Recalling the spinoff `s golden age

FEBRUARY 2, 2014
SUNDAY TELEGRAM
N15
DVD Releases
ALSO THIS WEEK
MURRAY CLOSE/UNIVERSAL PICTURES
ANNE MARIE FOX/FOCUS FEATURES VIA AP
TOP PICKS
McConaughey
at his best
By Tom Russo
I
GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
n “Dallas Buyers Club” (2013), Matthew McConaughey transforms
from a hard­partying, homophobic roughneck into an AIDS patient
shrewdly finding ways to beat the FDA and smuggle unapproved medi­
cations for himself and others. McConaughey and a cross­dressing Jared
Leto rightly received Oscar nods for the film, based on the real­life expe­
riences of ’80s accidental activist Ron Woodroof. Just as striking, though, is the
career metamorphosis McConaughey himself caps off in playing Woodroof.
Some will recall the actor’s run as Vanity Fair “It” Guy in the mid­’90s, when he
supplied movies like John Grisham’s “A Time to Kill” with no end of hunky gloss.
But over time, the whole man­tanned stud persona seemed to elicit fewer hub­
ba­hubbas and more ughs, with McConaughey churning out tepid work like the
rom­coms “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” and “Fool’s Gold.” (Indeed.) He’s climbed
out of that rut in the last few years with a string of projects and character roles
which, combined with “Buyers Club,” can make for some interesting power view­
ing. (Consider it a DIY bonus to make up for the disc’s dearth of supplements.)
There’s his grungy, off­the­grid fugitive in last year’s Southern­fried drama
“Mud.” There’s his turn as a stylistically square DA prosecuting unlikely murder­
er­mortician Jack Black in “Bernie.” And there’s his sendup of his himbo image
as the well­oiled strip club owner in “Magic Mike.” No word as yet on a release
date for McConaughey and Woody Harrelson’s intriguing HBO crime drama
“True Detective,” which wraps its season in March. (Universal, $29.98; Blu­ray,
$34.98)
DRAMA
ABOUT TIME (2013)
Director Richard Curtis (“Love Ac­
tually”) spins the tale of a frequently
tongue­tied everyguy (Domhnall
Gleeson) whose ability to revisit mo­
ments in his own life is about getting
things right, not throwing things off,
especially with his charming new
crush (Rachel McAdams). Oh, the pos­
sibilities the story imagines — and oh,
the heartache that inevitably arises
just the same. Gleeson (2012’s “Anna
Karenina”) is consistently appealing as
Curtis’s new, de facto Hugh Grant
stand­in (the same halting likability,
with a dash of Ron Weasley thrown
in). Bill Nighy is all loose­limbed affa­
bility as Gleeson’s dad, who’s also tem­
porally gifted. Extras: Featurette on
Curtis’s romance oeuvre. (Universal,
$29.98; Blu­ray, $34.98)
ACTION
ESCAPE PLAN
(2013)
In a new
team­up from
“Expendables”
compadres Syl­
vester Stallone and Arnold Schwarze­
negger, Sly plays a security consultant
who infiltrates prisons, and Ah­nold is
the fast friend he makes after being
left to rot in a secret super­penitentia­
ry. For the first half­hour, you start to
think maybe it’s possible to recapture
those ’80s popcorn­movie thrills.
Trouble is, it’s all Stallone’s show —
Schwarzenegger hasn’t even come into
the picture yet. The moment he does,
some of the air goes out of the room,
and we’re squarely in indulgence terri­
tory. Extras: Semi­aptly titled “Clash of
the Titans” featurette. (Lionsgate,
$29.95; Blu­ray, $39.99)
BAGGAGE CLAIM
Spurred on by a mon­
strous mother who
wants to see her eldest
daughter married, flight
attendant Paula Patton
has 30 days before her
younger sister’s wedding
to recheck old exes in
various cities to see if
she overlooked Mr.
Right. Will she land on
time or stay stuck in a
holding pattern? Extras:
cast interview, director’s
commentary. (20th
Century Fox, $29.98;
Blu­ray, $39.99)
ROMEO & JULIET Appar­
ently aimed at a youth
audience weaned on
“Gossip Girl,” this ver­
sion cuts most of Shake­
speare’s speeches, in­
vents new dialogue, and
features young actors
who are clueless (Doug­
las Booth and Hailee
Steinfeld play the star­
crossed lovers) and old
pros who overact. It’s a
movie that only a 13­
year­old girl with an
English paper due could
love. Extras: making­of,
set design, and hair and
makeup featurettes.
