November 28, 2024 • 42 mins
Morgan White Jr. fills in for Dan!
From award-winning writer, editor, and book doctor, Ed Robertson, comes a book about four classic television series that helped define the TV landscape as we know it today. Morgan chatted with Robertson about The Untouchables, Run for Your Life, The Magician and Harry O.
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio and listen to NightSide with Dan Rea Weeknights From 8PM-12AM!
From award-winning writer, editor, and book doctor, Ed Robertson, comes a book about four classic television series that helped define the TV landscape as we know it today. Morgan chatted with Robertson about The Untouchables, Run for Your Life, The Magician and Harry O.
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio and listen to NightSide with Dan Rea Weeknights From 8PM-12AM!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's Night with Dan Ray. I'm Wazon Video.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
We've got half the show done, half the show to go,
and I have a fun way to spend it. We're
going to put two TV programs from the sixties under
a microscope and do that to two other TV programs
from the seventies under a microscope. I didn't do it.
(00:33):
One of the stronger writers of TV programs, I say
TV programs. He did books on James Garner's series Maverick,
The Legend of the West, the Rockford Files, he did
a book on the FBI. He's written a lot of
(00:55):
books on legendary TV programs, and his current book, Men
of Action talks about these four series. The Magician with
Bill Bixby, Harry O with David Jansen, The Untouchables with
Robert Stack and yes, I know there was another one
(01:16):
that they tried to bring back in nineteen ninety three.
I do believe. He mentions that and does the whole
segment on that as well in this book and Run
for Your Life. And the people behind these series are
names with which you're familiar. For an example, I want
(01:37):
to talk about, oh which one, let me just pick
put my finger on one. Run for your life. When
I mentioned the book on James Garner. One of the
creators of James Garner's Maverick character and Rockford Files was
(01:58):
Roy Huggins. Ed Robertson did conversations with mister Huggins on
this book Man of Action, and I have had so
many superb conversations with Ed Robertson off the radio. I'm
glad to share him with my audience. And forgive me
(02:19):
for being so long. When did welcome aboard?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
This is the Morgan White Show. You could be as
long winded as you want.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
No, no, this is a Dan Ray knightside show.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Well, I realized this is the Dan Ray nightside show
for our purposes. Tonight it's the Morgan White Show filling
in for Dan Ray and you can still be as
long winded as you want.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
All right, fair enough, thank you for Happy Thanksgiving.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Happy Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Did you enjoy your Thanksgiving today? I did.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
I had. I had a very very good friend over
and we had roasted chicken dinner with with with with
the works, and two kinds of salads. And I didn't
feel like I didn't I didn't feel like an I
didn't eat a lot per se, but I feel like,
I ate a lot of If that makes a lot
of sense, that's what dancing.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
And I had roasted chicken.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah, and I made and the fixens and and I
made apple pie from scratch.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Wow, we didn't go that far.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Even and and meaning homemade crust too.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Okay, Well the pies that we had we purchased at
the store.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Well, you're you're probably smarter than I. But I years
years ago, when I was in college, I was in
a I was I was in a I was in
a like like a dorm like situation, and we, uh,
there are I don't know about ten fifteen of us,
(03:48):
and uh we used to take turns making meals. And
that's when I first learned. I mean, for a while,
I got into making pizza us from scratch and pie
dough from scratch, and so I got into it for
a while, and then I stopped doing that. But then
(04:08):
about two or three years ago, the person I was
with encouraged when she when she I made the mistake
of telling her that I used to bake, and then
she prodded me into baking. And so while she and
I are no longer together, the fact that I still
bake is a nice residual of that relationships.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Okay, there you go.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Yeah, so we made Apple Fire from scratch.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I want to sell books for you. I'll make sure
that people are teased enough by Men of Action. So
want to go out and buy it? And yes, a
perfect book for the size of some stockings hung by
the chimney with care.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Yes, Yes, it's Men of Action. Behind the scenes of
four classic television series which Morgan enumerated a few minutes ago.
The Magician with Bill mixby HARRYO with David Jansen Me
and Touchables with Robert Stack Run for Your Life with
Benkers are available through Cutting Edge Press. You can also
find it directly at Amazon dot commne Action available Amazon
(05:13):
dot com. It's available. The hardback is available for about
twenty twenty one bucks, the paperbacks about eighteen dollars. In
the ebook I think is ten bucks, but it's not
terribly expensive. I think you'll get a lot of bang
for your buck, especially if you like a classic television
(05:33):
from the sixties and seventies.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I'll say this throughout the book. There are names that
come up that you know of now, from the eighties
and nineties into the twenty first century that were pertinent
back in the sixties and seventies, and I'm thoroughly amazed
(05:57):
by how many names throughout all four of these TV shows.
Histories were important back in the day. I wrote down
some notes. I mentioned Roy Huggins Runs for Your Life.
Roy Huggins was kind of co worse than the being
(06:19):
the executive producer of that series.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Well he was, and I realized, you're going to break
in a couple of minutes, so I'll try to be
as quick as this as possible and we'll pick it
up on the other side. But he Roy Huggins, as
you know, was also the creator of The Fugitive with
David Jansen, and by the time he sold the series
(06:44):
to ABC, he was unable to produce the show because
Roy had actually left television for a couple of years.
He went back to school. He studied political philosophy at
u c l A for a couple of years before
Universal made him an offer he couldn't refuse and brought
him back in a time television. But The Fugitive, as
you remember, was a huge hit for ABC and and
(07:05):
and as imitation is often the ccerious form of flattery,
every network, uh the both CBS and NBC tried to
do their own versions of The Fugitive. None of them succeeded.
Roy was under contract in the Universal at the time.
The president of the President of Television Universe Well said, Roy,
(07:31):
everyone else is doing the Fugitive knockoff, you should. If
anyone should do it, you should, and he gave him
the premise and Roy took it from there and it
was a It was a top rated series for three years.
The only reason didn't go beyond that it was a
victim of its own premise, which is that Ben Gazzara
played a man who had a mysterious illness, a mysterious
(07:55):
terminal illness that only gave him two years to live,
and the show went three years, right, and and a
very uptight executive said, well, you've you know, if you've
been on three years, he was only supposed to be
on a live for two years. He's had one year
too long. And that's why the show.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Funny thing about that, which you mentioned in the book,
the original premise had it so we the audience as
watching it, we found out that that diagnosis was inaccurate.
Now the character didn't know that the diagnosis was inaccurate,
(08:37):
and that's what led to weekly conflicts.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
I think you're complaining something, Morgan, if I may. That
was the premise of a very good movie with Dabney
Coleman called Straight Time or a Short Time And and Yes,
he thought he had he thought he had a terminal illness.
It turns out he was given wrong information. But that
was not the case with Ben Gazzara. The whole premise was, Okay,
(09:05):
if you find out you're you have a terminal illness
and only have a limited amount of time, what do
you do with the rest of your life? Do you
do you feel sorry for yourself? Or do you make
the most of it? He decided to make the most
of it, and because he was a person of certain means,
he was able to travel the world and see places
he may not have otherwise done if he was still
(09:26):
working his job as a lawyer.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
I'm gonna stop. I'm gonna stop you here because you're
right right, the break must be observed. Let's take the
break and pick up this break when we come back.
