Been up since eight, so had a chance to nock off a bunch of things from tape to DVD when I wasn't upstairs:

The last two episodes of The Day the Universe Changed.

The Royale: Back when it was a classic movies station, AMC wanted to create another series, this time about the movies, to run back-to-back with Remember WENN; this was their first effort. The protagonist is a 10-year-old boy named Billy who is a latchkey child since his dad was killed in the war and Mom has to work full time at the grocery store. With his buddies, he runs in and out of the local movie house, The Royale. After Billy does $100 worth of damages to a promotion in the theatre, he's allowed to work off his debt by helping Carl, the projectionist.

This show had a promising plot that fell flat after the first episode (there were three; AMC finally strung them together as a movie, which won Pat Carroll an Emmy Award as Best Actress in a "Children's Special"—huh? this was not a children's story). The other two stories had to do with Billy writing the script (!!!) to English-overdub an Italian art film that turned out to be risque and the theatre offering dancing classes while Billy wangled his way into staying on at the theatre when his debt is paid off.

Some of the characters were quite good: Billy is an interesting character, as is Mildred, a retired teacher who is now the ticket seller, and also Carl, who lost his son in the war, thereby setting up Carl and Billy in a father-and-son type relationship, and Mildred and Billy in a grandmother/favorite aunt and boy relationship. On the other hand, there were big problems: the supporting characters were bland, stupid, and badly acted, from the milquetoast theatre manager to Kermit the martinet head usher to the vapid usherettes. The Italian art film plot was plain stupid; not even someone as stupid as the theatre manager would allow a 10-year-old to translate a film. In addition, the entire Billy/Carl relationship was completely rushed into 57 minutes when it could have been hinted at and developed later in a series.

And one more glaring anachronism: Carl was African-American. Granted, in the 1940s area The Royale took place in (I think it was New Jersey), maybe racial relations weren't as bad as they might have been, let's say, in Mobile, Alabama, or Nashville, Tennessee. However, Billy and Carl's relationship is clearly modern, and no one ever objects to Carl's race. Indeed, the entire town seems to want to "mother" Carl. The only negative comment about Carl comes from Billy, who describes him from "coming from the wrong side of the tracks."

The next transfer was Paramour, another AMC production that was supposed to pair with Remember WENN. This one took place in 1943, about a horse racing magazine that is losing money, so its publisher brings in a new editor—a woman named Samantha McRae, "Sam" for short—to turn the rag into a movie gossip magazine. The publisher's feckless nephew Robert Brandt, who's the executive editor in name only since he spends his days partying and drinking, is incensed...until in the course of four episodes he manages to...of course...fall in love with Sam, whom he hated and was fighting with just two hours earlier.

Again, another show that had a lot of things going for it: the actors included Simon Jones as a college professor turned gossip columnist, a pre-Broadway-smash Kristin Chenowith as one of the layout artists who ends up doing movie reviews (and other duties as assigned) on the new magazine, and Audrie Neenan, who was so deliciously nasty as Miss Cosgrove on Remember WENN as the gum-snapping secretary. But the show itself was...dreadful. G. Ross Parker and his co-writers the Seegers gave a good try in reproducing Rupert Holmes-type snappy/clever wordplay, but combined with abysmal stories it was no go. The characters came off as the Remember WENN characters recombined: for instance, Neenan's secretary was a cross between Maple LaMarsh and Gertie Reece, editor Sam McRae was a more streetwise Betty Roberts with a touch of Hilary Booth, etc.

The worst of all these recombinants was David Andrew McDonald, who was stuck with the thankless role of making Robert Brandt into a sympathetic character. He appeared to be based on Scott Sherwood, with the good looks of Jeff Singer, and with the integrity of neither. While Scott came off as a scheming entrepreneur in his first appearances on WENN, he had some charming qualities and exhibited initiative and conscience. Brandt is a lazy boor whose acceptance into the armed forces makes him no more appealing; in fact one is longing for him to reach North Africa and get shot by one of Rommel's Afrika Korps.

Of course the last of AMC's projects, The Lot, which made the last two look like Oscar winners, was the one that eventually replaced Remember WENN and lasted for about a dozen episodes or so. I recorded the first four, hated all the characters except the wardrobe man (who, I discovered later, was supposed to be gay, but AMC balked at something so "risky," so they made him British instead), and nearly rolled off the sofa laughing at the ridiculous scene were they all gather around the radio in Hollywood listening to the arrival of the Hindenberg in New Jersey, gasping and crying when they hear it catches fire and crashes. Duh, guys, this stuff wasn't broadcast over the air as if it were covered on CNN back in those days, and certainly not cross-continent; people would learn about the tragedy later on a news report.

----------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 4:27:00 PM

Comments: Post a Comment