OK, I'll just come clean right now - I'm a TV addict. It's not a byproduct of growing up sitting in front of the boob-tube
, actually, my parents restricted how much tv my sister and I could watch. First it was "No tv until your homework is done."
Then it was "No saturday morning tv after 10am." (That one really hurt - growing up on the east coast, all of the really
good cartoons and shows came on after 10am.) And then the real stake-in-the-heart, "Only one hour of tv during Lent." OUCH!
No, my general addiction comes from enjoying the medium, if not always the content. When I got my very first apartment by myself,
the tv was an instant roommate (who wasn't a pain in the ass). It was something to fill up part of my active brain while
I was working on something else.
I love movies, and enjoy many tv shows. I've learned plenty from PBS and the Discovery Channel, was entertained as a child
by the three major networks, and now enjoy the wide variety from cable.
My earliest memory of watching tv was when my family still lived in Apple Valley, Minnesota, and I had crawled under the sofa
(I don't know why, kids do the strangest things) and watched Bewitched in black and white. Of course, only being 3 or 4 years
old, I had no idea what any of it meant, and it didn't really matter. I liked it.
After that, and a move to Pennsylvania, daytime tv as a kid was filled with the Galloping Gourmet, Let's Make a Deal and The Newlywed Game.
Late afternoon started in with the cartoons and such, like Hercules and Courageous Cat, Superman and Lost in Space reruns.
Weekends brought family viewing of Gerry Anderson's UFO (loved the purple hair, SID and Ed Straker's car)(And Straker was an attractive looking guy, in a 60's
kind of way). And somewhere in there with ADAM-12 and Emergency was Star Trek. Life began to change with Star Trek.
As I got slightly older, somehow I managed to watch the Creature Double Feature on bright sunny saturday afternoons. Ah, classic black and white horror
films. I saw every one of the Frankenstein, Dracula and Wolfman set. The only movie I feel that i've missed out on is called "The Mysterians".
I've never seen it on tv again, and while I am still hungering to watch it, I'm sure it will be a typical "B" sci-fi movie. Maybe it will lose something
after all these years, but I still want to see it.
Prime time tv - The Six Million Dollar Man, The Invisible Man, Quark, The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, Welcome Back Kotter,
Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Space:1999... the list seems endless.
And over on the UHF channels were all the reruns and syndicated shows - more
Star Trek, Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Land of the Giants, I Love Lucy, Monty Python's Flying Circus and Dark Shadows.
Over on PBS, it would be 1978 before I had my first glimpse of Dr Who.
I learned a great deal about home repair watching This Old House, starting with the very first episode in 1979. NOVA filled my high school years, as was Cosmos with Carl Sagan.
There was Knight Rider at the tail end of my high school days, but there was a dearth of tv in college, except Dr Who (of course), MTV and Nikelodean. I became a big fan of Nik at Night,
and found myself hooked on watching The Ann Southern Show and every episode of the Munsters, again and again. Oooh, I've wanted the Munster's house for as long as I can remember.
There was Star Trek: The Next generation, 98102, Melrose Place, Are You Being Served, Keeping Up Appearances, Blake's 7, more Dr Who, and a whole bunch of other crap which probably left my mind as soon as I watched it.
These days with cable, I seem to be camped out on the Sci-Fi channel, HGTV, CNN, Discovery Channel, and PBS, with a few skips to other channels for specific shows.
Has tv gotten any better? Is it filled with the best and worst of original and cliche material? Is it contributing to the delinquency of youth and corruption of morals?
Is it just an electronic babysitter or is it fulfilling the dream of being a medium of learning and education?
My Opinion? Yes, there is a lot of garbage in tv programming today. Some of it suffers from being the "lowest common denominator" just to pull in viewers and advertising revenue.
Some of it is just plain entertaining, just some eye candy, a little escapism, a slight jog to creativity. And some is "edutainment", some teaches, some is thought provoking.
It's a tool like any other - it could be used by some as a babysitter, some people do use for remote learning, some use it as an escape from their lives.
It is simply what we make of it. Does it contribute to violence in our society? Maybe some shows push the edge, but so does the evening news. Some shows also
show the goodness and generousity and benefits in people. Some people will look to tv as a scapegoat or a saviour, and I think it's really neither. It is what it is and after that it is only what we
make of it. The same can be said of so many other influences in our lives.
Following is a partial list of the shows I've watched through the years:
1950's shows
The Dick Van Dyke Show
Private Secretary (Ann Southern, 1953 - 57)
The Ann Southern Show (1959 - 61)
I Love Lucy
1960's shows
The Munsters
Lost In Space
The Addams Family
The Monkees
Dark Shadows
Star Trek
Doctor Who
I Dream of Jeannie
Bewitched
Beverly Hillbillies
Batman
Laugh In
Hogan's Heroes
Get Smart
Gilligan's Island
The Prisoner
1970's shows
U.F.O
The Facts of Life
WKRP in Cincinatti
The Brady Bunch
The Partridge Family
The Mary Tyler Moore show
Love Boat
Fantasy Island
Happy Days
Laverne and Shirley
The Jeffersons
Three's Company
Adam-12
Emergency
Wonderful World of Disney
The Invisible Man
The Incredible Hulk
Wonder Woman
SpiderMan
Super Friends
Land of the Lost
Are You Being Served?
