Scots have a reputation in engineering that spans the centuries. 
The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread
- Thread starter The Old Mixer
- Start date
So no comment on the Tarzan thing? It occurs to me that they're likely to run some That Girl in February.... 
Columbo: "Grand Deceptions": I remember thinking back in the day that this, the closing movie of the first revival season, was the weakest of the four. Rewatching it now, I think it holds up a lot better. I can see why I had a bad first impression, since the scene that sets up the victim-to-be's blackmail of the murderer-to-be is very stilted. But it gets better. Robert Foxworth makes an effective antagonist as the corrupt head of an implicitly right-wing think tank and paramilitary training school that's even more creepy from a modern perspective than it was 28 years ago. (Holy cow, I hadn't realized we're farther from the beginning of the Columbo revival than it was from the beginning of the original series.) I think, on reflection, that this may have been the first time I saw Foxworth in a villainous role, as opposed to his heroic turn in The Questor Tapes. Maybe part of why this episode worked better for me now is that I'm more accustomed to seeing him play the heavy.
Although one main point in its favor is that it doesn't have the same problems with slow pacing and excessive padding that have plagued the rest of the season. There's rather a lot going on, a lot of angles for Columbo to investigate and subplots unfolding among the characters, so there's very little that feels like it's just vamping to pad the run time. It's also a nice change of pace that Columbo has so many conversations with other characters besides the murderer, so that it isn't just one conversation after another after another between the same two people, which is sometimes the way it feels. And the relationship between the old general and his younger wife turns out to be kind of touching.
I did feel the case relied a bit too much on luck, on Columbo happening to stumble upon key clues like the errant toy soldier and the note in the victim's drycleaning and the second Special Projects report. But the final, critical clue that blows the killer's alibi is very clever. Although I do wonder how he set up the boxes to be switched like that.
Although one main point in its favor is that it doesn't have the same problems with slow pacing and excessive padding that have plagued the rest of the season. There's rather a lot going on, a lot of angles for Columbo to investigate and subplots unfolding among the characters, so there's very little that feels like it's just vamping to pad the run time. It's also a nice change of pace that Columbo has so many conversations with other characters besides the murderer, so that it isn't just one conversation after another after another between the same two people, which is sometimes the way it feels. And the relationship between the old general and his younger wife turns out to be kind of touching.
I did feel the case relied a bit too much on luck, on Columbo happening to stumble upon key clues like the errant toy soldier and the note in the victim's drycleaning and the second Special Projects report. But the final, critical clue that blows the killer's alibi is very clever. Although I do wonder how he set up the boxes to be switched like that.
That Girl on H&I? I know you like the show, but....So no comment on the Tarzan thing? It occurs to me that they're likely to run some That Girl in February....
I recall not liking that Tarzan series when I was a kid, but I don't remember why. Something about the aesthetics of the show, I think....
I meant on Decades, for "Remarkable Women" month.That Girl on H&I? I know you like the show, but....
Regarding Tarzan...I've had it on in the background on H&I Saturday mornings for some time, and while it never really grabbed me, what with it being an action/adventure show that ran at the same time as TOS's first two seasons (premiering the night after TOS did), I figured this might be an opportunity to absorb it a bit more. One thing it has going for it...there are tons of guest actors on it who also did TOS...rare to see an episode that doesn't have at least two. The only other show I've seen that has so many TOS actors on it is M:I. That, plus the Supremes....
Last edited:
Yeah, I was teasing. Although That Girl as a Batman-style superheroine might have been interesting.
Yeah, I remember tuning in for Nichelle Nichols. It was nice to see her, but the show wasn't very compelling.
http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/mary-tyler-moore-has-passed-away.286029/
http://decades.com/articles/legendary-television-actress-mary-tyler-moore-dead-at-80
I'd suspect a previously unscheduled MTM Binge in the near future, but Decades may already have one planned for "Remarkable Women" month...her show is certainly better suited to the theme than some of the examples we've seen so far in the Daily Binges.
On that note...
Thurs., 02/09: The Bob Newhart Show
Fri., 02/10: Bridget Loves Bernie
Sat., 02/11 - Sun. 02/12: The Donna Reed Show
Mon., 02/13: 21 Jump Street
http://decades.com/articles/legendary-television-actress-mary-tyler-moore-dead-at-80
I'd suspect a previously unscheduled MTM Binge in the near future, but Decades may already have one planned for "Remarkable Women" month...her show is certainly better suited to the theme than some of the examples we've seen so far in the Daily Binges.
On that note...
