Monthly Archives: February 2024

Blast from the past: Remember Svengoolie and the 3-D debacle of 1982?

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If you were watching “Svengoolie” on TV a couple of Saturday nights ago, you know he was screening “Revenge of the Creature,” the 1955 sequel to “Creature from the Black Lagoon,”

In passing, the MeTV horror host mentioned that he had hosted a TV screening of the movie – ostensibly in 3-D – in the 1980s and cited it as a horrible experience. Sven has made this same reference a few times, much like the survivor of a horror film looks back on an encounter with Leatherface or Jason Vorhees.

You might not know, but 3-D films, which had been a popular novelty in the 1950s with “House of Wax” and other movies, were a sub-sub-genre of renewed interest by Hollywood in the 1980s. For the most part, movie theaters screened newly recirculated films like “Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein” and “Dracula” and “The Bubble,” which was redistributed as “Fantastic Invasion of Planet Earth.” Spoiler: It was not fantastic.

So it was probably inevitable that someone – not Svengoolie – had the bright idea of trying out an actual good 3-D movie, “Revenge of the Creature,” on TV.

In my area in Indiana, we were able to see Svengoolie from Chicago channel WFLD, but in the spring and early summer of 1982, the Creature film was screened on TV channels all over the country.

Sometimes, these airings were hosted and sometimes they were not.

What they all had in common:

You had to get a pair of red-and-blue 3-D glasses from a fast food place or convenience store (I got mine with the purchase of Pepsi at a c-store, I believe).

You had to watch on a color TV. (Even though the movie was in black and white.)

You were supposed to try to sit six feet from the TV and as straight on to the TV as possible.

You had to try to contain your disappointment at the lack of quality 3-D when the movie aired.

“I think I just saw the Gill-Man’s hand in 3-D,” my friends and I regularly shouted during the movie.

Svengoolie ruefully remembers that ill-fated attempt, but for me, it’s a pleasant memory.

And far from the stupidest thing we did in the 1980s.

‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith’ might not be what you’re expecting, but it is good

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I guess what most people think of when they hear the title “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” is the 2005 film starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt as a couple who mutually discover that the other is a spy, face off against each other and ultimately fight together to survive and save their marriage.

It’s not until very late in the eight episodes of the Amazon Prime Video “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” series that John (Donald Glover) and Jane (Maya Erskine) find themselves in that standoff. But there’s a lot of mutual tension and distrust between the two before that point.

I mean, marriage is tough enough, but if you’re both spies? Hella tough.

So there are some similarities between the movie (and an even earlier TV series) and the new series, but they’re mostly superficial: married spies but not a lot more.

The new series, created by Francesca Sloan and Glover, sets up the Smiths in a bizarre blind date: Each applies for a job with some unspecified spy agency. What they only begin to realize is that along with the intrigue comes a relationship: marriage and cohabitation and learning to trust each other with, literally, their lives.

(There’s a prologue to the series that shows an earlier John and Jane Smith, played by Alexander Skarsgard and Eliza Gonzalez, and we find out there are a lot of Smith agents out there, including a recurring duo played by Parker Posey and Wagner Moura.)

But most of the series’ episodes, which are mostly standalone and quite distinctive at the same time they service the ongoing subplot of will the Smiths survive and will their marriage survive, focus on the Smiths. Erskine is quirky and heartfelt and Glover is funny and flirty and how they clash in married life is a great counterpoint to how they clash and sync in their missions.

There’s no real way to compare this to “Pokerface” but I found myself thinking of that great series not only for its through-line of story but also for how each episode is distinctive in setting, tone and guest-starring actors. Here we get to see not only the divine Posey but also Paul Dano, John Turtorro, Billy Campbell, Sarah Paulson and, maybe my favorite, Ron Perlman as a man they must protect but who becomes a surrogate child for the Smiths. Believe it or not.

I’m not sure there will be a second season of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.” I hope there will be, not only because of the need to follow up on the finale here but another chance to see Erskine and Glover work their murderous marital vibe again.