It’s the early 1980’s, and us Hamilton College students were enjoying the wonderful world of our local cable television provider – which, at that time, was a company called Harron Cable. Harron Cable allowed us to watch more than just the two local TV stations (WKTV-NBC-2 and WUTR-ABC-20), and with that, we also had the…
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You call it “Gatchaman,” I call it “Battle of the Planets”
It’s very fascinating to watch the evolution of anime. In the 1960’s, Americans were introduced to anime with programs like Astro Boy and Gigantor and Speed Racer. By the 1980’s, shows like Voltron and Robotech and Star Blazers took anime to new heights. By the 1990’s, shows like Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon and…
Read MoreHoly product placement, Batman!
What is it about the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder – Batman and Robin – that makes advertisers want to put them in commercials? I tell you, when they’re not battling the Penguin or the Joker, Batman and Robin do a helluva job as product pitchmen. Such as, for example. ZAYRE Batman and Robin…
Read MoreIt doesn’t always work: TV’s worst attempts at spinoffs
For every Mary Tyler Moore, there’s a Rhoda. For every Cheers, there’s a Frasier. For every Beverly Hills, 90210, there’s a Melrose Place. It’s called a “spin-off,” in which a popular supporting character on one TV show gets a show of their own – essentially “spinning off” into their own TV legacy. Spin-offs can become…
Read MoreIt’s time for the Saturday Funnies on Chuck-TV!
In the early 1960’s, King Features Syndicate came up with an idea. They would take some of their most popular newspaper comic strips and turn them into animated cartoons, and then syndicate those cartoons to television stations. These cartoons could be stitched together as three or four episodes of a 30-minute TV show, or they…
Read MoreK-Chuck Radio takes you to Soul Train, the hippest groove in the land…
For the longest time, the Capital District’s ABC affiliate in the 1970’s, WAST, wouldn’t show American Bandstand on Saturday afternoons. Hard to believe, isn’t it? Well, it’s true. I don’t really remember what they DID show at that time, but it was probably some program that made money for the local station. But while we…
Read MoreRest in peace, Elisabeth Sladen… the best companion Doctor Who ever had.
I’ve been a peripheral Doctor Who fan – if there’s an episode on or if the TV station is running the entire run of a certain multipart episode, I’ll sit and watch it. I haven’t really gotten into the current iterations of the Doctor, I’m of the generation that appreciated Tom Baker and Peter Davison.…
Read More“Fridays” – the musical performances
Yesterday, I brought everyone back in time to the ABC sketch comedy series Fridays, which aired from 1980 to 1982 after the 11pm news. In my previous blog post, I showed some clips of the show’s sketch comedy routines. In this post, you get to crank up your speakers, because here are some clips of…
Read More“Fridays” – the best sketch comedy show you never heard of
Take a walk back with me to 1980. If you were a fan of Saturday Night Live, you were truly dedicated – most of the classic lineup had departed the show after five seasons. No Dan Aykroyd, no John Belushi, no Gilda Radner, no Jane Curtin, no Bill Murray – yes, young’uns, those actors were…
Read MoreMarch 20th: “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” Day
Maybe when you get older and you put away your dreams of childhood, television shows like Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood are excised from your life. You give up all the times you sat in front of the TV set at 5:00 p.m., watching Fred Rogers walk into his studio house, put on a sweater, feed his…
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