#but they used footage from the host which had already aired a few weeks earlier on sept 23

[fruitcage]

[realtacuardach]

Deception and Perception

“Con-artist” entry for Obiyuki Bingo 2021, hosted by @snowwhite-andtheknight

I hope you enjoy!

~~~

Leaning nearly double on the folding chair, Shirayuki clutched her ankle and moaned lowly under her breath as the security guard closed the door behind him. His footsteps echoed as he walked down the hallway to the main office, the steady rhythm slowly fading away to nothing. A half-minute more ticked by on her watch, and Shirayuki straightened up. Quickly getting to her feet, she walked over to the filing cabinets stacked against the wall and pulled fruitlessly on one of the handles. It didn’t come as any surprise that the research had been locked up, but she allowed herself a small curse of frustration before extracting a lockpick from her pocket.

There has to be an easier way to get information, she internally muttered to herself as she got to work.

But there wasn’t, she’d already tried.

When the progress on her laboratory’s latest research had slowed down, Shirayuki initially filed it away as one of the typical delays and frustrations of being a researcher. But months had passed, and they weren’t getting any further in their findings - meanwhile, the neighboring lab from Bergatt Enterprises, who had piggy-backed on their research for a time, was making leaps and bounds.

She had asked to see their results, to understand where she might have been making mistakes. In response, they had erected swift, impenetrable walls, stating that their findings were their intellectual property. A bitter pill to swallow, but their offering a thorn bramble when she’d offered an olive branch in the past was just going to have to be a lesson to keep her guard up better in future.

But when she’d returned to her own lab, intent on looking at her earlier notes and samples to start over from scratch, she’d found that her notes were gone. Someone had taken them.

The filing cabinet clicked open, and she shoved the lockpick in her pocket before reaching into the drawer, fingers flying over the tops of the file folders.

She hadn’t wanted to believe that the other lab would stoop to theft or sabotage, but when the lab assistant who’d started work two weeks before their collaboration with Bergatt stopped showing up with no explanation two days after it had ended, she’d had suspicions. Suspicions that were confirmed, at least in her mind, when she’d seen that same lab assistant in the lobby of Bergatt Enterprises when she’d first approached them and been shut down. Calling after the woman had been an impulse, but also a mistake. The faux lab assistance had scurried deep behind the security of ‘limited access’ doors, and Shirayuki had been escorted out.

The guard had rushed her out so quickly that she’d tripped on the threshold, and landing hard on her ankle had hurt but also given her an idea.

The first drawer didn’t have them. Fighting the urge to slam it shut in frustration, Shirayuki instead closed it slowly and started on the next cabinet down. It has to be here, she assured herself, squinting at the papers and forcing herself to keep a steady pace, this is the only place left.

Bergatt Enterprises had four labs within the state; it would have been too much to hope for that they’d have left the research in the first place she’d looked, the facility where she’d seen the spy. But she’d tried anyway.

After a week, she’d gone back, her hair tied back and covered with a bandana to fill out a job application. On the way to fill out the paperwork, she’d walked by a Wet Floor sign and fallen. She’d held her side and groaned, curling around her injury. Frantic to avoid lawsuits, employees had ushered her into a makeshift nurse’s office and left there for a few minutes. Moving quickly, she’d managed to get into the lab offices, only to find the filing cabinets were only for show and were disappointingly empty.

The paper in the file folder at the back of the cabinet caught on her fingers, the paper crumpled and off-color compared to the pristine contents of the other files. Her breath catching, she pulled the paper out and nearly cried with relief. Found you, she grinned, holding the paper tight to her chest. Now I just have to-

Two sets of footsteps were coming closer down the hallway. Shirayuki just managed to keep from slamming the drawer shut, instead smoothly closing it and darting back to the chair. Wadding her notes into a square and shoving it down into her blouse, she drew her jacket around her before bending down to resume the slow massaging of her ankle.

The security guard returned, closely followed by a man who looked distressingly official. Next to the guard with his ill-fitting button-up and baggy slacks, the new man had an air more polished and somehow dangerous, his eyes hidden behind sunglasses. “This is the lady?” He asked, tucking his badge into his suit jacket.

“Yes, sir.” The guard glared at Shirayuki. “Procedure said to call you in if we had anything....suspicious happen. We’ve had a lot of attempted break-ins.”

“Have you?” Behind his sunglasses, the new man’s eyebrows raised, the skin pulling taut around a scar over his left eye. “And not been able to catch them yet? At all?”

The security guard puffed up indignantly. “I caught her.”

“Hmm,” the other man stepped around the desk where Shirayuki’s chair had been situated and sat down on a chair behind it. “And you’re sure this girl is some kind of criminal mastermind?” He snorted. “I can see why you had to call me in.”

Flushing red, the guard drew himself up, but got waved off. “Easy, easy. I’m not saying you’re wrong.” The well-dressed man leaned forward, Shirayuki’s breath catching as he moved closer, smooth and sinuous and unpredictable. She stared steadily back, praying he couldn’t hear her heart pounding or the paper crinkling as she struggled to keep her composure. The man smirked at her, then leaned back in his chair. “You can go,” he told the guard.

“What?” The guard hitched his belt indignantly. “Shouldn’t we both-?”

The suited man’s lips twisted into an irritated smirk. “You think I can’t handle one little girl?”

Shirayuki focused on her fake ankle pain to keep from bristling and giving herself away.

“Well, no,” the guard stuttered.

“If it makes  you feel better,” the man waved towards the door, “you can wait outside. But this is my case now.”

The two men stared at each other for an agonizing few moments before the guard stepped back. “Okay, Mr. Nanaki.”

Nanaki smiled, his smile full of teeth and thinly veiled malice. “Ah, ah, ah. Agent Nanaki.” He pulled out a badge with a smooth flourish. Shirayuki caught a glimpse of “Internal” and “Security” before the badge was returned to the jacket. Nanaki reached out his hand towards the guard, palm up, and beckoned with his fingers. The guard, his expression simultaneously flustered and cowed, stepped forward and pulled out a manila folder that he’d been carrying between his arm and stomach. He handed it to the agent.

‘Thank you,” the agent snarked smoothly. “I’ll call if you’re needed.”

His tone indicated that the guard wouldn’t be, and the guard stomped out..

Agent Nanaki opened the manila folder, flipping through the pages, his head moving ever so slightly from side to side as he read. Silence grew thick between them, and Shirayuki’s heart pounded in her ears. She took a silent deep breath and licked her dry lips. “So…”

The agent lifted his head to look at her. “Yes?”

Shirayuki gritted her teeth. “Can I leave?”

Clicking his tongue, the agent’s smirk that had previously been twisted with irritation smoothed out into amusement. “Come on, Miss. We both know you’re smarter than that.”

“Excuse me.”

He turned a page and whistled. “Never mind, maybe not. They got camera footage of you that time.”

“What?”

“It’s true.” He picked up a grainy picture of a figure with shoulder-length hair lingering near an office door. “Not the most revealing angle, but these aren’t the most sophisticated cameras.”

Shirayuki just managed to keep from folding her arms; this man was incredibly irritating. She squinted at the photo - even though it was grainy, she could just see the loose sandal strap she’d used as an excuse to linger behind from the group. “I can’t believe you think that’s me,” she sighed. “It doesn’t look anything like me.”

The agent sighed and scratched his forehead. “Okay, so we’ll play it that way.” He turned all the papers over until he reached the first page, which he extracted. “Incident one, main campus. Young woman with red hair comes in for an interview. Falls down in the lobby, sustains injuries, risks suing the company. They leave her alone to try and get her medical attention - and a lawyer.” His mouth quirked. “By the time they get back, the young lady has collapsed by the filing cabinets, saying she’d hit her head.” He flipped the page. “But when they turn around, she manages to sneak off. And the name used to secure the interview was fake.”

Well, she could have hardly used her own name. “I hope the poor woman got help.”

“Hmm.” He rifled through the next few pages before pointing at a new sheet. “Incident two, east campus. Another young woman, also with red hair, was walking out by the storage house. Some guy with a cart ran into her and knocked her over. She got rushed inside, reported symptoms of concussion.” He snorted. “They left her alone for a few minutes to get a glass of water, came back to find an empty room with a cabinet wide open with a safety pin jammed in the lock.”

“Really?” Shirayuki raised an eyebrow in interest. She’d brought a bobby pin along, but it had gotten lost when she’d mistimed her footing to collide with the stockroom employee. She’d been lucky she hadn’t gotten a concussion; less lucky that she’d had to resort to using a safety pin she found on the top of the cabinet. “I didn’t know you could open locks with a safety pin.”

“You really can’t,” the agent looked down at his paper. “I think the lady just yanked it open at some point - the cabinet locks are pretty weak.”

Shirayuki begged to differ, she had nearly splintered all her fingernails in her haste to open the drawer.

Agent Nanaki looked at her for a moment, then shook his head. “You’re still - okay, incident three, south campus. A young woman, again with red hair, joins a group of students to tour the labs. She accidentally,” he smirked, “broke the strap of a sandal and stayed behind to fix it. Tour guide goes back to check on the young lady, but she’s vanished. Meanwhile,” he drawled, “ someone managed to jimmy open a door to the main lab, off-limits to the tour, and snuck in.” He tapped the grainy picture. “Sure this isn’t ringing any bells?”

Shirayuki shook her head. “I’m sorry, but no.”

The agent snorted. “And that brings us to today. Young woman, with red hair,” he shut the manila folder and made a sweeping gesture towards her head, “somehow gets lost in the north campus and twists her ankle. She gets helped to a room, but then the rent-a-cop gets suspicious and calls in the cavalry.” He leaned forward. “Because even he can tell this can’t be a coincidence.”

Swallowing back her anxiety, Shirayuki shrugged. “I couldn’t say about the other times, but this time is certainly a coincidence.”

“Really?”

“Hair like this,” she waved a hand around her crown, “stands out like a sore thumb. Would I really be so dumb as to not conceal it - if I was the person you are thinking of?”

Agent Nanaki leaned back in his chair, springs squeaking, and barked a laugh. “Ah, a double bluff, Miss? Not too shabby.”

She couldn’t tell whether it was pleased pride or irritated frustration that was filling her chest at that laugh, but she chose to ignore the sensation. “If that’s really all you think you have that points to me, I’ll be going. I need to ice this ankle.”

“Oh.” Nanaki got up and walked around the desk in front of her chair, before sitting on the edge of the desk. “No, Miss. That’s all they have on you.” He reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a small notebook. He flipped open the cover, and Shirayuki could see pages filled with cramped writing. “This,” he licked his thumb and turned another page, “is what I have on you.”

“Oh?” Shirayuki was having a little trouble breathing, although where that was from the revelation of this knowledge or the awareness of how close the agent was standing, she wasn’t sure.

Nanaki took off his sunglasses and tucked them into the collar of his shirt. He looked into her eyes, and she was captivated by warm amber. Leaning forward, his smirk grew as he closed the distance between their faces. Shirayuki swallowed as she felt herself drifting into his eyes. “Uh, what are you doing?”

“Eyes are the windows of the soul,” he drawled smoothly. “Trying to see what I can see.”

Shirayuki’s fingers curled on her lap as she looked into his eyes. “And what do you see?”

“Hmm.” He leaned closer, and she felt her hips tilt her towards him. His tongue brushed his lips  - and then he licked his thumb and turned another page in his notebook. “Name: Shirayuki Leon, has doctorate in biology specializing in medicine and botany. First studied in Tanbarun before moving to Clarines three years ago. Been making a real splash in the science scene. Working under Garrack Gazelt, has published two-” He flipped a page. “-three papers in various academic journals.”

Shirayuki took a deep breath, striving for calm. “Sounds interesting.”

“I thought so.” He smirked harder. “Recently working on the same research that Bergatt has been focusing on for the past few months.”

“Ah.” Her fingers shook a little under his scrutiny.

“Research that really picked up,” he continued, “once Bergatt’s current head researcher came from your labs with some classified notes, and possibly after sabotaging your work.”

“I knew it!” Shirayuki cried, and then shrunk back. “Oh.”

“Yeah, oh.” The agent smiled broadly. “Gotcha, Miss.”

Shirayuki slumped back in her chair, brushing a lock of hair from her face. “Yeah, you got me.” She sighed. “Now what?”

“Well…” Nanaki’s watch chime and he looked at it. “Time for us to leave, I think.” He stood up. “Will you come quietly, or do I need to use handcuffs?”

She sighed. “You don’t need handcuffs.”

The agent craned his neck towards the door, sliding his sunglasses back on. “After you, Miss.” 

