This week's Wild Wednesday extravaganza is the first episode "The Baron" TV show that was on for one season in 1966 and into 1967.
I don't remember this show at all. Tabonga and I were seniors in high school in 1966, and I'm pretty sure we were busy doing other things, and "The Baron" probably was too smart and not cool enough for us, but as an old man, I like this show a lot!!
The concept of being an antique dealer and also an undercover agent is pretty novel!
The first episode was titled "Diplomatic Immunity" for obvious reasons.
Although it was a British show, it was first shown in the U.S. but wasn't widely received, so it only aired for thirteen episodes, but it then became very popular in the U.K. where they got to see all thirty. I was told about it by my editor Lord Litter in Germany, so you can see it's a show that has a lot of International appeal!
Steve Forrest stars as John Mannering, aka "The Baron." Steve was in "The Twilight Zone" episode titled "The Parallel," and was in dozens of TV shows that included "Night Gallery." In the mid 70's, he was one of the stars of the show "S.W.A.T."
Although "The Baron" was a British show, the star Steve Forrest was born in Huntsville, Texas!
This ugly but very expensive Faberge couch just got lifted from John Mannering's Antique shop.
They captured the heist on this sneaky camera.................
.........................But there's only one problem. The woman who stole it is easily recognized even though she has a wig on, but she can't be touched because she works at the embassy of a foreign country called Pamerania and has full diplomatic immunity from any crimes, and once she's out of the country, forget about it!
It always cracks me up to see guys in cars sitting so close together so they can get them in the shot! It's either that, or they just like each other! Who knows what's going on since you can't see their hands!
Time for "The Baron" to go on an overseas mission!
"The Baron" has got a top of the line security system!
Of course he's going to need some stuff like a mini tape recorder built into a brush, and a cigarette lighter that shoots sideways when you use it. Both of these items are going to come in very handy!
"The Baron's" contact in Pamerania is Cordelia Winfield as played by Sue (Hysteria) Lloyd. Sue was a staple on British TV in the 60's and 70's, and was in some great shows like "Department S," and "Jason King."
Dora (Space:1999) Reisser had the role of Eva Dummel, the gal who stole the Faberge, and this is what she got when she tried to break free of the whole routine! Luckily, that little tape recorder caught the whole thing!
"The Baron" is not only suave, he's tough too, and disposes of a lot of Pameranian clowns like this!
A couple of weeks ago, our pal Brian James Riedel told me about a website where you can literally get lost for the rest of your life watching old TV programs and movies for free called "Uncle Earl's Classic Television Channel" where you can watch at least eighteen episodes of "The Baron," along with a host of other classic shows like "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.," "The Avengers," and "The Professionals," just to name a few! Just don't blame me if you never make it back!
2 comments:
Steve Forrest from the TZ episode "The Parallel" is awesome, also Jacqueline Scott playing his wife, and Frank Aletter (former husband of Lee Meriwether)!
The series producer at that point made Rod Serling rewrite that episode's script, which is nuts because IMHO, Serling was the best writer in all of television. I think they had Serling take some of the most suspenseful stuff out of it personally, but it's still worth watching too, because in this old fart's opinion, anything Serling wrote, especially during his "golden years" (fifties and sixties) was magnificent, thoughtful, and at times beautiful.
Sorry, now back to THE BARON...
Sorry, I went off on a tangent yapping about Steve Forrest's episode of TWILIGHT ZONE. oops
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