“Drink your coffee.”

I’ll say this much for Georgia Public Broadcasting: you sort of have to keep a close eye on them because sometimes they’ll surprise you and shake up their Saturday night viewing schedule…if only a tad. They’ve removed the Judi Dench-Michael Williams Britcom A Fine Romance (1981-84; a show so boring even my mother hated it…and she’s quite the Dench fan) and replaced it with one of my very favorite Britcoms, Last of the Summer Wine. I’ve talked about Wine on the blog in the past, noting that while it may not be everyone’s cup of tea (no pun intended) I’ve fallen for its irresistible quirky charm. The great thing about this new (well, new to me anyway) run of Wine is that they’ve started with Series 20 (1999), allowing me to get a glimpse of Frank Thornton’s Herbert “Truly” Truelove (Truly of the Yard!), the retired police detective who replaced Brian Wilde’s ex-military codger Walter “Foggy” Dewhurst.

Still, I must confess that I’m also saddened in a way because if GPB follows this with Series 21 that means “Just a Small Funeral”—the farewell to William “Compo” Simmonite, played by Bill Owen—will be in the rotation and I’m certain to have a moistness in the eyes during that episode. (I’ve only seen a few clips of it, spotlighted in the 2003 documentary 30 Years of “Last of the Summer Wine” which is available on the Region 1 DVD Last of the Summer Wine: Vintage 1995.) I have to say, I’m both puzzled and encouraged by the fact that Warner Home Video has been releasing several series of Wine to Region 1; in addition to Last of the Summer Wine: Vintage 1976, released this past March, a new collection (Vintage 1977) is scheduled to hit stores in September, according to TVShowsOnDVD.com.

The other nice surprise that I discovered on GPB is that they’ve been showcasing some classic outings of The Jack Benny Program at 11:00pm—many of which have been culled from Jack’s weekly series that ran from 1960-65. Two weeks ago, they showed one of the funniest episodes, “Jack and Bob Hope in Vaudeville” (12/04/62)—and while I knew the punch lines to most of the jokes (the show had been done previously on February 24, 1957—and for that telecast Benny’s writers dusted off a radio script from 01/15/50 that “tells” how Jack and Fred Allen met) watching Jack and Bob perform together (and Hope cracking Benny up with his ad-libs) was like a hot fudge sundae. My favorite exchange: Jack tells secretary Iris Adrian who he and Hope are, asking: “Don’t you recognize us?” Adrian’s acerbic reply: “Why, is there a reward?”

Primetime all the time

So I signed up with Charter Communications for a "bundle" deal that is supposed to give me basic cable, internet and phone service for the nominal fee of $69.97 per month for a year. Upon installation, I hook up the TV to discover that instead of basic cable (which, according to the dame that I spoke with on the phone, consists of only twenty channels…half of which appear to be of the home-shopping variety) I am now the recipient of an upgrade…which means I have seventy-some channels, including my beloved TCM. (Further research has turned up the information that the mistake is on their end: I took a gander at my cable bill online and it would appear that I’m in arrears to the tune of eighty-two bucks and change. I’m going to let the old man handle this one, since he made the arrangements for cable/internet/phone service to begin with.)

One channel that has caught my interest, however, is RTN: the Retro Television Network. It’s a system of TV stations that show reruns of old TV shows, and is designed to operate on a digital sub channel for local broadcast stations—allowing channels to expand their programming options. (For Savannahians, RTN is carried through a sub channel of WSAV-TV’s—you’ll find it on channel 29 if you’ve got DirecTV.) In some markets, RTN runs 24/7—but the programming on Atlanta’s RTN (channel 126 on the Charter lineup) airs from 10:00am to 1:00am, with the rest of the broadcast day's schedule occupied by infomercials.

They’ve got some pretty good shows on RTN, which I’d describe as “like TV Land, only better.” That is to say, they don’t squander their broadcast day with non-classic TV crap like Extreme Makeover: Home Edition reruns or movies or “TV Land exclusives” like The Big 4-0. (Though in all fairness, RTN does dedicate a couple of hours to a program entitled Offbeat Cinema on Saturday nights, which does spotlight public-domain cult films.) Granted, many of the shows on RTN are slowly making their way to DVD but it’s nice to be able to watch programs like The Fugitive (weekdays at 2pm), particularly since that program’s DVD releases are moving along with the speed of glaciers. I particularly enjoy kicking back in the evenings for their Hawaii Five-O (9pm) and Mission: Impossible (11pm) reruns—even though they are heavily edited with commercials plugging products that require you to dial a toll-free number. (My new favorite is the one that asks people to put their old or broken gold jewelry in an envelope and mail it to them.)

