Comedy Reveals Acting Skills

I'm still on my Steve Ihnat kick...

And to that end I've been enjoying watching his I Dream Of Jeannie episode, My Master the Rain Maker.

(As an aside...gag me with a spoon! I know I used to watch this show when I was a kid, and I must have liked it, but the male chauvanism rampant in it just makes me want to strangle the actors today. However, that's a rant for another time and place.)

Anyway, I would have to say that 99.9% of Steve Ihnat's roles were in drama. He'd only been guest-star in about 22 TV series before 1966 (plus a couple of movies) when he did I Dream of Jeannie, but each of those was a drama and in probably 90% of those he was the cold-hearted villain.

So I'd really, really like to know how he went about landing the role of Sgt Ben Roberts in this episode of I Dream Of Jeannie. Why would anyone have offered a serious, "villainous" actor such a role? Was it his choice, to show that he could play comedy as well, or did he do it as a favor for a friend when the original actor dropped out, or what?

The episode is rather a silly one. Tony Nelson (Larry Hagman) is supposed to take Jeannie (Barbara Eden) on a picnic. But it's raining. So, she blinks her head and stops the rain. After a bit of conversation with her Master, she makes it snow, but just over their house - and the psychiatrist, Dr. Bellows, shows up at this time. He goes around the base telling people that Tony can control the weather.

Sgt Ben Roberts, played by Steve Ihnat, comes in to Tony's office, very diffidently. His whole persona is that of a diffident, good ol' country boy (he's from Alabama). He has a brother who has a farm, and because of a draught the crops are all withering away. So he wants Tony to make it rain. Tony of course can't. But Jeannie can.

So, some time later, Ihnat returns to Tony's office, happy because it's started raining. And he gives Tony some crops, and the people of the town give Tony some crops.

Then, some time later (but only a minute in screen time) Ihnat returns, begging Tony to stop making it rain because the streets of the small town have turned to rivers and his brother's barn floated away that morning. Dr. Bellows overhears this, and tells the two men to come to his office in ten minutes. He has General Peterson there.

Ihnat says he can't prove Tony can make it rain but it was sure raining in Alabama. He is standing at attention with his head bent forward, and seems rather to be channeling Gomer Pyle (though he is never as stupid as Pyle was!). After he answers General Peterson's question he does this funny thing with his neck - difficult to describe, but amusing to watch - because he knows Tony's in trouble, and exits. Then of course, Bellows demands Tony make it snow, Tony can't, the General shakes his head and tells Bellows to go away for a long rest.

Final scene, Ihnat goes to Tony's home this time, and says that the lake that used to be his brother's farm is now full of trout, and bass, and catfish and his brother and his friends are renting out cabins to tourists and getting rich.

So yes, a very slight episode - but after all, it's a sitcom - but it gives Ihnat a chance to play a happy guy, and smile in a friendly fashion (as opposed to an evil fashion) alot, and just be a regular guy, and because of that it's fun to watch.

Other videos available at the IMDB are his episode of Alias Smith & Jones, "Stagecoach Seven" in which he plays an unpleasant passenger. A supporting villain, not the lead guest star or the lead villain. Also is his episode of To Catch A Thief, "Turnabout" in which he plays a Russian guard, and he is the villian in this one, though of course he's only doing his job as head of a security facility which contains something that Al Mundy's boss has to steal (Al having broken his ankle). Not sure how accurate Ihnat's Alabaman accent was, though he did have some kind of Southern accent!, but he does a good foreign accent - though not a real Russian accent. (I'm sure he could do one, but back in the 70s they probably thought the average audience wouldn't be able to easily understand a Russian accent).

The Big Valley has his ep, "Teacher of Outlaws," another one where he was not the main villain, but a supporting villain under him, although it is only he and the lead villain at the end.

And of course, there is his Star Trek episode, Whom Gods Destroy.

There is also a trailer for a movie called Strike Me Deadly, and this was a movie role when Ihnat first started his acting career, he plays the husband of a wife who is cheating on him, and he sets out in the wilderness to track them down and shoot them. All the trailer is is scenes of the man he's chasing running, running through a path in the woods, and a young, fit-looking Ihnat chasing after him carrying a rifle.

