Hanspostcard – Page 4 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

TV Draft Round 4 – Pick 8 – John Selects – JAG

Welcome to the Hanspostcard TV Draft. The remaining 7 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 John from https://thesoundofonehandtyping.com

SHOW: JAG
NETWORK: NBC (Season 1), CBS (Seasons 2-10)
YEARS: 1995-2005

From a high-concept perspective, JAG was Perry Mason meets Top Gun. It centered around Harmon Rabb Jr., played by David James Elliott, whose father was a Navy fighter pilot during the Vietnam War. Rabb Sr. was shot down over Vietnam and taken prisoner by the Viet Cong. Rabb Jr. decides to follow his father into the Navy as a fighter pilot. On one mission, he crashed his plane on the flight deck of a carrier. This led to a diagnosis of night blindness and made him unfit for flight duty. He transfers to the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps, which is responsible for “administrative law, government contracting, civilian and military personnel law, the law of war and international relations, environmental law, etc. They also serve as prosecutors for the military when conducting courts-martial.”

The show was cosiderably different in its first season than the rest of its run. LT (later LCDR) Rabb was assisted in his investigations by LTJG Meg Austin, played by Tracey Needham (last seen on NBC’s Life Goes On), and did more investigations than arguing cases in court. His partner for the two-part pilot episode was LT (Kate) Pike, played by Andrea Parker. Evidently NBC wasn’t impressed with the chemistry between Harm and Kate, though later Parker was hired to play Miss Parker on the network’s Pretender. The chemistry between Harm and Meg was practically nonexistent, so then a third female JAG officer, Commander Allison Krennick (played by Andrea Thompson) was added as a supervisory officer. Cmdr. Krennick quite clearly had the hots for Rabb, but the relationship stayed professional, even prickly, during working hours.

The first season ended with Harm thrown in the brig for murdering a former girlfriend, LTJG. Dianne Schonke, who was played by Catherine Bell. (This will play a role later in the show.) Producer Donald Bellisario clearly intended for this to be the season finale cliffhanger, but NBC cancelled the show for low ratings.

JAG was picked up by CBS and was a midseason replacement in January 1997. In the first episode, Harm meets the new JAG, RADM A. J. Chegwidden (played by John M. Jackson, who had a minor role as the JAG in A Few Good Men), and the rest of his team, including LTJG Bud Roberts (played by Patrick Labyorteaux, who reprised his role from the pilot) and Marine MAJ Sarah “Mac” McKenzie, played by the aforementioned Catherine Bell. (Strangely, Bellisario didn’t clear up the cliffhanger from the first season until the middle of the third season.) When Harm sees Mac, he’s haunted by his former girlfriend, and that remains throughout the rest of the series.

Harm has two primary objectives when the show starts: to find out what happened to his father and to go back to flying F-14’s. He accomplishes the first objective in the third season, when a notebook found during an investigation contains information that could lead to Harm finding his father at last. Of course, the notebook disappears, taken by a Soviet agent who later agrees to give it to him. In the season 3 finale, he and Mac (who speaks Russian) take off for Russia, then in the season 4 season premiere Harm learns that his father died not long before he arrived. Also in Season 4, we learn that Mac is a recovering alcoholic, has been married before, and had an affair with a previous commanding officer, and is reprimanded by the Admiral for it. Also arriving on the scene in season 4 is LCDR Mic Brumby of the Royal Australian Navy (played by Trevor Goddard), mostly to woo Mac and make Harm jealous. By the end of Season 4, Harm has been approved to go back to flight duty and leaves JAG.

Season 5 starts with Harm as a fighter pilot again, but for some reason he keeps getting hauled into prosecuting or defending courts martial. Finally his commanding officer recommends that he go back to being a lawyer, which he does. When he gets back to JAG, he discovers that Mac has been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and that she and Mic are becoming an item. He now has new objectives: get Mac back and be promoted to Commander.

And the wheels kind of come off at that point. Over the next five years, Bud, kept in the show more for comic relief than anything, marries LT Harriett Sims and the two have several children. Mic goes back to Australia, then comes back, getting engaged to Mac, who secretly has been in love with Harm the whole time, something that comes out during her engagement party (how embarassing). LCDR Sturgis Turner (played by Scott Lawrence), a friend of Harm’s from the Naval Academy, joins the cast more for diversity than anything. Turner helps Bud get back into shape, whereupon Bud volunteers for duty in Iraq, only to have his legs blown off. Chegwidden falls in love and is ready to get married, only to find his bride-to-be in bed with another man. They break up and he retires to spend the rest of his life traveling around the country with his daughter and going to baseball games. His replacement is Marine Major General “Biff” Creswell, who had prosecuted Mac’s lover, so she’s worried he’ll hold it against her, but he tells her that he figured she was young and stupid and she’d get a clue and straghten up. David James Elliott’s real-life wife Nanci Chambers joins the cast as LT Loren Singer, who has designs on the Admiral’s job, but is eventually murdered, providing the basis for introducing the cast and premise of NCIS.

The show ends with Harm and Mac being sent to opposite corners of the world, deciding they can’t live without each other, and that one will resign their commission and follow the other, they’ll get married and live happily ever after. They decide to let Bud toss a coin to decide who stays and who goes, and the show concludes with the coin in the air.

Okay, so JAG was a soap opera. There were many more characters and many more things that happened than I was able to squeeze in here. Nevertheless, it was an entertaining show with well-crafted characters, interesting stores and plenty of humor.

TV Draft Round 4 – Pick 7 – Max selects – The Monkees

Welcome to the Hanspostcard TV Draft. The remaining 7 rounds will be posted here. I hope you will enjoy it! Today’s post was written by Max from https://powerpop.blog

The Monkees

Does this show compare to All In The Family, Barney Miller, or other great sitcoms? No, it’s not even in the same zip code but it’s an off-beat quirky 1966 show that I have come to appreciate more and more. They influenced music more than other tv shows but its influence is still felt. How many young soon-to-be musicians have watched this show? I was one and it made me want to play music. I soon found other bands to follow …but I never left The Monkees completely. They were not great actors, musicians, or songwriters…although the late Mike Nesmith was a good songwriter. They made music fun…fun is something that I picked up on early on and I ended up playing in many bands.

The comedy was part physical, part Marx Brothers, and pure irrelevance. Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider wanted to build a television show that had elements of A Hard Days Night and cast four musicians/actors. Stephen Stills auditioned for a part and ended up recommending his friend Peter Tork. They ended up being a real band and toured.

The Monkees were four cast members who could all play an instrument and could sing. Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork were working musicians. Davy Jones could play some guitar and drums and Mickey played guitar in a band so they weren’t just actors.

Davy was the cute one, Mike the serious one, Mickey the funny one, and Peter the innocent one. There is no need to describe any episode plots because they are not important. You would have some kind of plot and within the story, a couple of music montages later known as music videos. The show could be surreal and they constantly broke the 4th wall. They had a lot of cutaway scenes that people associate now with Family Guy. The show was shot in color and the sets were vivid.

You could see the difference in the show between the first season and the latter part of the second season. The first was a little more of a slick production…the later part of the second season they had more influence and you could see there were 4 stoned Monkees running amuck. It was much looser and anything went basically.

The Monkees only made 58 episodes from September 1966 to March 1968. After the show came to an end they made a television special and then a very trippy movie called Head. I do not binge-watch the show but I will occasionally need a laugh or to enjoy the same thing I enjoyed at 7 years old.

The Monkees had a big impact on pop culture with not only music but with music videos. The show was their own MTV at the time. Long after the show was over I was 7 years old and watching the three channels we had at the time and I loved The Monkees.

I had no idea The Monkees stopped making the show 7 years before when I watched them. I thought the band was still together and filming shows. Turns out I was watching the show in syndication but I didn’t find out till later. A generation was influenced like I was in the 70s. In the 1980s MTV played a marathon of episodes and their popularity soared yet again. I saw them in 1986 when they reunited and had a new song in the top 40. They also made comeback in the early 90s.

