Before ‘Hunter,’ TV star had a pro athletic career
You have questions. I have some answers.
Q: I’ve been watching reruns of “Hunter,” and Fred Dryer’s face and name are very familiar. Was he a pro football player, by any chance?
A: Yes. Dryer was a defensive end from 1973 to 1981, first with the New York Giants and then, for most his career, the Los Angeles Rams. And he was good, making it to the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl during his career. He is also the only player to score two safeties in a single NFL game. But, as he told Rich Eisen in 2017, he always had interests besides football. For one thing, he was taking acting lessons while still a player with the Rams. He had a recurring role as a sportscaster on “Cheers” (and at one time had been a contender to play Sam Malone) but found his biggest TV success as the Dirty Harry-like police detective Rick Hunter. “Hunter” ran from 1984 to 1991, with three reunion movies and a short-lived 2003 revival.
Q: What has happened to the “Nashville” series?
A: The drama, currently in its final season, has taken a break before beginning its last run of new episodes June 7.
Q: Who was the first Asian-American or Asian actor to be included in the opening credits of a TV show? Was it Sammee Tong of “Bachelor Father”?
A: No. “Bachelor Father” began in 1957. The first Asian-American lead in a TV series was in 1951, when Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong starred in “The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong,” for the old DuMont network. Wong — whose birth name was Liu-Tsong — played the crime-solving owner of a chain of art galleries. Unfortunately, the series had a short run, and no one has found either its episodes or its scripts. And that is a terrible loss to TV history.
Q: What’s up with “The Alienist”? My family and I loved the first season. We understand it was meant to be a limited series, but it seemed like such a success with audiences, and we felt that it closed in an open-ended manner. Any possibility of a second season?
A: At this writing, there are no announced plans beyond the first season, which as you mentioned was billed as a limited series. Still, the show was a big success for TNT. Newsweek’s Emily Gaudette, while noting the show was expensive and had behindthe-scenes challenges, said it was “one of the most visually engaging and transportive television series in recent memory.”
Caleb Carr has a book sequel to “The Alienist” called “The Angel of Darkness,” which provides possible material. Maybe there will be more TV too.
Q: On all the old Western shows, they may have used tea or apple juice for the whiskey, but the beer looked real. Was it?
A: Since an actor downing a beer for repeated takes might have trouble delivering lines, there have been several screen tricks. Some productions used “near beer” — foamy but low in alcohol. Tea with carbonation added has also filled in for beer; a foamy head can reportedly be made with powdered egg whites and lemon juice.
Draft magazine, some time back, showcased Independent Studio Services, a prop company that designs labels of fictional beers for TV and movies, then puts them in bottles of nonalcoholic beers or simply fills “beer” cans with water. ISS has likely sent some beer fans searching for Heisler, a fake brand the company has used in many productions.
Do you have a question or comment about entertainment past, present and future? Write to Rich Heldenfels, P.O. Box 417, Mogadore, OH 44260 ,