I Still Miss Vanessa Marquez

"They tell you time is a great healer, but that's a lie. When you lose someone you love, really truly love, the pain never goes away." (Lizzy Thornfield, played by Hayley Mills, in the Midsomer Murders episode "Wild Harvest")

Ever since August 30 2018, there has been a hole in my life that has not nor ever will be filled. It was on that date that actor Vanessa Marquez, best known for the movie Stand and Deliver (1988) and ER, was shot in the back and killed by officers of the South Pasadena, California Police Department. Upon learning of Vanessa's death, I felt as if part of my soul had been torn out. I did not sleep at all that night and I cried for around 13 hours straight. In the darkness of the early morning of August 31, I even considered suicide. Fortunately, I dismissed this because it occurred to me that I had to stay alive to protect her legacy and get her justice. I also thought that if I took my own life Vanessa would be very angry with me (I do believe in an afterlife). Things would improve over time, although it would be well over two years before I would stop crying on a regular basis, or stop experiencing suicidal ideation from time to time. My grief over Vanessa Marquez's death was so intense that I can honestly say that it broke me. For awhile I lost my mind. 

I am much better now, but there is still this enormous hole in my life where Vanessa should be. I still miss her so much. What is more, I know that I always will. Today it will have been seven years since she died, and I still break down crying over her from time to time. I still want to call her or text her on the phone. I still want to chat with her on social media. I miss hearing her voice. I miss seeing new photos of her. I miss her.

I guess from experience I should have expected nothing less. At the time of Vanessa's death, my father had been dead for 31 years, my mother for 18 years, and my best friend Brian for 7 years, and I still missed each of them. I should have known it would have been no different with Vanessa. In fact, I should have known it would have been worse. Vanessa and I had been in contact nearly every day for years. We had much in common, and we got along very well. The plain truth is that I love Vanessa more than anyone I have ever known, so it should be no surprise that I would miss her terribly.

Of course, I am not the only one who misses her by any stretch of the imagination. No one misses Vanessa more than her mother. And Vanessa had many close friends who loved her dearly, from her Stand and Deliver (1988) cast mates to her fellow members of TCMParty. Vanessa was nothing if not likeable. She was sweet, warm, and loving. She cared about people, particularly her friends. If one of her friends was sick, she worried about them. If one of her friends was distraught, she would offer words of reassurance. She was always the first person to take up for one of her friends if someone attacked them. Vanessa cared about her friends so much that she could remember things they had said or their favourite movie long after they had said it. She wouldn't even let her friends put themselves down. Anytime I made a joke about myself, she was quick to correct me. I once said, "I used to be cute," and she was quick to reply, "You're still cute, silly!"

Vanessa Marquez was a well-known, talented, and beautiful actress, but she would have been a remarkable woman even if she had never appeared in a movie, TV show, or stage play. When she died, many people mourned her, both friends and fans. For many, like myself, her death leaves a hole that can never be filled. I know that I will miss Vanessa Marquez until my death.

"In My Life" by The Beatles

Tomorrow is the angelversary of my dearest Vanessa Marquez. For that reason I have been preoccupied and cannot leave you with a full blog post today. Instead I will leave you with "In My Life" by The Beatles. I don't know that it was Vanessa's favourite Beatles song, but I know it was one that she loved very much. It is for that reason That I identify the song with her. I think it may have been the most beautiful love song any of The Beatles ever wrote.

The 30th Anniversary of Nowhere Man

(It was thirty years ago today that the TV show Nowhere Man debuted on the newly minted broadcast television network UPN. Along with Star Trek: Voyager and Legend, it was one of three UPN shows I watched faithfully, which was not particularly easy. At the time we did not have a dedicated UPN affiliate, and most of UPN's shows were aired on our local CBS affiliate at 12:30 AM after The Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder. The exception was Star Trek: Voyager, which our CBS affiliate showed on Saturday night at 10:30. Anyway, I had to stay up fairly late to watch Nowhere Man. Regardless, I managed to catch the whole run. I later re-watched the entire run more than once on DVD by way of Netflix (when they were still only a  DVD-by-mail movie rental service). Sadly, it doesn't appear to be available on streaming, so I will have to buy it on DVD if I want to see it again. Anyway, in 2006, not long before UPN and The WB merged to form The CW, I wrote a post on the show. I am reposting it here, edited for grammar.).

