Around the dial

At Comfort TV, David presupposes Hall0ween with one of the many vintage made-for-TV horror movies of the 1980s, Don't Go to Sleep, with Dennis Weaver , Valerie Harper, and Ruth Gordon. A classic telemovie cast!

Keeping with the telemovie theme, Gill takes on The Curse of King Tut's Tomb at RealWeegieMidget, in honor of one of its stars, Eva Marie Saint. And in passing, Gill mentions some of the great credits of this remarkable actress.

Cult TV Blog has moved to another "theme" series of posts, this one on the British sci-fi alien creatures the Autons, who made their television debut in the 1966 Doctor Who episode "Invasion." Think Invasion of the Body Snatchers, British style. 

Let's stay with British TV at Cult TV Lounge, where dfordoom looks at the first season of The Power Game, the mid-1960s series about intrigue and cynacism in the world of British industry, considered one of the very best series of the decade. 

Tom Skerritt, who was on just about everything in television and in the movies, died Wednesday at the age of 93, and at A Shroud of Thoughts, Terence has a retrospective of his many, many credits. Terence also honors Michael Forest, best remembered as Apollo in Star Trek, but with a host of other appearances on his CV, who died earlier this month. He was 97.

B.A. gets shot in this week's A-Team episode, "Waiting for Insane Wayne," the subject Roger's review at The View from the Junkyard. Not unlike Hogan's Heroes, it suggests that when the bad guys are the authorities, you have to play them as idiots. 

The 1966-67 TV Guide season continues at Television Obscurities with the issue of October 22, 1966, and among its features is the week's editorial, in which the editors note that politics has become so expensive that "It takes a very rich man, or one with very rich friends, these days, to attain high political office." The more things change, eh? TV

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Around the dial

The Goodies was a British sketch comedy show that ran in the 1980s and 90s, with an accent on absurdist and non-PC humor. At Cult TV Blog, John looks at the episode "Black and White Beauty," which most assuredly falls into both categories.

David takes a moment at Comfort TV to remember one of the truly great pioneers of television, Steve Allen. We've always done a lousy job in TV land of remembering our heroes, and David reminds us why we should remember Steverino.

Speaking of absurdity, at The View from the Junkyard, Roger reviews the A-Team episode "Cowboy George," in which our heroes battle a ruthless gang of criminals while arranging a concert featuring "country" singer Boy George, mistakenly booked in place of Cowboy George.

The Television Obscurities review of the 1966-67 TV Guide season continues with a look at the issue of October 15, 1966, which featured articles on football, Vietnam (what else?), William Shatner, and the week's cover girl, Love on a Rooftop's Judy Carne.

A twin spin from A Shroud of Thoughts to celebrate twin 75th anniversaries: remembering one of television's great anthology series, Goodyear Television Playhouse, and a look at the original opening credits for I Love Lucy. 

Continuing with everyone's favorite redhead, at Drunk TV, Paul remembers Lucy on her anniversary, and how Lucy always carries on fron generation to generation; he also offers some sharp observations about today's "media consumers."  

Back to OTR, and Martin Grams looks back at one of the recurring secondary characters from The Green Hornet: Muggs, a shady sort who nonetheless is frequently heard helping out Brit Reid in his fight against crime. TV

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Around the dial

Wt Cult TV Blog, John introduces us to the 1960s science fiction series Undermind, with the unfortunately familiar premise of technology "being used to get inside people and undermine society. What's old is new again.

Let's stay with the British flavor here, as the delightful Gill at RealWeegieMidget interviews Ian Ogilvy, star of The Return of the Saint, and with a list of credit so long that, well, it's best to just let Gill take over. 

Has there ever been a scifi series that didn't do dinosaurs? And do it well? Captain Video takes us to Star Trek, or at least the comic book version, as the post-Star Trek the Motion Picture crew arrive on "Dinosaur Planet."

Keeping in the spirit of things, Silver Scenes looks at a series of board games put out in the 1960s by Hasbro, based on the Universal monsters! Care for The Mummy Mystery Game or The Creature from the Black Lagoon Game? Those were the days.

At The View from the Junkyard, Roger's review of The A-Team takes us to "Members Only," and it's not the jacket, but it does have to do with golf (in which case it would have had to be a green jacket, right?) as Face joins a country club.

