#Penny Kojak

[maconfilmguild]

The new Macon Film Guild logo

[gumshoethedetective]

We can go to the crime scene after, if you'd like. I guess we should get to know each other a bit better, maybe?

Well, you know I'm Kojak. I like blue, and I have a cat named Penny. You have any animals?

-Detective Kojak Noir

Oh, I technically have three, one’s back in my old town being taken care of by my folk’s helpers. Puzzle the horse (at parents place), Oz the cat, and I take care of K9-Unit Missile! I am Dick Gumshoe, I like the color green.

[meanstreetspodcasts]

Happy Birthday, William Conrad

Even if you don’t know his name, chances are you know William Conrad’s voice.  You may know it from the jovial narrations of the adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle or the somber voice-over that followed Richard Kimble, The Fugitive.  Maybe you’ll recall his heavyset but still hard-nosed private eye Frank Cannon or the rascally courtroom antics of J.L. “Fatman” McCabe.   Or you may remember him as Matt Dillon, “the first man they look for and the last they want to meet,” on the old time radio classic Gunsmoke.  Audiences had ample opportunities to meet the actor in his five decades in show business, and it all began when he was born September 27, 1920.

Conrad was born John William Cann, Jr. in Lexington, Kentucky, and he began a career in radio as an announcer and writer for a Los Angeles station before he entered the Air Force in World War II.  Like other radio professionals who were enlisted men, he worked with the Armed Forces Radio Service.  After the war, Conrad was in demand as a supporting radio player.  He could be heard in a variety of roles, with a seemingly endless variety of accents and characterizations, on shows like Escape, Suspense, The Man Called X, and The Adventures of Sam Spade.  Some believed he was heard a little too often, and perceived overexposure almost cost Conrad a shot at what would prove to be his biggest radio role.

Producer-director Norman Macdonnell had been tasked by CBS President William Paley to develop a series that would be a “Philip Marlowe of the Old West."  Paley was a big fan of Macdonnell’s The Adventures of Philip Marlowe starring Gerald Mohr, and wanted a show with a similar feel. (Coincidentally, Bill Conrad filled in for Gerald Mohr and played Marlowe in "The Anniversary Gift," the April 11, 1950 episode of the series. You can hear it in Episode 43 of the podcast.)   Up until that point, radio westerns were primarily kids’ stuff.  The Lone Ranger, Hopalong Cassidy, and others rode the range in what amounted to little more than B-movie entertainment (no knock against those shows; it is thrilling to hear the Ranger and Tonto chase down bandits, but compelling drama it is not).  Just as Jack Webb brought grit and realism to the police drama with Dragnet, Macdonnell and scriptwriter John Meston saw an opportunity to revitalize the western.  When it came time to cast their lead of Matt Dillon, the US Marshal who tried to keep the peace in the "suburb of hell” known as Dodge City, Kansas - Meston pushed hard for William Conrad.  CBS had other ideas.

Conrad recalled years later, “I think when they started casting for it, somebody said, ‘Good Christ, let’s not get Bill Conrad, we’re up to you-know-where with Bill Conrad.'  So they auditioned everybody, and as a last resort they called me.  And I went in and read about two lines…and the next day they called me and said, 'Okay, you have the job.’”

Gunsmoke premiered on April 26, 1952, with a powerful script involving Matt Dillon facing down a lynch mob.  The episode (listen to it here) erases any doubts as to whether William Conrad was the right choice for the role.  Backing him up every week was one of radio’s strongest regular casts.  Parley Baer was Dillon’s easygoing deputy Chester Proudfoot; Howard McNear was the wry Doc Addams; and Georgia Ellis was Kitty, the saloon owner (and, although it was never explicitly said on the show, prostitute) and Matt’s love interest.  Rounding out the supporting company every week was a repertory company of actors assembled by Macdonnell, including John Dehner, Larry Dobkin, and Harry Bartell.

