Reviews

There is a lot that can be said, and a lot that has been said about the made for TV version of Barry Williams' autobiography "Growing Up Brady." I'm going to try to cover a few details myself.

First, and this should be no surprise, Williams fell hard for Maureen McCormick. Granted, neither of them were newcomers to the business, and McCormick's career was longer, so one can assume they could have seen each other before on screen. Nevertheless as he tells it, he was hit by Cupid's arrow the moment he saw her along with the rest of the cast. I'll try not to repeat what every other reviewer posted here, and focus on some dialogue for emphasis instead. During a scene in the Paramount commissary, Williams tells McCormick that all his friends are jealous of him. She minimizes his revelation claiming they're only jealous because they're on television, but he replies that it's because he's on television specifically with her. That means of all the people Williams could've worked with before the Brady Bunch; Raquel Welch, Jayne Mansfield, Sandy Dennis, Sandy Duncan, Audrey Hepburn, Goldie Hawn, Teri Garr, and Marlo Thomas (who he actually did work with), it was Maureen McCormick who was the source of their envy for Willams.

Speaking of Marcia Brady, yes Kaley Cuoco was certainly attractive playing McCormick, but Christine Taylor from "The Brady Bunch Movie" and "A Very Brady Sequel" looked much more like Marcia. Somewhere I read that another person claimed Cuoco looked more like Eve Plumb, but I don't think she looked like her either. On the flip side, Shelley Long did make an impressive and attractive Carol Brady in the 1990's Brady movies, but Rebecca Bush was the most realistic Florence Henderson.

Then there's the scenes of Robert Reed (Daniel Hugh-Kelly) struggling with his closeted homosexuality, and how it affects incidents where he has to kiss Florence Henderson. We see him getting arrogant over the content of the show, and in some cases getting drunk, and more so with each progressing season. I could swear that during the original broadcast there was a scene where he gets plastered and tries to suggest that Mike Brady should come out of the closet and claim he's having a relationship with one of the other male characters. If we didn't know what we knew about him now, it might be hard to have any sympathy for the man. He also was right about the fact that the reason for the show's success was the presence of six adorable kids, and despite how much he hated the show, he not only tried to protect them, but even gave Barry some legitimate advice at times.

Another segment involves the photoshoots between seasons 1 and 2, and the revealation about the death of the dog who played Tiger. All the girls were undestandably in tears over this, and knowing how much of an animal lover Kaley Cuoco is, that scene is much more believable. The drastic failure to get a substitute for the beloved pooch is also easy to believe.

During the scene when the cast and crew prepare to shoot the episode with Davy Jones as a guest star, Kaley Cuoco was obviously standing on a soapbox in order to emphasize the diminutive stature of Jones, played by Paul Greenberg. Cuoco stands at 5'6", while Greenberg stands at 5'11". Both McCormick and Jones is/was 5'3".

Again, I have to bring up the attempted kissing scenes between Robert Reed and Florence Henderson. Reed could've used some advice from Rock Hudson in "Pretty Maids All in a Row," if that hadn't come out three years later. Henderson actually wanted to suggest to Sherwood Schwartz that they French kiss, and his reply was that they could do so, just not on television. Boy, if they only knew what could be shown on TV in less than a decade, let alone what almost happened between Williams and McCormick in this movie, they'd either revel in their artistic freedom or defecate in their collective drawers!

As we all know, the chances of love blossoming among the boys and girls wasn't just limited to Barry and Maureen. You had Eve Plumb (Kaitlin Cullum) and Chris Knight (Raviv Ullman) falling for each other a little more gradually, and you even had Mike Lookinland trying to put the moves on a nearly terrified Susan Olsen. I love Maureen and Eve's reactions to the two of them together. It even makes me wonder what Scott Lookinland was thinking, knowing what he knows about his aunt. As for Knight and Plumb, despite Chris' claim that Eve was in tears when they got caught making out in that old car on the set, in this movie she just looks annoyed over getting caught.

Aside from the tawdry love affairs, and the hostility between Robert Reed and Sherwood Schwatz (Michael Tucker), there are other interesting scenes, like the time the cast was waiting for Reed to arrive on the set, and made their own insulting parody of the theme song. And did I see Eve Plumb and Susan Olsen themselves, playing their mothers at one point?

Admittedly, I wanted more. Specifically, I wanted to find out about his time on "That Girl" when he played a young autograph seeker along with some girl who was his age, and also seeking autographs. Having said that, I don't want to make it seem like I'm trashing the movie, because I'm not. There's just too much fun seeing the behind-the-scenes activities in this movie, and not just for Brady Bunch fans either. It's also for "Big Bang Theory" and "8 Simple Rules" fans because of Kaley Cuoco, "Phil of the Future" fans for Raviv Ullman, and "Lizzie McGuire" fans because of Carly Schroeder, among other. I was going to add a list of highlights from the movie, but I've already covered enough as it is. Overall, it's just too much fun not to watch.

If you're familiar with the trailer for the 1972 John Waters classic "Pink Flamingos," there's one rather flamboyant young man who describes the movie as "the future of city living." One of the guys who gave the fake tip to Detective Kojak (Matthew Cowles) looks a lot like that guy.

When we last left our lollipop sucking bald Greek-American NYPD detective, the city-living look-alike guy and his partner in crime (who I still can't identify) try to bump him off for the widow Morrison through Decker. He turns the tables on them only face a couple of uniformed NYPD officers. When they arrive, the "city living" look-alike guy concocts a crappy scheme to get the detective busted on a phony police brutality change, which specifically references the Burton-Shaw-Foster case.

In this episode, we also meet the "foreigner" that Sally Jo mentioned in the first part of the episode. Anton Lenco (Noberto Kerner) is either a Central or Eastern European janitor who's struggling to earn his citizenship by working at Columbia U as a janitor. The problem is he's kind of scared to reveal everything he knows, but it's not because of the KGB. It's because of that widow from the Gold Coast.

