May 27, 2016

Around the dial

bare-bones e-zine continues "The Hitchcock Project," which is particularly enjoyable for me insofar as it is currently reviewing a series of episodes I've seen in the last few months. This week, it's the droll 1958 story "Fatal Figures," with the wonderful John McGiver in the lead role. Once you've read about it, you'll want to see it.

Speaking of Hitch, Christmas TV History takes us back to the 1955 Christmas episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, "Santa Claus and the 10th Avenue Kid," with a terrific performance from the great Barry Fitzgerald, although it is sad to think that he embarked on a life of crime after apparently giving up the priesthood. (As the man says, "That's a joke, son.")

The Broadcasting Archives at the University of Maryland has a pictorial tribute to actor Ben Alexander on the occasion of his 105th birthday. He's best known as Officer Frank Smith, the quirky partner to Jack Webb's Joe Friday on the original Dragnet, but he had other acting gigs as well, and even hosted a game show. As good as it may have been, I'll always resent Felony Squad because, by appearing in it as a regular, it prevented Alexander from reuniting with Webb on the late '60s rebirth of Dragnet.

Carol Ford has an excerpt from Bob Crane's 1960 appearance on Del Moore's radio show at Vote For Bob Crane. One of the many good aspects of Carol's biography of Crane is that it reminds us of the impact he had in radio prior to starring in Hogan's Heroes, and this serves to give us an example of that radio talent at work, even as a guest.

Envisioning a parody of a parody is kind of like getting lost in an Escher drawing, but Cult TV Blog is able to pull it off with this look at these very funny (and very dirty) parodies of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. I wonder why nobody's thought to make a Man From S.T.U.D. movie series yet? It sounds as if it would have been right up Showtime's alley, back in the day. Now watch as someone tells me it's already been done...

British TV Detectives introduces us to another of the iconic characters that have populated shows like Masterpiece Mystery over the years, with this review of A Touch of Frost. I confess that this is one I've never checked out, though I'm certainly familiar with it. Perhaps I should give it a chance - that is, whenever I get the time.

I tend to like television episodes penned by the late Stephen J. Cannell, although I'll always remember him best for his over-the-top performances as Jackson Burley in Diagnosis: Murder.* Lincoln X-ray Ida takes us to one of those episodes, the lightly humorous Season 3 episode  "Post Time."

*I seldom ever watched that series, but always made time for it when Cannell was on.

At The Horn Section, Hal takes a look at the ultimate hip-cop series Get Christie Love! (and you have to love the exclamation point, don't you?) with the baddest lady cop of them all, Teresa Graves, in the episode "Highway to Murder."  Friends, if you find yourself on that road, take my advice and get off of it as soon as possible. Does guest star Clu Gulager play a psychotic? What do you think?

Finally, a reminder that if you liked the Movin' On interviews yesterday, head on over to their Facebook page as well as the link to their website, which you can find on the sidebar. TV  

1 comment:

Thanks for writing! Drive safely!