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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 10, 2022 18:37:25 GMT -5
I decided not to get into the whole Braeden/Gudegast thing. It’s almost like Captain Dietrich was a war criminal who changed his name and fled North Africa to take up a career as a race car driver to escape prosecution for his crimes. You’d think he’d want to keep a lower profile and wouldn’t be trying to sabotage Herbie in the race. He's great in an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, as a pompous critic who attacks everything. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 11, 2022 19:18:24 GMT -5
Watched probably the strangest Columbo episode of all, last night: "Last Salute to the Commodore." It features John Dehner, as a yacht builder, whose family is squabbling for his millions and is then murdered. Robert Vaughn played his son-in-law. Wilfred Hyde-White is the man's lawyer and Fred Draper is a nephew. Where it gets strange is you do not see the murder happen and Columbo works with Bruce Kirby's Sgt Kramer and a new detective, played by Dennis Dugan and doesn't do his normal "Just one more question" routine. The acting in it is very flamboyant and theatrical, with some scenes played more comically than dramatically. You do not see the murder happen, then what appears to be the murderer ends up dead, as well, leaving you to figure out who killed them. The whole thing seemed rather bizarre and almost fantasy-like and was a huge departure from the normal formula. By the end I was wondering who the hell directed this and why they went this route. Then, I saw the credits and the director was Patrick McGoohan, who had previously acted in two episodes and also directed one of them. That explained everything as the style of things was very reminiscent of The Prisoner, of which he directed several episodes and had a big say in how others were directed. His own previous performance got rather exaggerated and it was everybody, this time, apart from Vaughn and Dehner, who play it relatively straight. Just weird.
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Post by Batflunkie on Oct 18, 2022 9:53:15 GMT -5
Was thinking about the old Disney Zorro show the other day, it used to come on around 5 or so on the Disney Channel and it wasn't my cup of tea as a child (all I wanted was more cartoons). They recently put it up on Disney Plus and wow, what a great show!
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Post by Prince Hal on Oct 18, 2022 10:11:58 GMT -5
Was thinking about the old Disney Zorro show the other day, it used to come on around 5 or so on the Disney Channel and it wasn't my cup of tea as a child (all I wanted was more cartoons). They recently put it up on Disney Plus and wow, what a great show! Guy Williams' apex moment as the Disney Studios' Errol Flynn. Although I'll listen to anyone who argues that it was when he was also suitably dashing as Miles Hendon in the 1962 "Prince and the Pauper." |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 28, 2022 10:04:37 GMT -5
FIREBALL XL5 debuted on ITV 60 years ago today:
This is not a series I have ever watched. I wasn’t around when it aired, and if it was repeated, I missed it. I also didn’t have a yearning to buy it on VHS or DVD as whatever funds I had for Anderson shows, I wanted to spend on the likes of UFO.
Suffice to say, I did read a few strips, and I quite like the idea of oxygen pills, allowing the characters to breathe in space.
The show was set in 2062 (a mere 40 years away!), and featured the exploits of the World Space Patrol, commanded by Colonel Steve Zodiac. As I haven’t seen it, I can’t offer any personal anecdotes, but perhaps someone here has seen it.