You want to join the conversation. People six one, seven, two, five, four,
ten thirty or eight eight, eight, nine, two, nine, ten thirty,
we'll be talking about all four of these shows once again,
(09:48):
The Magician, Harry O, The Untouchables and Run for your
Lifetime and temperature here on BZ ten sixteen. Oops, I'm
in trouble and the temperature is forty two to grease.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Now back to Dan Ray Live from the Window World,
Light Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
The thing here in the background is from Bill Bisby's
series The Magician. I love this show.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Bill Bixby portrayed the magician named Anthony Blake, who went
behind bars for years for a crime he did not
commit and came out with the incentive to help people
who were in no win situations and he used magic
(10:51):
to extricate.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Them out of those tough terms. The Magician. All right,
that's enough for the Magician and thank you, thank you.
That's stay my producer, and I love that theme. I
used to have a Lincoln town Car and I had
CDs made for it, and I had a what I
(11:13):
call junk CD which included songs from TV, of which
that was one.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
It was one of the many great theme musics from
Patrick Williams. Patrick Williams, he did the Streets of San Francisco,
He did the Bob Newhart Show theme Home to Emily.
He did. He did the theme the lou Grant, he
did countless countless he did. If I remember correctly, I
(11:41):
believe he did the Mary Tyler Moore show thing. And
he may have also done the music for Love Is
All Around by Sonny Curtis. I'm going off memory there.
If someone, if I misspeak, your listeners will let me know.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Sara Curtis sang the theme. That was his voice. We
heard Who's been trying the world on with a smile.
But you're saying Pat Williams.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
I think Pat Williams did the music for the show.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Okay, well we're jumping hopscotch here. Let's go back to
Run for Your Life, which is where we were before
the break. And if I remember correctly reading, because I
read all this like three weeks ago, but the plot
(12:31):
all of a sudden just rang in mister Huggard's head
that maybe I should do it this way where he
only has two years to live.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
That's okay, Actually, no, you're let me. I'm going to
circle back. Yes, the way the idea was originally presented
to him. You remember that correctly, The idea was a
man A man is A man is mistakenly told that
he has two week that he has a short time
(13:04):
to live, and and Roy thought that was a Roy
did not think that was a good premise for a series.
Maybe a movie, not a series. And then Roy said, okay,
what He turned that on his head and said, what
if it's true? What if what if he only has
two years to live? What does he do? And because
(13:26):
it could be a statement on it could be a
statement on what it means to truly live, depending on
how you spend the rest of your days. And as
we said before, he made he made the Ben Gazera
character a lawyer because that gave that gave him the
means to travel.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
He had deep pockets, He.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Had deep pockets. And and because this was an episodic
television show that you could put him realistically in position
in position situations where being a lawyer would come in handy,
as it often did in the course of of the series.
And because this was done in sixty five sixty six,
(14:15):
at the height of the Cold War, he had government contacts.
Sometimes they would ask him to do you know, some
covert spy work, some semi spionage type of stuff, you know,
where he might negotiate something from the other, you know,
for one side or the other. So it was. But
(14:37):
by making him a man of means and a man
with a legal background, they gave him the ability to
plausibly find himself in a lot of situations, a lot
of different type of situations where he could help people
or help other countries. And and so that was the
premise of the show. And it uh very very well.
(15:02):
It did very very well. And uh one, it's times
one on a consistent basis and uh uh and it was
one of many things that helped solidify Roy Huggin's relationship
as a successful producer of television for Universal.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
And that was NBC, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
NBC Wednesday nights, ten o'clock. Uh and uh and and
and it was it was. It was a very six
It was. It was one of the great anthology shows
during like the I was gonna almost said the Golden
Ages anthologies that would be the fifties. But there are
a lot of shows in the sixties, like Craft Suspense Theater,
(15:44):
uh that would have either you you would have you
would tell different stories and you would have a whole
different cast every week, which is great for actors at
the time. You know, Uh, Run for Your Life was
an anthology series with a recurring character. You know, so
Ben Ben Gazzar was the only staple of the show,
(16:07):
but because you threw him in different type of situations,
he was always meaning different people. So there's always a
need for great guest stars.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Right, And once that show began a third season, now
that played with the plot, Hey, I thought that I
was going to die after too, what's up with this?
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Yeah? Yeah, well, the the uh, the funny story was that, uh, Roy,
you know, one of the things that made Roy Huggins
different and successful is that he thought, he thought outside
the box, and uh, he he trusted in the audience
(16:49):
and he knew that if if you if, if you,
if you deliver an interesting premise with good stories and
hook the reader's interest every week, they're they're not necessar
only going to remember that he only he was only
supposed to have two years left the lip, you know,
And when you think about it, a season was twenty
five twenty six weeks back in nineteen sixty five sixty six,
(17:13):
so two full seasons, that's only fifty two weeks. So
if you think in terms of fifty two weeks, he
still had, he still had at least another fifty two
weeks or two years of episodes to go. But as
as it happens, the head of program at the time
was a little too literate or literal, and he said, okay,
(17:34):
well you said, you said two years. We gave you
a third year. He's been on one year too long.
And that was the end of the show, all right.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
And I'm going to ask this isn't something that was
in the book. But when you think of these three names, Benkasara,
John Cassavetti's and Peerful, you knew right where it was
going to go. You beat me to the punch, you
dastardly man. You all right, I'll tell you what. I've
(18:06):
got a news hit coming in ninety seconds.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
I want to talk about the interaction of those three.
They they did movies together as the produced direct act.
They were very tight. They were their own rap pack.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
They all had Columbo in common.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yeah, they all did. Because Cassavetti's played the Maestro I
think that was the title.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
And in the second in Black and There you Go.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
And Gazira directed that episode.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
He I don't remember if he directed that episode, but
he directed the episode where Columbo was on a cruise.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Oh yeah, my mistake.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
And Patrick and Patrick McNee was the was the captain.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
And the Robert the bad guy was Robert Vaughan. Yes,
mister Danzinger, Ye love the way that Yes, yep, pronounce
that name, Danzinger. We could have trivia competition to you
and I forever.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
I don't think so you.
Speaker 5 (19:15):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
I don't. I don't think I'm in the same league
as you.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Let me take my break and we'll come back and
talk about that core of friendship and we'll get back
to manufaction. I promise you, uh people, and and I
will talk for two hours. If you want to call
in and stop us, I'd recommend you do six one, seven, two, five,
four ten thirty or eight eight, eight, nine to nine,
(19:40):
ten thirty. This is Nightside guest hosted tonight by me
Morgan White Junior. Time and temperature here BZ ten thirty
and I guess it's still forty two degrees.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
You're on the Night Side with Dan Ray on w BZ,
Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Welcome back on, Morgan. I have been a part of
the BZ fabric since nineteen ninety six. I have my
own show Saturday nights beginning at ten, But this week
or half of this week, I've been filling in for Dannery.
Here on Nightside. I am speaking with Ed Robertson, who's
done books on various classic TV shows, James Garner. He
(20:25):
did a book on Maverick, Legend of the West. He
did a book on roberts Files. He did a book
on Perry Mason. Perry Mason, you did a book with
someone else who was the co author?
