SPECIAL GUEST APPEARANCE - STEVE SKAYMAN LIGHTS A FUSE

 

We’ve got a special guest appearance.  I love it when others think inside the box and bring up issues that might not even have been in the minds of the scriptwriters.

Today’s guest is Steve Skayman, a fellow Columbo-phile….

“Short Fuse”

Could Roger have killed his parents?

He says he was at college but it could mean during the time he was at college (as in "I saw ‘Jaws’ when I was still in Junior school" doesn't mean you saw it at school, just during that time period.)

If so, it’s a good thing Lt. Columbo caught him.  Roger’s Aunt Doris Buckner might have been next on the list!  (It was bad enough that Doris’ identical cousin would be murdered two years later.)

MONDAY MUSINGS: THE PANDEMIC'S FUTURE IN TOOBWORLD

The pandemic brought an early end to many TV series this season; many came close to completing their storylines.  But with shows foregoing the last two episodes and cobbling together new conclusions from existing footage (‘The Flash’) – or in the case of ‘Blacklist’, resorting to animation to complete an arc.

It’s made me wonder what will happen when TV shows do come back with a new season, hopefully in the Fall.  Will they all acknowledge what happened this Spring? After all, there were shows twenty years ago which never made any indication that the 9/11 attacks happened.

(I’m not sure if it was ever addressed when ‘100 Centre Street’ returned for a second season in October of 2001.  I can understand if those episodes produced before September couldn’t shoehorn even just a reference to the tragedy, obviously.  But it wasn’t cancelled until March of 2002; Team Toobworld, let me know – did they ever acknowledge what happened just a few blocks away?)

With warnings that there will be a resurgence of Covid-19 in the Fall, coupled with flu season ramping up, will we be seeing Life in the Otto household of Norwalk, Ct.  putting on face masks before the kids head off to school on ‘American Housewife’?  Will ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’ have to grapple with the prospect of prison being a possible death sentence for the suspects they bring in? Would it lead to arguments that it doesn’t matter?

But there are current shows out there which won’t have to deal with the spectra of the coronavirus… because they all take place in the Past.

Here is my Super Six List of my favorite current TV shows which will remain unaffected by COVID-19 within their “reality”….

1] YOUNG SHELDON
2] OUTLANDER
3] MURDOCH MYSTERIES
4] ENDEAVOUR
5] FATHER BROWN
6] THE GOLDBERGS/SCHOOLED

I would have liked to have included ‘Doctor Who’ in this list, but then the Time Lord doesn’t just travel back in Time; the Doctor visits the Future as well as the Present Time.  Will they be addressing the pandemic when the series eventually returns?

I’m not considering TV shows which are set in the Far Future, like ‘Doctor Who’ sometimes is.  Like everybody else, I’m hoping we’ll eventual be free of this coronavirus.  But people in the Future will have lost family members, friends, occupations to COVID-19.

And now I’m wondering how they’ll address the pandemic in their past.  They can’t very well claim that it was eradicated; it might be with us in some form forever.

No doubt about it – it will be an interesting TV season come the Fall!

 

TWO 4 TUESDAY NEWS DAY SUPER SIX LIST

Amazon is developing several Italy-based, Italian language TV series for their streaming platform, not just for Italy but for other countries as well.  Perhaps the US as well.

This will be one of them:

“Vita da Carlo” (“Life as Carlo”) featuring Italian comic actor and director Carlo Verdone whose films systematically score well at the Italian box office. This Rome-set comedy series will see Verdone star as a fictionalized version of himself alongside cameos from some of Italy’s biggest stars. Aurelio and Luigi De Laurentiis, who have a longstanding rapport with Verdone, with produce the 10-episode show via their Filmauro shingle with production set to start this year.

This will be a big boon for Toobworld’s League of Themselves which feature the televersions of famous people as seen in the TV Universe.

If the show comes to the States, it’ll be good for those Italian actors as well.

So that was Tuesday News Day.  Let’s make this a Two for Tuesday now and add in a Super Six List.

My Six Favorite TV Shows Featuring The League Of Themselves

1. The Larry Sanders Show
2. Curb Your Enthusiasm
3. Extras
4. Arli$$
5. Entourage
6. Here’s Lucy/The Lucy Show

BCnU!

