Sequels Don't Bother Me Anymore.

 In the last 10 years, two movies came out that should have never been made. 

First, The Longest Yard was remade in 2005. Why? Because the younger generation of comics can't come up with anything on their own, so they took a great concept and character driven film and butchered it in the remake. I say they butchered it, because that is what I have heard. I have never seen it. Nor will I. To me, it doesn't exist. I can watch the original Longest Yard a hundred times and never get tired of it. In fact, in high school I taped it once and did watch it about 100 times with my friend. Because it was that good. Just because Adam Sandler and Chris Rock make really lame movies that no one goes to see anymore, that is no reason for them to take good art and turn it into what they did. But, I'm sure some want to see it. That was never going to be me.
All I can say is that Adam Sandler could never even approach the charisma and moxy that Burt Reynolds had back in the 70s nor would Chris Rock have that vibe that the original caretaker had back in the original. You cannot duplicate that, nor all the great characters in the original. It is foolish to even try, unless your only motivation is to make money off the name and not care about the actual product.

 

Second, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, a long overlooked classic was remade, Hollywood style. They added the name actor draws,  Denzel Washington and John Travolta (both of whom I like) and all the car crashes and techno toys they could muster. Again, I didn't see the remake either. Nor would I. There is no way they can replace the flavor and vibe of 1970's New York City. And without that, the movie could never be what it was back then. It was never about crashes and toys, or some insane convuluted plot line. It was a simple heist movie and how the city and police deal with it. There was no need to remake it or change that. I think the movie bombed and if it did..good. It should. Shame on them. 
I included both trailers to make a point. Denzil Washington and John Travolta are both very fine actors. But, they aren't Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw. If you change the vibe of the type of people who play the roles, you change the movie. Not for the better. Simply, another attempt by studio execs at a cash grab. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/18/its-a-wonderful-life-sequel_n_4297659.html?utm_hp_ref=entertainment

Now, comes word that they are to remake Its A Wonderful Life. Fucking blasphemy is what that is. But, to me, it doesn't really matter or bother me anymore.
Why?
Because I don't even watch them or go to see them, and I pretend they don't exist. So, I really don't care. If people have such weak minds that they want to watch a studio exec baked up idea like a remake of Hawaii Five O or a sequel to It's A Wonderful Life, more power to them.
I just ignore them. I don't need them. I don't want them and I don't care either way. They don't actually exist. Not to me. There is only one It's A Wonderful Life. Or Wizard Of Oz. Or whatever classic that had its time and day. That is all I wanted and I don't care what they do, they can't touch that. 
If others do, they can go see them. Enjoy them if they are to do that. But I wont be there, and I don't care that they are taking something great and milking that cow simply to get more milk and milk it dry, when there is really no milk left. 
If I want to enjoy that movie, I will just watch the original again. Watching a money driven copycat remake has no interest to me whatsoever. 
Nor does it really exist. I pretend it doesn't. 
Therefore, what doesn't exist, doesn't bother me. 

If you had to kill your neighbors or family members would you do it? Could You?

Note: If you have not watched The Walking Dead episode from last night or are behind, do not read this blog. There are major spoilers included.

I wrote the above spoiler alert for a reason. I like to think that I am considerate of others in spite of my reputation for being brash and very direct.
Again, don't read past this sentence if you don't want to know what happened in the Sunday's episode.
In the previous weeks episode, the final scene was a chilling one. Two of the people living in the compound were showing signs of being very sick. They were just like the ones who had previously shown that and then became walking zombies without being bitten, which was previously thought to be the only way to get exposed. These two had obviously contracted the virus that was killing the inhabitants and having them turn into zombies without being bitten and they were quarantined. But that wasn't enough for one resident.
While others were away or sleeping, the two sick and obviously dying residents were dragged into the yard and burned to death. That was chilling.
In this weeks episode, we find out who killed and burned them. It was Carol.
Carol, the caring one. 

