Ian Wolfe and Boyd Bodwell visit Cheers. "One for the Book." Season one, ep. 11. A monk and a doughboy walk into a bar. Two men with one foot in heaven.
1985 CBS. "Fox Hunt." Jack Warden and John Rubinstein are father and son. Harry Fox Sr. is a freewheeling private detective and Harrison Fox Jr. is an uptight attorney. Together they solve mysteries. Penny Peyser is Harrison's wife, Cindy. Ralph Manza is a guest star in this ep. Episodes of Crazy Like a Fox come and go all the time on Youtube and I have watched several before. There are a few available now and I just picked one at random.
Harry is in the hospital after crashing his car during a car chase. Della Reese plays the tough attending nurse who won't let Harry smoke his cigar. Something happens to the man in the next bed in Harry's hospital room while he is in a drug haze but nobody believes him when he tells the story. The only clue is the intruder walked with a shambling gait and now it is up to the Fox boys to solve the case.
Crazy Like a Fox was a pretty popular hit when it aired on Sunday night with Murder, She Wrote but a change in the schedule for the second season doomed it. It is a solid detective show. Jack Warden and John Rubinstein are very good together. The promo below is for this episode.
Going backwards for this one. Magnum double feature. Season five, episode 11. Aired Dec. 13, 1984. Fantasy episode that is not very highly rated but I think I remember liking this one. Higgins - "Magnum will finish his tantrum and be out of your way shortly, Miss Windom." Magnum Mania also says there are some pinball machines in this ep.
Season five, episode 20. Aired March 14, 1985. Magnum famously sings Misty in a karaoke bar in this episode. The Sing Sing Palace. Magnum Mania says Jambalaya (On the Bayou) by Hank Williams is also heard. Crawfish pie.
Only had wheat bread so not the most photogenic of sandwiches but it will have to do. Not serving this to people until tomorrow but I was hungry so this is a sneak preview. I am going to make simple nachos to go with it tomorrow. Ham, salami, provolone, olive salad mix. This was the jalapeno olive salad. This sandwich is going to go over well because it is damn good, if I do say so myself, and the jalapeno olive salad was a plus. I finished mine before the crappy Windows 10 photo uploader even finished uploading the images and I could eat another. Damn good.
1986 NBC. "Address Unknown." From creators Richard Levinson and William Link, who were responsible for some fine TV crime shows like Ellery Queen, Mannix, and Columbo. Hal Linden is magician Alexander Blacke, and Harry Morgan his con man father, Leonard Blacke. They solve mysteries together. Mark Shera from S.W.A.T. and Barnaby Jones is part of the recurring cast, as is Claudia Christian and R.J. Adams. Guest stars in this ep. are J.D. Cannon, John David Carson, Lynda Day George, Stephen Elliott, John McCook, Ken Swofford, Marianne Muellerleile (a whopping 233 credits on IMDb), Victor Mohica, and Vince Howard.
A corporate whistleblower is being harassed and his wife is Alex's former assistant, so she enlists his help in getting the goods on the defense industry corruption. When a nighttime meet with the contact who has the corruption info goes down, the contact is killed, and by the time the police are alerted not only the contact but the whole street has disappeared. It is now up to Alex and his father to figure out how such a thing could have happened. Leonard Blacke's initial reaction after being told what occurred is to say, "It's a scam, son." If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a con job.
There are two episodes of Blacke's Magic on Youtube, both of which I watched before during my initial TV research. This is a good show, and what you would expect once you see the pedigree of those involved. TV is a fickle business and good does not necessarily translate into good ratings. Fourteen episodes were produced in total.
1982 NBC. "Pirates." Robert Urich is ex-CIA spy Robert Gavilan, who now works for the Oceanographic Institute, which gives everyone an excuse to walk around in bikinis and no shirts. Kate Reid is his boss and Patrick Macnee is con artist/friend Milo Bentley. Guest stars this week are Heather Menzies, Robert Urich's wife, as Dr. Maitland; the great slimy character actor Paul Koslo as Cutter, and Phil Rubenstein as Angelo.
Dr. Katherine Maitland, geologist, paleontologist, archaeologist, is organizing an expedition and dive on a shipwreck that may be full of gold coins, but a group of bad guys is also interested in the gold. IMDb says this was shot on St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and they have some nice underwater footage of Gavilan and Dr. Maitland diving on the shipwreck. After barely surviving a cave in on the ship, a group of modern day pirates take over their camp and want them to go back for the gold. "You can't do this to us, we're scientists!"