Speaker 3 (20:38):
I co authored that book with Bill Sullivan, who I
also co authored the FBI a doociate with.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
And also your current book, Man of Action is all.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
You The Men of Action Behind the scenes of four
classic television series available Amazon dot com. And yes, it
is all me.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
The Magician, The Untouchables, Herr O and Ren for Your Life,
and we have touched on two. Shortly we'll bring HARRYO
and the Untouchables into our conversation. I wanted you to
talk about the I'll call them the more aeradite Brat
(21:18):
pack of Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara and John Cassavetti's.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Yeah, I don't know the romance is the right word
for it, but they're all very very good friends and
They were all idiosyncratic actors and they worked with They
work with each other a lot. One difference between Gazara
(21:47):
and Peter Falk and John Cassavetti's is Cassavettis was sort
of use a very idiosyncratic director, very unconventional.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Peter Falk took a very much stage actor's approach to Colombo.
It was not uncommon for him to do fifteen sixteen,
seventeen eighteen takes on a given line until he got
it right, which worked for him because he was he
was He was the straw that stirred the drink and
(22:21):
the mystery movie. And so as long as it made
money for Universal and NBC, they would they would put
up with his any idiosyncrasy there. Gazara, well, you know,
he he messed with Falk and Cassavetti's he was. He
(22:44):
was very much a professional when he came to direct.
He directed a good number of Run for Your Lives,
especially in the third season. He was he I was
told by Swirling, one of the producers of the show,
that he was very unusual for an actor who directed,
(23:06):
because he was very mindful of the budget and so
uh and and so he would he would do good
work and do you want to do it on time?
And uh not cause undue headaches, which Cassavetties was known to.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Do, okay, and was Cassavetties married to Gina Rowlands.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Uh I one of them was married to Gina Rowland.
I believe it was Cassavetties.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
I thought so too. And I'm sorry to go off
the subject of your books, but this is.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
The this is this is Morgan why filling in for
Dan Ray? You can do whatever you want.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Thank thank you for getting that right. Well, Morgan, if
you want to be specific, order white.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
You you're talking to Ed Robertson, author of Manu Offaction
of a wy aamaz undercom.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
And tell people what you do in California that we
hit thirty eight states. They might may not know about
your background.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
I host and produced a syndicated radio show called TV Confidential,
where we talk about shows like what Morgan and I
are doing right now. We talk about your favorite shows
from the sixties and seventies, of shows that you grew
up watching, and in many cases we interview some of
the people who made those shows possible.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Now, I had to read the book to find out
this this thing that was in my memory. I know
I knew it, but I needed to see it in
print to recognize that Sarah Fawcett was a part of
the on again, off again what you would call a
(24:44):
semi regular on HERRYO.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
This is this is Sarah Fawcett about a year before
Charlie's Angels yet and this, this is, this is Sarah
Fawcett around the time she was this, this is when
she was still going by Fharrapacet Majors because she had
just married Lee Majors at the time. And it's it's
(25:09):
it was very easy to forget this when she blew
up and you know, into Pharaohmania in the in seventy
six seventy seven. But she was she was a good
looking woman who studied to be a good actress. And
and even if if you watch some of the things
(25:31):
she did in the early seventies when she was in
a contract with screen Gems, she they put her on.
She had a recurring role the last season of idrima Genie.
She was a she was she was Bill Daily's on again,
off again girlfriend. And you know, look, she she wasn't
(25:55):
asked to do Lady Macbeth or anything like that, but
she she you know, she could hold her own and
when when given the opportunity, she can show a little
bit of personality.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
And so.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
She wasn't always given she wasn't always given that chance
to shine early on, because you know, they tend they
just they looked, they thought of her only as a
pretty face.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
But when.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Uh, when HARRYO changed formats in the middle of its
first season, originally was set in San Diego. Then for
budgetary reasons, they changed production and they moved it, they said,
in Los Angeles. And so they surrounded David Jansen with
the new cast of characters. And one of his neighbors
(26:51):
was a stewardess played by fair Defacet Majors, and she
and Jensen they had very good chemistry together. And you know,
Jansen Jamson did a lot of did a good bit
of improvising, you know, in in UH, he would he
(27:17):
would do especially if it's seen that required a lot
of exposition, he would he would get the ABC part,
but he would do it in a way that made
it kind of fun, particularly if he was working with
an actor that he that he really that he really
liked and who seemed to get his sense of humor
and Parapasa was one of them, and they had really
nice moments together when they worked together in Harryo.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
And once I saw her name in print in your
book Man of Action, Notice I worked that in there.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Thank you very much. It made you'll forgive me. I'm
used to plugging things on my own show, so well I.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Will plug for you. I'm trying to make you as
much money as I can over the two hours that
we have. But it when Morgan, Yeah, she was in
that with a reoccurring role and reoccurring role on TV.
It's like some of the actresses that were on Maverick.
(28:16):
Just to pick a series that would use people like
Mike Rhade or e from Zimbalist Junior.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Or Kathleen Crowley.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Kathleen Crowley who later went on to Eat the Daisies
on her own series.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
No, that's Pat Crowley.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Oh my mistake. See I can be and.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
I don't think they were related. But no, Kathleen Crowley
was a blonde actress who did a lot of She
did some sci fi movies in the fifties, but she
did a lot of She did a lot of episodic
stuff in the fifties and sixties. In particular, and she
(28:58):
was on virtually every hour long show that Warner Brothers
was in production. Wors Pat Crowley was a dirty blonde
and she went on to do Please Don't Eat the
Daisies in nineteen sixty five and a lot of guest
star stuff in the seventies and eighties.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Yeah, as a matter of fact, I think it is
ironic because that show, or You've got me on another tangent,
that show Please Don't Eat the Daisies did a satire
tongue in cheek spoof with the Man from Uncle actors
Robert Vaughan and David McCallum. And it's ironic because she
(29:35):
was in an Uncle episode with Robert Vaughan.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
And David McCallum. Was a good friend of Morgan White Junior.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Yes he was. Oh gosh do I miss him? Yes,
gosh do I miss him. Let me take a break now,
and we'll go back to talking about Farah Fawcet. There's
so much more to that series, or well, I love
the way Anthony Zerup said it versus Henry Darrell saying it,
(30:06):
And we'll talk about that and people and and I
will just speak until five in the morning. We've had
our hours long conversations. You want to interrupt us, please
do six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty eight, eight, eight, nine, two, nine,
ten thirty And we in this conversation alone, we've mentioned
(30:31):
a dozen TV series. So someone out there must must
have a little tickle behind their ear to talk about Colombo,
to talk about the Rockford fires.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Or please don't eat the daisy, or.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Please please don't eat the days.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
These don't eat the days?
Speaker 2 (30:51):
These please Time and temperature here on night Side ten
forty five forty two degrees.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on w b Z News Radio.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
A little bit of the Untouchables. I don't think this
was the original theme that you heard if you turned
to TV on sometime back in sixty two, three, four
or five. Facts you get the field?
