Category: TV

11 Fascinating Facts About Sam Elliott

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Jake Rossen and Mental Floss present 11 Fascinating Facts About Sam Elliott.  I actually met Sam Elliott before he made the big time.  He was in Daytona Beach during Spring Break to promote Lifeguard.  Mr. Elliott was extremely down-to-Earth and easy to talk with.  Who knew that Lifeguard would lead to the career he’s had?  (And if you click over to the original post, you’ll learn it almost didn’t.)  At any rate, here are three of my favorites…

HE PLAYED EVEL KNIEVEL IN AN UNSOLD TV PILOT.
After moving to Hollywood in the late 1960s, Elliott scored a small role in a big film: 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. (He’s glimpsed only fleetingly during a card game.) In 1974, he had the opportunity to be the featured star, portraying daredevil legend Evel Knievel in a CBS television pilot. The series never went into production but wound up airing as a one-off special that March. Elliott went on to guest star in several series, including Hawaii Five-0 and Gunsmoke, before landing a lead role in a feature, 1976’s Lifeguard.

HE GOT PROPOSITIONED. A LOT.
Going from audition to audition early in his career, Elliott told syndicated columnist Rex Reed in 1980 that the proverbial casting couch was real. “You cannot believe the casting couch stories I could tell you, man,” he said. “The clichés are all true. I’ve had propositions from men and women, and I’ve turned them all down. It’s probably hurt me, but I’m the one who has to live with that guilt. My conscience is clear, even though my career is still not setting the world on fire.”

HE DOESN’T REALLY GET THE FASCINATION WITH HIS MUSTACHE.
For most of his roles, Elliott sports a soup strainer of a mustache: Thick, plush, well-weathered. When he goes without—as in his turn as a villain on FX’s Justified—it can be a little disarming, in the same way Superman looks a little odd without his cape. But Elliott doesn’t quite understand the cult of hair around his facial style choices. “The whole mustache thing is a mystery to me,” he told Vanity Fair in 2017. “I’m working on this thing now, A Star is Born—somebody showed me on their cell phone one day that there was this contest online between me and [Tom] Selleck about who had the best mustache. It’s so bizarre.” (For the record, Elliott won’t comment on who has the better lip warmer.)

RIP – Scott Wilson

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Scott Wilson, the actor best known for his role as Hershel on The Walking Dead, passed away yesterday reportedly from complications with leukemia.  Wilson began his career with the one-two punch of the big screen classics In the Heat of the Night and In Cold Blood.

While most tributes focus on Wilson’s role as Hershel from The Walking Dead, Wilson’s resume features movie and television credits spanning 50 years.  Anything Wilson appeared in became at least a little bit better because of him.  Some of my favorite Wilson appearances include his roles in…

  •  The Tracker: An HBO movie directed by John Guillermin and written by Kevin Jarre;  starring Kris Kristofferson and Scott Wilson.
  • Judge Dredd: starring Sylvester Stallone and with an uncredited appearance of Scott Wilson as Pa Angel.
  • The Way of the Gun written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie.
  • In Cold Blood written, produced and directed by Richard Brooks, based on Truman Capote’s book. Starring Robert Blake and Scott Wilson.

 

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Scott Wilson’s family, friends and fans.

21 Cancelled Shows Netflix Should Bring Back.

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Leon Hurley and GamesRadar present 21 Cancelled Shows Netflix Should Bring Back.  Using just their choices, here are my top three picks and two that didn’t make the list, but should have.

11. Almost Human

The TV show: While at times hit-n-miss, Almost Human braved the cold of Monday nights on Fox and sadly didn’t survive. A sci-fi police procedural about a belligerent cop (Karl Urban) and his android partner (Michael Ealy) the show struck out into some unique territory with its gritty genre storytelling.
Why Netflix needs to bring it back: For Karl Urban’s sanity. Between this and Dredd, the guy needs a break when it comes to steady work.

9. Deadwood

The TV show: As the drunken, bristling Al Swearengen, Ian McShane delivers his finest role to date in HBO’s uber-violent western. Being set shortly after the Civil War in a period of lawlessness allows for the series to fly off the rails. Interestingly enough, the crazy activities taking place in the small town of Deadwood, South Dakota are based on actual people who lived there.
Why Netflix needs to bring it back: Oh man, have you not seen the fan petitions for this one? Word is that HBO caved and agreed to wrap up the dangling plots with a movie – but this was arguably the cable network’s best genre show. Why not keep it serialised? Oh well, there’s always Westworld season 2…

2. Firefly

The TV show: You knew this was going to be at number one. Joss Whedon’s cowboys in space serial only squeezed out one season. And boy, is it a corker. Taking the typical Whedon tropes (ragtag bunch of misfits, genre setting, punchy dialogue) he spins a great blend of sci-fi and action following the crew of the Serenity across the universe. The cast’s at the top of their game and the storylines feel fresh.
Why Netflix needs to bring it back: Let’s pretend the wrap-up movie Serenity doesn’t exist. Netflix would score MAJOR points for reviving this series. Even if the amount of fans who’ve petitioned for its return aren’t in the millions, the word-of-mouth and social media activity would generate tons of free press for them. But really, they need to bring it back for this one reason:  *spoiler alert*… to correct Wash’s fate.

