#donald p bellisario

[nerds-yearbook]

Quantum Leap premiered on March 26, 1989. In New Mexico in 1995, Dr Sam Beckett fearing he would have his project shut down made a test run of his time machine. He "leaped" into the body of test pilot Tom Stratton in September 13, 1956. ("Genesis", Quantum Leap, TV Event)

[filmpenance]

Last Rites (1988)

Donald P. Bellisario 1h 43m [Day 12, 2024 - Trashy Tuesday]

"You are all witnesses! The wop started it!" - O'Bannon

Last Rites is what happens when you want to make a cool mafia film, but plot, good casting and assured direction are incidental. But still, it will be so cool!

Packed with Italian American cliches, this movie has more cheese than a Kraft factory.

It essentially follows a film noir framework, with all of the gravitas of Chef Boyardee.

Tom Berrenger plays mafia connected priest Father Michael Pace (pah-chay), who smokes, drinks, and bullies the other priest in his parish.

Word spreads quickly through the Italian mob community that underboss, Geno has been taken out. But who killed him?

It was mafia daughter Zena, Geno's wife who shot him - catching him in the arms of his Mexican mistress Angela (Daphne Zuniga), doing it against a lot of curtains.

Angela narrowly escapes the gunfire, and with possibly the least convincing Mexican accent of all time, finds herself at church in a confessional spilling the beans to Fr. Pace.

Angela doesn't know it, but Zena is Fr. Pace's sister.

He vows to keep her safe, despite his ties to Zena (Anne Twomey - giving her best Anjelica Houston impersonation). He also vows to keep it in his pants.

Fr. Michael is not great at the whole "keeping your vows" thing.

I still viscerally remember how much Roger Ebert hated Last Rites, calling it, "easily the most offensive big budget picture of 1988". I waited decades to experience what he was talking about. And it is so wonderfully, unintentionally funny. *

The film draws from some great inspirations. A little Scarface, some Fatal Attraction. It had me wondering if Jonathan Demme or Brian De Palma could have done something with this material. I think the first thing they'd do is rewrite it.

It's terrible. I'll probably watch it again.

Pair with / watch instead: Prizzi's Honor, Married to the Mob

TRAILER:

* So sidenote...

I was really trepidatious about watching Last Rites. I kept pushing it off. I remember the terrible Siskel & Ebert review - Ebert went in hard and it stuck with me. I was worried it would be terrible and I wanted it to be awesome. In my mind, there could be nothing more appealing than this Berenger/ Zuniga pairing. Before watching, I get to imagine everything this movie could be and watching it locks in a specificity I sensed I would find distasteful, like nationalism or spaghetti straps. But I had to confront it. Just watch it and accept history as it is and not the poster. Sort of like Electric Dreams.

Siskel & Ebert: https://youtu.be/u9gCiLZtpZI?si=elYoIq3c4sHlMb5P

[robertdeanstockwellgal]

I was watching the (original--the one and only) Quantum Leap blooper reel and noticed two familiar faces after Dean's.

Dean Al Calavicci Stockwell (being himself of course!)

Deborah Pratt Bellisario (AND A MYSTERIOUS HAND WANTING TO TURN THE LAMP OFF!!! OH HORROR OF HORRORS!!!)

The creator of Quantum Leap! Donald P. Bellisario!

Who's this?

And, of course, Slimy Scott Bakula. LITERALLY!!!

[spryfilm]

DVD Review: “Magnum, P.I.” (1980 - 1988) 

[gameofthunder66]

-(finished) watchin' Season 2- 5/26/2023- 3 stars- on CBS (Paramount+)

LUCY & JESSE| NCIS HAWAI'I

Jesse being Lucy’s confidant about her relationship with Kate.

[alltrekvarnews]

'Magnum P.I.' terminará con la temporada 5 Parte 2 en NBC.

[spontaneousellipsis]

Quantum Leap always worked in service of the mysterious and beautiful ways in which human beings are connected, but all the government sees is a scapegoat for their bad policies and poor choices. Time travel changes things, so they’ve somehow convinced themselves that we changed things for the worse.

QUANTUM LEAP | season one created by Donald P. Bellisario, developed by Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt

[miamarie1960]

Ali’s speech, it begins 27 minutes into the feed.

[koschei-the-ginger]

Hey Donald P Bellisario, can you do me a favour? Can you fucking shoot me?

[ncisfranchise-source]

Mark Harmon is sharing behind-the-scenes secrets about his time on NCIS and how he may not have starred in it if things -- including his character's name -- had been slightly different. 

Harmon, 72, recently sat down with ET's Kevin Frazier to promote his new book, Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor. 

The actor discussed the novel before the conversation turned to NCIS, the long-running CBS drama in which he starred as Leroy Jethro Gibbs for 19 seasons.  

