Abe Vigoda in his most well-known role as Phil Fish in "Barney Miller"
He went by one simple name that seemed to say so much: “Fish”.
Starting out as a New York City police detective in “Barney Miller”,
he grew popular enough he would eventually get his own show, if ever so
briefly.
Fish was played by Abe Vigoda, and I was sad to hear that he passed
away last year, yet it brought back memories of “Barney Miller”, “Fish”, and
everything else he did as an actor.
The Godfather
Vigoda was best known in his early work for his role as Sal Tessio in “The Godfather”.
He played a trusted friend of Vito Corleone who ultimately meets his demise
after betraying the family.
That role caught the attention of Danny Arnold and Ted Flicker who
were casting for a new comedy set primarily in New York Police Department squad
room called “Barney Miller”.
His audition landed him the role of Phil Fish, which would bring him
into living rooms across the world.
“Barney Miller”
He was the elder statesman in a squad room full of mostly male
detectives. With his age, he brought an experience and compassion that
underlied his police work. He seemed to bring that same experience and
compassion to his acting.
Fish was older, nearing retirement, and acted as a mentor to other detectives.
He also seemed to be battling nagging health issues, most notably hemorrhoids.
My outstanding memory of Abe Vigoda was how the squad room could be
going crazy, yet he had this look that said much more than any words could. He
just looked so tired, with dead sunken and eyes – the epitome of being
beleaguered. It was the perfect look for deadpan comedy.
“Fish”
Fish also seemed to be on the phone regularly with his wife Bernice.
We would all get to meet Bernice as, after two seasons on “Barney Miller”,
Phil Fish got his own show, fittingly and simply called, “Fish”. It took
viewers into Phil and Bernice’s home life, where they took in five
racially-mixed foster children including Loomis, played by a young Todd Bridges
who would go on to fame as Willis Jackson in “Diff’rent Strokes”.
Again, Fish had that same look as all the chaos swirled around him.
After two years and 35 episodes, “Fish” was cancelled.
He would make a guest appearance on “Barney Miller”, in 1982, visiting
the squad room as a now retired detective, and that would be the last we saw of Phil Fish.
The years after
Abe Vigoda would appear in several movies in the 1980s and beyond, most notably “Cannonball Run
II”, “Look Who’s Talking”, “Prancer” and “Joe Versus the Volcano”. His television work would include guest
roles in “B.J. and the Bear”; “The Littlest Hobo”; “MacGyver”; “Law and Order”;
“Wings”; and soap operas such as “As The World Turns” ad “Santa Barbara.”
His final film role would be in “Sweet Destiny” in 2014.
He died Jan. 26, 2016 at the age of 94.
Parting thoughts
“Barney Miller” was one of the best sitcoms of the 1980s, with several
memorable characters. Yet it was Phil Fish who proved to be the only one popular enough to be spun
off into his own series.
It showed how enduring and endearing the character and the actor who
played him were.
Fish was unique. He was an old, tired looking police detective who was
caring, sensitive and supportive at the same time. He even looked a little bit
like a fish. It was quite a character to portray.
Natalie Cole had a great comeback in the 1980s, essentially re-inventing herself
When I first heard the name Natalie Cole, my first thought was, “Is
that Nat King Cole’s daughter?” Of course it was. It conjured up memories from my
own childhood and listening to Nat King Cole. They were eventually enhanced by
a miracle of technology: a duet by Natalie and her long-deceased father of the
timeless classic, “Unforgettable”.
Sadly, a year and a half ago Natalie joined her dad in the hereafter,
passing away at the age of 65, but not before leading a significant life of her
own.
On the comeback trail
Natalie Cole first had success in the 1970s as a rhythm and blues
artist, but would fall on hard times due to drug addiction,
She mounted a comeback in the 1980s, and that’s when I first heard of
her. It was late summer or early fall in 1987, so I was listening to less music
on the radio then because I had left home to go to university.
In 1987, she released the album “Everlasting”, and that’s when I
started hearing songs by this Natalie Cole. She actually kind of sounded, to
me, like Whitney Houston and Patti LaBelle.
The first two singles were “Jump Start (My Heart)” and “I Live for
Your Love”, which was a great ballad. They both peaked at number 13 on the
Billboard Hot 100.
Then came the big breakthrough, or I guess comeback. Natalie Cole did
a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Pink Cadillac”. It was all over the radio when
I came home after my first year of university, and went all the way to number
five on the Billboard Hot 100 on May 7, 1988.
She followed that up with her next album, “Good to be Back”, which
yielded another great ballad, “Miss You Like Crazy”, which went all the way to
number seven in July of 1989.
Her work in the 1980s, set the stage for the biggest successes of her
career.
