Actresses – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Omeleto

This won’t be a long post, but it’s something that you might like. I like movies a lot, but I don’t have time to watch a bunch of them. Omeleto is a company that shows short films from different filmmakers. I’ve seen them from 4 minutes to 30 minutes long.

They have every kind of short film you can think of. Time Travel, Sci Fi, Art Films, romantic, action, comedy, thrillers, and more. All the films I’ve seen have high production values. These are not amateurs…these are quality. Many are award-winning shorts. Now, some are hit and miss to me, but worth the short amount of time you put into them. They also come from all parts of the world. I’ve seen some with subtitles, but I’ve seen a lot of Irish and British-made ones as well.

Here is the LINK to their channel.

I’ll recommend two here. One is about a Time Loop with two completely different brothers, and the other is a horror film.

Exit Strategy…a time loop film. 15 minutes long.

This one is a horror short film…19 minutes long.

Clara Bow… The Only IT Girl

My favorite eras in the 20th century have always been the 1960s, 1970, and the 1920s. I was looking through some books in the early 90s inside a long-forgotten bookstore, and a picture of an actress caught my eye. There was something about Clara Bow that grabbed my attention. I had read about her in a terrible slanderous trashy book called Hollywood Babylon by Kenneth Anger. I was compelled to get this new book just by her stare from the cover. This book was written by David Stennand is called Clara Bow”Runnin’ Wild... I finished it in one night when I went to sleep at 5am. The book impressed me so much that a few years later, I tracked down David’s phone number (again pre internet) and I called Mr. Stenn just to tell him how much I loved the book. He graciously sent me an autographed copy of the book to replace my worn-out (loaned out again and again) copy to my friends.

Unlike Anger’s book of sensational garbage, David Stenn had facts about Clara, which have been proven wrong. Reading this book introduced me to the world of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks. From there, my interest in silent movies grew. I always thought all silent movies were grainy, unwatchable films where all the actors were on speed. I soon was educated that most of those movies were played on the wrong projector at different speeds, and that is the reason for the sped-up action. The quality of many of those movies from the 20s is better quality than movies made in the 60s-80s when mastered right. Stunts were not faked, and CGI didn’t exist. Everything is real.

Clara had a terrible childhood where her mother was mentally ill and tried to kill her. Her father sexually abused her on top of everything else. Clara could cry on cue when she was an actress. The reason she was able to do this is because of something that happened to her in her childhood. She lived in Brooklyn, and their apartment complex caught on fire. She had a childhood friend named Johnny. Clara was looking for Johnny when the fire was raging and found him. The little boy was on fire, and she tried to put out the fire from his clothes and hair. He ended up dying in her arms. That is what she thought of, and the tears would come.

In her movies, she sold the tickets. Paramount built movies off of her name and didn’t always give the best scripts, but she was electric on film. Your eyes will automatically go to her. She could convey more in one look than actresses today can say in 10 minutes. She was never appreciated as she should have been, and that is sad. She was never accepted by her peers and never invited to Hollywood parties because she was straightforward and said what was on her mind. Other actresses thought that was crude and stayed away from her. She was great with fans, but stardom took its toll on her. She ended up marrying a Western actor named Rex Bell and went into seclusion.

She did some “talkies,” and they are enjoyable, but nothing beats her silent movies like IT (no Pennywise) and Wings (the first film to win an Oscar). Call Her Savage was her best talkie film. Check her out when you can… She is worth it. I didn’t know a thing about silent movies until I read Stenn’s book. It’s worth a read if you are a fan or not. Some other stars would not hang out with her because she was a straight talker. If she felt something, she would say it.

Actress Lina Basquette said, “She wasn’t well liked amongst other women in the film colony. Her social presence was taboo, and it was rather silly because God knows Marion Davies and Mary Pickford had plenty to hide. It’s just that they hid it, and Clara didn’t.” Bow knew the truth. “I’m a curiosity in Hollywood,” she said. “I’m a big freak because I’m myself!”

Stenn finally set the record straight with Clara.

A Complete Unknown

Sorry for the duplication but Bailey talked a little about the movie in a post I had a few weeks ago. I saw this movie tonight…and it was…

I want to get this down while it’s still in my brain. I saw A Complete Unknown tonight. I am very critical of music bios. I saw Queen but all I could do was pick out stuff that wasn’t right and I’m not a huge Queen history fan. So when I say I’m critical I really am. 99 percent of the time I would rather see a well-made documentary. I could watch a documentary on grass growing… but most music bios I’ve seen just make up things or get things completely out of order. This one not so…

Ok on this movie…FANTASTIC. I could just say that for a one-word review. I know Dylan’s early history pretty well up until the 1980s. When the characters showed up, I knew who they were like Bobby Neuwirth who was played by Will Harrison. I will say something out loud here that I don’t usually talk about. I’m not the biggest Pete Seeger or Joan Baez fan but this movie made me appreciate them more and I sure as hell appreciate Dylan more. I have nothing against them personally, I just never got into their music as much but both helped Dylan a lot…that I always gave them credit for.

Now the actors and actresses, Timothée Chalamet was outstanding and did all of the singing live as they filmed. You have to respect that and it came out great. I knew nothing about this guy before this movie…he really impressed me. Monica Barbaro played Joan Baez and she did all of the singing like Timothee did…she did an incredible job. Edward Norton played Pete Seeger and he had his look and sound down. Elle Fanning played Sylvie Russo, Bob’s girlfriend who was photographed with Bob on the album Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. Only one thing was wrong with that….her real name was Susan “Suze” Rotolo. Bob had asked if they would change her name.

Writer-Director James Mangold said that Dylan had a reason for the change. “Bob talked to Jim a lot about the script, and the one thing he wanted was Suze’s name to be changed in the script because he felt like she wasn’t a public figure, she always wanted to remain a private person. I really held that in my heart, the gravity of Bob’s choice, because they had stayed close until she passed away in 2011.”

Johnny Cash was played by Boyd Holbrook and was right on the mark with him. He came up in pivotable scenes. The movie basically covers 1961 with Bob coming to see Woody Guthrie to Bob playing electric at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. They also at least got some small appearances from important people. Albert Grossman, Bob’s manager and he would later on manage Janis Joplin and The Band. John Hammond is shown briefly and Dave Van Ronk a folk musician.

I was worried they would not get the feel of that time. That came off well and the movie would be enjoyed by non-Bob Dylan fans as well as fans. The small details they got right..they found the same kind of microphone for the Newport festivals. When I see them do things like that…I know they have most of the movie correct. No it’s not 100 percent correct but damn close. Because of time restraints, they don’t go into the British Invasion and how that affected him but it does show him playing a Kinks song which I thought was cool.

Quotes

Bob Dylan: I don’t think they want to hear what I want to play.
Johnny Cash: Who’s they?
Bob Dylan: You know, the people who decide what folk music is or isn’t.
Johnny Cash: Fuck them, I wanna hear you. Go track some mud on somebody’s carpet. Make some noise, B.D.

