In the third episode Frank begins with a story, albeit not complete in detail, of how watching TV as a youth has affected him later on in life. He uses the HBO show Dream On from thirty or so years ago as an analogy comparing that show's main character to himself. He then shares a personal example from when he tried to kiss girls on the cheek and/or lips as a prepubescent 6 or 7 year old and suggests he learned this from the original Richard Dawson version of Family Feud and Jack from Three's Company. Sometimes this affection worked fine, but he later got into some trouble. More seriously, he mentions life tends to be more of a struggle and sometimes there isn't a happy ending like shown on TV.
For the Priscilla Barnes review today, he checks out her guest appearance as Dan Tanna's love interest in a 1980 episode of Vega$. While Frank thinks Dan is cool as is the premise of the show, this episode failed to hit the mark in several key areas. It was as though a few things were off.
The theme song is called Retro Funk by SoulProdMusic and can be found at pixabay.com.
Vega$ episodes like this one can be found on YouTube and the H&I channel or wherever finer TV shows are found.
--The best way to contact is:
Twitter: @frankwebertx
Web: frankwebertx.com
Email: frankoweber@hotmail.com
In the third episode Frank begins with a story, albeit not complete in detail, of how watching TV as a youth has affected him later on in life. He uses the HBO show Dream On from thirty or so years ago as an analogy comparing that show's main character to himself. He then shares a personal example from when he tried to kiss girls on the cheek and/or lips as a prepubescent 6 or 7 year old and suggests he learned this from the original Richard Dawson version of Family Feud and Jack from Three's Company. Sometimes this affection worked fine, but he later got into some trouble. More seriously, he mentions life tends to be more of a struggle and sometimes there isn't a happy ending like shown on TV.
For the Priscilla Barnes review today, he checks out her guest appearance as Dan Tanna's love interest in a 1980 episode of Vega$. While Frank thinks Dan is cool as is the premise of the show, this episode failed to hit the mark in several key areas. It was as though a few things were off.
The theme song is called Retro Funk by SoulProdMusic and can be found at pixabay.com.
Vega$ episodes like this one can be found on YouTube and the H&I channel or wherever finer TV shows are found.
--The best way to contact is:
Twitter: @frankwebertx
Web: frankwebertx.com
Email: frankoweber@hotmail.com
Well, hello there. This episode of Frank river's party, I'm going to tell you a little story about. How TV and watching a lot of TV as a youth, and even as a little bit older person, Has affected my life and. Then we're going to get into a review of the old Vegas detectives show from the late seventies and early eighties, starring Robert Urich, My favorite actress, Priscilla Barnes has a prominent role in that one, and we think you're really gonna enjoy this party. So stick around and enjoy. Welcome once again to Frank whoever's party. So glad that you can make it to the party this week. This is our third party and. Uh so glad so glad that you could be here, a hope that your. Sharing this with your friends and family and subscribe. we've got a lot of great things going on. this show for you today. I'm going to start off. Once again with another personal story of mine. give you a little perspective on. What I would call TV's effect on me. And I actually can use some examples of. Television from the past to illustrate this And there's a lot of guys, probably a lot of girls too, who. Can tell you they watched a lot of TV growing up and. I've watched it change and evolve over the years. If they Took the time to analyze it and how it might actually have affected them as they've moved forward in their lives. There used to be a show on HBO. As an example, about 30 years ago, called dream on. Which starred. Brian Ben, Ben. And I believe he was either a writer or maybe a. author. Which I'm actually writing a book on my own right now, Spotify comedy. I don't think I've said that in the first two episodes. Hopefully be out here before too long. But, Brian Ben Ben's character. The running joke. Or the theme throughout that show from start to finish the several years that it was on, he would. Run into a situation in real life and he would have this flashback. To a time when his mom. Put them in front of a TV. And he was watching shows from the fifties and sixties. And. He would just flash back to some random scene. From a TV show that he was watching And so that TV obviously affected him in that way. And, The other interesting thing about Brian Ben, Ben is that he married Madeline Stowe, who is a beautiful brunette. She was in a number of movies and. And, last I checked, they were retired and still living in Fredericksburg, Texas, down