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TV & Beyond on 2025-05-04 21:45:00

by admin | May 4, 2025 | TV & Beyond Articles

as the biggest bomb of 2024, “Borderlands,” but in the wake of “Minecraft” claiming two of the biggest box office weekends of 2025 and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” becoming one of the 20 biggest films ever, video games look to be the next IP ripe for plundering.

For a long time, of course, things mostly worked the other way: Hollywood would provide the IP and video game developers would do their best with the license. But for the most part, it seemed as though adapting successful films into video games was tough business. There have been so many awful games based on successful movies that fans mostly just accepted that such games were going to be awful.

But there is one game that remains truly infamous for being such an enormous blunder that you could make a decent argument for it constituting patient zero of the bad video game epidemic that followed. That game is “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” for the Atari 2600 console.

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial was a rushed adaptation

ET is seen on a menu screen in the video game ET the Extra-Terrestrial

Atari

“E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” has become infamous since its 1982 debut, but is that reputation deserved? Well, it’s complicated. The game designer responsible for “E.T.,” Howard Scott Warshaw, spoke to NPR about his adaptation, explaining that a rushed development was partly to blame for the game’s ignominious reputation. Warshaw actually worked on the very first video game adaptation of a movie, “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” which Spielberg evidently liked and, according to Warshaw, felt was “like watching a movie” itself. As such, it seems the director personally requested Warshaw make a video game adaptation of his next film, “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.”

The only problem was that it took some time for Atari and Spielberg to hammer out the legal side of things. “E.T.” the movie debuted in theaters on June 11, 1982, and was immediately embraced, becoming an instant Spielbergian classic that today maintains a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score. But it took until the end of July that year for Spielberg and Atari to reach an agreement. After this, the Atari CEO contacted Warshaw and tasked him with making the game in just five weeks so that the company could release it in time for the Christmas holidays. For whatever reason, the ambitious young developer agreed. “I don’t know exactly what I was full of at the time,” Warshaw told NPR. “But whatever it was, I was overflowing with it, and I believed I could pull it off. I mean, the hubris of it!”

Warshaw designed the game around a plot point in the movie wherein the titular alien gathered parts to build a communicator that would allow him to “phone home.” According to the developer, Spielberg appeared underwhelmed when he first saw a build of the game, reacting with a glib, “Couldn’t you just do something like Pac-Man?” While those words clearly wounded Warshaw, it turned out that Spielberg was right to suggest a different approach, as “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” turned out to be not just a flop but the gold standard of terrible movie video games.

E.T. is bad, but not as bad as its reputation suggests

ET is seen in a canyon in the video game ET the Extra-Terrestrial

Atari

Wonder is at the core of a good Steven Spielberg movie, and “E.T.” is a prime example, perfectly capturing the unrestrained wonder that we’re capable of feeling as children, and encapsulating it in a heartfelt story that is as technically impressive as it is touching. The video game, however, not only failed to match the wonder of the movie, it quickly became known as the worst video game ever made (a reputation it holds to this day) and is one of the biggest commercial failures in video game history. It didn’t help that Atari fell on hard times right around the time “E.T.” debuted, which means a narrative formed that the game single-handedly brought the video game industry to its knees. That is, of course, not accurate, but it’s far from the only spurious element at play in the game’s troubled legacy. Following its release, an urban legend sprang up that Atari buried all their unsold “E.T.” cartridges in a landfill. This turned out to be partly true, when in 2014 investigators found the buried cartridges, though only some of the almost 800,000 games were “E.T.” and it turned out that Atari was just burying unused stock after the closure of its Texas manufacturing plant.

Still, there’s no doubt the “E.T.” game would have benefitted from following Spielberg’s “Pac Man” emulation idea. The adaptation is not remembered fondly, and it’s not too hard to see why. Part of the problem was the way in which the game used a “wraparound” level design that saw users, playing as the titular extra-terrestrial, start on one screen before traveling through several others only to wind up back where they began. The levels were also dotted with little pits into which E.T. could, and very often did, plummet. All of which is frustrating, but according to Warshaw, that was at least partly the plan. “There’s a difference between frustration and disorientation,” he told NPR. “Video games are all about frustration. It’s okay to frustrate a user. In fact, it’s important to frustrate a user. But you don’t want to disorient the user.”