There were attempts to bring Gunsmoke to TV as early as 1953, and by 1955 CBS was ready to move ahead.  Conrad, Baer, Ellis, and McNear were given token auditions, but none were seriously considered to reprise their roles on the small screen.  Conrad never had a shot due to his growing obesity; the network believed viewers wouldn’t believe the short, heavy actor as the rugged hero, even though he effortlessly sold the role on radio.  Losing the role to James Arness left Conrad embittered.  He’d continue to work in radio until the end of network radio drama in 1962, and he went on to a career off-camera in television.  Conrad directed episodes of Have Gun - Will Travel, 77 Sunset Strip, and even the TV version of Gunsmoke.  He narrated the adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and the exploits of Richard Kimble on The Fugitive (it’s from his prologue to that series that we get our podcast title this week - “Fate moves its huge hand.”)

A starring role on the small screen came at last in 1971 when Conrad starred as the titular character in Quinn Martin’s Cannon.  It was the glorious era of "gimmick" TV detectives - Longsteet was blind, Barnaby Jones was old, Kojak was bald, and Frank Cannon was...portly. But Conrad's performance elevated the series above the "fat detective" concept. The private eye drama ran for five seasons and earned Conrad two Emmy Award nominations.  Conrad gave TV one of its most memorable detectives, and Cannon’s adventures continue to air today in syndication.  

There was an attempt to revive Cannon with a 1980 TV movie, and the following year Conrad played Nero Wolfe in a short-lived series on NBC.  Conrad was a tremendous fan of the character, and you can tell he's having a ball opposite Lee Horsley's Archie Goodwin. Unfortunately, the series only aired for 13 episodes before it was cancelled. Following a well-received turn as a D.A. opposite Andy Griffith on Matlock, Conrad returned to the small screen in a starring role in 1987 with Jake and the Fatman.  Conrad played J.L. “Fatman” McCabe, a Los Angeles prosecutor who relied on investigator Jake Stiles (Joe Penny) to do his legwork (shades of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin again).  The show ran until 1992.

Conrad passed away February 11, 1994 at the age of 73.  In 1997, he was posthumously inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame.  With thousands of performances across dozens of shows, Conrad’s voice will live forever, wherever Rocky and Bullwinkle get into misadventures or whenever Matt Dillon is forced to draw his gun to keep the peace.

Get more old time radio detectives here!

[kojakcollection]

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[topbeautifulwomens]

#Barbara #Rhoades #Biography #Photos #Wallpapers #awesome #happy #hiphop #lol #makeupartistsworldwide #makeupblogger #makeupideas #photography #runwaymodel #worldstarhiphop

Barbara Rhoades is an American actress, identified primarily for her comedy and mystery roles, specially as lady bandit Penelope “Bad Penny” Cushings in The Shakiest Gun in the West (1968). She experienced a memorable role as Jodie Dallas’s future wife, Maggie Chandler, in the TV series Soap.

She has had guest roles on diverse television series including It Takes a Thief, Ironside, Mannix, Columbo, Kojak, Alias Smith and Jones, Love, American Style, The Odd Couple, The Six Million Dollar Man, Maude, Trapper John, M.D., and Murder, She Wrote. In 1989, she was cast as Jessica Gardner on the NBC soap opera Generations. On television into the 2000s, she appeared on a 2003 episode of Law & Order. She way too had a recurring role as the private detective Maggie Chandler on Soap.

A tall, voluptuous redhead, Rhoades appeared in a handful of 1970s films. They contain There Was a Crooked Man… (1970), opposite Kirk Douglas and Henry Fonda, and Up the Sandbox (1972) starring Barbra Streisand. She played a law enforcement officer, “No Balls” Hadley, in 1977’s The Choirboys and a Vegas hooker who picks up Art Carney along the road during his Oscar-winning performance in Harry and Tonto (1974). She also had a role in Neil Simon’s The Goodbye Girl (1977) and 1973’s “Scream Blacula, Scream”. In 2007, she appeared in the movie First Born with Elisabeth Shue.

