Around the dial

Now, this is how Thanksgiving dinner ought to be served! Not that we do it this way in our home, of course. We need all the table room we can get for the different dishes. However, it's nice to know that when dinner is over, the football will still be there for us.

On to business, starting at Comfort TV, where David has a review of Ed Robertson's new book, Men of Action, which goes behind the scenes of four classic shows that featured, well, men of action: The Untouchables, The Magician, Run for Your Life, and Harry O. I'll be having a look at this book myself in two weeks, so stay tuned.

At Cult TV Blog, John is back with the start of another series of posts focusing on the work of an individual action. This time, it's character actress Ann Way, and the episode is "Don't Forget the Driver," from the late 1970s British sitcom Mind Your Language. 

When I'm in the mood to watch something that's not too heavy, film noir is generally my first choice, so I'm grateful to Jo at The Last Drive In for giving me some great suggestions in The Unseen Side of Film Noir–Part 1. I wonder what Part 2's going to be like?

Let's keep with the noir them, as Maddy at Classic Film and TV Corner reviews one of the seminal noir classics, Murder, My Sweet, the 1944 adapatation of Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely, with Dick Powell recreating his career in what I consider the definitive portrayal of Philip Marlowe.

At A Shroud of Thoughts, Terence flashes back to the 1966 police series Hawk, which starred Burt Reynolds as a full-blooded Iroquis working as a special investigator for the District Attorney. It was shot on location in New York, and probably deserves more attention than it gets.

Although "The Brain Center at Whipple's" may not be among the best Twilight Zone episodes, there are, as Mike and Roger (and the comments section) at The View from the Junkyard point out, some serious issues raised about automation, modernization, and the future, and they aren't pretty.

And at Travalanche, Trav looks at yet another of the major figures of broadcasting's past who's unjustly forgotten today: Jack Lescoulie, who served as an announcer, second banana, pitchman, and co-host of The Today Show from 1952 to 1967. TV