Miami Vice, Private Eye had an extremely short run, lasting for 12 episodes. A lot of the blame was placed on Woods, but lest we forget the Chicago Tribune named him Hunk of the Year and thought his macho man image was the pinnacle of the man's man in the late 80s. Whatever the reason, Private Eye just couldn't find any footing and perhaps they should have just invited a few of us sissies to watch.

For more on late 80s cop shows, check out this great article on Crime Story at Go Retro.

Fun factoid: Joe Jackson wrote the theme song to Private Eye. Watch the opening:

The Made for TV Mayhem Minute!

2011-08-03T20:57:00.003-04:00

I'm very excited to announce that I will be doing something called The Made for TV Mayhem Minute for the podcast in conjunction with the never safe for work site Movies About Girls! I'll be hosting a short segment each week on any and everything TV movie (and probably some other stuff too)! The show alternates air dates so you can just look at the links in this article to see what is going to air when and I'll post links to the archived podcasts. I was a little torn for my intro post, since this is all new to me, but finally decided to spoon some tidbits on what we might have been watching on August 6th, 1982... Good TV never dies!

And a big thanks goes out to Ken McIntyre and his beautiful wife Stacey for taking a chance on a kid like me!

Stuff and Nonsense!

2011-08-03T20:26:00.004-04:00

OK, I finally put up a new poll. This month is dedicated to the desert heat! Check out your options and exercise your right to party... oh, I mean vote! Lots of good choices. I'm not sure exactly who I plan to give my love to.

I've reviewed a few of these bad land flicks. You can read reviews for:

Weekend of Terror
Gargoyles
Dying Room Only
Pray for the Wildcats
China Lake Murders

Get to clicking!

And here's a great clip from The Neon Ceiling:

Last month's women in prison poll went really well and Born Innocent came in first with the Charlie's Angels episode Angels in Chains giving little Linda Blair a run for her money! I was pleased to see every film in the poll got at least one vote. I'm glad to see we still enjoy chicks behind bars!

I also have a new review up at Retro Slashers for The Fan, which is a truly underrated little thriller.

Hopefully, this will keep everyone busy until I can get some new reviews up!

TV Trivia: Nightingales

2011-07-21T16:50:00.006-04:00

After being ABC's golden child for two decades, Aaron Spelling's contract with the network was cancelled in the late 80s (ABC was jokingly called the Aaron Broadcasting Channel for a time). Spelling still had two shows airing, Dynasty and Hotel, but the network felt he was becoming a thing of the past. Brandon Tartikoff who ran NBC approached Spelling for an idea for a new series. NBC was known for their higher tier programing such as Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere and Tartikoff thought something more escapist would help balance the lineup. Spelling gave him a one sentence pitch:

"Student nurses in Dallas in the summer and the air conditioning doesn't work so they sweat a lot!"

Tartikoff loved it! When he brought Spelling to NBC to discuss the new project he actually rolled out a red carpet to his office, gave Spelling flowers and there was even a marching band to perform The Yellow Rose of Texas!

The show would be called Nightingales and it would have a pilot movie and then a 13 episode run. It failed miserably, but points to Tartikoff for not just respecting Spelling's talent but for treating the king of television like the royalty he truly was.

I've never seen Nightingales, and in fact had only heard of it when I recently picked up a copy of the book Three Blind Mice by Ken Auletta (which is where I got this story). Here is the main title sequence, which features aerobics, surgery and Suzanne Pleshette:

Before it aired, when everyone knew it would be a hit, the show was dubbed "the silver nipple!" Gotta love 80s TV!

One more bit of trivia: Nightingales starred Suzanne Pleshette and Barry Newman who also appeared together in the 1982 TV movie Fantasies. You can read my reviews here and here.

By the way, the above TV ad came from Vintage Toledo TV. Check them out, they have lots of great pics.

Dallas Remake is a Go!

2011-07-20T19:36:00.004-04:00

It's true, you can't keep a good villain down!

TNT is picking up the Dallas Reboot, and the pilot is scheduled to air during the summer of 2012.

Why, oh why, do I have to wait until next summer?!? Oh well, I think things are looking good so I plan on sticking it out. The people behind this production seem pretty interested in honoring the show's original fans while creating a new battle between Christopher and John Ross. Granted, I wish these two guys looked old enough to run a big oil corporation, but I will not complain. I'm just too damn excited!

Here's a sneak peak:

(**goosebumps**)

Thriller: Dial a Deadly Number (1976)

2011-07-20T18:31:00.007-04:00

Network:ITV
Original Air Date: May 1st, 1976

Thriller was a British television series comprised of stand alone episodes that ran the length of a film (well, a tele-film, which is about 74 minutes). This show often aired on my local channel when I was growing up, but Dial a Deadly Number is the only one that really stuck with me. I had actually forgotten I’d even seen it until about 10 years ago when I flashbacked to a scene from an unknown movie featuring a sneaking marauder breaking into someone’s bedroom and slicing their wrist while they slept. The wound was just deep enough that it left one gruesome ouchie. The scene chilled me as a kid and it resided somewhere deep inside my rolodex of creepy horror images. At the time I remembered it, I started to recall other scenes, and it took me years to find out that I was actually mashing up this Thriller episode with Scream, Pretty Peggy. Without giving too much away, the last scene of both films are visually similar, only one culprit is male while the other is female. Once I saw Peggy, I was able to separate the distorted images and I finally ID’ed an actor, Gary Collins. Then I had to go back through his filmmography and filter through the titles and descriptions. The second I came across the words Dial a Deadly Number a little bell went off in my head and all that remained was locating a copy.

What one does for their love of the scary stuff.

So here I am, over 30 years after my initial viewing of Number, and it was just a creepy as my haunted childhood memories.

Gary Collins is Dave Adams, a down on his luck out of work actor (is there any other kind?) who turns con-man when someone dials the wrong number. Mistaking him for a psychiatrist, Helen (Gemma Jones) begs the good doctor for help. She is disturbed by vivid dreams that she has committed murder, and she is worried this means she will kill in the future. Adams schmoozes his way into her life, but ends up taking more of an interest in her sister. Ann (Linda Liles) is the older, prettier and more charismatic sibling and she gives clues into Helen’s disturbed past, but he’s more worried about getting into Ann’s pants that he doesn’t realize he might end up paying for his misdeeds with his life.

Dial a Deadly Number is a methodical and exceptional thriller with lots of stark imagery, thanks to Helen’s rather vivid and gruesome “dreams.” The story may feel a tad predictable, but it’s so well acted and paced that the scares remain genuine. Brian Clemens penned the entire series and how he came up with so many unique and suspenseful stories is anyone’s guess.

Despite being shot on video and usually contained within a few sets (and a couple of outdoor shots), Thriller looks and feels great. I always thought the video quality on anything that wasn’t a soap opera or sitcom added something eerie to any movie, and shows like Thriller are obviously attached to that feeling. Gary Collins appeared in three episodes of the series. I’ve seen one other, which is called Only a Scream Away, and he plays a completely different character. He co-stars in that one with my boyfriend, the late David Warbeck, but I think Number did such a, uh, number on me as a kid that it edges its way to the front of my favorite Thriller episodes! Sorry David, I still love you.

Only Season One of Thriller has received a DVD release in America, but you can buy the whole series at the UK Amazon site (just make sure your have a player that accepts Region 2).

Thriller has had a long and complicated history with American television. ABC originally picked up several episodes to air late at night during what they called the Wide World of Mystery. This programming ran inside ABC’s Wide World of Entertainment block which was the network’s attempt to rival the late night popularity of The Tonight Show. Several unrelated projects were run, including In Concert, and a re-cut version of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. This setup was popular in the beginning (read this Time magazine article featuring some quotes from glowing executive Michael Eisner, who was then Vice President in charge of program development), but it soon fizzled out, and ABC eventually dropped almost everything except the movie programming, which was re-titled ABC Late Night. Other re-runs of popular shows like Fantasy Island also aired, but it petered out pretty quickly and this block of late night programming only ran from 1973 – 1976. While Thriller was often featured in this setup, there were a lot of American productions, many of which remain quite obscure. Nightmare at 43 Hillcrest actually had a VHS release, but it’s probably The Cloning of Clifford Swimmer that I see referenced most often. I think Alien Lover also had a VHS release because I remember once seeing it selling on Ebay for over $100!!! That’s how rare most of the non-Thriller titles are! Aside from a smattering of information at IMDb, there is very little online regarding the series of films. Dial a Deadly Number was apparently not a part of the Wide World of Mystery, so this is what they call a tangent.

