Around the dial

Just a word that I'll be out most of next week, on assignment for my job. We'll have the usual material while I'm gone, thanks to the wonders of technology, but it does mean that I won't be "live" very often next week. I'm trusting you all to play nice while I'm gone. I'll leave a reminder while I'm gone, because I know what short attention spans people have; by Wednesday, you might have forgotten I said anything about being away.

Now, what was I talking about? That's right, the week in classic TV blogging. Well, let's start with this piece from Carol at Bob Crane: Life and Legacy, which doubles as a reminder of the terrific podcast Flipside: The True Story of Bob Crane (see the sidebar for the link), and gives us a peek at a part of his career that many people forget about: his groundbreaking success in radio.

At Comfort TV, David takes a closer look at a rare beast nowadays, but a staple of the Comfort TV-era: the two-part episode. Some of them contain more padding than Joan Crawford's shoulder pads, but occasionally you'll run across a story that simply couldn't be told in a mere hour.

I've read about the British series Gideon's Way, and I have to confess that every time I run across the title I have to stop myself from confusing it with Gideon's Trumpet, the stirring story behind the landmark Supreme Court case that mandated states must provide an attorney free of charge to any criminal defendant who can't afford one. At any rate, John from Cult TV Blog is here to set me straight this week, with a review of the Gideon's Way episode "The Firebug."

I must admit that it never even occurred to me to think there was a link between Christmas and the horror classic The Curse of the Cat People, which explains why I'm not the Christmas expert here—Joanna is, and she looks at that link this week at Christmas TV History.

Back when television wasn't quite as prestigious as it is today, it was common to see movies adapted into television series; The Farmer's Daughter, for example. Eventually, we came to the point where we had made-for-TV movie adaptations of television series, sometimes as a way to wrap up a storyline, sometimes as a reunion, sometimes just for money. There should be a "don't try this at home" warning that comes with them, though, and if Martin Grams's depiction of the new Banana Splits Movie is any indication, this one should have come before they even considered the idea.

Thanks to MeTV and DVD, I've come to have a great appreciation for The Untouchables, especially any episode featuring Bruce Gordon stealing scenes as Frank Nitti. As we celebrate the 60th anniversary(!) of its premiere, Terence has a good rundown at A Shroud of Thoughts.

Amid the ongoing TV Guide 365 project at Television Obscurities, take a moment to check out the Year in TV Guide look back at the issue of October 14, 1989, with the World Series on the cover. You remember that, don't you? The one interrupted by the earthquake? Let's hope history doesn't repeat itself, eh? TV