Saturday Night Live
This Old House
1980's shows
Knight Rider
Family Ties
Growing Pains
Simpson's
Star Trek : The Next Generation
Roseanne
1990's shows
Golden Girls
Pee Wee's Playhouse (Saturday mornings)
South Park
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Voyager
Melrose Place
90210
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Angel
Babylon 5
2000's shows
Will & Grace
Smallville
Welcome to 1313 Mockingbord Lane in Mockingbird Heights, home to one of the nicest, if not oddest and strangest, families you could ever have the pleasure of meeting.
The Munsters, which debuted on CBS on September 24, 1964 and ended on September 1, 1966, running for 70 episodes, spawning a few spinoff movies, and even a whole new Production (The Munsters Today). It featured a family based on Universal Studio's 1930's horror film stars like Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolfman. Thinking of themselves as the average American family, they often don't understand why some people react to them in (comedic, to us) horror. In many ways, they actually were the average Ameican family, and demonstrated key moral values.
Herman, while a lovable clumsy oaf, was always trying to do the right thing for his family, and ensure their happiness and Well being. He made sure Eddie knew right from wrong, sometimes showing by unintended example, and while Grandpa always wanted to turn people into one animal or other, Herman was there to make sure that the High (moral) Road was taken. Of course, one didn't want to piss Herman off, either. He was a big boy with plenty of Strength.
Marilyn (originally played by Beverley Owen, who quit after 13 episodes to be replaced by Pat Priest) is Lily's sister's daughter whom the Munsters, with typical benevolence, have taken in and are raising as their own. How many people could relate to that? There are plenty of child being adopted, children being raised by other family members, and multi generational families - Marilyn could be one example people could latch onto. Even though the rest of the family thinks she's "the ugly duckling", they love her all the same and she is part of the family.
The Munsters could be an allegory for all kinds of themes - family, being different, non-conformist - and it can be all those things, as well as being a thoroughly entertaining show. I've wondered how it could be done today, still a comedy but updated. How would the Old World Munsters come to America and fit in? There were two movies along those lines in the 1990s. In my version, though, Grandpa would be come a science teacher at the local college to help bring in money for the family, Herman could still work at the mortuary, or maybe construction, Lily could still be the stay at home mom or she could be entreprenerial and work from home. Eddie would be the computer guru dragging his family into the 21st centrury, and Marilyn - poor Marilyn - would still be trying twice as hard to show that her brains make up for her physical defects. (That girl is headed for serious therapy about self image).
Butch Patrick went on to play "Mark" in the Sid and Marty Kroft Saturday morning kid's show "Lidsville" - which I watched every weekend - about a land of living hats. I think this was also my first exposure to Charles Nelson Reilly.
One of the things I loved about the show was the house, and I have always wanted to own it and live there. Apparently some people in texas thought the same way and have built their own replica of the house - see the links below. I might still work on a scale model, sometime, or a VR model, but for right now, I'll have to content myself with pictures and memories, and dream "what would I do..."
�The Munsters� is registered to Kayro-Vue and Universal Pictures
The Munsters
The Munsters
TV Land
TV Showcase
Steve's Munsters page
The Munsters Land of Fun
munster memories
The Munsters Today
Munster Koach
Morticia's Morgue
The Grandpa Munster / Al Lewis Home Page
The Marilyn Munster/ Pat Priest Home Page
Munster27
Munsters link
The Munsters: The First Family of Fright
Greg's Munster Fan Club
The Munsters and The Addams Family Fan Club
Episode Guide
The Munsters Pics
The Munsters trading cards
The Munsters BBC Review
TV Tome
The Munsters desktop theme
The Munsters House replica
The Munsters House replica article
Original Munster house history
McKee's 2002 Party pics
Texas Twisted 1
Replica house pics
Replica house article
Lidsville
1164.com
Munster Mansion
Haunting News
Texas Twisted 2
Munsters.com
Hollywood 2084
Munsters link
Classic TV Hits
Misfit Toys
I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy World
The Addams Family
They�re creepy and they're kooky,
Mysterious and spooky,
They�re all together ooky,
The Addams Family.
Their house is a museum.
When people come to see 'em
They really are a screa-um.
The Addams Family.
Neat
Sweet
Petite
So get a witch's shawl on.
A broomstick you can crawl on.
We're gonna pay a call on
The Addams Family.
Unofficial Addams Family site
Addams Family Trivia
Morticia's Morgue
Addams Family Sounds
The New Addams Family
The Monkees
Hey, hey, we're the Monkees..."
It was fun, kind of silly, kind of musical, and kind of entertaining. All in all, I enjoyed it at the time, I liked their music more later on, and after thirty years, they are still part of our pop culture.
Monkees homepage
Monkees Collectors
Monkees Music Vault
Micky Dolenz site
Monkees Web Ring
Dark Shadows
"My name is Victoria Winters...."
End Introduction
Cue Music
And the best gothic soap opera would begin each afternoon. I've only seen it in reruns, especially when the Sci Fi Channel started showing the whole series from the beginning in 2001.
Starting off as a generic soap opera with some ghosts and supernatural suspense items, seemingly about an orphaned governess *possibly* returning home to her roots, it was losing viewers until the supernatural part was beefed up with the addition of Barnabas Collins, the family's vampire.
Of course I started watching it just for the vampire part, but now that i've gotten to see more, i really enjoyed it. Too bad it didn't fit well with mainstream mindless soap opera viewers.