If you are interested in learning more about ABC's Wide World of Mystery (and really, who isn't?), check out these links:

ABC Creates The Wide World of Entertainment (from Old TV Tickets)

Marketing Thriller (from Media Gems)

An AV Maniacs message board discussion (with some links to photos of several TV advertisements!)

Johnny Depp is Kolchak?!?

2011-07-16T14:55:00.003-04:00

Maybe... Maybe not.

According to this article on Deadline.com Johnny Depp's company Infinitum Nihil is developing a Night Stalker film with Disney. There is no word yet on whether Depp will actually star in the film or if he'll remain behind the scenes.

While Depp is a wonderful actor and the right age (how can that man be 48?), I'm not sure he's quite what I envision when I think about someone besides Darren McGavin walking in Kolchak's shoes. Well, I didn't imagine Stuart Townsend either, and I liked the reboot series well enough. It seemed more like its own incarnation and that helped, but if they are going to make a big screen film, I hope they stick more to the original. Let's keep Kolchak grizzled, please!

Must See Streaming Movie of the Week: Jealousy (1983)

2011-07-16T13:14:00.006-04:00

Network: ABC
Original Air Date: January 23rd, 1984

While Netflix is surrounded by controversy for changing their layout and raising prices, it’s hard for me to tear myself away from them because their TV movie selection can be pretty tasty stuff. Granted, their new setup makes finding these great movies a big fat pain in the ass. Luckily, they seem to want to semi-appease their customers by returning to their regular look. Although when that change takes place is anyone’s guess. They’ve removed the Made for TV movie tag, which I was so in love with, from their streaming selection and re-tagged many of these films simply as TV Shows. WTF, right? If you use the Browse DVD option, you can sort of filter it, but not really. And as proof of that I can tell you that the movie I’m linking to today isn’t there. That’s what those of us stuck in the 80s call seriously lame, dude.

I stumbled upon Jealousy by pure accident. And I was glad I did. I had never heard of this film, which features Angie Dickinson in three different dark romance stories. Each of these women have some serious and deranged issues all dealing with, you guessed it, jealousy!

GULP!

In the first story Angie plays Georgia, an upper class woman who is married to the hunkadelic Daniel (Paul Michael Glaser looking hotter than ever). He is the stepfather to Georgia’s daughter Heather (Julie Phillips) and their relationship is just close enough that Georgia begins to worry the two are having an affair. Her erotic fantasies get the better of her and she finds herself obsessed with their alleged trysts.

I have to be honest, I forgot this was an anthology and when the segment got to the climax (ha! pun intended!), I couldn’t believe how the story was unfolding so quickly. The twist ending was a total surprise that, in retrospect, worked perfectly.

Melodie likes to watch

The second episode is a bit silly but even weirder than the first. Angie is Laura and she’s just married a man named Merrill (Richard Mulligan). He’s crazy with the dough and Laura is looking forward to indulging in life’s best at his palatial estate. Laura hasn’t met Melodie yet and Merrill is worried the two will not get along. Melodie is either Merrill’s daughter, mother, friend, assistant or maybe another wife, but it all remains to be seen until Laura moves into his mansion. Melodie’s reveal is slightly predictable, but this segment is still an outrageously unusual little short full of dark humor.

Susan Tyrell rocks the plaid!

In the third segment Angie is Ginny, a small town bar singer whose biggest fan is Bobby Dee (David Carradine). He’s also her creepiest admirer and he’s decided that if he can’t have her, no one can. I thought this would be the weakest segment, and it surely feels like the longest one, but the build-up is strong and tense, making the last five minutes a knock out!

???

Jealousy feels a lot like Danielle Steel wrote some episodes for The Twilight Zone. The movie was written and directed by Jeffrey Bloom who is probably most famous for directing Flowers in the Attic, but I would remiss if I didn’t mention his work on the cult classic Blood Beach or Darkroom (he wrote the episode Catnip). Cinematographer Gil Hubbs really works the camera, keeping everything soft and romantic while adding just the right amount of tension and darkness to keep the feel a little off-center. Hubbs would go on to work with with Bloom on Starcrossed (1985), The Right of the People (1986) and then Flowers. It's been years since I've seen Starcrossed, but I seem to recall that same dream-like vibe running through the film.

Jealousy is streaming on Netflix, and is definitely worth checking out if you like your love stories laced with with a little acid!

Hungry for Content? Here's a Link!

2011-07-13T21:08:00.003-04:00

The above photo is a look at my favorite caveman slasher killer. He is the Hermit from Memorial Valley Massacre, which I reviewed for Retro Slashers. Enjoy!

I actually have a review that is 90% done and I have another look into a infamous TV movie going up on another site soon. Will post a link when all is said and done! Who knows, maybe I'll have newer new content up by tomorrow!

Update! It's a Scorcher!

2011-07-06T21:13:00.003-04:00

I would like to say there is lots going on here at Made for TV Mayhem, but what I mean is I wish there was lots going on. Not sure it's the exhaustion from the move or just the damn heat, but I feel like I am swimming in glue. Sexy, no? Unpacking has also added to my woes, as I find that although my TV movie collection has found a home in my new office, the rest of the stuff refuses to unpack itself. The nerve! So tonight I have links and a new poll!

If you look to your right you will see I chose this month as Women in Prison month. There have been some surprisingly gritty small screen WiP flicks and I'm currently working on a review of one. I fudged it a bit and added Charlie's Angels because the episode Angels in Chains is so damn iconic, it just can't be left out. I also decided to skip the newer Lifetime-esque films, even though I love them because that's a whole other poll! The wheels are turnin'...

As for last month's poll, it's no surprise that Don't Be Afraid of the Dark didn't just walk away with top honors, it ran down the street and into another county! This House Possessed was a distant second and almost all of the films got at least one vote, except for poor Bay Coven, which is really quite good. I was surprised by that one!

If you are looking to escape the heat (and aren't we all?), please stop by Joanna Wilson's Christmas TV Companion blog where she is having Christmas in Joo-lie! She is concentrating on our favorite holiday TV from the 90s and has oodles of guest bloggers lending her a hand. Please stop by often to see all of her updates. Who knows, maybe you'll even catch a chill!

I have some new reviews at Retro Slashers, so please stop by and read my thoughts on The Boogens and Silent Rage. And if you are so inclined, please join RS's Facebook page. We try to post there daily, so if you are all nostalgic for slice and dice, this is the place for you!

And finally, I will be returning to the Movies about Girls podcast this Saturday at 8 pm EST where we will be talking about those awesomely bitchy Heathers! Turn in, turn on and drop out!

Can You Hear the Laughter (1979)

2011-06-28T11:09:00.003-04:00

Network: CBS
Original Air Date: September 11th, 1979

Can You Hear the Laughter is based on Peter S. Greenberg’s 1977 Playboy article titled Good Night Sweet Prinze, which was adapted for television by Dalene Young (Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway) and it concentrates on the comedian’s heavy drug and depression problems. It is true that Prinze became one of the most infamous tragedies in Hollywood history, but he was also a delightful performer with a knack for showcasing stereotypes as inherently goofy, which took some of the sting out of them. Laughter concentrates on Prinze’s fall rather than his rise, and by hanging in the darker realm it does a grand disservice to Prinze, because it makes him seem utterly forgettable through the film’s blandness.

