Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Returns

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer made a glorious return to network television and NBC where it originally aired 60 years ago in 1964! It is one of the best holiday specials ever made and the original songwriter Johnny Marks not only wrote the original but penned the other gorgeous songs. I remember watching this way back when, and it has never lost its charm. (And it seems the scenes here are not shortened as previous broadcasts had done.) A true classic!
 

Master Music Producer

 

Composer and musician Quincy Jones has passed at 91. This legendary music producer (as well as arranger and conductor) had a career spanning seven decades that ranged from early jazz collaborations with such greats as Ray Charles, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, and Frank Sinatra to scoring for TV and films which included Sanford and Son, Ironside, In the Heat of the Night, Roots, The Wiz, and The Color Purple. One of his first hits was with Lesley Gore and It's My Party. His collaborations with Michael Jackson produced some of the most popular albums of all time including Off the Wall and the blockbuster, Thriller. He followed up with the ultimate charity single, We Are the World, that had a remarkable collection of superstar artists, and had an impressive string of his own album classics including Body Heat, The Dude, and Back on the Block. Besides seven Oscar nominations and being awarded the Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, he garnered an Emmy, a Tony, and 28 Grammy Awards out of 80 nominations. This giant of multiple music genres was inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2013.

Adorable Actress

Actress Teri Garr has passed at 79. She started in the 1960s on TV shows like Star Trek and later variety shows especially as supporting dancer (appearing in a number of Elvis Presley films) and comedian with Sonny and Cher. Her greatest popularity was as a film star in such blockbusters as Young Frankenstein, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Oh God, Mr. Mom, a couple of Francis Ford Coppola films, The Conversation and One from the Heart, and her only Oscar nomination for supporting actress in the all time comedy classic, Tootsie. For me, she will always be the adorably, perfect guest among her many funny, late night appearances with host David Letterman.

Nurse Nellie

 

Actress Mitzi Gaynor has passed at 93. This singer and dancer was popular in 1950s films especially musicals like There's No Business Like Show Business and Les Girls. She worked with some top names like Gene Kelly, Bing Crosby, and Frank Sinatra and garnered a wider audience in the 1960s with a knockout performance of Georgy Girl at the 1967 Oscars and with a series of musical specials in the 1970s.  But her claim to immortality was in the big screen version of South Pacific in 1958. She will always be Nurse Nellie Forbush. 

Dame Maggie

 

British actress, Dame Maggie Smith, has passed at 89. This grand thespian of stage and screen, had been nominated numerous times and had achieved the Triple Crown of acting with a Tony, four Emmys, and two Oscars. She made her mark in theater frequently working with  Laurence Olivier.  Her noteworthy films included her Oscar winners, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and California Suite, Room With a View, Gosford Park, Sister Act, and later as the headmistress in the Harry Potter films. Her more recent fame and honors were as the matriarch in the TV series and subsequent films of Downton Abbey.

The Old Man Season 2

The Old Man on FX is a very entertaining, revealing series that explores fatherhood unlike any other. 

Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow play off each other marvelously with a solid screenplay as  season two continues their journey to rescue their FBI agent daughter kidnapped in Afghanistan, and a new complication emerges as she discovers her personal truth. As Taliban forces converge and her family origins are threatened, all parties are faced with a monumental decision that could trigger something far bigger. 

The recent third episode pays off subplots in a satisfying way and sets up a huge conflict. Fans of the show will be pleasantly satisfied and look forward to future installments. 

 

The Voice of Darth Vader

 

Distinguished actor James Earl Jones has passed at 93. This acting giant conquered stage and screen including the Tony Award winning The Great White Hope which also brought him an Oscar nomination in the film adaptation. He won another Tony Award for Fences along with an honorary Tony and two Emmy Awards. He was one of the pilots in Dr. Strangelove, an evil ruler in Conan the Barbarian, a writer in Field of Dreams, and military VIP in several Tom Clancy adaptations starting with The Hunt for Red October. He made significant TV appearances in Roots, Frasier, and The Big Bang Theory.   He was the voice of Mufasa in the animated classic The Lion King, but it was his voice for Darth Vader in the Star Wars films that cemented his immortality. He was given an honorary Oscar in 2011 and a Grammy Award for spoken word album which made him one of the precious few with EGOT awards status.

It's Showtime!

 

The Magic is Still There in BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE

 

Beetlejuice from 1988 was a comedy hit from wunderkind director Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands) and comedian Michael Keaton (Nightshift) which finally gets a worthy sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

The Deetz family suffers a personal loss bringing them together again to a special house.  Lydia (Winona Ryder), who grew up with ghosts, is now a middle aged mother of a rebellious, non-believer girl, Astrid (Jenna Ortega), and must help her ditzy mother (Catherine O’Hara) make funeral arrangements. When Astrid is in danger of being trapped in the Neitherworld, Lydia must take desperate measures even if it means an unholy deal with a nemesis from her past, Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), himself being pursued by a mysterious, vengeful woman.  Can Lydia save her daughter from a horrible fate without sacrificing herself? It all comes down to a wild, climactic scene in a wedding chapel.

Utilizing mostly practical effects, puppetry, and ingenious makeup to create unique and otherworldly effects, it’s obvious that Burton, who possesses such an imaginative sense of creepy visuals and characters, could design an amusement park on the imagery alone. The original cast meshes well with new supporting members including Willem Dafoe, Monica Bellucci, and Justin Theroux. However, it is Keaton, as before, who makes the most of his strategically limited screen time. He’s still got it.

After tying up previous plot points concerning the Deetz family (throwing in an homage and cameo honoring past Burton characters) and an interesting, origin history of Beetlejuice, the film becomes more involved and engaging by the final act, and not a minute too soon. The magic is still there with some amusing and laugh out loud moments, and if the final scene is any indication, a third film is quite possible, and hopefully much sooner than 36 years!

**** of ***** stars (for Beetlejuice fans)

Teen Idol and Actor

Actor/singer James Darren has passed at 88. This teen idol made a splash in Gidget and other films including a prominent role in the classic, The Guns of Navarone. He had a starring role in the scifi TV series The Time Tunnel and a successful run on T. J. Hooker. He was also a  frequent guest as a holographic singer in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.  I met Darren at The MidAtlantic Nostalgia Convention in 2012. It was a thrill to meet 'Tony Newman' from The Time Tunnel.

A SciFi Legend in 70 mm

I want to share a special experience going to the lovely AFI Theater in Silver Spring to see 2001: A Space Odyssey in 70 mm.  I was (through my dad's astrophysicist job) able to witness the world premiere of this back in 1968 at the Uptown Theater! I have seen it since on tv and normal theaters, but 70mm does not happen everyday for this so I went. It was still an amazing experience with stunning visuals and groundbreaking special effects/graphics (before there was CGI) that still hold up beautifully today. And how prescient was Director Stanley Kubrick of the dangers of AI than Hal the computer? The AFI presented the film as originally shown complete with overture and 20 minute intermission and the house lights

 adjusted in sync with the film at start and finish, truly a maximum film experience. Kudos to the staff especially concession and the box office manager who went above and beyond for me. I even had met the two stars, Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood at The MidAtlantic Nostalgia Convention several.years ago. Things come full circle. Thanks to Bridgette and Nick for inviting me.  I just wish this theater was in Catonsville!