Your Friday Video Link for today is in tribute to the great Richard Sherman who passed away last week.
The first video link is connected to the recent Once Upon A Studio special on the history of Disney with Richard Sherman paying visit to Walt Disney's office.
The second clip is a much older clip of Richard and his brother Robert along with Walt Disney singing "It's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow."
OH HELL YEAH!!!
"Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
Special Counsel Joseph Welch
Boston law firm of Hale & Dorr
Army–McCarthy hearings
June 9, 1954
Over the last 8 years or so, I've thought a lot about that statement Joe Welch made to Sen. Joseph McCarthy back in 1954. Here in 2024, 70 years later, there are so many Republicans I would put that question to.
At long last, have you left no sense of decency?
Last week, Nikki Haley announced she would be voting for Donald Trump this year.
As you may recall, Haley was the last person still standing late into the Republican primary season looking to challenge Donald Trump for the party nomination for President.
Haley made many serious and cogent arguments why Donald Trump should not be President again. She addressed issues of his cognitive decline, his many and sundry legal woes and the sheer chaotic nature of his approach to leadership.
And yet...
She says she's going to vote for him.
Nikki Haley, at long last, have you left no sense of decency?
Haley is not the only Republican to criticize Trump's worthiness to be President again. Trump's former Attorney General Bill Barr questioned Trump's intelligence and his emotional fitness for the highest office in the land.
And yet...
He says he's going to vote for him.
Bill Barr, at long last, have you left no sense of decency?
Decency is in short supply in the Republican party in the age of Donald Trump.
Over Memorial Day weekend, Joe Biden was made fun of for "wandering" around a cemetery. The cemetery where his son the war veteran who died of brain cancer 10 years ago is buried. The cemetery where Joe's first wife and his daughter who died in a car accident in 1970 are buried.
Making fun of a man visiting a cemetery and trying to score political points where 3 members of this family are buried, does that seem decent?
Decency died when Donald Trump became the standard bearer of the Republican Party. Who needs Decency when you're leading in the polls.
Indulge me why I post this quote from a Doctor Who episode.
"Winning? Is that what you think it's about? I'm not trying to win. I'm not doing this because I want to beat someone, or because I hate someone, or because, because I want to blame someone. It's not because it's fun and God knows it's not because it's easy. It's not even because it works, because it hardly ever does. I do what I do, because it's right! Because it's decent! And above all, it's kind."
There is that word, "decent".
I think the question for everyone in the Republican Party who thinks supporting a man of questionable character is a good idea:
At long last, have you left no sense of decency?
I think I know the answer to that.
And the answer is "no".
Welcome to another edition of the Tuesday TV Touchbase where I touchbase on Tuesday about what I’m watching on TV.
Yes, I am a blogger of staggering genius!
Jeopardy Masters concluded last week with Victoria Groce as the winner. Victoria was a one game Jeopardy champion who parlayed an invite to the Jeopardy Invitational Tournament (try as he might, Ken Jennings could never get “JIT” to catch on) into a phenomenal run that took her to the Jeopardy Masters event.
I was less concerned about who I wanted to win and more about who didn't. I did not want Yogesh Raut to win. I will concede Yogesh is a strong player with deep knowledge and fast buzzer skills but he keeps ticking me off. Correct Ken’s pronunciation, muttering to himself, there’s such a negative vibe with this guy.
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Abbott Elementary came to it’s season 3 finale last week and the whole will they/won’t they going on between Jeanine Teagues and Gregory Eddie got resolved in the last moment with a oh hell yeah they did aka the big damn kiss. Earlier both were put off from professing their feelings for each other due to being co-workers and things could get weird. Well, they have a whole summer to work through that.
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After a 2 year absence, Interview With the Vampire is back for it’s 2nd season. After killing off Lestat last season (who let's face it is not dead-dead), Louis and Claudia have ventured to Europe to look for other vampires. World War II is going on which presents opportunities and obstacles. There's a war on which provides a lot of death to provide cover for a couple of travelling vampires who need to feed. But caution is still required when those vampires are African Americans who are very much out of place in war torn Europe.
Back in the present, Daniel Malloy is in a pissier mood than usual. He's perpetually tired, his Parkinson's is getting worse and this whole "interview with the vampire" is undermined by
Louis not being honest. Especially when Louis' allegedly human assistant Rashid is revealed to be a 500+ year old vampire named Armand.
And Louis appears to be selectively editing his memories.