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Yeah, yes, Ed, Yeah, no, it was, as I recall,
it was a little more uptempo, right, the rangtro was
a little more uptemple. But that's that is one of
the many, many great themes from Nelson Riddle.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Yes, that was an Nelson Riddle.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Who contributed a lot of great things for music and
television when he wasn't making records. And composing stuff for
Sinatra and Nela Fitzgerald and all of that stuff.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
But I think my favorite Nelson Middle theme on TV
was Rude sixty six.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Rude sixty six. That's right, and but no, it was
it was you mentioned We're gonna I know, Joe Roan,
you mentioned the revival or the reimagining of the show
that was done in ninety three ninety four. Yes, and
(32:29):
I and I and I did talk to Tom A Mondes,
who played Elliott Ness in that show, and when I
revisited that when I was putting this book together. It's
one of those things that I didn't think of this
at the time, but it came to me now because
you know, one of hope we become wiser and we
(32:51):
learn more, we accumulate more stuff, you know, over the years.
But one of the one of the things that made
the Mama Monde showed different from the Roberts, from the
Robert Stack Untouchables is the way they portrayed al Capone,
and uh, it was more in the Toma Monday's Untouchables
(33:13):
from the nineties. It was an ongoing battle between Elliotness
and al Capone. And because Capone was on virtually every week.
They took liberties with the Capone character as as as
his wont to do and they even though he was
(33:36):
the bad guy, they gave him a lot of color
and trappings. And so you almost found yourself rooting for
al Capone, which is not which which kind of upsets
the bounds because the show is supposed to be about
Tom Mandy's as Elliotness and Neville.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Brand played al Capone periodically reoccurring character in the Roberts
Stack Untouchables.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Yes, and they would do that because they would They
would do that because they would change. They would one
year would be set in thirty two, one episode will
be set in thirty fourth. They go back and forth
in time, and so they were able to do that.
But what what what the what the Tamil Monday's William
Forsyth Untouchables, I didn't realize this at the time, but
(34:24):
I realized this now. They were what they were doing
with al Capone. He was like the first anti hero
on network television in an era that was about ten
years before anti heroes became fashionable, Okay, And so that's
that's one of the reasons why that meant why that
the the the premise of Men of Action. Is that
(34:45):
the four shows that we talk about in the book,
one way or another, they were popping. You know, they
left their mark at the time, but they continue to
leave their mark today because one way or another they
attributed to dramatic television as we know it today.
Speaker 5 (35:04):
And so.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
In the case, as we just said, in the case
of the revival of the Untouchables, you know that ran
ninety three to ninety four, it paved the way for
in a way, it paved the way for the era
of anti heroes that we have seen on television in
the last twenty five years.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
One actor who just facially now sometimes Alan Jenkins looked
like a cop. Yeah, the character actor Alan Jenkins looked
like the cop. Yeah. And find that he even played
a cop on Topcat. He was off to dibble. The
(35:48):
thing I loved about William forth Side, who ever had
him as an actor in whatever production that they were directing,
they took advantage of that.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
He's yeah, yeah, and and and they you know, as
they say, they they they took they gave that. There's
one episode of the nineteen ninety three Untouchables, uh, and
it may have been a two parter where they they
(36:22):
had Nests and Capone working alongside each other, so you
had an uneasy alliance, uh, which you know made sense
in that in the universe of that show. It would
never make sense in the Robert Stack universe, right, because
(36:44):
the way Stack played elliott Ness, he was the counterpuncher
and and uh and and Stack said this to me
when I talked to him many years ago. He knew
that he had he had to let the villains shine
(37:05):
because they wore the flashy suits. They were the gangsters.
They were the bad boys of prohibition era Chicago, which
is where elliott Ness operated. And so Stack even though
Stack got an Oscar nomination for playing a psychopath in
Written on the Wind, which shows that he could you know,
(37:27):
choose the scenery of given the opportunity. He yeah, he
had arranged, but he had to dial back on his
range for the good of the show because he had
to let an order for you know, Nest to stand out.
He had to dial back and let the and let
the villains shine from every week and so and when
(37:50):
you think about it, that was about ten years before
Adam West did the same thing on Batman.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Right.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
So you know, the the concept of the hero of
the week of a weekly series being the straight man
to the villains Robert.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
But I've got a caller. Let me see if i
can squeeze him in before the top of the hour.
Glenn and Brighton, how was your Thanksgiving?
Speaker 5 (38:17):
It was real good because of the old Trump is fan.
I just woke up from a nap, so I heard
you mention Colombo. That's why I had to call. Because
my favorite comb Oh episode was the one with Idela Pino.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
Oh it's Johnny Cash.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 5 (38:34):
Oh my god, do I love that.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Sunday Morning Sidewalk was the song Johnny.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
Sang, directed by Nicholas Colisanto, better known as Coaching.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
See Glenn, You'll see the stuff that and and I know.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
Together Nicholas Colissanto, who directed a number of Run for
Your Lives, which is one of the four shows Profile
and Manu of Action available Amazon that company.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
And let me ask you, because I know Glenn is sightless.
Is this book available for an audio reader?
Speaker 3 (39:10):
I I don't know that for certain. I can ask
the publisher.
Speaker 5 (39:18):
All right, Well, my favorite part is when they're looking
for a combo is looking for a coffee theoremost and
combo goes no Johnny Cash goes, I was thrown clear.
I got to bust the leg out of the deal.
Something is life as a coffee themist, Well, that could
be anywhere. And Colombo goes not bad, not bad, not bad?
(39:42):
All right?
Speaker 2 (39:43):
And Glenn, do you want me to have Ed commit
to reading you excerpts from his book once a week
until he finishes finishes book.
Speaker 5 (39:54):
That's not the yuga. I love ed Huber His laugh
God sounds like already.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Glenn. His waves turn much Glenn his way of turning
everything back to his perspective. There you go, that's Glenn.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
That makes him a good color.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
I've known him as a call for over thirty years before.
Speaker 5 (40:16):
Well, yeah, I was gonna go back to sixteen hundred,
but maybe not.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
All right, Glenn, you got thirty seconds before I have
to take news.
Speaker 5 (40:26):
Yeah. What was the name of that Columbus something? Was
it the Swan song or something?
Speaker 3 (40:29):
The Swan song?
Speaker 5 (40:31):
Yeah, the one that I like.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
Yes, And in addition to Sunday Morning coming down, he
also sang I saw the light, I saw the light.
I saw the light. And I think they also used
concert footage from an actual Johnny concert Johnny Cash Concert
in and Out yeah.
Speaker 5 (40:52):
I remember at the end when Colombo was talking of
when Cash, I mean, the Cash goes, are you afraid
to be up here with a killer? And he at
the top of them, they know, looking for the coffee
mug or whatever, you know, the thermos, like Columbo goes,
anybody sing as good as you can't be all bad?
Speaker 3 (41:11):
Yeah, yeah, it was those one a few times when uh.
I mean what made Columbo Colombo is that they usually
had played him, had had someone who was, you know,
like an upper class villain. So you had the contrast
between you know, the lowly Colombo and the and the
(41:32):
white collar criminal. You had someone who was with Johnny Cash,
you had someone who was down to earth in blue
collar as Colombo was.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
And that way, guys, I gotta stop it here. So Glenn,
where's goodbye to And I'll speak to him about calling
you once a week to read to you.
