The Ultimate Brokeback Forum

Author Topic: Classic TV  (Read 446975 times)

Offline Jeff Wrangler

  • Obsessed
  • *****
  • Posts: 8175
Re: Classic TV
« Reply #1020 on: May 29, 2014, 01:02:49 PM »
Click this link and it'll list the episode order for you.

http://www.epguides.com/wagontrain/

Thanks, Lyle. I already had that site bookmarked--what clued me in that the epidsodes are in broadcast order on the DVDs. (Last night was episode 4, "The Ruth Owens Story," with Shellie Winters, Dean Stockwell, and Kent Smith. I saw this episode on a nostaligia channel maybe about a year ago. I recognized Dean Stockwell right away, but it took a few minutes to recognize Shellie Winters. It's not nice to say it, but I'd never seen her that thin before.  :-\ )

Quote
I've been watching Combat.  I just started the third season. Lots of guest stars in that show, too.
(Ricardo Montalban, as a matter of fact.) Perhaps an effort to get some younger viewers, but this show
had young crooners of the time guest starring in it like Frankie Avalon, Tommy Sands and Bobby Rydell.

They also had people like Eddie Albert, Lee Marvin, Mickey Rooney, Frank Gorshin, Jeffrey Hunter and
Robert Culp.

Reminds me that in one episode of the second season of Daniel Boone, Fabian played Jemima Boone's first crush--and he looked pretty nice with his shirt off!  :D

Quote
There are actors in it who were not famous at the time, but went on to greater fame. Robert Duvall appears
more than once. Ted Knight often appears as a German character. James Caan was in a very good episode.

That's always a very fun part of watching these old shows now.

Quote
As a 10-15+ year old I was never much interested in the World War II series of the sixties at that time, but
thanks to dvd and the retro channels I've really been enjoying Combat and 12 O'Clock High. I'd like to see
more than the handful of episodes I've seen of the 70's series Baa Baa Black Sheep, too, also known as
The Black Sheep Squadron.

Others that I remember were on, but don't know much about were The Rat Patrol and Garrison's Gorilla's.
Or was it "Guerilla's"?

As for the WWII comedies, I try to like McHale's Navy, but it just veers into complete imbecility to me most
of the time. Most of the others, like Operation Petticoat, Mister Roberts and The Wackiest Ship in the Army
(yes "Army"), all of which were based on films by the way, Mister Roberts was also a play, but weren't on
long enough to have a studied opinion.

The World War II dramas never much interested me when I was a kid. The comedies were OK, maybe because kids like silly things? I remember watching Hogan's Heroes regularly. I don't think Operation Petticoat lasted very long, but I remember it. I remember The Wackiest Ship in the Army, but maybe I'm confusing it with the movie. I guess maybe McHale's Navy was already in syndicated reruns when I saw it--it's where I first knew Tim Conway.

I wonder what the guys who fought World War II thought of those dramas?

Twelve O'Clock High was a movie, too--TCM showed it this week.

I remember my dad liked Baa Baa Black Sheep when it was in first run.

And I'm pretty sure it was Garrison's Guerillas.  ;)

Offline Lyle (Mooska)

  • Obsessed
  • *****
  • Posts: 26069
Re: Classic TV
« Reply #1021 on: May 30, 2014, 12:06:04 PM »
That's always a very fun part of watching these old shows now.

Yes, I agree, it's an added treat!

The World War II dramas never much interested me when I was a kid.

When I look back on what i liked until around age fifteen I guess I really didn't like dramas at all.
I liked the sitcoms best followed by variety shows, that emphasiszed comedy, and game shows!
And cartoons.

I remember watching Hogan's Heroes regularly.

Oh, yes, why I forgot about that, I don't know. I always watched that. I see it once in awhile
on Me-TV currently, too. That was said to be loosely based on Stalag 17. For some reason critics
hated that series. Yes, there was a lot of buffoonery in it, but so was McHale's Navy, even moreso,
yet they had no problem with that one.

I don't think Operation Petticoat lasted very long, but I remember it.

