Bill Mumy discusses "The Twilight Zone" episode It's a Good Life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lLYHBdMFCE

On Sat, Jan 18, 2025 at 10:26 PM John Coffey <john2001plus@gmail.com> wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m03tMsNTyhE

Rod Serling's Greatest Obsession (William Windom)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aewL16VdsU

The episode starred Wiliam Windom, a character actor who played supporting characters on many old shows.

He is maybe most famous for a Star Trek role...
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/William_Windom

"Windom was a tournament chess player... and a life member of the United States Chess Federation"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Windom_(actor)

https://www.uschess.org/msa/MbrDtlMain.php?12546262

The Dark Truth Behind This Classic Twilight Zone Episode

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m03tMsNTyhE

"Skeleton Crew" Episode 7 Review: How is this so good?

For the most part, Star Wars fans have been disappointed with everything Disney has done with the franchise since acquiring it from George Lucas, except for the Andor series, which was on another level.  I, however, differ in that I've enjoyed most of Disney's Star Wars offerings, though certainly not all of them.

When Disney announced they were creating a Star Wars kids' series that would combine elements of The Goonies and Lost in Space, almost no one was optimistic. Many expected it to be just as disappointing as the previous failed series. However, now that people have seen Skeleton Crew, the consensus is that it's knocking it out of the park. After a slow start, each episode has been better than the last, and it feels like what Star Wars should be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhlq2V94tc8

The (Insane) Creation of A Charlie Brown Christmas | They Thought it was Awful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t3Cdx22ODA&t=846s

Skeleton Crew: The Dark Truth About At Attin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGyJMEQ73r0

Dick Van Dyke

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4DP8IEh8wI

Ranking all the Star Wars shows on Disney Plus (Tier List)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfPCXfErs7Y

@john2001plus
26 minutes ago
Everyone loves Andor, but I was also blown away by The Mandalorian Season 2.

I've watched The Bad Batch series 4 times.  The series as a whole is fantastic.

I enjoyed Kenobi quite a bit.  Even Ahsoka and The Book of Boba Fett were enjoyable, with a few flaws.  All three are passable entertainment and underrated.

I am very much in the minority thinking that The Acolyte was entertaining for the first six episodes, but the last couple of episodes were a big disappointment.

Why sci-fi alien planets all look the same

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy16KFzM4XU

The Evolution of a Rockstar | Gene Simmons

This is very interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP1yycF65S8

Doctor Who: JOY TO THE WORLD Trailer Breakdown

Star Trek Unification (Kirk's Journey to the afterlife)

With the help of the latest special effects, William Shatner along with Sam Witwer, who played in Battlestar Galactica and Star Wars animation, play James T. Kirk at different ages.  It is about Kirk's journey to the afterlife.

https://home.otoy.com/unification/

Although it is good, I'm not as blown away by it.  The special effects are a novelty.  It is a lovely way to say goodbye to Kirk.  Kirk seeing his younger self reminds me of 2001, A Space Odyssey.  

Lenard Nimoy died almost ten years ago.  All our old favorite actors are dying off, which makes this all the more touching.

The final scene looks like it could have been shot in "The Volume" which is a Lucasfilm spherical stage where all the walls are screens to create artificial scenery.  The Mandalorian series was created primarily on this stage.

Black Friday Deal: 99¢/month for a year | Hulu

https://www.hulu.com/gma

This was the deal I was waiting for.  However, the fine print tells me that I am ineligible because I was a member within the last month.  I click on "Get this deal" and it doesn't give it to me.

I don't like the ads, but I like saving money.   

Disney+ has a ton of content, but I've seen most of it.  I'm especially fond of the Star Wars shows, but there are also Marvel, Pixar, and National Geographic.

Streaming Services

I allowed to expire Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, and a two week promotional subscription to Prime.

I'm waiting to see what deals I can get on Black Friday. I don't want to load up on streaming services that I rarely watch, but a couple would be nice.

I would like to get Max again. If they offered me another three month discount like they did before I would take it.

