Welcome everyone to your Gateway to Episode 91 of Eventually Supertrain.
In this episode,
Tim S. Turner and Dan talk about Nero Wolfe (Episode 6)
Dan discusses Shadow Chasers (Episode 10)
Christin Haws and Dan chat Automan (Episode 2)
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Please, listen and enjoy.
This is a test.
ReplyDeleteGoogle is screwing with me, and I can't get through.
This is only a test.
I put up a comment on Episode 90, which for whatever reason didn't go through.
ReplyDeleteThis was long enough ago that I can't remember most of what I wrote in there, except to note that George Voskovec and Robert Coote both died within a year of the series's run (Voskovec didn't even make it through the rerun season).
I'll just concentrate on this one, which looks like John Meredyth Lucas pulled it from his back files from when he was writing Mannix for Goff & Roberts some years before.
Some of what you mentioned in passing:
- Thanx to Quinn Martin and his announcers for teaching us all how to pronounce:
Chez-a-ray Da-NO-va
Charles Che-OFF-ee
Titos Van-DEESE (he was the Greek captain).
- Further about Cesare Danova:
Chamber Of Horrors was indeed a pilot which almost made ABC's fall schedule in 1966.
Danova starred alongside Wilfrid Hyde-White and Tun Tun (a Mexican dwarf TV star who bore a facial resemblance to William Shatner); the villain was Patrick O'Neal (not Cameron Mitchell).
The series was supposed to be called House Of Wax, like the old Warners movie; it was slated to get Friday nights at 10(9 Central).
What happened was that the ad boss at Bristol-Myers was allowed to change the ABC Fall Schedule to suit his own tune; House was one of the casualties (things like this happened then).
Warners never liked to let things go unused, so they shot some extra footage (including an unbilled cameo by Tony Curtis) to bring it up to feature length, and sent it out to theaters, where it actually did fairly well.
- While we're talking about unsold pilots:
The 1959 Nero Wolfe pilot was almost on CBS's fall schedule that year - even had a time slot announced: Monday nights at 10 (9 Central).
What happened: Rex Stout saw the pilot - and hated hated HATED it.
Stout's exact quote to his biographer, John McAleer: "It was terrible … I despise television …".
Rex Stout never permitted any use of Wolfe in film or TV after this during his lifetime (after his death, his daughters let the gates down, hence the ABC pilot, this series, and the A&E films).
Contrary to rumor, there were no other episodes made; seeing the pilot was enough to make Stout spike the whole thing.
- The next scheduled Wolfe is "In The Best Families", which was basically the last straw for devoted Wolfeans.
If you've read the novel (and the two that preceded it), you know why; if not … well, I don't see how this show would have won Wolfe and Archie any new fans - but hey, that's me …
Now to see if this one goes through …