A RECIPE FOR SEDUCTION (2020) – This 15-minute short was put together by KFC and Lifetime Television in what deserves to be recognized for the intentional comedy that it is! Yes, it would be even funnier if it wasn’t trying to be, but too many reviewers apparently miss the point.
I love Bad Movies as much as anybody, so I settled in to finally watch A Recipe for Seduction ready to laugh at it based on reviews implying its ludicrous premise was being played straight. Instead, I wound up laughing at how perfectly this short film/ comedy advertisement parodies Lifetime Television’s steamy romance flicks.
Our characters:
MARIO LOPEZ plays a hunkified COLONEL HARLAN SANDERS of KFC fame. One look at the way he’s made up should have alerted grumpy critics to the fact that this thing is not to be taken seriously! Hell, his makeup is just a few adjustments away from making him a hunkified Orville Redenbacher, but we’ll never get to see THAT parody because of how badly misunderstood A Recipe for Seduction was.
This A.C. Slaterific Colonel Sanders/ Sid Dithers is a master chef at a ritzy restaurant but at heart he wants to use his secret recipe for fried chicken to capture the world’s taste buds and stomachs despite the scorn his ambitions receive from the snobbish rich pigs he works among. Continue reading
LEMMINGS: DEAD IN CONCERT (1973) – This is not a review of the original, legendary National Lampoon stage version of Lemmings from January of 1973. Instead, it’s a review of the filmed special of a live performance of the slightly reworked stage show. 
The accompanying documentary about the multi-day event, filmed while it was happening, captured the experience for subsequent generations whether we wanted to see it or not. I’m KIDDING! If you had or have siblings, parents, grandparents, etc. from the 60s generation it’s possible that – like happened to me – they shared the documentary with you so many times you felt like you’d seen Woodstock more often than Charlton Heston’s character in Omega Man. 
MAZEPPA – No relation to Tchaikovsky’s opera Mazeppa, this blog post refers to comedian, artist and actor Gailard Sartain, who got his start playing the wizard Mazeppa (center left) while hosting Tulsa, Oklahoma’s late Saturday night Bad Movie show called The Uncanny Film Festival and Camp Meeting. 
In between films came old educational shorts, black & white sci-fi shows, weird cartoons, you name it. It was like a countrified forerunner of Night Flight from later decades. 
And let’s quickly address the nice coincidence of Mazeppa and Busey’s character Teddy Jack Eddy hosting campy rock and roll movies like Don’t Knock the Rock, Untamed Youth or Shake, Rattle and Rock only for Busey to go on to play Buddy Holly and Sartain to play the Big Bopper in The Buddy Holly Story. 
MOLLY O (1921) – This film was produced by Mabel’s longtime romantic partner Mack Sennett (the musical Mack & Mabel is about them) and co-written by Mary Hunt. Originally 80 minutes long, this comedy was once considered completely lost like so many other silent movies. 
That footage from the fallen U.S.S.R.’s film archives helped UCLA film historians flesh out what surviving footage they held with the chopped-up Russian version to make the 57-minute cut. Luckily the ending is intact and reviews from 1921 help fill in any missing story beats. 
RICH LITTLE’S CHRISTMAS CAROL (1979) – Balladeer’s Blog’s SIXTEENTH annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon continues! If you’re into celebrity trivia from the 1970s and earlier Rich Little’s Christmas Carol will have you laughing from start to finish over all the sly jokes and riffs that abound in this Canadian- made special. For those unfamiliar with Little, in the 60s, 70s and 80s he was a first- class celebrity impressionist. 
For the central role of Ebenezer Scrooge Little impersonated W.C. Fields, the whiskey- soaked and curmudgeonly comedian whose misanthropic humor made his persona perfect for the role. Little impersonated Hollywood Squares mainstay Paul “The JM J Bullock of his time” Lynde in the role of Bob Cratchit and long-time Tonight Show host Johnny Carson as the cheerful and charming Nephew Fred. Rich did a turn as Laurel and Hardy as the Charity Solicitors to round out the “cast” for the opening scene at Scrooge and Marley’s. 
Can you believe it’s just one week until Halloween! 
BARTHOLOMEW 
MISTER RABBEY
For the first time since October of 2022, Mary Harris Jones – aka Mother Jones – speaks with Balladeer’s Blog despite having passed away in 1930. Much of the fun comes from the way that Democrat fundamentalists froth at the mouth over her visits here. 
MOTHER JONES: Good to be back, Balladeer. I notice you’ve tended to let up on some basic, solid points you’ve made in your blog posts over the years. I’m here to provide your easily distracted mind with some refreshers. 
I’m far from the first person to be pointing out the absurd mistakes that A.I. can make when basically left on its own. Rather than devote this blog post to some of the potentially catastrophic errors that can be made via A.I. I will instead look at the jaw-dropping blunders made by YT channels that rely entirely on A.I. scripts and narration. 
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