Side note: the role of Claudia has moved from Bailey Bass to Delainey Hayles as of season 2. So far, the transition has worked. The role of Claudia is a tough one. Turned into a vampire as a pre-adolescent, Claudia is several decades old and a labyrinthine mind that belies her child like exterior.
Louis and Claudia make their way to Paris where they find out Lestat was kind of a big deal there. And Lestat continues to live rent free in Louis' head.
Not to mention living for real back in a garbage dump outside New Orleans.
_____________________________________
And Hacks is back for a 3rd season. A little surprised to see this one come back given Max’s propensity for cancelling series after only 2 seasons.
Gone too soon and not forgotten:
Meanwhile, it seemed Hacks had reached an end for the story of Deborah and Ava. Deborah is back on top after her big TV special and Ava landed with a comedy/news program as a writer.
Then Deborah sees a chance to get something that was denied her back in the 1970's, her own late night talk show. Ava is back on board to help her write material for this new show.
Ava's girlfriend is not on board with this as she thinks the whole Deborah/Ava relationship is toxic (and she's not completely wrong).
But there is no denying that Deborah and Ava are sparking as they seek to redress her loss of a talk show decades ago simply due to Deborah being a woman.
Next week, the series finale of Star Trek Discovery.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.
I was pondering something that a writer (whose name eludes me at the moment) called "the refrigerator moment".
It goes something like this.
You see a movie.
The experience was a satisfying one. You were sufficiently entertained, laughing at the jokes, being sad when things took a dark turn. You feel good about the experience.
Several hours later, you wake up in the middle of the night feeling a bit peckish. You need a snack.
You pad your way to the kitchen, open up the refrigerator to see if there are any of those pudding cups you like when all of a sudden...
Hey! How did the butler know the letter opener that was used to stab the old man was put in the top desk drawer after the lawyer's secretary left the wedding?
...
Also why are there no pudding cups?
And what has any of this got to do with this week's edition of Doctor Who Is NEW!?
Let's find out.
73 Yards
by Russell T Davies
We're already off our heels from the start.
As the TARDIS materializes on a cliff overlooking the sea, the credits that normally appear over the theme music and opening sequence just float silently in the air: the title of the episode, the names of Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson.
I say! What goes on here then?
The Doctor and Ruby have arrived in Wales.
Not Wales pretending to be somewhere else but actual Wales.
The Doctor is gushing about Wales and all things Welsh including a prime minister named Roger Ap Gwilliam who nearly started a nuclear war and... Whoops! That's in 2046! Scratch that! Spoilers!
Then the Doctor accidentally steps into a magic circle.
Yes! 2 weeks in a row, the Doctor is putting his foot down on something he's not supposed to.
While examining this collection of strings, scrolls and artifacts, Ruby realizes the Doctor isn't talking.
The Doctor isn't there.
Ruby's key no longer works in the TARDIS lock and the Doctor has just vanished.
Ruby Sunday has been abandoned.
But she is not quite alone.
Off in the distance (73 yards away) is an old woman, dressed in black with long white hair. I'm gonna call her the Old Ghost Lady or OGL for short. She doesn't approach Ruby but when Ruby heads towards this strange figure, the OGL shifts position to remain 73 yards away.
When Ruby walks away, the OGL follows still at 73 yards.
Sending surrogates to talk to the OGL doesn't work. They approach the OGL and then they run off and refuse to have anything to do with Ruby anymore.
That includes her adoptive mother Carla and even Kate Letheridge-Stewart and UNIT. Anyone who might be of help to Ruby abandons her.
Time passes.
Ruby ages to 25, then 30 and on the 40, holding down a variety of odd jobs and even having relationships with people even if they don't last long.
The OGL is always there, always 73 yards away.
Ruby has reached the year 2046 and Roger Ap Gwilliam is running for prime minister. Ruby remembers what the Doctor said about this guy nearly causing a nuclear Holocaust.
Ruby joins the campaign as a volunteer to get close to Roger Ap Gwilliam and somehow save the world.
It's pretty darn clever how Ruby manipulates her physical position relative to Roger Ap Gwilliam to put the OGL next to him.
Roger Ap Gwilliam runs away screaming, resigns as prime minister and there is no nuclear war! Yay!
40 years more pass. Ruby Sunday is now 80 years old and near death from old age. Finally the OGL approaches and...
The OGL was Ruby all along?!?!?!
Wow!
Suddenly time snaps and everything reverses back to the Doctor and Ruby arriving in Wales.
And Ruby stops the Doctor before he steps into the magic circle.
Wow! What a bold innovative episode. "73 Yards" will likely go down as an all time Doctor Who classic!
