Hello, classic television fans, and welcome to YesterTube!
Each week, YesterTube will feature tidbits, tidings and some TV clips of favorite series, specials, commercials, news programs, sports programs and more from a time when commercial television always had something interesting and enjoyable to watch. This blog will also spread the word about whether favorite shows are available on DVD or online.
Your participation is encouraged. If you have a memory of classic television, please add your comments to this blog. Keep it as clean as that classic TV usually was.
Now....on with the shows!
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NBC's "Law & Order" bowed out this week in about the same format it was introduced September 13, 1990.
Back then, the cast was all male and included Chris Noth as Detective Mike Logan, George Dzundza as Sgt. Max Greevey, Steven Hill as District Attorney Adam Schiff and Michael Moriarty as Assistant District Attorney Ben Stone. Noth would later go onto fame in cable's "Sex In the City" and is currently in CBS' "The Good Wife." Schiff starred in the first season of CBS' "Mission: Impossible." Dzundza would last only one year on "Law & Order" and be replaced by Paul Sorvino as Sgt. Phil Cerreta.
Season 4 saw the entry of two of the three cast members who would be steadying influences to the show during its glory years: Jerry Orbach, who played the memorable Detective Lenny Briscoe, and S. Epatha Merkerson, who played Lt. Anita Van Buren, supervising various police investigators for the rest of the series. The following year, Sam Waterston would join the cast as Assistant District Attorney (later DA) Jack McCoy. Waterston would also stay until the end.
Other notables who were part of the cast included Jill Hennessy (NBC's "Crossing Jordan"), Benjamin Bratt, Angie Harmon, Carey Lowell, Jesse L. Martin, Academy Award winner Dianne Wiest and former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson, who was billed with his middle name, Dalton.
Throughout its run, the program had a similar format: During the first half, the police investigated a crime. During the second half, the prosecutors took their case to court. Sometimes they won, sometimes they lost. In rare circumstances, personal matters were involved (a cancer battle for Van Buren, McCoy's romantic relationships with colleagues, Briscoe's alcoholism).
Always, important issues were involved. The show was known for its "ripped from the headlines" mentality. Creator Dick Wolf seemed proud, in different interviews, that the program managed to make one group or another angry in certain circumstances.
Wolf deserved to be proud of the excellent writing and acting "Law & Order" had for much of its run. The show was also a matter of pride for New York, where it was filmed.
There is talk of a final movie to wrap up the series more comprehensively. For now, fans can be satisfied with reruns on cable station TNT, as well as the first seven seasons and Season 14 (No, I don't understand the math, either.), available on DVD.
I can't find the entire intro, including the spoken portion ("In the criminal justice system.....") on YouTube, but here's a link to the introduction for the first season:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzJm9vTCff8&feature=related
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There's late-breaking news, sadly, of the death of Gary Coleman at age 42.
Coleman was a cautionary note about the perils of show business for children. He charmed television viewers as Arnold Jackson, the younger of two African-American boys adopted by millionaire Philip Drummond (Conrad Bain), on NBC's "Diff'rent Strokes" from 1978-86.
But Coleman waged lifelong battles with kidney disease and other health issues, with his own parents over career and financial control, and with an entertainment industry that never really let him grow up. His two series castmates, Todd Bridges and Dana Plato, also struggled with legal problems, drug use and depression. Plato died in 1999. Bridges seems to have overcome his earlier problems.
Here's a look from YouTube at Coleman at his best - as Arnold, in a "Diff'rent Strokes" episode that featured then-First Lady Nancy Reagan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlTx2cGHSh8&feature=fvsr
Rest in peace, Gary.
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When Art Linkletter held a microphone in his hand, well, kids said the darndest things:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCHIM-bGiTI
But Linkletter did more than the "House Party" and "Kids Say the Darndest Things" programs. He participated in television coverage for both the 1955 opening and the 2005 golden anniversary of Disneyland. His 43rd birthday, July 17, 1955, was the same day as Disneyland's kickoff.
As a television host, he let his guests do the talking - and that's when both kids and adults said the darndest - and most memorable - things.
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See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!
