MeTV's SuperSci-Fi Saturday Night

[The Old Mixer]

IIRC, the alphabet soup was Pinky's thing. What's even more impressive than a computer that can decode messages from alphabet soup is a person who writes messages while eating alphabet soup, with the expectation that somebody will pour those letters in a computer and put them in the right order!

 

[Christopher]

IIRC, the alphabet soup was Pinky's thing.

Nope, it was Gumm's meal of choice. He even had a box of Extra Consonants on hand. Pinky's only interaction with the soup was to create the distress message, and she only had access to the soup because she was locked in Gumm's office.

Pinky's things were being extremely pink, talking to her lap dog, and encouraging Bruce and Britt to fight over her.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Batman: "A Piece of the Action"/"Batman's Satisfaction": I think this is the first time I've seen this one since I finally saw The Green Hornet. It's weird to see the more serious Hornet and Kato inserted into Batman's campy world.

The serious tone of TGH would have worked better during Batman's 1st season, when it was played straight with clever lighter moments instead of that format being reversed by the end of season 2.

I guess it did not matter, because i've heard so many fans who watched the crossover first run, and were bursting with excitement, as they wanted to see the characters meet since TGH's debut. This was not lost on the series stars, as Bruce Lee's friend/student M. Uyehara recalled in the book, Bruce Lee: The Incomparable Fighter:

As long as both shows were so popular among viewers, it was unavoidable that one day Robin and Kato would face each other. The young public was clamoring for such a confrontation."The director decided that we should participate in the Batman series instead of ours," Bruce explained. Bruce had no idea what the director had in mind, but after reading the script, his face lit up. He grinned and whispered to himself, "This is great, Kato finally gets to fight Robin!"

But the Bruce-Britt friendship/rivalry allows for an unusual amount of screen time for Bruce out of costume, which is nice.

Oh, yes. The true identity scenes were good--and helped play up the tension between their costumed alter-egos.

And I knew the final confrontation between the duos was inconclusive, but it was so inconclusive that it barely even got started. Plus, Gumm was defeated in too easy and halfhearted a manner.

The crossover probably needed to be a three-part story with a couple of near confrontations between the super teams hinting at the big battle to come in the final part.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I checked out their schedule before...seemed like their primetime was dominated by 80s-era cop/detective shows, but they have some interesting stuff around the edges.

H&I sounds like a great idea, since MeTV is mostly sitcoms, but their current schedule is not impressive. Their best shows are Kung Fu, Have Gun, Will Travel, and Wild Wild West, all of which I have complete on DVD. But there are no affiliates listed in Massachusetts yet anyway.

Heh...in the grand scheme of things, I have no idea, I'm not that familiar with the show...I gathered from RJD that they hadn't gotten very far into the series, though. IIRC, he said that the episode they'd last shown was from years before he started watching it first-run.

That sounds about right. I don't think Decades had gotten to the point where they came out of the closet with the V word. And both Kate Jackson and David Selby were in it when I was watching.

Silly me...I hadn't thought to look up next week's schedule on DECADES's site. While they're using a different numbering system for the episodes, it looks like TREK_GOD_1 wins the kewpie doll...they're "starting over" with the introduction of Barnabas.

Oh, that's a shame. I've seen those episodes a million times, and I'd love to see some of the later ones again. I think Quentin is one of the reasons I have such a fondness for Werewolves.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Last time DECADES showed Dark Shadows, it was a "Series Binge" before they started their regular programming, so maybe they'll move forward with the series with subsequent Weekend Binges.

I know it's not DECADES's thing, but it seems like DS would really benefit from daily showings to allow viewers to make some headway into the series, and to catch every episode if they want to (which isn't likely when they're showing it around the clock for a couple days in a row). Me already has a classic horror/suspense thing going in the wee hours on weeknights, seems like they could squeeze an airing in there (not that I'd be able to see it now).

Nope, it was Gumm's meal of choice. He even had a box of Extra Consonants on hand.

I'll take your word for it, Me-watcher. That is oddly random if there was no explanation for it.

 

[Saga]

as much as i love Decades i wish they could play a couple shows daily on a permanent basis. i still haven't seen eps 101-209 of Dark Shadows.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

as much as i love Decades i wish they could play a couple shows daily on a permanent basis. i still haven't seen eps 101-209 of Dark Shadows.

It's definitely a different series pre-Barnabas and I'd say post-Barnabas about the time they introduce Quentin. Probably for my own sanity I haven't seen much after that because that a *LOT* of television to consume.