Television Obscurities is back to the world of "A Year in TV Guide," and we're continuing the 60th anniversary celebration of the 1966-67 season, with the issue of October 8, 1966. I'm looking forward to getting back to these myself.

I've left it to Terence at A Shroud of Thoughts to look back at the career of the legendary Eva Marie Saint, who died this week at the age of 102. What a resume she had, and what a shame they don't make stars like her anymore.

When you mention Gene Barry to me, I'll always think first of Burke's Law, but before that there was the Western series Bat Masterson, and Martin Grams has a fascinating look at some archival letters and telegrams that give us a behind-the-scenes look.

Finally, I want to thank those of you who reached out in one way or another in response to my Wednesday essay. I haven't replied to all of you yet but I have read them all, and I promise I will respond. However, it's your love and support that keep things going here, and I don't ever forget it. TV

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Around the dial

Lets start with some Twilight Zone, shall we? At The Twilight Zone Vortex, Brian reviews the final season  episode "Spur of the Moment," which also marked the final contribution to the series of writer Richard Matheson. Just saw this episode a couple of weeks ago myself.

From there, it's Comfort TV, where David reviews three hits from that much-maligned final season, as well as three misses. No, "Spur of the Moment" doesn't land on either list, though it does get a mention. But see if you agree with David's choices.

The "Patricia Hayes Season" continues at Cult TV Blog, where John views her performance in "And the Wall Came Tumbling Down" from Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense. If this doesn't make you want to watch the series, nothing will.

For some reason, Speed Racer completely escaped me when I was of cartoon age. (I wonder what I was watching instead?) I don't have to wonder about this piece by Paul at Drunk TV, though, and it's a terrific look back at the legendary cartoon.

At Cult TV Lounge, DforDoom looks at a miniseries I completely overlooked: The Dain Curse, a three-episode series from 1978 in which the great James Coburn plays Dashiell Hammett's private detective Hamilton Nash, aka The Continental Op.

This week, Martin Grams gives us a little TV Guide Trivia from 1959, featuring items from the wonderful TV Teletype, which is always a must-stop whenever I'm reading an old issue. Read it; you'll like it!

The 60th anniversary of The Monkees? Get outta here! But it's true, and I'm old. At A Shroud of Thoughts, Terence shares his thoughts on the anniversary, and they give us some memories well worth reliving.

I couldn't let the week pass without the latest A-Team review by Roger at The View from the Junkyard. This week, it's "Uncle Budkle-Up," and it's not a PSA for seat belts, but a story about toys being used to smuggle drugs.

Finally, I was speaking about miniseries earlier, and for a good reason: at this month's American TV series with Dan Schneider, we talk about the magnificent, if checkered, history of the miniseries, from Roots to Washington: Behind Closed Doors. Enjoy!  TV

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This week in TV Guide: April 17, 1993

this week's TV Guide is a special, the 40th Anniversary edition. It's an interesting issue, and this is going to be an interesting look at it; we won't even dip into the programming until Monday. That's because this is the 40th Anniversary Issue, and as you can tell from the cover, we're going to be reading about TV Guide's choices as the All-Time Best TV.* Ratings like this are ultimately pointless (one man's trash is another man's treasure, after all, and as the Editors themselves point out, "most of the fun is in the argument"), but they're usually fun to look at. Let's see if that's the case this time as well.

*I can't imagine writing this phrase without using Capital Letters.

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The shows are separated into categories: sitcoms, family shows, cop shows, Westerns and the like, and winners are chosen for the decades of the '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s and overall. Some of the choices, which must have seemed so progressive at the time, are probably going to be quite dated now, while others are going to be a testimony to how cultures change over time. Let's start, as an example, with sitcoms. The best sitcom of the '50s is no surprise: I Love Lucy. Probably not much disagreement there. For the '60s, the winner is The Dick Van Dyke Show, the '70s is M*A*S*H, the '80s is Cheers, and the All-Time Best* is M*A*S*H. What does this mean?

*There are those Capital Letters again.