Edna Morrison (Geraldine Page) is still doing everything she can to try to keep Kojak from finding the truth about Karen Foster, and Foster from finding the truth about herself. Making sure Greg Burton gets on his good side, and that Decker continues to discredit the girl and ride him harder to stay away from the case. Of course, even with the Internal Affairs department watching over him, he still won't budge. He also knows somebody's trying to tear up that poor little skater girl, but he's not sure who it is.

In the meantime that big drug bust on the East River was compromised by that tipster who fled the scene. Luckily, the head detective from Manhattan South coerces him to resume cooperating with this drug bust, without seeming too threatening.

Later, that immigrant finally tells the detective that Karen was raped by two of the college boys and they threatened to tell the authorities that he raped her. And one of those kids has really close ties to that gold coast power broker lady. And for that, Anton Lenco must die. But that doesn't mean there aren't other loose ends for the 13th Precinct to exploit. There's the cabbie who picked the two rapists up, and was rewarded with the chance to run his own flower shop in return for his silence about what really happened. Somehow, it's not hard to believe they'd let him get away with this cover up.

I won't reveal exactly what happened, but the important flashback scene revealing what really went down has been compared to the Sally Field mini-Series "Sybil." I suppose I can see the comparison. Of course that mini-series aired the same month and this episode was shot before Sally Field's project was, so the comparision can only be made in retrospect. Also, the outcome for the little lady in question seems a bit too good to be believed. But the one other thing that I will reveal, because it's far too dissatisfying to do otherwise, is that Lieutenant Theo Kojak tells Edna Morrison that her days of deciding how life works and who it works for and against are numbered.

As with most people my age, a lot of what I know about Mary Beth Hurt comes from movies like "The World According to Garp," and even "Parents." Thankfully, with the advent of sites like IMDb, we can find work that many actors and actresses did before making it big, and Hurt is no exception. Admittedly, it's both cute and ironic to watch her call Kojak a bear. Her agonizing meltdowns might be a bit tough for some to deal with, but it's still worth it. GetTV still puts disclaimers at the beginning and end of this part of the episode, just like they did with Part One.

A not-so-honest pawn shop owner named Ho Toy (Clement Low) is closing up shop for the evening when suddenly he's approached by a roughly twenty-something young man who calls him by the wrong name, accuses him of causing trouble for a girl named Judy Moon and fires a few slugs into him killing him instantly. So why did this guy shoot the pawnbroker? Did he stiff the guy on a deal? Was he dealing with stolen goods? Not this time. His only crime was that he looked like one of the villains from the Judy Moon comic strip. And he's the third victim of this psycho killer who thinks of himself as Judy's guardian angel.

The Judy Moon comics are in the same category as Brenda Starr back in the period when she was wearing a black wig over her more familiar redlocks. Unfortunately, the Island of Oahu was populated with people who have the misfortune of looking like many of the villans from this loser's favorite comic strip. Along with Ho Toy, you've got a banker, a lawyer, and a random sailor from the US Navy. The poor guy probably had some well-needed shore leave from Vietnam after the phony Paris Peace Treaty, only to get gunned down by this dim bulb.

And wouldn't you know it, Arthur happens to encounter a woman in a local restaurant named Mary Ellen Farmer (Susan Foster) who just so happens to look like Judy Moon herself. And what a woman she is. I'd even go so far as to say she was better looking than her cartoon counterpart. The cops are clueless about why all these random people are being killed until a trip to the barber shop for McGarrett and the reading of the comics in the newspapers left for customers makes him realize what's going on.

A female psychiatrist and profiler (Jean Tarrant) tells the the Five-O gang that he's a lonely, low-life paranoid schizophrenic, but that's only half the story. This guy's not just psychotic, he's stupid. Luckily McGarrett knows what to do. He lures the Judy Moon cartoonist from the US Mainland (Lowell Palmer) to help them set up a trap by creating a new villain; a crooked cop who looks a lot like Lt. Danny Williams!

My opinion of the episode? Sure, I liked it. Though I honestly have no idea why other fans like it more than most. In the 12 seasons that this show ran, it had plenty of episodes that stood out more than others, and this was certainly one of them. But then so were episodes like "A Woman's Work is With a Gun" and "A Distant Thunder."

Speaking of shows that ran 12 seasons, decades after this in the first season of "The Big Bang Theory" we see a young girl on a bad date with Raj, and Sheldon notices that she looks like a major character in an Indian folk tale his mother used to read to him as a child. Sheldon Cooper had more tact on this issue than this lunatic.

Do you remember when punk was young, loud, snotty, and offensive? Could you have ever imagined saying something like that in your lifetime? Or were you convinced that we'd all be obliterated in a nuclear holocaust before anyone could ever utter those words?

This short documentary covers how the band Black Velvet Flag was just on the verge of making a name for themselves in the alternative rock scene in the New York Tri-State area. Jeff Musser, Fred Stesney, Jason Zasky decide to form a lounge band specializing in west-coast punk rock music. Unlike Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine, they don't diversify into rap, hard rock, or heavy metal.

Fred Stesney is not only the lead singer, but is a true punk historian (There's two more words you didn't think you'd ever see together!). He knows about every band who broke out of California in 1980, as well as the clubs they played at and the site of Oki Dogs.

It's when they actually start doing a tour of the west coast that things start to fall apart. They rent a Chevy Astro van, become convinced their promoters aren't promoting them, and the fans that they thought would get their music, don't have a clue. One club they wanted to brag about playing in, wouldn't even let them bring the camera in. After this, they refused to play there and it was back to their recording studio. Bob Segar, AC-DC, and Bon Jovi all had songs about the difficulties of concert tours. This rocumentary makes it all too real.