to the hill country. A ways from where I am, it tells you about TV's effect on people. And I would say movies to anything in the arts. can be used to. Convey a meaning about how life. Could be, or at least get you thinking about. How life could be, or. And how it is and how it could be better and that sort of thing. And that's the good part of all this. And what I'm doing in these TV reviews. Whether it turns out to be a good show or not, or, Have any effect on me? the good part of it is that it gets you thinking and that you can. Maybe see how life can be and maybe make your life better, perhaps is what I'm trying to say. and then of course, on the flip side, there were also things about television that were not real life And it can kind of affect you in some other ways that maybe you weren't so good. the example that I used, I was just telling to. A friend of mine this the other day. I got interested in girls at an early age. Ian, before puberty, I used to. this topic may come out in later episodes, but I used to chase them around the playground And even kissed them or try to kiss them and that sort of thing. And a lot of that I think came from a couple of places. That I just. Recently been reminded about, one of them was the. Richard Dawson family feud. Which I know to some people and some women was very controversial because. Richard Dawson kissed all the women on the lips. I think they could opt out. Of that beforehand. But typically. That was his way. I thought it was cool. He said later that that's what they did at his house growing up. And I think he was totally honest about it. I totally believed him. And. And, uh, I thought that was cool. I thought that was the way things were supposed to work. Okay. You can't blame me for that. Right. And then, at the same period of time, I've also noticed, getting into the three's company reruns again. And I watched some of that show when it was brand new. Especially the Priscilla Barnes ears. And, Jack was always very affectionate with his roommates. they would hug and kiss and sometimes they would kiss on the lips. Nothing was generally that passionate. Uh, there might've been a couple of times actually, now that you mentioned it, but. generally If it's a platonic relationship. they're not usually kissing like that as much as they are. But again, I figured. Hey, I guess that's the way it really is. That's great. I think I'm going to do that. And so. I had some fun, got into some trouble, that sort of thing. In my early school years, even before puberty, like I was saying, And, uh, that expectation of course was it was fun, but it also got me in trouble when I was, I got older and wanted a date. And. Found out that not everything works out the way it does on TV. It's not always a happy ending. A lot of times it's a struggle. And, As good as TV was or movies were, and they had a happy ending and people fell in love. And. Lived happily ever after and whatnot. There was still, some challenges and some things that, that still never worked out perfectly. And so. Anyway, I just wanted to share that with you. It had a big effect on my life, just like it did on Brian, Ben Ben's character and dream on who I believe was named. Martin Tupper, like the Tupperware. I think it was his name and. Anyway, I just wanted to share that with you. Just give you a little thought. And then we're going to have. more, little. stories like that in the future. And. Of course, obviously there's going to be a ton of stories, planning on getting some interviews here. before too much longer. like I said, every show is a little bit different though. And. And, try to produce some content for you, each and every week. And then I think you'll enjoy. So I'm going to take a quick break right here and then we'll. Come back and review. an episode from the Robert Urich detective show Vegas from 1980. Where Priscilla plays a very prominent role All right. Welcome back to the show. We're gonna do another review of a production that Priscilla Barnes was in today. We're not really doing these in any particular order. Uh, last time we did her appearance on Colombo, an uncredited appearance, because that was her very first acting gig, I believe. And today we're going to do an appearance in Vegas. That's a detective show starring Robert Uric. That started in 1978. the S in Vegas is replaced with a dollar sign. It's not the James Kahn show from the early two thousands also called Vegas. and today I picked this one because this particular episode seems to be pretty outrageous, I would say. in terms of plot and storyline and some acting and dialogue and I think we can have a pretty good time with it. So let me start with an overview in history of the show. So it's called Vegas. It's an Aaron's spelling Detective show, from the era starring Robert Urick and an era from 1978 to 1981. This episode is called Love Affair in the third and Final Season. This is