Al's Dark Shadows Page
Angelique's Dark Shadows Page
Boo's Dark Shadows Page
Boocat's Dark
Shadows Page
Bramwell's
Mausoleum
Collinwood Revisited
C.R.A.I.G.Y.S.
Dark of Shadow Boxers
Dark Shadows site
The Dark Shadows Fan Club
Dark Shadows Collins Assn.
Dark Shadows FAQ Homepage
The Dark Shadows Journal
The Dark Shadows Mausoleum of Paper
The Dark Shadows Movies Web Site
Dark Shadows pics
Dark Shadows Quote Resource
Dark Shadows: Resurrection
Dark Shadows Returns
The Dark Shadows Site
Dark Shadows Stick Figure Theater
The Dark Shadows
Supernatural Page
Darker Shadows
Darkness Falls
Fawlty Shadows
JonathanFrid.com
A Jonathan Frid
Production.
Guardian's Dark Shadows
Theater
David Henesy web fan page
House of Dark
Shadows
Jess's Dark Shadows Page
Josette's Song
Judy Philips' Dark Shadows Page
Lisa's Dark Shadows Page
Lisa's Dark Shadows Page
Morticia's Morgue
MPI's Dark Shadows site
Nancy's Dark Shadows Page
Lara Parker's Web Site
Pomegranate Press
Quentin's Room
Stephen Mark Rainey(co-author of Dreams of the Dark)
Rich's Self-Indulgence Theatre
Rosemary's Dark Shadows and Friends Page
- Rosemary's Dark Shadows Tribute
- Zurc2's Dark Shadows Tribute
- Rosemary's Dark Shadows Picture Gallery
Sci-Fi Channel's Dark Shadows site
David Selby Picture and Sound Page
Shadowhouse Collectibles
Shadows of the Night
James Spielburg's site
Susan's Dark
Shadows Page
Tales from Another World
The Umpteenth Page About Dark Shadows
The Unofficial Dark Shadows Simulation Page
Virtual Collinwood
Virtual House of Dark Shadows
Whispers From the
West Wing: A Dark Shadows Homepage
Willie Loomis Page
Willie Loomis Tribute Page
Willie World
The World of Barnabas
The World of Dark Shadows
Wotan's World of Dark Shadows
Tommy Yarbrough's Website: My Tribute to Dark Shadows
The Facts of Life
You take the good, you take the bad
you take them both and there you have
the facts of life
the facts of life
There's a time you've got to go
and show you're growing and now you know
the facts of life
the facts of life
When the world never seems
to be livin' up to your dreams
and suddenly you're finding out
the facts of life are all about you, you
It takes a lot to get 'em right
when you're learning the facts of life
learning the facts of life,
learning the facts of life
(second version)
I watched this show every week, and maybe because I was about the same age as the characters, I found the show appealing, entertaining and sometimes comforting. Mrs Garret was wonderful, and I wish I had the opportunity to meet Charlotte Rae, sometime.
The Facts of Life
Tim's Facts of Life
The Facts of Life site
Just The Facts of Life
Facts of Life
WKRP in Cincinatti
90 episodes of some of the funniest scenes in any tv series.
The Flimm Building
WKRP Episodes
WKRP quotes
Movies
I love movies!
Given my love of television, it's really no surprise that I enjoy the visual medium of movies. The first movie that I remember seeing is Walt Disney's Pinnochio. I think I just enjoyed being in a dark comfortable space, being entertained with a large screen visual, something bigger than life.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was the next movie i remember seeing, and I just loved it! As a kid, I liked seeing the mysterious exterior of the factory, then the fun-house like interior, the vast candy room with chocolate waterfall, and all the wonderful toys and nonsense inside. I even drew pictures of the factory, and made floorplans of it. Ah, that start of my interest in architecture. As I got older, I appreciated the sarcasm and irony in the movie, the subtle, and not so subtle , subtexts in the dialogue. And Gene Wilder became my favorite actor for a long time.
I kept all those tickets stubs of the movies I went to see over the years, well, at least I kept them till I lost them. I just wanted to remember what I saw, re-live the experience. I suppose it all comes down to me being entertained - that's really all I want out of a movie. It's also nice if the movie makes me think, shows me something from a new perspective, takes me to new places.
On my favorite movie list, the ones I could watch over and over without getting tired of it are:
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Metropolis
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home
Interview With a Vampire
Dr Who - The Five Doctors
Better Off Dead
Back to the Future
Batman
Name of the Rose
Beetlejuice
Pee Wee's Big Adventure
Death Becomes Her
Brazil
Valley Girl
Other Movies
North by Northwest - Cary Grant
Some Like it Hot - Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis
Rebel Without a Cause - James Dean
Willy Wonka
Barrett Stevenson was cast as Charlie Bucket in the film �Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory�. These days, he's an accountant.
November 2003 - There is news of a remake of this film with Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka, set to release in 2005.
Wonka's official site
Wonka's unofficial site
WB's Wonka site
Wonka mega-site
Wonka trivia site
Hellraiser, the 1987 movie written by Clive Barker, about Pinhead and his Cenobite brethern from the Outer Darkness, summoned by solving a French puzzle box called the Lament Configuration, bringing promise of untold physical sensuality. Which, unfortunately, turns out to be both pleasure and pain.
This story and movie isn't really science fiction, unles we make the stretch to say that the Lament Configuration puzzle box is a device used to open a portal to other dimensions. This probably belongs in a horrow category, but I don't have one of those, unless I put this into "Movies" over in the Media room.
