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Reviews
All in the Family: Stephanie's Conversion (1979)
The last scene was beautiful
I watched this episode when I was 15 and it was one of the most funny and touching episodes of the later seasons of All in the Family.
With Mike and Gloria gone as foils Archie did also mellow with age. However, when Archie finds out the little girl he and Edith have taken in is Jewish, he goes into full Archie mode, demanding that the girl be baptized into Christianity. As other characters argue that Stephanie will need to make this decision on her own Archie slowly accepts.
The little girl, Stephanie is not actually in the episode that much, but is aware of Archie's attitude. The final scene is on the porch of the Bunker house with Stephanie quietly sitting when Archie comes home. She asks if he is mad at her, and Archie tells her no that she has done nothing wrong. He then gives her a necklace, he picked up on the way home, that has a Star of David pendent The scene is very quiet, Archie puts it on Stephanie, she says it is pretty and Archie excuses himself to go inside. Just before he walks in he looks at Stephanie and tells her that "you have to love someone, to give them one of those. I mean you have to love everything about them"
The show ended there. The scene was very quiet but I will always remember it as one of the most touching things I ever saw on Television. You believed that Archie really did accept and love this little girl and he was becoming her father.
The genius of Archie Bunker's character is that he was a bigot, a misogynist and ill-tempered, but deep down he was a good man. His negative characteristics were the result of his upbringing not that he was a bad person. This episode beautifully showcased why despite it all, we love Archie Bunker.
Batman and Harley Quinn (2017)
Just plain bad
Without a doubt this is the worst DC animated movie made. It frankly is so bad I am confident that it is also the worst DC animated movie that will EVER be made.
This movie cannot decide if it wants to be a continuation of the Batman Animated Series or a goofball comedy. It absolutely fails at both. First the whole premise of the movie is bad. The characters don't ring true, despite having Kevin Conroy and Loren Lester returning in their roles as Batman and Nightwing. The jokes are not funny and frankly badly executed.
Without a spoiler the ending actually comes across as a "F*ck you" to the audience who sat through this train wreck of a movie.
I have watched ALL the DC Animated movies that have been released. Some I loved, some I liked, and some I didn't enjoy or thought were very good. But with this movie, I actually feel that I am owed an apology for wasting my time and money.
This could not have been worse.
NewsRadio (1995)
A show that deserved to be a great hit
News Radio was perhaps the single greatest missed opportunity on TV. With an amazing cast and stellar writing, this show deserves to be considered in the same breath as shows like Seinfeld, Cheers, Friends and Frasier.
Initially the show was hampered by NBC constantly changing it's time slot or not airing it for weeks at a time. Based on the DVD commentary from the producers, their relationship with NBC was extremely antagonistic. I think at the end everyone's Ego got in the way and the show didn't get the stability to find its audience.
The untimely death of Phil Hartmann was a severe blow to this struggling series. While it could never be as good without him, it still produced quality shows that are better than most "hit" series before or since.
Fortunately News Radio lives on in DVD. It remains one of my favorite shows and I never tire of watching it.