THere's also a trailer for Madigan, in which Ihnat seems to have a small role as a villain. He seems to lose it after Madigan (Richard WIdmark) and an associate break into his apartmetn room while he is having sex with a woman. He gets the drop on them and manages to escape.

It's fun to watch these things, for nostalgia's sake if nothing else. I remember how young I was back in the 1970s, and all my hopes, dreams and aspirations.... then the show is over and I'm back to today.... but that's a post for another time, too!

Steve Ihnat on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

The Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea made its debut in 1964. Its first season was geared for adults, and focused on Cold War themes, with the occasional science fiction episode thrown in. The first "monster" episode was "The Price of Doom", the fifth episode of the season.

A husband and wife scientific team in Antarctica find a new strain of plankton, only to find that stimulated by extra heat, it grows and grows until it eats every human in its path...like the scientists. When the Seaview comes on the scene, they take up the plankton and bring it aboard... with disasterous results.



I was 7 years old in 1969, so I'm pretty sure I didn't see the first run of Star Trek. However, the networks must have started showing reruns almost immediately, because by the time I was ten I must have seen it...and had a crush on Captain Kirk... one day I saw Whom the Gods destroy, which starred Steve Ihnat as Garth of Izar....and thought he was pretty cool too!

Since then I tried to keep track of Ihnat's appearances...he did appear on most of the shows I watched as a teen, Mission Impossible and Mannix and so on...but since I didnt' watch Westerns I probably missed out on a few shows.

And I didn't know he'd been in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea until just a couple of days ago. Although I've had the first season DVDs for a couple of years, I've never had time to watch them until just now. Put in The Price of Doom, and the scientist who appeared in the Antarctic base looked awfully familiar...I looked the episode up at the IMDB and low and behold it was Steve Ihnat!

Unfortunately he had only a brief cameo - he dies, as does his wife, played by Pat Priest, more famous as Marilyn Munster.

The People Out There: NCIS SF Fan Fiction

THE PEOPLE OUT THERE

I've written some fan fiction for The Avengers and for NCIS. The NCIS material is science fiction related, and so I thought I'd start a section at The Thunder Child for it.

The People Out There, and its sequel, In The Dark, are on-going serials that tell the story of what happens whe the people out there, in the dark, decide to manipulate the world of television and the real world for their own entertainment.

Within a week, original fiction will also start appearing at The Thunder Child science fiction webzine.

William Shatner Reads/Mocks Palin's resignation speech

William Shatner was on Conan O'Brien yesterday, and recited Palin's resignation speech as a poem. The audience laughed and laughed.

I'm not a fan of Sarah Palin's, but I don't think she deserved to be mocked in this way. How about doing a skit on Hilary Clinton pretending to be strafed by aircraft in Bosnia? Or Obama using his teleprompters and looking like a metronome? Or Biden and all his gaffes?

But I share it below.



And, of course, Shatner is famous for his delivery. Ever heard The Transformed Man? It is pure Shatner!



And Leonard Nimoy released an album as well:



And they are both compiled in:



(Check this one out. You can download MP3s of individual songs, including "Spock's Thoughts" which is Desiderata, and Shatner's Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

BBC Radio, Monday July 27

Lots of good stuff:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules/2009/07/27

Rules of Asylum
Episode 1
6 days left to listen
1/3. James Follett's first radio play reveals dissension and danger in a repressive state.

The Voice of God
Fields of Thunder
1/5. Earthquakes rock Australia. Seismologist Sam investigates and uncovers a nightmare.

I'm actually puzzled to see Bovey's Voice of God being aired... I thought they were doing Cold Blood!

I've interviewed Bovey here:

http://thethunderchild.com/RadioDrama/BBC7/SimonBovey/SimonBovey.html

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

Just uploaded a new article to The Thunder Child. Here's the URL.

http://thethunderchild.comTelevision/1960s/VoyageBottomSea/VTTBOTS.html
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea made its debut a year before Star Trek, and lasted a year longer than Star Trek did.

Just as Star Trek still has its fan base decades later, so does VTTBOTS, as you'll see in this article. The show starred Richard Basehart as Admiral Nelson, David Hedison as Captain Crane, and a handful of other actors who rounded out the bridge crew.

