Author: UncaScroogeMcD

ROSWELL, N.M. – The aliens have returned! Maybe not returned so much as finally arrived on home video with the release of Dark Skies: The Declassified Complete Series on DVD. Startling enough, the show only lasted a season on NBC in 1996. It gained a large cult with an alternative history of America in the ’60s. “History as we know it is a lie” was the startling series slogan. John Loengard (Eric Close) went from plucky congressional aide to a member of the ultra creepy Majestic 12 run by Frank Bach (J.T. Walsh) to battle the alien menace. An equally bizarre transformation happens to his girlfriend, Kimberly Sayers (Megan Ward). She gets alien abducted and returned. The perky perfect sixties gal goes to dark side. Can he bring her back?

Megan Ward called up the Party Favors hotline for a brief chat about the series, being covered in cow guts, the late J.T. Walsh and Oscar host James Franco. Ward has been acting for over two decades in movies and TV shows. You might remember her from Encino Man, PCU, Freaked, The Brady Bunch Movie and Joe’s Apartment. She’s also been on Class of ’93, Melrose Place, Sleeper Cell and Party of Five. Currently she’s on call for General Hospital as Kate Howard. Even with such a busy career, she still remembers her time being probed by aliens.

“What I found important and moving about the initial script and a good first half of the season that it was as much about the aliens as it was about America,” Ward said. “These two young people reflected where the consciousness was in America. Finding out the truth about the aliens and the conspiracy to conceal them by the government changed them. And it’s the same thing that happened to America…becoming wiser and the American dream slipping through their fingers with the different historical events that happened. It was the human aspect of the show, not just the alien and conspiracy aspect that made the show special.”

The show comes off as a twist of X-Files, The Invaders and Mad Men. Although that last part wouldn’t happen for over a decade. Maybe the aliens saw into the future? In an odd coincidence Mad Men‘s John Slattery gives a non-credited performances as a newscaster in a Dark Skies episode. We didn’t have time to talk about Roger Sterling’s appearance. We did address how Dark Skies had outline for all five season that went from the early ’60s to modern times which would have been the future a decade ago. I asked if she got excited guessing the time period of an upcoming script.

“In the very end is when they sped it up a lot,” Ward said. “In the beginning it was over those few years of significant events from assassination of JFK, Beatles coming to America, Mississippi Burning, and astronaut missions. There really was this sort of compact amount of events during the time. It was an amazing time in history so it was ripe for the producers to start the show during that time.”

The pilot excited her from the page. This was not the normal TV show that had a hour-long pilot script with potential for 99 more episodes.

“It was probably the most dynamic and interesting script I had ever read,” she said. “It really set itself up from the get go with a cover letter from John Loengard to really get you to buy it. I didn’t see any of the tricks along the way because the read itself was compelling. The fact that it was a two hour pilot meant it was a full length movie where you could tell a full story versus the selling points for a new show. It was its own story that ended with ‘Ok, now what happened’ versus ‘I get what this show is about.’ That was exciting to participate in.”

The pilot movie got plenty of buzz with Tobe Hooper directing and Bill Butler as director of photography. The man who brought America The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the cinematographer that captured Jaws weren’t the usual pilot season tag team. What did she think of seeing them on set?

“Wasn’t that cool?” Ward acknowledged. “It was great. I knew exactly who they were. I was so pleased because it further impressed me to the quality of what this show could be. You knew that hey were going to shoot it well. There was a scene where the ball light is presented in front of her. She’s reaching out and being compelled to touch it and go to Hive. This was such a Tobe Hopper moment. Normally during filming even if there are special effects, you don’t hear anyone talking or throwing directions. He started directing me about what that ball meant. It was really a lightbulb in the actor’s hand. He just started throwing out, “Man, It’s so trippy. It’s so weird” in his hippie speak. It was such a defining moment of “Yes, I worked with Tobe Hooper.” It was really great.”

Because of the digital video effects used on the show, it was hard to tell if she got gooped up. Enquiring minds had to know if she was coated in alien goo.

“I think I did get covered in something,” she admitted. “I also had to do all the casts and make the molds ahead of time. They had to make my puppet that got encased inside some sort of resin or gel. Eric managed to get away with very little special effects stuff. I was the one who was probed, things up my nose, and coughing stuff up. I had all the difficult special effects stuff. But once you do it, you get yourself through it. It’s not as nasty as working with cockroaches or jumping in pits of cow organs – which I’ve done in my past.”

She was the romantic interest in the cockroach heavy Joe’s Apartment. Arcade had her starring with Seth Green, John De Lancie (Q) Peter Billingsley (A Christmas Story) and Chef Chris Cosentino’s favorite cuts. The film was about a kid getting sucked into a video game.

