Movies in LALA Land

So for my brother's Senior trip my family went to Los Angeles, California. I have two things to say about it 1) The city is absolutely awful and I hate it and 2) the trip was a lot of fun!

While there we toured three movie studios: Sony (who bought out Columbia), Warner Brothers and Paramount. Lots of classic movies were made in these three studios. We even got to see Lucille Balls office! It was lots of fun. We were shown places where the Brady Bunch was filmed, and discussed different old stars that had contracts with certain studios and explored the world of film. It was great!

During the old days studios pretty much owned their actors. Nowadays actors act at any studio the movie they are making is being filmed. However, back in the day an actor or actress signed a contract, for whatever amount of time, to "stay true" (so to speak) to one certain studio. They were paid a certain amount and basically sat around the studio from 8 to 5 every day waiting for a job to drop into their lap. Big name actors usually had a sort of "living quarters" where they spent their time when they were filming a movie. Once they were hired for a movie they would spend several weeks on the film then the lull would start all over.

If there was a studio that wanted a certain actor, but didn't have a contract with them, the studio that did have the contract with that particular actor could "lend them out". For example, say Cary Grant was signed on with Columbia but Universal wanted him for a movie, Columbia would share him while the movie was being made. This could be costly for Universal as they would have to pay both Cary Grant and Columbia. With the way movies are made now, though, is much more flexible for both the studios and the actors.

Back in the Golden Age of movie making studios could film anywhere from 20 to 30 movies in a year. Now movies are made much more slowly and carefully to make them just right and make sure they are quality, and in the end most studios only shoot 4 to 7 movies a year.

I suggest that if people were to visit LA they take at least one tour of a movie studio. I also suggest that it's not Universal as that is more of an amusement park, and less of the "real deal". Have any questions of the history of filming movies? Please leave a comment!

Ellery Queen

It may only had 22 episodes, but it was well worth it.

Ellery Queen was started in 1975. It's about an absent minded mystery writer who solves cases with his inspector father. The show takes place in the 40s right after World War II.

Why it only went 22 episodes, I will never know. Mom and I watch other mystery shows together, such as Psych, Monk, Magnum, PI., Murder, She Wrote but this is different. I've never been able to solve the case before the end of any of the episodes like I can in those other mystery shows.

Starring Jim Hutton and David Wayne this show is a must see for all who enjoy a good mystery.

I Dream of That Girl

Man # 1: I want a girl that has great hair and great looks.

Man # 2: For a simple roll in a play?

Man # 1: Yes. I want everyone to know that I have quality people on that stage.

Man # 2: But she'll only be on stage for five minutes.

Man # 1: That doesn't matter in the least.

Man # 2: Well then I've got just the girl.

Man # 1: Who?

Man # 2: THAT GIRL!



Yes, dear readers, I did just come up with that off the top of my head. Recently I've fallen in love with three "new" shows. I Dream of Jeannie and That Girl. Actually in the case of I Dream of Jeannie I've refallen in love. I used to watch it late at night at my Grandma's along with I Love Lucy, Bewitched and M*A*S*H. My third new favorite is one I haven't even heard of till recently, McHale's Navy. And do I love it! My list of shows from the old days just keeps growing.

A Romantic War

Movies and shows, such as Operation Petticoat and Hogan's Heroes really romanticize war. In these types of shows and movies there are gorgeous babes, no buddy gets hurt, the enemies are idiots, and other untrue things. Yes they are great, they are hilarious, but are they war?













I don't pretend to know what it means to fight in a war, as I have never fought in a war, but sometimes I wonder. Every war is different, with different people, different enemies, different reasons, different backgrounds. But one thing is for sure, all war is ugly.

In books and movies about war the hero is usually someone that can't wait to fight and is fantastic at fighting and isn't scared and just someone you really want to be your chum. Wasn't there anyone who was scared? Wasn't there anyone who wanted to run away as soon as they got into their first fight or watched their first buddy die?

In World War II at Iwo Jima the fighting went on for over a month. The Japanese were hidden underneath the ground in these passages that they had been digging for months. The American boys were surrounded but couldn't see their enemy.

Korean War, known for the land mines that were absolutely everywhere. The boys had to walk far enough apart so if one person stepped on a mine they wouldn't all die together, but hopefully just him.

In most wars it was hard to get letters from loved ones, or to write. They made many extremely close friends that died, they had to fight hand to hand combat with the enemy, they sometimes killed their own men (on accident something known as friendly fire), they were taken prisoner, they were tortured.... war is always ugly.

War is terrible. War has always been terrible. not one of those people that hates war to the point where I'm gonna go stand in the middle of the capital and picket "Get us out of this war!" because sometimes war is necessary. But war is never as romantic as they make it out in many of those movies and shows and books.

War is war.



Iwo Jima



POW camp in Korea

1-Adam-12 See the Woman

So last night I heard a couple of my neighbors fighting. They were getting really loud and they were both, clearly, very upset about something. It didn't occur to me till about 9 this morning that maybe I should have called the police. After all they were disturbing the peace. With this in mind I watched an Adam-12 today. That show is just terrific. It makes you happy that police officers protect us. At least it makes me happy. I could be the only one. And it makes me sad that today's cops shows are just lousy. They are so dark and dramatic and between all the cases there is always some sort of soap-opera-story going on between the characters and it's just so stupid. In Adam-12 Malloy is a bachelor and he likes it that way, Reed is married with a baby boy and he likes it that way and that's about as deep into their personal lives as you get. The rest of it is just good old cops and robbers type stuff and it's not boring, and it's based on true events. Quite interesting. Sometimes I think shows like CSI go out on a limb and make a bunch of that crap up, but what do I know? Anyway those were my random thoughts for the afternoon. Hope someone out there is actually reading this...



Officers Malloy and Reed

The Best Things to Watch at Night

Ok so I don't like Friends, I don't like That 70s Show, I don't like Everybody Loves Raymond... Those are not the types of shows I want to watch before I go to bed. As family friendly as some of today's shows try to be they can still be pretty crass. I don't want to be slimed before I go to bed. So I've settled on watching some of the older shows, the ones where they had separate beds and never mentioned sex. I love The Dick Van Dyke Show and I Love Lucy and My Favorite Martian. That's what I want to watch before I go to bed. They are lovely, they are clean, they are relaxing. They don't put a bunch of dirty thoughts in your head right before you go to sleep. That's what I call a good show.