Book Recommendation: Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone

No one really wants to be home sick. However, one of the bonuses of it is having some time to read. This book was something that was popping up often in my “Good Reads” app. After reading the brief synopsis of it, I decided it was one that I had to get. I had my library save me a copy and after finishing the book I had been reading, I dove right into this one.

The title grabbed me immediately. As an Italian, I immediately thought this might be some sort of mobster story. It wasn’t, but it certainly did not disappoint! If you love a good mystery, you will like this one a lot.

Benjamin Stevenson is an author who was unknown to me before picking this up. I have since learned that he is actually a very popular (and award winning) stand up comedian from Australia. This isn’t his first book either, so I have a feeling I will be checking his previous works out in the near future.

The Harper Collins website describes the book this way: “Knives Out and Clue meet Agatha Christie and The Thursday Murder Club in this “utterly original” (Jane Harper), “not to be missed” (Karin Slaughter), fiendishly clever blend of classic and modern murder mystery.” It is funny that it is described in that way, because I compared it to the movies Clue and the classic And Then There Were None.

Before I go on, let me say that I loved this book! It really has the feel of a classic murder mystery, yet set in present day. What makes this story different is that the author actually speaks to the reader throughout the story.

The narrator is Ernest Cunningham. He is a self-published author of a book on how to write a crime novel/murder mystery. As the narrator, he tells the reader that he is not a fan of various literary tricks used in novels today (like and unreliable narrator) and promises to be as reliable and truthful as possible as he relates the story. He constantly breaks “the fourth wall” as he tells the story.

Synopsis from Google:

Ernie Cunningham, a teacher and crime fiction aficionado, is a reluctant guest at a family reunion held in a snowbound mountain retreat. Three years ago, Ern witnessed his brother, Michael, kill a man and immediately shopped him to the police. This was a betrayal no one in his well-known crime family could forgive and for the last few years Ernie has been shunned by his relatives. But now they are all gathered at the Sky Lodge Mountain Retreat to welcome Michael back into the fold after his release from prison. However, on the eve of Michael’s release, the body of a man is found frozen on the slopes. While most assume the man simply collapsed and died of hypothermia during the night, Ern and his step-sister Sofia spot a strange detail – the man’s airways are clogged with ash. He appears to have died by fire . . . in a pristine snowfield . . . without a single burn mark on him. With the local police officer, PC Darius Crawford, soon overwhelmed by the death of the man no one can identify, Ernie begins his own investigation. Particularly when Sofia points out that the death has the same MO as The Black Tongue serial killer recently in the papers… It’s up to Ern to discover whether one of his family is a serial killer, before his whole family end up dead…

Ernie is good about making sure you are “keeping up” and at times will “recap” things for you, which I found helpful. I am guessing that if you read the book in one sitting, the recap might be annoying, but I read it over a couple days and found it a good thing. I admit I had pegged two or three people as the murderer only to find out I was wrong. I was totally caught off guard when they were revealed.

It is witty, has suspenseful moments, great characters, and fun. This is definitely a book that I highly recommend reading if you love a good mystery. 5/5 Stars!

Mystery Mania 2019

As someone who loves a good mystery, I jumped at the chance to take part in the “Mystery Mania Blogathon” being hosted by Robin and her site, Pop Culture Reverie. For this event, the topics could include movies, novels, video games, and TV shows. While there are plenty of books and TV shows that I would have loved to write about, two movies immediately came to mind and I have chosen to write about them. You can read what other bloggers have chosen for this event here:

https://popculturereverie.wordpress.com/

The Old Dark House Genre

Both of the films I am writing about would fall into what movie critics would call “The Old Dark House” genre. This would be a sub-genre of the suspense/thriller/mystery film. The genre tends to lean toward comedy, farce, parody, or whodunit mysteries. I wouldn’t call them “Haunted House” movies, as those tend to involve ghosts or the supernatural. Some common themes you may find in an Old Dark House movie include: (1) a group of people or strangers having to spend the night in some sort of castle, house, or mansion, (2) a murderer, creature, or some sort of madman on the loose, (3) usually the setting is a dark, foggy, or stormy night, (4) the house has hidden rooms or some sort of secret passageway (5) a butler, maid, or servants (6) a mysterious host, (7) pictures with removable eyes for spying on guests, and (8) possibly, a murder.