“My character escapes one of the levels through a portal that was a dry ice infused, organ rich, bubbling pond. They literally took innards from the grocery store and had them floating on top. At the end of the scene, I had to jump into it. That’s how dedicated I am to my craft.”

Oddly enough Megan Ward was not a star of Hot Dog…The Movie. She was extremely dedicated on Dark Skies since it wasn’t an easy shoot compared to a sitcom.

“What was difficult about this show was physically accomplishing it,” Ward said. “It was so demanding because we had the Sixties time period. We had historical events. We had action. We had aliens and special effects. It was very challenging show to get all of that in with integrity and authenticity in a regular episodic show. We had an 80 hour week. It was more about getting it done and surviving it because we were so ambitious.”

The 4:30 a.m. call times weren’t the only things taxing Ward’s stamina. “A lot of what Kim did was give the emotional perspective on where they found themselves in the situation. It was a very draining experience,” she said.

But even with the lack of sleep and hitting extreme emotional notes, Ward got pumped up by the historical moments on the set.

“It was quite exciting to say, ‘What event do we get this week?’ When we got the Beatles event, that was so much fun,” she said.

Her favorite location was a simple place. “We were on the beach, It was cold and we were shooting in the dead of winter, but it was so refreshing to be out of the grittier locations and muddy farms,” she confessed.

The ultimate question about working in a show that covered so much of the ’60s; what was her favorite hairstyle?

“I liked my big hair,” she said. “It got too big at times. Some of the stuff I look back and go, ‘That was wrong.’ We always joked that my hair was a helmet and I just needed a chinstrap. it would have been easier if we had.”

J.T. Walsh brought the goods to the series as the mysterious military man. He was a solid actor who had appeared in over 70 movies and TV shows. He seemed destined for a long career like Charles Lane with his ability to project the no nonsense authority figure. It was a shock when he passed away in 1998 of a heart attack at age 54. What was Walsh like at what turned out to be the end of his career?

“He was great,” Ward testified. “He was tough. He knew who he was. He knew what he was doing. He was really wise and smart. He had no patience for time wasted. He could be difficult if he was unhappy with the length of time something took to shoot or if there was some confusion. He was never that way to me. I really looked up to him. I was a young actor and I knew I had a lot to learn. I appreciated working with an actor of his caliber and experience because I always felt very safe with him in a scene. I didn’t have to think for him. He always inspired me as an actor. It was fun to work with him. It was challenging to work with him in the way actors dream of. It was a pleasure and we miss him a lot.”

Was Walsh’s no nonsense attitude part of him or merely him tapping into the characters he was constantly cast as?

“I don’t know,” Ward said. “The truth of the matter is that actors can only play a part of themselves. I think it just zeroed in on who he was. He was a wonderful storyteller. He had this other side to him that you would see once and a while. When it came to the work, he was fairly disciplined. He wanted to get it done and get it over with – which is a good thing. But you had to be careful around him because you could set him off. He could get upset very easily. He wasn’t as kind to other people on the show as he was to me.”

The boxset for Dark Skies: The Declassified Complete Series has commentary tracks along with a documentary about the series featuring producers & creators Bryce Zabel and Brent Friedman. For a show that was filled with government secrets; was she shocked to learn information about the show from the bonus features?

“It’s interesting looking back on something where you have so much more information than at the time,” she said. “It’s funny that being on the set 80 hours a week and being the female lead of a show, you’d think I’d know everything going on. But you don’t know that much unless you’re intentionally included on information.”

Did she know that the producers had sped up their outline when they knew NBC didn’t want to renew the series?

“I knew that Kim’s role had changed through the course of the end of the season,” Ward said. “I was really uncertain how she’d come back since she ended as a villain.”

There was no hint to her that the season ending episode would be the last.

“A producer can’t really tell an actor that it looks awful that the network isn’t supporting us and returning my calls. It wouldn’t be good for an actor’s morale to know all that ahead of time.

Last year James Franco became a sensation for his short tenure on General Hospital. His clips shown on Talk Soup didn’t hint he’d cut off his arm in quest of an Oscar. What was Ward’s opinion of the star of His Royal Highness

“It’s funny because my character actually introduces James Franco, but we’re never on screen together because I had a scheduling conflict,” Ward admitted. “So I had to shoot all of my stuff the day before his character arrives. He came in the next day. My character introduces him to the town of Port Charles where General Hospital takes place. I’m in some other room and everybody is going into the room where he is. Our storylines never coincided again. He plays an artist and my character’s a fashion editor. She hosted an art show featuring his character’s art which is how he came to town. That was the closest I got to James Franco.”