They didn’t play instruments on their first two albums because they were not allowed. Micheal Nesmith was a songwriter and did manage to get a couple of songs on there. Most of the Byrds also didn’t play on their first album…that is the way it was done in the early 60s for some bands. After the success of the show, they were asked to tour. Mickey spent time learning the drums because they wanted Davy Jones upfront and Mickey became a competent drummer. The band became real during the tour.

The Monkees led a revolt and demanded to play on their own albums. It started with their third album Headquarters and went on from there. They still had some top 40 hits after taking over like Daydream Believer, Pleasant Valley Sunday, Valleri, and more.

Mickey Dolenz: “You know, the Monkees becoming a real band, I’ve often said, is like Leonard Nimoy really becoming a Vulcan!”

Mickey Dolenz: “The Monkees are to the Beatles what ‘Star Trek’ is to NASA. They are both totally valid in their contexts.”

The Monkees were such a big influence on me. I picked up a guitar in part because of their influence. The shows were funny…and still are. Once I found The Beatles I was lost forever but the Monkees were important to a lot of musicians through the years.

They made it look fun being in a rock band. No mention of the backbiting and jealousy that goes along with it. For a seven-year-old kid…this was the life I wanted! Living in a cool beach house, playing in a rock band, and driving around in the Monkeemobile!

They had some famous guest stars like Frank Zappa, Liberace, Mike Farrell, Burgess Meredith, Julie Newmar, and Sammy Davis Jr.

I have all of the episodes and once in a while I will play a few and realize again why they are still remembered. Will the show ever be considered among the greats? NO… but it came along at a perfect time and when I need to watch something funny and irrelevant I turn on the Monkees.

I never got famous playing my music but that wasn’t the point. I still get great satisfaction and fun in playing my guitar now…and I can thank the Monkees for that. BTW…where is my beach house and my Monkeemobile?

….

TV Draft Round 4 – Pick 6 – Dave Selects – Friends

Welcome to the Hanspostcard TV Draft. The remaining 7 rounds will be posted here. I hope you will enjoy it! Today’s post was written by Dave from https://soundday.wordpress.com/

Some of our other participants have picked highly excellent, but “boutique” shows. Ones which are brilliant, and critically-praised, but not hugely viewed, often due to appearing on pay cable stations or obscure streaming services. This is actually great because it’s giving some of us insight into shows we’ve heard about but not seen. But for my second pick, I’ll stick with the 1990s and stick with a show of mass appeal…more mass appeal now than back then, one might guess: Friends. It was a show I sometimes watched, and quite liked back in the day but have watched a good deal more and come to enjoy more in the years since it ended. (In that it was somewhat like one of its companion shows on NBC, Seinfeld, looked at by Music City Mike already.)

NBC’s Thursday night lineup in the ’90s was a TV equivalent to baseball’s ’61 Yankees… a seemingly unstoppable powerhouse that kept throwing superstar after superstar at you. By 1993, it was already a juggernaut in the ratings and with critics with the combo of Seinfeld and Frasier. But they needed something to keep the momentum throughout the night and had had some difficulty finding another prime-time comedy to keep viewers on the Peacock network. Enter Marta Kauffman and David Crane,a couple of, well, friends who were writers. Struggling ones at that.

“We wanted to write something we would watch,” Kauffman said. They were in their early-30s and Crane says “not long before, we’d been living in New York, not doing TV. We’d been living it.” So they set upon the idea of a group of people like themselves who were out on their own but single, starting to find their way in the world with little but their close friends to help them through.

They came up with the basic idea and a few test scripts and pitched it to Fox, who said “it’s funny, but it’s not Fox funny. Can you make it more adult?” Instead, they landed at NBC, who saw some potential with it. Which was prescient of them, since like so many shows, the pilot was…well, not great. It was OK, but only hinted at the depth of the characters and the laughs that it would soon create. It might have been unwatchable if Rachel had stayed the spoiled princess, Ross the always sadsack downer or Joey the macho stud. Happily the characters and dialog evolved and quickly found their stride only a few weeks in.

As most know, the show revolved around a main cast of six “friends”…an unusually large ensemble for a sitcom that didn’t have one main star, ala say Bill Cosby on his eponymous show. There were the guys – Joey, the proudly Italian ladies-man and struggling actor; Chandler, the sarcastic and oft-frustrated office “suit” and Ross, the nerdy and awkward professor – and the girls. They were Monica, Ross’ sister, a compulsive neat freak and talented cook; Phoebe, the artsy-fartsy ’60s throwback hippie singer, and Rachel, the rich fashionista cut off from her family money and learning life lessons. With a “heart of gold” would be a modifier applied to all six. Through ten seasons, 1994- 2004, and 236 episodes they struggled with ordinary problems like so many of their fans – finding romantic partners, or at least dates, getting a good job, trying to keep afloat financially, and the like. All the while talking a lot and hanging out at the Central Perk, a local coffee shop. (Jennfier Aniston, “Rachel” once commented that it would be impossible to set it in the present day because it would now just be six people sitting staring at their phones.) At times they’d fight, but in the end, like the famous Rembrandts theme song (“I’ll Be There For You”) suggests, they were always there for each other.

Time magazine noted “the well-hidden secret of the show was that it was called ‘Friends’ and was really about family.” Or to put it another way, that when you get to be an adult, your friends can be your family, the rock you can rely on. In that it rather duplicated Seinfeld, or Frasier’s predecessor, Cheers. And like those shows, a good deal of the appeal was how perfect the actors chosen were for the roles. Unlike those two, by a few episodes in you were always rooting for those characters. It seemed like lightning struck in the casting. The creators had written the Ross part specifically with David Schwimmer in mind… they actually figured he would be the break-out star of the series. The others all came about by chance. They envisioned Courteney Cox to be Rachel, not Monica, but she liked the other role better. They liked Jennifer Aniston, but she was under contract to another, thankfully short-lived show at the time so they figured she wouldn’t be available. She was. Nancy McKeon was their first choice for Monica, but that fell through, and so on and so on. Now it seems impossible to think of Monica being anyone but Courteney, or anyone but Matt Leblanc being Joey, etc. And Jennifer Aniston? So intertwined with her character was she that her haircut swept the nation and was called “the Rachel.”

All six of the characters were flawed, and often not good at their jobs. The only thing as bad as Phoebe’s singing might be Joey’s on-stage acting chops or Ross’ attempt to win over students by speaking in a fake British accent. But their flaws made them seem like people we all knew and loved…or maybe, like ourselves. As years went by, they became our friends. We wanted Joey to keep that role on Days of Our Lives, we wanted Chandler to find a way not to be transferred to Tulsa, and of course, we wanted Ross and Rachel to figure out that they were in love with each other and just get together! I mean, come on – Ross said Rachel’s name instead of the girl he was supposed to be marrying (Emily) during his wedding vows!

Interestingly, just before Season 8 was about to begin, the world was shaken by 9/11. This posed a dilemma for the series, set in Manhattan. They didn’t know how to approach it. Finally, NBC decided “9/11 did happen in the World of Friends, but it would be acknowledged only by visual clues”… Joey sometimes wore an “NYFD” t-shirt, newspapers appeared on tables, the etch-a-sketch on Joey and Chandler’s door had more patriotic images on it but “no one would want to see ‘the one with the terrorist attack.’” It hit the actors hard, like everybody else, and they had to reconcile their job with the reality of the world. Lisa Kudrow, “Phoebe,” said “we’re not curing cancer. It’s not a big deal. But you know what? When you can offer people a break from some such a devastating reality, that is a big deal.” Aniston echoed, “this was the one place in the world it was still OK to laugh.” It was a big deal. The show, already a top 10 ratings hit, became the most-watched on television that season (the last sitcom to earn that distinction) and won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy. The series finale, in which yes, Rachel didn’t get on the plane (and leave for France, rather, coming back to be with Ross) was the most-viewed regular TV episode of this century so far.

