July 1, 2022

Around the dial




At The Ringer, Alison Herman and Miles Surrey have an interesting discussion about how streaming television has eliminated the traditional need for episodes to have set running times; after all, with no schedule to worry about, why sweat the length? I've touched on this before, in writing about half-hour dramas and how they require a certain storytelling discipline (not to mention not creating melodramatic B plotlines). Hint: it applies to hour-long shows as well. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. 

I don't know about you, but I'm always up for a savage review, and when I can't get to Cleveland Amory, I'm more than willing to settle for one like this week's at The Flaming Nose, on the current Epix series Domina. Yes, it's not from the classic era, but when a show is described as "the single worst piece of garbage to ever pretend to be based in some sort of historical context," it attains its own form of classic status. 

On the other hand, if you're looking for a recommendation of what to watch (rather than a condemnation of what not to watch), you can gravitate toward RealWeegieMidget and Gill's review of The Six Million Dollar Man episode "The Solid Gold Kidnapping" from 1973, featuring the wonderful Luciana Paluzzi.

On Wednesday you got the latest update on the shows I've been watching lately, but I'm not the only one doing this; at Cult TV Blog, John gives us a look at his own playlist. I always enjoy looking at these for tips, since I've got a region-free DVD player; I have to admit that the only title I recognize is Whodunnit, some episodes of which I've seen thanks to the mighty Mike Doran!

At Bob Crane: Life & Legacy, Carol and Linda continue to defend Bob Crane from the fake news and misinformation that's out there. Good for them, and I despise the laziness of people who don't take the time to get their facts straight. It's one thing to make an honest mistake; it's another to simply build on top of misinformation that's been going on for years, thereby perpetuating it.

At bare-bones e-zine, Jack introduces us to another Hitchcock Project writer, Victor Wolfson, and his first script for the series, the first season episode "The Perfect Murder," a great adaptation of a story with a marvelously wicked twist at the end.

"Bilko" is such a great name for a shifty character like the one that Phil Silvers plays in The Phil Silvers Show, isn't it? This week at The Horn Section, Hal takes a look at "Bilko's Perfect Day," and you can bet on this: if it's being called "perfect," it most assuredly has a fly in the ointment somewhere. 

At Television's New Frontier: the 1960s, it's a look at the 1962 episodes of The Twilight Zone. The show's starting to show the effects from having to produce high-quality episodes week after week, and Serling & company are feeling burnout, but TZ is still capable of putting out some classic stories.

Martin Grams provides an update on the continuing project to release the entire run of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (all 435 episodes) after the passing of David Nelson. As Martin reminds us, if you want to see the whole series released, put your money down on the first two seasons that have come out. TV  

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for the shoutout Mitchell! Happy 4th!

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  2. Honoured to make your list this week with this fun TV Movie. Thanks for adding me.

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  3. Thanks, Mitchell! Happy 4th of July!

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Thanks for writing! Drive safely!