These movies are referred to as “Old Dark House” movies because they are similar to the plot of the 1932 film “Old Dark House” which starred Boris Karloff, Charles Laughton, and Gloria Stuart. Other famous films of this genre include 1945’s And Then There Were None and The House of Fear, 1948’s Who Killed Doc Robbin?, 1941’s Murder By Invitation, 1975’s The Spiral Staircase, 1978’s The Cat and the Canary, 1985’s Clue, and 1980’s Private Eyes, which will be the second film I am writing about. Oh, and of course, the first film I am writing about ….

Murder By Death (1976)

There are a few reasons I chose to write about this film. First, it is a very funny film written by Neil Simon. The film is a comedy/parody that is loaded with quick and funny lines. Second, it is a send up of some of the greatest literary sleuths and detectives. The film parodies Charlie Chan, Nick and Nora Charles, Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, and Sam Spade. Finally, it has a simply wonderful and amazing cast. Peter Sellers is Sidney Wang (Charlie Chan), David Niven and Maggie Smith are Dick and Dora Charleston (Nick and Nora Charles), Elsa Lanchester is Jessica Marbles (Miss Marple), James Coco is Milo Perrier (Hercule Poirot), and Peter Falk is Sam Diamond (Sam Spade). Other greats in the cast include Eileen Brennan, Nancy Walker, Truman Capote, James Cromwell, Estelle Winwood, and Alec Guinness.

A keen observer will notice that the opening credits are drawn by Charles Addams, who created the comic strip The Addams Family. We see a body with 11 knives lodged in the back, followed by the 11 “suspects”.

Whether it is deliberate or not, the plot to the film is fairly ridiculous. Millionaire Lionel Twain (Capote) invites five of the world’s greatest detectives to his home to solve a murder that hadn’t been committed yet (it will happen at midnight that evening). He offers a million dollar prize to the one who can solve the murder. The cast avoid numerous attempts on their own lives, while stumbling on more than one apparent murder throughout the film.

One of the true joys of this film is the performance of Alec Guinness as the blind butler, Jamesir Bensonmumm. The dialogue between Guinness, David Niven and Maggie Smith regarding his name plays out like an Abbott and Costello bit. He has some very funny lines and he delivers them perfectly. When asked about Mrs. Twain, Bensonmum says, “She murdered herself in her sleep, sir.” When asked if it was suicide, he replies, “Oh no. It was murder alright. Mrs. Twain hated herself!” Sidney Wang asks about loud growling and barking from a cage. He is told by the butler that it is the cat. When he is questioned again in disbelief, Bensonmum replies, “I’m afraid he is a very angry cat. Mr. Twain had him fixed … and he didn’t want to be.”

It was while filming Murder By Death, that Guinness received his copy of a script for Star Wars. He read the script between takes while in his dressing room. Guinness was not one to spend a lot of time in Hollywood, but he liked the script so much that he made the trip to play the part of Bensonmum. He is also on record as saying, “The script made me laugh, and not many things in recent times have done that.”

Peter Sellers plays Mr. Wang as stereotypical as Charlie Chan was. One of my favorite lines from him is: “Conversation like television set on honeymoon: unnecessary.” James Coco plays his role very self centered and prissy. He has some funny scenes with James Cromwell and some good lines. He finds a bill in the butler’s pocket and notes “Everything here has been rented for tonight. The butler, the cook, the food, the dining room chairs, everything!” When Jessica Marbles begins to question, “You mean …”, he interrupts and states, “Yes. This entire murder has been… catered.” After he drinks wine and begins to choke, the guests gasp and react, but he puts them at ease by saying, “No, no, it’s all right. My wine is not poisoned. It was just a bad year.”

Not to take away from fine performances by Peter Sellers, David Niven, or James Coco (they are all wonderful!), but a highlight for me is Peter Falk’s performance as Sam Diamond. He plays it almost in a Humphrey Bogart sort of way. Throughout the film, the detectives are often scurrying and unorganized. Falk does such a great job with this. He has some very funny lines in the film. One of my favorites follows a bit of a monologue from Sam: “Now, if one of you gentlemen would be so kind as to give my lady friend here a glass of cheap white wine, I’m going down the hall to find the can. I talk so much sometimes, I forget to go.” When the issue of trust comes up, he proclaims, “The last time that I trusted a dame was in Paris in 1940. She said she was going out to get a bottle of wine. Two hours later, the Germans marched into France.”

