Saturday, September 1, 2012
AS SEEN ON TV: ROGER HAVILLAND
ROGER HAVILLAND
CREATED BY:
Ed McBain (Evan Hunter)
PORTRAYED BY:
Gregory Walcott
AS SEEN IN:
'87th Precinct'
TV STATUS:
Recastaway
TV DIMENSION:
Earth Prime-Time
Havilland was the veteran of the team who had a lot of experience behind
him.
BCnU!
Friday, August 31, 2012
PROGRAMMING NOTE
Guess what, Team Toobworld? I'm going on vacation again!
I'll spare you the sight of that trippy can of mushroom soup this time out......
So the last few days of our salute to 'Centennial' and to TV Westerns in general will wind down to the end of the month. I'll conclude the vacation with the spotlight on a 1999 TV movie based on a classic British novel which - like 'Centennial' - featured some farmers.
But in between those two themes......
In the book "The Best Of Crime & Detective TV (The Critics' Choice)",
it was bemoaned by author Max Allan Collins that today's audiences would not get
a chance to see the 1961 police procedural '87th Precinct' because there weren't
enough episodes for syndication.
That book was copywright 1988. Although the home video market was just
getting underway, the real boom began with the arrival of DVD boxed sets. And
as of August 7, this critically-praised series (based on the novels of Ed
McBain) finally hit the street.
From Wikipedia:
'87th Precinct' is an American crime drama starring Robert Lansing, Gena
Rowlands, and Ron Harper, which aired on NBC on Monday evenings during the
1961–1962 television season.
The program was based on a number of detective novels by Evan Hunter (under the pen name Ed McBain) that featured Lansing as Detective Steve Carella, who worked in the fictional city of Isola, patterned on Manhattan, New York City. Rowlands played Carella's deaf-mute wife, Teddy. Ron Harper played rookie detective Bert Kling. Other detective roles were portrayed by Gregory Walcott as seasoned veteran Roger Havilland and Norman Fell as the eccentric Meyer Meyer.
'87th Precinct' premiered on September 25, 1961, and concluded its first-run episodes on April 30, 1962. Repeats continued until September 10, 1962. It was a creation of Hubbell Robinson Productions.
The program faced stiff competition on CBS from 'The Danny Thomas Show' and its spin-off, 'The Andy Griffith Show'. At the time, ABC aired the second and last season of another detective program, 'Surfside 6', starring Troy Donahue and Van Williams.
The program was based on a number of detective novels by Evan Hunter (under the pen name Ed McBain) that featured Lansing as Detective Steve Carella, who worked in the fictional city of Isola, patterned on Manhattan, New York City. Rowlands played Carella's deaf-mute wife, Teddy. Ron Harper played rookie detective Bert Kling. Other detective roles were portrayed by Gregory Walcott as seasoned veteran Roger Havilland and Norman Fell as the eccentric Meyer Meyer.
'87th Precinct' premiered on September 25, 1961, and concluded its first-run episodes on April 30, 1962. Repeats continued until September 10, 1962. It was a creation of Hubbell Robinson Productions.
The program faced stiff competition on CBS from 'The Danny Thomas Show' and its spin-off, 'The Andy Griffith Show'. At the time, ABC aired the second and last season of another detective program, 'Surfside 6', starring Troy Donahue and Van Williams.
Although Isola was the location in the books, I think Manhattan served as
the setting in the series. I could be mistaken on this (as I am on so many
things), but at the very least, plenty of online sites make the assumption that
it did take place in Manhattan.
According to the fantastic TV blog Classic TV History, 'Kraft Mystery Theatre' produced two live adaptations of McBain novels about the 87th Precinct. In the first, Michael Higgins played Detective Carella, to be followed a few weeks later by Robert Bray in the role. (Martin Rudy played Meyer Meyer in both productions.)
Because it eventually went to series with Robert Lansing, Norman Fell, Ron Harper, and Gregory Walcott in the main roles, that will be considered the official version of '87th Precinct for Toobworld. As for the other two, they are the rare prequels that are banished to alternate TV dimensions. (And because of the recasting on at least Steve Carella, they go to separate alt-Toobworlds.)
From the review by Skees of Sitcoms Online:
It is worth noting that there is a bit of irony in the novel series written
by Ed McBain, which by the way were still written all the way up through his
death in 2005. By his own admission, he received his inspiration from 'Dragnet'.
Over 20 years after the first 87th Precinct novel was published, elements of
this novel series inspired another TV show on NBC... 'Hill Street Blues'. And
reportedly, this didn't exactly thrill McBain, as he felt that his ideas had
been stolen (although he didn't make a big deal over it, because by his own
acknowledgment, he, too, had used ideas of others).
