Around the dial

Before we get to the heart of things, an addendum to Wednesday's book reviews. In addition to posting them here, I've also shared them on Amazon, and I can't stress enough how important an Amazon review is for authors. Reviews affect the algorithms that determine which books shoppers see (the more, the better), they give a sense of legitimacy to a book, and positive reviews may encourage other readers to try these books out. Now, obviously, I'm not encouraging you to lie and leave a good review for a bad book, but speaking as someone with a book coming out next month, I urge you to take a couple of minutes and leave a review of it at Amazon or wherever you happen to have purchased it. Even negative reviews, written constructively, can be helpful to us, and of course, positive reviews can make all the difference. So please, when you've finished that book, let everyone know what you think of it. This concludes today's public service announcement.

Speaking of book reviews, Martin Grams has a quartet of them himself, with books on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., movie star Deanna Durbin, Peter Marshall's memories of Hollywood Squares (a terrific book; I can vouch for it personally), and Peter Mark Richman's bio. Check them out.

At bare-bones e-zine, Jack's Hitchcock Project continues with "The Pearl Necklace," a sixth season teleplay by Peggy and Lou Shaw that tells a nasty tale of greed and deception; the luminous Hazel Court, the smarmy Jack Cassidy, and the manipulative Ernest Truax star.

When last we visited Cult TV Blog, John was taking us through a pair of episodes from the British series P.R.O.B.E, neither of which was the first episode. We get that this week, in "The Zero Imperative," with Whovians Sylvester McCoy, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Jon Pertwee, Caroline John and Louise Jameson. And Linda Lusardi. Yes!

The always-valuable Broadcast Archives gives us a look at what prime time television was like in the late 1940s. Some of the footage in this video is not just rare, but drenched in the history of television, perhaps the only look we'll ever have at some of the shows from this era.

At The View from the Junkyard, Roger takes us on an A-Team revenge trip in the first season finale, "A Nice Place to Visit," a darker and more serious episode than usual. Will the Team be able to even the score with the small-town rednecks who killed their old war buddy? What do you think?

Kenneth Washington, the last surviving regular on Hogan's Heroes (he played Baker in the show's final season) died this week, age 87. He never got the credit he deserved for the impossible task of replacing Ivan Dixon in the cast; Pop Culture has the story.

At Classic Film and TV Corner, Maddie reviews five significant movies from one of my favorite eras in movie history, the British New Wave, popularly known as "kitchen sink drama." I have to be in a certain mood to watch them, but when I am, there's nothing better out there. TV