"Pete Malloy you are End Of Watch" RIP
- Thread starter chardman
- Start date
I've recorded a couple of Avengers at my Mother's house and we've added it to the old shows we watch on Saturday morning.
This time... it's personal!Very likely, since nobody seems to believe in straightforward heroes anymore.I fear some jerk is going to make a Adam-12 motion picture and basically mock the original series.
QUOTE]
Very true. When they remake Adam-12 they will probably dramatize the characters background lives and problems and have the officers be neither good or evil. They will exact Adam-12 justice with a vengeance. LOL!
I've recorded a couple of Avengers at my Mother's house and we've added it to the old shows we watch on Saturday morning.
This time... it's personal!
The first DECADES weekend binge of the new year (Jan. 2-3) will be...Route 66. This time they're picking things up at the beginning of Season 3 and will be getting about halfway into Season 4. The Linc episodes will start late Sunday morning.
Thanks, that's good to know. I'll try to catch a few of them.
Here's a brief review of the second half of season three of ROUTE 66 I wrote some years back. Hope it's pertinent to the discussion.
Alas, George Maharis, after giving us two and a half seasons worth of Emmy-caliber performances as Buz Murdock, has hit the road. Or rather, he's "unhit" the road, leaving his less flashy but more reliable co-star Martin Milner to go it alone. Yes, Buz is gone for good, never to be so much as referred to on screen again. And if you're a Maharis/Buz fan who just can't stand the idea of ROUTE 66 without your favorite character, perhaps you'd do well to halt your collection after Season Three, Volume One. Those of you who do decide to stick along for the rest of the ride, you'll be rewarded with many more memorable moments still ahead on the journey.
Season three of ROUTE 66 was marked by a turbulent upheaval such as few television programs have to suffer. It actually seems almost like three completely different seasons (if not completely different series) in one - first there was the show we'd come to know and love, featuring Tod and Buz in some of their greatest moments. Then the abrupt departure of Maharis, leaving Tod to go it alone. And then the final third part of the season, in which Tod meets Lincoln Case and a new partnership develops with a new set of adventures.
Each one of those three parts of season three of ROUTE 66 had its own separate dynamic. Stage One was the classic ROUTE 66 we've come to expect, a polished program which had settled into and was thriving in its format and the rapport between its two leads, turning out some of its best episodes such as "Man Out of Time" or "Ever Ride the Waves in Oklahoma?". The sudden departure of Maharis brought that to a skidding halt. Then came stage two, in which Tod wandered the road alone, the show becoming more and more like a genuine anthology series as Milner's character, as well-developed as it was, clearly needed a foil to realize its full potential. Although many of the Milner solo episodes display the excellence we've come to expect from this series (such as the delightful "Suppose I Said I Was the Queen of Spain", with Lois Nettleton as a woman who puts on and discards personas like clothes), others come across as somewhat muddled and underdeveloped. For example, Stirling Silliphant apparently intended "Shall Forfeit His Dog and Ten Shillings to the King" (in which Tod joins an Arizona posse searching for a pair of killers) to be a condemnation of the vigilante mob mentality; but this is undermined by the direction which turns the episode into a standard tale of frontier justice in which the good guys and the bad guys are clearly designated. In this context, Tod's denunciation of his fellow posse members at the episode's conclusion makes little sense.
It was obvious that Milner needed a new sidekick. Names such as Robert Duvall and Burt Reynolds were considered, but finally, in March 1963 America was introduced to Glenn Corbett as Lincoln `Linc' Case, an Army Ranger recently returned from the Vietnam `'conflict'. Making that war a pivotal element of an American television series at a time when it still wasn't making front page news on US headlines marks another historical first for the series.
Glenn Corbett has gotten his fair share of criticism from ROUTE 66 afficianados, mainly for not being George Maharis. But Corbett and his episodes have to be and deserve to be taken on their own terms. No fan mourns the lamentable loss of Buz more than I do, but at the same time I recognize that some of the series' finest stories came with Corbett in the passenger seat, and that some of those perhaps could not have been done they way they were with Maharis. One example is "What a Shining Young Man Was Our Gallant Lieutenant", which represents a highwater mark in Corbett's tenure in terms of his performance.
The third season concludes fittingly enough with the patched-together "Soda Pop and Paper Flags", itself emblematic of the chaos under which the show was laboring. It was originally intended to be a Buz Murdock episode, but Maharis said his famous "see ya later" just as filming on the show was beginning in St. Louis. Milner went ahead and filmed his own scenes in anticipation of an eventual new co-star. "Soda Pop" was not completed until a couple of months later in Florida, when Corbett filmed a few scenes of his own to finish the show. One thing this episode is notable for is featuring a young Alan Alda in surgical whites - a decade before the premiere of M*A*S*H and his career-defining role as Dr. "Hawkeye" Pierce.
