Tread Perilously

Tread Perilously's Summer Grab Bag continues with the annual visit to Cop Rock for an episode called "A Three-Corpse Meal." While LaRusso stews in lock-up, Officer Quinn encounters Patricia again. She's remorseful about selling her baby back in the pilot and wants the young officer's aid. Quinn's husband, Lt. Ruskin, gets a bad health report and a new restricted diet. Elsewhere in town, Mayor Plan...

Tread Perilously opens the summer grab bag for the penultimate edition of The Ballad of John D. Cort -- an episode of Baywatch called "Deep Trouble." When CJ finds a homeless Cort sleeping under her guard tower -- not a euphemism -- she turns to Mitch to help out his alleged best friend. But as it happens, Mitch needs Cort's aid as the brother of a young leukemia patient has gone missing. And with...

Tread Perilously's pilot season wraps up with Beyond Witch Mountain , an attempt to extend the Witch Mountain film duology into a weekly series. When extraterrestrials Tia and Tony leave their community atop Witch Mountain in search of their Uncle Bené, they learn his missing son has been located. But when Bené passes in a very Jedi-like way, they take on the rescue mission themselves and recruit...

Tread Perilously's pilot season continues with the first episode of The Art of Being Nick -- the bizarre Family Ties spinoff with one notable star in its cast. When Family Ties guest character Nick Moore moves back to New York to concentrate on his art, he ends up living with his older sister, Marlene, and her young son, Louis. As soon as a job is mentioned, he pushes to work in her bookstore, whe...

Tread Perilously's pilot season continues with the pilot of Our House : "Home Again." Curmudgeon and widower Gus Witherspoon is in for a change when his daughter-in-law and her three children move from Fort Wayne, Indiana to his Southern California home. Set in his ways, it is a rough transition, but through Gus's old folksy mannerism and some understanding, they may just pull through. Meanwhile,...

Tread Perilously enters Pilot Season with the unsold 1959 Nero Wolfe pilot, "Count the Man Down." When Nero Wolfe receives a monthly expense bill totaling $4000.92, he tells Archie Goodwin to alert the media with this proclamation: a rocket scientist who died six days prior was murdered. The scientist's wife and associates quickly become suspects, but they also want to know who hired Wolfe to solv...

Tread Perilously's fantasy month concludes with an episode of Grimm called "Silence of the Slams." As the season arc simmers in the background, Nick is called onto the case of a man who has lost his face. But when it becomes clear the man was really a wesen, he becomes the only person who can solve the crime. Meanwhile, a young luchadore begs a mask-maker for a new persona that will make him the s...

Tread Perilously's fantasy month continues with a trip to  Fantasy Island called "Voodoo/Parent Trap." Much to Tattoo's dismay, Mr. Roarke accepts $51 from two children who desperately want to see their parents back together. Under the guise of inspecting the children's survival weekend, the mother and father -- and their respective fiances -- end up stuck in a rustic cabin. Meanwhile, Roarke aids...

Tread Perilously's fantasy month continues with an episode of The Dresden Files called "Walls." When Harry Dresden witnesses the death of a potential client, he uncovers a trio of frat brothers who have learned a way to do short-range teleportation via a magic relic. They immediately use it to commit crimes. But considering the killer Harry glimpsed may in fact be the spirit contained in the objec...

Tread Perilously dedicates itself to a month of fantasy shows starting with an episode of  Beastmaster called "Slayer's Return." After years of wandering, Zuraya seems to have it all worked out. Rolan, the king of a prosperous city state, has lifted her curse of loneliness and they will be married in a few short days. Nevertheless, her wolf, Slayer, seems to hate Rolan. Does he understand somethin...

Tread Perilously's annual Doctor Who month concludes with "Asylum of the Daleks". The Ponds' break-up is interrupted when the Daleks abduct them to aid The Doctor in entering an asylum where the most hateful and insane Daleks are kept. The mission: shut down the defense field and determine the nature of the woman holding her own against the maddest of the mad. Once in the asylum, the lone human su...

Tread Perilously's Doctor Who month continues with a First Doctor adventure called "The Aztecs." When the TARDIS lands in an Aztec temple circa 1450, Barbara is immediately mistaken for the reincarnation of a priest called Yetaxa. The Doctor, Susan, and Ian become known to the locals as Barbara's followers. But the high priest of sacrifice, Tlotoxl, sees through the time traveler's ruse and vows t...

