AND I LOVE IT !
My TV has lost its color and I’m finding networks I’ve never heard of before ~ COZI ~ BUZZR ~ ANTENNA ~ H&I ~ Decades, Movies, This, and MeTV.
I’m transported back in time 40, 50, 60 years ~ shows are in black, white, and shades of gray ~ the real grays, not that other kind.
I’m thrilled with these new choices; they’re entertaining and familiar and I don’t always remember the endings.
I was just beginning grammar school when I first started watching TV. Maybe on one like this, an old cabinet style DuMont. I remember a wood case and hiding things behind it because it was deep and open in the back, so the tubes, sort of thumb-shape and size light bulbs, could be replaced right in your home by a TV repairman ~ an honorable profession, akin to a cobbler.
Sure, I’ve been watching Murder, She Wrote/’84-96, Matlock/’86-95, Little House on the Prairie/’74-82, Diagnosis: Murder/’93-2001, M*A*S*H/’72-83 and Andy Griffith/’60-68 reruns for years now, but to see my teenage TV idols today ~ geez, what a thrill .
Instead of breakfast with Charlie, Norah, and Gayle, it’s with Steve McQueen in Wanted Dead or Alive/’58-63.
While my 83 year old Uncle Jim, is on the road with Richard Boone, (aka Paladin), in Have Gun – Will Travel/’57-63, I’m dealing with James Garner in Maverick/’57-62.
I stop for Dick Cavett/’69-74 every time; a great host having great conversations with great guests.
I’ve outgrown Rin Tin Tin/’54-59, Lassie/’54-73 and Leave it to Beaver/’57-63, and wonder what happened to our “love your neighbor as yourself” values.
Watching an old favorite, I’ll search my iPad for info, sites, and updates. More times than not, winding up at Find-A-Grave. I get a little melancholy realizing that when I was ten the star may have been in their 20’s or 30’s.
Still, the people, places, and events of the game shows on BUZZR can have me surfing the web for hours.
I was getting ready for first grade when the moderator of I’ve Got a Secret/’52-’67, Gary Moore, was smoking, (smoking at the desk ! smoking on air !), with Bill Cullen, Betsy Palmer, Bess Meyerson, and Henry Morgan. OMG as a smart-assed teenager I thought Henry Morgan was just the coolest !
And just how smart, entertaining, and talented were Peggy Cass, Orson Bean, and Tom Poston, (Mr. Poston ~ George, the handyman, at Newhart’s Vermont inn), on To Tell the Truth/’56-’68.
Dorothy Kilgallen, Fred Allen, Arlene Francis, and Bennett Cerf played What’s My Line/’50-67, with John Daly, guessing the jobs folks held by asking only yes or no questions. Once during each show, the panel would don blindfolds for a mystery celebrity guest, who would disguise their voice when answering. It make for fun viewing, when one spouse was on the panel and the other was the mystery guest.
Raymond Burr as Perry Mason/’57-66 probably was my mom’s choice to watch and introduced me to whodunit’s like Matlock and Columbo in the ’70’s, when the murder is first and the audience sees it as it happens, before the lawyer or detective does. (wink / nod)
Another nod goes to Mark Harmon, when he referenced David McCullum’s character from Man from U.N.C.L.E./’64-68. When an NCIS agent wonders what a younger Ducky looked like, without hesitation, Mr. Harmon responds, “Illya Kuryakin.” (NCIS is one of the new/older shows, I do watch.)
The other Man from U.N.C.L.E., Robert Vaughn, as Napoleon Solo, (what a name for a spy, huh?), was a treat for the older, more mature woman ~ the high school seniors. Illya was for us freshman; a little shy, a little hesitant, still “new.” It took me a few years to leave Illya behind and graduate to Napoleon.
On Movies ! I can find old Boston Blackie movies of the 1940’s and on THIS TV you never know what you’ll find.
Maybe you can find your own new memories here ~
Kate's Window 