Category: Television and Radio
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From ‘Mary’ to ‘Match’ to Her Memoir, Bulifant is a Marvel
By Joe Puccio As the performers who’ve been both talented and lucky enough to be able to earn a living in show business can surely attest, the struggle to attain autonomy in one’s career is very real. Furthermore, managing to maintain said success is sometimes just as challenging. For Joyce Bulifant, the struggles she overcame…
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Master of His Domain
Being Eddie3 out of 5 stars By J.C. Correa 48 Hours, Beverly Hills Cop, Coming to America? Check. A wildly successful tenure on Saturday Night Live? Check. Reverential praise from peers and fellow comics? Check, check, and check! If you’re looking for an opportunity to revisit not only Eddie Murphy’s greatest hits and multiple career…
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From Malachai to Music, Courtney ‘Gains’ an Appreciation Among Fans
By Joe Puccio Best known for his chilling turn as Malachai in 1984’s supernatural slasher hit Children of the Corn, it may be slightly surprising to some that Courtney Gains has carved out quite an eclectic career for himself since appearing in the seminal shocker. A variety of parts in non-genre fare ranging from science fiction…
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Actress/Author Arngrim Will Always Be Nellie Oleson and She Wouldn’t Have it Any Other Way
By Joe Puccio Transforming into vile, detestable characters is difficult enough for most actors. Yet playing those parts while still a young child would seemingly prove to be even more daunting. Unless you’re Alison Arngrim, that is. “When I filmed “The Music Box” with Katy Kurtzman, she was so good doing the stammering and crying…
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From ‘Santa’ to ‘Sons’ to Science Fiction, Walker is Saturated with Stories
By Joe Puccio It’s not unusual for those in show business to eventually get the itch to write a book. For almost as long as film and television have captivated audiences around the world, the often-extroverted performers who so vividly bring the mediums to life are frequently known for putting pen to paper to chronicle…
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Jarratt’s Mick Taylor is a ‘Wolf’ in Sheep’s Clothing
By Joe Puccio Upon graduating from the prestigious National Institute of Dramatic Arts in 1973, if someone had told John Jarratt that he’d be best known for playing Australian serial killer Mick Taylor in the “new classic” modern slasher Wolf Creek just over 30 years later, the formally trained actor would’ve assumed his leg was…
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Kung Fu, Karate, Pizza, and Nonsense
Karate Kid: Legends2 out of 5 stars By J.C. Correa Trite, illogical, and ultimately pointless, Karate Kid: Legends takes all the goodwill amassed by the successful Cobra Kai spinoff and squanders it for no other reason than to keep cashing in on an old, albeit revived, IP. In this regard, it overtly aims itself at the Netflix…
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Trapped in the Ring
No Holds Barred1 out of 5 stars By J.C. Correa The recent death of pro wrestling icon Hulk Hogan surely has had many fans revisit his legacy and embark on requisite nostalgia trips in the days since. It’s a complicated legacy, made so by the various reported transgressions that Terry Gene Bollea (Hogan’s birth name)…
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A Schwartz ‘Story’
By Joe Puccio Show business is a peculiar animal, especially for children. While some performers who got their start in the industry at an early age became known for much more than their innocuous initial introductions (Ron Howard as freckle-faced Opie on The Andy Griffith Show, Neil Patrick Harris as the titular boy genius on…
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From ‘Brewster’ to ‘Belvedere,’ Ellison Can Back it Up
By Joe Puccio Goofy sidekicks have been a mainstay on classic sitcoms since the advent of television. From Ed Norton (Art Carney) in The Honeymooners for one revered season in the mid-1950s to Barney Fife (Don Knotts) in the venerable The Andy Griffith Show throughout almost the entire decade of the 1960s to Freddy “Rerun”…
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From ‘Annie’ to ‘Kate & Allie,’ Allison Smith is Still ‘Wing’ing it and Doing a Stellar Job
By Joe Puccio Performing on stage before a live audience and acting on a film or television set are two very diverse experiences. While the pair of skills are certainly equally as impressive on their own, being adept at both is even more remarkable. For gifted thespian Allison Smith, she thoroughly excels at each endeavor…
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From ‘The Karate Kid’ to ‘Flashdance,’ Esposito is Still One of the ‘Best’
By Joe Puccio Flashdance. Scarface. Coming to America. Staying Alive. American Hot Wax. These are just a smattering of the motion picture soundtracks that singer-songwriter Joe “Bean” Esposito has crafted timeless tunes for. Whether it was as a founding member of harmonious R&B trio Brooklyn Dreams (with Bruce Sudano and Eddie Hokenson), as a passionate…
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Fifty Years Later, This Trio is Still ‘Happening!!’
