“Pepsi-Cola hits the spot/Twelve full ounces, that’s a lot/Twice as much for a nickel, too/Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you…”

I’m in a remarkably upbeat mood for several reasons today. The first item that made a day a bit brighter was a post from beverage maven Matt Hinrichs at Scrubbles.net announcing a new line of soda pop from the Pepsi Company that will eliminate the high fructose corn syrup from Pepsi-Cola (and I’ve only heard a rumor or two,…

R.I.P. Wendy Richard

My good friend from across the pond, Gary Dobbs, mentioned in a comment he made on a post I composed in October of last year that British actress Wendy Richard had been diagnosed with terminal bone cancer and wasn’t expected to live past twelve months. Sadly, the medicos were spot-on with this…as the talented woman who appeared in the long-running sitcom Are…

“…a special detail of the Chicago Police …”

When classic television fans received the scuttlebutt back in June of last year that Timeless Media Group had plans to release a DVD box set of the 1957-60 crime drama M Squad, there was much rejoicing that this rarely-seen but fondly remembered half-hour series (starring Lee Marvin) would be made accessible on disc. Initially, Timeless’ plans were to release…

R.I.P., Howard Zieff

A cursory glance at my CharredHer homepage revealed a neon-like headline: “’My Girl’ director dies.” Confession time: having not ever seen My Girl (1991)—Macaulay Culkin makes me break out in a rash—I had to read the piece to learn that Howard Zieff has shuffled off this mortal coil at the age of 81 after a long battle with Parkinson’s…

Movies I’ve stared at recently on TCM #23 (31 Days of Oscar edition)

Seeing as how I’ve been skating by the past few days on posting nothing but comic strips, I figured I’d emerge from my undisclosed location and put something of substance on the blog…  (Waits for laughter to subside) Thanks ever so. You’re a good group. I’ve been keeping busy with an outside project on which I’m putting…

Long Tall Texan

Back in September of last year, I made mention of the fact that Timeless Media Group had issued an all-points bulletin to vintage TV program collectors seeking out episodes of the 1958-60 western series The Texan, which they had planned to release in November as a DVD box set. There were seventy-eight episodes in toto…but despite Timeless’ diligence, only…

Look what they’ve done to my song, Ma

I took a temporary respite from the blog yesterday to spend most of the day with the ‘rents; I had those eBay packages to resend and decided that I’d just go over a little sooner rather than hang around my joint all day, which earned me lunch as well as dinner. (On the way back, Dad…

Elegy for a forgotten sitcom

In the comments section of my recent Open All Hours post, my feuding partner Sam Johnson mentions a short-lived ABC sitcom from 1981-82 entitled Open All Night, which he and many others have argued was a transplant from the better-known Britcom. There’s certainly a strong argument to be made that there are a lot of similarities between the two shows,…

Movies I’ve stared at recently on TCM #22 (31 Days of Oscar edition)

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) – TCM rolled this one out last week as a “premiere” (someone at Turner must have cut a deal with 20th Century-Fox to start showing some of their product) and since it had been a while since I’d seen it (I’m not 100% on this, but it may have been…

His Bark(er) is worse than his bite

In yesterday’s post I neglected to mention another series headed for disc…primarily because it’s not being offered by Shout! Factory. According to TVShowsOnDVD.com, the BBC and Warner Home Video will bring the classic Britcom Open All Hours to DVD June 9th…and the only thing that keeps me doing a merry jig in my driveway is that I already have all…