Remembering Leo Cahill

Leo Cahill was a colour commentator on the "CFL on CBC" from 1981 to 1985.
Source: By Sean Fitz-Gerald Feb 16, 2018
https://theathletic.com/244395/2018/02/16/remembering-leo-cahill-the-legendary-argonauts-coach-with-the-legendary-quotes/
(May be subject to copyright)

He made a name for himself coaching the Toronto Argonauts to within one play of winning the 1971 Grey Cup, but in the 1980s Leo Cahill gained a second life as a Canadian football commentator, partnering with Ron Lancaster and Don Wittman to form a powerful trio.

It was sad to hear that Leo Cahill passed away awhile back, but it brought back all kinds of memories of CFL football in the 1980s.

CFL on CBC
In 1981, I was about three solid years into watching Canadian football when the CBC added two colour commentators who made all the difference for me as a fan.

One was longtime player and recent head coach Ron Lancaster. I was too young to have seen him play, but I saw him coach the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

The other I had never heard of. His name was Leo Cahill, and by everything they said, he was the former head coach of the Toronto Argonauts.

Back then, Canadian football broadcasting was a three-headed monster. They employed three-man crews with a play-by-play man such as Don Wittman and two colour commentators.

Together the three of them made a great and formidable team. I learned more about the Canadian game from Lancaster and Cahill than anyone else.

True blue
One of the on-going subplots was that Cahill had been the coach of the Toronto Argonauts, and often infused his experiences there into his broadcasts. Lancaster did the same, drawing on his experiences as a player and coach in Saskatchewan.

However, Cahill seemed to take more flak, often accused and often it was subtle, of being a Toronto homer. I am not sure he was, but his arrival on the airwaves coincided with a resurgence of football in Toronto.

They had last appeared in the Grey Cup in 1971 when Cahill was their coach. After that, they fell into decline and descended into a long period of darkness. That would change in 1982 for a variety of reasons. When they qualified for the Grey Cup in 1982, the first time since 1971, there were a lot of comparisons to Cahill’s team.

He also did most of his games in the Eastern Division. It only had four teams, so odds were he would be covering an Argonauts game every week.

So, I sometimes think he got a bum rap as a Toronto homer.

Yet, Cahill would solidify that perception for some fans when, after the 1985 season, he re-joined the Argonauts as their general manager, lasting from 1986 to 1988.

Lion-hearted homer
He often joked about that connection with the Argonauts. One day, he turned the tables. The Argonauts were not playing in the game he was covering. In the intro, he made mention of that, and said he still had a stake in the game. The B.C. Lions were playing. He said he once got offered a job by then, accepted it, but then backed out to go to Toronto. Then he produced a B.C. Lions hat and put that one.

He was a homer of a different kind that day.

He said that
Perhaps my biggest memory of Leo Cahill was a game he covered involving offensive lineman Miles Gorrell. He was massive and a tough blocker from Calgary who played first for Calgary then Ottawa, Montreal, Hamilton and Winnipeg.

Cahill was talking about Gorell’s size and toughness.

“He should have an “A” on the end of his name,” he joked. There was silence in the booth.

Later, on the rival CTV network, one of the announcers, while covering a game in which Gorrell was appearing, alluded to Cahill’s comment.

Again, there was silence, followed by one of the announcers saying, “I’m glad he said that, not me.”

But that was Leo Cahill.

Parting thoughts

It was only later, when one of the networks aired the 1971 Grey Cup in the lead up to the latest Grey Cup, that I saw Leo Cahill as coach. He would coach the Argonauts from 1967 to 1971, and again from 1977 to 1978. He re-joined the team as general manager from 1986 to 1988, and had one more turn in the CFL as general manager of the Ottawa Rough Riders in 1996.

I later learned he was outspoken, dubbed “Leo the Lip” by some, so his comment on Miles Gorrell made more sense.

Yet it was in his time as a CFL broadcaster on CBC from 1981 to 1985 that Leo Cahill left his mark on me.

I have always believed the mark of a good broadcaster is whether he adds value to watching the game. It is a philosophy I adopted from my dear friend Kevin Tabata.

Leo Cahill added value by drawing on all those great experiences with the Argonauts.

On top of that, like good broadcasters, he taught me about the game.

Much of what I know about Canadian football I learned from broadcasters such as Leo Cahill.

For that, I will be eternally grateful.

James Bond in the '80s

The "Battle of the Bonds" in 1983 featured on this cover of
"Starlog" magazine, was one of the memories
of spy James Bond in the 1980s.
Source: https://timetobond.blog/2018/01/11/bond-vs-bond-1983/
(May be subject to copyright)

I always wanted to be a spy. I’m not sure if it was the intrigue, the suspense, the action and adventure, the special gadgets, or the foreign locations. Maybe it was all of that. One thing was for sure, I loved a good mystery and solving a puzzle or, in the case of a spy, achieving a mission.

Nobody seemed to symbolize that more than James Bond. Whether it was the books by Ian Fleming, or the movies starring Sean Connery in the 1960s and 1970s, George Lazenby for a brief interregnum, Roger Moore in the 1970s and 1980s, or Timothy Dalton in the 1980s, Bond was the penultimate spy.

I have a lot of odd memories about Bond in the 1980s.

Movie marathons
Channel 2&7 on peasant vision used to have these movie marathons. Sometimes they would string together four or five movies on the same topic on a Sunday morning and afternoon. Sometimes they played a movie a night for a week or two. It seemed because James Bond was a series that kept on going, movies appeared on these marathons periodically.

Book club
I had heard and read that all the James Bond movies were based on books by Ian Fleming. So, as I became more interested in books about spies, I began to look for these books. The originals all had the same type of cover. The colour would be different but the font was the same and the art, usually a single drawing, was all on the same motif. Moreover, these were the stories the movie was based on, not novelizations of the movie, which is a big difference to emphasize.

The foundation of my collection was a pile of James Bond novels I bought one summer I was staying in Brooks with my cousins Fred, Hank and Bobbie. Fred frequented a store called “Ye Olde Book Shoppe”, which also had branches in Lehbridge, which I frequented, and Taber, which I sadly never saw. A different member of the same family operated each store. The guys in Lethbridge and Brooks were brothers.

I picked up a number of James Bond novels by Ian Fleming including, “Thunderball”, “Moonraker”, and “From Russia With Love.”

Over the years I would supplement the collection with purchases from garage sales and other book stores.

Battle of the Bonds
It was 1983, and the next James Bond movie, starring Roger Moore, was set to come out. There had been rumours of another James Bond movie coming out. More fantastically, it was rumoured to have Sean Connery returning to the role of James Bond.

Rumour soon turned to fact. The movie was going to be called “Never Say Never Again” with Sean Connery reprising his role as Bond. However, it was not an Albert Broccoli production like all the previous Bonds.

In fact, it kind of flew in the face of that. It turned out the movie rights to one James Bond novel, “Thunderball” were not airtight, so they were going to re-make that novel as “Never Say Never Again”.

The name of the movie was kind of a joke and a veiled reference to the fact Connery would “never” play Bond again. So, please Sean, never say never again.

So, “Never Say Never Again” was set to go head to head with “Octopussy”, the latest Ian Fleming novel Albert Broccoli was bringing to the big screen.

There was a lot of hype about this “Battle of the Bonds”. I read about it in “Starlog” magazine where they had the two bonds superimposed beside each other.

Model action
About that same time I was getting into model making. Not so much from kits, but from an episode of a show called “That’s Life” hosted by Ann Rohmer and Peter Feniak that aired on Channel 7. It was a news magazine that aired on Saturday afternoons.

One day, Peter Feniak did a story on a guy from Toronto who built models for science fiction movies such as “Alien”. I was absolutely captivated by that, and the fact he used pieces from model kits, along with other stuff, including cardboard boxes his groceries came in, to make these ships.

I thought I would give it a try.

Then, one day, I was in the toy section at Simpson Sears and saw the perfect model. It was an actual space ship, but I had my own ideas of what I wanted to do with it.

It was the shuttle from “Moonraker”, a James Bond movie. It actually looked quite a bit like the Space Shuttles we had been watching lift off with increasing regularity such as Columbia and Challenger.

When I got it home, I realized it was too nice to mess with, so I assembled it and never did either alter it or cannibalize it for parts.

Soundtrack sensations
Almost as much a staple of James Bond movies as the Bond “girl”, was the theme song for the soundtrack. Leading up to the 1980s, there were such hits as “Goldfinger” in 1964 by Shirley Bassey; “From Russia With Love” in 1963 by the John Barry Orchestra; “Thunderball” in 1965 by Tom Jones; “Diamonds Are Forever” in 1971 by Shirley Bassey; “Live and Let Die” in 1973 by Paul McCartney and Wings; and “Nobody Does it Better (From the Spy Who Loved Me)” in 1977 by Carly Simon; and “Moonraker” in 1979 by Shirley Bassey.