I found out about this band from the first "Go-Kart vs. The Corporate Giant" compilation CD, which has one of their few original songs, "I Shot JFK." As someone who listened to a lot of college radio in the 1990's, you'd think I would've heard them there first. They have other original tunes as well, such as one where they mope about how they miss the days when punks and cops had major street battles on a regular basis.

One of their slogans was "punk is not dead, it's just sleeping." With people arguing over whether or not punk is dead since the death of Sid Vicious, this rocumentary makes you wonder if it is. Even Jello Biafra once said in an interview that perhaps punk should die. Then again, he also stated that the only leader who had any decent advice about Syria was Vladimir Putin, which turned out to be total crap. Either way, this is still a movie that should be seen and a band you ought to listen to.

Every now and then within the glut of short films throughout the world, you'll find one that's guaranteed to charm your socks off. And within the first decade of the 21st Century, you'll definitely find that with this Australian masterpiece.

Seven-year-old Chloe (played by Jahla Bryant, who has grown into quite the lovely young woman since this was filmed) was a flower girl at a recent wedding. The day after the wedding, she vows to make Jason Mohini (Ryan Fitzpatrick), the boy across the street her own future husband. The trouble is, Jason is more interested in BMX bike riding than girls.

Jason sees the older boys riding their bikes through his suburban Sydney neighborhood and wants in. He tried to remove the training wheels with the only tools he can find, asks his older brother (Max Lawson) for help riding without training wheels, seeks to build the perfect makeshift ramp to jump his bike with. All the while Chloe does some of the same things in the hopes of joining the boy she loves.

One thing I noticed as the movie progressed; The girl's hairstyle and outfits changed as she tried to get the boy's attention. She goes from being a middle childhood doyly to dressing more casual with every attempt to get his attention. You've got to give Kati Lehtonen and Julia McGrath some credit for that. And you truly have to give Michelle Lehman credit for the movie in general. I hope this movie will be available to the public for a long time in one way or another.

When we first met Veronica Duncan, she was being tutored by Sheldon Cooper and crushed on hard by Georgie Cooper. She was a typical "bad girl" who he was sure was going to take away his virginity. But one day at a Halloween horror house designed to convert people to Christianity, the girl of his dreams decides to become one of the saved.

Then she wanted to be baptized at the local church and Georgie wanted to use this as an attempt to make out with her,... and do a lot more after that of course. Unfortunately, all that gets him is her right fist square in his eye!

So much seems to go wrong with Sheldon's older brother's unshakable crush on this girl, and his effort to get together with her. But now her mother's drunken, abusive boyfriend Cliff, who looks like an older version of Darrin McGrew from "The Middle," has sent her running in terror and tears to Mary Cooper's office at the First Baptist Church of Medford, and she decides to give her sanctuary at the Cooper household, in spite of the lustful desires of Georgie. And Mom knows her teenage son is going to try to woo her again, and warns him not to do so. Though he does offer to let her sleep in his room and clean the place up, he still douses himself with so much cologne, that everybody can smell it.

One night, Veronica watches Georgie watching TV and makes a joke about what he watches, then she gives him a passionate kiss. But it's only a dream... a dream that makes her realize that she's actually falling for him even though she knows he only wants to get under her skirt.

The B-Story involves Dr. Sturgis inviting Meemaw on a date at a local Tex-Mex restaurant where they first met. They're both having a good time, until the professor gets down on one knee and offers a wedding ring. She turns down his hand in marriage, but still wants to stay with him.

The real trouble starts when the cause of Georgie's would-be girlfriend's problems arrives at the Cooper's front door and meet the two oldest male family members, and let's just say that sometimes, you can really appreciate trumped-up legal charges.

One of the scenes that a lot of fans talk about is the "Girl Time" scene between Veronica and Missy. Not so much because of the dialogue, but because of the background music. The song is "I'll Be You," by The Replacements, and some people like it because it fits the scene where Missy claims Veronica has a better life than she does, and vice versa, and they both try and fail to do an old "Freaky Friday" trick. I like it because it proves that the music department on this show is willing to go a little more underground for period piece tunes. I could recommend some '90's music myself, including a couple that would work well with Sheldon's atheism. Then again, I'm not so sure how much money the bands would want to use their songs on TV. In the meantime, I was kind of disappointed that Isabel May didn't appear again in Season 4. Hopefully we'll get to see her play Veronica Duncan again for what's left of Season 5, or the remaining two seasons.

I can't see how the idea of "different kinds of intelligence" could be "feminist propaganda." What I can see from this episode is that despite not being the super-genius that her twin brother is, Missy's insight and perceptiveness has a major impact on those around her whether positive or negative, and in the case of two people in this episode, it proves to be very positive.

One day, Dr. John Sturgis approaches the Cooper household with Meemaw, and recommends that George brings Sheldon and Missy into a weekly research study on the intelligence of the twins. At first, he seems unwilling to get them involved, but the promise of money for travel expenses and other financial gains has him looking for a new cabin cruiser. Later he tells Mary about it, but she's worried that it'll inflate Sheldon's ego more than it already is, and have a negative impact on Missy's self-esteem. "I'm not smarter than Sheldon, it doesn't make me feel bad." Of course, they tell the kids about it later that day, and since Georgie isn't a twin, he gets to stay home by himself and do whatever he wants. Sheldon is eager to get involved, but dad has to bribe Missy with a trip to a nearby Dairy Queen to convince her to go along with the study.

