Last Sunday, at the Funspot arcade in Laconia, New Hampshire, I was amongst many families with children. So I wasn’t surprised when, on Wednesday, I felt a sore throat coming on. Now there’s sneezing and coughing to go along with it. My usual temperature is about 97.7. It’s presently 98.8.
Next February, the original, pre-New Hope, Star Wars will be released in theaters for the movie’s 50th anniversary.
https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-50th-anniversary-theatrical-release
It was screened last June in England.
This was how the death of the Death Star originally looked a long time ago, in theaters far, far away.
Monte Schulz has written a follow-up to his dense and mesmerizing novel Metropolis. I’ve pre-ordered a copy of Undercity and have updated Monte’s entry in the links section.
Elisabeth Sladen was one of the very favorite Doctor Who companions. She died fifteen years ago, as I noted at the time.
Sladen’s final regular appearance as Sarah Jane Smith during the classic period of the series was in “The Hand of Fear”. The BBC has graciously made the 4-part story from 1976 — half a century ago! — available for free viewing.
Does UK TV from the time appear to have almost HD quality? That’s because it had 625 lines of resolution, compared to America’s 525 lines.
“O Deep Thought computer,” he said, “the task we have designed you to perform is this. We want you to tell us….” he paused, “The Answer.”
“The Answer?” said Deep Thought. “The Answer to what?”
“Life!” urged Fook.
“The Universe!” said Lunkwill.
“Everything!” they said in chorus.
Deep Thought paused for a moment’s reflection.
.
.
.
“Forty-two,” said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.– Douglas Adams, ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’
A barrel measurement of crude oil is 42 gallons.
Ah, made for TV movies. They’d been around since the early days of television, but they became a regular thing in the Seventies. Especially the ABC Movie of the Week. Duel, directed by Steven Spielberg, is not only the best remembered, but the one that’s most worth watching today.
Some movies were, or became, pilots for a TV series. So it is with The Night Stalker, the first appearance of Darrin McGavin as Karl Kolchak, that aired two months after Duel.
Who doesn’t love a good vampire movie, especially with this star-studded supporting cast of excellent actors: Carol Lynley, Ralph Meeker, Kent Smith, Charles McGraw, and Elisa Cook, Jr. Claude Akins also appears, but he wasn’t an excellent actor.
Carol Lynley was also excellent in other ways. The times being what they were, a few years earlier she felt free to bare all in Playboy. That was the year she was in the Otto Preminger movie Bunny Lake is Missing.
