My "new" favorite show on television: The Golden Girls

I was eleven when The Golden Girls premiered on NBC in 1985.  I was watching that very first episode and it cracked me up hard!  Most Saturday nights at 9 I would tune in to watch the latest misadventures of Dorothy, Rose, Blanche, and Sophia.  It wasn't just me either: my dear sweet grandmother was a huge fan of the show too.  Sometimes we would watch it together if I happened to be at her house that night.  Her favorite of the ensemble was easily Estelle Ghetty's character Sophia.  Heck, Granny even looked a lot like Sophia... and she could wisecrack like her too.  My favorite character was Rose (Betty White): so many ditzy things that she often said.

So for the past few weeks I've been tuning into MeTV on weeknights at 10 and then on Sunday nights at 6 and 8 to watch The Golden Girls.  It's just like watching it with my grandmother all over again.  Although now that I'm a bit older (okay, forty years older) the jokes that had gone way over my head at the time - especially the ones involving eternally man-hungry Blanche, played by Rue McClanahan - are something I can now readily understand.  It's made it like I'm watching the show brand new again, for the first time.  I think now though I am tending to favor Dorothy.  Maybe because I've become a bit more jaded by life, more world-weary and quick to offer up wry commentary.  And also because I'm a bit of a Bea Arthur fan (can you believe that she was in the second Star Wars production ever produced, okay it was the holiday special but it still counts!).

Anyhoo, it's a very funny sitcom, if you've never had the pleasure of watching it.  And well worth your time to catch it if you're finding yourselves needing something to give you a good laugh guaranteed to make you smile. 

Read More

MeTV is now running Hawaii Five-O on weekdays

This isn't the more recent series.  MeTV is playing the original Hawaii Five-O at 11 a.m. EST on weekdays.  Yesterday and today the network broadcast the two-part first story and I watched it.  Think I'll be tuning in whenever I find myself not doing anything else in particular on weekday mornings.

Hawaii Five-O is one of the very first television series that I clearly remember watching.  Dad used to love this show so I have memories of seeing it in the mid to late Seventies.  I especially recall the title sequence, particularly its theme music.

If you've never seen this before, prepare to be stunned.  This is from a series that premiered in 1968 (Hawaii Five-O might be the only television show from the 1960s to survive as far as the Eighties) so many people might be expecting something a little more... shall we say, "primitive"?  But this intro is a work of art in and of itself.  This composition of imagery and music is more like something that could be expected of a modern editing software package like Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro, not from the period around 1970.  A lot of heart, soul, and hardcore precision went into making this sequence, and it definitely shows.

So here is the intro for the original Hawaii Five-O.  Something as magnificent as it is timeless.

Read More

Svengoolie! Or: How I spend many Saturday nights

Not looking like there's going to be any going about this evening.  There are a few things I've got on my plate, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  And there is always church in the morning, so that accomplishes my spiritual and social needs in great part.

So on a Saturday like this I do some errands around the house, play with my miniature dachshund, make dinner, and for the rest of the afternoon and early evening it's usually sitting up on my sofa with my iPad and keyboard and working on writing.  And that's how a lot of my other nights develop into: writing for my book or op-ed pieces, or the fantasy romance novel that I've been inspired to start (seriously).

But since this is Saturday I've also got the weekly entertainment to look forward to, straight outta Berwyn.

Every Saturday night at 8 p.m. Eastern (and 7 Central) sees the next two and a half hours blocked off for Svengoolie on the MeTV network.  Svengoolie is a madcap "horror host" of the kind that many television stations had back in the day who every week would present a scary(?) movie.  These actually ran the gamut from straight-up horror classics to science-fiction extravaganzas to mélanges of both and sometimes it would be more comic fare.  It was all good and great fun!  And the hosts were as much a hoot to behold as the movies themselves.

Svengoolie - whose real name is Rich Koz - has been upholding this noble tradition from the Chicago market since 1979 (yes, more than 45 years now!).  Some time ago he and his franchise were picked up by MeTV and he's now presenting his favorite films for a nationwide audience.  And the nation has certainly taken notice.  Svengoolie is now one of the most-watched programs during the weekend.  It has become a true Saturday night ritual for countless fans, who show their appreciation in many different ways (being photographed wearing a Svengoolie shirt in some exotic location is particularly popular).

It's a terrific formula for good hearty entertainment!  And it has also introduced me to a lot of movies that I otherwise might have never seen.  A few weeks ago Svengoolie presented Strait-Jacket from 1964 starring Joan Crawford.  I thought it was an amazing film that more than deserved to be seen by a modern audience.  And last week's feature was Village of the Damned (a movie I first saw in 1989 on "Billy Bobb's Action Theatre" on Greensboro's Channel 48).  That is also a motion picture that merits appreciation by people of our era.  Whether the movie of the week is terrifying or thought-inducing or evoking laughter, you can't go wrong with Svengoolie (and his pals on the Sven Squad).

If you've never had the pleasure, I can't recommend Svengoolie nearly enough for Saturday night.  It's a rollicking fun time to be had by all.  And hey Sven, if you're reading this, I would like to suggest that some week you might run Yor: The Hunter From The Future.  It's perfect Eighties schlock that deserves some modern appreciation.  The #svengooolie hashtag on X/Twitter will be burning up with commentary!

'We will need a lot more hemp before we're through."

Read More