Larry Manetti and Tales from the Darkside

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BWheelz54
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Larry Manetti and Tales from the Darkside

#1 Post by BWheelz54 »

I received the complete series Tales from the Darkside on DVD from my brother this Christmas. We've both been watching them and laughing to remember how much we loved that show when it aired while we were kids. I jumped up an down to see Mr. Manetti in two Darkside episodes - "Baker's Dozen" and "Printer's Devil." "Baker's Dozen" is, eh, so-so. But I did get a kick out of "Printer's Devil." So fun to watch Mr. Manetti having fun in a different format and show! Thought I might mention it on a thread in case anyone else might enjoy checking it out.

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Re: Larry Manetti and Tales from the Darkside

#2 Post by Milton Collins »

BWheelz54 wrote:I received the complete series Tales from the Darkside on DVD from my brother this Christmas. We've both been watching them and laughing to remember how much we loved that show when it aired while we were kids. I jumped up an down to see Mr. Manetti in two Darkside episodes - "Baker's Dozen" and "Printer's Devil." "Baker's Dozen" is, eh, so-so. But I did get a kick out of "Printer's Devil." So fun to watch Mr. Manetti having fun in a different format and show! Thought I might mention it on a thread in case anyone else might enjoy checking it out.

I love it! I had seen in Larry's imdb that he was in one episode was instantly intrigued as just like you my bro and I watched Tales when we were kids and loved it so course I wanted to watch the one with Rick! But I had only seen that he was in the one episode "Printers Devil" and I could never find it online (cause I only bought season 1 of Tales from the Darkside and have been too lazy to get the other ones as of yet) but I just recently noticed he was also in "Bakers Dozen" and found it on YouTube and watched it, hilarious! So funny to see Rick in his prime in that cheesy but awesome little show lol. That scene where he's dipping the voodoo cookie in the coffee and starts cackling is so dang funny! So I have to ask, is Printers Devil worth buying whatever season of Tales From the Dark Side that is?

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Re: Larry Manetti and Tales from the Darkside

#3 Post by MikeS »

... maybe Priner's Devil, not sure after reading a brief description of Bakers Dozen. One of em was on either SyFy Channel or Chiller, around halloween. I know, but I'm not a huge fan of sci-fi or horror. While channel surfing I came across the episode, watched for maybe 5 minutes, it had already started. What do you expect when one is alone, scared :oops: I enjoyed seeing Orville's face again, made me smile.
MikeS

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Milton Collins
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Re: Larry Manetti and Tales from the Darkside

#4 Post by Milton Collins »

MikeS wrote:... maybe Priner's Devil, not sure after reading a brief description of Bakers Dozen. One of em was on either SyFy Channel or Chiller, around halloween. I know, but I'm not a huge fan of sci-fi or horror. While channel surfing I came across the episode, watched for maybe 5 minutes, it had already started. What do you expect when one is alone, scared :oops: I enjoyed seeing Orville's face again, made me smile.

Baker's dozen is a pretty stupid episode but as you said it was fun to see Orville and the episode was so ridiculous it was funny rather than scary lol. I still can't find Printers Devil on any media outlets online, oh well.

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Re: Larry Manetti and Tales from the Darkside

#5 Post by BWheelz54 »

Hi MIlton,

"Printer's Devil" with Mr. Manetti appears during season two. I think it is much, much better than "A Baker's Dozen," and it is one of my favorite of all the Tales of the Darkside episodes, so I am confident to give it a thumb-up for you, especially if you and your bro also really enjoyed the show in its day. In "Printer's Devil," Manetti plays the role of a frustrated writer trying to get some attention and respect in the publishing industry, which I relate to as I have never been able to get a hobby in writing to translate into money. I think it's a smart episode.

Season Two of Tales of the Darkside also had some gems of that series with "Lifebomb," "The Old Soft Shoe," "The Devil's Advocate" and "Halloween Candy." If you're feeling a bit on the fence regarding if you want to pick up season 2 or not to get hold of "Printer's Devil," maybe you can find those episodes online to watch and see if they get your interest any more.

Love hearing of some other Tales of the Darkside fans out there. I love anthology tv shows. Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Amazing Stories are all my favorites. I'm currently watching The Twilight Zone: The 1980's Series my wife picked up for me on my birthday. Just so love all those shows. Now that I think of it, Mr. Hillermann would've been awesome on one of those television shows.

