TV and Movies

[Mothertrucker]

I am loving this thread! I cut my teeth on these type of mysteries

What got me started, before the '70's, was my grandmothers love of Perry Mason..I guess that hooked me

Name of the Game, the series with Robert Stack, Tony Franciosa and Gene Barry, as a Magazine publisher, started the sort of "anthology " mystery/drama series for me..

Then there was the Bold Ones..similar in the design of rotating episodes characters and scenarios that recurred..

NBC's Sunday Mystery Movie was the ultimate, this is where so many series had their genesis: Columbo, McMllan and Wife (Hey, Susan St James played Peggy Maxwell in The Name of the Game!), Banacek, McCloud, Madigsn with Richard Widmark, the show with Jessica Walter as a female chief of police..Heck, even Quincy got his start on the Sunday Night Mystery Movie rotation..

and I too, love the Cannon's and Mannix's - having grown up in Southern California..and still living here..i love seeing that film nostalgia..another thing i love so much about Perry Mason, still..

Thanks so much for this wonderful thread..I have really enjoyed the trip down memory lane...

[Oznell]

Wow, @Mothertrucker,  I had forgotten that they turned "Madigan" into a TV series with the gifted Richard Widmark. Would love to see that turn up on a retro channel.  He's one of the greats, a favorite film noir actor of mine...

[Judaline]

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@spiderw wrote:

I watched most of the detective shows mentioned and enjoyed them.  My sister is a fan of the Thin Man series with Myrna Loy and William Powell, she has watched the movies whenever they have been on TCM for years.  We both have loved Charlie Chan since we were young

Oznell, I too love Barney Miller, one of the best of its time.  I always laughed along with the antics of the cast, it was a well done comedy, something new and refreshing for the time it aired and still funny!

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Oh, weren't they the best? My brother and I loved them. And the Bowery Boys, lol.

[Mothertrucker]

@Oznell I think the problem is that "Madigan," like "The Snoop Sisters"  and "Tenalfly" didnt become dominant in the "wheel" of mysteries so NBC didnt make b=very many of them..

Speaking of the "Snoop Sisters", the idea that Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick would be doingTV at that time was amazing..Probably the precursor of "Murder, She Wrote"..dont know if it was a Levinson-Link series like MSW was, but many of the NBC Mystery Movie series were..Certainly Columbo, was, and that  would be considered the most popular of the genre...

I revcall they spread the Sunday Mystery Movie to Wednesday Night, but dont remember it lasting more than a season or two...

[sunshine45]

the sunday (and sometimes wednesday and tuesday)  mystery movies......

• Amy Prentiss
• Banacek
• Columbo
• Cool Million
• Faraday & Company
• Hec Ramsey
• Lanigan's Rabbi
• Madigan
• McCloud
• McCoy
• McMillan & Wife
• Quincy, M.E.
• The Snoop Sisters
• Tenafly

[twinsister]

@Mothertrucker - I loved The Name of the Game!!   Great show.

[Highlands72]

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@spiderw wrote:

I watched most of the detective shows mentioned and enjoyed them.  My sister is a fan of the Thin Man series with Myrna Loy and William Powell, she has watched the movies whenever they have been on TCM for years.  We both have loved Charlie Chan since we were young girls and now have the DVD's to watch.

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....

Not long ago, one of the retro channels was showing The Thin Man TV series with Peter Lawford and Phyllis Kirk.

I watched a few episodes. It was ok, but nothing in comparison to William Powell and Myrna Loy. I can watch them over and over again and never get tired of them; that goes for all of the movies Powell and Loy made together.

[Mothertrucker]

@sunshine45Wow! thanks! that sure brings back memories....I remember the ones with Richard Boone and Jessica Walter, but some of those are pretty obscure!

[Elri]

@Oznell

You are so knowledgeable and well-spoken.  You could easily be the presenter on TBS or one of those channels.   

I'm intrigued by something you said regarding method acting.  How can you tell if an actor was schooled in that method? 

I don't watch any of the crime dramas and never SVU.   But.....   

Have you seen "Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries?"  I am not a fan of the genre, but I loved this series. Do you have an opinion?  

[Oznell]

Thanks for the kind words, @Elri !

Hmmmm.  I don't know if I could always tell if someone is an exponent of Stanislavsky's "method" school of acting.  But there do seem to be certain hallmarks and mannerisms.  My understanding is that the Method requires that the actor go deep within himself, dredging up perhaps buried memories, and traumas even, to fuel his acting. Very psychological.  It involves much more internal work than external.  They use what they call "sense memories", I think.  The style can be quite mannered.

But Laurence Olivier is NOT a method actor, so somebody like him would work more from the outside, in-- he might get the key to a character just by putting on a false nose, or something...

Hope that I'm getting it right!  An example of a Method actor would be Brando, and the aforementioned Michael Parks.  Marilyn Monroe tried to practise the Method too. 

Hey, no I haven't seen "Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries".   Who is in it?   Why do you like them so much?