July 20, 2018

Around the dial

At bare-bones e-zine, Jack starts a new cycle of "The Hitchcock Project" with the first of two Clark Howard stories that were adapted for Hitch. This week it's the third season drama "Enough Rope for Two," a tough crime drama with Steven Hill, Jean Hagen, and Steve Brody.

I hope you've been keeping up with this year's "Christmas in July" feature over at Christmas TV History. Joanna's now up to #19, Laura Rachel, who explains, among other things, why It's a Wonderful Life is the perfect Christmas movie to put in a time capsule. My offering should be up sometime next week.

One of the as-yet unwatched DVD sets in our collection is the 1967 cult hit Coronet Blue, starring Frank Converse as a man with a memory problem. I've no problem remembering it, just no time yet to watch it. Fortunately, at Classic Film and TV Cafe, Rick gives us the lowdown on the five best episodes. I don't think I'll read it yet; wait until I've seen them, sometime...

The Broadcast Archives at the University of Maryland commemorates the anniversary of John Chancellor assuming the Today Show host's chair in 1961. Chancellor is often the forgotten host of Today, coming as he did between original host Dave Garroway and the well-remembered Hugh Downs, but it's worth remembering his short run for the show's change in style.

Speaking of Garroway, who better than our friend Jodie at Garroway at Large to commemorate the 105th birthday, earlier this week, of the Master Communicator himself. It's also the first anniversary of the website, and we get some tantalizing hints about the progress of the upcoming Garroway biography.

It was "Maverick Monday" at The Horn Section this week, as Hal takes us back to the 1957 James Garner-helmed episode "War of the Silver Kings."  I love some of the character names the show's writers came up with, and this is no exception, with Leo Gordon playing a chap named Big Mike McComb.

I saw this over at Carol's Bob Crane: Life & Legacy site, and I'm still having a hard time believing it: last Friday would have been his 90th birthday.  Since we watch Hogan's Heroes every night, and since Bob died at a fairly young age, he's been kind of frozen in time for me; the idea of him as an older man, let alone 90, just doesn't computer.

When September comes around, I usually make mention of the Miss America pageant as seen in the pages of the old TV Guides. David at Comfort TV takes us back to those days when Miss America was a big deal, and one of the most watched shows of the year. Yes, times change, but even so the pageant just isn't what it used to be, and with Gretchen Carlson at the helm, I don't look for those glory days to return. TV  

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