If Amazon were to offer a year of Prime at half off I would take it. Any discount on Prime might be worth it because of the free shipping that goes with it.

Netflix did not offer any discounts in recent years, but if they did offer a discount I would consider making it my main streaming service.

Disney+ and Hulu don't have enough new material which I want to watch to make it worth the full price. However, I got them so ridiculously cheap (with commercials) last Black Friday that it was a good deal. It was $3 a month for the pair.

Last night just before my Hulu subscription expired, I got half way through Alien Romulus. This is an interesting movie. What I saw is not as scary as the originals, but more of a sci-Fi drama.

Best wishes,

John Coffey

Hedy Lamarr (Mar 31, 1957)

A Disney Holiday Short: The Boy & The Octopus

This qualifies as the sweetest commercial I have ever seen.  It is the usual Disney tripe but is sweet nevertheless.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clgyncrbyDg

This is pretty good PR from a mega-corporation.

The irony of loving Star Wars too much

@john2001plus
0 seconds ago

Hey Thor, 

I have many thoughts, so sorry if this goes long. 

The ideal sequel trilogy would have been one of Luke, Han, and Leia, but we needed that thirty years ago before the actors got too old.  Disney was stuck where they couldn't continue the story right after Return of The Jedi, so they tried to go down a path of discarding the old characters and introducing new ones.  The decision to discard the old characters seems like a bad one because the fans wanted the old characters.  With current technology, it is not too late to have a story that takes place after Return of the Jedi. 

No offense to anyone, but Star Wars fans appear to be very hard to please.  If a new movie or show is not exactly what they want or expect, they will claim it is bad when it might be entertaining.  We saw that with the prequel trilogy where right away people claimed that Episode 1 was terrible.  However, I loved the entire prequel trilogy. George Lucas tried to make every movie different, but this turned off some people who claimed, "Not my Star Wars." 

The Last Jedi is a dilemma for most people.  It has some bad dialogue.  It has a couple of bad scenes.  It could have been a better film.  However, I will swear to my dying breath that it is an entertaining movie because I found it entertaining.  I enjoyed it quite a bit.  Would I have preferred something a little different?  Yes, but I don't see it as my story to tell.  People are upset by how the movie handled Luke, but I was open to a story about Luke that was different from what I expected.  Had the movie gone exactly the way we expected it could have been boring. 

There is a difference between a movie or show being entertaining and great.  We want Star Wars to be great.  However, it isn't always great, but that doesn't necessarily make it bad.  I like watching shows about Star Wars and I enjoyed most of the TV series even if they were far from the greatness that we wanted them to be.  In particular, I liked Kenobi quite a bit. 

I have a big problem with The Rise of Skywalker.  Bringing back Palpatine undermines Darth Vader's sacrifice.  The movie has other issues.  It is a weaker film than The Last Jedi.  It is a disappointing conclusion to the trilogy.  However, I did enjoy watching it and I might enjoy watching it again.  But I hold movies to a higher standard than I do TV shows. It could have been much better. 

I have a concern that the Star Wars story is too limited in scope to keep making more movies and shows. According to George Lucas, Star Wars is a soap opera about the Skywalker family.  That story has already been told.  Anything that follows is either going be be repeating the same story, or too different for the fans to embrace.  I think that we both would like to see a new set of characters set in a different period.  The Acolyte tried to do this but was mediocre at best. 

Best wishes, 

John Coffey

TOM WELLING On How He Was Sold SMALLVILLE & What It Became

At first, I didn't realize that the host of this online show is Michael Rosenbaum, who very brilliantly played Lex Luthor on the TV series Smallville.  

Tom Welling was great on the show as a teenage Clack Kent.  Although he was glad to have a job, he talks like it was overwhelming, working long hours for ten months each season.  He did not have fun on the show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNd1bLwv77M

The full version of the interview is here:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XGsP5Y6Ae4

Tom Welling doesn't come across as interesting as the character he played.

This prompted me to rewatch the first episode of Smallville.  Twenty-two years ago, I thought the series was brilliant.  Although it is still good, it is a bit dated.  The show is very teenage-friendly, which has less appeal to me now than it did 22 years ago.

