The Light from the TV Shows: “We’re Back, Baby” – Attempts at Reviving Old TV Series
Posted by Will Harris (06/13/2012 @ 8:20 pm)
Tonight marks the return of “Dallas” to the airwaves, with TNT offering viewers a look at the latest generation of Ewings while also giving original cast members Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy, and Linda Gray an opportunity to get in on the fun. For what it’s worth, I quite enjoyed the pilot, but I’ll freely admit that the only reason that I was interested in revisiting Southfork Ranch in 2012 was because of those original cast members.

No matter how brilliantly or badly they turn out, I’ve always been a sucker for TV series revivals, be it as a “next generation” sort of series like this one or as a reunion movie, so I thought I’d throw together a list of some of my favorites for your reading enjoyment. The only caveats: I’m not counting occasions when a series jumped to the big screen, i.e. the not-very-good theatrical “Get Smart” movie, “The Nude Bomb,” nor am I including animated series in the mix…although if I did, you can bet the animated “Star Trek” series would be at the top of my list.
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Posted in: Entertainment, News, Television
Tags: 90210, Beverly Hills 90210, Dallas, Get Smart, Get Smart Again, Gilligan's Island, Halloween with the New Addams Family, Hey Hey It's The Monkees, Homicide, Homicide: The Movie, I Dream of Jeannie, I Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years Later, Leave It To Beaver, Mary and Rhoda, Mission: Impossible, Mission: Impossible '88, Perry Mason, Perry Mason Returns, Rescue from Gilligan's Island, Return to Mayberry, Rhoda, Still the Beaver, The Addams Family, The Andy Griffith Show, The Bionic Woman, The Brady Bunch, The Bradys, The Dukes of Hazzard, The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion!, The Facts of Life, The Facts of Life Reunion, The Light from the TV Shows, The Man from UNCLE, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Monkees, The New WKRP in Cincinnati, The Nude Bomb, The Return of the Man from UNCLE, The Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Wild Wild West, The Wild Wild West Revisted, Will Harris, WKRP in Cincinatti
The Light from the TV Shows: TV-DVD Releases You May Have Missed
Posted by Will Harris (03/08/2012 @ 12:25 am)
God, I miss television. You’d think that, as the writer of a weekly TV column, I’d have all the time in the world to just kick back and watch the boob tube to my heart’s content, but that’s never quite how it seems to work out. Indeed, if anything, I watch less TV now that I’ve got my own TV column that I ever did before I got the column. There just aren’t enough hours in the day anymore to indulge in all of the small-screen scrumptiousness that I’d like…and, unfortunately, that also includes the wide variety of TV-DVDs that I get in to review. This seemed like as a good a time as any, then, to take a quick look at some of the more interesting sets that I’ve had piling up around my desk recently. It’s a pretty diverse bunch, to be sure, but since when is there anything wrong with a bit of variety?
Borgia: Season One: No, not “The Borgias,” although the subject matter is quite obviously similar. This is actually a series by Tom Fontana, best known for his work on such TV classics as St. Elsewhere, Homicide, and Oz, done for the French network Canal+ in 2011. Although it’s only just now come to DVD, Netflix subscribers actually had the option to enjoy the series online starting late last year. If you enjoy a good historical drama, this’ll do the trick nicely.
The Courtship of Eddie’s Father: The Complete First Season: “People, let me tell ya ’bout my best friend…” So went the opening lines of Harry Nilsson’s classic theme song, which I can still sing in its entirety when pressed. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it’s held up 100% from its original late ’60s / early ’70s run, but Bill Bixby is one of those guys who I always wanted to be my uncle, he was always so darned affable onscreen, and as an adult I can definitely appreciate his storylines far better than I could back when I was still part of the under-10 set. (I was obviously far more partial to Brandon Cruz’s work at the time I originally watched it.)
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Posted in: Entertainment, News, Television
Tags: Borgia, Daktari, I'm Dickens He's Fenster, Medical Center, Mission: Impossible '88, Mission: Impossible '89, My Living Doll, Probe, Tennesse Tuxedo and his Tales, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, The Father Dowling Mysteries, The Light from the TV Shows, The Quest, Todd & The Book of Pure Evil, Underdog, Will Harris