Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Happy Birthday, Raymond Burr and Lee Miller!


Happy Birthday to Raymond Burr tomorrow, born May 21st, 1917! And to Lee Miller, born a few days earlier on May 18th, 1917!

A couple of readers have been finding a treasure trove of fun things with Raymond. In the comments on the previous entry, there are links to an Australian interview in 1961 and clips from appearances on shows such as Jack Benny! I am planning to watch the clips to celebrate. Meanwhile, I have heard the interview and Raymond is his usual lovely, charming self. It’s truly a delight to listen to!

One thing I find very curious is that Lee Miller was born in Scotland. He certainly has no trace of a Scottish accent when playing Sergeant Brice or other characters. I wonder whether he ever had an accent and disguised it or if he moved to America before he really picked one up? There’s just so little information on this fascinating man. And in later years he has certainly dropped off the radar. According to IMDB.com, he’s still alive. Is he? Isn’t he? I do wish someone knew what has happened to him.

It also says he was Raymond’s stand-in on Ironside as well as Perry. That’s neat. He pops up occasionally on Ironside in cameo roles, but doesn’t have a steady role like he did with Sergeant Brice. I wonder if that was by his choice?

It’s unfortunate that my suspicions about MeTV’s schedule are now confirmed. The complete summer schedule is online and the morning Perry episode is gone. Ironside is completely off the schedule. Instead of doing anything different on Sundays because of The Love Boat and The Rockford Files moving to weekdays, those shows are going to keep their Sunday slots too! Good grief! And following the nighttime showing of Perry will be a block of Dragnet and Adam-12, the latter of which will also have an hour block on afternoons.

MeTV seems to test a lot of things in the summer. Things that work continue into the big schedule changers in autumn. Things that don’t work are abandoned. Case in point: Last summer they thought it would be interesting to take The Twilight Zone off the schedule and only keep Night Gallery. Apparently people didn’t like it at all; come autumn, The Twilight Zone was back.

So if enough people don’t like the removal of the morning Perry episode and Ironside, there’s still hope. One or both may return after summer. I’ll certainly be sending emails to MeTV on what I think of the schedule changes. I’m totally in favor of adding The Mod Squad, but not at the expense of Ironside. I’m not that crazy about removing Hawaii 5-O for The Rockford Files, either! And I’m disappointed about the removal of the morning Perry episode, since some viewers were only able to watch in the morning. I thought it was really cool that Perry was the only series to air twice a day, other than some of the half-hour shows.

Again, remember about the Perry movie this Friday! It’s the last television movie on MeTV for a while. I don’t like that they’re stopping the feature for the summer or longer, but it’s kind of neat that it will go out with a Perry flare!

23 comments:

  1. At the time of Raymond's death ,he and Lee Miller had been friends for 40 years.Here's an archived news article about where they met-http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1917&dat=19710508&id=F70tAAAAIBAJ&sjid=5IkFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2833,1961013

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    1. Oh, that's awesome to read! Thank you! :) Those archived newspapers yield so many treasures.

      LOL, those poor guys, both getting the flu.

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  2. At least the fans stand a chance to let them know about it. So that's a good thing. As for the Perry movie, got that penciled in and set up for this Friday. I'm stoked :).

    Happy Birthday Raymond and happy birthday Lee! Will be watching some of the clips tomorrow. Just saw a nice episode I dvr'd recently, TCOT Silent Six. It was really nicely done imo. And the ending was pretty funny.

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    1. A good thing indeed.

      Yay!

      The Silent Six is great. One of the darkest episodes of the series, but very well-done and so much Richard Anderson! The epilogue is an amusing bit after the somberness of the plot.

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  3. Yea it was really dark, but well worth the watch. The actors did a good job. Definitely. It didn't hurt, that's for sure.

    Been looking for some articles for the heck of it and came across some nice ones via 'perry mason pr' on Google. A nice little trove. It's been fun reading the older stuff.

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    1. Definitely. It's one of my favorites from the last season.

