Answered general questions about movies, TV and more

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I participated in an online survey about a possible new TV show. In the "pilot" episode, a woman's boyfriend proposed to her, but he and another girlfriend/wife were actually scheming to steal her money. However, he sent her a German Shepherd puppy, which she had always wanted. The ending implied that he had mixed feelings and really cared about her. I think I watched this sometime between 2016 and 2021 (I know I didn't see it in the past two years).

Answer: I want to add: I think I remember the main character woman having red or reddish-brown hair. Her fiancé's "real" girlfriend (the other scammer) was blonde. Of course, if this show continued after the pilot, there might have been changes to the cast.

I watched this movie on TV in 2006-ish. A woman was pregnant, and the father was one of three or four guys. Somehow, none of them really knew which one had slept with her; only she knew.

Answer: After some searching, I think this is the 1999 movie "Kimberly", also called "Daddy Who?"

Answer: You saw it in 2006, did you mean it was set in 2006? Because I know two movies with that plot but made in the 1960s. "Doctor, You've got to be Kidding?" Sandra Dee plays a young woman who is pregnant, and three different men want to marry her. "Buona Sera, Mr. Campbell," an Italian woman, Gina Lollabridga, who had an affair with three different men during World War II. She had a daughter but doesn't know which one is the father. She solicits support money from each of them. Then all three men return to Italy for a G.I. reunion.

I watched it on TV in about 2006. It was probably made before then, or it was a new TV movie. It was not set in the '60s, probably in the '80s or after. The setting was "modern" (not necessarily what we call modern in 2023 but more modern than the '60s). I appreciate your suggestions, though.

I remember seeing a movie on Hallmark that had three brothers, a little girl and a lighthouse. I can't remember the title.

Answer: Possibly "Three Wise Men and a Baby" (not the 1987 film "Three Men and a Baby") but more likely, "Christmas With Holly." Both are Hallmark movies. The latter involves three adult brothers caring for their deceased sister's young daughter. It is set in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island in Washington state. San Juan Island has two lighthouses. (The movie was actually filmed in Nova Scotia.)

raywest

What is the name of a movie about a teenage girl having a "crush" on a writing/English teacher, and he claims to have had books published? Eventually, after they have sex, she finds rejection letters and discovers that none of his writing was published. I think the movie ended with her leaving town.

Answer: "Blue Car" (2002). Agnes Bruckner plays the student, and David Strathairn plays the teacher.

Looking for a late 2000s, early 2010s show involving humans and alien species living together. I don't remember if it was a new city on Earth or a different planet. One family of aliens was human-like, but with white-blonde hair. The husband openly visited prostitutes because it was the norm for males of their species. His wife had a brief affair with one of his regular prostitutes. The couple had an adult son, who married a human woman.

Answer: Submitter here. It's "Defiance" from 2013-2015. I found clips on YouTube.

Answer: It sounds like Alien Nation.

What show had a joke about a male character going through a gay phase, and he was shown watching "Caroline in the City" (the joke being that only a gay man would watch)?

Answer: There's a cutaway gag in "Family Guy" (S01E06, "The Son Also Draws") where Peter tells Lois he's tricked people before. Then he says, "Remember that time I pretended to be gay?" and it cuts to him watching TV with the "Caroline in the City" title card showing.

Bishop73

I remember seeing a film in theatres in the 90s when I was a kid. I think it was a children's sports film. I seem to recall there being a scene where a boy spots another boy through a gap in a shelf at the store and remarks something like, "What a hunk!" At least I think it was two boys... one may have been a tomboyish girl, though. And I think it had something to do with football. Ring anyone's bell? Trying to rewatch childhood movies and it just popped into my head.

TedStixon

Answer: Sounds like the movie Little Giants.

Looked it up and that is 100% it. Thanks.