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Re: Larry Manetti and Tales from the Darkside

#6 Post by Doc Ibold »

I can just imagine the Hillerman episode now.

He is a retired military gentleman, living on a lavish estate, wanting only some time to work on his memoirs and live out his days quietly with his beloved dogs. All is well until a mustachioed maniac arrives and steals a car. He thinks that's the end of it, but he comes back. Soon, he's living in the guest house and taking and breaking everything on the estate. Priceless bottles of wine go missing. Things explode. And then his friends show up, and they are constantly breaking into the estate. Soon, the mustachioed man starts bringing new people to the estate... Seemingly every week.

Worst of all, they prefer the mustachioed man to Hillermans character, no matter what he tries to do.

And each time, Hillerman must deal with these intrusions and suffer the indignities, all the while trying to communicate his life story.. Often to the derision of the mustachioed man. Sure the mustachioed man is repeatedly beaten up, lost at sea, goes missing, and imprisoned. He is even shot on numerous occasions but he never dies. And he always, always comes back. The loves of Hillerman's life enter and exit, and he is powerless to stop them as it seems like fate has written it to be so.

Years and years of this torment go by, until one day the mustachioed man is shot and killed. Finally, the long ordeal is over with... and peace comes to the estate. But.... the man comes back to life, like his death has caused some karmic outcry. Finally, the man leaves with his daughter.. But is he truly gone?

Oh, wait.

:lol:

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Re: Larry Manetti and Tales from the Darkside

#7 Post by BWheelz54 »

Brilliant!

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Re: Larry Manetti and Tales from the Darkside

#8 Post by Luther's nephew Dobie »

BWheelz54 wrote:I received the complete series Tales from the Darkside on DVD from my brother this Christmas. We've both been watching them and laughing to remember how much we loved that show when it aired while we were kids. I jumped up an down to see Mr. Manetti in two Darkside episodes - "Baker's Dozen" and "Printer's Devil." "Baker's Dozen" is, eh, so-so. But I did get a kick out of "Printer's Devil." So fun to watch Mr. Manetti having fun in a different format and show! Thought I might mention it on a thread in case anyone else might enjoy checking it out.
Hi BWheel,
Charles Beaumont wrote "Printers Devil" as a short story, then later used it for an hour long episode of Twilight Zone, starring Burgess Meredith.
Do you know if this Tales from the Darkside episode is a remake, is Beaumont listed in the credits as having written the original story?
The hour long Twilight Zones seem to be rarely rerun, in fact most people say I must be mistaken when I mention that for one season, Zone episodes were 60 minutes.

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Re: Larry Manetti and Tales from the Darkside

#9 Post by BWheelz54 »

Hey Dobie

It appears the episode "The Printer's Devil" from Tales From the Darkside was written by a Ron Goulart. I was happy to see you mention "Printer's Devil" from the Twilight Zone, and was more thrilled to find it was an episode I cannot remember watching. So I raced over to YouTube and found the episode, watched it, and LOVED it! While the plots and characters between the Twilight Zone and Tales From the Darkside do differ substantially, I couldn't help but feeling like the Tales From the Darkside episode was kinda a simpler version of the Twilight Zone tale. Just different enough, maybe, for Mr. Goulart to be able to claim the story as his own, but not so different that I was left thinking Mr. Goulart struck a new chord with his Darkside episode.

I read that the Twilight Zone did produce some hour-long episodes, but I don't think I've very familiar with them. I was disappointed to find that those longer episodes do not appear on my Netflix account, which means it might be time for me to stop being such a miser and look into picking up the original Twilight Zone on DVDs so I can view them.

Thanks Dobie. Really enjoyed the Twilight Zone's "Printer's Devil after you mentioned it.

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Re: Larry Manetti and Tales from the Darkside

#10 Post by Luther's nephew Dobie »

BWheelz54 wrote: Thanks Dobie. Really enjoyed the Twilight Zone's "Printer's Devil after you mentioned it.
Hi Guy,
You are welcome.
You might want to check out the hour long Zone episode No Time Like The Past starring Dana Andrews. Andrews character has a time machine and goes back in history in order to stop various horrors, so he tries to kill Hitler and stop the sinking of the Lusitania but fails in each attempt.
Ironically, the only time he does affect history is when instead of stopping a horrible fire that engulfed a school and injured kids in his hometown years ago, it turns out his actions are what started the fire in the 1st place.
That's pretty hardcore.
The parts of the episode are greater than the whole but they reveal a lot of the real Rod Serling.
For instance Rod Serling was a paratrooper in WW 2, saw a lot of action in the Philippines.
The fighting he was in formed the genesis for several Zone episodes.
In particular when a gung-ho replacement cherry Lieutenant got several of Rod's veteran buddies pointlessly killed when he insisted on rooting out the starving dispirited remnants of a Japanese unit who were holed up in the far boondocks and effectively out of the war.
Serling has Dana Andrew's Driscoll character express Serling's views on people who never met a war they didn't like:

