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By the early ‘80s, Melissa Sue Anderson was ready to get some dirt under Mary Ingall’s fingernails, and shed her squeaky clean image. Late in ’81 she would entertain horror audiences with her big screen turn in Happy Birthday to Me, but earlier that same year she stayed closer to home on the tube playing a big bad teenage witch in Midnight Offerings – a role which I’m sure Pa Ingalls would not approve of.

The telemovie premiered Friday, February 27th, 1981 on ABC. It’s neighbor CBS had the kings of Friday night, Dukes of Hazzard and Dallas going on, while poor old NBC had Nero Wolfe followed by that party animal David Brinkley. (Let’s just say the Peacock was still a few seasons away from working their way out of the cellar.) But ABC, for some reason, had always not only nurtured horror, but thrived on it – and...

Louisa Mellor Sep 9, 2016

These 7 TV shows were making false wolf-related promises. With the help of Ms Paint and a lack of journalistic dignity, we fixed that…

Den Of Geek has no truck with the figurative. We cannot sanction its buffoonery. That is to say, if a TV show wants to use the word ‘wolf’ in its title, it had better feature a wolf.

It’s not as though it’s hard. A number of shows manage to deliver on their wolf-related promises. Teen Wolf. Wolfblood. Wolf’s Rain. Wolf Lake. She-Wolf Of London… they’re packed to the rafters with lupine glory. The shows that aren’t but profess to be in their titles need to take a long, hard look at themselves. Whoever they’re trying to impress with their wolflessness, it isn’t working.

That’s where we come in. Wolf Hall, Wolf Creek, Raised By Wolves, Airwolf,...

I’ve heard it said that old friends are the best friends. That makes sense to me. Over time, you’ve shared experiences together, both good and bad. You’ve grown to know each other, to know the little idiosyncrasies that make up who we are, that make the bonds between us.

You can form that kind of relationships with books as well, especially series. The first time you read the book, it’s to discover the story, to learn what happens next. As you return to it, or read another book in the series, it’s because you want to revisit them.

For example, for me every new book in The Number One Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith is like a new visit with old friends. I know the characters, the main ones and the wide supporting cast as well, and I want to learn what...

As I mentioned in a previous column, I’ve been on a Rex Stout/Nero Wolfe reading/re-reading jag as of late and have been enjoying it greatly. As other commentators have noted, the pleasure in the Nero Wolfe novels is not so much the plots, which have been noted as serviceable, but in the characters, especially the rotund and eccentric genius, Nero Wolfe, and his wise cracking legman and assistant, Archie Goodwin.

(Sidenote: when I first met the late and great comic book writer/editor, Also Archie Goodwin, I meant to ask him about Wolfe but decidedly, I think prudently, that he had probably gotten enough of that in his life. End digression.)

Stout had written 33 novels and 39 short stories on the pair between 1934 and his death in 1975. After his death, his estate authorized further Wolfe and Goodwin adventures by Robert Goldsborough who has written ten books, one of...

My mother once told me that an odd pleasure she had in growing older was that she could go back to favorite books, particularly mysteries, and enjoy them all over again because she didn’t remember the ending. She knew she liked it but she could discover it anew.

That’s happening a bit to me these days. I’ve recently started re-reading Rex Stout’s mysteries featuring Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin (not to be confused with the late, great comics writer and editor with the same name, although that would have been an interesting pairing as well). I read quite a few of them a few decades back but not all of them; that would be a monumental task since Stout wrote 33 novels and about 40 novellas about Wolfe and Goodwin.

Rex Stout (December 1, 1886 – October 27, 1975) was born of Quaker parents in Indiana and was raised in Kansas. He...

When it comes to the world of heroic fantasy, there have been a hell of a lot of really great butlers. We’ve got such luminaries as Ram Singh (The Spider), Bernardo (Zorro), Cadbury (Richie Rich), Ianto Jones (Torchwood), Lurch (The Addams Family), Max von Mayerling (Sunset Boulevard), two different Smitherses (Veronica Lodge and the Simpsons), Fritz Brenner (Nero Wolfe), Birmingham Brown (Charlie Chan) and of course Edwin Jarvis (The Avengers or Agent Carter – take your pick). There were the Green Hornet’s Kato, but that dude was more of a partner/sidekick than a butler, and Jack Benny’s pal Rochester was only technically a butler. He was actually Benny’s arch-enemy.

