Lethal Weopan legends Danny Glover and Mel Gibson.
Donner was one of those directors who didn t flinch at adding comedy to his dramatic scripts – the
Lethal Weapon series is a perfectly example. On the surface, these are deadly serious cop dramas, but focusing on the pairing of opposites Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, Donner was able to mine some terrific comic moments as the by-the-book Roger Murtaugh tries to understand and deal with his unhinged partner, Martin Riggs.
Although Nightmare at 20,000 Feet and The Jeopardy Room have virtually no laughs, Sounds and Silences and The Brain Center at Whipple s add light touches to serious stories by exaggerating the villainy of, well, their villains.
Little Christie Streator (Tracy Stratford) loves her present - a Talky Tina doll.
One thing is certain: this episode was not sponsored by Mattel. It also makes you wonder why Annabelle ever married this creep in the first place.
Telly Savalas was such a versatile actor – he could play a despicable monster of a stepdad in Living Doll and then be so sympathetic as Burt Lancaster s convict neighbor in
Birdman of Alcatraz. And we mustn t forget him as the lollypop-sucking homicide captain on
Kojak or as Big Joe in
Kelly s Heroes ( We ain t got no booze. )
Telly Savalas plays one of his darker characters, a stepfather with no sense of humor in Living Doll.
Anne Francis – so good in The After Hours as blonde Marsha White - returns in a black wig as fetching Jess-Belle Stone, a backwoods girl who loves handsome Billy Ben Turner (James Best). Unfortunately, Billy has found new fire with gorgeous Ellwyn Glover (Laura Devon) and Jess-Belle is left in the dust. until she seeks out the fiery community witch Granny Hart (a truly wonderful Jeanette Nolan), who puts a spell on Billy. However, if you make a pact with the dark side, you have to pay, and Jess-Belle s debt soon comes calling.
Jess-Belle Stone (Anne Francis) embodies the old saying hell hath no fury like a woman scorned in the mighty atmospheric episode Jess-Belle.
As he explains to another sympathetic psychiatrist, in a long line of sympathetic
TZ psychiatrists (John Larch), Maya dances, writhes, and cavorts, tantalizing Hall, a man whose heart should not be racing. In the world of the
Zone, she is a she-demon, a creature who will not rest until she sends Hall over the edge.
One of the many interesting things about
The Twilight Zone is that it allowed many dramatic performers to get their first taste of odd fantasy. Richard Conte was well-known throughout the 1940s and 50s as a go-to gangster, soldier, and mercenary. Boomers will later remember him as Don Barzini, a New York mafia chief who squares off against Marlon Brando s Vito Corleone in
The Twilight Zone.
This was one of Rod Serling s best Season 1 episodes, adapted from a radio play by Lucille Fletcher. Not only did it introduce Inger Stevens to
TZ fans (she had been working in network television since the mid-1950s) but it placed her in a very relatable situation. Just as
Jaws changed the way we all look at the surf and
Dressed to Kill changed the way we view elevators, The Hitch-Hiker cast a suspicious eye on hitch-hikers and traveling alone.
Stevens was given able support by Leonard Strong, a wonderful character actor who plays the creepy thumb-rider.