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(Brass - Network DVD / Laurence Marcus). Bing Crosby Show 2010 Mike Spadoni. Black Arrow adapted from original TV Times article 1972. All articles are copyright © Television Heaven or their individual authors where stated |
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(Brass - Network DVD / Laurence Marcus). Bing Crosby Show 2010 Mike Spadoni. Black Arrow adapted from original TV Times article 1972. All articles are copyright © Television Heaven or their individual authors where stated |
John Forsythe starred in this hybrid sitcom about a single man who became an instant father after taking in his niece. Forsythe played Bentley Gregg, a successful Beverly Hills attorney who adopted teenager Kelly (Noreen Corcoran) after her parents died in a car accident. Bentley’s time was divided between raising Kelly and his career–not to mention the many beautiful women who stopped by his office. (In one episode, a girlfriend of Kelly’s became smitten with the older Gregg. She was played by Linda Evans, who would later become Krystal Carrington of Dynasty–and Forsythe’s on screen wife--two decades later.) Sammy Tong played Bentley’s houseboy Peter Tong, who ran the household (and occasionally got into some predicament, usually over money). Bachelor Father’s pilot first aired on CBS’ General Electric Theater in May 1957 (with the title A New Girl in His Life). Four months later, the series made its debut on the network, alternating every other week with The Jack Benny Program on Sunday nights. In 1959, “Father” moved to NBC, where it ran until 1961. ABC then picked up the series for one more season, making Bachelor Father one of the few programs to air original episodes on all three major U.S. networks. During its final season, Kelly became engaged to Bentley’s junior law partner Warren Dawson (Aron Kincaid); the series ended before the wedding could take place. A rather pleasant if predictable sitcom, “Father” was co-produced by Forsythe’s production company and MCA/Universal, allowing the star to enjoy a comfortable life before Charlie’s Angels and Dynasty made him a household name–again.
Barnaby Jones is enjoying his retirement breeding horses and enjoying the quiet life, having left his private investigator business in the capable hands of his son, Hal. But his world is shattered when Hal is murdered and Barnaby comes out of retirement to track down the killer. Having nailed the murderer Barnaby turns his back on his ranch to take control of the Los Angeles law firm once more. Aided by Hal's widow, Betty (Lee Meriwether), Barnaby operates as a sort of US male Miss Marple, utilising his keen analytical skills and luring the guilty into a false sense of security by being deceptively slow and vague rather than resorting to violence. Buddy Ebsen, best remembered as the millionaire bumpkin Jed Clampett in The Beverly Hillbillies, was already 64 when Barnaby Jones first appeared on US television in 1973 and he was 72 when the series finally came to an end. In the latter years of this this long-running Quinn Martin production another character was introduced, JR (Jedediah Romano), played by Mark Shera. This allowed Ebsen to reduce his workload as Meriwether and Shera's characters became more prominent. A whole host of established Hollywood stars turned up in the series, including Stefanie Powers, William Shatner, Nick Nolte, Roddy McDowell and Leslie Nielsen, while a number of newcomers passed through on their way to stardom, including Don Johnson, James Woods and Tommy Lee Jones. One familiar face was William Conrad as Frank Cannon, allowing two series; Barnaby Jones and Cannon to cross over on several occasions.
Creator of some of the most outstanding television plays made in the last fifty years, Nigel Kneale (Quatermass, Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Year of the Sex Olympics) created, in Beasts, an anthology of six plays designed to showcase the breadth of his fertile imagination. Laden with suspense, drama and a thick vein of black humour, each play was a variation on the theme of civilised man in conflict with the primal, animal side of existence. This malevolent and menacing thread runs through all six terrifying stories, which feature outstanding performances from actors such as Martin Shaw, Simon MacCorkindale, Glyn Houston, Michael Sheard and Pauline Quirke (pictured). The six episdoes were Baby: A mummified creature is found in the walls of a house. Buddyboy: Has a dolphin’s spirit returned to haunt the living? The Dummy: An actor becomes possessed by the monster he is playing. Special Offer: A poltergeist is loose in a supermarket. What Big Eyes: An eccentric scientist tries to turn himself into a wolf. During Barty's Party: A couple are trapped in their home by a horde of rats. The series was released on DVD in 2007 by Network and featured a number of special features including Murrain – A single play by Kneale from 1975, written in the same vein as Beasts.
