It's the Jeep 85-year celebration event. 85 years of daring to ask, what if? Like, what if we didn't sacrifice capabilities for comfort? Or what if nothing?
On the road ahead, it can hold us back. For decades, we've chased every, what if, why not? Who, where, and how? And the answer?
Because we can. Right now, get 0% financing for up to 84 months on select models. Plus, eligible customers get $1,850 in Jeep Anniversary bonus cash on all Jeep models. See your Jeep dealer for details.
Hello, and welcome to Retrospection. It's midnight, and we're going on the Earth with the American Detective Driver, Midnight Collar, which ran for three seasons from 1988 to 1991. My name's Colin, and Elvis has left the building. He really has, you know.
No, he's still alive. You see? He's living your apartment building. Oh, he's always on your mind.
Well, you beat me too. It's Colin Swispers of Elvis on. No, it's a George Michael song. Oh, it's a voice confusing, those, Dave.
You're always confusing Elvis with George Michael? Yes, yes. It's easily done, yes. And my name's Paul, and if you saw me, you'd want to have sex with me too.
Never has anything been so untrue. Oh my gosh, you should be done for that. Really? I should be done for that.
That's what I was going for, yes. I don't want to hear. I've come over all crazy. Hold on, I need to take some fluids.
Not those guys. Oh, yes. How long have we been talking? Like two minutes, not even that.
You're already off. You're already off. I'm not off. I'm on.
Oh, is this what you like when you're on? Yes. Finally, 119 episodes or whatever it is. 20.
Finally on. I'm in 20. Yeah, he was on for one. One of them.
I've been generous. Thank you. TVDB says that Midnight Collar follows Jack Killian, a San Francisco cop who accidentally killed his partner. Think about that, Paul.
After leaving the police path, he ended up with a host of a late night radio talk show with a ponchan for getting involved in the problems of his listeners. Good job. We don't do that. There's only so much later housing in the world.
Oh, can you imagine me and Laido? I try not to on a regular basis. I'll send your picture. No, don't.
No, I'm wearing them now. You just got to see. You got to see below. I can hear them though.
What, rubbing together? Yeah. You're going to burst into flames at any second. Lot of talc.
Really? Yeah, yeah. You've got to put talc in there. Yeah.
Have you? Yeah. Looses it up. Looses it up.
Everything. Again, this has gone very strange. This episode stars Gary Cole as Jack Nighthawk, Killian. Half problems of his name.
It's so close to Gary Coleman. Do you know what? I used to have that problem as well and I realized it's not the same guy, is it? Sir, can you imagine if you say that at his radio show and they're like, and you're on the air and he's like, what are you talking about, sir, let's just go.
What are you talking about, Killian? Can you imagine Gary Coleman playing this role? The daffebuck cushions on his seat, so he could reach the microphone. Well, I'm not sure you're allowed with that, but okay.
One day? He's a small guy. He's a good question. I know he got in trouble, didn't he, for a while?
For what? Well, I don't really want to say it because I get it wrong, Colin, so you know. Something. Something.
He got in trouble for something. He's leading me. He doesn't ever body these days. I think so, yes.
So as Dennis Donne, as Billy Poe, Wendy Kilbarn, as Devon King, Jenny Wright, as Angel, and Arthur, Taxia, as Lieutenant, I was going to say, Lieutenant's Carl Zaimak, and that's this episode. Yeah, as you know, Angel's obviously not in the whole series because that would be strange. That would be strange, yes. Dennis Donne doesn't get a whole lot to do in this episode, are you living?
No, he doesn't know. Does he get more to do later on? I'm sure it's one of those cases, isn't it? Because he is kind of a side character.
He probably gets an episode or two in each season, doesn't he? Yeah, yeah. So some info about it. I didn't know that it was a critic.
Well, what episode was really seriously criticized as being sensationalistic and ignorant of bisexuality and pseudoscience? Oh! It was the episode about AIDS. I read about that, and I heard that it didn't someone in the episode actually win an Emmy, though.
I've got nominated for an Emmy. Oh, did they for that, Episiah? So it got criticized and also someone got nominated for an Emmy at the same time? Well, I guess your acting could be good, even if the storyline isn't great.