The justification for selecting M*A*S*H as the all-time best is that it did what only the greatest comedies do: "mix hilarity and tragedy, often in equal measure." I'm not sure I agree with this—the definition, I mean. Yes, many comedies introduce an element of drama from time to time, but I disagree strongly with the assertion that this is a requirement of classic comedy. The editors acknowledge that M*A*S*H's politics could occasionally be heavy-handed, but "never at the expense of laughter or character," and I'm not sure I agree with that either. The politics of M*A*S*H, while ostensibly referring to the Korean War, was often meant as an allegory for Vietnam—but by this time, much of it has become dated, not to mention simplistic, and its cast members seem even more sanctimonious and pushy than they did back then. Perhaps the editors could have created a category for Best Dramedy, where M*A*S*H could have competed against Thirtysomething and SportsNight.

Another characteristic of classic comedy is its timelessness, and that's something that one can genuinely question about M*A*S*H. Let's put it this way: if you were to introduce this show to an audience today, one that lies outside of the demographic most preoccupied with Vietnam, would they find it funny in the same way they do Lucy or Andy Griffith or Leave it to Beaver, or even Frazier and Seinfeld, if you want to project into the future? I'm not sure they would, because those other shows, although rooted in a specific time period, often draw their humor from situations that are timeless and jokes that are often funny regardless of their setting. Much of M*A*S*H's humor may fall into that category (after all, authority will always be the butt of the joke), but I don't think you can say the same for its politics, and for that reason M*A*S*H, like another contender from the era, All in the Family, is too much of its time to be considered timeless.

My own personal choice in this category, not surprisingly to regular readers, is Hogan's Heroes, which combines a modicum of slapstick with some very clever "caper" plotting that also happens to be very funny. There's a certain gravitas about the mission of the Heroes that doesn't exist on, for example, McHale's Navy, and from time to time you're reminded that their missions do, in fact, often involve killing. The complaints about bad taste fall on deaf ears in this household, and most of the situations that form the basis for the comedy do seem, to me at least, to be universal in a way that they aren't in M*A*S*H. This is just one man's opinion; however, remember that the one man happens to be the owner of this blog.

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Best Drama? Your winners by decade are Playhouse 90, The Fugitive, Upstairs, Downstairs, and St. Elsewhere, and even before I turned the page I knew St. Elsewhere would be the winner, because it came from the '80s, which at the time was considered another Golden Age, and it was the most recent in people's minds.

Here, my complaint revolves around methodology. Some people might consider Hill Street Blues, the winner of Best Cop Show, as the best dramatic series of all time. Ah, but Hill Street is a genre show, albeit one that transcends the normal lines that separate a genre series from a regular drama. Others might suggest that The Waltons, a nominee for Best Family Show, should be considered for this category. For that matter, St. Elsewhere could be considered a genre show itself, a medical drama. But wait—there isn't a category for best Medical Drama. Could it be because there aren't really any medical dramas on television at the time, before ER and Chicago Hope and House? Can we even say that St. Elsewhere would be the best medical drama if that category existed? After all, Ben Casey and Dr. Kildare took on some weighty issues for the time.

I think this is a terribly weak choice: of the shows listed, I'd probably go with The Fugitive, although Playhouse 90 is a strong contender. The problem with Playhouse 90, in my mind, is that it was an anthology; as such, without a regular cast, you don't have to consider things such as character development and continuing storyline. It probably should have gone in a category for Best Anthology, but said category does not exist. Meanwhile, The Fugitive could just as easily have been put in the cop show category since its protagonist spends his time trying to avoid capture by—you guessed it—a cop. Upstairs, Downstairs could just as easily be put in the Best Nighttime Soap category (not that there's anything wrong with that), but if you're going to consider it as among the best, then let's look at the series that was the best Masterpiece Theatre had to offer: I, Claudius. Or was that too much of a soap? And what about The Prisoner, one of the most provocative series of all time? It isn't even mentioned in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy category. What about The Defenders or Judd for the Defense, shows of exceedingly high quality, or Perry Mason, a series with high entertainment value? What about Mission: Impossible, which doesn't seem to fit into any category?

