Friday, April 25 2008
Rod Serling and His Evil Art
Serling began his career as one of the most celebrated writers of his generation. But it only took one trip to a particularly troubled 'gallery' to undermine his importance and influence within the entertainment industry.
Tuesday, March 4 2008
Sex, Conservative Style
Love, American Style's debut was at the very instance when everything censors and prudes had worried over seemed to bubble and blister just beneath the social surface.
Tuesday, October 30 2007
Air Apparent
David Lynch and the illustration of the grand within the grotesque, and the good/bad buried in the bad/good, ala On the Air.
Tuesday, August 28 2007
Living La Vida Shadows
Lessons from Dark Shadows: 15 ways to walk on the defiled side. Insane women locked in towers, family lawyers in cahoots with Beelzebub, the frequent appearance of vile oil paintings of hate, and many paranormal possibilities.
Friday, July 6 2007
Junior Samples, Rube Bard of Days Gone By
It takes an exceptional talent to make hick seem slick. Alvin “Junior” Samples had it.
Tuesday, April 24 2007
NBC News Overnight: And So It Went
NBC News Overnight strove to include the audience as much as possible, making its hour of news feel like a visit from a very wise, very witty, very worldly friend.
Wednesday, February 28 2007
The Gallant Gourmet
He championed both culinary extravagance and gastronomic restraint. But Graham Kerr's greatest legacy may be his innate ability to reach across the airwaves and touch each viewer's inner epicure.
Monday, December 18 2006
The 12 Days of Prozac
As a kind of red-nosed warning, or a pre-eggnog PSA, here's a look at three memorable television treats that, inadvertently, have caused more pain and suffering than a trip to Toys R Us when the Tickle Me Elmo shipment arrived.
Tuesday, October 24 2006
Food of the Clods
As food becomes more and more sophisticated, today's home cook is faced with a daunting dining task. Too bad Laban and Larry aren't around to bring simplicity back to supper.
Friday, September 8 2006
Monkey Business
Performers in monkey suits hitting each other with mallets? Is that all that's left of Ernie Kovacs' television legacy? It's the subject up for debate during this overview of the more or less forgotten funnyman.
Wednesday, June 28 2006
Sunday School
By exposing children to titles they may have otherwise never seen before, Family Classics started many a future sci-fi and fantasy geek on their way to full-blown nerdom.
Monday, May 15 2006
Monster Mash-Up
With the connection between tots and terror as tenuous as ever, it's time to celebrate a pair of shows that meld the minor to the macabre with equal amounts of horror... and hilarity.
Wednesday, March 29 2006
Faith’s Freak Show
Religious programming has produced a lot of laughable content. But none more hilariously horrible than PTL's House Party; a no-talent treat starring the station's indomitable drag drone, Tammy Faye Bakker.
Wednesday, February 8 2006
Cable Carnal-val
Exercise or S-exercise? This month's Lost Signal taps into cable's promise of the scandalous and sexy, and comes up with Ron Harris's classic calisthenics as come-on.
Wednesday, December 21 2005
Monochrome Christmas
With the holidays rapidly approaching, it's time to tap into the true spirit of the Season: the black and white stop motion melancholy of Suzy Snowflake and her devious elfin pals Hardrock, Coco and Joe.
Monday, November 21 2005
Duck…Duck…Duck…GOOSE!
Think the castaways of Survivor are tough? Does Fear Factor represent the ultimate endurance test to you? Well, according to Gibron, they're nothing compared to one of Spain's most celebrated '90s game shows.
Friday, November 4 2005
Food for Naught
In this initial look back at some of television's forgotten programming and people, Gibron 'elucidates the citizenry' as to the 'epicurean unusualness' of one of the medium's most 'egregiously erudite' cook show hosts: David Wade.
