Tag: Classic TV

Dallas without J.R.?

Following the sad news last weekend of the death of Larry Hagman (23rd November 2012) following complications from throat cancer, it has been announced that the TV series he helped turn into a global phenomenon will continue without the character that he became known for. What’s that? I hear you cry. Dallas without J.R? Are they sure? Is that possible? Wouldn’t that be like Othello without Iago, Harry Potter without Voldemort, The Three Little Pigs without the Big Bad Wolf?

The original series of Dallas ran for 357 episodes from April 1978 to May 1991 and in all that time, the character of John Ross Ewing, Jr. was at the show’s heart, essentially giving it a life-force, a reason for being. He seemed to give motive and motion to everyone else on the show. It’ll come as no surprise therefore that he was the only character to appear in every single episode and a quick study of the list of these episodes reveals that pretty much every plot and subplot included J.R. in some way, shape or form. Either he was scheming against somebody or somebody was scheming against him. He quickly became so important to the show that without him, the producers realised there would be no show. Indeed, during the summer of 1980 when the world was gripped by “Who shot J.R.?” fever, Larry Hagman threatened to leave the show if the producers would not meet his demands for a substantial hike in salary and realising his worth, they relented and made him one of the highest paid stars on television.

Whether or not you were ever a fan of the show (and for me growing up it was essential prime-time viewing – at least until the scriptwriting became notoriously lame), you cannot deny the iconic status that J.R. Ewing attained. He was the epitome of Mr Nasty, the greediest of all tycoons and one of the greatest fictional villains of all time and yet Hagman – who in real life was said by all who knew him to be the complete opposite of his alter-ego – portrayed the scheming oil-baron with such conviction and charm that he was a man we all loved to hate. He was the reason we tuned in each week, millions of us sharing a fervent loathing for this Machiavellian Texan who, let’s face it, was borderline psychopathic. When he was shot, we rejoiced en masse but not one of us wanted him to expire. It’s a credit to the actor to be able to pull this off, to be so despised and yet to be so admired and adored at the same time.

I groaned (maybe you did too) when the new series came out earlier this year that introduced a new generation of Ewings to the world but curiosity urged me to check it out. Yes, the originality was missing and the younger actors seemed no different to the tidal wave of actors playing characters we’ve seen in numerous shows over the past decade or so but it was great to see those original cast members again and to reacquaint ourselves with their character’s lives after twenty years in the wilderness. But for me, the main man was the only reason to watch. J.R. was now an octogenarian and he was frail but he was still consorting with the devil and he was still great to watch. There were a few scenes that I suspected Hagman to be reading his lines from a cue card but even then, and overall his performance was still magnetic, his lines still delivered with the character’s trademark amoral charisma.

The truth is, Larry Hagman was the reason I endured the sensational, silly, convoluted ten episodes of Dallas 2012 and now that he has passed away taking J.R. Ewing, Jr. with him, I’ll probably not bother tuning in to the future goings-on at Southfork.

Larry Hagman will undoubtably be missed by many but he has cemented his place in the annals of TV history for ever by giving the world J.R. Ewing and I think I can say with the utmost confidence that there will never be another character quite like him.

 

 

The Persuaders! – Classic Action/Adventure TV

In my earlier article, The Invaders – Classic Sci-fi TV, I made the comment that its opening title sequence was unarguably the most atmospheric for any TV show ever made. The way it ominously leads you into the premise of the show and the protagonist’s situation is, to my mind, quite simply perfect. The eerie music, the heavy, monotonous tones of the narrator bringing you up to speed with how the nightmare began for architect David Vincent is a touch of genius and has never been bettered. However, there is another show with an opening title sequence that works in much the same way and, in my opinion, is just as evocative. I’m talking, of course, about The Persuaders! which, with its blend of glamour, action and humour, really was and still is, a thoroughly watchable romp.

Again, the opening titles, this time accompanied by John Barry’s superb theme tune (Did this man write some great music or what?), are pure class and do a great job of informing us what the show is about. Using a split-screen layout they reveal the backgrounds of the two main characters of the show played by Roger Moore and Tony Curtis. Side-by-side, a pair of folders, one red and one blue, labelled Danny Wilde and Brett Sinclair narrates their lives via photographs and old film of the two men from childhood through to their current status as international playboys. Live footage and torn newspaper clippings offer glimpses into their lifestyles and explain, in part, their various successes and then the sequence culminates in showing the two men enjoying a life of glitz and glamour in exotic locations surrounded by beautiful women, fast cars, diamonds and Champagne.