Carol has now come full circle, her daughter Sophia having to be put down by Rick at the end of season 1 when she came out of the barn and it was obvious she was one of the walkers.That changed Carol and we have seen a gradual change over time. She also was present when Lori (Ricks wife) had to be killed to save the baby. Carol and Carl (Lori's son) did that deed and since then they have had a sort of bond. Both have also stepped up their tolerance for violence and gotten a reality check. They know they have to do these types of things to survive and for the good of the tribe.
Carol has also been teaching the new kids how to fight, kill, defend themselves and how to end a life before the person turns. She has not informed the parents of those kids that she is teaching them that. Mostly, she knows that would not meet with approval.
In the previous episode Carol had to take a similar action in front of the kids of a member who was bitten when the cell block was compromised with walkers. She offered for his daughters to do it themselves, and one tried, but they could not do it. It is certainly not an easy thing and not one all of us could do, even knowing that it is the right thing to do.
But the burning was another level and Carol knew it. She didn't tell anyone that she burned the two members, but she didn't deny it when Rick figured it out.
If you were Carol, what would you do? If you were one of those two victims, what would you want her or others to do?
I think you have to do what is right for the tribe. In that way, Carol did the right thing. They were going to die and turn anyway, and the right thing to do was to put them down before they possibly caused others to get sick, die and turn into zombies. That is not much consolation for Tyreese when his woman is the one getting burned, and his sister Sasha now looks like she is next to meet that fate.
I am not one for suicide under any circumstances. I make one exception though. If I know for certain my life is going to end very shortly, and my staying alive means others I love and care for might die, then I would take my own life. I think it is the considerate thing to do. If you were selfish, then you wouldn't care and would try and live as long as you could.
If I couldn't take my own life--for whatever reason--then I would want them to do that for me. I am sure they are going to explore that topic in the coming episodes as others find out what Carol did. They did in episode one when Rick encountered a woman in the woods who should have done that for her spouse but couldn't. They have also touched on this a few times, most notably when Hershel kept the barn full of walkers which included his wife that Sophia came out of and when the Governor kept his daughter locked up in the basement for a while, both in the hope that they could figure out how to cure them. They didn't view them as zombies, but still viewed them as human. It is something most of us will never have to deal with, but there are parallels to real life that are less dramatic and it makes you think about what you would do. Or could do.
I will also say this: Last night was the first time it wasn't a great episode. It is just about survival now. While that may be necessary and somewhat interesting, it isn't the least bit entertaining anymore. The show seems to have run its course. Can it turn back into the gripping drama most of us all love? Maybe. I hope it does. But as for now, I think its best days are behind it. 
I suppose we will see what happens when the Governor gets back in the picture and the conflicts arise again. 

Package Deal: Uggh. It sucks.

Sometimes in life, you just shake your head.

I decided to watch Package Deal, the new Canadian sitcom, because I wanted to give it a try.
I read an article this morning on it and figured it was worth considering. The article mentioned that it had problems and was pulled twice before resurfacing. That would lead one to believe that they fixed whatever problems they had. One would be incorrect to think that.
Twenty minutes out of my life was not going to kill me.
I can only say one thing. Uggh. It sucks.

This blog will be short.

The premise was okay enough to start with. A guy, a lawyer, starts dating a woman and then he lets her know that he comes with two ignorant, overbearing brothers who make it their life's mission to interfere with their little brothers life. There is some room there for good comedy, if written and presented right. It wasn't. 

In the pilot, one brother was played by Harland Williams. He is one of the funniest stand up and improv guys out there. If not the best. In this he was lost and wasted. Or better said, he was miscast. His act would not play within the confines of this character and it showed. I would conclude that he is just not suitable for sitcom type of stuff. It was painful to watch him bomb and know how talented he actually is. Reminds me of Don Rickles in the 70s and all the stuff they tried to force feed him into. Big names can't always fit into or save really bad material that also isn't their thing.

As a guest star in this pilot episode they had Eugene Levy. A Canadian comedy icon. Again, it was painful to watch him deliver lame, predictable material. It takes a lot to make Eugene Levy seem not funny. They actually pulled that off here.

What a waste. Those two mega-talents forced to cough up that crap.  You could even see it on their faces as they were doing it.

The writing was awful. The actors were awful. That is mostly because of the writing. There wasn't much they could do with the predictable lines that only a laugh track would find funny.

The two lead actors are barely interesting and no names who likely will remain that way. They had one character that looks like a secondary character which was so absurd I wonder how they even came up with it. If you wrote this crap, seriously, get a job at Mickey D's serving fries and consider yourself lucky that you did.

The bottom line: It just wasn't funny.
People say Canadians can compete in any entertainment venue these days. I agree with that. But this shows that there are times when we really get it wrong and look like a bunch of amateurs. Since this was a Rogers Cable production, I put it all on them. I think they probably did it to save some money. They place this crap in the place of an American show that they would have to pay top dollar for...and it shows.
Don't ever watch this unless you have a gun to your head. Even if you do, tell them you would rather they shoot you and save you from the misery that would come next.

Walter White and my father. I've seen this movie before.

Breaking Bad concluded its amazing five year run last night. Most of you know that. I have been on board since Year 1 and have been captivated all along the way. I posted a blog on some of my random thoughts on Saturday. Here is a link if you wish to read that. 

http://markdeutsch39.blogspot.ca/2013/09/some-random-thoughts-on-breaking-bad.html 

Here, I will be more specific. One topic, which of course relates to the main plot point last night. 