That's a part of the show. I mean, it got those protests by GLAD, bynetUSA, byalog, act up, pickets disrupted the show's filming because of the episode. I mean, if that was today, I mean, this was in the day's pre-internet, so if that was happening today, I mean, it would be shot down completely, wouldn't it? Yeah.
In the UK, it was broadcast by BBC One, which is not what I remember. Oh, obviously it was. I remember it being on BBC One, Saturday night, yes. Yeah, 9.30pm, around 9.30.
It got shifted a little bit here and there. For some reason, my mind, it's one of those American shows that sneaked out ITV in the middle of the night. I don't know whether that was a case maybe in the 90s, maybe they got it, and maybe they did do that possibly. Yeah, they did in the late 90s, but that's how I remember it.
Don't call it that. Don't you remember those Monday mornings at school when I would talk out about each episode? Yeah, I remember it. Well, no, I don't because I dozed off.
Did you? Yeah. It's a tactic still you. It's just a colour colour colour.
I watched Midnight Cotton. She's talking about Midnight Cotton again. No, come on, you're blowing your world too soon here. You might.
I might be just leading you up the garden, perhaps? I'm going to be the first time. Some of the music in the show is by Shadde. Yeah.
That's all else, I agree. All right. So do you want to get into the episode? Do you have more little nuggets of information that you want to lob in my general direction?
Oh, I'll lob. There's not a lot out there, really. Wendy Kilborn's character, Devon King. This was something that amused me.
I didn't realise because it's been such a long time since I've watched this show. But she owed her fortune to her farthest chain of laundromats, apparently. Yes. She's also grey at ironing out all the plot details, right?
Oh, was that what are you doing? I thought I was about the radio studio. The radio studio that she worked in must have been like a powder keg. I mean, you never knew when things could spin out of control, could you?
Oh, records, right? That's been a good one for the record. It's been in. It's been dryer.
Oh, yeah. Was that your two jokes? You know what? Really pleases with me.
You got them out of the way, right? The beginning of the podcast. So I wasn't like waiting for the whole... I've got some more.
...dread each... I've got some more. The creator of the show, Richard. Is it Dilello?
Is it? Go with that? He apparently took the show's title from a song by Badfinger, which of course was your handling school, right? Calling Badfinger Woodward.
And then people would say, you bad finger now, I'd say all ten B then. And then they say, but two of them are forms. And I got shot at it. Gary Cole was one of those actors, wasn't he, that used to pop up all the time in 80s and 90s TV shows, Miami Vice, Moon Nighting, which I watched the other night actually.
Brady Bunch the movie. Yes, he was the dad one. I'm sure he was the dad one. And apparently he's still around today.
He does a lot of voice work in cartoon shows. He's done Family Guy, Lower Decks. There's a voice in Lower Decks, which neither of us have ever seen. His favorite?
Yeah. And Velma, so he's making some good choices. Hey, pays the bills. I guess so, yeah.
Wendy Kilvorn, we're going to talk about her, I would imagine. If you want to. She quit acting and became a lawyer, right? She did.
She started in lots of things like North and Sike, whether she wrote 18 Riptide, cover up, Night Rider, Matt Houston. All shows that some of them we covered and I would imagine the rest of them, we will cover at some point. All right, so this episode is called Conversations Within Assassin. Is she in Assassin?
I don't think she is. She's a serial killer. She doesn't pay to kill anybody. When I saw the title of the episode, I thought, oh, this is going to be some sort of like weird Cold War story, you know, maybe a Russian assassin who we have to talk to for some strange reason on his radio show or something.
But no, it was nothing to do with that at all. No, it's not really. Well, I suppose there's a conversation she does, Carlin. Maybe he's the assassin.
They just never got to that part before the show was cancelled. Well, he does kill two people in this episode. Or does he? That's right.
Well, yeah, he accidentally kills his bat. And then her gun's not even got bulletin. Yeah. So he's pretty much a murderer at the moment.
He's just going around killing people. Yeah. He's successful, though. He is this...
Maybe he was paid to kill his partner. And he was paid to kill her. If other than they got to that difficult fourth season, that would have explained it all. Yeah.
