In the movie, Pleasantville, we see the two main characters in direct contrast with each other. David Wagner, the protagonist, is a shy teenager who is apprehensive about asking a popular girl out. His parents are divorced and he is unhappy in the imperfect world that he lives in. He finds escape in his favorite black and white TV show from the 1950, “Pleasantville.”
By contrast his sister, Jennifer love the world she lives in. She could be considered a “bad girl,” – sexually promisculous smoker. She is concerned about dating the cutest guy in school.
During an argument over control of the TV, Jennifer and David are transported to the black and white TV show world of Pleasantville. Initually they are shocked, but eventually they decide to play along as the TV characters of Mary Sue and Bud.
Pleasantville is a perfect world. The basketball team is undefeated. It never rains. Wives have dinner for their husbands promptly at 6PM. Firemen have no knowledge of fire (for there are no disasters like fire in Pleasantville). A Pleasantville Fireman’s only purpose is to rescue cats from trees. Any problem one may encounter can be solved within a half hour (including commercials breaks).
Interestingly enough there is no interaction with the outside world. Geography classes study the geography of Pleasantville itself, without mentioning where Pleasantville ends. Books contain blank pages, as if to say information from the outside is unimportant or irrelevant.
Mary Sue finds the Pleasantville world unrealistic. She resolves to change the world and teach the characters in the sitcom about how real life is. Bud by contrast realizes that this could turn their world upside down and might not let them get back to the world of reality.
Change occurs. The basketball teams starts loosing. Wives don’t have dinner on the table for their husbands promptly at 6PM. The clouds produce rain. Pleasantville becomes the imperfect world of reality.
The selling point for the audience is the color change in the black and white world. Initually it is subtle: pink bubblegum, a green car at the soda shop; the red cherry on top of a sundae; the red hearts in a card game.
A first the color change in people comes from sexual experiences. One would think the movie is promoting being sexual promiscuity. Instead the movie is promoting change. Color represents seeing the world in a different light. Jennifer/Mary Sue doesn’t become colorized when she has sex, like many of the other characters. Instead she changes when she discovers the world of reading. David/Bud experiences color change when he finally stands up for himself.
The movie deals with alot of other social issues such as racism. When some of the Pleasantville residents turn colors we see “No Coloured” signs in storefront windows. Segregation is seen in the trial of Bud and Bill when the colored people are in the balcony in tribute to “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Censorship is also dealt with. When words start appearing in the books and the citizens start learning about the outside world, the city has a good old fashion book burning reminicent of Nazi Germany.
There is a conversation between Bud and his father near the end of the movie. The father asks his son “What went wrong?” “Nothing,” Bud says. “People change.” This pretty much sums up the moral of the story. Change, no matter how we feel about it, is going to occur. It our duty to make the best of it, and even in some cases embrace it.

Whereas “It’s a Wonderful Life” tries to answer the question “What if you were never born?” “Groundhog’s Day” tries to answer the question “What if tomorrow never came?”
In “Groundhog’s Day,” we see the protagonist Phil Connor living the same day over and over again. At first we see the self distructiveness where gluttony, breaking the law, and even suicide pay a role in the days. Phil has the worst day of his life during the first few reoccuring days. This is summarized by his weather report:

It’s gonna be cold, it’s gonna be grey, and it’s gonna last you for the rest of your life.

Eventually however Phil sees his unique situation and uses it to his advantage. He has the best day of his life – saving a man from choking; helping change a tire for old ladies in distress; and eventually getting the girl in the end. This “best day ever” permits Phil to experience tomorrow – something he describes as “different.”
Success is not measured by how much money we have; how many friends we have; how big of a house we live in. It’s what we do with our time here on earth. For George Bailey, it was important to know how much of a difference he had made in his life. For Phil Connors it was living the best 24 hours so that he could see tomorrow.

