Thursday, April 19, 2007

I Fought The Law, The Law Won





Or the aliens. Or the time warp. Sid posted a comment regarding Roy Thinnes in THE INVADERS, a great show from the 60s--I don't even want to think that this is going back almost half a century--where the dude is on the run from aliens in Bakersfield, California. They have the shape of humans, but bend their little finger in a weird Spock-wannabe movement. Roy Huggins created the show, along with Christian I. Nyby II (one damn cool name there, as a kid I thought it was Christian 1 Nyby 2). It was a follow-up to THE FUGITIVE, starring David Janssen as Dr. Richard Kimble. Forget ANY other version. Janssen was the man, in almost every scene back in a time when there were forty episodes a year, not twenty or piss and moan shows with ensemble casts. Kimble and Lt. Gerard, played by Barry Morse, whose hair made me think he had a matchstick for hair. (In two years, God willin' and if the creeks don't rise, I will have outlived Janssen, who died on Valentine's Day 1980, playing golf in Palm Springs. Heart attack. Me, I want to explode. Not a suicide bomber thing. Just a freak accident in a trans-dimensional attempt at finding an alternate universe where I actually have a girlfriend). But I digress. Kimble brought the one-armed man to justice--well, he killed him on the Mahia Mahia ride at Santa Monica Pier even though it was supposed to be Stafford, Indiana (see, I know my stuff). August 29th, 1967, the day the running stopped. Kimble with hottie Diane Baker, who then appeared in the first episode of THE INVADERS. An odd cycle, symmetry like in RUN, LOLA, RUN with Franke Potente. I posted the last shot for the guys reading the blog, I'm just saying, is all. I wasn't the only one running. Pant, pant, pant. I have Janssen's heart, if I outlive him, as I did Elvis and Karl Edward Wagner, Rod Serling is next on my list. One man's list, which wil take him to a place we can only call...THE TWILIGHT ZONE. Freaky, chain-smoking bastard. (I'm kidding, I'd be hotboxing Pall Malls with him in a second...) Well, time to shut my babbling brain off, see what happens when I can type fast? Your chattel, Wayne

7 comments:

Sidney said...

It was '67 was it? In a weird "Lost" crossover sort of way I was thinking of 1967 yesterday because I used to have the "Superman" issue Hurley was alluding to "Catch 22" in which Flash and Superman race the first time. I know that's one of many but Flash vibrates through a wall in it like he and Charlie were discussing. I remember that if not much else about the tale. I remember watching "The Invaders" too though I don't remember it well.

Charles Gramlich said...

Man, I loved The Invaders. I wish the Sci Fi channel would show reruns. Another guilty pleasure from the old days? "Land of the Giants." I liked it. What can I say.

RK Sterling said...

Me, I want to explode. Not a suicide bomber thing. Just a freak accident in a trans-dimensional attempt at finding an alternate universe where I actually have a girlfriend.

Not a bad way to go.

If you see the me that's thin and a best-selling, multi-millionaire novelist/painter on your way there, give her a wave for me, will ya? The lucky bitch.

Stewart Sternberg (half of L.P. Styles) said...

I did a posting about the INVADERS on the other blog a time ago..I think I focused on the lame reinvention or minimovie they did. I can't remember who they got to do the Thinnes character but Robert Ulrich comes to mind.

Ah Wayne..when I look at the celebrities I outlive, I hold my breath and hope the reaper will keep looking the other way.

Drizel said...

wowi....very kewl....:)
Keep save
HUGZ:)

Wayne Allen Sallee said...

Sid, everybody seemed to be on the same wavelength in 1967, and Charles, LOTG was a decent show, but I enjoyed the idiocy of TIME TUNNEL better. Kate, I'm thinking I should look into Earth-14 more often, my favorite of the multiverses, maybe the you of which you speak is there. And Stewart, ah, Stewart. To paraphrase Dennis Hopper and his Pabst Blue Ribbon rant in BLUE VELVET, fuck Robert Urich, Roy fucking Thinnes. (And RIP, Bob Urich, of course. Roy Thinnes, as well).

Lana Gramlich said...

Ironic...Just the other day I was wracking my brain, trying to remember the name of the movie, "Run, Lola, Run." Thanks for answering my psychic cry. ;)