 

[Saga]

as much as i love Decades i wish they could play a couple shows daily on a permanent basis. i still haven't seen eps 101-209 of Dark Shadows.

It's definitely a different series pre-Barnabas and I'd say post-Barnabas about the time they introduce Quentin. Probably for my own sanity I haven't seen much after that because that a *LOT* of television to consume.

i found a lot of the first 100 episodes extremely tedious. so many episodes revolved around the missing bleeder valve of Roger's car or an ink pen.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

as much as i love Decades i wish they could play a couple shows daily on a permanent basis. i still haven't seen eps 101-209 of Dark Shadows.

It's definitely a different series pre-Barnabas and I'd say post-Barnabas about the time they introduce Quentin. Probably for my own sanity I haven't seen much after that because that a *LOT* of television to consume.

i found a lot of the first 100 episodes extremely tedious. so many episodes revolved around the missing bleeder valve of Roger's car or an ink pen.

All facetiousness aside, the pre-Barnabas storylines established the supernatural magnet that was Collinwood (Laura the Phoenix, etc.) and the reclusive nature of Elizabeth, which set up a long, major plotline shortly before the introduction of Barnabas, and successfully connected to that turn in the story.

 

[The Old Mixer]

as much as i love Decades i wish they could play a couple shows daily on a permanent basis. i still haven't seen eps 101-209 of Dark Shadows.

DECADES is what it is, but with Me and H&I being sister networks with access to the same programs, one of them could run it in a regular slot.

 

[Saga]

It's definitely a different series pre-Barnabas and I'd say post-Barnabas about the time they introduce Quentin. Probably for my own sanity I haven't seen much after that because that a *LOT* of television to consume.

i found a lot of the first 100 episodes extremely tedious. so many episodes revolved around the missing bleeder valve of Roger's car or an ink pen.

All facetiousness aside, the pre-Barnabas storylines established the supernatural magnet that was Collinwood (Laura the Phoenix, etc.) and the reclusive nature of Elizabeth, which set up a long, major plotline shortly before the introduction of Barnabas, and successfully connected to that turn in the story.

true. i think my real problem with the first 100 eps is the lack of anything supernatural aside from one ghost that shows up a few times. i also didn't realize there was so much fighting over Burke by Carolyn and Victoria.

as much as i love Decades i wish they could play a couple shows daily on a permanent basis. i still haven't seen eps 101-209 of Dark Shadows.

DECADES is what it is, but with Me and H&I being sister networks with access to the same programs, one of them could run it in a regular slot.

right. personally, i'm no fan of Emergency! or CHiPs... i'd much rather see Dark Shadows or Get Smart in those time slots.

 

[RJDiogenes]

When I was in 9th grade, Channel 56 started showing Dark Shadows at 11pm-- and they started at the very beginning. It was agony getting through them, but my girlfriend at the time loved it so I had to watch.

It's funny now to think that was only about four or five years after it went off the air. It already seemed ancient at the time. Time flows differently when you're a kid.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Okay...I just discovered that I have another instance of H&I further up my dial. Why do I have two H&I's and no Me?

 

[Saga]

i get four PBS stations. one seems to always show cooking shows though.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Okay...I just discovered that I have another instance of H&I further up my dial. Why do I have two H&I's and no Me?

SD and HD?

 

[The Old Mixer]

It doesn't have an "H" in the letters...and it falls in the part of the lineup where they keep things like COZI and Antenna. Possibly, as Saga suggested, a physical station other than WZME that's also gone to H&I.

 

[RJDiogenes]

That must be it. Is one a sub-channel of one of your network affiliates?

 

[The Old Mixer]

Dunno. Maybe I'll try watching Kung Fu on the new one tomorrow and see if they have a different station identifier.

 

[Saga]

looks like more Dark Shadows next weekend on Decades. perfect for Halloween.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Really? Interesting, but too bad there's no practical way for me to keep up with the story on the Weekend Binge schedule.

Regarding my two H&I's, it seems that the one higher on the dial is a separate channel. They were playing regular programming this morning during one of WZME's paid programming blocks.

ETA: Question for the DS aficionados...and forgive me if I missed a story beat, as I've been half-watching while doing other things. Barnabas's portrait is prominently featured in his introduction, with Barnabas pretending to be descended from his old self. As DS had been going on for some time prior to his introduction, was the portrait first seen as he was being introduced? If so, was there a hand-wave to explain why it hadn't been seen before (e.g., they just brought it back down from the attic)?

ETA: This week's episode of Kung Fu takes place in China, and I think there may be a bit of uncredited dubbing going on...there's a major guest character played by an Asian actor who sounds distractingly like Harry Townes....