Shirayuki’s feet dragged as she made her way to the door. The agent moved around behind her, his arm grazing her side as he reached to turn the doorknob, and she shivered. Nanaki’s hand encircled her wrist as the two stepped out into the hallway, and the guard roused himself from his half-asleep position against the wall.

“I’m taking the suspect into custody,” the agent snapped, pulling lightly on Shirayuki’s arm. “I expect a full report sent to the department by noon tomorrow.”

The two briskly made their way down the hallways. “Good thing you’re not actually injured,” Nanaki mused as they walked through the parking lot, “otherwise we might not make it in time.”

“You’re in that much of a hurry to arrest me?”

“No.” The agent opened the passenger side door - funny, she’d expected to be put in the back - and indicated for her to get inside. “But time is not on our side.”

“Why?”

“Because,” he leaned in, “the actual agent should be here any minute.”

And with that shocking statement, he closed the door.

“The real agent?” Shirayuki exclaimed as the fake agent slid into the driver’s seat and started the engine.

“Yeah.” He swore under his breath. “Duck down, he’s pulling in now.” Shirayuki could hear the sounds of a door opening and closing, although the sound grew smaller as Nanaki stepped on the gas.

“What in the world-”

“You can sit up now, Doc,” the man grinned, tossing his sunglasses to the back as they sped away from the parking lot. He flexed his shoulders underneath his jacket. “Can’t wait to get out of this monkey suit.”

Shirayuki stilled. The humor and wry tone that had been lingering beneath his officious demeanor was in full force now, and his grin was rakish. 

“Who are you?”

“I have many names,” he smirked, eyebrows wiggling, “but mostly I go by Obi. And I think we have a common enemy. I’ve been trying to take down the Bergatts myself for a while now.”

“Okay, Obi,” she tried, and his grin grew. “Now what?”

“Well, first,” Obi answered, “we stash away that research you have hiding in your shirt.” Shirayuki blushed, her hand going to her blouse. “And after that, well, that’s up to you. I figured we could get you someplace safe until things cool down a little. Or-”

"Or?"

“I like the way you work, Doc,” he smirked, “and I think we can bring the Bergatts down a lot faster if we work together. You bring the science smarts, and I bring the infiltration and deception skills. I teach you, you teach me.” Keeping his left hand on the wheel as he continued driving, he raised up his right hand towards her. “What do you say? Partners?”

This was crazy.

Shirayuki smirked back and clasped his hand with one of her own. “Partners.”

[brendancorris]

Thundercats Roar thoughts...

So a friend of mine showed me this trailer a few weeks ago, and for a second I didn’t believe it was real. But, before I get further into my thoughts on this thing everybody else on the internet has already covered, let me go into my history with Thundercats.

Despite never drawing much fan art for the series, Thundercats is a property I love, and one of the biggest parts of my life in my earliest years. Born in ‘86 with three older siblings, I was just in time for the original Thundercats. My family already consisted of die-hard fans, so it was naturally one of the first franchises I got into. From the time I was born to when I was about 4, Masters of the Universe and Thundercats were what it was all about. It wasn’t until ‘89 that I got my first TMNT toy, and about a year later that was literally all I cared about. 

But before my TMNT obsession, there was Thundercats. While I do have many fond memories of watching the show, my most beloved memories of it are simply being a fan. Collecting the action figures, listening to my siblings talk about the show, and playing Thundercats. Not a video game, though. On nights when my Mom was out, my Dad would host He-Man or Thundercats games where he’d be either Skeletor or Mumm-ra, my oldest sister and brother would be She-Ra and He-Man or Lion O and Cheetarah (while my other sister would be... somebody) and I, being the baby, would always get stuck being Orko or Snarf. All us kids would wrestle our dad and beat up on him as he’d try to defeat us. Epic stuff. Some how the younger of my two sisters would usually end up horribly injured after each game, though...

Simply put, Thundercats was the real deal with my family when I was little. The action was great, the evil beasts were awesome, the toys were a blast, and Cheetarah, along with the He-Man girls, made me feel things my tiny self wasn’t yet ready to feel. 

It wasn’t until I was in high school that I revisited the show, and, honestly, I was surprised how much it held up. Especially considering in high school I was “too cool for everything” yet I still acknowledged its quality. Yes, it was corny in the way all old children's’ shows were at the time (I have nothing but love for that tone, but I can see how it would be hard to digest for later generations), but it still had great, smart, sophisticated writing for its time, amazing animation and artwork, good characters, and one of the most hype intros ever.

In 2011 a reboot was made. This reboot was far darker and more built on political commentary. It was an understandable progression. The fans had grown up, so the franchise did too. While I wasn’t a huge fan, I can respect the quality of the writing, art, and over all work that went into it. It was a sophisticated piece of art. I felt it went a bit too extreme with the tone it was pushing, and as a long time fan of the original, found lots of the changes and design choices hard to digest. But again, it was a good show, and I respect what it attempted to accomplish. 

However, the show was canceled before season 2 could air. This left a lot of fans mad, confused as to whether it was low ratings, low ratings as a result of its switched time slot that was far from ideal, or just a business decision to sacrifice a popular show just to make way for a potentially more popular future show. While I can understand the upset from fans 100%, I didn’t feel it as I wasn’t a regular viewer. 

So, fast-forward to earlier this month when my friend shows me this trailer. As I said, at first I thought it was a joke, like College Humor or something. Then when the realization sunk in that it was real, I hated it. But, quickly I told myself that I don’t know enough about it yet to fully judge. I haven’t seen an episode. Sure, it looks awful from what I’ve seen, and I can clearly see the “monkey see monkey do” going on here with the copying of other successful modern cartoons. But, again, I haven’t seen it. Before I get into my final thoughts thus far, I need to address the elephant in the room...

...the similarities everybody has seen in this and Teen Titans GO!

While I wasn’t a die hard or anything, I did watch the entire first two seasons of the original Cartoon Network Teen Titans series when it was new, and I did like it. I thought it was very well-written, well-acted, had great characters, great character development, great stories, and great action. The characters worked off of each other beautifully. However, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I had some issues with it.

UNPOPULAR OPINIONS AHEAD - PREPARE TO HATE ME

Since its release I have always found the art style to look very under-developed and unappealing. It looked like an awkward imbalance of the (already bland in my mind) Justice League cartoon style and a newbie anime style. The best way I can describe it was it resembled the artwork of a junior-high kid who just started drawing anime. Also, I found a lot of the anime-inspired elements to feel forced. When characters would mutate into chibi disasters or tropes like sweat drops scrolling down their faces would happen, it was always a bit cringy and out of place. It felt like it was shoehorned in rather than rightfully fitting in.

But the most notable thing about the show was it was a pretty huge departure from the original DC comics. Gone was the realistic art style of the comics. Now the characters all had big, round heads, twig-like limbs, huge hands and feet, and big anime-eyes. Everything was very simplistic, sharp, and jagged. There was far more comedy, some great, and some that cringy chibi stuff I mentioned. The integration of anime tropes and far more kid humor was a huge departure from the comics. So, basically, despite being a good show, Teen Titans, the show, was a huge departure from its source material.

Then comes Teen Titans GO! and overnight it becomes one of the most hated (and most popular) cartoons of this age. I didn’t quite hate it, but wrote it off as crap without seeing it. It is a shame that the original show was canceled before it got to be finished, but putting fans’ anger towards that aside, the creation of TTG makes perfect sense. The characters proved extremely popular and marketable, largely because how comedic they could be when bouncing off each other (and the original show had been canceled. Continuing a canceled show years later is a difficult task, regrouping the team, dancing through the legal BS, and finding enough staff and people to fund it to be on board, as well as a network to accept it). More simplistic art styles were becoming more popular, and after the post-Adult Swim days, hyper, wacky, odd comedies have become the norm.

To be honest, any time I have seen Teen Titans GO!, which has only been about three episodes or so, I laughed. I don’t care what people say, the show is legitimately funny. Is it the greatest show ever? Not by a long shot. Is it better than the last TT show? Probably not. Is it a shame it exists while the original never finished? Kinda. But is it a bad show? Honestly, no. 

TTG knows exactly what it wants to be and delivers. It may not be the sequel show old fans wanted, but if you put aside the hatred, you’ll see it’s not only a funny cartoon bursting with energy and very well-defined and appealing character designs reminiscent of shows like Dexter’s Lab, but also a huge love letter to the Titans, the last show, and all things DC. It is clearly made by DC fans. I may be biased because I love Weird Al and The Golden Girls, but, man, this is funny right here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ICmOMLX3rQ

Admittedly, even the movie trailer looks funny, and I’ll likely see it, despite not really being a fan of the show. Just like the 2011 Thundercats, I see what the TTG team is intending to do, and I appreciate how well they do it, despite not being a regular supporter of it.

And, well, that brings us back to ‘Roar’. Will I like it? Based on what I’ve seen so far, likely not, but who knows. It could end up being the next Sonic Boom. I do strongly dislike the art direction for Thundercats Roar, and the footage shown thus far did not make me laugh (except Mumm-ra learning about the cats being on Third Earth by reading it in the newspaper. That actually got a chuckle from me). But, as much as my gut is telling me to hate this show, I won’t pass judgment until I’ve at least seen a couple episodes. It’s definitely not the Thundercats I love, but to be honest, I didn’t want a TC reboot. I was fine with it just being as it is. So if somebody’s going to reboot it for a new generation, I’ll be glad to see my favorite franchises get passed down, so long as it is done lovingly. If the show truly is a love letter to the history of the franchise as it claims to be, and if it’s a decently quality product that obvious care went into, I’ll be fine with it.

It would be so easy to tear it apart and hate it, but as I get older I find myself growing more accepting of such change. I’m not EXPECTING to like it, but who knows, I also wasn’t expecting to like Sonic Boom. Basically, so far I’m not digging what I’ve seen, but I’ll keep an open mind and stay hopeful. Here’s hoping they can change my mind with the final product.

The End

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior September 18, 2020 – MR. SOUL!, THE GRIZZLIES, MY NAME IS PEDRO, ANTEBELLUM, THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME, THE NEST, ALONE and More!

Usually, I’d be using this weekend in September to wrap-up my usual week in Toronto for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), though I haven’t gone the past two years and this year, I couldn’t get credentials because… well, who knows? You would think a virtual festival would allow more press, especially since there wouldn’t be the cost for attending, but the demand was greater than the capabilities of TIFF’s video streaming service, I guess. Either way, there are just way too many movies to talk about this week, so let’s get to it.

After sharing some stuff about TIFF… how’s that for a big-time fake-out?

Despite not getting credentials, I did get to watch a few of the movies, including the opening night film, Spike Lee’s movie based on David Byrne’s American Utopia; Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland, reviewed here; Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer’s new doc Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds; and I Care a Lot the new film from The Disappearance of Alice Creed director J. Blakeson, starring Rosamund Pike, Peter Dinklage, Eiza Gonzalez and more.

Starting with American Utopia, I wasn’t sure if this Broadway musical would be for me, despite being a life-long Heads fan. It seemed like it could be the definition of a jukebox musical with Byrne just playing his greatest hits and maybe talking in between. That’s exactly what it is, in fact, but it turns out that Byrne is quite a storyteller on stage as he is in music and books. The way that some of the Heads’ oldest tunes have been repurposed for the stage leads to a lively show where everyone on stage is playing an instrument while also singing and dancing. No, there’s no actual narrative or story tying all of the songs together as might normally be the case but the music and stage show more than makes up for it, and Spike Lee (as always) does a grand job capturing it. This will be on HBO on October 18.

Herzog’s latest doc is an interesting one, and a weird one, and one that’s chock-full of eccentric nerds speaking on the topic of meteorites, as Herzog fills the role of narrator and allows Oppenheimer to take center stage in front of the camera, as the duo travels around the world talking to experts on meteors and meteorites, accompanied by gorgeous cinematography and a beautiful score. I’m not sure this may be as immediate as some of Herzog’s Antarctica docs, but it’s another bonafide experience you’ll be able to see on Apple TV+ from November 13.

