September 8, 2017

Around the dial

Sure enough, no sooner do I get everything put up for last week, we have two more of the classic TV greats die. First: Richard Anderson, who it would seem was never out of work in the '60s and '70s, between a turn as a regular on Perry Mason, his best-known turn as Oscar Goldman on both The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman, and more guests shots on TV series and movies than you can count. A man who has that much work only succeeds because he's good, and people know it.

And then there was Shelly Berman, one of the "sick" stand-up comedians of the late '50s and early '60s, who turned out to be a very, very good dramatic and comedic actor. I enjoyed his appearances on everything from The Twilight Zone to Peter Gunn, and he was nominated for a Emmy for Curb Your Enthusiasm. I recall someone discussing how good comedians were as dramatic actors (Don Rickles was another), probably because the root of so much comedy comes from personal drama.

In this vein, let's start off with Fire-Breathing Dimetrodon Time's look back at the season two episode of The Bionic Woman entitled, appropriately enough, "Kill Oscar." P.S.: it fails, fortunately not only for the free world but for all of us watching at home.

The Washingtonian has this ridiculous profile - actually, it's not the writing by Michelle Cottle that's ridiculous; rather, it's the subject of the profile, Sally Quinn, former anchor of the CBS Morning News with Hughes Rudd in 1973, and probably better known as the widow of Washington Post publisher Ben Bradlee. Some, shall we say, interesting revelations in Quinn's latest book, as covered in the article. I'm sorry, but what a nutburger. . .

A couple of sequals to stories from last week: Joanna is back with part two of her Christmas book inventory at Christmas TV History, while The Twilight Zone Vortex has the final five in the countdown of the 20 greatest TZ performances. Ah, what great fun these were.

Vote for Bob Crane has the latest addition to the Liberty Aviation Museum's official Hogan's Heroes display, and you'll want to click on the link to take a look at just what it is!

Once Upon a Screen takes a moment to look back at the movie career of Yvonne De Carlo, Lily Munster herself. Amid complaints that "She’ll never fit in. She’s a movie star!" she fit in quite well indeed. And what a career she had...

Faded Signals has a nice print and video lookback at Love on a Rooftop, the 1966 ABC sitcom starring Peter Duell and Judy Carne, both of whom died too soon.

Garroway at Large has an episode of What's My Line? from 1953 that features the Master Communicator himself, as the mystery guest.

You know, here's something I miss. From Broadcast House has a look at the start of the 1967 TV season, and reading about the new and returning shows (Garrison's Gorillas! Red Skelton! N.Y.P.D.! Hollywood Palace!) reminds me of the anticipation that time of the year created - the desire to check out something new, the welcome return of old favorites. There'd be new looks on the new shows, and sometimes on the old ones as well, and you'd start to see commercials for the new product lines (cars, naturally, but more), with the soon-enough-but-not-soon-enough ads for Christmas not much farther down the line. Does anything create that kind of anticipation anymore, or is it all hype?

At The Horn Section, it's time to saddle up once again and ride with Hondo - this time, the episode "Hondo and the Commancheros," which sounds a lot like a John Wayne movie, doesn't it? I confess to not ever having seen an episode of Hondo - which doesn't make it unique, I admit - but it can't possibly be as entertaining as Hal's write-ups, can it?

Plenty of links to follow next week, when through the miracles of modern technology, you'll be reading it while I'm at the nostalgia convention. (Unless you're there as well, right?) TV  

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the shoutout! A lot of really good articles out there this week. HONDO actually premiered 50 years ago tonight, at 7:30 Central Time on ABC.

    ReplyDelete

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