With UPN and the WB soon to be extinct (the two are merging to form the new network CW), I thought it might be a good idea to write about a series from the early days of UPN. Many of you might remember that when UPN first began, its focus was on hour-long action series with the goal of attracting a young male audience. In its first few months such series as Star Trek: Voyager, Legend, and Marker aired on the young network. Most of those series were forgettable, with two exceptions. One was Star Trek: Voyager. The other was a series called Nowhere Man. Although only running one season, it would go on to become a bit of a cult series. The complete series was released on DVD on December 26, 2005, giving me a chance to see it again nearly ten years after it originally aired.

For those of you who never saw Nowhere Man (which I am taking for granted is most of you), Nowhere Man starred Bruce Greenwood as Thomas Veil. Veil was a documentary photographer who abruptly finds his entire life "erased." His friends and family (even his wife) don't recognise him. The keys to his home and his studio will no longer open any doors in those places. His ATM and credit cards no longer work. In fact, any record of his existence is gone. Veil does not know precisely why this happened, but he suspects that it might have to do with a photograph he took in South America. It seems some secret organisation, a conspiracy with people in high places, wants the negatives of that photograph. And they will do anything to get it from him. As a result, Veil must flee for his life, travelling from place to place in an effort to uncover the truth about the conspiracy and why his life was erased. Effectively, it was a cross between The Fugitive and The Prisoner.  

Nowhere Man was created by Lawrence Hertzog, a TV writer with credits including Stingray and Hart to Hart. He would later work on the USA Network's La Femme Nikita. The series came about after UPN executive Michael Sullivan approached Hertzog about creating a series for the new network. With only a few months before the network debuted, Hertzog was under pressure to deliver a quality series to the network on time. Hertzog apparently worked well under pressure, as Nowhere Man was easily the best show on UPN besides Star Trek: Voyager. Indeed, the series was well received by critics, even getting a sterling review from no less than The New York Times.

In its short run (only 25 episodes were ever made) Nowhere Man produced some of the most remarkable episodes in Nineties series television. In "Something About Her" the Organisation (as the conspiracy was called in many episodes of the show) created virtual memories of a romance that never happened in Veil's mind in an attempt to get information out of him. In "The Spider Webb" Veil finds out that his life after it had been erased is serving as the basis for a cheap, public-access TV series. "You Really Got a Hold of Me" featured another man (played by Dean Stockwell) whose life had been erased and who had been on the run for 25 years. "Forever Young" featured a nursing home that was conducting experiments in the restoration of youth to the elderly. "Stay Tuned (one of two episodes that could be seen as homages to The Prisoner)" centred on a small town where nearly every single resident is entralled with a local politician and his TV show. "Through a Lens Darkly" saw Veil return to Missouri and an old house where he is tormented by memories of his childhood sweetheart.

While much of the quality of Nowhere Man was due to its writing, the series was also helped by the quality of its guest stars. Many of them were well-established actors. In the pilot,  Michael Tucker (of L.A.Law) played a psychiatrist. In "You Really Got a Hold on Me" Dean Stockwell played the man who had been on the run from the Organisation for 25 years. In "Father" Dean Jones played Veil's father. Dwight Schultz, of A-Team and Star Trek: The Next Generation fame, guest-starred in the episode "Hidden Agenda." The final episode, "Gemini Man," featured Hal Linden (of Barney Miller fame) as a United States senator. The series also featured actors who would later become stars. Carrie Moss (later to become famous for The Matrix trilogy) guest-starred in "Something About Her." Maria Bello was featured in the episode "An Enemy Within." Nowhere Man also benefited from some of the most talented directors in the business. Film director Tobe Hooper directed the pilot and the second episode, while veteran TV directors James Whitmore Jr., Stephen Stafford, and Ian Toynton all directed episodes.

