TV Fall Season : 1972-73 An
overview of what folks were watching in 35 years ago; with rare video
of the hits and flops that marked the beginning of the end of the classic TV era.
Do you remember: The Saturday Superstar Movie, ABC Movie of the
Week, Captain Noah, the Julie Andrews Hour, Bridget Loves Bernie,
Search and The Sixth Sense? Read
and watch more...
Have
a Smoke and Be Somebody! Talk about Government mandated health care, our nation's leaders decided
more than three decades ago that Tobacco and TV don't mix. Before that, stars like John Wayne appeared
on TV selling cigarettes, speaking highly of the product: "Mild and
good tasting pack after pack. And I know, I've been smokin' em for
twenty years." Coincidentally, some of the last commercials the Duke
filmed were to ask people to stop smoking. Watch some of TV's wildest commercials like the dancing cigarette pack! Read
and watch more...
NYC's
St. Patrick's Day Parade Telecasts Tuesday, March 17, 2009 marks the 60th anniversary
of the very first broadcast of NYC's annual St. Patrick's Day Parades.
WPIX 11 became the very first NYC based television station to air
the event; actually, the real reason for telecasting the parade was
just to test Channel 11's cameras, newly
acquired for upcoming baseball
games. Read
more..
Enola
Gay's In The Military FROM
1950: The next time you're watching Jackass or Fear
Factor or some sports stunt show, and you see a guy jump a car, set
himself on fire, eat a bucket of worms or whatever, think about Col. Paul
Tibbetts - who took off in a 1940's era airplane, flew it over the ocean
with the biggest bomb ever made shoved up his ***, dropped that mega-bomb
on target and - here's the best part - made it back alive! And by doing
so, he ended a World War. Read and watch
more...
The
Sonny and Cher Shows
A
lot of press was generated about Cher's exposed belly-button, it had
never been done on television before. "There were so many things that
were censored - ideas and words," Cher said looking back on the show.
"All I know is I got in trouble for showing my belly button, and every
time I turned around after I went off the air, all you saw were Cheryl
Ladd's boobs." Read and watch
more...
Worst.
Commercial. Ever? I'm
not even going to set this one up except to say - can you imagine
a worse TV ad? At least now we know where George Lucas got the idea
for Jabba the Hut. From the summer of '75 - Read
and watch more...
The
New Dick Van Dyke? An
odd thing happened late in the second season of The New Dick Van
Dyke Show. CBS censors rejected a scene in an episode that had
Dick and Jenny's daughter walking in on them while they were having
sex. All of this happened off camera, of course. The result was a
funny and very human scenario, and producer Carl Reiner insisted the
scene stay. When CBS refused to air the episode as it stood, Reiner
quit, promising never to produce another television show again. Read
and watch more...
What a Weird Year in Television - 1977
ABC
(who's slogan was We're Still The One)
lunged unexpectedly into first place in 1976, causing CBS and NBC to shake
up their faltering schedules. Network programmers rushed to create shows
for 1977-78 that catered to every taste (always a recipe for disaster).
No doubt about it, this was the beginning of the end of the three network
era. Read
and watch more...
Winky
Dink and You "I
used to watch Winky Dink... I had the kit, but I would intentionally
draw the wrong things. When Winky needed a ladder to get out of a
hole, I would draw a cover on the hole. When he needed a parachute,
I would draw an anvil to pull him down, etc. I
would tease my younger sister and tell her that I was making Winky
die! Whenever she left the room crying, I would laugh and laugh. Winky
was cool!" Read
and watch more...
Lancelot
Link, Secret Chimp 'I
Created Lance Link' takes you behind the minds behind the show, it's
a fascinating look into the makings of a classic show and an intimate
glimpse into the lives of two of TV's greatest comedy writers. The
film was shot at the home of Stan Burns, where he and Mike Marmer
relate one funny anecdote after another about the chimp series. Read
and watch more...
