I Remember Marty Milner

I'm finally getting around to saluting Martin Milner --the talented TV star died of heart failure September 15, 2015.
In a business filled with bruised egos Marty was a standout --he was well educated and read, quiet and introspective with one wife he adored and a slew of kids none of whom followed him into the acting business.
The first time we met was in a penthouse suite at the Century Plaza hotel in 1971 where Milner was tub thumping for his long running series Adam-12.
We chatted first about his upbringing."I had a normal childhood until my family moved to Los Angeles and I pestered them if I could go to acting school. Instead they got me an agent who arranged a test as the youngest boy in thje 1947 flick Life With Father.
"I played John Day and Bill Powell and Irene Dunne were my parents and a cutie Liz Taylor was my 15-year old cousin. I thought I had it made and then two weeks later I contracted polio and was out until I got a bit in the 1949 John Wayne flick Sands Of Two Jima and then I graduated from Hollywood High School.
I said I'd recently seen him on TV in Mister Roberts (12955) opposite Hank Fonda and Jimmy Cagney.
"Yup, that was a thrill. On another war flick Halls Of Montezuma I met one of the stars Jack Webb and he used me a lot on his radio series Dragnet which he later took to TV as a series."


I asked him if I could ask a few questions about Route 66 the sensational CBS drama show he had headlined from 1960 toc1964.
"Why not!" he grinned. "It's just about the best TV series of its time. Stirling Silliphant created it and wrote most of the scripts and I auditioned and won the role of Tod Stiles.
"I wasn't a complete unknown. Stirling had seen me in the 1959 movie Compulsion where I was Diane Varsi's beau.
"The movie of that era I'm still asked about is Sweet Smell Of Success (1957) as the jazz musician Steve Dallas. If you know the movie you'll remember the fabulous work of Burt Lancaster."
I was sure I'd seen him, on a lot of various TV shows.
"Oh, I did everything--lots of live TV shows then Desilu Playhouse, The Life Of Riley where I had a recurring part, The West Point Story, Twilight Zone. I took everything because I was young and wanted to learn the business."
The star of Route 66 was Tod;'s Chevrolet Corvette and Milner said there were several substitutes in case the main car wasn't working.
"We filmed in 40 states and often pretty far from the real Route 66. The producers were always after unusual locations.
"Some pretty big stars guested. They were usually billeted at the local motel. Guest star Joan Crawford was furious her room lacked a full scale mirror."
Milner's co-star was George Maharis who played Buz Murdoch.
"Physically we were different. Mentally George was an intense Method actor while I was all American. The contrast was played up in stories."
Milner says he took his wife and kids along on the extended shoots. "I certainly got to know the country. Also yours --several episodes were filmed in western Canada."
Maharis left in the third season to be replaced by Glenn Corbett but the show only lasted another season and a half expiring in 1964.
In 1968 Milner was at it again as LAPD officer Pete Malloy opposite Kent McCord.
"Jack Webb was the creator and this was a reworking of Dragnet. I'd worked with him before but he took me out to the parking lot to make sure I could really drive. I'd been driving for four years on Route 66 --of course I drove every working day for the next seven years!"
The last time I met Milner was  in 1975 on the set of Swiss Family Robinson filmed on the 20th Century Fox lot. Irwin Allen who made all those disaster flicks showed me the fake volcano constructed at one end of a gigantic sound stage.
He told me to press a button which I did and fake lava started bubbling forth.
Milner later blamed the failure of SFR on the amount of money spent on special effects and the lack of investment in scripts.
He kept acting but also co-hosted a morning radio show in San Diego.
I talked to him on the phone when he was making the ABC series Life Goes On for ABC in 1992. "I'm the geezer," he laughed. "You can't miss me."
He last acted on an episode of Diagnosis: Murder in 1997 and publicly groused he'd never been asked to do Murder, She Wrote.
A fine actor and friend without the usual egotistical trappings, Marty died at his Carlsbad, California, home, aged 83, September 6, 2015.




 

Against All Odds: A Canadian Success Story

 

 I've always found it passing strange that some of the best Canadian TV programming of the season always comes on Remembrance Day.
And that's because Canadian networks can't import this content --it must be home grown.
Consider the very fine new documentary Against All Odds: The RCAF Flyers which debuts on November 11 at 11 a.m. on Sportsnet.
I thought I knew my Canadian hockey history but this one celebrates the stunning gold medal winners of Canada's hockey team at the 1948 Olympics against all odds.
I compulsively watched this one and I'm still at how good it is.
And I also got to speak on the phone with one of the three surviving principals Murray Dowey who as Flyers goalie racked up a string of Olympic shut outs which may never be equaled.
"I don't quite know why Canada later forgot all about us," he says with a chuckle. "But it was a different time. And the media had been calling us the misfits. Some misfits if you ask me."

