edrybaaudio Reviews

Felix the Cat (1958–1961)

Good and bad

[5/10 · 20 March 2024]

The silent Felix cartoons were, for the most part, VERY good. Having no soundtrack, all they had to let you know what Felix was thinking or feeling was the artwork, at which the animators were extremely successful. You really can't compare the silents with the Trans-Lux TV Felix cartoons. However, in those TV cartoons, the producers were intelligent enough to hire Voice Actor extraordinaire Jack Mercer. He started at the Max Fleischer cartoon studio in New York City (that studio's original location was the reason for the urban settings of their cartoons.). Unlike the talented people at Warner Bros., Disney and many others, a large percentage of the settings of THEIR cartoons were rural. But watch a Betty Boop or a Popeye cartoon, and you'll fing they take place in urban locations. Jack Mercer was the voice of Popeye for FIFTY-plus years! Though many of the people who made the TV Felix cartoons made the rounds among the animation studios, each studio's product had a personality of its own, and that's where the talents of the artists and writers really shined. Sure, there are settings in, say, W-B cartoons varied and were definitely NOT urban, such as "The Awful Orphan" starring Porky Pig and Charlie Dog. It takes place on a farm, as do many others. But that's the beauty of any animated cartoon - you can make the setting ANY PLACE, on Earth or elsewhere in the known Multiverse. None of those locations are any more difficult to get to or any more expensive than any other. The reason, of course, is that everything you see and hear is the product of the Director's and animator's imaginations. Every cartoon by any studio was drawn at the same desks as any other.

I remember when I was a kid, and the Trans-Lux Felix cartoons were run every day. I watched them then and liked them! But if you told me then that all the characters were voiced by Jack Mercer, I'd never have believed you!

The Painted Stallion (1937)

Before Republic started making "The Three Mesqiteers" Serials...

[4/10 · 8 February 2023]

...which featured THREE Good Guys instead of just two, there was THIS movie, which started out as a Republic Serial. I apologize for all the exposition in this paragraph, but if you consider that the theaters were running Serials over 100 years ago, there are a lot of people who have never even heard of a Serial. If you don't know what a "Serial" was, think back before there was TV. (Yes, kids - there was a time when the only place people could get their entertainment (with a moving PICTURE) was at a movie theater. Today, they don't make 'em any more. The modern equivalent is a TV series, and most of those aren't one long story, spread out over X-number of "Parts". Serials were generally made for a young audience and they would run on Saturday afternoon and they would be the first things you'd see before the Feature Film. Features could run anywhere from 57 minutes to 90 minutes, up to an hour-and-a-half back then, and stuff like the "Star Wars" movies and today's Features, for example, can run virtually ANY length was also where you got your News (which was at least a week old), and not like today, when there are things like "LIVE shots" from anywhere on the planet). Those were called "Newsreels". Each of those things ran somewhere around ten minutes, plus or minus a minute or two. (Apologies to those who already know this stuff, but it's background for those who DON'T. Back in the day, the theaters wouldn't accept them unless they ran at least 6 minutes. Think "Looney Tunes" or "The Three Stooges" (the "Stooges" shorts ran somewhere in the neighborhood of 13 to 20 minutes). Notorious cheapskate Leon Schlesinger, the original Producer of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies (Warner Bros. Cartoons were either one or the other) were usually no more than a frame or two longer than 6 minutes, but NO longer (by orders from Leon). Those three things (along with cartoons) were called "Short Subjects" or simply "Shorts". This movie consists of all 8 Serial installments, edited together - minus the preview of the next installment (seen at the end of each part) along with the recap (seen at the beginning of everything after Part 1), when a Narrator would say something like, "Last time you remember..." and they would show you scenes from the previous part - or several previous parts - before the story continued. That was just in case you hadn't seen whatever highlights came before the part you were seeing THIS time, so you'd be able to come in at any point after Part 1, but you'd still know the high points of whatever came before the one you were seeing now.