Paul Driscoll: And I take offense at "armchair warriors," who don't know what a shrapnel, or a bullet, or a saber wound feels like... who've never smelled death after three days on an empty battlefield... who've never seen the look on a man's face when he realizes he's lost a limb or two, and his blood is seeping out. Mr. Hanford, you have a great affinity for "planting the flag deep." But you don't have a nodding acquaintance of what it's like for families to bury their sons in the same soil!

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Re: Larry Manetti and Tales from the Darkside

#11 Post by Milton Collins »

BWheelz54 wrote:Hi MIlton,

"Printer's Devil" with Mr. Manetti appears during season two. I think it is much, much better than "A Baker's Dozen," and it is one of my favorite of all the Tales of the Darkside episodes, so I am confident to give it a thumb-up for you, especially if you and your bro also really enjoyed the show in its day. In "Printer's Devil," Manetti plays the role of a frustrated writer trying to get some attention and respect in the publishing industry, which I relate to as I have never been able to get a hobby in writing to translate into money. I think it's a smart episode.

Season Two of Tales of the Darkside also had some gems of that series with "Lifebomb," "The Old Soft Shoe," "The Devil's Advocate" and "Halloween Candy." If you're feeling a bit on the fence regarding if you want to pick up season 2 or not to get hold of "Printer's Devil," maybe you can find those episodes online to watch and see if they get your interest any more.

Love hearing of some other Tales of the Darkside fans out there. I love anthology tv shows. Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Amazing Stories are all my favorites. I'm currently watching The Twilight Zone: The 1980's Series my wife picked up for me on my birthday. Just so love all those shows. Now that I think of it, Mr. Hillermann would've been awesome on one of those television shows.

Oh me too, Tales has had me rolling laughing, completely creeped out, and everything in between! I have to ask, what did you think about the first episode "Trick or Treat"? I absolutely loved this one and it's my all time favorite. I have introduced it to a few friends and one in particular shared my love for it and we quote it to each other all the time lol. Not that I think it's actually a "good" piece of work but more that I find it to be HILAROUS! Old Mr. Hackles lording his $ over all the poor farm people and scaring the bejeezus out of their kids every Halloween? Priceless, so bad its incredibly good. Not to mention "Willie" from Alf as Mr. Bean one of the accounting schmucks.

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Re: Larry Manetti and Tales from the Darkside

#12 Post by BWheelz54 »

Hey again Milton,

I would agree that the first episode is a pretty strong start to the series. It seemed to be a good plot for the first episode, centered around a character who is "wielding" fear and credit against that small community. That shopkeeper was a pretty smart character creation; I thought his character was kinda slyly saying something like, "he who wields fear might have great power, but be careful how you employ that fear lest it come back to bite you in the butt." And that is a great thread to start that series. I do wish the shopkeeper's payback would've been maybe something a little more terrible than that witch in the end, but a slight criticism there.

Season one had some great episodes in my humble opinion - Bigalow's Last Smoke; The Odds; Inside the Closet; The False Prophet. Come to think about it, Bigalow's Last Smoke might be my favorite of the series.

I think it's about time for a new anthology, creepy tv series to hit the airwaves. I can understand why the big, big networks would steer clear, but I think the SciFi channel would recognize such an anthology might fit great in their lineup. I can also see Netflix or Hulu maybe producing their own anthology show. Good news is my wife introduced me to a BBC anthology show she found called "Black Mirror." The episode I watched was pretty good, but the best thing to me is that the BBC did it - network people over here are always wanting to copy the BBC.

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Re: Larry Manetti and Tales from the Darkside

#13 Post by BWheelz54 »

... And one more thing.

I forget that TS's wife Jillie Mack appeared on an episode of Tales from the Darkside. She appears in the episode "My Ghostwriter - The Vampire" which is found in season three. Not one of my favorite episodes of the series, but Jillie is a lot of fun in it. Funny where one starts finding connections between things...

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