A Quinn Martin Production (1 Viewer)

[Detour (1945)]

Yes, but I didn't say aired, I said shot. My point being trying to figure out what the last thing he shot for TV before cameras rolled on Star Wars on March 22, 1976 (I think).

Fair enough, but considering the SoSF ep was aired in 1975, and the EiE ep in 1977, it is probably safe to say the SoSF ep was shot first. I don't think the EiE ep spent two years on the shelf after being made.

 

[Guy Foulard]

The death of Burt Reynolds reminds me that I'd love to see a DVD set of the one-season Dan August ("A Quinn Martin Production"). I'd settle for an Amazon MOD set (a la The Young Lawyers) at this point.

 

[Harry-N]

I had a similar inclination last evening, but instead pulled out 12 O'CLOCK HIGH's second season episode called "Show Me A Hero, I'll Show You A Bum" which had Burt Reynolds in a minor role. Always-intriguing Lois Nettleton was the main guest star along with Lloyd Bochner.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

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The death of Burt Reynolds reminds me that I'd love to see a DVD set of the one-season Dan August ("A Quinn Martin Production"). I'd settle for an Amazon MOD set (a la The Young Lawyers) at this point.

I was wondering if it might Spur Dan August coming out

 

[Flashgear]

I found this on Facebook, posted to a 12 O'Clock High fan page...an article on the tv series written by it's Air Force technical adviser, Msgt. James Doherty, from the August 1965 Air Force Magazine...the article does mention Robert Lansing's soon to be exit from the show going into season two, and John Larkin's sudden death from a coronary during production of season one...an interesting article with some good behind the scenes photos...the article mentions Quinn Martin being a Navy veteran producing a show on the WW2 Army Air Force...James Doherty himself flew 35 missions in WW2 as a radio operator/waist gunner with the 15th Air Force based in Italy...

 

[bmasters9]

I found this on Facebook, posted to a 12 O'Clock High fan page...an article on the tv series written by it's Air Force technical adviser, Msgt. James Doherty, from the August 1965 Air Force Magazine...the article does mention Robert Lansing's soon to be exit from the show going into season two, and John Larkin's sudden death from a coronary during production of season one...an interesting article with some good behind the scenes photos...the article mentions Quinn Martin being a WW2 Navy veteran producing a show on the WW2 Army Air Force...James Doherty himself flew 35 missions in WW2 as a radio operator/waist gunner with the 15th Air Force based in Italy...

Pretty interesting read-- something I'm wondering, though: why does the article put Quinn's age as being only 37 (my age)?

 

[Flashgear]

Ben, as usual you have a very good eye for detail. You're right, that must be a typo in the original article. Quinn Martin was born in 1922 and thus would have been 43 in 1965 when this article was published.

I like how James Doherty was rather diplomatic in describing the stories and presentation on the 12 O'Clock High TV series...writing for the Air Force magazine and being a real WW2 veteran of the actual grim and deadly air war, he knew that some of the scripts were pure Hollywood hokum. Actually, too many of them. But the series as a whole is a good one nonetheless, with some of the episodes being worthy of the veteran written book and Oscar winning 1949 movie. Doherty was still an active Air Force member at the time, and his official duties were in PR and entertainment industry relations in the Air Force office of information in Los Angeles. And serving as the credited technical adviser for the QM series. But you can tell from the article itself that he felt some discomfort and maybe even embarrassment at the more ridiculous plot lines. And on occasion, the improbable and over the top scenarios. Some of this by necessity driven by budget restrictions, and the need to appeal to the typical network audience and sponsor objectives.

By the way, I didn't know you were this young! I think it's rather unusual, but very admirable, for a young person like yourself to be a fan of '50s and '60s tv shows! Kind of like myself back when. So much of the children's programming when I was a kid (I'm 62 now) was 1930s and 1940s serials, movie series and cartoons that it was almost like growing up in those much earlier times. The Three Stooges, EastSide Kids/Bowery Boys, Andy Hardy, Henry Aldrich, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Cisco Kid, Charlie Chan, The Falcon, Boston Blackie, The Saint, Buster Crabbe and many more were as familiar to me in the early 1960s as they would have been for kids in the '30s and '40s!

