Kathryn Morris UK

Cold Case S01E17 – The Lost Soul Of Herman Lester Promo Update

As episode titles go ‘The Lost Soul Of Herman Lester’ is, well, not exactly the catchiest. It doesn’t exactly trip of the tongue and gives you few clues as the nature of the plot.

We continue are look back at Cold Case season 1, posting new promo photos on the same day as the original episode transmission. Albeit with 15 years added on.

Sunday the 14th of March 2004 was the date episode 17, ‘The Lost Soul Of Herman Lester’, first aired. The plot was featured the 1987 murder of a promising high-school basketball player, the titular Herman Lester, as played by Mehcad Brooks. This was one of Mehcad Brooks’ early TV roles. He has since gone on to feature in Desperate Housewives, True Blood and most recently in Supergirl.

One of the features of the Cold Case flashbacks was to invoke the time period with the a soundtrack of music heard in that era. The show was very good at getting to use significant songs by big artists, though it is often said that the rights issues it caused prevented a DVD release. Seemingly, the deals were not done with that in mind, or they were deliberately excluded to cut costs.

‘The Lost Soul Of Herman Lester’ is no exception with a very strong line up of songs across the duration. In the order they are heard in the episode the tracks are:

‘Walk this Way” by Aerosmith with RUN-D.M.C.
‘Word Up” by Cameo
‘Big Time” by Peter Gabriel
‘Niggaz Wanna Act” by Mase
‘Push It” by Salt-N-Pepa
‘Don’t Give Up’ by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush
‘Walk Like a Man’ by Bruce Springsteen

That’s the basis of a good compilation album right there. Something for everyone into the popular music of the time. For those of us of a certain age… A real ‘Now That’s What I Call Music ’86-’87’. Some really great songs. Peter Gabriel’s album ‘So’ gets a double outing with ‘Big Time’ and ‘Don’t Give Up’. Two very different songs are from a brilliant album. If you want spend a worthwhile few minutes check out the various music videos on YouTube, some of which showcase the ground-breaking work of Aardman Animations (of Wallace & Gromitt fame).

With his obvious connections to Philadelphia it is no surprise that Bruce Springsteen turned up on Cold Case several times over the seasons. Memorably, ‘8 Years’ (season 2, episode 11) was one of a handful of episodes that only featured a single artist.

Where was I, oh yes, images. The episode title might be long but, sadly, the number of new promo photos I have to bring to you today is not. Just the one you can see above. It is now in the the Gallery in it’s glorious full size.

Cold Case S01E16 – Volunteers Promo Update

Who fancies a look at some new Cold Case promo photos? Any… volunteers?

*cough* Moving on…

As we’re following the schedule of the original US airing of Cold Case season one, posting these updates on the same date (plus 15 years), the Sunday had shifted to Friday. At least it has until now. As you may have noticed, it’s Thursday. Must be those cheeky leap year extra days on the end of February moving things.

The ‘Volunteers’ (episode 16) story took things back to 1969 for a case revolving around the murder of two people working for an underground abortion service. Rather than focus on that side of things I’ll look at the other side of the fiction.

A lot of CC episodes have a guest star. ‘Volunteers’ had more than most though. Often the actors in these small roles go on to become household names (see Jennifer Lawrence in S04E18, ‘A Dollar, A Dream’). Amber Benson, better known as Tara on Buffy The Vampire Slayer, picked up this gig a couple of years BTVS finished. Maggie Grace of Lost fame had one of her earlier roles in this one. In the same year that Katee Sackhoff came to the attention of the wider world in the (then) new Battlestar Galactica series, she turned up in the flashbacks in ‘Volunteers’.

This episode also marked the first appearance in the show of Scotty’s troubled girlfriend Elisa, played by Marisol Nichols (Riverdale). It was certainly not Marisol’s first major TV role but playing such a recurring character in a prime time show certainly won’t have done her career any harm. And, it was the second time we got to meet Louie Amante (Doug Spinoza) the explosives expert in the crime scene technicians. His help was crucial in solving the case in ‘Gleen’ (ep 2) and he had such a great relationship with Lilly. It was always a pleasure to have him back. Surprisingly, he was only in 6 episodes across the whole show’s run. The last time we saw him was at his own wedding in season 7.

This little update is brought to you by the number 5. That’s how many new promo photos we have for you today. Count them. 1 promo photo. 2 promo photos. 3 promo photos. 4 promo photos. 5 promo photos. Mwah ha ha ha. And where will you find these new images? Down Sesame Street of course. Not really. They’re in the Gallery as you already guessed

You will notice in the photo shown above that the image was clearly supposed to be cropped before usage, as you can see the stage direction marks on the floor. As they re-film the scene with the flashback actor in place (see below right) they have to match their movements and positions reasonably accurately to make the transitions look right. TV magic.

Cold Case S01E15 – Disco Inferno Promo Update

I don’t think I’d be speaking out of turn too say that ‘Disco Inferno’ is a firm fan favourite amongst Cold Case episodes. Feel free to let me know either way with a comment below.

At episode 15 of season one the show was into its stride. The format is bedded in, no doubt with changes implemented after viewer feedback from the early part of the season. The flashbacks have developed in length and complexity. Danny Pino is settled in as the new partner Scotty Valens.

It is one of the few episodes where we get to see Lilly enjoying herself. ADA Kite takes her dancing and we get some lovely shots of that as well as Lilly’s sighting of ‘the ghost of victims past’.

This promo image upgrade post, part of the KM UK run through season one 15 years since first airing, involves two pictures. The first (above) is a significant increase in image size. The 2nd (below) is all new, and equally big. Find them both in the Gallery. I know, they are not of the disco scene Check out the screencaps in the gallery to re-live those memories.

Cold Case S01E13 – The Letter Promo Update

In last week’s update for ‘Glued’, we mentioned things were getting a bit personal between Lilly and Kite. This week it’s more professional, but really it’s about the personal.

We have just one updated promo image from ‘The Letter’, episode 13 in season 1 of Cold Case. You can see the picture above and the new, much larger sized version in the Gallery. It was 15 years ago today that this one first aired.

You think 2004 is along time ago? The case they re-opened was nearly 65 years old back then, and involved the murder of a young black woman in August of 1939. And that isn’t even the oldest crime they looked at. Assumptions by the police at the time about the victim probably made them even less inclined to investigate. You’d like to things have changed a lot since then.

To do posts like these I need a few helpful reminders about each episode. A very useful resource to jog the memory is the fan-created Cold Case Wiki on the Fandom website (the link is always in the list on the left of this site). There is a huge amount of information about the show in general, the episodes, the cast (including guests) and crew, and much more. It is constantly being updated. Go check it out. I’d like to think that my little site has helped the editors there at times too.

Cold Case S01E12 – Glued Promo Updates

Cold Case gets a little personal.

We return to our current series of posts bringing image updates to old episodes on the original air-date, albeit 15 years after the fact. January 18th, 2004 was when episode 12 of season 1 of Cold Case was first broadcast in America.

‘Glued’ is about an old case of John Stillman’s. He didn’t solve it when the murder happened in 1980. The impending birth of his grandchild has stirred some things up for John. On Lilly’s side, things are also stirring as she takes a very, very small step with Kite (insert one-eye/cat/tripod joke here). Perhaps ‘unglued’ would have been a better title.

Five new promo images from this episode are now in the KM UK Gallery.