July 16, 2021

Around the dial

The guests gathered after dinner to watch C-SPAN

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T
he Hitchcock Project at bare•bones e-zine is always a good way to start the week, and today Jack looks at the first hour-long contribution by Levinson and Link, "Captive Audience," with a superlative cast starring James Mason, Angie Dickinson and Ed Nelson. 

There was more to Eve Plumb's career than playing Jan Brady, as David reminds us at Comfort TV, and this week he looks at her work outside of The Brady Bunch, a wide variety ranging from The Smothers Brothers and Family Affair to The Facts of Life.  

Realweegiemidget reviews the 1983 Brit TV movie Those Glory, Glory Days, and I normally wouldn't pay much attention except it's about a woman's teenage obsession with the Tottenham Hotspur soccer team, and as a (former?) Arsenal follower I can't possibly let this go unnoticed. The Spurs star she encounters, by the way, is real-life star Danny Blanchflower, who went on to serve as a color commentator for CBS's soccer coverage in 1967.

I may well have mentioned this last year, and I suspect I'll write about it again next year, but this week marks two notable birthdays in the classic television oeuvre: first, at Garroway at Large, Jodie honors Dave Garroway's birthday, as well as the fourth anniversary of her blog. (Has it really only been four years? It seems as if we've known you much longer!)

Meanwhile, at Bob Crane: Life & Legacy, it's the 93rd birthday of Bob Crane, which Carol celebrates with a birthday celebration podcast. I just can't imagine him at that age, even though Robert Clary, the last survivor of Hogan's Heroes, is in his 90s as well. It doesn't—TILT—compute.

Do I have to surrender my credentials as a Whovian by admitting I've yet to make it all the way through the Matt Smith episodes of Doctor Who? I've nothing against him; I have all the discs; what I don't have is the time. Fortunately, John is here at Cult TV Blog to save me, at least with the writeup to "The God Complex," which I have been accused of having a time or two. 

At Classic Film & TV Café, Rick interviews Michael Asimow, co-author (with Paul Bergman) of the book Real to Reel: Truth and Trickery in Courtroom Movies, which sounds like a book I really should own. I wonder if they had anything to say about the sanity trial of Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street?

At A Shroud of Thoughts, Terence has a three-part look back at Saturday Morning Musical Kids' Shows of the 1960s and 1970s, which brings back a lot of memories for me. You can (and should) read parts two and three as indicated. How different Saturday morning TV was back then! TV  

5 comments:

  1. People may not think of him much since he was only in Season 6, but Kenneth Washington of HOGAN'S HEROES is still with us. From what I read on Wiki, he's a relatively young 74 now, so he was only 23-24 at the time of filming, much younger than the rest of the cast.

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    1. You're absolutely right, and that's my bad. Once you've been a resident of Stalag 13, you're always an alum, no matter how long.

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  2. Thanks, Mitchell! Those Matt Smith Dr. Who's are great.

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  3. In re the books of Michael Asimow, et al.:

    - I'm inferring that Real To Reel, the book under discussion here, is a revision of an earlier Asimow/Bergman work from fifteen years ago, Reel Justice - of which, as it happens, I've got a copy.
    This means I've gotta get the new book (the completist in me); however, I thought I ought to tell you that this is at least the third version of this work (the one I've got is the second) - and that it's eminently worth your while to get it, sight unseen.
    *** Full disclosure: based on the version I've got, don't expect much about Miracle On 34th Street (I've not seen the third version, so A&B might have written more about it there; I ordered it today, so we'll see).***

    - Michael Asimow also edited Lawyers In Your Living Room!, a compilation of essays about television legal series from not only the USA and England, but all over the world; very much worth looking into, in my view.

    - While I'm in a bibliographic frame of mind, I ought to mention Judges & Justice & Lawyers & Law, by my friend Francis M. Nevins, a law professor by trade and mystery writer/critic/editor by avocation.
    J&J&L&L is an overall study of how the legal system has fared at the hands of prose fiction, film, and TV over the years - and Mike Nevins knows as much or more than anybody in the world about this subject, and writes about it all entertainingly and with grace and good humor.
    ***Full Disclosure again: I have most of Mike Nevins's books, fact and fiction both, and he's one of my favorite writers of both - in addition to being the world's # 1 expert on the life and work of Ellery Queen (but that's another story ...).***

    THE PRECEDING IS PRESENTED AS A PUBLIC SERVICE.

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Thanks for writing! Drive safely!