Now that Dark Skies: The Declassified Complete Series has been released; Ward is eager to see a few other of her shows on DVD.

“I have two. One is Four Corners which was a short lived series I did with Ann-Margret and Sonia Braga. I’m so proud of it. Such a great, cute family drama. There was only five shows so they cut it down to a TV movie. So I don’t think that will ever happen. The one I really want to come out is Class of ’96 which was a show about a freshman class. It was in 1992 when Fox went seven nights a week. It was very sentimental and thoughtful with really great characters. We did 17 of those shows. I’m trying to get Shout! Factory to do that one.”

I WROTE THAT

Will the press quit playing the game of guessing who wrote O – the novel about Obama running for re-election. I wrote it. I’m Anonymous. I was keeping it on the down low since I don’t need the Secret Service all in my business. Why break my silence? I’m hearing all these big name political writers hinting they might have done it. But they won’t say it was them. And they can’t it because it’s me. You might as well take a silver Sharpie and write my name on the spine. I was quite upset that my editor did force me to rework the original title: “O: The Erotic Journal of a President Campaigning from DC for a Little AC.”

JUST GIVE OUT THE TROPHIES

This year’s award season has me rather bored. It’s a relief that they’ve moved up the Oscars to Feb. 27 from its old date in April. There’s no sparkle or glamor this year. Did people show up at the Golden Globes wearing cords? There’s no nasty blood feuds being played out in public. For a bunch of dramatic people, it’s too calm. Does everyone now live in fear of opening up their yaps and getting shot down like Mickey Rourke on The Wrestler‘s failed run for glory? Why isn’t James Franco trash talking Colin Firth? A little speech issue is more award worthy than cutting off your arm with a Swiss Army knife?

The only film I’m rooting for is Restrepo since we did cover Sebastian Junger in the column. It’ll keep Party Favors as the good luck charm for Best Documentary winners.

DVD SHELF

Black Panther revives the African superhero using Marvel Knights animation to bring movement to Reginald Hudlin’s reboot. The director of House Party had taken over the series in 2005. A few years later he became President of Entertainment for BET. The channel asked him to develop his version of Black Panther as a network cartoon. Like previous Marvel Knights projects, they bring the panels alive. John Romita, Jr’s original art gains motion. Although since this was a done for a TV show, there’s more in these six episodes than the first six comics. There’s a whole subplot involving Black Panther and the X-Men’s Storm. They are a natural fit since she’s also from Africa. The events covered deal with Prince T’Challa (Dijmon Hounsou) winning a tournament in Wakanda. His prize is the role as the new Black Panther. His first gig in the new job – fight against Klaw, the guy who killed the previous Black Panther. There’s a major battle as Klaw invades Wakanda with a team of super villains. Lot of good explosions in the exotic location. Stan Lee has a vocal cameo. The bonus features include a documentary about making the series, a music video and a trailer.

Matlock: The Sixth Season serves up more sweet Southern justice. “The Witness Killings” gives an unexpected sour homecoming for lawyer Ben Matlock (Andy Griffith). Turns out his relatives hate him for going to Atlanta instead of being the town lawyer. He’s given his chance to practice in hometown as locals are being murdered. “The Marriage Counselor” has the professional therapist get killed. Turns out the guy has been “helping” his clients by seducing the wives. Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) gets his freak on. “The Picture” brings back Don Knotts as the neighbor. Although I get major rush with the arrival of Doug McClure on “The Outcast.” Matlock retires when he screws up a case. Will he ever return to the bar or will we drink to his demise? The big finale is “The Assassination” with a local mayor getting plunked. There’s plenty of killing for a movie length episode. This was the final season the series aired on NBC and shot in Los Angeles. Next season moved the show to ABC and Wilmington, NC.

Freakonomics brings the theories of Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner from the best selling book to the screen. This is a magazine style adaptation of the book with an all-star documentary team creating the segments. Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) ponders if fancy naming your kid matters. Why We Fight‘s Eugene Jarecki distills the radical relationship between crime rates and abortion. Jesus Camp‘s Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady follow high schoolers that have a chance to make money for good grades. Does cash turn bad grades into Harvard ready GPAs? Client 9‘s Alex Gibney’s piece on cheating in Sumo wresting could have been expanded into its own movie. There’s a lot of shocking revelations spinning out of a simple case of people letting their friends share in the paydays. Did you know the police in Japan will report your homicide as natural causes if they don’t have an immediate murderer? Don’t die in Tokyo. The film comes off as a great start to a continuing TV series. There needs to be more exploration of their odd theories. I knew Dubner from his previous life as a guitarist in the Right Profile and an entertainment writer. Strange to see him now in this role. Although nothing in this film is as freaky as his hair back in the ’80s. This is a must see for people who like odd connections.

Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer explores what the hell happened to the former governor of New York. How did a guy on the political rise allow himself to become ruined by a prostitution scandal? He’s not completely ruined since he got his own show on CNN. This isn’t a single narrative. We get a view from Manhattan from the view of hookers, investment bankers and Spitzer. The movie explores how this guy was supposed to be a hero. Director Alex Gibney has become the documentarian who has a way of distilling the most complicated of characters and scandals. He’s done it with Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Casino Jack and the United States of Money and Taxi to the Dark Side. He’s created a team that rivals 60 Minutes at its prime. There is more information here than your average news network that reduces coverage to cartoonish pundits screaming opinion disguised as referenced facts. It’s hard to say that the Sheriff of Wall Street was set up. He knew he was marked. Spitzer upset wealthy people and their corporations. He went after AIG before it needs nearly $200 billion of our money for their outrageous business practices. His enemies do have their say in the film. They were ready to pounce when Spitzer’s vice was revealed. Spitzer allowed himself to be destroyed. The film makes us realize that you have to be a monk if you wish to rally against dangerous players. If you need to see prostitutes, why not go visit Bunny Ranch where it is legal?

Down Terrace is a British family crime comedy that reminds you why it stinks to work for relatives. Bill and Karl swear there’s a rat in their operation. They get sprung from jail and immediately sniff around for the cop lover. They run their operation out of Brighton. Oddly enough, Bill and Karl are played by a real life father and son team. There’s a bit of natural truth in their bickerings. It captures the charm of The Sopranos without so much marina sauce on the action. Down is my favorite English crime flick since Sexy Beast. This deserves a spot in your overlooked film night.

Clover sticks Elizabeth McGovern (The Bedroom Window) in a tricky racial situation. She marries Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters and Oz) which seems fine. She doesn’t quite get along with Ernie’s daughter. But it’s nothing beyond the normal stepmom friction. There’s no time for things to ease out since Ernie drops dead. She’s legally the child’s sole guardian now. His side of the family isn’t happy that Elizabeth wants to raise the daughter. Will anyone let her be a mom? This Hallmark TV movie is much more masterful in the treatment of the subject than a Tyler Perry film. Zelda Harris is fantastic as the girl trapped in the middle of a family loyalty struggle.

Erich Segal’s Only Love brings together the charming couple of Rob Morrow and Marisa Tomei. This is a nearly three hour-long Hallmark presentation that goes for the sentimental. Rob Morrow is a doctor who reunites with a lost love (Life Force‘s Mathilda May) when she needs his help with a deadly tumor. Decades before, the duo had survived a war in Africa. Now he has to find a way to stay focused and professional. He can’t afford to destroy his marriage and kill his old flame. Luckily he’s married to Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler) so it’s not that tempting to cheat on her. This is a perfect DVD to give the wife while you retreat to you hidden fortress to watch exciting college basketball action. Morrow and Tomei need to play a married couple again.

ENCINO, CA – While Charles Nelson Reilly is beloved for his time on Match Game, there’s more to this actor than Dumb Dora answers. He was the toast of Broadway with roles in Hello Dolly and Bye, Bye, Birdie and won the Tony for How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying. Later in life he directed several plays on the Great White Way. While many actors sum up their lives in thick tomes, Charles created a one-man show. He was a stage performer so this was the best way to distill his experiences for an audience. The Life of Reilly captures his final performance before his passing in 2007.

After playing the festival circuit and a limited theatrical release, Life of Reilly is finally out on DVD, Blu-ray and iTunes. You can take Charles every where. In edition to the feature film, there’s tons of bonus features including a video of a longer performance, a tour of his house and a commentary track with Burt Reynolds, Anne Meara, Jerry Stiller and the late Dom DeLuise. This is a testament to a comic genius who immortalized in his upper corner seat on the Match Game set. Only thing it’s missing is Weird Al’s tribute song CNR – which I’ll include here:

I had a chance to swap email with Barry Poltermann. He co-directed the film with Frank L. Anderson. Poltermann has served as editor on Chris Smith’s legendary American Movie and Collapse.

PARTY FAVORS: What is your first memory of Charles Nelson Reilly?

POLTERMANN: Wow, hmmm. Well, I remember watching The Ghost and Mrs. Muir on TV when I was very young, and he was a regular on that. So that would have to be it. But the thing about Charles in the ’70s was he was one of those actors who was just in the ether… I bet to most people that grew up in that era he was just ubiquitous… like polyester… he just was everywhere.

PARTY FAVORS: How did you meet Charles Nelson Reilly?

