April 16th, 2021
By William Kozy
The trouble with the trouble with “The Trouble With Templeton” is that even though the trouble with “The Trouble With Templeton” is a slightly confusing motivation regarding the ruse, the trouble with that is even after you’ve got the problematic plot twist straightened out, the trouble then becomes, “Was the supposedly beneficial outcome all that beneficial?” Perhaps I’m being a little bit too picky about asking that question. I ask it because at the end of the episode, our lead character is “fixed” and has a newborn burst of super-confidence, which is a good thing mostly, but it did make him seem a little bit douchey, whereas before we had such a warm compassionate feeling for him. My honest opinion was I would much rather befriend the Booth Templeton we meet at the beginning of the episode rather than the one at the end. But I do have to admit, that perhaps the Booth Templeton at the end is the healthier one, emotionally. Hi
Famed for his Mark Twain one-man show, actor Hal Holbrook dies at 95
In 1985, actor Hal Holbrook told an interviewer in Kalamazoo, Michigan, that American humorist-writer Mark Twain “has become integrated into my whole life … no matter what the subject, he’s always a tremendously amusing wise old bird.” By that time, Holbrook had been performing his one-man show, “Mark Twain Tonight” for 31 consecutive years just about the midpoint of its run. The actor went on, “I think it would be a pretty good idea to keep doing this every year until I drop dead.”
Hal Holbrook in 2007 (Wikimedia Commons/lukeford)