Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Donald Jessica Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

It’s a doggy dog world.

Fani Willis claps back at Trump chihuahua, Jim Jordan.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Republicans would impeach Biden if he bit into a whole Kit Kat rather than breaking the sections apart.

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

T R E 4 5 O N

I’m just a talker, trying to find a channel!

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

You are here: Home / Popular Culture / Friday Evening Inspirational Open Thread: Doing Good Quietly

Friday Evening Inspirational Open Thread: Doing Good Quietly

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Look for the helpers…

That brings us to Peter Falk. I discovered during research ages ago that Falk was actually an uncredited writer on several Columbo episodes.

Why uncredited? Because he was doing it to cover for the NAMED writer who was sick and being treated for cancer.

Falk (and others) knew that if the studio knew the writer was too sick to work, they’d fire him, losing the medical plan covering his cancer care.

So Falk wrote them and lied to studio staff repeatedly whenever they asked where the writer was, saying he was just off set that day…

Finally we have Angela Lansbury. It was pretty much an open secret in the acting community that if you were a faded star on hard times whose pension, healthcare (via union, agency or studio) depended on continued credited appearances you reached out to Lansbury.

Lansbury had been there. She was a star of the golden age. She KNEW how hard it was, and how lucky she was to have Murder She Wrote later in life.

Ever wondered why so many old hollywood and TV faded legends show up randomly in Murder She Wrote?

Lansbury.

If you were struggling for cash or minimum appearances you reached out to Lansbury. She’d get you a part on Murder She Wrote. Might not be a big one. But it would be a credit, it would be paid, and it would COUNT.

And she did the same for young actors struggling to start out too

Klugman, Falk and Lansbury were all actors who’d legit come up, and built careers, the hard way. And they all saw themselves as having a duty to the people around them and society beyond. They each realised they could leverage their on-set power to help others, and did.

RIP.

Reader Interactions

70Comments

  8. 8.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    Just one more thing, Falk tried to join the CIA after college but he was rejected because he had belonged to a labor union.  He would later portray a CIA officer responsible for The Bay of Pigs in one of his greatest roles, “The In-Laws”.

  10. 10.

    Steeplejack

    This reminds me that Ray Collins, Lt. Tragg on Perry Mason, had a large number of credit-only “appearances” on the show from 1963 until his death in 1965.

    IMDB: Even though he was forced to quit playing Lt. Tragg on Perry Mason (1957) during the 1963-1964 television season due to his worsening emphysema, Collins’s name was kept on the credits at the insistence of Raymond Burr. This was done not only to help keep his spirits up, but to allow him to continue to receive health coverage from SAG.

  11. 11.

    guachi

    Raymond Burr intentionally had many old radio drama stars on Perry Mason over and over again as guests.

  12. 12.

    Alison Rose

    It’s always nice to learn, after their passing, that someone you liked or admired was a truly good person.

    Also too, my brother shared this lovely clip from 2017 of Lansbury singing Beauty and the Beast with The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra. She even adds in the line to Chip at the end :)

  13. 13.

    Roger Moore

    @Steeplejack: ​
     
    I respect the hell out of the people willing to cheat the system to make sure others can keep their health insurance, but it shows just how awful our system is that it’s necessary. It’s just ridiculous that someone someone can lose their health insurance because they’re too sick to work. Healthcare should be treated as a human right.

  14. 14.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: Was going to mention “The In-Laws”. I’ve seen lots of funny movies, but only a couple that were so funny so continuously that I could barely breathe for most of the movie.

    “The In-Laws” (with Alan Arkin) is on that very short list.

    “Paramus Philharmonic” is one of the inside jokes in our family (you have to get to the end of the movie to understand it).

  16. 16.

    SuzieC

    Aww as a person getting up there in years this made me cry.  I loved all these shows, and actors.

  17. 17.

    Mai Naem mobile

    I knew about Klugman. I didn’t know about Falk and Lansbury. That is what it means to be a good person.

  19. 19.

    Gravenstone

    Always loved Quincy M.E., but now I have to laugh at the impossibility of the science, or more accurately, the absurdity of “TV time”. Need to identify something? Inject in the GC mass spectrometer and two minutes later – voila! Yeah, no. Hope you have a few hours to spare for method development and spectra interpretation. And the available databases 40 years ago pale in comparison to what’s available now.

    One amusing bit I learned a few years into the series run, the character of Marc (frequent lab tech) was actually played by a service rep for Perkin Elmer (analytical instrument manufacturer). He parlayed the role into a modest acting career, post Quincy, then actually moved into forensic science.

  20. 20.

    cain

    @Alison Rose: Damn, the woman doesn’t seem to age – is that really 2017- when she actually sung that song or was it just released then? She would have been 91 at that time.

