Mickey Rooney guest stars in Checkmate as an old friend and client of Dr. Sebastian Cabot. Cabot remembers him as this meek little man who was a commercial draftsman. Now he's gone a personality change as if he's taken one of those assertive aggressive courses and is now a really boorish behaved individual to all around him.
However Rooney still has a lot of inner demons and just wants out of being a celebrity cartoonist. His strip concerns a romance novel action figure and he wants to kill it and move on as he finds the character taking him over. But some folks have a vested interest and are tired of being treated like doormats. So there's a nice little plot going to either kill him outright or drive him nuts.
It's not too hard to figure out who, but Rooney turns in a compelling performance of a man putting up an obnoxious front that's overtaking the real him.
Also there's a real treat in store when agent Betty Lou Gerson not knowing at first that Doug McClure is a Checkmate operative thinks he's another prospective pretty boy actor. A lot like the real McClure. Gerson not knowing it provides the solution to Checkmate's problems with Rooney.
You should watch this episode for the McClure/Gerson scene in any event.
However Rooney still has a lot of inner demons and just wants out of being a celebrity cartoonist. His strip concerns a romance novel action figure and he wants to kill it and move on as he finds the character taking him over. But some folks have a vested interest and are tired of being treated like doormats. So there's a nice little plot going to either kill him outright or drive him nuts.
It's not too hard to figure out who, but Rooney turns in a compelling performance of a man putting up an obnoxious front that's overtaking the real him.
Also there's a real treat in store when agent Betty Lou Gerson not knowing at first that Doug McClure is a Checkmate operative thinks he's another prospective pretty boy actor. A lot like the real McClure. Gerson not knowing it provides the solution to Checkmate's problems with Rooney.
You should watch this episode for the McClure/Gerson scene in any event.