Sadly, that’s exactly what “E.T.” did. Critics weren’t too impressed, but as Gamehistory points out, the game’s notorious reputation isn’t entirely indicative of its actual quality or the tenor of the contemporaneous reviews. The site actually gathered several reviews from the time period and found that critics were lukewarm at worst, and neutral at best. Still, Softline readers voted the game the second-worst Atari program of 1983 and modern critics have been much harsher on the “E.T.” leading it to become known as the worst video game adaptation ever — though the legendarily bad “Demolition Man” video game or the mess that was the “Gilligan’s Island” video game surely have strong claims to that unenviable title.

TV & Beyond on 2025-05-04 21:00:00

by admin | May 4, 2025 | TV & Beyond Articles

borrowing (quite heavily and without permission) from Akira Kurosawa’s “Yojimbo.”

The rest of the world immediately ran to imitate that film’s success, and already-profitable Italian Westerns, nicknamed Spaghetti Westerns, continued to proliferate. At the time, a young and upcoming actor name Burt Reynolds was following a similar career arc to Eastwood. He had small parts in mainstream Hollywood movies, and played one of the lead characters on a TV series called “Riverboat.” He, too, would have loved the acclaim of a stylized Italian Western under his belt, and even got advice to that effect from Eastwood himself. The two were friends. Eastwood advised Reynolds to look up a Western director named Sergio, knowing that he did good work.

There was, however, a bit of a mix-up. Reynolds did indeed find an Italian director named Sergio, and he did indeed learn that Sergio had a Western lined up, but it turns out it was the wrong Sergio. Reynolds talked to Sergio Corbucci, the director of “Django,” as well as several peplum films and crime movies. Reynolds agreed to make Corbucci’s Western, assuming that he was the one who made “A Fistful of Dollars.” Reynolds unwittingly agreed to make “Navajo Joe,” a racist Western that, afterwards, the actor long considered one of his worst films. The story is detailed in Howard Hughes’ book “Once Upon A Time in the Italian West: The Filmgoers’ Guide to Spaghetti Westerns.”

Burt Reynolds plays a Navajo man in Navajo Joe

Navajo Joe firing a gun in the desert in Navajo Joe

Dino De Laurtentiis Cinematografica

It seems there was also some chaos on Corbucci’s end of production as well. Reynolds was looking for Sergio Leone, while Corbucci was thinking he’d be able to secure the talents of American star Marlon Brando. Corbucci’s producer, the late (an inimitable) Dino De Laurentiis, gave him a script called “A Dollar a Head,” and promised his director that Brando was already attached. Either De Laurentiis was lying, or Brando dropped out, leaving Corbucci to find a new leading man. He said that Reynolds, hoping to star in a Western anyway, was a suitable replacement because he kind of looked a little bit like Brando.

The resulting film was “Navajo Joe,” a violent picture about a Navajo man (Reynolds) fighting off a wicked criminal named Duncan (Aldo Sanbrell) and his army of goons in order to protect a small village and get revenge for his village being slaughtered. Navajo Joe wants a dollar a head for every bandit he kills. Yes, the not-at-all Navajo actor Reynolds played a Navajo character. This kind of white-actors-as-nonwhite-characters casting was sadly common in the world of Westerns.

Reynolds is on record in Hughes’ book saying that he hated his costumes in “Navajo Joe,” and that he was directed oddly. He was ordered to deepen his voice, which he felt he didn’t do well, and, weirdly, he was asked to shave his arms. Reynolds also hated his wig, feeling it made him look like Natalie Wood. He later would lambaste the movie, saying that it was “so awful it was only shown in prisons and airplanes because nobody could leave. I killed ten thousand guys, wore a Japanese slingshot and a fright wig.”

Despite Reynolds’ opinion, some Spaghetti Western enthusiasts still speak highly of the violence and grit in “Navajo Joe.” It also boasts an excellent score from Ennio Morricone, the composer behind Leone’s Westerns.

And all this because Reynolds mixed up his Sergios.