Anyway, "The Painted Stallion" is pretty standard Western Movie fare, but the thing that breaks the formula with other Westerns is that there are 3 heroes who rode together (instead of a single hero, like Gene Autry or Roy Rogers), and the movies would always have a "sidekick", so the Good Guy would have someone to talk to when no one else was around. The sidekick was guaranteed to be on the Good Guy's side in the story, as well as providing the "Comic Relief", for when things got heavy for the Good Guy. And of course there would be any number of Bad Guys and their evil minions, because you'd have a pretty boring film without Bad Guys to vanquish, right before the ending. Kids, when you study what comprises a story (even Shakespeare or "A Christmas Carol"), you'll learn about Protagonists (Good Guys) and Antagonists (Bad Guys). And I was so busy explaining The Old Days, I missed the end of this one! Now I'll have to find out when it's running again, just to see the last 10 minutes!! I'll update this review after that. What I CAN tell you at the moment is that "The Painted Stallion" was an enjoyable old-time Western, with lots of action and "Bang-bang-shoot-'em-up"-type scenes, as a good western should! I can tell you that one of our three heroes, the one in the South of the border Sombrero is none other than Duncan Renaldo. He was one of the original Three Mesquiteers, and when TV finally showed up (delayed a few years by this little thing called World War II), Renaldo (spelled "Reynaldo" later)

American Pop (1981)

Yeah, sure... HE invented it.

[7/10 · 22 January 2022]

Ralph Bakshl, the man who brought you "Fritz The Cat", then to be original, "The Nine Lives Of Fritz The Cat", and then walked around telling everyone that HE invented the technique of Rotoscope (the art of shooting live-action film of people, then shining a light through each frame at animation stand size and drawing the people in each frame to make them cartoons - which Max and Dave Fleischer did IN THE 1930's!) brought you this disjointed mess of a feature. The music's great, and an UNCREDITED animator just happens to be the man who invented Ren and Stimpy, John Kricfalusi! Overall, the look of this film isn't bad (when it's not falling over Bakshi's ego). A lot of very talented artists and actors worked on this film, and that manages to show through once in a while, despite ol' Ralph. And it must have cost a fortune to buy the rights to the tunes you'll hear. But overall, it seems as disorganized as Bakshi's other features. I sat through this whole thing and it left me with one feeling - as another reviewer said, "MEH".

Thunderbirds Are Go (2015–2020)

Gerry and Sylvia this ain't!

[3/10 · 11 January 2022]

I have now sat through three episodes of Amazon's take on the great 1960's show, "Filmed in Supermarionation", THUNDERBIRDS! And as usual with Amazon shows, the producers just DON'T GET IT!!! They really should have watched the original series before making this piece of trash, because they OBVIOUSLY DID NOT! They missed it entirely. There are SO many things wrong with it, I'd be here all night typing if I were to try to tell you all of it. If they had just done ONE simple thing, like using the REAL theme instead of having someone write a pale imitation (and that's sheer greed, friends - the producers of THIS garbage wanted the performance money for their crummy music instead of yielding a single dime to the publishers of the REAL music), just that simple thing would have gone a long way toward making me forget how WRONG so much of the rest of this thing is. I don't want to spoil any of the rest of this for you, so I'll say no more about the content. Let me just say I'm really glad I bought ALL of the original episodes when they were available on DVD. Sure, there were some hokey things about the original version... do you know why they came up with all the fancy machinery to put the characters into the flying Thunderbird machines? Because marionettes CAN'T WALK VERY WELL! There was no reason to spend so much time on that kind of stuff in this CGI version - you can make anything do ANYTHING when you're doing it with computers! And that's just one example. I'll say no more. If you loved the original British TV show, it's up to you whether you want to waste your time with this junk.

Perry Mason: The Case of the Unsuitable Uncle (1962) Season 6, Episode 7

There's often more to your sibling than you know!

[7/10 · 9 April 2021]

Yet another fine Mason entry, "The Case of the Unsuitable Uncle", could be rated several ways. You could give it a low rating if you're a stickler for dialects that are 100% perfect or if you grew up as an only child. If you can ignore those things and being a Perry fan always wins over ANYTHING that could detract from your enjoyment of the show, In this case, you'd give it a high rating. Okay, I'll admit it - I'm a Perry Mason Fan. But I'll be the first to tell you that not all of the 281 shows produced for CBS in the 1950's and 60's are gems. However, in my humble opinion, NONE of them are out-and-out BAD. Such as the title above from 1962.

A young woman has an uncle who is mostly absent. He' s in the oil business, like his brother... but maintains a life in the Merchant Marine, sailing around the world helping move manufactured goods from here to there. His brother, father of that young lady, makes a fine living in the oil business. But there's a mostly unknown, HUGE problem with the brothers' business... mainly the tiny little issue of WHICH brother owns WHAT? And, when we get to the Detectives Bureau, WHO killed WHO? Then WHO inherits WHAT?

Whether you liked it or not, this one IS worth watching. It had its share of the copyrighted PERRY MASON plot twists. And the ending may surprise you.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

"As your attorney, I advise you to watch this movie".

