January 5, 2024

Around the dial




For the first "Around the Dial" of 2024, we turn to Comfort TV, where David continues to make his way through the television of the 1970, watching an episode from each prime time series. He's up to Wednesday, 1973, where CBS dominates the night with three top-ten shows: Sonny & Cher, Cannon, and Kojak.

At Cult TV Blog, John introduces a new series on The Prisoner, one that seeks to read the show on the assumption that Patrick McGoohan's Number 6 did not resign, but instead is a plant sent to spy on the operations of The Village. It's a provocative theory, one introduced in a book both he and I have read (The Official Prisoner Companion), and I'm looking forward to what he does with it.

Aurora celebrates the 12th anniversary of Once Upon a Screen with some meditations on the number twelve, which, if you want to look at it this way is twice six, which brings us back to The Prisoner! (Nicely done there, don't you think?) Anyway, thanks for twelve good years, and here's hoping we see twelve more!

At Realweegiemedget, Gill brings down the curtain on 2023 with a look at the considerable television work from three of the stars we've lost in the past year: Gayle Hunnicutt, David McCallum and Matthew Perry. This year did seem to take its toll, didn't it?

Terence is also looking back at A Shroud of Thoughts, with a reminder of how eventful a year 2023 was in the entertainment industry. Dare we hope that good trends will increase in 2024, while bad ones will ease up? We'll see.

Rick joins in the retrospective mood at Classic Film & TV Cafe with his top ten posts of 2023. Naturally, he's talking about the posts that got the most views, since if he was referring to quality, he'd need a lot more than ten places!

Meanwhile, Professor Barnhardt closes down his Journal, which has entertained us for more than 20 years. Fortunately, the archives remain available, and good luck with the other things that Bob's looking to work on; I hope they bring you satisfaction!

Roger and Mike are back at The View from the Junkyard, and what they're viewing at the moment is "Death's Door," from the Steed/Peel run of The Avengers. It's an episode that contains a mystery that needs to be solved: see if our dynamic duo is up to the challenge.

Someone I always liked but hadn't thought of lately is the singer Roger Miller, and I remember enjoying his short-lived variety show when it was on in 1966-67. (Why I remember that is beyond me, but such are the mysteries of life.) So thanks to Travalanche for taking a closer look at Miller's singing and acting career, which was more impressive than you might recall.

I've commented several times on my appreciation for Ernie Kovacs and his career; he's one of the great TV pioneers whose work has stood the test of time. Paul shares my enthusiasm at Drunk TV, where he looks at the terrific Ernie Kovacs DVD Collection, which barely scratches the surface of Kovacs' brilliance.

Remember Space: 1999? Of course you do. With Martin Landeau, Barbara Bain, Catherine Schell, and Barry Morse, it was a serious attempt to create a serious science fiction series. It only ran for two seasons, but if you'd like more, try and get E.C. Tubb’s Space: 1999 Rogue Planet, a TV tie-in novel reviewed this week at Cult TV LoungeTV  

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the mention honoured to be billed with this cast of lovelies, and Happy Belated New Year...

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for writing! Drive safely!