Forgot to mention that I recently made a nice score at our (admittedly odious) Best Buy store up at Northgate, where I will occasionally buy TV shows on dvd when the “loss-leading” spotlight happens to shine on some portion of my Personal Pantheon!
On the most recent visit, in addition to the hernia-inducing 57-disc 24: THE COMPLETE SERIES (list price: $350, BB: $120!) which I’d been eyeing for some time, I noticed that they were selling the first four seasons of HAWAII FIVE-O for $9.99 apiece, so how could I resist! LOL
Anyhow, I was thinking back to our discussions of Jack Lord from many years ago—I seem to recall you placing him firmly within The Shula-Landry-Eastwood-Lord Stern-Jawed Machismo Continuum—which is certainly fair, though I think we both enjoyed the occasional bits where Steve McGarrett’s blue-suited, blown-dry, “Seal the Island!”, Neo-Fascist Façade would be amusingly undercut, sometimes even by Lord himself.
The other night I thought, what the hell, and plopped in the 2-hour September 1968 pilot, which I knew full well I’d never seen. Via some sorta digital voodoo they’ve managed to make the show look like it was filmed in Hawaii yesterday, so there’s an unnerving sense of time suspended, perhaps vampirically! Never looked more fabulous, that’s for certain. THE DESCENDENTS wishes it was this gorgeous, as must George Clooney!
And this particular debut was quite spectacular, with a very “Sci-Fi Bond” brainwash plotline heralding the arrival of the glorious villain Wo Fat, as well as Angela Lansbury’s corrupt senator husband from THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (James Gregory, playing a good guy congressman this time, though Khigh Dheigh, the exquisite actor who played Wo Fat on FIVE-O, is of course just as deliciously Evil here as he was in that immortal 1962 thriller), and of course DR. NO’s own Jack Lord, who evidently refused to play the part of Bond’s CIA contact, Felix Leiter, a second time unless he was given co-starring billing with Sean Connery!
Oh well, Our Jack always knew his own worth….
I’ve since watched two more episodes, and I’m definitely more impressed than I expected to be. May be that We Four Kipps didn’t begin watching FIVE-O until Year Two, after we’d settled in at the Rocky Boy’s Rez, as I don’t recall it being quite so darkly brutal, nor seeing quite so much humor or tenderness outta Steve McGarrett, either! All things are of course relative, on that front! LOL
Jack Lord is shockingly handsome throughout for someone nearly-48, and I have to say, Ronald Reagan only dreamt of filling up a suit that well!
By the by, gimme an update on your latest doings, JK. I figured you’d enjoy hearing about my adventures wit’ The Lord!
– Tom Kipp
P.S. I was startled at just how exuberant Chin Ho Kelly was during the first season of FIVE-O! I’d always found him a walking corpse yes man (like Danno), more or less. Didn’t think he had that level of near-impudence in him, but it was tres amusant, particularly when he made his first appearance during the pilot.
From: Kipp, Thomas J
Sent: Sunday, February 12, 2012 5:02 PM
To: JK Manlove
Subject: Darkest Albums of the ’80s: Credible listing!
Encountered the following listing of the Darkest Albums of the ’80s quite randomly this afternoon, and felt it shouldn’t just skulk off into my "Sites Visited" bin!
http://www.listal.com/list/80s-johnnyvertigo
http://youtu.be/RheryVHlC_k