George Stroumboulopoulos narrates unobtrusively making these fantastic "misfits" the heroes front and center.
Writer/director P.J. Naworynski (for Infield Fly Productions)has done an impressive job of setting the stage and surprisingly enough discovering rare footage of the actual games played in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
"For one thing," Dowey tells me. "There had been the decision not to even send a team.  Then we assembled just three months before the event."
It certainly was a weird bunch of mostly war veterans Most had played pick up hockey but were hardly anywhere near professional caliber.
The director introduces them in breezy character sketches.
Dowey jokes he was recruited only after the scheduled goalie was judged not up to scratch.
"I'd played some hockey with Turk Broda who was the Leafs goalie. Remember there were only six NHL teams at the time. That meant six professional goalies --the teams in those days only suited up one man."
Dowey remembers he was phoned up and given 15 minutes to make his mind up. "I said OK, of course no money was involved. Had a day to get to Ottawa from Toronto where I worked for the TTC.
"Downsview airport was fogged in so I had to take the milk train --the worst ride I ever had."
The guys sailed on the Queen Elizabeth in steerage with the American team bunked in posh quarters.
"The Yanks thought they'd have it all over us. What arrogance! Canada invented hockey not the United States."
A brilliant mixture of rarely seen newsreel footage intermixed with the memories of the three survivors gets us rooting for the under dog team which usually lost games by wide margins.
"We were terrible at first," remembers Dowey.
One press comment :"There's no hope for this team" summed up the dismal prospects.
Dowey also remembers meeting the gold medalist Barbara Ann Scott who won in figure skating. He also remembers a photographer asking team mates to hoist her on her shoulders.
"That shot made the papers everywhere."
Dowey says the team played defense "like there was no tomorrow. You know in the first game I got a penalty for catching the puck and tossing it in front of me. Had to go to the penalty box.
"But the Swedes still couldn't score."

One would think these winners would be talked about forever. But this is Canada where modesty prevails.
"It didn't happen," Dowey tells me. "I went back to the TTC. Oh, we'd have reunions every few years in Ottawa."
Asked to summarize he says "It was a great victory for Canada. I guess because most of the guys were from Ottawa it really never registered here in Toronto."
And regrets?"I just wish they'd had face masks in my day. I wish I'd had a glove as big as those mitts today.
"I also wish they'd let us keep our uniforms. We had to hand them in. I gave what I had to a London museum-- my glove for one.  Wish I had more to give but that's it."
Against All Odds quite successfully recreates a great time in recent history when Canadian hockey stars ruled the world. What a fantastic triumph for the nation!

AGAINST ALL ODDS PREMIERES ON SPORTSNET NOVEMBER 11 AT 11 A.M AND ON SPORTSNET ONE AT 7 P.M.
MY RATING: ****.

If The Poet: A True Success Story

First of all I had never heard of Ian French.
And I was completely unaware of Slam Poetry.
So why did I find the new CBC-TV documentary If The Poet so compulsively watchable?
I think the secret lies in the success story it portrays and these true tales of achievement always intrigue me.
Also, I watched because I'm trying to see how CBC-TV's new documentary series  Firsthand is evolving --so far I thought last week's entry Reefer Riches excellent.
You can check for yourself Thursday November 12 at 9 p.m. on CBC-TV.