The years after: An Unforgettable career
In 1991, Natalie Cole did something she had been reluctant to do –
sing her father’s songs. That changed, as she released an album full of them
entitled, “Unforgettable…with Love”. According to Wikipedia, it sold seven
million copies in the United States alone and won several Grammys, including
Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.
The best part for me, was that interactive duet of “Unforgettable” Natalie
Cole sang alongside her late father Nat King Cole.
She would keep on performing and recording, including another duet
with her dad entitled “When I Fall in Love”. Cole also started appearing on
television and in movies, including everything from “Grey’s Anatomy” to
“American Idol” and “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
She died of Dec. 31, 2015 of congestive heart failure, at age 65.
Parting thoughts
When I was a kid, my dad and I would go to church while my mom would
stay home and make dinner. Often, when we got home, Mom had Nat King Cole on
in the background. I loved that deep voice, especially listening to
“Unforgettable” and “When I Fall in Love”.
At first, Natalie Cole was just another voice on the radio in the same
category as the likes of Whitney Houston and Patti LaBelle.
Although, it was in the 1990s, that all changed with the release of
“Unforgettable…with Love” and the connection to her father’s music. It was deep
and soulful. The songs were moving and stirring.
That was all possible because Natalie Cole had used the 1980s to get
back on her feet and mount a comeback.
In the run-up to the most recent Super Bowl, I found myself again
wondering why so few of the Super Bowls of the 1980s were mentioned. Every list
of top ten plays or moments made barely any references to the 1980s.
Then, in a moment of insight, I realized why! There were only two,
maybe three games in the entire decade that were close. There were few game-winning drives, or “TSN Turning Points”, because the games were virtually
all blow-outs.
Looking deeper, the lack of close games illustrated an interesting
trend in NFL history: there was a competitive imbalance. One conference was
superior to the other the entire time, and that would continue on well into the
1990s, before correcting itself.
If it wasn’t for the Oakland cum Los Angeles Raiders, the NFC won
every Super Bowl – and it was no fun at all.
One trend to another?
The start of the decade continued a trend that had gone on much of the
1970s. The AFC won every Super Bowl in the decade, with the exception of two
wins by the Dallas Cowboys in the Super Bowls after the 1971 and 1977 seasons.
In fact, three teams dominated the decade – the Miami Dolphins, Pittsburgh
Steelers andOakland Raiders. So,
at the dawn of the 1980s, it did not seem like much was changing when the
Raiders defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 27-10 to win the first championship of
the decade and their second in five years.
The next year, the San Francisco 49ers beat the Cincinnati Bengals
26-21 to win their first Super Bowl and begin what became their claim of being
the best team of the decade. The year after that, the Washington Redskins, led
by quarterback Joe Theismann, runningback John Riggins, a massive offensive
line called “The Hogs” and a suffocating defence, beat the Dolphins at the Rose
Bowl 27-17.
However, the next year, the Los Angeles Raiders, recently transplanted
from Oakland, ended Washington’s dream of back-to-back championships by
defeating the Redskins 38-9 in Tampa Bay to win the Super Bowl after the 1983
season.
So, four years into the decade, the AFC had won two and the NFC had
won two.
It didn’t seem like there was much to separate the two conferences.
That would soon change.
Not a trend – domination
The NFC would reel off six straight wins to end the decade, and seven
more to start the 1990s for a total of 13 straight wins – a dominating
performance to say the least.
It started with San Francisco winning their second Super Bowl in four
years, a 38-16 win over Miami at Stanford Stadium. The next year the Chicago
Bears, one of the most dominating and intimidating teams of the decade, blew
out the New England Patriots 46-10.
The decade closed out with four Super Bowls in which either Denver or
San Francisco, or both, appeared.
The Super Bowl after the 1986 season saw Denver qualify by staging one
of the most memorable comebacks against Cleveland in AFC Championship Game
history. Quarterback John Elway led a comeback that became described simply as
“The Drive” to take the Broncos to overtime where Rich Karlis kicked the
winning field goal in overtime. Two weeks later they were thumped by the New
York Giants by a score of 39-20, as Phil Simms, the New York quarterback,
turned in one of the best performances in history, going 22 of 25 for 268 yards and an 88 per cent completion rate.
Denver was back the next year, defeating Cleveland once again, this
time by recovering “The Fumble”, to face the Washington Redskins. This time,
the Redskins were led by Doug Williams, who became the first African-American
quarterback to start and win a Super Bowl, and unheralded Timmy Smith who rushed for a
record 204 yards. The Redskins
scored an unprecedented 35 points in the second quarter to thrash the Broncos
42-10.
The Super Bowl after the 1988 season was a rematch of the 1981 Super
Bowl between San Francisco and Cincinnati. This time it went down to the wire. Quarterback Joe Montana led a drive to win the game on a pass to John Taylor
with 34 seconds left for the 20-16 victory.
