Archive for the ‘Mannix’ Category

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“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 311

Friday, February 5th, 2021

As I’ve said before, I don’t like using TV shows here unless it is a short video to make a point, or a documentary series.

I’m fuzzing things a bit here, but I think it is justified. Also, it pushes some of my buttons.

Between 1962 and 1963, there was a television series called “GE True“. It was called “GE True” because it was sponsored by General Electric, and featured stories from True magazine that were adapted for television. Gene Roddenberry was one of the scriptwriters, and the series was produced and hosted by Jack Webb. Webb directed some of the episodes: some others were directed by William Conrad.

It was 25 minutes long (though some episodes were multi-part ones) and there were 33 total episodes. A small number of episodes have been uploaded to the ‘Tube.

I’ve written before about Earl Rogers, Clarence Darrow, and the LA Times jury bribery trial. From “GE True”, original airdate January 13, 1963, “Defendant: Clarence Darrow”. Robert Vaughn plays Earl Rogers, and Tol Avery (a prolific actor I was previously unfamiliar with: for the record, he appeared three times on “Mannix” before his death in 1973) plays Darrow.

Bonus #1: “V-Victor-5”, co-written by Gene Roddenberry. On a hot summer day in NYC in 1933, a lone off-duty NYPD officer in the days before radio cars, and surrounded by a hostile crowd, holds five armed and dangerous fugitives at gunpoint until backup arrives…two hours later.

(I know the YouTube title says “Commando”, but this one is really “V-Victor-5”. Also, there’s a punchline at the end that I won’t spoil for you.)

Bonus #2: “Commando”.

Oh, wait. Wrong “Commando”. Sorry. This is the right one.

“In 2013 the Jack Webb Fan Club of Los Angeles started a campaign to get the series released on DVD.”

Yes, please!

Posted in Cops, History, Law, Mannix, NYPD, TV | Comments Closed

Obit watch: January 28, 2021.

Thursday, January 28th, 2021

Cloris Leachman.

…between 1972 and 2011 she was nominated for 22 Primetime Emmys and won eight.

(Of course, she won an Oscar as best supporting actress for “The Last Picture Show”. Interestingly, she beat Ellen Burstyn who was also nominated for the same film.)

A number of those Emmys were for dramatic work, including her performance as a woman who finds herself pregnant at 40 in the made-for-TV movie “A Brand New Life” (1973). But comedy was her forte.
She was nominated four times and won twice for her performance on the hit CBS sitcom “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” as Phyllis Lindstrom, the scatterbrained landlady of Mary Richards, the plucky TV news producer played by Ms. Moore. She went on to play the same role from 1975 to 1977 on the spinoff series “Phyllis,” for which she received another Emmy nomination and won a Golden Globe.

Although her focus for the rest of her career was on television, she also had some memorable movie roles, notably under Mel Brooks’s direction. In his beloved horror spoof “Young Frankenstein” (1974) she was the sinister Transylvanian housekeeper Frau Blücher, the very mention of whose name was enough to terrify any horse within earshot. She played similarly intimidating women in Mr. Brooks’s “High Anxiety” (1977) and “History of the World, Part I” (1981). She also co-starred with Harvey Korman in Mr. Brooks’s short-lived sitcom “The Nutt House” (1989).

And, yes! She did do a “Mannix”! (“The Need of a Friend“, season 2, episode 9.)

Posted in 1970s, Mannix, Movies, Obits, TV | 3 Comments »

Obit watch: January 17, 2021.

Sunday, January 17th, 2021

Phil Spector. This is another one of those where I don’t have much to say, really: everyone knows the story (and if you don’t, it is recapped in the obit).

Sylvain Sylvain, of the New York Dolls.

Peter Mark Richman, actor. He had a long list of credits, including soap operas and a long list of 70’s cop/detective shows…

…including “Mannix”. (“Walk With a Dead Man”, season 3, episode 15.)

Posted in 1970s, Mannix, Music, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

Obit watch: December 31, 2020.

Thursday, December 31st, 2020

This is a couple of days old, but I missed it until someone mentioned it to me: William Link.

Mr. Link and his partner, Richard Levinson, created a bunch of famous TV series: “Columbo”, “Murder She Wrote”, and, of course, “Mannix”.

Link and Levinson created the character of Lt. Columbo, the cigar-chomping, perpetually underestimated detective, for an episode of the Chevy Mystery Show in 1960. Eight years later, they revisited the character (and the initial story) with a telefilm called Prescription: Murder, which starred Peter Falk as Columbo. It became a regular series in 1971, running for seven years of wealthy and powerful killers thinking themselves a step ahead of Columbo, but always slipping up just enough for the detective to catch them in a lie that cracked the case.