The 1980s brought two monster hits.

“For Your Eyes Only” by Sheena Easton hit the charts in 1981, went all the way to number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards in 1982. It was a haunting ballad that showcased Easton’s voice. It was also used by Channel 7, the predecessor to Global, to promote their upcoming shows and movies. Oddly, later that season, Channel 13 aired “For Your Eyes Only”

It is by far my favourite Bond song

The other song, “A View to a Kill” by Duran Duran in 1985, turned out to be the most successful song in the franchise. It went all the way to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, the only song from a James Bond movie ever to reach number one.

There was also “All Time High” by Rita Coolidge in “Octopussy” in 1983; and the lesser known “The Living Daylights” by A-ha in 1987; and “License to Kill” by Gladys Knight in 1989.

Parting thoughts
There were six James Bond movies in the 1980s: “For Your Eyes Only” in 1981; “Octopussy” and “Never Say Never Again” in 1983; “A View to a Kill” in 1985; “The Living Daylights” in 1987: and “Licence to Kill” in 1989.

I never saw one in the theatre, and many I did not even see in the 1980s.

Yet, it is a testament to how deeply James Bond is etched in pop culture, that he still created all sorts of memories from books, to models, toys and music.

It is true – nobody does it better than James Bond.

Glen A Larson: Father of Thomas Magnum, Colt Seavers and Michael Knight

Glen A. Larson, who created some of the biggest action shows
of the 1980s, including "Magnum P.I.", "The Fall Guy", and
"Knight Rider", sitting in KITT, the car from "Knight Rider".
Source: https://geeksofdoom.com/2014/11/16/
famed-tv-producer-glen-a-larson-battlestar-galactica-knight-rider-dies
(May be subject to copyright)

If he walked through the door and sat down in front of me, there is no way I would recognize him. Yet, he had a profound effect on my TV watching habits throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

One of the things you would see at the beginning and conclusion of everything from “The Six Million Dollar Man” to “Knight Rider” was “Executie Producer Glen A. Larson” or a “Glen A. Larson Production”.

He died awhile back, and it just reminded me of how prolific a producer, director and writer he was.

Glen A. Larson produced his share of hits and flops, but they all filled the airwaves of the peasant vision dial all those years in the ‘80s I was growing up on the farm.

In the beginning
Larson got his start on “The Fugitive” in 1966, and proceeded to “It Takes a Thief”, “The Virginian” and “McCloud” before he had his first hit series with “Alias Smith and Jones”.

He went on to develop “The Six Million Dollar Man” for television, starting with a TV movie in 1973 based on the novel “Cyborg”.

Larson also created “Switch” about an ex-cop and ex-con working together to solve crimes, and “Quincy, M.E.” about a medical examiner. He brought Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries to the small screen, as well as “Battlestar Galactica”, “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century”, “B.J. and the Bear”, and its spin-off, “The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo”.

The credits that became synonymous with some
of the most popular shows of the 1980s.
Source: www.atvtoday.co.uk/62111-larsonrip/
(May be subject to copyright)

Dawn of the decade
Glen A. Larson had built quite a resumé, but his career was ready to explode in the ‘80s.

He got off to an inauspicious start with “Galactica 1980”, a sequel of the science fiction show that lasted just 10 episodes.

His luck would soon change.

That same year, 1980, Larson launched a show that would propel a then unknown pitch man for Salem cigarettes to stardom as a private investigator solving crimes in Hawaii. The show was “Magnum P.I.” and the unknown actor was Tom Selleck. It would be a ratings smash running from 1980 to 1988.

Larson followed that up in 1981 with “The Fall Guy”. It starred the “Six Million Dollar Man” himself, Lee Majors, as Colt Seavers, a Hollywood stunt man who supplemented his income as a bounty hunter. “The Fall Guy ran for five season, from 1981 to 1986.

The hits kept on coming in 1982, when Larson launched “Knight Rider”, a show about a police man disfigured during a double cross. He is then rescued by a mysterious organization, given a new face, new identity and a high tech car to track down criminals operating above the law. “Knight Rider” lasted four seasons, from 1982 to 1986.

The rest
Not everything Glen A. Larson did in the 1980s was a hit. He had his share of also rans, most of which I saw in the three-channel universe.

Those shows included “Manimal” in 1983, about a man who can change into animals; “Trauma Center”, also in 1983, about a trauma team; “Automan” in 1983-1984 about a scientist and the holographic man and car who help him solve crimes; “Masquerade” in 1983-1984, about a spy agency that utilizes everyday citizens in its adventures; “Cover Up” in1984-1985 about spies who use their cover as a fashion photographer and model to solve crimes; and “Half Nelson” in 1985, starring a then-unknown Joe Pesci as a bodyguard for celebrities who also moonlighted as a private investigator.

There were others, that continued on into the 1990s and beyond, but never with the same success as he had in the 1980s.

One of the moguls
“TV Guide” did a series in the mid-1980s on what they called TV moguls. They were the creators of some of the most popular shows on TV and the four of them were responsible for a lot of TV.

There was Aaron Spelling, best known for “Dynasty”, but also “Charlie’s Angels”, “Hart to Hart”, “T.J. Hooker”, “The Love Boat”, “Fantasy Island”, “Hotel”, and lesser-known shows such as “Glitter” and “Finder of Lost Loves”.

There was Donald Bellisario, co-creator of “Magnum P.I.” with Larson; “Tales of the Gold Monkey”, “Airwolf” and later “Quantum Leap” and “JAG”.

There was Stephen J. Cannell, who created “The Greatest American Hero”, “The A-Team”, “Hardcastle and McCormick”, “Riptide”, “Hunter”, “Tenspeed and Brownshoe”, and later “Stingray” and “Wise Guy”.

And of course there was Glen A. Larson.

The four of them accounted for a good chunk of TV of the era.

Parting thoughts
The name Glen A. Larson is synonymous with action TV in the 1980s. Whenever an episode of “Knight Rider” aired on Sunday night on Channel 13, it was all the talk on Monday morning at school. Same went for “The Fall Guy”.

The name Glen A. Larson has reappeared on the screen the last few years. Three of his series have or had been re-imagined in the past few years.

“Battlestar Galactica” was the first, with a miniseries in 2003, followed by a TV series from 2004 to 2009.

“Knight Rider” was less successful, re-imagined in 2008 and lasting just 17 episodes, in addition to the TV movie that acted as a pilot.

“Magnum P.I.” was re-imagined in 2018, and is about to start its third season in December.

It is testament to the impact he left on viewers in the 1980s

Rafael Montalvo: A brush with stardom

Rafael Montalvo as a Houston Astro in 1987.
Source: Wikipedia, Image cropped from a
baseball card of Rafael Montalvo from
the 1987 Jones Photo Tucson Toros set
(May be subject to copyright)

He shares the Major League record for the shortest career, but for me he will always be a gracious professional who showed me and my cousins a memorable kindness.

Recently, when I was researching the 1986 Houston Astros, I came upon the name of pitcher Rafael Montalvo, a name I had not heard in 30 years.

It took me back to summers at Henderson Stadium in Lethbridge when I was watching Pioneer League Baseball.

Game balls
The Lethbridge Dodgers were part of he Pioneer League, the lowest or starting level of the major league baseball farm system. They were the bottom team in the Los Angeles Dodgers chain, and went on to produce a lot of major league players, all getting their start in Lethbridge.

We loved going to see the Dodgers. One of the things we always hoped to do was catch a ball from the game. That was difficult behind home plate because Henderson Stadium protected the fans with screens. The only open spots were down the left field line in some bleachers, where we usually had tickets, or down the right field line where there was an open field that doubled as the bullpen area for pitchers to warm up.

The home dugout, where the Lethbridge Dodgers sat, was also by the right field line. It was not very big, and separated from the non-field area by a short chain link fence. Often, players stood outside the dugout and leaned up against the fence. Sometimes they would talk to fans, who stood on the other side of the fence.

My cousin Carl and I went to a couple games together. One game, we met one of his friends from school and were hanging out behind the dugout. One of the batters hit a foul ball, and it was tailing down the right field line, obviously going foul. We chased after it, but Carl’s buddy got the ball.

That was as close as we came to getting a foul ball, but we maybe got something better.

One night, we were standing there, with some other kids. Rafael Montalvo was a relief pitcher who said hi to a lot of the kids. He must have heard us talking about trying to get a ball, because he casually kicked one of the balls they used to warm up, under the fence to this kid in front of us. That kid grabbed it and ran away.

