Roseanne: Body by Jake

Roseanne: Body by Jake
ABC
May 10, 1994
Sitcom
DVD
C+

I don't know if it's Mackenzie's direction or the script by David Forbes, but this episode feels off, despite its potential.  Bev fractures her pelvis and it turns out that, one, it was by falling off the bed while having sex with Jake, and two, she's never enjoyed sex.  Meanwhile, Fred confides in Dan and for some reason Mark that he wants to propose to Jackie, but he instead suggests they live together.  The scene where Fred tells off and humiliates Bev is one that I remember at the time finding less funny than shrill on her part and cruel on his.  The tag is tone-deaf, going for shock value and throwing character and plausibility out the window, when Bev walks into her living room in a dominatrix outfit.  Still, there are moments, especially with Roseanne's reactions, that work very well, and this is certainly not Season Nine or even Season Two's murder-musical bad.

Louisa Abernathy had also been a Nurse on the show four years earlier.

Roseanne: Playing with Matches

Roseanne: Playing with Matches
ABC
March 23, 1993
Sitcom
DVD
B

Robert Borden wrote this story where Roseanne matchmakes her mother with Jake (73-year-old Red Buttons in his first of two cameos), and patches things up between Darlene and David after Molly (Danielle Harris again) kisses him.  Jake/Bev gets less attention, but we see that he has an outrageous sense of humor that shocks her, and a joke is stolen from Who's the Boss? (and probably other places) where the dad of the teenage daughter tells the "kids" to knock off the makeout in the living room, only to discover that it's the grandmother and her beau.

As for David and Darlene, a few things are going on here, because not only does Darlene have to decide whether to trust David when he says he was innocent, but she also has to learn to trust her own feelings.  There's a lovely scene between Roseanne and Darlene, sweet, tender, and of course snarky, followed by David being surprised that Darlene can cry.  They reaffirm their love and sink back onto the bed, which leads us closer to the big change in the next episode....

Love old and young

It's Garry Shandling's Show: Force Boxman

Marty Feldman on the right.

It's Garry Shandling's Show: Force Boxman
Showtime
April 10, 1987
Sitcom
VHS
B-

I mistakenly thought this was the 1990 episode called "The Last Show," which itself is the third to last.  In any case, this means that there's a videocassette with '80s stuff I need to watch before I can get back to May 1990.  This episode, co-written by Ed Solomon and Jeff Franklin, closed out Season One and has Garry leaving his show for an action program to be filmed in New York.  He's replaced by Red Buttons, who charms Garry's friends and raises the ratings.

I realize I don't have all the IGSS episodes, especially from later seasons, but what I taped received 3 B-s and 6 Bs.

Alice in Wonderland, Part 2

Alice in Wonderland, Part 2
CBS
December 10, 1985
TV-Movie, Children's, Musical, Fantasy
VHS
C+

The cast this time, other than Natalie Gregory of course, with * if they were in Part 1:

• Sheila Allen as Alice's Mother
• Steve Allen as the Gentleman in Paper Suit
• Ernest Borgnine as the Lion
• Beau Bridges as the Unicorn
• Lloyd Bridges as the White Knight
• Red Buttons as the White Rabbit*
• Carol Channing as the White Queen
• Patrick Duffy as the Goat
• George Gobel as the Gnat
• Eydie Gorme as Tweedledee
• Merv Griffin as the Conducter
• Ann Jillian as the Red Queen
• Arte Johnson as the Dormouse*
• Harvey Korman as the White King
• Steve Lawrence as Tweedledum
• Karl Malden as the Walrus
• Roddy McDowall as the March Hare*
• Jayne Meadows as the Queen of Hearts*
• Donna Mills as the Rose
• Pat Morita as the Horse
• Robert Morley as the King of Hearts*
• Anthony Newley as the Mad Hatter*
• Louis Nye (one of whose credits is the voice of Lee Fong in Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus) as the Carpenter
• John Stamos as the Messenger
• Sally Struthers as the Tiger Lily
• Jack Warden as the Owl
• Jonathan Winters as Humpty Dumpty

This is a definite improvement over Part 1 although still not great.  This time the songs are much more enjoyable, particularly the ones with Jillian, Channing, and Steve & Eydie.  Gregory seems to be more settled into the role, or maybe she just enjoyed interacting with this cast more.  

