Ramblings and Musings of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

Slept off and on and sometimes wasn't quite sure I was asleep. I only remembered one particularly lovely dream after I'd been awake a while.

We were attending some live performance show, something like America's Got Talent, I guess. I have no idea why. But we were there, and Richard Anderson happened to be there watching, and I went over and sat with him and he remembered me from me writing to him and we stayed and enjoyed the program together and it was very squeeable. I enjoyed being with him much more than I enjoyed whatever it was we were seeing.

It makes me wish he'd come to the semi-local Comic Con. It's fun writing to him, and I'm looking forward to making another birthday post and sharing it with him, but man, I'd love to meet him in person sometime. I've never been that interested in attending the Comic Con, but if Richard came, I would be all over it.

Very saddened by Casey Kasem's death this past day. Although I didn't grow up with him as Crystal and many others did, I longed to be able to see Scooby-Doo for years before I was finally able to. And JP made me a couple of tapes of the Top 40 show. I was thinking I should get those out again for a listen.

Crystal mused in her post how Casey was somewhat responsible for her interest in the Monkees, due to the Davy Jones episode of Scooby-Doo. Meanwhile, I've mused many times how The Monkees are responsible for almost all of my current interests. How in the world did that happen? Behold:

- Because of The Monkees, episode 25, Alias Micky Dolenz, I became interested in Jimmy Murphy, who played Tony Ferano.

- Because of that, I started looking up all of his roles and finally decided to try Kolchak: The Night Stalker, a show I'd been idly curious about for years.

- Because of that, I got interested in Simon Oakland, whom I knew years before from Perry Mason, West Side Story, and I Want to Live!, although I hadn't taken note of his name.

- Because of that, I got back into Perry Mason while watching Simon's episodes.

- Because of that, I rediscovered my interest in Hamilton Burger/William Talman and added Wesley Lau (from I Want to Live! too), Richard Anderson (from The Student Prince), and H.M. Wynant (from a Nancy Drew episode; see icon) to my list of interests.

- Because of them and Simon (and Darren), I got around to trying The Wild Wild West, The Virginian, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Cannon, Mannix, Mission: Impossible, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, and other shows that I liked enough to start watching religiously.

- Because of WWW, I discovered Christopher Cary.

- Because of that, I watched The Rockford Files and discovered Luke Andreas.

- Meanwhile, while watching Mannix, I finally tried season 1 and discovered Joseph Campanella.

All thanks to The Monkees.

So I found a few more things with my cuties to watch.

First I examined Wesley Lau's screentime in a Longstreet episode. Sooo cute. And I just love his strong, deep voice. And his hair. So pretty and blond and soft....

Then I watched all of an Alias Smith and Jones episode with Richard Anderson. He played the bad guy, and he died, but he did have a good amount of screentime.

I've been meaning to try that show for some time, but I wasn't sure what to expect. I find the basic premise rather ludicrous. But I wanted to have a look because it's fairly popular and people squee about the rapport between the two main stars.

I definitely saw the rapport. I really liked that part of it. But ... I was afraid that from the basic premise, the entire show would be kind of light in the way I don't care for, and unless I hit a bum episode, that was exactly the way it was. The characters were lighter and joked more than I usually like to see from the main characters, the plot was kind of off-the-wall (but could have been fine in other circumstances), and it was peppered with a guest cast of off-the-wall characters.

It's really difficult to make a humorous Western in a way that I go for. I adore The Big Valley's humor episode, and I tried to dissect the reason why on Tumblr a while back. Somehow, they really hit on a perfect combination there, with the dignity and seriousness of Victoria Barkley clashing with those kooky safe robbers. LOL. And it certainly didn't hurt to throw in Christopher Cary being utterly adorable and the smartest and kindest of the three brothers.

I love some of The Wild Wild West's humor episodes, such as The Gruesome Games and of course The Poisonous Posey. But I strongly dislike The Human Trigger and The Infernal Machine. Amusingly, I know some fans who like the latter two but dislike The Poisonous Posey. You'd think that if they like kookier and goofier episodes like Human Trigger, they'd be fine with Poisonous Posey, which isn't anywhere as silly (and which I actually find much funnier). But ah well, everyone seems to have their own brand of enjoyed humor.

