BASEketball - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

Panther Woman · 02-22-2003, 01:47 PM

OK, I apologize if this topic has been beaten to death in the months prior to me finding this site (which came about because I was trying to find information on a case, the TN ATV Murders). But I'm curious : Who here has seen BASEketball? What did you think of the Unsolved Mysteries parody in it? Did you consider it hilarious or blasphemous?

Me, I thought it was hilarious, since Robert Stack's performance, the music, the film narration-everything-in that little segment was dead-on. If you haven't seen the film (like 99.99% of the filmgoing/movie renting populace) go rent it. The UM parody alone is worth watching, and the rest of the film ain't bad either.

Some random thoughts on UM:

I love the show. I watch it twice a day M-F. I really should find out if it's onSat/Sun Too. (No ,I don't have a life.)

I most enjoy the Wanted segments. I love it when a truly horrific case is portrayed, and then-UPDATE! And the SOB is shown in an orange jumpsuit, handcuffed. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's ever startled pets by jumping up and shouting,"Yeeessssssssss!"

Some of the Lost Loves are good, particularly the ones which are a little unusual, like the Orphan Train segment, or the refugees looking for GIs and so forth. So are some of the "Unsolvable Mysteries" segments , ie ghosts , monsters, etc.

Things I dislike about UM:

Only one, and it's just a 'pet peeve sensitivity' thing: I really hate it when RS talks about "lie detector" tests. There's no such thing. The polygraph detects 'stress" , changes in heartrate, etc, which MIGHT be linked to deception. Very high strung people can fail when innocent ; sociopaths can pass with ease when guilty. (I have a 200+ volume library of true crime books. I have found SEVERAL cases where a woman disappears, her boyfriend/husband passes a polygraph and is quote unquote 'ruled out as a suspect'-and then years later, he is arrested for another crime -typically murdering his new wife/girlfriend-and he confesses to the previous crime. IOW, reliance on the so-called 'lie detector' enabled him to kill again. ) The uselessness of the polygraph is reflected in the facts that (A) the results are NOT admissable in a court of law, and (B) the use of the machine is banned in the EU , this despite initial excitement in Interpol, Scotland Yard, the Surete, etc, over the promise of the polygraph. The sole usefulness of the polygraph is this : Teenage fast food and Kwik E Mart clerks can be intimidated easily with the "lie detecter test" threat if money goes missing from the till. This saves on police expenses. And FWIW, my DH and hence his friends are (shall we say....) involved in law enforcement in an employment capacity. None of them trust the polygraph either. FWIW, an ex supervisor says anyone can pass the test if s/he tightens the spinchter muscle before answering each question, then relaxes it. Not that I'd really want to test that theory...

Awhile back, I was in a fairly nice restaurant when a customer began going off on the hostess. He was shrieking at her. And even though I wasn't the target of his wrath, I could feel my heart start to pound and my armpits getting moist, simply because I was in the same room with a shrieking maniac. I believe that if I were strapped to apolygraph and asked if I'd assassinated JFK or MLK, I'd fail, even though I wasn't born yet.

Things I wish UM would do a little differently:

Well....I understand why they want to give survivors the chance to discuss the victim in their own words. And sometimes that can be very touching . Remember the case where a bright young woman was left brain damaged and with the IQ of a child, because she was deliberately hit on the head with a baseball bat when she was riding on the back of her BF's motorcycle? How the mother talked about how she loved her daughter, but she sure misses her as she was, and the way her voice broke and her eyes filled with tears? Made me want to lynch the people who disabled the girl....a feeling only strengthened when the girl herself spoke, and it was obvious she was no longer "all there". Tragic.

But sometimes guests are themselves a little...lacking...in the social skills department, and what they say might give a terrible false impression of the victim or the facts in a situation. When that happens, I wish UM would step in and encourage-not force!-them to use a script or prepared statement. I'm thinking of a case not too many weeks ago, in which a young woman was raped and impregnated by a creep, after the baby was born and prior to the rapist's trial she goes out on a date with a stranger with her baby (at the date's suggestion), both disappear. And then it comes out that the date was apparently a set up by the rapist. He forced his victim to write letters exonerating him which he mailed to the police and DA, then he killed his victim. Her body is discovered, but the little girl conceived by rape is still missing. I'm sure she's dead, but the grandparents at least want to bury her. Thankfully, the rapist/murderer was convicted of the murder of his rape victim, and UM brought out some facts suggesting he killed other people-including the blind date that kidnapped his victim and daughter! Anyway, the grandmother was talking about her daughter and the missing baby, and she just kept going on and on about how after the rape, her daughter had "settled down" and started taking a lot more care of her personal appearance, started wearing makeup and doing up her hair-all while smiling! It was excrutiatingly embarrassing to watch , and I couldn't help but wonder how many sickoes would think,"Oh, she must have really enjoyed being raped, and was trying to attract more male attention". I really wish in that case that the UM staff could have kept the grandmother to more of a prepared statement...I guess she was trying to convey that she was glad her grandchild hadn't been aborted, but she seemed to be rambling and it just came off badly, IMO.