Yeah. That's where they would have gone. What do you think about the music in this? It's very late 80s.
Yeah, it's my, um, Brad Fudel who did the music for Terminator. Oh, right. Reminds me of, do you remember the Stacy Keatsch my camera? Yeah, it's got that sense of like 3am in a bar someplace, doesn't it?
Where you're, you know, you're smoky and everything. You're just propping it up. Saltery. That's the one.
Sensual. Seductive sacks. What? Snacks.
Snacksch. Yeah. Biscuits. What you're all up and saying?
Just pads left. Biscuits. I would have made it better. It's got a thing for stockings, this opening credit sequence.
Yeah, there's lots of close-ups, isn't there? Um, of legs. But before that, we get an opening of Jack looking down. I presume it's a grave, but we don't, I was waiting for a payoff for this, but we don't really.
No, it's, it's, look, I assume it was a grave. And we have the voice of who turns out to be angeled, uh, assassin. I'm called a serial killer, really. And she's doing her voice over.
First I thought, at some moment, she's going to go, give me the over here. Jack! Because he's looking down. I mean, the camera's pointed over it.
Oh, we got a wide shot. He's just talking to an unpleumpa. That wouldn't have been good. It doesn't really have much to do with the plot, all this.
And it goes on for quite a while. There's like shots of street walkers and... I think the influence of Miami Vice is very evident, isn't it? Yes.
And all through the episode, to be honest with you. It is, but it's a very slower pace. Miami Vice. Yeah.
I would imagine that if you took out all the montages to music in this episode, the episode would be about 25 minutes. Well, I want to talk to you about that as the end, because it's a bit just through milk. So we'll get when we get to it. I'll mention it.
So like, he and his partner are on a stakeout. We don't really know who they're waiting for. Because Jack's just telling a story about the time he met, or didn't meet Elvis. Yeah.
And at the same time, we're cutting to a sex worker. And she, apparently she tried just 75 straight down. Straight down, what? That's a good point, Bill.
Now, you'd have to, if you imagine if you're in the car with her, she said that and you're like, I'm sorry, I just don't understand the lingo. Could you explain what that is? She's like, you were a cop. You must be a cop.
You're getting me to say it. He's like, no, no, I just don't understand what you mean. Straight down, straight up. Well, on the rocks.
Moment's kind of gone by then, isn't it, really? It's interesting because why the sex worker is talking? In the background, there's a sex worker really playing. There is.
Yes. So they're not very subtle about when they try and sneak up on the guy that they're, that they're supposed to be staking out, are they? No. It's the fun thing.
I've always wanted to ask a real police officer. Do you generally yell police when you know we're near the person? Or do you wait, do you actually get up to them and go, please, officer? I would imagine that you do that.
Yeah. Makes a mess, sir. Right? And we get a great chase down a very dramatically lit alleyway.
It is. I actually thought it looked quite atmospheric and well shot. I've no problems with that, but do alleyways really look like that? No, but it's stylized in the same way that a lot of my advice was stylized as well, wasn't it?
No, my advice was real. Oh, come on. Florida looked like that in the 80s on the arms. Sweet.
All right. So they're chasing this suspect down the alleyway and there's a gunfight. And I guess for some reason, his partner decides to go round and then come straight at Jack. Meanwhile, the person that chasing has gone round and is behind, Jack.
So when Jack opens fire, he shoots his partner. Now, this is the worst part of ever and I moan about you, but at least you've never shot me yet. I thought it was a nice twist that it's the main character that killed his own partner. Because normally, you know, this is a trope that you see in lots, isn't it?
That the main character, a cop who loses a partner and we've seen it. We saw it in split second, probably. We did, yeah. But in this instance, it's not the fact that he did something that got him killed.
He actually killed him. Yes. Which I thought was something different. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. It's OK. I don't have a problem with that.
I mean, the bit I have a problem with is that he doesn't seem to get any combat from it. Well, it moves so. See, you talked about this earlier that I'm getting an impression that you think this is quite slow. Whereas I thought that this episode moved quite fast and it truncates the whole period where he's in a minute that we're going to talk about where he's, he's, he's, I have his job and he doesn't want to go back and he's struggling to deal with what's happened.