I didn't have access to a TV around the time this was on, so I only saw it once or twice. I like the
film, so I would've watched it. It was on for two seasons. For reasons I don't know, after the
first season they recast the entire show. Then it got pulled after a couple episodes the next fall,
but they aired all of the remaining episodes the following summer.

I wonder what the guys who fought World War II thought of those dramas?

Combat was the longest running of the WWII dramas. It ran five years, the last season in color.
One season it was in the Top Ten of all shows. Apparently, as is common with those who served
in wars, after they were out and the war was over they did not much talk about their experiences.

Over the years the people involved with Combat heard from a lot of the children of these men
who related that they grew to know and understand their fathers more because of their experience
of watching Combat together. Their fathers would make comments and open up and talk about
their own experiences during the war.

The former soldiers said that they thought the show captured much of what their actual experiences
were like. (Within the limits of violence and stories that could be depicted on TV at the time.) Many of
the cast and crews and guest stars had actually been in the service and experienced some of what they
were portraying.

The advent of home video and dvd's has resurrected interest in the show and even until very recently
they've had "Combat" conventions in various cities across the the U.S. where cast members and crew
would come and mingle with fans of the show etc.

The official book about the tv series was written by a woman, Jo Davidsmeyer. Most of the episodes on
the dvd's have some interesting facts, notes or oddities from the episode included along with it.

On the Combat dvd's, several of the episodes have commentary by directors, some of the cast and
some guest stars who were in episodes, like Ben Cooper, who I knew as the young sailor in the
film The Rose Tattoo.

I do wish Fox would put the 12 O'Clock High series on dvd. I would get that one. If it were not for
Me-TV I'd probably never have seen it. I believe I caught all or nearly all of the episodes, though it
was only being aired in the middle of the night and hard to record them all to watch because of that.

Fox is seemingly not so keen on spending money on old tv series in their vaults and if this one needed
restoration work probably even less so. (It IS a Quinn-Martin Production!) Because of the nature of the
series, it did give every British actor and actress in Hollywood, it seems, a chance to do a guest spot!
Even Judy Carne was in a couple episodes! And a favorite, Glynis Johns.

I had made notes of the guest stars when I was watching it. Some of the notables in that series were:
Sally Kellerman, Peter Fonda, Peter Duell, Ken Berry, Dabney Coleman, Brandon DeWilde, Roy Thinnes,
Bruce Dern, Rip Torn, Keir Dullea, Earl Holliman, Hermione Baddely, Barbara Feldon, Harold Gould, Lee
Meriwether, James Farentino, James Whitmore, Robert Colbert, James Brolin, Beau Bridges, Ted Bessell,
Tom Skerritt, Jack Lord, Warren Oates, Lois Nettleton, Burt Reynolds, William Shatner, Juliet Mills, Harry
Guardino, Michael Rennie, Robert Walker, Dina Merrill, Burgess Meredith, Bradford Dillman, Jill Ireland,
Roddy McDowall, Michael Murphy, James Franciscus, Edward Mulhare, William Windom, Kevin McCarthy,
Michael Constantine, Bernard Fox, Robert Blake, Wayne  Rogers, Norman Fell, James Broderick, Martin
Milner, Lilia Skala, Joseph Campanella, Ossie Davis, Ralph Bellamy, Andrew Duggan and Jon Voight.

Offline bubba

  • Obsessed
  • *****
  • Posts: 7110
  • love is a force of nature
Re: Classic TV
« Reply #1022 on: May 30, 2014, 12:13:41 PM »
WOW that is quite a list.....Brandon DeWilde, there is a blast from the past!
There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?

Offline Lyle (Mooska)

  • Obsessed
  • *****
  • Posts: 26069
Re: Classic TV
« Reply #1023 on: May 30, 2014, 12:29:29 PM »

And I'm pretty sure it was Garrison's Guerillas.  ;)

I looked it up; it actually was  "Gorillas" -- lol!


Offline Jeff Wrangler

  • Obsessed
  • *****
  • Posts: 8175
Re: Classic TV
« Reply #1024 on: May 30, 2014, 12:52:12 PM »
I looked it up; it actually was  "Gorillas" -- lol!