Name Barbara Rhoades Height Naionality American Day of Birth 23-March-1947 Place of Birth Poughkeepsie, New York, U.S. Famous for Acting

The post Barbara Rhoades Biography Photos Wallpapers appeared first on Beautiful Women.

source http://topbeautifulwomen.com/barbara-rhoades-biography-photos-wallpapers/

[flauntpage]

Ronda Rousey to Star In "Battle of the Network Stars" Reboot

Back in the late 1970s some programming executive at the American Broadcasting Company had an idea of such overwhelming and undeniable genius that even the network's two competitors wanted to be a part of it: Gather together 10 stars from each of the Big Three networks and have them compete against one another in a series of sporting events. Anyone who was anyone in television was involved: Tom Selleck, Linda Evans, Scott Baio, Mr. T, Heather Locklear, Vicki Lawrence, Tony Danza, and on and on. Those names may not mean much today but back then—back when there were only three networks and no Internet or real cable television to compete for American attentions—they were enormous shining lights. And who wouldn't want to watch Gabe Kaplan from Welcome Back Kotter coaching Penny Marshall from Laverne and Shirley in a tennis match against Gary Burghoff from M*A*S*H or Demond Williams from Sanford & Son? What true-blooded American would turn down the opportunity to see a sprint relay team featuring both Lou Ferrigno (The Incredible Hulk) and Billy Crystal (Soap), or Michael J. Fox (Family Ties) and Kim Fields (The Facts of Life)? Who would dare turn away from the chance to witness the great TV stars of the day settling all scores once and for all with a tug-of-war? For 12 years, Battle of the Network Stars was not only the greatest thing on television, but the very encapsulation of the American dream: celebrities in short shorts and skimpy bathing suits proving their physical superiority via obstacle courses in front of millions of adoring fans.

Which raises a simple question: How, in our age of perpetual reboots, has someone not thought to bring this show back?

Well, take heart because someone has. Starting June 29, Battle of the Network Stars will be returning to ABC, not as a twice-yearly bit of special programming but as a weekly series running 10 episodes. That's not the only difference. Acknowledging the enormous changes that television has undergone in the 30 years, the new Battle won't feature three teams representing particular networks but teams composed thematically: for example, all sitcoms dads, or all TV surgeons, or all (fictional) White House staffers. Which means teams won't just be featuring actors from today but also from television shows past, like L.A. Law and Happy Days and The Facts of Life. Brought to you in a new amped-up, faster-paced format sure to delight younger fans who would kill to see the cast of The Big Bang Theory racing in kayaks but who have no idea what The Facts of Life is.

Still, the real revolution here may in the coaching. Back during the show's original run, BNS teams were coached by their own. Kojak's Telly Savalas coached the CBS Team and Magnum PI's William Devane coached the NBA Team and Hill Street Blues' Daniel J. Travanti coached the NBC Team. The coaches were actors first and ad hoc coaches (Salavas smoked onscreen throughout his tenure) second. Not so anymore. This time around, in an effort to make the show more of a legitimate sporting event, producers have hired two permanent coaches to motivate our favorite stars through those obstacles courses and 200-yard dashes, and one of those coaches is former UFC women's bantamweight champion and women's MMA pioneer Ronda Rousey, who appears to be making her long-simmering transition out of fighting and into Hollywood stardom permanent after losing to current champion Amanda Nunes in December.

Back in the 70s and 80s women weren't considered coach material by the producers of BNS. Oh, viewers were happy to see a scantily clad Catherine Bach (The Dukes of Hazzard) or Erin Gray (Buck Rogers in the 25th Century) plunged into the dunk tank and then exiting soaking wet, but in 12 years only two women were allowed to be coaches. Cathy Lee Crosby from That's Incredible! broke the glass ceiling in 1980 and country singer Barbara Mandrell followed suit a year later, but that was it.

Similarly, it was assumed by many just a few years ago that women couldn't or shouldn't compete in MMA, and that if they did no one would watch. Then along came Ronda Rousey and all our quaint notions about women and cage-fighting were blasted to the heavens. So, while Battle of the Network Stars may be miles away from the big-money big-screen action franchises Rousey was getting roles in back when she was still considered an unbeatable fighter (not to mention evidence that Hollywood is a cruel and unforgiving seducer that will turn its back on you the second your star begins to fade), Rousey's role as coach, as unglamorous as it may seem, fits in nicely with her narrative as a born destroyer of cultural boundaries, giving her a chance to smash once and for all the petty little prejudices we lovers of televised celebrity athletic competitions have been burdened with for the last three decades.

Ronda Rousey to Star In "Battle of the Network Stars" Reboot published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv