They sure know how to hurt a guy…

I’ll start off this rant with a defense of the filmmakers responsible for the new Get Smart movie: to their credit, they wisely chose not to completely “ape” the original TV series. That having been said, I’m curious as to what their intentions were when conceiving this film in the first place. I went to see Get Smart this past Saturday…

“Things get complicated/When you get past eighteen…”

I caught this story on my CharredHer homepage last night, about the induction of the Statler Brothers to the Country Music Hall of Fame today, and I have to say it couldn’t happen to a better group of individuals. In fact, I don’t think it would be stretching it much if I were to say that my…

Two peas in a pod-uh…

TCM has been showing Laurel & Hardy feature films every Saturday morning this entire month, and will conclude tomorrow with The Flying Deuces (1939) and Saps at Sea (1940), beginning at 10am. I’ve never seen Saps, and I’m anxious to do so despite the less-than-glowing critical reception from many Stan & Ollie fans—it can’t be any worse than A Chump at…

Once upon a time in the West

Several participants on the Home Theater Forum have reported receiving some “inside dope” from Timeless Media Group that the company is planning to release twelve half-hour episodes of The Deputy, a Western series that ran on NBC from 1959 to 1961 starring Allen Case as the titular lawman, Clay McCord. The street date for the release is set…

IMDb, you’re pissing me off…

Last Friday night, after I finished watching The Best Man (1964) on TCM, I looked the movie up on the Internet Movie Database for some additional information…and spotted something that has since become my current bête noire regarding the go-to website for movie information. It’s up in the right-hand corner…a little widget that links to Amazon.com…that lets the individual doing the…

“[He] has all the characteristics of a dog…except loyalty.”

The last time I watched The Best Man (1964) was…well, it’s been a long while: I caught it on WTGS-TV in Savannah years back…and of course, it was edited beyond all comprehension. So it was nice to be able to take a second look at it this past Friday night; based on the 1961 play by Gore…

“Gee, he was just here a minute ago…”

Legendary stand-up comedian George Carlin once remarked in an interview that he’d like to have the title of this post appear as his epitaph on his tombstone. Sadly, this revelation came one step closer to reality with the news of his passing on Sunday, dead of heart failure at the age of 71. Like many teens…

“That’s bloody marvellous, innit!”

Back in June of 2005, I finished up an essay/review on a now-discontinued Region 2 DVD of the fifth series (from 1974) of one of Britain’s classic sitcoms, Till Death Us Do Part, with these words: …I’d certainly like an opportunity to check out In Sickness and In Health if only to get the opportunity to marvel at the staying…

Shake hands and come out griping

I promise that this will be my final word regarding The Great Fugitive Controversy of 2008. As BobH (“Master of his [Public] Domain”) notes in the comments section of the first TDOY Fugitive music substitution post, TVShowsOnDVD.com has the press release issued forth from CBS/Paramount. I thought about copying and pasting it here…but they’ve got a block on that sort of practice,…

“I’m H-A-P-P-Y…”

Back in September 2003, BFS Entertainment released two volumes of a 1970s Britcom broadcast on ITV as Only When I Laugh. The series—which starred James Bolam (The Likely Lads, Second Thoughts), Peter Bowles (To the Manor Born, The Bounder) and Christopher Strauli (Raffles) as a trio of layabout hospital patients—was created by writer Eric Chappell and from 1979-82 was one…