Here are the climactic final minutes of the 17th episode of the first season of The Dick Van Dyke Show entitled “The Curious Thing About Women”. The story is about Rob basing a sketch on Laura’s habit of opening his mail and depicting her as a ridiculous snoop, so that even their neighbors are laughing … Continue reading The Curious Thing About Sitcoms
Television
The Dog That Wouldn’t Eat
Graham has encountered some weird problems with dogs and their humans over the years, and while I wouldn’t say this was the weirdest, it did make me laugh out loud when I saw what they had to do to get their dog to eat. And they were putting up with it for over five years! … Continue reading The Dog That Wouldn’t Eat
Sam and Richard
I hadn’t planned on writing anymore about The Fugitive, but someone asked me whether the TV show was based on the Sam Sheppard case and, after giving my answer, I looked into it a little bit more. My answer hasn’t changed, but why waste that research? The short answer is that Roy Huggins, who created The Fugitive, … Continue reading Sam and Richard
Trying to Remember
The mention of The Fugitive the other day got me to thinking back to those heady days of yesteryear. That TV show was first broadcast in the fall of 1963, but I’m quite certain I couldn’t have been watching it during its first season. I was in 9th grade in the fall of 1963, we were still … Continue reading Trying to Remember
The Judge’s Haircut
In the wake of the success of I Love Lucy there were bound to be imitators. One of these was I Married Joan starring Joan Davis and Jim Backus, which was broadcast on NBC from 1952 to 1955. Backus played a judge who was married to a somewhat scatterbrained wife who was constantly getting into … Continue reading The Judge’s Haircut
Metástasis
If today is like Christmas Day, there will be considerably fewer readers, so here is a quick video quiz. One question. A few years ago some TV producers in Colombia decided they wanted to make a Colombian version of an American television series. They got permission from the permission givers, got the scripts translated and … Continue reading Metástasis
Addressing a Finale
David Janssen as Richard Kimble Second day in a row where I’m referencing electoral-vote.com, but this is because they published a letter that I sent in. On the Tuesday Mailbag (delayed from Sunday) they included the email I sent off where I talked about the series finale of The Fugitive TV series which aired as a … Continue reading Addressing a Finale
Pluribus and Mary Tyler Moore
While watching the first episode of Vince Gilligan’s television show starring Rhea Seehorn, Pluribus, on Apple TV, I was reminded of a 1968 Mary Tyler Moore movie. I didn’t know anything about Pluribus before I started watching it, but the scene in question was reminiscent of the movie in more ways than one. So I made … Continue reading Pluribus and Mary Tyler Moore
Lucy and Jeannie
One of the famous I Love Lucy episodes involves Lucy making wine and getting into a fight with her fellow grape stomper. That’s in the fifth season episode “Lucy's Italian Movie”. A few years ago the last boss I had at the Defense Support Center Philadelphia, Jeannie Lacovara, sent me a photo of her at a … Continue reading Lucy and Jeannie
We’re Having a Baby
I’ve published excerpts from both Todd Purdum and Jess Oppenheimer’s books, but I’ve avoided the parts where they write about the I Love Lucy show. (By the way, Madelyn Pugh, one of the Lucy writers, also published a book of memoirs, but it doesn’t seem to be out in an ebook format and I gave away … Continue reading We’re Having a Baby