Anyway, I think I'll research a Smith and Jones episode guide and see if I can find any dramatic-sounding, friendshippy, and possibly hurt/comforty episodes. I think I've heard that there are some. I'd like to give the show another go, but if I run across another episode like the one I saw, I just don't think the show is for me. At all.

On the other hand, I am totally falling in love with Garrison's Gorillas. I still can't see it as existing in the same verse as the more historically accurate and dramatic Combat!; it seems more at home with more offbeat shows like Hogan's Heroes and Mission: Impossible. But in any case, it is so much love. The characters have wonderful friendships, Chrissy is again adorable, and there has been some hurt/comfort now and then. I wasn't sure I like Casino at first, but it was easy for him to grow on me once I saw his protectiveness over Goniff (Chris's character). I must watch every episode. I wish so much they would release it on DVD (or that MeTV would pick it up or something). I want to own this series.

LOL. Apparently this is International Skeptics Day? That is pretty hilariously awesome. I celebrate with a photoset for Hamilton on Tumblr. Also, I have two Wesley photosets and a bit of H.M. Wynant.

http://lucky-ladybugs-lovelies.tumblr.com/

... I think I'm tentatively adding H.M. as a serious interest. Like Crystal, I have tiers of celebrities. The very top ones are the ones I crush on. The next level is ones that are awesome, and that I follow from role to role, but don't crush on. I think H.M. is kind of between those tiers right now, and moving up....

I watched three of his four Wild Wild West appearances in the past couple of days (Sudden Plague, Poisonous Posey, and Simian Terror). And I willingly watched an episode of Perry without Hamilton in order to see him. (The Red Riding Boots.) And his main Perry character, Deputy Sampson, has been attacked in my current Perry mystery fic.

**headdesk.** As if I don't have enough people in the top tier already.... Help!

I have also been squeeing majorly over Wesley today. I think he's my main crush at the moment. But then I squeed over Richard too. And William Talman. Heck, I squee over everyone in that top tier.

And I've got so many active plunnies for or involving oneshot characters bouncing around in my mind, I don't know which one to go for first. I could write about Ray Norman, Wesley's character on a Cannon episode. Or Coley Rodman, H.M.'s character in Sudden Plague. Or Pinto, his character from Poisonous Posey.

I could start the WWW fic where Pinto and the other gang members are revived and Jim is apparently killed in an explosion and Arte can't get over it.

I could start the crazy crossover with that and Perry, just for the heck of it.

I could try to figure out if there's any way to redeem Coley. Pinto will always be a villain, but I think there might be some hope for Coley. At least, he hasn't lost all sense of decency, since he's horrified by the mad scientist's plan to kill entire cities instead of just temporarily freezing the people in place. And he actively fights against the madman when he realizes that's the plan.

There's so many choices!

The following is somewhat copied from a email I sent to Crystal, as I think I said the beginning part perfectly there and don't need to retype it. I have, however, added many things, as I've learned and thought more since sending the email.

I finally broke down and weeded out Wesley Lau's scenes in The Alamo. Originally I planned to watch the whole movie, but after learning that Wesley's character is not so nice and that he buys the farm early on, I wasn't sure my interest would hold after his departure, since I rarely have time to watch movies so long (over three hours). But scene-weeding is time-consuming too, and I hadn't found a good time to try until today.

He plays Emil Sande, a merchant storing weapons for the Mexican side of the conflict. His interest seems to mainly be mercenary rather than an actual belief in the cause; he plans to align himself with the victors, whoever they are. And he tries to convince a woman that she should marry him. He also has some lackeys of his attack Davy Crockett when they meet on the street, after already hitting it off poorly earlier. All in all, not a very nice fellow.

But still, gah, I felt sorry for him when I finally located the scene of him being killed during a fight when Davy Crockett and company come to take his secret stock of weapons. (The scene was deleted from the general release; I couldn't find it on my tape, recorded years ago from TV by my brother. I located it online, among edited and deleted scenes.) Anyway, I mean, gee, people are coming to take his stuff. What's he going to do but fight back? I felt really really sorry for him when he was killed by Jim Bowie's knife.

