My Log - TMal

[TMal]

[color=blue:4e892b06a3][/color:4e892b06a3]I hope to give a little back to the show that has provided so much entertainment and memories for me. Here it goes......

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[b:6b961d0b90]LOST DOG[/b:6b961d0b90]

[b:6b961d0b90]First Aired:[/b:6b961d0b90]January 9, 1974
[b:6b961d0b90]Written By:[/b:6b961d0b90] Henry Slesser
[b:6b961d0b90]Cast:[/b:6b961d0b90] Kim Hunter, George Matthews, Robert Dryden, Gil Mack and Mandy Potemkin

[b:6b961d0b90]Story: [/b:6b961d0b90]Julia Smallet is a local piano teacher whose husband, George, has a nasty habit of beating her. Julia's student, 20 year old Ronny Hughes, notices Julia is a bit discolored at times. Julia explains the beatings are the result of her not letting George own a dog due to her neurosis. George sends Julia to a shrink and then buys a Doberman (Atilla) while Julia is at the doctor. After another beating, Ronny takes it upon himself to confront George. [b:6b961d0b90]George 1 - Ronny 0[/b:6b961d0b90]
During a regression-hypnosis session we learn that when Julia was a young girl, she had a dog that she used to attack another kid. After her third session, Julia appears to have kicked her problem... but old habits are hard to lose. Will Julia play the Atilla card?


[b:6b961d0b90]Favorite Quote:[/b:6b961d0b90] "Nothing will ever take the smell of George out of anything."


[b:6b961d0b90]Comment: [/b:6b961d0b90]The story is a mix of "Burning Bed" meets "They Kill their Masters" and "The Graduate". When I was a kid, my piano teachers were about my grandmother's age, so the relationship b/t Ronny and Julia started to "gross me out." But, Ronny may have merely been ahead of his time....it was another 20 years before Anna Nicole perfected the neo natal-grandparent relationship.
Anyway, the focus on domestic abuse was truly ahead of the curve. Kudos to writer Henry Slesser for beating the visual media to the punch on the domestic abuse issue, as I don't think "Burning Bed" came out for at least another five years.
I have to say that George's fight with Ronny, while not justified, did give me a vicarious thrill - Ronny seemed like a couple of snot-nosed, silver spooners I knew in college. Ahh, if only I wasn't a pacifist at the time (I really wasn't, but hey, it got chicks :wink: ).
The story's ending is merely a suggestion of things to come. I don't think today's audience would be satisfied by the lack of "closure", but I found it unique in a retro-refreshing kind of way...kind of like the spinning question mark at the end of "The Thing."
Parting shot - The latest version would substitute two feuding magicians for Julia and George and a white tiger in place of the Dobie - nah, nobody would believe it......

[TMal]

[b:48eb92b92c]Hickory, Dickory, Doom[/b:48eb92b92c]


[b:48eb92b92c]First Aired:[/b:48eb92b92c]February 26, 1979

[b:48eb92b92c]Written By:[/b:48eb92b92c]Bob Juhren

[b:48eb92b92c]Cast:[/b:48eb92b92c]Tony Roberts, Patricia Elliot, Sam Gray, Joan Shea


[b:48eb92b92c]Story:[/b:48eb92b92c]Charlotte and Charlie Tucker visit an estate sale in the front yard of Richard Lum in southern Pennsylvania. There, they find a wonderful antique clock that Mr. Lum states belonged to his uncle, who was a minister. Although Mr. Lum doesn't believe the clock is working, it somehow manages to chime as the Tuckers walk by. After purchasing the clock the Tuckers take it home and examine it. Strange letters seem grown in the woodgrain, and the air in the clock body feels cool and damp - even after being outside in the hot sun. Again the clock oddly chimes. Charlotte's mother visits the next day, and being somewhat psychic, convinces the Tuckers to summon a Ghostbreaker after she feels a "force" in the clock. That night, the clock chimes endlessly, only stopping when Charlie investigates and shuts the door to the clock, which he is unable to explain how it opened. The next day, Mr. Carlton, the ghostbreaker, confirms something is odd about the clock - including the name SARGATANAS carved in the clock's interior. He breaks the shocking news to the Tuckers that SAGATANAS is a Brigadier to Lucifer. He suggests the they use a medium of enormous sensitivity (Margaret Egan), who later finds that the clock is actually a gateway to hell. That same day a strange being knocks on the door and requests to see the clock, after hearing it chime. He enters the clock saying he will "summon the others" and incredibly disappears. Margaret reveals that SARGANTANAS was ecclesiastically imprisoned 103 years ago, and that his entry into the clock has re-opened the gateway. Now the spirits of hell are soon to enter into the world. The Tuckers attempt to move the clock to hallowed ground before it's too late. Will they succeed????