Coincidentally, the only two close Super Bowls of the decade were
between these two teams.
The last Super Bowl of the 1980s was a fitting one, between the two most successful teams of their conferences. San Francisco had
won three Super Bowls already and was on a quest for a second straight one and
fourth of the decade. Denver was appearing in their third Super Bowl in four
years (defeating Cleveland in the AFC Championship for a third time as well),
making them the most prolific AFC team of the decade.
The 49ers punctuated the NFC’s domination of the decade by hammering
Denver by the biggest margin in history, handing the Broncos a 55-10 drubbing
in New Orleans.
So, by the close of the decade, the AFC and NFC Championship Games
were the entertaining ones to watch, because they were usually close and
exciting.
The Super Bowl was rarely very close, or entertaining at all.
Parting thoughts
Every time I see a Top 10 list of Super Bowl moments, or highlights,
there is very little from the 1980s. When the AFC did win, it was the Raiders,
and they blew out their opponents in both those Super Bowls. Oddly, the only
time the games were settled by less than a touchdown, it was when San Francisco
played Cincinnati twice.
The rest of the games were routes.
The NFC had become so dominant, observers were beginning to worry
about competitive balance, and suggesting changes to the playoff format.
That was needless because, even though the NFC streak extended to 13
straight Super Bowl wins and 15 out of 16, the AFC finally did win, and has
been winning more of its fair share ever since.
Ironically, it was John Elway and his Denver Broncos, victims of three
of those blow-out Super Bowls in the 1980s, who ended the NFC’s streak. He
single-handedly, almost by force of will, led the Broncos over the defending
Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers after the 1997 season.
It was a measure of redemption for Elway and the AFC.
The voice may not have been his, but the band carried his name, and
with it his own fun-loving musical style. The J. Geils Band had a string of
toe-tapping ditties in the early 1980s, sung by Peter Wolf, but accompanied by
J. Geils.
The "J" stood for John and, sadly, he passed away earlier this year. Immediately, the memories of those catchy tunes came back, and a connection I made with one song in particular.
My own soundtrack
It was the second semester of Grade 11, making it the spring of 1986,
when I started working on my very own teen angst story. Initially, it was a
screenplay that I turned into a stage play. It was a contemporary story
chronicling a teenage boy’s experience, and bad luck, with girls. I really
wanted to incorporate a lot of music, a la the John Hughes teen angst movies of
the time.
One night, I had the radio on and was listening with my head phones when
this song I had never heard was wrapping up. The deejay came on and said, “That
was ‘Love Stinks’”. I immediately thought that would be a great song for the
sound track, because it captured the sentiment of the main character of my
story. Soon after, I discovered the song was by the J. Geils Band.
Probably, a month after that, I heard a preview on LA-107 FM for a
super session featuring the J. Geils Band at 7 p.m. that night. I made sure to
be at the ghetto blaster a few minutes before 7 p.m., with a blank tape loaded,
ready to hit record.
Fittingly, the first song was “Love Stinks” and I was able to capture
the whole thing. A few months later, once I had finished the play, I set to
creating the sound track. The song leading everything off on Side A was “Love
Stinks”.
Thus was my introduction to the J. Geils Band.
Centrefold
That super session also introduced me to the other mainstays in the J.
Geils Band collection: "Freeze Frame" and "Centrefold".
The opening bars of “Freeze Frame” along with the band yelling “Freeze
Frame” make it a memorable song. The second I heard that, I thought, “Oh, I
have heard this before.” Of course I had, because it had been a hit on the
radio.
The same went for “Centrefold” which was another memorable song with a
distinctive sound. As I would learn in one of Casey Kasem’s countdown radio
shows, “Centrefold” was one of the few top 40 songs that had whistling in it. That
in itself is something I will never forget.
The front of the J. Geils Band album "Freeze Frame"
Chart success
“Love Stinks” reached number 38 in 1980 on the Billboard Hot 100,
while “Freeze Frame” went to number four in 1981; and “Centrefold” went all the
way to the top in early 1982.
The album
Periodically, me and my parents would go visit my brother in Calgary on a Saturday,
and stay over until Sunday. One of the things we started to do was go to this
massive flea market held in an old super market building. My brother loved to
look for old records, something I did too.
One particular Saturday, I hit pay dirt. There was a treasure trove of
records that were in remarkably good shape, selling for a dollar apiece.
The back of the J. Geils Band album "Freeze Frame"
One of the first ones I saw, was “Freeze Frame” by the J. Geils Band.
I was instantly struck by the art work. On one side is this really wild
surreal painting, and on the other side the band members were splattered with
paint, as if they had just survived a paint fight. They seemed to be having
fun, which was the same feeling I got from all their music.
Flying solo
At the start of Grade 12, I heard this song on the radio that caught
my attention. It was “Come as You Are” by Peter Wolf. It would go all the way
to number 15 on the Hot 100.
