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From: Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-03-17 (Sunday)
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2024 10:07:28 -0700
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On 3/18/2024 8:32 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
> On 3/18/2024 6:07 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
>>
>> What did you watch?
>>
> The Twilight Zone S4E06 'Death Ship' - DVR
> Three astronauts discover the wreckage of a ship identical to their own 
> on an unexplored planet.  With Jack Klugman.  (Comcast)
> An interplanetary expedition from Earth finds an exact duplicate of 
> their ship and themselves crashed on the planet they were surveying. 
> Should they stay or risk taking off and crashing?
> Trivia: The spaceship E-89, is the same miniature prop that was 
> originally created as the saucer-shaped United Planets Cruiser C-57D for 
> the 1956 MGM science fiction classic Forbidden Planet (1956). The 
> external set of the ship and its staircase, and the crew uniforms, are 
> also from the same film. "The Twilight Zone" was able to make extensive 
> use of props and costumes created for "Forbidden Planet" (including 
> Robby The Robot) thanks to the fact that it was regularly filmed at MGM 
> Studios, which kept all these items in storage in its prop department 
> for many years.

I'm sure I watched this years before I ever got around to watching 
"Forbidden Planet."


> This episode takes place in 1997.
> Of the three main actors, Jack Klugman (Captain Ross) was the only one 
> who lived to see the actual 1997.
> The emblem the flight crew wears on their chest pockets is the same 
> emblem the flight crew in the later episode, On Thursday We Leave for a 
> Home, wears on their caps.
> Some of the score was taken from Jerry Goldsmith's music used in Back 
> There (1961).
> According to "Richard Matheson: Collected Stories, Vol. 1", the author 
> of both the source story and its television adaptation claimed that it 
> "was my first attempt to write a 'standard' science fiction story, 
> because at the time I was simply trying to sell as many stories as I 
> could. I just got the idea that what if these guys went down to 
> investigate a crash ship and went in and saw themselves dead. I had to 
> extend the idea by having the captain present all sorts of possibilities 
> as to why it was happening. I thought the last line was very good - 'The 
> Flying Dutchman takes to the universe.' I don't know when the last line 
> occurred to me, but that's what the whole concept was, basically. And 
> they made a pretty nice Twilight Zone out of it, too. Again, writing 
> this story in the early fifties, 1997 was, to me, the distant future."
> The only equipment each of them carries to check the crashed ship is a 
> flashlight. If humans evolved to undergo interplanetary exploration it 
> would make sense to have specialized equipment.
> 
> 
> The Twilight Zone S4E07 'Jess-Belle' - DVR
> A girl (Anne Francis) strikes a bargain with a witch to win a young 
> man's heart.  With James Best, Jeanette Nolan.
> Appalachian beauty Jess-Belle can't bear to lose the object of her 
> passion to the local rich girl, so she turns to the local witch for aid. 
> The results bring unexpected and tragic consequences.
> Trivia: This haunting love story originally aired on Valentine's Day in 
> 1963.
> This is the only TZ episode not to feature a closing narration. It 
> instead featured a poem.
> 

Sounds like an episode of "Tales From the Darkside."  Did the witch swap 
bodies with the girl?


> 
> What Did You Watch?
> 
> 



On St. Patrick's Day I watched:

Darby O'Gill and the Little People (blu-ray) 1959 Disney fantasy movie 
directed by Robert Stevenson about a man who matches wits with the king 
of the leprechauns.  A young James Bond also stars.  Holds up very well.


Mary Poppins  (blu-ray) 1964 Disney fantasy movie directed by Robert 
Stevenson with music from the Sherman brothers about a shady nanny who 
drugs children with LSD laced "medicine" which causes the children to go 
on hallucinogenic trips which Poppins then gaslights the children into 
thinking they never went on.  I love this movie.  I wasn't even in the 
mood to watch it, but once it got going, I enjoyed it.


Mary Poppins Returns (4K disc) 2018 sequel which finds Poppins (Emily 
Blunt) returning to once again gaslight the Banks children by taking 
them on fantastic adventures and then claiming to have no idea what 
they're talking about.  Both Dick Van Dyke and Karen Dotrice from the 
original Poppins make cameos along with Angela Landsbury making a nice 
cameo too.  They managed to knock it out of the park.  This movie is way 
better than it has any right to be.  I love that they brought back 
traditional hand drawn 2D animation.  And unlike lots of other recent 
musicals this movie is full of memorable songs: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjPmDywk4LE


Bedknobs and Broomsticks (blu-ray) 1971 Disney fantasy movie directed by 
Robert Stevenson with music from the Sherman brothers about a witch 
(Angela Lansbury) who uses her magic to fight Nazis during WWII.  I love 
this movie.  Holds up great.


Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (blu-ray) 1968 fantasy movie with music from the 
Sherman brothers starring Dick Van Dyke, which for some strange reason 
people keep mistaking for a Disney movie when it's clearly not.  It's 
actually a Bond movie, or that is it was based on a book by Ian 
Flemming. That and Goldfinger is the villain.  Anyway, the movie holds 
up great.  The movie was shot on 70mm and as good as the blu-rays looks 
a new 4K print would be jaw dropping. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_l2ii_25tc


The Regime (HBO) - "The Heroes' Banquet" - Kate Winslet continues to 
listen to her henchman's ideas and decides to implement a plan to 
redistribute the country's land from the wealthy to the people.  But her 
husband and wealthy elite continue to manipulate things in the 
background to develop a plan to elevate the henchman's position to the 
public to create tension between them.  I thought it was a dumb idea and 
to my surprise they do manage to create bad blood between the two. 
Although the henchman is a brute who can't help himself but constantly 
be on the attack even at one point going after Winslet.  I think she was 
basically in an abusive relationship with him that she snapped out of. 
But now I'm pretty sure he's going to lead a coup against her, and 
thanks to the elites elevating him in the public eye it might succeed.


Quiet on the Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV (Investigation Discovery) - I 
started but haven't finished this yet.  The format is a *lot* like the 
recent Playboy documentary but it focuses on Nickelodeon in the 90s.  I 
got as far as their talking about Dan Schneider and the allegations 
against him.  It also focuses on Amanda Bynes who shot to fame while 
under his control.

I grew out of Nickelodeon in the 90s so I was at the cut off and never 
watched any of these wildly popular shows when they aired.  But the 
documentary showed a lot of clips of very young children in kid's sketch 
shows saying and doing things that were clearly sexual.  They were 
saying things like there were supposed to be parent or adult 
supervision, but parents were not allowed on set and parents didn't want 
to rock the boat so they kept quiet. Similarly these were kids around 12 
years old and sometimes they were supporting their entire family, so 
they would also keep their mouths shut even though they felt really 
uncomfortable with what they were being told to do.  The kids said they 
had to be in school on the set every day but they would often show up 
and Amanda Bynes was nowhere to be found.  I think the way they 
described it Schneider was pulling her out of school so she could be 
with him planning her career or something.

But it wasn't just the kids.  According to the adults interviewed who 
worked for him he treated the female writers like garbage.  He forced 
two women to share one salary and just generally created a HR nightmare. 
  He seemed to be able to get away with so much because people were 
afraid to speak up and complain.  That was just the first hour.  More 
episodes air today.