Category Archives: Made for TV Movie

Murder, She Wrote S2 E15: Powder Keg (1986)

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The justice system is tested when a group of angry rednecks form a lynch party and plan to hang a murder suspect.

Season 2, Episode 15: Powder Keg (February 9, 1986)

The second episode, set in Roper County (also in “It’s a Dog’s Life“), features Jessica and Ames Caulfield (Craig Stevens, Peter Gunn!) traveling down South to attend a writer’s convention. Coincidence strands them at a hotel owned by an old lover of Ames, Cassie Burns (Mariclare Costello, Emily from Let’s Scare Jessica to Death). She runs the place along with her son Matthew (Brian Lane Green). But hey…let’s get into it.

Who’s in it, outside of Angela Lansbury?

Other than the cast above, that is!

Frank Kelso is played by Pat Corley, who also was Sheriff Joe Corley in Kiss My Grits.

Linda Bonner is played by Cindy Fisher.

Jackie Earle Haley! He’s Billy Willetts.

Sheriff Claudell Cox, the law here, is Dorian Harewood, Shredder on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon.

Peter Fargo is played by John Dennis Johnston.

Charlie Demsey is Bill McKinney, who was in Deliverance, First Blood and Back to the Future III.

Jeff Osterage is in the role of Ed Bonner.

The elder Bonner is Stuart Whitman in one of his four appearances on the show.

Larry Wilcox is also in the four-timers club. He’s Andy Crane in this.

Smaller roles include W.K. Stratton as Deputy Morgan, John Alvin as Dr. Frazier, Debra Dusay as a desk clerk, Dave Adams as a barfly, Hartley Silver as a man, Muriel Minot as a woman, Renna Bartlett as a literary conference attendee and Bud Hazlett and Helen Kelly as background characters.

What happens?

Ames goes to watch Matthew play in a band at a bar that has a Confederate flag on the stage. Soon, Linda’s brother Ed and his sons Andy and Billy show up looking for him. And Matthew, who turns out not to be her son but is a lover, is involved.

As you guessed, Ed is dead in the morning, Matt is suspected, and Ames wants JB to help him. Maybe Ed was a drug dealer. Who can say? Well, everyone, because no one seems to like him even after he just died.

Jessica gets a gun pulled on her by a bartender when she’s snooping around. She knows more about guns than he does, and as you can imagine, this gets him rock hard. JB is told to leave people alone, and now look, she’s blue ballsing an NRA member.

But no matter who you think it is, as the townspeople all come to jail to kill Matthew, the surprise is…

Who did it?

The bartender. Yes, Frank Kelso caught his wife pounding it out with Ed, so he killed her and got blackmailed by Ed. Finally, he decided to shoot him with the very gun Jessica saw him pull on her.

Who made it?

This episode was directed by the best TV movie director of all time, John Llewellyn Moxey, and written by series creator Peter S. Fischer.

Does Jessica get some?

No, but Ames had it on his mind before his ex cock blocked him.

Does Jessica dress up and act stupid?

I wish.

Was it any good?

Yes, this is the best kind of episode, where JB is a fish out of water, wins everyone over and solves the case.

Any trivia?

Jeff Osterage was also in season 1’s “Funeral at Fifty-Mile.”

Give me a reasonable quote:

Jessica Fletcher: Oh, Ames, I’m so grateful to you for inviting me to loll around your estate for a few days. You know, that writer’s conference really wore me out.

Prof. Ames Caulfield: Nonsense. You loved it. And they loved you, he admitted enviously.

What’s next?

Art Hindle! Barbi Benton! Frank Bonner! Jessica must find the murderer of her close friend, whose will is in contention between the family and a popular evangelist.

2025 Scarecrow Psychotronic Challenge Day 12: Anemia (1986)

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12. MOROSE CODE: Nestle into your favorite dark place to view a Gothic horror piece.

Directed and written by Alberto Abruzzese and Achille Pisanti, this was described by Abruzzese as a “hypersensible journey among the literary and cinematic genres…a game of displacements.” Based on the Abruzzese novel Anemia Storia di un vampiro comunista, it was first shown on Rai Tre television on October 27, 1990.

Umberto (Hanns Zischler) is a high-ranking Communist Party official who learns that he has become a vampire. He leaves behind the real world and goes to the house of his grandfather, which is all a comment on how the Italian Communists became the Democratic Party of the Left.

