Idle thoughts about TV shows, movies, actors....

[applestar]

I was just thinking about TV shows I liked as a kid that were canceled partly due to tragic accidents on the sets or that I later found to have been limping all along due to lead actor's addiction problems, etc.

One was a TV series about undercover agents traveling around the world as photographer and models -- I remember "I need a hero" was the opening song. The actor who played the photographer was killed in a freak shooting accident. Another one was "Air Wolf" -- it turned out that the lead for that one was often dis functionally high.

...thinking about these rather unhappy thoughts led to other, happier thoughts about other shows and movies and actors....

Thinking about "Cancelled TV shows" always reminds me of "Firefly", partly because we like "Castle" and Nathan Fillion made many tongue-in-cheek Firefly references especially in earlier episodes, and even in the new Percy Jackson movie.

An actor that I didn't particularly like as one incarnation of The Doctor is utterly charming as Radacast the Brown....

...and there is an actor that keeps turning up in all our fave shows like Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Leverage, Dr. Who, White Collar, ....

Does anyone remember the TV series "21 Jump Street" -- the lead actors from that show kept popping up in TV shows and feature film credits, too, though some haven't in a while. It's one of those shows that seems to have not been put back in circulation as reruns, while some others just keep repeating over and over on the cable channels.....

[imafan26]

The original 21 Jump Street starred Johnny Depp who has made a career of playing Captain Jack in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and so he does more movies now than small screen stuff. I think he lives in France.

Peter Deluise, the son of Dom Deluise who played Doug Penhall, later played a mutant slave on Seaquest DSV for a couple of years and then went behind the camera to direct and write many of the Stargate SG1 episodes. He went on a diet and lost a lot weight.

Holly Robinson Peete played Julie Hoffs. I haven't seen much of her but I think she decided to make raising a family her main career.

Dustin Nguyen has played some guest spots but his career hid the slide after the show ended.

Michael Deluise, Peter's younger brother, played Joey Penhall, Penhall's younger brother. He also had roles in Seaquest and Stargate SG1.

[webmaster]

Good catch on the Radagast/Who connection!

One of those Deluise actors had a role as the clueless dad on Wizards of Waverly Place.

The BBC seems to recycle their actors between all the miniseries and tv shows, making it fun to identify what other roles an actor played. David Bamber is one of my favorite character actors. He was in the recent Doctor Who episode about the Mummy on the Orient Express.

[applestar]

DD brought out My Neighbor Totoro DVD to watch, and we just finished watching it.
-- such a heart warming animated film --

It was interesting, too because we just recently watched Maleficent.

I showed DD a video of Dakota and Elle Fanning as children, telling her they were the voice actors for Satsuki and Mei

https://video.disney.com/watch/dakota-an ... 8833003b15

...then showed her Elle Fanning's page on imdb with her current photo...and she said, "That's funny, she looks like the princess in Maleficent... " -- so I scrolled down and showed her the rest of the page.

[Bobberman]

I watch westerns a lot and the new one on now was on over 40 years ago. Death Valley days with Ronald Regan as the host. Some great movies in color remade! Gun Smoke is my favorite!

[imafan26]

Sometimes I will watch an episode from a bygone era and recognize the future head liners
Clint Eastwood from Rawhide, Burt Reynolds as Quint Asper in Gunsmoke, Steve McQueen in Wanted: Dead or Alive.

Sometimes the opposite happens where movie stars go to television
Ernest Borgnine won an oscar for "Marty" and then starred in McHale's Navy, Fred Astaire played Robert Wagner's dad on " It Takes a Thief", and Bill Cosby was made tv history as the first Black actor to share star billing with a white actor in "I Spy"

Sometimes it is just strange to see an actor playing different parts and who has changed so much over the years to be almost unrecognizable
Jan Michael Vincent
Richard Dean Anderson 'Macgyver", Colonel/General Jack O'Neill of the "Stargate" franchise. Macgyver was smart, Jack
was mostly lucky.
C Thomas Howell, rodeo rider and child actor played Tyler in ET: the extraterrestrial. He was one on the kids on the flying bikes. Thomas Chamberlain in 'Gettysburg', and as George Foyet, 'the Reaper' in several episodes of "Criminal Minds."

