Fifties movies are -- well -- fifties movies. You accept them for what they are. In those terms, Li'l Abner is fun, especially Stubby Kaye as Marryin' Sam. Just why the fifties are a vast movie wasteland is an interesting subject. I grew up in the fifties, and you could be marked as a non-conformist by not wearing a tie. You got laughed at if your haircut didn't show at least an inch of neck above your collar. Naturally, all this had a chilling effect on television and movies, and so we have only a handful of great movies between the glories of The Third Man and To Have and To Have Not in the forties and Lawrence of Arabia and To Kill a Mockingbird in the sixties. Look at the Oscar winners from the fifties to get an idea of just how bad things were. And so we turned to science fiction -- Destination Moon, Forbidden Planet, This Island Earth -- and to movies based on comic strips like Li'l Abner. When you watch Li'l Abner, just remember, in the fifties this passed for pungent political satire and risqué humor. ricknorwood, sfsite