Week of March 26: Remembering Robert Culp; Scarecrow and Mr. Jones; A Gift of "GE Theater"

The risk of doing a blog about classic television shows is that it will include a lot of obituaries.

Sadly, there's another one this week: Robert Culp, possibly one of the most unselfish men to ever star in a television series. He was the star of "I Spy," but didn't complain when his co-star won three Emmys and became a television icon. That co-star, of course, is Bill Cosby, who said this week that Culp was like a brother.

Culp was also featured in "The Greatest American Hero," which starred William Katt (son of Barbara Hale, who played Perry Mason's loyal secretary, Della Street) and Connie Sellecca, and ran on ABC from 1981-83. He also played the father of Debra Barone (Pamela Heaton) in "Everybody Loves Raymond" (CBS, 1996-2005).

Here's a link to an interview by Culp about "Greatest American Hero," which would make a superb film (And please, not a re-made TV series):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRSEKj1cU8c

And to watch the treat of the Culp-Cosby partnership and chemistry, the final episode of "I Spy":

http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/i-spy-last-episode-pinwheel-13751



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A couple of great DVD releases in recent weeks:

*Season 1 of "Barnaby Jones," which ran on CBS 1973-80. The title character, played so well by Buddy Ebsen, spun off into his own series from "Cannon," which starred William Conrad.

Also starring was Lee Merriwether, Miss America 1955, as Jones daughter-in-law, Betty. In later seasons, Mark Shera would play a cousin, J.R. (or Jedidiah, as Barnaby called him).

The show was, as the announcer intoned each week, "A Quinn Martin Production.":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATUILf51B3c

*Also newly released is Season 1 of "Scarecrow and Mrs. King," which ran on CBS from 1983-87.

Kate Jackson underwent quite an image transformation from the cool agent Sabrina Duncan of "Charlie's Angels" to domestic divorcee Amanda King in this series. She discovered the dangers of taking a package from a stranger in the first episode - especially when the stranger turned out to be handsome agent Lee Stetson, played by Bruce Boxleitner. Amanda kept her life secret from mother Dotty (Beverly Garland, who had been in "My Three Sons") and her two sons. Lee and Amanda were overseen by Billy Melrose (Mel Stuart, who had played Henry Jefferson in "All in the Family") and aided by agent Francine Desmond (Martha Smith).

The show was fun, if increasingly implausible as time passed (While fans cheered Lee and Amanda's eventual romance and marriage, they did not cheer the pair keeping it a secret from Amanda's family.).

Eventually, real life intervened: Kate Jackson contracted breast cancer, and struggled to complete the last season of the show.

Today, she continues to work in television, and has survived both cancer and a hole in her heart, which was repaired by surgery. Boxleitner has continued in various TV roles as well.

Here's the beginning of that first episode:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJBucQp-fws&feature=PlayList&p=2BEF207731FC5F9D&index=0&playnext=1

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NBC's present doesn't look very good, but it recently had a great find from its past: All of the episodes of General Electric Theater that were hosted by an actor named Ronald Reagan.

The 208 episodes have been sent to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library as part of the library's celebration of Reagan's 100th birthday:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jRNYUmlrFBmq-_NOS_dfgR2aWwSAD9EGP6IO0

Reagan began his hosting duties for the program, which ran on CBS on Sunday nights after "The Ed Sullivan Show," during the third season.

http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=generalelect

Most of the productions were drama; Reagan himself starred with his wife and future First Lady Nancy Reagan in one production. Occasionally, the program would draw a different kind of entertainment, like the legendary Judy Garland:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYCFtWzz3gw

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Rabbit Ears will return in two weeks.

Until then, Happy Passover, Happy Easter, Happy Spring and Happy Viewing!

Week of March 19: How Peter Graves Became Mr. Phelps; Fess Parker Tribute

Until the DVD of the first season of "Mission Impossible" came out a few years ago, a lot of people had forgotten that Peter Graves did not play the iconic role of Jim Phelps throughout the entire series.

Steven Hill, who would later play the district attorney modeled after real-life New York DA Henry Morgenthau on "Law & Order," played Dan Briggs, the man who received those strange missions via reel-to-reel tape recorder, during "MI's" first season.

Hill is an Orthodox Jew, and thus could not film from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, or on major holidays. Under today's standards, accomodations might be made, but Hill had struggles with the show's producers over that and other issues. He was then replaced by Graves.

The show did not achieve high ratings during that first season, despite Lalo Schifrin's memorable opening theme song, possibly the best in television history. But it did win an Emmy for best dramatic series. That and Graves' entry opened the door to "Mission's" glory years.