Like some of the stories and movies I like, it was the puzzle box which really interested me. The music was good too, in the movie, but to watch the puzzle box move and change shape, that was just cool. The demons part wouldn't be so great in real life, but the box....
HellRaiser FAQ
HellRaiser info
Lament
Lament Configuration
Clive Barker
Puzzle box
Puzzle box 2
Valley Girl
In
"Like, totally, the end of one mall's era," CNN April 15, 1999, Anne McDermott wrote the following: "There was a time when the Sherman Oaks Galleria was the most famous mall in America, at least among those of a certain age. They loved the Galleria and loved that it was mentioned in the 1982 Frank and Moon Unit Zappa hit single, "Valley Girl." And why not? The Galleria was widely considered to be the birthplace of the "Val" (as Valley Girls would refer to each other in a kind of shorthand). It all began in the fall of 1980. That's when the Galleria opened in the heart of Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, better known locally as "the valley." Back then, the three-story, skylighted, enclosed structure was considered the epitome of all that was cool in mass consumption. Teens discovered the Galleria and quickly packed the place. It had everything: trendy boutiques, Pac-Man game booths and what passed for exotic fare at the food arcade (yes, even hot dogs on a stick). Plenty of the mall rats enjoying all this were boys, but, for some reason, it was the girls who were noticed. And somehow, someone, somewhere, thought to call them "Valley Girls." Like, totally, a lingo To be called a "Valley Girl" was not exactly a compliment. It conjured up images of vacuous, giggly girls with lots of time on their hands and a bizarre language on their lips. Moon Zappa captured a lot of that talk in 'Valley Girl,' the song she wrote and recorded with her father. Naturally enough, she learned her Val-Speak at the Galleria, where she got to know a lot of Vals. Moon Zappa satirized the culture with lyrics that emphasized the air-headedness of Valley Girls, but in a recent interview, she said she only wrote the song so she could spend more time with her father. In those days, Frank Zappa was touring with his band nine months of the year, and Moon, then 14, simply missed her dad."
Also, a great movie! "Valley Girl" was released twenty years ago (20!). The movie was about a teen named Julie (Deborah Foreman) who seems to have everything going for her. She has parents that let her do anything she wants, cool popular friends, and a popular boyfriend. Julie's world is thrown for a curve when she meets Randy (Nicolas Cage). Randy is from the other side of town, and he just doesn't fit in with Julie's scene of friends. At all.
Maybe there isn't much original about the story, sort of a West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet (without the dying part). Kids from different worlds fall for each other, learn that their world isn't teh only one, nor the best one, necessarily. But this movie has some great music, some fun scenes and lines.
Valley Girl site
Valley URL
Valley Girl trivia
Wikipedia - Valley Girl
Lord of the Rings
LotR artwork
Garden art
LotR art
LotR costumes
LotR Parting words
Actors, Directors and Musicians
These people all caught my attention in some way, and I wish I had the opportunity to meet some of them.
Vincent Price
Oh, Vincent... Vincent Price caught my attention and imagination from the very first time I saw him in one of many films while camped inside on a sunny Saturday watching Creature Double Feature. He was a pretty boy like some of the movie stars of today, be he had such a presence, visually and verbally, that he was just compelling, unavoidable to watch.
He has been in so many things, but I think the items which come to mind most readily are House of Wax, Master of the World, House on Haunted Hill, The Fly, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Batman (tv), the Michael Jackson Thriller video voice over and Edward Scissorhands.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, on May 27, 1911, the son of owner of the National Candy Company, Vincent graduated from Yale, studied a bit in Vienna and made his way to stage in screen via London and Broadway. In his later years, he wrote several successful recipe books.
He married actress Edith Barrett on April 23, 1938, had a son, Vincent Barrett Price, born on August 30, 1940, was divorced in 1947, remarried to Eleanor Mary Grant in 1949, had a daughter, Mary Victoria, born on April 27, 1962, divorced again in 1973 and married a third time to Coral Browne on october 24, 1973. Coral died on May 29, 1991 of cancer, and Vincent followed her on October 25, 1993 from Parkinson's and lung cancer.
His son, Vincent Barret Price, is a columnist for
The Albuquerque
Tribune, a professor in the University Honors program at UNM, and the author of
City at the End of the World and
Anasazi Architecture & American Design.
His daughter, Mary Victoria Price, lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, writing for television -- A&E Biography and AMC, etc -- also for magazines, and teaching writing, literature, and languages.
Interview here and
another interview here. She also purchased
Price-Dewey Galleries in April 2003.
Victoria briefly recounts the time in the 1950's when Vincent was grey-listed, as opposed to being blacklisted, by HUAC - House Un-American Activities Committee - and the rampaging nonsense of McCarthyism for his association with left wing groups associated with the Spanish Civil War.
In 1951, Vincent helped set up a collection of art for East Los Angeles College. It is still there today, in his name, and his family serve on the board of directors. In 1959, Price wrote "I Like What I Know," and auto-biography filled with lots of art appreciation content. In 1961, he was approached to join the White House Art Committee under Jackie Kennedy. He also penned another book, "The Book of Joe," inspired by his love of dogs and one of his own in particular. Vincent began a partnership with Sears department stores in the 1960's, creating the Vincent Price Collection of art collectibles. In 1965, he and his wife published "A Treasury of Great Recipies," highlighting Price's love of food.
