"I must say when I came to see you I didn't realize I was going to have to eat your ship as well as hire it."

Yeah, the idea of still doing variety shows in the 80's was just doomed from the outset, it was a vestige of old timey TV that viewers just moved away from. I would agree that, for Crystal, playing Jodie on "Soap" was a young actors' dream. That was about as edgy as it got for that era. Then he became a rom-com guy (Wh…

Encore has a western channel that shows old TV westerns regularly like "Gunsmoke," "Cheyenne," and "Have Gun…" I particularly like watching "Cheyenne" because I don't remember seeing it in syndication back when I was a kid, so it's a new discovery. The show I remember most in syndication back in the day was "Bonanza,"…

As you basically said, "Gunsmoke" is the monolith that towers over everything. It's more than essential, it's the DNA of the American TV Western. I read it as you basically leaving "Gunsmoke" to its own category and going on from there, but you were actually thinking of breaking it up into its own eras, which I feel…

"The Whip Master" was fine, but "Josh Acid" was had more grit. And more acid.

Who are the ad wizards who came up with that one?

I wasn't an avid Soap watcher, but I knew they were definitely trying something different. Richard Mulligan was particularly great in that.

Yeah, it's about the closest thing (post-Python) to Python. The premise itself- making fun of TV and TV production by setting the show in a cheap, small town station in Rutland- wasn't too far off from a lot of what Python did over the years. Not to say that it's all Python-ish, as it did give us The Rutles, something…

"Yet fear, not like an aged florin, can so disseminate men's eyes, that fortune, straining at a kissing touch, may stop her ceaseless search to sport amidst the rampant thrust of time, and bring the thing undone to pass by that with which the cock may chance an arm."

We sang "he steals from the poor and gives to the rich."

I love the Dennis Moore episode, and my favorite random gag is at The Ideal Loon Exhibition and the five of them as Frenchmen repeatedly going "Un deux trois" in silly positions. "They do this over 400 times a day. Nobody knows why."

It hasn't been released anywhere, as far as I know. From what I read it's either there are complicated rights issues and/or Idle doesn't want it released.

He did have a five picture deal, and I believe The Love God? was his fourth, and it was clearly an attempt to get him into more "adult" films. It didn't work, of course. His film career sputtered after his contract was up, but he eventually found a niche in Disney films in the 70's. He was always a better…

Crystal was lucky that film didn't kill his career. It definitely killed Rivers' (also the writer) future directorial aspirations.

Silly beyond belief, but Connery and Cage sell it like gangbusters. Their banter is especially good.

I would definitely pay to see a remake of The Apple Dumpling Gang if it were made like an episode of Deadwood.

I have a feeling there are some animation buffs in Hollywood who have some fond childhood memories of this film for some reason. And of course, as there aren't German U-Boats to sink anymore, all they are going to take is the general premise of a man turning into a fish and do whatever with it (a story with an…

It's not a good movie at all. It's not terrible, it's just quaintly dull and the premise is kinda creepily disturbing, to put it mildly. And it was supposed to be Knotts' big breakthrough vehicle (shortly after he left "The Andy Griffith Show" for Hollywood), a physical comedian in a film he barely physically appears…

Of all the films to be in development hell for 16 years, a remake of The Incredible Mr. Limpet? Have any of these people actually seen the original?

Both. I weepily whack off to "The Dance" all the time.