"Murder, She Wrote"

 Lately, (in the last 3 or 4 days) I haven't been blogging because my Internet service is in and out - mostly out.

According to the I-T people, who know, I have to get a new service because the one I have isn't going to do it anymore because a bigger company bought them, and now they just want to rip us off and not do their job.

I had just been drawn to watching "Murder, She Wrote" on Amazon Prime.

And then - I can get it at night, but not in the daytime.

       I said the other day, "I can't miss 'Murder, She Wrote' anymore!"

It's like - a sort of, 'Murder, She Wrote' emergency. ...

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your eyes got me dreamin'

 

On You Tube there's a video titled:

BOB WELCH - Ebony Eyes LIVE (With Stevie Nicks & Mick Fleetwood...

uploader / channel:  Videodrome Discotheque

- listen and enjoy -

        The guitar work in this live outdoor performance is amazing, and Stevie Nicks is like some kind of powerful, electric, rock music fairy.

Mick Fleetwood, of course - mysterious, vibey percussionist.

        After the song ends, there's a brief, casual onstage interview conducted by Jeff Conaway (if you think you've seen him someplace, it was on the sitcom "Taxi"...)

I heard this song on WBCN in Boston.

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whatever happened to K-Mart?

         I was thinking yesterday, after I looked at pictures on the Internet of "story arcs", that the line going up and then down can kind of leave you with the impression  that it's a "rise-and-fall" situation.  Like - first things get good and then they go "downhill," as the expression goes.

But that isn't it.

It just means the character is in a different place from where he started, and the action has reached a conclusion.

A story arc is - something starts, the energy of the story intensifies (that's the line going up), and then after the peak action, or intensity, calm is restored.  Or - peace is restored, or - a new situation for the protagonist(s) is reached.

        As "Christa-phah" says in The Sopranos, "He starts here.  He winds up there."

Now, a story arc can be a rise-and-fall situation.  The ending can be negative instead of jubilant and positive, but that's not what the downward line on the story-arc graphs means.  

Examples of story arcs:

"Behind The Music," a VH-1 show from the 1990s; and

videos on You Tube where they tell about businesses that had success and then failed.

        Those are definitely "rise-and-fall" models.

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ya know who had an ark?

 Recently here, we were discussing story arcs - In The Sopranos, Christopher Moltisanti's frustration that he can't get an arc, both in the screenplay he's trying to write, and in his real life.

        And the other character in the show says with sarcastic but lighthearted humor, "You know who had an arc?  Noah!"

But I didn't spell it right in the earlier post, because I was, at that moment, more interested in the overall point, which is - Perhaps we take ourselves too seriously when we dream of greatness.

Anyway, to be clear:

arc

and

ark 

        are two different words, even though they are pronounced the same.

The story arc is a-r-c.

Noah's ark is a-r-k.

(story arc)

Noah's Ark

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wide ties and non-matching patterns

 

"Classic TV Theme:  McMillan & Wife (Fielding)"

is a video on You Tube

(uploader / channel) - David Gideon

--------------------------------------------

viewer comments:

~~  Another great theme from the pen of Jerry Fielding who died so young.

~~  So much nostalgia from the 70s such wonderful piece of Music from Jerry Fielding and the touch of Henry Mancini with Rock Hudson as police commissioner and Susan Saint James as his wife thank you for the music!!!!

~~  This music makes me feel so good and takes me to a happy time,  The show was wonderful and made me laugh.  So hard to find it on TV now.  I could watch it over and over.

~~  Great theme and how cool is a real orchestra.  I liked this show because it never took itself so seriously with a lot of humor throughout.

~~  I never understood why a top movie star like Rock Hudson even considered doing this series.  Did he need the money?

        ~  TV work is different from making Pictures, it's a lot easier and a great way to make yourself known - everyone has a TV set at home, however, not everybody used to go to the movies.

~~  I was still watching shows on a black and white TV and I remember ringing my girlfriend (who had a colour set) and asking about the colour of Sally's outfits.

___________________________________

As far as a show about a husband-and-wife solving mysteries together, McMillan & Wife was followed up in the '80s by Hart To Hart (with Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers), and both of these TV shows had a popular antecedent in the "Nick And Nora" films, aka "The Thin Man" series, during the 1930s and '40s.

        The Thin Man movies were based on a novel written by Dashiell Hammett.

stars of "Thin Man" movies:  Myrna Loy, Asta, and William Powell

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then, after faking the gunshot...

 

The TV series McMillan & Wife surfaced on Amazon Prime.  It ran from 1971 - 77.  Rock Hudson and Susan St. James played the main characters.  I remember noticing this show when it was new, but I never watched it.

I don't know - maybe it was on Sunday nights and that was a school night, so I couldn't stay up, or something....

Rock Hudson plays the police commissioner.  In San Francisco, I think.  (Haven't ascertained that yet.)

        The first three episodes of Season 2 contained references and homages that I really enjoyed:

Episode 1 was titled "The Night Of The Wizard"  - and they mention the film Gaslight.  Susan St. James says, "that movie with Charles Boyer" and Rock Hudson rejoins, "and Ingrid Bergman."  

        And then they say somebody is trying to "gaslight" this beleaguered woman in the episode.

Episode 2 of Season 2 is called "Blues For Sally M" and it clearly owes some of its content and inspiration to the feature film Play Misty For Me, which came out the same year when McMillan & Wife hit the television airwaves.  Jazz musicians, etc.

And Episode 3, "Cop Of The Year," has a character whose last name is Thursby - a name I've only ever heard in The Maltese Falcon, a movie starring Humphrey Bogart, based on a novel by Dashiell Hammett.

The Maltese Falcon  (1941)

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balmy California nights

West Hollywood painting

I started reading a book called Opening The Doors To Hollywood, by Carlos De Abreu and Howard Jay Smith.

This is an excerpt from Mr. De Abreu's part of the Preface:

----------------- It all started in 1991 when two friends of mine, Italian actor Franco Nero and English actress Vanessa Redgrave, were in town.  My wife and I invited them for dinner at Locanda Veneta, a small restaurant in the West Hollywood area.

        We also invited Ed Feldman, the producer of such films as Witness, Green Card, and The Doctor, and his wife Lorraine; Taylor Hackford, director of An Officer an a Gentleman; as well as Lois Bonfiglio, producer of  Old Gringo and Jane Fonda's partner.  It was one of those balmy California nights.

As always, Franco told stories about his worldwide experiences while traveling and making films.  After the main course was served, I decided to share my dream with my friends.  "I, Carlos De Abreu, am going to get in the movie business.  

My goal is to discover new writers through my contest, the 'Christopher Columbus Screenplay Discovery Awards.'  Then, with my contacts in the industry, I am going to have features made."  

The table fell silent.  

It was as if the world had stopped.  I didn't know what to do or say.  I had no option but to continue with my forceful explanation about how I was going to do it.  Vanessa finally came to my rescue and said how great she thought my idea was.

        Here I was, sitting with the real pros, from actors to acclaimed directors, and I was telling them how I was going to reinvent the wheel . . . to make movies, just like that.  

Ed Feldman pleaded with me to stay in my business - international marketing.  

Lois Bonfiglio, with a faint smile, advised me to tighten my belt for at least four years.  

Taylor Hackford just kept eating and flashed me a courteous smile of approval.

        I didn't want to admit it, but my well-meaning friends were trying to save me from agony.  It was to no avail.  I was more determined than ever to open the doors to Hollywood.

        The seed for this book was conceived that same balmy night.

--  Carlos De Abreu

"Standard West Hollywood" by Guy Yanai

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