September 18, 2015

Around the dial

Random thought: why didn't I call this feature "This Week's Best Bets" when I started it?  Named after the old TV Guide page, you know.  I must have been too enamored with the idea of posting pictures of different television dials.  Oh well.  Another idea for another time.

It is true, however, that these are the best bets of the week.  First off, though, here's an update on the progress of the crossword puzzle we started on Wednesday.  Keep going, everyone - you're doing great so far!


I usually get my fix of British TV from Cult TV Blog, and we'll get to that shortly, but first this digression to a nice piece at Classic Film and TV Cafe on two British shows I've never seen, one of which I've never heard of.  I've read about The Baron; just never motivated enough to check out a clip on YouTube, let alone buy the set.  But Adam Adamant Lives! has escaped my attention completely.  If you're reading this Cult TV, do you have any thoughts?

In Monday's TV listings feature, I mentioned Bowling for Dollars, which should not be confused with Celebrity Bowling.  It's the later that takes center stage here, as David of Comfort TV writes about that show's appearances by members of The Brady Bunch.  Not everyone would admit to owning this DVD, and for that alone I want to shake David's hand; if you ever make it to Dallas, David, I'm buying you dinner!

If you like those old TV listings, then check out The TV Guide Historian - there are a slew of them up this week (try this one on for size), and each one of them - as, indeed, is the case anytime one looks at old listings - tells a very specific story of time and place, and generates strong emotions, even if they're only of curiosity.  Which is why we keep coming back to them week after week.

Now, back to Cult TV.  To top off a week of good posts, there's an excellent essay on another show with which I'm not familiar: The Strange World of Gurney Slade, starring Anthony Newley! (Who knew?). To say I'm intrigued, after both the positive and negative comments in the essay, is an understatement.  Here's the opening scene from the first episode to give you an idea of how quirky this show was.  Now, to figure out how to see more of it...


Michael's TV Tray has a commercial for a do-it-at-home milkshake.  Did I ever have this, or something like it?  There seems to be something familiar about it, some sense of disappointment that it didn't measure up to the ones that I would get at Bridgeman's.

By the way, when you're browsing through the links on the sidebar, you might notice that some of the sites appear to be abandoned; that is, there hasn't been any new content for quite some time.  And this is true.  However, I keep the links up there because there's almost always something interesting buried in there somewhere (otherwise, I wouldn't have linked to it in the first place), and I'll bet none of us have read them all.

Rest assured that if I ever abandon this blog - and if I call it a day, you'll know about it; this won't be one of those where all of a sudden there are no new posts and no explanation - I'll still leave it up, so you can see what you've missed.  But one thing you shouldn't miss is tomorrow's TV Guide review, so be here! TV  

1 comment:

  1. Ah yes, I'm reading & think Adam Adamant Lives is great! I'm sure I've posted about a couple of episodes myself, but the show doesn't seem well-known, or popular. Gurney Spade is available in it's entirety on region 2 DVD.

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