Author: Kiki Writes

Hyperfixation Reruns

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I’ve talked before about how I can’t answer the question of what my favorite TV show is. I realized recently that I don’t have favorites because I have hyperfixations.

I’ve never been officially diagnosed with any neurodivergency, but my tendency to hyperfixate on things has been with me all of my life. When I find something that truly grabs my attention for whatever reason, I can and will deep dive on it for days, weeks, months, and sometimes, off and on for years.

With this knowledge, it should come as no surprise that some reruns have reached hyperfixation level.

There are two kinds of hyperfixation for me when I fixate on a rerun. One kind has me watching the show repeatedly and picking it apart, wanting to analyze it and write about every conclusion I come to. I don’t share everything I write, obviously, but believe me, it happens. CSI: Miami is probably the most recent hyperfixation rerun of this type. I’ve pulled that show apart and looked at it from all angles and analyzed all sorts of bits and pieces. I’ve written about it. I’ve kept much of what I want to write about it to myself because I don’t want to overwhelm you. My analysis is stunning in a “get a life” sort of way.

The other kind of hyperfixation is when merely watching and analyzing isn’t enough. I have to learn everything I can about the show, the behind-the-scenes stories, and the people who made it. Jack Webb shows fit this bill. It wasn’t enough for me to watch Dragnet, Adam-12, and Emergency! multiple times and analyze the episodes and characters and cases. I had to dig into the background of the shows and learn about the creator and the actors. I had to know more about them than would be asked on Jeopardy. And then once that was satiated, I was able to move on.

Why do I fixate on the shows that I do? I have no idea. Something about them captures my attention and triggers something that makes it hard for me to let it go. I do not know what that magical attribute is because I’ve fixated on a variety of reruns over the years. Okay, yes, there have been a lot of cop shows, but there have been other, decidedly not cop shows, too. The answer isn’t that simple.

How long do the fixations last? It depends. When it comes to reruns, it averages a few months. Typically, enough time to watch the series through multiple times and let my brain mull it over and pick its bones clean. Some shows stay in my brain for much longer; others fall out of my head in record time. The length of time I spend fixating on a show doesn’t seem to affect the intensity. It’s called a hyperfixation for a reason. Regardless of the time spent, the focus is intense.

The one good thing about this particular hyperfixation thing is that it sometimes makes for some interesting blog posts about reruns. The other good thing is that I learn new things and it puts my critical thinking skills to good use in a different way.

It won’t get me rich, but I’ll have some really offbeat trivia to share in conversation.

Brace yourselves.

Book ’em, Danno–Episode 68

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Book 'em Danno Podcast

The greed monster is back! First it appears in the form of a questionable inheritance company in “Why Wait ‘Til Uncle Kevin Dies?”. The company fronts heirs a portion of their inheritance before their benefactor dies and then they collect what they’re owed when the benefactor kicks it. Yeah. It’s sketchy and lends itself perfectly to murder. And then some illegal opals spark a whole lot of greed in “Flash of Color, Flash of Death”. Dollar sign obsessions can really ruin a man.

Listen on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.

Here are two ambitious men. One is a little off-beat. The other is a little unhinged. See if you can tell which is which.

Book ’em, Danno–Episode 67

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Book 'em Danno Podcast

Five-O deals with a killer in their midst in “Murder Is a Taxing Affair” and then tries to keep a group of pimps from going to war with a loan shark in “Tricks Are Not Treats”. Come for the soul crushing government jobs, stay for the ’70s mack fashion.

I’m not sure why I’ve gotten so long-winded on these last few episodes. Hopefully, you’re sleeping well to my extra words.

Listen on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.

As I said in the episode, if our love doesn’t include matching vacation outfits, don’t even bother proposing.

matching vacation outfits

Book ’em, Danno–Episode 66

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Book 'em Danno Podcast

Season 6 starts to find its groove with this episode. First up, we’ve got murderous hillbillies in “One Big Happy Family”, and then arson with an agenda in “The Sunday Torch”. Heads up for some racism in the former and mental illness discussion in the latter.

Listen on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.

