7th Oct 2019
Knight Rider [Pilot; a.k.a. Knight of the Phoenix] (1) - S1-E1
Question: At one point, after promising help, Michael parks, and goes to a pay phone to call Devon. As he gets to the booth, over his left shoulder, there is a badly altered Pepsi sign. Black tape has been put over the word 'PEPSI' in the familiar logo, and also over the "si" in the phrase 'say Pepsi please'. What type of mistake would this be?
Answer: It wouldn't be a mistake. Anyone could have taped the sign for a number of reasons.
10th Oct 2019
Question: Since Trunchbull hates kids so much why is she an elementary school principal?
Answer: The answer is: "Power." Miss Trunchbull is a sadistic bully, as a school headteacher she can terrorise, frighten and dominate children and teachers. Also the job pays a good salary. She has probably arranged things so the other teachers do all the real work and the difficult jobs. She lives in a house attached to the school, so she gets free accommodation. She can run scams: for example the pupils must be fed, so she gives the catering contract to a company who pay her a "backhander." Thus she has a lucrative job where she does very little work. Plus, you cannot have a story without a villain to be defeated, so Miss Trunchbull is a brilliant opponent for Matilda.
Answer: It's a common enough trope to the point where it has become cliche. Stories set in a school will almost always have a teacher or principal (or both) openly dislike their students. Stories aimed at a younger audience will often exaggerate this to an extreme, where the teacher/administrator has a hatred of children in general that borders on insanity.
10th Oct 2019
Question: I have several questions. In Random Harvest Ronald Colman is a First World War veteran. A war accident left him with amnesia and no memory of his previous life. He meets Greer Garson, they fall in love and marry. Several years later Ronald Colman crosses the road without looking, is hit by a car and knocked unconscious. Regaining consciousness he recalls that he is Charles Rainier, a wealthy landowner and industrialist, but he now has no memory of his life when he was an amnesiac and married to Greer Garson. Is such "double amnesia" possible? Ronald Colman meets Greer Garson again and employs her as his secretary, so he sees her and converses with her daily for several years, but his amnesia is such that he never recognises her as his wife. She could tell him about his missing years and their marriage, but she must never do this because the shock would be too great for him. Does this make any sense? Surely, if any woman met her long-lost husband, who said "I have amnesia and I can't remember who I am", wouldn't she instinctively reply "You're my husband"?
Answer: Amnesia the way it is often portrayed in movies, including this one, is impossible. People who do suffer from it, usually from some traumatic event, regain their memory relatively quickly. Double amnesia as portrayed in this movie could never, ever happen. This movie is total fiction, though people did, and still do, believe amnesia happens this way.
Answer: I have seen other films and read stories about people with amnesia. In 1965 and 1966 there was a "western" television series "A Man Called Shenandoah", wholly based on this premise. In the aftermath of the American Civil War Robert Horton is discovered unconscious on the prairie. When he revives he has no memory of who he is. He roams the west, unsuccessfully trying to discover his identity. I think he had some atrocious bad luck. Just as somebody was about to tell him who he really was they would get run over by a train, or shot in the back. The television company dropped the series after 34 episodes, so we never did find out who he really was.
8th Oct 2019
Question: Serious spoiler alert, but this has always puzzled me. At the end of Barbarella the Black Queen unleashes "Matmos", an evil energy which destroys nearly everybody and everything in the film. Pygar (the blind angel) escapes, only rescuing two people from the cataclysm: Barbarella and the Black Queen. Barbarella asks Pygar why he saved the Black Queen after all the evil things she did (she even blinded Pygar). Pygar replies "an angel has no memory." I never got the point of that. What did Pygar mean? (In his previous conversation he recalled things that happened before he was blinded, so obviously he did have a memory.) And I could not see the point of or meaning to this ending at all. Did any of this make sense to anybody else?
Answer: You say that Barbarella was beyond lame-it was totally atrociously bad and ludicrous. It was released in autumn 1968, when I was 12, and too young to see it at the cinema. I finally got to see Barbarella when I was 18 and it was shown late one night on television. I wholly concur: I thought it was totally, atrociously bad and ludicrous, and my opinion has not changed since.
Answer: I concede your point. Perhaps I was being a bit too literal. When Pygar says he has no memory, he may not mean that all past events clear from his mind (in the way that, for example, you could delete a computer file from your laptop). Instead, he might mean he does not dwell on the past, or he does not retain bitterness or anger for past wrongs, or he does not return evil on those who were bad to him. I think the film was based on a comic that ended in pretty much the same way. All the same, I always thought the ending was rather lame. It was as if somebody told Roger Vadim (the director) "hey, this film is supposed to be 90 minutes long, but we've done 89 minutes filming, and we still haven't got an ending." So Roger Vadim got the Black Queen to unleash Matmos and destroy everything. (To be pedantic, Barbarella is 98 minutes long, but I hope you understand what I mean.) Personally I thought the ending of "Monty Python And The Holy Grail", where a police force stops the film, was a similar disappointment.