RTN’s a little top-heavy with the 70s and 80’s stuff: Knight Rider, Airwolf, Matlock, Magnum, PI, etc.—shows that I wouldn’t watch when they were originally on and have no desire to see in reruns. But some of their offerings offer some particularly pleasing nostalgia: after seeing a Cannon rerun the other day I realized that if I ever had designs on being a private investigator, Frank Cannon would be my role model. The weekend afternoon schedules are similar to the old TV Land/Family Channel/Hallmark lineups: reruns of Bonanza, Rawhide, Gunsmoke…and for added novelty, The Wild, Wild West.

The beauty of RTN is that for each broadcast market that they’re in, they tailor the schedule to insure that there’s no conflict with competing stations showing the same reruns (as if you’d find something like that nowadays) but the downside to this is that many of their programs aren’t available in some markets. I’d like to be able to see The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Have Gun Will Travel, Marshal Dillon (the half-hour Gunsmokes) and Petticoat Junction…but I guess you can’t have everything. (Of course, once I get this cable snafu straightened out I may not have anything.)

I should have hired him during my hiatus...

Barefoot in Athens

This is Thursday, May 15th…173 days until the 2008 Presidential Election, as Keith Olbermann might say. I have officially been living in Athens, Georgia for one week.

A lot has happened since I last tackled a post here on the ol’ blog, and as such I regret letting the grass grow up to your kneecaps. Not only have I been engaged in several OTR-related writing projects, but I’ve spent much time packing boxes with the remaining amount of crap that I simply can’t seem to give away, and even more precious moments battling a cold that I brought back to Savannah when the ‘rents and I went up to Athens April 11-15 for a family outing.

It was during that time frame that Dad, Mom and I stumbled onto the princely palace from whence I write this humble blog post. It’s not particularly fancy (then again, I’m not a fancy guy) but the price is right for a two bedroom, one bath duplex that’s less than ten minutes away from sister Kat’s. (In fact, it was sister Kat who remarked upon seeing the place: “This isn’t an apartment, it’s a small house.”) It’s roughly 1,000 square feet, lots of closet space (the hall leading to the bedrooms and bath is large enough to accommodate several shelves of DVDs), close to the main bus line and best of all, I got a discount on the rent for signing a one-year lease. (Now all I have to do is find a job that will pay for this estate, and everything will be cherry.)

I haven’t had an opportunity to go out and explore much of Athens yet—I had to stick close to the house earlier this week waiting for a new lock to be placed on my mailbox (and even then, I had to stop by the rental office to jog a few memories), plus I’ve been trying to make a good deal of progress on unpacking everything from the boxes (when I switched apartments during my exile in Morgantown, WV there were several boxes that never got unpacked). This past Saturday, sister Kat and her roommate Katie showed me the opulence that is J & J’s Flea Market (where my father will be spending many a weekend once he and Mumsy sell the house in Savannah and make the trek up here); we then lunched at famed Athens eatery Loco’s (there’s a Loco’s in Savannah, too…but I don’t think we ever ate there) and had some bodacious hot wings and a waitress who tried to talk us into a big honkin’ chocolate-laced desert. (It was called “Mount Chocsuvius,” and though I told “Sara” we would not be climbing it she was rather persistent.) A trip to Target (pronounced TAR-ZHAY) afterward yielded some sporty Mountain Dew drinking glasses, a case of bottled water and 4 cases of Fresca (on sale for $11).

In the meantime, I still have some projects to complete—but a couple of people (their names, interestingly enough, rhyme with “jam”) have been pressing me to put something up here to let individuals know that I did not drop off the face of the Earth (as enticing a prospect to my enemies that may be). I do want to give a shout out to longtime TDOY reader Mike, who was concerned enough to drop me an e-mail, and Dennis at the Digital Deli Online, who had both heady words of praise for the blog (both this and the Salon versions) and corrected link info for his own truly awesome site. (And for the individual kind enough to send me the Bewitched: The Complete Sixth Season DVD box set as a housewarming gift…many, many thanks.)