Last night, what everyone was finally waiting to hear was addressed. Walter White had to finally admit it. He didn't do all those things just for his family, as he had steadfastly stuck to the whole time. The viewers wanted to hear him say that, so Gilligan gave in and gave them that.
But, in my view, the truth is not that simple. He started doing it because he was desperate and thought the world had screwed him over and passed him by. Then he realized that it was his ticket out of the mess he had created for himself. Only then did he start doing it for himself because he got caught up in the power it gave him. So truly, he broke Bad and was never able to break back the other way.
The moral of the whole show......once you Break Bad you can never truly go back. If you are in, you are in for the long haul, which is likely a very short time span. Walt crashed and burned, because all of these types do.
As poetic as they made it seem (and they did it masterfully as always), in reality he died around a bunch of dead Nazi psychos and with a bullet hole in his stomach, on the floor, in a meth cook lab--not surrounded by loved ones, who had shunned and abandoned him by that stage.
A sad ending to a sad tale of good gone bad. But a fitting one. Walt was never a hero. He was simply a guy who became a criminal and got what he deserved for that.

I have first hand knowledge of this sort of thing. My father and Walter White are very much the same person.

A short bit of history. My dad "knew people." Why is that? Well, he always knew people from the neighborhood, but was never really involved. Then, when I was about 7 or 8, he got involved with a bunch of guys in a business who he claimed set him up to take a fall on some kind of scam, a fraud on the government. It was some kind of construction firm and there were unpaid (and/or evaded) taxes or corrupt payments, or something like that, involved. When the dust settled, my father went to jail for 2 years and the others got off. That is how I remember it and how my family told it to me. How much of that is true? Probably some of it, but not all of it. In reality, my father was probably the mastermind, and involved on some higher level, and got what he deserved. Will I ever know the truth about that? Nope. My father died 3 years ago, and even if he was alive now I wouldn't get a straight answer or the whole truth, or maybe even much of the truth. My dad like to make up stories and lie. He was actually very good at it. So, I will never know the whole truth about anything he did, nor do I care. It is enough to know that whatever he told me, to this day, I don't take it on face value. I assume there is some embellishment, fudging or just outright lies involved. 

In many ways, I am Flynn. The father I thought I knew was not the father I learned to accept as what he is as I matured and figured it all out. That is a slap in the face you never forget.

Here are a few very similar things about my father and Walter White.

Walter White was very smart. So was my father. Just smart enough to get himself in so deep that he could never get out from under the mess he created for himself. Did he ever really want out if he could? I doubt it. Same goes for Walt. They like it. They are addicts. They are addicted to whatever that life gives them and even though they are smart enough to get out, they are dumb enough, like an addict, to stay in and self destruct when they don't need to.

People often say its a shame that some people don't use their great talents for good, but instead choose the wrong course. It is sad, but many do it. After you grow up, you just learn to accept that fact. I think, if they were to do a Breaking Bad, 20 years later, you would see Flynn come to that conclusion. I did.

I never viewed it as a reflection on me. My father did what he did, and I was his son. Those don't connect and make me part of any of it. He did his things, they were his things. Never bothered me. I had a friend ask me once if it did, and I told him it didn't. That was very hard for most to figure out and understand, but that was always me. I am my own person, and what family members do is not my problem. 

After that initial brush with the law, my father had his chance to go straight. He didn't take it. I think he learned to be a better criminal in jail. He said that was what they said in there. People say that and I believe it. He did try a few regular jobs after that, but now that he had better contacts and knew his way around the game, he decided to go back in. All in. The rest of his life was a series of scams, jail time, and more of the same. He just could never stop. It's a sickness. For Walter White, it was a sickness. Worse than the cancer. You can beat cancer. Walter White almost beat the cancer. He was never going to beat the Heisenberg facade he created and then tried to make his core believe.

Walter White went all in. He figured that just making the meth was wasting his talents. Why not own the business and make all the money? So he did. My father did the same. And so, he got in way deeper. The next time, he did more jail time, and for a while there was no getting away from it. He was tainted now, and he was for the rest of his life.

My father claimed he did it all for us. He even believed that on some level for the longest time. He didn't. He did it because, underneath the facade, he was very selfish. He did it to boost his ego. He liked the power, just like Walt did.

Walter White and my father know how to talk the talk. Convince people to do what they want them to and convince them that it is their idea and a good thing for them. They are master salesmen at framing the narrative and distorting the reality in their favor. I saw this, day in, day out. Jesse even brought that up in the desert when he, Walt and Saul were there and Walt was trying to convince Jesse (play him) to leave town because he cared about him like he was his son and it was the best thing for him. I saw and heard that sort of thing endlessly with my father.

I spent my whole life trying not to be Walter White, or my father. So far, despite a few bumps on the road, I have succeeded. I know how tough that is. That temptation is always there and very strong, especially when you are good at it, which I could be. I guess observation tells me that it always ends up like Walter White did last night and my father did for 40 years until he died a broken man.

My father once said what Walt did. That he did it all for us. I was ready for that when he did. I told him that if he was doing it for us to just stop doing it. We wanted him, not the things he gave us by doing what he did. That startled him. We never talked about that and it was never brought up again, but I still remember sitting at the kitchen table when I said that.