Like I said, I watched it at times then but appreciate it more now. Actually, thinking back, I was often too busy living my own version of Friends when it was on to tune in. Hanging out with buddies, looking for a lasting love, working late in the store, you name it. When I was fortunate enough to find my lasting love, it turned out Friends was one of her all-time favorite shows. She used to tell people back then not to call on Thursday until after 7:30 (it aired at 7PM in Central time, 8 in the East where I was watching) because she was tied up…with “friends”. We love watching reruns together, and when it left Netflix, I got her the set of DVDS. Or got us the set. I laugh at Ross’s consternation at his boss eating his Moist-maker sandwich or barista Gunther’s longing for Rachel (I guess I could relate to Gunther on that one!) as much as my sweetie does. If grilled cheese sandwiches might be a “comfort food”, Friends is “comfort watching” to us.

A couple of parting thoughts about Friends. First, to me it seems rather like most sitcoms these days have a tendency to copy it, but not as successfully. Groups of funny, inseparable friends. How I Met Your Mother… group of late-20-something friends who hang out together in a neighborhood bar and have little to do with their biological families. The at times cloying Big Bang Theory? Don’t get me started. Friends who are family to themselves, the nerdy professorial type destined to be with the super-sexy but sweet blonde (who like Rachel struggles as a waitress but finally finds success in a professional career), guys with no musical talent but abundant arrogance playing in the comic book store (much like both Ross and his keyboards and Phoebe’s bad songwriting)… they even stole the story of the male character who tried to get a spray on tan to impress a woman and ended up bright orange by accident.

And secondly, the show got back together in the right way. That is to say, by not regrouping. As much as they were being pressured to do a reunion, like so many other comedies from Will and Grace to Gilmore Girls had done, Friends decided to leave things as they were. There was the much-hyped reunion show last year,of course, but it was dealt with smartly… the six actors got back together and reminisced, showed a few classic clips and talked about what it was like back then. Brilliant restraint, because the magic of Friends was the characters remain forever young, and then left on high notes …they were happy, moving away from their New York apartment building to start new lives, full of love and optimism. Just as NBC realized we didn’t need “the one with the terrorist attack”, the cast understood we didn’t want “the one where Ross needs viagra now” or “the one with Gunther’s funeral.” They knew not to overstay their welcome, and leave us laughing.

TV Draft Round 4 – Pick 5 – Lisa Selects – Shameless

Welcome to the Hanspostcard TV Draft. The remaining 7 rounds will be posted here. I hope you will enjoy it! Today’s post was written by Lisa from https://tao-talk.com/

from l – r: Deb, Fee, Frank (with Liam on his lap,) Lip, Carl, and Ian (reading Mag)

Round 4, Tuesday, 4/26/22, “Shameless” (US version)
2011-2021 originally on Showtime

Writing credits and number of episodes credited with: Paul Abbott and John Wells (134,) Nancy Pimental (26,) Dominique Morrisseau (23,) Sherman Payne (14,) Etan Frankel (13,) LaToya Morgan (12,) Sheila Callaghan (12,) Corina Maritescu (12,) Lisa Morales (11,) Krista Vernoff (8,) Nathan Louis Jackson (7,) Davey Holmes (7,) Joe Lawson (7,) Molly Smith Metzler (6,) Philip Buiser (6,) Alex Borstein (5,) Mike O’Malley (5,) Cindy Caponera (2,) Mark Steilen (2,) Daniel Brocklehurst (1,) Stan Frankel (1,) William H. Macey (1,) and Steven Schacter (1.)
Directors: 55 different directors, with Iain B. MacDonald directing the most episodes, with 17.
Genres: comedy, drama

STARRING
The Gallagher Family
William H. Macy at Frank Gallagher – faux patriarch and the addict you grow to hate – and love.
Emmy Rossum at Fiona “Fee” Gallagher – Oldest child and steps into maternal role young when mother abandons the family.
Jeremy Allen White as Phillip “Lip” Gallagher – Oldest brother and serves in paternal role as Frank is a non-functioning – other than to f*ck things up – parent
Cameron Monaghan as Ian Gallagher – in the closet gay who hopes to become a career soldier in the beginning of the series
Emma Kenney as Deb Gallagher – immature and air-headed in the beginning of the series
Ethan Cutkosky as Carl Gallagher – none too bright, but always scheming in the streets to help his family out
Brenden Sims as Baby Liam and Christian Isaiah and Child Liam Gallagher – the child Frank had with a different mother; Liam’s mom also abandoned him and left him for Frank (I.e Fee and Lip) to raise

Kevin (Kev) and Veronica (V)

The Neighbors
Shanola Hampton as Veronica “V” Fisher – V and Kevin are a couple that live a couple doors down and are like family with the Gallaghers. They are always ready to help. V’s mother lives nearby.
Steve Howey as Kevin Ball – Kevin was raised in foster care, and he turned out OK. V and Kevin both work at a neighborhood bar in the first season.

Noel Fisher as Mickey Milkovich – a violent young man from a violent, criminal family.

The Bar Patrons
Michael Patrick McGill as Tommy
Jim Hoffmaster as Kermit – There are a lot of patrons that come and go in the bar, but Tommy and Kermit are permanent fixtures there.

The Gallagher Kitchen

SETTINGS
The home
The Gallaghers are an Irish-American family who lives in a large, ramshackle home on the Southside of Chicago, right near where the L passes. There is a smallish living room, a decent-sized kitchen with a laundry area off the kitchen, and bathroom on the main floor. There is an unfinished basement. There’s a winding staircase that leads upstairs just off of the front door; there’s a more functional staircase leading upstairs off of the kitchen. Upstairs is another bathroom and several bedrooms. Out the back door is a vacant lot that they use to store vehicles, camp out on, put an above-ground pool on, have bonfires on, etc.

The bar
The bar is non-descript and looks like any other small, urban, neighborhood bar. It has an upstairs apartment where the owner, an old guy, lives. A lot of the plot lines for V and Kevin take place here.

Synopsis: Shameless is a situation comedy that fully develops storylines for each of the above-named characters, (with the exception of bar patrons, Tommy and Kermit.) Frank, the drunk junkie that has seldom worked an honest day in his life, pulls the family into all kinds of jams when he tries to flim-flam the vulnerable and keeps trying to scam those that are well on to his games. Fee and Lip fill the parent roles, with the other kids chipping in as they are able to. There is a shared jaded disappointment that alternates with rage at their father and an easy bonded relationship between the siblings. Each occasionally verbalizes a wish that their mentally ill, addict mother, Monica (Chloe Webb) might return someday.

Impressions: If I had to choose one adjective to describe the situations The Gallagher Realm finds itself enmeshed with each week, it would be outrageous, or, as the title suggests, shameless. The family and the satellite characters who orbit them operate on a different set of morals and ethics, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t functional or that they don’t love each other (when they aren’t hating their father for his ongoing dumb sh*t.) As the series covers 11 years, we get to see all of the kids except Liam grow to adulthood and some to parenthood. We get to watch them mature and grow into decent human beings, despite the painful, often traumatic learning experiences that they are routinely pulled into through their dad’s actions or their own choices.

There is a large and varied circus of characters that wander in and out of episodes and seasons that are always entertaining. Throughout all 11 seasons, the plots remain fresh. There are several political themes that are covered, including gentrification, LGBTQIA+, homelessness, mental illness and inpatient care, corrections (prison life,) sex addiction, agoraphobia, the public service underbelly, human trafficking, drug dealing, grifting, and so much more.

