Mr. Novak (1963)

James Franciscus starred in over 75 film and television productions during his career, but today he is best remembered for three roles - as Brent in Beneath the Planet of the Apes, as a blind insurance investigator (and martial arts student of Bruce Lee) in Longstreet, and as the tough but idealistic young teacher John Novak in Mr. Novak. Of the three, Novak was probably his best work, hardly surprising given the quality of writing on the show Novak was also Franciscus's most successful TV show; despite running only two seasons, it yielded 60 episodes and made Franciscus a teen idol. Franciscus was featured in teen magazines alongside the Beatles, the Monkees, Ricky Nelson and Dr. Kildare's Richard Chamberlain. (Franciscus was the first choice for Dr. Kildare but couldn't take the role, so the creator of Kildare, E. Jack Neuman, is said to have created Mr. Novak for Franciscus, and critics did tend to see the show as "Dr. Kildare in a high school", although Time magazine once called Franciscus "the Richard Chamaberlain who can act").

Academy Award winner Dean Jagger appeared as Novak's principal, Mr. Vane; he was replaced in the second season by Burgess Meredith. The show was a who's who of famous guest stars, both young – Tony Dow, Johnny Crawford, Beau Bridges, Kim Darby, Walter Koenig (aka Chekhov from Star Trek), Tommy Kirk, Shelly Fabares, Tommy Sands, Don Grady – and older – Ed Asner, Martin Landau, Cloris Leachman, Lillian Gish, Edward Mulhare, Eddie Albert. More importantly, the show tackled real world problems in an intelligent and at times fearless manner, tackling issues such as teen pregnancy, improper relationships betwen teachers and students (with both male and female teachers involved), drug abuse, teen drinking, sex education, race relations – and it didn't talk down to the teens who were supposed to be its audience. In more than one instance it drew fire from those who didn't like its message; one episode in particular, about a young black girl threatened for attending Novak's high school, drew large volumes of hate mail from those who disliked it's "pro-Negro" message.

In the end, though, despite being an ex-Korean War fighter pilot (seeing friends die in the war prompted Novak's career choice), Mr. Novak just couldn't win the ratings war against Combat!, its time slot competitor. The show is not yet available on DVD, although it's rumored that Warner Archive ( http://www.facebook.com/warnerarchive) may release it soon. In the meantime, some portions of episodes can be viewed on Youtube at the links below.

The Rifleman - "The Legacy" (1959)

In this episode of the classic Western Series, Franciscus played Phillip Simmons, the estranged son of the town drunk, Matt Simmons (James Barton). Lucas McCain (Chuck Connors), the series' hero, agrees to pretend that drunk, destitute, and dying Matt owns the McCain ranch with Lucas, in an attempt to trick Matt's son into coming to visit his father one last time before he dies. The plan goes awry, and when the younger Simmons learns of the hoax perpetrated on him, he takes out his anger on two boys who hazed his dead father. Lucas manages to salvage the situation by once again tricking the younger Simmons into attending his father's funeral, where Simmons learns that perhaps his father's real legacy may have been in helping his son to become less bitter toward his fellow man. (The episode is not as corny as it sounds; while it was the 50s and the message was very much of its time, the writing and acting were both very good.)

It's interesting to see how small Franicscus looks compared to Chuck Connors, until you realize Connors dwarfed every other man in the cast as well. Connors, who played professional basketball as well as the major league baseball for which he was better known, stood almost 6'6" - the same height as other Western big men of the period Clint Walker and James Arness.

A memorable moment occurs at the end when Mark McCain (Johnny Crawford) says to Lucas that he's never seen a man cry before (referring to Phillip at his father's funeral) and the hard-as-nails Lucas replies that a man crying is nothing to be ashamed of.