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On Wednesday, I went to the Paley Center for Media so that I could check out a few TV projects by the late Robert Culp which had piqued my curiousity. Well, that, and to also renew my membership which ended that day.
The three TV projects were two historical programs keyed to the Bicentennial - "Give Me Liberty" with Richard Kiley and "Land Of The Free" with Burgess Meredith, both from 1974. The other one was a 1970 ITV movie written by John Mortimer - "Married Alive" with the loverly Diana Rigg.
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I'll have more on my experience with those later, but I really wanted to tell you about the big bonanza - and I ain't talking Cartwrights here. I'm talking about an hour and an half of Frank Morgan goodness, truly a lost treasure!
You know Frank Morgan - he played Professor Marvel as well as the title character in 'The Wizard Of Oz'. As a kid, I always liked him in the role, but I favored Bolger's Scarecrow and Lahr's Lion more. Only now that I'm older have I come to realize that Frank Morgan is the actor to watch in the movie. He's absolutely brilliant!
I always was sorry that there was nothing to represent him in Toobworld, as he died in 1949,
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Anyhoo, we got to talking, which he was happy to do so long as I kept grabbing his 20 buck cases, and he told me that one of his "holy grails" was 'The Frank Morgan Show'. He knew the Paley Center had the only 3 episodes that were made and if he could find an inside source, this would be his goal: to dupe only this show out of everything in their collection. Apparently, the 'Wizard Of Oz' collectibles market is very lucrative and they'd pay top dollar for copies of this show.
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According to the book "The Chimes At Midtown" (about the history of NBC, which I have in the Toobworld Central library) the premise of 'The Frank Morgan Show' was this: Morgan played an old con artist, grifter, and master of disguise named Frank Martin (no imagination wasted in coming up with that name!), who had abandoned his family many years before when his son was just a child. Eventually he was declared dead and his wife remarried, with her new husband adopting the son and legally changing his name.
Years later, young Francis Millbrook is grown up, a veteran of WWII, and has established himself in the District Attorney's office. Because of some big case he won, Millbrook finds himself running for Congress. But then a few days before the election, suddenly Frank Martin reappears in everybody's life. Now it's a mad scramble to keep him out of the way, and more importantly out of the papers, until after the election - which the polls showed as being very close. (Joseph Kearns was the guest star in the pilot, playing "The Distinguished Gentleman" who's running for re-election against Milbrook. Yep - that's how he was listed in the credits, no name.)
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The only real downside was how they worked the commercials for Duz detergent (the show's sponsor) right into the storyline with each episode, even if it didn't really fit. Even at the Capitol building, they had to have a kitchen scene! It reminded me of how 'Martin Kane' made a point to involve their cigarette sponsor in each episode.
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And as their son Jib, Georgie Noakes played the role. (I should bring my sister down to see this just for him! She's a fanatic for "It's A Wonderful Life", and I'm sure she'd recognize Georgie Noakes as young Harry Bailey.)
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Winston sees Frank Morgan's character as a potential rival and is always trying to dig up some dirt on him.
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Leo G. Carroll is the episode's guest star as a slightly befuddled old lion of Congress who can't quite ever fathom what this "Franklin Pynge Salter" is all about. But thanks to the intervention of old Frankie Pinch O' Salt, Francis Milbrook becomes a co-sponsor on a bill that Congressman Weatherby had been pushing for years. Not only that, he sees it get passed with a majority.
Oh, and Zasu Pitts has a cameo as a slightly flustered protestor outside the Capitol who doesn't know what to do with herself once the bill, which she also championed, finally gets passed.
The third episode is "A Little Something On The Side". A nosy reporter played by Arnold Stang
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Sadly, on the night before they were to start filming the fourth episode of 'The Frank Morgan Show', the actor unexpectedly suffered a major heart attack in Beverly Hills. This was on September 18, 1949, and the show was supposed to premiere the following week on NBC. I'm not sure if these three episodes aired or not - 'The Frank Morgan Show' was supposed to air on Wednesday nights at 8 pm before 'The Clock', and the replacement show, 'The Crisis', didn't premiere until October. So it is pozz'ble.....
All that remains of that last episode is a publicity picture of Morgan and the actors who played his son and daughter-in-law, with a menacing George Macready. (If I'm not mistaken, he was to play a determined FBI agent egged on by Clinton Sundberg's character of "Winnie" Tattersall to find the dirt on Frank Martin.
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Normally, I would be surprised by the lack of any information on this series in the IMDb, but we all know how reliable THAT is! In fact, that Robert Culp program I went to see, "Land Of The Free" with Burgess Meredith isn't listed either......
So that was my day, a day like any other, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times. And today will always be one I cherish.....
BCnU!
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