Around the dial

We're into the "Patricia Hayes" season at Cult TV Blog, in which John assembles a season's worth of performances from an individual actor who's appeared in various shows he's watched. Hayes was a familiar face to British audiences for her various roles, none more so than her 1971 BAFTA-winning role as "Edna, the Inebriate Woman" in Play for Today.

At RealWeegieMidget, Gill treats us to reviews of three movies featuring the late, great Tim Curry: the TV series The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange (2012-14), the horror movie The Shout (1978) and an episode of Tales from the Crypt (1993) in which he plays not one, not two, but three family members.

And speaking of Curry, at A Shroud of Thoughts, Terence has a look back at the gloriously eclectic career of Curry, which stretches from Rocky Horror to Clue, and which featured turns with the Muppets, an outstanding career on stage, and more credits than you can shake a stick at, as people my age might say.

The trip through 1970s television continues apace at Comfort TV, and this week David brings us to Wednesday night, 1978: as he says, it's yet another night of primetime dominance by ABC, with Eight is Enough, Charlie's Angels, and Vega$, but there's more, including a show even worse than Supertrain!

At Cult TV Lounge, it's a look at a series I've watched in the past, Firefly, Joss Whedon's sci-fi Western, starring Nathan Fillion in a rare non-crime figher role, and a cast of characters headed by Ron Glass's insightful performance as a man of faith. It's an intriguing premise, but I agree with our fearless author that it doesn't grab me enough to watch again.

How is it that, in all the things I've remembered and forgotten in my long life, I still recall Help! It's the Hair Bear Bunch!?  I don't think I ever saw a single episode of this animated series, but I sure remember the title. Fortunately, we have Paul at Drunk TV to remind us of this 1970s animated Saturday morning Hanna-Barbera series.

We've been reading a bit about Dick Tracy at Martin Grams's site, and this week he looks at the 1991 novel Dick Tracy Goes to War, one of three Warren Beatty-era Tracy novels to be written by Max Allen Collins. Considering the first book was an infinitely superior adaptation of the Tracy movie's screenplay, I think it safe to say we're in good hands.

After all this, there's no 0ther way to end the week than at The View from the Junkyard, and Roger's review of The A-Team. This week, the Team actually try to settle down in a house they own, but as the title might tell you, "There Goes the Neighborhood" has ideas of its own. TV

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