As hard as it is, I won’t spoil the ending. I will tell you that the climax of the film has many revelations that are just ludacris, more theories and unmaskings than every episode of Perry Mason, Scooby Doo, and Agatha Christie novel put together! By the time it is over, you wonder what happened, in a good way. Wang has a great line as he and his adopted son are leaving the Twain mansion in the morning. His son says, “I don’t get something, Pop. WAS there a murder, or WASN’T there?” His reply: “Yes: Killed good weekend.”

Despite the wonderful script and all-star cast, there were some who had their doubts about the film. David Niven’s son worked for a company that invested in the film and thought that it would be a flop and expected it to be a tax loss. Peter Sellers wasn’t happy with his performance and the film in general, so he sold back his percentage of the film for a little over a million dollars. To everyone’s surprise, the film was the eight biggest money maker of 1976. The film is included among the American Film Institute’s 2000 list of the 500 movies nominated for the Top 100 Funniest American Movies.

The Private Eyes (1980)

The next film I chose to write about stars two comedy legends who are just as funny separately as they are when paired together – Tim Conway and Don Knotts. Tim is best remembered for his work on McHale’s Navy and the Carol Burnett show and Don is remembered for his work on the Andy Griffith Show and Three’s Company. The Private Eyes is not the first film where they starred together, but it is their last. They were in Disney’s The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975) and the sequel The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, (1979) and The Prize Fighter (1979). They did do a brief cameo together in Cannonball Run II in 1984, a film that was pretty much a flop.

The Private Eyes is, again, an Old Dark House film. Don Knott’s character Inspector Winship is an obvious parody of Sherlock Holmes and Tim Conway’s character, Dr. Tart, is a parody of Dr. Watson. The film opens with Lady and Lord Morley being murdered in their car by a cloaked shadowy figure. Winship and Tart are two American detectives who are transferred to Scotland Yard. They travel to the Morley Mansion with a letter from Lord Morley, asking them to investigate his own murder.

When they arrive at the Morley Mansion, they meet the Morley’s adopted daughter (and heiress), Phyllis. They also meet the odd array of staff members who work for the Morley’s. They include a samurai, a busty blonde maid, a hunchback, a gypsy, an insane butler, and a Nazi Nanny.

As Winship and Tart begin their investigation of the Morley murders, the members of the staff begin to show up apparently murdered one by one. A message is left with each body (more on that in a second) and each time they bring Phyllis back to where they body had previously been, it has disappeared.

The first of two running gags in the film is Dr. Tart’s pigeons. He insists on sending messages back to “the Yard” via homing pigeons. They never seem to make it, however, as each time he tries to send the message the pigeon usually ends up dying. The other is the messages that are left on the dead bodies.

Outside of Tim Conway’s performance, the reason to watch this film is for the messages. The messages are written as poems. They follow a similar pattern each time and rhyme consistently right up until the last line, where all of a sudden, they don’t! Each time the last line is read, you can see Tim Conway’s Tart, trying to make sense of it. He knows there is another word that would rhyme – and actually make more sense – but the author doesn’t use it. Once it happens in the first poem, you know it’s coming with each future poem, and it is a consistently funny gag throughout the film.

A few worth mentioning:

In this house it’s hard to survive
Some will be dead who are now alive
Mr. Uwatsum is gona cuz he knew too much
Bye for now but rest assured, we will keep in constant contact with each other (Instead of keep in touch)

If Jock could talk, he’d give you a clue
But now that he’s dead, what can you do?
He deserved what he got, I don’t regret it a bit
By the way, you’re standing in bull caca (instead of Bullsh*t)

And my favorite:

I said when I died that I’d come back
If you believe in ghosts then you’re on the right track
I’m out of the grove and roaming the moors
If you wanna be safe you’d better lock all the windows and screens (instead of doors)

What is disappointing about the movie is there is so much potential for it to be a very good film, but it winds up being just mediocre. We are introduced to these crazy house servants in the beginning and yet nothing really comes from any of it. If the movie had been handled as more of an ensemble comedy (as with Murder By Death and Clue), it would have been a much better film.

