Rate The Last TV Show Episode You Watched

[Paul MacLean]

I can't remember the last time I saw Assignment Earth. It may have been in the 80s!

But what really strikes me as ironic is how this kind of patronizing interference from a more "enlightened" race (which itself is just a riff on "The Day The Earth Stood Still") is never seen by the "progressives" who love Trek as a kind of "Colonialism" in reverse with what could be argued is a "racist" attitude about Earth itself (take note of Gary Seven's aside about how "primitive" everyone is). Someone should explain to me how this attitude is no different from the "spreading the white man's burden" philosophy.

I guess interference is warranted when a bunch of "racist, warmongering white men" are running the planet!

Agreed on how the episode's premise could never have worked as a weekly series. Personally, the Roddenberry show I wish had taken off was Genesis II, which I felt was a much more intriguing and plausible idea.

[AndyDursin]

LEAVE IT TO BEAVER WEEK just finished again on Buzzr!!!

On the plus side I do enjoy trying to check out what happened to the contestants on shows like this. Like this soft spoken college kid Butch who was studying animation and who had a good winning streak on this show. I did a quick internet search and it turns out he ended up having great success creating several shows for Nickelodeon!! Good for him. I'm sure he ended up making more $$ than some of the celebs on this show!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butch_Hartman

[Eric Paddon]

By far the most famous of Match Game contestants.



Brianne Leary of the first season of CHIPs was the only one in the history of Match Game to be first a contestant and then a panelist. Ironically, look at what her Audience Match fill-in was!

[Eric Paddon]

In memoriam, Diana RIgg, I watched two "Avengers" episodes.

"The House That Jack Built". This is an atypical episode from the Rigg years in that there isn't a lot of humor in it, but it is a fascinating atmospheric episode of Emma Peel being lured into a mysterious mansion in the English countryside and becoming trapped in it. We get to see her all by herself forced to reason her way out of the situation with no help from Steed whatsoever.

"Honey For The Prince". Emma in a harem outfit. Enough said.

[AndyDursin]

Been watching a lot of the Johnny Carson channel (514) on Pluto. The ability to flip it on at any given point and not know what you'll find is just irresistible...Connery hawking Never Say Never Again....or Connery and Caine on for Man Who Would Be King. A segment on upcoming TV pilots (the audience laughed at CHIPS lol) or Jimmy Carter jokes. It's just real comedy and wow does put the garbage in late night today to shame.

Surprising how long the segments were back then. Guess I've forgotten but Johnny retired when I was in high school so it's been a while. Interviews run really long. I realize they cut the band elements and that's unfortunate but the episodes aren't broken up much from what I can tell at all. Few commercials in these.

Seems like they have a lot of shows racked up because I'm not running into a lot of repeats so far and Ive added it into my regular rotation.

My new Sony TV has Pluto integrated with the over the air channels and I don't even need to load the app up. Lots of great stuff on Pluto to choose from.

[Eric Paddon]

I'm looking at the listings and most of them appear to have been part of the earlier Antenna package of reruns. Those who didn't catch them will enjoy them though as I noted before in those cycles, you would never get musical performances unless it was a classical performer (since those pieces I guess really are public domain!). And certainly no shows with a "Stump The Band" sequence. But that said, they are a great primer to what he was like in giving us great chat and a way to connect with audiences that endured for 30 years.

I was fortunate recently to work out a trade with a guy who had 35 minutes of audio from the very first show, October 1, 1962.

[AndyDursin]

Is it something to do with the band itself or just what they were playing in terms of music clearances? Surprising they'd keep all the movie and TV clips intact, unless that's tagged as some kind of promotional fair use from the time.

[Eric Paddon]

I believe the sticking point is royalties to the band. This was why the initial DVD releases of episodes that were put out used a "canned" version of the theme rather than the live version from the episode itself and there was such an uproar over that that for future DVD releases, the live play of the theme and Ed's intros of the guests were left in, but on the reruns you always get just one version of the theme with none of Ed's reading of the guests (I think that's also because they can't in the reruns have Ed say "From Hollywood, the Tonight Show!"). When closing credits are left in, it's always a canned piece of music, not what the band played.