It’s more cerebral than Italian horror, but hey, Gioia Scola (Obsession: A Taste for Fear) is in it.

I’m trying to watch every Italian Gothic Horror movie ever — here’s the Letterboxd list — and sometimes, you get to watch The Vampire and the Ballerina or Kill, Baby, Kill. And other times, you watch this.

You can watch this on YouTube.

UNSUNG HORRORS HORROR GIVES BACK 2025: Cute Devil (1982)

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Each October, the Unsung Horrors podcast does a month of themed movies. This year, they will once again be setting up a fundraiser to benefit Best Friends, which works to save the lives of cats and dogs across America, giving pets second chances and providing them with happy homes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Adam Hursey is a pharmacist specializing in health informatics by day, but his true passion is cinema. His current favorite films are Back to the Future, Stop Making Sense, and In the Mood for Love. He has written articles for Film East and The Physical Media Advocate, primarily examining older films through the lens of contemporary perspectives. He is usually found on Letterboxd, where he mainly writes about horror and exploitation films. You can follow him on Letterboxd or Instagram at ashursey.

Today’s theme: The Sweetest Taboo!

Hold onto your penmanship medals! Nobuhiko Obayashi (Hausu) brings us a version of The Bad Seed, with a child perhaps even more devious than Rhoda Penmark.

I would say that The Bad Seed was a gateway horror film for me, but I was born in the 1970s. The idea of gateway horror had not been invented. Or even considered. One of my earliest memories is watching Carrie on our little television in the trailer we were living in. The pig’s blood dropped and I ran out of the room. Carrie was aired on CBS in 1978. Sure, they made a few edits, but a 3-year-old me would not have been able to notice. The real question is why would my parents let me watch it in the first place?

Sort of the blessing and the curse of being Generation X. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. My mom loved Alfred Hitchcock and she would often tape his films or television show any chance she got, and we would watch it on the weekends (along with a week’s worth of All My Children). But the film I most fondly remember is The Bad Seed. Taped off of WGN, complete with commercials for K-Tel records and Empire carpet (588-23 hundred Empiiiiire), we would watch it all of the time. Oh, how I wish I still had that old VHS tape! The Bad Seed had so many aspects that fascinated me. I was too young to understand the concept of translating a stage play to film. We do not see the evil Rhoda commits. We just hear about it. It might have made the idea of such an evil child more effective. Also, I’m still not sure what excelsior is exactly. But apparently, it is highly flammable.

As much as I love The Bad Seed, it is possible that Obayashi’s version is superior in many ways. He totally cuts out the psychological mumbo jumbo that drags down a significant portion of the original film. Our child killer here, Alice, is just a sociopath from the beginning. Is it possible that the suicide of her father is the root cause? Who cares? It doesn’t matter. We are just here to watch Alice bludgeon her teacher to death in order to get a prized doll. 

Obayashi also deviates from the original story by bringing in an aunt as the main protagonist. Ryoko ends up in a mental institution after believing she has caused her boyfriend’s death. I mean, she did wish death upon him as he was walking out the door, only to be struck down by a car. On that same day, Ryoko’s sister Fuyoko is getting married (why Ryoko isn’t there is not explained, other than she is studying music in Vienna). After Alice asks Fuyoko if she can have her veil when she dies, Fuyoko says yes, not expecting to be violently tossed out of a window minutes later. Years pass, and eventually Ryoko is convinced she was not responsible for the death of her boyfriend. Her brother-in-law (I guess—he was only legally married to her sister for mere minutes—talk about early release) asks Ryoko if she would come and be governess to Alice, sweet Alice. She does, but quickly begins to believe that Alice is responsible for the mysterious deaths happening around the family.

We do not approach the insanity that is Hausu of course, but Obayashi does have plenty of tricks up his sleeve. He foreshadows this glass vase so hard that you know something is going to happen with it. But I could have never expected what actually does happen. I thought “there it is”, immediately thinking that it is something that would have easily happened to one of the girls in Hausu.

The Leroy character, the guy who knows the truth but would have difficulty proving it, is even scummier than the guy in The Bad Seed. And Alice does not need to rely on him sleeping on a bed of excelsior to ignite those flames. 

All around, a great companion piece to both Hausu and The Bad Seed. I could watch both of those films back-to-back right now. Similar to other remakes of The Bad Seed in the United States, Cute Devil was made for television. I seem to be stacking up MFTV movies this month. A seemingly endless fount of goodness that unfortunately does not seem to exist anymore. 

