In the wake of the 1980s CBS phenom that was Tom Selleck’s Magum P.I. came a barrage of detective/action series clones featuring sexy dudes with hairy chests and mustaches. One of my favorite of these clones, Matt Houston, hits stores today. Matt Houston ran from 1982 to 1985 on ABC. I was pretty up on my tv actors back then and would watch anything featuring the deadly-sexy Pamela Hensley, who played Princess Ardala (outer space’s first drag queen) on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and guest-starred on just about everything else on the tube back then.
Lee Horsley was charming enough as Matt, sort of Magnum with only one third of the carbs. But more than anything, I tuned in regularly because of the catchy theme music and opening titles, which featured, along with Horsely and Hensley in action, more shots of motorized vehicles crashing into water than any other show to ever hit the air.
Matt was a rich Texas oil tycoon who dabbled in private investigating, mostly in Los Angeles (because Texas apparently has no crime). The format of the show was more or less the same week-in and week-out. In the opening scenes, a guest star with some degree of television fame (possibly Arte Johnson, possibly Lovey Howell) would get bumped off in the most inconceivable way possible. If Matt and his trusty platonic sidekick C.J. (Hensley) were not actually there to witness it, a friend of the deceased would find his or her way to Matt’s office to provide additional back story and put Matt on the case.
Matt would then proceed to question several other regular tv guest stars, some with careers on the way up and some on the way down, each seemingly with more than enough motive and opportunity to be the guilty party. Next, Matt meets up with a friend on the force who warns him that things are getting too hot and he should step aside and let the L.A.P.D. do the work. Matt refuses politely, but the next thing you know, someone’s shooting at him or tampering with his brakes, or slipping poison into his bourbon and… BOOM, now it’s PERSONAL.
A few more dialogue scenes and additional investigating provides Matt and C.J. with the clue they inevitably missed the first time around. Next up, a confrontation with the killer, usually someplace with numerous escape possibilities and/or an over-abundance of motorized vehicles with keys waiting in the ignition. Said criminal makes a run for it, chase ensues, and as stated above, usually ends up with a car going into a pool, a motorcycle into a jacuzi, a skateboard into a bathtub. Matt jumps into the water, grabs criminal by collar, fistfight ensues, criminal surrenders, rest of the cast catches up to the scene, Matt says something funny that skirts off the danger of his predicament. Cut to scenes from this Saturday’s Fantasy Island
And if the above isn’t enough to get you to Amazon.com this very minute, consider these action-packed episode summaries:
“Recipe for Murder” – A severed head in gelatin shocks a food critic who recognizes it as belonging to his partner.
“Joey’s Here” – Matt tries to discover why a robot would murder the brother of its genius creator.
‘The Purrfect Crime” – When a cat food mogul is found mauled to death by a domesticated tiger, his four ex-wives retain Matt’s services so they can receive proceeds the from the will.
So, some of you who watch daytime soaps may have heard that the cast and crew of All My Children recently re-located from New York to Los Angeles to save production dollars. They have, in fact, moved into the studio space right next to us, and as I write this, I am watching actors on television who we all now see on a regular basis roaming around the lot at work. I have had three Susan Lucci sightings in the last month, and last week the actor who plays Tad almost hit me in the parking lot with his car. Ah, glamorous Hollywood! Soap actors are a very good-looking bunch and have really brightened up the place (it’s not really the most glamorous lot in Los Angeles and I wish I could have seen the look on the faces of all the actors when they drove up for the first day. Seriously, in its worst corners, it looks much like a prison yard).
Over the years, I have checked in on the peeps of Pine Valley. My mom and older sisters watched the entire ABC daytime line-up when it reigned supreme, spearheaded by the Luke and Laura pairing on General Hospital. I remember when Jessie and Jenny ran off to New York. I remember when no one knew Adam Chandler had a mentally challenged brother who was imprisoned within the secret passages of the family mansion. I DON’T remember Erica shouting down the grizzly bear in the middle of the forest after a plane crash, but I DO vaguely remember her going behind her husband’s back and getting on the pill (I remember having no idea what “the pill” was) so she could secretly open her own fabulous disco in the late seventies (early eighties?). And me and about 300 other college students would gather around the big screen tv in the University Center every weekday in the early nineties when evil Natalie threw her virtuous and more elegant twin sister Natalie down a well, assumed her identity, and got impregnated by her sister’s husband.
Anyway, deep down, I have always been a bit of a secret star stalker, and I have been trying to devise ways to cross paths with the cast more so than I have thus far. I know, I know… they are there to work, not to be stared at, and I have to respect that. I wouldn’t want anyone bothering me unnecessarily during the day when there’s work to be done. But finally, there’s a little bit of larger-than-life glamour on the lot and I want to bask in it.
I’m thinking I should start leaving little treats next to the AMC stage doors. Maybe they’ll fall in love with my food and invite me over regularly to sit in on tapings, give my notes on story ideas, or, if I absolutely must, step in as an extra in a hospital scene, hanging out next to a vending machine in the waiting room and voicelessly chatting up a peppy nurse. Well, a guy can dream. It’s not like I’m asking them to put me at the head of a boardroom table and proclaim, “You’re all firrrreeeed!” with a sweeping hand gesture, though if they did I would not refuse.
