As we've documented, Aaron Spelling began producing series on his own, even though his last collaboration with Danny Thomas, The Mod Squad, was in its 3rd season. Unfortunately, Spelling had trouble finding his footing at first. His collaboration with Screen Gems, The Young Rebels, failed on Sundays. His other frosh aired on Saturdays, also on ABC, and in back of Lawrence Welk.
The Most Deadly Game, unlike Silent Force, was a 1 hour drama, like Young Rebels. The age of the half-hour crime drama was gradually coming to an end, as, if I'm not mistaken, Jack Webb's Adam-12, in its 2nd season, might've been the last one.
George Maharis (ex-Route 66) & Ralph Bellamy (ex-Man Against Crime) team with Yvette Mimieux in this short-lived series.
Here's the intro:
Another day, we'll take a look at Spelling's other entry, The Silent Force.
No rating.
4 comments:
The Most Daadly Game was an hour-long show.
What happened to it was the unexpected death of Inger Stevens, just at the onset of production.
The shooting was delayed for the recasting of Stevens's role with Yvette Mimieux, which pushed the premiere back nearly two months, to late October.
By that time, CBS's sitcoms and NBC's movie had taken root ...
... and Stevens's death had had a negative effect on the whole production ...
... and ABC wanted to contract their faltering schedule in anticipation of next year's Prime Time Access Rule ...
...and there you are.
Oh. Things I was not aware of. Thanks, Mike.
If Inger Stevens had survived, I rather think this series might have succeeded. Yvette Mimieux is beautiful, intelligent, and warm. She's an excellent actress. But Inger Stevens had an air of fresh Scandinavian beauty and intelligence, femininity and strength, but also, mystery, shadows, vulnerability, fine fragile beauty, energy .... she carried most of all the tv and films she was in.
The death of Inger Stevens is IMHO largely what caused the series to fail, Miss Mimieux is beautif, intelligent, and a charming talented actress, but it seems Inger Stevens had a mystique, a vulnerabilty, and a fragile, gentle let strong beauty
that had great appeal. Incidentally, according to a biographer who had met her
and followed up years after her death, told me personally that her death was
murder, not suicide.1 *
1 *William Patterson,"THE FARMER'S DAUGHTER REMEMBERED"
The biography of Inger Stevens
Post a Comment