Montalvo saw us looking at what happened, and must have seen the longing in our eyes, because he smiled and kicked a couple balls under the fence to us.

Carl and I were both so thrilled. It was awesome. Later, we were back at his house in Lethbridge and he cleaned the ball using a tooth brush. He was quite an artist so he then drew the Dodgers logo on the ball.

Sign your name
Another time it was autograph night at Henderson Stadium. The Dodgers were signing autographs, and Carl and I went over to Rafael Montalvo. I am pretty sure he got Montalvo to sign that ball.

The Dodgers were handing out mini wooden bats, and we took ours around, and I got Rafael to sign that. I also remember a couple other players. There was Jose Ventura who went by “Joe”, and I am pretty sure he did not speak English. He still smiled and printed his name on my bat. Another player was beside him, telling a fan where he was from. I really could not understand him well, but I thought he said he was from “Beggersville”. I got his number, looked in the program and discovered he was actually saying “Bakersfield.”

But that was not the end of my experiences with Rafael Montalvo.

Summer fun
There was a period when summers were especially fun when my cousin Fred used to come to stay with us on the farm for a week, and later two weeks at a time. Later other cousins from Brooks also came to visit.

My parents were good hosts, so we used to do various fun things in Lethbridge, like going to Whoop-Up Days, eating at Bottomley’s Fish and Chips, and going to Lethbridge Dodger games.

That’s where our path crossed again with Rafael Montalvo.

By now, I knew my way around Henderson Stadium, so we walked around during the game, and went down to the dugout. Montalvo was still there and saying hi to kids – including us.

The next time we were at the game, we decided to try and get his autograph. I remember Fred saying softly, “Hello Mr. Montalvo,” and asking for him to sign the game program we bought, and he happily signed it. I had brought my baseball glove and got him to sign it.

It was all really cool.

The numbers
Rafael Montalvo played two seasons in Lethbridge.

In 1980, he appeared in 14 games, pitching 31 innings, winning four, losing two and posting an earned run average of 4.94. He struck out 18 batters, allowed 37 hits and 17 earned runs, issued 16 walks, hit four batters, and threw four wild pitches.

In 1981, he appeared in 13 games, pitching 20 innings, had no wins or losses and one save, and posting an earned run average of 5.40. He struck out 11 batters, allowed 28 hits and 12 earned runs, surrendered one home run, issued 13 walks, hit one batter, and threw one wild pitch.

He would move through the Dodger farm system From Lethbridge to Lodi, Vero Beach, Albuquerque, and San Antonio. He also spent time at Tucson.

The game
He finally made it to the major leagues in 1986, as part of the Houston Astros.

On Sunday, April 13, 1986 in a game at the Astrodome against the Atlanta Braves, Montalvo entered the game to pitch the top of the eighth inning. He induced Glenn Hubbard to ground out to him, then got Ozzie Virgil to fly out to left field. Omar Moreno tripled but Montalvo then induced Rafael Ramirez to ground to him to end the inning. So he allowed one hit and threw out two runners from the mound who grounded out to him.

Montalvo walked Dale Murphy and Bob Horner to start the ninth inning and was replaced by Frank DiPino.

That was the first and last game Rafael Montalvo pitched in the major leagues.

He shares the major league record for the shortest career.

 The Astros made the playoffs that year, winning the National League West Division before losing to the New York Mets in the National League Championship Series. Even though he played just one game, the Astros gave Montalvo a cut of their playoff money.

Parting thoughts
What I will always remember about Rafael Montalvo was just how kind he was to us. He chatted with us, and made us feel a little bit special. He was just a good ambassador of the game.

He may have only played one game in the big leagues, but he acted like a big leaguer from the minute he started playing rookie league baseball in Lethbridge.

Kenny Baker: The man behind R2D2

Kenny Baker played R2D2 in several Star Wars movies.
Source: www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/08/
kenny-baker-who-played-r2d2-in-star.html
(May be subject to copyright)

Even though I am pretty sure I have never seen his face, he made an indelible mark on my life, acting in some of the most popular movies of the 1980s and beyond, right up to 2016. Although I would not even know if Kenny Baker was standing right in front of me, he holds an honoured place in pop culture.

That’s because, although he may not be a recognizable face, Kenny Baker was the face behind one of the most iconic characters of the 1980s: R2D2.

The man behind the mask
Baker stood three feet, eight inches tall and was selected by George Lucas in 1977 to operate the robot that would become a legend – R2D2.

He would go on to reprise the role in “The Empire Strikes Back” in 1980, and “Return of the Jedi” in 1983. He also portrayed one of the Ewoks in “Return of the Jedi”, the one who steals a speeder bike.

Beyond the stars
Kenny Baker appeared in several other films throughout the 1980s as well, including “Flash Gordon”, “The Elephant Man”, “Time Bandits”, “Amadeus”, “Mona Lisa”, “Labyrinth”, and “Willow”.

Play it again Kenny
Kenny Baker was back for the second Star Wars trilogy, the three prequel movies “The Phantm Menace” in 1999; “Attack of the Clones” in 2002; and “Revenge of the Sith” in 2005.

He initially was to play R2D2 in the first of the sequel movies “The Force Awakens” in 2015 but served as a consultant instead.

Kenny Baker died on August 13, 2016, shortly before his 82nd birthday.

Parting thoughts
I had no idea at first there was anyone inside R2D2 until I saw a photo of Kenny Baker with the top off of R2D2. All you could see was his head peaking over top.

Yet it only made sense because, although he never spoke and only used bells, whistles and other sounds, he communicated very clearly. Whether it was a perfectly timed whir or whistle, spinning his head, or just going some place he was not supposed to, R2D2 was one of the most expressive characters in the Star Wars universe.

Although Kenny Baker played a robot, he was anything but robotic.

Why I liked the Houston Rockets

Moses Malone of the Houston Rockets of the 1980s goes in for a dunk
Source: https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-04-02
(May be subject to copyright)

As the Toronto Raptors made their miraculous run to the NBA championship, one of the announcers captured what it meant to be a Raptors fan for so many years.

It was one of the announcers on the Canadian broadcast who said people would cheer for the Raptors until they either missed or were eliminated from the playoffs. Then they cheered for their other team in the playoffs.

That was so true. For me it was the Houston Rockets, a team I not only cheered for, but that won the NBA championship the year before NBA basketball returned to Toronto.

So why did I cheer for the Rockets? Like anything else, it is a simple story.

A family trip
It was in the late 1970s and we were visiting my aunt and uncle in Calgary. They were some of the first people I knew who had cable television. Since I was maybe five or six, I really had nothing to do while my parents visited with my relatives.

They sent me to the basement, which I loved anyway, to watch TV.

Cable TV back then meant there were four other channels – ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS – in addition to the three on peasant vision. So it really did not take much to channel surf.

I was just getting into sports at the time and came upon this basketball game.

It was the Seattle Supersonics and the Houston Rockets.

Seattle was winning. They had Jack Sikma, Dennis Johnson, and this guy whose name made me laugh – John Johnson.

All I remember was that Houston had this beast named Moses Malone and he was single-handedly keeping the Rockets in the game. They were losing by a lot but Malone had brought them back.

Then my parents came downstairs, and we had to go home.

I never did find out who won that game.

I did know that I liked the Rockets.

Rocket radio
It was the winter of 1981 and we were driving back from Lethbridge one night. I was messing around with the car radio in our 1979 Oldsmobile Omega and I came across what sounded like a game. At first I thought it was hockey, but it turned out to be basketball – Houston Rocket basketball.

They were playing the heavily-favoured Los Angeles Lakers in a best-of-three first round series. The Rockets were the lowest seed, sixth back then, finishing the regular season with a record of 40-42. The Lakers were perennial contenders, and came in as the third seed. Back then the top two seeds had a first-round bye, so Los Angeles was the top seed in the first round.

However, in a best-of-three series anything can happen.

And it did.

I had happened upon Game 1 of that series. I was surprised to discover Houston was actually leading the team that had legends such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson, as well as Norm Nixon, Jamaal Wilkes, and Michael Cooper.

Houston was led by Moses Malone, with a supporting cast consisting primarily of Robert Reid, Mike Dunleavy and Calvin Murphy.

We got home before the game ended, so I hurried into the house and turned on my parents’ radio in the kitchen. There was heavy static and I could barely hear anything. My dad wanted to go to bed, so I abandoned all hope.

Worse, the NBA was not what it is now in Canada, so there was nothing on the sports news.

I had to wait until school the next day, where I asked around and discovered, from one of the teachers, the Rockets had held on to win Game 1.

