Around the dial

Wt Cult TV Blog, John revisits the BBC 1980s-90s series Forty Minutes  (not to be confused with 60 Minutes), and the episode "Separate Tables," which takes us back stage at a residential hotel, and how they work.

David's moved to Tuesday nights in 1978 in his Comfort TV survey of 1970s TV. What should we remember from then? How about ABC's big-hitter lineup: Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Three's Company, Taxi, and Starsky & Hutch. Not a bad lineup, huh?

At RealWeegieMidget, Gill looks at the late, great Sam Neill, and his "devilishly dapper" performance in Omen III: The Final Conflict. There's been quite the outpouring of praise and appreciation for Neill since his death, all of it well-deserved.

Someone once said that when you reach a certain age, every time you drive by a cemetery, you feel like you're looking at a "Lease with an Option to Die," which is a long way to go to set up this week's A-Team episode with Roger at The View from the Junkyard.

I mentioned that as part of my research for The Book of Revelations, I started listing to the '60s Gold channel on SiriusXM, which is where I became acquainted with Freddy Cannon, who died last week, age 89. Terence appreciates him at A Shroud of Thoughts.

Another obituary to report is Joanna Pettet, who died earlier this month at 83, and Shadow & Substance remembers her multiple contributions to Rod Serling's Night Gallery, part of her impressive television career.

And to end the week on a lighter note, here's Martin Grams with a look (including some wonderful illustrations) at 1958's The Lone Ranger Adventure Stories No. 2, a great little book with adaptations of the Ranger's radio and television stories.  TV

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Around the dial

At Comfort TV, David gets our week off to a start with a look at the much-maligned Season Four of The Twilight Zone, the year the series shifted to one-hour episodes, and finds some gems in the mix.

The Omega Factor is the focus of John's post at Cult TV Blog, specifically the episode "The Undiscovered Country." He calls it Scotland's "predecessor to The X-Files," which is a heavy burden to carry. Does this inaugural episode from 1979 pull it off?

At The View from the Junkyard, this week's episode of The A-Team, "The Big Squeeze," gets off to a bang, as Hannibal is shot and killed pre-credits! Say it's not so, Roger! Well, you'll have to read for yourself, but I don't think it's too serious.

Care for a little musical interlude? How about a few songs about Superman? That's Terence's "theme" at A Shroud of Thoughts, as he commemorates the 88th anniversary of the superhero with songs featuring his name.

When I was young, back in the Middle Ages, it was a regular thing to pop down to the store and get some bubble gum cards. Baseball, football, even hockey; I had quite the collection at one time. But never the Lone Ranger, which Martin Grams rectifies this week.

And before I forget, my video series with Dan Schneider on the forgotten—rather, let's call them overlooked—pioneers of television continues with a look at a couple of prominent names from the era: Bill Cullen and Henry Morgan. They're great fun, and a great way to start the weekend! TV

If you enjoy the content here and want to support my broader creative work, please consider leaving a tip 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

Let's start across the pond this week, as John makes his way through the "Ann Way Season," comprising appearances by the British character actress. The latest comes from the great, absurd British series Ripping Yarns, and the episode "Whinfrey's Last Case."

Garry Berman links back to a review from last year on the series Pan Am, which ran for 14 episodes in 2012. It's a wonderful time capsule for an era that seemed to promise endless potential, and one in which taking a jet wasn't like running the gauntlet through a torture chamber.

At bare•bone e-zine, Jack's Hitchcock Project continues with "Final Arrangements" by Robert Arthur, part of the show's sixth season. It's something of a letdown, despite a fine cast led by Martin Balsam as the would-be wife killer.

One of the more interesting aspects of classic television is the way in which various trends in programming ebb and flow. At Travalanche, Trav looks at one such trend, that of shows using World War II as a backdrop for drama or comedy. Read more about these shows, and why they worked (or didn't).

Michael Cole died earlier this week, aged 84, and with that all three of those impossibly young cops of The Mod Squad are now dead, as well as their mentor, Tige Andrews. There was more to his career, of course, and Terence looks at some of them at A Shroud of Thoughts.

