Daybreak

November 23, 1951 marked the television debut of The RCA Victor Show, a half-hour program that starred bass singer Ezio Pinza—an opera singer and Broadway star (South Pacific) who also found time to make a few movies at M-G-M, including Mr. Imperium (1951) and Tonight We Sing (1953). On this live half-hour series (sponsored by RCA Victor, natch) Pinza would…

Babbling Brooks

  Monday, the postal person brought me the latest public domain release, Essential Family Television: 150 Episodes, from the good people at Mill Creek Entertainment—a company dedicated to making vintage television collections both collectable and affordable. If you’ve been buying Mill Creek’s products for quite a while, you’ll no doubt know that some of their box…

Beaverthon!

Well, I tuned into WSB’s RTN feed this morning and found out that the previously scheduled back-to-back episodes of Wagon Train had been replaced with—and I know this is gonna surprise you—two hours of Leave It to Beaver. (It’s not looking good for your Kraft Suspense Theatre, Rick.) I still haven’t been able to piece together just exactly what the blue blazes…

RTN…we have a problem

The ‘rents stopped by for a visit yesterday, and I’m pleased to report that they appeared to have had a splendiferous time. The night before their visit, however, I didn’t get bedded down ‘til about 2:00am…and I then spent the next four hours lying awake while my insomnia took my central nervous system pub-crawling, or something to…

R.I.P. Larry Haines

For those of you who wondered why I didn’t post notice on the passing of Estelle Getty, it might be due to the fact that I really couldn’t come up with anything that hadn’t already been covered on other people’s blogs. Toby O’Brien, that fine broth of a boy who rules Toobworld at Inner Toob,…

Shakeup at RTN

My good friend Rick Brooks over at Cultureshark reports that changes are underway at the Retro Television Network, and he does not speak with forked tongue. RTN’s contract with Paramount ended in July, so they’ve signed with NBC/Universal to provide the bulk of their programming. (RTN still imports a few shows from other sources, namely Sony’s The Monkees and The…

Region 2 is good for you

I’m in the home stretch of finishing up a project for FGRA…plus I also have to straighten up this jernt in time for the ‘rents arrival tomorrow (ETA: 10:00am) so I’ll make this brief. Please take a goodly-sized portion of your precious free time and read this post by one of my favorite film bloggers, the incomparable…

Joan of Arabia

Posting may be spotty the next day or so because I’m finishing up a pair of projects for the fine people at First Generation Radio Archives (ask for them by name!). But I took a brief breather yesterday to wallow in a bit of nostalgia, courtesy of TCM. The film? Harem Girl, a 1952 comedy romp starring TDOY fave Joan…

“Little black sheep…come back home…”

The Sunday Athens Banner-Herald had a nice write-up by Julie Phillips yesterday on the late Hall Johnson, a native of the city who achieved a great deal of fame as a musician and composer beginning in the 1920s with his founding of the Hall Johnson Choir: Hall Johnson walked the streets of Athens long before the indie rock musicians…

My demands have been met

I don’t how many of you out there who have the misfortune to welcome CharredHer (Charter) Cable into your homes, but this weekend after returning from dog-sitting I put one of its niftier features to work. They offer an “On Demand” service (they’re not unique in this, of course, other cable companies do the same)…