“And they used Bon Ami!”

Before my family and I relocated from Teays Valley to Ravenswood, West Virginia in the fall of 1972, I spent my formative years attending St. Francis of Assisi in St. Albans.  It was a Catholic school, and I’ve always had mixed feelings about it because while I remember with great fondness the wonderful friends I made…

“I christen thee ‘The High Chaparral’—the greatest cattle ranch in the whole territory…the whole world!”

In the House of Yesteryear, we adhere to a standard (and arguably, fairly predictable) schedule when it comes to mealtimes—primarily because my father is diabetic and if he doesn’t eat regularly Mom goes into her ZaSu Pitts-number (“Oh, dear...”).  She arranges for us to have supper around 6pm, and we enjoy this repast in front…

My heroes have always been in documentaries

I’m sorry that the blog has been kind of quiet over the past week; the good folks at DISH were generous enough to give us an HBO/Cinemax freeview, and I spent a little time getting re-acquainted with some old favorites including Secretary (2002—with my gal Maggie Gyllenhaal) and The Devil Wears Prada (2006).  (Prada may…

A Christmas Carol

I know October is a month that we usually associate with Halloween and other things spooky…but to the folks at Time Life, it’s an opportune time to make certain there’s plenty of classic episodes from The Carol Burnett Show available for the DVD-buying public.  Why October, I hear you asking?  Well, it’s because Carol and…

“I love Lucy and she loves me…”

This Saturday marks the centennial birthday of television legend Lucille Ball, and the various events that are being planned to commemorate Lucy’s 100th natal anniversary are spectacular ones indeed.  I got a press release via e-mail last night from Hillary Schrupf at SiriusXM that I thought was worth passing on to those TDOY followers mad about “that crazy redhead”: …

Twisted Television #1: Gomer Pyle, USMC – “Gomer Goes Home”

This morning, I thought I’d kick off a new semi-regular feature here at Thrilling Days of Yesteryear—one that was inspired by a truly off-the-wall episode of Gomer Pyle, USMC I caught this morning (hey, I have insomnia—don’t judge me) on Me-TV.  Unless you’ve just been released from a cryogenic slumber for half a century, you’re no doubt aware…

“Click click click…”

When I reported back in June that Atlanta’s WSB-DT had divorced the Retro Television Network and tied the knot with Me-TV, I was excited about the switch because with the exception of a few programs in RTV’s lineup, most of what was on its schedule filled me with overwhelming ennui.  Me-TV definitely has a lot…

Better living through (Antenna) TV

The day I found out about WSB-TV’s digital channel switch from RTN/RTV to Me-TV, I left a message on the Facebook wall of my esteemed blogging colleague Rick Brooks of Cultureshark fame informing him of my good fortune.  No gloating or end zone dancing, you understand—I just thought I’d keep him in the loop, seeing as…

“Today (today)…I consider myself (self)…the luckiest man (man)…on the face of the earth (earth)…”

I took a brief respite from trying to find just what in blazes I did with the prizes in the Bergen & McCarthy giveaway (I’m running out of boxes, fellas, so it shouldn’t be long now) to play around on Facebook a bit and I saw an interesting tidbit on the page of Chicago’s Me-TV…

“Bigger. Better. Faster. Cheaper.”

This article (“Neality TV”) mentioned over at RGJ’s Television Obscurities piqued my interest this week—it talks about broadcasting impresario Neal Sabin, the mastermind behind Me-TV and Me, Too…which many individuals lucky to receive the two channels have either e-mailed or commented to me that it’s everything the once-proud TV Land used to be. Sabin describes his childhood fascination with television, which sounds…