... **headdesk.**

[ladybug_archive]

A little romance in the fandom here and there is fine, but it's honestly kind of annoying when I find five pages of Perry Mason/Della Street fanfiction and only about two stories in the whole section that are Gen/Mystery genre! Seriously, almost everyone writing for the show at FF.net seems to have a one-track mind. That was the case several years ago when I looked before, as well.

Also, I thought it was a little odd that the slashers hadn't come out to play. Then I see there's one on Archive of Our Own, writing Perry Mason/Paul Drake.

I still find it strange that the slashers don't engage in Perry Mason/Hamilton Burger. Not that I want to see it; it would honestly be rather frightening. But in an anime series, and probably in recent TV shows or movies, rival characters like them who have a very interesting and complex relationship (they've gone out to lunch and dinner, they occasionally work together on cases, Burger once asked Perry to defend a friend of his) would excite the slashers to no end.

I wish someone would show some interest in writing about them in a Gen way (though honestly, since it seems like anything concerning them is downright impossible and non-existent to find, I'd probably be willing to even read a mild slashfic on them if it existed). Their interaction is the main thing that intrigues me about the show (and the main thing that contributed to me being a casual fan). I've watched it off and on for probably twelve or thirteen years, maybe longer.

And Simon Oakland's characters can't catch a break. He plays a bad fellow and ends up dead. He plays a good fellow and still ends up dead. And the latter death pretty much broke my heart. It was so needless! His character, Captain Caldwell, was killed by some kook who didn't want Caldwell's investigation into sabotage to cause his precious missile not to launch. So the nut killed him to halt the investigation.

Comments

[yamsteapot.livejournal.com]

Romance in fandom is probably one of the biggest reasons fandom and fanfiction remain so strong. But it's also one of the most unfortunate parts of it. I've been out of the main throng of fandom for some time, but that was always my sort of perspective on it. The other leading factor is appreciating and gushing over said fandom, but a lot of people seem to come to things in order to fulfill their own personal fantasies which 9/10 seem romantic. There just aren't enough genfic in the world in general, in my opinion. Where is the balance?!

Slash has always struck me as odd as to where appears and where it doesn't. I wonder how much of it has to do with the crossover of fans in both anime and other series?

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

Romance is definitely over-abundant in pretty much every fandom, but I think that's the worst romance to gen ratio I've ever seen. Oy vey. I haven't looked in so many years that I thought maybe it would have changed by now.

That's a good question. I'm always both a little surprised to see it in very old series and a little surprised when it's completely absent. For Perry Mason, I'm unsure of anything about the fan base other than that they apparently can't get enough of Perry/Della and that one lone person has been writing Perry/Paul slash. And Perry was the defense lawyer in a series of stories where the Hogan's Heroes characters put the fanfic authors on trial (for all the hurt/comfort they inflict), so I'm guessing he's fairly popular among fans of that show. I'm not sure how common slash is with Hogan's Heroes fans, but it definitely has a presence. It would be kind of interesting to do a study to try to figure out if there's any pattern to the kinds of people who gravitate towards certain fandoms with slash ideas in mind and those who have het or gen ideas. As well as if there's particular kinds of fandoms slashers would be more likely to hang out in, although I'm not sure that would tell much, as I would think they'd have a blast with Perry Mason.... Especially considering how much they love Phoenix Wright....

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

Oh my. That sounds like how it is in some parts of The Monkees fandom. (But there are also a lot of Monkees fans who like het, or at least, I've seen quite a lot.)

Hasn't Crystal written some fics with LeBeau in trouble? I haven't kept up with her Hogan's Heroes projects, but I was thinking she had done things with LeBeau as well as with Newkirk.

[rose-of-pollux.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I don't think it's as bad as 90%; I know several HH authors who don't write slash, myself included. But you're right about there being a significant amount of slash--it's usually by the same people, though.

...While I like the idea of Hogan/Tiger, I don't expect to ever write about it.

Hang in there in regards to the LeBeau h/c! I have plans for more! Until then, I recommend 96Hubbles' story, "Spilt Milk"--there's some LeBeau h/c there. It's in my favorites list on FFN.

[rose-of-pollux.livejournal.com]

Oof. Well, at least they're not bashing a good guy like they do in the scores and scores Erik/Christine fics. That's even more annoying than the romance itself.

Well, you were the one who told me that slash exists out there somewhere for every fandom... XD;

**hugs Simon's characters** Poor Captain. he looked so cute, too...

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

I haven't read any of them, but yeah, I doubt they do that, since there isn't any love triangle going on in canon. (In fact, Perry and Della never hook up in canon, either. There's a lot of unresolved sexual tension there, especially in the fans' minds it seems.)

Somewhere out there, there probably is Perry/Hamilton, too. I wasn't surprised to find Perry/Paul slash existing; I'm just surprised not to find Perry/Hamilton also.

I still wish there was something I could do about that. I've been racking my brain for a solution.