Flynn told Walt that in the second last episode. The reality for the types like Walt and my father is that they want to believe that they truly do it for us, and not for themselves, because it makes them feel better about themselves and what they are doing. They can't admit how flawed they are. And they never will. 

Here is one difference though between Walter White and my father. My father did realize it, regret it, and admit it. Walter White never really did. Right to the end, he wanted to die believing he took care of his families future, saved Jesse, avenged Hank's death and righted every wrong he created along the way to boost his fragile ego. 

He didn't. You can't. You can admit it, but you can't correct it.  

I have seen that movie before and I know how it ends. The real life movie, where the hero isn't a hero, and they don't win the gun fight with life. They lose. Just as Walt did. Just as my father did.

Some Random Thoughts on Breaking Bad

As Breaking Bad winds down this week, likely with a big finish, I thought I would share some random thoughts I have had over the years about what is going on and what the show has meant.

1. Bryan Cranston is so deceptively good that many don't realize what a great actor he is. Very few people can play the character the way he does. He makes bad seem sort of good. We actually are rooting and feel sorry for a drug dealer who makes crystal meth and lies to his family on a daily basis.

2. I haven't read any of it, but I have heard about those who hate Skylar because she didn't support Walt and all the horrible things he did. I have only one question for those people: If your husband or wife was selling crystal meth and then putting your family in grave danger, what exactly would you do? Say, thanks honey, don't worry about almost getting us killed everyday.

3. A big part of the allure of the show is that we all wonder how much we would be like Walter White if we had the temptation to make the kind of money that we can't even dream of. Would we? Are we the kind of people that would do that sort of thing if the chance was presented to us?

4.One thing that always jumped out at me, with so many characters on this show, is how you really don't know your neighbors like you think you do. That nice man next door, the one who always waves at you, cuts his grass and does his part for the community, he could easily be a drug kingpin, drug dealer, meth cooker or any number of things. We saw that repeatedly in this show, just like they showed the ones who were clearly in that culture and were never hiding it, like Tuco.

5. I have never liked RJ Mitte at all. I think he is a horrible actor and it is a lousy character. They didn't get many things wrong on this show, but this was one of them. It is not about his disability. He just can't act.

6. The comedians on this show play drama really well. That is the sign of good writing and casting. 

7. Saul Goodman is one of the best original characters in a very long time and I actually look forward to the spinoff, which I rarely do. 

8. In many ways we accept the violence of Breaking Bad where we might not with other TV shows because it seems appropriate. The types of people Walt gets involved with are the type that have no problem with the violence. It is a way of life for them, a way of life most of us will never see up close. But when we do, in this context, it seems part of the story, not there to enhance it. 

9. I think the show has clearly shown, much as The Walking Dead does, that really great drama, with great writing, filming and acting is way more addicting than any cheap drug like meth. People who watch this show are much more addicted to it than almost anything else and can't wait for their next hit.

10. I can't remember a more anticipated TV finale since The Fugitive almost 50 years ago. Even though most TV is very predictable, this finale can go so many ways. And that is a very good thing. We don't want a happy ending, unless that is what it should be. In this case, there won't be any happy endings, just tying up of loose ends.

Owen Marshall sucked. But I like it anyway.

Owen Marshall was an early 1970's drama of a lawyer and the cases he takes on. Much like Perry Mason, Owen Marshall found a way to win most cases. It was basic TV drama in those days. We were years away from Hill Street Blues and Family and others that didn't always go for the happy or predictable ending. But basically, like all shows, Owen Marshall: Counsellor At Law told stories. 
One of my favorite shows of all time is Law And Order. Most of us who like that show know the opening off by heart.

In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups. The police who investigate crime and the District Attourney who prosecutes the offenders. These are their stories.

In the world of TV drama, there is no comparison between Owen Marshall and Law And Order. Law and Order was one of the best written, filmed and acted shows of all time with storylines and issues that gripped you every week. Owen Marshall wasn't any of those things. It was just an okay 70s TV show.
However,
Everybody has got a story. This is mine, and this is theirs. By theirs, I mean the people in the episode of Owen Marshall I just watched who have faded into the shadows, and those that shined brighter after this episode.
Owen Marshall sucked. But I like it anyway. I'm going to tell you why. So, first, my story. Then theirs.
The plot is predictable and somewhat boring.
The acting is bad, and when it isn't bad it is horrifically overacted by young actors looking to get noticed. In this episode (not the one I am using for this blog) James Brolin (pre Marcus Welby) plays an ex-boxer turned singer who gets in trouble. Oh, and he also has a horrible Louisiana accent and other traits which don't make any sense at all for the character he plays. So, he overacts the crap out of it.

