magicdog

More than likely Christie was pressured at the time she was recruited that the pimp "owned her" and she "owed" him for all he did for her (giving her clothes, a place to stay, etc. - for a price). Often runaways come from lousy backgrounds so Christie may not have felt that she had better options than what she had. I don't think that's the case - it seemed to me that it was a case that not everyone has a happy ending and that calling the cops on the pimp wouldn't have changed much. The pimp might have been busted but bailed out quickly (they tend to have lawyers on standby) and he would have been back in business in no time. Christie might have turned up as a runaway/missing child who might be returned to her previous home, but it's a toss up. It's too easy for people to fall through the cracks. IMO, the episode just shows that Tootie was lucky she had people looking out for her, while Christie didn't. But for the grace of God go I.....

Caught another episode of Highway to Heaven in which I am still trying to understand what the point was: In "It's a Dog's Life" (1989), Jonathan and Mark are arguing a bit over a few things, when a guy tried to rob them. Jonathan uses his powers to turn the gun into a water pistol. The criminal freaks out and runs. Later, Mark is annoyed that he's weak and helpless compared to Jonathan and maybe he should be turned into a sog or something. Suddenly, a dog appears and Jonathan is gone. Mark comes to the conclusion that God turned Jonathan into a dog and now they have to continue with their next assignment. Somehow he gets it in his head that God gave Jonathan's powers to him temporarily. They find a young boy who has a habit of running away. We eventually learn his parents are divorced (aptly described by Mark as a cross between Isadora Duncan and Auntie Mame) and she has been keeping him away from his dad (the usual hijinks of mom making excuses for dad not being able to see the kid) so dad has given up trying. Mark and the dog befriend the boy and find the dad and try to set things right and get the mother to let the boy stay with dad for a while. Surprisingly, she agrees. The dog chooses to stay with the boy and dad, so Mark assumes this is the end of their partnership and he leaves. Then while headed back to his hotel room, there is a suicidal man on a ledge and he decides to try to get him down safely. He climbs on the ledge, when Jonathan (in human form) apears in a window asking what Mark was doing on the ledge. Shocked, Mark asks what happened, and he relied that he was on another assignment all this time and the dog really was just a dog. Then Mark asks if that means he doesn't have [Jonathan's powers]. Jonathan replies no. Suddenly, we see Mark lose his balance and fall off the ledge - only to wake up and find out it was all a dream!! GAH! What was the point of the episode? Give Mark another heart attack?? Was the boy and his problem even real? Why go through all that? Plus it used to annoy me that Mark was supposed to have been an ex-cop, so he should have a bit more knowledge on how to handle certain situations, instead he acts like an untrained civilian. This was the second to last episode to air before it being cancelled and Victor French (Mark) passing away in June of 1989

They're doing it to Ian Fleming's James Bond novels too!

Thought this would be the best place to post this: These songs turn 60 this year! Scary how time flies. https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/130/565/089/playable/4e9632d230686c0a.mp4

I remember the episode fairly well since I watched it when it first aired. My parents both warned me about stuff like this because it could happen if one wasn't careful. Tootie did a stupid thing by running away on her own to a city she didn't know how to handle herself in. That's one of the reasons runaways end up often in a worse place than the one they'd left. I was sad that the girl Tootie met wasn't saved but I wouldn't doubt it if Tootie had asked her to come with, that she'd have refused. Likely because she was used to that lifestyle and was afraid of her pimp (they don't like it when their property goes walking off free and have been known to stalk them and drag them back). She also would have had to go through detox since she was likely addicted to heroin - to keep her under her pimp's control. I don't think it was necessarily a reflection of the times, than reality.

How these idiots have jobs and get into management positions is beyond me!! Damn, that's one stupid (and potentially dangerous) man!!! Here's hoping he gets fired.

Darn it! You bet me to it BetterButter!!

Not only that, but she pissed me off questioning Carver's doubts about her abilities. Apparently girl bosses can NEVER be wrong about anything.

The only other thing I know for sure was that the [original] sisters were supposed to have three powers each (like Melinda Warren); one active, one passive and one defensive. Paige wasn't supposed to exist either.

The biggest insult was trying to make Christie and Billie the "Ultimate Power" and making the Charmed Ones afterthoughts in their own show! I wouldn't have minded if they had Chris and Wyatt get their spinoff and were essentially the equivalent to Melinda Warren and begin a new line of witches. Essentially, yet a new prophecy is born for their line. I do know that a production assistant who used to work closely with Constance and knew her plans DID say (after the airing of Morality Bites) that "Melinda" would be "special" but not as powerful as her mother. All that went out the window unfortunately. Come to think of it, If the actresses wanted to take a breather on Season 8, they could have just focused more on past Warrens and told their stories. Oh the possibilities!! Of course, Hollywood is full of idiots, so it didn't happen.