The episode where he plays one of the bad guys is on the rotation this time around. It will air at the end of the month on my local PBS affilate. And when I read the summary, I realized I'm sure I saw that episode long ago. Ironically, it may have been my first exposure to Simon Oakland, depending on when I first saw it in relation to I Want to Live!

[rose-of-pollux.livejournal.com]

**nods** (Oh, and Erik/Raoul slash has suddenly gotten popular. ...I don't even want to know.)

I know. I feel the same way, and I haven't even seen the ep!

Nice. Enjoy the nostalgia! (Oh, you have a wonderful PBS station--ours just seems to enjoy airing locally-produced programming which usually isn't very interesting--usually; that cemetery one was intriguing. And since you've seen it, that meant that others thought so and aired it nationwide.)

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

That definitely doesn't make any sense. I suppose it hearkens back to some slashers' love of rival romance.

I've even considered writing the AU where someone else is killed, but I don't really want to. I don't like AUs, since I can't see them as depicting the "real" canon characters. Plus, the plot could end up being a bit tedious with Caldwell perhaps continuing to suspect Jerry Reynolds and being determined to prove it was him. Although it would be squeeable to write a scene where he realizes and admits he was wrong. But yeah. It comes down to wanting to write something that isn't AU, but being unable to think of anything.

Yeah, our PBS station is just wonderful. Both of our affiliates show national programming as well as local, but I think it's just the one that has classic TV shows.

[rose-of-pollux.livejournal.com]

Guess so. Urgh.

**nods** What about that idea with the spirit?

Ah. Well, still lucky. Enjoy!

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

I have to say I'm curious. What's so terrible about Raymond Burr? I don't recall reading anything about him horrid enough to make me want to shun him.

The scenes between Perry and Della are cute, and it does look like there's something going on there, especially from Della's side. I can't quite tell if you're saying the romance in the fanfics caught your interest or if you watched Perry Mason in spite of your dislike because you wanted to see the hints of romance.

It really does get monotonous and annoying, when the great majority of romance stories include sex.

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

Ahh. I don't think I've had any problems with his acting style; I like how he portrays Perry. Actually, though, I suppose I haven't seen him in anything else except Rear Window. It was strange to see him play the villain, but it didn't turn me off. I've also never noticed him having preferences for anything other than women on Perry Mason, but maybe I just haven't been paying attention. Perry seems like someone who is polite, but just not interested in romance of any kind.

[rose-of-pollux.livejournal.com]

...You know, there is a Bollywood actor I don't like because the one role of his I saw rubbed me the wrong way. And then I found out that he was often a mean-spirited person at times IRL and that lost any chance of me ever warming up to him. I usually try to separate an actor from a role if I don't particularly like a role, but... urgh. This is the only case where I've had such a dislike to a performance that I cannot stand an actor. It doesn't help that, lately, he's been acting in some movies that look so incredibly dumb based on the trailers.

(Plus, he's a bitter rival of another Bollywood actor whom I do like, so that counts against him, too...)

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

That would definitely make a difference. What I've heard about Raymond Burr in real-life is mostly, I think, positive, so I just can't think too ill of him. I particularly love how he lobbied so hard for William Talman (who played Hamilton Burger) to be allowed to return to Perry Mason after he was unfairly fired when he was arrested for supposed participation in a wild party. (Talman insisted he had not done anything outrageous, as reported; he'd only stopped in for a drink.)

[rose-of-pollux.livejournal.com]

**nods** I mentioned why I hated the movie below, and I was further turned off when I heard how he was a bit mean-spirited. And it's very disappointing about his bitter rivalry with the actor I do like, because it used to be a friendly rivalry--they even shared an onscreen hug in Om Shanti Om, but about a year after that movie, they had a bitter falling out and though my favorite seems to be ready to move on, the unfavorite is not letting go of the grudge.

And that is awesome about Raymond Burr. Did the lobbying work?

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

Oy vey. That's terrible that it went from a friendly rivalry to something outright nasty.

It certainly helped! CBS finally relented and let William Talman come back.

[rose-of-pollux.livejournal.com]

Bollywood is the Indian/Hindi film industry. There are some movies that I do like a lot--most of which I referenced in that last Kolchak fic I had done.

**nods** I was shocked at how horrible the characters of Mel Barnes and William Poole were in Bonanza, but I had already been crushing on Simon by that point, so it didn't faze my liking of him. For me, real-life factors of an actor's life take a bit more precedence than the roles, though I can definitely see myself having a negative view based on a really bad role. What got me with that Bollywood actor was that he played this brash, angry character who was made out to be in the right when his girlfriend broke up with him and married someone else--she was made out to be the one who had wronged him. The heck!? What are they trying to say--that it's okay to be in a potentially dangerous relationship if the guy claims to love you!?

But, more often than not, I try to hold out for the "Mean Character, Nice Actor" Trope: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/RealLife/Ptitle2td6va92

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

I don't think I was crushing on Simon yet, and it didn't faze me, either.

Ugh. That movie in general sounds ridiculous, if that's the sort of ideas it's promoting.