episode five that aired November 26th, 1980, Dan Tana is the name of the detective, that Robert Erick plays. And it started as part of a Charlie's Angels episode called Angels in Vegas to start, their new season in 1978. He makes an appearance in it, and, the following week you have a new show called Vegas that he stars in, and that's how it all got started. It's a, essentially a cool guy detective show. One hour long every week with Dan Tana, as we said, as the main character. Like many shows in that era, especially Aaron, spelling shows, he had a lot of great guest stars, and often had a beautiful guest star or girlfriend, for one episode that he seemed to be in love with. and in addition, he also had a beautiful assistant. Named B that was played by Phyllis Davis, who was in pretty much every episode. He never hooked up with her, though. That was the format for a lot of years in Hollywood. you have this studly handsome protagonist, detective in this case, guy who would go through all these girlfriends and love interests each episode and even have a beautiful assistant, but never hooked up with the assistant. And, they'd have to move on from one girl to the next, essentially. overall I thought the show was always a really good concept. now it's really good to get a glimpse of the old Vegas, the way it used to be. the, obviously the skyline and the buildings are so different now, and I would say even the gambling to some extent. so it's good from a nostalgic point of view, but the writing and acting were not, quite as good in this show. And it may have been one of the reasons why it only lasted about three years. It may have also been in part because Aaron spelling, who was turning out lots of different shows in the seventies and eighties, had several other detective shows going on at the same time. Like for instance, Charlie's Angels and I believe Starsky and Hutch, which was definitely also a spelling production was still around during the first season of Vegas. that may have been another reason. And that's not even counting all those shows were on abc. That's not even counting what might have also been on CBS and NBC at the time. So let's go ahead and get into some characters and the actors who played him. Of course. the main star is Robert Uric also, I call him Bob Uric knew him a lot from the Magnum Force movie, which was starred Dirty Harry. He, was one of three bad cops. vigilante cops along with David Sol, who's in Starsky and Hutch and, also Tim Matheson, who was an animal house and a number of other things. And, also in some other shows he was in the sitcom soap for a short time, a little bit before this. And, then of course later the detective show Spencer for hire. and then also in the late nineties, not too terribly long before he passed away, he was, the captain in the love boat, the Next Wave, which I think was one of those u p n shows. Dan Tana was a really interesting guy. The character he played, he was a Vietnam vet. He had a 57 red Ford Thunderbird, convertible, and he lived this. Great Bachelor's lifestyle out of the desert ends theatrical warehouse where he had a little area made for his living quarters and he also had an area for his Thunderbird to park, but it wasn't a garage. It wasn't walled off or anything. So I always wondered how they managed to do that, and prevent carbon monoxide poisoning and things like that. And, uh, he probably was able to live there in the desert and theatrical warehouse because of his friendship with the ends, owner whose name was Philip Roth, I believe, and he was played by Tony Curtis, uh, huge star, Jamie Lee's dad. but Tony is not in this episode, and it turns out he was not in a lot of the Vegas episodes back when it was on. But Dan, he takes a variety of different cases, but he tends to not want to take cases involving divorce or bodyguard cases. So that's just important to know. And then other cast members that were still on the show at the time of the third season, some of them had left before the third season. were Greg Morris, who was the. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, Lieutenant Nelson, Greg Morris, was also known for, being on the original Mission Impossible with Peter Graves. he's, the contact at the police department, works well with Danana. And then, as I mentioned, the lovely Phyllis Davis, who's from Port Arthur, Texas, down southeast. by the coast there was his assistant bee and, a lovely, lovely woman. And then there, was Bart Braverman who played Biner, who was also a contact or an assistant for Danana. So all these stars were largely. TV stars, except for Tony Curtis. he did a lot of movies as well as a lot of tv. And, of the regular cast that we're mentioning right now, only Bart Braverman is still around, so I just wanted to point that out to you. And then, as far as the guest stars, and this is one of the things that really. Is intriguing to me is, you have your