POLTERMANN: We called him out of the blue after hearing that he was doing a one man show. The show had gotten great critical acclaim on the theater circuit around 2001. We’d heard about it, and somewhere along the line we got the idea of doing a Swimming to Cambodia style treatment of a Charles Nelson Reilly play. We thought that seemed like a funny idea. So, we called his agent and he set up a lunch meeting at the Polo Lounge…which is near Charles’ house in Beverly Hills.

PARTY FAVORS: What was the first thing that struck you about him as he talked?

POLTERMANN: That he was the same guy I remembered from the ’70s… the same crazy, goofy… kind of sly and well… naughty, I guess. He looked old now… which made sense as he was now in his 70s, but I hadn’t seen him for years and didn’t even recognize him when he came into the room. But when he started talking and telling stories, the energy returned… the humor, the charm. It was one of the best days of my life… fun as hell as he told one story after another. We eventually went back to his home and watched several hours of video tapes of him doing the show in dinner theaters and such over the years… all these grainy, lock down videos. And still the show was fun and entertaining.

PARTY FAVORS: How many times did you watch his one-man-show before you figured out how to visually capture it?

POLTERMANN: We got our hands on all of the video copies of the show that we possibly could from Charles or other friends and digitized them all to create an advanced edit of the show for story. Charles had so many different shows he did telling so many different stories that we had a wealth of material to work with Basically we cut several hours of raw material down to a 90 minute cut that was the distilled essence of the stories we wanted to focus on, ordered the way you see them in the finished movie. Then we transcribed it and storyboarded it. Ultimately the storyboards were a waste of time as Charles simply never hit his marks or did things in a way we could plan around, but the script was very valuable. We were able to cover all kinds of inserts, stories and pieces that he didn’t do live in order to sharpen the story and focus his three hour plus stage play down.

PARTY FAVORS: What did you want the film to feel like?

POLTERMANN: I mentioned Spalding Grey before… Swimming to Cambodia. We studied that and Stop Making Sense prior to shooting. But in the end, it is much more raw and hand held, which I like. It’s as if you did a raw, handheld version of Stop Making Sense with Charles Nelson Reilly instead of the Talking Heads.

PARTY FAVORS: Did you determine before or after the filming as to what moments could use outside illustration?

POLTERMANN: Both. We created several elements, such as the Pelican sunset at the end, and shot them with Charles during the initial week of shooting. But many of the illustrations were done later during editing. For instance we had generic fire elements for the shoot to project, but ended up getting actual footage from the Hartford Circus Fire so we integrated that later. The Christmas In Connecticut animation and Columbus the Man play footage were ideas we had during editorial. It was mostly in editorial.

PARTY FAVORS: What were the key moments on the production?

POLTERMANN: Deciding to go handheld was big. It was a necessary reaction to the fact that Charles’ would never hit a mark or do anything in the same order. It was impossible to plan anything. He was so free form that we began to look at it as a documentary of a performance, instead of a filmed performance. If that makes sense… just capture what he does as best we can and then we’ll make the story work in post. It had to be kind of abstract as we had to cut to close-ups from different nights when he was standing in a totally different part of the stage and still make it work. So we decided to let it fly and let Charles be Charles.

Another big moment was when it started raining on the last night. It was really unusual that it would rain in LA in October… and rain was always Charles’ good luck sign. He spoke about it often. How rain would make things OK. And things had not been going well for Charles, performance wise. But then it started to rain, and he pulled it all together. It was dramatic and kind of perfect in a way that was vintage CNR.

PARTY FAVORS: This film captures his final stage production. How was it emotionally for the crew when it came to being a part of such a moment?

POLTERMANN: It was emotional but not especially so, in that nobody really felt this was a “final performance” or thought Charles was going to pass away soon. At the time it seemed emotional only to the degree that we had captured a piece of theater history. But the rarity of it… its specialness, really wasn’t apparent at that time. Nobody really even thought Charles was all that sick. He kept saying that he was sick and “it will all be over soon” and stuff like that, but everyone who knew him said, “Oh he’s always like this.”

PARTY FAVORS: How much of a struggle was it for him to finish it?

POLTERMANN: In retrospect I believe it was a big struggle. And he acted like it was a big struggle. But again, we didn’t take him at face value. Everyone who knew him well said he was a bit of a diva-hypochondriac and not to take his complaints all that seriously. So when he went on and did such an awesome show that final night it almost confirmed that he was fine. He’d be back. He’d say, “This is my last performance.” But I remember saying to him more than once that he’d be doing the show again soon, that nobody could keep him away from the stage. It turns out I was wrong on that one.

