Gun in hand, the Mayor of Palm Springs leans forward, contempt written all over
his face.“You need to go,” he tells the child molester in a slow drawl,
his icy stare never wavering as he takes a long drag on his cigarette.“I ain’t going anywhere,” the molester answers, his 6-foot, 230-pound
frame quickly rising above the smaller man. “Punk.”Without hesitation,
Mayor blasts him, blowing his kneecap clean off.
That’s a scene, as reported in today’s Desert Sun, from MAYOR OF PALM SPRINGS, a spec TV pilot being shot by Melarkie Brothers, an independant film company in the Coachella Valley. It’s not actually about The Mayor, the politician who runs the city. It’s just one of those TV titles that’s a play on words.
The show follows the exploits of Mayor Task, a good-guy cop turned Palm Springs
pool man who’s been recruited by a secret society to dole out justice, vigilante
style…
Wait a minute. A vigilante pool man?
The scene Sunday depicted Mayor’s first assignment for the secret society:
confronting a known child molester.“He wants to help people, that’s the
only thing he knows and loves,” Kienzle said of his character. “But he can’t do
it, because he was fired for dropping a gun at another crime scene to help out
another cop.”
The spec pilot is being directed by Bruce Carson, who makes a living shooting second-unit stunt work for feature films. This is the second project for Melarkie Brothers. They did a
short called “5 Minutes Alone” about what would happen if the state allowed the victims of crime five minutes alone with the criminals who have ruined their
lives. I’m sensing a theme here.
The Melarkie Brothers say they’re optimistic about the prospects for “Mayor of
Palm Springs,” but if it fails they say they’re not going to give up. This is
more than a hobby, and they are more than weekend warriors, they say.“This is just about a bunch of guys that have a passion to make and tell
stories,” Miller said.
As long as they’re stories about people beating the crap out of criminals. Here’s my advice. If they really want to capture the way of life in Palm Springs, their next vigilante hero should be in his 70s. Or 80s. Patrick MacNee lives in Palm Springs. Maybe they can talk him into starring. He was an Avenger, after all. They could call it RAGING WATERS… as in Nick Waters, an angry ex- cop with dentures of doom and arthritic fists of fury who mows down bad guys with his slow-moving Buick Regal. Just a thought.
I would like to see a show where the hero helps those falsely accused of crimes. People convicted before DNA. Think that would go?
The dentures of doom made me laugh…thanks for the morning lift. I think, however, that my father drives one of those slow moving Buick Regals and is mowing down bad’uns in the mean streets of Coral Gables.
Buick reminded me of my grandmother. She (occasionally) drove a LaSabre … beige, of course. I recall humiliating times hunkered down in the back seat as she drove us to the beach going all of 15mph. When she reached her early 90s, she took one last spin and called it quits. The car was at least 20 years old with the original tires and no more than 29,000 miles on it. She sold it for $500 to a high school kid. Christ, if I had known she was selling it, I would have given her $500! “Was it a good deal?” she asked me. “Yes, Grandma, that was a good deal.”
My dad was a Buick dealer for 35 years, and the car you really want is a 1981 Buick Electra, aka “the Dreadnaught”.
Switching gears (har), I think there are very interesting stories to be told about vigilante justice. It doesn’t sound like this is one of them, though. Too bad.
Coincidentally…convicted child molester David Allyn Dokich was originally placed in Sun City (near Palm Springs), a gated residential community where his late parents lived. Sun City was able to reject him because he’s under the age requirement. He’s now in another Riverside County area and community members are attempting to have him removed. For more info, see my blog (“The Sun Will Come Up in Sun City,” et al).
John & Ken (KFI)are continuing to cover the protests.
Now if this was a period mystery like Nero Wolfe and set in the 40s and 50s, this could be an interesting show.
Unfortunantely I’d lay 100 to 1 that this wont be the case.
“He wants to help people, that’s the only thing he knows and loves,” Kienzle said of his character. “But he can’t do it, because he was fired for dropping a gun at another crime scene to help out another cop.”
This is the good cop?
JDC
Hey now, the Grand National (and GNX) are essentially souped-up Buick Regals, anything but slow, and way cool. So cool, in fact, that Michael Mann had his protag, Vincent Hanna, drive one in the original TV series version of Heat.
Wow, I’m such a geek.
Old people and cars. My father bucked the trend. When he was 60 (1970), he bought a 67 GTO.
Of course, he had no clue what a hot car he had. He was a machinist, and thought that car had the best cared for engine he had ever seen.
So my mother would drive, 25mph, to the supermarket in this total muscle car. It would have been funny if I wasn’t so embarrassed.