AWWW! I remember him best from Due South as Fraser's dad who appeared to him as a ghost periodically.

Wasn't bad and it's worth a watch. I remember when it was first released in theaters (along with Silverado) people thought perhaps it would be a return of the Western for the big screen. Didn't pan out.

True. Some shows I bypass entirely for one reason or another and catch them in syndication (if they make it that far). That's how I came to catch Chicago Fire (which runs on ION and a few other channels). Some shows don't age well but so much depends on the era it was written (like limits for primetime viewing) and what viewers presumably wanted at the time.

Sad to say that family is a bit dysfunctional. Hayden has been in a few abusive relationships and sad to hear her brother died so darn young.

Apparently someone didn't get the memo about how hard it is to find good workers lately. Would love to see the fool who placed that ad!

I also remember Bosson from Hooperman as his supervisor. I caught some Hill Street repeats last year and thought her character (Frank's ex-wife) was kinda sad. She had to deal with her husband's alcoholism, divorcing him, doing stuff on her own and him trying to hint that he was leading a new life with his new wife. She grew quite a bit towards the end of the show's run.

I first came to know of Belzer when he was doing a stand up routine on cable in the mid 80s. He was doing an imitation of how Bruce Springsteen hit those notes for "Born in the USA" (which was burning up the charts at the time). He'd start singing then when getting to the title, he'd pinch his butt to emphasize BORN in the USA... I was BORN in the USA!! Well, I thought it was hilarious. His imitation of Mick Jagger was pretty spot on too!

Curious. What did they have to say about Daisy?

The show wasn't so much renewed as already ordered in advance. Typically, most modern animated shows are given so many episodes to produce off the bat - say 20 episodes. Then the show can be split up into two "seasons" of 10 episodes each. While I don't doubt everyone involved in this show's development are going by the axiom of "there's no so thing as bad publicity", I am certain this show will be used in classrooms as how NOT to write a series (animated or otherwise) or how NOT to use a beloved and established IP.

Caught another episode of Highway to Heaven - and I'm annoyed at how the character of Mark Gordon was messed with in this episode. In "I Was A Middle Aged Werewolf" (1987), we get a combination Halloween episode and a nod to Michael Landon's early movie career in "I Was A Teenage Werewolf" (1957). We have a little boy named Alan who is bullied a bit by his older sister, Cindy. She decides while trick or treating to have it look like she was kidnapped by showing up at the door and someone yanking her inside! Naturally Alan is scared and tried to tell everyone about what he saw, but everyone is dismissive. Meanwhile, he is bedeviled by his fears and has trouble coping. Enter Jonathan who befriends him and tried to explain that while fear to a degree is healthy, it can't dominate your life. He also asks Jonathan to help him find his sister - and when Jonathan enters the house asking where the girl was, the older couple living there were unaware of the prank and thought Jonathan was an intruder! He apologizes and leaves. Meanwhile, Mark decides to eat a sandwich which Jonathan warns would cause him nightmares. He then settles down to watch a classic horror movie on TV (the film this episode is based on) and even tells Jonathan that the main character in the film looks kind of like him - only younger. Jonathan remarks he was never that young! All through the episode, we see Mark having what turns out to be a nightmare - he sees a monster breaking down the door of their room, he frantically trying to escape a werewolf (Jonathan) and trying to jump out of a painfully small window begging for help from police just arriving below. Each time waking up and realizing it was all a dream. Eventually, Jonathan tells Alan not to be afraid of monsters because he knew for a fact that God didn't make monsters (of course this is a show in which the Devil is real, so who's to say if monsters of other kinds aren't?). He "becomes" a werewolf to scare the pants of Cindy (who ditched her brother to hang out with a friend at her place to watch movies) while Alan "rescues her" by fighting off the werewolf that breaks in! At the end of the episode, Mark's nightmare starts again, then the police show up and come to the rescue - except the cop is a werewolf too! Then Jonathan (in full wolf makeup) breaks into the apartment, growls, then looks into the camera and says, "Happy Halloween!" to the viewers. OK - First I was annoyed at Cindy since she left her brother ALONE at night while trick or treating. Her parents tasked her to watch him and other than the trick that was played on her by Jonathan and Alan, she really didn't get much comeuppance. Second, her "joke" of being kidnapped was an understandably scary thing and she's lucky her brother or someone else didn't call the cops because kidnappings like that have been known to happen. Third, poor Mark! It was like someone thought it funny to keep giving him the same nightmare at least 3 times then making it real by having Jonathan burst in for real this time and make a cop one too!! Stuff like that could have given Mark a heart attack! I honestly felt bad for him being the butt monkey here.

