Noir Watch: The Set-Up (1949)

we always stan Totter and Ryan

Watched:  04/21/2025

Format:  Noir Alley on TCM

Viewing:  fourth?  fifth?

Director:  Robert Wise

It's been years since I watched The Set-Up (1949), and while reading Eddie Muller's new book, an updated Dark City Dames - a collection of bios of several stars of the noir movement, I was pondering rewatching it when TCM's Noir Alley showcase went ahead and programmed the film for last weekend.  

It's no secret we're fans of stars Robert Ryan and Audrey Totter, or director Robert Wise.  But because Robert Ryan and Audrey Totter aren't really household names, and it's a grimy boxing picture of its surface, I'm not shocked if you haven't heard of or seen this one.  

The film comes in at a taught, trim 73 minutes.  And, novel for its era, the movie unspools in an approximation of real-time - taking place in one night of crisis for an aging boxer and his wife, who can't take watching him get beaten every night.  Not anymore.

George Foreman Merges With The Infinite

This man of God is gonna also put you down for a 10-count

Boxer, father of many Georges, enthusiastic grill monger, Olympian, minister and generally good guy, George Foreman has passed.

Back in the 1990's, former 2-time Heavyweight Champion boxer (back when boxing was something we all kind of followed), George Foreman, became a staple of television as he began to market the George Foreman Grill.  I doubt many folks could tell you about Foreman's more famous bouts, but everyone knew that the grill was reasonably priced, could be used indoors, and let the fat just drip right out of your food and into a washable plastic tray.

Did I have one?  You know I did, and I used it on the regular from circa 1999-2007.

Foreman's boxing career is extraordinary.  He earned the Heavyweight Title in the 1970's, retired, became a man in the community and became a minister.  In the 80's, he came back in his late 30's and in the early 90's secured the Heavyweight title again, whilst in his 40's.  

Foreman and Ali in Zaire

Y'all can read up on it, because it reads like a movie.  Not least of which was Foreman's near-death experience and immediate religious conversion.  He became a minister and made a lot of difference to folks in the Houston area and beyond.

George Foreman was a lot of personality, like a lot of boxers of his generation (see: Ali).   And in the 2000's-era, generally just a beloved figure.  

I'm genuinely sad he's gone.  

Hackman Watch: Hoosiers (1986)

Watched:  03/17/2025

Format:  Prime

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  David Anspaugh

So, this movie was a staple for us middle-school basketball boys in the 1980's.  I watched it a lot during a certain period in my life, but I don't think I've seen it since those magical days of knowing "I am not very good at this, but I am tall".  We are now, of course, further from the release of the film than the movie was from the period in which it occurs.  Because I am old.  And tired.

I'll say it:  Hoosiers (1986) is an odd movie.  It stars three actors who were big at the time - Gene Hackman, Barbara Hershey and Dennis Hopper - but almost everyone else is local Indiana talent.  It's also a basketball movie that focuses on the coach and gives backstory to 1.5 players out of 8.  I couldn't tell you the names of half the players.  One of our main players, the star, has maybe three lines. It also has the burden of having some unspoken issues with race that just sail on by, and were uncomfortable when I saw it as a kid in 1986.

Hackman is, of course, perfect.  As a basketball coach dealing with a past where he had a moment of absolute failure - take heed fans of Bobby McKnight - he's getting a second chance to do what he loves.  It just happens to be out here in the middle of nowhere with half the players he needs and placed in a small town that thinks coaching is a democracy.  

Holidaze Watch: Holiday Touchdown - a Chiefs Love Story (2024)

Watched:  12/01/2024

Format:  Hallmark

Viewing:  First

Director:  John Putch

When Hallmark announced its slate of 2024 Christmas movies, it was a bit of an eyebrow raiser that they had this one on the docket.  Holiday Touchdown: A Chief's Love Story (2024) seemed like it was just begging for trouble in some ways.  

Usually, Hallmark avoids discussing real-world things, even naming specific teams, if sports are mentioned at all.  Of course, we figured the movie would echo the Taylor Swift/ Jason Kelce romance - something even I know about, and I don't follow the NFL, the Chiefs or Taylor Swift.*   So, to base an entire movie around the fact the Kansas City Chiefs, one of America's most discussed professional football teams has a player in a famous, tabloidy romance, seemed kind of wacky.  

