Answered general questions about movies, TV and more

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I remember seeing trailers for a TV show a while back. It was either the very late 90's or the early 2000's. (I'm leaning more towards early-2000's.) I don't remember too much, but it was about a cop who had something wrong with his mind. He was a little unhinged and didn't seem to have any sort-of mental filter... like it he had a thought, he would immediately verbalize it without control. Ex. I swear I could remember a bit in the trailer where he was talking about having a song stuck in his head, and he was like babbling about it to someone in a car. It might have been as a result of an injury or like a mental breakdown or something. If I recall correctly, it was a hard-boiled cop show and I'm pretty sure it was on one of the major networks. Does this ring anyone's bell? (For reference, I'm in the US, so it was most likely an American show).

TedStixon

Answer: It's possible the show was Touching Evil. It was on the USA network in 2004, It starred Jeffrey Donovan as an FBI agent who returns to work after being shot in the head. As a result of the head injury, he has almost no impulse control. He says or does whatever he feels like regardless of social norms.

af4dable

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.

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

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 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."

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.

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

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

What war movie had a tank being hit by a boulder and crashing down the side of a mountain?

Answer: Are you thinking of "The Beast", set in Afghanistan?

stiiggy

Some people (through correcting some goofs) state that it is illegal for film producers to imitate U.S. military officers (in use of medals, insignia, where they are arranged, etc.) in their films. What civil or military code states this?

Onesimos

Answer: There is no law that says that a movie has to have permission from the military to use their uniforms, or any punishment if they are wrong. A long time urban myth.

stiiggy

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

I saw a movie or TV show back in the early 90's when I was a kid. I only remember one scene because it scared the crap out of me. I believe in the scene, an older man (probably 60's?) was fed feet-first into a shredding machine or large wood-chipper and killed. It was outside. The camera was inside it looking up. And I think there was a woman behind him who either pushed him in, or was trying to get him out. He was awake, shouting and struggling. Ring anyone's bell? (And it was not "Fargo.").

TedStixon

Answer: This might be from the TV series Friday the 13th. The episode is called "Root Of All Evil." The plot of the episode deals with a cursed mulcher. Anybody that gets thrown into it is killed and money is expelled from the other side. The richer the person is, the more money that comes out. Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD9XnWh5Mx4.

Holy crap! I think that's it! Quickly scanned through the episode, and it seems to (mostly) match up with what I remember. Not exactly, but considering how young I was, I could just be misremembering it. Additionally, since I was born in '88 and probably saw it when I was 3-4 years old (so '91-'92ish), it would also line up because the show ran until 1990 and was likely still on the air in re-runs.

TedStixon

In fact, I'm 90% sure the death at 31:13 in the video is the exact scene I'm remembering. The only difference is that it's a man and not a woman who pushed him in, but that just could be my memory being dodgy since I only saw it once about 30 years ago. Thank you! I think you got it.

TedStixon

You're welcome.

Answer: I know there're several films where someone has died in a wood-chipper or similar device. License to Kill (1989), Bond is dangling over a shredder and Dario is standing over him. Pam shoots Dario and Bond pulls him into the shredder.

Bishop73

That's a good example, but it's not the scene I'm looking for. It's hard to give details due to the 500 character limit. But the scene seemed to be outside during the daytime (I think there were trees in the background), I think the old man who died was wearing a flannel shirt (that could be wrong), and I seem to recall him having like gray or white hair. I think the woman was trying to save him.

TedStixon

I don't know the film you're talking about, but have you tried looking up "woodchipper" or "body in a woodchipper" in IMDB's plot keywords? The latter has 13 movies listed.

Phaneron

Yeah, I've scoured IMDB for it, but the problem is almost everything I run into is either from the year 2000 or after (like I said, I saw this in the early 90's on TV), or just not the movie/show I'm looking for. I'm assuming it might have been like an obscure episode of a TV show or movie that might not necessarily have a plot keyword attached.

TedStixon

If episodes of a TV show are still re-running, do the actors continue to receive some amount of payment?

Answer: It depends. Often the principal cast, producers, etc. will get paid for reruns. It's typically referred to as "royalties." Ex. The show "Friends" still brings in nearly $1 billion in revenue each year through reruns, DVD sales, merchandising, advertising, etc. And the six main cast members get a cut of that - usually around $20 million per year each in royalties. However, smaller players and bit-part actors don't really make much, if anything at all, from royalties. It can also vary depending on the contracts and whatnot. Ex. The cast from "Gilligan's Island" didn't make squat from reruns because they weren't contractually obligated to get royalties. But nowadays, it's pretty common for the principal cast to get royalties.

TedStixon

Answer: Yes and no. It depends on what show you're talking about, how long ago it was made, and what the actors had in their contracts. Many reruns do result in "residuals" for the actors involved (or what one might call "royalties"). But this (usually) only for "principal performers", and only if they're in the rerun. Often times when a movie or TV show airs, is sold (e.g. on DVD), or streams, there are residuals to pay. Some however, do not earn these residuals (which usually diminishes after time or set number of airings). The Brady Bunch kids made very little (if any) off residuals. Bob Saget made very little for "Full House" reruns and his co-stars even less. Whereas Kelsey Grammer, Ray Romano, and "Friends" stars make millions each year off residuals.

Bishop73

Not sure if this is the forum, but since there's video game mistakes listed; are there any sports video games that let you attempt to cheat or get aggressive against another player? Not talking about cheat codes, but say a baseball game that lets you use a corked bat or pine tar where you hope to not get caught. Or a football game that lets you try to trip a runner. The old Nintendo "Ice Hockey" game would let you start a fight sometimes that other players got involved, so that sort of thing.

Bishop73

Answer: There were button combinations on Adidas Power Soccer for PS1, that would let you handle the ball or take a dive. More often than not you would get caught but it was possible to get away with it. Some earlier FIFA games (1998-2001ish?) would let you dive as well.

I once saw part of what I think was a TV show (Little House on the Prairie, maybe?), and it featured a scene where a girl in school has drawn a picture of her teacher. The teacher sees the picture and, offended by it, asks who drew it. The boy sitting next to the girl stood up and claimed he did it, and as punishment, the teacher whipped him with a stick. Anyone know what this was from?

Phaneron

Chosen answer: That's from the Disney version of "Tom Sawyer" (1973). I remember that scene, watching it as a child.

Looking for a game I think might have been for PS1 or PS2. A guy is sitting in his office when he hears two gunshots. When he runs outside, he sees his wife and daughter have been murdered. A woman sees him standing over their bodies and starts screaming. The guy hijacks a car and drives after the car he saw leaving the area. Don't know anything that was said because the language had been switched from English to some other language.

Answer: This sounds like the PS2 game The Getaway (set in London), with a few differences: Mark Hammond is lying in bed when his wife is shot and his son is abducted by the Bethnal Green mob. A woman walks round the corner and sees him standing over his dying wife and start screaming. He hijacks a car and pursues the criminals who kidnapped his son.

Sierra1

That's the game. Thanks.

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