Hell Froze Over

I wrote this several months ago, and just forgot to post it. Figured I’d do so now, since I haven’t written much lately.

I can honestly say I had to stand there and look at it for a few minutes before I realized it was there. After that, it took a phenomenal amount of willpower not to hold it above my head in triumph and run to the register. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

There are a number of things I’ve sought in my time. They are little things, I think. Nothing huge or extravagant, as I am not a greedy type. The name of a book lost in time, the location of a museum that an entire city apparently has forgotten. Things that I experienced once in the past, and that I would love to have / experience again, if nothing more than just old time’s sake.
I’ve watched the DVD collections of stores now for quite some time, and have always been amazed at the crap companies will put out on DVD. No doubt there are some that feel the same about what I like, but honestly, does anyone ever hold their breath waiting for the seasons of Strangers With Candy to come out? Or perhaps Green Acres? Hart to Hart? Dallas? There are movies and television shows to deserve to be published, but lately it appears they will publish anything. Everything except the one I wanted. Until today.

Today things were different.

Today The Equalizer came to DVD.

I stood in Best Buy looking at the box like it was a ghost, and if I moved, it would fade away. Ten copies of Season One, with Robert McCall staring back at me with that stern look he got when things didn’t quite go the way he needed them to go. I grabbed mine and hurried to the check-out as thought someone would appear and take it away from me.

“I’m sorry, sir. Those aren’t for sale. I’m afraid I’ll need to take that from you.”
“No! Mine!!” *emits horrible snarling noise*
“I must insist. Those aren’t supposed to be on the shelf. Here, have a nice doughnut.”
“No want doughnut!”
“Security!”
“I need an adult!”

The Equalizer began in the fall of 1985 and after only a few episodes, I was hooked. McCall was the first example of a hero I ever really had, and I clung to that ideal as hard as I could. The 1980s were a time in which looks were becoming more important that talent in entertainment, and television was no exception to this. Thanks to MTv, music and TV personalities were expected to be hot to be accepted and the new shows coming out were reflecting that. McCall was different. He was an aging former secret agent who had a bit of weight on him and spoke with a snobby English accent. It was almost as though he dared anyone to look down on him because he wasn’t young and attractive.

He was a saving grace to anyone who called him needing help, and he helped them without personal regard or worry of expense, charging nothing for his services. He was hard nosed with the bad guys, but lent a (sometimes reluctant) sympathetic ear to his clients, most of whom were simply nobodies that had no where else to go. He never backed down, even when it appeared he may have bitten off more than he could chew, and he rarely lost, thought there were a few of his victories that he admitted didn’t feel like victories.

The show ran for four seasons, and I watched every show I could until I started working in the evenings and would miss them on occasion. I kept a collection of tapes of the shows, hoping to save them forever, only to have a number of the tapes go bad as the years passed. There were a few occasions to catch the show on USA and I would try to tape them again, getting only a few of the episodes.

I was a zealot, and honestly, I never realized just how much I let the show influence the way I acted, and wrote and thought until I started watching the DVD. I viewed McCall at the father figure I never really had, and used his examples as the way a man should conduct himself: with grace, dignity and respect. It was alright to be sad, and to worry, but for the adversaries, to show nothing but determination. I know I failed on a number of these as time as gone by, but back then, it was law.

I noticed just how much of the show had influenced writing that I had done since, and a good number of characters I’d created. It was almost a shock how much I had forgotten was from The Equalizer and how much I had incorporated into my own work.

As the show went on, the actor who played McCall, Edward Woodward, began to have health problems and the show finally ended in it’s forth season after Woodward had a heart attack in real life, which prevented him from being able to maintain a filming schedule.

I haven’t found a television show that has impacted me nearly as completely at The Equalizer did, and I probably never will. As time has gone by, I find I don’t enjoy television fiction anymore and if I’m going to watch TV, its going to be something “reality.” I suppose it can be said that I was spoiled by what The Equalizer offered, or perhaps it was my own childish hopes of becoming a spy one day. But to me, McCall was a hero that one doesn’t often find, especially with the continuing trend of everyone wanting to be the “anti-hero.” McCall was a hero, and he wasn’t ashamed to admit it.

Entertainment needs more Robert McCalls.