traveller004

This movie was (unfortunately) mired in a scandal in that it was completely scripted. There were no genuine scenes. Anyone who would dare challenge this known fact needs to view the piece and note that several of the scenes involve as many as 5 to 7 camera angles. There are several other points that scream a totally fabricated piece of work. It should have been reclassified as a work of fiction or standard movie fare since it is no legitimate documentary.

Though the movie was well intentioned and the people in it are truly genuine the crew who filmed it broke every convention of true documentary film making. This is a sad fact since it was nominated for an award at the time it was released but failed to receive that award when the truth came out.

I saw the pilot movie Phoenix, which at the time was not intended as a series but the ratings were so high a quick option was picked up by the network to shoot the series. To my knowledge only six episodes of this series were ever aired. The two or three glimpses of the series episodes I did manage to see gave me the impression that the high production values of the pilot movie did not carry over to the TV show. I have followed the career of Judson Earny Scott since and am sad to say a man with as much talent as he does not seem to get many good roles.

Most people remember from his minor role in The Wrath Of Kahn. But he's been in a host of TV shows, including the pilot of "Mathew Star," he was also in "X-files" and various other pieces. Having met the man in person, which I did late in 1982 I can say that he is as genuine as the character he portrayed in the role of Benu from the movie and later series of "The Phoenix."

I did like this movie. It had the benefit of never having been done before or since for that matter.

In the primary story, a college professor, reaches his 40th birthday and is an unhappy single gay man. He goes home to help his family celebrate his parent's 45th wedding anniversary. During his visit he runs into old friends and old "not so" friends. Further reminded of his lonely life during this family gathering he gets into an accident and is somehow catapulted back into his teenage years.

However all is not as it was. Now he is a world where men like men and girls like girls. His father is married to his otherworld neighbor husband and his mother is married to the otherworld wife. The star of the basketball team a guy he has always had a crush on meets and falls for him while his best friend, a girl shows up. For a brief shining moment he is "normal." However all things are not equal. In this world he discovers that he is not gay. He falls for his friend and they enter a tentative relationship that jeopardizes the love he had developed with his teen heartthrob.

The movie was good but not as good as it could have been. From the technical side the movie's editing was not as good as it could have been and some of the actors had a habit of overplaying their roles. Still for what it was and is this movie is a ground breaker. It was a major shocker for me a gay man to see a high-school full of boys kissing each other and girls doing the same with their girl friends. For a moment I saw a world where I would have been "Almost Normal."

I am with you. This was one of the shockingly best Sci-Fi efforts I've ever seen since the earlier and later Outer Limits series. It is creative and innovative and you're right the production quality is far beyond what you would expect for a TV series.

I have six of the episodes of that series on video tape. I know in my overly vast collection of VHS tapes I have more but I'm still searching for them. I am currently transferring what I do have onto DVD. If you have ANY episodes on VHS or DVD please contact me directly at traveller004@hotmail.com and perhaps we can trade and both have more shows. Hopefully I will have at least one or two episodes that you do not and perhaps you have some that I do not.

It took me forever to get up the courage to view this movie after I got a copy of it. At first glance it looked like a meager prospect with some of the other movies I viewed recently. But when I did I was shocked at how much I liked it. Who knew there was going to ever be a gay theme movie with a happy ending where the romantic lead doesn't get killed, hate himself or lose the man of his dreams.

It's time that movies like this began to get made. I don't, unlike the previous reviewer feel that the main character is a geek so much as an average kind of guy whom was lucky enough to get a second chance at that unrequited love from an earlier time in his life.

Give this one a try if you want a slightly lighter romantic comedy, that is actually romantic and funny. To be sadly honest it's about the best romantic comedy I've seen recently gay or straight themed. Again unlike the former reviewer I cannot associate this movie "Bedrooms and Hallways" where the gay guy gets the gal and the straight boy moves away to another country?????? What was that all about. Why did that movie fly in the first place?

I have recently seen this series on my local PBS and fell in love with it. The premise is deceptively simple but very well thought out. The primary characters, Miss Farnaby (pronounced Farnby) hires a stranger "Mulberry" as her personal servant. Through the course of their time together he encourages Farnaby who has become an shut-in during her declining years, to come alive once more. But there is a hidden plot underneath as Mulberry is actually the son of Death and has been sent by the Dark Angel to take Miss Farnaby on to her ultimate reward or to die. He however grows to love the old woman as a sort of surrogate mother and refuses to "kill her" in his own words. Instead he pleads with his father to give Miss Farnaby three more months of time to begin living.

Miss Farnaby's other two staff members, Alice, the cook and her husband who is the gardener/stable master/grounds keeper are almost as shut-in as their employer. They both resist the re-awakening of the old lady during the course of the series but it is obvious that there is a deep seeded loyalty between the trio that is thinly disguised by proper English manners and traditions. Their interaction with Mulberry often results in some of the series' most humorous moments.

It is a wonderful story that shows that through it all sometimes you can be so close to the end of life and still never have lived at all. He breaths life into Miss Farnaby's existence and brings her back from the brink of destitution. It is a powerful series that often evoked both laughter and tears in each and every episode. If you have any of these episodes especially episode 8 in which the character Mulberry falls over a cliff and supposedly dies, this episode was never aired where I live. I would love to get copies of it since it does not appear to have ever been put into any medium to purchase in the USA or overseas.

If it does come onto PBS or one of your local TV channels it's a very good show and is excellent even for the kids as the show is suitable for general audiences.