Back in June, I wrote here about watching Old TV Westerns and seeing all the now-major actors, directors and writers. Well, today we return to our spurs head back out to another tale from the “Old TV Western” front. On the show Wanted: Dead or Alive, I checked a day ahead and they had an episode scheduled for Monday morning that looked like it might be fun, so I set the DVR. It was about a reporter from the East who wanted to follow around Josh Randall (played by Steve McQueen) to be the subject of a story he was writing on bounty hunters, and the episode was titled, “The Twain Shall Meet.” So, of course I figured it was about Mark Twain. But unfortunately it wasn’t – odd title then, and I thought a missed opportunity. (Earlier this year, Have Gun, Will Travel had an episode I watched where Paladin helps Phileas Fogg on his race to get back to England. The end credits even gave credit to the Jules Verne novel.) So, not being as interested, I watched most of the show, but fast-forwarded through a lot of it. At one point, there was a scene in a bar that caught my interest, so I stopped to watch. The reporter is talking to a young saloon girl who’s spinning a tall tale about herself for his article. It ends up having an impact on the plot, but mainly her voice seemed sort of familiar, and then they cut to a close-up of her. I kept peering close and then it hit me – it was a young Mary Tyler Moore. (I later checked, she was 23-year-olds, a year before “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”) And then all the better, when the end credits came around, it turned out that the episode was directed by Richard Donner. For those not up on your film history, Donner directed such works as all four Lethal Weapon movies, the Bill Murray comedy Scrooged, Conspiracy Theory, Superman, The Goonies, and appropriately for today's whimsy, the feature-film version of Maverick, among many others. Great fun. And all the more fun, here is a clip of the 3-minute scene with Mary Tyler Moore. The image runs a touch slow for some odd reason, but is totally watchable.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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