S. Craig Zahler Interview!

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S. Craig Zahler is a novelist, screenwriter and movie director.

Zahler’s novels include Mean Business on North Ganson Street, A Congregation of Jackals, Wraiths of the Broken Land, and Hug Chickenpenny: The Panegyric of an Anomalous Child.  I’ve read and enjoyed Mean Business on North Ganson Street.  I look forward to diving in to his other novels.

At this point, Zahler is probably best known for his movies.  Bone Tomahawk and  Brawl in Cell Block 99  showed Zahler to be a promising film-maker not afraid to create genre films that are equal parts character study, action and horror.  Zahler’s next film, Dragged Across Concrete, stars Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn with support from Jennifer Carpenter, Don Johnson, Laurie Holden,Udo Kier and Michael Jai White.  I can’t wait.

Jedidiah Ayres recently interviewed S. Craig Zahler and they talked novels, movies and more.  Well done, Jedidiah!

11 Forgotten TV Detectives and Crime Solvers of the 1970s

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MeTV has an article that presented 11 Forgotten TV Detectives and Crime Solvers of the 1970s.  Although the post is no longer available, here are three of my favorites (and some comments)…

1. Dan August (1970–71)

Dan August was Burt Reynolds second series after he left Gunsmoke. In his first effort, Hawk, Reynolds played a detective. The series ran just one season of 17 episodes.  Reynolds second television outing as the lead was in Dan August.  Reynolds played a homicide detective. Dan August lasted just one season of 26 episodes.  It gained new life after cancellation because Burt Reynolds star was on the rise in feature films.  I was a big Dan August fan.

2. Longstreet (1971–72)

Longstreet was a blind insurance investigator played by James Franciscus. Little known fact: Bruce Lee appeared in some episodes of the show! Lee played a martial artist who trained the newly blind Longstreet! Bruce Lee was what brought me to watch.

 

5. Toma (1973–74)

Toma was based on a real-life detective named David Toma.  Toma was played by Tony Musante.  Surprisingly Musante decided to quit after the first season. ABC decided to recast the role with Robert Blake.  ABC then opted to dump Toma and create a new show with different characters.  The new show was Baretta. I vaguely remember Toma, but I never missed Baretta!

7 Darn Tootin’ True Facts about ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’

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MeTV presents 7 Darn Tootin’ True Facts about The Beverly Hillbillies. Here are three of my favorites..

1. The Critics Loathed It
If there was ever evidence of the divide between critics and the public, this is it. Few seismic hits have ever received such a drubbing in the press. According to the book Blockbuster TV: Must-See Sitcoms in the Network Era, upon the Hillbillies premiere, The New York Times deemed the show “strained and unfunny.” Variety said it was “painful to sit through.” Time decried that “the pone is the lowest form of humor.” The elitist uproar hardly seemed to matter.

2. It was a Ratings Behemoth
The number are truly staggering — like being punched by a kangaroo. A mere six weeks after its debut, The Beverly Hillbillies was the most watched program on television. Between the years 1962 and 1964, the show averaged 57 million viewers. The episodes that aired January 8 and 15 in 1964 rank as the second and fourth most watched television episodes of the entire decade, respectively. The former of those, “The Giant Jackrabbit,” remains one of the most watched half-hours of all time. It ran the same day at LBJ’s first State of the Union address. Bear in mind, this show was luring around 60 million viewers at a time when the U.S. population was approximately 190 million. At some points in its run, 44-percent of all American televisions were tuned to the show.

5. Sharon Tate Appeared in the Biggest Episode
Wearing a brunette wig, blonde bombshell Sharon Tate actually appeared in fifteen episodes as Janet Trego, including “The Giant Jackrabbit.” Her character was a secretary at the bank. Tate, who was close with “Jethro” portrayer Max Baer, Jr., would end up as a tragic victim of the Manson family killings. In Stephen Cox’s book The Beverly Hillbillies, director Joe Depew is quoted as saying, “When we first got her, she couldn’t even walk through the door convincingly.”