Smallville started on the WB network right after Buffy the Vampire Slayer left the network.  The first couple of seasons of Smallville seem very similar to the first couple of seasons of Buffy with many Monster of the Week episodes.  

BTW, Buffy the Vampire Slayer started as a mid-season replacement show, and the first season was not that great.  However, it got really good mid-way into season 2.   As the series progressed, there were a few extremely brilliant episodes.  Joss Whedon did a few experimental episodes to great effect, like making one of the shows a musical, and another episode with almost no dialogue.

MICHAEL ROSENBAUM Reveals Why He Left SMALLVILLE After Season 7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PCrwxzmfJE

What's My Line? - Marilyn Maxwell (May 10, 1953)

This is entertaining.

What's My Line? - The panelists' spouses; Tony Randall [panel] (Dec 25, 1960) - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOrm6IkkImA

The Boys is an awful show

True Detective Night Country

 

I saw a great many commercials for season 4 of HBO Max's True Detective Night Country.  It is Jodie Foster's first TV series in 50 years, and who wouldn't want to see Jodie Foster in a TV series?  The streaming service Max is promoting the hell out of the show, and I suspect it attracts many people to the service, like me.

Each season of True Detective has different actors and a different story.  I had seen a little of the first season with Matthew McConaughey, and it is interesting.  

The 4th season is about a police detective working in the fictional town of Enis, Alaska, 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle.  The town is enduring three months of darkness, making every scene look like it is shot a night, even though it might be day.  Six scientists disappear from a scientific research station, and they are later found naked and frozen to death.   The detective treats this as a murder investigation, and she resists her superiors trying to take the case away from her.

Like many shows today, it is female-centric, reminiscent of Fargo or The Silence of the Lambs.  

Jodie Foster gives an interesting performance, but described her police detective character as, "Awful. An Alaskan Karen".  The character is rude to just about everyone and has been sleeping with some townsfolk.  She was transferred to Enis because nobody wanted to work with her.  She has a mutual hatred with another policewoman, played by Kari Reis, over some mysterious past incident.  Predictably, the case will allow the pair to resolve their differences and become friends.

The 4th season has a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes but only a 56% audience score.  I binge-watched the season and found it slow, boring, and a mess.  It tries to do too much, with too many characters, and drags out too long.  It is not only a police procedural drama, but it has a bit of horror and science fiction thrown in.  People have visions of dead people, which drive a couple of them to suicide, but they might just be going crazy from the long darkness.  

The first couple of episodes set an eerie mood, but so little happens that I was questioning why anyone would want to watch the show.

I have great respect for Christopher Eccleston and Fiona Shaw, but they are underutilized here.  Eccleston only serves the purpose of being an asshole, sporting a fake American accent, and having a nude love-making scene with Foster.  The actor deserves better.  

Foster almost looks like an old woman and Eccleston is also looking older.  He has lost some of the charm he had as a younger actor.

The actress Kali Reis is a former professional boxer, and I kept thinking she looked like Samira Wiley from The Handmaid's Tale.

The ending tries to make a political point about pollution, but I didn't find it convincing.  There are a few things in the series that are not logical or believable.

There is much nudity, profanity, and some gore.  If the series were a movie, it would be rated a hard R.

Rating:  C+.

The New "Skeleton Crew" trailer looks... good?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9XFbwGrTU4

Is Kathleen Kennedy staying or going this time?

What's My Line? - Top 10 Favorite Mystery Guests!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67xLUSc1UA4&t=495s

Behind the Scenes With JONATHAN FRAKES: Issues With STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHqx4M0TDa4

Should the Jedi have trusted the Clone Army?

Getting some exciting details about "Skeleton Crew" from the shows creators...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec8_bFJUbaM

John Boyega to Star in Otis Redding Biopic With Danielle Deadwyler

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/john-boyega-otis-redding-biopic-danielle-deadwyler-1236161720/

Henry Mancini - “Peter Gunn”

Peter Gunn was a TV series before my time, but it had an iconic theme song.