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Airing as part of ABC’s Wide World of Mystery in 1973, five-part horror series The Classic Ghosts has been rescued from obscurity for a Blu-ray release on October 29.

Bloody Disgusting is teaming up with Kino Lorber to give away three copies of the Blu-ray set.

Click here to enter!

This contest is open to US residents only. One entry permitted per address. Three winners will be drawn on October 29.

Produced by broadcast pioneer Jacqueline Babbin, The Classic Ghosts has been preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

“The Haunting of Rosalind” (65 min) is directed by Lela Swift, based on a story by Henry James. Pamela Payton-Wright, Susan Sarandon, Beatrice Straight, and Frank Converse star.

“The Screaming Skull” (67 min) is directed by Gloria Monty, based on a story by Francis Marion Crawford. David McCallum, Vince Gardenia, and Carrie Nye star.

“The Deadly Visitor” (66 min) is directed by Lela Swift, based...

Late-night horror series The Classic Ghosts has rarely been seen since airing on ABC’s Wide World of Mystery in 1973, but that’s about to change.

The UCLA Film & Television Archive has preserved all five installments, coming to Blu-ray on October 29 via Kino Lorber’s Kino Cult line. Watch the exclusive trailer below.

Produced by broadcast pioneer Jacqueline Babbin, The Classic Ghosts was celebrated upon its debut for being made by a predominantly female crew, including trailblazing television directors Gloria Monty (General Hospital) and Lela Swift (Studio One).

Shot on videotape in the style of a soap opera, with expressive and colorful production design, The Classic Ghosts has an immediacy and otherworldliness akin to Dark Shadows — not surprising since two of the directors (Swift and Henry Kaplan) directed hundreds of episodes of the classic horror TV series.

The two-disc set includes interviews with Mark Quigley (John H. Mitchell Television...

Going back to 1966, "Star Trek" co-stars William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy had what was called a "favored nations clause" in their contracts. The clause ensured that whenever one actor got a raise, or perhaps input into a script, the other one would get the same. This was done to comfort two actors who were constantly butting heads as to who the real "star" of "Star Trek" was. The favored nations clause made sure that neither actor could "pull ahead" of the other.

The clauses were still in place by the 1980s, so when Nimoy was hired to direct "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" (1984) and "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" (1986), Shatner was able to pull rank. Thanks to a pay dispute on "Star Trek IV," Shatner could contractually elbow his way into the director's chair for 1989's "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier." Not only that, but Shatner...

In his vast career, William Shatner has directed five features. Three of them were documentaries about the making of "Star Trek" including "The Captains" in 2011, "Get a Life!" in 2012, and "Chaos on the Bridge" in 2014. Prior to these, Shatner also helmed a 2002 sci-fi film called "Groom Lake," which he co-wrote with the notorious "Star Trek" producer Maurice Hurley.

Shatner's highest-profile directing gig, however, came in 1989 with the release of "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier." To this day, "Star Trek V" is considered the least of the "Star Trek" movies, lambasted for its clunky script, weird central conceit, and cheap special effects. In the film, the U.S.S. Enterprise is hijacked by Sybok (Laurence Luckinbill), the half-brother of Spock (Leonard Nimoy). Sybok flies the ship to the very center of the galaxy where he hopes to meet God face-to-face. Along the way, Sybok converts several Enterprise crew members to...

In William Shatner's film "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier," the U.S.S. Enterprise is hijacked by a hippie Vulcan cult leader named Sybok (Laurence Luckinbill) and flown to the very center of the Milky Way. In reality, the galaxy's center is the site of a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A*. In "Frontier," Sybok believes it's where God lives. Not a spiritual conduit to God, mind you, but the actual physical body of God Himself. Kirk (Shatner) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) think Sybok is mad, but are dragged along in his mad scheme. 

When the Enterprise arrives at its destination, however, it seems for a few moments that Sybok is right. He and the Enterprise crew encounter and land on a mysterious planet, and God Himself (George Murdock) appears. Everyone is awestruck ... except for Kirk. When God asks the mortal characters for a starship to spread His Word,...