R.I.P. Jules Dassin

I just learned from Vince Keenan that director Jules Dassin--who directed such landmark noirs as Brute Force (1947), The Naked City (1948), Thieves' Highway (1949) and Night and the City (1950)--has shuffled off this mortal coil. What terrible news to hear.

Paul Panzer over at In the Balcony once posted that Dassin was one of his least favorite directors because he thought the characters in Jules' films didn't ring true, particularly in City. He's wrong, of course, but he's entitled to his opinion.

R.I.P., Mr. Dassin. You will be missed.

At the corner of 14th and Oak

It’s the first of April—and you know what that means! Well, other than the endless string of lame “your shoe’s untied” jokes, it’s time for another Premier Collection, courtesy of the fine people at First Generation Radio Archives. This month, another volume (number five in the series) of Fibber McGee & Molly: The Lost Episodes—broadcasts from the 1953-56 run of the series, which were presented in a five-day-a-week, quarter-hour form. The liner notes were written by yours truly, and I cannot even begin to describe the tremendous kick I get listening to these rare episodes—with Jim & Marian Jordan still at the top of their form and laugh-out-loud moments from their supporting players, Bill Thompson and Arthur Q, Bryan.

For this month’s notes, I shined the spotlight on one of the show’s utility players, Robert Easton (who plays the McGees’ next-door neighbor, Lester Nelson); you probably won’t recognize the name but as soon as you hear his voice and/or see his face you’ll know him right off the bat. Easton specialized in playing slow-witted country hicks, and his best remembered role is in an Abbott & Costello picture entitled Comin’ Round the Mountain (1951), in which he has a recurring line: “I’m tetched…I got kicked in the haid by a mule!” My father wouldn’t know Robert Easton if Easton bit him on the inner thigh, plus he thinks Bud & Lou are the Anti-Christ of Comedy—but I’ll bet not a week goes by when he’s not quoting that phrase.

First Generation Radio Archives also has a new Radio Legends collection out this month, a second volume of Have Gun, Will Travel broadcasts starring John Dehner (or as my friend the Chief always interjects, “Mister John Dehner”) as the man called Paladin. Boomer TV fans, of course, remember that the tube version featured Richard Boone as the cultured gun-for-hire, but Travel is one of but a handful of television shows that transitioned to radio instead of the other way around (you can read a little about it here). I like the radio version of Travel—it doesn’t reach the lofty heights of, say, Gunsmoke or Frontier Gentleman (or Fort Laramie, for that matter) but it still makes for entertaining listening.

If you purchase the new Fib & Molly or Have Gun collections—or anything at all from the Archives this month, the “Voice” of FGRA (none other than Harlan “Low Overhead” Zinck his ownself) has whipped up one of his patented freebies: a bonus CD containing two broadcasts from the Archives’ previously released Mr. President collections (Volumes 1 and 2 also containing liner notes from the pen of this humble blogger). President—a dramatic anthology that had a healthy run on ABC Radio from 1947 to 1953—is another example of some truly fine old-time radio that doesn’t receive the critical kudos it should. I’d heartily recommend these collections to the history scholar or buff in your family, and because the “hook” of Mr. President was that the identity of the Commander-in-Chief went unmentioned until the final minutes of each episode, I’ll provide a couple of “hints” to help you determine which great man’s life is being dramatized. (If the president has a predilection for corned beef and cabbage, it’s Grover Cleveland. If the president has sons that appear to have been raised by wolves, it’s Teddy Roosevelt.)

On a personal note, I’d like to use up a tiny bit of bandwidth and thank Harlan and the rest of the FGRA gang for allowing me to flex my writing muscles and conjure up the notes for these fine collections on a regular basis. I e-mailed Harlan the other day to ask if there was any utility work to be done shoring up the Premiers and he was gracious to throw a little work my way while the ‘rents and I sit around Rancho Yesteryear and wait for the real estate agent to call. Everyone at First Generation are fine people; individuals completely dedicated to the worthwhile cause of “preserving radio’s past for the future”—and I’m prepared to step outside with anybody who thinks otherwise.

We’ve lost our lease! We’re selling to the bare walls! No reasonable offer refused!

Good news, everyone! We sold so much stuff at the yard/garage sale this weekend that we were able to pay off all our debts and the mortgage, which means we’ll be able to stay in Savannah for the rest of our days.

Yeah, you got it…April Fool’s.