Channel 7 News did carry occasional basketball news, so I did find out the Lakers won Game 2, but the Rockets shocked the basketball world by winning Game 3, advancing to the second round, and eliminating the defending NBA champions.

The Rockets now faced the San Antonio Spurs, who were seeded second in the Western Conference, in a best-of-seven second round playoff series. The teams went back and forth for seven games. Again, we were coming home from somewhere, I want to say a mini-basketball game, when I tuned in to Rocket radio again. I think it was Game 6, because I recall the announcers talking about the Spurs facing elimination. They also talked a lot about George Gervin, who they called the “Ice Man”. He was the leader of the Spurs and their best player. The Rockets again would prevail and advance to the conference final.

Oddly, they were not the under dog. The Kansas City Kings had upset the Portland Trail Blazers in three games in the firs round then took out the top-seeded Phoenix Suns in the conference semi-finals in seven games.

So the Western Final was a battle of two under dogs, and two teams who both had records below the .500 mark. They both had 40 wins and 42 losses. It was the last time that has happened in NBA history to this point.

By then, I think mini-basketball season was over, so all my basketball news came from the nightly TV news.

The Rockets would win the Western Conference championship in five games over the Kings.

Houston would give the Boston Celtics, the top-seeded champions of the Eastern Conference all they could handle. They went toe to toe with them splitting the first four games, but Boston was just too good, winning the next two games to take the series 4-2 and win the NBA championship.

That playoff run cemented my love for the Rockets.

Parting thoughts
The Rockets would have their ups and downs, Drafting stars Ralph Sampson and Akeem Olajuwon, and making it back to the NBA Finals again in 1986 where they lost to the Celtics again. Eventually, in 1994, they finally won the NBA title, defeating the New York Knicks in seven games. Sadly, I could not see them win their first championship because that was the day of my grandmother’s funeral. I had to find out who won by reading the Edmonton Journal sports section the next day.

During that summer of 1994 after the Rockets won the championship, I entered a team in a three-on-three tournament. Naturally, I called my team the Rockets.

The Rockets would repeat in 1995, defeating a young Shaquille O'Neal and his Orlando Magic in the final. The Raptors joined the NBA a few months later.

I stuck with the Rockets through thick and thin, but once the NBA expanded into Canada with not one but two teams, all my basketball attention was taken by the Vancouver Grizzlies and the Toronto Raptors.

I still do find myself turning my head when I hear about the Rockets, and I do pay a little more attention to them than every other team beyond the Raptors.

Love affairs die hard – even basketball ones.

Dan Seal’s “Bop”: A little country, a little rock and roll

When I first heard it, I thought I had the wrong radio station on. It was a country song, but I only listened to a pair of rock stations. Yet not only found it playing on 1090 CHEC, one of those pop and rock radio stations, but I found something else – I liked it.

The more I heard “Bop” by Dan Seals, and the higher it climbed on the charts, the more I learned about the song and the story behind its singer.

Crossover hit
The song tells the story of a man who wanted to dance with the woman he loves one more time, and looking back at when they danced when they were younger.

“Bop” was one of those rare songs I heard on the aforementioned 1090 CHEC and on 1220 CJOC, the country music station my parents listened to every morning I got ready for school.

It had crossover appeal for sure. In early 1986, it went all the way to number one on the Billoard Hot Country Singles chart and peaked at number 42 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart.

What makes a lot of sense to me was it hit number one in Canada on both the top singles and top country singles charts.

Familiar voice
The voice sounded familiar and I soon found out why. I had heard him before, in a much different setting, as England Dan in a duo with John Ford Coley. They had a smash hit in 1976, with “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight” which went all the way to number two on the Billboard Hot 100. They would have a total of nine pop singles chart between 1976 and 1980.

Family affair
Initially, when I heard Dan Seals had been part of a folk music or soft rock band before, I thought it was Seals and Crofts. As it turned, that Seals was Jim Seals, Dan’s older brother.

In fact, Jim Seals was the one who gave his brother the childhood nickname “England Dan”. You see, Dan was a fan of the English rock band The Beatles and occasionally adopted an English accent.

Parting thoughts

The beginning of July, when I started writing this,  brings the Calgary Stampede. With it everybody in Southern Alberta gets a little bit western.

I was at the Porcupine Hills Lodge where everyone was encouraged to dress western for a Calgary Stampede drive-by parade.

The song playing when I arrived was a familiar tune from the ‘80s, but it was much more than a country song.

Instead “Bop” and Dan Seal, the performer who sings it, had a lot of crossover appeal. It was a little country and a little rock and roll.

Ben Cross: Remembering “Chariots of Fire”

Ben Cross in "Chariots of Fire" in 1981.
Source: https://iconicgreats.co.uk/
(May be subject to copyright)

It is hard to say what was more memorable – the opening image of a group of men running on a beach or the music playing as they ran.

“Chariots of Fire” was a much acclaimed movie when it came out in 1981, based on the real-life experiences of two British runners in the 1920s. It was a compelling story about two men, both driven by their faith, and the circumstances they dealt with.

Through it all was the powerful anthem that reverberated, composed by Vangelis. It became the first instrumental to top the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

“Chariots of Fire” came to mind the recently when I heard Ben Cross, one of the principal actors, had passed away at the age of 77.

Running for glory
“Chariots of Fire” opens with Harold Abrahams, played by Ben Cross, taking up the challenge to complete the Trinity Great Court Run at the University of Cambridge. The goal is simple – run around the college courtyard in the time it takes for the clock to strike 12. He becomes the first person ever to successfully complete the run.

Abrahams goes on to win a string of running competitions, ultimately qualifying for the track and field team of Great Britain for the 1924 Olympics in Paris, France.

All along the way, Abrahams battles anti-Semitism.

Meanwhile, Eric Liddell is another sprinter, in the 100 metres like Abrahams, and a rival. His faith is important to him as well. He is the son of Scottish missionary parents in China, and plans to return to missionary work there.

However, he too qualifies for the Olympic team, and wishes to compete in Paris first.

It seems there will be a showdown in the 100-metre sprint between the two British sprinters.

On the boat trip to France, Liddell discovers the qualifying heats for the 100 metres are to be on a Sunday. Liddell devoutly refuses to participate due to his respect for the Sabbath.

Later, one of Britain's 400-metre runners, who has already earned a medal in the hurdles, gives his place in the 400 metres to Liddell.

Against the odds, and the lowest of expectations, Liddell wins gold in the 100 metres.

Abrahams struggles and loses the 200-metre sprint. He hopes for redemption in the 100 metres – and earns it, taking the gold medal.

Ben Cross turned in a stellar performance as Harold Abrahams.

The years after
Much of the rest of Ben Cross’ career was spent on British television, the stage, doing commercials, and in guest roles in television and supporting roles in film.

A notable role was as Ambassador Sarek, Spock’s father, in the 2009 re-boot of “Star Trek”.

The song
The haunting and powerful “Titles” music for “Chariots of Fire” was composed by Vangelis. The song went all the way to number one the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and garnered Vangelis an Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1982.

The movie
“Chariots of Fire” was nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning for Best Picture; Colin Welland for Best Original Screenplay; Milena Canonero for Best Costume Design; and the aforementioned Vangelis for Best Original Score. The movie also received nominations for Hugh Hudson for Best Director; Ian Holm for Best Supporting Actor; and Terry Rawlings for Best Film Editing.

Parting thoughts
“Chariots of Fire” is a rare movie. In order to respect actual events, the two protagonists not only do not share the screen in the climax of the movie, but are not even in the same event. However, the movie does have a satisfying ending for both protagonists who, in their own way, honour God and achieve Olympic glory.

It is very much a character-driven story, and Ben Cross turned in an excellent performance as Harold Abrahams. The sprinter was a flawed character, and nowhere near as likeable as his rival Eric Liddell. Yet, being Jewish in England in the 1920s meant Abrahams had to deal with a lot of prejudice and bigotry that Liddell did not. It brought a whole othr level to Harold Abrahams.

Ben Cross’ performance made you like, loathe and root for Harold Abrahams.

It was an impressive performance.

John Waite's "Missing You": A Thanksgiving memory

It was Thanksgiving of 1988, and I was going to miss my first one ever with my family back on the farm north of Coaldale.

Everyone else was going home, including my best friend Chris Vining, who was heading back to Coaldale. I, on the other hand, was not.

What could have been a lonely time, was not, and it was due to a newfound friend who organized a great evening, capped off with a walk and a memorable song.

Every time I hear John Waite’s “Missing You”, I think of that Thanksgiving in 1988.