Rose Gregorio, who received a Tony nomination for her performance as the browbeaten daughter of Geraldine Fitzgerald’s declining old woman in the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama The Shadow Box, has died. She was 97.

Gregorio died Aug. 17 of natural causes in her Greenwich Village home, her nephew Robert Grosbard told The Hollywood Reporter.

Gregorio was married to Belgium-born stage and film director Ulu Grosbard from 1965 until his death in 2012, and she appeared for him as the ex-wife of Dustin Hoffman’s character in Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (1971); as a local madam in True Confessions (1981); and as the mother of Treat Williams’ character in The Deep End of the Ocean (1999).

On television, she had a recurring role on NBC’s ER as Nurse Carol Hathaway’s (Julianna Margulies) mom from 1996-99.

Gregorio also landed a Drama Desk nom and a Clarence Derwent...

Put down the marshmallows and stop singing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” It’s time to gather ’round the campfire and listen to the contract squabble that led to one of the strangest movies in the Star Trek franchise. Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek III: The Search For Spock certainly have their fans, but it was Star Trek V: The Final Frontier that cemented the adage that “only the even-numbered Star Trek movies are good.” How in the world did the franchise follow its most successful movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home with a film about Spock’s long-lost brother and God needing a starship?

As with most things in Trek, the answer leads back to Kirk and Spock. William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy had a strange, complex relationship on-screen and off, resulting in contract negotiations that changed the course of the franchise.

Shatner and Nimoy...

Julie Messinger—accent on the “mess”—discovers her husband is a serial cheater whose conquests happen to be most of Julie’s best friends. Joan Didion and Joan Micklin Silver took their turns writing the script till Elaine May stepped in to finish the screenplay under a pseudonym. Dyan Cannon stars as Julie and Laurence Luckinbill plays her scheming husband.

The post Such Good Friends appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

Robert Allan Ackerman, the director whose television work scored five Emmy nominations and who directed acclaimed Broadway productions including Bent and Extremities, died Jan. 10 of kidney failure at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. He was 77.

His death was announced by family through a spokesman.

“I love Bob. I loved being around him, his aurora, his steady peace,” said actor Al Pacino, who starred in Ackerman’s 1992 Broadway staging of Oscar Wilde’s Salome. “To work with him was joyous. He understood the language of theater art and communicated it with such ease. His gift was intangible and there’s no way of understanding how he created. When an artist has that special gift it is unexplainable, it just happens. When he stopped directing, he started writing again and his writing also had that same magic. He will be missed.”

In 2016, Pacino would re-team with Ackerman in a Pasadena Playhouse production of God Looked Away,...

Welcome Dan, aka Comic Concierge, back to Nerdly with his new YouTube channel dedicated to all things comics. From weekly new releases to graphic novels. Comics are for everyone but the key is finding the right one. Comic Concierge is here to help with that journey, with a range of videos discussing everything from weekly pick-ups, dollar-bin dives, comic book theory, analysis and more!

Graphic Thoughts #10: Teddy, Run Home If You Don’t Want to Be Killed, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

On this week’s edition of Graphic Thoughts, it is all about history, This week’s books include Teddy, Run Home If You Don’t Want to Be Killed, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. One of which is a contender for book of the year

Time Stamps:

00:00 – Opening

00:40 – Teddy

12:18 – Run Home If You Don’t Want to Be Killed: The...

“Will and Grace” pays tribute to “I Love Lucy” on April 9. In “We Love Lucy,” Grace (Debra Messing), Jack (Sean Hayes) and Karen (Megan Mullally) each imagine themselves as Lucy Ricardo opposite Will (Eric McCormack) as her hubby Ricky. Part of the fun is seeing this trio of talent also play Fred and Ethel in various combinations.

In black-and-white fantasy sequences, Grace gets tipsy when Lucy does a TV commercial for the alcohol-laced Vitameatavegamin; Karen is in her element stomping grapes to make wine; and Jack is wrapped up in making candy. Lucie Arnaz, daughter of the show’s stars Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, appears in that last segment drawn from the classic episode “Job Switching.” She plays the factory forewoman who warns the girls that this is their last stop; if one piece of candy gets past them they will be canned.