Another sitcom from the prolific two Ron's writing team of Chesney and Wolfe, The Bed-Sit Girl was written as a starring vehicle for Sheila Hancock (wife of the late John Thaw), who had become a household name in the duo's earlier smash hit comedy, 'The Rag Trade'.
Sheila was a secretary whose life was a steady stream of failed romances and frustrated failures but who never gave up her dreams of a more glamorous and fulfilling existence. She would have gladly swapped places with her airhostess friend and neighbour Dilys (occasional "Carry On" star - Dilys Laye) and attempted to associate herself with what she considered the jet set. The second series saw her with a boyfriend, David (Derek Nimmo), who lived in the bed-sit flat next door, and a new worldly-wise friend (after Dilys had jetted off permanently) called Liz (Hy Hazell).
Television's first attempt to poke fun at the world of politics from within the Houses of Parliament in a situation comedy came from the pens of Vince Powell and Harry Driver. The series revolved around two M.Ps,-Labour and Conservative. Tim Barrett played a young Labour newcomer, Geoffrey Broom MP for Burnstone, Yorkshire, and Robert Coates the wily old Tory, William Sylvester Gordon representing the safe seat of Ryefield in Surrey. Because of accommodation problems they are forced to share an office. "We thought a comedy series about politics would be an excellent subject," said Vince. "It never does any harm for people to laugh at something they sometimes tend to take too seriously." However, the series was beset with problems. Following the transmission of the first episode (in Thames Television's second week of broadcasting) an ITV technicians dispute kept it off the screen until almost a year later when the next four of the seven episodes written were shown. The last two episodes were never seen. Television returned to the subject matter far more successfully in the 1980s with 'Yes, Minister.'
Starring four times Academy Award nominee Barbara Stanwyck as iron willed cattle rancher Victoria Berkley, a rich widow and mother of an illegitimate boy, three sons and a daughter, and set in California's San Joaquin Valley around the 1870's. Eldest son Jarrod (Richard Long who had previously appeared in 'Maverick' and '77 Sunset Strip') was a successful San Franciscan lawyer, who handled the family's legal affairs; Nick Barkley (Peter Breck) ran the ranch whilst youngest son Eugene (Charles Briles) was something of a dreamer. Completing the family was former Disney girl Linda ('Dynasty') Evans as daughter Audra and Lee ('Six Million Dollar Man') Majors, making his TV debut as Heath. The series was created by Lou Edelman who had produced an earlier series for Stanwyck, and developed by A.I. Bezzerides, as an attempt to rival both 'Bonanza' and 'The Virginian'. However, it had a somewhat shorter television life than those other two series and finished after four seasons. The stirring theme tune was written by Lalo Schifrin.
The adventures of Major James Bigglesworth, better known in flying circles as "Biggles", were written by Captain W. E. Johns (February 5, 1893 - 21 June 1968) an English pilot and writer of adventure stories who created his air ace hero in the story "The White Fokker", published in the first issue of 'Popular Flying' magazine in March 1932. This 1960 series, made by Granada Television, was a children's adventure transmitted in an early evening slot (initially Fridays at 6.30pm and later twice a week with the second episode being added and then going out on Wednesday's and Friday's at 7.00pm). The story featured a post-war Biggles (played by Nevil Whiting) who had left the RAF to join the CID, heading up a crack unit of investigators that comprised himself, Bertie (Lord Bertram Lissie) and Ginger (Ginger Hebblethwaite), who would traverse the globe to solve crime. Ginger was played by John Leyton who, on the back of this success, turned pop star and had a Number One hit the following year with the haunting 'Johnny Remember Me'. But even more notable than that was that one of the writers of this series was Tony Warren-who, whilst working on 'Biggles' was also creating a 13-part soap called 'Florizel Street', but later (wisely) renamed 'Coronation Street'. Actor William Roache also worked on the series and was spotted by Warren who then cast him as 'The Streets' Ken Barlow.