The writing is terrible and the topics were weak and not explored in any detail. Not much to really recommend the show as time has passed. That is one of the reasons it is long forgotten and never mentioned with the great shows of that era. However, it did last for 4 years on TV, so it was popular enough. Popular enough in fact that I remember it well. Why?
Because it takes me back. Back to the early 70s, when I remember my parents watching an episode in their bedroom. It was one of the happy times when we were all in the room together before all the crazy shit in my life and our lives started to happen. I don't remember at all that specific episode or anybody that was on it, only that we all watched it together as a family.

Owen Marshall is a very 70s show. Back when you didn't have to wow them, and have great scripts, classic one liners and top shelf characters like you see these days. The minute you watch it, you are transported back to the 70s. Whether that is good or bad, take it for what it is.
Some 40 years later, Owen Marshall is back on my radar screen (You Tube screen actually) and it brings up all sorts of memories. Each time you watch one, you see all sorts of actors who went on to something very big, but were nobody when they were on the show. That still happens these days, but not as often.
I like to see young actors, who went on to much better things before they were anybody. And older actors at the end of their run, like Peggy Lee.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AntKUHdoR9E

Here is another I watched with Peggy Lee. Yes, that Peggy Lee. Fever..Peggy Lee. Not a great actress, but certainly she could sing.

In the Peggy Lee episode, her son was played by Mark Hamill. The same Mark Hamill that went on to star in Star Wars 5 years later.

Here are some of the players in this episode called Shadow Of A Name, both the famous and the ones that never were. Everyone of them has a story. Just like all of us.

Arthur Hill was the star of the show. He played Owen Marshall, and he was in most of the scenes. Unless you do your homework these days you would be hard pressed to find him linked to any role but this one. But, he was very prolific before Owen Marshall, and afterwards for a time, until he decided to retire from acting for personal reasons.
In 1963 he won the Tony Award for his portrayal of George in the original Broadway production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? He also had many film and TV roles, including The Andromeda Strain (1971) and as the grandfather on Little House On The Prairie in 1976.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/27/obituaries/27hill.html?_r=1& 

Arthur Edward Spence Hill was born in Melfort, Saskatchewan, on the Canadian prairie. His boyhood ambition was to be a lawyer like his father, who knew each of the town’s 2,000 residents and was eager to help them with their problems. Writers have noted that in many ways Arthur Hill’s “Owen Marshall” character resembled the actor’s father.

Being that his father was the type of lawyer he played on Owen Marshall, it isn't any surprise that a fine actor like Arthur Hill played the role very well and his legacy is that role. Before Owen Marshall, Hill was a very successful Broadway and stage actor. He retired from acting to look after his very sick wife, who died slowly from Alzheimer's. The same fate that took his own life a few years later. 

"I can't hold it. She's breaking up. She's breaking up."

"Gentleman, we can rebuild him. We have the technology."

Lee Majors. Between The Big Valley (his first big role) and The Six Million Dollar Man (the role he is most known for), he was on this show. He didn't get to do much, but he was not a bit player. Majors played an ex-college and pro football player who had become a lawyer. Just like Arthur Hill, this somewhat resembled Lee Majors real life. 
Majors earned a scholarship to Indiana University to play football. After he transferred to Eastern Kentucky he played in one game the following year, but suffered a severe back injury that ended his college football career. Following his injury, he turned his attention to acting. After college, he received an offer to try out for the St. Louis Cardinals football team. Instead, he moved to Los Angeles and turned to acting. His first big role was on The Big Valley. Also on that show was a very young Linda Evans, who would go on to make her name on Dynasty. Among the more than 400 actors that Majors beat out for that role on The Big Valley was Burt Reynolds, another former football player turned actor. Owen Marshall came along shortly after The Big Valley, and of course Majors caught his big break when he was cast as Steve Austin in The Six Million Dollar Man.

And on this episode, briefly at the start, he interacts with his future wife,  Farrah Fawcett,  who had a very small role. They didn't meet on this show, they began dating 3 years earlier in 1968, but neither were the megastars they became about 5 years later. 

Farrah went on to be known for two things. A famous poster, and a TV show about 3 young women who work as private detectives. 

Nobody knew back in 1971 that she would become anything more than she was at that time; a very famous TV and magazine model.

Barry Sullivan played the hot shot lawyer hired to get one of the two young college kids off because of a fire they set while they were drunk that resulted in a death. As it turns out, Marshall is a family friend of one of the boys and he is hired to represent one while Sullivan's character (Grant Chase) represents the other. They have different motives, objectives and strategies on how to try the case and they clash, which forms the basis of the episode. Sullivan usually played the heavy or the not so nice guy with power. It was his niche.
Barry Sullivan was born Patrick Barry Sullivan on August 29, 1912 in New York City. He was the seventh son of a seventh son, a very rare oddity.
Sullivan was never a big time actor, but if you watch any of the popular TV shows from the 60s or 70s you will find that Sullivan guest starred on it. I have recently seen him on Barnaby Jones, Ironside, Hawaii Five-O, Mannix,  McMillan and Wife, The Streets of San Francisco, many times more than once, and of course in this episode. You would recognize him if you saw him, but likely not know his name. Like Majors, he was a football player until he fell into acting and earned a very good living doing it. Unlike Majors, he was never a leading man. He did have one major leading role in the 1947 movie The Gangster. 