The song
John Waite was best known for being the lead singer of The Babys when he released the solo album “No Brakes” in 1984.

It would have likely been consigned to the dustbin of history if not for one thing – the song “Missing You”. The single was recorded in February of 1984 and released in June of that year. It hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart the week of September 22, 1984 and stayed there for one week, displaced by “Let’s Go Crazy” by Prince and the Revolution.

John Waite would go on to be nominated for a Grammy in 1985 for Best Pop Vocal Performance Male for “Missing You”, losing out to Phil Collins for “Against All Odds (Take a Look at me Now).”.

Away from home
The start of the 1988 university year had been crazy. I was a student leader with a whole new set of responsibilities, taking a full load of five classes, and trying to keep my head above water.

It had become apparent to me early on that I was not going to be able to go home for Thanksgiving. The previous year, my first away from home at university, I did go home for Thanksgiving and it recharged my batteries. This year, it was just not in the cards.

I am not sure how I found out, but one of the other student leaders I worked with, named Shannon, was also not going home for Thanksgiving. She was quite a bit further away from home, hailing from Langley, B.C.

She was asking around if anyone knew somewhere to have a genuine Thanksgiving turkey dinner, and if anyone wanted to go.

I was the only taker.

This was a week, maybe two weeks from Thanksgiving.

Then Shannon got a hold of me one day, reporting she heard a restaurant called “David’s” had a Thanksgiving turkey dinner.

Maybe a day or two after that, she let me know that yes, “David’s” did have a Thanksgiving turkey dinner, and she got a price. It was like $17, which was still in my price range. Besides, I really just wanted to get out and even get to know Shannon a little better.

She also checked out what buses on Edmonton City Transit to take.

We were set.

Thanksgiving
We met in the lobby of Lister Hall. She lived in one tower, Mackenzie Hall, and I lived in another tower, Kelsey Hall. They were connected by the Lister Hall complex.

The main bus terminal at the time was about a three-block walk, in the heart of campus. We chatted while we walked because, aside from leadership training and meetings, we really did not know each other.

Shannon had all the routes figured out, so I just followed along. It was probably about a half-hour ride or so, but always seems longer when you don’t know where you’re going. We only had to change buses once though, which was cool.

I even think we had reservations, so when we got to “David’s” we were seated immediately.

To be honest, I don’t remember all that much about dinner, other than it was much different than at home. It all came on one plate, unlike Thanksgiving on the farm where we dished up whatever and how much we wanted.

What I do recall is getting to know Shannon better. She was studying languages, including German, which I had grown up speaking, and had aspirations of being a teacher. We talked about life as a floor coordinator, and how different it was from first year as a regular student. And we talked a lot about family.

It was just really nice.

After we settled up, Shannon had timed it so we could catch the bus back to campus.

We both had got our bearings by then. Well I had, I think she already knew the city way better than I did.

Walk home
It was a nice Thanksgiving Monday night, and as we rode the bus, we turned on to Whyte Avenue. It was a street at the heart of the arts district in Edmonton, lined with bookstores, coffee houses, and all kinds of shops offering unique items. It was also about a half hour walk from Lister Hall.

Shannon suggested we burn off some calories and avoid the turkey coma by going for a walk home.

That sounded like a great idea to me.

So we got off and walked down Whyte Ave on our way home.

I love used bookstores, and told Shannon that. She did too.

One of the best was one on Whyte Ave. It was called the Wee Book Inn.

We were approaching it so Shannon suggested we go in.

It was awesome as always, but I don’t think I bought anything.

Shannon bought the tape “No Brakes”.

“I love ‘Missing You’,” she said.

It was a song I had really liked in Grade 10 myself.

We got back to res, and went our separate ways.

I returned to my floor awaiting all my floormates returning from their Thanksgiving weekends with stories.

In the end, I had one too.

Afterwards
A few times over the next few months, I would see Shannon outside of meetings or work, and she would mention she had listened to “Missing You”, and thought of our Thanksgiving dinner.

Me too.

Parting thoughts
When you’re 18, everything seems so big and final. When I was 18, I had a lot going on, and I needed my family far, far more than I cared to admit back then.

Doing the job I did, as a floor coordinator, could be pretty isolating too.

So, it was nice not only to have a Thanksgiving dinner more personal than what they served in the cafeteria, but also to share it with someone going through the same stresses I was.

Looking back, I think the “Missing You” subliminally represented my family, and even the life I had before I was a floor coordinator.

Yet, hearing that song, reminds me of my old friend Shannon, and how her kindness made Thanksgiving very special when it could have been really lonely.

The battlefields of Pat Benatar

Pat Benatar, one of the most prolific artists of the 1980s,
battled sexism and a record company blazing a trail
for female performers to follow.
Source: http://penelopepupsvintage.blogspot.com/2009/09/
(May be subject to copyright)

Can you imagine being told the only reason people came to listen to you was because of the way you looked? Or being chased around a piano by an amorous songwriter? Or being told an interview with a radio announcer would not start until you sat on his lap?

These were just some of the battles singer/songwriter Pat Benatar fought throughout the 1980s, blazing the trail for all the female performers who would come to follow.

But there were more battles in Benatar’s life.

It was six years ago that I started reading “Between a Heart and a Rock Place” and I just finished it yesterday (Aug. 20, 2020).

Battling the record company
From the time she signed her first recording deal, Pat Benatar was in a pressure cooker to produce another album – and another, and another. Even while she sat with a hit single climbing the charts, and an album selling like hot cakes, the record company kept saying, “What have you done for me lately?”

She was essentially forced to put out an album a year, whether she was ready or not, and whether she had enough material or not.

It eventually wore her out, as sales and popularity slowly began to dwindle.

Battling to save her marriage
Pretty much every battle Pat Benatar fought somehow had the record company at its roots. She got married to the love of her life, Neil Giraldo, who is a gifted musician and song writer. He is just as much a part of the Pat Benatar sound as she is.

Yet, the record company discouraged her from getting married. They were trying to create this image of her as a fiery, sexy, single woman. They would go out of their way to try and alienate Giraldo by denying him credit for producing records and writing songs. At one point it worked, and he and Benatar did split up.

However, that did not last and they got back together – and are still married.

Battling to have a family
The record company also frowned on the idea of Pat Benatar having a family. Again, they were playing up the image of a sexy woman, and children did not fit into that. There was intense pressure for her not to have a family, but eventually she did.



I still recall her video for the “Ooh Ooh Song.” She essentially stood on stage behind a mike singing – and very pregnant. I thought back then, “Good for you.” Now, even more so.

Battling sexism
On top of all these other battles, was her battle against sexism, which is really at the heart of most of these other battles. She really was told the only reason people came to listen to her was because of the way she looked. She really was chased around a piano by an amorous songwriter. And she really was told an interview with a radio announcer would not start until she sat on his lap.

One of the things she really battled against was the photography used on her album covers. She insisted she was part of a band, a group, a team. Yet the record company continually used photos that were sexy, suggestive, and featured Pat Benatar alone in them. It infuriated her but, like the demand to keep turning out albums, the record company had an airtight contract, allowing them to to tell her what to do and control everything.

Over time, she achieved some success and, ultimately, her freedom when her record company went out of business and she became a free agent.

The music
Through all her battles, Pat Benatar kept turning out great music, and winning awards.

Her first album, “In the Heat of the Night” was released in 1979 and featured her first hit single, “Heartbreaker” which went all the way to number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album also had “You Better Run”, which was the second song ever on MTV after “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles.

Her second album, “Crimes of Passion”, released in 1980, was her breakout with the smash single, “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”. It went all the way to number nine on the Billboard chart, making it her first top 10 single.

Benatar’s third album came out in 1981, with the singles “Fire and Ice”, which went to number 17 and “Promises in the Dark” which went to number 38 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Her fourth album, “Get Nervous” came out in 1982, featuring the single “Shadows of the Night” which peaked at number 13. The video for that song also featured then unknown actors Judge Reinhold and Bill Paxton, in a Second World War themed production.

“Live from Earth” was Benatar’s fifth album, released in 1983. It had two studio tracks as well as her hits. One was “Love is a Battlefield” which went all the way to number five on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1984, Benatar released her sixth album, “Tropico”, which featured the singles, “We Belong” which peaked at number five and the “Ooh Ooh Song”, which went to number 36.

Her seventh album, released in 1985, fittingly was called “Seven the Hard Way”. It featured the singles, “Invincible” which peaked at number 10 and was the theme for the movie “The Legend of Billie Jean”, and “Sex as a Weapon”, which went to number 28 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Benatar released her final album of the decade, her eighth album overall, in 1988. It was called “Wide Awake in Dreamland” and featured the single, “All Fired Up”, which peaked at number 19.

