As a serious fan of this superior CBS drama, I am fuming angry as to why neither CBS or the former 20th Century Fox Television division (now the property of Walt Disney-stupid, stupid idea!!) has never bothered to release "JUDGING AMY" onto DVD or BluRay? TNT reran the series in the mid 2000s, and its been circulated on several other cable channels, but it has become an annoying corporate mystery, and it has left many like myself very angry and fumed! Will Disney and its rebranded 20th Television and CBS Productions ever get their act together? Will we be made to wait another decade or more before this 1999-2005 series ever see any DVD release? This is NOT how fans of a great TV show should be treated, and CBS and 20th need to be put on notice-stop playing games already, and release "JUDGING AMY" onto DVD-our patience is running thin!!
Reviews
9 Reviews
Blue Thunder
(1984)
BLUE THUNDER and Buck!
24 February 2022
ABC-TV's 1984 version of "BLUE THUNDER" was truly a short-lived effort, but for one interesting little fact- former "BUCK RODGERS IN THE 25th CENTURY" actor Gil Gerard was originally offered the role before James Farentino, but Gerard (who later starred on CBS's short-lived "E. A. R. T. H. FORCE" in Fall 1990) had turned down the role for either personal or political reasons. A late 1983 article in TV Guide confirms this obscure fact!
FROM THE RODEO TO "THE INNER MIND!"
16 February 2022
Warning: Spoilers
In "STONEY BURKE"s "Forget No More" episode from March 1963, The Robert Buttler directed episode with guest star, Laura Devon as "Stacey Morgan", this episode had also featured the use of Dominic Frontiere's eerie music theme from the soon-to-be released ABC series, "THE OUTER LIMITS" in Fall 1963. Leslie Stevens, who created both of the ABC/United Artists TV shows had just finished "PLEASE STAND BY", the TV pilot to "THE OUTER LIMITS", and Dominic Frontiere was part of Daystar Productions' Blue Ribbon" team, and also composed the theme and music to "STONEY BURKE".
The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre
(1964 TV Movie)
"FROM THE AWE AND MYSTERY TO THE HAUNTED!"
26 December 2018
In a simple breakdown, "THE GHOST OF SIERRA DE COBRE" was a labor of creativity and love from the highly talented Joseph Stefano, who had just finished working as a producer on the first season of ABC's "THE OUTER LIMITS", which he had stepped down from after ABC's unwise decision to move the series from its popular Monday night slot to Saturday nights in Fall 1964 ( "VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA") had taken over the Monday evening time slot that OUTER LIMITS held when the network renewed that show for its second and final season, and from there, Stefano began his impressive work on this unsold, but highly impressive TV pilot that had the same punching power as his work on "THE OUTER LIMITS" had. and while some have mixed reviews here, this impressive CBS pilot could've been a weekly series, but the network unwisely passed, but despite that decision, the work was still highly impressive, since Stefano took most of "THE OUTER LIMITS" crew to work on "SIERRA DE COBRE" ( Ben Brady, a former "PERRY MASON producer had replaced Stefano, but he still maintained his Villa Di Stefano partnership with Leslie Stevens' Daystar Productions) and pretty much took the cream of "THE OUTER LIMITS" first season crew with him for this unsold CBS pilot, making "THE GHOST OF SIERRA DE COBRE" a very rare and well made 1964 TV production that had amazing potential, but was a victim of fickle network politics and planning.
Not As Good as the Original!
9 September 2015
"BEYOND THE POISEIDON ADVENTURE" was actually anything,but a good follow-up to the 1972 movie! Irwin Allen had just moved to Warner Bros'Burbank location,after being at Twentieth Century Fox for some 14 years-and his direction to his hit disaster movie,which put him on the map as "The Master of Disaster" in the mid 1970s,just began to lose steam,and badly! and after seeing this movie,it was such a disappointment! i would've thought that Fox and Warners,who teamed up with "THE TOWERING INFERNO" in 1974,would've joined forces again-since the original movie was shot at Twentieth Century Fox,,but that wasn't the case! and after the huge failure of this 1979 production,despite it's impressive cast,Irwin Allen just landed on flop after flop,which was a cruel way to finish his master of disaster status,,he even tried to return to his "VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA" roots in 1978,with the CBS mini-series "THE RETURN OF CAPT.NEMO",which Warner Bros.Television produced,nor did "THE SWARM" do much Box Office damage in Summer 1978. overall,the bottom fell out for Irwin Allen,before his 1991 death,,but although he had a string of costly failures,his two major disaster movies in the mid 70s did quite well for themselves,and grossed plenty of big money! but much of "BEYOND THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE" just reused stock footage clips from the 1972 movie,with great SPFX of L.B. Abbott's miniatures-that was about it!