The bottom line here is that the categories themselves are useless—unless there's something that makes a series unique (and I'd allow that science fiction can fall into that description, as well as the anthology series, and today's reality shows), a drama is a drama and a comedy is a comedy. To paraphrase the editors, a classic television series transcends simple classification; just as Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe transcended genre fiction to be considered mainstream literature, the best series, regardless of the field in which they take place, are dramas (or comedies) first and foremost. Dragnet, one of the decade winners in the Best Cop category, is fine as a genre show, but it doesn't reach the level of another decade winner, Naked City, which is not a police drama at all, but a drama about men who happen to be policemen. See the difference?

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There are a few other bones to pick as well.

I mentioned Best Family Show above, but I'll say again that I think this kind of segregation cheapens the quality of these shows. The Waltons not a drama series? Leave it to Beaver and The Donna Reed Show classified as "family" shows and not sitcoms? It's almost as if the editors are embarrassed by them, giving them a special category rather than letting them compete with the "big boys." And speaking of embarrassment, I wonder how they'd feel about their all-time winner in this category, The Cosby Show? (Whoops!) They might like to forget it, but Cosby was the biggest hit of the day. Why isn't this a sitcom, unless you want to define them as containing jokes about sex and other bodily functions?

I also mentioned Hill Street Blues winning Best Cop Show, but how can you compare cops on the beat to homicide detective Columbo (winner of the '60s)? Dragnet is a worthy winner for the '50s, but if you want cops, why not choose the crew of Naked City, a much better show than Hill Street, at least in my opinion. Still, if this issue had come out today, the choices probably would have been one of the Law & Order versions, or one of the NCIS versions, or the Matlock reboot, so I suppose we have to be grateful for small favors.

Johnny Carson is named best Nighttime Talk Show host, defeating Steve Allen, Jack Paar and David Letterman. No surprise, and I don't think you can really argue with it. Paar is more my taste, but between Johnny's staying power and the memorable moments from interviews, comedy skits and impromptu bits (thrown any tomahawks lately?), it's hard to dispute him as the king. And to think so many from today's generation have no clue who he is.

The Ed Sullivan Show wins for Best Variety Show, beating out Laugh-In, Saturday Night Live and The Tracey Ullman Show, and I'll admit I'm kind of surprised by this. I'd have thought they might go with SNL, based on its "groundbreaking" reputation, but Sullivan's show offered, as the editors point out, "all-encompassing variety," a program "that offered everything from dramatic readings to dancing bears, from opera buffo to Topo Gigio, from The Doors to Dinah Shore." As I pointed out here, it was influential in ways Sullivan himself couldn't have anticipated.

Howard Cosell is named Best Sportscaster, but he wasn't really a sportscaster in the sense that Vin Scully or Keith Jackson or Brent Musberger are; he was a sports commentator, or even better a sports personality. Yes, he did boxing and was very good at it (although not better than Don Dunphy), and he is absolutely one of the most important figures in television. But he doesn't belong in the same category with Red Barber, the voice of the Brooklyn Dodgers, or Jim McKay, host of Wide World of Sports, or even the young Bob Costas (who actually did more than pontificate back then), the other three nominees. Here, a little bit more distinction in categories would actually have been useful.

The Simpsons is the winner for Best Cartoon (what we'd call Best Animated Series today), but I think that really belongs in the sitcom classification, where it would probably have beaten M*A*S*H. It beats out Gumby (which wasn't a cartoon at all), The Bullwinkle Show (which wasn't a kids' show at all), and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (which has suddenly become very awkward). I'm really quite surprised, considering its longevity and popularity, that The Flintstones doesn't make the list.

I'm even more surprised—make that appalled—that Captain Kangaroo doesn't make the list of Best Kids' Show. Yes to Howdy Doody for the '50s and Sesame Street for the '70s, but Walt Disney instead of the Captain for the '60s? Disney's appeal crossed over to adults as well as children, and when you're talking about a "kids' show," you can't possibly compare "The Love Bug" and "Davy Crockett" (popular though they were) to Mr. Green Jeans talking about nature, the Captain introducing kids to the wonders of books through reading, or the various animal guests. As for the show of the '80s, ABC's Afterschool Specials, again—it's not a weekly series. Isn't this just apples and oranges? By the way, Sesame Street wins—no surprise.

For best Sci-Fi Show, I would have chosen Doctor Who, but at the time the British import hadn't gone mainstream, though it still had an enormous cult following in this country. Star Trek: TOS is the winner here, over The Twilight Zone (again, I'm not sure they really fit in the same category), Mork & Mindy (?), and Star Trek: TNG.

