There we were, tripping around a con in New Jersey a few weeks back, delighting in the wonderful pop-culturific shopping as we always do at these things, and there's one of those bootleg-DVD booths. You know the kind. DVDs of every movie and TV show under the sun, whether it's been released "officially" or not, even some incredibly obscure or unaired stuff. Our eyes fell upon a little number called "Nightmare Cafe." Is that Jack Coleman from "Dynasty," we wondered? Sure enough, it was, along with Robert Englund of "Nightmare on Elm Street" fame, whom we adored in the 1989 big-screen remake of "Phantom of the Opera."
Turns out, just four years after he left "Dynasty," after bumping around a few TV movie roles, Jack Coleman signed on to this "Nightmare Cafe." It lasted all of six episodes, there in 1992. And it had some fun guest stars, like Carrie-Anne Moss, Justin Deas of "Santa Barbara," Coleman's wife Beth Toussaint, Angela Bassett, Vondie Curtis-Hall.
The Nightmare Cafe is a "Twilight Zone"ish place where your life flashes before your eyes, quite literally, as Coleman's character Frank Nolan learns shortly after encountering the blond Fay Peronivic (Lindsay Frost) there. Englund is the host on this nightmarish tour, where Nolan is led to make a stand on his job, then finds out that he, along with Fay, are really dead, but brought back to life in this cafe. They then take on the role of helping others who wander into the cafe, others who need to straighten out their own lives.
Coleman is still young and handsome here. And he seems to be wearing a little of that Steven Carrington idealism. It's fun to watch the gleam in his eye when he shares the first scene with his wife in the second episode, and even funner when things heat up between them in a later scene. Yummy. We've always thought they're a cute couple, the "Dynasty" star and the "Dallas" star.
Don't worry about hunting down that bootleg DVD -- we found the six-episode run on YouTube. And our one and only foray into bootlegs has sworn us off them for good, anyway! We don't recommend them.
Turns out, just four years after he left "Dynasty," after bumping around a few TV movie roles, Jack Coleman signed on to this "Nightmare Cafe." It lasted all of six episodes, there in 1992. And it had some fun guest stars, like Carrie-Anne Moss, Justin Deas of "Santa Barbara," Coleman's wife Beth Toussaint, Angela Bassett, Vondie Curtis-Hall.
The Nightmare Cafe is a "Twilight Zone"ish place where your life flashes before your eyes, quite literally, as Coleman's character Frank Nolan learns shortly after encountering the blond Fay Peronivic (Lindsay Frost) there. Englund is the host on this nightmarish tour, where Nolan is led to make a stand on his job, then finds out that he, along with Fay, are really dead, but brought back to life in this cafe. They then take on the role of helping others who wander into the cafe, others who need to straighten out their own lives.
Coleman is still young and handsome here. And he seems to be wearing a little of that Steven Carrington idealism. It's fun to watch the gleam in his eye when he shares the first scene with his wife in the second episode, and even funner when things heat up between them in a later scene. Yummy. We've always thought they're a cute couple, the "Dynasty" star and the "Dallas" star.
Don't worry about hunting down that bootleg DVD -- we found the six-episode run on YouTube. And our one and only foray into bootlegs has sworn us off them for good, anyway! We don't recommend them.
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the same as for many of the other BRBTV Reports -- just a cool buck and a half for this feature-length story and accompanying episode guide (our own synopses!), along with a full cast listing. It's the equivalent of 44 letter-sized pages in Microsoft Word, with photos that will appear in color on your Kindle or other device, if you have that ability.