Gregory Sierra, knock-around actor.
He did some theater work, but was mostly a TV and movie actor. He was “Julio”, Fred’s sidekick on “Sanford and Son”, Carlos “El Puerco” Valdez (the guy who kidnapped Jessica) on “Soap”, and “Chano”, one of the detectives in the early seasons of “Barney Miller”. He also did a lot of guest appearances, including nearly every major detective show of the 1970s (except that one): “Police Story”, “Banacek”, “Hawaii 5-0” (the good one), “Columbo”, “McCloud”, “Mission: Impossible”, and the list goes on. He was also Lieutenant Rodriguez in the early episodes of “Miami Vice” (that character got killed off and was replaced by Edward James Olmos’s “Martin Castillo”).
His movie credits include “Beneath the Planet of the Apes” and, interestingly, “The Other Side of the Wind“.
I remember Gregory Sierra.
He was popular on the detective shows when I was a kid growing up. I was born in 1960, so about 1970 and on, I remember seeing him on a lot of guest spots on some of the old standards.
I was just thinking about some of the golden age television shows, like Dragnet, Mannix, Police Story, Kohlchak, the Night Stalker, and also things like Saturday Night at the Movies.
Most of the garbage on television now is forgettable, to put it kindly.
I’ve been thinking about a lot of those shows, too.
“Perry Mason” rarely branches into politics, but Perry sometimes does give a little civics lecture (for example, he was lecturing Billy Mumy the other day on the role of a lawyer). And that holds up really well.
Obviously, we agree on “Mannix”. I’d like to be able to watch “Police Story” again (it’s on one of the over-the-air channels, but at 3:00 in the morning on Sunday or thereabouts) but I remember that show dealing with a lot of issues related to police work that are still relevant today. Same with “Dragnet” (and I do need to write that essay about Jack Webb and Peel’s principles of policing).
And “Kolchack” was just fun, never serious. (Really, how could you take that headless biker seriously?) But it still holds up because it was fun.
Another one of the disreputable broadcast channels runs “The Bob Newhart Show” and “Newhart” back to back. “The Bob Newhart Show” still holds up really well. I remember finding “Newhart” funny when I was younger, but now it doesn’t seem quite as amusing. There are still good moments, but at a certain point I get really tired of Stephanie and Michael’s self-absorption.