No real reason for having Manami 😍 lead off this post except for the fact I like her immensely and how I miss doing posts for her. Four months ago began off a post in this 'Current Watches' series with her, a week later a miracle happened as I was able to do a post for Manami and let's see if lightning can strike twice!!!! This should be the final post for February and was able to hit that mini goal of doing a post a day, always take the final day off which is tomorrow. It's not easy to do a post a day for a month, this had to be the first time in over a year that feat was accomplished. However these last three posts are ones I was going to do in March so will I be struggling to posts at the beginning of the month? That remains to be seen, in the past mid-March is when the posts begin to pick up and stay that way for a while as finally Spring has arrived so let's hope that trend continues.... sigh, on June 14th she'll be celebrating birthday #40 yet Manami still tops those over a decade younger....
Have been using the intro to this series to talk about various things such as huge favorites who I haven't been seen here for a while, such as Manami! But there isn't anyone else that has disappeared lately who I haven't talked about, perhaps disappearing isn't the right word for someone such as Manami but for women I haven't been able to do posts for. So while my fingers are crossed some new things will pop up for the beginning of March do have five photobooks you'll be seeing soon, perhaps two more than that! The first may be the second version of Miru's "Merci" book that came out at the beginning of November, always wait three months before posting a book. Did the post for the original book which was tremendous, did that two weeks ago and why hasn't it received more views? Would prefer to wait until mid-March before having the second book but if there's nothing new in the next few days will begin off the month with the book which features all new pictures as none were in the original version.
There's one other definite book which will be the fourth from Kisumi Amau, would like to have a post soon for her so will talk about the photobook then. A book I have but am wavering on is an unexpected one, least to me it was, for Keya's current captain Rina Matsuda. I really do like her a lot and this may. sound a bit strange but bet I would get along better with her than any other J-Pop Idol, past or present! That's from reading many of Rina's interviews and watching her on Keya's 'Soko' variety show, I get the feeling we're so much alike. Rina has had a few solo posts but none were popular at all, if you viewers want the book let me know for I do have it and if I get a few comments will do a post for the book and also one other for Rina.
Up until August 2024 thought I had only viewed one series which was the "X-Files" and how I love that show. But then recalled I viewed the first season of "Buffy"(!) which was rather good, if I ever did the see the boxset at the store would scoop it up. So it's been over eighteen months since I began to view American TV shows as I did need a break from Japanese series and what I just started to do is to rewatch a few of the first ones I viewed. Will only talk about those that haven't been discussed before so will have one rewatch and also have one brand new series I just began on and will say I have quite a varied type of shows I enjoy. The criteria I set for my choices is never having seen the drama before and to know very little about it, a key thing is that none feature any major star or least ones from the past 25 years. Three times have talked about the old Western "Gunsmoke" that aired from 1955-75 for 635 episodes, I've viewed 305 and that's become my all time favorite show. But it wasn't the first Western I viewed, the first show I'll be talking about has that honor and I enjoyed that show so much looked for other Westerns, there are two others I've bought the boxsets for and will be viewing them soon enough.
PS: This still has to be the only Blog where you can read about old American shows and still get a huge dose of J-Pop Idols!!!!
Richard Boone starred as Wire Paladin who lived at the Hotel Carlton back in the 1870's. This was a very unique Western as Paladin was a very refined man who could be tough depending upon the situation, below is his business card he would give to his clients. Whatever kind of job it was say escorting a woman through the desert, solving a crime or a disappearance among many things Paladin was your man! By refined mean that Paladin had a decent education and was a graduate of West Point, he loved the Opera, fine wine and imported cigars and was nothing like a stereotyped Cowboy. Paladin always got the job done, sometimes he just happened to be in the right place at the right time to pick up a new assignment. He didn't come cheaply as Paladin would often charge $1,000 for a successful case, that's about $25,000 today. But Paladin was also very fair, if you were poor he would never charge a high fee and truly did care about helping those in need out. anyway he could. Another unique thing for the time was that Paladin could speak four Indian languages and they did trust him which didn't happen often in the Wild West.