TV & Beyond on 2025-05-04 20:45:00

by admin | May 4, 2025 | TV & Beyond Articles

the fun, nostalgic modern “Goosebumps” series) became a cultural phenomenon and shaped kids’ early understanding of horror, that was far from Stine’s only contribution to the genre overall.

The writer pumped out a frankly unbelievable amount of books aimed at multiple demographics, to the extent that Stephen King himself would go as wild as Jack Torrance were he to compare bibliographies. PBS put the total number of Stine novels at more than 350 in 2024, but other tallies reveal more than 500 books bearing the author’s name. It’s tricky because, despite his protestations, Stine has been accused of using ghostwriters, most notably by publisher Scholastic in a 1999 lawsuit. Either way, the man was and is a writing machine, and in 2004, he churned out one of his more popular non-“Goosebumps” books in “Eye Candy.”

The novel was Stine’s third book aimed at adult audiences and follows Lindy Sampson, a 23-year-old New Yorker who notices that men seem to be intimidated by her beauty. Her roommate suggests she try internet dating and writes a personal ad (because this was very much a pre-dating app age) for her, which proves so successful that Lindy finds herself dating four men at the same time. Unfortunately, things take a turn when she receives a note that reads, “Don’t say no, Lindy. Keep going out with me. I’ll mess you up if you ever say no.” Not exactly a love letter, then, but that’s the kind of note you can expect to get if you happen to be an R. L. Stone protagonist. Of course, this leaves Lindy to figure out which of her suitors is dangerous, so she continues dating them. However, her paranoia quickly builds before a big twist upends the whole ordeal.

All of that seemed like it might make for a good TV show to MTV, which commissioned a series loosely based on the novel in 2013. While there have been several R. L. Stine movies and TV shows, many of which have been solid, the “Eye Candy” adaptation would, lamentably, prove to be nowhere near as popular as the “Goosebumps” show or even the novel on which it was based. As a result, it was canceled after one season (much like MTV’s controversial “Skins” adaptation).

The Eye Candy pilot looked nothing like the actual show

A woman stares at a computer screen reading Miss Me, Eye Candy? in black font against a red background in Eye Candy

MTV

TV pilots are often interesting to watch for the way in which they reveal a slightly different version of a show that we might have come to love. The unaired “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” pilot, for instance, is a fascinating glimpse at the now cult classic series before it had figured out all the details. Most interesting was the fact it featured an entirely different actor in the role of Willow Rosenberg, who in the show proper was played by Alyson Hannigan but in the pilot was portrayed by Riff Regan. But even the “Buffy” pilot and its alternate universe version of the final series pales in comparison to the way in which the “Eye Candy” pilot differed from the actual show.

In 2013, MTV ordered the pilot based on R. L. Stine’s novel from a decade prior. It was produced with Victoria Justice in the lead role of Lindy Sampson and Harvey Guillén as her coworker George Reyes, with the supporting cast rounded out by the likes of Justin Martin, Lilan Bowden, Nico Tortorella, and Olesya Rulin. MTV ultimately ordered the pilot to series, with horror maestro Jason Blum producing, but not before completely overhauling the show. As a result, the debut episode was entirely reshot, with only Justice and Guillén remaining from the original cast. Writer Emmy Grinwis and director Catherine Hardwicke also remained onboard, however, with Blum telling the Television Critics Association in 2015 (via Deadline) that he and the series’ crew designed “Eye Candy” as a way to find “the horror in the mundane.”

When “Eye Candy” finally premiered in January 2015, it not only looked a whole lot different from the original pilot, but it was also a dramatic departure from R. L. Stine’s source material, having clearly only been loosely based on the book.

Eye Candy was only a loose adaptation that lasted one season

Victoria Justice as Lindy Sampson talks to a man who stands with his back to the camera in Eye Candy

MTV

When the “Eye Candy” TV show finally hit the airwaves after overhauling its original cast, it didn’t exactly prove to be a faithful adaptation of R. L. Stine’s original novel. In the show, Victoria Justice’s Lindy is a reformed hacker who’s just been paroled and celebrates by venturing into the world of online dating, signing up to the app “Flirtual” using the alias “Eye Candy.” Soon, however, she discovers a sinister lurker who has been watching her online profile. Lindy then tries to use her tech skills to track down this mysterious figure, but soon learns that they’re more formidable than she believed. In fact, her stalker turns out to be a serial killer, prompting Lindy and her friends to team up against them while also searching for Lindy’s missing sister, Sara.