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The Making Of

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Max’s Drive-In Movie – The Birds

I watched this 1963 movie growing up and it scared the hell out of me. For a while when I passed a tree full of birds…I always did a second take. Alfred Hitchcock was the master of suspense and the movie works today. Tippi Hedren (Melanie), Rod Taylor (Mitch), Jessica Tandy (Mitch’s mom Lydia), and Suzanne Pleshette (Annie) starred in this movie.

Like The Shining…it’s a movie where you can find deeper meanings or just sit back and enjoy a great film. There is a lot of ambiguity in this movie…everything is not spelled out for you. Why are the birds so angry? Why are they attacking people?

Hitchcock built suspense probably better than anyone. I’ll use this one scene for an example. In one scene you see Tippi Hedren waiting outside of the school. You hear the kids singing a song. She looks around and there are some Monkey Bars and you see one bird landing on them. She sits down on a bench and smokes. After a few drags she looks around and there are 3 birds on the bars…repeat this a few times and more and more birds are on them. Then the bars are full of Birds and this is when she gets concerned and asks Pleshette’s character to evacuate the school as birds start dive-bombing the kids. It goes from 0 to 100 in a matter of 2-3 minutes.

That scene set up the action in the cafe that followed soon after… when all hell broke loose in the town of Bodega Bay. No one really believed Hedren’s character Melanie when she told people about the birds attacking. That is until it started to happen outside and they all saw what was going on. This was after the kids from the school were attacked while running toward their homes.

Hitchcock used silence and stillness in scenes better than anyone else not named Buster Keaton. His scenes would draw out the tension and then he would strike. Sometimes he didn’t strike and it keeps you on the edge of your seat. The direction and the acting were great obviously. This movie is 61 years old this year and it still works.

Pleshette’s character Annie was an ex-girlfriend of Mitch and the dynamic between her and Melanie was fantastic. I also have to mention Lydia, Mitch’s possessive mom, who has a fear of being abandoned. You see the bond between her and Melanie grow as the film goes on.

Most of those birds were real and sometimes tied to Hedren by thread. Many of the cast had some injuries while making this movie.

The Plot from IMDB

Melanie Daniels is the modern rich socialite, part of the jet-set who always gets what she wants. When lawyer Mitch Brenner sees her in a pet shop, he plays something of a practical joke on her, and she decides to return the favor. She drives about an hour north of San Francisco to Bodega Bay, where Mitch spends the weekends with his mother Lydia and younger sister Cathy. Soon after her arrival, however, the birds in the area begin to act strangely. A seagull attacks Melanie as she is crossing the bay in a small boat, and then, Lydia finds her neighbor dead, obviously the victim of a bird attack. Soon, birds in the hundreds and thousands are attacking anyone they find out of doors. There is no explanation as to why this might be happening, and as the birds continue their vicious attacks, survival becomes the priority.

Quotes

Boy in Diner: Are the birds gonna eat us, Mommy?

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Cathy Brenner: [crying] When we got back from taking Michele home, we – we heard the explosion and went – went outside to see what it was. All – all at once the the birds were everywhere. All at once, she pushed me inside – and they covered her. Annie! She pushed me inside!

Animal Trainer Ray Berwick: “We had about 12 or 13 crew members in the hospital in one day from bites and scratches,” he said. “The seagulls would deliberately go for your eyes. I got bitten in the eye region at least three times, and Tippi got a pretty nasty gash when one of the birds hit her right above the eye.”

Gunsmoke, the Early Years

I’m reading a book on James Arness…or Matt Dillion from Gunsmoke. When you watch these beginning shows you see Arness turn into a fine actor. He was in many movies before Gunsmoke but he looked a little uncomfortable in the first season. By the second season, you could see a huge change. Arness said he wasn’t comfortable and he got an acting teacher to help refine his acting for television.

I liked the show because I grew up watching the hour-long color episodes (seasons 12-20) of Gunsmoke in reruns. The first 6 seasons were black and white and 30 minutes long. Seasons 7-11 were one-hour black and white shows. As I said seasons 12-20 were one-hour color shows.

Now I’m watching the first 6 seasons for about the 6th time… There is no Festus or Newly…we have Chester (Dennis Weaver), who is a refreshing character. They never played these episodes on television when I was younger. There still is Doc Adams (Milburn Stone)and the astonishing Kitty Russell (Amanda Blake).

These episodes dealt with murder, rape, human trafficking, and plenty of Matt Dillon (James Arness) decking bad guys with his fist or the butt of his gun. They are 30 minutes long which is great. They got to the point quickly. Some of the stories were grim but matched the look of the series. It was an adult show at this time.

I was surprised at how rough, violent, and authentic they were and that is not knocking the later episodes but there is a huge difference. The violence was toned down as the series continued. The later color episodes centered more around the guest stars and the old black and white ones centered more on the local residents of Dodge City. That was by design because of the hour format…and some shows had some filler in them in that format.

Have Gun Will Travel was also on CBS along with Gunsmoke. You will see some of the same character actors and sets. Some Have Gun Will Travel scenes were filmed in a redecorated Long Branch… Too bad there wasn’t a crossover at least once.

Chester…I’ve always liked Dennis Weaver as an actor…in McCloud, Duel, and anything he was in… He brings his character Chester alive as a real person. Chester had a limp on the show and Dennis Weaver said he would take yoga classes so he could do things like putting on a boot to look believable with a bad leg…he also put a pebble in his boot on his right foot so he would not forget which leg was lame. He said it took him months after Gunsmoke not to use the limp on camera because he was so used to it.

Chester could be lazy but he was invaluable and loyal to a fault to Matt Dillon. Dennis Weaver left the show after the 9th season with no explanation on what happened to Chester as was the way back then with TV shows. He was mentioned one time in the 20th season. Burt Reynolds joined the show for two years in seasons 8 and 9. He said it was his best experience in entertainment. The cast was extremely close.

If you are a fan and have seen only the later episodes…check these out. It puts a new light on the show. Unlike other Westerns, Native Americans were not usually the bad guys in Gunsmoke. Matt Dillion was a good friend to many of them.

Here is a badly recorded clip of Matt Dillion, Chester, and Ken Curtis who would later take Chester’s place in the show and play Festus.

1970s Amicus Anthology Horror Films

I love horror anthologies. They were really big in the early seventies. The Amicus Productions company made quite a few good ones. I remember some of these as kids…especially number Tales from the Crypt. I’m going to list my top 5 of only Amicus today.

I am working on a post that lists my favorite 5-10 Anthologies of all time. Today I want to focus on the British film company Amicus. One actor that they depended on a lot was Peter Cushing. He is in all of the ones below except for Vault Of Horror.

Amicus Productions was a British film production company specializing in horror and suspense anthology films during the 1960s and 1970s. The company was founded in 1962 by Americans Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg, who aimed to replicate the success of Hammer Film Productions, another prominent British studio known for its horror films.

Despite their success, Amicus struggled financially in the late 1970s due to changing audience tastes and the declining popularity of horror anthology films. Milton Subotsky eventually left the company in 1975, and without his creative leadership, Amicus gradually faded from the spotlight.

The good news though… it was announced in 2023 that Amicus will be coming back to film production…they are trying to make a film called In The Grip of Terror.