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Post by Batflunkie on Oct 29, 2022 17:57:21 GMT -5
The fact that Gerry Anderson related shows are still around in some capacity makes me extremely happy, particularly Thunderbirds Are Go! and Nebula 75
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Post by Prince Hal on Oct 29, 2022 19:16:38 GMT -5
My younger brother got the XL5 spaceship for Christmas that year. It was an excellent toy. We watched the show as many Saturdays as we could, singing along with the superb lounge singer-style theme song. Only lasted a year, IIRC, but it was up there with the Thunderbirds in quality.  |
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 30, 2022 11:33:09 GMT -5
My younger brother got the XL5 spaceship for Christmas that year. It was an excellent toy. We watched the show as many Saturdays as we could, singing along with the superb lounge singer-style theme song. Only lasted a year, IIRC, but it was up there with the Thunderbirds in quality. That theme song is an oddity, compared to the other Anderson shows... WASP must have had a hell of a hydraulic fluid budget! |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2022 6:06:49 GMT -5
SuperTed debuted on S4C (Welsh-language) forty years ago today, although it would be a year or so later before it would be dubbed into English and broadcast on the BBC: I did enjoy this show. Did seem to be “appointment TV” at times. Great to hear Jon Pertwee as the voice of Spotty. I can find details of only one comic published: 
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Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2022 15:05:11 GMT -5
SuperTed debuted on S4C (Welsh-language) forty years ago today
Star Fleet also debuted around 40 years ago I think...I caught it on VHS in the mid 90s and, just between you and me, was watching it well into my 20s when no one was around shhhhh
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 24, 2022 11:50:27 GMT -5
Long shot here, but apparently there was a very short-lived (six episodes) series in 1975 with Brian Keith as Ross Macdonald’s Lew Archer. Anyone remember it? Or have seen it? All I can find on YouTube is the intro and one very badly recorded episode in Spanish. I’m intrigued as you how it was.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Nov 24, 2022 12:47:10 GMT -5
Long shot here, but apparently there was a very short-lived (six episodes) series in 1975 with Brian Keith as Ross Macdonald’s Lew Archer. Anyone remember it? Or have seen it? All I can find on YouTube is the intro and one very badly recorded episode in Spanish. I’m intrigued as you how it was. Sorry, can't help here. Never saw it, only heard of it and rather recently at that (I'm pretty because Greg Hatcher mentioned it in one of his columns at the Atomic Junk Shop - but damned if I can remember which one). |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 24, 2022 13:48:20 GMT -5
Long shot here, but apparently there was a very short-lived (six episodes) series in 1975 with Brian Keith as Ross Macdonald’s Lew Archer. Anyone remember it? Or have seen it? All I can find on YouTube is the intro and one very badly recorded episode in Spanish. I’m intrigued as you how it was. Sorry, can't help here. Never saw it, only heard of it and rather recently at that (I'm pretty because Greg Hatcher mentioned it in one of his columns at the Atomic Junk Shop - but damned if I can remember which one). The very few reviews I’ve seen indicate it was a pretty generic average to below-average 70s PI show. It’s been so long since I’ve read any of the Archer novels that I can’t really decide if Brian Keith would be any kind of a fit. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Nov 29, 2022 23:21:46 GMT -5
Long shot here, but apparently there was a very short-lived (six episodes) series in 1975 with Brian Keith as Ross Macdonald’s Lew Archer. Anyone remember it? Or have seen it? All I can find on YouTube is the intro and one very badly recorded episode in Spanish. I’m intrigued as you how it was. I remember that there was a series, but I wasn't watching much TV back then and never saw it. It's listed on imdb, which you've probably checked, where I saw that there was a previous TV movie, "The Underground Man," with Peter Graves as Lew Archer. It ran on NBC against "The Streets of San Francisco" (ABC) and the CBS Thursday Night at the Movies. "Streets" was a big hit at the time, and running a mystery against it seems to make no sense. Wish I could say more. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2022 7:03:20 GMT -5
A Touch of Frost, starring David Jason as Detective Inspector William “Jack” Frost, debuted on ITV 30 years ago today. It ran for fifteen seasons, until 2010.
Based on books written by R. D. Wingfield (1928-2007), the series featured the pragmatic thief-taker DI Frost often clashing with his bureaucratic, PR-obsessed boss, Superintendent Mullett (Bruce Alexander); Frost had little time for PR, paperwork and bureaucracy, which often brought him into conflict with Frost, but Mullett knew that Frost was a good thief-taker who could be relied upon to get results.
There were a rotating cast of supporting officers, although some were there for the duration, such as DS George Toolan (John Lyons) and PC Ernie Trigg (Arthur White), the collator/archivist.
David Jason was still playing DI Frost in his late sixties, but announced he’d retire from the role due to the fact that most detectives would be retired by 60. In an interview with a broadsheet, Jason said, “You wouldn't want me to play Frost in a wheelchair, would you?...Frost is getting a little long in the tooth. I still enjoy doing it, and it's a great part, but I just think he's got to retire. It'll be a sad day."
It was good while it lasted. Frost was a good character (with a poor diet, he seemed to live on canteen food) - and very humorous. Out of all the TV detectives I’ve watched, he appeared to have the most disdain for paperwork. One TV critic moaned that Frost would have been promoted after so many years on the job, but maybe some are happy in middle ranks - and I doubt someone who hated paperwork would want to be a superintendent or chief constable where there’d be even more paperwork.
Great show.
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