[10/10 · 10 February 2021]

That's really what my lawyer told me, as he did when Hunter S. Thompson's story came out in book form. It was originally published as a two-part article in Rolling Stone magazine, at which time it was described to me in detail by my attorney. I saw the film again last night on TV, on one of the "Starz" cable channels. It reminded me of my attorney's words, and of how right his advice was. Having read Thompson's story BEFORE SEEING THE MOVIE, this film was and is A SCREAM!!! Director Terry Gilliam (of Monty Python fame - he made all the truly silly transitional animation for the "Monty Python's Flying Circus" TV show, and was the only man of American heritage involved in the otherwise British comedy troupe). Gilliam Directed the Python films "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", and "Life of Brian", co-Directed with Terry Jones. Gilliam also Directed a number of delightful movies for George Harrison's production Company, Handmade Films, including "Time Bandits" and the somewhat fanciful and effects-laden "The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen. "Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas" is remarkably faithful to Thompson's writing in a way few other film adaptations of published written works have ever been, so if you think the movie's weird and have not read Thompson's book, you really should. Thompson was the inventor of what he called "Gonzo Journalism", and the articles he wrote for Rolling Stone are prime examples of it, especially THIS STORY! Other reviewers have given you examples of some of the action depicted in the film, so there's no no need for me to include spoilers here. I do, however highly recommend this film... but READ THE BOOK FIRST if you can!

Soup or Sonic (1980 TV Short)

Some are right, some are DEAD WRONG!

[9/10 · 6 February 2021]

"Some of WHAT?", you ask? THE USER REVIEWS, that's what! Yeah, I know. Opinions are like noses - everyone's entitled to one (we've got to keep this review G-rated, ya know!). There's just SO much negativity in some of these reviews, as a die-hard fan of the late Mr. Charles M. Jones, I could not sit still for all these negative comments. For those who, for whatever reason, didn't like the animation, you must consider that "Soup Or Sonic" DOES have that big 1980 copyright date on the title card. "So what?", you ask. Here's what, wise guys. Warner Bros. CLOSED their animation department in 1963! Therefore, there WAS NO WARNER ANIMATION DEPARTMENT AS SUCH IN 1980, when the venerable Mr. Jones was invited to make this cartoon. That means a good number of Wile E. and the Road Runner's original crew were just plain NOT AVAILABLE.

And there's a famous interview someone did with "Ren & Stimpy" creator John Kricfalusi, in which he complains that modern-day graduates of schools that teach the art of Animation CAN'T faithfully draw any character the way it looks on the Director's Model Sheet more than once in a row! love to see these naysayers make a cartoon as good as this one (or ANYTHING at all, for that matter), so the rest of us can then rip THIER hard work to shreds. Do you guys think it's easy to make even a mediocre cartoon? Whether the finished product is good or it stinks, it's still a LOT of work.

Then, there are plenty of Road Runner cartoons from way back when which have some rather sparse backgrounds, and ALL Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons were animated "on twos". If you don't know what that means, it's simply this. Animating "on ones" means ONE DRAWING for EACH FRAME of film, which is zipping by at 24 frames per SECOND! Walt Disney (the MAN, NOT the Walt Disney COMPANY) insisted on this very expensive method for his cartoons. Animating "on twos" means ONE drawing for every TWO frames of film, which is STILL zipping by at 24 frames per second. This method is far less expensive than the "on ones" method, simply because it requires HALF the amount of artwork than the "Animating on twos" method.

This leaves me with one question. Who among the "Thumbs Down/naysayer" faction can honestly say they've seen ABSOLUTELY EVERY SINGLE Coyote/Road Runner cartoon? How do WE know the naysayers even know what they're talking about?

But then, in defense of one reviewer in the "nay" crowd, I must agree that the low-budget 1960's Road Runner cartoons made by DePatie-Freleng FOR Warner's and not BY Warner's, which feature un-funny and/or recycled-for-the-billionth-time gags, terrible artwork, and had the music for ALL of them recorded in ONE session, are plain LOUSY!

Turn-on (1969– )

About Tim Conway...

[7/10 · 16 October 2020]

HE got the "10" rating, not this show!