Below are the 5 and most descriptions I got from IMDB. My favorite anthology horror is at the bottom.

Asylum 1972

A young psychiatrist interviews four inmates in a mental asylum to satisfy a requirement for employment. He hears stories about 1) the revenge of a murdered wife, 2) a tailor who makes a suit with some highly unusual qualities, 3) a woman who questions her sanity when it appears that her brother is conspiring against her, and 4) a man who builds tiny toy robots with lifelike human heads.

The Complete Movie

Vault Of Horror 1973

Five strangers board a descending lift, one by one, in a modern office block in London. They reach the sub-basement and find a large, elaborately furnished room that appears to be a gentlemen’s club. Resigned to waiting for help, they settle down with drinks and talk. The conversation turns to dreams, and each man tells of a recurring nightmare. Tom Baker is in the last episode of this one. My personal favorite Doctor of the Doctor Who franchise.

The complete movie!

From Beyond The Grave

The first tale, titled “The Gate Crasher” stars David Warner and has a sort of Hellraiser feel about it, as he buys an old mirror from the antique store and it turns out to be inhabited by a ghost-like thing that entices Warner into bringing it fresh blood. It’s not a bad story, though I feel that more could have been made of it. 2) Story number two is the best and focuses on a man who steals a war medal from the antique store to impress a former army man and ends up getting more than he bargained for. This tale is very strange and stars Donald Pleasance in one of his weirder roles. It’s imaginative and inventive, and therefore interesting as it’s impossible to tell where it’s going. 3) Story number three, “The Elemental” is a fun little story, though there isn’t really a great deal of point to it. 4) The fourth and final tale appears to be the centerpiece and focuses on an old wooden door that gives way to an expansive blue room. This is a decent little story and we get to watch Lesley-Anne Down wielding an axe, which makes it worthwhile.

Overall, From Beyond the Grave is everything an anthology should be: it’s fun and interesting in the right places. There are plenty of plot holes, but also no need to pay them any mind. From Beyond the Grave comes highly recommended to horror fans!

The House That Dripped Blood

Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Joss Ackland, Jon Pertwee all star in this 4 story anthology.

A Scotland Yard investigator looks into four mysterious cases involving an unoccupied house and its tragic previous tenants: 1) A hack novelist encounters a strangler who’s the villain of his books, leading his wife to question his sanity, 2) Two men are obsessed with a wax figure of a woman from their past, 3) A little girl with a stern, widowed father displays an interest in witchcraft, and 4) An arrogant horror film actor purchases a black cloak which gives him a vampire’s powers.

Here is the complete movie!

Tales From The Crypt

Joan Collins, Peter Cushing are among the actors in the movie. To me… this is the best anthology horror. Five people meet deep in a cave and they don’t know how they got there. They soon find out how and why and what is about to happen to them.

Five people come upon a catacomb and take the tour. After they get lost, they find they’re trapped, and they see The Crypt Keeper (Sir Ralph Richardson). He asks them each to see why they’re there: (1) And All Through the House: Christmas Eve, Joanne Clayton (Dame Joan Collins) kills her husband (Martin Boddey) expecting to receive his insurance. She hears on the wireless that the police are seeking an escaped homicidal maniac posing as Santa. When the man knocks on her door, she can’t phone the Police, and she has a Christmas surprise. (2) Reflection of Death: Carl Maitland (Ian Hendry) leaves his wife (Susan Denny) and children for his mistress, but something happens during his journey. (3) Poetic Justice: the widowed janitor, Arthur Edward Grimsdyke (Peter Cushing) is a good man who spends his leisure time with the children from the neighborhood. His heartless neighbor doesn’t like him and destroys his life, leading Grimsdyke to commit suicide on Valentine’s Day. A year later, Grimsdyke rises from his tomb seeking revenge. (4) Wish You Were Here: dirty businessman Ralph Jason (Richard Greene) is bankrupt, and his lawyer and friend, Charles Gregory (Roy Dotrice), tells him he must sell his real estate. When he tells his wife Enid (Barbara Murray), she recalls they have a statue with a legend; it’ll grant three wishes to the owner. She makes the wishes, and leads Ralph to eternal damnation. (5) Blind Alleys: cruel Major Rogers (Nigel Patrick) comes to the Elmridge home for the blind, with his dog, to be the new director. He tortures the internees until the day they get revenge. Soon, the internees discover they’re at the gate of Hell.

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You Can’t Take It With You

I first watched this 1938 movie in the 90s and I still watch it from time to time. Jimmy Stewart and Jean Arthur had great chemistry on screen. The following year they would be in “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington”…another great movie. Capra wanted Jean Arthur in It’s a Wonderful Life but she was committed to a Broadway show.

This movie is about a rich man named Tony Kirby (Jimmy Stewart) who is working reluctantly for his ruthless banker dad. He falls in love with his stenographer Alice (Jean Arthur). The father doesn’t really care but his mother is outraged that he would love someone beneath him. This part of the story you have seen before but it’s when the great Lionel Barrymore who plays Alice’s grandfather Martin Vanderhof enters… the movie gets going.

Martin and his family do exactly what they want, his daughter Penny received a typewriter in the mail by mistake and thinks she is a novelist, Alice’s sister dances every time music is played and a basement full of unemployed older gentlemen who like to invent things…especially firecrackers… It’s a crazy household but they live life and are not bothered by a thing.

This is the opposite of the Kirby family who is uptight, overwhelmed, and disgusted by this family…except Tony of course.

The movie is full of off-the-wall humor and Alice’s family is great. Anyone that comes to the house wants to stay…and sometimes does. The grandfather goes out and finds one person (Mr. Poppins) who invents things but works at a terrible job and Martin invites him to live at the house with his family to be…”a lily of the field” and quit his dreadful job.

Here are some quotes from the meeting

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff: How would you like to come over to our house and work on your gadgets?

Poppins: Your house? Well I don’t know, thank you.

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff: Oh go on, you’ll love it. Everybody at over at our place does just what he wants to do.

Poppins: Really?

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff: Mmm-hmmmm.

Poppins: That must be wonderful. But how would I live?

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff: The same way we do.

Poppins: The same way? Well, who takes care of you?

Grandpa Martin Vanderhoff: The same One that takes care of the lilies of the field, Mr. Poppins, except that we toil a little, spin a little, have a barrel of fun. If you want to, come on over and become a lily too.

This is a screwball comedy and a good one. Lionel Barrymore is magnificent in this. Just a few years later he would play mean Mr. Potter in It’s a Wonderful Life.

This movie was directed by Frank Capra. Some critics in his day called him “Capra-corn” because of the optimism he showed for the everyday man. I think he was a great director. This is one of his best movies.

It’s a very good movie…any movie with Jimmy Stewart can’t be bad. The comedy holds up today. After the movie, you will want to be a lily of the field.

This movie is based off a play written by the great George Kauffman and Moss Hart.