And that brings me to Blakeson’s I CARE A LOT, a dark crime comedy with an impressive ensemble cast but most of the focus put on Rosamund Pike’s Marla Grayson, a professional guardian and caregiver who has made a fortune preying on the elderly and putting them into retirement homes before cleaning them out of money. Her partner in crime, Fran, is played by Eiza Gonzalez, and things are looking good for them as they are given a “cherry,” in Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest), an old woman with no known connections who just happens to have a fortune in diamonds in a safe deposit boss in the bank. Oh, those also might belong to her estranged son, a crime-boss played by Peter Dinklage, who is outraged by what’s been done to his mother and swears revenge. Listen, these kinds of dark comedies aren’t always for everyone, because it’s really hard to root for Pike’s character, who is about as close to a “hero” as this movie comes. Either way, Blakeson has found a way to milk a rather untapped source in terms of a unique environment for this crime-comedy that ends up working far better than last year’s The Laundromat by Steven Soderbergh, maybe because it’s more about creating interesting characters rather than trying to give audiences a learning moment. (Also, Chris Messina is fantastic in this movie as Dinklage’s lawyer who first confronts Marla, and I’m really starting to see him in a better light as an actor. No idea what’s planned for this one, although it’s distributed by Elevation Pictures in Canada, and they seem to be making a foray into U.S. distribution. (See below)

Also, the New York Film Festival starts this week both virtually and in local drive-ins with opening night being one of three new Steve McQueen films that act as part of his “Small Axe” anthology with Lovers Rock being available to rent for just $25 via the Virtual Cinema starting Thursday. I still haven’t watched anything, as of this writing, but I hope to rectify that soon, so look for some reviews soon.

Before I get to this week’s movies, I do want to say that every once in a while (or maybe twice), I miss a movie or two. Very seldom do I have a chance to write about said movie while it’s still available to watch in theaters (or in this case, digitally), but not this time!

MR. SOUL! is a doc by Melissa Haizlip (co-directed by veteran Spike Lee editor and doc director Sam Pollard, who directed the excellent Two Trains Runnin’) about her uncle Ellis Haizlip, who produced and hosted the semi-long-running PBS show “Soul!” from 1968 to 1973. It was a touchstone for black communities throughout the country for those years, helping to break so many musical artists and poets and other personalities. I found the movie to be quite amazing, mainly since I had never heard of it. I didn’t move to the tri-state region until well after it was off the air, and honestly, I had never even heard of the show or of Ellis Haizlip, so watching his story being told in such a compelling way with so much archival footage, I was pretty blown away. I feel like what Ms. Haizlip and Mr. Pollard did with this movie is as groundbreaking and as important as the James Baldwin doc, I Am Not Your Negro, from a few years back in terms of helping modern-day people, both black and white, understand the black experience of he ‘60s and ‘70s. Mr. Soul! Is now available through Virtual Cinema across the country, and I hope those who enjoy learning new things will give it a look.

Let’s get to all of the new releases… because there’s a TON!

First, I’m gonna start with this week’s “Featured Flick” and yes, that might be considered Mr. Soul!, but the reason I write this column is to call attention to movies you might not have seen otherwise. That’s why I want to draw equal attention to a movie called THE GRIZZLIES (Elevation Pictures), which played at Toronto two years ago and is just now finally being released.

The directorial feature debut by producer Miranda de Pencier, The Grizzlies stars Ben Schnetzer as Russ Shepard, a recent graduate of McGill, who is sent to Kugluktuk at the very Northern ridge of Canada to teach a bunch of Inuit kids, as part of a program to pay back his college tuition. There, he learns that few teens even bother to show up for school, either kept away by their families’ traditions or just their desire to drink and do drugs. This kind of lifestyle inevitably ends to many suicides. Shepard has a hard time getting through to the kids until he realizes that maybe they just need a hobby, so he puts together a group of boys (and one girl) to play lacrosse.

My first year at the Oxford Film Festival (where I saw Sam Pollard’s Two Trains Runnin’), I also saw another excellent doc called Children of the Arctic about the teens from Barrow, Alaska, which is on a similar Northernmost part of the continent where this based-on-a-true-story takes place. Because I’d seen that doc, I was already interested in the setting for what might have otherwise been a typical teacher helps troubled students, not too unlike last week’s John Leguizamo film, Critical Thinking. What differentiates this from many previous movies like this (besides having lacrosse as its white savior sport, rather than chess) is that the setting is so unique, and it allows director Miranda De Pencier to work with a lot of really talented young indigenous actors, many who probably have never acted before. One exception is Boo Boo Stewart as Kyle, one of the kids dealing with domestic abuse from his drunken father.

I also liked Ben Schnetzer, who I wasn’t even remotely familiar with before seeing this, maybe because he had been doing mainly supporting roles; he proves himself to be perfectly capable of being the type of everyman lead we’ve seen other actors to portray. (Ben Affleck in The Way Back from earlier this year comes to mind.) More importantly, Schnetzer is just great with the talented younger cast. Sure, there are a lot of the normal cliches that come with this type of movie including the rousing coach speech to get the team motivated, but there’s no denying that this is one of the better iterations of a what has been a sadly overused movie genre.

I was kind of surprised to learn that this premiered at the Toronto Film Festival two years ago, and it’s just been sitting dormant waiting for someone to pick it up and release it. Actually, I found it quite shocking, because this is an absolutely wonderful and inspirational story that offers some hope in a world that’s gotten so dreary and depressing over the past few months. If you want to see a movie that can get you out of the doldrums, this is definitely one I’d recommend highly. If you can imagine a cross between The Bad News Bears (or even Slapshot) with Whale Rider, then that’s what The Grizzlies delivers.

Another wonderful and equally inspirational film to seek out is Lillian LaSalle’s doc MY NAME IS PEDRO (Sweet 180), which looks at the life and career of South Bronx resident Pedro Santana. The young Latino came from his own troubles going to school in the Bronx to becoming a beloved educator trying to help others using his unique personality and skill set. There’s no denyhing that Santana’s enthusiasm is quite infectious, so he’s quite beloved by everyone he encounters. Unfortunately, he runs into problems, including being systematically booted from his position at the Ramapo school district due to his lack of credentials. He then spends some time teaching in Haiti and gets a job in Dubai but then gets diagnosed with Stage 4 Kidney Cancer. I won’t say more because it’s a movie that, while not particularly ground-breaking in terms of technical aspects, it is indeed quite an inspirational and heartwarming film in the way it tells Pedro’s amazing story. My Name is Pedro will open at the Maysles Center’s Virtual Cinema in New York on Thursday, and then the Laemmle in L.A. on October 2, and then more cities on October 9.

There aren’t a ton of other prominent docs this week, although one of the more high-profile ones is Dawn Hudson’s doc THE WAY I SEE IT (Focus Features), which unfortunately, I received too late to watch and review. (Partially my own fault, to be honest.) It takes a look at two Presidents, Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan as seen through the eyes and lens of renowned photojournalist Pete Souza, who was the official White House photographer and had an unprecedent access to the country’s leaders. The movie will open in select theaters but then will be on MSNBC on Oct. 10 at 10pm Eastern.

Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz’s thriller ANTEBELLUM (Lionsgate) is a movie that’s being released this weekend via VOD after being delayed since April. Honestly, I’m not sure what I can say about it, because it relies so much on its rather ludicrous twist that anyone who watches the trailer can probably figure it out in 15 minutes or less. But I’ll play along. Janelle Monáe plays best-selling author Veronica Henley, who has been having dreams about being back in the Confederate South, working and being abused as a slave by racist soldiers.

We probably should get out of the way that Bush & Renz’s movie actually opens in the Antebellum South on a plantation where we watch a number of slaves being tortured and killed, including Monáe’s Eden and a fellow slave played by the always wonderful Kiersey Clemons from Dope. Jack Huston plays the particularly loathsome Confederate captain who is so awful to them.  About 40 minutes into the movie, we meet Monáe’s Veronica Henley as she wakes from a dream of going through that ordeal we just watched. Got it? So it was all a dream, right? And I bet you really believe that. Again, I promised not to give away the “big twist” but after watching Veronica and her friends (including Gabourey Sidibe from Precious) attending a book conference and Veronica dealing with all sorts of weird people (including Jena Malone in a deliciously evil role) and other strange things, the movie quickly gets tiring. It just takes so long to get to how and why Monáe and the others are on the plantation, and there had to be a better way of making that happen in a more interesting way.

At least the film’s last act turns into a bonafide revenge-filled action thriller, and by then, you’ll be ready to see anything that gets your pulse above a 5. The last 20 minutes are so good you wonder why the filmmakers didn’t seem to care that they were likely to lose people from walking out of theaters – or I guess their homes -- long before the movie gets anywhere worthwhile.

I didn’t watch the trailer for Antebellum until after seeing the movie, but it’s a particularly deceptive piece of work because it says it’s from the “Producer of Get Out and Us,” so you assume (as I did) that this is a movie produced by Jordan Peele or Jason Blum, but neither is involved with it. The trailer also inserts a number of scenes that do not appear in the movie to try to make it seem eerier, and frankly, this being sold as a “horror movie” is probably its biggest infraction. Instead, Antebellum is a weak “Twilight Zone” episode that’s handled so poorly you’re not sure whether to be offended by figuring out the twist almost immediately or offended that these two filmmakers thought they might have you fooled for longer than that. Again, Antebellum is skipping a theatrical release entirely and being released straight to VOD, which is probably for the better.

Antonio Campos, director of Simon Killer and Christine, returns with his adaptation of Donald Ray Pollock’s THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME, which will be streaming on Netflix actually right now! Set in 1957, it stars Tom Holland as Arvin Russell, the son of a religious father (played by Bill Skarsgård) who has come home after seeing all sorts of horrors in World War II. The expansive story follows both father and son but also the residents of a small town called Knockemstiff in Southern Ohio and how they’re all connected through a series of incidents.

Narrated by Pollock himself, Campos has created a brilliant Southern Gothic thriller that’s far more of an ensemble piece than some may expect because the biggest name stars, Tom Holland and Robert Pattinson, don’t appear in the movie for a good 40 minutes! Instead, we follow the story from Arvin’s father Willard and the incidents that lead to Arvin becoming an orphan, living with his half-sister Lenora (Eliza Scanlen). Years later, Arvin finds himself having to protect Lenora from the lecherous young preacher, Preston Teagarden (played by Pattinson), who is preying on the town’s young women. The movie also stars Jason Clarke and Riley Keough, as a couple who pick up hitchhikers for evil intentions, and Sebastian Stan as the latter’s sheriff brother who gets dragged into all the evil-doings in town. It also has Mia Wasikowska and Haley Bennett in smaller roles as two of the beleaguered women caught up in the story.

I went into The Devil All the Time knowing full well that I’m rarely a fan of most Southern-based dramas with a few exceptions, like Dee Rees’ Mudbound. There have been just as many that just didn’t connect with me like Hounddog. Either way, this is a similarly complex tale for Campos to tell because there are so many characters, and it spends quite a bit of time in the past before we finally meet Holland and Pattinson’s characters. This will most definitely annoy some people, but I was intrigued enough by how everyone was being slowly introduced that it didn’t bother me so much.

I’ve always been quite aware how talented a filmmaker Campos is but like with Rebecca and Michael C. Hall in Christine, he also benefits from having one of the strongest ensemble casts put together, as well as great craftspeople -- like cinematographer Lol Crawley -- helping to realize his vision.

It takes its sweet time getting to the point where things start to get interesting, which for many will probably be when Pattinson shows up as Preston Teargarden. At first, I didn’t like Pattinson’s character or performance much, but it certainly grew on me and it’s not the only solid performance of note. Campos has created a movie that gains so much from a second viewing once you know the true nature of the characters. Make no mistake that Campos has kept all the complexities of Pollock’s book for a movie that kept my attention in ways that few other movies have this year with a number of scenes that really shook me up. Besides streaming on Netflix today, The Devil All the Time will actually be opening theatrically in a few cities so check your listings! I interviewed Campos over at Below the Line, and you can read my interview with Cinematographer Lol Crowley over there later today.

As excited as I was to watch a new film from Campos, even MORE exciting, in some ways, is that we’re getting a new movie from his (former?) Borderline Productions partner Sean Durkin, whose Martha Marcy May Marlene was one of the breakouts from Sundance the year it premiered all the way back in 2011. Durkin has returned with THE NEST (IFC Films), a movie starring Jude Law and Carrie Coon as Rory O’Hara and his wife Allison, a married couple with two kids who move back to England for his job, taking up residence in an opulent mansion before things start to fall apart.

I went into The Nest (i.e. I hit play on the screener on my computer) thinking that it was going to be one of those old school British thrillers from the ‘60s and ‘70s, especially once it gets to the giant eerie mansion that reminds you of something from The Omen (one of my favorite horror movies, incidentally). In fact, the movie is more of an intense family drama where we watch Law, Coon and their kids pushed to the edge by circumstances, which one might assume is something being caused by some toxic aspect of their new house, but actually, nope, it’s just everyday life stuff.

For Law’s Rory, it’s a huge deal that falls through as he tries to bullshit his way through it, yet he keeps turning to his wife for money. She has her own problems to deal with including her rebellious stepdaughter Samantha (Oona Roche) and younger son Benjamin (Charlie Shotwell), neither of whom are adjusting well to the move. Her hobby is riding horses, and just bad things keep happening to all of them that all collides on one fateful night that includes Samantha having a crazy house party.