Anyway, in the early 1970's, the Technicians' Union at CBS (in case you're keeping score), The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, or IBEW, went on strike against CBS in the early 1970's. Being as close to "TELEVISION CITY IN HOLLYWOOD" as I was, during that strike I drove up to TV City every afternoon during the strike. Why would I do such a thing? Because all of the original CBS Technicians who had yet to retire STILL WORKED THERE! The upshot of this was that all the Senior technicians had a million GREAT stories about the early days of TV! When Channel 2 (then known as KNXT), first started on the air from "Columbia Square" on Sunset Boulevard in Hollyweird, the original home of KNX Radio and CBS RADIO NETWORK WEST COAST OPERATIONS, I was told that they'd have a studio all set up for a show that was done in front of a live audience (such as "The Arthur Godfrey Show" or "Art Linkletter's House Party), and as soon as that show was over (on the Radio Network), they would strike the radio equipment and immediately set up for a CBS TV Network show IN THE SAME STUDIO! They got to be so good at this, they could easily have the TV setup ready to go in less than one hour after the Radio show had finished! Back to Tim Conway though, while walking the picket line with the CBS techs at TV City, I saw Tim Conway drive into the parking lot off Fairfax Avenue. He was doing The Carol Burnet Show at the time, and was driving a fancy new Mercedes-Benz convertible. The top was down, so I could easily see him, and then I saw his license plate. In those days, a TV Network would order 13 weeks worth of shows. If the show did well in the ratings, the Network would order more. I don't know how familiar you are with Conway's career, but until Carol Burnet, Conway just could not do a series which had his name on it that lasted more than 13 weeks. So when I saw Tim Conway drive into Television City, I noticed his custom California license plate. It read, "13 WKS". Think about it.

Turn-on (1969– )

"ABC's 'Turn-On', featuring A Cast Of Dozens... Hundreds Of Dollars Spent in Production...

[7/10 · 16 October 2020]

THAT was really a line used in a promo for this "Series That Wasn't'. I lived in the Los Angeles area at the time, and since KABC-TV was and is owned and operated by the ABC Television Network, the entire excruciating half-hour WAS aired on Channel 7 (KABC-TV), since the station's parent company, was ABC, back when "ABC" stood for the "American Broadcasting Company" (which is now owned by the Walt Disney Company, Inc... so now the letters "ABC" don't really stand for ANYTHING... exactly the way "CBS" no longer stands for "the COLUMBIA BROADCASTING SYSTEM", and the name of that company now is just "CBS, Inc". The rumors are true - "TURN-ON" actually WAS canceled in the middle of the first episode... on the West Coast, anyway. ABC had paid for it, and they already knew how well it had done on the East Coast and Midwest (and that, friends is why you see airtimes listed as "9:00 PM Eastern, 8:00 PM Central"), but they gave it one last chance before they pulled the plug. Good idea, but nobody actually understood the things the Executive Producer, George Schlatter (of "Laugh-In" fame) was trying to describe to the people who actually made this thing. It's been said that "Nobody starts out to make a bad show", and I'm sure that's true here... but the viewers didn't move as fast as this show did. It wasn't until the days of MTV being brand-new in the 1980's that the TV audience had caught up with the speed at which "Turn-On" zoomed by. It was just too unfunny and too fast to make much of an impression on the TV Audience.

Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966)

Is resistance ALWAYS futile?

[9/10 · 13 October 2020]

This film is the second of two mid-'60s "Dr. Who" movies which, according to information elsewhere in the description of this (1966) movie and its 1965 predecessor, each of which is described as "NOT part of the Dr. Who canon of the BBC serial". However, as a Voice Actor myself, I must congratulate the casting people for these two films. Let me explain. The "Lead Dalek Voice" is a dead ringer for the guy who did the same voice for the later set of "Dr. Who" shows which were made DECADES later for the BBC. These casting people had a great "ear" for voices, quite unlike the American casting people who found the actors to play ESTABLISHED characters for such awful garbage as the "New Looney Tunes". It's a completely different person doing that voice (the original voice actor passed away in 1998). The only thing that's physically the same is the Coles "Lip Mic", a ribbon microphone that was used starting during World War II. It got its nickname because it was used by pressing a plastic piece mounted directly above the part that was spoken into against the user's upper lip. Even CBS Newsman Edward R. Murrow was known to use one of these mics when reporting via short-wave radio to CBS New York during the London Blitz... when there were Nazi bombs going off all around Murrow, but not a single one of those bombs could be heard during Murrow's reports. Coles, the British company that made these microphones, last I heard, is STILL MAKING THEM! The distortion you hear when a Dalek is speaking was added by equipment between the mic and the recording device. One other thing I thought was cool is that the actor who plays the ... is London Policeman in this film ended up playing "Donna's" grandfather in later Dr. Who shows made by the BBC, and starring David Tenet as The Doctor. All in all, even though these two films are officially not part of the many Dr. Who shows made decades later for the BBC, they are still pretty good! And Peter Cushing is impeccable as The Doctor.