Merie Earle and Burt Mustin

I grew up watching these two elder character actors. I did a post on Burt Mustin earlier but I always liked Merie Earle also. I’m going to cover both in this one. If you are a child of the 60s, 70s, and 80s you probably know these two. I first remembered Merie on the Waltons as a character named Maude but she was on a lot of things.

To my immense disappointment…Burt and Merie never appeared together on screen from what I can find. They were in some of the same tv programs but not the same episode.

Merie Earl was one of the cutest older ladies I’ve ever seen. She didn’t start acting till she was 77 years young. She was born Goldie Merie Ireland on May 13, 1889. She grew up in Columbus Ohio. She got married in 1909 and moved to New York because of her husband’s job as an engineer.

After her husband retired they moved to California to be near their daughter. Her husband Lawrence Nathan Earls passed away in 1954. Marie was later discovered by an agent while performing in a play at a Methodist church. In 1967 she started to do print ads for Polaroid. In 1967 she took the jump to motion pictures. Her first film role was in Fitzwilly starring Dick Van Dyke.

She went on to perform on television and TV movies in the 60s, 70s, and yes into the 80s! She was on tv shows such as Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, All In The Family, Alice, Whiz Kids, etc. Merie worked until she passed away in 1984 at the age of 95. What an incredible woman…Burt Mustin had more credits but he was a bit younger than Merie. She had no formal training and she said she was sometimes snubbed in auditions.

Merie Earle on going to auditions: “They’re old-timers in show business, so they just kind of snort and recite all their Broadway credits and film credits and things like that, that doesn’t bother me, though, and sometimes I even beat them out for the parts. But if I don’t, that doesn’t bother me too much either. It doesn’t take much money for me to live, anyway.”

On her acting style… “Oh dear, I guess I don’t have any acting style, All I try to do is just to be myself.”

What a life Burt Mustin lived. He didn’t start acting until he was 67 and he appeared in over 150 film and television productions. I first remembered him as Gus in Leave it to Beaver, Judd in The Andy Griffith Show, Bonanza, The Monkees, Gomer Pyle…the list is too long. He was also at the first World Series in 1903 to root on his hometown team, The Pittsburgh Pirates playing against the Boston Red Sox.

Burt was born on February 8, 1884, in Pittsburgh. After graduating from the Pennsylvania Military College in 1903 with a degree in engineering, Mustin became a car salesman. It was a rather new profession. He also worked for the Better Business Bureau, Mustin dabbled in amateur acting and singing. He belonged to the Barbershop Harmony Society and popped up in productions by the Pittsburgh Opera.

Mustin and his wife eventually retired to Arizona. In Tucson, the retiree took in a role in a local production of the play Detective Story. William Wyler — who would go on to direct Ben-Hur, Roman Holiday and Funny Girl — happened to catch the show and offered Mustin a role in his screen adaptation of Detective Story.

Thus, Burt Mustin made his screen debut at the age of 67 in 1951 and acted until he died in 1977 at the age of 92.

Below is Burt… on the Johnny Carson show talking about being at the first World Series.

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TV Draft UPDATE

Tomorrow morning we will kick off our last TV draft round! We have 8 more TV Shows coming…we all want to thank you… the readers who have made this possible and a fun experience. I also want to thank the bloggers who have reviewed all of these shows and we have covered every decade from the 1950s until now. Below are the picks that began in January and will end on July 3. Thank you… Paula, Lisa, Dave, John, Keith, Mike, Liam, Vic, Hanspostcard (who started it), and Kirk for all of the reviews below.

Round 1	TV Show	Who Posted	Home Site
1.	Doctor Who	Vic	https://cosmic-observation.com/blog-posts/
2.	The Sopranos	Mike	https://musiccitymike.net
3.	Bozo’s Circus	John	https://thesoundofonehandtyping.com
4.	Barney Miller	Max	https://powerpop.blog
5.	The Wire	Kirk	https://slicethelife.com/
6.	Police Squad	Keith	https://nostalgicitalian.com/
7.	Only Murders in the Building (OMITB)	Paula	http://paulalight.com

Round 2
1.	The Odd Couple	Mike	https://musiccitymike.net
2.	Cartoon Town	John	https://thesoundofonehandtyping.com
3.	Fawlty Towers	Max	https://powerpop.blog
4.	Rockford Files	Kirk	https://slicethelife.com/
5.	Mission Impossible	Keith	https://nostalgicitalian.com/
6.	Firefly	Vic	https://cosmic-observation.com/blog-posts/

Round 3	TV Show	Who Posted	Home Site
1	Hogan’s Heroes	John	https://thesoundofonehandtyping.com
2	Seinfeld	Mike	https://musiccitymike.net
3	Starsky & Hutch	Vic	https://cosmic-observation.com/blog-posts/
4	Perry Mason	Keith	https://nostalgicitalian.com/
5	Upload	Paula	http://paulalight.com
6	Lovecraft Country	Lisa	https://tao-talk.com/
7	King Of The Hill	Dave	https://soundday.wordpress.com/
8	Adam 12	Max	https://powerpop.blog

Round 4	TV Show	Who Posted	Home Site
1	Breaking Bad	Mike	https://musiccitymike.net
2	The X-Files	Vic	https://cosmic-observation.com/blog-posts/
3	Columbo	Keith	https://nostalgicitalian.com/
4	Six Feet Under	Paula	http://paulalight.com
5	Shameless	Lisa	https://tao-talk.com/
6	Friends	Dave	https://soundday.wordpress.com/
7	Monkees	Max	https://powerpop.blog
8	JAG	John	https://thesoundofonehandtyping.com

Round 5	TV Show	Who Posted	Home Site
1	Sisters	Vic	https://cosmic-observation.com/blog-posts/
2	30 Rock	Keith	https://nostalgicitalian.com/
3	One Day At A Time	Paula	http://paulalight.com
4	Ray Donovan	Lisa	https://tao-talk.com/
5	Emergency	Dave	https://soundday.wordpress.com/
6	The Andy Griffith Show	Max	https://powerpop.blog
7	CSI: Miami	John	https://thesoundofonehandtyping.com
8	Mad Men	Mike	https://musiccitymike.net

Round 6	TV Show	Who Posted	Home Site
1	The Twilight Zone	Max	https://powerpop.blog
2	Tell Me Your Secrets	Paula	http://paulalight.com
3	My Name Is Earl	Lisa	https://tao-talk.com/
4	Ed	Dave	https://soundday.wordpress.com/
5	Get Smart	Keith	https://nostalgicitalian.com/
6	The Unicorn	John	https://thesoundofonehandtyping.com
7	The West Wing	Mike	https://musiccitymike.net
8	The Gong Show	Max	https://powerpop.blog

Round 7	TV Show	Who Posted	Home Site
1	All In The Family	Paula	http://paulalight.com
2	Trailer Park Boys	Lisa	https://tao-talk.com/
3	Downton Abbey	Dave	https://soundday.wordpress.com/
4	Life On Mars	Max	https://powerpop.blog
5	Burn Notice	John	https://thesoundofonehandtyping.com
6	Friday Night Lights	Mike	https://musiccitymike.net
7	The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show	Liam	https://othemts.wordpress.com/
8	The Honeymooners	Keith	https://nostalgicitalian.com/