The saga in If The Poet captures a bald guy aged 54 who has become a sensation in the art of Slam Poetry.
I can only describe "slam" as a form of rap but without the music.
It's in your face and when done correctly the results can be pretty wonderful.
I think this hour artfully directed by Kim Saltarski (World's Worst Drivers) succeeds because it is utterly unpretentious --French made his Slam debut at age 50 and we watch as he sets off to win the World Cup of Slam Poetry in Paris.
Who knew watching a guy recite could be so exciting.
This true story rewrites The Odd Couple by pairing French with 29-year-old Ghanaian-Canadian poet Ian Keteku who is the trainer trying to get this dude up to scratch.
All the signs seem against French because for the most part his competitors are ambitious twentysomethings who really know how to play to their audiences.
"It owes a lot to standup comedy," director Saltarski tells me on the phone. "I mean you have to be fearless to even try to attempt it. Ian adds a lot of relevant social commentary, he gets it all out there."
Saltarski says his ideas for a TV portrait "started about 2 1/23 years ago. I got funding from Bravo for a 15 minute short and the subject kept expanding and I knew I was onto something bigger.
"I got to know his story and it made sense to keep filming. For one thing Ian had a troubled youth, his brain was wired differently. High school was a real downer but he's so talented he channels all that in to his poetry.,"
So Sakltarski approached First Hand about an hour profile. "And I was told arts coverage was going to be part of their menu so we were on board."
The hour goes deep down into French's early 20s and brushes with the law.
"We had collaborated on a few songs,that's how I got to know and appreciate his talent. And he used that beat to segue into slam."
Says Saltarsaki "That partnership with Keteku is essential to what French is today. "I think . Keteku showed  him how to transform those demons into dazzling, challenging poetry which he performs fearlessly. It's quite a dramatic development and I couldn't have caught it in a short shoot. I just kept filming and filming."
Slam poetry is a sort of contest where challengers have three minutes and ten seconds to win over an oftren difficult audience.
"There are all kinds of contestants. Some participants do the same routine time and time again. Ian is forever changing, that's what makes his ascendancy so amazing."
IF The Poet tracks French's ascent from an embarrassing debut to success in 2013 on the National Championship Toronto Slam Team to winning 2014's Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Championship (in Vancouver).
Then comes World Slam Poetry --Slam's World Series--and it's all high moments of tension dramatic but the results won't be revealed here --you'll have to watch the whole hour.
IF The Poet It personalizes the World of Slam by honing in one one of the art's older practitioners.
IF THE POET PREMIERES ON CBC-TV's FIRSTHAND THURSDAY NOVEMBER 12 AT 9 P.M.
MY RATING: ***1/2.

War Story: Afghanistan Celebrates Our Military

 

 
I'm always writing about the most disturbing trend on Canadian TV these days.
Simply stated it's the lack of Canadian stories.
Producers only want to make series they can sell to U.S. TV. That means fine dramas like Saving Hope and Rookie Blue have their Canadian roots heavily disguised for easy foreign sales.
And then along comes something as powerful as War Stories.
Each Remembrance Day a new batch of the series emerges.
This year War Story:Afghanistan examines the biggest out and out conflict involving Canadian soldiers (outside of peacekeeping) since the Korean War.
There are six half-hour episodes premiering over three nights --Monday November 9, Tuesday November 10 and Wednesday November 11 running in chronological order with two back-to-back episodes per night at 8 p.m. Got that?
Simply stated this is must-see TV.
Cancel all dinner engagements and better yet make sure if there are kids in your household they watch, too.
My intention was to only watch the first two episodes but I got hooked and just had to see the rest.
This is the fourth year of the series but I find these tales the saddest perhaps because the protagonists are still very young --watching the ones on D-Day I could only marvel at the heroics of veterans now well past 80.

 As usual the Toronto-based film makers have distinguished themselves.They are Barry Stevens (series director and executive producer), David York (executive producer) and Bryn Hughes (producer).
When I watched the World War II series a few years ago I was immediately  taken by how so few survivors still exist and how previous seasons looked at D-Day, Korea and Vietnam.

The entire effort is told through the eyes of the men and women involved giving it a verisimilitude that can't be beat."When I was interviewing them it was their casual bravery that I noticed," says series director Stevens.
Biggest star of the show? "It just happens one of the participants, Harjit Sajjan has been made Canada's new Minister of Defense --always wearing his Sikh turban he was a crack intelligence officer and his testimony is vital to our understanding the narrative.
But the biggest hero? It just has to be medic Paul Franklin who had his legs blown off--Rick Mercer made him semi-famous by revealing every year Franklin has to assure Veterans Affairs his legs are still missing in order to qualify for his benefits.

But just as heroic is Lt. Sarah Keller who lost her husband in one battle.
"There is a lot of actual footage," Stevens tells me. "But not much is from Canadian TV which under reported the conflict. There's a lot of American footage, some British  though."

The first half hour looks at the arrival of Canadians, Edmonton's Princess Patricia Light Infantry, aiding their American allies in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Four Canadian soldiers are killed in a senseless example of "friendly fire" which is covered by the actual cockpit recordings of the Americans who were stupid and blindly went ahead with an attack after superiors warned them to reconsider.