It was another top 40 show, on AM 106 maybe, that I learned Peter Wolf
had been the lead singer of the J. Geils band. I knew that voice sounded
familiar.
He had already had some solo success, with a single called, “Lights
Out” that came out in 1984 and went all the way to number 12.
Wolf had left the group in 1983. They would record one more album in
1985 then break up.
Parting thoughts
There are songs that are not just the soundtrack of the times, but
also the soundtrack of life at that time. “Love Stinks” was a part of the
soundtrack of my life when I was in the last half of high school.
“You love her, and she loves him, and he loves somebody, you just can’t
win,” they sang.
That was the story of my life especially in Grade 11.
“And so it goes, ‘til the day you die, this thing they call love, is gonna
make you cry.”
That was the way I was feeling, especially about one girl in
particular who I liked, but she liked somebody else.
It was a song that resonated. It was like J. Geils was talking through
the radio right to me.
Then I discovered their other songs.
Sometimes in life, you come across songs that you can’t help but sing
along too.
“Centrefold” is just one of those songs.
In this case, I can’t help but whistle along to it as well.
“Freeze Frame”, was catchy in its own way.
Even Peter Wolf’s solo stuff had a catchy style.
Added all together, J.Geils was not just a part of the ‘80s, but holds
a special place in my heart.
If you don’t recognize the face, you will likely recognize the voice.
Long before Tony Rosato was the voice in the “Super Mario Brothers” cartoon and
the video game “Resident Evil 3”, he was a comedian and actor in the 1980s,
becoming one of only three actors to appear in both "SCTV" and "Saturday Night
Live", and a staple as a snitch on Night Heat.
It was with great sadness I learned Tony Rosato passed away earlier
this year.
Going Hog Wild
The first time I ever saw Tony Rosato was in a movie called “Hog Wild”
in the summer of like 1982 or 1983. Summer time was a desert for television,
filled with reruns, sports, and old movies. CTV played a lot of obscure movies
to satisfy their Canadian content requirements.
None fit the bill better than “Hog Wild”.
It told the tale of a young man, played by a very young and up and
coming Michael Biehn who tangled with a motorcycle gang, with comedic results.
The leader of that gang was a young and rubber-faced Tony Rosato. I am not sure
his character could even talk, but Rosato had the gift of physical comedy,
making you laugh without saying a word. Laughing may be a strong word, because
“Hog Wild” was one of those blunt but lovable Canadian comedies of the 1980s in the same
mould as “Porky’s” and “Meatballs”.
Still, Rosato was memorable to me for his ability to eat glass and
belch.
Things would get much better, and less gross from there.
Comedic timing
Tony Rosato would move on to sketch comedy, joining the cast of “SCTV”
in 1980. The next season he would move on to “Saturday Night Live” where he was
part of the cast for the 1981-1982 season.
I did watch “SCTV” on Friday nights on CBC, but don’t really remember
Rosato. Although, I did recognize him in reruns a few years later.
Unfortunately, back in the 1980s, no channel on peasant vision carried
“Saturday Night Live”, so I never saw an episode until high school when I could
sleep over at my friend’s who had cable. Rosato became one of only three actors to be in both "SCTV" and "Saturday Night Live". The other two are Martin Short and Robin Duke.
One other show he was in, that I recall quite well, was his turn as
Aldo in “Amanda’s”. The show was an American remake of the British classic,
“Fawlty Towers” starring Bea Arthur in the John Cleese role. Rosato’s Aldo was
the reincarnation of the Manuel character from “Fawlty Towers”. He was a bellhop
of foreign extraction, as described by Wikipedia.
The show quickly went quietly into the dustbin of history, cancelled
after 13 episodes, with only 10 hitting the air.
The cast of "Night Heat" including Tony Rosato at far right
Feeling the “Night Heat”
In the mid 1980s, CBS had grown tired of trying to combat Johnny
Carson with talk shows. The best example, and biggest bust, was “Thicke of the
Night”. Consequently, they partnered with CTV to make television dramas that
CBS would air in late night, and CTV would air on their prime time schedule.
The longest running one was “Night Heat”, set in a city that looked an
awful lot like Toronto but was never called that, to satisfy its American
audience. It followed two police detectives, Frank Giambone and Kevin O’Brien,
who worked at night.
One of the informants they relied on for information was a weaselly
little Italian named Whitey, who was played by Tony Rosato. He was rough around
the edges, and a little shady, but he usually did the right thing.
The rest
Two other series, filmed in Canada and aired in the United States like
“Night Heat”, were “Hot Shots” and “Diamonds”. Tony Rosato had parts in both of
them as well, although not recurring roles.
