Around the dial

We'll start this week with a couple of stories from MeTV—first, ths story on how Roy Huggins, creator of Maverick, was forced to change the pilot episode to keep him from collecting any royalties. Having seen my share of WB shows over the past few years, I can vouch for the familiarity of some of these plots—especially the ones written by W. Hermanos.

Next, and perhaps more disturbingly—well, we know that Jack Webb made Pete Kelly's Blues, and was married to Julie London, but does that qualify him to make an album of jazz standards? Be sure to not leave this story before listening to Jack's rendition of "Try a Little Tenderness." No, really.

Last week, you'll recall I linked to Bob Sassone's review of "The 100 Best Sitcoms of All Time" list by Rolling Stone. Well, this week David looks at that same list over at Comfort TV, and has his own thoughts on the subject. Amid the ones they got wrong, David promises they did get some right.

At Bob Crane: Life & Legacy, Carol and Linda introduce their new Hogan's Heroes podcast. It's going on the sidebar, and you should make it part of your regular podcast schedule as well. It's always fun to go behind the scenes, especially at Stalag 13.

Here's another website you might want to look in at from time to time: The Definitive Guide to Murder, She Wrote, with a hat-tip to the Metzinger Sisters over at Silver Scenes. 

As you'll recall, we lived in Dallas for a few years, and made it out to the State Fair of Texas most of those years. Therefore, although I prefer the original version of the movie State Fair, I have a soft spot for the Pat Boone-Ann-Margret remake from 1962, because it takes place at that same State Fair. Rick reviews it this week at Classic Film & TV Café. (And yes, Big Tex is still there, even after the fire. 

One thing I know for sure is that whenever I visit Cult TV Blog, there's a pretty good chance John's going to introduce me to a series I haven't followed, and this week is no exception. It's "A Case of the Stubborns," an episode from Tales From The Darkside, and it includes an informative comment from our very own Mike Doran! TV