Round 8	TV Show	Who Posted	Home Site
1	New Tricks	Lisa	https://tao-talk.com/
2	SCTV	Dave	https://soundday.wordpress.com/
3	WKRP In Cincinnati	Max	https://powerpop.blog
4	The Two Ronnies	John	https://thesoundofonehandtyping.com
5	Star Trek: Voyager	Mike	https://musiccitymike.net
6	Siskel & Ebert	Liam	https://othemts.wordpress.com/
7	Sherlock	Keith	https://nostalgicitalian.com/
8	Curb Your Enthusiasm	Paula	http://paulalight.com

Round 9	TV Show	Who Posted	Home Site
1	Jeopardy	Dave	https://soundday.wordpress.com/
2	Saturday Night Live	Max	https://powerpop.blog
3	Riverboat	John	https://thesoundofonehandtyping.com
4	Suits	Mike	https://musiccitymike.net
5	The Kids In The Hall	Liam	https://othemts.wordpress.com/
6	Arrested Development	Keith	https://nostalgicitalian.com/
7	L.A. Law	Paula	http://paulalight.com
8	Resident Alien	Lisa	https://tao-talk.com/

Round 10	TV Show	Who Posted	Home Site
1		Max	https://powerpop.blog
2		John	https://thesoundofonehandtyping.com
3		Mike	https://musiccitymike.net
4		Liam	https://othemts.wordpress.com/
5		Keith	https://nostalgicitalian.com/
6		Paula	http://paulalight.com
7		Lisa	https://tao-talk.com/
8		Dave	https://soundday.wordpress.com/

TV Draft Round 9 – Pick 2 – Max Selects – Saturday Night Live

I wanted to do a more modern show other than Life On Mars…and this would qualify as it…kinda. It has been on the air since 1975… a whopping 47 years. It’s been on life support at times but has always pulled through. It’s an institution at this point. There is not enough room on a post to go over every cast. Everyone has their favorites some were extremely funny and some were extremely bad (1980 – 1981 cast) and they all make up the history of this show.

I’m going to concentrate on the original cast and how the show became SNL. Most of you have favorite different casts…usually, the one you grew up with.

Even if you don’t like this show or what it’s become…it was a cultural landmark and no one can deny that. It changed television forever. The show started because Johnny Carson wanted more time off. NBC had been airing reruns of Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show on the weekends to fill space in their lineup. This allowed them to double-dip on profits from Carson’s outrageously popular show without spending another dime on production costs. He told NBC he would only be making four shows a week, which meant that best-of Carson shows that had been airing on Saturday nights would now need to be moved to a weeknight.

NBC executive Herbert Schlosser sought to create a new show with an old format…a variety show to fill the slot on Saturday Night. He picked Lorne Michaels, a Canadian writer who only had a handful of credits to be the producer. Michaels started a show that was far different than Schlosser imagined but to his credit… Schlosser was behind it and pushed for it to be on the air. The first two shows were experiments but by the third show, they found the format they would keep to this day. The funny thing is…Johnny Carson never liked the show.

Lorne Michaels made the show to appeal to baby boomers with a touch of Avant-Garde and “guerrilla-style comedy.” It was a game-changer much like All In The Family was to sitcoms. Late-night was never again a wasteland. This show helped open the doors for David Letterman and other shows to follow it.

It started out as “Saturday Night.” The Saturday Night Live title belonged to ABC for a show hosted by Howard Cosell who was out of his league. After Cosell’s show was cancelled, ABC let Saturday Night have the “Live” part.

Who was the best cast through the years? This is a question that is debated over and over again. People argue and usually pick the cast they grew up with. I grew up in the Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo era. Personally, I always thought the original cast was the best era of the show. Yes, I thought the Murphy and Piscopo casts were very funny along with later casts that had Dana Carvey, Michael Myers, Chris Farley, Chris Rock, and many others that followed. The first five seasons had something extra that others would not and could not have. It had an underground feel that vanished after it became a pure comedy show. They had a massive amount of talent in that first class.

John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd, Chevy Chase (though I liked his replacement better…Bill Murray), Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, and my favorite overlooked cast member Laraine Newman. They were the perfect cast for that time.

Why do I like the original cast the most? They tried new things and went out on a limb. Some of the skits succeeded some fell flat but they were different from anything on TV at that time…and also at this time. That cast pushed the envelope and made the network executives worry. The host each week was usually under the radar actors, writers, comedians musicians, and sometimes athletes. The musical guests were mostly rarely seen performers that weren’t on tv…prime time or otherwise. Frank Zappa, Leon Redbone, The Kinks, Patti Smith, Ry Cooder, Kinky Friedman, and others. You would have more popular musicians like Paul Simon but the show gave you a great variety.

No way would Michaels ever dream of that now…he usually gets whoever is the most popular to draw in ratings. He can no longer do what he did in the 70s because of that. He also used the complete ensemble. It was not Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo, and everyone else of the early eighties. It was about building an unknown cast and all of them having a shot…not a star-driven show that gave all the best bits to the big names. He made sure the entire cast had a lead in skits and parody commercials. Dick Ebersol who followed Lorne Micheals, was famous for getting stars in the cast and the show revolving around them.

A lot of the skits are now famous… Ackroyd’s Bassomatic, the Samurai, the uncomfortable but funny Word Association with Richard Pryor, The Killer Bees, The Mr. Bill Show, Weekend Update, Roseanne Rosannadanna, Land Shark, Bag of Glass, The Wild and Crazy Guys, the Coneheads, The Lounge Singer, Mr. Mike, The Blues Brothers and many more.

The writers for the show were not in the variety show comedy vein..they were not in the current SNL vein either. The style was more aggressive, especially with Michael O’Donoghue. He was a comedy trailblazer with National Lampoon and added black humor to SNL. Other writers were Franken and Davis, Rosie Shuster, Alan Zweibel, Marilyn Miller, Anne Beatts, Herb Sargent, Tom Schiller, and also Ackroyd and Chase.

The original group also did some serious skits along with comedy and trips into the bizarre (See the ultra-dark “Mr. Mike”). …It separated the original from any other cast.

I like the feel of the underground the first five years had but you can only be that for so long…popularity takes over. Those first 5 years (the first four were great…the fifth very good) set the foundation that holds to this day…just without the daring and danger.

Ann Beatts was one of the original writers who saw the popularity of the show rise beyond anything she ever imagined. She knew the risk-taking traits in the show would have to end because of it. “You can only be avant-garde for so long until you become garde.”

By the 5th season (1979-1980), it was a circus grown out of proportion. The cast by that time were usually bigger stars than the guest hosts. Everyone left after that season along with Lorne Michaels. The show went on without him until 1985 when he rejoined. It was never the same again. Sometimes it was funny and sometimes not but it was never the same experimental show it was at the start.

What other show would introduce “Acapulco Gold” and “Orange Sunshine” to a national television audience?

The Bassomatic…something you cannot explain with words.

The best Star Trek parody…

Bedazzled… 1967

Dudley Moore is probably best known in America as Arthur and Peter Cook is not known much at all which is a shame.

