Holding out for a Hero: From Footloose to Cover Up to Glee

The album cover for Bonnie Tyler's
"Faster Than the Speed of Night".

It was a gravelly voice that was strangely compelling. I’m talking about Bonnie Tyler who, in the mid-1980s, had a pretty major run of success that lasted about two years.

If memory serves, her first hit was “It’s a Heartache” back in 1977, then throat cancer threatened much more than her career – it threatened her life. She beat it and made a major comeback in the early 1980s. It was 1983 and she teamed up with Jim Steinman, who had had so much success with Meat Loaf on Bat Out of Hell. The hit that started it, and turned out to be the biggest of all, was called “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and it soared to number one on the Billboard charts.

The first time I ever heard the album Faster Than the Speed of Night was at a sleep over in Grade 9 at my buddy Mike Hartman's. He was the coolest guy. He had car speakers wired in most of the rooms in his basement so he piped music all through the place. It was awesome. And it was Bonnie Tyler and that raspy voice I remember in the TV room, and the bedroom, and the bathroom. 

Making the Movies

Back in the 1980s, if you were a hit, you were likely to be tapped to contribute a song to a soundtrack. The 1980s were filled with all kinds of amazing soundtracks. Perhaps one of the most prolific was the Footloose soundtrack.

Various songs from it played on the radio for months and months. One of those songs was from Bonnie Tyler. It was called “Holding Out for a Hero” and it was classic Bonnie Tyler, also written by Jim Steinman. I recall her performing it live on Solid Gold on a Saturday night, and it really rocked.

TV theme song

The song also ended up being the theme song for a series called “Cover Up” starring Jennifer O’Neill and Jon-Erik Hexum. Back then it was much more complicated and difficult to get an actual song on TV. Consequently, the theme song for “Cover Up” was , well, a cover.

The show, which ran in the 1984-1985 season, was about two spies, masquerading in the high fashion business. She was a photographer and he was her model. Hexum played Mac Harper, a former special forces operative in Vietnam. Sadly, he was shot and killed in a freak accident on set, and the replaced by Antony Hamilton. Their boss was another familiar face: Richard Anderson, who had played Oscar Goldman on The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman. Cover Up would only last one season.

Glee kindles memories of sleepovers

It seems the '80s are back in style, and Glee has made a living out of bringing back hits from back then. It's like creator Ryan Murphy was at school in Coaldale along with me and my friends from 1983 to 1987. Not too long ago Holding out for a Hero came to my mind because it was one of the centerpieces of an episode of Glee.

It reminded me of those sleepovers I had, especially in junior high. Living on the farm I spent so much time out in the country, I was dying to be around my friends. It broke my heart to watch them all from the bus window, playing after school, as it took me out of town and back home. It was so cool to stay after school, and hang out at Mike Hartman's. We listened to music and I can still remember the albums: "Faster Than the Speed of Night" of course, and "Kilroy Was Here" by Styx. We shot hoops, and eventually tore down the hoop, for whatever reason. And we just hung out and had a good time.

I ran into Mike just before Christmas, and he remembered those sleepovers as well as I did. It was gratifying to know they made a lasting impression on him too. And I will continue to be reminded every time I hear "Total Eclipse of the Heart", "It's a Heartache", and especially "Holding Out for a Hero".

Dallas: defining the nighttime soap

Dallas revolved around the exploits
of Texas oil magnate J.R. Ewing
(played by Larry Hagman).

The recent death of Larry Hagman, along with its re-boot last year, brought the 1980s soap opera Dallas back into the spotlight. Tonight they buried J.R. Ewing. What a long time some have waited to see that.

Who shot J.R.?:
The dawn of the nighttime cliffhanger

In its hey day it was a cultural phenomenon that left its imprint on popular culture. The show hit prominence in its third season, with the first season-ending cliffhanger of its time – who shot J.R.?

It spawned a country music song, and curiosity that made Dallas the highest-rated show. In our little corner of the world, there was a Lethbridge Broncos game scheduled the Friday night the shooter would be revealed on TV. The hockey team said they would announce at the game who shot J.R.

Never say die

It turns out Bobby never died 
at all – it was all a dream. Come on!

Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) is run over
by a car and killed, as his ex-wife Pamela
(Victoria Principal) comforts him.

Every primetime soap opera forever after – Dynasty, Knot’s Landing (itself a Dallas spinoff), Falcon Crest – emulated the season-ending cliffhanger. Dallas would even go down as having the most infamous of all cliffhangers. After an uneven year that saw the death of Bobby Ewing (played by Patrick Duffy), the season ended with Bobby appearing in the shower. The whole season had been a dream dreamt by Pamela Barnes Ewing. Lame, lame, lame.

