Stump the King - Tales from the Crypt
You guys did awesome last week coming up with Action. See if you can help out on this one…
Debbie Knight asks.
“Hi, I’m hoping someone will be able to help me. I’m a huge fan of horror TV Sitcoms…ie Tales from the Darkside, Tales from the Crypt etc…However I’m remembering an episode and can’t think where it’s from. I’ll describe it and hopefully someone here can give me a title and hopefully somewhere where i can watch it. The episode a female Dr. received a severed hand from the police that was from a serial killer who strangled his victims. It was explained to her that the hand seems to still move. As the episode continues murders are being committed in the same fashion as the serial killer. However the end of the episode, her and her boyfriend/husband Dr. are at home he goes in the tub she’s waiting for him in bed reading. Well the hand reattaches itself to this decomposing body and the boyfriend Dr. is killed .”
While I am not a huge fan of the type of show Debbie is asking about, I did always enjoy Tales from the Crypt.
What made Crypt so great is that the stories were taken directly from the old comic books, so they were especially creepy. The other important part was, of course, the casting. Brett Cullen, Lance Henriksen, Teri Hatcher, Don Rickles, Bruno Kirby, Michael J. Fox and Tim Roth are just a few of the familiar faces from the show.
Here is this week’s question…
On what TV show did I, Paul Goebel, work with the Crypt Keeper, John Kassir?
Congratulations Joe! Boston Common is the correct answer.
Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson and John Turturro Back For Transformers 2!
We knew that Shia LaBeouf would be back, and that Isabel Lucas and Rainn Wilson have been added. However there hasn’t been much talk about the other cast members returning. I think most people thought that they all signed for more movies, but the question was whether their characters would be back. Thankfully, The Hollywood Reporter have confirmed that Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson and John Turturro will be back, playing Mikaela Banes, Captain Lennox, USAF Tech Sergeant Epps and Agent Simmons.
This is good news. It is always handy for sequels, which will eventually become trilogies, to have familiar faces.
I’m worried about Jane Doe
So what did you do yesterday? I spent the entire Sunday watching detective movies on The Hallmark Channel. Of course, when I say “detective movies” it sounds like I was watching old film noir flicks from the 40s and 50s. Actually, I was watching Murder, She Wrote, Perry Mason movies, and Matlock.
Yes, I have the social life of a 70 year-old woman.
I’ve always been a sucker for these shows, going back to the NBC Mystery Movie and Columbo and McMillan and Wife. Those shows were probably better produced and written than the stuff you see on Hallmark Channel, but I think the new shows are quite entertaining and fun, and it’s good to see favorite familiar faces on TV again: the McBride movies with John Larroquette, the Murder 101 movies with Dick Van Dyke, and the TV movie series I’d like to talk about, Jane Doe.
To put it simply, I’m worried about Jane Doe.
Jane (Lea Thompson) is a fortysomething suburban housewife with two kids and a hubby (played by William R. Moses of Melrose Place and Falcon Crest) who supposedly works for a puzzle/toy company. She also happens to be a secret spy who helps out agent Frank Darnell (Joe Penny of Riptide) on baffling cases. Her puzzle background helps in that regard. One problem: she has to keep the assignments secret from her husband and kids. Plots like this have always bothered me. What if Jane is killed on assignment? Not only will the family have to deal with the fact that their wife and mother is dead, but she’s been living a secret life for years. That would be crushing.
Anyway, Jane is always getting phone calls and text messages from Frank saying he needs her (if her husband found these text messages he’d probably think she was having an affair, but I digress…), so she’ll make up an excuse about there being some type of emergency at the puzzle company (not sure what type of emergencies puzzle companies have, but I’ll go along with it) or spilling milk “accidentally” so she has to rush out to the grocery store to get more. Oh, by the way, the secret HQ for the Central Security Agency is in the back of the store.
So we have the set-up for a fun series of movies, sort of a Long Kiss Goodnight meets Banacek. But something troubles me. I’ve noticed (in the two movies I’ve watched anyway) that whenever Jane goes out to do a little snooping around, she often goes alone, with no gun. She’ll go into abandoned houses and spooky staircases and deserted office buildings, following the bad guy, and then the bad guy will come up behind her and try to shoot her, and all she can do is run or hide in a closet. Now, as far as I know, Jane is not Jason Bourne, able to kill any bad guys with a rolled up newspaper, and she constantly has to duck bullets and call for backup on her cell phone. This is probably really good for Verizon’s bottom line, but if she carried a gun she wouldn’t get in trouble like this all of the time.
So Jane, I like your movies and I like the plots and I think you’re a very smart, capable women. I just wish you’d either carry a gun or just be a little more careful out there, OK? Thanks.
USA bumps up the In Plain Slight premiere
One of the most eagerly anticipated new series from USA Network, In Plain Sight, will premiere on June 1st, a week earlier than previously announced. The Mary McCormack-Frederick Weller drama, the latest in USA’s “characters welcome” campaign, was originally going to air on Sunday, June 8th, at 10 p.m., but that would have put the show up against two tough cable competitors — the return of Lifetime’s Army Wives for a second season, and History Channel’s second year of Ice Road Truckers. This is USA’s way of giving In Plain Sight a leg up on the competition — unless Lifetime moves Army Wives and History moves IRT, respectively, to June 1st. Quick, who’s going to blink?
The previews for In Plain Sight look good, and the premiere is of the jumbo-sized variety; it’s 76-minutes long (in a 90 minute time slot). In the tradition of USA’s other original “character” shows like Psych and Monk, In Plain Sight will blend comedy with drama and just enough criminal action and mystery to keep it interesting. The show revolves around Mary Shannon, a U.S. Marshal working in WITSEC, the witness protection program, guarding career criminals who are targeted for death because they are cooperating with the Feds. She’s good at her job, but she has a tougher time dealing with her dysfunctional family, like her vexing mother (Lesley Ann Warren). The series was created by David Maples (Home Improvement, Huff).
Scheduled to appear in upcoming episodes as difficult witnesses are Dave Foley (Newsradio), Sherry Stringfield (ER) and Percy Daggs III (Veronica Mars), among other familiar faces from primetime TV.
[via Futon Critic]