Forrest Gump is a tale of two lives. In one aspect we see the main character as mentally challenged man who has brushes of greatness with famous people. In many ways we see the timeline of the 60s and 70s through the experiences of Gump. Segregation, the war in Vietnam, Watergate…they’re all there.
What stands out is Forrest’s honestly and loyality. When Lieutenant Dan criticizes religous people Forrest contends that he himself is heaven bound. God seemed to be on Gump’s side when a storm wrecked the shrimping business, yet left Forrest’s shrimp boat unscathed.
On the other hand we see Forrest’s love, Jenny, who grew up in an abusive household, and went on to have abusive relationships. She is shown contemplating suicide and eventually gets what we the audience perceve as A.I.D.S.
Two lives are shown. Jenny had all the abilities to do what is right, yet choose not to, and eventually paid for it. Forrest wasn’t given the mental ability as the rest of us, yet he did with what he had and was able to succeed in life. Success isn’t dependent on what we have, only what we do with it.

Here’s another comedy skit from YCDTOTV. Keep in mind this is one of those opposite sketches, where the opposite of true life really happens.

From Divorce (1984)
Dad: Justin, I’ve got something I gotta tell you. Your mother and I have been talking things over and we’ve decided that we’re going to get married.
Justin: Oh no, you can’t do this to me. I’ll be the only kid in school who’s parents are married. I’ll be the laughing stock of the whole school.
[Justin runs out of the room]
Dad: No, you don’t understand Justin. We’re not marrying each other.

The sad thing is it’d be funny if it wasn’t so true today. Think about it.
Another sad thing is today’s society is putting so much pressure on people to get married in order to live happy lives. Couples are marrying much too early, just for the sake of getting married. Then they realize that they aren’t happy. They end up getting a divorce or living very unhappy lives.

Christine (host): As you may have guessed this week’s show is about drugs. Except we can’t really make it about drugs or we’d get taken off the air. ‘You can’t do that on television.’ Anyway. The idea that anyone would want to push a custard pie in their own face is just about as stupid as the idea that anyone would want to harm their bodies with dangereous and additive drugs, I mean custard pies. Sure they’re kinda fun, but I don’t need them. I mean I’m not addicted to them or anything! Excuse me.
[Walks off stage to a table of custard pies]
You don’t have to follow me with that camera. I finished the introduction.
Can’t a girl get any pies in privacy….any privacy for pies? I don’t need them…
[In walk 3 other cast members (Kevin, Mike, and Angie). Their faces are covered with custard pie remnants.]
Kevin: Listen man, you gotta spat pies sometime.
Christine: No, Kevin, I don’t gotta do nothing.
Mike: It’s good for you man, gives you a nice sticky feeling on your face.
Angie: It’s not bad for you Christine. You won’t get addicted or anything.
[Kevin splats a pie in his face]
Christine: I just don’t understand the point. You spend all your money on pies. You mess yourself up. Your clothes…your school work suffers… You get so sticky you can’t even sleep at night.
Kevin: Listen sister, don’t knock it til you try it.
Christine: Well I’m not going to try it. I think you guys are all deporable.
[Christine walks off leaving the remaing 3 with the pies on the table]
Mike: Waste not. Want not.
[The rest remain and continue to splat pies in their faces repeatedly.]

And so the rest of the show had the kids splatting pies in their faces, pie dealers…etc…
It was good. Splatting pies was the best emphimism for drug use. And much more appealing than Nancy Reagan’s lame “Just So No” campaign. I don’t think you could have handled a show about drug use in such a humorous fashion.

I’m watching more and more YCDTOTV. The show itself is classic. However I did find some skits to be a bit different.
Keep in mind that the following scetches aired on a TV network (Nickelodeon) where the primary audience was anywhere between ages 7 and 16….and it was the most popular show on the network.

Episode: Heroes – 1982
(2 Boy Scouts are sitting on a house’s front porch with a case of bottled beer):
Boy Scouts: [Singing with drunk voices] Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of beer…
Scoutmaster: [Blows whistle] Empty bottles! You were supposed to collect empty bottles!
Boy Scout [in a drunk voice]: We’ve been emptying them…. [Belch]

And who said Nickelodeon never promoted alcohol use among young people?