I'm unsure if Emil is even a real historical person. If he was fictitious, I honestly have a mind to have him survive. (I think he's fictitious.) When asked if he's dead, Davy says, "Sort of." He didn't actually check; just assumed it from the knifing.

(Likely a good assumption. If Emil survived, it was probably just barely.)

... And I honestly feel terrible for feeling sorry for Emil. I don't know if it's only because he's played by Wesley (and I know that's a large part of it) or if it's also because I feel like he didn't deserve death, no matter who played him. I think it's both. He's a bad egg, but there's worse than him by far. And if I tried writing some piece where he survives, I'd probably have him have a change of heart. (Because that's so fun to write!)

There's also a deleted scene where Davy Crockett admits to the girl that Emil is dead (by Davy's hand). She says his death is nothing to cry over, and yet she's going to cry anyway, she supposes because so much has happened to her in so short a time. The girl is sent away before the battle and survives the movie, to my knowledge, so she would probably play a part in any ficlet I'd come up with. I wonder if she'd feel guilty that her telling Davy about the stock of weapons is what led to the fight and the knifing?

Maybe she comes back, finds out about everyone's death at the Alamo, and is feeling so overwhelmed and heartbroken (she had started a relationship with Davy before he sent her away for her safety), and then somehow learns that Emil is alive. Possibly, it would be an epic, sweeping fic, Emil would indeed gradually become a better person, and the girl actually would come to love him and they would finally marry and be happy together.

It could work! There's the beautiful Gunsmoke episode Gunfighter, R.I.P., where the cold-hearted mercenary and assassin (a far worse person than Emil) has a complete change of heart and lifestyle as he begins to care about the girl nursing him back to health!

It's an awesome idea. But whyyyy does it exist? Why am I doing this again, unable to let a dead bad guy be? I just got through doing this with Richard's Wild Wild West character (and saying he was always a good guy, by giving him an evil double and having the double be the dead one)! Why can't I just accept Emil is dead and move on with it?

(Because that's no fun at all! **headdesk.**)

No one would even care about the story but me! Everyone probably hates Emil. And here I am, announcing on YouTube that hey, I feel sorry for the guy, getting killed when he's trying to defend the stock of weapons that are his. Always with the unpopular opinions. I will forever be a nonconformist.

(Then again, Davy himself feels bad he had to kill Emil, even though they didn't get along at all. Davy is awesome like that.)

But in any case, seriously, Wesley Lau interacting with The Duke, John Wayne? That is epic and it excites me. They had some pretty extensive interaction. I wonder if they ever said what it was like to work with each other?

As a closing, here's a picture I found of Wesley, John Wayne, and the girl: http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/File:Alamo-FlintlockPistol-3.jpg Emil is very displeased at having his gun taken from him. And that is a wide, wide brimmed hat.

One of the few things I have in common with Rainbow Dash is that we fangirl. I have totally been sitting here going "Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh" for the last few minutes. While trying to update my Perry mystery, my hands have been shaking in my excitement and glee.

I got a reply from Richard Anderson! I had just about given up on that. Ohmygosh. Squeee! Yes, contacting via private messaging pays off.

I also drew this, which I shall link to on the blog post tomorrow: http://meromeroyui.deviantart.com/art/Amory-Fallon-and-Lieutenant-Steve-Drumm-316919168

(No, I did not show this to Richard, if anyone's wondering; I think I'd feel a little embarrassed to do so. But I'm sure he'd be gracious.)

Squeeee!

Also, I like Sampson now, I learned I've been spelling Chamberlin's name wrong and have to start fixing that, and I got a really cracky idea for a group of crazy villains from The Wild Wild West to time-travel and for the sadistic cowboy played by H.M. Wynant to lasso Sampson right in his office. I'm not sure what would horrify and shock Sampson more: to be lassoed by an evil-doer from the 1870s, or for this evil-doer to look just like him. Oh the crack! What I have seen in my mind I cannot unsee!