Here's a link to America Online for "Mission's" 3 most memorable moments:

http://insidetv.aol.com/2010/03/16/peter-graves-on-mission-impossible-3-most-memorable-moments/

Good night, Mr. Phelps.

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Late word, sorry to say, of the death of Fess Parker, who was great at playing two 19th century men: Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. Appropriately, Parker had a history degree.

Parker had a second life, as a successful developer and vintner. He was most successful in family life, being married for 50 years. Sadly, he died on his wife's birthday.

The legacies of all his lives remain, including an inn in California. Here's a link to the best-known one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2Tu8NskR-E

Hail to the King of the Wild Frontier.

See you next week.

Week of March 12: So Long, Father Murphy

Yesterday came the sad news of the death of Merlin Olsen, a Hall of Fame football player during the 1960s, a stellar football announcer and actor afterwards, and a class act always.

Olsen teamed up first with the legendary Curt Gowdy, then with Dick Enberg, on NBC's Sunday National Football League telecasts. In 1988, when Enberg was headed to Seoul to co-host the network's coverage of the Summer Olympics with Bryant Gumbel, Olsen and Gowdy reunited in the broadcast booth:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X91l6IuTJLs

And Gowdy was sure right about Olsen: "He's never missed at any effort in his life."

Those efforts included television drama. Olsen was a Mormon, and that influenced his choice of roles. Michael Landon tapped him to play Jonathan Garvey, Charles Ingells' friend, on NBC's "Little House On the Prairie" in 1977:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzB8rVCNrjA&NR=1

This scene also included a young Patrick Labyorteaux (later Lt. Bud Roberts on the CBS program "JAG") as Jonathan's son, Andy.

In 1981, Landon would produce, and Olsen would star in "Father Murphy," in which he played a prospector who pretended to be a priest in order to protect a group of orphans. The show lasted two seasons:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf2LTOlaKc4

Moses Gunn and Katherine Cannon were also part of the cast.

So long to Merlin Olsen, gentle giant.

Week of March 5: Oscar Nominees On the Small Screen

Sunday night will be the Academy Awards, Hollywood's shiniest night of the year.

Before all the glitter, it's fun to take a look back at the experience of some of the nominees on some classic (and not-so-classic) television shows.

Best Actor

*Who's that Easy Reader? Why it's nominee Morgan Freeman. Long before he was playing Nelson Mandela, Freeman was playing a number of characters on the first version of the PBS children's program "The Electric Company":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkwCynNm18c

*George Clooney's television contributions have been well-noted: Two versions of ER (one not-so-good on CBS as well as the classic NBC series), and, of course, "The Facts of Life":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIZ7ACvfwds

Not-so-classic mullets, either. :)


*Colin Firth is another actor with a classic television background, including everyone's favorite TV interpretation of the classic "Pride and Prejudice":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHNwtGBbODg&feature=PlayList&p=QP_6Bmwu4-8

I'll take you, Mr. Darcy; I'll take you.


Best Actress

*Helen Mirren's contribution to television is unquestioned. She set standards as Jane Tennison in "Prime Suspect," all of which was shown on PBS and is available on DVD (and begs yet another question: Like "The Rockford Files" and "Hawaii Five-O," why remake this when the original was so good?).

*"Working Girl," of course, is a classic Academy Award winning (for Carly Simon's song "Let the River Run") movie. It later became a series, with one of this year's nominees, Sandra Bullock:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crW8CVZ8f1M


*Meryl Streep has been a movie star almost since the beginning. But a year before she would win her first Oscar for "Kramer vs. Kramer," she starred in the groundbreaking NBC miniseries "Holocaust":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4ECsTESTxA



Best Supporting Actor

We conclude with Woody Harrelson, who joined the cast of "Cheers" in its third season, after the death of Nicholas Colasanto and the character he played, Coach. Look for Harrelson about five minutes in (and the added bonus of one of the greatest theme songs in television history):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpcWtujp9PE

Enjoy the Oscars. Until next week, Happy Viewing!

Week of Feb. 26: The Rockford Files: The Other Show That Doesn't Need a Remake

It may be the most famous answering machine in television history:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz_NkXeAnJo

That, of course, was the beginning of "The Rockford Files," which ran on NBC from 1974-80 and was the definitive television role (even more than Maverick) for James Garner. Each week, the answering machine had a new - and funny - message.

Garner played private eye Jim Rockford, and if it can be said that a role looked comfortable on an actor, this one did. The supporting cast was excellent, including Noah Beery, Jr. as "Rocky," his father; Joe Santos as Police Sgt. Dennis Becker; Gretchen Corbett as Beth Davenport, Rockford's lawyer and sometime girlfriend; Stuart Margolin as con artist Angel and Isaac Hayes as former prisonmate Gandolph Fitch, who referred to Rockford as "Rockfish."