Tribute to Vincent
Vincent Price Film Site
Jim's Vincent Tribute page
Vincent Price
The Vincent price art gallery at East Los Angeles College
Brian's Drive in Theater
Sounds of Vincent Price
Wikipedia
Michael's Vincent page
Vincent Daniel's column
Vincent Price Fan Listing
River Phoenix
I first saw River in
Stand By Me and thought his was a great performance in a coming of age movie. After that, I thought most of his other movies and performances were well done, too, especially in
My Own Private Idaho with Keanu Reeves.
I was looking forward to more performances, but he died October 31, 1993 from a drug overdose. I was disappointed, frustrated, disheartened and so many other things when I read the news. I wish I could have been there to stop him, I wish someone else had stopped him, I just wanted to grab him by the shoulders and yell "What the hell are you thinking?!" But I couldn't, and can't, so i and everyone else will just have to be content with the films he did do for us.
Rio's Attic
Only One River Phoenix
Guardian column
Alekas' page
Frank's Reel Reviews
e online column
Astabgay River page
Roddy McDowall
September 17th 1928 - October 3, 1998
The first movie I saw Roddy in was Planet of the Apes, and then went on to look for him in other movies, the last being
A Bug's Life in 1998.
The Roddy McDowall Fan Club
c/o Dana Brewer
Rt 1, Box 490
Frost, TX 76641
Roddy Tribute page
IMDB Info
About column
Official McDowall site
Partial Biography
Classic Movie Kids
Who2 McDowall page
Actor Database
Wikipedia
Michael Biehn
It was
The Terminator in 1984 when I first noticed Michael, but later I realized I had seen him in
Grease and
James at 15 (1977 TV show). Later I saw him in
Aliens ,
The Abyss and
The Seventh Sign , with Demi Moore.
After that, I hadn't really followed him much, but he's certainly kept busy with other TV, movie and video game appearances.
Official Fan Club site
Reesa's Biehn site
Michael Biehn site
Biehn Team
Tarlan's site
Charlotte Rae
The ever-lovable Mrs. Garrett from The Facts of Life, she also played the Headmistress of a school for witches in
The Worst Witch , 1986, which starred Diana Rigg, Fairuza Balk and also had a cameo by Tim Curry.
Born Charlotte Lubotsky on April 22, 1926 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Charlotte has kept busy over the years.
TV Tome
MSN Biography
James Mason
To me, the quintessential Captain Nemo
James Mason fan site
James Mason Appreciation Society
James Mason at Reel Classics
Jamie Lee Curtis
Oh, I have just always loved Jamie Lee. It didn't matter what she was in, or how good or bad the movie was, I have always thought she was great. She was terriffic in
True Lies with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
JLC site
Shrine of devotion But watch out for a nasty pop up ad
Picture Gallery and mailing address
That's a Wrap
Jamie Lee site
The Movie Times
StarPulse
Trivia Tribute
Fan site
Dame Maggie Smith
Born December 28, 1934 in Ilford, England, Margaret Natalie Smith has had a fulfilling career in acting since she was a teenager, a master of timing, excelling in comedy and drama, she plays all of her roles to the fullest potential, and tho nearing 70, she is still going strong. Maggie ranked tenth in the 2001 Orange Film Survey of greatest British film actresses.
My first encounter with Smith was in one of the all-star, camp mysteries she moves through,
Death on the Nile and
Evil Under the Sun, where she elevates Agatha Christie to the high-comedy plane. Later I saw her in
The Secret Garden and most recently in the Harry Potter movies.
Maggie has two sons from her first marriage to Robert Stephens, who are also actors, Christopher Larkin, (Angels and Insects) and Toby Stephens, (Bond 20: Die Another Day).
Maggie and Diane Wiest will star on Broadway in 2004 in David Hare's new play
The Breath of Life
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban movie will premiere in June 2004, see
www.harrypotter.com
Fan Mail
Paul Lyne-Maris C/O International Creative Management
Oxford House 76 Oxford Street
London W1N OAX
England, UK
Dame Maggie Smith
Sam's Fan page
IMDB Info
Tiscali Entertainment Bio
Salon Article
Hollywood.com Bio
Celebrity Wonder
Guardian Article
Sigourney Weaver
Aliens brought her to many people's attention but I think it was
Ghostbusters which mainly catptured my interest. I think she can be comedic, serious, charming and a bitch in her characters, and she does them so well.
Fan Mail
Sigourney Weaver
c/o International Creative Management
8942 Wilshire Boulevard,
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
U.S.A.
Sigourney Weaver
200 W. 57th St. #1306
New York, NY 10019
U.S.A.
Unofficial Page
Brigette's page
IMDB Info
Gallery
Another gallery
Online Shrine
Hollywood.com article
Carmilla's page
Robb's page
Winona Ryder
BeetleJuice is where I'm sure I saw her first, and I was mostly going to it to see Geena Davis, but I thought Winona did a great job, and later enjoyed
Heathers with Christian Slater. She was in
Aliens III with Sigourney Weaver , which was OK, not great. She was good with Johnny Depp in
Edward Scissorhands although I almost didn't recognize her as a blond. Though she has been busy since then, I really haven't seen her in anything which grabs my attention.
Unofficial page
AGCN - And God Created Noni
Nonisight
Winona Ryder's House Page
Doris' Winona Ryder Page
Whoa Ryder!
