Around the dial

We lead off this week's edition at The Twilight Zone Vortex, where Brian discusses an excellent episode from the show's final season, "Night Call," written by the great Richard Matheson, and starring Gladys Cooper in an outstanding performance.

The "Tony Wright Season" continues at Cult TV Blog, with John looking at one of my favorite British imports, The Saint, and not one, not two, but three episodes in which Tony Wright appears: "The Arrow of God," "The Crooked Ring," and "Where The Money Is." Great stuff!

I don't know about you, but I was a big fan of Roller Derby when it was on local TV in the 1960s and 1970s, and that's my excuse to link to Classic Film & TV Cafe, where Rick's talking about Raquel Welch in Kansas City Bomber. I think that's good enough, don't you?

Along those same general lines, at Classic Film and TV Corner, Maddy reviews the 1956 movie Anastasia, which represented Ingrid Bergman's return to Hollywood (as well as an Academy Award), and look at that picture of her: there's a beauty there that is hard to top in today's movies.

Did you watch the Super Bowl on Sunday? We did not, for something like the twenty-fifth consecutive year, but Bob Sassone did, and he's got thoughts about some of the commercials, as well as some random observations that are, as always, well worth your time.

Terence has some fine content at A Shroud of Thoughts; not obituaries, but: a tribute to Leslie Nielsen on his 100th birthday; a look at Margaret Hamilton (the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz) on Sesame Street; Get Christie Love!, and happy 95th birthday to Mamie Van Doren!

At Television's New Frontier: The 1960s, we're at the 1962 episodes of the perennial favorite, Ozzie and Harriet, and while the show may be running on fumes at this point, it's interesting to look at some of the best episodes, such as how aging parents deal with adult children who have their own lives. 

You may recall that last week at The View from the Junkyard, The A-Team was involved in drama involving firefighters. This week, in the episode "Timber," it's lumberjacks! With a little bit of Bigfoot thrown in, how can you possibly say no?

My latest appearance with Dan Schneider in our American television history series is a look at the decade of the 2000s, and while I don't find this a terribly compelling decade for TV, it does raise some interesting questions about trends, psychology, and all kinds of interesting things.

Finally, it's never too early to start looking forward to my upcoming novel, The Book of Revelations. Want to know more about it? You can check out the teaser page here. TV

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Around the dial

Before we get to our regular programming, just a reminder that I'm down to two copies of The Electronic Mirror. If you'd like a free copy (save only for shipping and handling), send me an email. These books need a good home!

The Horn Section is back, and this week it's back to Love That Bob!, with the 1957 episode "Air Force Calls, Grandpa Answers." Grandpa, of course, is played by Bob Cummings, who also directs this episode, the 100th of the series' history.

You probably know that David has been working his way through his project of watching at least one episode of every prime time television series that aired in the 1970s, and at Comfort TV you can read the results as he's now reached Fridays in 1970. See if your memories match his.

At bare-bones e-zine, Jack continues the Hitchcock Project with the second of Kathleen Hite's contributions to the series: the 1958 episode "Two for Tea," with Margaret Leighton, Marsha Hunt, and Murray Matheson making up a nasty little triangle.

I vaguely remember the 1984 primetime soap Glitter, although you would have had to prompt me to recall it. That's why these blogs exist, though, and at RealWeegieMidget, Gill rectifies this with a review of the series pilot, starring Morgan Brittany and David Birney. Do you remember it?

I've enjoyed several classic Doctor Who audio stories by the studio Big Finish, so when John at Cult TV Blog reviews "The Passenger," a 2005 Big Finish release of Sapphire & Steel with David Warner and Susannah Harker as the two principals, I figured it would be a quality production, and it is.

It's another quality interview by Rick at Classic Film & TV Cafe, this time with Nancy Olson Livingston, who went from a Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for Sunset Boulevard  to a long career in movies and television. If you look closely, you'll see her name in tomorrow's TV Guide article!

I don't know why I remember Roller Derby from my youth--who knows how or why we retain such memories?--but they start with black-and-white broadcasts, followed by the more "modern" matches from the late 1960s and early 1970s. I even wrote to receive the newsletter, so I could stay on top of the "action." So there's a nostalgic delight to Paul's article at Drunk TV, reviewing a pair of documentaries on the sport's long and colorful history. 

Finally, the passing yesterday of Queen Elizabeth II marks, unquestionably, the end of an era. The telecast of her coronation in 1953, by contrast, took place at the beginning of an era: the era of television. And yet, all these decades later, and until the coronation of Charles III takes place, it remains the only telecast of a British monarch being crowned. I wrote about that, along with a look at that TV Guide, last year. The Queen was, indeed, a remarkable woman. TV