My Blog

Fifty Years of GUNSMOKE

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Gunsmoke67New York Daily News columnist David Bianculli celebrates 50 years of GUNSMOKE, which was the best western and the  longest-running primetime episodic drama in TV history. LAW & ORDER is catching up to GUNSMOKE’s 20-year run, but it doesn’t really count. The cast of LAW & ORDER has turned over many times, but three of the four stars of GUNSMOKE stuck with it for 19 years (Dennis Weaver  left in the mid-60s and Amanda Blake skipped the 20th season).  James Arness as Matt Dillon became a television icon. But what really made the show work, from day one, was the writing.

"Gunsmoke" premiered Sept. 10, 1955, and began with a shocker. A
quick-draw gunfighter comes to town, resists arrest by a pursuing
lawman who has traced him to Dodge City, and guns him down.

Marshal Dillon, upholding the law, accepts the gunman’s challenge of a
daytime duel. Saloon girl Miss Kitty (Amanda Blake), deputy Chester
(Dennis Weaver) and town physician Doc (Milburn Stone) watch as their
friend takes aim – and is outgunned and shot down. Cut to commercial.

This was five years before Alfred Hitchcock stunned moviegoers by
killing off the heroine in "Psycho." (Retroactive, 45-year-old spoiler
alert!) Matt Dillon didn’t die, but he did have to recuperate slowly,
nursed back to health by his loyal buddies before facing the villain
again.

It was a stunning, mature approach to the Western, showing right from
the start that the good guys didn’t always win, that violence had
consequences and that the badge often carried a crushing weight.

Unlike some shows, which get worse with age, GUNSMOKE was actually at its best in its last few years, using the age and bitter experience of the characters as poignant and powerfulJames_arness_1 undercurrents in the sharp, surprisingly edgy and violent stories.  That’s not to say GUNSMOKE didn’t sink into a rut (the mid-60s especially), but even the black-and-white, half-hour episodes from the 50s still pack a surprising punch. Suzanne Barabas, author of "GUNSMOKE: A Complete History" notes in an interview:

When John Meston and Norman MacDonnell created "Gunsmoke," they wrote
down every single cowboy cliche they could think of, and decided to
break every single one, Barabas said. The irony, she said, was
"Gunsmoke" itself became a cliche.

Speaking of GUNSMOKE, I finally got around to reading Ben Costello’s "GUNSMOKE: An American Institution." It’s a handsome hardcover packed with photos and interviews. Is it worth $75? No.  It’s a breezy, enjoyable book with lots of interesting anecdotes but it doesn’t compare to Suzanna & Gabor Barabas’ monumental  "GUNSMOKE: A Complete History," one of the best books ever written about a TV show (and also one of the most expensive at $85).

If you’re going to buy one of the books, I’d spend the extra ten bucks and go for the Barabas book.  Of the two, the Barabas book is also far more scholarly and informative, Costello’s is more fannish and superficial (though he does offer many more pictures and some  intriguing details about the subsequent GUNSMOKE movies, which aren’t covered in the Barabas book).

Other articles celebrating the show and marking its anniversary are here, here and here.

045121633401_sclzzzzzzz_UPDATE (9-10-05) I almost forgot…my friend Joseph West’s latest original GUNSMOKE novel, BLIZZARD OF LEAD,  just came out. I haven’t read it yet, but if it’s anything like the first one, BLOOD BULLETS AND BUCKSKIN,  it’s a great read that’s also true to the spirit of the show and perfectly captures the voices of the beloved characters.

How Bookstores Work

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Authors Tess Gerritsen and Lynn Viehl both take us behind-the-scenes at bookstores today and tell us a little bit about how they work.  It’s fascinating stuff and, as I can attest from personal experience, painfully accurate. Here’s a taste, first from Tess:

For those of you who aren’t in the pub business, you may not realize that the
front octagonal table in B&N is actually PAID display space. (Otherwise
known as paying for "co-op".) Publishers pay for that bit of real estate so that
their new titles can be seen. I don’t know how much it costs them. (If anyone
happens to know the answer to that, I’d love to hear from you privately!)
Ballantine paid for, and expected, VANISH to be displayed on B&N’s front
tables for its first week of sale, yet in up to 40% of B&N stores, my
readers found that the books were shelved at the back of the stores, with no
discount stickers.