He gets truncated into about a three minute montage, doesn't it? Yeah. But there's two different things. The narrative is fast, but the scenes are slow.
OK. I didn't have a problem with it. Maybe I'm guessing that you did then put it on. Oh, no.
I'm just saying. I don't don't really have a problem with it. I'm just pointing it out. But, but it does because he's been for two and a half months and then he gets a phone call because the phone calls like Isly tenant.
Zimax, is that? And he says, oh, he's been two and a half months. I can't, you know, you've been on all day for two and a half months. I can't hold him back anymore.
It's like, is that all you get after two and a month? How old are they? Is it part? I just kept thinking, so he decides not to go to work anymore and just drink all the time.
Lucky. Yes. So was there no investigation? Yeah.
I guess not. Well, well, there is a line about internal affairs going to speak to him tomorrow when he has time and he's gone over. Yeah. Yes.
Yes. But we don't see any of that. We just see him drinking. And so he's drinking an aberrant.
It's like 11 o'clock in the morning, you know, because he says sitting in a bar at 11 o'clock in the morning is not funny. Is it part? For decades, we've chased every what if, why not, who, where, and how? And the answer, because we can.
Right now gets 0% financing for up to 84 months on select models. Plus eligible customers get $1850 in Jeep Anniversary bonus cash on all Jeep models. See your Jeep dealer for details. I refuse to comment on the grounds that you might incriminate me.
Okay. This girlfriend Tina turns up, but Jack doesn't want any help. We should also mention that because we skipped over it, that the sex worker kills someone? Oh, we missed the actual plot point.
Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Because she's not acting weird.
She's like, are you married? And he's like, what do you care about? And he's like, do you love her? And he's like, what?
And then she's just trying. That's right. Yeah. But as you say, he loses his girlfriend Tina.
We're 13 minutes in, 13 minutes into this episode at this point. And I'm still listening to that bloody Shardag track that they keep playing. Yeah, you paid for it. Tell me about it.
We get getting these monologues from the sex worker serial killer as well. Over the top of everything. Yes, we do. Yeah.
We're telling her feelings and sort of I suppose why she's doing it, although you don't really get a clear picture of it. But she's talking about Jack as well in these monologues. So this pilot is another thing that's weird about it is because everything's kind of from her perspective, isn't it? Yeah.
I mean, later on, like you've talked about, normally where you get a montage, what you get instead is her describing all the events that have happened to Jack. And I like that. I thought that was good. It was different.
Yeah. It's the American beauty thing, isn't it? She's already dead, but she's in the right in the episode. Oh, Paul's seen a film everybody.
Paul's seen a film and he didn't have spandex in it. So Jack's girlfriend turns up. He doesn't want anything to do with her. I'm sorry, says Jack.
Not as sorry as I am, says Tina. Oh, she didn't shoot anybody. How could she? She's more sorry than him.
No, he's very sorry. Devin King turns up in his house. And after this, my job had been a radio host. Apparently she's been around to other cops, like asking who would be the best for this kind of thing.
And they say him all the time because they call him the mouth. You used to be called out for a very different reason, right? Yeah. I know why you said that really quickly because you knew I had that written down as well, don't you?
As you said, once got to get it in there quickly. That's right. That's very true. Yes.
You know, you love, this is your fantasy, isn't it? Devin King turned up and got your daughter off and your job. Yes. You love it, wouldn't you?
Yeah. Yeah. You love it. I don't know, especially if you should call me the mouth.
Are we allowed to say that? No, probably not, though. But who cares? At this point, does it matter?
Maybe not. So, talk about where the kill bar? He said you wanted to. I thought you probably would want to.
I did have a crush on her when I was a younger man. I know you did, yes. When I was talking about how great Gary Cole was in the show and how great the plots were. You were nodding away and then went to Killborne.
That was all that came out of your mouth. That's all that mattered. Yeah. Is it the shorter?
No, I've not got to think for weeks. That has to be somebody underneath it. No, I'm just thinking. I've never put this together before.
Oh, here we go. There's a reason for this. I don't know what you're going to say, but there is a reason for this. Okay.
So what do you want to say? Don't get defensive. No. Tasha, yeah.
