One of the truly bizarre by-products of re-initiating a relationship with a cable company (I have Direct TV in two bedrooms, but Time Warner Cable for the HD in the living room) is my re-connection to this goofy little cable network called American Life. Direct TV doesn't even bother carrying it. Maybe they should.
Nick at Nite and TV Land have constructed these faux cottage industries around classic TV. They allegedly embrace old TV shows and are proud to do so. But, when I tune in, all I ever see are reruns of the Cosby Show and the Fresh Prince of BelAir. Classic TV for anyone under 35. The embrace is not as tight as they would like you to believe.
American Life somehow gets it, though. They apparently buy all the old TV shows nobody else wants. And they don't use the year of 1985 as a historical cut-off point. One night a week, American Life devotes to the westerns of the 50s and 60s. Maverick. Cheyenne. Sugarfoot. Black and white from the Warner Brothers back lot, baby. I can almost smell my grandmother's pie cooking. There's another military night that features Combat, The Gallant Men, McHale's Navy, and the Rat Patrol. For a while, Secret Agent Night brought you I Spy, The Man from UNCLE, and the Girl from UNCLE. Very recently, they wisely realized that the MTM comedies from the 70s were getting short shrift so they added on Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, the later Newhart, and the fabulously underrated WKRP in Cincinnati. There must have been a sale at MTM, because Sunday night brings you back-to-back episodes of St. Elsewhere, Hill Street Blues, and LA Law. And they also just found Lou Grant, one of the best dramas of the last 30 years. This also enables me to re-start my love affair with Linda Kelsey.
If you poke around American Life long enough, you will uncover a few other totally forgotten treasures. Try these one for size. All of them showed up at some point in the past year.
My Favorite Martian.
Mayberry RFD.
77 Sunset Strip.
Adventures of Superman.
Chico and the Man.
F Troop.
The FBI.
Kung Fu.
One day, I popped into a 30 year-old episode of The Galloping Gourmet with Graham Kerr, who I had mistakenly thought had dropped dead from an overdose of clarified butter. And I was absolutely floored when they started running old color episodes of the Honeymooners from the 60s. Those were the weird musical versions where Ralph and Norton suddenly break out in song from the fun and sun capital of the world, Miami Beach, which apparently had the greatest audiences in the world. Frankly, Sheila McRae and Jane Kean are a devil worshipper's version of Alice and Trixie. But, at least, American Life is providing us with one more classic TV service---the utter renewed appreciation of Audrey Meadows.
Either the financial bottom has completed dropped out of the rerun market or American Life must have available money coming from some old Nazi slush fund in Argentina. It is amazing what they are bringing back to us. They certainly can't be doing it from advertising. Most of the commercials are direct response. There are dozen of Gospel CD collections. I saw some belt contraption that allows two people to easily lift a grand piano. And, of course, I had no idea how many competitors there were in manufacturing motorized wheelchairs for senior citizens. I'm sure the network's chief demographic is 75 to Forest Lawn, but who cares. The programming is fun...and truly classic television.
If there's an unlimited budget there, I am going to suggest some more additions. Things I would love to see again:
Hazel with Shirley Booth. She won a bunch of Emmys for this and they were always selling the latest model Chevrolet.
Dr. Kildare and Ben Casey. I can remember wearing an intern's shirt in kindergarten. Those two docs were that hot. 
The Mothers-in-Law. Totally underrated. I got to write an article about this one several years ago and Kaye Ballard's been campaigning for its return since then. Nice lady, too. Had lunch at her Palm Springs house which she bought from Desi Arnaz.
Ironside. A great tie-in for those Hoverrounds.
Bracken's World. This drama about a fictional film studio only lasted a year and a half, but the young actresses in it fulfilled my earliest years of puberty.
Burns and Allen. The most wonderful surreal sitcom ever, especially during the season where George controlled the action with his magic television screen. The world is a much sadder place without Harry Von Zell.
Marcus Welby MD and Father Knows Best. Just to prove to everybody that Robert Young wasn't always drunk.
The Tony Randall Show. The one where he was a Philadelphia judge. It should have lasted longer than two years. It was as sophisticated as Frasier.
I could keep going. I realize you will ultimately be able to buy most of these in DVD box sets. But, there is something about tuning in an appointed day and time to follow the adventures of some characters you really love. And, besides, in between the entertainment, American Life gives you a darn good deal on some plastic food containers.
TV Land, phooey.
Dinner last night: Braised short ribs at Palomino.
8 comments:
I LOVED Ironside. I would work my schedule around that show. Like I had a schedule in 8th grade.
But now that I look back, what was it about Raymond Burr always being around wheelchairs?
I wish I had American Life as well. You can at least now download the first three seasons of 'Lou Grant' on iTunes and renew your Linda Kelsey love affair that way. Still no word on when or if Fox plays to release the series on DVD.
If anyone's interested I have a Linda Kelsey Yahoo! group at: http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/lindakelsey/ and a new MySpace profile of her at: http://www.myspace.com/lindakelsey . Yahoo! also has a good Lou Grant group, which has recently been covering the 30th anniversary reunion of the cast and crew at the Paley Center in Los Angeles.
I hope this doesn't sound too much like a plug, but I'm always on the lookout for others who haven't forgotten Linda Kelsey or Lou Grant.
Burns and Allen is an unbelievably underrated show - and for those younger than 40 or so, they were a comedy team tha likes of which you'll never see today.
I also wish American Life would surface on my cable - I'd be an addict.
Thank you, Nano, for the links on Lou Grant. It enabled me to find pictures from the Paley Center reunion, which I couldn't attend due to travel.
It's truly bizarre that I am actually TiVo-ing two shows that are 20 to 30 years old. Lou Grant and St. Elsewhere, which is equally marvelous. Made more noteworthy by the fact that, just ten minutes ago, I was standing alongside Ed Begley Jr on the checkout line at Whole Foods.
I wish Direct TV would pick up this network, because, very soon, I will be giving up my cable connection.
St. Elsewhere and Hazel are on DVD.
I, too, have seen Ed Begley at Whole Foods discussing his electric car with shoppers. I once saw Ed on the bus.
Speaking of Eds, is Mister Ed floating around somewhere in the TV ether? A horse with attitude.
I also have DirecTV and have been waiting for them to add the network... and not just because of Lou Grant. I also really liked St. Elsewhere; pretty much anything MTM put out was worth watching.
I would've chewed off my own foot to make it to LA to see the reunion, but I recently had a heart attack and have other chronic conditions, so I just didn't have the time off to do it, even if I could've sprung for the other expenses. I tried to convince my sister that the tickets were only $25.00 so it'd be a real bargain, but she wasn't having any of it. The Paley may very well put the program out on video soon... my sister has one they did on Boston Legal (another excellent series.) I'll keep my eyes peeled on that front.
I believe that Getty Images has the photos from the Paley event, if you're willing to pay the hefty price. The Lou Grant Yahoo! group people promise to post more of theirs as well.
This post on American Life has really got people interesting.
Thanks for reading my daily blog.
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