[b:48eb92b92c]Comment:[/b:48eb92b92c] Great show! Well acted and a story line that didn't take the easy way out. There really wasn't much to pick apart in this episode, it was solid all around. I wonder, though, if Bob Juhren's vision is that the Antique Roadshow is the tool of the devil or simply that Pennsylvania is the home of the damned. Just ask a Pirate's fan :D

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[b:5d1364b989]THE PHANTOM LULLABY[/b:5d1364b989]


[b:5d1364b989]First Aired:[/b:5d1364b989]May 29, 1974

[b:5d1364b989]Written by:[/b:5d1364b989]Elspeth Eric

[b:5d1364b989]Cast:[/b:5d1364b989]Rosemary Murphy, Arnold Moss, Mason Adams, Corrine Orr, Robert Dryden


[b:5d1364b989]Story:[/b:5d1364b989]A woman returns to her parents new apartment immediately after an abortion. Mom and Dad are worried about her zombie like appearance and her new ability to speak French. Also disturbing is her fascination with caring for the "little boy". While the building maintenance man relates the story to Mom about how the apartment is haunted, Dad goes off to find her boyfriend and bring him to the apartment. When they arrive, they find that the daughter has lapsed into a coma. Amazingly, after summoning the doctor, she snaps out of it and acts as if nothing has happened.
The boyfriend relates that he used to live in this very apartment, and that his first wife jumped to her death while holding his son from this very balcony. Of course he met his wife during his service in the war - she was French you see.


[b:5d1364b989]Comment:[/b:5d1364b989]I listened to this while on a short trip the other day, and I haven't had time to review the episode for character names and in-depth details. I remember reading a review of this episode years ago where the author posited that this tale was a statement against abortion. I'm not so sure. Although I agree that the psychological trauma of the daughter could have been achieved using other methods, including childbirth, I think abortion was used because it was on the lips of most news discussions at the time. My belief is based on my inability to find a true moral to this story.
The father character is fairly well played, with the emotion believable, but the other characters are bland and not well "fleshed out." I thought the storyline quite mediocre, and the dialogue uninspiring - merely words between conceptual storyline points. I think Brian in Toledo expressed some reservations about Elspeth Eric's work in other posts. I may be progressing to the same conclusion - we'll see.

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[b:cdce962c9a]A Horror Story[/b:cdce962c9a]


[b:cdce962c9a]First Aired: [/b:cdce962c9a]12/11/78

[b:cdce962c9a]Author: [/b:cdce962c9a]Elspeth Eric


[b:cdce962c9a]Cast: [/b:cdce962c9a]Robert Dryden, Ian Martin


[b:cdce962c9a]Commentary: [/b:cdce962c9a]

OK, I cheated a bit and listened to the episode after Brian_1984 gave it high marks in his review. While driving across northern California with my wife last weekend, I threw it in the car stereo and got completely immersed. The storyline traces a French chef's unique and well received dishes and ties it all in to a New Orleans cobbler's exemplary shoe products. Believe it or not, there's plenty of horror in that story.

In fact, my wife kept grabbing my arm every time a new twist was revealed - she couldn't believe that this was allowed on radio "back then." Two things - first, it's a bloody good thing that my car has automatic transmission, as my right arm was cramped from so much grabbing; and, after 19 years of marriage, why does my wife try to convince me that she's too young to remember this show? If I've learned one thing in those 19 years though, it's that it's best that I not protest her "youthful" ignorance.

Anyway, the narrative style interspersing the storyline was a superb mix...just enough time to digest what just happened and where we were being taken. After listening to quite a few episodes, this ranks near the top of my list....and for the first time I can state that I finally heard an Elspeth Eric episode that didn't make me remember my root canal.