Shameless Gang Season 11

Grade: 10
Etc.: There are 48 items of trivia at imdb on the series.
Awards: 16 wins and 69 nominations

TV Draft Round 4 – Pick 4 – Paula Selects – Six Feet Under

Welcome to the Hanspostcard TV Draft. The remaining 7 rounds will be posted here. I hope you will enjoy it! Today’s post was written by Paula from http://paulalight.com

Six Feet Under

Six Feet Under is probably my favorite television series of all time. But do you know what? I never want to rewatch it. I’ve rewatched Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, etc., but I prefer that 6FU remain pure in my mind without getting tarnished by new thoughts. Because I always have new thoughts about old faves! (Info source for this post is from Wikipedia.)

Anyway, 6FU was created by Alan Ball and premiered on HBO June 3, 2001 (my mom’s birthday). It ran for five seasons with 63 episodes. Each show begins with an unusual death of some kind and continues from there. The pilot kicks off with the death of Nathaniel Fisher, Sr. (played by Richard Jenkins), patriarch of the Fisher family, as he tries to light a cigarette while driving. Fisher is the owner of a Los Angeles mortuary and leaves behind a wife, 2 sons, and a daughter. The eldest son, Nate (played by Peter Krause) is estranged from the family but still returns for the funeral ~ on the flight he meets Brenda (Rachel Griffiths) and has sex with her. This isn’t a one-time fling, as she is a recurring character with interesting storylines of her own, including some with her psycho brother Billy (Jeremy Sisto).

Probably the most interesting character is the second son David (Michael C. Hall), who seems to be a straight-laced, rule-following conservative, but he is actually leading a double life as a gay man with a sexy boyfriend, police officer Keith (Mathew St. Patrick). David wants to keep the funeral home going, but Nate wants to sell it and skedaddle… he has second thoughts when his father’s ghost appears (perhaps his subconscious, as the show generally does not dive into the supernatural). David fights to keep his sexual orientation a secret, which upsets Keith to the point that he breaks off the relationship. David then goes on a series of dates, which I found personally amusing, as they mirrored my own horrifying dating experiences.

The mom Ruth (Frances Conroy) has a secret boyfriend and decides she doesn’t want anything further to do with the mortuary, though as a psychologist, she has opinions about everything. I found her character to be annoying and my least favorite, while others I’ve talked to about the show have the opposite opinion! Claire (Lauren Ambrose) is still in high school and consumed with the typical drugs and boyfriend gossipy drama as one might predict. She becomes more interesting as the episodes roll on and develops an attraction to Billy, which is scary. I don’t want to give away too much, but the Brenda/Billy situation is bizarre and fascinating. Federico, the corpse artist (played by Freddy Rodriguez) is interesting as well and has some funny lines.

While this show is obviously about dealing with death and the practicalities surrounding funeral arrangements, it’s also about family and relationships, and how complex and interrelated life events can be. I highly recommend it ~ and oh my gosh the finale is to die for! I’m sorry but no one can touch this ending, which is the best episode in TV history. Six Feet Under rightfully received high praise for both writing and acting and drew high ratings for HBO. It won many awards ~ 9 Emmys, 3 Screen Actors Guild Awards, 3 Golden Globes, and a Peabody. Fabulous show!

~*~

Paula Light is a poet, novelist, flash fiction fan, cupcake connoisseur, mom, grandma, cat mommy, etc. Her blog can be found at http://paulalight.com.

TV Draft Round 4 – Pick 3 – Keith Selects – Columbo

Welcome to the Hanspostcard TV Draft. The remaining 7 rounds will be posted here. I hope you will enjoy it! Today’s post was written by Keith from https://nostalgicitalian.com/

TV Show Draft – Nostalgic Italian’s Round 4 Pick – Columbo

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Welcome to my fourth round pick in the Hanspostcard TV Draft. Last round I chose Perry Mason, which was the ultimate court room “whodunit!” You never knew who committed the crime until the end of the episode. I thought it appropriate to choose Columbo for this round, because it is almost the exact opposite of Perry Mason, in that you know who the killer is right from the get go. It was called a murder mystery where the murder was no mystery.

Columbo_1971

The show pioneered the “inverted mystery” technique/format. Almost every show begins with a crime and the audience knows who the culprit is. Then enter the LAPD’s Lieutenant Columbo who spends the remainder of the show looking for clues, pestering the criminal, and eventually solving the case. The show was not a “whodunit” like Perry Mason, but rather it has been described as a “how’s he gonna catch him?”

The first season of Columbo began in September of 1971. I know that most of the shows being picked by others in the draft ran on a weekly basis. Columbo did not. Most episodes were featured as part of the NBC Mystery Movie rotation. It ran for 35 years with a total of 69 episodes.

The show was created by schoolmates Richard Levinson and William Link. The character first appeared in 1960 on The Chevy Mystery Show in an episode called “Enough Rope.” That episode was then adapted for a stage play entitled Prescription: Murder, which was then adapted for television in 1968. Columbo was played by Bert Freed in Enough Rope and by Thomas Mitchell in the stage version in 1962.

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Bert Freed (L), Thomas Mitchell (R) – The Original Columbos

The writers of the show had originally wanted Lee J. Cobb to play Columbo, but he was unavailable. They next approached Bing Crosby, who turned down the role because it would take away from his time on the golf course. Peter Falk came across the script for Prescription: Murder and contacted Levinson and Link and said, “I’d kill to play that cop!”

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Peter Falk and Gene Berry

They weren’t really sure about Peter Falk, who was only 39 at the time. They envisioned the character as being older. He won the role, and he plays him as a much straighter, cleaner, and firmer Columbo in the first episode. It was a huge hit! The Columbo quirks and mannerisms that fans came to know and love would develop as he continued to play the role.

Peter Falk really threw himself into the role. He wore his own clothes. The suit was one that he had dyed brown, because he felt that looked better. He wore his own shoes. The world famous raincoat was one that he purchased in New York City while caught in a rainstorm. It cost him a mere $15. One difference between Peter and Columbo – Columbo preferred cigars, while Falk enjoyed cigarettes.

I am currently reading a fantastic book on the show written by David Koenig.

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Columbo is like no other cop. Koenig says, “There was nobody or nothing like Columbo at all before him. All the detectives were these hardboiled, emotionless, tough guys. And he was the opposite of that in every way. He hated guns and violence.” He describes the show this way, “Columbo wasn’t really a cop show. It was a drawing-room mystery done backwards with a cop as the lead. It was an anti-cop show.”

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During the first few seasons of Columbo, it really set the standard for what some refer to as “event television.” There were some fabulous guest stars who played the murderer. Those stars included Gene Berry, Jack Cassidy, William Shatner, Dick Van Dyke, Ruth Gordon, Robert Vaughn, Anne Baxter, Janet Leigh, Robert Culp, Donald Pleasence, Eddie Albert, Leonard Nimoy, Johnny Cash, and Patrick McGoohan – just to name a few!!

After the murder, when Columbo finally shows up, his genius is hidden by his often confused look. It is also hidden by the way he is dressed and by his friendly demeanor. He is looked upon as a stupid fool. The killer has no idea what a brilliant man Columbo is and they are lured into a false sense of security. The killer becomes even more arrogant and dismisses Columbo as a dope, only to be caught in the end.

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One of the things that certainly added to the character was his little idiosyncrasies like fumbling through his pockets for a piece of evidence, asking to borrow a pencil, or being distracted by something in the room in the middle of a conversation. Falk adlibbed those moments on camera while film was rolling as a way to keep the other actors off-balance. He felt that it really helped to make their confused and impatient reactions to Columbo more genuine. It really truly worked.

On the show, the murderer is often some famous person, or someone who is cultured or from high society. Either that, or some sort of successful professional (surgeon, psychologist, etc…). Paired up against Columbo, it is gold! The interactions between the two become such a marvelous part of the show and brings out Columbo’s character and cunning genius!

In those conversations Columbo is often confused. He doesn’t know anything about classical music, chess, fine wines, photography or pieces of art. One article on the show stated that his “ignorance” will often “allow him to draw in the murderer with a cunning humility that belies his understanding of human behavior and the criminal mind.”