The trailer where Rockford lived and the Pontiac he drove could also be considered supporting characters.

All six seasons have been released on DVD. The first three are available at Hulu.com.

After all that success, NBC wants to remake "Rockford," just as CBS will try with "Hawaii Five-O," (which sounds worse and worse the more information comes out).

The question is the same for both remakes:

Why?

Just enjoy the originals. And until next week, Happy Viewing!

Week of Feb. 19: Hail Betty White

It's nice to see Betty White received deserved accolades for almost a lifetime of television work.

White is one of the rare people who has performed in a television program of some sort each decade since the medium became a national touchstone.

Her first series was a brief one, called "Life With Elizabeth:"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miPyaWgrn2w


She appeared in a number of guest-starring roles from the 1950s through the early 1970s.

Her first truly successful chapter came during the 1960s and 70s, as a game show panelist. She could be seen on "To Tell the Truth," "Match Game" and, in particular, "Password." That's where she met the love of her life, host Alan Ludden, whom she married:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDjeaChO7YE&feature=PlayList&p=6F1A15CEE23D19B9&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=20

Sadly, he died in 1981.

Then came 1973 - and White's turn in "The Lars Affair," an episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." The snarky "Happy Homemaker" Sue Ann Nivens, played so well by White, has an affair with Lars Lindstrom, the unseen husband of Phyllis (Cloris Leachman):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_YrLfvraEw

White would become a series regular and play Sue Ann through the rest of its run.

She would continue the guest-starring roles, including a significant part on NBC's "Mama's Family," and game shows until 1984. Then came a second transformational role.

Originally, the producers of "The Golden Girls" sought to have White play Blanche, the widow with a very active (to say the least) social life. They had planned for Rue McClanahan to play the sweet, naive Rose. White asked for a reversal, playing Rose while McClanahan played Blanche. The result was magic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHz8mn3mm_o&feature=related

Long may you work, Ms. White.

See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!

Week Of Feb. 12: Greatest TV Winter Olympic Moments and Inspiration For Garry Marshall

The Winter Olympics in Vancouver begin tonight, and it's a good time to review those heart-stopping great televised moments in Winter Olympics history:

-Grenoble, France, 1968: The first Winter Olympics to be televised in color had two made-for-television heroes. The first was French skier Jean-Claude Killy, who won three golds. The second was figure skater Peggy Fleming, who won the United States' only gold and many hearts.

-Innsbruck, 1976: Another American figure skater captured the imagination: This time it was Dorothy Hamill, with her camel spin and her wedge haircut that sent a lot of young women and girls (including me) to the beauty salon.

-Lake Placid, 1980: No contest for the greatest Winter Olympics moment ever, called on ABC by the great Al Michaels: "Do you believe in miracles? Yes!" as hockey Team USA defeated the Soviets.

-Sarajevo, 1984: Queen Elizabeth may have been the only Brit to receive more respect than ice dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, who received perfect scores for their exquisite routine to Ravel's "Bolero." Perfection, indeed.

-Calgary, 1988: The last Winter Olympics that took place in Canada was a feast for figure skating fans, highlighted by the "Battle of the Brians," in which the USA's Brian Boitano took gold and Canada's Brian Orser took silver in a marvelous duel of athleticism and artistry. British ski jumper Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards won hearts, if not medals. So did the Jamaican bobsled team, mon.

-Lillehammer, 1994: Hello Daehlie......Bjorn Daehlie, the cross-country skier and hometown hero in these Norwegian Olympics, showed what a true sportsman was in this Tonya-and-Nancy saturated event. So did American speed skater Dan Jansen, who finally won gold after three heartbreaking Olympics.

-Nagano, 1998: The Czechs made me a hockey fan with their amazing win over powerhouse Russia for the gold.




-Salt Lake City, 2002: The somber moment during the opening ceremony when the American flag that flew at the devestated World Trade Center in New York was carried into the stadium was a fitting tribute to 9/11. A much happier moment occurred almost two weeks later, when a joyous Sarah Hughes learned she had won gold in women's figure skating.

What will make the list at these Olympics? Stay tuned.......


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The release of the Garry Marshall-directed movie "Valentine's Day" generates recollections of "Love, American Style." The ABC show, which ran from 1969-74, seems to have had a similar, vignette-style form of storytelling - as well as a cool theme song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNHuI0Pw0m8

Marshall wrote two of the vignettes for "Love, American Style." One of them, of course, was "Love and the Happy Days," which featured Ron (still known as Ronny) Howard and Anson Williams. Of course, it went on to become the long-running series "Happy Days."

Only Season 1 has been released on DVD so far (in that annoying multi-volume method).

Happy Valentine's Day and Happy Viewing!