Basically it's only for the rarest of occasions that they will leave something in. I think the Sinatra guest episode from 76 was a rare time and there are some DVD releases that did clear some music parts. But I think again its the complications of how much would have to be paid regarding the live band performance. I'd note that the DVD releases don't give us the band playing during commercial breaks which we can hear on the copies that collectors got straight from the vault in the 90s and early 00s.

[Paul MacLean]

I've started revisiting Star Trek (the original series)...

Mirror, Mirror (9/10)


One of my all-time favorites. You get a real sense that the supporting cast particularly relished this episode. It's clear Takei and Koenig are getting a kick out of playing Sulu and Checkov as sadistic, cutthroat opportunists. Nichelle Nichols gets moments to shine as well (and show a braver, feistier side of Lt. Uhura). The highlight of this episode however has to be Nimoy, as the twisted, dispassionate (and bearded!) Mr. Spock -- still unfailingly logical, but allied to a ruthless, punitive empire. The twist at the end when we discover Spock is "a man of integrity in both universes", beautifully climaxes the episode, as does Kirk's inspiring encouragement to Spock that he could be a positive catalyst for change.

Fred Seiner's score is phenomenal, here resurrecting his "Romulan theme" from "Balance of Terror" and applying it to the empire. His music for the transporter malfunction is superb (and shows-off his unparalleled ear for woodwind blends -- it also glosses over the frankly terrible "effect" of the transition from one Enterprise to the other). Steiner's theme for Marlena -- a sensual, string-dominated waltz, is one of the series most gorgeous themes. This is an episode that just "works" perfectly from start to finish, with expert pacing and perfect dramatic tension and energy.


Bread and Circuses (8.5/10)


This episode manages to sell the preposterous idea that another planet would have developed a civilization identical to that of Rome ("Hodgkin's law of parallel planet development" as Kirk records in his log) but ok, I'll buy it. Yes, it is a "formula" story (Kirk, Spock and McCoy stranded and imperiled on a strange planet) and it is pretty clear this episode (as with "Patterns of Force" and "A Piece of the Action") was an attempt to save money by utilizing Paramount's old costumes and props, rather than design new (and expensive) alien worlds. Even so, this one is extremely well-written and imaginative within those parameters. Resourceful use of stock footage of various "Roman-like" modern buildings helps to establish a "20th century Rome", while the cave dwelling of the runaway slaves is filmed in a real cave, which adds enormous verisimilitude.

Rhodes Reason is wonderful as Flavius, and gives a very nuanced performance of a man with a combative nature that boils beneath the philosophy of peace imposed by his religion. Logan Ramsey is deliciously repugnant as the corpulent, decadent Claudius Marcus -- a ruthless opportunist, yet one who respects the bravery and resolve of his foe, Captain Kirk (and generously grants Kirk a "last night as a man"). Captain Merrick (William Smithers, in an understated but equally excellent performance) -- mocked by Marcus as "not a real man" -- exhibits true valor in a moving and powerful moment, when he sacrifices himself to save Kirk and the others.

Scotty coincidentally cutting power to the city at just the right moment is rather implausible, but I can excuse it as this episode is otherwise so good. The scene between Spock and McCoy in the prison cell is a further highlight, and illuminates their contentious but loyal friendship (Channel 11 in New York always cut out this scene!). Tracks from Gerald Fried's scores for "Friday's Child" and "Catspaw" are put to good use to add tension and accent action (though the use of Fried's action music from "Amok Time" in every single fight sequence in season 2 became a bit of a cliché). Fred Steiner's Marlena theme however nicely compliments the love scene.

The reveal in the final scene that "the sun" is in reality "the Son" is an effective and inspiring twist; it is also an interesting example of how secular artists were once intellectually honest enough to acknowledge that the teachings of Jesus Christ were a positive influence on the world. You certainly don't see that today.


I watched Star Trek to death as a pre-teen, but I have to say as an adult it still holds-up incredibly well. I actually regret having been exposed to the series at such a young age, as many episodes have elements that I've only been able to appreciate as a grown-up. Also, I don't think any of the subsequent incarnations of Star Trek -- including the the feature films and Next Generation -- have equaled the dramatic energy and character chemistry of the original series. I dare say Star Trek is the finest American television series ever.