[applestar]

Isn't it nostalgic?

What about David McCallum -- who is probably firmly fixed in this generation as "Ducky" in NCIS?
...strangely, I recognized him as "The Invisible Man" where I saw him first, but when I looked that up, it was a failed TV series that was only on during 1975. DH remembers him from the better known Man from the U.N.C.L.E.

[rainbowgardener]

my first ever crush on a movie/TV star was Richard Chamberlain when he was "Dr. Kildare"! People younger than me will probably know him best for his roles in Shogun and the TV miniseries "Thorn Birds."

He's an incredibly gifted person who did as much work in stage plays as he did in movies and TV and also sang in musicals, published books of poetry, painted. He has continued performing and looking gorgeous well in to his 70's (he is 80 today). In January 2009 he embarked on a tour with Monty Python's Spamalot in the role of King Arthur on stage. He also was a lifelong advocate for environmental preservation.

I didn't find out until later that he graduated from the same college I did (Pomona College in southern Calif) but a dozen years earlier.

[tomf]

Firefly was cool. I have been into Nova, Ted Talks and such things of late.

[rainbowgardener]

We've been watching TV series through Netflix. It is cool because they take out all the commercials. The screen goes black for one second and you know that would have been several minutes of commercials, but it comes right back to your show. Takes 45 min to watch an hour show that way.

Currently watching Jericho. It is one of those dramas that is all one long story, not separate episodes (is there a name for that?). It is a post nuclear war saga, America trying to rebuild itself. At times it is a bit more violent than I really enjoy, but the violence is not too graphic and it is not gratuitous, really integral to the story of what happens to social mores in these extreme circumstances. The characters are well developed and believable. It has a lot of relevance to things going on today (infiltration of the government by large corporations, etc).

[applestar]

Went to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 --- LOVE that Baby Groot ...first part while they were fighting to guard those batteries was my favorite part

[webmaster]

Ah cool! Always fun to see a movie on the opening weekend as there's a palpable excitement in the air.

My wife and I have been watching The Vikings tv series. At first we thought it was a little weird but I think that's because Vikings were pagans and the recreated world was different than anything we'd watched before. We're up to the fourth season now.

[imafan26]

Lagertha on Vikings had a role as a rape victim who would only talk to house on House, M.D. The episode was "One day, one room". It was one of my favorite episodes. It was the only one I could think of where the patient never really lied. House usually ferrets out some secret that the patient had been lying about, but in that episode the patient caught House in a lie and forced it out of hm.

Sometimes you can see how the actors have changed over the years by the roles that they played and how they matured as actors over time.

David Hasselhoff was Snapper Foster on the Young and the Restless before he did Knight Rider and Baywatch.

Bill Mumy in the Twilight zone "Long Distance Call" and "Its a Good LIfe", to Will Robinson in Lost in Space. I can still hear the Robot saying "Danger! Will Robinson". As a child actor, he was prolific and he appeared in many series. He played Lennier on Babylon 5, He had grown up and in make up I did not recognize him at first.

Clint and Ron Howard. Clint Howard was the kid star of Gentle Ben. His brother always casts him in a small role in his films. Ron Howard went from playing Opie on the Andy Griffith Show to Playing Richie Cunningham in American Graffiti and Happy Days. Not to mention all the work he has done as Director behind the Camera.

[gumbo2176]

"The Twilight Zone" is one of my favorite "go-to" shows for spotting actors who went on to bigger and better things. Just a few off the top of my head are, Charles Bronson, Elizabeth Montgomery, Jack Kluggman, Burgess Merideth, Cliff Robertson, Robert Redford, William Shatner and many others I can picture but can't put the name to the face.

