With the help of fellow fans that I know around the world, my job is to bring back my favorite TV genre in book form, and make it look like watching a 1-hour episode on TV.
Marsh Cassady is a former actor, director, and theatre professor as well as the author of 55 published books of many different types from novels to textbooks to true crime. He also has taught five different classes in creative writing at the University of California, San Diego. While teaching at Montclair State in New Jersey, he started a playwriting program that included graduate and undergraduate courses, special projects, and a workshop. For the past 18 years, Marsh has lived in Mexico where he was a columnist, feature writer, and editorial writer for the English-language paper The Baja Times. He also has been editor 2 magazines, one national and one regional—the latter in Ohio—and two literary journals. He and his partner Jim Kitchen, who until his death in 2011, were co-owners/publishers of Los Hombres Press, which published fiction, nonfiction, and haiku. Their first book, A Gathering of Sparrows, edited by Alexis Rotella, was named by the Haiku Society of America as outstanding anthology of the year. For a dozen years, the two also published a literary journal, Crazyquilt.
Marsh’s plays have been produced across the U.S., including Off-Broadway, in Canada, and at a play festival in Mexico, as well as in Rosarito. His haiku book, The Music of Tree Limbs, was awarded first place in a national competition, and the New York Public Library listed his drama anthology, Great Scenes from Women Playwrights, as an outstanding books for the teen year. Four other books have been finalists in national competitions two for Lambda Literary Awards and an Independent Publishers Award. His true crime book, The New Hall Incident, written with former CHP Commander John Anderson, won the San Diego Book Award for nonfiction, and he has won various other awards for poetry, haiku and fiction. Marsh’s ceramic sculpture and digital art currently are displayed in area galleries. He also has designed about thirty book covers.
Marsh’s favorite era of television was the 70s and 80s, and his favorite show of the period was Hawaii 50…which he watched with almost religious fervor. Maybe that’s why his son moved to Hawaii to work as a chef! I used to enjoy detective TV shows and crime dramas of all kinds. It's a genre that goes back as far as I can remember. What did those shows have?
* Great Drama - procedural, serial (story arcs).
* Thrilling Action: car chases, chases on foot, fist fights, gun fights, and no shortage of them.
* Comedy: screwball comedy, slapstick, cheesiness, insult comedy, physical comedy, character comedy and who could forget cheesy 1-liners.
* Romance and Sexual Tension: the "will they or won't they" cliché that takes place in many of these shows that involve a male and female lead. It is now common to television drama of all genres. It's about finding out what the other person is hiding.
* Cross-Overs with Other Shows - On occasion, characters from other shows would be mentioned or appear to offer assistance.
* Charming & Good Looking Men and Women, character Development, Recurring Villains, Unique Plot Lines.
* Dark Tone: dark and serious tones, often disturbing and cringeworthy.
* Supernatural/Sci-Fi: some elements of supernatural that many people don't believe, but are present and can either be real or a hoax. Could or could not be extraterrestrials, but could also be "objects" that can be used to harness or impose power. If in the wrong hands....
* Breaking the 4th wall, voiceovers, narrations towards the audience, talking to the audience, unmatched acting and narrations. Some shows not only broke the 4th wall, but they annihilated it!
What are some examples of these shows? There are so many and I'm missing a lot, but I'll name some.....
Hawaii 5-0, Remington Steele, MacGyver, Mike Hammer, The Equalizer, Charlie's Angels, Hart to Hart, Simon & Simon, Cagney & Lacey, Moonlighting, CHIPS, 21 Jump Street, Hunter, Murder She Wrote, HardCastle and McCormick, Spencer For Hire, Jake & The Fat Man, Knight Rider, Magnum P.I., The A-Team, Miami Vice, Greatest American Hero.
I miss these shows and while they've tried to bring some of these back in movie form, they were not even close to the original source material.
I hope you will enjoy my stories and revisit some of these shows and never forget them. The joys that the shows of yesteryear have created have been a wonderful source of happiness that should always remain in everybody's memory. That's what entertainment is all about!
Have any suggestions for a plot? Or if you have any questions, you want to offer any feedback, or if you just want to say hello, you can use the contact form on this page and we will get back to you when we’re able to.
Enjoy and please never forget the shows of yesteryear!
Marsh lives in Rosarito Beach (Playas de Rosarito), B.C., Mexico, with his family of six—all of whom are members of the feline persuasion: T. Grey, Midge (technically a border, but try to tell her that!), Lene, Onyx, Lucy, and Scotty. Marsh also is the father of five human children: Kathi, Kim, David, Beth, and Heather.