None of this is to say that Nowhere Man was a perfect TV show. While it produced some truly great episodes and the majority of its run was good at best, it did produce some truly awful episodes as well. "A Rough Whimper of Insanity" attempted to capitalise on both the Internet and Virtual Reality (both fads at the time) and failed in doing either. "It's Not Such a Wonderful Life" featured a Christmas reunion with Veil's wife with the expected results. "Heart of Darkness" is a fairly pedestrian episode dealing with a paramilitary organisation. Fortunately, such episodes were generally few and far between.

As mentioned previously, Nowhere Man received fairly good reviews. It also did well in the ratings given that it was on a brand new and very small network (at least when compared to such major players as NBC and CBS). Sadly, good ratings would not be enough for the show to survive. During its first season on the air UPN saw changes which would result in a decision to focus on urban comedies instead of action series as it originally intended. There were many in the upper echelons at UPN who simply did not like Nowhere Man to begin with. With the series out of favour with many network heads and not exactly reflecting the new direction UPN chose to take (it was hardly an urban comedy), Nowhere Man was cancelled at the end of its first and only season. The bitter irony is that Nowhere Man and many of the other action series which aired on the network in its first year received higher ratings than the urban comedies it would later air. In fact, I have to wonder if much of the failure of UPN (the ultimate result of which was its merger with the WB) was due to its decision to change directions in its first season.

Fortunately, Nowhere Man would not be forgotten and has remained a cult series ever since it first aired. This would, of course, result in the relatively recent release of its entire run on DVD. The DVD set is remarkable for a TV show, especially one that ran only one season. The set features several extras. Many of the episodes have audio commentaries, and sometimes video commentaries as well. There are several featurettes on various aspects of the making of the series. There is even a short featurette on purported CIA mind control techniques on the last disc of the set entitled "Fact or Fiction (I personally found this a bit far-fetched, if interesting--conspiracy theorists may feel free to disagree with me)." Among the best parts of the extras are the scripts for every single episode of Nowhere Man, which one can download to his or her computer.

Although it had its share of bad episodes, Nowhere Man was a remarkable series for its time. In fact, in some ways it was a bit ahead of its time. First, since Nowhere Man first aired there have been several successful, cerebral action series. The USA Network had La Femme Nikita (which Lawrence Hertzog himself would work on). ABC has had Alias and Lost. F/X has The Shield. Nowhere Man would fit in perfectly with all these series. In fact, I rather suspect that had it aired just a few years later, it may have found a home on one of the various cable channels. Second, when Nowhere Man first aired, identity theft was relatively rare. In the ten years since the show originally aired, identity theft has increased dramatically, making the series even more pertinent than it once was. Its questions regarding the nature of identity and the tension between the individual and the group remain as relevant as ever. While it is regrettable that Nowhere Man only lasted one season, it remains one of the most fascinating series of the Nineties and probably will not soon be forgotten.

Godspeed TV Producer and Studio Executive Frank Price

Frank Price, who served as a producer on shows such as Matinee Theatre, The Tall Man, and The Virginian, and later served as the head of Columbia Pictures, died on August 25 2025 at the age of 95.

Frank Price was born on May 17 1930 in Decatur, Illinois. When Frank Price was growing up, his father moved frequently for work so that he lived in eight different cities before he even began attending college. Eventually his family moved to Glendale, California. While he was there, his mother worked as a waitress in the Warner Bros. commissary, so that young Frank Price spent a good deal of time on the back lot. He even got autographs from such stars as Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Olivia de Havilland, and Errol Flynn, which he kept his entire life.

He attended three years of high school in Flint, Michigan. There he was the editor of the Central High School newspaper and worked as a copy boy at The Flint Journal. He was also president of the Central High drama club. He served one year in the United States Navy and then attended Michigan State University. He transferred to Columbia University in New York. It was after he got a job as a reader in the CBS-TV Story department that he dropped out of college.

