BearManor Media News — q&a

What made you want to write about 80s TV specifically, and what did that decade do that TV hasn't quite replicated since? One of the things I talk about in the book is how disappointing my family life was when I was a kid.  Between divorce and the allure of multilevel marketing schemes, my folks were rarely around, so television became a de facto friend…maybe even a parent.  I learned adulting from folks like Michael Knight, Tony Micelli, and ALF.  But I digress.  What did 80s television do that hasn’t been replicated since (besides raising me)?  Appointment viewing. That's the...

Terrence McDonnell Q&A   Q: How did Memoirs of a Hollywood Unknown: Book One: Prime Time originate?   A: In the first place, I never intended to write a book, let alone three of them. But I did have plenty of great stories worth sharing. Maybe fifteen or twenty years ago when I had some time on my hands, I sat down and wrote a piece about working behind the scenes on one particular television show. I don’t even remember what show it was, because the whole point of it was just an exercise for me, and it came out...

  What was your first experience with the films of director Tobe Hooper?   I first encountered Hooper’s work when I saw The Texas Chain Saw Massacre at the tender age of 15. It was on an unlikely triple-bill with Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon and Michael Findlay’s absurdly violent Shriek of the Mutilated. Hooper’s film made sleep difficult for the next three weeks. Few films before or since have affected me so deeply.   From that point on, I obsessively followed his career, from 1976’s Eaten Alive, his scrappy follow-up to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, to his justly...

John Mansell, the author of Italian Western. Violent Image, Savage Soundtrack talks to James Anthony Phillips about writing the book and his love of the genre and its music. James Anthony Phillips is an adjunct lecturer at several New York City universities and is a freelance journalist specializing in film and music.   James Anthony Phillips. Why were you interested in Italian Westerns and not American? What are the differences in cinematic approach?   John Mansell. Like so many people, I too was interested in American westerns. I enjoyed films such as The Big Country, Shane, The Magnificent Seven, and...

10 Questions for Trav S.D. Regarding the Marx Brothers Miscellany Who were the Marx Brothers? – The Marx Brothers were the most critically acclaimed and successful stage and screen comedy team in history. Their period of activity lasted from roughly 1905, when two of the five brothers started out in vaudeville, through 1977, when the most famous of the brothers (Groucho) passed away. The members were Chico, Harpo, Groucho, Gummo (who quit in 1918), and Zeppo (who replaced Gummo and performed with the team through 1933). The brothers starred in movies, radio, television, and on Broadway. Two of them also...