Post by Nydiva on Mar 3, 2012 15:45:37 GMT -8
This is the start of an (overly) ambitious project I began writing even before I joined the WWW forum. Some episodes will be minimally changed; some will veer widely from the original canon. I'm making it up as I go along! Basically, I was/am doing it for my own amusement; but as long as I found fellow WWW fans, I thought I'd share!
Dedications
To my deeply-missed, much beloved mother who never is more than a half a heartbeat away.
To the incomparable Ross Martin, who inspired a childhood crush (that has lasted life long) and this (much) later-in-life book.
To my friend Bill Nolte, who, upon listening to me enthuse over watching the series on DVD over 40 years later, asked if there had been a female lead. I replied, “There was - but only in my 12-year-old’s imagination.” Then the light bulb went on!
To the creators, producers, writers ,directors, actors, crew and EVERYone associated with the original series. The memories still linger and are every bit as wonderful as I recalled - ya done real good!!
To Sue Kesler, whose Wild Wild West “bible” provided an invaluable basis from which to launch my flights of fancy.
And finally, to the members of the New York theatrical community, who have always been a source of joy and inspiration. My life would not be the same without theatre.
Foreword
This book is, in essence, rewriting history, albeit a fictional one. Actually it encompasses two fictional universes - the first based on the amazing creation by Michael Garrison which was the unforgettable tv series, The Wild Wild West. The second reflects my wild, wild imagination of what it might have been like if a young actress had been incorporated into the series as a regular character.
Therefore, for each “alternate universe episode”, there is an equally fictional behind-the-scenes narrative. These events are entirely in my imaginings; and while there may be a grain of truth in some instances, this is not meant to represent actual events. Although I realize that scenes are not filmed in episodic order, the memoir portions are related in order of the finished product for the sake of clarity.
I have been amazingly lucky in that I‘ve managed to meet most of my childhood and adolescent crushes - from Tony Curtis to David McCallum to Jonathan Frid (of Dark Shadows fame). Ross Martin was the one who got away. This is my attempt to rectify that injustice.
Prologue
Fasten your seatbelts was right. The last 72 hours had passed in a surreal blur, and there I was on a flight to LA, desperately trying to sink a hastily-delivered script into my brain.
So what was Angela Wallis, the native New Yorker, Miss City Slicker, died-in-the-wool Broadway baby, doing with something called The Wild Wild West?
Three days prior, as understudy for the role of Smitty in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, at last, at last, at last, I went on. With that joyous experience reverberating through my whole body, I thought: This is it; this is where I belong; this is what I was born to do. But my darling agent, Henry Simonz, was not about to leave it at that. He managed to corral practically every casting director within reach to the performance. And that’s being a good agent.
What we both didn’t know at the time was that way out in Hollywood, an actress who had been cast in a tv pilot just wasn’t working out. In order to clinch the role, she claimed equestrian skills she didn’t vaguely possess. Her luck didn’t hold; and a fractured wrist and bruised coccyx convinced both her and the producers to look in another direction. Little did anyone suspect the direction would be East.
As fate would have it, a trusted associate of James Lister (who was responsible for casting The Wild Wild West) witnessed my stage performance. The following morning when he was informed about the situation in LA, much discussion ensued; and my life took a miraculous turn. On the fly, and with no substantive script changes, it was decided the character could be slanted slightly younger, with a little more humor, and (sad but true) less of a sexpot - in other words...me. Though I only had a single foray on horseback (sedately through Central Park), the fact that I emerged unscathed and was willing to take intensive lessons was enough to convince the powers that be. That and (a) I could be immediately available (my theatrical contract was up for renewal), (b) as an unknown, I was cheap, and (c) there was no riding involved for my character in the pilot (at least not after that first incident).
It took just one day for a standard contract to be signed - thankfully I had turned 21 earlier that year, since my older brother (who was then my guardian) would have never allowed my move to California. The script was delivered, and I frantically packed. Then I was on the plane the next day. Though my brain was reeling somewhere in the stratosphere, the plane touched down and I was met by a studio limo - a far cry from the subways that were my normal form of transport. I was sped directly to the studio to be thrown (and [ouch!] pinned) into a costume and rushed onto the set.
I was barely introduced to the two stars (Robert Conrad - yummy; Ross Martin - I can’t breathe!) before the cameras started rolling on the very first episode entitled: The Night of the Inferno. Hang on, here we go!
