Father Knows Best Season One (1954) (Shout! Factory-2008) A fresh look at Father Knows Best does nothing to answer that chicken-or-the-egg dilemma which has haunted us for over a half century: was family life in the 1950s really this stable, or did television devise a set of standards for happy living so impossible to attain that it could … Continue reading
Rebecca Schull On the Naked Stage by Ronald Sklar It never fails to shock us when a beloved TV character takes a sharp left turn and makes daring choices. Rebecca Schull, for instance. Her name may not be instantly recognizable, but she has that face that makes you feel like you’ve seen it a million … Continue reading
Maureen McCormick Brady Country by Ronald Sklar Each and every one of us has early memories of Maureen McCormick, but one of her earliest memories was entering the Miss San Fernando Valley beauty contest at age seven. She remembers the delighted look on her parents’ faces as she took center stage in her bathing suit and sang … Continue reading
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler Team Up to Make a Baby Mama by Brad Balfour Tina Fey and Amy Poehler — Saturday Night Live veterans and sketch comedy masters — are poised to challenge producer/writer/director Judd Apatow’s hegemony on R-rated comedy. They are the stars of Baby Mama, the opening night film for the 2008 Annual Tribeca Film Festival … Continue reading
Christopher Knight My Fair Knight by Ronald Sklar Christopher Knight may have once starred on VH1’s The Surreal Life, but his own real life was as real as reality gets, at least as real as any ex-Brady could hope to have. “My dad was an actor and a struggling one at that,” he says from his … Continue reading
Get Smart The Complete Series (1965-1970) (HBO/Time-Life-2007) Okay, I have to admit it. I cheated a little. Whenever I review DVD box sets, I make it a rule to watch every single episode in the package. Usually I try to sit through all of the extras as well. Unfortunately, as much as I have been … Continue reading
Barry Williams Time To Change by Ronald Sklar Think of it this way: about forty years ago, you land a job. It’s a good job and you feel lucky to get it. You like it. Everybody else likes you in it. It’s a good gig. You stay at this job for about five years, then … Continue reading
Joe Franklin The Man Who Invented Talk by Ronald Sklar Joe Franklin, from his infamously nostalgia-cluttered midtown office, claims that he hosted television’s very first talk show. In fact, he insists that it was he who developed the very idea of the eternal genre. “I was hosting a radio show called ‘Vaudeville Isn’t Dead,’” says the Bronx-born … Continue reading
St. Elsewhere Season One (1982-1983) (20th Century Fox Home Video-2006) If for any other reason, screen this St. Elsewhere DVD to see how far we’ve come in defining the term “good television.” For those of you old enough to remember how good this show was, you’ll be amazed, disappointed – and heartbroken – at how badly it has aged. It’s the … Continue reading
Alan Alda On His Many Careers by Brad Balfour Copyright ©2007 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: August 24, 2007. Whatever Alan Alda has done as an actor, author, playwright, or director – whether it be on television, in film or on stage – it has been imbued with a fundamental sense of humanity. Certainly, with his … Continue reading
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