Romeo and Juliet for the 1980s

Romeo and Juliet for the 1980s, but
they live, and die, and live again.

The show spanned the entire 1980s, one of just a handful of TV series to do that. It is quite impressive actually. Given it was originally intended to be a miniseries and nothing more. In fact, the original premise was of two feuding families, the Barnes and the Ewings. Like Romeo and Juliet, Bobby Ewing would marry Pamela Barnes. However, in the original miniseries, Bobby was to die and leave Pam in the den of wolves all by herself. Of course, that never happened.

Ratings juggernaut

Crockett and Tubbs never stood a
chance on Friday nights against Dallas.

The show provided CBS with a Friday-night anchor for its primetime schedule. Falcon Crest benefitted greatly from airing after Dallas. It also proved a graveyard for competing shows. Many times shows that were on the brink of cancellation were sent to their deaths by being slotted opposite Dallas. Conversely, the odd show did better than expected, and was given a chance elsewhere on the schedule. Hunter was a good example of that. Brutalised by Dallas on Friday night, it eventually found a home Saturdays and ran seven seasons.

The 1985-86 season saw what analysts had described as a Friday night showdown as NBC slotted its up-and-coming hit Miami Vice against Dallas. Crockett and Tubbs had no success against J.R., Bobby, and company either, and NBC moved Miami Vice again.

The original Ewing family before Dallas
became a serialized drama. You could
actually watch an episode without
having seen the previous four or five.

Original intent

What is interesting is the show did not start out as a soap opera per se. Back in the late 1990s, TNN re-broadcast the entire run of Dallas. The first season had every show rapped up, and quite efficient. Then it slowed to a glacial pace as it became more and more serialized.

How many times did J.R. Ewing knock down
Cliff Barnes, watch him get back up, and
knock him down? The show ran out of ideas.

Out of steam

Like all shows that run for a long time, it just ran out of ideas. How many times could Cliff Barnes get knocked down by J.R., get up, then get knocked down again. How much lower could J.R. sink. How many more cast members could leave either by attrition or death? Watching it beginning to end over a few months showed just how bad it actually became, totally bereft of ideas. You ask the average fan, and they could not tell you the names of Bobby and J.R.’s wives at the end of the show (it certainly was not Pam and Sue Ellen).

Some kind of pull

It had made such a mark during its run that when the series finale was set to air, it was during the Stanley Cup playoffs in Canada. The CBC had aired Dallas for its entire run, and announced it would pre-empt hockey – playoff hockey – to broadcast the series finale. Now that is some kind of power the show had.

Cash in on "Bud the Spud"

No matter what your political preferences are, something pretty special occurred on Parliament Hill a couple days ago. The NDP caucus paid tribute to Canadian musical icon Stompin' Tom Connors in the lobby of the House of Commons by singing his classic "Bud the Spud". It was something uniquely Canadian because I really can't see American legislators pulling out the guitars and singing in the Capitol. In any event, it was a touching gesture, led from left by Charlie Angus, Megan Leslie, and Andrew Cash.

The album cover for Andrew Cash's debut album
"Time and Place". The title track could be heard
all over college campuses in 1988.

Back in the day
Andrew Cash is a first-term MP representing the Davenport constituency in the Toronto-area, after beating Liberal incumbent Mario Silva in the 2011 federal election.

But I remember Andrew Cash from my first year of university back in 1987-1988 when he lit up college campuses with his hit "Time and Place". It was part of kind of a folksy Canadian scene along with Grapes of Wrath, the Northern Pikes, The Skydiggers, and others. That's not a coincidence because Andrew's brother Peter Cash was a member of the Skydiggers. They eventually would unite to form the Cash Brothers. Do you remember "Time and Place"?

Father and sons: a touching tribute to Rick Nelson

A father and his sons
There is no bond quite like that between father and son. Rick Nelson was in an interesting position. The son of show business people, Ozzie and Harriet Nelson who had a successful television show in the 1950s and 1960s, he became a teen idol then had a daughter and three sons of his own. He was a successful musician and never stopped touring. Tragically when they were just teenagers, and twins Matthew and Gunnar had just started to get to know their dad, he was killed on New Year's Eve of 1985.