UNSUNG HORRORS HORROR GIVES BACK 2025: Face of Evil (1996)

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Each October, the Unsung Horrors podcast does a month of themed movies. This year, they will once again be setting up a fundraiser to benefit Best Friends, which works to save the lives of cats and dogs across America, giving pets second chances and providing them with happy homes.

Today’s theme: Made for TV Movie

Ah man, Tracy Gold was always a good girl until this movie. She plays Darcy Palmer, an artist who loses her mind, leaves her man at the altar, takes all his money, heads to New York City and kills a college student named Brianne Dwyer (Mireille Enos). Then, she starts life all over again as a college student in New Hampshire.

She soon becomes friends with Jeanelle Polk (Shawnee Smith) and goes home to meet her father, Russell (Perry King). Before you know it, she has him fooled, and she’s cutting his ponytail off in the shower.

Directed by Mary Lambert and written by Gregory Goodell (lots of TV movies, but also the director and writer of the video nasty Human Experiments), this has the lovely daughter of TV’s Growing Pains stuffing dead bodies into her suitcase, ruining eyes with acid eyedrops and even trying to stab our good girl with scissors. She’s killed ten people in six cities and keeps changing who she is, somehow staying ahead of cops. If this were a Giallo, they’d be amongst the dumbest of all movie police, as a festering suitcase filled with a dead body can stay in a dorm for days and then at a construction site for months and no one notices.

Perry King also wears a jaunty scarf for the scene where Gold bites him and screams, “I’m an artist!”

Also: Total square up reel of all her crimes while Perry King is like, “I guess we were lucky.” And yet, he slept with her. I’m sure it was amazing.

You can watch this on Tubi.

UNSUNG HORRORS HORROR GIVES BACK 2025: When a Stranger Calls Back (1993)

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Each October, the Unsung Horrors podcast does a month of themed movies. This year, they will once again be setting up a fundraiser to benefit Best Friends, which works to save the lives of cats and dogs across America, giving pets second chances and providing them with happy homes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Adam Hursey is a pharmacist specializing in health informatics by day, but his true passion is cinema. His current favorite films are Back to the Future, Stop Making Sense, and In the Mood for Love. He has written articles for Film East and The Physical Media Advocate, primarily examining older films through the lens of contemporary perspectives. He is usually found on Letterboxd, where he mainly writes about horror and exploitation films. You can follow him on Letterboxd or Instagram at ashursey.

Today’s theme: Made for TV Movie!

“And maybe for the college boys, the truest mirror is the toilet bowl staring back at them in the morning after a toga party.”

This insightful line of dialogue is “uttered” by a faceless ventriloquist’s dummy during a set at a strip club in When a Stranger Calls Back, a copy/paste sequel produced by Showtime in 1993.

Starting with a revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1984, Showtime produced many original films during a run that lasted until around 2007. Never reaching the acclaim of HBO Films, and never reaching the depths of Cinemax Friday After Dark programming, Showtime was able to carve out an interesting middle ground, particularly in the horror genre. The first film that comes to my mind when I think about Showtime is John Carpenter’s Body Bags. But Showtime was also the home of films such as Psycho IV: The Beginning, The Birds II: Land’s End, as well as Jim Wynorski’s remake of The Wasp Woman. Pursuing the list of films now, I feel the need to find some of these potential hidden gems. Once this month is over, I might have to seek out The Tiger Woods Story, a 1998 film directed by LeVar Burton, starring Keith David as Tiger Woods’ dad. 

When a Stranger Calls Back gets the gang from the first film back together. Carol Kane as Jill, the babysitter who was tormented in the original movie, but she has since turned her trauma into a career as a counselor, while finding time to take self-defense classes on the side. Charles Durning as Detective John Clifford, using his skills to track down men who harass babysitters (a very niche skill set). And director Fred Walton. Not much to say about Walton other than he also directed April Fool’s Day, followed by a string of made-for-TV films, including a remake of William Castle’s I Saw What You Did.

Not only did the director and main stars come back, but the basic template from the first film returns. The most often heard complaint about When a Stranger Calls is that the film loses steam after that iconic opening sequence. But what film could possibly match the energy and suspense crafted in that first 20 minutes? People rarely talk about how great the last 15 minutes are as well. Truly scary.

