My life does not evolve around the flat screen

When actress Mary Tyler Moore died Jan. 25 one of the topics the entertainment media brought up was the popular episode from her 1970-1977 sitcom, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", called “Chuckles Bites the Dust” that aired in October 1975.

The episode involved a fictional character named Chuckles the Clown who, dressed up as Peter Peanut, died during a parade when an elephant tried to “shell him” or I assume eat him. As a result, the staff are hysterical over the clown’s death except Mary, who during the wake herself eventually starts laughing.

I say “assume” because to this day 42 years later, I still haven’t seen the episode. Yes, I can already see you TV fanatic’s jaws dropping equating my not seeing that particular show with that of my never having been to the Vatican or climbed Mount Everest.

It’s not just that Chuckles the Clown episode I have not seen. I still don’t know who shot oil tycoon J.R. Ewing on "Dallas" (1978-1991). I don’t know how "The A-Team" (1983-1987) finally got caught. When the final two-hour episode of "M*A*S*H" titled “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen” aired on Feb. 28, 1983, I was not among the 125 million viewers who tuned in which, according to IMDB.com, was the most watched television broadcast in American history.

I wasn’t always this out of touch with what aired on “The Boob Tube.” I was there when I learned that six years of the medical drama, "St. Elsewhere" (1982-1988), was all a dream inside the mind of an autistic son.

I was there when Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer were sentenced to a year in prison away from society for being the obnoxious, selfish jerks they were to everyone since season one began on "Seinfeld" (1989-1998).

I shed a tear or two when Det. Bobby Simone (Jimmy Smits) succumbed to congestive heart failure following a heart transplant in his 2004 farewell episode of "NYPD Blue" (1993-2005) and when the King of Late Night – Johnny Carson bid America farewell on May 22, 1992, handing "The Tonight Show" (1962) over to host, Jay Leno, after almost thirty years.

Such has not been the case in almost the past two decades, perhaps more. These days, a TV series has to work to get my attention, and it has to be something I’ve not seen done before. HBO’s "Westworld" (2016), the sixth season of "American Horror Story" (2011-Present) and "The People Vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story" (2016-Present) failed to do that. I tuned out before the first episodes were over.

The shows I do watch are not what I will hear TV fanatics talk about the next day. I watch "Air Disasters" (2011-Present) on the Smithsonian Channel which recreate various aviation crashes, and "A Haunting" (2005-Present) on Destination America where I die laughing at how the actors and actresses cast as the real people who encountered demonic entities and ghosts are so much more attractive than the real ones telling their stories on camera.

So pardon me if I don’t share your enthusiasm during your little Monday afternoon fireside chats on social media talking about the grisly ways the zombies on AMC’s "The Walking Dead" (2010) got killed again and again by some character who wields a baseball bat, discuss what were the best and worst Superbowl ads, or which “Hollyweird” starlet wore the best or worst outfit at the Oscars.

You people may think among many things that working a full-time job, taking classes, trying to figure out which bill collector is going to get their money when payday arrives and struggling to stay on top of my diabetes is not much of a life, but it is a life and, I for one am damn glad it doesn’t exist in front of my new crystal clear, 40-inch 4k flat screen!

©2/15/17

Appreciation: Richard Hatch (1945-2017)

Another beloved sci-fi icon I, and so many others grew up watching, perhaps even met in person at the many Comic-Con conventions he attended the past couple decades is gone.

Actor Richard Hatch, best known as Colonial Warrior Captain Apollo from "Battlestar Galactica" (1978-79) in what ABC considered to be Sunday night’s answer to "Star Wars" (1977) died Feb. 7 at the age of 71 surrounded by family and friends following a battle with cancer.

As a kid, I made sure every Sunday night from the show's debut in September 1978 to its untimely cancellation in April 1979 was reserved to watching Battlestar Galactica."

Everything about the show seemed to have aspects of director/writer George Lucas' vision of "a galaxy far, far away" written all over it. The villains called the Cylons, an army of slow-moving mechanical robots could well be compared to the Empire's stormtroopers in the Star Wars trilogy (1977-1983).

Shades of Harrison Ford's Han Solo could be seen in Dirk Benedict's Starbuck; the cynical colonial warrior for the Galactica who's good with a blaster, always has his mind more on gambling, enjoying a good cigar, wooing the ladies, and figuring out a way out of the colonial military service.

Add Lorne Greene to the cast as the ship's commander who along with his son, Captain Apollo (Hatch) is in charge of protecting and leading the last remnants of the human race (220 ships in all) to safety after having all their home planets destroyed by the Cylon Empire and one might think this is an outer space rendition of "Bonanza" (1959-1973). All this didn't matter to a third grader like me who the year before Galactica debuted was still flying on that "Star Wars" high from the summer of 1977.

Plot and character development meant nothing to me at the time. What I wanted to see was the weekly outer space dogfights between the Colonial Vipers and the Cylon Raiders and the countless explosions that went with them courtesy of special effects coordinator John Dykstra who also worked on Lucas' Star Wars team.

“In my case, 'Battlestar Galactica' was a milestone,” Hatch once said according to the Hollywood Reporter. “It afforded me the opportunity to live out my childhood dreams and fantasies. Hurtling through space with reckless abandon, playing the dashing hero, battling Cylons, monsters and super-villains – what more could a man want?”

To Hatch, however, who scored a Golden Globe nomination for his role in 1979, and guest starred in numerous episodes playing radical political figure, Tom Zarek, in the 2004-2009 Syfy channel’s reboot of the series that starred Edward James Olmos, playing Captain Apollo, it seemed meant something more.

“I happen to be one of those rare actors that actually loves very intelligent and well-acted science fiction,” Hatch once said according to brainyquote.com. “I am looking for a character that connects to me on some level. It has to have depth to it and it has to be about something. The story of the character and their relationship with the people and places around them appeal to me and are what I look for.”

The news of Hatch’s death on social media was no different as fans expressed the same shock and sadness they’ve done so many times before after hearing of the losses of other music icons, actors and actresses. The most touching came from friend, Commodore McLeod Chandler, who spent a few hours with the actor at a convention one year and was left with a lasting impression.

“While so many of the other "special persons" had rules and stipulations about even shaking their hand (which usually costs money), Richard (Hatch) was different: he was a person,” Chandler wrote on Facebook. “As people came to see him, he stood to meet them, engaged them directly, always asked for and used their names, was always polite, and never demanded money. But then he did what no one else ever did.”

“He sat down on the floor in front of the table so he could meet the kids. A couple around my age who were fans as kids were bringing their own kids to meet the man that brought so much into their lives. The dad even had a prop warrior flight helmet he wanted signed. Richard did so while sitting on the floor, his legs folded Indian style, with a six-year-old boy wearing the helmet as he signed it and a 3-year-old hanging on his left shoulder.”

Yes, this man who told me that he did the cons for the energy, for the fans, and for the fun of it, sat down on the floor on level with the kids who he felt were going to be the next generation of sci-fi writers, thinkers, actors, and dreamers. He was kind. He was caring. He was inspiring. And he was still human."

And now he is gone.

I am reminded of the words Greene’s Commander Adama spoke during a memorial service for a fallen warrior in one episode that seems appropriate now for Hatch especially given the original series only lasted one season except changing a few words.

“And for only a short while we gathered to honor Captain Apollo (Richard Hatch) in duty, so we must honor him in death. Let us remember him not only as a warrior but as a man who lived in pursuit of excellence. Now we return this warrior to the cradle of space.”

©2/8/17