Lucy
Battles With Her Co-Stars
Most
everyone loved Lucy but there were times when things got pretty heated
on the set, especially when Tallulah Bankhead, Richard Burton and
Joan Crawford appeared with the queen of comedy. After one taping,
Crawford was quoted as saying, "My God, they tell me I'm a
bitch - Lucy can outbitch me any day of the week!" Read and watch more...
Then
Came Bronson Easy
Rider was a hit in 1969, a movie about two young counter-culture
cyclists looking for the "real" America. Perhaps Middle America was
not quite ready for that story on the small screen, but Then Came
Bronson expressed some of the themes of that movie in a way more
palatable to the mass audience (interestingly, the pilot movie was
completed before Easy Rider hit the screen, so TCB was not a knockoff.) Read and
see more...
BONUS
VIDEO! Twenty-One In
1958 the producers of this wildly popular primetime game show admitted
they had been providing answers to contestants that they wanted to see
win. The quiz show scandals erupted after Herb Stemple came forward
with the story that he was forced to throw the game and allow Charles
Van Doren to win. Watch
it now - in Real Player format...
It's
About Time This
was one of network TV's most beloved sitcoms and it only aired for
one year. The series itself may not have been successful, but the show's theme
song is one of the most memorable of all time. People who never saw
the show became familiar with it! Like many Sherwood Schwartz productions,
the theme gives you the entire premise of the show in hummable fashion. But will
we ever see this classic on DVD? Read
and watch more...
America's
First Lady of Comedy Carol
Burnett won the hearts of TV viewers playing the nervous klutz in
dozens of hilarious skits on The Garry Moore Show. She was
an instant hit with the home audience, one of the emerging medium's
first bright stars.
Each week, hapless Carol would find herself in the most outrageous
predicaments. No matter how sketchy the script, the comedienne turned
each performance into a farcical romp with her spasmodic interpretations.
She quickly became the de-facto star of the program. Read and watch more...
"Plunk
Your Magic Twanger, Froggy!" "I
am looking for a newspaper editorial - it could've been in a magazine
- written about the kid's show 'Andy's Gang' in which the writer
blames Froggy for causing the protest movement of the '60s. He said
Froggy's disrespectful behavior towards adults, which he demonstrated
every show, influenced the kids who were watching him and those
kids grew up to become the protesting college students of the sixties
who likewise showed disrespect towards their elders." Read
and watch more...
Poker On Television
Poker television grew huge around 2004 when the hole card cameras were introduced to make the game more enjoyable to watch. Both major tournament circuits, the World Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker, are covered pretty much in detail and then there are a number of smaller poker shows with or without celebrities. Check out ESPN2, ESPNC, Fox Sports or NBC for more poker TV. You may also watch poker on the internet. Sites like Youtube and PokerListings.com have a pretty good range of poker TV in their video archives.
Richard
Pryor Show
Was
Richard Pryor bitter about his television experience? No, not at all.
He had this to say: "One week of truth on TV could just straighten
out everything. One hundred and twenty-seven million people watch
television every night; that's why they use it to sell stuff. They've
misused it a long time so now it's just a business, that's all. They're
not going to write shows about how to revolutionize America. The top-rated
shows are for retarded people." Read
and hear more...
Remembering
Captain Kangaroo Captain
Kangaroo was
the longest-running network children's show of all time - from 1955
until 1984, the good Captain could be seen mornings on CBS. Hugh "Lumpy"
Brannum played sidekick Mr. Green Jeans, joining Cosmo Allegretti's
hand-puppets Mr. Moose and Bunny Rabbit in the Captain's Treasure
House. Read
and watch more...
Poker television programs have been extremely popular in the last several years, especially in North America and Europe. This has especially become the case since the invention of the "pocket cam" in 1997 (axnd its first use in the United States in 2002), which allows viewers at home to see each player's hole cards. It comes with no surprise that many of the online poker sites sponsor big events like WSOP and WPT.