A tribute
The 1986 American Music Awards on Jan. 27 paid tribute to the memory of Rick Nelson. Matthew and Gunnar, who were 18 at the time, appeared to give this touching tribute to their late father:




A haunting memory
I distinctly remember this song echoing in my mind for the rest of the night. It is such a beautiful ballad, and very typical of the power ballads of hair metal bands of the 1980s. I thought after the performance, the song would appear on the radio, or video shows, but it never did. There was never even a hint of it. Over the years, this song popped into my mind periodically, but I still never could find it anywhere. It was a beautiful ballad, a touching tribute by two sons to their father who had recently died. Even with the dawn of the Internet, every so often I would look for it but came up empty. The same experience repeated itself with the advent of YouTube.

For whatever reason, I thought about the song the other day. This time, I widened my search as far as I could by typing in "Tribute to Rick Nelson be still be still be still my selfish heart". Lo and behold, the following video, the one I heard just once before, back in 1986, appeared. I'm not sure about the Asian subtitles, but really who cares. I think the song holds up pretty well.

Where are they now?
The Nelsons kept on performing, hitting number one on the Billboard Hot 100 charts with their song "Love and Affection" in September of 1990. Now, they are the same age their father was when he died, and they have toured doing a tribute to their father.

A funny thing happened on the way to Whoop-Up Days
It's funny how things come together, and how small the world really is. While I was writing this I realized I actually saw Rick Nelson perform live at Whoop-Up Days in Lethbridge. It is the annual fair in the last week of August. I cannot recall the exact year, but I do remember him singing "Garden Party" and some of his other hits. It was a cool night, a bit rainy, and we were bundled up sitting in the grandstand while we watched him perform. And a just a few years later he was dead.

Remembering Stompin' Tom

The opening credits are better than the show

When I was a boy, I remember hurrying my parents home when we were out visiting because I wanted to see this show. Well not even the show really, but the opening credits. There was this guy in a black cowboy hat playing guitar, sitting on a chair in studio, and singing. I just loved it. The show was CBC's "Marketplace" and little did I know at the time, but that was my first exposure to Stompin' Tom Connors.

The legacy
Without word of a lie I can honestly say I never owned anything by Stompin' Tom nor listened to him on a regular basis. Yet, it is without question that he was more than simply an entertainer. He was a Canadian singer and songwriter who wrote about Canada. Whether it was the definitive hockey song, the man in the moon coming from Newfoundland or Bud the Spud, he told our stories.

He promoted Canada and Canadian artists. At a time back in the 1970s when he believed Canadian artists were not being supported, he took a stand. When Canadian artists who did not live in Canada were receiving Juno awards, he boxed his up and returned them. He was principled and back up what he said. He did not just talk the talk, he stomped the stomp.

And he was a patriot. He spoke out in defence of Canada at its must vulnerable times, such as the 1995 referendum in Quebec which almost divided the country. It takes courage to appear on national television and take a stand.

The last word
Stompin' Tom left a letter to be published after his death. The following appeared on his official website http://www.stompintom.com:

"Hello friends, I want all my fans, past, present, or future, to know that without you, there would have not been any Stompin' Tom.

"It was a long hard bumpy road, but this great country kept me inspired with it's beauty, character, and spirit, driving me to keep marching on and devoted to sing about its people and places that make Canada the greatest country in the world.

"I must now pass the torch, to all of you, to help keep the Maple Leaf flying high, and be the patriot Canada needs now and in the future.

"I humbly thank you all, one last time, for allowing me in your homes, I hope I continue to bring a little bit of cheer into your lives from the work I have done."

Sincerely,
Your friend always,
Stompin' Tom Connors

What more can you say? Rest in peace Stompin' Tom and thanks for paving the way for all the great Canadian talent out there.

Susan Sullivan: The dark past of "Castle's" mom

Susan Sullivan in "Castle"

Long before she was mystery writer Richard Castle's mom, Susan Sullivan lived a life of murder and mayhem, international intrigue, adultery and blackmail, and mystery of another kind. For nine years, pretty much spanning the entire decade of the 1980s she played Maggie Gioberti on "Falcon Crest" which is really where I came to know her.

It's a Living – or is it?

Watching her on the latest episode of Castle tonight, reminded me of the first time I saw her. It was back in the early 1980s. CTV aired a show about four waitresses in an upscale restaurant called "It’s a Living". Sullivan played kind of the leader. Unfortunately, back in those days shows came and went on the three Canadian channels without much notice. "It’s a Living" disappeared.