Although The Nest wasn’t nearly as much of a genre movie as I hoped it might be, one thing that really jumps out and makes it worthwhile is Carrie Coon’s performance. There’s no denying she’s just one great role or movie away from being in the Oscar game. Sadly, this one is is not it.

Like the film by Durkin’s producing partner, The Nest takes its own sweet time getting anywhere as Durkin goes for a slow roll approach, but that also allows him to embellish the images with a great score that includes quite a bit of ‘80s music. (I wasn’t sure if the movie actually was taking place in the ‘80s or not.) Although the influence of Stanley Kubrick seems fairly present in Durkin’s The Nest, it’s really more Eyes Wide Shut Kubrick than The Shining, and that might dismay those who are seeking the film’s horror potential. But if you like Eyes Wide Shut and go in expecting that, you won’t be as disappointed.

Another really solid thriller worth seeking out is director John Hyams’ ALONE (Magnet Releasing), which actually played as part of the Fantasia Film Festival a few weeks back. It’s true that there have been way too many movies with that title, but this is a fairly compelling thriller that starts as something that might seem fairly obvious and then goes into so many amazing and unexpected directions. The movie stars Jules Willcox as Jessica, a widow who is moving to a new place when she encounters a creepy guy on the road (played by Marc Menchaca), who seems to be following her. Pretty soon, it’s obvious that he is following her and has bad intentions for her by trapping her in his basement.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Alone, because it starts out so much like The Hitcher or even the recent Unhinged with a woman being plagued by a creepy guy, and it’s hard to watch at times because it gets pretty violent.  I was definitely uncomfortable watching this, since it felt like there was a voyeuristic aspect akin to torture porn that made me not to watch any more of this poor woman's torture and abuse. Fortunately, she does escape only to have to survive while trapped in the woods surrounding the cabin.

I wasn’t familiar with Jules Willcox before seeing this movie, but her performance and all the places it takes her in terms of fear and desperation is fairly impressive, as is Marc Menchaca, who does a great job playing one of those psychopaths who somehow can behave normal whenever it calls for it. (Think more Ted Bundy than Jeffrey Dahmer.) You combine these two amazing performers with a cat-and-mouse situation that combines their acting with some brilliant sound design work and cinematography, and you have a movie that goes far beyond what I expected from the premise.

Even so, Alone successfully explores the real fear women must face every day when they’re alone and feeling defenseless, and it shows Hyams to be an incredibly skilled filmmaker when dealing with a lot of elements. The last act where all of these skills come together, including some amazing stuntwork, is what takes what’s a thriller with an overly used premise and makes it something that’s far more unique and memorable. It will be available to watch in some theaters as well as On Demand.

Speaking of movies with unfortunate title choices, I’m guessing that director Kurtis David Harder was well into making his movie SPIRAL, on Shudder beginning Thursday, when it was announced that the next “Jigsaw” movie from Lionsgate would be called that. Fortunately, this Spiral has nothing to do with that one, the only thing in common is that they’re both horror. (This Spiral actually played at least year’s Brooklyn Horror Film Festival and a few others, in case you weren’t convinced.) In fact, this one is probably more in the vein of Get Out or even Hereditary, as it follows a same-sex couple, Malik and Aaron (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, Ari Cohen), who move to the suburbs with Aaron’s teen daughter Kayla (Jennifer Laporte) and begin to experience weird occurrences and behavior from their new neighbors. Of course, Malik thinks it’s homophobia, something he’s experienced in his past when he was put through a horrific experience during his early years exploring his sexuality.

I was pretty impressed with what Harder did with this premise, but just as much due to the performance by Bowyer-Chapman than I was of the director’s ability to build the tension as we learn more and more about the couple’s new suburban neighbors. Spiral is just a really well-done thriller in every regard, because it keeps things rather enigmatic, so you’re never quite sure if Malik’s paranoia is justified or not. Combine that solid premise with a terrific score – definitely one of the themes of this week’s movies – and Spiral is another fantastic offering from the horror streaming network that keeps blowing me away with the movies they pick up that you really can’t see anywhere else.

As luck would have it Harder also produced and co-directed (with Noah Kentis, directing under the pseudonym “Lankyboy”) Summerland, a coming-of-age comedy which I didn’t have a chance to see. (Actually, I did, but from the trailer, it didn’t seem like I’d like it, plus I’ve seen WAY too many coming-of-age movies the last few weeks and I’m getting burnt.) Anyway, this queer coming-of-age indie stars Maddie Phillips (Teenage Bounty Hunters), and it’s a road trip comedy that involves social media (if you remember my review of Spree and read one of my reviews below, that’s another warning sight for me), and it’s available on Demand on iTunes, Vudu, GooglePlay and Amazon right now!

And here’s the trailer!

Noomi Rapace and Joel Kinnaman star in Yuval Adler’s THE SECRETS WE KEEP (Bleecker Street), a thriller set in the late ‘50s with Rapace playing Maya, a Romanian woman living in the suburbs with her doctor husband Lewis (Chris Messina), who thinks that their new neighbor (Joel Kinnaman) may be the Nazi soldier that assaulted and killed her sister during the war, so of course, she kidnaps him.

There’s something very familiar about this dramatic thriller, partially because it takes a similar approach as Bryan Singer’s Apt Pupil, but I feel there were other movies like this that I’m forgetting. The title basically comes from the fact that Maya has kept her past a secret from her husband, who gets involved in the grilling of Kinnaman’s character, who has kept his own past a secret from his wife, played by Amy Seimetz. Even while Kinnaman is tied up in her basement, Maya tries to befriend his wife to see if she can get some information that will prove that her captor is who she thinks.

I’m a pretty big Noomi Rapace fan, and I’m always excited to see her in movies because she tends to be give very dramatic performances, and that’s certainly the case although sometimes, the emotions go a bit overboard. The good thing is that here’s another movie where Chris Messina has really surprised me, just like he did all the way at the top of this column in J. Blakeson’s I Care A Lot. I always found him to be a rather bland and very vanilla actor, but he seems to be doing something to change that, and I fully approve.

There were certainly aspects and moments of The Secrets We Keep I liked because Adler is not a bad director, but there are also aspects that made me feel this would have worked fine or even better as a stage play. As a movie, it’s just kind of drab and predictable as the characters spend almost the entire film yelling and hitting each other. When you compare this to some of the movies above, there just isn’t enough mystery about where it might go, so more like Antebellum than Spiral or Alone despite being a more grounded and less genre-based thriller. Ultimately, it just fails, but it will be in theaters and on VOD starting today.

I knew I was in trouble with Will Wernick’s NO ESCAPE (Vertical)  -- not to be confused with the Owen Wilson-Pierce Brosnan thriller – when I realized that the film’s main character Cole (Keegan Allen) was another one of those social media wannabe stars like the kid in Spree. Surprise, surprise, he is JUST as annoying. The concept for this one is that Cole does all sorts of crazy stunts on his feed to prove he’s not scared of anything, but then he and a group of friends (including his girlfriend Erin, played by Holland Roden) are invited to Russia to take part in the “scariest escape room ever” by a guy named Alexei (Ronan Rubinstein). Bad stuff happens.

There are a few rare times when I watch a movie and wonder how on earth a filmmaker was able to put together what seems like a pretty hefty budget for a movie as bad as this one turned out to be, and stuff like that just leaves me shaking my head. The premise itself isn’t so bad, even if it isn’t particularly original. (Imagine my surprise when I looked at Wernick’s IMDB page and his previous movie from 2017 was called “Escape Room” and not the Sony one either. It makes it pretty clear that this guy is the definition of a one-trick pony. Oddly, he ALSO has a movie called Alone.)

The problem is that Keegan Allen and most of his friends – including his best friend Thomas, played by Denzel Whitaker, who seems to have been doing so well in his career up until this movie – are so effin’ annoying, you never care one bit what happens to them, whether they get beat up in fight with Russian mobsters or end up in a series of death traps, many that are swiped directly from the Saw movies. In fact, that’s basically what this movie turns into once the friends are locked into a Russian prison and Cole has to try to save them. It basically becomes a cross between Saw and Hostel, but with Cole so flippant with his jokes and asides to his watchers, it completely takes away from any tension or scares. By the time the movie starts to get serious, it’s just far too late, because just when you don’t think the movie can possibly get stupider, it gets stupider.  (And seriously, if I have to watch ONE MORE MOVIE that has people commenting or clicking on hearts in a way that’s so unbelievable and unrealistic, I’m gonna be even MEANER to that movie.)

The title of this movie may be No Escape, but there is a perfectly reasonable way to escape this time-waster, and that’s just not to watch it. It’s just another exploitative and predictable movie that lacks anything even remotely approaching originality.

There are a few other movies out this week that I either didn’t get to watch or I watched and just didn’t have enough to say to write a review. Listen, you have nearly 13 reviews above, so is that not enough for you?

Susan Sarandon leads an amazing ensemble cast that includes Kate Winslet, Sam Neill, Mia Wasikowska and more in Roger Michell’s BLACKBIRD (Screen Media), which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year and is finally being released. After a Fathom Events release over the last couple days, it will be released in more theaters this Friday. Sarandon plays Lily, a woman who has been battling ALS who has decided to end her life on her own terms, so she and her husband (Neill) summon their daughters (Winslet, Wasikowska) and extended family for one last goodbye to celebrate Lily’s life before she’s gone.

Kieron J. Walsh’s THE RACER (Gravitas Ventures) was supposed to premiere at the SXSW Film Festival earlier this year, but that didn’t happen. It’s set during the summer of 1998 during the early stages of the Tour De France where Belgian rider Dominique Chabol, played by Louis Talpe, has been one of the team’s better support riders on the tour for the past 20 years, his job being merely to set a pace and never to win. When Dom is dropped from the team (for doping), he has to see if he can accept a civilian life after meeting a pretty Irish doctor, played by Tara Lee.

Next up is Steve Collins’ absurdist comedy, I’VE GOT ISSUES (Gravitas Ventures), which includes an amazing cast that includes Macon Blair, Claire Titelman, John Merriman and Byron Brown, with Jim Gaffigan narrating. I knew almost immediately while watching that this movie wasn’t going to be for me, and that’s all I’ll say.

A few of the movies I wasn’t able to get to include Last Call (available through the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema), The Last Laugh (High Octane), Film Movement’s God of the Piano and from Kenya, Sam Soko’s doc Softie about photojournalist Boniface “Softie” Mwangi, which won a Sundance Special Jury prize for its editing. There’s a thing called Google if you wanna know more about them.

My beloved and sadly shuttered local theater, the Metrograph, are continuing their digital live screening series with their Ulrike Ottinger retrospective that will debut her film Joan of Arc of Mongolia  (1989) tonight at 8pm. Friday, they’ll be screening Eric Rohmer’s The Aviator’s Wife (1981) and then continuing the “Nan Goldin Selects” series on Saturday and then Ottinger’s Exile Shanghai (1997)  son Sunday.

Film Forum’s Virtual Cinema will add Jan Oxenberg’s Thank You and Good Night (1991) today and then Jan Swankmaier’s Faust (1994) this Friday.

Next, we’ll look at some streaming stuff. The latest from Ava Duvernay’s Array deal with Netflix is Merawi Gerima’s Residue, which follows Obinna Nwachukwu as aspiring filmmaker Jay, who returns to his home in Washington, DC, to find his neighborhood being gentrified and finds himself being alienated by his old friends. It will debut on Netflix Thursday as well as be available in select virtual theaters. A number of series are starting up on Netflix his week, including Ryan Murphy’s Ratched, starring Sarah Paulson as the Nurse Mildred Ratched character from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, this series being a prequel to that Oscar-winning film. Netflix is also launching the four-episode docuseries Challenger: The Final Flight, which features interviews with the engineers and crew’s family members from the 1986 shuttle disaster. Lastly, there’s Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, an all-ages animated series based in the world of the beloved movie franchise.

Over on Hulu, I’m super-psyched for the second season of Pen 15, starring Maya Erskine and Anna Konlkle, which I discovered well after the hilarious first season debuted.

No idea what’s going on next week, but Gerard Butler’s Greenland certainly isn’t! I guess you’ll just have to come back and find out.

[screenandcinema]

An Ode to the Oscar Telecast

Growing up, the Academy Awards was always a sacred event. When I was a kid, the Oscars were held on a Monday night and in my family that was one of the few times a year my brothers and I were allowed to skip Hebrew school. The Oscars were that important to us. Everything about the Oscar telecast was iconic to me as a kid from the host (Billy Crystal was always a personal favorite) to the Oscar poster (later this week I will list some of my favorite posters). That is why it so depressing to see the Oscar telecast fall into disarray over the past year.