His participation in the show, however, may not have happened for a number of reasons including where he was at in his personal life when the script and auditions first came around.

"I didn't expect to like the script as much as I did when I first read it," Harmon said. "I was reading other things and I was also trying to stay home -- young family and I wanted to try and be home more." 

What hooked the actor? It was the character's name, he shared. 

"I read 'Leroy Jethro Gibbs' and thought, 'Huh, I like that name,'" Harmon said of what initially piqued his interest. "And then for a brief second when I decided that I liked the idea of the project, the name changed." 

The name that Gibbs almost had was far less interesting and certainly a dealbreaker for the veteran actor who had come off of projects like Freaky Friday, The West Wing and JAG before NCIS began airing. 

"Bob Johnson or something like that. And I went, 'No, no, it's gotta be Leroy Jethro Gibbs.' The creator said, 'No, you can't play a guy named Leroy Jethro Gibbs,' and I said, 'Why not?'" the actor and writer continued. "And then it went back and I was happy about it."

He also confirmed that it was not the network but the creator -- Donald P. Bellisario -- who wanted to change the name. 

Harmon left the show in 2022 after 19 seasons to the shock and sadness of fans. He told ET he is still grateful for every episode and all of the success the show has seen. 

"As an actor, you don't think in those kinds of terms," Harmon said in response to being asked about the series' 20th anniversary. "You're thinking, 'TV series, if it does three years, we're gifted.' But they've done well and they've worked hard and so it's a really good group of people." 

"I don't know that any of us thought that the show was going to be around as long as it's been around," he continued. 

The series went on to become so popular that it spawned numerous spinoffs including NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: Hawaii and the latest to join the bunch, NCIS: Sydney. 

"We talked about this a lot ... over the years and I always thought that this show had characters, and it had humor, which made it different," Harmon said. "It had a case, but the case isn't what drove it -- I think that's still true." 

Amid its monumental anniversary, Harmon -- who appeared in more than 430 episodes -- said he still understands why viewers come back week after week. 

As for whether or not he would make a return to the show, he's not completely ruling out the possibility that viewers will see Gibbs again. 

"He's probably sitting in a stream up in Alaska fishing," Harmon joked. "Is he going to get out of the stream? I don't know. But if he is, I don't know about it." 

Harmon's book, Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor, is roughly about the start of the real-life Naval Criminal Investigative Service. 

"When I first got the role in the show, I tried to google NCIS to figure out what it was -- I never heard of it -- there wasn't much information. And if you google it now, there's like 25 pages of information," he said, describing why it was important for him and Leon Carroll -- a longtime NCIS technical adviser -- to write it. 

According to the book's description, it tells the tale of Douglas Wada, the only Japanese American agent in naval intelligence, and Takeo Yoshikawa, a Japanese spy sent to Pearl Harbor to gather information. 

Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor is available now wherever books are sold. 

[nerds-yearbook]

The last episode of the original run of Quantum Leap aired on May 5, 1993. Almost everyone in the episode appeared in previous episodes or reference previously mentioned characters. In theory, Sam lept into himself in August 8, 1953 in a mining town, but it appeared he had actually lept into some kind of limbo possibly meeting God. It was implied that Sam was the one controlling his leaps. Sam went on to alter Al's life. A title card at the end revealed that Sam never returned home again. ("Mirror Image", Quantum Leap, TV Event)

[storyofmychoices]

Calli (VOS) MC is cousins with Lilah (COP) MC and I just decided Calli goes to Penn State to study journalism. Do you know what school that is?

Donald P Bellisario College of Communications

Why is that entertaining to me?

Lilah's FC is Troian Bellisario

Love that little connection!

[ctrl-salt-delete]

i'm convinced NCIS will never be cancelled. we are on season 20 and the ratings are as high as they have ever been. donald p bellisario has truly cracked the code on what the american public wants to consume, and it is a cop show where the cops are also the troops.

[levysoft]

Today "Quantum Leap" series creator Donald P. Bellisario joins Ars Technica to answer once and for all the lingering questions we have about his enduringly popular show. Was Dr. Sam Beckett really leaping between all those time periods and people or did he simply imagine it all? What do people in the waiting room do while Sam is in their bodies? What happens to Sam's loyal ally Al? 30 years following the series finale, answers to these mysteries and more await.

[filmola-de]

Navy CIS - Episodenguide

Episodenguide Navy CIS Fernsehserie Deutscher Titel Navy CIS Originaltitel Navy NCIS (2003–2004)NCIS (seit 2004) Produktionsland Vereinigte Staaten Produktionsjahre  2003- Produktion Donald P. Bellisario (bis 2007)Chas. Floyd Johnson (ab 2007)Shane Brennan (2007–2011)Gary Glasberg (2011–2016)Frank Cardea (seit 2016)George Schenck (seit 2016) Länge 43 Minuten Episoden 467 in 21+…