General questions about movies, TV and more

This page is for general questions - if you've got a question about a specific title, please check the title-specific questions page first. Members get e-mailed when any of their questions are answered.

As of this writing, there are 28 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Is this the record for the most films in a franchise taking place in the same continuity, and if so, at what point did it become the record? I know there are over 30 Godzilla films, but I haven't seen any of them, and I can't easily find a definitive answer on how many of them are in the same continuity.

Phaneron

Answer: According to wikipedia Godzilla is the longest running live-action movie franchise with 36 films since 1954, but not in the same continuity. They rebooted several times. But, there are several Japanese and Chinese movie franchises that have between 40 and 60 movies, one even 123. Many are for kids (power rangers style, not counting anime) and their continuity is doubtful at best. There is also a western series called "The Durango Kid" that had 64 movies and the western series "The Three Mesquiteers" with 51. I'm sure India's Bollywood has a couple as well.

lionhead

When I was about 14 years old I remember watching a movie at church during a youth group. I don't remember much except that a bunch of teenagers were on a boat. I remember one of them spearing a dolphin with something and it was dying because he punctured one of its lungs. I remember the boy refuses to kill it so another man hits it over the head about four or five times until it dies then he tosses it back into the water. I saw the move in the year 2000 so maybe from the late 1990s.

Answer: Sound like the movie White Squall.

I'm trying to locate a documentary film made in the 80s... it contained a scene from "a Clockwork Orange", many nude people piling on a bed like a pyramid (in a timelapse), people shown on a beach during the song "Art In America", and then the sun going down while showing a nightclub sign. It used to show on cable once in a while during the 80s and 90s. Title please?

Answer: Doesn't look like that's it, but I will investigate based on that. I estimate this film is made between 1983-1986 based on the music and styles.

Answer: It might be A Documentary on the Making of Gore Vidal's Caligula.

Trying to remember where I saw this scene from - a guy is telling a story about where a racing dog caught the mechanical rabbit it was chasing and got electrocuted in the process.

Answer: Actually I saw it again earlier tonight - it was the criminal minds episode To a Better Place.

Answer: Except for the man and the dog, There is a Bugs Bunny cartoon, "The Grey Hounded Hare," Bugs believes the mechanical rabbit is real and tries to stop the dogs from chasing it, after disposing of them, he kisses the rabbit and gets electricuted.

Answer: In that case, there's the movie The Firm. Ed Harris talks about how if a greyhound catches the rabbit, it will never race again.

Brian Katcher

Except it's not a rabbit, it's a bone. And there's nothing about being electrocuted. He doesn't even tell a story about it.

Bishop73

Anyone recognize this comedy Western, which had a real 1960s feel about it? All I can remember was that it was narrated by two cowboys, one black and one white, who would pop up regularly and sing and play the guitar to the viewer. I shouldn't have to say this, but it was not 'Blazing Saddles'.

Answer: It's the 1965 film "Cat Ballou" starring Jane Fonda and Lee Marvin. Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye play the two banjo-strumming "shouters" (as they're credited) who musically narrate the tale. Marvin won the Best Actor Oscar for his dual performance of Tim Strawn and Kid Shelleen.

raywest

There was a movie from either the 50's or 60's. The only thing I know about it is that a married couple commit suicide by sitting in a car with the engine running.

Answer: There is a 1983 TV-Movie, "Right of Way," an elderly couple, Jimmy Stewart and Bette Davis, decide to make a suicide pact. She has a terminal illness and realises that the health care would not only be expensive, but would put a strain on their children. He does it because he won't live without her.

Thank you. That's the movie.

This is a horror movie that I watched on the Tubi app/channel. It was made in the 1990s or earlier. A group of teenagers or young adults are being killed by a man and/or his wife. It turns out that the wife was disfigured because of a car accident caused by teenagers/young adults.

Answer: Slaughter High, maybe?

Answer: Sounds like Class of 1984.

Answer: Was it The Burning?

I don't think so, after looking on IMDB, but thank you for the guess.

I remember watching a black and white short film in history class in high school. It featured a man about to be hanged (I recall a closeup of his face with tears rolling down his cheeks, and he had a thick mustache). He managed to escape and lead his captors on a chase, but his escape ended up being either a dream or fantasy, and the act of him dropping or his noose snapping is what brought him back to reality. Anyone know what this was?

Phaneron

Answer: I remember it well. This was the Oscar winning, 1962 short French film titled, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," directed by Robert Enrico. Set during the Civil War, there is virtually no dialogue. It was televised two times as a special edited episode of "The Twilight Zone." It is not part of the series syndication, though an edited version (dubbed over with awful music) is on YouTube. It was based on a short story by Ambrose Bierce, who served in the Civil War as a Union soldier.

raywest

Answer: There was a 1962 French short film called "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" with no dialog where a man being hung escapes when his rope breaks and when he makes it home the film cuts to him hanging from the rope because it was all a fantasy. The "Twilight Zone" then bought the rights to the film and included it as a season 5 episode.

Bishop73

I remember catching part of a movie or TV show in the early-to-mid 90's, and some younger kid was singing a song about diarrhoea, along the lines of "When you're sliding into first, and you feel your pants burst, diarrhea, diarrhea." Anyone know what this was from?

Phaneron

Chosen answer: You're probably thinking of the 1989 Steve Martin comedy "Parenthood." In the movie, a kid sings that song. Google it and you can find a clip of the scene.

TedStixon

Answer: There's also an episode of "Two and a Half Men," Season 5 Episode 8, titled "Is There a Mrs. Waffles?" Charlie becomes a children's singing star. He sings about everything kids do playing, eating and sleeping. One song is about doing "potty." I don't remember the lyrics, but he uses words like "poo poo" and "doody."