Burning in Hell watch: Samuel Little.

Mr. Little had confessed to having committed 93 murders between 1970 and 2005, at least 50 of which have been verified by law enforcement officers, the F.B.I. said. He had been convicted of at least eight murders, some of which were solved using D.N.A. analysis.
Many of Mr. Little’s victims were marginalized, young Black women who were estranged from their families and struggling with poverty and addiction. In many cases, their deaths did not draw the same level of attention or outrage as other killings.

Posted in Law, Mannix, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 30

Wednesday, April 29th, 2020

Here’s a little bit more Bell System history for you.

“Challenge of Change”, from 1961. I think this is noteworthy as a very early depiction of the first modem (among other things). That punch-card dialing system is pretty neat for 1961, too.

Bonus video #1: This goes out to all the radio people and “Mannix” fans out there: “Mobile Telephones”, or: what cell phone technology looked like in the late 1940s. Show this to your children.

Bonus video #2: “The Far Sound”, a Bell Labs history of the development of long distance service.

Posted in History, Mannix, Phones, Radio | Comments Closed

Obit watch: April 27, 2020.

Monday, April 27th, 2020

Harold Reid, leader of the Statler Brothers.

The Statlers imbued contemporary country and folk material with traditional gospel harmonies, helping to usher Southern gospel music into the cultural mainstream while paving the way for the arrival of crossover-minded blockbuster country vocal groups like the Oak Ridge Boys and Alabama.
“We took gospel harmonies and put them over in country music,” Mr. Reid was quoted as saying in the Encyclopedia of Gospel Music.

…

Mr. Reid was the funny man of the group and the creative force behind Lester “Roadhog” Moran and the Cadillac Cowboys, the quartet’s comedic alter ego, which lampooned the sacred cows of country music. Mr. Reid played the role of the drolly outrageous Roadhog Moran both on recordings and onstage.

One of my favorite Statler Brothers songs:

And another, even though the (original) lyrics are a little dated:

All right, one more:

Steve Dalkowski, minor league pitcher. This is actually one of those sad stories: he was famous for spending nine seasons in the minor leagues, mostly with the Baltimore Orioles’ teams. He apparently had an amazing fastball, but was also erratic as a pitcher. (“He walked batters almost as often as he struck them out..”) Supposedly, he inspired “Nuke LaLoosh”, the pitcher in “Bull Durham”.

He also had problems with alcohol. At the time of his death, he’d been in a nursing home with “alcohol-induced dementia” for 26 years.

Gene Dynarski. He was “Izzy Mandelbaum Jr.” on “Seinfeld”, appeared on two episodes of a minor SF series, and had guest shots on a lot of other TV, including multiple stints on “Banacek”…

…and, yes, “Mannix”. (“Fly, Little One”, season 3, episode 21. He’s credited as “Killer”.)

Bruce Allpress, New Zealand actor who was in “The Two Towers” and a few other things.

(Hat tip on the last two to Lawrence.)

Posted in 1970s, Mannix, Music, Obits, Sports, TV | Comments Closed

Obit watch: April 7, 2020.

Tuesday, April 7th, 2020

Wow. Yesterday was a day.

In no particular order of importance (and I may be a day or three behind on some of these):

Julie Bennett. She was primarily known as a voice actress: she did a lot of animated stuff, including voicing “Cindy Bear” in the “Yogi Bear Show”. (And “Aunt May” in “Spider-Man: The Animated Series”.) She also did guest shots on a few of my favorite shows: “Adam-12”, “Dragnet 1967”, “The Bold Ones: The New Doctors”, and “Get Smart”.

James Drury. He was famous as the lead in “The Virginian”, but he had a solid body of work outside of that. (Lawrence pointed out that one of his early roles was “Crewman Strong” in “Forbidden Planet”.)

Bobby Mitchell. He played with the Cleveland Browns and the Washington Redskins, and was a Hall of Fame player:

Fast, elusive and versatile, he scored 91 touchdowns, amassed more than 14,000 net yards, was named to the Pro Bowl four times and was voted to the N.F.L.’s all-decade team for the 1960s.
…
“Bobby Mitchell was one of the greatest all-around ballplayers,” Lenny Moore of the Baltimore Colts, a contemporary and fellow Hall of Famer, was quoted as saying on the Redskins’ website. “Anybody who can transition himself and be one of the best in the business at both positions, that’s saying something.”