Lynn knows why that happens. She’s been a bookseller and says that the "co-op books" are too much work.

From a bookseller’s perspective, shelving is always easier than displaying or
tabling. You can shove books on the store shelves aside to make room for new
arrivals. This opposed to removing last week’s books from the front table,
carting them, and reshelving or store-rooming them before you can haul out and
table the new books. Purchased-space books are double the work.

If a purchased-space book shipment is late? Those books never touch a tabletop.
If the book is overshipped, a manager might get creative with stacking, but
generally they shove the excess copies back in the store room. Jackie Collins
does not want to know how many times a hundred copies of her novel sat showing
their pretty leopard-skin patterned book jackets to nothing more than the
employee coffee maker and concrete walls.

For an author, understanding the business of writing — publishing, promotion and sales — is as important as writing a good book if you want to succeed. Like Lynn, I also worked in a bookstore for a few years and the things I learned are still serving me well today.

Erik Estrada’s Cachet

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A 27-yearold social climber named Danny Estrada is riding the cachet of being Erik Estrada’s son.

Until recently, the aspiring “It” boy was
cutting a smooth path toward the upper reaches of Manhattan’s junior
class hierarchy. The Long Island native—who, by his own account, “looks
exactly like” Erik Estrada—had made a name for himself as a club
promoter. He regularly played host at nightclubs like Marquee, Butter,
Suede and Gypsy Tea.
 
The snag in his celebrity pantyhose was revealed, however, when the New York Daily News
was forced to publish a retraction to a syrupy gossip item which had
ran June 19 under the headline “‘ChiPs’ Off the Old Block.” It featured
Mr. Estrada ostensibly sharing a page from the family scrapbook.
 
“‘My
earliest memory of my father, [‘CHiPs’ star] Erik Estrada,’” the
original item read, “‘is being in the family car with him, stuck in
endless L.A. highway traffic and then suddenly being escorted by two
California Highway Patrolmen on motorcycles,’ recalls TV actor Danny
Estrada …. ‘I asked Dad why the patrolmen were out in front, and he
said he had been a patrolman once himself. For years, I thought Dad was
a cop.’”

The most incredible thing about the story isn’t that Danny Estrada isn’t really Erik Estrada’s son, it’s that Erik Estrada still has any cachet. We’re talking about a has-been actor who hosts infomercials for desolate home sites in Arkanasas…what possible social cachet could he have? If Erik Estrada’s name still has juice, just think how far you’d get saying you’re Greg Evigan’s son. Or the Bear’s.

Frankencop2I can’t be too hard on Erik Estrada, though. He doesn’t take himself too seriously.  He spoofed himself in a cameo on an episode DIAGNOSIS MURDER that Bill Rabkin and I wrote. We had him starring in  a new Stephen J. Cannell series called "Frankencop." We put a scar on his head, bolts on his neck, and stuck him on a Highway Patrol motorcycle.

Speaking of Estrada, I heard a story from a former junior NBC exec who was assigned to make sure Erik Estrada, at the height of his CHIPS stardom, didn’t succeed in seducing a senior NBC exec’s mistress at various industry/network parties. The junior exec always failed, at one point catching the mistress giving Estrada a handjob under the table at some affiliates party. But the junior exec wisely always told the senior exec that, thanks to his vigilance, the mistress and Estrada never were able to hook up.  I don’t know if the anecdote is true, but this former junior NBC exec had a lot of fun telling us  stories about this futile assignment.

Does Book Blog Buzz Sell Books?

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…that’s the question posed by an article in the Christian Science Monitor, which focuses a lot of its attention on Mark Sarvas’ blog The Elegant Variation.