In the video above, Lucie, relates...

Veteran television writer James Schmerer, whose credits encompass some of the most popular series of the 1970s and ’80s including MacGyver, CHiPs, Vega$, Fantasy Island and Starsky & Hutch, died Oct. 4 at his home in Eugene, Oregon, following a stroke. He was 81.

Schmerer’s death was announced by Writers Guild of America West.

A native of Flushing, New York, Schmerer launched his television writing career in the 1960s (he became a Wgaw member in 1965), and by the ’70s was a sought-after scripter for action series of all types, with the occasional family series – Eight is Enough – and sci-fi show – Star Trek: The Animated Series – tossed in for good measure.

Just a few of the other series that carried a Schmerer “Written by” credit: Hawaii Five-0, The Six Million Dollar Man, The High Chaparral, T.J. Hooker, and The Fall Guy.

Schmerer also wrote scripts for The Rookies, The Streets of San Francisco,...

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier was judged pretty harshly by critics and audiences alike when it was released on June 9th, 1989. This was the follow-up to The Voyage Home, one of the most successful Star Trek movies in franchise history, it opened two weeks before Batman took over the box office, and even though The Final Frontier concludes on a meeting with “God,” the finale never quite feels as epic as earlier installments.

But, the passage of time is a funny thing. And Star Trek IV, which was such a favorite of mine back in the day, now feels dated. In contrast, I’ve come to appreciate The Final Frontier more and more with every viewing. And as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned just how magical and wonderfully flawed moviemaking really is. Even though Star Trek V may not live up to its predecessors, namely Wrath of Khan,...

Emmy-winning television mastermind Ryan Murphy recently announced that he is set to turn one of this year’s potential Tony contenders, “The Boys in the Band,” into a movie for Netflix. The stage production (which Murphy produced) ran a successful limited run on Broadway last summer. As the nominations announcement approaches, what could this mean for its chances in Best Play Revival?

“The Boys in the Band” centers on a group of gay men who gather in an NYC apartment for a friend’s birthday party. After the drinks are poured and the music is turned up the fault lines beneath their friendships are exposed, as well as the self-inflicted heartache that threatens their solidarity. When Mart Crowley’s play originally premiered Off-Broadway in 1968, it helped spark a revolution by putting gay men’s lives onstage unapologetically and without judgement in a world that was not yet willing to fully accept them.

1980: Dallas' Sue Ellen remembered Kristin shot J.R.

1988: Santa Barbra's Julia stopped her wedding to "Mason".

1989: Another World's Sharlene and John married.

1995: One Life to Live's Todd was shot in Ireland."The best prophet of the future is the past."

― Lord Byron

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1938: Radio soap opera Central City premiered on NBC Blue. The Blackett-Sample-Hummert serial told the story of a blue-collar manufacturing hub of 50,000 denizens. Elspeth Eric starred as Emily Olson with Van Heflin as Bob Shellenberger. Heflin was eventually replaced by Myron McCormick.

1957: On The Edge of Night, Billy Harper (Pud Flanagan) accidentally overheard Mary's (Anne Sargeant) confession...

Review by Mark Longden

The Boys In The Band screens Wednesday, Mar. 29 at 9:00pm at the .Zack (3224 Locust St., St. Louis, Mo 63103) as part of this year’s QFest St. Louis. Ticket information can be found Here

As well as new movies, St Louis’ wonderful Qfest (now in its tenth year) also shows classics of queer cinema that blazed a trail and inspire all sorts of different reactions today. “The Boys In The Band”, an off-Broadway play that was transplanted with the entirety of its cast to the screen, is one such. A review from a revival in 1999 said that, even at the time of its release, it had “the stain of Uncle Tomism”, and it’s been called a minstrel show. But it’s much more than that.

Despite occasionally wonderful direction from William Friedkin (who made “The French Connection” the next year) , its origins as a stage play are very evident,...

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The War On Terror meets The Final Frontier and asks the most important question of all time. What does God need with a starship?