Recognition
Pat Benatar dominated the Grammys winning four straight for “Best Female Rock Vocal Performance” in 1981 for “Crimes of Passion”; in 1982 for “Fire and Ice”; in 1983 for “Shadows of the Night“; and in 1984 for “Love is a Battlefield”.

She was nominated in 1986 for “Invincible”; in 1987 for “Sex as a Weapon”; in 1989 for “All Fired Up”; and in 1990 for “Let’s Stay Together”. She was also nominated for “Best Female Pop Vocal Performance” in 1986 for “We Belong”.

To say she dominated the decade is an understatement.

Mixed tape
Oddly, I never owned one single Pat Benatar album. The only song I did own was “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”, which was on one of those cheap mixed tapes of the year’s best songs. You usually found them at Radio Shack or the SAAN Store.

I also used that tape, and Benatar’s song on it, when I made the soundtrack for a play I wrote in Grade 12. The song was intended to be the backdrop of a high-school intramural basketball game that doesn’t go so well for our main character.

The years after
Pat Benatar continued to write, record and perform. She has two daughters with husband Neil Giraldo.

She also performed a during the Lilith Fair tour, which celebrated women in music, and did some concerts in the wake of the 911 terrorist attacks.

Parting thoughts
Reading Pat Benatar’s memoir, reveals she was a leader and a trailblazer for women in music. She battled sexism, resisted pressure to be objectified, and made life just a little bit easier for the female artists who came after her.

It is interesting to see how prolific she was in the 1980s, putting out virtually an album a year, knowing she was under constant pressure from the record company to do that.

What is truly impressive is how she was able to maintain such a high standard for so long.

For all she battled, and all she achieved, she got hit with everyone’s best shot and not only survived by thrived.

Jerry Van Dyke: Remembering "Coach's" assistant

Jerry Van Dyke in his iconic role as Luther Van Dam
in the sitcom "Coach".
Source: https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/
ABC PHOTO ARCHIVES VIA GETTY IMAGES
(May be subject to copyright)

One minute he could be the bumbling incompetent assistant football coach, putting his team’s championship hopes in jeopardy. The next minute he’s the savvy analyst, spying something to help his team win.

Such was the life and times of Luther Van Dam, assistant coach to Hayden Fox, head coach of the Minnesota State Screaming Eagles then the Orlando Breakers in the durable sitcom “Coach”.

Luther was played by Jerry Van Dyke, by far his signature role, and one he played from 1989 to 1997.

When he died awhile back, I was reminded of how good an actor he was – much more than just Dick Van Dyke’s younger brother.

The dawn of the decade
As the 1980s opened, Jerry Van Dyke was firmly entrenched as a supporting actor. His most notable role was as Rob Petrie’s brother Stacey in “The Dick Van Dyke Show”. So real life brother played character’s brother.

He continued in guest roles throughout the decade, appearing in, “House Calls”, “Fantasy Island”, “The Love Boat”, “Newhart”, and the miniseries, “Fresno”.

Then on Feb. 28, 1989, Jerry Van Dyke played Luther Van Dam opposite Craig T. Nelson as Hayden Fox in the first episode of "Coach".

The show would go on to a long, healthy run, wrapping up with its 200th and final episode on May 14, 1997.

Assistant to “Coach”
Luther Van Dam was a lifelong bachelor who struggled with self-confidence off the field but was a defensive genius on the field. He loved food, with a seemingly bottomless stomach, and he had a dog, a loveable schlep named “Quincy”.

He could be bumbling and seemingly incompetent, always getting Coach Fox into strange situations, but he always found a way out.

The best example was when the Screaming Eagles were preparing for the Pioneer Bowl and a chance at the national championship. Absent-mindedly Luther leaves the team’s playbook for the other team to find. They then expose it on national TV. Yet, after suffering a concussion, and missing most of the game, he is watching the game on TV and spots something. It is a tendency the other team has that will help the Screaming Eagles win. He madly scrambles to get the information to Hayden and does in the nick of time. It helps the Screaming Eagles go on to win the national championship.

That epitomizes Luther Van Dam to a tee.

As seen on TV
I have to admit, I did not see one episode of “Coach” in the ‘80s. Instead, it was after I returned home from university in the spring of 1991 that I got hooked on “Coach” watching re-runs. It was the first time my parents had cable TV. Since then, I caught up on much of it five or six years ago when City-TV aired re-runs two at a time on weeknights. I filled in a lot of the blanks for the first three seasons watching “Coach” on DVD. After that, I bought the entire DVD collection, which sits in my office now, waiting for me to fill in the rest of the blanks.

Parting thoughts
Jerry Van Dyke had a prolific career that just touched the 1980s.

It is interesting that he was able to appear in a variety of different shows with his more famous brother Dick Van Dyke including “The Dick Van Dyke Show”, “The New Dick Van Dyke Show”, and “Diagnosis: Murder”. Dick even made an uncredited appearance in “Coach”.

Jerry Van Dyke would go on to have a chance to star in TV shows such as, “My Mother the Car”, but none were successful. Instead, he became a great supporting actor, all through the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and into the 21st Century. He would guest star in everything from “Teen Angel” and “Yes, Dear” to “My Name is Earl”, “The Millers”, and “The Middle”.

Jerry Van Dyke was able to carve out a place and a name in television history of his own.

It would have been easy to be over the top playing Luther as a bumbler and idiot, but Jerry Van Dyke gave a layered performance. Just when Luther appeared to be clued out, he would do something to help out Hayden or one of the other characters. He was often the voice of reason when Hayden freaked out.

Luther Van Dam was a memorable character, one that Jerry Van Dyke got to explore for 200 episodes. For his efforts, Van Dyke was nominated for an Emmy for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series for his portrayal of Luther Van Dam in 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1994.

That is quite a run.

David Ogden Stiers: Better than Burns, friend and foil

David Ogden Stiers in his signature role
as Charles Emerson Winchester III in "M*A*S*H".
Source: https://www.advocate.com/
(May be subject to copyright)

What started out as a role to replace the bad guy on "M*A*S*H" turned into a multi-layered character, who was as much friend as foil to Hawkeye Pierce and BJ Honneycutt.

But there was much more to the career of David Ogden Stiers.

I was reminded of him recently when we watched “Doc Hollywood” and he played Mayor Nick Nicholson.

Pre-history
Although I only discovered it in re-runs, David Ogden Stiers had a continuing role in the “Mary Tyler Moore Show” as the manager of the TV station Mary worked at. He was Lou Grant’s boss. He also had a stutter when he was under pressure.

My outstanding memory was how different he sounded on that show, compared to "M*A*S*H" where he spoke with almost an English accent. Only later did I discover it was an upper class Boston twang.

Charles Emerson Winchester III
The career of David Ogden Stiers changed forever when he joined the cast of “M*A*S*H” as Major Charles Emerson Winchester III, a Boston bred, graduate of Harvard medical school who was railroaded into being stationed at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital.

Initially, he was cast as a new foil for the barbs and jokes of the show’s protagonists Hawkeye Pierce and BJ Honeycutt.

However that would change.

More than the butt of jokes
I have several memories of Winchester, but a few stand out that illustrate how different his relationship was with the surgeons he shared a tent with.

Nothing stupid
One involved a soldier who came to the 4077th with an injury and a stutter. He was the butt of jokes from his fellow soldiers who mocked his stutter and called him Porky Pig. Even his commanding officer blamed him for getting everyone shot. They all made it clear they thought he was stupid.

Winchester overheard all this and lashed out at them all, saving the bulk of his wrath for the commanding officer, who was lower in rank than Winchester. He even threatened to put him on report.

Later he approaches the soldier and tells him stuttering has nothing to do with intelligence. The soldier doesn’t believe Winchester. That’s why he reads nothing but comic books. Later, Winchester gives him some books, including “Moby Dick”. The soldier admits, to Winchester’s surprise, he knows “Moby Dick”. How? He had read the classic comic book. Both of them laugh.

One of the on-going parts of Winchester’s life is the tapes he records and sends to his sister Onoria. At the end of this episode, we hear him listen to a tape from her for the first time.

She has a stutter.

The music is the thing
In another episode, Winchester recognizes a patient as a world-class pianst. He is horrified to see the soldier has his arm amputated, destroying his musical career.

Winchester does some research and discovers music written for one hand. He shows this to the pianist who rejects it outright, saying he cannot play a few gimmick pieces written for a freak.

Winchester tells him he has two good hands and will never be a good pianist. He can make a scalpel sing on the surgical table, but he will never make the kind of music that pianist can. It is not in the hands, it comes from the heart and mind.

