Around the dial

We've got a full slate of stories to look at this week, and we'll begin at bare-bones e-zine, where Jack's Hitchcock Project focuses on the seventh-season episode "What Frightened You, Fred?", an excellent and taut story starring R.G Armstrong, Ed Asner, and Adam Williams, and directed by Paul Henreid.

I think I've mentioned this before, but a great episode title can do wonders, and if you're an occasional viewer of Love That Bob, an episode called "Grandpa Meets Zsa Zsa" is going to be hard to turn down. Find out if Hal agrees with our instincts at this week's The Horn Section.

At Silver Scenes, the Metzinger Sisters take a gander at The Entertainers, the 1964-65 variety series that boasted a trio of rotating hosts: Bob Newhart, Carol Burnett, and Caterina Valente. The Entertainers may be an example of one of those shows that sounded better in practice; I wrote about its troubled season a couple of years ago.

Inner Toob has a fun look at John Astin's portrayal of Gomez on The Addams Family, and the crossover potential with other Astin characters, including his version of The Riddler in Batman. 

Nothing sells like courtroom drama; remember that what's interesting in legal dramas is not the lives of the lawyers, but the cases they try in court. In a continuing seres, David looks at three memorable such episodes from the world of Comfort TV.

Stepping away from the exclusive world of classic TV for a moment, it's time to wish a happy blog anniversary to Gil at one of my favorite blogs, Realweegiemidget. And you can't beat the blogathons she hosts, a couple of which I've been privileged to be in.

At Cult TV Blog (or, as John now calls it, "That Blog Where the Bloke Who Never Wears a Shirt Blogs about TV and Tries to Stay on the Subject"), it's a look at a Freudian episode of The Tomorrow People, and I'll take John's word on the analysis of the episode.

One of the more controversial periods of The Twilight Zone is the brief era of videotaped episodes, made necessary in order to cut costs and meet the budget. At Shadow & Substance, Paul invites your vote on which taped episode was the best; taken as a whole, they're really pretty good.

At A Shroud of Thoughts, Terence provides us with a handy guide to the Christmas movies appearing this year on Turner Classic Movies. I think I've seen 14 or 15 of them, most of which I enjoyed quite a lot. Of all the cable stations we're without since cutting the cord, I'd say that I miss TCM the most, although having The Criterion Channel more than makes up for it. Japanese noir, anyone?

Speaking of noir, The Last Drive-In begins a series of 31 flavors of noir on the fringe. As it happens, I've seen a few of these as well, and I urge you to check them out—they're the perfect antidote to those Christmas movies over at Hallmark. TV