- The Green Hornet was already rounding the clubhouse turn when "Alias The Scarf" went into production. It was at this point that Richard Bluel left as showrunner; he was replaced by Stan Shpetner (say Spetner, then add an h), who was connected at the ABC network. It was Shpetner's job to try to figure out which way GH was supposed to go, and he only had two more shows to do it (I'm counting the final two-parter as one episode, which is how you should do it). Had he come in at midseason, he might have had a chance; with network pull, he might have sold ABC on going to an hour; sadly, that didn't happen. "Alias The Scarf" was so totally unlike the other episodes that it read as a red flag to viewers: "We don't know what we're doing." Too bad: Carradine was (for him) restrained, Pat Barry was good in a offbeat role "
I was going to say that an hour would have enabled William Stuart to write a real story, with more characters and a proper resolution.
- You were on target about "The Golden Beetle" on Bourbon Street Beat, so I'll just mention that the missing credits are for William Spier as writer (he'd spent years as writer-producer of Suspense on radio), and Reginald LeBorg as director (he'd been doing B-movies at many studios as far back as the '40s, and did a bunch of Warner Bros TV during this period). Mr. LeBorg returns to direct the next episode, "The Black Magnolia", which I won't say anything more about (I have a rule against spoilers).
- In re Ellery Queen, I guess I ought to give you that trivia answer from last time. In the three episodes I mentioned: The Wary Witness featured Sal Mineo - who was knifed to death in an alley not long after the episode aired. The Tyrant Of Tin-Pan Alley featured Albert Salmi (the song-plugger) - who shot his wife to death and then took his own life several years later. And The Hard-Hearted Huckster featured Bob Crane - whose head was cratered with a camera tripod (you know the rest). OK, that's a multiple downer, but you can't have everything …
As to this episode, it was a particular fave of mine, for the obvious reasons. May I mention an aspect that perhaps you and the Mrs. might not have known about? The EQ writers had a charming habit of naming their characters after famous mystery writers in most of the episodes. You'd have to go back over the episodes to spot the specific names (I don't have a list at hand or I'd give some examples) - but I can tell you of a sort-of example from this show: Juliet Mills's character is named 'Florence Ames'. Back in 1951, the first Ellery Queen TV series, a live half-hour on the Dumont network, featured in the role of Inspector Queen, a veteran stage actor named Florenz Ames. Mr. Ames was in his late sixties at that time, but he was the image of the Inspector as Dannay and Lee wrote him: short, slight, and with a bristly mustache (if you saw his face, you might recognize Florenz Ames from many movies and TV shows from the '50s). Anyway, the use of the 'Ames' name was probably the final inside joke on Ellery Queen '75 - and if I'm the only one who got it, so be it.
As Always, Mike, thank you so much. I didn't realize they did that with character names in EQ. If I remember, I'll mention it in the final discussion. Sorry for the delay on episode 56. Life got in the way. It'll be out soon.
About Episode 56: Take your time. My computer has inexplicably disabled the audio, thereby making it impossible to listen to your podcast. I am a Geezer (68 a couple of weeks ago), and I find the "instructions" they give to be unintelligible. Apparently, I'm not the only one this is happening to; meanwhile, I just keep pushing buttons in the vain hope that somebody hereabouts writes in the English language. Maybe tomorrow … who knows?
A few items here and there:
ReplyDelete- The Green Hornet was already rounding the clubhouse turn when "Alias The Scarf" went into production.
It was at this point that Richard Bluel left as showrunner; he was replaced by Stan Shpetner (say Spetner, then add an h), who was connected at the ABC network.
It was Shpetner's job to try to figure out which way GH was supposed to go, and he only had two more shows to do it (I'm counting the final two-parter as one episode, which is how you should do it).
Had he come in at midseason, he might have had a chance; with network pull, he might have sold ABC on going to an hour; sadly, that didn't happen.
"Alias The Scarf" was so totally unlike the other episodes that it read as a red flag to viewers: "We don't know what we're doing."
Too bad: Carradine was (for him) restrained, Pat Barry was good in a offbeat role
"
Wha' hoppen?
ReplyDeleteI wasn't finished!
I was going to say that an hour would have enabled William Stuart to write a real story, with more characters and a proper resolution.
- You were on target about "The Golden Beetle" on Bourbon Street Beat, so I'll just mention that the missing credits are for William Spier as writer (he'd spent years as writer-producer of Suspense on radio), and Reginald LeBorg as director (he'd been doing B-movies at many studios as far back as the '40s, and did a bunch of Warner Bros TV during this period).
Mr. LeBorg returns to direct the next episode, "The Black Magnolia", which I won't say anything more about (I have a rule against spoilers).
- In re Ellery Queen, I guess I ought to give you that trivia answer from last time.
In the three episodes I mentioned:
The Wary Witness featured Sal Mineo - who was knifed to death in an alley not long after the episode aired.
The Tyrant Of Tin-Pan Alley featured Albert Salmi (the song-plugger) - who shot his wife to death and then took his own life several years later.
And The Hard-Hearted Huckster featured Bob Crane - whose head was cratered with a camera tripod (you know the rest).
OK, that's a multiple downer, but you can't have everything …
As to this episode, it was a particular fave of mine, for the obvious reasons.
May I mention an aspect that perhaps you and the Mrs. might not have known about?
The EQ writers had a charming habit of naming their characters after famous mystery writers in most of the episodes.
You'd have to go back over the episodes to spot the specific names (I don't have a list at hand or I'd give some examples) - but I can tell you of a sort-of example from this show:
Juliet Mills's character is named 'Florence Ames'.
Back in 1951, the first Ellery Queen TV series, a live half-hour on the Dumont network, featured in the role of Inspector Queen, a veteran stage actor named Florenz Ames.
Mr. Ames was in his late sixties at that time, but he was the image of the Inspector as Dannay and Lee wrote him: short, slight, and with a bristly mustache (if you saw his face, you might recognize Florenz Ames from many movies and TV shows from the '50s).
Anyway, the use of the 'Ames' name was probably the final inside joke on Ellery Queen '75 - and if I'm the only one who got it, so be it.
As Always, Mike, thank you so much. I didn't realize they did that with character names in EQ. If I remember, I'll mention it in the final discussion. Sorry for the delay on episode 56. Life got in the way. It'll be out soon.
ReplyDeleteAbout Episode 56:
ReplyDeleteTake your time.
My computer has inexplicably disabled the audio, thereby making it impossible to listen to your podcast.
I am a Geezer (68 a couple of weeks ago), and I find the "instructions" they give to be unintelligible.
Apparently, I'm not the only one this is happening to; meanwhile, I just keep pushing buttons in the vain hope that somebody hereabouts writes in the English language.
Maybe tomorrow … who knows?
Update - Saturday, 13 October:
DeleteMy audio is back - thanx Microsoft.
Dan: Fire when ready …