Too bad that we'll likely never have a licensed DVD release of 12 O'Clock High. Estate and literary source complications, and of course, Fox doesn't care. I have a decent alternative set of the whole series, so I almost don't care anymore. Still, I'd love to see it available in unedited and remastered condition for streaming at least. Better yet for download. Also, for QM shows, I would wish for The New Breed, Banyon and Manhunter.

 

[bmasters9]

By the way, I didn't know you were this young! I think it's rather unusual, but very admirable, for a young person like yourself to be a fan of '50s and '60s tv shows! Kind of like myself back when.

Quite true-- not just those, but 70s and 80s as well. I've seen at least one show in full on DVD from each of those decades:

50s: M Squad
60s: O-R NBC Star Trek
70s: The Streets of San Francisco
80s: Hart to Hart

 

[Bob Gu]

Say, Randall, you can't be 62. Remember, all us classic TV fans are only 39!!

Less cropped:

 

[Flashgear]

Say, Randall, you can't be 62. Remember, all us classic TV fans are only 39!!

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MM...mmmmmm...If I could give a girl like that a squeeze nowadays, parts of me would definitely feel as young as 39...thank you Bob for that heart starter this early in the morning, ha, ha...speaking of the Maestro of Carnegie Hall, I was just by chance looking at this old copy of True Detective...I simply must read Case of the Saratoga Trunk..."Jack Benny's favorite mystery"....

 

[bmasters9]

MM...mmmmmm...If I could give a girl like that a squeeze nowadays, parts of me would definitely feel as young as 39...thank you Bob for that heart starter this early in the morning, ha, ha...speaking of the Maestro of Carnegie Hall, I was just by chance looking at this old copy of True Detective...I simply must read Case of the Saratoga Trunk..."Jack Benny's favorite mystery"....

Speaking of mysteries, I've read at least 10 of Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason novels, perhaps a few more!

 

[Flashgear]

Speaking of mysteries, I've read at least 10 of Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason novels, perhaps a few more!

Ben, I have some old copies of Saturday Evening Post from the Second World War years where some of Earle Stanley Gardner's new (at the time) novels were serialized from week to week in that magazine. He was an extremely popular mystery writer with a huge following, no doubt helped by the Perry Mason serializations in such a prestigious and high profile magazine like Saturday Evening Post with huge weekly distribution...back when more people actually read anything more than a tweet or Facebook post, ha, ha.

This is one that I have from June 27, 1942, where they were serializing Earle Stanley Gardner's The Case of the Careless Kitten in 8 weekly installments...if you were a subscriber in those days or bought it weekly, you could read a complete novel of his in two months...The Case of the Careless Kitten was the basis of the episode of the same name filmed for season 8 of Perry Mason (March 25, 1965)...this issue also features my absolute favorite "Willie Gillis" cover by Norman Rockwell...Willy Gillis was his fictional prototypical WW2 G.I. that he used in a series of his paintings during the WW2 years...I love the sly and teasing humor of this painting...What to do in a Blackout, ha, ha...

 

[Bob Gu]

John Larkin, General Wiley Crowe, (what a name!), of 12 O' CLOCK HIGH played PERRY MASON on the daytime radio show. When the PERRY MASON crime/soap opera radio show ended, and went to TV, the show morphed into the TV soap THE EDGE OF NIGHT, with Larkin as Mike Karr, law student, police officer, district attorney and later defense attorney.

The wiki entry on John Larkin is a great read, not only for Larkin's career, but the detailed overview it gives of radio and TV history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Larkin_(actor,_born_1912) (I must be doing something wrong with the link not going directly to the page, but you can still find the article by clicking on the John Larkin 1912 links that do come up.)

Larkin also appeared four times on the PERRY MASON TV series.