[Eric Paddon]

Buzzr! has once again resumed new episodes of "Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour".

[AndyDursin]

Thanks Eric I will check it out, where are they at this point?

[Eric Paddon]

Early April 1984. There's a bit more than three and a half months of shows left in the run (July 27, 1984 with some WImbledon pre-emptions at the time).

[Eric Paddon]

I recently found a new way to experience a number of original Battlestar Galactica episodes by creating new edits of episodes using the deleted scenes that were part of the supplements on both DVD/Blu-Ray. This meant putting back all the scenes that were part of the "telemovie" editions for the two-part episodes as well as the extra footage for the episode "Experiment In Terra" that was included in its combined telemovie edition with the "Return Of Starbuck" G80 episode but I also found a number of other outtake scenes not used that I added by creating a proper underlying sound F/X of the Galactica engines for interior scenes so that these scenes didn't sound like total soundstage work (I couldn't though include outtake scenes of Cylons talking since in those outtakes you're hearing the original voices of the actors inside the suits!) Doing the edit jobs gave me something to do to get my mind off the bad political situation and turned out to be fun.

I've been overly passionate I admit regarding the original Galactica over the years, and equally passionate in my out and out hatred of the other version which produced many a free-for-all at FSM (I think in part it was motivated by people who hated me for other reasons). I've found that no matter how many times I like to say I'll be capable of being a bit more objective about it than I was 15 or 10 years ago, it just never comes. I have at times wondered if I were one day capable of making myself watch the Moore version all the way through with a different attitude but whenever I might think I'm getting close to it, something stops me from it. It's usually one of two things. (1) I watch the original series again and find new ways to appreciate it, or I end up working on a fanfic story since I'm still part of a group that does them and (2) I try to read more about what actually went on in the Moore series after I couldn't take watching anymore of it the one time I did try (which was the first season only---that was about 2005-06 I think I did that) and what I read is enough to keep me at a distance.

Having gone through my re-edits of the classic episodes all the way up the magnificent last episode "The Hand Of God", and having read a detailed synopsis of the entire Moore series episode by episode in Volume 2 of the book "By Your Command" (a two volume work on both versions of the show) that took me days to get through, there is no way I would ever find myself connecting or appreciating Moore for any reason. If you can strip away all the debates about philosophy/religion and everything else, here's what it comes back to. Everything about the Moore series reveals characters I couldn't remotely find interesting or connect with in a million yahrens. As my instincts felt when I saw the miniseries and the first season, the characters are just not likable. They're overly dysfunctional and forever stuck in that rut of plotting and backbiting it seems like, with no sense of coming together for the common good toward a common goal, which the original series always stayed focused on to give us a positive group of people to care about. (and gee, by the time the series was over how many characters WEREN'T "Cylons"?)

And reading how Moore resolved things really makes me laugh when I recall how when he debuted his show to all that adoring fanfare from critics who kept looking for any excuse to run down the original. Basically, Moore gave us four years of episodes that were all about (1) History is an endless cycle staged by an impersonal, heartless "God" where all the standards of Good/Evil as we know them do not exist and (2) Having encouraged the mocking of the original series because of its underlying 70s "ancient astronaut" theme for Earth's settlement, what does Moore do but resolve his series by giving us......the SAME THING!! Only he figures that by doing it 150,000 years in the past, he's somehow being more "intellectual" than Glen Larson was?? (I have I admit watched that final scene of the last episode a number of times on YT because by itself it just comes off as so bizarre to me. I was almost half-expecting Moore to suggest that the original series was humanity "remembering" the past through entertainment given his silly fixation with a Bob Dylan song appearing in past civilizations too being "remembered")