The moving sale was not the success we had hoped for, unfortunately. This could be due to any number of factors, but I think Factor Numero Uno might be that my father scheduled the sale at the same time as the big junque (junk) sale being sponsored by the Savannah Morning Snooze…er, News. Kind of hard to compete with that, particularly since that sale got talked about a lot in the paper…which I’m sure was just a coincidence.

Sister Kat had a garage sale in Athens the same day and made out like a bandit—sold $500 worth of stuff. So either she had a better class of crap to hawk or a better class of clientele. She told Dad that she promoted the sale on Craigslist, which prompted my mother to confront me with “Why didn’t you think of that?” I told her that I had heard too many anecdotes about people using the non-commercial classified ad service to rob people and that I would be concerned if I came home and found both of them tied to a chair; the house having been looted. “If they took half of that stuff that’s out there,” my father retorted, “I could handle being tied to a chair for a while.”

Now, I know in the past that I’ve often joked on this blog about how I have a tendency not to throw things out, cementing my status as one of the world’s biggest packrats. But, folks—I’m an amateur compared to the old man. My mother comes back one day from having gone to the storage area that my father rents each month, and she can do nothing but shake her head. “He’s got two storage area filled to the rafters with crap,” she wails. “We’re never getting out of here.” Her current fantasy is to back up one of those huge trucks with the trash bins to the edge of the garage and start shoveling the stuff in with a pitchfork…and I wouldn’t completely dismiss something like this as never happening.

Longtime TDOY supporter/reader Philip Schweier made a cameo appearance at the moving sale earlier Saturday morning; we gabbed a bit about sundry topics and Philip got to see my father’s non-existent organizational skills in action (proving the acorn doesn't fall too far from the tree). But other than that, it was mostly an exercise in watching people walk up the driveway, stare at the crap Dad was trying to unload…and walk back down again. Then you have the individuals who ask about the stuff we have inside (we're trying to get rid of things like a sewing machine, entertainment center, etc.) just as an excuse to see what's inside (nosy parkers...) I think things may be a little different for the old man once we move to Athens…but as to how we’re going to get a garage full of stuff (not to mention the two storage areas) transported up in that direction is a post for another day.

You can't go wrong with the classics...

R.I.P., Richard Widmark

I just learned from Laughing Gravy that Richard Widmark has passed on at the age of 93, according to CNN.

Well, this day is already turning out to be a real pisser. I'll update this when I get more info.

Back from hiatus

Gosh, it seems like weeks have passed since I updated the ol’ blog…and as it turns out, it has been—two, to be precise. I apologize for being so negligent, but it’s been a veritable hive of activity around here.

To start off, the house has now been officially listed as up for sale. (The curious can see Rancho Yesteryear in all its inside and outside glory here—see if you can locate the wall clock, Pam!) Notice that there are no snaps of my bedroom (the Hazmat people still haven’t given the real estate agent the okay, ha ha) but if you look at picture #4 you’ll see the sun room and a large stack of clutter that I’ll only be too happy to claim as my own. This Saturday (March 29) we’re holding a Moving Day sale, so if anyone who regularly reads my scribbling is in the vicinity, feel free to stop by and say hidy.

During my hiatus, two notables from the world of show business went to their rich rewards—the first being Ivan Dixon, recognizable to us Hogan’s Heroes fans as the actor who played Sgt. James “Kinch” Kinchloe on the long-running sitcom from 1965-70. (He left the show in its fifth year, and was replaced by Kenneth Washington as Sgt. Richard Baker for the final season.) While Dixon—according to this obituary—never had a problem with being recognized for his work on Heroes, he felt the need to break ties with the series in order to concentrate on directing…which he did on shows like The Waltons, The Rockford Files and In the Heat of the Night. (He also did a pair of theatrical films: 1972’s Trouble Man and The Spook Who Sat By the Door, released in 1973.) Dixon passed away at the age of 76, and if you’re only familiar with his work on Heroes, you owe it to yourself to check out some of his other performances. I highly recommend his role in 1964’s Nothing But a Man and a great Twilight Zone episode, “The Big Tall Wish.” Rest in peace, Mr. Dixon…you will be missed.