An eternal dreamer, Billy Fisher is a likeable North Country lad with a habit of becoming lost in his own wild imagination. His flights of fancy do him no favours at the funeral parlour where he works and earn him continuous scorn from his boss, Mr. Shadrack. Life at home proves just as boring and his daydreaming provides a constant source of annoyance to his Dad. Adapted from the highly successful novel/play/film by successful writing team Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, this version of 'Billy Liar' was updated by them to make it more relevant to the early 1970s, when it was made. As such, it's a unique and whimsical time capsule of a decade when flares were mandatory and hippies walked the streets. All of this counterpointed by Billy's flights of fancy! Featuring exceptional performances by Jeff Rawle as Billy, George A. Cooper as his Dad and Colin Jeavons as the mortifying Mr. Shadrack, 'Billy Liar' still remains one of the funniest shows from one of Britain's premier writing teams. The series transferred to the USA as simply 'Billy' starring Steve Guttenberg.
By 1964, beloved entertainer Bing Crosby was doing quite well as a television producer with shows such as Ben Casey (and later Hogan's Heroes) under his belt. It made perfect sense for him to produce AND star in his own weekly family sitcom. The Bing Crosby Show was actually a pretty good comedy that couldn't last against strong competition. Crosby played Bing Collins, a former singer who decided to leave show business behind and settle down with wife Ellie (Beverly Garland) and daughters Janice and Joyce (Carol Faylen and Diane Sherry - pictured). But domestic life didn't go according to plan: Ellie wanted to get into show business; Janice was a boy-crazy teen; and Joyce was a ten-year-old brainiac. Frank McHugh played live-in handyman Willie Walters. Of course, Bing sang a song in nearly every episode (he also warbled the theme song and the tune that accompanied the closing credits). And the laid-back Crosby and co-star Garland had good chemistry; one humorous episode had Bing and Ellie trying to recapture the romance Ellie thought was gone from their marriage. But The Bing Crosby Show lasted just one season, thanks to strong competition from CBS' sitcom Many Happy Returns (which also lasted just one year) and the second half of NBC's popular Andy Williams Show. Crosby continued to be a frequent guest on television and film (and a commercial spokesman for Minute Maid orange juice) until his untimely death in 1977.
Black Arrow was a lone figure of mystery who protected the poor against greedy warrior barons fighting for power and influence throughout the 15th century Wars of the Roses. But an even bigger mystery for viewers of Southern Television's (initial) seven-part adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic adventure was the identity of the actor who wore the Black Arrow's mask. "We are going to keep the secret until the end of the series-and we might not reveal it even then" the actor told TV Times readers in 1972. "I see Black Arrow as the Lone Ranger who rides into town, settles differences and rides out again" said the actor. "He is also a bit of a Robin Hood except that Robin had his gang of merry men whereas Black Arrow is alone. On the "good" side of the story were Richard Shelton, played by 18-year old Robin Langford, Joanna Sedley played by Helen Stronge and Will Lawless played by Eric Flynn. Principal villain was Sir Daniel Brackley played by William Squire. Suitably successful the series was off screens for less than a year before it returned in December 1973. The part of Richard Shelton (now four years older) was then played by Simon Cuff - very confusing for viewers, as Cuff had appeared in the first series as a completely different character. The Black Arrow actor was still a mystery, though. It wasn't until series three that Shelton was revealed as the Black Arrow - adding even more confusion - as he would have been too young in series one. Viewers were left to make up their own mind.