Although he was a working broadway actor for many years before he got into television, he was mostly in flops and once he began to get steady work on TV he gave up broadway stage acting. He had found a very successful, if not famous way to make a very good living as an actor. He was always in demand (much like his character in this episode) when he wanted to work. 
Sullivan's youngest daughter, Jenny, was an actress and successful playwright. In addition to that, she married very successful singer/songwriter Jimmy Messina.

Sullivan also made a guest appearance on The Bionic Woman, the spinoff counterpart to The Six Million Dollar Man, which he never guest starred on. He also made guest spots on The Virginian and Bonanza, two of the other big Westerns' of the 1960s, but never on The Big Valley, which starred Lee Majors.

Joan Darling was a series regular who was never asked to do much either, but did have her moments. She played Marshall's secretary. In this episode, she had a much bigger part than normal, convincing Majors character to investigate and join the case when he didn't want to, which led to the evidence that helped Marshall's client avoid a possible death penalty.
But it was as a director that Darling made her mark. She was a very successful TV director, and her biggest claim to fame was directing the "Chuckles Bites the Dust" episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and received a 1976 Emmy nomination for that work. 
 

But it was as a film director that she will be most remembered. She was one of the first female film directors when that simply did not happen. She broke into that medium in 1976 with the Susan Dey starring film, First Love.

Jean Allison played the mother of Jerry Collier (played by Tim Matheson), the client of Owen Marshall who did do the crime, but only by accident. 
Allison was just a working actress, who never really worked much or gained any notice. Her first husband, Jerry Boyd,
wrote Million Dollar Baby.

In 1960 Allison met Phil Toorvald, a Stanford University senior studying electrical engineering. Allison decided that acting would take a backseat to her greater love, raising a family.  She was happy being a mother for many years and never returned to acting. 
Her first feature part had been in the 1958 film Edge of Fury On that set she met cameraman Jack Couffer. Fifty years later, after each had survived the loss of long time spouses they now share their lives together in retirement. 
Ed Begley Jr. went on to do some great things as an actor, and is now a devout environmentalist. In this episode, he played the basketball player in the first scene who is killed accidentally in the fire. He was only 22 at the time of this episode, one of his first roles. And not much of a role at that.
It wasn't until 1982 that he hit it big with St. Elsewhere. But he almost never made it to that show ten years later. In 1972, just a year after his character on Owen Marshall died in the fire, Begley was attacked in real life by a  gang of teenagers and nearly fatally knifed.

Two of his then little known co-stars on St. Elsewhere also went on to hit it big. Mark Harmon, also an ex football player went on to the mega hit NCIS, while Denzel Washington ended up doing okay in films. 

Tim Matheson played the Marshall's client. He had a significant role in this episode and clearly stood out as one of the better actors. His career really didn't take off until his starring role in Animal House (1978). He has been a steady working actor since then and has had many starring, if not spectacular roles.
He went on to act in over 100 film and television projects. Matheson had a recurring role as Vice President John Hoynes on The West Wing, a show that also starred Mark Harmon and also Ed Begley Jr., whom his character had killed 30 years previous in this episode.

John Larch played George Patterson, the District Attorney who wanted revenge for losing so many cases to better lawyers. Much like Barry Sullivan (who was his rival in this episode) Larch was a long time TV character actor, mostly in Westerns. He was in just about every western that TV made-except The Big Valley. Unlike Sullivan, he didn't get the notice that others did although he was a series guest star regular. He did have significant guest starring roles of a few episodes each for both Dallas and Dynasty, two of the biggest prime time soaps of their day.
Dennis Rucker as Harold, the witness at the party that gives the clue that saves Marshall's client from a possible death sentence. He was so obscure as an actor that I could not find out much about him. One of those who probably had an interesting life story that will never be told.
Bryan Montgomery played Roger Carlyle, the son of a wealthy importer who had the hot shot attorney (Sullivan) hell bent on getting him off even though he thought he was guilty, when in fact he wasn't. 
Montgomery's acting career never amounted to much, even as a bit player on TV shows. In Los Angeles from the early 1970s he found work as an actor and model. But his popularity never amounted to enough to make a living at it.
Later he became a restaurateur and opened both Beecher's Cafe in Malibu and Razzle Dazzle in Santa Monica, dying at age 62 in 2008.
Some made it big after this episode. Some didn't. Some took many years to hit it big. Some never did. Others were steady actors who made a good living, while others gave up acting for other pursuits. One was to be a wife and mother, while another became a famous director. 
Still another pair became man and wife and big time 70s icons on TV shows that endure to this day. 
Everybody has got a story. Sometimes you never hear that story. Today, you heard some of them. 
Part of my story is tied up in their stories, and the memories that come along with them. I watched many of the shows that were mentioned in this blog, and each one of those has a story and memory attached. But those are stories for another blog. 
As for me, I will keep watching shows like Owen Marshall, even though I know they aren't very good. It is what you don't see on the screen that makes it worth watching them again. And again. And again. Its the stories they don't tell.

