Around the dial

We'll begin the week with couple of blog updates. First, if you read Wednesday's article on Combat!, you'll notice that I've added the series to my Top Ten favorites. With this, the revised Top Ten is now complete; you can view the list here, or through the link on the sidebar.

Speaking of updates, I've also updated the links to my podcast appearances, which you can find on the "Video and Podcasts" tab on the top; they're also available on the It's About TV YouTube playlists page. I'm hoping to add more material to that in the future, by the way.

Finally, I've been pleased to publish several excellent guest essays here over the nearly fourteen years, of this blog. If you have something you'd like to share, please email me, and we'll talk. As I get closer to completing my latest book, your contribution not only entertains our readers, it helps me devote more time to the book.

Now, on to something more interesting, beginning with the latest look at private detective series from John at Cult TV Blog. The series is The View from Daniel Pike (a series that sounds like it's right up my alley), and the episode is "The Manufactured Clue." Try it; I think you'll like it.

At The Horn Section, Hal is back on the F Troop route, with "The West Goes Ghost," Am I giving anything away by saying that it involves another scheme courtesy of O'Rourke Enterprises? And that said scheme is doomed to failure? Probably not.

A week or two ago I mentioned the passing of baseball "legend" Bob Uecker; this week, Inner Toob takes a look at some of the Ueck's more memorable TV appearances, both as himself and as an actor. I'm not sure there was much of a difference; what you see is what you get, and it's always funny.

Roger is back at A View from the Junkyard with another in his continuing series of reviews of The New Avengers, and this time it's "Cat Amongst the Pigeons," which plays very much like an episode from the Emma Peel era, but done in the style of the new series. 

At The Hits Just Keep On Comin', JB has a nice remembrance of the famed NBC radio program Monitor; if you're not familiar with it, I urge you to check out the links JB provided, or to read my review of the definitive book on the program, Dennis Hart's Monitor.  

At Television's New Frontier: The 1960s, it's the 1960 episodes from the single-season sitcom Angel, with Marshall Thompson and Annie Fargé. It comes off somewhat as an imitation of I Love Lucy, but with somewhat less success. However, thanks to Classic Flix, it's out on DVD; take advantage of it. TV  

Around the dial

There's not much activity at the classic television corral this week, and I can't for the life of me figure out why. It couldn't have anything to do with this being Easter week, or spring break (somewhere), or the start of real springtime weather, or things that might keep people from staying indoors and watching old television shows, right?

Actually, I envy people like that, you know, people who have actual lives. I spend too much time in front of the television, I'm sure; I'm equally sure that I spend too much time on the keyboard. I am a writer, after all, so I suppose I'm just doing what I should be doing. Still, as I look at it, this is the start of the 13th season of It's About TV, and for most of that time I've kept myself to a schedule of four articles a week. Granted, some of them aren't that big a deal, but there are those that wind up taking a lot more time and effort than I'd prefer. I know that many people communicate their thoughts and opinions on Twitter, or Facebook, or Instagram; I use social media to promote the site, but when it comes to writing, I'll always be a long-form type of writer. I don't say that to project an air of superiority; as Walter Brennan used to say, "No brag, just fact." My job is to use words to say things, and right now I think I've used enough words to fill up what would otherwise be empty space, so we can get on with our regular programming. As I said, there may not be many links, but it's made up for by the quality.

At Cult TV Lounge, we have something most welcome: an original Avengers novel, Dead Duck, written by none other than John Steed himself, Patrick Macnee. At least that's what it says on the cover, although the likely author is Peter Leslie; "It is just within the bounds of possibility that Macnee may have had some slight input into the book."

Staying with the them of British television, over at Cult TV Blog (no relation to the above), John continues his posts on 1980s series TV with a look at the "coming-of-age" drama, and some typical examples from the era. John has the same general dislike for this genre as I do, but as he points out, these shows are invaluable for depicting the grim Britain of the 1980s 

Some of you may remember my old blog "Our Word and Welcome to It," which has been on an extended hiatus for, let's see, nearly two years now. (Never say never, though.) That title came from the 1969-70 series My World and Welcome to It, which starred William Windom and was aclaimed, though fell victim to low ratings. At Comfort TV, David tells you why it's one of his "unshakables."