In the meantime, please enjoy Slim Pickens and Barbara Baxley straight up ruining a snobby hotel clerk’s day.

slim pickens and barbara baxley

Rerun Junkie Books–Quinn Martin, Producer by Jonathan Etter

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If you’re at all into reruns (and you must be if you’re here), then you’re probably familiar with the words “a Quinn Martin production”. A legendary producer during the ’60s and ’70s, the man had a gift for running a TV show. Sure, not all of them were multi-season successes and not all of his pilots were picked up, but he’s got more than one classic to his name.

First published in 2003, Quinn Martin, Producer: A Behind-The-Scenes History of QM Productions and Its Founder by Jonathan Etter covers Quinn Martin’s career as a producer via interviews conducted during the ’90s and early ’00s with actors, writers, directors, producers, and other behind-the-scenes staff who worked with Quinn Martin and for QM Productions during its run.

Starting with an introduction that covers the early life of Quinn Martin, including how he chose his name (he was born Irwin Martin Cohn), the book then covers his career show by show, starting with his executive producing stint on The Untouchables. The book goes into detail on Martin’s hit shows like The Fugitive, The FBI, Cannon, The Streets of San Francisco, and Barnaby Jones; the one season wonders like The New Breed, The Invaders, Dan August, and Banyon; and the shows that seemed to be doomed from the start like Caribe, Bert D’Angelo/Superstar, and The Runaways.

Because the history is covered via interviews, there are some unflinching takes, some dirt dished, and some conflicting views. Lynda Day George, who was the most frequent QM guest star, gushes about her experiences on most of the shows, but also isn’t afraid to be kindly honest about less than stellar times. The interviews with the crew, particularly the writers, directors, and other producers, are fascinating, not only dishing the details of Martin’s shows, but also illuminating how television was done back in the day.

Jonathan Etter does a fine job of organizing and incorporating the interviews with his research. He even includes failed pilots, TV movies, and Martin’s brief time producing films.

As this book was first released almost 20 years ago, many of those interviewed are no longer with us. I admit that seeing some of the names (like Robert Forster) was a gut-punch of sadness. But I’m also grateful that these experiences were preserved for posterity.

This book can be acquired at McFarland Books and Amazon.

Book ’em, Danno–Episode 65

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Season 6 has barely started and we’re already to my favorite episode.

Our favorite, Dan Budnik from Eventually Supertrain joins me to talk about “Draw Me a Killer” and “Charter for Death”. Minor trigger warning for animal death for “Charter for Death”. We do discuss it.

And of course, you can find spoilers for the episodes at 47:08 to 58:47 and 1:48:30 and 2:03:55.

Listen on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.

Dan and I are covering all the topics in this episode: socks with sandals, grindhouse movies, alternate-universe Cousin Oliver, currents, comics, Bert Convy in a see-through shirt. You’re not going to want to miss a second.

Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy

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Let me just disclaimer this by saying that I haven’t thoroughly researched this post. I’ve just been thinking about it.

And what got me thinking about the depiction of sex work in cop shows, particularly pimps in the ’70s, was an episode of Hawaii Five-O that I just covered for an episode of Book ’em, Danno called “Tricks Are Not Treats”. The basic plot of the episode is a group of pimps (called “macks” in the episode for some reason because they’ve had no problem calling a pimp a “pimp” in previous episodes) led by Harley Dartson, played by Glynn Turman, are at odds with a loan shark named Lolo, played by Gregory Sierra, who is taxing their business.

The episode was shot and aired in 1973. Without watching it, I bet you know what the pimps look like, act like, and sound like. There is a certain image that’s been embedded into popular culture when it comes to pimps, particularly of the 1970s variety. These pimps fit that image.

Most of the pimps in this co-op are Black, though there is at least one Native Hawaiian, one Asian, and one token white guy with a ‘fro. All of them are decked out in the classic pimp styles: slick suits, bright colors, fab shoes, and fetching hats. Oh, the hats! It may be stereotypical as hell, but they had style. These Honolulu pimps would have been able to blend into any city on the mainland. They had the look.

