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‘I Love Lucy’ at 70
I saw several posts on Facebook this past week noting the 70th anniversary of I Love Lucy. ‘70’ is not a milestone we’re used to in television. I remember when shows I grew up with celebrated 20th...
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The Unshakeables: Rob Petrie and The Walnuts from Space
A television show succeeds if it holds your attention for the time it’s on. But some episodes stay with you long after the credits roll. The emotions they generate do not dissipate for several...
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Abner Kravitz – Now I Get It
The older I get, the more I understand Abner Kravitz. That this is happening is illustrative of how one’s perception toward a television show can change depending on one’s circumstances. Bewitched is...
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The Challenge of Three-Part Stories
I’ve done a few pieces about two-part episodes of classic shows and how, when they’re done right, they often rank among the most memorable entries from their respective series. But it doesn’t happen...
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Comfort TV Court: Three More Cases
In the compendium of classic TV tropes, a courtroom episode is right up there with amnesia and visits from eccentric relatives. In fact it's actually more difficult to find shows that never featured...
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Five Classic TV Sights That Have Disappeared From America
As I’ve frequently mentioned, one of the reasons I enjoy classic TV shows is the window they provide into life in America in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s. I am fascinated by how we lived, worked and...
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The Unshakeables: Will Robinson Meets Santa Claus
I’ve mentioned before that “A Vision of Sugar Plums” from the first season of Bewitched is my favorite Christmas-themed episode of any classic television series. But I don’t think I’ve ever explained...
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The Classic TV Year in Review: 2021
In a year when everything costs more, viruses refuse to leave and justice seemed blinder than usual, the positive news emanating from the classic TV world has never been more welcome or uplifting. In...
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Why We Loved Betty White
The many tributes to Betty White that have appeared in the wake of her death tended to either lead with her proximity to her 100th birthday, or remembrances of her Emmy-winning roles in two classic...
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Top TV Moments: Teri Garr
I’m in the midst of writing an article on the TV series McCloudfor a magazine, and doing so has reacquainted me with the happiness I always felt whenever I see Teri Garr, who appears in several...
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One Night, Two Dates: The Classic TV Teen Dilemma
When I was in high school, having two dates scheduled for the same night was the kind of dilemma with which I never had to contend. Just trying to get one date was challenge enough. But the kids on...
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Forgotten History: “Head of the Class” Visits Moscow
When a moment on television attains “event” status, it usually retains that status no matter how many years have passed. The miniseries Roots, the final episode of M*A*S*H; that time Heather Thomas...
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Returning To the Comfort TV Ages
Sometimes ideas for this blog come from the most unlikely places.I’m about halfway through a book by Rémi Brague, an eminent Catholic philosopher and theologian, with the title Curing Mad Truths:...
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Comfort TV – In Times of Crisis
If you were watching television in November of 1956, you might have laughed at the complications that ensue when Ozzie Nelson gets stuck blowing up hundreds of balloons on The Adventures of Ozzie...
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Tim Considine – The Disney Years
The recent passing of Tim Considine hit me harder than expected. Those who remember him only from My Three Sons may be surprised to learn that he was something of a modern-day renaissance man; in...
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Are These the Best Written Shows in Television History?
Recently the Writer’s Guild released its list of the “101 Best Written Shows Ever.” What’s the Writer’s Guild? It’s “a labor union composed of the thousands of writers who write the television...
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My Journey Through 1970s TV: Sundays in 1970
I enjoy many shows from the 1950s and 1960s, and a smaller selection of series from the 1980s. But if someone held a gun to my head (an increasingly likely scenario for those of us living in blue...
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The Unshakeables: The Last Temptation of Darrin Stevens
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? What if you could have anything you wanted? Any house, any mate, any car; would it make you happy? Would it...
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The Ten Best Baseball-Themed Classic TV Episodes
Another baseball season is underway, and it doesn’t figure to be a memorable one for my Chicago Cubbies (though hope springs eternal as it always does in April). Every year around this time I like to...
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My Journey Through 1970s TV: Mondays in 1970
Recently I began a quest to watch at least one episode of every prime time network television series to air in the 1970s. I began my journey with the Sunday night schedule from 1970, and happily...
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