(20th Century Fox,
$22.98; Blu­ray, $29.99)
FREE BIRDS Owen Wil­
son and Woody Harrel­
son provide the voices of
cartoon turkeys who go
time­traveling back to
the first Thanksgiving to
get their species off the
menu. Sounds fun,
right? Of course, if the
movie could have given
us a little story develop­
ment beyond just the
premise, that would
have been nice, too.
With Amy Poehler.
Extras: trailer, behind­
the­scenes animation
featurettes. (20th Centu­
ry Fox, $29.98; Blu­ray,
$39.99)
DEATH WISH: 40TH
ANNIVERSARY EDITION
This disquietingly influ­
ential vigilante thriller
made its lead, Charles
Bronson, a major inter­
national star. It also ur­
banized and updated
the classic vengeance
narrative of the western.
Extras: trailer. (Warner,
Blu­ray, $19.98)
JULES AND JIM In Fran­
cois Truffaut’s third fea­
ture, from 1962, it’s the
years before World War
I and the title characters
love the same woman,
Catherine. How could
they not, since she’s
played by Jeanne
Moreau in what may be
her most vibrant perfor­
mance. Extras: audio in­
terview and French tele­
vision interviews with
Truffaut; 1985 docu­
mentary about Henri­
Pierre Roché, author of
the novel the film’s
based on. (Criterion
Collection DVD/Blu­ray,
$39.95)
CUTIE AND THE BOXER
A marriage between two
artists doesn’t always
lead to domestic tran­
quility, as Zachary Hein­
zerling’s impressionistic
documentary about
Ushio and Noriko Shino­
hara demonstrates. The
Japanese­born couple
have stayed together for
40 years, still pursuing
their art and squabbling
in their garret­like
Brooklyn, N.Y., loft. This
portrait of the artists,
Oscar nominated for
best feature documenta­
ry, is all the more inspir­
ing because of its harsh
honesty. (Starz/Anchor
Bay, $24.98; Blu­ray,
$29.99)
GLOBE STAFF
CUTIE AND THE BOXER
Tom Russo can be reached at
[email protected].
RADIUS­TWC
LIVE ACTION
Love,
American Style
T
he dreamy gaze of a
young Scott Baio could
melt the sturdiest of
Trapper Keepers in the
e a r l y 1 9 8 0 s . Me a n ­
while, America had
watched Erin Moran bloom from Ron
Howard’s little television sister on
“Happy Days” into a woman who
could fill out a sweater like a young
Annette Funicello.
Therefore, a “Happy Days” spinoff
highlighting the passionate, yet
chaste, desires between Chachi Arcola
(Baio) and Joanie Cunningham (Mo­
ran) was as inevitable as Fonzie telling
Potsie to sit on it. In March 1982,
Chachi sat at a piano, serenaded
Joanie with a syrupy pop ballad, and
“Joanie Loves Chachi” made its debut.
The complete series is released Tues­
day on DVD.
But there was little love for “Joanie
Loves Chachi.” Viewers tuned in for
those first few episodes, then quickly
jumped ship during the second season.
Eventually Moran and Baio’s charac­
ters returned to “Happy Days” and
married in the show’s finale.
This was the perilous fate of televi­
sion characters in the golden age of
spinoffs. Counting a live musical and
several animated series, “Happy Days”
— itself a spinoff from “Love, Ameri­
can Style” — produced more than 10
different shows. Some were huge hits
(“Laverne & Shirley,” “Mork & Mindy”)
and others are now answers to obscure
trivia questions. Anyone remember “Blansky’s Beauties”? “Out of the
Blue”?
It’s easy to look back and chortle at
these desperate attempts to stretch a
successful series into a TV franchise.
But with the forthcoming “Breaking
Bad” spinoff, “Better Call Saul,” the
“How I Met Your Mother” spinoff,
“How I Met Your Dad,” plus the contin­
ued success of any show that starts
with “NCIS” (spun off from “JAG”), our
appetite remains ravenous.
The spinoff universe of the 1970s
and ’80s is a fascinating study in what
happens when TV executives spot a
winning formula, and then wring it
until it’s dry as a molted snakeskin.
