February 26, 2016

Around the dial

As you know, Mannix has a preferred spot in my Saturday night viewing, and so it was good to read The Flaming Nose's endorsement of Mannix as "excellent entertainment."  It is, perhaps, the perfect blend of a character's private life - in this case, as simple as giving us the eminently human Joe Mannix - and his work, at which he is very good. As The Nose says, "He was also a nice guy. I miss nice people. We now seem to search out the weird and the cruel." Isn't that the truth?

Us television viewers are so picky; sometimes I think we allow ourselves to let the perfect become the enemy of the good. Of course, I wouldn't say that if I weren't a picky viewer myself, and although a lot of the shows I pick on are ones that I can't stand (e.g. NCIS, SVU), I even do it with some of my favorite shows - just ask my wife if you don't believe me. So I enjoyed this piece at The Last Drive In on two counts - in looking at the questionable science found in Planet of the Apes, it not only looks at a movie I enjoy (as does the writer), I also have fun with the nits being picked.*

*Eew, gross!

I don't eat a lot of pie, but when I do eat pie, cherry pie is one of my favorites. Michael's TV Tray points out that February 20 was National Cherry Pie day, something which I did not know. Of course, from a consumption standpoint it doesn't matter that I didn't know about it - I don't eat desserts during Lent anyway - but at least I could have watched an episode of Twin Peaks, right?

My more recent TV Guide reviews have spent a lot of time in the mid '50s (and will continue to do so over the next few weeks), and if you enjoy them then you'll appreciate Television Obscurities' look at the Nielsen ratings for the end of January, 1956. It's one of the best snapshots of what television (and America) looked like at that point in history; so much so, in fact, that I might well borrow these ratings when I look at a future issue.

Those who fondly remember the Sid & Marty Krofft Saturday morning kids' shows will likely be interested in TV Time Machine's interview with Marty in which he discusses his Nickelodeon series Mutt and Stuff.

And at Those Were the Days, it's a look at another issue of TV Guide - this one from February 25, 1956 with the delightful Gisele MacKenzie on the cover.

Finally, for those of you who remember when the Oscars was fun TV, I've got a piece at The Other Blog with my review of the Oscarcast - even though it isn't on until Sunday. It's that predictable. TV  

2 comments:

  1. I'm surprised they didn't make National Cherry Pie day February 22nd instead, considering that's George Washington's birthday. I recall when I was in high school in the 70's having an after school job at McDonalds. We always had a ton of sales on their cherry pie on Washington's birthday. In fact, they may even had some sort of tie-in sale, but I don't remember that for sure.

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  2. Mannix, the more I watch his show, the more I love it all over again. I was a child with an autographed blac and white photo of him taped to my closet door. My mom gushed over him but he was too old for me to really appreciate. Even so, I enjoyed seeing his rugged sweet face then. Just recently I came across Joe Mannix on MeTV and couldn't help but dance to the theme song! What an up-lifting beat! Loved seeing the same blond girl in that white short dress spin around and those great retro block graphics. Mike Connors really was a natural with his wonderful expressions where words weren't needed. I think I like the show better than I did when I was a child. Mannix, wow, sad that he died but happy he lived to 91. I just turned my friend onto him too. He was a part of my memory that came back to life again. Thank you for his mention! Cathy

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Thanks for writing! Drive safely!