Although no one’s exactly sure how influential they are, bloggers like Sarvas
have become the new darlings of the publishing industry. They’re getting free
review copies, landing interviews with prestigious authors, and trying to boost
obscure writers – especially writers in the literary fiction world where John
Irving is a bigger name than John Grisham. Still, plenty of sophisticated readers don’t know a blog from a podcast…

…In years past, literary discussions were largely limited to academia and the
occasional book club, says Sarvas of The Elegant Variation. "What the blogs have
really done is encourage inclusion, encourage people from all walks of life to
join the conversation."

But is anyone listening? Many book bloggers seem to be talking only to
themselves, judging by the dearth of postings by outsiders on their sites. And
it’s hard to tell if bloggers’ mash notes translate into sales at Barnes &
Noble.

What do you think? Are blogs changing the way you pick the books you’re going to buy?

Mandroid

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Mann_steve_erhardt_dpaHollywood hairdresser Steve Erhardt has spent $250,000 on 30 cosmetic surgeries  and this is the result. Frightening, isn’t it? ET Online reports:

What started in 1987 as a nose job soon became an obsession. Steve went to the same doctor that worked on Michael Jackson,
and intending only to get rhinoplasty, he also ended up getting a cleft
chin. From there, Steve went on to get a facelift and lid work and has
since added such things as pec implants, bicep implants (he was the
first person to ever have that type of work done) and even painful butt
implants, one of the most difficult surgeries to perform for both
doctor and patient.

What does he look like now?

163x228_kendoll_050817_se"A Mandroid!"

"A freak!"

"A gay cyborg!"

"Hunter Tylo!"

Shamus Award Winners

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Author Harry Hunsicker has clued me in to this year’s Shamus Award Winners from the Private Eye Writers of America:

Best Novel: Edward Wright, While I
Disappear (Putnam)
Best First Novel: Ingrid Black, The Dead (St. Martin’s
Minotaur)
Best Paperback Original: Max Phillips, Fade to Blonde (Hard Case Crime)
Best
Short Story: Pearl Abraham, "Hasidic Noir" (Brooklyn Noir, Akashic Books)

Lifetime Achievement: Sara Paretsky

False Advertising

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Scop_reviseA while back, author Sandra Scoppettone blogged about how the back cover of her THIS DAME FOR HIRE galley promised booksellers all kinds of advertising and promotion to support the book… which never happened. Why? Because they were lies and publishers assume booksellers won’t notice. Her editor even copped to it:

He said he knows it’s a problem and he’s talked about it at meetings.  Not
just my book, but the whole process.  He’s even said, “Why can’t we be honest?” 
I’m surprised he wasn’t fired for that.

I’m surprised they think booksellers are that stupid.

Garry Disher is Back

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Australian crime writer Garry Disher has a new book coming out this month "down under." It’s SNAPSHOT,  the third in his Inspector Challis series.

The neat suburban homes of the peninsula seem like an improbable setting for
sex parties, blackmail and murder. Winter is closing in on the coastal community
of Waterloo, and behind closed doors its residents have some peculiar ways of
keeping warm.

When Detective Inspector Hal Challis is called to investigate the brutal
murder of Janine McQuarrie–shot in a deserted country lane while her
seven-year-old daughter looks on–his progress is hampered by a web of lies and
secrets. It doesn’t help that Janine’s father-in-law is Challis’s
superior–bureaucrat, golfer and toady Superintendent McQuarrie–the Waterloo
coppers battle personal and political agendas from all sides.

Everybody has something to hide, something to lose. And someone in Waterloo
is determined to kill again.

I like the Challis books, but I love his hardboiled,
darkly-funny "Wyatt" capers,  which are obviously inspired by Donald
Westlake’s Parker books.  My friend Scott Phillips introduced me to Disher’s books
a few years ago and I’ve been grateful to him ever since. I read them all, one after another, over a solid week, along with several Wyatt short stories and novellas.

(Thanks to Perry Middlemass for the heads-up)