Marc Scott Zicree once wrote of the fifth and final season of the original TWILIGHT ZONE that "if the series had faded, it had faded only in comparison with itself." The same can equally and truly be said of ROUTE 66 after the departure of George Maharis.
Alas, George Maharis, after giving us two and a half seasons worth of Emmy-caliber performances as Buz Murdock, has hit the road. Or rather, he's "unhit" the road, leaving his less flashy but more reliable co-star Martin Milner to go it alone. Yes, Buz is gone for good, never to be so much as referred to on screen again. And if you're a Maharis/Buz fan who just can't stand the idea of ROUTE 66 without your favorite character, perhaps you'd do well to halt your collection after Season Three, Volume One. Those of you who do decide to stick along for the rest of the ride, you'll be rewarded with many more memorable moments still ahead on the journey.
Season three of ROUTE 66 was marked by a turbulent upheaval such as few television programs have to suffer. It actually seems almost like three completely different seasons (if not completely different series) in one - first there was the show we'd come to know and love, featuring Tod and Buz in some of their greatest moments. Then the abrupt departure of Maharis, leaving Tod to go it alone. And then the final third part of the season, in which Tod meets Lincoln Case and a new partnership develops with a new set of adventures.
Each one of those three parts of season three of ROUTE 66 had its own separate dynamic. Stage One was the classic ROUTE 66 we've come to expect, a polished program which had settled into and was thriving in its format and the rapport between its two leads, turning out some of its best episodes such as "Man Out of Time" or "Ever Ride the Waves in Oklahoma?". The sudden departure of Maharis brought that to a skidding halt. Then came stage two, in which Tod wandered the road alone, the show becoming more and more like a genuine anthology series as Milner's character, as well-developed as it was, clearly needed a foil to realize its full potential. Although many of the Milner solo episodes display the excellence we've come to expect from this series (such as the delightful "Suppose I Said I Was the Queen of Spain", with Lois Nettleton as a woman who puts on and discards personas like clothes), others come across as somewhat muddled and underdeveloped. For example, Stirling Silliphant apparently intended "Shall Forfeit His Dog and Ten Shillings to the King" (in which Tod joins an Arizona posse searching for a pair of killers) to be a condemnation of the vigilante mob mentality; but this is undermined by the direction which turns the episode into a standard tale of frontier justice in which the good guys and the bad guys are clearly designated. In this context, Tod's denunciation of his fellow posse members at the episode's conclusion makes little sense.
It was obvious that Milner needed a new sidekick. Names such as Robert Duvall and Burt Reynolds were considered, but finally, in March 1963 America was introduced to Glenn Corbett as Lincoln `Linc' Case, an Army Ranger recently returned from the Vietnam `'conflict'. Making that war a pivotal element of an American television series at a time when it still wasn't making front page news on US headlines marks another historical first for the series.
Glenn Corbett has gotten his fair share of criticism from ROUTE 66 afficianados, mainly for not being George Maharis. But Corbett and his episodes have to be and deserve to be taken on their own terms. No fan mourns the lamentable loss of Buz more than I do, but at the same time I recognize that some of the series' finest stories came with Corbett in the passenger seat, and that some of those perhaps could not have been done they way they were with Maharis. One example is "What a Shining Young Man Was Our Gallant Lieutenant", which represents a highwater mark in Corbett's tenure in terms of his performance.
The third season concludes fittingly enough with the patched-together "Soda Pop and Paper Flags", itself emblematic of the chaos under which the show was laboring. It was originally intended to be a Buz Murdock episode, but Maharis said his famous "see ya later" just as filming on the show was beginning in St. Louis. Milner went ahead and filmed his own scenes in anticipation of an eventual new co-star. "Soda Pop" was not completed until a couple of months later in Florida, when Corbett filmed a few scenes of his own to finish the show. One thing this episode is notable for is featuring a young Alan Alda in surgical whites - a decade before the premiere of M*A*S*H and his career-defining role as Dr. "Hawkeye" Pierce.
Marc Scott Zicree once wrote of the fifth and final season of the original TWILIGHT ZONE that "if the series had faded, it had faded only in comparison with itself." The same can equally and truly be said of ROUTE 66 after the departure of George Maharis.
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My eyes! Please edit for spaces between paragraphs.