The original cast of "It's a Living". Standing in back from,
left are Ann Jillian; Wendy Schaal; and Susan Sullivan.
Sitting are Gail Edwards, and Marian Mercer in blue.
At the bottom is Barrie Longfellow.

Every fall, we used to get the TV Guide fall TV preview. I used to look forward to reading about which shows were coming back, but much more to the new shows debuting. The season following the debut of "It’s a Living", I read it had been re-tooled and was now called Living it Up. Sadly, it was not on our channels. The next season it was re-tooled again and re-named Making a Living. Once more I had to read about that in TV Guide.

I recall the show being quite funny. Sullivan played Lois, the sage leader of the group who everyone looked to for advice. The show also had a lot of other interesting actors. It was blonde bombshell Ann Jillian’s first big show. Wendy Schaal was in it. When it ended she joined the cast of Fantasy Island for a bit. There was also Gail Edwards, who played Dot.

The way I discovered Making a Living was finally cancelled for good was when I settled in to watch the premiere of a new called called Falcon Crest. (In fact it was cancelled but would live on in syndication until 1989, almost as long as "Falcon Crest" would live on network television.)

Susan Sullivan and Robert
Foxworth as Maggie and
Chase Gioberti on "Falcon Crest"

Falcon Crest: A Friday night staple
I was staying at my sister’s apartment for the night in Lethbridge when we tuned in. There was Susan Sullivan, starring as Maggie Gioberti.

Falcon Crest was one of my favourite shows. I was one of the few people who enjoyed it more than Dallas or Dynasty among soap operas. It was set in the fictional Tuscany wine valley in California, based on the real-life Napa Valley. The series opens with the death of Jason Gioberti under what would be suspicious circumstances. His son Chase Gioberti returns for the funeral and takes over where his father left off. A pilot, he has no intention of staying, but eventually does, running the small vineyard left to him by his father. Unbeknownst to him, there is a provision in his grandfather's will that Chase is actually entitled to half of Falcon Crest, the mammoth winery founded by his great-grandfather and currently controlled by his scheming aunt, the family matriarch Angela Channing. Chase was played magnificently by Robert Foxworth, while Angela was played by 1950s movie starlet Jane Wyman, one of whose claims to fame was that she was Ronald Reagan's first wife. He was president of the United States as Falcon Crest debuted.

The show initially caught my interest because it was created by Earl Hamner. For the better part of the previous decade he had been the creator and narrator of "The Waltons." The Giobertis and Channings were not  the Waltons. It was a great departure.

Of course, when Chase decided to movie to California, he brought his wife Maggie, daughter Vicki and son Cole with him. I remember waiting every week for the next episode because it resonated with me for whatever reason. I found the characters more down to earth then all the glamour of Dallas or Dynasty, although I watched both of them as well. Interestingly, part of "Falcon Crest"'s longevity can be attributed on U.S. network television to the fact it followed "Dallas". What also made it cool in part was that I watched it every Friday night with my mom.

Awhile back I found season one of "Falcon Crest" on DVD and watched it. Surprisingly, for me, it held up pretty well.

Susan Sullivan as Maggie
Gioberti in "Falcon Crest"

A defining role
Maggie Gioberti changed over time. She was always a strong woman, but played a backseat that first season to her husband. That would change over the years as she faced death, murder, adultery, and all the other trappings of soap opera television. As with all nighttime dramas, she eventually split from Chase and took up with his half-brother Richard Channing (played by David Selby) and the two of them had real on-screen chemistry. Eventually, I entered high school and that meant cruising the streets of Lethbridge on Friday nights. So I stopped watching "Falcon Crest", hearing the occasional update from a co-worker every Saturday morning. I only returned to "Falcon Crest" briefly, during its last season when I was home from university for a visit. By then, Channel 7 was airing it on Sunday morning in a kind of mini-marathon.

Still, Susan Sullivan played that role for almost the entire nine seasons, appearing in 207 out of 227 episodes. Just by virtue of playing the character that long, it becomes a defining role. "Falcon Crest" virtually spanned the 1980s, running from 1981 to 1990, yet it does not come up as one of the classic nighttime soap operas like "Dallas" or "Dynasty". It's too bad, because it was gripping, at least for me. And Susan Sullivan was a big part of that.

Back on network TV

Susan Sullivan fell off the radar after that until she assumed the role of Greg's mom in "Dharma and Greg" from 1997 to 2002, then five short years ago, when I saw her playing Martha Rogers, mother of Richard Castle on the show "Castle". Older, but still very beautiful, she plays a much different role as an aging actress. Still she shows some of the same depth she did on "Falcon Crest" going from ditzy self-involved actress to concerned mother and grandmother. It is good to see her again. I wonder if there will be any more "Falcon Crest" on DVD. I may just have to settle for "Castle".