Columbo

The last episode of Columbo aired in 2003 and was entitled “Columbo Likes the Nightlife.” Falk had planned for one final episode. It was to be called “Columbo’s Last Case” which was to begin at his retirement party. There was a lack of network interest and with his age and failing health, the episode was never to be.

Columbo remains as popular as ever. It was one of the most watched shows on streaming platforms during the pandemic. Author David Koenig says about the show, “It has stood the test of time for 50-plus years now. That character is still vibrant and alive, appealing to people. People love that central character, that basic format, the fact that it’s not political, it’s not violent, it’s not all the things television shows are today, it’s something different. And that is charm. That’s what people love about it.”

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Columbo Facts:

Steven Spielberg directed the first episode of Season 1 – Murder by the Book.
Peter Falk won 4 Emmy Awards for his portrayal of Columbo (1972, 1975, 1976, and 1990)
He also won a Golden Globe Award for the role.
Patrick McGoohan played a murderer more times than any other actor – 4 times. Jack Cassidy and Robert Culp each had 3 times, William Shatner and George Hamilton each played a killer twice.
Columbo’s name is never revealed – although a close up of his badge in the first season says it is ‘Frank.’ The creators of the show have stated that his first name was never known, so take that however you want to.
Columbo drives a 1960 Peugeot 403 convertible.
Columbo’s favorite food is chili and black coffee is his drink of choice.
In the 1972 episode entitled, “Etude in Black,” Columbo rescued a basset hound from the dog pound. The dog could be seen in many other episodes, and was as close to a sidekick/partner as Columbo ever got.
In 1997, the episode Murder by the Book was ranked #16 in TV Guide’s “100 Greatest Episodes of All Time” list.
In 1999, Lieutenant Columbo was ranked #7 on TV Guide’s “50 Greatest TV Characters of All Time.”
There is a bronze statue of Columbo (and his dog) in Budapest, Hungary. It was unveiled in 2017. Peter Falk is rumored to be a distant relative of the well-known Hungarian politician Miksa Falk (1828-1908).

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Columbo Statue in Budapest, Hungary

I thought I would close with little treat for you. In one of the Dean Celebrity Roasts, Frank Sinatra was the Man of the Hour. Now, these roasts were often edited down to make sure all the best stuff was shown on TV. In Lee Hale’s book, he stated that there was only one performance that was shown in its entirety – Peter Falk’s appearance during the Sinatra roast.

Falk appears from the audience – as Lt. Columbo. The entire 11 minute bit is just priceless. It is a must see. Enjoy:

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TV Draft Round 4 – Pick 2 -Vic Selects – The X-Files

Scully & Mulder IMDb Amazon Image Two — Photo Credit: IMDb & Amazon

Welcome to the Hanspostcard TV Draft. The remaining 7 rounds will be posted here. I hope you will enjoy it! Today’s post was written by Vic from https://cosmic-observation.com/blog-posts/

I’ve stated, before, that I was born and raised in law enforcement. I’ve also worked in law enforcement (non-sworn) at two different agencies, one state and one county (think of me as the blond chick on Criminal Minds, sitting in front of a computer screen…though I am not blond). It can be an interesting job if you’re lucky enough to be employed with an agency that doesn’t take its political self too seriously (virtually impossible these days). I’ve met and worked with a couple of FBI agents. They were nice, everyday guys, back in the late 90s and early 2000s. I’ve seen and heard a lot of things.

The Sci-Fi geek that I am, I’m not presenting this show in that light. This show is, first and foremost, law enforcement. These are the folks, alongside first responders, to arrive at the scene of the accident, the scene of the disaster or the crime scene. In the case of these FBI agents, they investigate the weird shit. That being said, I do have a very full binder of X-Files non-sport cards and chase (special) cards, plus, all of the original series-run DVDs. ~Vic

The X-Files IMDb Amazon Image One — Image Credit: IMDb & Amazon

Created and written by Chris Carter, there were many other writers, including David Duchovny (Agent Fox Mulder), Gillian Anderson (Agent Dana Scully) and Stephen King but, this was Carter’s baby. It starred Duchovny and Anderson as the dynamic duo, investigating all manner of odd, macabre, out-of-this-world or just plain gross happenings. In later years, Duchovny reduced his presence on the show and eventually left. In 2000, Robert Patrick (Agent John Doggett) was brought in as a new partner for Gillian Anderson. In 2001 Annabeth Gish (Agent Monica Reyes) showed up and, with the upcoming departure of Anderson, became Patrick’s partner. There was some chatter that the show would live on with Patrick and Gish but, it never materialized. Gish returned in the series revival but, Patrick did not. Neither of them were in the X-Files feature films.

Other regular cast members were Mitch Pileggi (Asst. Dir. Walter Skinner), William B. Davis (Cigarette Smoking Man), Nicholas Lea (Alex Krycek), Chris Owens (Jeffrey Spender, son of the Cigarette Smoking Man) and James Pickens, Jr. (Asst. Dir./Dep. Dir. Alvin Kersh). Secondary, popular characters were Tom Braidwood, Dean Haglund & Bruce Harwood (The Lone Gunmen), Don. S. Davis (Captain William Scully, Agent Scully’s father), Sheila Larken (Margaret Scully, Agent Scully’s mother), Melinda McGraw (Melissa Scully, Agent Scully’s older sister), Pat Skipper (Bill Scully, Jr., Agent Scully’s older brother), Jerry Hardin (Deep Throat), Steven Williams (Mr. X), Rebecca Toolan (Teena Mulder, Agent Mulder’s mother), Peter Donat (William Mulder, Agent Mulder’s father) and five separate actresses portrayed Samantha Mulder, the agent’s abducted, younger sister. Agent Scully also has a younger brother, Charles but, except for flashbacks, the character is uncredited.

Agent Reyes & Agent Doggett IMDb Amazon Image Three — Photo Credit: IMDb & Amazon

Addendum: Honestly, I was hoping the show would continue on with Agents Doggett & Reyes. They had a lot of really good on-screen chemistry and I liked both actors. After nine years, I had grown weary of Duchovny’s primadonna attitude. When the series was revived, the magic was gone and I wasn’t impressed. Naturally, they turned Agent Reyes into a bad character and killed her off.

Addendum #2: I also have to mention that the theme song changed, just slightly, at some point. The first theme has a solid, continuous echo sound. The second theme is a double-repeating echo sound. Why it changed, I don’t know (it drove me crazy). It is never mentioned but, it did happen. Listen, below.

Trivia Bits:
♦ As stated in my last draft, Mark Snow created the X-Files theme, the Starsky & Hutch theme for Season Three and many others.
♦ Gillian Anderson was nearly replaced when she got pregnant during the first season.
♦ Props from Mulder’s office are preserved at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum in LA. The I Want To Believe poster kept disappearing from the set.
♦ The agents badges read “Federal Bureau of Justice, United States Department of Investigation” as making a fake FBI badge is illegal.
♦ Gillian Anderson has stated that she based her approach to the role of Dana Scully on Jodie Foster’s performance as Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
♦ Dana Scully was named after the famous sports journalist Vin Scully. Mulder is the maiden name of Chris Carter’s mother.
♦ Chris Carter lists All the President’s Men (1976) as one of his inspirations for the series. There are numerous references to the film, including the shadowy informer Deep Throat, meetings in underground parking garages and hints at conspiracies which stretch all the way to the F.B.I.

X-Files Original Opening

X-Files Second Opening…Can you hear the difference?

TV Draft Round 4 – Pick 1 – Mike Selects – Breaking Bad

Welcome to the Hanspostcard TV Draft. The remaining 7 rounds will be posted here. I hope you will enjoy it! Today’s post was written by Mike from https://musiccitymike.net

Breaking Bad

Like many other TV bingers these days, there are few, if any, series that I watch in real time. After all, who has the patience to wait a week (or at a season’s end, over the summer) for the next episode to see what happens next in a suspenseful show. However, I did make an exception for the wild escapades of high school chemistry teacher turned methamphetamine maker Walter White on AMC’s Breaking Bad.