Once they arrive, the meet the two doctors who are supposed to test them; Drs. Edward Pilson (Wallace Langham) and Sandra Thorpe (Amy Farrington). First they discuss their early childhood and Mary's pregnancy with them in order to look for clues, while Dr. Sturgis hangs out with them. Meemaw tells them this exam is pointless and insist they get on with the testing. Sheldon is supervised by Dr. Pilson and is surprised that he knows about the tests he could be taking. This first text involves problem solving skills, which Sheldon aces, and Missy... not so much. As with many episodes, Missy steals the show, but it's the way she does it in this episode that makes it so great. Here she concentrates more on her own appearance for the video, but also recommends some fashion tips for Dr. Thorpe, who originally take offense to her recommendations. Nothing drastic, though. Just letting her hair down and wearing a belt with her lab coat. Later we learn why she's making these suggestions. Sheldon's doctor has a crush on her. When the twins are finally done with the first test, the two doctors send the Coopers home, and Dr. Thorpe awkwardly tries to flirt with Dr. Pilson with her hair. She's worse at flirting than Sue Heck and better than Isadore Smackle, but she still gets her man.

As they get home from this little excursion, the twins spot Georgie watching an episode of Soul Train and developing a crush one one or more of the dancers. Mary continues to fret over the psychological impact of the test, and George continues his semi-secret plot to use the money from it for a boat.

The next test involves measuring the kid's level of empathy and perceptiveness. Sheldon is failing miserably, while Mary anxiously tries to help him, like sports fans watching a football game as their team is losing. Missy is coming up with her own storylines for the flash cards in the same test. She also mentions that one of the young women on these flash cards is wearing a belt, as her doctor is doing this time. It's far too obvious Missy's fashion tips proved to be extremely beneficial to the two doctors.

These two characters only appeared in this episode, but it's impossible not to be happy for them. Let's hope their relationship becomes better than George and Mary Cooper, and dare I say it... better than Sheldon Cooper and Amy Farrah Fowler as well.

I know that a more professional reviewer said the same thing about this episode, but it's still true.

The main storyline is over some physics blog that Leonard thinks is going to set the scientific world on fire. But some online troll decides to make fun of him for it, and he, Sheldon, Howard and Raj are on a campaign of revenge. While they're doing all this, Penny invites the rest of her posse over to her apartment for movie night and reluctantly shows them one of the "Serial Ape-ist" movies she was in. Bernadette shows a beauty pageant she was part of in 1999, looking exactly the same, and doing a crappy rendition of "Wannabe," by the Spice Girls. Then in retaliation, Bernadette reveals that Amy wrote a piece of Little House on the Prairie Fanfiction involving characters modeled after her and Sheldon. When Penny finds it online she reads it aloud and both she and Bernadette are immediately intrigued. Fair warning though; Her excitement over the "distinct possibility" of Sheldon and Amy getting it on in "The Cooper/Kripke Inversion," does not measure up to her reading of first paragraph from Amy's fanfic.

The two beauty queens may make fun of Amy's story, but they're still engrossed in it. Not simply because it's good, but because it about Amy and Sheldon, no matter how much she insists it involves "Amelia and Cooper." Their love story is what Amy wants her own love story to be, as well as what her friends want it to be, and to some extent what we want it to be. When Bernadette cracks a joke about one of the lines, Amy decides to put an end to what she sees as public humiliation, until Penny convinces her to read it instead. And from there, it seems like Amelia's love for Cooper is doomed. Bernadette's little heart breaking over how she thinks the story was going to end made me want to give her a big hug. Thankfully, Amy's protagonist doesn't end up so sad after all. I won't spoil the ending of her tale, because the truth is, the writers of the show didn't give it an ending either.

There has been at least one real life fanfic that I know of based on the fanfic used in this episode. If anything, such a real fanfic should involve the Ingalls, the Wilders, or the Olesons. In the meantime, a lot of people have described the four denizens of Apartment 4A as being emotionally immature, especially Sheldon. Here we see the two early-30 something women acting like a couple of lovestruck pre-teens. Certainly not an episode to be missed, and if you have missed it, catch it in a rerun.

The episode that should've been the Season 4 premiere gave us a little more to look forward to than we may have expected.

Sheldon volunteers at a local railroad museum, despite being only 11 years old. Being a high school graduate and a die-hard train fanatic, he was easily able to convince the museum to hire him. Unfortunately, he gets a little overenthusiastic about his favorite not-so-scientific subject. He give a lecture to a guy who just wants to use the men's bathroom, and tries to convince a family that only he has the proper technique for ringing a train bell. The last straw is when he tries to correct his boss on the Southern Pacific Railroad as he's giving a lecture on the Saint Louis-Southwestern Railway, better known as the Cotton Belt Line. Normally, my first instinct is to submit this error to IMDb, but I have a suspicion the writing staff made this error on purpose.

Then there's Missy. As her father George drives her to her little league baseball game, she has a harder time holding her bladder. And then we find out why; she gets her first period. This is one of those storylines you had to expect, since Sheldon and Missy are twins and tweens. Both Missy and George try to handle the situation as best as they can, and she coaxes her father into taking a detour to the drug store to buy "feminine products." But since he's a typical middle-aged white man from Texas, he doesn't know what he's supposed to get for her, until a female cashier closer to his age helps the two of them out, and Sheldon's twin sister play the game as if nothing happened just like in so many tampon commercials that have aired over the years. So many teen and tween girls, both real and fictional, have their own stories about when and how they got their first periods, and such. Some are more embarrassing and inconvenient than others, and certainly more than Missy Cooper. Hers could've been worse. It could've been like Carrie White.

We've all seen TV episodes where the B-story is better than the A-story, and in some cases, way better. In this case, it's the C-story that turns out to be the best. Sheldon's born-again Christian mother tries to act like a standard housewife, but she secretly watches a VHS copy of the 1989 Patrick Swayze action movie "Road House." And Georgie catches her in the act! I love the way he teases his mom about being the fact that it's an R-rated movie. She goes from threatening to ground him for revealing this guilty pleasure, but suddenly changes her mind when he compliments his mother on her taste in movies. And soon mother and son have a giddy discussion not only on the Patrick Swayze classic, but other action movies. I could spoil the episode and reveal what happens when Mary tries to loosen up and exposes her taste in movies, but I'm not going to.

