A 30th Anniversary Retrospective: LOOKING AT THE BEST FILMS OF 1993

30 years.

In some ways, I could argue that 1993 is the first year that I have the most amount of vivid memories from...so it is hard to believe that it was 30 years ago. Of course, at the time, a lot of the movies on this list (save for one) weren't anywhere near my five year old radar. 

Welcome back to my Anniversary Retrospective series where I am doing a spotlight on years of film that are celebrating milestone anniversaries this year. It is a series I do hope to continue next year, so needless to say, I should be able to keep this going for a little while.

Nothing has changed in terms of how I have felt about this journey. By that, I mean that I love being able to single out films that I may not normally talk about on my blog.

The problem with doing "Best of the Decade" lists is that it usually only allows you to name 1 or maybe 2 films from a given year...meanwhile, there are a few films that you may love that deserve to have a mention. This could even tie into more sentimental favorites that might not always be mentioned by others.

I would say that my list for 1993 is not too unusual. In fact, in a rather rare occurrence, FOUR of the five Best Picture nominees are on my list...but I also feel like it wasn't as vast a year in terms of the output.

I do have one film on my list (my #10 film) that might make some of you raise your eyebrows, but it falls into that "sentimental" category. Otherwise, we have some strong indies/foreign films (my go-to bread and butter) mixed in with the rather solid quartet of Best Picture nominees (including, spoiler alert, that year's winner).

So having said all of that, here are my 10 favorite films from 1993 that just so happen to be celebrating their 30th anniversary this year.

___________________________________________

#10 - ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES

(Barry Sonnenfeld)

When we talk about amazing film sequels from history, a lot of the time we look towards The Godfather Part II, The Empire Strikes Back, Toy Story 3, The Return of the King, among some others...but there is one sequel that I find to be absolutely remarkable and perhaps it is a film that would get scoffed by some for being placed on such a list.

In fact, the idea of me putting Addams Family Values on such a list might shock some of you...especially considering my lists often veer towards more indie and foreign films.

Maybe nostalgia is playing a factor here, but I do find that this was an absolutely glorious dark comedy that still holds up remarkably well. 

I would've been around 5-6 years old when this first came out on VHS, and I had already seen and enjoyed the 1991 film (had yet to see the 60s TV series). 

The campier elements of the film are what make it stand out so much, and these particular come from the new supporting players: The Grangers played by Christine Baranski and Peter MacNichol and particularly Joan Cusack as Debbie Jelinsky. 

Cusack has two Oscar nominations to her name, and both are for comedic roles: Working Girl and In & Out. I will gladly proclaim that Cusack should've been nominated for this role too...and honestly, I would've been okay with her winning if it had happened.

This is such a perfect villainous but comedic performance that is perfectly pitched in terms of the campy presentation. 

As The Grangers, the two yuppie camp counselors who have probably spent too much time in Suffolk County, Baranski and MacNichol are simply hilarious and their absolutely random Thanksgiving pageant in the middle of the summer which ends in complete disarray is such a classic that I share the clips of it every Thanksgiving on most of my social media platforms.

All of the elements from the original are still there and wonderful in their own right. The late great Raul Julia is still the Gomez of my heart while Anjelica Huston will forever be Morticia Addams even if I know full well her catalog of work proves she is far more. Christopher Lloyd is such a delight as Uncle Fester and then you get the great character actress Dana Ivey sweeping in as the new wife of the hair full that is Cousin Itt. 

I really did enjoy the 1991 film but there was just something magical about the tonal shifts and the plot of this one that worked so well...and I think the dynamics of putting Wednesday and Pugsley in a yuppie summer camp and pairing Fester with a murderous spouse just made for a sequel that simply felt more alive and invigorating.

________________________________

#9 - NAKED 

(Mike Leigh)

Mike Leigh is one of those filmmakers who often has a sort of whimsy about him, but he will occasionally delve into bleaker territory.

You have a movie like Vera Drake, which deals with an illegal abortionist in Britain who faces charges and then you have a movie like Naked, which takes a man filled with rage and loathing and sets him out on an odyssey around London at night.

One could argue that the film is a bit brash and that it can get tiring to deal with Johnny as a "protagonist"...but the intensity and true conviction of David Thewlis in this role completely wins you over.

While he did receive major attention from critics groups, Thewlis would join the list of the most egregious Oscar snubs in history. This is a performance that was completely unrelenting in its approach and I think under less deft hands (and under a director not as skilled as Leigh), this would've been a disaster of a performance and a disaster of a film.

This is an odyssey through post-Thatcher London...right in the midst of the John Major premiership...and that anger and frustration over their hideous reign permeates this film. Sort of how you see the same aftershocks in a movie like The Full Monty four years later even though that film has a lot of heart.

In the Mike Leigh canon, this one is perhaps a literal cannonball...or a shard of glass. Sometimes those are the most fascinating films to watch and revisit despite how uncomfortable they might be.

_______________________________

#8 - IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER

(Jim Sheridan)

Irish filmmaker Jim Sheridan has not really had a moment in the spotlight for years. In fact, the last film of his to get a lot of attention was In America, which made my top 10 list for 2003 when I did my first Anniversary Retrospective...and that might've been my favorite film of his.

In the case of In the Name of the Father, which is the first of the four 1993 Best Picture nominees to make this list, I feel like this is another one of his best, but it seems to not be as well remembered nowadays.

1993 actually gave us two Daniel Day-Lewis performances: The Age of Innocence and In the Name of the Father, with him receiving an Oscar nomination for the latter.

I think this was the right choice as I consider this to be one of his five best performances.

Day-Lewis plays Gerry Conlon, a thief who lives in Belfast and ends up getting wrongly accused for the bombing of a London pub... when in reality, it was the IRA. 

As is often the case, the police more or less coerce Conlon and his friends to confess to a crime they didn't commit. Conlon is then sentenced to 15 years in prison and his father Guiseppe (Pete Postlethwaite) is determined to prove his son's innocence...even when he himself is also implicated for the bombing.

This is a movie that I didn't quite grasp when I first saw it, but as I got older and began seeing so many injustices at the hands of the police and the justice system, I thought more about how enraging this film actually was...and how it deserves to be seen by more people.

The courtroom scene in this film, in which we get some stellar work from Emma Thompson, is one of my favorites of its kind ever put on film. It can truly make your blood boil to see how heinous the system is...and you realize that it isn't just in the US where justice is often never served and innocent people suffer.

_______________________________________

#7 - THE REMAINS OF THE DAY

(James Ivory)

We now get our second of the four Best Picture nominees on this list with The Remains of the Day, a very sterling Merchant/Ivory adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel.

Very few actors are able to make repressed emotions as compelling as Anthony Hopkins...but not only is Hopkins truly compelling, this might be his finest performance.

And that is saying something. 

While his iconic work in The Silence of the Lambs is iconic for a reason, I honestly feel like what he accomplished here (and later on with his Oscar winning work in The Father) represents a masterclass in how to navigate such a delicate sterling performance and still somehow make it far more emotional than may be seen at first glance.