Tim Conway does not disappoint, but Don Knotts seems slow and tired. I recently read where he had contracted mononucleosis during filming, so I am guessing his performance is lackluster because of this. Outside of our stars, I should note that the relationship between Nanny & Justin (seen above) are fun to watch. Justin has a very funny line when introducing Winship and Tart to Nanny. Upon learning that they are from Scotland Yard, he says, “This is Inspector Winship and Dr. Tart. They were in the yard.” To which Winship corrects him, “That’s FROM the Yard!” Sadly, again, there is so much that the film makers could have done with their characters. They are very funny together, but their time on screen is limited.

I should also mention that Trisha Noble does a wonderful job as the very stunning daughter, Phyllis. If she looks familiar, its because she went on to appear in the TV Series Strike Force as Sergeant Rosie Johnson, various TV series, and in Star Wars Episode III as Jobal Naberrie. In 1967, she changed her stage name from Patsy Ann Noble to Trisha Noble in order to distance herself from her years as a teenage popular singer.

The film is more of a “who is left to have done it”, rather than a “whodunit” because of how fast the members of the staff are being bumped off. There is a bit of a twist at the end, and I won’t spoil it for you – after all, this blog is all about mystery. While there are some funny moments, it is one of those movies you want to sit around on a weekend and watch with the kids, they will probably find it funnier than you.

Thanks!

Thanks to Robin for allowing me to participate in the Mystery Mania Blogathon. I hope you enjoyed reading this and I encourage you to read the other entries at the link provided earlier in this blog.

“Made in 1938”

Introduction

Since I started blogging about a year ago, I have stumbled on some great blogs that focus on old movies, film noir, music, books, and various other things that I find interesting. Some of these blog sites have hosted Blogathons, and I have participated in a few of them. A while back, the “Pop Culture Reverie” and “In The Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood” sites announced their “Made in 1938 Blogathon”. The only real rule that was that whatever you wrote about had to be something “made” in 1938. This blog is my contribution to this blogathon. I am posting a day early, but you can read the other participants blogs by clicking:

https://popculturereverie.wordpress.com/

https://crystalkalyana.wordpress.com/

At first, I began to look at movies from that year, hoping there would be one of my favorites from that year. Then, because of the celebrity birthday page I had on Facebook, I wondered if there were any famous people born in ’38 that I might find interesting to write about. In looking over the list of celebrities, three stood out as having a significant part in my life, so I chose to write about them. I hope you find this blog interesting and entertaining. What follows is a brief salute to a great impressionist/comedian, a great radio personality, and a great actor.

Rich Little (Born November 26, 1938)

Rich Little shares the nickname “The Man of a Thousand Voices” with the great Mel Blanc (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, etc). While they both have many voices that they do, Mel’s were more original voices and dialects for cartoons, while Rich did impersonations or imitations of real celebrities. He claims to be able to do about 200 voices, and he has had quite a career “being” other people! He even eludes to this in the title of his 2014 book “Little by Little: People I’ve Known and Been…”

I remember when we first got cable TV. HBO often featured stand up comedy shows and specials. One of the first specials I ever saw was Rich Little’s A Christmas Carol. I was mesmerized by this guy! This special was like an awesome dream come true – all these big celebrities playing the different roles of the Dickens classic – except, they were all done by one man, Rich Little. Can you imagine WC Fields, Jack Benny, Peter Sellers, Humphrey Bogart, Peter Falk (as Columbo), Jimmy Stewart, Richard Nixon, Johnny Carson, Laurel and Hardy, and Groucho Marx all in the same show?! He made it happen!

As a kid, not knowing what I really wanted to do with my life, and thinking I was funny, I thought maybe I could do what he did. After watching him often, and listening to him, I began to try out voices on relatives. I really thought I did an excellent Richard Nixon, but in reality, I was doing a bad impression of Rich Little doing Richard Nixon. (Later on in my radio career, while on Honey Radio I did create a few generic voices that I used on our morning show, but never anything close to what Rich has mastered!)

I was always excited when there was some new Rich Little Special on HBO, whether it was his stage act or his take on Robin Hood (which is where I first saw him do his Carol Channing, which blew me away). Every time he did a new celebrity I hadn’t seen him do, I would watch in awe. There was no shortage of people he could do.