regular stars, but you have your guest stars, and it's always interesting to see who they were and what else that they were in during their careers. the main one here is, Dick Sergeant, who, is actually playing Phil King, who's a stockbroker, who apparently has turned to being a pimp for high priced, call girls. In this particular episode of Vegas, he's best known for being the second actor to play Darren Stevens on Bewitched. and he was in an episode of Three's company fairly early on. I think it was actually second season though, as a married man who was trying to have an affair with Chrissy, Suzanne Summer's character. And, in the Threes company episode, he was married to Joyce Boon, who had some connection to the Mary Tyler Moore Show and Gavin McLeod and that, and then she was an airplane and there's a huge connection there. It's kind of interesting. But Dick Sergeant, he had a lot of many acting credits. I remember approximately around this time, he, 79 or 80. He was a substitute sheriff on the Dukes of Hazard for Roscoe. because a lot of folks on that show had some kind of pay disputes or some kind of acting disputes and so forth that are fairly well known. and he filled in for one episode, and typically I knew him as kind of a goofy, comedic kind of actor, but he could play some very serious roles, and he was definitely very serious in this role as Phil King in this episode of Vegas. We also had Ruda Lee, who, played a character named Gloria Garland, who was a former call girl for Phil King in this episode. She's a, an actress, but also a singer and dancer. Very many credits as well. She was on three's company twice, both as a real estate agent, but actually different characters. The first time she, sold the apartment building for Mr. Roper, and I believe that was the episode where she did this very distinct phrase, oh, please. When somebody suggested that she was potentially having an affair with Roper, all through misunderstanding, of course. And then the second time she was a real estate agent as well. she wound up, trying to. screw Furley out of, the apartment building. or at least his brother Bart, who actually owned the building. So that was always, interesting there. She's well into her eighties now, I think. Just had a birthday not all that long ago, she's still around. Dick Sergeant is not The next guy I'm gonna talk about is, is not either, his name is Steve Sand Ander. he played Tony, who was one of King's Hinchman, essentially. A really big muscular guy. He was on an episode of Three's company as well. Played an overprotective brother of a girl. Jack was, interested in and I guess essentially dating. Steve Sanders character owned a Jim where his sister also worked in that company. Episodes, he has a few. Credits, but seemed to kind of disappear a lot after about 1990. I may be wrong about that, but I wasn't really sure to find a whole lot of stuff on him. He starred on a second season episode of the original Star Trek. And then finally of note, and this lady is still alive and around today is, Patty Davis, who plays a receptionist for Phil King, apparently takes orders for stocks as well as books. The appointments, for these call girls. and of course this is, Ronald and Nancy Reagan's daughter, very attractive woman. had a few acting credits, but mostly was an author of books. she had a lot of disagreements with her parents that are well noted. and had a, spread in Playboy in the mid nineties or so. That was kind of a big deal. I'm gonna try not to give too many spoilers or tell you exactly what happens at the end, but I do think it's kind of outrageous and I'll go through the general gist of things and then it's really kind of a bullshit plot. TV obviously stretches reality. Sometimes it goes into fantasy, you know, and sometimes that's good and desirable, Basically at the beginning of the show, Tana has met Pam, who is Priscilla Barn's character in this show, and they have fallen in love. We didn't really see them meet or anything, but, they're definitely in love and Pam is very educated, either a psychology student or a lecturer. We're not really sure exactly which one. And, at least two times a week she has to go study at the library or give a lecture two nights a week. so she can't always be with Danana, but apparently Tana thinks, she should, turns out that we find out later that she's a$5,000 a night call girl for, Phil King, and her name is Satin, which sounds like a really. Crazy sexy stage name, And Phil King, as I said, is a stockbroker mainly, but has turned into a pimp when he realized that he could get high class educated women to, service these johns, after a basically economic downturn. So the premise is already getting ridiculous there. And I feel like, the story was not real written. there was a hooker at the beginning of the show that is killed by King. I think her name was Marsha something. I don't know if that was her stage