Shatner fights God. That’s about all anyone remembers from the infamous Final Frontier. Over the years, the tale has grown in the telling. Some called it one of the worst films of all time, others call it a box office catastrophe. It killed the careers of the director, producer, the entire special effects company, and nearly ended the entire franchise right there and then. It is remembered merely as a vanity project gone horribly wrong.

But ask yourself this. What does God need with a starship? Can you answer it? Can you understand the question? To dismiss it out of hand is to dismiss the opportunity to think. Do not turn your brain off.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is the ultimate question.

We recently reviewed the popular 1972 TV movie The Dephi Bureau, which is the pilot for the short-lived espionage TV series starring Laurence Luckinbill. Some of our readers made us aware of the fact that the Warner Archive DVD release is actually an edited version of the broadcast version. We wrote to the Archive and received this prompt response from Matthew Patterson:

"Thanks for the heads up. It's actually good to know that this TV movie still has such fans. Unfortunately, this was a known issue going into the production process. All of the 35mm original negative and intermediate elements were all cut to the current (shorter) length. This was a very unusual case, and the only longer version we could track down that survived was in faded 16mm reference prints. Of course all this was done 40 yrs ago, and no one back then anticipated future distribution such as home video,...

By Aaron Pruner

"Star Trek Into Darkness" hits theaters Friday, making it the 12th film in the "Star Trek" movie franchise. With Benedict Cumberbatch filling the "bad guy" shoes here, it seems only fair that we take a look back and rank all of the Star Trek movie villains that have graced the big screen over the past three decades. You're welcome.

11. The Whale Probe From Space - "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" (1986)

This is probably the weirdest villain on the list because, well, it's a whale-loving space monster looking to reunite with its Humpback brethren by emptying all of Earth's oceans.

10. Sybok - "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" (1989)

The half-brother of Spock, Sybok (Laurence Luckinbill) is pretty much a backwards Vulcan. Emotions are more important than logic to him. Here, he brainwashes everyone so he can get to the middle of space to meet God...who turns...

Benedict Cumberbatch is set to make a huge impact in Star Trek Into Darkness. If early reviews are to believed, his performance is one of the highlights of the film and he joins a number of other iconic actors who have contributed to the Star Trek universe by playing memorable antagonists.

But with every excellent villain – like most things in life – you have the polar opposite to contend with. Although never enough to ruin a film completely; a lackluster villain can be a sure fire way to keep a film firmly stuck in neutral. If the Enterprise crew don’t have a sharp enough thorn in their side, all the running in corridors and frantic phaser firing isn’t going to make the audience care.

In order to celebrate the release of Star Trek Into Darkness in cinemas and the breakthrough of Cumberbatch (who it would be far too early...

Ever since the announcement of a Star Trek sequel - which was before the 2009 reboot was even released - fans have been trying to guess what villain or threat the crew of the Enterprise would face.

At first Benecio Del Toro was offered the part of the baddie, rumoured at the time to be Khan Noonien Singh, the genetically-engineered superhuman memorably portrayed by Ricardo Montalban on the big and small screen. But he dropped out of negotiations in December, 2011, and in January 2012, Benedict Cumberbatch was cast in his place.

Since then, there has been chatter about whether Cumberbatch is playing Khan or perhaps Gary Mitchell, or even Sybok. But now a new name has been thrown into the mix.

Mitchell was a Starfleet lieutenant commander who gained Esp abilities after he was zapped by the Galactic Barrier. He became a danger to the ship and crew and Kirk was forced...

Brace yourselves. This list of the Top 100 Greatest Gay Movies is probably going to generate some howls of protest thanks to a rather major upset in the rankings. Frankly, one that surprised the hell out of us here at AfterElton.

But before we get to that, an introduction. A few weeks ago we asked AfterElton readers to submit up to ten of their favorite films by write-in vote. We conducted a similar poll several years ago, but a lot has happened culturally since then, and a number of worthy movies of gay interest have been released. We wanted to see how your list of favorites had changed.

We also wanted to expand our list to 100 from the top 50 we had done previously. We figured there were finally enough quality gay films to justify the expansion. And we wanted to break out gay documentaries onto their own list (You'll find the...