But, heads up - the movie does not acknowledge, reference or spoof the celebrity couple. In fact, the movie is in no way about either a musician or a player at all, not even an assistant coach.  

Stuart, who is KC based, has informed me that Hallmark is headquartered in Kansas City, which I didn't know - so the pieces for why Hallmark went all in on a movie that would feature Andy Reid in a cameo kind of snapped into place.  Loving your football team is, by far, not the worst reason to make a movie.  (if someone made a movie about the University of Texas Longhorns, of course I'd watch)

The plot is, not surprisingly, whisper thin.  Instead, it exists as one part pro-Chiefs propaganda, one part family comedy about a football loving family, and one part absolute nonsense Christmas Hallmark film.  

The idea is that football is what unites us and gives us common ground and something to discuss, which is true.**  Sports are not inherently bad, no matter how many wedgies you got in high school.

Anyhoo, the movie is a soft sell.  So soft, in fact, that the story is about a missing hat.  Like, someone said "so what is the plot of this movie, now that the Chiefs agreed to it?" and Dumb Dave in the corner said "I like hats" and they made that movie, because it doesn't matter.  You know the guy and girl will fall in love, and Kansas City Chiefs will be omnipresent as a force for good.  Why not make the problem a hat?

Paralympics 2024

Ezra Frech won Gold in High Jump (and, I think, the 100m)

Like most folks, I suspect, every time the Summer or Winter Olympics came on, I'd see the ads for the Paralympics, and have good intentions and zero follow through.  The only time I remember watching anything was in a bar, but I can't even remember what year that might have been.  

But, coming off the high of the 2024 Olympics, and with no Track and Field to watch,* I figured "hey - more Olympics".  And, "hey, more Olympics" is how the Paralympics is pitched on TV.  And that's not entirely wrong or a bad way to frame it.

Add to that the viral stardom of Olympic track star Tara Davis-Woodhall and her husband, Paralympian runner Hunter Woodhall, and I think people got the poke they needed to remember to tune in. Team USA social media kicked into gear, and Paralympians and Olympians made a lot of noise online about the games (and continue to do so.)  Also, NBC really has made it easy this year to watch if you got Peacock.

So, we watched a good chunk of the Opening Ceremonies, and I watched some Wheelchair Rugby (aka: Murderball).  And then a little other coverage the first night, but we'd been to a play, so it wasn't much.  But I've been trying to watch more.  Especially track and field, because that's how I roll.  But I've watched archery, Blind Soccer, Table Tennis (doubles!), swimming and more.  

The Opening Ceremonies were subdued compared to the bombastic opening of the Olympics, but were lovely, if more traditional in form.  Lots of music, dancing, mascots, marching, pageantry.  Fewer mysterious Joan of Arcs coming down the Seine in a blaze of glory and less Gojira.  More "here is a meaningful dance about being a Paralympian".  

The overall coverage of the summer games for Paralympics 2024 is maybe a format NBC could consider for the Olympics.  It's almost all highlights - so it's all thriller, little filler - and that's better for me as a viewer than NBC's primetime coverage.  For example, I am bored to tears by Olympic diving.  And yet, every Olympics, I have to watch people flip off a board without somehow first saying "Mom!  Mom!  Look!  Look what I can do!"  But the Paralympic coverage on USA is just whipping around.  "Hey!  Check out this crazy table tennis match!  Now, there's blind long-distance jumping!  Now, 200m foot race!  Oh, look, a 4x50 swim relay!"  I mean, it ain't dull.

Conclusion: Paris Olympics - Summer 2024

Gold Medalists Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Tara Davis-Woodhall

It's been a ride!  

I've always paid attention to the Olympics, but I'd describe the approach at League HQ this go-round as "laser focused".  We took off, I think, only one or two nights to do other things, but still caught what we were trying to catch via replay.

