Retro TV Movie of the Week Promos!

This week, I have been enjoying watching

the Friday the 13th films on AMC's FearFest.

While the movies are edited for television and have ads,

I enjoy watching them for the feeling of camaraderie.

It reminds me of the old days, when you would watch something on TV,

and you knew some of your friends were probably watching it as well.

These days, with so many channels to watch

- on TV, online, on Netflix - it seems so different.

This got me to thinking about when these movies aired on television,

on the USA Network, local channels or even as a network's Movie of the Week.

Remember those?

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Enjoy some of those old TV promos!

Damn, this looks like a fun night.

I might have been watching, I just can't remember.

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Another great night. Imagine never seeing this until they aired on TV!

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Awesome. Some of these new Retro TV channels should air old TV movies!

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Never would have seen a movie like this back then were it not for airing on TV.

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And this needs no explanation. Such a different era!

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TV movies even gave us some classics like this. Great film.

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Imagine being so excited for these to air each night.

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Creature Double Feature aired all over.

This promo is from my area, where it aired on Channel 56 each Saturday.

Saw so many great films that way. Great memories.

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Even oddities like these. Would love to see some of them now!

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And they could be fun, too.

Nothing like USA and Friday the 13th coming together.

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Ah well.

Like I said, I miss those old days.

Glad we have channels like AMC doing something, at least.

Like old TV stuff? Check out

My Third Parent

my retro television blog.

A Last Life to Live

After over 43 years of daily shows, it all comes down to one hour.

Today marks the final episode of ABC's "One Life to Live".

This show was always the "back up" show, when I was growing up. "General Hospital" was the big deal at my house, between my sister, my younger brother (for awhile, anyway) and myself. "One Life to Live" was the one we caught if we had time. Usually, it had started before we got home, so it was just a half hour, at most. But I still watched and got hooked, for a good number of years.

I stopped watching years ago and only last summer did I start up again, watching with my family. We are all kinda hooked on it, and if the show had been as good (and as cheezy-fun) as it has been lately, I bet it wouldn't be facing its demise today.

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Viki Lord Buchanan, played by actress Erica Slezak  for 40 years,
had a speech on the show yesterday:

“The fans are so loyal, so passionate, so invested in their stories. I always ask how they started watching Fraternity Row. Some of them were stay at home mothers, taking a break before their children came home from school. Others were college students, with free time between classes. Many of them inherited a love of the show from their parents or their grandparents, who were long time fans themselves.

I remember the first time I tuned into Fraternity Row. I was hooked instantly. I needed to know what would happen next to these fascinating people. Would the hero and the heroine find their way back to true love? Would the villains get their comeuppance? Or would their crimes go unpunished? Would loving families overcome their obstacles? Or would their troubles prove too difficult to surmount?

Ultimately, that’s what soap opera is about: families. Close families, rival families. Even families that are unexpected, or the ones we choose for ourselves. And when a show is lucky enough to be on the air as long as Fraternity Row has been on, these families become extensions of our own. The audience might be upset when a favorite actor leaves, but they’re always willing to welcome a new one. Even when that new cast member is quite different from the one being replaced.

After all, this is a place where people come back from the dead, go off to grade school in the morning and come home from high school in the afternoon. Because for every new face, every new couple, every new family, there are long familiar faces. Some who have grown up before our very eyes. And a few more we hope to watch grow up. We know them so well. They’ve become our friends. We yearn for their happiness, especially when it’s hard won. We laugh as they laugh, cry as they cry and we can’t imagine doing without them. And when things are at their very worst on the show, that’s when we seem to enjoy them the most.

There’s just one thing we have to do to keep them in our lives: tune in tomorrow.”

Victoria Lord, on the ending of One Life To Live’s fictional soap opera Fraternity Row.

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So, thanks for all the hours of entertainment.

You will be missed, no matter what ABC-TV thinks.

Here is the "One Life to Live" song, as sung by Kristen Alderson,

who played Starr on the show.

Reason #3 Why I Love TV

The New Fall Season

I have been a TV viewer since I was a little kid and one of the best times of year has always been September and the new Fall TV Season.

Now, I know things are different these days. With so many cable channels and so many shows, there is more than one "TV Season". And I'm fine with that, love the variety that is available to us today and some of my favorite shows are no longer located on the broadcast networks.