Author’s Note: Contrasting type face indicates additional or rewritten scenes
MY Wild Wild West
by Angela Wallis
(a/k/a Nydiva)
(A retelling of the series
by a completely fictitious actress
who played a non-existent role)
by Angela Wallis
(a/k/a Nydiva)
(A retelling of the series
by a completely fictitious actress
who played a non-existent role)
Dedications
To my deeply-missed, much beloved mother who never is more than a half a heartbeat away.
To the incomparable Ross Martin, who inspired a childhood crush (that has lasted life long) and this (much) later-in-life book.
To my friend Bill Nolte, who, upon listening to me enthuse over watching the series on DVD over 40 years later, asked if there had been a female lead. I replied, “There was - but only in my 12-year-old’s imagination.” Then the light bulb went on!
To the creators, producers, writers ,directors, actors, crew and EVERYone associated with the original series. The memories still linger and are every bit as wonderful as I recalled - ya done real good!!
To Sue Kesler, whose Wild Wild West “bible” provided an invaluable basis from which to launch my flights of fancy.
And finally, to the members of the New York theatrical community, who have always been a source of joy and inspiration. My life would not be the same without theatre.
Foreword
This book is, in essence, rewriting history, albeit a fictional one. Actually it encompasses two fictional universes - the first based on the amazing creation by Michael Garrison which was the unforgettable tv series, The Wild Wild West. The second reflects my wild, wild imagination of what it might have been like if a young actress had been incorporated into the series as a regular character.
Therefore, for each “alternate universe episode”, there is an equally fictional behind-the-scenes narrative. These events are entirely in my imaginings; and while there may be a grain of truth in some instances, this is not meant to represent actual events. Although I realize that scenes are not filmed in episodic order, the memoir portions are related in order of the finished product for the sake of clarity.
I have been amazingly lucky in that I‘ve managed to meet most of my childhood and adolescent crushes - from Tony Curtis to David McCallum to Jonathan Frid (of Dark Shadows fame). Ross Martin was the one who got away. This is my attempt to rectify that injustice.
Prologue
Fasten your seatbelts was right. The last 72 hours had passed in a surreal blur, and there I was on a flight to LA, desperately trying to sink a hastily-delivered script into my brain.
So what was Angela Wallis, the native New Yorker, Miss City Slicker, died-in-the-wool Broadway baby, doing with something called The Wild Wild West?
Three days prior, as understudy for the role of Smitty in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, at last, at last, at last, I went on. With that joyous experience reverberating through my whole body, I thought: This is it; this is where I belong; this is what I was born to do. But my darling agent, Henry Simonz, was not about to leave it at that. He managed to corral practically every casting director within reach to the performance. And that’s being a good agent.
What we both didn’t know at the time was that way out in Hollywood, an actress who had been cast in a tv pilot just wasn’t working out. In order to clinch the role, she claimed equestrian skills she didn’t vaguely possess. Her luck didn’t hold; and a fractured wrist and bruised coccyx convinced both her and the producers to look in another direction. Little did anyone suspect the direction would be East.
As fate would have it, a trusted associate of James Lister (who was responsible for casting The Wild Wild West) witnessed my stage performance. The following morning when he was informed about the situation in LA, much discussion ensued; and my life took a miraculous turn. On the fly, and with no substantive script changes, it was decided the character could be slanted slightly younger, with a little more humor, and (sad but true) less of a sexpot - in other words...me. Though I only had a single foray on horseback (sedately through Central Park), the fact that I emerged unscathed and was willing to take intensive lessons was enough to convince the powers that be. That and (a) I could be immediately available (my theatrical contract was up for renewal), (b) as an unknown, I was cheap, and (c) there was no riding involved for my character in the pilot (at least not after that first incident).
It took just one day for a standard contract to be signed - thankfully I had turned 21 earlier that year, since my older brother (who was then my guardian) would have never allowed my move to California. The script was delivered, and I frantically packed. Then I was on the plane the next day. Though my brain was reeling somewhere in the stratosphere, the plane touched down and I was met by a studio limo - a far cry from the subways that were my normal form of transport. I was sped directly to the studio to be thrown (and [ouch!] pinned) into a costume and rushed onto the set.
I was barely introduced to the two stars (Robert Conrad - yummy; Ross Martin - I can’t breathe!) before the cameras started rolling on the very first episode entitled: The Night of the Inferno. Hang on, here we go!
Author’s Note: Contrasting type face indicates additional or rewritten scenes