Annoying Ads: Please Stop It. Really.

The other day I was driving down the road and a kid walked into the crosswalk and almost got killed. Why did that happen? Because he didn't have the right of way and he didn't notice or care. That's why. 

Why is that? Because he had his head buried in his Iphone and was texting, that's why. Texting whomever he was texting was apparently much more important than looking up and protecting his own life. Hold that thought. I will get to it at the end.

Colin Mochrie is one of the wittiest, sharp and funny comics out there. When it comes to thinking on your feet he is as good as it gets. He is a master at improv and has been on TV many times doing exactly that. I would never knock his talent or his character. However, in this case, I have to wonder what made him put his reputation up for grabs for an ad so annoying that it can only hurt his career. It certainly has soured me on him to a great extent. Of course, I know why he did it...they paid him gobs of money to do it. Not rocket science there.

For the last couple of months I have taken to watching the nightly news program, The National, online late at night. I do this online because we don't have cable anymore. I have found that in the couple of years since we cancelled cable, about the only thing I missed was keeping up with the events and stories of the world, and mostly with the Canadian angle on them. For my money, nobody does it better than the CBC.
Now, I could sit at the computer and watch, but I don't. I like to sit back on the couch and watch it like we used to on TV. Except for one thing. I don't have a remote and can't change the channel or lower the volume if I so choose without getting up.
Even though the CBC is publicly funded, I do understand that they have to do something to at least pay some percentage of their bills. Great investigating and reporting doesn't come cheap. Because of that, I am willing to accept the commercials and at least not skip over them. However, what I am not willing to do is be offended by a lack of common sense and decency, and generally a lack of respect that the commercial makers and programmers are showing.
When I am watching late at night, others in the house are sleeping. I set the volume to a reasonable level based on the actual show I am watching. When the commercials come on, I would not expect them to be ridiculously loud to the point that I have to get off the couch and alter the volume. That is just rude. No, it is annoying. Offensively insulting actually. 

Ads have always been a part of life in the media. Unless you have strict pay tv, and even then, you are going to have to deal with commercials to get content. And that's okay. At times, commercials can and have been somewhat entertaining. I remember back in the days of "Where's The Beef?" and countless others that we would watch and enjoy the commercials. Some were boring and you wished they weren't there, but at least they were tolerable.
You know what they weren't? They weren't excessively loud and annoying. When did this become a trend?

Sure, Gordon Ramsey is interesting. Loud? Yes. But he is also interesting, for at least the first few times. But would I want to associate him with my product? Certainly not. He is abrasive, offensive, a bully, a loudmouth and generally comes off very negative.
This is the reverse strategy that was used very poorly with one of the great commercials of the last few years. The Geico Caveman commercials, which most of us loved. It was a great commercial.

Then some bonehead network executive thought it was a good idea to make it into a sitcom. That worked out really well. 

So, I thought about it. Why would advertisers go out of their way to piss off the viewers. Then I realized, they are aiming at the generation that is so consumed with their blackberries, texting, twittering and the like that they aren't really paying attention. So, they jack up the volume to shock them into paying attention. Think of it as advertising for the ADD generation. In the old days, we didn't have any options for our attention when the commercials came. Now, this generation does.
And that makes sense on some level, except that those are not the people who would go out of their way to watch The National on the internet. So, in this case, all they are doing is annoying potential customers not gaining them. People like me. In essence, instead of gaining customers, they are not only not doing that, but they are losing customers. The worst thing you can do is leave the impression that your company is annoying and not caring of the customers best interests. If I can't trust you to at least present your commercial to me in an adult and responsible way, why would I expect your company to deal with me in that way when I have to deal with your customer service? The answer is simple. I wouldn't. 

 

 (I could only find the french version of the Fido ad, which isn't that loud. The English version is obscenely loud.)

