Monday, July 21, 2008

TV EYE:Aaron Spelling & Eye Candy=Cheesy & Breezy


Aaron Spelling was among the ultimate purveyors of televised eye candy, creating concoctions that were as easy to swallow as they were to gaze upon. Burke’s Law (AmericanLife, Saturday, 9:00PM) is among his first, a comedic cop/mystery show with the ever-dapper Gene Barry as millionaire police captain Amos Burke, a playboy detective who arrived at crime scenes with a chauffeur driven Rolls Royce. Running from 1963-66 for a total of 81 episodes, this decidedly pre-feminist show boasts the lightest of eye-winking tones accompanying a bevy of curvy beauties and long-legged (Cat Fight Alert) lassies (proving once again the less-is-more popcult rule), alongside a new batch of guest star murder suspects each week, ranging far and wide from The Smothers Brothers to Susan Strasberg to Ricardo Montalbaum, to yeah, Paul Lynde. (My fave so far, has been George Hamilton as a beatnik/performance artist, a YouTube clip for which I searched far and wide to no avail.) Breezy and cheesy, this entertains far more than it deserves to.

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