Picture the scene,
Your ear to the wall,
Like a distant scream
I heard one guitar
and my whole life changed
Wait a minute, it is a bad sign when you immediately digress from your original rant about how terrible Miami Vice (the TV Series) is, and go right into the lyrics of 'Jukebox Hero' by Foreigner. So let me backtrack. I am watching TV tonight, hurray new Simpson's and Season Premiere of King of the Hill. But I have to wait until 8, so I check the TiVo to see what crap this alleged artificial intelligence (intelligent filtering) has recorded on my behalf. Well it recorded an old episode of Miami Vice, and I decided to give it a whirl.
Now, as I started before. Picture the scene. It is Friday Night, circa 1985. I am home alone, my sister is off to college, not sure where my parents are, but I seemed to be home alone a lot of Friday night, but that is perhaps another story. So I spend the night engrossed in network television, since that is all we had growing up (I know I was deprived). A few years back it would have been Airwolf, Love Boat and Fantasy Island (or maybe that was a Saturday night, not sure). Either way, I remember watching Miami Vice every single Friday night, when I was in my early teens before I joined the in crowd and got a life (read drank beer). Anyway, I loved that show, and thought it was great television. But I think I had some serious screws loose after watching an actual episode tonight.
I have been unable to watch this show recently because I was concerned it would shatter my fond memories. I put this program in the same category at Welcome Back Kotter, a good show at the time that everyone liked, but I was afraid it would not hold up over time, some other classic 70 sitcoms, I fear the same thing for Barney Miller. Boy was I right about not wanting to watch this show.
I watched this terrible episode from 1987, which is clearly after it jumped the shark (Tubbs has a beard). It was about a dead reggae star who died and was cryogenicly frozen so he could be brought back to life later, think Ted Williams as a Rastafarian. I started laughing half way through the show, since the premise of the episode was so far off base and incredibaly unbelievable. It made no sense and was absolutely so pretentious it was comical. Anyone else feel the same way about Miami Vice?
Speaking of Tonight's Simpson episode, the best line is without a doubt:
Marge : Revenge never solves anything!
Homer: Then what's American doing in Iraq?
I also enjoyed the closing credits where they dedicated this episode to all the characters who died during the filming of Star Wars including Storm Trooper #22, Storm Trooper #5, all the people aboard the two death stars, but unfortunately not Jar-Jar Binks. Great Stuff. Good to see the Simpson's writers are still on top of their game after 34 centuries on TV.
Finally, I also just saw a preview for Ghost Rider, the new Nicolas Cage movie. Any remember a time when he was actually considered a good actor who starred in good Movies? My favorite Nicolas Cage movie is Leaving Las Vegas, Red Rock West, Family Man and of course Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Do you remember when Cage was a semi-respectable actor?
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2 comments:
I love the Movie Leaving Las Vegas and I used to love Nicolas Cage too. I don't know what has happened to him as an Actor? What happens to so many of them once they think they can just pick and choose the rolls. There are very few, in my opinion that can actually do that and remain good, if not great!
Jeff, I was an extra in Nick Cage's new flick "Next" We shot my scene in Feb of last year and it was scheduled for release in Jan of this year then Sept of this year and now its not on the schedule anymore. Sony spent over $80 Million on this film and it must be so bad they don't want to release it. He's just picking roles for the paycheck.
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