This was my rewatch for today, originally began on this series back in September 2024 and was close to finishing up the third season. But had so many other new boxsets I wanted to dive into so put this series on hold for a while which became over a year! But have just watched the first 24 episodes again of season one and had forgotten much of what had taken place. This has turned out to be one of the best 'Blind Purchases' I've made, think once I finish off season one will jump to the fourth and rewatch the middle two at a later date. This series had so many known guest stars and that was a key for making this show such a winner! Charles Bronson is below and he made five appearances in this series, each time his character was different. Even Vincent Price loved this show and because of that he took appeared on the show but the main reason for watching this was Richard Boone and he was so terrific as Wire Paladin. He was good friends with Jack Lord who was in the first episode, in 1968 Boone was offered the lead role in the classic "Hawaii Five-O" series but turned it down and recommended his buddy Jack Lord, as they say the rest is history. That's a series I would love to see but never see it at the store, it has been a while since I've bought any boxsets as I have so many to view and my wallet is definitely relieved!!!! The video below is the theme song that would end the episodes, it was sung by Johnny Western and hit #33 on the American charts but was a top ten song in England!
My newest series is another oldie and nothing at all like a Western! The 1960's saw so many sci-fi shows and though I'm not a huge fan of the genre I do like the older ones so much more than sci-fi shows and movies from the last twenty years which have too much CGI. "Time Tunnel" only ran for the 1966-67 season and that was common back from 1955-70 as there were only 3-4 national TV channels and there were so many series to air so even some popular shows had to be dropped after a season or two, "Time Tunnel" could be considered one of those kinds of shows. The setting was 1968 and the location was a massive underground lab/station under the Arizona desert. Where secretly the U.S. government was working on the first ever time traveling machine, many thousands worked at this secret lab and there are many pictures of it below.
The two main stars were James Darren as Tony Newman and Robert Colbert as Doug Phillips, both are above and the pair were the main scientists on the project. The woman is Lee Meriwether who played their assistant Ann who was also a skilled scientist, in 1955 at the age of twenty Lee was Miss America!!!! There were two other important figures in the huge lab, an older scientist named Swain and an Army General named Kirk, the pair were very key to the stories. In the first episode a U.S. senator visited the lab and his concern was their budget for eight billion had been spent over the previous few years, without any results the project may have to be scrapped. In a daring move the younger lead scientist Tony entered the Time Tunnel secretly to prove the machine could work on humans. It did but in a disaster Tony ended up going back to April 13, 1912 and had landed on an ocean liner. Of all ships it happened to be the Titanic and the following day is when it met its demise! To save his close mate Doug also walked into the time tunnel and was whisked back in time to the Titanic but of course the ship's captain didn't believe the wild tale of his ship hitting an iceberg! Back at the underground lab the team can pinpoint the time and location of where Tony and Doug are transported to but can't communicate. At the lab the pair can still be teleported but the scientists have been unable to send them to a certain time or place, such as back to their underground HQ.
The pair of Tony and Doug seem to teleported to every disaster in history but are unable to change most of what happened such as the Titanic sinking. In the fourth show the pair ended up in Honolulu on December 6, 1941 but were unable to prevent the Japanese attack on that day but did help the Army to nab some of the spies. My favorite to date was the sixth episode where the pair were sent back to late August 1883 and the SW Pacific island of Krakatoa which is near Java and south of Malaysia. Back in 1883 the most powerful volcano eruption took place in the small island which had the energy level of 25,000 H-Bombs!!!! Tony. and Doug were able to help a few survive so they can change history to an extent but not a major event as who knows how the future may change? No clue on why I chose this series to buy and now watch, it looked quite interesting and it really is plus you do learn about history as I had never heard of that volcano eruption on the island of Krakatoa. After the pics is a segment from the first episode and I do recommend viewing it as it took place on the Titanic plus you get to see what the actual time tunnel looks like, this series did have thirty episodes and a fine mini boxset.
