I’m too young to remember the “Dick Van Dyke Show” (and oddly, never caught it in reruns).
Yeah, that Selma Diamond. I did not know this.
This is where I remember her from. And here’s a neat piece of trivia:
Archive for the ‘TV’ Category
Obit watch: December 29, 2017.
Friday, December 29th, 2017It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… (part III)
Friday, December 22nd, 2017Apropos of nothing in particular (no, really): the complete original Dragnet episode “The Big Little Jesus” is available on YouTube.
Obit watch: December 22, 2017.
Friday, December 22nd, 2017Legendary sportscaster Dick Enberg.
WP obit for Clifford Irving.
Jerry Yellin. Mr. Yellin and his wingman, Philip Schlamberg, flew what turned out to be the last combat mission over Japan on August 15, 1945. Mr. Schlamberg never came back.
Obit watch: December 1, 2017.
Friday, December 1st, 2017Firings and obits: November 22, 2017.
Wednesday, November 22nd, 2017Seems like the story of my life, firings and obits. Anyway:
Ken Norton Jr. out as the defensive coordinator for the Oakland Raiders.
I don’t think this is the dumbest thing I’ve read on ESPN, but I do think it is in the top 10.
…if you are a college football player, try to avoid punching one of your assistant coaches in the head twice.
Because that behavior doesn’t just get you benched: it gets you thrown off the team and expelled from the university.
And now, it gets you charged with aggravated assault.
Bob Stitt out as Montana’s head coach.
Obits, mostly for the record: David Cassidy. Della Reese.
Firings and obits: November 13, 2017.
Monday, November 13th, 2017Butch Jones volun-told to leave as head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers. He was 34-27 over five seasons, and 14-24 in the SEC. The team is currently 4-6, with all six losses being to other SEC teams.
For the record (I’m a little behind. Sorry.): John “Howard Johnson” Hillerman. You know, I had no idea he was a native Texan…
And speaking of other Texans who have died: Liz Smith, notorious gossip columnist.
Obit watch: regular edition, November 1, 2017.
Wednesday, November 1st, 2017Jack Bannon passed away last week.
He was one of those knock-around actors: he had credits on “Love Boat”, “Kojak”, “Mannix”, “Petticoat Junction”, “Beverly Hillbillies”, and lots of other television shows.
But he was best known to me as “Art Donovan” on “Lou Grant”.
Nostalgia is a moron, but I loved that show when I was in high school, and the DVDs are on my Amazon wish list. Memory tells me that there was less eyeball bleeding liberalism in the series than you’d expect from a show starring Ed Asner, but it was a long time ago…
Obit watch: October 25, 2017.
Wednesday, October 25th, 2017Man, what a career.
I’d love to see that. I’m sure it exists…in an archive…somewhere in New York City…
TMQ Watch: October 3, 2017.
Wednesday, October 4th, 2017We’ve got nothing clever to start off with this week. This is the kind of week that sucks all the clever out of our strategic clever reserves. Let’s just get into it.
After the jump, about 5,000 words of this week’s TMQ…
Obit watch: October 2, 2017.
Monday, October 2nd, 2017I’m not so sure about the “two goats” thing. But I also think that part of the problem with the “Monty Hall problem” is that people aren’t precise in stating the terms of the problem, and that leads to “counterintuitive solutions” based on what people think the terms are.
S.I. Newhouse, magazine publisher.
Obit watch: September 16, 2017.
Saturday, September 16th, 2017Obit watch: September 11, 2017.
Monday, September 11th, 2017Don Ohlmeyer, legendary “Monday Night Football” producer, and later NBC executive.
“The Last Tycoon”, Amazon’s series based on the unfinished novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Interestingly, a few days ago Amazon also cancelled “Z: The Beginning of Everything”, a series based on the life of Zelda Fitzgerald. “Z” had actually already been renewed and was apparently in pre-production for the second season when Amazon pulled the plug.
Is there just not a great demand for Scott Fitzgerald any longer? Or were these just not very good series?
Quick random notes: September 2, 2017.
Saturday, September 2nd, 2017Obit watch: Shelley Berman, noted stand-up comic.
Performing in upscale nightclubs and on concert stages, including Carnegie Hall at the height of his fame, he found humor in places where his borscht belt predecessors had never thought to look: ‘‘If you’ve never met a student from the University of Chicago, I’ll describe him to you. If you give him a glass of water, he says: ‘This is a glass of water. But is it a glass of water? And if it is a glass of water, why is it a glass of water?’ And eventually he dies of thirst.”
“Sometimes,” Mr. Berman told The New York Times in 1970, “I’m so oblique, even I don’t know what I’m talking about.”
(I’m going to have to start using “Were you very fond of that cat?” in conversation.)
Guess who’s coming to dinner?
Before you answer that: the dinner is actually a testimonial being put on by an association of retired NYPD detectives. There will be two honorees:
John Russo, “who investigated the murder of Karina Vetrano, who was killed while jogging in Howard Beach, Queens, last year.”
And the other one? Retired detective Louis Scarcella.
…
The event’s sponsor is aware that Mr. Scarcella is a polarizing figure. John Wilde, the retired detective who organized the evening, claimed he chose to honor the detective not in spite of the controversy, but because of it.
Mr. Scarcella did not prosecute the defendants who ended up in prison; he investigated and arrested them, Mr. Wilde said. Many people had a hand in the convictions that went wrong, but at least so far, Mr. Wilde added, only Mr. Scarcella has gotten any blame for the cases, and the ordeal has taken a toll.
Just as a reminder:
Obit watch: September 1, 2017.
Friday, September 1st, 2017Yes, yes, we all remember him as Oscar Goldman. But he knocked around in a whole bunch of other stuff before “Six Million Dollar Man” and “Bionic Woman”. Every now and then, we’ll be watching something at Lawrence’s and say, “Hey, wait, is that…yes, it’s Oscar Goldman!” (Yes, he was in “Tora! Tora! Tora!”, just like everyone else in Hollywood.) He did guest spots on “Mannix”, “Mission: Impossible”, the good “Hawaii 5-0”, “T.H.E. Cat”, and he was a regular on “Perry Mason”. He was in “Kitten With a Whip”. And Chief Quinn in “Forbidden Planet”.
I hate to reduce the man to one role, no matter how famous it was. But I do think this is one of the great TV show openings of all time.
TMQ Watch: August 22, 2017.
Tuesday, August 22nd, 2017“The Year Without A Tuesday Morning Quarterback” was one of Rankin-Bass’s lesser holiday specials.
Then a year ago this time, I took a year off to complete my next book.
Oh. Is that what it was? (By the way, Gregg Easterbrook has a new book coming out.)
But now, he’s back. And so is the editorial “we”. Not to be confused with the editorial wee, though we plan to purchase one or more of those really nice Toto smart toilets when we win the lottery.
Welcome back to TMQ Watch. After the jump, this week’s TMQ…