John Randolph Webb
(April 2, 1920 – December 23, 1982)
Jack Webb, one of my all-time favorite humans — and a huge influence on this blog’s very existence, was born 106 years ago today.
The image up top is from the Dragnet 1967 episode “The Shooting”:
Sgt. Joe Friday (Jack Webb): “Flinch, and you’ll be chasing your head down Fifth Street!”
Mr. Webb was probably the greatest cheerleader law enforcement ever had. Boy, do we need him now!
I’m not a big fan of the first season of Mannix. The retooled second season, guided in part by Lucille Ball, works so much better — setting the tone for the rest of the show.
But the first season’s fourth episode, “The Many Deaths Of Saint Christopher,” has Neil Diamond as himself, singing “Solitary Man” and other songs.
Directed by Gerald Mayer
Written by John Meredyth Lucas
Director Of Photography: Gert Andersen
Film Editor: John A. Fegan Jr.
Cast: Mike Connors (Joe Mannix), Gail Fisher (Peggy Fair), Skip Homeier (Agent Gordon), Paul Stewart (Andre Korvak), Milton Selzer (Dave Wright), Mariana Hill (Ellen Barton), Jonathan Lippe (Thomas Clayton Hewitt), Angel Tompkins (Barbara Stoner), Sivi Aberg (Carla Renata), David Chow (Yoshi), Byron Morrow (Robert Stoner)
A young widow (Mariana Hill, below) hires Mannix to look into her husband’s suspicious drowning — he was an expert swimmer. This leads to a government agent (Skip Homeier), a wealthy crook (Paul Stewart) and stolen plans for a new type of aqualung that can extract oxygen from sea water.
Director Gerald Mayer did 13 episodes of Mannix. The nephew of MGM owner Louis B. Mayer and son of the studio’s manager Jerry Mayer, Gerald directed lots of TV shows — Perry Mason, Michael Shayne, The Defenders, The Fugitive, Gunsmoke, The Virginian, Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, Dan August, The Six Million Dollar Man and many, many more.
The great character actor Paul Stewart appeared on three episodes of Mannix. Skip Homeier (in his only episode) wears a pair of Converse Jack Purcell sneakers. Purcell was a Canadian badminton player, stock broker and athletic shoe designer.
By the way, Mannix was the last show put together by Desilu Studios.
Further Reading: Here’s a nice piece on Mannix my friend Stephen Bowie wrote for the AV Club.
The legendary instrumental group The Ventures had a big hit with Morton Stevens’ theme for Hawaii Five-O. Their version is not what you hear in the show — you’ll find that one on the Capitol soundtrack LP.
This is the sheet music for the title song. Since this was 1968, The Ventures are sporting some pretty hip threads (and don’t appear all that comfortable in them). They’re still playing Mosrite guitars, or at least being photographed with them. Guitarist Nokie Edwards had recently quit; his replacement Gerry McGee is seated.
From the Art Of Manliness website, here’s something from The Rockford Files I’d really love to do someday. The J-Turn seemed to be in all the best episodes.
Thanks to Dan Conway for the link.
The complete Emergency! series — the pilot, six standard seasons, a seventh comprised of TV movies and a crossover episode of Adam-12 — is now available on Blu-Ray from Universal. Sound the alarm!
For seven seasons on NBC, Emergency! followed firemen turned paramedics John Roderick “Johnny” Gage (Randolph Mantooth) and Roy DeSoto (Kevin Tighe) of the Los Angeles County Fire Department — Station 51, to be exact. Station 51 worked closely with the ER folks at Rampart General Hospital — played by Robert Fuller, Julie London and Bobby Troup.
One of the series’ creators was TV overachiever Jack Webb (credited as executive producer), who saw this as a logical next step after Dragnet and Adam-12. The idea was to depict the day-to-day life at a fire station, a similar approach to Webb’s cop shows. In fact, Jack Webb directed the Emergency! pilot, which features Martin Milner and Kent McCord of Adam-12. It kicks off Disc 1 of Season 1. NBC bought the show before the pilot was even cast — there wasn’t time to find a director, so Webb did it himself (above).