Here, at the end of more than 14 days of sport - 16 days from open to close, plus preliminary rounds - I feel a bit like a kid at the end of camp.  It's a brief, intense experience, and you want to hang onto the vibe.  But part of that vibe is knowing:  be happy it happened v. being sad it ended.  I don't think I could live in a world where the sport I was watching was interrupted by diving coverage for 45 unwanted minutes every day.*

Summer Olympics 2024 Cont'd

Gabby Thomas takes Gold in the 200m!

It's more or less been all-Olympics, all-the-time here at The Signal Watch.  

We've moved into Track and Field, which - sometime about 16 years ago - became my favorite part of the Olympics.  The "Athletics" or "Track and Field" portion of the Olympics - racing, throwing things, jumping... always feels, to me, like what I came here for.  I was annoying Jamie by watching the trials earlier this year.  I am invested in the success of Sha'Carri Richardson and Noah Lyles.  I want to see Gabby Thomas run like hell and Ryan Crouser hurl a shotput further than is reasonable.

We can watch swimming and thrill to 800 meters under water, but... a very small part of me also sees the monitors in sport coats walking along the edge of the pool at the same rate as the fastest swimmer in the world.  So, give me someone on the blocks and a starter pistol and less than ten seconds, and that's why I pay the price of admission.

And some times it's real, real close.

Olympics Broadcast Summer 2024 (so far)

We've been having fun watching the Olympics.  Gymnastics, soccer, basketball, and beach volleyball are my main things to follow.  But I've been all over the map checking out everything from Equestrian to Fencing (did you see that venue?  Holy cats.)  

Hot tip:  US soccer looks good!  Also both women's beach volleyball teams.  And I think we have really good teams for both basketball squads.

Men's gymnastics was a show stopper Monday evening.  Really good stuff.

I'm Gen-X, so my memory of the Olympics from growing up - really starting with the 1984 LA-based games - was that you essentially got 3 or so hours of coverage in primetime.  There was definitely daytime coverage on the weekends, but I can't recall if they showed daytime games during the week.  Viewers were more or less at the mercy of what the networks wanted to show.  And they showed swimming, women's gymnastics and then some track (I remember Carl Lewis and FloJo very well).  

I think it was 1992 that someone cooked up the idea to make the Olympics pay-per-view and that went over like a lead balloon.  For you kids, it's somewhat like renting a movie in Amazon Prime, but imagine having to place a phone call and pay someone $15 over the phone - and it's showing in real time.  Apparently viewership slipped and the carriers were criticized for trying to make profits *this way*.

But, yeah, the old broadcast model was partly great, partly irritating.  I got to see some amazing moments - I watched Mary Lou Retton live!  But every Olympics, you'd know there were dozens of other things happening you could be watching, but - instead - you'd have to sit through package after package about athletes who would then, inevitably, not do very well.  Or you'd be watching swimmers stand around for ten minutes - and then NBC would say "oh, and by the way, this amazing thing happened in Pentathalon, but you'll never see it.  But we did, and it was greeaaat.  Oh, well.".

I didn't and don't understand the self-fulfilling prophecy of "Americans like only these four things" they used to/ somewhat continue to do every Olympics.

Summer 2024 Games Begin - Opening Ceremony

Things I didn't know I needed:  a chorus of beheaded Marie Antoinettes singing along with French metal band, Gojira, reminding the world that France knows a little something about liberté, égalité, fraternité - and that France hasn't forgotten that liberté sometimes comes with a bad end for tyrants. 

The Paris Summer Games Opening Ceremony has officially (and finally) raised the bar for what is possible for a 4-hour long broadcast that has, now seen every two years thanks to Summer and Winter Games, become a bit of a slog.  

Rather than the usual attempt to do interpretive dance numbers that serves both an arena and a television audience and fails both, followed by hours of anonymous athletes walking in a big circle - Paris put the athletes on a variety of boats and shipped them down the Seine to the Eiffel Tower, making it more of a floating parade.  A sort of narrative was created with pre-recorded videos of what I think can best be described as "Assassin's Creed torch bearer parkouring their way across the city".  And then songs and dance along the river.  In the brief moment they included children, there was less a sense of wonder and, instead, a crocodile attack and a tour of the catacombs.

Vive la France!

Zut Alors! It's Time for the Paris Olympics

Well, you'll definitely see a lot less in the way of movies the next few weeks.  Here at The Signal Watch, we are fans of the Olympic Games, both Summer and Winter, and will tend to watch whatever we can.

