March 15, 2024

Around the dial




We begin this week at Comfort TV, where David continues his night-by-night retrospective on 1970s television with Friday, 1973: a night that begins with the final season of The Brady Bunch, and continues with such favorites as Sanford and Son, The Odd Couple, Room 222, Love American Style, and The Dean Martin Show. Not bad at all.

At Cult TV Blog, John looks at an episode from the first season of The Avengers that no longer exists: "Dance with Death." Well, I mean, obviously it did exist, and it still does, in the form of a Big Finish audio version, but this post is based on the original TV script, and it is absolutely well worth reading. Both the script and John's review, that is.

Ready for another dose of The Avengers? You'll find it at A View from the Junkyard, where Roger and Mike compare notes on "You'll Catch Your Death," as Steed and Tara battle a nursing academy that's a front for a deadly organization peddling a allergen to which nobody is immune. I'd hate to think that this resembles any recent situation we might recognize.

Martin Grams dips into the crossover zone with the 1949 movie The Life of Riley, based on the popular radio comedy of the same name, starring William Bendix as Chester Riley, with most of the original radio cast. It was this movie that kept Bendix from reprising his role as Riley in the television version of the show, which instead cast Jackie Gleason in the lead.

Remember the 1960s sitcom Camp Runamuck? What's that? You don't? Well, it's a good thing for you that Television Obscurities does, and this week Robert takes us back to look at the episode "Say, You’re a Bleeder, Aren’t You? Asked Tom Cuttingly." Got to love a show that can work a Tom Swiftie like that into the title.

Albert Salmi: whether or not you recognize the name (and I'm betting a lot of you do), you'll certainly recognize the face of one of television's more recognizable character actors of the classic era. But do you know the tragedy of his real-life story? You can find out the grim details this week at TravalancheTV  

2 comments:

  1. Two of those short-lived shows mentioned in Comfort TV I watched as a kid I would LOVE to see again: The Chicago Teddy Bears and The Sixth Sense. Both of which might not even exist anymore.
    The CTB just for the cast: Dean Jones, former Bowery Boy Huntz Hall, a pre-MASH Jamie Farr, and a post-Hogan's Heroes John Banner.
    The Sixth Sense (sort of precursor to The Night Stalker) was chopped up and rerun for Night Gallery in syndication. The hour-long episodes are presumed to be lost.

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  2. I remember that 1973 Friday night lineup! I know I watched The Odd Couple and Room 222. I also remember a show called Bridget Loves Bernie that I think may have been on Friday, but probably from another year.

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