Unofficial Winona Ryder Site
Haegar's Winona Ryder Fansite
Bigrose Winona Ryder Site
100% Winona Ryder
Winona Ryder Film Page
Winona Ryder Online Old page, not updated
IMDB Info
Winona Worship more Winona links here
Geena Davis
The Fly probably brought her into the spotlight but I saw her earliest in
Tootsie ,
Knight Rider ,
Family Ties and
Transylvania 6-5000 . She was also lots of fun in
Earth Girls are Easy with Jeff Goldblum.
One of the things which amazes and impresses me is that she and I are both in MENSA, and she makes her own clothes. Talent and beauty wrapped up in one great package.
Links about The Geena Davis Show
Celebrity Web
JAG's Page
Dave Diamond's Geena Davis Page
Geena Davis Homepage
The Geena Davis Page
The Ultimate Geena Davis Page
IMDB info
001pic Bio
Janet Fielding
My first, and pretty much only, screen exposure to Janet was on Doctor Who where she pllayed the character of Tegan Jovanka, a flight attendant who accidentally runs across the Doctor and the Master, and spends a season complaining that she wants to go home, only then to find - once she is left behind at home - that she really would rather travel the universe with the Doctor.
Born in 1957 in Brisbane, Australia as Janet Mahoney, she is one smart and active lady. Janet received A Levels in Physics, Chemistry and Maths and joined Queensland University. Several years after Doctor Who, she gave up acting to work as an administrator in the Women in Film and Television network for three and a half years. WiFT has 10,000 members dedicated to advancing professional development and achievement for women working in all areas of film, video, and other screen-based media. Later, Janet became a director of Marina Martin Associates, an actor's agency, representing amongst others the eighth Doctor, Paul McGann.
Shill pages - bio and photos
IMDB info
Interview article
short bio page
Women in Film and Television - International
Michelle Pfeiffer
Grabbed my eye in
Grease II and
Batman Returns . It seems like she could play a wide range of characters, low end trailer trash to high end debutante.
IMDB info
Gallery
OPAL -
Michelle Pfeiffer Web
Sandrina Page
Matthew Broderick
Ferris Bueller, himself. Although I first saw him in
Wargames and
Ladyhawke . He is another person who seems interesting, nice and worth meeting and getting to know. And he's like Dick Clark - he never seems to age.
IMDB Info
fan page
MB Net
Meredith's Matthew Broderick Page
Addicted to Matthew Broderick
Matthew Broderick, The night we never met
Matthew Broderick Fan Hangout
Matthew's Place
I Love Matthew Broderick
Dianne Wiest
Tribute page
Thespian Net Bio
Casper Van Dien
Starship Troopers
Dien fan page
Dien page last updated 1998
Casper pics
E online Facts
MBM Article
Dean Cain
Lois and Clark , and several movies from his own production company.
Cain Connection
IMDB Info
Jean Claude Van Damme
Attractive, muscular, reasonable acting skill, but seems a bit egotistical. Still, hot body. Former karate champion
Cyborg, Timecop, Universal Soldier, Street Fighter,
He has three children: Son Kristopher Van Damme aka Kristopher van Varenberg and daughter Bianca with ex-wife female ex-bodybuilder Gladys Portugues. Another son with ex-wife Darcy LaPier named Nicholas.
Links site
Fan site
IMDB Info
Olivier Gruner
I first saw Olivier in a movie called
Nemesis, which was quite entertaining but additionaly, Olivier was just plain HOT! Muscular, attractive, great accent - it would be nice to see him in more movies.
He was born August 2, 1960, in Paris, France. He became the Kickboxing Champion of the World in 1987, before retiring from the sport undefeated. Olivier got to work with John Ritter in the movie
Mercenary in 1997.
Gruner Web
Sci Fi Bio
IMDB Info
Adrian's page
Gruner net
Johnny Depp
The more I thought about it, the more I realized just how many things I've seen Johnny in:
21 Jump Street, Nightmare on Elm Street, Cry Baby, Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow, Chocolat, and most recently,
Pirates of the Caribbean. It has been more or less anounnced that he will play Willy Wonka in a remake of
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Which Johnny Depp are you?
I am Edward From "Edward Scissorhands."
You are very shy and often misunderstood. Innocent, sweet, and artistic, you like to pass your days by daydreaming and expressing yourself through the arts. You are a truly unique individual. Unfortunately, you are quite lonely, and few people truly understand you.
Johnny Depp Fan
Kyoko's Johnny
site - Japanese
Johnny Depp Zone - Loaded with photos and other goodies
Danish Site by Hope,
Meeps and Cebel
Johnny Depp: French site
Johnny-Depp.net by Allie
Johnny 4-ever
Johnny Depp Domain
Johnny Depp = Cool by Mary
Screen Savers by Barbara
Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp page (french)
Depp Town page
Zepp's page on Depp
Depp! by Aurelia
Got Depp - Beautiful Wallpapers by Anna
A Place for Wandering
Johnny Photos Internet Movie Database
Johnny Info at Male Celebrities Archives
Johnny Depp page at Film.com
Johnny Page at Biggest Stars.com
21 Jump Street Brasil - tons of original photos of Johnny
Another great 21 Jump Street site
Lusty Johnny site by Ahanna
Johnny site by Sarah
IMDB Info
Diana Scarwid
Born the 27th of August, 1955, I first saw Diana in the B-movie
Stange Invaders and something about her just caught my attention. I don't know if it was her look, or her voice, but I thought she was just a darling. She was later in
Psycho 3 with Anthony Perkins, and again she captured my attention.