The Remains of the Day is VERY British. I actually once described the movie in a conversation as "The Most British Thing to Have Ever Britished"...and I suppose maybe that isn't everyone's cup of tea...another British pastime...ha..ha...

For some reason, I have always been drawn to stuffy British dramas. Not all of them work, but when they do, I can find them oddly exhilarating. 

 

When it comes to unrequited love, look no further than the turmoil brought on by Hopkins and Emma Thompson. There was a review on Letterboxd that referred to this film as the most "painful" they had ever seen and likely would see.

There is some truth to that...and a lot of what makes that work is the chemistry between Hopkins and Thompson, the deft hand of James Ivory, and the script which had been adapted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala from Ishiguro's text (although it has been said that legendary playwright Harold Pinter did some uncredited rewrites).

It is such a universal story in terms of lost loves and missed opportunities...and I know that I have deeply related to those emotions as well. I certainly didn't connect to the film in that manner when I first saw it, but it has resonated with me over the years.

I often desire to return to watch it, but often decide to wait for the right mood as I might be sent into a blistering sadness. Sometimes, it is better to just turn on an episode of The Golden Girls and laugh; other times, maybe you are willing to have Hopkins and Thompson flirt to take some tears out of you.

________________________________

#6 - THE PIANO

(Jane Campion)

I didn't exactly mean for three of the four 1993 Best Picture nominees to be right back-to-back-to-back against each other, but the more I thought about the films, I shifted them around and ended up with this result.

I have had certain films over the years where I would watch them and not fully "get it".

I have been under the impression that The Piano is like that for a lot of people. At the time that I truly started getting into films, I was of the opinion that The Piano was the kind of boring schlock that appealed to stuffy Oscar voters.

As the years went by, I noticed that there was a shift in the level of appreciation and attention that the film was receiving on various online film forums, and I ended up revisiting it when I was in college.

The Piano is one of the ultimate examples of a film that I truly admit I was wrong when I first saw it and now, I would say it is a truly well-done film that was exquisite in many ways.

The crazy thing to think about is that Jane Campion became only the second woman to be nominated for Best Director (and honestly would've likely won had it not been for the juggernaut that was Schindler's List), but I think it is abundantly clear that no one could ignore her work here. In terms of what she gets out of the material (her own Oscar-winning script), the setting, and her performers is nothing short of masterful.

Holly Hunter leads the show here with an Oscar winning performance, which is great on its own, even if I do think Angela Bassett or Stockard Channing were more deserving.

The performance that really steals the show is young Anna Paquin as her daughter Flora, who managed to win the Oscar in an upset over expected winner Winona Ryder for The Age of Innocence.

Paquin is a marvel in this. While she certainly was too young to understand a lot of context/content, Campion is able to get a performance out of her that is surprisingly rich and deep...AND she is able to blend into the background when she needs to. 

She feels very real, but also rehearsed/fake when she needs to as she is, in some ways, kind of villainous to the film's trajectory.

As for the ending, I know Campion regrets how it went down (and I do think her original ending would've made more sense), but how it is staged and edited (involving the rope...IYKYK) is expertly done. Truthfully, I think Campion would have been a very viable contender to win for Director that year. 

___________________________________

#5 - MOVING

(Shinji Somai)

Moving was a film that I discovered a lot later than some of the other films on this list. I first discovered it when I was in college during an airing on TV late at night and it managed to stay with me.

I have always had something of a strong fascination with films made by Asian filmmakers (in fact, coming up, you will see the film that sort of began that journey for me), and I went into Moving with little knowledge of its director Shinji Somai.

Part of this was due to Somai's untimely death in 2001, but I was intrigued as I considered myself at the time to often be drawn to Japanese films the most thanks to directors like Kurosawa, Ozu, Mizoguchi, Teshigahara, and Koreada.

It also didn't hurt that Moving dealt with a child growing up in a difficult environment and how she managed to persevere...which is a subject of film I have often be a fan of even though some films tend to falter on making them feel fresh and unique.

I think what really hooked me into the film once I saw it was how it reminded me so much of the works of Ozu, who is most remembered these days for making 1953's Tokyo Story.

A young girl named Renko (Tomoko Tabata) is at odds between her two parents who are in the midst of a divorce...and it rightly joins the group of the greatest movies about divorce ever made: Scenes from a Marriage (well that was technically a Swedish miniseries, but whatever) and A Separation. 

But Tomoko Tabata is truly a wonder in this; easily one of the best performances by a child ever put onto film. She is so natural but also so intense and emotionally sound. She has that youthful vigor, but she also seems so wise beyond her years at times...and perhaps some of the credit should go to Somai.

A very lively and emotional film that deserves far more attention than it has received. I was so pleased to notice that it has a rather healthy 4.0/5 rating on Letterboxd.

________________________________

#4 - GROUNDHOG DAY

(Harold Ramis)

Comedy might arguably be the most objective of genres. It also seems to be a genre heavily defined by the kind of comedic content you grow up around.

I was someone who ended up finding a lot of joy in dry, cynical comedy as I often had relatives who would watch British sitcoms on PBS...and I think the energy of Bill Murray really tied into this.

When I first saw Groundhog Day, it felt like I was witnessing lightening in a bottle. It is hard to claim that anything, let alone a film, is perfect.

But as far as comedies go, I think Groundhog Day is about as close to perfection as the genre can get.

Bill Murray is Phil Connors, a Pittsburgh-based weatherman who is being sent up to Punxsutawney to cover an event he dreads every year: Groundhog Day. 

In tow are his new producer Rita (Andie MacDowell) and cameraman Larry (Chris Elliott). Larry is one of those guys who just doesn't care and does his job, while Rita is sort of taken by the charm of the small town and how happy its citizens are.

Phil, on the other hand: "They're hicks, Rita..."

I don't think I even have to say what the "twist" of the film is, but yes, Phil ends up reliving Groundhog Day over and over again.

No matter what he does...including a dark sequence where he tries committing suicide multiple times...he just keeps waking up in his bed on February 2nd with Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe" playing on the radio.

The sort of charming Frank Capra-esque ending it has doesn't feel like a cop-out, but it feels strangely earned after dealing with the cyncial comedy throughout the film.

The role of Phil feels so engrained into the style of Bill Murray that its hard to believe that any other actor was considered...and I do want to give a shout-out to the great character actor Stephen Tobolowsky, whose brief performance as Ned Ryerson is a prime example of how someone can take a small role and truly make it memorable based on great character work/direction.

While the category would've had too many viable contenders to win, I seriously would've nominated Tobolowsky for Supporting Actor...just like Murray was worthy of an Actor nom.  

____________________________________

#3 - FAREWELL, MY CONCUBINE 

(Chen Kaige)

What a beautiful movie. 

And, for the love of God, WHAT A BLEAK MOVIE!

