Halloween III surprised audiences when it came along. There was no Micheal Myers, which had already become synonymous with the holiday, and there was a strange combination of the supernatural and science fiction in the third entry in the franchise. A convoluted behind-the-scenes story affected the script and the filming, and with no Micheal, the…
Tag: divorce
Family Ties (1983/1984) – A Keaton Christmas Carol, To Snatch a Keith, and Birthday Boy
Alex (Micheal J. Fox) gets the whole Scrooge treatment in A Keaton Christmas Carol. Written by Rich Reinhart from a story by Robert Caplain, it first aired on 14 Decemeber, 1983. Alex is less than thrilled with the arrival of the holiday season while the rest of the Keaton family engages in festive traditions. He…
Murphy’s Romance (1985) – Martin Ritt
James Garner earned his only Academy Award nomination for his turn as Murphy Jones, a local widower, handyman and pharmacist in the small town of Eunice, where the newly divorced Emma (Sally Field) and her young son, Jake (Corey Haim) arrive in to make an attempt at running a horse ranch. Emma has a tough…
Hill Street Blues (1982) – Personal Foul, and The Shooter
The Hill Street Precinct deals with a lot of personal things this week in Personal Foul. First airing on 25 March, 1982, Personal Foul was written by Steven Bochco, Anthony Yerkovich, Jeffrey Lewis and Michael Wagner. With a basketball game with the local community (and its gangs) waiting in the wings, Renko (Charles Haid) deals…
Quantum Leap: Too Close For Comfort (1993) – Ashley McConnell
McConnell’s second Quantum Leap book, Too Close For Comfort, feels closer to the spirit of the show than the first one. The characters of time traveller Sam Beckett, and his holographic connection with the present, Al, seem more in line with their established selves, and gone is the suggestion of what happens to Sam between…
TIFF ’22: The Fabelmans
I have been a Spielberg fan for as long as I can remember. The first film he saw was The Greatest Show On Earth, which affected him. Mine was Jaws, and I can say the same thing. Over the decades I have followed him on his storytelling journey, embracing each new film that came along,…
Fringe (2009) – Midnight, and The Road Not Taken
J.H. Wyman and Andrew Kreisberg penned Midnight, which first aired on 28 April, 2009. The ZFT organization is unleashing new experiments on the public, as Olivia (Anna Torv) and Charlie (Kirk Acevedo) lead an investigation on some very strange murders that involve the removal of the victims’ spinal fluid. While they run down leads, including…
House (1985) – Steven Miner
Directed by Steve Miner, who gave us Friday the 13th Parts 2 and 3, and Sean S. Cunningham who gave us the first film, and was the producer for its sequels, gives us a different kind of horror (tinged with comedy) starring William Katt and George Wendt, and while there’s an interesting concept here, a…
Lord Edgware Dies (1933) – Agatha Christie
Murder most foul! Three of them in point of fact, but don’t be fooled by the image on the cover of the book, none of them are committed with a pistol! It’s been awhile since I read an Agatha Christie mystery, other books came along, and I knew her library of work would wait patiently…
M*A*S*H (1978) – They Call the Wind Korea, Major Ego, and Baby, It’s Cold Outside
Ken Levine and David Isaacs pen They Call the Wind Korea, which first aired on 30 October, 1978, and sees Charles (David Ogden Stiers) getting ready to leave the 4077 on his first vacation (in Tokyo no less) since he arrived. Unfortunately there’s a major storm coming in, and he can’t get a chopper out….
The Mind Reels 