TVXOHOF 50th ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE - THE APOLLO 11 CREW

When it comes to the Apollo 11 crew in the greater TV Universe, only Buzz Aldrin qualified as an inductee into the Television Crossover Hall Of Fame by being a member of the League of Themselves.  He also qualified for his Tooniversion from the Tooniverse.  But all three men are multi-dimensionals, having been portrayed at least three times in three different TV movie or TV mini-series dimensions.  (Once again, Aldrin has the advantage there.)

To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the moon landing and the first steps on the moon, Toobworld Central is inducting the fictional Apollo 11 crew as played by other actors.

From Wikipedia:

Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin formed the American crew that landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC. Armstrong became the first person to step onto the lunar surface six hours 39 minutes later on July 21 at 02:56 UTC; Aldrin joined him 19 minutes later. They spent about two and a quarter hours together outside the spacecraft, and collected 47.5 pounds (21.5 kg) of lunar material to bring back to Earth. Command module pilot Michael Collins flew the command module Columbia alone in lunar orbit while they were on the Moon's surface. Armstrong and Aldrin spent 21 hours 31 minutes on the lunar surface at a site they named Tranquility Base before lifting off to rejoin Columbia in lunar orbit.

 Sorry for the rerun.

Might as well take these in alphabetical order for the productions.

For some unnamed TV Movie dimension:
APOLLO 11 (1996)

To be found in a TV Mini-series dimension:
FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON (1998)

And then another TV Movie dimension:
MOONSHOT (2009)

That last one was to mark the fortieth anniversary of the historic voyage.

So here are the crew members as depicted in multiple dimensions:

NEIL ARMSTRONG

From Wikipedia:
He made his first spaceflight as command pilot of Gemini 8 in March 1966, becoming NASA's first civilian astronaut to fly in space. During this mission with pilot David Scott, he performed the first docking of two spacecraft; the mission was aborted after Armstrong used some of his re-entry control fuel to stabilize a dangerous roll caused by a stuck thruster. During training for Armstrong's second and last spaceflight as commander of Apollo 11, he had to eject from the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle moments before a crash.  

 Tony Goldwyn
‘From The Earth To The Moon’
(Two episodes)
(He performs first docking in space as commander of Gemini 8 in episode 1, and is the first man to set foot on the Moon with Apollo 11 in episode 6, "Mare Tranquillitatis".)

Jeffrey Nordling
“Apollo 11”

Daniel Lapaine
“Moonshot”

MICHAEL COLLINS

From Wikipedia:
His first spaceflight was on Gemini 10, in which he and Command Pilot John Young performed orbital rendezvous with two different spacecraft and undertook two extravehicular activities (EVAs, also known as spacewalks). His second spaceflight was as the command module pilot for Apollo 11. While he stayed in orbit around the Moon (30 orbits), Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left in the Apollo Lunar Module to make the first crewed landing on its surface.  

Carey Elwes
(Two episodes)
‘From The Earth To The Moon’
(Gemini veteran and Command Module pilot on Apollo 11, episode 6, also CAPCOM during Apollo 8 in episode 4.)

Jim Metzler
“Apollo 11”

Andrew Lincoln
“Moonshot”

And finally……

BUZZ ALDRIN

From Wikipedia:
[He was] the first astronaut with a doctoral degree. His doctoral thesis was “Line-of-Sight Guidance Techniques for Manned Orbital Rendezvous”, earning him the nickname "Dr. Rendezvous" from fellow astronauts. His first space flight was in 1966 on Gemini 12 during which he spent over five hours on extravehicular activity. Three years later, Aldrin set foot on the Moon at 03:15:16 on July 21, 1969 (UTC), nineteen minutes after Armstrong first touched the surface, while Command Module Pilot Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit.

Bryan Cranston
(Two episodes)
‘From Earth To The Moon’
He performs EVA during Gemini 12 in episode 1, seen as Lunar Module pilot of Apollo 11 in episode 6.

Xander Berkeley
“Apollo 11”

James Marsters
“Moonshot”

Cliff Robertson
“Return To Earth”

From Wikipedia:
“Return to Earth” is a 1976 American biopic TV movie that originally aired on May 14, 1976 on ABC. The film stars Cliff Robertson as astronaut Buzz Aldrin and Shirley Knight as Joan Aldrin. Based upon Aldrin's 1973 book of the same name, the film dramatizes the emotional difficulties of Aldrin's life following his 1969 trip to the Moon on Apollo 11.  

