magicdog

After a discussion in a different forum, I decided to check out Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come". Very nice and after comparing other versions, I think this is my favorite so far. I also found myself checking out some Etta James. I really need to add more of her work to my iPod! I already have "At Last" and "Dance With Me Henry" only to realize I forgot about "Sunday Kind Of Love", "I'd Rather Go Blind", and "Something's Got A Hold On Me".

I was just checking the news headlines when I came across this. She's the current City State's Attorney of Baltimore, although at the time of this episode, she was a college student. Enjoy. ETA: There's a difference between Mayor and City State's Attorney.

The minute I read this I thought of Shannen Doherty & Charmed. When it was revealed Aaron Spelling was going to cast her in the show (despite her "difficult reputation" from 90210) I thought there was no way she could lose that job! After all she's a lead character and you can't just undo the Power of Three or recast the part. Little did I know Brad Kern had other plans. When SD was fired, she was notified by phone while directing a TV movie in Canada. Despite Doherty's behavior (assuming it's true) that's rather unprofessional.

Just saw it yesterday - overall I was disappointed. This. Too many people, too many plots or subplots, and heaven knows what else to try to fit into this film and it made me tune out completely. I never bought the Natasha/Bruce attraction. Bruce was not romantically interested in anyone in this film, even Natasha should have seen that. I didn't find Ultron to be that great of a villan. He was far more effective and menacing in is animated incarnation from Avengers - EMH. Usually there's a period in which the proverbial monster turns on his master after a period of time, Ultron was a bad seed from the get go. Then Vision comes along despite the big mistake Tony made with Ultron (which goes against comic canon but whatever). BTW, did anyone think of this as a 'Less than Zero' reunion of sorts with Robert Downey, Jr. & James Spader? I did like the surprise of Hawkeye having a wife and kids at home. Ditto the gag with Vision being able to pick up Thor's hammer. They mentioned Wakanda so that means a Black Panther movie is coming. Ultron's plot to wipe out the human race was also a bit extreme. He could have done it differently without having to drop half a city on the planet. If anything it would have made more sense to hack into nuclear launch codes and try to blow the earth up that way. Conveniently, he was locked out. In fact, there's a TV movie that airs occasionally called, "Avengers Heroes of Tomorrow" in which we see a world in which Ultron pretty much succeeded in decimating the human population and had virtual tentacles in the robot world he created in its wake. Had an issue with the twins. I'm assuming this movie is not part of the same universe as the recent X-Men films since THAT Quicksilver was a teenaged punk from 1973 and not a 20 something kid from Eastern Europe in the present. Plus - why kill him? He was one of the Avengers too at some point with his sister, right?

Sweet Home Alabama could have been better if Reese Witherspoon's character had married her fiance rather than "reconnecting" with her ex and her hometown. I don't mind that she stopped being embarrassed about her small southern town origins but I just couldn't buy her falling back in love with her ex and dumping Patrick Dempsey. I do give credit to the screenwriter for not making his character a jerk (they saved the bad attitude reveal for his mother played by Candace Bergen) but at least he stayed a nice guy.

It helps to keep in mind this episode was considered a series finale of sorts. When TPTB got the go ahead from The WB Network, they were granted to make about 10 episodes and if they did well, they'd get "the back nine" (although in Charmed's case it was 12). If there was a chance the show was to be dropped, Connie Burge wanted to make sure it ended on a positive and definite note. The actresses were all friends with one another at the time and it reflected on screen. All the gentle teasing and such felt very natural and you'd expect it to occur between siblings or tight friends, or a spouse. Right on all counts. Plus Andy and Darryl would have brought several uniformed officers with them to turn over the entire house. I also thought it funny when Rex called Piper a "miserable witch" and due to the subconscious direction, she expressed the desire to see a shrink! This and the polaroid of them escaping was ridiculous to me. The photo proved nothing, and could have been taken at anytime. It was pretty poor blackmail bait IMO. That would be me. I had a hunch something was up with Leo and he could have been good or evil. At the time I had a hunch he was likely going to be good since Piper had such a bad track record with Jeremy. Of course the whole Whitelighter explanation didn't come down until the episode, "Secrets and Guys" (when he told Phoebe who he really was). Leo was only meant for those episodes he originally appeared in so we were just left to speculate about him and how he saved the girls' magical bacon. Since then he didn't seem to have that kind of power (reversing the spell and give the girls back their powers), so I thought he had to have been a very powerful being. Plus in hindsight it's kind of creepy that Phoebe was also putting the moves on him, since he ultimately became Piper's husband. It would appear to be shapeshifting although we only saw her as a panther. They were described to be warlocks and it appeared they were sent directly by "The Source". Rex was also awarded powers periodically to help him defeat the sisters. Rex made mention of missing Hell and looked forward to returning "with honors" when he had the sisters' powers contained. Yet we had been led to believe since then that all warlocks lived "up top" while demons were regular residents of the underworld.

