Original Air Date: October 28, 2018
Originally, I planned to review an episode of Millennium, “The Curse of Frank Black,” but it’s nowhere to be found—not even on the darkest corners of the web. So instead, I’m bringing you one of my favorite Halloween specials of recent years: Inside No. 9’s “Dead Line,” which, much like my last-minute substitution, also gave BBC Two viewers something very unexpected.
Just a week ago, I finished reading Ray Bradbury’s 1972 novel The Halloween Tree. It’s a breezy read at about 160 pages, filled with rich history and pastoral imagery, but it doesn’t hold a candle (even in a Jack-o’-lantern) to Hanna-Barbera’s 1993 animated made-for-TV adaptation. I’m biased, being a child of the ’90s, but The Halloween Tree feels tailor-made for animation. The image of a gnarled tree with pumpkins hanging from its branches has to be seen to be appreciated—and after all these years, I still do.
Season 2, Episode 8
Original Air Date: October 31, 1990
I should have known better than to doubt the powerhouse producing duo of Steven Bochco and David E. Kelley. It’s crazy that two of the biggest TV giants of all time—Bochco (Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, NYPD Blue) and Kelley (Picket Fences, Chicago Hope, The Practice, Boston Legal, Ally McBeal)—created a show together. It’s even crazier that the show they created was about a 16-year-old doctor.
Season 2, Episode 6
Original Air Date: October 26, 1987
Do kids these days know about ALF? Actually, why do I know about ALF? The show ended before I was even a year old. I’ve never seen a rerun. My only memory of actually seeing ALF in the flesh (or would that be felt?) was in high school German class when we watched the 1996 made-for-TV movie Project: ALF (dubbed in German), which served as a sequel to the show’s final episode. Except I had no idea what was going on because I was a bad student.
Season 3 – Episode 5
Air Date: October 28th, 1984
Have you ever sat down to watch a “classic” movie or TV show and then realized, “Actually, I have no idea what this is about?” That was me when I watched my first-ever episode of Knight Rider. For some reason, I always thought the show was about a guy and his super-smart car on the run from bad guys. Clearly, I confused it with The Incredible Hulk, which is about a protagonist who moves from town to town encountering various adventures and misadventures.
Today is the last day of Summer! So in honor (or memoriam) I give you my official Beach Boys Album Ranking. But first! A quick word from yours truly…
One of my favorite musical projects over the past two years has been diving deep into band discographies. Have I spent hours listening to albums better left forgotten? Absolutely. Is there anything to learn from enduring Van Halen III? You’d be surprised.
If it’s a band you love, experiencing their highs—and their lows—brings you closer to them. You note how they respond, album by album, to success and failure. You see them retool or double down on their sound. You feel the impact of lineup changes, shifts in creative direction, and evolving instrumentation and production. It’s more than just hearing a band evolve; it’s hearing the music industry evolve.
So how had I not listened to all of The Beach Boys until this past summer? They’re one of my all-time favorite bands. Hell, I once fought through a sea of drunk boomers at a winery just to see Brian Wilson reunite with the band.
For one, the band has 29 albums. And (spoiler alert) they peaked early. Sure, there were solid albums in the early ’70s and a good song or two later on, but the Beach Boys never had that great “comeback” album. No great albums post-1971 at least in my opinion. Still, there’s a lot to appreciate in their 50+ year journey.
Where do we begin? How about a tier list? Remember when those were popular for a hot minute? Plus, if you don’t feel like reading the whole thing, you can just glance at the pic below and peace out.
Note: I did not include the 2011 SMiLE Sessions release as it’s not an official Beach Boys album. It’s good though!
“You simply can’t go home again” is a quote from Thomas Wolfe’s 1940 novel of the same name that is just as poignant now as when it was written. I was reminded of this quote by a 1963 interview Rod Serling did with Binny Lum for Australian Radio.
In the interview, Serling discusses how The Twilight Zone can use imaginative storytelling to explore the idea of going back to another time, but how returning always brings with it a great sense of loss. I can think of no better word to describe Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers than “loss.”