name though. And she had Tana's number for help about what king was actually doing and trying to kind of investigate him and get him into trouble. but Tana of course, was busy with Pam at the time doing, who knows Romantic stuff. Tana finds out about this job of Pam's when he goes to the Desert Inn. Trying to look for, his owner and friend, Phil Roth, who, like I said, is not in this movie. And as she is leaving, this is her second stint with, a guy named Frederick Barr, who's the John in this case. She's leaving his room. He's a rich oil man from Texas, essentially, Dan and Pam. Break up, have a huge discussion at the casino, and then a parking lot. They break up and then they slowly, after a couple of scenes, they get back together. then Pam decides that she will quit working for King because she's so in love with Dan and has made life very meaningful for her. But then Barr really wants another night with her calls. King at four in the morning, and even that's too late for Phil King and suggests you know, that hey, let me pay a hundred thousand dollars for the night instead of the, the regular$5,000 rate. And of course, all this is split between King and the call girl. Then Pam goes to King to quit. And then, some things enue that I'm won't quite get into here. I want to, keep some element of surprise in case you're interested in going to check it out. So I'll stop the recap there. So that just reveals that this, again, this is the type of a show that the main character has a love interest or a girlfriend. She's there for one time and that's it. That was the formula approach to it. even if they had that main character also had a beautiful assistant he could potentially hook up with, but they never got together. And I also should mention before I go through, an analysis of certain scenes that, in case you're looking at it, there's still a desert NN road in Las Vegas, but the desert NN is not there anymore. I believe Steve Wynn bought it in the late nineties and it's now, the Windy Casino and resort, and probably the encore as well, since they're right next to each other. So in case you start wondering about that, so go through a few scenes here before I go through my, final synopsis. Dan Tana has a really cool answering machine that picks up the phone on its own and then records, the person speaks into the phone and then it, records the message. And while that might be very obsolete now, especially when we have. Smartphones with voicemails. That was a pretty cool thing in 1980. they actually got to a point where you, didn't have to pick up the phone in order to. have an answering machine separate that recorded. But it was really interesting. He had a lot of cool gadgets like that. It wasn't a James Bond, but it was, very cool. early on, there's a pillow scene where Pam and Dan are still in bed, and then there's a bubble bath scene that they're, taking together. Pam and Dan, they have a good chemistry or at least a, an average to good chemistry. But the dialogue is just terrible. And it's especially terrible for Bob Uric and I felt sorry about saying that cuz he's not here anymore. Not here to defend himself, And then I was also concerned about the general acting and emotion that he showed throughout the show. Maybe it was just an off week. there definitely seemed to be some other Vegas episodes where it was better. He told a corny joke in bed that I didn't understand, and then they, mentioned it again when they went to make up on a golf course, which I'm gonna get into in just a second. But then they were in the bubble bath together. And then he told this really crazy joke about, well, Pam, like a lot of women, they'll ask, have there been any other women in this bubble bath with you? You know, because that's what a lot of women like to do. And, he said, oh yeah, just one. It was a female plumber named Bubbles who helped hook up the bubble bath. And then they decided to test it out by taking a bath together. And I guess you can see some humor in it, but I don't know if it's genuinely great. there was a picnic scene before Pam was found out, and then later a makeup scene both appeared to take place on a golf course and not a park, especially the second scene where you can see golfers and the golf carts and the. The background and Dan has basically in that second scene driven his 57 red Thunderbird convertible onto the golf course. So I thought that was really, unusual to see that. I'm sure the groundskeepers were probably, not too thrilled and, but again, probably worked out okay since. It's a TV show and probably had to ask permission for it first. I would also note here we're gonna go actually a couple other scenes here. Also noted that Phil King has an indoor pool at his place. A lot of lovely women walking around. basically one piece swimsuits, my guess is that they're not call girls. and he tends to, he and his associates like Tony the henchman, seem to be