That was another one. Yeah. The second Dax in DS9. Right.
Yeah. Yeah. Wendy Killborne. I'm sure there's others.
Caroleal well. Caroleal well. I don't forget about Caroleal well. So yeah.
So. Jadinta. Oh, here we go. I don't need to reel him off.
Here we go. Yeah. I know. So what's the reason?
I'm just curious. You want to share with our listeners? No. The reason it's not the like when we're shot.
That was the look back then. So the women I liked happened to have shot her at that period of time. Very, very impish. I think it's called a pixie cocktail.
Yeah. Yeah. Very, um, very boyish. Let's see.
Let's see what you're doing. All right. What? That's true.
That's going too far. That's too short. Although, stay out of the motion picture. I'm putting you on.
You mean that I'm not decker? Oh, no. Defyre's killing. Oh, yes.
I mean, he wouldn't. Medallion. Yeah. Right.
That's. That's a period. Hides of millions since. Tell me about it.
So you can already sense that Devon is, she's going to be a well written character, isn't she? You know, you can already sense that she's strong, she's independent. Surely those things didn't exist until at least five years ago, calling, did they? No, you didn't have independent, strong female characters before now.
They didn't exist at all. Nope. I've got to say, no joke on the side. You couldn't already better it than half of things that you see now.
Yeah. Yeah. So she wants him to join the radio station and do like a, uh, uh, phoning, you know, an American version of James Whale. Oh, that's a teak cut.
It is, isn't it? Red Rose Rock FM. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. How about the only two people that know what that is? That's true, right?
We're probably only two people. Well, I guess all the people are listening. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. I thought you meant no. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
No, I don't. I don't. So he does go to see you the next day. I thought we were going to get a bit of, I'm not going to do it and she'd have to chase him, but no, he's going to do it.
Probably needs to money by now. I guess so, yeah. I guess so. Yeah.
His whole persona, it seems to have changed from him being this sort of slightly alcoholic, depressed, miserable guy that shot his ex-partner. No, he's like cracking jokes every two seconds, and he's like, curfew. So I took two and a half months of him drinking, and then she turns up with a job offer, and he's like, whoa, hey, we're wrestling real life. He'd still be an alcoholic, and we'll just turn up drum.
I think so. If he could be even bothered to put his pants on. Probably only be getting to get in sick months. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So there's a bit of a switch there, but we'll go with it, right? So they show him how the radio station works, because you've just deployed somebody who's never worked in a radio station before to do a late night show.
So you got to tell him which button's depressed, right? Don't want any idiot doing a podcast or radio show, do you? Hey? As long as he hits that red button that says record, you're fine.
Yeah. Not the other weapon that says explode. Well, I'm not here yet. So we see a wedding, and the angel I killer is watching the wedding, and we get some slow motion.
Got out slow motion. It's the late 80s. Of course, yes. A little slow motion in this slow-moving show.
You see, I don't think it's slow moving. I think this is quite fast-paced. Yeah, he would it your age. Oh, come on.
His zips around quite quickly. Yeah, yeah, like I said, the narrative does. So Devin's written a script for Killian to use on the radio show, but he just throws it away like I do with one of your scripts. It's true.
Yes, you do. Call in at a written the script for the podcast. I'm not reading the shit. I would never try and put words in your microphone.
This, well, I'm not reading this shit. That's what it's saying. He calls himself the Night Hark. Are you allowed to give yourself a cool name?
Oh, well, yeah, I guess I was just going to do it. I mean, you did. You used to call yourself the day spiral. That's because I'm a large pack of them.
Really? That's because you like sitting on eggs? That's true. Yes.
You drop the seeds in very early, didn't you? Yeah. Swing in it really. Looks so watch.
What? Even in still young. The angel kills another man. Yeah, she does.
She does. She does. She does. She does.
And then we got cut back to killing and people are calling him up. And someone calls him up and says, be rude about the shooting. Yeah. This is all sort of like the head of a little bit of a montage of him taking humorous calls from people as well, isn't it?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you knew somebody was going to phone up about it at some point.
Oh, someone having a puppet in my boat killing his partner. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, he's usually having a puppet everybody else with his gun. That's true. But this is like the Twitter of the late 80s. No, can you imagine?
