Something Old, Nothing New

Earl Kress's blog has the "tentative list" of Hanna-Barbera shows planned for DVD release next year . Many of these are from t...

As I hinted earlier, I think that King of the Hill in its early seasons was a richer, darker show than it is now (it's still good, but ...

As you know if you've read this blog long enough, I have a preoccupation with what I call "lost starlets" -- actresses who in ...

When Carlo Bergonzi was active as an opera singer, he wasn't a great actor, didn't cut a dashing figure on stage, and didn't ha...

Not sure if this is a cure for depression, but on my other blog I have a post on the shrinking running times of TV shows and how that affect...

Too depressed. Too goddamn depressed.

The guy who died was an impostor who pretended to have written "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. The real Paul Vance is...

Paul Vance, composer of "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" , has died at the age of 68. Vance and his songwriting pa...

I sort of made this point obliquely on the other blog, but one of the reasons I like the American version of The Office so much is that I f...

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately. There will be some real posts here soon, I promise, but in the meantime you'll have to set...

Jerry Beck reports from the Ottawa Animation Festival .

Enjoy the last six minutes of the "Phil Silvers Show" episode "The Court Martial" (co-written and directed, like all the...

In comments, Ivan G. Shreve and "Slowjack" make a good case that I've been unfair to the remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much. ...

I now have a blog, "TV Guidance," at Macleans.ca . This will focus more on contemporary TV and/or stuff with a contemporary hook (...

Rediscover the work of Amanda McKittrick Ros. Amanda McKittrick Ros, who was born in 1860, has been accused of delivering some of the worst ...

Yeah, I know I post too many embedded clips in lieu of original analysis (and then I write a bazillion words about shows with Jack Ging in t...

The downgrading of Pluto to sub-planetary status has pretty much settled the hash of the English composer Colin Matthews. A few years ago, h...

I picked up the first season of "Riptide" , one of a number of Stephen J. Cannell productions being released by the Canadian compa...

Because I hate you all so much, I torment you with yet another comparison of a scene from Double Indemnity with that horrible made-for-TV r...

The scopitone aesthetic -- sleazy sexploitation presented as wholesome family entertainment -- was, as I've said, not limited to Scopit...