Frank Price serves as a story editor at CBS-TV in New York City from 1951 to 1953. Among the shows on which he worked were Studio One, Suspense, and The Web. Afterwards he moved to Los Angeles and became a story editor and analyst at Screen Gems from 1953 to 1957. He worked on such shows as Ford Theater, Father Knows Best, Playhouse 90, and Circus Boy. He served as a story editor and a producer for Matinee Theatre for NBC. In 1959 Frank Price moved to Revue Productions, would become Universal TV after MCA took over Universal in 1962. He served as a producer on the TV series Overland Trail and then The Tall Man. In addition to being a story editor and producer, Frank Price was also a writer. It was before he produced Matinee Theatre that he sold a story to the CBS television series, Casey, Crime Photographer. In the Fifties, he wrote three episodes of Matinee Theatre and then episodes of The Rough Riders and Shotgun Slade.

Frank Price continued to produce The Tall Man into the Sixties. In the Fifties, it was Frank Price who proposed to Screen Gems that they make a show based on the classic novel The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains. A half-hour pilot was made, but it failed to sell. When NBC lost Revue's hit Western Wagon Train to ABC, it was then The Virginian that wold take its place. Unlike the Screen Gems pilot, wich was only a half-hour, MCA's The Virginian would be television's first ninety minute Western. Frank Price was appointed executive producer of the new show. Frank Price remained with The Virginian until 1967. At Revue/Universal Television, in the Sixties, Frank Price also served as a producer on Convoy, It Takes a Thief, and Ironside, as well as the TV movies The Doomsday Flight, Sullivan's Empire, Split Second to an Epitaph, and Lost Flight. He wrote episodes of Frontier Circus, Tales of Wells Fargo, and The Tall Man.

Frank Price was named the head of Universal Television in 1973. It was while he was in charge at Universal Television that the studio produced such mini-series as Rich Man, Poor Man and Centennial. It was in June 1978 that he moved from Universal to Columbia. In March 1979 he became president of Columbia's motion picture division. He later became the studio's chairman and CEO.

It was on Frank Price's watch at Columbia that the studio made such films as Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), The Blue Lagoon (1980), Gandhi (1982), Tootsie (1982), Ghostbusters (1984), and The Karate Kid (1984). It was in 1983 that Frank Price returned to Universal, where he became the chairman of the MCA Motion Picture Group. While he was there the studio made such films as Back to the Future (1985) and Out of Africa (1985). Unfortunately, the massive critical and box office failure of Howard the Duck (1986) lead to Mr. Price left Universal. It was in 1990 that Sony acquired Columbia Pictures, and Frank Price was asked to return to the studio as its chairman.

In his second time at Columbia, Frank Price greenlit the movies Boyz n the Hood (1991) The Prince of Tides (1991), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), and Groundhog Day (1993). In 1991 Frank Price left Columbia and founded his own company, Price Entertainment. He served as a producer on such films as Gladiator (1992), The Walking Dead (1995), Circle of Friends (1995), Getting Away with Murder (1996), and Zeus and Roxanne. He also produced the critically acclaimed TV movie The Tuskegee Airman.

Frank Price later produced Texas Rangers (2001) and Mariette in Ecstasy (2019). Frank Price also served as the chairman of the board of councilors at the USC School of Cinematic Arts from 1992 until 2021.

Frank Price was a remarkable man. While he was not prolific as a television writer, he wrote some of the best episodes of Tales of Wells Fargo and The Tall Man. He produced shows of some quality, including The Tall Man, The Virginian, and Ironside. He certainly knew quality when he saw it. As a studio executive and producer he was responsible for movies from Gandhi to Ghostbusters to Back to the Future to The Tuskegee Airman. He gave both Universal and Columbia considerable success. Both television and movies would certainly be different without him.

Canción de la Raza: An Early American Telenovela

For much of the Fifties and Sixties, Mexican Americans were absent from American television screens outside of Westerns. This began to change in the latter half of the Sixties when locally produced Chicano public affairs programs began appearing on public television stations. Among these shows were ¡Ahora! on KCET in Los Angeles, Fiesta on KUAT in Tucson, and Periódico on KLRN in San Antonio. An exception was Canción de la Raza, which aired on KCET in Los Angeles. Canción de la Raza (Song of the People) was not a public affairs program, but instead a telenovela. It was KCET's first television show directed towards the Chicano community. 