Paul Soles: The voice of Spiderman

Paul Soles in Saving Hope

It was the face that first reminded me, then the voice. Older, a little heavier, guest starring on a re-run of Saving Hope, it was Paul Soles. He played a senior in hospital suffering Alzheimer Disease and posing a danger to himself and his wife. But when I was growing up, every Saturday morning I knew him only as the voice of Spiderman. At the time, I did not know it though. Instead, Paul Soles played a very different role.

The face with no voice: That darn Lawbreaker

If you grew up in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Paul Soles was one of those Canadian actors you saw on CBC whether it was "This is the Law" or "Take 30".

I remember him best as the lawbreaker on "This is the Law". It was a panel show hosted by Austin Willis (who I remember best playing CIA agent Felix Leiter in the James Bond movie Goldfinger). The premise was simple if memory serves. There were cases or laws that were acted out, then the panel would have to guess what the law was that was broken. Soles played the man who always broke the law. Interestingly, he never spoke. There was no dialogue during the crime enactments.

The show first aired in the 1970s, but I remember watching reruns of "This is the Law" one summer when I spent a couple weeks visiting my cousins in Brooks. What was really weird was they knew one of the actual cases the show talked about. It came from the town they lived in before they moved to Brooks.

The voice with no face: Spiderman

What is really ironic about Paul Soles never speaking in "This is the Law" is that his voice was his bread and butter. He did tons of voiceover work, but I remember him best as the voice of Spiderman on Saturday morning cartoons, and a bit from Rocket Robin Hood.

Brought to you by your friendly
 neighbourhood Spiderman

Every Saturday I would watch Spiderman. There were so many cool villains: the Vulture, Electro, the Green Goblin, Dr. Connors, Dr. Noah Body, Parafino, Dr. Octopus, the Rhino. The show changed over time. Episodes became more dark visually as well as in plot. All those great villains were early on. The later episodes were more about other dimensions and a lot more science fictiony.

I never saw them first run, only in repeats. You could tell what season they were from by the opening credits. If the title was set in a big spider web with a light background of the city skyline, it was early in the run.



                   



If the title was on a black background that looked like a dock, it was one of the dark, foreboding episodes.

I never saw a full episode of Take 30, just commercials advertising Soles hosted the show with Adrienne Clarkson. The show was on during the day when I was in school.

The only other vivid memory I have of Paul Soles was when he guest starred in a Wayne and Schuster special. It was a spoof of Murder on the Orient Express and included the panelists from Front Page Challenge as well. Another interesting connection. Paul Kligman was a regular member of the Wayne and Schuster ensemble. He also did the voice of J. Jonah Jameson on Spiderman.

It really is funny how Paul Soles' best known characters only utilize a part of him. He's either all voice, or pantomime. In his case it seems the sum of his parts is greater than the whole.

The Karate Kid: a life-altering moment…for a teenager

Every so often I have seen movies that profoundly affect me. They touch me on some deeper level I am not really sure I can explain. The first ever movie to do that was The Karate Kid.

Going to the movies

It was the summer of 1984. Every year I would spend two weeks in Brooks at my Aunt Monica’s with my cousins Henry, Fred, and Bobbi. That summer Henry spent some time with a friend of his who had moved to Red Deer. He came back, just before I went home, raving about a movie he had seen. It was called The Karate Kid.

It would have a really big impact on me.

It was advertised a lot. I remember the tag line that ended every commercial: “The Karate Kid – it’ll go straight to your heart”. And it did. The movie was playing at College Cinema, which was a two-screen theatre located in a mall on the south edge of Lethbridge anchored by Woolco. Up to that point, I did not have a licence, so the only time I ever got off the farm to see a movie was with my sister Barb. She had seen the commercials too, and was game.

Even getting into the movie was funny. When we got there, the tag line on the billboard above the entrance was: “The Karate Kid – it is his moment of truth”. We always got there a few minutes early in case there was a line. Back then, I looked a lot older than I was. At the time I was 14. When we bought tickets, my sister said, “One adult and one child.” Children were 14 and under.

“Excuse me ma’am,” the girl working the front said. “But where is your child?”

She really was not much older than me, still in high school for sure.

“I’m the child,” I said.

The look she gave me was utter disbelief.

“Um,” she hesitated. “Do you have ID?”

