Around the dial

Well, I'm confused, and that's probably as good a way as any to kick things off this week. Lately I've found it necessary to implement comment moderation in order to intercept the odd spam comment that makes it past the spam filter—the price of success, one supposes. I didn't expect to run across anything unusual in the process, but—of course there has to be a but, or else there wouldn't be a story here—I did. Specifically, a batch of comments from January of this year that, for no good reason, were quarantined as spam.  A couple of them were, but the rest—maybe a dozen or so—were not. So first of all, if your comment didn't appear when you wrote it, nothing personal! I will admit, however, that I was sorry to delete all those comments that started off, "You are an excellent writer and I learn much from your blog." Oh well.

Amidst all this, there was a question from one of our readers that was included in this unjust spam crackdown, and I want to rectify that immediately, so here goes. The question originally came from January 3 of this year, and the anonymous writer says: "Hey MY mom was on the Price Is Right in July of 1965, does anyone know where I might find some copies of it?" Readers, what do you think? Any suggestions: (And again, apologies for the delay!)

Now on to the blogs of the week.

At Classic TV and Film Café, Rick has "seven things to know about Robert Goulet," to which yours truly contributed a couple more in the comments section. I always liked Mr. G's voice, enjoyed his appearances on variety shows, and from what I've seen his short-lived espionage series Blue Light was better than TV Guide would have you believe. Speaking of espionage, remember this commercial from Super Bowl XLI?


Garroway at Large and Bob Crane: Life & Legacy both have reports on the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention, about which you read my report last week. One of my regrets in life (regrets? I've had a few...) is that we're not able to get together often enough with these friends of ours; on the other hand, it's what makes an event like MANC that much sweeter. (And thanks to both of you for the shout-outs!)

At Comfort TV, David has a thought-provoking (as usual) piece on the recent crowdsourcing campaign for Dawn Wells. One of the many things I like about David's writing is that he forces us to think about things, to consider why we do what we do, even when it's the right thing to do.

I've been wondering when The Horn Section was going to return to Crazy Like a Fox, the mid-80s series starring Jack Warden and John Rubenstein as a father-son duo fighting crime, and it happens this week with a review of the 1985 episode "Fox in Wonderland," a perfect showcase for Warden's comedic talents.

Television Obscurities digs deep into the obscure file once again to look at The Ugliest Girl in Town, a very much of-the-times sitcom from 1968. Anyone out there remember this one? I don't know that I watched it when I was of the age, but I do remember it.

Finally, part four of Jack's Hitchcock Project entry on Bernard C. Schoenfeld is up at bare-bones e-zine. It's the second season episode "The Better Bargain," starring Robert Middleton and Henry Silva in Schoenfeld's elegant and concise adaptation of Richard Deming's story. TV