I have found myself spending far too much time watching old TV shows and movies on Grit TV and Me TV.?ÿ Many of the shows are Westerns from the era when Westerns were the most popular on both TV and at the movie theater.?ÿ It is fun to watch actors who you know from other shows appearing where you least expect to find them.
One example is on Grit TV at the moment.?ÿ It is a 1955 movie starring Dana Andrews and Piper Laurie entitled Smoke Signal.?ÿ The focus is on a cavalry troop in major trouble.?ÿ Within the first minute or two you see a cavalry officer portrayed by William Talman who is better known to all as District Attorney Hamilton Burger who loses in court in nearly every episode of Perry Mason.?ÿ Milburn Stone, who would go on to portray Doc Adams on Gunsmoke, has a significant role in Smoke Signal.?ÿ You also get to see William Schallert and Robert Wilke who each appeared in more than 300 roles over the decades.
On Me TV, the episodes of Perry Mason that come on at 10:30 p.m. in my area are especially fun.?ÿ Last Friday they played the final episode of the show.?ÿ This week they went back to the very start of the series.?ÿ What a hoot!??ÿ In the early shows Perry is prone to physical activity, roughness and is very conniving using all sorts of tricks in court.?ÿ Plus, I think you have to be a smoker or you can't be on the show.?ÿ The final episode had an exceptional cast including old timers such as Estelle Winwood (born in 1883) and Jackie Coogan whose first credit was in 1917, the same year he turned three years old.?ÿ Denver Pyle, Uncle Jesse from The Dukes of Hazzard, is accused of being a murderer in the first court case of the episode and then becomes the murder victim leading up to the second court case.?ÿ The BAD GUY turns out to be Mr. American Bandstand, himself, Dick Clark.?ÿ But, the most unexpected person to appear in that final episode is the judge in the second courtroom.?ÿ What a surprise to see Erle Stanley Gardner (born in 1889), the creator of Perry Mason, in his only acting role.?ÿ Wow!
One of my favorite "before they made it big" TV appearances is Robert Redford.?ÿ Kudos to anyone that can find this Perry Mason episode with Redford.
?ÿ
I think I've seen him in Twilight Zone and Maverick too.
The Case of the Treacherous Toupee, 1960, Season 4, Episode 1.
?ÿ
Perry changed as more current scripts were written by other writers. The originals were written in the 1930s when cops and DAs were mean and nasty.
My wife likes the movies made in the 1980s, but I don't. Perry and Della are too old, Perry's personality has changed again, and there's just no replacement for Paul Drake.
My wife is also a soap opera fan. Jeanne Cooper, aka Katherine Chancellor on Young and Restless, appeared often. Mary Ann Mobley, a former Miss America and Elvis costar, appeared in two episodes of Perry Mason.
We've seen them all, but they never get old.
Just watched him The Virginian, it's tough to get through a whole episode of that show so I didn't see how it ended.?ÿ
I am an old fart in what today is considered the ??disposable? age group. Given that I still think some of the old (30??s-50??s) movies are far better than today??s. There was not computer animation for eye candy so the characters were responsible for the success of the film. Thus you concentrated on them and the plot more so than the eye thrilling animations. They, for the most part, were not aimed at the brain dead. ?????ÿ
@flga-2
I believe it's pretty common to appreciate older cinematography. I do for sure. No special effects, no CGI, just plain old thespian talents.?ÿ Like you pointed out this only applies to viewers that have an IQ higher than that of a paramecium.
But I also think the older writers and producers would have jumped at the chance to use these new-fangled gimmicks.?ÿ I am a great fan of Alfred Hitchcock's works and would bet money he would have used modern techniques had they been available.?ÿ I guess it all boils down to the story line.?ÿ
To me, a good story is a good story whether it's a good book, a play by Shakespeare or a trillion dollar movie by Lucas or Spielberg.?ÿ Tom Hank's movie Cast Away was a just a dressed up Robinson Crusoe.?ÿ West Side Story was Romeo and Juliet of the Upper West Side of Manhattan.?ÿ And I really believe the original Star Wars was a re-hashed Robin Hood with the Sheriff of Nottingham replaced with Darth Vader.
The one irritation of watching these old shows is the commercials.?ÿ Nearly every last one is aimed at reminding you that you are no longer a youngster.?ÿ Reverse mortgage loans (Tom Selleck) and medicare supplements (Joe Namath) every fourth commercial break become as tiresome as the guy asking "Do you go to the bathroom more than once each night?"?ÿ The insurance plan that is on proclaiming "Only $9.95 a month." and the burial insurance commercials grow old in a hurry as well.?ÿ Don't get me started on the incontinence in women commercials.
The other price from the commercials is selective snipping from the original show so that today's number of commercials will fit. We fast forward the commercials but we can't restore the snipped pieces. I've threatened to do this: https://www.amazon.com/Perry-Mason-Complete-Raymond-Burr/dp/B01B9HTC60/ref=sr_1_1?crid=WBSBEZFKCYVI&dchild=1&keywords=perry+mason+dvd+complete+series&qid=1601735256&sprefix=perry+mason%2Caps%2C146&sr=8-1
Dabbs Greer, aka Reverend Alden on Little House, was a frequent guest as well. A really interesting story (to me, anyway) is Gail Patrick Jackson, the executive producer. Success is where you find it.
I watched a bunch of old Perry Mason's last year on cbs all access streaming channel. No commercials. I'm a cord cutter. It was one of my mom's favorite shows along with Peter Gunn. A lot of cigarettes being smoked in Peter Gunn. Paul in Perry Mason is chainsmoking most of the time. Nobody in our house smoked, only the TV characters. Perry Mason always had a nice set of wheels with a preference towards convertibles displaying that California lifestyle.
For everyone's information not just your FYI, there is an episode in season two or three maybe about a boundary case involving a meandering River. Very well written in research I was pretty impressed, of course the surveyor is.... Well you know.
Yes.?ÿ Several of the Perry Mason stories involve surveyors or survey-related issues.?ÿ Would be interesting to discover why boundary issues were so prominent.
Watched a 1959 episode of Maverick earlier.?ÿ At one point I turned to my wife and said, "Hey, look.?ÿ It's Doc Adams from Gunsmoke."?ÿ Turns out it wasn't Milburn Stone but another guy who looked much like him, spoke in similar fashion and had several of the same mannerisms.?ÿ Next I noted the small town Kansas deputy sounded a great deal like Chester from Gunsmoke.?ÿ A couple minutes later I realized he even walked with a limp.?ÿ The head law officer was Marshall Mort Dooley (akin to Matt Dillon).?ÿ Sure enough the gal running the saloon looked a great deal like Miss Kitty.?ÿ At one point the Marshall?ÿ prepares to have a gunfight with Maverick in the middle of the street.?ÿ The camera's view is from the exact same perspective as that used in the standard opening scene of Gunsmoke where you are looking from behind at the lower half of the Marshall as he goes for his gun. At least a dozen of the performers had already appeared in a role or several on Gunsmoke.
They even tossed in a line by the deputy, "Remember last week when that gunfighter came into town passing out business cards?", taking a swipe at the also popular TV show, Have Gun Will Travel.
The episode title was "Gun-Shy" ala "Gunsmoke".
?ÿ
Shoulda been a cowboy...
?ÿ
My favorite western was the movie Support Your Local Sheriff.?ÿ It was a great lampoon of a sixties western town TV episode.?ÿ And it had a lot of the appropriate players like Jim Garner, Chubby Johnson, Bruce Dern, Jack Elam, Walter Brennan, Harry Morgan, Henry Jones (a necessary shop keeper in any western) and of course Joan Hackett as Prudy.