This is one of my favorite comedies. Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were always a great team and in this movie, they work very well together. It’s the old story of selling your soul to the Devil for wishes…but as always the wishes are not exactly what the wisher has in mind.

Dudley Moore plays Stanley Moon who is a shy and pathetic figure who pines for a waitress (Eleanor Bron) who works at Wimpy’s Burger and is employed as a cook. Peter Cook is the devil… He is perfect for this part. He is a hilarious devil and at times likable but does the most annoying things like tearing the last page out of mysteries, scratching LPs, and just petty things to aggravate people.

The movie is very British and very funny. The chemistry is great between Moore and Cook and by this time they had been together for a while. There was a version of this movie released in 2000 but it is not as smart and subtle as this one. This is an offbeat quirky film.

This film also features Raquel Welch appropriately as Lust. She is only in it for a few minutes but she plays Lust to the hilt. The film had no name at first and in an interview, Peter Cook said he wanted to name the movie “Raquel Welch”…when asked why he wanted to name it after the actress when it wasn’t about her he said because the Marquee would read “Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in Raquel Welch”… The producers didn’t like that.

Eleanor Bron plays Margaret the waitress and the object of Stanley’s desire…she was also in HELP! with The Beatles.

Check this film out if you can. Personally, I think it beats the remake by a mile.

If you want to hear something else by them…check out Peter and Dudley as Derek and Clive.

Below is the trailer…this is the link for the complete movie.

TV Draft Round 3 – Pick 4 – Perry Mason

Welcome to the Hanspostcard TV Draft. The remaining 8 rounds will be posted here. We will have 64 different TV Shows by 8 different writers. I hope you will enjoy it! Today’s post was written by Keith from https://nostalgicitalian.com/

Perry Mason

My choice for the third round draft pick is Hollywood’s first weekly one-hour series that was filmed for television – Perry Mason. The show ran for 9 seasons (September 1957 – May 1966) and starred Raymond Burr in the title role.

Raymond Burr

The character of Perry Mason was well known before he was ever on TV. The attorney was the star of novels and stories written by a lawyer-turned-author Erle Stanley Gardner. There were some movies made by Warner Brothers and also a radio series based starring the character, by Gardner hated them! As a matter of fact, he refused to license the character of Perry mason for any more adaptations. (Interestingly, the radio series continues and evolved into the famous soap opera The Edge of Night.)

Gardner’s agent married actress Gail Patrick and she was the one who talked him into adapting the novels into a TV series. He made it clear that he wanted a lot of control over the show and how it was presented. He also had a hand in helping pick the cast. Many of the stories he wrote were turned into episodes for the series.

The Cast

It is hard to imagine anyone other than Raymond Burr as Perry Mason. However, among the actors in the running were Mike Conners, Richard Egan, William Holden, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., William Hopper, and Fred MacMurray. Raymond Burr actually auditioned for the role of Hamilton Burger, the DA. Gail Patrick remembered his performance from the 1951 film “A Place in the Sun” and told him he was perfect for the role.

At the time, Burr was about 60 pounds overweight, so he went on a crash diet and tested for the role again with about 50 other actors. Erle Stanley Gardner saw him and reportedly said, “THAT is Perry Mason!” Burr continued to lose weight as the series continued. He stated, “I just don’t have time to eat.”

Syndicated columnist Erskine Johnson wrote, “Every six days Burr stars in what almost amounts to a full-length feature movie. He’s in 98% of all the scenes.” Burr stated, “I had no life outside of Perry Mason. And that went on 24 hours a day, sox days a week. I never went home at night. I lived on the lot. I got up at 3 o’clock every single morning to learn my lines for that day, and sometimes I hadn’t finished until 9 o’clock. I had a kitchen, bedroom, office space, sitting room – al of that – on every lot I ever worked on.”

Burr won three Primetime Emmy Awards for his portrayal of Perry Mason (1959, 1960, and 1961).

Raymond Burr IS Perry Mason

Other major players in the cast included Barbara Hale as Perry’s secretary, Della Street. Hale had done some feature films, but wanted to avoid going away for long periods of time to shoot them because she had a rather young family. According to Gail Patrick, it was Hale who called her to inquire about the role of Della.

Perry and Della (Barbara Hale)

William Hopper, as I mentioned before, auditioned for the role of Perry Mason (I believe you can find some of the audition tapes on YouTube). After not getting the role of Mason and auditioning for Private Detective Paul Drake, he walked in the room and said, “You hate my mother!” His mother was Hedda Hopper, the famous gossip columnist. Patrick said he was the perfect Paul Drake, so he got the role.

William Hopper as Paul Drake with Burr’s Mason

For the role of District Attorney Hamilton Burger, Patrick knew exactly who she wanted. She had seen William Tallman in The Hitch-Hiker and knew he was perfect for the role. She said, “He never disappointed.” In an interview he was asked how he felt about his character losing to Perry Mason every week. His response is perfect. He stated, “Burger doesn’t lose. How can a district attorney lose when he fails to convict an innocent person?” When Burr was asked by a fan why he won every case, he told her, “But madam, you only see the cases I try on Saturday!”

William Tallman – Hamilton Burger

Another one of Perry’s foils was Police Lt. Arthur Tragg. Ray Collins’ voice was known to so many listeners of the Mercury Theater on radio. He had also been in movies and other TV shows. Patrick joked saying, “We overlooked the fact that on an actual police force, he would probably be long retired.” He was 68 years old when the show debuted on CBS. The playful interaction between Tragg and Mason are priceless.

The great Ray Collins as Lt. Tragg

The Plot

The basic formula for each episode was the same. The first part of the show introduced the viewer to a client who is hiring Perry Mason for some legal work or is introduced to him in some way. We then see the murder victim and other “suspects” introduced. The victim is murdered and Perry’s client is wrongfully accused of the crime. The remainder of the episode focuses on Burger and Tragg gathering evidence to convict the said “murderer”, Perry, Drake and Della take up their own investigation to prove their client is innocent.

The second half of the show would shift to the courtroom where Perry and Hamilton would duke it out in the preliminary hearing. In the novels, Perry likes to clear the client before they are bound over for trial, so this was worked into the show. They happen, but jury trials are rarely seen on the show.

The show would often culminate with Mason recalling a witness and questioning them until they cracked and admitted committing the murder OR causing someone else in the courtroom to admit that THEY committed the murder. The show would then wrap with a scene in Perry’s office or the courtroom where details would be presented on what led Perry to discover the real killer.

The formula worked for 9 seasons and eventually 30 TV made for TV movies.

Episodes of Interest

Throughout the run of the series, there were some very unique episodes. In the entire run of the series, Perry tackles an astounding 271 cases, and wins almost all of them! He actually lost thre cases (that we know of). In The Case of the Witless Witness, he loses a non-murder case. In The Case of the Terrified Typist, his client is found guilty of murder, but he is eventually able to clear her name. Finally, in The Case of the Deadly Verdict his client is found guilty of murder and is actually sentenced to death in the gas chamber! Perry, of course, is able to save the day before the execution is scheduled to take place.

