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 Posted:   May 30, 2009 - 9:24 PM   
 By:   Eric Paddon   (Member)

Those on this board who have praised Marianna Hill for her WWW and Trek appearances, would get a kick out of her small part as Captain Burke's dinner date for the week, as she plays a shy reserved university professor determined to prove to the good captain that she knows how to cut up and let loose! big grin









 
 Posted:   May 31, 2009 - 12:09 AM   
 By:   ZapBrannigan   (Member)

Those on this board who have praised Marianna Hill for her WWW and Trek appearances, would get a kick out of her small part as Captain Burke's dinner date for the week, as she plays a shy reserved university professor determined to prove to the good captain that she knows how to cut up and let loose! big grin

She's one of my all-time favorites and scarce as hell. Thanks, man.

 
 Posted:   May 31, 2009 - 2:46 PM   
 By:   Eric Paddon   (Member)

Glad to oblige, Zap!

Another spotlight now for the lady with the face to die for, Nancy Kovack, because of her appearance as Steve Cochran's alibi in episode #27 "Who Killed WHO IV?"











 
 Posted:   May 31, 2009 - 3:31 PM   
 By:   Eric Paddon   (Member)

Dee Hartford, former wife of directing legend Howard Hawks, gets to show Captain Burke how to play pool in episode #28 "Who Killed Annie Foran?"





Dee's sister was married to Groucho Marx in this period, and she also made the guest rounds on the Irwin Allen shows (twice on "Lost In Space" and on "The Time Tunnel" where she was Helen Of Troy) and also as the kidnap victim of Mr. Freeze in a S2 "Batman" episode, as pictured below.

 
 Posted:   Jun 5, 2009 - 9:37 PM   
 By:   Eric Paddon   (Member)

Episode #29 "Who Killed My Girl?" is a highly awkward departure from the normal series format. The murder victim is the lady who Captain Burke just brought home from a date. But she was also a lady the good captain had been serious with some years earlier to the point of marriage almost being in the cards. So as a result, the good captain is not his usual suave, debonair self when investigating the murder, but filled more with burning anger and guilt, especially as he learns about his girlfriend's tragic downturn in life after their break-up. Needless to say, the departure in format doesn't work well and one suspects the episode was written so Gene Barry could show a little more dramatic range.

Because the episode involved an obsessed Captain Burke trying to find out who killed his former flame, that meant this episode couldn't give us the usual high volume of female guests. The only one in the episode is Ruta Lee as a friend of the deceased and her scene is entirely with Detective Tilson and Sergeant Hart, where she gives them the sordid details of the deceased's wild lifestyle.





Ruta knew how to excel at playing golddiggers with the Twilight Zone episode "A Short Drink From A Certain Fountain" being the best example.





In the mid-70s, Ruta enjoyed a brief renaissance on daytime television as the lady who threw the dice on the original version of "High Rollers" hosted by Alex Trebek.

 
 Posted:   Jun 6, 2009 - 3:15 AM   
 By:   TheSaint   (Member)



Nice 'fro, Alex!

 
 Posted:   Jun 6, 2009 - 8:28 AM   
 By:   Eric Paddon   (Member)

Those were the days when NBC exec Lin Bolen (the supposed inspiration for Faye Dunaway's character in "Network") was actively promoting her "young stud" hosts on the daytime lineup (Alex, Geoff Edwards, Jim McKrell) while insuring the demise of the original version of "Jeopardy" hosted by Art Fleming at the time.

 
 
 Posted:   Jun 6, 2009 - 1:13 PM   
 By:   suburbanite   (Member)

Outstanding work, Eric! And while I know Eric from another message board, I assure you all I'm not shilling for him. Not only are the screencaps fun to see, but the comments by him and the rest of you are quite interesting.
For instance, those Marianna Hill caps make me think the Batman people watched the ep, because in S2, she played a henchmoll of King Tut's who went 'undercover' as the Commissioner's substitute secretary, and she had a very similar bookish look with the glasses as an undercover operative. I suspect in those days, with no VCRs or DVDs, producers and casting directors must have been influenced greatly by the most recent roles of an actor/actress.
A case in point is another actress on this thread, Dee Hartford. Within about three weeks in the fall of 1966, she played Helen of Troy on Time Tunnel and Miss Iceland on Batman, as pictured before. And the two roles were almost identical--a gorgeous woman being held captive by the 'villain' of the piece, who wants to romance her yet she resists.
While the TT ep certainly hadn't aired by the time she was doing Batman, they were both Fox productions so I'm sure the Bat-powers that be knew about it.
And btw, I wish the Batman eps had more closely resembled that promo photo. Hartford as a willing moll would've been more interesting, IMO.
And, oh yeah, I can't think of any actress who ever had better cheekbones than Nancy Kovack. absolutely flawless.

 
 Posted:   Jun 6, 2009 - 9:19 PM   
 By:   Eric Paddon   (Member)

Thanks "suburbanite". smile

Marianna's "Burke's Law" episode has one other thing in common with her "Batman" episode in addition to her "before/after" transformations. In "Batman" her King Tut moll character was "Cleo Patrick", which was the name of Jayne Mansfield's character in the "Burke's Law" episode!

