First Think, THEN Ink.

It's come to my attention that I missed a day on this challenge. Day 20 SHOULD HAVE BEEN "A Song You Play When You're Angry." So that was two days ago.

And, right there is clearly why I somehow overlooked that topic. I mean... is that a thing? When you get angry you decide, "I want to listen to (Insert Artist and Title here)?" I have gone into the attic of my mind to think of any time when I was angry and specifically selected a song to play because of it. I don't want to say that I have never, ever done this, but I clearly have no conscious memory of doing it.

Really, my typical procedure when I get angry is to attempt to take a step back and analyze. Why am I angry? What caused it? Is it something I can do something about right now? Is it something I can do something about at a later time? Would doing something specific help the situation or my mood? If there is nothing I can do about the cause of the anger, is there something I can do to diminish it or move beyond it?

But that whole process, more or less, relies on a base of quiet contemplation, i.e. I'm not playing music during it.

So, even if I didn't overlook that day's challenge, I wouldn't have had any answer for it.

And that brings us back to today, where the original topic would have been "A Song You Want Played At Your Funeral."

Isn't THAT a happy thought?

I really don't have any care about what people listen to at my funeral. I'm not even sure I would have a funeral, or if I did who, if anyone, would attend. But the funeral isn't for me anyhow. It's for the people attending it. So, why would I dictate, from beyond the grave, what that event should be? I mean, I still haven't (really) thrown my own party (birthday or otherwise), ever. I'm not even sure I would know what to do in that circumstance, anyhow.

Let's just move beyond to the new topic.

When I had my old LJ Community, known as "Spaceagers," based on the book I wrote about the topic, The Isolation Generation, one of the chapter titles was "TVs and Latchkeys." I'm of the generation where kids often came home to an empty house because the parents were working. And if, like me, you had no siblings, you relied on television to keep you company until someone else got home. So, of course, I got to be a television trivia expert. And I would say that created a most unique relationship that no other generation has had with TV before or since.

Because of that, the boob tube carries an extra level of importance, just because it wasn't just a device to send information and entertainment. it was a pal, a confidant, an entity that you could relate to and with and meant that maybe we forgave the problems and celebrated the greatness more readily than those both younger and older ever could.

It only seems fair, after giving Day 22 over to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, that we give the Small Screen a bit equal time.

Television has changed over time, and so have the style of TV theme songs. From bright and bouncy themes to a song that basically tells the story of the program you're watching, to moody scores to songs that don't quite seem to fit the shows they belong to and everything in between. There have been a lot of theme songs that reflect well or badly on the programs they introduce.

My selection is a piece of music that actually wasn't written for a television program. It was written for a film, which was based on a tv show. But the concept of the show and of the elements it represented was some of the highest aspirations of what TV could do. Granted, teevee tends to lag behind culture when it comes to social change, and that's primarily because the sponsors try their best not to rile their potential customers. But this second version of the series in question already had a built in audience from both The Original Series and from the film series it spawned.

Exploring The Galaxy with a diverse crew of people, all working together because they were all representatives of the same organization was a message that we needed in the 1960s when the program premiered, and still resonated in the 1980s when the show returned, and straight through today, when a new online version continues the ground breaking elements that the name of that show represents, it's all of these things that both reflect on the elements that we admire about television and that maybe make us want to be better, too.

For Day 23 I select Jerry Goldsmith's Theme, with the adapted Alexander Courage Original Song incorporated - "Star Trek: The Next Generation"

I have been a game show contestant on two programs, both of them very different experiences. And I have applied to be a contestant on five others (six if you want to count “Jeopardy!”), which were all very unique and memorable events.

But because of the timing and because of the history of the program, I had to attend a taping of “The Price Is Right” while I was in Los Angeles this past fall. Yesterday, they ran the episode I appeared on, and, spoiler alert: I wasn’t asked by George Gray to “Come On Down!” But I think the experience is worth noting, for the sheer elements of the mechanics.

( Tuesday, October 4, 2016 )

Consider this a kind of "State of the Love" Address for 2016, via a forty seven year old program.

If you are able to get the Decades Network, and you probably are if you have a CBS affiliate in your area, you might have tuned in to see some vintage programming that they broadcast (and I do mean broadcast, as the station is available, most everywhere, without a cable wire or satellite connection). They hold the lion's share of all of the programs that CBS/Paramount own, and with a lean for putting historic events (and vintage teevee shows) in perspective, they cycle through a lot of material, often linking what they show to the particular date, during the week. That also means, they don't have a set schedule of what gets shown when, so every day it's a surprise of vintage newsclips, forgotten films and talk shows and sitcoms and drama series all tossed together to celebrate an anniversary of an event or birthday of a notable person.

Weekends are a bit different because they do what's called "The Decades Binge," showing dozens of episodes of one series, all in a row and mostly in chronological order of original telecast date. Not to be overtly obvious, they chose to run a marathon of episodes from the series "Love, American Style" this Valentines' weekend.