PARTY FAVORS: Was it a sense of relief when you decided that the DVD would contain the long version of the performance? Or was it equally painful in the editing room to trim down the theatrical version? Had you edited down the 2001 videotape performance as a rough idea before filming him?

POLTERMANN: I had never seen the 2001 version until we did the DVD. In fact, I cut it together myself for the DVD, which was the first time I saw it. We debated putting the long version on in its entirety, as… well, it’s really long! But in the end, it’s a great companion piece and a completely different experience watching it that the film version.

I think that you really need to be a big CNR and / or theater fan to enjoy the long version. I get one of two reactions… some people say, “Good lord, I got 20 minutes into the video version and had to turn it off it was so meandering…” or “You really butchered a brilliant performance. How could you have left out X, Y &Z? I mean, I could watch Charles all night.” There really is no in-between.

PARTY FAVORS: How much input did he have shortening the performance?

POLTERMANN: Not much… although he knew ahead of time what we were intending to use based upon what we’d storyboarded. He did send over notes and ideas once he saw the cut, but they were mostly about what he wanted to put back in not what he wanted to take out!

PARTY FAVORS: What part was the last to be spliced out?

POLTERMANN: The last chunk that we removed (other than trims here and there) was a piece on Mae West. The Mae West stuff went on quite long originally and we trimmed it to a mere mention.

PARTY FAVORS: Did you end up wondering what would have happened to Charles if his father had taken the job working for Disney?

POLTERMANN: Actually I am embarrassed to say that I never did. Life is life… all those choices make the person and the story, and it is, as they say, written. I don’t usually spend a lot of time on those sort of ruminations.

PARTY FAVORS: Are most people amazed to discover he had two different lives on each coast: On the West coast he was the outrageous comic personality. On the East coast he was the Tony winning stage performer/director?

POLTERMANN: I think most people know him as “the Match Game guy” if they know him at all. Even worse, they usually say, “He was that guy on Hollywood Squares, right?” Even getting the credit he was least proud of wrong! So most people are amazed to know he had this background, yes. It goes from “Oh yeah, I remember that guy” to “WOW! Who would have thought.”

PARTY FAVORS: Will anyone ever make a film about Charles, Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise? Or is that enough for a mini-series?

POLTERMANN: Oh god I’d love to make that movie! Maybe a dramatization of the making of Cannonball Run II?

PARTY FAVORS: What was it like to work with Dom on the commentary track?

POLTERMANN: Two of our producers, John Murphy and Adrian Selkowitz, recorded that interview with Dom so I am sad to say I never actually met him. He was included via the miracle of editing.

PARTY FAVORS: Did Burt want you to capture his one man show?

POLTERMANN: If he did I would have to break my vow to never shoot another one man show!

PARTY FAVORS: Did Charles tell any great stories about people thinking him and Brett Somers were secretly married?

POLTERMANN: He really didn’t talk much about Match Game. If you brought up the topic he quickly either moved on or told you a story about how great Mark Goodson was to him or how talented Gene Rayburn was on Broadway. He didn’t gossip about Match Game. He honestly didn’t seem to feel it was an important part of his life and seemed confused as to why others did.

PARTY FAVORS: Do you think that Charles’ profile has eclipsed Paul Lynde thanks to the fact that they destroyed most of the master tapes of Hollywood Squares?

POLTERMANN: Interesting… do you think his profile has eclipsed Paul Lynde? Maybe. And I didn’t know that about Hollwyood Squares. That’s crazy. Think about what those Match Game reruns have made over the years. I think YouTube is being kind to Charles… if you mean keeping his memory alive. Not just Match Game but also Tonight Show clips, where he is always very funny. He’d probably hate that fact that the most watched clips are Match Game (I think he’d prefer that the Goldiggers skits were popular… him and Marty Feldman… those are as brilliant as The Goon Show and pretty much forgotten).

PARTY FAVORS: Were the two rivals or good friends since they shared so many traits?

POLTERMANN: Charles never said a bad word about anyone, but there are certain people he chose not to talk about, and Paul Lynde was one. He would say things like, “He was not a happy person” and leave it at that. I don’t think he liked him at all.

PARTY FAVORS: When you were promoting the movie, did people confuse the two men?

POLTERMANN: Yes, it was not uncommon for people to say “oh yeah, the guy from Hollywood Squares” when we said it was a film about Charles Nelson Reilly. It was very common.

PARTY FAVORS: How did you and Frank Anderson end up directing the film?

POLTERMANN: I really liked the idea of working with Frank on the film. I’ve known him for many years, we’ve done music videos together and commercials before. He writes music, does animation, shoots… and he loved CNR. So it was an easy choice and made working on the film a lot more fun. It seemed like such a crazy idea that I wanted someone to work with who thought it wasn’t so crazy, and Frank was it.