Tread Perilously's Doctor Who month continues with a recent episode: "Lux." When The Doctor and Belinda end up in Miami, 1952, they encounter racist policies and a seemingly haunted movie theater with a reclusive caretaker. Once inside, though, it becomes clear what is actually haunting the venue -- a living cartoon called Lux. Sure, he might resemble Mr. Ring-a-Ding, but he has his own aims. Will...

Tread Perilously's annual Doctor Who month continues with "Fugitive of the Judoon." Gloucester resident Ruth Clayton is well-liked by locals, but her attempts to sell visitors on a guided tour is often met with shrugs. She's okay with it, though, as she's happily married and celebrating her 44th birthday. But when a troop of Judoon put Gloucester in a suspension field, The Doctor arrives to learn...

Tread Perilously begins its annual Doctor Who month with a Fifth Doctor tale called "The Visitation." The Doctor manages to get Tegan to Heathrow Airport, but 300 years too early. Taking a look around, they find the nearby village is caught in the grips of a plague outbreak. But does the mysterious illness have anything to do with a meteor storm actor/highwayman Richard Mace saw a few days previou...

Tread Perilously rounds out '80s flashback month with the lowest rated episode of  V: The Series -- "War of Illusions." Just as Diana nears completion on her battlesphere -- a device certain to end the Resistance -- Mike Donovan gets word of an impending Visitor invasion and must find a former CalTech professor to crack the code of the alien technology. The professor, meanwhile, has a son who is m...

Tread Perilously continues its examination of 1980s TV with an episode of Matt Houston called "Marilyn." When Matt gets a panicked phone call from one of his employees, he soon discovers the man has been shot and hears his dying request: "Save Marilyn." This piques the private investigator/oil man's interest and he seeks out the missing woman. Just one problem: the employee did not have a Marilyn...

Tread Perilously's '80s flashback month continues with, at long last, an episode of Falcon Crest called "The Price of Freedom." It takes Richard Channing just a few days in prison to realize he needs out -- and he's prepared to sell out business rival Michael Sharpe to do it. Meanwhile at the winery, Angela Channing continues to plan for her Italian getaway, but still aims to break up her grandson...

Tread Perilously returns to the 1980s for a month of TV shows Erik and Justin have never covered before. First up: the  Scarecrow and Mrs. King episode called "Wrong Number." When Mrs. King's first assignment re-checking security clearances becomes part of Scarecrow's latest mission, the two argue over the loyalties of one Dr. William Towne. Is he really a Soviet spy or just a hapless mathematicia...

Tread Perilously concludes its month of TV movies with The Night Stalker . When his editor cancels his vacation, Karl Kolchak finds a seemingly standard Las Vegas murder is just the beginning of a killing spree. But odd details -- like certain puncture wounds on the victims' necks and the complete loss of blood -- lead the intrepid reporter to suggest law enforcement is dealing with a man who thin...

Tread Perilously's TV Movie month continues with Michael J. Fox, Nancy McKeon, and Robert Klein in  Poison Ivy . When Dennis Baxter takes a job at Camp Pinewood in Maine, he expects his summer will be filled by taking care of his charges and maybe romancing some of the counselors at the girls' camp across the lake. This changes when assistant nurse Rhonda Malone arrives on the scene. Will he find...

Tread Perilously's TV Movie month continues with Deadly Intentions ... Again? After serving time for the attempted murder of his first wife, Dr.  Charles Raynor returns to the loving embrace of his second wife, Sally. She has a plan to get him back into the workforce and see his medical license restored. Raynor has other plans -- finishing off his first wife and the federal prosecutor   who put hi...

  Tread Perilously returns to the land of made-for-TV movies with 1982's Mysterious Two . When two people known as He and She convince their followers to invade a town in the Southwest because "it is time," a local sheriff, a magazine reporter, and a young man looking for his missing girlfriend converge on the site. There, He and She promise to uplift "the People of Tomorrow" if they sell all thei...

Tread Perilously returns to the Ballad of John D. Cort for its antepenultimate stanza: an episode of Baywatch called "Baja Run." When Cort -- still suffering from a degenerative eye condition -- makes his way back to Baywatch HQ, it's to convince Mitch to join him on the Baja Run. The Mexican dune buggy race is something both men have always wanted to win. While Mitch begrudgingly agrees, C.J. rea...

Tread Perilously's winter request month concludes with an episode of Merlin called "Beauty and the Beast." When a troll sets her sights on the riches of Camelot, she takes a potion to assume the identity of a conventionally beautiful noble in the hopes of securing Uther Pendragon's heart. Gaius suspects her immediately as he treated the aristocrat before for an incurable bone disease. Uther, howev...