Around the dial, from A to Z

Happy Friday, and happy reading, as we take a quick look around at some of the more interesting articles at the television blogosphere.  And by the way, if you either have a TV site or know of one that isn't included in the sidebar list, please send me an email or mention it in the comments section - I'm always on the lookout for good stuff.

At Christmas TV History, Joanna reviews a fun Christmas episode from The Man From U.N.C.L.E.  Friday night is U.N.C.L.E. night on Hadleyvision, and it's been fun even though we're now in the dreadful third season.  By chance, we saw this Christmas episode at Christmastime last year (although I think I might have had to manipulate the order by an episode or two to pull it off), and Joanna is spot on.  The clips of the Macy's parade alone make the episode worth it - all the references to shows of the time!

Amanda at Made for TV Mayhem is starting a podcast, co-hosted by Dan R. Budnik, co-author of Bleeding Skull: A 1980s Horror-Trash Odyssey,   Sounds like fun listening, something to add to your podcast links.

A nice reminiscence of Jule Huffman, host of the kids show Mr. Cartoon in Huntington, West Virginia, at Thrilling Days of Yesteryear.  I'm not familiar with the show myself, of course, but in Ivan's lookback I can see all the local kids shows of my own youth, and the hosts who made them so special.  A lost part of television, to be sure, but a lost part of the childhood experience as well.  You can read more about these shows in Tim Hollis' great Hi There Boys and Girls!

In my Monday listings, I often talk about local TV stations that were split affiliates, offering programs from two (or more!) networks.  The Broadcasting Archives at the University of Maryland has an add for one of them, WAPI in Birmingham.  Interesting that from '63 to '65, Huntley-Brinkley was the only national news broadcast seen in Birmingham.

I haven't watched Saturday Night Live for decades, but All Things Kevyn has a very good list of every SNL cast member from the beginning, ranked from worst to best.

Speaking of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. as we were earlier, this week's TV Guide review at Television Obscurities features the show's stars, Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, on the cover.  As seems to be so often the case, although the picture is of the two of them, the article only profiles one - in this case, McCallum (my favorite of the two), who's certainly had a long and successful career in television.

And The TV Guide Historian has an example of two ads that disappeared from the magazine sometime, I'd guess, in the late '60s or early '70s -  a movie playing at a local theater, and a local restaurant.  By the '70s, the ads were solely for TV shows, although I think the stray astrologer ad still featured.  They introduced a classified section sometime not long before I cancelled my subscription. TV