This 1950's comedy starred a bachelor who pursued nearly every beautiful woman who posed for his camera. But it was all good clean fun, though in those rather repressed times, the humor was considered a bit risque. Bob Cummings played Bob Collins, an Air Force reserve officer who ran a successful photography studio. Veteran sitcom actress Rosemary DeCamp was his sister Margaret McDonald, who tried but failed to get him married to a “respectable” woman. She wanted Bob to set an example for her adolescent son Chuck (Dwayne Hickman)–who, not surprisingly, wanted to be like Uncle Bob and get all the girls. At the studio, Bob had an efficient secretary named Charmaine "Schultzy" Schultz (brilliantly played by Ann B. Davis), who pined for Bob even as he dated one woman after another. Another woman competed for Bob’s affections scholarly bird watcher Pamela Livingston (Nancy Kulp). Neither Schultzy nor Pamela was glamorous enough for Bob. But they were far more intelligent than most of his attractive but vapid conquests. The Bob Cummings Show (also known as Love That Bob) was created by Paul Hemming, a writer who would later develop such rural sitcoms as The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction and Green Acres for CBS. The show itself was produced by Henning, Cummings and George Burns’ McCadden Productions. It premiered in January 1955 on NBC as one of television’s first mid season replacement series. CBS then picked up “Bob Cummings” for two seasons, before NBC took back the show and aired it until 1959. After the series ended, Dwayne Hickman starred in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (and later became a CBS television executive). Davis, who won two Emmy awards for her role as Schulzy, went on to her best-known role as Alice Nelson, The Brady Bunch’s wisecracking maid. And Henning would tap Kulp to play no-nonsense bank secretary Jane Hathaway on Beverly Hillbillies.
Bob Cummings was a film actor before moving to television in the early 1950's with the sitcom My Hero. He won an Emmy for the live 1954 production of Twelve Angry Men on CBS’ Studio One. Cummings appeared in several other films, along with an installment of The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Comedy Hour and the short-lived sitcoms The New Bob Cummings Show and My Living Doll. He died at the age of 80 in 1990.
This sitcom helped launch the careers of its two stars. Graphic artist Kip Wilson (Tom Hanks) and writer Henry Desmond (Peter Scolari) were roommates working for the same advertising agency who needed a cheap place to live after their apartment building was demolished. Co-worker Amy Cassidy (Wendy Jo Sperber) told them about the Susan B. Anthony Hotel. Problem was, it was restricted to women only. But Kip and Henry–lured by the low rent and the idea of being around beautiful ladies all the time--decide to dress up in female attire and pose as Buffy and Hildegarde to get a room at the Susan B. Anthony; Kip and Henry also appeared at the hotel, pretending to be Buffy and Hildegarde’s brothers. While Amy knew of the ruse, Kip and Henry had to hide their real sexual identities from the hotel’s manager, Lily Sinclair (Lucille Benson) and fellow residents Isabelle Hammond (Telma Hopkins) and beautiful model Sonny Lumet (Donna Dixon). At the advertising agency, Henry and Kip were managed by boss Ruth Dunbar (Holland Taylor), who always took credit for their work. Bosom Buddies was actually funniest when Hanks and Scolari were not in drag; audiences could then enjoy the easy banter and comic chemistry between the two men. When the show returned for its second season, the first order of business was having Kip and Henry come out to the girls (by this time, Isabelle became the hotel’s new manager, replacing Lily). The two guys (and Amy) also left the agency to start their own ad firm called Sixty Seconds Street (with Ruth as a silent partner). But the ratings failed to budge, and ABC cancelled Bosom Buddies. NBC aired repeats of the series during the summer of 1984–no doubt because by that time, its two stars were doing quite well. Tom Hanks appeared in the film hits Splash and Bachelor Party, on his way to becoming a very successful Oscar-winning actor and producer. Peter Scolari became a part of the Newhart cast playing shallow uber-Yuppie Michael Harris, and continued to appear in other films and television series.