Farewell, My Concubine would've been the first film of Asian origin that I watched when I began my journey as a film fanatic over 20 years ago...or at least it was the first time I distinctly remember doing so.

It was due to this film that I became very interested in seeking out films not just from China, but other Asian countries. So, for those of you who got sick to death of me becoming the posterchild of praising Parasite back in 2019-2020, you can blame this film.

The film's star, Leslie Cheung, committed suicide 20 years ago this year...only a couple of years after I had seen this film. For the longest time, I couldn't revisit the film because I felt so strongly affected by Cheung's work in this that I couldn't bear to watch it after his suicide.

Cheung is an absolutely devastating revelation in this film. He's delicate and genteel but also quietly unhinged...in many ways...to use a somewhat brash example...a literal China Doll.

Cheung plays Douzi, a young child who had been abandoned by his prostitute mother in 1920 and quickly raised by a theatre troupe. 

Douzi has very feminine features and ends up taking on an androgenous persona. While in the troupe, he meets Shitou (Zhang Feng Yi) and they form an act called "Farewell My Concubine".

The fame that the act brings them is soon challenged when Shitou meets and marries Juxian (the legendary Gong Li), which sends Douzi down a mental spiral.

It isn't necessarily an easy watch, but it is so rare to find a movie that is so beautiful in its bleakness.

_______________________________________

#2 - SCHINDLER'S LIST

(Steven Spielberg)

Considering how I have been critical of Spielberg as a filmmaker rather recently (see my discussion and review of his 2022 semi-autobiographical effort The Fabelmans), I do want to be sure I give him credit where credit is due.

I have never doubted Spielberg as a filmmaker. He has made great films and he is certainly a very competent director. I think my problem with him is that he doesn't always take bold chances, but when he does, you wish he would do it more often.

I think Schindler's List is the easy answer to the question of what his best-made film is. 

You could even argue that the film could've easily fallen into "white savior" tendencies, but it manages to avoid that. While I can't deny that film does still have a something syrupy gloss that Spielberg films  tend to have (something that I am not sure a Holocaust film should have), it still manages to be a very blunt and unforgiving film...as it should be.

(Although - if you want to see a truly bleak and uncomfortable film about the Holocaust, check out Elem Klimov's 1985 effort Come & See). 

Now it is time to contradict myself a little bit.

I think what I do love about Schindler's List aside from its strong emotional core is how handsomely made it is. This is a film made with such style and dignity, even if it does try a little hard to be cloying at times. 

The real masterstroke of the film is the casting of Ralph Fiennes as Amon Goeth. 

It is honestly remarkable to think that this was his breakout role, because the performance is so sinister and yet, he didn't get stuck into getting typecast (and no, I don't count Voldemort). I think the fact he lost the Oscar for this is one of the worst judgment calls, especially considering how the film swept that night. 

In the end, Schindler's List is a film that deserves its hype and acclaim...but there are just certain little tiny bits about it that make me not fully embrace it to quite the same level.

____________________________________

#1 - THREE COLOURS: BLUE

(Krzysztof Kieslowski)

When it comes to grief in film, I recently felt that Ryusuke Hamaguchi managed to strike gold with his take on the topic in 2021's Drive My Car.

Although, one film that I found to be incredibly compelling in how it addresses grief and how it observes someone who is trying so hard not to acknowledge that grief is the first installment of Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colours trilogy: that very chilly color known as BLUE.

The Three Colours Trilogy was Kieslowski's magnum opus of sorts...and it was the final project he completed before he passed away in 1996. The other two installments both came out in 1994, which were White (a very good film) and Red (which is fantastic), but I think on an emotional level, Blue was undeniably the most potent.

You can't talk about the film without focusing on Juliette Binoche, who gives one of the best performances I have ever seen in a film.

When you think of "award winning" performances, the standard prototype that often comes up is an image of someone screaming or crying and emoting for the back row. 

Binoche doesn't do that here. This is a performance all about restraint and how she is trying so hard to not express any of the turmoil she is feeling inside for the death of her husband and young son from a car accident. 

Even at the end when Binoche sort of accepts the grief and is able to move on with her life so to speak, she doesn't overplay. It is a nice release of emotion that slowly bleeds into a smile. It is such a perfectly pitched performance that I feel should analyzed and studied for decades to come.

I sort of feel like I am going to end this on a bit of a copout, but this is one of those films where I just feel like I can't fully talk about it. I think it is a film that needs to be seen and experienced, and while I could try to go through the film and talk about more of the details, I don't really want to reveal more than I already have.

Blue is a film of great emotional elegance and is one of the best character studies ever captured in cinema history. It was able to move me in such a profound way that I often think about it even on a daily basis.

____________________________________

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I had a made a comment that 1993 wasn't a "vast" year for film in the beginning of this post.

Maybe not as many films fought for a slot on this list, but this still remains a very might list in my book. 

When comparing it to other years from the 1990s, this actually might be one of the top 3 years of that decade...and to be honest, I wouldn't have ever guessed that at first glance.

We hear a lot about 1994 or 1999, but I think that 1993 is an unsung hero for strong cinema. 

It even took me a long time to write about this year because I was having trouble drumming up the passion for it at first...and I am proud to say I was wrong to sleep on this year. 

Not only were the films fantastic but the performances featured in these films are unreal.

Juliette Binoche in Blue

Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List

Leslie Cheung in Farewell, My Concubine

Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson in The Remains of the Day

Tomoko Tabata in Moving

David Thewlis in Naked

But also - 1993 also gave us some truly stellar performances that weren't even from films on this list that I felt compelled to mention:

Leonardo DiCaprio in What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

Angela Bassett & Laurence Fishburne in What's Love Got to Do with It?

Stockard Channing in Six Degrees of Separation

It was a small but mighty year...and while the list of films was fairly on the dramatic/bleak side (minus Groundhog Day and Addams Family Values), I highly recommend checking out these films if you haven't already. I suspect many of you have seen Schindler's List but there are some true gems here that I didn't truly realize how strongly I felt about them until I wrote about them.

Coming up, I hope to tackle 1968, 1983, and 1998.

After that, I will probably give this series a rest until next year when I can start the process anew...and that'll be a doozy as that will include 1989 and 1999, two years of film in my lifetime that I consider to be among the best ever.

AN SNL REVIEW: S6-EP.5 - David Carradine/Cast of The Pirates of Penzance

 They may not have been doing these live episodes for too long, but I think this group needed a break.

Thanks to all of the hoopla with the 1980 election starting the season super late, the Doumanian team are only on their 5th episode as they approach the 1980 holiday break.

Behind-the-scenes tensions are the theme-du-jour and the network is now starting to interfere more than they ever had before with the show. 

Doumanian placed a lot of the blame solely on the writers and felt that they were the reason that the show was floundering...and she seemed completely in denial about any of her shortcomings in the role.

Sure, the writing wasn't consistent by any means but so far, these 5 episodes do have solid moments amongst the disasters. We also see good concepts that aren't developed to their best potential...and that truly has to fall back onto Doumanian for not having the proper wherewithal to allow someone to oversee the writing.

