Harry-N
Senior HTF Member
After sampling THE LONER by looking at some opening and closing credits, verifying that the set was OK, I filed it away awaiting an appropriate time to start looking at these. So last night, with not enough time before bedtime to watch something of an hour's length, I suggested to the wife that we watch the first episode of THE LONER.
"An Echo Of Bugles" played like an episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE, with its slow-motion war-footage and flashbacks. All that was missing was some kind of twist ending. Tony Bill was the main antagonist in this one and his youth shone through. He was 25 when the episode was filmed but was playing someone "16 or 17, no more".
The veteran Whit Bissell played the wronged man in need of Lloyd Bridges' assistance. He played the war-weary former soldier from the South who was derided by Tony Bill, and turned in his usual superb performance. John Hoyt appeared in flashback sequences firmly anchoring this production in the '60s.
Overall, the main part of the episode looked like sharp, crisp black & white. But the opening credit sequence looked a bit worse for wear for some reason. This episode had Vic Perrin handling the voice-over duties in the opening, much like he did as the Control Voice for THE OUTER LIMITS, Peeking ahead, I determined that that voice-over only lasted a few episodes into the season and later the sequence played through without any narration, just Jerry Goldsmith's fabulous theme for the series. But I did note that the opening film appeared rougher in virtually every episode, making me wonder if any of the episodes themselves are less than that crisp black & white of the pilot. I'll have to take note of that as I get further into the show.
Looking through a few end-credit sequences, all of the sponsor-in-the-corner images were present, as was the 20th Century Fox Television logo followed by the same CBS "iris" that's on all of THE TWILIGHT ZONE episodes. It's always nice to have the original elements of a TV series preserved on a decent home video format.
I'm still puzzled by how it could be that I don't remember watching any of this series. I have a gut feeling that maybe Dad didn't like this more "pacifist" type of western, preferring the shoot-em-up types of an earlier era. Looking over the television schedule in that fall of 1965, I recall the following things about Saturday nights:
We'd long watched THE JACKIE GLEASON SHOW, but with I DREAM OF JEANNIE appearing on NBC during the second half of that show, I think we switched over to watch that first year. Then we stuck with NBC for GET SMART. It was odd that we'd turn away from CBS - that was the network that we watched most of the time, but the pull of the BEWITCHED-type show starting on NBC that year was strong. And GET SMART was just one of those right place/right time shows.
9:00 to 9:30 would have presented us with a viewing problem. SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES could have been a strong pull, depending on the film. If the movie was not of interest, then a switch to ABC for a half-hour dose of Lawrence Welk might have been in order. Then at 9:30, instead of THE LONER, we probably stuck with ABC and watched the first half of THE HOLLYWOOD PALACE, waiting for GUNSMOKE to appear at 10, back on CBS. That has to be the reason that I have no memories of actually watching THE LONER when it was on.
Thankfully, fifty years plus later, I can appreciate and enjoy the series.
Harry
"An Echo Of Bugles" played like an episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE, with its slow-motion war-footage and flashbacks. All that was missing was some kind of twist ending. Tony Bill was the main antagonist in this one and his youth shone through. He was 25 when the episode was filmed but was playing someone "16 or 17, no more".
The veteran Whit Bissell played the wronged man in need of Lloyd Bridges' assistance. He played the war-weary former soldier from the South who was derided by Tony Bill, and turned in his usual superb performance. John Hoyt appeared in flashback sequences firmly anchoring this production in the '60s.
Overall, the main part of the episode looked like sharp, crisp black & white. But the opening credit sequence looked a bit worse for wear for some reason. This episode had Vic Perrin handling the voice-over duties in the opening, much like he did as the Control Voice for THE OUTER LIMITS, Peeking ahead, I determined that that voice-over only lasted a few episodes into the season and later the sequence played through without any narration, just Jerry Goldsmith's fabulous theme for the series. But I did note that the opening film appeared rougher in virtually every episode, making me wonder if any of the episodes themselves are less than that crisp black & white of the pilot. I'll have to take note of that as I get further into the show.
Looking through a few end-credit sequences, all of the sponsor-in-the-corner images were present, as was the 20th Century Fox Television logo followed by the same CBS "iris" that's on all of THE TWILIGHT ZONE episodes. It's always nice to have the original elements of a TV series preserved on a decent home video format.
I'm still puzzled by how it could be that I don't remember watching any of this series. I have a gut feeling that maybe Dad didn't like this more "pacifist" type of western, preferring the shoot-em-up types of an earlier era. Looking over the television schedule in that fall of 1965, I recall the following things about Saturday nights:
We'd long watched THE JACKIE GLEASON SHOW, but with I DREAM OF JEANNIE appearing on NBC during the second half of that show, I think we switched over to watch that first year. Then we stuck with NBC for GET SMART. It was odd that we'd turn away from CBS - that was the network that we watched most of the time, but the pull of the BEWITCHED-type show starting on NBC that year was strong. And GET SMART was just one of those right place/right time shows.
9:00 to 9:30 would have presented us with a viewing problem. SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES could have been a strong pull, depending on the film. If the movie was not of interest, then a switch to ABC for a half-hour dose of Lawrence Welk might have been in order. Then at 9:30, instead of THE LONER, we probably stuck with ABC and watched the first half of THE HOLLYWOOD PALACE, waiting for GUNSMOKE to appear at 10, back on CBS. That has to be the reason that I have no memories of actually watching THE LONER when it was on.
Thankfully, fifty years plus later, I can appreciate and enjoy the series.
Harry