Angustain promotes the movie for People Magazine
The bright spot of Laughter is the cast, who put a lot of heart into their portrayals. Ira Angustain (The White Shadow) is a dead ringer for Prinze whom he idolized. In a 1979 interview with The St. Petersburg Times Angustain said, “When I heard they were going to do a movie about his life, I wanted the part more than anything else.” The California born Mexican American actor even joked with People Magazine in 1979, “Of course I had to learn a New York Puerto Rican accent for the part.” Angustain won the role over such Hollywood big names as Erik Estrada (!) and he does his best, but the character itself is rather one-sided. Randee Heller (SOAP) was especially good as Freddie’s kind secretary Carol, as was actor-turned-director Kevin Hooks who played Freddie's friend Nate.

However, Freddie’s mother, Maria Pruetzel was not pleased with Angustain and when referring to his imitation of Freddie’s standup, she said he was a “disaster.” She also felt the movie delved only into the darkness of Freddie’s life and she told The Calgary Herald that, “he took drugs, he was depressed. But they should have showed him going to his doctor sometimes trying to get help.” Freddie’s parents were actually omitted from the film, which made Maria feel like they were attempting to portray Freddie as “a kid brought up in the streets.” There is very little recreated footage of Chico and the Man as well, and Art Carney’s brother Fred took on the small role of Jack Albertson in the movie.

This painting by Alan Magee accompanied Greenberg's Playboy article
Angustain believed that “Freddie was a complicated man who wasn’t the happy go lucky guy he appeared to be in public,” but I think that somewhere between Greenberg’s nihilistic portrayal and Maria’s loving biography lies the real truth of Freddie’s rise and fall, and that’s the film I’d like to see (to be fair, I have not read Greenberg's article). Perhaps no other Hollywood star has risen so fast and fallen so quickly as Prinze’s and there is an important and moving story just waiting to be told, I just wish Laughter had been the film to tell it.

For further reading, here is a link to an incredible interview with Tony Orlando discussing Prinze's death with People Magazine.

Chico and the Man: The Freddie Prinze Years (1974 - 1977)

2011-06-24T16:07:00.010-04:00

Chico (Freddie Prinze) was the fun loving Hispanic who charmed his way into the life of Ed Brown (Jack Albertson), an old bigoted curmudgeon who didn’t like the uprise of the ethnic population in his neighborhood. A drunk and a loner, Ed crankily put up with Chico, a kid he hated to admit he liked. Well, it’s not hard to like Chico, the sweet natured entrepreneur was determined to get old Ed some business into the rundown garage. The show focused on Chico and his ying/yang partnership with Ed, but there were lots of other characters filtering in and out of Ed and Chico’s life, including Louie (Scatman Crothers) and Della (Della Reese), plus all the quirky folks who made a pit stop in Ed’s garage. And, of course, hilarity ensued.

Prinze in his first scene in the pilot
I always thought Chico and the Man was created to showcase Freddie’s phenomenal standup act, but Prinze was actually up against four other actors for the part, including Isaac Ruiz who played Mando in several episodes. The final decision came to a meeting with Jack Albertson who was then starring in a stage production of the Sunshine Boys. The show’s creator, James Komack was interested in who Albertson had the most chemistry with. And a legend was born.

There was some controversy from the Mexican American community surrounding the casting of Prinze who was Puerto Rican. Prinze’s mother said in a book she wrote about her son, called The Freddie Prinze Story, that he would receive threats from angry TV viewers. Prinze responded in a 1975 interview with the Palm Beach Post with, “The feelings are the same. Spick means the same thing in New York as it does in Los Angeles. The pain is the same.” He conceded in the same interview, “I don’t think it’s the majority making the fuss. It’s a few radicals.” Eventually, the network bent and wrote in that Chico’s father was Puerto Rican. Regardless of the controversy, Chico and the Man was an instant hit, and Prinze was what they refer to in Hollywood as an overnight success.

Chico shows off his new digs
Many sitcoms of the 70s and 80s were far less sophisticated than what we see now. While people complain about the current state of the half hour comedy, those unaccustomed to the stage-like productions of yesteryear are sure to detest the format. It’s a shame too, because the simple sets and stories were a true showcase for the actors. Everything relied on presence and delivery and the comedy was derived from the actors’ ability to grab your interest. Freddie Prinze was a natural and he hit it right out of the ballpark in the pilot, which aired on September 13th, 1974 on NBC. Ed is introduced as a real cranky old bastard and it’s fun to watch Prinze warm the old coot’s heart. This of course would become the crux of the series, but it’s apparent here why the Man isn’t as keen on letting Chico go as he would like everyone to believe he is.

Chico does his own bargaining with God
The series ran fairly smoothly for three seasons while Prinze was experimenting with drugs and going deeper down the rabbit hole of depression. According to his mother, Prinze was lonely and not meant for the bright lights of Hollywood, but he would reveal to a psychologist shortly before his death about his own childhood sadness and how he began experimenting with drugs at a younger age than his mom talks about. He also confesses to an earlier suicide attempt (here’s a link to the article in People Magazine). Even now, with all I’ve learned about Prinze’s darker side, I find it hard to believe that what I saw on screen was so different from the man himself. By all accounts, Prinze was a good guy and well loved, but he obviously didn’t know how to take that love in, and all of that sadness was completely hidden on the series. Prinze actually taped his last episode just hours before his death. The episode was called Ed Talks to God and it aired on March 4th, 1977, about five weeks after Prinze’s death. This episode is especially poignant because it revolves around Ed’s birthday and many comments are made about how Ed should appreciate getting to the age he has. Prinze looks especially thin and his delivery does seem to be a bit off, but of course this is all in hindsight. Knowing he was so close to the end, makes it especially difficult to watch.

The chemistry between Albertson and Prinze was undeniable
For three magical seasons, Prinze brought the gift of laughter to just about everyone who ever watched an episode of Chico and the Man, and he shocked the country with his death. At Prinze’s funeral, Jack Albertson gave a eulogy which he ended with: “We are bound together, this family, not in a temporary chill of death, but in the everlasting warmth of his humanity and his humor. Let us not mourn his death, rather, let us celebrate his life. In the years to come, in the days and the years, this moment will have passed and we’ll see Freddie again, we will hear him, we will think of our brother and we will smile again and we will laugh again, and we will be warm again.”

The last time the gang appeared together

Six episodes of Chico and the Man are available on DVD at Amazon.

The series tried to continue without Prinze, and 12 year old Gabriel Melgar was brought in as a replacement. While I remember liking Melgar, who played Raul, the show was destined to bomb without Prinze. However, there were many poignant moments on the show, like when Ed busts up Chico's guitar in a fit of anger over his death. The following clips aptly capture the anger and sadness that not only Ed felt regarding the heavy loss of Chico, but also the frustation the fans endured as well. The fact that these scenes still resonate deeply proves the depth of the sense of loss we all shared when Freddie Prinze died.

Deadly Messages (1985)

2011-06-23T08:02:00.002-04:00

Note: I am taking a short break from Freddie Prinze Week to co-review this movie with my favorite guys at Kindertrauama! Since I'm still knee-deep in boxes at the new digs, Unkle Lancifer was kind enough to loan me the stills for this review. Thanks Unk! And please stop by and check out their review of Deadly Messages!

Network: ABC
Original Air Date: February 21st, 1985

Deadly Messages is an attractive looking film that is having an identity crisis. Unsure of whether it wants to venture completely into the supernatural, this thriller feels a bit uneven, but despite the disjointed tone of the story, it’s a great deal of fun and one of the best late entry made for TV horror films.

Beller behind bars? Only in my wildest Women in Prison fantasies!
Kathleen Beller is pretty Laura Daniels, a woman who holds temporary employment at a lush (and fabulously 80s) video dating service. Her live-in boyfriend, Michael (Michael Brandon) is a lawyer which explains why her apartment is so damn awesome. This, like, totally awesome girl named Cindy (Sherri Stoner) is staying with them, and man does she know how to crimp hair! Anyway, one night the couple goes out, leaving Cindy alone with Laura’s Ouija board, which leads to all kinds of mayhem. Upon returning home, Laura sees Cindy being attacked and possibly murdered, but by the time she is able to get the police, there is no trace of any problems. Granted, there’s no trace of Cindy either. Before long, Laura starts seeing Cindy’s assailant wherever she goes, but no one believes her. Can she figure out the mystery and save her own life before it’s too late?