Buzz and Cliff

Years later

Just because the 50^th anniversary is now upon us, I doubt that means we’ve seen the last of dramatizations of this historic event.  Give it ten years and we’ll see some niche network produce their own movie and/or min-series wth all new televersions of Neil, Buzz, and Michael.

BCnU!

SUPER SIX LIST - "DOCTOR WHO" & "SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE"

It was twenty years ago today that Oscar-winning “Shakespeare In Love” opened in general release here in the United States.  My brother Bill and I watched it over the weekend and had fun pointing out the actors we would come to know better in later roles.  Both of us came away with ideas for lists – he’s going to post a “Morning 5” list of Oscar winners in the movie for the newspaper where he’s the editor.  For me, it’s a Super Six List.

As I mentioned earlier, several actors were not familiar to me at the time.  Among them are Mark Williams, whom I later came to know from the “Harry Potter” franchise as well as the ‘Father Brown’ series and Martin Clunes – I had yet to see ‘Doc Martin’. There was even one I knew very well but didn’t recognize (and he wasn’t credited) – John Inman, Mr. Humphries of ‘Are You Being Served?’, who was playing Juliet’s mother Lady Capulet in the play within a play.

So here is my Super Six List – six of the actors in “Shakespeare In Love” who would also play roles in my favorite TV series, ‘Doctor Who’.  I have them listed by actor name with their “SIL” role in parentheses, followed by their role in the long-running sci-fi/fantasy series.

1]  Simon Callow (Master of the Revels Tilney)
as Charles Dickens
- The Unquiet Dead (2005) 
- The Wedding of River Song (2011)

O’Bservation:
Mr. Callow is a member of the Television Crossover Hall of Fame for his portrayal of the Victorian author, not just in ‘Doctor Who’ but also in several TV movies.

2]  Martin Clunes (Richard Burbage)
as Lon
- Snakedance: Part One (1983)
- Snakedance: Part Two (1983)
- Snakedance: Part Three (1983)
- Snakedance: Part One (1983) 

O’Bservation:
Of these six, Clunes is the only one who appeared in the original run of the series.

3]  Mark Williams (Wabash)
as Brian Williams
- Dinosaurs on a Spaceship (2012) 
- The Power of Three (2012)

4]  Imelda Staunton (Viola’s Nurse)
as Voice of the Computer Interface
- The Girl Who Waited (2011)

O’Bservation:
I never noticed the credit for this role.  It could be that by this point, I really do believe I’m listening to the voice of a computer in shows!  And I’m not that familiar with Ms. Staunton’s voice.  But my nephew who is a fan of the “Harry Potter” movies, guessed right away that this was the actress who played Mrs. Umbridge.

5]  Barnaby Kay (Nol)
as Heidi
- The Girl Who Died (2015) 

6]  Nicholas Boulton (Henry Condell)
as Businessman
- Gridlock (2007)

Consider this a taste of the “Who’s On First?” blogathon on New Year’s Day.

Exeunt, followed by a death-eyed turtle….

MONDAY MINUTIAE - A SUPER SIX LIST OF NAMES

Just a little something to keep the theme chugging along and to give me a grace period to continue writing the longer posts about soap operas......

I'm a connoisseur of names; it may be a reason why I first answered the call of Fantasy.  And the soap operas gave me some great ones to savor.  I didn't watch many soap operas, so I don't have an extensive knowledge of their "tele-folks directory", but these names always stood out for me....

1]  MIKKOS CASSADINE

('GENERAL HOSPITAL')
What can I say?  I like the bad guys!  And this name trumpeted the darkness and elegance within his soul.

2]  SKY WHITNEY
('THE EDGE OF NIGHT')
I will admit that this is a classic example of confusing the actor with the character - I keep thinking his name was Sky Larkin, combining the character's first name with the first name of the actor who played him, Larkin Malloy. I don't know, maybe my version is better.  But even so Sky Whitney was a name that oozed "cool" to me.

3]  ROBERT SCORPIO
('GENERAL HOSPITAL'
& 'NIGHT SHIFT')
Could they have come up with a better name to suggest an international man of mystery? 

4]  ASA BUCHANAN
('ONE LIFE TO LIVE')
I don't think I'll ever see that first name of Asa again.  I can't envision anybody daring to use it.  Philip Carey made it his own, the perfect name for a cowboy in the modern world.