8th Oct 2019
Question: Ben surrenders the Declaration of Independence, and the treasure's location, in exchange for not going prison. In real life, would surrendering the Declaration and the treasure's location be enough to convince the FBI to let him off the hook, or would he still go to prison?
Answer: It's doubtful anyone would be completely "off the hook" for stealing the Declaration of Independence and also receive a percentage of the treasure's worth, even if they revealed the location.
9th Oct 2019
Question: What happened with Lucius Hunt in the end?
8th Oct 2019
Question: Was Ray Brower from the same town as the boys? If so, how did he end up so far away to where he got killed? It takes the boys a long time to get to him and its only mentioned that he was berry picking. Finally, how would he have got hit by the train? I doubt he didn't hear or see it coming.
Answer: I think he was from a neighboring town because when Vern tells the group about what he heard Geordie says "could he have gotten all the way from Chamberlain to Harlow, that's really far" and we know the boys are from a town called Castle Rock, so I think Ray Browers was from a neighboring town called Chamberlain.
Answer: In Stephen King's novella, Ray was a boy from a neighboring town. It's unclear in the movie whether Ray is from the same town as the boys, but as it takes them a long time to get to where the body is, it seems that Ray is probably from somewhere else. It's also never explained exactly how Ray was hit by the train.
7th Oct 2019
Question: Why did Zach keep calling Cassie down from the stage every time she was dancing with the others? Every time he does it, he criticizes her dancing to her face but she's a very good dancer.
Answer: The problem is she's "too good" of a dancer. The audition is for a chorus line where the dancers have to perform uniformly and as one unified group. She keeps doing the extra moves and gestures, making herself standout from the others, which is exactly what Zach does not want. He even tells her that she's too good of a dancer to be in a chorus line. She's talented as a lead or solo, but she needs this job. She has to continually restrain herself to blend in.
7th Oct 2019
Question: When Harry is brought into Malfoy Manor, Draco is told to confirm that it's really him. Even though Harry's face is jinxed, Draco knows that it's him, so why did he lie and say it wasn't?
Answer: Because at his core and despite being an unpleasant person, Draco was a decent and humane person who never could step over the line into being evil. He could not bring himself to betray Harry, knowing he and the others would be killed, and he could not have lived with that guilt. Dumbledore and Snape understood this about Draco, and worked to help him keep his humanity.
That is the moment when Draco is now a good person.
30th Sep 2019
Question: During the war council, when Schrute shows up and starts harassing Bernardo, why does Riff look upset? If he hates the Sharks he should be enjoying that. Am I correct to see some hidden meaning, or am I overthinking it?
Answer: As Riff succinctly put it the rumble challenge is for, "All out, once and for all." After Riff and Bernardo have already agreed to the terms and shook hands, that's when Schrank shows up. So when Schrank makes the comment about a "stinkin' pigsty" and Bernardo angrily jumps up, Riff and Ice help restrain Bernardo and his temper in order to benefit their own interests. Riff would not outwardly show that he is enjoying anything that Schrank is saying. Riff's motivation is to eliminate the Sharks from their turf permanently, and he believes the next day's rumble will accomplish this, so they cannot have Bernardo get into it with Schrank (who is shown to make nasty disparaging comments to members of both gangs). Note that before Bernardo leaves he straightens his jacket, and turns around to face Riff, who subtly nods to him.
30th Sep 2019
Question: How does Mr Freeze get placed in Poison Ivy's cell, and why does her floral throne turn on her?
Answer: As to the first part of your question, Mr. Freeze was temporarily placed in Poison Ivy's cell while his own cell was being remade into a lab for him to continue his research.
Thanks, in the book version of the movie he bribed the guards with diamonds used to power his suit. That and everyone forgets she's a victim like him, not asking to be turned into a monster, so it just seems unfair.
1st Oct 2019
30th Sep 2019
28th Sep 2019
Question: So does Rita Repulsa die when she goes into space? It seems unlikely she could survive mainly without oxygen.
Answer: No, she's not dead. This show seems to be following similarly to the original TV show. In the show, she was in a stasis like state trapped in a "trash can" on the moon. After she escapes this prison, she sets up her evil base with Lord Zed on the moon and continues to attack Angel Grove and the Rangers from the Moon. So her being blasted towards the Moon at the end of this reboot is a set up for her establishing a similar base of operations like in the show in the sequels. If the sequels ever get out of development hell.
