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RIP: Robert Conrad


Greywind

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He was a huge part of my childhood.

 

The Wild Wild West was a big favorite and I loved the Reunion movies.

 

He was in Wrong is Right in 1981 playing an over the top General.  

 

The TV movie Hard Know where he played a Marine Fighter Pilot who's told he can't fly anymore and goes to run a Cadet school was a favorite of mine.

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  There’s a trope that says he was up for the role of Captain Kirk before William Shatner was cast in Star Trek.   He would have been good. 
    It’s probably in that alternate universe we’re they chose Martin Landau for Spock.

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19 hours ago, Greywind said:

 

Will Smith actually apologized to him for that movie.

I will miss him also. The epitome of the short tough guy in hollywood. Loved both Wild Wild West and Black Sheep Squadron. I enjoyed him in Colombo basically playing Jack LaLane.

Per the movie, it is another of those movies with a cast that could have been brilliant if the people in charge had let someone write it who had ever watched the show. I still say to this day that Will Smith and Kevin Kline could have been amazing in those roles. I won't even discuss the travesty that they let Branagh make of Migolito Lovelace.

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When i was in the hospital over the summer of 2018, the TV was on one channel 24-7, and that was the Heroes & Icons channel. As I remember Every Thursday they would show  two back to back episodes on "Blacksheep Squadron" and that gor a smile out of me, watching the Corsairs, and Conrad out thinking his opponents in the air. Robert Conrad was "The man's man".   Apparent he was a student of Bruce Lee, and was the terror of his stunt men on his shoes. Vaya Con Pistolas...

 

 

 

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17 hours ago, Badger said:

 

I wish I could go back in time, and prevent myself from watching it.

 

At the time I found Kenneth Branaugh's over-the-top performance to be entertaining and the leads to be amusing, but I was a 13-year old boy .  I'll admit the movie has not held up well at all, doesn't really work, and can see why Will Smith apologized for it.

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A fond memory from childhood is me and my younger brother playing "Wild Wild West" out in the backyard.  One of the first things I learned when I picked up the bass guitar was the WWW theme song.  Last year I binged on the entire series, I hadn't seen any of them since the '70s.  Some hold up, others don't, but it was a great ride reliving those after-school memories.  And I maintain the title sequence and the framing device used heading into commercial breaks is still one of the best of any TV show ever.

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4 hours ago, grandmastergm said:

 

At the time I found Kenneth Branaugh's over-the-top performance to be entertaining and the leads to be amusing, but I was a 13-year old boy .  I'll admit the movie has not held up well at all, doesn't really work, and can see why Will Smith apologized for it.

My comment about Lovelace is that I felt his disfigured psychopath was a slap in the face to the character played brilliantly by Michael Dunn (who famously learned to do his own stunts because everyone else did and earned Robert Conrad's and the stunt men's respect).

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24 minutes ago, slikmar said:

My comment about Lovelace is that I felt his disfigured psychopath was a slap in the face to the character played brilliantly by Michael Dunn (who famously learned to do his own stunts because everyone else did and earned Robert Conrad's and the stunt men's respect).

 

They probably should have just changed the character's name completely instead of trying to reference the original character by butchering him into a legless neo-confederate engineer.

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2 hours ago, slikmar said:

My comment about Lovelace is that I felt his disfigured psychopath was a slap in the face to the character played brilliantly by Michael Dunn (who famously learned to do his own stunts because everyone else did and earned Robert Conrad's and the stunt men's respect).

 

Michael Dunn's Dr. Loveless was a marvelous villain: brilliant, charismatic, sinister, yet pathetic and tragic at the same time. It's a deep pity that such a talented actor (and singer) was so restricted in his roles by his size, and that he died so young.

 

 

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23 hours ago, Scott Ruggels said:

When i was in the hospital over the summer of 2018, the TV was on one channel 24-7, and that was the Heroes & Icons channel. As I remember Every Thursday they would show  two back to back episodes on "Blacksheep Squadron" and that gor a smile out of me, watching the Corsairs, and Conrad out thinking his opponents in the air. Robert Conrad was "The man's man".   Apparent he was a student of Bruce Lee, and was the terror of his stunt men on his shoes. Vaya Con Pistolas...

 

 

 


     I always liked this series, but I loved it once someone told me to think of it as a Star Wars show.  The Corsairs are X-Wings (radical new design giving them an edge for the first time)  and the TIE Fighters were Japanese Zeros. (light armor makes them incredibly maneuverable and dangerous)

    A rag-tag group of misfit pilots at a forward base given missions both in the air and on the ground.  It’s crazy but it works.

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1 hour ago, Tjack said:


     I always liked this series, but I loved it once someone told me to think of it as a Star Wars show.  The Corsairs are X-Wings (radical new design giving them an edge for the first time)  and the TIE Fighters were Japanese Zeros. (light armor makes them incredibly maneuverable and dangerous)

    A rag-tag group of misfit pilots at a forward base given missions both in the air and on the ground.  It’s crazy but it works.

 

Not as far off as you think. Star Wars is firmly rooted in WW2 war movies:

 

 

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38 minutes ago, Ternaugh said:

 

Not as far off as you think. Star Wars is firmly rooted in WW2 war movies:

 

 


 

   You beat me to the punch on this reference, and you one up’ed me by including the video.  I salute both you and your mustache sir!

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10 hours ago, slikmar said:

My comment about Lovelace is that I felt his disfigured psychopath was a slap in the face to the character played brilliantly by Michael Dunn (who famously learned to do his own stunts because everyone else did and earned Robert Conrad's and the stunt men's respect).

 

Didn't think about him doing his own stunts.  Remembering his walk, his hips weren't built for stunts, so, yeah, definite respect.

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