Maverick: Black Fire (1958) Season 1, Episode 25

An Interesting Cast...

[9/10 · 25 July 2020]

...plays in this "Maverick". If you've read the other reviews, you already have an inkling (or more, if you've read the reviews with "spoilers") of what happens in this outing. So I'll just say this: Any TV show that features Will Wright, James Garner and Hans Conreid (who happens to be none other than the voice of the evil Snidely Whiplash, arch-nemesis of the early-1960's "Dudley Do-Right of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police", on either "The Bullwinkle Show" or "Rocky And His Friends" fame), is okay with me!

Sergeant Preston of the Yukon (1955–1958)

DOG Punchers?

[9/10 · 20 June 2020]

If you like Westerns, and I've got to admit I do since my late Dad introduced me to them starting when I was about 4 years old, you'll love Sgt. Preston of the Yukon... although, since there's really nowhere else to put it, it's often classified as a Western when it's really more of a "Northern".

If you're in the business of creating programs for a living, you know how lucky you are if you get ONE show on the air in your entire career. Sergeant Preston was the THIRD show created for Radio back in the day by George W. Trendle, and in this case, Fran Striker (his first name is short for Francis, and for whatever reason, he didn't want to be called Frank, in the way that one Francis Albert Sinatra was) at WXYZ Detroit... an independent station at the time, where Trendle created "The Lone Ranger" (and Striker became what is now called the "show runner" and one of its writers). Trendle then created "The Green Hornet" for WXYZ, and again Striker was his right hand man, WHILE "The Lone Ranger" was still on the air!

Some time during this period, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), formerly the Federal Radio Commission (FRC), decided "No one company should be able to own TWO (or more) separate and distinct Radio Networks", so they ordered NBC (owners of the NBC Red and the NBC Blue Networks) to divest itself of one of them. I could be wrong here, but I believe NBC unloaded their Red Network, and it became The American Broadcasting Company (ABC). Both Sgt. Preston and WXYZ Detroit became affiliated with this new ABC Network. And as if that weren't enough, G.W. Trendle created "Sgt. Preston" for ABC Radio (but at the time, it was entitled "The Challenge Of The Yukon").

Given all the other reviews of the TV version of the show listed here, there isn't a lot left I can add that hasn't already been discussed... except maybe to say that I wholeheartedly DISagree with the reviewer who calls himself "old geezer", just a couple of reviews above this one.

The "geezer" throws derogatory terms at this show, such as "cheap" and "cheesy". He quite wrongly says the Exterior cabin sets are "all the same wall with a door in it", which, if you actually have enough brain cells still functioning to pay attention to what's actually on the screen, it's VERY obvious there are several more than THREE sets (more like five or six). And there are some very clever creative touches - such as this one: unlike every other show of the period and 99% of them ever since, between scenes Sgt. Preston DOES NOT FADE TO BLACK! It fades TO WHITE (like the snow - get it?) except where the ORIGINAL commercial breaks went. Of course, it's been a very long time since Quaker Oats sponsored the show on ABC-TV, and if you don't know this, I'm gonna tell you: whoever is running the show NOW has ADDED SOME EXTRA COMMERCIAL BREAKS. When they show these extra breaks, they tend to just CUT to commercial, rather than taking ANY time to fade, so there's simply no time for ANY fade, whether to black, white or chartreuse.

Suffice it to say that if you enjoy outdoor adventure series, Sgt. Preston of the Yukon is one show that's right up your alley. As of the time of this writing, you can see the Sarge on FETV, most evenings of the week.

Mannix: Lifeline (1972) Season 5, Episode 21

Two-Fisted Mannix Proves He's A Great Friend!

[7/10 · 9 June 2020]

Joe Mannix has some pretty talented friends - like the great Lou Rawls in this outing. And I can't fault Martin Hafer for his flawless review. I just watched it for the Umpteenth time, and Mannix goes to great lengths to help his friend, as he does in many shows in this series.

But Marty, don't jump on IMDB for a typo which was entered by a user! Just sit back, take a deep breath, and consider what a fine resource we have in this website. I would imagine that even you have made a typographical error once in a while. Relax!

And if you, dear reader, haven't read Hafer's review, I would suggest you do so. He's usually very astute in his observations, and this time is no exception.