Actor Paul Scofield—an Oscar winner for Best Actor in A Man For All Seasons (1966)—has also shuffled off this mortal coil at the age of 86. Scofield’s film career wasn’t really all that prolific—which is why some people question why he won the Best Actor trophy in the first place—but it’s sort of hard to argue that he wasn’t sensational in every film role he did undertake. My personal preference is Scofield’s turn as Mark Van Doren, father to Ralph Fiennes’ Charles Van Doren in Robert Redford’s Quiz Show (1994), a drama based on the TV quiz show scandals in the late 1950s. I watched a documentary on the subject and when they showed a picture of the real Mark Van Doren, I couldn’t believe how much Scofield resembled him, it was positively uncanny. (Scofield received a Best Supporting Actor nom for his performance, by the way.) Scofield did some marvelous work in films: the erudite (and ruthless) Col. Von Waldheim in John Frankenheimer’s The Train (1964) and the sinister Judge Thomas Danforth of The Crucible (1996) are the two that instantly come to mind. R.I.P. to an incredible actor.

There’s some encouraging news coming from the TV-on-DVD front: CBS-Paramount will be finish out the sophomore season of the classic crime drama The Untouchables with a Season 2: Volume 2 set to be released August 26th, and the first half of the second season of The Streets of San Francisco will also see disc action on July 1. But what really has me pumped is the news that William Conrad’s classic detective drama Cannon is coming to DVD July 8th…though, sadly, it will be with still another split season set. (Conrad’s other TV hit, Jake and the Fatman, will also be released via split season on the same day.) TVShowsOnDVD.com also has a strong rumor about the release of one of my favorite sitcoms, Dave’s World, whose debut season comes to disc August 12th.

Infinity Entertainment is announcing that the second season (perhaps I should say second split season) of the cult classic series Route 66 will hit the road (pardon the pun) May 20th, and on that very same day they’ll combine the first two split seasons of Year 1 to re-sell as Route 66: The Complete First Season. I purchased Season 1, Volume 1 of Route when it came out even though there was a tremendous outcry from the Vintage TV section of the Home Theater Forum about how crappy it looked (apparently the source material came from 16mm prints) but when I learned that Volume 2 had been completely f**ked up because some doofus lopped off heads and chins in “remastering” the episodes for widescreen TVs, I gave up on any further purchases until Infinity gets its collective shit together. (I went ahead and bought the entire series run from a “root pegger” for about 20 bucks, and I can be happy with that until Infinity learns to do Route 66 properly.) I suppose there’s an explanation for the unevenness of Infinity’s releases (I think their Suspense sets and their Man With a Camera set were extremely well-done, for example) and I welcome anybody who can offer one.

In the meantime, Timeless Media Group has four releases scheduled for a May 6 release that the potential vintage TV-on-DVD buyer might want to scrutinize before plunking down any cash on the counter. Timeless is announcing a 2-DVD tin of The Jack Benny Show that will retail for $12.98 but in looking at the guest stars announced in this TVShowsOnDVD release, it would appear that the content of the set consists of the same public domain telecasts that you can find much cheaper elsewhere (the Mill Creek Entertainment set, The Best of Jack Benny, immediately springs to mind). They’ve also plans for a Sergeant Preston of the Yukon tin (again, with 2 DVDs) and one entitled Here’s...The Johnny Carson Show; the Carson compilation looks to be a repackaging of an earlier release and while the Sergeant Preston tin might be okay for someone just casually interested in the famous Mountie and his faithful husky dog King you can get all three seasons of the show at Deep Discount.com in far better condition (provided, of course, you’re into the series). The last of this Timeless quartet are two 2-disc tins entitled Red Skelton: America’s Crown Prince and Red Skelton: America’s Crown Prince Returns. Timeless has released so many Skelton compilations (to their credit, the material comes from the late comedian's family) that it’s difficult to tell if this is new material or just recycled stuff.

As usual, I’ve saved the best for last. Resident HTF curmudgeon Hank Dearborn reports that two vintage television series are soon due to be released by Timeless: the 1959-63 western Laramie and one of the shows I put on my “I’d Buy That For a Dollar” wish list, the 1957-60 crime drama M Squad (starring Lee Marvin!). There’s been no official announcement (release date, specs, etc.) on these two shows but Hank knows people who know people and I’m inclined to trust his sources (particularly since he broke the news about the upcoming DVD release of Mannix). I have to admit, I was both surprised and pleased as punch to hear the news about Laramie and Squad; apparently it’s going to be the same type of deal as with other releases leased to TMG from NBC/Universal (Arrest and Trial, Checkmate, Laredo, etc.). I can’t wait!