The premise of the show is straightforward and fairly typical of television at the time which for the best part of a decade had been churning out one action adventure series after another. Two men from very different backgrounds are brought together by a retired judge and persuaded to team up and solve cases which the courts cannot. Danny Wilde (Curtis) hails from the slums of New York City, a streetwise urchin made good. He escaped a tough neighbourhood and a probable life of crime by enlisting in the U.S Navy and later became a millionaire several times over via Wall Street and the oil business. Brett Sinclair (Moore) was born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth. An English aristocrat – the 15th Earl of Marnock to be precise – he attended Harrow and Oxford before serving as an officer in a Guards Brigade, then became a Grand Prix racer and race horse owner. The two characters could not have come from different backgrounds and much of the humour of the show plays on this fact as well as the general differences between British and American customs. The two actors’ playful banter and adolescent attempts at oneupmanship are what help make this show so great.

Laurence Naismith plays Judge Fulton, the man who brings this mismatched pair together. Despite being retired from the Bar, he is determined to continue his personal crusade for justice but needs someone to do his legwork for him. So, he arranges for the two men to meet on the French Riviera and coerces them into helping him. Having studied them and deeming them ideal for his purposes, he presents them with an offer they can’t refuse – to be of use to society and to do good for mankind rather than to waste away their lives in Martini hazes and all night parties. Naturally they elect to help him (particularly when they learn a beautiful woman is involved) and voila, a sparkling new crime fighting duo is born!

Each episode is an adventure in itself, sometimes set in a glamorous European locale but more often based out of Sinclair’s London home (just around the corner from St. James’s Park tube, if you’re interested). By today’s standards, the stories are rather simplistic but they always look terrific and are great fun to watch. The show also has certain signatures. There are always pretty women, there are always punch-ups and there is always humour even when the heroes are at gunpoint – fortunately both actors had wonderful comic timing. And then, there are the cars they drove – a handsome Aston Martin DBS for Sinclair and a gorgeous Ferrari Dino 246 GT for Wilde. A testament to the cachet the show was expected to carry was that both cars were given to the show’s producers courtesy of the manufacturers. I mean, come on, what’s not to like. This show had it all, it had to be a success. Right?

The series was released in the autumn of 1971 and was a big hit pretty much everywhere except the US, which was a vital market for the show’s producers. American audiences however, were not persuaded to switch over from Mission: Impossible, which aired on an opposing channel on Saturday nights and because of this, the ABC network pulled the plug even before all 24 episodes were shown. This resulted in the show not being commissioned for a second season.

Despite some speculation about the working relationship between Moore and Curtis, you cannot help but surmise that they had an absolute blast making this series. Both men appear to be in their element throughout and for me, their on-set chemistry was simply wonderful. Roger Moore was directly involved in the production of the series and already had a good relationship with Robert S. Baker and Lew Grade, having achieved great success in another ITC production, The Saint. Apparently, the three of them sealed the deal of this new series with a simple handshake and no contracts were signed. Curtis was actually Moore’s third choice for the role of Danny Wilde after Rock Hudson and Glenn Ford passed on the offer – luckily for us. At the time, The Persuaders! was the most expensive British TV show produced with each episode costing on average £100,000 (that’s almost £2,000,000 in today’s money) but with the locations and the general high quality of filming, it’s no surprise as few television shows offer quite the spectacle of The Persuaders!

Both stars were of similar age during filming although, where Curtis had enjoyed great success in Hollywood throughout the 1950s and ’60s his star was waning. His work would become less significant and he appeared often as a special guest star on series and movies made for TV but Moore’s stardom was about to go supernova with his donning of James Bond’s tuxedo in 1973. Moore has often said that prior to the filming of Live and Let Die, the Bond producers asked him to cut his hair and to lose some weight and seeing how trim he appears in his first Bond outing compared to his appearance in The Persuaders!, it’s obvious he succumbed to their request. He reportedly gained 20lbs over the course of filming The Persuaders! and he attributes this to the use of real Champagne during filming. And I for one, quite believe it.

