Laurence Hugo, who plays Mike Karr on the CBS daytime serial The Edge of Night , has been on a leave of absence, touring thoroughout the country, playing King Claudius to Judith Anderson's Hamlet. He's a handsome man, with a Vandyke beard at present, and quite impressive.

"Now that your tour's almost ended," I said, "do you think you'll return soon? There's big trouble in Monticello that only Mike Karr, the greatest attorney this side of Louis Nizer, could clear up."

"Such as?" he countered. He's played some 79 theaters with Dame Judith, which hasn't left much time to watch daytime television.

"Well," I said, "for starters, your daughter Laurie Ann has moved into a hippie pad. He present boyfriend Jonah, the idealist with long curls, talked her into giving the air to Vic Lamont, your law partner, who is keeping up the good work at the office while you're gone. Laurie doesn't like the Eagle Scout type any more, but every time she leaves the pad for school, Jonah sneaks in and starts kissing her roommate. If you'll excuse the expression, I don't think Laurie knows the score."

"What does my wife Nancy think about all this?" he asked, fingering his beard and looking upset.

"She ran off with a used-car salesman," I said.

"What!" he ejaculated, almost jumping in the air like Nijinsky.

"Forgive me," I soothed. "I'm only kidding. Don't you know by this time that Nancy is the perfect wife, woman, helpmate, lover of truth? She sees beauty in everything, even an unpressed suitor."

"That's my Nancy," he said with a smile.

"But," I continued, "your sister-in-law Cookie has gone bonkers because she caught her husband playing patty-cake with a senator's wife; your friend Liz Hillyer's fiance Jim Fields has been wrongly arrested for the murder of his former girlfriend Rosella. Martha, the wife of the chief of police, your good friend Bill Marceau, was almost mugged. Adam Drake, your former law partner, and his lady friend Nicole Travis have gone down to a small banana island in the Caribbean looking for somebody who might have murdered the wife of the son of the senator's mother, whose brother said that the fiance of Liz had a date with a girl who was murdered in his bed, but Liz put up the money to get Jim out on bail, and Jim's friend is the psychiatrist who is taking care of Cookie, remember--she is the one who is off her marbles because of her husband.

"What do you think?" he asked.

"I think you should get back to Monticello posthaste, find out who killed Liz's fiance's old girlfriend, nab the mugger of Martha, the police chief's wife..."

"Doesn't the police chief even have a lead on who attacked his own wife?"

"No," I said, "But you must remember that Bill Marceau has for fifteen years been arresting innocent people for murder, and this takes a lot of time. He must first get the wrong clues, ask a lot of questions, make a lot of deductions, and put up with a grouchy subordinate who insists the wrong person is the murderer. But one thing I will say for Bill Marceau. After you find the real killer, he always apologizes to the one he arrested. It takes a big man to admit to a mistake like that."

"Do you mean to tell me there isn't a soul in Monticello who has any idea what's behind all this hugger-mugger?" he said in horror.

"Yes," I assured him. "Adam Drake wasn't your law partner for nothing. He suspects that the brother of the senator's mother is the bad guy, but Adam's still down South working on his meaningful relationship, and trying to find out who murdered this man who went down there with Adam and Nicole."

"You mean there's still another one who's been murdered?" he exclaimed.

A bystander, who had been hanging onto every word, broke in.

"He was a schoolteacher who went along on vacation to visit some relatives, but he was helping them find out who murdered the girl who was maried to the senator's mother's other son, who got engaged to a girl in Monticello, but the brother died without the fiancee's knowing that he had been married to another girl to whom he was still married. You see, first Nancy went down to this island while you've been up in Capital City with the Governor trying to figure out how to fight crime, but somebody put a big, black spider in Nancy's bed because she was looking for the girl who married the senator's mother's other son. . ."

"How do you know all this?" asked Mike with interest.

"My mother and her friends watch it every day, and she gives me a rundown on it when I get home," she said politely."

"There's something rotten in Monticello," said the King, borrowing a phrase from his stepson. "But don't worry. As soon as we bury Hamlet, I shall return and bring them all to justice."

"How?" we said.

"I'm terribly sorry," he said, "but you'll have to tune in and watch, like everybody else."

[This article first appeared in TV GUIDE June 26, 1971]