With Christmas just around the corner, it's a perfect time for Martin Grams to look at the "lost" Lone Ranger radio Christmas special of 1938. It was performed but not recorded for syndication, since it could have been aired at any time of the year. The solution? Read all about it.

Let's talk just a little more about Christmas, as JB does the Christmas Shuffle at The Hits Just Keep on Comin'. Has nothing to do with television (although you'll have heard some of these tunes on the tube), but who's going to complain about a little more Christmas cheer.

At Classic Film & TV Corner, Maddie reviews the 1968-70 series The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, based on the 1947 movie of the same name, with Hope Lange and Edward Mulhare essaying the roles originally played by Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison. It's a charming way to spend some time.

By the way, that great picture at the top comes from this article on 25 ideas to celebrate an old-fashioned Christmas. One of those ways: "Watch the Christmas TV Special From When You Were a Kid." That's what we'll be doing tonight, and I can't think of a better way to start the weekend.  TV  

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I think we'll open the scoring this week at the A.V. Club, where Kayleigh Dray makes a plea to return to the 20+ episode season. (And standalone episodes!) This was, of course, the norm in the classic TV era, and there are sensible reasons why it would be a good idea today.

At bare•bones e-zine, the Hitchcock Project turns to the first of two Richard Fielder teleplays for the hour-long edition, the first being "Night of the Owl," based on a novel by Andrew Garve, with Brian Keith, Claudia Cravey, and Patricia Breslin. A novel fits in very well to the hour-long format, as you'll see from Jack's review.

A few weeks ago, Hal started a deeper look at the 1965-66 ratings for F Troop, and now he's back with part two, looking at the 1966-67 season. Did the move to 8:00 p.m. ET on Thursday night have an effect on the show's ratings? Is it true that F Troop had better ratings than I Dream of Jeannie, Star Trek, The Wild Wild West, and The Monkees, among others? Tune in and find out.

At Cult TV Blog, John's latest series focuses on the idea that The Prisoner's Number 6 (Patrick McGoohan) was actually a plant, not a prisoner. This week, we see him apply this theory to the episode "The Chimes of Big Ben," one of the series' more puzzling episodes. Does the theory still hold up? 

We don't often talk about "seasons" when it comes to a Saturday morning cartoon; most of them just kept running the same episodes over and over. But Star Trek: The Animated Series wasn't your average Saturday fare, and this week's The View from the Junkyard looks at the second season opener, "The Pirates of Orion."

I was watching an episode of Rawhide on MeTV the other day; it's not a series I usually watch, but I had nothing better to do at the time, and the print was so clear, it was hard to believe that the series is now celebrating its 65th anniversary. Terence looks back at the show's history this week at A Shroud of Thoughts.

Good news from Martin Grams: the second volume of The Lone Ranger: The Radio Years is due for publication this year. Volume one, written with Terry Salomonson and covering the early years (1933-37), came out a few years ago; volume two covers the years 1938-42. Stay tuned for more details.

At The Lucky Strike Papers, Andrew has a story that isn't TV related, but it bears reading nonetheless. A woman named Maureen Flavin Sweeney died December 17th last, aged 100. You've probably never heard of her, but the role she played in D-Day is extraordinary. Read it to find out another of those footnotes that make history so interesting.

Finally, Glynis Johns died last week, also at the age of 100. At Classic Film and TV Corner, Maddy has a look back at her remarkable career in the theater, movies, and television. Quite a career; quite a lady. TV  

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When it comes to classic television, I've long since given up on anything of substance coming from Rolling Stone; its latest is a list of "TV's Worst Decisions." At Comfort TV, David reviews those choices that pertain to our favorite genre, and makes some much-needed recommendations of his own. I might add one of the more egregious moments in TV history: the Heidi Game from 1968. 

At bare-bones e-zine, Jack begins a new chapter in his Hitchcock Project with Alan Gordon's "Very Moral Theft," an affecting sixth-season episode starring Walter Matthau and Betty Field. It's another reminder that Matthau was a very good dramatic actor, and one wonders what kind of a career he would have had had he not goine into more comedic roles.

