Around the dial

At The Saturday Evening Post, Bob Sassone as a Christmas-tinted News of the Week, including a rundown on where and when you can find your favorite Christmas movies and TV shows, the anniversary of "Do They Know It's Christmas?". and more!

At The Horn Section, Hal goes back 50 years to the TV Guide of November 30, 1974, with Teresa Graves as the cover story. Hal also looks at Cleveland Amory's review of Police Woman, as well as the rest of the issue. He even has a kind word for yours truly—thanks, my friend, and nicely done!

As you may recall, at Cult TV Blog, John has been recently reviewing some of the roles played by character actress Ann Way, and in his latest installment, he looks at her appearance in Dr. Finlay's Casebook, and the episode "The Phantom Piper of Tannochbrae." Sounds interesting!

Gill is back at RealWeegieMidget as she and her other half look at some TV movies from the 1970s, 80s and 90s: five love stories, four of which have connections to Dallas. How many of them do you remember watching back in the day?

The Hitchcock Project continues at bare•bones e-zine, with Jack presenting the Roland Kibbee episode "Diagnosis: Danger" from the show's eighth season, and the first with a one-hour running time. Definitely not one of the highlights of the series, but check out Jack's review anyway.

At Comfort TV, David's journey through 1970s TV brings us to Mondays in 1975: CBS carries the day with a quartet of classic sitcoms plus Medical Center, but do you remember The Invisible Man or Barbary Coast? One show from back then is still on: Monday Night Football, of course.

Catching up with some news from last week, Terence remembers the late Earl Holliman at A Shroud of Thoughts. Holliman was one of those actors who always seemed overshadowed by his costars, but watch him in the first episode of The Twilight Zone to see how he could carry a story by himself.

At Television Obscurities, Robert marks the 30th anniversary of Earth 2, which ran for one season on NBC in 1994-95. If you've enjoyed Television Obscurities through the years, credit Earth 2 as one of the series that led to Robert's interest in short-lived series.

Speaking of celebrations, Travalanche commemorates Woody Allen's 89th birthday with a look at his television work from 1960 to 1972, when he was from a stand-up comedian to an auteur. You might be surprised at how ubiquitous he was on the tube.

And at The View from the Junkyard, Mike and Roger look at the penultimate episode of The Twilight Zone, "The Fear." It's a hit-and-miss episode, as was so often the case in the final couple of seasons, but it still asks some potent questions. TV  

Around the dial

Black Friday, as you probably know, was named not for any sense of dread at the day-after-Thanksgiving shopping crush, but because it was the day that retailers would go "in the black," thanks to it being the busiest shopping day of the year. That's one story, at least. Here at It's About TV!, we don't take the day off on Black Friday; it's just another red-letter day around here! Because of the early holiday deadline there might be a few pieces that snuck in under the wire, but we'll get to them next week. In the meantime, let's see what's on tap.

At Eventually Supertrain, a certain old friend returns to talk with Dan about the WWII action drama Garrison's Gorillas; any resemblance between that friend and your humble writer is purely intentional. Hope you like the start of our discussions on this enjoyable series, which I wrote about here.

At The Twilight Zone Vortex, Jordan reviews the fifth-season episode "A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain," starring Patrick O'Neal and the wonderful Ruta Lee. If it doesn't sound familiar, Jordan has the story behind the story, which you might find more interesting than the story itself!

Another TZ episode, "Come Wander with Me," is the topic of discussion at The View from the Junkyard. I sense a slight difference of opinon between Roger and Mike on this one, so I'll let you draw your own conclusions. If it's any clue, it's also from the fifth and final season.

One of my favorite blogs, RealWeegieMidget, celebrates its ninth anniversary, and Gill shares her top three posts of the year. You'll want to check them out, and make this a part of your regular rotation. 

At Cult TV Blog, John's survey of British character actress Ann Way continues with her appearance in Sergeant Cork, the mid-60s police procedural. "The Case of the Bristol Mail" features Way in a typical role, relatively minor yet memorable. See what you think.

You may or may not know this, but Harpo Marx had a pretty successful solo career on television between 1952 and 1962. At Travalanche, Trav talks about some of his great appearances over the years—from Lucille Ball to Carol Burnett.

As Earl Holliman died this week, it's particularly appropriate that Television's New Frontier: The 1960s looks back at one of his starring roles from the 60s, Wide Country, which aired in the 1962-63 season as one of two rodeo-themed series that season, the other being Stoney Burke. It's worth checking out.

At The Classic TV History Blog, Stephen uses the occasion of TV writer Jeri Taylor's death last month to review her career, and that of her writing partner and husband, David Moessinger. Learn more about Jeri and David, separately and together, and the many memorable shows they worked on.

And with Thanksgiving behind us, Christmas is now just around the corner: at Remind, Herbie Pilato looks back at some of TV's most memorable Christmas variety shows. If you, like me, grew up with these shows (and still watch them!), you'll enjoy this article immensely! TV