All in the Family: Edith's 50th Birthday: Part 2 (1977) Season 8, Episode 5

Too much REALITY, Jimmy?

[9/10 · 24 May 2020]

IMDB Reviewer "Jimmy The Gent" apparently found too much that was "REAL" and "SCARY" in this "All In The Family" two-parter. I think it might behoove the so-called "Gent" to read up on a little background of this one-hour story. I won't give you much of it here. If you want to know more, you can easily look it up.

It seems Creator/Producer Norman Lear had thought from the start that "All In The Family" should not just be 22 minutes of gags strung together. He thought that yes, the show should be funny, but it should also mirror the kinds of things that were happening in this world at the time the show was made. He knew he, as the Man in Charge, would have to act as the show's spokesman to answer for any controversy his show may bring about, and if this show was made before your time, let me tell ya - it brought about LOTS OF CONTROVERSY! But Lear was never afraid of that, and surprisingly, neither was CBS! (NOTE: Lear had PLENTY of fights with the Network about the content of a number of "All In The Family" shows before they were produced. But that's part of what I'm NOT going into here!). These two shows from 1977 aired as you see the re-runs today. If you are uncomfortable with what happens to Edith Bunker here, I am truly sorry for you. But if these kinds of events ever take place in your home, I also wish you luck in dealing with them.

The Fugitive: Nightmare at Northoak (1963) Season 1, Episode 11

OOH! If I could just get my hands around the neck of that Sheriff's wife...

[10/10 · 16 March 2020]

...But I can't say any more than that without placing those dreaded "spoilers" before your eyes, dear reader. "Nightmare at Northoak" is indeed, as another reviewer said, "One of the best" of The Fugitive series. Sadly, the VERY talented actress who so ably played the Sheriff's wife, Nancy Wickwire, died somewhat young (age 48) - before having a chance to be the REALLY BIG STAR she might have been. And of course, David Janssen as Dr. Richard Kimble is as good as ever - possibly partly because this was only his eleventh performance as his character. So if you ever get the chance, WATCH SEASON 1, #11 of "THE FUGITIVE"! It contains the kind of suspense necessary to be a true nail biter!

KTLA Morning News (1991– )

Those 2002 Reviews are SO out of date!

[10/10 · 18 February 2020]

KTLA (Channel 5.1, Los Angeles) hits the air at 4:00 AM! The First Team (Chris Schauble and Megan Henderson (the show's anchors, who do a bang-up job), The First Team Of Traffic, Ginger Chan and her Husband in the Helicopter, Mark Kono, kick butt (!), and Mad Meteorologist Henry DiCarlo will be the first one to tell you that THERE IS SO weather in Southern California!

This is the News Team (minus their large number of Field Reporters, who can be in any given place on any given day, somewhere within the more than FIVE-HUNDRED SQUARE MILES occupied by The City Of Los Angeles and its suburbs). NOBODY HANDLES L.A. NEWS LIKE KTLA, CHANNEL 5, Los Angeles.

Zorro (1957–1959)

A "Z" That STANDS FOR ZORRO!

[9/10 · 29 January 2020]

I was born and raised in Southern California, where this show was supposed to have taken place (long before the white man, like myself, showed up and ruined everything!). Many of my friends were of Hispanic origin, and a few of them taught me to speak Spsnish. That gave me a bit more of an appreciation for "Zorro" than much of its white audience, even though all the dialogue was in English. This Walt Disney Production is one of the best things ever to come out of the Walt Disney Studios. The writing was always at least good (and often GREAT!), the acting was superb (and if you were a fan of "F TROOP on ABC-TV in the 1960s, you may not believe this, but "Crazy Cat" of the Hekawi Indian Tribe was the same actor who played Corporal Reyes on Zorro - Don Diamond!). The Directors of this show were all terrific, as they ALL knew how to keep you in suspense when it was called for. There was always lots of action, and that "Bold Renegade Marked A "Z" With His Blade - A "Z" that Stood For ZORRO!" You could count on THAT! It was one of the first TV shows with Movie-Style Production Value. And can you believe that Zorro himself went on to get "Lost In Space"?

Newman Laugh-O-Grams (1921)

A VIDEO??? in 1921??????

[8/10 · 28 January 2020]

I hate to tell whoever wrote the initial description of this film, BUT VIDEO DID NOT EXIST IN 1921!!! It would have happened commercially before 1947, but this little distraction called World War II got in the way.

