The Larry Manetti Thread

[IslandHopper]

[J.J. Walters]

[golfmobile]

I finally heard from Larry in response to my email to him after his appearance on LV (I was getting my feelings hurt there for a little while because he had answered all you guys but seemed to be ignoring me).

In my email, I told him that I thought the suspicious stuff about the girlfriend should have been a plotline for him, Roger, and Cooper to solve -- that we wanted more of the three of them solving the problems, instead of the other people. I also reiterated how much we all want to see or at least hear John Hillerman -- via a phone conversation or video-phone conference, we really need at least one "Oh my god!!"

His response:

[Doc Ibold]

Per "Mad Dogs and Englishmen", we need to stage a "Higgolution", and yes, it WILL be televised.

(I have been waiting MONTHS to drop that one on the boards. Everytime I see that episode, that phrase pops into my head.)

Heck, I'll sign it.

I mean, as much as I like TS and the guys, I think this Las Vegas ploy is a last ditch effort to get ratings up. Personally, I hope it works so no one has to lose their jobs.

[SelleckLover]

Here's my email from Mr. Manetti!

Thank you so very much for the kind words and for you enjoying the Vegas episode. We sure
had a great time doing it.

Your pal,


Larry---------- Original Message ----------------------------------

[N1095A]

Golf,
I thought it would be cool if JH made even just a small cameo. I pictured him gambling in the casino, and Cooper accidently bumping into him causing him to spill his drink prompting an " OH MY GOD!"

_________________
"But Higgins, I can explain."

[golfmobile]

Mike,

I agree: That would be the ideal cameo. But if his health is as poor as it seems to be implied and he's too frail and maybe shaky to be viewed, then I'd settle for a phone conversation. However, not knowing his physical condition, I don't know if even his voice might be too shaky to express the OMG properly.

Of course, for ANOTHER idea, they could always write a script about the "death" of one of their buddies and have a mystery about "was he really murdered" and have the three solve the mystery (with the aid of the Gen-Xers, I guess we have to have them have some scenes . . .). But at the funeral, there could be a standing easel with a big picture of JQH, so that's how we'd see him -- and maybe even at the end, they could pull in a twist that he really WAS still alive and was trying to flush out some old spy who was after him, but now that the villain is taken care of by "our" guys, he can retire and "ride off into the sunset" (could have a body double do this scene on Cooper's ranch, for example).

NBC needs to contact US for plots!

golf

_________________
"Portside, buddy."

[grapeshot]

Okay, I hunted up some contact information. In the past, I would have said that snail mail is the most effective way to get your voices heard. The theory is that anyone who takes the time to hand write a letter gets more attention than a hundred emails.


But...I found this message board for Journeyman, where the members are concerned about rumors of the show being canceled, and someone there has posted some extremely helpful advice about TARGETING the right person to contact.

That led me to THIS listing of who at NBC is involved with Las Vegas.
According to this list, the target person would be one Kellie Kulikowsky.

However, I don't know that in this instance we have any worries about a show being canceled, or any urgency about contacting anyone, but rather we'd like to let someone know how much we loved seeing the MPI gang back together again, and how we wish there was more of that, rather than the meaningless plots involving the relatively bland and faceless regular cast. I tend to think that snail mail would be sufficient for this. I mean, put yourself in the shoes of the NBC or Studio people, and ask yourself if you'd want to get spammed by a bunch of fans with an agenda. Indeed, your email might get caught in some corporate anti-spam filter! Sure, snail mail gets filtered by assistants, but even so, someone does read them, and will at least note the gist of several pieces of mail on a similar topic.

My other advice? Keep your message friendly, polite, and brief. That's BRIEF, as in SHORT!! You get no extra credit for length. This isn't a class where the teacher might be impressed by sheer word count. People have real work to do, and they don't have time for long, impassioned missives. The longer your message is, the likelier your email or snail mail gets dumped into the crank bin.

Personally, I'll be writing a snail mail letter to the first name on the executive producer list (who's probably the show runner), and mailing it to the actual production studio, which in this case is probably NBC Universal Entertainment, rather than Dreamworks Television. (Although that's just a total guess on my part. I'm betting that the filming takes place on a Universal lot, and that's where the executive producers have a mailbox.)

The idea is to make the letter EASY and QUICK TO READ. To that end, I'll be using a word processor and sending a printed letter, rather than a hand-written one. Er...that's The Plan, anyway. Real Life might intervene and keep me from carrying through!!

[J.J. Walters]

Well said grapeshot!

I'll send them a (brief) letter. I'm also going to casually mention the idea of revealing AJ as Magnum (and ask them to think about the ratings boost that would bring).

_________________
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

[N1095A]

Intro to AJ (signing papers) aside, wouldn't it be interesting if someone hired Magnum to pose as AJ Cooper to investigate the strange goings on at the end of last season, beginning of this season? Didn't someone mention that Las Vegas was a Universal property? I assume they could use the Magnum name.

_________________
"But Higgins, I can explain."