One surprising fact that I was unaware of was one of my favorite singers played a big part in his American TV debut. He was asked by singer Mel Torme’ to audition for the Judy Garland Show in 1964. He did, made an impression (pun intended) and made his first appearance on American TV on her show. He stated in an interview that if you watch this appearance, you should watch Judy. She had never seen him perform before they taped the show and her reactions are very genuine. He went on to appear on other TV shows like Love on a Rooftop, That Girl, The Flying Nun, and Petticoat Junction in guest roles. He is probably best known for his appearances on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The Kopycats (a show featuring impressionists), and The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts.

Rich is often asked which impressions are his favorites. He says he has many, but the two that stand out are Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Stewart. His Reagan is just wonderful and President Reagan loved it too! He did two albums as Reagan – “The First Family Rides Again” and “Ronald Reagan Slept Here”. I owned them both, and they are very funny (one of them features a pre-Seinfeld Michael Richards)! His Reagan is a great example of how Rich can find something unique about someone and use it in his imitation. I’ll be honest, I never knew how many times Reagan started a sentence with the word “Well…” until I saw/heard Rich doing it in his act!

Jimmy Stewart was the first celebrity impression he worked on (and it is amazing). Rich was on the dais of The Dean Martin Roasts when Jimmy was the “Man of the Hour”. He got to the podium and began to school Jimmy Stewart on how to do Jimmy Stewart! After Jimmy tries to do all the things Rich is telling him, Rich finally tells him that there is no hope for him and that Jimmy was doing “The Worst Jimmy Stewart” he’d ever heard! Rich even went as far as to have the audience stand up and do Jimmy, to which Rich tells Jimmy that everyone does a better Jimmy Stewart than he did! Word is this was all ad-libbed and Jimmy, being the amazing guy that he was, went along with it all.

It would be hard for me to pick my favorite Rich Little Impressions, because they are all so good. Among his best, in my opinion, are Reagan and Stewart (just mentioned), Richard Nixon, Jack Benny, Don Rickles, Raymond Burr, Truman Capote, James Mason, John Wayne, Paul Lynde, and Johnny Carson. His Carson was so good, he was asked to play him in the movie about the David Letterman/Jay Leno feud called “Late Night”. After seeing Rich do an impression of him, Jack Benny sent him an 18 karat gold money clip that was engraved; “With Bob Hope doing my walk and you doing my voice, I can be a star and do nothing!”

How good are his impressions? When David Niven was ill, he actually dubbed in lines for Niven in a couple Pink Panther movies. He did the same for James Cagney in the 1984 film Terrible Joe Moran and for Gene Kelly in a 1991 Christmas special. I’m not sure how true it is, but some people say that there was some fierce competition between Rich and Frank Gorshin (The Riddler on TV’s Batman), who was also a good impressionist. Those sources say that this little rivalry only made Rich work even harder to perfect his voices.

In researching for this blog, I came across a quote from Rich that really made me admire him even more. He said, “I don’t like it when people imitate someone for political reasons or if they hate somebody. I’ve never imitated anyone that I’ve really hated. Usually, it’s people I admire.”

Thanks Rich, for the many laughs you provided throughout my childhood. Sorry about my Nixon impression!

Wolfman Jack (Born January 21, 1938)

Radio Legend! What more can I say?! He was one of the best. He knew what people wanted and gave it to them. He was a master at talking to his audience. He could be making you laugh out loud one minute, and crying the next. I never had the chance to hear a live show of his, but I was lucky enough to hear some of his syndicated stuff growing up. I can tell you this, I can only WISH to be as good and as talented as he was! In my 30 year radio career, I have never come close!

With the creation of the Internet and access to YouTube and other radio websites, some of Wolfman’s radio stuff is available to listen to and enjoy. I’m no dummy, I know that he must have done a lot of prep for his shows, but everything seemed so spontaneous and ad-libbed! Maybe it was, I don’t know, but I do know that it was good. His interactions with listeners were always entertaining. His random thoughts about peace, love, and brotherhood always hit the nail on the head. In this world where hatred runs amuck, we could use more people like Wolfman spreading the “love” on the air.

I got into radio because of the guys I listened to growing up (Paul Christy, Jim McKenzie, Richard D., Boogie Brian, Dick Purtan, etc…), and so did Wolfman Jack. To keep him out of trouble, his parents bought him a radio and he fell in love with R&B music. He listened to Jocko Henderson from Philadelphia, Dr. Jive from New York, the Moon Dog from Cleveland, Alan Freed (who coined the phrase “Rock and Roll”), and his mentor John Richbourg from Nashville. He spent a year at The National Academy of Broadcasting and landed a radio gig in Virginia where his on air name was “Daddy Jules”.