The characterization of the pimps of this time period in particular lends them to be very convenient bad guys on cop shows. Just get them in the right outfit and the audience doesn’t need much more than that. It was understood that pimps were bad because prostitution was against the law. Pimps exploited the women who worked for them and weren’t above using violence to get the women to turn their tricks. Frequently, it was these violent tendencies that had them crossing paths with our police heroes. And it was probably not an accident that it seems like a majority of pimps depicted on TV at this time were Black. It seemed like if it was a white pimp as a main villain -and this is just my impression as I have no scientific data or research to back this up because I’m lazy- that he was depicted more as a businessman. He had “escorts”. He had an office. He wore respectable suits. He might not be above committing violence, but at least he was “classier” when he did it.

In “Tricks Are Not Treats”, Harley Dartson is positioned as sort of a good guy in comparison to Lolo, an unlikely and uncommon position for a pimp at the time. The pimps in the episode are humanized beyond the stereotypes that they’re usually presented as. Their line of work isn’t excused and it’s mentioned that they are still willing to use violence against the women in their stables to keep them in line, but that isn’t the focus. It’s them against Lolo and the writers want you on their side. So, they make them likeable, relatable. J. Paul (Ron Glass), prior to his demise, comes across as a funny, friendly guy. Wunton (Moe Keale) is deeply affected by his friend’s death, to the point of losing his cool to defend J. Paul’s memory.

Harley, our main mack, is given a normal home life with a wife, who used to be on the streets as one of his girls, and two children. Sure, Semantha (Lynn Ellen Hollinger) is still very much involved in the administration aspect of the business, keeping track of the women in Harley’s stable and the jobs they’re doing (or should be doing, as she does threaten one woman over the phone to get to a hardware convention before Harley takes a coat hanger to her), but it’s treated as a normal Mom and Pop kind of business. Pimps are having a meeting out on the lanai and Semantha is tracking tricks while the kids eat lunch at the kitchen counter and Harley fusses at the older boy about doing his homework. It’s a rare depiction to get that much into a pimp’s personal life and have it be so suburban.

(It’s also worth mentioning that Harley and Semantha were an interracial couple with biracial children, something else not often seen on TV in 1973.)

There’s a pimp with a heart of gold in an episode of Barney Miller as well. In “The Hero”, Carl Gibson’s mack character Mayflower is arrested for pushing a trick out of a window and ends up helping the guys put a baby Todd Bridges back on the straight and narrow. Sure, he’s doing it in part to ease his own punishment, but a pimp on another cop show wouldn’t have done it at all.

The bad buy blueprints for cop shows are interesting in how they both contribute to stereotypes and then deviate from the stereotypes they helped create. The way pimps are used in these shows is a great example of that.

Imagine what I might discover if I actually applied myself and researched it.

Book ’em, Danno–Episode 64

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Book 'em Danno Podcast

Season 6 kicks off with a unique kind of bang. It’s a compare and contrast episode between the original 1968 series and the 2010 reboot. In 1973, Season 6 kicked off with what would become the legendary episode “Hookman”. In 2013, the reboot remade this legendary episode, sticking remarkably close to the original while updating and tweaking it to fit their timeline and canon.

In both episodes, a double amputee with an agenda is sniping cops and it’s up to Five-O to find out who he is, what his motive is, and stop him.

Listen on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.

Because I’m doing a full compare and contrast, I will be talking about the endings of both episodes. Mind the Spoiler Warnings from about 30:01 to about 34:18 and 50:15 to about 54:19.

Please enjoy this visual compare and contrast of our Hookmen and our heroes.

Rerun Junkie Show–Chopper One

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chopper one

I have a list of ’70s cop shows that I want to watch. It’s definitely a wish list because not all of them are available on DVD or streaming, and the ones that are available, I’m not exactly getting around to them at a quick pace. When Dan and I were talking about covering another show for Eventually Supertrain, I decided to use it as an excuse to knock one short-lived, ’70s cop show off my list –Chopper One.

