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This week in TV Guide: February 3, 1968
This week's big event is the opening of the 10th Winter Olympics from Grenoble, France^, and ABC is all over it. The network promises “a 27-hour Olympic orgy” with at least one prime-hour a night, a...
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This week in TV Guide: Monday, February 5, 1968
It's the last primetime before the start of the Olympics, but I'm drawn to KTCA's Folio at 9:30 p.m. It's a program on theater, hosted by Warren Frost, who taught at the University of Minnesota and...
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The Descent into Hell: "Moloch," from New York: A Documentary Film (2001)
Throughout this series I've looked at different ways in which classic television has depicted a society descending into Hell, as a kind of warning against what could happen to us. But what if it turns...
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I think we'll start this week with something we see far too little of these days, longform journalism, and a kind of remarkable piece by Andy Greene at Rolling Stone. He'd come to know the late Michael...
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This week in TV Guide: February 7, 1981
Xere's Jane Seymour, looking not at all like the future Dr. Quinn, but with a bit of a slutty, come-hither appearance to her, quite consistent with the role she's playing in ABC's three-part...
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What's on TV? Friday, February 13, 1981
I never noticed at the time how many British comedies were being aired in the Twin Cities in 1981. Sure, there was Monty Python, but look at the rest: The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin on KTCA; Dave...
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Review: The O. Henry Playhouse, Volume 1
Xn television's earliest days, dramatic anthologies were, if not the rule, at least quite common. They were populated by young, hungry actors and actresses, and since New York was still the center of...
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I've often written about sports announcers who were what I called "big-game announcers," and since there's apparently a big game this weekend, it's appropriate to start with Bryan Curtis's profile at...
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This week in TV Guide: February 11, 1967
On Sunday February 12 (11:30 a.m. CT), NBC's Meet the Press presents a special one-hour edition with William Manchester, author of the controversial book The Death of a President, the authorized...
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What's on TV? Tuesday, February 14, 1967
There isn't anything very Valentine-y about it, but I did hold out a couple of items from Saturday for use today. First, on Today has a very interesting pairing of guests: the young actress Lynn...
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Where should we start today? How about at Drunk TV, where Paul takes a look at the first season of the syndicated series Ripcord, of which I have fond memories from back in the day. I don't remember...
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This week in TV Guide: February 24, 1962
Troy Donahue, this week's cover boy, is nothing if not an accidental star, at least in name. His real name is Merle Johnson, and the way he came to be Troy Donahue is more interesting than many other...
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What's on TV? Tuesday, February 27, 1962
I really enjoy these issues from the first couple of years of the 1960s. The shows are modern in a way that those of the 1950s weren't always, but not quite as mod as those of the late '60s. I like the...
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The Descent into Hell: "A Taste of Armageddon" (1967)
Someone once said that hindsight is 20/20.* Now, I don’t think that’s always true, but part of being a cultural archaeologist involves sifting through the detritus left by the past, searching for the...
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The news right now is very, very bad, or very depressing, or (in all likelihood) both. And some probably think that looking at old television shows is a waste of time, when there are more important...
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This week in TV Guide: February 29, 1964
From 1963 through 1969, ABC broadcast a very good series of historial documentary specials under the umbrella title The Saga of Western Man, produced by author and ABC News correspondent John Secondari...
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What's on TV? Tuesday, March 3, 1964
Change is in the air with this week's Portland (Oregon) edition. Effective Sunday, KATU, Channel 2, becomes the new ABC affiliate, while KPTV, Channel 12, is now an independent. The moves are...
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The "Clash of the Indies" Game
Friend of the blog Mark Waldow, who's contributed many swell TV Guide issues for review over the last year (including last Saturday's), has an interesting idea I think you might enjoy. I'll let him...
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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...
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