Edermike

Though Brian and Dennis' voices were already on the decline, 1976 was the last year the Beach Boys could really be called a fully cohesive band. This captures them on a comeback before their live show really declined. It is well made and plain fun. That Same Song sung with the Double Rock Baptist Church is a highlight, showing how much passion Brian had as a performer. This was also the last chance to see Dennis at his peak. He drums with real power, and his You Are So Beautiful is very heartfelt. He is together here. Anyhow you can get this at amazon.com UK and it will play on US players. It's now called Good Vibrations Tour.

Now obviously this is a vehicle for Kenny Rogers popularity at the time, but it is an honest one. As a person who admits to past mistakes, learns from them, and then passes on these lessons ,this comes close to his real personality. That he was able to do this on record, in interviews, and then on film, speaks to his considerable ability to get across his views on life to his audience.While I feel he never quite matched the creative daring on his own that he displayed in the First Edition, through 1983 everything he did was a success. This movie reflects why. The script had old fashioned conservative values that most of his fan base share, and thus could make a connection with. This is a family movie about rape, and that in itself is an accomplishment. There is much to enjoy in the movie, the characters are well developed, the actress playing Becky is a knockout, and there are many in jokes for Kenny's fans to catch. Watch for his mother in an amusing cameo and his brother Lelan is there too. Also notice in the first scene that he is singing the traditional version of "Love Lifted Me". As most fans know it was a modernized version of this track that launched his solo career in 1975, and this scene (and the fact the his characters sermon is based on it) is a nice homage to that. All in all if you like Kenny and or movies for the whole family Coward Of The County is for you.

I don't know if this is one of the most remembered episodes but for comedy it was best. Like All In The Family had, Diff'rent Strokeds took the serious story of Rashomon and made it into comedy gold. I think the appeal of doing this as a comedy is seeing how comically egotistical everyone's telling of the story is. I think the thing I remember most about this particular episode or the facial expressions. Arnold's blubbering lips, Willis' tears. Very funny stuff. It's sad that the show did so many of those dumb "special episodes" and didn't focus more on their cast's comedic talent and timing which is very much on display here. The show would JTS within a year due to the appearance of that annoying kid Sam, but this episode was a last hurrah before the Arnold character became too serious.