Around the dial

Let's start off this week with Jack's latest Hitchcock Project at bare•bones e-zine. It's a new era for Hitchcock, having moved to NBC for its sixth season, and a different kind of story: "The Contest for Aaron Gold," adapted by William Fay from a short story by Phillip Roth, and featuring Sydney Pollack in one of his occasional acting roles.

As I'm writing this, I note that it's Jack Nicholson's 84th birthday, but we're looking back to the young Jack with an attitude: 1970's Five Easy Pieces, nominated for four Academy Awards™. However, writes Rick at Classic Film & TV Café, it's possible the movie hasn't aged as well as Jack; read it and find out for yourself.

At Silver Scenes, the "Listen and Guess" game features actors who sing: mystery recordings from well-known actors of movies and television, stars whose names might not immeditely come to mind when you think "recording artist." Head over there and see how many you can get!

The actor Felix Silla died this week aged 83, and if the name doesn't sound familiar, you'll surely remember his most famous role: Cousin Itt on The Addams Family. There's much more to his career than that, as Terence tells us in this nice remembrance at A Shroud of Thoughts.

"The Monster of Peladon" is a story from the Pertwee era of classic Doctor Who; as John points out at Cult TV Blog, it's not the show's greatest moment. It's a sequel to the superior "Curse of Peladon," and it covers a little too much of the same ground. But I'll still wager it's better than anything you'll see on the new Who, which I gave up on a long time ago.

Now, this is a story you have to love: "A Production Primer from Television's First Cameraman," at Eyes of a Generation. Can you imagine beign recognized as the first-ever TV cameraman? I mean, how cool is that? 

A fun article from JB at The Hits Just Keep On Comin', involving a 1970s high school literary magazine, a family who'd gotten rid of TV years ago, and the movie And Now For Something Completely Different. If that sounds like a recipe for disaster, consider the title, "The Night It Hit the Fan." 

No such troubles here; we'll be back tomorrow with, hopefully, a controversy-free issue of TV Guide. You never know, though. TV