I've been hearing an awful lot about Lifetime movies from my teacher and welder lady friends for a while now, and they were dead on about Ellen's new show(she is the new Rosie O'donnell!) si I decided to check one out. I viewed "Killing Mr. Griffin"(KMG) starring Amy Jo Johnson of Pink Power Ranger Fame and A list
actor Mario Lopez, AC Slater himself! Once I saw this impressive cast list I figured how can I lose? Coca-Cola/PEZ MovieMan! did not go into the Lifetime foray completely knowledgeless. I had heard from some friends down at the 6th annual women truckers of America vs. the National Alliance of Male Florists softball game that all Lifetime movies involve Meredith Baxter Bernie, spousal abuse or teenage hijinks gone awry. Well, sorry fellas, but KMG was nothing of the sort. The film begins as it eventually ends, FABULOUSLY! In a very original plot(Meredith Baxter or spousal abuse nowhere in sight), a group of disgruntled highschool seniors(supported by the very capable AC Slater!) decide to get back at their mean English teacher, you guesed it, Mr. Griffin. When I first heard the title of the movie I thought, surely those wiley Lifetime people are trying to throw me off, maybe Mr. Griffin doesn't die. Lifetime didn't skip a beat and fooled me right back, he DID DIE! How did he die you ask? Well, I don't want to say teenage hijinks had gone awry, it was more like a senior prank that went the opposite of the way the kids wanted it.Apparently Mr. Griffin gave too much homework and didn't make a lot of money so the gang decided to do what I guess anyone might do to such a person, tie him up and leave him for dead in the woods. Now I have to say that once I realized Mr Griffin was played by uber talented Jay Thomas(co-star of many failed sitcoms), I thought for a moment, they wouldn't kill such a performer would they? Then I remembered they also killed off Valerie Harper in "Valerie's Family", so I guess no one is safe. Well, needless to say, Mr Griffin died by accident(heart attack,)and a group of teens knew. At this point what would anyone do? That's right, bury the body in a shallow grave and move on with life. That plan worked for exactly one commercial break. A construction crew found the body and then the shit hit the fan. There was a dramatic scene (deserved a Cable Ace in my humble opinion)where in AC Slater gets shot by another friend and then Zack Morris and Screech showed up and they went for a burger or something, I don't know I stopped watching it at that point because I love AC too much to see him hurt. I did catch the "Golden Girls" later on though, that was pretty cool.
May 9, 2004
