Classic TV

[CellarDweller115]

Yes, I'm seeing news stories all about it on Google.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Caught an episode of Perry Mason on MeTV this morning. I didn't catch the title of the episode, but I found the cast quite remarkable. It included Noah Beery, Jr., Strother Martin, and Hugh Marlowe.

[fritzkep]

This one?

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0673293/

https://www.perrymasontvseries.com/wiki/index.php/EpisodePages/Show248

[Jeff Wrangler]

Yes, that's it.

Dean Jones was the guest star in the episode of Wagon Train that MeTV ran this afternoon.

[Jeff Wrangler]

So, by now, has Law & Order been around so long it qualifies as "Classic"?

BBCAmerica is running episodes on Tuesday evenings--old episodes. In the two I watched last evening, Chris Noth was Jerry Orbach's partner, and Jill Hennessy was one of the ADAs.

I've always thought Jill Hennessy is a very sexy woman.

Funny thing about one of the episodes I saw last night? Camryn Manheim, one of the stars of the current reboot, had a supporting role in it.

[Jeff Wrangler]

More on the facade of Tara.

This morning (Juneteenth Holiday, so I'm not working) I caught an episode of Perry Mason. There was brief blink-and-you-miss-it shot of what was supposed to be the home of a rich character. The shot was unmistakably the facade of Tara.

I know it. If you watch GWTW, you notice that Tara has the stereotypical four columns that we associate with an antebellum Southern plantation mansion. However, if you look closely, you notice that the door is not centered between the two center columns; it's off to one side, behind the right of the two center columns. There is one window to the right of the door, and two to the left.

I'm guessing this was a stock shot of the facade that was used for the Perry Mason episode?

I know this has been done. I've mentioned many times that my favorite childhood TV show was Daniel Boone. The premier episode of the series featured an Indian attack on a pioneer fort. The "distance" shots of the attackers storming the fort were lifted from the movie Drums Along the Mohawk. Mohawk is one of my favorite movies, and I've watched it many times. Same deal with that debut episode of Boone.

(The fort set for that episode is also unmistakably the fort from Mohawk. Throughout the run of Boone, a distant shot of the Mohawk fort was used to establish the location as Boonesborough.)

I don't watch The Big Valley. Maybe I should so I could make a study of the facade of the Barkley mansion.

(The episode of Wagon Train that aired Saturday morning was one of the two with Barbara Stanwyk.)

[Lyle (Mooska)]

I know that there are some online posts about the Barkley Mansion being the Tara mansion. Including sites debunking that it is not. And it isn't. For one reason, that mansion was torn down or disassembled if you prefer, in 1959.

But you can see a Batman episode where Tallulah Bankhead lives in Aunt Pittypat's house from GWTW.

[fritzkep]

There's a mansion on St Charles Avenue in New Orleans which was built after the movie, and the façade was copied from the movie version of Tara. We always referred to it by that name, and so did a number of people in the city.

https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/the-original-tara-may-be-gone-with-the-wind-but-the-look-lives-on-in/article_342d3898-fea0-11eb-969d-d30082034f60.html

"Such anachronisms aside, the house was such a convincing facsimile that actor Thomas Mitchell, who played the father of Scarlett O’Hara in Fleming’s film, once felt compelled while on a visit to New Orleans to have knocked on the door and said, “Hello. I believe I used to live here,” according to a 1961 Times-Picayune story."

[Jeff Wrangler]

I know that there are some online posts about the Barkley Mansion being the Tara mansion. Including sites debunking that it is not. And it isn't. For one reason, that mansion was torn down or disassembled if you prefer, in 1959.

A good 40 years or more ago, someone gave me a little book called Strange Tales of "Gone With The Wind."

The book includes a photograph of Carroll Nye (Frank Kennedy) standing next to the decrepit Tara mansion. The caption indicates that the photo was taken "20 years after the movie was premiered" (which would make it 1959). The same page has a photo of the remains of the Atlanta train station, and that photo is dated 1959.

This is an interesting mystery. It's interesting to know that I'm not the only one to notice the--what shall I call it?--uncanny resemblance of the two mansions. I suppose it's a mystery that will never be solved--though there has to be an answer out there somewhere. (Maybe in The Twilight Zone?   )

[Lyle (Mooska)]

Here's an article from 2020 on the retro channel MeTV's website:

The Barkley Mansion from The Big Valley Turned Up All Over Classic Television
https://www.metv.com/stories/the-barkley-mansion-from-the-big-valley-turned-up-all-over-classic-television

It was situated on what is now the CBS Studio City lot. Used to be, among other things Republic Pictures. The lot has been around since 1928. It was announced this year that it will undergo a 1 Billion dollar makeover! I saw a few sitcoms taped there: The Bob Newhart Show, The Betty White Show and Still Standing. Gilligan's Island's lagoon was situated there. This article says "The lush jungle set was tucked behind a large white mansion." The one in question! I would like to have seen those things.