Harlan Ellison had the nerve to once say "Moore took the worst show on TV and made it the best" (this from a guy who spent decades playing the angry martyr about what evil people did to other people's work. Talk about hypocrisy!). The truth of the matter is that Ron Moore took a show that stood for something positive in terms of the characters, morality etc. and turned it into something dark, dysfunctional, nihilistic and unpleasant. I wouldn't have liked such a show even if had been called something else and had no connections whatsoever to Galactica, but the fact he did that to a show that stood for something else and was willing to stand for those values is thing about Moore that I can't ever get past and be detached about. The only scenario I can think of that would have made me less angry than I became about the thing would have been if Moore had done his thing after a continuation/closing project of the original series had taken place first. Had the original series received its "resolution" in the form of a reunion movie that allowed us to revisit the characters one last time and see their storyline ended (and I can say rather bluntly that I would have preferred it NOT be what Richard Hatch was trying to do) then the Moore show would not have had the additional taint of being the thing that ended all hopes for original series resolution/reunion. Instead it would have just been "there" as a new idea coming after the original series had run its course as far as it could go in the same way Trek fans who are only devoted to the original series can easily dismiss all that's followed if they don't like it because the new Trek projects never came *at the expense* of the original series which had gone as far as it could go in the movies.

[Paul MacLean]

While I was a fan of the Moore series, I can understand where you are coming from. I am the same way about the Lord of the Rings films (vs. the book) and was the same way about Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (vs. the first two films).

Despite the same format (and relative similarities of their respective pilot episodes) the Battlestar Galaticas are totally different series. I agree the tone of the original was optimistic and the protagonists mostly altruistic, while the Moore series was more nihilistic.

I do think that the Moore series overall had more imaginative writing and plot developments. The original series started off great, with a fine pilot and some very good episodes (like "Living Legend" and "War of the Gods") but there were too many silly episodes, like "The Lost Warrior" and that ridiculous one with Ray Bolger as a singing android.

Will be interesting to see which series actually dates better. Back in the day, I always felt Star Trek: The Next Generation was so much more technically impressive and "with it" compare to TOS; revisiting TOS today I find it has a vibrancy and more visceral quality while TNG (despite better production value) has a "sterile" look and feel.

[Eric Paddon]

The Ray Bolger episode is a bad one. "Lost Warrior" is indeed just a hastily done retelling of "Shane" but I give it a plus for one reason that defines how Galactica was breaking new ground in ways the other sci-fi shows that preceded it hadn't touched. Because this was the first episode to air following the death of Jane Seymour's Serina following her brief marriage to Apollo, there are two references within the story to that event. Galactica was thus not going to follow the old cliche of every other show where a tragedy happened one week and was then forgotten the next week with no sign of the lingering impact of it on the characters. It may have still been telling self-contained stories, but there was still going to be an underlying forward momentum where an important character who died wasn't going to be forgotten just like that in the way Edith Keeler was never to be thought of again in Trek. And Galactica continued to play fair with this when Commander Cain was referenced repeatedly after the events of "Living Legend".

And that also ties into another thing I noticed when going through the episodes again. Galactica, taking advantage of the Universal contract system, made sure that we frequently saw the same actors in small parts as warriors and Fleet personnel in multiple episodes with lines. LeAnn Hunley popping up in three episodes as an unnamed viper pilot. Sarah Rush's Rigel. Ed Begley's Greenbean. Olan Soule, the animated voice of Batman in two episodes as the Agro-Ship supervisor. This was taking things a further step from Trek, which did have some recurring lesser characters, but typically gave us more nameless extras who never spoke (Bill Blackburn's substitute navigator) or one-off crewmen who never appeared again or got killed. There was a much bigger sense of "family community" if you will in Galactica not just with the regulars but on all levels.

To me, Galactica needs to be judged against what came before it, and what it directly influenced afterwards and on both levels it still doesn't get enough credit. The revamped Trek Klingons more resemble the Borellian Nomen of Galactica than they do the original series Klingons. The funeral for Paul Fix's retired commander at the tag of the next-to-last episode "Take The Celestra" shows a startling precursor to Spock's funeral at the end of Trek II. And as far as what preceded it, the show was far more entertaining than failures like "Logan's Run" and "Planet Of The Apes" which proved that a good movie does not translate well to a weekly series, especially if you're just going to give us "The Fugitive" with sci-fi dressing. (And it's certainly better than any of Roddenberry's failed pilots of the 70s! Yet, I've noticed that if a failed show came from someone with a Trek background it tends to get much better press from the sci-fi "establishment" if you will, whereas Galactica, because it came from Glen Larson just seemed to go on the demolition list for that reason alone).