Technically, Doumanian DID have a headwriter on staff. I did mention in the prologue post that the prolific Mason Williams had been hired but Doumanian seemed almost too weary to allow him any kind of creative control.

This would prove to be his last episode as he finally succumbed to the drama.

And truthfully, this episode is not really a success by any means. It also sets the tone for some strange dynamics going into the shows of Winter 1981.

_______________________________________

COLD OPEN: Piscopo Does Pardo

As of this episode, we've only really seen Piscopo do an impersonation of Jimmy Carter (which was okay) and Jim Fowler of Wild Kingdom (which was at least better than Rocket's Marlin Perkins) but here, I feel like we get a real taste of his talent.

Piscopo is, without a doubt, one of the more infamous SNL players as it seemed as though he was on top of the world, and then he lost it all. Out of morbid curiosity, I will tune into his radio show as I do live in NYC and while he is still very charismatic, he's also a right-wing lunatic. So much of Piscopo's career is known for his brief highs on SNL that got overshadowed by Eddie Murphy and then his career just never truly took off. 

I do feel like Piscopo's impersonations were often solid at least, but he had many misfires (such as his take on Johnny Carson's Art Fern) and some successes (Frank Sinatra and David Letterman).

I think his biggest issue is that his own vocal timbre would bleed into some of his impersonations, which is sort of what happens here when he attempts to do his take on the show's long-time legendary announcer Don Pardo.

Piscopo's goal is to do the impression so he can find a way to make an extra paycheck, until Pardo chimes in from above ("I'm EEEVERYWHEREEEE JOOOOEEEE!") to put a stop to it. 

That's followed by a silence and an awkward "Live From New York" shoe-horn.

It is fine for what it is...not to mention super quick.

________________________________________

MONTAGE

&

MONOLOGUE:

I can't say that I have much of an opinion about David Carradine. As evidenced by how frequently it will be mentioned in this episode, Carradine was linked to the TV show Kung Fu.

To add to the obscurity, Kung Fu had already been off the air for 5 years at that point...and I have not seen a single episode of it. My knowledge of Carradine pretty much solely resides on his performance in Kill Bill and his death not long after that film. I have to admit that I usually pride myself on having a relatively decent amount of knowledge about a host's career so it is always a bit jarring and fascinating when I go into watch their hosting gig mostly blind to how they may come off.

Here - Carradine is clearly drunk/stoned out of his mind.

And perhaps in one of the more entertaining monologues of the season, he calls out the horrible writing handed to him twice.

"Well, that didn't work" soon followed by "Just reading the cue cards - that's all!".

Perhaps the interesting shift to this is that he decides he wants to perform a song-and-dance number only for Charles Rocket to intervene. His claim is that this is SNL and that it is a show meant for comedy and not for musical numbers such as this.

The irony of Charles Rocket of all people telling Carradine this after we've sat through painful silences during Weekend Update and cocky misguided character work...but you do have to wonder how the audience truly felt about Rocket at this point. 

When Carradine forcibly kicks Rocket off the stage mid-dance routine, the audience actually cheers.

It does make me feel like the 1980 audience recognized the slimy copycat nature of Rocket's work.

_______________________________________

COMMERCIAL: Gun City

Piscopo gets to tackle a Crazy Eddie style of commercial parody here, and he does VERY well with it. However, the idea of a "Gun City" store where you can come by all of the guns you need does play as a bit rough in today's political climate.

The comment about how you could be compared to the "meanest brotha in the Bronx" certainly got a lot of love from the audience.

__________________________________________

SKETCH: Kung Fu at a clothing store

Sigh...sadly this is the beginning of a runner. 

Like I mentioned earlier, Carradine was most known for his work on the show Kung Fu which had already been off the air for 5 years at that point.

And yet, this episode is about to devote THREE sketches to it...and none of them are really that successful.

With this runner, we also get Gilbert Gottfried in yellowface playing Master Po (a role that had been played by the legendary actor Keye Luke)...and it will be the only role he plays all night.

This sets Gottfried on a spiral where his sullen nature turns him into more of a catatonic presence...and understandably so. Also, I have mentioned it yet but let us not forget that David Carradine is a white man who played a Chinese monk on that show.

Even in the 1970s, the casting was considered controversial. George Takei, along with the Association of Asian Pacific American Artists, filed a formal complaint against the show for "performing unfair hiring practices".

Eddie Murphy gets to play a store clerk who is dressed exactly like his Velvet Jones, although he doesn't use the same voice. It has been said that Murphy actually developed Jones during this season but that some objected that the character was racially insensitive....

I mean... okay... I suppose that is admirable and I can see why they may think that, but do they see what else they are putting on during this season?!

At any rate, this sketch is mostly a dud so let's move on.

_____________________________________________

SKETCH: Vickie & Debbie at the Mall

5 episodes in and we are now on our 3rd Vickie sketch. 

We've had some recurring characters pop up already, but I think now would be a good time to discuss the concept of how often you should do a recurring character.

There is a sense of wanting to establish favorites, especially when you're so desperate to try to keep the show relevant so I can see why they may have felt eager to latch onto any characters that may have felt like they garnered a solid audience response.

I do enjoy the interactions between Matthius and Dillon because they certainly developed a close friendship behind the scenes that still continues to this day.

This installment works as a nice sweet character piece, though isn't necessarily funny.

It does seem to really establish more of the "catchphrases" for Vicki like "bored to the max" or, perhaps my favorite: "bite the bag".

_________________________________________

FILM: The Rocket Report

Despite the many qualms that one might have with Charles Rocket, I feel like he gets his glimmering moments when doing these Rocket Reports.

I suppose I appreciate the fact that he tried to keep it fresh by changing up the routine a little with this one, but the actual result is that it falls a little flat.

The previous iterations relied a lot on his interactions with the general public, but here, he focuses on the subject of Santa Claus but putting him in more of a Lost Weekend, Night of the Meek setting where we watch a drunken Santa roam the city (played by Rocket as well).

Some later iterations of the Rocket Report will stray from public interactions but they find ways to make it work a little better. Here, I just found it a tad boring.

________________________________________

SKETCH: Guthrie & Dylan

This is my favorite sketch of the night and is often considered one of the best highlights of this infamous season. I would definitely rank it pretty high on that list, for sure.

Carradine gives his best performance of the night as Woody Guthrie, who is in the hospital getting visited by Bob Dylan, played by featured player Patrick Weathers.

Weathers doesn't get much of a chance to shine this season (sort of the same as other featured players like Matthew Laurence and Yvonne Hudson...Eddie Murphy was the only one who overcame it), but this is easily his biggest and best moment (aside from a more offensive moment of him in brownface which we will see in the Robert Hays episode). 

Weathers' Dylan is first-rate and even Carradine does a very solid Guthrie, whose vocal style was sort of reminiscent to what Dylan would become synonymous with.