So, if you’ve never caught this show, I recommend you give it a try. To witness these two great charismatic stars having an absolute hoot together is a wonderful thing to behold and one that we may never see again. Yes, I’m aware of the rumours of a movie remake, but in all honesty, will a Starsky and Hutch style remake ever live up to the twenty four classic hour-long episodes? I think not.

 

The Invaders – Classic Sci-Fi TV

“The Invaders. Alien beings from a dying planet. Their destination, the Earth. Their purpose, to make it their world. David Vincent has seen them. For him, it began one lost night on a lonely country road, looking for a shortcut that he never found…”

So begins, what is for me, unarguably the most atmospheric opening title sequence to any TV show ever made.

I remember watching this show when I was a kid during school holidays and its depiction of one man’s crusade against an alien invasion absolutely fascinated me.  Watching it again today thrills me no less, and possibly even more because now I can appreciate it for its subtext, the general processes that went in to filming it and of course, the nostalgia – perfectly tailored slim-fitting suits (fashionable once again) and gas-guzzling cars with chewing gum suspension and Batmobile-like rear fins over chrome bumpers so deep and wide you could stretch out and sleep on them. Having been made almost half a century ago, there are certain things about the show that are a little simple but overall it holds up very well for a contemporary audience, particularly if one bears in mind the era in which it was made.

Roy Thinnes plays architect David Vincent, who one night witnesses the landing of a flying saucer and subsequently learns of an alien plot to take over the world. However, when he attempts to convince the authorities of his discovery he is not believed and is considered to be a bit of a crackpot. Thereafter, every episode begins with Vincent turning up at random locations around the U.S. with the belief that the weird or unexplained occurrence he has learned of in the area is alien in nature and therefore worthy of investigation in the hope that he can get his hands on some proof to back up his wild claim. Sadly for him, obtaining that proof is not as easy as he would like because the aliens are a resourceful bunch and experts at disappearing without a trace. More often than not, Vincent winds up at the end of each episode back at square one, no closer to being able to show the world the truth. Although, giving the man credit, he usually manages to scupper whatever plans the aliens were up to.

The reasons this show worked so well were numerous, not least because of the central concept of one man, a hero figure, fighting against a seemingly invisible force in order to save mankind. Many of the greatest stories ever told have that saviour figure at their core. Then there was the element of paranoia rooted deep within the American psyche at the time thanks to the “Red-Scare” a decade earlier and the lingering fear that communists were infiltrating every level of society with the intention of influencing and undermining the American way of life. Invasion of the Body Snatchers made in 1956 clearly reflected this obsession and was a definite precedent for The Invaders. But then, the same concern is still relevant today as we are all uncomfortably aware of the difficultly in trying to recognise a deadly enemy with a few pounds of Semtex strapped around their waist when they look, dress and talk just like the rest of us.

The Invaders was a finely put together show with excellent production values thanks to producer Quinn Martin who was at the time, already a big noise in television. Much of the filming was done on location which injected a measure of realism into the show too and the writing was gritty and generally dark in nature. There were no happy endings to this show; at best an episode would end with a mild sense of accomplishment and relief – yes, a single battle won but let’s not forget the main war continues.

Thinnes as Vincent was perfectly cast as the lonely hero and never failed to convince me of the nightmare world he inhabited. He was certainly a capable actor in the action scenes and although he made Vincent likeable, he portrayed him as a man carrying the burden of not being able to trust anyone, of harbouring utter hatred for the invader for destroying the life that he had had and essentially forcing him into a life on the road to continually pursue or be pursued. The show also had plenty of guest stars to keep things interesting and the acting was generally top-notch.

The wonderfully evocative theme tune composed by Dominic Frontiere (a regular of Quinn Martin productions) together with the opening titles that allows us to see aliens aboard a space ship heading towards Earth while a deep, leaden voice narrates the introduction are incredibly atmospheric and have been etched on my memory forever. Seriously, if you’re a sci-fi fan who enjoys shows like the X-Files and Dark Skies but you’ve never seen The Invaders, then I highly recommend you check it out. It only ran for two seasons and a mere 43 episodes were aired between January ’67 and March ’68 but it’s gritty, intelligent science fiction and well worth viewing.