An anthology series that originally ran on the ABC television network from the fall of 1969 through the winter of 1974, it also went into syndicated reruns on many local channels for many years after that.

The actor appearances on the show are quite notable, as some pretty big names did episodes throughout the run of the program, and many of the familiar names of actors from other long time popular sitcoms made multiple guest shots here, like Bill Bixby, Judy Carne, Larry Storch and Stefanie Powers, among a roll call of stars of that era. But perhaps the most notable and consistent element of the series was an unusual Brass Bed that found its way into the majority of episodes and "blackout" sketches throughout the run.



I decided to watch a few episodes of this show, as I remember being quite taken with it as a kid. The first thing I noted was the scoring of the show. Yes, the iconic theme song (originally performed by The Cowsills, but in the syndicated version only the "Charles Fox Singers") was there, but the incidental music used throughout the episodes really sounded like they wanted to be Burt Bacharach compositions. As an unabashed Bacharach fan, I'm sure part of my attraction to this program was based on this element, that I probably didn't even notice when I viewed it as a kid.

But more importantly, I realized a couple of very disturbing things. The first being that for a show from the era of "Women's Liberation," it was still highly sexist, almost to a disgusting level. Yes, it was a comedy, but for a series that actually could have made a statement about love in a way that gave a positive message, along with some laughs, an opportunity was clearly missed. ABC did a skosh better in that area with their similar anthology series, "The Love Boat," several years after this.

But on a personal note, I realize now that a lot of what I thought about love, how to get it, what it was about, how to behave around someone I was interested in and what it all really meant was, to some degree, shaped by this series. It might have been okay if I actually had a social life to counteract the false messages I was getting from a program like this one, or even if I had some other "relationship" program to watch that might have put it in a better perspective.

There were some clearly "stalking" type behaviors, played for comic effect, some "joke divorce" elements throughout and other really weird material, even for the late 60s and early 70s, when it first aired. I look at this program now and realize just how odd it is to me today, compared to how the me of my grade and junior high school years viewed it.

There is a whole "garbage in - garbage out" quality to some of this stuff that really makes me feel like I never should have heard of this show, let alone watched it after school while doing homework, as this was a terrible socialization method for learning about love, and it wasn't even that good as a sitcom.

If I could go back and tell my younger self one thing, I could have done much worse than telling me to never watch "Love, American Style," and really, that probably goes for this weekend, too.

That's the state of the love, this year.

Bill Cosby has been a fixture on television since the mid 1960s. A Temple University graduate. A Navy man. A stand-up comic with millions of records sold. The first African-American with top billing on a network TV drama ("I Spy"), frequent guest and then guest host on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson." There were all those commercials for those genuine American products: for Jell-O. For Kodak. For Coca-Cola. and, of course all his own shows, His first sitcom: "The Bill Cosby Show." His Saturday morning cartoon: "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids." His Variety series: "Cos." And his later work, "The Cosby Show" and "Cosby."

( Throughout his career, both on stage and off... )

Showtime has run the first couple of episodes of a new series: “The Affair” (original airings on Sunday evenings at 10pm, 9pm Central, with rebroadcasts throughout the week) which has a lot of really great stuff for any writer to chew on when it comes to interpersonal relationships. I can see how it potentially could become a series to not just watch over and over, but to study.

( The concept of the story... )

I don't know if most of the fandom would agree, but I really didn't like the debut of the eighth series of "Doctor Who."

( Spoilers! )

Forget the search... we already have someone who replaced Craig Ferguson as the host of "The Late Late Show." His name is:

DREW CAREY



On twitter, he's @DrewFromTV

And it's absolutely true. Carey has already taken over the LLS. On April Fool's Day of this year, The current host of "The Late Late Show," the very outgoing (and, of course, outgoing) Craig Ferguson (and his on camera staff), swapped jobs with the current host of "The Price Is Right," Drew Carey (and HIS on camera staff) for a very entertaining couple of hours of teevee.

( Here's Drew... )

I really think she wants the job!

Back in late 2009 and early 2010, when I was looking at all of the Late Night Talk Show Hosts, the one I ranked lowest was Jimmy Fallon and the one I ranked highest was Craig Ferguson. Here we are, a third of the way through 2014 and Fallon is ruling late night in a way that hasn't been seen since Johnny was swinging an imaginary golf club, and Craig Ferguson is going to call it quits next year. I guess I really had no vision of the future!

But let's face it. Ferguson is a multi-talented fellow who I think will do ok without needing to host a talk show. His skills can and and will be put to better use in all of the areas that he will likely go. He has already done voice over work for film with the "How to Train Your Dragon" series. He's written several books, memoirs about his life and observations about his adopted country. He's making personal appearances, doing stand up comedy. In short, Ferguson, unlike his Craig predecessor, Mr. Kilborn, has a plan for what to do with his future and has the wherewithal to make it happen.

( So, I guess this means... )