Of course I didn’t. What 14-year-old has ID? The closest thing was my learner’s permit, but that was at home. I didn’t even carry a wallet until the next year. She gave me the benefit of the doubt and let me in.

I still cannot believe I was ID’ed for being too old. Virtually everyone else I knew was ID’ed for being too young, not too old.

We grabbed a seat, and immediately were irritated by two guys sitting behind us. They just did not stop talking. About 20 minutes into the movie me and Barb moved seats. It was the only time I can recall ever having to move seats. Before we left I gave those guys a dirty look and mumbled something under my breath. It’s too bad it was pitch black.

The Karate Kid

Everything Daniel Larusso has
learned culminates in this moment
Source:https://www.engadget.com
/2017/08/04/karate-kid-reboot-youtube-red-2018/

(may be subject to copyright)

The movie was just absolutely amazing. I have always loved underdogs and this was the ultimate underdog story. To say Daniel Larusso got bullied was an understatement. He got the tar beat out of him at every turn in the first half of the movie. You couldn't help but feel for the guy. It wasn't the violence – it was the loneliness, and the helplessness. He had nowhere to turn. Then he met Mr. Miyagi who had his own demons to wrestle with. A boy without a father, a man whose son had died long ago. Together, they learned, and grew and helped each other deal with their pain. Then, to watch Daniel come back, get revenge on all the bullies, and learn all the right lessons doing it, was inspiring.

Daniel Larusso discovers he has
been learning karate all along

(may be subject to copyright)

Wax on, wax off

And it had one of the best surprises I’d ever seen in a movie. Mr. Miyagi promises to teach Larusso karate. Yet, all Larusso seems to do is chores. First he waxes Mr. Miyagi’s collection of vintage cars. Then he sands his seemingly endless deck. Then he paints all his fences. Finally, he paints his house. Larusso has had enough and confronts his teacher. Suddenly Mr. Miyagi reveals he has been teaching him karate, using muscle memory, all along. It was astonishing to see for the first time. I could hear everyone in the theatre gasp and exclaim, “Ohhhh.” The phrase “wax on, wax off” became slang in our language.

We can all relate

Daniel and Ali, he got the girl in the end
Source:www.martialartsentertainment.com/
the-karate-kid-1984/

(may be subject to copyright)

I think The Karate Kid resonated with me because I was about to start Grade 10 at a new school, I was about the same age as Daniel Larusso, and I had a lot of anxieties about high school. I was lonely, insecure, and beginning to like girls, who really didn't seem to return the favour. Larusso found his own way, and he got the girl in the end. It was a lift at the right time.

A comedian gets serious and Oscar comes calling

What made the movie in so many ways was Noriyuki “Pat” Morita. At the time he was a comedian, best known for playing “Arnold”, the owner of the local hangout on “Happy Days”. As Mr. Miyagi, he reveals his wife and child were killed when they were interned during the Second World War. It was a touching moment of social commentary without beating anyone over the head with a message. Before that he was just Pat Morita. I recall reading somewhere at the time that he went back to his Japanese name because the role of Mr. Miyagi had affected him so much.

What surprised me was he ended up getting nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actor for that role. I always point that out when people talk about the movie being schlock or fluff.

Teenage Rocky

At the end of that summer, I remember watching Leonard Maltin, the in-house movie critic on Entertainment Tonight talking about the crop of summer movies that was. The Olympics had just finished in Los Angeles a few weeks earlier. He said The Karate Kid was a bronze medal hit, and called Daniel Larusso a teenage Rocky. I always liked that because Daniel Larusso looked like Rocky Balboa, and talked like a teenage version of the Italian Stallion. I have never found out if that was intentional or not.

One more time

School started and I told all my friends about it. I wanted to see it again, and I knew my sister wouldn’t take me a second time. At the time I hung out a bit with Joe Darveau, and he talked about going to see it. He wanted to see “Red Dawn” too. His Mom and Dad had already seen “Red Dawn” but they would take us to Lethbridge to see The Karate Kid. I cannot describe how difficult an endeavour it was to get off the farm and try and see a movie.

I didn’t see Red Dawn for a few more years. That’s funny because it has just been remade and is to be released shortly.

The pre-Netflix era

The other interesting thing is that back then it was not easy to see a movie after it left the theatre. You usually had to wait a year or more to see it on TV. Later, movies came out on video but not as quickly as they do now. Plus, not everyone owned VCRs. I wouldn’t get my first one for another year. So I had to settle eventually for buying a novelization (I have a whole collection of those, a legacy of the days before movies were on tape), and the soundtrack.

