Go to the Head of the Class!
I don’t expect y’all to watch every video posted on Dino Drac After Dark, but you should definitely watch this one.
It’s my favorite episode of Amazing Stories, and my favorite episode from any anthology series ever. Hell, I’d go so far to say that it ranks among my favorite television episodes, period.
Go to the Head of the Class was the crown jewel of the show’s second season. Running over 40 minutes and directed by Robert Zemeckis, it’s more of a made-for-TV movie than a regular episode.
Starring Christopher Lloyd as a sadistically cruel teacher, it’s so ‘80 and so wonderful. Cheesy, scary, magical, romantic — this thing hits every note.
Lloyd’s turn as Professor Beanes absolutely terrified me as a kid, to the point where I regularly had nightmares about him. The episode was treated as a major event when it aired, and rightfully so.
I love Amazing Stories, but it’s a crime that this “episode” (again, more of a short movie) is buried in the series. Had it been a “real” movie, or even a straight-up TV movie, I imagine it’d have the following it so clearly deserves.
Tonight’s survey:
Name your all-time favorite TV episode from ANY AND EVERY show.
(A tough one!)
Super Mario Bros. Movie!
From 1993, here’s Super Mario Bros. — meaning the live action, big screen adaptation:
Some people love it, some people hate it, but I think we can at least agree that the movie was worth making if only for the chance to see Bob Hoskins dressed like Mario.
Tonight’s survey:
Name some of your favorite “bad” movies.
(“Bad” in quotes because we often just mean “odd” or “underachieving” when we say that, but you get the drift!)
The Twilight Zone!
Here are a few classic episodes of The Twilight Zone. (And believe me, it was hard to stop at just three!)
In Eye of the Beholder, a women endeavors to make herself less hideous through risky surgery, but things aren’t quite what they seem.
In The Chaser, a man frustrated by his girlfriend’s ambivalence buys a love potion and gets more than he bargained for.
In The Masks, a dying man has plenty of assets to leave behind… but there’s a peculiar catch for interested parties.
I could watch this show all day long. (Actually, I have: WPIX used to run marathons on New Year’s Day, and as I recall, that would be the last big hurrah before school started up again after Christmas break.)
Tonight’s survey:
Name your favorite episode of The Twilight Zone. Don’t be afraid to go into detail, too!
If you don’t know enough about this series to answer that question, please give it a closer look. It still holds up. In fact, from a certain angle, it hits harder now than it did when it was still fresh!
Extreme Ghostbusters!
As mentioned in this older Dino Drac post, there was a fairly infamous episode of Extreme Ghostbusters that pit our (then blossoming) heroes against a horde of ghouls that looked and acted like the Cenobites from Hellraiser.
Deadliners is the name of the episode, and of the monsters it features. Enjoy!
Tonight’s survey:
Name some scary moments from cartoons. (Not adult-targeted cartoons, obviously — that’s too easy!)
We’ll open this one up to toons from television and movies.
Let’s freak ourselves out. It’s Friday!