 :D

Offline Jeff Wrangler

  • Obsessed
  • *****
  • Posts: 8175
Re: Classic TV
« Reply #1025 on: May 30, 2014, 01:03:32 PM »
Combat was the longest running of the WWII dramas. It ran five years, the last season in color.
One season it was in the Top Ten of all shows. Apparently, as is common with those who served
in wars, after they were out and the war was over they did not much talk about their experiences.

Over the years the people involved with Combat heard from a lot of the children of these men
who related that they grew to know and understand their fathers more because of their experience
of watching Combat together. Their fathers would make comments and open up and talk about
their own experiences during the war.

The former soldiers said that they thought the show captured much of what their actual experiences
were like. (Within the limits of violence and stories that could be depicted on TV at the time.) Many of
the cast and crews and guest stars had actually been in the service and experienced some of what they
were portraying.

The advent of home video and dvd's has resurrected interest in the show and even until very recently
they've had "Combat" conventions in various cities across the the U.S. where cast members and crew
would come and mingle with fans of the show etc.

The official book about the tv series was written by a woman, Jo Davidsmeyer. Most of the episodes on
the dvd's have some interesting facts, notes or oddities from the episode included along with it.

On the Combat dvd's, several of the episodes have commentary by directors, some of the cast and
some guest stars who were in episodes, like Ben Cooper, who I knew as the young sailor in the
film The Rose Tattoo.

I do wish Fox would put the 12 O'Clock High series on dvd. I would get that one. If it were not for
Me-TV I'd probably never have seen it. I believe I caught all or nearly all of the episodes, though it
was only being aired in the middle of the night and hard to record them all to watch because of that.

Fox is seemingly not so keen on spending money on old tv series in their vaults and if this one needed
restoration work probably even less so. (It IS a Quinn-Martin Production!) Because of the nature of the
series, it did give every British actor and actress in Hollywood, it seems, a chance to do a guest spot!
Even Judy Carne was in a couple episodes! And a favorite, Glynis Johns.

I had made notes of the guest stars when I was watching it. Some of the notables in that series were:
Sally Kellerman, Peter Fonda, Peter Duell, Ken Berry, Dabney Coleman, Brandon DeWilde, Roy Thinnes,
Bruce Dern, Rip Torn, Keir Dullea, Earl Holliman, Hermione Baddely, Barbara Feldon, Harold Gould, Lee
Meriwether, James Farentino, James Whitmore, Robert Colbert, James Brolin, Beau Bridges, Ted Bessell,
Tom Skerritt, Jack Lord, Warren Oates, Lois Nettleton, Burt Reynolds, William Shatner, Juliet Mills, Harry
Guardino, Michael Rennie, Robert Walker, Dina Merrill, Burgess Meredith, Bradford Dillman, Jill Ireland,
Roddy McDowall, Michael Murphy, James Franciscus, Edward Mulhare, William Windom, Kevin McCarthy,
Michael Constantine, Bernard Fox, Robert Blake, Wayne  Rogers, Norman Fell, James Broderick, Martin
Milner, Lilia Skala, Joseph Campanella, Ossie Davis, Ralph Bellamy, Andrew Duggan and Jon Voight.

Thanks, Lyle. That was fascinating!

Boyoboy, do some of those names take me back!

Offline jack

  • Tough Old Bird
  • Obsessed
  • *****
  • Posts: 13967
  • aloha y'all...
    • My Adventures In Paradise
Re: Classic TV
« Reply #1026 on: June 01, 2014, 05:17:59 AM »
WOW that is quite a list.....Brandon DeWilde, there is a blast from the past!
omg, brandon de wilde in HUD, hero worshiping his brother, paul newman.  i had my own screenplay for that duo, and it was a lot more like front runner.

speaking of, same thing goes for the rifleman when i was a teen.  its a good thing they didn't have action figures in those days, i'd have been locked up for sure.
"through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall..."

Offline jack

  • Tough Old Bird
  • Obsessed
  • *****
  • Posts: 13967
  • aloha y'all...
    • My Adventures In Paradise
Re: Classic TV
« Reply #1027 on: June 01, 2014, 05:22:50 AM »
"through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall..."