That said, we've got Peacock - and it looks to be the best bet.  Looking at the menu over on The 'Cock, they have amazing coverage planned with a menu telling you what all the sports will be, and when.  And, I am sure, all of them will be available asynchronously.

I can guarantee I'll watch:

• Soccer/ Futbol
• Beach Volleyball
• Track and Field - all events
• so looking forward to seeing our sprinters - we were great at trials
• Table Tennis
• Swimming
• Gymnastics - need to get a box of Wheaties to see if they're on there (yay, Simone Biles!)

But I'll watch pretty much everything!

Don't forget:

• Dressage - horse dancing
• Breakdancing
• Handball
• Archery
• Basketball
• Pentathlon

This year the opening ceremonies will be in the middle of the day on Friday with evening replays.  My belief is that the parade of athletes is taking place on a flotilla coming down the Seine.  

It's gonna be a hell of a show.  My belief right now is Beach Volleyball will be played in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.  They're really using the city as a backdrop.

My default is to cheer for the US, then Mexico and Canada, then randomly cheer for whomever I feel like.  

Mostly I cheer against any announcers who think it's s good question to ask an athlete how they feel about not getting the gold.  Them, I hope a boom mic hits them in the face.

Anyway, let's go, Team USA!  

Sports Watch: Moneyball (2011)

Watched:  02/27/2024

Format:  Netflix

Viewing:  First

Director:  Bennett Miller

Selection:  Jamie, but I was happy to do so

We're getting geared up for baseball season, so I'd expect we'll watch another baseball movie or two til the end of Spring Training and then switch over to regular Cubs-viewing.  

I hadn't seen Moneyball (2011) when it came out basically because I was busy watching other stuff.  I thought the premise - based on real-life events - seemed great.  And the aftermath of the events has wildly informed how baseball now works for MLB teams, analysts, fantasy players and even casual fans like myself trying to better understand the game (and occasionally checking on a hunch).

The basic plot of the movie is based on the 2002 season for the Oakland A's - and I can tell you now, I have zero memory of any of this happening as I didn't follow baseball at the time.  Following a great 2001 season that ends in a loss at the ALDS, the A's lose their best players and have no budget.  GM Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) sits with his scouts/ brain-trust to think about who to bring in, and he knows it will be a disaster.  Coming across a bright young man with a degree in economics and a head for SABRstatistics, Beane and Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) return to the recruiting session and put a roster down of players who are cheap, but - statistically - should be able to take the team far farther than best guesses and the weird mumbo jumbo that informs sports-think.

The team doesn't perform, and then it does.  (This is all on Wikipedia and common knowledge to A's fans, I'd guess).  

Meanwhile, Billy navigates his past and present, informing him how he should proceed.  And somehow they landed Robin Wright for what's usually a walk-on part of the ex-wife.*  

SPOILERS

Sports Watch: The Sandlot (1993)

Watched:  02/21/2024

Format:  Disney+

Viewing:  First

Director:  David Mickey Evans

Selection:  Jamie

I was wrapping up my senior year of high school when The Sandlot (1993) hit.  At the time, I was more interested in adult-oriented movies, and not at all into baseball, so the movie came and went without much notice on my part.  I'd have forgotten about it completely, but it's since become an inter-generational favorite, especially with baseball fans (which is by far the best sport to put in a movie), and has become a meme-generating perennial.  "You're killing me, Smalls" has escaped the fandom of the film and made it's way into pop culture.

Jamie pitched it for our evening viewing, and wanting to know what the hubbub was about, we gave it a whirl.

Absolutely, I was reminded of the era, circa 1980-84, when my family lived near a cul-de-sac in Spring, Texas, in the halcyon summer days when kids were kicked out of the house after breakfast, drank out of hoses, and would set up games of baseball to play all afternoon.  We used the cul-de-sac as our diamond, and our certainty we were terrible at baseball ensured we weren't putting out any windows.  My neighborhood was chock full of kids around our age, so getting a handful together to play was never a big deal.  In some ways, I was primed.