Forrest Compton. Another knock-around guy: he was most famous for playing “Mike Karr” on “The Edge of Night” soap, but he also was a semi-regular on “Gomer Pyle: USMC”, appeared multiple times in “Hogan’s’ Heros” and “The F.B.I”…

…and, yes, he did do a “Mannix”. (“One for the Lady”, season 4, episode 2. He was “Elgin Bonning”.)

Ed Biles, former coach of the Houston Oilers. He started out as a defensive coordinator:

When [Bum] Phillips was fired after a loss at Oakland in the first round of the playoffs in 1980, Biles was promoted to replace him. His first team finished 7-9. The Oilers were 1-9 during the strike-abbreviated 1982 season. When they started 0-6 in 1983, he was forced out and replaced by defensive coordinator Chuck Studley.

…

Among the players Biles coached were defensive end Elvin Bethea, nose tackle Curley Culp and outside linebacker Robert Brazile, each of whom is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Shirley Douglas, who seems to be consistently described as a “Canadian actor and activist”. Among other roles, she was in the original “Lolita”, the pilot of “The Hat Squad” TV series, the “Flash Gordon” TV series, and “Dead Ringers”.

She was also married to Donald Sutherland: Kiefer Sutherland is her son by Donald. (She also had a daughter, Rachel, with Donald, and another child with her second husband Timothy Emil Sicks.)

Al Kaline, All-Star outfielder for the Detroit Tigers.

He became the youngest batting champion in major league history in 1955 when he hit .340 at age 20. He had 3,007 career hits, the 12th player to reach the No. 3,000 milestone, and he hit 399 home runs, a Tiger record.
Renowned for his powerful arm, Kaline won 10 Gold Glove awards for his play in right field and sometimes in center. He set an American League record for outfielders by playing in 242 consecutive games without an error. He played in 2,834 games from 1953 to 1974, the most of any Tiger, and only Ty Cobb equaled his 22 years with the team.

…

Billy Martin, his manager late in his career, referred to Kaline as Mr. Perfection, but his achievements came in the face of twin obstacles. He encountered the pressure of comparisons with Cobb, one of baseball’s greatest players, and he had been hampered since childhood by the bone disease osteomyelitis.

…

Kaline had a .297 career batting average, with 1,583 runs batted in and 1,622 runs scored.

Posted in 1970s, Mannix, NFL, Obits, Sports, TV | Comments Closed

Obit watch: February 26, 2020.

Wednesday, February 26th, 2020

My brother sent out an obit watch for Clive “Raise the Titanic!” Cussler. I have not been able to find an obit to link to yet, but his passing seems to be confirmed by a post from his wife on his Facebook page. When I find actual obits, I’ll either update here or post another obit watch tomorrow.

Edited to add: Of course. Literally five minutes after I hit “Publish”, the paper of record posts their obit.

He began writing fiction at home in the late 60s, but his first two books, “Pacific Vortex” and “The Mediterranean Caper,” were repeatedly rejected. Unable even to get an agent, he staged a hoax. Using the letterhead of a fictitious writers’ agency, he wrote to the agent Peter Lampack, posing as an old colleague about to retire and overloaded with work. He enclosed copies of his manuscripts, citing their potential.
It worked. “Where can I sign Clive Cussler?” Mr. Lampack wrote back. In 1973, “The Mediterranean Caper” was published, followed by “Iceberg” (1975) and “Raise the Titanic!” (1976).
Despite an improbable plot and negative reviews, “Raise the Titanic!” sold 150,000 copies, was a Times best seller for six months and became a 1980 film starring Richard Jordan and Jason Robards Jr.

I actually kind of enjoyed the book “Raise the Titanic!”, but I was young at the time. I also paid actual money to see the movie in a theater, and that was a piece of s–t.

His books sales have been staggering — more than 100 million copies, with vast numbers sold in paperback at airports. Translated into 40 or so languages, his books reached The New York Times’s best-seller lists more than 20 times, as he amassed a fortune estimated at $80 million.

Ahem. Ahem.

While searching for his obit, though, I stumbled across the THR one for Ben Cooper. He was in a fair number of Westerns: “Johnny Guitar”, “Support Your Local Gunfighter”, “The Fastest Guitar Alive”. He also did a lot of TV guest spots: “Gunsmoke”, “Bonanza”, “The Rifleman”, “Death Valley Days”, and had regular spots on “The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo” and “The Fall Guy”…

…and yes, he was on “Mannix” twice. (“The Playground”, season 3, episode 4, the same one Robert Conrad was in. That’s the next one we’re watching, Lawrence. Also “To Cage a Seagull”, season 4, episode 10.)