Speaker 5 (41:46):
Okay, okay, all right, all right back.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Back, Glenn. Let me take my news break and you
and I will come back in about six minutes time
and temperature ten fifty eight forty two. The grace
It's Night with Dan Ray. I'm Wazon Video.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
We've got half the show done, half the show to go,
and I have a fun way to spend it. We're
going to put two TV programs from the sixties under
a microscope and do that to two other TV programs
from the seventies under a microscope. I didn't do it.
(00:33):
One of the stronger writers of TV programs, I say
TV programs. He did books on James Garner's series Maverick,
The Legend of the West, the Rockford Files, he did
a book on the FBI. He's written a lot of
(00:55):
books on legendary TV programs, and his current book, Men
of Action talks about these four series. The Magician with
Bill Bixby, Harry O with David Jansen, The Untouchables with
Robert Stack and yes, I know there was another one
(01:16):
that they tried to bring back in nineteen ninety three.
I do believe. He mentions that and does the whole
segment on that as well in this book and Run
for Your Life. And the people behind these series are
names with which you're familiar. For an example, I want
(01:37):
to talk about, oh which one, let me just pick
put my finger on one. Run for your life. When
I mentioned the book on James Garner. One of the
creators of James Garner's Maverick character and Rockford Files was
(01:58):
Roy Huggins. Ed Robertson did conversations with mister Huggins on
this book Man of Action, and I have had so
many superb conversations with Ed Robertson off the radio. I'm
glad to share him with my audience. And forgive me
(02:19):
for being so long. When did welcome aboard?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
This is the Morgan White Show. You could be as
long winded as you want.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
No, no, this is a Dan Ray knightside show.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Well, I realized this is the Dan Ray nightside show
for our purposes. Tonight it's the Morgan White Show filling
in for Dan Ray and you can still be as
long winded as you want.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
All right, fair enough, thank you for Happy Thanksgiving.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Happy Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Did you enjoy your Thanksgiving today? I did.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
I had. I had a very very good friend over
and we had roasted chicken dinner with with with with
the works, and two kinds of salads. And I didn't
feel like I didn't I didn't feel like an I
didn't eat a lot per se, but I feel like,
I ate a lot of If that makes a lot
of sense, that's what dancing.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
And I had roasted chicken.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah, and I made and the fixens and and I
made apple pie from scratch.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Wow, we didn't go that far.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Even and and meaning homemade crust too.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Okay, Well the pies that we had we purchased at
the store.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Well, you're you're probably smarter than I. But I years
years ago, when I was in college, I was in
a I was I was in a I was in
a like like a dorm like situation, and we, uh,
there are I don't know about ten fifteen of us,
(03:48):
and uh we used to take turns making meals. And
that's when I first learned. I mean, for a while,
I got into making pizza us from scratch and pie
dough from scratch, and so I got into it for
a while, and then I stopped doing that. But then
(04:08):
about two or three years ago, the person I was
with encouraged when she when she I made the mistake
of telling her that I used to bake, and then
she prodded me into baking. And so while she and
I are no longer together, the fact that I still
bake is a nice residual of that relationships.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Okay, there you go.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Yeah, so we made Apple Fire from scratch.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I want to sell books for you. I'll make sure
that people are teased enough by Men of Action. So
want to go out and buy it? And yes, a
perfect book for the size of some stockings hung by
the chimney with care.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Yes, Yes, it's Men of Action. Behind the scenes of
four classic television series which Morgan enumerated a few minutes ago.
The Magician with Bill mixby HARRYO with David Jansen Me
and Touchables with Robert Stack Run for Your Life with
Benkers are available through Cutting Edge Press. You can also
find it directly at Amazon dot commne Action available Amazon
(05:13):
dot com. It's available. The hardback is available for about
twenty twenty one bucks, the paperbacks about eighteen dollars. In
the ebook I think is ten bucks, but it's not
terribly expensive. I think you'll get a lot of bang
for your buck, especially if you like a classic television
(05:33):
from the sixties and seventies.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I'll say this throughout the book. There are names that
come up that you know of now, from the eighties
and nineties into the twenty first century that were pertinent
back in the sixties and seventies, and I'm thoroughly amazed
(05:57):
by how many names throughout all four of these TV shows.
Histories were important back in the day. I wrote down
some notes. I mentioned Roy Huggins Runs for Your Life.
Roy Huggins was kind of co worse than the being
(06:19):
the executive producer of that series.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Well he was, and I realized, you're going to break
in a couple of minutes, so I'll try to be
as quick as this as possible and we'll pick it
up on the other side. But he Roy Huggins, as
you know, was also the creator of The Fugitive with
David Jansen, and by the time he sold the series
(06:44):
to ABC, he was unable to produce the show because
Roy had actually left television for a couple of years.
He went back to school. He studied political philosophy at
u c l A for a couple of years before
Universal made him an offer he couldn't refuse and brought
him back in a time television. But The Fugitive, as
you remember, was a huge hit for ABC and and
(07:05):
and as imitation is often the ccerious form of flattery,
every network, uh the both CBS and NBC tried to
do their own versions of The Fugitive. None of them succeeded.
Roy was under contract in the Universal at the time.
The president of the President of Television Universe Well said, Roy,
(07:31):
everyone else is doing the Fugitive knockoff, you should. If
anyone should do it, you should, and he gave him
the premise and Roy took it from there and it
was a It was a top rated series for three years.
The only reason didn't go beyond that it was a
victim of its own premise, which is that Ben Gazzara
played a man who had a mysterious illness, a mysterious
(07:55):
terminal illness that only gave him two years to live,
and the show went three years, right, and and a
very uptight executive said, well, you've you know, if you've
been on three years, he was only supposed to be
on a live for two years. He's had one year
too long. And that's why the show.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Funny thing about that, which you mentioned in the book,
the original premise had it so we the audience as
watching it, we found out that that diagnosis was inaccurate.
Now the character didn't know that the diagnosis was inaccurate,
(08:37):
and that's what led to weekly conflicts.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
I think you're complaining something, Morgan, if I may. That
was the premise of a very good movie with Dabney
Coleman called Straight Time or a Short Time And and Yes,
he thought he had he thought he had a terminal illness.
It turns out he was given wrong information. But that
was not the case with Ben Gazzara. The whole premise was, Okay,
(09:05):
if you find out you're you have a terminal illness
and only have a limited amount of time, what do
you do with the rest of your life? Do you
do you feel sorry for yourself? Or do you make
the most of it? He decided to make the most
of it, and because he was a person of certain means,
he was able to travel the world and see places
he may not have otherwise done if he was still
(09:26):
working his job as a lawyer.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
I'm gonna stop. I'm gonna stop you here because you're
right right, the break must be observed. Let's take the
break and pick up this break when we come back.
