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Path: utzoo!utcs!lsuc!pesnta!hplabsb!morrell
From: morrell@hplabsb.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.tv
Subject: Re: Ellery Queen Revisited
Message-ID: <3145@hplabsb.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 31-Oct-85 16:59:57 EST
Article-I.D.: hplabsb.3145
Posted: Thu Oct 31 16:59:57 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 1-Nov-85 22:25:12 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: Hewlett Packard Labs, Palo Alto CA
Lines: 25

I think one of the worst and most contrived EQ episodes was the one
with Joan Collins where this old man was giving a New Year's Eve Party
and announces to his heirs at the dinner table that he is going to cut them
all out of his will and that he was going to talk to his lawyer in the
morning (he might just as well wear a neon sign that flashes "Please kill me").

The man goes to make a phone call and is found stabbed in the phone booth.
The person on the other end of the phone was a complete stranger.  Ellery is
called in to figure out why a man would call someone he didn't know.
It turns out the victim was very "lucky".  He dialed the name of his killer
on the phone (of the six suspect heirs, only one had a last name which could
be spelled out as a phone number).

The major problems with this episode are:
 1. The audience only hears the names of the heirs spoken (and only once r
    twice).  They never see them written.
 2. I don't know how Ellery explained away the fact that maybe a first name
    was used (Ellery actually solved this one without even knowing the
    phone number dialed).
 3. You had to know that they used 6-digit phone numbers back in the 1940's
    (although there might have been a brief shot of Ellery trying to buy
    flowers at a flower shop and you could see the shop's 6-digit
    phone number on the front door).

The audience never really had a chance with this one.