Coming fro the same era, I understand. Looking back, SF was limited by restrictions placed on it by Peggy Charren and her ilk. They were purposely written down to children. By contrast, the Looney Tunes and T&J shorts were written for adults but still appealed to a general audience. That's why they're still watchable after all these years. BTAS, et al was a return to mature writing; it shows how much could have been done with [old Saturday morning cartoons] had TPTB been allowed to. I daresay BTAS could have come down the pike nearly 20 years sooner than it did had it not been for Peggy Charren. On "hate watching": I never saw the point of watching something you despise. Either I change the channel or do something else. I DO admit to watching a once favorite show hoping against hope that things will improve but that doesn't often happen unfortunately. When it becomes unwatchable to me, I'm gone. Another unpopular opinion: I HATED the finale of Legend of Korra. It made almost zero sense and totally forgot about the rest of the cast. Suddenly it was about Korra and Asamai walking off into the sunset rather than the entire Team Avatar being focused on.

It is with a heavy heart to announce the passing of voice actor and character actor John Stephenson at the age of 91. As a VA, he was the original voice of Dr. Quest on "Johnny Quest", Mr. Slate on The Flintstones, and the announcer for the case disposal at the end of every episode of "Dragnet" (1967-70). On cam he made many appearances on Hogan's Heroes as a German/Nazi officer and numerous other parts over the past 60 years. His last VA that I'm aware of was as Ganthet in the Duck Dodgers episode, "The Green Loontern." He passed away yesterday of complications of Alzheimer's. Ironically, two years ago, his death was announced online before having been revealed to be a hoax. No such luck this time. Other than Janet Waldo and June Foray, I can't think of any other of the original HB VAs (from the 50s-60s) currently working or still with us. You will be very much missed Mr. Stephenson.

It's because that's how it usually pans out. Although I blame cable/satellite providers since we can't have channels a la carte. If we could, a lot of channels which are supported by ones we would watch would disappear. Not everyone agrees with that statement although I will admit that as a FNC viewer for over 15 years, I do admit it's not as good as it once was. The constant "News Alerts" that pound my screen on stories that aren't breaking news annoys me no end. After I catch some important news items, I move on to internet news sources. It's also important to keep in mind who runs the show at Newscorp and even they don't let everything go out on FNC. There are some individuals who haven't been invited back for interviews because they are willing to comment on things the upper level news execs don't want to get out. Jerry Doyle and Mike Savage are but two of them. As for those we DO see on FNC the most keep in mind that they play the game because they have books to sell and lecture tours to promote. Some are great in what they do, but they ultimately tread lightly with the top brass. CNN, et al are just as guilty of this. Never heard of them - I don't think my local dish gets that channel. Have you watched the Newsmax channel or Blaze TV? Now and then I try to mix things up.

Loved this song from the moment of release! The video was also well done and holds up ok after 30 (!) years.

This bugs me too but there is a reason for that. Once upon a time, some customers would try to sneak something out of the store by burying it under something else. It's always the good ones who have to pay for the bad deeds of others.

That's what I don't get; did Christy Marx have anything to do with this adaptation? Or did she write a potential script only to have it completely re-written by some studio monkey? It's not as if she isn't available to be consulted (if she wasn't) or that there isn't a show to look back on and adapt for the big screen. Somebody, based on this trailer (which I stopped watching halfway through BTW) made up an entirely different movie but attached the "Jem" names to it. Had it been a bit closer to the original cartoon (I can understand updating some elements if the Jem characters were set in the present) or true to the spirit of the original show, I might have been willing to see it. Now? No way! Erica Raymond? What kind of alt-universe Jem is this????? Another cartoon to big screen miss (well, maybe hit and miss): "Scooby Doo" (2002). It's a bit of a guilty pleasure for me (largely due to the excellent performances of Matthew Lillard and Linda Cardellini as Shaggy and Velma) but this could have been so much more. I hated that it was even done in live action in the first place. The Zombie Island TV movie was far better in comparison and got a lot of things right the live action film didn't. Some adaptations of previously animated shows are often better done in an animated format. I found a copy of the original script written by Craig Titley and it reads like a love letter to the fans as well as the characters. It was written by someone who knew and loved the characters. That script was tossed aside due to studio politics. So we ended up getting a film filled with fart jokes.