I pitched it to Dan like an adventure because neither one of us had seen the show, but from what I gathered from the series synopsis, it would be like Adam-12, but in a helicopter.

I was kind of wrong.

Running for 13 episodes, the 1974 half-hour series follows Officer Don Burdick (Jim McMullan) and Officer Gil Foley (Dirk Benedict) as they fly over Los Angeles and fight crime under the supervision of Captain McKeegan (Ted Hartley) and are kept in the air by mechanic Mitch (Lou Frizzell).

Like Adam-12, it’s a 30 minute cop show featuring partners and crime. And that’s kind of the end of the similarities. Chopper One has a different vibe to it, and that’s not a bad thing.

Most of the episodes begin with an unrelated opening crime that Foley and Burdick foil. Some of them are pretty entertaining, like the burglar masquerading as a pizza delivery guy who had no trouble scaling to a second story window to enter the house and then JUMPED out of the window once his ill-gotten gains were gained. Burdick and Foley spotting his shenanigans in the air and Burdick surprising the thief in his own car was pretty great.

Then there are openings that are amusing for the wrong reasons, like the pair of joy riders they chase down in the chopper. The couple looks to be in their thirties. Whose parents are these? Or the mugger in the bright red jacket who pushes random kids on the swings in the park as a cover before stealing a lady’s purse -in front of those kids!- and eventually getting caught on a baseball diamond. Sir, you deserve your fate and those kids need to be educated on stranger danger.

A couple of episodes, including the pilot, opened with the chopper being utilized for non-crime reasons. In the pilot, a kid was in trouble on his sailboat way out to sea. Burdick and Foley rescued him. In another, the captain had Foley and Burdick pick up a star little league player from camp in order to make it to a game. Considering in the previous episode, the captain didn’t even want to authorize a kid who’d helped them catch some crooks go for a ride, I have questions.

Actually, this show left me and Dan with a lot of questions, but I’ll get to that.

After the opening, the episodes tended to focus on one crime. Now, I know what you’re thinking. How many ways can a police chopper be involved in an investigation? I wondered that, too, and it turns out that there are several. They got pretty creative about it. Over the course of the series, Burdick and Foley used their chopper to deal with hostage situations, robberies, rooftop shooters, ransom deliveries, abductions, and hijackings.

Mechanic Mitch became my favorite character pretty quickly, so it should be no surprise to those who know me that the episode “Killing Time”, in which his wife is kidnapped, is my favorite. I love to see my favorites go through it (yes, I’m a bad person). The reason that Mitch’s wife is kidnapped is so he’ll be persuaded to ground the chopper to avoid police interference in a political assassination plot orchestrated by Lloyd Bochner, who did more of the dirty work than I anticipated. Though Mitch initially does the usual thing of not telling anyone, he eventually comes clean and delivers the key clues to help rescue his wife, which leads to Burdick and Foley saving the day.

Though Burdick is older and therefore more of the veteran officer between the two, Foley isn’t exactly a rookie. From what little background we get on the two officers, it could be supposed that Foley has spent most of his police career in the chopper, perhaps recruited and/or joined the police force for that express purpose; whereas Burdick has obviously spent more time on the ground patrolling.

The episode “Downtime” really illustrates this. The chopper is grounded for repairs because they got a kite caught in their rotor and it’s done some damage. Instead of taking some time off, they’re put on patrol, with Captain McKeegan giving them a sarcastic lesson on what exactly a patrol car is and its function. The time on the ground reacquaints Burdick with a familiar thief played by Dub Taylor, and has Foley begging Mitch to get the repairs done so he can get off the ground. I would have actually liked that the entire episode was this light-hearted and fun, but then a bomber played by William Watson enters the mix and things get pretty serious as now they’re in a race to find the bomb before it goes off, which leads them to perform some trickery to get the bomber to reveal his secret. The second half of the episode is also good, and I wish that it was an episode of its own, too. But smooshed together, it’s still a good watch.