Three years later, he took his “Wolfman” character to XERF, a Mexican radio station that broadcast at 250,000 watts (5 times the power of any US radio station), and people listened! The station pretty much covered most of the US. The music he played (lots of great R&B) and his vocal stylings started to make news. His popularity grew and there were feature stories about him in Time magazine, Newsweek, and Life magazine. Newspapers from all over the country all wrote about him, too, wondering, “Who is this guy and where did he come from?!”

In 1972, he became the host of an NBC show called “The Midnight Special” where he co-hosted and interviewed musical guests. Director George Lucas grew up in North Carolina and was a fan of Wolfman’s show growing up. In 1973, he cast him in the film “American Graffiti” and made sure that he got a small percentage of the profits from the film. The success of the film brought Wolfman to New York to do a radio show on WNBC, but the commuting back and forth to do TV and radio became a hassle, so he moved back to California.

Wolfman Jack became the first radio DJ to nationally distribute his radio show. The show was heard on over 2000 stations nationwide and in 53 countries! Along with his radio work. he continued to do movie work and appeared on TV shows like The Odd Couple, What’s Happening, Vega$, Wonder Woman, Hollywood Squares, and Married…With Children. He also appeared as himself in the 1974 hit single by The Guess Who entitled “Clap for the Wolfman.”

In 1995, he wrote his autobiography (a must read for people in radio) “Have Mercy: Confessions of the Original Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal,” which received good reviews in The New York Times and LA Times. On July 1, 1995, after finishing a broadcast from The Hard Rock Café in Washington DC he boarded a plane and flew home. He had been away from his family for days promoting his book. He told his limo driver as they pulled in front of his house that he was happy to finally be home. He walked inside, hugged his wife, and collapsed after having a massive heart attack. He was 57 years old.

To close this section of my blog – here are some of my favorite Wolfman quotes:

“We are put on this earth to have a good time. This makes other people feel good. And the cycle continues.”

“I know it may sound corny, man, but I like to bring folks joy and I like to have a good time. I know folks like to be with someone who’s having a good time. You sure as hell don’t want to be with somebody who’s having a bad day.”

“Love is not a matter of counting the years – it’s making the years count.”

“If you do right. Everything will come out right.”

And my favorite quote, which I often used (giving him credit, of course) to close my own radio show:

“Remember to keep smiling because a smile is like a light in the window letting people know your heart’s at home”.

Thanks, Wolfman, for being an inspiration to young DJ’s like me, and for being a positive in a world full of negativity!

Christopher Lloyd (Born October 22, 1938)

When I first saw the trailer for Back to the Future, I was filled with anticipation. It was everything a 15 year old boy could ask for, action, adventure, and time travel! I’ve always been a fan of time travel stories. I have a collection of old radio shows that all have time travel as a theme. What kid didn’t wonder, “What would it be like to see my parents as kids? What would it be like to go back to the past?” I had to see this movie!

The Back to the Future trilogy remains one of my favorites (second only to the Godfather). Looking back now, I can’t imagine anyone but Christopher Lloyd playing Doc Brown. While there are great characters (and actors) in the film, Lloyd makes it all worth watching! He’s the epitome of a crazy scientist! He’s everything you expect one to be! He’s manic! He’s constantly moving! He’s always thinking and processing! In an interview he said that there were times he was so into the role that he didn’t know exactly what he had done until he saw it on screen! Believe it or not, he almost passed on the role!!

In an interview I found, he said that when he was initially contacted about playing the role, he had some doubts about it and seriously considered passing on it. He was in Mexico when his agent called to tell him that the producers wanted to meet with him. “I was anxious to do a play that I had been offered back east, and I wasn’t sure this was something I wanted to get involved in at that point.” Luckily, his future wife Carol reminded him that “I always told myself never to turn anything down without at least checking it out.” After the meeting he says he was “ready to put on the wig and hop into the Delorean!”

