I think I started a thread on this years ago at the TrekBBS. The consensus back then seemed to be that "nobody could be Giles French except for Sebastian Cabot " But I would like to point out that: 1) In the last decade or two a whole host of classic television series have been remade. Several quite successfully. 2) Arguably there was no more iconic a lead character than William Sean Roger "Uncle Bill" Davis in Family Affair. Yet in the attempted reboot on WB in 2002, Uncle Bill was quite successfully recast with Gart Cole. One of the few things I liked about the show by the way. So recasting an iconic character in a famous series can be done and has been done well in the past. 3) I've spent a lot of time recently at the Internet Movie Database reading reviews and opinions about various television series. In particular I've paid attention to the reviews of episodes of Family Affair. What I'm surprised by is just how many reviewers think the show would've been better without Sebastian Cabot. 4) In the original Family Affair, roughly half of the main characters left the show years before it ended and their slots in the show replaced by new actors playing different characters. So obviously the original Family Affair was not dependent entirely on Sebastian Cabot's Mr. French (though he was the only character to appear in every episode. A few only tangentially). So why not a redo of Family Affair?
I can just about guarantee there has been a porn parody of Family Affair by now. If not.....there is no god! Seriously though I used to watch Family Affair when I was a kid - not a great show, not a horrible show.
they ruled Brian Keiths death a suicide but I've read that some people did think it was an accident as he was very fond of taking out his guns and showing them off. By the way, I always felt Brian Keith was an underrated actor. The DS9 episode where Kira was trying to evacuate him and ends up helping him finish building his outside stove...then burns his house down was surprisingly moving.
Funny, though I seldom think of DS9 as one of the better Trek incarnations (okay, it was better than ENT and VOY), it does have some great episodes. One of my all-time favorite Trek episodes--probably because it was adapted from a great stage play--is "Duet" from DS9 Season One. Harris Yulin--the guest star--totally owns that episode in a superb performance that's more complex than it initially appears.
well maybe the note said "nothing to see here! I'm just cleaning my guns in a safe manner as per usual."
I think his characters comments about his two mute assistants and what caused their condition said more about the horrors of the Cardassian occupation than a number of episodes devoted to that event.
Well, then it's hard to say it was an accident. Unless he...killed himself accidentally while loading the gun to shoot himself. I read the Wiki article on his death, and Maureen O'Hara was quoted as saying he was in good spirits when she visited him shortly before his death and that, because he was a Catholic, he would never have killed himself. I'm sure she meant well, but all of those "He would never..." and "He wasn't the kind of guy who..." statements are worthless. No one ever truly knows what another person is like inside their own mind; they only know what that person lets them see. Estimations of a person's mental or psychological capability to kill themselves are only guesses. People will continually surprise you with what they can and will do. Keith's death was ruled a suicide. It was. He left a note, and there was nothing about the scene that suggested an accident.
"Just a note in case something happens to me while I'm cleaning my gun. You can never be too careful..."
Yes. Step one in cleaning a gun is: make sure it is unloaded. Step two is: even though you've verified that it's unloaded, don't point it at yourself and pull the trigger.