In fact, he would find work in a lot of productions shot in Canada,
such as “Perry Mason: The Case of the Shooting Star” and TV movie “Popeye
Doyle”, as well as Canadian television shows such as “Seeing Things” and
“Hangin’ In”.
He would continue to find guest work right through the 1990s and
beyond, in everything from Canadian shows such as “Street Legal” and “Due
South” to U.S. network shows such as “L.A. Law”, and eventually to cartoons and
video games.
Parting thoughts
The two most outstanding memories I have of Tony Rosato, really do illustrate his versatility. In “Hog Wild”, he was more of a caricature than a character,
acting like a dufus most of the time. Just a few years later in “Night Heat”,
he played a multi-layered character, who was part hood but with some good still
in him to do the right thing.
If you look at his whole body of work, he was one of those Canadian
actors who found a lot of work in Canada with domestic as well as American
productions, and Stateside. You put it all together, and he had a serviceable
career.
When I heard he died, it had been a long time since I thought of Tony
Rosato, but his death brought back vivid memories, especially of those two
roles in “Hog Wild” and “Night Heat”.
More than anything else, "Night Heat" showed that Tony Rosato was a versatile actor, more than just the buffoon from “Hog Wild”.
George Micheal, at left, with Andrew Ridgley, on the cover of their breakthrough and iconic album, "Make it Big"
At first, his music was just another ear worm, but then it became much
more as the 1980s and beyond went along. By the time he passed away at the end
of 2016, George Michael had become legendary with an amazing body of work.
That’s entertainment
“Entertainment Tonight” was a show week days that featured all the
latest music, TV, and movies. They always ended an episode with a music video
of some song making waves on the Billboard charts.
The show was hosted by Mary Hart and Robb Weller when I tuned in. The
show ended with Mary Hart introducing, very deliberately, a song that was making
its way up the charts. She said it deliberately, and with wide eyes, because
the song was called, “Wake me up before you go go”. Hart said “Go go” slowly,
with a combination of questioning whether that was the name of the song or just
a typo, and outright disbelief.
That was my introduction to Wham!, the band that made George Michael a
star and a household name.
Wham! Makes it Big
“Wake me up before you go go” rocketed all the way to number one on
the Billboard Hot 100. It was a song you just couldn’t get out of your head.
They followed that up with a ballad, the heart wrenching “Careless Whisper.”
Now, however, I noticed they were introducing the act as “Wham! Featuring
George Michael”. That too went all the way to number one as did the band’s
third single, “Everything She Wants.” It was the first time three singles from the same album went to number one on Billboard. The singles were all from the band’s
album entitled, “Make it Big”.
And indeed they had done exactly that.
Cultural impact
Wham! Made its mark at Kate Andrews High School in Coaldale too. I was
in Grade 10, so 1984-1985. We had a student teacher in Accounting 10-20 who
dressed just like George Michael with that “Choose Life” white t-shirt, in the
“Wake me up before you go go” video. That was first semester. I was taking Biology 10 in second semester, and one day spotted a classmate wearing a Wham! concert
shirt. My best friend Chris Vining asked her about it, and I said I had seen
Wham! on TV and was trying to remember their names.
“You mean George?” she said.
“No,” I responded.
“Andrew?” she continued.
I laughed because she spoke like she knew them personally. I was also
puzzled how both my student teacher and classmate could find these shirts on
TV. I never saw anything like that at Eaton’s, or Simpson Sears, or
Woolworth’s.
Only Wham! can go to China
It was that same second semester of Grade 10 that I heard on LA-107 FM
that Wham! was going to China. That was a big deal back then, even bigger than
now, because China was a closed country that largely shunned western culture.
Yet, there were George and Andrew dancing atop the Great Wall.
They even captured images for the whole world to see by knitting
concert footage from the tour into the video the band made to promote their song “Freedom”.
Whether intentional or not, performing “Freedom” in a
Communist country was a profound political statement.
Helping others
George Michael also impressed me when he was one of the British
performers who sang on the African famine relief project, “Do They Know it’s
Christmas?” spearheaded by my hero Bob Geldof.
The depth of feeling he sang with, like so many of the other popular
performers on that record, showed he was more than an artist for the teeny
bopper set. Moreover, participating in that project proved he had a social
conscience and it would not be the last time he sang for a cause bigger than
himself.
He would also take up Geldof on his invitation to perform in Live Aid,
the subsequent concert for famine relief held at Wembley Stadium in London (and
concurrently at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia). Michael performed a duet with
Elton John, the heartfelt single, “Don’t Let the Son Go Down on me”.
That would not be the last time Michael tugged at the heartstrings
with that song at an emotional time.
Duet, part one
George Michael also appeared with Elton John on his single, “Wrap Her
Up”, which was part of a successful comeback by Elton John. That was also part
of a trend where renowned artists sang backing vocals for each other.