Doc Brown is probably one of two roles that Christopher Lloyd will forever be identified with. The other is that of “Reverend” Jim Ignatowski on the TV show Taxi. That character won him two Emmy Awards! I have always appreciated when a TV show has a great ensemble cast – Taxi was one of them. Each character stands out in their own way, and Reverend Jim never ceased to make me laugh! One of the greatest scenes in this show is when Jim has to take his driver’s test. Almost all of the gang is there while he is taking it and trying to help him. If you’ve never seen it – it’s comedy gold! Here is the link:

Christopher is one of those actors who is believable in comedy roles as well as dramatic roles. I have always felt that is what makes a great actor. He reminds me a lot of Robin Williams, in that he can play comedy for comedy, play straight for comedic effect, and nail a dramatic role perfectly. In his first movie role, as a psychiatric patient in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, he is brilliant! It is one amazing performance!

He is one of those actors that has so many memorable roles. It would be impossible to give space to each one of them. One movie that sometimes gets over looked is the 1985 comedy Clue. As Professor Plum, we are treated to Christopher playing straight for comedic effect. In one of my favorite scenes, the characters are paired off to search areas of the house. Plum is paired with Mrs. Peacock (played brilliantly by Eileen Brennan) and he looks at her and says, “It’s you and me, honey bunch.” As strait as he says it, that line cracks me up every time! What an amazing cast in this film!

As someone who doesn’t care too much for movie remakes, I was pleasantly surprised at the Addams Family films. I loved Christopher as Uncle Fester. I always felt like the TV show was more comedy than dark comedy. The films were closer to the comic strips and I thought Christopher captured that dark comedy and mischievous aspect of the character in his portrayal of Fester. This is probably because he was a fan of the comic strip and claims to have always read the New Yorker Magazine (where the strip was featured in every issue).

Two of Christopher’s roles were so powerful they scared me! The first being that of Klingon Commander Kluge in the 1984 film Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. He is just so vicious, and over the top in this film. One of my favorite scenes is where one of his crew destroys a ship and he yells that he wanted prisoners. The crew member says it was a lucky shot. At this, his anger boils over and Kluge kills the crewmember. After this, he simply says “Animal.” He really does a great job of showing us how crazy the character is.

The other role that scared me was his role as Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? As much as I hated him throughout the movie, when he snaps and goes nuts at the end, wow! When he is run over by the steamroller you are almost happy! When he melts, you are ecstatic! When an actor makes you hate a character he is playing that much – he’s done it right! He says that people come up to him often and mention how much this character scared them, so I am not alone. He also says that he loves playing villains, because it’s a “license just to be as bad as the script allows you to be”.

There are many other movies that Christopher has played in that you may be familiar with, like The Dream Team, Dennis the Menace (Switchblade Sam is an awesome villain), and My Favorite Martian. He has done so much more that I wish I had been able to see. For example, in 2010, he starred as Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman in a Weston House Production. I can only imagine how well he played this iconic role. In 2008, he played Scrooge in a production of A Christmas Carol with John Goodman and Jane Leeves. WOW – I would LOVE to see him as Scrooge!!!! Many have played Scrooge, and played him well…but I know that Christopher’s interpretation would have been off the charts!

He continues to do voice work (my kids loved him as the Hacker on Cyberchase), television, and movies and is very active on social media. If you don’t already, follow him.

Thanks, Christopher for entertaining so many over the years! You are a treasure!

In Closing

I want to thank the hosts of this blogathon, “Pop Culture Reverie” and “In The Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood”, for allowing me to participate. It was a lot of fun for me to think about these three influential men and their work, and ultimately write about them. I hope that you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Fun and Games

Trivialpursuit-boardgame

“Life is more fun if you play games” – Ronald Dahl

Over the holiday, we had a mini game night at my aunt’s house. It was a lot of fun. Game nights are something that I feel are missing today. Oh, sure, there are plenty of video games, but families are missing out of creative fun with board games.

I remember growing up and always playing board games. We had some at home and we had some up north. I remember playing Clue (which I was never really good at), Connect Four, Yahtzee, Battleship, Sorry, and Life (which I really never understood as a kid). Battleship and Sorry were probably my favorites. They were easy to play and didn’t take 9 hours to play (like Monopoly, which we hated)!

There were also two card games that were favorites up north and at home: Uno and Cribbage. According to Wikipedia, Uno was developed in 1971 and became popular in the 80’s. This would make sense as my first memories of the game are during summers in Caseville. Cribbage was also a game I played up north with my grandpa and my dad and eventually played at home and with friends once I got my own board.

