Week of Dec. 3: Surely, Nielsen Was Tops (And Don't Call Him Shirley)

By Sylvia Gurinsky

The story about Leslie Nielsen is that he was generally a serious actor until 1980, when his comic talent was discovered by everyone in "Airplane!" and the series of "Naked Gun" movies later on.

As usual, it's less simple than that. Nielsen broke in as a young actor in secondary roles in various MGM films, then turned to television.

He set up a solid career in various television series; he was featured in "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color" in "The Swamp Fox":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc7tbE7VPh0

He had the distinction of guest-starring in the pilot episode of "Hawaii Five-O" (the real one) as intelligence chief Brent, and in a later episode of the long-running series as well.

Nielsen guest-starred in many popular series of the 1960s and 70s, from "Ironside" and "Cannon" to "M*A*S*H."

The "Naked Gun" movies were so successful that it's easy to forget the character of Frank Drebin actually originated in a brief ABC series called "Police Squad!" Only six episodes long (the epitome of "Brilliant But Cancelled"), the series spoofed "Five-O" and other beloved police shows and spawned the legend of the films:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLXyC1cuN3M

Besides the first episode of "Hawaii Five-O," Nielsen also had the distinction of being in the final episodes of NBC's "The Golden Girls" as the groom of Dorothy (Bea Arthur).

Here's an appropriate goodbye. Goodbye, as a Nielsen comic character would probably say, is a way of leaving. Fortunately, we'll always have the clips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_3rJqHWYjs

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Al Masini, who created "Entertainment Tonight" and "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," has also died. Here's a look at the show's 1982 opening with its original hosts, Ron Hendren and Dixie Whatley, back when there were actually stars to cover:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIwBE6Tq3J0

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Finally, a little geographic fun.

Looking through vintage postcards yesterday, I came on one of "Surfside Six," the little houseboat and the title of the popular early 1960s ABC series that starred Troy Donahue. A few miles down the road from the real Surfside, Florida, the setting is actually mid-Miami Beach, in front of the classic Fontainebleau and Eden Roc hotels.

But the series was filmed at the Warner Brothers backlot in California. It would take more than two decades and visionaries named Mann, Yerkovich and Tartikoff to bring "Miami Vice" to Miami.

Here's a link to the postcard with "Surfside":

http://cgi.ebay.com/Television-Show-Surfside-Six-Miami-FL-1960-62-Postcard-/180595169256

See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!