Other fabulous guest stars that either bedeviled Burdick and Foley or received their assistance include Laurie Prang, John Quade, and John Hudson; future Dirk Benedict foil William Lucking; Lew Brown, Skye Aubrey, and Austin Stoker; frequent TV guest stars France Nuyen, Norman Alden, and Frank Marth; Kim Hamilton, Kenneth Tobey, and Jamie Smith-Jackson; Vulcans Mark Lenard and Lawrence Montaigne; Tony Young, Jesse Vint, and Ross Elliot; Western alums Dabs Greer and Michael Ansara; Victor Argo, Eddie Firestone, and James Daughton; legends Dick Van Patten, William Windom and Bruce Kirby; Marvin Kaplan, Rick Hurst, and Harry Lauter; Hawaii Five-O guests Mitzi Hoag, Edward Binns, and Patricia Smith; Penny Fuller, James Luisi, and Jenifer Shaw; horror film alums Christopher Stone and Ford Rainey; Art Lund, Roy Jenson, and Arch Johnson; M*A*S*H alum Allan Arbus; Darleen Carr, Vince Howard, and Richard X. Slattery; and future star Nick Nolte.

Thirteen episodes isn’t a lot to work with, but Chopper One still managed to work in a few cop show tropes that I look for: a cop mentor either in trouble or causing it; a cop being investigated for something; and someone seeking vengeance on a cop or cops. If the show had continued, I’m sure we would have gotten a police-involved shooting episode.

Thirteen episodes also isn’t much time for character development, not that cop shows of this time were super keen on it, but it did happen. But in the course of the short season, we did get a sense of our heroes. Foley might be young and spend most of his time in the air, but he could come up with some good ideas and he had a much better way of relating to people than Burdick. Burdick, the veteran officer, tended to be…we’ll say brusque sometimes. Okay, he was not above yelling at people in situations that didn’t necessarily require a raised voice. His hard-nosed approach to policing served him well in the line of duty, leading him to take risks other cops might not take. Jim McMullan and Dirk Benedict have great chemistry, so their lighter moments played just as well as the heavier stuff.

Captain McKeegan might have changed most over the course of the very short series, going from an unreasonable, shouty prick in the beginning, to a more reasonable, less shouty, not quite prick by the final episode. Mitch pretty much remained Mitch throughout, a loveable, sometimes snarky mechanic. Practically perfect in ever way.

Given what must have been a huge budget thanks to the helicopter and required helicopter stunts (Jim McMullen getting in on a few of them towards the end of the run), only a huge hit right out of the gate would have guaranteed a renewal. Unfortunately, this was a series that could have used a little more time to find itself. Overall, the quality is pretty good, though there are a few episodes that feel a little off. Dan suggested that some of the writers weren’t well-versed in making a 30 minute drama and I think he might be on to something. Some episodes felt like they could have benefited from a full 60 minutes to allow us to get to know the victims were were supposed to be sympathizing with better.

The short run time also left us with questions. How exactly is this wheelchair-using child that apparently can never leave his house getting an education? With his single mother working all day, what happens if he has an incident and falls out of his chair? Were there no support systems in 1974? Why is official firearm disposal procedure just dumping guns into the ocean? How the hell was Lloyd Bochner going to shoot this politician in a moving car from his crane? How could he be sure where he was sitting? Why sacrifice Mitch’s wife instead of using a decoy in the motorcade since they couldn’t change the route or ground the helicopter? What was the point of Ginger? We could have the entire episode without her and nothing would have changed. Do helicopter mufflers really exist? If so, do they really work like silencers? (Actually, don’t answer that one. We live in bliss believing they do.)

Lingering questions aside, the show is very watchable. Even the episodes that I wasn’t keen on aren’t awful. It’s a fine ’70s cop show and I would have loved to have seen what it could have become if it ran longer.

We could have seen what that chopper could really do.

Rerun Junkie Guest Star–William Smith

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William Smith has a great face. Rugged. Handsome. A big, strong guy, it wasn’t hard for him to be imposing. He could be that rough good guy or a nasty bad guy. And anything in between. He had quite a few movie roles and plenty of guest star spots, but not nearly enough regular/recurring roles on shows. A guy like that deserves to be seen on a regular basis.