Alongside Justice and Guillén, the series co-starred Casey Deidrick, Kiersey Clemons, and John Garet Stoker, and it was shot on-location in New York City. Again, though, it didn’t fare too well, as MTV canceled “Eye Candy” after just one season. Justice herself confirmed the news via an April 2015 post on Twitter/X, where she wrote, “I wanted you guys to hear it from me first, that the cast and I received news that ‘Eye Candy’ will not be returning for season 2.” The actor went on to praise the show’s cast and crew, reserving a “very special thank you” for Jason Blum and the Blumhouse team. Meanwhile, TVLine reported that the cancellation was simply the result of low ratings.

At the time, MTV was gearing up to launch its “Scream” series, which would ultimately run for three seasons, and “Eye Candy,” with its mediocre ratings, seemingly just wasn’t required. As such, that original cast probably doesn’t feel too bad about being replaced. Would things have been different if the show had hewed closer to the original book or kept its original ensemble in place? It’s impossible to say, but in an age of early 2000s nostalgia (not to mention the fact we generally live in the age of newstalgia), perhaps a direct adaptation might fare better today. If not, there are roughly 500 other R. L. Stine books to choose from.

TV & Beyond on 2025-05-04 20:30:00

by admin | May 4, 2025 | TV & Beyond Articles

recurring character on “The Simpsons” getting killed off for good, the status quo was ultimately restored when his replacement, the almost identically-nicknamed (but much slimmer) Fit Tony, gained so much weight that he looked exactly the same as his late cousin … and subsequently took on his moniker.

In a 2024 interview with Cracked, Mantegna opened up about how he felt when he learned Fat Tony was going to die of a heart attack upon discovering that Homer (Dan Castellaneta), under the guise of mob crony Nicky Bluepants Altosaxophony (just go with it), is actually an FBI informant. “When I first read that script, I was devastated. I thought, ‘Oh f***, I’m done. Fat Tony’s over.” That was, however, before the actor got to the end of the “Donnie Fatso” script, which explains how Fit Tony takes over from his cousin. “Then he gained some weight and they called him Fit-Fat Tony, but now he’s just Fat Tony,” he continued. “So, I wound up doing the same guy all over again.”

Fat Tony was killed off a second time … well, sort of

Fat Tony (Joe Mantegna) and his goons meet with Kostas Becker (Brian Cox) on The Simpsons

Fox

Granted, Fat Tony is nowhere near Kenny McCormick from “South Park” as a character who repeatedly dies in an episode and comes back to life in their next appearance as if nothing happened. He doesn’t hold a candle either to Springfield’s very own Hans Moleman (Dan Castellaneta), who’s been “resurrected” multiple times on “The Simpsons.” But his death in “Donnie Fatso” wasn’t the last time the character in his various iterations got, how shall we say it, “whacked.” In season 33’s two-parter “A Serious Flanders,” Fat Tony and his henchmen are among several recurring characters killed by murderous debt collector Kostas Becker (Brian Cox). (Rich Texan, Disco Stu, and even the ancient and seemingly immortal Mr. Burns also bite the dust in the first part!) These deaths, however, are thankfully non-canonical, as “A Serious Flanders” is a parody of the FX crime drama “Fargo.”

As a lifelong “Simpsons” fan who’s been more patient than most others with the post-classic era stuff, I didn’t see much sense in killing off the OG Fat Tony in “Donnie Fatso” when the plan all along was to replace him with his “fit” cousin, and for said cousin to stress-eat his way to becoming a doppelganger of the original. There were better ways to parody mob movies, and some of them played out in the episode, including the spot-on nod to the ending of “Goodfellas.” But hey, at least Joe Mantegna remained gracious despite the confusing path his “Simpsons” character took. And Fit Tony becoming Fit-Fat Tony and eventually good old Fat Tony will always be better than that whole Armin Tamzarian/Seymour Skinner business from season 9’s oh-so-polarizing “The Principal and the Pauper.”