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In the mid-80’s, Trivial Pursuit was THE game to play! I think I read somewhere that it sold over 20 million copies in one year. There were various editions that came out after the original success (Sports, Entertainment, and Baby Boomers to name a few). I’m not going to lie, some of the questions were damn hard! The game was a staple at radio stations, as many of the questions were used to give away prizes. Today, you can find three to four copies at any Goodwill or Salvation Army store.

My Favorite Games

In 2019, I am making a vow to spend more time playing games. Whether it is with my kids, my wife, or with friends. Here are some old favorites and some new ones (not including the ones mentioned above). Game nights can be filled with laughter and the world needs that. So here is my list:

Scrabble. Yes. The word game. Grab a dictionary and start spelling. Get to know the words that use “z”, “q”, and “x”! Every now and then, change it up and allow common nouns, dirty words, and onomatopoeias! I still love playing this game.
Pictionary. I suck at drawing, which makes this game even more fun to play. Charades with a pencil! Love it!
Scattergories. This remains one of my favorite games. I love the big honking die with all the letters on it. My version is probably the original version, so I still have the original categories. I hear that the newer version has some new ones. Either way, I love the challenge of coming up with answers that no one else has. I love trying to come up with Double and Triple point answers.
Apples to Apples. Random things on cards that you match with a subject card. You have to be real creative sometimes to make it work. Sometimes you have the perfect card, sometimes you have to go with a card that means nothing, and sometimes you just have to play to the judge. A fun game that my kids love too!
Cranium. What I love about this game is that it takes some aspects of other games and combines them in one. It has four categories: Creative Cat (which may involve drawing or sculpting), Word Worm (which may make you spell a word forwards or backwards, solving anagrams, fill in the blank type answers, or word definitions), Data Head (which is your basic trivia stuff or true and false questions), and Star Performer (where you play charades, impersonate celebrities, or hum a song in hopes that someone will guess it).
Taboo (and Celebrity Taboo). What is great about this game is that you have to get your team to guess the answer on the card without mentioning the five things most associated with the answer. I haven’t been able to find Celebrity Taboo for some time, but I liked it better! Imagine trying to get someone to guess John Lennon without saying: Paul McCartney, The Beatles, Yoko One, Imagine, or Twist and Shout!
Guesstures. Someone described this game as “Charades on Speed”, and that really is a great way to describe it. Cards have easy and hard words on them. harder words are worth more points. There is a timer device and the player has about a minute to get his team to get the answers before the timer eats the cards.
Catchphrase. It’s come a long way since the original version. Now, it is electronic. It’s a battery operated disc that generates random words and has a timer. Each time tries to get their members to guess the word on the disc, and when they do, they pass the disc to the other team. Whoever gets caught with the disc when the timer goes off loses the round.
Can You Name 5? (sometimes called Name 5). This game was a lot of fun. The name says it all. Random categories have teams naming 5 baseball teams, classic rock groups, types of running shoes, and more. You can play as a team, against a team, all play and other ways. some categories are not as easy as you might think. Great time for sure!
Scene It. If you love movies, TV, Disney, or Harry Potter…you will love this DVD game. The best stuff is when you have to watch a TV show or movie clip and answer a question about it, but there are other categories too. Sound Clips, fill in the blanks, what’s missing, and other fun stuff. My kids love playing this game….just be sure you haven’t lost the remote to the DVD player!

While all of these are tons of fun, I have two absolute favorites:

Balderdash and Beyond Balderdash. The original was all words. The goal of the game is to bluff and get others to think your answer is the right answer. The word might be “Glacket”. Maybe it’s that little ball in the spray paint can? Maybe it’s the plastic piece at the end of the cord on window blinds? With Beyond Balderdash, the categories include words, dates, movies, initials, and people. You can really get creative with this game and I absolutely love it. I still have pervious answers saved in the box that made me laugh out loud!
The Game of Things. Much like Balderdash, you have to create an answer, but the twist is that the reader reads all the answers and people have to guess who wrote what answer. All of the topics start with “Things …” (Things you shouldn’t wear to a funeral, Things you shouldn’t kiss, Things you wish you could get for free…). As you can imagine, the answers can be very funny. One of my favorite cards was “Things you shouldn’t put on the kitchen table”. It was hilarious that every single player wrote something about an “ass” as their answer! Lots of laughs that night!!

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So, what board games are a must play for you?