But being a kid from the "old days," I still get that feeling of excitement when we get into this month and a bunch of shows start premiering all at once.

The herald for this time used to be the Fall Preview issue of TV Guide, which I would scoop up at the grocery checkout and read like a book. Loved seeing what new shows were coming to the small screen, what actors and actresses were going to be appearing weekly and which old favorites were facing changes, in format or time slot, or weren't coming back at all. Remember, this was pre-Internet. Sometimes you didn't know your favorite show was a goner until this issue arrived!

In fact, I remember reading that Gates McFadden wouldn't be back as Dr. Crusher for the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation in the Fall TV Guide "Returning Favorites" section that year. I was NOT happy. But, she was back for season three, so all was right again.

Some of the shows I am looking forward to this Fall include Terra Nova (Monday on FOX); Unforgettable (Tuesday on CBS); Ringer (Tuesday on CW); Person of Interest (Thursday on CBS); Grimm (Friday on NBC) and Once Upon a Time (Sunday on ABC).

I wanted to like ABC's Charlie's Angels remake, but after last Fall's failure Undercovers, I am not holding out much hope. The cheesy days of TV when this worked may be gone for good.

You can check out TV Guide's Fall Preview Online.

Here's to a great Fall Season and good luck to the new shows. Not all of you are going to make it to June. But that's part of TV life!

Reason #2 Why I Love TV

For my second post in this not-so-regular feature here, I am going back in time.




Reason #2 Why I Love TV: General Hospital.

This is better categorized as a "Why I USED to Love TV".


See, I was a GH fan for decades, from the mid/late 70s up until the early 2000's. I watched through a lot of ups and downs. But in the early part of the previous decade, the show lost its focus.


No longer did history, long-term characters and family matter. Instead, it was all about the mob. Granted, this was interesting. At first. But the show became all-mob, all-the-time. And to make matters worse, death became a quick-hit story plot device instead of something that mattered.


Long-term, important characters were killed off, either for monetary reasons or for supposed story advancement. But all that ended up happening (besides saving money in the budget, I suppose) was a bitter distancing of long-time fans.


After too much bloodshed and character assassination, I gave up. The show - whether it was the writers, producers, whomever - no longer cared about the fans who had been around so long. Budget took priority. The "hot" mob took center stage,  apparently permanently. And I, sadly, said adios.


But now I have read that the long-time head writer of the show was dumped and replaced with someone else. For the first time in a very long time, there is new blood in the writing room. I gave thought to revisiting the show I had watched so long. But, still I hesitated.


Then I started to read a few fan reviews. They seemed positive. Also, a long-time character (Dr. Monica Quartermaine) was being brought back. Things seem to be looking positive.


Of course, this comes at a time when it may just be too little, too late for the show. Daytime soaps are falling left and right, including the other two ABC shows, All My Children (off the air in September) and One Life to Live (off the air in January 2012.) There has been news that those shows will be moving online, in some format. And there are also rumblings that GH is poised for a similar fate, if and when it leaves the broadcast airwaves. Seems like a last-ditch way to try and hold on to the shows. But for some fans, better that than nothing at all.


All of that doom-and-gloom aside, we have DVR'd the last two episodes of GH. Will it be the show I remember? Probably not. But I am willing to give it a try, at least for old time's sake.


Maybe it will be like catching up with an old friend.  Hopefully it won't just be to say one final good-bye.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Okay, so I had never watched one episode of the television series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" before. The show premiered in 1997, and I was pretty much a newlywed with two kids. Just didn't take the time to get into it and felt like I had missed to much once it had run a few years (and I added another kid to the brood). I always meant to watch, since I heard good things about it, but kept putting it off.

Until yesterday, that is. Hulu has the first season available for free, but only until Sept. 30th. Then they will be airing season two. I took that as incentive to dive in and give it a try.

And I like what I have seen so far. Granted, I am only one episode in, and that episode is to be continued, but I like the dialogue between Buffy and her new friends, and even with her and the baddies she has encountered thus far. Seems like it will be a fun show to discover.

Here is the first episode of the series, "Welcome to the Hellmouth".

I am going to go check out part two!