28th Sep 2019
Question: Why does Liz put up with all the craziness? She couldn't quit and work on another show?
28th Sep 2019
Question: Given how organized she's supposed to be why didn't she sign those papers prior to going home for Jake's signature? That and why not tell her boyfriend the truth? He looked like he'd understand.
Answer: Melanie didn't sign the papers because, deep down, she still loved Jake, and probably, subconsciously, hoped they'd get back together. She didn't tell her fiance' because she mostly was in denial about the state of her feelings and her marriage. She'd fooled herself into believing she had signed the papers.
Answer: If Melanie was happy, why did she take her engagement ring off when she stopped by Jakes and it's obvious he was still her everything seeing as she went there first before her parents.
Answer: Also the director made a point it was never about rediscovering herself or Jake, it was choosing between what she had planned and what she truly wanted. The director also talked about how she did not pack enough clothes, so she wore her old clothes, she was supposed to be there for a long weekend but she wanted to be there, so it was obvious she wanted to stay.
Answer: She didn't sign the divorce papers on purpose. That is why Jake never signed them because then he might have to face the fact that it was over. That is why Melanie never went home, she might have to accept that it was over and Jake might have moved on, that is why she said yes to Andrew's proposal. Also when Melanie did not sign the papers at the wedding, when she dumped Andrew, that was the first time that Melanie was honest to herself and the people around her about how she felt and what she had longed for, for the last seven years.
The only reason Melanie said yes to Andrew's proposal is because she did not know that Jake felt the same way. The reason that Melanie did not sign the papers at the wedding because she had to be honest with herself and the people around her about how she felt and what she had longed for since she left.
23rd Sep 2019
Question: Why Is Tanya Robert a former model and not a cop? I've never read any explanation as to why.
Answer: After going through a number of cast changes that failed to improve the show's slumping ratings, Tanya Roberts' character was added as "street-wise" former model. This was probably an effort to give a different and edgier character dimension to the show.
23rd Sep 2019
Question: During flight class, when we see Hermione's broom rolling just above the ground, there is something black in front of the broom. I don't mean Hermione's sleeve. What is it?
Answer: I don't think you mean this but you can see the shoe of the person standing next to her. If you mean on the bottom side of the screen then you can see Hermione (or whoever is standing there) kick the broom to make it move I think. But it's not causing all the movement of the broom though, but there is definite contact with a foot. You can't see the top of the broom (I'd say that's the front BTW).
24th Sep 2019
Question: Why did Hermione look disgusted when Ron saw Scabbers in Hagrid's hands?
Answer: I'd say she was more angry than disgusted. Ron had unjustly accused Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, of having killed Scabbers, causing a huge falling out between Ron and Hermione. Hagrid having found Scabbers proved that Ron was wrong. Hermione expects an apology from Ron that she knows will never happen.
23rd Sep 2019
Question: Why in the world would they be comfortable working for a guy they never see? What made them not think he could be a crime boss who only had them take down former associates of his or use them to punish disobedient flunkies? Why does he even start this detective agency anyway?
Answer: Charlie had testified against some very powerful men, and they were sent to jail based on the evidence he collected and his testimony. These men were released from prison on a technicality, so Charlie went into hiding. Charlie believed anyone who knew his whereabouts or had seen his face were also in jeopardy. So that's why he only calls on the telephone and they never get to see his face. The reason why these 3 women would work for a man they never met is because after they graduated from the police academy due to sexism they were only assigned duties like a crossing guard, filing, and answering the phone as police women.
Answer: It's never explained why Charlie is never seen, but there have been hints to his past as a cop. In one episode the Angels meet up with a bitter cop, who says, "When Charlie and I started out together, we were two rookie cops walking a beat. Twenty years later, he gets a Rolls-Royce and I get a bleeding ulcer."
Well do they ever say where he got his money? Stock market, inheritance, being a televangelist? Just kidding on the last one.
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Chosen answer: Before "product placement" became common, name-brand products were rarely, if ever seen in TV shows, mostly due to avoid advertising conflicts with program sponsors. The Pepsi logo may have been taped out to prevent any commercial infringements.
raywest ★
Are you kidding? Product placement was so rampant in the 50s that sometimes you'd wonder if you were watching a TV show or a paid ad.
Brian Katcher
Knight Rider wasn't produced in the 1950s. TV shows of that era had advertising more similar to the old radio shows from the 30s and 40s. The early 50s series often had a sole sponsor, so their product (and related items) was likely seen in a program. An announcer also informed the audience at the beginning that, "This program is brought to you by (insert brand name). " From the 60s on, brand-name products weren't generally seen in TV programs. Networks sold air time to multiple advertisers, and their ads were shown during the long commercial breaks. So no, I'm not kidding.
raywest ★