At 8:30 comes the second episode which is even more painful to watch.
The Canadians return to Kandahar in 2005 as Americans switch to fighting in Iraq. "
"Canada's mission was both military and reconstructive. The Taliban remained everywhere. A Village elder says he will out wait all the invaders," Stevens says.
The second night looks at the sustained combat in Kandahar. And then Canadian soldiers launch  "Operation Medusa" still the biggest operation in NATO history.

On Wednesday night at 8 "Hearts And Minds" looks at a Canadian bringing health care to a remove village while "The Long Way Home" looks at battle field medical treatment and treatment of the dead.
I can't think of a more meaningful way to observe Remembrance Day.
Says Stevens "If we're run out of wars to cover, I'm actually happy. There are no glib answers to any of this. Everything has consequences.
" I just think the soldiers need to be listened to. Why it all happened is very important. At some point we changed from liberators to invaders."
All four editions of this remarkable series deserve to be out in boxed DVD sets so students can be reminded what war is really like.

WAR STORIES PREMIERES ON HISTORY MONDAY NOVEMBER 9, TUESDAY NOVEMBER 10 AND WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 11 ALL AT 8 P.M.

MY RATING: ****.

Polar Bear Town Is Must-See TV

As I meander around Toronto these days people are always asking me are there any new must see Canadian TV series.
I'm usually stymied by the request but after watching the new series Polar Bear Town have
I got a winner for them.
You can see for yourself --the next new episode premieres on OLN Tuesday night at 9. Got that?
Look, it's the beginning of a new TV season so I've been inundated with new product.
When I was finally prodded to give Polar Bear Town a chance I really liked what I saw.
For one thing this show is oh so very Canadian.
It's also meticulously stitched together, well photographed and edited (from Merit pictures) a look at the northern Manitoba town of Churchill which was built directly on the migratory path of the world's largest polar bear migration.
Every fall upwards of 1,000 very hungry polar bears descent on the town and its environs as they attempt to reach the forming pack ice where they can feast on seals for the rest of the winter.
Says producer Merit Jensen Carr "About that time the town of 800 springs to life. There are tourists everywhere coming to witness these great creatures up close. It can be very dangerous but it's also an exciting time."
To make her 12-part series Carr had to get her crew in position and ready to shoot at any time of the day or night.
"It happens for just seven weeks in the year. We had to get everything shot on the first take."
Although the majestic polar bears occupy center stage Carr's method is to profile the unusual citizens of Churchill each of whom is touched in different ways by the bears and their environment.
"That's exactly right," she is saying on the phone. "We personalize story. Because the entire town is dependent on these animals."
I usually tease OLN for being the network of storage lockers wars and Dog, the bounty hunter --both shows I admit to watching on my own..
But Carr praises the network for being with the project all along and even sending executives up to cheer on the production.
"There's a different version of six hour-long episodes being made for Smithsonian TV in the U.S.," she says. "And British TV has bought yet another version. Each network has a different set of requirements all of which we have to meet."
In one episode we get to visit with a young waitress (originally from Quebec)mauled last year by a migrant bear. She steadfastly refuses to leave her home town and seems proud of surviving the attack and getting back to her job.
The profiles of the denizens are nothing short of amazing.
"Young Gun" Kelsey guides his clients right into the waiting bears  --we see how one Brazilian photographer reacts to the most dangerous moments of his life.
Kelsey also shows an abandoned bear trap that would cause a mother bear incredible pain before inevitable death and also doom her cub who could not survive alone at that stage.

There's "The Sheriff" Brian who has established a compound for Eskimo dogs who at one point were almost extinct. We see him tossing great swabs of meat to the dogs while a hungry bear looks on and tries to steal a meal or two along the way.
Then there's Dennis who is known as the bear whisperer. --a pioneering environmentalist who trule cares about the futurte of these unique creatures.Says Carr "Usually the cub will stay with the mother for two years. It's a long period to get them up to scratch.
"In some scenes we see a terribly emaciated bear --he's a senior at the end of his life. One can tell the health of a bear from the behind --the bigger the  behind the healthier."
Carr says at one time errant bears would be shot dead.
"But these days the bears are the saviors of the town. We show how the whole community bonds to trap and tranquilize bears off course and get them to places of safety."
This week's episode is titled "Trick Or Trap" as the town organizes citizens' patrols to keep the bears at bay as the kids go trick or treating at Halloween.
"The town is a microcosm of Canada,"Carr believes.
"There's a strong Inuit and Metis component, great characters who like the loneliness of the north,younger people here for adventures. And all are dependent on the bears."
POLAR BEAR TOWN'S EPISODE SIX PREMIERES ON OLN TUESDAY NOVEMBER 3 AT 9 P.M.
MY RATING: ***1/2.

