tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.comments2024-03-17T18:19:49.076-04:00It's About TVMitchell Hadleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695771505209080030noreply@blogger.comBlogger7232125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-14707759471282323982024-03-17T18:12:12.810-04:002024-03-17T18:12:12.810-04:00My mother used to talk about "December Bride&...My mother used to talk about "December Bride". It was never in syndication as far as I know. Outside of being the first show that spawned a spin-off, it was also taped on the same set as I Love Lucy. <br />Speaking of mom, she LOVED Tennessee Ernie Ford and his variety show. <br />Dad used to talk about the anthology shows and Martin Kane Private Eye.<br />I think our WW2 era parents didn't think of it as a 'golden age' at the time, you never realize what you had until it was gone. James McGrailhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11690828148447506956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-48404297006561464102024-03-16T12:40:25.726-04:002024-03-16T12:40:25.726-04:00Monday night's I LOVE LUCY episode on CBS was ...Monday night's I LOVE LUCY episode on CBS was "Don Juan Is Shelved", part of the show's arc that had the Ricardos & Mertzes in Hollywood.<br /><br />MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY was on ABC, not CBS. It didn't move to CBS until 1957, by which time its name was changed to THE DANNY THOMAS SHOW.<br /><br />Molly Bee, a regular on Tennessee Ernie Ford's daytime show, was 1 of 3 hosts (Jimmy Draper & Roy Clark were the others.) of NBC's SWINGIN' COUNTRY, a daytime country music variety show which lasted through the 2nd half of 1966.<br />Jonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00483417885845331990noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-36315954292552644362024-03-15T16:56:15.158-04:002024-03-15T16:56:15.158-04:00I remember that 1973 Friday night lineup! I know I...I remember that 1973 Friday night lineup! I know I watched The Odd Couple and Room 222. I also remember a show called Bridget Loves Bernie that I think may have been on Friday, but probably from another year.Jack Seabrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02216640325305820140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-69972542507575293142024-03-15T16:35:03.386-04:002024-03-15T16:35:03.386-04:00Two of those short-lived shows mentioned in Comfor...Two of those short-lived shows mentioned in Comfort TV I watched as a kid I would LOVE to see again: The Chicago Teddy Bears and The Sixth Sense. Both of which might not even exist anymore. <br />The CTB just for the cast: Dean Jones, former Bowery Boy Huntz Hall, a pre-MASH Jamie Farr, and a post-Hogan's Heroes John Banner. <br />The Sixth Sense (sort of precursor to The Night Stalker) was chopped up and rerun for Night Gallery in syndication. The hour-long episodes are presumed to be lost. James McGrailhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11690828148447506956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-21283101451059195892024-03-15T06:32:06.017-04:002024-03-15T06:32:06.017-04:00I like your take on false jeopardy because I see i...I like your take on false jeopardy because I see it as tending to make us passive in the face of real jeopardy. We expect the good guys to win and forget that they don't always...<br />I don't have the £36 to shell out on a series I've never seen because I would like to see the transfer of the safe, which surely would require some serious engineering!John Berry (he/him)https://www.blogger.com/profile/17980394612113328907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-10868029327007147882024-03-13T20:06:44.326-04:002024-03-13T20:06:44.326-04:00You'll notice it was created by the guys that ...You'll notice it was created by the guys that gave us Columbo, Richard Levinson and William Link. <br />And Eric Braeden is still with us and still working, which I was amazed at.James McGrailhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11690828148447506956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-90348987759892480772024-03-08T17:12:13.927-05:002024-03-08T17:12:13.927-05:00Thanks, Mitchell!Thanks, Mitchell!Jack Seabrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02216640325305820140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-75524424114656576482024-03-06T22:14:57.635-05:002024-03-06T22:14:57.635-05:00I'll be interested to see what you think. I be...I'll be interested to see what you think. I believe that (at the moment) all the episodes are on YouTube.Mitchell Hadleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08695771505209080030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-75700295431693337952024-03-06T22:14:23.759-05:002024-03-06T22:14:23.759-05:00Don't worry - your secret's safe with me.Don't worry - your secret's safe with me.Mitchell Hadleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08695771505209080030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-71359007684575838072024-03-06T18:35:33.709-05:002024-03-06T18:35:33.709-05:00To let you in on a secret...those British accents ...To let you in on a secret...those British accents were adopted by the cast especially for filming. When nobody's watching we speak American English, except for when we're intime chez nous when we speak French. But don't tell anyone. John Berry (he/him)https://www.blogger.com/profile/17980394612113328907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-47125131530504655512024-03-06T14:21:14.921-05:002024-03-06T14:21:14.921-05:00I watched the Maigret from the 80s you mentioned o...I watched the Maigret from the 80s you mentioned on Britbox a few years ago. It just didn't 'grab' me enough to watch anymore. I tried again with Rowan Atkinson, if anything just to see him do drama, and I had same reaction. <br />However, from what I have seen of the B/W Rupert Davies episodes on YouTube, it looks pretty good. I'll have to check them out. James McGrailhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11690828148447506956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-8335923206974199832024-03-04T19:43:56.768-05:002024-03-04T19:43:56.768-05:00TV has never produced a decent show about the ment...TV has never produced a decent show about the mental health profession. No, I don't count the Bob Newhart Show. <br />Being my wife is a clinical social worker, I often point out the only TV show about a Social Worker was the short-lived East Side, West Side. Midway through the first season he quit and started working for a politician. James McGrailhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11690828148447506956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-32645394569977793372024-03-04T19:37:03.653-05:002024-03-04T19:37:03.653-05:00Thanks for the mention.
