Author: Herbie J Pilato

Writer, Author, Producer, Actor, Singer/Songwriter, Lover of Life

Herbie J Pilato: Remembering Elizabeth Montgomery’s magic appeal

EDITOR’S NOTE: Classic TV mayven Herbie J takes this opportunity to remind us that no matter how good your script is, the final production will be even better if the casting is right. Witnesseth:

Herbie_Final

by Herbie J Pilato

Elizabeth Montgomery is best known for playing Samantha Stephens, the good witch-with-a-twitch, on television’s classic sitcom, Bewitched, which originally aired on ABC from 1964 to 1972 – and for which she received eight Emmy nominations (among other accolades).  A staple in syndication ever since (and available on DVD), the show marks its 50thAnniversary this TV season, while May 18th commemorates the 20th Anniversary of Montgomery’s demise (from colon cancer).

As Samantha, Montgomery delivered a down-to-earth sincerity and, in the process, made an earnest connection with the home viewer.  But her most famous role was by-far not her first – nor certainly her last. read article

Herbie J Pilato: PERRY MASON as a Primer for TV Pilot Creators

perry masonby Herbie J Pilato

Perry Mason originally aired on CBS from 1957 to 1966, and starred the great Raymond Burr in the lead, with Barbara Hale as his trusted assistant, Della Street; William Hopper (son of Hollywood gossip legend Hedda Hopper) as detective Paul Drake, and William Talman as Hamilton Burger, the poor district attorney, who Mason always clobbered in court.  Ray Collins, Wesley Lau, and Richard Anderson (Oscar Goldman from The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman) rounded out the additional legal-law enforcement cast in various roles over the years.

Perry Mason was more than just a precursor to countless lawyer shows to follow, including LA Law, Law & Order, and Boston Legal, among others.

Mason was based on a series of best-selling mystery novels created by attorney-novelist Erle Stanley Gardner, which were transformed into a CBS radio show – with soap-opera elements – that aired from 1943 to 1955.  When the radio series became the now iconic Raymond Burr show, the soapy serial slant was shelved.  But in 1956 (two years before the Burr series debuted), the original radio format was transplanted to the TV daytime serial, The Edge of Night (complete with the PM radio production staff and most of the cast, who were given new character names), where it remained until December 1984. read article

Herbie J Pilato: The Legacy of DARK SHADOWS

Jonathan Frid, who plays Barnabas Collins, left, and David Selby, who plays Quentin Collins, in the Gothic soap opera "Dark Shadows", April 16, 1969. (AP Photo/Bob Wands)
Jonathan Frid, who plays Barnabas Collins, left, and David Selby, who plays Quentin Collins, in the Gothic soap opera “Dark Shadows”, April 16, 1969. (AP Photo/Bob Wands)

Part 2
by Herbie J Pilato

EDITOR’S NOTE: Don’t miss Part 1, conveniently located HERE

THE MAYHEM OF THE MACABRE

1969:  20,000,000 viewers are now obsessed with Quentin, Barnabas and DS in general. The show’s popularity reaches mammoth proportions. Followers from every nook and cranny come out of the woodwork…even the woodwork from the White House. For on October 31st, Halloween 1969, Tricia Nixon gives a Halloween Party for 250 underprivileged children, and Jonathan Frid is invited. read article

Herbie J Pilato: DARK SHADOWS’ Original Incarnation is Originality in Action

the real barnabasPart 1
by Herbie J Pilato

Live performances.  Rehashed ideas.  Retold stories.  Dead-on scripts.

Turn of the Screw.  Picture of Dorian Gray.  Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  Dracula.  Frankenstein.  The Wolfman.  Even HP Lovecraft’s The Cthulhu Mythos.

Actors play a piece from each, working, temporarily, steadily.  Stereotyped, indefinitely.  Fallen movie stars, resurrected for the small screen. TV superstars yet to be born.  Future TV angels, present spectres. read article

Herbie J Pilato: When reconstructing the “Bionic” world….

jamie sommers

by Herbie J Pilato

Back in 2007, NBC debuted and cancelled its new Bionic Woman, a reboot of the classic 1970’s female sci-fi sequel to that same decades’ Six Million Dollar Man series, starring Lee Majors as Steve Austin, the bionic man (both of which were originally on ABC).

David Eick was the executive producer of the new Woman, but he failed to work the same magic he had performed with the then- recent re-do of another small-screen sci-fi classic: Battlestar: Galactica.  As Eick told the Syfy Channel’s Battlestar upfront presentation to advertisers in New York on March 18, 2008, “I just felt that the process [of reinventing TBW] was so frustrating, and the conditions under which we were making that show never really came to fruition in such a way that I felt like we could make the show well.  The actress [Michelle Ryan] we found was wonderful.  Some of the writing was good.”

Yet, Eick added, “We just didn’t ever bring it all together like we did with Battlestar.  At a certain point, when it becomes that frustrating, I think you’re better off to say, ‘Let’s try again another time, and let it go.’” read article