Category: Celebs

“Wiseguy” Trivia!

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If you’ve never seen the series Wiseguy, it’s worth searching out (at least for the first few story arcs).  Ken Wahl played an undercover cop, Jonathon Banks was Wahl’s supervisor and Jim Byrnes was his handler.  The series was one of the first to have story arcs going over several episodes with guest stars playing the criminals.  Wiseguy was one of the best shows on television at the time.

I bring this up because the fine folks at Me-TV present 10 Undercover Facts about Wiseguy.  Before you click over, here are three of my favorite of the facts and my thoughts on each…

Wahl suffered some serious injuries.  (Sadly, Wahl’s acting career was cut short due to injuries.  Wahl missed part of season two due to an injury to his Achilles tendon.  In 1992, he fell down steps and broke his neck!  After filming a 1996 Wiseguy reunion movie, Wahl retired due to constant pain. – Craig)

You can’t see every episode in reruns due to music (licensing). (There are several episodes where music played such an integral part of scenes that to lose the music lessen their impact.  The biggest casualty was the conclusion of the Sonny Steelgrave arc which used Nights in White Satin by the Moody Blues. – Craig)

Wahl left the series early. (Wahl left after the third season and the series just wasn’t the same.  But we will always have those early story arcs.  Check them out! – Craig)

“Coyote” Starring Michael Chiklis – The Poster and Trailer are Here!

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Here’s the poster and trailer for the new CBS limited series Coyote starring Michael Chiklis.  I cannot wait for this one!

Coyote is the story of Ben Clemens (Michael Chiklis), who after 32 years as a border patrol agent, is forced to work for the very people he spent his career trying to keep out of America. Now exposed to life on the other side of the wall, Ben will start to question his black and white views of the world, challenging his ideology and his loyalties.

See Kurt Russell Accidentally Destroy 145 Year Old Guitar!

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Here’s a movie tidbit that I didn’t know until today.  During the scene in The Hateful Eight when Kurt Russell destroys a guitar, the instrument wasn’t a prop, but instead a $40,000.00, 145 year old museum piece!

The Hateful Eight saw Kurt Russell fill the boots of a weathered bounty hunter named John Ruth. While transporting a known murderer across the snow-topped mountains of Wyoming, a blizzard forces Ruth’s party to hunker down in a nearby lodge. In response to his bounty’s incessant singing, the bounty hunter eventually takes a six-string guitar and smashes it against a wooden beam. “Music time’s over,” Ruth growls. But Unbeknownst to Kurt Russell, the guitar was an irreplaceable 145-year-old museum piece, which the studio was borrowing from the Martin Guitar Museum. – James Fenner from Top 10 Blunders That Will Go Down In History – 2020 at Listverse.

Check out the scene below and watch as Jennifer Jason Leigh, in shock at Kurt’s actions, breaks character!  She obviously knew what Kurt Russell hadn’t been told!

“FBI/MLK” – The Poster and Trailer are Here!

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We have the poster and trailer for FBI/MLK.  I like them both and look forward to seeing the film.

Director: Sam Pollard
Starring: Martin Luther King

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered today as an American hero: a bridge-builder, a shrewd political tactician, and a moral leader. Yet throughout his history-altering political career, he was often treated by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies like an enemy of the state. In this virtuosic documentary, award-winning editor and director Sam Pollard (Editor, 4 LITTLE GIRLS, MO’ BETTER BLUES; Director/Producer, EYEZ ON THE PRIZE, SAMMY DAVIS, JR.: I’VE GOTTA BE ME) lays out a detailed account of the FBI surveillance that dogged King’s activism throughout the ’50s and ’60s, fueled by the racist and red-baiting paranoia of J. Edgar Hoover. In crafting a rich archival tapestry, featuring some revelatory restored footage of King, Pollard urges us to remember that true American progress is always hard-won.

“Columbo: Prescription Murder” Trivia

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My wife and I are working our way through the Columbo series and really enjoying it. Columbo is experiencing a revival of sorts with the series running in several places and more social media posts about it.  I watched and enjoyed Columbo when it first aired, but it is all new to my wife.

Columbo first appeared in a tv movie in 1968.  It wasn’t until 3 years later that the series of Columbo tv movies started.  It then ran from 1971 – 1978; 1989 – 1995; 1997 – 1998, 2001; and 2003.

Getting back to the first Peter Falk Columbo: Prescription Murder, Me-TV takes a look at 7 Things You Never Noticed about the Columbo pilot, Prescription: Murder.  Here are my three favorite facts and thoughts about each…

  • Peter Falk does not appear until 30 minutes into the story.  (This is one of the things that made the Columbo series unique.  The star doesn’t appear until well into the movie and viewers know who the killer is.  What makes it fun is watching how Columbo figures it out. – Craig)
  • Lt. Columbo had more stylish footwear.  (At this point, Falk had not worked out all of Columbo’s unique traits – the crumpled, old raincoat, the scuffed shoes, his beat-up foreign car and more. – Craig)
  • This was not the first time Columbo had appeared on TV.  (Bert Freed first played Columbo in an episode of an anthology series.  Freed is probably best remembered from his role in Billy Jack or any of his dozens (and dozens) of guest appearances on popular tv shows from the 1950s through the 1980s.  – Craig)

Sean Connery Gets an Original Drink and Draw Social Club Tribute!

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The Original Drink and Draw Social Club is made up of a group of extremely talented professional artists (Dave Johnson, Dan Panosian, Jeff Johnson and honorary host – Joe Quesada) who get together regularly to livestream as they draw and hangout.  The cool thing is that they a theme.  I’ve embedded their Sean Connery tribute below and here’s a link to their Original Drink and Draw Social Club Page.

Do you like James Bond? Indiana Jones’ father!?!?! Hunting for Octobers that happen to be red? You’re in for a treat then!

“Smokey and the Bandit” – Trivia

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The fine folks at Me-TV posted 8 Quick Facts about Smokey and the Bandit.  Before you click over… Smokey and the Bandit holds a special place for me… 

First, it’s a funny movie.  You’ve got Burt Reynolds (the #1 box office star of the time), Jackie “the Great One” Gleason and Sally (ain’t she just too cute) Field in a silly car chase movie that works every time if you’re looking for a good time.

Second, it brings back tons of great memories.  Here’s one – my now deceased brother-in-law, loved Smokey and the Bandit. Randy could do a hilarious impersonation of Jackie Gleason as Bufford T. Justice.  If you could have been there the night he ordered a Diablo Sandwich and a Dr. Pepper and “make it fast cuz I’m in a gol-darn hurry” — we, along with the waitress couldn’t stop laughing… which of course just encouraged him to continue.

And here are my three favorite Smokey and the Bandit facts with my thoughts…

It was Alfred Hitchcock’s favorite movie.  I find this hard to believe, but if true, I’d loved to have had the chance to watch and then discuss Smokey and the Bandit with him!

It was based on real life.  I’d read before that Sherriff Buford T. Justice’s name was based on a real police officer’s name.  Can you imagine?

It beat Star Wars at the box office. The caveat is that this was just for one week and Smokey and the Bandit was in over ten times as many theaters.  But, still it did win for the week. (And I actually prefer Smokey and the Bandit to Star Wars!)

 

RIP: Sir Thomas Sean Connery

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Sean Connery has died at the age of 90.

Best known for his portrayal of James Bond, Connery was the first actor to play the character in a major motion picture.  Connery starred in seven Bond films and was widely considered the best actor to ever play 007.  Connery was much more than James Bond. With over 100 acting credits on his resume, Connery made every movie he was in better by his presence.

In 1987, Connery won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Jim Malone in The Untouchables. Connery was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in July, 2000. Connery was popular in Scotland and throughout the world.  In 2004, he won a poll as The Greatest Living Scot.  In 2011, another survey named him as Scotland’s Greatest Living National Treasure. People magazine named Connery the Sexiest Man Alive in 1989 when he was 59 years old. Then in 1999, People magazine named Connery the Sexiest Man of the Century. He received the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006. 

When I think of Sean Connery, like most folks, my thoughts go to James Bond.  For my money, Connery was the coolest of all Bonds and set the standards for all who followed.  But even if Connery had never played Bond, look at all the movies that he made that entertained us.  My personal favorite Connery movies include: The Wind and the Lion, Robin and Marian, Outland, Highlander, The Name of the Rose, The Untouchables, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Rock and (even) The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Sir Thomas Sean Connery’s family, friends and fans.  

“Halloween Kills” – The Poster, the Trailer and a Few Thoughts

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So the poster and trailer for Halloween Kills has premiered although we won’t see the movie until October 2021.  That is a LOT of lead time.

I am a fan of the original Halloween movie.  I watched the first couple of sequels but then lost interest.  I do plan to see the last Halloween film that Jamie Lee Curtis starred in and am surprisingly looking forward to Halloween Kills.  I wonder if that will change in the coming year.