Once you get past Webb’s pilot movie, Emergency! doesn’t have the no-nonsense, rigid, say-your-lines-and-move-on pacing of Dragnet and Adam-12. But it does go from event to event the way Adam-12 does, illustrating the random, hurry-up-and-wait life of first responders. (Emergency! is an hour per episode, where Dragnet and Adam-12 are just half an hour.)
Where Dragnet and Adam-12 focus on their two leads, Emergency! boasts a true ensemble cast, centered around Gage and DeSoto. Robert Fuller is Dr. Kelly Brackett, a noted emergency medicine guy; Julie London (Webb’s ex-wife) as Dixie McCall, RN, an ER nurse; and Bobby Troup (London’s next husband) as Joe Early, M.D.. There are plenty of firefighters, nurses, cops and doctors that turn up from time to time.
Some of the rescues we see are quite intense. A sequence in the plot, with a car on the edge of a cliff and Julie London tending to a patient inside, plays like the end of a chapter of a Republic serial. And there are plenty of other throughout.
If you know what you’re looking for, you’ll see lots of LA locations along the way, with Carson’s Fire Station 127 standing in for LA Station 51.
But a great deal of the series was shot on the Universal backlot, such as the Psycho house. The switch back and forth can be obvious and jarring at times, but it’s all part of the package.
And that package, it’s really something on Blu-Ray. Over 111 hours — and every minute of it looks terrific (even the SD Adam-12.)Those red trucks look beautiful in the 70s version of Technicolor. The cinematography is typical for something from Jack Webb, artfully artless, from pros like Jack Marta, Bud Thackery and William Margulies.
Universal has polished these shows up so they shine like a Station 51 truck, and I recommend this very, very highly. So, now that this one’s been knocked out of the park, when can we expect Dragnet and Adam-12?
“A Quinn Martin Production.”
If you heard that coming out of your TV set, you were hearing the voice of Mr. Hank Simms.
Henry “Hank” Simms was a very prolific announcer on all sorts of TV programs, but his work on over a dozen different Quinn Martin shows is what we know him for today.
After attending the University of Oklahoma, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1942. He served with the 456th (B-24) Bomber Group in Italy. After the war, he went back to Oklahoma University and Tulsa University before getting into radio announcing in Tulsa, Wichita, Dallas, LA and finally Hawaii. The Air Force recalled him during the Korean War, and after returning to Hawaii, he and his new wife Moe moved to LA so Hank could focus on radio and television announcing.
He was an announcer for The Johnny Carson Show, The Academy Awards, The Emmys and The Golden Globes — along with Quinn Martin Productions like The FBI, The Fugitive, Dan August, The Streets Of San Francisco, and Barnaby Jones. He has a bit part in Martin’s The Invaders as a TV reporter.
Simms also did the voice work for QM’s Cannon, starring William Conrad, and he later replaced Conrad as the announcer for Buck Rogers In The 25th Century. Plus, he spoofed himself by providing very QM-ish narration for Police Squad! in 1982.
It’s intriguing that Hank Simms’ voice is so iconic, yet no one knows who he is.
This CHiPs motorcycle toy, made in Japan by VTG, I think, was just one of several motorbike toys put out during the show’s run.
It’d be easy to look at this thing and figure that must be John, but it’s too generic for that.
Calling all cars! Universal is bringing all six seasons of Jack Webb’s Emergency! series to Blu-Ray later this month. (Yeah, I know, they’re not cops.) Along with the show, you get the Adam-12 crossover episode “Lost And Found.”
I’m so stoked about this. Hope this means it’ll be followed by Dragnet and Adam-12.
Welcome to TV PD. What’s it all about? Pretty simple: a blog about old cop and PI TV shows from the 50s through the 70s.
It’s a salute to Friday, Gannon, Dan Matthews, Reed, Malloy, Pepper, Ponch, John, Rockford, Mannix, McGarrett, Dan August, Kojak and all the rest. The idea for this thing has been sitting in the back of my brain for years as I tried to sort out the best way to approach it.
And never forget: this blog is dedicated to Mr. Jack Webb.
TV PD