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(Dis)Comfort TV #4: The 7 Most Intimidating Classic TV Characters
Now that Halloween is here, you may have had your fill of silly scary shows, and are ready for the real thing. If you prefer to celebrate the holiday with the most frightening, most despicable, most...
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The Pact That Produced Comfort TV
Have you ever heard of The Code of Practice for Television Broadcasters? If not, you’ve probably seen its seal after the closing credits of TV shows that originally aired between 1952 and the late...
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Terrible Shows I Like: Tabitha
We all have them – TV shows we enjoy despite prevailing opinion and common sense telling us they are a waste of time. I have amassed more than most people, which can be attributed either to an...
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The Top Two-Show Stars of the Comfort TV Era
Creating one iconic television character is rare enough; to accomplish that feat twice is nearly impossible. Once an actor is identified with a character that audiences have enjoyed for years,...
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“First the Barrymores, and now the Bradys” The Real Live Brady Bunch
In 1990, The Brady Bunch was airing in daily national syndication across America. So who in their right mind would have ventured out to a theater back then, and purchased a ticket to watch actors...
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Kings, Clowns and Christmas
This month, as I have done every December since the DVD era began, I have spent my evenings revisiting many of my favorite Christmas-themed television episodes. As often as I’ve watched them, there is...
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Different Eras, Same Careers: Farrah Fawcett and Marilyn Monroe
Writers have one common trait: they disregard good reviews and obsess over criticism. Entertainment Weekly gave The Charlie’s Angels Casebook a “B” in its review – not bad. But 13 years later the only...
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Comfort TV Shows Turning 50
Fifty years is a long time. Not by geologic standards, perhaps, but certainly in the time we are blessed to have in this world. It’s a halfway point if we’re lucky (I hope so, as I will turn 50 this...
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The Twilight Zone: Wisdom From Willoughby
I have always believed that classic television shows can serve a higher purpose beyond the entertainment derived from them. Like any work of art worthy of our respect, they have something to teach us...
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When Love Still Kept Them Together: The Captain & Tennille's Variety Show
Comfort TV proudly lives in the past, so it’s rare when a current news headline will inspire a new piece. But then I read that the Captain & Tennille are headed for divorce court after nearly 40...
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Oscar Winning Stars of the Small Screen
You hear a lot about the groundbreaking work now being done on television, yet film is still considered a much higher art form and probably always will be. If you devote your life to watching movies,...
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The Biggest Bozo in Chicago
I’ve written before about the communal nature of Comfort TV, and how it is something we share no matter where we lived. But some classic TV series and characters were strictly regional sensations –...
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Revisiting Enterprise, 10 Years Later
Lately I’ve been revisiting Star Trek: Enterprise on Blu-ray. I hadn’t planned to write about it here because the series aired from 2001 to 2005, which puts it well outside the Comfort TV era. But...
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From the Batcave to the Brady House: The California Comfort TV Tour
Most of the places you see on TV shows are located on studio lots. But there are many others scattered throughout southern California that you could see any time, though you might get in trouble...
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When Actors and Roles Don't Mix
Casting is critical to the success of any television series, but sometimes it just goes wrong. In some cases the culprit is simply bad acting, but usually there’s a disconnect between actor and...
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Terrible Shows I Like: The Amazing Spider-Man (1977)
Another Spider-Man movie opens next month, and as a one-time comic book collector I should be excited. But after four previous Spider-Man films, not to mention three Iron Mans and two Thors and three...
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The Subversive Genius of Rocky and Bullwinkle
If you’re under 40, you probably believe The Simpsons is the most sophisticated and hilarious animated series ever created. If you are over 40, that distinction still belongs to The Bullwinkle Show,...
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The Comfort TV Trivia Quiz
Ok, let’s just have some fun this week. Among the many calamities for which the Internet is responsible (identity theft,Justin Bieber’s career, the death of responsible journalism), it has also pretty...
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The Comfort TV Trivia Quiz: The Answers Revealed
Well, how did everyone do? Let’s find out: 1. Henry BemisThe bespectacled character played by Burgess Meredith in the classic Twilight Zone episode “Time Enough at Last.” 2. Frances LawrenceYou may...
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