Later, looking in the refrigerator for pudding cups when...
Wait a minute!!!
Today’s Cinema Sunday post is an Academy award winning picture from 1955.
It’s a movie that I heard about for years and finally had a chance to watch a few months back.
Starring Ernest Borgnine, today’s post is about the film Marty.
Marty is about a guy named Marty.
Some stuff happens to Marty.
The end.
…
Who said writing about movies is hard?
OK, perhaps a little more detailed might be helpful.
Marty is Marty Piletti, a pudgy friendly guy who runs the local butcher shop.
Marty is the oldest of his siblings and to date, the only one not married off.
This is a subject of some concern on the part of Marty’s customers.
“When are you getting married, Marty?”
“Why’s a nice boy like you not married, Marty?”
“Oh, you should a get a nice girl and get married, Marty!”
Marty smiles politely, hands over packages of beef and lamb and chicken in exchange for money and does NOT hack these annoying people to death with the meat cleaver in his hand.
Look, Marty’s doing all right. He’s looking after his mother like a good son. He runs a good butcher shop that his customers enjoy. He has friends.
Married? Who needs to be married?
His mother worries so about Marty and urges him to put on his good suit and go down to the local dance club one Saturday night. Marty does not want to go. The club is loud and crowded and filled with lots of people who are younger and better looking than him.
Eventually Marty acquiesces and goes down to the dance hall where he meets Clara.
Clara was at the club with her roommate. Her roommate’s boyfriend had arranged a double date with a friend of his but tosses her aside for a younger, prettier girl he meets at the club, leaving Clara abandoned.
Marty and Clara’s paths cross and they start up an awkward conversation.
That gets slightly less awkward.
The next thing you know, hours have passed with Marty and Clara enjoying each other's company.
Has Marty the butcher found love?
Marty and Clara go out some more and things are going well enough.
Until Marty picks the worst time and place to make a move to kiss Clara. Insecure lug that he is, Marty takes it personally but really, Clara likes him. His timing was bad.
Meanwhile, all the people who have been bugging Marty with this…
“When are you getting married, Marty?”
“Why’s a nice boy like you not married, Marty?”
“Oh, you should a get a nice girl and get married, Marty!”
Take a good look at Clara and wonder, gee, can’t he do better than that?
Marty lets people get in his head and leads him to standing up Clara for a date.
Until he realizes that he is STUPID!
"You don't like her, my mother don't like her, she's a dog and I'm a fat, ugly man! Well, all I know is I had a good time last night! I'm gonna have a good time tonight! If we have enough good times together, I'm gonna get down on my knees and I'm gonna beg that girl to marry me! If we make a party on New Year's, I got a date for that party. You don't like her? That's too bad!"
Marty calls Clara to ask forgiveness for not being where he was supposed to be and the smile on his face tells us it’s gonna be OK and we…
Fade out.
OK, how ugly is Clara?
Well, she’s not.
She is what you might call “Hollywood ugly”.
Played by Betsy Blair, Clara is a school teacher and dresses the part in prim dresses and her hair pulled up. But when we first meet Clara in the film, my first thought was how pretty she is.
No, she is not glamourous. But she is pretty. Marty thinks she’s beautiful and I agree with him.
The role of Marty won Ernest Borgnine a Best Actor Oscar for his performance.
And the film itself won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
In 1994, Marty was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" and selected for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry.
There's more to Marty than just the story of a poor schlub who actually finds love and narrowly avoids losing it forever. The screenplay by Paddy Chayefsky does a lot of world building with Marty's Italian American neighborhood and his family and friends, building a rich and detailed tapestry of how life is in Marty's corner of the world.
On a personal level, I share in Marty's worries and frustrations. As a socially awkward outcast, I used to wonder if I was to be denied what every one else seem to have in life. (To be honest, I still worry about that.)
Marty speaks to all who just want to find love, acceptance and belonging.
I opted that the dividing line between these two posts would be 1970.
But there is no magic light switch that flipped and suddenly Hollywood movies seemed more modern. In the late 1960's, there were films pushing against the constraints of the Motion Picture Production Code (aka the Hays Code).
In 1967, one of those movies was Bonnie and Clyde.
During the Great Depression, Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker of Texas meet when Clyde tries to steal Bonnie's mother's car. Bonnie, who is bored by her job as a waitress, is intrigued by Clyde and decides to take up with him and become his partner in crime. They pull off some holdups, but their amateur efforts, while exciting, are not very lucrative. Bonnie and Clyde turn from small-time heists to bank robbing.