Route 66: Goodnight Sweet Blues (1961) Season 2, Episode 3

This Could Be The Best Of Route 66

[9/10 · 12 January 2020]

This story is one of the many that make "Route 66" some of the best TV ever made... especially if you are, or ever were, a musician. Unlike what seems to be most of the stories in this series, written by Stirling Silliphant, this one was written by Will Lorin and Leonard Freeman. It's Freeman's story, but the script was impeccably crafted by both gentlemen I just mentioned.

I won't go into much of the story here, since you can read about in the other reviews. But if you have a musical past (or present), this one will really grab you. Vocalist Jenny (played by the great Ethel Waters) manages to get the six men of "The Memphis Naturals" back together for one last performance of their First-Class Dixieland Jazz, through the kindness of Tod and Buz. Every one of these six men were amazing actors in this show, who made the viewer BELIEVE they really were the members of the defunct Dixie band depicted here. I don't know which of them were ever musicians (with the possible exception of the percussionist - it's obvious that he played), but they certainly LOOKED like a real band in the music segments.

Juano Hernandez did an expert job as "King" Loomis, a man who hadn't touched his trombone in years. However, he DID show up at the last minute with his instrument... and that's a story in itself. But sadly, he wouldn't even take it out of its case. Jenny passed away of her heart ailment before he finally did, but by then it was too late for her to hear all six players together. That sounds like a heartbreaking ending, but the sheer joy of the Dixieland music goes a long way toward soothing the hurt of Jenny's death as she sang with the band for the first (and last) time in the 20+ years since this band had played together.

The cast here, with the exception of the late Martin Milner, and George Maharis, as well as a pair of minor characters, and as you may have read in the other reviews, was ALL African-American. That is an astonishing thing for a series show made to first air in 1961! I wonder how many CBS Affiliates in the South refused to run this one the very first time the Network aired it?

As a professional musician (you can see my page on IMDB - search for Ed Ryba), I highly recommend this installment of one of the most gutsy series made in its day, 1960 - 1964.

Willy the Wolf (1954– )

William S. Wolf?

[9/10 · 12 December 2019]

Willie the Wolf (whose REAL name was William SHAKESPEARE Wolf!) was created by Bob Clampett, and appeared as a recurring character on the Clampett-Produced "Time For Beany" - which was, of all things, A TV PUPPET SHOW! It was originally performed LIVE at the venerable KTLA Channel 5, the very FIRST TV STATION WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER, whose studios are in the heart of Hollywood. It was LIVE (because at the time, the 1950's) there wasn't such a thing as VIDEOTAPE!!! (The engineers at several large companies were some years into working on it, but it wasn't quite perfected yet). However, "Time for Beany" was seen all over the country, syndicated via the "kinescope" process. If you don't know what was, google it. The show starred Stan Freberg as Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent and MANY OTHER VOICES, and Daws Butler (as Beany, as well as LOTS of other voices. (Together, prior to "Beany", Freberg and Butler INVENTED the Comedy Record!). As all things do, "Time for Beany" came to an end. The voice I haven't mentioned yet is the EXTREMELY TALENTED Walker Edmiston! He was a master of character voices. A few years after poor "Beany" met his first TV demise, in the early 1960's the great Walker Edmiston got his OWN show, on VIDEOTAPE!!! It took place in a theater, but instead of you, the viewer (okay, the Camera!) was placed ON STAGE, looking back at the audience! Clampett gave his blessing to Edmiston for the use of the wolf character, who spoke like some great Shakespearian "AC-TOR". William SHAKESPEARE Wolf was one of a number of other characters, all of whom performed IN THE SEATS OF THE THEATER, and Edmiston did ALL THE VOICES (with the occasional guest voice). A quite...shall we say DIFFERENT kind of kid's show, to turn everything around - having the audience watching the players from the stage! The show was VERY good, and I don't believe that any other program EVER tried their formula in quite this way.

Secret Agent: To Our Best Friend (1965) Season 2, Episode 11

What is THIS show doing HERE?????

[8/10 · 28 November 2019]

I reiterate - WHAT IS THIS SHOW DOING HERE????? According to this programme's own titles, this show is from Patrick McGoohan's PREVIOUS SERIES, "Danger Man". And it's NOT like those titles were just spliced on to it - THEY HAVE A SHOT OF THE ACTORS BEHIND THEM!!! Is anyone paying attention? And to make matters worse, the TV listings named this show "Secret Agent Man", a show that NEVER EXISTED! That show's title was simply "Secret Agent". The "Man" comes from the lyrics of the original theme song, sung by Johnny Rivers. I wish someone who knows (and who is in a position to do about is, which I am not) WOULD FIX THIS CONTINUING STUPIDITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How to Hook Up Your Home Theater (2007)

I was in my Dentist's office, minding my own business...

