I Just Watched...

[Lorna]

In a way, I'm kinda sorry the world was denied the chance to see A BALD JOAN COLLINS, a la PERSIS KHAMBATA (sp?)

[Lorna]

(she looks THRILLED, doesn't she?)

That's a wig for sure!

Thank God for THE HEADBAND otherwise it would just LEAP RIGHT OFF.

Seriously though, there HAS to be a story about why almost ALL the female cast is BEWIGGED save ANGELA and that poor girl playing the secretary- no other episode of MsW is so WIG INTENSIVE.

[Lorna]

ART HINDLE is also in MURDER IN THE ELECTRIC CATHEDRAL and this is definitely his hair and (judge me if you must) BUT I FIND HIM VERY VERY VERRRRRRRRRRRRRRY ATTRACTIVE.

I like 'em rugged...

[Hibi]

(she looks THRILLED, doesn't she?)

That's a wig for sure!

Thank God for THE HEADBAND otherwise it would just LEAP RIGHT OFF.


LMREO!!!!!!!



Seriously though, there HAS to be a story about why almost ALL the female cast is BEWIGGED save ANGELA and that poor girl playing the secretary- no other episode of MsW is so WIG INTENSIVE.

[Hibi]

ART HINDLE is also in MURDER IN THE ELECTRIC CATHEDRAL and this is definitely his hair and (judge me if you must) BUT I FIND HIM VERY VERY VERRRRRRRRRRRRRRY ATTRACTIVE.

I like 'em rugged...

Yes. He reminds me of a younger Jack Lord.

[kingrat]

Lorna, I am thoroughly enjoying the Murder She Hair show, and I will absolve you for lusting after Mr. Hindle if you'll just pass him along when you're through with him.

[CinemaInternational]

I did some checking of Murder, She Wrote DVDs. They never did credit the hairdresser/s in the closing credits. One could take that one of a few ways....

A) That hairdresser was considered too lowly a job to include in 30-second long closing credits back in the day.

B) They didn't include it because the hairdresser was a member of the Witness Relocation Program hiding out from the Mafia.

C) They feared that if the hairdresser 's name was revealed, an irate guest star would follow her/him to their home and try to inflict grave bodily harm for damages to their tresses.

D) Or maybe they didn't include it because the hairdresser would be kicked out of the cosmetology institute of America.

E) Or perhaps there were no hairdressers, but the guest stars had to get to the filming set by running as best they could in a wind tunnel where in addition to wind, Aqua Net by the gallon would be blowing at them.

That said, Judy Geeson's hair was pretty sedate in the Electric Cathedral episode. Given the rest of the alarming hair in the episode, it's surprising they didn't go full Tammy Faye Bakker on her. (Composed before I saw the two of you already got to talking about that).

Angela never went down the big hair route. I remember that in one of the Ruth Roman/Loretta's Beauty Parlor episodes, Loretta offers to give Jessica a big poodle perm, but Jess declines.

As for the whole televangelist thing, the Murder in the Electric Cathedral episode aired in early 1986, a year before the Jim Bakker scandal broke. I don't really know if CBS was attepting to avoid scandal or not. Already that season, they had aired an abortion themed episode of Cagney and Lacey which revealed that one of its two leads had had an abortion in the past , Falcon Crest had done a Thorn Birds style plot with a priest (Ken Olin) breaking his vow of chastity with foxy Ana-Alicia coupled with a plotline where Morgan Fairchild was found to be the victim of incestous rape as a child from her father, and Knots Landing had spent a season and a half (1984 to December 1985) with a subplot dealing with the rise and fall of an increasingly narcissistic, dangerous, hypocritical, amoral, and psychotic televangelist played by Alec Baldwin (who was playing the half-brother of one of the show's leads, Joan Van Ark), who snapped and planned to kill his wife (Lisa Hartman) after he got canned from the airwaves. Ultimately, the mother of his character (played by Julie Harris) discovered him about to push Hartman off the roof of a tawdry seven-story hovel of a building, and she lauched into a verbal tirade so intense that Baldwin's character started backing away from her, tripped on a discarded can of spray paint left on the roof and fell to his death. (Full admission: Baldwin's character on the show was so slithery and loathsome that I was genuinely thrilled to see him plunge to his death.) Plus NBC had done two abortion themed episodes on St. Elsewhere, and on ABC (much to Cybill Shepherd's protest, as she felt it made her character less likable to the public) Mattie Hayes revealed herself to be an atheist on Moonlighting and Spencer for Hire did an incest episode. So maybe CBS did hold back just in case they didn't want to ruffle any more feathers in the South and Midwest.
Fedya, have to say that The Looking Glass War wasn't very involving. In fact it was dull. The John Le Carre on film tour is a bit mixed: The Constant Gardener and The Spy Who Walked in from the Cold are very vague, The Little Drummer Girl is easier to follow on screen than on the page, but Diane Keaton is odd casting as a Vanessa Redgrave style activist/actress/spy (in all fairness though, Keaton does a very good go of it though, as her emotional cues feel right on target), The Tailor of Panama is malicious and crisp with a fine piece of inspired casting with Pierce Brosnan as a completely amoral and charm-free spy, and The Russia House is a wonderful film with arguably the best performances of Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer, and a very fine one from James Fox to go hand in hand with a strong Tom Stoppard script.