TV & Beyond on 2025-05-04 20:00:00

by admin | May 4, 2025 | TV & Beyond Articles

directing a number of shows including “Columbo” and “Night Gallery.” Though his focus would cater toward the glamour of big screen adventures, he never lost sight of the medium that gave him the opportunities to flex his chops. Most of Spielberg’s later television career consisted of executive producer credits, but there were some shows that he had an active hand in developing, with one that made a considerable splash in the mid ’80s.

“Amazing Stories” was Spielberg’s foray into the world of anthology television, as each episode spanned the genre-scope of fantasy, science fiction and horror. Invoking the series will undoubtedly trigger the whimsical John Williams theme song that should come as no surprise for those who tuned in. Despite only lasting for two seasons, it left a huge impact in its wake. The Emmy award-winning series recruited all manner of filmmaking greats to do an episode of their own including Martin Scorsese, Brad Bird, and Danny DeVito. One name among the directorial roster that came as a surprise was none other than Clint Eastwood.

Eastwood and Spielberg are two names you wouldn’t typically expect to see together in a creative manner, but in 1985, the pair collaborated for the first and last time on an episode of “Amazing Stories” that sees the former reconcile with his sweeter side.

Eastwood directed a romantic ghost story for Amazing Stories

NBC

Between his filmmaker duties on “Pale Rider” and “Heartbreak Ridge,” Eastwood directed the “Amazing Stories” episode entitled “Vanessa in the Garden,” which Spielberg wrote. Harvey Keitel stars as Byron Sullivan, an early 20th century painter who can produce artistic magic with the stroke of his paintbrush. Of everything he’s painted, few were quite as beautiful as the ones featuring his wife Vanessa (Sondra Locke). A year after Byron and Vanessa consummated their marriage with a honeymoon in Paris, the world is their oyster. Byron is given great news by his friend/agent Teddy (Beau Bridges) that he’s booked an exhibition solely for his work.

The good times don’t last long, however, on account of a lightning bolt that spooks the horse attached to their carriage, sending them down a hill and killing Vanessa in the process. Byron falls into the kind of deep depression that leads him to burn his paintings. He finds the one he painted of Vanessa in their garden and tries to lay waste to it, but the match goes out. When Byron wakes up the next morning, he discovers that she’s been removed from the painting and is standing outside in the garden. He tries to run to her, but she disappears. As Byron starts seeing her visage around the house, it reinvigorates his passion for painting again.

“Vanessa in the Garden” sees Eastwood and Spielberg embracing the romantic nature of ghost stories. By the end, Byron not only gets back to doing what he loves most, but is able to further commune with his wife by exclusively painting the couple doing things together.

How fitting for Eastwood to direct a story about how beautiful his real-life significant other is, even if that relationship would take a public nosedive in the following years. To makes matters even more dramatic, Locke, who was someone Eastwood was already having an affair with while married to Maggie Johnson, mentions in her autobiography “The Good, the Bad and the Very Ugly” that her partner had her share a scene in this episode with Jamie Rose, an actress Eastwood met on the set of “Tightrope” — whom he was also having an affair with.

Eastwood had an interesting television career

MGM

Eastwood, much like Spielberg, is another one of cinema’s most recognizable figures who also has a special connection to television — even if on opposite ends. Throughout the early stages of his career, Eastwood did what any upcoming actor would do and found himself booking a whole bunch of guest spots on shows like “Highway Patrol,” “Death Valley Days,” “Maverick” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” And who could forget the episode of “Mister Ed” where he plays a version of himself opposite the titular talking horse?

Most viewers at the time knew Eastwood, however, as cattle poker Rowdy Yates for over 217 episodes on the hit CBS western series “Rawhide.” Though he describes getting cast as a fluke, it was the very thing that led to his movie star career with Sergio Leone’s “Dollars” trilogy. After Rawhide went off the air in 1965, Eastwood never did another narrative television guest spot ever again.

Eastwood would only deviate from his directorial duties two more times with the final episode of Scorsese’s PBS documentary series “The Blues,” and Diana Krall’s 1999 music video “Why Should I Care” for the release of his film “True Crime.” It’s surprising Eastwood didn’t direct more television considering the quick turnaround schedule he maintains on his film set correlates with the quick production of television.

