Book Review: Rediscovering Roscoe – The Films of “Fatty” Arbuckle

In his reference book The Great Movie Comedians, film historian Leonard Maltin writes of Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle: “It seems tragic that Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle should be remembered today for a scandal in his private life and barely recognized for his contribution to screen comedy.  To be sure, Arbuckle was never one of the comic giants,…

Book Review: Identifi Yourself: A Journey in F**k You Creative Courage

From June 5, 1981 to December 30, 1988, The USA Network was the home of Night Flight—one of television’s most innovative attempts at capturing the pop culture zeitgeist.  Created and directed by Stuart S. Shapiro, Night Flight was a four-hour program comprised of music videos (featuring mainstream and alternative artists), cult movies (it's where I…

Book Review: Seen from the Wings: Luise Rainer. My Mother, The Journey

There’s an apocryphal story about the first time director Alfred Hitchcock was nominated for an Oscar (for 1940’s Rebecca).  He hadn’t planned on attending the ceremony—in fact, he and wife Alma Reville spent most of that afternoon on the tennis court.  Yet the Hitchcocks thought it might be a lark to show up for the…

Book Review: Shooting the Breeze with Baby Boomer Stars

Edward “Torchy” Smith may be a familiar name/voice to those of you who make listening to IHeartRadio a routine activity.  He’s the host of Baby Boomers Talk Radio, a program that from its inception has made its mission to appeal to what Smith calls “the new Lawrence Welk generation minus the bubbles” by interviewing celebrities…

Book Review: It’s Saturday Morning!

It’s hard to believe that there was a time in my life when Saturday mornings weren’t made for sleeping...but rather, getting up “at the crack of ice” (as my pal Maureen likes to call it) and blissing out in front of the set to watch the endless parade of TV animation.  Those fondly-remembered “days of…

Book Review: I, Samantha, Take This Mortal, Darrin

In 2014—just in time for the 50th anniversary of the fantasy television sitcom hit Bewitched—author Adam-Michael James published The Bewitched Continuum: The Ultimate Linear Guide to the Classic TV Series.  A king-sized book crammed with fun facts and tantalizing tidbits about the long-running show, Continuum also allowed its author to speculate on how the series…

Book Review: Slapstick Divas

Film historian/author Steve Massa released one of the most essential books on silent movie comedy back in 2013—Lame Brains & Lunatics—and in my review of this wonderful reference in August of 2016, I mentioned that his next project was going to expand on the female comediennes touched upon in Lunatics, titled Slapstick Divas.  Divas hit…

Book Review: Ten Movies at a Time: A 350-Film Journey Through Hollywood and America 1930-1970

It was fellow film noir devotee and Down the Hatch author Vince Keenan who used his incredible cocktail powers to induce me into buying a copy of Facebook compadre John DiLeo’s Screen Savers: 40 Remarkable Movies Awaiting Rediscovery back in November of 2008...and since that initial purchase, I have filled the bookshelves here at Rancho…

Book Review: You’re Going to Make It After All: The Life, Times and Influence of Mary Tyler Moore

As an individual who admittedly has a fascination for bits of arcane movie and TV trivia, I found this passage in a new book written by New York Times bestselling author Marc Shapiro refreshingly offbeat: At one point early in the show’s existence, The Mary Tyler Moore Show was in danger of being cancelled. So…

Book Review: Mr. Novak: An Acclaimed Television Series

“A practical idealist, a man who wants nothing more than a chance to take a crack at ignorance eight or ten hours a day, a great hero for the public.”  That is how television writer-producer E. Jack Neuman conceived the central character for a series idea he was discussing with his friend, director Boris Sagal,…