Why? Well, the plot was just so unique and more so, its production, especially in terms of camera work, was nothing short of spectacular. The ways that producer Vince Gilligan found to use the camera were ground-breaking. Come on, who would have ever thought of filming from the inside of a refrigerator!

Before I get to the tragic tale of Mr. White, there’s also the music. I don’t think I have ever been so taken by the impact of soundtrack songs like I was in Breaking Bad. There are two magic moments that come to mind. I still get chills running down my spine when I think of how Tommy James & the Shondells’ “Crystal Blue Persuasion” and Badfinger’s “Baby Blue” were used to such stunning effects. For the unfamiliar, it may help to know that Mr. White’s “product” had a unique-to-meth blue color. And the Badfinger song’s opening line of “Guess I got what I deserve” show appropriately set the show’s final scene. (Kudos also to local Nashville band The Silver Seas for getting their fab song “Catch Yer Own Train” into Season One.)

As with my fave series, The Sopranos, here we go again with White and his former student and now partner-in-crime, Jessie Pinkman, falling into the unavoidable anti-hero role. However, seeing all this suspense and drama from a first-person perspective was the only way to go for Breaking Bad. And how could you not resist rooting for a guy who simply was trying to get some extra money together for his family before he died of cancer.

What really makes the show so habit forming is how what starts out as such a simple innocent way to make a few bucks steamrolls into a monster enterprise attracting a cadre of despicable characters. This includes the metamorphosis of meek Walter into the evil Heisenberg. Even his demure wife gets into the act to help when the couple finds itself with an accumulation of cash larger than most banks. While the show is full of violence galore, it’s these same things that also gives the show more laughs than you’d ever expect in a crime drama. For me, the funniest moment was when screwball meth-head Badger explains how the pizza place they just ordered from passes on the savings by not cutting its slices.

But, Breaking Bad also uses the often employed, but head-scratching literary device of coincidence. What are the odds that a guy who takes up making meth in Albuquerque, New Mexico would also have a brother-in-law who is the local head of the DEA who heads the task force hunting down the guy behind the new blue meth showing up on the streets! I’ll save the spoilers as to how these two end up.

Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, as Walter and Jesse respectively, both put in career-defining roles. And the supporting cast was just as spectacular, including Bob Odinkirk as sleazy lawyer, Saul Goodman, who would wind up with his own spin-off show, Better Call Saul, which is just about to start airing its final season.

I hope that all fans of the show did get to see the enjoyable El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, a Netflix sequel to the show that continues the story of Aaron Paul’s Jesse Pinkman character. And as for the prequal of Better Call Saul, we fans look forward to hopefully seeing White and Pinkman appear on the show as its timeline moves forward and the show runs its course. And on a possible sad note, maybe we will find out why Saul’s lady friend, Kim Wexler, never made it to the Breaking Bad days.

In concluding, let me just say that this show is just so darn good that it is no surprise that in 2013 it entered the Guinness World Records as the most critically acclaimed TV show of all-time. That’s no surprise since how many shows have ever achieved the success of having each episode followed by a live recap and analysis show every week!

TV Draft Round 3 – Pick 8 – Adam 12

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 Max from https://powerpop.blog

Adam 12

The show was simple… it focused on a pair of beat cops doing their everyday jobs… responding to calls and patrolling the city of Los Angeles

I watched this in syndication in the late seventies after school. I never thought much of it at the time. When I started to watch it as an adult, I was surprised at how good this show was. I thought it was strictly a kid’s show. I couldn’t believe how realistic it was for that time and some now. They covered subjects like child pornography, drug addiction, gangs, racial tension, and everything else criminally related. It was on for 7 seasons from 1968 through 1975.

Sometimes as an adult and you watch shows or movies you did as a kid you think wow…how did I like this? Now I’m thinking why didn’t I like Adam 12 more? The show starred Martin Milner as Officer Pete Malloy and Kent McCord as Officer Jim Reed. It was created by Jack Webb and Robert Cinader. The pair also created a spinoff from Adam-12…Emergency. Jack Webb also created Dragnet. Emergency and Adam 12 did crossover in a few episodes.

Before this show, Martin Milner was in the fantastic tv show Route 66 that would film in different locations every week. Kent McCord knew Ricky Nelson well and appeared on The Adventures of Ozzy and Harriett. They both knew Jack Webb and were cast for Adam 12.

How realistic was it? The LAPD would use some episodes as training guides for new policemen. The reason for that is that the LAPD worked with the show for realism. Kent McCord said that more than once while filming…someone would come up to them and thought they were real policemen.

They wanted to capture a typical day in the life of a police officer. There was no Dirty Harry on this force. These officers went by the book even if it would have benefitted them at times to stray off. The episodes were written around actual police cases to add some realism. They showed all that the censors would allow.

Some of the guest stars were… Tony Dow, Willie Aimes, Ed Begley Jr, Karen Black, David Cassidy, Micky Dolenz, Tim Matheson, Ozzie Nelson, and many others. It was odd seeing Robert Donner…who played Yancy Tucker on The Waltons a few years later…playing a heroin addict-informant.

Reed is happily married, and Malloy is the happy bachelor. The interplay is natural and not forced. The one big thing I like about the show is the continuity from beginning to end. You see a raw rookie in Jim Reed with Malloy slowly training him up and eventually both becoming friends as seasons pass by. The conversations that take place between the crimes happening are things we all talk about so you can relate to these two.

Los Angeles historians have a field day with the episodes. They show how the city was at that time. They recorded the bulk of this show on location. On youtube you can find “then and now” film segments. Many policemen have said that this show inspired them to join the force.

Martin Milner passed away in 2015. The LAPD hosted a ceremony in Milner’s honor at its downtown Los Angeles headquarters. I binge-watched this show last year and the quality never went down in the 7 seasons.

TV Draft Round 3 – Pick 7 – King Of The Hill

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 Dave from https://soundday.wordpress.com/

First I’d like to thank Max for keeping this project running, and for inviting me to take part. There are so many good TV shows to choose from, it’s hard to know where to begin, but I’ll opt for one that seems to hit close to home for me (LOL – literally)… King of the Hill.

King of the Hill was a long-running animated prime-time cartoon that somehow had characters a lot more “real” than most of its contemporaries made with real actors. It ran on Fox Network for 259 episodes from 1997- 2010, and has been seen in re-runs in syndication and on some of the streaming services. I’m not a gigantic fan of Fox overall, but one thing they do well is cartoons!

It typically ran on Sunday nights after The Simpsons, – itself a hilarious and ground-breaking show – at 8:30 Eastern time. Fox seemed to clue in on how much of a good thing they had going with Sunday night cartoons aimed at adults and forever were searching for ones to lineup with their corporate flagship show and its yellow-skinned Springfielders. Some of them caught on (e.g. Family Guy or, though I can’t fathom why, Bob’s Burgers), others were come and gone faster than you could say “Eat my shorts” …anyone remember Border Town? Although a few of the post-Bart and Homer series might have now topped King of the Hill in episodes, I don’t think any have topped it for humor and creating characters we felt we could relate to. No wonder Time magazine once called it “the most acutely-observed and realistic sitcom about American life, bar none.” Perhaps all the more surprising since its main creator was Mike Judge, whose previous claim to fame was Beavis and Butthead.

King of the Hill revolved around Hank Hill and his family – wife Peggy, tween son Bobby and their dog, a lazy hound called Ladybird. And the niece who lived with them, to Hank’s mild disapproval, Luanne. They were a typical, middle-class Texan family living somewhere in the suburbs, in the city of “Arlen.” Hank sold propane, and propane products and was proud of it. Peggy was a substitute teacher, specializing in Spanish classes (although her knowledge of the language was barely functional) who loved Boggle and making green bean casseroles; a woman described as “confidant, sometimes to the point of lacking self-awareness.” Like most Texans, they loved things like rodeos, pickup trucks and Dallas Cowboys football – in one memorable episode Hank tries to get together a movement to move the Cowboys training camp to Arlen, but they pick Wichita Falls. To which Hank replies that city which claims to be “north Texas! More like south Oklahoma if you ask me!” a pretty stinging insult in the Lone Star State! Bobby, to his dad’s chagrin, is chubby, has little interest in sports and wants to be a stand-up comedian or worse yet, a clown.