Anyone ever see this? I found it by accident (I was watching this review of Pardon My Past in which it was mentioned). It's a shame it's just a fan made trailer and not for real. Even back in the day, it was definitely a spinoff that had potential and wouldn't have required the original actresses to appear as the cousins. The YT reviewer has done other Charmed episodes, so the channel is worth checking out.

Never seen any of those projects (and Rotten Tomatoes isn't the most reliable when it comes to scores), but there was a time when you screwed up a project and cost a studio tons of money and angered your potential customers, you didn't get promoted.

Not quite. In fact, the numbers are being manipulated a bit. A few YT reviewers have brought it up that Velma was NOT being hate watched as much as its backers claim it is. IMO, hate watching is a waste of time. Reviewers might because that's what they're paid to do, watch something and despite how much they may despise what they're watching, they're informing and entertaining their audience. Although there were a couple of reviewers who refused to watch after episode 2 because it was considered unwatchable! It's also rather telling that Mindy Kaling deleted a lot of tweets from her account over this and is currently in India for some reason (some have joked she was in self exile over Velma). The real mystery is when people like her and others keep falling upwards when they should be run out of the business.

This has been one helluva week! There was a water main break outside the station so toilets and sinks weren't functioning! They brought out port o' potties (ick!) until things were back up; until they went down again! I wasn't sure what I'd find each night in my email!! Then everything else just seemed to fall apart regarding a huge local news story caught on cellphone. It showed a kid getting thrown down by a school police officer. The night it ran, it was looped (shown over and over) and by the next morning, it was deemed our viewers needed to see this only once and to add file video of exteriors of the school near where this happened. Once again nightside showed it and looped it, but the AM show isn't allowed so heaven forbid a producer cues up that same video without checking guess who has to reedit everything? Nothing new, since we've been forbidden from showing stuff that they used to exploit (like gunshots at the One October shooting or 9/11 stuff). Then the producers kept falling behind on stacking the show. Don't know why. The 7am in particular seems to be a problem for them. I typically take my lunch break at 6am but often I have to work it just to keep my edit partner from falling behind because of their incompetence! I even heard from directors who tell me that some of these producers don't seem to know what they're doing and THEY have to guide them along!! This has been going on for months!! Then there's the producer who works from home - in Michigan! I mentioned here that over 2 years ago I lost my previous partner because the bosses insisted that everyone work in the office again and no more working from home and she was happy doing just that. When they refused, she quit. Now we have a producer who is in another state and half the time seems to have video problems! He would send me messages like the video isn't clear for him to see something, or he is assigned to write a script but waits forever to get to it (sometimes 10 minutes before air!!). I know he's on CST but he shouldn't be editing on it!! My partner and I have told our immediate supervisor about this but somehow WE are supposed to change how WE do our work!!! If I bothered to tell him about how late the bunch are in getting the 7am show ready in time so I can eat in peace, he'd probably tell me to eat earlier!! Why are these fools running things???? It's never good when fixed plumbing is the highlight of your week!

Just caught an episode of Highway to Heaven called "Heavy Date" (1987) which gives me pause for if the right thing really was the right thing. In the episode, we're introduced to Alice who's pregnant out of wedlock (sperm donor disappeared and is not involved). She decides to give the child up for adoption. She temporarily takes an apartment where she meets, Gary who is son of the building's owner. He's a bit hapless (his mother is a bit of a hypochondriac and prone to hysterics) and is still at that age in which he's trying to decide what to do in life. He lost his job but found another in construction. He takes a shine to her and they start dating rather quickly and fall in love. He still doesn't know she's pregnant (she barely shows) and by the 7th month, she finally tells him the truth. He walks out in shock and somewhat angry since she should have told him way earlier. When the adoption attorney contacts Alice asking for pictures of both her and the sperm donor she decides to send a picture she and Gary had taken together, figuring they'd be satisfied that the bio dad is handsome and healthy looking (she had no photos of bio dad). Eventually, the baby is born, and Jonathan asks Gary to go to maternity ward to see the baby (which isn't his). Alice chose not to see the baby since she will be giving it up and is staying on a different floor. The would be adoptive parents ask questions of Gary to make sure there are no "issues" to be concerned about in the future. Gary tells them that his mother is a loon who has been in an asylum for the past 8 years and her side of the family has a history of instability. They decide not to adopt the baby. He goes down to Alice and proposes marriage to her and will be a father to her newborn son. All's well that ends well I guess. Except was it really for the best to interfere with an adoption to a good couple who would have given the baby a good home? Was it really the right thing for Jonathan to get him to like another man's child that wasn't his responsibility? Was it really right for this girl who had been dating him for a few months to marry someone who has a mother who is a bit difficult (when Mark announces the marriage, she puts her head in the oven!) and who has been having some stability issues (although supposedly they've been worked out offscreen due to the power of love or some BS). A lot of things about this storyline and resolution just annoyed me!