Sports Watch: Slap Shot (1977)

Watched:  02/18/2024

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  First

Director:  George Roy Hill

Slap Shot (1977) is one of those movies that just gets repeatedly referenced and is a sort of rite-of-passage film for a lot of folks, especially big sports fans.  I've been mildly curious about the movie for a long time, but as someone who grew up in Texas, which means know exactly nothing about hockey, it just didn't connect for me before to watch the thing.  

But, the movie came up as I was sorting through back-issue bins at my local comic shop, Austin Books, as the manager is a huge film nerd and the owner is a sports buff (and I think enjoys that I am not a person who says "sportsball" who shops there).*

What I knew was the movie starred Paul Newman, Michael Ontkean and three guys who weren't pro actors who everyone talked about playing three weirdo brothers, the Hansons.  And that was about it.  Some things I could infer were that it was from that mid-70's period where it became a bit trendy in movies to make it feel like it was shot on-location and live in a bar with everyone talking.  And, to be honest, it is not to my taste, Robert Altman.  

Women's World Cup 2023 Starts

Sport is funny.  If you are paying attention to a sport, it can appear everywhere.  But the minute you tune out, it's just a thing that exists that occasionally enters your line of sight.  

I don't watch NFL or NBA anymore.  NBA made itself too hard to watch via their TV strategy, and if I'm going to spend one day a weekend watching football, it's going to be college ball. But y'all know I also spend a ridiculous amount of time watching the Cubs and now Austin FC.  

Way back in '99, I somehow got wrapped up in watching Women's World Cup.  And, honestly, it's hard to top the excitement of that WWC win.  But I don't really even remember how I tuned in, I just remember being very onboard watching the team playing a sport I fundamentally didn't understand except for "ball goes in net gets you points".  

It's not that I didn't play soccer as a kid.  We all did.  But the rules for kids were different, and I played defense, so the "strategy", such as it was, was to stop whomever was driving the goal from doing so.  It wasn't brain surgery.  But once you start watching soccer a lot, you realize how *hard* this game is, how much strategy is in play as an absolute constant.   But I also know and understand how to folks watching, it can just look like 20-odd people in matching shirts running around a field of grass.     

PodCast 247: "Ted Lasso: Season 3" Therapy Session w/ Mrshl, Maxwell and Ryan

Format:  Apple+

Decade:  2020's

For more ways to listen

MRSHL, Maxwell and Ryan have heard the final whistle on Season 3 of everyone's favorite show about a very well adjusted soccer team. After two wildly popular seasons, this season drew a wide range of opinions. Join us as we line up for a set-piece and see if we can't get it in the goal.

SoundCloud 

The Signal Watch PodCast · 247: "Ted Lasso: Season 3" Therapy Session w/ Mrshl, Maxwell and Ryan

YouTube

Part 1:

Part 2:

Music:

Ted Lasso Main Theme - Marcus Mumford and Tom Howe 

Fight Test - Flaming Lips

Checking In and Sportsball Happenings

your world champion Houston Astros!

Hi all. 

With Halloween over and the World Series now concluded (featuring the Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies), Longhorn football in late season, AND the Major League Soccer Cup match... we've been TV busy this weekend.  

At League HQ, Halloween is a marathon as we queue up movies starting in summer - resulting in 9 episodes discussing at least 12 movies covered on Ye Olde PodCaste.  You're welcome.  On top of that, we also watch other Halloween movies during October, including hosting a few Friday Watch Parties.  

There's also Halloween TV things to see, and increasingly YouTube videos, so much media has been consumed.

All of which is weird - because I'm actually not a huge horror nut.  It's just how things seem to play out.

These days I generally don't post much about TV and sports here, but with Halloween on Monday - this week we watched new episodes of one of my favorite shows,  Documentary Now!, and the surprising return of Sherman's Showcase, which I assumed was canceled as it had been a while since new episodes appeared.  

One thing I checked off on Saturday was the MLS season.  Major League Soccer is, of course, fairly new to me.  Last week, Austin FC - my entry point to the league - lost to LA FC in the Western Conference Championship.  While of course one hopes that that your team will win, Austin FC's second season went shockingly well, and I'm new to all this, so how upset can you be?  