Fah-reaky Wee-gee!
Deadly Messages riffs heavily on DePalma’s Body Double in the film’s two best scenes. The first is Cindy’s attack scene which might not have that phallic drill, but the bird’s eye view does definitely harken to my favorite DePalma film (it strongly recalls Barbeau’s death scene in Someone's Watching Me as well). The second scene is at the mall, and if you’ve seen Body Double, then you know what I’m talking about. Aside from that distinct imagery, Deadly Messages couldn’t be less like Body Double, but it does have that highly glossed sheen that many 80s thrillers had. There is no denying the decade this film was made in, even if the story feels more akin to the old school 70s TV movie.

He wears his sunglasses at night
This late entry thriller could easily be a theatrical. It’s got such a big, slick look to it, I was surprised to find out it was made for television when I first saw it eons ago on Encore. The leads are fantastic, but then again Beller and Brandon have yet to let me down. The only problem I have is getting the film from point A to B by dipping into a couple of sub-genres instead of just diving into one and going for it. However, Deadly Messages is entertaining and luxuriant; capturing a sleeker, more sophisticated version of the 80s, where crimped hair may reign supreme, but nary a scrunch sock or stone-washed jean will be found! I also adored Stoner’s performance as Cindy. She’s like PJ Soles on crack and helps open the film with a burst of energy. Deadly Messages does its best to maintain that level of kooky oomph and since it succeeds more than it fails, I give many points to this sly little flick for trying to add some vigor to the dying TVM genre.

Must See Streaming Movie of the Week: Million Dollar Rip-Off (1976)

2011-06-22T19:06:00.012-04:00

Network: NBC
Original Air Date: September 22nd, 1976

Freddie Prinze was a television star who was hoping to go onto bigger things like theatricals. While making a TV movie is more of a lateral move, Freddie saw it as a way to step out of his Chico image and give viewers something new. In his biography The Freddie Prinze Story, his mother says Prinze thought that Million Dollar Rip-Off was not such a great movie, but that he would get some good notice for it. According to her, he did indeed receive praise for this quirky heist comedy about a male con-artist who enlists four beautiful women to help him steal... you got it... a million dollars! OK, it’s actually 2.5 million, but you get the picture.

Lukin' good!
The humor of the film is not derived so much from the characters or their interaction; rather the comedy rides on the silly plot Prinze concocts. Each member of this gang wears funny costumes and those creepy latex masks that were so popular in films made in the 70s, and the women often go in drag as men (very, very ugly men) in an attempt to foil the law. Prinze plays Muff Kovak (!), a small time crook with big dreams and a lot creativity. He enlists some rather foxy ladies to help him out (including Joanna Kerns), but after a series of mishaps, he realizes there is an insider tipping off a thug named Lubeck (James Sloyan) and now the police have also caught wind of the caper. It’s up to Kovak to not just find the squeaky rat, but to also rip off the dough. Sometimes a good man is hard to find, but Kovak is just perfect for this job!

Starring Joanna Kerns as an ugly man!
I liked Million Dollar Rip-Off a lot. It’s different for sure, and it isn’t quite sure what genre it’s going for, but the acting is uniformly great, and Prinze was right, he’s a knockout. It was such a treat to see him shed his usual jovial presence and offer up something a little darker. I thought he did a fantastic job of making the silly crime seem plausible and as the film progressed, I found myself becoming more and more immersed in the story, wondering if they would actually pull off the heist. The end is a bit of letdown, but it was probably the best way for the whole story to play out.

While the beautiful women were certainly a draw, this movie centers on Kovak and his struggles with Lieutenant Ralph Fogherty (Allen Garfield), who is the humorless “good guy” obsessed with catching Kovak red handed. The film was written by the actors William Devane and John Pleshette (the two would later star together on Knot’s Landing!) and according to a New York Times review, these actors had hoped to star in the film. I’m curious as to who would have played Kovak and who would have taken on Fogherty…

Lukin' good Part 2
Million Dollar Rip-Off is far from perfect, but it’s also not just a throwaway TV movie from a bygone era either. It’s the only film Prinze was able to make before he took his own life, and it stands as a symbol of the great potential the actor had. It leaves a bittersweet feeling because I am left wondering what we missed out on now that Prinze is no longer with us, and it’s also great to see that he got to spread his acting wings a little farther, showcasing what a true talent he was.

Everyone can now enjoy Prinze’s lone film because it is streaming on both Netflix and Hulu! Hip hip hooray!

Kovak's Angels

Freddie Prinze Week!

2011-06-20T21:04:00.009-04:00

Freddie Prinze was a television staple for anyone who remembers the 70s. A young, vibrant comedian, Prinze stole many hearts as the lovable Chico in the hit sitcom Chico and the Man. By the time he was 19 years old, he was a bona fide superstar, but he burned too brightly and, sadly, burned out by the time he was 22 when he took his own life. Chico and the Man attempted to survive without him, but of course, no one could replace the undeniable charm and instant likability that Prinze held. I don’t remember when I came to know of Prinze’s death, but I think it happened a little after the fact, when the show was in syndication. I was still in my single digit years and I was fairly unaware of the circumstances. I think my parents just mentioned his death in passing while we were watching an episode. I recently picked up his bio, The Freddie Prinze Story which was written by his mother Maria Pruetzel. This biography skips over many of Prinze’s darker qualities and concentrates on his mother’s memory of her beautiful and fun-loving son who couldn’t take the bright lights of Hollywood. Prinze was apparently a tornado of charisma, stealing hearts well before he became a household name.

Pam Grier’s new biography, Foxy: My Life in Three Acts dedicates two short chapters to Prinze, whom she considers to be one of the great loves of her life. She tells a different, slightly darker story and she paints a fuller picture of what Freddie was like when his mother wasn’t around. He was fun and a bit controlling and in the end, Grier walked away from him because of drugs and because she wanted to focus on her career.

I remember watching the TV movie docudrama about his life, Can You Hear the Laughter and I may have actually seen the original airing. But I had not seen his only TV movie, Million Dollar Ripoff, nor had I seen much of his work on Carson or at the Dean Martin Roasts - he was always Chico to me. After reading Prinze’s bio, I felt like his life and work was worth re-discovering and I thought since his birthday would have been on June 22nd, I’d dedicate the week to him. So here we are at Freddie Prinze week, where I will look at Ripoff, Laughter and Chico and the Man. It’s astonishing to think about all the years that have passed since his untimely death in 1977, yet watching him now, he still remains a vivacious presence. I still laugh at his Hungarican jokes and I came across this rare clip taken from The Dinah Shore Show where it looks like Prinze was either the co-host or a guest-host on August 27th, 1976. You will see Cindy Williams and Geraldo Rivera along with Florence Henderson sitting on the couch as Prinze introduces comedian George Miller. The majority of the clip is of the comic, but check out Prinze who bookends it. He lights up the screen. And he will never be forgotten.

This House Keeps Getting Possessed and Other TV Movie Goodies!

2011-06-20T17:38:00.005-04:00

As many of you know, This House Possessed is my all time favorite TV movie, and not just because Parker Stevenson is so tasty in his Sergio Valentis either! Possessed is a genuinely entertaining film that has carried me through all things good and bad and I love finding other fans of the best TVM going! Thanks to Aunt John at Kindertrauma for sending along this link to Vinnie Rattolle's blog which takes an incredible look at Possessed, offering tons of interesting tidbits and some nice pics as well! If you are so inclined to get your Possessed fix-on, you can also look at my own picture gallery and read my review (you can read my capsule review here). All the kids are doing it, so why not stop on by!

In other TV movie news, a movie theater in New York called the 92YTribeca is screening two awesome classics: Bad Ronald and Don't Go To Sleep!!! These screenings are on separate nights, so please click on the links for the deets. Oh man, I so wish I was closer to New York! If you can go, please report back, I'd love to hear about how the screenings went! And another big thank you goes to Meep over at Cinema du Meep for the head's up!