The things you can notice when watching so much vintage TV (along with spotting when costumes from one show get reused on another etc.)! big grin

 
 Posted:   Oct 24, 2009 - 6:54 PM   
 By:   Eric Paddon   (Member)

I've held back for a while doing the last three episodes of S1 hoping that by then, VCI would have announced a release date for S2, but alas nothing is forthcoming from them at the moment. So in the meantime, here's episode #32, "Who Killed 1/2 Of Glory Lee?"

The good captain is off to a bad day, when after setting aside his off-day for some quality time with Dawn Wells before her three hour tour, he gets interrupted by Jill Donohue for the date he was supposed to keep!









Luckily for Amos, there's a murder he has to go off and solve before it gets any worse. smile



 
 Posted:   Oct 24, 2009 - 6:58 PM   
 By:   Eric Paddon   (Member)

Marianna Case, who had one later WWW credit is the elevator girl who finds the body.



Betty Hutton is the comical widow of the "How dare he die before I make him sweat with the divorce!" variety.



Also on the suspect list are Nina Foch, Giselle MacKenzie, Buster Keaton and in the big spotlight, overly vain model Anne Helm (wisely, with her overly youthful aura, she is shown making a play for Detective Tilson rather than Captain Burke)







 
 Posted:   Oct 24, 2009 - 7:02 PM   
 By:   Eric Paddon   (Member)

Eileen O'Neil's Sergeant Ames gets a great scene. Captain Burke goes undercover in an outfit off the "Guys And Dolls" rack to get info from aged Joan Blondell who's running her own moving crap game on wheels, but then the police arrive and the Captain winds up in jail and Sergeant Ames must get him out!





Her reaction reveals how much she enjoys the irony of it all.



The Captain's order not to laugh goes unheeded.

 
 Posted:   Oct 25, 2009 - 4:22 PM   
 By:   TheSaint   (Member)



http://www.flickr.com/photos/81311705@N00/4005574693/in/set-72157622571899262/

I don't know how to get a photo from Flickr to appear in this post so, if you'd like to see a pic of Ruta Lee, click the link. She's holding up quite well. That's yours truly with her.

 
 Posted:   Oct 25, 2009 - 4:57 PM   
 By:   Eric Paddon   (Member)

I think this should do it.



On your photo, right-click and get the link under "Properties" and then copy and paste that into the message with the img and /img bracketing, leaving out the http part.

 
 Posted:   Dec 10, 2009 - 9:30 PM   
 By:   Eric Paddon   (Member)

Bumping this thread tonight in respectful memory of the good Captain, Gene Barry, who made it a series fun to watch and worth spotlighting (just one part of his long and distinguished career).

RIP.




 
 Posted:   Dec 10, 2009 - 9:33 PM   
 By:   Steve Johnson   (Member)

And Thank YOU for all these wonderful photos we have enjoyed.

Gene would be proud.

 
 
 Posted:   Dec 11, 2009 - 8:18 AM   
 By:   Gordon Reeves   (Member)



In Appreciation -



































Gene’s Supremely Entertaining Law
Department.




 
 
 Posted:   Dec 11, 2009 - 8:24 AM   
 By:   Gordon Reeves   (Member)



Xtra, Xtra, Xtra - See All About It (um, Her) Department:

Came across this and thot tt might get an equally appreciative rise outta your readership, HooRaq.



Oh you Honey wink smile big grin

 
 Posted:   Dec 1, 2010 - 12:40 AM   
 By:   Eric Paddon   (Member)

Well for about a year and a half now, I have waited patiently for S2 to get a proper DVD release. But alas, Fox, the owners of the Four Star catalog, have been playing hardball on the matter of licensing out more episodes to VCI, who did a brilliant job with Season 1 (as well as "Honey West"). Thus, in order for this thread to continue at long last, it requires resorting to that dreaded standby the boot. The episodes are too good to not give some deserved attention (and hopefully one day these less than stellar caps can be replaced by good quality ones worthy of what's been already seen here).

Episode #35, "Who Killed Cassandra Cass?". A society woman has been shot dead and a *lot* of people are ready to take credit for it. Like for instance return guest, Lola Albright.





This scene does not actually confirm or disprove her innocence or guilt!

Not a suspect, but merely a would-be dinner date of the good Captain Burke, is Shelby Grant, the future Mrs. Chad Everett. She would have better luck as one of Derek Flint's girls in "Our Man Flint".



That's Fritz Feld with her, in his usual element of waiter (he doesn't get to do his famous "pop" routine though)

 
 Posted:   Dec 1, 2010 - 12:46 AM   
 By:   Eric Paddon   (Member)

But the real reason for why this episode needed a spotlight at long last was the third series appearance of that lady with the face to die for, Nancy Kovack.



Since her two S1 appearances, Nancy had by this point gone blonde (an improvement for her IMO) and also graduated to a front of episode credit as the deceased's secretary "Athelscone Stone."





Nancy gets the plum role of being totally free from suspicion in this episode, and also ending up as the good Captain's main romantic interest.

 
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