Short post

Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow, fellow American readers! To everyone else, Happy Thursday!

I caught part of The Difficult Detour on MeTV last week. I had watched the uncut version not that long ago, so I wasn’t sure I’d watch it on television, but I ended up pulled into the plot again anyway.

Is it just me or does anyone else find Neil Hamilton’s character to be a bit . . . confusing? I feel like that every time I see the episode. To elaborate, he claims he always liked Pete Mallory. If that’s true, then why in the world didn’t he try talking to Pete about the road on his land before just slapping a court order on him? Surely he would have realized that Pete wasn’t trying to do anything against him.

I suppose it’s possible that he used the court order because he still wasn’t down from San Francisco and he wanted work on the road stopped immediately instead of letting it go on even a few more hours. And if that was the case, I guess that it was a kindness in a certain way, not wanting the crew to do even more work on the project when it was just going to be stopped.

I’m not sure whether he was down from San Francisco yet or not; I don’t think the script specified. But maybe I’ll choose to think of it like that. It’s the only way that makes sense, when he does seem to be a fairly nice person when he appears.

I also wonder what happened to the episode’s murderer. He definitely didn’t seem to quite have all of his marbles, so it wouldn’t seem exactly fair if he were executed for the crime. He seemed like he needed psychiatric help.

Also, this is the time of year that I think about Dan Tobin, who was born in late October (the 19^th) and died in late November (the 26^th). I’ve been noticing him guest-starring in more shows than I had thought I’d seen with him. It’s always fun to spot him, especially if it’s something I’ve seen before and liked. I think my most favorite non-Perry roles of his, however, will always be his Maverick characters. Staring in horror as a camel looks in a hotel window, challenging Bret Maverick to a duel, and swindling Beau Maverick by tricking him into taking a real diamond necklace are among his memorable Maverick moments. He had a real comedic genius, especially in the first two episodes. That comes out a bit on Perry, as Clay says strange things, but it’s certainly more understated there (and should be). I wish I had some more biographical information to go on for him, but I’m happy that so many of his performances are still available for viewing.