He was Jimmy Delaney on Zero One; Joe Riley on Laredo; Falconetti in the mini series Rich Man, Poor Man and in the series Rich Man, Poor Man Book II; Brodie Hollister on Wildside; and he had a recurring role as Willie Shell on Emerald Point N.A.S.

I probably know him best as Detective James “Kimo” Carew in the last season of Hawaii Five-O. At that point, the series had undergone several cast changes over the years, the most recent being James MacArthur choosing not to return after Season 11. William Smith was brought in to help fill that void.

Mr. Smith’s first appearance is a memorable one. He’s not a local boy. He’s an ex-cop from Boston tracking a mainland gangster who may have info about who murdered his wife and child. This mainland mobster’s ties with Hawaiian mobster Tony Alika gets James Carew all tangled up with Steve and Five-O. In the end, Carew ends up joining the team and earning the nickname Kimo, which is Hawaiian for James.

Kimo stands out because he’s not local and he has a personal agenda. He shows up with more baggage than just a change of clothes, an unusual introduction for a team member on this show. It stands out. And the way he bullies Tony Alika, played by Ross Martin, stuck with me.

One of my favorite guest appearances of his is in the Season 1 episode of The A-Team called “Pros and Cons”. The episode is a favorite because of Murdock’s antics and the lengths that Hannibal, BA, and Murdock go to get arrested, but William Smith is the whole reason that the A-team get involved in the first place. Mr. Smith plays Jase Tataro, a friend of B.A.’s who’s doing time in a jail that has prisoners fight to the death for fun and profit. The winners of these fights are given a head start to escape. Jase makes it all the way back to L.A. and meets up with his little brother (who is like twenty years younger than he is; there’s some serious late baby action happening there) before he’s captured. Little brother and B.A. convince the rest of the A-Team to go in on a jailbreak.

Mr. Smith and Mr. T are believable buddies, using their brief screen time before Jase is captured to establish their friendship. The next time we see them together, they’re fighting to the death. Jase’s surprise and joy at seeing his friend in the training area quickly disappears with a simple “shhh” gesture from B.A. The actual fight pulls no punches, the two of them selling it until the rest of the team shows up to put an end to this fight club. We already know about B.A.’s toughness and we saw Jase’s in the beginning. It’s a brutal beating between friends. William Smith does a whole lot for what screen time he has.

As a guest star, he spent a lot of time on Westerns like Stoney Burke, Wagon Train, The Virginian, Daniel Boone, Death Valley Days, Alias Smith and Jones, Gunsmoke, and The Young Riders. He also turned up on plenty of cop shows like Mod Squad, Columbo, The Streets of San Francisco, S.W.A.T., The Blue Knight, Dan August, Bert D’Angelo/Superstar, CHiPs, T.J. Hooker, Ohara, Houston Knights, Due South, Hunter, Walker, Texas Ranger, and Nash Bridges.

He hung out with Raymond Burr on Perry Mason and Ironside; was intriguing on Mission: Impossible, Masquerade, and Search; privately investigated on The Rockford Files, Vega$, Matt Houston, Riptide, Simon & Simon, and Barnaby Jones; went to war on Combat! and checked in on Trapper John, MD; got a little creepy on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and Kolchak: The Nightstalker; saw some action on Knight Rider and Airwolf; hung out with Lee Majors on The Six Million Dollar Man and The Fall Guy; traveled on Movin’ On and B.J. and the Bear; did some lowkey investigating on Longstreet, Murder, She Wrote, Mr. Lucky, and Danger Bay; got a little silly on I Dream of Jeannie and took a vacation on Fantasy Island; went to the dogs on Lassie and martialed some arts on Kung Fu; made some names with Julia, Benson, and Vinnie & Bobby; dealt with caped crusaders on Batman and the General Lee on The Dukes of Hazzard; found some sci-fi fellas on Planet of the Apes, Logan’s Run, and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century; and even got a little nighttime soapy on The Yellow Rose.

Though William Smith had a certain look which might have landed him more of certain kinds of roles than others, he always brought his best, and the TV Universe is greater for it.