“All in the Family,” characters Maude
Findlay (Bea Arthur) and George Jef­
ferson (Sherman Hemsley) were
plucked from the show and awarded
their own series: “Maude” and “The
Jeffersons.” Those shows produced the
spinoffs “Good Times” (“Maude”) and
1969–1974
ANIMATED
Out of the Blue
The Fonz and the
Happy Days Gang
1979
1980-1981
Mork & Mindy
1978-1982
competitors’. In addition to the highly­
rated “Rhoda” (1974–1978), there was
“Phyllis” (1975–1977), and the drama
“Lou Grant” (1977–1982). The trun­
cated run of “Phyllis” was likely a re­
sult of the real­life deaths of several ac­
tors on the show.
Happy Days:
The formula ebbed, but refused to
A New Musical
retreat. The 1980s brought “The Facts
2007-2010
of Life,” which bested its originator,
“Diff ’rent Strokes.” “Empty Nest”
branched off from “The Golden Girls”
which then became “The Golden Pal­
ace,” and “A Different World” found
Blansky's
Cosby kid Lisa Bonet at college, albeit
Beauties
briefly. Those shows are just the skin of
1977
Mork & Mindy/ the pudding.
The 1990s were no less prolific for
Laverne & Shirley/
spinoffs,
but thankfully the tendrils of
Happy Days
Fonz Hour
“Beverly Hills, 90210” (which begat
1974–1984
1982–1983
“Melrose Place” and “Models Inc.”)
never stretched as far as those of “All in
the Family.”
Laverne &
With the benefit of time, the failed
Shirley
spinoffs can be as entertaining as the
1976–1983
successes — with the exception of “The
Ropers.” “The Brady Bunch Variety
Hour,” a horrifying, sequin­encrusted
resuscitation of “The Brady Bunch,”
made a minor dent in pop culture.
Laverne & Shirley
Joanie Loves Chachi
When Eve Plumb opted out of the
Laverne & Shirley
With Special Guest Star
1982–1983
campy 1977 show (a very smart deci­
in the Army
the Fonz
sion), the role of Jan Brady was filled
1981–1982
1982–1983
by Geri Reischl, creating the “Fake
CHRISTOPHER MUTHER, PATRICK GARVIN/GLOBE STAFF Jan” phenomenon.
SOURCES: IMDB.com, archives, file photos
“The Simpsons” (a spinoff of “The
Tracey Ullman Show”) parodied the
genre so smartly that it should have
served as a warning to the hazards of
the genre. In the episode “The Simp­
son Spin­Off Showcase,” Troy McClure
( “ Yo u m a y k n o w m e f r o m s u c h
spinoffs as ‘Son of Sanford and Son’)
introduces pilots for “Chief Wiggum,
P.I.,” “The Love­matic Grampa,” and
“The Simpson Family Smile­Time Vari­
BY CHRISTOPHER MUTHER | GL OBE STAFF
ety Hour.” It’s “The Variety Hour” that
takes direct aim at the Brady Bunch,
down to the fake Lisa.
“Checking In” (“The Jeffersons”). “All
For every successful spinoff (“Frasi­
In the episode, McClure, voiced by
in the Family” then morphed into “Ar­
er”), there’s a clunker (“The Tortellis”). the late Phil Hartman, cheekily asks,
chie Bunker’s Place,” then “Gloria,” and
Despite the risks, the results can be de­ “Spinoff. Is there any word more thrill­
ultimately “704 Hauser.”
liciously enticing. Viewers are already ing to the human soul?” It’s a rhetori­
Sometimes these sitcom family
connected with the characters and cu­ cal jab, but in those rare cases where
trees turned into confusing shrubs
rious to see their fate. The nation ea­ our favorite characters find a satisfying
that needed a good pruning. To this
gerly tuned in to watch its beloved new life in a successful spinoff, it can
day, questions remain about how
Rhoda Morgenstern get married on be a thrill. At worst, we get the nostal­
Maude’s housekeeper in Tuckahoe,
“Rhoda.” Until her divorce two seasons gic camp of “Joanie Loves Chachi.”
N.Y., ended up living in a low­income
later.
housing project in Chicago. And why
“The Mary Tyler Moore Show”may Christopher Muther can be reached
was she married to Gordy, the weath­
not have been the most prolific show at [email protected].
erman from “The Mary Tyler Moore
in the 1970s spinoff­a­thon, but its Follow him on Twitter @Chris_
Show”?
track record was more solid than its Muther.
Recalling the spinoff ’s golden age
‘Joanie Loves Chachi’ gets a second chance on DVD
For every
successful spinoff
(‘Frasier’), there’s
a clunker (‘The
Tortellis’). Despite
the risks, the
results can be
enticing.