I found an episode online which was embedded in a blog posting about Windom's death. I think it was the pilot - set at Christmastime. I saw the entire episode and thought it was nothing short of brilliant! Best of all the episode itself still held up beautifully! This was the kind of TV we should have had more of back then. Heck, we could use some of it now! TT actually had a good run - about 65 episodes in 5 seasons. If your kids are ready for more teen superheroes (but not TTG), may I recommend Young Justice. That was a show that deserved a longer run; I'm still hoping for a miniseries or a few DTVs to help fill in some gaps the second season left behind. I also had hoped Scooby Doo, Mystery Incorporated had run at least one more season (it wrapped up just fine for its official series finale). I was hoping the gang would start monster hunting at Miskatonic University while being guided by Harlan Ellison. Why CN chose to reject it I'll never know. Sym-bionic Titan - Another show that deserved better. It had a decent season finale but we needed at least one more season to wrap up more storylines that TPTB didn't get to do.

I've heard this before but TW King has denied over and over again that SD wasn't the reason he left Charmed. I know it's standard operating procedure in Hollywood to deny rumors, regardless of how true they may be, but I'm convinced he's telling the truth. Armin Shimmerman (who played the wizard in Season 4) had no problem mentioning that he hated his time on the Charmed set, and SD was long gone by that time. I'm guessing the set itself (with those in front of and behind the camera) may have contributed to his negative experience. Some sets/crews can be like that; some are big happy families, others are nightmares. I give that one a bit of slack. A manager is high enough to warrant a beeper since they have so many responsibilities. Especially when you consider how Piper was being worked to death and her boss was keeping her on a short leash. Where I work, even if you have a cell phone/iPhone, the office still issues a "work phone" for those they deem to keep in touch with at a moment's notice. Hee! Actually it was their wardrobe manager, Eilish. The first season had a different person handling the girls' wardrobe. They still look quite timeless and very much dressed in character. Piper I think was the only one who dressed fairly well consistently after season 1. I don't know how much influence the actresses had on their looks, but I'm certain HMC wouldn't allow her [character] look too ridiculous.

Sometimes I wonder what old time script writers were thinking when they were trying to solve a problem on their sitcoms. The actions sometimes made no sense in any era! For example, I was watching an episode of Hazel (it was from the last season and from what I'd read, there were complaints by the actors that the scripts were subpar compared to earlier seasons*) in which the son of Hazel's employers and his tween buddies formed a rock band and were practicing in their garage. First the adults are complaining about the music (the episode took place in 1965 and while R&R wasn't popular with all adults, the music wasn't all that bad). Then the boys "grow out their hair" (actually, they just combed their parted hair forward - and they looked rather stupid since that left a wedge in the bangs) also to the dismay of the parents (understandable since long hair on boys and men was still frowned upon in mainstream circles). They decide to enter a local battle of the bands contest which is broadcast live on local TV. They win. They become popular around town and are booking gigs! Most parents even then might have thought that if the kids were making money, and it wasn't interfering with school, let them go on. WRONG! Instead the parents decide to try to find a way to end this lark. How? They dress up in hippy dippy outfits and refused to do "adult things" (making dinner, going to work, etc.). Never at any time did the boys ever act badly, dress like hippies, or shirk their relatively few responsibilities. They were only guilty of bad hair combing, hogging the phone and becoming a local item. By episode's end, the boys "cut" their hair (combed it correctly) and gave up the band because basketball tryouts were coming up! Of course, if the parents had just left things alone, the boys probably would have dropped the band thing eventually since they were only about 12 or so and would have moved on anyway. All I took from the episode was to interfere with your kid's interests and not only will they not be bitter, they'll be all the happier for it! *I will say that after having viewed first and second seasons episodes, Hazel was actually a well written sitcom for its time. Shirley Booth is the main reason for making it work of course, but her effort in the character showed so it's still a nice show to watch now and then.

Where does the time go? I liked his earlier songs, and Garden Party isn't bad either. A friend of mine grew up in the same neighborhood as Nelson and his family. She used to tell me funny stories about his twins Matthew and Gunnar. Last I heard those two were taking their dad's act on the road performing his greatest hits.

This title change would have to go with a movie that could have been something special. The Monkees had a film called, "Head" (1968). I had mentioned in a different thread how the vignette style of the film was all wrong (not to mention being inspired by smoking pot one weekend) and the title itself was too avant guard for their younger fans. If they had gone with a more conventional storyline it likely would have done better box office and alienated fewer people. I would have titled it "The Monkees Save The World". I also mused over their film being spoofs of the Beatles films so they could have titled it, "The Monkees Have Help on a Hard Day's Night during a Magical Mystery Tour In a Yellow Submarine". I also hate films that are given titles from their main soundtrack song (which were not specially written for the film). That leaves us with films like "Something To Talk About", which I would have renamed, "Cheated".

I think that was done on purpose. I remember hearing that Hitchcock had a thing about twins and duality. Just about every film he made had a reference to it (like the main character thinking about something while we see the reflection in the window, or the parallels in "Vertigo" ). Gavin's character was what Norman could have been, but was lost in his insanity.