playing a lot of, poker there, or otherwise just card games. seems like that's all they apparently do while they make money at Stockbroking and getting these call girls sent out to these, these high price businessmen. I would tell you to pay special attention to the last scene at, the boxing gym. was probably one of the, worst bits of dialogue and acting that I remember seeing from Danana, in the entire show. And basically the conclusion is reached for the show. he's very upset. obviously frazzled, a lot of things have just happened, but even the boxers who are there to work out and, these seem to be big, strong, physically tough guys or whatever. Even one of'em comes over to the side of the ring and seems like he's generally concerned about Dan. Maybe he feels a little sorry for him. It's almost kind of comedic in that regard. and then at the very end, they tried to put a little bow, almost a happy ending on it. And, Tana B and Benzer go fishing in a boat. And of course Pam is not there. You have to watch the show to find out really what happens with her. They did that a lot back then just to make the show seem, somewhat of a happy ending, can't say it really was, So I just want to give my overall grade for the show. Like I said, I like the premise. I think it's a cool show. Dan's a cool guy, cool job working in Vegas. This particular episode, I'd probably give a see for it, Priscilla's, acting in it. I would probably give her a b. I'm, I know I'm very kind to her, but I thought she actually did a really. Pretty decent job. And then I have a couple of, finishing thoughts here and. So hopefully I gave you enough here to tell you how this plot and storyline and some of the acting here was pretty outrageous. I don't want it to turn you off for other episodes in the series. it's still, streaming. I. Think it may be on YouTube, and I know there's at least one channel that's showing it these days. but I just wanted to give you a little comment on it here. So you're talking about a guy like Phil King. I don't know what kind of stockbroker he was, but it seems like this would be a fairly unlikely business model. I think most men and women, who are educated and have other things going on in their career that they enjoy and that take up most of their time would probably not stoop to, being prostitutes or call girls or hookers, whatever you want to call them. there may be exceptions, but There's something that keeps that from happening, even if the money is relatively easy. there could definitely be some exceptions out there, but, people get into doing something that they like, in Pam's case it was psychology and learning psychology. Maybe she was gonna be a therapist or a researcher or whatever. So, very unlikely, kind of outlandish in that regard. And, During the breakup scene when they're in the parking lot at the Desert Inn, one of the quotes that Pam says is, I'm not cheating. I'm working. And that of course, is a bit out of reality as well, typically, whether it's this country, I know we, we value it highly in this country, but I think it's true in a lot of other places, People like religious people and people with values, they don't enjoy cheating. basically if you're fucking somebody else, and you're in a committed relationship, that is typically considered cheating. So that was an odd scene. Kind of rationalizes it. Actually rationalization is one of those psychology terms, in fact. and then the last thing that I would tell you, most call girls and hookers. Again, there may be exceptions, but most of them don't look like Priscilla Barnes or, nor do they look like the, Marsha that was killed at the beginning of the episode. I don't really know why exactly that is, usually there is a hardened look to a lot of the people who engage in that business and they usually have to wear, kind of sexy clothes and a lot of makeup and stuff to, to look attractive. As a comparison, and this'll be my last point before I wrap this up, but like I was recently watching, Another comedic classic, musical, that's been on a little bit on TV recently, the best little whore house in Texas, which starred Bert Reynolds and Dolly Parton. And of course, Dolly Parton ran the chicken ranch, in Texas, which was a real place. And the ladies in that, in that show, they weren't really knockout drop dead gorgeous like Priscilla, but they weren't terrible either. I mean, they were pretty average to good looking, I would say, and that was probably a good compromise for that episode. I think I'm gonna stop right here get some more episodes ready for you here and hope you enjoyed it today and look forward to seeing you at the party once again really soon. And remember, tell your family and friends and have'em hit that subscribe button and. this is your host, Frank Weber, signing off, and we'll talk to you again soon. The theme song is called retro funk. Bye soul prod music and can be found@pixabay.com.