TedStixon

Saw a black and white movie on TBS in early morning hours in 1981. Guy with an eye patch holding a woman hostage in an apt that was sub ground. Looking out of the window she saw people's legs walking by. Anybody ever see it?

Codymuck

Answer: The movie is "Something Wild," 1961. Carroll Baker plays a young woman who is raped. Feeling ashamed, she doesn't go to the police or the hospital. Later, she learns she's pregnant. Distraught, she tries to commit suicide by jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge. Ralph Meeker plays a blue-collar mechanic who stops her, taking her to his sub-ground apt. He refuses to let her go until she gets rid of her suicidal thoughts. At first, she is antagonistic towards him, injuring his eye. As time goes on, she accepts her situation and realizes that Ralph loves her and she loves him.

There was a movie about a bed that seemed to be possessed by evil. In one scene in the movie a woman is lying in the bed when suddenly, what looks like a huge black claw comes out of the bed and through her stomach killing her. What is it?

Answer: It isn't a movie, but there is a TV series episode with that plot. "The Hunger," S01E05, "Bridal Suite." Sally Kirkland plays the owner of a B&B who gives a honeymooning couple a room, whose bed is possessed.

Can't remember a movie, probably from the 80s, about a family having a funeral on a hillside, sort of like Next of Kin, mountain people go after justice for their loved one?

Answer: It could be the "Winter People," 1989. Kurt Russell plays a widowed clockmaker with a daughter whose truck breaks down in the Appalachian mountains. Amid two families feuding, he falls in love with Kelly McGillis. She has a baby with her father's rival son. When the son finds out about Kurt and Kelly, they have a brutal fight. He kills the son, and the family demands justice for his murder.

Trying to remember a movie I saw when I was a teenager on IFC. The movie was in Italian or another European language, set in the future, about a boy who can't go outside or he dies. I only watched the end. In the movie he's always stuck indoors so he talks to call girls on some webcam. The thing though is that you don't see the main character's face. It just shows the people he's talking to. When talking on the webcam he falls in love with a call girl. And vice versa, then he breaks it to her that he can't go outside. Then she shuns him, he ties to get in contact with her again but he can't reach her. So feeling heart broken he gets frustrated with his disease. The last part was sad because he calls his mom and asks her how's the weather outside that's when his mother knows he's going to go outside meaning certain death, she just tells him to put on a coat, it's chilly outside. The last part just shows the security camera of the boy about the go outside. Just about when he's going outside the movie ends.

Answer: There was a TV movie in 1977 titled "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble." It was an American film with John Travolta. The other is a Yugoslavian film from 1988 titled "The Dark Side of the Sun." It was Brad Pitt's very first starring role.

I'm looking for the name of a movie that I saw on HBO in the late 80s or early 90s. It was a western movie with a teenage or young adult girl who runs away with a group of men on horseback for adventure. I want to say the name of her horse was something like Honeybelle and the title of the movie may have been "The Adventures of..." Any suggestions?

Answer: There is a movie from the 1980s titled "Cattle Annie and Little Britches." Two young girls, Amanda Plummer and Diane Lane, join a gang of outlaws led by Burt Lancaster.

It seems to me that older shows, for the most part, had more "stand-alone" episodes: you could easily watch them if you missed the previous episode or two. If I am correct, this is why characters often had new love interests for just one episode. Nowadays, a show is often called a "series" and all episodes must be watched, even a "Previously on..." recap doesn't cover everything. Any thoughts on why this is?

