Speaker 1: It's Night with Dan Ray. I'm Wazon Video.
Speaker 2: We've got half the show done, half the show to go,
Speaker 2: and I have a fun way to spend it. We're
Speaker 2: going to put two TV programs from the sixties under
Speaker 2: a microscope and do that to two other TV programs
Speaker 2: from the seventies under a microscope. I didn't do it.
Speaker 2: One of the stronger writers of TV programs, I say
Speaker 2: TV programs. He did books on James Garner's series Maverick,
Speaker 2: The Legend of the West, the Rockford Files, he did
Speaker 2: a book on the FBI. He's written a lot of
Speaker 2: books on legendary TV programs, and his current book, Men
Speaker 2: of Action talks about these four series. The Magician with
Speaker 2: Bill Bixby, Harry O with David Jansen, The Untouchables with
Speaker 2: Robert Stack and yes, I know there was another one
Speaker 2: that they tried to bring back in nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 2: I do believe. He mentions that and does the whole
Speaker 2: segment on that as well in this book and Run
Speaker 2: for Your Life. And the people behind these series are
Speaker 2: names with which you're familiar. For an example, I want
Speaker 2: to talk about, oh which one, let me just pick
Speaker 2: put my finger on one. Run for your life. When
Speaker 2: I mentioned the book on James Garner. One of the
Speaker 2: creators of James Garner's Maverick character and Rockford Files was
Speaker 2: Roy Huggins. Ed Robertson did conversations with mister Huggins on
Speaker 2: this book Man of Action, and I have had so
Speaker 2: many superb conversations with Ed Robertson off the radio. I'm
Speaker 2: glad to share him with my audience. And forgive me
Speaker 2: for being so long. When did welcome aboard?
Speaker 3: This is the Morgan White Show. You could be as
Speaker 3: long winded as you want.
Speaker 2: No, no, this is a Dan Ray knightside show.
Speaker 3: Well, I realized this is the Dan Ray nightside show
Speaker 3: for our purposes. Tonight it's the Morgan White Show filling
Speaker 3: in for Dan Ray and you can still be as
Speaker 3: long winded as you want.
Speaker 2: All right, fair enough, thank you for Happy Thanksgiving.
Speaker 3: Happy Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2: Did you enjoy your Thanksgiving today? I did.
Speaker 3: I had. I had a very very good friend over
Speaker 3: and we had roasted chicken dinner with with with with
Speaker 3: the works, and two kinds of salads. And I didn't
Speaker 3: feel like I didn't I didn't feel like an I
Speaker 3: didn't eat a lot per se, but I feel like,
Speaker 3: I ate a lot of If that makes a lot
Speaker 3: of sense, that's what dancing.
Speaker 2: And I had roasted chicken.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I made and the fixens and and I
Speaker 3: made apple pie from scratch.
Speaker 2: Wow, we didn't go that far.
Speaker 3: Even and and meaning homemade crust too.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well the pies that we had we purchased at
Speaker 2: the store.
Speaker 3: Well, you're you're probably smarter than I. But I years
Speaker 3: years ago, when I was in college, I was in
Speaker 3: a I was I was in a I was in
Speaker 3: a like like a dorm like situation, and we, uh,
Speaker 3: there are I don't know about ten fifteen of us,
Speaker 3: and uh we used to take turns making meals. And
Speaker 3: that's when I first learned. I mean, for a while,
Speaker 3: I got into making pizza us from scratch and pie
Speaker 3: dough from scratch, and so I got into it for
Speaker 3: a while, and then I stopped doing that. But then
Speaker 3: about two or three years ago, the person I was
Speaker 3: with encouraged when she when she I made the mistake
Speaker 3: of telling her that I used to bake, and then
Speaker 3: she prodded me into baking. And so while she and
Speaker 3: I are no longer together, the fact that I still
Speaker 3: bake is a nice residual of that relationships.
Speaker 2: Okay, there you go.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we made Apple Fire from scratch.
Speaker 2: I want to sell books for you. I'll make sure
Speaker 2: that people are teased enough by Men of Action. So
Speaker 2: want to go out and buy it? And yes, a
Speaker 2: perfect book for the size of some stockings hung by
Speaker 2: the chimney with care.
Speaker 3: Yes, Yes, it's Men of Action. Behind the scenes of
Speaker 3: four classic television series which Morgan enumerated a few minutes ago.
