Topic: Roger's Random TV Episodes Watched

[Rogmeister]

Justice League: Season Two

I finished watching this set last night...

Eclipsed featured the enemy known as Eclipso.  I don't know why but I never cared for him in the comics so this wasn't one of my favorite TV episodes either.

The Terror Beyond is, I think, an episode involving mysticism and so Doctor Fate was a guest star as was Aquaman.  Solomon Grundy was in this...he was acting like the Hulk in this episode and it even rubbed off on Hawkgirl.  At one point, she was talking to Grundy and then said "Excuse me...Hawkgirl smash!"

Hereafter...oops, I forget what this episode was, too.  That's what I get for watching so many and not taking notes!

Secret Society features what is believed to be the death of Superman.  In reality, Superman is hurled far into the future where he meets up with Vandal Savage.  The wild character Lobo shows up in the current time, determined to take the place of Superman in the league.  He is voiced by Brad Garrett.

Comfort and Joy--This is the only 1-episode story in the series first two seasons.  It is a Christmas story and we see how J'Onn J'Onzz, the Martian Manhunter, takes the holiday in.  Meanwhile, Hawkgirl and Green Lantern whoop it up at an interstellar bar and The Flash tries to get a favorite toy for some orphans.

Wild Card has The Joker planting some bombs in Las Vegas and betting the Justice League can't find them and disarm them before they go off.  The Royal Flush Gang is in this episode...but they have powers I don't remember them having in the comics.

Starcrossed finishes up the second season...it is a big  3-part episode featuring an alien invasion and a betrayal to the league by one of its members.

[Rogmeister]

Justice League Unlimited: Season Two

After finally getting through Justice League Seasons 1-2, I returned to the follow-up version, Justice League Unlimited and watched the 2nd season over the last few days.  This is a shorter season of just 13 episodes.  Among the episodes...

Shadow of the Hawk introdues Hawkman to the series.  Unfortunately, he shows up so late in the series' run he only gets to appear in a couple of episodes.

Flash and Substance has a bunch of The Flash's rogues gallery decide to attack him during the opening of a Flash Museum.  Batman and Orion are also in this.  I love the episodes involving The Flash...he's one of the lighter characters and his episodes are always very funny.

Grudge Match has a villain using mind control to pit the female Leaguers against each other in no-holds-barred wrestling matches.  This episode includes Black Canary, The Huntress, Vixen, Fire and Wonder Woman.

The overall plot this season is a kind of more serious version of the Legion of Doom from the Challenge of the Super Friends days.  It's a power struggle between Grodd and Lex Luthor for leadership.  In the end, the Legion must combine forces with the Justice League to battle off an invasion from Darkseid and his evil minions from Apokolips.  I was really sorry to watch the final episode because this is probably my favorite super-hero animated series and I really got into some of the characters so it'll be sad not to have any new adventures of theirs to watch.

[Rogmeister]

Boy Meets World: The Complete Fourth Season
Cast: Ben Savage, Rider Strong, Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle, William Daniels

I got this set early this month.  It is a 3-disc set containing 22 episodes.  The series was originally being put out by Disney but after releasing the first 3 seasons, they suspended the series but now Lionsgate has picked it up and has released this, the fourth season (the series lasted 7 seasons).  I watched the first disc last night...it contains 8 episodes.  There are no extras at all in the set.

Quite a lot seemed to happen in the first 8 episodes.  We start by Cory (Ben Savage) and his brother Eric (Will Freidle) about to finish their summer-long cross country road trip.  But they wind up in a small town that Eric decides he never wants to leave.  Later in the series, their father Alan (fed up with his job as a manager of a supermarket) quits his job and eventually becomes the owner (with his wife Amy) and manager of a wilderness store and Eric comes to work for him. 