Other examples were Sting backing Dire Straits on “Money for Nothing” and Phil
Collins on “Long Way to Go”, and Bryan Adams backing Roger Daltrey on “Let Me Down
Easy”.
End of an era
The next time I heard new Wham! was in the fall of 1985, with another
catchy tune entitled, “I’m Your Man.” It did not seem to be part of an album
though. It was not on “Make it Big”, which had run its course, nor connected to
any other album. Research reveals it was just an isolated single.
It was at this time as well, George Michael was itching to move on. He
had also experienced a lot of success with another ballad, entitled, “A
Different Corner”. It went all the way to number seven on the Billboard Hot
100.
So, George Michael and Andrew Ridgley decided to bring Wham! to an
end. They recorded a farewell single, entitled, “The Edge of Heaven”, and a
farewell album called, “The Final”, which was released in North America,
although altered as “Music from the Edge of Heaven”.
They held a farewell concert at Wembley Stadium on June 28, 1986,
bringing the curtain down on one of the most successful bands of the 1980s.
They had sold 28 million records and 15 million singles in five years.
But George Michael was just getting started.
Duet, part two
His solo career began with the duet, “I Knew You Were Waiting” with
Aretha Franklin. According to Wikipedia, Michael realized his ambition of
singing with one of his favourite artists, and the song rocketed to the top of
the Billboard Hot 100, hitting number one on April 18, 1987. It was a catchy
tune, that capitalized on the strength of both of their voices, co-written by
Simon Climie who a year later would have success of his own teaming up with
Peter Fisher in the band Climie Fisher. “I Knew You Were Waiting” was also part
of Franklin’s resurgence in the 1980s, but would be her last top 10 single on
Billboard.
All grown up
One of the reasons George Michael wanted to go out on his own was to
perform music aimed at an older audience, not just the teenage fans Wham!
appealed to.
The first solo single shattered the teeny-bopper mold. “I Want Your
Sex” was released in the middle of 1987, to much controversy as you can
imagine. It made an appearance in the movie “Beverly Hills Cop II”, and was
featured on that soundtrack.
When George Michael released his first solo album entitled “Faith” at
the end of 1987, “I Want Your Sex” was the first single. It would peak at
number two on the Billboard Hot 100 singles in August. I thought the song was a
bit much, not that I was offended, but it just seemed obvious he was trying to
be sexual and controversial.
Girls going wild
The title track, “Faith” was released in October of 1987 a few weeks
before the album came out. It just drove the girls crazy.
I say this because I witnessed it first hand. I was in my first year
of university on the 10th floor of Kelsey Hall, a student residence.
My best friend and roommate Chris Vining and I had made friends with some of
the floor members of Fifth Kelsey, the last-remaining all-girls’ floor in
Kelsey and the entire three-tower, 31-floor Lister Complex. I was down on 5K
one Friday night when all of a sudden one of the girls yelled out, “It’s time!”
Suddenly, I’ll bet 20 girls gathered from the three wings into the lounge, crowding around the TV set.
I wondered what was going on. I knew the MuchMusic Coca Cola Countdown
was on, because we usually watched it too.
One of the girls then shushed everyone as the commercials were ending.
You could hear a pin drop in the 5K lounge.
The TV slowly dissolved to the number one song of the week – “Faith”
by George Michael.
It was an iconic video, one of the most memorable of the decade.
Once it finished playing, the girls went wild.
You gotta have “Faith”
The album “Faith” would be one of the most popular of the decades,
producing singles that played on the radio, and videos on TV, for almost two
years.
“Faith” would stay on the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks,
and was the number one single of 1988.
“Father Figure” was a slow, haunting song that made use of kind of an
echo feel. It was released at the outset of 1988, and went all the way to
number one on the Billboard Hot 100, staying there for two weeks.
It was followed by “One More Try”, another ballad that was perhaps my
favourite song off that album, released in April of 1988 just as I was getting
ready to finish my first year of university and head home for the summer. It
became George Michael’s third straight number one single off “Faith”, and
stayed in the top spot for three straight weeks.
The hits kept on coming as “Monkey”, released in July of 1988, was the
fourth single to reach number one off the “Faith” album, and stay there for two
weeks. It was George Michael’s sixth number one solo single, when you include
“I Knew You were Waiting” and if you count “Careless Whisper”.
The final single to be released off “Faith” was “Kissing a Fool”,
which had a smokey, smouldering jazz feel, coming out in November of 1988. It
would break Michael’s string of consecutive number one hits, but still peak at
number five on the Billboard Hot 100.
The album would go on to win the 1989 Grammy for album of the year. He
would also have a successfully, albeit long and exhausting tour to promote
“Faith”
It was safe to say, by the end of the decade, everybody had “Faith”.
The years after
George Michael would keep on singing and recording. His next album was
released in 1990, and a year after that he had another big duet reach number.