NBC has picked up a new Michael J. Fox sitcom for 22 episodes for fall of next year. The show will be about Fox as a dad, battling the day to day, and also Parkinson's disease, which Fox has been living with for some time. Not only am I thrilled because I've had a crush on Alex P. Keaton since I was a teen, but I think it's a bold move to write his disease into the show.

Apple is now the most valuable publicly traded company ever, with a market value of $623 billion dollars, eclipsing Microsoft's high of $616 billion back in 1999. I was never an Apple fanboy for their computers, but I can't live without my iPad and iPhone, and can't wait for the new models. I'm overdue for an upgrade.

Prince Harry partied shirtless in Las Vegas. If you're into that sort of thing.

While the draft Republican Party...

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier has always got a bad rep from most fans and critics alike. It’s usually voted the least liked, original crew feature film and current holds a not very hot, 21% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

But I think that is unfair. I believe the film has a lot more going for it than people give it credit. Once you look past the special effects and strange plot, there is probably the closest feature film that resembles the Original Series. Also, it’s a film that deserves a decent Directors Cut. Let me explain why…

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier followed on from a trilogy of Star Trek movies that were a hit with fans and a commercial success for Paramount while claiming critical acclaim. They also had a story arc that concluded with Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, which was the biggest grossing...

On this date in...

1911: One of the greatest entertainers of all time, Lucille Ball, was born (100 years ago!). She died in 1989 at age 77. There are some interesting ties between Lucy and soap operas. Y&R's Melody Thomas Scott is a founding board member of the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center, which runs the Lucy-Desi Museum in Ball's home town of Jamestown, NY. The center is trying to set a world record today for “most people dressed as Lucy Ricardo in one place, at one time.” Oltl's Robin Strasser's sons, Nicholas and Benjamin, are Lucy's step-grandchildren (through Laurence Luckinbill's marriage to Lucie Arnaz). General Hospital's Maurice Benard played Desi Arnaz in a television movie (read our interview with Benard about the role here). Lucy's also made a guest appearance on The Carol Burnett Show and appeared in the "As The Stomach Turns" parody.

She also featured...

Reviewed by Amy R. Handler

(March 2011)

Directed by: Crayton Robey

More than four decades after it premiered on stage and in movie theaters, people are still talking about “The Boys in the Band.” So what’s it all mean, and where do we go from there?

When the then down-and-out playwright Mart Crowley composed a script from the mansion where he was house-sitting, he had no idea he would change the course of history. The script was “The Boys in the Band,” and the play opened on April 14, 1968, at Theater Four — off-off-Broadway in New York City. Under the direction of Robert Moore (“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”), “The Boys” ran for 1,001 performances and stunned audiences from virtually every strata of society. Two years later, director William Friedkin (“The Exorcist”) recreated the production for film with the original cast — and the movie was every bit as provocative as the live performances preceding it.

Reviewed by Amy R. Handler

(March 2011)

Directed by: Crayton Robey

More than four decades after it premiered on stage and in movie theaters, people are still talking about “The Boys in the Band.” So what’s it all mean, and where do we go from there?

When the then down-and-out playwright Mart Crowley composed a script from the mansion where he was house-sitting, he had no idea he would change the course of history. The script was “The Boys in the Band,” and the play opened on April 14, 1968, at Theater Four — off-off-Broadway in New York City. Under the direction of Robert Moore (“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”), “The Boys” ran for 1,001 performances and stunned audiences from virtually every strata of society. Two years later, director William Friedkin (“The Exorcist”) recreated the production for film with the original cast — and the movie was every bit as provocative as the live performances preceding it.

The Boys in the Band

Can I make a confession? I didn't want to watch or review Making the Boys, the new documentary about the landmark 1968 play and 1970 film The Boys in the Band that opens in limited release in March.

Yes, yes, I know how important the movie is in gay entertainment history (which is why I put it as number one on my list of the most important gay movies of all time, even as I also put it on another list of my least favorite gay movies).

But it's also probably the most discussed gay movie of all time. As Making the Boys points out, it was hailed upon its first staging, then condemned by gays in the post-Stonewall era, then "rediscovered" in the 1990s. At every point in modern gay history, it's been there in the background, cited as an example of post-Stonewall "truth," or as...