I think I'll need to say that the Wild Wild West is a category readers will be seeing regularly at ladybug_tales, instead of occasionally as it currently reads. I have a plunnie for a story after the one I'm doing! (And of course, I have to finish my Man-Eating House fic too.) I wanna do a follow-up to The Night of the Poisonous Posey episode, the one with those nutty villains. Everyone except Posey and one guy bought the farm by the end, and I wanna write a fic where the others are starting to be mysteriously revived, one by one. Because they're just too nutty and fun to stay dead!

I don't think The Poisonous Posey is one of the most well-liked episodes, but I get a big kick out of it. I think it's because the gang reminds me of an 1870s version of V.I.L.E. Posey is so a Carmen Sandiego counterpart! And H.M.'s character is about the only other serious one. Everyone else is off-the-wall to varying degrees.

(I also think H.M.'s character has a crush on Posey. He's always getting up to politely pull out her chair for her. No one else does. Odd for such a sadist to have manners!)

While trying again to figure out how to contact Richard Anderson privately, which I finally managed to do via one of his Facebook accounts, I discovered that he's going to be at the San Diego Comic Con this weekend (on Thursday, I think, from 10:30 to 2:30). AWESOME. Of course, there's no way I can go, but awesome nevertheless.

Apparently it's in connection with The Six-Million-Dollar Man, and a new figure line coming out this year! (The one of Richard's character will be out in October, I think. OH YES. I've never seen the show, which will be remedied soon, I assure you, but I am psyched for the figure in any case.)

Well, anyway ... I don't suppose anyone here is going to Comic Con and could say Hi for me? :)

Well, I just finished the June themeset for 31_days. It was ... quite a relief, really; I loved writing each thing, but I had to sacrifice my multi-chapter stories for a lot of the time. And I'm anxious to return to them. I have a mystery to finish and a new one to start, and now I have my Wild Wild West project too. Plus I want to get back to my Man-Eating House project, now that I'm more comfortable writing for Jim and Arte.

... But Saturday morning I was fooling around watching Richard Anderson in various things and then I decided to re-watch some of the Bonanza episode Her Brother's Keeper so I could see Wesley Lau. And ... oh gosh, I got this amazing plunnie for a multi-chapter epic involving Wesley's and Nancy Gates' characters, who were brother and sister. They were so sadly dysfunctional and the brother was sick and a gambler and hopelessly dependent on his sister and terrified of her leaving him.... And I started thinking of a fic idea where she would end up hurt and he would have to take care of her, and as a result, become more responsible and get more on his feet.

And July's 31 Days theme would probably fit the story pretty well.

This part was written after a brief absence.

I really know that I don't see how I could carry another whole month. Maybe I could write for it off and on, just picking out certain themes, and then I'd have a more healthy balance with that and my FF.net projects. This Bonanza story, if I write it, would probably not go up on FF.net due to very likely being only about the guest-stars. And people won't even review the piece I put up that's all about Little Joe and Hoss conversing. Even though stories about the brothers are largely what's loved over there.

Why do I have to be so incredibly fond of oneshot characters? Especially when hardly anyone else even cares? Gah, I love them so much. My favorite kind are either played by someone I love or have close ties to a main character. Or even BOTH!

I know there are at least a couple of Duke fans on the Friends list, so I thought I'd drop a note. I wrote a ficlet yesterday morning revolving around the song Leave Out All the Rest and posted it. Reviews are loved! (I would especially enjoy seeing them pop up on FF.net, but I'd be happy seeing them anywhere.)

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8136579/1/

I tried writing a different version first, one that showed the dream before launching into the scene in reality. But somehow I just didn't like it at all. This second version only takes place in reality, with Duke simply talking about the dream after the fact. I think for this particular fic, that really worked better.

... And I find it absolutely squeeful that Richard Anderson is on Facebook and Blogspot! He hasn't seemed to manage to find time to update the Blogspot, but it's squeeable anyway. If I can figure out how and where, I wanna drop him a line.

And for anyone else who likes Richard Anderson, I am developing a plunnie involving his guest-starring character from The Wild Wild West. The episode itself actually supports the idea, via a costuming mistake! http://wildwildwest-65.livejournal.com/11923.html