TV & Beyond on 2025-05-04 19:45:00

by admin | May 4, 2025 | TV & Beyond Articles

much like the absurd, astounding CW series, “Riverdale.”) Sandwiched between unpredictable mystery and brutal teen drama is a huge chunk of outrageous character moments that often feel like caricatures. However, these aspects played out so often and so intensely that “Pretty Little Liars” feels better for it, where this brand of extreme camp meshes well with the fabric of the show. Given the popularity of the series, “Pretty Little Liars” ran for seven seasons and ended with a controversial yet memorable series finale, leaving fans clamoring for more. As a result, three (!) spin-offs were ordered in quick succession, but each one of them got canceled pretty early due to a combination of factors.

When “Ravenswood” was first announced, it emerged as the spin-off that had the most potential, as the series had a direct connection to the parent show in the form of a single character: Caleb (Tyler Blackburn). Despite this strong link, “Ravenswood” failed to pique audience interest or recapture the essence of the mega-popular teen series it was an offshoot of. What exactly went wrong here?

Ravenswood sported low viewership during its first (and only) season

ABC Family

Spoilers for “Pretty Little Liars” and “Ravenswood” to follow.

While every character in “Pretty Little Liars” undergoes something deeply traumatic, Caleb contends with especially difficult circumstances that are impossible to simply move past. A troubled foster kid with a complicated outlook towards close relationships, Caleb perennially sought out parental figures (along with his real father) after being abandoned as a child. In season 1 of the show, Caleb crosses paths with the titular Liars and develops an intense dynamic with Hanna (Ashley Benson), whom he gradually begins to view as a source of comfort and stability. Caleb and Hanna experience a strong, eventful romantic arc in “Pretty Little Liars”, and Caleb’s skills as a technical expert come in handy while uncovering who “A” is as a part of the show’s central mystery.

Once Caleb decides to leave Rosewood, he makes his way toward — you guessed it — Ravenswood, but soon gets embroiled in a supernatural mystery that can only take place in “a town where people throw parties in cemeteries.” Caleb’s description of Ravenswood isn’t too far-fetched, as it is a quaint, eerie place that has more headstones than houses, lined up neatly beside the narrow, somber streets. The town seems to come alive and loom maliciously over its residents, as spooky stuff like haunted mansions and cursed objects are pretty commonplace here. While all of this does sound fun, “Ravenswood” indulges in the stalest interpretation of horror tropes and doesn’t bother to mask it with competent storytelling. In fact, things often get so lackluster that the dark, campy shenanigans of the Liars feel infinitely superior to such drab genre fare.

Is “Ravenswood” unwatchable? No, far from it. But it is an aggressively mediocre supernatural show that has little in common with its frenetic parent series. While this would usually be a good thing (like how “The Vampire Diaries” spin-off “Legacies” takes a fresh, lighthearted approach to the franchise’s supernatural core), “Ravenswood” fails to stand on it own merits, and its association with “Pretty Little Liars” only serves to hurt its credibility. Perhaps this is why viewership fell off by the time the show wrapped up its season 1 finale, dropping from 2.1 million viewers (at launch) to 1.1 million viewers (which is less than half of the viewership “Pretty Little Liars” steadily drew in per episode).

In case you’re looking for a “Pretty Little Liars” spin-off that is closer to the lead-in series in terms of tone and subject matter, be sure to check out “Original Sin,” which does a great job of granting a fresh spin to a familiar premise.

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TV & Beyond on 2025-05-04 21:45:00

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial was a rushed adaptation

E.T. is bad, but not as bad as its reputation suggests

TV & Beyond on 2025-05-04 21:00:00

Burt Reynolds plays a Navajo man in Navajo Joe

TV & Beyond on 2025-05-04 20:45:00

The Eye Candy pilot looked nothing like the actual show

Eye Candy was only a loose adaptation that lasted one season

TV & Beyond on 2025-05-04 20:30:00

Fat Tony was killed off a second time … well, sort of

TV & Beyond on 2025-05-04 20:00:00

Eastwood directed a romantic ghost story for Amazing Stories

Eastwood had an interesting television career

TV & Beyond on 2025-05-04 19:45:00

Ravenswood sported low viewership during its first (and only) season

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