The original version of Jeopardy!, with Art Fleming, takes the Best Game Show category, and I'm not going to disagree with that—it's much better, in my opinion, than the Alex Trebek-helmed version. What's My Line?, the '50s choice, would have been mine as well, but it's not really a game show in the same sense as Jeopardy! or the other winners, Password and Wheel of Fortune. It was considered a panel show, which is really a horse of a different color altogether.

Best News Show: 60 Minutes, over See It Now, The Huntley-Brinkley Report (which, I can't stress enough, was NBC's frigging evening news program, not in the same category at all) and Nightline. If you're talking about news magazines, sure, 60 Minutes—but if you're introducing Huntley-Brinkley, why not The MacNeil/Lehrer Report?

Best Morning Show: The Today Show, and I'm all right with that if you're talking about the '50s and '60s, as they do here. Good Morning America is the '70s choice, and CBS News Sunday Morning wins the '80s. It just goes to show how weak the entire weekday-morning lineup is.

Best Daytime Soap is General Hospital. Best Evening Soap is Dallas. I won't quarrel with either. Best Daytime Talk Show Host is Oprah Winfrey, and I think that choice, though regrettable, was inevitable. Arthur Godfrey's '50s show and Merv Griffin's '60s daytime show were in the mix, as well as Phil Donohue in the '70s; I prefer Merv's evening/late night show, for the same reasons they chose his '60s program—Merv as host was "a literate, intelligent one who didn't shrink from cerebral or controversial guests." And in that vein, don't forget that Dick Cavett started out as a daytime host as well, with ABC's This Morning.

Best Western Show: Gunsmoke, over Maverick ('50s) and Bonanza ('60s). Sure, although I think Gunsmoke is better placed in the '60s than '70s, but they had to have something for the '70s, since they couldn't come up with anything for the '80s (for the simple reason that there wasn't anything. For a genre that, at one time, dominated the TV airwaves, it's too bad TV Guide's format is so limiting; it leaves out a program such as Have Gun—Will Travel, a very complex program.

I'm not even bothering with the Best Actor and Actress categories, since I think the Best Show categories have created enough of a mess, but if you're curious the comedy awards went to Jackie Gleason and Lucille Ball (but wait a minute! The Honeymooners wasn't even a choice for sitcoms, and The Jackie Gleason Show didn't make it for variety show!), and the drama award winners were James Garner (who's magnificent forte is really the lighthearted drama) and Tyne Daly (whose Cagney & Lacey doesn't have the staying power needed to be voted best anything, I'd submit). Best Newscaster is Walter Cronkite, and my favorite, the non-nominated David Brinkley, wouldn't have stood a chance.

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And there you have it. I'm sure I've probably slammed some of your favorite shows, and if I have, I hope you'll forgive me. This is, after all, One Man's Opinion, and even if - as I mentioned earlier—that man happens to run this site, my opinions should be taken for what they're worth.

On the other hand, I think my opinions are as valid as anyone else's, certainly as much so as the editors of TV Guide, compared to whom I think I've shown more discernment and taste, as well as a greater sense of historicity, and I won't back down from that assertion.

However, what I'd like as much as anything is to hear your opinions. Keep in mind that this was written in 1993, so some of your favorites (especially from the cable boom) weren't anticipated, but otherwise, have at it—with either TV Guide, or me, or both.  TV

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Edith Efron and TV Guide

I've mentioned Edith Efron many times in my TV Guide reviews, most recently writing about her article on soap opera sex a couple of weeks ago. It occurs to me that some of you might want to know a little more about her: who she was, and what she did prior to and after her run at TV Guide.

She started out writing features for the New York Times Magazine, before moving into television production with Mike Wallace's staff, and then became a correspondent for Time and Life in Haiti, where she married and had a child. Later, she became involved with Ayn Rand and the Objectivist movement, from which she later distanced herself (after a fallout with Rand). Even so, she retained many of the libertarian-leaning tendencies, as seen in her later work for the libertarian magazine Reason.