Last year’s ceremony was the least-watched telecast in terms of total viewers since the number started being recorded in the mid-1980s. The number of total viewers has been in decline for each telecast since 2014, with numbers bottoming out when the 90th Academy Awards hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, the ceremony in which The Shape of Water won Best Picture, only garnered 26.5 million viewers. The Academy and ABC have spent the last year searching for a way to get more viewers to the telecast.

While the debacle surrounding the hunt for a new host of this year’s ceremony and ultimately the lack of one completely doesn’t tie specifically into an effort to increase ratings for the telecast as a whole, a handful of other mistakes the Academy has made this past year do.

Last August, the Academy announced a new award, the Academy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film, or most simply the award for Best Popular Film. The announcement of this new award was met with immediate backlash from both Academy members and the media. The objective of the award was abundantly clear, the Academy wanted a way to reward films that people have seen, even if they aren’t Best Picture worthy. Looking back at the ratings of telecasts of the last 30-odd years, the two highest rated ceremonies in terms of total viewers were the 70th Academy Awards and the 67th Academy Awards. The two films that won Best Picture at those ceremonies were Titanic and Forrest Gump, the highest and third-highest grossing Best Picture-winning films over that period respectively. The Academy was likely thinking “He, if we give an Oscar to a film like Avengers: Infinity War or Mission: Impossible – Fallout or Black Panther then more people will watch.” The logic is sound, but such an award would have both diminished the intrigue of the Oscars as a whole and the likelihood of any worthy blockbuster or “popular film” of earning a Best Picture nomination. The entire fiasco remained me of when the Academy expanded the Best Picture nomination field to ten films in 2009 as a direct reaction to the lack of a Best Picture nomination for The Dark Knight the year prior. In the end, a month after announcing the new category, the Academy reversed course and postponed it saying they would “examine and seek additional input regarding the new category.” These types of backpedaling would be a hallmark of the Academy’s approach to changes to the telecast moving forward. Funny enough, blockbuster and popular film, Black Panther was nominated for Best Picture after all and is the third highest grossing film of all-time in North America.

After the debacle over the Best Popular Film category, which was the Academy’s way of trying to make the telecast relevant again (though I would argue it is already relevant), the Academy and ABC set their sights on ways to make the telecast shorter and thus more manageable for viewing audiences. The first such attempt came last month when word came out that only two of the five nominees for Best Original Song would be performed live on the telecast. This announcement was also met with backlash, however, the precedent for performing some but all of the nominated songs had a long history. At the 85th Academy Awards in 2013 and the 88th Academy Awards in 2016, only three of the five nominated songs were performed and at the 84th Academy Awards in 2012, neither of the two nominated songs were performed – marking only the third time since 1946 that none of the nominated songs were performed. Six days after announced that only “All the Stars” from Black Panther and “Shallow” from A Star Is Born would be performed, the Academy again changed their mind and announced that all five of songs would be performed in some form live during the telecast.

The Academy’s latest attempt to make the telecast shorter came in the form of last week’s announcement that four awards – Best Cinematography, Best Live Action Short, Best Film Editing, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling – would be given out during the telecast’s commercial breaks and footage of the announcement and speech would be cut down and later aired during the telecast. This announcement caused a similar highly outspoken backlash, just like both the cutting of nominated song performances and the introduction of the Best Popular Film category, and once again the Academy reversed their decision an announced that all 24 categories would be presented live.

Personally, I don’t see finding reasons to nominate films that may or may not be deserving or trimming the show’s length are necessary to gain more viewers for the telecast. Truthfully, award shows as a whole are seeing lower ratings year after year, this isn’t just an Oscar problem, the Emmy Awards saw their lowest ratings ever in 2018 and the Grammy Awards in 2018 brought in their lowest viewership in a decade. Award show fatigue is real and adding an unnecessary category or cutting the show length won’t fix that. Instead, ABC and the Academy should focus on creating the best show possible. If they are so keen on creating a new category, which hasn’t been done since 2001, they should look to honoring the amazing stunt work that is cutting down on film. An Oscar for Best Stunt Coordination has been proposed and rejected by the Board of Governors time and time again over the past 25 years, but it is definitely more worthy of an Academy Award than Best Popular Film. 

Instead of finding ways to cut time from the Oscar telecast, instead, the producers of the ceremony should look for new and inventive ways to create Oscar moments that viewers will remember for years to come. I think back to the 82nd Academy Awards when instead of bringing out a single presenter for Best Actress and Best Actor, five people came out for each award, each with a connection to a nominee or to the role they portrayed to discuss their craft and honor the nominee. I vividly remember Colin Farrell who co-starred with Jeremy Renner in S.W.A.T. discussing their time on that film as Renner was honored for his role in The Hurt Locker, or Oprah Winfrey admiring the work that Gabourey Sidibe did in Precious as a first-time nominee. That telecast in 2010, was the second-most-watched ceremony of the past decade by total viewers. Though I should note that while 2010 telecast of the 82nd Academy Awards featured the lowest grossing Best Picture winner of the last 30 years with The Hurt Locker and its measly box office of $17 million, it did defeat fellow nominee Avatar which at the time was the highest grossing film of all time.

If you create Oscar-moments that stay with a viewer, moments that they will share with the friends during the telecast or the next day online, it doesn’t matter if the show is three hours or four-and-a-half, people will watch. For years the Oscars began at 9 pm, then it was later moved to 8:30 pm and last year it was moved to 8 pm, that is a positive progression, starting the show earlier gives you more time to great a great ceremony, not more opportunity to cut time. I love the Oscars, I love watching the Oscars, I love feeling like I am a part of the Oscars when I watch the telecast. The Academy Awards need a renewed focus on creating the best show, not the shortest show, or the most popular show. If you created the best film, you are honored with Oscar gold (regardless of length or box office), and the same will be true for the Academy Awards. Create a great telecast and the rest will come.

Tune into the 91st Academy Awards on Sunday, February 24th on ABC.

-MB-

[allspark]

CAUTION… SOME MINOR SPOILERS FOR TRANSFORMER: THE LAST KNIGHT WITHIN!!

TRANSFORMERS SUPER FAN EVENT -by Frank Todaro for The Allspark www.allspark.com

This past week, a few sites from around the world were invited to attend a mysterious Transformers related event.  None of us knew who was going or what to expect, only that it was in Hollywood and was connected to Paramount, as that was who initially reached out.

So we got there the day before the festivities, and one by one met the familiar friendly faces of our fandom, as well as some new ones from around the world, raised a drink at the hotel bar in preparation for the still mysterious next days activities (later meeting our hosts at a local Dave and Busters).

The following morning, we all boarded a bus in an unusually misty California as we were taken to Universal Studios to check out Transformers: The Ride.  It was this roving reporters first time on the thing, so I was naturally blown away.  Literally, given some of the physical effects.

After that it was back on the bus to Paramount Studios where we had lunch with the most adorable remote control Squeaks just before being split into groups and taken on tours of the lot.   I for one was elated to see certain outdoor features featured on the program “Community” and several Star Trek related locations throughout, as well as Hitchcock’s office and Lucile Ball’s office now the home of Allspark Pictures.  Great name.

We were then treated to some behind the scenes looks at the folks actually making Transformers 5: The Last Knight!  All together now, we were given a tour of Technicolor where  we were walked through two enormous sound studios and had brief Q and A sessions at each.  This was also our first glimpse at actual footage from the movie. Everyone involved was kind enough to field questions from our merry band, even giving up their seats so that we could sit at their very consoles as they guided us through just how the magic was made.  Absolutely brilliant.

After that, we got to meet the “cast” of this new film, in vehicle form at least.  A quick photo session with ol’ Prime himself, as driven by the REAL life Optimus Prime, stunt-driver/transport coordinator Randy Peters, was followed by our introduction to several of his other vehicular compatriots, namely Bumblebee, Crosshairs, Barricade, Drift, and what I was told by one of our guides was ‘Mohawk’ the motorcycle, a name that has been bouncing around already, so take that as you will.

Back on the bus for a brief break then it was onward towards the mystery main event.

We drove.  In the rain.  It seemed to be about 45 minutes. Then we arrived at BAY FILMS!

We were met by Mr. Bay himself who after introducing himself personally to each of us, took us on a tour of the facilities, his office, and later his private editing suite where he showed us some variations of several scenes from the movie itself at various levels of completion. First of all, what an absolute honor  to be included in such an amazing event and welcomed into the “inner sanctum” so to speak. It was wonderful witnessing firsthand from Mr. Bay just how much he lives and breathes his work, and it was tremendously kind of him to take the time to walk us through the process, and generally “hang” with us to talk movie making, giant robots and everything in between. We had the privilege of seeing approximately 23 minutes of footage in IMAX format later that evening, after which Mr. Bay jovially exclaimed that he wanted to “vomit in the corner”, a reaction which was the perfect indication of how much he invests himself in making every second of his work align with his vision. In spite of this, the actual footage was engaging and fun and showed that this installment is obviously planting the seeds for further story elements, unfinished as it was. The film seems to be starting a new plot line and status quo for the cinematic universe, taking bits of what came before but, even more so than the previous offerings, doing it’s own thing. The new characters we were introduced to were fun and endearing, one previously unseen one sure to be a fan favorite. COGMAN, a bipedal humanoid sized robot that appears to be inspired by old pocket-watches, who seems to be a butler of sorts to Anthony Hopkins’s character, and referred to by him as a “Head Master” (emphasis on the “Master” in the way it was said, as though speaking about the head of a school).  He is voiced by none other than butler-extraordinaire Jim Carter, who some of you will recognize as Mr. Carson in Downton Abbey.  I am a huge fan of these last two sentences.

Without giving too many details, the action sequences we were shown in the footage are definitely next-level, being bigger and more intricate than what we have seen before in the franchise.  The locations were greatly varied in land, sea, air and time itself.  The footage we saw included what appears to be the movie’s opening, a medieval battle field with weapons all bearing an intricate motif similar to the sword we have seen in promotional images already.   Now I don’t want to spoil the actual narrative for you guys, so I’ll leave out what the dialog reveals for now, however I will say that a comedically drunken Merlin does seek out what ends up being that three headed dragon Transformer we saw in earlier previews within that section of the movie, and it all looks pretty darn epic!   Earlier that evening, Mr. Bay showed us just how much of what we saw in this particular battle scene was practical effects, and let me tell you, there is quite a bit!  He showed us versions of these same scenes that still included the rigs that made certain elements enter and leave the scenes (again, not wanting to give too much away here) as well as some of the rather dangerous stunt work involved and the folks that had to put out the fires afterwards.  Literally. On that note, what really blew me away personally was getting to sit with Mr. Bay in his production office as he walked us through the process step by step, showing us clips in various stages of completion, casually getting excited about the new innovations he and his team made to create what we would see on the big screen later that night. That excitement in sharing what has taken over his life as of late was inspirational and I believe fostered a new appreciation for the process in all of us. I for one can’t wait to see this film in IMAX 3D as, according to Bay, it is the best (“only”) way experience this one (90% being filmed in true native 3D IMAX format!). But more so, I am excited to see the final result of a team that was kind enough to let us peek behind the curtain, and watch this film “Transform” into what is sure to be a fun ride.

The Allspark Presents: TRANSFORMERS SUPER FAN EVENT CAUTION... SOME MINOR SPOILERS FOR TRANSFORMER: THE LAST KNIGHT WITHIN!!

[satelliteofmstielove]

K17 Time of the Apes

                                                    Monkey wrenching

General notes

          Ah, more Sandy Frank. That name just warms my heart. Oh wait, that’s the rage at having to watch another one of these things. Okay, so maybe it’s not quite that bad, but man, it’s not good. This is the last Sandy Frank episode for KTMA, giving us two seasons of freedom from the hot dog dropped on the beach, until Season 3 when we get to watch almost all of these movies again, but with better riffing.

          Like Cosmic Princess [K10], Fugitive Alien [K12], and Mighty Jack [K14], Time of the Apes is actually assembled from pieces of a TV show. The original show was called Saru no Gundan (“Army of Apes”) and aired in the early ‘70s. Apparently, it’s not too bad, if Planet of the Apes adaptations (one might say “rip-off” instead, but hey) are your thing. I can see how, without bad dubbing and half the story cut out, it could be a fun watch. In this form, however, it’s…well, it’s on MST3K.

          This episode is unique- Joel’s not in it! I don’t know the detailed backstory, but I guess he had to be out of town that week, so they just taped the episode without him. Having just Tom and Crow in the theater makes for a slightly different feel. Let’s go watch some monkeys, shall we?

Prologue

The Mads are having trouble getting the Joel on the phone. Unfortunately for them, the bots are in a trolling mood and aren’t being much help.

It sounds like the Mads send Time of the Apes as retaliation for the bots’ unhelpfulness. Something similar happens in several later episodes, such as Hobgoblins [907]. It seems like Pearl was especially prone to this.

