Hurried off to work after the second cartoon ended. No trouble here whatsoever. We were dead the entire morning. Never even got mildly busy. Though I did have to figure out what to do with a glass a customer broke and bring an abandoned cart up front, I mainly swept the store and gathered carts. The nice weather may have contributed to the quiet, too. It's a bit more humid, but still sunny and otherwise pretty decent for July.
Picked up a turkey hoagie, Orange Cream Coke Zero, and Old Bay bagel chips for lunch, then headed home. Ate and changed while watching the new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Plus on Disney Plus. Evidently, the original Mickey Mouse Clubhouse was so popular on Disney Plus, they just updated the original format with new graphics and a few new additions. One of those additions is "Mickey's New Helper," a mini version of the Helping Hands in the Clubhouse that Professor Ludwig Von Drake built to be helpful for Mickey and the others. Its attempt to stop the Clubhouse Hot Air Balloon ends with it getting carried away in the balloon and the others going after it.
Switched to Remember WENN after I ate. Betty's wondering "Who's Scott Sherwood?" after she discovers that Scott wasn't exactly aboveboard about how he got his job at the station. Pruitt's wondering the same thing. He slithers into the station spouting a word Scott is terrified to hear - audit. Thanks to his Memorial embezzlement scheme, Scott ends up losing his job. The others rally to his defense and end their shows, but Betty doesn't think he's worth saving when she discovers how badly he lied about knowing Victor Comstock.
Speaking of Victor, Jeff ends up returning to England in "The New Actor" to pick up where he left off in London after that explosion. His departure leaves WENN short an actor. That's fine for Pruitt, who still wants to undermine the station, but Mackie Bloom is now overworked AND underpaid. Help finally comes from a most welcome...and unlikely...source.
Returned to Disney Plus for Island at the Top of the World. In 1907, Sir Anthony Ross (Donald Sinden) arranges an expedition to find the titular island where whales go to die. His son Donald (David Gwillim) was searching for it when he disappeared. He's joined by archaeologist Professor Ivarsson (David Hartman) and French aviator Captain Breaux (Jacques Martin) and his poodle. Captain Martin gets them up north in his dirigible the Hyperion, despite losing a propeller during the trip. They manage to snare Inuit guide Oomiak (Mako) when he admits he knew Donald before making their way to the island. Turns out yes, it does exist, and Donald is there, along with the farmer's daughter he's fallen for, Freyja (Agneta Eckmeyr)...but they almost end up being put to death by the fanatical Godi (Gunnar Ohlund) before Freyja rescues them.
Strange action film is probably attempting to play off earlier Disney live-action adventures like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Moonspinners, but just ends up being weird. The first half in the Hyperion, with Captain Breaux and his poodle, is honestly fun and even charming. The Hyperion dirigible is so cool, Disney still houses a version of it at Disneyland Paris, and they even use the name Hyperion as their publishing house. It's the second before and during their arrival at the island where this falters. Mako's character is stereotypical and annoying, the frequently untranslated Norwegian even more so. Most of the actors are somewhere between bland and obnoxious, and most of the special effects are painfully obvious, even in the air. Though not the best thing Disney ever did, the enjoyable first half makes this worth seeing for fans of old-fashioned adventure.
The Sandlot is infinitely simpler...and a lot more fun. Scotty Smalls (Tom Guiry) has just moved to a small California town in 1962 and has an easier time making friends with Erector sets than kids his own age. He finally ends up joining a group of ragtag boys who spend the summer playing baseball on a local field and avoiding "The Beast," a massive junk yard dog who hides their balls when it goes over his fence. Most of their adventures, like chasing girls at the pool and beating a local little league team who taunted them, are fairly harmless. It's not until Scotty inadvertently borrows his stepfather's (Denis Leary) much-loved baseball autographed by Babe Ruth (Art LaFleur) and they lose it over the fence that the kids finally confront "The Beast"...and they learn what separates the legends from the mere heroes.
This was my brother Keefe's favorite movie in the mid-late 90's. He'd watch it constantly during baseball season. Given it's now considered to be a cult film and one of the most underrated comedies of the 90's, he's not the only one. It's pretty simple and not exactly long on plot, but if you're just looking for a fun baseball comedy to watch with your kids or have fond memories of this yourself, you'll want to grab your bat and ball and join the game.
Worked on Hilary and the Beasts throughout the afternoon. Hilary calls C.J to wish him and Mackie a happy 4th of July. He tells her he talked to the FBI men. Pavla has not only seduced two producers and left them listless (and willing to give her parts), they also discovered that other men have gone missing after having relationships with her. Someone was going to give the agents information on the groups Pavla worked with in Europe that would have gotten her deported, but they and their information vanished.
Hilary has her own solo dream sequence shortly after talking to C.J. She finds Jeff in the rose garden, dressed in his tux from "From the Pen of Gertrude Reece" and "Pratfall." He gives her scarlet roses and tells her in no uncertain terms that no, he doesn't love Pavla. He loves her, but was forced to marry Pavla to save friends. It didn't work - she attacked his friends and stole their voices and humanity anyway.
Pavla finally turns up, gloating that she married Jeff as her ticket to fame and fortune...and to silence his and his friends' knowledge about her activities. She has that knowledge locked away in the darkness, she claims, and has silenced the voice that broadcasted it to the world. Hilary has absolutely no trouble whatsoever decking Pavla, but her triumph is short-lived. She ends up held back, watching as Pavla gloats that she intends to take Jeff as slave, a monster like the ones that attack them in the dreams, by the end of the year. Hilary is finally knocked out before she can attack again.
Put on Match Game '76 during dinner. Fannie Flagg was hilarious with a funny little older man contestant. Richard insisted that he kiss her after the Head-to-Head, rather than him...and she rather got into it, especially the first time!
Finished the night after a shower with MASH. The actress who played Hilary Booth, Melinda Mullins, played a French nurse who falls in love with Charles Winchester (David Ogden Stiers), only for him to reject her after she admits she wasn't married to her previous lover despite living with him. They're not the only ones dealing with "Foreign Affairs" in the last season. A stuffy PR man (Jeffery Tambour) wants to bring a North Korean flyer back to the US as a hero, but he'd rather stay in his country. Hawkeye and Hunnicut arrange for a South Korean man who acts as translator for them to go in his place.
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