[CinemaInternational]

For playing such a likable character on Lou Grant, Bannon played a lot of disturbing characters after that show ended on various other programs: as part of a black market baby ring on Knots Landing ( November 1984), as an assistant to graphic prison rape on St. Elsewhere (March or April 1986), and as a rapist of Christine Cagney on Cagney and Lacey (January 1988). That's a pretty hard trio of "guest" parts to come back from.....

[Masha]

I did some checking of Murder, She Wrote DVDs. They never did credit the hairdresser/s in the closing credits. One could take that one of a few ways....

A) [...]
[snip]

It is my belief that the hairdressers were monkeys being paid under-the-table with meth. They could not be included in the credits because each had been kicked out of their union/guild for ethics violations.

I chose to believe that a charge of animal cruelty was once lodged concerning this. The investigation stalled because it found that the monkeys enjoyed it and the only obvious harm was being done to the actors who did not care as long as it meant a paycheck. The charge was ultimately dismissed when no agency could be found which held authority over interactions between monkeys and cattle.

[CinemaInternational]

Poor Persis Khambata, to be without a hair on her head in her best known and most sympathetic role.... She did have a full head of hair though playing shady femme fatales in two other films: with Sylvester Stallone and Rutgar Hauer in Nighthawks (1981) and in the earlier South African- action melodrama The Wilby Conspiracy (1975) with Sidney Poitier and Michael Caine. I admit to being really sad that her character turned out to be a villain in the latter: she looked great, and her presence had added a needed spark to the proceedings. (She had good chemistry with Sidney Poitier)

It also should be noted that Joan Collins was originally only supposed to be a guest for a few weeks on Dynasty in late 1981/early 1982, and I guess the writers thought they could write Alexis off with her deliberately causing Kristle's miscarriage, but the response to the character was so strong that she was added as a permanent fixture to the show, although Joan missed the season debut of the 1985-1986 season due to a contract dispute and had to miss 9 episodes in the final season to to severe budget caps (which made her angry). So that might explain why her wigs didn't appear at first,because she was meant to be temporary.

Other regulars/semi-regulars on shows that were originally meant for only a brief guest appearance or arc but ended up staying for a while or for the whole show include: Barbara Parkins on Peyton Place, Georgia Engel on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Julie Harris on Knots Landing, Kelsey Grammer on Cheers, Estelle Getty on The Golden Girls, Mesach Taylor on Designing Women, Larry Drake on LA Law (I can feel Lorna wishing he had remained only a guest), Sharon Lawrence on NYPD Blue, Julianna Margulies on ER, and Kathryn Jouston and Kyle MacLachlan on Desperate Housewives.

Getting back to Murder, She Wrote, I like episodes from every season, but I think I have extra fondness for the early seasons ( up through 5) for being chock full of big name guest stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood and well-known TV shows,. 6 and 7 are riddled with unnecessary bookends, but the 13 Jessica episodes in season 6 are a strong bunch, season 8 is delicious, season 9 starts and ends fine but sags in the middle, season 10 is fine, 11 and 12 aren't quite as interesting although they do have their arresting moments (I really like the Season 12 episode where Jessica exposes ADA Lisa Eichhorn's [now there is an actress who deserved a bigger career] guilt in front of a whole jury pool, and the final episode is pretty good)

[CinemaInternational]

One other addendum to Joan Collins wearing wigs.... She might have been scared into doing so by Bette Davis. There was a scene in 1955's The Virgin Queen where Bette's Elizabeth I rips off her own wig and is shown baldheaded in a lengthy scene with lady-in-waiting Joan. It might have scarred Collins for life.

in addition to the alarming hairstyles of Murder, She Wrote and the occasionally shocking ones on Knots Landing, the 80s offered several other productions with outre hair, be it theatrical (Married to the Mob, Against All Odds, Earth Girls are Easy, and Working Girl), or on TV (Dallas for example, or Falcon Crest sometimes, such as when Prince's former squeeze Apollonia Kotero appeared playing an eponomously named character; Jane Wyman's character Angela Channing referred to her upon seeing her in a garish gold chain swimsuit as "That Babylonian Creature", not a term of endearment. Plus, Kim Novak, while normally extremely glamourous with hair and clothes to match in her season 6 guest arc, had to saddle two very bad wigs, one black in her first episode and one auburn in the 20th episode of the season).

