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when Steven Spielberg was first offered
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a directing gig on the series own
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Marshall counts were a law he turned it
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down he'd been asked to direct an
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episode about an opera singer but he
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hated that script so he was offered
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another episode this one about a high
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school football controversy he agreed to
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direct this episode but only on the
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condition that the script be rewritten
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so the show's creators gave in to his
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demands and let him make it the way he
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wanted the resulting episode entitled
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eulogy for a wide receiver is much like
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Spielberg's two episodes of the
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psychiatrist in that it's fallen into
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the cracks of obscurity over the ensuing
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decades and it's very hard to find
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luckily like some of the other episodes
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in this series I was able to find a copy
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of it at the Powis Center for Media and
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Beverly Hills and there I got to watch
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it for the first time for the most part
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I enjoyed it
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Anson Williams from Happy Days plays a
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high school football player who dies of
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exhaustion after an intense game and
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right away I felt very bad for this kid
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he's under so much pressure by everyone
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around him that when he suddenly dies I
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thought the rest of the episode was
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gonna be about Owen Marshall and his
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team of lawyers suing the kids
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aggressive coach played by Stephen young
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so imagine my surprise when I realized
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the episode was actually about the
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lawyers defending the coach of all
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people this is a challenging thing to
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try to achieve and Spielberg to his
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credit almost succeeds the problem is
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that the coach just isn't very likable
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he's a scary guy and you do kind of want
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to blame him for the kid's death a big
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court case Falls making this the first
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courtroom drama of Spielberg's career
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and the courtroom sequence itself is
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pretty well directed I loved Lou
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Frizzles performance as the prosecutor
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Lou Frizzle was one of the great
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character actors of the 1970s I
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especially loved him as the pharmacist
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in Robert Mulligan's summer of 42 and
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evidently Spielberg enjoyed working with
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him here because he later cast him as
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the bus driver and do
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but the one who really commands the
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episode is Olli majors as Owen Marshalls
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assistant just Brandon who's assigned to
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the case because he used to be a
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football player himself younger
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audiences these days are probably most
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familiar with who he majors for his
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hilarious cameo in Scrooge says the hero
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of the night the reindeer died but in
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this episode Spielberg gets a nice
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dramatic performance out of him in a
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stirring courtroom speech there's also a
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good speech by the kid's father who
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tearfully admits that he allowed his son
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to play football even when he knew that
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he had a heart condition that was a very
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sad scene Joan darling who worked with
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Spielberg on his brilliant psychiatrist
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episode par for the course
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appears briefly in this episode as well
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she and her real-life husband Bill spawn
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Oh were hanging out a lot with Spielberg
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during this period and it's nice how he
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kept giving her parts in his TV episode
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the biggest problem that I had with
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eulogy for a wide receiver was the
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ending ultimately nobody is really
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blamed for the kid's death
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from what I understood it gets ruled as
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nothing more than an unfortunate
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accident caused by drugs and peer
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pressure but what really bothered me is
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how the coach and the other players just
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kind of laugh about it at the end and to
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me this completely undermine is the
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terrible tragedy of the kid's death
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which really should have been the main
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focus of the episode although the
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episode is emotionally affected to some
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degree as a statement on death it just
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doesn't compare to par for the course
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which set the bar incredibly high for
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Spielberg's television career still
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eulogy for a wide receiver does have its
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moments I'm glad I got to see it but the
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copy I watched had a lot of technical
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problems in fact some scenes were
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missing bits and pieces of visual and
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audio not to mention how badly
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tinted some of the visuals a look now
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much like Spielberg's to episodes for
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the psychiatrist this one is in
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desperate need of restoration so I hope
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someone at NBC Universal gets to work on
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it and quick before time runs out
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if you'd like to know more about the
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making of eulogy for a wide receiver
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check out Joseph McBride's biography of
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Spielberg
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[Music]
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