Sheldon Cooper's railroad enthusiasm is a well-established fact as far back as early episodes of "The Big Bang Theory," but he's primarily focused on the railroads of the southwestern U. S. Someday I'd like to see his reaction to the railroads of the Northeast and Great Lakes region. If he's anything like me when it comes to trains, that might be a lot of fun.

When A.J. Michalka's sister Aly was on "Phil of the Future," The Disney Channel decided to promote the two of them as a family-friendly non-lesbian version of The Indigo Girls. I have to admit, their performance on the theme song from "Ice Princess" was as haunting as Amy and Emily's "Prince of Darkness," if not more-so. So it's only fitting that A.J. Michalka gets to do a spot on version of their best known hit. Perhaps it also helps that this episode followed an above average episode of it's prequel "The Goldbergs" on the same night.

The episode doesn't start out like this; It involves our heroine narrating how dress codes at schools were being tested throughout the country during the 1990's, including at William Penn Academy. Principal Glascott (Tim Meadows) isn't standing for any of these violations, and neither is Coach Mellor. In one scene, Glascott spots a girl wearing a skirt that's too short, only to find out it's Miss Lainey Lewis. "You're not a student, you're a Lainey." That line reminds me so much of the scene from "Up the Down Staircase," where Sylvia Barrett is kept from using the school elevator which is reserved only for teachers, despite being a teacher herself. Later on, Glascott finds so many kids violating the dress code they've run out of monogrammed T-Shirts with the school name on it to replace them with. As he discusses the "crisis" with the teachers, he decides not only to ban Lainey's microskirts, but funny ties like those worn by C.B., and T-Shirts with rock band names. If he thinks "The Butthole Surfers" is an offensive name, he hasn't heard of some of the bands I know about.

In some of the more recent episodes, we see Mellor in a relationship with one of the kid's aunts, who is hired as the new school nurse. In this episode he finds out she's not a sports fan! This makes him feel their relationship is threatened. On a day when Mellor wants to go see the Philadelphia Eagles play the "New York" Giants, she wants to go to Lilith Fair. Needless to say, Mellor doesn't understand this, and needs help trying to do so in order to better relate to his girlfriend. So Ms. Wilma Howell (Haneefah Wood) gives him some lessons starting with trying to get him to learn the Indigo Girls' bigger hit "Closer to Fine," claiming it's a siren song among women everywhere. Sure enough, she starts out by singing the song herself, suddenly joined by Ms. Lewis on acoustic guitar and Liz Flemming on tambourine. Unfortunately, Mellor gets spooked by the song, and fears his relationship is doomed. Speaking of Lainey and Liz, it's the issues over the dress code that creates tension between the two teachers. Ms. Flemming has had a long standing grudge against stylish and popular girls like Lainey because she believes that they're also stuck-up b*tches, and Big Tasty's girlfriend is genuinely crushed by this.

Hearing Bryan Callen murder the Indigo's most famous hit in an attempt to woo Nurse Julie is a bit hard to stomach, but A.J. Michalka's cover is worthwhile, with or without Lennon Parham and Haneefah Wood. It's too bad Aly Michalka couldn't be there for this.

And for the record, Lilith Fair came out a decade after The Indigo Girls' first two albums.

There are two words in the universe that would make a straight man want to see this movie; Anna Kendrick. In her autobiography "Scrappy Little Nobody" she originally thought the only people who would've bothered with this movie were closeted homosexuals who believe this movie helped them come out. But if you're not 100% homophobic, there could still be something in the movie you might find worthwhile.

Ahh, life before Camp Ovation; While the campers perform the song "How Shall I See You Through My Tears," we have a montage of some of the other campers before getting the chance to do so. We have Vlad Baumann rehearsing a speech in his mirror, Michael Flores going to the junior prom in drag, and not only having his invitation torn up by the prom committee, but getting the living crap kicked out of him by a bunch of jocks, and Ellen Lucas trying to convince her brother to take her to the junior prom after failing to get a date (although I can't imagine why). But going to this summer camp for the performing arts gives all these kids and more a chance to not only perform, but to be themselves,... or so it may seem that way. Kendrick plays Fritzi Wagner a would-be actress who also tries to be a toadie to the popular Jill Simmons (Alana Allen). Shaun (Steven Cutts) wants to convince his shy little brother Petie (Kahiry Bess) that he can make it as a black man in the performing arts. Another camper named Jenna (Tiffany Taylor) was able to talk her parents into letting her go to Camp Ovation as opposed to a fat camp, on the condition that she goes with her jaws wired shut.

At the first audition, we see Vlad perform a cover of "Wild Horses" by The Rolling Stones, with the camp background band playing to the very note, and one of the female counselors is convinced he's straight. Evidently the lesson is if you want to be viewed as straight, just perform an old Rolling Stones song during your audition. Even with that, he ends up striking a friendship with Michael. He doesn't insult the guy for being gay, but he does tell him that if he were straight he have girls hitting on him left and right, using his Latino heritage to pass himself off as a Latin Lover. Vlad himself seems to have his heart set on Ellen, and they seem like they're going to hit it off, until Jill swoops in and takes him away from her for a little nookie.

The camp is supposed to be supervised by Bert Hanley, a playwright who had a big hit named "The Children's Crusade," back in the day, and hasn't been able to do anything else but drink ever since. Other counselors include a dance instructor who makes a speech during one of his lessons which is reminiscent of Debbie Allen's speech in Fame, which one of the kids snarks about until that teacher makes him eat his words, and a Cuban refugee director who evidently feared that the avant-garde play "Midnight Sun" would cause reprisals from their "Revolutionary Armed Forces." His maniacal tirades are one of the things that bring Vlad and Ellen closer to one another, and so are Jill's insults over her appearance. But how long can that last?