Below is a video of Pendercraft's Flying Sub (a craft that made its debut in the 2nd season) - radio controlled.

Go see the G-Force movie

I had intended to see Up today.... (I'm behind in my movie viewing in the last month or so), but for various and sundry reasons ended up seeing G-Force instead. And I enjoyed it. I hadn't expected much of it, but really, it was quite entertaining.


The premise is that a secret department of the FBI has been testing animals to see if they can communicate, as well as spy for the United States. The FBI has been attempting for two years to find out what a certain billionaire named Saber is up to.

The head of the secret department, Ben, sends in the G-Force in an unauthorized mission to see what they can find out. The G-Force consists of two male guinea pigs, a female, a fly, and a mole. The G-Force succeeds in downloading information from Saber's computer, but when the "real" FBI comes to the department, the information is not of the right program. The FBI shuts down the program....and the G-Force is to be destroyed.

While Saber's machinations continue, the G-Force struggles to prove they deserve to be part of the FBI. And they've only got 30 hours to do it.

Bill Nighy plays Saber. In one part of a speech he's giving, he flings his head back reminiscent of Davy Jones from Pirate of the Caribbean, but for the most part he gives a restrained performance (for some reason with an Australian accent).

The humans don't get much to do, but do well with what they do have. There's no over-acting here, everyone is taking their role seriously. Unfortunately, Kelli Garner as Marci, Ben's partner, has even less to do than any of the other humans...she seems to be just put in there as the token woman.

As for the guinea pigs, Darwin is played by Sam Rockwell, Juarez by Penelope Cruz, Tracy Morgan is Blaster, and I did not know this until I just looked at the credits, Nicolas Cage was the mole, Speckles!

It's a film for kids and adults. Adults will recognize a few homages to secret agent films. Blaster and Jaurez scuba dive into Saber's yard. Jaurez comes out shaking her fur reminiscent of Ursula Andress in Dr. No (and of course Austin Powers in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.) Fortuately Jaurez doesn't wear a white bikini.

A fun movie, and of course a life lesson - which I won't spoil by revealing it now. I just wonder if kids will want to buy guinea pigs now, and expect them to be able to talk!

William Shatner watches Star Trek movie trailer

"Billy Bush from Access Hollywood invited William Shatner to watch the new Star Trek Movie Trailer and The Shatner Project cameras were there to film his reaction to seeing it for the first time. See this unique split screen video of Bill Shatner's reaction to seeing the trailer for the first time! " is the text at YouTube.




Believe it or not, I've yet to see this movie. I was on travel and just never found the time.

Since it's "Alternate Universe" I don't mind the changes they've made, but it's just too bad they couldn't just write a real prologue to Star Trek.

Even more then Enterprise, a show I didn't care for, I would have liked to have seen a show that shows how the starships were actually built, how the Star Academies were formed, and stuff like that. That's the kind of stuff we need to see now so that people realize how much work we have to do to make those fiction shows come true!

Stan Lee interviewed by Machiminima

Machiminima has loaded a few of its interviews at YouTube, and I share them here as well:

Stan Lee Exclusive Comic Con 2009 Interview (Inside Gaming Machinima)

We had a chance to talk with comic book visionary Stan Lee about Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 at the Activision Comic-Con party.

OT: Wedding Entrance Dance Video

Here's the extremely popular wedding video that has been making the rounds lately.

Everybody, from ushers to maids of honor to bride and groom, come through the door and down the aisle dancing. It is pretty cool. The song being sung is Forever.

It's entitled JK Wedding Entrance Dance

Friday at BBC Radio

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules/2009/07/24

You can still listen to all the episodes of Jefferson 37.

You can also listen to Part 1 of Simon Bovey's Cold Heart.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007jv38

Kindle Book: How To Make Money By Blogging

That's the title of my new Kindle offering.




In it, I detail how to set up a blog using blogger.com software, and how to monetize the blog with Google Adsense, Amazon.com, Ebay, and Clickbank.

I also have created a new blog especially for the book (and subsequent entries in the Miniscule Guides series:

http://theminisculeguidetoeverything.blogspot.com

Now, you're not going to get rich by blogging, unless you're some in-the-know guy like Perez Hilton who gets thousands of hits a day. But by being patient, and diligently filling out your blog on a daily basis for about three months, you will start to see the income trickle in.