This is made apparent when Dylan begins singing: "Hey, Woody Guthrie, I wrote you a song" only for Guthrie to tell him to sing more like "HEY, Woody Guthrie, I wrote you a SONG!" 

I do also love how Dylan's guitar has a sticker that says "This machine kills fascists too".

It is pretty quick and to the point, and it feels like a breath of fresh air in tonight's episode...and just for a lot of the sketches from this season in general.

_______________________________________

COMMERICAL: The Home Version of DALLAS

This sketch starts off very intense with the yelling and the slapping that occurs between Piscopo, Matthius, and Dillon and for a quick moment, you think you are in for a really brash sketch that is going for shock value.

Thankfully, it veers off into a solid direction where Rocket plays a pitchman who is serving up a home game version of Dallas, the iconic primetime soap opera. 

The idea of taking family dysfunction and sprucing it up with hats and wigs a la Dallas does amuse me...not gonna lie.

We cut back to the same scene with Piscopo now acting as J.R. and Matthius as Sue Ellen (complete with cowboy hat and also a wig similar to Linda Gray's hairstyle from that time).

My favorite visual, however, is when Denny Dillon enters as Lucy (Charlene Tilton) wearing a obnoxiously long blonde wig that she gets tangled up in when Matthius slaps her again.

A fun piece and it doesn't outstay its welcome.

____________________________________

SHORT FILM: Mr. Bill's Christmas Special

The Mr. Bill shorts, which were a staple of the original era, are certainly fascinating when you view them standalone.

I had the Best of Mr. Bill VHS tape as a kid and I noticed how as they progressed, the stories of the shorts became serialized...though they eventually descended into madness with Mr. Bill going to jail and, as shown here, he becomes homeless with Miss Sally and Spot. 

This short was originally going to be shown during the Christmas episode hosted by Ted Knight the year prior, but got cut...and honestly, despite a certain charm seeing the character again, something felt a little off with this one.

I do suppose the sleigh ride down the rocky cliffside is the most memorable highlight.

_____________________________________

SKETCH: KUNG FU CHRISTMAS

The second of three Kung Fu sketches tonight...and once again, I am not fond of any of them but this one manages to get the best moment.

They end up casting Eddie Murphy as Bruce Lee which leads to the line:

"Bruce Lee is back (Eddie Murphy jumps onscreen), only this time, HE'S BLACK!"

A nice comedic moment and it is delivered well...but it goes nowhere after that. Plus, we still get Gottfried in Yellowface yet again.

_____________________________________

A HOLIDAY WEEKEND UPDATE FOR US TO CHERISH...HOPE YOU ENJOY THE LARD! (I promise that will make more sense in a moment)

This is, thankfully, not a super long update segment but Rocket is still sort of sitting in that weird smarmy zone and given truly weak comic material.

Joe Piscopo gets his 4th Update commentary in a row as the sportscaster and seems firmly entrenched as an audience favorite...not to mention, he is very close to have finally developed the voice this character is synonymous for. 

Although, if this Update segment should be seen for anything, it is the commentary done by Ann Risley.

Considering this is her 5th episode on the show, I suppose it might sense for a new cast member to have some trouble finding their bearings...but as I have stated, I am not sure Ann Risley was suited to sketch comedy.

While she managed to get a couple of showcases in the Burstyn episode along with a truly miscast one in the Curtis episode, this time she is handed a poorly written absurd commentary that repeatedly recommends that the best gift you can give to your loved ones is lard wrapped in a plastic bag.

I have to admit...it is almost so bad that it is good. It is such a bizarre concept that I could see it possibly working with a couple of rewrites but Risley was CLEARLY the wrong person to try to put this over.

_________________________________________

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: A Medley from The Pirates of Penzance

Maybe I am biased being someone who did a lot of musical theatre and loves the theatre in general, but I think it is actually a shame that SNL has never tried booking a musical again.

Even if they kept it to more of the "pop-friendly" selections, they could've had Ben Platt on to sing a number from Dear Evan Hansen...I am not saying I would've wanted that personally, of course ;-)

This was the centennial production of The Pirates of Penzance that was famously produced by the legendary impresario Joseph Papp, the man behind The Public Theatre and Shakespeare in the Park.

My experience with this particular production is only through filmed bits and the cast recording, but it is obvious to see why it caused such a craze at the time. Not to mention, a great cast that included George Rose, Rex Smith, and also Linda Ronstadt and Kevin Kline.

A truly infectious medley...and it works well at this portion of the show too.

_____________________________________________

SKETCH: HARLEM HEROIN 

This sketch is a doozy, and has become a bit of a talking point in recent years amongst SNL fans as more and more people watch these episodes.

 While this sketch does fall under the whole "shock value" humor we have seen a lot so far from this season, I actually think this sketch is telling an interesting story about drug use and how white people were just as into it...if not more so...than what racial profiling and stereotyping might suggest.

Rocket, Risley, Matthius, and Piscopo all play waspy white Park Ave residents who have come uptown to score some primo heroin...which Matthius' character deems is as cool and in as sushi. 

Move over, cocaine! Heroin is here as the new hot drug!

Although one line from this sketch really hits hard these days:

"You're probably the kind of guy who worries about dirty needles!"

Keep in mind, this aired in December 1980. Less than a year later, AIDS will get its first mention on the news.

Aside from that very prescient line that was far more prescient than the writers intended, it is the sketch's twist/ending that really sells it.

Murphy plays the drug dealer but is then revealed to be an undercover cop. As he arrests the group, he proclaims how he is tired of white people coming to Harlem and giving it a bad name.

"You all should've stayed on Park Ave where you belong!" 

A very fascinating snapshot of a city on the cusp of drastic change.

_____________________________________

SHORT FILM: The Virgin Search

This was the third bit that Doumanian had fought with the censors over for the Burstyn episode, but she managed to win the day.

As a concept, it is certainly a bit crude, but what makes it work is that it becomes a great character showcase for Gail Matthius.

Bascially, NBC lays down an ultimatum: They need to hire a girl and she HAS to be a virgin.

All the girls are played by Matthius.

First we have a small town cheerleader who ends up not being a virgin but then it descends fast as they end up in Paris and talk to young Parisian schoolgirl. She's not a virgin because she was a conquest of Roman Polanski (a joke the audience LOVED by the way).

Then we get to the moment that the censors hated (because they were okay with pedophilia seemingly) where they ask a nun but it turns out she had sex with Father Guido Sarducci (Don Novello's well known character he did on SNL in the 70s).

The ending segment is what makes it. When the trio of NBC execs are so dejected, they drown their sorrows in a bar only to come across a bizarre New Wave girl who admits she is a virgin because she's "SAVING MYSELF FOR CARL SAGAN!".

And this girl is revealed to be Gail Matthius and the "true story" as to how she became a new cast member. So yes, a crude topic but I do love what Matthius does here and the ending twist is a lot of fun.

Plus, just the fact she is saving herself for Carl Sagan is funny in of itself.

