Let's all look into the distance together!
Meaningfully.
Episode 75 is here! That should mean something right?
In this episode...
Amy the Conqueror and Dan cover another episode of Eerie, Indiana.
Mitchell and Dan walk all around an episode of Bourbon Street Beat.
Amanda And Dan smother an episode of Masquerade.
Please, listen and enjoy.
Soundcloud
iTunes
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Back from taking another look at "Oil" on Masquerade.
ReplyDelete- And, as it happens, I haven't really got anything to add here.
Oh, I might mention that Pamela Shoop Sweeney (as she is now known, in deference to her marriage to a former Jesuit - and now Episcopalian - priest) seems to have retired from acting.
Or that the handsome guy that PSS ended up with was an actor named Nicholas Savalas (can't find anything about him).
Or that the trucker who got 'jacked at the start was Bucklind Noah Beery (exactly who you think he is).
All I can add is that the next one, "The French Correction", is even wilder …
… and the one after that, "Winnings", even more so …
… and I have an uneasy feeling that Mitchell is pissed off at me and may try to block my participation in the Bourbon Street Beat section …
( … and since BSB is heading into the "W. Hermanos" period, you guys are gonna need all the help you can get … )
… I hate getting old …
Thanks, as always, Mike.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what the "W. Hermanos" period for BSB is but I'm looking forward to it. Or... I'm looking forward to it?
I don't think Mitchell is ticked off. I'll ask him next time we chat. Mitchell!!
Sorry for the delay on the newest episode. 76 should go up in a few days. (Scheduling has been odd over the past few months.)
I hope you're having an excellent day In The Land Of Mike.
Brief (maybe too brief) explanation:
ReplyDeleteSometime in 1960, the Writers Guild of America/West called a strike against the movie studios, thereby throwing a wrench into film and TV production.
One condition of the strike was that any script that had already been sold could still be produced.
(This was why the second season of Twilight Zone was shorter than the others.)
Warner Bros TV had developed a practice of using scripts from some shows, rewriting them into other shows, without regard to genre: Westerns were turned into detective shows, and vice versa.
This was one of the issues in the strike: WBTV got around it by always crediting (and paying a small royalty to) the original writers, but the WGA/W wasn't having that.
When WBTV's script inventory starting drying up, the TV series kept up the practice, but gave credit for the rewrites to "W. Hermanos" - that last word being Spanish for "brothers" (get it?); the actual writers were mid-to-low level WB employees who got paid to do anonymous rewrites of earlier episodes, their names since lost to history.
The point is, as Bourbon Street Beat goes into its home stretch, you're going to see many scripts credited to "W. Hermanos", with credit to the original story's writer - sometimes (not always).
All WBTV series went through this, from the cowboys to the 'tecs; by the winter of '60, the strike was settled, and "W. Hermanos" bid adios to the biz.
As to "looking forward" to these episodes - well, since they're mainly rewrites of other shows, in a sense you'll be looking backwards …
'Til then …
That is fascinating and I may read some of that when we get to that point, if you don't mind and I'll credit you of course.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to it. I hope it doesn't kind of ruin this show that I've quite grown to love. I don't watch ahead but I might now.
(Oh, 76 is up...)
Listening right now to #76:
ReplyDeleteCutting to the chase: Melody has left Bourbon Street Beat - for good.
The last episode you saw her in … was the last episode you saw her in.
Best guess: Arlene Howell's WB contract ran out and (for whatever reason) wasn't picked up.
This is when the producers started the gag of Ken auditioning replacement secretaries, straight out of the Warner Contract list.
(That's why Jackie Russell ('Jan") was one of the first.)
BSB was a "bubble show" during its single ABC season; if they had gone to season two, they might have taken on a permanent "new girl" - but I guess we'll never know, will we?
More when you put up the new one - I think …
That's a heartbreaker. I think we thought she might be gone but we were hoping she wouldn't be... Sigh.
ReplyDeleteClarifying:
ReplyDeleteWhat little I've been able to learn indicates that it was Arlene Howell's own decision to depart Bourbon Street Beat, and Warner Bros TV in general (the few credits she has after BSB weren't WBTV shows).
Anyway, it all became academic when Rex went West to join Bailey & Spencer, and Ken went East to SurfSide 6 (where he met up with Diane McBain), and Cal re-upped with the NOPD (where he ran into Stu Bailey a couple of years later on 77 Sunset Strip (I told you about that one, didn't I?)).
So they all lived happily ever after!
Sort of …