At the end of the episode, the pianist does try the piece Winchester gave him – and he is amazing.

Tables turned
Hawkeye and BJ plan a practical joke where Winchester loses his pants in the operating room. No one thinks it’s funny and everyone blames Hawkeye. Only in private does BJ laugh too, but demurs when Hawkeye mentions BJ had a hand in the joke too. By this time, the whole camp has sided with Winchester, making life tough for Hawkeye. Hawkeye decides to make things right, by pulling a prank on himself and making everyone think Winchester pulled it to get even.

Hawkeye is supposed to sit on a chair with glue on it at the Officers’ Club. He even maneuvers Winchester into the chair, only to realize too late that Winchester sat in the chair with glue and not Hawkeye. Hawkeye is now in even hotter water with everyone at the camp.

Shortly thereafter he learns from Igor at the Officers’ Club that BJ was behind both pranks. He told Igor to switch the chairs.

So, in a scene we never would have seen with Frank Burns, Hawkeye convinces Winchester that BJ was behind it. Together they arrange the king of practical jokes on BJ.

It showed how their relationship had blossomed.

Dads
In by far my favourite episode of “M*A*S*H”, Hawkeye learns his father has a mass pushing on his kidney that could be cancer and needs a difficult operation. As he gets off the phone, he turns and Winchester is there, having heard everything. Hawkeye asks him to keep it between them.

Then, it is Winchester who assures him the operation is delicate but can be done.

Later they share memories of their fathers. Hawkeye talks about losing his dad and never having told him he loved him and now he could be gone. Winchester tells him not to assume the worst. Winchester said that every night at supper his father would ask how his day was. Charles had until the salad came to describe his day. He said to this day he still talks faster when he sees lettuce. He always assumed all families were like this, and then he sees the warmth, the closeness, the fun Hawkeye has for his dad.

Charles said his father is a good man who always wanted the best for Charles, but sums up that conversation by saying, “I had a father, you had a dad.”

“Charles, you never told me anything like this before,” he said.

“Actually – Hawkeye – I've never told you anything before.”

It is the only time Winchester ever calls Pierce “Hawkeye”.

Later in the episode, Hawkeye is in the operating room and explodes at all the commotion going on. It is Winchester who calms him down, telling him it is going to be all right and to give it a rest if he can. 

In the end, everything works out, and Hawkeye’s father pulls through.

At the end of the episode, Winchester is at the Officers’ Club. Hawkeye takes him aside and buys him a drink, and says a soft thank you.

“To our fathers,” Charles says.

“And their sons,” Hawkeye responds.

I am choked up as I type this.

Aftermath
David Ogden Stiers would appear in 131 episodes of “M*A*S*H” from 1977 to 1983. He was nominated for an Emmy for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy or variety or music series in 1981 and 1982.

Introduction
I had been excited to see who would be replacing Frank Burns on “M*A*S*H”. The problem was, I had floor hockey on Monday nights when the show aired. I got back just in time for the last two minutes of the show. All I saw was a silhouette of Winchester mentioning classical music. It would be another week before I saw what Winchester looked like, that his name was Winchester, and it would take until reruns to learn how he was railroaded into a tour in Korea.

The rest of the story
The other role David Ogden Stiers played with regularity in the 1980s was as district attorney Michael Reston in a series of Perry Mason TV movies. He appeared in six in 1987 and two more in 1988.

He also appeared in three TV miniseries that I thoroughly enjoyed – “The First Olympics Athens 1896” in 1984, for which he was nominated for an Emmy for outstanding supporting actor in a limited series or special, then “North and South” in 1985 and “North and South Book II” in 1986.

David Ogden Stiers would continue to act in film and television until 2015.

He passed away on March 3, 2018.

Parting thoughts
David Ogden Stiers will forever be Charles Emerson Winchester III to me. One of the challenges “M*A*S*H” had was replacing cast members. When Colonel Henry Blake left, he was replaced by Colonel Sherman Potter. When Trapper John McIntire left, he was replaced by BJ Honeycutt. And when Frank Burns left, he was replaced by Winchester.

Each time, it would have been easy to just change the face and keep the character the same. It also would have been the death of the show.

Instead, the new characters bore little resemblance to their predecessors, which is what it would have been like in real life.

In the case of Charles Emerson Winchester III, he eclipsed Burns. He was as good or an even better surgeon than Hawkeye or BJ, and could give as much as he took when it came to jokes and barbs. He earned their respect and they earned his.

He also portrayed a sensitivity Burns never did, advocated for his patients whether they were friend or enemy, and had a great deal of compassion.

For that reason, he was foil and friend.

Donnelly Rhodes: From convict to priest and more

Canadian actor Donnelly Rhodes who appeared in everything
from "Soap" to "Danger Bay", "DaVinci's Inquest",
"Battlestar Galactica" and more.
Source: https://pagesix.com/
NBC/courtesy Everett Collection
(May be subject to copyright)

He was pretty scary as a convict who shared a cell with milquetoast, bumbling embezzler Chester Tate on the comedy “Soap”. He was even scarier when he broke out of jail and dragged Chester with him but, over time, he revealed a softer side, a kind heart and became romantically involved with not one but both of Chester’s daughters.

That versatility was my first taste of actor Donnelly Rhodes who went on to have a long career, spanning more than 40 years. He played everything from an escaped convict to a marine biolgist, police detective, shady lawyer, futuristic doctor and much more.

The best part was he was Canadian, starring in almost as many roles in the United States as he did in Canada.

I was thinking about all that Donnelly Rhodes had done when I heard that he passed away awhile back.

Convict
After Chester Tate was convicted of the murder of Peter Campbell at the start of the second season of “Soap”, he found himself sharing a cell with Dutch Leitner. Soon after, they broke out. Much of the season they were on the lam, hiding out in the Tates’ basement. Dutch fell in love with Chester’s daughter Eunice, and eventually married her. It was not before he went back to jail, cut a deal to get out, broke up with Eunice after she cheated on him, and slept with her sister Corinne. After all that, they reunited and were married.

Through it all, Donnelly Rhodes did a stellar job as Dutch.

Priest
His most memorable performance for me, was as Father Athol Pere Murray, in 1982 in a show called “The Winners”. He appeared in the hour-long opening episode of the show. It aired on CBC TV on Sunday afternoons at 5:30 p.m.

This was my first exposure to Father Murray who is a Canadian icon. He was a priest who started Notre Dame school, for boys, on the wind and snow-blown Saskatchewan prairie in the 1930s. He took whatever families could offer for tuition, including sacks of grain. In one scene, he is visiting a farm and jumps into help the father who is cutting fire wood. He also encouraged hockey, and the Notre Dame Hounds were an excellent team. So poor, they could not even afford uniforms. In the show they are to face the mighty Regina Pats and everyone kind of looks down their nose at Notre Dame. Until they smoke them on the ice.

Father Murray was also know for his smoking and swearing, a product in part from his time in the military.

Donnelly Rhodes played Father Murray to perfection, and I can still see him in his suit and white collar, smoking and swearing and cutting firewood.

He brought a Canadian icon to life.

Guest star extraordinaire
Donnelly Rhodes was quite productive in the 1980s as a guest star in a variety of television comedies and dramas. He was in everything from “Cheers”, “The Facts of Life”, “Taxi”, “Gimme A Break!”, “Alice”, “The Golden Girls”, and “Empty Nest”, to “Hill Street Blues”, “Magnum P.I.”, and “Murder, She Wrote”.

Sitcom false starts
One of the frustrating things about being a TV fan as I was, but living on the farm in the peasant vision universe, was reading in “TV Guide” about all these series that were on cable, but I could never see.

Many of them did not last more than a season if that, but they featured some actors who often went on to later success. Donnelly Rhodes was in a couple such series.

One was “Report to Murphy”, a 1982 series starring Michael Keaton as a parole officer. Rhodes played Charlie, one of the parolees, in six episodes of a show that only lasted six episodes.

Another was “Double Trouble”, where he played the father of identical twins who had very different personalities. The show lasted 23 episodes over two seasons in 1984 and 1985. Rhodes played the father for the eight-episode first season, before being replaced for the second season, which ran 15 episodes. The show is most notable for real-life twins Liz and Jean Sagal playing the lead characters. Their real-life older sister Katey Sagal went on to a prolific career in “Married, With Children”, “Eight Simple Rules”, “Sons of Anaarchy”, and currently “The Conners”.

Taking to the water
Rhodes finally found a series that took hold when he landed the role of Grant “Doc” Roberts on the CBC drama “Danger Bay”, which ran from 1985 to 1990, spanning a total of 123 episodes. “Doc” Roberts was a marine veterinarian raising his two children Nicole and Jonah, based around what was the Vancouver Aquarium.