Skees also provided a breakdown of each episode available on the DVD set,
comprising the entire first (and only) season of the series:
The set begins with "The Floater," where Carella is on the hunt for a
sadistic man (played by Robert Culp) preying on lonely women. In "Lady in
Waiting," a woman decides to wait for her husband's release from prison by
bringing a gun into the precinct and threatening to use it. The detectives
follow up on an anonymous note about a death threat in "Lady Killer." A
disgruntled ex-cop keeps committing the perfect robberies in "The Modus Man." In
"Line of Duty," Kling is forced to shoot (and kill) a suspect, and can't help
but to feel badly about it. A pregnant wife keeps a man from cooperating with
the police in "Occupation, Citizen." Beverly Garland and Jack Albertson guest
star in "Killer's Payoff," where a blackmailer is murdered. Meyer arrests an old
friend for a robbery in "The Guilt," but things get worse for the man when he
escapes police custody. In "The Empty Hours," a woman (Pat Crowley) decides to
pretend to be a deceased friend for financial gain, unaware that the friend is
wanted by a killer. A young man is suspected of murdering a coed in "My Friend,
My Enemy."Leonard Nimoy guest stars in "The Very Hard Sell," where a used car salesman is found dead, slumped over a steering wheel. In "'Til Death," an about-to-be-married couple is getting some anonymous threats. A crook (played by Robert Vaughn) sets off false alarms everywhere to commit a more serious crime, hopefully unnoticed, in "The Heckler." In "Run, Rabbit, Run," a condemned gangster has much more planned beyond his death. The detectives investigate death threats toward a boxer in "Main Event." In "Man in a Jam," a man arrested for murder has some creative ways of trying to get out of trouble. A hand found in a dumpster leads to a murder investigation in "Give the Boys a Great Big Hand." Dawn Wells guest stars in "Out of Order," where telephone booths (what are those, again?) are the target of explosions. In "The Pigeon," a man (played by Peter Falk) is a smalltime criminal but wants to pretend to be bigger... making him the perfect fall guy for some serious criminals. Frank Sutton also guest stars. A 10-year-old may be helpful in solving a murder in "A Bullet for Katie."
A kidnapping doesn't go as planned in "King's Ransom." Both John Astin and Nancy Reagan (in one of her very last appearances as "just another actress" in a TV series) guest star. Meyer needs some rest while feeling ill in "Feel of the Trigger," but he just can't stop working hard. The detectives have a lot of clues to go through in the murder of a beautiful woman in "Killer's Choice." In "Square Cop," one officer is about to retire and the other one is a rookie being trained by the veteran... and one of them is shot by the others son during a burglary. Carella needs extra cash and takes a job as a night security guard at a bank in "Step Forward." A baseball star risks everything by hiding his fugitive brother from the cops in "Idol in the Dust." Havilland's new friend wants to kill a South American dignitary in "Ramon." In "New Man in the Precinct," there is a new guy at the 87th, and isn't quite used to being at such a rough and tumble precinct. Another detective ends up at the precinct after being demoted in "The Last Stop," and he isn't quite well-received after he drives everybody crazy. The series ends with "Girl in the Case," where Havilland becomes attracted to a stenographer who is being threatened.
As you can see from above, the detectives of the '87th Precinct' also found themselves in the four-color world of comic books, making them true multi-versals......
While I'm on vacation, I had a slot open up in the As Seen On TV feature at
Inner Toob between the conclusion of our August feature on James Michener's
'Centennial' and a production based on the greatest Cold War allegory ever
written. I figured a quick look at the detectives in the '87th Precinct' would
"cleanse the palate", as it were, between the two courses........
I'll be back "live" after September 11........
BCnU!
O'BSERVATIONS: JAMES A. MICHENER - AMERICA'S J.R.R. TOLKIEN?
I know I'm probably not going to splain this properly, but I'll give it a
try......
I also read 'Hawaii' in the past, and am currently mired in 'Chesapeake'
(although I plan to pick it up again while on vacation.) And it suddenly
occurred to me that Michener could be this country's equivalent to Britain's
J.R.R. Tolkien.
The genres of their writing couldn't be more different, although I'm sure
Tolkien would have argued that he was writing fictionalized history as well. He
wanted to provide an historical mythology to the people of the British Isles and
Michener found his niche in supplying a fictionalized history for the people of
the United States - one which may not have contained the fantasty elements to be
found in Middle Earth, but which did have touches of legend and tall tales, the
American version of fantasy.
I just hope Michener never goes out of fashion, that his books will still
be required reading in classrooms, as 'Hawaii' was for me back in high school.
And especially that the teachers present these books in such a way so that the
students find the spark of excitement within as they become involved with these
characters. (Nyuk Tsin Kee checking her toes for leprosy, the final "showdown"
between Sheriff Axel Dumire and Philip Wendell - these are fictional moments
that will stay with me forever in much the same way those small moments shared
by the Fellowship of the Ring do.)
Yeah..... I don't think I made my case. Anyhoo......
BCnU!
WESTVIEW: "CENTENNIAL" - "THE SCREAM OF EAGLES"
I've been running an episode from classic TV Westerns every day this month, and it was about time we should feature one from our main theme for August - James A. Michener's 'Centennial'.
So I chose the last episode, "The Scream Of Eagles", because it encapsulates the entire saga with flashbacks and wraps it up nicely in the 1970's.
Enjoy!
TELE-GENETICS: PAUL GARRETT'S FAMILY TREE
It's a little choppy, but here's the family tree for Paul Garret of 'Centennial', Colorado. (For instance, James Lloyd and Charlotte Buckland should be connected; Prudence Wolf and Martin Zendt should be connected; and Red Wolf and Pale Star should be connected.)
With the TV series, a generation is skipped near the end. Paul Garrett becomes Charlotte Buckland's grandson rather than great-grandson.
BCnU!
AS SEEN ON TV: PAUL GARRETT
For the last day of August, we're going out with a
biggie.....
PAUL GARRETT
CREATED BY:
James Michener
PORTRAYED BY:
David Janssen
AS SEEN IN:
'Centennial'
TV DIMENSION:
Earth Prime-Time
BCnU!
Thursday, August 30, 2012
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