You'll have to forgive me but the highlight of this episode was Heather Menzies in a tiny white bikini. She was absolutely gorgeous. This was not unusual at all for NBC action shows in the 80s. No shirts and bikinis were the norm. Gavilan is an average 80s adventure show, given a boost by the island locations and Urich's charisma. Ten episodes aired and this is the only one currently on Youtube.
I just saw it was National Typewriter Day and the vintage typewriter collection below was fixed yesterday so I had to throw that out on Twitter. I had a photo essay on every possible subject apparently.
1982 CBS. "4:10 to Zurich." Sam Waterston period steampunk mysteries. Only six aired and they are all on Youtube. Waterston is a scientist, Professor Quentin E. Deverill, who uses his scientific skills to solve crimes. Also with A.C. Weary, Caroline Langrishe (we share a birthday), George Innes. Guest stars in this ep. are Julian Glover, Paul Freeman, Elizabeth Shepherd, Paul Angelis. These stories take place in 1912.
A man trying to deliver an urgent message to the professor is shot on his doorstep, and all he can get out before he dies is something about the train to Zurich. The professor thinks it has something to do with a deadly nerve agent that he has discovered and the dead man was an assistant to another scientist who may have made the same discovery. The answer to the mystery will no doubt be found on the 4:10 to Zurich.
Q.E.D was an independent production made in England, and also aired there on ITV, but never found an audience in either country. It's a good show. I've watched a couple of them before on Youtube. Lots of action, science, derring-do, and period detail. All things I enjoy.
From the Kinja archive: Protege of Gustav Klimt. Early Expressionism. He ran into a bit of trouble with the authorities because of the sexual nature of his paintings. Imprisoned. Died at 28 from the Spanish Flu.
Oct. 1939 Russell Lee. This means knocking down the jagged edges and wire joints. In Texas there is a state law requiring any person handling a bale of cotton to "kill the spiders." Compress, Houston, Texas
Directed by Ossie Davis. Coffin Ed and Gravedigger. Now on Tubi. From the Chester Himes book and series. Godfrey Cambridge, Raymond St. Jacques. I also have this DVD. Poster art by Robert McGinnis. With Redd Foxx, Calvin Lockhart, Eugene Roche, Cleavon Little, J.D. Cannon. A precursor to the blaxploitation genre coming a year later and a favorite of mine.
Directed by Robert Rossen. Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason. Blu-ray next. In CinemaScope. Eugen Schüfftan cinematography won an Academy Award. Watching the Mike Massey trick shot extras while I put this post together. A friend of mine's father was a pro and trick shot artist and he gave me a couple of tips that made me a much better player.
Directed by Sydney Pollack. Robert Redford, Max von Sydow, Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson. Blu-ray coming up next. I also have the book titled Six Days of the Condor. Cinematography by Owen Roizman. Hank Garrett has a memorable turn as The Mailman. He was on the Gilbert podcast.
Directed by Alexander Mackendrick. Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis. James Wong Howe cinematography. Criterion Blu-ray up now. I had never seen this one until just a few years ago.
1979 NBC. "Till Dad Do Us Part." Second Internet Archive edition. John Schuck and Sharon Gless body swap sitcom. There are also a couple of these on Youtube, but I was looking for the one with Rick Springfield guest starring. Also with Bruce Kirby, Richard Stahl, Don Porter, Anne Bloom, Peggy Converse, Bobbi Jordan. Steven Bochco was one of the developers and writers.
Sharon Gless and John Schuck are married couple Sam and Penny Alston. After inadvertently buying a magic statue that grants wishes, they wake up one morning to find they have switched bodies and they are unable to reverse the process. "Where's the beer?" Gless asks. "Where it always is, behind the mayonnaise." Schuck replies. Penny also has to smoke cigars. Richard Stahl and Bobbi Jordan are the nosy neighbors. In this episode Penny's sister Valerie (Anne Bloom) shows up in town with the news that she is marrying Rick (Rick Springfield) and she wants them to come to Vegas for the wedding, but Sam insists they get married in their house. The real trouble starts when Penny's parents arrive.
This was the other 1979 NBC sitcom with an annoying laugh track. Same thing I encountered with Highcliffe Manor. Sharon Gless is very good as the cigar chomping, beer drinking, baseball fan. One of the Youtube videos is a TV movie called The Magic Statue that was produced by editing together several episodes, including this one. Seven episodes aired in total. It is a moderately amusing show, sold well by Gless and Schuck, and Richard Stahl is always good.
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