[10/10 · 27 November 2019]

...When THIS Goofy masterpiece showed up on his big screen TV. What grabbed my attention, surprisingly, was NOT the great (better than just about ANYONE makes today, in 2019, when this review was written). No, what caught my brain was something through my EAR! It was the sound of a voice. A voice of MANY voices I knew. It was the Narrator on this latter-day Goofy "How-To" cartoon! It was the amazing Corey Burton, who by far outclasses ANY Voice Actor I can think of, if for no other reason than Corey's the man who gets called when Hollywood needs an "old-time" movie, radio or TV voice. Among other things. I don't know how he does it, I never have. But I was introduced to him some years ago (and he was just a "regular guy"). I was astounded! But you're wasting your time if ya listen for him. Just know he's there.

Route 66: A Long Way from St. Louie (1963) Season 4, Episode 10

A Long Way for Some Of The Gags...

[9/10 · 16 November 2019]

...However, this one (with Glen Corbett as Linc) turns out to be quite delightful. I'll save going through the plot, since the other reviewers do a fine job of that. But having loved "Route 66" since the show was made, this installment (being the only one in the series which was made outside the U.S.) has always been, in my opinion, one of the MOST worth watching of them all. If you prefer Buz to Linc, give this one a try. Corbett does a fine job of playing "White Knight" to the featured 5-piece all girl band (featuring the drop-dead gorgeous 1963 version of Jessica Walter, who you may remember as the MOM in "Arrested Development") the eye-candy alone make this show well worth your time. Trust me on this! And the primarily Stirling Silliphant script - most of them are - is a good one. I promise you this installment of "Route 66" WILL NOT let you down!

77 Sunset Strip: Double Trouble (1960) Season 3, Episode 8

George WaGGner directs another GGreat TV Show

[9/10 · 24 August 2019]

George WaGGner goes back to the 1940's as a terrific Film Noir Director (among other things), so having all the noir-style films he had done by this point under his belt, giving "Double Trouble" a "Noir-ish" kind of feel was like falling off a log for WaGGner. And this "77" outing is just dripping with: A) Old-School Gangsters - and Warner's built the studio on that sort of thing, and B) The kind of Intrigue (much of which would be "Foreign Intrigue") that keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat.

The U.S. Government has looked high and low to find someone they can slip into an organized-crime outfit, and (of course) it turns out one of the principals of the Bailey and Spencer Detective Agency can easily pass for the Bad Guy In Question - with just a little lightening of his hair color as well as his eye color (with a light-colored set of contact lenses). That's only a little odd, considering when this one was made, the only contacts that were made were the local AS#

Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers (1992)

Some People JUST DON'T GET IT!!!

[9/10 · 3 August 2019]

I've been a fan of the REAL Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons for over 55 years. I know a "Good" one from a "Bad" one. THIS one, "Invasion of The Bunny Snatchers", rates in the "Good" category (if the only categories are "Good" and "Bad") among those made after the demise of the original Warner Animation Department. In fact, this one was made about 18 years after Warner's HAD no Animation Department. Just the fact that Greg Ford & Terry Lennon were able to get enough talented people together to make this cartoon is amazing in itself. But the fact that the characters even LOOK right (something the so-called "Warner Classic Animation Division" of today can't seem to do) is a testament to the people who made this cartoon. And for the bozo who said "The music was terrible" in his review, obviously had NO IDEA what he was listening to. The music in this cartoon was VERY cleverly edited from the raw orchestra tracks of Lord-knows-how-many EXISTING Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons! The only exceptions to this are a few solo piano tracks - one or two taken from existing cartoons, and the other couple of them were ACTUALLY RECORDED FOR THIS ONE! However, NO ORCHESTRA WAS HIRED FOR THIS CARTOON. All the orchestra tracks you hear, you've most likely heard before, with the exception of the closing credits music, "Little Kids Shouldn't Smoke", which was written for a 1930s Porky Pig cartoon, although this beautifully orchestrated version was written many years after the song was written. If you consider that essentially NONE of the original "Looneys" who made well over 90% of the existing cartoons from Leon Schlesinger Productions and then Warner Bros. Animation worked on this cartoon, I'd say this one is BRILLIANT!!!