Tel-Chai Nation

Let me now offer some TV history for anyone who cares. I'm going to present now 2 examples of TV adventure shows that have a few things in common. Their names are Alias Smith and Jones (1971-73) and Cover Up (1984-85). Here's an intro clip from Alias Smith and Jones:

And here's an intro clip from Cover Up:

Now what do they have in common, you ask? Both were created/produced by one of the same producers (Glen Larson), albeit at different studios (Universal and 20th Century Fox, respectively). And both of them involved a tragedy that ultimately cut their life short.

Let's start with the premise for AMAJ. It was a western series that drew from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, produced at a time when westerns still had an audience, and the plot focused on two bandits played by Ben Murphy and Pete Duel who were offered amnesty if they could go straight for a time. The governor wanted them to keep it secret, however, as it was still very controversial with the public. It might've had something to it, but you're about to learn why it plummeted.

Now, about CU. An espionage/adventure series, it was like a variation on James Bond, Mission: Impossible and the Man from U.N.C.L.E, with fashion photography and models serving as a backdrop. A fashion photographer, played by Jennifer O'Neill, discovers that her murdered husband was a government agent, and hires a Green Beret, played by Jon-Erik Hexum, to help solve the case surrounding his death. After they succeed, her late husband's boss is so impressed that he offers her and the Green Beret jobs as secret agents themselves, and together, they'd go on adventures to combat criminals and help US citizens in trouble with enemy forces. The fashion photographer had several other female models in her employ who were in on this, making them unofficial agents as well. Sounds like a cool premise for a series produced at the time MTV was just getting underway, right? (And they even used Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero" as they intro theme!) Well, you're about to learn why this too went down the drain.

This brings us to where we find out just what these 2 series had in common: they both involved the death of an actor at the barrel of a firearm, albeit by slightly different circumstances. In the case of ASAJ, co-star Pete Duel committed suicide by gunshot shortly after filming the first season. And while they hired a new actor to take up his role (outside of soap operas, replacing a one performer with another in the same role isn't that common), it fell out of favor with the public. In the case of CU, it's even more disturbing: the star of show, Jon-Erik Hexum, sitting around bored during some delays in filming, decided to play Russian Roulette with himself. He loaded a prop gun with blanks, and apparently didn't realize that the materials used in blanks can be deadly when fired at close range. The shot struck him so badly that a bone fragment the size of a quarter was shattered and rammed into his brain tissue. He died a few hours later from massive hemmorhaging.

It's a shame that Duel had to take his life as he did almost 4 decades ago, regardless of ASAJ's outcome in the ratings. In the case of CU, it's even more disturbing how someone could be so stupid to think that guns are playthings.

The producers brought in another actor to replace Hexum, but the damage was done: CU may have begun with high enough ratings, but lost out quickly and lasted only one season. While some could easily argue that the new actor did not appeal to the audience, another answer could be that the on-set tragedy made people too depressed to watch it further. I know that I certainly don't feel up to watching it today because of that. This is far different than when an actor is fired for doing something wrong that violates the contract, which people can sometimes overlook more easily.

There's a serious lesson to be learned here, that even blanks can be dangerous, and you should never point a gun at yourself, and definitely not at other people. According to some of the info I'd found, O'Neill was angry at Hexum for toying with weapons on the set during filming breaks - 2 years earlier, she'd accidentally injured herself while checking a gun her husband owned to see if it was loaded. Tragically, he didn't listen, and look what happened. They may not have even had a proper props inspector working the set, another reason why this happened. If there's anyone else I feel sorry for here besides the late star, it's O'Neill. Oh yeah, she was robbed alright. By all means, this should've been her show, and was surely a perfect vehicle for her. Alas...

Besides all that, I find it rather eerie that two TV shows from the same producer would both suffer a gun-based tragedy, one a suicide and one from mindless toying around. Does anyone else find that surprising?

Labels: showbiz, United States