Her relationship with TV Guide ran through the 1960s and 1970s, at first writing edgy celebrity stories that leaned into psychological profiles of her subjects, frequently resulting in unflattering portraits. She'd eventually become a senior editor with the magazine; Glenn C. Altschuler and David I. Grossvogel, in their excellent 1993 history of TV Guide Changing Channels: America in TV Guide (to which I frequently refer), wrote that no writer "did more to shape TV Guide," and called her "the quintessential TV Guide voice on race relations." (Efron certainly had experience in that area, as a result of raising a mixed-race child from her marriage in Haiti.) 

Her best-known book was the 1971 bestseller The News Twisters, a word-by-word audit of network coverage during the closing weeks of the 1968 presidential campaign. Working from thousands of hours of taped broadcasts and a modest research grant tied to conservative intellectual circles, Efron tallied favorable and unfavorable references to candidates and hot-button issues, revealing what she saw as a consistent tilt toward an “elitist-liberal-left” worldview. The book became a bestseller (with a quiet assist from the Nixon White House) and provided some of the first empirical data to support accusations of press bias. Her contributions to TV Guide's "News Watch" column reflected a heavier emphasis on political-media analysis, including her argument for scrapping the Fairness Doctrine to allow more ideological diversity on airwaves. She also wrote the book How CBS Tried to Kill a Book: An Expose of the Campaign By CBS to Kill The News Twisters, the title of which is pretty self-explanatory. 

In 1984, she published The Apocalyptics, "an exposé of shoddy science and its effects on environmental policy," She declined overtures from conservative presidents to become a White House staffer, preferring to retain her political independence, even though it meant scraping by on Social Security supplemented by magazine pieces, and left behind an unfinished manuscript on America’s racial caste system that friends expected to be explosive. In an era when media, science, and politics increasingly rewarded narrative conformity, she displayed what one critic called "a rarer stance: rigorous, data-driven dissent that refused to flatten human complexity into ideological teams." She died in 2001 at the age 0f 78, and remains to this day one of the most distinguished writers for TV Guide.

Here she is appearing on William F. Buckley Jr.'s Firing Line, debating Andy Rooney on the topic of media bias, in the wake of The News Twisters.

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Around the dial

I'm dating myself again, I know, but I can remember when Space: 1999 was supposed to be the next big thing, the first "adult" science-fiction series since Star Trek. It didn't quite turn out that way, but Captain Video dives into the comic collection to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the series. Fifty years; wow.

At RealWeegieMidget, Gill combines movies and television in one neat package with a look at the 1980 telemovie The Scarlett O'Hara War, the story of David O. Selznick's search for the actress to play the aforementioned leading lady (as well as other backstage tales) in his upcoming epic, Gone with the Wind.  

And now, a trio of posts that have a tangential tie-in to my new book, Darkness in Primetime. First, at Comfort TV, David makes a gracious note of the book in his essay on "When is Classic TV important?" What makes one program more important than another? We all have our answers, but this is a good place to begin the discussion.

At The Twilight Zone Vortex, Brian takes a look at the memorable fifth-season TZ episode "Number 12 Looks Just Like You," a frightening story of enforced conformity and loss of individuality; this episode is covered in Chapter 5 of Darkness in Primetime.

At Cult TV Blog, John reviews the mid-1970s series Survivors, a post-apocalyptic drama that explores the aftermath of a deadly global pandemic. John first viewed this series in 2020, in the midst of COVID Theater, which coincidentally was a major factor driving the genesis of Darkness in Primetime. There: self-promotion done.

We're not finished with British TV, though; at Silver Scenes, the Metzinger Sisters tease us with a preview of How, a children's series that ran for 17 seasons between 1966 and 1981. They'll have more on this in the coming weeks, but for now take a look at this clip and see what you think.

One more from across the pond? Why not! At Classic Film and TV Corner, Maddie looks at five British period dramas from the 1970s that more people should watch. Perhaps you've heard of them, perhaps not, but they're all dramas worth checking out.;

At A View from the Junkyard, Roger returns to The A-Team and the episode "Steel," a straightforward and uncompromising look at organized crime in the United States. It's no documentary, but neither does it seek to romanticize the mob, as so many shows continue to do. Let's just say that our fearless heroes aren't going to back down in the face of a formidable foe.