________________________________

COMMERCIAL: DOPENHAGEN and HAPPY DAZE

Ugh...for the love of...

In this bit, you can REALLY tell how under the influence Carradine really is...and while that sort of ties into the whole theme, Carradine struggles with this and flubs his lines.

And it isn't even like the material rises above just basic cheap drug humor anyway.

______________________________________

SKETCH: The Death of Col. Sanders

A topical sketch for its time, this one aired shortly after the death of the iconic founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Col. Harland Sanders. 

We get an interesting pairing of Carradine, Murphy, and Dillon here as three people mourning his loss while eating from buckets of KFC.

A decent sketch, and I think the more bumbling energy from Carradine works better here in solemn mode. Plus, he has Murphy and Dillon there to balance him out.

________________________________________

SHORT FILM: The Dancing Man by Mitchell Kriegman

The great Bill Irwin!!!!

I have always been a fan of Irwin because not only is he great at being a physical comedy/mime work (on top of being a clown), but he is a stellar dramatic actor too. I still marvel at seeing his Tony Award winning role as George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

 Here, we get to see him in mime mode...but more fun than what you might expect.

We watch him just go about his morning routine but the moment he hears "Shake Your Groove Thing", he basically has to...well...shake his groove thing.

His manic dancing is hilarious, especially when it occurs as he is pouring orange juice or trying to walk down the stairs.

Sadly, this will be the last segment of Kriegman's on the show as he would get fired over the holiday break. I feel like his comic sensibilities, while not always hilarious, were a nice feel in what would often be very brash episodes.

It also doesn't hurt that he had Bill Irwin to work with here.

______________________________________

SKETCH: Kung Fu Weflare Counseling

Why they felt the need to keep draining from the Kung Fu well baffles me...because I think they could've come up with something better...even if the quality output this season has been rather questionable at times.

Having Carradine's character along with Yvonne Hudson get told that they should take up prostitution as a source of income at the welfare office is...odd. 

It seems like it COULD be funny but it is also kind of offensive at the same time...especially with Hudson's presence.

Also - this sketch has Carradine slipping back into a dark abyss where he seemingly forgets a line which leads Hudson to try to find a way to skip ahead to get back on track with the sketch.

And to top it all off, we get Gottfried as Po again.

An absolute disaster of a sketch.

_________________________________________

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: The Cast of Penzance sings a holiday medley

This was a nice use of the Penzance cast while also ending the show on a nice festive note before the holiday season...and anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely love the holiday season and will listen to the music a lot during that time for a pick-me-up.

_______________________________________

GOODNIGHTS:

With the Penzance cast and the SNL cast and anyone else who might try to crowd onstage during the Goodnights, this could be the most crowded we've ever seen the home base be.

Perhaps the most memorable moment of the Goodnights is simply seeing Gottfried, finally out of his yellowface, looking so dejected and morose. This truly is the beginning of him mostly becoming a dreary presence for the remainder of the season aside from the occasional glimmer here and there.

Frankly I don't blame him...and he has another episode coming up where he has a string of sketch characters that are dire in other eays.

________________________________________

FINAL THOUGHTS:

As we come to the end of the "first half" of the 6th season, I do think that this episode was a rather bizarre outing to leave on. It may have had an inspired musical guest, but most of the sketches were weak aside from a scant couple.

This episode marks the end for writer Mitchell Kreigman as I mentioned earlier but was also the final show for headwriter Mason Williams.

Williams' sensibilities seemed to be crushed by Doumanian's own bizarre insecurities and he was never truly allowed a chance to shine. Sometimes I do wonder what might've happened if Doumanian allowed Williams to have more legit reign over his team...but alas, Doumanian just seemed destined to make one wrong decision after another.

Going into the winter episodes, the show is in a very precarious position. New headwriters come in (which I will discuss in the next episode) but there isn't much of a shift in terms of the quality. 

Although strangely, one of the best episodes (if not THE best epsiode) of the season will come during this stretch...along with the worst episode since Malcolm McDowell. 

Not to mention one of the more lifeless and aloof hosts to have ever come onto SNL.

Stay tuned as we prepare to enter the winter shows of 1981.

SHE MADE ME LOVE HER: Singing the Praises of One Ms. Judy Garland

So yes, this is my 100th post.

And I chose a topic I felt was justified. 

June is Pride Month...and there are very few performers as beloved in the community as Judy Garland. It seems fitting that she both came and left the world during June.

In fact, I am posting this on June 9th, just day before her birthday.

I have talked a lot about Garland in the past...particularly in a long post on my old blog, but I decided that she was worth a revisit and a new discussion. Considering how much of a factor she played into my childhood onward (not to mention the timing of Pride Month), I felt like this was a great topic to delve into.

As is to be expected, my introduction to Judy Garland was through the most obvious and expected source: The Wizard of Oz. 

I was very young...maybe like 3 years old...and not surprisingly, I loved the movie but I had developed something of a fascination with her.

Now keep in mind, I was not exactly aware of her personal life for a little while longer. I believe I ended up reading about it online in minimal capacity...and soon after watched an E! True Hollywood Story on her life. This was still during the 90s so it was also before the famous Judy Davis/Tammy Blanchard biopic came out.

With how beloved she is in the community, I still find it kind of fascinating at how much I was drawn to her at my young age before I even realized a lot of things about myself...or could comprehend them.

One vivid memory I had is that I actually printed off Judy Garland's filmography on a Dot Matrix printer.

For you young kids out there, this would be a Dot Matrix printer:

Needless to say, it took forever...but that is how we rolled in the mid 90s.

That and dial-up internet.

ANYWAY....I can recall watching a lot of her films on AMC back when being the American Movie Channel actually meant what its title was.

Not surprisingly, it was a combo of two films that turned her more into an obsession for me: 

Meet Me in St. Louis

A Star is Born

I think the real pleasure of Meet Me in St. Louis is that it was my first true glimpse into the glitzy glamorous style of an MGM musical. It is simply gorgeous to look at and it gives Garland some of the best songs to sing.

Then you have A Star is Born which truly showed the world what a stellar dramatic actress she could be...but hey, let's give the Oscar to Grace Kelly anyway...sigh...

A lot has been said/written/put on film about Garland and her life...and chances are if you're reading this, you are pretty familiar with her life and work so I don't need to go into a lot of detail.

Her treatment by Hollywood is the stuff of horrific legend...and tragedy. The fact that they treated her like she was some kind of ogre (MGM head Louis B. Mayer infamously called her his "little Hunchback")

Let me take a quite sidestep to show you a pic of Louis B. Mayer:

Sir, you are a marshmallow dipped into cigar ash so please take several seats.

Now that I got that out of the way...

I really want to focus more on her work and celebrate her immense and immeasurable talent. What I am going to do is single out some of my favorite vocal performances of hers. These might be video clips or strictly audio clips, but I feel like they are what I always go to the most when I got back to revisit her glorious voice.

