"Brandon and his wife Lilly were such incredibly huge fans of the show - both in terms of keeping us on the air, but also just in our darkest hours letting us know that what we were doing was worthwhile." Elsewhere, so I could watch it at home, just like you." "I wanted my staff to never tell me about plots in development for St. His range of passion for the whole pageant of television was extraordinary."Īnd in his book The Last Great Ride, Brandon gives us an example of that passion. "Of everyone I've ever worked with in television, I've never met anyone who ever loved televison more - television as a whole. Elsewhere that really represented his legacy to, and love for the television industry. With very few exceptions, "Brandettes" (TV shows conceived, developed, and/or nurtured by Brandon) made us think and feel, and deal wtih issues which had, previously, been shunned by network television.Ĭritics say Brandon's marquee show was Hill Street Blues, but we know better. His instincts helped to open the door to Television's Second Golden Age, setting standards of quality that haven't been equaled (or maintained) by any network since his leaving NBC in 1991. He loved attention and could ham it up with the best of comedians, but he could also engineer ground-breaking programming lineups in the privacy of his office. If, by and large, we remember Diana for her very public association with various celebrity events, and Mother Teresa for her work behind the scenes, then perhaps it is fair to say that Brandon's contributions, like his passing itself, falls somewhere in between the two.īrandon was true Television "Royalty" with a human touch. Somewhere in the midst of Princess Diana's tabloid death and the less monitored passing of Mother Teresa, we also lost Brandon Tartikoff to Hodgkins Disease. So for two weeks, 24 hours a day they reubilt the set onto Stage 3." So we said, we'll shut down, and let's rebuild. I was in the middle of shooting an episode and the ceiling was going to cave in. You can either wait while we redo the stage, and we don't know how long that's going to take, or you can tear the set down and rebuild it on Stage 3. So they shored that thing up with like a 12 x 12, and that moved another foot during the night, so they said, 'Here's your choices - you gotta shut down. "We were originally on Stage 9 and one day someone walked into the stage in the morning and noticed that this main truss bean was literally splitting in half, so that it was coming apart, and was going to fall. As soon as I put on that white coat and stethoscope, I always thought I was a doctor (laughs)."īut as with any real hospital, the Set had its problems. "The rooms were very realistic - they were about the same size as a regular hospital. While the supposed hospital exterior (the Franklin Square House located at East Newton in Boston) got "top billing" every week, it was the interior - the Set - that comprised the heart and soul of ST. Yet, week in and week out for six years, she stood at the ready, and supported her fellow actors with quiet grace. And when her services were no longer required, she was discarded. She had no lines and received no on-screen credit. Elsewhere Appreciation Club, December 1997, volume 1, number 3. From On Call: The Official Newsletter of the St.
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