Speaker 3: The Magician with Bill mixby HARRYO with David Jansen Me
Speaker 3: and Touchables with Robert Stack Run for Your Life with
Speaker 3: Benkers are available through Cutting Edge Press. You can also
Speaker 3: find it directly at Amazon dot commne Action available Amazon
Speaker 3: dot com. It's available. The hardback is available for about
Speaker 3: twenty twenty one bucks, the paperbacks about eighteen dollars. In
Speaker 3: the ebook I think is ten bucks, but it's not
Speaker 3: terribly expensive. I think you'll get a lot of bang
Speaker 3: for your buck, especially if you like a classic television
Speaker 3: from the sixties and seventies.
Speaker 2: I'll say this throughout the book. There are names that
Speaker 2: come up that you know of now, from the eighties
Speaker 2: and nineties into the twenty first century that were pertinent
Speaker 2: back in the sixties and seventies, and I'm thoroughly amazed
Speaker 2: by how many names throughout all four of these TV shows.
Speaker 2: Histories were important back in the day. I wrote down
Speaker 2: some notes. I mentioned Roy Huggins Runs for Your Life.
Speaker 2: Roy Huggins was kind of co worse than the being
Speaker 2: the executive producer of that series.
Speaker 3: Well he was, and I realized, you're going to break
Speaker 3: in a couple of minutes, so I'll try to be
Speaker 3: as quick as this as possible and we'll pick it
Speaker 3: up on the other side. But he Roy Huggins, as
Speaker 3: you know, was also the creator of The Fugitive with
Speaker 3: David Jansen, and by the time he sold the series
Speaker 3: to ABC, he was unable to produce the show because
Speaker 3: Roy had actually left television for a couple of years.
Speaker 3: He went back to school. He studied political philosophy at
Speaker 3: u c l A for a couple of years before
Speaker 3: Universal made him an offer he couldn't refuse and brought
Speaker 3: him back in a time television. But The Fugitive, as
Speaker 3: you remember, was a huge hit for ABC and and
Speaker 3: and as imitation is often the ccerious form of flattery,
Speaker 3: every network, uh the both CBS and NBC tried to
Speaker 3: do their own versions of The Fugitive. None of them succeeded.
Speaker 3: Roy was under contract in the Universal at the time.
Speaker 3: The president of the President of Television Universe Well said, Roy,
Speaker 3: everyone else is doing the Fugitive knockoff, you should. If
Speaker 3: anyone should do it, you should, and he gave him
Speaker 3: the premise and Roy took it from there and it
Speaker 3: was a It was a top rated series for three years.
Speaker 3: The only reason didn't go beyond that it was a
Speaker 3: victim of its own premise, which is that Ben Gazzara
Speaker 3: played a man who had a mysterious illness, a mysterious
Speaker 3: terminal illness that only gave him two years to live,
Speaker 3: and the show went three years, right, and and a
Speaker 3: very uptight executive said, well, you've you know, if you've
Speaker 3: been on three years, he was only supposed to be
Speaker 3: on a live for two years. He's had one year
Speaker 3: too long. And that's why the show.
Speaker 2: Funny thing about that, which you mentioned in the book,
Speaker 2: the original premise had it so we the audience as
Speaker 2: watching it, we found out that that diagnosis was inaccurate.
Speaker 2: Now the character didn't know that the diagnosis was inaccurate,
Speaker 2: and that's what led to weekly conflicts.
Speaker 3: I think you're complaining something, Morgan, if I may. That
Speaker 3: was the premise of a very good movie with Dabney
Speaker 3: Coleman called Straight Time or a Short Time And and Yes,
Speaker 3: he thought he had he thought he had a terminal illness.
Speaker 3: It turns out he was given wrong information. But that
Speaker 3: was not the case with Ben Gazzara. The whole premise was, Okay,
Speaker 3: if you find out you're you have a terminal illness
Speaker 3: and only have a limited amount of time, what do
Speaker 3: you do with the rest of your life? Do you
Speaker 3: do you feel sorry for yourself? Or do you make
Speaker 3: the most of it? He decided to make the most
Speaker 3: of it, and because he was a person of certain means,
Speaker 3: he was able to travel the world and see places
Speaker 3: he may not have otherwise done if he was still
Speaker 3: working his job as a lawyer.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna stop. I'm gonna stop you here because you're
Speaker 2: right right, the break must be observed. Let's take the
Speaker 2: break and pick up this break when we come back.
Speaker 2: You want to join the conversation. People six one, seven, two, five, four,
Speaker 2: ten thirty or eight eight, eight, nine, two, nine, ten thirty,
Speaker 2: we'll be talking about all four of these shows once again,
Speaker 2: The Magician, Harry O, The Untouchables and Run for your
Speaker 2: Lifetime and temperature here on BZ ten sixteen. Oops, I'm
Speaker 2: in trouble and the temperature is forty two to grease.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray Live from the Window World,
Speaker 1: Light Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: The thing here in the background is from Bill Bisby's
Speaker 2: series The Magician. I love this show.
