Wednesday, April 9, 2014

MeTV Preempts Perry Movie


I wasn’t absolutely positive of this until I saw that the schedule had for sure been changed tonight, but MeTV is preempting the Perry movie they already had planned for Friday night in order to marathon the show that won the poll (Star Trek). I’m so sorry to anyone who was looking forward to the movie. I was too. Hopefully they’ll reschedule it soon, but I’m not sure I’m that confident. It seems like a lot of times when stations change their minds, they don’t get around to airing what they preempted for a long time.

What MeTV should have done was to set aside a specific time in advance to marathon whatever show won, instead of waiting for the end of the poll and then getting rid of something that had already been planned and scheduled. I’m debating whether to write and complain to them about the schedule change. Not that it would do any good for this particular time, but possibly if a lot of people wrote it would let them know they need to plan things better in the future.

I was thinking about the number of times a character has traveled outside of the North American continent. It’s something that never happens too often; trips outside the continental United States to Mexico are a little more frequent, but actually leaving the continent behind is such a rare thing that I think it’s only occurred five times, most of those in the later seasons.

Offhand, the first time I can recall it happening and being shown is when Perry goes off to Europe in season 4’s The Nine Dolls. Then I don’t recall it happening for anyone until Paul ventures to South America looking for a doctor in season 7’s The Deadly Verdict.

(The Floating Stones contains some scenes in Hong Kong, but if I remember right, it’s only with the guest-starring cast and none of the main characters are over there.)

Neither of those trips involves staying overseas for the duration of the episode. But with season 8 came something new: episodes that either took place entirely away from North America or else mostly took place overseas.

The first instance was in A Place Called Midnight. Perry was said to be in Europe in the prior episode, Mike Connors’ The Bullied Bowler; A Place Called Midnight features Perry still over there and having another, unplanned adventure before coming home. He’s still there by the episode’s end, going to talk with the Inspector about another puzzling case.

About halfway through the season, Perry and Paul decide to visit Hawaii. The Feather Cloak takes place entirely on the Hawaiian Islands. Too bad Hawaii 5-O hadn’t started by then and the shows could have crossed over! It would have been interesting to see how Steve McGarrett and Perry would react to each other.

In season 9, The Fugitive Fraulein has a few Los Angeles scenes, but the majority of the action is all in Berlin. It’s perhaps the most topical episode the show ever did, with an intense plot revolving around trying to free a couple’s granddaughter from the Communists’ grasp. The courtroom scene, where Perry fights in vain against the Communist court system, is very different from anything else the show did. How he gets around that, frees the defendant, catches the true murderer, and saves the granddaughter make for one of the most intriguing adventures ever.

I’m wondering if The Substitute Face from season 1 would count as an episode that’s partially away from North America, since some of it involves the cruise Perry and Della take. By that logic, there are a couple of other episodes involving ship scenes (The Malicious Mariner and The Wrongful Writ), but as I recall, the main characters aren’t on those ships while the ships are in the middle of the ocean.

Either way, that’s still very few episodes that take place away from North America. If the show had continued, I wonder if there would have been several other overseas adventures? And why was it that overseas adventures became more prominent only later on? Was it that they wanted to try something new, after so many seasons of episodes taking place solely in the continental United States?

They could have also explored other areas of the North American continent. I wonder what an episode entirely set in Mexico would have been like. Or Canada; I don't think they went there at all.

The fact that the majority of the episodes are centered in North America, and generally parts of California, is interesting. I can't help thinking of a common theme for detective shows is that the detective is a globe-trotter. Many series feature adventures in many states and countries.

Then again, what with how workaholic Perry is, it probably makes the most sense for most episodes to take place in North America. He rarely gets to travel. And when he does, most of the time something seems to go wrong and he ends up involved in another case.

On the other hand, though, a lot of out-of-town episodes are out-of-town episodes because Perry has a friend or two in other towns who are calling for his help. If the series had wanted to expand to more overseas adventures, some of those could have involved other friends of Perry's. No matter how busy Perry is in Los Angeles, he always tries to make time for people who need his help, wherever they are.

I also wonder how the books stack up in this regard. Were there any books taking place overseas? It would be interesting to find out.

9 comments:

  1. I was looking forward to the movie as well. Let MeTv know about how I felt about it via email. Had the movie all set up and ready to tape 3 weeks previous. That tells you just how MUCH I was looking forward to it. Was going to watch it with a friend.

