Friday 20 March 2009

70's TV

Last night after watching the nightly episode of Stargate, (and how disappointing it got, I remember now why I lost interest in it, Ben Browder is no Richard Dean Anderson, and political stories - yawn)

Anyway time for the pilot episode of McMillan and wife. I don't think I could ever have seen that one, the first I remember is when they move into their new house (I fell in love with the matching sofas either side of the hole in the wall fireplace). I think that and Sylvia Anderson's sets for Thunderbirds is where I got the idea of how decorating *should* be done :-)

Back in those days baddies were baddies (and usually wore hugely eye magnifying glasses, this was before they invented goatees..) and I loved the extended sequence where commissioner McMillan chases the bad guy up and down the hills of San Francisco on a bicycle (I'd love to see any of our commissioners do that) the chase getting slower in the upsides of the hills... SanFrancisco looking surprisingly less glamorous then you would expect today.

Back then Saturday night was McMillan and Wife, Columbo (my mum loved him, still does) and McCloud, later in the decade it was Streets of SanFrancisco, Kojak, Ironside and the kings of them all, Starsky and Hutch. My sister and I always had a special Saturday night watching them all and having treats to eat while Mum & Dad went out for the evening with Auntie Connie and Uncle David.

I know it seems hard today but you wouldn't believe how exotic those shows were to a kid living in Wales and I still have this gut feeling that SanFrancisco exists only as a stage set and isn't a real place at all.

I wasn't convinced by Rock Hudsons hair and some of those jackets were diabolical :-) but I can't wait for the first 'proper' episode.

5 comments:

  1. I live in San Francisco. The scenes they show on the telly are decieving. Quite a lot of those shows were shot exclusivly in Los Angeles. I did not see the bicycle show. I watch BBC America mostly.Couple of new shows have promice. Kings and (just realized the "connection", Castle.

    Castle is played by Fillion. First show he was a bit of an idiot. The second show he settled down.

    ReplyDelete
  2. :smile: True about Rock's hair. I loved that living room, too!
    San Francisco has parts that do indeed look like a stage set, especially some of the hilly streets. I think it's a magical place, though,- nearly perfect climate and all the urban amenities.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh wow! I adored Columbo!

    I've never been to San Francisco. But did travel cross country and ended up in coming to to California through Victorsville and then down to L.A. Yech. Drove down to San Diego then back across the lower portion of the U.S.

    We're sorry that we didn't take the Northern California tour. We were terribly disappointed with the lower half. Would have loved to seen SF and on up to see the Redwoods, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Damn, my cunning ploy didn't work, That comment was so that I would be deluged with invites so that I could see for myself that SF actually is real... :-D

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ah - I'm sure Marty will invite you!

    ReplyDelete