Gorgeous
Ladies of Wrestling 15
years ago, the women of GLOW took to the ring and were slammed by
those people who always criticize wrestling for lowering TV standards
to new depths. But it was a very popular show - and no wonder! Read
and watch more...
Philly
Local Kid Shows Bertie
the Bunyip! Chief Halftown! Sally Starr! Pete Boyle! Gene London!
Pixanne! Happy the Clown! Dickery Doc! Captain Noah! Our long and
longing look at a golden era of local television, with dozens of rare
photos and recordings. Read
and watch more...
40
Years Ago -
TV's First Angry Conservative Move
over Bill O'Reilly! Never
one to avoid controversy, Joe Pyne kept a loaded gun in his desk
drawer - and no wonder with the kooks he (or more accurately, the
TV cameras) attracted. BONUS: a glimpse into to the very origins of one
of the most notorious organizations of all time,
the LA Crips. Read
and watch more...
The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
L.
Wayne Hicks interviews the original star of the classic BBC radio
& TV series. Simon Jones' role in the big-screen version
of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is sparse. His screen time
amounts to maybe 30 seconds, a brief part to be sure. But it wouldn't
be - and couldn't be - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy without Jones. Read
more...
Hot
Dog The Peabody Award-winning children's series Hot Dog, aired
on Saturday mornings in 1970, a wildly entertaining educational broadcast
that demonstrated how things were made - pencils, crayons, money,
toothpaste, etc. - interspersed with hilarious non sequiturs from
Joanne Worley, Jonathan Winters and Woody Allen. Read
and watch more...
Bill
Bixby's Forgotten Series
This
was supposed to be Bill Bixby's breakthrough into dramatic television.
Fresh off The Courtship of Eddie's Father, Bixby was considered
a top audience draw when The Magician premiered in 1973.
Both NBC and Paramount Pictures had high hopes for this light action
drama about a troubleshooting illusionist named Anthony Blake. But
fate intervened, in the form of a Writers Guild strike in the spring
of '73 that threw a wrench in production schedules throughout television
(it's rather difficult to shoot anything when there aren't any scripts
ready). Read
and watch more...
The
Old Rebel Show BONUS
VIDEO CLIP! It's
been 30 years since WFMY's George Perry ended his 27 year run as Greensboro,
NC's Old Rebel, one of the most beloved TV hosts of all time. Rare
video includes the opening and closing from the 1970s. See it now - in Real Player Format
Classic
TV on DVD - Archived Reviews! NEW:Tom
Jones, Twin Peaks, Stargate Atlantis, Voyage to the Bottom of the
Sea, Dallas, Men Behaving Badly, Captain N, Hootenanny, ER, Wanda
Sykes, Adventures of Superman, Battlestar Galactica, F Troop, and
so many more hot DVD releases.And they're all deep discounted
- for you! Read
more...
Classic
TV Shows on DVD?
An
extensive catalogue of every classic program available on DVD! See what's
available today - with big discounts
for you!
1980's
TV Wrestling - Greats and Near Greats! NOW WITH ADDED RARE VIDEO!
John
Hitchcock's look back at the heart of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling - with
grapplers known and unknown. Wahoo McDaniel! Ric Flair! Dusty Rhodes!
Jim Cornette! Magnum TA! Buddy "Killer" Austin! Johnny Weaver!
Johnny Valentine! Harley Race! Dick Murdock! Jimmy Garvin! Nikita Koloff!
Have you ever heard of these guys?!? Read
and watch more...
1980's
PUNK ROCK
In the early-eighties, young people in Los Angeles were flocking to
makeshift clubs in droves to see new, up and coming bands. Live new
music, not DJs, was what they craved. These writings provide a sketchy
look at the underground club scene in Los Angeles during the time
that groups like X, Missing Persons, The Go-Go's, The Minutemen and
Wall of Voodoo entered the public consciousness. Read
and see more...
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