One last thing : Anyone who likes UM's crime segments ought to check out A&E's American Justice. On my cable, that show comes on immediately after Lifetime's UM. And despite the name, it does handle nonAmerican cases too :It did the Domenici case (Britons murdered in post WW II France) , the husband and wife Canadian serial killer team, and a British case where a man killed two children and tried to frame his beautiful but unstable ex-model sister.

Blackout · 02-25-2003, 09:18 PM

lie detectors arent always right but they do work alot

and i think that a few lost loves is okay, but they have too many of them and theyre all the same.

lifetime should just make a show of lost loves and let UM do the murder, alien, myth, conspericey, legend stuff

Panther Woman · 02-26-2003, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Blackout805

lifetime should just make a show of lost loves and let UM do the murder, alien, myth, conspericey, legend stuff

That's not a bad idea...You know, somewhere in the misty depths of my mind a memory stirs...I seem to recall Lifetime doing a show that was mostly New Agey/Paranormal /'there are angels on earth', etc, and this show used to deal with a lot of lost loves reunited. Can't remember what it was called , though. It came on before UM , and I never really watched it.

Allierain · 03-09-2003, 07:49 PM

I love BASEsketball. I thought the UM spoof, with Robert Stack, was hysterical and one of the best parts of the movie....especially when Stack curses. I never thought I'd live to see the day when he'd say the "F" word.

Makoto_4 · 03-09-2003, 11:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Allierain
I love BASEsketball. I thought the UM spoof, with Robert Stack, was hysterical and one of the best parts of the movie....especially when Stack curses. I never thought I'd live to see the day when he'd say the "F" word.

I haven't seen BASEketball yet, though I know it featured Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park. I remember watching Airplane and thought Stack was hilarious in that one too. That movie came out about 7 years before UM and it was so funny to see him spoof himself.

-Makoto_4

sdb4884 · 05-26-2010, 10:32 AM

I saw this for the first time in years recently and Stack's cameo was so funny. He was such a good sport, he did some Pepsi ads as well. Must have been great person to direct and or act with.

bell83 · 05-26-2010, 01:19 PM

I loved the part in the movie where Yasmine Bleeth is telling the kids "you shouldn't be watching this" and changes the channel. The first thing you hear is RS saying "the severed and mutilated head was stamped and post marked Denver. The owner has still not yet stepped forward." Favorite line in the movie.

WishfulDreamer · 05-26-2010, 06:27 PM

I love the BASEketball parody of UM! I adore UM and still watch it often when I'm at home during the summer. I do agree about the lie detectors. There are so many cases where the guilty one passes or innocent people don't do well. Nerves would definitely be a problem for me if I ever had to take one even if completely innocent.

