The End of the Beginning

Quite awhile back I tracked down some locations of the first episode of Walker, Texas Ranger in Dallas.  I thought we could have a look at some Fort Worth locations of that episode and end with a bang (ha! Get it?  Because there's an explos...oh never mind).

But I found myself stymied but the ever changing nature of downtown Fort Worth.  For example, in the climax of the first episode, the bank robbery scene took place at what was the offices of the Fort Worth Star Telegram which they made up to look like this:

A few years back, when I was taking pictures, it looked like this:

The newspaper moved their offices a block over and we are left with a location that just doesn't match up with a screen grab from a 20 year old TV show episode.  There's just no justice in the real world.

However, in TV world there's plenty of justice delivered from the gun barrel and boot heel of Mr. Chuck Norris.  In the episode he starts of across the street from the "bank."  That side of the road was also completely unrecognizable from the episode but if you look behind Chuck there's a definitive "marker" that can still be seen today:

The Texas Historical Marker commemorates the Neil P. Anderson Building which has an interesting history, the highlights of which include being a cotton exchange and being featured in the background of an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger.

My problems with documenting the shooting locations of this episode continued with the attempt to capture the parking garage behind the exploding truck:

This was the best I could do but I'm assuming this building has been through some changes as well since the windows don't seem to quite match up with the shot from the episode:

 

So the bad guys then try to make their getaway along Taylor St. but I'm confident the Rangers got 'em.

You can see that there has been some cosmetic changes to the buildings in the background but the same basic architecture is still in place:

Change eventually comes to every man and every street corner but thankfully freeze framing old movies and TV shows will never go out of style. 

The Unfortunate Roles of Kris Kristofferson

 
Brownsville, Texas native Kris Kristofferson is a multi-talented superstar of stage and screen.  Singing, songwriting, acting...he's a definite triple threat.  That being said, he's not going to hit a home run every time.  He's got some real head scratchers on his IMDb page.  So with all due respect to the legendary highwayman, I thought I'd take a look at some of his more unfortunate roles.  

The Donny & Marie Show

In the late 70s two of the most popular things in showbiz were variety shows and Star Wars.  It didn't take long for the two of them to be combined.  One of the most popular shows, "Donny & Marie" dipped their toe into the Star Wars pool with singing, dancing and the corniest jokes ever heard in a galaxy far, far away.  Kristofferson appeared as Han Solo in a sketch and sang a song along with his pal Chewbacca.  It remains one of the stranger scifi/country music combos in history.

Blade 3 (a.k.a. "Blade Trinity")

Don't get me wrong, I love the Blade movies but they make questionable choices with Kristofferson's character.  He plays "Whistler," who is the mentor/tech support for Wesley Snipe's Blade, the Vampire Hunter.  In the first movie, Whistler is killed off to give extra motivation to Blade.  The first part of the second movie is spent bringing Whistler back to life.  Then, once again, Whistler is killed off at the beginning of the third movie to give extra motivation to Blade.  What a ride, huh?  So Kristofferson was kind of wasted in the third film by having his character play a role that had already been done (and undone).

Big Top Pee-Wee

Pee-Wee's Big Adventure is one of the best movies of all time but the follow-up was...not.  Instead of being an actual sequel, it essentially just took Pee-Wee, and put him in a different scenario with no real connection to the previous movie.  In "Big Top" he lives on a farm, longs to join the circus and leaves his fiance for someone he just met.  It's not great.  Kristofferson does just fine as the circus' ringmaster but the movie itself just can't compare to the original. 

Planet of the Apes (2001)

Well after the original series of Planet of the Apes but before the most recent set of films, there was the 2001 "Planet of the Apes" remake/remix/whatever.  While it was kind of fun to see Kristofferson running around in a loincloth fighting gorillas, it was also kind of sad seeing him do that.  The movie was a failure because it was such a mess and it's now just a footnote in the franchise's history.

Luckily, the overwhelming majority of Kristofferson's work is fantastic and definitely worth a watch (or a listen).  But the next time you want to kick back with a movie night, consider watching one of his misfires instead of "A Star is Born."  Maybe you'll like them more than I did.