It was a pretty good show. To me, Marla Gibbs made the show. Of course the bigoted George Jefferson was the black version of Archie Bunker. He hated anybody who wasn't black. In fact I used to wonder how he never ended up getting his lights punched out. Apparently, Tom Willis was either a coward or an imbecile. But I always got a kick out of the way Florence the maid always ended up putting him in his place even though he was the rich employer and she was merely a domestic.
Reviews
10 Reviews
Rich Man, Poor Man
(1976)
Terrific mini series
21 January 2003
Arguably the best mini series ever. I was in high school when ABC was airing RMPM and I definitely didn't miss any of the episodes. I guess most high school kids, well boys anyway, could relate to Tom Jordache. All you want to do is get the heck out of school and move on. As for the series itself the diamonds in the rough were Ed Asner as Axel Jordache and Bill Bixby as Willie Abbott. Asner did a great job getting away from the Lou Grant persona and becoming the brutish Jordache and everybody knew Bill Bixby as the nice guy dad on "The Courtship of Eddie's Father". Bixby did a great job playing the role of the lazy, irresponsible Willie Abbott. For eye candy there was Lynda Day George playing the wife of one of Tommy's boxing rivals. She was really a knockout in that bathing suit. And Susan Blakely wasn't too bad either. Another surprise was William Smith as Falconetti the bad guy. Hey, I was used to seeing him as one of the good guy Texas Rangers on "Laredo" back in the mid 60s. At any rate I wish they'd pull both RMPM parts 1 and 2 out of the archives for another generation.
Happy Days
(1974–1984)
Good at first..then downhill
1 January 2003
I guess I'm like most people. The first couple of years of Happy Days were terrific but then things went downhill. The show shouldn't have made Fonzie into such an unbelievable character. In the first couple of seasons he was just kind of a greaseball who was on the outskirts then they made him into some kind of superhuman character who could do no wrong. It took away any semblance of reality. Also whatever happened to Chuck (the older brother). If they wanted to get rid of him they should have come up with some kind of excuse instead of just forgetting about him.
All in the Family
(1971–1979)
Archie Bunker for Prez
1 January 2003
I was 10 years old when AITF started airing, and it was a big hit in our house. Archie was definitely looked upon as the good guy who told it like it was and his son-in-law Mike the Meathead was considered the arrogant know it all liberal nitwit. Archie was portrayed as the poorly educated, grammatically incorrect blue collar working stiff, but in his own way he had a lot more common sense than his daughter and son in law. Just look at the way things have turned out since the 1970s. Thanks to the liberals' political correctness agenda we'll never have another show like AITF where real issues are discussed and argued about between conservatives (Archie) and liberals (Meathead). Also some of the other characters were hilarious. I used to love when the Bunkers' black friend Lionel would show up and do his Uncle Tom act with Archie or when Archie's friend from work Stretch Cunningham would show up. My only complaint was that Stretch wasn't shown enough. Overall I'd have to say the funniest episode ever was the one where Archie brought some clothes to a laundromat owned by an Arab-American. The laundromat owner was an over emotional character and he started crying when he found out Archie had overloaded the washing machine and broken it. Of course nowadays with all the political correctness baloney they'd never allow an Arab to be portrayed in such a manner, but the whole episode was terrific. Overall this was a great show.
Adventures of Superman
(1952–1958)
Lois, Jimmy and Perry needed glasses
11 December 2002
I loved this series. It's great to see it on TVLand, but one thing I can't understand. It's so obvious that Clark Kent and Superman were the same person, why can't Lois, Jimmy and Perry White see that? I always thought reporters were supposed to be observant. It looks to me like they all need glasses. Let's face it, when Clark takes off his glasses and dons the costume it doesn't make much difference at all in his appearance. Oh well, it's still a great series.
Christine
(1983)
Terrific novel, above average movie
30 November 2002
This was a good movie and the cast did a terrific job, especially Keith Gordon, Alexandra Paul and John Stockwell. My main complaint was the changes that didn't need to be made from novel to film. I realize things have to be shortened when making a film from a novel, but why was the movie based in California instead of Pennsylvania and why was Roland LeBay's brother made to look like an old bum in the film when he was a schoolteacher in the novel? Overall it was a good movie that could have been much better if it had paralleled the book more.
The Dirty Dozen
(1967)
Franco made this movie
30 November 2002
This was a very good war movie. I was a little troubled by two things though.....the gasoline being poured on the wives and girlfriends of the German officers, although I guess it could be considered one of the casualties of war, and the stereotyping of the psychotic Maggot as a religious white Southerner. Hollywood seems to have a problem with religious white southerners usually portraying them as rapists, murderers, and all around bad guys. My favorite character in the film was John Cassavetes' Victor Franco though. Cassavetes played the role to perfection. But that's not taking anything away from Lee Marvin's or Charles Bronson's performances. They were also flawless and I still laugh at Donald Sutherland's portrayal as the class idiot of the Dirty Dozen. All in all it was a very good film.
McCloud
(1970–1977)
One of my favorite detective series
14 October 2002
McCloud was one of my favorite detective series of the 70's. I guess the best thing about it was the way Sam McCloud not only caught the bad guys, but the way he usually was able to make fools of the uptight holier than thou New York cops who considered him a southern country bumpkin. The police chief, Peter Clifford, always looked like he was on the verge of having a stroke whenever McCloud was around. If only he had let McCloud do his job without making such a fuss, the bad guys would still have been caught, and with a lot less trouble.
We're No Angels
(1955)
Good movie
25 September 2002
I just saw We're No Angels on the AMC channel. I really got a kick out of it. Peter Ustinov, Humphrey Bogart and Aldo Ray were really funny in this movie. The guy who played as the mean uncle was pretty funny too. This is the kind of movie I wish Hollywood made more of these days. Seems everything has to have some kind of leftist political slant or politically correct meaning today. Why can't they just make movies that are entertaining without having to have some kind of meaning to it.
Great movie
30 January 2002
I haven't seen this movie in years, but I remember I saw it at the movie theatre and really enjoyed it. It was a great chance to see Dan Blocker in another role besides "Hoss Cartwright". It also had other cast members such as Jack Elam and Mickey Rooney who were truly enjoyable to watch.
Tell Your Friends