Around the dial

In case you've been asleep all week, Darkness in Primetime published this week. You can find out how to order it here. My latest interview, with Doug Hess of the Forgotten Hollywood podcast, is available here. And on an non-book related note, here's the latest edition of Eventually Supertrain, in which Dan and I continue to look at the very entertaining Garrison's Gorillas. I think that's about enough self-serving content for one week, don't you?

At The Hollywood Reporter, Steven Zeitchik asks whether Colbert's cancellation signals the last call for late night talk shows. It's one of those stories that asks and answers its own question, giving ample proof as to why these big-mouth chatterboxes are no longer must-see, or even maybe-see, TV.

The latest Brit mystery to fall under John's gaze at Cult TV Blog is the 1974 anthology series Dial M for Murder, which is not about the famous Hitchcock movie or the play from which it's derived, but a series of, well, murder mysteries, including this week's excellent "Whatever's Peter Playing At?"

Speaking of Hitch, at Clasic Film & TV Café, Rick presents us with seven things to know about Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Some fun factoids here, and a pleasant reminder of an anthology that was frequently quite entertaining, and which I should probably return to someday.

From the Ford 50th Anniversary Show of 1953, the Broadcast Archives presents a very funny sketch by Mary Martin, staged by famed choreographer Jerome Robbins, on the history of fashion. I wonder what they'd do with today's fashions?

At Comfort TV, David looks at what he refers to as "the carefree era of commercials," when ads had personality, distinctiveness, even a sense of humor—and, I might add, were not a source of political controversy regarding the latest cause célèbre.

Television's New Frontier: the 1960s returns with the 1962 episodes of the seminal cartoon series The Jetsons, which spawned comic books, soundtrack recordings, toys aplenty, and a surprisingly accurate look at how automation might affect our way of living.

At Mavis Movie Madness!, Paul examines Lee Marvin's only dramatic television series, M Squad, which literally packed a punch over its three seasons, and is absolutely my idea of what a half-hour police drama should be like. 

Maddie looks at the great Eve Arden at Classic Film and TV Corner; on television, she was Our Miss Brooks and one of The Mothers-In-Law, and she had an incomparable film career as the premier essayist of what has come to be called the "Eve Arden Role."

At A Shroud of Thoughts, Terence pays tribute to a couple of fallen stars: Tom Lehrer, the satiric songwriter who died last month (you've already read a couple of tributes to him), and Danielle Spencer, former child star on What's Happening!! who later became a DVM.

Martin Grams is back with more reviews of classic books from Bear Manor Media, including biographies of Grant (The Incredible Shrinking Man, Hawaiian Eye) Williams, Virginia Gregg, Steve Ihnat, and Joi Lansing.

A View from the Junkyard gives us our weekly A-Team fix, as Roger reviews the episode "The Only Church in Town," in which Our Heroes are hired by one of their own, Face, in a bittersweet kind of story. TV