The Strange Journey of Honey
Vicarro
The
Internet is full of fan-based sites honoring TV series from
the sixties featuring spies and detectives: Everything from
I Spy to The Man From Uncle to Peter Gunn to
Mission: Impossible.
If
you visit the Honey
Vicarro site, you'll see the usual cast bio's, episode
lists, and 'where-are-they-now' updates... but then you're in
for something a little different: For this show has a most unusual
history, chronicling a brilliant, obsessed creator and executive
producer who had to fight to bring his amazing vision to the
TV screen.
And
the result of that work is a truly bizarre, original, incredibly
cool television series like no other. From the web site:
| If
you've never heard of Honey Vicarro, you are not alone.
In 1966, fabled producer Gavin Hurrell introduced the world
to HONEY VICARRO, a dramatic series featuring
actress Kim Carlyle in the lead role as a swinging
Beverly Hills based private eye who works the underbelly
of The City of Angels.
The
series was far ahead of its time in theme, content and
presentation style. After airing one episode, sponsors
bowed to community and affiliate pressure, resulting in
the cancellation of the show.
Because
of it's limited run, Honey Vicarro hardly registered
a blip on the cultural radar of the 20th Century, although
it can be argued that, had it not been for Gavin Hurrell's
creation, much subsequent, adventurous programming—from
ALL IN THE FAMILY to NYPD BLUE—would
have never seen the light of day.
|
The
writer/producer created episodes whose themes pushed well outside
the envelope—from Honey’s brazen bisexuality and the
less-than-subtle B&D sensibility (virtually every episode
featured a scene in which Honey was bound and gagged—often
wearing nothing but panties and brassiere). Likewise, the stories
were cutting edge, focusing on drug abuse, homosexuality, incest,
police corruption, interracial sex, pornography and other issues
rarely addressed in prime-time.
But
that writer/producer's name was not Gavin Hurrell. And
there was never a TV deal in the sixties. In fact, the show
Honey Vicarro didn't really exist...
...
Until now!
You
see, everything we've told you about the brilliant writer/producer
is true... but his real name is Daniel Knauf, and his website
has become the inspiration for a new series on Fox TV.
Knauf
created one of COT's favorite links,
UNMOVIES.COM
—a
great screenwriter resource which contains many hilarious accounts
of Hollywood woe (many of them Daniel's). But it also displays
the work of Daniel and many other writers, which is occasionally
monitored by the powers that be in Hollywood. And it contains
the link to Daniel's Honey Vicarro site, which attracted
the interest of Fox.
Now
former Playboy Playmate Jenny McCarthy is in talks
to star in the pilot episode, which revolves
around her as the actress playing the lead character of a 1966
TV series. In the show-within-a-show, Vicarro fights crime and
saves swingers in Los Angeles while driving her 1964 Shelby Cobra.
The
premise behind "Honey Vicarro" is that the series was
so cutting edge that it was yanked from the airwaves; therefore,
Fox has dusted off never-before seen episodes of the "series"
and will now air it 35 years later.
Now
Knauf has gone from a webmaster on a faux-fan site to the Executive
Producer on a TV series. "I guess every once in a while,
the little guy wins," he told Comedy On Tap.
Now
visit...
http://home.earthlink.net/~dknauf/honey.html
|
Daniel
Knauf...
... wrote "BLIND JUSTICE" (HBO Pictures) and is a
member of the New Playwrights Foundation, the Writers
Guild of America, west, and currently serves as a Trustee
for the Writers and Producers Industry Health and Welfare
Plan. Currently, Mr. Knauf is working on several television
projects and has just competed a contemporary thriller,
THE TRIBE, with Janice Fischer ("THE LOST BOYS").
|
|
