tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post177449254767604927..comments2024-03-27T05:54:38.797-07:00Comments on <i>bare</i>•bones e-zine: The Hitchcock Project-Henry Slesar Part Ten: "Forty Detectives Later" [5.28]John Scolerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14082147756474762000noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-61116901948171455392019-09-22T18:26:15.025-07:002019-09-22T18:26:15.025-07:00Thanks, John! I'll take avuncular as a complim...Thanks, John! I'll take avuncular as a compliment and define it in a genial, kindly way. I was born in 1963, so I never saw any of these shows outside of reruns. I fell in love with them in the '70s watching them on channel five in New Jersey. I was researching the series in high school and planning to write a book in the early eighties when the McCarty & Kelleher book came out and I threw out all my notes. I was allowed into the CBS Program Information dept. one memorable day and allowed to look at their microfilmed records from the series; I wonder what ever happened to those? It's so great that the shows are now out on DVD and online so everyone can enjoy and dissect them. Jack Seabrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02216640325305820140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-41379122277235065802019-09-21T00:23:40.922-07:002019-09-21T00:23:40.922-07:00Jack: based on your most recent post here you are,...Jack: based on your most recent post here you are,--and I think I'm guessing correctly--several years younger than I'd have guessed from the way you write, think and feel. By the time James Franciscus was appearing in Longstreet I seldom watched anything on TV with my parents, aside from the occasional All In The Family. As to age, there's maturity, a seasoned quality in the way you write that has always come across to me as avuncular, and I mean that in a good way.<br /><br />Yes, this is more a personal post, thus OT as to what this blog is about, and I hope I haven't broken any rules in writing this way. Most blog type sites are fairly liberal when it comes to such things, yet some places can get stuffy. In any case, I'm still enjoying what must be by now my third or fourth go-round with Hitchcock Presents on MeTV. They're nearly half-way through the second season now. It's fascinating seeing the show literally evolve...<br /><br />There's some rough stuff in the early shows, and yet many show off (as it were) Hitchcock's fondness for (obsession with maybe?) gentility and its discontents. In such matters Hitchcock was still very much the Englishman abroad, and I have to give him points for not taking a condescending attitude toward those "rougher hewed and not so civilized as us" Americans. He plays fair with America and American subjects, impressive in a man of his age and generation, and overall, for all his drollery, a far more straightforward sort than one might have expected; for his time, I mean.john kenrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00710666533854296630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-71705628331864120902018-08-31T10:27:15.227-07:002018-08-31T10:27:15.227-07:00Thanks, John. I always liked Franciscus, ever sinc...Thanks, John. I always liked Franciscus, ever since seeing him at a young age in the 2d Apes movie and on Longstreet, which my parents watched.Jack Seabrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02216640325305820140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-2037222957602091132018-08-30T13:06:38.491-07:002018-08-30T13:06:38.491-07:00Forty Detectives Later was a good episode of the H...Forty Detectives Later was a good episode of the Hitchcock series. James Franciscus was a decent actor and he played his part well. He struck me as incongruously Ivy League for a private eye, especially for the show's time period. That he seemed a fish out of water actually worked in the end, though.<br /><br />George Mitchell reminded me a bit of John McIntire, who had co-starred with Franciscus on the half-hour Naked City a couple of years earlier. Both actors had a somewhat folksy style, which well suited them to play rustics and westerners, the occasional small town doctor, clergyman or justice of the peace. They both had an air of authority about them, with McIntire's presence somewhat more dour. <br /><br />The story wasn't quite as tense or engaging for me as the best Hitchcock episodes, with maybe the absence of a truly decent, heroic seeming character a major factor. There was a distastefulness to what was happening that even good actors and some lively dialogue couldn't conceal, though maybe that was the point.