The Karate Kid on vinyl
Funny thing, the main song was “Moment of Truth” by Survivor. Another coincidence. Survivor had recorded “Eye of the Tiger” the theme song for Rocky III just over a year earlier. Now they had recorded the theme song for the teenage Rocky.

“The Moment of Truth” was only played during the closing credits, which was too bad, because it was really good. It didn’t even play in the opening credits when people would have all heard it, and it may have garnered more interest. The song I remember is “You’re the Best” by Joe Esposito. It was the song that played during the climactic karate tournament as Larusso won match after match.

Conspicious by its absence was “Cruel Summer” by Bananarama. That song went nowhere, then the movie breathed new life into it. When I got the record, I noticed it was missing, and questioned my memory. I thought every song made it to the soundtrack. Must have been some sort of copyright thing.

Always look him in the eye

The movie poster
I bought at Con-version

Source:www.martialartsentertainment.com/

the-karate-kid-1984/

(may be subject to copyright)

The next summer, I went to a science fiction convention in Calgary called “Con-version”. They had a Hucksters room in there, and I ended up buying a Karate Kid poster. It was one of the promotional ones that hung in a theatre lobby. It was an extreme close-up of Daniel and Mr. Miyagi staring at each other. Always look him in the eye, Mr. Miyagi said.

Finally a version I could own

Once it was out on tape, then DVD, I bought it. Every time I see it playing on TV, I watch it. It was on Encore Avenue recently which is the motivation for this post.

The other Karate Kid, and a familiar sound

A couple odd things I discovered in my myriad viewings. One, the makers of the movie had to pay DC Comics for permission to use the name “The Karate Kid”. He was a hero, part of the Legion of Super Heroes, which I actually read as a boy. Two, I wondered about the flute music that played around Mr. Miyagi and his home. It actually was done by that master of the pan flute – Zamfir. He had become famous on infomercials in the 1980s.

A lasting impression

The legacy of The Karate Kid is clear. It is an exceptionally well-made feel-good movie. We can all relate to a boy who is bullied when he’s just trying to fit in. He meets a man broken in his own way, and together they heal. Mr. Miyagi teaches Larusso karate not to get revenge or to fight, but so he doesn’t have to fight. He teaches him to be himself and treat people with respect. And the guy gets the girl in the end.

It was so good, they made it again. But that’s for another time.

Seeing Things for the 21st century reporter

Source: http://www.rickstv.com/seeing/
(may be subject to copyright)

"Dreams are for the night time

Days are wide awake

Visions are for a crazy man – not me for goodness sake…

'Cause I'm seeing things"

-from the opening credits to "Seeing Things"

Seeing Things in the 21st century

What would it be like to read a person's mind, or foresee the future? Given that I am the editor of a small-town newspaper, I sometimes wonder if it would make my job easier, or just more complicated. Beyond knowing if someone was lying, or knowing in advance of some event, I think it would be a case of "too much information" in the truest sense.

Source: http://www.rickstv.com/seeing/

(may be subject to copyright)

The other day I was thinking about "Seeing Things". Do you remember it? Sunday nights on CBC for six years. It starred Louis Del Grande as Louis Ciccone, a reporter for a Toronto newspaper who one day has a fragment of a psychic vision about something he is investigating. As the investigation proceeds, the vision gets clearer and more detailed until he solves the case. Through it all, he grapples with his wife who keeps kicking him out and taking him back, the fact he can't drive, and he keeps getting in the way of the police and Crown attorney Heather Redfern. Oh, and no one can seem to pronounce his name.

It was a great show, one that was uniquely Canadian. The plots were set in Toronto, and there were constant references to Canadian culture, be it sports, politics, or the occasional dig at the CBC. Del Grande had been a writer for American network TV who came north. His real life wife Martha Gibson, played his beleaguered wife Marge, and Janet Laine Green played Redfern. They fashioned some sort of bizarre triangle, that was amusing but not that tense.

The show ran its course, and it was one of the first shows I recall that had an actual final episode. Unfortunately, Del Grande could never replicate this success. Still, it was one of the better Canadian dramas about Canada.

And you know, after recalling what kind of a shambles Louis Ciccone's personal life was, and how he ended up using his own wits, intelligence, investigative instincts, and powers of deduction to solve cases anyway, I'm pretty sure I never want to be psychic.