By Joe Puccio In show business, it’s difficult enough for motion pictures to attain suitable box office success to justify the perpetually exorbitant costs of creating them. Furthermore, adapting profitable television versions of fruitful films are often even tougher tasks. While M*A*S*H (Film: $3 million budget and $81.6 million gross; Series: 11 seasons), The Karate…
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‘Growing’ into an Adult: Miller Makes his Mark
By Joe Puccio It isn’t every television show that can count Hollywood heavyweights such as Brad Pitt, Hilary Swank, and Leonardo DiCaprio among its celebrated alumni. Growing Pains, however, can do just that. The popular situation comedy, which premiered in the fall of 1985, focused on the Seavers, a middle-class family from the suburbs of…
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Orndorff’s Son Carrying on a ‘Wonderful’ Legacy
By Joe Puccio For Generation Xers, the unofficial glory years in professional wrestling undoubtedly land between 1984, at the birth of Hulkamania, and 1992, as Hulk Hogan’s seemingly perennial immense popularity began to wane considerably. The colossal period in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE), which largely coincided with the…
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‘The Outdated Entertainment Hour’ with Bob Smith
Nostalgic for the great entertainment you loved as a kid and young adult? The Outdated Entertainment Hour – hosted by Bob Smith, a veteran entertainment podcaster, writer and editor (Good Times Magazine, Pro Wrestling Illustrated) – will bring back many of your favorite music artists, TV shows, books, films, and much more. Enjoy conversations with…
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No ‘Fear’ in Antonella Rose as Career Takes Off
By Joe Puccio In show business, there’s a fine line between acting and overacting; between being prepared and being overprepared; between being precocious and being aloof. Child performers, perhaps unfairly, tend to be scrutinized by these traits more so than their adult counterparts. And while obstacles such as these have always been and likely always…
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‘Friday the 13th’ Actor Monarque Carves Out Successful Career
By Joe Puccio Any type of deviation to a cherished art form is inevitably met with resistance. When Ridley Scott’s 1979 horror masterpiece Alien was expanded into James Cameron’s decidedly more action-centric Aliens, science fiction fans were skeptical. When J. R. R. Tolkien’s beloved 1937 children’s fantasy novel The Hobbit received a sequel nearly twenty…
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Closing the Dojo with Love
The Unexpected and Glorious Legacy of Cobra Kai By J.C. Correa When Cobra Kai first debuted back in the spring of 2018 – on what was then known as YouTube Red – you would have been forgiven for being extremely skeptical about its prospects in quality, not to mention longevity. After all, no one was really…
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Getting the Led Finally Out
Becoming Led Zeppelin3.5 out of 5 stars By J.C. Correa In early 1969, after having already played a few dates in America, Led Zeppelin, then opening for a band called Vanilla Fudge, delivered a triumphant show at San Francisco’s famed Fillmore Club. It was considered so because up until then, though buzz was slowly building…
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‘Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting
Saturday Night4 out of 5 stars By J.C. Correa In one long, uninterrupted take we are swiftly hurdled through several of the rooms at NBC studios where it seems pretty much everything is going on at once. Like flies on the wall, what we witness is an abundance of chaos and panic that are gradually…
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Dougherty’s Rod Serling Book is in the ‘Zone’
By Joe Puccio There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his…
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‘From’ Television to Film, Ghafoori is a Star
By Joe Puccio Horror is arguably – and undeservedly – the single most maligned genre in the television and film landscape. While small screen critic darlings like The X Files and The Walking Dead have admittedly received their share of praise and motion picture fan favorites such as Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs…
