For those of you who haven't tripped all over yourself rushing to view snippets of The Front Row at www.scrabo.com, let me fill you in. The Front Row is a half-hour television show broadcast out of New York, produced by Paul Scrabo, who also provides pieces of the show in Real and MPG formats on the aforementioned site. Host Scrivani talks to legends and stars of the b-movie world (like the previously-reviewed Debbie Rochon episode), and unlike most talk-show hosts, Scrivani knows who the hell his guests are and actually lets them get a word in edgewise, but controls them from rambling all over the place. In short, he is one of the best interviewers I have ever seen. He's no sycophantic Jay Leno, nor is he a smarmy "all about me" David Letterman. Scrivani respects his guests, loves the movies they discuss, and is obviously a true fan of horror and science fiction, whether they be in A or B-list form.
The Lindenmuth episode is, of course, chock-full of information, and Kevin handles himself like a professional, discussing many of his films, Vampires and Other Stereotypes and Rage of the Werewolf in particular, revealing his own secret of how he's been able to keep working, making movie after movie, for the past fifteen years.
But the true stand-out episode in my book is "The Invasion of the '50s Sci-Fi" episode, in which Scrivani talks to film historian Bob Madison about the classic The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This episode is just fun in and of itself, with Madison discussing the politics and psychology behind the film, in the context of the time it was made. And to make things even better, the show is intercut with an interview with the film's star, Kevin McCarthy, who relates his own anecdotes about the making of the film. The only sad thing about this episode is that not a bit of it is available on The Front Row website.
I have a number of hopes for this show, not the least of which that Scrabo gets a chance to sell it to a wider market, so that it can be seen by b-movie fans across the country, each episode in its entirety. I would love to see it expanded to a full hour, as Scrivani and guests barely scratch the surface in a half hour. But barring all that, I would like to think that there is a market out there for a home-video collection of the episodes, and that Scrabo could perhaps make the shows available as a collection. Bombard the man with e-mail, convince him to do so.
In any event: Everyone should rush over to the Front Row website at www.scrabo.com and download all the available clips.