Looking for a movie set (at least partly) in WWII - all I remember is one scene where an American wearing a helmet with a swastika painted red, white and blue is speaking to American soldiers and trying to convince them they should be helping the Nazis fight the Soviets.

Answer: That sounds like you are describing a scene from the movie "Slaughterhouse 5."

Scott215

I just remembered this brief moment from a movie. An Asian man with shoulder-length hair growls - he has the growl of a tiger or other big cat. In the moment that I remember, he might have been bare-chested/shirtless when he growled at someone. I saw this sometime in the '90s - am quite sure it was not the 2000s or later. Thank you.

Answer: That sounds very similar to a scene in the 1995 "Mortal Kombat" movie. A shirtless man with shoulder-length hair is in the first major fight scene of the tournament, and a few times, they loop in a sort-of tiger growling sound while he's shouting/yelling. (I believe it happens twice.) The only difference is that he's a black man and not an Asian man.

TedStixon

Thank you. I just watched the scene on YouTube, and it seems to be the one I remembered. I must have been mistaken about who did the growling.

Looking for a specific comic book. The comic is about a man who is walking through town and when he tries to approach people, they immediately turn and run in fear. Eventually the guy realises that he's dead and as he keeps walking, his body keeps changing until he looks like a corpse. The man eventually discovers that he was cursed to be a zombie after a girl he got pregnant committed suicide when he left her. The final page shows the undead man and undead woman about to get married.

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."

Are there any TV shows that had such bad ratings/view numbers, they were taken off the air rather quickly? After just one, two, three episodes?

Answer: "The Mike O'Malley Show" from 1999 was canceled after two episodes.

Phaneron

Answer: Tons. One random example which comes to mind is 2007's Drive, starring Nathan Fillion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive_ (2007_TV_series). Only 4 episodes aired before it was pulled off air. It was actually quite a promising show, but the ratings just didn't hold up. "Heil Honey I'm Home!" is one of the more notorious examples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heil_Honey_I%27m_Home!, a sitcom about Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun living next door to a Jewish couple, cancelled after one episode. More here: https://tvovermind.com/six-short-lived-tv-shows/ and here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_series_canceled_after_one_episode.

Jon Sandys

Which movie is it wherein a Navy medical officer ends up on the front lines of Vietnam and during a firefight he finds another Navy medic during intense surgeries under fire, brings him back to the shop and keeps this medic with him to do completed medical operations?

Is there any way to locate a specific episode of a game show from nearly 50 years going through a network or other company to see if the episode still exists in the studio or retrieve a copy of it (the way that Game Show Network does with old shows)?

I am trying to find a movie that I saw on TV when I was ten years old so 1996. I remember that a lady country singer is staying in a cabin in the woods and these children go there because they have run away from an abusive foster home. I remember she tries to protect the children and gets a friend to help her. I think it may have been a Christmas movie because it played right around Christmas and may have had a famous female country singer in it as well. Can anyone help me with this movie?

Answer: It's "A Smokey Mountain Christmas," (1986) Dolly Parton plays a Country and Western singer, who hides out in her old family log cabin in the woods, to rest and get away from the pressures of fame. There are a group of children who hide out in the cabin to escape a cruel orphanage, when they find her they think she's their Guardian Angel sent to save them. Lee Majors plays the local mountain man who helps and is the romantic interest. Dan Hedaya plays the comic relief, a tabloid reporter and Broadway actress Anita Morris plays a mountain witch. A Christmas magical fairy tale.

I remember seeing a scene on TV in the 90's. In it, a man and woman were in a field either making out or having sex. One was on top of the other. But they were hit by something... it might have been lightning or just looked by lightning. The camera then focused on them, and they were sort-of "fused" and "melted" together, letting out these horrible moans and groans in pain. I thought it was from an episode of "The X-Files," but it might have been a different show or movie. Ring anyone's bell?

TedStixon

Answer: This sounds like the X-Files Season 6 Episode 4 "Dreamland."

I feel like this might be an Eddie Murphy movie, but an adult (Murphy?) for some reason is trying to bribe a kid (maybe to be quiet about something) with a coupon for a scone. The kid's reply is something like "a scone? What do I look like, the queen of England?" When I search for the quote, all I get is pictures of the queen and scone recipes.

Bishop73

Answer: The movie you're looking for is "Imagine That", which has got Eddie Murphy in it. The quote in question is present in the trailer for the movie https://youtu.be/s2kYKjwsmS8.

Heather Benton

Thank you for that.

Bishop73

Is there a reason a weekly TV series wouldn't name their episodes? I can understand a soap opera that's on 5+ days a week for decades not wanting to name thousands of episodes, but some shows just list the episode number or use a #1.1 pattern. For example, I'm rewatching "Dark Matter" and each episode in season 1 is just the episode number while season 2 and 3 the episodes have names.

Bishop73

Answer: As for "Dark Matter," it was probably just a creative decision that they decided to change along the way. A majority of shows do have titles for episodes (whether or not the episode titles are ever onscreen... sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't), but I have seen a few that nebulously just have titles like "Chapter One/Two/Three/Etc." or similar things. Perhaps it's an attempt to keep storylines hidden, especially now when people over-analyze and over-scrutinize everything online? Maybe the creators simply feel it's more ominous to not have descriptive titles? Maybe if the show tells a singular concise storyline, simply listing the episode number is more appropriate since it's all one story? Etc. It really could be any number of things. It's just one of the many creative decisions that goes into making a show.

TedStixon

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.