We had heard of (but never seen) the mother of Shawn (Rider Strong) and we finally get to see her in this season.  She had run off early in the series and Shawn's father had gone looking for her but she returns in this season and (for awhile) Shawn has a semblance of fairly normal family life.  I guess the actress didn't want to continue after this season because she wound up taking off again after this season.

The series had a slightly surreal feel after it's first season or two which is hard to describe but I always enjoyed it.  It's definitely a comedy but, like many comedies, they did get serious once in awhile and that is represented in this volume by an episode where a girl Shawn knows is getting beat up by her father and he tries to protect her.  The girl in this episode is played by Ariana Richards who played the granddaughter of Richard Attenborough in the feature film Jurassic Park.  This series may not be for everybody but I've always liked it and I hope that Lionsgate is able to complete bringing out the remainder of the season.  Only 3 seasons left to go!

[Achim]

I remember watching this on TV Ehen it was shown in Germany. According to the cover of your fourth season set I must only have seen episodes if season one and maybe two. The kids look so much older here

[addicted2dvd]

And it still has 3 seasons to go... as the series lasted 7 seasons.

[Rogmeister]

According To Jim: The Complete First Season

I'm watching a couple first season sitcom sets this weekend.  I started with this.  According To Jim was a U.S. sitcom about a big lummox of a guy played by Jim Belushi who always has his own views on the right way to do things...I guess you might call it the lazy man's way!  Yes, Jim is a bit of an oaf and a bit of a jerk...but he's not quite the jerk that Ray Barone is!  Jim's wife Cheryl is played by Courtney Thorne-Smith and they have 3 kids on the show...as the show begins, their youngest, a son, is just a little tyke.  Also seen regularly (as in every episode) are Cheryl's sister Dana (Kimberly Williams) and brother Andy (sorry but I forget that actor's name).  This is a fun family sitcom and one I enjoy a lot...but, luckily, I haven't seen a lot of the episodes yet so many of these were new to me.

There aren't a lot of recognizeable guest-stars in this first season set but I did note two at least.  Nicole Sullivan (possibly best known as the dog walker on King of Queens) plays a vegetarian girlfriend of Andy's in one episode and Dan Aykroyd also appears in one as an old friend of Jim's.  I watched every episode over a couple of days and I especially liked the season finale, in which Cheryl always finds out about her husband's surprise birthday parties for her.  In this episode...for once...she gets totally surprised.  It shows that he does really care for her and everything isn't always the easy way out.

This set includes a few extras...there is a featurette on the show, Jim Belushi giving us a tour of the set, interviews with cast members, a gag reel and a couple of audio commentaries.  I had a good time with the set and am glad I actually ordered the second season set before I actually started watching this one.

[addicted2dvd]

Never seen this show... will have to keep it in mind.

[Rogmeister]

Hope & Faith
Cast: Faith Ford (Hope), Kelly Ripa (Faith), Ted McGinley (Charley) and 3 kids you probably never heard of.

Extras: Audio commentaries, cast interviews, blooper reel

I would say this is another effort to give us a comedic duo similar to the teams of Lucy & Ethel and Laverne & Shirley.  I've watched 9 episodes of this set so far and while it may not be quite on a level with those, it's pretty funny.  The basic premise is that the two leads are sisters...Hope lives in a suburban home in Ohio with her husband Charley and 3 kids while her sister Faith has made a name for herself on a soap opera.  Then, Faith finds herself suddenly without a job or paycheck when her TV character is killed off (actually, her TV character AND her evil twin!) so she comes home to live with her sister, much to dismay of her sister's husband.

In several episode, Kelly is clearly over the top but there have also been a few episodes that I've noticed she seems to have dialed it down a notch.  Maybe they felt it was just too much?  I've really enjoyed the last 3 episodes I've watched so far.  These includes...

Car Commercial--Faith (Kelly Ripa) can get a free car if she appears in the commercial for a local used car lot dealer.  Handsome Hal Halverson is played by Regis Philbin and there are several in-jokes since Regis and Kelly Ripa star together in a morning talk show.  