Posted in 1970s, Books, Mannix, Movies, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

Obit watch: February 9, 2020.

Sunday, February 9th, 2020

Let’s get down to it.

Paul Farnes. He was 101, and the last surviving RAF ace from the Battle of Britain.

…for three months, through the end of October, the R.A.F. battled the Luftwaffe for supremacy in the skies over Britain. Flying a Hurricane fighter for the 501 Squadron, Mr. Farnes, a sergeant pilot, proved supremely adept at attacking German aircraft.
In August alone he shot down three Junkers Ju Stuka bombers, a Dornier 17 light bomber and a Messerschmitt 109E fighter.At the end of September, as Mr. Farnes maneuvered his malfunctioning Hurricane back to the R.A.F.’s Kenley base, he spotted a German bomber flying directly at him at about 1,500 feet.
“I thought, ‘Good God,’ so I whipped out and had to reposition myself and managed to get ’round behind him,” he said in an interview with the website History of War in 2017. “I gave him a couple of bursts, and he crashed at Gatwick just on the point between the airport and the racecourse.”

…

Aerial warfare against the Germans meant breaking away from the squadron, finding something to shoot at, firing away, then breaking away to safety. But by Mr. Farnes’s account it was also enjoyable, because he was able to combine his love of flying with the mission to protect Britain.
“The C.O. would quite often pick the next members of the squadron that had to be at ‘readiness,’ and the two or three who weren’t picked would be pretty fed up,” he told History of War. “If you weren’t picked, you’d think, ‘Why can’t I go?’ I’m sure one or two must have felt, ‘Well, thank God I’m not going!’ But a lot of us were quite happy to go.”

Robert Conrad. THR. Variety.

I was a little young for “Wild Wild West” in first run; if it was syndicated in Houston when I was a kid, I don’t remember it. It could have been on the station we were never able to pick up (the same one OG “Star Trek” was on). And “Hawaiian Eye” was before my time. But if you’re my age or a little on either side of it, this was like candy for us:

He also appeared multiple times on “Mission: Impossible” and other series, either as the lead of some less than successful ones (“High Mountain Rangers”) or doing guest shots. He did do a “Mannix”. (“The Playground”, season 3, episode 4.) And I didn’t know this, but he played G. Gordon Liddy in the TV movie version of “Will”.

Orson Bean. Variety. THR. Interesting guy: I remember him from “Being John Malkovich” and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen him on some of those old game shows on Buzzr. In the 1960s, he founded a progressive school in New York City.

Believing that America’s generals were planning an imminent coup d’état, Mr. Bean abandoned his thriving career and moved his family to Australia in 1970. He became a disciple of the Austrian psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich and wrote a book about his psychosexual theories, “Me and the Orgone.” (Orgone is a concept, originally proposed by Reich, of a universal life force.)
When the book appeared in 1971, Mr. Bean returned to America with his wife and four children. For years he led a nomadic life as an aging hippie and self-described househusband, casting off material possessions in a quest for self-realization.

In the 1980s, he settled down again and resumed acting. He was 91 years old when he died: he was hit by a car while walking, fell, and was run over by a second car (according to Variety).

After the jump, more obits.

(more…)

Posted in 1970s, Books, History, Law, Mannix, Movies, Nixon, Obits, Planes, Theatre, TV | 3 Comments »

Obit watch: January 30, 2020.

Thursday, January 30th, 2020

Marj Dusay.

She knocked around episodic television a lot:

The Kansas native stepped in for the late Carolyn Jones as Myrna Clegg on CBS’ Capitol in 1983 and went on to play Pamela Capwell Conrad on NBC’s Santa Barbara, Vivian Alamain on NBC’s Days of Our Lives, the evil Vanessa Bennett on ABC’s All My Children and Alexandra Spaulding on CBS’ The Guiding Light.

She also played Blair’s mother on “The Facts of Life”, and Mrs. MacArthur in “MacArthur”. She also did guest shots on things like “Quincy, M.E.”, “Petrocelli”, “Cannon”, “Streets of San Francisco”, the good “Hawaii 5-0″…

…but she was perhaps most famous for playing “Kara”, the woman who steals Spock’s brain, in the “Spock’s Brain” episode of “Star Trek”…

…and yes, she appeared on “Mannix” twice. (“A Gathering of Ghosts”, season 4, episode 19, and “Mask for a Charade”, season 7, episode 21.)

(Hattip: Lawrence.)

