A Little Closer Howie!

I had an epiphany recently. Like waking up after sleeping for 500 years and discovering that everything that you have to deal with now, you learned to deal with 500 years ago. Kinda like Buck Rogers. My epiphany is basically that I’ve stopped learning. I mean really learning. I mean that kind of learning where huge chunks of darkness are opened up to your eyes. The kind of learning you approach with wonderment and excitement. Sure, I find out some new trivial bit or fact now and it raises an eyebrow, but never do I become fascinated with what I’m being told like I did when I was a kid. A kid sitting in front of my TV that only picked up two channels, three after dark, and learning a life lesson through a parable told by the Six Million Dollar Man, or Apollo and Starbuck. I might even discover feelings I never knew I had by catching a certain bikini clad woman in the opening sequence of The Fall Guy. (Thank you Heather)

That epiphany that hit me today was not that I was like every other boy in my grade in the shows I watched, we had to watch the same shows that’s all there was, it’s because I linked many of those shows together today in one fell swoop. There was something that all of those shows had in common that I could put my finger on. Glen Larson.

I had seen his name hundreds of times at the end of television shows and didn’t think of him as any more creative than Harvey Weinstein. But it turns out he’s a bit more rounded than even John Carpenter. (Writer/Director/Composer of some of the great movies like Big Trouble in Little China and The Thing) He was the creator of some of the great television series in history, as well as the writer and composer of some of the songs. The man helped write the theme song for The Fall Guy for goodness sakes.

Here are the lyrics in case you’d forgotten.

The Unknown Stuntman

Well, I'm not the kind to kiss and tell,
But I've been seen with Farrah.
I'm never seen with anything less than a nine, so fine.

I've been on fire with Sally Field,
Gone fast with a girl named Bo,
But somehow they just don't end up as mine.

It's a death defyin' life I lead,
I take my chances.
I die for a livin' in the movies and TV.
But the hardest thing I ever do
Is watch my leadin' ladies
Kiss some other guy while I'm bandagin' my knee.

I might fall from a tall building,

I might roll a brand new car.
'Cause I'm the unknown stuntman that made Redford such a star.

I never spend much time in school
But I taught ladies plenty.
It's true I hire my body out for pay, Hey Hey.

I've gotten burned over Cheryl Tiegs,
Blown up for Raquel Welch.
But when I end up in the hay it's only hay, Hey Hey.

I might jump an open drawbridge,
Or Tarzan from a vine.
'Cause I'm the unknown stuntman that makes Eastwood look so fine.

And to take a trip down memory lane, (roll music) I think we need a montage’ of Glen Larson creations!

He was responsible for, in one fashion or another, many of my all time favorite shows including:

1. Six Million Dollar Man

2. Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew

3. Battlestar Galactica

4. Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

5. Magnum P.I.

6. The Fall Guy

7. Knight Rider

8. Manimal

9. Wait...Wait...he was responsible for Manimal?

Okay, forget what I said.
The rest of this blog will be devoted to a TV show Glen Larson had nothing to do with...the A team.
Did you know B.A. Baracus' initials stood for Bosco Albert? Another interesting fact is that in the premiere they break Murdock out of the hospital to get him on their team and the hospital they break him out of is where they film Grey's Anatomy now.
Oh, and the 'crime they didn't commit' was stealing gold bullion out of a bank in Hanoi during the Vietnam War.

Man tha t sounds just like a George Peppard movie.


Okay, okay, I can't stay mad at you Glen. You did give me Battlestar Galactica and helped to write 'The Fall Guy' theme song which also happens to be my theme song.
You're forgiven! You're just as important as the A-team!

Beedeebeedeebeedee....Hey Glen!