Martin Grams talks autographs—their monetary value, and their personal value—in an interesting article that doubles as a noteon the autograph sale that Martin is a part of. Having looked at the website (which is included in the story I've linked to), there are some very fun and very affortable signatures for sale, and it's well worth your time to check it out.

Now, you see what I mean? In terms of quantity, not much, but I think you'll enjoy what we're sharing today. Next week we'll hopefully have more links, and less of me. TV  

The 10th Season

In my book The Electronic Mirror: What Classic TV Tells Us About Who We Were and Who We Are (and Everything In-Between!), I allowed myself the conceit of calling my chapters "Channels," and since there's no such thing as Channel 1 on the dial, I began the book (after a prologue) with Channel 2 and went on from there. After all, it's a book about television; cute, eh?

It's About TV! formally began on April 20, 2011 (a summer replacement series, maybe?), which makes this the 9th anniversary. If, that is, you did things the normal way. Since that's pretty much out of the question here, and since I've already gotten away with calling chapters channels, it stands to reason that I look at every anniversary as the start of a new season. Therefore, this represents the first post (episode?) of It's About TV!'s 10th season.

There are a lot of great television series that didn't make it as far as ten: Perry Mason, The FBI, All in the Family, Little House on the Prairie and Seinfeld only made it to nine, for instance, and Bewitched and The Andy Griffith Show were good for eight. Mission: Impossible and The Mary Tyler Moore Show made it to seven. 77 Sunset Strip ran for six season, Combat! for five, and The Fugitive stopped running after four. For that matter, Police Squad! only made it through six episodes. So I figure I'm in pretty good company. Of course, Gunsmoke ran for 20 seasons, and the original Doctor Who hit 26—but don't you dare ask me about that. I think, with this being the 1,535th episode (including a few reruns), it's done better than the average blog.

When It's About TV! first started, it was as a spin-off of a general interest website that's now called In Other Words, which had been running for a few years at the time. The tables have since turned, in that It's About TV! is now the main site, and while In Other Words is still going, it's closer to being a series of occasional specials than a weekly series.

Just as a television show can't exist without viewers, a website can't exist without readers. Well, it could, but it would probably be a waste of time for the person writing it. And writing It's About TV! hasn't been a waste of time for me; I hope you don't feel it's been a waste of your time reading it. Without all of you, there'd be no reason for this spectacle, or whatever it is, to keep going.

I may have mentioned before that this experiment is probably closer to the end than it is to the beginning; classic TV itself is, after all, a finite resource. It seems as if there's always something new to say about it though, and as long as the cast continues to sign up for another season and I can maintain the high level that I demand from myself, we'll have a new season to look forward to. TV  

State of the Blog, 2018

One of the obligations I have as a blogger is to report from time to time to you, the readers, on the State of the Blog. Seeing as how this is the first Wednesday of the year, it seems like a good time to meet this obligation.

I'm pleased to report that the State of the Blog is very good. The very first post at It's About TV! (not including the obligatory site construction post) was on April 20, 2011, and was entitled "So What's the Big Deal About Television?" Nearly seven years later, it's a question I'm still trying to answer, and you - the reader - have helped me immensely. From ideas for articles to loans of TV Guides to comments that contained additions, corrections, suggestions, and other tidbits, I consider myself far more knowledgable about classic TV than I was when I started this show.

Your readership keeps It's About TV! alive. In many ways this site represents an experiment, an attempt to see just how much we can learn about ourselves by studying the shows that have been broadcast on television, and the articles written about it. In all honesty, I think it's an experiment that's probably closer to the end than the beginning; after all, there are only a finite number of TV Guides, and an even more finite number that actually serve my purpose. One of Tthese days I'll find that I've said all there is to say about the subject, at least in this venue, and then it will be time to move on. However, since I've already purchased all the issues I'll be using this year, that day remains at least a year or so away.