I want to begin with an audio recording from November 1935, when Garland was just 13 years old. She had been asked to perform on a radio program only to find out that her father was dying in the hospital from spiral meningitis. Her father had been known to have an amazing voice and seemed to be the source of her talent...something that her mother cultivated and resented all at once. Also, her father faced a lot of turmoil for what was said to have been "homosexual indications".

Garland never saw her father alive again and had to perform "Zing! Went The Strings of My Heart", her first signature song, live on the air. A radio was placed next to his hospital bed in hopes that he could hear her sing one last time before he passed away the following morning.

The audio of her performance is below:

_____________________________________

Going through her career, here are some of my favorite highlights:

Dear Mr. Gable/You Made Me Love You

The song "You Made Me Love You" is a classic. It was first introduced by Al Jolson in the 1913 Broadway revue The Honeymoon Express and it has since been covered by many artists over the years...but as to be expected, I feel like it is a song that belongs to Garland.

It is remarkable how mature her voice sounds at 15. 

The story goes that lyricist Roger Edens penned new lyrics repurposing the song as a teenaged fan singing about her love of Clark Gable, which Garland performed at a birthday party for Gable prepared by MGM in 1937.

The performance was such an instant success amongst MGM execs at the party that they included the song in the film Broadway Melody of 1938...and would eventually become a beloved B-Side on the single for "Over the Rainbow".

______________________________________

Over the Rainbow

The song is a legend for a reason.

While the original recording done for The Wizard of Oz is undeniably great, I often love a lot of the versions she did as she got older.

It is hard to single out just one...but I chose this one as it is a video and it was an early example of her giving the song a little more dramatic weight as she was singing this during the height of WWII.

It was said that Garland once wrote a letter to the song's lyricist E.Y. Harburg about how much she deeply loved the song despite having performed it thousands of times.

"I have sung it over a thousand times, and it is still the song that is closest to my heart"

And to think it almost got cut from the film...

I don't think much else is needed to express my love and legend of this one.

_________________________________

The Trolley Song

I could make a case of this being the song of Garland's I revisit the most. It is so glorious and joyous and truly epitomizes what I really enjoy about Meet Me in St. Louis as a film.

Rather sadly, the film lost the Oscar for Best Song to "Swinging on a Star" from that year's Best Picture winner, Going My Way.

Another case of the Academy making the wrong choice...and they didn't even nominate "The Boy Next Door" or "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". What is surprising is that it took until 1980 with Fame for a film to receive more than one Best Song nomination.

Years ago, I was on a date with a guy I had met up with a couple of times. I lived in Astoria, Queens while he lived in Forest Hills, Queens. For those unfamiliar with the geography, his stop was basically at the end of the line...and I often would stay on with him and then take the Manhattan bound train back.

This song sort of became our anthem whenever it would happen.

And even though that guy eventually turned out to be a jerk in the end, I suppose it is a fond memory!

__________________________________

The Man That Got Away

For the longest time, I considered this to be my favorite vocal performance ever. I don't know if I am prepared to make such a hyperbolic statement on the matter these days, but I do think this is a solid answer if I am forced to choose.

A Star is Born, as I eluded to earlier, is a master class of acting.

Aside from her truly remarkable musical moments, Garland truly nailed the dramatic weight of the role and gives...by far...the best performance from any of the Star films and frankly one of my favorite performances ever.

The twist to the story in a lot of ways is that Garland's character Esther/Vicki is bemoaning the alcohol abuse of her husband actor Norman Maine (played in this version by James Mason) and it cultivates in a monologue that is easily the finest acting moment of Garland's career and one of the best performed monologues in film history. The "twist" is that the parallels between Norman Maine and Judy Garland were indisputably clear....so much so that director George Cukor approached Garland delicately before the take and for her motivation said: "You know this. You really know this".

It only makes the moment all the more tragic despite its brilliance. 

Here it is:

 __________________________________________

But despite her many great film moments, I think the best volume of her work in terms of quality content has to come from two places:

The Judy Garland Show

and

Judy: At Carnegie Hall

Let's discuss the album first:

In this case, I will be hyperbolic.

This is easily my favorite album ever. The excitement and energy here is unmatched...and it is easy to see why the night is often dubbed "the greatest night in show business history".

If there was ever a live performance from the past I could attend, it would easily be this one.

Classic after classic, definitive performance after definitive performance, it is no wonder that audiences wanted to swarm the stage and begged for encore after encore and even getting her to repeat songs she had already sung.

Hey...if I was in that room, I would be fully prepared for a 7 hour concert. If I can sit through productions of Angels in America, The Coast of Utopia, and Nicholas Nickleby, I most assuredly would be ready to never leave Carnegie Hall until absolutely necessary. 

In 2001, Capitol released a new CD which was considered the "warts and all" version. This contained all of Garland's asides, the scuffing heard as the orchestra would prepare, and even the false start to the performance of "Come Rain or Come Shine". All of it was meant for us to hear what those lucky people heard in full during that amazing night at Carnegie Hall. 

I could easily say to just listen to the whole album...and yeah, here I go...JUST LISTEN TO THE WHOLE DAMN ALBUM!

But I do want to single out a few selections I am fond of that aren't the songs I have already mentioned:

When You're Smiling (The Whole World Smiles With You)

-This is audio from the recording paired with video from a different TV broadcast.

This is the first song Garland performed in the set and it is a lovely rendition...particularly her belted G on "smiles" at the end.

________________________________

You Go To My Head

-I feel like this is a song that doesn't get as much attention as some of the other classics, but the bouncy cha-cha vibe is truly infectious here.

It is probably my favorite version of the song, not surprisingly, even though it had been covered by the likes of Sinatra, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holiday.

____________________________________

Rock-a-bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody

-Yet another song that had been made famous by Al Jolson.

I feel like Garland blew this one out of the water...aside from the fact that the term "Dixie" is problematic these days.

I think what I often love about Garland is how she often builds her songs to such a flourishing end that you can't help but leap to your feet to give her a standing ovation.

And maybe I have done that alone in my bedroom while listening to songs such as this...

...DON'T JUDGE ME!!

_______________________________________

Let's go ahead and dive into The Judy Garland Show:

The whole reason that Garland opted to do a variety series was due to her financial struggles...and despite the very wealthy payout for the time (roughly $25-30k per show), she never managed to truly find financial stability in the remaining 5 years of her life.

The show was cancelled after only one season (1963-1964) and had faced stiff competition in the ratings from NBC's enormously popular Bonanza. 

For just a single season of 26 episodes, The Judy Garland Show is basically a swirl of course corrections.

 

When the show premiered, there seemed to be a true focus on the concept of "variety" which led to the hiring of Jerry Van Dyke (the younger brother of the beloved Dick) to be the comic relief.

Or I should say "comic relief".

It was heavily apparent right off the bat that Van Dyke wasn't working even behind the scenes and once the shows started airing, the vitriol towards him was so instantaneous that he was let go pretty much on the spot after only being featured in 10 episodes. 

