Around the dial

As is the case from time to time, allow me to borrow this space for a brief announcement before we get to the good stuff. In the last couple of weeks, I've had two or three people ask me if I was going to be following up on last year's successful presentation at this year's Mid Atlantic Nostalgia Convention. It would be nice to say that the answer to this is affirmative; it would be nice, but it wouldn't be true. Due to our current financial situation (which is exacerbated by both of us being temporarily unemployed), we aren't doing much of anything at present, from buying TV Guides to flying to Baltimore. After all, when one is just trying to pay the bills, it is prudent to keep those bills to the bare minimum. (At least that's what the fortune cookie said.) I'm planning to be back next year—hopefully, things will have improved by then—but in the meantime, you all will have to fill me in on what happens. Seriously; if you take pictures, please share them here!

Now to our regular programming.

At Classic Film and TV Cafe, Rick reminds us of the good old days when Davy Crockett was a regular feature on ABC's Disneyland. You know, back when the news out of the Disney camp was a little more wholesome than it is today.

Fire-Breathing Dimetrodon Time continues to look at the underrated series The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. I was going to say that this show was ahead of its time, but it really wasn't; it's more like The Wild Wild West, which was on, what, almost 30 years earlier?

At Garroway at Large, Jodie discusses CBS's streaming of the Apollo 11 mission this week (something that I enjoyed as immensely as she did), and how it would make the researcher's job much easier if more networks were as generous with their archives.

Besides making kind mention of The Electronic Mirror, David's latest at Comfort TV is a very nice appreciation of what he calls "looking beyond the frame," at the things we never see in our favorite TV shows—from the places we don't go to, to the ordinary events of an uneventful day.

Television's New Frontier: the 1960s moves to the 1961 season of Mr. Magoo. I've always had a fondness for the Magoo character, especially in the wonderful adaptation of A Christmas Carol a few years later, but as the author points out, it does tend to be something of a one-trick pony.

You won't want to miss this week's TV Guide flashback at Television Obscurities, but while you're there, take time to check out the other features, including a great look back at the first issue of the Garrison's Gorillas comic book!

For some reason, I've had the old DuMont network on my mind lately (one failing enterprise to another?), so naturally I was drawn to Andrew's post at The Lucky Strike Papers about his mother's appearances on DuMont shows back in 1949. A shame that network didn't survive.

Finally, at Classic Television Showbiz, Kliph Nesteroff has part seven of his long-form interview with the late Paul Krassner, who talks about (among other things) his appearance on The Merv Griffin Show while he was high on mescaline. TV