JULIA JEKYLL AND HARRIET HYDE was a 1990s BBC kidcom in which Julia (Olivia Hallinan) is an 11 year old science nerd and a perfect angel, always happy to make life easier for everyone from parents to schoolteachers (it’s to Hallinan’s credit she’s able to make Julia likable to the audience). Then a school bully tampers with Julia’s new elixir and the result is her randomly turning into seven foot tall Harriet Hyde.
The idea of sweet little Julia having a troublemaker hidden inside her could have been fun. Instead the show treats it like a personal embarrassment, nothing more — if Julia broke out in unsightly zits, the plot wouldn’t change much. Still, it lasted for three seasons on the Beeb. “Now drink up and I’ll put that door back on its hinges.”
NIGHT GALLERY was Rod Serling’s 1970s follow up to The Twilight Zone. It was a frustrating experience for Sterling, who discovered the network (NBC) wanted his name but not the distinctive touch he’d brought to his earlier classic. This episode has Alex Cord desperately trying to find a beautiful woman (Keep In Touch … We’ll Think of Something), a woman apparently walling her husband up alive (The Merciful) and in With Apologies to Mr. Hyde, Adam West quaffing a certain potion …nothing unwatchable, nothing that stands out, either. “I keep telling you, go easy on the vermouth!”
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