While the bookends of When a Stranger Calls Back does not match the intensity of the original, it makes a decent effort. We get a legendary scream queen as the tormented babysitter (Jill Schoeien), and a killer who is creepier than the one in the first film. Kind of a Francis Dolarhyde meets Peeta from The Hunger Games. And I think that the second act here is more interesting than the one in the first film. Of course having more Carol Kane is always a good idea in my book. Watching Carol Kane’s stunt double do a jumping scissors kick against her attacker? Peak cinema. 

Murder, She Wrote S2 E14: Keep the Home Fries Burning (1986)

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Poisoned strawberry preserves served at the Joshua Peabody Inn result in murder.

Season 2, Episode 14: Keep the Home Fries Burning (January 19, 1986)

Are JB, Sheriff Tupper and Dr. Hazlitt in a triad relationship? No, they’re just going to dinner at the Joshua Peabody Inn, where several people get food poisoning and one lady dies. Of course, Jessica thinks it’s murder.

Who’s in it, outside of Angela Lansbury?

Sharon Acker (Happy Birthday to Me) plays Wilhelmina Fraser.

Norman Alden is Mercer Hawthorne.

Orson Bean plays Ebeneezer McEnery

Ted Stully is Gary Crosby, the son of Bing.

His wife, Helen, is played by Rosanna Huffman.

Anne Lloyd Francis (Forbidden Planet) plays Margo Perry.

William Lucking plays Bo Dixon.

John McCook (The Bold and the Beautiful) is Harrison Fraser III.

Cornelia Montique is played by Donna Pescow (Saturday Night Fever).

Chef Alan Dupree is played by Henry Polic II.

Alan Young (The Time Machine) plays Floyd Nelson.

In smaller roles, Marcia Rodd is Betty Fiddler, John Donovan is an assistant, Patricia Wilson is a cashier, Leonard O. Turner plays Mr. O’Connor, Dion Williams is Jimmy O’Connor, Michael McCabe is an orderly, Dale Raoul is a nurse, Alxander Folk is a cook, W. Earl Brown is a chef, Dan Cotter and Joel Shultz are diners, William B. Ward Hr. is a prist and To Willett is a doctor.

Oh yeah! Sheriff Amos is played by Tom Bosley, and Dr. Seth is portrayed by William Windom.

What happens?

Sheriff Amos is quite excited that he now has another place to eat, aside from Dixon’s, and that the Joshua Peabody Inn is open. Even his favorite waitress, Cornelia, has started to work there. And it’s a Revolutionary War-themed joint! Oh man! What do they serve, pepperpot stew?

As our three friends — Seth, Am, Os, and JB — have breakfast, they notice a group of wealthy ladies named Wilhelmina and Betty eating nearby. That’s when they all learn that the fruit preserves are tainted. And then Betty dies.

Margo Perry of the Maine Health Department arrives in town to investigate the case, and Amos becomes panicked. Not because he has to work with her, but because he’s probably eaten a little bit of everything for breakfast, and surely he’s going to get sick soon.

Wilhelmina’s husband, Harrison, comes to town, and when she tells him that Betty is dead, he takes it way worse than you’d imagine, but then, you know, one figures that he’s been sleeping with Betty.

There are so many red herrings, and yet people who eat at this place together often hate each other.

Who did it?

Wilhamena. It’s pretty simple. The most basic of all reasons: when your best friend bangs out your husband, you need to feed her poisoned jelly.

Who made it?

This episode was directed by Peter Crane (The Initiation) and Philip Gerson.

Does Jessica get some?

No, despite my weird wish for Seth and Amos to make her airtight.

Does Jessica dress up and act stupid?

Nope. I’m getting upset.

Was it any good?

It’s fine. The Cabot Cove episodes are usually more humorous, and everything gets serious when Jessica goes on the road.

Any trivia?

You may recognize the restaurant and parking lot set from The Rockford Files.

Give me a reasonable quote:

Sheriff Amos Tupper: Well, you know what they say. As Sheriff Tupper goes, so goes Cabot Cove.

Dr. Seth Hazlitt: Who says that?

Sheriff Amos Tupper: Everybody, when it comes to food.

Jessica Fletcher: I must be traveling in the wrong circles. I don’t recall hearing that.

What’s next?

The justice system is tested when a group of angry rednecks form a lynch party and plan to hang a murder suspect. Wow, what a cast — Larry Wilcox, Jackie Earle Haley and Stuart Whitman!