Offline Jeff Wrangler

  • Obsessed
  • *****
  • Posts: 8175
Re: Classic TV
« Reply #1028 on: June 01, 2014, 08:37:18 AM »
Brandon deWilde sure was a hottie. Another who died too young.  :(

I admit, the first time I saw Hud, considering when the film was released, I was a little surprised by the scene where he was clearly supposed to be naked under the sheets when Patricia Neal walks into his bedroom.

Hmmm. Him and Uncle Hud. ...  :o Thud!  ;D

Offline Lyle (Mooska)

  • Obsessed
  • *****
  • Posts: 26069
Re: Classic TV
« Reply #1029 on: June 01, 2014, 02:36:42 PM »

I looked up Brandon De Wilde and he did quite a bit of TV.  When he was really young he did a
one season tv series where he was a regular. Some of the more notable series he made appearances
on were:

Ironside
Night Gallery
The Virginian (3 episodes)
The Young Rebels (a TV series I posted about here awhile ago concerning the Revolutionary War. Brandon played "Young Nathan Hale.")
Love, American Style (hmmmm...episode was called "Love and the Bachelor")
Hawaii Five-O
The Name of the Game
Combat! (glad to see he's in one of these, so I'll be seeing it!)
The Defenders
12 O'Clock High
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color (a three part western themed story)
The Greatest Show on Earth (did you know there was a TV Series of this?)
Alfred Hitchcock Presents (interestingly, he was in the very last 1/2 hour episode of this series and the network censored it and didn't air it
                                    for reasons I used to know, but have forgotten. A couple years later, though, it was included in the syndication
                                     airings for the show and no one had any objections.)

Nearly all of these shows are airing on TV in one way or another right now.

__________________

As for Hud, it's one of my favorite films. I don't know the zeitgeist of the oscars at the time, but I happen to think
of the five nominated best  pictures that year that this one is better than all of those five. I don't know why it did
not get a nom for Best Picture. (The New York Film Critics had Hud runner-up in both Picture and Director to Tom Jones.)

Looking for standard clues about nominations it's hard to pinpoint anything. It was an era where huge big budget monstrosities got
nominations, whether worthy or not--things like The Longest Day, How the West Was Won, Cleopatra, Doctor Doolittle. Racial issues
were front and center which probably accounted for the nice but nothing extraordinary Lilies of the Field getting a nom and Poitier
winning over Paul Newman. Cleopatra was considered a turkey by most critics, but audiences appreciated it, at least somewhat. The
release dates were all over the place, including Hud those six films were released in February, May, June, October and two in December,
including Tom Jones. Tom Jones may have struck a chord because it was a kind of comedic romance with scenes scored in a silent movie
type way and after all the turmoil of the previous year and the British invasion on the way, it may have been a breath of fresh air and a matter
of timing.

The five films nominated that year, total nominations in parentheses, were America America (4), How the West Was Won (8), Lilies of the Field (5),
Cleopatra (9) and Tom Jones (10).  Hud had 7 nominations, including three acting (two won!) and writing, directing, cinematography (won!) and
b&w art direction. Only two of the BP nominees had corresponding director nominations so it was a foregone conclusion that one of those was
a probable win for Best Picture, too, and that was Tom Jones or America America. Both released in Dec. by the way.

The three other directing noms, by the way, were for: The Cardinal, Federico Fellini's 8-1/2 and Hud.

When you look at these six films on hindsight people now really feel lukewarm toward Tom Jones. It was
advertised as racy and bawdy and it does have a great scene with Albert Finney where he and his paramour
are practically making love in the guise of eating dinner. It was a scene much talked about and parodies,
including a hilarious episode of F-Troop. It all seems so tame now and rather boring. Even the cinematography
is unappealing. It was released in theatres in a director's cut (which was 2-3 minutes shorter than the original!)
in the late 80's or early 90's and I saw it (for the second time) on the big screen and was quite underwhelmed.

On the imdb boards, the users and critics ratings interesting give these films the following ratings:

7.9 Hud
7.9 America America
7.7 Lilies of the Field
7.1 How the West Was Won
7.0 Cleopatra
6.8 Tom Jones

Of all the films, Tom Jones is the lowest rated. And despite Hud & America America having the
same rating, America was rated by about 3,000 people and Hud by 13,000 people.