The Man Called Flintstone
(1966)
A Great Family Feature,,But a Lousy Edit Job!
20 August 2015
"THE MAN CALLED FLINTSTONE" was the second of two releases from Columbia Pictures in the mid 1960s-the first one was "HEY THERE,IT'S YOGI BEAR!" that the studio released in 1964! and,,after buying the DVD in 2008,i became enraged,when i discovered that the COLUMBIA logo with "Wilma Flintstone" was not included in the DVD release! Columbia's former TV subsidiary Screen Gems,which was revived in 1999 by SONY,had a very long and prosperous relationship with Hanna-Barbera in the 1960s and early 70s so why they couldn't allow that logo to be used,is both an insult,and an outrage! some history should still be upheld and honored,even though the studio is a SONY owned asset-and both Warners and Columbia had a pretty long relationship,since both studios worked on the Burbank lot! so whatever the exact reasons for this awfully BAD edit of "The Flintstones" first full length movie,it was unacceptable and NOT the same thing i remembered growing up with-this was a great Family film in 1966,when "THE FLINTSTONES" had just finished its six year run on ABC-TV..and that awful edit job,that they replaced the COLUMBIA logo with,just ruined this whole release!
Super President
(1967– )
A President as a Super Hero?
19 December 2013
"SUPER PRESIDENT" was DePatie-Freleng's first action-adventure cartoon series that the studio produced in association with Mirisch-Rich Prods. and United Artists Television for NBC in 1967. this cartoon series,mostly regarded as a very bad joke,for depicting a US President as a Super Hero often fell under serious criticism,mostly due to the violence. Fall 1967 was interesting,since Saturday morning cartoons that year,were mostly Super Hero themed,and heavily action adventured. you had the premier of the first "SPIDER MAN" cartoon series,and "THE FANTASTIC FOUR" on ABC-then on CBS,there was "THE SUPERMAN-AQUAMAN HOUR OF ADVENTURE" along with "THE HERCULOIDS","SHAZZAN" and "MOBY DICK and The MIGHTY MIGHTOR"-so with all these serious cartoons,NBC's "SUPER PRESIDENT" cartoon was a nice try but lost seriously to its other competition!
The cartoon series also featured the "SPY SHADOW" segment,which wasn't so bad. Ted Cassidy,"Lurch" from "THE ADDAMS FAMILY",and a year before landing the role and voice of "Injun Joe" in "THE NEW ADVENTURES OF HUCK FINN" voiced Private Eye Richard Vance,who,through intense mystical training,could animate his "Spy Shadow" alter ego,in his fight against crime and evil! then of course,there was Super President,alias James Norcross,who,with his aide Jerry Sales,fought a variety of both exotic, and inter-galactic menaces,as the main character had possessed the ability to molecularly transform himself into any element,while using his Super Powers for the good of America,,sure wish we had a President like this in real life-but politics aside,this DePatie-Freleng cartoon show didn't last very long,and faded from view by 1968. veteran,and legendary voice over Paul Frees both voiced this character,and narrated the episodes. it was still interesting to watch,and if you overlook the ridiculous aspect,this was a typical 1960s cartoon show, with simple characters,despite being labeled as the worst cartoon ever to run on Saturday mornings. DePatie-Freleng,best known for their main creation,"THE PINK PANTHER",later went-on to make better cartoon shows in their TV history-most notably,"RETURN TO THE PLANET OF THE APES" in 1975,using "JONNY QUEST" designer Doug Wildey,as a character designer, who did a great job with this Fox franchise! but with "SUPER PRESIDENT" it was the first Patriotic Saturday morning super hero ever created,even though it was frowned upon,it was still enjoyable to watch,depending on your sense of humor,and the violence that it depicted-which later incurred the wrath of angry parents,who complained about all the cartoon violence,and changed most of the way Saturday morning cartoons were done and made-giving way,to the likes of "SCOOBY-DOO" and "The ARCHIES"-a fitting change from the Super hero cartoons,that once ruled the weekends!