Being born in 1952 and growing up watching TV on the old black and white TV screens that were all of 20" across in many cases was like a break from reality. I'd get home from school in the afternoons and could watch shows like "Zorro", "The Three Stooges", "Superman", "The Mickey Mouse Club", and a seemingly unending variety of cartoons, with almost all characters voiced by Mel Blanc.

Then at night there would be an assortment of variety shows to choose from that were hosted by the likes of Red Skelton, Jackie Gleason, Perry Como, Andy Williams, Lawrence Welk, etc. and who can forget all the western themed shows that were so popular back then.

There is a channel on my cable provided called MEtv and I watch it frequently as it airs many of the older shows from the 60's-80's. These shows are much more clean cut than the tripe that passes for entertainment today.

[tomf]

My ex wife's dad was a producer on the Wizard of OZ and he said the Munchkins were midgets and most of them were drunks.

[webmaster]

and most of them were drunks.

Well, if one were to judge by the movies and literature of the time, most everyone in America was a drunk back then.

[applestar]

I am Groot....

[webmaster]

LOL!

[imafan26]

I kind of miss the old Hollywood system. The actors in the old system at least had steady work, even if they did not always have choices. The dark ages was the McCarthy era where actors and writers were blacklisted if they were labeled as communist sympathizers. After the 70's though there the movies are less dependent on good acting and writing than on Special effects. I remember one time someone asked who was the greatest star of the seventies and the response was Special effects.

The one good thing that has come with the advances in the digital age has been that the quality of the effects have improved to the point where tv is even able to cost effectively use some of the advanced techniques to make things more realistic and lifelike.

There have been some really good shows on tv in recent years that have been well written even though most shows now are so serialized and procedural that it is like watching a miniseries for a season.
Some of the best writing has been on Vikings, Game of Thrones, Banshee, House M.D., Six Feet Under, Big Bang Theory, the Blacklist, Breaking Bad, the Tudors, 24, Hannibal. You do have to give credit to the writers, because if the writing is bad it is hard to turn in a really good performance unless they go off script. Some of the shows were not popular with all viewers because of content or subject, but the writing and cinematography was really good.

I still miss the anthology series like Death Valley Days, Twilight Zone, and the Outer Limits. American Horror Story is good but it is still a miniseries more than a true anthology. I'd like to see the return of shows like ABC's Stage 67 and a real anthology series with stand alone episodes with different writers and actors and move away from the procedurals which get predictable even with good actors.

[tomf]

I remember when the Oscas were about the art of movie making and acting. Enough said.

[ButterflyLady29]

I've wondered if they will cancel Training Day since Bill Pullman has passed away.

How many remember Erin Moran in Daktari?

Dan Blocker passed away while Bonanza was still in production and The Three Stooges had several different actors playing the third Stooge (Moe and Larry being the consistent Stooges).

[gumbo2176]

What I think I remember most, especially about the old time comedians is they didn't rely on shock value, foul language, serious sexual innuendo, etc. to get you to laugh. Stars like Red Skelton, Milton Berle, Bob Hope, Victor Borge, Don Rickles, Mom's Mabley, Joan Rivers, just to name a few, had that ability to make you laugh at many of the simple things in life given to you with their take on the subject.

[tomf]

What I think I remember most, especially about the old time comedians is they didn't rely on shock value, foul language, serious sexual innuendo, etc. to get you to laugh. Joan Rivers, just to name a few, had that ability to make you laugh at many of the simple things in life given to you with their take on the subject.

I saw a stage show of Joan Rivers and is was nothing like her on TV, she was over the top with shock value, it how ever was one of the funniest comedian shows I have seen, I laughed so hard. Many of the comedians do stage shows that are nothing like TV where they need to tone it down.

[tomf]

Between Nexflix streaming and Amazon Prime streaming I get more shows than I could ever watch, who needs cable.

