Trending at Hallandale Beach Blog: What's old becomes new -and popular! again! Actor Michael Parks is finally getting the overdue respect and attention he was due; from 'Then Came Bronson' to the 2012 actor in demand in Hollywood
Then Came Bronson (Intro) S1 (1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYsztoaU9Ls
"Then Came Bronson" NBC Fall Preview for 1969, narrated by Hugh Downs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW79P5jLoU4&t=9s
Michael Parks as 'Jim Bronson,' a former San Francisco newspaper reporter turned motorcycle-driving vagabond, seeking to make sense of his own life and connect-the-dots in an ever-changing world around him. Shown above in still of video, the delightful Bonnie Bedelia.
A confession: this TV show from 1969 is one of my ten favorite all-time American TV shows.Then Came Bronson (Intro) S1 (1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYsztoaU9Ls
"Then Came Bronson" NBC Fall Preview for 1969, narrated by Hugh Downs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW79P5jLoU4&t=9s
Michael Parks as 'Jim Bronson,' a former San Francisco newspaper reporter turned motorcycle-driving vagabond, seeking to make sense of his own life and connect-the-dots in an ever-changing world around him. Shown above in still of video, the delightful Bonnie Bedelia.
I was only eight years old when this was on TV, yet I was smart enough even then to realize that THIS is what compelling acting was.
And it's when I first fell in LOVE with Bonnie Bedelia!
I watched every episode religiously and if VCRs and DVRs had existed back then, I would have watched it over-and-over trying to make sure that I had drained every nuance and anecdote I could out of it before I went to school the next day at Fulford Elementary in North Miami Beach.
My friends and I talked about it the next day in detail like I later would talk about sports and politics -with enthusiasm and great curiosity about what others thought about what we'd all seen and what it all meant.
For those of you who never saw the show in the first place and want to know more details about it, see this Wiki entry which seems pretty accurate to me:
I last wrote about Then Came Bronson in a post on July 23, 2010 that I titled,
In this part of Broward County, being sandbagged is a good thing! Tropical Storm Bonnie; my Leighton Meester: Bonnie Bedelia analogy is proved!
I strongly suggest you read that to get a better appreciation for what's what, and not just because you'll see why my Bonnie Bedelia:Leighton Meester analogy is so apt!
(If you agree with me about this, feel free to give me the credit!)
So, all that said, early this morning while most of you were already asleep, I let my fingers do the walking on the LA Times website -an excellent site in my opinion, and I get a couple of their daily newsletter, too- to look for the latest Times story, column or editorial on the effort by the LA business and entertainment establishment to get the California legislature to do their bidding and grease the skids so that an NFL team can be in Los Angeles at a new stadium for AEG -the Farmer's Field project- financed with tax dollars.
I know, hard to believe in this economy, right?
Well, I'll be posting some thoughts soon on the never ending melodrama of the NFL returning to LA, as I've got quite a collection of stories from the Times and elsewhere that have helped me make sense out of some things that weren't clicking in my brain before, but while looking for that story, I struck gold.
Yes, there's still gold in California if you know where to look.
Gold in the form of a very interesting story in today's Times on actor Michael Parks and how a litany of younger film directors have either finally gotten a chance to work with him after always wanting to, or, having just discovered him for the first times themselves, are dazzled and can't think straight and MUST HAVE HIM.
Not a Michael Parks type of actor, Michael Parks, the genuine article.
Trust me, when I saw that out-of-the-blue, I nearly jumped out of my chair!!!
And yes, once again I fired-up YouTube to see what got set in motion after Martin Sheen's character, a friend of Jim Branson, goes kerplunk off a certain bridge in Cali.
Dominoes fall in all sorts of interesting ways...
Los Angeles Times
Michael Parks goes from nowhere to go-to guy
The actor remembers when his phone rarely rang. Now he's coveted by directors such as Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez and Kevin Smith.
By Susan King, Los Angeles Times
September 5, 2011
Writer-director Kevin Smith describes Michael Parks as "porn for actors. If you like actors and you discover Michael Parks in a scene and you have never seen him before, your brain explodes. He will take a page of dialogue and deliver it in a different way than anybody else."
Read the rest of the article at:
And what about that great photo of him in the article, too?
Wow, he looks like he could play Jack Wagner's father.
If you hadn't heard the news yet, Jack Wagner is getting married to one of America's -and my- former stone-cold secret crushes: the talented, beautiful and beguiling Heather Locklear. And she really seems happy -after lots of recent personal upset- which makes me happy for her, too.
Good to finally see some people in Hollywood that I've always liked getting their fair share of some positive karma for a change!
Speaking of motorcycles, you know whose song would be great to have playing in a film scene of an attractive young woman -oh, say a Leighton Meester par exemple- driving a motorcycle or car winding her way on the interstate from Las Vegas to LA or Phoenix, with her hand making time with the song, tapping, tapping, tapping...?
Of course you do! Bella Tech's "Summer Song"
Bella Tech - Summer Song
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