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When Four Young Dudes With Dubious Haircuts Landed in America
Beatles ’643 out of 5 stars By J.C. Correa Albeit several months late, Beatles ’64 arrives perfectly timed to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the illustrious English band’s first trip to the United States. It was a two-week foray that saw them play The Ed Sullivan Show twice (first in New York, then in Miami); a…
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Return of the King: The Fall and Rise of Elvis Presley
By J.C. Correa Rock music enthusiasts (and basically anyone with a faint interest in measuring the pulse of pop culture during the second half of the 20th century) are undoubtedly familiar with the seismic importance associated with Elvis Presley’s 1968 Comeback Special. Along with Queen at Live Aid, The Beatles at Shea Stadium, and Jimi…
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Rebeca Arthur is No ‘Stranger’ to Success
By Joe Puccio Sometimes the world looks perfect,Nothing to rearrange.Sometimes you get a feelingLike you need some kind of change. No matter what the odds are this time,Nothing’s going to stand in my way.This flame in my heart,And a long lost friendGives every dark street a light at the end. Standing tall, on the wings…
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Acting, Writing, Directing – ‘Terrifier’s Scaffidi Embraces It All
By Joe Puccio If someone would have attempted to sell Samantha Scaffidi on the notion that Terrifier, the 2016 American slasher film about, well, a terrifying serial killer clown, would have become a pop culture phenomenon, she likely would have thought them to be just as misguided as Art, the demented joker at the film’s…
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Dee Wallace ‘Self-Creates’ an Impressive Career
By Joe Puccio Cultivating a fruitful film and television career for an astounding 50 years, talent, tenacity, and even a little luck are all clearly somewhat responsible. Dee Wallace names self-creation, however, as a key rationale for her success. “Each time you have a thought or a feeling or a perception of the world, you…
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Butler’s a ‘Prairie’ Man at Heart
By Joe Puccio Good casting is paramount to the quality of any television series. While many factors, such as script, plot, and direction are equally important, the painstaking process of selecting the right mix of performers can be just as difficult to cultivate. Attempting to visualize All in the Family without Carroll O’Connor and Jean…
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A Charmed ‘Life’ for ‘Facts’ Originals
By Joe Puccio You take the good,You take the bad,You take them both and there you have,The facts of life In show business, there is a widely held belief that in the vast majority of cases, child actors grow up being unable to transition to adulthood or to learn how to cope with a routine,…
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Knapp’s a ‘Keeper’ – ‘Evil’ Actor Makes Her Mark
By Joe Puccio While there has been an abundance of quality, supernatural, facetious, thrillers to hit the small screen in recent times (Lucifer, Penny Dreadful, American Horror Story, to name a few), none have quite encompassed the multi-layered genre quite as well as Evil. Premiering to critical acclaim on CBS in 2019 before shifting to…
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Wrestling’s Jim Brunzell Excels Both Inside and Outside the Ring
By Joe Puccio It would be understandable for any promising, young, professional wrestler training alongside eventual legends like Ric Flair, Ken Patera, and the Iron Sheik to feel self-conscious early on in the learning process. Jim Brunzell, however, was not a typical student. In arguably one of the strongest collective classes of aspiring grapplers ever assembled,…
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50 Years Later, This ‘Land’ is Not ‘Lost’
By Joe Puccio For Gen Xers who came of age in the 1970s, Sid and Marty Krofft are two names lavished with reverence. The Canadian brothers, simultaneously television creators, writers, and puppeteers, produced some of the most enduring small screen offerings of the era, including H.R. Pufnstuf, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, and The Banana…