Thurs., 02/09: The Bob Newhart Show
Fri., 02/10: Bridget Loves Bernie
Sat., 02/11 - Sun. 02/12: The Donna Reed Show
Mon., 02/13: 21 Jump Street
Indeed, it should be at the top of the list. Maybe they don't have access to it. I don't remember if she's been on Decades before.
That will be interesting. I haven't seen that one since it was on the air, I don't think.
They do, and they have, don't ask me when. Pretty sure they ran it for December's comedy month. Last I knew, it was still part of Me's regular line-up.
ETA: Looks like Me currently airs it Sunday night / Monday morning at 1 a.m., and is planning a tribute block this Sunday afternoon.
ETA: Looks like Decades has rescheduled the Feb. 4-5 Binge from Early Edition (the end of its 1997 week) to MTM!
Nevah hoid of it.
Last edited:
^^ I think it may have been a one-season wonder. I think it was on Saturday nights in the very early 70s.
Sometimes a guest actor can take you right out of an episode. Watching The Avengers, "The Fear Merchants," and the main baddie seems naggingly familiar. Turns out he's the (very famous) Scotland Yard superintendent from Help! (which I watched about 80,000 times back in the '80s).
Also featuring...Peel in an outfit with a distinctly recognizable midriff that I've never seen in live action before. Was it an inspiration for Storm's original costume...?
Also featuring...Peel in an outfit with a distinctly recognizable midriff that I've never seen in live action before. Was it an inspiration for Storm's original costume...?
Last edited:
Probably, at least to some degree. Mrs Peel was the inspiration for a lot of female characters (and real women).
Or at least, male fantasies. I do know that Byrne based Emma Frost on her.
_______
I've been using the dates on IMDb for watching The Green Hornet, and discovered that they disagree with other sources, including Wiki, the H&I airing order, and my DVR info (which might be from H&I). The points of difference:
"The Hornet and the Firefly"
Wiki: Dec. 30, 1966
IMDb: Mar. 24, 1967 (last episode aired)
"Corpse of the Year: Part II"
Wiki: Jan. 27, 1967, two weeks after the first part
IMDb: Jan. 20, 1967
"Ace in the Hole"
Wiki: Feb. 3, 1967
IMDb: Feb. 10, 1967
"Bad Bet on a 459-Silent"
Wiki: Feb. 10, 1967
IMDb: Feb. 3, 1967
Paging @TREK_GOD_1 ...would you be able to shed any light on this situation?
In the meantime, since IMDb didn't have an episode airing this week, and on the hunch that they're wrong, I've "caught up" by watching...
The Green Hornet
"The Hornet and the Firefly"
Originally aired Dec. 30, 1966 (according to Wiki and my DVR); Mar. 24, 1967 (according to IMDb)
Not much to say about this one. I distinctly remember catching it during the Decades Binge. Everyone's pretty quick on the uptake realizing that Mike's old pal is the firebug...no false drama of somebody else having to convince Mike of his guilt, which is the angle they certainly would have played on a CW show.
The firebug got the drop on Kato! One does not simply knock out Bruce Lee with a double-fisted punch to the back of the neck....
Potential editing issue: There's a fiery flicker in the shots of Hornet and Kato entering the warehouse before the firebug has thrown any of his bombs.
And an unusually solemn ending for the show...no gag.
Last edited:
IMDb airdate is correct, and it was the last episode aired during its first run schedule.
Again, IMDb is correct. Part one aired on January 13, 1967.
Once again, IMDb has the correct airdate.
...you know where this is going.
You are not kidding.
Aired last, but the ABC broadcast teaser to "Invasion From Outer Space" (part one) featured a Dozier voice over referring to the conclusion as a last GH episode.
Either way, no story was going to capture whatever excitement was generated by the Batman crossover (March 1 & 2, 1967). While "Invasion" had a Bond-ian villain with equally Bond-ian goals, once the crossover made the Bat & GH worlds one, any other story would have much to live up to. The results were hit and miss.
^ Thanks for the info! 
Looks like I jumped the gun a bit watching "The Hornet and the Firefly"...perhaps that was the production order and it aired last? I'll watch the next two in airdate order, though.
That info also boosts my confidence that IMDb's Avengers (presumably American) airdates aren't total crap. All Wiki and any other sources I could find had were the British airdates.
Looks like I jumped the gun a bit watching "The Hornet and the Firefly"...perhaps that was the production order and it aired last? I'll watch the next two in airdate order, though.That info also boosts my confidence that IMDb's Avengers (presumably American) airdates aren't total crap. All Wiki and any other sources I could find had were the British airdates.