      Sweet! I'll have to search using that phrase. Now and then I go through those archives looking for articles on assorted actors. I've found some very nice stuff.

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  4. Cool. Got a couple of questions: I've been looking for a couple of interviews, one from Barbara Hale from around the time of Tell Tale Talk Show host where she mentioned that a 'major shake up' must have inspired it. And one from Raymond Burr... I just read that during some of the press for the movies that he responded to interviewers who asked why Perry and Della why they weren't married: “How do you know that they’re not?”

    I've been trying to look for both of these with no luck... closest I came to the Barbara Hale one was this: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1993-05-16/features/9305160063_1_della-street-erle-stanley-gardner-perry-mason/2

    It mentions about the kiss, but not the shakeup.

    And the other I think might be a tv interview... but I'm still wondering. I'm continuing the hunt for it, but any help would be appreciated. Thanks :).

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    1. I have no idea where these things might be, but I'll keep a look-out. :)

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    2. @ Lucky: Thanks :).

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  5. Ladybug you are a very gracious host.I've been looking forward to reading another of your Perry Mason fanfics will you be doing one soon?IThe last one spiteful spirit was wonderful

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    1. Aww, thank you! :) What I would like to do would be to somehow figure out how to untangle the absolute mess I've made of The Malevolent Mugging. I do have a couple of vague ideas for other stories, but I feel like my hands are tied until I can fix that story. I hate to think of embarking on another big mystery story while leaving that one in knots.

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    2. I admire people who have the ability and imagination to write. I don't like to start anything new either if there's something unfinished.I'm amazed though at the talent of some of the writers for both Perry Mason and Ironside.

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    3. Yes, there are some very good writers for both categories. It's great to see creative minds at work. :)

      I did have that idea for a short story where Della meets Mannix's secretary Peggy, so I might try writing that now that I've watched a lot of Mannix.

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    4. That sounds like a really good story idea.I loved Peggy,Gail Fisher was beautiful. Have you ever considered Ironside?I noticed you gave advice to Kaleen and Mounty Swiss.

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    5. Thank you! Yes, Peggy is wonderful.

      I think I've idly considered it, but I haven't yet had story ideas for Ironside.

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  6. @ Ladybug: Found a nice fan vid today on Youtube: It's by DellaMason. She did a really good job on it and it has one of my favorite scenes from TCOT Reckless Romeo in it! Man is that one sexy. Saw it when I was a kid, but I was too young to see anything but the chemistry in it lol.

    http://youtu.be/GlyJye7j-p4

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    1. Thank you! That was a very enjoyable watch. I don't associate that type of music with them at all, but the lyrics were nice and I loved the clips. I think the necklace one was my favorite. And the last one was sweet. Which is the Reckless Romeo clip?

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    2. @ Lucky: You're welcome. I don't either. It sounds too modern. The necklace one :). It's SO romantic. That's a line crossing moment imo. And the kiss is adorable.

      @ marsha: Thanks. Nope. And they had it in spades. Yep. They're the ones I grew up with. The show's cool, but I love the fact that they got to develop the characters more in the movies. All of those moments made it for me. And I'm planning on buying the movies as each set comes out.

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  7. Anonymous that was a treat.You can't fake that kind of chemistry.Do you prefer the Perry movies?

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  8. Just saw the 93' special about him on Youtube and it was nicely done. Was surprised by what her son had said about them :). He said that they loved one another. That's one big compliment and it showed how far he'd come and how much he'd matured.

    You guys should check it out while it's still there.

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    1. Thanks for the heads-up. :) That does sound lovely. But now I'm curious: what did the son say in the past that showed a different mindset?

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  9. I did see that and you're right it was nicely done.One thing you can say is that Raymond had a lot of loyal friends.Barbara's love for him was and maybe I should say is
    genuine and it was obviously reciprocated.In the rat race that is Hollywood I would say their relationship was unique

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  10. @ Ladybug: It was something in that book that came out in 08', that he wasn't comfortable (don't remember the exact quote). It's good to see that he grew.

    @ Marsha: Yep :). Definitely. You don't see that every day.

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