This one was “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on me”, which he recorded with Elton
John. The proceeds went to 10 different charities for children, education, and
AIDS research.
Another outstanding memory was Michael performing at the Freddie
Mercury Tribute Concert on April 20, 1992. The song that I always remember, of
the ones Michael performed with Queen, was “Somebody to Love”. His voice suited
the Queen sound very well. Proceeds from this endeavour again went to AIDS
research.
The other memory I have of George Michael after the 1980s, was his
arrest for a lewd act in a public washroom in 1998. A lot of comedians and
comedy writers made a lot of hay on that.
Parting thoughts
The last half of the 1980s was dominated by George Michael and various
projects he was involved with. To be honest, to start with, I did not like
George Michael. I was envious of the way he appealed to teenage girls and I
really did not.
However, once I got beyond the teen angst, and looked at his body of
work through the eyes of an adult, I actually liked quite a bit of his music.
George Michael tried to capitalize on his sexuality, which is really not
something that appeals to me. Even the title, “I Want Your Sex” was overt and
over the top for me. It just seemed so obvious.
But he did have an incredible voice, especially when he sang in that
jazz, blues style of songs such as, “One More Try”. He really did not need to
rely on sex appeal, because his talent spoke for itself.
In the end, his antics in the 1980s paled in comparison to what some
artists do today. We don’t see now that stuff he did then anyway. All we are left with is the
music.
Beyond his voice, what I will remember about George Michael is his
social conscience. Whether it was “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”, “Don’t Let
the Sun Go Down on me”, or “Somebody to Love”, George Michael raised millions
for worthwhile causes. That will be his lasting legacy for me.
Richard Hatch as Apollo on the original "Battlestar Galactica"
Starting out as a show that looked as if it was just trying to
capitalize on the “Star Wars” craze, it would turn out to have its own lasting
impact into the next year, and even the next century.
“Battlestar Galactica” was something that started out as a theatrical
release that became a TV series, a second TV series then, after a long hiatus,
was resurrected as one of the best TV dramas of the first decade of the 21st
Century.
There was one person who was part of virtually all of that, and earlier
this year Richard Hatch passed away, finally ending his long association with
“Battlestar Galactica”.
It’s a sequel, no it’s not
The first time I saw a commercial for “Battlestar Galactica” in 1978,
I honestly assumed it was the much-anticipated sequel to “Star Wars”. I soon
found out that it really was not. Instead, it was the story of a race of humans
who barely escaped annihilation at the hands of their robotic enemies the Cylons
by taking off into deep space aboard a rag-tag fugitive fleet seeking a lonely
planet known as Earth.
The story is set on that last remaining battlestar, called Galactica.
It only survived because Adama, its commander, was not sold on the peace
initiative with the Cylons. He suspected a double cross, and he was right,
narrowly saving his ship from destruction. His son Apollo was a pilot in the
fleet of vipers that protected the planets.
Apollo was played by Richard Hatch.
An actual sequel
“Battlestar Galactica” was cancelled after one season, just 24
episodes into its run, but was not finished yet though. Echoing “Star Trek” in
this fashion, a letter-writing campaign brought the series back as “Galactica
1980”. Set 30 years later, the Galactica has finally found Earth. The main
characters are Colonial Warriors Troy and Dillon. At one point Troy talks about
his father, also a Colonial Warrior who has died. He picks up a picture of his
father and it is – Apollo. That photo is the only appearance of Richard Hatch
in the series. It would last 10 episodes and suffer the same fate as its
predecessor.
Watching Battlestar Galactica
Unlike “Star Trek”, which disappeared from the peasant vision airwaves
for a long time, I had a long association with “Battlestar Galactica”.
We did go see it in the theatre, and it was really good. I liked it,
and once it started, I did not even compare it to Star Wars once. A few months
later, “Battlestar Galactica” was on television. It was a Sunday night, and we
were visiting my uncle and aunt who just lived up the road on a neighbouring
farm. So, we started watching it there. Suddenly, it stopped. It was
interrupted for a live news feed of Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat signing the Camp David Peace Accords with U.S.
President Jimmy Carter watching. “How long is this going to take?” I thought.
Normally, if they pre-empted something, they would just re-join it in progress.
We took the opportunity to go home, which was like a five-minute drive. When we
got home, the movie still had not re-started. When it did, they picked up right
where they left off I think.
To my surprise, in school I discovered “Battlestar Galactica” was
being made into a series too. One of my buddies saw the commercials. He had
cable. I discovered it was on peasant vision too, Channel 13, every Sunday
night. I looked forward to it every week, at 9 p.m. if memory serves, and I
didn’t miss an episode.
Then it was gone – cancelled after one season.
