Around the dial

As you may recall, we skipped this feature last week due to my secret out-of-town mission; the nice thing about that is that we always have plenty to look at when we come back, and this week is no exception. Let's get started!

At Classic Film and TV Café, Rick has an interview with television and movie star Constance Towers, who has some wonderful stories about working with Raymond Burr on Perry Mason, being directed by John Ford and Samuel Fuller, and more.

Jack's Hitchcock Project continues at bare•bones e-zine with part three of Bill S. Ballinger's contributions; this one is the fifth-season episode "The Hero," with Eric Portman and Oscar Homolka in a sinister story of a guilty conscience.

The Last Drive In features a look at Gary Gerani, who's written a number of classic horror movies (Pumpkinhead), but I remember him for having written the book Fantastic Television: A Pictorial History of Sci-Fi, the Unusual and Fantastic From Captain Video to the Star Trek Phenomenon and Beyond..., which I read around the time I was just getting into Doctor Who. Great fun!

Fire-Breathing Dimetrodon Time reviews "Bounty Hunters' Convention," an episode of the beloved Western comedy-fantasy The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., which I've mentioned before as a show that was perhaps ahead of its time. In today's age of smaller television audiences, I wonder if this series wouldn't have continued for a few years.

Apropos of Halloween, Inner Toob looks at the four actresses who've played Marilyn Munster, the black sheep of the Munster family. Is it possible this character has appeared in other series? I love the weird twists that that Inner Toob takes with questions like this.

Sticking with that theme, at Comfort TV, David talks about a Halloween Comfort TV classic: Ghost Story, the 1972 anthology series hosted by Sebastian Cabot (at least until it changed its title and format). I don't know why I remember this series, but I do; it may have something to do with it being on NBC, the only station we could get in the World's Worst Town™.

At Garroway at Large, Jodie plugs her new book, which is not about Dave Garroway; it's Ben Robertson: South Carolina Journalist and Author, and you ought to buy it. For that matter, so should I.

This week, Cult TV Blog is back in the world of Gideon's Way with the episode "The Nightlifers," and I have to admit becoming more curious about this series the more John talks about it. It's a show that really depicts the time in which it was made, which is one reason why I recommend watching shows from the time rather than modern shows that try to show it like it was. TV  

Around the dial

As is the case from time to time, allow me to borrow this space for a brief announcement before we get to the good stuff. In the last couple of weeks, I've had two or three people ask me if I was going to be following up on last year's successful presentation at this year's Mid Atlantic Nostalgia Convention. It would be nice to say that the answer to this is affirmative; it would be nice, but it wouldn't be true. Due to our current financial situation (which is exacerbated by both of us being temporarily unemployed), we aren't doing much of anything at present, from buying TV Guides to flying to Baltimore. After all, when one is just trying to pay the bills, it is prudent to keep those bills to the bare minimum. (At least that's what the fortune cookie said.) I'm planning to be back next year—hopefully, things will have improved by then—but in the meantime, you all will have to fill me in on what happens. Seriously; if you take pictures, please share them here!

Now to our regular programming.

At Classic Film and TV Cafe, Rick reminds us of the good old days when Davy Crockett was a regular feature on ABC's Disneyland. You know, back when the news out of the Disney camp was a little more wholesome than it is today.

Fire-Breathing Dimetrodon Time continues to look at the underrated series The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. I was going to say that this show was ahead of its time, but it really wasn't; it's more like The Wild Wild West, which was on, what, almost 30 years earlier?

At Garroway at Large, Jodie discusses CBS's streaming of the Apollo 11 mission this week (something that I enjoyed as immensely as she did), and how it would make the researcher's job much easier if more networks were as generous with their archives.

Besides making kind mention of The Electronic Mirror, David's latest at Comfort TV is a very nice appreciation of what he calls "looking beyond the frame," at the things we never see in our favorite TV shows—from the places we don't go to, to the ordinary events of an uneventful day.

Television's New Frontier: the 1960s moves to the 1961 season of Mr. Magoo. I've always had a fondness for the Magoo character, especially in the wonderful adaptation of A Christmas Carol a few years later, but as the author points out, it does tend to be something of a one-trick pony.

You won't want to miss this week's TV Guide flashback at Television Obscurities, but while you're there, take time to check out the other features, including a great look back at the first issue of the Garrison's Gorillas comic book!

For some reason, I've had the old DuMont network on my mind lately (one failing enterprise to another?), so naturally I was drawn to Andrew's post at The Lucky Strike Papers about his mother's appearances on DuMont shows back in 1949. A shame that network didn't survive.

Finally, at Classic Television Showbiz, Kliph Nesteroff has part seven of his long-form interview with the late Paul Krassner, who talks about (among other things) his appearance on The Merv Griffin Show while he was high on mescaline. TV