W.E.I.R.D. World (1995)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the last week of Tales from the Crypt content, as I got through all of the Perversions of Science episodes. Do you have another anthology you’d like me to tackle?

W.E.I.R.D. (Wilson Emery Institute for Research and Development) It is a place where the world’s most intelligent scientists get unlimited budgets to come up with whatever they want, all under the watch of Dr. Monochian (Ed O’Neill!). Three of the stories of this scientific lab form the basis of this TV movie, which seems to have been a pilot for a show.

When you see William Gaines’ name on this, know that’s because these three stories — like Tales from the Crypt, Two-Fisted Tales and Perversions of Science — were based on EC Comics. Specifically, stories from Weird Science and Weird Fantasy, the science fiction books of EC. Unlike the other shows based on the comics, these are all part of an overall tale and are all directed by the same person, William Malone.

In one, Dr. Dylan Bledsoe (Dana Ashbrook) is spending just as much time making a virus as he is trying to hook up with Dr. Noah Lane’s (Jime-True Frost) assistant Diane (Audie England, who was Kitana and Mileena on the Mortal Kombat TV show and was a girl rolling around in bed in Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer” video), all while robotics expert Lane tries to figure out if Bledsoe killed his last girlfriend, Catherine (Cyia Batten, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning). Meanwhile, Dr. Abby O’Reardon (Paula Marshall) and her husband Dr. Bryan Mayhew (Clayton Rohner) are constantly arguing — did any EC Comics creative have a good marriage? — and she wants a baby, despite all of that. And then there’s Dr. Patty Provost (Gina Ravera, Molly from Showgirls), who has figured out time travel, which leads to her brother Bob (Miguel A. Núñez Jr., Spider from Return of the Living Dead), a security guard, to sell out W.E.I.R.D.

Written by A.L. Katz, Gilbert Adler and Scott Nimerfro, this never reaches the levels of the other shows, but from all accounts — read The Schlock Pit — this was a troubled production. Does anyone know what comics this was based on?

You can watch this on Tubi.

Murder, She Wrote S2 E13: Trial by Error (1986)

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It’s a bad day for the jurors when Jessica is the foreperson of the jury hearing the case of a man claiming self-defense in the death of an enraged husband.

Season 2, Episode 13: Trial by Error (January 12, 1986)

Tonight on Murder, She Wrote…

JB is the foreperson of a jury trying Mark Lee Reynolds for the murder of Cliff Anderson. The case revolves around claims of self-defense, as Reynolds says that he killed Anderson in a moment of rage after being attacked. However, Jessica suspects that the truth is more complicated.

Who’s in it, outside of Angela Lansbury?

Prosecutor Tom Casselli is David Ackroyd (The Dark Secret of Harvest Home, Exo-Man).

Suspect Mark Lee Reynolds is Tony Bill, who is also a director.

Victim Cliff Anderson is played by Michael Swan.

Defense Attorney Oscar Ramsey is Macdonald Carey from The Damned and Dr. Tom Horton on Days of Our Lives.

Defense Attorney Max Flynn is Jon Cypher. He was Man-at-Arms in Masters of the Universe.

Virginia Capers plays Margo Webster.

Doran Clark from The Warriors is Becky Anderson.

Gene Evens plays Otto Fry.

Josh Corben is Tom Ewell from The Seven Year Itch.

Lee Callahan is Gary Frank from Family.

Arlene Golonka from Hang ‘Em High plays Sally Conover

Wow! Alan Hale Jr., the Skipper, is in this as Fenton Harris.

Sally Conover is played by Lenore Kasdorf, Rico’s mom in Starship Troopers.

Vicki Lawrence, better known as Mama, plays Jackie MacKay.

Allan Miller plays Frank Lord.

Thornton Bentley is Brock Peters.

Richard Sanders from WKRP In Cincinnati plays Gerald Richards.

Gregory Walcott (Plan 9 from Outer Space) is Willie Patchecki.

Norman Burton is Drew Narramore.

James Hampton is Jerry Blevins.

Walter Mathews is Judge Philo Walker.

John Detweiler is played by John Davis Chandler, Bleak from Adventures In Babysitting.

Warren J. Kemmerling from The Dark plays Dr. Maurice Webster.