02-22-2003, 01:47 PM	#1
Panther Woman Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Feb 14, 2003 Location: MO Posts: 14	BASEketball OK, I apologize if this topic has been beaten to death in the months prior to me finding this site (which came about because I was trying to find information on a case, the TN ATV Murders). But I'm curious : Who here has seen BASEketball? What did you think of the Unsolved Mysteries parody in it? Did you consider it hilarious or blasphemous? Me, I thought it was hilarious, since Robert Stack's performance, the music, the film narration-everything-in that little segment was dead-on. If you haven't seen the film (like 99.99% of the filmgoing/movie renting populace) go rent it. The UM parody alone is worth watching, and the rest of the film ain't bad either. Some random thoughts on UM: I love the show. I watch it twice a day M-F. I really should find out if it's onSat/Sun Too. (No ,I don't have a life.) I most enjoy the Wanted segments. I love it when a truly horrific case is portrayed, and then-UPDATE! And the SOB is shown in an orange jumpsuit, handcuffed. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's ever startled pets by jumping up and shouting,"Yeeessssssssss!" Some of the Lost Loves are good, particularly the ones which are a little unusual, like the Orphan Train segment, or the refugees looking for GIs and so forth. So are some of the "Unsolvable Mysteries" segments , ie ghosts , monsters, etc. Things I dislike about UM: Only one, and it's just a 'pet peeve sensitivity' thing: I really hate it when RS talks about "lie detector" tests. There's no such thing. The polygraph detects 'stress" , changes in heartrate, etc, which MIGHT be linked to deception. Very high strung people can fail when innocent ; sociopaths can pass with ease when guilty. (I have a 200+ volume library of true crime books. I have found SEVERAL cases where a woman disappears, her boyfriend/husband passes a polygraph and is quote unquote 'ruled out as a suspect'-and then years later, he is arrested for another crime -typically murdering his new wife/girlfriend-and he confesses to the previous crime. IOW, reliance on the so-called 'lie detector' enabled him to kill again. ) The uselessness of the polygraph is reflected in the facts that (A) the results are NOT admissable in a court of law, and (B) the use of the machine is banned in the EU , this despite initial excitement in Interpol, Scotland Yard, the Surete, etc, over the promise of the polygraph. The sole usefulness of the polygraph is this : Teenage fast food and Kwik E Mart clerks can be intimidated easily with the "lie detecter test" threat if money goes missing from the till. This saves on police expenses. And FWIW, my DH and hence his friends are (shall we say....) involved in law enforcement in an employment capacity. None of them trust the polygraph either. FWIW, an ex supervisor says anyone can pass the test if s/he tightens the spinchter muscle before answering each question, then relaxes it. Not that I'd really want to test that theory... Awhile back, I was in a fairly nice restaurant when a customer began going off on the hostess. He was shrieking at her. And even though I wasn't the target of his wrath, I could feel my heart start to pound and my armpits getting moist, simply because I was in the same room with a shrieking maniac. I believe that if I were strapped to apolygraph and asked if I'd assassinated JFK or MLK, I'd fail, even though I wasn't born yet. Things I wish UM would do a little differently: Well....I understand why they want to give survivors the chance to discuss the victim in their own words. And sometimes that can be very touching . Remember the case where a bright young woman was left brain damaged and with the IQ of a child, because she was deliberately hit on the head with a baseball bat when she was riding on the back of her BF's motorcycle? How the mother talked about how she loved her daughter, but she sure misses her as she was, and the way her voice broke and her eyes filled with tears? Made me want to lynch the people who disabled the girl....a feeling only strengthened when the girl herself spoke, and it was obvious she was no longer "all there". Tragic. But sometimes guests are themselves a little...lacking...in the social skills department, and what they say might give a terrible false impression of the victim or the facts in a situation. When that happens, I wish UM would step in and encourage-not force!-them to use a script or prepared statement. I'm thinking of a case not too many weeks ago, in which a young woman was raped and impregnated by a creep, after the baby was born and prior to the rapist's trial she goes out on a date with a stranger with her baby (at the date's suggestion), both disappear. And then it comes out that the date was apparently a set up by the rapist. He forced his victim to write letters exonerating him which he mailed to the police and DA, then he killed his victim. Her body is discovered, but the little girl conceived by rape is still missing. I'm sure she's dead, but the grandparents at least want to bury her. Thankfully, the rapist/murderer was convicted of the murder of his rape victim, and UM brought out some facts suggesting he killed other people-including the blind date that kidnapped his victim and daughter! Anyway, the grandmother was talking about her daughter and the missing baby, and she just kept going on and on about how after the rape, her daughter had "settled down" and started taking a lot more care of her personal appearance, started wearing makeup and doing up her hair-all while smiling! It was excrutiatingly embarrassing to watch , and I couldn't help but wonder how many sickoes would think,"Oh, she must have really enjoyed being raped, and was trying to attract more male attention". I really wish in that case that the UM staff could have kept the grandmother to more of a prepared statement...I guess she was trying to convey that she was glad her grandchild hadn't been aborted, but she seemed to be rambling and it just came off badly, IMO. One last thing : Anyone who likes UM's crime segments ought to check out A&E's American Justice. On my cable, that show comes on immediately after Lifetime's UM. And despite the name, it does handle nonAmerican cases too :It did the Domenici case (Britons murdered in post WW II France) , the husband and wife Canadian serial killer team, and a British case where a man killed two children and tried to frame his beautiful but unstable ex-model sister.

05-26-2010, 01:19 PM	#7
bell83 You're in high school again. Senior Member Join Date: Oct 05, 2006 Posts: 1,033	I loved the part in the movie where Yasmine Bleeth is telling the kids "you shouldn't be watching this" and changes the channel. The first thing you hear is RS saying "the severed and mutilated head was stamped and post marked Denver. The owner has still not yet stepped forward." Favorite line in the movie.
	__________________ Acid is groovy...kill the pigs.

02-25-2003, 09:18 PM	#2
Blackout Sart Bimpson Senior Member Join Date: Jan 13, 2003 Location: where the sun rises Posts: 2,236	lie detectors arent always right but they do work alot and i think that a few lost loves is okay, but they have too many of them and theyre all the same. lifetime should just make a show of lost loves and let UM do the murder, alien, myth, conspericey, legend stuff

03-09-2003, 07:49 PM	#4
Allierain Forum Old Fart Forum Regular Join Date: Nov 30, 2002 Location: Somewhere Posts: 509	I love BASEsketball. I thought the UM spoof, with Robert Stack, was hysterical and one of the best parts of the movie....especially when Stack curses. I never thought I'd live to see the day when he'd say the "F" word.

05-26-2010, 10:32 AM	#6
sdb4884 UM Meme Guy Senior Member Join Date: Sep 01, 2008 Location: Perth, Western Australia Posts: 1,234	I saw this for the first time in years recently and Stack's cameo was so funny. He was such a good sport, he did some Pepsi ads as well. Must have been great person to direct and or act with.

05-26-2010, 06:27 PM	#8
WishfulDreamer Member Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: Jun 01, 2009 Location: L.A. Posts: 3,868	I love the BASEketball parody of UM! I adore UM and still watch it often when I'm at home during the summer. I do agree about the lie detectors. There are so many cases where the guilty one passes or innocent people don't do well. Nerves would definitely be a problem for me if I ever had to take one even if completely innocent.