Third post in a row for this series where I've viewed an Elvis movie and the boxset I bought in January is right above. Have been working backwards with the four movies, there's also a three TV shows which are of a documentary and two concerts. My latest view was "Viva Las Vegas" and that may be the best known of the 31 Elvis films, the title track was such a massive hit and eventually became the theme song to Las Vegas. Many fans feel this may have been the best of the Elvis films and it was one I did enjoy. But to be honest I thought the first two I viewed, "Spinout' and "Girl Happy" were a bit better and mainly because of the storylines. This was similar to "Spinout" as Elvis played a race car driver named Lucky Jackson but there was no racing until the final eight minutes. However that was one of the better car races I've seen in a film so that was one huge positive plus of course the songs were good. Hate to admit but bought another Elvis CD a few weeks back, I had most of the 31 songs but not all and liked the order the songs were in on this CD.
A massive sex symbol back in the 1960's and 70's was Ann Margaret, she was very popular at the time this movie came out in 1964 and had almost as much screen time as Elvis. Which to me kind of hurt the movie, I'm curious about Elvis and his career which is why I bought this mini boxset. Ann looks good but didn't get my blood boiling and I much prefer the way Shelley Fabares looked in the previous two Elvis films I viewed. In this movie his character of Lucky was too broke to buy a new engine for his racing car the Las Vegas Grand Prix was going to take place in a week. Elvis did win the cash for an engine but lost it all when pushed into a pool by Ann's character of Rusty who was the manager of a hotel pool. Eventually Lucky was able to scrape up the money for a new motor and could race in the Las Vegas Grand Prix where he did win over his rival Mancini who had also been vying for Rusty's affections. All in all a decent film but as I've read a few times once you've seen an Elvis film you've seen them all! That may not be true for next up will his first film "Jail House Rock" from 1957 and is supposed to be so different than most of his films, one difference is that it was in Black and White. While the title track is the most known song from the movie after the pics is my favorite tune from the movie which is "C'mon Everybody".
So above is what I've viewed since the last post in the series, not a lot of things but did say am doing this post about a week early. So am thinking in that next post will devote it to a pair of Korean dramas and some Japanese films. Which I prefer over dramas but every now and again you need a long break from something even if you may like that immensely, that's been the case for my Japanese movie watching the last few months. On the "Time Tunnel" boxset still have one more episode to view which is about fifty minutes in length. After that, which will be tonight, will dive into some movies and will talk about a few of them in the next post in this series. Had been watching three episodes a night of "Time Tunnel" which add up to be 150 minutes. But tonight just have one episode to view so after that will view a movie that's say around ninety minutes. First up for films will be from this boxset which is my favorite one of all time!!!! 'Nikkatsu Noir' is the title and I've watched each film at least ten times but never get tired of them. All are in B&W and earlier today had the urge to watch "Cruel Gun Story" from 1964 which starred the terrific Jo Shishido. The Cruel part comes from all of the double crossing that happened after a massive robbery of a truck carrying the receipts from a horse track, at the end everyone had bitten the dust and what an exciting film it was, do recommend viewing the trailer.
To wrap this up quickly in that next post for this 'Current Watches' series besides some films from Japan will also have a pair of Korean dramas. One will be a brand new show for here and am currently up in the air on what do view, have a backlog of dramas and all look terrific which makes it even harder to choose one! But am certain that one drama will be "From Now On, Showtime!" and did give a mini recap of the first four episodes in the last post of this series. I did read some positive reviews about the show and the first four episodes were quite good so will be discussing the show in the next post. One huge reason for finally viewing this 2022 series is because of Jin Ki-Joo who is my top Korean actress and looks absolutely dynamite!!!! Below are some pics from an event held on April 22, 2022 for the drama plus have a video, there's many of them on YT.
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