16 August 2015

Rocky King: One Minute for Murder


The show must go on: In this episode, Rocky King does not appear in Rocky King.

Roscoe Karns found himself ill and could not go on the air. A popular misconception claims his real-life son, Todd Karns, took over the lead rôle for that episode. Todd, however, had not yet joined the cast. Instead Earl Hammond, who portrayed Sergeant Lane, led the investigation that day.

The series was noted for sly touches of humor and in this case, the inspector made an appearance of sorts… banging on the wall. The dialogue also references live performances going on, no matter what.

Careful listeners could catch little quips to the audience. One of the cleverest subtext jokes came in the episode, ‘Return for Death’ in the domestic badinage between Rocky and his beloved wife, Mabel. As they discuss growing older and the wisdom of picking out a burial plot, Detective Hart phones in to say that a case has erupted in the local cemetery. Hart fumbles a joke about the graveyard shift, and then we’re treated to this double entendre:
Mabel: “Do you think you should go there, dear, after our conversation?”
Rocky: ”Yes, dear. We should plan on having a little plot somewhere.”
During the homicide investigation of a famous mystery writer in ‘Murder in Advance’, Hart asks Rocky King to name his favorite television mystery. King says, “It’s kind of personal.”

Of course it is!

One Minute for Murder
broadcast: 1952-Sep-28


in which a scandal sheet gossip columnist is found murdered in the theatre. Shockingly some people regard that as a crime…

11 comments:

  1. Many apologies, Leigh, but this comment is actually for Velma. So please put down that .38 for a moment, Velma. It makes me a little nervous to tell you that I'm having a problem the search feature on the site. :-) I've tried several times in the past 10 days or so and no dice. I know it worked before, so I'm pretty sure it's not my system. But I suppose you all might have done an update that changed that. (Love the new rose favicon, btw!). I do some webmastering myself and know that unless someone tells you about a problem like this, there's no way you can know about it. So thought I would speak up. Thanks for all you do to maintain things here!

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  2. Thank you for letting us know, Anon. No need to apologize or feel nervous for helping us out! I appreciate it.

    I tried it with 3 different browsers (Safari, Firefox, and Chrome) and the search box wouldn't work with any of them. Velma claims the smoke from her Lorillard Satins obscured the search box when she was supposed to test it, not her fault, she insists.

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  3. Anon, I promised Joey, our office boy, matinée picture show passes for Our Gang if he'd fix the search box. He managed to get Safari and Chrome working with the search but Firefox isn't properly loading it. Maybe Joey's holding out for Keystone Cops tickets. That boy loves slapstick.

    Thanks, Anon, for bring that to our attention.

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  4. Maybe it's something to do with the version. It loads fine with windows 7. I never noticed if it was or not working before.

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  5. I can't get to the sandbox or to any place to with my tablet and my computer has gone bonkers. I can read everyone's article and the comments but that's all. Any my screen is now in back with white letters. What happened to the lovely light gold color? I have Chrome on this tablet. So it's not working for me.

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  6. All seems to be working, here--the search function looks good. I'm using Safari with an iMac.

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  7. Also works (for me) using Firefox.

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  8. A Broad Abroad16 August, 2015 19:47

    “…a scandal sheet gossip columnist is found murdered in the theatre. Shockingly, some people regard that as a crime…”
    [laughing]

    Love the photo falling off the wall, [10.18] and the actors draw even more attention by looking at it.

    Phew ~ that music.

    [SS search facility is working fine and the site’s visual appearance is the same as usual (Windows 7 / Google Chrome. Wonder if new Windows 10 has anything to do with the hitches and hiccoughs?]

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  9. I finally was able to get to the blog and sandbox with my tablet so I did get my article scheduled for tomorrow. I'm going to have to take my laptop to Office Max tomorrow. I downloaded Windows 10 and it's gone bonkers....all it does is flash the screen off and on. It won't stop flashing and I can't call up the start menu., I am NOT a happy camper. I called microsoft but they want to charge an arm and a leg and I'm talking to someone whose first language is not English. Totally frustrating for someone who is techno challenged.

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  10. Thanks, ABA. I’m glad you were able to read the article although others are experiencing difficulties.

    Anon, Ray, and John, I’m pleased the search box is working now. I very much appreciate your help and patience.

    Jan and ABA, besides the search box issue, we recently launched the mobile version of SleuthSayers for phones and tablets. Without a special web page for iPad, iPod, iPhone, and Android devices, Google radically lowered our ratings. Our regular site remains the same, but you can get a notion of what the data on the small screens looks like here:
    http://www.sleuthsayers.org/?m=1

    This is a separate issue than Windows 10. The industry is going through an upheaval as it drops support for old mainstays and forces users to adopt and adapt to new standards. Miss Marple once remarked that progress doesn’t always seem like it. We know what she means.

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  11. Well, whatever magic you all worked, it worked for me too! This morning for the first time in quite a while it worked like a charm! Thanks so much. I really appreciate it -- especially the not getting shot at part. :-)

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Welcome. Please feel free to comment.

Our corporate secretary is notoriously lax when it comes to comments trapped in the spam folder. It may take Velma a few days to notice, usually after digging in a bottom drawer for a packet of seamed hose, a .38, her flask, or a cigarette.

She’s also sarcastically flip-lipped, but where else can a P.I. find a gal who can wield a candlestick phone, a typewriter, and a gat all at the same time? So bear with us, we value your comment. Once she finishes her Fatima Long Gold.

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