You want to join the conversation. People six one, seven, two, five, four,
ten thirty or eight eight, eight, nine, two, nine, ten thirty,
we'll be talking about all four of these shows once again,
(09:48):
The Magician, Harry O, The Untouchables and Run for your
Lifetime and temperature here on BZ ten sixteen. Oops, I'm
in trouble and the temperature is forty two to grease.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Now back to Dan Ray Live from the Window World,
Light Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
The thing here in the background is from Bill Bisby's
series The Magician. I love this show.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Bill Bixby portrayed the magician named Anthony Blake, who went
behind bars for years for a crime he did not
commit and came out with the incentive to help people
who were in no win situations and he used magic
(10:51):
to extricate.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Them out of those tough terms. The Magician. All right,
that's enough for the Magician and thank you, thank you.
That's stay my producer, and I love that theme. I
used to have a Lincoln town Car and I had
CDs made for it, and I had a what I
(11:13):
call junk CD which included songs from TV, of which
that was one.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
It was one of the many great theme musics from
Patrick Williams. Patrick Williams, he did the Streets of San Francisco,
He did the Bob Newhart Show theme Home to Emily.
He did. He did the theme the lou Grant, he
did countless countless he did. If I remember correctly, I
(11:41):
believe he did the Mary Tyler Moore show thing. And
he may have also done the music for Love Is
All Around by Sonny Curtis. I'm going off memory there.
If someone, if I misspeak, your listeners will let me know.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Sara Curtis sang the theme. That was his voice. We
heard Who's been trying the world on with a smile.
But you're saying Pat Williams.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
I think Pat Williams did the music for the show.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Okay, well we're jumping hopscotch here. Let's go back to
Run for Your Life, which is where we were before
the break. And if I remember correctly reading, because I
read all this like three weeks ago, but the plot
(12:31):
all of a sudden just rang in mister Huggard's head
that maybe I should do it this way where he
only has two years to live.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
That's okay, Actually, no, you're let me. I'm going to
circle back. Yes, the way the idea was originally presented
to him. You remember that correctly, The idea was a
man A man is A man is mistakenly told that
he has two week that he has a short time
(13:04):
to live, and and Roy thought that was a Roy
did not think that was a good premise for a series.
Maybe a movie, not a series. And then Roy said, okay,
what He turned that on his head and said, what
if it's true? What if what if he only has
two years to live? What does he do? And because
(13:26):
it could be a statement on it could be a
statement on what it means to truly live, depending on
how you spend the rest of your days. And as
we said before, he made he made the Ben Gazera
character a lawyer because that gave that gave him the
means to travel.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
He had deep pockets, He.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Had deep pockets. And and because this was an episodic
television show that you could put him realistically in position
in position situations where being a lawyer would come in handy,
as it often did in the course of of the series.
And because this was done in sixty five sixty six,
(14:15):
at the height of the Cold War, he had government contacts.
Sometimes they would ask him to do you know, some
covert spy work, some semi spionage type of stuff, you know,
where he might negotiate something from the other, you know,
for one side or the other. So it was. But
(14:37):
by making him a man of means and a man
with a legal background, they gave him the ability to
plausibly find himself in a lot of situations, a lot
of different type of situations where he could help people
or help other countries. And and so that was the
premise of the show. And it uh very very well.
(15:02):
It did very very well. And uh one, it's times
one on a consistent basis and uh uh and it was
one of many things that helped solidify Roy Huggin's relationship
as a successful producer of television for Universal.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
And that was NBC, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
NBC Wednesday nights, ten o'clock. Uh and uh and and
and it was it was. It was a very six
It was. It was one of the great anthology shows
during like the I was gonna almost said the Golden
Ages anthologies that would be the fifties. But there are
a lot of shows in the sixties, like Craft Suspense Theater,
(15:44):
uh that would have either you you would have you
would tell different stories and you would have a whole
different cast every week, which is great for actors at
the time. You know, Uh, Run for Your Life was
an anthology series with a recurring character. You know, so
Ben Ben Gazzar was the only staple of the show,
(16:07):
but because you threw him in different type of situations,
he was always meaning different people. So there's always a
need for great guest stars.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Right, And once that show began a third season, now
that played with the plot, Hey, I thought that I
was going to die after too, what's up with this?
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Yeah? Yeah, well, the the uh, the funny story was that, uh, Roy,
you know, one of the things that made Roy Huggins
different and successful is that he thought, he thought outside
the box, and uh, he he trusted in the audience
(16:49):
and he knew that if if you if, if you,
if you deliver an interesting premise with good stories and
hook the reader's interest every week, they're they're not necessar
only going to remember that he only he was only
supposed to have two years left the lip, you know,
And when you think about it, a season was twenty
five twenty six weeks back in nineteen sixty five sixty six,
(17:13):
so two full seasons, that's only fifty two weeks. So
if you think in terms of fifty two weeks, he
still had, he still had at least another fifty two
weeks or two years of episodes to go. But as
as it happens, the head of program at the time
was a little too literate or literal, and he said, okay,
(17:34):
well you said, you said two years. We gave you
a third year. He's been on one year too long.
And that was the end of the show, all right.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
And I'm going to ask this isn't something that was
in the book. But when you think of these three names, Benkasara,
John Cassavetti's and Peerful, you knew right where it was
going to go. You beat me to the punch, you
dastardly man. You all right, I'll tell you what. I've
(18:06):
got a news hit coming in ninety seconds.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
I want to talk about the interaction of those three.
They they did movies together as the produced direct act.
They were very tight. They were their own rap pack.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
They all had Columbo in common.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yeah, they all did. Because Cassavetti's played the Maestro I
think that was the title.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
And in the second in Black and There you Go.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
And Gazira directed that episode.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
He I don't remember if he directed that episode, but
he directed the episode where Columbo was on a cruise.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Oh yeah, my mistake.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
And Patrick and Patrick McNee was the was the captain.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
And the Robert the bad guy was Robert Vaughan. Yes,
mister Danzinger, Ye love the way that Yes, yep, pronounce
that name, Danzinger. We could have trivia competition to you
and I forever.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
I don't think so you.
Speaker 5 (19:15):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
I don't. I don't think I'm in the same league
as you.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Let me take my break and we'll come back and
talk about that core of friendship and we'll get back
to manufaction. I promise you, uh people, and and I
will talk for two hours. If you want to call
in and stop us, I'd recommend you do six one, seven, two, five,
four ten thirty or eight eight, eight, nine to nine,
(19:40):
ten thirty. This is Nightside guest hosted tonight by me
Morgan White Junior. Time and temperature here BZ ten thirty
and I guess it's still forty two degrees.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
You're on the Night Side with Dan Ray on w BZ,
Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Welcome back on, Morgan. I have been a part of
the BZ fabric since nineteen ninety six. I have my
own show Saturday nights beginning at ten, But this week
or half of this week, I've been filling in for Dannery.
Here on Nightside. I am speaking with Ed Robertson, who's
done books on various classic TV shows, James Garner. He
(20:25):
did a book on Maverick, Legend of the West. He
did a book on roberts Files. He did a book
on Perry Mason. Perry Mason, you did a book with
someone else who was the co author?