5]  LAUREN FENIMORE

('THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS'
& 'THE BOLD & THE BEAUTIFUL')
I wasn't that much of a fan of the character, but she was a hell of a lot better than her arch-enemy Sheila Carter!  And she sported a better moniker as well.  Just something about it flows.  (Her married names kind of throw the rhythm off though when they're tacked on.)

6]  SALLY SPECTRA
('THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL')
A bold name for a big and brassy broad made immortal by Darlene Conley.  One day she'll make it into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame as an honorary multidimensional - Ms. Spectra showed up in two American soap operas and in an international part of Skitlandia, still played by Ms. Conley.

Until next time......

BEST TV WESTERN EPISODES FROM TV SHOWS WHICH AREN'T WESTERNS #4

To help fill up the August blog schedule, we've been showcasing my favorite Western episodes of TV shows which aren't TV Westerns.

And to top off this mini-theme, here's the final entry:

'THE PRISONER'
"LIVING IN HARMONY"

From the IMDb:
Number Six finds himself in a western town called Harmony,which is run by the Judge, with the Kid,a young gunslinger, as his murderous assistant. The Prisoner would appear to have been the town sheriff,who resigned and refused to carry a gun. The Kid leads the townsfolk in an outbreak of killing with Kathy, a saloon girl befriended by Number Six, as one of the victims. This persuades Number Six to take up arms but then finds that he has been enacting a role play in the village to make him more disposed to killing and the Judge is yet another Number Two. The result ends in tragedy. 

From Wikipedia:
"Living in Harmony" is an episode of the British science fiction-allegorical television series, The Prisoner. It was first broadcast on 29 December 1967. It differs from most other episodes of the series in that it does not begin with the show's standard opening credits sequence. In fact, in a situation considered somewhat unusual for a 1960s television programme, the actual title of the series does not appear on screen until the standard closing credits for the series. This episode was not aired in the United States during the series' initial network run.

To read more of the Wikipedia entry, click here.

I saved "Living In Harmony" for last because it was part of a series which had long been my Number One TV show of all time, about forty years in the top spot.  (It's been bumped down to become "the new Number Two" because of 'Doctor Who', but it won't ever be dislodged again.)

And for this final entry on this theme, here is that episode of 'The Prisoner', "Living In Harmony"....

Happy Trails AND BCnU!

SUPER SIX LIST - SIX COUNTRY SINGERS FOUND ONLY IN TOOBWORLD

SUPER SIX LIST

SIX COUNTRY SINGERS
IN TOOBWORLD

"You don’t understand
Country and Western music!
It’s about the real things in life.
Murder, train wrecks, amputations;
faucets leaking in the night.
All stuff like that."
Charlie Haggers
'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman'

LORETTA HAGGARS
'MARY HARTMAN, MARY HARTMAN'
&
'FOREVER FERNWOOD'

O'Bservation: Everybody else on this Super Six List is different and not just because they're all male. Everybody else on this list is a one-shot guest appearance.  Loretta was a regular on the soap opera parody.  This is my favorite because of Mary Kay Place playing the role.  I first saw her in an episode of 'All In The Family' and I knew she would be going places.

From Wikipedia:
She is known for portraying Loretta Haggers on the television series 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman', a role that won her the 1977 Prime-Time Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Comedy Series.

"Vitamin L." was the title of a popular 1976 country song by Emmy award-winning actress, Mary Kay Place, on her Grammy-nominated album "Tonite! At the Capri Lounge: Loretta Haggers". She also performed the song on the cult television series 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman', portraying the character Loretta Haggers, which was loosely based on Dolly Parton.

TOMMY BROWN
'COLUMBO'
"SWAN SONG"

From the IMDb:
A popular folk singer's plane has crashed. Two passengers have died, and one has escaped with minor injuries. Was it really an accident? How could it not have been? Or, was it really a nearly perfect murder? Columbo is called in to find out.

O'Bservation: "I Saw The Light" becomes tiresome after awhile.  It's an okay episode but for me it's saved by Mister John Dehner and John Randolph.

FLOYD BURNEY
'THE TWILIGHT ZONE'
'COME WANDER WITH ME"

From the IMDb:
Singer Floyd Burney, the "Rock-a-Billy-Kid", goes deep into the back woods hoping to find his next hit record. He no sooner arrives than he hears a beautiful singing voice which draws him deeper into the woods. He eventually meets Mary Rachel who tells him the song he heard belonged to someone and that she's forbidden to tell anyone about it. When she finally reveals it to him, Floyd learns that his future is preordained. 