Speaker 4: Bill Bixby portrayed the magician named Anthony Blake, who went
Speaker 4: behind bars for years for a crime he did not
Speaker 4: commit and came out with the incentive to help people
Speaker 4: who were in no win situations and he used magic
Speaker 4: to extricate.
Speaker 2: Them out of those tough terms. The Magician. All right,
Speaker 2: that's enough for the Magician and thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2: That's stay my producer, and I love that theme. I
Speaker 2: used to have a Lincoln town Car and I had
Speaker 2: CDs made for it, and I had a what I
Speaker 2: call junk CD which included songs from TV, of which
Speaker 2: that was one.
Speaker 3: It was one of the many great theme musics from
Speaker 3: Patrick Williams. Patrick Williams, he did the Streets of San Francisco,
Speaker 3: He did the Bob Newhart Show theme Home to Emily.
Speaker 3: He did. He did the theme the lou Grant, he
Speaker 3: did countless countless he did. If I remember correctly, I
Speaker 3: believe he did the Mary Tyler Moore show thing. And
Speaker 3: he may have also done the music for Love Is
Speaker 3: All Around by Sonny Curtis. I'm going off memory there.
Speaker 3: If someone, if I misspeak, your listeners will let me know.
Speaker 2: Sara Curtis sang the theme. That was his voice. We
Speaker 2: heard Who's been trying the world on with a smile.
Speaker 2: But you're saying Pat Williams.
Speaker 3: I think Pat Williams did the music for the show.
Speaker 2: Okay, well we're jumping hopscotch here. Let's go back to
Speaker 2: Run for Your Life, which is where we were before
Speaker 2: the break. And if I remember correctly reading, because I
Speaker 2: read all this like three weeks ago, but the plot
Speaker 2: all of a sudden just rang in mister Huggard's head
Speaker 2: that maybe I should do it this way where he
Speaker 2: only has two years to live.
Speaker 3: That's okay, Actually, no, you're let me. I'm going to
Speaker 3: circle back. Yes, the way the idea was originally presented
Speaker 3: to him. You remember that correctly, The idea was a
Speaker 3: man A man is A man is mistakenly told that
Speaker 3: he has two week that he has a short time
Speaker 3: to live, and and Roy thought that was a Roy
Speaker 3: did not think that was a good premise for a series.
Speaker 3: Maybe a movie, not a series. And then Roy said, okay,
Speaker 3: what He turned that on his head and said, what
Speaker 3: if it's true? What if what if he only has
Speaker 3: two years to live? What does he do? And because
Speaker 3: it could be a statement on it could be a
Speaker 3: statement on what it means to truly live, depending on
Speaker 3: how you spend the rest of your days. And as
Speaker 3: we said before, he made he made the Ben Gazera
Speaker 3: character a lawyer because that gave that gave him the
Speaker 3: means to travel.
Speaker 2: He had deep pockets, He.
Speaker 3: Had deep pockets. And and because this was an episodic
Speaker 3: television show that you could put him realistically in position
Speaker 3: in position situations where being a lawyer would come in handy,
Speaker 3: as it often did in the course of of the series.
Speaker 3: And because this was done in sixty five sixty six,
Speaker 3: at the height of the Cold War, he had government contacts.
Speaker 3: Sometimes they would ask him to do you know, some
Speaker 3: covert spy work, some semi spionage type of stuff, you know,
Speaker 3: where he might negotiate something from the other, you know,
Speaker 3: for one side or the other. So it was. But
Speaker 3: by making him a man of means and a man
Speaker 3: with a legal background, they gave him the ability to
Speaker 3: plausibly find himself in a lot of situations, a lot
Speaker 3: of different type of situations where he could help people
Speaker 3: or help other countries. And and so that was the
Speaker 3: premise of the show. And it uh very very well.
Speaker 3: It did very very well. And uh one, it's times
Speaker 3: one on a consistent basis and uh uh and it was
Speaker 3: one of many things that helped solidify Roy Huggin's relationship
Speaker 3: as a successful producer of television for Universal.
Speaker 2: And that was NBC, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 3: NBC Wednesday nights, ten o'clock. Uh and uh and and
Speaker 3: and it was it was. It was a very six
Speaker 3: It was. It was one of the great anthology shows
Speaker 3: during like the I was gonna almost said the Golden
Speaker 3: Ages anthologies that would be the fifties. But there are
Speaker 3: a lot of shows in the sixties, like Craft Suspense Theater,
Speaker 3: uh that would have either you you would have you
Speaker 3: would tell different stories and you would have a whole
Speaker 3: different cast every week, which is great for actors at
Speaker 3: the time. You know, Uh, Run for Your Life was
Speaker 3: an anthology series with a recurring character. You know, so
Speaker 3: Ben Ben Gazzar was the only staple of the show,
Speaker 3: but because you threw him in different type of situations,
Speaker 3: he was always meaning different people. So there's always a
Speaker 3: need for great guest stars.