After Jill chastises Fritzi for washing her underwear, she gets a pep talk from Bert, then sabotages her performance from "Company," by spiking her drinks with a well-known household cleaner. She yanks Jill off-stage in the middle of singing "The Ladies Who Lunch" and makes that song her own! You will forget Elaine Stritch after this, in fact, you'll forget Alana Allen after this! Later when Bert hears Vlad casually perform one of his songs, he interrupts him and the rest of the campers and tells them they're wasting their time trying to make it in show business. After he leaves the porch, Vlad goes into the counselor's office and chastises him for trashing the campers. "They"? Did you think I wasn't talking to you too?" No Mr. Hanley, I think he knew it. But it's after this exchange while the camp administrator is passed out drunk that this golden boy he despises discovers some of his other work, and he rallies the other campers to perform some of it, in order to prove that they and he are both worthy.

The highlight of this movie was Kendrick's show stopping performance of "The Ladies Who Lunch," which she literally steals from Alana Allan. At a close second is the cast's cover of "Century Plant" by Victoria Williams. Others might disagree with me and put Williams' song at the top, and it's hard not to imagine why.

If you grew up in the New York Tri-State area like I did, you've seen as many ads on TV and in newspapers for Broadway plays as you have for movies. So, whether you're straight, gay, or bisexual, you'd be exposed to some of the references to the various plays here. There are some truly funny scenes during the movie. During the auditions, one of the counselors draws a picture of himself committing suicide next to a piano while another anonymous girl sings "Tomorrow" from "Annie." Another is when Ellen is with Petie with her own rendition of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" from "Dreamgirls," and the boy gets spooked and runs off stage. Even Todd Graff, who wrote and directed this movie found the scenario hilarious.

Those who see this movie for Ms. Kendrick should know that it's really not her movie. In fact her part is barely a B-Story, despite her outstanding musical number. The movie itself is based on Graff's own life at a camp known as Stagedoor Manor while he was on a break from his membership in the Short Circus on "The Electric Company." Because of this, it makes me wonder if the gay kids could've been that openly gay in the 1970's. I even thought of making the title of my review "This Movie is So Gay." Regardless, the musical performances are what makes this movie great even if you don't like the story lines. I think there's still a good chance that you will.

Despite the title, there are other aspects of this movie that got me interested in it. One main reason the movie didn't do so well at the box office was because they were making a 1965 movie in 1967. By the time this movie was released, The Beatles had finished doing official concerts in under a year, the hippies were beginning to organize the "Summer of Love" in San Francisco, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" had pushed sleaze into Oscar territory, and "The Graduate" did more to speak for the kids than any leftover wannabe beach party movie.

Cliff Donner (Gil Peterson) was an early '60's swinging sixties pop singer whose career went into the toilet when some managers suggest he performs some old 1940's music. Think Ricky Nelson going Bing Crosby, and you'll get the idea. Years later Cliff is driving to Palm Springs and stops at a night club owned by Stanley Krumley (Robert Coote), a man he knew from England who ran a club there, and talks him into singing along with The Leaves.

Would-be pop singer Hallie Rodgers (played by the uber-cute Debbie Watson), is struggling to make it big in the music business but has to settle for being a go-go dancer on "Whiz-Bam," an obvious imitation of "Hullaballoo." Frustrated with having the powers that be stall her career, she breaks out of her cage and has an unauthorized duet with the lead signer of Patrick and the East Enders (played by Glen Campbell). The producers are pissed at her, but the kids dig it, and the Whiz-Bam dancers noticed this. Even Patrick notices it, and when a stagehand insults their audience, and the girl is fired, both the Whiz-Bam dancers and the band threaten them "West Side Story-"style (I wish I were kidding!).

Though despondent over being fired, some of her fellow Whiz-Bammers take her to that bar in Palm Springs where Cliff and The Leaves are performing. Suddenly, a guy in his late-20's who looks a lot like Iggy Pop (No, really!) decides he wants to put the moves on her, and he won't take no for an answer. The commotion this guy causes stops the show, Cliff comes to the rescue and throws everybody out, until he recognizes her from the show. He decides he wants get her foot in the door with the dance that everyone on in the audience was doing which he dubbed "The Tantrum." However she wants him to make a comeback in return for his promotion of her.

Then there this whole elaborate number where Gil, Debbie and the Whiz-Bam dancers perform the song "High" in the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. Leave it to a non-Californian such as myself to be flabergasted over the fact that such a transit system can exist in Southern California, and with a ski lodge too. After it's all over, Krumley tells them that he's about to give the two of them a big break through his brother Tony Krum, a wannabe Phil Spector played by Roddy McDowall. Naturally as expected from these movies, the two fall in love, but Tony Krum wants to be the one who decides when and how they do so. This creates a major kink in their relationship, but Krum doesn't care, and Donner sees what's going on, and poor Miss Rodgers wants to keep both her man and her career. He even goes so far into getting Gil to get involved in a demoltion derby as part of his promotion. One might think this might be more of an attempt to capitalize on movies such as "Fireball 500."

So who else among the dancers are in this movie besides the lovely Ms. Garr? Well, you have a short guy with a goatee, a guy who looks like Howdy-Doody, another guy with a Peter Tork haircut, an Asian-American woman, one token black guy, some other blondes, including one with roots, and a lot of other extras. Sadly I don't recognize them all, although I've heard some names of a few of those people, so maybe I should.

There's a line from the docudrama on the making of "Sweet Sweetback's Badassssss Song" where Mario Van Peebles (playing his father) claimed that in the late-1960's the times were changing, and Hollywood wasn't. Actually there were movies that reflected what was going on (or what people thought was going on), and how people felt about it, and even if this wasn't one of them, it was still farily enjoyable. Let's be honest though; this movie is not only not cool, it's corny, and doesn't know it's corny, unlike, say for instance, "Enchanted." Incidentally, Garr's career started to take off after this movie when she went from being a nobody dancer to roles in a certain episode of "Star Trek," and the 1968 Monkees movie "Head," and the rest is history. So a little art imitating life gives this movie a couple of extra points.