Stanley Bowler has a finger in every profitable pie, and his money can buy everything but the thing he wants most: class. His unstoppable ambition to move in higher social circles sees him embarking on a series of ill-fated schemes – including opening his very own gentlemen’s club, conspicuously embracing high culture, and even trying to set himself up as a laird. Sadly, while Bowler stumbles from one faux pas to another, the doors of Society remain very firmly closed...Written as a spin-off from The Fenn Street Gang (itself a sequel to Please Sir!) but presented as a 'prequel', Bowler chronicles the early life of former Fenn Street pupil Peter Craven's shady boss, Stanley Bowler (George Baker), an East End villain whose social aspirations fail consitently due to his lack of ability to grasp the qualities he needs such as refinement and elegance of manner. The series was written by veteran sitcom writers John Esmonde and Bob Larbey and co-starred Renny Lister as Stanley's estranged wife Doreen, Fred Beauman as his valet, Reg, and future EastEnders star Gretchen Franklin as his cockney mum. Soap stars Wendy Richard and Johnny Briggs are also among the guest stars. Available on DVD from Network.
A weekly drama about the lives and loves of people at a major Hollywood movie studio. John Bracken was the head of Century Studios (he was only heard by intercom or over the phone during the first season and was voiced by Warren Stevens). Eleanor Parker played Bracken’s executive secretary Sylvia Caldwell. She relayed her boss’ orders and dealt with the various people on the Century payroll, including producer-writer Kevin Grant (Peter Haskell); stuntman Davey Evans (Dennis Cole); studio talent school chief Laura Deane (Elizabeth Allen), and a bevy of beauties and hunks waiting for their one big chance at stardom. The ensemble cast dealt with the pressures of Hollywood–drugs, sex, alcohol, underhanded ethics and so forth. When it returned for its second season, John Bracken was finally seen–and heard–in the form of veteran actor Leslie Nielsen; Stevens, Parker and Cole were out of the picture. But the new version was no more successful than the first, and was pulled off the air in December 1970. By that time, many of the major film studios were experiencing financial problems due to changing tastes in cinema–so in a way, the demise of Bracken’s World was a metaphor for Hollywood’s troubles during that era.
Bradley Hardacre has risen from poverty to become the wealthy owner of mine, mill, shipyard, aircraft factory and munitions works in the Lancashire town of Utterly in the 1930s. The Fairchild family live in a poor home, so what is their connection to Bradley and why does he wants to destroy the Cottage Hospital? A splendid, barbed and witty pastiche of American dramas such as 'Dallas' and 'Dynasty' and the gritty realism of period Northern dramas, 'Brass' stars Timothy West as Bradley Hardacre - a self-made man who is ruthless, cunning, rampantly sexual and as blunt as can possibly be. His plans for expansion and domination are hampered by his gin-sodden wife (Caroline Blakiston) and the rest of his dysfunctional family, as well as local firebrand Agnes Fairchild (Barbara Ewing) and her dense husband George (Geoffrey Hinsliff), who is grateful to Hardacre for providing gainful employment whilst blissfully ignorant of his desires towards his wife. There was a six-year gap between series 2 and 3, the latter picking up the story on 1st September 1939 - the day before War breaks out. Hardacre, still the owner of both an aircraft factory and a munitions works can't wait for the start of hostilities. "Where there's much, there's brass."
Amos Burke was the mega wealthy boss of LAPD's murder squad who was driven around in a chauffeur driven Rolls Royce by Henry (Leon Lontoc). Originally intended as a series for Dick Powell who played the character in one of his 'Dick Powell Theatre' presentations called 'Who killed Julia Greer', the part fell to former 'Bat Masterson' star Gene Barry (real name Eugene Klass). All of Burke's cases were called "Who Killed..." with the name of that weeks unlucky victim tagged on to the end, and all of the cases revolved around the world of high society and millionaires to which Burke fitted into seamlessly. He was assisted by detectives Tim Tilson (Gary Conway) and Lester Hart (Regis Toomey), with Sgt Amis (Eileen O'Neill) joining later. The series also boasted the highest head count in guest stars, 63 in the first eight episodes alone. Burke eventually quit the police force to become an undercover agent as US television tried to cash in on the James Bond craze with a series entitled 'Secret Agent', but returned to the police force in a 1994 revival of the original series.
