July 3, 2015

Around the dial

It's been a couple of weeks since we've taken a spin around the dial, so let's see what the latest is as we begin this holiday weekend.

A nice little piece on Charles Osgood over at the University of Maryland's Broadcast Archives.  I remember when he was primarily known for his radio commentaries, long before he took over on Sunday Morning; "There's plenty of it to be had/and some is good and some is bad/and some is barely worth the price./I speak, of course, of free advice."

Joanna Wilson at Christmas TV History has been doing her Christmas TV Party again this summer; doofus that I am, I didn't get anything of mine to her this year, but fortunately she's gone right on without me.  Check back from the past month; some wonderful Christmas TV memories to be had.

The Last Drive In has a birthday tribute to the great Charles Laughton, who's known primarily for his movie roles, but classic TV fans will certainly remember him for his wonderful performance in Witness for the Prosecution, which airs regularly on TCM. 

I want to thank Cult TV for the very kind mention of my Patrick Macnee obituary last week, and I'd like to return the favor by pointing to his very good piece on the Paul Temple movies, in which he sees the echoes of The Avengers.  I always appreciate his tips, and this series, which I hadn't heard of until now, looks like it could be quite fun.  (And the Secret Sanctum of Captain Video is quite right; Patrick Macnee will be missed.)

A fun piece over at an unlikely place for classic TV: Wayfair.com.  You'd usually go there for home furnishings and accessories, (and I think you should!), but definitely go there for this piece on real world TV home prices.  That should answer any questions you've ever had, no?

I don't think I'm stretching the definition of "classic TV" when I talk about the old CNN Headline News channel - you remember, when they actually had news instead of features and puff pieces?  One of their best anchors, Lynne **sigh** Russell, was back in the news this week when her husband shot and killed an armed intruder who threatened them in their hotel room.  Considering that she's pretty handy with a gun herself (from what I can remember), I wasn't surprised a bit.  Hope her hubby gets better soon!

Staying with current television but harking back to some of the complaints of the Golden Age, I see rumor has it that ESPN is putting pressure on Keith Olbermann to stop ragging on the NFL during his commentaries.  They had the same problem with Bill Simmons, of course, and word was that the league had something to do with the network pulling out of that concussion documentary a few years ago.  Of course, producers and writers have complained for decades about content interference by networks and sponsors (e.g. Rod Serling), so I guess it's indeed true that some things don't change.

I trust you're keeping up with Television Obscurities' TV Guide reviews, so I'll direct your attention to another post, on a more dubious note: the 74th anniversary of television's first commercial.  It's funny, isn't it - we can buy DVD sets of classic commercials of the past that the viewers of the day probably cursed (and missed because they were going to the bathroom or the kitchen), and many years the ones on the Super Bowl probably get more attention than the game itself.  And yet there's one thing that's always consistent: we always complain about commercials. TV  

1 comment:

  1. Excellent post.

    I would also like to invite you to participate in my upcoming blogathon in August. The link is below with more details.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for writing! Drive safely!