Speaker 2: Right, And once that show began a third season, now
Speaker 2: that played with the plot, Hey, I thought that I
Speaker 2: was going to die after too, what's up with this?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, well, the the uh, the funny story was that, uh, Roy,
Speaker 3: you know, one of the things that made Roy Huggins
Speaker 3: different and successful is that he thought, he thought outside
Speaker 3: the box, and uh, he he trusted in the audience
Speaker 3: and he knew that if if you if, if you,
Speaker 3: if you deliver an interesting premise with good stories and
Speaker 3: hook the reader's interest every week, they're they're not necessar
Speaker 3: only going to remember that he only he was only
Speaker 3: supposed to have two years left the lip, you know,
Speaker 3: And when you think about it, a season was twenty
Speaker 3: five twenty six weeks back in nineteen sixty five sixty six,
Speaker 3: so two full seasons, that's only fifty two weeks. So
Speaker 3: if you think in terms of fifty two weeks, he
Speaker 3: still had, he still had at least another fifty two
Speaker 3: weeks or two years of episodes to go. But as
Speaker 3: as it happens, the head of program at the time
Speaker 3: was a little too literate or literal, and he said, okay,
Speaker 3: well you said, you said two years. We gave you
Speaker 3: a third year. He's been on one year too long.
Speaker 3: And that was the end of the show, all right.
Speaker 2: And I'm going to ask this isn't something that was
Speaker 2: in the book. But when you think of these three names, Benkasara,
Speaker 2: John Cassavetti's and Peerful, you knew right where it was
Speaker 2: going to go. You beat me to the punch, you
Speaker 2: dastardly man. You all right, I'll tell you what. I've
Speaker 2: got a news hit coming in ninety seconds.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: I want to talk about the interaction of those three.
Speaker 2: They they did movies together as the produced direct act.
Speaker 2: They were very tight. They were their own rap pack.
Speaker 3: They all had Columbo in common.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they all did. Because Cassavetti's played the Maestro I
Speaker 2: think that was the title.
Speaker 3: And in the second in Black and There you Go.
Speaker 2: And Gazira directed that episode.
Speaker 3: He I don't remember if he directed that episode, but
Speaker 3: he directed the episode where Columbo was on a cruise.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, my mistake.
Speaker 3: And Patrick and Patrick McNee was the was the captain.
Speaker 2: And the Robert the bad guy was Robert Vaughan. Yes,
Speaker 2: mister Danzinger, Ye love the way that Yes, yep, pronounce
Speaker 2: that name, Danzinger. We could have trivia competition to you
Speaker 2: and I forever.
Speaker 3: I don't think so you.
Speaker 5: I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't. I don't think I'm in the same league
Speaker 3: as you.
Speaker 2: Let me take my break and we'll come back and
Speaker 2: talk about that core of friendship and we'll get back
Speaker 2: to manufaction. I promise you, uh people, and and I
Speaker 2: will talk for two hours. If you want to call
Speaker 2: in and stop us, I'd recommend you do six one, seven, two, five,
Speaker 2: four ten thirty or eight eight, eight, nine to nine,
Speaker 2: ten thirty. This is Nightside guest hosted tonight by me
Speaker 2: Morgan White Junior. Time and temperature here BZ ten thirty
Speaker 2: and I guess it's still forty two degrees.
Speaker 1: You're on the Night Side with Dan Ray on w BZ,
Speaker 1: Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Welcome back on, Morgan. I have been a part of
Speaker 2: the BZ fabric since nineteen ninety six. I have my
Speaker 2: own show Saturday nights beginning at ten, But this week
Speaker 2: or half of this week, I've been filling in for Dannery.
Speaker 2: Here on Nightside. I am speaking with Ed Robertson, who's
Speaker 2: done books on various classic TV shows, James Garner. He
Speaker 2: did a book on Maverick, Legend of the West. He
Speaker 2: did a book on roberts Files. He did a book
Speaker 2: on Perry Mason. Perry Mason, you did a book with
Speaker 2: someone else who was the co author?
Speaker 3: I co authored that book with Bill Sullivan, who I
Speaker 3: also co authored the FBI a doociate with.
Speaker 2: And also your current book, Man of Action is all.
Speaker 3: You The Men of Action Behind the scenes of four
Speaker 3: classic television series available Amazon dot com. And yes, it
Speaker 3: is all me.