Enough at any rate to be able to afford a few DVDs, a few games, some twelve packs of Pepsi.

Find the right niche, and hope for the economy to get better, and the sky could be the limit.

Getting back in the swing of things

I've been on travel for hte last few months, and haven't updated this blog as often as I should have done.

Now that I'm home, I'll be able to update it on a daily basis.

Except...not much to report today.

You can still listen to Part 1 of Jefferson 37, a chilling story of what happens when clones are made to serve as spare-part banks for the original person.

1/4. Marketing expert Eleanor visits Abbottsville, where clones are made for human spare parts.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules

Jefferson 37

What happens when clones are made to provide body parts - like eyes - for the wealthy?

Jefferson 37 tells the story. Pat 1 is on Wednesday, July 22. You can listen to it for the next 7 days.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules

The Gibson on BBC Radio 7

At the time I'm posting this, you still have 17 hours to listen to the first episode of The Gibson.

Go to the link below, then scroll down to the nighttime link, which is still active. Pay no attention to the times listed on the page, just click on the episode link and it will start playing immediately.

All the other parts are online now as well.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules/2009/07/14

What is The Gibson?

Time-hopping thriller with Robert Glenister

1/6. An aspiring poet gets drawn into a web of dark and mysterious forces.

2/6. After Saul and his family win a competition, strange events happen.

3/6. Haensel warns Elise, Saul is summoned by Selwyn - and mystery in Roman Bath.

4/6. Saul learns the truth about the sinister Gibson room and cavers push too deep.

5/6. Saul and Elise make a disturbing discovery in the nursing home. With Robert Glenister.

6/6. On the day of the festival, Saul and the Guardians prepare to fight. With Robert Glenister

The Canonization of Michael Jackson

Ever since Michael Jackson died, the media blitz has been ridiculous. I walked past a newsstand at Target yesterday and there were four magazines devoted to him. Times and Newsweek each had him on the cover. And there were a couple of tribute issues.

And fans are in tears and pouring into bankrupt California to a memorial for him...

And yet where were these fans when he was alive, eh? Nowhere. Now he's dead and all of a sudden he's back on top as the "King of Pop."

It's just ridiculous. I don't watch the news reports, but apparently they are breakig down the fans of Jackson into Democrats and Republicans (Dems liked him, Republicans didnn't) old and young, etc. Then of course there was that special on BET a few days ago where some guy said, "MIchael Jackson belonged to us (African-Americans) and we just loaned him to you." And Jackson's identity issues (the nose job, the bleaching of the skin) were all caused by whites. And the pedophilia, et al, that was just white man trying to take him down, just like they "took down Cassius Clay."

(Presumably that refers to the fact that Clay was drafted to go to Vietnam, refused, and went to prison for a year or two instead. Frankly, I sympathise with the guy! But I don't think they picked on him deliberately... after all, Elvis Presley was drafted, too! (Course not in war time.)

Anyway, I remember liking Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five when I was a kid, and when they were there natural selves. Then he did the nose thing, and the skin bleach thing, and got all weird. As for the pedophilia...don't know about that. I never followed the case, but apparently the parents deliberately put their kid into that situation so they could get money out of Jackson..and I seem to remember they lost that lawsuit...

Then of course there's all the vultures gathering. Jackson is deeply in debt, but his estate is supposed to be worth million --- lawyers are scenting their fortunes being made here.

But what's more obscene that that is that there were actually paparazzi using telephoto lenses to get photos of Jackson inside the ambulance with an oxygen mask over his mouth. And this pic was published! Why does anybody need to see that? Only sick people would want to see that.

The Bone Biddies

Yesterday, I stopped in at the Glenrock Dinosaur Museum (Paleon). It's a small musuem - but features only Wyoming Dinosaurs, unlike Thermopolis et al which was a "complete" dinosaur center featuring casts of bones and dinosaurs from around the world. In addition, the display cases were very distracting in that they slip apart from the middle out... so when closed there were two inches of overlapping glass in the center...made for lousy photographs.