Looking-Glass (reviewed here http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2012/02/through-looking-glass.html) is a less hostile, more reflective (pun semi-intended) story and there are moments of sweetness in this part, as with the White Knight.  Unfortunately, a "learn to face your fears" moral is shoehorned into this part with a not very satisfactory resolution.  (Alice screams at the cheesy but sort of scary Jabberwocky that she doesn't believe in it.)  I guess if we look at the TV-movie as one piece, I can be generous and say it averages out to a C, but you could just watch this part and be better off.

Laura Carlson, who plays the Daisy, was a Messenger on Mork & Mindy.

Alice in Wonderland, Part 1

Alice in Wonderland, Part 1
CBS
December 9, 1985
TV-Movie, Children's, Fantasy, Musical
VHS
D+


OK, let's just start with the mind-blowing cast:

• Sheila Allen (producer Irwin Allen's wife) as Alice's Mother
• Scott Baio as Pat the Pig
• Red Buttons as the White Rabbit
• Sid Caesar as the Gryphon
• Imogene Coca as the Cook
• Sammy Davis, Jr. as the Caterpillar (he played the Cheshire Cat in the 1966 TV version, which I haven't seen)
• Sherman Hemsley as the Mouse
• Arte Johnson as the Dormouse
• Roddy McDowall as the March Hare
• Jayne Meadows as the Queen of Hearts
• Robert Morley as the King of Hearts
• Anthony Newley as the Mad Hatter
• Donald O'Connor as the Lory Bird
• Martha Raye as the Duchess
• Telly Savalas as the Cheshire Cat
• Ringo Starr as the Mock Turtle
• Shelley Winters as the Dodo Bird

On the one hand, it's cool to see such an eclectic array, but on the other, I spent most of the time feeling sorry for them, especially (if I had to pick just one) Shelley Winters; here's an acclaimed actress and you dress her up as a bird and just have her screech and do a silly dance while George Jefferson sings?  (Her Match Game appearance is classy in comparison.)  As for ten-year-old Natalie Gregory (probably seven at the time of filming) as Alice, she's OK.  Her wig looks really fake, but that's not her fault.  She's very American, but then so is most of the cast.

The writer is Paul Zindel, who may know how to write a quirky Young Adult novel, but did also contribute the screenplay for 1974's Mame.  As for the director, Harry Harris, he didn't work on any of my other shows, and the closest he ever got to an intentional comedy was Eight is Enough.  The worst part though is that the songs are by Steve Allen and they're almost uniformly dreadful.  In fact, both Zindel and S. Allen make the mistake of substituting their own material too much for Carroll's and there are no "Very Merry Unbirthday" moments here.  The absolute nadir is the Tea Party, where I was wincing the whole time.  The scenes with the Queen of Hearts are second worst, mostly but not entirely due to Meadows.

I thought maybe D+ was too harsh, and I did consider a C-, but the other complaint I have is that not only don't Harris, Zindel, Allen, and Allen seem to understand Lewis Carroll, but the program isn't even consistent within itself.  The relatively nice character of the Cheshire Cat is given a depressing song, while the thoroughly unpleasant Mad Hatter is given a song about laughter.  And Alice is told that she needs to grow up, when as we all know, she's just about the maturest seven-year-old in literature.

Selma Archerd, who was the 2nd PTA Lady on The Brady Bunch, plays the Queen of Diamonds.  Douglas Maida, who was a Ball Player on Who's the Boss? a few weeks earlier, is a Courtier here, while Fish Footman Scotch Byerley would be Gary on WtB.  Frog Footman Robert Axelrod would contribute "various voices" for the American version of Noozles.  John Walter Davis, who's the Seven of Spades, would be Ted Graham on Roseanne.

My review of the book is here:  http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2012/02/alices-adventures-in-wonderland.html.  Part 1 ends on a cliffhanger with the Jabberwocky, and technically into the Looking-Glass portion of the saga, presumably to get the audience to tune in for Part 2 the next night.  I don't think I would've at 17, but I did tape the three-hour back-to-back version that aired on cable a few years later, and would sometimes watch it in a train-wreck kind of way.  (Part 2 is better though.)