66 | JULY 27 • 2023 

FUN SPOOKY STUFF, 
REAL HORROR, JEWISH 
GUY INSPIRES CLASSIC 
SIT-COM EPISODE

Haunted Mansion opens 
in theaters on July 28. 
This Disney film is inspired 
by the Haunted Mansion 
attraction at three Disney 
parks (California, Florida 
and Japan). In 2003, there 
was a Haunted Mansion 
film that didn’t get great 
reviews but made a lot of 
money. The 2003 film and 
the new film really don’t 
have much to do with the 
Disney Park attraction — 
other than the films and the 
attractions are “spooky.”
Because they are Disney 
films, the Haunted Mansion 
films are “good-natured” 
spooky. They are not even 
close to being horror films. 
They are a mix of “kind-
of” scary stuff and a large 
dollop of “comedic spooky” 
stuff. 
Here’s the basic plot: 
Gabbie, a single mother 
(Rosario Dawson), and her 
young son (Chase Dillon) 
move into a mansion, only 
to find that it is haunted. 
To combat the “spirits,” 
they hire Ben, a former 
paranormal investigator 
turned tour guide (LaKeith 
Stanfield); Kent, a priest 
(Owen Wilson); Harriet, a 

psychic (Tiffany Haddish, 
43); and Bruce, a college 
history professor (Danny 
DeVito). 
Others: Winona Ryder, 
51, has a major role as Pat, 
a New Orleans tour guide. 
But it’s not really laid out 
in advance publicity what 
Pat does; Jamie Lee Curtis, 
64, has a biggish part as 
Madame Leota. Leota is 
a spirit who resides in 
a crystal ball. Her head 
appears in the ball and 
speaks; and Dan Levy 
(Schitt’s Creek), 39, is listed 
fairly high in the credits, but 
his character is not named. 
The Mistress is a really 
horrific horror film that has 
played some film festivals. 
It will be available on July 
28 via video-on-demand. 
I usually don’t note the 
opening of a smallish 
budget, indie film that 
is going almost straight 
to “VOD,” but Mistress 
caught my eye because 
the director and the film’s 
star are “nice Jewish guys” 
from the Midwest. 
Here’s the basic plot: 
Newlyweds move into 
their dream home where 
they discover a collection 
of 100-year-old letters 
from a young woman who 
committed suicide after 
being abandoned by the 
owner of the home.
The director is Greg 
Pritkin, 54, a Chicago 
native who has made 

seven indie feature films 
since 1999. His best-known 
film is Dummy (2002), 
an interesting and well-
reviewed comedy-romance 
that starred Adrien Brody.
John Magaro, 40, an 
Akron, Ohio, native who 
was raised in his mother’s 
Jewish faith, plays the 
“male half” of the (hetero) 
newlyweds. Magaro works 
steadily, but never has 
found a “star-breakthrough” 
role. 
Here’s another “sort-of” 
Midwest story. It involves 
one of the best sitcoms 
of all time — WKRP in 
Cincinnati. It originally ran 
from 1978-1982 and was 
such a hit in reruns that it 
was revived as The New 
WKRP in Cincinnati (1991-
93). 
I was always a bit 
“annoyed” that the show’s 
creator (Hugh Wilson) 
wasn’t Jewish — and only 
one WKRP character, Mrs. 
Carlson, the station owner’s 
mother, was played by a 
Jewish actor (Sylvia Sidney 
in pilot; Carol Bruce in 10 
episodes). 
A YouTube Channel 
called “Best Eps” (best 
episodes) recently ran the 
story of how WKRP was 
saved from cancellation by 
the airing (Oct. 30, 1978) 
of an episode (Turkeys 
Away) that critics have 
consistently called one 
of the top 100 sitcom 
episodes of all-time. 
Critics loved WKRP, but it 
had a terrible time slot and 
ratings were bad. It was 
saved by the immensely 
popular Turkeys Away 
episode — which was an 
instant classic. 
Without spoiling the 
episode’s surprise 
completely — I’ll just say 
it involves the owner 
of WKRP (Mr. Carlson) 

promoting his money-
losing station via a free 
Thanksgiving turkey 
giveaway. 
The whole episode isn’t 
on YouTube. But literally 
millions have viewed the 
excerpts (best parts) of 
Turkeys Away, which are 
on YouTube. Just do a 
YouTube search for “WKRP 
turkeys.” Many excerpts will 
appear. 
Here’s the back story, 
courtesy of Best Eps: 
Hugh Wilson modeled the 
station owner of WKRP on 
Jerry Blum (1932-2019), 
an Atlanta radio station 
manager he knew and 
liked. Turkeys Away was 
inspired by a (real) turkey 
giveaway that didn’t work 
out as Blum intended. It 
wasn’t quite as bad as the 
(fictional) WKRP disaster, 
but it wasn’t “pretty” (more 
info on “Best Eps”). By the 
way, Wilson cast Gordon 
Jump as Mr. Carlson 
because he looked so 
much like Blum. 
I looked up Blum, and 
I “found him” buried in 
the Jewish section of an 
Atlanta cemetery. A Star of 
David is on his gravestone. 
The gravestone says that 
Blum was an Air Force 
Captain. 
Variety gave Blum a nice 
write-up after his death. 
I’m sure his connection 
to Turkeys Away is the 
reason. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

MARTIN KRAFT 

John Magaro

EVA RINALDI

Tiffany Haddish

KARON LIU

Winona Ryder

