November 15, 2019

Around the dial

At first, I thought those kids were watching static, but as I look more closely, it's probably a crowd of people, maybe from a football or baseball game.Don't laugh; there would have been a time when I would have even watched that. No static on the dial this week, though.

The Broadcast Archives at the University of Maryland sample some pictures of NBC News reporter Nancy Dickerson in a 1964 TV Guide spread, modeling the fashions for the smart convention-goer. In my talk last year at MANC, I mentioned that Dickerson was a serious reporter who broke the story that Hubert Humphrey was going to be LBJ's pick for vice president, and TV Guide's got her modeling clothes. Ah, but that's how it was back then.

Silver Scenes remembers that Monte Markham used to play Perry Mason, in CBS's 1973 reboot of the series. I like Monte Markham; I've enjoyed many of his performances. but let's agree that he's no Raymond Burr. Good picture of him, though.

Thanks to YouTube, we've gotten quite used to seeing videos of heroic acts being performed by household pets, usually involving small children. But at Garroway at Large, Jodie shares a funny story from Dave (or Charlie Andrews, his favorite writer) on how it isn't easy being a hero dog.

I've written admiringly in the past about Victor Buono, and I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who feels that way. At Comfort TV, David details some of Buono's more memorable television roles, and I suspect you'll remember many of them as well.

On Friday, I mentioned that Saturday was the 100th birthday of Felix the Cat, but that's not the only anniversary to celebrate this week. Yesterday (November 14, for those of you who for some reason aren't reading this seconds after it goes live) was the 60th anniversary of The Twilight Zone, and at The Twilight Zone Vortex Jordan has more.

This Saturday, your local PBS station will probably have A Classic Christmas (My Music), and Rick at Classic Film and TV CafĂ© has the rundown on what should be a wonderful show. Of course, YouTube TV has yet to add PBS to the schedule (next year!), so we won't be seeing it, but if it's as good as Rick says, it will probably be a standard for years to come.

Of all the special "weeks" when the networks rolled out their new fall schedules, I think "NBC Week" may be the best-known and remembered (even though I think ABC might have been the first to do this), and Television Obscurities has a promo for the 1972 Monday lineup.

If you don't recognize the name Bernard Slade, you'll undoubtedly recognize two of his TV creations: The Partridge Family and The Flying Nun. Slade died October 30, and Terence of A Shroud of Throughts remembers his legacy. TV  

2 comments:

  1. We went to the movies last night for the Twilight Zone anniversary show. It was fun.

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    Replies
    1. I'll bet it was! We were otherwise spoken for, but I'm glad you were able to go!

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