  22. 22.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    Here’s a great podcast on the history of Columbo (audio) They originally asked…. [checks notes]… Bing Crosby who thankfully turned it down.

  23. 23.

    Alison Rose

    @cain: I’m not positive–the album it was recorded for came out in 2017, but it says it includes performances “over the years” so it could’ve been a number of years earlier.

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    John Bull
    @garius
    ·
    Oct 12
    If you were struggling for cash or minimum appearances you reached out to Lansbury. She’d get you a part on Murder She Wrote. Might not be a big one. But it would be a credit, it would be paid, and it would COUNT.

    People don’t understand how big this can be. I got screwed out of a years pension credit by a superintendent with whom I’d had disagreements before (and a brown nosing pos carpenter trying to… Do a friend a solid? Or fuck somebody who once told him he was a brown nosing pos carpenter???)

    Anyway… $80.00 a month (i think) out of my and my wife’s income until the day I, and then my wife dies.

  28. 28.

    Ohio Mom

    I read the linked article on Klugman’s role in getting the orphan drugs legislation passed. An old story: the Congressman leading the way, a Democratic Representative, Henry Waxman; the two jeopardizing its passage, Republicans Gingrich and Dole.

    Sign me,
    Proud to be a Democrat

  29. 29.

    J R in WV

    Great information about these now gone artists. Wonderful to learn that they were more than actors, but also great people.

    Thanks for sharing, everyone!

  30. 30.

    Roger Moore

    @Gravenstone:

    You might be surprised at what people can do in a hurry.  I was at a mass spec training course with some people from Customs, and it sounded like they had an interesting but high stress job.  When a customs agent thought someone was trying to import something illegally, they could detain it, but only for a day or two.  The lab guys had to try to figure out if it was what the person said it was or something else within that time.  They had a bunch of fancy equipment to do the tests, but they had to guess what was going on, devise a test for it, and test the material within a very short time window.  It’s not quite a TV time frame, but they could very often do it.

  32. 32.

    frosty

    @Major Major Major Major: The Brits are making the cozy mystery shows these days. Must be half a dozen of them. Ms F is a fan

    ETA Midsommer Murders. Vera. Shakespeare and Hathaway. New Tricks. Queens of Mystery. Agatha Raisin. Brokenwood Mysteries. Miss Fisher’s Mystery.

  33. 33.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    While not a crime drama, Lou Grant dealt with a lot of social issues.

    Heck, the reporters also managed to solve some crimes along the way.

  34. 34.

    oatler

    I remember Quincy’s drug episode. The target was lookalike diet pills, and teens were dying because they were taking genuine speed thinking they were lookalikes. Quincy then used brawn to smash up the suppliers shop in a rage.  Accidently getting good drugs when you wanted the fake was common in the 70s

    “There oughtta be a law…”

  37. 37.

    NotMax

    @Major Major Major Major

    Semi-tongue in cheek and relentlessly cozy Canadian series Murdoch Mysteries still cranking out new episodes; now on season 16 up north.

    13 seasons streaming on Hulu, 14 on Hoopla, 15 on Acorn (or 16, depending on which version of Acorn).

  38. 38.

    prostratedragon

    Had guessed that Lansbury and Burr were up to something like that, and had known the story about Ray Collins and something of Klugman’s efforts which were talked about at the time. Falk also, given the number of friends from old/indie cinema that he had on, though I didn’t know the story about the writer. But nice to see these things recalled and confirmed. I think others like Rod Serling and Alfred Hitchcock also used their shows to help keep people working who were being displaced by the end of the movie studio system, and to call attention to some social issues.

  39. 39.

    trollhattan

    Want to add I mostly knew pre-“Columbo” Falk (not to be confused with Pre-Columbian Falk) from John Cassavetes movies, and the teevee character is a pretty abrupt change.

  41. 41.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Lansbury story from a friend who’s a retired cinematographer. Back in the day the crew had to pay for coffee and donuts while on set while shooting “Murder She Wrote.”

    Season 1 – Lansbury offered to pay for it out of pocket. The studio refused.

    Season 2 – She had it written into her contract that she would pay for it.

    Season 3 – She let the studio know in no uncertain terms, that if they wanted her back, they would pay for the crew’s coffee and donuts.

    Studio backed down, and ended up ending the practice studio-wide.

  48. 48.

    Steeplejack

    @prostratedragon:

    I watch it very rarely, but MeTV runs Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-62) late at night, and, especially in the early seasons, it is peppered with British actors that you wouldn’t expect to be high on a Hollywood casting director’s list.

  50. 50.

    NotMax

    @frosty

    So old can remember regularly tuning in to Yours, Truly, Johnny Dollar* on the radio.