Hope And Faith Get Randy--In this episode, Randy refers to a boyfriend Hope dated and then dumped her and he comes back to town.  Randy is played in this episode by country singer Clint Black.  There's also a subplot where Hope's daughters knock a hole in a bedroom wall and then try to hide it (the exact same plot I saw in an episode of Full House).

Phone Home For The Holidays--Hope & Faith's father (played by Robert Wagner) comes for Thanksgiving and he brings his new girlfriend (played by Lynda Carter).  The new girlfriend tells Hope & Faith she was once abducted by aliens which really gets them worried but it all works out in the end.  Of course, you know there has to be a reference to Lynda's most famous part.  At what point, Kelly (responding to something Lynda says) adds "Wow, look out, Wonder Woman!"

While I'm liking this series quite a bit, I doubt we'll see any further releases of it on DVD (the series lasted 3 seasons).  This season 1 set came out nearly 2 years ago so if a second season was coming out, we probably would've seen it by now.

[addicted2dvd]

Another one I want to check out.

[Dragonfire]

I saw some of Hope & Faith when it was on..I remember liking it overall.

[Rogmeister]

I've now watched 3 of the 4 discs in this set.  I've seen some more guest-stars in these episodes including Mimi Rogers, Kathie Lee Gifford, Kevin Sorbo (I think that's who it was), baseball pitcher Roger Clemens (done before we found out what a cheater he was), and maybe one or two I've forgotten.  So now I have just 5 episodes left to watch.  Maybe I'll watch those tonight if I am not too tired out from my Monday dialysis.  Actually, it's 6 episodes as I see the last is a 2-parter.  And there's at least a couple more guest-stars coming in Tom Arnold and Jenny McCarthy (not in the same episode).

[Dragonfire]

I watched some of the second season of Fringe last night..will watch more today I think.

[Rogmeister]

I finished watching the first season of Hope & Faith.  I enjoyed it...lots of soap opera guest-stars in the 2-part season finale (including Susan Lucci).  I also watched a behind-the-scenes featurette which was basically interviews with the cast and producer...except no appearance there by Kelly Ripa.  Maybe this featurette was shot in Hollywood and Kelly (as usual) was in New York at the time?

Today I got a package...All-Star Superman on Blu-ray and 3-discs (bound together) of Legion of Superheroes.  I just watched the first episode of Legion of Superheroes.  I enjoyed it...very colorful, even though it looks like they turned Brainiac 5 into a robot...at least he acts like one.  In the comics, he was human.  This series begins with the futuristic Legion showing up in modern-day times looking for help and they hook up with Clark Kent before he makes his debut as Superman.  They take him into the future where he does become Superman.  Not sure I like them rewriting the history of the man of steel but I liked the episode overall...very colorful and fast-paced.

[Rogmeister]

After writing the above, I looked up Legion of Superheroes at the IMDB.  The 3 discs I got apparently contain all the episodes (13) from the first season.  There was a second season but those aren't available at this time.  And I didn't recognize any of the cast who did the voices.  The one who voiced Superman has a European sounding name to me...first name is Yuri. 

[Rogmeister]

I just finished watching Growing Pains: The Complete Second Season. I feel it still holds up today, a very funny sitcom that still had several seasons to run. The episodes in this set originally aired during the 1986-87 season. The funny thing is there were a few episodes where they referred to the "Goofy Glue" incident...yet that appears to be the very last episode in this set...unless there was another episode where Goofy Glue was used. There were some notable guest-stars here...Jamie Luner and Brooke Theiss showed up as different characters but would work together in a spinoff of this series titled Just The Ten of Us...Candace Cameron appears in an episode as a schoolmate of Ben's where they're making a movie for class...Dawn Wells appears in an episode as well. If they ever bring out any further seasons of this show, I'll be sure to pick them up. After all, I'm in love with Joanna Kerns...oops, did I say that out loud?