<br /><br />Still, the ending came as a genuine surprise to me. I didn't see it coming, had forgotten that early in his career Jack Weston, prior to his moving to more benign, often humorous roles, could really play a sleaze, and play it well. We've probably both known a few like him in our lives: lowlife types with some redeeming traits, in this case a love of music, that could make one forget, if only briefly, just how unsavory they really were.john kenrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00710666533854296630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-91517241242686763852013-08-27T20:43:01.136-07:002013-08-27T20:43:01.136-07:00I asked Slesar about the pronunciation a few years...I asked Slesar about the pronunciation a few years before he died and, oddly, there wasn't a simple answer. Meaning, I guess, that there wasn't a family consensus? I've forgotten the details now. I'd have to check the tape but I think he used "Sleaze-er" -- in any case it was something less elegant than any of the guesses above (or my own).Stephen Bowiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07863007897411917832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-55888910248249281542013-08-27T14:37:20.577-07:002013-08-27T14:37:20.577-07:00Todd:
Actually, Sean's "parochialism&quo...Todd:<br /><br />Actually, Sean's "parochialism" isn't odd at all.<br />In fact, it's even more commonplace within genres, as witness the pissing matches between fans of "noir" versus fans of "cozy" in the mystery world.<br /><br />In his last couple of posts on his family blog, my friend Max Allan Collins, who works all sides of the mystery thoroughfare, has written about this phenomenon. Max just sighs and rolls with it, and I guess I should too.<br /><br />I suppose I ought to add in passing that Sean passed away about three years ago, so this is no longer an issue with him ...Mike Dorannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-25524591997393761052013-08-27T09:31:53.584-07:002013-08-27T09:31:53.584-07:00And Sean was correct, on sigh-fie. Even if oddly p...And Sean was correct, on sigh-fie. Even if oddly parochial about what writers were allowed to do.Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-24139871088553491242013-08-27T09:30:24.532-07:002013-08-27T09:30:24.532-07:00Yes, Harlan Ellison in PARTNERS IN WONDER also rep...Yes, Harlan Ellison in PARTNERS IN WONDER also reported "sleh-sir"...imagine a softer attack on "slay-sir"...Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-17707522724126042822013-08-23T08:02:21.438-07:002013-08-23T08:02:21.438-07:00One of my old TV GUIDEs, circa early '70s, has...One of my old TV GUIDEs, circa early '70s, has a profile of Henry Slesar, with emphasis on his headwritership of THE EDGE OF NIGHT and SOMERSET (two daytime soaps produced by Procter & Gamble).<br />It was here that I first learned that P. G. Wodehouse was a fan of EDGE, and in particular of Slesar's writing.<br />According to TV GUIDE, Slesar is pronounced "SLEH-sir", which I guess means that the central "s" is soft.<br /> ... or something like that ...Mike Dorannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-79625331503064538772013-08-22T17:35:29.395-07:002013-08-22T17:35:29.395-07:00Mike, you beat me to it! I think Lloyd says Slessa...Mike, you beat me to it! I think Lloyd says Slessar, but with his "theatrical" way of speaking one can never be sure if he's accurate.Jack Seabrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02216640325305820140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-45263093956798256132013-08-22T14:17:02.241-07:002013-08-22T14:17:02.241-07:00The consensus pronunciation seems to be between &q...The consensus pronunciation seems to be between "Slesser" and"Slezzer",which unfortunately doesn't rhyme with anything.<br />See Norman Lloyd's Academy interview for verification.<br /><br />When my brother and I were kids, he was into science fiction and I preferred mysteries.<br />Sean had seen Henry Slesar's stories in SF magazines (and I learned the hard way never to use "sci-fi" , which he considered a slur, in his presence). <br />When he saw Slesar's name in one of my EQMMs, it confused him: " ... But he's a <i>science-fiction</i> person!"<br />Never the twain, and all that.<br />He had a similar problem a few years later with Isaac Asimov.<br />We live and learn ... maybe.<br />Mike Dorannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-40050820961482890092013-08-22T11:16:51.287-07:002013-08-22T11:16:51.287-07:00Sounds like ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS needed some ...Sounds like ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS needed some new blood after five seasons. Novice screenwriter Henry Slesar showed those old hacks how to write a proper teleplay! How is Slesar pronounced, by the way. Slay-zar? Sleezer? Slesser?Harvey Chartrandnoreply@blogger.com