Speaker 2: The Magician, The Untouchables, Herr O and Ren for Your Life,
Speaker 2: and we have touched on two. Shortly we'll bring HARRYO
Speaker 2: and the Untouchables into our conversation. I wanted you to
Speaker 2: talk about the I'll call them the more aeradite Brat
Speaker 2: pack of Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara and John Cassavetti's.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know the romance is the right word
Speaker 3: for it, but they're all very very good friends and
Speaker 3: They were all idiosyncratic actors and they worked with They
Speaker 3: work with each other a lot. One difference between Gazara
Speaker 3: and Peter Falk and John Cassavetti's is Cassavettis was sort
Speaker 3: of use a very idiosyncratic director, very unconventional.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: Peter Falk took a very much stage actor's approach to Colombo.
Speaker 3: It was not uncommon for him to do fifteen sixteen,
Speaker 3: seventeen eighteen takes on a given line until he got
Speaker 3: it right, which worked for him because he was he
Speaker 3: was He was the straw that stirred the drink and
Speaker 3: the mystery movie. And so as long as it made
Speaker 3: money for Universal and NBC, they would they would put
Speaker 3: up with his any idiosyncrasy there. Gazara, well, you know,
Speaker 3: he he messed with Falk and Cassavetti's he was. He
Speaker 3: was very much a professional when he came to direct.
Speaker 3: He directed a good number of Run for Your Lives,
Speaker 3: especially in the third season. He was he I was
Speaker 3: told by Swirling, one of the producers of the show,
Speaker 3: that he was very unusual for an actor who directed,
Speaker 3: because he was very mindful of the budget and so
Speaker 3: uh and and so he would he would do good
Speaker 3: work and do you want to do it on time?
Speaker 3: And uh not cause undue headaches, which Cassavetties was known to.
Speaker 2: Do, okay, and was Cassavetties married to Gina Rowlands.
Speaker 3: Uh I one of them was married to Gina Rowland.
Speaker 3: I believe it was Cassavetties.
Speaker 2: I thought so too. And I'm sorry to go off
Speaker 2: the subject of your books, but this is.
Speaker 3: The this is this is Morgan why filling in for
Speaker 3: Dan Ray? You can do whatever you want.
Speaker 2: Thank thank you for getting that right. Well, Morgan, if
Speaker 2: you want to be specific, order white.
Speaker 3: You you're talking to Ed Robertson, author of Manu Offaction
Speaker 3: of a wy aamaz undercom.
Speaker 2: And tell people what you do in California that we
Speaker 2: hit thirty eight states. They might may not know about
Speaker 2: your background.
Speaker 3: I host and produced a syndicated radio show called TV Confidential,
Speaker 3: where we talk about shows like what Morgan and I
Speaker 3: are doing right now. We talk about your favorite shows
Speaker 3: from the sixties and seventies, of shows that you grew
Speaker 3: up watching, and in many cases we interview some of
Speaker 3: the people who made those shows possible.
Speaker 2: Now, I had to read the book to find out
Speaker 2: this this thing that was in my memory. I know
Speaker 2: I knew it, but I needed to see it in
Speaker 2: print to recognize that Sarah Fawcett was a part of
Speaker 2: the on again, off again what you would call a
Speaker 2: semi regular on HERRYO.
Speaker 3: This is this is Sarah Fawcett about a year before
Speaker 3: Charlie's Angels yet and this, this is, this is Sarah
Speaker 3: Fawcett around the time she was this, this is when
Speaker 3: she was still going by Fharrapacet Majors because she had
Speaker 3: just married Lee Majors at the time. And it's it's
Speaker 3: it was very easy to forget this when she blew
Speaker 3: up and you know, into Pharaohmania in the in seventy
Speaker 3: six seventy seven. But she was she was a good
Speaker 3: looking woman who studied to be a good actress. And
Speaker 3: and even if if you watch some of the things
Speaker 3: she did in the early seventies when she was in
Speaker 3: a contract with screen Gems, she they put her on.
Speaker 3: She had a recurring role the last season of idrima Genie.
Speaker 3: She was a she was she was Bill Daily's on again,
Speaker 3: off again girlfriend. And you know, look, she she wasn't
Speaker 3: asked to do Lady Macbeth or anything like that, but
Speaker 3: she she you know, she could hold her own and
Speaker 3: when when given the opportunity, she can show a little
Speaker 3: bit of personality.
Speaker 5: And so.
Speaker 3: She wasn't always given she wasn't always given that chance
Speaker 3: to shine early on, because you know, they tend they
Speaker 3: just they looked, they thought of her only as a
Speaker 3: pretty face.
Speaker 2: But when.