From here, the show shifted towards focusing strictly on Garland as a vocal performer with only the occasional interactions with her guests...and I must admit, I do love the bit that often repeats where she keeps trying to force her guests to have tea and they never seem to want any.

It sort of makes me think of Marge Simpson and her ice cream sundaes: "What's wrong with my sundaes!?".

The ratings were so low, despite the increased critical praise following the departure of Van Dyke, that CBS cancelled the show in late winter 1964. With that in mind, they allowed production to continue for the season to which the show's THIRD producer Bill Coleran decided to forego any real comedic element and strictly treat the final 7 episodes as Judy Garland: In Concert.

A lot of these episodes strictly featured Garland alone but she did have guests such as Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll, and Mel Torme. 

As what comes to no surprise to absolutely anyone reading this, I agree with the consensus that this show was cancelled far too soon and I wish that CBS had given it more of a chance or moved it to a new timeslot. 

I also have to wonder if maybe by some miracle it could've helped extend Garland's life if not for just a little bit longer too.

Here are some performances from the show that I happen to love...and a small sampling as I feel like I could be here until July if I didn't stop myself.

_______________________

As Long As He Needs Me

-One of the "Torchiest" Torch Songs to have ever...well.."torched".

"As Long As He Needs Me" had basically just entered the lexicon at this point as Oliver! had premiered on Broadway a few months prior. 

I also love the setup of this song as each episode often ended with Garland performing a song with the great catwalk lighting setup. It always felt so grand and dramatic...but this was always my favorite rendition of this song.

I also love the end where Garland's penchant for never really knowing what to do with her arms is on full display here.

______________________________________

Come Rain or Come Shine

-From one of the earliest episodes to air, her iconic rendition of this song (made famous on the Carnegie Hall album) is blazing with brilliance.

It is no wonder that the people who did watch the show absolutely adored these portions and would quickly succumb to boredom and annoyance when Van Dyke would appear.

A song like this should pull anybody out of a Van Dyke stupor!

________________________________

Ol' Man River

-For what is usually considered one of the most well known Bass songs in history, it might seem unusual for Garland to tackle a song such as this.

However...as is no surprise to anyone...it is easily one of her finest efforts. 

It is deeply intense and passionate...and the layers she gives it are simply unmatched.

It also ties in to the whole idea that she consistently leaves you wanting more with such a powerful ending.

________________________________

Happy Days are Here Again/Get Happy

-The iconic duet.

I am someone who can be VERY reserved when it comes to Barbra Streisand. Her early work (which is smack dab during the era in which this aired) is simply iconic and her brassy vocals are clearly impressing Garland as she performs with her. In fact, you could argue that she feels/looks overshadowed (although Garland had zero resentment for Streisand). 

Streisand's demeanor, more so as she got older, could be cold and aloof...which has always rubbed me the wrong way.

Garland, on the other hand, always seemed to be warm and ready with a quip. 

She was old school...and this was her meeting "the new school"...and it is GLORIOUS.

_______________________________

West Side Story Medley

-Roughly two years after the release of the film, West Side Story was arguably one of the more beloved musical properties at that time.

While the material certainly wasn't meant for people like Garland or her colleague Vic Damone, I think both of them do a lovely job here.

Particularly thrilling is the final song of the medley: "Tonight"

Garland's belting of the final notes is so thrilling and possibly the highest I've heard her belt in a song. I don't know how it happened, but I somehow never saw this medley until my friend/former roommate Daniel and I acquired DVDs of the show and we would watch them together...with copious amounts of wine.

I recall getting to the moment and thinking to myself with the key change: "Wait...is she going to hit the note I think she is going to hit?"

When she did, Daniel and I looked at each other stunned.

Simply fantastic.

_______________________________

The Battle Hymn of the Republic

-When Garland says to the audience that she would be singing a song that is seldom ever heard on TV, I suppose that was an apt assessment. 

Choosing to sing "Battle Hymn" does seem odd at first glance but the real reason for this was due to the fact that President John F. Kennedy, with whom she was a good friend, had just been assassinated three weeks prior. 

As an homage, she sang the song despite not directly mentioning the reason why on air. 

The result might be one of the best TV moments ever. It is a passionate and powerful rendition that never ceases to give me a chill every time I watch the clip.

___________________________________

LASTLY...

I feel like I can honestly say that not a day goes by that I don't think about or reference Judy Garland in some capacity.

I often talk about people who have left an indelible impression on my life, such as Stephen Sondheim or filmmakers like Ingmar Bergman or David Lynch, but Judy Garland is really the first major example of someone who just spoke to me and I felt a strange sort of kinship that I could never really explain.

As I got older, it really felt like that Garland connection was kismet.

I responded to her in ways that similar people like me also shared...and one has to wonder why it is that she was such an icon for the LGBT community.

In fact, the whole concept of her being popular with gay men was noticed as far back as 1967.

In a review written for Time Magazine, the writer notes that a "disproportionate part of her nightly claque appears to be homosexual" and would go on to describe them as "the boys in tight trousers". The article does try to justify this and despite how disparaging and insulting the previous comments were, I would say that their description for the adoration is pretty accurate...at least from my own sort of personal vantage point:

"The attraction to Garland might be made considerably stronger by the fact she has survived so many problems; homosexuals identify with that kind of hysteria".

Writer William Goldman also writes of a similar theme for Esquire and makes some even more disparaging comments (that he would later apologize for) that her concerts frequently feature "fags who just flit by" and chatter inanely. 

He would go on to add:

"Homosexuals tend to identify with suffering. They are a persecuted group and they understand suffering. And so does Garland. She's been through the fire and lived – all the drinking and divorcing, all the pills and all the men, all the poundage come and gone – brothers and sisters, she knows".

A lot has been said about Judy Garland's death coinciding with the Stonewall Riots. 

This is one of those things that is truly debatable as to how direct her death was to the riot, but you can't really deny that the amount of people in the community affected emotionally by it were already on edge while drinking there that night.

Although, as is sadly the case, a lot of the Stonewall Riot lore has been whitewashed over the years. Most involved were actually trans and/or people of color. Of those people, it was once said that they were "not the type to moon over Judy Garland records or concerts. Many were looking for a place to live or where there next meal was coming from".

Aside from that speculation, there is no denying that Garland was a devout supporter of all human civil rights and would frequently go to gay bars with many of her gay friends, including her Star is Born director George Cukor.

There is famous quote where a reporter asked Garland, seemingly hoping for a juicy negative response, what she felt about having a seemingly large gay following:

"I couldn't care less. I sing for people!"

Although...if I am being honest...sometimes I feel like she is the only performer in history where when I listen to her, I like to imagine she is singing just for me.

I love you, Judy.

___________________________

I leave you with two more songs:

The amazing rendition of Over the Rainbow from the Carnegie Hall concert.

AND...

Garland's take on the perennial Rodgers & Hammerstein ballad You'll Never Walk Alone