Mr. Potato Head is back on the desk this week. Dr. Forrester takes out his anger on it by ripping off its nose. Or maybe he just felt like dressing it up differently, at that exact moment.

Movie pt. 1

Does anyone else automatically sing “Sandy Frank, Sandy Frank” along to the opening music? I can’t help myself.

Crow sits in Joel’s usual seat.

At 3:06, Tom already says he feels kind of a void without Joel in the theater. He’s also not too happy about sitting right next to Crow, it seems. He tells Crow maybe he should empty his load pan because he doesn’t smell very good. So…did anyone ever figure out what a load pan was actually supposed to be? I’m not sure I want to know, now.

I never noticed before how peppy the music in this section of the movie is.

Crow doubts the monkeyhood of the animal at 5:41. Tom thinks it’s a possum, Crow guesses lemur. Crow was closer- it’s actually a loris.

6:55- Crow continues his already storied career as an incorrigible punster.

Servo mentions Joel’s absence again at 7:16, wondering where he is.

At 8:32, Crow’s already got this movie’s number.

Wow, this advanced scientific compound’s wiring does not seem up to code.

Crow mentions doing experiments in science class at 10:10. I know it’s probably just a joke, but Joel probably would do experiments with the bots for fun. Probably not “destroy the monkey freezing plant” experiments, though.

At 10:48, Tom mocks Crow’s time as a Christmas tree from several episodes ago, which Crow does not particularly appreciate. He compares being frozen to “drinking a Slurpee real fast.”

Tom also calls commercial at 11:23.

When Johnny starts calling for his uncle at 13:10, the bots start up calling out other names. Sort of a proto version of a joke they’d use in multiple later episodes, most memorably in Pod People [303]. They start it up again at 16: 27.

Some of the camera movement and editing choices in this movie are so strange.

Tom begins whistling at 18:47. After a little while, Crow asks him how he gets his “blowport” to pucker to make that sound. Tom says it’s a special program, but…Also, if anyone knows what song(s) he’s whistling, I’d be interested to know.

At 20:48, Crow says Joel should be there, and Servo says he’s getting a little concerned.

Trace has made Josh laugh at least three times so far in the episode. He’s on a roll. Has been for the past few episodes, actually.

Crow mentions Joel’s absence again in a riff at 22:36.

I don’t know why, but Crow’s little “Mm?” at 23:18 is adorable.

The bots decide to go look for Joel as they leave the theater.

Host Segment 1

The bots discuss where Joel might be, and go over where they’ve already looked. It’s sort of cute how they don’t know all the rooms on the ship.

They quickly degenerate into arguing, unsurprisingly. They really are like young siblings.

Crow calls Tom a “spasmodic crofisator” (crophysator?), a term that would be used again at least once in Season 1. It sounds like an insult but I’m not sure what it means. Maybe they don’t know, either.

Gypsy shows up to break up the fight, carrying Joel’s jumpsuit in her mouth. Does Joel only have one jumpsuit? I always sort of assumed he had at least a couple. But I guess in KTMA he only ever wore the one on camera, so maybe he did only have one. He only had one on camera in Season 1, too. Actually, the only season where he clearly had more than one jumpsuit was Season 2, where he had at least 5- teal, bright red, cyan, light green, and his classic maroon one, which he wears in every episode after it first shows up in Godzilla vs. Megalon [212]. Mike wore the same green one throughout Season 5 (unless you count the navy one in Mitchell), got a royal blue one (Zombie Nightmare [604]) and a teal one (The Creeping Terror [606]) in Season 6, and then switched between the three of them for the rest of his time as host. You know, in case you wanted the brief jumpsuit history of MST3K.

Crow doesn’t know what a pod bay is either. Tom is not taking things seriously and activates a “wah-wah-wah” noise. Does that satellite have those built in?

Apparently the only possible conclusion one could reach after finding Joel’s uniform is that he’s floating naked in space. They don’t seem too concerned for his safety, just more interested in seeing him in an embarrassing position. These are the monsters you created, Joel.

Movie pt. 2

The way this is cut makes the story feel really choppy. Was is this bad in the version they used for the Season 3 episode? Probably.

The fire in the movie makes Crow sneeze at 28:52. Somehow. I wonder if Trace is a little sick- his voice cracks, too, at 29:08.

TV23 time and temperature at 35:41. 6:42, and 56°. I wish they’d tell us AM or PM, but I guess the people actually watching when this was on wouldn’t need to be told that. It was probably PM, since they taped during the day and played them in the evenings. I’m not sure if they showed them at other times on the channel as re-runs or not, though. Tom from mst3ktemple.com would probably know.

At 37:24, the bots start talking about how good it is to get your shoes off when you’ve been on your feet for a long time, despite the fact that neither of them wear shoes and only one of them could. (Unless you count that time from Danger Death Ray [620] where Tom wore the shoes on his head and hands. I don’t.)

Crow starts singing about taking the “ape train” at 46:41. It annoys Servo, but apparently Crow has to do it or his head will blow up. Personally, I think he may be exaggerating.

Immediately after, at 47:01, Tom mentions Joel void again. Crow says they’ll just go look at him through the telescope when they get out of the theater again. I guess that means they did locate him outside at the end of the last host segment, even if we didn’t get to see it.

Movie thing- why does the action scene on the train have such slow, ponderous music? I guess it’s not really that much of an action scene anyway.

Host Segment 2

Crow’s wearing Joel’s jumpsuit, which is ridiculously adorable. I wonder how he managed to put it on. It probably would have been entertaining to watch.

Servo and Crow discuss the implication of Joel being stuck outside, with themselves being the only ones who could let him in, all the while ignoring his pounding on the door outside. They like the idea of forcing Joel to do their will in exchange for saving him from the dark vacuum of space.

What does Crow have against breadfruit plants? Do they take up too much of Joel’s time?

Predictably, Tom’s still on about babes.

Crow also suggests sending him adrift with a sextant, charts and a toaster. Servo objects to losing Lucille the toaster, something about four toast slots. I hope hope hope that it’s just because he’s likes making four pieces of toast at a time and not for some other reason…speaking of which, what kind of fun does Crow think Joel would have with the toaster? I guess he’d tinker with it. He wouldn’t have anything else to do, since the sextant and charts sure aren’t going to help him navigate anywhere in space.

The bots decide the pounding they’re hearing is space barnacles that need removal, to justify messing with Joel some more, but get Movie Sign before they get a chance.

Movie pt. 3

At 51:41, I agree with Tom- I’ve never seen anyone that unconcerned about a UFO.

Josh sneezes at 54:12. Crow/Trace says “gesundheit.”

Tom forgets Godo’s name at 57:05. Usually forgetting how to say characters’ names is Joel’s thing. I guess someone had to do it since he’s wasn’t there.

Did Sandy Frank even attempt to make this part coherent? Was it 5 pm on a Friday and he was just like “Eh, this is good enough, those kids won’t know what’s going on anyway”?

Servo calls commercial again at 1:01:43.

At 1:03:23, Crow is unimpressed by Tom’s joke.

1:04:46- Servo mentions Joel again, though I’m not sure whether he means Joel is a naked ape, or someone who is going back to his country. Is he saying that’s why Joel went out into space in the first place? I guess it could be.

Tom and Crow discuss the Academy Awards at 1:06:12.

The cliff in this flashback is, like, the least treacherous cliff ever. You could walk up that.

Host Segment 3

Cambot plays some old footage of Joel (from Invaders from the Deep [K01], with the long hair and turquoise jumpsuit- wait, he did have another jumpsuit in KTMA. Does that invalidate my whole spiel about jumpsuits from earlier? Oh nevermind). It freaks out Tom and Crow for a second because they think they’ll be in trouble. Have we ever seen this part before? I can’t recall if that little bit is in the snippets video of the three missing episodes.

Inevitably, the bots get into another argument, this time about whether the Joel behind the door was real or simulated. Usually the human has to break up the fighting. If something else didn’t interrupt, I wonder how far it would escalate.

Anybody know who that was behind door #2? Whoever it was, he terrified the bots. Maybe just because he was huge? Or perhaps they don’t like baldness.

Things get a little trippy when Tom starts playing with the laws of reality. He seems to have that power. He does something similar in Gunslinger [511], and Crow doesn’t like it any better then than he does here.

Movie pt. 4

At 1:15:17, Crow and Servo talk about whether or not humans have the same number of hairs on their bodies as apes. Crow thinks so, Servo doesn’t believe it.

I think we’re all starting to get impatient along with Crow. This is dragging on forever.

Down to 54° by 7:45, so I’m guessing it is PM, at 1:27:24.

Ah, we’re finally back on track- Wizard of Oz reference #14 at 1:29:23. I knew they’d return someday. The last three episode haven’t had any, at least that I could find, so my original theory about there being a WoZ riff in every Joel episode has been disproven. I still predict that there will be at least one in every Joel ep in the series proper, though.

The impatience continues.

At 1:31:20, Servo says that if Joel were there, they’d have run out of monkey puns much earlier. Is that because they’d have said more of them in a row to annoy him, or because Joel’s presence discourages the creation of monkey puns?

Something about Tom’s timing at 1:32:07 is just great.

Very brief Wizard of Oz reference #15 at 1:33:55.

Movie thing- So they do explain how they got back to their own time, it just makes NO SENSE. I wonder if Tom still feels like exploding.

Servo forgets Godo’s name again at 1:36:16, calling him Gobo.

1:36:58- uh, what other organ were you thinking of, Crow?

Tom falls over onto Crow as they start to leave the theater, but manages to get back up.

Once again, I can’t not sing the Sandy Frank song along with the credits.

Conclusion

We get a rare outside shot of the S.O.L., along with floating-(semi)-naked-in-space Joel, as represented by an action figure of some kind. I…don’t really think Joel would look like that with his shirt off, but hey.

Tom and Crow contemplate life without Joel. They only seem to recall all the mean stuff Joel has done to them since their creation, but they still do say they miss him a little.

They also talk about how they actually like each other, although that “You’re the greatest” remark from Crow could have a bit sarcastic. Hard to tell. I prefer to interpret it in a positive light.

I don’t know if I mentioned it before, but Alexandra Carr is now in the credits as the Fan Club Coordinator and Production Assistant. She’d continue to be on the show’s staff for a long time.

Joel is also still listed as starring in the episode even though he wasn’t there, just like Trace was still credited for Crow in the eps where he was gone.

At least in the copy I linked, the sound on the tape starts flipping out in an amusing way at the very end.

Thoughts on the Movie

          This movie is…really goofy. I won’t go in-depth, since we have to watch it again in a few seasons, but man. Actually, it’s quite refreshing after two confusing 70s TV-movie dramas in a row. It’s not really any less confusing, but it’s much more entertaining to watch. This is also the second movie in a row with a really annoying child, although Johnny is much more amusing in his annoyingness than the kid in City on Fire (Gerald? Was that his name? I don’t care enough to go check). That kid was just not very good, whereas Johnny is not that terrible, he just kind of a spaz. Fits in with the rest of the movie, I guess.

Review

          This was a pretty solid episode. Of course, the definition of a solid episode in KTMA versus Season 1 and beyond is quite different, but this one measures up to what they’ve done so far. Josh and Trace kept the energy nicely throughout. The two of them always played off each other well (favorite riff- Crow: Let’s buy these guys a tripod, whadda ya say?). This episode didn’t provide nearly as many laugh-out-loud moments as the last one, though, which reinforces to me that three really is the magic number. Something about having all of them together brings it up to the right level. The movie itself was pretty lively this week, which probably helped make up for losing a riffer. If it had been say, Cosmic Princess with only Tom and Crow, it might not have worked as well.