We were touching on trios earlier on, and here's a trio of posts from Television Obscurities: one on the 70th anniversary of The Honeymooners as a stand-alone series; a second on other series, well-known and otherwise, commemorating anniversaries this month; and a third, an audio clip from the opening of CBS's 1969 presentation of Mark Twain Tonight!, sponsored by Xerox, and starring Hal Holbrook.

Terence also has a piece on The Honeymooners over at A Shroud of Thoughts, as well as recognition of yet another series celebrating a 70th anniversary, Alfred Hitchcock Presents. What a great time for television, as we saw in my TV Guide review last Saturday.

And let's keep going with that TV Guide theme, as Martin Grams has more TV Guide trivia from 1959, including pitches for upcoming series (imagine Beetle Bailey starring Mort Sahl!), and a proposal for a big-screen version of Peter Lawford's The Thin Man, which itself was based on a big-screen version of Dashiell Hammett's famous novel.

Finally, if you're fortunate to have multiple sub-channels where you live, Remind Magazine tells you that you might be in luck, as Weigel Broadcasting (MeTV, etc.) has a new classic channel: WEST, featuring all Westerns, all day, every day. You can do worse; much worse. TV

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Around the dial

At Comfort TV, David's journey through 1970s prime-time TV brings him (and us) to Friday nights, 1976. For a schoolkid, Friday nights were the best nights of the week, and in a night with movies on two of the three networks, NBC offers three shows you're sure to remember.

Jodie returns at Garroway at Large with a Today Show feature on the Whirlpool Space Kitchen that comes very late in Garroway's run on the show. It's an archival treasure not just for what it tells us about Dave after so many years on the show, but a delightfully optimistic take on what the future could do for us.

At Cult TV Blog, John looks at the 1973-74 Walter Mittyesque sitcom Billy Liar, based on the movie of the same name, and the episode "Billy and the Scales of Justice." Is ths show as much fun to watch as it must have been to make? Well, that's up for debate; see what John thinks.

Garry Berman hearkens back to a time when a talk show host had a run-in with his network and left the air, albeit temporarily. We all know who that was, right? Jack Paar. Take a look back at one of the most memorable, and infamous, moments in TV history.

At Mavis Movie Madness, Paul uses the 70th anniversary of James Dean's death to look back at the 1981 East of Eden miniseries, featuring an all-star cast led by the star-making performance of Jane Seymour. How did it measure up to its storied film predecessor? You might be surprised.

A pair from Terence at A Shroud of Thoughts: the 40th birthday of The Golden Girls, a show of which I have never seen a single episode, although I readily concede its small place in television history; and a tribute to the legendary Robert Redford, who appeared in many a drama in TV's early days.

To be honest, I wasn't sure TV Guide still did a Fall Preview issue; it's been so long since I watched network TV that I wasn't even sure there was still a Fall season. But Robert bailed us out at Television Obscurities with his thoughts on this year's edition.

At The View from the Junkyard, Roger's tour of The A-Team comes to "Water, Water Everywhere," and some perspective comments on our four heroes are really misfits who've come together to form a Team. And how great that is when it happens.

Finally, in this week's round of self-promotion, you'll want to check out my terrific interview with Tommy Kovac on his "Splat from the Past" podcast, which touches on details that I haven't had a chance to discuss on other programs. And my latest "Two Minute Author" video is also up, in which I discuss the tantalizing British telemovie The Year of the Sex Olympics. Enjoy! TV

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Good morning from Towson, Maryland, where I'm coming to you live today from the Mid Atlantic Nostalgia Convention, our annual pilgrimage where we can talk about old TV and movies without sounding hopelessly out of touch with the rest of the world. Although considering the state of the world today, being out of touch isn't such a bad thing. After all, around here, when people talk about late night television, it's usually either Johnny Carson or a test pattern. And speaking as I was the other day about "old," it's not such a bad thing. Anyway, let's get to it.

At Comfort TV, David gives me the chance to link to someone else promoting me, with his very kind review of Darkness in Primetime. And by the way, have you purchased your copy yet? You do want to be part of the cool crowd, don't you? 

John is back in documentary mode at Cult TV Blog with this look at the infamous "Nine O'Clock Service" experiment in the Church of England; it's a double-header post, because John also tells us about an admirable book that serves as a perfect compliment to the documentary. It makes for disgusting reading; afterward, I felt as if I had to take another shower.