There are photos in the article of the place in several TV series.

The article says "Don't go looking for the Barkley house (or the lagoon) today. A beige, six-story parking deck now hogs that particular piece of land."



Where it says GATE A along Radford Avenue at the bottom of the map. The blue block that says Sater Parking is where that "six-story parking deck" mentioned above is. Also notice above that it says: The Lagoon Building. That's where the Gilligan's Island lagoon used to be:

If you're interested, I found this youtube video about the filming locations of Gilligan's Island and he shows old and new aerials of where the lagoon is and on the left side of the screen it has where the Barkley mansion is, just labeled Mansion. I think it's interesting!
___

Here's another article about the place, mostly Big Valley and movie westerns that used the location:
http://iversonmovieranch.blogspot.com/2014/12/off-beaten-path-barkley-family-mansion.html

[Jeff Wrangler]

I don't know if I'd want to park in the Lagoon Building. Look what happened to the Minnow. 

Very interesting, Lyle. 

[Lyle (Mooska)]

Jeff, recently I had been looking to see if the series Turn: Washington's Spies was on DVD as I thought about watching it again. There's not a huge amount of movies or TV about colonial times. I found out that only the first 3 seasons was out on DVD, but not the 4th season -- WTF -- so I've really been hesitant. If I was going to buy it, it would be like buying 3/4 of GWTW or any movie.

Anyway, in looking around I realized I'd never really seen a great deal of the TV series Daniel Boone before and so I bought the first season, which is in b&w, and I've watched the first disc. I'll definitely get the second season because it's in color and then continue on after that if I'm still enjoying it. I didn't realize it was a 20th Century Fox Television program.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Jeff, recently I had been looking to see if the series Turn: Washington's Spies was on DVD as I thought about watching it again. There's not a huge amount of movies or TV about colonial times. I found out that only the first 3 seasons was out on DVD, but not the 4th season -- WTF -- so I've really been hesitant. If I was going to buy it, it would be like buying 3/4 of GWTW or any movie.

I hear you. I haven't looked lately, but as far as I know, only the first season of 9-1-1 was released on video. I'd kill for Season 2, which is when RG joined the cast.

Anyway, in looking around I realized I'd never really seen a great deal of the TV series Daniel Boone before and so I bought the first season, which is in b&w, and I've watched the first disc. I'll definitely get the second season because it's in color and then continue on after that if I'm still enjoying it. I didn't realize it was a 20th Century Fox Television program.

There were two releases of Daniel Boone that I'm aware of. One included each season separately. I only bought seasons 1 and 2. I haven't watched that set for years now. I'm under the impression that the episodes were not in broadcast order, but I might be wrong about that.

There was also a 50th-anniversary box set of the whole series. Of course I bought that one, too. It's been a long time since I watched any episodes now, but I am under the impression that this set is in broadcast order. Of course that's the one I recommend.

The Season 1 two-part episode "Cain's Birthday" (dumb title in my opinion) was also released by itself.

I won't say any more. 

[Jeff Wrangler]

I've been watching episodes of the original Law & Order on BBCA (Sam Waterston was still middle-aged). I had to laugh when in one episode I saw about two weeks ago, somebody said, "This is the nineties."

Jerry Orbach really was great.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

--That Girl

I was looking for some kind of retro TV series that I haven't seen in decades and stumbled across That Girl. It was on for 5 seasons on ABC. I see it was never exactly a ratings powerhouse, landing in the ratings in the 40s or 50s of most watched shows, but that was the case for most of ABC's schedule for many years back then.

It was never a show I feel like I paid much attention to, though I remember it, but not so specifically like other shows. At the time it came on I was really into all the gimmicky sitcoms of the 1960s of which there were many! I decided to watch some of That Girl and found myself thinking it a breath of fresh air from all the things I have been watching lately. It's just a "nice" show. It seems now most all shows have gravitated into button pushing premises and you watch what buttons you feel you'd like to have pressed. Nice isn't that. But it's felt good to watch this nice show for several days now.

Interestingly, many people remember the theme song with the lyrics, but I discovered that the lyrics to That Girl were only written for the last season!