Rogers isn't the only one to do that. Hardly. Even just on the National, Fido and Cisco both run very annoying, very loud commercials. It seems to be a trend cooked up by some Gen X or Gen Y wannabe Steve Jobs who just doesn't get it.
Now, I am sure the vast majority of advertisers don't care about my opinion. But...they should. I have money. I make spending decisions. I am also sure that the CBC is just happy to have a steady, big money advertiser like Rogers, or Cisco, or Fido. And that's great. But the bottom line is that is not enough. They need public funds to carry on. And to do that, they need people like me who are willing to support those who give them the public funds derived from my taxes. If they piss me off, then why would I want to keep supporting them? I wouldn't.  
It's so easy, a Caveman could do it. Maybe they should hire a Caveman at the ad exec companies and/or the networks. Apparently, it isn't that easy to see the obvious when it comes to the new strategy of target advertising. 
So, I will say it, as LOUD AS YOU NEED ME TO!
YOU'RE ANNOYING ADS. PLEASE STOP IT. REALLY. 
I hope that got your attention. Something better. Maybe I should text it instead of writing it intelligently? 
Never mind. I will retreat to my cave. For 15 minutes anyway.

The Fine Line

In the above clip, from 1987, Don Cherry, in a famous moment from his broadcasting career gave us insight into why the coach had to do what he did. He knows that because he was a player and coach since he could walk. And he did that in a normal suit and a normal haircut. He didn't need to look like a circus show clown to do get attention. 
That was then, this is now.

Just like everyone else, I enjoy Coach's Corner and Don Cherry's rants. He has cred. Tons of credibility. He played the game for 20 years, coached for another 10 or 15 years and was very successful. He has a tell-it-like-it-is attitude and he knows what he is talking about. People might not agree with everything he says, but they listen because they know he is not sugarcoating or bullshitting them. And he does have an insight that most of us never will.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ce1sK_Q7U4 

"Even when he was coaching, he thought of himself as a player. He lived the way they lived."

-Rose Cherry from the TV movie "The Wrath of Grapes."

There is a very fine line between promotion and undermining your very insightful message by becoming a circus sideshow freak.

Don Cherry from last nights game.

Don Cherry has always walked that line. I get it. Draw them in with the crazy suits, ties, hair and outrageous behavior. It is marketing 101. But at some point it goes too far. Has Don Cherry gone too far? Well, probably not, because he is still there. But I don't think he needs to do all he is still doing. I would like to see him go back to talking hockey and the things he knows. And you get the sense that he knows it too. But, it is possible that he is just too old to care at this point, so he just keeps playing along. 
Is he still relevant? I think so. He still says things that many don't understand about the game, and what it is like to be a player that we don't see on the ice or in the actual playing of the game. But I suspect that many are not even listening to his message anymore. That is too bad, because he has a pretty interesting message. He is undermining his own expertise in that way.
There is no doubt that Cherry gives us a behind the scenes, behind the closed door of the locker room look of what coaches are thinking and telling players. That has always been why he was the natural choice for Coach's Corner. And why he has lasted 35 years at it.

"Hey, that's the way it goes. I call it the way it is."

The suits, the hair, the insults, the brash exterior and all the rest...that was just the draw. But now, it is the show. The sizzle is outshining the steak. Too bad. Well, too bad for those of us who are really hockey fans who liked what he had to say and not the circus show stuff he did to get those who were never really hockey fans to watch. 
How did this come about? Well, Don Cherry is one of the most genuine people you will ever meet. Those who have met him will tell you that. He just tells it like it is. No sugarcoat. Just real. If you watch the movie on his life, the second one, you can see how Cherry was a bit jealous that Ron McLean was stealing his thunder. That is the point where he started to dress different and do the outrageous stuff. But, as time has gone on, Cherry is still there and he doesn't need to prove himself. The sideshow is just a distraction.
So, to Don Cherry I say this: They are all watching now, and have been for a long time. Cut the promotion out now and go back to being what you were and are. You don't need to do that anymore. People are already watching. Now, lets stick with the message. You have crossed that fine line. Go back on the right side of it while you still can. 
You might have needed it to get where you are, but you don't anymore. The medium is the message. except that when the medium becomes more interesting than the message, the message starts to get lost and you become known more for your antics than your insight. 
Yes, Don Cherry is a character. That is part of his charm. Too bad he has become a caricature of himself. He does know his hockey and he is a great storyteller, except that he is a clown some of the time. He demeans his own cred in that way. He plays the media game now. He learned how to do that so he could get rich. And he has all the clout, enough clout that he doesn't need to be a sideshow anymore. 
One thing I would always say about Don Cherry. He is authentic. There is no one like him. This dog and pony act he does is not him. He is meat and potatoes. This act is fillet Mignon. As authentic as he is, he degrades that by detracting from his true self. The self that got him there in the first place. 

 "You gotta learn to trust your gut.My gut had been telling me to play it safe. Sometimes your gut is wrong."

-Don Cherry

Cherry's dog, Blue is one of the famous iconic things about him. And she is not some pretty boy dog. Just a meat and potatoes type of dog. The way Don Cherry always was. Probably still is. Too bad he dresses himself these days like some Shi Shi dog in booties and a sweater.  
Back in the days when he was a player, he was the type of clown that he would mock. He needs to remember that now that he has become the mocked. The character has become the caricatured. The fine line has been crossed.  
Listen to your gut now and remember what made you great and respected in the first place.