Dan Tanna's Vega$ house on the Strip, Circa 1984
IMDB links updated a bit on 16 January, 2009..
Click any image for the full size version
All text and photographs on this page are Copyright (c), 1984 - 2009 by HRLaser, All Rights Reseved world-wide, and are here ONLY for your own personal reading and viewing pleasure.. This page and any of its text and imagery may not be copied and / or placed on any other Web site, whether commercial or non-commercial, may not be re-printed in any magazine, whether commercial or non-commercial, whether print or Web-based, and may not be used for any commercial purposes at any time whatsoever without explicit, written permission of the Copyright holder.. if you wish to license any of this text or these photographs for your publication or Web site, kindly contact hlaser at socal dot rr dot com. Copyright will be strictly enforced and legal action taken against any Copyright violators.. You are hereby granted permission ONLY to link to this page from your own Web site, providing proper credit to the Copyright holder for this text and these photographs is clearly stated in your link..
It is with sadness that we note the passing of Robert "Dan Tanna" Urich on 16, April, 2002,
at the young age of 55. Rest in peace, Robert.. Click to read
CNN's obit
These photos were shot during one of my many Vegas trips. This one
in May of 1984. It was VERY hot while we were there.. almost unbearably hot,
but hey, it's dry heat :)
The popular ABC series detective series
" Vega$ "
starring
Robert Urich,
Phyllis Davis ,
Bart Braverman ,
Greg Morris,
et. al. had been cancelled, (it ran from 1978 to 1981),
but the little building that served as
the exterior for shots of Vega$ lead
character, Dan Tanna's strip house and office was still
there, just North of Circus Circus, behind a small bank, right
on the strip. In that space now is an Arby's and some shops.
One unusual feature of this "house" was that when Dan pulled his mid-50s,
fire-engine-red T-Bird convertible into his garage, he could just hop
out of the car and be standing in his living room.
The Fox-owned cable TV network "F/X" had been running "Vega$"
but it seems they have dropped it entirely.. so I'm not sure it's actually running
on any network anymore.. if you know more, email me.
Besides the gorgeous and well-endowed Phyllis Davis (there's one episode towards the end of the series' run
which has her being held hostage in one of the Desert Inn's Suites and she's wearing this
flimsy purple dress and.. well.. sigh.. what a doll!).. and other showgirl types, the series was also
rather famous for the horrible continuity of its
driving sequences - Dan was based out of the Desert Inn Hotel and
Country Club (who, no doubt, pumped a lot of money into the production
of the series), and quite often the shots of him driving around
the city made no sense at all, if one knows which roads in Vegas
intersect with which other roads. Many shots of him talking to
his office help (Bea or Binzer or whoever) on his car phone had him driving up one side of
the Strip and down the other, blocks apart, during the same short conversation :) But this kind
of continuity goof is pretty common in almost every series or movie ever shot in
Vega$. I guess producers and directors figure no one will notice. Guess what..
people notice :)
When we were there, the house building was stripped of all set decorations
and signs, and looked pretty crappy, and if you'd never seen the TV series,
you could drive past it and never give it a second thought. We found it due to
remembering that in some episodes one could see Dan pulling into his garage with
the big Circus Circus Clown Sign in the background.
Alas, Dan's "house" is long since torn down, replaced by a small
shopping area with that Arby's.. But back in 1984 when it was still there, some friends
and I located it and took pictures of each other posing in front
of it. These shots depict me standing in front of Dan Tanna's house, leaning against my rented
1984 Firebird. Damn, Hertz was fresh out of red 1956 T-Birds.
Click on one of the thumbnails to see the full size picture. Then,
if you wish, for some bizarre reason, to save it, use whatever method
your browser has (usually right-mouse-click and hold) to save the
bigger image to your drive.
These images were shot by me on 35mm film, then scanned by me with my Epson ES300c flatbed
color 24 bit scanner, using my Amiga 2500/060 and Art Department
Professional, from 4x6 Kodak photo prints.
You may download these images for your own perverse personal pleasure,
however I own copyright to them and you are strictly forbidden from
re-distributing them, putting them on other web sites, or including
them in any kind of disk, CD or online image collection, or selling
them to any media outlet, whether printed or electronic, without
explicit written permission from me. So there.
Around 1980-ish, Corgi Toys of the U.K. issued this die-cast scale model replica of
Dan Tanna sitting in his 1950s T-Bird in this wonderful diorama window box,
pointing a gun over his shoulder, probably at some ne'er do well criminal scumbag..
this one, Mint In Box :) is in my collection.. they can be found on eBay from time to time..
expect to pay from $40.00 to $100.00 for a nice example.. depending on how crazy the bidding gets..
Original price was around $5.00..
And a very personal note.. Greg and Louise Johnson from Australia.. if you nice people ever stumble
upon this Web Page.. please contact me! I miss you!!.. Does the toy look familiar??.. :) ..
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Filmography links courtesy of IMDb link-it programme.