But head and shoulders above all other butlers, the king of the mountain of butlers is Bruce Wayne’s own Alfred Pennyworth. You can tell from the actors who played him on film and television – Michael Caine,...

When it launched in 1984, A&E was called The Arts & Entertainment Network and aired the type of performing arts, British mysteries and doc programming previously reserved for PBS. The channel quickly became known by its current label and as the home of "Biography," a series so successful that in 1999 it was spun off into its own separate cable channel. A&E's first forays into scripted programming started in the mid-'90s with a focus on movies and miniseries, among them two original drama series in 2001 -- "A Nero Wolfe Mystery" and Sidney Lumet's "100 Centre Street" – each which lasted just two seasons. Along the way, A&E dropped its longer name as well as most of its "arts" programming, and in 2002 began to focus on reality programming, its lineup dominated by shows like "The First 48" and "Intervention" as well as character-driven series like "Dog the Bounty Hunter" and "Gene Simmons Family Jewels.

Former James Bond Pierce Brosnan is getting ready to start filming his next movie, "November Man." Directed by Roger Donaldson ("The Bank Job"), the film also stars Olga Kurylenko ("Oblivion"), Luke Bracey ("G.I. Joe: Retaliation") and Bill Smitrovich ("Iron Man," "Nero Wolfe"). The new movie is scheduled to start shooting this coming Monday, May 20th. Described as an "espionage action-thriller," it has a script from Michael Finch ("Predators") and Karl Gajdusek ("Oblivion") and is based on the seventh book of Bill Granger's November Man 13-part series. The official synopsis is as follows: November Man tells the story of an ex-cia operative...

One of our recurring segments on The Televerse is The DVD Shelf, where guests come on to talk with us about one of their favorite series no longer on the air. Here is a library of the DVD Shelfs and guest segments we’ve done so far so listeners can catch up with our back catalog. Enjoy!

30 for 30 Season 1 (Make-You-Watch-athon)

Awake with Sean Ingram

Batman: the Animated Series with Gabe Bucsko

Battlestar Galactica (2003) with Josh Spiegel

Better Off Ted with Josh Spiegel

Blackadder with Les Chappell

Brass Eye with Derek Gladu

Buffy the Vampire Slayer with David Bax

Capone’s Horror Picks 1 (Duel, Salem’s Lot)

Cheers with David Bax

Chuck with Shawn Keown

Coupling (UK) with Erik Bondourant

Dead Like Me with Amrie Cunningham

Deadwood with Previously On

Doctor Who (Make-You-Watch-athon)

Fawlty Towers with Michael Rice

Firefly with Justine Smith

Freaks and Geeks with Corey Atad

Friday Night Lights...

Ah, Valentine’s Day. We’ve officially entered the season of love, romance, and overpriced chocolate. Here to help you get in the mood, your five rotating Siipping News columnists Hannah, Yvonne, Catherine, Adri and Aja have each assembled their top five most romantic (intentionally or not) slashy moments from many different fandoms. Included in this eclectic list is everything from movies to manga, so you’re sure to find a new fandom flame or rekindle an old love. Enjoy!

Hannah’s Top 5

Picking only five romantic moments was a big challenge for me considering how many TV shows, movies, comics and books I am forever in love with. But I’ve narrowed it down to these few heart-wrenching finalists.

5. Harvey/Mike (Suits 2.12): “Who did this to you?”

I’ll be the first to say that Suits doesn’t fit my typical TV taste – no sci-fi, no fantasy, no...