Recently, I came across a website for a man named Ryal Haakenson who chronicled his time as an extra in movies. He's got a special section just for his work in TV movies! Most of these look like they were shot and released in the 90s, so it's a nice little inside look at the dying breed of the television movie.

And finally, although it's not TV movie related I still thought this was worth mentioning - if you get Antenna TV, then be prepared to catch the incredible Three's Company spinoff Three's a Crowd, starting June 27th at 6 pm! And yes, I said incredible! I adore this show just about as much as Company, the combination of John Ritter and Robert Mandan is absolutely perfect! Crowd was a truly funny sitcom that deserved more than the one season it got. It's worth revisiting, so if you have the chance, I say go for it!

We're Gonna Make it After All!

2011-06-12T12:22:00.002-04:00

The movers come tomorrow and then we are on our way to a new life. Thinking about all that has happened in the last year or so, I suddenly find myself feeling at one with my favorite ladies from the Mary Tyler Moore Show.

When Mary Tyler Moore started life anew, she was not prepared for the hijinks or Mr. Grant, but she looked none the worse for wear (and she got to date Ted Bessell!):

Rhoda moved back to NYC and found love with Joe (Rawr!), and although it didn't last long, she always managed to make the most of every situation:

After Lars died, Phyllis moved to San Francisco to stay with his family. She remained a little loopy but always found her way back to the top:

And these women had some serious fashion prowess. I see many turtlenecks in my future!

Amanda By Night Jumps the Shark!

2011-06-10T15:35:00.003-04:00

What a crazy month I've been having! I'm still in the process of moving, but for some reason, I seem to be in a flow with writing (at least for other sites!). This month at Retro Slashers we are looking at slasher-hybrids and my first article is on Jaws 2, an all time favorite of mine. I always say the original is actually my fave film, but the sequel just has so much gooey goodness, it gets extra play. Hope you enjoy my look at how Jaws is Jason with scarier teeth.

Also, I'll be doing a podcast tomorrow with the Movies about Girls crew! I should be coming on around 8 pm EST and we'll be discussing the original Heartbreak Kid!

I am arriving at my final destination at the beginning of next week and will hopefully be online shortly thereafter. I have lots to cram into the end of the month, as I have a very special theme coming up and two reviews. Until then, please feel free to vote on your favorite scary house TV movies and I'll be seeing you all soon!

Click at Your Own Risk

2011-06-08T10:26:00.006-04:00

I had been looking forward to (and was terrified of) watching the infamous Monroe rape episode of Too Close for Comfort, and I got all I asked for and more when I caught it last week! I shared some thoughts over at Kindertrauma. Let's just say I will never be the same!

This Creepy Old House - New Poll!

2011-06-05T22:52:00.002-04:00

Of course, everyone hopes that when they move into new digs they will find comfort and joy. Sometimes though we find stuff like evil spirits and blood showers. I am hoping this is not the case with our new house, but just in case, I'm preparing with a new poll regarding the best creepy old house flicks. As it is with these polls, I'm sure I've missed some great titles, so please feel free to leave a comment to let me know what your favorite small screen hauntings are.

And my vote went to This House Possessed! That was a no-brainer!

Last month's poll was quite popular. You all voted on the best TV movies about/or with airplanes. I probably could have guessed that Horror at 37,000 Feet would walk away with it, but I was genuinely shocked to see the Columbo episode Swan Song pull in a very strong second. Every film got a nod except Sole Survivor... Sorry, Shatner. Not all your films are winners.

Movin' On Part 2

2011-06-01T18:36:00.006-04:00

Seems like it was just yesterday I posted that I was moving, and here I am doing it again. After only a little over a year in Maryland, I'm picking up stakes again and heading to another city. I will miss certain things. Mostly Antenna TV, since it's not available in Pittsburgh. But everything else is coming up roses.

As per my usual style, I'm not sure when I'll be able to post because packing manages to take up all my time and suck up all my energy. I should be settled in by the middle or end of June, so let's see what happens then. I have a special theme week coming up and I truly hope I can meet the deadlines I set for myself.

For now, please check out the following links:

The full trailer for the Don't Be Afraid of the Dark remake is up! I think I like the teaser trailer better, but I'm still really looking forward to the big screen updo.

I'll be honest, I don't like the idea of making it about a little girl when the original could easily be said to be a comment on the isolation and stagnation of women who were expected to be housewives and nothing more, but then again, that's not a modern day problem. Del Toro is amazing with kids, so I'll hold off on criticism. Although he's not directing, if anyone can make this movie friggin' excellent, it's him. I'm so glad he has a hand in this! And a big thanks to Camp Blood for the heads up!

And for you Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Mysteriesfans (and aren't we all?), here is an excellent article by David Konow over at Den of Geek. C'mon season three, please come to DVD, like, tomorrow so I can love you the way you deserve!

Finally, please check out my latest review at Retro Slashers for a TV movie called Fantasies. I actually wrote about Fantasies for my blog back in 2008, but I wanted to revisit it after the news that we are losing both All My Children and my story, One Life to Live, which I have been watching for 30 years! That's a whole other blog post which I hope to get to soon. I've actually written something but it's so dang angry, I just don't even want to proof it! I'll wait til I move to revisit my frustration!

OK everybody, let's keep Movin' On!

Mork + Mindy = Mearth... WTF?!?

2011-05-22T19:55:00.006-04:00

OK, so out of the blue I started to think about Mork and Mindy and the wild decline from hit show to total miss. While I still find many of the episodes after Season One quite entertaining, the whole Mearth thing was... ummm... just weird. Now that I am older, I have been able to put those obtuse thoughts I had as a kid into some kind of words.

Mork laid an egg.

The look on Exidor's face explains it all

Even as a kid watching the fourth season of Mork and Mindy I knew something was not only wrong with Mork’s pregnancy, but also with the concept of an earthling and an alien mating. I can accept an alien wanting to get it on with Pam Dawber… just look at her… but Pam wanting to do it with an E.T. left a strangely uncomfortable feeling inside me. Plus he wore those horrible suspenders… And now I find myself wondering how Mork got Mindy’s DNA (and/or egg!). I mean, what exactly did he snatch (!) from her during those... ummm... copulatory sessions of love? I keep having visions of Mork drinking with his finger. OK, I refuse to even try to wrap my brain around that…

The craziest Easter Egg hunt ever!

Mindy even discusses how she is missing out on the wonder of childbirth and like any awesome sitcom, her trauma is quickly glossed over as Mearth is hatched from a giant egg. Eventually, he gets a creepy pair of overalls and learns to call her "Shoe." How sweet parenting can be.

The fourth season of Mork and Mindy was an undisputed bomb, landing in 60th place! I think pairing Jonathan Winters with Robin Williams was an ingenious bit of casting, but suffice to say Mork not only laid an egg, but so did the show.

No caption needed!
Oh yeah, and Mindy had the best apartment ever.

I have not seen the Curious Case of Benjamin Button, but here is an article explaining why the movie will never be as good as Mork and Mindy.

And is it just me, or does Mearth remind anyone of The Baby? I mean, minus the electric cattle prod.

Updates Galore!

2011-05-18T19:54:00.006-04:00

Yes sir, I've got it all lined up for you!

You may have noticed a couple of changes here at Made for TV Mayhem. I’m currently revamping the site. I’ve changed my banner, and I’d like offer my deepest thanks and gratitude to Lance Vaughan at Kindertrauma for creating it! He also created the MFTVM Funhouse pic on the right. I owe him my life! Also, where would I be without Bert Convy? Such a heartbreaker, he is. I think it’s doubtful I’ll stick with a black and white background, but for now I think this site screams “television madness” and that’s exactly what I wanted!

I’d like to throw a big thank you to my friend Jason who got the news out that Born Innocent is coming to DVD from Hen’s Tooth Video in June! I couldn't find much out on the website but apparently you can only order through Amazon and a couple of other sources. I’m not sure how good Hen’s Tooth Video’s quality will be, but this is such a great, and slightly rare, TVM, it might be worth the coinage either way. They've also just released Gargoyles, which did have a DVD release some time ago but went out of print.

If you are going to be in Louisville, Kentucky from July 22nd – 24th, then you really must go to the Fright Night Film Fest con, where they are hosting the 1st ever Dark Night of the Scarecrow reunion! How absolutely incredible is that?!?

I’ve also posted links to the Movies About Girls podcast I participated in and you will find those links on the right. It’s a really fun show so check it out! (Psst: The Romy and Michelle one is my favorite!)

Before I bid you adieu, let me direct you to a ukulele player my friend Adla turned me onto. Seems he has a penchant for TV theme songs. Here is his rendition of Dallas:

The Swoon-worthy Michael Brandon!

2011-05-16T15:07:00.008-04:00

I was just surfing the net and came across Michael Brandon's great website. I decided to read his bio and saw this quote:

My first television movie; The Impatient Heart, written by Alvin Sargent, (Spiderman ll) and directed by John Badham, (Saturday Night Fever). TV movies really were movies made for television then. Quality writers, directors and actors were making films in twenty-eight days instead of the months or years a feature would normally take.

He also talks a little bit about A Vacation in Hell, working with Dario Argento and other tidbits. I have to admit, I had no idea he had been married to Lindsay Wagner or that he is now married to his Dempsey and Makepeace co-star! Anyway, he mentions dating Kim Novak, drops some great TV movie titles and overall, tells a really interesting story about his life.

I've always like Michael, but my favorite role will always be his part in Vacation as the feckless but extremely likable machismo in suspenders! Hey, I just call 'em like I see 'em!

Dr. Cook's Garden (1971)

2011-05-15T18:31:00.006-04:00

Network: ABC
Original Air Date: January 19th, 1971

Considering how haphazard many critics felt the original play of Dr. Cook’s Garden was, it still finds its way onto many a small stage and was immortalized in the 1971 TV movie adaptation, which plays up the good doctor’s questionable ethics inside of the suspense blueprint. The play was written by Ira Levin who is better known for his incredible novels which have been made into several films, such as Rosemary’s Baby. Garden is often compared as a combination of Levin’s Stepford Wives and his play Deathtrap, but when it was destined to become a Broadway flop, most people saw it as a convoluted and superficial thriller, and it closed before the end of its opening week. The director, George C. Scott was reportedly having artistic differences with… someone, and many others pin its failure on the casting of Burl Ives as Dr. Cook. Since I haven’t read the play, I can’t say how much was changed for the television adaptation (written by Art Wallace), but the themes of narcissistic morality and creating utopia through murder translate rather well on the small screen. Ives is replaced by Bing Crosby in what would be his last film, and I do say he’s perfectly cast. Having recently read his son’s excellent “tell-all” biography, Going My Own Way, I have that darker side of Bing planted firmly in my brain, so the jump from family entertainer to cold-blooded killer seemed like a fairly smooth transition!

No one in my town gets corns and lives to tell about it!
Dr. Cook lives in small town heaven, where there’s no crime, or even disease. In fact, no one suffers any disabilities at all! You’d be hard pressed to find as much as a limping local. A young doctor named Jimmy Tennyson (Frank Converse plays him in the movie, Kier Dullea portrayed him on Broadway), who grew up in this small paradise, returns to help Dr. Cook with the business. The good doctor doesn’t really want him around, and we soon find out why. Seems Cook’s Hippocratic Oath only applies if he likes you. And even then you are still in danger, if you find yourself really sick. He keeps his small town clean and pure much like the way he weeds his garden, deciding who gets to stay who gets poisoned!

There are plenty of interesting themes here, and although this ABC Movie of the Week is played more as a straight thriller rather than thought provoking drama, it’s impossible not to think about the whole “Playing God” motif and the moral obligations attached to people in a position of power. Bing Crosby does a great job and it was such a nice choice for him, exploring those dark recesses in a way that allows the audience to look at the film’s deeper themes without feeling overwhelmed by ethics. I guess when your movie only lasts 74 minutes; it’s good to keep it brisk!

The answer to the doctor's secret lies in the Dewey Decimal System
Frank Converse was always a treat to watch on television. He has such a presence... and that voice… Mmmmmm… He was one of my favorite faces to see when I was growing up. Blythe Danner is really young and quite good as the sweet natured nurse. But in the end, this is Crosby’s movie all the way. It was a wild choice of a swan song, but it looks like he was testing the dark waters, Bing Crosby Productions produced Willard and a few other horror movies in the early 70s.

Also, if you just have to know everything about Dr. Cook's Garden, check out this exhaustive guide to the play.

Who knew Frank had such a beatnik heart:

Must See Streaming TV - The Hitchhiker: Split Decision

2011-05-13T14:18:00.006-04:00

Network: HBO
Original Air Date: December 14th, 1983

It also started innocently enough, when someone posted a traumafession over at Kindertrauma. It was about twins who tend to share everything. I might not have thought much about it afterwards, but as my lucky stars would have it, it was revealed that this was an episode of The Hitchhiker titled Split Decision and it starred the Landers Sisters! And then, as if little angels had come to grant my every wish, I found out this episode is streaming on Hulu! Ah, The world just got a little better.

Two great tastes that taste great together?

Audrey and Judy are Priscilla and Francis Packard. They aren’t completely identical, but buxom and blonde enough that real estate sleazebag agent Jake McElhaney (Jackson Davis) doesn’t bother to look any closer. He’s trying to sell their house because these twins, who used to work the carnival circuit with their now deceased dad, are pretty sick of each other and want their own places. However, because they like to share everything too, Jake becomes Boy Toy extraordinaire, despite his cheeseball bowties.

Watching this episode yesterday I thought it must have been made in the mid to late 80s, because poodle perms do not lie. I was shocked to see it actually aired in 1983, so I am thinking the Landers ladies are responsible for bringing split-ends to the latter part of the decade! Who knew?

Bow tie love in the afternoon

Split Decision is fairly predictable, but quirky and fun. I actually had no idea that the original Hitchhiker was Nicholas Campbell who stars in my favorite episode of the Canadian romance TV movie series Shades of Love, titled Champagne for Two. Yes, I have a favorite Shades of Love movie… In this episode of The Hitchhiker he’s a little less vague than Page Fletcher who was given some really obtuse dialog to wrangle. Both look good in tight jeans though, so I won’t complain.

If you’re in the mood for candy-colored creepy, I think this Landers love-fest should fit the bill!

And make sure you visit this awesome website dedicated to the Landers Sisters

New Poll: Flying High

2011-05-03T08:34:00.006-04:00

Since I missed adding Horror at 37,000 Feet in last month's Shat-tastic poll, I thought I'd find a way to squeeze it into the next one. Lo and behold, I thought, why not have a poll on TV movies that feature airplanes? I mean, what's better than cramming several familiar faces into a tiny area and letting them freak out on each other? Oh, the drama! There were just enough of these movies to make me feel smart, so I went with it. OK, so I bent the rules a bit with Columbo: Swan Song, but it's a fantastic episode starring Johnny Cash, where a plane figures prominently... and like I said, it stars Johnny Cash!

I am pretty sure Seven in Darkness is going to get my vote because it's not only one of the first made for TV movies I saw, my revisit of it recently proved it's just as good as my memory of it! But there are some excellent movies on this list and I hope everyone comments on why they chose the movie they did.

As for last month's poll, The Babysitter walked away with it! I should say, it left all the other titles in the dust. I thought for sure Pray for the Wildcats was going to give that sexy babysitting nymph a good run for her money, but it actually came in a far third, after The Tenth Level! Whodathunkit?

And finally, I am sorry I've been so MIA, and I probably will continue to be that way until finals are over, which is only about a week and a half away. I have one half written review waiting to be finished and I am hoping for at least one theme week over the summer. I'm counting the days guys!

More Warner Archives Treats!