Oh, Twitter would be perfect for this character, wouldn't it? Oh, are we thinking a new version? I re-imagining up mid-act Carla where he's like a Twitter host and he does Twitter and people like caught with their problems and he solves their problems for Twitter. Well, it wouldn't be Twitter now.
Would it be threads? That's the new thing, isn't it? Yeah. Which we're on apparently.
Yeah. Yeah. Apparently. You did it.
I didn't do it. Oh, yeah. That's right. Sorry.
It was all a blur. Yeah. Open-drinking. Midnight collar would be something that could be done now.
Slightly different, but obviously. Because I don't think late night torture hosts, are they still a thing now on radio? I don't listen to them, but they must be, right? Yeah, I suppose.
Yeah. Yeah, be it like a Twitter thing. That'd be a lesson, Jyno. Just watching text, I don't scream.
Yeah, it's not quite as cut in, is it? No, not really. No. We get a bit more monologue in from the killer, don't we?
Actually, talking about how Jack's radio career is progressing as well. Telling us as an audience. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Is she writing in a book? I'm guessing that's what it is. Or it's just, as I said, like an American beauty type thing where it's just a dead character talking to the audience.
Yeah. And then, like you said, she's getting obsessed with him. And then she finally calls him. She does.
On the radio. She does. And she gives him dates. And it turns out that her first killer was the night that he shot his partner, right?
Yeah. Yeah, we saw that. Yeah. Yeah.
The structure of this with the montages and the narration by the killer. I don't think I've ever seen this in a TV pilot before. No, I like her. So, Shaine didn't keep this.
Yeah. Well, every single person does an erasure. Well, what I mean is you could do where the show is, so you've got your story, someone calls him, and every episode is through that person's eyes. Ah, OK.
All right. It'd be different. Yeah. I'm not sure you could sustain it for three seasons.
Yeah. Well, I'm not sure they could sustain this either. All right. Well, doesn't it fall apart after the second season?
I don't think, I've memories of when to kill them or not being in it. So I must have seen them. But I couldn't tell you anything about it. And this is coming from someone that liked the show.
Yeah. Yeah. I think you probably were. In fact, oh, oh, Paul, not talking about Midnight Call at this Monday.
Oh, yeah. Hey, hey. I'll find something else to annoy you with Colin. You know, very quiet about Midnight Call at this Monday.
Let's talk about it. Is it like that last season of Beauty and the Beast? You had to go there, didn't you? Is that a number one?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, Killian finds out from Lieutenant Zimak that there's a female serial killer on the loose. He does it. It's a nice little location scene, isn't it?
Where they're walking through the streets, talking. I thought I was well shot. Yeah. They use their San Francisco quite well.
And then we go back to the radio station. He's getting more calls and he gets a call from a woman who is being beaten up by her husband. You see, at first I wondered whether this was the killer because the voice sounded very similar, didn't it? Yeah.
But it also shows that he gets a lot of different types of calls. Yes. And then he's no nonsense when he comes to dealing with them. Yeah.
He says what he does. He just tells it to leave. Leave a night. That's true.
Yes. So then when he goes home though, Angel calls his home number. He said the radio station. If you're doing a late night talk show about criminals and crimes, you probably should go x-directory, really, shouldn't you?
He's early days from that, isn't it? I'm guessing maybe he's just not thought that through. Maybe he did it after this. Unless she was just calling every Jack Kelly.
Jack Kelly in the phone book. I mean, I don't know how many there is. He's like, hello. Are you the mouth or does it radio?
No. Whoa. Are we out? Whoa.
You are? Sorry. Rum number. I didn't like the way you did that.
I think she was down. Hello. Yeah. Stop it.
I like your radio show. What radio show? Don't do one. I'm not sure.
I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Sorry.
Rum number. I think you'll find it's an internet podcast, actually. The killer's apartment looks like something from a meatloaf video, doesn't it? There's all candles everywhere and flowing lace.
It's a serial killer's apartment. That's what they do. Oh, is that right? What's that in the background?
That's candles? Oh, no, no, nothing. That's just not not. What's in your fridge?
Is that a new game show? What do you do? What's in your fridge? Whoa.