Minnesota Fats and Jimmy Mataya on Vega$ Episiode

[McKinneyMiner]

This weekend I started on Season 2 of my completely illegal dubbing of the late 70's tv show Vega$ starring Robert Urich.

Episode 2 of Season 2, "The Usurper" has guest appearances by Minnesota Fats and Jimmy Mataya.

Dan Tanna (Urich) goes to talk with Fats who is a friend of Philip Roth (Tony Curtis) the owner of Desert Inn who has disappeared.

Fats introduces Jimmy as his "protege" and makes a 3 rail bank in front of a crowd of people before telling Dan about his upcoming challenge match with Mosconi and his previous night playing pool with Roth.

Fats is actually a terrible actor in this scene, but it is pretty cool to see him and Mataya.

The episode first aired on 9/26/1979.

 

[whitey2]

I'm still waiting for "Gunsmoke - Cowtown Hustler"

Thanks for the heads up. Jimmy Mataya is one of my favorite
players. Maybe someday they will air some episodes of that
show again.

I'm still waiting for "Gunsmoke - Cowtown Hustler" to come
on. I turned on the the TV a few months ago, and there was
a shot of an old pool table, and that was the last few seconds
of the show.

 

[Red]

Thanks - I'll be watching for reruns of Vegas and "Cowtown Hustler". It's always fun to see pool in a TV show, even if it's not realistic. "Pool TV" I can think of includes the Twilight Zone's A Game of Pool with Jack Klugman and Jonathan Winters, a Fresh Prince episode called "Banks Shot" where Will Smith thinks he's a hustler, and Sanford and Son - a House is not a Poolroom. There are probably more I've forgotten, or never seen, but someone here may remember.

 

[whitey2]

Not much, but worthy of a mention anyway

Not much, but worthy of a mention anyway. I was not aware of that Sanford and Son episode. But, there
was an episode where in the past he was a pool hustler, and was in a bank with his cue case, and someone
decided to rob a bank. The guard thought he had a gun in the case also. So the guy ends up coming back
many years later to give Fred some of the money, for "helping" him.

The thing that was a little humorous is when he was discussing why he robbed the bank, he said to Fred,
something like, "Well you were a pool hustler. You had a profession". I always got a kick out of that.

 

[Red]

"Well you were a pool hustler. You had a profession".

Great line. I had forgotten about that episode. In a House is not a Poolroom, Lamont buys Fred a pooltable for his birthday. Fred sets it up in the living room. Fred's pool-playing buddies take over the house. I just found some clips from the show on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hujG-uE_1YQ