O'Bservation: It's not exactly country, more like folk music.  But close enough.  I came up with a better ending than the one in the teleplay.  Floyd escapes his predicament only to find himself trapped in yet another song.  (Maybe one that is incessantly grating and made for kids.)

CHARLIE STRAYHORN
'THE ROCKFORD FILES'
"HEARTACHES OF A FOOL"

From the IMDb:
Jim finds that a country music star, a corrupt union boss and a Chinese triad all have one thing in common with why Rocky ended in the hospital after his rig was forced off the road: sausages.

O'Bservation: Taylor Lacher played Strayhorn but his singing voice was that of Willie Nelson.  Lacher was the second actor to play "Toby O'Brien" in episodes of 'Police Story'.

MUFFIN CALHOUN
'THE BIONIC WOMAN'
"ROAD TO NASHVILLE"

From the IMDb:
Someone is recording more than country music in the case of an old friend, so Jamie does some snooping, and puts a stop to it with the honest part of his team.

A fellow OSI agent goes missing while investigating country legend Big Buck Buckley who seems to be passing out top secret information by way of his music. Muffin Calhoun, a mutual acquaintance of Buck and Oscars takes Jaime to Nashville and introduces her to Buckley as the aspiring singer 'Jodi Lee Sommers'.

Jaime Sommers: 
So you and Oscar were in intelligence together during North Korea?

Muffin Calhoon: 
Yeah, that's right, only I had the intelligence to get out of this racket after the war.
O'Bservation: Hoyt Axton was in the episode as well, as Buck Buckley, the C&W star who was suspected of passing state secrets through his music.  I thought it would turn out to be Muffin.  As always, Doc Severinsen was a pleasue to watch.
LACY FLETCHER
'MAGNUM, P.I'

"LET ME HEAR THE MUSIC"

From "Magnum Mania!":
Magnum is hired by country musician Lacy Fletcher to unearth five songs written over 25 years ago by legendary country singer George Lee Jessup shortly before his death, and it seems that Lacy is not the only person searching for the songs.

Lacy Fletcher: 
I know this isn't exactly the place for country, but ah ... I ah got another little premiere here if you don't mind. This is one of the five songs that ... well they're all gonna be classics, because they were all written by the great George Lee Jessup and I had the wonderful privilege of writin' down the notes for him.

I'm a thousand miles from nowhere
beneath the flashing, neon lights
And I'll try to get through
one more lonely night

People keep on a-movin'
just fillin' up the space
All I keep on a-see'in
is the memory of your face

I just wanna hold you
and listen deep within
Listen to the music
that'll let me live again

Let me hear the music
that keeps my world in time
Let me hear the music
and let me hear the rhyme

MONDAY MINUTIAE = SUPER SIX LIST OF FAVORITE CHARACTERS

Just a little filler for Monday Minutiae....

SUPER SIX LIST
MY SIX FAVORITE TV CHARACTERS

1]  DR. MIGUELITO QUIXOTE LOVELESS
'THE WILD, WILD WEST'

2]  BUDDY SORRELL
'THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW'

3]  LT. COLUMBO
'COLUMBO'

4]  JOHN DRAKE AKA NUMBER SIX
'DANGER MAN'/'SECRET AGENT'/'THE PRISONER'

5]  THE DOCTOR
'DOCTOR WHO'

6]  MARY RICHARDS
'THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW'

Well, at least since last Christmas, Mayr isn't the only woman in the list....

BCnU!

THE HAT SQUAD O'BSERVATIONS SUPER SIX LIST - REMEMBERING PETER FALK

“Seven….  

It would be a mythic number.”

Melissa Steadman
‘THIRTYsomething’

In my family, this is a day of celebration as my nephew turns thirty.  But in Toobworld, it is a day of sorrow as this is the seventh anniversary of the death of Peter Falk, the star of 'Columbo'.

I can watch those first 69 episodes of the series over and over again; they never get old.  There are a few clunkers in the batch - nothing is ever perfect.  But the majority are classics.  As for the later ABC series, the inverse is true: I like a few of them, but on the whole they lack the luster of the original run on NBC.