Nevertheless, if you're a dinosaur enthusiast of any kind, you must visit this place, because you get to go into their restoration room and talk to the people there, most notably the "Bone Biddies" as Robert Bakker calls them. Women in their 70s and 80s (80s!) who have been volunteering at the museum for over 10 years and who cut bones out of their plastic jackets, and then clean and restore them, And they are delighted to talk to you and explain everything!

I haven't got time to upload any photos yet, but here's an article about the Bone Biddies:

http://www.glenrock.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC=%7BB26E8702-E5EF-4C20-B23C-D27616AE83C8%7D

Lou Lingle spoke with me for several minutes. I spoke with another woman, Helen Popp (not shown in the photo) she was definitely in her 80s, sharp as a tack, and skilled at her job.

I enjoyed talking to them very much, as well as the director of the museum, whose name unfortunately escapes me. We can blame that all on my 11-year old nephew, who allowed me perhaps 15 minutes to talk to them before he came in and started making a nuisance of himself that I had to go.

Anyway, more about this in subsequent entries.

Here's the website for the Glenrock museum:

http://paleon.org/

Go. Talk to the people there. You'll love it!

Yet Another Reason To Have A Will

I was never a big fan of Michael Jackson's, but one couldn't help knowing about things, thanks to the ever-present Papperazzi that hounded him as well as other celebrities, and the gossip sites, like my own Google home page that more often than not has Gossip news as the main headlines of the day.

And so he's dead, and the headlines are, what's going to happen to his children? And I'm thinking...didn't he leave a will in which he stipulated guardians and such-like. Certainly he would have a business manager who would have done that for him, similar to what he would have done to take care of what little remained of his fortune?

The kids aren't Michael Jackson. Why do paperazzis even care about them, or how they grow up.

It's rather a tragic story, the story of the Jackson family...how they did everything for money, even go under the plastic surgeon's knife to get a certain look...

As for Farrah Fawcett, again not a fan, but I always hate to hear of someone dying from cancer. But the recent spate of documentaries on her - even before she died - seemed so... calculated and exploitive. Then of course there's her stupid son Griffin - or is it her stepson? - in jail...

And then Ryan O'Neal was going to marry her...if she ever became "strong enough" to say yes. Hell, man why didn't you ask her three weeks ago, when she was strong enough? And why marry her at all? You've lived together and proved your comittment for 30 years. In the eyes of hte law youu're married and you probably get half her property thanks to California property law..

Hopefully she left a will so the State doesn't get it all.

On a side note, pray for the state of California. The bankrupt state of California. Its a microcosm of what the US is going to be like in 10 years unless Obama and the Dems are stopped.

Yeah, the Republicans are reeling because their "family values" party is turnkng out to house hyporcrites - not to mention idiots - Mark Sanford, what were you thinking? - but if they'd drop their stupid family values and just go with fiscal conservatism and a search for exceptionalism, they may be able to save this country.

"IT was shorter in Egyptian"

This is one of the best scenes in the movie Night at the Musuem: Battle of the Smithsonian.

Visit my Azaria website: http://volcanoseven.com/TheUncannyAzaria

Hank Azaria does a great job with his lines, I'd really like to see outtakes to see if he was able to do the scene in one take or if everyone burst out laughing a few times.

He is arguing with Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) about giving him the tablet and the combinatin, and not crossing the no touching zone with his hand.

Simon Oates is dead

Wow...

I checked my blog counter this morning and saw a lot of hits for Doomwatch - a TV show that starred Simon Oates. I wondered why the sudden rush... and so went to the IMDB. Sure enough, Simon Oates has died. Of course he died about 30 days ago, May 20, 2009.

I must admit I'm surprised. He was a big, athletic guy, and he was only 70... but like John Philip Law perhaps he had some kind of cancer. Meanwhile my own dad is 76 and looks about 66....

Well, anyway, I'm visiting my sister in Cheyenne, Wyoming and don't have access to my Avengers DVDs, otherwise I'd put together a tribute to Oates whom I've always liked, for all that I only saw a very tiny fraction of his work...

Here is a pic of him from the web, however:

He is on the cover of the English version of a TV guide, called The Radio Times. The title: Will Ridge Destroy the World? references his role as Ridge in Doomwatch.