Answer: Well, in the old days, people couldn't really watch whenever they wanted or even record what they wanted to see. So trying to follow a continuing show was a lot harder. That's why there were way more shows where every episode was standalone, as you didn't have to bother watching every single one to be able to follow it. You could skip a few without a problem. These days, watching all episodes is a lot easier because of recording and digital releases. You can watch whenever you want, in the right order.

lionhead

Answer: There's a lot of factors that go into this. I think the biggest one is that seasons in general have gotten shorter, meaning there is less room for stand-alone episodes. It used to be the norm for shows to have 20+ episodes per season, whereas now, seasons with 13 or fewer episodes are more common. (This is for many reasons, including higher production costs, viewership fluctuations, streaming making shorter seasons more in vogue, etc.) And as a result, many shows now just basically feel like one big movie that's split up into chapters/episodes since there's less time for side-stories or stand-alone episodes. There's good and bad to this. On one hand, it means shows need to be more efficient and concise, and there's likely to be fewer dull moments. But on the other hand, it also means that there's slightly less time for side-characters, sub-plots, world-building, etc. So it's a double-edged sword. Also, "show" and "series" have always been used interchangeably. That's nothing new.

TedStixon

I don't remember what year it was, but if I understand correctly, one of the results of one of the writers' strikes a while back was reduced episodes to make a complete season or a half season (with some exceptions, like daily shows).

Bishop73

Yeah, from what I recall, during the 2007 writers' strike, a lot of seasons had to be produced with fewer episodes due to lost time from the several months the strike lasted. And that did help set a certain precedent that many shows could be successful with fewer episodes per season. Although, I think it wasn't really until about five years later that you started to see shorter seasons becoming more widespread.

TedStixon

Answer: I also think another point is, there's just so many more shows being produced today, so we see more examples of these types of series shows. And, if more shows are being produced, there's more competition to get viewers to watch live (as opposed to recording to a DVR or streaming). Companies that buy ad time during a show know if viewers are recording, they can skip their ads (which is why we see more countermeasures to this).

Bishop73

Answer: Adding to the other answers: In TV's earliest days (from the 1950s), shows had more episodes per season, over 30. During the summer hiatus, fewer reruns were shown until the new Fall season. That resulted in self-contained episodes and one-time characters or situations that were rarely mentioned again. Episodes could be shown in any order, without losing continuity. The half-hour sitcoms were like extended skits. Many early TV shows were written by radio-era writers when maintaining a consistent, non-visual storyline was more challenging. It was just a different way of doing things. As TV evolved, plots became extended throughout a season with fewer episodes. Keeping viewers involved and guessing what happens in the next episode helps ratings.

raywest

Can different episodes of a show "belong" to different companies? I ask because streaming services will sometimes have a show, but a few episodes are missing throughout. I know that a streaming service may not have the rights to the newest episodes of a current show, but why are random episodes missing from older shows? (As examples, I have noticed this with "ALF" and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents".)

Answer: In some ways, yes. For example, in "AHP", some of the episodes were stories written by other authors. S0401 was a Roald Dahl story. For whatever reason, the streaming services didn't get the rights to show that episode (too costly, wasn't given permission, or didn't try). Sometimes an episode contains a copyrighted song that they didn't get the rights to stream (sometimes they'll cut that scene or dub over the music with something else). Sometimes episodes are pulled for being too offensive or controversial. For example, Hulu pulled 5 episodes of "Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia" for using black or brown face. For "Alf", I didn't see any missing episodes. But sometimes a 2-part episode will be combined into 1 episode, so IMDB says there's 26 episodes, but only 25 episodes are listed, with 1 episode being about twice as long.

Bishop73

Thank you. I've been watching "Alf" on the Roku Channel. I think there is an episode missing from Season 1. "Border Song" is listed as 1x18, then "Going Out of My Head" is 1x20.

That's strange. It may have something to do with where Roku got the content from, and the content was already missing. Before answering, I looked up the shows you mentioned on Tubi, and all episodes of "Alf" are there, including "Wild Thing" (episode 19). Tubi is a free streaming app I use on my TV.

