What OLD series/movies are you watching? *Spoilers welcome!*

Qs Laptop said:
Yes, two thumbs up for "Duel." I saw it about 30 years ago on cable, and just about a month ago I was surfing around I found it and caught the gas station, snake pit tourist trap, telephone booth scene (people who have seen Duel will know.) And yes, the quality of the print is outstanding.

My first daily driver was a slant six Plymouth Valiant, which is the car in "Duel." I noticed that most of the police cars in "Sugarland Express" were Plymouth Fury's. I wonder if young Spielberg was a fan of Mopar vehicles?
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I love "Duel." Weaver's whining, sniveling hysteria is just brilliant. And technically, I still don't understand how Spielberg filmed the telephone booth scene without putting Weaver in danger.

As for Mopar... I will postulate that Steven's experience of muscling his way into the studio as an ad hoc genius intern and becoming a "I'll do anything" guy, he became quite familiar with production too, including product placement. Frankly, some of the blatant product placement in his following movies is very irritating. He over-used the concept.

Great, now I want some "Reeses Pieces" since I even thought about it, maybe wash it down with a Coke. :)

Andre1969 said:
For some reason I'm getting the itch to watch "National Lampoon's Vacation" again. It's been years since I've seen it. I don't think I've seen "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles," but have a feeling I'd enjoy it.
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If you can stand some ads, Pluto TV is playing it live tonight, and is available On Demand right now for free. PlutoTV almost always runs the uncensored versions of movies. The movie is rated R for possibly the best use of multiple F-words in cinematic history, and pretty much only for that 3 minute scene. The PG version still has the scene, but with words that fail to have the same comedic impact.
 
I'd imagine the Mopar police cars in "Sugarland Express" were just a product of the time. Chrysler pretty much owned the police car market back then, so used examples were just easy to come by.

I don't know if Spielberg was a Mopar fan or not, but in that telephone booth scene in Duel, there's a '57-58 Plymouth, a Fury I believe, parked behind the building.

Oh, speaking of Plymouth Fury's from that era, I remember reading that the movie "Christine" set a record for the most number of times the F-word was said on the movie screen. However, that record did not stand for long, as "Scarface" came out soon after.
 
I'm amazed at how many old Oscar-winning movies are in the Prime inventory. I was clicking through them for over 1/2 an hour and added many to my stuff. For some reason I watched Romeo is Bleeding. Gary Oldman, Lena Olin, Juliette Lewis, Annabella Sciorra, Ron Perlman, Dennis Farina...and more. Amazing cast. Lena Olin, incredible performance.
 
Haven't done one in a while so here's a new one. Too easy, I know, but still fun to see him when he was young.


Mystery-Actor-6.jpg
 
We are starting to watch reruns of Ironsides on getTV.
 
Burt Reynolds - easiest one I've seen. I saw him the most recently from watching all 20 seasons of Gunsmoke a few years back, where he starred for a few years.
 
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pacergal said:
We are starting to watch reruns of Ironsides on getTV.
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I'm still watching Perry Mason (pic of Burt Reynolds was from last night's episode.) I did catch a portion of an Ironsides episode on Roku TV last week and I noticed Raymond Burr's voice was quite deeper in tone and also louder.
 
Calico said:
Ivan Dixon?
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That's my first thought, too. I seem to remember he played a doctor in one of the black and white episodes of "The Fugitive," which could've been around 1963. He was in a Twilight Zone episode called "The Big, Tall Wish", but that was from around 1959-60.
 
Andre1969 said:
That's my first thought, too. I seem to remember he played a doctor in one of the black and white episodes of "The Fugitive," which could've been around 1963. He was in a Twilight Zone episode called "The Big, Tall Wish", but that was from around 1959-60.
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I think the still above is from Perry Mason, but not 100% sure.
 
Dusted off and watched "Forbidden Planet" yesterday.

This is really an incredible movie when you consider the time (mid 1950s). Some spoilers below in case you forgot or haven't seen it.

Sure, "War of the Worlds" and "The Day the Earth Stood Still" precede this movie. Those two are also early examples of quality science fiction movies, as opposed to much of the B grade trash that was common at the time.

What sets apart "Forbidden Planet" from WotW or TDtESS is the imaginative non earth setting, along with the really imaginative look what we would call "AI" today could be.

It wasn't called "AI" in the movie, but we'd recognize it as such today. Spoilers ahead... Ultimately, where does AI go? Does it turn on us like it does in "Terminator"? Or do we blindly cause it to turn onto ourselves like in "Forbidden Planet"? I thought the exploration of this theme was way, way ahead of its time.