Originally from Georgia, Scarwid went north to New York and studied at Pace University and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts before working on stage in Woodstock, NY, for the National Shakespeare Conservatory and in regional theaters throughout the country.
Disappointingly, there is hardly any information about her on the web aside from the listing of his tv and film work.
IMDB info
Tom Welling
Smallville
Source site
Smallville Site
Kristin Kreuk
Smallville
Unofficial fan site
fan site
IMDB Info
John Schneider
John Schneider was born in 1960 in Mt. Kisco, New York. He came to fame in the role of Bo Duke on
The Dukes of Hazard and later launched a very successful country music career. Now on
Smallville as Jonathan kent.
Smallville Site
John Cleese
Monty Python's Flying Circus and so many good movies.
IMDB info
Bio
Wikipedia
Brendan Fraser
Blast from the Past, Gods and Monsters
Official site
IMDB Info
Danny Elfman
I just love all of his movie music, and if I ever did a movie, I'd want him to score it and probably have Tim burton or Bryan Singer direct it.
Music for a Darkened people
Elfman fan site
Elfman FAQ
Tim Burton
Responsible for some of my favorite movies -
Batman, Mars Attacks, Nightmare Before Christmas,
Official site
Tim Burton Collective
IMDB Info
Bryan Singer (Xmen)
IMDB Info
Don Diamont
First saw Don in his role as shirtless hunky pool boy Brad on the soap
Young and the Restless in the early 80's. Now I can still watch him on Y&R and a friend at Soap Opera Digest sends me the latest interviews.
Unofficial homepage
Jabot Models
2003 interview
Grant Aleksander
Another hunky giy who looks a lot like Kevin Bacon, whom I first saw and can still see on the soap,
Guiding Light
Guiding Light Bio
Yahoo Group
George Takei
Hikaru Sulu from
Star Trek
While
Star Trek liberally fills his acting career, fellow homosexual George has a number of other acting credits to his name, Including being on
The Young and the Restless December 22 and 23, 2003.
Born in Los Angeles, California, with the outbreak of World War II, he and his family together with 120,000 other Japanese Americans were placed behind the barbed-wire enclosures of United States internment camps. George spent most of his childhood at Camp Rohwer in the swamps of Arkansas and at wind-swept Camp Tule Lake in northern California.
George was appointed by Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley to the board of directors of the Southern California Rapid Transit District, serving from 1973 to 1984. George was one of the driving forces behind the Arts in Transit program in which every Metro Rail subway station is given its own distinctive look, thereby fostering neighborhood pride. He also served as a vice president of the American Public Transit Association.
IMDB Info
Official Website
Star trek.com Bio
b. Wyatt
I first saw him in
Natural History of Parking Lots
Wyatt rating
imdb
Luster story
Talking Blue
interview
Gay Actors listing
list 1
list 2
list 3
list 4
DVD FAQ
Easy DVD
Amazon
Laser Exchange
Play 247 - UK DVDs
Second Chance DVDs
DVDs online
Half.com DVDs
Amazon
Outpost
Bizrate
Digital Eyes
Ken Cranes
Send me movies
Non-Music, Radio and Old Time Radio (OTR)
My first exposure to radio dramas was listening to a kind of "mystery theater" show on National Public Radio (I think, I was probably about 7 at the time, I didn't pay much attention to station call letters).
There were stories or murders, or other mysteries, or haunted houses, and I was just totally captivated by each one. Being a theater of the mind, I had to visualize everything going on, who people where, what action was happening.
In the mid 70's, there seemed to be a market for the radio programs of yesteryear, and I managed to pick up a few which sounded interesting. In the early 80's, my parents came across a mail-order company which offered hundreds, maybe thousands, of old radio shows on cassette tape.
I was still on a meager allowance but side jobs helped me afford a dozen or so tapes with shows from The Shadow, Superman, Suspense, The Witching hour, and others. I listened to them, enraptured, even though this was the dawning of the MTV generation. MTV would captivate me in a few years, but until then, I listened to these shows.
Now in the age of the Internet, these same shows are available on CD as well as compressed audio files which can be downloaded from several sites.
The Shadow
The weed of crime bears bitter fruit
Crime does not pay.
What evil lurks in the hearts of men?
The Shadow knows!
The Shadow was a popular Radio and pulp fiction book series in the 1930's and 1940's. The initial premise was that playboy Lamont Cranston (later known to have the real name Kent Allard in the pulp novels) had a second life as The Shadow, the mysterious figure with the power to clouds men's minds and who brought evil doers to justice.
Street and Smith Publications Inc. was looking for a new way to promote one of their magazine, Detective Story Magazine, and they succeeded by adapting it to radio. The Shadow began as a narrator for the radios shows Detective Story Hour (1930-1931), Blue Coal Radio Revue (1931-1932) and Love Story Drama/hour (1931-1932). The Shadow went on to narrate a radio show of that same name in 1932, but the classically known Shadow radio stories, where the Shadow is the main character, staring Orson Welles and others began in 1937.
It was those classic radio shows where I was first exposed to the Shadow. I had heard about the character and the catch phrases, but I didn't know much about him. My parents had gotten a hold of some catalog of old radio shows and I ordered some episodes of the Shadow, along with Superman, The Witching Hour, Suspense and several others.