2011-04-24T20:18:00.004-04:00

I admit it, I have not been over to visit the Warner Archives vault for awhile. It seemed like they hadn't updated it for some time, and I was wondering if they'd be adding anything interesting. Looks like they did! YAY!

Contract on Cherry Street is something I've been wanting to see for some time. In a clever bit of casting this 1977 TVM, which originally aired on NBC, features Frank Sinatra as a cop taking on the mob! Ha! Get it? He was in his early 60s at this point and still putting in some badass moves! Anyone who caught Sinatra as the take-no-prisoners-cop in the 1987 episode of Magnum P.I. titled Laura, (which is also Sinatra's last role), you know if he could do it in the late 80s, then he must have been a force in the 70s! I am excited to see this movie finally made it to DVD!

Warner Archives also released Detour to Terror. I'll just give you the synopsis from IMDb:

"A homicidal dune-buggy trio terrorizes a busload of Las Vegas bound tourists with the intent to kidnap one of them."

This 1980 thriller which originally aired in 1980 on NBC stars O.J. Simpson, Anne Francis, Arte Johnson and Lorenzo Lamas! Holy-schmolie!. I must see this!

Thank you Warner Archives!

Mad Monster Magazine Loves TV Movies!

2011-04-18T21:31:00.005-04:00

Made for TV Mayhem's BFF, Lance Vaughan of Kindertrauma is always giving TVMs a lot of love, and now he's doing it for Mad Monster Magazine! Look for Lance's Shocks from the Box in the magazine's debut issue, where he lets the world know about his obsession with Satan's Triangle! You can order directly from their website or pick up a copy at one of these fine retailers! By the way, how nerdy is it that I've been dying to say "one of these fine retailers" since the grand days of Gemco? Vicky Carr would be proud! But I digress... go pick up your copy and tell 'em Amanda By Night sent ya!

TVM Inspiried: Insidious

2011-04-16T10:46:00.004-04:00

I've got an article up at Kindertrauma for the new horror film Insidious. I loved it, by the way! This review mostly takes a look at some TV movie references I saw in the film (whether they were intended or not, that's how I roll!), so I added it to the my TVM Inspired list. Warning: There are spoilers so read at your own risk... oh, and enjoy!

Woman in Black Teaser Trailer!

2011-04-15T20:28:00.001-04:00

Here is the new trailer for the Woman in Black remake... and it's a doozy. I can't wait to see it!

Some Non-TV Goodness!

2011-04-08T13:30:00.000-04:00

Got a few fun things going on at Casa By Night, so I thought I'd spread some good cheer!

Check me out tomorrow night when I return to the Movies about Girls podcast! We'll be discussing Streets of Fire, which I finally saw for the first time, thanks to this looming discussion we will be having. No doubt I adored it, so stop by tomorrow (Saturday, April 9th) at 8 pm. When the podcast is archived, I will add the links to both this one coming up and the one I did a couple of weeks ago (where we talked about A Vacation in Hell). It's been great fun thus far, so I am excited about tomorrow night!

And speaking of podcasts, I was listening to Hysteria Lives podcast #4, where they interviewed Curt Ayres from Mortuary and it turns out he was also in Midnight Offerings, which is mentioned. Also, there is a shout out to Deadly Lessons! If you love 80s horror, especially slashers, this is the podcast for you!

Also, I wrote an article on Slaughter High and bullying called When Push Comes to Shove. I had no idea how relevant this oddball slasher was! OK, maybe not totally relevant, but unfortunately bullying is way too universal for my tastes!

Don't forget to vote on the William Shatner poll! It's up all month! YAY!

New Poll - It's Shat-tastic!

2011-04-03T20:20:00.010-04:00

Since Bill just turned 80 years young on March 22nd, I thought I'd celebrate the right way by making him the star of this month's poll. I've listed some of the best Shatner TVMs from 1970 1980 on the right. Polling will go through the month. He made some good films and I'm going to have a tough time deciding! If you need a Shatner-esque brush up, you can read my reviews of Horror at 37,000 Feet, Pray for the Wildcats and The Babysitter.

And check it, you can watch all of Sole Survivor at Google Video!

As for the last poll I did in February, the hottest studs of 70s sitcoms were John Amos and Haywood Nelson, who tied for first! Demond Wilson was one vote behind, taking the second spot. Mmmmm-mmmmm-good choices folks!

Update: Ugh! How could I forget to add Horror at 37,000 Feet?!? If you want to vote for that one, just leave a comment (I can't edit it since there have already been votes). My apologies to scariest airplane this side of the Airport series!

Happy Birthday Dallas!

2011-04-02T11:10:00.007-04:00

Yes, sir. My favorite night time soap turns 33 today! And I couldn't be happier! Maybe that's because TNT is reviving the series, and they are casting many of the original actors such as Larry Hagman and Linda Gray! No wonder I'm so excited! Last year I wrote a review of the pilot, called Digger's Daughter. And for anyone who wants to really get into the Dallas spirit, you can click on this link and check out my many articles on the awesomeness of 10 gallon hats!

It was a Good Idea at the Time...

2011-03-23T16:42:00.004-04:00

Thank you Unkle Lancifer for directing me to this fun article at Den of Geek called 10 Films That Seemed Better When I was a Kid. The TVMs The Intruder Within and Starflight One (aka Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land) made the list! I have to admit, I haven't seen either of these films, so I can't comment on whether or not it is better to watch them in the more formative years, but I always love seeing TVMs getting a mention.

Although I love Gargoyles I think it is a film that is helped greatly if a re-viewing is attached to childhood memories.

Can you think of any TVMs that fall into this category?

Dark Night of the Scarecrow has Been Nominated for a Rondo!

2011-03-21T18:46:00.004-04:00

Apparently, this Rondo nomination happened awhile ago, but you have until the 27th to vote for Dark Night of the Scarecrow, which has been nominated for Best Commentary and Best Restoration! Please follow the links within to cast your vote! I'm so glad that not only did Scarecrow get its well deserved DVD release but it's also getting a ton of love! Yay!

Also, check out Christian Seller's review of Trapped, which is that crazy little James Brolin TVM where he battles a pack of guard dogs! I should write about this one myself ... Oh I did! Here's a link to the capsule review I wrote for Camp Blood! I had mostly negative words for it, so I really do need to revisit it and see if my opinion has changed.

As you were.

Are You in the House Alone? (1978)

2011-03-18T16:43:00.031-04:00

Network: CBS Original
Air Date: September 20th, 1978

Randy Stumpf, where are you? I know him best as Andy, Billy’s sleazy co-worker in Silent Night, Deadly Night, but Randy was all over the airwaves in the 70s and early 80s. I just watched him on the first episode of The Brady Brides and I also remember seeing his mug in several other shows. According to IMDb, Deadly Night was Randy’s last foray into world of celluloid, and goshdarnit, I kind of miss that lug. Like, I didn’t know I missed him until I revisited this awesome little potboiler, but I do.

That's Mr. Stumpf next to Mr. Quaid! I could just die!

Randy is E.K. Miller in Are You in the House Alone, and he’s red herring #1 or #2, depending on how you list your red herrings. Too obvious to truly consider him a potential rapist, he’s still got that sleaze thing down pat. He’s the one you love to hate. The other red herring just oogs you out. Big difference. OK, so let me get to the plot here. The beautifully petite and buxom Kathleen Beller is Gail Osborne, a fun and studious teenager who has been looking for love in all the wrong places. E.K. is one of her exes and he’s pretty pissed that he’s no longer a current. When she hooks up with the gorgeous Steve (Scott Colomby from the Porky’s series) E.K. gets pretty indignant. But Gail’s got worse problems. Someone is stuffing creepy notes into her locker and these "love letters" are followed by disturbing phone calls. Gail reaches out in different ways to the principal (Ellen Travolta!), her parents (Tony Bill and Blythe Danner) and even her BFF Allison (Robin Mattson), but they all suggest she simply ignore it. Eventually everyone will come to regret that advice, and Gail’s eventual assault comes with a heavy price for everyone.

I said a large pizza and please hold the psycho, thanks.

