Quick post

Gah, no posts for a month. I am so sorry; it’s been nuts around here. This year I even remembered the anniversary date the show premiered and just wasn’t able to find the time to get a post up. But I haven’t neglected Perry-related works, as I’ve been working on The Nefarious Necklace story at http://www.fanfiction.net/s/11485312/. By now I almost have it done. I plan that one more full chapter and an epilogue can wrap it up.

I’m really happy I was finally able to tell that story, after agreeing to write it for my steady reader Harry2 three years ago. Although I imagine it’s very different from the story he was envisioning!

I brought in some elements from a couple of Livejournal-only blurbs I was experimenting with years ago, mainly the mechanic David Solomon and his true identity. I debated for some time whether to go that route or not, but I really wanted to tell a story with a ­Decadent Dean ­flavor and I didn’t think I could tell a story with those characters without ending up dipping into those plot elements.

That whole storyline is an experiment and a “What if . . . ?” Personally, I still feel Tobin Wade is probably the biggest slimeball in the series, due to having really been a friend at one time and then letting his greed get the better of him. But since he was a true friend at one time, I just couldn’t help but wonder if he would ever regret what he did. The story examines the possibility of what might happen if he not only regretted it, but was given a chance to try to make reparations.

Then the other night I was watching The Bartered Bikini and saw something curious. Sergeant Brice is absent and instead a Sergeant Macready is helping Tragg. Very oddly, Macready comes over to Perry and greets him familiarly, even asking if he remembers meeting before. Perry definitely does and is very congenial.

Well, Perry may remember, but I definitely did not! I looked up the character and so far have not found any other occasion where he was present in the series. At least if he was, an actor other than Herbert Patterson must have played him for his other appearance(s).

It is certainly a curious thing, a character apparently set up as a recurring character who actually did not recur. The other times characters have greeted Perry like that, they have been around in other episodes, such as Sergeant Landro and the sheriff of the county where Mr. Hale is the prosecutor.

I wonder what they were planning to do with the character and why he didn’t recur. And even stranger, why his appearance references an earlier appearance that doesn’t seem to have happened. Anyone know? Perhaps there was an earlier appearance of Macready played by another actor that I don’t remember. Although I am pretty sure I would remember that name; I have been paying attention to all the sergeants who wander in this time around.

Notable Guest-Stars: Milton Selzer

While trying to think of a good post for today (I didn’t want to miss yet another one on account of the October Writing challenge I’m still working with!), I thought perhaps I’d fall back on an idea I’ve had for a while, that of highlighting another fabulous Perry guest-star.

It turns out this is a pretty good time for highlighting too, as I chose Milton Selzer, and he was born, as well as died, right around this time of year.

He is certainly among the most prolific of television’s character actors. I’m always seeing him pop up on something, from The Untouchables to The Fugitive to Hawaii 5-O. And he always turns out a brilliant performance, no matter whether he plays good guys or bad.

Born in 1918, Milton lived in Lowell, Massachusetts and then in Portsmouth, New Hampshire with his family. After serving in World War II, Milton got his start, as did many classic character actors, on Broadway.

Although he appeared in several movies after moving to Los Angeles, it’s largely his astounding amount of television guest-spots for which Milton is most strongly remembered. Just like with Richard Anderson and H.M. Wynant, Milton is everywhere. He appeared in several anthology shows in the 1950s, most of the major series during the 1960s and 1970s, and continued acting on into the 1990s. And unlike H.M., he even got in some regular roles in series, such as The Famous Teddy Z and Valley of the Dolls. (Wow, I didn’t know they made a whole series about that.)

To Perry fans, he is both Dr. Aaron Stuart in The Decadent Dean and Dr. Max Taylor in The Bullied Bowler. Unfortunately, it’s been so long since I’ve seen the latter episode that I can’t remember much about his character in that. (I’m told he’s the murder victim.) But I watch The Decadent Dean semi-frequently and it’s one of my favorite season 7 ventures.

Aaron Stuart is a great character, a man with so much stress being piled on him that he is losing his patience, and seriously, who can blame him? But he never loses his integrity or compassion. Even after everything Tobin Wade does to him, he feels no malice. He is absolutely sickened at the very thought of having killed a man, even if it was an accident. As he says to the fellow at the mortgage company, he hasn’t even begun to pay. He feels he will be atoning for it the rest of his life.

I usually see Milton play good guys, or at worst, neutral guys or antiheroes or down-on-their-luck average Joes. I’ve very rarely seen him play outright bad guys, except on The Wild Wild West. But, as he seems to have played many bad guys as well as many good, I’m sure I’ll be running across more of them eventually. I am very impressed with every one of his roles; they are always very believable.