Speaker 3: Uh, when HARRYO changed formats in the middle of its
Speaker 3: first season, originally was set in San Diego. Then for
Speaker 3: budgetary reasons, they changed production and they moved it, they said,
Speaker 3: in Los Angeles. And so they surrounded David Jansen with
Speaker 3: the new cast of characters. And one of his neighbors
Speaker 3: was a stewardess played by fair Defacet Majors, and she
Speaker 3: and Jensen they had very good chemistry together. And you know,
Speaker 3: Jansen Jamson did a lot of did a good bit
Speaker 3: of improvising, you know, in in UH, he would he
Speaker 3: would do especially if it's seen that required a lot
Speaker 3: of exposition, he would he would get the ABC part,
Speaker 3: but he would do it in a way that made
Speaker 3: it kind of fun, particularly if he was working with
Speaker 3: an actor that he that he really that he really
Speaker 3: liked and who seemed to get his sense of humor
Speaker 3: and Parapasa was one of them, and they had really
Speaker 3: nice moments together when they worked together in Harryo.
Speaker 2: And once I saw her name in print in your
Speaker 2: book Man of Action, Notice I worked that in there.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much. It made you'll forgive me. I'm
Speaker 3: used to plugging things on my own show, so well I.
Speaker 2: Will plug for you. I'm trying to make you as
Speaker 2: much money as I can over the two hours that
Speaker 2: we have. But it when Morgan, Yeah, she was in
Speaker 2: that with a reoccurring role and reoccurring role on TV.
Speaker 2: It's like some of the actresses that were on Maverick.
Speaker 2: Just to pick a series that would use people like
Speaker 2: Mike Rhade or e from Zimbalist Junior.
Speaker 3: Or Kathleen Crowley.
Speaker 2: Kathleen Crowley who later went on to Eat the Daisies
Speaker 2: on her own series.
Speaker 3: No, that's Pat Crowley.
Speaker 2: Oh my mistake. See I can be and.
Speaker 3: I don't think they were related. But no, Kathleen Crowley
Speaker 3: was a blonde actress who did a lot of She
Speaker 3: did some sci fi movies in the fifties, but she
Speaker 3: did a lot of She did a lot of episodic
Speaker 3: stuff in the fifties and sixties. In particular, and she
Speaker 3: was on virtually every hour long show that Warner Brothers
Speaker 3: was in production. Wors Pat Crowley was a dirty blonde
Speaker 3: and she went on to do Please Don't Eat the
Speaker 3: Daisies in nineteen sixty five and a lot of guest
Speaker 3: star stuff in the seventies and eighties.
Speaker 2: Yeah, as a matter of fact, I think it is
Speaker 2: ironic because that show, or You've got me on another tangent,
Speaker 2: that show Please Don't Eat the Daisies did a satire
Speaker 2: tongue in cheek spoof with the Man from Uncle actors
Speaker 2: Robert Vaughan and David McCallum. And it's ironic because she
Speaker 2: was in an Uncle episode with Robert Vaughan.
Speaker 3: And David McCallum. Was a good friend of Morgan White Junior.
Speaker 2: Yes he was. Oh gosh do I miss him? Yes,
Speaker 2: gosh do I miss him. Let me take a break now,
Speaker 2: and we'll go back to talking about Farah Fawcet. There's
Speaker 2: so much more to that series, or well, I love
Speaker 2: the way Anthony Zerup said it versus Henry Darrell saying it,
Speaker 2: And we'll talk about that and people and and I
Speaker 2: will just speak until five in the morning. We've had
Speaker 2: our hours long conversations. You want to interrupt us, please
Speaker 2: do six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty eight, eight, eight, nine, two, nine,
Speaker 2: ten thirty And we in this conversation alone, we've mentioned
Speaker 2: a dozen TV series. So someone out there must must
Speaker 2: have a little tickle behind their ear to talk about Colombo,
Speaker 2: to talk about the Rockford fires.
Speaker 3: Or please don't eat the daisy, or.
Speaker 2: Please please don't eat the days.
Speaker 5: These don't eat the days?
Speaker 2: These please Time and temperature here on night Side ten
Speaker 2: forty five forty two degrees.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on w b Z News Radio.
Speaker 2: A little bit of the Untouchables. I don't think this
Speaker 2: was the original theme that you heard if you turned
Speaker 2: to TV on sometime back in sixty two, three, four
Speaker 2: or five. Facts you get the field?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yes, Ed, Yeah, no, it was, as I recall,
Speaker 3: it was a little more uptempo, right, the rangtro was
Speaker 3: a little more uptemple. But that's that is one of
Speaker 3: the many, many great themes from Nelson Riddle.
Speaker 2: Yes, that was an Nelson Riddle.