PARTY FAVORS: Do you sense that in the future Life of Reilly will be performed by other actors like An Evening With Mark Twain? What actors do you think can tackle the role?

POLTERMANN: Wow, these are interesting questions. I hadn’t thought of that. I edit a lot for my friend Chris Smith and we did a film last year called Collapse and we’ve talked about someone doing that as a one man show but I really think that only Charles could pull off The Life of Reilly. Maybe I am wrong. Who would be good in it? Maybe Rainn Wilson? He likes the movie a lot. That would be fun to see.

PARTY FAVORS: What sort of age range have you found attracted to the film?

POLTERMANN: While younger people really love the film, I must admit that the natural audience is older. Forty something and older. People who actually remember Charles, even if only vaguely.

PARTY FAVORS: How do you feel with the responsibility of keeping his legacy alive?

POLTERMANN: I love it. I couldn’t be happier. Charles deserves it. We used to joke when we were doing the film that we wanted to do for CNR what Rick Rubin did for Johnny Cash. We haven’t pulled that off, at least not yet… but follow CNR on Facebook/cnreilly or Twitter/cnr! We are doing our best to keep his legacy alive within social media.

PARTY FAVORS: Do you think a guy like Charles Nelson Reilly could survive in today’s Hollywood where being slightly tipsy on TV turns into a week of headlines, Entertainment Tonight specials and cries for a trip to rehab?

POLTERMANN: I don’t think that being tipsy is considered fun or funny in the way it was in the 70’s. I don’t see any Foster Brooks types out there entertaining us. Or Dean Martin’s. It’s too bad… I kind of miss that politically incorrect debauchery.

PARTY FAVORS: What is the most powerful thing Charles told you that changed your outlook on life?

POLTERMANN: Don’t be afraid to dream. As Charles says, get a bag. Just get a bag and drop a dream in it. You’ll be surprised to see what happens. That’s the power of Charles. Dream big, and make it happen.

If you’re addicted to watching Match Game on GSN at 11 a.m. (EST), make sure you get the film. Life of Reilly can be bought at amazon on both DVD and Blu-ray. It’s also available for download at iTunes. Now let’s have Charles Nelson Reilly sing us out:

DVD SHELF

Mannix: The Fourth Season brings more private eye action from Joe Mannix (Mike Connors). The man takes the abuse for another 24 cases. “A Ticket to the Eclipse” has another of Joe’s Army buddies visiting. This time the guy turns out to be a mass murderer on a hot streak. The cops don’t want to deal it. Darren McGavin (A Christmas Story and Kolchak: The Night Stalker) guest stars as guess who. “The Other Game in Town” goes Vegas when a gambler with a major debt dies. Trouble comes when he’s spotted at his funeral. The guy’s widow wants this straightened out. How does Rich Little work his way into this mess? “Deja Vu” predicts Mannix’s demise with Sid Haig (Devil’s Rejects) being a key to the fatal fate. Did you know Mike Connors played basketball on UCLA? He used his Westwood connections to get Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Gail Goodrich in “A Day Filled with Shadows.” This boxset contains another amazing season from the best athletic TV P.I.

Greek: Chapter Five, The Complete Third Season brings together the 20 episodes that aired on ABC Family. The series explores the members of the frats and sororities of Cyprus-Rhodes University. There’s plenty of relationship mischief as college life intersects with frat relationships. There’s lots of breaking ups and cheating. Rusty has to keep up his GPA or there will be no more Greek games for him. The big ugliness comes when the Gamma Psi house gets torched. Most old frat houses are amazing tinderboxes from all the hard liquor that’s soaked into the wood floors. Another frat gets pinned for the arson. Seems that somebody might be going from their junior year at CRU to their freshman year at the State Pen. If only frats were this cool, I would have thought about pledging instead of merely using them as free beer hot spot.

Roger Corman’s Cult Classics Triple Feature: Sci-Fi Classics gives a taste of the film icon’s directorial work from the late ’50s. Don’t think that this is a massive butt-numbing marathon. Each black and white film is barely over an hour long. The triple features runs shorter than a piece of Oscar bait. Attack of the Crab Monsters really has monstrous crabs. A military unit and scientists land on the island to investigate what happened to the pervious occupants running atomic tests. The new group get stranded on the desolate rock when things explode. They fear for their lives as the giant crab monsters emerge. The highlight is Russell Johnson as part of the team. That’s right, the Professor from Gilligan’s Island is stranded on a tropical island. On top of that, he’s put in charge of repairing the radio. He was typecasted before he made it to TV. And he has the same radio issues without Gilligan screwing things up.

