Friday 5 for July 10: Troposphere
The following questions come from the usual source.
1. What’s your favorite novel, TV series, or film about someone leaving the big city or a big career and returning to their small hometown?
Green Acres. Oliver Douglas and his wife Lisa leave the high life of New York City and take up residence of a dilapidated farmhouse near Hooterville way out in the country to take up farming. Oliver who is a lawyer, is next to hopeless being a farmer even though he is 100% committed to it. Lisa misses her New York life and is a reluctant but coping wife in Hooterville.
The CBS comedy TV series ran from 1965 to 1971. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw this question as we used to watch it a lot when I was a kid. Today I occasionally watch an episode just for the laughs. Besides Oliver and Lisa, the town of Hooterville is filled with funny, stereotypical country hick characters, some of which crossed over to CBS's two other country comedies: Petticoat Junction and The Beverly Hillbillies. It streams for free on TUBI TV.
2. What’s your favorite novel, TV series, or film about two characters (friends, strangers, coworkers, enemies, or something else) pretending to be in a romantic relationship?
I think I would go with The X Files on this. This one was a slow, slow burn, and Scully and Mulder kind of had something for each other but never admitted it through most of the series. It was in the later movie(s) [2 of them] where something sparked I guess, mainly in the second movie. I haven't seen the 2011 continuation series as it aired on a network I did not want to pay for.
Another show that had a fleeting but mostly professional relationship was the British TV series The Avengers... Mr. Steed and Emma Peel. This incarnation was during the mid run of the hit 1960s TV series.
It is likely I am not totally getting this question as these are the only ones I could think of without breaking my brains!
3. What’s your favorite novel, TV series, or film about someone who stumbles through a hidden portal into a magical or alien world?
Um... off the top of my head... THE WIZARD OF OZ... both the book (Frank Braun) and the movie from when I was a kid. Dorothy and her dog Toto get zapped off to the fantastic land of Oz in a tornado where they meet the Scarecrow, Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion along with the Wicked Witch of the West and the Wizard. In the movie all of the OZ stuff seems to have been a dream. The movie was framed in black and white for the normal scenes and in color for the fantasy story. It was probably quite innovative for its time of release - 1939.
Another one that comes to mind of THE PRISONER. A British agent (Patrick McGoohan) is taken away to an isolated village that he cannot escape from, where everyone's life is reduced to a number. "YOU ARE NUMBER 6." Escape is impossible. It was a British TV series that lasted on one season. It has turned into a cult favorite and streams for free on TUBI TV.
Other movies or TV shows I remember: Genesis II, Planet Earth, Andromeda (Gene Roddenberry TV movies and series) - the protagonist is astronaut Dylan Hunt who wakes up from a 300 year sleep.
4. What’s your favorite novel, TV series, or film about characters racing against others to get somewhere, find something, or contact someone?
Movies: Indiana Jones - Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade.
Movie: Romancing the Stone - Romance novelist Joan Wilder has to turn over a treasure map or recover a diamond to the bad guys in order to save her kidnapped sister Elaine in Colombia. Action packed adventure comedy: "I broke my heal.." "Now it's practical!" John Colton...
5. What’s your favorite novel, TV series, or film about rivals, enemies, or adversaries becoming lovers, partners, or friends?
See Romancing the Stone above. Joan and John had a very shakey start and were on opposite ends of their respective lifestyles but end up falling for each other... Just like a stupid romance novel. The movie was directed by Robert Zemickis who later gave us the Back to the Future series and Forrest Gump.
There are others but my mind if fried already!!!!