[imafan26]

I like the old movies better anyway and I can see a lot of those on you tube. Albeit usually with funny voices.

[applestar]

Pirates of the Caribbean last week -- funny, great effects and visuals, moving, exciting -- a must see

Today, Wonder Woman IMAX 3D -- really enjoyed it. Once home, HAD to watch Bman vs. Sman: DOJ on HBO GO just to review her 1st appearance and appreciate some of the scenes with new eyes. Now I have to go plant some stuff!

[imafan26]

The problem with the newer movies is the heavy reliance on CGI and explosive action scenes. There are a few really good acting performances, but acting seems to be taking a second seat to special effects.

[gumbo2176]

The problem with the newer movies is the heavy reliance on CGI and explosive action scenes. There are a few really good acting performances, but acting seems to be taking a second seat to special effects.

I have to agree with this totally. However, I'm betting directors and producers of grand movies like Cleopatra, Spartacus, The Ten Commandments, Ben Hur, et.al., would have loved CGI as opposed to hiring hundreds to thousands of extras for some of those epic battle scenes.

[applestar]

Yeah, the movies are so different in feel -- I enjoy them for the different values and merits. Sometimes I'm so disappointed by remakes of old classics, and sometimes, the new versions create a whole new world.

[applestar]

...speaking of remakes (...and this is a completely different sort of genre and level of entertainment but) did anyone like the original MacGyver? Have you been watching the new one?

I like the "resourceful hero" character. I'll never be that smart, but I like to try to think like that -- a critical problem solver.

Today, I topped a mulberry tree that was getting too big. Fortunately mulberry is softwood and not so hard to cut. I admit I haven't had much practice doing this sort of thing, but I wanted to take care of it while I still could -- about 3-3.5 inches diameter at thickest.

I had a picnic bench and 1/2 blue barrel that I could stand on. I had a bow saw, hand pruning saw, loppers, and a camping chain saw, as well as a pair of utility scissors and hand pruners I always carry. I got started lopping off side branches and making the bottom wedge cut in the direction I wanted it to go, but when I started the main cut, realized the weight distribution might make it fall over towards the neighbor's side of the fence -- I needed a rope!

...but then realized I had managed to block the access out of the fenced garden area -- rope...rope... all could find in the area was a large, thick vinyl mulch bag I folded the bag vertically and cut with my scissors into 2 inch wide circles/bands, then made a rubber band-style string/rope out of the bag. Nice length, too. Tied it around the trunk, tied it off to a fence post and made the cut while pulling on my make-shift rope. Once the cut went through, the trunk came sliding down exactly where I wanted it... then got stuck.

I untied my "rope" from the fence post, tied the end to my scissors and tossed it over a high branch -- twice -- looping it around and tightening. Now, I had two ends of the rope on the tipped upper tree, and pulling on them like reins allowed me to control the tree's descent. Yay! I had to cut a second leader that was even taller though narrower diameter, and the mulch bag-remade-into-rope made all the difference.

Yeah, yeah, all MacGyver would have needed was his trusty multi-tool pocket knife with the tiny little scissors, but hey.

[webmaster]

The problem with the newer movies is the heavy reliance on CGI and explosive action scenes.

Ironically, I think that the lack of explosions until the end of Superman vs Batman is why people disliked it so much. Personally I enjoyed it very much precisely because it lacked so many of the superhero action clichés. So Applestar, I'm very interested in hearing what you think about SvB DOJ. I enjoyed it because it was not the same old stuff.

What I read about Wonder Woman is that it largely abandons the rest of the brooding hero clichés and focuses on actual character development instead of the usual one dimensional characters so often featured on todays movies.

I'm looking forward to seeing the new Wonder Woman movie, I've always been a fan; many of my friends apparently enjoyed it this weekend.

[rainbowgardener]

Great MacGyver-ing, applestar! I liked the old MacGyver. Not so much the new one. He seems much more the action hero, more likely to kick punch and car chase his way out of situations than think his way out.