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The Keirn Chronicles: A ‘Fabulous’ Follow-Up Continues a Profound Tale
By Joe Puccio As notable aspiring authors are keenly aware, merely getting one life story passed the developmental stage in the form of a written autobiography is impressive enough. Having an extended second volume, north of 400 pages, is utterly astounding. Yet for retired professional wrestler Steve Keirn, it was never in doubt. “My career…
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Macho Man ‘Untamed’ – The Definitive Randy Savage Biography
By Joe Puccio “He was de-venomized, but maybe I wasn’t!” That was Randy “Macho Man” Savage’s tongue-in-cheek quip in response to hearing the unfortunate news that his concurrent rival Jake “The Snake” Roberts’ ten-foot king cobra passed away less than two weeks after sinking its half-inch fangs into Savage’s arm, drawing a notable amount of…
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Crack Open a ‘Six Pack’ With 1980s Wrestling Luminaries
By Joe Puccio Books on professional wrestling are anything but an anomaly in 2024. In the first four months of the year alone, the sport has already boasted Ballyhoo! The Roughhousers, Con Artists, and Wildmen Who Invented Professional Wrestling, Becky Lynch – The Man: Not Your Average Average Girl, and Macho Man – The Untamed,…
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A ‘Deuce’ of Shows in NYC and It’s a Wrap for Kiss – In Human Form, That Is
By Joe Puccio Fifty years after forming in New York City, glam rock icons Kiss ended it where it all began with a pair of sold-out extravaganzas at the legendary Madison Square Garden on December 1 and 2. For constituents of the Kiss Army privileged to be in attendance at one (or both) of the…
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Preteen Actor/Singer Madison Baez Is Proving to Be the ‘Right One’
By Joe Puccio Possessing the poise and pluck of somebody twice her age, Madison Taylor Baez has quickly become one of Hollywood’s most esteemed and elite talents. Fresh off of her commanding lead role in Showtime’s Let The Right One In, a television adaptation based on both John Ajvide Lindqvist’s 2004 novel as well as…
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‘Mat Memories’ is a Home Run
By Joe Puccio Had he continued on his ill-advised foray into becoming a professional wrestler, the Sultan of Schizophrenia would have been an appropriate moniker for John Arezzi. By his own admission, Arezzi’s life has been a frenetic whirlwind of undeniable success, unavoidable obstacles, and missed opportunities, with a sprinkling of well-deserved, old-fashioned, luck for…
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‘Mr. Belvedere’ – A Depiction of the Good Life
By Joe Puccio Streaks on the china, never mattered before, who cared?When you drop kicked your jacket, as you came through the door, no one glared,But sometimes things get turned around and no one’s spared,All hands look out below, there’s a change in the status quo,We’re gonna need all the help that we can get,According…
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Pro Wrestling’s Arezzi in the ‘Spotlight’ Again
By Joe Puccio Wrestling fans in 2019 have a cornucopia of choices at their disposal to satiate their auditory appetites. Between Chris Jericho’s jolting Talk is Jericho, Edge and Christian’s clever E&C Pod of Awesomeness, and Bruce Pritchard’s polemical Something to Wrestle with Bruce Pritchard, there is seemingly an option for every admirer of the…
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From 80s Babe to ‘Amityville’
By Joe Puccio If you were a guy growing up in the 80s, you wanted to date her; and if you were a girl, you wanted to be her. Diane Franklin first lit up the silver screen in 1982 in the Boaz Davidson coming-of-age classic The Last American Virgin, playing conflicted transfer student Karen, whose…
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Downton Abbey Lives On!
By Joe Puccio March 6, 2016 is a date that no Downton Abbey fan in the United States will ever forget. It was on that date, just over two years ago, that PBS aired the final episode of the beloved British drama. And for the popular show’s millions of fans worldwide, the conclusion of the…
Generation X Wire 