Speaker 3: Who contributed a lot of great things for music and
Speaker 3: television when he wasn't making records. And composing stuff for
Speaker 3: Sinatra and Nela Fitzgerald and all of that stuff.
Speaker 2: But I think my favorite Nelson Middle theme on TV
Speaker 2: was Rude sixty six.
Speaker 3: Rude sixty six. That's right, and but no, it was
Speaker 3: it was you mentioned We're gonna I know, Joe Roan,
Speaker 3: you mentioned the revival or the reimagining of the show
Speaker 3: that was done in ninety three ninety four. Yes, and
Speaker 3: I and I and I did talk to Tom A Mondes,
Speaker 3: who played Elliott Ness in that show, and when I
Speaker 3: revisited that when I was putting this book together. It's
Speaker 3: one of those things that I didn't think of this
Speaker 3: at the time, but it came to me now because
Speaker 3: you know, one of hope we become wiser and we
Speaker 3: learn more, we accumulate more stuff, you know, over the years.
Speaker 3: But one of the one of the things that made
Speaker 3: the Mama Monde showed different from the Roberts, from the
Speaker 3: Robert Stack Untouchables is the way they portrayed al Capone,
Speaker 3: and uh, it was more in the Toma Monday's Untouchables
Speaker 3: from the nineties. It was an ongoing battle between Elliotness
Speaker 3: and al Capone. And because Capone was on virtually every week.
Speaker 3: They took liberties with the Capone character as as as
Speaker 3: his wont to do and they even though he was
Speaker 3: the bad guy, they gave him a lot of color
Speaker 3: and trappings. And so you almost found yourself rooting for
Speaker 3: al Capone, which is not which which kind of upsets
Speaker 3: the bounds because the show is supposed to be about
Speaker 3: Tom Mandy's as Elliotness and Neville.
Speaker 2: Brand played al Capone periodically reoccurring character in the Roberts
Speaker 2: Stack Untouchables.
Speaker 3: Yes, and they would do that because they would They
Speaker 3: would do that because they would change. They would one
Speaker 3: year would be set in thirty two, one episode will
Speaker 3: be set in thirty fourth. They go back and forth
Speaker 3: in time, and so they were able to do that.
Speaker 3: But what what what the what the Tamil Monday's William
Speaker 3: Forsyth Untouchables, I didn't realize this at the time, but
Speaker 3: I realized this now. They were what they were doing
Speaker 3: with al Capone. He was like the first anti hero
Speaker 3: on network television in an era that was about ten
Speaker 3: years before anti heroes became fashionable, Okay, And so that's
Speaker 3: that's one of the reasons why that meant why that
Speaker 3: the the the premise of Men of Action. Is that
Speaker 3: the four shows that we talk about in the book,
Speaker 3: one way or another, they were popping. You know, they
Speaker 3: left their mark at the time, but they continue to
Speaker 3: leave their mark today because one way or another they
Speaker 3: attributed to dramatic television as we know it today.
Speaker 5: And so.
Speaker 3: In the case, as we just said, in the case
Speaker 3: of the revival of the Untouchables, you know that ran
Speaker 3: ninety three to ninety four, it paved the way for
Speaker 3: in a way, it paved the way for the era
Speaker 3: of anti heroes that we have seen on television in
Speaker 3: the last twenty five years.
Speaker 2: One actor who just facially now sometimes Alan Jenkins looked
Speaker 2: like a cop. Yeah, the character actor Alan Jenkins looked
Speaker 2: like the cop. Yeah. And find that he even played
Speaker 2: a cop on Topcat. He was off to dibble. The
Speaker 2: thing I loved about William forth Side, who ever had
Speaker 2: him as an actor in whatever production that they were directing,
Speaker 2: they took advantage of that.
Speaker 3: He's yeah, yeah, and and and they you know, as
Speaker 3: they say, they they they took they gave that. There's
Speaker 3: one episode of the nineteen ninety three Untouchables, uh, and
Speaker 3: it may have been a two parter where they they
Speaker 3: had Nests and Capone working alongside each other, so you
Speaker 3: had an uneasy alliance, uh, which you know made sense
Speaker 3: in that in the universe of that show. It would
Speaker 3: never make sense in the Robert Stack universe, right, because
Speaker 3: the way Stack played elliott Ness, he was the counterpuncher
Speaker 3: and and uh and and Stack said this to me
Speaker 3: when I talked to him many years ago. He knew
Speaker 3: that he had he had to let the villains shine
Speaker 3: because they wore the flashy suits. They were the gangsters.