Posted in 1970s, Mannix, Obits, TV | 2 Comments »

Obit watch: January 23, 2020.

Thursday, January 23rd, 2020

Wow. It got busy up in here all of the sudden.

Jim Lehrer. I feel like I should have more to say about this, but I was only an occasional “NewsHour” watcher. And I think the papers for the next day or so are going to be filled with eulogies that are probably better than I could write.

John Karlen, working actor. He was Willie Loomis on “Dark Shadows” and Lacey’s husband on “Cagney and Lacey”, among his 117 credits…

…which do include “Mannix”. (“Quartet for Blunt Instrument”, season 8, episode 19. He was “Hood #1”.)

Jack Kehoe, who never did “Mannix”, but was the “Erie Kid” in “The Sting”, the book keeper in “The Untouchables” (the DePalma one) and had roles in “Serpico”, “Melvin and Howard”, and a bunch of other films.

Jack Van Impe, televangelist.

Mr. Van Impe promoted a view of the end of the world known in evangelical circles as dispensational premillennialism, which teaches that Christians will be raptured, or taken up to heaven, before a period of tribulation, a final battle called Armageddon and the return and rule of Jesus on earth.
His sermons had titles like “The Coming War with Russia, According to the Bible. Where? When? Why?” (In that sermon he warned of a coming world dictator and a Russian invasion of Israel.) In his final broadcast, on Jan. 10, he discussed relations between the United States and Iran and predicted “the bloodiest war in the world,” saying it would result mostly in the deaths of “Muslim terrorists.”

Posted in 1970s, Mannix, Media, Movies, Obits, Religion, TV | Comments Closed

Obit watch: January 10, 2020.

Friday, January 10th, 2020

Edd “Kookie” Byrnes, noted for “77 Sunset Strip”. NYT.

Broadcast on ABC from 1958 to 1964, “77 Sunset Strip” starred Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and Roger Smith as a pair of suave Los Angeles private eyes and Mr. Byrnes as the parking-lot attendant at the restaurant next door to their office.
As he ministered tenderly to the Thunderbird convertible driven by Mr. Zimbalist in the show, Kookie (né Gerald Lloyd Kookson III) ran his omnipresent pocket comb through his lush ducktailed pompadour, cracked his devil-may-care grin and spouted aphorisms that even at midcentury had all the gnomic obscurity of Zen koans:
“A dark seven” (a depressing week); “piling up the Z’s” (getting some sleep); “headache grapplers” (aspirin); “buzzed by germsville” (to become ill); and, most emblematically, “Baby, you’re the ginchiest!” — a phrase of the highest Kookian approbation.

His character evolved from parking attendant to junior partner in the detective agency, but he was pretty much typecast after that. Deadline suggests that he partially inspired the Rick Dalton character in “Once Upon a Time In Hollywood”. He did go on to play the dance host in “Grease” and did a fair number of guest shots on TV shows…

…yes, including “Mannix”. (“A Penny for the Peep Show”, season 3, episode 6.)

Bob “Daddy-O” Wade, Texas sculptor of giant objects.

Iggy wound up at the Lone Star, a Texas-themed honky-tonk, in the 1970s after Mr. Wade had shown it at an exhibition in western New York, near Niagara Falls. Impetuously picking up the phone one day at 2 a.m., he called Mort Cooperman, the club’s owner, and asked him if he would like to install the sculpture on the roof of the Lone Star building, at Fifth Avenue and 13th Street. Mr. Cooperman said yes, agreeing to pay Mr. Wade $1,000 a year for Iggy — the deal was originally for five years — and $1,000 a year for his bar tab.

…

The iguana was Mr. Wade’s opening act. There would be many more gigantic, kitschy installations: A sextet of 10-foot-tall dancing frogs and an alligator made of Altoid tins. A New Orleans Saints helmet made largely out of an old Volkswagen. A hog-shaped motorcycle made from salvaged Harley-Davidson parts. A colossal pair of simulated ostrich-skin boots. (They’d fit a cowboy with size 500 feet, he estimated.)

…

A few years after the boots were disassembled and moved to a mall in San Antonio on three flatbed trucks in 1980, Mr. Wade got a phone call from the mall’s manager. A homeless man had found his way into one of the boots and cooked his lunch there. The boot was on fire.
“It was the size of a small apartment, kind of a nice spot, and he was cooking lunch with cans of Sterno, and smoke was emerging from the top of the boots,” Mr. Wade said in “Too High, Too Wide and Too Long.”

Posted in 1970s, Art, Mannix, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

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