There’s nothing to be done for it now of course, but if only we never had that Great Hiatus – that decade without any new ‘Columbo’ investigations.  What a missed opportunity!

To mark the occasion in remembrance of Mr. Falk and Lt. Columbo - Peter and Frank - herewith is a Super Six List of my favorite episodes from the series....

1] IDENTITY CRISIS

For over forty years, 'The Prisoner' had been my favorite TV show.  It is now permanently locked in as "the new Number Two".  So this episode, with my favorite actor, Patrick McGoohan, is a treasure with all of the callbacks to that series.  But even without that, there is so much to savor in the interplay between McGoohan and Falk.  And McGoohan - did I mention he's my favorite actor? - has the most marvelous inflections in his delivery that makes simple words and phrases like "I know!", "Is it?", "Geronimo...", "Luxuriant.", and "Mah Jong" indelible in the memory.  In fact, for any other fan of this episode, I doubt they could read those examples without doing so in McGoohan's style.  

And Mr. Falk matches every step with his more mundane presence to keep McGoohan's character grounded.  (Even when Falk himself is floating in the air....)

 
2] TRY AND CATCH ME

Again, the glories of this episode can be attributed to the guest star, Ruth Gordon.  I suppose by that point in her life she earned the right to the mantra of "Anything Goes" ('Harold & Maude' should prove that.) and so you can tell how much fun she has playing the role at full tilt.  And again, Falk proves he is on the same plane as she is.  Sure, the script dictated it, but Falk is strength and empathy personified when he holds firm to the only possible outcome to the case.

3] DAGGER OF THE MIND

As a member of one of the best 'Columbo' pages on Facebook (Columbo-TV), I've been amazed that anybody should hate this case, let alone the numbers of those who ridicule it. Sure, it's full of cliches about the UK and the English people and there are plenty of noticeable errors from trying to reconcile the footage filmed in London with that done back in Hollywood on the sound stages.  And perhaps there are some over-the-top performances – but these are theatre people; they’re supposed to be hammy!  And even though I believe ‘Columbo’ is like a Kabuki play in that it should always adhere to a certain structure, that doesn’t mean it can’t provide some variations.  I always enjoy a good fish out of water story and while the Lieutenant is almost always in that situation while dealing with the socially elite, in this case he was not on familiar ground to anchor him.  Plus an amazing array of guest stars, right down to the character actors in small roles like Arthur Malet, Ronald Long, and Richard Pearson.

4] ANY OLD PORT IN THE STORM

Probably the first episode that finally made me realize how special this series was.  And considering the reputation as an actor Donald Pleasence had before and after this episode, his murderer was imbued with great dignity that elicited more sympathy from the audience than perhaps any other during the show’s run.  And once again Mr. Falk showed he had what it takes to go toe-to-toe against an actor of a differing style.

5] NEGATIVE REACTION

This is the episode that made me buy my first TV.  I was in at university when this first aired and I couldn’t take the chance that I could commandeer control of the dorm’s TV set when ‘Columbo’ came around again in the ‘Mystery Movie’ rotation.  When I saw that THE Dick Van Dyke (Accept no substitutes!) was going to be the guest star, I had no choice but to buy myself a small TV.  This episode had everything – a fantastic guest cast, wonderful wordplay in its title, and one of the best “Gotcha” moments at the end.  Van Dyke proved superlative in the role – to this day, as much as I love the actor, I so despise that character!  And Falk got to shine in so many small bits of business throughout.

6] DOUBLE EXPOSURE

The last entry in any list such as this, no matter how many choices you get to fill (like the usual Top Ten), has to be the hardest to make.  And I was sad to think that because of my druthers, I couldn’t get any of the Cassidy episodes included.  At least I have two out of three of the Great Triumvirate of Columbo Killers included, and of Robert Culp’s trio of murderers, I think Dr. Kepple is the most fun to watch opposite Peter Falk.  I will admit, however, that it took me a long time to reach that conclusion.  (I used to be more favorable to “The Most Crucial Game”.  But eventually I found Hanlon too strident throughout with nowhere to go on an emotional level.  As for Brimmer?  Well he killed Patricia Crowley and I had a crush on her just as I was entering my teen years.  LOL)  This may not have been the first episode where Columbo entered the investigation at a disadvantage in knowing how that particular world operated, but this may have been the most complicated up that point.  Luckily, he was always quick to learn enough to help him solve the case and this world of subliminal advertising proved to be no match. 