Just as quickly as it was gone, “Battlestar Galactica” was back in its
familiar Sunday night time slot. This time as “Galactica 1980”, I anxiously
caught the first part of the pilot which, like so much TV in the 1980s, was a
cliffhanging two-parter. Sadly, I missed the second part because we went to
Calgary to visit family. I had to find out how it ended on the school bus from
my neighbour Mike. I didn’t miss a single episode after that.
Again, as quickly as it came, it was gone too – cancelled after
10 episodes.
Yet, that was not the end of watching the show. In the early 1980s,
CTV would air episodes Saturday mornings after cartoons, so I caught most of
them again. Then, when I was in university, my friend Sean Drake told me he had
all 24 episodes on tape. The Science Fiction Channel had aired a “Galactithon”,
and a friend of Sean’s had taped it. He could get six episodes on a tape, so
every six hours he woke up, changed tapes and went back to sleep. Over the
summer of 1994, we watched all the episodes again.
Finally, with the dawn of DVD box sets, I bought “Galactica 1980”. I
was visiting my friend Jeremy Stemo in Edmonton in 2012 and his partner
Melanie, hearing my love for the 1980s and “Battlestar Galactica”, mailed me a
set of DVDs with all the episodes she made shortly after my visit. Finally, I
saw the actual box set at HMV in Lethbridge and picked it up on sale. My
collection was now complete.
Body of work
Richard Hatch was on the rise in the late 1970s. Although I never saw
him play the role, he took over for the departing Michael Douglas in the police
drama, “The Streets of San Francisco” opposite Karl Malden for its last season.
I only found that out playing a trivia game a couple years later.
I did see him in a pretty touching and inspiring TV movie called “Deadman’s
Curve” in 1978, about the music duo Jan and Dean. Hatch played Jan Berry
opposite Bruce Davison who played Dean Torrence. Jan suffers a terrible
accident and it seems their performing days are over. But Jan mounts a stirring
comeback, learning to walk, talk, and sing again. Hatch was excellent in that
movie. I distinctly remember Jan’s labouring to sing again.
He made another good TV movie in 1980 called “The Hustler at Muscle
Beach”. It was set in the world of bodybuilding and featured Hatch as a
promoter who finds a young man with some special needs who wants to compete as
a bodybuilder. The movie also introduced me to real-life bodybuilders Franco
Columbu and Frank Zane. I still remember that clearly.
Beyond these performances, Hatch would go on to the usual guest
starring spots in the 1980s in shows such as “Fantasy Island”, “Murder, She
Wrote”, “Love Boat”, “T.J. Hooker”, “Hotel”, “MacGyver”, and a turn on
“Dynasty”. He was also in episodes of lesser known, short-lived shows
“Masquerade”, “Blacke’s Magic”, and “Cover Up”, which are all mentioned
elsewhere in this blog.
Never give up
The Richard Hatch story does not end there however.
He kept on writing, and working, trying to revive “Battlestar
Galactica”. He even mortgaged his house to pay for a trailer. Seemingly though,
it was just not to be.
Then, in 2003, another project was launched. Neither a sequel nor a
continuation, “Battlestar Galactica” was one of the first of a new genre of TV
called a re-imagining. It used the original series as source material, but
completely changed the arc of the series. In this case, the male characters of
Starbuck and Boomer were female in the re-imagined world, and the enemy robotic
Cylons now also had models in human form. It was written and produced by Ron
Moore, who had made a name for himself on the various re-booted “Star Trek”
series.
Richard Hatch as Tom Zarek in the re-imagined "Battlestar Galactica"
At first Richard Hatch was highly critical of the new “Battlestar
Galactica”. In a brilliant casting move, he took on the role of Tom Zarek, a
terrorist and prisoner who becomes a member of the elected council, and a thorn
in the side of the president and colonial fleet.
Richard Hatch had come home.
Parting thoughts
Richard Hatch died on February 7, 2017, oddly the birthday of my old
friend Mike who filled me in on the school bus of the details of episodes of
“Battlestar Galactica” I had missed.
It just reminded me of a simpler time, where we would talk about the
previous night’s episode on the school bus, then chase each other around as
Colonial Warriors at recess using pens as weapons and our desks as Vipers.
Richard Hatch’s story also serves as a testament to determination and
perseverance. He believed in Battlestar Galactica when seemingly no one else
did. He kept that dream alive in the darkest hours when it only had a glimmer
of hope. Then, when a new show was made, instead of snubbing or ignoring it, he
became an important part of it, although he stuck to his principles and was
critical of the new show.
The re-imagined Battlestar Galactica is some of the best TV of the
past 15 years, that is for sure. Adding Richard Hatch to the cast was the
crowning touch to pay tribute to the show’s past.
And Richard Hatch had seen his dream come true, in part at least, even if it was not what he had envisioned. The odyssey of Richard Hatch was now complete.