Bishop73

Looking for the title of a animated movie, I remember watching it on the movie network years ago (15+), and it was really quite funny. From what I can remember it was animated, and it was about a bunch of kids, they were rather vulgar and it was a R rated comedy-like movie for adults. I thought it was called The Kid, but i can't find it anywhere online. Keeps coming up with the Disney movie, and its DEFINITELY not a Disney movie. There's one line that stands out for me it goes something like this: "Beware of he who F*cketh, for the time and the tide, by thou thyselves be f*cked in double measure up the a*s, thou ignoble f*ckhead" I would LOVE to find it and watch it. I'm wondering if it was an independent film or something and that's why it's so difficult to find, but if anyone knows the movie I'm referring to, I would greatly appreciate the help.

Beckstenupholus

Answer: It wasn't the South Park movie, was it?

There was a movie that had Bette Davis and Burgess Meredith. In the movie, they portray a brother and sister who are renting their house for nine hundred pounds a month to a married couple. The siblings also have their elderly mom living in the house and ask the couple to leave three meals a day outside of her door.

Answer: You're right, it is "Burnt Offerings." Bette Davis is the aunt, not the sibling.

Answer: Maybe Burnt Offerings (1976)? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnt_Offerings_(film). They aren't brother and sister - the sister is played by Eileen Heckart. Bette Davis played Aunt Elizabeth.

You're both right. Thanks.

Why do people in some movies/TV put a blob of sunscreen on their nose? In real life, I typically see people rub sunscreen into their skin, all over themselves.

Answer: The sunscreen you are asking about is likely zinc oxide. It sits on the surface of the skin and scatters the sun's rays. The sunscreen rubbed into the skin, as you describe, doesn't contain zinc oxide, but rather contains chemicals that absorb the solar radiation and converts that energy to heat, which is then released from the body.

kayelbe

Answer: From what I recall, older sunscreens were much weaker than what we have now. And it was common to apply extra to certain areas of the body, like the nose since it sticks out from your face and is more likely to get sun damage. And the extra sunscreen created the white "blob" around the nose. So it just sort-of became a visual shorthand in films and TV for showing that someone is wearing sunscreen. And since people became used to it, it stuck around. It's currently also a good way to show that a character is rigid, set in their ways or old-fashioned, since it's not something you see too much anymore.

TedStixon

I watched a sitcom in the early 90s, and there was a family attending a school raffle, hoping to win a trip to Disneyland. They placed their ticket in either box 6 or 9 just before the drawing, only to realise they were looking at the number upside down, and they ended up winning therapy sessions, which angered a young girl because, as she put it, "I needed that therapy!" I believe this was part of ABC's TGIF lineup, so it could have been "Going Places" or "Camp Wilder." Anyone know the show?

Phaneron

Chosen answer: The show was called "Phenom."

What is the origin of characters saying "all right / OK, now it's personal"?

Answer: "All right," is what David Woder (Matthew McConaughey) says. It became a catchphrase. In Jaws: The Revenge, the tagline on the movie poster was "Now it's personal."

Why do a lot of modern movies/shows include jokes and "quirky" comments in otherwise serious, intense scenes? I am not a Marvel fan but I've heard that this is a common complaint. Is there some reason why creators don't think viewers can sit through a completely sad, scary, or angry scene anymore?

Answer: In the case of Marvel movies, they are directed at a very wide audience. Most ages, both sexes. It is meant for people who enjoy action, sci-fi, comedy and adventure, all of them. These movies are not meant to be heavy, emotional, scary. They are meant for fun for the entire family. If a movie is specifically made as a horror movie for example, jokes and quirky comments are misplaced of course, since it would spoil the horror people are expecting. But in the case of Marvel, they want everyone to enjoy it.

lionhead

Answer: This is a literary device known as "comic relief." Even in the most intense, dramatic movies, TV shows, or books, the author or screenwriters will inject moments of well-timed humor to give the audience a brief respite from the ongoing suspense. It is difficult to maintain non-stop tension throughout an entire story. By giving a few moments of humor or lightheartedness, the suspense can momentarily be relieved, then rebuilds to carry it through to the climax. It has, IMHO, become an overly-used trope in today's mainstream movies.

raywest

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