A fun episode to watch is The Case of the Dead Ringer. Raymond Burr plays a dual role in this episode playing a man named “Grimes.” It’s fun to watch Burr question Burr as two different characters!

In season 6, Burr had some episodes where is appeared briefly, but guest actors filled in for Perry. Among those actors were Bette Davis, Michael Rennie, Hugh O’Brian, and Walter Pidgeon. Two years later, Burr was hospitalized for jaw surgery and Mike Conners and Barry Sullivan filled in for him.

How about the three that never set foot in a courtroom? Those were The Case of the Baited Hook, The Case of the Velvet Claws, and The Case of the Careless Kitten.

One of the most interesting shows was the one – and only – show that was shot in color. In the 9th season, CBS was hoping that the show would shoot a 10th season. Many shows were being shot in color by this time and they wanted to see what the show would look like. The Case of the Twice-Told Twist aired – in color – on February 27, 1966.

A must see episode is the series finale, The Case of the Final Fade-Out. First of all, it features cameos by all of the Perry Mason Crew in various roles. Second, it features the creator of the character, Erle Stanley Gardner, as the judge, and the murderer is … spoiler alert … a young Dick Clark!

Before They Were Famous

Many soon-to-be stars appeared on Perry Mason. I guess that is another reason why I love watching it. You never know who will pop up. Some examples: Barbara Eden, Cloris Leachman, Lee Meriwether, Pat Priest, Yvonne Craig, James Coburn, Angie Dickenson, George Kennedy, Diane Ladd, Frankie Laine, Ryan O’Neal, Robert Redford, Burt Reynolds, Claude Akins, Richard Anderson, Barbara Bain, James Best, Whit Bissell, Frank Cady, Bert Convey, Richard Deacon, Norman Fell, Alan Hale Jr., Harvey Korman, Gavin MacLeod, Allan Melvin, Leonard Nimoy, Denver Pyle, Marion Ross, Adam West, and MORE!

The Theme Song

Let’s be honest, the Perry Mason Theme Song is one of the most recognizable in all of television. The task of writing the theme went to composer Fred Steiner. He set out to write a song that would convey two of Perry’s prime characteristics – sophistication and toughness. The piece he wrote was called “Park Avenue Beat.”

Here is Fred discussing how he came up with the theme:

Here is the theme from the first season:

As much as I love the original version, I have to admit that when Perry Mason returned to TV in the two hour movies, I loved the version used for these films better. They just sound more full and better produced to me. So here it is:

I may as well touch briefly on the TV movies. In December of 1985, Perry Mason Returns aired on NBC.

Perry is now a judge and steps down to defend Della Street, who is accused of murder.

William Hopper died in 1970, so William Katt (Barbara Hale’s son) was called in to play Paul Drake Jr. The movies followed the same formula as the TV show. Burr and Hale had aged, but their on screen chemistry hadn’t changed at all. Burr was fantastic in this of course, he proves that Della is innocent! The successful reception and ratings of the reunion show led to 29 more Perry Mason Movies (Burr starred in 26 of them before passing away in 1993).

I never tire of watching Perry Mason. Despite being a bit dated, I think it still holds up today. HBO has created a “pre” Perry Mason show supposedly showing how he became the famous lawyer. I have no desire to watch it. To me, there is one and only Perry Mason!

FUN FACT: Raymond Burr started playing the character in 1957 and played him until his death in 1993. He played Perry Mason for a whopping 36 years!

So if you ever find yourself accused of murder … there is only one lawyer to call….

The Spirit of 76… Movie

This movie is a B movie all of the way…and it plays up that fact… It was released in 1990 and if you are wanting to watch something that spoofs the 1970s… This movie is for you. You will also learn the word tetrahydrozoline.

This movie stars David Cassidy, Lief Garrett, Carl and Rob Reiner, and Olivia d’Abo… Citizen Kane, it is NOT. It’s a fun film about the future where all is gray and they lost every record because of a magnetic storm including the US Constitution.

Adam-11 (David Cassidy) has built a time machine because he wants to go to a beach…beaches don’t exist anymore in the future. The government wants him to use the time machine to go into the past to 1776 and get a copy of the US Constitution so they can rebuild their society with it. To make it work he needs a chemical that’s rare in the future… tetrahydrozoline (the main ingredient to a very popular item in the ’70s… Visine).

The government agrees to give him some tetrahydrozoline but sends two more travelers Chanel-6 (d’Abo ), Heinz 57 (Geoff Hoyle) with Adam-11 to retrieve the document…but instead of going back to 1776 the time machine malfunctions and goes to 1976.

Devo makes an appearance as the “Ministry of Knowledge”…

It’s a corny movie but they have the 70s down in many parts of the movie. After meeting up with two teenage stoners (The group Redd Kross) they look for the constitution but lose the tetrahydrozoline. If you are looking for a second Gone with the Wind…don’t watch this but it’s funny and silly enough to entertain you.

You have to know a little about the 70s to get some of the jokes…Like David Cassidy’s character looking around a garage in 1976 asking “am I going to be stuck here forever?” while looking at a Partridge Family lunch box.

If you are bored, try this one. The trailer is below the complete movie is below that.

The complete movie

The trailer

Fawlty Towers…TV Draft

This is my second selection in the first round of the SlicetheLife TV Draft. And my choice is Fawlty Towers.

A great BBC sitcom…some have rated it as the best BBC sitcom ever.
The series is quick, well written and well-acted. The show was made in the mid and late seventies after John Cleese left the Monty Python TV series. I watched it when our PBS station carried it in the 80s.

There is not a bad episode of Fawlty Towers. John Cleese and his wife Connie Booth wrote all of the episodes. The scripts are solid and there is some physical comedy blended in with Sachs and Cleese. Cleese and Booth spent two-and-a-half weeks working out each plot before they wrote a single line of dialogue, generally spending the time most sitcom writers used for a whole series on a single episode.

There was a four-year gap between season one and two. That was because Cleese and Booth had divorced. They still wrote the second season together. The first season aired in 1975 and the second season in 1979.

Fawlty Towers centered around Basil… a rude, class-conscious hotel owner with a domineering wife Sybil a commonsense maid Polly, a Spanish waiter Manuel who could not understand English and took Basil’s abuse, and a retired senile military officer Major Gowen.

Cleese and Booth were inspired by the manager of a real Torquay hotel, Gleneagles, where they had stayed while filming Monty Python. They found the manager, Donald Sinclair, to be entertainingly rude. There were only 12 episodes made…two seasons with six episodes each. Instead of milking it dry they stopped at 12 because Cleese and Booth didn’t think they could write anymore up to the standards they set.

My favorite episode is the 6th episode of the 1st season called The Germans. The episode is a classic.

The Characters:

Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) – Basil seems to spend most of his life alternating between fawning over any guest who he perceives as being worthy of his attention, and then trying to berate them when they didn’t quite have the social standing, he first thought they had. Basil’s trouble is that he thinks his hotel is a higher-class establishment than it really is. The real thorn in his life is his wife Sybil. For all of his bluster, Basil can quickly be brought into line with a curt “Basil!” or two from Sybil. Basil never could stand up to his evidently better half.