I'm happy to say that I'll be appearing as a presenter at this year's Mid Atlantic Nostalgia Convention, September 13-15 in Hunt Valley, Maryland. The title of the seminar might be tweaked between now and then, but not the content: TV Guide as a Cultural Time Capsule in America. If you're a regular reader of the blog, I think you'll know what to expect, but it should be fascinating - I can't wait to hear it myself. I wonder what I'm going to say? Anyway, information on this year's convention isn't up yet (it's still the lineup from last year), but I'll let you know when it is, and how you can get your tickets.

One of the things I hope to have with me at the Convention is my latest book, The Electronic Mirror: How Classic Television Helps Us Understand Who We Are and Who We Were (and everything in-between). I'm working feverishly on it as we speak - well, perhaps not feverishly, but as hard as I ever work at anything. I'm not ignoring my non-TV writing, either; in addition to The Collaborator, I'm hoping to see my newest novel, The Car, out in print later this year.  If you notice on occasion that my pieces are a bit shorter than normal, it's probably because I'm working on several things at the same time.

Which brings me to my next point: I certainly would not refuse any help in the form of an occasional guest column. If you have something you'd like to share with the blog community, or if you'd even like to take a shot at a vintage TV Guide you own, I'd love to hear from you. Even one or two guest posts a month could save me as much as four hours, time that can help me complete another chapter of the book. Don't be shy; we're not professional critics here, so if you'd like to help out, now's the time!

I'll also be appearing as a guest on my friend Dan Budnik's Eventually Supertrain podcast. We're going to be reviewing a short-lived detective show of the past, but that's all I'm going to say about it for the time being. Other than that I think you'll have a lot of fun listening to these episodes!

In short, this should be a busy year for me, and for the blog. I am determined, however, to ensure that the State of the Blog remains good for the next year, and that I keep you, the audience, informed, entertained, or at least help you kill a few minutes each week. Because of this blog, I've met some very, very nice people, both in person and via email, and I'm priviledged to include a very dear friend in that count. I owe this blog much, just as I owe all of you much. I hope to continue to make payments on that debt.

So to all of you, I hope your holidays were wonderful and that 2018 is the best year of your life, so far. I intend to do what I can to see to it that it is for me, and for It's About TV. TV  

The State of the Blog, 2016

When I was young and naïve - a period of time which ended for me when I was 38 or so - I used to dream of standing on the rostrum in the House chamber, giving the State of the Union address. However, it's become apparent over the last couple of decades that the closest I'll get to this is using a picture such as the above* to accompany an address on the State of the Blog.

*By the way, do you like that picture? I wanted to carefully avoid any sign of partisanship, so I went far back in time, and used one in which the face of the president was nearly invisible. If you blow it up enough, though, you might be able to figure out who it is.

For several years I did a State of the Blog over at In Other Words, but my involvement there has necessarily diminished over the years, and so as we enter the fifth full year of this blog, as well as the first day of 2016, I thought it might be appropriate to take a step back from our everyday subject matter and discuss the blog itself - past, present, and most important, future.

It may be hard to believe, but when I first began It's About TV! in 2011, I foresaw it as a once-a-week, maybe even once-a-month, blog. I'd started writing more frequently about television at In Other Words, and I found that I needed a dedicated TV blog for the in-depth pieces I didn't have room for otherwise. Needless to say, It's About TV! has now become the dominant blog of the two, and it's continued to expand every year.

In fact, one of the things of which I've been most proud is that each year, I've been able to expand the blog with a new feature, beyond the essay that appears most Wednesdays. In 2013 it was the introduction of "This Week in TV Guide," the smartest thing I ever did as far as the blog is concerned. In 2014 it was "Around the Dial," where I could spotlight the great writing at other classic TV blogs. Last year, I added "What's on TV?" which allowed me to look at the listings for one complete day from the TV Guide I just reviewed. Will 2016 see a fifth day added to the blog's schedule? I don't know - it depends on a lot of things (more about that later), but if there were to be another feature, it might be something such as a video clip from one of the programs in that week's issue.