John takes a break from his X-Files and the American Dream series at Cult TV Blog to look at some of the other programs he's been watching: Monty Python's Flying Circus; Murder, She Wrote; Max Headroom; and The Monkees. I like a man with eclectic tastes in television—probably one reason why we get along well! 

The title of The Avengers episode "How to Succeed...at Murder" seems to portend the answer to a practical question, one I'm sure many of us have wondered about from time to time. Alas, the answer we get from Roger and Mike at The View from the Junkyard suggests that this episode is a below-average one, but we're always free to watch and decide for ourselves.

Travalanche resurrects an unusual effort by Rankin-Bass from 1970: The Mad, Mad, Mad Comedians, which the advertisement describes as "Cartoon recreations of famous comics doing your favorite routines." Animated renditions of famous entertainment personalities are nothing new, but to have an entire hour's worth, with voices by Groucho Marx, George Burns, Jack Benny, George Jessel, Henny Youngman, and Jack E. Leonard, amoung others, is intriguing to say the least.

Did you know that in 1993 NBC planned to resurrect the NBC Mystery Movie, with Raymond Burr as Perry Mason, plus vehicles starring Larry Hagman, Louis Gosset Jr., and Kenny Rogers? You can learn about it in a pair of pieces (1) (2) at Those Were the Days, highlighting the Rogers element, which was called "MacShayne." I wonder if the title was supposed to be a nod to the old Mystery Movie, with McCloud, McMillian, and (briefly) McCoy?

Thankfully, we no longer live in Minnesota, although I still have a fondness for the memories of growng up there. One of those memories was the kids' show Cap'n Ken, which would later morph into Grandpa Ken; while it's not the most famous of the kids' shows that aired back then, it ran from 1960 to 1973, and this piece at Minnesota Kidvid reminds me of what a big part these local programs played in a child's life, and shows what kids are missing today.

Speaking of kids's shows from the past, the Broadcast Archives links to an article at Slate about the 1970s PBS show ZOOM, which at one time had more viewers than Sesame Street. I knew that Zoom was popular, but I had no idea just how popular; this comment was brought to you by the word "surprised."

Martin Grams has a new book out (where does he get the time?)—Clayton Moore and the Legend of the Lone Ranger 1970-1984, written with Terry Salomonson, which focuses on the controversy surround actor Clayton Moore and the making of of the 1981 movie The Legend of the Lone Ranger (which starred Klinton Spilsbury as the Lone Ranger and Twin Peaks' Michael Horse as Tonto). If you thought you knew the background regarding the controversial movie, you might be surprised.

Now here's a story from Andrew at The Lucky Strike Papers about another program I hadn't been much familiar with: Trash or Treasure, which aired on DuMont in 1952-1953 and was, according to Andrew, a progenitor to Antiques Roadshow. (Proving that it really is true that what's old is new again.) There's also a brief sidelight concerning the show's announcer, Bill Wendell, who would go on to work with Kovacs and Letterman. Good stuff. TV  

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Xf these aren't crisis times right now, I don't know what is. And yet it's also true that life keeps going on; it's important to realize that it does no good to worry about things that are out of your control. You pray about them, and then move on and get on with life—after all, we only get one shot at it. At Comfort TV David looks back at how television has always been a source of relief during those times, and why those programs can still work for us today.

At Garroway at Large, Jodie provides a welcome update on the progress of her Garroway biography, focusing on adventures with gaining access to reproducing various photos of the Master Communicator. (I thought focusing was a good way to describe that, don't you?) I'll really be ready to enjoy this book when it's published.

The Flaming Nose is back with a tribute to The Musketeers, the 2014 BBC adaptation of the Dumas classic that's been so much a part of the adventure genre. A very interesting note: "Twenty years ago, there were 182 series produced. Today, that number has exploded to 559 series." And even so, it can be hard to find gems in all that content.