Sybil Fawlty (Prunella Scales) – She spends her time keeping a tight rein on her husband Basil. She never misses an opportunity to close off an avenue of pleasure for Basil, such as betting on the horses. She can be domineering and controlling but with Basil you can’t blame her.

Polly Sherman (Connie Booth) – She probably has more common sense than anyone in the hotel. She struggles to calm down Basil, placate Sybil, and to instruct Manuel.

Manuel (Andrew Sachs) – Poor Manuel takes Basil’s abuse constantly. He was the waiter, bell-boy, porter, and all around do anything guy. Basil hired him with the intention of teaching him English because he’s cheap, but due to Basil’s only rudimentary grasp of Spanish it goes wrong.

Major Gowen (Ballard Berkeley)- A very forgetful retired Major who is a constant guest at the hotel.

Miss Gatsby and Miss Tibbs (Gilly Flower and Renee Roberts,) – They are two sweet natured spinsters who have taken a fancy to Basil, feeling that they need to take care of him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyPj21jBl_0

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Barney Miller… TV Show Draft

This is my first selection in the first round of the SlicetheLife TV Draft. And the envelope says……..Barney Miller.

I’ve watched Barney Miller at least 7 times through. Why is it my favorite show? It would be the writing, the acting, and that glorious dirty set that only got dirtier as the show went along. Another reason would be the continuity of the show. My pet peeve with shows is when you would meet someone’s “Uncle Joe” as his only uncle…and a season or two later…the same person never had an uncle. That is lazy writing and research…Barney Miller doesn’t have that. The show ran from 1975 to 1982 for 171 episodes.

You will see the same actor play different criminals (great 70s-character actors and actresses) but the storyline is set. Barney Miller was a comedy but also would dip in drama at times. Whatever was going on…the characters stayed true. It doesn’t hurt that the show had one of the best…if not the best theme songs. Dig that bass!

Many real life detectives were asked about the most realistic police show on television. Barney Miller was picked because they showed the drudgery parts like the paperwork involved that is a part of every policeman’s day. I’ve read where some officers today still say it is accurate in that way.

The guests on the show every week were usually the criminals they captured. They never had serial killers or anything like that (save for one episode when they were switched to homicide for that one show) …usually just people who caused a disturbance. You had every known petty criminal in the world on that show. Pickpocket, prostitute, madams, thieves, white-collar crime, and etc.

The jail cell in Barney Miller encapsulated the seventies and its times. The show could be topical about New York in the seventies. One episode has the squad listening to an actual speech given by President Ford only a few weeks before the show aired, in which he refused to bail out a near-bankrupt New York City while still committing aid to essential services like the police.

The show was ahead of its time. Barney Miller had diversity in the cast and guests. The diversity wasn’t there just to have diversity…it fit the story…it was never forced.

Danny Arnold created this show. He also wrote and produced some of Bewitched, That Girl, McHales Navy, and more.

Hal Liden has mentioned that they would film until 2-3 in the morning with script changes at the last minute. That was normal, not the exception. They had a studio audience at first but soon dropped that partly because of the script changes. The show never went down in quality. It was never a big ratings show because frankly, it was written well with subtle humor that it wasn’t as accessible as other shows.

If you haven’t given Barney Miller a chance…it’s worth one.

I’m going to list the characters in this show because it is such a character-driven show.

The characters are:

Barney Miller (Hal Linden) The man that leads with common sense and wisdom over his squad of quirky detectives and officers. Hal Linden has said that his character could not get as crazy as the other ones because the audience had to identify with him and have someone to compare the others to.

Det. Stan Wojciehowicz..”Wojo”(Max Gail) – An ex-Marine who fought in Vietnam who is sometimes naive and childlike but really looks to Barney as a mentor. Wojo is not always tolerant of people with different views than him but is a good detective but highly emotional.

Det. Ron Harris (Ron Glass) – A well-dressed man who lives beyond his means at times. He wants the finer things in life and can be a little snobbish at times but he is a good guy. As the show continued, he was trying to establish a writing career and he wrote the best-selling book called “Blood on the Badge” that sometimes disrupted the station but he would stay loyal to Barney even through their differences.

Sgt. Nick Yemana (Jack Soo) – A Japanese Detective that always had an answer, loved gambling and he would call his bookie often… and he made the coffee for the office…and supposedly the worse coffee ever…To me, he was one of the funniest characters on the show. Actor Jack Soo passed away while the show was in its 5th season in January of 1979. During that season the cast did a tribute show speaking as themselves and showed clips of Jack.

Sgt. Arthur Dietrich (Steve Landesberg) – A one-of-a-kind character and my favorite on the show. Dietrich was a know it all…not in the usual way. He really knew about every statistic on any subject that came up. He was an intellectual but also could have fun with it. One of the funniest and deadpan characters I’ve ever seen on television. He never lost his cool in any situation.

Sgt Philip Fish (Abe Vigoda) – The senior member of the crew who was played by Abe Vigoda always looked older than he was at the time. It was a running joke about him having hemorrhoids, needing to go to the bathroom, being old, and delivering many marriage jokes. He would leave the show for a spinoff “Fish” officially in the 4th season. He would come back and make guest star appearances. He was the break-out star of the show.

Sgt. Chano Amenguale (Gregory Sierra) – He was Puerto Rican and would be very talkative and emotional. Whenever he was really upset, he would start speaking Spanish loudly. I really liked Sierra’s character, but he left after the second season.

Officer Carl Levitt (Ron Carey) – Levitt was a short overachiever and kept hounding Barney for a promotion. He would not be too subtle to Barney about his hard-working habits. The rest of the station would pick on him but all of them respected his hard work. He would fill in when a Detective was out. He finally got promoted at the end of the show’s run.

Deputy Inspector Frank Luger (James Gregory) – A totally old school superior who would drop by “the old one two” to talk with Barney. Luger never even tried to keep up with the times. He would tell Barney of the good old days…sometimes to Barney’s annoyance. Overall Luger was a great character who was brilliantly played by James Gregory.

Elizabeth Miller (Barbara Barrie) She was Barney’s wife who always wanted him to quit the force because she worried about his safety. She was on regularly at first but the show started to concentrate on the station rather than their home. She was involved in a story later on in the series when Elizabeth and Barney separated for a while…they eventually got back together.

Det. Janice Wentworth (Linda Lavin) She was a detective in the squad room who had a romantic interest in Wojo. Prone to excitement trying to prove herself in a room full of men. The writing for her character was great…it was realistic and always suited Lavin’s character. The character would have stayed on the show but Linda Lavin got her own show…Alice.

Ben Scanlon(George Murdock) – Scanlon worked in Internal Affairs and was the one bad guy in the show. He would try to find trouble when he visited…always wanted to find some wrongdoing to bring down the 12th Precinct because they had a perfect record.

I’ve searched on youtube for some different scenes…most of what they have is the “best of” each character. The good news is… youtube has many full episodes. I’m including the full episode of one the best….It’s called Hash. I’m also including the super theme song…again you gotta love that bass!

The theme song to Barney Miller

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