January 29, 2016

Once "Around the Dial," Maestro

The title for this week's entry comes from our first story, a very interesting link from Terry Teachout on Leonard Bernstein's Young Peoples Concerts on CBS, and why they had such prominence when they were aired. In this Saturday's TV Guide review I take some time to look at a typical Sunday afternoon of programming back in the early '60s, also known as the timeslot where cultural shows went to die. It's quite interesting to note that half of Bernstein's concerts appeared not in this Sunday afternoon slot, but in prime time. How things change.

Speaking of Teachout, you'll recall that last year I wrote about Bob Hope, and how Teachout had identified him as a man largely forgotten today. I had my doubts, which have increased since then, and that's why this piece from the AV Club on the lasting influence of the Crosby-Hope "Road" movies interested me. Forgotten by individuals, perhaps, but still present in what we watch.

At Comfort TV, David delivers a timely message, one with which I agree wholeheartedly: Do not leave this world without tracking down The Fugitive. Message received?  By the way, for those of you who like to mix genres, my obituary of Andy Griffith included my surmise of what might have happened if Dr. Richard Kimble had strayed into Mayberry. It's not played for yukks, either.

I've always had something of an affinity for losers, having been one (big time) when I ran for political office in a previous life.* Naturally, therefore, I was attracted to Cult TV's article on the obscure British show The Losers, starring Reginald Perrin's Leonard Rossiter.

*So much so that I used to joke our campaign theme ought to have been Beck's "Loser."

Television Obscurities has a piece on the state of classic TV on television, which gives us a rundown on the increasing number of classic TV channels, and what you can expect on each of them. In our apartment building, thanks to ATT Uverse, all we can get is MeTV, which means an HD antenna may well be in our future.

Those Were the Days has some great images in their collection, and this one is a terrific TV Guide cover from 1956 with Janis Page. The colors on that are so vivid; they leap off the page so much more than the covers today. (Check out the green logo!) And of course Janis isn't bad either.

And speaking of images, Faded Signals has some great ones from the good old days when Dallas was on the air. That's my adopted hometown you're talking about now, and although some of the sites (like Texas Stadium) have since disappeared, there's still a lot of the skyline to see.

Many thanks to you who wished me well last week while I recovered from my brief bout of something or other, from which I've mostly recovered thanks to the miracle of modern pharmaceuticals. Let's celebrate with a new issue of TV Guide tomorrow!  What's that, you say I do that every Saturday anyway? Well, we'll still take a look at it! TV  

No comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for writing! Drive safely!