Are You in the House Alone is based on a young adult novel by Richard Peck, and while the adaptation (written by Judith Parker) does indeed have an Afterschool Special tinge to it, the underlying message is rather empowering. Gail’s assault, triumph over adversity and the crafty way which she catches her rapist seem rather fresh, considering the 70s was a decade where women were still being held as accountable in the crime as their attacker (A Case of Rape is a great example of this problem). Things don’t come out exactly as good-beats-down-evil, but it does encourage women to own their lives instead of giving it up to fear.

You are, like, early Johnny Depp to me

I don’t know why, but House is often put into the horror genre, and sometimes it’s even narrowed down more into the slasher sub-genre. While what happens to Gail is certainly horrific, there’s not much in the way of true horror here. What we’ve actually got is a solid thriller with lots of build up and a nice payoff thanks to director Walter Grauman's sense of pacing. The cast is amazing, and a young Dennis Quaid really stands out. Between this and Seniors, he was, like, the hottest thing the 70s saw. I’m telling you, he’s got star written all over him! I’ve always adored Scott Colomby and he’s really giggle-worthy here and a great match with Gail. Of course Randy is the perfect sleazeball - I am seriously in love with that guy. The relationships in House are really strong, whether it is Gail and her teachers, Gail and her parents or Gail and her friends. There’s a genuine sense of closeness and safety in her life that makes the attack that much more brutal, and in TV land less has to be more. The only real issue I had was accepting Tony Bill playing a father with a teenage daughter. Seriously, wasn't he the mid 20s-ish studly teaching assistant in The Initiation of Sarah (which also aired in 1978)? Crazy. Oh yeah and that weird photography class where Gail is forced to act sexy in front of the camera is just plain creepy.

There's always someone lighting up Gail's life...

While I don’t remember seeing the original airing, I did catch House a couple of times on TBS in the early 90s and loved it. I remember really enjoying it when I revisited it in the early 2000s, around the time I was reigniting my love of TV movies. And now, after almost another 10 year time span, I still really appreciate this taught little thriller. It works not just because I love that “Have you checked the children?” scenario but also because it’s really well put together. The story is intriguing and I really like the way it all plays out. Beller made a few good TV movies, including No Place to Hide (1981) and Deadly Messages (1985), before she walked away from films to raise her children with her husband Thomas Dolby! How cool is that? Anyway, she is greatly missed. She was always instantly likable and had a true girl next door appeal. Kathleen is perfectly cast here in a movie that has actually been making the rounds online and even on television. Currently, it’s part of Netflix’s Instant Streaming section and it’s also been streaming on Hulu for what seems like forever. And it's shown up on This TV and Encore on Demand. If you love TV movies, and you haven’t seen this, there is really no excuse not to visit it, so let’s get going, K?

And one more plea: Come back Randy. Do it for the ladies...

Listen to Me Talk About TV Movies

2011-03-17T17:42:00.003-04:00

Catch me this Saturday, the 19th at 8 pm EST on the Movies About Girls podcast. This podcast supports the super cool Movies About Girls blog (btw, this site is definitely not safe for work). Even cooler is their new sister blog TV Shows About Girls. The topic will be one of the most far-out chick flicks of the 70s small screen, A Vacation in Hell, so I'm really looking forward to discussing all things Priscilla Barnes!

When Michael Calls (1972)

2011-03-16T16:59:00.006-04:00

Network: ABC
Original Air Date: February 5th, 1972

Small town. Halloween. Creepy phone calls. Dead kid. Now that's a recipe for success!

Based on the novel by John Farris (who would go on to write the screenplay for The Fury), the setting and premise of When Michael Calls may seem fairly trite by today’s “let’s make a music video” standards, but the more traditional horror films tended to rely heavily on meticulous pacing and mood. The premise for Michael sets up what may or may not be a tale of the supernatural and the second half falls into somewhat predictable territory, but the old-school atmosphere makes up for the little kinks in an otherwise solid little thriller.

Michael? You are one creepy kid.
Ben Gazzara is the unfortunately named Doremus Connelly. He is also unfortunately divorced from Helen (Elizabeth Ashley with a cute Klute-ish haircut), as it’s obvious that he still longs for his ex. Doremus is a decent guy and a good father who finds a way back into Helen’s life when she starts receiving disturbing phone calls from her nephew Michael…

Oh, did I mention Michael died 15 years ago?

Yikes.

The voice on the other end of Helen’s calls is odd. It is obviously meant to sound like a little boy and I’m not sure it was the filmmaker’s intention or not, but it’s got a real fake quality to it. However, it’s that phony intonation which make the calls seem that much more disturbed. The fact that Michael calls Helen “Auntie-My-Helen,” also adds a real sense of creepy closeness between dead kid and disturbed aunt.

Smoking and rotary phones. Those were the days!
Director Phillip Leacock had a rocky TV movie career. He’s the man behind the excellent suspense Dying Room Only, but he also helmed the not-so-good Baffled that same year. He seemed more at ease with claustrophobic potboilers and he creates a grand amount of ambiance here, with dark, windy nights and those eerie phone calls. He’s also aided by an excellent cast, including those mentioned and a young Michael Douglas proving that I think men in glasses should make passes… at girls like me! Yes, he’s super cute here in this movie which premiered just a few months before he became a household name on Streets of San Francisco. However, the most interesting person involved in Michael would have to be James Bridges, who adapted the script from the novel. Bridges was a powerhouse in Hollywood through much of the 70s and 80s and wrote and directed such films as The China Syndrome (also starring Douglas) and the incredible Urban Cowboy! He also wrote and directed one of my favorite 80s flicks, Perfect. Seriously. I could watch Jamie Lee Curtis work out all day. The original novelist would get into film himself and his directorial debut and swan song was the incredible Dear, Dead Delilah, a movie that is often considered to be a made for TV movie (it isn’t), showing he had some interesting small screen-like chops.

Dead-o-lantern
While never gory, which is the case with most TV movies, there are a couple of surprising murder scenes, and the set ups are fantastic. I also loved the small town and slightly depressed feel, and the idea that a school for disturbed children is just down the road only adds to the thick atmosphere of dread.

This ABC Movie of the Week actually got a DVD release under the name Shattered Silence, although the quality is rather questionable. There are some fairly affordable vhs copies available at Amazon and it was recently shown on Fox Movie Channel (sometime last year), so keep your eyes peeled! You definitely want Michael to call on you!

A New Lizzie Borden Movie!

2011-03-16T14:08:00.007-04:00

I came across some news on Fangirltastic regarding a new take on The Legend of Lizzie Borden, which is undeniably one of the greatest small screen achievements of the 70s. Chloe Sevigny (Big Love) has been cast as the removed and creepy Lizzie. I have not seen Big Love, but check out this photo:

She looks pretty darn perfect for the part! Chloe was amazing in Boys Don't Cry and The Last Days of Disco and I think she's been well cast here. Tom Hanks is one of the producers and the project is being made for HBO. It is still in development but it looks like the expected release date is sometime in 2012 and will be a mini-series.

The Legend of Lizzie Borden captivated a generation with its methodical pacing and an eerie and absolutely brilliant performance by Liz Montgomery. This project looks like it's going to be a good attempt at capturing the story for a new generation. And who knows, maybe it will spark a much-needed DVD release of the original. While I don't think much could compare with the 70s version (which is TV movie royalty as far as I'm concerned), I feel like this project is in great hands and I'm really looking forward to catching it next year!

One More Link for the Road

2011-03-07T18:40:00.004-05:00

I have a new review up at Fangirltastic! I watched (and wrote about) the B-movie-gender-bending-Dirty-Harry-rip-off Sudden Death. It's actually way more Death Wish, but I guess no one was around to tell 'em. It's actually a pretty good little 80s revenge flick.

I'm also smack dab in the middle of mid-terms but hope to be back and blogging next week during Spring Break! Sure, some people hit Ft. Lauderdale and drink til their blood turns to tequila, but I'll be watching TV movies and figuring out how Stefanie Powers gets just the right amount of poof in her hair! Hey, it's how I roll...