Speaker 3 (20:38):
I co authored that book with Bill Sullivan, who I
also co authored the FBI a doociate with.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
And also your current book, Man of Action is all.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
You The Men of Action Behind the scenes of four
classic television series available Amazon dot com. And yes, it
is all me.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
The Magician, The Untouchables, Herr O and Ren for Your Life,
and we have touched on two. Shortly we'll bring HARRYO
and the Untouchables into our conversation. I wanted you to
talk about the I'll call them the more aeradite Brat
(21:18):
pack of Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara and John Cassavetti's.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Yeah, I don't know the romance is the right word
for it, but they're all very very good friends and
They were all idiosyncratic actors and they worked with They
work with each other a lot. One difference between Gazara
(21:47):
and Peter Falk and John Cassavetti's is Cassavettis was sort
of use a very idiosyncratic director, very unconventional.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Peter Falk took a very much stage actor's approach to Colombo.
It was not uncommon for him to do fifteen sixteen,
seventeen eighteen takes on a given line until he got
it right, which worked for him because he was he
was He was the straw that stirred the drink and
(22:21):
the mystery movie. And so as long as it made
money for Universal and NBC, they would they would put
up with his any idiosyncrasy there. Gazara, well, you know,
he he messed with Falk and Cassavetti's he was. He
(22:44):
was very much a professional when he came to direct.
He directed a good number of Run for Your Lives,
especially in the third season. He was he I was
told by Swirling, one of the producers of the show,
that he was very unusual for an actor who directed,
(23:06):
because he was very mindful of the budget and so
uh and and so he would he would do good
work and do you want to do it on time?
And uh not cause undue headaches, which Cassavetties was known to.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Do, okay, and was Cassavetties married to Gina Rowlands.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Uh I one of them was married to Gina Rowland.
I believe it was Cassavetties.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
I thought so too. And I'm sorry to go off
the subject of your books, but this is.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
The this is this is Morgan why filling in for
Dan Ray? You can do whatever you want.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Thank thank you for getting that right. Well, Morgan, if
you want to be specific, order white.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
You you're talking to Ed Robertson, author of Manu Offaction
of a wy aamaz undercom.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
And tell people what you do in California that we
hit thirty eight states. They might may not know about
your background.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
I host and produced a syndicated radio show called TV Confidential,
where we talk about shows like what Morgan and I
are doing right now. We talk about your favorite shows
from the sixties and seventies, of shows that you grew
up watching, and in many cases we interview some of
the people who made those shows possible.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Now, I had to read the book to find out
this this thing that was in my memory. I know
I knew it, but I needed to see it in
print to recognize that Sarah Fawcett was a part of
the on again, off again what you would call a
(24:44):
semi regular on HERRYO.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
This is this is Sarah Fawcett about a year before
Charlie's Angels yet and this, this is, this is Sarah
Fawcett around the time she was this, this is when
she was still going by Fharrapacet Majors because she had
just married Lee Majors at the time. And it's it's
(25:09):
it was very easy to forget this when she blew
up and you know, into Pharaohmania in the in seventy
six seventy seven. But she was she was a good
looking woman who studied to be a good actress. And
and even if if you watch some of the things
(25:31):
she did in the early seventies when she was in
a contract with screen Gems, she they put her on.
She had a recurring role the last season of idrima Genie.
She was a she was she was Bill Daily's on again,
off again girlfriend. And you know, look, she she wasn't
(25:55):
asked to do Lady Macbeth or anything like that, but
she she you know, she could hold her own and
when when given the opportunity, she can show a little
bit of personality.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
And so.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
She wasn't always given she wasn't always given that chance
to shine early on, because you know, they tend they
just they looked, they thought of her only as a
pretty face.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
But when.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Uh, when HARRYO changed formats in the middle of its
first season, originally was set in San Diego. Then for
budgetary reasons, they changed production and they moved it, they said,
in Los Angeles. And so they surrounded David Jansen with
the new cast of characters. And one of his neighbors
(26:51):
was a stewardess played by fair Defacet Majors, and she
and Jensen they had very good chemistry together. And you know,
Jansen Jamson did a lot of did a good bit
of improvising, you know, in in UH, he would he
(27:17):
would do especially if it's seen that required a lot
of exposition, he would he would get the ABC part,
but he would do it in a way that made
it kind of fun, particularly if he was working with
an actor that he that he really that he really
liked and who seemed to get his sense of humor
and Parapasa was one of them, and they had really
nice moments together when they worked together in Harryo.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
And once I saw her name in print in your
book Man of Action, Notice I worked that in there.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Thank you very much. It made you'll forgive me. I'm
used to plugging things on my own show, so well I.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Will plug for you. I'm trying to make you as
much money as I can over the two hours that
we have. But it when Morgan, Yeah, she was in
that with a reoccurring role and reoccurring role on TV.
It's like some of the actresses that were on Maverick.
(28:16):
Just to pick a series that would use people like
Mike Rhade or e from Zimbalist Junior.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Or Kathleen Crowley.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Kathleen Crowley who later went on to Eat the Daisies
on her own series.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
No, that's Pat Crowley.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Oh my mistake. See I can be and.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
I don't think they were related. But no, Kathleen Crowley
was a blonde actress who did a lot of She
did some sci fi movies in the fifties, but she
did a lot of She did a lot of episodic
stuff in the fifties and sixties. In particular, and she
(28:58):
was on virtually every hour long show that Warner Brothers
was in production. Wors Pat Crowley was a dirty blonde
and she went on to do Please Don't Eat the
Daisies in nineteen sixty five and a lot of guest
star stuff in the seventies and eighties.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Yeah, as a matter of fact, I think it is
ironic because that show, or You've got me on another tangent,
that show Please Don't Eat the Daisies did a satire
tongue in cheek spoof with the Man from Uncle actors
Robert Vaughan and David McCallum. And it's ironic because she
(29:35):
was in an Uncle episode with Robert Vaughan.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
And David McCallum. Was a good friend of Morgan White Junior.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Yes he was. Oh gosh do I miss him? Yes,
gosh do I miss him. Let me take a break now,
and we'll go back to talking about Farah Fawcet. There's
so much more to that series, or well, I love
the way Anthony Zerup said it versus Henry Darrell saying it,
(30:06):
And we'll talk about that and people and and I
will just speak until five in the morning. We've had
our hours long conversations. You want to interrupt us, please
do six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty eight, eight, eight, nine, two, nine,
ten thirty And we in this conversation alone, we've mentioned
(30:31):
a dozen TV series. So someone out there must must
have a little tickle behind their ear to talk about Colombo,
to talk about the Rockford fires.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Or please don't eat the daisy, or.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Please please don't eat the days.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
These don't eat the days?
Speaker 2 (30:51):
These please Time and temperature here on night Side ten
forty five forty two degrees.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on w b Z News Radio.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
A little bit of the Untouchables. I don't think this
was the original theme that you heard if you turned
to TV on sometime back in sixty two, three, four
or five. Facts you get the field?