Speaker 3: They were the bad boys of prohibition era Chicago, which
Speaker 3: is where elliott Ness operated. And so Stack even though
Speaker 3: Stack got an Oscar nomination for playing a psychopath in
Speaker 3: Written on the Wind, which shows that he could you know,
Speaker 3: choose the scenery of given the opportunity. He yeah, he
Speaker 3: had arranged, but he had to dial back on his
Speaker 3: range for the good of the show because he had
Speaker 3: to let an order for you know, Nest to stand out.
Speaker 3: He had to dial back and let the and let
Speaker 3: the villains shine from every week and so and when
Speaker 3: you think about it, that was about ten years before
Speaker 3: Adam West did the same thing on Batman.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: So you know, the the concept of the hero of
Speaker 3: the week of a weekly series being the straight man
Speaker 3: to the villains Robert.
Speaker 2: But I've got a caller. Let me see if i
Speaker 2: can squeeze him in before the top of the hour.
Speaker 2: Glenn and Brighton, how was your Thanksgiving?
Speaker 5: It was real good because of the old Trump is fan.
Speaker 5: I just woke up from a nap, so I heard
Speaker 5: you mention Colombo. That's why I had to call. Because
Speaker 5: my favorite comb Oh episode was the one with Idela Pino.
Speaker 3: Oh it's Johnny Cash.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 5: Oh my god, do I love that.
Speaker 2: Sunday Morning Sidewalk was the song Johnny.
Speaker 3: Sang, directed by Nicholas Colisanto, better known as Coaching.
Speaker 2: See Glenn, You'll see the stuff that and and I know.
Speaker 3: Together Nicholas Colissanto, who directed a number of Run for
Speaker 3: Your Lives, which is one of the four shows Profile
Speaker 3: and Manu of Action available Amazon that company.
Speaker 2: And let me ask you, because I know Glenn is sightless.
Speaker 2: Is this book available for an audio reader?
Speaker 3: I I don't know that for certain. I can ask
Speaker 3: the publisher.
Speaker 5: All right, Well, my favorite part is when they're looking
Speaker 5: for a combo is looking for a coffee theoremost and
Speaker 5: combo goes no Johnny Cash goes, I was thrown clear.
Speaker 5: I got to bust the leg out of the deal.
Speaker 5: Something is life as a coffee themist, Well, that could
Speaker 5: be anywhere. And Colombo goes not bad, not bad, not bad?
Speaker 5: All right?
Speaker 2: And Glenn, do you want me to have Ed commit
Speaker 2: to reading you excerpts from his book once a week
Speaker 2: until he finishes finishes book.
Speaker 5: That's not the yuga. I love ed Huber His laugh
Speaker 5: God sounds like already.
Speaker 2: Glenn. His waves turn much Glenn his way of turning
Speaker 2: everything back to his perspective. There you go, that's Glenn.
Speaker 3: That makes him a good color.
Speaker 2: I've known him as a call for over thirty years before.
Speaker 5: Well, yeah, I was gonna go back to sixteen hundred,
Speaker 5: but maybe not.
Speaker 2: All right, Glenn, you got thirty seconds before I have
Speaker 2: to take news.
Speaker 5: Yeah. What was the name of that Columbus something? Was
Speaker 5: it the Swan song or something?
Speaker 3: The Swan song?
Speaker 5: Yeah, the one that I like.
Speaker 3: Yes, And in addition to Sunday Morning coming down, he
Speaker 3: also sang I saw the light, I saw the light.
Speaker 3: I saw the light. And I think they also used
Speaker 3: concert footage from an actual Johnny concert Johnny Cash Concert
Speaker 3: in and Out yeah.
Speaker 5: I remember at the end when Colombo was talking of
Speaker 5: when Cash, I mean, the Cash goes, are you afraid
Speaker 5: to be up here with a killer? And he at
Speaker 5: the top of them, they know, looking for the coffee
Speaker 5: mug or whatever, you know, the thermos, like Columbo goes,
Speaker 5: anybody sing as good as you can't be all bad?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it was those one a few times when uh.
Speaker 3: I mean what made Columbo Colombo is that they usually
Speaker 3: had played him, had had someone who was, you know,
Speaker 3: like an upper class villain. So you had the contrast
Speaker 3: between you know, the lowly Colombo and the and the
Speaker 3: white collar criminal. You had someone who was with Johnny Cash,
Speaker 3: you had someone who was down to earth in blue
Speaker 3: collar as Colombo was.
Speaker 2: And that way, guys, I gotta stop it here. So Glenn,
Speaker 2: where's goodbye to And I'll speak to him about calling
Speaker 2: you once a week to read to you.
Speaker 5: Okay, okay, all right, all right back.
Speaker 2: Back, Glenn. Let me take my news break and you
Speaker 2: and I will come back in about six minutes time
Speaker 2: and temperature ten fifty eight forty two. The grace