Re: A bit of nostalgia -- Da Message Board

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Date Posted: 07:41:45 01/29/03 Wed
Author: Tim
Subject: Re: A bit of nostalgia
In reply to: Ratbat 's message, "A bit of nostalgia" on 23:03:09 01/28/03 Tue

Alias the Jester was great! Especially the OP!

Their appraisal of ALF is somewhat uncharitable though.

And now they must die:

TURGID PANTOMIMESQUE women in prison histrionics from the notorious Grundy Organisation, previously responsible for inflicting NEIGHBOURS, THE YOUNG DOCTORS, SONS AND DAUGHTERS etc. on an unsuspecting daytime audience. No prison clich� left unexplored, no potential for sordid melodrama left unrealised. Boss Cocky of the incarcerated femmes of the fictional Wentworth Detention Centre was Bea Smith, a queasy cross between a ginger-hued Miss. Piggy and an Antipodean Anna Magnani, gaoled for double murder and rightfully deserving the title of "top dog". Bea's teenage daughter had died from a heroin overdose, prompting much decidedly dodgy "Just Say No" moralising amongst the ensemble of killers, thieves, thugs etc. Many of the most popular characters came from the early years, such as drunken old hag Lizzie Burdsworth, inserted for proto-COCOON "you're as old as you feel" factor, yo-yo knickered cockarnee sparra Chrissie Latham and Judy Bryant, token lesbian with a pacemaker powered heart of gold. The officers or "screws" were chiefly represented by genteel governor Erica Davidson, hair piled into an elaborate Sybil Fawlty meringue and blissfully unaware she is administering a teeming mound of corruption and sadistic warder Joan "The Freak" Ferguson, enforcing her will with her black-gloved fists and taking her cut on everything that happens. If NEIGHBOURS is the televisual equivalent of Stock, Aitken & Waterman, then this is surely its acid house alternative. CROSSROADS, WITHIN THESE WALLS, St. Trinians and THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW all rolled into one. Kitsch is always at its most striking when it pursues an uncompromising path straight down the line. This show did so and, my goodness, in spades.

TV CREAM immortality rating - 5
... SOPPY, SENTIMENTAL THEME SONG TOTALLY AT ODDS WITH THE 50 ODD MINUTES OF HIGH TACK CACK THAT PRECEDED IT: "ON THE INSIDE, THE SUN STILL SHINES AND THE RAIN FALL FALLS DOWN, BUT THE ROSES FEEL LIKE PRISONERS TOO, WHEN MORNIN' COMES AROUND"

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But they forgot -- Steve, 07:27:13 01/30/03 Thu