He has appeared with prominent Perry alumni in several other shows, including Raymond Burr on Ironside, Richard Anderson on The Six Million Dollar Man, and H.M. Wynant (I’ll count him since Sampson recurs!) on Hawaii 5-O.

He was married to the same woman from 1953 to his death in 2006, which is awesome. According to the information I found, he was cremated.

He has left an astonishing legacy of appearances in media, according to IMDB.com, and I bet there’s still more that they don’t yet have listed. I look forward to discovering him in many more shows, and rediscovering him in current favorite episodes, in the future.

Chamberlin

I did eventually finish and post that piece about Tobin Wade and company: http://31-days.livejournal.com/2976050.html

And this is the first part of it, from some time ago: http://31-days.livejournal.com/2921402.html

I always worry a bit when writing such pieces that the one hurt by the other will come off stubborn and for it to look terrible if they can’t readily forgive. But Aaron Stuart has every right to be struggling with it, after what was done to him and Marian. I still wanted a hopeful resolution, though.

I love how the episode shows what a great person he is in contrast with Tobin. The thought that he killed Tobin, even accidentally, is so sickening to him that he feels he can scarcely even begin to atone for it. Aaron is not a person who would deliberately harm anyone out of spite, no matter what was done to him first.

(And I find it amusing and interesting that Milton Selzer and H.M. Wynant appeared together in several other assorted episodes of shows. But they don’t share any scenes except in the Hawaii 5-O episode While You’re At It, Bring in the Moon. That’s a fun one.)

This past evening, faced with the choice of two episodes that don’t have Hamilton, on my local station and on Me, I finally chose my local station’s. It’s the last of the Chamberlin episodes, The Wintry Wife, so I decided to watch it and see if I could glean any inspiration for Chamberlin’s future role in The Malevolent Mugging, since he’s a supporting character in it.

I have the feeling that episode is one of the ones most heavily butchered. There were so many places where a scene and its music stopped abruptly, indicating a cut. I wonder if Chamberlin features into any of the clipped scenes.

Since that is the episode where we see him a lot outside of court, I paid special attention to how he was written and portrayed. And I was a bit surprised to note that in his first scene, when he talks to Perry in his office, he sounds a lot like Hamilton in season 1. He’s very formal with Perry (which is to be expected) and very stubborn about the case he’s setting up. Not that Hamilton isn’t always firm about his cases when he believes there’s enough evidence to substantiate them, but the actual stubbornness did lessen as time went on and he grew more willing to listen to Perry’s thoughts.

In court, Chamberlin is very businesslike in his approach, almost making him seem a bit detached from the situation. He definitely doesn’t have Sampson’s passion, and his approach doesn’t seem like Hamilton’s, either. So it’s nice to see that Robert Karnes did try to give him his own style.

Somehow now I imagine Chamberlin and Andy getting along particularly well, since Andy uses a businesslike approach himself.

I’m wondering if the way Chamberlin is written in his first scene has anything to do with the episode’s writer. It was Samuel Newman’s third Perry script. Perhaps the main episodes he was familiar with when he set about writing were from season 1. Those early episodes certainly are popular with fans. It’s not hard to believe that perhaps even while the series was originally running, those episodes could have been used as a guidepost for how to write the scripts.

Looking up his earlier Perry scripts, I’m intrigued to note that he wrote The Deadly Double, the infamous split-personality episode. Although dated now, and not an episode I often seek out, I’m still very impressed by Constance Ford’s performance as both girls.

The other script he wrote prior to this one is The Resolute Reformer, the season 4 episode featuring John Hoyt. And since it is one of the ones without Hamilton as well, that does mean that Samuel Newman’s only previous experience writing Hamilton came from season 1. It’s interesting that he went from that to being one of the champions of writing for the district attorney’s office, even penning The Fatal Fetish in season 8.

Out of curiosity now, I’m probably going to dig out my uncut copy of The Deadly Double and see how he wrote for Hamilton in that first attempt. There definitely were times in season 1 when Hamilton had awesome scenes, and it would be nice if Samuel Newman wrote a couple of them.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I failed at writing a post yesterday. And I'm failing at writing a proper post today. This weekend I should have the time to get one in. Today, let's all eat to our hearts' content!

Meanwhile, I did jot off a rather odd character exploration blurb/short story involving characters from The Decadent Dean. I never thought that would happen.

http://31-days.livejournal.com/2921402.html