As much as I love TV and movies, audio stories are also quite appealing. I used to listen to mystery radio shows in the mid 1970's until they went off the air, and I wondered where could I find another station to listen to more. These days, older radio shows are available on CD or downloadable from the net as MP3 files, and I have a renewed interest in audio stories in general - I'm able to do other things while I listen, and I can use the theater of my mind to create the visual scenes. It's all terribly creative and an make one think, instead of just being spoon fed visual entertainment.
My interest in the Shadow stories and character found a new outlet in DC and Dark horse comic books in the late 1980's and mid 1990's. Finally, I got to see the Shadow in action. I was also able to buy a collection of Shadow movies from the 1930s and 40s. And then one day, surfing the internet, i hit the jackpot - a website with all of the old Shadow pulp novels, free to download as public domain text now that the copyright had expired. Previously, the only way to get the pulps was to buy them online from eBay, and at very high prices.
With the success of the radio show, a quarterly magazine titled "The Shadow" hit the stands with a publishing date of April 1931. Walter Gibson, using the pen name Maxwell Grant, wrote 282 of the 325 Shadow novels. The others were done by Theodore Tinsley and Bruce Elliot. Lester Dent, head writer for Doc Savage, partly wrote one novel as well. Even though the radio show and magazine were being done roughly at the same time, differences emerged between the radio and pulp versions of the character. Some were small, some more noticable, and what people think about the Shadow is a direct reflection of those changes. On the radio, The Shadow was always Lamont Cranston with potential romantic interest, Margo Lane, and he had the mysterious power to cloud men's minds. In the Pulps, The Shadow used the identity of Lamont on occassion, as he used other identities, until the readers learned his true name to be Kent Allard; the romantic interest always went to one of the Shadow's agent, and he didn't have mystical powers, just a cloak.
In any event, I enjoy both versions of the Shadow and could live with some merged version of the two. I find it all entertaining and enjoyable.
Shadow Radio Theater
Shadow Magazine
Pulp.Net
Shadow Ring Hub
Shadow publication History
Shadow Sanctum
Shadow www Sanctum
Shadow Vaults
Shadow Radio history
Shadow links
Shadow Zone
Shadow link to Sanctum
Shadow Pulp Covers
Shadow Highlights
Shadow Magazine artwork
Shadow OTR on CD
Shadow stories on Black Mask
National Public Radio
BBC Radio stations
Old Time Radio Vault
Old Time Radio
Music
Do you know what this
tune is? If so, let me know!
Music has always been a source of creativity for me - creative visualization, mood enhancement, a seed for story ideas - and it was part of my family's home life for as long as I can remember.
Both of my parents played the piano, and in high school or college they played other instruments. They thought it was important for my sister and I to learn how to play an instrument, and the piano was the first choice (since we conveniently had one). There was an on and off interest in the guitar, and a harmonica, and other things, I'm sure.
For me, learning how to play an instrument was helpful for a number of reasons. There is a sense of timing, an appreciation of structure and pattern, an ability to see symbols and translate them into something completely different.
In college, I had to take some music classes for my degree and I found that it really helped my sight reading. It was like learning another language - getting to know a vocabulary and then one day, it all just clicks. Presto, and you are speaking and understanding it.
Music in the recorded form was also a big part of my family's life. My parents had a decent record collection, and at one point, my Dad picked up all of his old 45 rpm records from my grandmother's house. It was quite an exposure to the music of the 1950's listening to them all.
For one of my birthdays, I was given a record player. For the longest time I could only play Puff the Magic Dragon and something Christmas-y, but in time, I stepped up to a long term relationship with movie soundtracks. Oh yeah, I was happy. It started with Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. By the time I left college, I probably had collected over 100 movie soundtrack albums.
Technology advanced, CDs came along and killed off the wax platters of records, compression algorithms squashed down the large audios files to something much more manageable, and Napster arose to enable people to share those audio files all over the world (much to the dismay of the recording industry)(slackers).
Music has also evolved - the birth of rock and roll in the 50's, the diversity of music in the 60's, the ballads of the 70's, the eruption of punk, ska, reggae and rap, post-modern, alternative, new age... it kept growing and changing. Who might have thought that from the same set of notes and similar topics, there would be so many different songs?
Some of my favorite songs, either for the song and sound itself, or for the feelings and creativity it inspires:
Icicle Works - Whisper to a Scream (Birds Fly)
Baltimora - Tarzan Boy
Abba - almost everything they ever did
Josie Cotton - Johnny, Are You Queer?
Josie Cotton - He Could Be the One
Bonnie Hayes with The Wild Combo - Girls Like Me
INXS - Don't Change a Thing
Midnight Oil - Forgotten Years
Rocky Horror Picture Show - Time Warp
Frida - I Know There's Something Going On
Movie Soundtracks
Batman
Star Wars
Star Trek II
Starship Troopers
Man in the Iron Mask
Harry Potter
Smallville
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Mars Attacks
The Shadow
Musicals
Jesus Christ Superstar
Phantom of the Opera
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Shock Treatment
Groups
REM
Enya
Smithereens
Billy Idol
Bangles
Depeche Mode
Other
Switched on Bach
Cosmos
Hooked on Classics
Jean Michele Jarre - all of his stuff
Tangerine Dream
Rob Chilcott, fantasy musician
Edgen Animations - Film and Game Music
Draggor's Den v5.0
MusicMatch, MP3 player and utilities
Karadar
Graphics
Animation Factory
Michael's Animated Gifs