The duo are joined by Clyde's older brother Buck and his wife, Blanche, a preacher's daughter as well as a dim-witted gas station attendant, C.W. Moss. Bonnie isn't happy sharing Clyde with this gang. Bonnie sees Blanche as a liability, all whiny and anxious.
The gang's reckless robbery run across the American south and west turns Bonnie and Clyde into folk heroes.
The authorities do not share the perspective including one Texas Ranger by the name of Frank Hamer.
Hamer gets the drop on the gang but then they turn the tables and get the drop on him. They take photos of the handcuffed Hamer as Bonnie slithers and slides provocatively over him. They add to his humiliation by leaving him in a boat in the middle of a pond.
This is a mistake.
Busting the Bonnie and Clyde gang is now personal for Mr. Hamer.
The thrill ride of bank robberies goes on but the thrill is undermined with an ambush by the police goes awry, leaving Buck shot in the head and it kills him and Blanche's injuries causes her to lose her sight in one eye.
Half crazed from pain, trauma, guilt, anxiety and more, Blanche babbles to Frank Hamer which gives him the clues to finally track down Bonnie and Clyde once and for all.
Bonnie and Clyde think they've found a safe (albeit temporary) shelter but they are being led into a trap set by Frank Hamer.
I would say "spoiler warning" for what happens next but what happens next is one of the most famous scenes in American cinema. If you haven't actually seen the scene from the movie itself, you've seen any number of homages or parodies.
What happens next....
Bonnie and Clyde are caught on a country roadside in a volley of machine gun fire, a slow motion ballet of blood and death as a multitude of bullets cleave the air as Bonnie Parker and Clyde Darrow convulse under the onslaught, their bodies shredded and ravaged by an incessant wave of rapid fire bullets.
This is not an arrest. This is an execution.
This bloody violent scene is where American cinema finally grew up. This scene has been described as "one of the bloodiest death scenes in cinematic history".
When I finally sat down to watch Bonnie and Clyde in full for the first time about a year ago, I had already seen that ending. What I wasn't prepared for was how that ending kind of sneaks up on you.
It's like watching Titanic and getting caught up in the romance of Jack and Rose along with all the accompanying soap opera shenanigans when you suddenly realize, "Oh shit! There's an iceberg!"
Clyde and Bonnie are on a wild ride that seems like it will never end. Like they say, "it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye" and with Buck and Blanche gone, it's clear that Clyde and Bonnie are running out of time and luck and some other 3rd thing that keeps the ride going.
In other words, "Oh shit! There's an iceberg!"
The "It's That Person Who Was In That Thing" Department.
The natural performances of Warren Beatty as Clyde and Faye Dunaway as Bonnie make this film work and distinguishes it from all that came before and set the stage for films to come. Bonnie and Clyde presents sex and violence in way that we will come to know in the future from the Cohen brothers, Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino. While made in 1967, Bonnie and Clyde has the look and feel of a movie made in 1997.
It may come as no surprise that there is a disconnect between the events of the movie and what happened in real life. For example, Clyde Darrow is a charming rogue in Bonnie and Clyde but in real life, he was described as a brutish thug with a hair trigger temper.
But as a movie, Bonnie and Clyde is a lot of fun to watch. And it is all a lot of fun.
Until someone loses an eye.
Blog Bidness: after today's Tuesday TV Touchbase, I will not be updating the blog for the next three days.
I plan to be back with posts for Weekend Movies on Saturday and Sunday.
They're not written yet so....
On with this week's Touchbase.
Young Sheldon reached it's series finale last week. Certain events described in The Big Bang Theory came to pass. Now 14 years old, Sheldon Cooper goes to Caltech after the death of his father.
The last act of Young Sheldon began the week before with the 12th episode of the 7th and final season, "A New Home and a Traditional Texas Torture". Changes are coming to the Cooper household. In addition to Sheldon heading off for post graduate studies in Pasadena, George Cooper has been offered a coaching job at Rice University in Houston. Unlike previous promotions opportunities, Mary is actually on board with George taking this offer.
With all this change going on, Mary is determined to set up a family portrait with the family posing in matching outfits in a field of pollen ladened, bee infested blue bell flowers (the "traditional Texas torture" in the title.)
On the morning of the family portrait in the Cooper kitchen, Sheldon's lost in a book, oblivious to everything, George asks Missy if she wants a ride to school (she says she will take the bus) and Mary reminds George one more time to be home by 4 PM for the family photo.