America America is perhaps one of those rather lost films that never appears anywhere for people to see.
Because of that, I thought it must have been way overrated at the time and probably "oscar boring."
It did have a limited vhs release once and I saw it then. To my surprise, even after a near three hour
running time I thought it a very worthwhile, good and entertaining film.

It certainly is a better made and told film than Cleopatra, but of those six films I'd rate Hud first, but Cleopatra
second because it's excesses are just too delicious to ignore, especially in 70mm in a movie theatre! My third
choice would be America America.

Hud deserved better at the oscars, but it did win three of them and obviously it seems people like it as evidenced
by its imdb rating, however skewed those might be at times.

By the way, I am not a fan of movie remakes unless there is a very good reason to do so.
I think HUD is near perfect, but there is a good reason to consider remaking it. In the original
story, the Patricia Neal character, Alma, is black, and the sensibilities of the time would not have
approved of that. In fact, on the imdb page there is a thread for pondering who might've been
cast back then f they'd stuck to the original story. There's not many replies, but it's an interesting
question to ponder.

Another film that could be remade because the times didn't allow it to be shot the way it was written
is a best picture nominee (1947, I believe) titled Crossfire. It's about soldiers accused of anti-semitism
and for bashing another soldier because of it. The original book, though, titled A Brick Foxhole, was
actually about a gay bashing.

Now back to Brandon De Wilde and classic TV, heh!


Offline Ennis Del Mark

  • Obsessed
  • *****
  • Posts: 4931
  • The first sign of life in four years...
Re: Classic TV
« Reply #1030 on: June 01, 2014, 05:22:42 PM »
RIP dear, funny Ann B. Davis, who died today.  I just loved her, on THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW (she won two Emmys as Schultzy) and THE BRADY BUNCH and everything else she did.  Also, she was a very sweet lady when I met her in 1995.

Offline Jeff Wrangler

  • Obsessed
  • *****
  • Posts: 8175
Re: Classic TV
« Reply #1031 on: June 01, 2014, 05:25:03 PM »
RIP dear, funny Ann B. Davis, who died today.  I just loved her, on THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW (she won two Emmys as Schultzy) and THE BRADY BUNCH and everything else she did.  Also, she was a very sweet lady when I met her in 1995.

Just heard on the NBC that she had died. Sad news. I don't know anyone who didn't like her.

How nice that you actually got to meet her!

Offline bubba

  • Obsessed
  • *****
  • Posts: 7110
  • love is a force of nature
Re: Classic TV
« Reply #1032 on: June 03, 2014, 10:35:33 AM »
Really sorry to hear this, you and Mr. Brady together again!   :-*
There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?

Offline Jeff Wrangler

  • Obsessed
  • *****
  • Posts: 8175
Re: Classic TV
« Reply #1033 on: June 08, 2014, 08:06:05 PM »
Early Saturday eveing, as I was preparing to make my supper, I was channel surfing just to see what was on, and on one of the nostalgia stations, what should I stumble on but The Real McCoys!  ;D

And what is really spooky--almost creepy--it was the only episode of that show that I remember seeing as a small boy: The McCoys needed to dig a new well for their farm. Behind the back of Grandpa Amos (Walter Brennan), Luke (Richard Crenna) brought in a geologist to find water; Amos was sure he could find water with his divining rod. Guess who was correct?  :D

ETA: I just did a little research, and I must remember this episode from syndicated reruns. Wikipedia calls this one of the shows most-remembered episodes, but I still find it more than a little weird that the first time in maybe 50 years that I see an episode of the show, it's the only episode that I clearly remember.
« Last Edit: June 08, 2014, 08:30:48 PM by Jeff Wrangler »

Offline Ennis Del Mark

  • Obsessed
  • *****
  • Posts: 4931
  • The first sign of life in four years...
Re: Classic TV
« Reply #1034 on: June 08, 2014, 08:07:38 PM »
Did Amos say, "Gol darn these new-fangled inventions!"?