[movietvtechgeeks]

Latest story from https://movietvtechgeeks.com/drake-not-done-j-lo-shes-busy-balling-rod/

Drake not done with J-Lo but she's busy balling with A-Rod

While he is no longer in relationship with Jennifer Lopez, Toronto-born rapper Drake is still talking about her – well, singing about her. On Saturday, March 18th, Drake released his highly anticipated album More Life. Featuring 22 new songs and a bunch of big name collaborators, such as Kanye West, 2 Chainz, and Travis Scott, the artist’s new album is already generating tons of buzz. One of the songs on the album’s track list that is getting plenty of attention, in particular, is the song “Free Smoke.” In the song, Drake sings out lyrics that refer to his former flame, Miss Lopez. In “Free Smoke,” Drake candidly raps, “I drunk text J. Lo/ Old numbers so I bounce back/ Boy Wonder gotta bounce back” – implying that he no longer has a valid phone number for his ex. Although Drake alludes to not staying in touch with Jennifer in his lyrics, sources close to the star claim that they are actually on good terms. An insider recently revealed to E! News, “[Drake and Jennifer] have just cooled things off a bit…they are in each others’ lives, just doing their own thing now.” Meanwhile, while Drake is busy with the release of his new music, Jennifer is busy with her new beau Alex Rodriguez. Just a few days ago, Jennifer was seen spending quality time with Alex in Miami. You can now listen to Drake’s album More Life in full on most music streaming services. Take me out to the ballgame, A-Rod. You got it, J-Lo. Back at spring training with the New York Yankees as a guest instructor, Alex Rodriguez watched part of Saturday's exhibition game against the Baltimore Orioles in a suite with singer-actress Jennifer Lopez. The two are said to be dating. A-Rod has been linked romantically to other Hollywood stars in the past, including Kate Hudson and Cameron Diaz. Rodriguez was released by the Yankees last August with more than a season left on his $275 million, 10-year contract. The 41-year-old former slugger began his first stint as a guest instructor with the team last month and said his playing days are over. Fox recently announced a multiyear deal with Rodriguez that expands his broadcasting role with the network. A-Rod hit 696 home runs during 22 years in the big leagues, leaving him fourth on the career list. He was suspended for the 2014 season for violating Major League Baseball's drug agreement and labor contract. Late on Wednesday, young model Kendall Jenner’s home in Hollywood Hills was burglarized. An unknown thief (or group of thieves) managed to break in and get away with around $200,000 worth of her jewelry. Inevitably, the starlet was not happy with the whole situation and has since opted to fire the security guard who was on duty at the time. New reports about the incident have since been released by media outlet TMZ. It turns out that Kendall was actually hosting a group of friends at her house on Wednesday evening and she just briefly stepped out, while a number of her guests stayed in her home. Law enforcement believes that the robbery took place during the time that Kendall had left her residence, despite the fact that she still had [thought-to-be trustworthy] guests hanging around. With these new details revealed, it does appear that the robbery was an inside job. However, this did not stop Kendall from taking immediate action – starting with her security team. According to TMZ, Kendall fired the security guard who was on duty Wednesday evening. This guard was stationed in front of her property and reportedly let in an uninvited guest to the 21-year-old’s home during the brief period of time in which she had stepped out. Fortunately, Kendall has a complex security camera system set up and police are utilizing the surveillance footage from the night to try and find whoever is responsible for the theft. While it is not clear what exactly was stolen from the Keeping Up with the Kardashians star, TMZ reports that the intruder(s) got away with at least a Rolex and a Cartier watch. Katy Perry revealed on Saturday night that she’s done more than just kiss girls. The pop star was honored at the Human Rights Campaign Gala in Los Angeles where she revealed she explored her sexuality as a teenager. “How was I going to reconcile that with a gospel singing girl raised in youth groups that were pro-conversion camps?” Perry, 32, shared while accepting the National Equality Award, according to E! News. “What I did know was I was curious, and even then I knew sexuality wasn’t as black and white as this dress,” she said. “And honestly, I haven’t always gotten it right, but in 2008 when that song came out I knew that I started a conversation and a lot of the world seemed curious enough to sing along, too.” Because of her religious upbringing — both of her parents are pastors — she spent much time praying “the gay away in my Jesus camps.” Her perspective on sexuality shifted after she made the leap from Gospel music to the mainstream. “I found my gift, and my gift introduced me to people outside my bubble and my bubble started to burst,” Perry said. “These people were nothing like I had been taught to fear. They were the most free, strong, kind and inclusive people I have ever met.” Tim Allen says that living in Hollywood right now is akin to Nazi Germany. The comedian made the claim while appearing on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” “You gotta be real careful around here,” Allen noted. “You get beat up if you don’t believe what everybody else believes. This is like ’30s Germany.” Allen, 63, plays an outspoken conservative on the sitcom “Last Man Standing” and is one of the few actors in Hollywood to profess having right-wing leanings. When Kimmel asked him about attending the inauguration ceremony the “Home Improvement” star’s eyes bulged and he stammered: “I was invited, we did a VIP thing for the vets, and went to a veterans ball, so I went to go see Democrats and Republicans.” “Yeah I went to the inauguration,” he added. According to Blac Chyna, her and Rob Kardashian are just going through a rough patch. “I feel like every person who’s in a long-term relationship, or who is committed to their person, goes through ups and downs,” she told Cosmopolitan South Africa. “Everything isn’t always going to be peaches and cream.” Chyna, the cover star of the magazine’s April issue, says the two are “fighting for each other – even though they’re living apart. “I’m in it for the long haul,” the 28-year-old insisted. “I feel like everything isn’t going to be perfect, but I know we love each other, and the people we surround ourselves with are rooting for us.” And despite the pair’s on and off again status, their daughter Dream remains a priority. “We have a whole other human being that looks up to us, so we have to make sure she’s taken care of,” she's said of their baby who was born in November. The sole son of the Kardashian family – who turned 30 on Friday – is “a wonderful dad.” “I think it’s because he had such a great father,” Chyna said. Josh Duggar and his wife Anna are looking to the future. “We are delighted to share with you that we are expecting a new baby boy later this year,” the couple said in a statement on the Duggar family’s website. “Beauty comes from ashes and we cannot wait to see and kiss the face of this sweet new boy!” While the announcement didn’t mention the 29-year-old Josh’s sordid past, the couple acknowledged a “breach of trust.” “For nearly the last two years, we have quietly worked to save our marriage, focus on our children, and rebuild our lives together as a family. Doing so is never easy after a breach of trust,” the statement read. “We’ve learned that a life of faith and rebuilding a life together is simply done one day at a time.” In 2015, Josh admitted to molesting five girls as well as cheating on his wife via the affair enabling website Ashley Madison. In the time since the scandal rocked the “19 Kids and Counting” family, the reality star has attended a faith-based rehab and worked with a counselor to salvage his marriage. The couple is already parents to Mackynzie Renée, 7, Michael James, 5, Marcus Anthony, 3, and Meredith Grace, 1. Earlier this month, the religious brood showed support for Josh on his 29th birthday “We love you, your amazing wife and sweet children. We pray that you diligently follow and serve the Lord with your whole heart all the days of your life and that this year is a wonderful year for you and your family,” the family said on Facebook. While you wouldn’t know it from the tabloid headlines, which are filled with stories about her new relationship, superstar Jennifer Lopez actually has other notable things going on in her life right now. In fact, the starlet just got the word that she will be returning to the small screen as the star of NBC’s hit crime drama Shades of Blue. On Friday, the Entertainment President at NBC, Jennifer Salke, announced that the network has renewed Shades of Blue for a third season. This is a particularly big accomplishment for Jennifer Lopez, and the rest of the show’s cast, as the second season of the series just started airing a mere two weeks. In the official statement announcing the series’ renewal, Jennifer Salke noted, “[We here at NBC are] so hugely appreciative of everything Jennifer [Lopez] and Ray [Liotta] do, and know it is due to their dedication, as well as the hard work of our incredible cast and producers, that Shades of Blue has so clearly and compellingly earned a third-season renewal.” The NBC executive went on to add, “The show continues to mine powerful stories that always leave us hungry for more.” In addition to Shades of Blue, NBC also just recently announced the renewals of several other shows, including: This is Us, Superstore and The Good Place. You can catch Jennifer in Shades of Blue when it airs on Sundays at 10/9c on NBC. On Thursday, it was announced that supermodel Tyra Banks would be returning to her role as host of the reality competition America’s Next Top Model. In 2016, after hosting 22 seasons of the show, Tyra shocked fans when she decided to step down from her hosting gig. For season 23, singer and media star Rita Ora took over the reigns and judged a brand new batch of hopeful models, alongside a panel of fashion experts which included stylist Law Roach, model Ashley Graham and Paper magazine’s Creative Consultant Drew Elliot. While Rita did fairly well in the role, especially considering the enormous shoes she had to fill, she will not be returning as host for season 24. Executive producer of America’s Next Top Model, Ken Mok addressed Tyra’s unexpected decision to return after just a short, 1-season absence. Ken told the press, “Tyra has always been the heart and soul of the franchise and her absence was deeply felt by our fiercely loyal fans who missed their Queen of the Smize. We’d like to thank Rita Ora for being a great partner and total pro. She infused this new iteration of ANTM with passion and creativity, and we wish her nothing but the best in her future endeavors.” Although Tyra has officially stolen back the ANTM spotlight from Rita, there is no bad blood between the two beauties. Following the announcement on Thursday, Tyra and Rita exchanged some kind words over Twitter. Tyra posted, “Mizz [Rita Ora], you exemplify Business Boss Brand to the fullest! Thank you for all the amazingness you brought to ANTM,” in which Rita replied, “Thank you, Tyra! Was such an honor and pleasure being on your show. Everyone welcome Tyra back!!” Rita & Tyra, Twitter posts: https://twitter.com/tyrabanks/status/842497262802554881 https://twitter.com/RitaOra/status/842501937664729088 At this point, it has not been revealed who will be joining Tyra on the judging panel for season 24. Stay tuned for more ANTM updates! While she may be doing a lot better and is [somewhat] back in the spotlight these days, former Disney starlet Selena Gomez is definitely not looking to be wrapped up in the craziness of Hollywood for the long haul. In the latest issue of Vogue magazine, Selena talked candidly about what her late-2016 stay in rehab was like, as well as her desperate desire to live a more normal life. The Spring Breakers actress said in her interview with the publication, “You have no idea how incredible it felt to just be with six girls [in the rehabilitation program]. Real people who couldn’t give two s*** about who I was, who were fighting for their lives. It was one of the hardest things I’ve done, but it was the best thing I’ve done.” Selena also went on to address her toned down presence on social media, as she explained, “as soon as I became the most followed person on Instagram, I sort of freaked out. It had become so consuming to me. It’s what I woke up to and went to sleep to. I was an addict, and it felt like I was seeing things I didn’t want to see, like it was putting things in my head that I didn’t want to care about. I always end up feeling like s*** when I look at Instagram. Which is why I’m kind of under the radar, ghosting it a bit.” In terms of maintaining her star status, Selena admitted that she is looking forward to the day she is no longer one of the most famous celebs in the world. Selena candidly told the magazine, “I just really can’t wait for people to forget about me.”

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TOAST OF THE TOWN aka THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW

“A Tribute to Lucy and Desi” (S3;E8) ~ October 3, 1954 

Directed & Choreographed by John Wray  

Ed Sullivan (Himself / Host) was a preeminent television variety show host who is best remembered for hosting his own show, at first titled “Toast of the Town” but later simply known as “The Ed Sullivan Show,” which became a staple of Sunday night viewing for millions of Americans from 1948 to 1971.  As such, his name was often mentioned on “I Love Lucy” and Lucille Ball's subsequent sitcoms. He introduced America to such entertainers as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and The Supremes. Sullivan entered icon status when he and his television show were worked into the plot of the Broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie in 1960. The musical includes the song "Hymn for a Sunday Evening" which has a chorus that repeats Sullivan's name in a choir-like harmony. Hope made an appearance in the 1964 film version. The theatre on Broadway in New York City where Sullivan did his weekly show was named after him in 1967. He died in 1974.

Lucille Ball (Herself / Lucy Ricardo) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon, which was not a success and was canceled after just 13 episodes. 

Desi Arnaz (Himself / Ricky Ricardo) was born in Cuba in 1917 and immigrated to America as a youngster.  He was a musician who married Lucille Ball in 1940 after meeting her on the set of 1939’s Too Many Girls, which he had done on stage in New York.  In order to keep him ‘off the road’ Ball convinced producers to cast him as her husband in a new television project based on her radio show “My Favorite Husband.” The network was convinced. In 1951, Arnaz and Ball began playing Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, roles they would be identified with for the rest of their lives. The couple had two children together, Lucie and Desi Jr.  In 1960, Ball and Arnaz divorced. Desi became a producer, responsible for such hits as “The Mothers-in-Law” (1967-69). He re-married in 1963. Desi Aranz died in 1986, just a few years before Ball.  

William Frawley (Himself / Fred Mertz) was already a Hollywood veteran when he was hired by Desi Arnaz to play Fred Mertz on “I Love Lucy.” After the series concluded he joined the cast of “My Three Sons” playing Bub Casey. He did an episode of “The Lucy Show” in October 1965 which was his final TV appearance before his death in March 1966.

Vivian Vance (Herself / Ethel Mertz) was born Vivian Roberta Jones in Cherryvale, Kansas in 1909, although her family quickly moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico where she was raised. She had extensive theatre experience, co-starring on Broadway with Ethel Merman in “Anything Goes.” She was acting in a play in Southern California when she was spotted by Desi Arnaz and hired to play Ethel Mertz, Lucy Ricardo’s neighbor and best friend. The pairing is credited with much of the success of “I Love Lucy.”  Vance was convinced to join the cast of “The Lucy Show” in 1962, but stayed with the series only through season three, making occasional guest appearances afterwards. She made a total of six appearance on “Here’s Lucy.” She also joined Lucy for a TV special “Lucy Calls the President” in 1977. Vance died two years later. 