Joining Hank is a supporting cast of neighbors we all seem to know in real life. There’s Bill, balding, overweight veteran who’s lonely and cuts hair on the nearby military base for income and amusement. Boomhauer, the suave, thin ladies man with the weird hillbilly accent who always seems to have female companionship and little to do outside of that but drink beer with the other guys and watch the world go by. (In the final episode’s surprise twist, we see his wallet lying open and find he’s a Texas Ranger – the elite branch of the state police.) And there’s Dale, a man ahead of his time. Chain-smoker, exterminator by day, full-time conspiracy theorist and paranoid political commentator at night. Somehow he’s married to the lovely Nancy, the local TV weather girl and they have a son, Joseph… who looks nothing at all like him nor the blonde Nancy…but suspiciously like John Redcorn, the Native “healer” who has been giving her lengthy massages for her migraines for years. Dale has trouble figuring out why Joseph looks like that…but thinks maybe his wife was abducted and impregnated by aliens. And we can’t forget Cotton, Hank’s cranky old father, lacking the bottom of his legs due to a war injury, nor the Khans. The Khans are from Laos, and while their daughter, Kahn Jr. (Connie to her friends) has assimilated well and is Bobby’s erstwhile girlfriend, and mother Mihn tries, Kahn Sr. fancies himself a successful businessman and can’t believe his bad luck landing up on a street full of hillbillies and rednecks. Somehow, the men all seem to get along and bond over things like appreciation of a good garbage can or love of (in Khan’s case, grudging acceptance of) Alamo Beer.

For the most part, the stories were fully relatable. They never starred in freaky Halloween episodes nor a big Broadway show (although ZZ Top did guest star once and put Hank unwillingly into a reality show following him around) or get abducted by aliens, perhaps to Dale’s surprise. Instead there were events like Hank trying to get the city to rescind it’s bylaw necessitating water-conserving toilets, or camping out in the local Megalomart with Dale (which bears a lot of resemblance to another American big box department store) trying to catch a rat. In one episode, Bobby gets picked on by bullies leading Hank to try to get the boy into a boxing class. Instead of that, Bobby ends up in a women’s self-defence course and learns to kick anyone he’s mad at in the testicles…Hank included. And one of the final episodes really amused me … I was born and raised near Toronto, if you didn’t know that already. In it, Boomhauer decides to take a vacation in Canada and temporarily trades houses with a Canadian family. Hank and the Canadian dad take an instant disliking to each other, with them competing over who brews the best beer and whose brand of lawn mower rules. End result? Both get arrested for DWI while mowing their lawns; Hank and his buddies eventually sell a “keginator” beer-pump to bail the Canuck out of jail, because that’s what neighbors do. “We’re Americans,” Hank declares “we’re the world’s welcome mat. It doesn’t matter if they’re from Canada, Laos, or God forbid, even California!”

The show had Greg Daniels co-writing early on, a good pedigree since he’d worked on Saturday Night Live, the Simpsons and co-wrote the Seinfeld episode “The Parking Space”… Music City Mike probably remembers that one. When it first came on, I liked it and often watched it, but it took years for it to really grow on me and come to appreciate how fully nuanced the characters were and how much attention to detail of human nature it showed…all the while being hilarious. There was a great sense of humanity in it all. People like Hank were trying their best, having a hard time keeping up with the changing times (he was the holdout on the office’s love of Facebook, for example) but doing his best to understand and be better. Nancy had her ongoing affair, but called it off eventually when she realized it was wrong to do to her husband, wacky as he was. And Luanne, sweet as pie and about as dumb as one too, with her little Christian puppets trying to teach kids right from wrong, boyfriend Lucky in tow. Lucky got his nickname when he slipped on pee at a Walmart and sued them for hundreds of thousands! (That makes watching it a tiny bit sad as both of the voice actors are gone – Brittany Murphy who did Luanne, and the one and only Tom Petty who was ‘Lucky’). They were all good people and the shows funny. But once I came to Texas…boy howdy, it took to another level for me.

Judge spent time in the Dallas Metroplex when young and said he based it on the suburbs like Arlington and Garland, Texas. Once I saw Waco, it seemed like Waco was Arlen…or vice versa. There are so many details that ring true like the Bush’s beans at dinner or love of Whataburger. When Peggy wants to have a serious talk with Bobby, she’ll treat him to one of those burgers…leading him to suspiciously note last time she took him there, she told him about Doggie Heaven!

I started this thinking I wouldn’t have enough to say about King of the Hill. Turns out I have too much to say for one column really. So one more thing – I just reminded myself how funny the show was. I think I’m going to go watch a few now!

TV Draft Round 3 – Pick 6 – Lovecraft Country

Saturday 041622 Lisa – TV Draft Round 3 Pick 6 – Lovecraft Country
(2020) 1 season 10 episodes, originally on HBO
Starring:
Jonathan Majors as Atticus “Tic” Freeman
Jurnee Smollett as Letitia “Leti” Lewis
Aunjanue Ellis as Hippolyta Freeman
Wunmi Mosaku as Ruby Baptiste
Abbey Lee as Christina Braithwhite
Jamie Chung as Ji-Ah
Jada Harris as Diana Freeman
Michael Kenneth Williams as Montrose Freeman
Jordan Patrick Smith as William
Courtney B. Vance at George Freeman

Director: Daniel Sackheim (2 episodes and the rest, 1 each,) Yann Demange, Cheryl Dunye, Misha Green, Victoria Mahoney, Nelson McCormick, Jeffrey Nachmanoff, Helen Shaver, Charlotte Sieling
Genres: drama, fantasy, horror
Synopsis: Set in the 1950’s Jim Crow Era, as the story opens Tic is on a bus, a soldier coming home from the Korean War to his small southern town. He reconnects with his Uncle George, Aunt Hippolyta, and young cousin, Jada. Uncle George publishes a regional issue of “The Green Book,” which is a travel guide for people of color that lists safe places to dine, lodge, shop, etc., which he learns by going into the field on road trips. Aunt Hippolyta is a mother, wife, and amateur astronomer. Jada is a budding artist. Tic learns that Montrose, his father, and brother to Uncle George, has disappeared. He also learns that his dad is on a quest to investigate long-suggested mysteries around his family’s heritage. He leaves behind enough clues to compel Tic and Uncle George to go looking for Montrose. Enter Leti, who just got back to town and is only temporarily staying with her sister, Ruby. Leti is penniless and needs a ride to her brother’s house, which happens to be on the way to where Tic and Uncle George are headed. And so begins a rousing cross-country adventure that provides excitement, danger, terror, and more pieces to the puzzle every step along the way. The plot throughout mixes Jim Crow South with Lovecraft Horror skillfully as it puts our heroes through challenges nobody would ever wish to be put through in order to get to the truth.
Impressions: It’s been a long time since I’ve encountered a series this dense with creativity, action/adventure, plot intricacy, depiction of institutionalized racism (and educating, in the process,) and resonance as Lovecraft Country. It may be that I’ve never come across a TV series just that good before. I literally had no clue what was going to happen next, and being that on the edge of my seat throughout 10 episodes was like going to an amusement park where every ride has no dead space.