It’s another long one this week, as, despite the Olympics taking over primetime, there was interesting television galore this week. After running through Our Week in TV as quickly as feasible, including the Go On pilot, Childrens Hospital and Ntsf:sd:suv::’s season premieres, Awkward., Wilfred, Louie, the Animal Practice pilot, The Newsroom (Us), Political Animals, True Blood, the Grimm premiere, Bunheads, and Alphas, we spotlight this week’s fabulous Breaking Bad episode, “Dead Freight”. Then it’s over to the DVD Shelf, with returning guest Tyler Smith of Battleship Pretension and More Than One Lesson joining us to discuss the underseen Pi gem Nero Wolfe.

Download the chaptered m4a version in a new window

Download the unchaptered mp3 version in a new window

- Listen to the m4a version on iTunes Listen to the mp3 version on iTunes m4a RSS feed mp3 RSS feed Twitter...

A week before he died in 2006, author Mickey Spillane turned to his wife and said, “When I’m gone, there’s going to be a treasure hunt around here. Take everything you find and give it to Max – he’ll know what to do.”

“Max” is Max Allan Collins. He was, for a number of reasons, an ideal choice to be the keeper of the Spillane flame.

A fan of Spillane’s since he’d been a kid, Collins had met the mystery writer at a convention in the early 1980s. The connection developed into both friendship and regular collaboration. But Collins was no junior partner in the duo.

Born in Muscatine, Iowa in 1948, he’s been writing mysteries since he was a kid, eventually studying in the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, one of the most renowned writing programs in the country.

By the late 1970s,...

Plus: Is the air fresher in a forest? Why do men bother shaving?

Who is the greatest fictional detective? Holmes? Marlowe? Marple?

Philip Marlowe didn't solve all his crimes; his main business was doing what his clients wanted and getting beaten up occasionally. He never sorted out who killed the chauffeur in The Big Sleep (unsurprisingly, because Raymond Chandler, when asked, didn't know either). So it must be one of the other two, and I don't know whether to prefer Holmes because he did it with cocaine or Marple because she did it with knitting. Could we compromise on Father Brown?

jno50

For me, the greatest fictional detective is the virtually unknown Nigel Strangeways, created by Nicholas Blake (which was the pen name of poet laureate Cecil Day-Lewis). If you're into detective fiction I highly recommend checking him out (secondhand only, though, as just about all the books are out of print,...

Covert Affairs

Created by Chris Ord and Matt Corman

imdb, USA, Tuesdays at 10Pm

2.01 Begin the Begin

Directed by Kate Wood, Written by Chris Ord and Matt Corman

2.02 Good Advices

Directed by Ken Girotti, Written by Stephen Hootstein

2.03 Bang and Blame

Directed by Allan Kroeker, Written by Erica Shelton

2.04 All the Right Friends

Directed by Stephen Kay, Written by Norman Morrill

2.05 Around the Sun

Directed by Félix Alcalá, Written by Dana Calvo

2.06 The Outsiders

Directed by Marc Roskin, Written by Julia Ruchman

2.07 Half a World Away

Directed by Félix Alcalá, Written by Julia Ruchman

*****

Covert Affairs is a surprisingly smart espionage procedural which is simultaneously built on the unrealistic TV tradition of Bond Girls and a more realistic tradition of espionage procedurals.

Female spies on TV have always been heavily influenced by Bond Girls, although TV influenced Bond as well. Two of the earliest female spies on TV, Cathy Gale...

You gotta love a good detective story. Hollywood certainly does, and over the years some of the best fictional detectives have made their way onto TV and movie screens, played by actors ranging from Humphrey Bogart to James Garner. We've seen Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe, and the troubled, broken men of James Ellroy's worlds. One classic gumshoe of the printed page who hasn't gotten his due in a while is Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer, star of over a dozen novels, including The Drowning Pool and The Way Some People Die. Now Deadline reports that Archer will be returning to the big screen in The Galton Case, courtesy of Warner Bros. and producer Joel Silver. Lew Archer is an old-school Southern Californian private dick in the vein of Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade. The Galton Case is actually the eighth book in the Archer series,...

