I Miss Phil DeGuere

A long time ago, in a Valley far, far away, I worked for a small company named Computer Power & Light, later abbreviated COMPAL. We sold CP/M computer systems to businesses at a time when personal computers were still mainly purchased by hobbyists. Most of our clients were attorneys or scriptwriters (including Gene Roddenberry and Stephen Cannell).

Recently I was flipping channels late one night, and stumbled upon a rerun of Miami Vice on a network I'd never heard of: Sleuth. I used to love Miami Vice, and I've started watching it again, off and on. It had some great episodes.

Tonight I notice that Sleuth is running old episodes of Simon & Simon, which was created by director/producer/scriptwriter Philip DeGuere. Phil was one of our clients. I serviced Phil's COMPAL computers, and we came to know each other.

I remember my first time in his office. I walked in, and discovered a demon looking at me from a corner of the office. His name, I believe, was Gaylord.

It turned out Gaylord wasn't actually a demon. I read Childhood's End in high school, a science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke, about aliens coming to Earth to shepherd humanity into its next stage of civilization. The aliens, ironically, looked like the devil.

Phil wanted to produce a movie based on Childhood's End, and had a rubber model of the main alien sitting in his office. I love science fiction, so we had a lot to talk about. Phil also created Whiz Kids, and was generous enough to give a robot I had co-designed a cameo on the show.

Phil was a great guy. Smart, funny, well-read, with a beautiful wife and a beautiful house in the hills overlooking the Valley (with a cool fantasy theme going on inside). I believe he used to work on the Rockford Files with Stephen Cannell and Donald Bellisario ("Magnum, P.I."). Phil brought back the Twilight Zone, and I've seen his name as the director of an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The last time I saw Phil's name on a show was on Bellisario's NCIS, a show I enjoy immensely. To my knowledge, he never got a Childhood's End movie off the ground. Too bad.

Sadly, Philip DeGuere passsed away last year from lung cancer. The world is poorer because of it. I miss you, Phil.


Blog Tag: Chatter