These anise drop cookies could be my way in. They’re not overwhelming. They’re almost forgettable after the first bite, but then that anise extract kicks in (it’s the licorice-like flavoring you may detect in biscotti), and winds itself around you. You can down three or four before you actually realize how tasty they are – soft on the inside with a hardened shell-like covering on the outside. It strikes a nice balance between the subtle and the striking. It’s the perfect daytime actor’s cookie. Look for me quietly ambling through the halls at Pine Valley Hospital within the next four to five months.
Anise Drop Cookies
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon anise extract
Preheat oven to 350 F. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
Put eggs in a bowl and whisk until fluffy. Gradually beat in the sugar until incorporated. Mix in the anise extract, then mix in the flour mixture.
Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a coupler or a 1/2-inch plain tip. If you don’t have a pastry bag, simply transfer into a ziploc bag and cut a small hole in the corner and use as a pastry bag.
Pipe 1 3/4 inch rounds onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing about 1/2 inch apart.
Bake cookies, rotating halfway through, until tops crack and cookies are very pale, about 8-10 minutes. Transfer to wire racks and let cool completely.
I was well into my thirties before I realized that the music and lyrics for I’m a Woman were originally written as a mainstream pop song by famed songwriting duo Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller (Hound Dog, Jailhouse Rock, Love Potion #9) and not written expressly for a certain perfume commercial jingle that became a mini-sensation in the late seventies and early eighties (which is included after the jump below).
I didn’t figure it out until I randomly snagged up a Peggy Lee Greatest Hits compilation simply because I knew her as the voice of the Siamese cat duo in the film Lady and the Tramp, and remembered a famous mini-documentary shown on The Wonderful World of Disney where Miss Lee demonstrates how she recorded the voices of both “Si” and “Am.” It’s genius, you see!
“All you need is a home tape recorder, and another one you can borrow from a neighbor.”
Of course… because who would ever need TWO home tape recorders? (Peggy also explains in person after the jump below)
Even in the early fifties, television producers routinely banned studio audience members from bringing cameras of any kind onto the set. Luckily, every so often there are one or two attendees who are smarter than their “schmuck off the street” appearance might suggest. If you’ve ever wondered what the Ricardo apartment looked like in color, you’re curiosity is about the be satisfied.
Click below to see the vid.
Alfred Hitchcock made some of his most ambitious and acclaimed films between the years 1950 and 1960 including Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, The Trouble with Harry, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Vertigo, North by Northwest, and finally Psycho in 1960. Not a bad ten years. Add to that the premiere of his highly-successful television anthology series Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1955, and you’ve got what is undoubtedly the biggest decade of his career.
This episode aired on September 12, 1954, right around the premiere of Rear Window. Hitch’s total lack of vocal disguise (and why should he bother…. he’s Alfred Hitchcock!) leads me to believe that the panel played along as long as they did for the fun of it… and because they knew how to make good television.
You have to go quite a long way back for a question like, “Have you ever appeared in a Technicolor picture?” to be a relevant fact-finder. Here, we go back to 1954, a year before Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher were married, with Fisher making a surprise appearance at the end of the round.
There’s no way in hell Arlene Francis was not prompted in some way by the producers to inquire about whether or not Eddie was backstage, am I right? It was only a few years later that Debbie and Eddie along with Liz Taylor became the Jennifer, Brad and Angelina of their day – the world’s most scandalous love triangle. Debbie divorced Eddie in 1959, and married two more times after that. Fisher and Taylor married the same year and divorced in 1964. He went on to marry three more times, and you have to wonder who’s the brave soul willing to be a man’s fifth wife! But of all of them, his last marriage to Bride #5, Betty Lin lasted the longest, up until her death in 2001.
Here’s an interesting bit of Debbie Reynolds trivia I didn’t know about: She starred on TV’s The Debbie Reynolds Show in the 1969-70 television season, playing Debbie Thompson, a woman married to a sportswriter who is constantly trying to get herself a job on his paper. If the scenario sounds a bit like I Love Lucy, it isn’t a coincidence. both were co-created by Jess Oppenheimer. Based on what there is of The Debbie Reynolds Show online, Jess had much better success creatively the first time around. The show’s demise was further sealed by Debbie’s refusal to allow cigarette companies to advertise on her show, long before it became fashionable to do so. Check her out in a much more engaging fashion here, and note that she breaks off her necklace at 3:26.
Julie is a bright, capable young woman. I think she’s 24 or so. She has a big future in television production, but she doesn’t know who Larry Hagman is, she has never watched an episode of Dallas in her life, and when you mention the phrase “Who Shot JR?” to her, she tilts her head like a baffled golden retriever.
Was stuck at home with a sore throat that was keeping me from sleeping. I was tooling around the dial and came across a Michael Landon marathon on TV Land the other night. I was not a regular watcher of Little House on the Prairie when I was a little kid, but everyone my age remembers this episode called “May We Make Them Proud,” which was the talk of the playground the day after it originally aried.
Yes, everyone in their mid-thirties. I’m talking about the blind school fire.