ETA: OK, I read it as-is. If you're intrigued by early Alan Alda appearances, he'd previously played a role in Season 4, Episode 1 of Naked City, "Hold for Gloria Christmas" (1962)...guest-starring Burgess Meredith, and featuring a shared cameo of much greater historical significance: Then-new copies of Amazing Fantasy #15 and Journey Into Mystery #83 on clear display at a newstand!
ETA: OK, I read it as-is. If you're intrigued by early Alan Alda appearances, he'd previously played a role in Season 4, Episode 1 of Naked City, "Hold for Gloria Christmas" (1962)...guest-starring Burgess Meredith, and featuring a shared cameo of much greater historical significance: Then-new copies of Amazing Fantasy #15 and Journey Into Mystery #83 on clear display at a newstand!
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^^ And it was an excellent episode, too.
I agree that Glenn Corbett's episodes were every bit as good as George Maharis's, at least what I've seen so far. The Vietnam War themes are very potent, especially when you consider the historical context. I've learned from Stirling Silliphant's biography that he was opposed to the war long before it became a national cause. He eventually married a Vietnamese woman and funded her Vietnam War documentary.
I agree that Glenn Corbett's episodes were every bit as good as George Maharis's, at least what I've seen so far. The Vietnam War themes are very potent, especially when you consider the historical context. I've learned from Stirling Silliphant's biography that he was opposed to the war long before it became a national cause. He eventually married a Vietnamese woman and funded her Vietnam War documentary.
Yeah, whatever....Look, it's Spider-Man!!!!!
If only Burgess Meredith had been less focused on getting his poems back and plunked down a quarter instead, his story could have ended very differently.
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That would have been great. He could have sat down on the curb, read through Spidey's and Thor's origins, and run right over to Madison Avenue to ask Stan for a job.
Then we'd be living in a world where the Penguin wrote for Marvel.
Read them? I was thinking of investment value!
Wait for the reprints, Burgess!
Wait for the reprints, Burgess!
Huh...they're running an episode from Season 3 of Route 66 in which Buz has a romance with a young woman who has a terminal illness, played by Madlyn Rhue. Which brings to mind the Season 2 episode in which Buz has a romance with a young woman who has a terminal illness, played by Anne Francis. If they were going to repeat themselves so soon, they could have given one of the terminally ill love interests to Tod....
The next episode is the one that features Joanne Linville as the wife of Leslie Nielsen and mother of Ronny Howard.
The next episode is the one that features Joanne Linville as the wife of Leslie Nielsen and mother of Ronny Howard.
I've had it on the TV, though haven't had time to watch much. I saw the last five minutes of an episode with Buster Keaton, which looked to be an homage to silent movie storytelling, judging by the slapstick fight sequence. For a couple of minutes, I thought nobody would speak, which would have been cool, but they didn't take it that far. I wish I had seen the whole thing.
And by sheer good luck, I caught the last half of the episode with Lon Chaney, Jr, Boris Karloff, and Peter Lorre. Very nice. Another comedy episode, so they could get away with people fainting dead away like dominoes at the sight of the Wolf Man as if they had been phasered.
And by sheer good luck, I caught the last half of the episode with Lon Chaney, Jr, Boris Karloff, and Peter Lorre. Very nice. Another comedy episode, so they could get away with people fainting dead away like dominoes at the sight of the Wolf Man as if they had been phasered.
That last episode I had on in the background but wasn't watching closely. But the show gets more fanciful than that. I just now watched one in which Tod falls for a mysterious woman at Weeki Wachee who seems to be a mermaid. No rational explanation is given, and the mystery of her true nature and origins is maintained until the end (when she dives away, of course).
The show must have been encouraged to film in Florida to promote tourism or something...looking at IMDb, this was the first of six consecutive episodes set (and I presume filmed) in the Sunshine State.
ETA for one of the episodes in the Florida arc: Holy mackerel, it's Gene Hackman!
The show must have been encouraged to film in Florida to promote tourism or something...looking at IMDb, this was the first of six consecutive episodes set (and I presume filmed) in the Sunshine State.
ETA for one of the episodes in the Florida arc: Holy mackerel, it's Gene Hackman!
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I saw part of that "Mermaid" episode. I wondered how that would turn out.
From what I understand, Stirling Silliphant would often write stories based on location like that, to save production money. I don't know about the six-episode stint in Florida, though. I'm sure everybody was on board for that.
From what I understand, Stirling Silliphant would often write stories based on location like that, to save production money. I don't know about the six-episode stint in Florida, though. I'm sure everybody was on board for that.
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