You're right, they don...Thanks for the mention.<br />You're right, they don't make journalists like that anymore. <br />This bears repeating:<br />"We can’t weigh a story and say we shouldn’t print it because somebody might get hurt. Sometimes people do get hurt. Sometimes careers are ruined, governments are brought down. But, if the story is there, we have to print it. It’s our job."<br />From Lou Grant, a US TV reporter series from the 1970s.<br />Propaganda is passive, whatever the powers that be approve for public consumption. Those in power never worry about the propaganda because they serve the same aim.<br />Real journalism asks questions, very UNCOMFORTABLE questions of the power brokers. When a news reporter enters the room, the response of those in power should never be “oh here comes my good friend______.” It should instead be “oh damn, not HIM again.”<br />When we lose the ability to think, to reason, to ask uncomfortable question, we no longer have freedom of the press.James McGrailhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11690828148447506956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-77071955082071703532024-03-02T13:44:49.730-05:002024-03-02T13:44:49.730-05:00Perhaps that's why the strongest anti-war film...Perhaps that's why the strongest anti-war films or TV show the price that is paid when you train men to be killing machines. As national memories fade, the true horror of conflict becomes re-invented in the ‘glorious adventurism’ of war for the next generation.<br />There's a scene in the Britcom Only Fools in Horses that has the grandfather's reflections on WW1, stronger if you can hear it with his Cockney accent: <br />“My brother George was at Passchendaele. Half a million allied troops died there, all for five miles of mud! <br />I was at Kings Cross Station when his regiment come home after the Armistice. Most of them was carried off the train. I saw men with limbs missing, blind men, men who couldn't breathe properly because their lungs had been shot to bits by mustard gas. <br />While the nation celebrated, they was hidden away in big, grey buildings— far from the public gaze! (chokes back tears). <br />I mean, courage like that could put you right off your victory tea, couldn't it? (silence) <br />They promised us homes fit for heroes. <br />They give us heroes fit for homes.”<br />That final phrase became a bitter line often repeated in post-war Britain.<br />Oddly enough (or not) I once heard a guest on Fox "news" brag about a new housing program for vets called "homes for heroes".<br />We never learn, do we?James McGrailhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11690828148447506956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-49431002865724366402024-03-02T12:39:51.320-05:002024-03-02T12:39:51.320-05:00Ah, there's the rub, James. I could be wrong o...Ah, there's the rub, James. I could be wrong on this, but I think your distinction points to the difference between being a conscientious objector and a pacifist. A C.O. is basing his decision on his conscience, rather than a moral objection to war; thus, while a C.O. could serve -- as a medic, for example, or a non-combatant -- a pacifist could not. Again, I could be all wet about this, but that's how I'd understand it.<br /><br />And I think you raise a very interesting question. I don't consider myself a pacifist, but many's the time I've watched a war drama and wondered about the morality of training men to become, essentially, killing machines. You can't fight a war without soldiers, but geez, it's a helluva price to pay. Mitchell Hadleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08695771505209080030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-14892474677191589422024-03-02T12:32:32.734-05:002024-03-02T12:32:32.734-05:00The always-reliable Wikipedia is wrong on this one...The always-reliable Wikipedia is wrong on this one; Dr. Bassett was a psychiatrist, Dr. Graham a psychologist. (Changed the paragraph to make that clearer.) They share an office, and were both intended to be psychiatrists until it was pointed out to Felton that psychiatrists do not share office space; it was at that point that Dr. Graham was changed to a psychologist. When Ralph Bellamy replaced Wendell Corey for the second season, he introduced a new character: Dr. Starke, who was also a psychiatrist.<br /><br />The episode with Don Grady is very good.Mitchell Hadleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08695771505209080030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-91770774460724508082024-03-02T12:26:17.421-05:002024-03-02T12:26:17.421-05:00Your 3rd paragraph seems to indicate that the lead...Your 3rd paragraph seems to indicate that the lead characters could be psychologists rather than psychiatrists. I'm glad you added your note indicating the difference. From what I see in Wiki, the characters were psychiatrists, handling very serious cases. Sam Rolfe, the producer of this show, along with Norman Felton worked on UNCLE a couple years later. The Paley Center has an episode which has Don Grady taking time away from MY THREE SONS to play a delinquent. The 2 psychiatrists have the whole family in therapy to uncover what's causing his delinquency: https://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=&p=1&item=T82:0321<br /><br />Speaking of MY THREE SONS, it didn't leave ABC until 2 seasons later (1965), when CBS took it over (I don't think ABC cancelled it.) and switched it from B&W to color.<br /><br />Jonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00483417885845331990noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-77624128286585677032024-03-01T10:17:16.479-05:002024-03-01T10:17:16.479-05:00One more thought Mitchell.