I started watching it, partly because I tried to support Canadian TV series, and partly because we only had three channels and there wasn’t much else on.

Interestingly, I lost track of the show, but my sister watched it religiously. I recall staying with her one summer, and we dropped everything to watch “Danger Bay”.

The years after
Donnelly Rhodes would continue to have memorable roles for years to come.

He returned to Canadian television, and the CBC, for 10 episodes in 1991-1992 in the legal drama “Street Legal”. He played R.J. Reynolds, a slick lawyer who ends up buying and abandoning the practice of the main characters.

Rhodes was back in 1998 as Detective Leo Shannon, one of the police officers attached to coroner Dominic Da Vinci in another CBC drama, “DaVinci’s Inquest”. By then, Rhodes was older, playing an old cop paired with a young detective played by Ian Tracey. They made a dynamic pair, mixing the old ways and new technology to solve cases. He was in 98 episodes from 1998 to 2005.

The other role I remember well was Rhodes’ turn as Doctor Sherman Cottle, chief medical officer on “Battlestar Galactica”. He was a tough talking, chain smoking foil for Commander William Adama, appearing in 36 episodes from 2004 to 2009.

He kept on working right up until 2016, appearing in “The X-Files”, “Young and the Restless”, “Supernatural”, “Psych”, “Smallville”, “Heartland”, “Arctic Air”, “The Flash”, and his final television appearance, on “Legends of Tomorrow”.

Parting thoughts
It was an accident that I even found that one-hour show on Father Athol Pere Murray. I was flipping channels one Sunday afternoon and Donnelly Rhodes caught my eye. What was Dutch from “Soap” playing a priest for.

It was the first I had ever heard of Father Murray, but since then I have learned so much more about Notre Dame; the Hounds; Wilcox, Saskatchewan; and so much more. He was one of my favourite figures in Canadian history. It is even more so now, since I met people who went to and worked at Note Dame.

Those two roles, Dutch Leitner and Father Athol Murray, that stood out for me in the 1980s. As Donnelly Rhodes aged, so did the characters he played. It was a natural transition to Leo Shannon in “Da Vinci’s Inquest” and Doc Cottle in “Battlestar Galactica”.

Donnelly Rhodes put together a long career of memorable roles, and for me it all started with the convict and the priest.

John Crosbie: Tell it like it is

John Crosbie in the House of Commons in 1988.
Source: www.cbc.ca
Chuck Mitchell/The Canadian Press
(May be subject to copyright)

Usually when the name Crosbie hits the airwaves, we see the exploits of the talented captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Recently, a different Crosbie made headlines for being just as talented and entertaining as the hockey player – only he did it in a much more combative environment than professional hockey – politics.

Yes, instead of Sidney, it was John Crosbie whose picture was on the screen.

It was with sadness that I heard that John Crosbie, my favourite political figure of all time (next to John Diefenbaker of course), had passed away.

He was outspoken, passionate, fearless and a true leader.

Those are the things and much more that I will remember

Blue budget blues
I was just nine years old in 1979 when Joe Clark and his Progressive Conservatives shocked the world and upset the governing Liberals led by Pierre Trudeau. They won enough seats to form a minority government, something I was just learning about.

Joe Clark named John Crosbie his minister of finance, and thus began my fascination with Crosbie.

Blue suede – uh seal shoes
There is a tradition in Canada where the finance minister will wear a new pair of shoes when bringing down the budget. Crosbie chose a pair of sealskin shoes to support that industry, which was important to his home province Newfoundland and Labrador.

It was a neat gesture.

Loss of power
That Joe Clark government would be short-lived though.

Again, I was just learning about politics, but what a time to learn. Public opinion had begun to turn on the Conservatives so, when Crosbie prepared to bring down his first budget, there was talk of a non-confidence vote, and that the government might fall over the budget.

What was interesting was that vote in the House of Commons was broadcast on live network TV.

So, I watched CBC and witnessed history – the Progressive Conservative government did lose that non-confidence voted as the New Democrats sided with the Liberals. The government could have won the vote, but the four Creditiste MPs from Quebec, who would have put the PCs over the top, elected to stay home.

Canadians would go to the polls again, this time on Feb. 18, 1980 – my 10th birthday.

Trudeau would return from the political wilderness and lead the Liberals back to power, winning a majority government and consigning the Conservatives back to the opposition benches.

Underdog candidate
A growing number of party members became disenchanted with Joe Clark’s leadership, feeling he bungled the party’s chance at governing.

At the same time, Brian Mulroney continued to undermine Clark’s leadership. By 1983, the party was ripe for a leadership change. A leadership review was held in Winnipeg in 1983 and Clark received the approval of 66.9 per cent of delegates. Feeling that was not high enough, Clark moved for a leadership convention and the party obliged.

Soon after, John Crosbie announced he would be a candidate for his party’s leadership.

He energized the party and his leadership bid gained momentum as the leadership convention at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto approached. Clark had been the front runner, but I had an uneasy feeling Mulroney was headed for victory.

But that was not a fait accompli because Crosbie showed he was tough, determined, outspoken, and charming. He spoke well, built a stronger and stronger case that he was the one best equipped to lead the party and take them back to power.

Going into that convention, Crosbie seemed to be the second choice of virtually everyone supporting either Mulroney or Clark.

After the first ballot, that was borne out by the fact he was in third place.

That did not change through the next ballots, until there were just the three of them left.

He finally had to choose – go with Clark or Mulroney.

In a move that made me respect Crosbie even more than I already did, he turned his delegates loose. They were free to support whoever they wanted. He was not going to sway them by going to one candidate or the other.

Looking back, that was politically shrewd. Had he supported a losing candidate, he may be on the outside looking in when it came to a seat at the cabinet table if the Conservatives did win the next election. He could also have been completely excluded. That did not happen though.

What is interesting about his underdog candidacy, is something I read in a book called “The Contenders”, about that leadership convention.

While Crosbie was contemplating what to do after finishing third on that ballot, his people worked the room. It became clear to them Mulroney was going to win, because there were just too many people who could not support Clark. However, a lot of Clark delegates said they would support Crosbie. When that was put to the Clark people, they kind of already knew he was going to lose to Mulroney, and they did want to prevent that. However, Clark, and his people could just not see the sitting leader of the party bow out and throw his support behind the candidate in third place. So, Clark hung in and lost the leadership to Mulroney.

John Crosbie was that close to becoming leader of the Progressive Conservative Party.

Yes, minister
In 1984, Trudeau went for his walk in the snow and decided to retire. The Liberals subsequently chose John Turner as their leader.

He called an election for September of 1984 and Mulroney trounced him, winning one of the largest majorities in Canadian history and decimating the Liberals and the NDP.

Mulroney then tapped John Crosbie to be justice minister. I was surprised, because I thought he might get finance but, hey, he was one of the few finance ministers in history to have his budget defeated triggering a general election. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea.

He would also go on to serve as Minister of Transport, Minister of International Trade, and Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.

Crosbie made his mark in government. He supported the newly-negotiated free trade agreement with the United States and became minister of international trade shortly after its negotiation, promoting it in the 1988 general election. He supported redress for the Japanese-Canadians who were wrongly interned during in the Second World War, which led to an apology by the prime minister in the House of Commons and compensation of $18,000 per victim. He also proposed the creation of the World Trade Organization. He was an early supporter of gay and lesbian rights as well.

Battle of the ages
It was while he was in cabinet, that Crosbie did battle in one of the fiercest and most intriguing feuds ever in Canadian politics.

Sheila Copps was a Liberal MP from Hamilton who could get under Crosbie’s skin. In 1985, during a heated exchange in Parliament he told Copps to, “Just quiet down baby.” In 1990, he got into hot water again when, at a fundraiser, he said, “Pass the tequila Sheila, and lay down and love me again.”

They did eventually call a truce. Copps even called Crosbie a great Canadian when he died earlier this year.

Parting thoughts
When Brian Mulroney retired as prime minister in 1993, John Crosbie retired at the end of his term that same year. He would go on to a legal career in private practice and became lieutenant-governor of his native and beloved Newfoundland and Labrador from 2008 to 2013.

What I will always remember about John Crosbie was his passion. His battles with Sheila Copps epitomized that.

Perhaps what illustrated what Crosbie was like was an incident in Newfoundland. He was Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, and there was talk of closing the Atlantic Northwest Cod Fishery. When confronted by an angry crowd, he retorted, “I didn’t take the fish from the goddamn water, so don’t go abusing me.”

That sums up the life and political career of John Crosbie.

He was one of those politicians who tells it like it is.