What can possibly be said about this episode that hasn't been said before? Sadly not much, which is kind of disappointing. Oh, but I'm gonna try.

Opie is having a hard time with his history lessons, and seems to blame "Old Lady Crump," who's not really that old (even if she looks that way). Andy replies with sympathy claiming that he had trouble with his schoolwork when he was a kid too. That day at class, he tells her that he doesn't need to learn history, and his friends join in that sentiment. Miss Crump blames Andy for convincing his son and their friends to forgo their schoolwork just because his father is the Sheriff of Mayberry. Both she and the kids have the wrong idea on how Andy feels about the issue.

It's just then that Sheriff Taylor decides he's going to get them interested in history by retelling the start of the American Revolution in his old folksy way, and it works! He even gives the Native Americans credit for helping Paul Revere and the Minutemen at Concord! A surprise for the teacher like this one won't be found again until 1967 with Sylvia Barrett at Calvin Coolidge High School in East Harlem.

As he grows up, Opie and his friends will realize that the "shot heard 'round the world" was only a metaphor, but a good one. They'll also grow up to learn that there are people in his state outside of Mayberry who resent the Emancipation Proclamation, and have been throwing a monkey wrench into it for a whole century. In addition, they'll find out that just five years earlier, 500 modern-day Indians defeated 50 stupid white men in white sheets from his own state. This is an episode that if it doesn't get you into Griffith's old comedy routines, is guaranteed to make you more interested in American History.

The 2015 DCOM "Descendants" proved to be incredibly popular among the kids, and not without good reason. However I was given some negative responses to my IMDB user review of the movie, which is something all IMDb users are at risk of getting. Just because I didn't feel the same way most people did about it doesn't mean I was unsympathetic towards the main characters. Whatever misgivings I may have had about the previous movie, it had nothing to do with Dove. Before the movie, Cameron herself said this would blow the first movie out of the water, and I have to admit I was impressed.

Mal is on the verge of marrying Prince Ben, and is overwhelmed by the publicity. Before we see what she's living with, we get a fantasy sequence used as the theme song, and I have to admit, no matter who mentions any song called "Ways to be Wicked," I always think of the Lone Justice song from the 1980's. The daughter of Maleficent is caught off guard by the prospects of marriage, as well as the prince showering her with gifts, including a new scooter. She's also facing pressure to turn her spell book over to the "Museum of Cultural History," which she has been reluctant to do. In the meantime, Carlos has been crushing on the fairy godmother's daughter Jane (who looks better in the sequel, BTW), Jay is winning the heart of Lonnie, and trying to get her a spot on the fencing team. Evie is adjusting well to life in Auradon, and even helping those in need. After being caught using her spell book for a date with Ben who chastises her over it, she finally breaks down and is ready to give up and return to the Isle of the Lost.

Certainly no slouch when it comes to talent is China Anne McClain, who plays Uma, the daughter of Ursula from "The Little Mermaid." Disney probably wanted her for a few more projects since she became the third wheel on her own sitcom, and they got their money's worth with McClain. With the sons of Captain Hook, Gaston, and lesser pirates, Uma more or less runs the island, as well as a seafood dive bar and restaurant But seeing Mal on TV apparently living the good life pisses her off.

On the isle, we meet a pre-teen hairdresser named Dizzy Tremaine (Anna Cathcart), who is the granddaughter of one of the evil stepsisters of Cinderella. With her messy pigtails, color-splattered frock, and purple cat-eyeglasses barely hiding her copper eye shadow, Dizzy's true talent as a hairstylist is overlooked by her grandmother, but not by Mal or Evie. Unlike the other kids of the villains, she is anything but evil. Mal also keeps her from being victimized in an extortion racket by one of Uma's gang, which leads to the revelation that she has returned, and so has her purple hair.

Feeling guilty over trying to change his girlfriend and driving her away, he decided to go to follow her to her former prison island, and Evie, Jay, and Carlos know they have to go with the Prince, at least partially for his protection. They eventually find her and he tries to talk her into coming back, through no avail. While Mal loves the Prince, and life on Auradon, she feels she's a liability to her boyfriend, the royal family, and the kingdoms. But then Evie starts off a duet of "The Space Between," and everything seems like it's going to be okay.

Unfortunately Ben gets kidnapped in the process of trying to bring Mal home, she demands that Uma let him loose. Meanwhile Ben tells her abductor that the effort to bring the villain kids away from their evil parents influence was going to be expanded to other kids and could've even included her. The new villain makes a deal with the future princess and demands the fairy godmother's wand. The villain kids return home to make a fake wand with a 3-D printer, and bring it to Uma as a substitute this time with the help of Lonnie. They have a musical number before the exchange, with a bridge where Prince Ben urges the girls not to fight, but they go through with it anyway, and battle each other when Uma finds out it's fake, but not before returning Ben. I smelled a sequel to this the moment that Mal's spell-book was dropped on the Isle of the Lost as they tried to escape, and to be honest, I'm open to the idea. I also wish I was able to say something about the possibility of a third movie in my review before the first promo for it. I won't spoil the ending if you haven't seen it already, but the first four refugees of the Isle of the Lost do defeat the remaining villains. Also the post-credit ending is better than anything Kenny Ortega did with his previous franchise.

Having said that, there are only so many years that the cast can continue to be believable as their characters, and unless I'm mistaken Melissa De La Cruz's books will outnumber the movies that the cast can make. So the idea that the third one could be the last won't surprise me at all.

With Season four being the last season for Liv and Maddie, it's a safe bet, that the staff of the show wanted to allow one last chance for Kali Rocha and her writing partner Jonathan McClain to write an episode.