MASH always touted the...One more thought Mitchell. <br />MASH always touted themselves as anti-war. But I remember one episode in the later years (when it switched from comedy to drama) in which Hawkeye, in a moment of reflection, had this to say (paraphrasing from memory): 'We're basically in weapons repair. We patch kids up so they go back out and kill or get killed themselves'. <br />That moment of honesty (IMO) displayed the basic hypocrisy of the series. They couldn't dodge the moral dilemma staring them in the face. Can you be truly antiwar if you are part of the war machine? James McGrailhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11690828148447506956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-29346826909681014722024-02-28T18:23:15.339-05:002024-02-28T18:23:15.339-05:00I tend to be more Libertarian in my views on war a...I tend to be more Libertarian in my views on war and the military industrial complex. The horrors of war are never depicted in fiction as it really is. Crooner Tony Bennett, a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge, said war films should never be seen as an "adventure", but closer to a horror story. People who experienced that horror refuse to watch war themed tv shows or movies. And I understand that. <br />So why do I watch Hogan's Heroes? To me its an alternate reality. The Nazis were the bad guys and needed to be defeated. I've never looked at the show as 'realistic' at all. Although there are moments that are truer to life than people realize. There were Sgts like Shultz. There were gullible officers like Klink. <br />The British sitcom Allo Allo goes even further in showing that many Nazis were outright thieves and cowards. Many in the French resistance confirmed it was closer to reality than many realize. <br />Even as "alternate reality", we still can't dodge the moral implications of it. Maybe that's why we call it 'fiction'.James McGrailhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11690828148447506956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-87925200035932306732024-02-26T09:12:25.758-05:002024-02-26T09:12:25.758-05:00Today's episode of STORYBOOK SQUARES is the on...Today's episode of STORYBOOK SQUARES is the one that survived tape erasers, and last time I looked it was available on YT.<br />Victoria Meyerlink on tonight's DATING GAME appeared frequently on MY THREE SONS as a friend of Dodie's, and she appeared at the beginning of GREEN ACRES Season 6 as a city child who lived with the Douglases for awhile.Jonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00483417885845331990noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-80780552365114751982024-02-25T11:37:19.081-05:002024-02-25T11:37:19.081-05:00Thanks, Mitchell!Thanks, Mitchell!Jack Seabrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02216640325305820140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-82257246279525068492024-02-24T14:06:15.421-05:002024-02-24T14:06:15.421-05:00Raymond Burr was certainly a person of high charac...Raymond Burr was certainly a person of high character and loyal to his co-workers on Perry Mason. He stood behind William Talman when CBS wanted to fire him from the show. He also demanded Ray Collins name remain in the credits after he died so his widow would be compensated. James McGrailhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11690828148447506956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-33907389309745000362024-02-22T19:56:18.080-05:002024-02-22T19:56:18.080-05:00It does and it does.It does and it does.Mitchell Hadleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08695771505209080030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-47468105372878557342024-02-22T19:56:03.743-05:002024-02-22T19:56:03.743-05:00Unfortunately not; there's a gray market set o...Unfortunately not; there's a gray market set out there, but I suspect it includes the same elements. The better-quality recordings I have seen tend to have come from the show's brief run on TV Land, and are heavily edited to provide for more commercials. If you can get past the quality of the recording, though, the quality of the show is superior.Mitchell Hadleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08695771505209080030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-56167986280703504712024-02-22T18:08:21.137-05:002024-02-22T18:08:21.137-05:00Is the show streaming anywhere? Only a few episode...Is the show streaming anywhere? Only a few episodes are on YouTube and they are poor quality. James McGrailhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11690828148447506956noreply@blogger.com