Not of This Earth brings a mysterious man to a doctor’s office in search of fresh blood. He’s not a vampire. He’s an alien with the ability to control people. He gets Nurse Nadine Storey (My Three Sons‘ Beverly Garland) to visit his house for frequent transfusions. He also gets his blood more directly from guests. He’s got an evil plot brewing. Nadine turns out to be humanity’s last hope. Corman regulars Dick Miller and Jonathan Haze get tangled in the intrigue.

War of the Satellites rockets up the thrills. Something in space isn’t happy that we’re looking to launch a satellite into orbit. The United Nations isn’t backing down from these alien bullies. We’re going to put up that satellite with the help of Susan Cabot (The Wasp Woman) and Dick Miller. Don’t get confused wondering if Michel Fox is really Michael J. Fox. This isn’t quite as exciting as the previous two titles, but makes for good snuggling in the backrow of the Bijou. The boxset includes a fine tribute to Roger Corman featuring Peter Fonda, Joe Dante and others. The big treat is dozens of trailers from Roger Corman’s directorial career. Get a glimpse of his work from a diverse career that ended in the early ’70s when he went full time into production.

Roger Corman’s Cult Classics Double Feature – Up From the Depths / Demon of Paradise is a twin bill about bad resorts in Hawaii. The joy to Roger Corman during this era is that he didn’t make cookie cutter remakes. He had people twist them up just enough so you didn’t think you were seeing the same film. These two movies are both about Hawaiian resorts that become attacked by prehistoric monsters, but they’re not the same aquatic beasts. Up From the Depths. unleashes a dino-shark from the sea floor after an earthquake. His first order of business is to eat a researcher. There’s more tasty treats since it’s high season at a resort run by a guy who looks like the lawyer on Scrubs. He thinks the carnage that washes ashore is chum from Sam Bottoms’ fishing boat. The star of Apocalypse Now gets off the boat mainly to con tourists. The hotel doesn’t want people to think there’s anything wrong. Ultimately the hotel owner comes up with a gimmick to keep the guests from fleeing – a fishing contest.

Demon of Paradise is basically the same film except with enough alterations to make it look like a while new film. This time it’s locals fishing with dynamite that cause something wicked to escape from the bottom of the ocean. But instead of merely a fish, this is a reptileman ready to attack the posh hotel. People aren’t safe by just staying on the beach and watching the aqua-mayhem.

This is a lower budget translation of the story. The resort looks rather rough like it was filmed at a Boy Scout camp after a typhoon. Strangely enough Demon was made in Hawaii while Depths was shot in the Philippines. There’s enough differences in the two films to make it a fun double feature. There is a Grindhouse Experience that allows you to feel like you’re getting a full show including old cinema clips with upcoming trailers.

James Clavell’s Shogun takes us back to that glory time when network television dared to do big projects in the mini-series format. Over the course of five nights, NBC took us to Japan in the 17th Century in epic style. You know it’s epic since Orson Welles is the narrator. A Dutch ship with a English pilot (Richard Chamberlain) ends up being taken captive by the locals. He quickly learns that the Japanese aren’t tourist friendly. They don’t even like each other as one guy gets his head whacked off for not bowing right. However his biggest enemies on the island nation are Portuguese priests that are ticked off that their secret island has been exposed to a heretic. Chamberlain has a doomed romance with his female interpreter (no laughing). The big discovery isn’t Japan, but John Rhys-Davies. This is the first major role for a man who ought to have his own convention. The most shocking thing from the mini-series is the introduction of a golden shower on network TV. Chamberlain gets used as a urinal by one of the locals. The bonus features include a documentary about making the series, historical featurettes and a commentary from director Jerry London about making the 9 hour movie.

Hot In Cleveland: Season One continues Betty White’s mega-hot streak in 2011. How did Betty White not get named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year? She made Facebook cool. She made Saturday Night Live funny. She made me buy a Snickers bar. She elevated this TVLand original sitcom to hit status. The show has three former sitcom starlettes (One Day at a Time‘s Valerie Bertinelli, Frasier‘s Jane Leeves and Just Shoot Me‘s Wendie Malick) get stuck in Cleveland when their flight to Paris gets diverted. Why do they stay in the Mistake on the Lake? Cause the guys appreciate their hotness. Plus it’s much cheaper than France without so much ass pinching. Betty White is the caretaker of the large house they rent. She’s the swizzle stick that stirs the Metamucil. Over the course of 10 episodes, the trio lose their vapid Hollywood ways thank to Betty. Shocking to think that she’s about to turn 89 and still has the comedic flair of her time on Match Game ’75. The series is starting its second season on TVLand this month.