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I Remember Joan Leslie

 

So there I was lounging at Pasadena's Ritz Carlton hotel during the 1992 TV Critics Association summer meetings.
Day after day TV stars appeared to answer questions and show their new shows.
And then I saw I had the weekend off.
A friend had given me the phone number of legendary Warners star Joan Leslie and I just dialed and Joan Leslie instantly answered.
I nervously suggested a phone interview but she said "Oh, no, I'll come tomorrow for High Tea, you know the works, salmon salad sandwiches, fruit cake, empire cookies."
And at 2 p.m. on Saturday she roared up in her Cadillac and we sat down for hours of conversation.
To say she was one of the nicest actresses I ever met would be an understatement. In poise and demeanor she ranked right up there with Irene Dunne, Ann Rutherford and Jane Greer as a true lady of the cinema.
And now I'm saddened by the news Joan Leslie died in Hollywood this week aged 90.
"Do I remember Toronto?" she chirped. "My sisters and I headlined Toronto's Shea's theater for a month in 1934. W went to Catholic school by day and at night I wowed them with my imitations of Greta Garbo and Zasu Pitts."
She was born Joan Brodel in Detroit to wealthy parents --"Dad was a stockbroker who lost everything in the crash of 1929. So we went on the road with an act billed as "The Three Brodels'. So you see I'm not really from a showbiz family."
By age 10 she was a Robert Powers child model earning the huge sum of $5 an hour.
"An MGM scout saw me and signed me to play Robert Taylor's kid sister in Camille (1936). One day I was playing jacks on the set when Greta Garbo waltzed by and her skirt slapped me in the face. She stopped and said 'Pardon'. So I can say Greta Garbo actually talked to me."
She continued in supporting parts until 1940 when Warners signed the pert teenager to a long term contract "and promptly changed my name to Joan Leslie. I played Velma, the crippled youngster in the Humphrey Bogart classic High Sierra. I then made a second film with him, The Wagons Roll At Night and he was soft spoken and charming to this youngster
"On my 16th birthday Jack Warner gave me a new Buick and co-starring billing opposite Gary Cooper in Sergeant York --he won the Oscar for it. I played the child bride Gracie and I was 16 and Coop was 40 and he gave me a doll for my birthday. I met the real Gracie when she and Alvin York came to New York for the premiere. She had never seen indoor plumbing and had trouble flushing the toilet.
"By 1942 I was so hot at the box office I got star billing after Henry Fonda and Olivia de Havilland in the comedy The Male Animal.
"Then came my biggest movie Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) opposite Jimmy Cagney. Director Mike Curtiz was our director who supplied the fancy camera work but Jimmy supplied the heart and soul and he also won an Oscar. Clearly I was a good luck charm!"
During the war years Leslie received thousands of fan letters a week as service men voted her the girl next door they'd like to come home to. "I'd sneak onto the sets of Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Crawford just to see how they worked. Joan took me to Adrian's dress salon to buy me some new clothes and I shared a makeup artist with Stany."
In 1943 Joan was loaned to RKO to co-star with Fred Astaire in The Sky's The Limit (1943) ."He was 44 and touchy about his age and I was 18. I came back after a weekend and had all my routines down pat and Fred lifted me up and exclaimed 'You really can dance!"
But Warners started typecasting her as the nice girl and the quality of her pictures declined.
"I sued Warners claiming (rightfully) I was under age when I signed my contract. I won but was blackballed by the major studios. I had to take what was offered, mostly B pictures."
Leslie married Dr. Bill Caldwell, had twin girls, and gradually withdrew from acting."My family and my church came first. And I found I didn't miss it."
When we chatted that day Leslie had returned to acting in senior parts in TV assignments like Murder, She Wrote and Marcus Welby.
"I made most money from an Avon commercial that ran and ran in California.
"But recently I'm only getting depressing roles. The way oldsters are portrayed is pretty awful so I've decided to retire again."
She began working for such charities as a home for unwed girls she helped support with the help of fellow retired actresses June Haver and Ann Blyth.
"We joke about being such dull copy, we're still married to our first husbands. The three Brodel girls have had a total of three husbands.
"And if you must know I can still ride a bicycle and I still eat apples."
I freely admit that I'm missing Joan Leslie already.


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