Liv is at the local mall that they call "The Cove" with some fans, while Karen helps take some pictures with them on their cell phones. Just then a modeling agent and photographer spots the two women, and wants to use one of them in a photo-shoot. But instead of seeking Liv, it's Karen that she wants to take pictures of. Liv is convinced this is some kind of scam, but as soon as she rebuffs the idea of her mother being discovered by a modeling agency, Karen is quick to talk her out of it, and let's her starlet daughter know in no uncertain terms that "Momma's still got it." And that's absolutely true. Now, some people may find it creepy to get all hot and bothered over Rooney family matriarch, but remember that I'm 52 years old, which means not only do I have the right to view the woman as a sex symbol, but it's actually more appropriate for me to do so. Anyway, Karen anticipates an upcoming photo-shoot at Dena's household, yet Liv still tries to convince her mother that the woman is a scam-artist. When the photographer finally arrives at the house and takes pics, Liv is almost ready to catch her in the act of getting a check from her, when she finds the woman was actually going to give her a check. So while the Rooney matriarch doesn't lose money on the deal, the gig may not turn out as glamorous as she expects.

Maddie and Willow are jogging through the same mall as part of their basketball training, when they stumble upon a local young musician making up a song about them. The two ex-Ridgewood High School jock girls are big fans of this kid, and naturally throw money in his guitar case. Unfortunately, Willow accidentally threw a punch card for a juice bar in there and tries to get it back, and that's when they both discover that their favorite local musician is a homeless runaway. This story-line is the reason for the title, and that's when they decided they're going to raise some money so they can find this kid a place to live. First they decide to build a booth where people can shoot a basketball to help them raise money. Suddenly, Parker's would-be girlfriend Val comes over to visit him and notices some structural deficiencies in the booth, which neither of the two girls buy until Maddie shoots a ball, causing it to collapse. That's when they decide to get help from the teenage Einstein, and use a classroom at her school. But rather than build a booth to raise money for the house, Maddie suggests that they should build one themselves.

Joey and Parker are all psyched up for an upcoming movie called "Custodians of the Cosmos 2," which is shown in 5-D. Because the movie is in 5-D it's ridiculously expensive, so the two boys try to sneak into the movie theater at a lower price. As part of their attempt to do so, they meet a ticket counter girl at the theater named Daria, and before you get on my case about the classic MTV cartoon, this Daria played by Ashley Fuss, is not a brunette and does not wear glasses, but still has the same sullen, sarcastic attitude that those of us loved from the protagonist of the Beavis and Butt-head spin-off. She's not buying Parker's crappy attempts to impersonate a 4-year-old, or Joey's attempt to hide Parker in his jumpsuit and pretend to be an big fat man.

Disney's promotional department tried to plug this as a "very special episode," and while it's not hard to understand why, the "That's So Raven" episode "True Colors" was a lot more heavy-handed, and the "Austin & Ally" episode "Beauties & Bullies" was heavier than both of them. Additionally, Ms. Rocha once reminded us in an interview that Disney tends to make things cheap, but in some cases it works, because it gives cast-members the chance to perform other tasks behind the scenes, like write some episodes. Nevertheless, this gave the team of Rocha and McClain a chance to write something true to their hearts, and like in "BFF-A-Rooney," also give Ms. Rocha a chance to boost her own ego, which is well-deserved.

And actually, that might be a good thing, although I don't use it regularly in conversations anyhow. As I mentioned in my comment on the series finale, the series itself changed, even if the main characters didn't change that much. Lindy still gets over-excited over the littlest things, Delia is still a weirdo, even with her new look, Garrett is still an uptight germophobe, and most importantly, Logan and Jasmine are still in love with each other, despite the fact that Jasmine is with someone else.

Like episodes such as "Lindy Nose Best," "Next of Pumpkin," "Logan Finds Out!," and "Falling for... Who?," this episode focuses heavily on the unrequited love between Logan and Jasmine. In this case the catalyst is Jasmine seeking a favor from Logan, but instead of the obvious fantasy he has about her breaking up with her boyfriend and promising to be his forever, she requests drum lessons. Needless to say the first day of the lessons fuel some sparks between the two unrequited lovers. The barely contained reaction on Lindy Watson's face in the background when she saw Logan teaching Jasmine about the concept of a paradiddle has to be seen to be believed, if you haven't seen it already. I wanted to squeal with all the 14-year-old girls this show is targeted at,... and I'm a 51-year-old man.

The "B stories" are a toss-up. One story seems to involve Garrett training a new Rumble Juice employee named Shelley played by "Sonny With a Chance's" Allisyn Ashley Arm. The girl seems quite eager to learn, specifically from him. When Garrett lets one kid who can't pay for a smoothie get one for free, his new trainee tries to use the incident to get him fired. This doesn't necessarily work so well, because when Betty LeBow confronts him on it, he reveals that he took some money out of his own paycheck.

The other one involves Delia recruiting Lindy to help her in a puppet show for some kids, but both of them have creative differences, mostly spurred by Lindy. The play is supposed to be on getting along with one another, but Lindy wants to try to add the concept of conflict for emphasis, thereby adding some real conflict between the two members of the "Fab 5." And of course, this conflict gets solved in the usual sitcom-allotted time. Honestly, deciding which is the B-story and which is the C-story is a little difficult.

Getting back to the "A-story," one of Logan's lessons ends up inadvertently causing Jasmine to wind up in his arms, just before her Owen arrives, which makes him question the brainy fashion plate about her relationship with him. The girl reveals that he's just a friend, but we all know better.

In real life, Piper Curda does not need drum lessons from Austin North, or vice versa. The Curda family has a YouTube demo video of Piper on the drums at 13 with a medley of beats from classic rock tunes. Thankfully, North and Curda's own real life musical abilities gave the writers fodder for their characters' musical abilities, and therefore the chance to get a little closer. Whatever you might say about the changes in the writing for the second season, you have to admit they knew how to turn up the heat between the two of them, even if they don't end up with more heat between them than the Disney censors will allow. You've got to give them some credit for that.