The music score is 100% electronic, painstakingly created by the composers creating sounds and using crude tape editing and post effects to give a unique sound not heard before, or never after. There is no Theremin here, and that's a welcome change. It would take about a decade before musicians and electronic engineers tamed these sounds into a form more easily manipulated by a synthesizer keyboard.

Yeah, there's the girl in a miniskirt too. Hollywood.

After spending the last few years absorbing everything "Star Trek", it is very clear to see where Gene Roddenberry got his main inspiration. Roddenberry has admitted as much, it isn't a secret.

Leslie Nielsen plays lead and is a bit stiff in this early role for him, but not bad. Frankly, I liked him better in his later absurd comedy roles he really became known for. Also watch for Richard Anderson, later known as the Oscar Goldman character on "The Six Million Dollar Man." Action sci-fi seemed to work well for him as the supporting character.

And, of course, there's Robby the Robot. An iconic character. Strangely, when he thinks, he sounds like a mechanical tabulating machine. That's worth a laugh or two.
 
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I generally check out the Twilight Zone marathons that seem to pop up for holidays.

I got the entire Northern Exposure series on DVD and and am enjoying going through them.
 
I loved Northern Exposure, may have to put it on our list to watch again.
 
JoeWras said:
Dusted off and watched "Forbidden Planet" yesterday.

This is really an incredible movie when you consider the time (mid 1950s). Some spoilers below in case you forgot or haven't seen it.

Sure, "War of the Worlds" and "The Day the Earth Stood Still" precede this movie. Those two are also early examples of quality science fiction movies, as opposed to much of the B grade trash that was common at the time.

What sets apart "Forbidden Planet" from WotW or TDtESS is the imaginative non earth setting, along with the really imaginative look what we would call "AI" today could be.
Click to expand...

"Forbidden Planet" was way ahead of its time. I thought it foretold not just where humanity might go with AI, but with technology in general. In the hands of humanity, most technology is a double-edged sword
 
folivier said:
That's kinda the same problem with WKRP. So much great music that's hard to get the rights for. But what do you expect for a show about a rock radio station?
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Shout! Factory released a box set for WKRP In Cincinnati that retrieved as much of the original music as they possibly could. Some hard-core viewers of WKRP indicate there are some scenes that appear to be truncated slightly because of the missing exceptions. From what was reported at the time of this box set's initial release, 2/3rds of the episodes are the original recordings unaltered.

IMO, the video quality of this series was okay (a little dark at times), and this box set is no exception. That said, we purchased this box set a few years ago, and just recently we started watching the episodes. Hard to believe WKRP's first season premiered 45 years ago.
 
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JoeWras said:
The music score is 100% electronic, painstakingly created by the composers creating sounds and using crude tape editing and post effects to give a unique sound not heard before, or never after. There is no Theremin here, and that's a welcome change. It would take about a decade before musicians and electronic engineers tamed these sounds into a form more easily manipulated by a synthesizer keyboard.
Click to expand...

If you watch the credits you will notice that the music is not called, "Electronic Music" but instead called, "Electronic Tonalities."

There was a reason for this: "Not everyone was happy with the score. Louis and Bebe did not belong to the Musicians' Union. The original screen credit for the film, which was supposed to read "Electronic Music by Louis and Bebe Barron", was changed at the last moment by a contract lawyer from the American Federation of Musicians. In order to not upset the union, the association with the word music had to be removed. The Barrons were credited with "Electronic Tonalities". Because of their non-membership in the union, the film was not considered for an Oscar in the soundtrack category."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bebe_and_Louis_Barron
 
That's really a shame.
 
I knew who this was but couldn't remember the name. When I saw the credits I was, "D'oh!" and slapped my forehead.


Mystery-Actor-8.jpg
 
pb4uski said:
I've been watching the Jesse Stone movies in chronological order... about 3 or 4 movies in.
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In the past two weeks I've seen three of them. I saw "Stone Cold", "Night Passage (the prequel) and "Death in Paradise." Hard to explain why they are so good, but I'll give it a shot.

They're really well produced made for TV movies. The dialogue is realistic. It's not overtly violent or full of cussing or sex scenes. Tom Selleck is the star and he plays a relatable character (except for his drinking problem.) The secondary characters are well developed and not cliches. Heck, even the soundtrack is good.
 
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