Classified Document -- Classified Document
Classified Document -- Classified Document
The Great Eastern Brew Up (and the woman who never was?)
East Coast Rats meet for tea and espionage, and no one gets hurt.
Gary Raymond's filmography page has been updated with his current performance, the lead in
a short-run production of Finian's Rainbow at the Fortune Theatre, Covent Garden.
The RAT PATROL theme song ... lyrics?
The fearless leader of the Yahoo Club has expressed a desire to reopen this contest
to win interesting (if not actually particularly valuable) prizes. Check this spot for
more information. Oh, let's be honest: there is no further information. We dare you
to create lyrics to go along with that rousing theme, opening or closing version. We
double dare you. The West Coast Rats keep threatening they'll write something.
"Turn-of-the-century London is a city at war with itself: A war between the classes
and the sexes, where women are beginning to fight for their rights..."
The most recent news we have on Love Lies Bleeding, a film about Jack the Ripper starring a member of the third generation of Raymonds in acting, Emily, (and also featuring Faye Dunaway, Malcolm McDowell, and Wayne Rogers) is already a bit old. The film, which completed production in Budapest last autumn, has been sold by Village Roadshow Pictures for distribution in Germany, Spain, Scandinavia, Portugal, Israel, Australia, and New Zealand. Whether or not we'll ever see it in the States and Canada is still a mystery. Hopefully, a film with such an interesting cast will at least appear in art houses or on video. A web-search turns up a few additional informational links in Spain and New Zealand.
Spanish-language links: A (lukewarm) Review | Production Summary
The Washington Post has been doing moments in history: 6 June - 55th Anniversary of D-Day:
the AP article on D-Day.
13 May:
the surrender
of the German army in North Africa.
Suddenly, Last Summer, with Katharine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, and Gary Raymond, will be airing on the Turner Classic Movies channel this Saturday, 27 March, at 6 pm Eastern.
Jan's episode reviews and ratings are being added to the Episode Guide and Shameless Ratings System. If you want to know how many lines Tully had or how gullible Dietrich was that week, this is the place to find out. We've also recently listened to soundtracks from three of Gary Raymond's musical theatre appearances.
Shameless Promotion Segment: Robin's grandfather has written a book. He's 82 years old and has worked incredibly hard for several years putting together a wonderful memoir of his World War II experience. It's truly a delightful story, much less about combat than it is about the personal and about the people he met -- Princess Elizabeth, Marlene Dietrich, and General Patton, among others. (I think of it as somewhere between Catch 22 and Saving Private Ryan.) We're very proud of him and want his book to do well, so we're putting the word out about it. This book would make a great gift! It's called Cranking Up a Fine War and it can be found on Barnes and Noble online, or you can read more about it here.
Keep that V-Mail coming... It has been great to hear from so many fans of this and other 60s WWII series. If you have any questions, filmography updates, or anything else to contribute, send us e-mail or post it on the message board. We've been busily adding to the GR filmography and are working on some more film reviews. We hope soon to have more details on the other filmographies, too. Also: a few updated links in Mobilization.
Character Bios: all the information the show gives us -- plus the lowdown on our lads', uhm, nicks and scratches. Rate the episodes! We've added a little survey to the Episode Guide. (Season 1 only, so far.) You can view the whole tally here.
A Rat Patrol Club has been started on Yahoo! We hope it will be a good place for interested fans to hang out and that it will attract new fans who aren't aware of the mailing list or this web site. If it attracts enough members, regular chats and events will be scheduled. You may have to join Yahoo! but we hear that's easy to do...just go to Yahoo! and join up.
Less new: Essays inspired by the current rebroadcast on Canada's History Television: Rat Patrol: From the Beginning (a belated appreciation), and a sociologist and fellow fan shares his musings on The Rat Patrol.
1. Rat Patrol to air in Canada
Thanks to listmember Anna: On History Television (Canada's answer
to The History Channel) The Rat Patrol is about to start airing again
after a too-long absence. It's on at noon, 6:30 p.m. and at 3:00 a.m. Here's what the
History Television web site says about it:
Rat PatrolVisit the History Television web site here or here.Program Description:
A dramatic action-adventure series, Rat Patrol follows the mission of a daring battle unit in the North African theatre of war. Three reckless Americans and a reserved Englishman make up this elite crew of rugged and rowdy fighting men with the task of attacking and demoralizing Hitler's elite Afrika Korps.
2. What we'll all be doing Monday night
Guess what? According to the Young and the Restless message board on Delphi,
Eric Braeden is a
guest on Politically Incorrect on ABC, Monday, September 14.
3. Key to the City
"When he didn't show up at the Emmys, Eric Braeden's absence was noted in
the press. When
he didn't show up at the annual Young and the Restless fan club event, tongues
started wagging
again. That's why
it's important to note that Eric didn't diss fans, he was out of the
country. In fact, he was in
Braedenburg, Germany receiving the key to the city. Eric started his acting
career as Hans
Gudegast, his given name. He changed his stage name to Braeden to honor the
community
where his family was from in Germany. Now, they've made Eric an honorary
citizen and
returned the favor." (source: Delphi Young and the Restless message board)
Prof. Michael Marino has an essay on the "errors" of Saving Private Ryan on the Film & History Web site. Other commentators bring The Rat Patrol into the discussion--sort of.
"
Before ['Saving Private Ryan'], we'd shy away from anything World War II. War dramas are
expensive, and it's been so long since one worked. I mean, how many years has it been since
The Rat Patrol?"
-- unidentified TV-studio president, Sept. 26-Oct. 2 1998 TV Guide
"
Compare these figures with those of Seinfeld. So far this year it has a rating of 20.2. This means a smaller proportion of the country watches Seinfeld than watched Who's the Boss in 1988.... Go back further in time, and you'll find that shows like The Rat Patrol and Tony Orlando and Dawn had ratings of about 20. Thus the breadth of Seinfeld's audience is not at all exceptional. By this measure, it would be as logical to treat the end of Night Court as a cultural cataclysm."
-- James Collins, Goodbye Already: As the Seinfeld hoopla hits an annoying crescendo, historical perspective is in order,
Time Online
"I was 7 years old in 1964. The media at that time was everything. I knew what time it was by what was on TV.... So, we were the first generation that watched television from the moment we got home from school to the moment we went to bed. 'It's Sunday night, so I'm going to watch Ed Sullivan,' or 'Hey, The Rat Patrol is on, so I'm not going anywhere.'" -- Tom Hanks, Sun Newspapers interview
People Online Investigates: Lynda Day George
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