Cookie, Balak, and Bob the Goon
Sunday, June 19th, 2011
This guy – this Tracey Walter – is everywhere. My first recollection of him came from his role as Cookie in City Slickers. But I knew that he had been in other things that I couldn’t recall: for instance, as Balak in Conan the Destroyer, Bob the Goon in Batman, and Lamar the coronor in Silence of the Lambs. Oh, and there were over 100 others: Philadelphia, Duplex, Midnight Run, Wild at Heart, and Erin Brockovich, for example. Plus on TV: WKRP in Cincinnati, Taxi, Moonlighting, Wings, Monk, etcetera, etcetera. Read the rest of this entry »
Having only recently getting into watching the TV classic Barney Miller, my exposure to the first three seasons has help me draw the conclusion that the special ingredient in the ensemble cast was the character of Barney Miller himself. Barney was portrayed by Hal Linden, and it was his subtle, sensitive handling of the role that gave the show the extra boost to make it the classic that it was. I can’t think of any other straight-man in the history of television who could be both such a respected and moral man, while having some of the funniest comic reactions to the crazy events going on around him in TV history. 
Meeting June Lockhart was a long time coming. After having met the bulk of her fellow cast members from the science fiction TV classic Lost in Space (see 
It shouldn’t be too hard for you to picture me as an annoying, young boy – running around and pestering a group of counselors at summer camp. Well…as easy as you find it, Dean Garrett will find it even easier. Although he was never officially my counselor at Camp Woodland Altars, he was one of the staple counselors for all three years of my Junior Lodge days from 1981-1983. He is also part of my memory landscape that encompasses my very first Summer at Woodland Altars. I’ve already talked a bit about that particular week and you can read about it