Image Link

This series is not for the faint of heart. There are hauntings, mythical and otherworldly beasts, curses, time travel, old secret societies that practice magic and other rituals, and shapeshifting with the Lovecraft aspect. With the Jim Crow aspect, there are “sunset towns, police racists/fascists threatening and variously harassing people of color, separate dining and lodging mandates, neighborhood and employment exclusions, and other things that create a hostile environment for anyone whose skin is not white. There are pervasive ongoing activities that are designed to keep our heroes from feeling welcome or safe. The closer they get to solving the mystery the more threatening and dangerous the forces become.
Grade: 10
Etc.: It’s based on a novel by Matt Ruff, but it is a refashioning of a pulp fiction novel by H.P. Lovecraft, who is reported to have been a rabid racist. It is my understanding that Lovecraft Country was designed to be one season, based on the novel. Various sources give suggestions that there could have been another season, but it hasn’t happened, at least not yet.
Awards: 24 wins and 104 nominations
Website: There is a wealth of information on the series at the HBO website.

https://youtu.be/RoPQ_OPWDN0

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….

TV Draft Round 3 – Pick 3 – Starsky & Hutch

Starsky & Hutch IMDb Amazon Image One — Photo Credit: IMDb & Amazon

I was raised in law enforcement. My dad was a Probation/Parole Officer, his younger brother, a city cop in our hometown and my first cousin became a deputy. Some years later, when my dad re-married, my stepmom was Parking Enforcement for the same city police department. I grew up watching every manner of cop TV show you could find, from re-runs of Dragnet to Hawaii Five-O to Kojak to The Rookies to Baretta to Adam-12 to The Rockford Files to Police Story…and everything in-between. My personal favorite was Starsky & Hutch. I had a “thing” for Paul Michael Glaser. His picture was one of four photos I kept as a kid and young teen. The others were Lindsay Wagner, Olivia Newton-John and John Schneider. I later regretted my attachment to him. I didn’t remember most of the episodes but, I was reintroduced to the show in the 90s with re-runs. ~Vic

Created and written by William Blinn (Brian’s Song, The Rookies, Eight Is Enough & Pensacola: Wings of Gold), it starred David Soul (Det. Sgt. Kenneth Richard “Hutch” Hutchinson), Paul Michael Glaser (Det. Sgt. David Michael Starsky), Antonio Fargas (Informant Huggy Bear) and Bernie Hamilton (Captain Harold C. Dobey). In the Pilot TV Movie, Captain Dobey was played by Richard Ward. Sgt. Hutchinson was from Duluth, MN, was divorced and was a reserved, intellectual type. Sgt. Starsky was from Brooklyn, NY, was an Army veteran, had street-smarts and, could be intense & moody. Informant Huggy Bear was a flashy, ethically ambiguous bar owner that provided the two Sergeants with whatever street action knowledge he could gather. Captain Dobey was their barking & gruff but, fair boss. He had his hands full with those two. One of the main characters of the show was Starsky’s red, 1975 Ford Gran Torino (four of them, actually), nicknamed the “Striped Tomato.” In the show, Hutch calls the car that name in the episode Snowstorm (10-01-1975) but, that crack actually came from Paul Michael Glaser when Aaron Spelling showed him the car (First Season DVD Collection). Hutch’s vehicle was a beat-up, tan, 1973 Ford Galaxie 500, whose horn would blow when the door was opened.

Hutch Gran Torino Colt Python IMDb & Amazon Image Two — Hutch & His Colt Python
Photo Credit: IMDb & Amazon

Favorite Episodes:
♦ The Fix (10-08-1975)
♦ Running (with Jan Smithers/02-25-1976)
♦ The Las Vegas Strangler Part I & Part II (with Lynda Carter/09-25-1976)
♦ Nightmare (11-28-1976)
♦ Starsky’s Lady (with Season Hubley 02-12-1977)
♦ Long Walk Down A Short Dirt Road (with Lynn Anderson/03-12-1977)
♦ Fatal Charm (with Karen Valentine & Roz Kelly/09-24-1977)
♦ I Love You, Rosey Malone (10-01-1977)
♦ Blindfold (with Kim Cattrall/09-26-1978)

Trivia Bits:
☆ Originally, Starsky was supposed to drive a green and white Chevy Camaro but, the producers had a contract with Ford.
☆ On numerous occasions, Paul Michael Glaser has talked about how much he hated the car, as well as playing Starsky and, that he had campaigned to be released from his contract.
☆ Zebra Three was the radio call sign for Starsky, Hutch…and the car.
☆ Starsky and Hutch were based on Lou Telano and John Sepe.
☆ The Colt Python .357 Magnum revolver used by Hutch is the same pistol carried by David Soul in his role as Officer John Davis in Magnum Force.
☆ The show had four different opening theme songs with seasons two and four crafted by Tom Scott and sounding similar. Season one was crafted by Lalo Schifrin and season three crafted by Mark Snow, known for the X-Files theme.

Different Themes

TV Draft Round 3 – Pick 2 – Seinfeld

Seinfeld

I must begin by saying that I’m puzzled as to why it took me so long to decide what my next pick in the TV series draft would be. The number of Seinfeld YouTube clips I’ve watched should alone justify making the “show about nothing” my #3 overall pick.

My history with Seinfeld however is odd in that I did not watch a single episode in real time until I viewed the underwhelming series finale at a private corporate event on their then-expensive big screen. By then though I had at least seen some reruns but had yet to become passionate about the show. But not too long after the series ceased, I got hooked by watching many more reruns and running through my Dad’s DVD collection when I visited my folks. Watching Seinfeld soon became highly addictive for several reasons upon which I will elaborate.

Seinfeld ‘s obvious attractions are of course that it is very funny, all the characters are incredible, and like my prior two series picks, it is set mostly in New York City. And to that last point, the show’s brilliant production never once makes you think that it’s all done in a Hollywood studio. It really feels like it’s all happening in the Big Apple.

Remarkably, I have always been fascinated by how timeless Seinfeld is. Despite the lack of cellphones and the presence of Jerry’s dated haircut and his old Macintosh computer visible in the background, the storylines just seem so relevant to whatever decade you are watching them in. Relationship issues, comical character failures and the unabashed selfishness exhibited by the four main characters are things we can all forever relate to and laugh about.

Seinfeld’s impact on popular culture is also unprecedented. For a show that is now more that 20 years expired, there are so many expressions that are now accepted vernacular. Aside from the obvious “Yada Yada” and “No soup for you!”, quite often, personal situations have made me recall and reference old episodes. One recent example dealt with someone who was perpetuating an obvious lie until when like George Costanza, “He finally reached the end of the Hamptons!” Amazing how many people I said this to remembered that car ride ending in a walk when George didn’t admit to his fiancé’s parents that he didn’t have a house in the Hamptons until they all reached the Atlantic Ocean.

Each Seinfeld episode typically had three or four concurrent storylines and we often forget the classics that intersected with one another. One was when the injured squirrel, for whom George paid for surgery to impress a girlfriend, got snatched away by a hawk during Kramer’s mock Merv Griffin Show. (After he found the old TV show set props in the trash bin.) On the same “show,” Jerry also was outed for drugging his girlfriend so that he could play with her rare vintage toy collection.

Being a baseball fan, having George work for the Yankees and seeing some real-life Yankees and Mets playing themselves on the show was something special. In fact, if I had to pick my favorite episode, it would be the one in which George suggested the Yankees wear cotton uniforms since cotton fabric breathes. Then came the problem when the non-polyester uniforms shrank making play difficult. This was also another great multiple story line show in which the gang watches the hapless Yanks from an Atlantic City hotel room where Jerry also accidently drowns the trained doves from Miss Rhode Island’s talent act. (Kramer was coaching Jerry’s girlfriend for the pageant.)

Writing about this show makes me want to watch it right now. It also makes me ponder where did Kramer get the money to live on and how many girlfriends did Jerry have? It’s hard to imagine what life would be like without the ability to go back and visit Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer on a regular basis.

Finally, while there never was an official Seinfeld reunion show, there was a short segment on Seinfeld co-creator Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm where we did see the show’s main four characters in the future. Here’s a look at those snippets all combined in a clever update that makes you long for some more new Seinfeld. Maybe someday.