Quantum Leap before there was Quantum Leap

Dan Pastorini, Houston Oiler
quarterback and actor
Source: http://houston.culturemap.com/news/sports/
(may be subject to copyright)

Gladiator to Spartacus
Recently we were talking about the movie "Gladiator" where Russell Crowe played General Maximus, the soldier who became a – well – gladiator.

A buddy of mine compared Maximus to the real-life Spartacus.

"Russell Crowe is no Dan Pastorini," I joked.

My buddy had the most perplexed look on his face.

"Who is Dan Pastorini?" he asked.

"Why, he played Spartacus in 'Voyagers!'" I said. "But that was not his only claim to fame."

"What's 'Voyagers!'?" my buddy asked. "And who again is Dan Pastorini?"

Athlete becomes actor
Dan Pastorini played quarterback for the NFL's Houston Oilers. That team was led by Earl Campbell, this punishing running back who preferred to run over opponents than around them. Often Pastorini's role was to transfer the ball from the centre to Earl Campbell. However, he was a decent passer too, when called upon. Together, they led the Oilers to back-to-back AFC Championship games where they lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers, who went on to win back-to-back Super Bowls.

The Oilers traded Pastorini to the Oakland Raiders for legendary quarterback Kenny "The Snake" Stabler. Both teams, I think, were hopeful their new quarterbacks would put them over the top to win the Super Bowl. Pastorini broke his leg with four games gone in the season, paving the way for Jim Plunkett to lead the Raiders to an AFC Wild Card playoff berth and all the way to the Super Bowl championship. I don't think Pastorini played another game for the Raiders.

Pastorini in battle as
Spartacus on "Voyagers".

(may be subject to copyright)

However, he had been doing some acting too. I recall seeing him do a guest spot on "Fantasy Island", playing a – you guessed it – quarterback who just couldn't get out of a funk, until he meets a woman who helps him straighten out his game. Along the way, they find love. The girl was played by Patricia McCormack who also starred in "The Ropers", as their next door neighbour.

Then, I saw him play Spartacus on "Voyagers!"…

Meeno Peluce (at left) and
Jon-Erik Hexum, the stars of "Voyagers"

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyagers!

(may be subject to copyright)

Bogg, Jeff Jones, and the Omni
"Surely you remember 'Quantum Leap'," I said.

My buddy nodded.

"'Voyagers' was 'Quantum Leap' before there was a 'Quantum Leap'," I said.

Phineas Bogg (Jon-Erik Hexum) was a "Time Cop". He travelled through time fixing what went wrong. He was aided by an omni, which looked like a pocket watch. Whenever it blinked red, there was something wrong that he had to fix. He knew he succeeded when the omni turned green.

The show opens with Bogg inadvertently crashing through the window of young Jeff Jones (Meeno Peluce). The omni was never supposed to take him that far in the timeline, but malfunctioned. Worse for Bogg, he loses the omni's instruction book. Bogg saves Jeff's life and Jeff helps Bogg in his job to fix what went wrong. Since Jeff has no real ties to the present, and he happens to be a history whiz, a partnership is born. Albeit a short-lived one because "Voyagers!" only made it through one season.

This was the disadvantage of peasant vision. The show debuted Sunday nights on NBC in the fall. I caught an episode when I was visiting my cousins Nina and Carl in Lethbridge. They had cable TV, and I always looked forward to visiting them. By the time it hit Channel 7 on the farm, the show had already been going for months, and would be cancelled by NBC. It was a bit disheartening knowing the shows I saw were the only ones they ever made. There would be no more.

There were some really interesting stories though.


Where are they now?
Sadly, a couple years later Jon-Erik Hexum was killed in an accidental shooting during the production of the adventure show "Cover Up". Hauntingly, the show was part of a Saturday night line-up plagued by tragedy. "Airwolf" had a crash on set, while the star of "Mike Hammer", Stacy Keach, was sent to jail on drug charges.

Meeno Peluce is a face from the 80s you'd recognize, even if you don't recognize the name. He played Tanner Boyle on the short-lived TV version of the "Bad News Bears" and as the son in the equally-short-lived series "Best of the West" (starring Joel Higgins, who went on to star in "Silver Spoons"), and I recall seeing him do guest spots for "Scarecrow and Mrs. King", "Benson", "Love Boat" (didn't everyone guest star in that?) and…"Silver Spoons".

…And back again
By now, my buddy had this glazed-over look on his face.

How did we get from pro football to gladiators to time travel TV shows?

Well, I'm not sure. That's just what having a conversation with me is like.

The only consolation I could offer him?

"You should read my blog."