Let's keep the accent on Britain with Cult TV, and an episode from the BBC comedy Rutland Weekend Television, which John describes as "a Pythonesque account of the nature of television itself." Now, I'm not sure how much more you can satirize television than its reality, but they managed to do it. 

At A Shroud of Thoughts, Terence says farewell and looks back at the career of Sally Kellerman, who died last week aged 84. She was a mainstay on television in the 1960s before moving to the big screen, but continued her TV work into the 21st Century. 

Television's New Frontier: The 1960s investigates the 1962 episodes of the curious series Thriller. I say "curious" because this series never seemed to quite figure out what it was supposed to be, and never really utilized Boris Karloff to the best advantage. As a whole, it should have been better than it was, but it still has some stellar episodes. 

At Shadow & Substance, Paul looks back at how Rod Serling's attitude toward "the right length for a Twilight Zone" changed over time. (Get it?) At first, Rod thought an hour was the perfect length, but by the time CBS asked him to lengthen the show, he'd come to see that a tightly-written 30 minute script can say a lot.

Care for a little self-promotion? At Eventually Supertrain, yours truly is back with Dan Budnick talking about Search. Sadly, it's the next-to-last episode, so don't miss it! Also on the show, The Night Stalker and Battlestar Galactica. 

And ending on a light note, here's Martin Grams with some very funny cartoons featuring the Lone Ranger and Tonto. If we must face the crisis, we might as well do so with a smile. TV  

Around the dial

Idon't generally make a point of offering an extensive commentary on one of this week's links, but I'm going to make an exception for this excellent article by David at Comfort TV in which he discusses how Aspire TV recently censored an episode of Room 222 by blurring an image of a derogatory term scrawled on a locker, a term that they feared some viewers might find objectionable today. What I find objectionable is this quite deliberate campaign to apply today's standards to situations that occurred in the past. 

I've made this point many times, but it's quite dangerous to start down that road; after all, who's to say that something you say or do today might be censored by someone who comes along a few decades later, when society has supposedly become even more "enlightened" than it is today? Besides which, none of us today can know with absolute certainty what we may or may not have done in a different time and environment. I don't want to make too fine a point of this last part, but isn't it funny how some people of a particular political viewpoint find it quite easy to make excuses for a criminal based on the environment in which they may have grown up, but that same person will fail to give that same consideration to someone else because of what they may have said or done in the past, even though that might have been entirely consistent with the environment they grew up in? 

(This is also why I look warily at period pieces made today; no matter how hard they try, or how good their intentions might be, it's almost impossible to replicate the past without filtering it through the sensibilities of the present.) 

Well, down off the soapbox, and I'm sure that after reading Wednesday's entry, some of you might be thinking to yourselves, it's about time! I aim to please, so let's talk about television cameras instead. Every once in a while during a discussion of television's early days, we'll run across the term "compatible color" (and the obvious joke "incompatible color"). However, at Eyes of a Generation, we get a richly illustrated look at RCA's earliest compatible color cameras, which date to the late 1940s.  

I think we can all agree that a story called "The Last Dark Step" doesn't promise much in the way of laughs. In the hands of William Fay, it becomes a clever story of murder and betrayal. You can see it on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and read about it in this piece by Jack at bare-bones e-zone. 

At Cult TV Blog, John introduces us to the 1972 British series Villains, a show with a simple but unique premise, following a gang of bank robbers individually after they escape prison. It's another series I've not heard of, which shouldn't be surprising considering it wasn't shown over here, but it has two very familiar faces, in Bob Hoskins and Martin Shaw.

Shadow & Substance recalls the pleasant "Eureka!" moment you get when you discover that someone from one of your favorite TV shows also appeared in one of your favorite movies, and you didn't recognize it until now. That someone: Kenneth Haigh, from The Twilight Zone and A Hard Day's Night. 

Did you ever wonder why a whole season of TV episodes of The Lone Ranger had someone else playing Our Hero? Wonder no more, as Martin Grams tells the true story of why John Hart replaced Clayton Moore for that one season. TV