TV Extras

    That's it.  I need a new TV.

TV Channels

    Eight channels!  WTF!?  When I was a kid, we had only four channels to choose from - ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS.  And PBS sucked in those days.  IIRC, the channel numbers were 3, 8, 10, and 12.

    Later on, they added a fifth channel, one that was "local" in some way.  It was channel 5.  

How many TV's?

    The third panel of this cartoon makes absolutely no sense to me.  But I do like the cartoonist's tastes in music.

Books vs. TV

    This is why I read books instead of watching TV.

Used TV For Sale

Universal Remote Control

    I was devastated, I tell you.

Nothing on TV

    Wormholes.  A whole new way to travel.

TV shows I'd like to see

Fraggle Rock

(Sighs). Nowadays, they just don't make TV shows like they used to.

RIP - Pernell Roberts

Pernell Roberts (far left in the pic)

b. : 18 May 1928

d. : 24 January 2010

. Time to start catching up on the RIP's. Pernell Roberts is best known for playing Adam on the immensely-popular TV Western from the early 60's - Bonanza. Adam was the eldest son of Lorne Greene's character, Ben. As can be seen above, Adam was the original Cowboy Goth - a good guy who almost always dressed head-to-toe in black. (*) . In 1965, Roberts left Bonanza after six seasons; claiming (correctly IMHO) that his character was getting shafted in the scripts. In hindsight, it didn't do his career much good. OTOH, Bonanza was getting stale by then too. . Pernell resurfaced in 1979 as the title character in Trapper John M.D. Which stupidly transformed the madcap (movie) M*A*S*H hero into a middle-aged Chief of Surgery in a dramatic series. Amazingly, that show enjoyed seven successful years in primetime TV. . (*) : Okay, Richard Boone's character, Paladin, in Have Gun Will Travel, was also a good guy who also always dressed in black. So there were two 60's Goth Cowboy heroes. . A word or two about Bonanza. It kicked Ratings butt - being the #1 TV show three years in a row. It was sponsored by Chevrolet, and was what every household tuned their TV's to at 9:00 PM each Sunday night. At 7:00 PM, every TV set was tuned to The Wonderful World Of Disney. And for the life of me, I can't remember what aired in between those two blockbusters. The FBI (with Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.) maybe? The Ed Sullivan Show? Perry Mason? Lawrence Welk? Perhaps it changed from one season to the next. .

They still run Bonanza in syndication, expecially if you have a big-screen TV and get that Western Channel up there around channel 197 or so. The stories are lame by today's standards. (**) But then again, all the other 60's Westerns that are shown on the cable channel are pretty bad as well.

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Pernell was the last surviving member of the Bonanza family shown above. And with his passing, a bit of Americana, lame or not, passes into history.

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(**) : With one notable exception. One episode featured Hoss crossing paths with a leprechaun. At least that's what he (and you, the audience) thinks for 3/4 of the show. It's an absolutely hilarious episode in the otherwise staidly dramatic Bonanza series.

RIP - Edward Woodward

Edward Woodward

b. : 01 June 1930

d. : 16 November 2009

. Edward Woodward was the star of an action series called The Equalizer, which ran from 1985 to 1989. He played an ex-agent who ordinary people could come to (via an ad in the newspaper) when they needed help - be it sleuthing or plain old muscle. Think "one man A-Team", or "Baretta freelances". . He played the role of Robert McCall. He had a charming British accent, a way-cool black Jaguar, and a bunch of techno-gadgets that The Joker would kill for. McCall was middle-aged (and that's being tactful) but could kick a$$ if the situation required it. . The Equalizer was one of the better action-dramas of the 80's, and Woodward won a Golden Globe Award for the Best TV Drama Actor in 1986. McCall's boss was played by Robert Lansing, whom some of us remember as the star of the 60's TV series, 12 O'Clock High. .

The Prisoner

Starting tonight, the TV channel AMC is airing a remake of The Prisoner. Alas, it's only six episodes long; 1 hour per episode. Alas and alack, AMC has decided that the shows should start tonight here in Arizona at 9:00 PM; and to run a two-pack of them back-to-back for three nights. That means staying up till 11:00 PM on three consecutive worknights. . Are you AMC folks #%$^$ nuts?!?! I loved the original series when it aired some 40-odd years ago. But staying up even one night until 11:00 turns me into a zombie the next day. There's no way I'd survive three nights in a row keeping those kind of hours. . And FWIW, I predict Ian McKellen, the new "Number Two" is going to steal the show. He looked diabolically awesome in a trailer that AMC ran this morning.