Post by zimmerman on Jul 2, 2013 19:19:51 GMT -5
TNOT Ready-Made Corpse is one of the more entertaining, down-to-earth plots of Season Two, a year where fantasy and outlandish plots seemed to be the order of the day.
In this particular episode, what is supposed to be a routine assingment for our heroes--protecting yet another foreign dignatary--a Mr. Pellargo--turns out to be tragic when he gets killed by a trick photographer, complete with colored smoke and special effects.
And some welcome for James West when he goes to shake Senor Pellargo's hand!! No sooner does the words of welcome come out of his mouth, that he has to fight off his security team, a group of people that, as Senor Pellargo tells James a few minutes later, "Were only trying to keep me from being murdered."
We have a great opening entrance from Artie in this ep. Not only do we get his theme music when he arrives, but we get some humourous dialogue between the two of them:
ARTIE: Well, good morning James! Anything happening?
JAMES: Same old thing, just a different town, thank you.
I think this could be one of the first WWW episodes wherein Jim addresses Artie as his "Partner."
Despite their failure to protect him, Senor Pellargo takes a liking to our fair duo: "I like you, Mr. West. You say what you think." He also tells the agents that he is "A reasonable man. I'm willing to grant them the first, but never the second."
Carroll O'Connor, YEARS before "All in the Family" changed the course of television for better or for worse, at the time was making guest appearances on several shows, including the big two Westerns, "Gunsmoke" and "Bonanza", really shines as Fabian Lavendor, the proprieter of the New Dawn Funeral Parlor, which specializes in making new identities to several common criminals, and embezzles them out of a lot in the money in the process. From the purple gloves to the meancing ruthless voice, in Lavendor we have one of the more crafty villians that Jim and Artie have had to deal with, and had a lot of potential if Pellargo's assasin not killed him off. Lavendor is also kind of a neat freak, being that he does not want any blood spilled on the carpet.
Karen Sharpe brings us some lively Irish whimsey as the daughter of Toby Murphy, the "Double-carousing Irishman" who looks an awful lot like an older version of Robert Reed when he comes out of the bar, drunk as a skunk, singing "Cockles and Mussles" before Lavendor permanantly wipes out this four-toed father of this lively Irish lass. She actually brought some vibrance and excitement in what turned out to be a pretty slow-pacing episode, and her over-the-top performance as a grieving widow can either be funny or annoying depending on how you look at it. it did however, trigger a great funny line from Lavendor: "Try some funeral parlor that specializes in hysterics!"
This episode is also a prime showcase for Artie, in addition to Lavendor and Miss Murphy. His disguise, as "Thomas Link", taps into some of the best creepy elements of previous WWW guest Boris Karloff and has a great character line: "I never knew dying could be so entertaining." As CalGal mentioned in her review, this is one of the of the few times that Artie gets caught in character. He also has got some great moments sprinkled throughout the episode, like the scene where he briefly does some Shakespere in the cemetary--Slightly creepy, yet very funny.
In addition to some great Artie scenes, there are also a couple of good moments when Jim and Artie are together: the aforementioned scene when the two of them are in the cemetary, examining Toby Murphy's body and Lavendor locks them in the morgue, and the scene on the Wanderer when Artie thinks that their assingment is completed, until James utters his classic line, "Things aren't always what they seem to be." A great one-line description of our series if there ever was one.
As I rewatched this ep, I was totally surprised to find out that Senora Pellargo was involved in this crazy scheme! Once again, it goes to show you that WWW was a master of unusual plot twists years before shows like "24" came on the scene.
As many fans know, "The Ready-Made Corpse" in this episode was more for Michael Garrison than for any of the guest stars: His passing away by falling down the stairs and hitting his head at the bottom of his uncarpeted marble-tiled floor, plus, this being the last of the "Garrison Color Nine", truly make this episode the end of an era in WWW's history.
Nevertheless, this is still a very good episode, with plenty of unusual plot twists to keep you on your feet while you are watching it.
7 out of 10 from me.
In this particular episode, what is supposed to be a routine assingment for our heroes--protecting yet another foreign dignatary--a Mr. Pellargo--turns out to be tragic when he gets killed by a trick photographer, complete with colored smoke and special effects.
And some welcome for James West when he goes to shake Senor Pellargo's hand!! No sooner does the words of welcome come out of his mouth, that he has to fight off his security team, a group of people that, as Senor Pellargo tells James a few minutes later, "Were only trying to keep me from being murdered."
We have a great opening entrance from Artie in this ep. Not only do we get his theme music when he arrives, but we get some humourous dialogue between the two of them:
ARTIE: Well, good morning James! Anything happening?
JAMES: Same old thing, just a different town, thank you.
I think this could be one of the first WWW episodes wherein Jim addresses Artie as his "Partner."
Despite their failure to protect him, Senor Pellargo takes a liking to our fair duo: "I like you, Mr. West. You say what you think." He also tells the agents that he is "A reasonable man. I'm willing to grant them the first, but never the second."
Carroll O'Connor, YEARS before "All in the Family" changed the course of television for better or for worse, at the time was making guest appearances on several shows, including the big two Westerns, "Gunsmoke" and "Bonanza", really shines as Fabian Lavendor, the proprieter of the New Dawn Funeral Parlor, which specializes in making new identities to several common criminals, and embezzles them out of a lot in the money in the process. From the purple gloves to the meancing ruthless voice, in Lavendor we have one of the more crafty villians that Jim and Artie have had to deal with, and had a lot of potential if Pellargo's assasin not killed him off. Lavendor is also kind of a neat freak, being that he does not want any blood spilled on the carpet.
Karen Sharpe brings us some lively Irish whimsey as the daughter of Toby Murphy, the "Double-carousing Irishman" who looks an awful lot like an older version of Robert Reed when he comes out of the bar, drunk as a skunk, singing "Cockles and Mussles" before Lavendor permanantly wipes out this four-toed father of this lively Irish lass. She actually brought some vibrance and excitement in what turned out to be a pretty slow-pacing episode, and her over-the-top performance as a grieving widow can either be funny or annoying depending on how you look at it. it did however, trigger a great funny line from Lavendor: "Try some funeral parlor that specializes in hysterics!"
This episode is also a prime showcase for Artie, in addition to Lavendor and Miss Murphy. His disguise, as "Thomas Link", taps into some of the best creepy elements of previous WWW guest Boris Karloff and has a great character line: "I never knew dying could be so entertaining." As CalGal mentioned in her review, this is one of the of the few times that Artie gets caught in character. He also has got some great moments sprinkled throughout the episode, like the scene where he briefly does some Shakespere in the cemetary--Slightly creepy, yet very funny.
In addition to some great Artie scenes, there are also a couple of good moments when Jim and Artie are together: the aforementioned scene when the two of them are in the cemetary, examining Toby Murphy's body and Lavendor locks them in the morgue, and the scene on the Wanderer when Artie thinks that their assingment is completed, until James utters his classic line, "Things aren't always what they seem to be." A great one-line description of our series if there ever was one.
As I rewatched this ep, I was totally surprised to find out that Senora Pellargo was involved in this crazy scheme! Once again, it goes to show you that WWW was a master of unusual plot twists years before shows like "24" came on the scene.
As many fans know, "The Ready-Made Corpse" in this episode was more for Michael Garrison than for any of the guest stars: His passing away by falling down the stairs and hitting his head at the bottom of his uncarpeted marble-tiled floor, plus, this being the last of the "Garrison Color Nine", truly make this episode the end of an era in WWW's history.
Nevertheless, this is still a very good episode, with plenty of unusual plot twists to keep you on your feet while you are watching it.
7 out of 10 from me.