I almost left Deadwood off the list since HBO is bringing it back as a movie, but then decided that it should be left on because I’d really love to see it return as a series.

Two that should have been included on the list but weren’t are: 1.  Justified and 2. The Shield.

10 Things You Might Not Know About Columbo

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Kara Kovalchik and Mental Floss present 10 Things You Might Not Know About Columbo.  Here are three of my favorites…

9. THE SERIES DIDN’T FOLLOW A STANDARD MYSTERY FORMAT.
The premise of Columbo was the “inverted mystery,” or a “HowCatchEm” instead of a “WhoDunIt.” Every episode began with the actual crime being played out in full view of the audience, meaning viewers already knew “WhodunIt.” What they wanted to know is how Lt. Columbo would slowly zero in on the perpetrator. This sort of story was particularly challenging for the series’s writers, and they sometimes found inspiration in the most unlikely places. Like the Yellow Pages, for example. One of Peter Falk’s personal favorite episodes, “Now You See Him,” had its genesis when the writers were flipping through the telephone book looking for a possible profession for a Columbo murderer (keep in mind that all of Columbo’s victims and perps were of the Beverly Hills elite variety, not your typical Starsky and Hutch-type thug).

A page listing professional magicians caught their eye, and that led to a classic episode featuring the ever-suave Jack Cassidy playing the role of the former SS Nazi officer who worked as a nightclub magician. When the Jewish nightclub owner recognized him and threatened to expose him, well, you can guess what happened. But the challenge is to guess how Lt. Columbo ultimately caught him.

7. STEVEN SPIELBERG GOT AN EARLY BREAK ON COLUMBO.
“Murder by the Book” was the second Columbo episode filmed, but it was the first one to air after the show was picked up as a series. Filming was delayed for a month, though, when Falk refused to sign off on this “kid”—a 25-year-old named Steven Spielberg—to direct the episode. Finally he watched a few of Spielberg’s previous credits (all of them TV episodes) and was impressed by his work on the short-lived NBC series called The Psychiatrist. Once filming was underway, Falk was impressed by many of the techniques employed by the young director, such as filming a street scene with a long lens from a building across the road. “That wasn’t common 20 years ago,” Falk said. He went on to tell producers Link and Levinson that “this guy is too good for Columbo.”

6. THE CHARACTER’S TRADEMARK RAINCOAT CAME FROM FALK’S CLOSET.
The initial wardrobe proposed for Columbo struck Peter Falk as completely wrong for the character. To get closer to what he wanted for Columbo, the actor went into his closet and found a beat-up coat he had bought years earlier when caught in a rainstorm on 57th Street. And he ordered one of the blue suits chosen for him to be dyed brown. The drab outfit would become one of the trademarks of the character for decades.

10 Fun Facts About “Better Call Saul”

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Scott Beggs and Mental Floss present 10 Fun Facts About Better Call Saul.  Here are three of my favorites…

3. THE TITLES HAVE HIDDEN MEANINGS.
You can take nothing for granted in the Better Call Saul universe, including the episode titles. In the first season, every episode (from “Uno” to “Marco”) ended in the letter O, except “Alpine Shepherd Boy,” which was supposed to be called “Jell-O” before the producers waved it off to avoid being sued by the gelatin makers. Even crazier, the first letters of season two’s episodes (S-C-A-G-R-B-I-F-N-K) unscramble to spell “Fring’s Back”—a clear message for Breaking Bad fans.

6. CHUCK WASN’T INTENDED TO BE A BAD GUY.
Everyone who watches the show hates Chuck McGill, Jimmy’s brother played by Michael McKean, but it wasn’t until writing the seventh episode that Gilligan and the writers realized Chuck was a villain. “Believe it or not, the idea of Chuck being the ‘bad guy’ was a late addition to Season 1,” Gilligan explained during a 2015 Reddit AMA. “This points out one of the things I love most about writing for TV. There are enough episodes and enough lead time (if you’re lucky) for writers to change the direction of a story midstream.”

