Children of the 1950’s will remember the great animated series Gumby, in which a green anthropomorphic clay figurine and his trusty clay horse Pokey go on surreal adventures in the stop-motion world. The show was immensely popular in its time, and would later get a revival in the 1990’s. As for me, I was more…
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Hudson’s Bay – the TV western about the history of a department store.
The Hudson’s Bay Company has a fascinating history. They were instrumental in the formation and exploration of what would become Canada, and their fur trading ports evolved into a collection of department stores and clothiers throughout the Great White North. And in1959, someone had this great idea to create a television series that placed the…
Read MoreThe Hour of St. Francis – a “Reefer Madness” religious anthology series
Who doesn’t love a dose of cheezy cinema? The kind of movies where you expect to see silhouettes of Tom Servo and Crow T Robot in the lower right corner? Yeah, those films. Well, I’ve got one for you today. Follow along with me on this. You’re probably familiar with “Reefer Madness,” a film originally…
Read MoreThe Magic Garden: 30 minutes of gentleness
It’s the 1970’s, and my parents invest in cable television. At the time, the biggest thrill cable television provided for me was the ability to watch stations like WSBK in Boston, as well as three New York stations – WNEW, WOR and WPIX. All four of these stations had some sort of children’s programming in…
Read MoreTim Curry in a family sitcom? No, it’s not a fever dream …
Last night I attended a showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Palace Theater in Albany, and had a fantastic time. The “shadow cast” really went above and beyond in their performances, and the audience was super-loud and super-energetic. And I’m still picking bird seed and confetti out of my hair this morning.…
Read MoreThe dog that was twenty times smarter than Lassie.
I’m sure you remember Lassie – the rough collie who starred in dozens of movies and in a long-running television series. Yeah, that Lassie. The same one that rescued Timmy every time the boy fell in a well. That Lassie. I’m about to introduce you to an even smarter television / movie dog. And he…
Read MoreJimmy Kimmel’s censorship had its roots from a 65-year-old bathroom joke
When it comes to network television, we normally get about 100% of whatever a network produces. There are some exceptions, depending on whether the local station might have a concern about the content of the network program. This is not unusual. I recall an episode of the seemingly harmless sitcom Valerie getting pre-empted in the…
Read MoreShould I give “DMV” a try?
Ever since I saw Harriet Dyer as one of the cast members in the Australian import drama Love Child, I thought she had a chance to make it big in Hollywood. And she had a few American television shows that almost got her there – a supernatural procedural called The InBetween that suffered from miserable…
Read MoreSpider-Man’s first live-action TV run was on PBS.
Who doesn’t love Spider-Man? The legendary web-slinger with a heart of gold and a soul of angst, filled with love and loss. Let’s face it – Spider-Man’s 50+ year long comic book arc is the stuff of legend. And, of course, there were many different movie and television Spider-Man projects. A slew of wildly popular…
Read MoreIt’s Black Bart versus Pistol Pete!
Western-themed sitcoms do not have long shelf lives. There was a 1980’s sitcom, Best of the West, that came and went without a trace. And the satirical The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. was fun to watch … for the one season it actually existed. That being said, I’m bringing you two failed TV pilots…
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Chuck The Writer 
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