That’s a really insightful analysis of the show. It’s essentially a “what if”: what if the pigeons don’t fly away as I approach? What if the guy at the Chinese restaurant isn’t ever going to call out our table? It’s almost like a ‘Twilight Zone’ of the mundane.

“He was not ... master of his own domain.”

Has anyone else seen those trendy girls walking around in their serapes and wide-brimmed hats and thought that Elaine’s timing was just a couple decades off with the urban sombrero?

The great Pat Carroll is not only still around - she's still working (at 92!)

Austria and Germany tried to unite after the end of World War I but the Allies expressly forbid it.  There was a lot of support for the Anschluss in Austria.  A lot.

Exactly what I thought as I watched the food court interlude.

Austria though was not some plucky liberal democracy.  It already was a fascist state, just not the Nazi flavour of fascism.  

“A funny thing happened on my way to the forum” - great direction by Richard Lester plus great performances by Zero Mostel and the rest of the cast.

The harshest part of the ending of Zhivago is Lean’s expertly framed shot of Lara that pans to settle on a big banner of Stalin, while Guinness notes that people disappeared all the time in those days.

I think you’re confusing Cat Ballou, where Lee Marvin plays a drunken, ornery gunfighter, with Paint Your Wagon, where Marvin plays a drunken, ornery gold prospector. 

What about his walk-on in Starcrash?

I always think of him in The Insider barking, “I don’t plan to spend the end of my days wandering in the wilderness of National Public Radio!”

And he could paint an entire apartment in one afternoon. Two coats!

Plummer has played dozens of roles, most of them far more forgettable. For reasons related to my age and my own shitty taste, I still think of him mostly as the villainous televangelist guy from the 1987 Dragnet movie.

These fellas have said some pretty mean things. Some of which were true about that fiend, Hitler. He was a warmonger, and a genocidal maniac. On the other hand, he had a tremendous singing voice.

“And if I were ever at a party where a vast mob of kids forced you to listen to a precious goodnight song, it would be unendurable” - what, I often get my kids to sing Enter Sandman at my parties. 

I saw this in the theater-- I must have been eleven or so-- and I remember loving it.  Oh Rick Moranis, how I wish you hadn’t retired, though I understand why you did.

It worked because they kept it in the 19th century instead of trying to modernize it. Penny Dreadful fucking ruled.

One suggestion I have for making this Dark Universe thing work: set it in the 19th century. When I saw the trailer for ‘The Mummy’ it looked like any number of generic, Tom Cruise action films that someone had stuck a mummy in. There was no hook. I think if you create an alternate 1800s, you immediately have something…

Does someone actually need to point out that Dracula and especially Frankenstein are not “Penny dreadfuls”, but great works of the literary art?