One such TV production was the unfortunately short lived 1984 prime-time soap Paper Dolls, which only lasted for a half a season on ABC due to constant preemptions. Certain episodes of it are floating around still on YouTube, and it looks pretty juicy. For a show that gave top billing to Lloyd Bridges wearing a track suit (he played the head of a family dynasty working in modeling, makeup, and cosmetics), the rest of the opening credits montage is 80s excess to the hilt. Judge for yourself....

[dianedebuda]

The Russia House is a wonderful film with arguably the best performances of Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer, and a very fine one from James Fox to go hand in hand with a strong Tom Stoppard script.

And it has a great soundtrack. I've played this movie many, many times just a background when I'm doing paperwork. Not normally a fan of Le Carre, but this I like.

Having fun reading the posts about the prime time soaps and MSW. Never saw any of them.

[Hibi]

One other addendum to Joan Collins wearing wigs.... She might have been scared into doing so by Bette Davis. There was a scene in 1955's The Virgin Queen where Bette's Elizabeth I rips off her own wig and is shown baldheaded in a lengthy scene with lady-in-waiting Joan. It might have scarred Collins for life.

in addition to the alarming hairstyles of Murder, She Wrote and the occasionally shocking ones on Knots Landing, the 80s offered several other productions with outre hair, be it theatrical (Married to the Mob, Against All Odds, Earth Girls are Easy, and Working Girl), or on TV (Dallas for example, or Falcon Crest sometimes, such as when Prince's former squeeze Apollonia Kotero appeared playing an eponomously named character; Jane Wyman's character Angela Channing referred to her upon seeing her in a garish gold chain swimsuit as "That Babylonian Creature", not a term of endearment. Plus, Kim Novak, while normally extremely glamourous with hair and clothes to match in her season 6 guest arc, had to saddle two very bad wigs, one black in her first episode and one auburn in the 20th episode of the season).

One such TV production was the unfortunately short lived 1984 prime-time soap Paper Dolls, which only lasted for a half a season on ABC due to constant preemptions. Certain episodes of it are floating around still on YouTube, and it looks pretty juicy. For a show that gave top billing to Lloyd Bridges wearing a track suit (he played the head of a family dynasty working in modeling, makeup, and cosmetics), the rest of the opening credits montage is 80s excess to the hilt. Judge for yourself....

Joan had some amusing stories about working with Bette (not good!) in her memoirs. (I'm just finishing the 2nd one) Very entertaining reads...

[kingrat]

I know that I watched Paper Dolls but have very little memory of it, except that this was the debut of Nicolette Sheridan. Terry Farrell's nice girl was the central character, if vague memory serves. This was also Jennifer Warren's moment; she would have an important role in Arthur Penn's movie Night Games. Had there been an earlier TV movie of Paper Dolls which led to the launch of the series? I seem to recall that the men in the show all turn out to be nogoodniks, or am I mixing this up with the short-lived Beringer's?

I agree completely about The Little Drummer Girl, an improvement on Le Carré's novel. Diane Keaton is miscast, but plays the part well enough. Of course Vanessa Redgrave would never have played a leftist who gets her comeuppance (did Redgrave's politics suggest the idea for the novel?), but Julie Christie would have been fine, and no doubt there were many other young English actresses. The Looking Glass War was a disappointment, though I haven't seen it since its release. The Russia House, as a novel, literally put me to sleep several nights, and unfortunately the film followed the novel much too closely. However, Sean Connery was very good, and Michelle Pfeiffer was superb. So many American actors don't get that people in other cultures don't move or gesture or sound like Americans, but Pfeiffer made a very believable Russian.

[Lorna]

.

Aw, DACK RAMBO. Now THERE is a TRAGIC STORY- his twin brother DIRK died young and then DACK contracted AIDS in the early nineties, he died while appearing on the soap ANOTHER WORLD where he played SENATOR GRANT HARRISON. I was about 12 at the time and a big fan of AW, so I will always remember that.