Just watched a color Peel episode, "From Venus with Love"...an invasion from Venus was staged with a laser-equipped silver car, which for some reason looked like a blob of light when traveling around, regardless of what direction it was going. And the laser was distinguishable as such by the distinct sound that it made, of course.Yesterday morning, we watched a couple of old Avengers episodes that I had DVR'd from Cozi. They were early black-and-white Emma Peel episodes, but they were already getting pretty surreal. One was about a scientist developing a man-eating plant that would grow to five hundred times the size of the Empire State Building. He was doing so at the command of what was apparently an intelligent plant that came from outer space (Mrs Peel informed Steed that it could be from either Mars or the Moon-- recently large swaths of vegetation had been photographed on each). This plant had powers of mind control, but plugging a hearing aid into your ear provided protection. Toward the end, Mrs Peel lost her hearing aid, fell under the control of the plant, and there was an epic Steed versus Emma Peel battle. But they prevailed with their secret weapon-- an elderly woman with a jug of herbicide. What a great show.
More Decades scheduling:
Tues., 02/14: Diagnosis Murder
Wed., 02/15: Mannix
Thurs., 02/16: Touched by an Angel
Fri., 02/17: Star Trek / Star Trek: The Next Generation
Of course, some of these days they play more Ripley's, Laugh In, and Dick Cavett than the Daily Binge shows.
Last edited:
Columbo: "Murder: A Self-Portrait": I have mixed feelings about this one. Stylistically, it's one of the most impressive Columbo episodes ever, with very theatrical dialogue and terrific music and cinematography and an interesting character study of the strange extended family of the narcissistic artist and his three lovers. Also pretty good acting from Patrick Bauchau and Fionnula Flannigan, though less so from the other two wives (including Peter Falk's wife Shera Danese, who was in two episodes of the original series and would be in three more installments to come).
But on the downside, it's a very contrived and implausible story in a number of ways, especially the "dream analysis" bits. Even if I accepted the notion that dreams were a delivery system for encoded messages (encoded against whom? Telepaths?), the "symbolism" here is really clumsy, based on simple wordplays, which I never found convincing. Also, there's an attempt to create a sense of mystery about the deep dark secret that Louise is killed to protect, but it's pretty obvious from the start, and the supposedly "cryptic" dreams just make it more obvious. The substance here falls far, far short of the style.
And I didn't notice before since there was a gap of nearly 7 months between them in their original airings, but this is the second installment in a row where the murderer's alibi is based on pretending to do something very solitary and time-consuming that he actually prepared well in advance, and where Columbo ends his investigation by breaking that alibi. But disproving his alibi is hardly as strong a piece of evidence as the actual murder weapon and the paint/lipstick transfer, so it's kind of an anticlimax to finish with that.
The character of Vito is played by -- and no doubt written and named for -- noted character actor Vito Scotti, who played supporting roles in fully five episodes of the original Columbo series. So that means this episode features two six-time guests, Scotti and Danese.
But on the downside, it's a very contrived and implausible story in a number of ways, especially the "dream analysis" bits. Even if I accepted the notion that dreams were a delivery system for encoded messages (encoded against whom? Telepaths?), the "symbolism" here is really clumsy, based on simple wordplays, which I never found convincing. Also, there's an attempt to create a sense of mystery about the deep dark secret that Louise is killed to protect, but it's pretty obvious from the start, and the supposedly "cryptic" dreams just make it more obvious. The substance here falls far, far short of the style.
And I didn't notice before since there was a gap of nearly 7 months between them in their original airings, but this is the second installment in a row where the murderer's alibi is based on pretending to do something very solitary and time-consuming that he actually prepared well in advance, and where Columbo ends his investigation by breaking that alibi. But disproving his alibi is hardly as strong a piece of evidence as the actual murder weapon and the paint/lipstick transfer, so it's kind of an anticlimax to finish with that.
The character of Vito is played by -- and no doubt written and named for -- noted character actor Vito Scotti, who played supporting roles in fully five episodes of the original Columbo series. So that means this episode features two six-time guests, Scotti and Danese.
I think I've got the first color one coming up in the queue. Too bad the invasion from Venus wasn't real-- they've already had a plant from outer space, and this past weekend had one where a group was implanting images into Steed's dreams, so they have no problem delving into the fantastic.
I'll have to try to catch that. Have they shown Mannix before? I used to watch it sporadically back in the day.
Think they have. Think either Me or H&I has had it in their schedule before.
Must have missed it if it was on Me. I'm fairly sure that I haven't seen an episode since the 70s. I remember liking his assistant a lot, but wishing that she was on a different show.