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Yeah, yes, Ed, Yeah, no, it was, as I recall,
it was a little more uptempo, right, the rangtro was
a little more uptemple. But that's that is one of
the many, many great themes from Nelson Riddle.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Yes, that was an Nelson Riddle.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Who contributed a lot of great things for music and
television when he wasn't making records. And composing stuff for
Sinatra and Nela Fitzgerald and all of that stuff.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
But I think my favorite Nelson Middle theme on TV
was Rude sixty six.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Rude sixty six. That's right, and but no, it was
it was you mentioned We're gonna I know, Joe Roan,
you mentioned the revival or the reimagining of the show
that was done in ninety three ninety four. Yes, and
(32:29):
I and I and I did talk to Tom A Mondes,
who played Elliott Ness in that show, and when I
revisited that when I was putting this book together. It's
one of those things that I didn't think of this
at the time, but it came to me now because
you know, one of hope we become wiser and we
(32:51):
learn more, we accumulate more stuff, you know, over the years.
But one of the one of the things that made
the Mama Monde showed different from the Roberts, from the
Robert Stack Untouchables is the way they portrayed al Capone,
and uh, it was more in the Toma Monday's Untouchables
(33:13):
from the nineties. It was an ongoing battle between Elliotness
and al Capone. And because Capone was on virtually every week.
They took liberties with the Capone character as as as
his wont to do and they even though he was
(33:36):
the bad guy, they gave him a lot of color
and trappings. And so you almost found yourself rooting for
al Capone, which is not which which kind of upsets
the bounds because the show is supposed to be about
Tom Mandy's as Elliotness and Neville.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Brand played al Capone periodically reoccurring character in the Roberts
Stack Untouchables.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Yes, and they would do that because they would They
would do that because they would change. They would one
year would be set in thirty two, one episode will
be set in thirty fourth. They go back and forth
in time, and so they were able to do that.
But what what what the what the Tamil Monday's William
Forsyth Untouchables, I didn't realize this at the time, but
(34:24):
I realized this now. They were what they were doing
with al Capone. He was like the first anti hero
on network television in an era that was about ten
years before anti heroes became fashionable, Okay, And so that's
that's one of the reasons why that meant why that
the the the premise of Men of Action. Is that
(34:45):
the four shows that we talk about in the book,
one way or another, they were popping. You know, they
left their mark at the time, but they continue to
leave their mark today because one way or another they
attributed to dramatic television as we know it today.
Speaker 5 (35:04):
And so.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
In the case, as we just said, in the case
of the revival of the Untouchables, you know that ran
ninety three to ninety four, it paved the way for
in a way, it paved the way for the era
of anti heroes that we have seen on television in
the last twenty five years.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
One actor who just facially now sometimes Alan Jenkins looked
like a cop. Yeah, the character actor Alan Jenkins looked
like the cop. Yeah. And find that he even played
a cop on Topcat. He was off to dibble. The
(35:48):
thing I loved about William forth Side, who ever had
him as an actor in whatever production that they were directing,
they took advantage of that.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
He's yeah, yeah, and and and they you know, as
they say, they they they took they gave that. There's
one episode of the nineteen ninety three Untouchables, uh, and
it may have been a two parter where they they
(36:22):
had Nests and Capone working alongside each other, so you
had an uneasy alliance, uh, which you know made sense
in that in the universe of that show. It would
never make sense in the Robert Stack universe, right, because
(36:44):
the way Stack played elliott Ness, he was the counterpuncher
and and uh and and Stack said this to me
when I talked to him many years ago. He knew
that he had he had to let the villains shine
(37:05):
because they wore the flashy suits. They were the gangsters.
They were the bad boys of prohibition era Chicago, which
is where elliott Ness operated. And so Stack even though
Stack got an Oscar nomination for playing a psychopath in
Written on the Wind, which shows that he could you know,
(37:27):
choose the scenery of given the opportunity. He yeah, he
had arranged, but he had to dial back on his
range for the good of the show because he had
to let an order for you know, Nest to stand out.
He had to dial back and let the and let
the villains shine from every week and so and when
(37:50):
you think about it, that was about ten years before
Adam West did the same thing on Batman.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Right.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
So you know, the the concept of the hero of
the week of a weekly series being the straight man
to the villains Robert.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
But I've got a caller. Let me see if i
can squeeze him in before the top of the hour.
Glenn and Brighton, how was your Thanksgiving?
Speaker 5 (38:17):
It was real good because of the old Trump is fan.
I just woke up from a nap, so I heard
you mention Colombo. That's why I had to call. Because
my favorite comb Oh episode was the one with Idela Pino.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
Oh it's Johnny Cash.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 5 (38:34):
Oh my god, do I love that.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Sunday Morning Sidewalk was the song Johnny.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
Sang, directed by Nicholas Colisanto, better known as Coaching.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
See Glenn, You'll see the stuff that and and I know.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
Together Nicholas Colissanto, who directed a number of Run for
Your Lives, which is one of the four shows Profile
and Manu of Action available Amazon that company.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
And let me ask you, because I know Glenn is sightless.
Is this book available for an audio reader?
Speaker 3 (39:10):
I I don't know that for certain. I can ask
the publisher.
Speaker 5 (39:18):
All right, Well, my favorite part is when they're looking
for a combo is looking for a coffee theoremost and
combo goes no Johnny Cash goes, I was thrown clear.
I got to bust the leg out of the deal.
Something is life as a coffee themist, Well, that could
be anywhere. And Colombo goes not bad, not bad, not bad?
(39:42):
All right?
Speaker 2 (39:43):
And Glenn, do you want me to have Ed commit
to reading you excerpts from his book once a week
until he finishes finishes book.
Speaker 5 (39:54):
That's not the yuga. I love ed Huber His laugh
God sounds like already.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Glenn. His waves turn much Glenn his way of turning
everything back to his perspective. There you go, that's Glenn.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
That makes him a good color.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
I've known him as a call for over thirty years before.
Speaker 5 (40:16):
Well, yeah, I was gonna go back to sixteen hundred,
but maybe not.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
All right, Glenn, you got thirty seconds before I have
to take news.
Speaker 5 (40:26):
Yeah. What was the name of that Columbus something? Was
it the Swan song or something?
Speaker 3 (40:29):
The Swan song?
Speaker 5 (40:31):
Yeah, the one that I like.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
Yes, And in addition to Sunday Morning coming down, he
also sang I saw the light, I saw the light.
I saw the light. And I think they also used
concert footage from an actual Johnny concert Johnny Cash Concert
in and Out yeah.
Speaker 5 (40:52):
I remember at the end when Colombo was talking of
when Cash, I mean, the Cash goes, are you afraid
to be up here with a killer? And he at
the top of them, they know, looking for the coffee
mug or whatever, you know, the thermos, like Columbo goes,
anybody sing as good as you can't be all bad?
Speaker 3 (41:11):
Yeah, yeah, it was those one a few times when uh.
I mean what made Columbo Colombo is that they usually
had played him, had had someone who was, you know,
like an upper class villain. So you had the contrast
between you know, the lowly Colombo and the and the
(41:32):
white collar criminal. You had someone who was with Johnny Cash,
you had someone who was down to earth in blue
collar as Colombo was.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
And that way, guys, I gotta stop it here. So Glenn,
where's goodbye to And I'll speak to him about calling
you once a week to read to you.
Speaker 5 (41:46):
Okay, okay, all right, all right back.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Back, Glenn. Let me take my news break and you
and I will come back in about six minutes time
and temperature ten fifty eight forty two. The grace
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