Past Tense


[An earlier version of this PT was originally posted on February 6th, 2014 on JoBlo's "DVD, Blu-Ray & Home Theater Discussion" forum.]

Denny Crane!!! Lawyers who would never put up with a Smollett.



David E. Kelley's "Boston Legal: Season One" was released on home video on May 23rd, 2006.

It streeted against "When A Stranger Calls" [remake], "Kingdom Of Heaven: 4 Disc Director’s Cut", "M*A*S*H: Season Ten Collector's Edition" and "The Boondock Saints: Unrated Special Edition".

This originally came with a non-embossed cardboard slipcase holding three slimcases for five discs. There was a single sheet insert; ad for other 20th Century Fox shows on DVD; "NYPD Blue", "Hill Street Blues", "The Shield" and "Murder One".

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There was a single exclusive from Best Buy, a bonus disc. The DVD has all final four episodes of "The Practice" - leading to the premiere of "Boston Legal"; characters were introduced which got their own show.

This sold for $34.99 on street.

By the way, "Kindom Of Heaven" Director's Cut" is outstanding (on DVD and BD).



Each bonus episodes has their own menu screen; play episode, language selection (subtitles in English, Spanish and French) and scene selection.

"The Firm" - April 18th, 2004
"Comings And Goings" - April 25th, 2004
"New Hoods On The Block" - May 2nd, 2004
"Cheers" (a.k.a. "Adjourned") - May 16th, 2004

No additional bonuses; commentaries or such; extra episodes are presented in widescreen. The exclusive came inside a CD envelope within the box.

Looking at the menu, my original thought was - this is simply the last disc on the season eight box set for "The Practice".

Not the case at all.



Season eight, "The Practice: The Final Season" didn't come out on DVD until April 15th, 2014. At the time was on pre-order - retailed for $29.99.

All and all the extra disc has a run time of 167:26 minutes. The bonus has a printed label, it reads "The Practice: Bonus Disc" (as you can see in the ad).

This was created genuinely for Best Buy, quite an excellent collectible. *nods*



I own all five seasons, very entertaining show, seen most of them when it aired. It's not like "The O.C." where I saw all of season one and two. But missed several from season three and nearly half of four. It would be many years later until I watched the whole series over a couple of weeks.

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Void.

Another short entry. You know what that mean... filler time!

What is it this outing? Bits from the 1984 classic sci-fi flick, "The Last Starfighter". But before I start, lets step back to 1979 with "Alien".

Much has been written about the classic sci-fi horror flick. It had a long pre-production. Ideas were thrown about and many were never used. Different artists hired, each giving their own take on the then developing story. One such fellow was artist Ron Cobb.

Much of the interior of the towing ship, Nostromo was drew into reality by him. A world of props had to be made for the actors and to fill in the empty spaces (he did much of that too). Some of which were never built.



One such paper design was Cobb's "HeliJet", a two person long range craft.

Unrealized shuttle was to have been an object within the ship's hold. Just something in the background while Parker (Yaphet Kotto) and Brett (Harry Dean Stanton) were hunting for the Chest Buster (before they knew what it had become).

Size? Don't have a clue if the intent was to build it full size or a scale model, either way - something in the background. It didn't happen until...



Cobbs was hired as the production designer for "The Last Starfighter". Not since "Tron" (1982) would so much CGI would be used to tell a story. The negative was proto-level computer imagery, very little texture mapping - nearly all the computer effects had smooth surfaces.

It was the best they could do at the time. That is to say, they had so little time to get it ready for theaters. They did have plans for texture mapping.

To save time, resurrected that unused shuttle.

Abandoned HeliJet now became the Zando-Zan's assassin ship, a full size prop.



It was simplified due to their CGI restrictions, smooth surfaces for continuity. This re-purpose was done to save money and time too. Render time for each generated frame (3000 x 5000, 36-bit pixels) is by today standards ridicules.

Twenty-seven minutes of CGI was delivered for the Summer of 1984. They didn't have the time to make it complicated it was a locked six month, unmovable deadline.

Would love to own a scale model of the original HeliJet on my desk - maybe off a 3D printer (painted). Or perhaps in Lego form - would be cool too; two mini-fig inside.

Hell yes! And a Lego Gunstar too

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Gonna address something else, a logic error - magazines.

There is a moment where Alex Rogan's little brother Louis (Chris Herbert) is searching through his Playboy collection for a certain issue. He sorts through them, dropping magazines on the floor in his quest. But finds the issue he wants hidden under his bed.



Problem - the very first issue he looked at was the same issue from his bed, the June 1983 issue. Why did Louis NOT notice that? And why did he have two copies? Anyhow, the Playmate Of The Month that Louis was ogling at was Jolanda Egger, pretty lady.

Man, I remember the first time I saw; flip through a Playboy. I want to say ten years old. I was in a second hand store, the book area, which had a nook in the shop. Lots of junk, then I saw IT among the old magazines. Why was it there? Who put it there? Can't say, but I was trying to be super cool and not give away all the excitement I was feeling. I stuck gold!

Can't remember what issue, wish I could. Just that I was making real sure my mom wasn't going to walk in on me looking at naked ladies. Ladies, not whores. Playboy is on the lower end of pornography, graphic art.

Didn't get caught and that experience never repeated in my childhood. No. There was another; Penthouse, but I was in my late teens at the time. The local book store inside the mall, someone had hid or left but the magazine in paperback area, sitting on top of them. Can't say what issue that was. *shrugs* I had at the time a subscription to the magazine (and Playboy too), so the thrill was gone.

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Plot hole too. When the second assassin learns that his target on Earth is not Alex (Lance Guest), but a Beta (android), he/she/it returns to the ship nestled between hills. Once inside, opens communication with the Kodan mothership. The raised dish is pointed at ninety degree angle, right at the hill; transmission would be hindered by it.

*shakes head*

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Tangent.

In late March I saw something I hadn't seen (in parts) for forty years! Man, I feel old.



In the Past Tense entry for "24: Redemption", I wrote about dead TV shows not on DVD. I've done that twice over. In that particular Void, wrote about "The Amazing Spider-Man" the 1978 CBS short lived series. You can read more on the program in that entry.

A fellow named Retrofan75 on YouTube has posted the entire series; the quality is very good. Not 100% great, but far better than others who post old TV shows. It's campy and cheesy at times, but man - it still holds up. Sway. This should already have a home video release.

It was at one point released on VHS back in the 1980s, an episode per cassette.

Just thought I'd share. Seek it out on his YT channel, good stuff.

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Totally unrelated. Doesn't the song "Don't Let Go" by En Vogue sound like a tune that would play during the open credits of a James Bond movie? Just thinking out loud.

Before I close.

There was an error, a potential problem with "Boston Legal: Season Two", Disc 7. Some folks had problems playing the episode "BL: Los Angeles" and the one of the bonus features on said disc.

There was a solution at the time, Fox had a 1-888 number to call for a replacement DVD. Give your info and mailing address, they'll send you a fixed disc. It appeared to be a batch issue, not all copies had that problem. I would expect that later repressings had this issue resolved. My copy didn't have a problem, I'm glad.

Denny Crane!

Done. The next PT will drop on you on June 6th, 2019. Come back for an unlikely mash-up of genres that was even more unlikely - had a theatrical sequel, turns out - you really can't stop the signal.