The MLS Cup, which was Saturday afternoon, is essentially the Superbowl for American soccer.  And as it's soccer, I think I saw one ad for it?  LAFC wound up beating Philadelphia in a penalty kick shoot-out.  It was a great game, and it was nice to watch one where I wasn't pulling super hard for anyone.  If you were looking to check out a game this year, it was a good one!  

Anyway - I guess I'm into soccer now?  

Signal Watch Sports: Austin FC Match - First Play Off Game 2022

Moved this post over to League of Melbotis.

Things I have Been Watching That Are Not Movies

Jessie Spano looks on

We don't just watch movies at Signal Watch HQ.  If I'm being candid, re-employment and other things have reduced my time for movie watching.  But I'm also watching a movie or two per week for the PodCast, plus editing and posting, all of which takes time.  And I do write up stuff when I watch a movie.

This post is not your opportunity to recommend shows to me (please don't), and I am not telling you anything is essential and must be watched.  Sometimes we just say "hey, this is what we watched" when it comes to TV.

So what have we been up to on the TV side of the spectrum?

Sports

Chicago Cubs Baseball 

This is a mistake in 2022.  Since the Ricketts got their World Series win in 2016, burning through all the Cubs karma and possibly all of that for the Planet Earth to secure a win, the team has disintegrated in spectacular fashion.  They're usually 4th in the NL Central.  Which is like not being the absolute worst team in the worst division in baseball.  

Cubs gonna cub.

Austin FC Futbol

I was a massive skeptic of Austin's foray into Major League Soccer, but we got a team that started in 2021, and I've watched about 80% of their matches on TV or online.  I have not yet been to the stadium.  I now follow the team and try to make sense of a sport that I've struggled to grok in its complexity for my entire adult life.

It's still fun!  I'm kinda into it.

Happy Birthday Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

As a kid, I was an NBA nut.  And because it was the 1980's, I watched the Lakers.  Chances were always good they were in the playoffs or the Finals.  But I watched them, the Pistons, the Bulls and the Rockets when I could (I would become a real Rockets fan when I moved back to Houston in 1990) all season long.  

I liked most of the guys you think of from that era, but my favorite Laker was always Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.   I made the crucial mistake of trying to imitate his play as a 6'3" kid, but I did play center and I wore glasses, and it all made sense in my head.  But my skyhook was not Kareem's skyhook.  And my defense was not his.

Of course, Kareem is one of the intellectuals of the NBA.  And that had an impact on me as a kid.  I understood that, like Muhammad Ali, he had abandoned his birthname of Lou Alcinder.  I understood why.  Those are both big things when you're a kid, but also helps frame it in a way that's understandable and something you're keen to appreciate when you know that's part of the story of someone you look up.  

I knew Kareem was a reader and a smart guy, and I have delighted in his post NBA career as a sort of wise elder.  I mean, no one is going to Bill Laimbeer or Dennis Rodman to get their take on current events.  They aren't writing excellent think pieces that show up in the news.  

If I met Kareem today, though, I'd probably just ask him about making The Fish that Saved Pittsburgh, and if he'd rewatched it lately.  

Anyway, I had a lot of sports heroes as a kid, but Kareem was always the top of the list.  

Its been wild watching the current series Winning Time about the people and forces that combined to become the Lakers you know and love, and to see Kareem dramatized by Solomon Hughes in a way that feels like maybe it could be right (but you'd have to ask the man himself).  

Anyway, happy 75th to one of the best in the game.  

PodCast 185: "Winter Olympics 2022 - Part 2" - Signal Watch Sports w/ Jamie and Ryan

For more ways to listen

Jamie and Ryan pick up after the 2022 Winter Olympics to talk about the back half, the mess that was women's figure skating, the trouble with the IOC, and Ryan picks a fight with at least two countries, the IOC and NBC. And Nielsen ratings. Join us as we plummet downhill, only to be launched gloriously through the podcasting heavens!

The Signal Watch PodCast · 185: "Winter Olympics 2022 - Part 2" - Signal Watch Sports w/ Jamie and Ryan

Music:

The Olympics Theme? - The Signal Watch Players 

Signal Watch Sports!

The Signal Watch PodCast · Signal Watch Sports