The cartoon series also featured the "SPY SHADOW" segment,which wasn't so bad. Ted Cassidy,"Lurch" from "THE ADDAMS FAMILY",and a year before landing the role and voice of "Injun Joe" in "THE NEW ADVENTURES OF HUCK FINN" voiced Private Eye Richard Vance,who,through intense mystical training,could animate his "Spy Shadow" alter ego,in his fight against crime and evil! then of course,there was Super President,alias James Norcross,who,with his aide Jerry Sales,fought a variety of both exotic, and inter-galactic menaces,as the main character had possessed the ability to molecularly transform himself into any element,while using his Super Powers for the good of America,,sure wish we had a President like this in real life-but politics aside,this DePatie-Freleng cartoon show didn't last very long,and faded from view by 1968. veteran,and legendary voice over Paul Frees both voiced this character,and narrated the episodes. it was still interesting to watch,and if you overlook the ridiculous aspect,this was a typical 1960s cartoon show, with simple characters,despite being labeled as the worst cartoon ever to run on Saturday mornings. DePatie-Freleng,best known for their main creation,"THE PINK PANTHER",later went-on to make better cartoon shows in their TV history-most notably,"RETURN TO THE PLANET OF THE APES" in 1975,using "JONNY QUEST" designer Doug Wildey,as a character designer, who did a great job with this Fox franchise! but with "SUPER PRESIDENT" it was the first Patriotic Saturday morning super hero ever created,even though it was frowned upon,it was still enjoyable to watch,depending on your sense of humor,and the violence that it depicted-which later incurred the wrath of angry parents,who complained about all the cartoon violence,and changed most of the way Saturday morning cartoons were done and made-giving way,to the likes of "SCOOBY-DOO" and "The ARCHIES"-a fitting change from the Super hero cartoons,that once ruled the weekends!
Early Remake Casualty
22 November 2013
First,i have some choice words about this "unique" CBS TV movie from 1983-Nice,,But No Dice!! "THE MAN FROM UNCLE" was a landmark NBC-TV series from 1964 to 1968,as well as being Metro Goldwyn Mayer's answer to the 007 craze of the 60s-and successful enough for MGM to theatrically release most of the two parters as motion pictures. but what was never explained was how Viacom Productions got the rights to do this reunion movie,with out MGM's participation! director Ray Austin did a so-so job-but in all fairness,they still could've used any of the original directors who worked on the TV series,and why they didn't do that,is a very big mystery,with money usually being the main reason! the reunion movie was somewhat nice,seeing Robert Vaughn and David McCallum back as UNCLE's finest-but it would've been better,had MGM participated in this reunion! ironically,Michael Sloan,who later went on to create "THE EQUALIZER" TV series at Universal in 1985,also did the first reunion film of "THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN" and "THE BIONIC WOMAN" in 1987,using an almost exact same story,that was used in "RETURN OF THE MAN FROM UNCLE"-and over the years,i've been meaning to point that out,until now! point being,is that remakes and reunions fall seriously short of being the items they once were,when the originals had their run! pity,that Sloan couldn't get Stephanie Powers to return as "April Dancer" for this reunion,,but then, this movie just wasn't up to speed! about the only satisfying justice that was done,was in a 1986 episode of NBC's "THE A TEAM" series,when Vaughn and McCallum reunited,but was on opposite sides of the law-and the episode,"The Never Say Uncle Affair",was actually WAY better then the 1983 TV movie,because it was clever,and stylish! otherwise,the reunion film,just did not have the flare and wit,of the 1964-68 series, and could've been way better! currently,Warner Bros. is planning to make an UNCLE movie,since they own the rights,as well as the MGM library,but i don't think that their efforts will be any better,which is why the originals will always be the Superiors!
"SEARCH-Let Us Prey"
13 June 2011
This was a routine episode of "SEARCH"-but it had an impressive guest cast,headed by Diana Hyland and Albert Paulsen. and while there wasn't exactly anything too special here,,this was still a pretty good TV series,using the "rotating" format,like in a previous NBC series "THE NAME OF THE GAME"-of which Tony Franciosa also worked on, as did producer Leslie Stevens. still,the "High Tech" formula used in this series,was very believable. this particular episode could have used a better script-otherwise,this was typhical of 1970s TV shows. Albert Paulsen was a highly talented actor,best remembered for his supporting role,in 1962's "THE MANCHURIAN CANADATE",as well as the few guest starring roles on ABC's "COMBAT!"just to name a few.
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