Around the dial

We begin this week at Comfort TV, where David begins a new year in his continuing odyssey through primetime television of the 1970s. It's Sunday night 1975: are you watching The Six Million Dollar Man, Kojak, The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie, or something else? Tune in and see what's what and where. 

At The Syncopated Times, Garry Berman explores the history of jazz on television. It may seem hard to believe today, when there's very little music of any kind to be found on TV, but starting in the 1950s, it wasn't all that hard to see some of the all-time greats making the small screen seem that much larger.

RealWeegieMidget is back with more movies from the big and small screens, as Gill looks at at October's selections, including one described as "Enter the Dragon meets Charlie's Angels." I ask you, who could possibly ask for anything more? There's also politics, murder plots, and a disaster movie!

At Cult TV Blog, John gives us a similarily eclectic selection of old, cult TV series you can catch for free online. I'm not familiar (yet) with most of them, but it's hard to argue with John's assertion that it provides us with "an embarrassment of riches." Would that there was even more.

Rick has another of his famous quizzes at Classic Film & TV Café, and you'll really like this one: given the names of three characters, you name the TV show they came from. You're on your honor not to check the comments section for the answers.

At A Shroud of Thoughts, Terence remembers three who've passed on over the last few days: TV veteran Alan Rachins, the legendary musical genius Quincy Jones, and the simply adorable Teri Garr. You can look at these in one of two ways: you can tire of having your favorites dying at what seems to be the rate of two or three a week, or you can take the opportunity to think back to all the enjoyment they've provided over the years. Remember, death does not mean that life has ended, but merely changed.

Television's New Frontier: The 1960s travels back to 1961 and the iconic medical drama Ben Casey, starring Vincent Edwards. In this first season, we get a good overview of the show's premise, the power of its leading man, and some great links for more information on the series.

Speaking of icons, Travalanche takes a look at Walter Cronkite and some of the high points in the career of the man known as America's most trusted, including some interesting jobs you might not have known about. For instance, the Cronk a a game show host?

We'll wrap up at The View from the Junkyard, where Roger and Mike compare notes on one of The Twilight Zone's more problematic and lesser-known episodes, "The Encounter," with Lee Marvin and George Takai. What say you? TV