(There is another reason I chose this episode over others – the fact that another favorite was in the cast – Chuck McCann.  I’m so glad there was a scene which brought these two together.  Even if the poor schlub was trying to play the game above his capabilities, if you know what I mean, it was still a joy to see Uncle Chuck get the chance to play against a talent like Mr. Falk.)

I may not have been as big a fan of the later episodes, but I still wish Peter Falk was with us, if only to give us a final episode in which he got to retire (perhaps against his wishes), but first had to solve one last case.

And perhaps we could have had the opportunity to finally meet Mrs. Columbo.  (Mrs. Columbo as Levinson and Link envisioned her, of course.)

Oh!  Just one more thing….

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NEIL!

BCnU!

FATHER'S DAY IN A SNOW-GLOBE

'ST. ELSEWHERE'
"THE ABBY SINGER SHOW"

Bill Dana passed away just about one year ago (June 15, 2017), at the age of 92.  As far as I can tell, he was the last of Steve Allen's repertory players best known for those "Man On The Street" segments.  (If I'm wrong, email me; let me know.)

He died the day before Stephen Furst, most famous for "Animal House", 'St. Elsewhere', and 'Babylon 5'.  And in 'St. Elsewhere', both men shared their last scene together for that series: Stephen Furst was a series regular as Dr. Elliot Axelrod while Bill Dana was a recurring guest star as the father of Dr. Wayne Fiscus.  Both of their characters died around the same time in the show and their "ghosts" marched down the halls of St. Eligius Hospital dressed in Sandinista uniforms in Fiscus' dream/nightmare.  But he saw it as an omen about his decision to be a doctor working in Nicaragua.

Bill Dana was not the only member of Steve Allen's show to play a father on 'St. Elsewhere':

• Bill Dana - Mr. Fiscus, Wayne's father
• Tom Poston - Jim Morrison, Boomer's father
• Louis Nye - Dr. Axelrod, Elliot's father
• Steve Allen & Jayne Meadows - Lech & Olga Osoranski, Ehrlich's birth parents (and Russian spies!)

It's a shame that they didn't carry this theme out further because there were a few more players who could have pulled Daddy Duty during the show's run.

• Don Adams
• Don Knotts
• Pat Harrington, Jr.

Gabriel Dell died of leukemia during the show's final year, so he may have been too sick during its run. But who knows?

There were plenty of other characters at St. Elsewhere who could have had those men as their fathers:

• Dr. Seth Griffin
• Dr. Jacqueline Wade
• Dr. Carol Novino
• Nurse Lucy Papandreo

I am not one of those fans of 'St. Elsewhere' who accepts the series finale premise that the whole show had been all in the mind of Dr. Westphall's autistic son Tommy.  For me, when Tommy was staring out the hospital window and everything started shaking, our perspecitve as the audience entered his daydream, not exited it.  The idea of the Tommy Westphall Universe is far too limited for my needs as the Toobworld Monitaur, so I had to reject it.

But I can understand the allure of the original theory.  If we look at the entire show happening inside Tommy's mind, we can see so much of the series had to be influences from television and elsewhere.

I even have a Super Six List to cover my favorite references in the show and the Fathers all top the list.

1)Steve Allen comedians as the Dads

2) Warren Coolidge, a character from 'The White Shadow' as an orderly

3) Mr. Carlin of 'The Bob Newhart Show' was in the psych ward of the hospital

4) The dog belonging to Axelrod's father was a collie, just like 'Lassie'

5) There was a one-armed man who was a fugitive in the hospital

6) John Doe #6 - Whoo, where to begin?  Because he had amnesia, it could be said that they had given him a number and taken away his name.  He decided that he was Mary Richards of 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' and he even thought a visiting Naval doctor played by Betty White was actually Sue Ann Nivens.  He finally divested himself of that fantasy once he realized he was throwing a great party at the hospital.  (Mary Richards NEVER threw a great party!)

And those are just my top six.  There were so many others, like song lyrics being used as dialogue.  ("Our house was a very, very fine house.  With two cats in the yard.  Life used to be so hard....")

But I can see how the original premise can be tempting; it just doesn't work for Toobworld....

At any rate, the show gave us a wonderful way to remember those great comic actors working for Steve Allen.

Happy Father's Day!