Posted on 02/03/2023 2:33:03 PM PST by nickcarraway
Barbara Hale aka Della Street from the Perry Mason TV show.
Grew up with Della!
Mom (and I) enjoyed Perry.
Stopped watching entertainment TV about 3 years ago. Went back to books.
I could never understand what was was being said on the radio as it switched automatically between stations to delivery a coded message.
Watch this one. Magnum and Rockford in the same show. Side-splitting.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0688097/
White on White and Nearly Perfect
Handsome, charmed PI Lance White (Tom Selleck) may speak lines that sound like they’re from a 1940s B movie, but everyone is so attracted to him they hang on his every word. That is, everyone except Jim.
To my surprise, I remember Tenspeed and Brownshoe. It was a mixed-race buddy comedy/drama about two private detectives, played by Ben Vereen, who was called “Tenspeed” because he was “so shifty,” and Jeff Goldblum, who was called “Brown shoe” because he was such a stereotypical square, that completely failed to be “I Spy.” Imagine that. A show starring Ben Vereen and Jeff Goldblum, scripted by Stephen J. Cannell and with music by Mike Post, that flopped so badly it’s barely remembered now.
I remember that show it wasn’t something I cared for that much and I really didn’t watch it. I thought it was kind of goofy and ridiculous, but there are a lot of goofy and ridiculous shows on television.
Is that Richie Brockelman, Private Eye, but grown up?
Now I do remember that television show and I kinda liked it. It was interesting. It was kind of groundbreaking away also. Back in the early 1970s there was a show on NBC that ran about one season I think it was on the mystery movie series that had Columbo and some others. It was called Tenafly and star James McEachin. He was a black actor who has done a lot of good shows and it was a great little show. He was a private detective at work for a big company, and I thought it was very well done I’d like to see it again but it’s hard to find it. It’s not even on YouTube.
Don’t push this, man! I’m still reeling from the cancellation of Combat!.
Dennis Dugan played Ritchie Brockelman.
IMO, the Lance White (Tom Selleck) character was not the Ritchie Brockelman character at all. Lance White was the typical high school hero jock who always got the good-looking women, married the boss’ daughter and never had to work for the rest of his life.
And stupid as a tree stump.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Dugan
https://thrillingdetective.com/2020/11/17/richie-brockelman/
Apparently it is on the free Pluto TV streaming service..
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080289/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
that was a fun show....we loved it....
“I love it when a plan comes together!” The A Team.
One of Cannell’s last movie roles. Fairly decent movie.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Spiders
A team of young Winter Olympic hopefuls must slalom to safety when a hoard of giant mutated spiders spin their way out of a top secret laboratory.
James McEachin has a very interesting Bio.
James McEachin was born on May 20, 1930 in Rennert, North Carolina. At the age of 18 he joined the US Armed Forces and served in the Korean War earning many medals of valor to include the Purple Heart and Silver Star.* After leaving the military he spent time as a policeman and then fireman before moving to California and becoming a record producer. After a short stint in the music industry McEachin went into acting and spent many years in film and television. Not yet content he took time away from acting to become an award-winning author and maker of audio books. In 2005 McEachin was appointed as a US Army Reserve Ambassador and spends his free time speaking to soldiers, veterans and America. In late 2006 he produced the film-short Old Glory, a film short for the soldier, veteran and patriot in us all. In 2008 McEachin opened his one-man play, Above the Call; Beyond the Duty at the John F. Kennedy Center, Washington, DC and his since played Casa Manana, Ft. Worth, TX, Brentwood Theater, Los Angeles, CA, and Merle Reskin Theatre, Chicago, IL.
McEachin is married with three grown children and resides in So Cal.
* In 2005, CA Congressman David Dreier awarded him medals of valor earned (but never issued by the government) to include the Purple Heart and Silver Star, some fifty-four years after he served in the Korean War. . . McEachin was completely unaware of the Silver Star until “Team Dreier” presented the findings.
David Huddleston and James McEachin both stared first in a 11 minute short film, Reville. IMBD lists Old Glory as a 23 minute film, but I could not find anything other then a two minute clip from it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyZ9b4My6NU&t=5s
“Old Glory” which won the 2007 GI Film Festival Award for Best Short Film in Washington, DC at the Ronald Reagan International Building. Old Glory won against a film short whose budget was $5.5 million dollars and many times that of Old Glory’s budget.
In 2004, twin brothers Adam Montierth & Donovan Montierth along with writing partner, Jason Walters, wrote, produced and directed a little 35mm film that changed their lives. That film, which started out as a tribute to their grandfather, was called Reveille and starred film and American Forces Veteran’s David Huddleston and James McEachin. Reveille soon was screened at over 50 film festivals, winning over 20 awards and was shown on The Pentagon Channel and the American Forces Network. In 2007, it was viewed by the Armed Forces in Balad, Iraq, became a viral sensation by being viewed to over 5 million people on Google Video (before there was YouTube) and won the twins an Emmy Award.
Have you rewatched it? I remember enjoying it, but I find it unwatchable now - and the level of particularly stupid political sniping is just dretch.
#45 There is a similar episode in “Maverick” where James Garner protects a guy from the bad guys. That guy gets the job as sheriff and is very popular with the towns people and marries the rich ranchers daughter in the end and Maverick rides out of town and no one notices him leave....
I think this was the inspiration for Lance White.
I have all the DVD’s of Rockford. One has a 20 minute interview with Steven Cannell where he discusses how he fleshed out the Rockford character.
In just about every episode, Rockford talks about his fee first thing - “$200 a day, plus expenses.”
Cannell said in all the TV private eye shows previous, no one ever discussed fees or money, and he thought that was not realistic. He wanted Rockford to be more of an Everyman, and with bills to pay, loans, and other money worries.
Great interview.
Closest series in past years has been Tim Allen’s: Home Improvement and Last Man Standing.
Also liked the beginning episodes of Last Man On Earth. Then that show went into the toilet, literally.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.