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Valiant Lady (1953)
Typical Early Soap Opera
Valiant Lady was a soap opera that premiered on CBS on October 12, 1953, and ran to August 16, 1957. Like most of the soap operas of the day, each episode was only fifteen minutes in length and aired live.
As is common for soap operas, Valiant Lady's storylines dealt with scandalous topics. At least they were scandalous for those times: children being born out of wedlock; women dating married men; a young man falling in love with a divorced woman; a teenaged girl learning to perform "unseemly" dances.
The show aired more than 1,000 episodes, but it was never terribly popular. Sponsored by General Mills and other companies, it aired daily at noon and preceded the soap opera, Love of Life. Love of Life was much more popular, airing 7,315 episodes until its cancellation in 1980.
Valiant Lady was a rather typical soap opera and its demise wasn't due to its storylines. It suffered from being the leadoff soap opera on CBS, and it went up against stiff competition from first the Tennessee Ernie Ford Show, and then later by the very popular game show, Tic Tac Dough.
In short, there was nothing memorable about this show.
The Restless Gun (1957)
Great Title, Mediocre Show
The Restless Gun sports one of the all-time great television titles. The show itself was dark, gritty, and a little slow. The show's star, John Payne, was a competent actor who graced television and movie screens for four decades. In this series, the long-faced Payne, who was only 45 when the show premiered, seemed a little old for the part. He was a lot of things, but not particularly restless. In the whole, the show was fairly typical of TV Westerns. It was a 30-minute long morality play in which Payne's character was always heroic. The Restless Gun wasn't a bad oater, but it wasn't spectacular either. That is probably why it only lasted 78 episodes.
Moon Ring (2011)
Don't Waste Your Time
Moon Ring was Jerry Van Dyke's last feature film. It's a shame his last effort was in such a terrible movie. However, he isn't to blame for this hot mess. This film was poorly directed by Scott Loye, and the lead actors were horrible. But worse than the directing and acting, Scott Loye's writing was atrocious. He displayed no feel for tension, drama, or romance. Moon Ring was painfully predictable and mind-numbingly boring throughout. It couldn't keep the interest of viewers because it never got their interest in the first place. Every scene in this film has been done much better in other movies. The good news is that virtually no one has seen it. It's my misfortune that I have.
If you want to be entertained, watch an episode of Coach and enjoy the greatness that was Jerry Van Dyke.
The High Chaparral: The Last Hundred Miles (1969)
A Good Episode
"The Last Hundred Miles" was one of the best episodes of the High Chaparral. Robert Clary of Hogan's Heroes fame was quite good as the crooked merchant. He was just over the top enough in the role of a megalomaniac to make his character work. As was common in television Westerns, historic characters are introduced into the fictional story. In this case, Michael Keep again plays a fair and even-handed version of Cochise. Keep had already played Cochise in 40 Guns to Apache Pass and it was a character he handled well.
Overall, this is a solid episode and if you like 1960s TV Westerns, you will enjoy this episode.
Psych (2006)
Pineapples for Everybody!
In the first decade of the 21st Century, the USA Network gave us the best shows on television. Psych was at the top of USA's lineup. If the purpose of a television show is to entertain, Psych accomplished that, and them some.
Shawn (James Roday Rodriguez) and Gus (Dulé Hill) had one of the all-time great television bromances. The supporting cast was first-rate throughout and the show never became boring. It could have continued for another decade or two and remained great.
The two sleuths solved crimes of the most unusual kinds in the most unusual ways. Along their way, they made more obscure references to '80s television shows and movies than one can count. Besides that, they parodied some of my all-time favorite television shows. What's better than a Cinnamon Festival?
If you like drinking games, get your buddies together, watch Psych, and take a drink every time a character begins a sentence with "Shawn."
The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything (1980)
A waste of Time
Like most TV movies of its era, The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything was bad. First, by 1980, the stopping of time was an old plot device (See the terrific Twilight Zone episode from 1963 called "Kind of a Stopwatch"). This movie was supposed to be a wild romp, but the script was weak and unfunny when I watched it then and it has gained nothing over the years.
Pam Dawber was cute, but she was not much of an actor. Of course, no one could have saved this turkey.
Robert Hays was a passable actor, but not in this mess. As actors sometimes do, he let this film bring him down to its level. At least, he got a nice payday and he was so good in Airplane that it diverted our attention from The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything.
Konga (1961)
Behind the Times
The poorly executed Konga was hopelessly late. Had it been made in the 1940s, even in black and white, audiences may have been kinder to it. But by the 1960s, movie goers, and television viewers for that matter, were in no mood for a slow, talky mad scientist flick lacking in enough action to carry it.
The actors were fine in other roles, but in this movie overacting was the norm. Perhaps the thespians were trying to add substance to the thin as water script. If so, it didn't work.
Had the movie centered on Konga rather than his creator, or had he become a real menace earlier in the film, maybe it would have been better. It certainly couldn't have been worse.
The Texan (1958)
Not A Bad Series
The Texan was, like most of the 1950s Westerns, made up of morality plays in which good always prevailed. It also follows the plot of many Westerns - man wanders around getting in and out of trouble, but winds up helping everyone he comes across - except the bad guys. The Texan was well written and well constructed for a half hour Western series. It is not a classic, however. The reason for this was Rory Calhoun. It isn't that he was a poor actor, he was actually quite good. Yet, for some reason, Calhoun's screen persona didn't set well with some viewers. His lack of charisma forever chained him to B-movies and television guest shots. If you like Calhoun, you will like The Texan, if not, you won't.
The Wide World of Mystery: The Spy Who Returned from the Dead (1974)
Orson Bean is Excellent
I first watched this nice little tongue-in-cheek spy story when I was a teenager. Orson Bean plays his role with a twinkle in his eye and a slight grin on his face. If you can find it, it is worth a look for Bean and for the fun ending.