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Comfort TV Contemplates Chinese New Year
Today begins the celebration of Chinese New Year. As we welcome the Year of the Monkey I’d like to share some thoughts about Chinese contributions to the classic TV era. One of the accusations often...
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Terrible Shows I Like: The Rich Little Show
I have always been fascinated by impressionists (and by that I mean entertainers that can mimic voices, not Renoir and Monet – though I like them too). It’s one thing to be able to change one’s voice...
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A Tribute to Occasional Characters
When a series introduces a character that the audience embraces, what often happens is said character is promoted to series regular. Think Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show; Corporal Klinger...
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TV Sidekick Blogathon: My Enduring Devotion to Dyna Girl
A few weeks ago I received an invitation to participate in a blogathon, launched by The Classic Film and TV Café, on the topic of classic TV sidekicks. The first character that came to my mind was Dyna...
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Six Kids, Six Classic Brady Bunch Episodes: The Ultimate Brady Six-Pack
In the four years that this blog has been around, I have written more about The Brady Bunch than any other series. I don’t know if I would call it my favorite show, but it is certainly the one I most...
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When the Real World Peeks In
Most of my fellow Comfort TV fans don’t have much use for reality TV. The issue used to be that these shows cut into the valuable prime time real estate reserved exclusively for sitcoms, dramas and...
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Do Spin and Marty Have Anything to Say to Millennials?
I have a friend who is obsessed with the Toy Story movies. He has watched them dozens of times and collects anything Toy Story related. I’ve always preferred the hand-drawn animation of the classic...
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Did You Really Watch All These Shows?
This is a question often heard by those of us with substantial TV-on-DVD collections. Especially when those collections are prominently displayed in the room with the biggest television. The answer is...
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The Museum of Comfort TV Salutes: The Cone of Silence
Imagine a place where all of the instantly recognizable objects associated with classic television are on display. It doesn’t exist, so we’ll create it here, and pay tribute to many of our favorite...
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10 Wonderful William Schallert Moments: a Comfort TV Tribute
The recent passing of William Schallert is a poignant reminder that our living links to the original classic TV era have dwindled down to a precious few. The Internet Movie Database lists 375 acting...
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Television’s Most Beautiful Music
The most beautiful music ever written for television was composed to underscore a commercial for a Canadian tea manufacturer.But before we finish that story…One of the more interesting aspects of...
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The Five Firm Rules of Classic TV Reunions
I’m looking forward to the return of The Gilmore Girls later this year. It’s one of my favorite post-Comfort TV era shows, and I am very happy for this chance to get reacquainted with its wonderfully...
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Ten TV Moments: David Wayne
Two years ago I wrote a blog about Meredith Baxter. It was not related to a new project or any other milestone – I just felt like celebrating an impressive and diverse television career. That’s the...
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The Legacy of Lou Grant
Journalism – real honest-to-God journalism – is dead. I can’t pinpoint an exact time of death, but it’s been on life support since the escalation of the Internet, and about ten years ago finally gave...
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Hey You Guys! It’s the 20 Best Songs From The Electric Company
As I’ve been reading since the age of four, I don’t need to watch The Electric Company for the lessons it imparts. But I own both of the Shout! Factory “Best of” DVD sets, as well as several more...
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Three Tips For a Groovy Classic TV Summer
It seems like July got here awfully quick, doesn’t it? Here we are already in the most summery of the summer months – the season change from spring is now a distant memory, and fall still seems a long...
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Top TV Moments: Brooke Bundy
In Gods Like Us, film critic Ty Burr examines the history of media stardom, and why some actors become stars while others, for all their talent, remain merely actors. The phenomenon dates back before...
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Pilot Casualties: The Casting Coulda-Beens of Comfort TV
Casting was a critical component in every Comfort TV show. Today we can’t imagine other actors in many iconic roles, yet it’s fascinating to contemplate how close we were to watching Gene Hackman as...
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More Retro TV Nights
Back in 2013 I posted a piece about some of the ways classic TV fans watch their DVD collections. One of the most intriguing methods is recreating an evening of network television as it was broadcast...
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Top TV Moments: William Windom
William Windom’s name in a TV show’s guest cast instantly raises my attention level. Now, I think, this episode stands every chance of being worth watching. Windom had several prominent film credits,...
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