Jut curious, but if you hate FNC so much why do you watch it? It's usually bundled with CNN & MSNBC for cable and satellite packages.

Don't feel bad. I'm not much a fan of this song either even when it was first released! In fact, I've found myself not liking a lot of songs I listened to on the radio when I was a teen. I may have liked them at the time since they often had great music videos on MTV and were played to death on the radio and seeing Casey Kasem on TV to recite the Top Ten that week on TV (or the Top 40 on the radio). Then a local station plays the song and I find myself thinking, "How could have I ever listened to this?". Luckily I didn't buy all those songs at the time, or else I'd have a ton of tunes I can't play! Nowadays, I trust my ears and personal taste when it comes to deciding what music I like, and not the marketing shills.

This. I'm finding plenty of uniformed people as well. I was arguing with my dad not too long ago about how people are more informed now due to the improved technology. He told me people don't care and at random we asked a couple people if they had heard about a recent or current highly discussed news story. One was a waitress at a local restaurant; when we asked her about the news item in question, she immediately said she didn't follow news because she only went online for "happy and positive" news. I was floored! I thought she was an aberration, until we went to a medical clinic and I asked a therapist the same question and she responded the same thing! That is hella weird IMO. Unfortunately most of them do. I think we were separated at birth! I never give to panhandlers. Charity can be meted out at one's local church via donation or established trustworthy organizations. Most panhandlers are frauds anyway. I've seen many of them busted when they slipped into a brand new SUV parked nearby.

Most of those tickets weren't even available to the general public - they went to VIPs, etc. The MGM had them on sale literally for one minute on their website before they were "sold out". The majority of them turned up on Stub Hub where the prices were inflated even further. I honestly can't imagine spending 100K on a ticket to a sporting event - even if I had that kind of money. Which leads to another pet peeve: price gouging due to a major event. Since the date of the fight was announced, the hotels here have tripled their regular room rates. Even the dive hotels and motels are charging as much as 500+ bucks a night! I'm not even going to get into what you have to pay just to watch the fight on CCTV at one of the approved properties.

That would be Obscurus Lupa. She did all 8 seasons, and is still doing reviews, etc. although she has since changed the name of her series to "Movie Nights". The first season of Charmed reviews (she went in order by season) is here. She's also done reviews of various films, Baywatch (and Baywatch Nights), and a few other treasures. She even had the now adult Mara Wilson in a guest appearance.

They did. Of course he wasn't meant to become a regular character. Fans (and presumably TPTB) liked him and Piper so he stayed on. You should have been around when we had the "...and Phoebe died in the process" thread. Phoebe was endearing but once SD/Prue was gone, her character went off the rails; I don't know if it's due to her influence or not (Brad Kern had a habit of playing favorites and AM seemed to get what she wanted back then) but Phoebe as a character truly suffered after Season 4. I loved the truth spell but even the writers messed up when Prue was able to lie when she was directly questioned by the 3-eyed demon. I DID love how Phoebe was able to get around answering Andy - by preventing him from asking her anything! A very Phoebe move! Double on the love of seeing the truth come out when it came to Hannah and the demon. I was disappointed in Prue using it to gauge Andy's reaction - I understand why she did it but it wasn't fair to Andy. How many times have we answered a question that was truthful at the time it was originally asked but you have since come to a new truth? Andy was forced to answer on the spot as the spell was ending, and given that choice, he gave his answer which could have been different if he had time to discuss it more with Prue. Before he died, he probably would have tried to make it work with Prue eventually. This episode began another inconsistency for the series - in how the magic is passed on in the Warren line. In this episode, Prue answers (truthfully since it was said while she was under the spell) that boys could be born to Warren women, but only women would have the powers. By season 5, Grams claims not a male was ever born to the Warren women, yet the infamous family tree also proves this wrong. I wish they had kept it with only the women have the powers but males could father witches. In fact, I wish we could have seen more Halliwell/Warren cousins in the series. Surely not all of them were killed by demons. If they had kept with boys having been born to Warren women, we could have had plenty of witchy relatives. I loved Piper's truthful response to her boss, only to learn that when the spell ended he had no knowledge of the day's events. I loved it whenever Piper stood up for herself. The spell would be used by Paige later on, but she left off the last stanza and unfortunately the spell worked differently. I don't give credit to the writers claiming it worked differently because Paige didn't read the complete spell. Interesting about the future demon (who was occasionally referred to as a warlock) looking to kill those who would end his kind. However, I had a problem with the concept of a vaccine to stop a race of creatures from being born. If it had been other witches (or the Charmed Ones themselves) who created a potion or spell to cleanse this evil from a potential child it might have made a bit more sense.

How many episodes is that? Must have been at least 400!