In minor roles, Robert Caspar plays Arnold Jasper, Javier Grajeda is a paramedic, Liane Lander portrays Stephanie Reynolds, R.J. Adams is Victor Assmussen, and trial spectators include Robert Buckingham, Larry Carr, Paul LeClair, Mark Rodney, Walter Smith, Steve Wagner, and Judith Woodbury. At the same time, Lemuel Perry is a deputy sheriff.

What happens?

Jessica is starring in her own 12 Angry Men as she’s the foreperson for a trial where Mark Lee Reynolds kills Cliff Anderson with a poker after being caught in bed with the man’s wife, Stephanie. Everybody, it seems, wants to declare the case closed, but you know how Jessica is. She wonders why Mark came to be in the bed of Stephanie Anderson moments after his wife was nearly killed in a car accident.

Everyone just wants to vote, and Jessica says, “Don’t you think that we should examine the evidence first?”

Oh Jessica.

Between the jury fighting and flashbacks of what happened, this episode peels back the layers and reveals who did what to whom. And of course, we know JB will solve it.

Who did it?

Mr. Reynolds faked a car accident to kill his wife so he could keep her money and still be with Mrs. Anderson, his lover. But when Mr. Anderson found out, he came home and wanted to kill both of them. Mrs. Anderson is the one who killed him. Double murder!

Who made it?

This episode was directed by Seymour Robbie and written by Paul Savage and Scott Shephard.

Does Jessica get some?

No. She’s sequestered. Too bad, she and The Skipper are a dream match.

Does Jessica dress up and act stupid?

Nope. Come on!

Was it any good?

Yes, it’s a very different type of episode.

Any trivia?

Nearly everyone in this episode would be back for multiple appearances as different characters.

Give me a reasonable quote:

Mark Lee Reynolds: How can I thank you for your verdict?

Jessica Fletcher: There’s no need. The satisfaction is knowing that the right thing has been done.

Mark Lee Reynolds: Nevertheless, I just want you to know I’ll never forget you.

Jessica Fletcher: Oh, yes. I’m pretty sure you will.

What’s next?

Poisoned strawberry preserves served at the Joshua Peabody Inn result in murder!

USA UP ALL NIGHT: Casualties of Love: The “Long Island Lolita” Story (1993)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Casualties of Love was on USA Up All Night on February 13, 1993; November 25 and December 3, 1994.

Of the three Amy Fisher movies, NBC’s Amy Fisher: My Story, ABC’s The Amy Fisher Story with Drew Barrymore, and this film, which aired on CBS on January 3, 1993 — the same night as ABC’s film — this is the only one featuring Lawrence Tierney.

Alyssa Milano is Amy, which is probably why this was on USA Up All Night so often.

Director and writer John Herzfeld also made numerous TV movies, including Daddy, A Father’s Revenge, The Ryan White Story, The Preppie Murder, and Remember, which features Donna Mills. He also produced several ABC Afterschool Specials, 2 Days in the Valley, Don King: Only in America, and the John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John film Two of a Kind.

This one has a lot of Joey Buttafuoco (Jack Scalia), coked out and playing drums. And his brother is played by Bud, Leo Rossi! Man, did I cast this movie?

This one tells Joey’s side of the stor,y and the USA Network bought it while it was being filmed. Milano said,  “Our version was the one from Joey Buttafuoco’s point of view: That she was a lunatic. Since then, we’ve learned that his version wasn’t all true.”

You can watch this on Tubi.

Perversions of Science E10: The People’s Choice (1997)

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Directed by Russell Mulcahy and written by Scott Nimerfro, this is the last episode of Perversions of Science. Todd and Betty Sorensen (Patrick Cassidy and Maxine Bahns) get caught between warring groups of nanny robots that resemble elderly women. When one of their robots is damaged every night, a robot repairman suggests that they buy a new one: a red, white, and blue patriot by the name of Liberty 1 (Roger W. Morrissey). It’s filled with beehive hairdos and a future that feels like the 1950s. Barry Williams and Richard Riele are in it, too.

This takes its title from “The People’s Choice” from Weird Science #16, which was written by William Gaines and Al Feldstein and drawn by Joe Orlando. Please read the original comic, which is so much better than this lazy episode. In the comic book, a version of Kukla, Fran and Ollie runs for President and ends up being an alien who takes over the planet. It’s the best kind of EC story: dumb while smart, commenting on politics and the media while ending with the horrific image of a cute alligator controlling a woman through her arm.

You can download all of the episodes here or watch this episode on YouTube.