If that doesn't happen though, I'm quite happy with the way things are right now. Readership is at an all-time high, thanks to the great participation from members of several Facebook pages devoted to classic television and TV Guides. You've all done a great job of sharing my articles and commenting on them, both at the blog and on Facebook, and I'm grateful not only for how you've increased the blog's visibility, but the requests and suggestions you've made. I add you to the loyal readers I've had from the beginning, the ones who kept things going through the first couple of years with comments and emails, those of you like Mike Doran, who have shared an incredible wealth of information and detail that make the blog that much more informative.

As more people read the blog, they link to it. And on that subject, I'll make a specific request for your help. For some reason*, I don't get notices of pingbacks when other blogs link back to a specific story. There could be a robust conversation going on about something I wrote, and I don't know anything about it. I don't like that, because at the very least if someone links to one of my articles I like to give them the courtesy of thanking them for it. So if any of you out there have any suggestions as to how to rectify this, whether by fixing the blog template or directing me to a site that collects links, I'd be much obliged. I don't really want to give people the impression I'm ignoring them.

*Probably because I've fiddled too many times with the template over the years, and now it can't track back to other links even if it wants to.

As for the coming year: This Week in TV Guide continues apace, though I may do what I did last August and take a further look back at an issue I've already covered. I can't, however, guarantee that this feature will continue on a regular basis beyond 2016. There are several reasons for this: first of all, any feature such as this will by definition be a finite one, given that TV Guide no longer exists as it did in the issues I cover. No matter how large one's collection is, someday you'll run out of issues to review. And my collection is far from being an inclusive one, though it has grown over the years. Issues from the time period I'm most interested in, the '50s through the early '70s, are not as readily available as they used to be, and quite frankly, they cost money. Some of them cost quite a bit, though I've yet to be in a situation where I had to have one of those expensive issues. But when you begin to purchase issues specifically based on the date, rather that the content, you sometimes are forced to spend more for that particular issue, just based on what's available at the time.

Unlike some bloggers, I've never set up the means for readers to donate to me. I'd be a bit sheepish about that, since we've got jobs that pay us more than enough money to get along on. It's merely a matter of whether or not buying old TV Guides is the best way to spend those dollars. I've got about half of 2016's issues lined up, and I should be able to get the 20 or so needed to finish off the year. But as I've said, I can't guarantee I'll be able to keep going beyond that. Now, if you want to send me some TV Guides that you might run across, I won't turn that down; Hadleyblogger Steve from In Other Words sent me some very nice issues for Christmas, and I can guarantee they'll find a place in the blog this year. If you happen to run across some issues at a flea market or antique store and think I might be interested, I'd think you were very kind. I should also mention that if you own an issue you'd like me to write about and want to loan it to me, I can promise you I'll take very good care of it and return it to you as soon as I'm finished.

Finally, I appreciate all your emails and comments, and I'm sorry that I don't always answer them, or answer them in less than a timely way. Part of that may be due to personal or work obligations (I do have a regular job, sadly), but a bigger part may be due to my other writing obligations. As many of you know, I published my novel The Collaborator last fall (and if you haven't purchased it yet, why not?), and at the moment I'm working on what I think (hope?) will be the last major draft of my next novel, The Car. That should be ready for publication some time this summer or early fall. Now, continuing to blog here four days a week, plus editing In Other Words, plus writing a book, is not easy. I'm not complaining though, because it's what I want to do and what I enjoy doing. Last year I would get two or three weeks ahead on my stories here, and then spend a couple of weeks doing nothing but working on the book, so if I let comments go for awhile without answering them, or if I'm tardy on your emails, I hope you'll understand that I'm not ignoring them. I'm just busier than the proverbial one-armed paperhanger.

In fact, I should have gotten this article finished a couple of days ago, but as you can see by the post time, I'm lucky to get it out today at all. So thanks once again for your patience and your support over the life of this blog, and I hope to promise you more and better material this year. If you have anything at all that you'd like me to cover, if you have a request for a specific TV Guide or want to see the listings from a particular date, or if you have suggestions or comments, please let me know. Because without you, this blog exists in a vacuum tube, and the TV business got rid of them long ago.

And that's the State of the Blog, 2016.