I'm breaking from Roger's A-Team reviews at A View from the Junkyard for his look at "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes," an all-time Simpsons classic featuring Patrick McGoohan's final television performance as the redoubtable Number 6. I'll tell you no more about it; read it for yourself.

At Classic Film and TV Corner, Maddie celebrates an anniversary of a show that both she and I count as a favorite: The Wild Wild West, which premiered 60 years ago. Besides Robert Conrad and Ross Martin, the show was blessed with terrific guest stars, especially Michael Dunn; it also had going for it something increasingly rare on television: an original idea.

In my TV Guide pieces, I've occasionally mentioned Startime, one of the shows from the end of the Golden Age that truly lived up to its name as a home for star-studded spectaculars; at Drunk TV, Paul looks at the 1959 broadcast of "The Jazz Singer," starring Jerry Lewis in a then-rare dramatic role. It's an opportunity to look at a color broadcast from the late 1950s, and worth checking out.

Garry Berman is back with ten great sitcom episodes that seldom get talked about, and it's particularly interesting considering how many of these episodes are from series that we're quite familiar with. Being a completist at heart, it's always nice to go into those deep cuts and see what you come up with.

What's that, you say? Assorted trivia from TV Guide? Well, I'm not going to pass this up, thanks to Martin Grams. I will always say that TV Guide is one of the best time capsules you can find. And speaking of MANC as we were, I'd be remiss if I didn't remind you of the presentation I gave here a few years ago on the very subject of TV Guide as a time capsule!  TV

If you enjoy the content here and want to support my broader creative work, please consider making a donation at my Ko-fi page. Any amount you contribute helps me continue writing, researching, and sharing these articles and projects. Thank you!

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

On Wednesday, you saw my contribution to the Aaron Spellingverse Blogathon hosted by Gill at Realweegiemidget; well, now that it's all done, head over there to see all of the entries, including those by blogs I'd ordinarily be mentioning here, such as The Last Drive In. By the end, you'll know more about Aaron Spelling than you ever thought possible!

Last week I mentioned the death of Peter Marshall, and that we'd likely be reading about him in this space this week. As promised, Terence has a look at the great man's career at A Shroud of Thoughts. Continue reading, and you'll also read his fine appreciation of the late Phil Donahue, who died earlier this week.

This week, Jack's Hitchcock Project at bare-bones e-zine shines the spotlight on one Evan Hunter, who under that name wrote Blackboard Jungle, while under the pen name Ed McBain he wrote the long series of 87th Precinct novels, several of which are on my bookshelf. Here, we're concerned with his only Hitchcock contribution, "Appointment at Eleven," a terrific adaptation of Robert Turner's short story.

At Cult TV Blog, John has spent the past few weeks reviewing the dystopian series The Guardians, and this week he comes to the conclusing episode, after which he offers some of his own conclusions as to the provocative series. Thanks to you, John, I've had to add this series to the lengthy list of programs I have to watch if I live long enough.

Guess what came from Amazon last week? The complete series of F Troop! We'd always enjoyed this series when it was originally on, but I'd be lying if I didn't give some of the credit for my renewed interest to Hal at The Horn Section and his F Troop Fridays. This week, he returns with a look at "Reunion for O'Rourke," celebrating the Sergeant's 25th anniversary in the service.

At Comfort TV, David muses on what he calls his "least favorite sitcom plot," as seen in the Doris Day Show episode "The Matchmakers," and how an annoying cliche can nonetheless teach a valuable life lesson for those open to it. I probably ought to take a page or two from these episodes myself.

Next to the annual Christmas catalogs from Sears and Penneys, one of the most exciting days of the year, for me at least, was when the TV Guide Fall Preview issue came out. Somewhat to my surprise, they still publish one, although I've not paid any attention to broadcast television for years. At Television Obscurities, reliable Robert reminds us that it's out there, if you can find it.

I'm not sure that a week goes by when I don't see character actor Jay Novello appearing in one classic TV episode or another; sometimes I might see him twice in one night. Travalanche looks back at Novello's long career, and even if you don't recognize the name, he'll tell you what to watch so you can recognize the face. TV