8. YOU SHOULD PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT COLOR PEOPLE ARE WEARING.
Gilligan’s fanatical dedication to detail includes the colors that get associated with each character. It was a major element in Breaking Bad. It’s also a big part of Better Call Saul in the form of the “Fire and Ice Theory,” partially confirmed by writer Peter Gould, who confessed that hotter colors like red were associated with criminals. That tacitly means cooler colors are meant for the innocent, so it’s curious that Jimmy’s car is yellow with one red door …

10 Colorful Facts About “The Munsters”

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Me-TV presents 10 Colorful Facts About The Munsters.  Here are three of my favorites…

1. The idea dates back to 1943.
The idea for a family of comedic Universal monsters dates back to the heyday of Universal monster pictures. In the early 1940s, the studio was still flying high off its monster franchises. It had recently launched The Wolf Man and The Phantom of the Opera. Lon Cheney Jr. was shambling along in The Ghost of Frankenstein. In 1943, Bob Clampett, an animator who worked on Looney Tunes cartoons, pitched the idea of a funny Monster family to Universal. After a couple years developing the concept, nothing came of it for two decades. Even in the 1960s, as interest picked back up, some at the studio believed it should be a cartoon.

8. The original Marilyn quit acting after 13 episodes — and a third Marilyn was used in the movie.
No Munster family member changed like Marilyn, Lily’s niece. Initially, Beverley Owen (pictured here) filled the role. Midway through season one, Owen quit the business entirely, to get married and focus on her family. She would later earn a masters degree in Early American History. Pat Priest popularized the role of Marilyn thereafter on the show. However, Universal recast the character for Munster, Go Home! The studio inserted Debbie Watson — 12 years younger — into the role, in hope of building the contracted starlet’s career.

9. The Drag-U-La was made with an illegally purchased coffin.
Reportedly, according to legend, a real coffin was used to make the awesome DRAG-U-LA hot rod seen in Munster, Go Home! The only catch that it was supposedly illegal to purchase a coffin without a death certificate in the state of California at the time. Richard “Korky” Korkes, the man who built the dragster, claimed he passed money under the table to a funeral home in North Hollywood, who left a coffin for him outside the back door.

 

10 Things We Learned from the ‘Breaking Bad’ 10 Year Reunion [Comic-Con 2018]

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Chris Evangelista and /Film present 10 Things We Learned from the ‘Breaking Bad’ 10 Year Reunion [Comic-Con 2018].  Be advised that major spoilers may be lurking if you proceed further.  Here are three of my favorite things learned and some of my thoughts about each…

2. Darkness Was Important
Breaking Bad was an extremely dark show, and the darkness was essential, as far as Vince Gilligan is concerned. “If the show is going to be about producing and selling meth, you want to take it seriously,” the creator said. “But you don’t have to make it some after school special – you just have to show the reality of why that’s a bad decision.” Gilligan also added that any time they needed to show a violent moment on Breaking Bad – like the episode “Krazy-8”, where Cranston’s Walter White has to strangle a man to death with a bike lock – it was important to never treat the violence as “entertainment”, but to rather highlight how unpleasant it was. “There has to be consequences,” Gilligan said. “If you don’t do that, you’re not doing the show justice.”
Craig’s thoughts:  Gilligan is so right.  Actions have consequences and bad actions can, or at least should weigh heavily on a character unless he/she is a sociopath.  The added layer brought realism and importance to those “dark” decisions.

4. Aaron Paul Misses Jesse
This may not seem like a huge revelation. But during the Hall H panel, actor Aaron Paul commented that he really “missed” playing tragic drug dealer Jesse Pinkman. What made this moment so memorable was the wealth of emotion in Paul’s voice – he sounded as if he was on the verge of tears as he uttered these words. It got to me.
Craig’s thoughts:  How can you not love how attached and appreciative some actors get to the characters that made them?

7. Bryan Cranston Would Frequently Trick Aaron Paul Into Thinking Jesse Was Going To Die
While Jesse Pinkman lived beyond the first season, and ended up surviving the series as a whole, Bryan Cranston would constantly prank Aaron Paul into thinking his character was going to die. As Paul and Cranston tell it, Cranston would come up to Paul and ask: “Have you read the latest script?” When Paul would say no, Cranston would give Paul a big hug and say, “I’m so sorry,” thus making Paul think his character was about to get bumped off. This apparently happened several times, and Paul apparently fell for it almost every time.
Craig’s thoughts: This is probably not a new story for most fans of Breaking Bad, but I think it is so funny that Cranston would mess with Paul like that… and of course Paul would fall for it!