    *”The man with the action-packed expense account – America’s fabulous freelance insurance investigator.”

  53. 53.

    Brachiator

    I knew about Klugman’s work with respect to orphan drugs. But I did not know about Falk or Lansbury. Amazing kindness and generosity.

    So old can remember regularly tuning in to Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar* on the radio.

    KNX radio in Los Angeles would replay these shows on most weeknights. I would listen to them all the time. Fun stuff.

  54. 54.

    Gvg

    @Roger Moore: we sort of did that at work 20 years ago. Whole division. Fairly new counselor diagnosed with brain tumor. Not much sick leave built up. Experienced managers read the rules carefully and explained to staff that she was covered if she worked 1/2 hour per 2 week pay period even if she was in a negative pay status. They called us in and explained and also that we would have to work more to cover for her. The cancer and pain drugs made her fuzzy headed so we were also checking her work. She was proud and in denial that it was terminal so she wasn’t told. People dropped in with groceries. Eventually we had to track down her estranged family because we couldn’t talk to doctors for her..

    It is a major reason i stayed at that job. 8 years ago i had cancer and my coverage was worry free. But i had over 20 years accrued leave. Nearly 1000 hours unused before.

  55. 55.

    Splitting Image

    Thanks for posting this. I always knew Falk was a good one, but I never heard the story about the writer before. Good for him.

    I never knew the stuff about Klugman and Lansbury though. It’s good to hear that they were good people behind the scenes. Quincy was a bit before my time, so I mostly knew Klugman from old Twilight Zone re-runs.

  56. 56.

    Chip Daniels

    If you want to see Peter Falk doing terrific work in a non-Columbo role, check out Wim Wender’s Wings of Desire.

  59. 59.

    sab

    @Gravenstone: My dad was a pathologist and Quincy show drove him crazy. ” Well, if I only had to do one case a week…” and ” the rampant violations of medical ethics rules would get him in trouble with the state medical board.”

    I think my mom watched it just to tease my dad.

  60. 60.

    Darkrose

    A couple days before Angela Lansbury died, I was listening to the episode my favorite podcast, Maintenance Phase, did on her diet book. Positive Moves came out in the ‘80s and was kind of awesome: she talked about doing what you can, not doing stuff that hurts, the importance of puttering, and being sexy at any age. It’s the antithesis of the rise and grind influencer bullshit.

    I may watch some Murder, She Wrote this weekend.

  62. 62.

    Citizen Alan

    @oatler:  For some reason, I remember the Quincy drunk driving episode. The murderer was on trial for drunk driving and was likely to get off with a slap on the wrist because of lax 70s era drunk driving laws. He was able to prove that the guy intentionally ran over the victim and killed him while sober, and then, immediately drank half a bottle of vodka so he’d register as drunk at the police station, counting on those same lax laws to help him get away with murder.

  63. 63.

    Citizen Alan

    @sab: I’m the same way about legal dramas. When I was a 1L, I screamed at the tv during an episode of Ally McBeal in which she slandered a woman she didn’t like on a Monday, suit was filed on Tuesday, depositions on Wednesday, argument on summary judgment on Thursday, and they were celebrating her winning on Friday. Laughable stuff.

  64. 64.

    Tehanu

    Thanks for this, it quite cheered me up, although I do agree that it’s a shame that our health care “system” is so fkd up that acts like Lansbury’s, Klugman’s, etc are necessary.​
    ​
    ​

  65. 65.

    sab

    @Citizen Alan: I have a law degree, but bailed early on practicing. Boston Legal was the only show I liked. Big firm with everyone cynical. Occassionally altruistic but mostly trying to bill their hours on whatever.

  66. 66.

    sab

    The pie filter is part of what keeps Balloon Juice healthy. If you are a normal reasonable adult, if the discussion irks you, you don’t go ballistic. You just pie them, then peek and decide to interact or move on. Very adult.

  67. 67.

    Geminid

    @sab: People have differing levels of detachment, and you and I are at opposite ends of that scale.

    But I think I called you a “squeaky wheel,” and I apologize for that.

  68. 68.

    A Man for All Seaonings (formerly Geeno)

    I recently rewatched “12 Angry Men”. Jack Klugman was great in that.

    Everyone in that movie was on top of their game.

  69. 69.

    artem1s

    @Chip Daniels:

    If you want to see Peter Falk doing terrific work in a non-Columbo role, check out Wim Wender’s Wings of Desire.

    Falk working with Bruno Ganz – double terrific.

  70. 70.

    sab

    @Geminid: Thank you very much for the apology. The sqeaky wheel comment did hurt my feelings quite a bit since I was trying to not be obnoxious. So the apology makes it all good for me.

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