Harry Chesney (Himself) was the vice-president of Philip Morris, the tobacco company that first sponsored “I Love Lucy” in 1951.

Howard Dietz (Himself) was a lyricist who wrote over 500 songs in his lifetime. In 1954 he was a vice-president at MGM where he is credited with developing the Leo the lion logo as well as their slogan “Ars Gratia Artis” (art for art's sake). The Long, Long Trailer was an MGM picture.

Don Dixon (Himself) was a correspondent for INS, the International News Service. He was held captive in Communist China for 18 months.

John Hodiak (Himself) was a busy actor at MGM who had co-starred with Lucille Ball in their 1946 film Two Smart People. He was also seen in the 1944 film Lifeboat with Tallulah Bankhead.

Tex O'Rourke (Himself) was a toastmaster famous for moderating his “Circus Saints and Sinners” tributes. 

Dusty Rhodes (Himself) was a member of 1954 World Series Champion team the New York Giants. He would return to “The Ed Sullivan Show” in April 1955.

Robert Taylor (Archival Footage from Bataan) acted alongside Desi Arnaz in the 1943 film Bataan. He never appeared on “I Love Lucy,” but during the Ricardo's stay in Hollywood, Lucy Ricardo mentioned meeting him at a farmers market and getting his autograph on an orange.

Keenan Wynn (Archival Footage from The Long, Long Trailer)

Marjorie Main (Archival Footage from The Long, Long Trailer)

Johnny Roventini (Philip Morris Bellhop, uncredited)

Julia Meade (Voice of Mercury Commercial)

This show was aired on CBS on October 3, 1954. Sunday nights were known as “Ed Sullivan Show” nights in the same way that Lucy and Desi “owned” Monday nights throughout the 1950s. This show was done live in front of a studio audience at (what is now known as) the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York City. 

The next day “I Love Lucy” began its fourth season on the air with “The Business Manager” (ILL S4;E1) co-starring Charles Lane (above) as Mr. Hickox. Two weeks later the series celebrated its 100th show.

The same night this show aired, “Father Knows Best” made its TV debut on CBS at 10pm. Prior to that the series had been aired on radio since 1949. On TV, it ran for one season and was canceled. The series was picked up by NBC, where it remained for three seasons. After a second cancellation in 1958, the series was picked up yet again, by CBS, where it aired until May 1960.   

This was the second of Lucille Ball's dozen appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” Ball and Arnaz had been on earlier in the year, after Ed Sullivan presented “I Love Lucy” with an Emmy Award in April 1954. Desi made eight appearances, the last being in 1960. This is the only time the full hour of Sullivan's show is devoted solely to Lucy and Desi.

“Toast of the Town” was not filmed in Hollywood, like “I Love Lucy.” It was broadcast live from New York and then kinescoped to the West Coast. Consequently, prints of this show are generally of poor quality.  

During the run of “I Love Lucy,” Ed Sullivan and his show were mentioned several times:

Lucy: (about Fred the dog) “He learned obedience, but he’s not ready for ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’.” 

~ “The Ricardos Dedicate a Statue” (ILL S6;E27) 

Johnny Clark: (to Ricky) “I think I've got you planted on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ for next month.” 

[Celebrities would often be asked to stand-up and wave if they were spotted on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”] ~ “Face to Face” aka “The Ricardos Are Interviewed” (ILL S5;E7)

Lucy: (to a stoic Buckingham Palace Guard) “Wow, you make Ed Sullivan look like laughing boy.” 

[Sullivan was known not to smile or laugh, something Lucy chides him for in the tribute.] ~ “Lucy Meets the Queen” (ILL S5;E15)

To kick off the hour, Lucy and Desi perform a sketch about their meeting with Ed Sullivan. Although the sketch feels like an episode of “I Love Lucy,” Lucy and Desi use their own names. It opens with Lucy knitting and Desi at home (in Beverly Hills), relaxing and reading the Sunday papers, which are spread out all over the room. Desi is looking for the “spor' session” [“sports section”]. 

The newspaper Desi holds is the Sunday, October 3, 1954, edition of the New York Daily news, with the back page headline “GIANTS CHAMPS”! The previous day, the New York Giants triumphed over the Cleveland Indians in the 1954 World Series. Interestingly, this was not good news to Lucy's good friend Bob Hope, who was part-owner of the Indians. 

Two years later, October 8, 1956, Lucy and Desi guest-starred on “The Bob Hope Chevy Show” which for the evening was broadcast in Ed Sullivan's time slot, a fact Hope acknowledged in his monologue. Like this Ed Sullivan show, it was the day after a world series victory and the MVP was invited to appear on the show. For this “Toast of the Town” that player was Dusty Rhodes of the New York Giants. In 1956 it would be Don Larsen of the New York Yankees.  

When Lucy shows off what she's been knitting, Desi immediately jumps to conclusions: “Lucy! Again?  We've already done that bit!” Desi is referring to Lucy Ricardo having a baby on “I Love Lucy.” Prior to that, in 1951's “Drafted” (ILL S1;E11, above), Ricky and Fred mistake the girls knitting them sweaters for a clue that they are expecting.

Lucy tells him to relax, that she's knitting it for Eve Arden's new baby. Arden, a friend of Ball's from her B-movie days, was currently starring in TV's “Our Miss Brooks” filmed at Desilu. On September 17, 1954, she gave birth to what would be her only biological child, Douglas Brooks West.  

After arguing who should answer the telephone, Desi answers it, but can't quite figure out who it is on the other end.

Desi (to Lucy, covering the phone receiver): “I think it's somebody from a bakery.  A guy called Solomon.  Ed Solomon. He says he's selling toast in this part of the town.”

Lucy grabs the phone and  it turns out to be Ed Sullivan who is coming right over, despite the fact that their house is a mess and they aren't properly dressed. Desi says they should let Ed see them as they really are, with no pretense.

Lucy: “The show is called 'Toast of the Town', not 'Crumbs of the Town'.”

She then implores Desi to put on his shoes, to which he replies, “What for? He knows I got feet.”  

This is very similar to an exchange in “Men Are Messy” (ILL S1;E8) from 1951.  

Lucy Ricardo: “Put your shoes on and pick up those papers. Company is coming.” Ricky Ricardo: “It isn't company, it's Fred and Ethel.” Lucy Ricardo: “Well, put your shoes on.” Ricky Ricardo: “They know I have feet.”

In the next scene, they are dressed to the nines, and Lucille makes her entrance to the strains of “A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody” by Irving Berlin. In 1955's , “Lucy Gets Into Pictures” (ILL S4;E18) Lucy Ricardo gets a role as a showgirl, strutting down a staircase wearing a giant head-dress, while this song is playing.

Before Sullivan arrives, Lucy and Desi silently practice being acknowledged from the audience, just in case that is what Sullivan has in mind. This is visually similar to when Lucy and Ricky rehearse being surprised with a “Housewarming” (ILL S6;E23) party when they first move to Connecticut in 1957.  

The phone rings again and Lucy talks to their agent Don Sharpe about the purpose of Sullivan's visit, while Desi hovers anxiously behind her: 

Lucille (into the phone): “He is!  He isn't?  He isn't?  He is!  He isn't!” (she hangs up) Desi: “Well, is he or isn't he?”

This is another gag taken directly from “I Love Lucy.” It is possible that the “I Love Lucy” writers participated in the scripting of this sketch.

When Sullivan finally arrives at the Arnaz home, they rush him off his feet and pretend not to have already heard the news. Sullivan finally spills the beans.  

Lucy: “'Toast of the Town' and the whole slice about us!”

When Sullivan asks Lucille for a cigarette, the Philip Morris bellhop Johnny Roventini literally pops out of the coffee table and gives him one!  Although Philip Morris was not a sponsor of “Toast of the Town,” the gag acknowledges the company's initial support of “I Love Lucy.”

Vivian Vance just happens to drop by – and then almost immediately Bill Frawley. The just happen to be ready to regale Sullivan with a song, “Hullaballoo,” which Frawley says is an old vaudeville tune from 1913. He also claims that they previously performed it “on one of the old Lucy shows” but no such song was ever sung by Fred and Ethel on “I Love Lucy.”  

A curtain then closes for their bows. Sullivan reminds Vivian that they last met when he presented the Emmy Award to “I Love Lucy” in Hollywood. He recalls first meeting Frawley in Leone's Restaurant. Jimmy Walker introduced him to Sullivan. Walker was mayor of New York City from 1926 to 1932, when Sullivan was a news correspondent.

Sullivan discusses the film Bataan featuring Desi Arnaz and Robert Taylor.  Baatan (1943) was an MGM film about the World War II Battle of Bataan, a region of the Philippines.

After a Mercury commercial narrated by Julia Meade, Ed Sullivan introduces the trailer from The Long, Long Trailer, a 1954 color film based on a novel of the same name by Clinton Twiss. It is about a couple who buy a new trailer home and spend a year traveling across the United States.The film stars Lucille Ball as Tacy Collini and Desi Arnaz as Nicky Collini. The characters' names were changed from the book to sound more like ‘Lucy and Ricky’ (Tacy and Nicky, say it fast).  

Desi Arnaz performs his signature song “Babalu.” He performed the song on “I Love Lucy” in "The Audition" (ILL S1;E6) and in "The Ricardos Visit Cuba" (ILL S6;E9), where Desi was joined by Richard Keith (Little Ricky). Other times it was partially heard or sung for comedic purposes, such as in "Lucy Hires an English Tutor" (ILL S2;E13), “Ricky's Life Story" (ILL S3;E1), "The Publicity Agent" (ILL S1;E31) and “The Young Fans" (ILL S1;E20). Desi Arnaz first recorded the song in 1947, although he had performed it as part of his nightclub act prior to that.

After Desi finishes singing, Sullivan tells his audience that Desi has had a fever of 101 all day, but insisted on singing “Babalu” anyway.

Finally, the "Circus Saints and Sinners Luncheon" begins, a formal tribute (the actual “Toast” of the town) with speeches from and about the Arnazes.  

A clip from “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (ILL S2;E16), which first aired on January 19, 1953. This was Desi Arnaz’s favorite episode.This is the episode that made “I Love Lucy” a national phenomenon. It is estimated that 72% of the American public who owned a television tuned in to see the birth of Little Ricky. His birth was timed to coincide with Desi Jr.'s birth, that same day. This episode aired the day before the inauguration of President Eisenhower and five months before the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. More people watched this “I Love Lucy” episode than either one of those televised historic events. 

To kick things off, Ed Sullivan reads a letter from Bernard Baruch (1870-1965). Baruch was a financier and powerful political consultant who had served with Sullivan on a Government-appointed Entertainment Committee to bolster post-war morale in America.  

Toastmaster Tex O’Rourke discusses Ball and Arnaz’s childhoods and their early work in show-business.

Baseball player Dusty Rhodes some brief comments of his own.

Lucille Ball is first to make her remarks, thanking the networks and production staff of “I Love Lucy,” and ultimately Desi:

Lucy: “This guy, who seems to be in all places at once, making like an actor, a banker, a politician – in short, a producer – gets my vote as the greatest producer of all time. And I have two little Arnazes at home to prove it.”

Desi Arnaz expresses his appreciation to Lucy and the United States of America for giving him the opportunities he has enjoyed.

Desi: “We came to this country and we didn't have a cent in our pockets.  From cleaning canary cages to this night in New York is a long ways. And I don’t think there’s any other country in the world that could give you that opportunity.” 

Both Lucy and Desi become visibly emotional while making their speeches. "Desi was very sincere about that," said Madelyn Davis, who along with her partner, Bob Carroll Jr., wrote every episode of the first four seasons of “I Love Lucy” with Jess Oppenheimer. "Lucy got teary and even Ed Sullivan. Desi wasn't kidding. They had nothing."

The show includes Lincoln Mercury commercials starring Ed Sullivan. Lucy and Desi had participated in such commercials in their first appearance on “Toast of the Town” in April 1954. During the sketch that starts the show, Lucy says the words “High dramatic” and Ed reminds her that on his show, it is “Merc-O-Matic,” which was Lincoln Mercury's own automatic transmission, introduced in 1951.

This Date in Lucy History – October 3rd

"Lucy Visits Grauman's" (ILL S5;E1) – October 3, 1955

"Lucy and Paul Winchell" (TLS S5;E4) – October 3, 1966