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cherylder
Reviews
The Waltons (1972)
In its prime, one of the best
In its prime, nothing better than The Waltons. All the adults, and I include John-Boy in this category, were fine character actors. Earl Hamner's writing and esp his narrative voice with its slight Southern lilt, at beginning & end of shows, just took me to Waltons Mountain. A couple reviewers here left angry, scathing reviews about the writing and the actors and stories. Makes me think they are unhappy people who don't or can't love anyone.
Some people said the show was "unrealistic" bec it starts off during the Depression but "they all look well-fed." Well of course rhe actors weren't required to starve themselves, but people who lived in the country didn't suffer for food the way city-folks did at that time. They were still able to plant vegetables, have chickens, hogs, a cow for milk and butter. And sometimes we did see the Walton men go hunting for game birds or for deer. As my own father said (his immigrant father was a farmer) "There were no convenience stores. If you're hungry go out in the garden, eat a radish." So starvation was not an issue for people who were used to finding for most of their own food anyway.
Seinfeld: The Puerto Rican Day (1998)
Still not shown in syndication 9/27/2022
I only started watching Seinfeld a couple years ago when 2 episodes were shown 11:30PM-12:30AM and I desperately needed to laugh at the end of very long days. So now I'm addicted and watch every show I can. I noticed I see some episodes repeatedly so I wondered what other episodes I might be missing. At some point I was going to buy the full set but when shopping for it, there were so many sets available from so many makers, and some had such bad reviews as to quality, etc, that I didn't buy any. Instead I started a list of every show I saw and then I could see what was missing. Along the way I bought 2 seasons from my cable company, seasons 2 & 3. I forget why I bought them, but season 3 came in handy when I found that the syndicated shows being shown never included season 3 ep.15, which turned out to be "The Suicide" a fun episode where nobody dies, but I understand why they don't show it.
So the only other episode I'm missing now, after a long time, is season 9, ep. 20. So I've just found today, that episode is this "Puerto Rican Day Parade." I guess I've never seen it. Most reviews here say its funny. One reviewer says it's "the worst episode ever" which makes me know I have to see it. It's not even available on the season 9 episodes I would buy from my cable company, so I guess I'll have to go online for it. I'm looking forward to it! Especially since I live in a small-to-medium sized city where the Puerto Rican population is great and we have many Puerto Rican events all year long!
Naked City: Today the Man Who Kills Ants Is Coming (1962)
Graphic and sensitive portrayal of a man's final hours of his spiral into mental breakdown
John Larch gives tremendous performance of unhappy-at-home-and-work policeman on the workday when he finally "can't take it anymore" and suffers a mental breakdown, and not in a private way or at his home, but at his workplace (precinct headquarters) with 20 other cops watching on. Horace McMahon as Lt. Mike Parker is probably the most sensitive as ever seen in this episode as he recognizes what's happening with Larch, and at end of show when Larch breaks down completely, puts his arms around him. Tension in this episode was heavy as you don't know what Larch's character is going to do as his day gets worse and worse and you can see his mind just spinning out of control. Excellent portrayal of mental breakdown as result of everyday tensions building up.