    Thanks for nothing, MeTv. Only good that came out of it were two half way decent Star Treks (Space Seed -- Khan for the win and Mirror, Mirror), a Twilight Zone episode and an episode from the older Perry Mason series. I'm dvr'ing all of them for what it's worth. But it's still not the same. Really love the charm, chemistry and experience those two brought in the movies.

    Sure there was something special in the tv show, but they really brought it to the fore in the movies imo. Weaker plots aside. Was just a kid when I first saw them, but I knew they were something special, that's for sure.

    And there's no way in heck that they weren't at least dating (or more) :p, not to mention getting some by then ;). There were some pretty good anvil sized hints in the films themselves (and they were in part what made them all the more fun to watch). No friend would go and buy a ton of gifts for a friend (with some of them being of a real personal nature (perfume iirc)) for their birthday, unless they were married to them or at least dating them (and you know ;)).

    Back OT: Silly networks and their contests. I really hope that they air it again soon. They don't show the movies enough these days.

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    1. I am so sorry. :( Definitely disappointing! And now I have to wonder, if Star Trek is so darn popular with MeTV viewers, why do they only air it once a week? Seems like they may want to rethink that. But if they do, they'd better not boot one of the daily Perry airings to show Star Trek more often.

      The movies are certainly a paradise for all Perry/Della shippers! It's fun to see how the characters changed through the years, according to the movies, although I haven't liked when Perry seems grouchy like Ironside. I like them to be very separate characters with different personalities. But it's neat to see both him and Della older and wiser. The guest-starring casts are always a blast, too.

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  2. Thanks. Yea it is :(. Good point. It makes no sense. But a network is a network, I guess. Maybe it's due to costs?

    Uh-huh. And I just found out on another forum about an interesting PR interview for the movies...

    The quote itself,

    but in an interview with Charlie Rose in '87, Burr said what he liked/loved about the movies was knowing that Della had a house, that she liked to garden and cooked. AND, (this make me giggle), how these movies allowed for "hanky panky" between Perry and Della, that the show couldn't do because of the one hour format.

    So fricken cute ^_^, and PR aside, it seems as if he was quite the shipper as well :p. Totally adorable.

    Agreed. But I kind of view any of that as possibly being health related (being in pain and that kind of thing could have affected the performance somewhat). Other than that though, it was cool. A nice second wind of sorts. Definitely. It's what made the films. Any issues with them go out the window tbh. Just love the interactions.

    Any P/D moments from them that really stand out to you?

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    1. LOL. I remember an interview where he mentioned liking that Della had a house and liked gardening, but it may have been a different interview. From some other stray quotes I've seen, though, I think I'd agree that he kind of seemed to be a shipper.

      Hmm, that's true, it could have been health-related. Sad.

      Well, since I'm not a shipper so much, I don't know how many of the moments I've really kept in mind; I like the ones that are ambiguous enough to be deep friendship, like Della coming to Perry and crying in the first movie. The ending of The Heartbroken Bride was pretty cute, too.

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  3. Cool.

    Yea it is. But in a way it made the character more human. Both of them. It showed them aging with dignity. One thing that you wouldn't see on tv these days sadly :(.

    Ah. That's cool. Deep friendship is far from common now too and is something to be cherished.

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    1. Yeah, these days it seems like it's much more common to have very vulgar older characters.

      Indeed. :) Most things in every series seem to get turned into romance and the idea of friendship gets lost.

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  4. Yep. :( They aren't even allowed to be friendly/just friends.

    Uh-huh. And one exception, Mulder and Scully. Yea they got romantically involved, but the undercurrent of their close friendship remained, and helped to make their relationship that much stronger.

    Tbh, they kind of remind me of Perry and Della in that way, along with the chemistry between the actors.

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    1. Totally. It's incredible how just the slightest thing can be turned into something romantic by fans, instead of allowing for the possibility that maybe they're friends.

      Interesting comparison. :) I've never quite decided whether I liked them having Mulder and Scully get together romantically. But it was definitely good that their friendship remained and made the relationship all the stronger.

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  5. Yea. Not that I'm not romantic, but it is rather silly that people don't leave room for characters to just be friends.

    Thanks :). Ah. I thought they did a good job in that regard tbh. Portraying those two in such a good manner. A real mature adult relationship. And the bed scene in I Want To Believe just sealed it for me... the way those two interacted in it was just playful and adorable.

    I could honestly see Perry and Della having that kind of relationship in that regard :) (not that we ever need to see it :p), just given by how thoughtful and affectionate they were to one another.

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