aldo-renato50

I'm writing this post-mortem...the last original episode ran last weekend. The idea of a medical series about organ transplantation told from different viewpoints (doctors, patients, organ donors, etc.) really appealed to me because I've willed my body for medical research. After I go, my body gets turned over to a medical school! Originally I had signed for organ donation but some technical difficulties (a positive diagnosis for hepatitis B that later turned out to be false) forced me to change plans to whole body donation. This is something I have recommended to everybody who, for one reason or another, can't donate organs. Back to the series...this was a great series with great story lines (dedicated doctors, a person designated to get the organ/organs to be donated, the hospital administration, etc.) and a great cast(Alex O'Loughlin, Alfre Woodard, Katherine Moennig, etc...it deserved more of a chance than it got!! There seem to be indications in other reviews that CBS has been trying to create a series just for Alex O'Loughlin and/or that he can't act...he's just a handsome face!! What I seem to see is that he is from the Tom Selleck/James Garner/Gary Cooper acting school...he's just being himself! The running subplot of how Dr. Yablonski got through medical school (his uncle paid for college with what appeared to be "dirty" money) was also interesting. CBS should've tried this series on another night to see if it could build an audience or stuck with it on Sundays. CBS did that before with other series (Cold Case, also R.I.P.) but couldn't with this one...???!!!

I saw this movie in the late 1970s as part of a double feature with "H.O.T.S"...thus, more T & A than one can shake a stick at! The movie was filmed mostly at the Roadium Swap Meet in Torrance, CA, not even a mile from where I grew up! The Roadium started in the 1950s as a drive-in theater but by the mid 1970s had abandoned movies in favor of being a full time "open air market." Weekend trips to the swap meet were a regular occurrence...it wasn't the nicest place on earth (not very clean, parking issues, dirty toilets, mediocre food, etc.) but one could always find a bargain!! About the movie...I saw it mainly because it was showing with "H.O.T.S" then I recognized the locations in the film (the review in the Los Angeles Times made no mention of that fact). I don't want to spoil anything but how the producers and actors got some of the scenes filmed within the property amazed me!! The film certainly earns its "R" rating (lots of nudity and sexual content; incidental violence). Cheryl Rixon had (according to the ads) been Penthouse Magazine's "Pet of the Year"...I can see why!! Several 1970s/1980s/1990s actors such as Ruth Cox (Nancy Drew, Happy Days, now a professor); Jon Gries (Martin, The Pretender); Debi Richter (Hill Street Blues); as well as Danny De Vito (Taxi, many movies) and his wife Rhea Perlman (Cheers, many TV shows and movies) in what were essentially cameo roles. This movie was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon (especially with a T & A classic such as "H.O.T.S.") and it would certainly be that on DVD. I give it a "seven" for the curio factor. The Roadium is still there after these years...I just hope they've taken care of the above problems...then maybe more movies will be made there!!!

I first saw this movie in the theater when it came out back in 1980. The country was still getting over the impact of Howard Hughes' death and the will(s) he left to different people, including Melvin Dummar. I saw a lot of myself in Melvin...we always seem to have an idea but it never gets going (he had his Christmas song, I have or have had too many to mention). The story line (Melvin picks up Howard, takes him to the Sands, drops him off, and goes on with his life as a milkman, gas station owner/mechanic, etc. until he's handed the will, being called a liar, two wives, etc.) is as Leonard Maltin put it in his book of movie reviews "a genuine American fable." First wife Lynda (Mary Steenburgen, in an Oscar-winning role) works as a waitress and dancer and later recreates some of that on a talent show (in real life, the Dummars were on "Let's Make a Deal"-note the resemblance between actor Robert Ridgely and Monty Hall). Melvin blows the prize money, Lynda leaves and Melvin moves on with his life (second wife Bonnie, played by Pamela Reed). A will gets dropped on his desk and all Hades breaks loose. An interesting sidelight is that in the 1980's there was a brief TV show called "Lie Detector" in which people were put on a polygraph and allowed to prove they weren't lying. Melvin was on the first broadcast, flunked the polygraph exam and was called a liar-to his face!!! From that he faded into obscurity...??!! This movie is a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon...it's one of the great stories in film history. Mary Steenburgen deserved her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress and Bo Goldman's Oscar-winning screenplay hits home(fact or fiction).