Canción de la Raza can be traced back to Chuck Allen, programming manager at KCET in 1969. His master's thesis at the University of Denver was titled "Feedback from Advancement" and dealt with the idea of assembling a group of actors, directors, and producers for a Spanish-language soap opera. Chuck Allen's master's thesis then formed the basis for Canción de la Raza. Chuck Allen submitted the idea for Canción de la Raza to the Ford Foundation, which then gave KCET a grant of $600,000 to fund the show.

Canción de la Raza debuted on October 14 1968 It was a half-hour program that aired twice daily, once at 3:00 PM and again at 7:30 PM, five days a week. The show was set in East Los Angeles and followed the lives of the fictional Ramos family. At a time when many American shows tended to be escapist in nature, Canción de la Raza dealt with the issues of the day. The very first episode dealt with the Chicano student walkouts of 1968. Canción de la Raza also dealt with such issues as police brutality, education, and labour abuse. Unlike other dramas on American television at the time, viewers were able to provide feedback on Canción de la Raza. From 3:00 PM to 9:00 PM, viewers could call a "Linea Abierta (open line)" to let KCET know what they thought of the show. Each Monday night there would be a special panel that would discuss both viewer feedback and issues of concern to the Chicano community. KCET made an effort to let the Chicano community in Los Angeles know about Canción de la Raza and that they could leave feedback about the show. Viewer feedback would actually be used to help in writing the show.

The Ramos family and other roles on Canción de la Raza were portrayed by both professional and amateur actors. Unfortunately, there seems to be very little information on the cast. It is well known that Emilio Delgardo, now best known as Luis on Sesame Street, appeared on the show. Other members of the cast included Robert De Anda, Priscilla Garcia, Robert Yniguez, Mike De Anda, and Tina Menard. Among the directors on the show was Victor Millan, an actor who had appeared in The Ring (1952), Giant (1956), and Touch of Evil (1958), and would appear in the movie Boulevard Nights (1979). Another director was Lamar Caselli, who had directed episodes of such shows as Lamp Unto My Feet and Insight. Actor Abel Franco was Executive Producer and a writer on Canción de la Raza. He had guest-starred on such shows as I Love Lucy, Mister Ed, Death Valley Days, and The High Chaparral. He would go on to appear in the movie Zoot Suit (1981). Among those who worked behind the scenes on Canción de la Raza was Jesús Salvador Treviño who directed documentaries on the Chicano movement, including Chicano Moratorium Aftermath (1970), The Salazar Inquest (1970), Yo Soy Chicano (1972), among others, and later episodes of such shows as Babylon 5, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Bones, and others.

After 65 episodes, Canción de la Raza ended its run in January 1969. The show would air outside of the Los Angeles area. According to the January 28 1969, issue of Tucson Daily Citizen, reruns of Canción de la Raza began a 13-week run on KUAT on February 3 1969. It also aired on KQED in San Francisco, KRLN in San Antonio, WVIZ in Cleveland, and other public stations in 1969.

Canción de la Raza would have a lasting impact. It was viewer feedback on Canción de la Raza that would lead to the creation of ¡Ahora!, the Mexican American public affairs program on KCET. Many who worked on Canción de la Raza would go on to bigger careers, including Emilio Delgado Ricard Yniguez (who appeared in Boulevard Nights), and Jesús Salvador Treviño, among others. It seems quite possible that Canción de la Raza inspired others to go into film or television, or to become politically active. Although it is not well known today, Canción de la Raza certainly left a mark.

The 1994 ER Fall Promo

In my post on vintage television promos I made last Thursday, I forgot to include one promo that I remember well, a promo for a show that would be significant in my life, although at the time I didn't realise it. This is the 1994 fall trailer for ER. I am not absolutely certain, but I believe the announcer on this promo is none other than the legendary Don LaFontaine, who did a lot of the "next week on ER" spots. I must admit that this promo was probably a lot of the reason I checked the first episode of ER out. Fortunately, the hyperbole in this promo was not unwarranted. At least for its first few seasons, ER would be one of the best shows on the air. Of course, for me, it would later become even more significant because my dearest Vanessa Marquez played Nurse Wendy Goldman on the show.