Everett Peter Falk

Before Peter Falk came along with his iconic portrayal of Lt. Columbo, TV detectives were never people like us. For the most part, they were a smug and self-assured bunch, comfortable in their mental, moral, and physical attributes and their obvious superiority over not only the bad guys, but everybody else, too.

They were smooth and elegant, like Gene Barry’s millionaire homicide cop Amos Burke, or stalwart do-gooders like Jack Webb’s by-the-book Joe Friday, or...

Filed under: Movie News, Cinematical

The wonderfully named Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's older brother, is somewhat of an obscure Arthur Conan Doyle creation, appearing in four Sherlock Holmes stories, most notably 'The Greek Interpreter'. He is described as sort of a fatter, lazier version of Holmes, armed with powers of deduction that may surpass even those of his younger sibling's, but utterly unwilling to do the legwork to put them to any practical use. (Short digression: In this way, Mycroft Holmes is sort of like another of the great fictional detectives, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe, a sedentary mountain of a man who refused to leave his Manhattan brownstone and had his assistant (and the books' narrator), Archie Goodwin, do all the running around. Wolfe was portrayed by Maury Chaykin in a short-lived but very good A&E television series.)

Obscurity notwithstanding, Mycroft Holmes will be included in...

Filed under: Movie News, Cinematical

The wonderfully named Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's older brother, is somewhat of an obscure Arthur Conan Doyle creation, appearing in four Sherlock Holmes stories, most notably 'The Greek Interpreter'. He is described as sort of a fatter, lazier version of Holmes, armed with powers of deduction that may surpass even those of his younger sibling's, but utterly unwilling to do the legwork to put them to any practical use. (Short digression: In this way, Mycroft Holmes is sort of like another of the great fictional detectives, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe, a sedentary mountain of a man who refused to leave his Manhattan brownstone and had his assistant (and the books' narrator), Archie Goodwin, do all the running around. Wolfe was portrayed by Maury Chaykin in a short-lived but very good A&E television series.)

Obscurity notwithstanding, Mycroft Holmes will be included in...

Actor who was at his best in shadowy roles

The actor Maury Chaykin, who has died aged 61 after a heart-valve infection, was an American and a Canadian citizen, and his career reflected his dual nationality. In the Us, he was a familiar face, if not a recognisable name, playing small but telling roles in major films. His breakthrough came in Dances With Wolves (1990), playing Major Fambrough, who sends Kevin Costner on his frontier assignment and then kills himself. Chaykin's only leading role was in the cable TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001), as the titular detective who refuses to leave his house, delegating that to his assistant (Timothy Hutton).

In Canada, Chaykin was something of a national treasure. He won a Genie award for best actor for his performance as a Brian Wilson-like burned-out rock star in Whale Music (1994), gave remarkable performances in three films directed by Atom Egoyan...

Another fine character actor is gone. He appeared in over 100 movies in his career and had one of those familiar, recognizable faces. It’s hard to believe that Maury Chaykin was only 61 when he died on Tuesday of heart disease. That means he was just 41 when he costarred as the doomed Major Fambrough in Dances With Wolves. He seemed older but had a great movie face and showed great range in his roles. Chaykin was a talented actor who was a regular in the films of Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter) and was a regular on the La Femme Nikita and Entourage TV shows.

From The New York Times:

A hefty man with expressive, doughy features, Mr. Chaykin was the kind of actor whose name was known to few but whose face to many. His screen career lasted 35 years, and he appeared in dozens if not hundreds of movies and television shows,...

Filed under: TV News

Actor Maury Chaykin died early Tuesday -- his 61st birthday -- according to CBC.ca. The cause of death is undetermined, but the veteran actor had been struggling with kidney problems.

Though you might not recognize Chaykin's name, you will surely recognize his credits. His IMDb.com entry lists more than 150 projects in a career that spanned film and television, including 'Dances with Wolves,' 'Nero Wolfe,' recent Canadian sitcom 'Less Than Kind' and several films by director Atom Egoyan, including 'Where the Truth Lies' and 'The Sweet Hereafter.' Chaykin even played Harvey Weinstein, or rather, Harvey Weingard, a character based on Weinstein, on HBO's 'Entourage.'