I am struck by the sheer mundanity of this sequence and I am gripped by an ice cold realization: in the next act, the family will be gathered waiting for George when there will be a knock at the door.
The next act: the family is gathered in the living room when I spot 2 figures through the curtains approaching the house and there is a knock on the door.
It's Principal Tom Petersen and Assistant Coach Wayne Wilkins.
George had a heart attack at work and....
He's gone.
The scene ends with Mary, Missy and MeeMaw breaking down in tears while Sheldon sits down, silently staring a thousand mile stare.
Here is Chuck Lorre's title card at the end of the episode.
The two episodes that follow the next week to end the series are very powerful.
Episode 13 is entitled simply "Funeral" and it is what is says: the funeral of George Cooper. There are emotional displays one associates with grief: Missy is angry and Mary is crying all the time. Georgie Cooper steps up to take care of things in planning the funeral (which lines up with what Georgie told Sheldon back on Big Bang Theory about how HE took care of the family while their mother was falling apart).
But what of Sheldon?
The young genius hardly speaks, his expression an implacable stone face. Missy angrily wonders if Sheldon underneath his cold, stoic expression even cares his farther is dead.
Sheldon is reliving the last moment he saw his father alive.
And he keeps thinking of alternatives to just ignoring him as he left that morning.
Simply said "Bye!" or "I love you" or...
The moment keeps rewinding over and over in his mind.
Underneath that emotionless exterior, Sheldon has carved a special corner of hell for himself.
And it continues at the funeral.
Mary asks if Sheldon wants to say a few words. He rises and goes to the pulpit where he speaks from the heart about how he wishes he had told his dad more about how much he meant to him, how much he loved him and...
The scene turns to black and white and freezes. Adult Sheldon, the narrator, says "I wish I would tell you I said all those things."
Rewind.
Mary asks if Sheldon wants to say a few words. He gives a slight nod of the head "no". The moment passes.
It's up to adult Sheldon in the narration to now say what he could not say then, he loved his father and will miss him forever.
....
I'm not crying!
You're crying!
Oh shut up!
Episode 14 is entitled "Memoir" and it brings us the much anticipated on screen return of Jim Parsons and Mayim Bialik as Sheldon and Amy. The narration from adult Sheldon is him writing his memoir.
Back in the Young Sheldon time frame, it's been 27 days since the funeral and Mary is leaning even harder into her religion and has made it her mission that Sheldon and Missy need to be baptized. Sheldon is an atheist and Missy just does not want to but MeeMaw, distraught over watching her daughter fall apart, convinces the kids to give up 20 minutes of their day to do this one thing and they agree.
Until Pastor Jeff says the wrong damn thing at the wrong damn time that sets Missy off and she refuses to go through with it. Sheldon agrees to go through with it not because it's important to him but because it matters to his mom.
But Sheldon does this thing on his own terms, showing up for the baptism wearing a scuba suit, a life vest and a snorkle mask. Mary comments,"The important thing is he's here."
Back in the future, Amy is surprised to learn Sheldon was baptized just to make his mother happy. Which she uses to convince Sheldon to attend his son's hockey game.
It seems our two Nobel Prize winning scientists produced a son who is an ice hockey prodigy. And a daughter who wants to take acting lessons. ("We should not have let Penny babysit", Sheldon complains.)
The last scene of Young Sheldon is of the young man arriving on the campus of CalTech.
And we're out.
...
I'm not crying!
You're crying!
Oh shut up!
(sigh!)
Sticking the landing of a series finale is never easy and can leave a lot desired. But I think the end of Young Sheldon is a virtually perfect culmination.
While the show began as a spin off prequel to Big Bang Theory and was bound to certain canon elements of that series, Young Sheldon developed a unique voice with a talented ensemble that could not only bring laughs but also dramatic moments as well.
Young Sheldon deserved more recognition of this cast, not just of Iain Armitage as Sheldon but the nuanced work of Lance Barber as George Cooper and Raegan Revord as Missy to name a couple of stand outs. Annie Potts as Connie "Mee Maw" Tucker should be lining her shelves with Emmy Awards for her work on this series. Maybe at last with the show on the way out the door, Young Sheldon may get the long over due recognition it deserved all along.
None of us wanted to see George Cooper die but the moment was inevitable and the events surrounding that tragedy were handled with grace, heart and good humor.
Young Sheldon stuck the landing.
Next week's Touchbase, Hacks and Interview With the Vampire.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.
Welcome to another edition of Countdown to Christmas 2024 which is fueled by rage, frustration, anxiety, depression and just a good old pl...