 

[Flashgear]

Bob, you closed the circle and tied it all back to a QM show...well done! I had forgotten that Larkin was radio's Perry Mason! Great stuff! John Larkin certainly was a very strong presence in the role of "Wiley" on 12 O'clock High. In the fine book on the whole 12 O'clock High saga, book, movie and tv series, The 12 O'clock High Logbook by Duffin and Matheis, Larkin's sudden death during the filming late in season one is described in some detail...six episodes calling for Larkin's presence remained to be filmed when he died suddenly at age 52 on Jan. 29, 1965. John Zaremba, who had previously appeared on the show, was called in as a stopgap before Andrew Duggan was cast for season two...of course, in the ongoing storyline, General Crowe was "reassigned to Washington". To me, all the actors who were cast as senior staff officers were great on this series...John Larkin, Frank Overton, Paul Newlan, Barney Phillips, Jason Wingreen, John Zaremba, Lew Gallo and Andrew Duggan. I greatly preferred Robert Lansing as the lead, but Paul Burke served admirably too at times. In the usually harmonious workings at Quinn Martin productions, the discord and hard feelings from the forced departure of Robert Lansing and Lew Gallo at the end of season one seem atypical. Producer Frank Glicksman quit over Lansing being dropped. From what I understand, for the most part, such back stage drama and discord was rarely seen at the humming machine that was QM productions.

 

[Bob Gu]

I remember reading in the QM book that one of the QM producers didn't like Vic Morrow and did not want him cast as the lead for the TRAVIS LOGAN, D.A. pilot.




Paul Newlan is an actor I noticed when I started getting all these old shows on DVD. He is all over the place playing police officials. Didn't Lew Gallo get a demotion when he went over to GOMER PYLE, U.S.M.C. ?
Or was that someone else? At least he made the cover of the comic.

 

[Bert Greene]

Yeah, Paul Newlan is someone you see all over the place in tiny little bit parts in films in the 1930s/40s/50s. So I always thought it was rather neat that he finally ascended into better and larger roles, which probably started with his regular bit as Lee Marvin's chief in "M Squad." What a face, and what a demeanor. You just don't really see people like that in our modern era of film. Which is sometimes why I think that even with the old-school production artifice, these older shows oftentimes seem more real and more down-to-earth to me than what I encounter in film/tv of more recent eras.

 

[Flashgear]

The aforementioned Paul Newlan as Lt. General Pritchard in season one of 12 O'clock High...I agree, he had a memorably magnificent and craggy face that represented a topographic map of the moon...here he is in a command conference with Savage and Crowe at "Pinetree"...screen caps from my DVD of From Heinie With Love...

"Pinetree" is the code word for 8th Air Force headquarters...in actuality, it was at High Wycombe in East Anglia...at the height of the air war in WW2, thousands of people were stationed in the sprawling and busy headquarters of the "Mighty Eigth"...and hundreds of thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of aircraft at the many airfields of East Anglia, Sussex, Kent and elsewhere in the UK...this is the building used to depict "Pinetree" in the series...

Savage and Crowe make their case to General Pritchard as to target selection...

 

[Flashgear]

Oh what the heck...here's some more screen caps from my DVDs of 12 O'clock High...from season one's Faith, Hope and Sgt. Aronson (Jan. 29, 1965, and ironically first aired on the very day of John Larkin's sudden and tragic death) and From Heinie With Love (Feb. 5, 1965)...

The "Picadilly Lilly" taxiing under power at Chino..."Archbury" of the book, movie and tv series...

Have a smoke, General!... just not "three on a match"...You've earned it for another brutal mission..."bandits at 12 o'clock high!"...

 

[Flashgear]

I just found this wonderful photo of Efrem Zimbalist Jr. with his teenage daughter Stephanie Zimbalist and producer Quinn Martin in the offices of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover on April 11, 1972. Hoover, who had been the original and only director of the FBI since 1924, would be dead in less than a month on May 2, 1972 aged 77. It has been claimed that Hoover and his deputy Clyde Tolson personally reviewed every script produced for the TV series.

 

[bmasters9]

I just found this wonderful photo of Efrem Zimbalist Jr. with his teenage daughter Stephanie Zimbalist and producer Quinn Martin in the offices of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover on April 11, 1972. Hoover, who had been the original and only director of the FBI since 1924, would be dead in less than a month on May 2, 1972 aged 77. It has been claimed that Hoover and his deputy Clyde Tolson personally reviewed every script produced for the TV series.

Is QM the one on the right w/the glasses?