 

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Saul Rubinek had a major epiphany during the intermission—yes, intermission—of Murray Schisgal's play "Luv"—starring Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson, and Alan Arkin. At the time, Rubinek was a young Canadian actor visiting New York City. "People in the lobby were talking exactly like the people on stage," he recalls. "That had not yet happened in Canada. Theater was still being imported from America or Britain." Though Rubinek had no way of knowing that within a few years he'd be performing in homegrown Canadian theater, he was clearly drawn to the authenticity of indigenous plays. "I have nothing against imported art," he asserts, "but if that's all you're doing, it is decadent." Rubinek is refreshingly straightforward. Consider this: Though he is delighted to be playing Dr. Arthur "Artie" Nelson, the mysterious yet methodical Secret Service agent on Syfy's "Warehouse 13"—a program that evokes "The X-Files" with a...

On Saturday, I took the train to Trenton. Now, this is remarkable because first, I so seldom go into New York City on a weekend (isn’t Five Days a week enough?), maybe five or six Saturdays a year. And, second, I’ve never been to Trenton—Through it on Amtrak, yes—but as a destination, No! Third, although I retired from convention-going in April 2008 (after guesting at more than 200 of them), I was off to a con and Only as a customer! This, I confess, was my Second relapse (I showed up to see friends at NYC’s Fangoria’s Weekend of Horrors in June 2009).

It wasn’t just Any kind of con, but a Pulp Adventurecon (masterminded by Rich Harvey, author of several articles that I published in Comics Scene in the 1990s). I’ve never actually been to a pulp event (just Sf, Star Trek, comics, horror,...

Philip José Farmer’s website reports the author has passed.

“Philip José Farmer passed away peacefully in his sleep this morning.

“He will be missed greatly by his wife Bette, his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, friends and countless fans around the world.

“January 26, 1918 - February 25, 2008. R.I.P.

“We love you Phil.”

Best known for creating Riverworld, Farmer has written science fiction, fantasy and dabbled in other genres. His concept of metafiction, bringing in characters from other authors’ worlds in many ways led to birth of the fan fiction universe. His Tarzan Alive and Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life blended elements from across fiction and reality, leading to the introduction of the final publication of Riverworld concept: everyone who ever lived wound up resurrected in an afterlife located on a river that circled an entire world. The concept was developed for a series on the Sci Fi Channel but never went beyond the pilot.

Fans of A&E’s The Cleaner will be glad to know that the series has been picked up for another season. The show, which debuted in July and recently concluded earlier this month, will return to production soon to film 13 fresh episodes, which will serve as its second season airing in early 2009. The Cleaner stars Benjamin Bratt as William Banks, a recovering drug addict who makes a deal with God to turn his back on his drug dependencies following the birth of his daughter.

The Cleaner is loosely based on the life of Warren Boyd, an addiction counselor who has helped celebrities such as Mel Gibson, Courtney Love and Whitney Houston. The show is A&E’s first original drama in several years and has successfully garnered 4.2 million viewers per week. This figure also includes an average of 2.2 million viewers in the key demographic of 18-49-year-olds.

"’The Cleaner...

A&E Network has picked up a second season of its drama series "The Cleaner," whch stars Benjamin Bratt as a real-life extreme interventionist.

"Cleaner," from CBS Paramount TV and Once a Frog Prods., will go into production shortly on 13 new episodes slated to premiere next year.

"Cleaner" marked the network's first scripted series in more than six years when it debuted in July. During its first season, the series averaged a total of 4.2 million total viewers combined over its three weekly telecasts, including 2.4 million adults 25-54 and 2.2 million adults 18-49. In the demos, A&E said, the show doubled the performances of the network's previous two dramas, "Nero Wolfe" and "100 Center Street."

The series' "authentic, dramatic storytelling combined with superb acting, led by an exceptional performance by Benjamin Bratt, has struck a chord with A&E viewers," A&E president/Gm Bob DeBitetto said.

"Cleaner" was created and is...