Episode: Culture – 1982
[Scene: Living room. A young man comes in wearing a trenchcoat, hat and sunglasses, carrying a violin case]
Dad: Hey Kevin! Come here. Where do you think you’re going with that? [points to the violin case]
Kevin: I’m gonna go shoot up the neighborhood, Dad.
[He opens the violin case to reveal a machine gun]
Dad: I thought you were going to some boring violin lesson or something like that. Go on. Have fun!

(The above is an opposite sketch, where the opposite of real life happens)
You would NEVER see this in a post Columbine world. I guess in some cases we’ve become over sensitized to guns and things like that to where we can’t even joke about them anymore. At the time I found the skit funny.

You Can’t Do That on Television. Possibly my all time favorite show growing up. And its still funny today. I recently got a DVD off all the episodes.
Some good quotes from the show.

From the Future Episode (1983)
Newsboy: Did you see my picture in the paper yesterday, sir? I’m carrier of the week.
Man: I never read the newspaper, son.
Newsboy: That’s what everyone says on my route. No one ever reads their papers anymore.
Man: That’s right, everyone gets their news from the teletext on TV.
Newsboy: Then why do you all still get a newspaper?
Man: Cause we haven’t found any way to wrap up kitty litter in a television set.

Shades of the internet, anyone?

Mom (to her son): So you see Dougie dear, as long as we have more and bigger bombs than the Russians, there will never have a nuclear war. So I want you to go to sleep now and tomorrow I’ll tell you another fairy tale.

Commentary on current events? Fairy tale…?

I watched The Exorcist last night. I remember staying at my cousins’ house in the 80s and them wanting to rent it because it was the scariest movie ever. I guess if you’ve seen parodies like Repossed and SNL’s comedy sketch, you tend to laugh at some of the meant-to-be scary scenes. Years ago that movie would have given me nightmares. Now I expect the priest to yell “The bed is on my foot!” in true Richard Pryor fashion.
The movie was a bit disturbing in some respects. Maybe it was the disturbing feeling how you knew the little girl was going crazy, but doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her. And I completely missed the stair falling scene….and deleted it from my Tivo before I realized it.
Do I believe Demon possession happens today? I don’t think God allows us to be tempted more than what we are able to bear. There are people with certain psychological problems which compel them to sin without being able to control easily their actions. I really don’t think we see demon possession like what we saw in the Gospels.

I managed to catch the pilot episode of the Dukes of Hazzard on a DVD I borrowed. Somehow the show you watched when you’re 7 isn’t as good as when you’re 29. Whew. Some bad acting in it. Groundbreaking? No. Somewhat entertaining to rednecks and 7 year olds? Yep.
During the pilot episode Luke made references to having his own car. So one would have to suppose that Bo was the true owner of the General Lee. But strangely enough you don’t see Luke’s car in any of the episodes. Strange. Even stranger was that both Bo and Luke had to share a car with each other. And what exactly did they do for a living? You never really saw them working on the farm. Seems like Daisy and Uncle Jesse were the only breadwinners in the family. Daisy was a waitress at the Boar’s Nest and Jesse worked on the farm. The only thing Bo and Luke did was run from the law.
For me the Dukes were required viewing on Friday nights during my elementary school years. Never missed an episode. Yet somehow during the latter years, the show lost its appeal to me. Maybe I became burnt out on it.

I was told by a friend that not all the Blockbuster stores are implementing corporate “No Late Fee” policy. I checked and sure enough there was a sign at my local Blockbusters saying that they were not participating in the “no late fee” policy. Corporate stores are participating, but privately owned franchise stores, like all the stores in the Nashville area, may or may not be participating. So what do you do when your corporate company implements a policy which you as a franchisee do not plan on participating? The situation is mass confusion. Disgrunted customers. Do they allow for a grace period due to this confusion? Can you imagine the situation the past few weeks at franchise (non-corporate) stores across the country?
No late fees is sorta a misnomer because eventually they charge you for the movie. So instead they lengthened their rental time and increased their charges.
I do not rent movies at Blockbuster. Tivo solved that for me.